#R2-D2 knows he's a character in a story and if we could understand his dialogue we would see that he is constantly breaking the fourth wall

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The Package.

As the bonkers genre thrill-ride Shadow in the Cloud blasts into the new year, writer and director Roseanne Liang unpacks her love of Terminator 2, watching Chloë Grace Moretz’s face for hours, and the life lesson she learned from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Cheng Pei-Pei.

Roseanne Liang’s TIFF Midnight Madness winner Shadow in the Cloud landed with a blast of fresh genre energy on VOD platforms on New Year’s Day. It’s A-class action in a B-grade body, cramming plenty into its taut 83 minutes, including: a top-secret package, a freakish gremlin, a hostile bunch of Air Force dudes, outrageous stunts, dogfights and a fake wartime PSA that feels remarkably real.

Throughout, the camera is focused mostly on one face—Chloë Grace Moretz’s, playing British flight officer Maude Garrett—as she tackles all of the above from a claustrophobic ball turret hanging under a B-17 Flying Fortress, on a classified mission over the Pacific Ocean during World War II.

While the film’s tonal swings are confusing to some, schlock enthusiasts and genre lovers on Letterboxd have embraced the film’s intentionally outlandish sensibility, which “makes excellent use of its genre mash to create an unpredictable, guilty pleasure,” says Mirza. Fajar writes that “it felt like the people involved in this project knew how ridiculous it is and gave a hundred and ten percent to make it work. Someday, it will become a cult classic.” Mawbey agrees: “It really goes off the rails in all the best ways during the final third, and the last couple of shots are just perfect.”

Chloë Grace Moretz and her top-secret package in ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

To most of the world, Liang is a so-called “emerging” director, when in fact, the mother-of-two, born in New Zealand to Chinese parents, has been at this game for the past two decades. She has helmed a documentary and a romantic drama, both based on her own marriage; a 2008 short called Take 3, which preceded Hollywood’s current conversation about representation and harassment; and Do No Harm, the splatter-tastic 2017 short in which her technical chops and fluid feel for action were on full display, and, as recorded in multiple Letterboxd reviews, established her as one to watch.

Do No Harm scored Liang valuable Hollywood representation, whereupon producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones brought Shadow in the Cloud to her, thinking she might connect with the material. “It did connect with me on a level that is very personal,” Liang tells me. “As a woman of color, as a mother who juggles a lot.” She says Kavanaugh-Jones then went through the process of removing original writer Max Landis from the project. “He felt that Max was not a good fit for this project, or for how we like to run things. We like to be respectful and courteous and kind to each other…”

In several interviews, Liang has said she’s comfortable with film lovers choosing not to watch Shadow in the Cloud based on Landis’s early involvement. What she’s not comfortable with is her own contribution—and that of her cast and crew—being erased. While WGA rules have his name attached firmly to the project, the credit belies the reality: his thin script, reportedly stretched out to 70 pages by using a larger-than-usual font, was expanded and deepened by Liang and her collaborators.

Writer-director Roseanne Liang. / Photo by Dean O’Gorman

That team includes editor Tom Eagles, Oscar nominated for Jojo Rabbit, actor Nick Robinson (the titular Simon in Love, Simon) and Beulah Koale, a star of the Hawaii Five-Oh series. The opening newsreel was created by award-winning New Zealand animation studio Mukpuddy, after a small test audience got weirded out by the sight of a gremlin in a war film, despite well-documented WWI and WWII gremlin mythology. It’s an unnecessary but happy addition. The cartoon style was inspired by Private Snafu, a series of WWII educational cartoons scripted by none other than Dr. Seuss and directed by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones.

But the film ultimately hangs on Chloë Grace Moretz, who overcame cabin fever to drive home an adrenaline rush of screen craft, in which the very limits of what’s humanly possible in mid-air are tested (in ways, it must be said, that wouldn’t be questioned if it were Tom Cruise in the role). Liang would often send directions to Moretz’s ball turret via text, while her cast members delivered live dialogue from an off-set shipping container rigged with microphones. “I just never got sick of Chloë’s face and I’ve watched her hundreds, if not thousands of times. You feel her, you are her, she just engages you in a way that a huge fighting scene might not, if it’s not designed well. Giant empty spectacle is less interesting than one person in one spot, sometimes.”

Ambitious and nerdy about film in equal measure, it’s clear there’s much more to come from Liang, and I’m interested in what her most valuable lesson has been so far. Turns out, it’s a great story involving Chinese veteran Cheng Pei-Pei (Come Drink With Me’s Golden Swallow, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Jade Fox), whose film training includes a tradition of remaining on set throughout filming.

Roseanne Liang on the set of ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

That meant that, during filming of Liang’s My Wedding and Other Secrets, Cheng would stay on set when she wasn’t required. “In New Zealand, trailers are a luxury,” Liang explains. “I said ‘Don’t you want to go to the trailer that we arranged for you?’ ‘No, I just want to sit and watch.’ ‘Why do you want to watch it, you’ve seen it hundreds of times!’ And she said ‘I learn something new every time’. To Pei-Pei, the secret of life is constant education and curiosity and learning. Movies are her work and her craft and her life, and she never gets bored. If I can be like her, that’s the life, right?”

Speaking of which, it’s time we put Liang through our Life in Film interrogation.

What’s the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the movie that is at the top of the mountain that I’m climbing. To me it’s the perfect blend of spectacle, action design, smarts and heart. It poses the theory that if a robot can learn the value of humanity then maybe there’s hope for the ships that are us. That’s perennial, and possibly even more pertinent today. It holds a very special place in my heart, along with Aliens, Mad Max: Fury Road, Die Hard, La Femme Nikita and Léon: The Professional.

What’s your earliest memory of watching a film? I have a cassette tape that my dad made for my grandma in 1981 (he’d send tapes back to his mother in Hong Kong). I was three years old and he had just taken us to see The Empire Strikes Back in the cinema. And he can’t talk to my grandma because I’m just going on and on about R2-D2. I will not shut up about R2-D2 and he’s like, “Yes, yes I’m trying to talk to your grandmother,” and I’m like, “But Dad! Dad! R2-D2!” So it’s actually an archive, but it’s become my memory.

What’s the most romantic film you’ve ever seen? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s not the sexiest, but it’s the most romantic. That last scene, those last words where she goes “But you’re gonna be like this forever and I’m gonna be like this forever…” and he just goes “okay”. That to me is one of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever seen. It is a perfect movie.

And the scariest? If it’s a horror movie, the most scared I’ve been is The Ring. I was watching it on a VHS and I was lying on a beanbag on the floor and I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t move, because I felt that if I moved she’d see me! Also, American Psycho just came to me this year. I caught the twentieth anniversary of that movie, which is a terrifying film, and again, possibly more relevant now than when it was made. The scariest film that’s not a horror is Joker. It scared me how much I liked it. When I came out of the movie, I was like, “I’m scared because I kind of love it, but it’s horrible. It’s so irresponsible. I don’t wanna like this movie but goddamn, I feel it.” Like, I wanted to go on the streets and rage. In a way we’re all the Joker, we’re all the Batman. That duality, that yin and yang, is inside everyone of us. It’s universal.

