Star Wars: Episode 9 (The Rise of Skywalker)

[cato]

I cannot imagine that we are done with Rey.

To me, Finn and Poe are such forgettable characters that it would be hard to keep them going beyond a cameo. Others may feel differently.

Please, no more Chewbacca, R2D2 or C3PO. Played beyond well-worn.

Rey is the best character since Vader — I could definitely see the Mouse keeping her around.

[JasonEvans]

Rey is the best character since Vader — I could definitely see the Mouse keeping her around.

Daisy Ridley would probably be up for that because is not exactly killing it outside the Star Wars universe. She made Murder on the Orient Express but the film was a major disappointment and she wasn't even the major star of it. She did Ophelia, but no one saw it (less than half a million in boxoffice). We are still waiting on Chaos Walking (sci-fi story of a world with no women) with Tom Holland but it seems to be in development hell with a bunch of reshoots after early test screenings were disastrous. Lionsgate has not even announced when it will be released. She's got a couple other films in production but she appears to be closer to the Mark Hamill post-Star Wars career than to the Harrison Ford path to superstardom.

--Jason "Daisy has done some voice work in the Peter Rabbit films, maybe she will follow Hamill in that direction... #LukeIsTheBestJoker" Evans

[Nick]

Rey is the best character since Vader — I could definitely see the Mouse keeping her around.

Ridley is a fine actress but the character, despite being likeable, is terribly written, at least in the first two films. She's a great example of a Mary Sue, a female character who's unrealistically good at everything. She doesn't have much in the way of character arc or motivation.

[JasonEvans]

Ridley is a fine actress but the character, despite being likeable, is terribly written, at least in the first two films. She's a great example of a Mary Sue, a female character who's unrealistically good at everything. She doesn't have much in the way of character arc or motivation.

And little about her success seems all that earned. We don't really see the consequences of her failures and I don't recall any moments of retrospection on her part. She certainly does not have any moments like Luke being absolutely owned by Darth and then finding out that Darth is his father. I guess her biggest moment was fighting alongside Kylo in Last Jedi... but I didn't see her coming out of that as a changed person in any way.

[fuse]

As much as I enjoy Poe, Rey, and Finn, if we are done with the Skywalker saga, I hope these characters are retired.

The biggest mistake made with this trilogy may have been to connect it to the original cast at all, and not started fresh with a completely new perspective.

Skip ahead a hundred years to avoid the original characters.

You can imagine an adventure where Rey discovers she is force sensitive, and perhaps a warrior of light, and a warrior of dark feel “the force awakens”. All kinds of possibilities for who gets there first, are good/evil inverted, and how Rey is swayed one way or the other. Perhaps we see the seed of the First Order begin out of some failures of the New Republic, and turn Phasma and General Hux rise to power.

Kylo Ren doesn’t have to be Ben Solo, and we could get more on the Knights of Ren spreading chaos, and his apprenticeship to Snoke. Kylo Ren is more like Assaj Ventress, a powerful but untrained force user.

We see Poe Dameron as a spice runner who somehow gets caught between the New Republic and the emerging First Order, and as a result, chooses sides. Perhaps there is an indirect relationship between the activity of the Knights of Ren and Poe making his choice.

Since there is no map, and no Skywalker, and the First Order is emerging, Finn’s story is something completely new to tell. Poe and Finn cross paths, which ends up in Finn joining the New Republic, and agrees to enlist in the First Order as a spy for the New Republic.

Snoke’s first attack is against Coruscant, and instead of a space battle, we get aerial combat and combat among the various levels of Coruscant. The New Republic Senate is bombed, leaving a scant military leadership presence, including Admiral Holdo.

Coruscant is left in ruins, and abandoned by both the first order and the New Republic. Admiral Holdo receives a transmission from the warrior of light about Rey, and the first movie closes with a lightsabre construction scene by Rey and combat against the dark warrior.

Second movie

Finn is caught relaying information from the First Order to the New Republic. Admiral Holdo asks Rey to serve on a mission to retrieve Finn.

Poe is given a small command to destroy the First Order base of operations. The information given to the New Republic was false and so the mission is successful, but not the First Order’s primary base. As Poe’s fleet is getting ready to leave the system, a much larger First Order fleet arrives and decimates the New Republic.

Snoke gives Rey the base location in a dream, as bait. This location is also wrong, and Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren are waiting for Rey. Rey uses her double bladed gold lightsabre staff to defeat several of the Knights of Ren, and ultimately has to flee. Rey’s escape comes at the expense of her Jedi trainer (the warrior of light from film 1).

Phasma tortures Finn. Finn’s latent force sensitivity has given him unnatural healing and pain resistance. Finn overpowers Phasma, subdues her, and dons her armor. Disguised, Finn steals a craft and heads back to the new New Republic base.

Third movie

The First Order has outmanoevered the New Republic. Kylo Ren and the remaining Knights of Ren have captured Admiral Holdo. As they fled the system, their craft was damaged and unable to jump back to Snoke and the First Order command.

Finn has begun force training with Rey, and is still a novice/padawan.

Poe, Rey, and Finn (with the help of a clever droid) are able to determine where Ren’s craft jumped and take a small assault team in a ship to intercept(No sand planet, no ice planet, maybe a water planet or a planet like Felucia, although i guess Avatar has cornered the market on bioluminescence.)

Holdo frustrates Kylo Ren at every turn, while the Knights of Ren struggle for help and repairs on the backwater planet.

The New Republic team captures the Knights of Ren and rescue Holdo. The Knights of Ren initially honour their surrender, then strike. Most of the red shirts (yes, mixing scifi) perish at the hands of the Knights of Ren. Finn is slain in combat by Kylo Ren. Rey avenges Finn. Only Holdo, Poe, and Rey survive.

