The debate over the Rise of Skywalker and the way J.J. Abrams decided to end it is still going on, seriously. Matt Goldberg of Collider could give a few pointers as to why some people think this is necessary. Somehow the same people that didn’t feel that The Last Jedi was worth anything as a movie are now harping on how ROS ended and how it should have gone, a development that HISHE is obviously very ready and willing to comment on. It’s easy not to blame them really since they make a pretty good parody of how the movie could have ended had less saner heads prevailed. After all it’s easy to think just how hot and heavy things might have gotten between Ben Solo and Rey had they both managed to survive, especially given that she was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But just imagine what might have happened if Ben had lived and they had a kid later on, or kids. “Sorry to tell you this but your granddad and great-granddad were genocidal killers that had access to the Force and murdered people indiscriminately for years. But on the bright side your other grandpa was a smuggler and your uncle was a Jedi Master, so you’ve got the best and worst of both worlds.” Wow, what a therapy-inducing conversation that would be with a kid, or an adult for that matter.
Pleasing a Star Wars fans is next to impossible it would appear since TLJ did nothing but anger so many and ROS, despite actually being praised by Rian Johnson, didn’t really do much to stem that overwhelming need to spew acidic comments and remarks about the latest movie. Even giving Kylo Ren a triumphant hero arc near the end didn’t do much, and that was actually a nice turn. It was something that many people had already guessed was coming since a turn is pretty much standard in the Star Wars movies given that Anakin turned to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith, then turned FROM the dark side in Return of the Jedi. Kylo took up the name of Ben Solo just in time to help turn the tide against Palpatine, who was a vastly supercharged version of himself compared to his appearance in ROTJ, when he was still decrepit enough that he needed to blindside Luke before advancing on him. Heck, this time Palpatine didn’t even need to leave his throne as he started blasting ships from the sky using lightning bolts that acted like magnified turbolasers.
Many would rail on and on about inconsistencies, missing information, gaps in the story, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately they’re also those that likely missed a lot of the movie since they were too busy jawing about it to really notice what was going on. There’s been talk that due to ROS there’s a good idea that TLJ wasn’t even necessary since it would appear that the last movie almost undid a lot of the mistakes that the second movie made. That’s not the truth obviously but it’s been something of a soothing bit of comfort to those that were ready to storm Disney (not really) and demand that The Last Jedi be stricken from the canon. Instead fans are now starting to warm up to The Last Jedi, kind of the same way that fans back in the day warmed up to another Star Wars movie that earned a great deal of flak, The Empire Strikes Back. Funny how that happens isn’t it? It only takes a little time for people to turn around and change their minds after they take their blinders off and allow their ego to deflate a little. I’ll be honest, I was one of those that thought that TLJ did suffer quite a bit from an overly feminist outlook since Rose Tico and Laura Dern’s characters were obvious ploys to increase diversity in the movie and make the fans care about what each character meant to the story. Unfortunately for the movie and for those fans that might have praised the whole idea of more women and female empowerment in Star Wars, Rose Tico didn’t have much of a presence in the third movie and the empowerment era was cut short since the third movie went back to default mode, albeit with a very powerful female character and two very capable men that appeared to be there for comic relief at times. Erin Carson of CNet has more to say on the matter that might be kind of interesting.
At this point it’s enough to wonder if there’s ever going to be a Star Wars movie that satisfies every fan at the same time, but that’s kind of like trying to find one climate that works for every type of person, it’s not bound to happen anytime soon. With that being said though the movies that will be released in the years to come are hopefully going to keep to Abrams’ formula and not slip back into the Johnsonian muck that was thankfully left behind.
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