#or the luke who was convinced to join Vader at the end of RotJ

[rosepetalsofsin]

dark Luke on my mind again… obsessed with the Alderaanian Princess :/

[dalekofchaos]

My thoughts on Adam Driver's interview on Bendemption/Dyad/Reylo not being planned.

As much as I love Reylo, I honestly would've preferred Supreme Leader Kylo Ren as the big bad of the sequel trilogy.

And honestly? The vibe I got with Rian is he still intended for Kylo Ren to go down the path of the big bad. It was the studio who chose for the result we got because they saw how big the Reylo fandom got, but wanted to appease all sides, hence the stupid result we got.

A part of me feels like the entire trilogy was building up Kylo Ren as the villain. If it were his destiny to abandon the dark side and The First Order, he would have either joined Rey or left in exile and eventually return and join Rey to end the war together. But that didn’t happen. Trust me I wanted that to happen, I wanted Rey to convince Ben to stop the fleet, take her hand and come home and while Rey flies the Falcon, Ben goes to Luke and Leia to make amends. Then Luke and Ben together would stop The First Order on Crait.

But here’s why I think TLJ was setting up Kylo Ren as the villain. In TFA, Kylo Ren killed Han Solo, but did not yet fully embrace the dark side. The deed split his spirit to the bone, which made him unbalanced and conflicted. He was so conflicted that in TLJ, he was unable to pull the trigger to kill his mother. At this point, he still felt a call to the light. Also, in ROTJ, Palpatine said to Luke, “Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey toward the dark side will be complete”. While Luke resisted temptation, Kylo Ren did not. When faced with the opportunity to kill Snoke, he didn’t hesitate. I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true. And now, foolish child. He ignites it, and kills his true enemy! At this moment, his journey towards the Dark Side is complete. Then, after the fight against the Praetorian Guards, Kylo Ren was given a chance by Rey to be redeemed. However, he went straight for the throne. He went straight for power. Even during the Battle Of Crait, knowing very well that Leia was probably in the base, Kylo still gave the command to take no prisoners. He was now willing to kill his mother and even ordered that the Falcon be shot out of the sky with both Rey and Chewie on board. He killed Han and Snoke. He was willing to kill Leia, and he indirectly caused Luke’s death. From this point of view, Kylo Ren has fully cemented himself in the dark side and it was a shame we could not continue this path and a shame they just HAD TO bring back Palpatine.

To me Kylo Ren is what Vader could've been had he reached his full potential. A Vader who was never wounded on Mustafar, a Vader who killed a close family member and his master. He is the villain they were looking for, but no they had to course correct.

Now yes, it would've been sad that Ben dying unredeemed as much as Ben dying after being redeemed. My suggestion is if villain Kylo happens, we could either get the following

Ben lets the light in and surrenders to Rey and does what he should've done and call off the fleet. Ben makes peace with Leia and it ends with The First Order and Resistance signing a peace treaty, while also symbolizing the balance in the force and peace in the Skywalker family

Exile. After embracing the light and doing the right thing, Ben knows he cannot live the life his family wanted for him. He cannot live a peaceful life with Rey after everything he's done, so Ben goes into exile on Ach-To or Jakku to repent for the life he lived.

Atonement. Basically what should've happened in TROS. Ben lives and has to separate from Rey. He takes the Falcon and goes to snuff out First Order holdouts and releases the systems that was conquered in his name. To make things right and the movie ends with Ben walking off into the sunset like an old Spaghetti Western like ROTJ was originally meant to end.

Paying for his crimes. Kylo Ren refuses to let the light in and gives into the dark side fully. But Rey won't kill him, not after promising Leia. So Rey would disarm Ben, destroy his lightsaber and sever Ben's connection to the force. So he cannot harm anyone ever again. The war is over.

The First Order would be put on trial. Kylo Ren, Hux and Phasma(ideally she lives and faces punishment) would be put on a Nuremberg styled trial as they are tried as War Criminals. Just the thought of the FO leadership facing a Space Nuremberg tribunal is too fun to think about. Just imagine Ren, Phasma & Hux backstabbing and shit-talking each other in jail. Then we see the people who are the victims of their atrocities. Finn and the various Stormtroopers who were forced as children to kill for them. Eila and Kel from SW Resistance tells everyone exactly what Kylo did to their home planet of Tehar. Kazuda Xiono and the rest of the Hosnian Prime survivors will voice heartbreak and outrage for what Hux did, while Hux reminds everyone “I am not alone to blame, Supreme Leader Ren was there as I voiced the plan to Snoke, he did not object and stood by and watched from a distance and did nothing he is just as guilty.” Both Poe and Finn will come forth as witnesses to the massacre of Tuanul. Rey will then come to Finn and stand as witness to the murder of Han Solo. Rose will voice what the First Order did to her home and how Hux confirmed it when she was aboard the Supremacy. R2-D2 will come forth showing the footage of the Jedi massacre. Rey and Poe will come forth and say they were victims of torture by his use of the force and Rey then say “I gave him the chance to turn his back on the FO and save the Resistance twice, to save his mother and he still chose to let everyone die and he almost succeeded on Crait. and still gave the order to wage war until the very last man” Literally everything is stacked against them and finally, Kylo, Phasma and Hux will get their say. Phasma will be unapologetic for her actions. “I grew up on a hellhole. Each day clawing my way to stay alive. I killed my own family. Went from clan to clan. Then one day The First Order came. I saw my opportunity and I chose them. I saw power, strength, order and unity. And I did what I had to do to get to where I am today. I do not regret what I’ve done in the name of The FIrst Order or rescuing children and forging them into an army the likes of which this galaxy has never seen.” Phasma then looks at Finn and her former Stormtroopers. “Only you chose disobedience and cowardice instead of greatness. I don’t regret it. That’s the difference between us. I know what I am, and I embrace it. I’m proud of it. I fought for everything that I have, every bit of what I am.” Hux will go on a Nazi like rant, saying the New Republic was a lawless and corrupt state that usurped it’s rightful government and it deserved to die! He shows absolutely no remorse whatsoever, only pride. “WE COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE LOATHSOME RESISTANCE, IF ONLY OUR SUPREME LEADER DID NOT LET HIS PATHETIC EMOTIONS CLOUD HIS JUDGEMENT!” Hux will say “LONG LIVE THE FIRST ORDER!” and does his salute and expects his former men to do the same, only the former Stormtroopers doesn’t do anything but look down in shame. Kylo Ren will show just as little care or empathy for his actions. Basically he will say the galaxy fell without Imperial rule. Without the example of Darth Vader. He will dare claim “I became a stronger Vader, one not held back by sentiment or compassion. I killed the past and became better for it. I was abandoned by everyone, but came back to burn everything down. I do not apologize for ANYTHING I DID! I AM PROUD OF IT. I AM THE SUPREME LEADER AND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS OF REN, WHERE WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT ME OR THE FIRST ORDER? A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT THAT ALLOWED SLAVERY AND A LAWLESS GALAXY? WE BROUGHT ORDER BACK TO THE GALAXY! I UNITED YOU AGAINST ME AND YOU BECAME STRONGER FOR IT! YOU ALL NEEDED ME! WHERE WOULD ANY OF YOU BE WITHOUT ME? Do what you will, I know what we did was right.”

WIth that, The First Order Triumvirate is sentenced for life in prison. Phasma still looking as the sole survivor. Hux uttering threats. In one final moment, Kylo Ren would be taunting Leia and Rey. Goading them all to sentence them all to be killed by a firing squad. Leia turns away with Poe wrapping an arm around her, Finn & Rey supporting her.

Even though I ship Reylo and love what Ben Solo could've been. Even I understand that in the context of no redemption, dyad or Reylo existing. Kylo Ren ending the trilogy as a disgraced and jailed war criminal seems to be the only realistic solution the more I think about it. Leia doesn’t lose her son but he faces consequences for his crimes. He absolutely must face the consequences of his actions and spend the rest of his life imprisoned for crimes against the galaxy and the Republic. Kylo Ren does not get to have a happy ending. He stood by as Hosnian Prime was wiped out, he killed Han, Luke and wanted to kill Leia, Finn and Rey and countless other atrocities. He chose his path and he has to live with the consequences of his actions.

But overall I'm glad we got Bendemption and Reylo, even if it ended poorly, but ultimately I recognize Carrie Fisher’s death radically affected the plot of Ep IX for better or for worse.

[helbertinelli]

I wanted to see the new Jedi Order AND the New Republic in the sequels. But no, instead we got A New Hope 2.0, Luke 2.0, and Darth Vader 2.0. This is so disappointing.

Yeah, the sequels were disappointing. There were so many better ways to continue the story of SW (although personally I think they shouldn’t have continued it), but they chose to go about it in the worst way possible. They had no idea why SW was loved and they focused on the absolute worst things and then switched to new things when the first thing didn’t work rather than to try to fix the thing that didn’t work.

Like they were for sure that people loved SW for Vader so they gave us a guy who wore a costume that looked similar to Vader’s, but the character himself had no personality, he had some lame motivation to join the dark side, and he wanted nothing more than to stay evil. People didn’t like Kylo and then they were like okay, well Palpatine was in all 6 films, they have to like him. And then they brought back Palaptine.

But they missed the fact that the people loved Star Wars for the story. That the characters in SW were just characters without the story to tie them all in.

Everyone loved Luke saving Vader and Vader wanting to be redeemed. The sequels tried that story with Rey and Kylo, but 1. There was no reason for Rey to want to save Kylo. He wasn’t her father, he had no relation to her other than the fact that he killed Han in front of her and he tortured her and her friends. 2. Kylo didn’t want redemption. Every time he was offered the chance to do something good he turned it down and it was like 2 or 3 times that this happened. Vader didn’t. Yes, he didn’t accept Luke’s help at first, but he did in the end. And after Palpatine died, Vader wasn’t like “Okay, I’m taking his place now. Join me or you’re nothing to me“ to Luke. Vader did want to rule the galaxy with Luke right after he found out he has a son, but he gave up on that and realized that he needs to come back to Luke rather than to have Luke joining him. He realized he needs to make the right decision because his son is important to him and he can’t lose his son. Rey wasn’t important for Kylo. She was literally no one to him. They had no relationship at all, except what Kylo said: “My grandfather worked for your grandfather so we’re a dyad” (I legit had to pause the movie because I couldn’t stop laughing... they even ripped off Space Balls omg). Maybe the sequels would have been better if the two were related (either siblings or cousins). But they were just strangers and Rey just decided one day that she wants to save Kylo for some reason and then she decided that she’ll go back to trying to kill him and they kinda switch back and forth between that and it’s just a complete mess and doesn’t even come close to the story of Luke redeeming Vader that they were trying to rip-off from the OT.

People loved Vader being mysterious and intimidating and they loved the idea of this powerful Sith lord wearing a mask (like the Sith of the Old Republic did). And the sequels tried to copy that aesthetic, but then they reveal Kylo’s face right away and he’s not intimidating at all and the whole mystery around his identity behind the mask goes away too. And his entire thing is to be whiny and throw a tantrum when things don’t go his way and destroy everything around him. I guess they were trying to copy Vader choking people with that, but the scary thing about Vader was that he would choke people but he’d put no energy into it and he’d stay calm and it was kinda unnerving how calm he was when he was choking the life out of someone. This is why Vader was intimidating and menacing. He didn’t lash out like a spoiled child and destroy his toys. He was in control even when he wasn’t and he was calm and made it seem like taking someone’s life was no issue to him.

Anakin’s backstory is loved by people. The way someone who was a Jedi and good became a Sith and took down the entire Jedi order and basically destroyed everything his world was about in the process was extremely complex and well-written and Anakin is somewhat of a sympathetic character because a lot of people can see that he made the wrong choices for all the right reasons (he just wanted to save his wife and their unborn child... children as we later find out). Kylo’s turn to the dark side is just he was contacted by Snoke, who whispered bad things to him about Luke, and for some reason Luke decided that the only way to deal with this is to for some reason kill Kylo in his sleep??? (yeah I also don’t understand why the guy who spent 3 movies trying to redeem Vader and refused to fight Vader and was about to let himself get killed by the Emperor because he was convinced his Sith lord father was actually good and would save him, is now like “You know, my nephew has to die. He can’t be redeemed.”). And then Kylo’s immediate reaction to this was to kill everyone else in Luke’s temple because I guess they also needed to rip-off Order 66 (out of all things that happened). Kylo isn’t sympathetic in this way because 1. He had a loving family and a good support system with Han and Leia and even Luke to some extent. He wasn’t like Anakin who never had anyone to talk to and who had to keep his life a secret from the Jedi and who grew up a slave and who was desperate to save the only family he had left. Kylo’s life was good and they said it was good in the sequels too. 2. He got threatened by Luke and his very next choice is to go kill a bunch of innocent people. He never showed any ounce of remorse for his actions. At least with Anakin, we see that he’s torn apart when he’s pledging himself to Palpatine and he’s basically hurt and haunted by his actions starting from then on. Kylo just killed a bunch of people and he’s going around like “yep, just another Tuesday...“

And aside from just doing a bad rip-off of a story that was already presented in the same universe, they also messed up with other characters that were beloved.

Luke, who never gave up on his father and who even abandoned his training (I think) to go save his family, is now the guy who wanted to kill his nephew at the first sign of the dark side and then his solution was to leave his family behind and never see them again.

Han is a deadbeat dad who left his wife when things got hard and went away on a road trip with Chewie to avoid any responsibility.

Leia is always sad and she desperately wants to forgive Kylo (they basically gave her Padme’s personality for some reason, when she’s more like Anakin). Like I can see Han forgiving Kylo (because he does have a big heart despite his rugged exterior), but giving what we know about Leia’s character, she wouldn’t forgive Kylo. It took Leia a long time to come to terms with forgiving Anakin and she wouldn’t even talk to his Force Ghost when he came to apologize, even though she knew he’d never see him again. There’s no way that she sees Kylo basically turning into Vader 2.0 and she’s like “there’s still good in him.“ Like he destroyed an entire system of planets, that had to bring back some painful memories for Leia. She actually had to watch Alderaan be destroyed. And he killed Han. I know their relationship was ruined in TFA, but TFA also made it clear that Leia and Han were still in love. There’s no way she would have forgiven Kylo or thought he was still good after he killed his dad and her husband. And he tried to kill her too if I remember correctly. He fired on her ship, which made her float out into space. Leia isn’t like Luke or Padme. It would be difficult for her to forgive Kylo for basically turning into her worst nightmare and taking her family away from her and killing so many other people too.

And then they bring back Palpatine too because I’m guessing their thought process was “well he was in all 6 movies that people loved, we do need a good villain.“ And it made no sense. Palpatine died like twice in ROTJ. He got destroyed by the reactor that Vader threw him in and then the entire Death Star exploded into tiny particles. There was no way for the Death Star to be crash landed on Exegol since it basically blew up in all directions in the middle of nowhere in space. Bringing him back basically invalidated all of Anakin’s story because him dying to bring balance to the Force was for nothing. He didn’t balance anything, Palpatine was never defeated. They really didn’t need Palpatine to be the villain of TROS. You could replace him with any other random villain and nothing changes. They only brought him back to make a reference to the old movies and have people watch their movie for nostalgia. But I honestly don’t know who was nostalgic for Sheev.

Anyway, it’s embarrassing that they had a good story that they tried to rip-off and they still managed to fuck it up. Like how hard it is to rip-off Star Wars and still have a good story? Didn’t Disney actually accomplish it before in a Phineas and Ferb special? I don’t know why they couldn’t do it this time around too.

But for real, they should have showed the New Jedi Order and the New Republic and show us how Luke and Leia were changing the world for the better and how they were fighting to keep the world a better place rather than to give us a watered down version of the First Galatic Empire vs Rebels but with worse characters and a worse story this time around.

[disneydreamlights]

Anidala Fic Recs

I got asked for fic recs for these. NSFW will be in a private post (that I’ll make later GOING THROUGH YOUR AO3 HISTORY IS TEDIOUS) for easy DMing purposes. All recs under a read more.

So first for authors:

Just about anything by SkywalkersAmidala and Gemma’s Writing (@gemmaswriting​)

Everything I’ve read by them is absolutely fantastic, and believe me, I’ve read pretty much everything from them. Multiple times in some cases. They’re just very good. SkywalkersAmidala in most cases writes more silly lighthearted AUs and Gemma’s Writing does a bit of everything, all of which are good.

Padme Lives/Anakin Doesn’t Fall:

(Anything on my Vaderdala fic recs list, you need Padme alive for Vaderdala)

Precipice by Shadowsong26

An AU in which Anakin Skywalker does not follow Mace Windu and the others to Palpatine’s office after they leave to arrest the Chancellor. As a result, he doesn’t get that final push over the edge, and doesn’t Fall.

