#rey and kylo vs the guards was the last time lightsabers felt like lightsabers

[short-wooloo]

Oh! And I forgot Snoke! We got to see him get chopped up! Because that movie actually remembers what lightsabers are

(That's it, I'm rewatching the sequels)

I had a chat with my brother about the fight with the night troopers in ahsoka and he pointed something out to me

It's really stupid how the characters just avoid dismembering and/or decapitating the troopers, because that's how you're supposed to stop zombies, you go for the heads and/or render them immobile

"Ha ha zombie! I slashed you across the chest! What're you gonna do now? OW! FUCK! THEY'RE BITING ME!"

It's pretty obvious that going forward all disposable minion bad guys in SW will have to be droids because disney won't let up on their "no cutting people up" internal rule, because apparently we can't even hack apart the undead, but what's the point of zombies if you can't dismember them without a thought? Zombies remove the ethical concerns of mass slaughtering bad guy minions

Y'know say what you will about it, but Rey and Kylo vs the Praetorian guards actually felt brutal in the way lightsaber combat should be, people got thrown in an electric shredder, the top half of one guy's head was cut off, throats were slit, a lightsaber was shoved into someone's face, and when Rey/Kylo stabbed a guy they really drove the saber in, like rewatch it, you clearly see them putting effort to drive their sabers through the guards

[starfanatic]

Luke Skywalker vs Rey... Nobody

I hate the argument that a lot of sequel trilogy stans use whenever anyone criticized Rey or labels her a Mary Sue. It’s probably the weakest argument a sequel stan can ever possibly say to me. (Besides the people hate Rey because she’s a women argument).

Lets compare them shall we?

Luke Skywalker in A New Hope is whiny, inexperienced, and very naive. There is multiple moments in a new hope that proves this. When he was whining about not wanting to stay on the moisture farm and wanting to join the Academy like his friend, Biggs. He constantly was slightly annoying throughout the film, especially to Han. When Han named his price and Luke was like “We can buy our own ship with that!” or when Han was flying the Milennium Falcon and Luke was practically yelling in his ear to go into hyperspace. Han and Luke did not get along at first because of Luke’s behavior. Luke went against Obi-Wan’s orders and saved Princess Leia, not thinking of the consequences. How he could possibly be killed or put in a cell with the Princess. He doesn’t think of a plan to get out AFTERWARDS only the spur of the moment. He was constantly shown to be inexperienced and needed his friends help or HE WOULD HAVE DIED THE FIRST MOVIE. While on the millennium falcon, Obi-Wan taught him things about the force. Maybe not a lot but he knew how to use the simple basics of it. Like sensing the force and letting it guide your actions (as Obi-Wan was trying to teach him before). For once Luke listened and trusted Obi-Wan and destroyed the death star.

Lets do Rey now WHOOP. So far the only personality flaw she seems to have is that she’s also naive? She had the same wide-eyed innocence as Luke had but it’s different and here’s why. Rey never suffers for any of her so-called almost non-existent flaws. Rey is experienced enough to hold her own in a fight against men WAY stronger then her (that’s realistic though but that’s one tool in her belt). She��s bilingual. She can fly the millennium falcon better then Han Solo even though she never flew one before. She is constantly saving people by herself, never the one being saved. (Before y’all bust my balls, Rey escaped that damn starkiller base by her damn self. Luke didn’t and couldn’t). She uses powers that takes years to learn and the excuse is the force dyad. So she downloads Kylo’s skills and training. Great. Magnificent. Rey is on a amazing start. And this is the first movie! She can only get stronger from here.

Luke is more mature and responsible in ESB. He’s a respected hero of the rebellion. Luke still struggles using the force. Even with the training Luke goes through with Obi-Wan he had to truly focus to pull the lightsaber to him. Plus as a common occurrence, he still needed help from his friends. He’s not invincible. He actually gets severely hurt (makes sense). He goes to Dagobah to get trained (because unlike Rey he doesn’t have the “learn force jedi shit that takes years to learn” cheatcode). And then he’s impatient. He wants to learn how to use the force so he can help his friends. Luke is again reckless, impatient, and he’s also insecure in his own belief. Him not believing he can lift the X-wing was why he couldn’t. Against his master’s and Obi-Wan’s orders he decides to save his friends. It’s a noble reason to but it still got him fucked up. He got his hand cut off, he was beaten and humiliated, and then he was told a horrifying revalation that twisted around everything he knew and believed. He was scared of Vader, you can see it on his face, but he did not succumb to fear.

Rey goes to the island to convince Luke to go help them fight the war. Why doesn’t Leia go instead? Who knows. Why does Luke act the way he does? Who knows. Luke dismissed her and was quite rude to her. Rey was having cute little talks with Kylie Renner in their little force dyad BS. She called him a monster and a murderous snake. I like the insults. It fills me with joy! But then she finds out the truth. Rey did do something reckless and stupid but as usual she doesn’t suffer the consequences to her actions. Technically she’s morally superior to Luke because she saw the good in him and felt like she could turn him to the light (after slicing his face open. Ok). Rey decides to give herself up to the First Order thinking Kylo would save her. And he does. So she wasn’t even wrong... Rey fight the very elite guards of the (bootleg emperor palpatine) Supreme Leader Snoke. Reminder, TFA and TLJ are like 3-4 days apart. She had zero training within these days. Luke refused to train her so don’t start that bullshit. Luke trained her for like 5 minutes and none of that training had anything to do with lightsaber dueling. Rey is then told she was a nobody. Now why did Rey cry about this? I truly don’t know. How the hell would Kylo accurately know that Rey’s parents were nobody? Didnt Rey been know this from the force awakens? Eh whatever. She tries to force pull the lightsaber from Kylo Ren and do a dumbass tug a war instead of walking up and grabbing it. It reminds me of JJ and Rian fighting over where the star wars sequels). Anakin must be screaming and yelling from above... or below... idk. The lightsaber then breaks. Rey then saves her friends by showing her once again superior piloting skills that rival or is possibly better then Anakin Skywalker himself. Hitting 3 in one shot? You go girl! She then uses the force to effortlessly move the big ass boulders out of the entrance to save the resistance. Last I remember... Luke struggled to do that with a few way smaller rocks and was also focusing hard to do.

Luke is finally at jedi status! Woohoo! Now Luke first saves Han from Jabba. It shows his very dark side tendencies by choking the guards (like father like son). Luke thinks of a actual plan before going in (CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT). Luke “Chanel Boots” Skywalker goes to Yoda on his death bed. All he wants is answers but Yoda wants to be cryptic as fuck. Luke has been lied to for years by his mentors and his family. Luke’s father isn’t hero Anakin Skywalker but actually a big, asthmatic, merciless, murderous asshole who has a choking kink. Luke then says he cannot kill his own father and Obi-Wan, who believes Vader isn’t a human but a machine, has no faith in Luke. He believes that Luke will fail and the Empire would win. Luke feels the conflict and good in him that nobody else does. He knows that Vader is unloyal to the emperor and he actually cares about his own son. When he is with Han and Leia he realizes he made a mistake and has a bad feeling about it. (*gasp* Luke is not being super reckless). He’s not arrogant (not in anyway) but he’s completely confident that Vader would turn. (He isn’t flawless there is still obvious problem with this plan he has. He fails, the empire wins. He dies, the emperor wins. Vader doesn’t turn, Luke fails. Luke almost succumbs to the dark side and it’s actually plausible he might fully turn. He wants to desperately save his friends and his father has done horrible things to Luke. Luke had every reason to kill Vader. But he doesn’t. He throws the lightsaber away and foolishly puts his life in Vader’s hand. Luke doesn’t save the galaxy because he can make things levitate with the force. He wins because he had the strength to resist the dark side and has so much love and pure good in his heart he saw the good in his father.

Rey starts off with a training session (no idc it’s too fucking late now. 3 movies in? Is she doing reverse character development?) and basically Poe gets mad at Rey for not accompanying them on missions. I still don’t know why she needs training, when she is at a decent strength to fight elite guards, fight kylo ren, and a variety of other things that typically takes a long time to learn. After finding out Palpatine returned, Rey goes on a mission to find the way finder almost like a shitty videogame. I don’t even want to talk about the force dyad anymore because it’s fucking dumb. Rey gets chased by the force order and hear this out, FORCE HEALS (i forgot what the animal was but idrc). Which means Rey had the power to stop the painful truth of death themself. Why am I not surprised? Rey did something that no other jedi nor sith or jedi have ever done this. Anakin went to the dark side to save the ones he love. This movie was just a slap in the face to Anakin. Rey then fights Kylo Ren and lost??? again it seems a little too late and it also didn’t make sense. Rey defeated those guards all by herself with Kylo needed help from her. She’s obviously the better lightsaber duelist but hey, at least JJ was trying to mellow her out a bit. Rey stabs him while our beloved Princess died. She then regrets her decision and as always, doesn’t have any consequence to her actions. By the force I forgot, the whole scene where she is revealed as a Palpatine? Completely invalidates the first two movies but eh whatever. She uses a power that only the elite sith does... something Kylo Ren himself could not do (and he’s on the dark side). Rey “killed” Chewie but actually no she didn’t because Chewie is perfectly fine. Rey is supposed to be all dark and edgy now, “you don’t know me” BS. Yeah I’m sorry I won’t tolerate this because my only allergy is the fish smelling coochie bullshit called the sequel trilogy. Rey got scared of her dark self. Well at least JJ tried? Rey then almost gives up but Luke was like “nah fam you cant”. Rey dies trying to fight Palpatine but then as usual, she gets zero consequence cuz Benny Simp saved her using the force. Then she kissed him... no. No. No. This made my eyes burn like they just threw bleach in my eyes. It made no sense. “A Kiss of Gratitude”? What the shit was that? GIRLS DO NOT INSPIRE TO BE REY.

[silver-and-stars]

The Rise of Skywalker

Okay so TROS is out in France and I’ve just seen it. And I need to get all those feelings out of my chest.

SO SPOILERS !

Bottom line for those who don’t want to read the whole summary about Kylo/Ben :

- Rey is a Palpatine

- Rey force healing Ben by giving him her life energy

- Leia dies and it makes Ben gives up the dark side.

- Rey VS Palpatine

- Ben Solo comes to help.

- Rey defeats Palpatine but dies.

- Ben Solo gives her his life energy to bring her back to life. That’s the romantic grand gesture they were talking about.

- THEY KISS and immediately after HE DIES and his body DISAPPEARS

- Nothing more is shown and said about Ben, him turning good again or his sacrifice. It’s like only Rey know that and no one will ever learn the truth. Not even Chewie.

Now, onwards for the very long talk : 

I hadn’t read the leaks, only the posts on tumblr following them : Rey blowing up the transport ship in which Chewie was in, Kylo Ren / Ben Solo dying and not being talk about again, it’s all true ! Expect that Chewie wasn’t really in the transport ship. He is fine.

More on the rest later but first Ben Solo’s redemption and death + Reylo.

So first off all, Rey goes on the wreck of the Death Star to find an item - a sith wayfinder, only two exist and Kylo has one - that could direct her to Palpatine’s lair, cause yeah, Palpatine is alive and he just lend the First Order a HUGE fleet of Star Destroyers, each equip with a Star Killer canon.

Palpatine is not doing well btw : he is vertically plugged to a machine, his eyes are white, their is missing flesh on his fingers... He hids on a sort of closed temple and has hundreds of Sith cultists (non-fighters) with him.

Kylo finds him and Plapatine tells him he made Snoke and the truth about Rey’s identity (which we don’t hear). He wants Kylo to find Rey and kill her and he will give him the Empire in exchange. 

Instead Kylo warns Rey that Palpatine wants her dead and says he doesn’t care about Palpatine’s plans, he just want her to join him on the darkside. He tells her who she is : Palpatine’s grand-daughter. Palpatine had a son who ran away and hid in Jakku with Rey’s mom but the Emperor wanted to get his hand on Rey, presumably to kill her, so they sold Rey and lied about her not being on Jakku anymore before getting killed.

So anyway Rey isn’t taking all that information so well, even less since she had a vision (that we saddly don’t see) of her sitting beside Kylo on the throne of the Siths.

On the deathstar she has a vision of Darth Rey after touching the wayfinder, quite like Luke had of himself on Dagobah. She fights with herself and drops the wayfinder. Kylo picks it up and tells her the only way she will find Palpatine is if she comes with it and he crushed the wayfinder. Rey is seething with anger and fights Kylo very agressively, most of what he does is retreating. They end up outside, on the wreck, above a very agitated sea.

Rey is really close to giving in to her anger and go dark and Kylo finally starts to get the upper hand. And then Leia happens.

Leia who felt their battle, used the last of her strength to connect with his son. She says his name and Kylo feels she is dying. He spaces out and drops his saber. Rey stabs him in the stomach the same moment Leia dies. They both feels it. Rey shuts down her saber, Ben slides down on the floor. Rey cries and looks at Ben, he is staring blankly into space, looking like a lost boy. She kneels beside him and heals him, transferring life energy into him. She tells him he was right, she did wanted to take his hand, Ben’s hand. And she leaves in his ship.

Later we find Ben still on the wreck, standing and looking at the horizon. A voice says “Hey kid” and for a sec I thought it was Ghost Luke. But no ! Ben turns around and it’s Han !

Ben says he is just a memory, “your memory” answers Han. Ben says Ben Solo is dead and Han says that it’s Kylo Ren who is dead, and asks him to come home. And Ben says it’s too late, “she’s dead”. Earlier on we had a hint that Ben wanted to go back to her but he believed he had went to far on the wrong track to be able and allowed to go back. Now Han tells him that what Leia believed in and fought for is still alive. The following scene mirror the one on the Starkiller bridge in SW7, when he killed Han, an act that still haunts him in this movie. Ben says the same lines “I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.”. Han’s touches his face and tells him he does. Ben calls him “dad” in a heartwrecking tone and turn around to throw his lightsaber into the sea. When he turns back Han isn’t there anymore.

The next time we see him it’s on Palpatine’s lair. Rey got there and confronted Palpatine who told her he didn’t want her dead, he wanted her to kill him so his spirit would be transferred in her body. Of course she doesn’t want to do so and doesn’t plan on hating him either. But he opens up the roof of the temple and she can see the Resistance’s ships getting their asses kick by his fleet. He tells her that if she completes the rituel she will have control over his fleet and she could then save her new family (the Resistance).

And then she feels Ben. He is here in the temple, with only a loose shirt, pants and a blaster, reminding me of young Luke or young Han, he is fighting his way toward her but the knights of Ren have him cornered and he is now unarmed. Rey and him look into each other eyes using their force bound (that is now strong enough for them to transfer objects between them) and they nods in agreement. Rey pretends she will strike Palpatine down, just like Ben pretented he was going to kill Rey before Snoke. She rises her saber while Palpatine narrates, puts it behind her back and... it’s in Ben’s hands. He was a very endearing gesture there, like he is saying “now we’re talking” and he fights the knights of Ren, one against six, with a blue light saber. Meanwhile Rey has another lightsaber : Leia’s, that force ghost Luke gave her and she fights Palpatine’s guards. 

Ben reaches her and they stand togeteher, in sync, before Palpatine. “you stand together. you die together” says Palapatine and he attacks them. But when he does the flesh on his finger is restored. He realized Rey and Ben have something very rare in the force, a bound, a dyad. And he absorbs their power to rejuvenate/heal himself. Rey and Ben fall unconscious on the ground. Palpatine now with his full power, unleashed massive a electric beam toward the ships and starts frying the Resistance (who in the meanwhile got backup from the whole galaxy).

Ben is the first to wake up but Palpatine throws him down a pit kinda like he was thrown in one by Vader. Then Rey wakes up, lies on her back and see the fleet, but beyond them she sees the stars and says “be with me”. Many jedi voices (Luke, Yoda, Qui-Gon, Anakin, Ashoka etc) answer tell her to get back up, that they are with her.

She takes her saber and rise on her feet. Palpatine directs his electicity toward her and she blocks it with her saber. He tells her it’s useless, she can’t defeat him as he is all of the Siths, she cannot win. But she grabs the second light saber and push back, says she is all the jedis, and Palpatine is vaporized by his own force lightining.

