Ok, it’s time to cap off the Star Wars films.

Strap in for The Rise of Skywalker.

Here is the thread from yesterday, which has links to all the Star Wars threads I’ve been doing since recovering from surgery.

So, this has been a tired, medicated trip through live action Star Wars films. https://twitter.com/swankmotron/status/1349033461114302465

And I’m trying to watch this with an open mind trying to decode what it says about Star Wars as a whole, as opposed to what I might have wanted it to say.

I’ll meet it on its terms.

Passing time and shifting the political situation to a race for Palpatine makes sense. Why wouldn’t the Phantom Menace have been pulling the strings all along?

“All who gain power are afraid to lose it,” is an important thing to remember.

Palpatine told this to Anakin. It was very much his thing.

Mustafar is beautiful in this film.

Palpatine clinging to life and power through generation after generation is actually a powerful metaphor. It goes back to the original metaphor Lucas talked about in Phantom Menace in the contrast between the young, term-limited Queen and the old white guys serving forever.

It’s hard to ignore our current political climate and not see Phantom Menace’s everywhere, dinosaurs leftover from past generations, clinging to power to make the status quo and the future of our generations more difficult.

We’ll ALWAYS be fighting our Palpatines.

The opening so far is just fun. It doesn’t let you catch your breath. From Mustafar to the Falcon chase to Rey’s training. It just moves quick.

Ben interrupting Rey’s training is fascinating and really the first hint of the dyad in this film.

The two of them are inextricably linked and this is the first foreshadowing in this film.

What happened to Rey that she thinks she needs to earn back Luke’s saber? It’s come to her twice already.

Is it guilt for the state of the Resistance? Or losing Luke?

I love how Yoda tells Luke that everything Rey needs she has, implying she stole the books. But her needing the books now adds to that really well.

I want so many more Rose Tico adventures.

Rey saying goodbye to Leia on Ajan Kloss has the same energy as Anakin and Obi-Wan saying goodbye on Coruscant.

Like they know they’re leaving things unsaid.

I like how the one First Order officer asking sane questions is tortured.

“Maybe a deal with the devil isn’t good..?”

<Kylo kills him>

Conservatives always eat each other when one starts talking sense.

Rey not having a family name on Pasaana is a little ham-fisted, but ultimately works.

I really love the contrast in color during the first conversation between Rey and Kylo. Light and dark...

Being able to transfer objects to each other now helps build that wonderful moment later, but also deepens their connection.

This almost plays as though Lando has been hanging out on Pasaana since he was there with Luke.

That’s not the case, but definitely an odd choice.

The speeder chase is a lot of fun and really well designed.

“You didn’t say my name, sir, but I’m all right,” might be Threepio’s best line.

Poe’s “Bones. I don’t like bones.” leading directly to the snake is just one big indication that Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the biggest inspirations on this film. Particularly structurally.

Just like Raiders, the stakes change and the scene shifts about every 10 minutes.

I love Rey’s explanation to BB about giving some of her life force to the serpent as something he would do, too.

And he does, with D-O.

And this establishes that the size of the wound impacts the energy required. A cut hurt her hand to heal. Resurrection? That’s something else.

Poor Chewie, captured AGAIN.

Rad. Period.

The feint with Chewie’s death worked. It really did. And it played fair with the audience.

And it makes sense Rey would lose control with new Force abilities. That’s what’s happened to her the entire time. This is a direct line from her mind trick against Daniel Craig.

Rey and her consternation over her dark vision is her falling into the same trap Luke did. She loses sight of herself and that belief, focused more on her power than faith.

So her threat of the dark side here is a repeat of the mistakes of the Skywalkers.

I love D-0.

Kijimi has such a wonderful aesthetic. It looks like a Kurosawa film adapted into Star Wars.

I love how Rey’s “I care” brings back memories of Luke’s in A New Hope.

If Babu Frik was the only thing that Rise of Skywalker brought us, it would have been worth it.

I like how this film starts to deal with the long legacy of child soldiers in Star Wars, with the First Order taking children to train.

But is this different than what the Jedi did?

In the future, Rey will need to come to terms with that.

I wonder why Finn thinks the last war ended at Endor. Does the First Order not teach about the last year of the war and Jakku?

I still think Rey’s parents are no one. I don’t see how anything in this movie changes that.

I don’t care. I love that Hux is the spy. And it goes back to that same adage of Palpatine’s.