(Padme returns to the Senate with Luke, Anakin to lead the Rebels with Leia. Things get better is the absolute best way to summary this one.)

To These Memories by KatieRoseFun

After Darth Sidious is defeated, everything changes. Some for the better, others not so much. Mostly better though. (Or: Anakin becomes a dad. Rex rehabilitates clone troopers who no longer want to be a part of the army. Ahsoka gets a call from an old friend. And maybe Obi-Wan finds out it’s not just his enemies who don’t stay dead. Basically, everyone gets the happy ending they deserve.)

Pocket Full of Sand Verse by Philthestone

Anakin goes missing, Padme is captured, and this causes Leia Skywalker and Luke Amidala to meet.

Clash of Fates by AliceBDS (In Progress) 

Sometimes, the course of life is changed with one decision.

When Ahsoka Tano requests the help of her former master in liberating Mandalore, a twist of destiny sends them to Coruscant to rescue Chancellor Palpatine instead, altering the course of galactic history forever.

When Dead Men Walk by Ellapromachos

Anakin hesitates just a few minutes longer, and the entire galaxy is better for it.

or; Anakin is at the Temple for Order 66, but not as Darth Vader. And when Palpatine comes for him, he plays his cards just a little bit better. He digs his heels in, and prepares for the long con.

My Loyalties Lie by Stranestelle (In Progress)

When Anakin initially rejects Palpatine's offer to 'help' him, the Sith Lord, in a rare moment of hastiness, ships him off to Kamino to have a control chip implanted.

Nobody Needs to Know by Elizaham8957

The twins are born in the middle of the Clone Wars, and Anakin and Padmé try to continue hiding the fact that they're married and now have two children.

Nobody buys it. Like, seriously, nobody.

Hunter by Zinoviev

Leia is offered a chance to escape Bespin when Boba Fett enlists her help to prevent Luke from falling into Vader's clutches. She has plenty of questions, however. Who is this mysterious bounty hunter, and what does he want with her friend?

The Bantha in the Room by Estrangedlestrange

concept: anakin sitting in the council room bouncing baby luke on his knees as he adamantly denies having children or attachments

Time Travel:

Stand the Hazard of the Die by KeelieThompson1

Baby Luke is sent back in time by Obi-Wan to the prequel era. Needless to say, things change.

Just One Wish by LadyVader23

On a trip to Dathomir, Anakin Skywalker finds a spell that will grant him one wish. Anxious to return home, he wishes for a way to end the war. As a result, he ends up accidentally kidnapping his future children...moments after they've escaped Bespin. Luke is quite done dealing with his mess of a father, and Leia is convinced telling the future Darth Vader about the future will only make it worse. Desperate, Anakin calls in the only person they might listen to: Padme Amidala. Too bad Padme has a surprise of her own...

Temper With the Stars by Pipionem

After being pulled through the World between Worlds, Ahsoka finds herself in the final days of the Clone Wars, on a Separatist ship holding the recently kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Saving the galaxy from the horrors to come is a lot to get done in a week, but Ahsoka has lost everything before - this time, she won't let that happen. Of course, that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

Skywalker Family Fics:

Skywalker Family Values by Ariel_Sojourner

Camp Chippewa is proud to be the Empire’s foremost camp resort for privileged young adults. Located on the picturesque forest moon of Endor, your child will have the opportunity to participate in wholesome outdoor activities and socialize appropriately with their peers. We invite your offspring to join us for the experience of a lifetime and a bright future in service of the greater glory of the Empire.

On opposite sides of the galaxy, on opposite sides of a civil war, Darth Vader and Padme Amidala unwittingly send Luke and Leia to the same camp during school break. Chaos naturally ensues.

Mild AU:

Desideratum by Sithanakin (In Progress)

As a young Initiate in the midst of a childish crush, Padmé had always dreamt of Anakin Skywalker becoming her Master. But she was to turn thirteen too early for that to be possible.

Then, at sixteen, she loses her Master in the battle of Geonosis. In the confusion of all her grief, she does not expect newly-knighted Anakin Skywalker to offer to take her on as his Padawan.

The Wise Thing by Stranestelle

Warning: Very dark, not happy ending.

Padmé Amidala may not be all she seems. Anakin Skywalker wears his heart on his sleeve. People have crushes every day, it’s not the end of the world. Is it?

or, if you will, a sith!Padmé AU

Bonded by Betts

(Okay I’ll out myself slightly with smut but just one on my mostly SFW recs.)

Padmé had always been better at the mental half of the Jedi code—coercion, manipulation, meditation. Anakin had always been better at the physical half—beating shit up with his lightsaber.

Heirs to the Empire by Aldojlc

Alternate Universe. En route to Endor, Luke, Leia, and Han during the events of ROTJ find themselves transported into a different universe and a different Empire, with a different Vader.

Heavy AUs:

(it’s not so bad) being dead like me by Estrangedlestrange

Recently deceased Anakin Skywalker (killed in an taco truck explosion) finds himself not in the after life but recruited as the newest member of the undead, he’s become a grim reaper. He’s told that it’s his destiny but really he thinks it’s just rotten luck. Rotten except for the fact that one of his fellow reapers is Padmé Amidala, the most beautiful woman Anakin’s has seen, dead or alive. As he struggles to come to grips with his death and his new role in the universe, Anakin finds that taking souls isn’t the easiest job out there, he also finds himself falling in love.

Skyborn by Silverdaye

Senator Padmé Amidala enjoys spending her time in a bookstore, one made of real flimsi books where each one costs a small fortune. It is there she meets a strange man, Anakin Skywalker, who is searching for long forgotten planet, Kesh. 4,500 years ago a ship crashed on Kesh. The survivors told the natives they were their gods, the Skyborn. Anakin is one of them.

For Even the Very Wise Cannot See All Ends by UncorrectGrammar

When people think of Anakin Skywalker, they think of the Chosen One, the Hero With No Fear. They think of an accomplished duelist, of the best flyer in Hogwarts, of the prophesized savior of the wizarding world.

They don’t think of gardens diligently kept or dirt under fingernails.

Or: Anakin Skywalker and his legacy. Hogwarts AU.

General Prequel Era (Non Anidala Centric, but still contain Anidala)

Like Fire In Our Bones by AcuteNeurosis

With all of the most important things in the galaxy literally exploding around her, Leia is given the chance to go back and help keep a promise she never personally made.

But then, for Skywalkers, saving the galaxy was always a family matter.

Well It Goes Like This by Corde_and_Dorme

At the end of it all, the thing is: Palpatine breaks his heart.

(or the one where Anakin makes the hard choice, the right choice, the other choice. Then he keeps making it.)

Vode An by Epsiloneridani

There are millions of lives on the line, clone and Jedi alike. Every second brings them one step closer to the chip's activation - one step closer to the endgame. The truth is shrouded in secrecy and clouded by doubt. The clock's ticking down.

It's a race against time.

Fives is gone. Echo finds the courage to ask why.

Bonus: ObiAnidala

For We Are A Woven Thread; Find the Strand by Shadowsong26

The night before Obi-Wan was to leave for Utapau, he and Anakin and Padme agreed that, regardless of the Council's orders, Anakin should go as well. They split up over the course of the battle--and when Order 66 is given, they cannot find one another in the chaos; Padme, on Coruscant, is left with the knowledge that neither of them is coming back.

This story covers the next four years in their lives; how they survived and coped with the loss; how they began to fight back--and how they found their way home.

[threadsketchier]

@gigi-mari​ submitted:

Hello! I love your blog and wanted to share an excerpt of a book about Luke and Vader with you... Of course each fan must be able to have their own interpretations and I would never shove George Lucas’ takes down anyone’s throats, but I always wondered why Vader delivered Luke to the Emperor and why he blocked Luke’s lightsaber when he tried to strike the Emperor in RotJ, and George’s take is fascinating that I decided to share... I hope I’m not bothering!

“What is operating in his head is: ‘The Emperor will turn Luke to the dark side because I can’t do it, because I am not strong enough; he will turn Luke and then I will be able to join with Luke and eventually turn him to destroy the Emperor. Once he is on the dark side, then it will be easy; then we are a team, then we are father and son.’ [...] Vader also knows that the Emperor is toying with Luke. He has been told by the Emperor, ‘When he starts to strike me, you’re going to have to take him out.’ If Vader doesn’t block Luke’s lazer sword, the Emperor could just raise his hand and that would be the end of it. [...] So Vader knows what the Emperor is doing to the kid—instead of Vader turning Luke to the dark side, maybe the Emperor can. Vader doesn’t care who does it [because then father and son can unite]. [...] He thinks that his job is to kill the kid, but of course he can’t really kill the kid, and the Emperor knows that he can’t really kill the kid. [...] His son refuses to kill him—and that is such a revelation to Vader—it reminds him of what he once was. [...] He does [kill the Emperor] not out of thinking or fear. He does it out of the super energy of wanting to protect his son, out of compassion.” George Lucas in The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

The fact that Vader was so desperate to have Luke at his side that he delivered him to the Emperor in hope that the Emperor would do the job of turning Luke for him... The fact the Emperor was never helpless when Luke attacked him and could just end it all right there and that’s why Vader blocked Luke... But this line... “Of course he can’t really kill the kid, and the Emperor KNOWS that he can’t really kill the kid.” Wow. What a ruthless, cruel manipulator Palpatine was. He was convinced Luke would win, one way or another. But then, Luke is full of surprises, isn’t he?

And ahahahaha, no problem, I have that book thanks to a friend, I’m just still slowly working my way toward reading it (I’m almost done with The Making of ESB).  XD

Yeah, that adds another sad layer to their conversation at the garrison when Luke first surrenders - Vader’s not just saying, “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side...I must obey my master,” as a self-aware reference to his slavery, he’s admitting as openly as he dares, “I don’t have the guts to turn you myself anymore because THE DAD VIBES ARE STRONG WITH THIS ONE.”

But of course he’s being a blind idiot about it because Luke don’t need no steenkin’ Dark Side to be willing to team up with his father.  He just told him right there, “Come with me.”  Vader thinks Palpatine is insurmountable by any other means.  And apparently he still hasn’t learned that much about the Dark Side even after 2+ decades, because there’s no such thing as a mutually supportive relationship with it.  There’s nothing but pain, betrayal, and hatred all rooted in despair.  It’s tragically laughable to think that Vader seriously believed he could have any semblance of a decent working relationship with his son once he was corrupted - precisely because Palps is a Magnificent Bastard™ and of course he’d seek a way to turn Luke while simultaneously turning him against his father.  At the very least, even without prompting, a fallen Luke would deeply resent his father for not standing up for him and giving him up to the wrinkled nutsack while everything and everyone else he loved and fought for was destroyed.  You can see the hurt and desperation in his eyes in that scene when Luke glances up at Vader while Palps is taunting him - he’s thinking, Father, how can you let this happen?

Good thing Luke had enough cajones for the both of them to bitch-slap some sense back into his dad.

[padme-amitabha]

Prequel And George Lucas Appreciation Post

This is an ongoing list of everything I appreciate about the Star Wars Prequels (and by extension the Original Trilogy) and appreciation of George Lucas’ vision and a tribute to Star Wars when it was still about morals and depth because Disney is intent on ruining the franchise and George’s creation. I am only referring to the six original films here and the list is in no particular order.

1. Villains - One thing that Lucas does well is creating great antagonists. Now Darth Vader being a great villain and character is pretty self-explanatory but I love the way his character is handled in the movies. He is presented in three different ways in each film, or that’s how I interpret it anyway.

We see him being an imperial in ANH and a bereaucratic one at that. He is defending the battle station and basically doing his job i.e trying to locate the stolen plans. In ESB, he is suddenly a much bigger threat. He is the epitome of evil which is further enhanced by the stunning visuals. He is the ultimate bad guy who Luke has to defeat to become a Jedi. What we did not expect is the “I am your father” reveal and that Luke is defeated and manages to escape in the end. The Darth Vader in ROTJ is much more subservient and loyal to the Emperor. He obeys the emperor and waits for Luke to show up and is not much of a threat. He is also shown to be very conflicted and tries to convince Luke to join him rather than making Luke join him against his will. The reason I think he’s portrayed differently is because the story is from Luke’s perspective. Yoda and Obi-Wan led Luke to believe Vader is evil and the narrative stays faithful to that. However, when Luke realizes the word of the Jedi cannot fully be trusted, he decides to come to his own conclusion and sees the conflict and good in his father after a brief conversation. Even with the black and white symbolism in the OT, we are introduced to the gray area in ROTJ when it’s revealed Darth Vader is not as evil as he appears to be and the “good” Jedi can just be as manipulative and biased (as acknowledged by Obi-Wan clinging to his own point of view and encouraging a boy to kill/fight his father without even sharing the information with him) - and Lucas continues to explore this in the Prequels.

The Prequels are about the fall of a centuries old noble religious order and how a single man managed to bring an end to democracy. History shows to bring down an established government it must have some structural flaws and as such the Jedi are shown to be just as bureaucratic as the imperials in ANH; the Jedi are portrayed in a negative light. The Jedi had grown arrogant in their abilities and had grown personal loyalties (such as Mace Windu to the Republic) and they were too blind to acknowledge the flaws in their perception. Qui-Gon was an exception to this and he was more compassionate and better Jedi like the knights in the Old Republic and his death in TPM foreshadows the fall of the Jedi order and of the golden era of the Jedi. At the end of the trilogy, Yoda and Obi-Wan are the sole survivors. It proves even the wise and experienced Yoda could be wrong as he confessed to Qui-Gon in ROTS. Obi-Wan was a Jedi who was very loyal to the order and the council and wished to follow the code by the book and still over the years he had grown attached to Anakin and had a strong emotional bond with him which was why he was still alive although deeply affected by the events. Hence, both Yoda and Obi-Wan were forced to acknowledge the weaknesses in their order and as a result grew as characters.

The prequels also demonstrate how the strict and flawed ways of the Jedi drastically changed Anakin’s life and how he struggled to fit in the order but at the same time making a point that the code didn’t change the lives of all the Jedi such as Obi-Wan who was quite content as a Jedi. The contrast shows how the lifestyle affected people like Anakin who were ruled by their emotions, and how it ended up pushing him to the dark side.

Palpatine is another great villain in contrast to Vader because he is anything but conflicted. He is the true epitome of evil and unapologetically so. I have seen very few stories actually pulling this off because a character who’s purely evil tends to be one dimensional or run the risk of coming across as incompetent even though the creator tries to tell us that they are very capable, such as Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. However, this can be done well if the main focus of the story isn’t on the main villain by minimising their screentime so they still appear a looming threat till the main character(s) defeat them in the end and accomplish something, as done with Fire Lord Ozai from ATLA and Palpatine in OT. Palpatine is a looming, sort of foreign threat in the background who is shown to be purely evil and chaotic and he only appears in the last film. He isn’t defeated by the hero but by his own apprentice who served him for years. Vader is the main villain in OT and of course a great one at that. But the PT establishes that Palpatine is very much an accomplished villain as well. He’s a treacherous Sith Lord who has managed to evade the Jedi at the height of their power by hiding in plain sight. He orchestrates a galactic war by playing both sides and emerges victorious. He turns the clones against their allies and comes to power by latching onto emergency powers, much like Hitler. Even without Anakin/Vader’s help, he’s fairly successful in eradicating an entire order by studying and utilizing their weaknesses.

One of his greatest accomplishments is manipulating Anakin for years and slowly grooming him to be the perfect Sith apprentice. He takes his time to get in his head and establishing trust and knows exactly what to say to win him over, and while he is doing this he isn’t sitting idle. He has other apprentices whom he discards after they serve a purpose. He is ambitious and always scheming and I would say he’s a pretty successful politician too as he had quite a few supporters in the Senate to be elected Supreme Chancellor. He was the ultimate mastermind pulling the strings and manipulating everyone around him even Padmé in TPM.

As others have noted before me, the titles of the prequels have multiple meanings. While Darth Maul is shown to be the Phantom Menace in regards to being a mysterious figure who looks like the devil himself and stalking the main characters, so is Sheev Palpatine and Queen Amidala in the sense neither are who they pretend to be. Padmé’s two identities are obvious in the film while Palpatine’s double identity remains hidden. The Attack of the Clones can also be interpreted as Palpatine vs Sidious as they are the leaders of the both sides and they are referred to as clones as they are identical i.e. the same person. I also love how they incorporated the emperor’s theme from ROTJ into the ending theme in TPM and it’s a subtle reminder that it’s as just as much Palpatine’s victory in being elected chancellor.

I personally don’t mind that Maul was killed off in TPM because even though he lost to Obi-Wan it wasn’t before he killed an accomplished Jedi Knight. He was just as skilled as them and we see the Jedi struggle to keep up even with their strength in numbers. I love the fact that he more like a silent assassin because a lot of villains have a habit of chattering which is often utilised by the heroes to win, and Maul still retained the sense of mystery around him by the end of the film.

