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counterspelling · 4 years

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okay i have regained the energy to articulate exactly why and how tros was so fucking stupid

a non-exhaustive list of things they just didn't bother to explain unless i blacked out with rage or the sheer mediocrity

HOW palapatine fucking survived, other than that it's literally impossible for men in star wars to die and not get resurrected

why leia is so weak all of a sudden that reaching out to her son kills her

rey's parents NAMES?????????

how rey constructed her new saber from the end scene

who finn or jana's parents are

if palpatine was controlling everything the whole time why did snoke want kyle ron to kill rey

WHY DO THEY HAVE A FUCKING FORCE BOND IF THEY'RE NOT COUSINS WHEN ALL HE EVER DID WAS ABUSE AND TORTURE HER

a non-exhaustive list of things that this series irrevocably fucked up

by keeping the original trio apart and expecting them each to ~get their own focus~ in a movie instead of letting them BE TOGETHER, THE MAIN DRAW OF THE OT, they completely wasted leia. so we know she trained as a jedi with luke, but we NEVER GOT TO SEE IT. i waited my entire life to fucking see jedi leia and got nothing. and her stopping, just because she saw the death of her son? "ALWAYS IN MOTION, THE FUTURE IS" that's......... that's so dumb!!!!!!!!!!

will never be over luke abandoning the jedi order!!! of never getting to see him and leia stand side by side, lightsabers in hand, to defeat evil!

rey, again getting completely undermined and turning her story into the redemption of fucking kyle ron, when it's NOT HER RESPONSIBILITY TO SAVE HIM. HE DOESN'T DESERVE REDEMPTION. you don't get to slaughter millions and be a literal nazi and then decide at the last minute, actually, i inexplicably fell in love with this girl i've only ever tortured and abused so now i get a half-assed redemption

rey KISSING HER ABUSER bc the narrative will never let us see him as what he is!!! a nazi who continually, for years and years and years, CHOSE to be evil, to murder people who were fighting for freedom from tyranny, for no fucking reason

rey palpatine??????????? really??????????? they scavenged the internet crack theories for that????????? and decided to canonize it?????

palpatine fucks????????????????

the fact that they brought palpatine back at all, instead of letting kyle ron be the ultimate villain as he should have been. that they were too cowardly to let the nazi be a nazi and die unrepentantly

i was never invested either way in force-sensitive finn but the fact that they confirmed and yet did nothing with it

in general this entire trilogy continually setting up expectations for things that NEVER HAVE A PAYOFF, just dropped storyline after dropped storyline. it’s almost like if you’re gonna make a trilogy for a billion dollar franchise you should have some oversight and overarching plan from the beginning instead of deciding that letting three separate straight white men come in one after the other with no input or collaboration between them

finn and poe in general not having storylines??? because we just had to keep giving scenes to kyle ron! gotta waste a third movie on will or will he not finally decide to not be a piece of shit!

every skywalker is dead.............. if rey is not luke’s daughter, the skywalker line is gone forever and we did not live through 6 movies of watching skywalkers for it to end this way

the st trio not even being a trio. rey and poe didn’t even MEET until the end of the second movie. i just. never giving us a reunion scene between the ot trio. how does disney so fundamentally misunderstand the biggest draw of the star wars universe, THE BOND BETWEEN THE MAIN CHARACTERS, and how they pull together in the face of impossible odds to triumph together

it took 23 years to half-finish two death stars and now every star destroyer can have a planet destroying weapon??? really???

the things i needed from this movie were for rey to be luke's daughter, since narratively that is still the ONLY satisfying resolution for this trilogy, for her to kill kyle ron and NOT INEXPLICABLY HEAL HIM. WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT. ALL HE EVER DID WAS LIE AND TORTURE AND MURDER, THERE IS NO FUCKING REASON FOR HER TO HEAL HIM, and for rey and finn to get together and......... none of those things happened

even if i never would have forgiven tfa and abrams for the complete fuckup of the galaxy at large, invalidating everything the ot was about, keeping the original trio apart, there was SO MUCH POTENTIAL for rey and finn and poe in tfa. and then they just so completely dropped the ball. fucked all their characterizations, never gave them bonding as a team, weren’t even consistent across movies. there was still HOPE after tfa, but tlj came in with johnson’s arrogance and ~subversion~~~~~~ and blew every possible good ending out of the water. we could have had a trilogy for the first time not about a white dude, but about women and poc, about rey discovering her skywalker heritage and struggling with the legacy and responsibility that comes with it, of finding her blood family and forming a new one with her companions, of seeing her growth as a jedi and determination to make the galaxy a better place as her loved ones did, of finn discovering his force sensitivity and seeing them train together, seeing them join with luke and leia to rebuild the jedi order. and instead we got this. a woman who spends two movies inexplicably wasting her life and time trying to redeem an angry white man who only ever worked for tyranny and oppression and trying to call that love. fuck disney.

#tros #tros spoilers #sw negativity #star wars

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hellobrockie · 4 years

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Some very long Rambly TROS thoughts

Holy fuck there is so much wrong with this movie.

Let's start at the beginning. Kylo tracks down the wayfinder/holocron crystal thing that will lead him to the sith homeworld. We learn that Palpatine was behind both the Snoke and Vader voices in Kylo’s head-basically the dude has been manipulating him for 30 years. Kylo states very clearly he's gonna kill this motherfucker. This is very in line with the Last Jedi- Kylo wants to destroy everything- the Sith the Jedi the Resistance- because he’s tired of the constant push-pull of rejection and manipulation. BUT THEN HE DOESNT KILL PALPATINE???? At first the film argues that he doesn't kill Palps because Palps promises him the big FINAL ORDER fleet? Okay...but I don’t think Kylo really gives a shit about a big fleet of ships when it's offered by the fucker who has been scrabbling his brains for shits and giggles. Once the ‘Rey Palpatine’ thing comes to light, we are lead to believe Kylo went along with the whole final order plan because he wanted to kill Palpatine together with REY???? Ahh okay?

So now we switch back to Rey. She's basically a jedi, cool. And I guess the Skywalker saber just fixed itself, with literally no scars or anything. A great visual representation about how this film feels about character development that happened in The Last Jedi. So Rey breaks concentration and fails the courses. According to the film, this happens because sheisapalpatine. If you had two brain cells you would realize Rey could be upset for normal reasons ...like that in order to the Resistance to win she’s going to have to put Kylo down like a dog. Its kinda cool that Leia is her teacher (more on that later).

Soo then we spend the next hour on a pointless adventure with the Trio™. Which would be fun, if they were ever established as a Trio. Arguably the real trio might be Rose-Finn-Poe. More on Rose later. Here is a list of incomprehensible things that happen here:

Kylo reforges his mask. Because Reasons? The knights of Ren. Because Reasons?

