question. I don't know German. nor the grammar but answer me one, the translation of the Rise of the Skywalker is translated as der Aufstieg Skywalkers? skywalkerS as in multiple? what happened or is it normal in German?
Take my answer with a huge grain of salt because it’s been so, so long since I‘ve taken a German class but:
Probably the direct translation of “The Rise of Skywalker” would be “Der Aufstieg von Skywalker.” But German doesn’t need “von” (von = of) in this situation. So they got rid of “von.” But they need to indicate whose rise this is, so they made Skywalker possessive. German doesn’t use apostrophes to indicate possession so that’s why it’s “Skywalkers.” It still means “The Rise of Skywalker.” (Whereas “Skywalkers Aufstieg” would have meant “Skywalker’s Rise.”)
If they had meant plural Skywalkers, I think it would have been “Der Aufstieg der Skywalkers.” The addition of a second “der” doesn’t seem like much of a change but it would mean “of the,” which would make “Skywalkers” redundant if it only meant to refer to one Skywalker. Hence, plural Skywalkers.
Things that annoyed me the most about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker:
the fact that it was not Harrison Ford.
Rey’s parents knew Palpatine was hunting them and never thought to tell anyone he was alive.
Leia would never have been a Jedi. she had too much of her father in her and possessed too much emotion to have been a Jedi. Leia would have been a Sith and anyone who says otherwise is a coward.
In both Lucas’s original plans for his sequel trilogy (back when he was writing ESB, I think?) and in the Expanded Universe, Luke trains his sister as a Jedi. I don’t know how far Leia gets in her training in the EU books but enough to have her own lightsaber. So the Disney trilogy isn’t far-fetched in that regard.
You say Reylo is toxic? Well I have news for you! In you’re little dudebros, beloved ‘Legends’ Expanded Universe. The Han/Leia ship, was toxic! In a ‘Legends’ EU book, which tells the story of how Han and Leia got married, before giving birth to Jacen and Jaina. Han kidnaps Leia! He knocks her out, putting her on the Falcon, and flys off with her. Why? Because she was about to leave him, to marry somone else! But none of you dudebros batted an eye. And this is the crap, you want re-established as canon!
Dudebros: ST sucks! They should have left the EU ‘Legends’ canon.
Also dudebros: Reylo is toxic! Han would have never kidnapped or hurt Leia!
After the ending of TROS was leaked, I went looking for PDFs of EU books I liked when I was a kid.
One of them being the aforementioned “The Courtship of Princess Leia.”
I was reading it and I was like “Wait, Han kidnapped Leia...?” I’m not sure why I thought it was acceptable when I was a kid. Yikes.
As an aside, Prince Isolder, the guy that Leia was falling in love with, is basically Fabio. And he’s shirtless and wearing a half cape when he’s introduced to her. It’s a weird book. Cringe-worthy and sometimes unintentionally funny.
So aside from Ben and Rey. What was the story arc of this entire trilogy? If you take a step back there is no conherent story, no good villain, I’m just blown away Disney didn’t have a set plan at all for this whole trilogy. They didn’t even finish up the first order in the most recent movie. No balance in the force was achieved. And the one story they had going they tossed away (Ben and Rey’s romance). I’ve just never been so disappointed in Disney before. Was it all just one big money grab?
Yes, it was just a cash grab. Evidenced by the unholy jumble of over-hyped minor/background characters that served little or no narrative purpose and were just there to sell merch and to potentially spin off into movies and tv shows. With all of those characters to introduce and do something with, it choked the important plots. Not to mention the endless action scenes.
Fans could and have written better stories than the sequel trilogy’s plot.
I would like to believe that the ending was with Ben next to her. But I’m really not convinced. We have proof of rushed editing and a reused scene. Anything beyond that is just speculation at this point.
Jedipaxis’s leaks, which ultimately seem pretty accurate, had Ben dying in every version, from what I recall. We had the infamous “Ben falls down a pit, never to be seen again” leaks which were comical at the time but what if that’s actually what JJ intended initially while filming? I mean, I wouldn’t have expected something that bad but, given the, uh, quality of TROS, maybe it was?
I’m not convinced of that myself, though. Just pointing out that we have no concrete evidence to suggest that we were robbed. Ben’s arc follows Anakin’s arc in the original trilogy, episode-for-episode. There’s nothing to suggest to me that they intended for him to live. Like Anakin, the best he could get is an heartfelt final goodbye with the loved one who redeemed him.