It’s pretty well-known that Maul, Dooku and Grievous all foreshadow the rise of Darth Vader, the franchise’s most iconic villain. Maul is a Sith Lord who unquestioningly obeys Sidious, Dooku is a former Jedi who left the order due to ideological differences and also personal ambition and Grievous is part cyborg with a preistent cough (similar to Vader’s wheezing) to make a point that technology is not without limitations and also a reminder of his humanity.

All in all I think Lucas is a genius who has managed to give us pretty amazing and actually proficient villains who could give the heroes a run for their money.

[myevilmouse]

In Defense of The Rise of Skywalker

Or...how I learned to stop hating and enjoy a movie

Spoilers and random thoughts below the cut.

I hate the abomination that was/is The Last Jedi.  Let’s get that out of the way.  I’ve already explained the hundreds of reasons why, the biggest and most unforgivable being the character assassination of Luke “I call him Jake” Skywalker and the invalidation of every victory of the OT.  I resent this making people lump me into a “gatekeeper” sect, or accuse me of racism (Rose was annoying and ruined Finn’s heroism, jeopardizing hundreds of lives for her own selfish reasons without building up a convincing romance and blah blah etc).  It has nothing to do with her gender, race, or anything.  It has to do with poor character development and inconsistent motivations/messages. 

I’m also not a huge fan of The Force Awakens, mainly for its lack of originality and the treatment of Han/Leia, but otherwise I thought it was OK.  I liked Finn, wanted him to become a Jedi, found Poe to be a worthy heir to our antihero mold.  Rey left me indifferent and Kylo Ren was a temper-tantrum throwing teenager, but anyway...

Let’s keep that as background/context and not get bogged down.

Since they announced the title of this movie, I have been livid with rage. How dare they use my man’s name to sell their disgusting imitation of a beloved universe?  I was certain, ever since it was announced, that Rey would take Luke’s surname, despite having treated him so horribly in TLJ, despite having done nothing to earn it, despite having spent far more time with Leia, so if anything a Solo/Organa family name would make more sense.  It was just to sell tickets and I was furious.

I read all the spoilers.  Worst fears:  confirmed.  I looked at leaked photos.  I raged over the inanity of the plot and the sad conclusion to the Skywalker Saga, which in my mind will always end with ROTJ.

Still, I love Mark Hamill, and I decided to treat this film as a MH film. The completist in me required theatrical viewing.  Rare to get our man in a cinematic release.  So I went, ready to hate watch, prepared to dull the bitterness and betrayal with wine.

But….JJ Abrams directed a fix it fic.  And it’s good.  This film not just address the real injustices and horrible story decisions of TLJ, but also addresses some of the major problems of TFA too. 

I tried to go in with an open mind, but obviously I had many preconceived notions, and already knew almost every single story point and character beat.  I was ready to roll around in my hate and slam the abomination.  I want to emphasize that I am one of those people that was COMPLETELY prepared to hate EVERYTHING about this.

There are flaws. 

But there is so much that is great. 

I really really liked it. 

No one is more shocked than I at my own reaction.  I was ready/willing/wanting/primed to hate everything about this.  Please keep that in mind.  Hahah and no one is paying me to write this post 😉

I decided to write this because I also read all the negative critical reviews online from the pro critics yelling FAN SERVICE.  And I’m like…damn straight?  Ever since George Lucas made Han shoot second, fandom has understood that we understand this franchise better than film executives.  We aren’t concerned with adding an extra dewback or improving special effects.  We love these films the way we first experienced them, and they cannot and should not be “improved” to the ultimate detriment of the brand.

I’m here to tell you that the critics are not being fair.  The spoilers on reddit were true, but the movie works. Let’s accept, before we go further, that Abrams couldn’t entirely rewrite the mess that he stepped into/helped create. So I can’t defend the fact that Finn isn’t a Jedi yet or the mess that is the new Rebellion/failure of the old. I, like many fans, wish we had been given a different/better story from the beginning.  Sadly, we were not.

That is something we don’t have to accept (I certainly don’t consider these films “canon” in my mind—Mara Jade forever!) but let’s approach this film in the spirit it seems to be intended:  An attempt to address the very valid criticisms loudly voiced about the others in the trilogy, with the caveat that we are stuck with TFA and TLJ no matter how much we hate them.

First, the music is amazing, as we all knew it would be.  The acting is stellar.

Some of the things Abrams “fixed:”

“Rey is perfect/Mary Sue/good at everything”.  There is a conscious effort in this film to show her training, with Leia as her Master.  There is a good scene foreshadowing her final struggle, where she strains to hear the voices of Jedi past and fails.  There are several signs that she is not a Jedi yet, including how Palpatine talks about her, and perhaps my favorite, when she tells Leia she hasn’t earned Luke’s lightsaber.

Me: Damn straight you haven’t.

And Leia AGREES, keeping Luke’s weapon because Rey isn’t ready for it. She’s still learning.

Further proof of her non-Jedi status, when Rey is killed, she doesn’t join the Force.  She is a corpse.  On the other hand, Ben Solo, once redeemed, disappears as we would expect a good Jedi to do.  A clear distinction between the two of them.

And speaking of Leia:

Leia’s character:  TFA and TLJ Leia is weak and sends other people to fight, whereas our brave Princess from the OT is volunteering for suicide missions, grabbing weapons from the hands of her rescuers, and running into danger for a good cause.  It always bothered me that she didn’t go after Kylo herself (or with Han).  In this, we see her as a Jedi Master, training Rey, with her own lightsaber.  Leia is once more a badass, true to her character.  A legitimate Jedi who also joins the Force (although not sure why it took her so long post-mortem, that was weird).

Luke’s character:  Hello, I am A LUKE FANATIC.  The biggest sin of TFA and especially TLJ was this idea of Luke hiding out and becoming the disgusting, pessimistic coward he was shown to be.  Abrams ignores this pretty much entirely, starting with the revelation that Luke was actually going on missions with Lando to hunt for a Sith artifact to help the Rebellion.  Luke kept notes, he was busy and ACTIVE.  He wasn’t giving up; he was leaving a trail to help anyone who followed.  The best ‘fuck you’ in the whole movie was Luke catching Anakin’s lightsaber when Rey throws it away.  The ultimate rejection of his TLJ characterization.  

Luke’s conversation with Rey echoes very much the ROTJ “you must confront Vader” conversation.  There are many echoes of ROTJ but given the restrictions on what we are working with, I accepted this parallel.  Much like Luke had to face his unfortunate inheritance, so must Rey.  It’s not terribly original, but these films aren’t.

I also loved the simple line “I was wrong” when Rey asks why he did what he did in TLJ.  This to me is simply “Rian Johnson was wrong/The Last Jedi was wrong.”  There is no excuse that is acceptable, but this is a filmmaker acknowledging an injustice, and I appreciated it.  (Did I mention these films are not canon for me? They aren’t, just giving credit for this attempt.)

Han’s character:  I hated SO MUCH how they turned Han into a failure in TFA.  A buffoon, not even a good smuggler anymore, a failure as a father, a husband.  When I heard he was going to be in this I was like HUH?  But this “memory” of his father that Kylo Ren sees after Rey heals him and departs, after he’s lost his mother, is another attempt to redeem the injustice to Han’s character.  Han is the one in the movie who brings Kylo Ren back to the Light, not Rey.  It is a very short scene, but effective.  The acting is poignant, with the “Dad” working for me.  Maybe I’m a softie.  But I appreciated this brief proof that Han Solo, in the end, didn’t suck as a father, and ultimately, even as a hallucination, inspired the love that saved his son.

Chewbacca got a medal:  I said Abrams was fixing things in the sequels, but I admit I was choked up to see this fixit from A New Hope.  Finally Chewie gets the medal he is LONG overdue.

Team dynamic with the new characters:  Finally we understand why these people care about each other.  They go on shared adventures, they have banter (and some good jokes, not the stupid bathos of TLJ), and there is finally some sense of camaraderie that was discarded in TLJ.  There are several references to Rey’s “new family,” clearly referring to this band of Rebels, and it was far more compelling than in earlier films.

Finn’s Force Sensitivity:  I, like many, desperately wanted Finn to be a Jedi.  Since TFA, it seemed inevitable!  I loved how he used the lightsaber, how he seemed to have Force abilities (that were never really explored).  TLJ ignored that potential completely, sidelining him on that stupid Canto Bight quest and pulling him away from Rey.  There are so many signs that he is destined to be a Jedi in this film, I was thrilled to see them.  Knowing things without explanation, doing amazing things, sensing things, trusting his feelings, it’s another ‘fuck you’ in my opinion, to RJ for ignoring this former stormtrooper’s destiny in favor of overblown set pieces and pointless CGI theatrics.  When he says, towards the end “I can feel it,” I wanted to fist pump.  YOU GO BE A JEDI FINN!  THE FORCE IS WITH YOU.  Personally, I would have loved for Finn to be the main protagonist of all three films, but I appreciate us getting what we got, since we can’t get what we want.

Stuff that worked:

The Wedge cameo:  Yeah.

Lando:  Wonderful. His dialogue, especially at the beginning, does a lot to fix our view of Luke.

Kylo’s redemption:  See above re: Han.  I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the kiss.  I get the whole “female character’s purpose is to validate the evolution of the male” criticism, but I want to point out a couple things about this. First of all, it’s not a “Reylo” kiss. Kylo is gone.  This is well after Kylo is redeemed.  He’s been of the Light for a while before this, it’s clearly Ben at this point.  It’s also obvious Rey knows that, and like Luke forgave Vader for his abuse, she forgives Ben Solo for his.  So I understand also the criticism that is making people puke about Rey kissing her abuser, but again, Luke sheds tears for the father he loves, who maimed and traumatized him.  Star Wars is about redemption and forgiveness that accompanies it, and I don’t have the same issue with this.  If she kissed KYLO without him being redeemed before he died, for example, I would be disgusted.  This is not that.

The cinematography/pacing/story:  So many critics and the spoilers made it sound like this was a convoluted mess.  I went to see it with a non-native English speaker and neither of us had any trouble following the plot.  Yeah, a lot happens, but it all is linear and consistent within the film.

The humor/dialogue:  Felt way more Star Wars-y and better placed than the last two films.

The Jedi Helping Rey:  As much as I thought I would hate this, it was really well done, largely, I think, due to the foreshadowing during her earlier training.  When Palpatine says all the Sith live in him and we know what she’s gonna say but it still works SO WELL.  I was rooting for her and I’ve never been a huge fan.  But at that climactic moment, I was a believer.

Major flaws

Of course there are some.  For me the most major:

A Jedi Strikes Not In Anger: In every single lightsaber battle (pretty sure, I only saw the film once), Rey is the first to strike.  She always seems to be fighting from anger and with negative emotion.  This is not at all Jedi-esque and I found it particularly jarring in her duels with Kylo Ren.  This bothered me more than almost anything else in the film because it is never addressed.  She fights ANGRY and she fights FEARFUL and then somehow when she’s supposed to strike down Palpatine, she has it in her to resist.  This, above all else, makes me not like her as the “heir to the Jedi”.  I thought it was a real problem, and makes her ultimate evolution at the finale less convincing.

Rey Skywalker:  I get why they did it, but I stand by my earlier thoughts regarding taking the Solo or Organa name.  I have nothing against adopted families.  And I found it SLIGHTLY more palpable because since the Emperor refers to Ben as “the last Skywalker” and then since he transfers his entire life force into her, you can argue that she has “Skywalker” literally in her spirit now.  OK fine.  But I still don’t really think she earned it.  She came CLOSER than I thought she would and I didn’t ultimately want to burn down the cinema as I expected I would want to.

Force Resurrection:  No. Just no.  This changes so much and makes so much of the earlier films moot. Why wouldn’t Anakin just resurrect Padme?  Don’t get me started.

Other random new Force things:  Like Force Ghosts touching shit.  Yeah I know Obi Wan sat on the tree in Dagobah, I know, but we keep learning new and more powerful Force shit each film.  Teleportation of objects (that lightsaber?!), astral projection, rapid healing, and now playing catch with your ghost friends.  I get they are important to the story but it feels lazy.  But my exception here was Luke catching the saber because FUCK YOU RJ. 😊

Redemption=Death:  I wanted Kylo Ren to die for his sins too, but I recognize this strange thing we have going on in the GFFA that if a baddie goes good they die.  It’s the equivalent of the horror movie “fuck and the killer gets you” trope.  I didn’t necessarily mind Ben dying, but it seemed … lazy.

The final shot:  It was a mistake to even touch this iconic moment.  It wasn’t earned.  Make your own legend/iconic moment and leave my farmboy his.

Something no one can fix:  The sucky destinies of Luke Jake, Han, and Leia.  They didn’t live happy lives, they didn’t see the end of tyranny, they all died with only the hope of success.  I will never forgive the attempted destruction of the legacy of the OT (attempted cause it’s still how it all ends in my world), this disregard of the triumph of the Rebellion over the Empire, and I will never believe that the New Republic failed so completely and miserably.  Bring on the EU/Legends and forget this shit.

Final thought:  I went to this expecting the cinematic equivalent of a back alley abortion and instead I got what felt like an apology.  An entertaining and polished and sincere apology.  We deserved better, and I think the people who made this film realized that and did their best.  TROS had to wrap up something that was divisive and imperfect and misguided, and tried as hard as it could, in my opinion, given what they were working with.

It was a good movie.  Ambitious, with flaws, but I am glad I saw it, and I hope you will be too. <3  May the Force be with you.

[kalinara]

It’s interesting to scroll back through character tags.  I found one for Stranger Things from a while ago that basically argued that “from a story perspective” Billy Hargrove should have gotten Steve Harrington’s redemption arc because it would have been interesting to see him overcome all of his obstacles in life.

It’s stuff like this that make me realize that a lot of fans don’t understand how character redemption actually works.  

There is no such thing as a redemption arc.

This is not to say that a character cannot achieve redemption.  But it’s not a matter of an “arc”.  It is not a closed off plotline that starts off with a vile human being and has him travel from point A to point B, to magically become a good person at the end, end of story.

I feel like a lot of fans treat redemption like some kind of modular attachment that they can attach to the character of their choice.  Heck, that character doesn’t even have to WANT to be redeemed, some other character like Steve, or Rey or Princess Leia can somehow DRAG them from point A to point B and it will somehow still work.

But if we look at the times when characters have genuinely redeemed themselves, it becomes apparent that redemption isn’t some sort of separate modular plot device.  It’s simply one potential aspect of character growth.

Since the post I’m vaguing about mentioned Steve Harrington, let’s look at Steve Harrington’s general story arc.  Steve starts off as a boy who is self-centered, shallow, and seemingly has very few interests outside of having fun with his friends and his girlfriend.   He is oblivious to the fact that his girlfriend has just lost her friend, and reacts in a selfish and cruel way when he thinks she’s cheating on him.  He says some truly hurtful things to both Nancy and Jonathan and allows his friends to behave badly as well.

Afterward, Steve regrets his actions and, unprovoked, decides to take steps to atone.  He makes genuine apologies, he works to repair the damage: cleaning the paint, replacing the camera.  And he also learns that there’s more going on than he thought when he helps face the demigorgon.  In season two, Steve continues to grow.  At first he tries to deny/ignore everything that happened, and then he takes proactive steps to help these weird kids.  By the end, he’s somehow a third surrogate parent.

And that’s why Billy getting Steve’s “redemption arc” is a ridiculous idea.  Because Steve didn’t really have a “redemption arc” per se.  Steve is just a character that kept developing throughout the course of the two seasons.  There’s no indication that he ever consciously said “I don’t like who I am, I want to change.”  He just gradually became a more self-aware, empathetic, considerate and altruistic person as the series continued.

This was a very organic growth that had its roots in who Steve was at the start: Steve was self-centered and shallow, but he wasn’t malicious.  He was sweet and funny to Nancy, and made her laugh.  He was friendly to Barb, and until the scene with Jonathan, we never saw him act intentionally cruel.  And therefore it was believable that he grew in a positive direction.

Let’s look at another example of a redeemed character: Prince Zuko from Avatar.  Now, unlike Steve, who was at worst an inconvenience and an obstacle, Zuko was a legitimate adversary and he’d done some nasty things to our lead characters.  Over the course of four seasons, we see how he is pulled back and forth between them, how he makes good decisions and bad.

Unlike Steve, we can pinpoint a specific time where Zuko decides that he wants to change for the better and he begins to act accordingly.  Leaving the Fire Kingdom, joining the team, earning their trust.

