Didn’t think I’d find myself agreeing with Count Dooku but here I am.
Okay but he’s honestly 100% right.
This post keeps cropping up and isn’t going away, so here’s my response:
Dooku’s wrong.
Yoda absolutely sees all of the evils and wrongs that exist in the galaxy. He sees the corruption and flaws, he has seen them for centuries–but what would someone have him do?
Yoda could have seized control of the galaxy at any time, far more ruthlessly and efficiently than Sidious ever did. He could have seized control of the Senate, whether by mind-control or the point of a lightsaber, and demanded that they stop their corruption and greed and go forth to fight and free slaves and bring all distant, lawless planets of the galaxy under the protection of the wise, powerful, and good Jedi. He could have pulled the Jedi Order away from the Republic, scattered its members to operate in back alleys and impoverished villages on remote worlds, shunning all the comforts and protection that the Jedi became accustomed to…
But he didn’t, because he is not the Sith.
What Yoda does, instead, is speak to children. He trains them from youth to help the helpless and put the needs of others before their own. He teaches adults to heed the words of youth, and ensures that the next generation will retain the wisdom that he has found. He watches them and raises them again and again–and most importantly, he grants every being around him the freedom to choose.
Not once has Yoda ever demanded that a Jedi remain in the Order. No Jedi is a prisoner–Dooku and Ahsoka were both allowed to leave, and when Anakin was considering abandoning the order as a child, Yoda gave Obi-Wan the freedom to follow his student, if he chose. Even when Luke Skywalker, the next-to-last hope of the galaxy, chose to hurry away from his unfinished training and rush into certain death, Yoda let him go. He could have picked up the ship and sunk it back into the swamp, he could have overpowered Luke and forced him to remain, but he did not–not because of complacency or corruption, but because he would never force his own will upon someone.
Dooku’s belief stems from a desire to control and find perfection. He can’t accept that people will make wrong decisions and hurt others while remaining unpunished–Dookuunderstands what the galaxy needs, and so it is Dookuwho will determine what is right and what is wrong. His resulting actions–actions that Yoda could have taken at any time–resulted in the slaughter of trillions and a war that ripped the galaxy in two before locking it within the iron grip of Darth Sidious. He earned the name “Tyrannus” because he believed that people could be made to follow morals and ideals by force.
Yoda has smelled the stench of corruption for almost nine hundred years, but he has never ignored it. He has simply never allowed it to spread to him, and fought to keep those around him from being corrupted in turn.
I can’t believe this has to be explained but there is a world of difference between enforcing your will on someone and offering help to disenfranchised people. You can’t set the Jedi up as protectors of freedom in the galaxy, then do fuck-all to achieve that end, and after all that claim that you’re doing the right thing.
And in the case of slavery, the Jedi wouldn’t even be going against the “will of the people” or whatever if they worked to end it, because slavery has been made illegal in the Republic. Slaves’ freedom is more important than their masters’ wills! And what about the slaves’ wills to be free? What argument are you even trying to make with this line of discussion?
(And let’s not forget that Dooku did fuck-all to help the slaves of Tatooine either. Dooku wants power, he doesn’t want to help anyone but himself).
And this is exactly how a young, good-hearted young man brought about the doom of the galaxy.
For a start: Star Wars has a long history of villains saying the truth. It is Vader who discloses to Luke who he really is, it is Maul who tells Ahsoka that Anakin, the Chosen One, is the key to everything, Kylo Ren telling Rey about Luke’s failure which brought down his temple. That Dooku is a villain does not mean he’s wrong. The Sith are outsiders in a world where the Jedi are seen as the heroes not only because they do bad things but also because they see and speak about the Jedi’s failures. (For the record, Kylo wasn’t even a Sith.)
The problem with being a Jedi fan is wanting to see the world in a black / white pattern. The Jedi are not evil but having good intentions doesn’t mean that you can’t sometimes be wrong. When Luke decides to throw his saber away before Palpatine and to forgive his father it’s not the Jedi thing to do, but it’s the rightthing to do.
The Jedi pretend that compassion is essential to their lives. We see them again and again in situations where they could have acted out of compassion but chose not to, claiming it was “for the greater good”.
I wrote a long meta about this some months ago: compassion must be taught and lived by. Yet the Jedi are taught not to have attachments, and as they do not learn to feel compassion for individuals, they do not learn to have compassion for groups - like slaves or populations at war.
