The Rise of Skywalker: Discussion

For the record, I am a Trump-supporting Republican, and misogynist, and I loved TLJ.

 Trump supporting Republicans huh...

In response to the thread:

Adherence to/honoring the PT:

Nope, JJ threw them a bone at best. Not surprised, but disappointed.
The opportunity to bring back Anakin, as was said on this page, was right there.

Anakin Skywalker: The voice was the bone thrown to the PT. But it means much less considering it was jumbled with many others (as nice as it was to hear Mace and Qui-Gon). He is the central character of Lucas’s Star Wars, and Disney has intentionally marketed this trilogy as part of the Skywalker saga.
They clearly didn’t want to deprive Rey of a heroic moment, but I can think of several ways they could have kept Rey’s role while giving Anakin a heroic return.
You know what would make such an event more meaningful in my opinion? Making Rey a birth Skywalker.

Writing/Dialogue/Humor: About standard. A mix of laugh and eye roll inducing lines.

Music: Probably my favorite aspect of the film. I enjoyed the return of old themes as well as the theme on Exogol.

Sound design: Decent enough

Art direction: Pretty good actually

Visual effects: Wasn’t impressed with Palpatine, but the scenes looked good. Particularly the lair, the planets during the lightspeed hopping scene, and Lando’s fleet.


Palpatine’s survival: Not at all adequately explained. I can think of several ways that, if they insisted on bringing him back, they could have explained it. Maybe he’s a ghost instead of a clone looking to be resurrected. I honestly expected his return immediately after seeing TLJ, given that I knew Kylo wasn’t going to work as the next film’s primary antagonist.

Palpatine’s characterization: Not deep, which was expected.
The loyalist cult wasn’t explained and was underused in my opinion.

Snoke: A little disappointing, but the blow was softened by the fact that I had stopped caring about his origin. I guess it would make sense if Palpatine was behind the First Order all along. Makes Snoke seem more like a throwaway villain in the same camp as Zam Wesell and General Grievous (inferior to both).

Leia: Footage was mostly convincing except for one scene. I noticed that her silhouette was shown in the scene where she is dying. I will admit that that scene was sad in a way, but annoying considering who she was using her life energy for.


Trio adventures: Fun action, but it was harder to care about the principals. Rey being a Palpatine is not the least of the factors, while it felt like they were trying to mimic the Han-Luke-Leia love triangle in ROTJ. The small conflicts between Rey, Finn and Poe ended up going nowhere, and their group dynamic felt wasted. Just filler, mostly. They didn’t seem to matter once Ben Swolo came “back” (we never saw any side of Kylo before except an evil, manipulative one)

Rey’s ancestry: Worst thing about the film besides the Reylo kiss. Makes it clear that the term Skywalker saga is no more than a gimmick. Rey adopting the last name means nothing. Just shows that Anakin and Luke were just placeholders. Luke doesn’t have one legacy to be proud of.


Lightsaber battles: The Endor duel was admittedly pretty cool, but again, it was hard to care about the principals involved. Anything good about it was ruined when Rey got sappy for Kylo. Why would she feel any more guilt about fatally wounding him than any other villain. That side of him is the only one she ever knew! She never knew Ben Solo as a better person and yet she cries over him and kisses him the minute she sees him for the first time.

Space battle: Cool scene, but the reinforcements were meant to imitate the Ewoks. The problem is, we never saw how Lando was able to contact so many people, just that Poe and company were supposed to have faith that they would come. Conversely, the surprise element of the Ewok attack was removed, since we kept hearing about how the reinforcements would come.

Han as a Force ghost: I don’t mind Han appearing in theory, and I will admit it served the story. But my personal bias against Kylo makes it hard to appreciate that scene. Han said the same thing in TFA and Kylo looked him cold in the eye before stabbing him.

Luke: Nothing unexpected. Efforts to salvage the character after the damage done in TLJ would probably have strayed the narrative. I can think of ways to do this, but they are cheap.


The finale: visually impressive, but I felt as though Anakin should have a role in ultimately defeating the villain who we were supposed to think he killed already, which was the climax of all of Lucas’s Star Wars. Kylo got too happy of an ending, and while a happy-ish ending for Rey was expected, it didn’t feel earned. Palpatine’s death went the way I expected.



The kiss: Unearned, and ruins any good to Rey’s character. She becomes the love-pet of a man she only met now after only being exposed to his evil alter-ego who may have pretended to show her a better side. Worse, she was all feely for him before this other side was given any hint, and after at the start of TROS, Kylo went back to the same evil BS he had always pulled.

About her dismissal of Finn, it was disheartening, but it goes to show what an inconsistent character Rey is. Not because Finn is entitled to her love, but because Kylo deserves it the least of almost anyone she’s crossed paths with.

I’m not such a fan of Padme’s story in ROTS, but it’s one flaw in an otherwise great film. There were too many in the ST to overlook. That said, Padme’s sappiness for Anakin even after he turned evil makes far more sense than Rey’s bizarre feelings for Kylo. At least there was a precedent of Padme seeing that Anakin had been a good person. At least she had known and loved the good Anakin before he fell. Rey never knew whatever “Ben Solo” we were supposed to believe existed.


Ending: Rey doesn’t deserve to be an honorary Skywalker, not after she threw away the legacy for Kylo.

This is so sad. Stampid and Trunerd who are too concentrated in offending the others somehow fail to see that since they registered here, personal offenses become frequent in this forum. It was something we tried to avoid and maybe is useless to mention what is said in the general rules as they obviously didn't bother to read it. I didn't change my mind not to participate here and I won't but as it was explained that I'm not part of the bad guys and I shouldn't be offended, I have to reply.
Well, is actually worse. Because some of you dare to define who is worthy to speak about the movies and who is not and also based on their attitude to the movie. This is not discussion, this is a First Order reunion and obviously someone thinks he is the Supreme leader and can consider his beliefs as the only ones worthy to be exposed... Sorry, as I said this is not discussion. Discussion is if you discuss the movie and not the other participants. As already this is not the main motif here (sorry Archduke) I won't participate.

Oh, now we are corrupt. Is just super. Thanks a lot for poisoning this positive forum with personal offenses that we, the corrupt ones avoided at all cost. Is great holiday present, thanks. As I'm qualified as not worthy to talk here, I'm just leaving. Have a nice time. I won't participate in hierarchical discussion where there are high and low quality fans. The moderator will decide that this should continue or not. I personally think is not.

George Lucas would have brought back Palpatine. He did it in the Dark Empire comic. Frankly, any other villain would make it separate from the first 6 movies.

An Anakin Force-ghost would have been silly. I was always afraid of that rumor. His grandson helped Rey defeat Palpatine, and imitated his sacrifice, so I don't see how this ending dishonored him.

Not sure what's so unbelievable about Palpatine having children.

You can say that these criticisms are different from prequel-bashing, but it really always comes down to pointing out what fans call its strengths and calling them flaws.

I've said more about the movie than anyone in this thread. Most criticism of this film is a distraction from discussion of the film itself and I can't take responsibility for it. There are plenty of other places to discuss whether or not the prequels were fairly judged or if Lucas should have had more creative control over the franchise, after he sold it, over six years ago. Those are old and dead topics which have nothing to do with the movie itself, especially if those discussing it have not even seen the movie in question. Now go ahead and call me a troll, for defending this film, which this thread is named for, from purist gatekeepers. Just like I was with the prequels.