I finished my sequel trilogy rewatch. this was the first time I've rewatched any of of them (I saw TLJ AND TROS in cinemas, and TFA like two hours before seeing TLJ)

here are some of my thoughts:

TFA was... alright. it was a good start to the trilogy, but pretty inoffensive and safe. I watched it a day after the OT and it felt like a continuation, in a neutral way.

I remember watching it after seeing two years of discourse on the Internet.

I'm incredibly amused at how overblown the anti reylo stuff was. (I'll probably talk more about this separately)

I didn't start shipping reylo then but as soon as Kylo took off his helmet I was like "ah, I see it". His face reveal was so well done

As was the conflict around Han's death. Adam Driver truly made this character what he was.

Several things make me sad about this film upon rewatching though. Particularly about Finn being sidelined in the end, when he uses a lightsaber more than Rey does in this film.

Plus added tension of him defecting the first order, when Kylo wasnt strong enough to commit or abandon the dark side. There was no need to sideline Finn as a protagonist when it would have been so easy to write conflict (and potential similarities) between him and Kylo.

Also. Stormpilot. Do I need to say more?? The sexual tension these two had was ridiculous (the jacket! The fucking jacket!!)

And the instant familial bickering between him and Rey. The head climb. My space babies <3

The biggest problem was that TFA was TOO open for interpretation. Rey's vision meant anything. No clues to her lineage. No context at all as to who or what Snoke is. The new Republic? Just nothing. This is part of what made the trilogy suffer so much.

This opened it up to a lack of consistency in the story, and for TROS to be the narrative mess that it was. If they wanted Rey Palpatine, the dyad, emperor returning, etc from the beginning, TFA should have set them up better. Especially that last one. But I'll get to that later.

On to TLJ. the film that made me a star wars fan. And the discourse that made me a self hating star wars fan.

I watched TLJ in cinemas straight after watching TFA at home, the day after watching the entire OT (wouldn't see the PT for another few months)

I basically didn't enter the SW fandom until this film. Where do I even start?

It was stunning. STUNNING. like TFA looked nice and all but in a way that was incidental becuase of the setting. But the frames, the set designs, the colors, THE COSTUMES-

Like I know Leie's outfit change during a wholeass evacuation is a pretty bad continuity error but I'll allow it becuase space aunty ATE IT UP in this film.

It's like they actually remembered that Leia is a fucking princess in a space fairy tale.

Quickly on Snoke. From the moment we saw his full profile I got "Bad touch" vibes in a way that has never left me, in a way I was sure was intentional (and it was - since his design was based on Hugh Hefner!!) this is what I mean by the aesthetics not just being pretty

But also INTENTIONAL. Snoke looks like a predator in the film that explores his apprentice's backstory? That's not a coincidence in the slightest.

And Kylo.

Wow. How do I even talk about this.

Idk whether Driver gained a significant amount of weight in between films, or that they decided to put him in more fitted costumes, or BOTH. But he just looks better in TLJ. Intentionally better.

Especially without the mask (very thematic in the film where we learn his backstory)

And then the story. Luke. Force Bond. Canto Bight. Poe's mutiny. Battle of Craig. I loved it all. I would only make one change -

And that would be for Finn to have met a force sensitive person on Canto Bight, and to hint at Finn's force sensitivity. But I'm happy with what we got. Especially the introduction of Rose and Holdo.

And then. Reylo. The dynamic betwen Rey and Kylo. I can't say anything that hasnt already been said. But for me, this was the best part of the film. Hands down. It was enjoyable as someone who wasnt into Reylo at this point. And that's how you want to write any

Dynamic between your hero and villain

and then Kylo murders his master and offered Rey his hand in marriage-I mean the galaxy.

I fully boarded the ship here, after thinking I could resist for so long.

On rewatch - Rey sending herself in a coffin to be received by an Alderaanian Prince??? God bless you Rian, God bless you for this.

Last thing I wanted to gush about was Kylo's backstory and trauma.

it shows that someone doesn't need to know or intend to hurt you, in order for them to do so, and in order for it to cause trauma. I truly appreciated this and how it preserved Luke and Kylo's characters. It's powerful and validating.

It also shows that even when you don't intend to harm someone, you should still face up to what you've done, even if hiding away is the easier choice.

I feel for Luke, I really do.

Lastly - noticed that while they were duelling on crait, there are close ups on Kylo's feet drawing the red salt on the ground. but there is no such red left by Luke's feet. God I love this film

Anyway, I've run out of tweets to add to this thread so I'm gonna take a break and come back to talk about discourse, TROS, and overall ST thoughts

okay, let's continue!