It’s easy to say “What were they supposed to do?” Anything is better than sitting in your ivory tower saying wise-sounding words, or fomenting a war for years with the conviction that once “your side” has won, everything will be all right.
No, the Jedi can’t go out into the galaxy and solve all problems on their own, but the problem is that people expect them to. The oppressed people in the galaxy look to them as the “keepers of peace and justice in the galaxy” and are let down over and over. They and their fans see them as invincible, all-wise heroes and overlook their many failures.
Being a Jedi ought to mean giving people spiritual solace; to teach the ways of the Force; to encourage people to help each other. But they don’t. Their attitude is like “Just listen to us or be like us, and everything will be all right”.
One of the things that always irritated me about the prequel trilogy is how the magical spark of the classic movies was missing. One of the reasons for that was the fact that the Force is hardly even mentioned and is only used to make things float or trick people’s minds from time to time. It is a power tool, not an all-encompassing energy that keeps everything together. The Jedi use it, they are not guided by it.
Anakin, the son of a slave, was taught by his mother that all evil in the galaxy comes from people not helping each other. Just watch Clone Wars: Anakin does so as long, as far and as much as he can. One of the most frustrating aspects of his Jedi career is that all he does to ensure that people are safe and well is so little acknowledged by the Jedi. He is not “Jedi enough” for them. They try to restrain a young man who acts out of love for his fellowmen. I don’t know where to start emphasizing how f***ed up that is.
No one expects the Jedi to solve all problems in the galaxy. No one ought to. There are billions and billions of people and they’re only a few thousand people. They neither can nor should help everybody.
But they ought to teach people to do the will of the Force. The Force keeps people together because everyone has it inside of them, whether they’re Force-sensitive or not. The Sith corrupt this energy by tearing people apart, either by killing or by disseminating distrust and encouraging conflicts.
And the Jedi don’t see that. They don’t preach love and forgiveness and altruism or serve as a good example. They swing their lightsabers against the bad guys - that is, provided the politicians they serve agree. And these are the good guys?
No, the Jedi are not evil. But if you ask me, they’re a bunch of fools. Including Yoda, never mind his wise-sounding words. If compassion is what leads you, dear Yoda, you ought to show it at least once in your 900 years of life. Even if you did, it didn’t change much - the Order you were responsible for so long failed and was erased anyway.
Star Wars is not the story of the “Jedi superheroes”. Its origin is the Skywalker trilogy, with Anakin / Vader as the central character. The same person used to be a great hero and then turned into a terrible villain. That couldn’t have happened if the people around him, the place where he grew up and was educated wasn’t flawed somehow. His fall came at the same time the Republic fell and the Jedi Order was obliterated. And we knew all this before the prequels hit theatres.
In the prequels or in Clone Wars it is never outright said that the Jedi are failing morally, but it is often shown. They’re not the heroes merely because they’re cool and aloof and, as we know, “boys don’t cry”, so Anakin must be a whiny sissy and deserve what happens to him.
Please spare me the “coolness excuses everything” discourse and open your eyes. Who excuses the Jedi is biased. I don’t want to trample on anyone’s hero worship, I want to point out that things can and should be done better than they did.
Happy May 4th to my Star Wars fans ❤️ I didn’t have time for a serious piece today but I’ve been meaning to redraw Grievous sitting in the council chair in the newest Lego game because, adorable-
I never did get around to posting my Mandalorian cosplay I had assembled for C2E2. I’m so glad that was the last convention I was able to attend before the pandemic.
The costume was assembled over the course of a month from thrift store garments, foam fabricated pieces, repurposed costume parts, and a modified helmet. Most importantly though, is The Child, made from a baby doll with a new head sculpted from foam clay.
Y’all I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. I didn’t get into Star Wars until after TLJ so this is my first time waiting for news and trailers and titles. It’s been a looong wait and I can’t believe it’s finally here. It legit feels like Christmas Eve to me. Good luck to everyone tomorrow!
Everyone is also familiar with these two moments from The Last Jedi:
These two scenes have always stuck out to me and after Mark’s tweet it got me thinking about other hand references in the Star Wars universe.
These scenes come to mind immediately:
Anakin and Luke both lose a hand. This isn’t necessarily “unusual” in the Star Wars galaxy. Jedi looove cutting hands off and we see it a lot. I believe it’s actually a named maneuver used when learning lightsaber fighting.