What is the film that slays you every time, leaving you in a heap of tears? This is a classic one, the opening sequence of Up. The first ten minutes of Up just destroy me every time. I also saw Soul a couple of days ago and I was with the whole family and I, just, if I wasn’t with the whole family I would have been ugly-sobbing. I had a real ache in my throat after the movie because I was trying to stop [myself] from sobbing.

Tell me your favorite coming-of-age film, the film that first gave you ‘teenage feelings’? Pump Up the Volume. Christian Slater! Off the back of Pump Up the Volume, I fancied myself as a prophet and wrote a theater piece called Lemmings. Obviously the main character was a person who could see through the façade, and everyone else was following norms. “No one understands me, I’m a prophet!” So clearly I have this shitty, Joker-style megalomaniac inside of me. It was the worst play, and I don’t know why my teachers agreed for us to do a staging of it!

Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis in ‘Pump Up the Volume’ (1990).

Is there a film that you and your family love to rewatch? We’ve tried to impose our taste on our children, but they’re too young. We showed them The Princess Bride—they didn’t get it. We literally showed our babies Star Wars in their cribs. That’s how obsessive Star Wars fans we were.

Name a director and/or writer that you deeply admire for their use of the artform. I have a slightly weird answer for this. Can I just give love to Every Frame a Painting by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos? They are my film school. I was thinking of my love of Edgar Wright, but then I thought of their video essay on Edgar Wright and how to film comedy, and his essay on Jackie Chan and the rhythm of action and then their essay on the Coen Brothers and Shot Reverse Shot. I must have watched that 30 times ahead of the TV show that I’m making now. I started out in editorial and Tony Zhou is an editor and he talks about when to make the cut: it’s an instinct, it’s a feeling, it’s a rhythm. I realized the one thing in common that I could mention about all the films I’ve loved is Every Frame a Painting. It’s their love of movies that comes bubbling out of every single essay that they made that I just wanna shout out at this part of my career.

Were there any crucial films that you turned to in your development for Shadow in the Cloud? Indiana Jones was something that Chloë brought up—she likes the spiffiness and the humor of Indiana Jones. Sarah Connor was our touchstone for the female character. For one-person-in-one-space type stories, I watched Locke quite a lot, to figure out how they shaped tension and story and [kept] us on the edge of our seats when it’s only one person in one space. In terms of superheroes, I came back to Aliens. Not Alien. Aliens. You know, there are two types of people in this world—people who prefer Alien over Aliens, and people who prefer Aliens over Alien. But actually I think I vacillate for different reasons.

Can there be a third type of person, who thinks they’re both great, but Alien³, just, no? Maybe that’s the best group to be in. We don’t need to fight about this, we can love both of them! I was having an argument with James Wan’s company about this, because there’s a rift inside the company of people who prefer Alien over Aliens.

Okay, program a triple feature with your film as one of the three. I don’t know. Ask Ant Timpson!

I’ll ask Ant Timpson. [We did, and he replied: “Well, one has to be the Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. And then either Life (2017) or Altitude (2010).”]

Thank you Ant! I used to go to his all-nighters as a university student. He is the king of programming things.

Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Life’ (2017).

It’s strange that we never met at one of his events! Ant would make me dress up in strange outfits and do weird skits between films. (For those who don’t know, Timpson ran the Incredibly Strange Film Festival for many years—now part of the New Zealand International Film Festival—and still runs an annual 24-Hour Movie Marathon.) So what’s a film from those events that sticks in your head as the perfect genre experience with a crowd? It was a movie about a man protecting a woman who was the girlfriend of a mafia boss: A Bittersweet Life. Not only does it have one of the sexiest Korean actors, sorry, not to objectify, but also I actually screenshot a lot of that film for pitch documents. And, do you remember a crazy Japanese movie where someone’s sitting on the floor with a clear umbrella and a woman is lactating milk? Visitor Q by Takashi Miike. I remember just how fucking crazy that was.

Finally, what was the best film you saw in 2020? I haven’t seen Nomadland yet, so keep in mind that I haven’t seen all the films this year. I have three: The Invisible Man, which I thought was just amazing. I thought [writer-director] Leigh Whannell did such a great job. The Half of It by Alice Wu, a quiet movie that I simply just adored. And then the last movie I saw at the cinema was Promising Young Woman. The hype is real.

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‘Shadow in the Cloud’ is available in select theaters and on video on demand now.

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Rewatching Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Although I have vague memories of the Episode III promotional material, this is the Star Wars movie where I truly was a part of the hype. December 2015 was a magical time where everyone was just...loved Star Wars. And it created a meme and parody culture that was just as wholesome as the original trilogies. None of that cynical and nitpicky, or in extreme cases sexist and racist, Star Wars fan culture we’re dealing with today.

So much like the first Avengers movie, the magic surrounding its release will make it impossible for me to judge this movie fairy. But I don’t care. I’m still very attached to it. Will this be the viewing where the magic wares off? Or will I find myself considering this better then the film it pays homage to. I’m excited to find out.

Seeing a brand new “A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away” and an opening crawl in theaters was just awesome.

“Will not rest until, Skywalker, The Last Jedi, has been destroyed,” Hey, Foreshadowing! I know there’s a ton of debate as to what was or wasn’t planned in advance for this trilogy, but still.

The First Order is Space ISIS/Neo-Nazis, and Leia leads an army to fight it. Pretty simple. I don’t get why people get so up in arms about how little the politics are explored in this movie. It’s probably a side effect of just how lore heavy Star Wars got after the original trilogy.

The opening shot of a space ship completely covering a moon. A new take on ironic Star Wars imagers. A pretty good summary of this movie. But I feel like such new takes make up for just how many recycled plot points this movie has.

The opening action sequence is the first time in years Storm Troopers have been intimidating (Clone Troopers and Stormtroopers are two different things). It’s pretty impressive. It’s a great way to establish how evil the First Order is.

Finn’s introduction is so impressive. A Stormtrooper who in his first fight, completely looses the will to participate in war. We may never know about his friend he saw die, but despite that, we still understand why he lost his will to fight. It might be a bit awkward for Finn and Poe’s friendship if they ever find out Poe shot Finn’s old Stormtrooper friend.

Kylo Ren stopping a laser with the Force. An awesome new way to use the Force. And I love Poe’s quip “So who talks first?” It establishes Poe as a fun, jokey character, which is why I don’t get why people got upset about his sense of humor in Last Jedi. He’s the sort of character that uses humor to relieve the tension of any situation he’s in.

J.J Abrams made this movie to be watched blind, and I really wish I could (but I saw spoilers before I watched it). Where is Luke? Who is this new Sith? What’s the backstory the old man hits at? There’s a good Stormtrooper? He talks off his helmet? Who’s this girl in the desert? I’d love to discover these things for the first time all over again.

I’m found of robot characters that go against their programming. Finn’s not a robot, but the beginning of his character arc has that concept. He does not believe in this cause, and he fights war terrifying. And he wants to escape.