The victory is here. However Rey drops the saber and fall on the floor, unmoving, eyes open. Finn (who is force sensitive) fells that she is dead. But from the pit arise Ben. He is injured, limping, he falls several times in his way to reach her but when he finally falls near her, he grabs her and cradles her, looking desperate. Her body is limp, her eyes still open and unmoving. So he lies her down in his laps, closes his eyes and gives her his life energy. Of course it works ! And, knowing about the leaks I think “oh no. oh no. maybe they were wrong about this part at least” and “you mom and uncle would be so pround of you right now”. Rey wakes up, sits up, looks at him, puts his hand on his face. He is so relieved, she smiles and calls his name, “Ben”. And they KISS. BOUM CANON REYLO. And when they break the kiss he gives her a smile so relieved, happy and innocent, it breaks my harts. It breaks my heart because they hug (I think) and then he falls backward. Eyes closed, unmoving and his body disappears and as it does so does Leia’s ! No more Ben. All there is left are his clothes on the ground. And that’s it.

Rey says nothing, the scene just cut to the fleet coming home and celebrating. We see her rejogning the fleet in Luke’s X-Wing, then on their base where she happily reunites with BB-8, Poe and Finn. Then she goes on Tatooine, finds the Skywalker farm, buries Leai and Luke’s lightsaber together. She has made her own lightsaber. It’s yellow.

An old lady passes by and asks her who she is. She says “Rey” and looks on her right. There are Luke and Leia’s force ghosts standing side by side and I’m already dead inside. On Leia’s left there is a blank space. I expected Ben’s ghost to materialize there, like Anakin’s did beside Yoda and Obi-wan in SW4, to shows us Ben is still with her in some way and that he was at least reunited with his mother, thzt he is at peace with Luke and himself. But no, nothing. She says “Rey Skywalker”, watched Tatooine’s suns set and that’s it. Nothing more about Ben turning back good, nothing showing some people -at least Poe, Finn AND FUCKING CHEWIE - YOU KNOW, HIS KINDA-UNCLE CHEWIE, CHEWIE, BEN’S FATHER’S BEST-FRIEND, CHEWIE WHO LET OUT AND HEARTBREAKING CRY AND FELT ON HIS KNEES WHEN HE LEARNT LEIA) DIED, CHEWIE WHOSE THREE BEST FRIENDS (HAN, LUKE, LEIA]) DIED TRYIND TO REACH OUT TO BEN - learned that Ben saved Rey’s life, helped defeat Palpatine and in the end did the right thing. For all we know the galaxy still believes he is evil and died evil. 

And really, if Rey went through all the trouble of separating from her friend and go on the Skywalker homeland - like she intended to live there- , couldn’t she just build up a life there with Ben. I can’t see how people would accept Ben and his redemption after he killed so many, including Han, and as he was such an important and feared figure of the First Order. But they could have lay low and live happily together on Tatooine and build a home and a family together there. A Palpatine and a Skywalker, united in peace and love. Two lost children, orphan now, creating their own home. A new start, a new life. But no. We don’t get that. Ben was too young to die in a Star Wars movie. This is not Rogue One wtf. 

_____________

So yeah no, I’m not quite okay. The end was too quick. The movie was nice, it didin’t felt slow or dragging, there wasn’t any horses race scene. But the conclusion was too short, to abrupt imo. You needs to spend a little more time on it after three movies ! Or you know, since it’s the end of the Skywalker saga FUCKING NINE MOVIES. Gimme a 30 minutes long ending like in Return of the King. I’m okay with this ! I do want to know what became of the Resistance, of Finn, Poe, Chewie. I do want to see force ghost Ben (since you weren’t kind and hopeful enough to keep him alive). 

Btw : R2D2 is barely in this movie and does almost nothing. It’s R2D2. Sure BB8 is cute but R2 as been around since Padmé ! He knows stuffs !! He is good at his job, let him save lives ! 

No canon Stormpilot. The queer character is has expect of an american Blockbuster own by Disney, a minor character (the lady who said in SW8 that Admiral Ackbar is dead and Leia in a coma) and she just kisses another lady for like 0.02 sec in a crowded scene.

No Rose x Finn either for that matter, not a word about the kiss, or their relation. Two new girls who have a romantic vibe with Poe or Finn, but it doesn’t lead anywhere fortunately.

Force ghost-Luke ! Memory-Han ! Leia (RIP) ! Lando (a bit) ! Chewie (still alive)! C3PO and R2 still alive ! Fucking PALPATINE wtf why were you not hinted at earlier ! CGI young-Luke and young-Leia traning in a forest ! Luke X-wing taking flight again ! The Millenium Falcon still up and running ! So many people from the old movies. 

Also Qui-Gon Jinn’s voice. Strangely it conforted me to hear his voice but dammit gimme force ghost-Ben !

What else? Oh yeah Hux betrayed the First Order to get in Kylo’s way and got unmasked and killed. No one ever talked about him again.

Also BEN SOLO IS FREAKING DEAD ! So Ben, you were a betrayed and manipulated kid ? Manipulated by freaking Palpatine and betrayed by your uncle Luke ? You want to do the right now ? Well you will have to die for it! 

No ! Keep him alive, have him earn is redemption by doing more for the good guys, to compensate the harm he has done. Or at least leave him in peace with his lover. 

I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY KILLED OFF -ALL- THE SKYWALKERS ! We like them ! Keep the young and last one alive at least !

Also the whole Palpatine business is so abrupt. That’s a thing for three movies, or two at last, not just the last one.

But I enjoyed it anyway. But my heart is quite broken. And it’s the end of the trilogy and Skywalker bloodline and story and i don’t know what to do with this.

I wished they hadn’t reused the “reformed bad-guy saves someone he loves from the Emperor but dies by doing so” plot point from the Return of the Jedi. We had seen this already, you could have done something knew and less heartbreaking. Vader at done a lot more evil, willingly, not because he was confused and manipulated, he was old, barely living. But Ben ? Ben was ready to start anew on the right path, he was young and seemed hopeful after Rey came back to life. His parents and his uncle tried to save him from the dark side. But when he finally got away from it he dies ? Just dies like that ? I thought I was okay with the idea that his redemption meant his death, but it turns out I’m not, it doesn’t feels right. 

Ben was a main charcater, one in whose redemption I was too much emotionnaly invested about to be okay with him dying like that, Vader style.

[kyluxtrashpit]

K so I said I might write a post about what I wanted from ep 9 and then I ended up doing it. So this is essentially a summary of the movie I would’ve made if someone gave me that ability. It’s not fully fleshed out, but I literally could not stop myself from typing it out once I starting piecing it together lmao

Even though this is my own creation, I still consider this a spoilery post SO WARNING FOR RISE OF SKYWALKER SPOILERS RIGHT HERE

I still think the best thing to do with ep 9 would be to centre it on the FO falling apart instead of ‘oh no daddy palps is back :o’. Truth be told, I’d rewrite TLJ too if I could, but I’m going to try to work within its constraints on this as well as keep some tros stuff intact for the sake of trying to work with it. So here’s the basic plot of what I would’ve liked to see:

Kylo undermining and removing authority from Hux while he focuses on Force stuff. He’s still looking for secrets and holocrons, but there’s no palpatine

Meanwhile the Resistance is working on building up their forces and helping the little people, plus trying to get info to take down the FO

The focus of the Resistance side is them trying to get the strength to face the FO and working together and all that good stuff. Focus more on the small acts of goodness in the galaxy that bring people together and end up with those they help joining the Resistance. That’s where they get their strength

Rey’s story would also be mostly about mastering the Force (and Leia still helps to train her) and the love and family she’s found among the Resistance. She’s still stupidly powerful though. I’d love to make her a Skywalker, but hell, it’d even work if she remained a nobody. TLJ was her crucible; she knows who she is now. She doesn’t need anyone else to tell or write her story for her

Also I really want her to go grey jedi. So maybe she realizes what Luke really meant: it was time for the jedi not truly to end, but to change. To embrace emotion without losing themselves to it. To realize that the only true way to achieve balance is not by staying light in order to defeat the dark, but instead learning to master both and keeping the balance within herself. That way, when the darkness is defeated, it won’t need to rise again: true balance. This would be her growth in the story, to learn how to embrace true balance in the Force

Also Finn’s story is still going to focus on the Stormtroopers (and Jannah can 100% still be there). So he finds Jannah and her team in Act 1, and then in Act 2 they unearth some secrets as to how Stormtroopers are brainwashed. Conditioning can’t be broken out of by will alone; Finn was Force sensitive. But something else happened with Jannah and her company. An idea is born: could they recreate that on a large scale and free them all? That’d be a huge blow to the FO and it would save all those troopers who never had a choice in what to be

Poe’s focus would still be on becoming the leader they need him to be, with lots of fun trio moments. So his wouldn’t actually change that much, but nothing about him being a drug dealer. I’m sure Zori could still be worked in but tbh I didn’t feel she added much to the plot

Rose is there a lot more too and comes along on all their adventures, happy to liberate anyone they can. She’s always been in it for the little people and that’s where she shines

Also Kylo is even more erratic, even more lost. He feels torn apart all over again. He’s not doing well as SL; he thought it would make things clearer, but it didn’t. He’s unstable and feral, focusing on all the wrong things and making bad choices because of it

Near the end of Act 1 of the movie, Hux betrays Kylo in a near deadly fashion, but Kylo manages to escape by the skin of his teeth

The Resistance gets word of a civil war within the FO. It;s Hux’s fleet (the red troopers + newer FO officers) vs Kylo’s fleet (mostly the older imperials who remember Vader + the KOR – you can keep Pryde here too if you want). This is their chance. They can take advantage of the chaos

While Kylo recovers from Hux’s attack, he starts having doubts again. Nothing has felt right since he became SL but what other choice does he have? He can’t go back, can he? He’s not supposed to want to. And even if he did, he’s too far gone to ever be welcomed, even by his own mother. So he continues fighting against Hux, more harried and haunted than ever

This situation degrades quickly. Both sides are getting hits in, but Hux is winning. Worse yet: it’s spilling over and doing collateral damage. Places controlled by the FO are being exploited, even worse atrocities being committed against them in this rapid arms race to superiority

Hell, maybe Hux’s fleet still has those planet-destroying canons like Palps’ fleet cause why not, everyone seems to think SW needs a superweapon in it. Anyway

There’d be more development on the heroes’ side as I detailed above here. Rey helping people and learning to be grey. Finn discovering the secrets of the Stormtrooper program. Poe becoming a leader. Rose comes with them on their journeys. Leia is heard rather than seen for the most part; she’s surviving this time around, but her presence is felt through her messages and dialogue snippets rather than physically being in the scenes. Some of the footage could be used, especially her hug with Rey, but I’d use much less of it

The Resistance knows they have to hurry. Do they have enough people? They have no idea, but they’re gonna try anyway. They have to. And you can still have Lando do basically the same thing; show up, be cool, then go get some more people

I’d like to do more with the KOR too, but tbh I’m not sure how other than just some scenes of them and Kylo doing Ren Stuff (whatever that may be). But there’d definitely be something

Near the end of Act 2, there’s a particularly brutal fight. I’d want Kylo and the KOR on the ground here, doing their shit. It feels kinda cheap to have him almost die again but tros also had 2 death fake outs for Kylo before the actual death so fuck it lmao. He thinks he’s going to win (maybe Hux is even there? Or maybe Phasma is revived? Or even just some fancy trooper akin to FN-2199 or something. Maybe it’s even Force-nullifying tech), but then the last minute he gets his shit wrecked

He’s dying. He reaches out with the Force, violently, affecting everyone. Rey hears it through the shattered bond. Finn even hears it, though faintly. It hits Leia hardest of all

Meanwhile, Kylo sees the ghost of Anakin instead of a vision of Han. Anakin, who knows better than anyone what it is to turn to the dark, but also what it is to turn away from it. The scene would still play out similarly, but not mirror the past scene with Han so much

(Look, I know a lot of people don’t like bendemption, but I think that redemption is always possible as long as it’s written well. And that applies to pretty much any character. TROS just needed more time to develop it, which I am attempting to do here by showing Kylo’s instability at the beginning)

Anakin manages to heal Kylo enough to bring him back from the brink of death, but not fully. I don’t think I want Kylo to toss away his lightsaber, but he still could. Regardless, there’s some sort of symbolic gesture to prove he’s changed his mind

A ship arrives: it’s the Resistance. Finn and Poe are cautious, but Rey doesn’t fear him. She confronts him about this sudden change of heart, but she can feel his sincerity. So she reassures Finn and Poe and they bring him along, though no one is really happy about it. They fix him up

With Kylo’s fleet all but destroyed, Hux is ready to take out the Resistance and everyone who sympathizes. Now perhaps we have a planet the trio had previously visited get destroyed. There’s still an ultimatum from the FO to obey or die. It’s a crackdown. A final act to ensure domination of the galaxy. Hell, you can even still call it the Final Order if you want to

The Resistance now strikes. Lando’s getting more back up, if he can, but they take who they’ve got. Kylo is there and there’s a lot of mistrust (could be played for humour too) but not enough time to get into it. They need to do this or too many will die. If he tries anything, Rey will strike him down and she tells him so. She’s done listening to his attempts to get under her skin

This Kylo is also definitely more Ben (I’m mixed on whether he should just go back to his old name or not so I’m keeping him Kylo for the sake of this summary). There’s guilt, though. A lot of it. You can see it on his face and in what he says. But helping to fix this will be a start. His crimes aren’t forgotten; he wants to make up for them however he can

Also Finnrey happens. They kiss before the fight this time and it’s very cute and romantic

So basically the end fight is Resistance fleet vs FO fleet. Poe is leading the charge. Meanwhile, Finn, Jannah, Rose and company sneak on to try to end FO conditioning. Rey and Kylo also sneak on; they’re going for Hux and the elite troops he uses as guards

Hux is going to have to have Force-nullifying tech of some sort (which I think is extremely underused in the SW universe as a whole btw). But he underestimates what Rey (powerful as fuck) and Kylo (Skywalker) are capable of

I’m not 100% sure how this fight plays out but I think I want Rey and Kylo to take out Hux’s elite troops without being able to use the Force. It’d be a fun struggle to watch and also make the fight much more visceral and difficult for them. But they both know how to fight, so they win

On the other side, Finn, Jannah, and Rose manage to do whatever to free the Stormtroopers from mind control (I’m not sure exactly how this would happen, but it’s star wars, it doesn’t need to make much sense). We get the first stage of a full trooper rebellion. They go after the officers immediately

Outside, Poe is struggling, just like in tros. They might lose this. Even if the landing party wins, there’s just too many of them. Cue Lando bringing a big fleet to help and giving us an epic space battle

Back inside: something exciting happens and it turns into a struggle between Hux’s tech and their combined Force powers. This is how I think it should go:

Kylo gives Rey his Force powers, which knocks him unconscious. Rey now has the power to break through on her own. It shouldn’t be possible. She sends out a concussive blast that knocks Hux back. The ideal here would be Hux being captured and taken in alive to be tried for war crimes, but I know that’s asking too much lmao so

If I can’t have definitively alive Hux: Rey approaches him but the ship makes a buckling noise; her Force powers compromised the structural integrity. Debris falls, obscuring Hux (and probably implying it killed him), and she knows it’s time to run. Kylo also comes to around this moment and follows

(And for real, I’m also okay with Hux dying for sure here, because at least he got to have his day first, but this is fantasy land lmao so I’m just not gonna have it happen as far as that goes)

Finn, Jannah, and Rose lead the stormtroopers onto transports as the ship starts falling apart. Rey and Kylo (and Hux, if I got my way) show up and make it in too. They take off and make it out just as the Finalizer crumples. Everyone lives! (Plus Hux is plausibly still alive even if I can’t have him definitely alive sdkfsdkl)

They call for the fleet to stop; the Stormtroopers on every destroyer are rising up, freed from their shackles. Shot of FO officers tied up and captured as the Stormtroopers, without their helmets, celebrate

A sidenote: I can’t decide whether I want Kylo to have lost his Force powers permanently by giving them to Rey or for him to get them back. I think losing them would be a good act of sacrificial penance, but at the same time, I’m not sure if that’s a thing so lmao. I’m open to possibilities here

End bit would still be a celebration. Rey and Finn and Poe still hug. The Stormtroopers are happy. We can still have that moment with Lando and Jannah; the implication of trying to find where every one of the troopers came from. The FO officers have been imprisoned. Everything is right in the galaxy again

Now there’s one more scene with Kylo: he stands in front of a door, looking pensive, squeezing and unsqueezing his hands into fists. The shot moves to his back and the door opens. You can’t see what’s inside but you hear: “Ben?” followed by a pause, and then a small, broken “Mom.”. He steps inside and starts to fall to his knees. End scene

Now, as a last scene, we could still do Rey having a funeral for Luke on Tatooine and keep the ending shot basically the same except Leia and her saber aren’t there because Leia is alive. Rey could still decide to be a Skywalker if she’s a nobody. The shot of two suns. The End.

