I noticed most; including me, have not answered the question: "Was The New Trilogy Worth It?" Yes, I enjoyed it. It put Daisy Ridley on the map and sent more traffic towards Adam Driver. Both are great actors and they were the best characters in this trilogy.
hard disagree. i think rian did a great job with the last jedi, even if the canto bight stuff is headache inducing. rose's character was far more interesting under rian's wing than she was with all 6 lines jj gave her to say because he and disney caved in to the genuine fucking racists who harassed her for weeks after the movie came out.
I'm sorry but Rose was easily the worst part of the entire TLJ movie. She served no purpose and I can't think of any scene where she had redeeming qualities. "Save what we love" made me wish she died right there. There is no SW character that pissed me off more than her.
hard disagree. i think rian did a great job with the last jedi, even if the canto bight stuff is headache inducing. rose's character was far… more more interesting under rian's wing than she was with all 6 lines jj gave her to say because he and disney caved in to the genuine fucking racists who harassed her for weeks after the movie came out.
You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
I never said Last Jedi was bad.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion. Rian did a horrible job with her character.
hard disagree. i think rian did a great job with the last jedi, even if the canto bight stuff is headache inducing. rose's character was far… more more interesting under rian's wing than she was with all 6 lines jj gave her to say because he and disney caved in to the genuine fucking racists who harassed her for weeks after the movie came out.
I'm sorry but Rose was easily the worst part of the entire TLJ movie. She served no purpose and I can't think of any scene where she had re… moredeeming qualities. "Save what we love" made me wish she died right there. There is no SW character that pissed me off more than her.
I feel bad for the actress.
off to a great start here, very classic telltale forums thing to do by starting off with an insult before initiating a star wars discussion.
if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
if you think kelly marie tran was not attacked by racist star wars fans who targeted her race BECAUSE of how they felt about her role, then idk man, you just need to do more research before you start insulting people's intelligence on things you're not even right about. yeah not all the hate was race fueled, but there was a fucking load of it.
I never said Last Jedi was bad.
i never said you did, i said i disagreed with your assessment of rose's character arc and provided my defense of it, albeit a brief one.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role.
okay?? i mean rose tico is literally a supporting role in the last jedi, so this has nothing to do with anything.
Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
i never said anything along these lines.
Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion. Rian did a horrible job with her character.
i do not at all see your point, perhaps you could explain it but with less avgn esque fuck words and more, idk, explanation? it kinda sounds like you're attributing YOUR gripes with the entire fanbase's gripes, and i can tell you for certain that the fans who hate rose and aren't racist don't have a problem with her smacking finn more than anything else, there is far more people criticize her for.
* You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
* I never said Last Jedi was bad.
* Kelly is bette… morer in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
* Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion. Rian did a horrible job with her character.
so you spent an entire comment talking about how bad you hate the character in a rude and non-constructive way that didn't explain your thoughts at all, and then capped it off with "i feel bad for the actress", which i find incredibly hard to believe because most of the time when you hate a movie you shit on the people involved in making it, i wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the many people who bullied her off social media with the way you talk about certain people on these forums just for making a movie you don't like.
I'm sorry but Rose was easily the worst part of the entire TLJ movie. She served no purpose and I can't think of any scene where she had re… moredeeming qualities. "Save what we love" made me wish she died right there. There is no SW character that pissed me off more than her.
I feel bad for the actress.
Rose sacrificed the entire rebellion her sister died for to save one guy. Plus she wants to save animals instead of the rebellion and she added nothing to the story. Not to mention her performance was weak. That's why fans don't like her. So if a film maker sees how much a character is hated, why would he give her more screen time in the sequel? That doesn't make sense. That's why I called you dumb. Nothing against Kelly, but Rose is a terrible character. If you disagree, that's fine, but don't add to this fire if defending Kelly is all you plan to do
You're dumb
off to a great start here, very classic telltale forums thing to do by starting off with an insult before initiating a s… moretar wars discussion.
if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
if you think kelly marie tran was not attacked by racist star wars fans who targeted her race BECAUSE of how they felt about her role, then idk man, you just need to do more research before you start insulting people's intelligence on things you're not even right about. yeah not all the hate was race fueled, but there was a fucking load of it.
I never said Last Jedi was bad.
i never said you did, i said i disagreed with your assessment of rose's character arc and provided my defense of it, albeit a brief one.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role.
okay?? i mean rose tico is literally a supporting role in the last jedi, so this has nothing to do with anyth… [view original content]
Rian didn’t abuse her to the extent where she had to leave social media just for her own mental health. “Rian did her dirty the most” isn’t even opinion, it’s just far from the facts
so you spent an entire comment talking about how bad you hate the character in a rude and non-constructive way that didn't explain your thoughts at all, and then capped it off with "i feel bad for the actress"
There is a difference between hating a character and hating an actor. I personally have nothing against Kelly Tran, I think she just did her job, a decent one per se. But the character she portrayed was full of garbage script and made a lot of stupid decisions like sexually-assaulting Finn, doing the opposite of what her sister has done to save the resistance and caring more about freeing mistreated animals than saving the only hope against the First Order.
when you hate a movie you shit on the people involved in making it
I only do that when the people involved in movie refuse to admit their own mistakes. Rian Johnson refuses to take the criticism of his movie seriously, saying that none of it is justified and makes terrible excuses for the decisions he made, like thinking Luke's mourn on his brother-in-law, Han Solo, would have slowed down the pacing, when he already did that with the Casino planet which didn't do jack shit for the story.
i wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the many people who bullied her off social media with the way you talk about certain people on these forums just for making a movie you don't like.
This is bullshit. Why would I attack an actor who had nothing to do with the movie script? Only mindless idiots would do that. Everyone who bullied Kelly through the social media can kiss my ass, they did the same with Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen and never learned the difference between a writer and an actor. If I had a chance to punish those assholes, I would have done that instantly.
so you spent an entire comment talking about how bad you hate the character in a rude and non-constructive way that didn't explain your thou… moreghts at all, and then capped it off with "i feel bad for the actress", which i find incredibly hard to believe because most of the time when you hate a movie you shit on the people involved in making it, i wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the many people who bullied her off social media with the way you talk about certain people on these forums just for making a movie you don't like.
I agree with your line of thinking. I personally did not like the character, Rose, but I have absolutely nothing against the actor, Kelly. People should learn to seperate the character and actor.
Everything you said is not true.
so you spent an entire comment talking about how bad you hate the character in a rude and non-constru… morective way that didn't explain your thoughts at all, and then capped it off with "i feel bad for the actress"
There is a difference between hating a character and hating an actor. I personally have nothing against Kelly Tran, I think she just did her job, a decent one per se. But the character she portrayed was full of garbage script and made a lot of stupid decisions like sexually-assaulting Finn, doing the opposite of what her sister has done to save the resistance and caring more about freeing mistreated animals than saving the only hope against the First Order.
when you hate a movie you shit on the people involved in making it
I only do that when the people involved in movie refuse to admit their own mistakes. Rian Johnson refuses to take the criticism of his movie seriously, sayi… [view original content]
I agree.
I find it odd that she didn't really have any good lines or anything helpful in TLJ, and she was harassed for it.
Not okay to do to anyone, regardless if they are famous or if they are just your average joe.
