If you know me at all then you know that I love all 8 of the main films and the 2 spin-offs. Yes, even with their various faults I still love them all. What you may not know is that my favorite of the films is The Last Jedi. This typically throws a lot of people off about me but honestly I just love it. I understand that there are certain aspects of the Poe, Finn and Rose stuff that could’ve been a bit tighter but overall it’s still a fantastic movie and it still absolutely nails everything about the Rey, Kylo Ren and Luke storyline to me. I said all of that to say this : When I say that I’m a little nervous about Episode IX it doesn’t mean that I’m not still excited for the film, I just have a few concerns that I’d like to share with you.
My two major concerns are things that might actually be connected : Rey’s Parentage and Palpatine.
Now, let’s start off with Rey’s Parentage, The now infamous Mirror scene and the “You’re nothing” line from The Last Jedi were 2 of my favorite moments from the last movie cause I love the concept of Rey being a completely self made hero/woman/jedi(Take your pick, either way she’s amazing.) I think it sends a perfect message that no matter who you are or where you come from, you can rise above and be whatever you want to be. Is it cheesy? Sure but it’s also an incredibly important message. But it instead seems like a large part of the fan base love the idea of her being connected to someone else such as Luke, Obi-Wan or Palpatine himself. I’m not crazy about all of those choices but I still believe it will be ok if they go that route because Rey will still be a strong character as long they keep developing her the same way they did in the first 2 films.
I know that Rian Johnson is 100% behind Rise Of Skywalker and is ok if JJ Abrams retcons any of his decisions in The Last Jedi. He’s said that he just wants to go to the movie and be surprised and entertained. I’m behind his decision on that and I think that’s the best wayto handle the situation.
Now, I also mentioned that I’m nervous about Palpatine coming back. I know that Palpatine is a big part of the lore and I know that his return is a multi-tiered arc in the novels/graphic novels from the 90’s but let’s forget the EU for a second and just focus on the films. Palpatine wasn’t an interesting character until the prequel films when you saw how he was planning everything and playing both sides of the clone wars. I realize that by making that statement that I’ve alienated a portion of my audience but hear me out, You had 2(Minus the Cameo in Empire) full Star Wars films before we saw the emperor and then all of a sudden he shows up, can use force lightning and then gets bested by Darth Vader and thrown into a reactor. You know, a rough case of the mondays honestly. Now, I love Palpatine, I do. He’s got the intelligence and Crazy force abilities in the prequels and he’s got the mysterious, unseen emperor aspect in the original but honestly if you look at it from just that perspective then Vader is clearly the more interesting villain in the original trilogy, just like Kylo Ren is more interesting than Snoke…which is why I didn’t care that he killed Snoke. In fact, by killing Snoke earlier and without getting mortally wounded, we now get to see Kylo Ren as the ultimate villain of the series. Or at least we did…until I heard that Cackle.
The trailer does a great job of subverting your expectations by having Luke’s voiceover say “No one’s ever really gone.” Right after we see Leia and then we immediately hear him while the screen goes dark. It’s impressive really. The main reason that I’m concerned about Palpatine is because this trilogy was supposed to belong to the 4 new characters : Rey, Poe, Finn and Kylo Ren. Supposedly it’s been the plan of the trilogy all along to bring Palpatine back and if that is the case then that’s fine but I honestly don’t think so. I feel like Palpatine’s return is being used to bring everyone in the fan base back together following the division of the The Last Jedi. I’m ok with the idea of the film bring everyone together again as fans but I’m worried that by doing that, we’re hurting the story. Now some of you might be thinking : “Well, it can’t get any worse than The Last Jedi was.” But I have to say that if we spent 2 films setting up Rey as this self-sufficient character and we set up Kylo Ren as this villain who rose from being a lackey to being the supreme leader just for Palpatine to come back and be revealed as her father/grandfather(Which would be why she was strong with the force instead of just being awesome like she is.) and then for him to basically take over the first order then I’m not really for that.
Now, although that is a huge concern for me, I’m still excited for the movie. Know Why? Because I trust JJ Abrams. Abrams brought us Rey and the rest, Abrams is one of the reasons we returned to the stars in 2015 and Abrams was able to handle a film that attempted to appeal to all demographics and do it well. I understand that I love The Force Awakens more than a lot of other people but at the same time, everyone should be able to say that He did a great job of putting everything together in one film.
As a Star Wars fan I love the entire series,(Yes, even the prequels.) each film has at least one major scene that I absolutely love and is a contribution to one of my favorite stories of all time and as such, no matter what happens in December I will still most likely love the film, even if it isn’t exactly what I want it to be.