[dalekofchaos]

Sequel Trilogy, Wasted Potential and what could’ve been

This post is where I look at what could’ve been done with the characters of the Sequel Trilogy and comparing to what they chose to do. I will be doing this for Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, Kylo, Hux, Phasma, Snoke, Luke, Han and Leia. This will be both TFA and TLJ critical, there is no holding back.

List of ways they could’ve handled Rey in the Sequel Trilogy

Give Rey a different setting. Listen, absolutely no one cared about having another desert planet. So I think if you gave Rey an aquatic planet or an Amazonian planet, I really think it would help improve the story without anyone accusing you of ripping off the original trilogy.

Let Rey have a character arc. Rey starts off as a mix of Han Solo and Jyn Erso. Someone who only cares about her own survival and is consumed by her own trauma but learns to overcome her trauma, start caring for other people and something bigger than herself. That would’ve been the perfect character arc for Rey.

Rey would sell BB-8 for food, then fight to get him back.   It doesn’t work that she would be selfless and was willing to pass up all that food for a droid she just met. So I think it would help if she had sold BB-8 and later after meeting Finn, she learns of the importance of the droid and she feels guilt and fights to get BB-8 back. That I think would’ve improved her arc in TFA

Show that Rey is still learning piloting a starship and have Han teaching Rey how to fly proper. Rey will mention that she flew simulations on Jakku, but realizes flying simulations is different than flying for real. This will give us a nice scene of Han mentoring Rey in flying the Falcon.

When returning to D’Qar, showing Rey going to the infirmary with Finn, while Leia hugs Chewie. Rey’s concern should be to make sure Finn is okay, we didn’t need to see an unearned hug between two characters who didn’t know each other.

Have a meaningful mentor and student relationship with Luke and Rey. Luke reaches out after R2 and seeing so much of himself in Rey. It is more important to have a Rey and Luke strong mentor-apprentice relationship than having Rey have a connection with Kylo Ren. It should be about training Rey and establishing a relationship between Luke and her. It was said their relationship would be the heart of the film, so my suggestion is do just that. Focus on Rey and Luke having an actual relationship with each other and her training. Rey needs to be trained in the force to be a believable character. Even Anakin, Ahsoka, and Luke himself were given training and time to become skilled and powerful. Instead of just copying Yoda and old man Obi’s personality into him, do something we have never seen before in a Jedi Master in the movies: make Luke humorous, lighthearted, make Luke lecture Rey ON the importance of attachments and understanding the darkness just as much is the light. It would also create a parallel to what Snoke is teaching Kylo. Have Luke show Rey how to feel the force. Even show Luke teaching Rey to craft her own Lightsaber. Rey could finally make her Saberstaff with Yellow or Purple Crystal and teach Rey that attachments can lead you to the dark side if you let them, but they won’t lead you to darkness if you control your emotions. 

Reveal that Rey is Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade’s daughter. After Rey falls into the dark side cave, Luke finds her and brings her near the fire and is there to comfort her. Then the revelation happens. Rey says “I’ve never felt so alone.” And we get Luke telling her “the force is strong in my family. My father had it, I have it, my sister has it and my daughter has it” “There is a reason you dreamed of this place.” “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.” And Rey with tears in her eyes. “I waited so long for you and your finally here” they embrace, father and daughter reunited.” Rey then asks about her mother. Luke sadly says “her name was Mara Jade and she loved you very much.” Rey why she was left on Jakku. “Because of your cousin Ben, Kylo Ren.”  Luke tells her that after a decade of training Ben, and fighting to keep the dark side at bay, Ben turned to the dark side because his family kept the secret that Darth Vader was his grandfather. He still wanted to help his nephew and save him from Snoke. One night he went to him to talk to him, Ben saw this as Luke being afraid of his power and Ben was the one to strike first. And then he woke up to see the other Jedi Masters dead. His wife Mara Jade dead and even the younglings dead. Only six other Jedi left with Ben, those who would become the Knights Of Ren. Rey left with Ben because she trusted her cousin and she couldn’t find Luke or Mara.  and Ben left her on Jakku where no one would ever find her because a part of him couldn’t kill his cousin.

Rey and Luke together go to The Supremacy after they both feel Leia and Finn in danger. Rey flies the Falcon, while Luke lifts his old X-Wing and head to the Supremacy to face Snoke. Rey will pose as bait, while Luke sneaks aboard The Supremacy.  Rey is brought before Kylo Ren and Snoke. Snoke taunts that today hope dies and The Resistance dies. But what happens next, Luke enters the throne room. “MASTER SKYWALKER! AT LAST WE MEET” Snoke will echo through his throne room. The Praetorian Guards will attack, but Luke kills them easily with the force. Luke will say he’s come to save his apprentice, his sister and the rebellion. And finally what we’ve been waiting for Luke vs Snoke. Snoke takes out the true Darksaber, while Luke takes out his Green Lightsaber. The master of the light and master of the dark. And we have the rematch between Rey and Kylo. This time Kylo appears stronger. He is dominating Rey in the fight. Kylo will tell her “you should have accepted my offer, scavenger” “Rey will say “I’ll never join you!” Kylo with the famous Solo snark will say “pity” and cuts  Rey’s hand off. Luke enraged will use the force to knock Kylo out. Finally Luke defeats Snoke. Luke will take Rey with him. As the hyperspace ramming happens, the Falcon is there to pick up Rey. Luke leaves on his X-Wing to guide Rey to safety.

Rey awakens and senses Finn nearby on Crait. As Luke is fighting Kylo, Rey knows while injured, she has to lift the rocks in order to save Finn and The Resistance. Finally Rey embraces Finn, reunited again. The movie ends with Rey getting her mechanical hand and joins Luke and Leia. Leia places her hand over her and Luke’s hands and say “we have everything we need”

What They chose to do with Rey instead

Choose to have Rey on a desert planet again....for reasons

Rey is good natured and selfless for no reason or build up whatsoever. My issue with this it makes no sense considering that Rey grew up on Jakku, a dog eat dog world. She had no reason to be selfless on that planet. I do love Rey, but it really makes no sense that a person who was raised on a ruthless and violent planet of thieves and scavengers, abandoned and lived the life of a scavenger who barely makes enough to survive would give up all that food for a droid she just met.

Rey perfectly flies The Falcon despite not flying a ship. In the movie she says she’s never flown before and doesn’t know how she did it. In The novel she says she flew ships at night and flight simulations. That’s all well and good, but if you choose to explain things in the novel, but not in the movie. Then you deliberately chose not to explain how a scavenger who never leaves the planet knows how to fly the Millennium Falcon.

She pulls off maneuvers and mechanical tricks that not even Han Solo could think of and a scene later he is dumbfounded and astonished by Rey

Rey hugs Leia. Leia hugging Rey out of nowhere instead of Chewie just doesn’t work. Why is she hugging and grieving with someone she just met when Chewie is right there?

Daisy doesn’t think Rey should have any flaws and that’s a problem

Rey has a connection and starts to trust Kylo Ren...when only ONE DAY passes since Kylo has tortured her, killed Han Solo, and injured Finn. There’s a difference between being “forgiving” and there’s being blindly gullible. She went from wanting to kill him to believing he’s “our last hope”....for reasons.

Rey’s stupidity in TLJ. Rey’s plan. Rey has some vision of Kylo Ren deciding to help her out and locks herself in a box to fly straight to him, with no escape plan or regard for her own safety. As bad as JJ chose to develop Rey, I will admit that Rey is adaptable. Rey makes plans and strategizes. She has been raised as a scavenger, working hard for every day of survival and fighting for every item in her possession. While Luke and Anakin throw caution to the wind in order to succeed, Rey keeps a level head and fights her way through things. TLJ acts like that version of Rey doesn’t exist.

Rey has no character arc in TLJ.  Rey doesn’t learn anything and I don’t feel like she has a character arc or journey. She starts her journey in TFA and I was excited to learn where her character would go. And TLJ does nothing with Rey.  I do love Rey, but I don’t feel like it truly tests Rey and forces her to grow as a character. Rey is intriguing and we care for her, but her journey feels non existent.  Luke and Anakin had struggles and journeys.  I just don’t feel it from Rey. I am really disappointed with how TLJ handles Rey. Rey doesn’t have any struggles. Rey is all powerful and she is the same character she is from TFA. Everything TFA was building her up was instantly ignored.  How Maz got the Skywalker lightsaber? Never mentioned again. How Rey was drawn to the Skywalker lightsaber and what the force vision was meant to mean? Never addressed. Rey says that she’s classified information, “none of your business��� Then her parents are revealed as junk traitors who sold her for drinking money and died in Jakku. If her parents were just junkers, how did they afford that space ship if they spent the money on booze? Rey herself told BB-8 she was classified information. All that build up for nothing. The force can come from anyone, we all feel it but you build Rey up only to do nothing with her. Whatever TFA was building up for Rey was dropped entirely.  My big issue with how TLJ handles Rey, is she does not learn anything. She was awakened by Kylo’s mind melding and has his powers transferred to her, she doesn’t even earn her powers on her own, it’s all from Kylo. Your big feminist icon has to get her powers from the man who’s been harassing her. How empowering....please kill me. She doesn’t learn anything from Luke and she feels like the same character in The Force Awakens. We see Luke showing Rey to feel the force and the Jedi’s hubris. The third lesson was deleted, but we did not really get to see Luke train her as a Jedi. Rey doesn’t learn anything. Rey even defeats Luke... In the end we see Rey has the sacred Jedi texts, but Yoda pointed out that those texts were holding back the Jedi and doesn’t teaches her what she doesn’t already know. SO in the end, Rey doesn’t learn anything and that’s the problem. And the big problem is we are expected that Rey will learn everything off screen....that’s the problem. You cannot just have a character who can do all these amazing feats, show her not being trained as a Jedi and make her even more powerful in the final movie with no build up whatsoever.

Rey in TROS teaser looks like nothing ever changed. The same type of outfit from The Force Awakens, the same Lightsaber and the same hairstyle. Like nothing ever happened or changed. Like nothing ever changed. God forbid Rey looks like a mix of a Jedi Knight and Resistance Leader, godforbid Rey builds her own lightsaber, especially a Saberstaff. It’s almost as if JJ and Lucasfilm are afraid to develop Rey as a character and let her look different at all....*sighs*

Rey has no development or arc. Rey is not allowed to have flaws or personal struggles or has a real hero’s journey.  Which is disappointing because I truly loved having Star Wars be centered around a female lead and feel like it’s a missed opportunity. It’s not Daisy’s fault, I feel like the blame lies with Disney. I’m not sure if Disney got cold feet with a female protagonist and felt they would get backlash if they made her character naturally flawed but it’s storytelling 101 to have your protagonist faced with problems that aren’t easy to overcome and correlate to said flaws. Instead we got a hero who faces no real consequences, has no real goals, and can defeat everything in her path with abysmal training. Which ultimately makes for an extremely uninteresting hero. No hard training, no real consequences, no real flaws, no struggles or not even an arc and everything is handed to her. It just makes Episode IX predictable and boring. Rey will defeat Kylo again to no one’s surprise. There is just not a reason to care to see what will happen with Rey. I’m more invested to see what happens with Finn, Poe, Rose and Jannah. I just lost any and all investment in Rey after TLJ. Rey just doesn’t feel like a reason to even want to watch Episode IX and Disney just failed Rey as a character.

List of ways they could’ve handled Finn in TLJ

Have Finn lead a Stormtrooper rebellion

Have Finn be fully committed to The Resistance. It is shown through cut material that Finn was in Cobalt Squadron uniform. Have Finn be with Paige, have Paige and Finn have a short friendship(this actually gives Ngo Thanh Van speaking lines), Paige being in awe that Finn, someone who escaped The First Order helped The Resistance destroy Starkiller Base is working with him and she is more than happy to show him the ropes. They are co-pilots of a Y-Wing(those bombers were stupid and we all know it) Finn was able to save Paige from dying in space and instead she dies in his arms while leaving a bloody handprint on his heart, working as a callback to when Slip died in Finn’s arms and left a bloody handprint on his helmet and her last words being “tell my sister I love her. Finn brings the bad news to Rose and gives Rose Paige’s pendant. Rose breaks down and hugs Finn. Both Finn and Rose have a good relationship at this point and there is no pointless hostility. You could even have Finn and Rose together finding the hacker and having their plan succeed and just having DJ betray them as they make it to the escape pod. And Finn and Phasma do have their fight, but keep in the deleted Phasma death scene

Finn and Poe go to Canto Bight in order to find Rose Tico, the Resistance hacker. 

Finn and Rose’s mission is to find the master codebreaker. The Master Codebreaker they are meant to find is none other than Lando Calrissian. Lando is the person Finn and Rose are meant to get help from. They leave with DJ, but Lando was expecting to meet two members from the Resistance, so he leaves Canto Bight and on his way out he gets Leia’s message and mobilizes old friends from the Rebellion(a cameo from Wedge Antilles) and goes to give the Resistance some reinforcements. We then see a little reunion with Lando, Leia and Chewbacca and Lando revealing that he was who Finn and Rose were meant to meet. 

KEEP IN THE FUCKING DELETED FINN AND PHASMA SCENE, GOOD FUCKING GOD.

Cut the battle of Crait entirely. It was a pointless copy and paste of the Battle Of Hoth, only with salt instead!! And Finn knew full well his suicide run would not work. He was familiar with First Order weaponry, so Finn would know full well it would not work. So what I would do instead is when Leia’s signal reaches her allies, we would hear Lando Calrissian. Lando brings support to Crait. If you have to copy and paste something from Empire, then copy the ending. We would see the Resistance strong and our heroes reunited and united against the common goal of burning the First Order to the ground

Change the ending to TFA and they wait till Finn is healed up and both Rey and Finn go to Ach-To. When Rey comes out of the dark side cave, Finn is the one to comfort Rey. Instead of a pointless fight between Rey and Luke. Rey and Luke both sense Leia is in danger, Rey convinces Luke to go to his sister, while Rey and Finn will go to The Supremacy to confront Snoke and Kylo Ren. Finn takes the Jedi texts to the Falcon.  Finn and Rey are captured by Kylo Ren and brings them before Snoke. If you have to have a force bond. Make it between all three of them. Finn and Kylo are obvious foils. Finn was taken from his family against his will into the First Order and realized on his own that murder was wrong. Conversely, Kylo willingly ran from his family into the First Order and consciously uses murder to gain power. As Kylo kills his father, Finn becomes a Resistance hero. Their storylines and development are inversely proportional to each other- when Finn moves toward the light, Kylo falls further toward darkness. Finn is the humanity Kylo rejected when he chose to kill his father.  Kylo is the darkness Finn could have succumbed to but ran away from. So why not have them being connected by the force. Have Kylo taunt Finn and Rey and trying to convince them to join him and turn on Luke, only for them to keep their resolve. You could even have Kylo telling Finn “you could’ve been so much more, yet you betrayed us.” Finn calling Kylo a coward and a monster. With a force connection established between Finn and Kylo, we could have Kylo wondering why Finn would desert The First Order, while Finn wonders why Kylo betrayed his family, the Jedi and joined The First Order, but despite what may have happened, Finn keeps his resolve.  Rey and Finn tell each other that they see Kylo and comfort each other. Maybe even show potential cause Kylo sees them all as abandoned children and together they could bring a new order.  Rey and Finn are asking him to turn and return home, Finn even believes there is hope, “if I could leave The First Order, you can too.” but still, Kylo brings them before Snoke. Snoke commends Kylo for bringing Rey and the traitor before him. Snoke mocks Finn from running from The First Order, but senses he could be strong in the force. “Have you never wondered what the Knights Of Ren are? They were all Stormtroopers Force Sensitive enough to be turned into a new order. Kylo Ren sensed it in you and wanted you to join him, but you left and betrayed us.” “It was weakness that drove you to leave the First Order, not strength. But today I see strength within you that can burn down the Jed!” Snoke asks Finn to take his blaster and execute Rey. Rey is pleading with Finn.  Snoke demands it. "Your compassion for her is now your weakness. Strike her down, join Kylo Ren as a Knight Of Ren and fulfill your destiny- and as we all see it, Finn uses the force to ignite Rey’s lightsaber on Snoke. Together Rey and Finn fights the Praetorian guards. Kylo wants Rey and Finn to join him. Wanting a new order, but Rey and Finn refuses. Rey fights Kylo, but Kylo cuts Rey’s hand off, so Finn fights Kylo. Finn and Kylo are on even footing, but as we see the fight reaching it’s climax, the hyperspace ramming happens. Finn and Rey escape to the Falcon. as Rey is in healing, Finn kisses her on the forehead and covers her up. Finn and Chewie blast away the Tie-Fighters on Crait and destroys the siege cannon. The end scene of both Rey and Finn lifting the rocks and saving The Resistance. Rey and Finn reunite with Poe and Leia. It ends with Leia telling Rey, Finn and Poe saying “we have everything we need.”