Saw it a few days ago.
I enjoyed it, the pacing I felt was rough, as there were parts I liked, some I really didn't care for. First third,… more good. Second third, meh. Last third, good.
While I think the amount of fanservice the movie throws at you is cool to see, it does at one point end up being too much. It's just... "Really? Wow what a coincidence"
Lighstsaber battles were really good. Found myself wanting to pick one up and fight the nearest sith lord after the movie. Too bad I have neither in my life.
That one double-visions fight near the end of the first act was my favourite. You know the one.
I think the climax tried to be too much at once. Also had way too much convenience, even for this series.
It's just... oh boy.
(Spoiler)
As for Rey:
At first I thought her origin was just out of the blue, but that setup could have been possible (also having the setup for the Emperor's return because that's just explained in th… [view original content]
Kelly was a lot more likeable in this film. To be honest; none of the "Newer" characters outside Force Awakens were all that compelling. The… more only interesting "New" characters in RoS was that lady in the gold helmet that had that history with PO. I hope Adam and Daisy got fat checks from this film. They're giving this movie everything they got.
So, we're question people's intelligence based on opinions.
You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
When the actual fuck did clemy ever say all the hate she got was because of her race instead of her role? Oh yeah, he never did say that! Bud, stop taking things out of context, what you said is sooo wrong that there isn't even context to it!
I never said Last Jedi was bad.
Nobody has or had ever said that you did or you didn't like 'The Last Jedi'.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role.
You do realize that people have their own opinions, and that right there is yours.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
Attacking other people's opinions is going to get you anywhere, trust me.
Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion.
There's other reasons why people don't like her character arc, bucko. And, I've never seen anybody get mad over her slapping finn. Just because you don't like something, doesn't mean the entire fandom doesn't like it.
Rian did a horrible job with her character.
You treat it like it's a fact, it's just an opinion.
* You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
* I never said Last Jedi was bad.
* Kelly is bette… morer in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
* Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion. Rian did a horrible job with her character.
Literally every in-depth review calls out Rose's stupidity for smacking Finn. Not only was he trying to save the Resistance, but that crash could've killed them both. Unless you would've done the same as Rose, defending her actions would be ludicrous.
Clem believes Kelly was attacked based on her race; instead of her role. If that were the case with some Star Wars fans; how come Jon Boyega got love for Force Awakens AND Last Jedi? He did a great job; therefore was not attacked for his role. If it was about race, he would've been attacked regardless of his performance.
Fans don't like the Rose character becuase she is irrational(colliding with Finn at top speed) and she's narrow minded(saving animals instead of the Resistance). When you mentioned people hate Rose for reasons other than smacking Finn; you just proved my point on how she's a badly written character. And that my friend, is fact.
Rain did a pretty horrible job with Rose's character if its hated by the majority of fans, and that my friend, is fact.
Look, you seem like a nice kid with a good heart. If you love Rose, that's fine. If you have problems with her character, that's cool too. Have a nice day.
You're dumb
So, we're question people's intelligence based on opinions.
You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of th… moreeir race instead of their role.
When the actual fuck did clemy ever say all the hate she got was because of her race instead of her role? Oh yeah, he never did say that! Bud, stop taking things out of context, what you said is sooo wrong that there isn't even context to it!
I never said Last Jedi was bad.
Nobody has or had ever said that you did or you didn't like 'The Last Jedi'.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role.
You do realize that people have their own opinions, and that right there is yours.
Kelly is better in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
Attacking other people's opinions is going to get you anywhere, tr… [view original content]
I like you, Melton, you're one of my favorites on this forum. So don't take offense to any of this.
1. Yes, Rian didn't abuse her. But Rian did make a horrible character that Kelly unfortunately had to portray. I think its awful when someone is harassed over their work. Kelly didn't deserve that. There are a lot of factors that play into this - Rian's writing and a portion of the fans themselves. The cause of all this drama isn't becuase of one person or group. Many were involved.
Rian didn’t abuse her to the extent where she had to leave social media just for her own mental health. “Rian did her dirty the most” isn’t even opinion, it’s just far from the facts
Literally every in-depth review calls out Rose's stupidity for smacking Finn. Not only was he trying to save the Resistance, but that crash could've killed them both. Unless you would've done the same as Rose, defending her actions would be ludicrous.
I actually want to slap finn for even becoming part of the empire in the first place.
Clem believes Kelly was attacked based on her race; instead of her role. If that were the case with some Star Wars fans; how come Jon Boyega got love for Force Awakens AND Last Jedi? He did a great job; therefore was not attacked for his role. If it was about race, he would've been attacked regardless of his performance.
He never said she was attacked only by her race, though.
Fans don't like the Rose character becuase she is irrational(colliding with Finn at top speed) and she's narrow minded(saving animals instead of the Resistance). When you mentioned people hate Rose for reasons other than smacking Finn; you just proved my point on how she's a badly written character. And that my friend, is fact.
Alot of people don't like pineapple pizza, does that make it bad based on facts? No, it doesn't.
Rain did a pretty horrible job with Rose's character if its hated by the majority of fans, and that my friend, is fact.
Look, you seem like a nice kid with a good heart. If you love Rose, that's fine. If you have problems with her character, that's cool too. Have a nice day.
I think rose was a good character, but I admit that she has her problems.
* Literally every in-depth review calls out Rose's stupidity for smacking Finn. Not only was he trying to save the Resistance, but that cras… moreh could've killed them both. Unless you would've done the same as Rose, defending her actions would be ludicrous.
* Clem believes Kelly was attacked based on her race; instead of her role. If that were the case with some Star Wars fans; how come Jon Boyega got love for Force Awakens AND Last Jedi? He did a great job; therefore was not attacked for his role. If it was about race, he would've been attacked regardless of his performance.
* Fans don't like the Rose character becuase she is irrational(colliding with Finn at top speed) and she's narrow minded(saving animals instead of the Resistance). When you mentioned people hate Rose for reasons other than smacking Finn; you just proved my point on how she's a badly written character. And that my friend, is fact.
* Rain did a pretty horrible job with Rose… [view original content]
You said "Welp guys, looks like someone doesn't check facts before stating something." Whatever happened to "You do realize that people have their own opinions, and that right there is yours" and "you treat it like it's a fact, it's just an opinion"? 'Rian did her dirty the most' is an opinion. What is there to check facts about? I believe that is why Wheres_Dinner was confused.
1.Clemy said Kelly was attacked on social media by racists. Since he didn't provide proof, I called him out on that statement.
2. I believe you are mixing Kelly and Rose as one person. I'm sure Kelly is a nice person. But a main character that has an entire subplot that doesn't go anhwhere and the character themselves doesn't amount to anything in the story... That's a poorly written character. Ex. If half of New Hope just had Luke complaing about not getting his power covertors and never leaving his home on Tatooine; he would've been a poorly written character with no arc, no development. Just one sided.
Literally every in-depth review calls out Rose's stupidity for smacking Finn. Not only was he trying to save the Resistance, but that crash … morecould've killed them both. Unless you would've done the same as Rose, defending her actions would be ludicrous.
I actually want to slap finn for even becoming part of the empire in the first place.