But I personally wouldn’t consider this a “redemption arc” either, because it really isn’t self contained.  It was a logical development from the very beginning, and we could see the roots in his confused motivations and conflicting impulses.  And we could see it in the way that Zuko generally tried to conduct himself honorably.  He was occasionally childish and angry, but he valued his uncle’s guidance.  There were lines that he wouldn’t cross.  He was never a torturer or a murderer.  He was never deliberately abusive or cruel.  Zuko’s “redemption” with the team was less about turning Zuko into a good guy and more about Zuko figuring out his own path.  His redemption was just one part of that journey.

It wouldn’t make sense to give Ozai Zuko’s story arc, because Ozai is not a child, he’s not lost, and there are definitely lines that he’s willing to cross: including hurting his own children.

So let’s look at a legitimate monster.  Someone who IS a murderer and torturer and has crossed almost every line available: Darth Vader.

This one is a bit more controversial, because, understandably, not everyone agrees with the idea that Darth Vader has done enough to redeem himself.  And certainly there’s truth to that argument...if you’re looking at it in terms of a “redemption arc.”

Vader didn’t have a redemption arc.  He made ONE non-evil choice at the end of twenty years of atrocity.  And then he died without ever having to follow up on it.

Whenever I look at Vader’s redemption, I try to do it from the perspective we would have had when it originally aired: namely what was established in the first three movies.  No slave backstory, no unhappiness with the Jedi Order.  Those were all inventions after the fact meant to help explain and expand on what happened in the original movies.  So let’s look at the original movies.

The interesting thing about Vader’s arc is that it definitely wasn’t planned from the very beginning.  So there really aren’t any roots to be seen in A New Hope, there isn’t much of anything to be seen there really.  He seems vaguely interested in Luke’s force potential,

In Empire Strikes Back, he’s different.  He goes from being vaguely interested in Luke Skywalker, to being fixated.  He stalks him, terrorizes his dreams, captures his friends, tortures them, all to bring Luke to him.  Then he makes him an offer: power and an alliance.  Ruling the galaxy together.  Luke refuses.  And then in Return of the Jedi, Luke comes to him, trying to convince his father to come back to the Light.  Vader seems more hesitant, regretful, but still gives him to the Emperor.  It is only when Luke refuses to kill him, and the Emperor is killing him, that Vader chooses to act.  And he does.  

This one act doesn’t begin to make up for Vader’s atrocities.  It doesn’t bring back the lives he’s destroyed or the people he’s killed.  And Vader never even apologizes for them.  As a redemption arc goes, well, that’s not one at all.

Vader’s choice saved Luke and it proved him right: there is “some good” left in his father.  And thanks to that choice, Anakin Skywalker was able to rejoin the Light.  But nothing is fixed.  Nothing is repaired.  And except for Luke Skywalker (and maybe Leia, in some universes), no one alive will see him as anything but a monster.

And of course, he’s dead now.  So it’s a moot point.

Vader’s choice has its roots in Empire Strikes Back, possibly even in A New Hope, if you’re willing to stretch your interpretation a little.  The contrast in Vader’s behavior between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back is the difference between a man who thought that he’d lost everything that mattered a long time ago, and a man who discovers that that’s not the case.  Vader, in Empire Strikes Back, is a man who genuinely does want a relationship with his child.  But he’s become so twisted and evil that he can’t conceive of this relationship except in terms of power, betrayal and alliance.  And because Luke won’t join him under Vader’s terms, Vader starts to very slowly be more receptive to Luke’s.  He goes from angry and forceful in ESB to weary and resigned in ROTJ.

But, he can’t make that leap until the Emperor almost kills his son.

This is the dynamic that people keep wanting to recreate with Kylo Ren.  And that doesn’t work.  Vader was a man whose character development took him from a dispassionate mechanical monster in ANH, to a very human monster in ESB, and then finally to a regretful and weary old man in ROTJ, which finally enabled him to make a choice.  

Now, Steve, Zuko and Vader aren’t the only characters with a lot of growth and development.  Billy, Ozai and Kylo have gotten their own share of development.  The problem is, so far, their development has gone too far in the opposite direction. 

Billy starts off being cruel to a child, threatening (hopefully jokingly) to run over children while creating a dangerous scenario, and escalates to the point of attempted murder.   Ozai has become even crueler and more power hungry.  And while Kylo hasn’t necessarily gotten worse (it’s hard to get worse when you START with mass murder of innocents), but by killing his father, he specifically and deliberately rejected the redemptive choice that his grandfather made.  He wants more power and is intentionally going deeper into the dark to get it.

I’m not going to say that these characters can’t ever develop in a direction to make redemption a feasible part of their story arc, but I don’t really see it as part of their current trajectory.  Sometimes villains just continue to be villains.

[littlesparklight]

Would Vader willingly torture Luke in order to turn him to the dark side? I've seen this in quite a lot of fics and it breaks my heart every time.

Like the anon who asked about something similar earlier; no, I don’t think so. Even if he’d convinced himself that he could/would do it, at the point where he’d get into it, he wouldn’t be able to do it��� or let someone else do it (I invite you to RotJ and Palpatine again, since even if that was a life-or-death thing, Palpatine still went about it through torture, drawing the whole thing out).

Briefly injuring (even in ways that are disabling, like in canon) Luke to subdue him is one thing, but I just cannot see Vader actually go for torture(uring Luke) to try and turn Luke (completely aside that I don’t actually think torture on its own would actually be a reliable or particularly useful way to try and turn anyone to the Dark Side).

Torturing other people to try and turn him is another thing, but frankly, Vader would have to balance what this would do to any future relationship/opinion Luke would further develop of him. It’s clearly a useful tactic to bring Luke to him to Bespin, but it’s a temporary measure, and that alone isn’t meant to turn Luke.He wants Luke to join him, not fall and be antagonistic against him, and using Han and Leia (beyond as done in canon) for that would undoubtedly result in “Fallen but not joining his father”. Luke could after all fall to the Dark Side and stay with the Alliance, even if they might end up being deeply unsettled with a Dark Side Luke Skywalker’s methods.

So, overall, no, I don’t think so.

[gch1995]

@rogue205 Yeah. I’m sure it’s not entirely conscious on their part. I’m sure Yoda and Obi-Wan told themselves that deceiving, endangering, gaslighting, and manipulating Luke to kill off the monster of a man they helped influence his father to become in the first place twenty years ago, was this entirely selfless thing “for the greater good,” because trying to use Anakin’s son to eliminate all of the issues they helped enable and perpetuate with his father, the galaxy, the Republic, and the Jedi Order, while they continued to live in denial, was easier than admitting that they fucked up with Anakin, the Jedi Order, and the Republic because they abandoned their courage, humanity, and moral integrity to enable and perpetuate whatever systematic abuse, crime, elitism, exploitation, inequality, and oppression allowed for them to remain safe.

It’s just like I’m certain Anakin/Vader convinced himself that terrorizing Luke and his friends to try to recruit his son to join the dark side and help him overthrow the Emperor was to “protect” Luke and rule the galaxy with him “for the greater good,” rather than him being too selfish in his anger, fear, and self-loathing to take responsibility for his bad decisions and do the right thing.

It’s hard for neurotypical and privileged people who have had a completely normal life to self-reflect on their own serious bad choices, fears, flaws, insecurities, and mistakes because by nature most human beings don’t want to leave the highly potential negative consequences, risks, and potential losses that will often follow up to fate. Imagine how much more difficult self-reflection is going to be for people who have spent their whole lives as enablers, perpetrators, and/or victims of systematic abuse, crime, manipulation, and oppression “for the greater good” in one and/or both of these two space soldier cults they

I’m not sure if George Lucas actually considered this when he was writing the script, but Obi-Wan and Yoda, in spite of not being as overtly horrifying as the Emperor and Darth Vader to Luke, also don’t come across nearly as selfless in their intentions with him as they repeatedly try to convince either Luke or themselves. How do I know? Never once do Obi-Wan and Yoda ever tell Luke to kill the Emperor, too. It’s just Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, their former student, who they claim to have failed.

https://youtu.be/tpJnMVKO6Vo

While the old Jedi/Republic are the “good guys,” it’s simply only because the Sith/Empire are worse because if you really look at Obi-Wan’s and Yoda’s intentions in regards to Luke versus Anakin’s/Vader’s intentions regards to his son up until the end of ROTJ, they’re actually both quite morally reprehensible in how cowardly, in-denial, manipulative, and self-centered they are in nature. Anakin/Vader attempts to turn Luke to the dark side to escape Palpatine and rule the galaxy with his son for what he claims is to “protect” him and create Obi-Wan and Yoda claim they are using Luke “for the greater good” of the galaxy, and they get lucky because their old apprentice has a soft spot for his son and kills the Emperor to save him. However, never do they actually seem to intend for Luke to defeat the Emperor, too, even though they think that the good in their old apprentice has died forever with that whole “chosen one” prophecy. Their primary focus is on using Luke to clean up the mess they helped create with his dad and the galaxy as a whole twenty years ago because they were also too afraid to face their mistakes themselves.

Nonetheless, Anakin is the only one of his predecessors in the OT movies who gets consistently framed as wrong for attempting to use Luke for his own ends, pays for it, and ultimately makes a decision to atone for it when he gets called out. Obi-Wan and Yoda never do because they’re involved in the lesser evil of two messed up space soldier cults.

Okay but the first thing Yoda does when Luke makes to go to Cloud City is threaten him with “If you go, you’ll single-handedly bring down the rebellion,” and then, when that delays him for like, maybe a day, “you’ll single-handedly make anything that has/will happen to your friends have been in vain.”

As excuses go, they’re flimsy as all get out. And fail to make much of an impression on the poster child for the power of friendship.

But it’s interesting how terrified Yoda (and Obi-Wan maybe) are of losing Luke. Not Luke-the-person, but Luke-the-chance-of defeating-the-Emperor.

(This is the first time I’ve noticed Yoda’s silent gasp when Luke goes “I understand,” and carries on prepping for take-off when Ben says they won’t be able to help him.)

[elfpen]

Alright, well, more or less all of tumblr has come out to enumerate the things they hated about The Last Jedi, so I’m going to butt in here to tell you what I loved about The Last Jedi.

There will be comprehensively big spoilers. 

1. Luke

I know that Rian Johnson’s portrayal of Luke has taken a lot of hate from fans and even Mark Hamill, but I really do think it is an honest portrayal of his character. It was painful to see how Luke has given up. It was meant to be painful. It was meant to be jarring. But I think it makes sense. 

I mean, think about it. Why is he seeking out a hermitage to spend the rest of his life away from everyone? Because of his failure with Ben Solo. It was a massive failure, but Luke is not well-acquainted with failure of even smaller kinds. He was a farm boy until he was 19, and then suddenly he was a Jedi, and then a hero, and then a Jedi Master, the savior of the free galaxy. The Chosen one. A legend. And then suddenly, it all falls apart, and Luke has no background to tell him how to recover. He screwed up. That’s it. He’s done. He checks out of the rest, thinking he’s done enough to harm the galaxy he wasn’t powerful enough to protect, to say nothing of Leia and Han’s heartbreak.

But why did it all go down in flames? Because he had a moment of weakness. And damn, what a weakness. He was afraid of his own pupil, to the point where, for just a split second, he thought it might be better to just... but then he realized almost as soon that he was wrong, and felt shame. But it was too late.

The rest of the fall of the New Order was on Ben, and only Ben. Luke royally screwed up, but Ben took it and really killed everything.

I loved, loved, loved it that Luke apologized to Ben. He needed to apologize, because what he did to Ben was truly awful. It was a good and humble moment for him. But what does Ben say in reply?

“I bet you are.”

Ben Solo, you f***ing brat. 

And so Luke shows the kid what-for and delivers perhaps some of the penultimate lines of the movie: “Every word of what you just said is wrong.” The Resistance is reborn, the First Order will fall, and Luke is not the last Jedi. Luke, in that moment, could not get any bigger as a character. He is the legend who fell, who came back, and who has passed the torch, the spark, onto the next generation.

And then, he is back on Ach-to, and he can join Ben Kenobi, Yoda, and his father in the Force, completely at peace as the twin suns set behind the clouds. That is the fall and redemption that Luke deserved. And while I wish they could have spent more time with him before saying goodbye, I loved it.

2. Classic tropes fall apart

Cocky pilot thinks he knows what’s best? Check.

Hairbrained plan against impossible odds to Save Everyone™? Double check.

A wise mentor to train the next generation? Check.

Chance to redeem the dark apprentice? Check.

The Last Jedi presents us with all of these tropes which we recognize from previous movies, and then it rips them to shreds.

If this were another Star Wars movie, Poe’s plans would have worked, and Holdo would be made to be an antagonist. In any other Star Wars movie, Finn and Rose’s crazy scheme to dismantle the tracking would have worked. The clock would have stopped at 00:01, and the heroes would cheer. If this were another Star Wars movie, Rey would eventually convince Luke to train her, to lead the rebellion again. If this were another Star Wars movie, Ben Solo would have killed his master and turned to the light side.

But this isn’t any other Star Wars movie. Poe is called out on his mistakes, and Holdo is revealed to be the wise leader that Poe could not see in her. Rey can’t convince Luke to return. Finn and Rose’s plan is ruined by the backstabbing codebreaker.  Furthermore, Finn’s attempted heroics against the battering ram gun almost kills him - I cannot fully communicate how terrified I was during that scene, thinking that they might actually kill Finn. Of course, Finn survives, but the battering ram does too, and their defenses are decimated. They lose that fight. They lose all of these fights. 

And perhaps most significantly of all, Kylo Ren is not redeemed. Not only is he not turned back to the light, he turns even deeper to the Dark. It was practically a scene from Return of the Jedi. Kylo kills his master and fights side-by-side with Rey, and for a moment, you think, oh my gosh, Kylo Ren is good, but then he and Rey face off, and he crowns himself Supreme Leader. 

Until this movie, Kylo Ren was not a villain. He was an idiot kid who was following the orders of a villain. Now, now he is a proper villain. He killed Han. He killed Snoke. He wanted to kill Luke. He lives to kill anyone who is powerful enough to challenge him/tell him what to do, and I think that now includes Rey. He shows weakness sometimes - he didn’t kill Leia, for instance. But killing Snoke solidifies his place in the dark. It doesn’t redeem him like it did Vader - it just makes him dig in his heels and hurt.

So why, you ask, is this trope-murder so important? Because the entire message of the movie was about two things: moving on from the past, and hope. Moving on from the past I will get to in a second, but as for hope... in order to understand the kind of hope this movie is talking about, you have to understand hopelessness. By taking all of these tropes that help our heroes win and making them into huge defeats were our heroes always lose, the storytellers are showing us what hopelessness really means. It means failure. Luke’s failure, Poe’s failure, Finn’s failure, Rose’s failure, Rey’s failure, Ben’s almost-turn before he becomes the Supreme Leader. 

And yet amid that failure, hope. Luke comes back to face Ben. Rey can’t save Kylo, but she can save her friends. Poe was wrong about Holdo, but he’s the one who calls off the charge on the battering ram because he’s learned better. Finn and Rose failed on their mission, but they’ve both learned what the Resistance is for - protecting those you love. They have been beaten, but they are still strong. Their allies are sparse and far-away, but they are not lost. There is hope, even when everything we’ve ever known to hope on is gone. And that is what Star Wars is about.

3. Let the past die

I will keep this bit short. A huge theme in this movie was the passing of the torch from one generation to another. Yoda destroys that old tree that housed the Jedi texts (This was largely symbolic, because we actually see that Rey has the Jedi texts aboard the Falcon at the end of the movie) to show Luke that it’s not about the Order, it never has been. It is about light, and balance, and hope.

Luke’s final showdown with Kylo is partially about him finishing his own arc, but is also about him formally passing the torch to Rey. It is only then that he can leave, much like Ben and Yoda did before him, once they had passed the torch to him. Anakin/Luke/Rey’s lightsaber was destroyed, but Rey kept the pieces and, significantly, the crystal. The characters must learn to learn from the past but let it go, because it is, no matter what, the past.

Even we as the audience have to let the past die by letting go of the formulas and tropes that got us through the Original Trilogy - see about some of these tropes above.

And it hurt to see the past die. I cried so much in this movie. But it would have been inappropriate to hang onto it. That is, after all, the Jedi way.

4. We have no clue what is going to happen

A friend of mind put it pretty well when she pointed out that, if we’re comparing the sequel trilogy to the original trilogy, The Last Jedi is basically a condensed version of both The Empire Strikes Back as well as The Return of the Jedi smushed together. We get a mentor training the next Jedi, a few fatalistic battles against the big bad, but most vitally, the emperor is killed by his own apprentice. But The Last Jedi breaks with the OT in significant ways: the dark apprentice isn’t redeemed. Our Jedi still hasn’t come into herself. The rebellion is still on the decline. The mentor is gone, the dark apprentice did not turn back to the light to help fight evil, and everything is still up in the air.