I do find it interesting that Mark’s tweet included a video that shows Luke’s mechanical hand:
I suppose that could just be a coincidence.
For a while, I didn’t find anything that referenced hands in a way that felt important… until I watched Star Wars Rebels and boy, do I think there is some SERIOUSLY important stuff there…
The episode A World Between Worlds is probably pretty familiar to most Star Wars fans but I think there are some really significant similarities to scenes in The Last Jedi.
In the episode, Ezra uses an ancient tablet to decipher how to open and close the world between worlds (which for anyone unfamiliar is an interdimensional portal that shows and allows a person to alter time).
Here’s a shot of the tablet and mural Ezra has to interact with in order to reach the world between worlds:
Each hand represents a figure from the Mortis arc, father, daughter, son. The son, the clenched fist, is the embodiment of the dark side of the force- violence, anger, greed. The daughter, or the outstretched hand, represents the light side- peace and selflessness.
We’ve already seen the clenched fist in The Last Jedi, but we’ve also seen the outstreched hand here:
Do me a favor and stretch your hand out. The natural position of the hand is similar to Ben’s, with the thumb rolled forward. Pushing the thumb to the top of the hand, like Rey has, requires intention, it’s almost uncomfortable, but it matches the position of the daughter’s hand on the tablet exactly.
In Rebels, Ezra seems to close the portal by extending the daughters hand against the image of the son’s fist. I would argue that Rey is doing the exact same thing for Ben. Who knows what might have happened had Luke not interrupted them.
And let’s add the fact that both Kylo and Rey dress similarly to the figures of the son and daughter.
I think we’ve seen something similar to the world between worlds in The Last Jedi too, in the cave mirror scene.
When Ezra first enters the portal, we see a ghostly image of what we know is on the other side:
That seems pretty similar to this:
What’s really interesting to me is that seems to be happening in “real time”, with the figure on the other side mimicking Rey’s hand position. Adds a whole other possible interpretation to “What girl?”
I started writing fiction when I was in the 4th grade. I can still vividly remember the assignment. I had a composition notebook and we had to write two pages front and back once a week. Everyone wrote diaries, but my life was so boring that I couldn’t fill two pages with the details of my day to day. Instead, I wrote my first story. I went from struggling to write two pages a week to writing 10 pages in one sitting (still front and back). I filled the notebook and started another.
I love to write. It feels like I always have. I’ve never stopped. It’s usually just an idea that I want to flesh out because it becomes this thing inside my brain that won’t leave until I give it life.
Aside from that notebook, that first story, I’ve never shared anything I’ve written with anyone outside of my very immediate family. I think it’s because I fear giving something I love so deeply to anyone other than the people I trust the most to deal with me gently.
But, fear aside, this blog is where I post all my thoughts on Star Wars. An idea formed that I couldn’t put away and my first bit of fan fic was the result. I’m going to post it, otherwise I’ll probably lose it to an outdated thumb drive like I have so many other things and I don’t want that,
So, if you like….
The Supreme Leader sat upon his throne with his head in his hand. The pain behind his eyes had bloomed shortly after the assembly gathered before him had begun to present their never-ending litany of updates, losses, failures, and concerns.
The meetings were daily, rarely productive, and Kylo had grown tired of them quickly. None of his considerable skills in the force could replace what had been lost when the Supremacy fell, a fact of which everyone seemed eager to remind him.
As Director Tannel droned on about shortages and sabotaged supply lines, a truth bloomed in his mind as well. He was not well suited for this type of leadership. Snoke’s aptitude for cruelty and control, his abundant power and the will to use it, had made him a more effective leader.
He craved the autonomy that being Snoke’s apprentice had given him. He had taken his ability to largely serve his own interests for granted. He had been able to pursue his revenge and anger with little question or interference, as long as it served Snoke’s agenda as well. With only a few exceptions, the objects of his venomous rage were gone and with them had gone a greater sense of purpose than he had expected.
His mind inevitably wandered to the many failures his young reign had already seen. The list replayed in his waking mind constantly, a mantra of self-loathing.
His failure to sense the scale and depth of deception on the part of Skywalker and the scavenger.
His failure to punish Skywalker.
Hi failure to end the Jedi.
His failure to end the Resistance.
His failure to end the war.
His failure to find the Resistance and escalate the war after the loss on Crait.
His failure to stop his personal furies from causing all his other endeavors from failing.
His failure to garner any kind of true respect from the other members of the First Order because of all these failures.