Yeah, its a terrible job full of holes and not in any way a fully flushed out story. My point remains the Star Wars universe is rich enough to have good original stories that make old fans smile while creating new fans.

[Acymetric]

As much as I enjoy Poe, Rey, and Finn, if we are done with the Skywalker saga, I hope these characters are retired.

The biggest mistake made with this trilogy may have been to connect it to the original cast at all, and not started fresh with a completely new perspective.

Skip ahead a hundred years to avoid the original characters.

Depends on what you mean. There was always (loosely speaking) going to be a sequel trilogy directly connected to the other two. If your point is no such trilogy should have been made, hard disagree. If you're suggesting the themes, characters, and premises of this trilogy would have been better served as its own self contained trilogy, with some other story being used for the "sequel trilogy" I could get behind that. Unfortunately what we got was kind of a mix.

Also just a reminder as we get into this discussion that this is the SPOILER FREE THREAD! I haven't seen any spoilers, but could see this conversation drifting into spoilery territory pretty easily and thought I should put up a reminder.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

i cannot imagine that we are done with rey.

To me, finn and poe are such forgettable characters that it would be hard to keep them going beyond a cameo. Others may feel differently.

Please, no more chewbacca, r2d2 or c3po. Played beyond well-worn.

Leave Chewie alone!

[fuse]

Depends on what you mean. There was always (loosely speaking) going to be a sequel trilogy directly connected to the other two. If your point is no such trilogy should have been made, hard disagree. If you're suggesting the themes, characters, and premises of this trilogy would have been better served as its own self contained trilogy, with some other story being used for the "sequel trilogy" I could get behind that. Unfortunately what we got was kind of a mix.

Also just a reminder as we get into this discussion that this is the SPOILER FREE THREAD! I haven't seen any spoilers, but could see this conversation drifting into spoilery territory pretty easily and thought I should put up a reminder.

Agree on the trilogy of trilogies intent, although I’d have other ideas about that as well as wishful thinking on the trilogy being made years earlier so we could have gotten more Carrie Fisher.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Finally going today!

[OldPhiKap]

Finally going today!

Enjoy!

[Acymetric]

Finally going today!

Looking forward to seeing what you think! I might go see it again tonight.

[thedukelamere]

As much as I enjoy Poe, Rey, and Finn, if we are done with the Skywalker saga, I hope these characters are retired...

This is the most frustrating part of the movie (and most of the new trilogy) for me personally. In 20 minutes, fuse was able to come up with a more interesting and cohesive story than writers being paid millions by the biggest name in entertainment with unlimited resources... I enjoyed myself watching each of them, but, like GoT Season 8, it just baffles me that so many things can be halfassed to the point of mockery. I get that every writer/producer/director has their own style and rhythm, but there's gotta be a way to increase the amount of constructive focus grouping in the earlier stages of production and scripting to avoid and address issues which even someone with a AFAM degree from uNC could point out.

[fuse]

This is the most frustrating part of the movie (and most of the new trilogy) for me personally. In 20 minutes, fuse was able to come up with a more interesting and cohesive story than writers being paid millions by the biggest name in entertainment with unlimited resources... I enjoyed myself watching each of them, but, like GoT Season 8, it just baffles me that so many things can be halfassed to the point of mockery. I get that every writer/producer/director has their own style and rhythm, but there's gotta be a way to increase the amount of constructive focus grouping in the earlier stages of production and scripting to avoid and address issues which even someone with a AFAM degree from uNC could point out.

Just going to say with a smile, thank you.

[duke74]

Finally going today!

Same here.

[Edouble]

This is the most frustrating part of the movie (and most of the new trilogy) for me personally. In 20 minutes, fuse was able to come up with a more interesting and cohesive story than writers being paid millions by the biggest name in entertainment with unlimited resources... I enjoyed myself watching each of them, but, like GoT Season 8, it just baffles me that so many things can be halfassed to the point of mockery. I get that every writer/producer/director has their own style and rhythm, but there's gotta be a way to increase the amount of constructive focus grouping in the earlier stages of production and scripting to avoid and address issues which even someone with a AFAM degree from uNC could point out.

Just going to say with a smile, thank you.

Agree with Lamere. I couldn't spork Fuse, but what a great post!

[Lord Ash]

Saw it, and enjoyed it for what it was... the final Star Wars movie, and the first I’ve see with my son. I find Daisy Ridley positively angelic, and enjoy the chemistry between all of the leads. Plus, seeing Palpatine back (via something that would make Legends proud) was nice. Add in an appearance by Wedge and the voice of Kanan, and I was largely satisfied, even if it wasn’t great.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Saw it, loved it, and came out thinking that anyone who didn't have a good time watching this movie is a big fat stick in the mud.
My gf, who isn't nearly as geeky nor into Star Wars as I am, had a great time and as soon as we left said "I can't wait to get that on DVD".

[CameronBornAndBred]

I'm stealing the following from the spoilers thread since it's not a spoiler. There was a discussion over there about who could direct the next movie, whenever it happens.

As for who directs it... while Favreau is a popular choice (and would go well with Kevin Feige taking a larger role in the Star Wars universe on his way to shuffling Kathleen Kennedy to the side) I suspect the next film may be from a name we have not heard very much... Tony Gilroy.

I'll toss another name in the ring. Taika Waititi. He's a proven director, and he's got SW experience. He voiced IG-11 in The Mandalorian, and he directed the season finale. (I also think Dave Filoni would be a great choice. He'd definitely be a good writer for it.)

[JasonEvans]

Disney has announced that Rise of Skywalker will stream on Disney+ about 2 months earlier than originally planned. The date that it will debut will be... you guessed it... May the 4th.