Reading “Dark Empire” for the first time. Before TROS came out, I heard about how the sequel trilogy bears a lot of similarities to this comic series. So I decided to try it out and see how similar it really is. It takes place in the early New Republic era. Luke discovers that the Emperor is alive again and seemingly decides to join him. Leia and Han, who are married by now, go to save Luke. When they get to the Emperor’s place, Palps shows off his lovely bunch of clones and then he lets Leia, whom Luke had been training as a Jedi, know that she’s the one he really wants, not Luke.
And then this happens:
Hi there, Reylos. Long-time lurker in the Reylo tag who wanted to say some stuff. Two things I wanna discuss: 1. The current whereabouts of Ben Solo and 2. Why Rey is alone again and what this means for the future of Star Wars.
Full disclosure: I haven’t seen TROS yet. At this point, I don’t want to see it, because the scenes I care about have already been posted online. :) But that said, IF I GET ANYTHING FACTUALLY WRONG HERE PLEASE DO LET ME KNOW. I want to be accurate and you would be doing me a favor.
So without further delay:
1. The current whereabouts of Ben Solo
A lot of people are complaining that Ben’s ghost isn’t with Luke and Leia’s force ghosts at the end of the movie. During the run-up to TROS, JJ in particular seemed to really distance himself from inferring anything particularly romantic about Reylo. At the time, it seemed like he just didn’t want to spoil their beautiful love story. He said that Rey and Ben were “enemies to intimates,” not lovers. And that they were two sides of the same coin. Two halves of the protagonist. That their relationship was much more complex than we thought. At the time, we thought he meant that they were soulmates.
And in a sense, I guess they are now. But it’s not romantic anymore, at least not in the way we were expecting. Ben gave Rey what remained of his life force. He isn’t alive in the form of Ben Solo any longer, but he’s also not dead. Ben lives on within Rey; he’s part of her soul now. Which is why his force ghost didn’t show up alongside Luke and Leia’s. It’s also why she chose to take the name Skywalker. Because while she may be a Palpatine by birth, Ben also made her a Skywalker through his sacrifice. That is really beautiful.
Even beyond that, can you see how lovely it is, how much they are truly each other’s yin and yang? Ben was born into the ultimate Jedi family but chose/was manipulated to choose the dark side. Rey was born into the ultimate Sith family but chose the light side. And now the two of them are one whole protagonist in Rey.
2. Why Rey is alone again and what this means for the future of Star Wars.
This is a more cynical analysis of what Disney intended to do with the sequel trilogy and is not meta.
So another common issue with the ending of TROS is that Rey is alone again, that she lost her soulmate. But as I covered in #1, she’s not alone, not really. If you don’t accept that explanation, then yes, this is a totally unsatisfactory ending for Rey’s character. All she wanted was a family and now she’s a member of TWO completely dead families that she never really knew. And in the case of Grampy Sheev, she really wouldn’t have wanted to know that family.
The thing is, this is only the beginning for Rey.
The reason Disney needed her alone is because the whole sequel trilogy was a soft reboot in addition to being a send-off of the Skywalkers. I saw this discussed after TFA was released and then the controversy of TLJ seemed to push the soft reboot topic off the table and it was subsequently forgotten. Or people only mentioned TFA as a soft reboot and the other movies weren’t a continuation of that. But they totally are. The whole trilogy is a soft reboot.
Recently, DLF announced a new Star Wars movie would come out in 2022. And that’s when I realized what had happened. The sequel trilogy was there to both clear the slate of George Lucas’s creations and to introduce new protagonists who would go off on new, Skywalker-less adventures. And what could be a safer, risk-adverse way for Disney than to introduce them into a movie with the old, beloved characters? That’s what a soft reboot IS!
Whether a Rey/Finn/Poe movie is the one coming out in 2022, I really don’t know. But my guess is that it’s going to be right on the heels of the 2022 one if it’s not that movie.
Rey being alone and FinnRose being averted were necessary measures taken to ensure that these characters are free and clear for whatever DLF intends. Nothing regarding the new characters is really tied down and settled at the end of TROS, is it?
That said, Reylo may have gotten a kiss but who knows what ships might sail in future movies? Maybe Reylo will ride again, maybe not. Given how much Adam Driver’s career seems to be ascending, I don’t think he’s coming back to Star Wars any time soon. If he were open to it, I’m certain his “death” could be retconned pretty easily. It’s a fantasy, damn it. Who knew Palpatine could survive the conclusion of ROTJ?
Anyway, if you read to the end of this, thank you. I had a mighty need to write what I did and throw it out into the void. I am tormented by Star Wars and I want to be free. D:
And, thank you, Reylos, for being so excellent and producing so much wonderful content for us to all enjoy. :)