He reigned only through fear and force and failure.
His mother had known. Her lifetime of service had given her keen eyes for good leadership and she had not seen it in him. She had acted to spare him from the mundane tortures of it. At the time, he had resented her decision, seeing it only as a reflection of whatever inadequacies he had always had in her eyes. He was now able to recognize her wisdom.
The thought of her sent a spike through him that rippled into the currents of energy surrounding him. The anger was still there but what had been a roaring flame had dimmed to an ember, suffocated by a deeper pain. It was a regret to which he would never give voice.
Hope. The word floated up, spontaneous and unwelcome. He fought to keep the snarl from showing on his face. Whatever he might have taken from his mother had died with her on some remote and desolate planet whose name he might never know.
But not only her. A face, young and earnest and full of light now appeared before him. This time, he did snarl. He would not think of her.
“Supreme Leader?” The sound of General Hux’s voice, openly dripping with disdain and disappointment, snapped Kylo back to attention. Neither Ren, nor any other person present in the room, needed a power like the force to be able to interpret its tone.
A few of the others in the room shifted weight nervously, exchanging quick glances of concern for how the notoriously tempestuous leader would respond to such provocation.
Ren could sense their fear. It emanated from them, and everyone else, like a jagged edge that he felt caught upon at every turn. They all regarded him as a monster. They regarded Hux the same way and none of them wanted to be present for a confrontation between them.
Kylo raised his eyes to meet the general. Hux made no attempt to conceal the contempt that played across his features. Their relationship had always been hostile but it had, at the least, been functional. They had been begrudgingly united under Snoke as servants to his greater plan. It had required little direct interaction with each other, which had proven to be the only thing maintaining the fragile balance in the relationship.
His ascension to the throne immediately followed by his failure on Crait had changed that. That failure, which Hux had seemed keen to expose to the senior officers until Kylo choked the words from him, had come at the very admonitions that Hux had warned him against. I should have killed him, Kylo thought, but the words of his old master echoed in his mind.
It was true that the general’s single-minded pursuit of domination had produced technology beyond what anyone had thought possible. An animal like Hux, whose singular concern was the defeat of his prey, was an asset even if it considered everyone to be prey.
Kylo wondered if Hux could sense his murderous intent as he glared at him coldly. He had been aware of Hux’s intention to destroy him if an opportunity presented itself for quite some time. An instinct to detect and react to danger had awoken him suddenly in the throne room to find the pale man standing over him with death in his mind.
Scorn and disbelief had emanated from the General at Ren’s insistence that the inexperienced girl had defeated Snoke, Ren, and the entirety of the guard single handedly. Another failure, and a dangerous one.
“Something to add, General?” Kylo kept his tone bored; certain this would further agitate Hux.
“You seem displeased with Director Tannel’s report. A five percent production increase after losing the Supremacy is better than we could’ve hoped for. Leader Snoke wou…” The words were cut off by a gargled noise as Hux began to grow red.
Ren stood, his hand outstretched, as he said, “I am displeased by a great many things, least of all your insistence on pestering me with reports concerning how all of you are hardly managing to do the bare minimum of what you’re being asked to do and expecting to be praised for it.” He closed his hand a fraction and Hux’s eyes began to roll into the back of his head. It would be so easy. He was just a moment away from crushing the life out of this small, insignificant man when his head suddenly throbbed more painfully causing an explosion of white lights behind his eyes.
He released Hux, who gave a wet gasp and collapsed to his knees. Kylo regarded the rest of the room as he asked, “Anyone else?”
They gathered Hux and hurried from the room. The last thing Kylo saw was the angry and still red face of Hux glaring at him as the doors to the elevator closed. Like any predator, Hux hated to be dominated.
Kylo crossed the room to another lift, which led to his personal quarters. A medical drone would be able to deal with his headache in an instant, but he wanted relief from more than just pain. He stripped to the waist, laid down on his sleeping pallet, and closed his eyes.
“The fleet. There’s still time to save the fleet. Order them to stop firing.”
He turns away from the girl to face the still smoking corpse of his master. The force around him pulsates in a chaotic tumult of emotions; elation, resentment, relief, expectation, fear, hunger, power. It’s all so clear, the failures of history. The answers for the future. Luke had been right. His passive, limped handed approach was misguided but the necessary result was still the same. It had to end, all of it.
