#people in Star Wars can come back from anything and Mace Windu still hasn’t shown up???

[inquisitor-apologist]

Just learned that Ninth Sister apparently survived Jedi: Fallen Order, and at this point there’s literally nothing you can do to convince me Mace Windu didn’t survive. She fell a way shorter distance and is a fraction as powerful.

#like. COME ON #people in Star Wars can come back from anything and Mace Windu still hasn’t shown up??? #we have proof that having an arm cut off with a lightsaber & falling immediately after isn’t enough to kill a plot-relevant force-sensitive #mace Windu is alive #star wars #mace windu #ninth sister

[gffa]

OKAY, IF I’M GONNA DO THIS, I’M GONNA DO IT PROPERLY.  WHICH MEANS YEAH IT’S GONNA GET REALLY LONG. A couple of things to say ahead of time:  Lucasfilm’s Story Group has always said CANON > WORD OF GOD when it comes to these matters, so when I quote canon examples from supplementary materials that contradict what he says, that’s LF’s official position, but that doesn’t mean that an influential person like Dave’s views couldn’t affect how things will be shaped in the future, like Deborah Chow listening to this may be influenced by it on the Obi-Wan show, despite that Master & Apprentice contradicts him.  It’s an incredibly murky area!  Mileages are going to vary.   Another thing to keep in mind is that Dave Filoni never worked on The Phantom Menace, that was long, long before his time at Lucasfilm (which I think he joined sometime around 2007? and TPM was released in 1999), that he has worked with George more than probably anyone else, but we cannot and should not treat him as infallible or the True Authority on things, because even Dave himself has said things like: “I mean, I know why I did that and what it means, but I don't like to explain too much. I love for the viewers to watch stuff and come up with their own theories -- and they frankly come up with better things that I intended.”  --Dave Filoni, Entertainment Tonight 2020 interview Or, in the same episode as the above Qui-Gon interpretation:

So, when I dig into this, I’m not doing this out of a sense of malice or even that I suddenly hate Dave or don’t appreciate all the incredible things he’s brought to SW, but in that I disagree with his take, Dave understands that he doesn’t always get it right, that he enjoys that fans come up with different things than he does and sometimes he likes those even more.  There’s room for both of us and, for all that Dave mentions George a lot (and, hey, fair enough, the guy worked with George and I’m just quoting what George Lucas has said) doesn’t mean that this is straight from George, especially because I have never seen George Lucas utter so much as a peep about how the Jedi were responsible for Anakin’s fall.  He has explicitly and frequently talked about how Anakin’s fall was his own choice, as well as I’ve never seen him say anything Jedi-critical beyond “they were kind of arrogant about themselves”.  I have read and watched every George Lucas interview I could get my hands on and maybe I’m still missing something, but that’s literally the extent of him criticizing the Jedi I have EVER seen. (It’s from the commentary on AOTC where he put in the scene with Jocasta to show they were full of themselves, but I also think it’s fair to point out that Obi-Wan immediately contradicts this by going to Dex for help, showing that it’s not necessarily a Jedi-wide thing.) Before I go further, I want to say:  this is not a post meant to tear down Qui-Gon, he is a character I actually really do love, but the focus is on showing why the above interpretation of him is wrong, which means focusing on Qui-Gon’s flaws. He has many wonderful qualities, he is someone who cared deeply and was a good person, I think things would have been better had he lived!  But Anakin’s choices did not hinge on him, because Anakin’s choices were Anakin’s, that has always been the consistent theme of how George talks about him, the way he talks about the story is always in terms of “Anakin did this” or “Anakin chose that”, and the Jedi are very consistently shown as caring, they believed very much in love and Dave’s own show (well, I say “his own show”, but honestly TCW was George’s baby primarily and he had a lot of direct, hands-on say in crafting it, through at least the first five seasons) is plenty of evidence of that. I’m not going to quote the full thing because this is already a monster post, I’m just going to focus on the Jedi stuff, because I like the other points a lot, but if you want the full text, it’s here.  The relevant part is: “In Phantom Menace, you’re watching these two Jedi in their prime fight this evil villain. Maul couldn’t be more obviously the villain. He’s designed to look evil, and he is evil, and he just expresses that from his face all the way out to the type of lightsaber he fights with. What’s at stake is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” “So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family. So that moment in that movie which a lot of people I think diminish, “oh there’s a cool lightsaber fight”, but it’s everything that the entire three films of the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight. And Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George made me bring him back, but he died.“  --Dave Filoni  I’m going to take this a piece at a time to show why I really disagree with the content of both the movies and The Clone Wars supporting what Dave says and, instead, contradicts it a lot. The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. He doesn’t explain what this means, but I’m pretty sure that he’s referring to this conversation: OBI-WAN: “I am concerned for my Padawan. He is not ready to be given this assignment on his own yet.” YODA: “The Council is confident in its decision, Obi-Wan.” MACE WINDU: “The boy has exceptional skills.” OBI-WAN: “But he still has much to learn, Master. His abilities have made him... well.... arrogant.” YODA: “Yes, yes. A flaw more and more common among Jedi. Hmm... too sure of themselves they are. Even the older, more experienced ones.” MACE WINDU: “Remember, Obi-Wan, if the prophecy is true, your apprentice is the only one who can bring the Force back into balance.” OBI-WAN: "If he follows the right path.” None of that has anything to do with being “detached” and, further, I think this is something that’s come up with Dave’s view of Luminara a lot, because he’s described her (re: the Geonosis arc):  “We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.” Here, he says that the Jedi care, in the above, he says that the Jedi don’t care, which makes me think there’s a lot of characterization drift as time goes on, especially when fandom bombards everyone with the idea that the Jedi were cold, emotionless, and didn’t care.  However, look at Luminara’s face in that arc, when she’s talking with Anakin:

That is not the face of someone who doesn’t care.  She even smiles brightly in relief when Barriss is shown to be okay, that this really doesn’t convey “detached” in an unloving or uncaring way.  (We’ll get to attachment later, that’s definitely coming.) (I’m also mostly skipping the political thing, because I think that’s just a fundamental disagreement of whether Jedi should or should not lean into politics.  My view basically boils down to that I think ALL OF US should be leaning more into politics because we are citizens who live in the world and are responsible for it, and the Jedi are no different.  This is evidenced by:  - M&A’s storyline has Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan saving the day specifically because they play politics, that’s how they manage to free the slaves, through playing politics and being part of the Republic/having Senate backing. - The Clone Wars has shown that the Jedi believe “lasting change can only come from within” and “it’s every citizen’s duty to hold their leaders accountable” when Ahsoka teaches the cadets on Mandalore, as well as that politics are not inherently bad, given that Padme and Bail are working to make the system better or “create lasting change from within [the system]” - "Trying to serve the greater good does not always make you popular” says Padme Amidala in a very caring speech - Star Wars Propaganda makes the case that the Jedi might have won the war had they leaned more into politics. - Sometimes the Jedi get unfairly accused of playing politics when there’s just no good choice and they still have to choose one or the other.) But Qui-Gon is ahead of them [re: caring and loving] all and that’s why he’s not part of the council. This is flat-out wrong in regards to canon.  Mileages are going to vary, of course, on how much one takes a novel into consideration, but Dave Filoni is not a fan with the luxury of deciding what is or isn’t canon, he works on Star Wars where canon is canon.  Now, does that mean canon will never contradict itself, especially if Dave gets to write something for Qui-Gon?  Of course not, SW isn’t immune to continuity errors and they themselves have never said otherwise, even when fans want to hold them to that standard. However, this is still pretty much a big “that’s not what happened” instance.  In Master & Apprentice, the Jedi Council offer a seat to Qui-Gon on the Council, specifically BECAUSE he has different opinions from them and they welcome that.  (Excerpt here.)      “We hope it will also be our gain,” Mace replied. “Qui-Gon Jinn, we hereby offer you a seat on the Jedi Council.”      Had he misheard? No, he hadn’t. Qui-Gon slowly gazed around the circle, taking in the expressions of each Council member in turn. Some of them looked amused, others pleased. A few of them, Yoda included, appeared more rueful than not. But they were serious.      “I admit—you’ve surprised me,” Qui-Gon finally said.“I imagine so,” Mace said drily. “A few years ago, we would’ve been astonished to learn we would ever consider this. But in the time since, we’ve all changed. We’ve grown. Which means the possibilities have changed as well.”      Qui-Gon took a moment to collect himself. Without any warning, one of the turning points of his life had arrived. Everything he said and did in the next days would be of great consequence. “You’ve argued with my methods often as not, or perhaps you’d say I’ve argued with yours.”      “Truth, this is,” Yoda said.      Depa Billaba gave Yoda a look Qui-Gon couldn’t interpret. “It’s also true that the Jedi Council needs more perspectives.” Ultimately, Qui-Gon is the who turns them down and gives up a chance to shape the Jedi Council because he doesn’t like the shape they’re taking.  That he does become less political, but this is after he’s argued that the Jedi should be working to push the Senate harder, so when he has a chance to help with that, he turns it down.  It has nothing to do with caring and loving, it’s about Qui-Gon’s desire to not have to deal with the work himself, when he wants to be more of a hippie Jedi.  (I’ve written a lot about Qui-Gon in M&A, why I actually think it’s really spot-on to someone who can be both really kind and really kind of a dick, but it’s not the most flattering portrayal, even if narrative intention likely didn’t mean what came across to me.  I think this post and this post are probably the most salient ones, but if you want something of an index of the web that’s being woven with all the various media, this one is good, too.) So he’s fighting for Anakin and that’s why it’s the ‘Duel of the Fates’ – it’s the fate of this child. And depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different. I have only ever seen George Lucas talk about Anakin’s fate in one instance and it’s this:  “It’s fear of losing somebody he loves, which is the flipside of greed. Greed, in terms of the Emperor, it’s the greed for power, absolute power, over everything. With Anakin, really it’s the power to save the one he loves, but it’s basically going against the Fates and what is natural.“ –George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith commentary I’ve made my case about why I think Anakin’s fate is about that moment in Palpatine’s office, and so I’m not fundamentally opposed that “Duel of the Fates” is about Anakin’s fate, but here’s what George has provably said about the “Duel of the Fates” part of the story: - In the commentary for The Phantom Menace during “Duel of the Fates” and none of Dave’s speculation is even hinted at, there’s more focus on the technical side of things and the most George talks about is that it’s Obi-Wan who parallels Luke in going over the edge during the fight, except that instead of a Sith cutting off a Jedi’s hand, it’s a Jedi cutting a Sith in half, drawing the parallels between them. - He does say of the funeral scene that this is where Obi-Wan commits to training Anakin and how everything is going to go (though, in canon we see that Obi-Wan still struggles with this a bit, but Yoda is there to support him and nudge him into committing even more to Anakin, because the Jedi are a supportive community to each other).  This is some solid evidence for that Obi-Wan is already caring about Anakin beyond just Qui-Gon. - Then here’s what he says about the “Duel of the Fates” fights and themes of them in "All Films Are Personal": George Lucas: “I wanted to come up with an apprentice for the Emperor who was striking and tough. We hadn’t seen a Sith Lord before, except for Vader, of course. I wanted to convey the idea that Jedi are all very powerful, but they’re also vulnerable — which is why I wanted to kill Qui-Gon. That is to say, “Hey, these guys aren’t Superman.” These guys are people who are vulnerable, just like every other person. “We needed to establish that, but at the same time, we wanted the ultimate sword fight, because they were all very good. It sort of predisposes the sword fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan later on. There’s real purpose to it. You have to establish the rules and then stick with them. The scene illustrates just how Jedi and Sith fight and use lightsabers.” “So Qui-Gon loses, of course. So the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment, and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.  We’ll get to the “attachment to his mother” thing in a bit--but, for now, let’s just say, George Lucas’ words on this are not that attachment to her was a good thing. Fair enough that “not because he cares about him” is up to personal interpretation, but canon has also addressed the topic of Obi-Wan’s treatment of Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped up to the plate on this.  In addition to how we see Obi-Wan REPEATEDLY being there for Anakin and being concerned and caring about him, they specifically talk about Qui-Gon and overcome this hurdle.

No, Obi-Wan is not Anakin’s father figure, on that we definitely agree.  Anakin never really even treats Obi-Wan like a father--he says “you’re the closest thing I have to a father” in Attack of the Clones, as well as he says Obi-Wan practically raised him in The Clone Wars “Crystal Crisis” story reels, but Anakin has never actually acted like Obi-Wan is his father--”then why don’t you listen to me?” Obi-Wan points out in AOTC--as well as Obi-Wan glides past those remarks, which I’ve always taken that he doesn’t want to reject Anakin’s feelings, knowing that Anakin can be sensitive about them, but neither does he want to confirm them. This does not mean Obi-Wan was not supportive, caring, and loving.  He says, “I loved you!” to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith, he asks after him and if he’s sleeping well in Attack of the Clones, and even George Lucas himself said that the elevator scene was set up TO SHOW OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN CARE FOR EACH OTHER:

PUTTING THE REST UNDER A READ MORE FOR A BETTER LENGTH REBLOGGABLE VERSION, IF  YOU WANT.