Clem believes Kelly was attacked based on her race; instead of her role. If that were the case with some Star Wars fans; how come Jon Boyega got love for Force Awakens AND Last Jedi? He did a great job; therefore was not attacked for his role. If it was about race, he would've been attacked regardless of his performance.
He never said she was attacked only by her race, though.
Fans don't like the Rose character becuase she is irrational(colliding with Finn at top speed) and she's narrow minded(saving animals instead of the Resistance). When you mentioned people hate Rose for reasons … [view original content]
"You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role."
Racism still exists, my dude. It happens. (Not saying that people hated Rose's character because of her race. Just pointing out how absurd that statement is.)
* You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role.
* I never said Last Jedi was bad.
* Kelly is bette… morer in a supporting role than a lead role. Unless you think Kelly could've been a better Rey than Daisy, by all means, give her the props she doesn't really deserve.
* Rose gets most hate because she fucking smacked Finn - the man trying to save the entire fucking rebellion. Rian did a horrible job with her character.
"You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role."
Racism still exists, my dude. It happens. (Not saying that people hated Rose's character because of her race. Just pointing out how absurd that statement is.)
1.Clemy said Kelly was attacked on social media by racists. Since he didn't provide proof, I called him out on that statement.
2. I believe… more you are mixing Kelly and Rose as one person. I'm sure Kelly is a nice person. But a main character that has an entire subplot that doesn't go anhwhere and the character themselves doesn't amount to anything in the story... That's a poorly written character. Ex. If half of New Hope just had Luke complaing about not getting his power covertors and never leaving his home on Tatooine; he would've been a poorly written character with no arc, no development. Just one sided.
I absolutely hated ep9. I'm not going to go so much into it because some people seems to like it but the thing that I low most about is the Rey, Palpetine confrontation. Seriously It's this childish? Palpetine was going to let Rey slay him so she could become an empress because "strike with anger" and being in the same bloodline as someone evil equals you go dark? What!? That's the plan!? and then she actually STANDS DOWN?! Is this an comedy!? The dude destroys planets for control not to mention turture,enslaves people. KILL HIM YOU ASSHOLE
And then after he YEETS her boyfriend she kills him anyway!
If you hate the film I respect your decision, but I want to explain your criticism.
1. Palpatine was willing to let Luke strike him down in anger because that would turn Luke to the Dark Side. The Sith have never cared about the individual. Every Sith is destined to be killed by their apprentince or someone stronger. This is how the Sith order remains strong. Palpatine was even willing to let Starkiller slay him if it meant he would be the more powerful Sith. Palpatine even knew Darth Vader would eventually grow more powerful than him all the way back in Ep.3. Another example would be Count Dooku. The instant Anakin became more powerful than Dooku; Palpatine dropped him like a sack of bricks in favor of a more powerful apprentice.
2. Rey kills Palpatine after the help from the entire Jedi order. You saw how weak she was - there was no way one person could destroy ALL the Sith. Luke couldn't have done that alone. No Jedi could - no matter how powerful. Rey is given the strength of every Jedi that's ever lived to destroy Palpatine. It was the entire Jedi Order against the entire Sith Order. That's actually pretty fucking badass.
I absolutely hated ep9. I'm not going to go so much into it because some people seems to like it but the thing that I low most about is the … moreRey, Palpetine confrontation. Seriously It's this childish? Palpetine was going to let Rey slay him so she could become an empress because "strike with anger" and being in the same bloodline as someone evil equals you go dark? What!? That's the plan!? and then she actually STANDS DOWN?! Is this an comedy!? The dude destroys planets for control not to mention turture,enslaves people. KILL HIM YOU ASSHOLE
And then after he YEETS her boyfriend she kills him anyway!
That's some Disney PG-3 stuff right there.
So I finally watched it and it was ok. It wasnt really bad or great but just comes off as kinda messy which I think most people would agree on as its very obvious there was no real plan for this trilogy and where it would go.
Overall I enjoyed it but its forgettable. That last act was really messy imo and didnt really tie things up that well.
Hmm. That’s funny cos I thought the first act was messy, and things began to better progress from there.
What I find weird is that nobody’s talking about how the last battle seems like it was ripped right out of end game (main theme for the franchise begins to play, every living character makes an appearance/cameo during said battle, main character sacrifices themselves - albeit briefly in TROS, main goodie has their stats boosted by a crazy amount due to a mystical something, main baddie gets absolutely vaporised and also manages to return from the dead, I can go on and on about the similarities)
So I finally watched it and it was ok. It wasnt really bad or great but just comes off as kinda messy which I think most people would agree … moreon as its very obvious there was no real plan for this trilogy and where it would go.
Overall I enjoyed it but its forgettable. That last act was really messy imo and didnt really tie things up that well.
It would've been really cool if all the Sith ghosts appeared behind Palpatine. Dooku, Malak, Bane, etc. Then all the Jedi appear behind Rey. Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Yoda, Luke, etc. I know they had their voices but seeing their ghosts standoff with Rey against the Sith ghosts would've been sweet.
It would've been really cool if all the Sith ghosts appeared behind Palpatine. Dooku, Malak, Bane, etc. Then all the Jedi appear behind Rey.… more Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Yoda, Luke, etc. I know they had their voices but seeing their ghosts standoff with Rey against the Sith ghosts would've been sweet.
I finally went to see this yesterday after several intentions of going with my brother as tradition fell through and I had nothing to do today aside from an errand or two. I suppose I can say it’s a decent to good-ish movie that fluctuates a bit in getting going and having effective things happen. What I mean by that is that the first five to ten minutes kinda breezes in a way to establish things and yet I felt somewhat bored/disengaged before slowly starting to be picked up with some admittedly kinda neat/funny if downplayed moment. These, combined with some things being kinda predictable/protracted and the movie shockingly being under 2 ½ hours long, made it slide from a little dull to kinda cool to actually sorta dramatic and slightly panning out again as the climax & ending play out.
As the Brainscratch impressions on the drive back consistently noted, though, there was general sense of the movie floundering a bit due to the combined impact of swiftly course-correcting The Last Jedi a fair bit, going through important developmental beats in a haste, a degree of back n’ forth with certain key scenes, having the burden of having to satisfactorily wrap up The Sequel Trilogy, and an amassed squandering of potential overall. To review each of my thoughts a little in perspective, I’m gonna have to go into some amount of spoilers.
Rey, Kylo, and the Nobodies
Was gonna break these up into two or so sections, but it’s easier to lump them all together since they are supposed to be the big stars of the Sequel Trilogy and I don’t have much to say on them personally.
Rey, after being dedicating most of her time training under Leia, rejoins her Trio to find a Sith Pathfinder so they can stop the incoming threat of The Final Order. With her powerset being less unfocused, she’s picked up a healing ability that draws from her own lifeforce, earns the right to wield the lightsabers of the Skywalkers before eventually crafting her own, and another ability in one scene that’s pretty whammy. She turned out to be the daughter of somebodies or rather the granddaughter of somebody very important indeed. Her parents, one of who is his son/daughter, sold her to Unkar Plutt on Jakku because they knew the Emperor wouldn’t find her there. Due to the implications of this reveals as well as her lingering bond with Kylo Ren, she spends much of the movie making increasingly reckless decisions in order to stop them both and avoid fulfilling a vision of herself falling to the Dark Side. As I’ll get into later, I feel like there should’ve been some further degree of pushback regarding her emotional mistakes and by extension, really emphasize her motivational fears of what is coming. Also why was the scene of Empress Palpatine so friggin short? She was actually friggin cool and such a cocktease!
