#sequel trilogy meta

[allgirlsareprincesses]

Do you think that Rey's story (excluding episode 9 'cause that was a shitshow) could be interpreted as a Cinderella/Ash girl story?

I hope you realize asking me this is like throwing chum to a shark 😈. But the short answer is yes, to a point.

The long answer is more complicated, so to begin with, let's consult the Cinderella bible:

According to the Aarne Thompson Uther Index, there are five primary motifs to a Cinderella tale:

Persecuted heroine, usually by family

Help or helper, usually magic

Meeting the prince, usually with true identity disguised

Identification or penetration of disguise, usually by means of an object

Marriage to the prince

Rey is abandoned by her family, which is a form of persecution, and harassed by the inhabitants of Jakku like Unkar Plutt. Thus she clearly fulfills the first item.

As for meeting a helper, there are several for her, including Han Solo, Maz, Luke, and Leia. Any or all of these may be considered fairy godparents in the way that they offer her wisdom and material help. Further, except for Maz, they all die in the course of the story, which is consistent with many Cinderella tales in which the helper dies and their bones continue to offer wisdom and comfort to the heroine.

Next, meeting the prince. I mean

To the extent that Rey is "in disguise' here, it would be the extent of her force powers, her destiny as Ben Solo's dyad mate, and her role as the heir apparent to the Jedi (chosen by the Force to wield the legacy saber), all of which are obscured from Kylo Ren when he discovers her in the forest. Further, she is grimy and covered in desert sand, similar to how Cinderella is smeared with ashes that hide her true beauty.

So now an object penetrates the disguise. This is obviously the Skywalker lightsaber, which reveals Rey to be everything listed above, especially when she calls it to her on Starkiller Base, and again when she wields it on Ahch-to.

And lastly, marriage to the prince. As many others have pointed out over the years, Rey and Ben have almost too many symbolic marriages to count in the course of the sequel trilogy. They're extremely married, the Force said so.

BUT WAIT! Go back and look at that list again. Who ELSE fits all those criteria?

It's our boy! Consider:

He is indeed persecuted by family, most notably when Luke momentarily considers killing him.

Ben's helpers are both dark and light, as Snoke/Palpatine guide him in the dark while Luke guides him in the light (poorly). But note again what I said above about the bones of the mentor continuing to offer guidance and comfort after their death. Who should appear at Ben's lowest hour but his departed father, Han Solo? With a message of love, acceptance, and encouragement, Han's memory (because in fairy tales, bones contain memory) encourages Ben to at last cast off his beastly skin and become who he always was.

Next, meeting the prince/ss in disguise. He's wearing a literal mask when he meets Rey, so yeah.

An object penetrates the disguise? Rey slashed his face with the legacy saber, thus symbolically peeling away his mask. And I've argued before that the stabbing in TROS (which I still HATE, btw) is another cutting or burning away of the beastly skin.

And lastly, marriage to the prince/ss. As previously stated, that happened. Many times.

So yes, the Sequel Trilogy can definitely be considered a Cinderella story, with but one glaring issue: Cinderella's husband usually doesn't die at the end. But that's another topic that's been done to death, so let's all just read some more fanfic and forget about it. 👑 Thank you for the ask, this was fun!

[eagna-eilis]

The metaphysical mechanics of Anakin's Force Ghost are the single biggest mystery of the period between RotJ and TFA to me.

If he can Force Ghost, or at least sometimes, then what governs what he can and cannot do, and who he can or cannot speak with?

If he can appear to others the way Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Yoda, and eventually Luke can, it makes very little emotional sense unless something is blocking him.

I like to think that Anakin, in death, had enough respect for Leia not to appear to her. His actions killed her real mam and dad, the people who raised her into a kind, strong person with integrity in every step. He tortured her, he destroyed her homeworld and her culture. He wouldn't be so stupid as to think that a nice father-daughter chat would solve everything.

I like to think that he loves her from an observational distance, and brims with pride at every step she takes for the galaxy that he injured gravely and so nearly destroyed. So like Padmé, her justice-seeking Naberrie qualities nurtured like rare orchids by Bail and Breha, who were themselves so principled and just. Anakin might also see the ways in which she is not like any of the senators or royalty who made her who she is. He might want to take credit for the parts of her that are so brave, so impassioned, so willing to challenge any authority she sees as unworthy or unjust. Obi-Wan told her, when she was very young, that this was her inheritance from Anakin. But Leia doesn't want anything from him, and he understands. So he spends time watching, in grieving pride, at what his daughter became in spite of him.

I also like to think that at a certain point he would have to try, if he could, to intervene in what was being done to her family. In my heart there is no version of a redeemed afterlife Anakin who does not try to save another Skywalker child from what he went through.

He would have tried to materialise, blue-aura-lit and kind eyed, into the living room of a Chandrilla apartment, to try to soothe the terror and discomfort of a tiny child levitating cambiblocks and breaking glass in distress. He has far more experience with child murder than child rearing, but by the Force he'd damn well TRY.

It probably wouldn't work, and I think some of us fans (esp those who love the sequels or those who are more interested in the Skywalkers than the Disaster Lineage as a family) deserve to know why.

Why, in my headcannons, does Anakin spend years trying to send thoughts of 'no kiddo that isn't me, I'm me, your grandpa, and I can tell you that your mom and dad love you so much and that those other voices are full of bantha-poodoo, please trust me, please believe me, please hear me' out through the Force, only for them to never find their way to their intended recipient?

Why can he not appear to Leia and say, 'I know you don't want to talk to me and I don't want you to have to endure the distress of talking to me but it's about your kid. I can't make the past alright, but let me please give you the information you need to stop the cycle repeating'.

Why can't he warn Luke? 'There's a storm coming and the lightning is not natural. You have seen that lightning before, standing right by my side, and it comes from the same source. Our nephew dreams things that are not his own. Consider striking him and you will doom the world, but also our family. Don't let the Darkness guide you, its only goal is to make more Darkness.'

There are several potential answers, of course.

The first is that Anakin can get through but nobody listens. It's a steady stream of 'stay away from my child, stay away from my academy, don't corrupt our future with the evil of the past'. This option reflects negatively on Luke and Leia, but it also feels true to traumatised families. I'm a firm believer in the fact that Luke, Leia, and Han as having unwittingly done poorly by the next generation of their kin does not 'ruin' their characters, it makes them more sympathetic and human, and so it doesn't upset me if this is the option. It's bad parenting and good storytelling.

The most obvious answer is of course, Palpatine. He can block Anakin's access to the likes of Luke, Leia, and Ben. This means that a dead Palpatine is still torturing a dead Anakin. Excuse me while I cry for a thousand years. Now either this means that Palpatine thinks Ahsoka is small potatoes and it doesn't matter if Anakin can see her in the WBW, or that Anakin could only communicate with Ahsoka BECAUSE she could enter the WBW. So, considering that the Ahsoka show takes place after 'Last Shot', it still makes no sense that Anakin doesn't go 'please see what's going on with Leia's kid, I'm worried about her and about her lil guy.'

The third option is the one that I find genuinely upsetting. Not in-world upsetting, but what-are-they-doing-with-our-story upsetting. It's also the one I find the most likely:

DLF in general and Favroni in particular are pushing Disaster Lineage out in front, and trying to sublimate the Skywalkers. I see Ahsoka as Anakin's sister, and I don't think it is inappropriate for him to love her the same way he loves his children, his grandchild, or his brother Obi-Wan. It makes emotional sense for him to reach out to her, and love is not a finite resource.

But a set of wider storytelling choices is highlighting that the most important inheritance of the story is Yoda to Dooku to Qui Gon to Obi Wan to Anakin to Ahsoka to maybe Sabine, or Jacen Syndulla. I feel in some ways that shifting Anakin's attention, or the context in which we encounter him, may give the audience a sense of the greater legitimacy of the Disaster Lineage to the long term future of the galaxy.

I have ZERO problem with this being the thread by which Force training is maintained in the GFFA through the sequels and into the post-sequel era. I prefer it to watching my beloved Rey of Jakku doing it all alone.

I have a HUGE problem with the idea that we may never get more Skywalkers in context with one another. And more importantly, the idea that we really shouldn't care about what happened to them after Return of the Jedi. That the sequels don't matter.

Anakin is the greatest silence in the sequels. I suspect that they didn't get Hayden back because they were still nervous of prequel hate (sweet summer children that they were, not knowing that the penis-brains were gunning for them, too). Many of us hoped that the New Republic Era TV series would inflect upon the ST the way that Clone Wars inflected upon the PT.

So far it really hasn't.

[artist-issues]

I just NEED everyone to agree with me that Rey's parents are nobody. We should all agree about that. We should collectively, as an audience, say, "clearly the best idea was to have Kylo Ren be a dynastic heir to the major legends of the Force who wants to throw off his family's shadow, while his rival is nobody from nowhere who wants to belong--so we're going to stick with that."

And then, what should have happened is, Rey can finish her story by being able to say, "My parents might have abandoned me, but that doesn't mean I'm worthless." And eventually Kylo Ren can say, "My family might have been powerful, but I don't have to be," and all those other things that they can bounce off of each other as great foils.

It can keep being a good story about accepting past failures and choosing to grow beyond them.

Let's just all collectively ignore Rey Skypatine because of how silly that was. I mean. If they can just ignore the setups in the previous movie, we can ignore their choices in the conclusion. Right?? Right? Tell me I'm right

[artbyblastweave]

I think about Star Wars a lot more than I post about Star Wars, and I've had some free time recently to type up some thoughts on Episode 7 that've been swirling around in my head for a couple of years. There were a few ideas and plot beats, and moments of apparent self-examination in Episode 7 which I thought were fairly compelling, even though they ultimately paid no dividends:

First was Finn’s character concept. “Star Wars as experienced from the perspective of a Stormtrooper undergoing a crisis of faith” is a rich hook; humanizing and giving a face to what's basically the platonic implementation of the faceless mook. Unfortunately, the potency of the arc was undercut by the pre-existing textual ambiguity as to what stormtroopers actually are. Star Wars extended canon has settled on the idea that each trilogy features an entirely novel cohort of white-clad mooks, each with a fundamentally different underlying dynamic. The clones and the First-Order forces are different flavors of slave army; in contrast, the stormtroopers are more frequently portrayed in the expanded universe as military careerists, stormtrooper being a thing you work up to rather than a gig for a fresh conscript. A slave-soldier who defects is a very different character from a military careerist who defects, and they invite different analysis. There's a bait-and-switch going on here, in that Finn gestures in the direction of the familiar OT stormtroopers but can't comment on or examine them because he's actually part of a novel dynamic invented for the new movies. And there's one final nail in the coffin here, signaled by the number of times I've had to invoke the expanded universe so far. When Finn debuted, the racists were of course, legion, but I also ran into a number of people who were sincerely confused as to why they'd recast Temuera Morrison. Going off the seven films that existed at the time, it wasn't unreasonable to read the prequel trilogy as an origin story for where the OT stormtroopers came from. Going only off the nine films that exist now, it still isn't unreasonable! It's muddied from so many different directions by their failure to establish the ground rules in the mainline films before they tried to put on subversive airs about it. I am still irritated by this.

Next up is how Han Solo was written. I actually liked the tack they took with him quite a bit. Because initially, right, his role in the movie is just to be Han Solo. He's back, and he hasn't changed! He's still kicking ass and taking names, he's still the lovable scoundrel you knew and loved from your childhood- and the principle cast members react to his presence with the same reverence the film's trying to invoke in the audience, they've grown up hearing the same stories about him. Except that episode 7, at least, is also very aware of the fact that if Han Solo is still recognizably the same guy thirty years on, it indicates that things have gone totally off the rails for him. We find out that the lovable rogue routine is the result of him backsliding, his happy ending blown up by massive personal tragedy rooted in communicative failures and (implicitly) his parental shortcomings. It feels deliberately in conversation with the nostalgic impulse driving the entire film- here's your childhood hero back just as you remember, here's what that stagnation costs. And it also feels like it's in conversation with what was a fairly common strain of Han Solo Take- the idea that Ep. 6 cuts off at a very convenient point, and that Han and Leia's fly-by-night wartime relationship wouldn't survive the rigors of domesticity. Obviously, that's not the only direction you can take with the character; the old EU basically threaded the needle of keeping Han recognizable without rolling back his character development gains. But it felt like they were actually committing to a direction, a direction that was aware of the space, and not a reflexively deferential and flattering one, which at the time I appreciated! The problem, of course, is that for it to really land, you need to have a really, really strong idea of what actually went down-of what Han's specific shortcomings and failures were. And given the game of ping-pong they proceeded to play with Kylo Ren's characterization, this turned out to be. Less than doable.

Kylo Ren is the third thing about Episode 7 that I liked. His character concept is basically an extended admission by the filmmakers that there's no way to top Vader as an antagonist. Instead, they lean into the opposite direction- they make him underwhelming on purpose. Someone who's chasing Vader's legacy in the same way any post-OT Star Wars villain is going to, pursuing Vader's aesthetic and the associated power without really understanding or undergoing the convoluted web of suffering and dysfunction that produced Vader. It's framed as a genuine twist that there's nothing particularly wrong with his face under that helmet. Whatever it takes to be Vader, he doesn't have it, and he knows that he doesn't have it, and the pursuit of it drives him to greater and greater acts of cartoonish villainy. The failure to one-up Vader is offloaded to the character instead of the writers, and it was genuinely interesting to watch. For one movie. The problem, of course, is that if the entire character archetype is "Vader, but less compelling," you can't try to give the bastard Vader's exact character arc. You can't retroactively bolt on a Vader-tier tragic backstory when you spent a whole movie signaling that whatever happened to him wasn't as compelling as what happened to Vader. You can't milk his angst for two more movies when it's the kind of angst on display in "Rocking the Suburbs" by Ben Folds!

There's a level on which I feel like Moff Gideon was a semi-successful implementation of Vader-Wannabe concept; he's the same kind of middling operator courting the Vader Aesthetic for clout, but he's doing it in the context of the imperial warlord era, where there's a lot of practical power available to anyone who can paint themselves to the Imperial Remnants as a plausible successor to Vader. Hand in Hand with this obvious politicking, Gideon is loathsome, which relieves the writers of the burden of having to plausibly redeem the guy; he's doing exactly what he needs to do and there'll never be a mandate to expand him beyond what his characterization can support. Unfortunately, the calculated and cynical nature of how he's emulating Vader precludes the immaturity and hero-worship elements on display with Kylo, which is unfortunate; the sincerity on display in Kylo's pursuit of authenticity is an important part of why he worked, to the extent that he worked at all, and it'd be worth unpacking in a better trilogy. As he stands Kylo is a clever idea, and that's all he is- he lacks the scaffolding to go from merely clever to actively good.

[passionesolja]

I feel like Star Wars missed the opportunity to make Darth Maul and Count Dooku beef. Like all there’s this conversation about Maul and Kenobi’s relationship but imagine being Count Dooku and you gotta live with the fact that the mf who killed your Padawan (one of the events that ended up making you align yourself with the Sith) is alive and living his best life. I would be so pissed. Sidious had to tell Count Dooku not to fuck with Maul bc I refuse that Dooku had no want to slide for Qui Gon Jinn

[revanisadumbass]

Truly do think that the best thing the Sequel Trilogy could have done with regards to the Jedi--aka what Rian Johnson could have done instead of long visual gags and topless Kylo--would have been to reveal that the Sith came first.

That's the reveal that leaves Luke Skywalker depressed on Ach-To for years--to find the first Jedi Temple, the ancient texts, and instead of answers there is just the despair that the first Jedi were Sith. No hope, no guidance from Jedi long gone or renewed connection to a people and faith who have been all but lost. Simply an old man who has nowhere left to turn.

You don't even have to change TLJ's main plot, because that reveal paves the way for the doubt Luke is feeling. Is the darkness just inevitable? Why fight to build something when even the guardians of peace and justice began in darkness and empire?

The answer is, of course, because choice is just as powerful as destiny. The Jedi exist because a group of Sith looked around them and chose to be good. The galaxy is good, people can choose to be good. That's why they fight, why the Jedi can't end--because wherever darkness threatens to triumph, there will be those who choose to oppose it.

[david-talks-sw]

Luke Skywalker in 'The Last Jedi' (1/2)

Luke in The Last Jedi... love it or hate it, it's a difficult subject.

I personally stand somewhere in the middle. I don't think Luke was "ruined"... I'd argue that, from a purely in-universe perspective, his subplot actually tracks with what was previously established in the original films.

There are issues, but I think they are mainly found on an out-of-universe/structural level (which I'll get into in post 2/2). For now, let's take a deep dive and unpack why this portrayal isn't all that problematic.

The most commonly-heard argument is that:

"They ruined Luke's character! He would never go into exile or abandon his sister and friends!"

Simply put, Luke used to be:

an optimist

so brave he'd risk his life to save his friends,

aspired to become a Jedi.

Whereas, in The Last Jedi, he's:

jaded and depressed,

hides/abandons his sister and friends, like a coward,

says the Jedi need to die?!

Now the fact is... Luke is 24 years older when he goes into exile, 30 years older in The Last Jedi. People change, with age.

In Luke's case, he matured from an impatient kid who'd rashly run to save his friends, like in Empire Strikes Back, to a grown-up who makes hard choices and restrains himself from doing that, even though he desperately wants to.

Luke tells himself this is a self-sacrifice, this is for the greater good.

"Because he’s the last Jedi and a symbol of that it then becomes this self-sacrifice, he has take himself out of it, when he knows his friends are dying, when the thing he’d most like to do is get back in the fight." - Rian Johnson, The Empire Film Podcast, 2018

And Rian Johnson didn't want Luke to come across as a coward, so he also gave Luke an argument that initially seems to make sense:

The Jedi way is flawed and inevitably leads to arrogance. Proof: the Sith originally came from Jedi. His own new order is no exception to that rule, even if he thought it was (in his arrogance, he believed his own legend).

So if he leaves and stays in exile? No more Jedi, no more Jedi-turned-darksiders that can mess up the galaxy.

The Force will keep trying to balance itself and a new, worthier source will appear (in the form of Rey).

But while his reasoning that "the Jedi are inevitably arrogant" seems sound and reasonable... it's wrong.

Just like Dooku's reasoning that "the Jedi are corrupt" seems sound, but is ultimately wrong.

Just like Anakin's rationalization that "the Jedi are evil" seems sound nope, that one doesn't even seem sound, it's just plain wrong.

Where is it wrong, in Luke's case?

Well, he's rationalizing his actions by blaming the Jedi religion, instead of admitting his own failure.

"The notion of, 'Nope, toss this all away and find something new,' is not really a valid choice, I think. Ultimately, Luke's exile and his justifications for it are all covering over his guilt over Kylo." - Rian Johnson, The Art of The Last Jedi, 2017

"In his own way, [Luke is] trying to disconnect, he’s trying to throw away the past, he’s saying 'Let’s kill [the Jedi] religion. It’s the thing that’s messing us up, thins thing right here, let’s kill it.’ And the truth is, it’s a personal failure. It’s not religion, it’s his own human nature that’s betrayed him." - Rian Johnson, The Empire Film Podcast, 2018

He fucked up, plain and simple.

But it's not because “he’s a Jedi and that made him arrogant and the Jedi mentality is flawed”, as he claims early on in the movie.

He failed because he's flawed. Luke is human and had a moment of weakness where he was scared shitless and acted on instinct.

Yoda's spirit helps him realize this, and he fixes his mistake by allowing Leia and the resistance to save themselves. And as he does it, he acknowledges the importance of the Jedi and their teachings.

And it's also why, in The Rise of Skywalker, he has the maturity to admit that he wasn't staying on the island out of some self-sacrificial gesture, as he kept telling himself. Truth is, he was afraid. Afraid he'd screw up again.

Do the movies go about this in an emotionally-satisfying way? That's debatable. But, on paper, I don't think Luke's behavior in The Last Jedi is too much of a shark-jump considering how

THE ORIGINAL IDEA CAME FROM GEORGE LUCAS!

In the couple of months after the Disney sale, Lucas developed the Sequels with Michael Arndt in late 2012/early 2013, and concept art was made by artists like Christian Alzmann.

Note: the image on the left got a “Fabouloso” stamp of approval from Lucas!

Lucas’ sequels would feature a Luke Skywalker who was a figure like the jaded, reclusive Colonel Kurtz in the movie Apocalypse Now (which, fun fact, Lucas helped write and was originally set to direct).

The reason why Luke was in self-imposed exile wasn’t specified, all we know is that he was:

hiding from the world in a cave,

haunted by the betrayal of one of his students,

and spiritually in a dark place.

Other concept artists, like James Clyne, tried to illustrate the First Jedi Temple and some of the designs were approved by Lucas, such as the one below.

Eventually, Kira the female Jedi-wannabe protagonist (who eventually became Rey) would seek him out so he can train her.

This Luke would be a much more prominent part of Episode VII (instead of only appearing at the end) but still died at the end of Episode VIII.

For sources and more information about George Lucas’ plans for the Sequel Trilogy, read this post.

The only part that wasn't detailed by Lucas were the specifics of why he went into exile. But all in all, this sounds pretty similar to what we got in The Last Jedi.

"Luke would never try to kill Ben!”

I agree. And he didn’t try to kill Ben. He stopped himself.

And this version of the event?

This didn’t happen.

What Kylo tells Rey is his version of the story. And he thinks he’s telling the truth... but his recollection of the event is warped as this was obviously a very traumatic event for him.

"I don't think he's lying actually. In my mind, that was his experience. [...] I think that it's probably twisted a little bit by Kylo's own anger and his own prejudices against Luke, but I feel like he's actually telling her the truth of his experience." - Rian Johnson, Star Wars: The Last Jedi commentary, 2017

The narrative frames the third version of the story as the one that’s objectively how events went down. Because Rey believes him, and Rey is both the protagonist and a stand-in for the audience.

Now, if you think Luke’s word is unreliable and you have an easier time trusting Kylo’s version of the story, go to town.

But I think that if you actually believe would Luke would never try to kill Ben, you’d take Luke's second retelling of the story at face value.

I know I do.

“Okay, but he would never consider killing a child, like Ben. He saw the good in Darth Vader!”

First off, Luke refers to Ben as "a scared boy" because, he's a middle-aged man. But objectively, Ben was 23 years old.

But also, I mean... with Vader, Luke actually had the luxury ignorance.

Do you think would have truly gone on that Second Death Star if he had actually witnessed Vader:

choke his Padmé,

kill Obi-Wan,

actively try to kill Ahsoka,

murder Jedi younglings,

betray and hunt down his other Jedi brothers and sisters,

and cold-bloodedly kill countless innocents, one by one?

There’s a difference between watching him kill Ben Kenobi (who still ‘lived’ as a ghost and talked to him seconds later) and hearing a couple of rebel pilots get blasted in the trench run, and actually seeing all the horrors he’s committed.

Don't get me wrong, Luke knows Vader is evil, absolutely. But if he had seen this side of Vader, the needlessly cruel side...

... I'm not sure he'd have been as compassionate.

Proof: Obi-Wan, someone who deeply loved Anakin (to the point where he could never bring himself to kill him), someone that genuinely wishes that Luke can redeem him... also feels that, realistically, attempting to do so would be pointless.

And hell, even without really seeing all the massacres Vader committed, the second the latter threatened his sister, Luke went berserk and almost killed him!

So the question becomes:

“What could make Luke - trained Jedi Master, long-time optimist and overall compassionate to a fault - consider killing Ben?”

All we’re told is that he looked into Ben’s mind and saw darkness and the destruction, pain, death, and the end of everything he loves.

The specifics are left to our imagination. They could include:

the sight of Kylo slaughtering his parents and Chewie with a smile on his blood-smeared face,

the smell of Han's burning flesh in the air,

the wails of Chewbacca as he's run through by Kylo,

the faint sound of Leia's tears hitting the ground,

the destruction of the New Republic's citizens and planets.

Whatever it may have been, it was intense. Because Force-induced visions are vivid as hell, as has been shown throughout the franchise.

It's not like watching something on a TV, you're there, all your senses are affected in an extremely powerful way.

And the vision Luke experienced scared him so much that even shortly after it, when looking at a sleeping young man, all he sees is that evil monster from the vision. So he tremblingly draws his saber.

But it's evident that Luke wasn't thinking clearly or rationally.

His base emotions had taken the wheel, he was being tempted by the Dark Side.

"He doesn’t give in to the Dark Side, it’s a moment of temptation to the Dark Side. It reminds me very much of when Vader is tempting Luke, when Luke is underneath the stairs in [Return of the] Jedi, lit with that very beautiful half-and-half, the duality of these two sides of him being pulled. And that’s really what that moment is for me, it’s a moment of temptation to the Dark Side for Luke." - Rian Johnson, IGN, 2017

And yet despite seeing all that... Luke catches himself.

It's not the first time that Luke almost does something horrible to a family member and catches himself. Again, 24 years prior, he almost murdered his own father in a fit of rage.

The scene in Ben's hut intentionally parallels that outburst he has in Return of the Jedi.

A terrible future is presented before Luke.

He reacts instinctively, is tempted by the Dark Side.

He snaps out of it.

Even the angle and framing of the shot is designed to match:

"Some of these parallels are just “it’s a close-up of the same character” but this one was very intentional. It’s why I had him look down at his mechanical hand holding the saber." - Rian Johnson, Twitter, 2019

The only real difference is that, in Return of the Jedi, Luke only comes to his senses after a frenzied onslaught during which he actively tried to kill his own Dad.

24 years later, despite having witnessed that terrible future even more vividly than he did on the Second Death Star, he catches himself merely seconds later. Instead of going on a whole rampage, he stops the moment the lightsaber turns on.

I'd call that "progress".

"But Luke should've learned his lesson and known better than to give in to the Dark Side!"

Resisting the temptation of the Dark Side is by no means a one-and-done thing. It's not a power-up that you get, it's a constant struggle.

"I think it disrespects the character of Luke by treating him not as a true mythic hero overcoming recurring wounds & flaws, but as a video game character who has achieved a binary, permanent power-up." - Rian Johnson, Twitter, 2019

Dave Filoni says so too.

"In the end, it’s about fundamentally becoming selfless, moreso than selfish. It seems so simple, but it’s so hard to do. And when you’re tempted by the dark side, you don’t overcome it once in life and then you’re good. It’s a constant." - Dave Filoni, Rebels Remembered, 2019

Hell, even George Lucas stated something along those lines:

"The Sith practice the dark side and are way out of balance. The Jedi aren’t as much out of balance because they’re the light side of the Force. They still have the bad side of the Force in them, but they keep it in check. It’s always there, so it can always erupt if you let your guard down." - George Lucas, The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, 2020

Learning the lesson once doesn't mean you've learned it forever. Especially with the Dark Side, which poses a never-ending battle.

In-universe examples: Anakin learned to let go of his attachments during the “Padawan Lost” arc of TCW.

A year and a half later, he’s butchering kids because he can’t let go of his attachments.

And during wartime, Yoda found himself repressing his darker instincts and ignoring their existence. Thus, when he had to face them, he struggled to acknowledge and control them.

So considering Luke didn't go "rampage mode" with Ben, as he did when he tried to kill Vader, I think he deserves some credit.

Finally, I've heard this insane argument many times, as a response to the above points:

"Yeah but Luke wasn't actually trying to kill Vader! He was holding back, he was trying to keep him alive!"

And, uh... no. He wasn't.

He lost his shit, folks. And almost killed Vader.

Like, right here?

⬆️ If Vader hadn’t moved his saber to intercept Luke’s blade, Luke would’ve stabbed Vader in the face.

⬆️ If Vader hadn’t held his sword up in time, SWISH, there goes the top of his helmet AT LEAST, if not the rest of his head.

⬆️ If Vader hadn’t dodged he’d be chopped in two.

⬆️ If Vader’s arm gave out slightly sooner, if his blade faltered just a little lower, if he loosened his grip on his saber a bit, Vader would be cleaved in two.

My point is that if you swing at someone with a lightsaber? They’ll get chopped. And if you aim for the head or the chest? You’re trying to kill them.

Before Luke got a grip, throughout that whole rampage, the only thing that kept Vader alive was his own skill.

Otherwise, Luke would’ve murdered him in a fit of rage.

If Luke was holding back, then the theme of "resisting the Dark Side" completely falls apart.

There's no indication that he was restraining himself, in he script.

And just look at the imagery.

Luke is surrounded by darkness, symbolizing how he's being seduced by the Dark Side, he's being tempted to give in to his anger towards the man who hurt his friends and took his hand.

Then Vader threatens Leia.

And the next time we see Luke, he's silhouetted, his face is all black.

Luke was originally trying to hold back and talk Vader down, but fails to control his instincts and gives in to fear, to anger, to the Dark Side... and goes all out.

He swings at his father furiously and keeps swinging, until he cuts off Vader's hand... and he is about to deliver the final blow…

… when he sees Vader’s mechanical hand and realizes that by giving in to his anger, that path will inevitably lead him to become exactly like this half-machine half-man laying at his feet. That’s where the path to power leads.

And so he makes a decision:

He’s a Jedi. Like his father before him. His compassion for Anakin is stronger than his hate for Vader.

That's the narrative intent.

It has to be.

Because if he had been "holding back" throughout that entire bit, then the stakes are lowered immeasurably, John Williams' saddening score is misplaced, the lightsaber choreography is misleading, etc.

For the above-listed reasons, I think Luke's portrayal in The Last Jedi doesn't really contradict anything in the previously-established lore. It works, it's the typical "old cowboy needs to get back in the saddle" trope. Frankly, I can defend this subject all day long... so where's the problem?

The problem comes in at an out-of-universe level. While it's not inconsistent... it's also not satisfying.

The thing is, if you...

... take one of the most brave and optimistic characters in the franchise, then open the film saying "well, now he's jaded and in hiding", without giving us context on how he became that way...

... take a character whose arc was specifically about controlling his emotions, then show him be ruled by those emotions without providing context for what made him do that...

... then that kills the suspension of disbelief, for a lot of fans.

And, as such, they'll have a much harder time going along with what you're saying.

Because "show, don't tell" is one of the most basic principles in visual storytelling. And we weren't shown:

"Ben being increasingly violent during training",

"Luke sitting Ben down and having a talk with him, only to be ignored" or

"the horrors Luke saw in Ben's head".

I have no doubt that those things happened, in-universe.

But if we're talking about a movie-going experience, many were left emotionally-unsatisfied.

Because all that stuff was in there... but only subtextually. It was up to the fans to imagine on the details. Normally, I'd argue that's what Star Wars is all about: allowing fans to dream and think outside the box. But in this specific case, I think many fans would've rather had a more complete and explicit story. Because it's Luke Skywalker.

And yet... even these structural and writing issues had a logic behind them, and if you ask me... there was no other direction that this story could be taken in.

We'll explore this in more detail in part 2/2.

[avercado5]

Timeline of Armitage Hux's Life

Excuse the formatting... tumblr has no idents and it makes this stuff impossible. Please let me know of any corrections and I will update this. I tried to be as accurate as possible, but some of these dates are guesswork (and thus have a span of years it might be).

1 BBY - Born to Brendol Hux & a kitchen woman on Arkanis

5 ABY -

Evacuates Arkanis with Brendol Hux

Is given protection by Rae Sloane

10-13 ABY - Has lost Sloane's protection/contact and is abused by Brendol again

Sometime before Parnassos - Becomes a General

27-29 ABY - Meets Brendol Hux at the crash sight on Parnassos, witnesses bombardment of the planet.

30 ABY -

Allows Phasma to kill Brendol

(with Phasma) recruits Jinata security to begin capturing infants for the stormtrooper program.

33 ABY - Marooned with Kylo Ren

33 ABY - Kills Admiral Brooks

34 ABY -

Events of TFA

Events of TLJ

Rumors spread about Snoke's successor, many (incorrectly) assume it's Hux.

Travels to Titan for updates on refueling stations and hunt for resistance cells (With Pyre)

Fleet destroys Tag'Nuhna for helping resistance

Skirmish on Mon Cala

Battle of Battuu

35 ABY - Events of TRoS

35 ABY Onward- Hux lives :)

SOURCES:

5 ABY - Aftermath

10-13 ABY - Age of Resistance Comic

27-30 ABY - Phasma

33 ABY - Age of Resistance Comic

34 ABY - TFA, TLJ, Star Wars Resistance

35 ABY - TRoS

[curlytheintrovert]

Why I Love Reylo (Pt.2)

(My old post for reasons unknown got deleted😭)

One of my other favorite parts of this couple is that they are atypically gender reversed. It’s one of the many reasons this ship is so intriguing and unique compared to others. Let me explain. Typically in most hetero romances the man is the abrasive, closed off one at first and is generally a prickly little shit. While the girl is typically softer, a little more compassionate and open minded. This not the case with Rey and Kylo.

Rey’s first interaction with Kylo is shooting a blaster at him multiple times in succession. Granted she does have a Force vision of Kylo at Maz’s which makes her justifiably hostile and afraid of him. During the interrogation scene Kylo reads her mind and speaks her thoughts out loud: she wants to kill him. Rey calls him a creature in a mask and angrily tells him to get out of her head. And then proceeds to spit Kylo’s greatest fear back in his face with such venom. I love how she snarls: “You. You’re afraid.”

Kylo on the other hand only defends himself from her blasts and force stops her from shooting any further. He gently says: “The girl I’ve heard so much about.” Kylo easily could have dragged her away or thrown her into the hands of the troopers beside him—but instead he makes Rey sleep and scoops her up into his arms bridal style. In the interrogation room Kylo sees Rey’s fear and says she’s his guest. He takes off his mask. Then explains things calmly—never raising his voice above a murmur. The curiosity about her is strong as Kylo probes her mind and the responses to what he finds there are emotional. I love so much how he says “Don’t be afraid, I feel it too.” It just feels so incredibly kind considering the circumstances—like that was the first little glimpse of Ben we got.

The shift that happens when Rey uses the force back on Kylo is what really sets the tone for the rest of their relationship. Rey attacks and responds negatively—Kylo gently deflects and tries to connect. If you watch throughout the rest of the films this dynamic doesn’t really change. Almost all of their force bonds in TLJ are similar: Rey being barbarous and Kylo being benign. A majority of their saber fights are like this too—Kylo plays defense, is hesitant to pull out his saber multiple times or looks like he’s doesn’t want to fight her period.

See what I mean?! Rey is hostile and prickly—Kylo is open minded and gentle.

The other gender swapped aspect is that in a way Kylo is the damsel of this pairing. He’s trapped far away, lonely and miserable, in a figurative tower. Rey fights Luke for his cause and goes to rescue and save him if she can. But I also see Kylo as an emotional damsel too. He’s so lost, and hurt and twisted. Rey offers him a way back—she’s the only one who can—and in the long run is the very reason he is able to become Ben Solo again. But it’s when Rey lets her guard down and mellows her prejudice that their relationship flourishes. Kylo/Ben is already ready and waiting to love and be loved…

Man, this pairing is complex and fun to analyze!

[kylosbreedingkink]

The big takeaway from Hyperspace Stories is that Kylo still feels the light so strongly that it completely blindsided him and beckoned him to go help someone he barely even likes.

He was so hyper fixated on this Force presence he felt that he was ready to kill for it, just for the Force to intervene and give him the sense that someone he was supposed to be working with was in danger.

This isn't the first time this has been shown to happen. It is also the only thing that Snoke can be referring to as the Light distracting him. If we go by the idea that the Light is inherently selfless and the Dark is selfish - him stopping what he was doing due to go help someone is a very Light sided thing to do.

Which is exactly what we know of Kylo. Someone struggling between the Light and the Dark, feeling it tear him in two ways. So much of his life had been given up for the Light, that selflessness in helping other, doing what others want for him, that his constant desire to do what he wants for himself (or believes he wants for himself, at least) is the only rebellion he has, and is his link to the Dark.

But despite being so entrenched in the Dark, despite being so strong in it, the Light still beckons him and he can't help but follow its call.

I also wonder a bit on this exact scenario - he used to teach at Luke's school. No doubt he went off on trips with students and no doubt he learned to keep a general feel of where the students were, making sure they were safe and not in trouble. Exactly the sort of skill that a teacher of the Force would use. This ability is probably so well honed that he can't turn it off, so Hux's ego-driven bullshit and that inherent Light sided selflessness dragged him from his desire in this moment.

The comic ends how this post begins, Snoke commenting on the Light in Kylo. Though interestingly, despite telling him he should have focused more on his own desire in the Dark and found out what the Force presence was instead of the Light sided need to help a comrade, Snoke is not aggressive about it. He seems accepting that this is a part of his student, almost resigned to it. Many times Snoke has used violence in his training of Kylo, but in this instance where Kylo has used the light, he simply tells him to try and snuff it out.

There is no anger here from Snoke at Kylo for not succeeding due to the Light, when Snoke has shown anger at Kylo for many other things.

[saggitary]

Hey! Did you like the Holdo Manuever from Epsiode 8 of Star Wars? ⬇️

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

The Loss of Magic in Adaptations

I've noticed that in a lot of media (TV shows, movies, some books) it's such a popular trend to end the story by removing the magic or supernatural elements. Now in movies like HTTYD this is played as a separation for the betterment of both the magical (the dragons) and the normal, but they are still able to interact at times. Others, like BBC's Merlin, have the loss of magic as a tragedy or a consequence of the character's actions. Yet others, like LOTR, simply have it as a sign of a shift to a new age. All of these examples I don't have an issue with, the ones I do are when the loss of magic creates plot holes, messes up character arcs, and rewriting the world building. What I'm going to focus on in this post are the decision to remove magic and the supernatural from Game of Thrones and the Star Wars franchise.

The first example I'll give is Game of Thrones. The AOIAF books are full of magic, from glass candles to forest witches to ice zombies and dragons. In the adaptation, the show runners made the decision to remove most of the magical elements. This decision not only removes major plot points, it also takes away from the characters themselves. For example, Euron Greyjoy from the books possesses a dragon binder of Old Valyria, is going to Old Town to take the magic glass candles from the Citadel, and wants to bring about the apocalypse. In the show, since they took away the magical elements of his story, he is simply a man who wants power and a good fuck. He is completely undermined as a character and turned into an ineffective villain. Another example is the character Quaithe. She is a shadowbinder from Asshai who visits Daenerys through visions throughout the series and encourages her to visit Asshai. She has been set up as important to the future of Daenerys' character and her future with the dragons. In the show, however, she is reduced to saying a single line to Jorah in one episode about how Daenerys needs protection in Qarth. Speaking of Qarth, GOT completely removed Daenerys' prophetic visions in the House of the Undying, basically removing a major part of her Qarth storyline. These decisions among many others negatively impact the show and it was only done to appeal to "normal" people in the audience (ie, non fantasy nerds).