This is further evidenced by how the Jedi do see themselves as family, they just don’t need to put it into strict nuclear family dynamics:     - “You were my brother, Anakin!  I loved you!”  [–Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith]      - “We are brothers, Master Dibs.” [–Mace Windu, Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu]      - “Did your parents bicker?” she asked. “The adoptive ones, I mean.”         A slow smile broke across Ashla’s face, curling first one side of her mouth and then the other. Whatever she was remembering, Kaeden could tell it was good.         "All the time,“ Ashla said, almost as if she were talking to herself. [–Kaeden Larte, Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka]      -  Vos, brought to the Temple even younger than most, felt that he had hundreds of brothers and sisters, and it seemed that whenever he went into the dining hall he ran into at least half of them. [Dark Disciple]       - “It was not his birthplace, exactly, but the Jedi Temple was where Quinlan Vos had grown up. He’d raced through its corridors, hidden behind its massive pillars, found peace in its meditation hall, ended-and started-fights in rooms intended for striking blows and some that weren’t, and sneaked naps in its library. All Jedi came here, at some point in their lives; for Quinlan, it always felt like coming home when he ran lightly up the stairs and entered the massive building as he did now.” [Dark Disciple] Brothers, sisters, and other more non-traditional kinds of family are not lesser and Obi-Wan and Anakin absolutely were family, just as the Jedi are all family to each other, so, no, there was no “failing” Anakin, except in Anakin’s mind, perhaps.  (In that, I can agree.  But not on a narratively approved level, canon too thoroughly refutes that for me.) Rebels as well pretty thoroughly shows that non-traditional families are meaningful and just as important--we may joke that Hera is “space mom”, but she’s not actually Ezra or Sabine’s mother, Kanan is not actually their father, and even if they sometimes stray into aspects of those roles (as the Jedi do as well in the movies and TCW), that they don’t need that traditional nuclear family structure.  Mentor figures--and Kanan is Ezra’s mentor--are just as meaningful and needful as a “dad”.  And I’m kind of :/ at the implication that anyone without a dad/father figure or mom/mother figure is being “failed”. When they get Anakin, they find him on Tatooine, he says “Why do I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform?” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar and he’s saying “this is a waste of our time, why are we doing this, why do you see importance in these creatures like Jar Jar Binks and this ten-year-old boy? This is useless.” Whether or not Obi-Wan is being genuinely dismissive in this movie (I think you could make a case either way), the idea that Qui-Gon is better than Obi-Wan about this, as shown through Jar Jar isn’t exactly very supported given how Qui-Gon and Jar Jar first exchange words:

QUI-GON: “You almost got us killed. Are you brainless?”   JAR JAR:  “I spake.”   QUI-GON: “The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.” Qui-Gon is just as bad as everyone else to Jar Jar, he’s not somehow elevated above them. It’s also baffling because, Dave, I have watched your show.  The Jedi are specifically shown to be kind to people and creatures, not considering them “useless”.  Henry Gilroy (who was the co-writer for The Clone Wars and frequently appeared in featurettes on the same level as Dave Filoni) explicitly draws this to The Jedi Way, that “life is everything to the Jedi“, when he said this about the Ryloth episodes:

(Caps cribbed from Pan’s blog, because I cannot make another gif, save me, please.)      Henry Gilroy in an Aggressive Negotiations Interview:  "Obi-Wan truly is a Jedi in that he’s like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to murder these creatures [in the Ryloth arc of The Clone Wars].  They’re starving to death.  They’ve basically been unleashed against these people as a weapon, but it’s not their fault. They’re just doing what they do.  They’re just animals who wanna eat.’     "So the idea was–and I think there was an early talk about how, 'Oh, yeah, he’ll go running through them and slicing and dicing them and chop them all up or whatever, and save his guys.  And I’m like, 'Yeah, but that’s not really the Jedi way.  He’s not just gonna murder these creatures.’     "And I know the threat is [there], to save one life you have to take one, but the idea of him [is]: why can’t Obi-Wan just be more clever?  He basically draws them in and then traps them.     "It says something about who the Jedi are, they don’t just waste life arbitrarily.  And someone could have gone, 'Oh, yeah, but it would have been badass if he’d just ran in there with his lightsaber spinning and stabbed them all in the head!’  And 'Yeah, you’re right, I guess he could be that, but he’s trying to teach his clones a lesson right then, about the sanctity of life.’       "That is the underlying theme of that entire episode.  Which is:  A tactical droid is using the people as living shields.  Life means nothing to the Separatists.  The droids.  But life is everything to the Jedi.  And even though he doesn’t have to say that, it’s all through the episode thematically.“ It’s also Obi-Wan who teaches Anakin about kindness to mindless creatures in the Obi-Wan & Anakin comic:

"These beasts are nearly mindless, Anakin.  I can feel it.  They are merely following their nature, they should not die simply because they crossed our path. Use the Force to send them on their way.” Now, fair enough if you want to say Obi-Wan was taught by Qui-Gon, but also Qui-Gon is dead by that point and Obi-Wan growing into being more mature is his own accomplishment, not Qui-Gon’s, especially given that we see Qui-Gon himself being pretty dismissive to Jar Jar in TPM. This isn’t unique thing either, Padme is incredibly condescending to Jar Jar in “Bombad Jedi” and expresses clear annoyance with him to C-3PO when sighing over him.  Jar Jar is a character you kind of have to warm up to, pretty much the only one we’ve seen consistently being favorable to him is Yoda (and maybe Anakin, though, Anakin doesn’t really interact with him a ton) and Mace Windu warms up to him considerably in “The Disappeared” and even specifically is shown to be teaching him and helping him, which is a huge theme of the Jedi and how much they care.

So, ultimately, the point I’m winding my way towards is--the other Jedi do show kindness and consideration to Jar Jar Binks, including characters like Mace Windu, so if you’re judging the Jedi based on that, the conclusion of Qui-Gon somehow being more compassionate and loving is really pretty thoroughly disproved by The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars themselves. So, he’s a brother to Anakin eventually but he’s not a father figure. That’s a failing for Anakin. He doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made, “mother, I’m going to come back and save you”. So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.  You could be charitable and say this is just from Anakin’s point of view that it’s a “failing”, but within the context of what Dave’s saying, it’s clearly meant as a more narratively approved take, not just Anakin’s point of view, and I really, really dislike the idea that Anakin--or anyone, really--needs a traditional nuclear family, ie a “mom” and/or a “dad”, or else it’s a “failing” for them. Setting aside that the idea that Qui-Gon would need to be Anakin’s dad to be kind to hi (which is ?????) is contradicted by The Clone Wars as well.  Yes, Qui-Gon is warm with Anakin in several scenes, which is what Dave is presumably drawing on to show that Qui-Gon believed the Jedi should be caring and loving, but you know who else is warm to younglings?  OTHER JEDI COUNCIL MEMBERS.

Those two scenes have the exact same kind of warmth to them.  Ie, THE JEDI ALL BELIEVED IN BEING LOVING AND KIND, NOT JUST QUI-GON.  The things evidenced to show Qui-Gon was loving and kind are evidenced just as much in other Council members, in Dave’s own show. As a bonus--have Mace Windu, known Jedi Council member, being super kind and loving towards a young Twi’lek girl he just met in a canon comic:

But I know that this is about the way the Council treated Anakin in The Phantom Menace testing scene, but here’s the thing--when I go back and I watch that scene and the Jedi aren’t ever mean to him, they’re neutral in an official testing situation, where they are trying to determine if he’s able to adapt to the Jedi ways.  They never once say he’s bad for holding onto his fear, only that he does--which Anakin digs his heels in and gets angry about, he can’t really even admit that he’s afraid and that’s a huge deal for the Jedi. I’ve made a longer post about it here (and here), but the basic gist is: - That scene has Yoda giving the famous “Fear leads to the dark side” speech which is almost word for word how George Lucas describes how the Force works, showing the Jedi are narratively correct - “Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi” may be from the sequels, but it is thoroughly supported by the movies and TCW and Rebels and even supplementary canon material, including that the Jedi literally design their tests around both Masters and Padawans for it (Ilum, the Jedi Temple on Lothal, etc. - Anakin cannot admit to his fears in that TPM scene - We have examples of Jedi younglings do admit to their fears and the point isn’t not to have them, but to face them--the younglings in “The Gathering” are the most blatant example of this, but it’s also pretty much the entire theme of Jedi: Fallen Order, especially when Cal goes to Ilum to face his fears and get another kyber crystal. The point isn’t that Anakin--who has very good reasons to be afraid! nothing in the story or the Jedi have said he didn’t!--is wrong or bad, but that he’s not a great fit for the Jedi life because he is “unwilling to accept [Jedi philosophy] emotionally”.  And they’re right about this, because this is how George Lucas describes Anakin in commentary: “The fact that everything must change and that things come and go through his life and that he can’t hold onto things, which is a basic Jedi philosophy that he isn’t willing to accept emotionally and the reason that is because he was raised by his mother rather than the Jedi. If he’d have been taken in his first year and started to study to be a Jedi, he wouldn’t have this particular connection as strong as it is and he’d have been trained to love people but not to become attached to them.”  --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary And so this brings us to A T T A C H M E N T, which, yeah, we’ve been having this discussion forever, but I’m going to state it again:  Within Star Wars, ATTACHMENT IS NARRATIVELY A BAD THING.  It is consistently tied to possessive, obsessive relationships, to greed and an unwillingness to let things go when it’s time (letting go is a huge theme in Star Wars) and equating love with attachment is fundamentally wrong according to George Lucas’ Star Wars worldbuilding: “The Jedi are trained to let go. They’re trained from birth,” he continues, “They’re not supposed to form attachments. They can love people-- in fact, they should love everybody. They should love their enemies; they should love the Sith. But they can’t form attachments. So what all these movies are about is: greed. Greed is a source of pain and suffering for everybody. And the ultimate state of greed is the desire to cheat death.” --George Lucas, The Making of Revenge of the Sith If attachment and love were the same thing, then he would be saying, “They should love their enemies, they should love the Sith.  But they can’t love.”  The way George makes the distinction shows that, no, attachment and love aren’t the same thing at all, attachment is not caring.  Further, there’s another instance of him showing there’s an important distinction between relationships and attachment and the association of attachmets with possession:  "Jedi Knights aren’t celibate - the thing that is forbidden is attachments - and possessive relationships.” --George Lucas, BBC News interview So, yes, when Anakin is attached to people, it is directly tied to obsession, possession, and greed, all things of the dark side: “He turns into Darth Vader because he gets attached to things. He can’t let go of his mother; he can’t let go of his girlfriend. He can’t let go of things. It makes you greedy. And when you’re greedy, you are on the path to the dark side, because you fear you’re going to lose things, that you’re not going to have the power you need.”  --George Lucas, Time Magazine  “But he has become attached to his mother and he will become attached to Padme and these things are, for a Jedi, who needs to have a clear mind and not be influenced by threats to their attachments, a dangerous situation. And it feeds into fear of losing things, which feeds into greed, wanting to keep things, wanting to keep his possessions and things that he should be letting go of. His fear of losing her turns to anger at losing her, which ultimately turns to revenge in wiping out the village. The scene with the Tusken Raiders is the first scene that ultimately takes him on the road to the dark side. I mean he’s been prepping for this, but that’s the one where he’s sort of doing something that is completely inappropriate.“ --George Lucas, Attack of the Clones commentary ATTACHMENT IS BAD IN STAR WARS AS THEY DEFINE IT. Finally, I’m going to circle back to: Because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi and you get that in the movie; and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows he’s the father that Anakin needs. Because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that the Jedi are supposed to actually care and love and that’s not a bad thing. Here’s the thing about this:  You know who else, by this logic, Qui-Gon should have been a father to?  OBI-WAN KENOBI. This isn’t said as “Anakin specifically needs a father” (which I think would be an interesting idea to bandy about and I’m not disagreeing, though, it’s complicated because of what Anakin refuses to accept emotionally), it’s said in a bigger context, that Qui-Gon is better than the other Jedi because he understands the need for fathers (and thus this ties into Return of the Jedi) and he’s ahead of the other Jedi, who apparently think loving and caring about people are bad things, but Qui-Gon does not treat Obi-Wan like his son.  Or, if he does, he’s not exactly a stellar dad about it. Within Master & Apprentice, there’s an incredibly consistent theme of how Qui-Gon thinks supportive things about Obi-Wan, but never says them aloud.  He thinks he should talk to Obi-Wan about the upcoming decision to be on the Council and then never does.  He could have explained why he kept Obi-Wan training the basics but he never does.  There are multiple instances showing that Qui-Gon is actually really, really bad at actually handling a young apprentice who needs him to talk to them about important things.  Qui-Gon continues this in From a Certain Point of View where he still never talked to Obi-Wan about everything that happened, even after he became a Force Ghost.     Damn, damn, damn. Qui-Gon closed his eyes for one moment. It blocked nothing; the wave of shock that went through Obi-Wan was so great it could be felt through the Force. Qui-Gon hadn’t thought Kirames Kaj would mention the Jedi Council invitation. It seemed possible the soon-retiring chancellor of the Republic might not even have taken much note of information about a new Council member. --Master & Apprentice     That comment finally pierced Qui-Gon’s damnable calm. There was an edge to his voice as he said, “I suspected you would be too upset to discuss this rationally. Apparently I was correct.”     “I thought you said my reaction was understandable,” Obi-Wan shot back. “So why does it disqualify me from hearing the truth?”    Qui-Gon put his hands on his broad belt, the way he did when he was beginning to withdraw into himself. “…we should discuss this at another time. Neither of us is his best self at the present.” --Master & Apprentice     Obi-Wan walked toward the door, obviously outdone. “At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I couldn’t understand you,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s just as true here at the end.”     Only yesterday they had worked together as never before. How did Qui-Gon manage to get closer to Obi-Wan at the same time he was moving further away?     Just before Obi-Wan would leave the room, Qui-Gon said, “Once, you asked me about the basic lightsaber cadences. Why I’d kept you there, instead of training you in more advanced forms of combat.”     Obi-Wan turned reluctantly to face him again. “I suppose you thought I wasn’t ready for more. The same way I’m not ready to believe in all this mystical—”     “That’s not why.”     After a long pause, Obi-Wan calmed to the point where he would listen. “Then why, Qui-Gon?”     “Because many Padawans—and full Jedi Knights, for that matter—forget that the most basic technique is the most important technique. The purest. The most likely to protect you in battle, and the foundation of all knowledge that is to come,” Qui-Gon said. “Most apprentices want to rush ahead to styles of fighting that are flashier or more esoteric. Most Masters let them, because we must all find our preferred form eventually. But I wanted you to be grounded in your technique. I wanted you to understand the basic cadences so well that they would become instinct, so that you would be almost untouchable. Above all, I wanted to give you the training you needed to accomplish anything you set your mind to later on.”     Obi-Wan remained quiet for so long that Qui-Gon wondered if he were too angry to really hear any of what he’d said. But finally, his Padawan nodded. “Thank you, Qui-Gon. I appreciate that. But—”     “But what?”     “You could’ve said so,” Obi-Wan replied, and then he left. --Master & Apprentice     "I owe you that. After all, I’m the one who failed you.“     "Failed me?”     They have never spoken of this, not once in all Qui-Gon’s journeys into the mortal realm to commune with him. This is primarily because Qui-Gon thought his mistakes so wretched, so obvious, that Obi-Wan had wanted to spare him any discussion of it. Yet here, too, he has failed to do his Padawan justice. --From a Certain Point of View, “Master and Apprentice” (Further, in Master & Apprentice, Qui-Gon thinks that the Jedi give Rael Averross--who is HUGELY paralleled to Anakin--too many exceptions, were too soft on him because he came to the Jedi later than most and has trouble thinking of them as his family, and he thinks they should have been stricter with him.) It’s also readily apparent within The Phantom Menace itself:

You can take some charitable views of this scene, that Qui-Gon was pushed into a corner where he had few other options (and this is the view I generally take even!), but this is after the entire movie where he’s never once indicated that Obi-Wan was ready, has instead indicated that he still has much to learn (not just of the Living Force, but in general), as well as made it clear that he’s still teaching Obi-Wan, like on the Trade Federation ship. And I do think Obi-Wan got over this because he understood, because Obi-Wan actually is a very selfless person, he clearly cares (which is furthered by how we see him warm up to Anakin very quickly), but look at their faces. This was not a good moment, and they do somewhat make up, where Qui-Gon says that Obi-Wan has been a good apprentice, that he’s wiser than Qui-Gon and he’ll be a great Jedi--but if we’re counting that as Qui-Gon being this great Jedi, then you can’t say Obi-Wan failed Anakin, given that we show him doing the exact same thing, except better.  He tells Anakin, “You are strong and wise and will become a far greater Jedi than I could ever hope to be.”, echoing Qui-Gon’s words, but also he never threw Anakin aside for someone else. This is kind of a major undercurrent throughout The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan never takes another apprentice, where he continues to teach Anakin, to support him, even to the point of occasionally co-Mastering Ahsoka with him.  “This has been quite a journey for our Padawan.” Qui-Gon’s treatment of Obi-Wan in this scene isn’t the worst, he’s kind about it later (though, he never actually specifically apologizes for this), but we can see that this is a moment where Qui-Gon hurts Obi-Wan and knows it. And you know what George Lucas has to say about Qui-Gon?  This: “So here we’re having Qui-Gon wanting to skip the early training and jump right to taking him on as his Padawan learner, which is controversial, and ultimately, the source of much of the problems that develop later on.”  –George Lucas, The Phantom Menace commentary There’s nothing about Qui-Gon being right or better than the other Jedi, but instead that Qui-Gon’s actions here are a source of much of the problems that develop later on. So, ultimately, I liked some points Dave made in that speech, it’s a beautiful and eloquent one, but I thoroughly disagree with his interpretation of George’s intentions for Qui-Gon and I thoroughly disagree that that’s what the movies, The Clone Wars (DAVE’S OWN SHOW), and the supplementary canon show about Qui-Gon and the other Jedi.  I still stand by my appreciation of Dave’s contributions to SW as a whole, I think he does a really good job at making Star Wars, but he doesn’t always get everything right and this is one thing where I think the canon and George’s commentary show otherwise, as much as I love his desire to defend the prequels’ importance in the story.  Because, my friend, I have felt that every single day of my SW life.