And we, as Star Wars fans, have no clue what is supposed to happen next. The Force Awakens was, as many disgruntled fans complained, essentially a reshoot of A New Hope. But The Last Jedi does what ESB and RoTJ do, but twists the plot and the characters to create something new an unfamiliar - but no unwelcomingly so. 

I was not alive for the original release for the original trilogy, but I cannot help but wonder if this is what it felt like after everyone saw Empire for the first time and wondered: Darth Vader is Luke’s dad??? Ben and Yoda are dead? Who is the other Skywalker?? Han is dead???? 

We have no leads. We have no blueprint to follow. And as terrifying as that is, I am really looking forward to whatever comes next.

To end, I just wanted to share the times where I shed actual tears:

When Rose’s sister died

When R2 played back Leia’s message from ANH

When Luke explained what happened with Kylo, about him being a “frightened boy”

When Luke said goodbye to Leia

When Holdo said goodybe to Leia

When Luke died

The dice that Luke took from the Falcon

The credits - specifically, when they dedicated the movie to “Our Princess Carrie Fisher” and played Leia’s theme

And a few of my favorite things

“I have an important message for him... about his mother”

“Do you think you got him?”

Rose being star struck by Finn until she realizes he’s trying to desert. What a statement of character!

“I know what you’re going to say. I changed my hair.” “It looks good like that.”

“See you around, kid.”

The whole “reach out” scene. Rey, you dumb little cinnamon roll I love you

The porgs. They’re a money grab, I know, but... okay, they’re working.

HOLDO. FREAKING HOLDO. She was a brilliant character.

“I’ve seen your daily routine. You’re not busy.”

The scene with Yoda. God, I’m so happy they brought the puppet back. Bless you, Frank Oz.

Holdo’s light speed jump, A.K.A. the most beautiful shot in a movie that I’ve seen in a long time.

The entire scene with Ben, Rey, and Snoke

The framing of Ben and Rey as the Force’s version of Yin and Yang

THE FIGHT. YOU KNOW THE ONE. THE FIGHT. IT WAS PERFECT.

“If you strike me down in anger, I’ll still be with you, just like your father.” Like DAMN Luke 

THE KID AT THE END WITH THE BROOM AND THE RING?? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW HIM USE THE FORCE?!??!??!

Okay about that FIGHT again, can we talk about how beautiful, symbolic, and poetic it was that the pull between light and dark literally ripped Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber in two? I was having Mortis flashbacks.

I really loved this movie, and it saddens me that not everyone did. 

[dalekofchaos]

TROS Fix it post:Finnrey, Jedi/Prince Finn, Rey Skywalker and villain Kylo edition

So I wanted to make a fix it post that’s dedicated to uplifting Rey and Finn as they rise as Jedi, Kylo Ren’s tyranny as the Supreme Leader, discovering Finn’s family, Stormtrooper Rebellion and ending with Finnrey’s happy ending. I think it’s only fair since I’ve done Reylo, FInnpoe and Finnrose centric fix it posts!

To clarify I ship FInnrey, Reylo, FInnpoe and Finnrose. I am in the belief that ship what you want as long as it’s not hurting anyone

Before we begin. You must be wondering how can Finnrey work with Rose’s kiss? Simple in Resistance Reborn, Finn said Rose took it back as it was a heat of the moment kind of thing. Also, Rey closed off her force bond with Kylo Ren. So in their 5 years of training together and in this hypothetical movie, Finnrey can happen! 

Also it’s worth noting that Alan Dean Foster was ordered by Lucasfilm/Disney to scrap any hints of Finnrey romance from the TFA novel as he believed that was the direction of the Sequels’ romance and coincidentally they did next to nothing with and we know it was racially motivated. "I expected to see that developed further in Episode VIII [The Last Jedi]," Foster said. "And zero happened with it. And we all know why zero happened with it — and there's no need to go into it in-depth — but that's, sadly, just the way things are."

Okay with that out of the way, here’s my fix it post. 

The movie will be called Episode IX The Spark Of Hope. Rey and Finn are the Spark Of Hope. There will be at least a 5 year time skip in between TLJ and TSOH. There is no Palpatine. Kylo Ren and the Knights Of Ren are the villains. Hux and Phasma will be Kylo’s right and left hands in The First Order.

For context for The First Order and Supreme Kylo Ren. A part of me feels like the entire trilogy was building up Kylo Ren as the villain. If it were his destiny to abandon the dark side and The First Order, he would have either joined Rey or left in exile and eventually return and join Rey to end the war together. But that didn’t happen. Trust me I wanted that to happen, I wanted Rey to convince Ben to stop the fleet, take her hand and come home and while Rey flies the Falcon, Ben goes to Luke and Leia to make amends. Then Luke and Ben together would stop The First Order on Crait. But that didn’t happen.

But here’s why I think TLJ was setting up Kylo Ren as the villain. In TFA, Kylo Ren killed Han Solo, but did not yet fully embrace the dark side. The deed split his spirit to the bone, which made him unbalanced and conflicted. He was so conflicted that in TLJ, he was unable to pull the trigger to kill his mother. At this point, he still felt a call to the light. Also, in ROTJ, Palpatine said to Luke, “Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey toward the dark side will be complete”. While Luke resisted temptation, Kylo Ren did not. When faced with the opportunity to kill Snoke, he didn’t hesitate. I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true. And now, foolish child. He ignites it, and kills his true enemy! At this moment, his journey towards the Dark Side is complete. Then, after the fight against the Praetorian Guards, Kylo Ren was given a chance by Rey to be redeemed. However, he went straight for the throne. He went straight for power. Even during the Battle Of Crait, knowing very well that Leia was probably in the base, Kylo still gave the command to take no prisoners. He was now willing to kill his mother and even ordered that the Falcon be shot out of the sky with both Rey and Chewie on board. He killed Han and Snoke. He was willing to  kill Leia, and he indirectly caused Luke’s death. From this point of view, Kylo Ren has fully cemented himself in the dark side and it was a shame we could not continue this path and a shame they just HAD TO bring back Palpatine.

Palpatine should not have been the villain. It should have been Kylo. The entire trilogy has been building him up as someone who was worse than Vader, doing what he could not do, kill his family AND his dark side master.

I’d also like to point out Kylo has done some pretty horrible shit in the tie in material for TROS. The novel Resistance Reborn revealed that the First Order created and maintained death and labor camps. They captured individuals, forced them to do work that contributed to the First Order’s war machine, and worked them until they died. Some of these individuals were allies and sympathetic to the Resistance, but some were just people who could potentially become Resistance allies and sympathizers.

And in Allegiance, The comic follows the events of The Last Jedi, so the Resistance has largely been wiped out by attacks from the First Order. This has left them with almost no weapons or supplies, forcing the remaining Resistance members into desperate situations to try and gain new tools for their war against the First Order. They’ve stopped at various locations, including a shipyard at Fondor. The citizens of Fondor refused to help the Resistance and turned them away, giving them no weapons.Yet, when the First Order arrived, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren reveals that even communicating with the enemies of the First Order is considered an act of treason. On top of taking control of the shipyards for themselves, Ren personally executes the head of the station via beheading. Before his death, the representative tries to argue with Kylo, claiming that not even the Empire had forced the shipyard into their employ. Instead it recognized some level of freedom for the system and the people who live there. Kylo Ren responds that this was because the Empire was too “leniant” in the application of its authority. He tells his men to spread the news of what happened on Fondor, and how this proves the First Order is willing to be harsher than ever before in their pursuit of the Resistance.

Kylo was ruthless in this comic

So yes, there was so much potential with Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Supreme Kylo Ren would look like a Supreme Leader and would not wear the same outfit and a broken helmet. One of the things I really hate about what they did with Kylo in TROS is he has no unique outfit as Supreme Leader. It’s just the same outfit from TLJ and his mask is just repaired instead of a new mask entirely.

Kylo Ren would be given his own unique helmet, something that is his own and something that defines him. From the Art of TROS

Supreme Kylo Ren would look like a Supreme Leader and would not wear the same outfit and a broken helmet. One of the things I really hate about what they did with Ben in TROS is he has no unique outfit as Supreme Leader. It’s just the same outfit from TLJ and his mask is just repaired instead of a new mask entirely.

his outfit would look like this with the mask, art by AJ Pratt Zoom in version for details

To cement his undying loyalty to The First Order as it’s Supreme Leader, The First Order insignia would be on his cape. All black cape, but showing a dark red design on the cape

With Kylo Ren fully embracing the dark side, he is no longer conflicted. Now his Crossguard Lightsaber is stabilized.

I would also  give Kylo Ren a Flagship, The New Horizon to go with his “Kill the past” theme. And it would look like this. Art from the Art of TROS

We would learn Kylo Ren’s motivation for joining and believing in The First Order. Bringing order and stability to a corrupt and lawless galaxy. A line from Kylo in the TFA novelization sums this up perfectly. “It is the task of the First Order to remove the disorder from our own existence, so that civilization may be returned to the stability that promotes progress. A stability that existed under the Empire, was reduced to anarchy by the Rebellion, was inherited in turn by the so-called Republic, and will be restored by us. Future historians will look upon this as the time when a strong hand brought the rule of law back to civilization.” From his point of view, The New Republic was a lawless state that usurped their rightful government and the galaxy has been worse off since the Rebels victory. The galaxy has become a worst place without Imperial rule and Darth Vader’s example.

We’d even find out why he betrayed his family. It started long before Luke entered the hut. It was simple. The New Republic senate revealed the truth that Leia is the daughter of Darth Vader and Ben would’ve seen this at Luke’s temple. Ben felt betrayed by his family ever since. It could’ve been a similar situation after Luke found out the truth. “Ben, why didn’t you tell me.” “Mother…you lied to me….” He feels betrayed by his family and those feelings of resentment lead him back to Snoke. He started to embrace the dark side and his heart was already turned. Which brings us to that faithful night where Luke for a moment thought of igniting his lightsaber and ending the threat before it can begin, but couldn’t. That was all Ben needed. What happens next is he kills the Jedi, burns the temple to the ground and leaves Luke for dead.

So Ben betrays his family because the truth of Anakin was kept from him and because of that Snoke twisted the view of Vader’s fall being compassion and Kylo idolized Vader and viewed Anakin as weakness. He views Vader as the ultimate representation of might and order and power. He wants to destroy everything his family built out of spite and finish what Vader started, which was kill his master, the Jedi and rule the galaxy. Become a stronger Vader, one not held back by sentiment nor compassion. As Supreme Leader He wants to do what the Empire and even Vader could not. Bring order to the galaxy. A new order, his order. Through The First Order, with the Knights Of Ren at his side and as Supreme Leader, he can now do this.

The First Order all view Kylo Ren as the rightful heir to Darth Vader and follows their Supreme Leader without question. Kylo saw through Hux’s plans to release the footage of Snoke’s death and to ensure Hux’s silence, he promoted Hux as Field Marshal. That was enough for Hux. Captain Phasma survives(Gwendoline deserved more time as Phasma and deserves better after GOT final season and we all know that.) and Kylo gives her one final chance to redeem herself. Phasma would be promoted to Admiral. Phasma plans on killing Finn and those in The Resistance who dares protects him and his friends. Phasma intends to kill those who even dared to show the slightest hesitation in battle. Phasma is cracking down hard to ensure there is no chance another FN-2187 can be born. But Phasma is doing this because she knows Finn is Force Sensitive and she wants to draw him out of hiding so she can execute him.

The Knights Of Ren.

For better story purpose, The Knights Of Ren would be the Jedi who followed Ben. These were the first six Jedi who came after Ben. and to Ben they were his closest friends from his time as a Jedi. I don’t know about the other five before becoming Knights, but Jacen Syndulla would for sure become Ben’s best friend from childhood into adulthood. These two would be as thick as thieves ever since Hera and Leia introduced them. The others would be of different races. One is a Twi'lek, a Rattataki, a Zabrak, and two female humans.

But the gist is instead of the lightning strike from TROKR, Luke’s “death” resulted in a civil war between the new Jedi Order. Ben would be horrified that his uncle tried to kill him. Ben doesn’t just go on a slaughter as soon as he collapses the hut on Luke. Rather, the commotion wakes everyone up and Ben suddenly finds himself having to defend himself in the disbelief and horror of those who once were his friends, his brothers and sisters. and he knows how damning it sounds. Luke Skywalker: The war hero, the legend, the jedi master, his family, tried to murder him. and henceforth comes the divide: those who believe him and will stand by his side, and those who believe he has murdered the last Jedi Master and wish to avenge their teacher. the latter party strike first. and they won’t stop until they have his head. thus the bond between those who would become the knights of ren is forged in blood, baptized in tears.

The Knights Of Ren are loyal to Kylo Ren, not Snoke or The First Order.  They are completely loyal and subserviently to Kylo Ren as he opened their eyes and saved them from the dogmatic teachings of the Jedi. We will see companionship between Kylo and his knights. We need to see them as being Kylo’s personal army and trump card. Unlike The Praetorian Guards who were faceless Guards who all just die. Let the Knights Of Ren be people and only unmask in the presence of their Supreme Leader and show them as Kylo’s only true family in his eyes. We know that the purpose of The Knights Of Ren will destroy The Resistance and finally destroy The Last Jedi.

The Knights are as followed.

Jacen Ren

Drago Ren

Leng Ren

Silas Ren

Z’Ev Ren

Azraa Ren

Like Kylo, The Knights have their own unique Lightsaber and TIE Fighter. Jacen would have a Lightblaster(like Jocasta Nu’s Rifle in the Vader comic) Leng would have a Lightbow. Drago would have a Battle Axe Lightsaber. Silas would have a Rapier Lightsaber. Z’Ev would have Lightsaber Tonfas. Azraa would have a Light Pike like the Shadow Guards from Legends used. As for their TIEs. Kylo has the TIE Silencer. Jacen has the TIE Spector. Drago has the TIE Rogue. Leng would have the TIE Dagger. Silas would have the TIE Shadow. Z’Ev would have the TIE Whisper. Azraa would have the TIE Scorpion.

Supreme Kylo Ren should have been a tyrant of a Supreme Leader. Making it clear he is hated and feared by the galaxy, make mention of his labor camps and possible public executions. Kylo and the Knights Of Ren’s mission is to find the Sith Holocrons to guide them in their final journey of the dark side and with that, the final means to crushing The Resistance and the Last Jedi.

The movie would begin with Rey completing Finn’s training on Ach-To.(there would be novels and comics to go over Finn’s Jedi training) Rey would have constructed her own Yellow Lightsaber and Finn would have his own Green Lightsaber. Rey would say something. “You’ve taken your final steps, congrats Finn, you are a Jedi” she smiles proudly. Finn would smile and say “I had a good teacher.” 

Jedi Finn by Andres Bellorin and Jedi Master Rey by Alessandro Campana

Poe would interrupt.  “Hey I hate to interrupt, Jedi love birds, but we’ve got urgent business.”

The Resistance reunited with the remnants of the New Republic with Lando leading the fleets as Admiral Calrissian. The Resistance would now be renamed The United Republic

The urgent business would be that due to the intelligence provided by Rose(Rose would be the head of Intelligence and Engineering, Rose is a big deal in the Resistance), more and more Stormtroopers are rebelling against The First Order and because of this. Phasma is cracking down and executing them one by one. Poe says there is a chance we can save them, but we can’t spare any men as Kylo Ren and his Knights are relentless. So Finn would volunteer. “I volunteer. If there is a chance to save these resisting Stormtroopers, there is a chance I can save them all and turn the tide of this war and burn The First Order from the inside out.”  Poe and Lando approves the mission.  Finn says he will need a team. So Rey and Rose will go with him, while Poe stays behind to mobilize the united fleets against The First Order to retake Corruscant.

We would find out due to their interactions, Rey and Rose are besties and Finn adores them both. 

Meanwhile, Kylo Ren, furious over the fact that Finn has risen as a Jedi, intends to finish the job he started on Starkiller Base and if Rey refuses to join him, Rey will die with the traitor. 

Finn finds the defecting Stormtroopers, led by Jannah. Everyone in Jannah’s squadron are all in awe of Finn. “It’s him!” “It’s Finn. The Finn!” “FN-2187!” “Save us from Phasma,” But Jannah knows FInn. “I’ve found you at last, brother.”

Jannah would explain that she is Finn’s sister. That FInn and Jannah are from the planet Artorias and they are the  lost prince and princess of Artorias. Finn’s family name is Galfridian. The First Order raided the planet for resources and stole the royal children, both due to their force sensitivity as Snoke had plans to make them Knights Of Ren. Both were conscripted into the Stormtrooper program as children and then escaped and now they found each other. Finn explains he intends to free their fellow Stormtroopers and Jannah will help her brother, as will Rose. 

