Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, December 20, 2019) Movie • Page 342

Apparently he was going to say he was force sensitive, but that didn't come across to me at all.

 

The thing that bums me out the most is that so far, in regards to ending this trilogy:

* Where Rian Johnson seemed to be taking things was awesome and would have made for an incredible ending
* George Lucas' terrible idea quadrupling down on midichlorians and Whills sounded better than what we got
* Colin Trevorrow's story idea sounded better than what we got
* Every one of us spitballing ideas in a few minutes are coming up with better stories that have more cohesive thoughts and serve actual themes

I am actually dumbfounded that Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Iger and really anyone at all signed off on this script and decided to go forward with it. I can't even picture JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio turning this script in with straight faces.

 

I don't know that George's idea of focusing on the Whills and all that inanity would have been "better" but it at least would have been a coherent vision that was planned from the start.

 

For real though - why the fuck would Finn feel the overwhelming urge to use his last moment of life before death closes in to tell Rey he's a bit Force sensitive...????

In a giant movie full of dumb, that is really fucking dumb.

 

That set up is where you have one character yell that they love the other character. It would have to be something INSANELY important to the character yelling. Any of the filmmakers saying otherwise are just being disingenuous and showing that they think fans are fucking stupid.

They should just come out and say "That? Oh that line is leftover from when we were going to have Finn be in love with Rey but we changed that storyline."

 

This makes no fucking sense.

 

The history of Star Wars shows us that brothers and sisters often have romantic feelings toward each other. Once more, JJ is stuck in the past.

 

This dude is tired AF. I'm not even sure he knows what words are coming out of his mouth at this point. Just keep smiling and saying positive sounding yet inconsequential and non-commital words.

He is in maximum spin mode for this movie. The questions about Rian Johnson / The Last Jedi are so dumb and pointless because there is no fucking way he is going to say anything out of line or off the corporate script in any way whatsoever at all at this point. JJ Abrams' thoughts on TLJ and Rian Johnson are clearly presented in The Rise of Skywalker for us all to see.

 

“the Force is stored in the balls” lol yupp checks out

 

Extremely dumb nitpick but: didn’t Rey’s (Luke’s/anakin’s) lightsaber break at the climax of TLJ? And she just has it again in this one?

 

Eh, she had the two pieces and it's been a year, I believe she put it back together.

 

They go to the Death Star and they don’t even come back with the cooler of Luke’s lightsabers? Smh

 

Luke had it when he was training Ben, it wasn't on the Death Star

 

Alright, let's do this.

Build the film off of the characters' motivations & relationships that were previously established, not off of contrived fetch quest plotting & online checklists.

I'll get more specific. And, for argument's sake, I'm gonna commit to Ian McDiarmid returning & having some connection to Rey's past, just to show you could use some of the central ideas here & still end up w/ a genuinely good film.

In terms of raw material to work with: More Rose, more Luke, more Hux, more Connix, more R2. Less Leia, less Palpatine. Cut Pryde, cut Zorii, cut D-O, cut Babu Frik, cut Beaumont Kin.

So, here are the returning characters you have from previous films (including Lando & Palpatine, if we're accepting we're including both), & the characters they already have a dynamic with to explore based on those films, as I see it:

Rey (Kylo, Finn, Leia, Luke, Chewie, BB-8)
Finn (Rey, Poe, Rose, Hux, BB-8)
Kylo (Rey, Leia, Luke, Hux, Poe)
Poe (Finn, Leia, Kylo, Rose, Hux, Connix, BB-8)
Rose (Finn, Poe, Hux, Connix, BB-8)
Hux (Kylo, Poe, Finn, Rose)
Connix (Poe, Rose, Leia)
Luke (Rey, Kylo, Leia, Lando, Palpatine, C-3PO, R2-D2)
Leia* (Rey, Kylo, Poe, Luke, Lando, Chewie, C-3PO, R2-D2, Connix)
Lando (Luke, Leia, Chewie)
Chewie (Lando, Luke, Leia, Rey, C-3PO)
C-3PO (R2-D2, Luke, Leia, Chewie)
R2-D2 (C-3PO, Luke, Leia, Chewie)
BB-8 (Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose)
Palpatine (Luke)

Leia you only indirectly have, of course, but just a couple brief onscreen moments plus some good dialogue from characters connected to her will work, especially considering how widely connected she is. Also, looking at that, you can see how much of a stretch it is to bring Palpatine back, considering his only real prior relationship is to someone who's now a ghost. But, Ian McDiarmid is one of the rare actors to be in both prior trilogies, & he's the villain of what's now being called "The Skywalker Saga," & I like him, so if done carefully, I'm not mad at it.