I also think Rey being a Palpatine isn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought. She has none of the Palpatine legacy or baggage. Her parents were powerless nobodies. The Force chose HER. Not her blood. Not her ancestry.

It’s those who can’t understand why she’d be powerful otherwise that think it matters. Even she rejects it by the end because it doesn’t matter.

I love the look of the waterlogged Death Star II interior.

Reminder: I don’t care if you like this or any other Star Wars movie or creative decision. That’s not what this rewatch is about for me. Keep it to yourself or expect to get muted.

I love the amped up lightsaber fight, fueled by their unmatched power in the dyad.

Leia’s interruption of the fight is the emotional equivalent of Luke’s distraction on Crait.

The music here drives so much sympathy.

Rey healing Ben is the ultimate Jedi move. Turning the other cheek and healing even those who would do harm against you is difficult.

Ben’s memory of his father is

Valkyrie, 5: “He threw away his lightsaber because he doesn’t want to be a bad guy anymore. That’s what Star Wars is all about: not being a bad guy.”

There you go.

Finn talking over Leia’s body and getting that pep talk from Lando is so emotional. And good.

Rey learning the wrong lesson from Luke and heading to Ahch-To is powerful.

Luke paid for his mistake with his life but he can still help her grow beyond him.

Leia didn’t care Rey was a Palpatine either. “Some things are stronger than blood,” Luke tells Rey.

And it’s true.

“A thousand generations live in you now, but this is your fight” is Luke reiterating that she is what’s important, not the legacy or the bloodline.

I think the focus on that is characters (and some viewers) literally missing the point.

I love that Poe’s lines over what mothers and fathers fought for plays over a shot of Snap Wexley.

Allegiant General: “Use Ion cannons!”

Competent troops: “He didn’t mean that. Use normal weapons. I don’t know why he does that...”

I forget how little of this film Palpatine is in.

I wish @JohnBoyega was able to more deeply explore his force abilities in Rise of Skywalker.

Ian McDiarmid, John Williams, and Daisey Ridley are firing on all cylinders in this last confrontation.

“You just want me to hate, but I won’t.”

The actual Ben Solo we get is so good. I wish he got a whole movie, too.

Him dismantling the Knights of Ren, allegedly badasses, is so satisfying.

“But there are more of us, Poe. There are more of us.”

The voices of Jedi past, particularly @HerUniverse and @RealFPJr, are so impacting. They make me tear up so much. Every time.

Same energy. Same hubris that caused it.

I wished so much more for Ben. But his sacrifice at the end would have made his mother proud. And his uncle.

He finally embraced the good he was capable of without the interference of the lying dark side.

Rey getting Red 5 speaks a lot to that symbolic nature of her taking the mantle of Skywalker.

The stories and the myths MEAN something. And she’s going to spread them so no one forgets again.

She’s going to lead by an example and SHOW people what being a Skywalker is.

I think Rey taking on the name Skywalker is her exerting her agency and taking the good she learned back to the galaxy.

The film ending on the binary sunset is meant to imply her on the horizon of her future, just like Luke in ANH, but having learned from his mistakes.

Ultimately, I think Star Wars as a whole is about us learning to overcome our own fears so we can do the best for ourselves and the world we live in. Anakin fell, Luke stumbled, Rey will soar.

And I think the sequel trilogy fits with expanding the lessons George Lucas sought to teach us.

Prophecies of who we are or what we might do matter less than how we overcome our fear.

Just because our parents fell into traps doesn’t mean we will, we can do better.

And just because someone tells us were from one specific lineage or ancestral line doesn’t mean we are defined by that.

As someone who disowned his father and has spent lots of time in therapy reminding myself that his bad actions don’t dictate mine, it is less than relevant that Rey was labeled a Palpatine.

It was a gaslighting tactic by abusers to justify the actions they wanted her to take

Star Wars is a powerful, positive source for good in this world. As long as you don’t misuse any of its themes, messages or lessons to harm others.

I guess it’s like any religion in that case.

But I find it more useful than I ever found religion, to be honest.

Star Wars makes me feel good.

It fills me with hope.

Watching it illuminates lessons in life and storytelling. Close reading each installment as a work of art is nothing short of exhilarating.

Star Wars is great and makes us better people.

I just hope everybody gets the memo on that last part.

Let go of your hate.

If some part of Star Wars starts leading you down the dark path, let it go. Bring balance to yourself.

If someone else likes it, they’re not your enemy. Act like it.