Finn will lead a Stormtrooper Rebellion. Due to Phasma executing his brothers and sisters and Kylo’s tyranny as Supreme Leader will all lead to Finn leading a Stormtrooper Rebellion. They sneak aboard Phasma’s flagship and use it to deploy the signal to every Stormtrooper. I think Finn will possibly use his force sensitivity and letting everyone in the FN corps feel what he felt when he could not bring himself to pull the trigger. What he felt when Starkiller Base committed genocide and what he felt when he stood his ground and fought Kylo Ren. Rose will also use her engineering and hacking skills to ignite a signal and Finn’s speech. Finn’s speech could go something like this. “My name is Finn, I was FN-2187, a Stormtrooper. Like every one of you, I was taken from a family I will never know. I was raised to do one thing… but my first battle, my friend Slip died and that death marked me and made me realize We are people and we have a choice. I wasn’t gonna kill for them. I had nothing to fight for. Until I met my friends, they gave me a name, a purpose and something worth fighting for.(cue Finn smiling at Rey) So I am here to tell you.  You have a choice. You are people. You do not have to kill for them anymore. Take back your lives and fight the people who took your lives away from you. I am giving you the one choice they never gave you and choose for yourselves. You can either storm this very room and kill us or you can take back your lives. The choice is yours.” Then we get a very emotional scene of Stormtroopers led by Finn’s last surviving Squad member, Zeroes removing his helmet and tossing it to the ground and then we see hundreds, to thousands of Stormtroopers ripping their helmets off and tossing them to the ground. Officers DEMAND they put their helmet back on and kill The Resistance scum, but they don’t. It happens. Rebellion.  Finn, Jannah and Rose have successfully led a Stormtrooper Rebellion and together burn The First Order from the inside out.

Finn and Phasma would have a fight for all to see. Phasma has her Baton, while Finn has his Lightsaber. They fight on even footing and finally Finn gets the better of Phasma and disarms her and has his former captain at his mercy. Phasma begging for her life, saying she will call for The First Order’s complete and unconditional surrender and giving Finn and the rest of the Stormtroopers info of their families and planets. But the defected Stormtroopers want blood. All the Stormtroopers who left the First Order because of Finn are telling him he has to kill Phasma while Rey and Rose are telling him killing Phasma will not be right. Finn makes the decision to spare Phasma. Finn tells his brothers and sisters “that’s how we’re going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.” Inspired by Rose, Finn let’s  go of his past and takes Phasma in alive so he can answer for her crimes.

Rey would commune with Luke’s force ghost. Luke commends Rey for her and FInn’s success. Rey reveals that she’s happy that Finn found his family, but Rey is saddened that Kylo was right about her family. Luke will tell her. “Ben was wrong.” Luke will tell Rey the truth. Maybe it happens like this. “the force is strong in my family. My father had it, I have it, my sister has it and my daughter has it”  “You were never meant to be left on Jakku…I thought you died the night in the academy.” “All those years. I was so alone.” “I know. I’m sorry.” “Did you ever try to find me?” “Of course. For so long I searched the galaxy for you. Everyone said that you had died that night in the temple, that I should give up searching. But through the force, I could still feel you. I knew you were still alive. Every face I seen, it was your. Every voice I heard, it was yours. It drove me crazy. I came to this island, turned away from the force because it was so hard. Feeling that you were somewhere in the galaxy and being unable to find you. Seeing you in front of me right now… I’ve never felt so lucky.” He wanted to turn Rey away from her family heritage and training her because he was afraid of losing her again. But now that he embraces her, he has never been so proud in her life. Luke will explain that Rey’s mother Mara Jade took her away from the academy before she could be killed by Ben during the academy massacre. Mara then took Rey to Jakku and blocked off her memories, so she can never be found by Kylo Ren or the First Order. Rey, now a Jedi will take up her family name and stop her cousin and bring balance to the force. It fits. Throughout The Force Awakens it fits, Rey needs to be a Skywalker in order for her journey to make sense. Rey is the heir to the Skywalkers and Kylo Ren is the Heir to Vader. 

Throughout the movie, Rey and Kylo will have force bond scenes. Kylo taunting her that she should have joined him when she had the chance. In their final force bond session he would remind her that she is nothing and now that she rejected him, she truly is nothing and so is Finn and his army of traitors. Rey will finally snap back. “I was never nothing. I am Rey Skywalker, I am a Jedi like my father, mother and grandfather before me. This exchange is over, cousin.”

Leia will reach out to her son. Obviously it will be like in TROS with Leia’s shadow and Ben. Ben will do all the talking. We get the impression that Leia is pleading with her son, telling him she is sorry for everything that we all failed him. But it will fail as Kylo Ren is too far gone, her son is dead. He has completely submerged himself in darkness  and has pledged himself to destroying everything his family has built. He has promised to Leia that when The Resistance is in ruins, when my uncles(Lando and Chewie) is dead, when “my replacement”(referring to Poe) is dead, the traitor is dead, and when the last jedi lies dead, then I will finally kill you, mother. Then Leia knows that her son is truly gone.

Anakin will attempt to reach his grandson. Anakin’s force ghost will visit Kylo to try and save him, but it is far too late. Snoke was preventing Anakin from seeing his grandson to bring him back and stop his grandson from repeating his mistakes. Ben Solo felt betrayed and lost it when he found out his grandfather was Darth Vader. He never found out that Anakin returned to the light and saved his son. Snoke lied about the truth and gaslighted Kylo into believing only Vader mattered and made him believe that compassion made him weak. Ben never learned the truth about Anakin. As for Anakin. Anakin was always the light that was calling to Ben, but because of Snoke, Anakin watched in vain as his grandson was becoming his mistakes. Anakin could hear everything that’s going on, he was a watching Kylo always but he can never be sensed or seen. Anakin hears Kylo ask “Show me again grandfather” and Anakin is so desperate to do something to turn him away from this dark path but he can’t do anything but watch in sadness and horror. So when he is finally able to manifest to his grandson. Anakin will tell him  “I never wanted you to repeat my mistakes. That pull to the light you were feeling was always me. I wanted you to be better than I was, who I could have been” and showing Ben his memories and what he had to go through. His life as a slave, meeting Padme, meeting Obi-Wan, becoming a Jedi, losing his mother, Order 66, losing Padme and being saved by Luke. And telling Ben “Let the light in. You still have a chance, no one is ever really gone“ And Kylo Ren would refuse to believe this. Kylo will retort that “the light made our family weak, your compassion made you weak, I will finish what you started and were too weak to finish.”  and Anakin watches in horror as his grandson continues his mistakes…His words fell on deaf ears and he could not save his grandson.

Lando, Chewie and Leia will lead the fleets of The Resistance and the remnants of The New Republic and the united galaxy against The Fleet of The First Order led by Hux. Lando would have his ship from Legends The Lady Luck. Leia would have her personal Nebula Class Star Defender which is named The Aldera, Leia leads the fleets on board and guides them with her Battle Meditation. Leia would also send Finn’s message to everyone in the galaxy, convincing them all to fight and take back their galaxy and take back democracy!

The final battle will be the Battle of Coruscant. Leia and Lando uniting the galaxy isn’t a result of “duh big ship blows up a planet duh” it’s the result of ordinary people rising up and taking their democracy and freedom back. It’s poetic that a saga that began with a dictator taking away democracy and turning it into an Empire, ends with the people rising up!

Near the end of the movie, Kylo has found the Sith Holocrons and contacted by the Sith Wraiths of Palpatine, Vader, Maul, Dooku and Darth Bane. By the end of the movie, Kylo absorbs the powers and has 1000 generations of Sith living within him. The Jedi stand with Rey. The force ghosts of Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon and Mace will guide Rey. A thousand Generations live in her now!

Rey calls a meeting between her friends. Finn, Poe, Jannah and Rose arrive. In order to have a hope with stopping Kylo and the Knights Of Ren, Rey and Finn must train Poe, Rose and Jannah as Jedi.(Note. Poe was raised with a force tree so his force sensitivity is possible and Rose just deserves the universe.)

Poe will have a Orange Blastersaber, Rose will have a white Lightsaber and Jannah will have a Lightbow. 

Prior to facing the Knights Of Ren, Rey and Finn will talk. “Rey, before we go, I need to tell you som” Rey will silence him with a kiss and say “I know”

The final battle will be between Kylo and the Knights Of Ren and the new Jedi, who will be Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose and Jannah. The fight will take place on Vader’s castle on Mustafar.

Realistically this will be the best damn Lightsaber fight in the entire saga. The new version of Duel Of Fates will be used.

Rey and Finn together will face Kylo Ren, while their friends and Kylo’s Knights fight. 

Near the end. The Knights Of Ren reign of terror is at an end. Rey’s friends are absolutely exhausted. The Knights are left broken, but alive. Poe was able to talk Jacen down and embraces Jacen in a kiss(they were childhood friends and old flames, Poe is gay damn it)

By the time the battle reaches it’s conclusion Kylo’s helmet is knocked off by Rey and Finn, Kylo’s eyes will be pitch yellow, showing that Kylo Ren has given himself fully to the dark side, also Adam gets to keep his glorious beard.

Rey, Finn and Ben are battling it is full of raw and emotional power and anguish. Rey and FInn are fighting to end this conflict once and for all. Kylo Ren is fighting to kill the Last Jedi and the galaxy’s last hope. In the end, Rey and FInn wins. Finn cuts off Kylo’s arm and Rey cuts his Lightsaber in two. Rey realizes Kylo Ren is still dangerous. There is no hope that he will have a sudden change of heart and turn to the light. But Rey cannot kill her cousin. So Rey does the only thing that could keep her family member alive. Rey severs Kylo’s connection to the force. He cannot harm anyone ever again. 

The battle of Coruscant ends with The United Republic taking back Corruscant. Hux being taken in alive and The First Order’s fleet in ruins.

The movie would end on Rey and Finn’s wedding on Finn’s homeworld of Artorias. Leia gives them away. Poe is Finn’s best man, while Rose and Jannah are Rey’s maidens of honor. Rey and Finn embrace in a kiss as they are crowned King and Queen of Artorias. The Skywalker-Galfridian dynasty begins. They first started out as lonely and abused children, but now they found their family and each other. 

Epilogue. 

The New Order is established. Think Galactic Federation of Free Alliances from Legends. Lando Calrissian is the Chancellor of the New Order. Lando is The Chancellor of The New Order. As king of Artorias, Finn will provide a home for his fellow brothers and sisters after their liberation. He can help them all acclimate back to civilian life or they can voluntarily defend their new home.  Finn leads a program to help properly help his brothers and sisters integrate back into galactic society and to help them all find their families and worlds, but until then, they all have a place in the kingdom of Artorias. Rey will find Force Sensitive children and train them all to become Jedi. But Rey will use her power as queen to house all the children who have been abandoned or orphaned by the war. No one will ever be abandoned under Rey’s watchful eyes. Poe and Jannah would be the Ministers of Defense, always keeping The New Order’s Military strong and on their toes so they can prepare them for whatever threat there is to come. Jacen Syndulla will be put under house arrest, watched over by his mother Hera. It may take some time, but Hera and Jacen will reconnect and learn to forgive each other. Rose leads a sanctuary for all the children and animals who have lost their families due to the war and helps take care of them, but also Rose would lead an attack on arms dealers and war profiteers who have profited off the war and suffering of the galaxy. In time, Rose would bring relief and restoration to Hays Minor and Rose Tico would return home and have a family.

Kylo Ren, Hux and Phasma would be put on a Nuremberg styled trial as they are tried as War Criminals. Just the thought of the FO leadership facing a Space Nuremberg tribunal is too fun to think about. Just imagine Ren, Phasma & Hux backstabbing and shit-talking each other in jail.

Then we see the people who are the victims of their atrocities. Finn and the various Stormtroopers who were forced as children to kill for them. Eila and Kel from SW Resistance tells everyone exactly what Kylo did to their home planet of Tehar. Kazuda Xiono and the rest of the Hosnian Prime survivors will voice heartbreak and outrage for what Hux did, while Hux reminds everyone "I am not alone to blame, Supreme Leader Ren was there as I voiced the plan to Snoke, he did not object and stood by and watched from a distance and did nothing he is just as guilty.” Both Poe and Finn will come forth as witnesses to the massacre of Tuanul. Rey will then come to Finn and stand as witness to the murder of Han Solo. Rose will voice what the First Order did to her home and how Hux confirmed it when she was aboard the Supremacy. R2-D2 will come forth showing the footage of the Jedi massacre. Rey and Poe will come forth and say they were victims of torture by his use of the force and Rey then say “I gave him the chance to turn his back on the FO and save the Resistance twice, to save his mother and he still chose to let everyone die and he almost succeeded on Crait. and still gave the order to wage war until the very last man”

Literally everything is stacked against them and finally, Kylo, Phasma and Hux will get their say.

Phasma will be unapologetic for her actions. “I grew up on a hellhole. Each day clawing my way to stay alive. I killed my own family. Went from clan to clan. Then one day The First Order came. I saw my opportunity and I chose them. I saw power, strength, order and unity. And I did what I had to do to get to where I am today.  I do not regret what I’ve done in the name of The FIrst Order or rescuing children and forging them into an army the likes of which this galaxy has never seen.” Phasma then looks at Finn and her former Stormtroopers. “Only you chose disobedience and cowardice instead of greatness. I don’t regret it. That’s the difference between us. I know what I am, and I embrace it. I’m proud of it. I fought for everything that I have, every bit of what I am.”

Hux will go on a Nazi like rant, saying the New Republic was a lawless and corrupt state that usurped it’s rightful government and it deserved to die! He shows absolutely no remorse whatsoever, only pride. “WE COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE LOATHSOME RESISTANCE, IF ONLY OUR SUPREME LEADER DID NOT LET HIS PATHETIC EMOTIONS CLOUD HIS JUDGEMENT!” Hux will say “LONG LIVE THE FIRST ORDER!” and does his salute and expects his former men to do the same, only the former Stormtroopers doesn’t do anything but look down in shame.

Kylo Ren will show just as little care or empathy for his actions. Basically he will say the galaxy fell without Imperial rule. Without the example of Darth Vader. He will dare claim “I became a stronger Vader, one not held back by sentiment or compassion. I killed the past and became better for it. I was abandoned by everyone, but came back to burn everything down. I do not apologize for ANYTHING I DID! I AM PROUD OF IT. I AM THE SUPREME LEADER AND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS OF REN, WHERE WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT ME OR THE FIRST ORDER? A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT THAT ALLOWED SLAVERY AND A LAWLESS GALAXY? WE BROUGHT ORDER BACK TO THE GALAXY! I UNITED YOU AGAINST ME AND YOU BECAME STRONGER FOR IT! YOU ALL NEEDED ME! WHERE WOULD ANY OF YOU BE WITHOUT ME? Do what you will, I know what we did was right.”

WIth that, The First Order Triumvirate is sentenced for life in prison.  Phasma still looking as the sole survivor. Hux uttering threats. In one final moment, Kylo Ren would be taunting Leia and Rey. Goading them all to sentence them all to be killed by a firing squad. Leia turns away with Poe wrapping an arm around her, Finn & Rey supporting her. She is with her children and she’s going to be okay.

Kylo Ren ending the trilogy as a disgraced and jailed war criminal seems to be the only realistic solution the more I think about it. Leia doesn’t lose her son but he faces consequences for his crimes. He absolutely must face the consequences of his actions and spend the rest of his life imprisoned for crimes against the galaxy and the Republic. Kylo Ren does not get to have a happy ending. He stood by as Hosnian Prime was wiped out, he killed Han, Luke and wanted to kill Leia, Finn and Rey and countless other atrocities. He chose his path and he has to live with the consequences of his actions.

[gurguliare]

do you have any ideas for how a Good version of TLJ might have gone? Assuming TFA stayed the same

Okay here I have summarized a convoluted revised version of TLJ for you, keeping as much of the plot skeleton as possible. What I am proposing is not so much a “Good” version as a “trashy version I would have enjoyed.” I feel comfortable in the knowledge that no one is going to read to the end of this read more.

