star wars 9 spoilers and postmortem shit talk

Cool!

Rey paused so long before giving her surname they should've shown the old woman had got tired of waiting and wandered off.

lmao that would have been amazing. surely this edit is possible with the footage we have??

Luke's the father she never knew. family's what you make it. seems like a pretty good message.

Thinking about it, the thing I really want to happen was her all of a sudden going blank, like when the jedis feel a disturbance in the force, and she says 'I... I think my name is Daisy Ridley...' And then there's a shot from her pov, a 360 degree pan, and it's filled with blurrs and splotches, but some of them are legible as camera and crew, and then, at the end of the pan, a smiling force ghost. George Lucas.

Cut to credits. Williams' Star Wars theme. But underwater. In a loop. Like The Caretaker.

I might not be, like, in the core audience for this film.

Rey paused so long before giving her surname they should've shown the old woman had got tired of waiting and wandered off.

― nashwan, Wednesday, December 25, 2019

same thought at the time

more than anything it's just incredible, bordering on malpractice, that Kennedy, JJ and co. didn't just sit in a writers' room for a few months after they purchased the rights and simply hashed out a coherent narrative for three movies, AKA the basic work that almost every even bog-standard narrative TV series does. the only real wrench in the production over the course of the decade was Carrie Fisher's death, and clearly they had plenty of ways around that. the reactionary film-to-film approach clearly did their box office returns no favors.

won't somebody think of the box office returns??

I'm just saying that even from a sheer corporate standpoint (the way I have to imagine all SW decisions are made) it didn't make sense!

anyway Lindsay is making the important points

#trosspoilers #spoilers given that there’s no way unnamed son is older than 35 in the flashback, Palpatine definitely fucked after he got face melted.

— FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION “BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS” (@thelindsayellis) December 25, 2019

MELTY 👏 PEOPLE 👏 FUCK 👏 TOO 👏

oh no

Melty Palpatine sex-tape be like: pic.twitter.com/miqwUfZPWC

— Bootleg NES Classic (@mercurypixel) December 25, 2019

the reactionary film-to-film approach clearly did their box office returns no favors.

hate 2 get $1.3 billion dollars at the box office

We,, yeah, I'm fairly sure Disney hates that in this case. What is your point?

There is a way you can scroll up to earlier posts in the thread

absolutely not to Captain Save-a-who, just thread reference for non-watchers:

in the last ten years of nu-Who, stories that rely on old monsters (so cameos aside) breaks down across 97 episodes to

5 Dalek * stories, including a 2-parter with Davros in, plus a one-off fight scene in another one
4 Cybermen ** stories, inc 2x 2-parters
(one of the 1-parters is about returning-from-the-previous-year monster James Corden, with about 3 minutes of Cyber-appearances)

1 two-ep story with a new monster from the same time period as one monster from 1970 and another from 1972, who had both returned once in 1984. neither of the old monsters are in the 2011 story but it completely nicks the premise of the 1970 story.

and the 50th Anniversary year brought back 1 old monster for the first time in 39 years, and 1 that had only appeared once, 37 years before. Each of these has reappeared once since, the latter in a two-parter.

(Three of the Cybermen stories set out to dig into previously unexamined aspects or ideas of medical malpractice, or long-term illness, or the removal of free will & agency, or collective consciousness, or individuals' control over their right to die with dignity, rather than just relying on mythic potency of the scary robot soldier design from 2006's reboot of the previous cyborg concept. Not as effectively as Last Jedi's interrogation of tradition and ritual, though.)

* regulars from 1964-67, 4 appearances in the 1970s, 3 in the '80s
** regulars from 1966-68, 1 appearance in 1975, 3 in the '80s

― insecurity bear (sic), 19. december 2019 23:11 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Okay, I get it now. Thanks for the good advice, Neanderthal.

See i meant "to the post sic was quoting in his post" but I apologize for not specifying that crucial detail

You can call me Rey. Or you can call me Jay. Or you can call me Rey-Jay.