What they chose to do with Finn instead

A complete lack of empathy and care for Finn. He is constantly belittled and mocked throughout the movie. In The Force Awakens, Finn fights Kylo Ren. He does well, but is ultimately defeated.  He is slashed in the shoulder and the spine by Kylo Ren and falls into the snow, unconscious. Now if this were in the first 6 movies, Finn would be dead or would be paralyzed. But because it’s a Disney movie, Finn heals up. Rey continues the fight and slashes Ren across the face, leaving him with a gash. The characters all escape, but Finn has to be carried to a medical station, unconscious until TLJ. Kylo Ren seems fine, ultimately jumping in a TIE fighter to try and kill his mom before getting patched up further.  Finn, again, has to wake up before doing anything. Here’s the difference between Finn and Kylo’s injuries.  Finn awakens in a medical bed wearing a bacta suit.  His first instinct is to call out for Rey. As he jolts up, he slams his head against the medical container.  He slams against it again. Regaining awareness, he opens up the medical container to find himself alone in a cargo room.  He falls out of the bed, spraying medical fluids all over the place.  He trudges down the hallway until Poe and BB-8 find him. His injuries are never mentioned, shown, or even referenced again.  Kylo, on the other hand, is asked by Snoke how his wound is, to which he responds “it’s nothing.”  He then takes that ridiculous thing off, complete with a close-up of a sad kylo Ren face, with his sutures  framed to draw attention to them. This happens again in the elevator.  Then we get a scene of him getting patched up soberly by a medical droid.  Then we get a shirtless scene as a final showcase of his other two scars.  Throughout the film, Kylo’s scars are present and framed as a constant reminder that he went through pain.  Finn’s injuries are used as a joke once and promptly forgotten, and let’s not pretend that these injuries are  one-to-one aside from how they’re framed.  Remember Finn received injuries trying to protect Rey, while Kylo received injuries trying to murder Rey. Finn received a deep wound across his spine, which can often be fatal in the real world.  Kylo received a gash across his face.  Finn’s injuries were worse and nobly gained. Kylo’s injuries were comparatively tame and well deserved.  Yet the movie uses Finn’s pain as a joke, and Kylo’s pain as a humanizing factor.

Repeats the same character arc he already learned in The Force Awakens and is made a side character. Finn is changed from one of the main protagonists to being a side character in his own trilogy.  Finn’s character arc from The Force Awakens was dropped completely in The Last Jedi. He does want Rey to be safe, but Finn just wants to run away, despite the fact that he learned to be courageous, face his fears and stay and fight at the end of TFA. He already saw that The Resistance is worth fighting for, that The First Order needs to be fought and he stood up to his fears by facing Kylo Ren. It didn’t need a bad retelling.  

Finn is reduced to Rose’s sidekick and is made into a racist slapstick caricature. The first real problem for Finn. He is reduced to a slapstick joke in his very first scene. Finn awakens from his coma, slams his face and it is revealed that he isn’t even on the medical ship or even in the medbay on the Raddus…he is in the cargo hold and is made to be a joke. This is the Co-protagonist of the trilogy, and he’s reintroduced as a slapstick joke. Then once again he wants to runaway. I am getting a real racist vibe that Rian Johnson sees Finn as the cowardly black man troupe. That’s just downright disgusting.

The dynamic between Finn and Rose. I wanted to like Rose…Bad writing and direction prevents that. Finn wants to escape to save Rey and because The Supremacy is tracking them through hyperspace, but Rose sees this as desertion….Desertion? You taze people for desertion? How exactly am I supposed to root for either side again? This is probably the same only less lethal treatment one could expect from The First Order. And what if The Raddus took critical damage? Are you trying to tell me Rose would taze anyone going to the escape pods? I thought she was supposed to be a mechanic, not someone who prevents escape. Finn is then tazed by Rose, which is understandable, she thought he was running away and she was in mourning. He also was objectively posing absolutely no threat to her, wasn’t running away, and was even trying to explain himself. Additionally, just the threat of the taser seemed to have been enough to stop him from leaving. But Rose attacked him anyways. The difference between Rey and Rose attacking Finn is Rey subdued Finn just enough to stop and interrogate him, Rose went completely overboard by paralyzing him and knocking him unconscious. It was completely unnecessary and gratuitous and is supposed to be played for laughs. Rey and Finn have a real friendship and partnership from the last movie. Rose, on the other hand, spends the rest of the movie belittling Finn and talking down to him. The book also says that she thought about using violence against him more than once after the tasing (for annoying her) and even pushed him. This displays a really problematic pattern of violence and disrespect towards Finn so yeah,  multiple uses of violence and expressed desire to inflict violence on him as being abusive. I would argue that she is undeniably verbally abusive with Finn. In the movie and in the book (more so in the book) she often belittles him by calling him names and using other put downs. It seems she wants to make him feel bad about himself and bring him down, which is abusive. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what her intent is, even if she doesn’t “mean to be mean” it still counts as verbal abuse. So, in summary, her repeated threats and use of violence against Finn and her continual use of insults and put downs causes me to come to the conclusion that she is abusive to Finn.

Canto Bight. Rian Johnson cared more for visuals and CGI than telling a coherent story. It’s complete filler. It’s all the pointless CGI in the Special Editions of the original trilogy, only worse. Was a big boobed alien worth more than Finn and Rose completing their mission to save the Resistance?

Canto Bight continues the racist stereotype that black people would be in awe of a casino and be completely oblivious to what happens behind the scenes. The idea that Finn, someone who was raised in the violent and oppressive environment of the first order and who risked his life to rebel against it, would struggle to understand why a casino full of rich unaffected assholes wasn’t the greatest thing on earth is impossibly bad writing and demonstrates just how little of a shit rian gave about his character

Finn and Rose cared more about space horses than saving slave children. Who cares that these children are gonna be left at the mercy of their violent slave owners and face merciless abuse, because after all, it was all worth it to free the animals!!! Look at us, we’re so progressive!!!….Please kill me

The plan to disable the Hyperspace tracking is made to pointlessly fail. Finn, Rose and DJ are close to fulfilling their objective and fail for no reason whatsoever. Okay first of all, Finn and Rose are captured because neither Finn or Rose bothered to get to a legal parking spot. So instead of going to find the ACTUAL Master Codebreaker(which told a better story) we are instead shown to DJ. This is a character who is made to be untrustworthy from the beginning and even sounds like a snake. So obviously he betrays them. And instead of letting them disable their tracker and just being caught when heading towards the escape pods, their plan is made to fail, making everything they’ve been trying to do ultimately pointless. It effect the plot even in the slightest. You could remove it and nothing would change in the slightest. Nothing mattered. Apparently the people of color needed their white hero savior to show them up…..*sighs*

The only time Finn is allowed to be presented as a protagonist when finally confronting Phasma and facing his abuser. My only problem is they cut out Phasma’s better death scene. Finn reveals Phasma shut down the shields for Starkiller Base, and that gets the Stormtroopers to turn on Phasma. This is what I would hope starts a Stormtrooper Rebellion. Finn’s defection was withheld information by Hux and Phasma in fear of a full on rebellion. Humanizing Stormtroopers and having one become a hero is kind of genius, but the way they did it in Episode 7 made it seem like Finn was the ONLY good Stormtrooper, which has to be an impossibility. If one Stormtrooper can suddenly switch sides, what’s to say that others couldn’t? And since Episode IX will most likely see the fall of the First Order, I personally think that Finn should convince all (or most of) the Stormtroopers to turn against Kylo and Hux, leading to a cool final scene where the First Order is ultimately destroyed by their own henchmen, children who were abducted and indoctrinated take back their narrative. That would be cooler and more unique, I think, than another Resistance vs. First Order space shootout, or Rey and her possible Jedi apprentice army taking them down.

Finn’s suicide run. Finn was the best Stormtrooper and knows about The First Order’s weapons, he should know full well that speeder would be destroyed trying to destroy the mini death star. Finn’s attempted sacrifice was pointless as he knew that it wouldn’t work.

Rose stopping Finn. “that’s how we win, not by fighting what we hate, by saving what we love.” That makes no sense and ignores the entire narrative of Star Wars and heroism of the saga. Paige, her sister sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. Holdo sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. The Rogue One crew sacrificed themselves. Kanan Jarrus sacrificed himself to save what he loved. Finn’s entire arc in the movie was learning not to just think about running away with Rey and fight for a greater cause and when the time comes for Finn to prove that he’s grown as a character, he can’t? What was the point of Finn’s arc in the movie? And let’s talk about Poe. Shouldn’t Poe be sacrificing himself? Poe has spent the entire film watching others die and give their lives and he’s never backed down, so shouldn’t Poe be in Finn’s place? And if Rose stopped Finn who would save The Resistance? We saw after Rose stopped Finn, the bunker was blown up by the battering ram. Absolutely NO ONE knew that Luke was going to make his surprise entrance and save everyone. For all we knew, The First Order would’ve moved into the bunker and killed everyone and The Resistance.

Finn was done dirty throughout the entire movie, the only time I felt any sense of joy for his character was when he reunited with Rey. I just hope TROS treats Finn better and he isn’t Rian’d again. Finn deserved better than what he got in TLJ

List of ways they could’ve handled Poe in the sequel trilogy

Poe is on Jakku with Finn. I was not happy that Poe who was heavily advertised as one of the leads of this new trilogy and is sidelined for the majority of the movie. So what I’d have happen is Poe saves Finn and together they go to Nema outpost. Poe gives Finn his jacket because his Stormtrooper armor would draw too much attention and after he sees Finn in the jacket, Poe will tell him “you should keep it, it looks good on you” Poe will tell Finn, “if anyone asks, you’re with the Resistance.” Eventually both Poe and Finn would meet up with BB-8 and Rey. Eventually the three meet up and run for safety as The First Order attacks. Rey and Finn would blast the Tie-FIghters out of the sky as Poe flies the Falcon. The trio introduces themselves and starts to show a friendship for each other. Poe will tell Rey they need to get BB-8 to the Resistance base, it is to locate Luke Skywalker. Rey will have her “Luke Skywalker? I thought he was a myth.” Han will arrive and Poe asks for help. Han will tell the story of Luke’s disappearance and takes them to Takodana. We get to see the friendship between Poe, Finn and Rey. Poe tells Finn and Rey about his parents and how much Poe idolizes Shara and Kes. Giving the audience the knowledge that his parents are war heroes in the Rebellion and life long friends of the original trilogy characters. Both Finn and Rey feel alone but is interested in knowing about Poe’s life. Poe tells Finn he has to tell Rey, he appreciates what he has done for him but it’s best Rey find out from him and not The First Order. Maz finds out about Finn, when Poe is confronted about the lie, Poe did it to protect Finn and after that Finn and Rey have their moment like they did in the movie.  When The First Order’s attack on Takodana happens, Poe signals Black Squadron to help. The big change is having Poe go to Starkiller Base with Finn and Han. Everyone assumes that Poe will destroy Starkiller Base, but it’s his team that will do it, mainly Jessika Pava. He trusts his team to destroy Starkiller Base while Poe helps destroy it from the inside. Also Finn convinced Poe to help and because Rey is Poe’s friend. I just really think it would’ve been better to have Rey, Finn and Poe together as the Sequel trio and to have the three to have a good dynamic.  

The Resistance mobilizes with what’s left of The New Republic and Poe leads the fleet against The First Order

Poe convinces Leia that destroying the Dreadnought is a good thing.

Poe is commended and praised for saving The Resistance, but Poe feels regret for the lives that were lost. Leia sympathizes that she has delt with this guilt throughout her entire life. “Does it ever get easier General? “No Poe, it doesn’t, but we must endure.”

Poe does get in his X-Wing and gets in a dogfight with Kylo Ren in The Silencer. Poe is the one thing from keeping Kylo from destroying The Resistance fleet. As Kylo hesitates on shooting Leia, before his wingmen can fire on the bridge, Poe shoots the wingmen out of the sky and sends The Silencer flying. 

Goes on the mission with Finn to find the Resistance hacker Rose Tico

Actually letting Holdo tell Poe the plan 

Actually acknowledging that Poe saved The Resistance against The Dreadnought and acknowledge that he destroyed Starkiller Base. Not condemn him for already being a Resistance Leader who cared about saving lives

What they chose to do with Poe instead

The lack of tension between Kylo Ren and Poe. Poe Dameron just witnessed The First Order’s arrival, the death of his friend Lor San Tekka and the massacre of a village. What happens next is a complete change in tone and lack of tension. Poe decides to tell a joke. JJ decides it’s best to throw in a joke, it just undermined the seriousness of the slaughter Kylo Ren has caused and killed one of Poe and Leia’s friends. Poe should not be cracking jokes. Poe should be brave, firm and defiant to Kylo Ren. Telling a joke is the absolute last thing Poe should be doing after witnessing the murder of a friend.

Keep Poe separate from Finn and Rey for the first half of the movie

Pointlessly change Poe’s character in TLJ. Poe started out as the most levelheaded, compassionate and trusted soldier in the entire Resistance, so trusted that he was given the mission to find the map to Luke Skywalker and leading the strike force to destroy Starkiller Base, why is it that he is suddenly a hot headed fly boy who ignores orders and is getting no respect from his commanding officers? The character change for Poe Dameron was unnecessary and so out of place. Poe before TLJ would not be okay with sacrificing lives to stop one ship that can be easily replaced.  In all source material and the last movie he refused to let anyone die. Not even Finn, a man who was an enemy an hour before they met formally, even though Poe shot his squad mate before during the fight on Jakku. Everything about Poe’s portrayal in TLJ is so unnecessary.  Poe Dameron went from a caring and experienced rebel pilot to an arrogant, hotheaded latino stereotype in the span of like…a day. That’s not subversive writing, that’s racist and bad writing.

Is condemned and demoted for saving The Resistance and doing something that Han and Luke did to destroy the Death Star

Kept Poe in the dark about something that could’ve been solved with basic communication skills. Holdo’s absolute refusal to tell Poe or literally ANYONE in the Resistance the plan is baffling. Poe is a respected and highly trained, top ranking rebel fighter, who had been covert enough to execute a highly delicate and secret mission to retrieve the Map to Luke Skywalker, responsible for destroying Starkiller base and the biggest asset to the resistance and biggest threat to the first order, anything about the plan? He’s literally a war hero and is more than likely only second to Leia. Holdo didn’t just leave Poe in the dark, she left the entire Resistance in the dark. When Holdo meets Poe, she then proceeds to dress Poe down just for asking for his orders and the plan. Keep in mind that Poe isn’t just some grunt. Even with his demotion, he’s your second or third in command, and he has the respect of the entire crew, as evidenced by his later leading a majority of the crew in mutiny against Holdo. Holdo brought her personal crew from her ship and worked with them while snubbing the main rebel crew entirely. That’s a bit of a dick move, protocol or not. One of the biggest issues was not that Holdo wasn’t telling Poe the plan, but it was acting as if there was really no other plan. She was literally taking personal jabs at him when he was trying to find something out. If she said something like. “While it seems bad , we are working on a plan right now. We are not just going to stay here and have everyone die. Just have your pilots ready to go at a moment’s notice” But she didn’t even give him that. Remember up until Poe taking over, they were watching ship after ship being picked off slowly. The crew was given nothing and was told just to trust her. Blind faith in leadership is a horrible message. If that is the take away then why not just do what the First Order or the Empire wants. I mean seemingly they are in charge of stuff now. And we should follow orders blindly. Moreover they were down to < 1000 people, and from the POV of everyone else she was just watching people die. Rank be damned. Anyone who cared about their crew would do something. He was a Commander and the flight commander there is NO way he should have been left out in the cold. Then they have the nerve to touch his unconscious body and say “I like him” fuck you. How Poe was treated in TLJ was absolutely atrocious and a complete insult to Oscar Isaac, Poe deserves better.