#anakin skywalker #qui gon jinn #jedi order #george lucas #dave filoni #meta #long post #really long post

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Star Wars: Episode 9- The Rise of Skywalker

Some of you may remember the project I did last year, in which I reviewed all of the official Star Wars movies.  At the time, I couldn’t review Rise of Skywalker, on account of how it wasn’t out yet.  But now that it is, I can finally complete my Star Wars review project.  Obviously, there will be spoilers under the cut.  So if you haven’t seen it yet, proceed at your own risk.

The movie opens with the iconic text crawl.  It informs us that, sometime after Snoke was killed and Kylo Ren took control of the First Order, a mysterious broadcast began being sent out through the galaxy, which vowed that the Resistance would pay dearly.  The main issue, though, is that the broadcast seemed to have been made by Emperor Palpatine himself.  Which obviously causes a lot of alarm among the Resistance, as the Emperor was believed to have died decades earlier, during the battle of the second Death Star, the battle that pretty much ended the Galactic Civil War. (Yeah, the war technically did continue for a while after that, as shown by the countless wreckage on Jakku, but I think the Battle of Endor was what secured victory for the Rebel Alliance.)  But they’re not the only ones who have taken notice of this broadcast, as Kylo Ren is also trying to track down where the broadcast originated.  After he slaughters a bunch of random people on the planet Mustafar, the former home of Darth Vader, he manages to locate what appears to be a Holocron, which were basically information storage devices typically used by both the Jedi and the Sith in times long past.  (I remember them being a thing in the Star Wars MMO I used to play.)  With this Holocron thing, which the movie refers to as a Sith Wayfinder, Kylo is able to pinpoint the source of the mysterious transmission on some secret uncharted planet called Exegol.  Upon reaching the planet, he finds that Emperor Palpatine did indeed somehow survive the events of Return of the Jedi.  But only barely, as he’s essentially bedridden and attached to some sort of life support system that’s kept maintained by what I gather were Palpatine’s Disciples.  Yeah, Palpatine apparently has some manner of cult following now.  And, through a bit of exposition, we are able to gather that Palpatine has actually been pulling the strings of the First Order all this time. For instance, Snoke was apparently an artificially grown person that Palpatine’s Disciples manufactured, as indicated by what appears to be cloned copies of Snoke inside large glass tanks, and his main purpose was to act as Palpatine’s puppet.  (So that explains where Snoke came from.)  And those voices that have been whispering in Kylo’s head for years, seemingly guiding him through his path towards the Dark Side, was pretty much Palpatine talking to him telepathically while making Kylo believe it was the voice of Vader speaking to him.    While I still find it questionable that Palpatine managed to survive falling into that large pit AND was successfully smuggled off the second Death Star before it went boom, if Darth Maul was able to survive getting sliced in half followed by falling down a seemingly bottomless pit, I guess anything is possible.  Maybe Boba Fett survived the sarlacc pit.  And perhaps Mace Windu is still alive somewhere, too.  Whatever.  Anyway, Palpatine proceeds to reveal to Kylo that he has an entire fleet of Star Destroyers that are primed to launch and assist the First Order in completely overthrowing the galaxy.  He also instructs him to locate and kill Rey, as there’s more to her than meets the eye.

We then cut to Poe, Finn and Chewbacca, who are on the Millennium Falcon.  They’re apparently in the middle of some mission for Leia and the Resistance.  A Resistance informant called Boolio has managed to obtain a special message that needs to be passed onto Leia, and the best way to get it to her is by transferring the message into R2’s databanks.  But there’s still a little time for levity as Chewbacca is currently in the middle of a holographic chess match with Finn and Poe, the latter of whom accuses Chewbacca of always cheating on account of how long Chewbacca takes to make a move.  The chess match is interrupted when a random member of the Resistance pokes his head into the room to inform them that they’ve reached the pickup location.  And Poe, despite Chewbacca’s instructions to not disrupt their game, switches off the holographic chessboard.

So Finn, Poe and Chewbacca meet up with Boolio, and they get to work on downloading the message into R2.  But right when they’re finishing up the transfer, First Order TIE Fighters appear on the scene.  So they only just manage to finish downloading the message in time before they have to fly the Millennium Falcon out of there on the double.  And Boolio urgently passes on one final message to Poe.  He informs him that the information that was transferred into R2 actually came from a mole within the First Order.  When Poe asks how they can repay Boolio for all his help, Boolio simply tells them to win the war.  It’s strongly implied that both Poe and Boolio realize that he is as good as dead now, what with the First Order’s sudden arrival.  And if that was true, they weren’t wrong, as we’ll later see Kylo Ren placing Boolio’s severed head on the table during a meeting with other First Order generals, in which they discuss how Palpatine is still alive and has the armada ready to assist them in their efforts to crush the Resistance for good. This scene also shows that Kylo’s mask is back, as a welder has put the broken pieces back together, as well as introduces us to Enric Pryde, a top general in the First Order.

Poe manages to escape the First Order TIE Fighters through a multitude of consecutive Light Speed jumps.  Which he’s apparently not supposed to do since it’s extremely reckless and foolhardy.  And I can see why, as each time they come out of a jump, they’re in a completely different location.  And, if you’re not immediately on your game when you first emerge in a given location, you could easily fly headlong into a tree or building.  Finn even points out that Leia would not approve of Poe taking such a rash action.  To which Poe points out that Leia is not there.  Eventually, Poe’s crazy plan works, and they reach the jungle planet of Ajan Kloss, where the Resistance base currently resides.  It’s here where we see Rey his been continuing her Jedi training under Leia’s supervision.  Which does make sense, as Leia is the only Force Sensitive person left who can help oversee Rey’s Jedi training.  It’s nice that the movie is now acknowledging that Leia is Force Sensitive.  Better late than never.  And it’s made very clear that Rey has grown much stronger in the Force in the year since the Battle of Crait.  (The whole visual of her meditating while floating in the air while a bunch of rocks orbit around her was particularly stunning.)  However, during a rigorous training exercise, we see that the whole Force Telepathy thing that connected Rey and Kylo in the last movie hasn’t completely gone away.  Because Rey suddenly gets plagued by some disturbing visions as a result of Kylo meditating in front of Vader’s melted mask.  These visions include Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers, her memory of being left behind by her parents on Jakku, Han’s death and one of Rey herself as a Sith.  The visions shake Rey to the core, but she does not confide in Leia about them, simply stating that perhaps she’s just tired.

When the Millennium Falcon returns to Ajan Kloss, Rey immediately heads over to the landing bay to meet her friends, where we finally get to see all three of the New Trilogy’s trio together.  Rey and Poe get into a brief argument, with Rey upset over seeing the Millennium Falcon caught fire because of Poe’s Light Speed jumps and Poe was likewise aghast at seeing that BB-8 got banged up as well during his absence.  (Rey accidentally felled a tree right over the little droid when her visions started to interfere with her training regimen.) Overall, this was an amusingly entertaining moment that not only showcased Rey’s attachment to the Falcon matched Poe’s bond with his little Droid, but also indicated what the dynamic between these two was like. The argument comes to a hold when Rey sees Finn, and she goes over to hug her dear friend in greeting.

Anyway, our heroes then get to work in deciphering the message inside R2, which basically informs the Resistance of what Kylo had already found out- Palpatine is indeed alive on Exegol and has enough Star Destroyers at the ready to complete the First Order’s goals of conquering the galaxy.   But as 3PO points out, there is no record of Exegol on any known starchart, on account of it being a hidden Sith planet, so the Resistance have no way to combat the renewed threat of Palpatine, who intends to begin his final attack on the worlds not already under First Order control in roughly 16 hours. However, Rey has found something in the Ancient Jedi Texts that she managed to salvage on Ahch-To.  It turns out that Luke added his own edits to the texts or something, because Rey finds that they make mentions of Exegol, and indicate that it is possible to find Exegol with the use of a Sith Wayfinder. Upon sharing her discovery with Leia, Rey volunteers to set out to find a Sith Wayfinder so they could use it to track down Exegol and put an end to Palpatine’s scheme.  At first. Leia refuses to allow this, stating that it would be too dangerous.  But she quickly relents when Rey states that she will go with or without her blessing, as Leia would have done the same thing in her place.  As such, Leia directs Rey to head to a dessert planet called Pasaana, as there is an old contact of hers there who might be able to help Rey in her quest.  So Rey heads off to the Millennium Falcon to make the journey to Pasanna.  But she’s intercepted by Finn, Poe, Chewbacca, 3PO and BB-8, who, in spite of Rey’s insistence on doing this alone, state that they’re in this together.  Before the group leaves for Pasaana, we get a small moment of 3PO bidding goodbye to R2, with the former stating that, in the event that something were to happen that would prevent them from meeting again, he wants the Astromech Droid to know that he considers R2 his best friend.  Which I suppose could be argued is a little forced foreshadowing of something that happens during the course of the movie.  Also, Leia returns the Skywalker Lightsaber to Rey before she leaves. Surprisingly, they were able to repair it, even though it looked damaged beyond the point of repair in the last movie. Which slightly bummed me out a bit, as I thought we’d see Rey beginning this adventure with a lightsaber of her own. Especially with the last movie’s emphasis on letting go of the past. But I guess I can live with this.

When Rey and the others arrive on Pasaana, they find that they’ve arrived on the day the Aki Aki, an Alien species native to the planet, are holding their sacred holiday meant to honor their ancestors, a festival 3PO states they are very lucky to be able to witness, as they only hold this celebration every 42 years. (Was this a reference to how A New Hope came out 42 years prior to this final instalment of the Star Wars trilogies?)  Trying to keep a low profile, they proceed make their way through the crowd of celebrators.  But Rey’s attention is briefly caught by a small group of Aki Aki children, who are watching some sort of puppet show.  As she watches, one of the younger Aki Aki approaches her to give her a necklace before asking Rey about her family name.  Which makes sense, as this sacred holiday is about celebrating your ancestors.  However, Rey has to admit she doesn’t have a family name.  Yeah, despite the last movie trying to say that Rey’s parents were nobody more than backwater folks who sold her for drinking money, it looks like Rey’s parentage is still going to be a plot point in this movie.

Out of nowhere, Kylo triggers one of those Force Telepathy sessions with Rey, who is clearly not happy about it.  Kylo, after informing her that Palpatine wants her dead, goes off on his whole thing about how he still intends to turn her to the Dark Side, yadda yadda yadda.  But then, he snatches the necklace Rey got from the Aki Aki kid. Because this Force Telepathy thing can allow you to do that.  (Remember how the rain from Ahch-To appeared on Kylo’s glove in the last movie?)  Rey immediately realizes that Kylo getting her necklace is a bad thing, as him having it means that he’s now able to trace the necklace’s origin, and therefore will be able to figure out where they are.  She immediately goes to warn her friends of this.  But before they could escape, a First Order Stormtrooper appears and holds them at gunpoint.

At that moment, they are saved from the First Order Stormtrooper by a masked figure, who instructs Rey and the others to follow him onto a nearby transport.  Deciding that they have little choice but to trust this stranger, especially since he did just save their lives, they comply with the request. And a good thing, too.  Because as soon as the transport begins to get our heroes out of there, the masked figure reveals himself as Lando.  It turns out that he is the contact Leia sent them to find, as he, upon hearing what brought them to Pasaana, reveals that he and Luke once teamed up to try and track down someone called Ochi, who was believed to have located one of the only two known remaining Sith Wayfinders that could reveal the location of Exegol.  However, the trail went cold here on Pasaana, as he and Luke had only found Ochi’s ship, which was left abandoned in the desert.  And they never found out where Ochi went.  Lando agrees to take Rey and company to Ochi’s ship, since perhaps there’s a clue there that Lando and Luke overlooked.  But first, they have to evade a legion of First Order Stormtroopers. Which triggers a whole action sequence that also contains a touch of humor when it’s revealed the Stormtroopers have jetpacks now.  You have to feel bad for Finn here.  He just seems so offended that the Stormtroopers can fly now.  After all, he’d been with the Stormtroopers for practically his whole life.  And just one year after he defected, that’s when they decide to hand out the jetpacks?

As our heroes are still trying to evade the First Order Stormtroopers, they get their first glimpse of Ochi’s ship, lying on the top of a rocky outcrop.  Right away, Rey realizes she recognizes the ship.  It’s the same one we’ve seen in her vision/memory of the day her parents left her on Jakku.  However, mere moments after Rey makes that realization, their speeders are hit with a direct blast from the pursuing Stormtroopers, which sends everyone in the group to go flying right into a nearby patch of sinking fields.  Which act in a similar manner to Hollywood’s interpretation of quicksand.  Despite their best efforts, our heroes sink below the surface.  (Here, Finn admits to Rey that there’s something he’d been wanting to tell her, but they sink below the surface before he could complete his statement.)

Fortunately, this doesn’t result our heroes’ deaths by suffocation.  Rather, they come out on the other side of the sinking fields, right into an underground cavern hidden below the surface of the desert.  They proceed to try and locate a way out.  In doing so, they stumble across the skeletal remains of Ochi. This leads to them determining that Ochi must have fallen into the sinking fields as well.  And, upon being unable to find a way out, eventually died of hunger/thirst/whatever.  Of course, this presents Rey and the others with a problem.  If Ochi couldn’t find a way out of this underground cavern, how are they supposed to do any better?