A handful of force bond scenes. The first one actually isn’t half bad. By wearing the mask, Kylo is rejecting the intimacy inherent to the connection because he is about to defile it. Grabbing Rey’s necklace is a physical and emotional violation. It's the first time he has ever used the connection for personal gain. The other connection scenes mostly just play around with the two of them being able to pass each other stuff. They lack the careful editing of TLJ connection scenes. Disclaimer: I’m a pretty hard core Reylo and these scenes really lacked the magic they previously had.This might be un-purpose Kylo is clearly pretty lost as this point. Dull, lacking in heart like so much of this film.

Kylo becomes a cartoon power ranger villian spouting Palpatine exposition and attempting to create suspense by almost catching the trio a couple times. Some of the dialogue is almost Revenge of the Sith Anakin level awkward. It lacks both the unstable angry energy of FA or the sad tired boi energy of TLJ.

Rey makes force lighting because I guess she was upset and it's a genetic ability now???

Poe gets a female love interest, becuase hes heterosexual. HeTeroSeXUal.

Poe and Finn flirt for a whole hour while Poe checks out some new chick and Finn now has a harem thing kinda.

Poe is now a spice trader. BECAUSE YOU KNOW HE'S THE HAN SOLO OF THE TRILOGY. Let's just forget that TLJ establishes that Poe is his own character, probably loyal to the resistance since birth. His parents are rebellion alumni.

Two death fake outs. I don’t know why they had to give 3PO his memories back. He lost them at the end of the Prequels and R2 loved him anyway. Chewbacca capture was a missed opportunity to get some resolution to him shooting Kylo in the gut.

Hux is the spy. Lovely. He is the ultimate weak bitch. Tbh the most consistent character development. Arguably my favorite detail on the entire film. Perfect execution. Domhnall Gleason is a gift.

Now onto Endor. Endor has so much potential and squanders most of it.

Finn meets other people who left the stormtrooper program. Cool. Weird how it's tied to force sensitivity. I like the idea of the force putting Poe and Finn in the right place at the right time, but I think to imply people’s ability to escape slavery is tied to force sensitivity brings us to the problematic terrority of the sequels. Also the only one who talks to Finn is also black. And Clearly has a romantic vibe. Okay…..

The Rey Palpatine thing is made explicit. Even though anyone will half a brain figured it out 90 minutes ago. More wierd implications…..who would agree to fuck an old man Palpatine? So Rape i guess. Rey’s parents were normal...is this some kinda side material hook to read more about them or some shit??? Kylo refers to Rey’s parents as ‘filthy junk traders’. He's right. THEY SOLD HER INTO FUCKING SLAVERY. However Rey’s parents are good people??? WTF THIS IS THE JEDI COUNCIL ALL OVER AGAIN.

Soo Kylo destroys the wayfinder to force Rey to work with him. Anti-Reylos will often get their panties in a twist about how it’s an ‘abusive relationship’. This is the only scene that really comes off as manipulative- in a way it never did in TLJ. Partly because they play up this idea of power-hungry Kylo (which has little basis in reality. In FA he just wanted to make Snoke his daddy. And TLJ Kylo is just soo fucking lonely) rather than sad boi Kylo trying to hold onto someone. Damn the TLJ throne scene is soo careful with getting that energy right, balancing the heartbreak with a little gaslighting (sorry off topic). Then They Fight. Kylo doesn’t even pull out a saber at first because he literally has no intention of killing her. Rey fights because she's mad. Leia decides to intervene at this time, which is weird because Kylo still has no intention of hurting Rey. Apparently Leia sending Kylo a text is enough to freak him out. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN THE TIME FOR FLASHBACKS, MAYBE A ‘YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE’ TO TIE HIM BACK TO HIS NAMESAKE.

Instead Rey gets him in the gut. She then heals him, something that should have been really intimate. This would have been time to kiss him in that wistful ‘ I wanted to know what it would be like before I exile myself forever way’. This is one of the scenes that desperately needed more breathing room AND GIVE KYLO SOME FUCKING DIALOGUE YOU COWARDS. Healing him combined with Leia stuff should have reduced Kylo to a pile of tears. I think he would find it completely overwhelming that someone thinks he is worth it, worth a part of their life source, worth their final breathes.

Oh woah surprise Han Solo. This kinda works for me because unlike robot Leia and fairy godmother Luke, Han looks alive. Plus Han is only a memory so Kylo has to save himself, make his own choice. Aww fuck this got me the closest to tears becuase he looks so fucking sad about the fact that he can’t go home. Damn you Adam Driver and you’re big weepy eyes. His mother is dead and I don’t think he ever truly realized that she wanted him back. I guess with the way things went with Luke, he just assumed he was unwanted. Even now, Han is the only one of the 3 Ben can really imagine taking him back. Who knew Han was such a softie. At the same time there is something so unintentionally sad about the fact that Ben’s whole family can become force ghosts and not a single one gives enough of a shit about him to show up at the turning point of his life.

Also the implication that Ben turns to protect Leia’s lifework is strange. Leia’s legacy is the Rebellion, a democratic senate, a planet wiped off the map, NOT SKYWALKER JEDI #2 JJ!!!!! Ben doesn’t even interact with any of the larger powers at work, he just saves Rey.

Also while Ben’s guilt and shame about killing Han (his true sin) keep him on the dark side, this doesn’t address the 8 million other reasons he left the light. Also why do Leia and Rey never discuss this???? His own fucking family repeatedly rejected him because of his ‘Vadar-ness’ which is ironic considering…….

Then we cut to Rey’s fairy godmother-esque trip to Ahch-To where she arms herself with all of the Skywalker’s personal effects:

Mad that Rian Johnson denied you that ESB fanservice call-back of Luke being able to pull his x-wing out of water?? Don’t worry JJ has got you covered.

Mad that Leia didn’t have lightsaber? Don’t worry JJ has got you covered, Leia was always prepared to be a back up to Luke because she doesn’t have her own perspective or anything or like a whole fucking political system to run. Also she stopped training because apparently completing her journey would end in Ben’s death...ooo SmArT foreshadowing that Rey using her lightsaber will end in one dead Ben boi.

Leia and Luke ALWAYS knew about Rey Palps. Which is funny because they threw their own flesh and blood in the trash because he seemed kinda Vader-y. I guess it's wrong to judge people by their bloodlines unless its your own bloodline. I can’t even.

There is no mention of Ben at all- even though Leia and Luke both died for him and Rey put her whole heart into saving him.

Now to Exeger or whatever again. Almost two hours in and we’re back at the planet we were on in the first 5 minutes.

Spaceship stuff happens. Take out your checklist to get those pilot and ship cameos. Ooo look its The Ghost! OG trilogy pilot! Lando is there! WOOO! Poe’s girlfriend lived somehow!

Ben’s last words are ‘Ow’.

Palps wants Rey to kill him because I guess that will make her evil? Since when does killing people make you evil? I don’t think killing Palps to save the world in the same as ‘striking your enemies down in hatred’ or whatever.