Anakin was a slave, Luke was a farmboy, and now we have Rey, a scavenger, all alone in the world, just tying to service. She quickly establishes herself as incredibly tough, but also a bit cute. 

Of all the protagonists Rey’s backstory is the saddest in my eyes. While Luke had a happy but boring life with his aunt and uncle, and Anakin had a hard life but a living mother, Rey has had to fend for herself since she was a child, holding onto hope that one day her parents will come. She was all alone in the world. But now that’s going to change.

I don’t take any sides in the CGI/Puppets debate, but seeing puppets in a big Hollywood blockbuster again is pretty nice.

BB-8′s so cute. I have too much R2-D2 nostalgia to consider him my favorite Skywalker Saga droid though.

Rey’s relationship with BB-8 establishes that although she’s a survivor, she hasn’t let it harden her heart. She’s willing to help BB-8, and although she wants him to be on his way, she still won’t sell him off (despite being tempted to)

...Poe’s technically the Leia archetype in this movie. This tough rebel who got captured by the villains, and who sent a droid with something important.

The Finn and Poe escape scene has a lot of great dialogue. I’d argue some of the best banter in the series. It’s a pretty good action scene too.

Of all the characters, I like how Finn’s take on his archetype the most. He’s the Han Solo, the deuteragonist who wants nothing to do with the battle, and joins for selfish reasons, but in the end proves to be a loyal friend and hero. But unlike cool and collated Solo, Finn is nervous and cowardly. But that makes his eventual bravery and loyalty all the more satisfying. 

I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard Poe was originally going to die, but Oscar Isaac was so great they kept the character alive. I do believe keeping them separated is for the best, seeing how it makes sure Finn stays around for as long has he does.

Early on we establish that Kylo Ren is abnormally obsessed with Luke Skywalker, to the point where Gnearl Hux questions him.

Finn and Rey’s friendship stars off pretty rocky, but even then they have some good chemistry. At one point Finn’s all beat up, and he asked Rey if she’s okay. He may not be very good at it, but he’s trying to be a gentleman.

I love how the Millennium Falcon gets called garbage. It’s a funny bit of irony, concerning just how sacred everything else from classic Star Wars gets treated.

The first Millennium Falcon chase is another great action sequence. Rey and Finn are figuring things out as they go along, and BB-8′s being cute. And in the end they’re very impressed with each other. Characters becoming friends tough action sequences is a favorite troupe of mine.

Everything from Finn and Poe’s escape to meeting Maz Katana has nothing to do with a New Hope, and thus is a very underrated part of the movie. Although the tentacle monster scene is kind of forgettable.

Both Finn and Rey have no last name. They’ve never had any sort of family before. Heck, Finn didn’t even have a real name until just a few hours ago. They’re nobodies trying to find themselves, which sets of their arc that carries over into the next film

Kylo Ren destroying the console establishes him as short tempered for the first time. He drops his stoic facade and shows his true colors. Kylo looks indimiateing, but deep down he’s an insecure manchild trying his best to inhert a dark legacy. I’m found of this character, as well as similar characters like Berkut and Shiguraki

Did BB-8 give a thumbs up or a bird? The world will never know.

Rey keeps her guard up around people she doesn’t know to well, but she has a very soft and kind side as well. She’s pretty aggrieve to Finn early on, which is probably why....certain people, dislike her. Women and aggression tends to lead to backlash, after all.

I love how Finn slips in a bit of Stormtrooper knowledge. It comes in handy a few times in this movie. Some could say it should come up a bit more, but I think it’s used enough.

“Chewie, We’re Home” What an iconic line. I can still hear the applause.

Seeing Han become the Obi Wan archetype is a very unique direction for the character to take. And he handles the role very well. Harrison Ford may have been sick of this character, but he still brought his A-game. I love that Rey admires Han more for his smuggling than for his war heroics. And it’s very sweet seeing Han admiring just how much Rey knows about piloting. It’s a very sweet father/daughter relationship. In hindsight, Rey and Han don’t even need to be related for this relationship to be this good. Rey lost her parents and Han lost his son, and they can’t help but see each other as a means to fill those voids, even if they deny it to themselves.

The events of the original trilogy are legendary to these characters, which make the “It’s True, All of it” line so cool. It’s pretty interesting how chronologically, the events of one trilogy are legends to the characters of the next one.

Seeing Han be exactly how people remember his is pretty cleverly deconstructed. In-Univse it happened because he needed to escape from the pain of what happened to his son. And now he’s at the point where there’s nobody left to swindle. 

Whenever Rey’s in trouble, she’s always the one to get herself out of it. This is definitely meant as pushback to the fact that in so many things, women always need help while men can aways get out of a situation by themselves.  And I’m all for it. It’s great to see a woman be this strong, but she’s not flawless. After all, she shuts people out and is struggling to accept the fact her parents are never coming back.

Snoke even says “Last Jedi.” Even in this movie, Snoke is convinced that Luke is the hero of this story, and will stop and nothing to stop him. It is interesting that they introduced the Emperor archetype in this first movie, although maybe it was a sign that he wasn’t actually the big bad of this trilogy.

“It the hands of your father: Han Solo.” And the audience gasped (unless they got spoiled first. It’s one of those things we can never un-know). Although if I have to nitpick, I’d be nice if we found out alongside Finn and Rey.

I love that the space chess still looks like stop motion.

Rey doesn’t see herself as the hero. Just the delivery girl. Even Luke saw himself as trying to save a damsel in distress. But though this journy, she becomes a hero.

"Luke felt responsible. He just, walked away from everything.” This was established in this movie? Why did it take until Last Jedi for people to react to that plot point?

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy” I love that line. It’s so endearing!

Finn reminds me of Usopp. A liar and a coward, but someone who will always do the right thin in the end. He’s my personal favorite sequel character

“Women always find out.” Han has a ton of great lines in this movie.

“I’ve already been away too long” She’s so convinced her parents will come back she won’t even leave her planet for a few hours.

With Maz Katana, we’re back in a New Hope. I’m found of this character. It’s fascinating to see someone who’s Force Sensitive but not a Jedi. And she offers some great advice to Rey and Finn. I’d love to see her in the next season of Clone Wars.

Kylo Ren sees Darth Vader as the hero, the dark as good, and the light as bad. But he has regrets, and lakes the discipline and fidelity of Darth Vader. Of all the characters, he’s the one most desperate to fulfill his archetype.

“Though the ages I have seen evil take on many forms. The Sith, the Empire, today it’s the First Order.” “If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in many different people.” Of the the sequel’s trilogy’s biggest themes is that history repeats itself. But despite that, it’s still important to fight evil whenever it arises, instead of just sitting back and letting it happen.

It never occurred to me before, but Finn’s cowardliness might be the lingering effects of his brainwashing. Although he does not believe in the First Order’s Ways, he was still convinced all his life that they’re unstoppable, which is why he wants to run instead of fight. I also like how he’s admits the truth, instead of there being this “liar revealed” thing.

Finn and Rey have truly become friends at this point. Instead of just running away, now Finn wants Rey to come with him. As far as he knows, she’s the only friend he has, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to her. Meanwhile, Rey doesn’t want Finn to leave, because he’s one of the few people in her life to stick with her for this long. If he leaves, he might end of like her parents, who never came back.

