Movies: Rise of Skywalker [SPOILER] Edition - II

[bleedblue1223]

I, personally, didn't get any sense that Rey was conflicted about her level of emotion or that there was any judgment being placed on it. In contrast, both were stressed in the OT. Yoda taught Luke that "anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force are they." It was just a vision, but Luke seeing his face under the mask was a warning that striking down Vader in that manner would lead him to the dark side. After that, Luke worked harder to control his emotion, culminating in him refusing to finish off a wounded Vader when he had the chance.

What did Rey do when she had a chance to finish off Kylo in TRoS? She bared her teeth, made an aggressive sound and plunged her lightsaber into him. So much for anger and aggression being the dark side. Can you imagine if the rules of conduct that applied to Luke had been enforced with Rey? It probably would've been criticized as sending a message that women shouldn't be overly emotional. We can't have that in today's culture, so Rey is a less interesting character, a conflict that was important in the OT and PT is mostly missing and the ST "feels" less like Star Wars because of it, IMO.

Yeah, the ST took much more of an our world approach where the end justifies the means. Now that is an aspect that SW has liked in certain characters, like Revan or Anakin in TCW, but those characters also went bad and had to be redeemed.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

Conflict with the dark side doesn't need to be the only aspect of a major character in the Star Wars universe.

At least with TFA and TLJ her character arc in her attachment to her parents and putting so much hope in seeing them again makes her realization at the end of TLJ compelling. Making it a "you are Palpatine, watch out for that dark side, you hear?" was a serious misstep and another aspect of JJ's direction focused more on what he thinks Star Wars fans like (or at least what Star Wars fans have liked previously) instead of writing a new story that Star Wars fans may like.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Conflict with the dark side doesn't need to be the only aspect of a major character in the Star Wars universe.

At least with TFA and TLJ her character arc in her attachment to her parents and putting so much hope in seeing them again makes her realization at the end of TLJ compelling. Making it a "you are Palpatine, watch out for that dark side, you hear?" was a serious misstep and another aspect of JJ's direction focused more on what he thinks Star Wars fans like (or at least what Star Wars fans have liked previously) instead of writing a new story that Star Wars fans may like.

JJ did TFA though, he was just hit and miss. When it comes to JJ, it really comes down to who is the writer with him. With Kasden, it was clear it was just a safe ANH remake, which was a solid start. The problem with Terrio, he just isn't a very good writer, not sure why they gave it to him after Batman vs Superman. In defense of JJ/Terrio though, they needed some sort of arc/conflict for Rey to finish in TROS, and there wasn't much left for her.

 

[Osprey]

I read this article the other day and thought that it made a good point:

'Star Wars': Why the Universe Is Full of 'Whiny' Heroes Like Ahsoka Tano and Luke Skywalker

We've all laughed at Luke's whininess in ANH, but having him immature at the beginning helped to make his growth as a character over the trilogy more profound.

The article never mentions Rey, but applying it to her suggests one of the problems with the character, IMO. When we first meet her, she's resourceful, confident and seemingly mature beyond her years. When we last see her, burying a couple of lightsabers on Tatooine, she's hardly any different because there wasn't much room for character growth in the first place.

 

[Osprey]

Google keeps pushing Star Wars articles to my news feed, so here's another that I read the other day that some of you might like:

A New Rumor Reveals George Lucas' Initial Reactions to Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi and J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker - Bounding Into Comics

 

[MadDevil]

I'm not surprised George didn't like the direction they went, but there being a "Lucas Cut" where he "tried to save TROS" seems kind of far fetched to me.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I know that guy claims to have sources, but have his rumors been true in the past?

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Cry us a river, George. You sold it to Disney, this is what you get. Don't think we've forgotten about Jar Jar.

 

[NyQuil]

We've all laughed at Luke's whininess in ANH, but having him immature at the beginning helped to make his growth as a character over the trilogy more profound.