Oh Hey Ben is here. Palps doesn’t care much I guess even though trolling Skywalkers is his whole life’s passion.

Palps drains the life out of Ben/Rey. They don’t die. Ben goes flying into a pit. Rey has to face Palps alone because I guess even though Ben/Rey are stronger together and are cosmically linked the lone jedi thing will happen anyway?? Is feminism about doing everything on your own rather than building meaningful connections with your equal partner. Honestly only Men would think a women has to do everything alone to prove her worth, Rey has been wanting allies and family her whole life LET HER HAVE IT.

Also okay sooo Palps did technically kill Rey’s parents and she had about a whole 5 minutes to think about that. Multiple generations of Ben’s family have been tortured by this guy, so I think it would be rather cathartic to see him play a bigger role in the end of Palp.

Rey enters the Avatar State. Cue more fanservice cameos (I love you Ahsoka, but you said it yourself, you ain’t a jedi). In another backhanded slap to TLJ were back on the TheJediDidNothingWrong line of thinking. Anakin is present ...I wonder if anyone else is interested in talking to him…...

Rey dies. I’m not sure why. Palps legit sucked the life of her and she lived, but the Avatar State killed her.

Ben crawls out of pit. Damn Adam Driver has legs for days. He heals Rey, its kinda sweet but it's also really really weird that he hasn’t said anything. Not saying we need an over the top love declaration but even his emotionally constipated parents managed to get an ‘I love you’ out.

Ben saves Rey. The thing Anakin thought the dark side would give him the power to do. Interesting bookend. Sad that my boy has such low self preservation, he gives her his life without hesitation. Why do we have to die for other people? It’s much harder to have to live for other people. To move and grow beyond the past. To try and be our best everyday, even when its hard. Isn’t that real redemption?

Ben kisses Rey. Awww. Its missing some of the elements of a big romantic drama kiss, which I would be okay with ...if it was followed up with a big romantic kiss with a sunset on a new planet before the credits roll. Alas this does not happen. The audience is somewhat befuddled since their had been almost no dialogue referencing their emotional connections. The ‘no one knows me./I do.’ dialogue from the trailer did not appear in film.

Ben smiles. It has all the boyish charm and innocence Anakin wished he had in the prequels. Aww he really has never kissed anyone. I wonder when the last time he smiled was. HAS THIS MAN EVER HAD A GOOD DAY HIS ENTIRE LIFE. I am emotionally moved until approximately 2 seconds later….

Ben dies. There is no funeral. No mention. Rey doesn’t shed a single tear. This dude literally gave you his life without hesitation. Is Reylo one-sided? Or at least not equally felt? Ow. U The Resistance doesn’t wonder what happened to the Supreme leader. We know at the end of TLJ Luke became a legend, I do not think this happens to Ben.

The Resistance parties. Cue Return of the Jedi film reel. Poe and Finn are heterosexual. No resolution to the stupid ReyFinn force sensitve thing. Two women kiss. It will be cut out of the Chinese release.

Rey buries the lightsabers on Tatooine because you know Luke lived there and Leia once wore a metal bikini there. Rey choose the name Rey Skywalker. Which is interesting because she didn’t get along that well with Luke. She finished her training with Leia Organa Solo, Princess of Alderaan who just happens to have been a result of a sperm donation from Anakin Skywalker. She found a father figure in Han Solo. She loved a guy named Ben Solo. I’m not saying she should name herself Rey Solo, but it certainly is better than Rey Skywalker. I mean it's almost like a person's worth and ability aren’t dependent on either a bloodline or acceptance into the galaxies most powerful family. Rey nobody would have been fine. I’m not going to get into the feminist angle of a self made women tying herself to the legacy of a man. Cue theaterwide groaning.

Twin suns. Cool. I liked them better in The Last Jedi.

Rey has a yellow-ish lightsaber and maybe made out of her staff. Wonder where she got the crystals from and why they didn’t introduce it earlier. Possible implication she's going the way of the ‘grey’ jedi? idk some Jedi have yellow actually. Ahsoka had a yellow one. Not sure since this film is back on the JediwayisBest bullshit.

We see Luke and Leia's force ghosts. Ben’s last word was ‘ow’.

In Summary, some odd implications:

Rey Palpatine is quite possibly the worst idea of all time. Worse than midichlorians. The highest level of fanboy pandering and Rian Johnson erasure. Rey has a lot of very real things to be angry about - her rough childhood, the deaths of her mentors, loving someone as dense as Ben Solo, having to come to terms with the fact that her parents didn’t love her.

Return to prequel-esque thinking on slavery. Apparently it is not that bad if you sell someone as long as you do it with LOVE.

Making Finn force sensitive is not character development. Its just half assed pandering and additional exposition in a film filled with exposition.

There is some truly awful dialogue in this film. Its shot composition and editing is so sloppy compared to FA or TLJ.

The force in balance means killing everyone on the darkside.

Rose is completely sidelined. She is the only Asian character on screen. She is seemingly replaced with a black woman who has a similar background to Finn and is a scavenger like Rey. Yikes. Why does this feel like an anti-interacial relationship thing.

Said Black women Jarrah talks to Lando, another black character in a bizarre dialogue that vaguely implies all black people are related. I might be really misreading this, but its weird. I would have liked her to talk to Rose instead because female solidarity.

FinnPoe is played up a LOT. But we are also repeatedly reminded they are attracted to women. This does not feel like woke Bisexual culture. This is pandering without making a commitment.

Rey’s worth as a character is related to her connection to powerful people in the Star Wars mythos, not her own traits.

Ben’s character resonates really strongly with abuse victims and outsiders. His lack of dialogue strips him of a lot of his agency. His estrangement from his family is not resolved. Vader, who arguably did a lot worse things gets a whole dying monologue and force ghost thing.

Oh hey C3PO said the festival is every 42 year old….OG came out 42 years ago. heh.

In Summary:

Watch the Clone Wars animated series

Fall in love with Ahsoka

Watch Star Wars Rebels or at least all the episodes with Ahsoka and also the series finale, it's got some cool force stuff in it.

Think about the cool force stuff in Star Wars Rebels and the cool force stuff in The Last Jedi. Woah.

Apply all this cool force stuff to your own personal version of the Rise of Skywalker

Wait for clone wars finale Feb 2020

Rinse and Repeat

Peg Kylo Ren

Oscar Isaac is the Captain on the FinnPoe Ship.

The Last Jedi was the Best One. Fight Me.

Find the fanfiction where Rey tells him what a good boi he is which reduces him to a puddle. Find the fanfiction where he cries during sex the first time, the second time, every time. Find the fanfiction where his force ghost gets a hug, where his family welcomes his back.

Read Fanfiction:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21852886

What I would do instead:

Delete Rey Palpatine

Ditch the mask. You have a fucking Oscar nomiated actor hiding under it.