Wait...how come nobody was demanding to know Finn’s parents. He was taken from a family he’ll never know after all. How come people accept that Finn’s parents don’t matter, but insist that Rey’s does?

Seeing Rey connect to the force for the first time (outside of  the piloting and scavenging skills I assume she she used them for subcoinsously before the events of this movie) is really impressive. We get flashes of her past, as well as Luke’s past and Kylo’s past, and even hear the voices of Yoda and Obi Wan. ok She’s getting her first glimpse at the Force that binds everything together, and she’s terrified of it. It’s also yet another divination from the New Hope plot, which is very welcome.

I forgot that Rey being Force sensitive was once a spoiler. How time flys.

I really hope Obi-Wan appears in Rise of Skywalker. He spoke to Rey when she connected to the Force for the first time, and I’d love to see that expanded upon.

“They’re never coming back.” A lesson Rey, and the audience, finds difficulty accepting. 

“The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.” Such a great line. It’s a great summery of Rey’s arc, and I imagine people with difficult pasts can relate to it.

Maz tells Rey and Finn exactly what they need. Rey need to learn to move forward, and Finn needs to learn to fight for what’s right.

Why does the lightsaber choose Rey? I guess her midichlorian count is just right or something. It doesn’t really matter, and I personally find the idea that the next hero can come from anywhere inspiring.

...Come to think of it, Luke’s the only protagonist who isn’t just some rando.

“Why is Maz so interested in Rey” Probably because of her strong connection to the Force.

Rey rejects the saber. Classic rejection of the call. Can you blame her, after that vision?

The First Order sees the Republic as weak and dishonest. Seems straightforward to me. Maybe people were underwhelmed because Neo-Nazism didn’t get as much attention as it did just a few months later.

Starkiller Base. It’s cool looking power-creep. On one hand, since we don’t know anyone from those planets, it’s not as impactful as what happened to Alderan. But then again, we actually see people on that planet die. So It’s a bit of a mixed bag overall.

Finn’s not going to leave until he knows Rey is safe. How touching.

TR-8R. I miss that meme.

Seeing Poe’s triumphant return is pretty great.

Seing Rey’s trying to fight off Kylo Ren with a gun is very tense. This the the first time she looses a fight in this movie. Seeing someone so strong get captured really raises the stakes. This is where they first meet. Their relationship is standard Hero vs Villain in this movie, but things are going to change a LOT in the next one.

Despite how scared he is, Finn still rushes in to try and stop Rey from being capture.

Seeing General Leia for the first time is awesome. Han and Leia’s reuinon is so touching as well. C-3PO’s back to disturbing Han and Leia moments as well, which is pretty funny.

Seeing BB-8 and Finn get reunited with Poe is also very touching. 

Finn is helping the Resistance for the sake of Rey. He’s not quite a hero yet, but he’s getting there.

So the movie did established R2-D2 had the map in his back-up data in the actual movie.

Han and Leia went back to what they know best after the loss of their son. It’s such a tragic moment. 

Kylo almost has the depth  in one movie that took Vader two or three movies to get. I feel like that should be discussed more often.

Kylo’s face is removed to reveal...a normal person. Ben didn’t get any external injuries to turn him into Kylo Ren. It was all manipulation

Rey takes on the Leia role when capture, and Finn briefly takes on the Luke role, But when she frees herself they go back to being Luke and Han, respectively.

Even in this movie, Rey and Kylo are using the force to get to know each other, although mainly on accident. Maybe that’s where Snoke got the idea in the next movie.

After seeing Kylo using the Force, Rey decides to use it in order to escape, although she’s a bit hesitant to do so. It takes her three tires to do the Jedi mind trick, after all. I do wonder where she heard about it. Maybe she figured that if you can read minds, you can change minds.

Rey is a very fast learner in any situation, be it piloting, shooting or using the force. Maybe it’s her midichlorian count. 

Starkill base makes very little logical sense, but its still a very cool concept, and seeing day turn into night serving as a ticking clock is a very cool visual.

“No matter how much we fought, I always hated watching you leave” “That’s why I did it, so you’d miss me.” All these years later, and that still have such great chemistry. 

“That’s not how the Force works.” I love that line, but people misuse it.

Finn is doing something very heroic, putting himself on the frontlines and disabling the shield. But he’s only doing this for Rey. Despite that, he stays true to his word and disables the shields. I love seeing him stick it to his old boss. It’s a fun moment.

The Rouge One “Womp” is even in this movie! How did I never notice it until after Rouge One?

“As Long as there’s light, we’ve got a chance” A classic symbol, but one that still works.

Seeing Rey and Finn reunited is just another very touching moment. “We came back for you.” For the first time in Rey’s life, somebody actually came back for her. I love how Rey describes how using the force to escape was “Something I can’t explain, you wouldn’t believe it.” In general I love how the Force is depicted in this movie.

“We’ll meet back here” No! That was their last moment together!

Ben and Han’s confrontation is another utterly fantastic moment. Ben is tempted to go back to his father, but he’s too devoted to Snoke’s teachings. On top of that, he feels like it’s too late to go this far. He figures that to get rid of these regrets, he has to kill Han Solo. I love how the sky gets dark, leaving red as the only light source. It really makes Ben’s lightsaber stick out when he kills Han. And yet, Han still touchings the check of his son, showing that even despite this, he still loves him. Instead of letting the past die by killing his father, Kylo is left more conflicted than ever.

Meanwhile, Rey lost a chance to have a father yet again.

The snowy forest at night is such a great setting, and leads to an awesome lightsaber fight. Rey gets knocked out, so Finn has to protect her with a lightsaber duel. Kylo is beating himself, increasing his pain to increase his dark power. Finn puts up a valiant effort, but in the end, he gets knocked out, and Rey has to save him. But still, he bought her time, and gave her the strength to use the force to stop Kylo. Seeing Rey grab the lightsaber for the first time using the Force is just awesome. She’s barely holding her own, but true to the character, she’s a fast learning. Meanwhile Kylo is still injured, and maybe a bit worn out from fighting Finn. At the cliffside, Rey is at the ends of her seat, but when she trusts in the force, she manages to beat Kylo after he overpowered her during the rest of the movie.

Finn ends with the movie more devoted to Rey than the Resistance, but he still proves himself to be a loyal friend and a hero. I was worried about him for the two years between Force Awakens and Last Jedi

There’s no words between Leia and Rey. They both just know, Han is dead, and they both loved him. And that’s enough for them to mourn him together.

But in the midts of dealing with the loss of Han, there’s is hope. Specifically, the New Hope.

Seeing Luke for the first time in this movie is such a fantastic cliffhanger.

Overall, I still love this movie as much as when I first saw it. It’s got great action and effects, the new characters are some of my favorites in the series, and the old characters give some of their best performances of all time. Sure it messed with a happy ending, but I’m still investing in seeing how characters old and new are going to try and get that happy ending back.