Before they can come up with a solution to that, they find themselves face-to-face with an Alien beast called a Vexis snake. Initially, the group is ready to fight the creature. But then Rey notices that the Vexis snake is injured. Taking pity on the beast, she slowly approaches the Vexis snake and heals the injury through a new ability called Force Healing. The Vexis snake, out of gratitude for Rey’s gesture, reveals an opening in the side of the cavern wall, which allows our heroes to escape. But before they leave the cavern, they locate a dagger that belonged to Ochi.  Ochi’s dagger, they notice, has an inscription on the blade.  But it’s written in an ancient Sith language.  3PO announces that he can easily translate the writing, on account of him being programmed in over six million forms of communication.  However, he admits he is unable to actually tell the others what the writing says. Because he has been specifically programmed to never translate anything Sith related.  While this is obviously frustrating for Rey and company to hear, I’m wondering who programmed that restriction into 3PO’s circuitry.  I can’t see little boy Anakin doing that, since he had no idea what the Sith even were when he lived on Tatooine.  Same with the Lars family.  Did Captain Antilles do the honor under the request of Bail Organa when ownership of 3PO passed to him following the events of Revenge of the Sith?

Getting back to the actual story, they head back to Ochi’s ship to resume their search for clues to the location of the Sith Wayfinder, as well as try to repair the ship so it would be flightworthy again. Because they know it’s too risky to risk returning to the Millennium Falcon, as the First Order would most likely be waiting for them back there. As they’re searching, Rey senses Kylo’s presence and, without telling her friends, she heads out to confront him.  When they notice she’s missing, Finn and Poe end up sending Chewbacca out to find her.  Which seems a bit silly, since they were working on ship repairs.  Why exactly would you send the one who is the seasoned expert on repairing ships to do the menial task of fetching Rey? Although, Chewbacca doesn’t get a chance to find Rey. Kylo’s followers, the Knights of Rey, are lying in wait and manage to get the jump on Chewbacca off camera. (About time they remembered these guys in the new trilogy.  I’d been wondering if they’d actually be featured beyond a passing mention in The Force Awakens.)  Finn and Poe soon discover Chewbacca has been captured when they see TIE Fighters approaching on radar and head out to warn him.

Meanwhile, Rey has spotted Kylo’s TIE Whisperer approaching the area.  Which leads to that moment I’m sure we’ve all seen on the trailer, with Rey performing that epic backflip over the TIE Whisperer as it flies towards her.  In the process, Rey effortlessly slices through the Tie Whisperer’s wing, resulting in the ship to crash land.  At that moment, Finn runs over to inform Rey that Chewbacca was captured, gesturing to a transport ship that’s currently taking off nearby.  Without hesitation, Rey attempts to stop the transport ship from leaving the planet by holding it back with the Force.  But Kylo, who survived the crash, also tries to use the Force to pull the transport ship out of her grasp.  This results in the pair having what amounts to a tug-of-war over the transport ship. For a few moments, it looks as if Rey and Kylo are evenly matched.  Until Rey, without warning, suddenly unleashes a blast of Force Lightning from her hand.  This results in the transport ship to blow up, much to the horror of Rey, Finn and Poe, as Chewbacca was on the transport ship, and there’s no way anyone could have survived that.

Unfortunately, there’s no time to grieve the death of their friend, as our heroes have to escape on Ochi’s ship before First Order reinforcements can arrive.  Once they’re off the planet, though, they’re able to let the development sink in.  Chewbacca is gone.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d had Ochi’s dagger on him when he’d been captured.  Without it, their hopes of finding Exegol and stopping Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers are dashed.  That’s when 3PO lets slip that he remembers exactly what the dagger’s inscription said. But like he said before, he cannot tell them what it said on account of his programming preventing him from doing so. However, Poe has an idea on how to work around that hurtle. He knows someone on a planet called Kijimi that can help them hack into 3PO’s circuits and override that programming restriction. So it’s off to Kijimi they go.

During this time, we also see Rey trying to wrap her head around how she was able to generate Force Lightning.  As it’s doubtful she would have learned such a thing from Leia.  Not only did Leia, unlike Luke, never witness Force Lightning being used (at least, not to our knowledge), Force Lightning was apparently a Dark Side power.  Hardly something you would teach a Jedi.  So how would Rey have been able to utilize that herself?  Also, BB-8 discovers a deactivated little Droid called D-O in a secluded corner of the ship. I guess D-O was originally supposed to belong to Ochi before his death, though D-O is not a bad Droid himself.  BB-8 ends up reactivating D-O, giving Star Wars fans a new little Droid to fawn over. (D-O is basically a bullhorn mounted on a single wheel.)

Upon reaching Kijimi, the heroes find the planet is pretty much under First Order control, with Stormtroopers keeping the residents under house arrest.  As the Resistance group tries to navigate along while evading being discovered by the Stormtroopers, they end up running into a woman called Zorii Bliss, who is revealed to be an old friend of Poe, from the days before he joined the resistance. From her, we learn a bit of Poe’s backstory.  Prior to joining the Resistance, he’d earned a living as a spice runner, which is basically the Star Wars equivalent of a drug dealer or something along those lines. (The movie spends a few seconds with Finn and Rey making a big deal of this, which is a bit odd.  Like, does it really matter what Poe did before he joined the resistance? Poe even points out the hypocrisy of his friends’ reactions, pointing out that Finn used to be a Stormtrooper and Rey was a scavenger.) But the point is that Poe apparently still owes Zorii money from his spice runner days.  Though Zorii is eventually convinced to forget about the debt and she agrees to bring them to Babu Frik, an expert Droidsmith who can help hack past 3PO’s programming restrictions so he can reveal what the inscription on Ochi’s dagger says.  When they reach Babu Frik’s place, the little Alien states that he can do what they want, but there’s a catch.  If Babu Frik performs the hack, it would completely wipe 3PO’s memory banks. Meaning 3PO would forget everything and everyone.  Finn, Rey and Poe briefly argue against this, as they’re still hurting from losing Chewbacca and aren’t willing to lose another friend.  But 3PO, showing a surprising amount of courage, announces he’s willing to consent to the procedure, as it’s imperative that they locate a Sith Wayfinder and stop Palpatine’s Star Destroyer fleet.  If they don’t, then everyone they’ve lost, including Chewbacca, will have died in vain.

So Babu Frik performs the hack, resulting in 3PO being able to reveal that there’s a Sith Wayfinder on Kef Bir, an ocean moon orbiting around the planet Endor.  The moment 3PO is able to get that information out, he briefly shuts down automatically as his memory banks begin to be wiped out, with the Protocol Droid resorting to his default mode.  At that moment, though, Rey and the others find out that the Knights of Ren somehow tracked them down to Kijimi.  When the First Order ships appear overhead, Rey is able to sense Chewbacca’s presence on board one of the ships, thus informing them that Chewbacca is alive. It turns out that Chewbacca had been on a different transport ship from the one Rey unwittingly blew up.  So of course, she, Finn and Poe decide they have to rescue Chewbacca.  In order to assist them, Zorii gives the trio a First Order Captain’s Medallion, which she had previously swiped off a First Order officer or something.  She’d previously explained during an earlier scene with her and Poe that she had been planning to use it in order to get off Kijimi. But she decides that they need it more, as the life of their friend is undoubtedly on the line.

With the use of the Captain’s Medallion, Rey, Finn and Poe manage to sneak aboard the Star Destroyer where Chewbacca is being held.  After Rey manages to thwart a couple of Stormtroopers in their way via a Jedi Mind Trick, they begin to search for Chewbacca.  However, Rey ends up splitting up from the group when her Jedi Senses lead her elsewhere.  Her Jedi Senses end up leading her to Kylo’s quarters, where she locates Ochi’s dagger. Upon reclaiming it, she is hit by another vision.  This one is of Ochi using the dagger to murder her parents.  Because Ochi was apparently looking for Rey, and her parents ultimately gave their lives in their efforts to protect her.  (I suppose that means that Ochi’s ship was originally the property of Rey’s parents, and Ochi claimed it as his own after murdering them.)

As Rey’s vision comes to an end, her newfound questions end up triggering another Force Telepathy moment between her and Kylo, who confirms that Rey’s parents were nobodies because they had to become nobodies in order to keep her safe from Ochi, and whoever hired him to find her.  But whoever hired Ochi still wants to find Rey because of the potential for Darkness inside her.  A lightsaber duel soon begins between the pair, but during the battle, the pedestal that displays Vader’s melted helmet is destroyed.  This results in the melted helmet to be seen by Kylo, allowing him to figure out that Rey is in his living quarters aboard the Star Destroyer.  So Rey has to quickly rejoin her friends and make sure they all get away before Kylo can arrive and tip off the other First Order members that they’ve been infiltrated.

 Meanwhile, Finn and Poe have successfully located Chewbacca. But despite their best efforts, they soon find themselves surrounded by Stormtroopers.  They are brought before General Hux and Enric Pryde, with the latter ordering their immediate execution.  But after Pryde leaves, Hux requests the Stromtroopers tasked with performing the execution if he could do the honors.  And, after a bit of a fake-out, Poe, Finn and Chewbacca are amazed to see that Hux has instead killed the two Stormtroopers.  Because Hux was the First Order mole who Boolio told them about at the start of the movie.  (How’s that for a twist?)  Hux then proceeds to help Finn, Poe and Chewbacca find their way to the hanger where the Millennium Falcon is being kept.  He then tells Finn to shoot him in the arm.  Because he obviously doesn’t want to be exposed as a traitor to the First Order. Finn does indeed shoot him, but in the leg instead of the arm.  He then demands to know why Hux would help them in the first place.  Hux then pretty much states he doesn’t care if the Resistance wins or loses.  He just wants to see Kylo lose.  Because the animosity between the two is still as strong as ever.  Okay, fair enough.  I can get behind that.

As Finn, Poe and Chewbacca ready the Falcon to escape the Star Destroyer, Rey ends up running into Kylo in the flesh. Because he got there incredibly fast.  As they confront each other, Kylo finally gives Rey the final piece of the puzzle involving her parents and Ochi by revealing that Rey is the long-lost granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.

And thus, we reach the first major question mark moment of the movie.  Rey’s father was Palpatine’s son?!    Palpatine had a kid?  How did that happen?  I mean, did Palpatine get some woman drunk?  Who did he impregnate?  Was it even consensual?  Confusing elements of a revealed backstory aside, I guess Palaptine sensed that Rey was particularly strong in the Force and feared her power the way he feared Luke’s back in the day.  So he hired Ochi to track down Rey, but her parents, Palpatine’s son and daughter-in-law, did their best to keep her safe from him.  And they were killed for their efforts.

Kylo once again offers Rey the chance to join him, but Rey rejects the offer, jumping onto the Millennium Falcon as it flies past the open hanger where the confrontation was taking place.  After they escape, however, Pryde shoots Hux dead, on account of him somehow figuring out that Hux was a traitor.  Pryde then accepts a direct call from Palpatine, who orders Pryde to destroy Kijimi utilizing a Planet Killer style canon that has been installed on one of the Star Destroyers, an order that Pryde follows without blinking.  

Now, the thing about Pryde.  I admit I found myself slightly confused by his character. In the scene where he’s informed that Finn, Poe and Chewbacca were apprehended during the rescue attempt, the way the camera shot was set up seemed to be trying to put an emphasis on Pryde’s eyes.  Which made me briefly suspect that he was the mole instead of Hux.  But of course, that wasn’t the case.  So what was up with the way they made the lighting practically place a spotlight on his eyes?  Was Pryde supposed to be a clone of Tarkin or something?  Were we supposed to realize Pryde had Tarkin’s eyes?  The way we saw Pryde telling Palpatine state that he has served him for a long time seemed to suggest that Pryde wasn’t just one of the random characters this final movie introduced us to and that he had been around in some way for a long time.  So who is this guy, anyway?

Anyway, the Resistance group, following the information they got from 3PO’s translation of the dagger, arrive on Kef Bir, where they soon locate some of the wreckage from the second Death Star.  Because, again, they’re on a moon in the Endor system. As they look out at the wreckage, Rey discovers Ochi’s dagger contains a treasure map pointer of some sort, which leads to her figuring out the Sith Wayfinder is located in a specific piece of the wreckage.  (It’s a pretty big Goonies moment here.)  But to reach the indicated bit of wreckage, they have to swim out to it.  Before they could attempt to swim out, though, a group of people appear out of nowhere, riding atop these horse-like creatures. Their leader is a young woman called Jannah, who informs them that she was notified by Babu Frik that they were coming there.  Which pretty much indicates that Jannah is an alley.  But she tells them that the current of the ocean on Kef Bir is too strong for anyone to swim out to the wreckage, and it’s only accessible by skimmer. However, while Jannah says she’s willing to loan them one of their skimmers, they’ll have to wait until morning because of the nature of the tides or something.

During their down time, there’s a bonding moment between Finn and Jannah, who reveals that she is a former First Order Stormtrooper.  TZ-1719, to be exact.  In fact, everyone in her tribe used to be a Stormtrooper, until they all mutinied after being ordered to open fire on civilians. Finn is both stunned and ecstatic to learn that he wasn’t the only Stormtrooper who developed a conscience and defected from the First Order.  All this time, he thought he was alone in that regard.

But that’s when they all realize that they haven’t seen Rey in a while.  Because, despite Jannah’s warnings, she decided she wasn’t willing to wait until morning and commandeered a skimmer to venture out to the Death Star wreckage. Upon reaching it, she soon locates the Sith Wayfinder they set out to find.  When she picks it up, she is briefly confronted by a vision of herself as a Sith Lord.  Which I guess is supposed to mirror Luke’s encounter with the vision of Vader in the Dagobah cave back in Empire Strikes Back.  After Rey fights with the vision of Dark Rey, Kylo suddenly shows up.  It turns out that Pryde analyzed Ochi’s dagger before Rey reclaimed it, resulting in the First Order figuring out where they were going. Kylo promptly destroys the Sith Wayfinder in order to try and force Rey to give into hate, and the two began an epic lightsaber battle atop the Death Star wreckage.

But this is when things get a bit confusing. We briefly cut back to Ajan Klos, where Leia, I guess, can sense that Rey and Kylo are dueling.  She proceeds to slowly walk off, with one of her attendants saying that Leia knows what she has to do to get through to her son.  And then, as the duel between Rey and Kylo continues, Leia reaches out to Kylo through the Force, which causes him to pause long enough for Rey to impale him with the Skywalker Lightsaber.  And them, we see Leia fall back onto her bed as she dies.

Okay.  What caused Leia to die like that?  Was she secretly ill?  Did she reach out to Kylo utilizing a similar method to the one Luke used to project himself onto Crait in The Last Jedi, thereby draining all of her life energy?  Are we supposed to assume she somehow committed suicide in the hopes that Kylo sensing her death would be enough to force some sense into him? I realize that they probably had to kill off Leia in this movie due to Carrie Fisher’s untimely death, since they only had so much archived footage of her to work with.  But still, a little clarification of what exactly caused Leia to die so suddenly would have been greatly appreciated.