After the Endor part, have Kylo join either Rey or the Resistance. Personally I think him hitching a ride on the Falcon would have been wonderfully awkward. And maybe give some closure the calling Finn a ‘traitor’ thing. This is fanservice-y, but no more fanservice-y than the rest of the film. And maybe finally answer the question of who does/doesnt know who Kylo Ren is. Would like a verbal declaration that he identifies as Ben Solo or least Ben or something.

Ben can still die I guess but maybe give him some kinda funeral. Or reuse the golden dice symbolism.

Slow everything done. Let the audience feel sad, feel happy. Oh and cut out those fucking death fake outs.

#tros #rambling #reylo #spoilers #rey #Rey of Jakku no last name given #why did i write this #catharthis #ben solo

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eleanor-writes-stuff · 5 years

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what’s mine is yours [one-shot]

Rey might not have any traditions of her own, but that’s okay. Ben is more than willing to share his.

Or: yet another braiding fic, with barely any actual braiding.

So about a million years ago I wrote a tiny braiding scene for Day 22 of a language that i never knew existed before, and I mentioned a deleted version of the scene that I’d love to turn into a standalone piece. I didn’t anticipate it taking three whole months for me to do so, but here we are anyway.

If you like braiding, made-up Alderaanian traditions, and Reylo, this is the fic for you. Also featuring: bonus Leia!

Also available on AO3. And hey, maybe check out my Twitter and Ko-fi?

Six months after Ben’s defection, the Resistance plans a celebration for the string of victories they’ve won thanks to his intel.

It’s nothing grand, barely a feast according to those who remember what that was like, but it’s the first celebration of any kind that Rey will ever experience, and somehow word of that reaches the general.

Poe finds her two hours before the party and marches her over to the general’s quarters, and the next thing Rey knows she’s sitting on the ground while Leia runs soothing hands through her hair and slowly fashions it into an intricate braid befitting the occasion.

“Are braids… important to you?” Rey asks haltingly, staying as still as she can and channeling her nervous energy into babbling instead. “You don’t have to answer, it’s just, you’re always wearing them, and I’ve noticed that they change, sometimes, when things happen, and Kaydel said something about your home planet once–”

“Alderaan,” Leia says quietly, hands stilling for a moment. Rey winces to herself, realizing belatedly that maybe she shouldn’t have brought up the lost planet and all the grief that comes with it on such a happy day. But when the general speaks again, her voice is wistful instead of sad, with an airy, faraway quality to it rather than the weight of sorrow.

Leia keeps weaving. “Braids are a language all on their own, to my people. We lost a lot when our planet was taken from us, but this… this we kept. If I had a daughter, I would’ve taught her all about it the way my mother taught me, the way her mother taught her.” She laughs then, a rare, beautiful occurrence that’s increased in frequency ever since her son’s return. “I had Ben instead, but he made a perfect student nonetheless, always climbing up on tables and chairs to reach my hair and practice.”

Rey nearly, nearly turns around and ruins all of Leia’s hard work. “Ben can braid?” she asks, smiling at the thought.

“Oh yes, I taught him nearly everything–”

The door connecting Leia’s quarters to Ben’s opens, and the man himself appears with a frown on his face and a datapad in his hands.

“Mom, I’d really rather not–”

He looks up from his datapad, pauses as he takes in the sight of Leia on the edge of her bed and Rey on the floor next to her, a half-formed Alderaanian braid between them, and all Rey can think about is Ben in place of Leia, running those large hands of his through her hair, being so, so gentle as he honors his mother’s tradition–

She’s forcibly yanked out of her daydream when a spike of something ripples through the Bond, an indecipherable mess of a dozen emotions tangled together.

“I’ll come back later,” Ben mutters, and shuts the door behind him.

Leia goes back to work with a heavy sigh that fills the silent room.

“What… what was that?” Rey asks, her words echoing through the Bond as a demand. She’s met with silence in her mind, a door between them as solid as the one that separates mother from son.

“You tell me,” Leia mutters, finger-combing a section of Rey’s hair to undo the braid that was messed up when Ben walked in. “Some days I wonder if my son is still in there, but then he goes and does something stupid like this and there’s no doubt that he is.”

“Something stupid?” Rey repeats with a frown. “What did he–”

“Go talk to him after this, will you?” Leia urges as she starts to work on the last section of loose hair. “I don’t know how your Bond works exactly, but you two should talk about this, and Maker knows he won’t be the one to bring it up. A total and utter nerd herder, just like his father before him.”

There’s a hint of amusement in her voice but also the heaviness Rey was expecting, the weight of grief and loss and a wound still too fresh to pick at. She hums a wordless agreement and they lapse into a comfortable silence then, and just minutes later Leia’s pulling her up to her feet and leading her over to the mirror in the corner of the room.

“Oh,” Rey whispers to herself as she catches sight of her reflection, delicate rows crisscrossing the sides of her head before they join into a thick braid that flows down her back.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” Leia asks with a smile, riffling through the chest of drawers under the mirror for a small metal box that opens to reveal a set of hair ornaments, precious stones carved into delicate, intricate flowers.

“It’s beautiful,” she says as Leia carefully adds the accessories to her hair. “But… I love it, of course, and I’m not complaining, not at all, but… didn’t you say you were going to put my hair up?”

Leia steps back, and in the mirror Rey watches her take a good, long look at her handiwork. Finally, she offers Rey a smile and a shrug. “Plans change. Sometimes you’re halfway through a casual celebratory updo when your idiot of a son decides to show up and make a mess, and you’ve just got to adapt and roll with it. Now go talk to him, will you?”

“Um.” Rey turns around to face Leia, uncertainty slowing her tongue and her mind. “Of course. I’ll just… go now,” she mumbles, waving at the door.

“Good,” Leia says with a nod, and under her watchful eye Rey crosses the room and raises her palm to the scanner. It occurs to her then that she probably doesn’t have clearance for the general’s private quarters, but when she turns to Leia all she finds is an encouraging smile.

“Oh, and Rey? I want to know exactly what his face looks like when he sees your hair.”

It should be an odd request, but then again they’ve just had a conversation about Alderaanian braids being a language all on their own. Rey nods and presses her palm to the scanner. “Of course, General,” she acquiesces, and then she’s in Ben’s room and he’s lounging on his bed in only a pair of pants, glaring at a beige tunic sitting on the foot of his bed as if it’s Armitage Hux himself.

“So,” Rey says, and holds back her laughter when Ben startles at the sight of her, narrowly avoiding a collision between his head and the wall.

“Rey, what are you–”

He gapes at her, mouth opening and closing as he tries to form a sentence or maybe even a word. Finally, Ben asks, “Why are you wearing a wedding braid?”

Oh.

She tries her best to fake nonchalance, gives Ben a shrug as she approaches him. “So that’s what this is?” she asks, sitting on the edge of his bed with a generous two feet of space between them.

