themadknightuniverse: I begun this Mustafar thing (I’m still not over it ಥ_ಥ ), I dono how it’ll end
themadknightuniverse: I begun this Mustafar thing (I’m still not… — StarWars prompts and asks
Oh GOSH their EXPRESSIONS here.
So – is there any point warning for Star Wars spoilers anymore? – at the end of Rise of Skywalker, this kiss happens.
I’m not a Reylo shipper, but it was effective, I guess. Adam Driver’s acting in that scene was stellar, which made it mostly worth it overall. Except. EXCEPT…
Rey and Ben are related! (Probably.)
So in a canonical Star Wars comic from last year, this scene happens,
which seems to confirm the Palpatine = technically Anakin’s father theory that’s been in the air ever since Revenge of the Sith came out. Okay cool! But Palpatine is also Rey’s grandfather, and Anakin is Ben’s…
See? You see what I mean?!
Why’s the question mark there? Well, because some of the Star Wars story people (holy heck, that’s a job? Sweet) have come out and said Palpatine is absolutely not Anakin’s father and all that stuff in the comic was a vision or a metaphor etc etc etc, but… it’s Star Wars. There’s pretty much no strict canon at all anymore, so heck, let’s assume that purely based on Palpatine’s Revenge of the Sith speech and the fact that he keeps calling Anakin “son” that he’s his, uh, I guess “Force Dad.”
So what does this make Rey and Ben? I have no idea, but let’s just say they’re closely enough related that they probably shouldn’t be kissing. (And that’s even without getting into the weirdness of Ben’s parents constantly serving as surrogate parents to Rey.)
Luke and Leia would be so proud.
****This article contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker**** The Rise of Skywalker is intended to be the end of the nine-chapter Skywalker saga. The film put a ton of effort into attempting to establish this satisfying ending, and it paid off in plenty of ways. In just one example, Rey ends […]
There’s one thing in particular The Rise of Skywalker did that served as a fitting end to the Skywalker saga — Star Wars Thoughts
The more I think about it the more I love this,
Anakin told Padme in Revenge of the Sith, “Love can’t save you, Padme. Only my new powers can do that.” As it turns out, his new powers couldn’t save; but years later, his grandson proves that love can.
and the way it connects the Prequels and Sequels in another little circle. I keep thinking of that simple, very kinda… pointed? sentence from George Lucas a while back, “Love people. That’s basically all Star Wars is.”
I noticed during my first viewing of the movie, when Ben places his hand on Rey and starts giving his life to her, all you can hear is breathing. It sounds like the noise we’ve come to associate with Darth Vader, the sound of the mask keeping him alive, the air in the mechanics reminding us there was a person in there. And then… the same thing again with Ben, in his last moments. There was a person in there.
(God, I love Star Wars, you guys. I just really, really love Star Wars.)
Once upon a time in 1999, when I was a wee child of elevenish, I went to see The Phantom Menace. You gotta understand, it was a long hot summer, and there was nothing but The Phantom Menace and the marital troubles of my parents. Me and my siblings were shifted around. According to my childhood journal, we spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house, a three hours drive away from the family home, being distracted by a variety of children’s entertainment. We went to a theme park, went to the beach, went to Warwick Castle with our cousins. At one point, I remember, we were taken to a sort of daycare center run by people who gave no indication that they liked kids or had ever been them. (I saw Jurassic Park, a film primarily about an adult learning to not disparage the interests of children, for the first time at that place.) For a few weeks we went to the home of a childminder who kept an eye on us. And throughout all that I was just clinging to this stupid movie about space samurai and teenage girls with laser guns.
(I promise this does actually have plenty to do with The Rise of Skywalker, okay?)
I remember that us and the childminder and a buncha other kids went to the rec for a picnic. Every damn box of food had a character from Star Wars on it. I loved it. Free toys in the boxes, too! I hoarded them all, even those horrible little Jar Jar tongue things which had no purpose beyond getting immediately sticky and gross and having to be thrown away. Oh and later we even got a friggin’ Naboo Starfighter tent!
Basically what I’m saying is, Star Wars was my childhood. The Star Wars prequels were my childhood. In a strange, far-off, voice-on-the-wind type way. When Attack of the Clones came out, it was the first time I was allowed to go to the cinema with no adult supervision, so that was cool. I was a bit older for Revenge of the Sith. My 2005 ‘review’ of it is somewhere on this blog, brought over from one of the archives, and it’s incredibly cringeworthy because being a teenager is incredibly cringeworthy. Anyway.
Those voices on the wind briefly returned for this movie, when Rey finds herself suddenly the avatar of all the Jedi who came before her. Among the voices she hears are Obi-Wan, Mace, Qui-Gon, Ahsoka (!!!) and Anakin. And here we’re getting into the weird space where Who Actually Owns Characters, Really? but it was nice, you know, to hear the voices that once encouraged me come back to encourage Rey.
I sort of did a laugh-cry in the theatre, which is probably also cringeworthy, sorry.
Maybe Rise of Skywalker actually is Objectively A Terrible Movie, as an awful lot of movies lots of people like seem to quickly become Objectively Terrible Movies, who knows? There was plenty of stuff I didn’t like. Really, I absolutely hate and am infuriated that Rose’s screentime was reduced, because I can guess why they did it. That’s horrible. What happened to this scene?
(Also I know the background same-sex kiss has come in for a reckoning, and I understand the problem with it but I just can’t bring myself to be overly mad in any way, because I feel like, I know there must be a child out there who spots it and feels better without understanding the wider problems of representation, and even if that lasts for so little time…at least it happens)
Anakin’s force ghost makes no appearance beyond the voice, which is very disappointing. And honestly, almost nothing about Palpatine makes sense in this film. But that one cry-laugh-with-joy moment was enough for me, and if it’s not enough for you that is also fine.
I very strongly suspect there will be another Star Wars trilogy somewhere down the line. All the people involved are saying “That’ll never happen!” but it’s Disney and they know where the money is. Also, it’s a story about war and there’s always war, we know that. Always kids fighting around the ruins of the last one. I don’t know if I’ll like any even newer movies, because honestly I’ve never been certain whether or not I like the sequels, they just make me feel stuff.
It’s hard when the voices in your head become the voices in someone else’s. But that’s life, and it’s normal, and I’m glad I was here to see it.
I’ve been mulling my thoughts over about the new Star Wars for a few days. As a movie it looks great! But, I’ve said this before, the new Star Warses have really suffered from never acknowledging the prequels. And with this one, what with Palpatine being apparently back, and the title, and you know EVERYTHING, it will make absolutely no sense thematically if Anakin doesn’t show up. And yet I doubt he’s gonna. Sigh.
This trailer says “Every generation has a legend” but that just served to remind me that my own generation got the bit of the legend which everyone mocked and despised. Jeez, as if we didn’t get a short enough end of the stick already.
I wonder if this really will be the end of Star Wars movies or if we’ll see one again someday.
Some other thoughts:
