Star Wars IX (spoilers)

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Shinto-Cetra
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Star Wars IX (spoilers)

Post by Shinto-Cetra »

I remember there being quite a lively discussion about Star Wars VIII when it came out, so how about Star Wars IX the Rise of Skywalker?...

I was really disappointed to be honest. One opening scene in the beginning where they were randomly warping and resting ad naseum to avoid Imperial forces was so quick and jarring that I had not idea what was going on. The duel in the Death Star underwater wreckage looked like Mustafar but with water. I grew up reading the Dark Empire comic series which is where the idea of Palpatine's spirit coming back in a clone body comes from, so I didn't mind that. What I did mind, was his master plan being to have Rey kill him, so he could transfer his essence into her and become "Empress Palpatine". Yes, that is actual dialogue from the film. However, he changes his mind halfway through, and decides to absorb Rey and Kylo's force bond and gain superpowers enough to force electrocute the rebel fleet (Ok that was awesome, if unrealistic.) Also having Rey be Palpatine's granddaughter was just all levels of nonsensical. Palpatine is disfigured and truly evil, not the fatherly type at all. Note that I don't blame Ian McDiarmid at all, he did the best with the lines he had. I think Abrams is just not a very good director. SWVII was kinda good but basically ripped off the plot of SWIV (the original). However, the plot mostly made sense. Not SWIX. The Rey and Kylo kiss was just unnecessary. I liked many returning characters as well as newcomers Babu Frik and Zorii Bliss. As a whole, the biggest issue of the Sequel Trilogy is Abrams' and Johnson's visions clashing, and I think Johnson's vision in SWVIII was better by a large margin.

On a related note, The Mandalorian is amazing.

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Re: Star Wars IX (spoilers)

Post by Sonic# »

I liked it and had fun overall.

I enjoyed the main plot - the macguffin of the Sith wayfinder, Rey learning more about herself and coming to terms with who she is, Poe and Finn each becoming more mature versions of themselves and Finn especially being able to speak to that ex-child soldier side to himself, Ben's own grappling with his anger versus his need for forgiveness. Maybe my favorite scene was between Rey, Ben, Leia, and Han on top of the Death Star wreckage. The close patterning of Ben's dialogue with Han to the dialogue in episode 7 provided an important moment of closure between father and son (whether that father was a memory, a ghost, or what have you). In a strange way it tickled the same part of me that Anakin telling Luke, "Tell your sister you were right" did in Return of the Jedi. Both Ben and Anakin have been the authors to many an atrocity. They've also been pawns manipulated into their path by fear and ideology. I like to believe that love can sometimes break through and help someone begin to atone.

Given how much I enjoyed it, and The Last Jedi, and The Force Awakens, I don't share many of your reactions. For example, regarding Rey's lineage, even at the time of The Last Jedi I thought Kylo might be an unreliable source (if not lying):
Kylo contradicts [the dynastic hints from episode 7]. Rey is from nothing. Her parents are dead. They were worth little. [...] there’s also some question of whether and to what extent it’s true. This is a series where Obi Wan lied to Luke about his parents, or told the truth from a certain point of view. Is Kylo himself lying, or (as seen with Snoke himself in his final scene [not predicting his own downfall]) seeing the truth from a certain point of view? Is Rey an heir to the Force without necessarily being part of a lineage of Jedi that includes Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Kylo?
So it turns out she's Palpatine's grandchild and not something more abstract. Sounds fine to me. Of course the Emperor is "not the fatherly type" and "disfigured" - that doesn't prevent having sex (with or without planning a child) or having an interest in an heir, both things that corrupt rulers do and have done regularly. Furthermore, it sounded like the Emperor was a bad father to them, considering that they were fleeing his Sith agents.

Otherwise, I don't mind the "unrealistic" parts like force electrocuting a fleet. This is a series where a Jedi Master speculates that midichlorians caused the virgin birth of Anakin Skywalker, where starships travel far faster than the speed of light fairly trivially, where asteroid fields tend to be dense clusters of roiling debris, where a mysterious Force works any number of miracles and tragedies, where an ecosystem can support a desert organism that is literally a pit that slowly digests people who disappointed Jabba, and so on. It's space opera.
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