Star Wars is another franchise that suffers from some kind of distaste for supernatural elements. Star Wars is not usually thought of as a magical, but let's be real here, the Force functions as a magical system and it is a supernatural element, so I'm counting it. Dave Filoni has done a lot to pull SW back into the very supernatural story it was in the original and prequel trilogies, with the focus on the Force and Force-users in the Clone Wars, Rebels, and Ahsoka shows. However, this seems kind of pointless because of the sequel trilogy. I've done a post on this, where I basically said that the sequel trilogy makes the world building Filoni is doing kind of obsolete. I won't rehash that here, instead I'm going to talk about how the force itself is portrayed. At the time of the sequels, the Force has returned to turmoil despite Anakin's sacrifice. The Jedi are all but extinct and the sith are rising again. By the end, Rey has decided the Jedi must stay gone and the galaxy is left with a massive power vacuum after the fall of the New Republic and the First Order. The Jedi are meant to be protectors of the balance of the Force, clearly they lost sight of that during the Old Republic and Luke in the sequels has also failed. Yes, perhaps the Jedi as a name or religion should fall, but their ultimate goal is still proven to be necessary. Yet, there is no set up for a continuation of that goal; Finn is not training his abilities, nor does he seem to want to and Rey agrees the Jedi should be gone but there is no conversation about what should happen now. There is also a clear lack of the Force in the galaxy. In the original trilogy, this is explained by the Empire's efforts to take force sensitive children and turn them into Inquisitors as well as it's goal of suppressing powers that could oppose them. Yet there is no growth of the Force now that it is rebalanced and unsuppressed. It's fading, just like magic in stories like LOTR, but the Force is meant to be an all-encompassing thing that extends beyond just Force sensitive creatures. Therefore, making it so the Force is fading into obscurity is rewriting what is supposed to be a concrete truth of the franchise.

There are other examples of this desire to remove magic (and magic adjacent things) from media. Like taking the inherent magic surrounding the elves in Rings of Power and removing the elves and dwarves from the Eragon movie. There's nothing wrong with magic and the supernatural, especially when it's such an integral part of the story.

[artist-issues]

The characterizations for those first two Star Wars Sequels movies were Plain Good. Poe, Finn, and Rey were delightful to get to know! They were likeable people! It’s so nice to rewatch them and relive the fun of when Star Wars was coming out in theaters again.

Poe - In The Force Awakens, he’s a cocky hotshot who keeps making the hero-move against impossible odds. Sending his defenseless droid into a desert so he can take on the bad guys single-handedly? No problem. Fly a ship he’s never flown before with a Stormtrooper he just met to escape capture? Totally calm about that. He’s comfortable living in the moment and taking big risks. After all, he’s serving directly under Leia, Savior of the Galaxy, champion of the free world; he’s walking with giants, he’s got to act like it! And then in The Last Jedi he has to learn to stop doing that. Be a leader. Leaders look at the big picture, and focus on how to move forward instead of just saving the day in the moment. He can’t keep being cocky and reckless. Taking a stand against a Dreadnaught and facing down the First Order with cocky quips? Easy. But letting others make the sacrifice play while you live to lead, so the galaxy can go on hoping, and fight another day? Not so easy for Poe.

Finn - In The Force Awakens he’s a Stormtrooper who wants to run away from fights. He’s got a compassionate streak, sure; he doesn’t want to kill, and when he escapes, he likes to do it in the company of people who talk to him like he’s more than a number in an army list. But the point is, he’s out to save his own skin, and the skin of anybody who’s good to him. Then he learns to stop running and start fighting for something worthwhile. He starts to learn that by the end of that first movie when he’s running into danger and fighting for Rey. But it’s not until The Last Jedi that he understands: fighting isn’t the point. (And how great is that in Star Wars?) After all, even when he’s fought, it’s just to escape. He doesn’t really believe evil can be defeated—just escaped or sacrificed against. But in The Last Jedi, he learns to stop looking at it negatively, and start looking forward; don’t just fight for things that you love, or to hurt what you hate. Fight to save what you love. Actually focusing on what you love is what helps you to accomplish keeping it safe. It’s a stormtrooper learning about hope.

Rey - UAGH she’s a lonely soul who’s dedicated her whole life to having faith that her family will come back for her when you meet her in The Force Awakens. She hangs all her identity on that; she’s nobody, from nowhere, hoping that someone will come back and tell her who she is and that she’s loved. It doesn’t matter if a brave Resistance Hero believes she can help him, or if THE Smuggler Han Solo believes she can be part of his crew, or if a thousand year-old wise woman believes she could be the heir to the Luke Skywalker Legend—Rey can’t settle for their belief in her. She thinks she needs her parents’ belief in her to be somebody. But she learns that, even though her family isn’t with her, The Force is. And she needs to find belonging ahead, not behind. So her faith dips it’s toe into a new object—The Force— by the time you get to The Last Jedi. Then she’s still hoping to find out that she’s somebody who’s loved; maybe The Force can be her key to finding out about where she belongs and how she fits. She thinks it’s led her to remind Luke Skywalker of who he is by doing what he did; redeeming the bad guy. But she fails. And that’s all she really learns: that it’s not about her, and it never was, just like it was never about Luke. She doesn’t need to find her identity in where she comes from or who believes in her: she just needs to do the right thing for the future.

And we could talk about Kylo Ren but he gets a post of his own.

Point being, these movies had characters and a direction that were Plain Good and going somewhere, and if I go back and watch them, I remember how fun it all was

[thevibraniumveterans]

《The Mandalorian》 『SEASON 3 : Episode 7 - Chapter 23』 - 「THE SPIES」 // Finale Part 1 of 2

SPOILERS!

Thoughts on rewatch…

Kane being an insider is not surprising. She was always suspicious.

The mention of Grand Admiral Thrawn is by no means a mistake, in light of the Ahsoka trailer at Star Wars Celebration. He’s mentioned quite a few times in this conversation between the Imperials in the room via Hologram. And he is currently somewhere out there, wherever Ezra Bridger might be; which will perfectly lead up to the Ahsoka series.

The mention of Commandant Brendol Hux is no surprise either; he’s gotta be General Hux’s dad, which partially explains how Hux came to be in the First Order in the Sequel Trilogy.

Project Necromancer - no secret code name, it’s for bringing Palpatine back to life. Ian McDiarmid pointed out at Star Wars Celebration 2023 that Palpatine does not like to lose; he will do anything possible to win, even if that means coming back from the dead once again. The mention that Thrawn is “missing” and the Imperials needing “new leadership”obviously points to the inevitable reanimation of Palpatine. “Somehow, Palpatine returned”. Yes, somehow, because the rebels and the New Republic did not know. That was how secretive it was, but we know now how that’s coming along. It’s all falling into place.

The Watch’s light cruiser having the Mythosaur’s logo on the underside of their ship reminds me of how Thrawn also had/has the logo of a Chimaera on his ship. Because what else do you do with a ship that big and when you claim it as your own? You draw a big-ass symbol on the underside of it, that’s what.

It’s also a tad funnier that the Anzellan feels more like a puppet because of the way it looks and moves, as opposed to Grogu, who feels more realistic. But hey, puppets, so.