It takes Ben no time at all to shuffle over to her side, and she watches his throat work as one hand hovers just above a pearlescent, gem-encrusted flower. “It’s… it’s a Promise Cord,” he explains, not quite meeting her eye as he traces the smaller braids scattered across the back of her head. “Each braid is a promise to the bride from her partner, with a pin to secure both the promise and the braid.”

Rey thinks of the way Leia had kept the flowers hidden away, the fact that she keeps them with her even now when she left behind so much in the early days of the Resistance. “Were these… were these the ones the general wore when–?”

“I think so,” Ben whispers as a faint pang of melancholy fills the Bond. It’s always like this, whenever he’s confronted with a reminder of Han. Of his father.

And all Rey can do is take his hand in her own and wait for it to pass.

Ben looks down at their hands, laces their fingers together and gives her a small smile that quickly turns into a frown. “Wait, I saw what my mother was doing earlier, with your hair. It was a Victory Crown. So why–”

“Oh, right,” Rey interrupts, sending bits and pieces of her conversation with Leia across the Bond before she projects her own memory of that odd, indecipherable something she’d detected from him right before he shut the door on the both of them. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” Ben mutters almost immediately, dropping his eyes back down to their joined hands as he turns them palm-up and runs his thumb across the markings on her skin. Life and love and loss, Maz had told her the day she arrived to join the Resistance. All of it is there for you to know and accept, child, plain as day.

She can’t remember which one is which, but Rey has no doubt that Ben knows – just as he knows that he can’t appease her with a non-answer like that.

“Ben…”

He sighs and lets go of her hand, pulls away to lean against the wall. “Did my mom tell you about Alderaanian braiding traditions?”

“She said braiding is practically a language,” Rey echoes as she carefully runs her fingers along the side of her head. “They all have meanings, right?”

“The braids themselves, yes,” Ben nods, “but also the act of braiding, and unbraiding too.” It takes a while for her expectant look to work, but eventually he elaborates.

“It’s… it’s very intimate, letting someone else braid your hair,” he finally admits, eyes firmly fixed on the braid running down her back. And then–

I wanted to be the first to braid yours.

The words are solely between the two of them, in the secret shared space of their Bond, yet Ben’s ears and cheeks flush as if he’s announced them for all the world to hear as he ducks his head and stares down at his lap.

Rey inches closer, her heart too full with something she can’t put into words.

So she speaks about something else instead. “On Jakku, there are no traditions.”

Ben looks up. He always does, when she speaks of Jakku or her past or herself – he looks up and he listens and he cares.

“There are beliefs, and superstitions, but the only thing passed down from parent to child is what’s worth hauling back to Plutt and which wrecks don’t have anything left in them,” Rey shrugs. “And… and I don’t know if my parents even had any traditions wherever it is they came from, if there’s anything they would have shared with me.”

It’s a simple statement of fact, nothing more and nothing less, but Ben reaches for her hand just as she reached for his earlier and gives her a squeeze.

Rey shakes herself out of it before she can get lost in the wasteland of her memories and gives him a smile. “So I don’t have any traditions of my own, but… but I really like yours.”

“They’re yours,” Ben says without a moment’s hesitation. “Anything that’s mine, everything that’s mine – it’s yours, Rey.”

There’s that same earnestness in his eyes that always brings tears to hers, that same look he gave her the day he begged her to rule with him, the day he begged her to forgive him, all the days they’ve shared since that have seen him overwhelmed by a love so big neither of them know what to do with it.

She moves closer to sit between his legs. “This Promise Cord… you’re supposed to braid it for me, right? Not your mother?”

Ben gulps, and she reaches out to take his face in her hands to keep his eyes on hers. “I… that is… yes, traditionally it’s the groom’s duty. When the time comes.”

“Tell me more,” Rey murmurs, using one hand to guide his to her hair, to encourage him to comb through his mother’s carefully woven braids and take them out.

And unbraiding too.

“Well, uh,” Ben falters as he catches on, using both hands now to gently remove the flowers and set them on his nightstand. “You… the bride would start growing her hair out as soon as she’s engaged. The longer her hair, the more promises her partner can make.”

It’s been a while since Rey last cut her hair, having made the decision to grow it out now that she no longer spends her days in the desert. It’s grown past her shoulders now, hangs just below her shoulder blades, but she’s seen holos of Leia in her youth, of hair hanging past her waist and sometimes even her hips.

“How long would I grow it out for?” she asks, deliberate in her choice of words.

Ben stills for just a moment. “Six months, at least,” he says, eyes still focused on her hair. “Most Alderaanians tend to keep their hair long anyway, but wedding planning usually takes about that long. Some brides choose to wait for a year.”

Rey scrunches up her nose to draw his attention. “I don’t think I could wait for a whole year.”

It’s a dangerous game she’s playing, a distant dream neither of them should be entertaining when the tides have just begun to turn in their favor. But it feels pointless to pretend or deny or play ignorant when she knows what she dreams of at night, when she knows what Ben dreams of too.

Maybe that thought bleeds through, because he finally smiles then and runs a hand through her hair, toying with the ends. “I think six months would be enough.”

She nods in agreement. “So, what happens next?”

“The cou… we would spend those six months coming up with promises to make,” Ben says, dropping all pretenses as his hands slide down to her waist to hold her close. “And when… when we agree on a final set, my family would be the one responsible for the ornaments – usually flowers, but some couples choose to go with a more personal design.”

Rey eyes the pins on his nightstand. “I like the flowers,” she decides, knowing Leia wouldn’t have brought them out for just any reason. If this is what she and her son are willing to offer Rey, if they’re happy to share their family and their traditions and their heirlooms – well, Rey will happily accept.

“I like them too,” Ben says with a smile, leaning down for a quick peck on her lips. “On the morning of, once everything else is done and everyone’s ready, the wedding party will leave us alone while they tend to our guests, and I’ll braid each promise we’ve decided to share into your hair.”

“Do I do anything?” Rey asks, tilting her head in curiosity. “I mean, I know we’re sharing them, but if I’m the only one wearing them, it feels…”

Ben nods. “Some brides choose to reciprocate with a single braid for the groom. It means they acknowledge the promises, and pledge to do the same.”

Rey grins as she runs a hand through his hair. “You’ll have to teach me how.”

“We’ve got time,” he assures her with a smile, the kind that makes his eyes crinkle at the corners, the kind that warms her in a way no desert sun ever could.

“And then what?” Rey prompts, sliding one hand into his. “You said something about unbraiding?”

“Alderaanians only wear their hair down in the privacy of their homes, around their loved ones,” Ben explains. “A married Aldeeranian will only let their hair down in the presence of their partner, and usually with their help.”

“So you’re supposed to help me take my hair down at the end of each day?”

“Only if you ask me to. If you choose to let me. It’s… it’s a form of communication, each and every day of a relationship. It means you trust your partner with this because you trust them more than anyone else in the galaxy.”

“I already do,” Rey tells him without hesitation.