Rey plot: have the initial focus/mystery be the fact that Luke having voluntarily cut himself off from the Force, and the “darkness” on the island then is some kind of very literal dissociated embodiment of his trauma, or whatever; like, Rey talks to Luke and gets nothing from him, Rey goes to the kelp pit and gets the same traumatic memory projector effect as she got from the lightsaber but x1000. Kelp pit is grief pit. Also instead of the porgs retrieving the lightsaber it would have washed up in the sea cave there, obviously. Also logically the pit should be under the tree/temple/whatever, I don’t know why the pit wouldn’t be under the tree. OH maybe there is no tree and Luke destroyed it years ago lmao. And is like, somewhat sheepish about this, but not that sheepish. Luke gives an actual cogent argument for why the Jedi need to end + a description of what it’s like to be submerged in the Force and be tempted, constantly, by the ‘destiny’ the Force recommends, even after having already failed—he wanted to restart the school! He dreamed of finding other children to replace the dead students! He couldn’t bear the hope, so he cut himself off. Rey: “… it’s nothing like that for me. are you sure that was the Force. btw there’s a mirror underground here and it hates you.” The ROTJ parallel isn’t Luke and Vader / Rey and Kylo, it’s Rey distractedly, bemusedly saving Luke.

(As far as the Kylo backstory goes, uhhhh, my problem is that I really LIKE “Kylo thought Luke was going to kill him” from the Kylo side, it’s a classic fucked-up thing triggers massively fucked-up reaction type scenario, my favorite, but I Just. Cannot. Do It. with any amount of finagling. on Luke’s. And all the stopgaps I’m coming up with are ridiculous. “Snoke makes a projection of Luke attack Kylo, foreshadowing Luke’s projection of himself at the end” “Snoke makes a projection of SNOKE attack Luke, Kylo tries to ‘defend’ Luke and accidentally blows up the temple, foreshadowing his failure to blow up Luke’s projection at the end” These are all so bad. I’m realizing that I cut the Luke-projecting-himself element. Maybe uhhhhhh Luke realized that Snoke had been tampering with Ben’s mind and tried to temporarily cut off Ben’s access to the Force >_ Or asked Ben to close off the Force and Ben interpreted that as a threat, rapidly escalated things into a physical confrontation, pretty much accidentally did serious injury to Luke, and then panicked? I don’t know that’s still pretty shitty but I like the idea of this then leading to the world’s most melodramatic self-punishment on the subject, also could tie into “the vanity of the Jedi, thinking they own the Force!”)

0k that’s my tentative proposition. Luke explains this to Rey in five minutes or less, she’s like, “bye,” jumps down the hole. She is crying the whole time for reasons probably. For the record, I would keep a lot of the stuff with Kylo’s and her minds being bridged, or at least I would keep the fact of them being linked all throughout her time on the island—actually, wait, I got it, Kylo is one of the things waiting on the other side of Luke’s severed bonds, so when she goes to the pit she accidentally picks up on that. BTW the Force speech Luke gives her would be all about “bonds” and would be MUCH more Orson Scott Card as a consequence. So now Kylo’s manipulation to the tune of, When I was a child, the galaxy was so silent. Mother was there, and Uncle Luke was there, and everywhere else, silence. Don’t you know what it’s like to be alone? Imagine if someone had asked you—to shut your ears—and she’s like I STAYED ON JAKKU FOR 23 YEARS and smashes the mirror

Luke, extremely Force-hungover: oh

AND THUS, HUT EXPLOSION.

Then Rey and Luke have some kind of excitable shouted conversation in the pouring rain where Luke is like “he’s looking for me!” “YEAH, HE’S LOOKING FOR YOU.” “no, you don’t understand—he’s looking for me!” “HE’S LOOKING AT YOU RIGHT NOW, ACTUALLY.” “but he wasn’t—he disappeared for years! he did take my advice, in the worst way possible! i feel so connected!” “ARGHHHHH”

luke + rey pilot the millennium falcon resistanceward, she discovers he is also a backseat driver

Finn plot: I assumed in the first five minutes of the movie that the way the First Order was “tracking” the Resistance was through Finn, and I still think that makes the most sense/offers the easiest dramatic tension. I mean it’s cheap but whatever this is still a hypothetical Disney movie we’re talking about. Uh… I don’t know there are a bunch of directions you could take this but like … I guess playing on Rose’s initial hero-worship of Finn, make it a thing where… mm. Finn convinces her that the reason he’s sneaking onto an escape pod is because he’s nobly trying to save the Resistance by removing his implanted tracking beacon from the ship (there is no such device and he’s making this up, to the best of his knowledge); she comes up with the plan to uncouple the devices on-site, if they can sneak aboard the ship, because he’s Finn and it’s so important that he escape finally and for real! he makes up a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about First Order security and an expert codebreaker who might be their only hope, planning to lose her on Canto Bight; on Canto Bight, they have some uncomfortable conversation about growing up as slaves and the appeal of the Resistance, Finn maybe assuming that Rose joined for her sister’s sake? wrongly, blah blah extended annoying conversation about how there’s protecting the actual person and then there’s protecting the things that person would want to protect; Lando Calrissian arrests them for parking violations halfway through the conversation, which continues in the prison, where small child jailers throw bones and debris at them; he tries to ditch her in the confusion of the prisonbreak, she catches up to him and is Very Betrayed; then the First Order scoops them up because it turns out they were using Finn to track the Resistance, and the reason they managed to do so even at lightspeed was because Kylo Ren could detect Finn’s force signature. Because of how Force-sensitive Finn is.

Cue tragicomic re-recruitment sequence in which we POSSIBLY meet some of the other Knights of Ren, and also, Phasma is there, “helping.” Phasma: it’ll be just like endurance training! You LOVED endurance training! You did so well on all your diagnostics! Finn: …………………….

Finally Kylo kicks everyone else out and is very casually like hey are you and Rey force-bonded because for some reason she’s stopped talking to me and I’d really love to consult her about somethinggggg, I was wondering if she’d trust me more if I already had your support! Don’t you want revenge? I’m going to kill Snoke. It turns out my uncle loved me!

Finn: should you just say that

Kylo: I’ve been thinking it every day for the past fifteen years so I doubt he’s too worried

Finn: DO YOU NOT SEE THE ISSUE HERE

then unfortunately right at that moment he does actually hear Rey’s voice in his head. Some prior buildup with Rey actively reaching out toward Finn before that and being SUPER FRUSTRATED to constantly get Kylo. Rey: Finn, don’t worry, Master Luke has a plan, we’re coming for you! We’re .… . . crashlanding in the main docking bay and being arrested. Oh my g

I’m basically picturing Luke, like, uselessly draped over several stormtroopers’ unwilling arms because he’s so high on being In Tune With The Force Again, and oh btw the stormtroopers received orders to toss Luke to Kylo but bring Rey straight to Snoke—Kylo: fuck!!! He weirdly ignores Luke, seeming satisfied now that he’s gotten his validation from him. So then Finn and Luke are left alone under guard and Kylo storms off to confront Snoke.

Luke: mmmmmmmm. huh. hello.

Finn: Hey quick q if I’m so fucking Force-sensitive why can’t I read minds and control people’s wills

Luke: [surprised voice] Can’t you? I thought you didn’t want to

Finn: OH MY GOD, I HATE YOU PEOPLE

Luke: Or I could blow up all the electronics in this room, hold on

(later in the chase sequence finn mindcontrols hux and is like “oh god it was so SLIMY like holding an eel”)

Probably some dumb climax where Snoke makes a pitch to Rey re: Luke not training her, which is a true established thing in this version of TLJ, and tells Rey to kill Kylo because he (Snoke) can only afford one apprentice. Rey: are u serious, I actually kind of don’t want to murder him at this point, it seems like a lot of hassle. I want to learn, and you and Luke both suck—Kylo won’t you teach me

(Luke as Finn hauls him across, likely, a catwalk: Do you remember feeling like you couldn’t fit in, like you were always different? The one person you knew who wasn’t part of a whole?

Finn: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Luke: I’ll tell you a secret. That’s because you’re part of something bigger. Something much bigger than your squad, or Hux’s army, or even the Resistance. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

Finn: is it the jedi.

Luke: no. NO. i said BIGGER)

To be fair to Rian Johnson, I have no clue how to write a satisfying multipart star wars climax. something something where Kylo explodes grandpa’s lightsaber in order to finish off Snoke, and I guess takes unconscious Rey prisoner, is realistically how I would end this?? The triumphant Lando-restocked Resistance decloaks, but the First Order fleet turns tail and runs after a few rounds? Finn deliberately uses the Force to find Rose and trace a (reluctant, angry) path through the disintegrating star destroyer, goes with Luke and Rose on the Millennium Falcon, having fought off Phasma but sort of in a hurry? Rose maybe killed Hux? Idk what the reasoning for Finn agreeing to leave Rey would be, other than I guess “the awareness that Kylo wants to use him to manipulate her, however ineptly.” Rose probs involved somehow. Rose: It’s still important that you escaped. Finn: I HAVEN’T GOTTEN AWAY ONCE

end scene where Finn has just finished an offscreen argument with Luke about Luke training him in the Force, and therefore comes to Leia

end-end scene where they all hear Rey’s voice at once because she picked up telepathic specialization from Snoke, because it’s traditional that Rey gain wild new Force powers in every movie purely through observation.

end-end-end scene where Luke has an audibly two-sided argument with Anakin’s ghost behind a closed door (“I’m not the last Jedi. I should have been, but I’m not. It’s my duty—” “what duty. it’s been ten years you haven’t answered my calls” “Daaad.”)

Start of the next movie: Kylo: You know, I used our telepathic bond to mislead Snoke. Rey: cool, don’t care. Kylo: It is ironic because of how he used that same bond to manipulate me. Rey: RED MEN ARE GLISTENING

.

.

.

.

Poe plot: Can someone else do this one

[rubyvroom]

with his hindsight of having brought someone as consumed by evil deeds like Darth Vader back to the light. Does it really make sense that he would not think he could do the same for his nephew? This is the issue most people have. Its not that people can't change but given Luke's experiences, that scene makes no sense except that Rian couldn't think of any other reason to try and shift blame away from Kylo.

I think it makes sense, actually. Forget Rian Johnson for a minute and think about the time that has elapsed since the original trilogy. Bear in mind that I’m not in the fandom and have no desire to be, this is just my uninfluenced read. 

Anyway, take it back to just after ROTJ. Luke watched the Empire slaughter literally millions of people. He watched the Galaxy rebuild from this for decades. His sister’s home planet was destroyed and he probably dealt with her grief over that. His father’s shadow has lingered over the entire galaxy for years and years. A certain subset of people are lionizing his evil deeds and talking about bringing back the empire. They want to literally undo everything Luke and the Rebels originally did and make all of those deaths meaningless. 

When you get older, here’s a couple things that happen. You start thinking about the choices you made when you were young. You start really feeling the losses you have witnessed in your life and wondering if they could have been prevented. You think a lot less about individual heroics and more about how to plan for the future and protect as many people as possible (a big theme of TLJ overall). The purpose of the original rebellion was not to save Darth Vader, it was to overthrow the evil Empire. Yes, Luke made it a personal mission to save his father. He did save him, in the end. But what did that do for all the dead people? What did that do to prevent the empire from coming back? Apparently nothing, because it’s all happening again. Was one soul really worth the death of millions? Even your father’s? Even your own?

Now Luke’s been tasked as the sole custodian of the entire Jedi legacy and surely one of his main goals is to keep these young students from turning to the dark side of the force. And here’s his nephew worshipping Darth Vader. Asking all these questions about him and the empire and was-it-really-so-bad and yada yada. All the while growing immensely powerful and showing every evidence of actually wanting to bring back Vader’s genociding ways. He’s not just an average kid who reads about serial killers or whatever. He’s Darth Vader’s grandson with means, motive, and opportunity. 

We don’t get a lot of specific details about what Ben was doing that alarmed Luke so much, or how long Luke tried to work with him before things came to this point (it could have been years for all we know) but my read is that this is basically a Hitler As A Baby premise. Luke has the opportunity to potentially prevent many, many deaths by stopping an extremely powerful Sith from joining a bunch of Empire wanna-bes. If someone had killed Anakin before he became Darth Vader, how many lives might have been saved? And if Ben Solo went on to kill even one person, isn’t that a death Luke might have prevented, that he would blame himself for if he sat back and did nothing? Now think of the number of people we watched Kylo Ren kill in the movies alone, including his own father. Just hold that in your mind while you think this out.

Whether it’s the right or wrong decision to kill Ben Solo at that point, do I believe that Luke Skywalker would be tempted? Absolutely. To prevent more deaths, to prevent Ben going the way that Anakin did, to stop the Jedi ways from being used as a force for evil in the universe again, he was tempted. It makes sense to me that he would be tempted to do it after what he saw became of his father. You can even think of it as his own Dark Side temptation moment, depending on how you think of the Force and the whole Light/Dark thing.

But Luke passed the temptation. He didn’t do it. He was ashamed of the impulse and if Ben hadn’t woken up and seen him he would have gone on trying to teach the kid and turn him to the light.

(This is why Luke later wants to end the Jedi altogether - because people with access to that kind of power will be tempted to misuse it, the Jedi training doesn’t effectively train people not to misuse that power and if preventative murder is not an option (and it really shouldn’t be) then maybe the Jedi way is not the best way to use the Force.) ****

Now, did Ben Solo pass that same temptation moment? At the same turning point? Because he is totally justified in feeling betrayed there, and would even have been justified in killing Luke in self-defense. But he did a lot more than that. He slaughtered all the other innocent students, burned down the temple, and went on to join the Space Nazis. So fuck him. Luke didn’t force Ben Solo to become Kylo Ren. “Fuck it, I’m gonna be evil” is not not something he can blame on Luke. Every single thing he did from there on out is on him, and he proved to be an evil little shit.

This gets reinforced when we get another turning point for Kylo Ren in the throne room. He could have done a Vader there. The movie fakes us out that this is what he’s doing. He kills the emperor/Snoke and it looks like he’s doing it to save Luke/Rey. This is where the movie could have gone, oh, he just needed somebody to BELIEVE in him because he’s just MISUNDERSTOOD and that will turn him good! But the movie doesn’t do that. He doesn’t then embrace the light. He does the opposite. Vader didn’t try to convince Luke to turn Dark Side and take up the Emperor’s throne and keep going. And Kylo didn’t kill Snoke to save Rey. He wants the throne himself, and he can use Rey’s power to keep it. He tells Rey to rule the galaxy with him as fascist overlords and goes about trying to murder absolutely everyone, including Rey, for the rest of the movie. And Rey thoroughly rejects him, turns her back on him, and shuts the door on him. It’s done. He’s not redeemable, he doesn’t want to be redeemed, he blames his mistakes on everyone else and wants to go on endlessly revenging himself on innocent people because he’s sad or something. He’s a monster. A pathetic monster. He doesn’t get any more heroic shots or moments after that because it’s been proved he doesn’t deserve them. 

I guess where I part ways with your interpretation the most is that I don’t think this movie favors Kylo Ren at all. Rey in the Throne Room scene is doing exactly what Luke originally did - but this time it doesn’t work. And Old!Luke knew that would happen because of the hindsight of his years and because he saw Kylo fail at the Jedi temple. All of the lives and bloodshed he has caused are his own doing, and he needs to be stopped, not saved. If anything, the movie repudiates what Luke originally did, which is what people are *really* mad about, I think, even if they don’t exactly know it. The actual question that nobody’s asking yet is whether Darth Vader was worth saving in the original trilogy if it endangered the rebellion to do it. Much more interesting question imo.

But anyway - to your last point about shifting blame, Luke also gets the last word on this in the movie. Face to face with Kylo Ren, Luke explicitly apologizes for the mistake he made - the moment he was tempted to kill Ben Solo before he had actually done anything evil. That is always treated as a tragic mistake. But he also says, explicitly, that he is not trying to save Kylo Ren, and he rightly does not blame himself for the evil things Kylo has done. The movie ends on this beat, that every single evil choice Kylo made was his own doing, and he needs to be stopped, not saved. Then he doesn’t physically beat Kylo Ren in a lightsaber battle, he uses his Force powers in a way Kylo never imagined doing and could not detect to distract him long enough for the rebels to get away, and also, to humiliate Kylo Ren in front of the entire First Order. He proved he was an immensely more powerful Jedi with greater control over his emotions who doesn’t even have to kill or even physically face his enemy to defeat him. He says he knows Rey will carry on the Jedi legacy and she is stronger than Kylo Ren. The next generation of heroes – Finn, Poe, Rose, and Rey – will use the lessons of the previous generation to defeat the first Order. 

The next movie’s almost pointless after this except we get the pleasure of watching that play out. 

… I did not intend to write so much about The Last Jedi and I think I’ll stop there. I hope that at least explains how someone could plausibly read the opposite intentions out of that scene, when taking the movie as a whole. As an aside, I was also upset when that plot point was raised until I saw how it played out later in the movie, which made me feel differently. The movie doesn’t excuse Kylo or have Rey redeem him with her goodness or whatever like I was afraid it would, it does the opposite. And in the end I thought it humanized Luke a lot for me, although I certainly understand how making him more flawed would upset some fans of the character. But I don’t think it’s an impossible character progression at all.  

