Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the Death of Romance
***** Contains spoilers, do not read if you have yet to watch the film *****
Having had a few days to think about TROS I can now coherently put into words everything that I did not appreciate about the film. This may read as if I’m slamming the film, which is not my intention as I really enjoyed it, but there are some things which did not make sense for me, that did not add up, and my feelings for this film compared to the first two were lacking in places. In all, I did not get the sense of fulfillment and purpose you’re supposed to get at the end of a Star War’s saga, I feel quite empty and hollow and I have many questions which I feel should have been answered.
I want to start with our closing scene where Rey, Poe and Finn are clinging to one another, happy that they’ve all made it through the last battle. This scene was wonderful and amazing because we have three best friends truly happy that they’re alive and together. But I did not feel the ‘joy’ I think I was meant to feel because I kept asking myself, what have these characters got to show for it at the end of the film?
I’ll start with Finn. Oh glorious Finn! So many things were not answered about Finn. He’s broken free of the Republic and has gained freedom from his former stormtrooper life, but is this all we can say? Finn is clearly force-sensitive, displaying many moments of force awareness throughout the film. He has previously held and fought with a light saber, and in addition to this, he was able to pinpoint where the signal was coming from in the penultimate battle (TROS) and he knew the exact moment when Rey died on Exogul because he felt it (he didn’t have to say, we saw it on his heartbroken face!) So the big question is, was this what Finn wanted to tell Rey when they were sinking into the quicksands and moments from death? Did he want to tell her that he understood, because he was strong with the force too? Or was it simply (others speculate) that he wanted to tell her he loved her? Finn had a potential romance with Rose, but his feelings for her are platonic and so his romance arc is abandoned in this film. Does he have feelings for Poe instead? The pair are close and there is chemistry between them. If Finn does have feelings for Poe, then perhaps he was going to tell Rey he was force-sensitive.
The fact is we don’t know because the opportunity is lost, but it must have been heavy-going because Finn couldn’t say what he wanted to say in front of Poe (later on).This makes me think that Finn wanted to tell Rey that he loved her. While we know Rey doesn’t share these feelings for Finn, the unasked question still floats to the forefront of Finn’s storyline. He has found love among friends in the saga, but not romantic love, and we kind of get the feeling that this is what he is looking for, otherwise there wouldn’t have been this unasked question in the first place. The closing scene of Finn with his two best friends was just shrouded in unfinished story for me, and I felt that Finn (assuming this saga is well and truly at a close) should have had his moment to say those words to Rey. If it wasn’t a big deal and relevant to his story arc, then why even give it screen time? Coming through a war after untold hardships at the hands of the Republic, our guy Finn really did deserve more.
Moving onto Poe, our lovable rogue. Seeing him at the end of the film is such a relief, but when I asked myself the question, what was Poe’s story arc for, I couldn’t actually give anyone an answer! He’s always been a drifter, and has fallen into the resistance as easily as falling into bed. But what does he want? What is he going to do now? Is he going to go back to being a spice trader? I can hardly imagine this after seeing him standing alongside General Leia Organa for the whole trilogy.
In terms of backstory and romance, we find out a little more about Poe’s former life as a spice trader, and the film hints at a relationship between himself and a former companion, Zorii Bliss during their time on Kijimi. But despite Zorii giving Poe her master key to gain him guaranteed entry out of Kijimi, the close of the film demonstrates that all ships have sailed between them and there is no future, at least romantically, for the pair. So Poe won’t be settling down with her anytime soon and living a quieter life. So what then?
I kind of feel that after everything, there should be an assurance for our closest and much-loved characters at the close of any saga, otherwise we cannot say what their struggles were for, what they were fighting for. Yes, they are all alive and living freely, but is this enough? In a franchise like star wars which reads very much as a fairytale, ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,’ then yes, these stories are meant to end ‘they all live happily ever after,’ and with that usually comes a guaranteed romantic future for our lead characters. Romance certainly isn’t everything within a film, and Star Wars films notoriously feature a tragic romance of some sort, but there are also moments where romance triumphs - Han Solo and Leia Organa.
It is here that I’d like to mention Rose (poor girl) who went from being a main character in The Last Jedi to a glorified extra in The Rise of Skywalker. I think Rose had about five lines of dialogue which is absolutely staggering after the heart-breaking loss of her sister, and her unrequited love for Finn. It’s another instance where romance is dropped like a hot cake, and I cannot help but feel like the writers have serious chips on their shoulders where romance is concerned. It’s also another example of how a (formerly) leading character had her story arc dropped for unknown reasons - is Rose happy? Has she found a new family? Are her and Finn still close? (she was not present in the group hug at the films close) so where is she now? What will she do? It’s frustrating that someone so instrumental in the destruction of Canto Bight and such a powerhouse in the second film is not given any thought in the saga’s sequel.