“Ben?” He barely hears the quiet plea. It echoes in the force around him, and his heart lurches. She had come to help him, had fought with him and for him. Nothing had ever felt more natural. Surely, she had sensed it as well. Whatever the cause, they were inexorably connected. He had found more than an equal, he had found an ally. He twists to face her.
“Please don’t do this Ben.” A familiar dread settles in his stomach as he watches the girl. Her fear and anguish are smothering him and, as he feels a tremor move through his body, his extended hand trembles. He can sense a hesitation in her, some small and quiet conflict.
“Please.” He speaks to that hesitation, and his voice breaks on the word as he unconsciously leans towards her.
Kylo opened his eyes to the dimly lit ceiling of his personal chambers. The dream enraged him. He had enough treachery in the world to contend with without his own mind betraying him during the scant hours he had to rest. More failures to add to the list.
He had been a fool. She was no different from anyone else. When she looked at him, she had seen a tool, a means to an end. Just like Snoke, just like his parents, just like the entire galaxy. She had not come for him, only what she could use him to achieve. How could Luke’s protégé do anything but betray him? How could he not have seen it?
But she left you alive, a tiny voice reminded him. It was a confusing and inconvenient truth. Perhaps,thought Kylo, Luke thought I would do more damage as a failure.
At the thought of his Uncle, the bitterness seethed and coiled in him like a living thing. He had been wholly defeated by his former teacher. The old Jedi’s trickery made Kylo look weak and foolish and had cost the First Order its most vital success thanks to Luke’s little spy. Luke’s every action had been designed to unhinge and humiliate him, down to the familiar worn dice he had so loved as a child.
The act had cost Luke his life but, even in that, there was little satisfaction. He had robbed Kylo of the hope of revenge, a primal need that had driven him and was now extinguished.
Luke died and became a greater hero, greater legend, than he had been in life. Had he been capable of separating himself from it, Kylo might have been able to admire the all encompassing brilliance of the strategy.
Instead, he focused his remaining rage on the image of the scavenger. There had been no communication in the months since Crait. On occasion he had sensed a familiar shudder in the force but, each time he had turned, nothing was there. The door remained shut, and he sensed the purposeful intention. She had neither the need nor the ability to manipulate him any further.
He closed his eyes, intent on banishing the turbulent and uncontrollable thoughts.
The landscape is beautiful. Its lush fullness reminds Kylo of his home world. The sky is deep blue, an azure rarely seen from the deck of a star destroyer. Shades of emerald and jade color the trees and other plant life, made electric by sunlight streaming through branches above. The air is warm but not stifling as a gentle breeze lifts the hair from his forehead.
A small pond lays ahead, its murky depths transformed by the golden crests of sunlight that travel on its waves. A slight figure sits beside the pond, her face lined in concentration as she levitates small rocks into the pond, creating ripples.
Kylo steps out of the shadow of the trees and the figure looks to him. Her smile sends a cold wave of fear and adrenaline through his body. He had expected anger, not only in her but in himself as well. This unexpectedly warm smile shakes him to his core. He reaches out, expecting to find deceit or well-masked hatred, but he feels only warmth, pleasure, contentment.
“Ben!” She calls to him, and waves him over. As he approaches, he sees her smile falter. She appraises him, and the smile is replaced with a frown of confusion. “What’s wrong?”, she asks.
“What do you mean?” He is pleased to hear that his voice remains steady. He cannot betray the deep unsettling in his spirit.
“You look…different. I don’t like it.”
Kylo looks down to see his usual heavy robes and gloves. Only his cape and lightsaber is missing. “Where are we?” He has an urge to lean over the edge of the pond and observe his reflection, but an instinct stops him. He is deeply afraid of what it will show him.
She looks confused again. “Are you going to ask me that every time?” She gives him a small smile and turns her attention back to the rocks. It seems she has decided to forgive his appearance.
“Is anyone else here?” Kylo lowers himself to the ground next to her, watching the movement in the ponds as the rock tossing resumes.
“Not right now.”
“Why are we here?”
“You can keep asking me that question and I can keep telling you that don’t I know any better than you do.”
“Do you know what planet we’re on?”
“No.”
“How often do we come here? Do I always come with you?”
“Ben!” She is exasperated “You’re ruining my concentration.”
Kylo is quite for a few moments before saying, “I would’ve thought tiny rocks like these would be no challenge for you after Crait.”
The hovering rock falls to the surface of the pond with a deep plop. She turns to him, all amusement gone as the color drains from her face.