“So do I, sweetheart,” Ben replies, lifting their joined hands to press a kiss to her inner wrist. She waits until he’s done to curl her free hand around his neck and pull him down for a proper kiss, rising up on her knees to make it easier on both their necks as Ben wraps his arms around her.

One hand slides into her hair, combing through the last of her braids as they break the kiss to press their foreheads together, sharing a secret smile as Ben rubs his nose against hers in a still-new show of affection.

A year away from the First Order and six months on base has softened him, allowed him to slowly shed the hard shell of his past to reveal the boy Leia still remembers, the man Rey’s always known him to be. But it still feels surreal sometimes, to have Ben here with her, to giggle as he nuzzles the ticklish spot behind her ear, to realize that they’re building a future worth fighting for.

“I love you,” she murmurs when Ben’s lips return to hers, leaving behind a trail of kisses she might need to cover up this evening. Funny how she’d tried so hard to keep those three words in, only for the dam to be broken the day Ben showed up out of the blue, ready to risk everything just to tell her in person.

Ben smiles against her lips. “I love–”

“Kids! You can’t be late to your own party!” Leia calls through the door, complete with insistent knocking.

A quick glance at the datapad on Ben’s nightstand reveals that they’ve got little more than half an hour to sort themselves out and get to the celebration.

“We’ll see you there!” Ben tells his mother, prompting a back-and-forth that includes several warnings from Leia that have Rey laughing into her hand. When the general starts bringing up that one time she and Han were late to a similar occasion because of… certain distractions, Rey is relieved to find nothing but panic and slight disgust on Ben’s end of the Bond.

“Mom, stop. Stop!”

“I’ll save the story for dinner then,” Leia promises, her laughter fading away along with her footsteps.

Ben shudders at the thought before he finally turns back to her. “Do I really have to go?”

“It’s your celebration, Ben,” she points out, ignoring his grumbled protestations as she leans forward to pick up the forgotten tunic crumpled up at the foot of his bed. “Come on, get dressed. I still need you to braid my hair for me.”

That effectively shuts him up.

“You want me to–?”

Rey shrugs as she gets to her feet, shaking out the tunic to find it in decent condition. “You should probably start practicing, right?”

When she turns back to him, Ben��s looking up at her as if she’s offered him the galaxy.

“What?” Rey asks, her lips twitching with a barely-contained smile.

Ben shakes his head. “Nothing. Nothing,” he insists before she can question him, patting the space next to him. “I just… I love you.”

Rey curls into his side and closes her eyes, allows herself a little sigh as his warmth seeps through her clothes to burrow under her skin. “Is there a braid for engaged couples?” she asks quietly, eyes still closed.

Warm lips brush against her temple. “I’ll show you,” Ben murmurs, already carding his fingers through her hair.

This feels particularly long and slow and plotless, but I’m choosing to tell myself that’s because it’s been a while since I’ve written anything this long. Hopefully that’s actually the case!

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this, my 40th Reylo fic. Please feel free to like/reblog/comment - hearing from you guys always makes my day. <3

#reylo #rey x ben #kylo ren/rey #rey/kylo ren #rey/ben solo #star wars #rey #ben solo #kylo ren #my fics #fic: what's mine #fic archive

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alpha-centari27 · 4 years

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Kylo Ren is the best character and performance pairing to come out of the sequel trilogy, and ultimately one of the best in all of Star Wars' filmography. His arc throughout the trilogy was brilliant to watch and was arguably the best underlying story of it all. The big debate on his character as soon as The Force Awakens hit was two-fold; would he be redeemed, and if so, would he die.

In the end, Kylo Ren was redeemed and once again became Ben Solo before coming one with the Force. The Last Jedi seemed to hint at a more villainous route for Kylo, but The Rise Of Skywalker managed to fulfill Kylo's redemption brilliantly. Whether he deserved said redemption though, is another story, so, here are 5 reasons why Kylo earned his redemption and 5 reasons why he did not.

HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE SLAUGHTERED INNOCENT PEOPLE

Fans' introduction to Kylo Ren comes at the start of The Force Awakens in what is a brilliant and brutal scene. Kylo and his First Order troops arrive on Jakku in search of the map to Luke. Kylo then confronts Lor San Tekka and strikes him down before ordering his troops to slaughter the population of the village he has invaded.

In The Rise Of Skywalker, we also see Kylo on Mustafar slaughtering inhabitants as he searches for the Wayfinder. These people are Alazmecs and were in Kylo's way, but his ruthlessness nonetheless points to his redemption turn being out of reach.

HE EARNED REDEMPTION BY STILL CLEARLY LOVING HIS FAMILY

Adam Driver's phenomenal acting drives this home as it ties in perfectly with the core trait of Kylo Ren; his torn emotional state. The initial signs of this all comes in The Force Awakens when Kylo and Han confront one another and Kylo is visibly upset, torn, and confused.

Han's reappearance as a memory of Kylo's as he makes the turn back to Ben Solo reaffirms the idea he always loved and missed his father, deep down. The more obvious signs of this are through Kylo's love for Leia. In The Last Jedi Kylo is so close to pulling the trigger on his ship and killing Leia, tear eyed, but cannot do it. Then, in The Rise Of Skywalker, it is Leia's death and last action as she calls out to Kylo through the Force that turns him back to Ben Solo and stops him battling Rey, instead he mourns his mother who he later joins in the Force.

I cannot help but feel the sequel trilogy could have benefited from giving us a glimpse of how Snoke / Palpatine are manipulating Kylo / Ben mentally and emotionally through the force. As they say, show don’t tell. It’s only in TROS that it’s revealed through Palpatine that he has been every voice in Ben’s head.

Give us some sort of clue as to what degree Kylo Ren’s decisions are his own and when he is making decisions because Snoke / Palpatine is prodding him.

HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE DESTROYED THE HOSNIAN SYSTEM

Leading on from Kylo's slaughtering tendencies, alongside Snoke, Hux, and the First Order, Kylo Ren used Starkiller Base to destroy the five planets of the Hosnian Prime system.

To end the New Republic and bring the First Order to power, Starkiller Base was unleashed. It killed millions, five planets worth of people, while it was not all down to Kylo, he was a major part and it brings his redemption to question.

I have seen this point brought up a number of different times and I do not entirely agree with it.

As I remember it, general Hux was the one who was trigger happy to use the power of Star Killer base to send a message.

Kylo Ren surely did not commission Star Killer base.

Kylo Ren did not build Star Killer base.

Kylo Ren did not give the order to power up and fire the weapon.

And Kylo Ren did not carry out the order to fire the weapon.

By my assessment I think Kylo Ren is only guilty by association with the First Order and failure to act in such a way to stop the base from firing.

Arguably, Kylo Ren does bear some responsibility, but he is not the party that bears the most responsibility for this action.