Kylo Ren, now Supreme Leader, has decided to take/maintain a more personal methodology of leading the First Order. He begins the movie tracking down and slicing through Sith worships in order to obtain a Pathfinder necessary to reach the Sith World of Exegol, has his mask repaired by a monkey like mechanic to symbolize retaken authority, and spends the rest abusing the bond established by Snoke to subvert the Resistance while pushing Rey into taking his hand so they can rule the galaxy. After a serious close call that sees Rey heal the wound she inflicts on him after a critical moment in their fight, Ben gets his reformation by acknowledging he failed to rid himself of his guilt through somewhat confusing appearance of Han and spends his last moments by saving Rey before becoming one with the Force. Oh and The Knights of Ren show up in this movie and in the present too—and they don’t amount to much beyond accompanying Kylo and giving Ben a fight for the climax. Lewis’s reading of their bio in his supplement book even emphasizes how they are a myth that turned out to be real in the form of a mildly Force Sensitive reward for his personal training and it doesn’t matter who they were despite apparently having individual profiles. It’s weird too because they could’ve easily acted as silent antagonists for the rest of the group and/or an extension of Ren himself before that point and thus have a more dramatic confrontation with their former darkblade.
Finn and Jannah
Finn works alongside Poe as best bickering partners aboard the Millennium Falcon and is implied to indeed be Force-sensitive, which he attempts to tell Rey and uses to locate the paths towards the Resistance’s victory. He also surprisingly has his heritage as a brainwashed Stormtrooper come into play when the heroes met an entire group of them in the form of herding scavengers led by Jannah(fuck remembering her #). The two bond over their respective backstories involving a feeling that convinced them they were on the wrong side and even charge into battle on beast-back to directly take out the Final Order’s flagship. Despite this and having a fairly solid role in this finale, I can’t help but feel his arc was ultimately undercooked due to fairly scarce screentime. Not helping this in a way is how his affection from Rose is barely referenced(we’ll get to that) and the backstories of Janna & her group are rather vaguely discussed. I honestly couldn’t help but wonder more than once if she was some plant by the First Order. For a number of optional points, FN here was effectively contender for THE Guy of the Sequel Trilogy (if you just don’t wanna count Kylo Ren for whatever reason) and it’s a shame that his pretty unique story was not what it cracked up to be.
Poe, Zorri, Babu, and Pushback
Poe is promoted to General and uses his skipping skills to lead the Resistance to victory with Finn by his side. He is also revealed to be even more Solo-like in that he used to run Spice with his old friends Zorri and Babu, who help the heroes complete the message from Ochi’s Sith Dagger by wiping C-3P0’s memories on Kijimi. The never bareheaded Zorri notably has a bit of a slap-slap-kiss dynamic with him, initially being ready to blow his head off for abandoning them before gracefully getting bested by Rey, decides to give him an Imperial Officer badge to get access to any planet (which I don’t think ever comes up), and even shows up to help backup the Resistance ala Kat from Star Fox. These two were kinda nice side characters I guess, but sorta like Janna, they feel so underdeveloped and moreso feel kinda tacked in for Poe’s backstory. Which itself was kind of shoved in seemingly for the sake of making the Han parallel more obvious.
Following up on an issue I mentioned earlier, there were two or three times when I couldn’t help but think the movie could’ve benefitted from having someone call Rey on her thoughtless actions—somewhat with the meta in mind, but also primarily in terms of character development and story flow. The early parts of the movie, a somewhat unrelated observation from BSC, and especially thinking back made me convinced that this very much should have happened through Poe. The beginning of the movie actually does this by pointing out how Rey hasn’t been around to help them much at all and even questions why she dropped a tree on BB-8, while she takes issue with him setting the Millennium Falcon on fire and poor Finn slowly tries to break them up. Additionally, Rey, Finn, and Poe are the Main Trio of the Sequels like Luke, Leia, & Han were in the Original and Obi-Wan, Anakin, & maybe Padme were for the Prequels, but they kinda falter in the sense that while Finn has a clear bond with both, Rey and Poe barely interact to the point that they apparently first meet near the end of The Last Jedi. And finally, Poe’s character arc in the previous movie had him learn that defying direct orders and/or taking such heedless risks can lead to big problems that can get the people around him killed. Thus, he and his reigned in, hotshot demeanor would be perfect for arguing with her in a way Finn generally can’t.
Chewbacca, the Droids, and Lando
Everyone’s favorite Wookie and the Droid Duo play a bigger part in this final mission by accompanying the three heroes. BB-8 revives Ochi’s abused droid D-0, who’s pretty much a coach-mic on wheels and ends up providing the Resistance with the information necessary to reach Exegol; meanwhile, Chewbacca & C-3P0 of all characters provide assistance during the trips to gain the Pathfinder, offer some of the funny moments, and even get directly involved in the tension. Er, somewhat: Chewbacca is captured by the Stormtroopers under the Knights of Ren alongside the Sith Dagger when the transport is hit with Force Lightning from Rey’s attempt to pull them down against Kylo Ren and C-3P0 must translate an outlawed language through a process involving a total memory wipe. However, both of these things are mostly undone, with R2-D2 actually having a backup of his memories from a previous movie uploaded in a smashcut and Chewbecca being revealed as a live prisoner of Pryde to the audience barely three minutes after he seemingly blew up as a trick by Kylo Ren. I was honestly baffled why they even bothered with the latter because the heroes don’t learn that for quite a while and it was perfect opportunity to dwell on the ramifications of Rey losing control.
Lando also turns up to help provide the Resistance with some local help on where to find the Sith Dagger. He had actually avoided the civil war by hanging out on backwater planets, with the not Tatoine one they find him on actually having a sorta nice festival of only mildly terrifying tapir-squid people that involved Rey briefly befriending a little girl and the quicksandy pit of a fucking serpent she heals that is likely responsible for giving Ochi what was coming to him. Rey encourages him to return to Leia’s side and while he doesn’t for a good reason, he does lead an entire fleet of just people and Zorri to backup the Resistance in the final battle. Oh and Janna is implied to be his daughter near the end—guess that makes this The Story of Janna Freeman.
Leia, Maz, the Resistance, Snapp, and Rose
Whoo boy, here we go--you wanna talk about underutilized and fuckin course-[over]corrected, look no further than these old biddies and a funny fat guy.
The Resistance set up camp in some jungle planet where they stand by while Finn, Poe, BB-8, & Chewbacca run missions involving a spy within the First Order and General Leia trains Rey in the ways of the Force as Luke trained her. Specifically, this training involves opening up to hear from the Jedi of the Past(does this mean Ahsoka died?) and earning the right to wield Liea’s lightsaber, although that appears to be a self-imposed milestone. After assuring Rey not to doubt herself or BB-8, she sends the heroes off with C-3P0 in tow to find the Pathfinder and enable the Resistance to defeat The Final Order on Exegol. She ultimately uses the last of her physical life to reach Kylo Ren during his last fight with Rey and it is this act that allows Rey to snap out of her rage and causes Ben to finally admit he couldn’t make the full leap into the Dark Side.