[theofficialautisticgamer]

No Tails, Not True Dat Why Sonic Forces' Story Is An Epic Fail Critique by TheAutisticGamer (Michael) SPOILERS FOR SONIC FORCES DOWN BELOW! WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE! People who play Sonic games are so divided nowadays. There are the ones who hate every modern Sonic Game, then there are the people complaining about the ones hating every modern Sonic Game, then there are the people who think Generations and Mania are the only good ones, but we also have people who think the Modern Games are good with the exception of the Xbox 360 Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric... It's just a god damn mess. But, for me, I haven't played a 3D Sonic Game since Sonic and the Black Knight (which I liked at the time) but when I finally played through Sonic Forces, I liked it. I liked the graphics, the short burst gameplay (Even if it's two and a half hours long) and the awesome kick ass soundtrack which was the Persona 5 of the Sonic series. However, aside from one of the worst and most cringe worthy villains of all time, there is one thing that Sonic Forces fails at tremendously. The story. Now people might think, Michael, of course the story is going to be shit, Sonic Adventure 2 had the moon blow up in half and the Earth didn't go out of orbit with the other planets. Or Michael, Shadow The Hedgehog's story made you play through it 10 times just to get to the real ending. This is on a whole nother level of shit. First, even if Sonic Forces had a good story, we would still have to sit through some of the most cringe worthy dialogue and scenes ever put to game by Sonic Team. So lets get into why the story was an epic fail, even for a decent game and how we could have fixed it. Basically, Eggman is planning something big and laughs evily at his new creation. Then, all of a sudden, you're thrown into a level with Modern Day Sonic with Tails being like "OMFG SONIC EGGMAN IS ATTACKING EVERY1 HELP!!11" and it feels really rushed and disjointed. The level ends pretty quickly as well so then you get to another cutscene where Sonic saves Tails and some generic looking OC characters. Who are they? Why should we care if Eggman kills them? With the exception of Tails? Then, Eggman beats Sonic while Tails looks at his IPad or whatever he has and DOES LITERALLY NOTHING TO HELP HIM. Tails doesn't just fly into action trying to fight the hallucinations of characters, he just sits there saying "HMMM... I can't identify them." Basically, everyone then thinks Sonic is dead and Eggman takes over the whole world. Uhm, you know, there are other people who wouldn't take that shit. Where is the military? Where is the president from Sonic Adventure 2? Where is ambassadors of peace? Seriously? No one? Of fucking course, because this world only has one human and millions of anthropomorphic people who do jack shit. So Silver, Knuckles and everyone else form a rebellion and say some pretty bad dialogue and then we are introduced to our OC who you create. Knuckles immediately tells him to go on a mission that could get him killed even though it's his first day on the job. So that's when we find out Sonic is alived and has been tortured for months. But when we see Sonic, he is acting like "AH YEAWH, DIS IS HAPPENIN!" from his Sonic Adventure type of character. This is not believable at all. First, he doesn't look like he is scarred, bruised, bloody, battered, anything that would make him look like he had been tortured. What was the torture? Making him watch Jersey Shore? Because that could psychologically damage him and not kill him. Also, he gets out easily because for some reason his bonds are untied automatically and then he fights Zavok and... punches him? SINCE WHEN DOES SONIC PUNCH PEOPLE!? So the OC rescues Sonic and even though Sonic was apparently tortured for months, Knuckles asks him to immediately go on a dangerous mission with the OC that could potentially kill him because of his apparent tortured state. You know what? I'm thinking he was tortured with boredom because he doesn't do anything. The whole game then consists of Tails trying to get Omega working, then Classic Sonic apparently shows up and Tails says "Oh, you're that Sonic from another dimension, Yeah, that makes 100% Total Accurate Not Bullshit Sense" which makes no sense at all considering we have no clue how we got there. Later, Tails joins up with Modern Sonic, OC and the Rebels and mostly it's just boring from there. Sonic makes a joke about how it's been Generations (GEDDIT IT'S A THROWBACK TO GENERATIONS!11) and it's cringey as all hell. It's not until we get to the big city that things start turning for the worst again. Eggman decides to pull something out of his ass then after Sonic meets him called Null Space that's apparently something you can't get out of. Sonic gets out of it immediately with OC. Also Tail's instead of going "SONIC NOOOO!!!11" goes "How can this be!? I thought we did Blah Blah Blah!" Way to be concerned with your friend pal. This is a Deus Ex Machin if I ever seen one as Sonic just blasts out of Null Space because why not. Then, oh god... The rebels, Sonic, Classic Sonic, OC and a hundred cut and paste generic OC Characters get together for the final "Epic" battle. First, everything is wrong. It's just the same OCS copy and pasted over and over again making me not care for them at all because they are literally the exact same. The charge is just embarassing and one of the worst things I have ever seen in a game. The fighting is also not exciting. Everyone seems to either use Wispons or Hand to hand Combat and it's just boring as fuck. The whole story led up to this and then... WAIT OMEGA IS BACK!? Yes, for some reason, Omega is now turned on and is ready to fight even though he couldn't possibly have known where the fight was taking place. What the actual fuck. Basically, the story is just more boredom from there as you play as Classic Sonic and OC as everyone starts brooding how they're going to die. Then, the big bad null space goes away and then we fight Infinite who is easy as hell and then you fight Eggman and apparently kill him. He's not seen going to jail after he has been beaten or people throwing rocks at him for being a dick, he just dies and that's it. Wow. That's kind of dark. Then it becomes incredibly stupid again. Classic Sonic fades away for some reason without any explanation of the science of it from Tails, the genius in science and engineering. Sonic throws a blatant and convoluted message at the audience and Tails then says the worst thing ever: "True Dat" Fuck you Sonic Team. So, the story is a gigantic epic fucking failure of behemoth proportions that couldn't have been saved because Sonic Team was on crack this whole time. Or could it? How would I have written the story to Sonic Forces? I would have done it kind of like The Empire Strikes Back. See, Sonic Generations was the light hearted adventures of Sonic and Classic Sonic just like how it was a fun adventure in Star Wars (A New Hope) with Luke, Ben/Obi Wan Kenobi, Han, Leia, Chewy, C-3PO and R2-D2. This should have been the dark horse of the series. The story should have been much more darker, while having a few funny moments here and there. The dialogue should be semi serious like a Marvel Movie, the villain should be three dimensional and tragic instead of edgy edgelord who cuts peoples hearts out with his brooding edginess. So basically, here is the ten things they could have done: 1. Have Sonic actually been tortured for months at the start, show him bruised up and lost some of his power. 2. Have the villain be a tragic hero who helps Sonic and the team defeat Eggman and realize he is not a slave to him. 3. Cut the kiddy crap and have actual edge. Not too much, just enough to make people actually care about what's going on. 4. Have a bunch of the OC characters look different and make them have back stories and personalities or quips like "Before the war I was baker, now I live in poverty because the economy crashed" 5. Don't make the story so fast paced, it makes everything feel disjointed as all hell. 6. Have Tails use actual science to explain things about Infinite, Classic Sonic, Null Space, that stuff instead of being a useless twat. 7. Have the OC Character talk and have some interesting dialogue and interactions with the Rebels. 8. Cut all the filler crap, it just makes the story and the gameplay boring to play and watch. 9. Make Omega a bigger part of the story. Why is Tail's repairing Omega? Is he significant at all? Can he possibly stop Eggman and Infinite? 10. None of that assinine dialogue meme crap like "True Dat" or Knuckles being a dumbass. Have actual character conversations and dialogue and some funny quips here and there to contrast the dark with the light. These things could at least make the story decent, if not interesting and pretty good. I'm not saying I want a Goodfellas story or Citizen Kane performances, I just want the story to not be so idiotic and brain dead. Everything about Sonic Forces story sucks (including the Shadow DLC, but that's a whole nother story), but that doesn't mean it's an entirely bad game. The graphics and good for the most part, the environments are colorful and classic, the handling of characters feels okay, the gameplay is short burst and fun. The only other complaint I have is that the game should have been longer. I hope you understand where I come from when making this critique. It's not to bash on Sonic or trash this game, it's to tell you how not to write a story and how not to do dialogue. Hopefully, Sonic Team will learn their lesson and make another Hybrid Sonic game with actual heart and edge to it. But not too much edge.