Miss Nobody if you're nasty

hate 2 get $1.3 billion dollars at the box office

https://www.slashfilm.com/rey-in-the-rise-of-skywalker/

‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ Lets Rey Down in the Most Unforgivable Way Possible
Posted on Monday, December 23rd, 2019 by Andrew Todd

i can't disagree with the general premise, tbh. still liked the film, but it was a weak decision by Abrams to take her 'nobody' status and make her a Plopatine

xp IMO, fretting that this film may be psychologically damaging to certain viewers is on about the same level as calling The Last Jedi "SJW propaganda."

I also think it's a desperately forced misread. Rey isn't alone & isolated at the end of the movie -- she's a badass Jedi with a new lightsaber, roaming the galaxy, and making a pit stop on Tatooine to pay tribute to Luke & Leia.

And she certainly doesn't need a "companion" to be happy (good grief)! The reprise of "Rey's Theme," and the shot of Rey playfully sliding into the courtyard on a piece of debris, are a reminder that she was happy and self-sufficient as a scavenger back on Jakku. She hasn't really been searching for "family" in these movies, but to solve the mystery of her provenance -- which she now has, and chosen a new "family story" for herself. The salient fact about the Skywalkers isn't that they're "all dead," but that they will live on, as an inspiration to Rey -- the first "new" Jedi after the passing of the Skywalkers, the galaxy's "last Jedi."

And this writer can go on about "cinematic language" like someone who's taken one (1) film class -- but desert planets don't represent "dead people and sand" in Star Wars... they represent a springboard to adventure, a jumping-off point. Rey's about to blast off with BB-8, and leave that rock behind!

How tenuous must someone’s love be for the character Rey that they feel she’s ruined by not having the backstory they wanted; or for not ending up with a boyfriend (of all things)? She’s maybe the most inspirational and self-actualized character in the saga; her backstory doesn’t matter, she could be a nobody or a Palpatine, and she’s still just as awesome!

morrisp thoroughly otm but it's also why the reveal that she's a Palpatine rings so false. It would have been better if she actually was a nobody but chose to take on the Skywalker name later to really hammer home the "choose your own family" message.

As it is, it just makes the SW world smaller and suggests that you can't be a powerful Jedi without being part of a familiar family. Which is a shitty takeaway that not only undoes the previous film's conclusion, but also panders to the "Rey is a Mary Sue" crowd that just couldn't accept that a scavenger girl from Jakku might actually be good at wielding weapons and using the force instinctively, even after she was shown to have survived on her own for years.

As lazy and uninspired as it was, I really didn't mind Palpatine being back. But having Rey be his granddaughter utterly ruined her arc imo.

btw what Finn wanted to tell Rey was that he was force-sensitive too - which JJ revealed at an Academy screening over the weekend instead of in his own goddamn movie. What a fucking dumbass.

roz otm

What would you have preferred? “I’m Rey, from the Resistance” (roll credits)?

How about "Solo?" The name of the man she loved and lost? (And tbh the only person actually named Skywalker treated her pretty badly when he was alive, both Solos treated her pretty well.)

(And it's worth considering that if both Luke and Leia knew who she really was -- which the story in no way supports, but whatever -- then they both gaslit the ever-loving heck out of her. And doing it for allegedly noble reasons is still pretty cruel.)

And she certainly doesn't need a "companion" to be happy (good grief)!

It has nothing to do with "need" -- it's the clearly-expressed desire of the character to be with Ben Solo. Abrams fell into the common narrative trap that male heroes can have the badass hero life AND the girl, but female heroes can have one or the other, not both. They can't desire and have the men they love and still be the hero in the end. (Hi, Black Widow!)

Why should she NOT have had Ben survive? What did it do for her, *as a character*, to give her her heart's desire for a moment then cruelly snatch it away? It has nothing to do with "this character needs a boyfriend," for pete's sake. If there's one thing the movies make clear it's that what everyone wants is for Ben to come home. It isn't even remotely subtle. Not "to return to the light and then die," but to *come home*. And the narrative leads there up until the very last second, then says, "Nah, lol."