The rest of the Resistance stands by in the jungle alongside Leia while waiting for the heroes to find the safe way to Exegol, discuss the plan once they return with most of the intelligence they need, and head into the final battle. Among their ranks are Maz Kanata, this slug repairman(who went on the mission to meet the spy), Poe’s friend Snapp(who got probably the first real laugh out of me, Nien Numb, what is probably Admiral Ackbar’s son, and a lesbian couple, the oldest of whom I believe personally informs Finn & Poe of Leia’s passing. Maz, who I just remembered lost her castle bar but apparently got contacts as compensation, is the one to pass on Leia’s General badge to Poe per her prior orders and witnesses her body become one with the Force.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Rose Tico is still in this movie! The movie almost did too because she’s barely in this: I think she has one scene of dialogue on the jungle planet with Rey, shoots at something for a few seconds in the final battle, and her affection towards Finn isn’t referenced beyond almost trying to talk Finn out of risking his life to destroy the flagship with Janna—was she even on the poster, now that I think about it? And while we’re at it, wtf happened to those kids she indirectly inspired on Canto Blight? Now to be fair, Lewis mentioned that this is actually because she was supposed to be present in some of the Leia scenes that were cut because they were incredibly difficult to do using only unused footage from the previous movies. While this would’ve been a clever use for her character in the form of a bridge between the two groups as she sorta was regarding how corrupt the galaxy is in in the Last Jedi, it still really goes to show how much it was backtracked that that the one [surviving] major character introduced there seriously Demoted to Extra for the finale--talk about cynical.
Palpatine, Snoke, and the Final Order
Yep, Palpatine is back from the dead to Hijack this trilogy for the finale—sorta. From what I can tell, he is actually a decayed clone-zombie hanging like a coat from a life support crane on the storm covered Sith planet of Exegol and he’s established within the first five minutes offering Kylo Ren the right to rule as Emperor if he can kill Rey or better yet, make her fall to the dark. And get this—Snoke was apparently cloned by him to run the First Order while he gets the FINAL Order ready and also is Rey’s grandfather who dispatched Ochi(yes, I had to look up his name) to find her years ago, but only managed to kill her parents(ergo, his son/daughter) when they wouldn’t talk. Oh, also the reason he’s back with this plan is all thanks to this other Cult of the Sith within the planet(the chanting cloaks of whom randomly show up during Rey’s swear-in like it’s a football stadium) that await the moment he is either killed & replaced by Rey/Kylo or, in a third option, uses the unique bond he didn’t know about to completely stabilize his form so either way, an Emperor or Empress will rule the galaxy.
As you might have guess, his return and The Final Order itself is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s a decent way to ramp up the stakes of finality by having him be Rey’s family aka the thing she wanted to define herself with and we get some really cool moments, with special note to him sitting on his throne under his open skylight and firing up what I can only refer to as a lightning tornado that scrambles the Resistance’s fighters as it slowly drags them together. On the other hand, though, there’s the undeniable fact that they were desperate to tie things up in a big way after the overall mixed reception of the Sequels that came before, his grandfather status here is a way to roping back in the big mystery box of Rey’s heritage after it was effectively written off to focus on who she believe she is(btw, Rey Skywalker er), and his being the Big Bad all along completely invalidates almost any impact Snoke had. Also, the Final Order is basically a bunch of Imperial Cruisers with Death Dicks and that’s just bizarre overkill—especially since one randomly makes Kimshi start collapsing in on itself with a quick Star Spritz when they are all supposed to have been hidden under the group of Exegol.
Hux, Pryde, and the First Order
Commander Hux was evidently demoted after The Last Jedi in favor a man called Pryde, who was actually an Imperial Officer that served the Emperor during his reign. This guy clearly had his head on straight while now being completely loyal to the First Order, whereas Hux was kind of an inefficiently angry fanatic even in his introduction. Which leads to a twist I sorta saw the opening for before it happened, but didn’t consider beforehand: Hux IS the spy who send the information on the Final Order through the goatguy at the beginning. This leads to Poe & Finn disbelievingly getting him to confess that he only wants Kylo to lose with a blast to the leg and his own immediate execution at the rifle of Pryde, who personally carries out the Emperor’s plan by improvising with the fleet’s signal until his end.
I noticed the First Order was going through a slight rebrand and/or expansion her. In addition to kicking in fucking doors to search families, they were sporting these red armored Stormtroopers, ones with jetpacks(which they apparently didn’t use before this), and Death Star-esque engineers with red capped helmets. Plus, there was this black lady admiral commanding a ship in the final battle that may have also been a part of the Imperial Officer meeting—kinda wish there was a little more of her since she had a somewhat commanding voice and to fill in for the apparently Killed Off For Real Captain Phasma. With all that said, how the heck did they get all to Exegol?
Comments
Im sure Kelly is a nice person. I never attacked her personally, but Rian did her dirty the most.
I noticed most; including me, have not answered the question: "Was The New Trilogy Worth It?" Yes, I enjoyed it. It put Daisy Ridley on the map and sent more traffic towards Adam Driver. Both are great actors and they were the best characters in this trilogy.
hard disagree. i think rian did a great job with the last jedi, even if the canto bight stuff is headache inducing. rose's character was far more interesting under rian's wing than she was with all 6 lines jj gave her to say because he and disney caved in to the genuine fucking racists who harassed her for weeks after the movie came out.
I'm sorry but Rose was easily the worst part of the entire TLJ movie. She served no purpose and I can't think of any scene where she had redeeming qualities. "Save what we love" made me wish she died right there. There is no SW character that pissed me off more than her.
I feel bad for the actress.
Definitely agree.
off to a great start here, very classic telltale forums thing to do by starting off with an insult before initiating a star wars discussion.
if you think kelly marie tran was not attacked by racist star wars fans who targeted her race BECAUSE of how they felt about her role, then idk man, you just need to do more research before you start insulting people's intelligence on things you're not even right about. yeah not all the hate was race fueled, but there was a fucking load of it.
i never said you did, i said i disagreed with your assessment of rose's character arc and provided my defense of it, albeit a brief one.
okay?? i mean rose tico is literally a supporting role in the last jedi, so this has nothing to do with anything.
i never said anything along these lines.
i do not at all see your point, perhaps you could explain it but with less avgn esque fuck words and more, idk, explanation? it kinda sounds like you're attributing YOUR gripes with the entire fanbase's gripes, and i can tell you for certain that the fans who hate rose and aren't racist don't have a problem with her smacking finn more than anything else, there is far more people criticize her for.
so you spent an entire comment talking about how bad you hate the character in a rude and non-constructive way that didn't explain your thoughts at all, and then capped it off with "i feel bad for the actress", which i find incredibly hard to believe because most of the time when you hate a movie you shit on the people involved in making it, i wouldn't be surprised if you were one of the many people who bullied her off social media with the way you talk about certain people on these forums just for making a movie you don't like.