ANYWAY, Rey also senses Leia’s death through the Force and is visibly shaken by it.  In what I guess was meant as a last favor to her fallen mentor, as well as the knowledge that she briefly let her anger get the better of her, Rey chooses to save the injured Kylo with Force Healing.  But once she ensures that Kylo won’t die from the injury she inflicted, Rey retreats from the scene, hijacking Kylo’s TIE Whisperer and taking off, despite Finn (who had been watching the fight from nearby) calling after her. Rey makes her way back to Ahch-To, where she decides to impose exile on herself on account of her mounting fears. She is shaken to the core upon learning of her identity as Palpatine’s granddaughter.  Especially since she’s now fearing that she is pretty much destined to turn out to be just like him.  After all, she was able to generate Force Lightning without even meaning to. And there’s the fact that she came close to killing Kylo out of sheer hatred.  Not only that, she has lost Leia, who was the one person who could offer her guidance and whatnot.  As a result of her despair, Rey proceeds to burn the TIE Whisperer, thereby ensuring that she’d be effectively be stranded on the planet.  But when she tries to throw the Skywalker Lightsaber into the fire as well in order to destroy it, someone catches it before it could come in contact with the flames.  That someone is revealed to be Luke, who has returned as a Force Ghost.  Luke offers Rey some much-needed guidance by revealing that he and Leia had known that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter from the very start.  But they still chose to help train her because they could see her spirit and knew that, just because she was a Palpatine by birth, she was still her own person.  As such, she was free to choose her own path.

Luke then reveals that, years ago, he had helped Leia train as a Jedi.  In fact, Leia had owned a lightsaber of her own.  (So Leia DID get training as a Force User.  That explains how she knew how to perform that Superman Flight through space.)  However, during her training, Leia received a vision that her son would turn to the Dark Side.  And that it would have fallen to her to kill him.  Understandably, Leia balked at the notion that she would have to kill her own son. To try to avoid that fate, she not only decided to send Ben to Luke for training in the hopes that he’d be able to stop Ben from turning to the Dark Side (a plan that clearly failed), she also chose to forsake her Jedi heritage, giving her lightsaber to Luke for safekeeping, in the hopes that someone else would come forward to do what she couldn’t. Luke proceeds to tell Rey that he knows he was wrong to try and impose exile on himself for failing to reach Ben Solo and losing him to Snoke.  And that Rey should face Palpatine the way he once faced Vader years ago.  Because it’s now up to her to finish what Luke and Leia could not.  In the end, Luke’s pep talk does the trick, and she agrees to go back and journey to Exegol to confront Palpatine.  Before she parts, Luke gifts Rey with Leia’s old lightsaber, which had been hidden in the wall of Luke’s old hut.  And, to give Rey a way off the planet, Luke manages to levitate his abandoned X-Wing out of the water.  (Which probably was meant to be a callback to how Luke failed to do so in Empire Strikes Back, which shows how much Luke has grown since then.)  Not sure how the X-Wing was still flightworthy, though.  How many years was that thing submerged beneath the waves? One would think that the water damage would have left the X-Wing permanently grounded.  Also, I’m still wondering what happened to Luke’s green-bladed lightsaber. We saw him using it in the brief flashback with him training with Leia.  What exactly did he do with it?

Meanwhile, back on Kef Bir, Kylo is still standing alone atop the wreckage of the Death Star, shaken by the knowledge of his mother’s death.  At that moment, he comes face to face with the image of Han.  No, Han’s not a Force Ghost, but that would have been interesting, as it would have confirmed my theory that Han possessed some Force Sensitivity himself.  Rather, it’s more of Kylo’s memory of Han taking physical form.  Anyway, the memory of Han is able to convince Kylo that, even though Leia is gone, what she stood for still remained.  So it still wasn’t too late for him to come home.  In the end, Kylo turns and throws away his cross-hilted lightsaber, which was meant to signify that he was forsaking his identity as Kylo Ren and choosing to become Ben Solo again.  (Personally, I felt that was a bit forced that Kylo would get redeemed that easily.  But I guess the same could be said of how Vader got redeemed simply because of the innate love for his son.)

Quick question.  Was anyone else a bit shocked to see Han come back in this movie?  I always got the impression that Harrison Ford seriously disliked his role as Han Solo.  (At least he never seems happy when people ask him about it.)  And that he only agreed to come back for the new trilogy if they agreed to kill him off in the first installment.  After that, I’d thought he’d have completely divorced himself from the Star Wars franchise.  So I wonder what they had to do to convince him to come back for this final cameo.

Back on Ajan Kloss, Poe, Finn and Chewbacca have returned to the Resistance base to tell Leia of what happened on Kef Bir, only to be informed of Leia’s death, the news of which devastates them all to the core. Chewbacca’s reaction alone is particularly heartbreaking.  You really feel bad for him.  Especially since, with Leia gone, he’s lost all of his closest friends.  However, in the mist of their grief, they know they have to press on, in honor of Leia’s memory.  Because to do otherwise would mean turning their backs on everything Leia fought for.  And she’d previously effectively chosen Poe to be her successor in leading the Resistance. (Because again, Poe is the new Leia.) As they’re working to figure out what to do now, they receive a transmission they realize is coming from Rey.  It turns out that, even though Kylo destroyed the Sith Wayfinder they found on Kef Bir, there was still one left- the one that Kylo had previously found on Mustafar.  And Rey had found it inside the burning remains of Kylo’s TIE Whisperer.  So now Rey is using it to head to Exegol while leaving a trail of breadcrumbs so her friends in the Resistance can also find Exegol and take out Palpatine’s fleet of Star Destroyers.

And so begins the final battle of the movie, as well as the new trilogy.  Rey, upon arriving on Exegol, finds her way into Palpatine’s inner sanctum, where she not only finds Palpatine, but all of Palpatine’s Disciples, who have all congregated in the room to observe the confrontation.  It turns out that, even though Palpatine had previously ordered Kylo to kill Rey, he now wants Rey to kill him.  Because if she does strike him down in anger, some dark ritual will be performed that will allow Palpatine’s spirit to take over Rey’s body, thereby allowing him to live again through her.  (So, if that was his plan, why was he previously so determined to have Rey killed?) To try and rile Rey up to the point where she would want to kill him in vengeance, Palpatine not only taunts her over how her parents were murdered by his orders, but, much like how he did with Luke in Return of the Jedi, shows her the spaceship battle that’s currently occurring above the planet’s surface, with the Resistance fighters battling against the Star Destroyer fleet.  It’s clear that the odds are against the Resistance, as the Resistance is vastly outnumbered and are seemingly dropping like flies. (Also, I believe that, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, we can see that Wedge Antilles, the old veteran from both Death Star battles, can be seen among the Resistance fighters.  Which probably left long-time Star Wars fans tickled pink.)

However, the newly reborn Ben Solo has also made his way to Exegol, using a TIE Fighter he somehow managed to obtain.  Although, when he tries to make his way into Palpatine’s inner sanctum, his way is blocked by the Knights of Rey.  Rey, seemingly sensing his presence, ends up deciding to pull a fast one on Palpatine, who is insisting that he has foreseen her using the Skywalker Lightsaber to strike him down.  Utilizing the Force Telepathy trick that links her to Ben, she covertly passes the Skywalker Lightsaber over to him, which enabled him to defeat the Knights of Rey and make it to her side. Upon seeing the two together, Palpanine reveals that the pair of them are Dyads, which I guess pretty much means they’re the Force equivalent of Yin and Yang or something. Which explains why they have such a strong mental link. In other words, they’re kinda twins.  Not by blood, but through the Force.  Unfortunately, Palpatine can use this to his advantage, as Force Dyads possess a unique kind of energy.  One he can absorb in order to rejuvenate himself. And that’s exactly what he does, forcibly draining Ben and Rey of their life essence.  This act results in him being returned to his full strength again. To demonstrate this, he fires off a powerful blast of Force Lightning up at the Resistance ships, effectively disabling them.  Palpatine then shoves Ben down a smoke-filled chasm that just happens to be nearby. Because there’s ALWAYS a gaping hole or chasm in Star Wars films.

Meanwhile, what’s left of the Resistance fighters are left reeling from the rejuvenated Palpatine’s Force Lightning attack. That, combined with how their best efforts at dismantling the Star Destroyer fleet by destroying the radio antenna thing that controls the fleet’s movements haven’t produced the desired results results (which was a pretty cool sequence when they even brought in those horse creatures Jannah and her tribe had to traverse along the exterior of the lead Star Destroyer on foot), leads to Poe nearly giving into despair.  It turns out he hasn’t quite gotten over the memories of what happened on Crait, with how nobody seemed to respond to their pleas for help.  He’s now feeling that the same thing will happen now, and that nobody will arrive to assist them in this final fight.  And thus, all their efforts at stopping the First Order from taking over have been for nothing.  

But at that moment, the Calvary arrives! Lando and Chewbacca, who had headed off on the Millennium Falcon earlier to help spread the word of what the Resistance was doing, have returned, accompanied by a number of ships from each of the remaining Free Worlds.  Unlike the last movie, they’ve finally decided to join the fight in time for the final stand.  With the help of the surprise reinforcements, which include Zorri and Babu Frik (who have managed to survive the destruction of Kijimi), the Resistance manages to take out the Star Destroyers, with Finn and Jannah managing to blow up the radio antenna.  But since Finn and Jannah had hung back to achieve that task by hand, in spite of Rose’s protests (because Rose was in this movie, too, but her role was significantly reduced, no doubt a result of the number of so-called ‘fans’ who directed personal attacks against the actress who portrayed her for arbitrary and possibly racist reasons after The Last Jedi came out), Lando has to maneuver the Falcon close enough for them to hitch a ride before the lead Star Destroyer blows up.  Which kills Pryde in the process.  

However, there’s still the matter of Palpatine. Because even though his fleet has been destroyed, he still remains.  But Rey, while she is lying weakened on the ground, is also still alive.  As she lies there, she is finally able to break through the mental block that had been holding her back at the start of the movie, enabling her to hear the voices of Jedi Masters of the past, which apparently incudes Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Luke, the redeemed Anakin, Yoda, Mace Windu, Ahsoka (from the Clone Wars series) and others I didn’t recognize.  However, I did notice that the voice of Obi-Wan told Rey ‘these are your final steps.’ Which brings us full-circle to The Force Awakens, when Obi-Wan’s voice is heard saying ‘these are your first steps’ when Rey first finds the Skywalker Lightsaber.  Drawing strength from the Jedi of the Past, Rey gets back to her feet to face down Palpatine, who tries to strike her down with Force Lightning. Rey manages to deflect the attack with Leia’s Lightsaber, but it seems like she won’t be able to keep it up forever. Until she manages to produce the Skywalker Lightsaber again.  With the combined strength of the Skywalker Lightsaber and Leia’s Lightsaber, Rey is able to produce a complete rebound of the Force Lightning attack, sending it right back at Palpatine, destroying him once and for all.

Unfortunately, the effort involved seemed to have been too much of a strain on Rey’s already weakened body, as she collapses to the ground and ends up dying.  However, Ben somehow survived falling into the chasm and he is able to pull himself back out.  Though it’s clear that he’d been severely injured, with a pronounced limp.  He staggers over to Rey’s body and, like she did with him, utilizes Force Healing in order to resurrect her.  

And, yeah, when Rey opens her eyes, they end up kissing.  Because I guess the writing and directing crew just had to throw in some fanservice for the Reylo shippers.  And yes, that’s exactly what it was- fanservice. Look, if you shipped these two, more power to you.  But there was nothing remotely romantic about their interactions throughout this trilogy. At least, none that I could see.  Rey seemed to want nothing to do with him from the start.  Well, outside of her apparent desire to save Ben Solo, but that had probably more to do with her great respect for Han, Leia and Luke, and her desire to honor their memories.  Even Daisy Ridley herself said that the relationship between these two was toxic and abusive.  And I dare say Daisy Ridley knows Rey’s character better than anyone.  For those reasons, I don’t understand why they would have them kiss here.  Unless it was more of a ‘hooray, we did it!’ sort of kiss. But if that was the case, wouldn’t a hug have sufficed?  Just saying, having them kiss like that suggests there were romantic feelings between them.  I don’t understand why the people who created this movie would have wanted people to be left with that message.  Besides, suggesting that they were in love or something is kinda pointless, as Ben dies immediately afterwards anyway, with his body fading from sight as he becomes one with the Force.  With the same thing happening to Leia’s body.  (Wonder why Leia’s body didn’t fade away immediately after she died. With all the other Jedi who have become one with Force, they faded away immediately after dying.  Why was Leia different?)  Then again, this is the same movie franchise where George Lucas had Leia kiss Luke in a non-sisterly way on more than one occasion, despite him probably knowing that they were long-lost siblings all along.  So I guess I should expect this kind of thing these movies, anyway.

But still, I’m rather bugged by the Reylo kiss. Because not only was it completely pointless, what with Ben dying right afterwards and Rey never seeming to give another thought to him again (so it’s not as if they were implying that this was meant to be a tragic love story with Rey ending up alone), they also deliberately bated us Finrey shippers, too.  Yeah, remember the bit with Finn stating that there was something he’d been wanting to tell Rey?  Well, apart from a few additional moments with Poe grilling Finn over what it was he wanted to tell her and never getting an answer, that doesn’t go anywhere.  For crying out loud, they couldn’t even give us Stormpilot (the ship name for Finn and Poe).  Which stinks, as Oscar Isaac repeatedly said that he was completely on board with having a romance between the two.  But Disney apparently wasn’t willing to do that, as they wanted this film to do well in countries where same-sex couples are virtually outlawed in media.  So of course they couldn’t let a main character be involved in a same-sex relationship. Instead, they simply had two random female Resistance members kissing in the background while everyone was celebrating the Victory at Exegol in an obvious attempt at ensuring they could claim LGBT representation while making it easy for anti-LGBT countries to censor it out. Of course, this is just an indication of how far we still have to go.  Still, I admit that these were just my thoughts on the matter.  Other moviegoers might have a completely different opinion on the matter.

Personal disappointments aside, Palpatine is gone for good now, and his Star Destroyer fleet has been destroyed.  Which means it’s the end of the First Order and everything that remained of the Imperial Empire.  So celebrations erupt throughout the galaxy.  During the montage that follows, we even get a brief glimpse of the Forest Moon of Endor, where two Ewoks look down over one of the downed Star Destroyers.  End credits confirm this was a full-grown Wicket and his son.  Which was a nice touch, I must say.

As for our main heroes, Finn, Poe and Rey are reunited on Ajan Kloss, where they have a big group hug.  Chewbacca is approached by Maz Kanata, who gives him the metal that Han was given at the end of A New Hope, stating that he’s more than earned it.  (Yay for Chewbacca finally getting the credit he deserves!) But we also get a rather confusing moment.  There’s a short scene where we see Lando sitting next to Jannah, with him asking her where she’s from.  When Jannah states she doesn’t know, Lando smiles and offers to help her find out. Really, was there a point to that brief conversation?  Were they suggesting that there was a possible romance between the two?  Are we supposed to suspect that Jannah is Lando’s long-lost daughter?  If it’s the latter, then that was really random.  Especially since there was nothing to really base that assumption on.  Other than the fact that they’re both Black. But you could have just as easily have said Finn was Lando’s son with that logic.  Maybe there’ll be a deleted scene to further explain what that was about.  I guess time will tell.