List of ways they could’ve handled Rose in the sequel trilogy

Make Rose the Hacker. It’s not unrealistic for the Resistance to have one. She could still think her skills aren’t useful considering most Wars have been won by soldiers and Jedi, not hackers. Paige is a Resistance fighter and her sister is a hacker. The Tico sisters fight the war in their own way. Finn and Poe go to Canto Bight to get Rose. Rose is on the planet to make the war profiteers hurt, and Finn and Poe must convince her. Her character arc could be learning that the war is much bigger than just her and that her sister, and the galaxy need her.

Finn and Rose’s mission is to find the master codebreaker. The Master Codebreaker they are meant to find is none other than Lando Calrissian. Lando is the person Finn and Rose are meant to get help from. They leave with DJ, but Lando was expecting to meet two members from the Resistance, so he leaves Canto Bight and on his way out he gets Leia’s message and mobilizes old friends from the Rebellion(a cameo from Wedge Antilles) and goes to give the Resistance some reinforcements. So instead of a hopelessly outgunned Resistance at Death’s door, when all hope seems lost, Lando brings the cavalry and shows The Rebellion is alive and hope still lives. We then see a little reunion with Lando, Leia and Chewbacca and Lando revealing that he was who Finn and Rose were meant to meet. 

Rose is a highly valued Resistance Mechanic fighting for The Resistance her own way as Paige was a bomber

Actually letting Paige live and actually giving us the sisterly bond between Rose and Paige and you know, GIVING  Ngô Thanh Vân SPEAKING LINES

Letting Rose empathize with Finn’s trauma and acknowledge that they are both cut from the same cloth. Rose and Paige lost their family and home and Finn lost his family and home, they have something in common and a reason to fight for The Resistance

Have Finn tell Rose about Rey and Rose being in awe of the Jedi and hopes to someday meet her and understands why Finn loves her

Letting Finn and Rose’s plan to disable the tracker succeed and only be captured upon reaching the escape pods.

What they chose to do with Rose instead

Poorly written. I wanted to like Rose…Bad writing and direction prevents that. The Supremacy is tracking them through hyperspace, but Rose sees this as desertion….Desertion? You taze people for desertion? How exactly am I supposed to root for either side again? This is probably the same only less lethal treatment one could expect from The First Order. And what if The Raddus took critical damage? Are you trying to tell me Rose would taze anyone going to the escape pods? I thought she was supposed to be a mechanic, not someone who prevents escape. Finn is then tazed by Rose, which is understandable, she thought he was running away and she was in mourning. He also was objectively posing absolutely no threat to her, wasn’t running away, and was even trying to explain himself. Additionally, just the threat of the taser seemed to have been enough to stop him from leaving. But Rose attacked him anyways. The difference between Rey and Rose attacking Finn is Rey subdued Finn just enough to stop and interrogate him, Rose went completely overboard by paralyzing him and knocking him unconscious. It was completely unnecessary and gratuitous and is supposed to be played for laughs. Rey and Finn have a real friendship and partnership from the last movie. Rose, on the other hand, spends the rest of the movie belittling Finn and talking down to him. The book also says that she thought about using violence against him more than once after the tasing (for annoying her) and even pushed him. This displays a really problematic pattern of violence and disrespect towards Finn so yeah,  multiple uses of violence and expressed desire to inflict violence on him as being abusive. I would argue that she is undeniably verbally abusive with Finn. In the movie and in the book (more so in the book) she often belittles him by calling him names and using other put downs. It seems she wants to make him feel bad about himself and bring him down, which is abusive. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what her intent is, even if she doesn’t “mean to be mean” it still counts as verbal abuse. So, in summary, her repeated threats and use of violence against Finn and her continual use of insults and put downs causes me to come to the conclusion that she is abusive to Finn. And I am supposed to root for them to be in a relationship?

Cared more about space horses than saving slave children. Who cares that these children are gonna be left at the mercy of their violent slave owners and face merciless abuse, because after all, it was all worth it to free the animals!!! Look at us, we’re so progressive!!!….Please kill me

The plan to disable the Hyperspace tracking is made to pointlessly fail. Finn, Rose and DJ are close to fulfilling their objective and fail for no reason whatsoever. Okay first of all, Finn and Rose are captured because neither Finn or Rose bothered to get to a parking spot. So instead of going to find the ACTUAL Master Codebreaker(which told a better story) we are instead shown to DJ. This is a character who is made to be untrustworthy from the beginning and even sounds like a snake. So obviously he betrays them. And instead of letting them disable their tracker and just being caught when heading towards the escape pods, their plan is made to fail, making everything they’ve been trying to do ultimately pointless. It effect the plot even in the slightest. You could remove it and nothing would change in the slightest. Nothing mattered. Apparently the people of color needed their white hero savior to show them up…..*sighs*

Rose stopping Finn. “that’s how we win, not by fighting what we hate, by saving what we love.” That makes no sense and ignores the entire narrative of Star Wars and heroism of the saga. Paige, her sister sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. Holdo sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. The Rogue One crew sacrificed themselves. Kanan Jarrus sacrificed himself to save what he loved. Finn’s entire arc in the movie was learning not to just think about running away with Rey and fight for a greater cause and when the time comes for Finn to prove that he’s grown as a character, he can’t? What was the point of Finn’s arc in the movie? And let’s talk about Poe. Shouldn’t Poe be sacrificing himself? Poe has spent the entire film watching others die and give their lives and he’s never backed down, so shouldn’t Poe be in Finn’s place? And if Rose stopped Finn who would save The Resistance? We saw after Rose stopped Finn, the bunker was blown up by the battering ram. Absolutely NO ONE knew that Luke was going to make his surprise entrance and save everyone. For all we knew, The First Order would’ve moved into the bunker and killed everyone and The Resistance.

in TLJ novel she is made bitter and jealous of Rey when Rey is trying to save them....great, we are actually putting the only two main female characters of the sequel trilogy against each other because Jason Fry and Rian Johnson are misogynists and complete and utter fucking morons

Rose Tico could’ve been a great character, but because she was in the hands of Rian Johnson, she had no chance of succeeding. I can only hope she is handled better and by someone competent. Rose Tico and Kelly Marie Tran deserved better 

List of ways they could’ve handled Kylo Ren in the sequel trilogy

Make Kylo handle the Lor San Tekka situation better. The man who has or had the map to Skywalker is right there. Show Kylo’s villainy and ruthlessness by forcing  Lor San Tekka to comply. Order the village massacre right there and force Lor San Tekka to watch until he tells you what you want or just use the force probe right then and there, Poe’s interference causes Kylo to lose focus and causes Kylo to lobotomize Lor San Tekka which brings us to Kylo getting Poe. It would show how far in the dark side Kylo Ren is and what he will do to get what he wants 

Instead of the tantrums, have Kylo Ren kill FO officers right then and there with his Lightsaber, it shows that he has no regard for human life and his only focus is to fulfill his mission.

Keep the mask on until Kylo faces Han Solo. 

Reveal that Ben Solo fell to the dark side and became Kylo Ren because his family did not tell him the truth that Darth Vader was his grandfather. Leia chose to hid the fact that Darth Vader was his grandfather and did not tell him that Vader redeemed himself. The New Republic publicly spread the news that Darth Vader was Leia’s true father, so Ben could have seen that at Luke’s Jedi Temple. 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….” this can be seen as a darker mirror of Luke and Obi-Wan’s relationship. Luke did feel a little betrayed by Obi-Wan and Yoda, but did not let the truth consume him. Ben Solo would let this consume him. He feels betrayed by his family and those feelings of resentment lead Snoke to Ben Solo. He promises a place where he would never be lied to again and valued and where he can learn more of his grandfather. So Ben betrays his family, kills the Jedi and becomes Kylo Ren 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 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.

Have Kylo Ren be sent to Darth Vader’s castle on Mustafar to complete his training. Allowing the dark side energies within Vader’s castle and what remains of Vader to strengthen the dark side within him to snuff out the light. We would later see Snoke teaching him the flaws of the Jedi and Sith and why they must destroy the Jedi and Sith. Their goal isn’t to do over Palpatine and Vader. Their goal is to end both orders and to serve the dark side to let it and The First Order reign supreme. Snoke teaching him the ways of the dark side, using torture and force lightning to draw Kylo’s rage to bring out his full potential in the dark side of the force. We needed to see Sith training. We never once got to see it, so we needed to see it with Snoke and Kylo Ren. And Snoke gives his apprentice one final test. Killing his mother General Leia Organa and drawing out Luke Skywalker.

Have The Supremacy board The Raddus and Kylo leads an attack to kill everyone aboard. Leia offers herself to be taken hostage, Kylo Ren takes his mother as hostage while The Resistance is spared.

Actually give us scenes of Kylo and Leia instead of force bond scenes with Kylo and Rey. It bothers me that there is not a single scene with Kylo Ren and Leia. No scene with mother and son and because Carrie is no longer with us, we will never get to see Carrie and Adam act together. So we desperately need to see Kylo Ren interacting with Leia aboard The Supremacy. Unlike a force connection with Rey, this provides an endless amount of interesting scenes and dialogue between two characters who have no screen time relationship whatsoever but are probably the closest people in the movie. Plus Star Wars has had no mother and son relationship since Anakin and Shmi Skywalker. We could have Kylo raging at his mother for leaving him and abandoning him, and  Leia breaking down about Han and Kylo vowing to destroy everything that his family has built. Kylo will rip off his mask to show his scar and the dark side corruption. “LOOK AT MY FACE MOTHER, IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED TO SEE? AS I TOLD HAN SOLO, YOUR SON IS GONE, HE WAS WEAK AND FOOLISH!” With his eyes pitch Sith Yellow, a single tear leaves his eye and Leia wipes it. Even in his darkest days, Leia is there for her son, as a mother should be. Leia will tell her son  "Your father loved you to the very end, he never stopped searching or believing in you he was finally there for you in the end. We were so caught up with our work we couldn’t be with you as much as we would have wanted, as much as you needed. And sending you away with your uncle, when you needed us the most, was the biggest mistake of our lives. I’m sorry.” Kylo will scream and lash out at equipment after failing to go through with it.

Kylo fighting Rey while Luke fights Snoke. Kylo gets the upperhand and cuts Rey’s hand off

An actual Lightsaber duel between Luke and Kylo Ren. Luke has his green lightsaber. Their blades clash. Their dialogue remains the same, but Luke is there. Luke is toying with Kylo, similar to how Vader toyed with him on Bespin.  When Kylo makes his dramatic slut ™ lunge at Luke, but Luke dodges and cuts Kylo’s hand off. And finally Luke gives his “see you around kid” but Luke does not die

Cut the battle of Crait entirely. After Kylo Ren awakens. Kylo will order Hux to pullback their fleet. They needed to regroup on Mustafar with the other Knights of Ren. General Hux explodes in rage, stating that he does not take orders from the supreme leader’s dog. Hux then feels his throat closing and grabs his neck. The Imperial March plays as Kylo Ren declares himself supreme leader of the First Order. Hux barely manages to take out his blaster and shoots Ren in order to free himself. Hux threatens Kylo that if he were to die, then Kylo will never make it off of the ship alive. They will either work together or both die. Kylo releases the general and says from here on out the First Order will focus on their true mission. Kylo declares Hux as the Grand Marshal of the First Order. Hux orders his fleet to pull back, and says that Kylo better pray the force isn’t leading him astray. The Grand Marshal then leaves. The new Supreme Leader casts one last look at the planet, then turns away. Picking up half of the destroyed lightsaber that had belonged to his grandfather.

What they chose to do with Kylo instead

Stupidly kill Lor San Tekka when he could’ve forced him to comply or take the information out of his head

Kylo Ren knows the map is on Jakku. He chooses to let the Stormtroopers get the droid when he does not have faith in them.

How am I supposed to feel that a villain is a threat when he is throwing tantrums and destroying expensive equipment? Vader force choked Imperial Officers who failed him. Rather than do that, Kylo lashes out and destroys equipment on the ship. I’m honestly surprised Kylo has not bankrupted the First Order by now.

Kylo keeps taking his mask off. This is not an insult to Adam Driver, he is a handsome man. But it just cheapens the reveal if he shows it to Rey. It would mean a whole lot more if Kylo was masked throughout the entire movie and only takes his mask off to Han Solo. We would see through Han’s eyes, a father’s eyes that his son has been twisted into something he doesn’t recognize, but still tries to reach out to his son. I honestly feel like Kylo taking his mask off earlier cheapens the reveal. I know unmasking is supposed to showcase that he turned to the dark side at a young age....but Adam Driver is in his 30��s.

No training between Kylo Ren and Snoke. Snoke does not train Kylo. Snoke said that he would complete Kylo’s training when he told Hux to bring Kylo Ren to him at the end of TFA. Yes, he did fail him and he sensed his father in him, but I really thought we’d see Snoke sending Kylo to Vader’s castle on Mustafar to allow the dark side energies in the castle and what remains of Vader to strengthen the dark side within him to snuff out the light. Killing Han broke his spirit, but he could use the castle to complete Kylo Ren’s training. Then we would see Snoke personally train Kylo himself. Snoke begins by telling Kylo the Sith code ” Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.” teaching him the ways of the dark side, using torture and force lightning to draw Kylo’s rage to bring out his full potential in the dark side of the force. We needed to see Sith training. We never once got to see it, so we needed to see it with Snoke and Kylo Ren. 

That pointless and laughable shirtless scene. 

The laughable and terrible Throne Room fight scene. There is no tension in the scene and it is pointless. Kylo Ren and Rey are fighting a faceless a group of guards that we know absolutely nothing about and have literally no purpose in the entire story except for this one fight. We know neither of the characters are going to die because these are just faceless red shirts and there is still like 30 to 40 minutes left of the movie. There are times where you can tell that some of the guards are just waiting their turn to fight and in one shot the editor literally digitally removed a knife from one of the guard’s hands because it would make no sense why he didn’t just stab Rey. There are multiple times where Rey, Kylo and the guards are just doing motions and actions because they look cool but serve no purpose but to look cool. Kylo stabbing the ground? Pointless. Rey twirling her rave stick around while someone falls behind her, pointless. Another annoying thing is that both of the characters are acting like they don’t have monumentally strong force powers. Hell, both of them get into a force tug of war right after the fight. Kylo can freeze people in place and stop blaster fire in mid air. Not even  once do we see them displaying their powers is what cheapens the fight. Kylo Ren is powerful enough to freeze a blaster and a person in place and Rey herself unlocked Kylo’s powers, so the two of them could have easily ended the fight sooner than it was dragged out. Kylo is powerful in the force but he SERIOUSLY could not stop a Praetorian Guard choke holding him and Rey struggled with a guard? Rey and Kylo were stronger in TFA and are just made weaker in the duel with the Praetorian Guards. Kylo could have frozen half of the guards and Rey could have mind tricked the other half into killing the frozen guards and Kylo and Rey could have finished them. They are masters of light and darkness, but they are made weaker.

A force connection between Kylo Ren and Rey. None of these characters have a reason to trust one another. Kylo should be furious. He has been humiliated and defeated by this random Scavenger from Jakku, especially after being berated and humiliated by Snoke about said defeat. Kylo has done nothing but hurt Rey. It’s obvious Kylo has been manipulating Rey all movie, but it’s just so poorly executed. If anyone honestly believed Kylo about calling Rey’s parents filthy junk traders, they are gullible. Kylo was not being sincere or truthful about calling Rey’s parents nobodies. He’s attacking her biggest insecurity, her greatest fear, that her parents were nobodies. “They were filthy junk traders who died on Jakku” we see visibly in TFA that her parents were flying away from Jakku. And if anyone actually find Kylo’s “You’re nobody, but not to me” romantic, I honestly hope you never find yourself in a relationship with someone who would say something like that. That is text book abuse 101. That is a clear example of psychological manipulation. He’s attacking her biggest insecurity, her greatest fear, that she’s alone in the universe, and using the classic abuser’s tactic of “no one else but me loves you, so you should be with me. Aren’t you grateful?” He’s trying to cut her off from the people who love her, who made her feel worthwhile, and who helped to give her purpose in life, by saying they don’t care about the “real her.” But he apparently “sees” the real her and knows who she is and that doesn’t matter to him. That is STRAIGHT out of the How to Be an Abusive Asshole Handbook! It is very clear that he is obsessed with her, but he is also not worthy of her because he’s using such dirty means to drag her down to his level of self-deprecation and self-loathing. Thankfully, our girl Rey is tougher and smarter than that and reunited with the people who DO love her and think she is everything, regardless of her roots.  