Rose sacrificed the entire rebellion her sister died for to save one guy. Plus she wants to save animals instead of the rebellion and she added nothing to the story. Not to mention her performance was weak. That's why fans don't like her. So if a film maker sees how much a character is hated, why would he give her more screen time in the sequel? That doesn't make sense. That's why I called you dumb. Nothing against Kelly, but Rose is a terrible character. If you disagree, that's fine, but don't add to this fire if defending Kelly is all you plan to do
Rian didn’t abuse her to the extent where she had to leave social media just for her own mental health. “Rian did her dirty the most” isn’t even opinion, it’s just far from the facts
Everything you said is not true.
There is a difference between hating a character and hating an actor. I personally have nothing against Kelly Tran, I think she just did her job, a decent one per se. But the character she portrayed was full of garbage script and made a lot of stupid decisions like sexually-assaulting Finn, doing the opposite of what her sister has done to save the resistance and caring more about freeing mistreated animals than saving the only hope against the First Order.
I only do that when the people involved in movie refuse to admit their own mistakes. Rian Johnson refuses to take the criticism of his movie seriously, saying that none of it is justified and makes terrible excuses for the decisions he made, like thinking Luke's mourn on his brother-in-law, Han Solo, would have slowed down the pacing, when he already did that with the Casino planet which didn't do jack shit for the story.
This is bullshit. Why would I attack an actor who had nothing to do with the movie script? Only mindless idiots would do that. Everyone who bullied Kelly through the social media can kiss my ass, they did the same with Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen and never learned the difference between a writer and an actor. If I had a chance to punish those assholes, I would have done that instantly.
I agree with your line of thinking. I personally did not like the character, Rose, but I have absolutely nothing against the actor, Kelly. People should learn to seperate the character and actor.
Attention Star Wars fans
It’s like the prequels all over again. Except people actually like the sequels
I agree.
I find it odd that she didn't really have any good lines or anything helpful in TLJ, and she was harassed for it.
Not okay to do to anyone, regardless if they are famous or if they are just your average joe.
Not gonna lie, her entire introduction was out of the blue.
Adam, Daisy, and Kelly all deserve fat ass checks!
I thought you said "all deserve fat ass cheeks!" Lmao
Thats a discussion thread for another day!
Welp guys, looks like someone doesn't check facts before stating something.
So, we're question people's intelligence based on opinions.
When the actual fuck did clemy ever say all the hate she got was because of her race instead of her role? Oh yeah, he never did say that! Bud, stop taking things out of context, what you said is sooo wrong that there isn't even context to it!
Nobody has or had ever said that you did or you didn't like 'The Last Jedi'.
You do realize that people have their own opinions, and that right there is yours.
Attacking other people's opinions is going to get you anywhere, trust me.
There's other reasons why people don't like her character arc, bucko. And, I've never seen anybody get mad over her slapping finn. Just because you don't like something, doesn't mean the entire fandom doesn't like it.
You treat it like it's a fact, it's just an opinion.
Bro what are you even talking about?
Look, you seem like a nice kid with a good heart. If you love Rose, that's fine. If you have problems with her character, that's cool too. Have a nice day.
I like you, Melton, you're one of my favorites on this forum. So don't take offense to any of this.
1. Yes, Rian didn't abuse her. But Rian did make a horrible character that Kelly unfortunately had to portray. I think its awful when someone is harassed over their work. Kelly didn't deserve that. There are a lot of factors that play into this - Rian's writing and a portion of the fans themselves. The cause of all this drama isn't becuase of one person or group. Many were involved.
I actually want to slap finn for even becoming part of the empire in the first place.
He never said she was attacked only by her race, though.
Alot of people don't like pineapple pizza, does that make it bad based on facts? No, it doesn't.
Look, you seem like a nice kid with a good heart. If you love Rose, that's fine. If you have problems with her character, that's cool too. Have a nice day.
I think rose was a good character, but I admit that she has her problems.
You said "Welp guys, looks like someone doesn't check facts before stating something." Whatever happened to "You do realize that people have their own opinions, and that right there is yours" and "you treat it like it's a fact, it's just an opinion"? 'Rian did her dirty the most' is an opinion. What is there to check facts about? I believe that is why Wheres_Dinner was confused.
1.Clemy said Kelly was attacked on social media by racists. Since he didn't provide proof, I called him out on that statement.
2. I believe you are mixing Kelly and Rose as one person. I'm sure Kelly is a nice person. But a main character that has an entire subplot that doesn't go anhwhere and the character themselves doesn't amount to anything in the story... That's a poorly written character. Ex. If half of New Hope just had Luke complaing about not getting his power covertors and never leaving his home on Tatooine; he would've been a poorly written character with no arc, no development. Just one sided.
"You're dumb if you think actors get hate because of their race instead of their role."
Racism still exists, my dude. It happens. (Not saying that people hated Rose's character because of her race. Just pointing out how absurd that statement is.)
I mean by star wars fans. I didn't mean literally everybody
When did he ever say that?
Bro... Its his Clemmy's first comment on this page. You legit scroll up 2 sec and you'll see it
I absolutely hated ep9. I'm not going to go so much into it because some people seems to like it but the thing that I low most about is the Rey, Palpetine confrontation. Seriously It's this childish? Palpetine was going to let Rey slay him so she could become an empress because "strike with anger" and being in the same bloodline as someone evil equals you go dark? What!? That's the plan!? and then she actually STANDS DOWN?! Is this an comedy!? The dude destroys planets for control not to mention turture,enslaves people. KILL HIM YOU ASSHOLE
And then after he YEETS her boyfriend she kills him anyway!
That's some Disney PG-3 stuff right there.
If you hate the film I respect your decision, but I want to explain your criticism.
1. Palpatine was willing to let Luke strike him down in anger because that would turn Luke to the Dark Side. The Sith have never cared about the individual. Every Sith is destined to be killed by their apprentince or someone stronger. This is how the Sith order remains strong. Palpatine was even willing to let Starkiller slay him if it meant he would be the more powerful Sith. Palpatine even knew Darth Vader would eventually grow more powerful than him all the way back in Ep.3. Another example would be Count Dooku. The instant Anakin became more powerful than Dooku; Palpatine dropped him like a sack of bricks in favor of a more powerful apprentice.
2. Rey kills Palpatine after the help from the entire Jedi order. You saw how weak she was - there was no way one person could destroy ALL the Sith. Luke couldn't have done that alone. No Jedi could - no matter how powerful. Rey is given the strength of every Jedi that's ever lived to destroy Palpatine. It was the entire Jedi Order against the entire Sith Order. That's actually pretty fucking badass.
So I finally watched it and it was ok. It wasnt really bad or great but just comes off as kinda messy which I think most people would agree on as its very obvious there was no real plan for this trilogy and where it would go.
Overall I enjoyed it but its forgettable. That last act was really messy imo and didnt really tie things up that well.
Hmm. That’s funny cos I thought the first act was messy, and things began to better progress from there.
What I find weird is that nobody’s talking about how the last battle seems like it was ripped right out of end game (main theme for the franchise begins to play, every living character makes an appearance/cameo during said battle, main character sacrifices themselves - albeit briefly in TROS, main goodie has their stats boosted by a crazy amount due to a mystical something, main baddie gets absolutely vaporised and also manages to return from the dead, I can go on and on about the similarities)
lmao I thought so too. They even tried their own I am Ironman moment too
It would've been really cool if all the Sith ghosts appeared behind Palpatine. Dooku, Malak, Bane, etc. Then all the Jedi appear behind Rey. Obi-wan, Anakin, Mace Windu, Yoda, Luke, etc. I know they had their voices but seeing their ghosts standoff with Rey against the Sith ghosts would've been sweet.