“You’re not Ben.” She has gone very still, as though confronted by a dangerous animal.
“You’re right, I’m not.” Kylo intends for the words to carry menace, but they fall flat and out of place in the beauty of the setting.
She scrambles to her feet, moving quickly to put some distance between them. “How did YOU get here?” she demands angrily.
“I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me.” They stare at each other before Kylo adds quietly, “You have nothing to fear from me. I don’t sense that I could harm you, even if it was my intention.”
At these words, she sneers but her shoulders loosen an almost imperceptible fraction. “I’m surprised you didn’t try to kill me.”
“Yeah, me too.” The words slip from his lips before he can stop himself. She recoils from him, mistaking it as a threat. Better she thinks it is, Kylo muses to himself. The truth is more dangerous. In the place of the rage and hatred he expected, the sight of her had brought only relief.
“What do you want?” She demands.
Staring into her eyes a thousand answers spill unbidden into his mind, but only a few seem reasonable. “Tell me about this place. Whatever you can.” Kylo sinks back down to the ground, only then aware that he had sprung to his feet at the same time she had.
She hesitates, unwilling to sit or move closer. Kylo can sense an internal debate and waits.
“I’ve already told you everything I know.”
“Is it only ever us?”
She shakes her head before saying, “I saw a pair of wolves once, they drank from the pond. Sometimes there are people.”
“Do you know them? Recognize them?”
“No, but they aren’t strangers either. They feel familiar.”
“What do they look like?”
“They look like people.” A touch of her earlier annoyance colors the tone and Kylo bites back a smile. “Except for one of them. He doesn’t look like anyone I’ve ever seen. He’s very small and old, and…green. He has a strange way of speaking.”
Kylo’s eyes widen at this. It’s not possible. “Talks like this, does he?”
“Yes! How did you know that?”
“His name is Yoda. He’s the Jedi master who trained Luke.” His teeth grit together on the name of his uncle.
There is a pause before she responds. “Luke is gone.” There is sadness and anger in her voice. “That should make you happy.”
“What about my mother?” He can see the sudden change of subject shocks her. She had expected a fight. Her whole body sags as if pressed under a great weight.
“Ben…I…”
“I know she’s gone.” Kylo interrupts. “After Crait I heard the distress call using her personal code. I had thought her dead already. When she passed into the force, I felt it.” He looks at the ground, afraid she would see his weakness at the memory. “Was it…peaceful?”
A wry smile forms on her lips as she steps closer. “You knew her, as well as anyone. What are the chances of that?”
He nods. “She wouldn’t have wanted peaceful. Good for her.” His mother had died as she had lived and there was honor in that. He swallows hard against the stone in his throat before asking, “Was it the First Order?”
“No. She was recruiting for the resistance. There was a turf war, a local thing. She got caught in the middle.” There is a long silence before she continues. “She still loved you, you know.”
When he doesn’t respond she presses on. “She left you a message.”
At this, his eyes fly to her face and he is startled to find that she is seated in front of him, just an arm’s length away. “What did it say?” His voice is hushed. Had the girl not moved, she surely would’ve missed the question.
“I don’t know.” Her eyes are sad as she answers. “It’s sealed, bio-encrypted to only open for a genetic relative, only you.”
“Where is it?”
“’I’ll bring it to you, someday. I promised her I would.”
“But you don’t have it here?”
“Of course not.” Her expression is confounded, as if she can’t believe he would even bother to ask her that question.
Kylo changes the subject again. “Where are your friends?” He cannot stop the note of derision in his voice.
“I don’t think I want to talk about them with you.”
An awkward silence settles over them. He uses the pause to glance around the area again. He looks for anything that might help him identify their location. The dense trees block the horizon and he can see nothing beyond them. There are no strange plants or animal life that might narrow down the search, no sounds.
“You really don’t know where we are? You’ve never seen this place before, even in a dream, like you did with the island?”
She gives him another strange look but does not respond.
“What do we normally do here? Or rather, what do you and Ben do here?” The shape of his old name is strange on his tongue. He can’t remember the last time he spoke it out loud.
“Mostly we talk.”
“About what?”
“The force. Our memories, our pasts. He teaches me about the Jedi, their history, how to build a lightsaber. He tells me stories about growing up with Han Solo as a father. ”
A wound, old and never healed, throbs inside Kylo. He knows that she can feel it. Suddenly, her hand extends and her fingertips trace the path of the scar she left on his face. “I had to stop you.” She whispers. The last person to touch him in such a way was his father, moments before he fell into oblivion at Kylo’s hand.