Thanks to Rose we even have a message which underscores so many actions of characters throughout the saga. She tells Finn they will win the war not by ‘fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love,’ which heralds the absolutely heart-rending final moments between our Alderan Prince, Kylo Ren, now Ben Solo and our heroine, Rey.
What can I even say about this pair which hasn’t been said already? Absolutely needless. When I hark back to the film’s close of Rey, Finn and Poe holding one another, what was the point of Rey’s storyline, of her sacrifices? Rey is paper-thin at the film’s close. How much more can one person give? Rey lost her family, then she lost Luke, then she lost Leia, and then she loses the only boy she loved and perhaps ever will love? While she is now a trained Jedi and has the answers to the mystery of her family abandoning her on Jacoo, is this enough? Rey seemingly ends the saga in the same way she began, a lone hermit, living in isolation, in the ruins of the former world, utterly alone on a godforsaken desert planet. Is this a fair trade after everything she has been through? Even with the answers about her heritage and her parents true identities (sorry but what a shoddily shoved-in backstory) I don’t think this is enough. I felt as empty and broken as she did at the films closure.
How do I feel about Rey being a Palpatine? Nothing whatsoever. I’m waiting for a heroine who literally comes from nothing, who is literally no one, whose worthless parents really were ‘filthy junk traders who sold her for drinking money.’ I much preferred this to be the case, rather than actually - you’re a Palpatine! Why can’t a heroine be born to nothing and rise to greatness, why does power have to come hand-in-hand with an age-old name which is whispered with fear? And Palpatine? We get a crusty bin bag flailing around on a crane hook, a complete shade of this former Sith self. After the big reveal, I spent the rest of the film reeling about the thought that someone actually had sexual relations with him (very reminiscent of Voldemort and Bellatrix in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). Perhaps we should have seen it coming, Disney have a penchant for bad romances (Descendants). But villains having babies in Star Wars, when it’s clear from the former films that Palpatine has no romantic inclinations whatsoever, I didn’t appreciate the reveal for what it was.
And finally I’d like to say a few things about someone who is absent from the friend huddle at the close of the film - probably the most dynamic and interesting star wars character the sagas have graced us with - Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. What a tragic story.
The film reveals that Ben and Rey are dyad, which is as strong a connection you can have with anyone in the universe. They are two sides of the same coin, their life lines interwoven like a tapestry, almost the one and the same person, ying and yang, soulmates - all of the other terms we can think of. More to the point, the pair are equals, in terms of life experiences, strength, personality and capabilities.
Rey and Ben seemingly begin as opposites, light and dark, good and evil. As the films progress, it becomes clear that this is not the case. Ben has the capacity for love, tenderness, peace and rationality, just as much as Rey has the capacity for hatred, violence, war and irrationality. When we watch the pair react across multiple scenes, many of Rey’s reactions are not kin with being a Jedi. When she finds out about Palpatine killing her parents, her immediate instinct is to find him and kill him. Is this a Jedi reaction? No. It is human. The same emotions which led Annakin Skywalker to butcher a whole tribe of sand people for the kidnapping and killing of his mother Shmi.
At other points in the film, Rey demonstrates recklessness, taking a skimmer out into uncertain waters against the advice of others, putting her life at risk. She is impatient, impulsive and driven by revenge in the same way Kylo Ren is demonised for. And let us not forget the fight scene in the ruins of the former Deathstar, when her and Kylo Ren grapple with one another and try to best eachother’s force ability with their sabers. When I rewatch this scene, it is very clear that Kylo is not striking to kill. His movements are actually very defensive, he’s letting Rey take her fury out on him and he isn’t on the offensive at all. There are several moments he could have easily killed Rey, and it isn’t until the final moment when Rey is on the ground that he moves to make a kill, and Leia’s intervention stops him. What is absolutely staggering is when Kylo is disarmed by his mother’s intervention, Rey doesn’t stop. She takes up Kylo’s saber and stabs him with it, literally striking him down in hatred, which is not what Jedi are meant to do. Think of all the instances where Vader and Palaptine (previous films) goad Jedi into ‘striking them down,’ so they can ‘feel their hate.’ Rey’s actions allude to her failing of being a true Jedi and actually taking life. Yes, Rey does heal Kylo Ren, or Ben as he has now become. But does this action atone for her attempting to destroy him in the first place? We can argues this both ways, but I think we could only argue that it does atone for her actions, if at the films closure, Ben’s healing of Rey was enough to atone for his.