The worst offense about what they did with Kylo Ren is how horribly and lazily written his actual reason or lack there of for choosing the dark side. Okay by all canon sources, the reason Ben Solo turned to the dark side is he turned to the dark side, killed The Jedi, betrayed his family and joined The First Order because his family was trying to build a better galaxy for him…… Because Han and Leia chose to put their life into the rebellion and not enough time into him, that’s why he fell. “My loving parents who doted on me and gave me the best in life also wanted to help other people and rebuild a wartorn galaxy. It makes me so mad just thinking of it!” And Rian Johnson in his “sUbVeRt ExPeCTaTiOnS” edgelord philosophy decided it would be best if Luke Skywalker, a man who thought Darth Vader, the most evil man in the galaxy who has 20 years of war crimes in his life, believed the good man he used to be was alive, was willing to die for his father and was able to save his father, yet somehow Johnson thought it would be better to make Luke Skywalker, the most hopeful character to try and kill his nephew in his sleep instead of ACTUALLY TALKING TO HIM LIKE LUKE SKYWALKER WOULD ACTUALLY DO. Luke, Han and Leia are not responsible for Kylo Ren’s actions and their characters did not need to be broken down for his development, or lack there of. The lesson apparently is spend more time with your child instead of building a better world for him otherwise he’ll shoot up a school, join a fascist organization and blame his every action on his family and constantly harass and gaslight the one girl who peaks his interest.  

Kylo Ren is a terrible villain. When written well, Kylo Ren is a well-rounded antagonist that broke the clichés of most of modern villains. Kylo Ren was a complex and layered character who wasn’t glorified or idealized for his morally wrong actions and chose to embrace his darker side than to chose redemption. He is the Skywalker who chose to burn down everything his family built. However the problem is Kylo merely an illusion of depth, just like the rest of this trilogy. This becomes evident when you put him up against other, better villains. When compared to great villains like Loki, Darth Vader and Eric Killmonger, it just feels like Kylo is a terrible and bland villain. We understand what launched these characters into their villainy, and it builds sympathy for their situation. Over the course of the films, we learn their plan, what they believe in, and see how they carry out their vision. No such thing has happened for Kylo; he’s largely inconsistent and really we don’t know why he or the First Order are attacking the protagonists other than “Hope” or something. Even when compared to Anakin, he’s far less of a character, regardless of how you feel about his dialogue or acting. Anakin had a legitimately crappy childhood, and was told to let go of the people he loved. He does bad things, but it’s clear he doesn’t want to. Especially in RotS he tries his absolute hardest to do the right thing, but when faced with losing Padme, he changed his mind at the last minute. He shows true conflict in his actions, whereas with Kylo Ren, we have to be told that he was sad after killing Han Solo. With TLJ there is more damage done. Kylo has been so “moody” it’s difficult to take him seriously. When Snoke died, it made me feel like there was no longer an antagonist. TLJ castrated Hux, the FO is incompetent, and Kylo is a moody teenager. There’s no serious tension left. Kylo is just a whiny psychopath who has no reason to be evil, but decides to be evil anyway, but we’re supposed to believe that he’s “conflicted” about his psychotic actions because he’s teary eyed every time he slaughters innocent people, and loses his temper like a child whenever someone offends him. And what really blows my mind is how some that want redemption for him believe he will make a total 180 on a dime and suddenly become a wise, benevolent leader whom the galaxy respects. This dude hasn’t shown an ounce of political savvy, charisma, or even self-restraint, I’d be shocked if he manages to run anything properly as Supreme Leader. JJ will have my respect if he can turn Kylo Ren into an unhinged monster worthy of being afraid of  

List of ways they could’ve handled Hux in TLJ

Have it featured in the crawl that Hux has been responsible for masterminding the invasions of New Republic worlds after the destruction of the Hoznian Prime. The First Order Reigns Supreme because of Hux

Keep Hux as he was in TFA. a competent military leader that came up with plans and made necessary risks in order to destroy The Resistance, talked back to Kylo Ren and didn’t fear him or his power and Hux has the populations of 5 planets to his body count.

Keep the foil dynamic between Hux and Kylo Ren. Kylo being intimidating and Hux having none of it with no sign of fear. Give it a clear sign that both Kylo Ren and Hux want to become the Supreme Leader and both are willing to kill Snoke and the other to do so.

Keep Hux composed and in control not falling for Poe’s attempts at humor and ordering the fighters to be scrambled to annihilate Poe and his squadron  and cuts them off from the main fleet, establishing that Poe is clearly outnumbered. Just as the evacuation is complete, the dreadnought cannons are working again and aiming at the Raddus. Just as it’s about to fire, Paige launches the bombers. The Dreadnought is destroyed but Hux is presented as a cold, ruthless and calculating general. Hux gets punished and nearly killed by Snoke for that but can insure that they can follow the resistance cruiser.

Keep my idea of the Supremacy boarding The Raddus. Before this happens, a confrontation between Hux and Kylo happens. Hux just wants to swarm The Raddus with Tie Fighters fire it enough to destroy their shields and finally destroy The Resistance once and for all. but Ren stops him. He has to face his mother and kill his mother. Hux says his training is ridiculous and stands in the way of a quick victory. But Ren states that when they blow up the Raddus now, every one of them will die a martyr spreading the resistance lies further but if they can puplicly execute them, there won’t be another resistance. When Leia is captured, Hux is overjoyed that General Organa will be granted a quick and public execution and execute hope itself. 

Instead of slapping Finn it would have been way better if Hux had wanted to turn Finn back into a Stormtrooper since you know the Stormtrooper program was designed by Hux and his father and he took it as a personal insult that Finn deserted. But Finn would inspire the Stormtroopers who captured him to rebel. And then the fight between Finn and Phasma happens.

Show that Hux absolutely has no chill or fear in the face of Kylo Ren. He gets force choked but Hux is able to fire his blaster at Ren in order to free himself. The general refuses to submit. Hux threatens Kylo that if he were to die, then Kylo will never make it off of the ship alive. They will either work together or both die. Kylo releases the general and says from here on out the First Order will focus on their true mission. Kylo declares Hux as the Grand Marshal of the First Order.

What they chose to do with Hux instead

Hux is made into a joke. General Hux, the man who caused the destruction of the Hosnian system and is shown to be a younger angrier version of Tarkin in TFA, is shown to be an incompetent bumbling fool and Captain Canady is the only intelligent officer in The First Order. He does not deploy the Tie Fighters, order the fleet to move in when The Resistance are evacuating D'Qar and vulnerable, instead orders the Dreadnought to move in, and instead of ordering the Dreadnought with it’s devastating canon to fire on the cruiser thus giving the transports nowhere to go, he orders an orbital bombardment to an almost empty planet. But does not fire because he sees Poe’s X-Wing When Poe arrives in his X-Wing, the only X-Wing in view. Hux does not order deploying the Tie Fighters or even ordering the Dreadnought to fire on Poe. They do absolutely NOTHING. How is Hux a general again? Did he just want to hear himself talk? The turrets are being destroyed by Poe and Hux tells Captain Canady to fire the Dreadnought, Canady responds it’s too small and too close of range to fire their turbolasers and orders the Tie Fighters to be scrambled which should have been done 5 minutes ago. Canady knows Poe is not aiming to penetrate their armor, he knows Poe is clearing out their surface cannons. Here we have it. The only intelligent officer in The First Order, everyone else including Hux are incompetent. How exactly is Hux a general again?

The Evacuation of D’Qar. Hux is goaded into allowing a Starfighter into point blank range with one of their fleet’s more valuable assets, he doesn’t launch a fighter screen to keep that fighter at bay, and when a real danger is detected, still does nothing. Captain Canady is left to launch his own fighters from Fulminatrix, and gets no support from Hux or the rest of the First Order fleet. Hux doesn’t launch support fighters, direct their batteries to put up defensive fire covering the dreadnought, nothing, no he’s too busy massaging his bruised ego because some flyboy put him on tilt with what amounts to a practical joke, and an 8km long warship pays the price for their incompetence. Now onto said Dreadnought. They have this weapon that is capable of dealing planetary bombardment and chooses to fire on a nearly abandoned planet instead of targeting the Resistance ship that is used to carry The Resistance fleet. Destroy The Raddus and you can easily pick a part The Resistance easily. Instead of doing the most intelligent thing, they chose to do the stupid thing.  

The lowsped chase. Now onto the chase, or as I like to call it “the dumbest bit of military nonsense since the Emu war.” You have the First Order Fleet chasing the Resistance flotilla, supposedly the Resistance fleet is “faster” but they aren’t opening the gap between them and the First Order because… it would burn more fuel (because inertia isn’t a thing in Star Wars Space)? So they stay just at the extreme range of the First Order’s guns, and the Raddus has to be on the receiving end of a potshot every once in a while. Meanwhile said Resistance ships are flying in a straight line, direct away from the First Order fleet, so why not just set course past them and Hyperspace in front of them and catch them in the middle? Are interdictors at play here? Are they content to just think the fleet will run out of fuel and they can just catch them? It bothers me to understand that the heroes are only alive because of the gross incompetence of the First Order, because it doesn’t speak well to the capabilities of the heroes.

Hux is a ragdoll for dark side users apparently. Hux is slapped around with the force by Snoke, okay understandable, it’s for failure. Vader did the same. But god it is done in almost every scene by Snoke and Kylo. 

Hux stupidly tells Kylo Ren to pull back. When the Silencer pretty much destroyed all the X-Wing fighters, and The Resistance command is jettisoned in space, Hux just orders Kylo back. They have the opportunity to end The Resistance, just calls him back, a scene later Hux complains he let them go. Sure they can still track them, but the fact that they let them goes shows that Hux is a fool. 

The only time Hux is allowed to be villainous in the movie is when he is prepared to take out his blaster and kill Kylo Ren. Everything else he is either an idiot or someone’s toy to be slapped around. And you expect me and the general audience to believe Hux is going to be the villain in Episode IX?      

So now the Resistance is stuck on Crait, the First Order knows they are there, we know implicitly that the First Order has more than one dreadnought in their fleet, we also know the Resistance is fresh out of bombers. Maybe instead of calling for a costly ground invasion just call in another dreadnought and finish the job once and for all. This isn’t next level thinking, this isn’t superior tactics. This is using a rock to smash a bug levels of thinking. But they don’t, they land a ground invasion bigger than Hoth and bring a mini Death Star with them. Note again, that while Hoth was defended by more men with better equipment, Crait is defended by a quarter as many with rusting, dilapidated equipment… but it was enough to keep the Order stalled for Luke Skywalker to video-conference in.

List of ways they could’ve handled Phasma in the sequel trilogy

Have Phasma visibly shown slaughtering villagers on Tuanul

Show Phasma leading the strike team on Takodana

Have Phasma making it her prime duty to bring the traitorous FN-2187 to justice.

Have Phasma being involved with the meetings with Snoke. Phasma is part of the First Order triumvirate, there is no reason whatsoever why Phasma CANNOT be involved with the scenes with Snoke.

Captain Phasma is the one who fights Finn on Takodana, not FN-2199. It makes sense. It gives Finn an enemy to fight, his former Captain and leader who ordered atrocities that Finn could not commit and had compassion for his team members and Phasma wanting to show no mercy to traitors. Phasma would be winning the fight and nearly delivers the killing blow, but Han shoots her with the bowcaster

Phasma recovers and returns to Starkiller Base and is captured by Finn and Han. However, Phasma does not comply with Finn and Han, she sounds the security alarm/intruder alert and Chewie knocks her out and throws her down the trash compactor. Finn and Han figure out on disabling the shields themselves. This is the obvious thing she would do. She is a villain and smart, she would not comply or cower, so Finn, Han and Chewie are left by themselves to disabled the shields on their own.

Make Phasma a deranged individual obsessed with capturing and executing Finn. Phasma is basically Captain Ahab and Finn is her great white whale to chase. She is hunting Finn to the ends of the galaxy. Each battle they face she is there ready for him, every time he isn’t there, she kills every Resistance soldier there. Phasma is losing it, Hux is worried, but both Snoke and Kylo believe this will be beneficial in destroying The Resistance. And finally she finds him on The Supremacy. Finn and Phasma go head to head. finally on equal levels and in this moment it happens. Finn’s old comrades come, Finn believes this is the end, but to his surprise they shoot Phasma down. Phasma is knocked down in the ruins of the Star Destroyer. But Phasma makes her escape with Hux.

What they chose to do with Phasma instead

Just stands there doing nothing

Has to be told by Kylo Ren to lead a massacre on Tuanul

Is not even acknowledged by Snoke

Is easily coerced into lowering the shields of Starkiller Base. Is thrown into the trash compactor and makes me wonder why would Gwendoline Christie even agree to star in these movies

Stupidly decides to execute Finn and Rose as a spectacle instead of just shooting Finn and Rose right then and there.

Phasma has a hidden blaster and doesn’t use it against Finn

Phasma is only brought back for toys to sell and for Phasma to pointlessly die....again.

Only lets Phasma to be a character in her novel. In her novel she is a completely different and better character. In the novel  which is a fascinating study of how utterly ruthless and selfish she is, how completely dedicated to her own survival at the expense of others, and how there is no one and nothing she would not betray to further herself. It’s about peeling back the layers of a seemingly perfect First Order warrior to show her morally empty core, and with it the rottenness of the First Order itself. The novel shows with unsettling clarity that, under all the pretty words about the ideals of justice and order, the First Order is a place where actual idealistic soldiers are used and then thrown away (see: Finn, Cardinal) while backstabbers, abusers, and murderers like the two Huxes and Phasma are actively shielded and rise to the top. Phasma is a survivor. She will always align herself with the most powerful force. Phasma is extremely intelligent and a brilliant battlefield commander. Outside of the movies, she’s lost approximately one fight. Ever. the movies portray her as a minor annoyance but in the book she is the most badass human to ever live and I’m upset with how they’ve treated her. But really, what would’ve helped Phasma is her deleted death scene. I will never understand why this was deleted. Finn calls her out about her betrayal of lowering the shields and when this information is revealed, the Stormtroopers near her look suspicious and it looks as if they are going to turn on her. Phasma like the ultimate survivalist she is kills them with no hesitation. Finn cuts her hand off and blasts her into the abyss, giving Phasma a more deserving and better send off. Seriously, this is way better than their actual confrontation.  What I really like about this scene is its direct connection to The Force Awakens plot point and that it acknowledges Phasma’s survivalist attitude which was introduced into her novel.

List of ways they could’ve handled Snoke in TLJ

Show Snoke completing Kylo Ren’s training

Make Snoke the darkness Palpatine was sensing in the Endgame novels

Have Snoke give Kylo Ren one final test, killing his mother General Organa

Order Kylo Ren and the Knights Of Ren to Ach-To to kill Luke Skywalker and bring Rey to him

Have Snoke force Rey to kill Kylo and turn Rey to the dark side. Snoke knows who Rey truly is. Snoke will reveal that Rey was an experiment by Palpatine on his lab on Jakku. The people who she thought were her parents were just random junkers who sold her for a ship. Snoke manipulates Rey into joining him. “The belonging you always sought all your life, was by my side. Strike Kylo Ren, as you should have on Starkiller Base and take your place as my apprentice.” We have a fight that feels real and a fight we care about because we know these characters and not faceless guards who do not just die. But as we believe it’s going to go down as it was in ROTJ by having Rey be the strong heroine who throws her lightsaber away, instead Rey kills Kylo Ren and becomes Snoke’s new apprentice. “You have done well, my apprentice, heir to Palpatine, daughter of darkness. Hence forth, you shall be known as Darth Solitudis” Rey will make the Galaxy feel the loneliness and despair she felt all her life. Only Finn can bring her back to the light or stop her if he must.

Show Snoke using Battle Meditation against The Resistance, while Leia uses BM against Snoke. Leia’s will against Snoke’s might over Ach-To, while Snoke is trying to kill Luke, Leia is trying to save her brother. 