Post TLJ I waded into the fandom and drowned in poison water. It was nasty. On all sides. I was shocked to see the hatred for the film I thought was the greatest in the series. And also being fully exposed to the reylo backlash

Not to mention that the SW fans I knew and the progressive SW spaces I joined were all anti or skeeved out by reylo. The conflation of reylo with toxic straightness and racism made me feel extremely alone as a queer woc into this ship

I just disengaged fully from the fandom after a few weeks. I felt like I couldn't talk to anyone about this and that if I tried to engage in the reylo fandom it would be an all white straight spaces. God I was so wrong.

And the backlash of TLJ from reactionaries, who couldn't handle a self aware star wars film that had a woman/woman with purple hair/woc show a man he was wrong? The GENUINE misogyny and racism from this side drove me away from liking star wars all together

This was confirmed when I saw Solo in cinemas with a then partner (white cis man), who sat through the entire film in a silent rage, then at the end ranted about how much he hated it and how it was a bad star wars film. I felt ashamed for liking it as much as I did.

I felt like star wars wasn't for people like me.

So. Disengaged. Hated how much I liked the series. Really and truly hated how much I liked reylo. Had other ships to occupy my time (c*trad*ra, becuase I have a type.)

TROS came out and I wasn't looking forward to it. For medical reasons, my date for the film (who didn't care about star wars that much) couldn't watch it, so I watched it alone.

And I hated it.

We all hated it, for various reasons, I guess.

I knew I would hate it before the film started. The Disney+ version doesn't have this, but the cinema version had this montage of behind the scenes clips, talkimg about the journey, hitting you with the nostalgia feels. It was obvious who they were trying to appeal to.

The title crawl.

I knew palps was coming back from the trailers, and I was neutral about it, but putting something like that in the title exposition? That was an insult.

I won't go through all my chronological thoughts. Things that stuck out to me about TROS

they kept Kylo's costume look but decided he couldn't be as pretty anymore. He is grimy in the opening scene, masked up, or drenched in most of the film.

Not an important complaint, but still.

Finn. Finn trying to tell Rey something throughout the film and never succeeding. Me and most of the ppl I spoke to afterwards thought he was gonna confess romantic feelings to her. Reading online, having to read online

That he wanted to tell her he was force sensitive. I was angry. So angry. For that not to be clear in the film is one of the many exmaples of objectively bad writing.

The introduction of Zori and Jannah as clear het love interests for Finn and Poe

Maybe I'm a sensitive gay but that's what it seemed like to me. I love Jannah to bits (she's my pfp!) but she really seemed like a safe option for Finn at this point. Especially with that part where her and Finn don't board the lander when Rose begged them too.

A massive up yours to their arc in TLJ.

Rose being sidelined in response to backlash. Caving into racism and misogyny is not okay, and Kelly Marie Tran deserved so much more than this franchise.

The story. Jesus christ. "we need to find this clue that leads to this object that leads to this secret sith planet" it was exhausting and frustrating to watch. It tired me out. So much time wasted and robbed from more important things.

Finn saying the force is what led him to defect. Kill this with fire.

Making Poe a former spice runner. Many Latine SW fans have said that this should also be killed with fire.

Hux. How they handled his betrayal. Hux was built up to be a terrifyingly capable military leader in TFA, and TLJ set up tension between him and Kylo that made sense and was fertile ground for his betrayal. So you're telling me the man in command of the whole FO army

who immediately wanted to kill Kylo and seize power for himself in TLJ, could only send out one message to the resistance? During an entire year???

And his line confirming this was pathetic: "I just want Kylo to lose". Disappointing and insulting.

Rey. Rey being a Palpatine. Rey impaling a defenseless Kylo. Rey being a vessel for the Jedi. Rey on Tatooine. Rey Skywalker. I hate it. I hate all of it. My girl deserved so much better for being the protagonist and all.

She didn't need to be a Palpatine. Rey nobody was just as good, but I guess you can't be a protagonist unless you are related to someone special (or, born from immaculate conception)

Rey impaling Kylo. Fuck. This isn't even a shipping thing. It's about writing.

They want Rey to be a Jedi so bad, Rey, who always channels anger whenever she duels Kylo. Everytime. And it's treated as justified. Fair enough. But to put Rey on a proper Jedi path means acknowledging how this is one of the worst things you can do.

She doesn't merely stab him in combat. She fatally impales him after he's disarmed and defenseless. This should have turned her or at least traumatised her. But the script gives no weight to this at all. We get a nice show of force healing and that's it.

I mean, part of Palpatine's flip flopping plans was Rey killing him out of anger so that she could turn. So why do we not care about this? Why is anger bad for jedi unless it's towards Kylo?

But it's okay, Rey can retain her moral purity and still be a vessel for all the Jedi and give her life to defeat Palpatine.