Yeah I thought that’s what was going to happen when you heard their voices. Probably the biggest missed opportunity in the whole movie tbf
I finally went to see this yesterday after several intentions of going with my brother as tradition fell through and I had nothing to do today aside from an errand or two. I suppose I can say it’s a decent to good-ish movie that fluctuates a bit in getting going and having effective things happen. What I mean by that is that the first five to ten minutes kinda breezes in a way to establish things and yet I felt somewhat bored/disengaged before slowly starting to be picked up with some admittedly kinda neat/funny if downplayed moment. These, combined with some things being kinda predictable/protracted and the movie shockingly being under 2 ½ hours long, made it slide from a little dull to kinda cool to actually sorta dramatic and slightly panning out again as the climax & ending play out.
Nobodies
As the Brainscratch impressions on the drive back consistently noted, though, there was general sense of the movie floundering a bit due to the combined impact of swiftly course-correcting The Last Jedi a fair bit, going through important developmental beats in a haste, a degree of back n’ forth with certain key scenes, having the burden of having to satisfactorily wrap up The Sequel Trilogy, and an amassed squandering of potential overall. To review each of my thoughts a little in perspective, I’m gonna have to go into some amount of spoilers.
Rey, Kylo, and the
Was gonna break these up into two or so sections, but it’s easier to lump them all together since they are supposed to be the big stars of the Sequel Trilogy and I don’t have much to say on them personally.
Rey, after being dedicating most of her time training under Leia, rejoins her Trio to find a Sith Pathfinder so they can stop the incoming threat of The Final Order. With her powerset being less unfocused, she’s picked up a healing ability that draws from her own lifeforce, earns the right to wield the lightsabers of the Skywalkers before eventually crafting her own, and another ability in one scene that’s pretty whammy. She turned out to be the daughter of somebodies or rather the granddaughter of somebody very important indeed. Her parents, one of who is his son/daughter, sold her to Unkar Plutt on Jakku because they knew the Emperor wouldn’t find her there. Due to the implications of this reveals as well as her lingering bond with Kylo Ren, she spends much of the movie making increasingly reckless decisions in order to stop them both and avoid fulfilling a vision of herself falling to the Dark Side. As I’ll get into later, I feel like there should’ve been some further degree of pushback regarding her emotional mistakes and by extension, really emphasize her motivational fears of what is coming. Also why was the scene of Empress Palpatine so friggin short? She was actually friggin cool and such a cocktease!
Kylo Ren, now Supreme Leader, has decided to take/maintain a more personal methodology of leading the First Order. He begins the movie tracking down and slicing through Sith worships in order to obtain a Pathfinder necessary to reach the Sith World of Exegol, has his mask repaired by a monkey like mechanic to symbolize retaken authority, and spends the rest abusing the bond established by Snoke to subvert the Resistance while pushing Rey into taking his hand so they can rule the galaxy. After a serious close call that sees Rey heal the wound she inflicts on him after a critical moment in their fight, Ben gets his reformation by acknowledging he failed to rid himself of his guilt through somewhat confusing appearance of Han and spends his last moments by saving Rey before becoming one with the Force. Oh and The Knights of Ren show up in this movie and in the present too—and they don’t amount to much beyond accompanying Kylo and giving Ben a fight for the climax. Lewis’s reading of their bio in his supplement book even emphasizes how they are a myth that turned out to be real in the form of a mildly Force Sensitive reward for his personal training and it doesn’t matter who they were despite apparently having individual profiles. It’s weird too because they could’ve easily acted as silent antagonists for the rest of the group and/or an extension of Ren himself before that point and thus have a more dramatic confrontation with their former darkblade.
Finn and Jannah
Finn works alongside Poe as best bickering partners aboard the Millennium Falcon and is implied to indeed be Force-sensitive, which he attempts to tell Rey and uses to locate the paths towards the Resistance’s victory. He also surprisingly has his heritage as a brainwashed Stormtrooper come into play when the heroes met an entire group of them in the form of herding scavengers led by Jannah(fuck remembering her #). The two bond over their respective backstories involving a feeling that convinced them they were on the wrong side and even charge into battle on beast-back to directly take out the Final Order’s flagship. Despite this and having a fairly solid role in this finale, I can’t help but feel his arc was ultimately undercooked due to fairly scarce screentime. Not helping this in a way is how his affection from Rose is barely referenced(we’ll get to that) and the backstories of Janna & her group are rather vaguely discussed. I honestly couldn’t help but wonder more than once if she was some plant by the First Order. For a number of optional points, FN here was effectively contender for THE Guy of the Sequel Trilogy (if you just don’t wanna count Kylo Ren for whatever reason) and it’s a shame that his pretty unique story was not what it cracked up to be.
Poe, Zorri, Babu, and Pushback
Poe is promoted to General and uses his skipping skills to lead the Resistance to victory with Finn by his side. He is also revealed to be even more Solo-like in that he used to run Spice with his old friends Zorri and Babu, who help the heroes complete the message from Ochi’s Sith Dagger by wiping C-3P0’s memories on Kijimi. The never bareheaded Zorri notably has a bit of a slap-slap-kiss dynamic with him, initially being ready to blow his head off for abandoning them before gracefully getting bested by Rey, decides to give him an Imperial Officer badge to get access to any planet (which I don’t think ever comes up), and even shows up to help backup the Resistance ala Kat from Star Fox. These two were kinda nice side characters I guess, but sorta like Janna, they feel so underdeveloped and moreso feel kinda tacked in for Poe’s backstory. Which itself was kind of shoved in seemingly for the sake of making the Han parallel more obvious.
Following up on an issue I mentioned earlier, there were two or three times when I couldn’t help but think the movie could’ve benefitted from having someone call Rey on her thoughtless actions—somewhat with the meta in mind, but also primarily in terms of character development and story flow. The early parts of the movie, a somewhat unrelated observation from BSC, and especially thinking back made me convinced that this very much should have happened through Poe. The beginning of the movie actually does this by pointing out how Rey hasn’t been around to help them much at all and even questions why she dropped a tree on BB-8, while she takes issue with him setting the Millennium Falcon on fire and poor Finn slowly tries to break them up. Additionally, Rey, Finn, and Poe are the Main Trio of the Sequels like Luke, Leia, & Han were in the Original and Obi-Wan, Anakin, & maybe Padme were for the Prequels, but they kinda falter in the sense that while Finn has a clear bond with both, Rey and Poe barely interact to the point that they apparently first meet near the end of The Last Jedi. And finally, Poe’s character arc in the previous movie had him learn that defying direct orders and/or taking such heedless risks can lead to big problems that can get the people around him killed. Thus, he and his reigned in, hotshot demeanor would be perfect for arguing with her in a way Finn generally can’t.