Grogu repeatedly hitting the yes and no buttons is hilarious! And the fact that he’s hitting it NONSTOP as they walk through the town center is extra funny. Also, Grogu picking up a Meiloorun fruit is by no means an accident; this is foreshadowing the Ahsoka series, since the fruit was first seen in Rebels and also the last time it was seen before this episode.

Bo-Katan speaks up and makes a plan. And it’s not surprising that at first nobody speaks up; but it isn’t until Din “I didn’t want to be here but here I am so I might as well” Djarin offers to join her, that Koska Reeves says she will go too. Only after she has spoken, Axe agrees to go, and so does Paz Vizsla. It’s something that reunites them. The music as they head off-planet is beautifully haunting and confident.

The drop hatch in Bo’s ship opens, and the volunteers look down on the planet they once called home. They shake their head in horror and dismay at what’s left. It’s… really something, to feel secondhand dread and sorrow.

Din spots something in the distance; Bo realizes it’s the Nite Owls, the group she once used to be a part of. But how did she know, and why? They have nothing but a weathered and worn ground transport.

The captain of the Nite Owls recognize Bo and refer to her full title as Lady Bo-Katan Kryze. They do not forget that she was and remains Mandalorian royalty.

During the dinner on the ground transport boat, the captain spoke of the refusal to give up, but Bo drops a verbal and historical bombshell on the entire party: she had to surrender under the choices given to her, in that if she did, her people would be spared. She surrendered, but as the Empire is wont to do, they didn’t care and bombed her world anyway. She did what she thought was the right thing to do, she did what she thought she had to do to save her people, but it still didn’t end right. Bo isn’t usually one for diplomacy and talks for peace - that was her sister Satine’s specialty. However, because Bo did what she thought was right, it still wasn’t right. And she knew this, even if if it was “the only chance” to save her people, according to her. It was her mistake and she owes up to it. She screwed over big time in trying to do what she thought best for her people. What would have happened had she not surrendered? Would she have died earlier?

The captain brings up Death Watch - the very same terrorist splinter group who opposed the peacekeepings of Duchess Satine Kryze. The Armorer notes how “Death Watch exists no longer.”

Bo states, “Our people have suffered time and time again. From division and squabbling factions.” I feel like she is in part referring to how differences between her and her sister Satine - war vs peace - have driven them apart, and now that Satine has long been murdered and gone, it’s caused Bo nothing but pain and loneliness. It’s driven the Mandalorians nowhere but apart. “It is always our own division that destroys us” is a very powerful and deeply regretful statement that Bo makes.

Bo admits her mistake. She is by no means perfect; she’s lost everything, and part of it by her own hubris. “I was selfish. And this is what it wrought,” she laments. When Din speaks to her, she admits to not knowing if she is able to keep the Mandalorians from splintering like they always did. It’s a very heavy duty, weighed down with much sorrow and regret.

Din speaks of the Darksaber: “I only know of this weapon what you taught me. To be honest, it means nothing to me or my people. Nor does station or bloodline. What means more to me is honor. And loyalty. And character. These are the reasons I serve you, Lady Kryze. Your song is not yet written. I will serve you until it is.” The thing about the Darksaber is that what we know of it from the Clone Wars and Rebels is that whosoever wields the blade gets to rule Mandalore, via bloodline and station. Seems like only the Mandalorian royals have held this blade for ages. However, Bo is a princess with a ravaged planet, unsure of leading a fractured people who have never once known peace. Din respects her not because she is a princess, but because of who she is as a person. He sees a loyal warrior who does not want to give up despite all signs pointing to how and why she should. She’s lost everything and deserves nothing yet here she stands on her own two feet, against the world and many more to come. Her story we know but little of, and the fact that Din knows her story is really only just beginning says a lot about her as a Mandalorian herself. Mandalorians do not quit, that much we know.

It feels bright and upbeat and deceptively confident when the series theme music plays as the crew set of in search of the Great Forge.

The fight between Paz and Axe is a foreshadow. And it’s funny that Grogu stops the fight before it gets worse, as he’s technically not a Mandalorian so he’s from “neither” side and so, he could step in. Hilarious how a child can stop two grown men from punching each other’s daylights out.

The Mythosaur emerges! And I like how it serves as an incentive for the Mandalorians to go further into their former civilization.

When the Imperials come in with their jetpacks, the first thing I thought of was that little mini-arc in Rebels where Sabine was revealed to have created some tech for the Empire that had something to do with the Mandalorian beskar armor, whereupon she was like “yeah I did that but I must destroy that tech because it’s bad even though I did it when was in the Academy”

I thought it was cool when the theme song played as Din brought up the back of the war party, and advanced to the front of it, charging headfirst into battle, with Paz and Bo right behind him.

Din is captured and disarmed, and Moff Gideon states, “Thanks to your planet’s rich resources, I have created the next-generation Dark Trooper suit forged from Beskar alloy.” The fact that he says “next-generation” implies that there was a previous generation to begin with. Aka, Sabine’s technology for the Empire that had something to do with Beskar. I don’t know if this is true or false.

Gideon also says, “By aggregating the best of each [cloners, Jedi], I will create an army that will bring order to the galaxy”. That is part of the groundwork for the beginnings of the First Order.

Bo creates a diversion, an escape route, and Paz leads the way out, firing his gatling gun-type blaster cannon like a man with nothing else to lose. He fires repeatedly, and ignores Bo’s orders. His final sacrifice is noble and is no less what is expected of a Mandalorian like him.

The appearance of the Praetorian Guards are no surprise. We last saw them in TLJ, very efficient warriors and guardsmen. Makes sense that they be brought out to bring down the last Mandalorian standing in the room. They waste little energy and leave as quickly as they enter.

========

Finishing thoughts:

I like how this episode went. With the multiple mentions of Thrawn and Hux, the intentional integration of a Meiloorun fruit, and the mention of “next-gen” beskar armor, I really would not be surprised if Thrawn and/or Ezra and/or Ahsoka and/or Sabine make an appearance toward the end of next week’s finale, given the trailer for Ahsoka from Celebration weekend.

Also not surprising that Pedro Pascal and Katie Sackhoff are top-billed this episode. The rest get “co-starring” credits.

One interesting feature is a concept art in the credits showing all the Mandalorians by the fire, and Din and Bo are speaking to each other, his hand on her shoulder. This scene was never in the show. But the overall concept art is amazing in terms of scale, lighting, and detail.

We still have one more episode to go. Emily Swallow, who portrays The Armorer, spoke with Collider during the Lucasfilm panel at Celebration. When asked what she thought fans would think of next week’s finale, she had this to say: “Well, I think there are gonna be some people who are like 'Woohoo! Yeah!'' and some people were like 'I hate this!' this because there always are.” I can’t wait until next week to find out what that is.