HE EARNED IT BECAUSE HE MADE THE CHOICE

Luke Skywalker teaches us in Return Of The Jedi that nobody is beyond being redeemed. Darth Vader helped destroy the Jedi order, slaughter younglings, hunt people, slaughter people, bring destruction to the Rebellion, was redeemed when he made the choice and "killed" the Emperor.

Kylo earned his redemption by completing his redemption. The light side of the Force is forgiving, the good people in the universe are forgiving. Kylo chooses to turn back to Ben Solo, and that tumultuous journey back to the light is enough for him to have earned it and he is forgiven by the people around him for it, like Leia, Rey, and undoubtedly Luke too.

I gotta say the line, “Kylo earned his redemption by completing his redemption“ sounds rather odd rolling off the tip of my tongue. What is this supposed to mean?

I have not seen TROS for myself, but I don’t think there is a specific line of dialogue or anything directly supporting Leia and Luke forgiving Ben Solo.

I feel like it could be implied that Leia forgives and still loves her son because of the way she sacrificed herself to bring her son back to the light.

Other people have already said this far better and in much greater depth, but there could have been much more depth and attention given to Ben Solo’s redemption arc.

HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE TORTURED, HUNTED, AND ATTEMPTED TO KILL OUR HEROES

A lot of what Kylo does in the trilogy involves hunting and attempting to kill the heroes of the said trilogy which he kicked off with quite a bit of torturing. In The Force Awakens, he captures Poe and tortures him for information before doing the same to Rey.

From there, he nearly kills Finn and battles Rey which he ends up doing multiple times. He hunts the Resistance heroes to Crait where he unleashes all his power in an attempt to kill what he thinks is Luke. On top of all that in The Rise Of Skywalker he hunts Rey down and battles her a couple of times in an attempt to either bring her to his side or kill her.

HE EARNED IT AS HE WAS YOUNG, MANIPULATED, AND CONFUSED

Similar to how Anakin is manipulated by Palpatine, Kylo is manipulated by Snoke (who is controlled by Palpatine so it's actually the same) to the dark side of the Force. When Kylo believes Luke is trying to kill him, that's when the turn begins to properly occur.

This moment, however, is a state of confusion. It is assumed by some Kylo burned down Luke's temple, but, it was the Knights of Ren before they met Kylo. Kylo attempted to save fellow learners before being confronted by those believing he did it. Kylo is manipulated with thoughts while he is relatively young, he is completely torn and confused throughout the trilogy as the light still calls to him, allowing him to be redeemed.

HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE KEPT SEEKING POWER

A quality possessed by Jedi and light-side Force users and most good people in general in the Star Wars universe is that they do not look out for and seek, nor crave power. They usually want to help those without it. What we see throughout the trilogy though, especially The Last Jedi and The Rise Of Skywalker, is Kylo desperately seeking power. Kylo kills Snoke because, for one, he realizes he is being used, for two does not want to kill Rey at that moment, and for three, and most importantly wants that throne and Snoke's power for himself. The same thing arises in The Rise Of Skywalker, he seeks to kill Palpatine because he is a threat to Kylo's power, he only abandons this plan because Palpatine promises him much more power.

HE EARNED IT BECAUSE HE WENT TO EXOGUL TO BATTLE PALPATINE ALONGSIDE REY

After his conversation with Han, his throwing his lightsaber into the ocean, and realizing who he is and what he must do, Ben Solo makes his way to Exogul to battle Palpatine, and to help Rey.

Kylo is already Ben at this point but one way he earns his redemption is by doing this. He finds a way off of Kef Bir, makes his way to Exogul to save Rey, to battle Palpatine, to make things right.

HE DIDN'T BECAUSE HE MURDERED HAN SOLO

One of the most defining moments of not only Kylo Ren's character, or in the sequel trilogy, but in the entire Skywalker saga is the death of Han Solo. Murdered on Starkiller Base by his son.Kylo and Han plead with each other with Han begging for Ben back and Kylo begging for help. Kylo begs his father to give him the strength to do what must be done, before impaling one of the franchise's most iconic characters, his father, and killing him. One of Star Wars' most emotional moments and one that makes it hard to forgive Kylo.

HE EARNED IT BY SACRIFICING HIMSELF TO SAVE REY'S LIFE

Following Kylo's turn back to Ben Solo, the battle with Palpatine is a great way for Kylo to solidify his redemption. However, the true definitive way Kylo earns his redemption is when he sacrifices his life, for the life of Rey. After a battle with Palpatine, Kylo crawls out of the hole to Rey's body which is done due to the energy and Force used to kill Palpatine. Kylo heals Rey, kisses her, and because healing used the last of his life energy, he dies. He sacrificed himself for Rey in what is an emotional and beautiful moment that solidified Ben Solo's hero status, and Kylo Ren's redemption.

In my opinion, even if Ben was somehow unsuccessful in reviving Rey and he had to live the rest of his life without Rey... He still has at the minimum a few decades ahead of him in which to live his life and make amends for his past misdeeds.

Of course nothing he does is ever going to undo the amount of suffering he has inflicted on others and the damage he has caused.

I feel as though whether someone “deserves” to be redeemed or can be redeemed is an academic question.

In practical terms what matters is the person owns up to their mistakes and seeks to made amends.

#kylo ren #ben solo #the rise of skywalker

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metaphorical-dragons · 6 years

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fixing star wars episode viii

I am aware this is maybe article number 1 million and ten written over the past 8 months on this film. We’ve had articles praising it and articles critiquing it and articles accusing a haircut of having a secret Illuminati agenda. But I think I can offer a perspective that is severely under-represented online. So here goes.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is not a perfect film. This is true. However, it’s also true of literally any film released since the Lumière brothers were the avant-garde face of cinema. Apart from Sing Street. Sing Street is a perfect movie go watch it.

However, it’s also true that Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi is a good film. In fact, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully shot, emotionally resonant masterpiece. And not just surface-level good – its brilliance runs deep enough, thematically, that months after its release, I still feel like I have something new to bring to the table.

A quick disclaimer. I’m not going to address the fact that many people do not share my unabashed, unending love for this film. There are plenty of people, much smarter than me, already fighting that battle. See Shaun’s YouTube video ‘Why I love the Last Jedi’ on the topic. What follows is my take, pure and simple, on the changes I think could have helped the movie.

OK, prepare to jump to light speed.

Point of contention number one – the political situation in the Galaxy. I have so many questions, and yes, maybe they are answered in Wookiepedia articles, but honestly I prefer to soak in my Star Wars through my eyes and my ears and my heart and not through my brain. How long were the New Republic in power? What did they control? What was their relationship to the Resistance? How was the First Order formed? What do they control? These are questions that, in all honesty, should have been answered in The Force Awakens (TFA), before we lost one of these three major players. But that doesn’t let The Last Jedi (TLJ) off the hook.