Make Snoke Darth Plagueis. It ties everything together. Darth Plagueis supposedly figured out the secret to immortal life, basically. Imagine if J.J. went with this  - Darth Plagueis trained Darth Sidious - also shared his dream of galactic conquest with his young pupil. When Sidious was strong enough, he 'killed' his master, as Sith tend to do... (or so he thought - more on this later). - Believing himself the one true powerful Sith Lord, Darth Sidious puts into motion his plan to take down the Republic and more importantly, the Jedi Order. He uses the power that Darth Plagueis taught him and creates Anakin (this has all but been confirmed) putting into motion the eventual destruction of the Jedi via 'the Chosen One' prophecy. - Fast forward, Darth Sidious goes ahead and does all the very hard work in building the Galactic Empire, taking over more and more systems... his reign over all of the galaxy was near complete when Luke Skywalker joined the rebellion and threw a lightsaber in his plans. - Meanwhile, Darth Plageuis (who has all the time in the galaxy, being able to transfer his essance when needed - nothing new in Star Wars when it comes to Sith) is watching from afar. HE is the TRUE puppet master, manipulating even Palpatine - he sits back while his puppet unifies the galaxy under one rule, only to one day return and take it. - Seeing what Skywalker did puts fear into Darth Plagueis' heart -- "SKYWALKER MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO LIVE". -He manipulates young Ben, hoping to one day turn Ben against Luke... However, Kylo seems to be a constant disappointment to 'Snoke'. Perhaps he creates Rey with the intention of turning her and making her his new powerful apprentice - Kylo Ren is given the task of finding the girl and bringing her before him. -His plan was to transfer his essence into Kylo and turn Rey to the dark side and destroy Skywalker and The Resistance

What they chose to do with Snoke instead

Snoke died pointlessly without doing anything with him. Supreme Leader Snoke is wasted and there is no reason to care now that the villain you’ve been building your trilogy around is dead. Snoke’s death was too soon. Snoke is a dark side user. Calm and collected. Old enough to see the rise and fall of the empire. He takes no risks and does what it takes to win. He was different from Palpatine and I dare say he even had potential to rival Kreia. He was a mastermind and did not allow himself to be a slave to the dark side. He did not want his apprentice to die like the Sith masters of old. He did not want to keep power until his dying breath. Snoke was not the average Sith Lord, he was different.  He was respectful, he was very powerful, and watching his scenes, even when faced with failure, he remained calm and collected because he was playing the long game and was not a slave to the Darkside like the Sith. He was invested in turning Kylo Ren into Vader’s heir and even has a ring from the catacombs of Vader’s castle. Snoke was so interesting, so many unanswered questions and this well thought out villain. And then TLJ turned him into a dumbed down Palpatine rip off. The claim that Snoke and his backstory is not important is dumb, considering that we know nothing on why this war is even happening or even why The First Order is doing ANYTHING! We want to know who Snoke is because we want to know how this random evil guy was able to destroy the lives of the entire original trio, corrupted Ben Solo and override the happy ending the entire original trilogy and prequels were fighting for. The struggles of the prequels, the clone wars, rebels, original trilogy, all of these stories and struggles were undone because of Snoke, so of course we have questions. Why do the remnants of the Empire follow Snoke and where did he come from? Not wanting to know the motivation of the villains is just plain ignorant. They completely wasted Snoke. Snoke is a power from the unknown regions. He was SO powerful that Palpatine sensed him, Palpatine was so focused and invested in Jakku in hopes of getting closer to the Unknown regions and he wanted to meet what he believed was the source of the dark side of the force. And they just kill him off so easy? Now there is no reason to care. Kylo Ren is not an intimidating villain and it’s pretty obvious he’s turning to the light in Episode IX. Hux is a bumbling incompetent fool and I’m pretty sure they already confirmed he will be more comedic in Episode IX instead of being a threat. There is a villain problem for the Sequel Trilogy. There is no menace in The First Order anymore and I really feel there is no reason to care.

Pointlessly tried to kill Rey instead of trying to turn her

“Your Snoke theory sucks” card is patronizing and insulting. God fucking forbid your audience is fucking invested in the story. God forbid we actually care about learning about the big bad of the sequel trilogy. God forbid we put more thought into Snoke than you did. “Your Snoke theory sucks” no Rian, your Snoke card sucks, your inability to do ANYTHING with Snoke sucks and talking down to us for caring about the direction of the big bad and killing him for no reason sucks. You arrogant piece of fucking shit.

Because Snoke was killed, they copped out and lied out their asses that it was always the plan to bring back Palpatine....bullshit. “oh but wait Snoke was a host body for Palpatine” BULLFUCKINGSHIT. Not originally. Snoke was someone who was supposed to be the darkness Palpatine was trying to get closer. Snoke was the man who destroyed 30 years of peace. He could’ve been anyone, hell even Darth Plagueis. But no, why create interesting characters when you can bring Palpatine back because it’s obvious you have no original ideas.

List of ways they could’ve handled Luke in the sequel trilogy

Actually use Luke in The Force Awakens. Don’t waste Mark Hamill. Don’t exclude him from marketing. Don’t force him to be on a mountain and say no lines whatsoever.

Have Luke’s big reveal be on Starkiller Base. Use Mark Hamill’s suggestion. ‘You can still have me come in at the very end, but how about this. How about Leia’s trying to contact me telepathically, she gets frustrated because there’s no answers, so she rushes to the new Death Star’–that’s three, so far.”He continued, “‘And she almost gets there but she gets stopped by two Stormtroopers and, just before she’s abducted, one Stormtrooper turns to the other one, blows him away, pulls off his helmet and says “Hi, sis, I’m here to rescue you.”‘ I say, ‘It’ll blow the roof off the joint, I’m still in it at the very end.‘”“I think it’s more effective to have people that really have a history with Han Solo witness his death and be unable to stop it,” the actor claimed. “His wife, the mother of his child, his best friend, instead of two characters that have known him, what, 20 minutes?”

Use Mark’s other suggestion. After Finn is knocked unconscious, have the person who lifts the Skywalker Lightsaber be Luke. Luke duels Kylo and defeats his nephew and saves Rey and Finn. I know Jedi and force sensitives are more durable than normal people, but if you are thrown into a tree, you are going to be unconscious for at least an hour. So yes Luke being the one to lift the lightsaber would’ve been much better. It would’ve been a great entrance. The entire audience would have been cheering as they witness Luke’s return. Luke helps Chewie getting Rey and Finn aboard the Falcon and returns to D’Qar. Reunites with Leia and ends with Luke, Rey and Finn flying to the Ancient Jedi Temple on Ach-To preparing to train the new Jedi.

Luke grieves for Han

Luke actually trying to help Ben as a Padawan, but it is in vain as he already turned to the dark side and made his choice.

Luke will tell Rey why he left the map behind. He wanted Leia to come and find him. It is revealed that Luke  did not run away, did not even consider running away, but rather went looking for the Jedi’s beginnings find the balance of dark and light–Luke Skywalker felt Rey and Finn awaken across half the galaxy, and settled on Ach-To, and waited.

Let Luke and Rey have a meaningful mentor and student relationship. Luke trains Rey, Rey develops her skills and Rey has a father figure that shows her place in the galaxy

Reveal that Luke is Rey’s father. After Rey falls into the dark side cave, Luke finds her and brings her near the fire and is there to comfort her. Then the revelation happens. Rey says “I’ve never felt so alone.” And we get Luke telling her “the force is strong in my family. My father had it, I have it, my sister has it and my daughter has it” “There is a reason you dreamed of this place.” “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.” And Rey with tears in her eyes. “I waited so long for you and your finally here” they embrace, father and daughter reunited.” Rey then asks about her mother. Luke sadly says “her name was Mara Jade and she loved you very much.” Rey why she was left on Jakku. “Because of your cousin Ben, Kylo Ren.”  Luke tells her that after a decade of training Ben, and fighting to keep the dark side at bay, Ben turned to the dark side because his family kept the secret that Darth Vader was his grandfather. He still wanted to help his nephew and save him from Snoke. One night he went to him to talk to him, Ben saw this as Luke being afraid of his power and Ben was the one to strike first. And then he woke up to see the other Jedi Masters dead. His wife Mara Jade dead and even the younglings dead. Only six other Jedi left with Ben, those who would become the Knights Of Ren. Rey left with Ben because she trusted her cousin and she couldn’t find Luke or Mara.  and Ben left her on Jakku where no one would ever find her because a part of him couldn’t kill his cousin.

If we had to have a broken Luke, what would bring him back, is his father. Basically have a Lion King moment with Anakin and Luke. "You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself Luke, you are more than what you have become.“ would’ve meant more in my opinion if it were Anakin who reached out to Luke than Yoda.

Luke wants to save Leia. He  lifts his X-Wing and heads towards The Supremacy. Boards the ship and confronts Snoke. Luke will reveal his Green Lightsaber and Snoke’s own Black Lightsaber. They fight, while Rey and Kylo fights. Luke defeats Snoke, but Kylo cuts Rey’s hand off. Enraged, Luke knocks Kylo out with a force repulse. So Luke gives Chewie the signal and gets Rey to safety, while Luke heads back to his X-Wing.

On Crait as Finn is about to make his sacrifice, we see Luke’s X-Wing firing and destroying the mini death star.

Luke is actually there with his moment with Leia. He is there in person, not a force projection, he. is. there.

A true fight between Luke and Kylo. Kylo Ren orders every ship to fire on Luke AT-M6’s all firing but to everyone’s surprise, all blasts stop frozen in midair. Luke wipes the salt off his robes and sends the turbolasers right back at the AT-M6s and TIE-Fighters. Brings down the transports and Kylo’s shuttle and the Star Destroyers in orbit. Kylo descends from his crushed shuttle, preparing to kill his uncle. We have a real lightsaber battle between Luke and Kylo. Luke has his green lightsaber. Their blades clash. Their dialogue remains the same, but Luke is there. Luke is toying with Kylo, similar to how Vader toyed with him on Bespin.  When Kylo makes his dramatic slut ™ lunge at Luke, but Luke dodges and cuts Kylo’s hand off. And finally Luke gives his “see you around kid” but Luke does not die, he leaves to board his X-Wing

It ends with Rey, Luke and Leia together, brother and sister holding onto Rey’s hand. A father and his daughter and her aunt. “We have everything we need

What they chose to do with Luke instead

Luke is not marketed at all in The Force Awakens and is on a mountain and is only there as a cameo with no lines whatsoever

The Force Awakens established that Luke left a map to be found. It is never brought up. Han said he left to find the Temple to the First Jedi. It is never brought up. Funny how what was established is never brought up in the movie whatsoever

Luke, Han and Leia do not reunite at all.

Luke gives up. Luke Skywalker is a beacon of hope and optimism and love against all odds, and the fact that that was twisted into being depicted as some foolish youth naivety, and that the only way to make him “human” was to retract all that and make him a bitter, jaded man is so fucking disgusting. Even more disgusting is in TLJ novelization had him dreaming of never leaving Tatooine and having him live under the Empire’s dominance. He does not even care that his sister’s life and the Resistance she is leading is in danger. Jedi do not give up. You might say that Yoda and Obi-Wan also gave up. But for those two, the Sith took over the galaxy, they had to go into hiding to protect and guide Luke and Leia. Obi-Wan wanted to save Leia and guide Luke. Yoda always wanted to train Leia as a Jedi and bring Anakin back to the light. He was reluctant to train Luke but he still did his duty as a Jedi Master. They did not just give up and wanted to die and they did not betray their characters at all. Luke spends most of Last Jedi on a windswept island, brooding in solemn silence and frozen by indecision. He doesn’t connect with Rey on any meaningful level, doesn’t impart wisdom or knowledge, and never reasserts himself as the powerful Jedi he once was. A brief physical duel against Rey ends with her as the undisputed victor, completely killing his deserved mythos and her potential character arc in one fell swoop. It’s clear in that moment that he has nothing to teach her, and nothing to contribute to the overall narrative. The boundless potential that seemed poised to explode at the end of The Force Awakens fizzles here but never ignites.  And without any training at all, Rey defeats Luke Skywalker and Luke acts all cowardly and begs her to leave. He does buy The Resistance time and saves his sister, but it was ultimately pointless. He wasn’t even there and he dies pointlessly. What we got was not Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker is hope and optimism. Luke Skywalker is showing that no matter what, compassion, faith and love will always prevail. Luke is the hero that inspired an entire generations to aspire to be better, aspire to be heroes. Luke is what we wanted to see and what we got was not Luke Skywalker. Luke is someone who thought Doctor Aphra was a good person, she proves him wrong but he still had that hope for her. Luke believed that Darth Vader of all people still had good in him and was willing to die and he was able to reach his father. In Battlefront II’s Story, Luke saves Del Meeko because he asked and he offered Del a better life, a choice. Inferno Squad has committed atrocities in the name of the Empire, yet Luke still gave Del Meeko a chance. Canon Luke Skywalker is a kind hearted hero who will never run from a fight or knowingly leave a loved one in danger and will even save his enemy. This is Luke Skywalker. Luke is compassionate, adores his family, would never leave them. The Luke Skywalker I knew would never even think about killing his nephew in his sleep when there is always another way. Luke believes in the light and was willing to die to save his father. Darth Vader committed atrocities for decades, Luke still believed there was good in him. He would never give up on his family nor would he even consider killing his own nephew in his sleep just because he sensed darkness there. He would never abandon his sister at death’s door when she needed him most. The Hero’s Journey that he was following was ignored completely and he just gave up and wanted to die. And he dies instead of reuniting with Leia properly. Mark Hamill wanted Luke to live until Episode IX where he would pass on what he learned to Rey. No big battle with Snoke, no passing on, instead Luke dies and all we’re getting is force ghost Luke. Luke Skywalker was a hero to an entire generation.  Luke was the true heart of Star Wars. His was the journey we followed from idealistic farm boy dreaming of adventure, to reluctant warrior, and finally to savior of the entire galaxy. The original trilogy built him up, and The Last Jedi finally broke him down. I for one mourn my hero’s passing.  

Luke Skywalker tries to murder his nephew in his sleep and  is blamed for Ben Solo’s fall and Kylo Ren. Luke would not even think of trying to kill his nephew in his sleep. He would try to talk to him and try to pull him back to the light. His sister brought Ben there for protection and guidance. Even if that did fail, you did not need to make Luke attempt to murder him. You did not need to make Luke, Leia and Han at fault for Kylo Ren. Kylo is a grown ass man, he is responsible for his own actions. Kylo was going to murder the Jedi and younglings regardless, he already fell to the dark side. No one is responsible for Kylo’s actions but Kylo Ren. Boy, I sure do miss Legends Luke and Jacen Solo

Rey and Luke have no meaningful relationship. There is no teacher and student relationship. Luke teaches her nothing. Rey is already all powerful for…..reasons. He doesn’t even impart any sort of wisdom, guidance or a semblance that they even had a relationship or that he taught her anything. All he was towards Rey was a bitter old man trying to get the girl to leave her lawn. And all of a sudden “we passed on all we know” SINCE FUCKING WHEN??? Rey learned nothing all movie and we are to expect she learns everything off screen. We were deprived of a positive Rey and Luke mentor and student relationship and we were given complete garbage. What we should’ve gotten was Luke teaching Rey to feel the force, to build her own lightsaber and that attachments can lead you to the dark side if you let them, but they won’t lead you to darkness if you control your emotions. A battle between Rey and Luke against Kylo and the Knights Of Ren. Rey abducted and Luke has to lift his X-Wing and board the Supremacy to save Rey. Luke fighting Snoke and Rey against Kylo. Rey loses her fight and loses a hand. Luke stops Snoke and takes Rey to escape. Luke blasts away the battering laser. Fights Kylo on Crait with his green lightsaber. Escapes and reunites with Leia and Rey. Instead we are given nothing.

Luke doesn’t grieve for Han. Han Solo is Luke’s best friend. They have been together for decades. We are not allowed to see Luke react to Han’s death or Luke to grieve that his best friend is dead. Han was a big influence and friend it was dismissed as if he barely knew him. To quote Mark Hamill on the matter “They had time for me to milk that big alien but to show any human emotion? Nah”

Luke’s last moment with Leia is ultimately pointless. He was there as a projection. His last moment with Leia was made meaningless. He wasn’t even there. It was a great moment with Mark and Carrie, but it was ultimately a giant fuck you to everyone who loved Luke and Leia and wanted to see them reunite.

Luke’s confrontation with Kylo is ultimately meaningless. We are not allowed to see Luke Skywalker as a powerful Jedi Master. He does not wield his Green Lightsaber, he does not bring down all the AT-ATs, the transports, shuttles or bring down the star destroyers in orbit. He’s not even there thus making the confrontation with Kylo ultimately pointless. He toys with Kylo, but we don’t see a lightsaber fight between them.

Luke is only coming back as a force ghost and from the sound of it, it will only be a cameo.