[dantediscoversfic]

Chapter 16: Rules

One of the reasons I liked Ari so much was that though we differed in opinion about many things (like which are the best comics) and though we had what might seem from the outside as diametrically opposed outlooks on life (his was much darker than mine; in fact he once claimed that brooding was healthy because it was good exercise for his eyebrows) and though he enjoyed yanking my chain about a lot of things, when it came down to it he made me laugh more than just about any other person on the planet. We were like seatbelts: we just clicked. He might not have thought so himself, but he had a big imagination and was very thoughtful and philosophical and funny and sensitive and kind. There was also a sadness in him that he tried to hide from me, but I could see it in his eyes sometimes. We never talked about it, though. He was better at not talking about things than I was.

In truth, I liked it when he argued with me (though argue isn’t really the right word, since we never got angry at each other; debate would be more accurate). And I especially liked when I was able to win him over. I’d been on Debate and Speech teams since middle school so he must have known that he never stood a chance when I got into that point-counterpoint mode but he never got cranky with me. (Or if he did, I knew it was all for show).

One area where he eventually came around to my way of thinking was my thing about liking rules. I have a general respect for rules and discipline and technique. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pro-fascist or anything like that and I like the idea of chaos and nihilism just as much as the next teenager longing for independence. And I also know that breaking the rules is fun, too, and often a necessity in creating art and living the life you want to live. But I can see why rules are useful, too, especially if they grant you freedom within structure. I think your brain starts working differently if you’re trying to compose a sonnet in iambic pentameter vs if you’re writing a stream of consciousness journal entry. Neither is better or worse, but rules can be part of the fun and the challenge.

My thing with liking to cuss, for example. I liked cussing but knew that I wouldn’t relish it quite as much if my parents allowed me to throw around f-bombs any old effing time I felt like it. Or my thing about not liking to wear shoes. Who was the puritanical jerk who decided that it’s a Western societal norm that everyone has to wear shoes everywhere they go, anyway? If I want to take my shoes off outside or on the bus or in church or in the movie theater and I’m not hurting or offending anyone by letting my toes feel the wind and sun and air, why should I keep my shoes on when they cause me nothing but torture and discomfort? When did taking off your shoes in public become as bad as breaking one of the Ten Commandments? And it’s a good general life rule to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, right? I just choose a literal interpretation of that since he didn’t wear shoes either.

But where things like games were concerned, I liked rules. I thought of rules as being like a container or a cup for water (in this metaphor water=fun and freedom). Without the container, what do you get? Just liquid spilled all over the front of your shirt.

I liked coming up with new games for us, with the caveat that we played by the self-established rules. The first game we made up together was the shoe toss game (or as I named it: Urban Javelshoe). It started out simply because I felt like throwing my shoes around (because shoes are a nuisance and may as well be walloped for all the good they serve). At first he griped at me because I wanted to measure with chalk exactly how far each of us could throw our shoes on the street. He said it took away the fun, which to him was the act of throwing. I argued that the fun was not just the throwing, but the whole system we created together: deciding how many tosses we made per set, using chalk and a tape measure to record each of our throws, deciding how many sets qualified for a win. Just throwing shoes around for no reason? Plebian. This was much more interesting and systematic and fun. He came around, eventually. And though I won the game, he ended up having the longest recorded toss, which I could tell he was secretly pleased about.

Here are some of the other games we made up that summer:

Tap-Out. One of us would tap or punch out the beat to a song on the other person’s arm and the other would try and guess the song just based on the rhythm. We’d decide on the genre (such as Top 40 or The Beatles) and if the person didn’t guess right after three tap-outs then the tapper could hum the rhythm once (with no varied notes, just the rhythm on one straight note). After five rounds, the winner got to choose which music we listened to all afternoon.

Lava Ground. We’d play this in the yard or up in my room. You’d have to leap from place to place and land on furniture, cushions, pillows, clothes, shoes or basically whatever you could maneuver to land on as long as you didn’t touch the ground (because it was made of lava). If your bare skin touched the ground you had to act out a horrific death. The loser also had to clean up everything that we ended up spreading out on the floor or grass.

Passenger Palaver. We’d come up with stories about our fellow passengers during our afternoon bus rides. At first there were no rules but then I decided that one of us should make up a line or phrase for the story and the person telling the story would have to somehow include that phrase. Or sometimes we’d trade off after each line, making up the story together as we went along.

The Superhero Origin Generator. We’d go around my house and each of us would pick out two objects (such as a rolling pin and toothbrush). The other person would then have to make up how those two objects led to the creation of a superhero’s powers. For example: Mikey’s mother is a baker. One day her collection of rolling pins falls on her head and she tragically dies before young Mikey’s very own eyes. He grows up hating anything sweet. He despises cakes and donuts and cookies because they remind him of his dead mom. As a result, he becomes obsessed with brushing his teeth and never has a single cavity. But one day he has a mysterious tooth ache so he goes to a dentist’s check up. He doesn’t know that this dentist is in fact evil and while he’s in the dentist’s chair getting his teeth X-rayed, the evil dentist Dr. X turns up the machine to unprecedented levels. Mikey’s teeth become radioactive blasters. After that, every time he smiles, it unleashes a ray of toxic light more powerful than the sun. From that day forward he becomes: Gamma Tooth Man. If something we came up was particularly good we might make our own comic about it. Ari wasn’t much of an artist, so I’d draw and he’d come up with action, dialogue and concept. We made a good team.

Telenovela Lipread. We’d put a soap opera on silent and make up our own lines of dialogue. The only rule was that each character needed its own distinct voice or accent. Ari was surprisingly good at playing naïve love struck heroines (ironically, of course).

One day, after I’d just finished reading all of The Lord of the Rings books, I got the idea that Ari and I should make up our own language, like Elvish.

When I told Ari about my idea, he snorted and said, “So you’d rather make up an entirely new language than learn Spanish? You really hate Spanish that much?”

“If we had our own language we could write each other notes and letters and be the only ones who understand them. If they’re in Spanish our parents could snoop.”