Also, the 180 turn to uncritically glorifying the Jedi now. What was the point of the PT again?

I'm out of tweets again lol, time for another break.

I'm hoping this is the final stretch.

so yeah. Rey is Jedi, all the Jedi, blah blah, big battle on horrible headache inducing lightning planet.

Hats off to Ridley and Driver's acting conveying the nonverbal communication between Rey and Ben(!) at this part

Palps is all the Sith, and Rey is all the Jedi, we need to hype people for the TV spin offs after all

Palps is dead, cool. Ben crawls out of the pit, cradles a dead Rey in his arms. And breathes and does some force healing.

I know the tone is cynical, which is a shame because Driver's acting in this entire sequence, up until Ben's death is truly a sight to behold. The facial journey from grief to resolve to calm dipping into old light side training-

It was hard to watch this again. Rey's joy at seeing Ben(!), her immediate urge to kiss him, him smiling FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALL THREE FILMS FOR SECONDS BEFORE HE DROPS DEAD.

This is hard.

He knew happiness, love, and a life free of darkness for like a couple of hours out of a lifetime of trauma, isolation, self loathing, and darkside grooming and manipulation. And dies immediately.

He is the last of the Skywalker bloodline, of a family that knew pain and suffering through slavery, family separation, indoctrination, dark side manipulation, war, genocide, the pressure of legacy, and dies after a few seconds of peace.

Even if you hate Ben. Even if you think he deserved retribution for his crimes. You had to admit. His ending is not just his ending. It was for all the Skywalkers. They all suffered. All of them. Schmi to Ben. They all died for this.

This is what I hate the most about TROS.

In between Solo and TROS I watched all the prequels too. At least Anakin had a few years with Padme. And his suffering, their suffering - what was that for?

For Rey to feel better about her heritage? That's why all of them had to die in the end?

What message does his death send to suicidal people? People who have struggled with trauma for all their lives? People who are painfully self aware about the generational trauma they want to break? Oppressed people who dream of a better life for their children?

What are we meant to take away from this film? This trilogy? The Skywalker saga?

It makes me want to cry. For all of them.

And Rey.

Rey who grew up alone, finding out she had a soulmate who came through for her in the final hour.

And she's ripped away from him.

The film doesn't give his death the narrative weight it deserved. It is quick, unceremonious, and not mentioned or acknowledged for the rest of the film.

She meets with Finn and Poe (who for some reason, don't smooch???) and they embrace and it is heartwarming. I wished the film ended here.

But it didn't.

We go back to Tatooine. Rey is sliding down the sand like she did in TFA. she is alone, like in TFA.

She buries the sabers and ignites her own. I love that she has her own saber that is distinct in its colour - Yellow. It suits her. I'll give praise where its due.

And then we get Rey Skywalker after she seems the force ghosts of like and Leia.

Why. WHY.

First of all, LEIA DOESN'T EVEN CALL HERSELF SKYWALKER. and she knew Leia the longest!!! She knew Luke for a day!!! She knew Leia for a year!! Rey Organa would have been a wild choice that would have made better sense.

Second of all. It sends the message of her replacing troubled, traumatised Ben as the prodigal child of the Skywalker family. Obscuring the fact that it was her bloodline (since this apperently matters so much) is what caused the Skywalkers so much suffering.

It is sinister as hell. What could have been better - her claiming the Palpatine name, to show that you don't have to have your path determined by your heritage. Rey Nobody would have still been best.

Lastly, becuase this is all the information that we are given, how does this honour the Skywalkers in a way that's meaningful or hopeful, given all I've just spoken about?

Again. They didn't deserve this. After nine films of suffering.

And it ends here. Not with her and Ben. NOT EVEN WITH HER AND HER FRIENDS. Her alone. In a desert. Trying to pay homage to a family who has been raked across the coals. No indication that the galaxy is safe from another totalitarian/dark side uprising.

I'm sad that this had to end on such a bad note. But that's how the trilogy ends. For all the time they go on about hope, it doesn't feel like there is any for the Skywalkers of this world.

But that's okay, we don't need them. We make our own hope. We reinterpret the characters and stories how we see fit, for our needs. I'm happy to have learnt that in the last few weeks. When canon starves us, we create our own feasts.

We shape stories where characters are happy, healing, respected, developed, free of white and heteronormative gazes that pervade mainstream cinema. Where strong women can also have romantic love in their lives. Where poc have agency and autonomy. We can do that ourselves.

So yeah. That's all I think. This won't be the last time I watch these films and definitely won't be the last time I rant about them. But that's not what I'm here for - I'm here for the stories they inspire, that give me hope. Like the canon story was meant to.