Ben comes back from absolute damnation. He rejects Kylo Ren, throws his saber into the sea and makes peace with his father Han Solo. He then storms into Palpatine’s palace with nothing but a blaster (very reminiscent of his father) and comes to the aid of Rey. Incredible fight scene aside, when Ben heals Rey in the same way she healed him, this should have atoned for all of Ben’s previous sins, in the same way that Rey’s healing of Kylo did for her. But this does not happen, instead we have to face the heart-crushing truth that Ben dies giving Rey his life force, and while a Jedi, his happy ending with the girl he loves is withheld from him, from Rey and from us.
This is where the film failed for me, and the over-arching message of redemption and forgiveness just fizzled into nothing. The simple fact is that Ben and Rey did not get the same treatment. Slowly, over the course of the film, Rey strays from the ‘light’ and becomes a shade of grey. Ben mirrors this, straying from the ‘dark’ towards the light and becoming his own shade of grey. And yet only one of them walks away from the penultimate war.
I have described the reasons I find this unfair from Rey’s side - her character traits, her previous actions, so I will now approach this from Ben’s side. Ben has had an equally, unhappy childhood, as lonely and estranged as Rey had. He was sent into Jedi training at a young age, leading to feelings of not being loved by his parents Ben and Leia. It is clear from previous films that Han was ‘not around’ for son and off doing what Han does best. Leia was still a general, and it’s safe to say that while she loved her son, he did not, or would not ever had had her attentions. So Ben is sent away to his Uncle to train as a Jedi, already feeling worthless in his parents eyes, and unloved. He expects to be treated as a nephew by his Uncle Luke, who does not warm to him at all. Luke treats Ben Solo with the same distance as a teacher does any student, and so Ben does not find familial love here either. He is then betrayed by Luke, which all comes to the surface in The Last Jedi.
Luke feared Ben Solo’s power, and seeing his potential, decides to kill him (I love how Leia never finds out about this) if she had I’m pretty sure she’d have more to say to her brother. Luke then blames Ben Solo for the destruction of the Jedi temple and turns all of his other students against Ben. Luke never really gets punished for these acts (I never forgave him, not even for his attempts in the film to placate Kylo). During all of this, Snoke becomes a personal influence on Ben Solo, playing on Ben’s loneliness, feelings of worthlessness, and slowly turning Ben towards the dark. And can you blame Ben for saying yes, and wanting a friend? I can’t blame him at all.
Kylo’s attempts to be his Grandfather are born from wanting to identify with someone in his family, to have a feeling of belonging. And like Annakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren is plagued by doubt. When he kills Han Solo, he never really walks away from his father. He is consumed by guilt and self-loathing which twists him even further, and pushes him down the path to the dark-side when in actual fact he doesn’t want to go there - he feels he has no choice. His parents rejected him, and he feels all he can do is more to make them reject him further. And yet when he has the chance, he does not kill his mother, Leia. He finds himself reaching out to Rey, drawn to her loneliness and isolation, and wanting to be there for her. Despite all of his deeds, his ability to have restraint, to be understanding, to be gentle, never fade away. Like Rey, as the films progress, he becomes his own shade of grey.
For this reason, I cannot accept the closure of The Rise of Skywalker. All three films have pointed to the connection between Rey and Ben, of their absolute compatibility, of their being one another’s match in every way possible. They were supposed to bring balance to the force, and if they were truly equal, how can they bring balance to the force if one of them dies?! It make’s no sense. Especially as I’ve pointed out when Rey heals Ben, it somehow washes her clean, and yet when Ben heals Rey, it costs him is life!
Yes, before Ben dies they share a wonderful kiss, and each of them find the ‘belonging’ which has been promised to them at earlier instances in the saga. But is knowing you have found your one true love enough at the end? Thinking of Han and Leia’s sacrifices, of their deaths, along with the tragic history of the skywalker family, I cannot accept that Ben’s death was deserved. His parents wanted him to ‘come home,’ and have a life, they absolutely wanted the best for him. Ben was an extraordinary character, with an incredible story arc, and as someone who has experienced such tragedy, to come through it and redeem themselves, it is very uncharacteristic and anti-star wars for them to not have their happy ending.
So when the film closes on Rey, Finn and Poe, with Ben absent and Rose no where to be seen, I did not have closure, I did not have fulfillment and I did not feel like I had reached the end of a Star Wars chapter. I honestly feel like I’ve ripped the film to shreds and that was not my intention. I’m a huge star wars fan and thoroughly enjoyed the film, but the decisions the writers have made - for me - are very jarring with the true message inherent within the star wars franchise.
I cannot put my finger on the message the writers were trying to get across with this final film. It clearly isn’t ‘love conquers all,’ or ‘the faithful will be rewarded,’ or anything close. There are unanswered questions, abandoned story arcs, and the shot of Rey staring at the sunsets on Tattoine only served to say that being a Jedi is awful, everyone you care about dies, your life will be hard and lonely - but hey - you get a funky gold light saber!
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