**** this little bit is another thing they did in the movie that I loved - Luke’s explanation of the Force implies that maybe it could be open for anyone to use, and the Jedi way of limiting its use to select special people is wrong. This interpretation is supported by the revelation that Rey isn’t descended from Jedis, as well as the little boy at the end of the movie. There isn’t a secret special bloodline that makes the superest force users, maybe this was all a Jedi construct to keep a monopoly on use of the Force as a Jedi thing. Maybe they’re the DeBeers cartel of this universe. This interpretation probably violates fandom lore of some kind and let me reemphasize that I do not care about that at all. 

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hello! I was wondering if you've seen The Last Jedi and if you have, any opinions on it. Thanks!

I have seen it! Thanks for asking! :) Heads up, in case people missed my first comment on it the day it came out, I don’t have an enthusiastic perspective toward The Last Jedi. I don’t dislike the film, but it also didn’t grip me. It’s “okay”. So for those of you who are looking for an excited buddy to scream with, I am not your person. But if you are looking at having a fun, thoughtful discussion about the pros and the cons of the film, I am happy to do so with you.

In truth, I think one of the things I enjoy most about the new Star Wars trilogy is the discussion coming out of them. I was at a party a few days ago where we all got into such a long, deep, fascinating, and passionate discussion that we had to pass around a key, and whoever held the key could talk, and everyone else had to listen; we all had that many opinions on it, and it was cool to hear. There were many things we agreed with, other things we didn’t, but everyone’s perspective in the conversation was uber cool. I love that. I love to discuss the new SW movies more than watch them!

I can’t go into every thought I have on the movie now, but I’m happy to share some overarching thoughts! Ya’ll are free to ask for more specifics or opinions on certain things with TLJ, of course! 

Note: there are spoilers in the commentary below!

Plot in TLJ

Personally for me I felt as though the plot were strangely scaffolded. Maybe I’ll alter my opinion following a second viewing. But what I felt was that the plot was more cartilaginous than something with good backbone. Rather than having sound structure, with clearly defining points, it had a strange flowing, river-like structure that didn’t altogether convince me.

There were also some unnecessarily long parts to the plot. I’ve seen this mentioned two billion and five hundred sixty three point four times already, but I do agree with it: the casino run with Finn and Rose, while having some charm, was unnecessarily long compared to how it needed to be told. Technically story-wise you could have cut about ninety percent of it and lost little of what needed to be overarchingly told. 

I also think the drama with Holdo was unnecessarily complicated and tangled. Simple communication could have solved three plot twists. While there is totally feasible reason to withhold information, the writers never demonstrated that reason, thus leaving it all contorted.

Another big plot gap is something people have talked about a lot: Snoke dying without us knowing anything about him. Some of my friends have talked about how this can have a deep philosophical meta meaning, how it illuminates that we as viewers expect villains and villains of a certain vein, and get caught off-guard when it doesn’t happen that way, etc. But personally for me I feel as though it’s shaky writing. Viewers shouldn’t come away with so little satisfaction about a character who was meant to be a contending force; if the viewers leave like that, it means the execution - whatever the intent - was unsuccessful.

So the truth is, Snoke died without us knowing ANYTHING about this character. Where did he come from? What were his motivations? What’s his background, his… anything? He’s just this vague villain bad Sith guy that Kylo has killed and that’s it. Is there more to this villain that we can show without getting into the books and extended universe material? They really should have given us more by this point in time in the story. They can rectify it through Episode XI, but at the moment, it’s shaky plot-writing ground. 

Originality of TLJ

One of the big criticisms of TFA (something I constructively criticized myself) was that it rehashed the plot of A New Hope. Lots of people now seem disjointed because TLJ seems so original - or at least, that’s what I’ve heard from many people. TLJ being more original was refreshing for me.

I would say that it is original enough and that is good. Nevertheless, it’s still not as out-in-the-blue as I’ve seen some other companions of mine claim. In both TLJ and Empire, we have: 1). A rebel base being cornered; rebels having to fight; rebels having to flee, 2). A powerful, Force-sensitive young individual seeking out a Jedi recluse for training and assistance, 3). That Force-sensitive individual receiving some training after resistance, but ultimately making choices the Master finds questionable, 4). Characters being chased by ship by their enemies while the good guys’ ship(s) are in poor quality and need repairs, fuel, etc., 5). The characters go to a well-to-do location to find someone to help them in their rebel efforts, but that assistant turns out to be a traitor and turn them in to the Empire/First Order, and…. yeah. There are still lots of parallels to be made between TLJ and Episode V.

Another thing one of my friends pointed out is that many audience members might feel confused because TLJ ends in an analogous point to not The Empire Strikes Back… but Return of the Jedi. For ROTJ is when Luke is tempted to join the Dark Side and Darth Vader kills his master. We see that parallel with Kylo Ren and Snoke and Rey. But if we’ve already had that big plot event from ROTJ in the middle chapter of the new series… what’s next? That could be a reason why many people are thrown off by what was done in Episode VIII.

But personally for me, the ending material in Episode VIII was the best. The three scenes that stand out to me are: 1). The silent moment, 2). Luke being a badass in front of Kylo, and 3). Kylo killing Snoke, Kylo and Rey fighting together, but Kylo stilling holding onto the Dark Side and taking Snoke’s position. Those were all good moments that I quite like.

Oh. And the visuals. I loved the visuals throughout the movie. Very aesthetically well-done film.

Characterization in TLJ

Characters ranged from really well-written to… the writers randomly flapping hands. 

Poe and Kylo Ren were great highlights to me. I found them to be very well-written, founded on good motivations and well-established character. I do feel as though Kylo Ren is one of the more complex characters, who has layers of reasons and emotions, so every decision he makes is well-founded with who he is. And every scene with Poe was one that I appreciated.

Rose was good and what they did with her writing-wise works, and technically you don’t need more background or anything with her… but I would have liked more. I have seen some criticisms on Rose and understand the validity of those; I moreof am saying that Rose as a character is written consistently, with fun personality, and with some fun interest. I liked her on screen. Sniffed out the romance plot a while away and don’t think it was necessary-necessary, but don’t mind it either, because of course that happened, like it does with every other movie out there.

Finn’s characterization was… like the last movie… very rough. Poorly defined. Haphazard. Inconsistent. Wild writer hands flapping willy nilly. John Boyega’s good acting covers that up as well as it can, and makes Finn “feel” like a consistent character. But if you actually look at his choices and motivations across the two films, there is very little pattern, rhyme, or reason to it. Finn is a nice character when you don’t analyze him, though, so I wish that they’d done a better job with his personality and personality arc. That character deserves to be written well.

Now. For Luke. I agree with Mark Hamill on this one. Luke’s characterization was given justification and reasoning, and I get what they were trying to do, but… I don’t think it works. One reason it doesn’t work is that Luke has already learned the lessons he was struggling with in TLJ: he was tested by Yoda for the Dark Side and failed, he saw that someone turned to the Dark could be restored, he saw that giving up would never lend good results, and on and on and on. These aren’t just lessons that he’d need to relearn, but things smashed into the core of Luke’s personality and philosophy and core. And Luke’s struggle is very obviously working against a lot of common sense, which Rey delivers in a few sentences, and then Luke starts being turned to being convinced (there is a slow turn for him, but still). And lots of this goes against most of what we know about Luke’s established character, even when we consider how peoples’ personalities and views change over time. Last.. Luke’s internal conflict felt very unrealistic for his age and maturity. That sort of struggle he was going through I’ve seen lots of people in their mid twenties already have a firm grasp and understanding of. I shouldn’t be out-wising Luke Skywalker. I’m twenty-five.

That said, Mark’s acting was altogether fun and compelling to watch. He delivered very well.

Overarching Opinion

Personally I never felt “caught up” in the excitement of the movie - not that there wasn’t action, but I couldn’t get invested enough to worry or be pulled in. There was never a point where I was grumpy or angry at the movie… just didn’t get dragged into the adventure. It’s one of those movies that I came out of feeling it was “okay” but not astounding. I don’t dislike the movie and I’m not in the wave of complainers or haters or anything. It’s just not something that clicked greatly with me. There were some scenes I quite liked, some elements I quite liked, and lots of things that I’ll always love to debate about. It’s just not the movie that was made-made for me.

[ambiguityisnoonesfriend]

May the 4th 2018 Letter

Dear Yoda,

I am so excited! I love all the iterations of the characters and relationships I’ve requested, and can’t wait to see what you’ve created for me!

My likes: toppy women and partners who are turned on by toppy women, humor, angst, endings with hope intact, functional relationships, dysfunctional relationships, secret relationships that aren’t really a secret, canon divergence AUs such as what if they got there five minutes sooner, time loops, porn, gen, fluff, friends with benefits, friends with benefits with feelings, interactions with the other characters who would be around at the same time except as specified, mixing and matching prompts (ex: Leia and Hera both having different troubles raising Force-sensitive kids and complaining to each other, or Ahsoka/Sabine go on a double date with Ezra/Luke, or something completely different)

My specific art likes: two or three panel simple line comics, playing card or tarot card type imagery, setting a scene, magic and metaphor

My specific porn likes: failsex including interrupted during or instead of sex, cunnilingus, both slash and het anal (DNW femslash anal), light bondage, sex pollen, aliens make them do it, the Force makes them do it, mental connections during sex, mental connections as a substitute for sex, using the Force during sex including light Force choking, Force ghost sex, toys

My line for enjoying sex pollen/AMTDI/TFMTDI is based on how much trauma the characters feel -- I prefer situations where they aren’t traumatized or upset and use the aliens/Force/pollen as an excuse for what they both/all wanted.

I do not want: noncon (okay with dubcon and sex pollen), scat, watersports, omegaverse, unrequested ships except as listed elsewhere in my sign-up, non-canon AUs such as coffeeshops, DJ, Holdo, Lux

Rey/Kylo: I went into TLJ expecting to get nothing for this pairing except maybe one dream sequence. I came out loving them even more. I love this pairing for all the potential. They are opposites. They are exactly the same. Each is incredibly jealous of the other. They keep being drawn together like two ends of a stretched spring, and the only question is if they’ll fuck, fight to the death, or both. My fondest hope is both. I love all variations of dubcon for these two, from The Force Made Them Do It and Sex Pollen, to Forced To Work Together For Reasons. Force bond sex also very welcome!

Finn/Rey/Kylo: I see Rey as drawn to both of them in a classic triangle: Finn is the pull of the light, and Kylo is the allure of the dark, and Rey is fascinated by both. Maybe Finn is enough to bring both the Jedi to the light. Maybe Kylo seduces them both to the other side. Finn and Kylo carry a lot of baggage with each other. Do they set it aside at Rey’s request, or does it define how they both must deal with her and one another? Kylo defecting and having to be babysat by Rey and Finn! Rey is injured and Kylo and Finn have to have magic Force Sex to save her! Aliens make the three of them do it!

Leia & Ben: The pain and the angst and the love in this broken family is the gift that keeps on tearing my heart out and I love it. I love every piece of heartache, how they got there, what each one thought the other thought. Given all possible futures, what would the final fallout be between Leia and Kylo after TLJ?

Poe & Ben & Jacen: At some point, these three were dragged along to some Rebellion reunion where their parents had fun reminiscing about the old days and the kids were bored. Nothing starts out well when the first words you exchange with someone are "My mother said I have to be nice to you." Knowing that Ben grew up to be a human disaster, and Poe wasn't not a disaster, and Jacen is named after a different human disaster, all I am saying is that something got set on fire by the end of the party, certainly by accident, possibly by the Force. This or any other misadventure the three kids got into would be a wonder and a delight.

Kanan/Hera & Chopper, Hera & Chopper: It's strongly implied that Chopper was Hera's only friend before Kanan came along, and from the finale, it looks like he's the one friend who will never leave her. How did they grow together? How long did it take her to fix him up after she found him, and what kinds of trouble did the two of them get into along the way? What happened when she brought aboard an alcoholic drifter who is suddenly competing with Chopper for her attention? What did Kanan make of a foul-mouthed astromech who may or may not have tried to kill him a few times?

Luke/Leia: I was ready for this ship to be sunk in the movie. I was not expecting to walk out shipping it even harder. I want all the happy times before the family reveal. I want all the angsty history post-ROTJ. Luke Denying his feelings. Leia denying hers. The times denying those feelings failed. Maybe Han knows. Maybe Han joins in. Maybe he doesn't know and that's part of the angst. Pre-TFA snuggling. Post-TLJ Force Ghost snuggling. It's all good.

Ezra/Luke: I love the idea of Ezra and Luke meeting up after the original trilogy and finding someone who understands what it's like to be them. They've both been through things nobody else would understand. Maybe Luke is the one who ends up finding Ezra out in the UR, or Ezra finds his own way back and runs into / is drawn to Luke.

Ahsoka/Sabine, Ahsoka & Sabine: Space lesbians on a quest! Everyone knows the point of a quest story is the journey and the discovery of the characters' own true inner selves, right? I want to know about all their adventures together! Does Ahsoka teach Sabine more badass lightsaber moves? Do they pretend to be married on one planet for reasons? Does Sabine build an awesome Machine that causes them unforseen plot problems? Do they date each other? Do they date other women while being happy for each other? I am okay with any combination of this, and I am happy to see them as a couple, or as dating any other female characters or OFCs except not Sabine/Ursa or Sabine/Hera.

Leia & Hera & Sabine: Capers for the Rebellion! This mission happened. I don’t know if it happened before or after the Battle of Yavin, or even several years after Endor, but it happened. Maybe they have to rescue other team members. Maybe they have to go woo new allies, or pick up supplies from a picky source. Leia and Hera are going to disagree about who is in charge. Sabine’s loyalty on the topic may vary depending on who is annoying her more at that moment. Leia and Sabine may wind up with their very first hangovers, or at a later setting, maybe they’re remembering same. For background pairings, I’d prefer Leia with Han, Luke, or both, and Hera with Kanan. Sabine is my little black femslash dress; I don’t ship her with Hera or Ursa but anyone else is fair game.

Hevy & 99: I rewatched the Domino Squad arc recently and was overcome with clone feelings. It seems like Hevy had talked to and confided in 99 before. Did he see his brother as a mentor? 99 clearly held great affection for all the clones who passed through his life. In the microcosm of his friendship with Hevy, how did he see himself? You can bring in the other clones to the story, but I'd like the primary focus to be on these two. You could take this in a more romantic direction if you like, or keep it platonic and focus on the friendship they built.

Hera/Rex: I could see them forming a FWB arrangement sometime by Hoth. Hera doesn't want to get feelings involved ever again because she doesn't want another broken heart. That doesn't mean she won't get feelings anyway but they're not in her plan. Rex has admired her for years but there are chain of command issues, which could be why he's on the Endor strike team and not directly under her command circa RotJ. They both can have angst because of the dead guy in the room, real ghost or imagined. She can have angst out of wonder if this is the best thing for her heart or her child. He can have angst because he doesn't do relationships and his time is getting shorter by the minute and should he accept this little bit of happy? Maybe they end it after one time. Maybe they knock on each other's door every several months even after the war.

Rex & Luke: The moment Rex figures out who Luke is, he is going to be Luke's number one fountain of information on Anakin Skywalker. How do they both react? Luke kept the Vader thing secret for Leia's sake, but did he ever tell Rex?

Hera & Jacen: My one DNW with this relationship is no character death for either, otherwise I am here with the fluffiest of fluffy kid fics to the most heart-wrenching of angst. Hera playing with the new baby and feeling her heart lighten! Jacen's first flying lesson! Maybe he has the Force, maybe he doesn't, maybe he really does but Hera convinces Sabine and Zeb to lie with her and say he doesn't. Does she spend every day worrying at the going rate for the Black Sun's bounty on any known Force sensitive child? Does she tell him the Good Parts stories about the Ghost family in their heyday, and is he the one she was talking to in the trailer voice over? Does she have to keep his legion of uncles and aunts from spoiling him? Does she take him into space battles with her aboard the ship, knowing they could be blasted into dust? How does the conversation go with Cham when she tells him he's going to be a grandfather? Did he ever attend Jedi Death School and how did the two of them react when they found it how it ended?

Hera/Kanan: All of it and everything. Their first months working together. Missing scenes from the time of the show. That time they banged in Ezra's old comm tower while everyone else was busy during "Flight of the Defender." Those times they banged in the various rooms of the ship. Kanan figuring out this Force Ghost business after the fact the way Qui-Gon did, and hanging out to watch and guide. Were Zeb and Sabine their first attempt at building a crew, or were there others around before, and what happened? He's been smitten with her since the beginning, and she didn't say she loved him until the end, so how did they work around feelings, and not admitting to those feelings despite the fact that everyone around them knew? What was he about to tell her when Rukh attacked? Fix-its! Post-canon angst! Comedy capers where they're just hanging out having fun!