Also, was it just me, or was Finn supposed to have been showing signs of being Force Sensitive in this movie?  Because I was kinda getting that vibe at select points in this film, but it was never made very clear.  And oh, yeah.  3PO’s memory was restored by R2, as the Astromech Droid happened to have a backup of 3PO’s memory stored on his harddrive or something.  Which seemed like a bit of a cop-out, as it really negated the weight of 3PO’s personal sacrifice, which was quite possibly the first time he really served a purpose beyond comedy relief.  (Although, does this mean that 3PO also regained his memories of everything that happened in the Prequel Trilogy?  Hmmm.)

Finally, we reach the movie’s epilogue scene.  An undetermined amount of time after the Victory at Exegol, Rey travels to Tatoointe with BB-8 at her side. Together, they make their way to what once was the home of Owen and Beru Lars, which I guess has been sitting abandoned since their deaths.  (Did nobody ever come forward to claim the place?  Granted I don’t know much about land ownership and whatnot on Tatooine, but wasn’t it implied that Luke sold the place before he left the planet with Obi-Wan way back when?)  Upon reaching the place where it all began, Rey takes out the Skywalker Lightsaber and Leia’s Lightsaber, burying them in the sand outside the Lars Homestead. (Insert obvious joke about how Anakin would feel about his old lightsaber being buried in the sand.) Rey then reveals to the audience that she managed to construct a lightsaber of her very own, which has a yellow blade.  Needless to say, if it turns out that the sales of yellow Kyber crystals over at Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge skyrocketed after this movie, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.

At that moment, Rey is approached by a resident of Tatooine, who voices her surprise at seeing Rey there.  Because it’s been a very long time since she’d seen anyone near the abandoned homestead.  She asks Rey for her name.  Rey, after a brief pause in which she looks over at the spirits of Luke and Leia watching over her, identifies herself as Rey Skywalker, in honor of the Skywalker twins who helped her become a Jedi.  She and BB-8 then look out into the distance, where the iconic twin suns of Tatooine are setting.  Because it’s fitting that the story ends on that shot.  

So, is Rey going to live on Tatooine now? Will she open up a Jedi training school there?  Is BB-8 going to stay with Rey from now on?  Is Poe okay with that? Also, what became of that little boy from The Last Jedi?  Temeri, wasn’t it?  It was heavily implied that he was Force Sensitive, but we didn’t even see him make a brief cameo in this final chapter.  Yeah, clearly I still have a lot of questions that I’ll probably never get answers to.  But despite that, I really felt that this was a decent send-off to the saga of Star Wars Trilogies.  Obviously, there’s going to be a lot more material pertaining to the Star Wars universe.  Not only do we have The Mandalorian, which has clearly taken the world by storm, but I’ve heard rumors for a while now that Ewan McGregor plans to reprise his role as Young Obi-Wan in another series at some point. And I’m sure they’ll come out with more of those anthology movies that brought us Rouge One and Solo. But unless something changes in the future, this is supposed to be the final instalment of the classic Star Wars trilogies.  And all things considered, it was a good place to end it.

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#star wars #star wars episode 9 #star wars: the rise of skywalker #star wars review #star wars franchise

[rileysfs]

Just saw SW:TFA again and I have some more theories...

So Star Wars: The Force Awakens just aired on ABC for the first time and this was only my second time seeing it, the first time being the very first Star Wars movie I EVER saw, so I wasn’t really a part of the fandom then. Anyways, I only watched it again for the sole purpose of the theories, and man, did I come up with some new ones, on top of solidifying some of the ones I already had.

For those of you who don't know my current theories, here they are:

Thank you to my friend @cuckoo-outlawoflove-in-nirvana​ (Maggie) for helping me with these theories. Some of these are in her words that I copied and pasted from texts she and I had. Most of these are pretty much Maggie and I making realizations and just writing down our thoughts (note the caps in the first one). I wish I could find the actual texts these came from but that was so long ago that it would take forever to find if they are still there.

Rey and Kylo Ren are related. Most likely cousins. Luke may be her father. Or Obi Wan is the grandfather or great grandfather. WHAT IF LEIA IS THE MOTHER???

Finn may be related to Mace Windu or Lando

The kid at the end of The Last Jedi used the force to get the broom. I wonder how he got the force...

Rey isn’t the last Jedi

In the extended universe content Luke apparently did have a wife named Mara Jade

When Disney got LucasFilm, they declared that nothing outside the movies, the Clone Wars show, and the Rebels show is officially canon, so according to them, Mara doesn’t exist. I still think that Obi-wan had a daughter with his gf from Clone Wars, and that’s Rey’s mom

Side Notes

I just realized we don’t know much about Anikin’s father... he was mentioned when obi wan or his master asked his mother about him but idr what was said... I’ll have to watch that scene again...

There was no father. I carried him; I raised him; I can’t explain what happened. -Anakin’s Mother

Here are the posts (copied and pasted) I made about the theories pretty soon after I made this account:

Regarding Rey’s parents:

Rey and Kylo Ren are definitely related. They are most likely cousins, meaning Luke is probably her father.

If Luke isn’t her father, then Obi Wan might be her grandfather or great grandfather.

As for the mother, there are possibilities to Enfy’s Nest or Qi’ra (both introduced in Solo). But, the likelihood that Luke being the father AND one of these being the mother is pretty small. My friend really thinks Luke is her father and she yelled at me for even considering Qi’ra since she turns to the dark side after abandoning her former lover Han. However, it’s still a possibility. My friend also told me that Luke had a girlfriend in one of the side series (possibly Clone Wars but idk) and that’s Rey’s mom but some people are purists and don’t believe anything beyond the trilogies.

Regarding Fin’s Parents:

Mace Windu is a likely possibility. When I first brought it up to my friend, she said something like “Oh, I’m all for a force sensitive Fin!” However, Mace was one Jedi who probably wouldn’t break the Jedi Code and have a girlfriend, or impregnate her for that matter. Plus, Fin hasn’t shown any force sensitivity yet. Yes, I know Rey didn’t show her force sensitivity until she was at least a teen, but I still feel it’s pretty unlikely. I wish it were more likely though.

I think my friend and I had some other possibilities, but I can’t remember them at the moment. I’ll edit this post if I remember them.

Ok now onto what I came up with as I was watching TFA again tonight. All of this is pretty much a conversation Maggie and I had, and, per her usual when disagreeing with me, she pretty much yelled at me at times... Maggie I hope you don't mind me sharing this with everyone...

Note: Kyle Ron = Kylo Ren. Maggie and I have come to the conclusion that he doesn’t deserve the respect of having his name said correctly.

Me: i think kyle ron killed reys parents

i just got to the scene where she finds lukes saber and it gives her a vision

Maggie: i'm still clinging to Rey Skywalker

Rey was Luke's daughter and nobody can convince me otherwise

Me: it shows kyle ron stabbing someone with his sabre then a ship flying off then what looks like a very young rey crying and wanting her parents but being pulled away from whatever was happening by someone

Maggie: Luke was her dad and i reject all other theories and/or explanatioins

Me: even canon explanations?

maybe it was just her mom?

Maggie: sometimes.............things that are canon...........are worse..........

Me: oof ok

I sent her this a little later:

ok so heres another theory why rey and kyle ron keep having force visions of each other: he tried really hard to get in her head to get the map to luke and as a result it caused them to have those force visions of each other

either that or kyle thought she was hot and now every time they both think about the other they have force visions

or maybe just every time they think about the other they have the force visions

I also sent her these two things at separate times about Fin:

fin is force sensitive

definately

he just used lukes saber like a champ

and

ok fin is definitely at least slightly force sensitive

ok so looking back, if Rey was as young as she was during that first vision when she touched Luke’s lightsaber, Kyle Ron couldn’t have been the one in the vision. The man had the same lightsaber that Kyle has and the mask looked like his so I just immediately assumed that he was the one in the vision. Still, I have a feeling that vision will play a significant role in the story of Rey’s parents (if not just her mom).

So, what do you guys think? Also, those of you who ship Reylo, GTFO!!! They are related!!! Fin and Rey had chemistry from the very beginning and she kissed his head towards the end of TFA when he gets injured!!! Not to mention his sole intent on rescuing her from The First Order when she is captured!!! It’s very clear they love each other!!!

ok so I had to add this funny moment in TFA that I sent Maggie my reaction to when i saw it:

haha i love how c3po ruins the moment of han and leia seeing each other for the first time in a while

leia is just like "That's my husband bitch! I definitely saw him!"

But seriously, I want to know what you guys think, especially you, Maggie.

#star wars #star wars: the force awakens #Star Wars theories

[tomeandflickcorner]

Star Wars: Episode Three- Revenge of the Sith

And now, we’ve come to the end of the Prequel Trilogy.  And to be honest, I think this is the most solid of the three films.

The movie opens with the audience being notified that Palpatine has been abducted by Count Dooku.  Which is rather interesting as the last official movie, chronologically speaking, also featured a kidnapping plot.  To rescue Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Anakin are deployed to handle things.  Because it’s Star Wars, this rescue attempt is shown through an extensive action sequence complete with space battle.  While I didn’t exactly utilize a stop watch, I’m pretty sure this goes on for about ten minutes.  Eventually, Obi-Wan and Anakin manage to make it into the room within the mobile space station thing where Palpatine is being held prisoner.  There, they are confronted by Count Dooku, allowing the two Jedi to have a rematch with the Sith Lord.  To his credit, Anakin proves he’s learned his lesson after Attack of the Clones and, instead of rushing in blindly, now attacks his opponent with Obi-Wan at his side.  But Obi-Wan gets knocked out during the lightsaber battle, leaving Anakin to continue the battle alone.  Thankfully, Anakin ultimately gets the upper hand, slicing off Count Dooku’s hands which prevents him from wielding his lightsaber.  

Unfortunately, that’s when Palpatine starts acting like the little cartoon devil sitting on Anakin’s shoulder, as the Supreme Chancellor starts urging Anakin to kill Count Dooku, despite the fact that the Sith Lord is now unarmed (no pun intended).  Anakin complies with the suggestion without much provocation, though he does seem to feel bad after the deed is done.  Palpatine, however, insists that Anakin should not feel guilty for killing Dooku, as it’s only natural that Anakin would want revenge on Dooku for cutting off his hand.  He also points out that isn’t the first time that Anakin sought the path of vengeance, reminding him of what happened with Shmi on Tatooine.  (And once again, the moment is emphasized by the sounds of the Tusken Raiders bellowing.  Kudos to the movie here.)  Although, someone’s life for a hand is not a fair trade.  The fact that Anakin sliced off Dooku’s hands already pretty much meant they were even.  Not that I’m condoning the whole eye-for-an-eye mentality, of course. That said, it is rather chilling that Palpatine isn’t even trying to hide how insane he is in this movie.  Up until now, he did pretty well in acting like a benevolent man who just wanted to preserve democracy in the Republic. But here, he’s being overtly manipulative and twisted.  So it’s rather odd how Anakin is being so slow on picking up on that.  Palpatine even tries to convince Anakin to leave the unconscious Obi-Wan behind so they can escape and therefore save themselves. That alone should have sent up a few red flags.

Nevertheless, Anakin manages to resist Palpatine’s suggestion to abandon Obi-Wan, and the three proceed to try and get off the space station.  But along the way, they’re once again captured.  This time by General Grievous, a Droid soldier. At least, he seems like a Droid at first.  But at one point in the movie, it’s revealed that he has a humanoid heart, which indicates that Grievous is actually a man who has replaced almost all of his body parts with cybernetic implants.  Beyond that, however, I don’t think we ever learn that much about this guy.  Not even if he became a cyborg by choice or necessity. We’re just supposed to accept his presence the way we were just supposed to accept Ventress in The Clone Wars.

Anakin and Obi-Wan end up getting out of their predicament after another lightsaber battle, along with some assistance from R2-D2, and even damage the space station to the point when it begins to blow up, but Grievous manages to get away. And because Grievous forcibly jettisoned all the escape pods during his escape, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Palpatine have to commandeer a small shuttle and land it onto the nearby planet of Coruscant. Which they only just manage to do, despite severe damages being inflicted to the shuttle.

When they return Palpatine to Coruscant, Obi-Wan announces that he’s going to report back to the Jedi Counsel, giving Anakin permission to stay and take full credit for the rescue.  The thing that surprises me, however, is that Obi-Wan seems to be encouraging Anakin to maintain a relationship with the politicians in this scene.  Which is a huge 180 from Attack of the Clones, when he was warning Anakin that politicians can’t be trusted.  I realize a significant amount of time has passed since then, but it still stuck me as odd that Obi-Wan changed his tune like this.  Regardless, Anakin soon has his attention directed elsewhere, as he spots Padmé waiting for him in the shadows.  Slipping away from the rest of the crowd, Anakin runs over to greet her.  It turns out, Padmé has some rather big news- she’s discovered that she’s pregnant with their child.  Now, as I’ve made clear in my review for Attack of the Clones, I am not a fan of the romance between Anakin and Padmé.  But I can still appreciate the predicament this revelation puts them in.  Because as excited as they might be upon learning they have a baby on the way, this will undoubtedly complicate matters, as their whole marriage was supposed to be a secret.  And if it’s ever discovered, Padmé will no longer be allowed to serve as the Senator of Naboo and Anakin will be expelled from the Jedi order.

Regardless of the fact that their very careers are at stake, the expectant couple try their best to put their worries aside and just focus on the positive, with them making plans for the baby’s arrival.  Basically, they plan on utilizing the whole stunt with the mother going on ‘holiday’ for a few months when she’s actually gone off to have the baby in secret.  However, Anakin begins being plagued by nightmares again.  Just like the ones he’d had of Shmi when the Tusken Raiders captured her and tortured her to death.  These nightmares are of Padmé dying in childbirth.  No doubt remembering how the nightmares he’d had of his mother ultimately foresaw her death, Anakin becomes convinced that something bad will happen to Padmé.  In a surprisingly wise move, he ends up approaching Yoda on the matter, telling him that he’s having premonitions of someone he cares about dying and asking what he should do about it.  Yoda counsels Anakin to be careful with visions of the future and that it would be best if he didn’t not allow himself to give into the fear of losing people. He also tells him what he should have been told after Shmi’s death- that death is a natural part of life, and to be a true Jedi, he has to train himself to let go of everything he fears to lose, as attachment can lead to jealousy and greed.  However, Anakin doesn’t seem to fully accept Yoda’s words of wisdom, because he later starts listening to Palpatine when he suggests an alternative solution.