“If you wanted to write in secret you could just make up a code, not a whole new language. That seems like a lot of work.”

“If Tolkien could do it how hard can it actually be?”

“How the hell do you go about making up a new language anyway?”

“I’m not sure. We might have to do some research.”

“Research? During the summer? For no other reason than you think it would be cool to undertake the massively insane project of inventing a new language?”

“Yeah. We’d be be like C-3PO when R2-D2 beeps and no one else knows what he’s saying.”

“Yes, but they’re talking in droidspeak. It’s probably just randomly generated gobbledygook.”

“Or maybe it’s as poetic as Shakespeare. But we’ll never know. Don’t you want to know what it’s like to speak a language only one other person on the planet understands?”

“It sounds exclusionary. I’m a man of the people.”

“You’re a man of the lazy. Come on, let’s go to the library so I can search the card catalogue about books on linguistics.”

So we went to the library. I love the library. I love the card catalogue. It makes finding the perfect book like going on a treasure hunt. While I was talking to the librarian, Ari wandered away from the desk and told me he was going to look around. No card catalogue for him, he was a browser.

It took awhile but I eventually located some potentially useful book on linguistics and went looking for Ari. I looked in every section I thought he would be, but he had vanished; I even looked in the bathroom and outside on the street. I went up to the 2nd floor and he wasn’t there. I looked on the 1st floor again. Nothing. I was starting to get worried. I went down to the ground floor level and that’s when I finally spotted him. He was sitting at the microfilm reader of all things. I went up to him to see what he was looking at.

“Hey,” I said.

He jumped. I guess I’d startled him.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing. Just old newspapers and stuff. I didn’t realize they had all these old articles on microfilm down here. The librarian just told me about it.”

“Anything in particular you’re looking at?”

“No, just browsing.”

“Just browsing El Paso Times articles from ten years ago for fun? And you call me the weird one?”

“Whatever. I thought it might be cool. Like a time machine or something. Are you done? We can leave.”

He pulled the film he was looking at out of the reader and returned it. I also saw that he had a book with him.

“What’s that book? You going to check it out?”

“It’s nothing. Just about the Vietnam War. I was just flipping through it while I waited for you.”

He put the book back on a return cart and we left. On the way home he didn’t talk much and I could tell something was bothering him. But he didn’t tell me what it was and I didn’t press him on it, even though I really wanted to. Like I said, he was better at not talking about things than I was. I thought maybe if we had our own secret language made up already he’d want to talk to me, but I knew that was wishful thinking. We’d only been friends for about a month, but I’d already guessed what most of his rules were.

[christiansunraysang]

Balance to the Force: An In-Depth Fan Analysis of how Rey is the Sequel Trilogy’s Chosen One

Written by Christian Ang

Beloved by generations of fans, Star Wars was first introduced on screen in 1977, and has since been an iconic piece of cinematic and pop culture history, that has since influenced the genre to come. Yet, as Lucasfilm would later be helmed by a new team after The Walt Disney Company had purchased the company and all subsequent franchises, including Star Wars, new films had been proposed to continue the legacy that came before it. However, the lore of the Star Wars films are coveted by many, and those that had been with the series in its early days, hold many of its elements, including original cuts of the first trilogy dear to them. As such, Lucasfilm and its founder, George Lucas, were vital in shaping and preserving the growing mythos that would later be expanded in books, comics, and animated television shows. One core component of the pantheon of characters that exist is the focus of the films in which the first six movies centralized in telling the tragic story of Anakin Skywalker, a boy destined to influence the galaxy in great and powerful ways. Below is an analysis of all canonical films and television shows that currently exist at the time of writing this essay, and how the future of the films would play out in reintroducing the concept of the Chosen One. While there have been recent books and comics that also elaborates the details in between the on-screen media, not including those from the Expanded Universe banner, these will be otherwise unacknowledged on the basis that both Disney and Lucasfilm had stated that the main canon of the series is primarily kept within the aforementioned films and television programs.

Star Wars tells its narratives in a circular fashion. This is often supported by George Lucas, himself, in which he states that the nature of the prequel and original trilogy functions as a symbolic circle. We begin with the rise and fall of Anakin and then his rise to redemption as Darth Vader. Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, has gone on record with different press junkets to reinforce that the Star Wars films have always been about family dynamics, and Lucas also mentioned, before Disney’s acquisition, that the films have always been about the character of Anakin Skywalker. Through this logic, though Anakin may not exist as a physical character, his spiritual essence is reinvigorated through Rey.

 If Lucasfilm is continuing the tradition in maintaining this circle, this can be denoted in the way that The Force Awakens heavily draws its influence on A New Hope. However, in 1999, when The Phantom Menace was released, this was also supposed to be the prequel equivalent of the same film. It is also the same film that introduces the Chosen One concept into the mythos of the films. As a result, it would not be surprising for Lucasfilm to take both films’ concepts and merge them into the first film of the sequel trilogy. On the other hand, it can be argued that when Poe Dameron destroys Starkiller base, it does not necessarily line up with the Circle Theory, as it is Luke and Anakin that have the climactic moment in their respective space battles. This can be a narrative oversight, in which it was more important to emphasize the conflict between Rey and Kylo. Yet, we see Rey have the same natural piloting prowess that Anakin had as a child, with her telling Finn that she had no prior experience in doing so.

 The catalyst in which Anakin, Luke, and now Rey embark on their journey usually comes from someone from outside their world and bringing them into the fray of the conflict. When we first meet Anakin as a young boy, it is through meeting Qui-Gon Jinn, Padme, and Obi Wan who are not residing in the planet and takes him along on their journey. This is echoed in A New Hope in which R2-D2 and C-3PO, who were recently on Leia’s ship, encounter Luke and Ben Kenobi, and serves as an expositional tool set Luke on his path. As such, this is the same with Rey, in which her way of living is disrupted upon meeting BB-8 and Finn. Further parallels to Anakin and Luke persist throughout The Force Awakens, in which she encounters the other characters. Maz Kanata asks Han who is this girl, and the rest of the dialogue in the film keeps reiterating the same question: who is Rey? It is an obvious trope in which the mystery of Rey is made known to the audience, and yet there is a distinctive connection, though it is currently unknown how. There is a strong, unspoken bond between her and Han Solo, as well as Leia in the conclusion of the film. If there was a direct familial relation, they would have recognized her. However, if she was the Chosen One, then it would make sense for the original trilogy characters to be drawn to her in a spiritual sense, though they might not understand why.