Anyways... Looking at that list, what relationships are the core of the prior films? Rey & Kylo; Rey & Finn; Finn & Poe. That's your core, your foundation, your north star.

Going from there, what are some characters that have relationships w/ each other but haven't all collided at once? And, related questions, what characters don't have a dynamic yet but have middle ground to organically meet up here, & what story comes out of that?

There's a lot in that three-dimensional Venn diagram, lol, which is where theme, actual *theme*, comes in. What are these films about? Not plot. Not characters. Theme. Y'know... Love vs hate. Hope vs fear. Finding your place in the bigger story. And, in VII & VIII, legacy. That's what the actual STORY has been about. That's, thus, what the finale should be about.

By the way, the only new character in this that I like thematically is Jannah. If you were to make her & her team the spies instead of Hux, letting Hux have Pryde's role to the end, she'd be a great culmination of former trooper Finn's arc. Plus, being separated from her family connects her story to Rey's. And, losing family to this war connects all 3 of those characters to Rose, & also is a culmination of her story in TLJ. And, to the note of theme, her group leaving the First Order, defined by Kylo & Hux's rivalry, to join the unified family of The Resistance... hits literally all of the notes.

So, some story:

Kylo (motivated by his journey to bring the First Order under his rule) discovers more about the Sith religion that Snoke had been studying & trying to resurrect. Meanwhile, Rey (motivated by having been sold off as a child), Finn (motivated by being a former trooper), Rose (motivated by the philosophy she demonstrated on Canto Bight), & Poe (motivated by both his relationship w/ these characters & the lessons he's learned about leadership from Leia) free people under the First Order's rule, bringing them into contact w/ Jannah. These stories collide when Rey, on one of these missions, discovers more about her story, which is in some way connected to Palpatine (but not in that dumb granddaughter way; keep it vague, but her last name in one old record can be "Palpatine"), & Kylo goes deep enough to fall under Palpatine's lingering influence to a Sith eyes level.

Also, Rey's been training in the time since TLJ w/ Leia & Force ghost Luke. Other than resisiting the First Order's reign, her main motivation is winning Ben back, which she refuses to give up on. Kylo, meanwhile, is wrestling w/ the voices in his head. Somewhat literal voices: Luke, Han, Leia, Snoke, hints of Vader, whispers of Anakin, slowly escalating Palpatine. The scene where Kylo chooses Palpatine, he would see a vision that would initially look like a foggy Vader & sound like him, before coming into focus as Anakin, but Kylo doesn't heed this vision's warning.

The final confrontation, in the third act, at the center, is a Rey who's been trained by Leia & Luke, vs a Kylo who's under the spiritual influence of Palpatine. (Hux would be killed by Palpatine-influenced Kylo at the end of the second act & would've led the First Order into battle w/ his Knights of Ren in the third act.) Rey keeps pleading w/ Ben. Both are tired & neither have a clear advantage, & during this stalemate, a dying Leia speaks Ben's name one last time, which both hear & are emotionally moved by. Rey throws her lightsaber away & tells him, "Strike me down if you want; I will not fight you." Kylo, in an act of rage that Rey clearly could've stopped but didn't, does. Cue Force ghost Luke, Leia, & Anakin, letting him know it's not too late. Palpatine's voice & Sith eyes fade. In an act not teased earlier 'cause it's out of desperation, not a normal power, Ben (unromantically) gives his energy to restore life to Rey.

Ending would be vaguely similar, tbh. Main difference is that, instead of no one, literally everyone would be w/ Rey. And, both Anakin & Ben would appear alongside Luke & Leia when Rey declares herself "Rey Skywalker."

 

I haven’t seen the Freddie Prince video but I’m going to look it up. I’ve heard he brings up good points

 

youve so obviously never had a hot sister b4

 

It being new was 1/2 the reason it was good.

 

I definitely thought we were going to see like 100s of force ghosts behind Rey when she said that every jedi was a part of her.

 

Should have ended with “the aristocrats.”

 

Total Dragon Ball Z move.

 

“I’m force sensitive but I wish I told you earlier so I could maybe use the force right now to save us before we drown”

 

If he was going to tell her he’s force sensitive, why was he so cagey with Poe about it

 

Thought the same thing when it happened.

SPIRIT BOMB!!!!

 

Would have been dope to see Kanan and Ahsoka.