Yeah, this is something I really want to talk about here.  I have no idea why exactly Anakin has become so enamored with Palpatine in this movie.  But throughout the film, he ends up willingly spending more and more time with him.  It starts when Palpatine requests a private audience with him, without informing the Jedi Council what the matter is about (which is something they find most unusual).  It turns out that Palpatine wants Anakin to be his personal representative on the Jedi Council.  Now, me, I find that statement alone to be enough to raise a few alarm bells.  Granted I know very little of how closely connected the Galactic Senate and the Jedi Council are, but…. since when does the Supreme Chancellor have any say in what goes on with the Jedi.  I got the impression that they were supposed to be completely independent of one another. Maybe this was related to the Emergency Powers they keep awarding Palpatine, or the amendments he continues to make to the Republic’s constitution?  I’m not sure.

Either way, Anakin doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with Palpatine wanting to be represented in the Jedi Council, but points out that he is not actually a part of the Council.  But Palpatine is unnerved by this and states that he will ensure that the other Jedi award Anakin a place in the Council.  The other Council members are not pleased by this turn of events, but they ultimately decide to go along with it.  Although, they make it clear that they won’t grant Anakin the rank of Jedi Master.  (Which proves that he wasn’t a Jedi Master during the events of the Clone Wars movie.  So I’m wondering once again how he was able to get Ahsoka as a Padawan.) Needless to say, Anakin is not happy about being denied the promotion to Jedi Master and throws a mini tantrum, proving he hasn’t changed that much since Attack of the Clones.  But he relents when Mace Windu virtually chastises his outburst.

Later on, Obi-Wan takes Anakin aside to tell him the real reason why the Jedi Council agreed to Palpatine’s ‘suggestion’ that Anakin be admitted a seat in the Council. It turns out that they have been growing suspicious of Palpatine as of late, especially since he’d managed to maintain his position long after his designated term was up.  They are hoping that Anakin can take advantage of the fact that Palpatine trusts him so much and keep an eye on him.  In other words, they’re hoping Anakin can spy on Palpatine for them. (Which might explain why Obi-Wan was encouraging Anakin to hang around with the politicians earlier)  Anakin is quick to voice his displeasure at this notion, as he views this as treason.  Even though it’s pretty clear that Palpatine had expected Anakin to spy on the Council for him, so tit-for-tat.  In the end, Obi-Wan reminds Anakin that their allegiance is to the Senate, and not Palpatine.

Around this point in the movie, I did get a scene I rather enjoyed.  Padmé admits to Anakin that she’s starting to wonder if the Republic were the real bad guys in this ongoing war, as the Clone War came about through a failure to actually listen to the Separatists.  She’s now fearing that maybe the democracy they’d been fighting to protect no longer exists.  Anakin, however, doesn’t seem to like what Padmé is saying, still stuck in the mindset that the Separatists are in the wrong and that the only way to set things right is through decisive action.  Which means he views the additional executive powers Palpatine keeps on getting as a good idea.  Unfortunately, Padmé doesn’t seem interested in arguing her case and simply asks Anakin to use his position with Palpatine to try and convince him to ask him to stop the fighting.  But even that seems to be an unreasonable request in Anakin’s eyes.  Again, I’m stumped why Anakin seems to be 100% Team Palpatine, to the point when he clearly believes the man can do no wrong.  Yeah, he does mention how Palpatine befriended him and watched out for him since he first arrived on Coruscant.  But the same thing could be said of Obi-Wan.   And of Padmé.  You’d think that the fact that both of them were telling him to not be blindly obedient to what Palpatine was saying and even try and reason with him would have given him pause.  

Then again, Anakin does frequently show that, while he has matured in some aspects, he’s still very much the same whiny brat he was in Attack of the Clones.  For instance, in one scene, he’s apologizing to Obi-Wan for his attitude, admitting that he’s been behaving like an arrogant, ungrateful snot.  But in the very next scene, he’s complaining to Padmé that Obi-Wan and the other Jedi don’t trust him.  Even though Obi-Wan is being nothing but patient and supportive of Anakin, assuring him that the Council will grant him the position of Jedi Master soon enough and that he has already surpassed him in many ways.  So it’s hard for me to be all that sympathetic to Anakin.

Anyway, Paplatine continues to maintain his ongoing focus on Anakin when he summons the young Jedi to his box seat at some kind of Space Ballet.  At first, it’s under the front of him informing Anakin that General Grievous was spotted in the Utapau system.  Which is good news, since now that they’ve pinpointed his location, the Republic can capture him and hopefully put an end to the war.  But then, Palpatine dismisses his aids so nobody will be there to witness it when he starts pouring verbal poison into Anakin’s ear.  He starts to tell him that he suspects the Jedi Council are secretly plotting to take over the Senate, and plan to betray him.  Because Anakin is so enamored with Palpatine and views the task the Council gave him as wrong, he eats this up, admitting that he’s started to distrust the Council himself.   Seeing that Anakin is taking the bait, Paplatine proceeds to feed him this warped viewpoint of how good and evil is really subjective, and that the Jedi are really no different from the Sith.  He proceeds to tell him a story about someone called Darth Plagueis, who was a Sith Lord so powerful, he could influence the Midi-chlorians to create life itself, and even prevent the people he cared about from dying.  In the end, however, Darth Plagueis was killed in his sleep by his apprentice, who had been taught everything Darth Plagueis knew. Anakin, not bothering to question how Palpatine could possibly know a Sith Legend, asks him if it was possible to learn Darth Plagueis’ trick for keeping people from dying, no doubt remembering his dreams about Padmé dying in childbirth.   In response, Palpatine says ‘not from a Jedi.’

Anyway, Obi-Wan is tasked with tracking down General Grievous in the Utapau system.  Of course, Paplatine initially tried to have Anakin be the one to tackle this assignment, but the Jedi Council overrules him, stating that the decision of who to send is up to them, and not the Supreme Chancellor, and that a mission of this magnitude was best suited to a Jedi Master.  At the same time, other members of the Jedi order are also sent out to aid in the war effort on other planets.  During this point in the film, we’re told there’s a Droid attack occurring on the planet of Kashyyyk, the native planet of the Wookiees.  Since Yoda states he shares a good relation with the Wookies (can we get the backstory to that, please?), he volunteers to aid them on Kashyyyk.  Before they part ways, Obi-Wan has a discussion with Mace Windu and Yoda about Anakin’s behavior as of late, and how he did not react well to the knowledge that he’s being expected to keep an eye on Palpatine.  It’s here that Mace Windu admits that he doesn’t trust Anakin, which surprises Obi-Wan as Anakin is supposed to be their Prophesized Chosen One™ that will bring balance to the Force.  But Yoda points out that they might have misinterpreted the prophecy.  To quote Jasmine from Independence Day, ‘Oh, yeah, great! Now he tells me!’

When Obi-Wan travels to Utapau, the head honcho of the capital city initially states that the war hadn’t reached their planet, but then covertly tells him that General Grievous is indeed there and is holding the entire city hostage.  In an effort to catch Grievous off guard, Obi-Wan pretends to leave, but then sneaks back in, locating Grievous on the city’s tenth level.  As such, he overhears that the Separatists are planning to relocate their operations to a volcanic planet called Mustafar.  After gathering enough intel, Obi-Wan boldly makes his presence known and initiates a lightsaber duel with Grievous, which he eventually wins. (Even though the battle on Utapau continues after Grievous’ demise.)

Back on Coruscant, Mace Windu and Anakin have been notified by Cody, one of the predominant members of the Clone Army, that Obi-Wan is currently in the process of trying to take down General Grievous.  Mace Windu instructs Anakin to pass the information on to Palpatine, stating that the Supreme Chancellor’s reaction to the news will be an indicator of his true intentions.  He announces that if Palpatine refuses to uphold his word and give up the executive powers he’d been granted during the war once General Grievous is no longer a threat, then he would have to be forcibly removed from office, even if it means the Jedi Council take over the Senate to ensure a peaceful transition. When Anakin does go see Palpatine, however, he once again admits that he feels that the Council don’t fully respect him. This leads to Palpatine offering to help Anakin reach the next stage in his mastery of the Force.  When Anakin hears this, he FINALLY starts getting suspicious, asking how Palpatine could possibly know the ways of the Force.  

As such, we get the reveal- this whole time, Palpatine WAS Darth Sidious.  And to his credit, Anakin reacts to the news with the right amount of shock and horror.  Right away, he decides to do the right thing and report Palpatine’s true identity to the Jedi Council, which he does.  He catches up to Mace Windu just as the elder Jedi had received word that Obi-Wan had defeated General Grievous.  Anakin promptly tells him that Palpatine was the Sith Lord they’d been trying to locate since the invasion of Naboo back in Phantom Menace.  This news greatly disturbs Mace Windu and he decides to go investigate the matter personally.  But he instructs Anakin to stay behind, as he can sense a great deal of confusion in him, which could cloud his judgement.  However, after Mace Windu and three other Jedi head off to confront Palpatine/Sidious, Anakin is still finding himself conflicted.  He can’t make himself forget how Palpatine had virtually promised to help him achieve powers he couldn’t gain as a Jedi, which he believes could be used to ensure Padmé wouldn’t die in childbirth.  In the end, he decides to defy Mace Windu’s orders and heads off to Palpatine’s office.  By the time he gets there, Mace Windu has Palpatine/Sidious cornered. The other three Jedi had already been killed during the confrontation and ensuing lightsaber battle.  Mace Windu, realizing that Paplatine’s extreme control of the Senate means the case against him will assuredly get thrown out, is all set to kill him, as he’s too dangerous to be kept alive.  However, Palpatine, playing the part of the weakened victim, begs Anakin to help him, as he is Anakin’s only chance of saving Padmé. After a tense moment, in which Palpatine tries to strike Mace Windu down with Force Lightning, with Mace Windu putting all of his strength in deflecting the Force Lightning with his lightsaber, Anakin reacts by slicing off Mace Windu’s arm.  Taking advantage of Mace Windu’s disarmament, Palpatine completely drops the helpless act and fires off another blast of Force Lightning.  This one forces Mace Windu out of the nearby window, with him falling to his death.

In the aftermath, Anakin is initially horrified by what he’d done.  But Palpatine, whose face was left twisted and deformed from when the Force Lightning was redirected at him, manages to take advantage of Anakin’s unease and confliction to convince him that he did the right thing, as Mace Windu’s actions were proof that the Jedi were the true villains and that the Jedi Council were all enemies of the Republic.  Right away, Anakin accepts what Palpatine/Sidious is telling him, and pledges his loyalty to him.  As such, Palpatine/Sidious announces that Anakin will now be known as Darth Vader, and that he will train him to be a Sith Lord so they can work together to find a way to save Padmé.

Right away, Palpatine gives the newly born Vader his first assignment as a Sith Lord, ordering him to return to the Jedi Temple to wipe out all the Jedi that he can find, convincing him that, if the Jedi are not completely wiped out, they will be relentless in their goal to overthrow the Senate.  And when he’s done doing that, he is to travel to Mustafar to murder Viceroy Gunray and the rest of the Separatist Leaders, in order to ensure peace will return to the Republic.  After Vader leaves to carry out his orders, Palpatine proceeds to the next step in his betrayal.  It turns out that everyone in the Clone Army have been secretly given a secret order known as Executive Order 66.  This order requires them to immediately turn on the Jedi and execute them on the spot. The scene that follows is nothing short of chilling.  All throughout the galaxy, the Jedi are all gunned down without any warning by the soldiers in the Clone army.  The widespred extermination causes such a violent disturbance in the Force, that Yoda is able to sense it all the way on Kashyyyk.  The sense of anguish is so strong, he even drops his cane and visibly staggers for a moment.  However, this ends up tipping him off that something terrible is going down, for when the Clone soldiers try to turn on him, too, he cuts them down before they get the chance, resulting in him being one of the only two Jedi to survive the widespread massacre.  The only other known survivor is Obi-Wan, who only survived because he was too far out of range of the Clone Army’s tank cannon and managed to subsequently escape by falling into a deep pool of water.

And yeah, when Yoda leaves Kashyyyk to try and figure out what caused the Clones to turn on him, and probably to see what had caused that giant disturbance in the Force, it’s revealed the two Wookiees he has been predominantly seen with are called Tarfful and Chewbacca.  Which is something I’m sure the die-hard fans LOVED.  Though it does make one wonder what the lifespan of a Wookiee is.

Back on Coruscant, pretty much everyone has noticed that something is going down at the Jedi Temple, as the temple is currently in flames.  This prompts Senator Bail Organa, who has been a small but prominent character up until this point, heads over to the temple to see what is going on.  Unfortunately, most of Senator Organa’s role in the movie involved a subplot that was apparently cut from the final film and now mainly exists in the deleted scenes. See, Senator Organa was a close friend of Padmé, and he was one of the predominant members of a group that called themselves the Loyalist Committee, which was formed as part of the attempt to help handle the Separatist Crisis.  Other members included Mon Monthma and Jar Jar.  But when they noticed that Palpatine was introducing more and more policies that didn’t sit well with them, their motives started to shift, particularly with Senator Organa and Mon Mothma.  Those of you who have watched the deleted scenes will probably be able to figure out that Senator Organa and Mom Mothma eventually helped organize select members of the Loyalist Committee into the group that would eventually become the Rebel Alliance.

Upon his arrival at the Jedi Temple, Senator Organa is stopped by the Clone soldiers, who inform him that there had been a rebellion, but that it’s all under control. They then instruct Senator Organa to go about his business, emphasizing their words by brandishing their blasters at him.  But, just when Senator Organa is about to return to his hovercar, he witnesses one young Jedi survivor, who bravely tries to take on the Clones, only to be gunned down, much to Senator Organa’s shock and horror.  Nevertheless, he retreats, knowing that he was outnumbered and would only be killed himself if he stuck around.  I’m really sad they couldn’t save that solitary Jedi.  Not only was he just a kid, he did not lack courage.  And he certainly put up a good fight, taking down 6 Clones before he was killed.  Shame he didn’t survive.

In an unrelated story, I have to admit that I REALLY like Senator Organa.  Even though I don’t think he really did anything noteworthy prior to this point in the prequels, he more than makes up for it now. Because after he was forced to leave the Jedi Temple, he doesn’t hesitate to try and to locate any surviving Jedi, hoping that he can save them before they end up like the Jedi back at the temple.  Which is how he’s able to get in contact with Yoda and Obi-Wan.  I just really appreciated how he instinctively realized that the Jedi were the victims of the uprising and not the instigators.  Once they’re all together, Yoda, Obi-Wan and Senator Organa discuss their next move, with Yoda admitting they haven’t been able to establish contact with any other Jedi.  They discover that a transmission is being sent from the Jedi temple, announcing that the war is over and that all Jedi are to return immediately. Knowing that any Jedi who hears that message will be walking into a trap, they realize they have to get back to Coruscant on the double to stop the transmission, just in case there were other Jedi who survived.  When they return to Courscant’s airspace, Senator Organa is contacted by one of Palpatine’s aids, announcing that Palpatine has called for a special meeting of the Senate and that his presence is expected.  Upon hearing this, Obi-Wan and Yoda decide this will give them the perfect opportunity to return to the Jedi Temple to stop the transmission, and maybe get some answers on what is going on.