 Rey’s vision further dives into exploring this connection, in which by touching the lightsaber, she sees a cryptic series of events. First, she hears Vader’s breathing as the scene unfolds into the corridor in Bespin in which Luke would subsequently lose his hand, dropping the lightsaber that Rey had just touched. This can be interpreted as the last time the audience had last seen this saber, as well as a connection to her past life as Anakin and the fact that he encountered his former saber once again. Later, the scene continues to shift into showing R2-D2 and what the audience assumes to be Luke in a robe. Though one can deduce that since she doesn’t know what Luke looks like, this could be why Luke’s face is not shown on screen. However, this would not make sense, as we also see the forest that Rey would battle Kylo Ren, and even sees a massive slaughter from the Knights of Ren. This is all before Rey actually meets Kylo Ren in person. Through that logic, one can even further speculate that it was not even Luke under that robe, but rather Anakin before his battle on Mustafar. This is also inconsistent, however, as much of Anakin’s attire is darker tones of black and maroon, as seen in the Clone Wars animated television show, and in both The Attack of the Clones, and The Revenge of the Sith. This can even be delved in further as this may possibly be Rey in the future, for some reason on a lava planet that is meant to be significant. This may also allude to a return to Mustafar in either a flashback, if it was Luke, or in the future if it was Rey. Regardless, in Rogue One, the audience encounters Darth Vader in a large castle-like structure on a lava planet, thus providing plausibility as to why one would see either Luke or Rey at a similar environment. If the films are really about Anakin’s character, then it would not be out of context to revisit this castle if the protagonists believe there is something important hidden within there. Furthermore, in the vision, the voices of both Yoda and Obi Wan (both as a young and old man), can be heard in whispers throughout this sequence. Despite never meeting them, this would only make sense if Rey was channeling this through her past life as Anakin. In effect, both Jedi masters played a huge role in influencing Rey, and the latter being Anakin’s former master.

 Throughout the prequel trilogy, Obi Wan wrestles with the question if Anakin really is the Chosen One, to which the Council also can be seen discussing this as well. Qui-Gon, however, is convinced that Anakin will fulfill this prophecy, as he is unusually strong with the Force, and desires to train him before his demise at the end of The Phantom Menace. As a result, this is an obvious reference and parallel to the life of Jesus Christ. Shmi states that Anakin has no father and that she was mysteriously pregnant. Moreover, much like Jesus, there is doubt that Anakin is a messianic figure. In the climax of Revenge of the Sith, Obi Wan tells Anakin of this prophecy and that he was intended to “destroy the Sith, not join them”. This is not necessarily true, as the prophecy is said that the Chosen One would bring balance to the Force. Anakin accomplishes this, in fact, by helping wipe out most of the Jedi Order as they were too powerful over the Dark Side. However, Obi Wan’s claims would later be fulfilled as Vader kills Palpatine and himself, thus ending the reign of the Sith, and thus balancing the Force once more. Years later within The Force Awakens, the only characters that are trained in the Force or are familiar with sensing it when meeting Rey, would be Kylo Ren, Snoke, and Maz Kanata. Maz senses a connection between the former lightsaber of Anakin with Rey, and Kylo also notes to Snoke that she is incredibly powerful in the Force though untrained. Lastly, Snoke senses an “awakening”, which is implied to be Rey. It is not uncommon for young children to be born with a potential connection in using the Force. In fact, this is mentioned in the Rebels animated series in which Stormtroopers are searching for children who may be proficient in the Force, just as Ezra would later be. In effect, Rey’s use of the Force should not alert, let alone worry Kylo or Snoke, as this should be common in the galaxy, unless she is the new Chosen One to bring balance once again to the Force.

 Kylo Ren’s journey is made to parallel Ben Solo’s descent into the Dark Side like his grandfather, Anakin, and becomes obsessed with fulfilling his idea of his familial legacy. In fact, Kylo can be interpreted as Rey’s antithesis. In conjunction with Circle Theory and the tendency of the franchise to rely on symbolism, Rey is everything that Kylo desires to be: his grandfather. When trying to extract the map leading to Luke’s location, Rey resists, despite lacking any training, and overwhelms Kylo, only to tell him his fear of not living up to the legacy of Darth Vader. The parallelism that surround them both continue to be riddled throughout the film. Both characters belong to opposing factions, and both have an important connection to Han Solo. In the final battle, Kylo attempts to reclaim his grandfather’s lightsaber, which instead goes to Rey, as she uses the very weapon belonging to his family against him. It is important to note that this saber was easily called upon by Luke, Kylo’s uncle, and the notion that the saber would be easily drawn upon the Force to a girl who he believes to be unrelated to himself would be devastating. Kylo desires to be the Chosen One, while Rey simply is thrust into that role. Rey is ultimately the true successor to Anakin’s legacy, and Kylo is rather a false prophet that believes his own idea of what that legacy means.

 Lightsabers are built through a Jedi’s will in union with the Force. Thus, it represents a personal symbol, and source of identification of that respective Jedi. In the Clone Wars and in Rebels, the construction of a lightsaber is explored, and in Rogue One, the Kyber crystals that are used to power the Jedi weapons are bastardized into functioning as the main power source for the Death Star. Throughout the Clone Wars television show, the connection to one’s saber is important, and this is seen in A New Hope in the symbolic “passing of the torch” to Luke as Obi Wan hands over Anakin’s saber. In fact, Anakin makes note of how personal and important this is to him in an episode of the Clone Wars. As stated above, Luke and Rey are both able to call upon the saber with ease, while Kylo, a descendant of Anakin, cannot. Maz even states that the saber was calling upon Rey, and notes the legacy of its former users. If Rey is revealed not to be Luke’s daughter, as that would be a reveal that would not have had paid off as well, and is in fact the new Chosen One, the dramatic connection would be more impactful. Furthermore, Luke already has his own saber, as seen in Return of the Jedi, and would no longer need his father’s, thus giving it to Rey.

 Much speculation had risen, in anticipation of the film, that Kylo Ren and Rey were in fact a new iteration of Jacen and Jaina Solo, and are related to the Skywalker family, as seen in the Expanded Universe of books and comics. While the former was in fact revealed to be related to this lineage, Rey’s family is intentionally kept a secret. If it was the intention of the film to preserve the reveal that Rey was somehow blood related, why bother revealing Kylo Ren’s connection so immediately? This can be resolved in application with Circle Theory in which Episode VIII would emulate many of the same elements of both Empire Strikes Back and Attack of the Clones. Within Empire Strikes Back, Vader unveils the truth and tells Luke that he is, in fact, Anakin Skywalker. Though Attack of the Clones does not have a tantamount reveal parallel to this, both Anakin and Luke lose their hands in combat with a Sith Lord. While Kylo is not defined as a Sith Lord, Episode VIII, if it follows a narrative pattern like The Force Awakens and A New Hope, would see Rey facing off against Kylo Ren once more. The parallels between VIII and Empire Strikes Back is further supported as Lando Calrissian is expected to return, just as he was introduced in the latter. Luke also parallels Yoda’s role, in which he is now the exiled Jedi on a remote planet that is intended to train Rey. Yet, what is more important is the further character development that is to be expected in the upcoming film, and the reveal of Rey’s connection is undoubtedly a core component as well, in its plot. Paralleling the middle films in both trilogies that came before it, a single iconic piece of dialogue that overall shaped the importance of the films to come after it in the franchise was built upon the twist that Darth Vader was the fallen Anakin Skywalker. For Kylo Ren as he questions who Rey is to him, Rey would subsequently call him to the Light, just as his grandfather attempted to do the inverse to his uncle many years ago. As Ren resists, he would claim that he intends to accomplish what his grandfather tried to, only for Rey to knowingly say, through the Force, that, in fact, she is the risen Anakin Skywalker.