“Why didn’t you kill me?” His voice breaks but he has to ask. He has to know.
“Which time?” She asks, her lips curving into the ghost of a smile.
Kylo gives a sudden cough, the closest thing to laugh he can bring himself to do. “In the throne room. Why did you leave me alive? It was foolish. The right thing, the easiest thing, would’ve been to kill me.”
A single tear courses down her face as she regards him. “There are people who love you.”
“Not anymore.” The words echo in his mind with finality.
She rolls her eyes, but her face loses none of its softness. “There are people in this world who could love you still. I don’t have the right to end that. I would never want to be the person who takes that away from anyone, even you. Besides, I would never hurt a defenseless person.” She pauses as she regards him. “Are you going to make me kill you?”
The thought of death, of simply not being, sends a thrill through him. He knows she feels it and can only hope that she misinterprets it. Perhaps she will regard it as bloodlust, an eagerness to wage war on all she holds dear. On her. When he answers, he tells her the truth. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to. Whatever happens, I want you to know that.”
The words are so gentle and sincere that he lashes out without thinking, afraid that he will break apart if he does not. “Because you think there’s good in me, that I can be saved?” He snarls.
“Yes.”
“Then you’re a bigger fool than Luke was.”
She frowns deeply, clearly angry. “Then I’ll die a fool or you’ll die a fraud. That’s up to you.”
He chokes out another cough, amazed at the girl’s ability to be so disarming and so confrontational at the same time.
Her face grows sad and tired as she says, “It’s not too late.”
“You’ll help me?” He replies in a mocking tone.
“No. But you could help yourself.”
“Because you got what you needed from me, Snoke dead and your precious resistance spirited away in that scrap of garbage you love so much.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes it is. You came to the Supremacy to save your friends, save the resistance, maybe you thought it would even save the whole galaxy. You used me.”
“And you didn’t use me?” She is angry again. “You killed Snoke only to protect me, am I supposed to believe that? That there wasn’t some part of you that wanted to be free of him and used me as a distraction to do it?”
The silence boils between them, each furious at the other.
“I wanted to end the war, you’re right, but,” her voice breaks and her eyes fill with tears. “I wanted to do it with you, not in spite of you. I believed that you had the power to do it. I still do.”
There is a long and awkward silence before Kylo responds. “You’re right too, I did want him dead. I hadn’t resolved to do it until you came to the Supremacy though. I saw you in that ridiculous pod and I knew I’d have to kill him.”
“I don’t want to be your enemy.”
“Why not?” The words are a whisper.
“Because you’re a part of me.” Her tone implies that this answer is obvious. “Whatever those connections were, whatever this is, we’re a part of each other. And watching you destroy yourself hurts.” On the final word the tears spill down her cheeks.
Watching the girl weep, there is a sudden sting in his own eyes.
Awake and staring again at the ceiling, Kylo’s hands go immediately to his face and feel wetness.
It should feel like a betrayal, he thinks, but this is something else.
I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot lately….
The heartbreak on Rey’s face is devastating. A single second or two of film but you can feel the lifetime of hope and grief and longing that has defined Rey. In one tiny instance you see what Rey knows she is losing and her fear of what’s to come next.
And yet, there is no rage or hatred in her expression. She hurts for Ben. Again, she shows compassion that could only spring from an often disregarded depth of strength that few possess. It’s so incredibly powerful.
She recognizes the potential of the moment as well. She slowly raises her hand, perhaps to slow time before they together decide the path that is to come. It’s as if there is a moment in which she believes she can simply will Ben to be the person she needs, but all the while understands that he isn’t. In some ways, I think it’s a beautiful mirror to the moment where Luke stood over Ben as he slept.
I think part of what has drawn me into this story so fully are these types of moments. In just a second, you really feel the tension of knowing how much is balanced on the thinnest edge, in just that single moment before reality falls to one path or another.
There have been so many moments like that throughout this storyline. That kind of story telling engages the viewer so much more deeply, to be able to see those “if only” moments and to comprehend their consequences so much more fully. It creates a sense of ownership in the viewer, that burden of knowing the pain and loss that might have been spared but for the difference of a single second.
I had been convinced we were going to get a title announcement at the very least during the Super Bowl. We figured out a few days ago that that wasn’t going to happen.