Meanwhile, Anakin/Vader has paid a visit to Padmé, prior to leaving for Mustafar. Padmé is relieved to see him alive, as she had heard about the attack on the Jedi Temple and, upon hearing that Anakin had gone there, had feared that he had been killed.  Anakin assures Padmé that he is unharmed, but then tells her a slanted version of events, telling her that the Jedi have tried to overthrow the Republic, but that his loyalties remain with the Chancellor and the Senate. He then informs her that he’s heading to Mustafar on a mission from Palpatine to deal with the remaining Separatists and that the war will soon be over.  Once he’s explained all this to her, Anakin/Vader heads off to Mustafar, where her mercilessly slays everyone, including Viceroy Gunray.

We then return to Coruscant, where Senator Organa has joined Padmé in the special Senate meeting.  There, they listen to Palaptine/Sidious’ claims that the Jedi had plotted to overthrow the Senate and had even made an attempt on his life.  He announces his intention to hunt down and kill any remaining Jedi. And, in order to maintain security and stability within the Senate, he has decided to reorganize the Republic into a Galactic Empire, with him as the Supreme Ruler.  Out of all the senators, only Senator Organa, Padmé and their closest allies are able to recognize how horrific this proposal is, as everyone else has clearly been drawn in.  Which leads to Padmé’s famous line: ‘So this is how liberty dies.  With thunderous applause.’

Yeah, so I guess this means that pretty much every single event in this prequel trilogy was all a part of Palpatine’s long game.  Under the guise of Darth Sidious, he secretly engendered the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo so he would be selected to take Finis Valorum’s place as Supreme Chancellor.  Then he had Count Dooku spearhead the Separatist movement while also working to create the Clone Army for the Republic’s use, so the whole Clone War could become a reality.  And once this war was underway, he could manipulate the Senate into granting him enough executive power to engineer this whole plot to frame the Jedi and convince the Senate to make him their Emperor.  That’s quite the scheme.  And the fact that it worked is simply bone chilling.  And a testament to how easy it can be for one man to deceive the masses.

Meanwhile, back at the Jedi Temple, Yoda and Obi-Wan have managed to deal with the Clone soldiers that had been lurking there, awaiting the arrival of any Jedi that might turn up.  The fact that these two were able to take on an entire battalion alone and come away without a scratch just establishes how awesome Yoda and Obi-Wan are.  Once the Clones have all been dealt with, they proceed to search the Jedi Temple, where Obi-Wan is horrified to find that not even the Younglings (which is their term for the toddlers and young children undergoing Jedi training) have been spared.  He wonders who could have done such a thing.  Pushing aside his confusion for the time being, Obi-Wan proceeds to dismantle the transmission, replacing it with a message to any Jedi that might remain alive that they should keep away from the Jedi Temple. When he and Yoda start to leave to rejoin Senator Organa, however, Obi-Wan decides that he has to know what had fallen place and goes to check the security footage.  Yoda, who probably had already done so, advises him against it, as he might not like what he sees.  But Obi-Wan goes ahead with it anyway, deciding that he’d rather know the truth, no matter how painful it might be.  And so, he’s able to witness the holographic footage of Anakin leading the massacre on the Jedi Temple, followed by Anakin pleding his loyalty to Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious.

The knowledge that Anakin has become a Sith Lord shakes Obi-Wan to the core, but Yoda firmly yet gently reminds him that they have a sworn duty to destroy the Sith, no matter what.  This greatly grieves Obi-Wan, as he knows he cannot kill Anakin due to the fact that he loves him like a brother.  As such, he begs Yoda to send him to go after Palpatine instead.  Yoda refuses to grant that request, as he knows that Palpatine/Sidious is too powerful for Obi-Wan, and that he must go after Vader, as the boy he knew as Anakin no longer exists. Clutching at straws, Obi-Wan states that he can’t go face Anakin/Vader, as he doesn’t know where he is.  But Yoda instructs Obi-Wan to search his feelings, as they will help him determine Anakin/Vader’s whereabouts.

This apparently leads Obi-Wan to seek out Padmé to ask her if she knows where Anakin might be. He begs Padmé to help him locate Anakin, stating that he is in danger from himself, informing her of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, and that Palpatine was the Sith Lord they’d been trying to locate all this time.  However, Padmé refuses to believe that Anakin could possibly have become a Sith Lord, and as such, won’t reveal Anakin’s location, especially when she realizes that Obi-Wan would most likely kill him.  Seeing that Padmé won’t willingly reveal what she knows, Obi-Wan leaves. But before he goes, he is able to guess the predicament Padmé is in, as he now understands that Anakin was the father of Padmé’s unborn child.  He sadly offers his condolences to the impossible position Padmé is now in.

Come to think of it, exactly how far along is Padmé supposed to be?  Earlier, she seemed to be saying that the current Queen of Naboo wouldn’t allow her to remain on the Senate if the existence of the baby became known.  But in this scene, she is clearly showing enough for Obi-Wan to realize she is pregnant. I realize this is probably a nitpick, though. And besides, even though the majority of characters appear to be human, they still are technically aliens, on account of them not being from Earth. Maybe the gestation period for humans in the Star Wars universe is shorter than nine months?

Anyway, even though Padmé still doubts what Obi-Wan told her, she has decided to go seek out Anakin herself, only taking C-3PO with her.  She arrives on Mustafar shortly after Anakin/Vader had killed everyone and sent out an order to the Trade Federation’s ships that all the Droids in their armada were to be shut down.  Upon seeing her ship land, Anakin hurries out to greet Padmé.  Right away, she starts to plead with Anakin, begging him to prove what Obi-Wan said about him turning to the Dark Side wasn’t true and stating that all she wants is to run away with him, so they won’t have to think about anything but their love and raising their child.  Anakin/Vader, however, goes off on this whole speech about how he is now more powerful than any Jedi ever was, and that he’s going to use his powers to protect her.  He goes on to say that they don’t have to run anymore because of how powerful he’s become, and that he could even overthrow the Chanellor if need be so that they can rule the galaxy together.

This time, Padmé is actually really listening to the things Anakin is saying now.  For quite possibly the first time.  (Seriously, there were more than enough warning signs before this point. Why is it only now that Padmé is noticing them?)  She decides that Anakin’s words and attitude are proof of everything Obi-Wan had told her, and her reaction to this is to back away slightly in horror. Tearfully, she beseeches him to turn away from the path he’s now on, as she cannot bring herself to stay with him if he continues with his current plan.  

Unfortunately, this is when Anakin spots Obi-Wan emerging from the ship Padmé had used to come to Mustafar.  It turns out that Obi-Wan had snuck aboard without Padmé’s knowledge, knowing that she would undoubtedly go seek out Anakin.  This leads to Anakin believing Padmé had betrayed him by helping Obi-Wan and, turning a deaf ear to her attempts at saying otherwise, he turns on her, trapping her in a Force Chokehold until she passes out.  Angrily, Anakin/Vader turns his attention to Obi-Wan, accusing the Jedi of turning Padmé against him, declaring that he won’t allow Obi-Wan to take her from him.  After a bit of back-and-fourth between the two, Obi-Wan finally realizes that Anakin is beyond reason, as he has now embraced the mindset of a Sith.  And so, the two engage in a prolonged lightsaber battle that continues across the volcanic planet.

At the same time, Yoda has his own confrontation with Emperor Palpatine. And it’s a really exiting battle that eventually is brought into the Senate congress room.  At one point, they even start utilizing the Senator booths in their fight, using their control of the Force to throw the Senator booths at one another.  The fight comes to an end, however, when the Emperor tries to direct Force Lightning at Yoda, who actually seems to absorb it and redirect it right back at him. That part alone is probably my favorite part.  Because the moment it becomes clear that Yoda is getting ready to do that, you can see it in the Emperor’s eyes.  He’s actually afraid!  He had no idea that Yoda was that powerful!  However, even though I firmly believe that Yoda technically won that battle, Yoda is forced to retreat by escaping through the ventilation shafts, with Senator Organa coming to pick him up and escort him to safty.

Back on Mustifar, the battle between Obi-Wan and Vader is continuing.  Eventually, however, it reaches a point when Obi-Wan is standing on solid ground while Vader is standing on a platform floating in the lava.  Vader, I guess, gets a bit too sure of himself, and tries to perform a spinning leap off the platform, with the intention of landing on the ground where Obi-Wan is standing.  But this gives Obi-Wan the chance to slice off Vader’s legs, which leaves him lying helpless on the ground.

As Obi-Wan stands over the defeated Vader, the full extent of the emotions he had been able to mask throughout the lightsaber battle finally burst to the surface.  In anguish, he cries out that Anakin was supposed to be the one who would destroy the Sith, and that he thought of him as his brother.  But even that isn’t enough to get through to Vader, who angrily declares that he hates Obi-Wan, just as his body combusts into flames from being too close to the river of lava.  Unable to watch as the man he once considered a friend and brother burns to death, Obi-Wan heads back to the ship, picking up Anakin’s discarded lightsaber in the process. When he arrives back on the ship, he is met by 3PO, who has already brought the unconscious Padmé on board. Without hesitation, they leave Mustifar. However, shortly after they leave, Emperor Palpatine arrives, locating Vader’s heavily charred body.

Obi-Wan brings Padmé to a medical facility located on an asteroid somewhere, where Yoda and Senator Organa are waiting.  After examining her, the Medical Droids announce that, despite Padmé being in good health, she is dying.  It’s speculated that she’s dying of a broken heart and has lost the will to live. Now, I can see how a lot of fans might take issue with that, as the notion that Padmé would completely give up on life because of Anakin turning to the Dark Side is a huge discredit to her character.  Especially since she has a set of twins on the way who would undoubtedly have needed their mother.  (Yeah, the Medical Droids are able to determine that Padmé is carrying twins.) Not to mention how this character was originally a strong-willed young woman who ruled over an entire planet and proudly served her people as a senator for years.  However, I came across a very interesting theory that I really think sounds plausible.  Remember that story Palpatine was talking about earlier, with Darth Plagueis finding a way to keep people alive, and how he passed that knowledge down to his apprentice? Well, what if Paplatine WAS the apprentice?  And the reason why Padmé is dying in this scene was because he was using his Dark Force powers to purposely siphon away her life energy and use it to rejuvenate the badly injured Vader, thereby keeping him alive while the Emperor’s own Medical Droids worked to fit him into a special suit of armor designed to act as a permanent life-support system?  It would explain why Vader seemed to still sense Padmé’s presence when he regained consciousness.  And, if this theory is true, it only makes the Emperor even more twisted, as he informs Vader that Padmé was killed by him and his rage, no doubt knowing that this would push him over the edge completely, to the point where he would no longer have any reason left to second-guess his actions.

The story wraps up with Padmé’s twins being delivered through either forced labor or cesarean.  Before she dies, Padmé is able to name her twins Luke and Leia.  And, with her final breaths, she tells Obi-Wan that, in spite of everything, she still believes there’s good inside Anakin.  In the aftermath of Padmé’s death, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Senator Organa discuss what is to be done with the newborn twins.  It’s agreed that their existence must be kept a secret from the Emperor and Vader, so they won’t try to utilize them for their own agenda.  Yoda decides that, for the best interests of the two children, they should be separated. Senator Organa volunteers to take Baby Leia in, as he and his wife, who I assume is barren, had always wanted to adopt a little girl.  As for Baby Luke, he is to be taken to Tatooine to stay with Owen Lars and Beru. Honestly, that seems like an odd choice.   I mean, if Vader suspected his and Padmé’s child was out there somewhere, wouldn’t that be the first place he looked- with his own family.  Sure, Owen Lars was only his step-brother and they only met once, but even so.  Maybe they were going for the whole hiding in plain sight option, hoping Vader will think that was too obvious and therefore avoid looking there?  Who knows?

Before they part ways, Yoda and Obi-Wan have one final conversation.  They agree that they should also go off the radar, as the Emperor would undoubtedly still try and kill them, too.  But Yoda has one final bit of training for Obi-Wan.  It turns out that there is a super advanced Jedi technique that enables them to achieve immortality, in a sense.  Yeah, we’re talking about Force Ghosts.  Yoda reveals that he has been in contact with the spirit of Qui-Gon, who has utilized this skill to return from the Netherworld.  He offers to help Obi-Wan learn how to communicate with Qui-Gon as well.  While it might seem like this development has come out of nowhere, there was a bit of foreshadowing/build up to this in Attack of the Clones.  In the scene when Yoda is sensing Anakin’s anguish and rage when he was committing genocide on the Tusken Raiders after Shmi’s death, you can hear Qui-Gon’s voice playing over the scene, begging Anakin to stop.   Also, I love the range of emotions that appear on Obi-Wan’s face when he learns that Qui-Gon has returned as a Force Ghost.

And on that note, we proceed to the epilogue of the movie.  The best part is how, as each scene plays out, we hear the individual theme music for each of the characters.  Senator Organa hands over ownership of C-3PO and R2-D2 over to Captain Antilles, a member of his command staff.  He also instructs that 3PO have his mind wiped, an order that seems to amuse R2.  Interestingly enough, it’s only 3PO who gets his memory erased.  Which means that R2 fully remembers everything that went on in the prequel trilogy.  While it might seem strange that they allowed R2 to keep his memories of everything instead of wiping his mind alongside 3PO, it kinda makes sense, as you can’t really see R2 running off at the mouth the way 3PO would.  I guess they felt that, out of the two droids, R2 would be the one who could be trusted to not go about gossiping and whatnot.  On Naboo, a funeral procession is held for Padmé. Even Rugor Nass, the leader of the Gungans, is present at the funeral.  And, in what was apparently meant as a final punch to the gut, we see that the old carved necklace that Anakin made for her back in Phantom Menace has been placed on Padmé’s body. Out in space, Vader joins the Emperor and a man you might recognize as a younger Grand Moff Tarkin on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, where they observe the construction of the space station that will become the Death Star.  Meanwhile, while a deleted scene (which I swear was in the theatrical release and then got cut from the DVD) shows Yoda arriving on Dagobah, Senator Organa brings Baby Leia to Alderaan, where he introduces the baby to his wife.  And Obi-Wan journeys to Tatooine, where he delivers Baby Luke to Owen and Beru, who have apparently been told he was coming ahead of time, as they wordlessly accept the infant.  Forlornly, Obi-Wan casts one final look after Baby Luke before he heads off to begin his life as a hermit, while Owen and Beru look out at the setting twin suns of Tatooine.

With that, the prequel trilogy comes to an end.  Once again, I really think this was the best instalment of the bunch.  And, at the risk of sounding controversial, it really is a poignant and thought provoking movie considering the current political state within the US.  But it’s probably best to not comment too much on that.  So let’s just focus on the fact that Solo is now in theaters.  That one should be interesting.  Though I admittedly don’t know that much about the movie.  Just that it’s probably going to be a whole origin story for Han Solo, one of the leading protagonists for the original trilogy, and that we’ll see how he met Chewbacca and Lando, and possibly how he gained ownership of the iconic ship, the Millennium Falcon.

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