She hasn't really been searching for "family" in these movies, but to solve the mystery of her provenance

The latter was just a means to an end -- her search for belonging has always been her motivation. Maz telling her "The belonging you seek is ahead of you," Ben repeatedly telling her she isn't alone, her anger over his killing of Han (who was shaping up to be an actual surrogate father) were all very explicit about this.

(Also not for nothing but the switch from "This lightsaber *called* to you" to "I'll earn your brother's lightsaber, some day" was some garbage.)

Wait wait wait where the fuck is "Ben Solo is her heart's desire" coming from?

Every moment from the second she arrives on the Star Destroyer in TLJ? Her saying explicitly that she wanted to take his hand? The absolute joy in her face when she grabs his face and kisses him? That last one is the happiest her character is ever shown to be in three movies.

Seems reasonable given they kissed for a few seconds. For me though it felt like a lazy by-product of having the main hero and villain across the three films be differently gendered. She's a woman he's a man so whatever else happens they eventually have to kiss. I did like how this was played with in TLJ though, don't think it needed to be punctuated as it was but appreciate Eliza's take on this.

wait why wouldn't you feel absolute joy when you have the chance to grab and kiss Adam Driver's face.

The kiss is the one moment where I said "oh come on". Because i never felt her connection to Ben was romantic. She's an optimist, she wants to turn him....and then take him to the Resistance to answer for his crimes. Then she can visit him like Sister Prejean in space jail.

How would that even work? "Hi Poe, this is my boyfriend, the guy that killed most of your friends."

Fortunately he died before I could get too worked up about it.

nashwan otm

In any case the new Safdie brothers flick is out so breaking from SW for a few

(And it's worth considering that if both Luke and Leia knew who she really was -- which the story in no way supports, but whatever -- then they both gaslit the ever-loving heck out of her. And doing it for allegedly noble reasons is still pretty cruel.)

I never thought this was the case (has it been suggested)?

I agree with others above that Rey’s connection w/Kylo (/Ben) never seemed particularly romantic (the kiss notwithstanding); and that this was actually a cool aspect of their interactions in TLJ. Obviously that potential is there whenever you have a “Sam + Diane” setup, but I think it would have rung false if they ended up “together.” I certainly (and respectfully) disagree w/Eliza that “it's the clearly-expressed desire of the character to be with Ben Solo.” She may have wanted to “take his hand,” but she’s OK without him too!

Abrams fell into the common narrative trap that male heroes can have the badass hero life AND the girl

This doesn’t happen in Star Wars, though... no one ends up together, even Han & Leia break up. FWIW, domestic happiness is never really depicted in the saga, save maybe for Anakin & Padme’s romance (which of course ends tragically)!

How about "Solo?"

I actually thought about this! :) Han is another character who had “no family name” (and instead had one thrust upon him, without getting to choose like Rey.) But she’s not “Solo”; she has a deep connection to the Skywalker family, and wants to carry on their story.

I never thought this was the case (has it been suggested)?

GhostLuke says it explicitly, that they both knew.

"The kiss is the one moment where I said "oh come on". Because i never felt her connection to Ben was romantic"

are you this bad at reading signs in real life? because if so you may have missed a lot of opportunities.

fuck you

that escalated quickly

well, you're being a dick, so

without making it personal I'd agree that their sexual tension is pretty heavily foregrounded throughout TLJ

I don't really agree with that at all. it seems grounded in them having a personal connection based on prior traumas and they find solace in talking to each other about it. people can have a strong bond without wanting to fuck.

I feel most of the sexual tension came from fans who wanted to ship the two of them together

has nobody ever held the hand of someone from the opposite sex as a show of solidarity without ripping their clothes off five minutes later?

usually a pretty good sign I'm trapped in a PG-13 sci-fi tentpole

if anything Finn and Rey seemed the ones to have *that* chemistry, but that got abandoned after TFA