Chewbacca, the Droids, and Lando
Everyone’s favorite Wookie and the Droid Duo play a bigger part in this final mission by accompanying the three heroes. BB-8 revives Ochi’s abused droid D-0, who’s pretty much a coach-mic on wheels and ends up providing the Resistance with the information necessary to reach Exegol; meanwhile, Chewbacca & C-3P0 of all characters provide assistance during the trips to gain the Pathfinder, offer some of the funny moments, and even get directly involved in the tension. Er, somewhat: Chewbacca is captured by the Stormtroopers under the Knights of Ren alongside the Sith Dagger when the transport is hit with Force Lightning from Rey’s attempt to pull them down against Kylo Ren and C-3P0 must translate an outlawed language through a process involving a total memory wipe. However, both of these things are mostly undone, with R2-D2 actually having a backup of his memories from a previous movie uploaded in a smashcut and Chewbecca being revealed as a live prisoner of Pryde to the audience barely three minutes after he seemingly blew up as a trick by Kylo Ren. I was honestly baffled why they even bothered with the latter because the heroes don’t learn that for quite a while and it was perfect opportunity to dwell on the ramifications of Rey losing control.
Lando also turns up to help provide the Resistance with some local help on where to find the Sith Dagger. He had actually avoided the civil war by hanging out on backwater planets, with the not Tatoine one they find him on actually having a sorta nice festival of only mildly terrifying tapir-squid people that involved Rey briefly befriending a little girl and the quicksandy pit of a fucking serpent she heals that is likely responsible for giving Ochi what was coming to him. Rey encourages him to return to Leia’s side and while he doesn’t for a good reason, he does lead an entire fleet of just people and Zorri to backup the Resistance in the final battle. Oh and Janna is implied to be his daughter near the end—guess that makes this The Story of Janna Freeman.
Leia, Maz, the Resistance, Snapp, and Rose
Whoo boy, here we go--you wanna talk about underutilized and fuckin course-[over]corrected, look no further than these old biddies and a funny fat guy.
The Resistance set up camp in some jungle planet where they stand by while Finn, Poe, BB-8, & Chewbacca run missions involving a spy within the First Order and General Leia trains Rey in the ways of the Force as Luke trained her. Specifically, this training involves opening up to hear from the Jedi of the Past(does this mean Ahsoka died?) and earning the right to wield Liea’s lightsaber, although that appears to be a self-imposed milestone. After assuring Rey not to doubt herself or BB-8, she sends the heroes off with C-3P0 in tow to find the Pathfinder and enable the Resistance to defeat The Final Order on Exegol. She ultimately uses the last of her physical life to reach Kylo Ren during his last fight with Rey and it is this act that allows Rey to snap out of her rage and causes Ben to finally admit he couldn’t make the full leap into the Dark Side.
The rest of the Resistance stands by in the jungle alongside Leia while waiting for the heroes to find the safe way to Exegol, discuss the plan once they return with most of the intelligence they need, and head into the final battle. Among their ranks are Maz Kanata, this slug repairman(who went on the mission to meet the spy), Poe’s friend Snapp(who got probably the first real laugh out of me, Nien Numb, what is probably Admiral Ackbar’s son, and a lesbian couple, the oldest of whom I believe personally informs Finn & Poe of Leia’s passing. Maz, who I just remembered lost her castle bar but apparently got contacts as compensation, is the one to pass on Leia’s General badge to Poe per her prior orders and witnesses her body become one with the Force.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot Rose Tico is still in this movie! The movie almost did too because she’s barely in this: I think she has one scene of dialogue on the jungle planet with Rey, shoots at something for a few seconds in the final battle, and her affection towards Finn isn’t referenced beyond almost trying to talk Finn out of risking his life to destroy the flagship with Janna—was she even on the poster, now that I think about it? And while we’re at it, wtf happened to those kids she indirectly inspired on Canto Blight? Now to be fair, Lewis mentioned that this is actually because she was supposed to be present in some of the Leia scenes that were cut because they were incredibly difficult to do using only unused footage from the previous movies. While this would’ve been a clever use for her character in the form of a bridge between the two groups as she sorta was regarding how corrupt the galaxy is in in the Last Jedi, it still really goes to show how much it was backtracked that that the one [surviving] major character introduced there seriously Demoted to Extra for the finale--talk about cynical.
Palpatine, Snoke, and the Final Order
Yep, Palpatine is back from the dead to Hijack this trilogy for the finale—sorta. From what I can tell, he is actually a decayed clone-zombie hanging like a coat from a life support crane on the storm covered Sith planet of Exegol and he’s established within the first five minutes offering Kylo Ren the right to rule as Emperor if he can kill Rey or better yet, make her fall to the dark. And get this—Snoke was apparently cloned by him to run the First Order while he gets the FINAL Order ready and also is Rey’s grandfather who dispatched Ochi(yes, I had to look up his name) to find her years ago, but only managed to kill her parents(ergo, his son/daughter) when they wouldn’t talk. Oh, also the reason he’s back with this plan is all thanks to this other Cult of the Sith within the planet(the chanting cloaks of whom randomly show up during Rey’s swear-in like it’s a football stadium) that await the moment he is either killed & replaced by Rey/Kylo or, in a third option, uses the unique bond he didn’t know about to completely stabilize his form so either way, an Emperor or Empress will rule the galaxy.
As you might have guess, his return and The Final Order itself is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s a decent way to ramp up the stakes of finality by having him be Rey’s family aka the thing she wanted to define herself with and we get some really cool moments, with special note to him sitting on his throne under his open skylight and firing up what I can only refer to as a lightning tornado that scrambles the Resistance’s fighters as it slowly drags them together. On the other hand, though, there’s the undeniable fact that they were desperate to tie things up in a big way after the overall mixed reception of the Sequels that came before, his grandfather status here is a way to roping back in the big mystery box of Rey’s heritage after it was effectively written off to focus on who she believe she is(btw, Rey Skywalker er), and his being the Big Bad all along completely invalidates almost any impact Snoke had. Also, the Final Order is basically a bunch of Imperial Cruisers with Death Dicks and that’s just bizarre overkill—especially since one randomly makes Kimshi start collapsing in on itself with a quick Star Spritz when they are all supposed to have been hidden under the group of Exegol.
Hux, Pryde, and the First Order
Commander Hux was evidently demoted after The Last Jedi in favor a man called Pryde, who was actually an Imperial Officer that served the Emperor during his reign. This guy clearly had his head on straight while now being completely loyal to the First Order, whereas Hux was kind of an inefficiently angry fanatic even in his introduction. Which leads to a twist I sorta saw the opening for before it happened, but didn’t consider beforehand: Hux IS the spy who send the information on the Final Order through the goatguy at the beginning. This leads to Poe & Finn disbelievingly getting him to confess that he only wants Kylo to lose with a blast to the leg and his own immediate execution at the rifle of Pryde, who personally carries out the Emperor’s plan by improvising with the fleet’s signal until his end.
I noticed the First Order was going through a slight rebrand and/or expansion her. In addition to kicking in fucking doors to search families, they were sporting these red armored Stormtroopers, ones with jetpacks(which they apparently didn’t use before this), and Death Star-esque engineers with red capped helmets. Plus, there was this black lady admiral commanding a ship in the final battle that may have also been a part of the Imperial Officer meeting—kinda wish there was a little more of her since she had a somewhat commanding voice and to fill in for the apparently Killed Off For Real Captain Phasma. With all that said, how the heck did they get all to Exegol?