Mark Hamill was ultimately disgusted with the direction they took with Luke. He is heartbroken that he never got to reunite with his friends and that Carrie is no longer with us. He now wishes that he’s done with Star Wars. He went from being excited to returning to the role that made his career and the character that he loves so much to being broken and apathetic. Crying on set and just being absolutely miserable throughout the whole affair. Mark did not return to play Luke Skywalker, he returned to play Jake Soywalker. It’s like Mark said “should’ve left well enough alone” Should’ve left the original trilogy alone and made your own story, but no, you had to break down Han, Luke and Leia to pointlessly build up these new characters. Mark Hamill and Luke Skywalker deserved better

List of ways they could’ve handled Han in the sequel trilogy

Make Han Solo a joint General with Leia in The Resistance.  Both Han and Leia lead the Resistance. When Poe hasn’t reported in, Leia sends Han to Jakku. Han has the Falcon. They find Rey, Finn and Poe under attack on Jakku, which leads to Han saving our heroes. “We’ve been looking for you kid.” Han chooses to go to Takodana so he doesn’t lead The First Order to D’Qar. We can see Han mentoring Rey about the Falcon and being a father figure to Rey and Finn. Instead of Maz’s talk of “Han, go home” Maz will simply tell Han. “Han, let him go. Your son is gone.” Han will simply say. “My son is still alive” When he sees Kylo abducting Rey, he knows it’s Ben. When he returns to Leia, keep in the “I found our son” Instead of giving the vibe that they split up, make it clear that Han and Leia have been married for over 30 years. They stood strong together despite the tragedy of their son. Han inspired Leia to form The Resistance after The New Republic abandoned her. Together they lead The Resistance in the hopes of finding Luke and their son. Their goodbye is pretty much the same, but Han kisses Leia goodbye. Han’s death remains the same because it was beautifully well done.

Have Han mention he spent years with Chewie and Lando searching the galaxy for his son and when he finally sees him, he is filled with  dread but still reaches out to his son.  

What they chose to do with Han instead

Pointlessly regress Han’s character. The Force Awakens undoes everything about Han’s character arc in the original trilogy.  Han starts out as a selfish smuggler who is COMPLETELY fine with letting other people die if it meant his own survival and goes through an internal and external journey to not only give a damn about his fellow person but also grow as an individual to be a hero that is willing to risk his own safety for a much larger cause than himself. And all that character development is thrown out the window.  The new canon is dead set on making Han a bad father. They made it so that Han goes back to smuggling. Han learned that there is something more than smuggling and Han and Leia breaking up because their son turns to the dark side? Han would never leave Leia or abandon his child. It is simply bad writing to redo his entire arc from the original trilogy again and to make him a bad parent when it is out of his character to do so. Legends understood Han and Leia better. Han and Leia stood strong in their marriage for 3 decades despite a hostile extra Galactic invading species killing both Chewbacca and their 14 year old son Anakin, their other son Jacen becoming a Sith, him killing Luke’s wife Mara, and having to be killed by his twin, their daughter Jaina. And they both still kept up their roles as a General and Chief of State/Ambassador.

Not giving Han Solo, an iconic hero a funeral or even a memorial. 

No one is allowed to grieve for Han Solo. Not his wife and mother of his son, not his best friend for decades and had a life debt to Han or even his brother Luke. I doubt they will even let Lando grieve for Han

Not really about Han...but the treatment of Chewbacca. Chewie is not allowed to mourn the death of his decades-long companion to whom he owed a life debt nor is he allowed a moment of forgiveness and reconciliation with Luke. Nor is he given a scene mourning the deaths of Han and Luke with Leia. What does Chewie get? Barely any screen time, Rey has to translate Chewie to Luke WHEN LUKE KNOWS HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH CHEWIE and instead of just letting him eat in peace, he is made to feel guilty of his predator nature and is used as a bad “eating animals is bad” message. He doesn’t even try to talk Rey out of her dumbass plan and is used as a matchmaker tool for her and Finn. His biggest moment is a fucking comic relief scene with Porgs. In this new trilogy they don’t treat Chewie like a person. I was pretty appalled in TFA too, when Chewie and General Organa literally ignore each other, walk past each other without so much as a glance and then Rey gets a hug? Chewie was Han Solo’s companion and best friend for at least a half-century, stuck with him when Han and Leia broke up, and he’s not even allowed to mourn onscreen? Chewie and Leia don’t even interact during the end of TLJ at all. Chewie is not allowed to mourn for any of his best friends at all nor is he allowed to try and talk Rey out of her obvious dangerous plan by going to the man WHO KILLED HIS BEST FRIEND, in what way would Chewie even be okay with that? This is a day later, a single day and the wounds are still fresh. And he is mainly used as comic relief and is not used as a character and hero of the rebellion nor is he allowed to grieve. Chewbacca deserved so much better.

List of ways they could’ve handled Leia in the sequel trilogy

Leia is Chancellor of The New Republic and Jedi Master who leads The New Republic against The First Order

Leia using Battle Meditation to lead The Resistance to victory in battles against The First Order

Leia taking up her old Yellow Lightsaber one last time to fight Snoke and face her son

Leia actually being warm, understanding and loving, but firm when it comes to Poe. Leia openly slapping and stunning Poe was nothing like Leia in the OT. It just made her extremely unlikable. Poe saw the bigger picture, Leia did not.

The Supremacy boards The Raddus and Leia surrenders and offers herself to become a hostage to save The Resistance. This gives us the opportunity to see Leia confront Snoke and Leia actually having screen time with her son. Snoke’s plan is to use Leia to draw Luke and Rey out of hiding. It would’ve been more meaningful if we got to see scenes with Leia and Kylo, who actually have a connection. Rey and Kylo was not meaningful. We needed to see Leia and her son interact. We needed to see Leia trying to reach her son but falling on deaf ears as her son has truly fallen to the dark side, yet despite all this, Leia forgives him and Kylo would just break down and have his famous tantrum attack. The scenes with Kylo and Leia could have been the most heartbreaking thing to witness. This will also give us Luke sensing his sister is in danger and allowing himself to feel the force, free his X-Wing and save his sister. This will also give Poe and Finn the mission to find Rose(this time a Resistance Hacker) and to disable The Supremacy so The Resistance can mount a rescue operation. Everything comes full circle. Save Leia, Luke rescues his sister, Luke confronts Snoke and Kylo confronts his mother and then Rey. There you go I single-handedly made The Last Jedi a better movie.

Leia actually affecting the plot of TLJ and isn’t in a coma for 90% of the movie.

What they chose to do with Leia instead

Not making Leia a Jedi. The new trilogy was DEAD SET on not making Leia a Jedi. Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi said Leia has the potential to become a Jedi. “That boy is our last hope. “No there is another.” “The force is strong in my family, my father has it, I have it and my sister has that power.” Apparently JJ saw all that and thought “I think that all meant was to not make Leia a Jedi and just have spout off expository dialogue, break up the most iconic relationship in Star Wars for no reason and have her sit there and do nothing all movie” The last two movies were setting Leia up to be a Jedi and they did nothing with her. She could’ve been a Jedi Master and a politician but chose not to. For whatever stupid reason they did not want Leia to be a Jedi.  Leia could have used Battle Meditation to ensure the destruction of Starkiller Base was a success. and then used it to ensure the safety of the Resistance in TLJ, but they thought turning Leia into a Mary Poppins meme was the best possible use to give Carrie a swansong.

Spout expository dialogue and do nothing

Making facial expressions and doing nothing

Carrie FIsher was forced by Lucasfilm to lose weight in order to return and it costed her, her health. Carrie was perfectly healthy before that diet was forced on her and she did little to nothing all sequel trilogy, so she was told to lose weight at the cost of her own health so she can do nothing all movie, have no emotional connection with her son, grieve for Luke or Han or actually be significant to the Rebellion she has been leading all her life

Not mourning her husband or showing her grieve AT ALL

Leia does not grieve with Chewie, she even hugs Rey instead of Chewie

Leia does not mourn for Luke or Han

Becoming a Mary Poppins meme, unconscious for 90% of the movie, be unlikable and slap and stun your second in command and do nothing all movie. TLJ does absolutely nothing with Leia. Carrie Fisher is gone. The character herself does nothing to affect the plot. We all knew that Leia was strong and powerful with the force, but the way they decided to have it be shown is baffling. Instead of showing Leia using  the force to send the missiles flying at Kylo’s wing men or use Battle Meditation to inspire the Resistance to fight, instead we see the most impressive, and stupid looking, display of force powers, nothing follows from that. Leia goes into a coma for most the movie and then just hangs around. Isn’t it weird that Leia, one of the most important characters in the entire franchise only sees her brother for a moment, never mentions her husband, shares no screen time with her own son and isn’t even the focus in the very rebellion she’s been fighting for her entire life. In the end, all of her loved ones are dead, her son wants to destroy her legacy, her allies abandoned her, her soldiers were almost all killed, and due to Carrie Fisher’s passing, TLJ is her swan song and curtain call. One of the most iconic and empowering women in all of cinema gets to go out as a supporting character and Mary Poppins meme.

[agent-danascully]

For your star wars post: 6, 14, 16 Love you baby 💜💜

06: favourite planet:

why did you have to pick all the hard ones!!! i’m going to list these first two because i love so many... but here we go!: alderaan (press f to pay respects to such a beautiful snowy planet...); naboo, such a gorgeous and beautiful place (minus the whole jar jar binks area and all that...); jakku - kind of, mainly the actual ship graveyard part more than anything so this one i am a bit unsure of...; scarif, for as much sandy desert planets we have... this is a beach one? also beautiful as well... ALSO any planet steeped with jedi/sith temples because they went awf with the aesthetics....

least favourite planet:

there’s a lot of planets so i will probably be missing MORE than a few, mind you but here’s some that come to mind; canto bight, a casino... yay...; crait, hoth 2.0 but red (interesting aesthetically and in BF2 but still in the movie...); genosis, a desert planet with weird bug creatures, no thank you!; zeffo, this planet just annoyed me in jedi fallen order - i hope you all understand (it was just a gameplay perspective, don’t kill me....)

14: favourite fight:

slight bit of bias here, but i absolutely love the force awakens rey/finn vs kylo duel! (bias being as it was my first proper star wars watch in the cinema!) i understand it’s not as emotional as per say rotj (which i also love) or as choreographed as tpm - but i really enjoy the emotion being put behind each swing of the saber!

least favourite fight:

the last jedi fight (wow a lot of my least favourites come from this film...) the duel of rey/kylo vs the praetorian guards (upon reflection) is just meh... like the fact it’s not an actual lightsaber duel, the fact it was poorly edited AND choreographed - it just felt like they were killing faceless minions (which they were) but i was hoping for a more climatic and emotional duel as per the other films...

16: favourite book/comic:

this one is also kind of multiple at the same time... i’ve mainly read canon, but my favourite legends book (which i think is only one currently...) is star wars the old republic: annhilation! when i read it way back when, it was my first piece of old republic media i had immersed myself in! and, not to mention, it instantly made me fall in love with theron shan! but for canon currently i am going to say resistance reborn! this one feels like a great bridge between the last jedi and rise of skywalker! giving us more moments with our trio, bringing in old characters from loads of media and just a great story! (also so many finnpoe moments...) but also tied in third would have to be queen’s shadow (which is more of a character driven story than plot...) i would seriously suggest you all read these books! (also other books include, but are not limited to: ahsoka, shattered empire,  black spire, bloodline, aftermath: empires end and so many more!!)

least favourite book/comic:

this one is actually a tricky one currently, as i have read a lot of star wars books currently! and there’s not been one particular one that i haven’t enjoyed to some extent, per say... i guess there was a few particular stories in the short story collection ‘from a certain point of view’ that was a bit of a slog to get through to the actual good story! the start of the aftermath trilogy was also a slog too (interesting concepts and great characters) but there was a lot being introduced at once, and it felt like a new character perspective every chapter... force collector, i enjoyed, but i could see a perspective as to why some people might have trouble getting through that book!

[nitewrighter]

What did you think of the Last Jedi?

Well I watched it twice in theaters, and I gotta say I liked it a lot better the second time. It throws a lot of curveballs at you, and it’s kind of hard to appreciate when you’re still trying to process the last “What the hell was that!?” thing that happened. The first time I watched it I felt it was kind of sloppy, and I was pretty :/ about a lot of the decisions regarding the characters, and a part of me was also worried that they were moving Star Wars toward a more Marvel-ish tone, but the second time I watched it I was able to really appreciate what it brought to Star Wars as a whole and the risks it took. I’m gonna try and break it down into stuff I liked and stuff that could have used more work.

Stuff I liked:

-Luke! Luke! Luke!!! He was so good! His disillusionment with himself and the Jedi! his talk with Yoda! His Force Illusion confrontation with Kylo on Crait! I’ve loved Luke since I was a little girl and Mark Hamill was amazing in this and ahhhhh god I loved him!!

-“To believe the Force ends with the Jedi is vanity.” YASSS LUKE.

-The scene with Rey in the cave that was a callback to Luke’s own experiences in that tree cave on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back was so cool. 

-The fight scene with Kylo and Rey vs. Snoke’s guards was dope as hell.

-The Battle of Crait was gorgeous.

-Rose’s introduction to the cast and her rapport with Finn cementing him into the Resistance and bringing him in line with Poe’s own character arc. Also she’s really sweet and brave and such a good person and I love her???

-Fish Nuns and Fathiers and Porgs! Oh my! The ‘Crystal critters’ were cute too.

-Holdo using the Resistance cruiser as a light-speed missile and that explosion I mean god damn.

-I can’t tell you how glad I am that Kylo Ren is still a fascist asshole.

- Finn vs. Phasma!!! “You were always scum.” “Rebel scum.”

-I have been waiting 20 years to see Leia use the force in the movies and she uses the Force in literally the most space wizardly way possible and I love her and I love Carrie.

Stuff that could have used more work:

-I feel like Finn should have gotten more opportunities to look cool. He was kind of getting dragged around by the plot and Rose with the casino subplot, but I do think his dialogues with DJ and his relationship with Rose did a lot for his character development.

-I feel like they kind of took a step back with Poe’s character—granted this was in order to give him this big leap forward in character development, but I feel like the Holdo thing could have been handled better. You can’t ask a Resistance to just blindly trust a leader who’s making questionable decisions, and I think Holdo’s decisions were questionable within their context—yes they made sense in the end, but it’s still kind of :/ for me.

-Shirtless Kylo. It seems like a messy decision given the general tone of Star Wars and like… Rian Johnson’s goal was to kind of communicate the sense of ‘forced (or Forced haha) intimacy’ of Rey and Kylo’s Force bond. But like…when J.J. Abrams described the interrogation scene in TFA as ‘A brutal mind rape’ and it featured gross rape-y lines like “I can take what I want,” then I think it’s a really gross decision to try and insert sexual tension into that Force bond. The film could have done without a shirtless Kylo scene. On the upside the memes are great, so at least we have that.

-Am I the only one who feels like there was a big gap between the lightsaber exploding and Rey being on the Millennium Falcon in the battle of Crait in regards to Rey’s POV in the film? That was messy. I feel like we should have had a scene with Rey reuniting with Chewie, maybe reflecting on the fight with Kylo briefly, and finding out where the Resistance is because she kind of shows up out of nowhere.

All in all I think it was a pretty solid movie, and while it made some risky decisions, I think it’s setting up some stuff for some really cool stuff in the future.

[foulfirerebel]

You know, normally I don't reblog something like this because the ones usually making the argument are people that somehow think Realistic Dismemberment(tm) in Star Wars games equal the best thing ever and are frankly annoying about it.

In THIS CASE, however, I'll make an exception since that IS something annoying in that context and watching it wasn't exactly the best experience either.

I had a chat with my brother about the fight with the night troopers in ahsoka and he pointed something out to me

It's really stupid how the characters just avoid dismembering and/or decapitating the troopers, because that's how you're supposed to stop zombies, you go for the heads and/or render them immobile

"Ha ha zombie! I slashed you across the chest! What're you gonna do now? OW! FUCK! THEY'RE BITING ME!"

It's pretty obvious that going forward all disposable minion bad guys in SW will have to be droids because disney won't let up on their "no cutting people up" internal rule, because apparently we can't even hack apart the undead, but what's the point of zombies if you can't dismember them without a thought? Zombies remove the ethical concerns of mass slaughtering bad guy minions

Y'know say what you will about it, but Rey and Kylo vs the Praetorian guards actually felt brutal in the way lightsaber combat should be, people got thrown in an electric shredder, the top half of one guy's head was cut off, throats were slit, a lightsaber was shoved into someone's face, and when Rey/Kylo stabbed a guy they really drove the saber in, like rewatch it, you clearly see them putting effort to drive their sabers through the guards