The got me thinking, when would they do it? It seems pretty obvious the trailer will probably be released at the Star Wars Celebration in April but that’s SO FAR AWAY.
I really think they’ll do the title announcement before but something like that usually coincides with some other major event.
Seems like Valentine’s Day is the only “major event” or holiday between now and April?
At first I was like, “That would be weird.” but then I thought, “What if it was released on VALENTINE’S DAY.”
Does anyone else think the title of Episode IX might be referring to Anakin?
Hear me out:
I don’t think it’s only talking about Anakin. I think it could end up being a lot of different things when it’s all said and done. I think that could fit with JJ’s style.
Like most of you, I think Skywalker is going to become a title, the name of the next generation of force users.
I was thinking about the movies in terms of symmetry though. I could see the last movie tying to the first in some way to “close the circle” or show them as bookends to the plot.
Since we’ve seen most of Anakin’s origin story already there’s really only one mystery left to explore, the circumstances of his conception. That would take the last movie quite literally back to the VERY beginning.
The comic series revealed that it was Palpatine and not the force that created Anakin and it’s an interesting coincidence that Palpatine is going to play some roll in the final movie.
For an idea of how, here’s a fun fact from Aftermath: Empire’s End
Palpatine created sentient droids and infused his knowledge and memory into them which is so.creepy.
I’m wondering if Rey finds one of them in the wreckage of the Death Star?
I’d imagine it could have a pretty serious impact on how he views himself and his family too for Ben to learn that they had always been pawns in Palpatine’s greater plan. Maybe even to the point that Ben turns from the dark side? He’s felt pulled in different directions his whole life and learning of this level of manipulation might actually be freeing for him.
It would also be an interesting juxtaposition to the importance placed on Rey’s heritage throughout the sequel trilogy.
Does it seem like the stars are dimmer and fewer in quantity on The Rise of Skywalker title page as compared to the other movies?
I see some but they seem way less pronounced and I don’t know if my screen is too dim or if that’s really the case.
If it is, there’s an interesting dream Leia has when pregnant with Ben that seems relevant
She thinks Ben wants to be free of her but what if he too senses whatever is invading her dream and wants to get away?
I think that idea is further confirmed here:
These scenes come from Aftermath: Empire’s End which primarily dealt with something created by Emperor Palpatine called the Contingency.
He had a plan in place, should his Empire fail, to allow the ideals of the Empire to persevere. This plan was launched from and greatly involved the planet Jakku, which any fan of the new trilogy would be familiar with.
In terms of the 9 movies coming full circle, it seems like an awfully big coincidence.
I did a post similar to this a long time ago but I think it’s worth a revisit now that we have a title and the trailer has confirmed a few rumors.
I’ve always though the way Kylo was referenced in the movies in regards to his mask was interesting:
The Force Awakens
The Last Jedi:
There’s a progression from creature to child.
There’s an ascendency (a.k.a. rise ) in that progression from an animal or something inhuman (creature) to a person though a young, immature, or undeveloped person (child).
We see that Kylo’s helmet is repaired th Episode IX though we have no true confirmation that he wears it.
I’m inclined to believe he does because there’s this precedence set in the first two movies that shows his character development through his relationship to the mask and how people perceive him in it.
If the pattern holds, I think Ep. IX will show Ben becoming something beyond human. Going from creature to child to something like just man or Jedi to me isn’t a big enough pattern of growth when you consider creature to child.
He would have to become something mythical.
I think that Skywalker is going to become a title, not just a family and that Ben will be the ultimate example having both the bloodline and whatever quality will define the title.
Can we all take a moment to appreciate the music in the trailer?
I tear up every time Leia’s theme starts playing, it’s always been my favorite.
This version includes a rising 5 note scale scale tagged at the end. The scale coincides with the footage we see of Rey, Finn, and Poe together.
The scale pauses on the fourth tone and we hear Palpatine’s laugh.
Here is where it gets really interesting to me: After the laugh, the fifth note plays over Kylo’s theme, which is slightly modified. It’s the addition of the 5th tone that allows his theme to be resolved to a major chord.
So we have what might be an addition, continuation, or modification to Leia’s theme that has a visual association to Rey, Finn, and Poe played over (Ben’s?) theme and it takes the elements of all of it to provide the triumphant final chord.
I am LIVING for that.
I’ve been out of music theory and composition for a loooong time though so I’d love to hear thoughts!