We know why, of course. It’s because one of the lessons Lucasfilm has taken from the fan reaction to the prequel series is that the people are simply uninterested in the politics, at least insomuch as it relates to the Skywalker Saga. Maybe true, probably not. As usual, Hollywood has decided to blame the plot elements of the movie instead of admitting that, well, they may have made a bad movie. But at least a basic grounding in the state of things is vital to understanding the plot of these films, which, after all, are at least superficially about an ideological conflict on a galactic scale.

And really, there is no excuse when every single film opens with a huge block of text perfect for getting exposition out of the way. So our easy fix here is modifying the opening crawl of TFA, which hopefully should free both films from the lingering confusion.

Done, dusted and onto issue number two – the pacing. With a running time of 151 minutes, it’s a testament to Rian Johnson’s engaging screenplay that at no point in the film do those minutes seem to drag by. And he had a harder job than JJ Abrams – it is one job to keep things tight in a rip-rolling adventure romp, where as soon as one scene finishes, it’s a wipe transition into another action set-piece. Quite another in a film that allows slightly more breathing space for contemplation and internal conflict. TFA is a boisterous, excitable 11 year old of a movie, whereas TLJ is a more broody, introspective, but also more mature teenager.

That being said, if ever you were tempted to check your watch or stretch your legs or bake a pavlova or finish your dissertation on the economics of llama farming, I would wager you would take the opportunity at around the 54 minute mark – the first appearance of Canto Bight into the B-plot of the movie.

The entire B-plot of the film is based around the contrivance of a game of cat and mouse between two enemy starships. Except this chase takes place over 18 hours. Which makes it difficult to develop a sense of urgency when the occupants literally have time to watch all of the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions and make a good start on the Hobbit. If we can’t rely on urgency – we at least need inevitability. But sending characters on a side-mission to another planet really undercuts any tension and claustrophobia that has painstakingly been established here.

What I propose here is not quite as radical as your imagining. We are keeping many elements of this much maligned plot-tangent exactly the same. Instead, our fix is simply to make this the opening scene:

The mission is Resistance-mandated: free DJ from jail. There is no misdirect here – DJ is the code-breaker. It doesn’t really matter why he is necessary – maybe to sell weapons or ships, maybe for his knowledge of the First Order technology. In any case, Poe and Finn, who are tasked with this mission, don’t really need to know that. Poe is under instruction to retrieve DJ, then drop Finn off to go and look for Rey. Unfortunately, this last part doesn’t play out – Poe receives a distress call so they have to return immediately to the Resistance fleet. The First Order has tracked them through light-speed and they are under attack. Cue the original opening sequence.

Allow me to fight my corner:

1 All necessary set-up can be provided in the opening crawl. Which gets rid of the un-necessary and frankly un-nerving Maz Kanata cameo.

2 This gives the opportunity to send Poe with Finn, instead of Rose. A favourite pairing from TFA gets more screen time together. Seeing as Rey doesn’t meet Poe until literally the end of this film, it is important that the other two sides of the triangle formed with our original characters are strong by the end of TLJ.

3 This gives the chance to strengthen Finn’s character arc. This way, his growth from sceptic to revolutionary is pulled into focus. Despite the injustices he witnesses on Canto Bight, he follows DJ’s advice of impartiality and tries to abandon ship. Enter Rose.

4 The fact that DJ works for both sides can play as a reveal to Poe, so he is surprised when he realises Holdo is already aware of this. This gives Poe more reason to be distrustful of Holdo.

5 It is important thematically that Rey, Poe, Finn and Rose are all given roughly equal heroic treatment. However, in the current situation, Rey is veering uncomfortably close to becoming a ‘chosen one’. This streamlined B-plot helps to slightly redress the imbalance.

And finally – issue number three – Rose. Not Rose as in her character – she is set up to introduce an interesting dynamic to our leads. Not Rose as in Kelly Marie Tran’s performance - she brings energy and warmth and spunk to every scene she is in and I will not hear a word against her goddamn it. Instead, the problem lies in how Rose is treated within the screenplay. She has plenty to do, but most is inconsequential, and the rest is poorly executed. This is where I would recommend the biggest changes.

Rose is a lover, not a fighter. And by lover I of course mean mechanic. Give her a chance to utilise her skills. Obviously, if everything had gone to plan she would have disabled the light-speed tracker. But it didn’t and she doesn’t. There needs to be another opportunity for Rose to display her talents. My personal suggestion? See those speeder things? This planet was abandoned. I’m very doubtful those speeders were in battle ready condition when the Resistance arrived. Give Rose a quick montage of turning a whole heap of junk into a somewhat driveable speeder.

And then don’t make her drive one! Let’s have some diversity in our leads! Not like racial diversity, although that’s also a bonus. No, I’m talking diversity in character traits. And it is there already, I just think there would be stronger differentiation if we give Rose more of a behind-the-scenes role vis-à-vis action scenes.

What about knock-on consequences I hear you cry? What would happen to Finn? It doesn’t really matter – any old plot contrivance. Have the Falcon reappear and knock Finn’s speeder out of the way. Have one of the ATATs actually aim on target and knock Finn’s speeder out of the way. Have a giant teleporting Wookie materialise and knock Finn’s speeder out of the way. Pick any of the above, or all of them, I literally do not care.

As a side note, I think this could also help streamline the overall thematic texture of the film. We are definitely being sent mixed messages regarding the ethics of personal sacrifice for a military cause. Paige’s sacrifice is brave and good. Holdo’s sacrifice is brave and good. Finn’s sacrifice is brave but stupid. And that subtext is largely down to one line. ‘That’s how we’re going to win. Not fighting what we hate but saving what we love.’ Yes, I know that this is Rose talking and her views on the matter have likely been strongly influenced by the death of her sister in a very similar situation at the start of the film and this line was likely not meant to be interpreted as a mission statement. But it still reads like that because of the language of the film-making. Everything about this scene – the swelling score and the fiery back-lighting and the intense close-up is telling the audience that this line is of critical importance.

If Finn has to make his way back to the base before reuniting with Rose, there’s a beat in the screenplay which ensures Finn’s heroism is not undercut. Rose still gets the character depth coming from that line-reading. And the viewer gets to understand that this is a statement coming from a character and not the screenplay itself. Hell, she can even kiss Finn if that’s what the screen-writers want and I wouldn’t complain.

And there we have it - that is as much as I am prepared to dump on The Last Jedi. Although I sincerely believe these few changes could transform The Last Jedi into a pretty-much flawless film, we all have to remember that the film has already been released and established in the canon, and barring a George Lucas-esque rework, it will remain that way. This is Rian Johnson’s film, through and through, and in my humble opinion it is a masterpiece. It is much, much easier to come up with a couple fix-all solutions after the fact (and even easier 8 months after) than to write an entire script from scratch.

That being said, please hire me Disney 😊

#film

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theseventhhex · 7 years

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D∆WN Interview

Dawn Richard

Photo by Rob Daly

Dawn Richard, known professionally as D∆WN, is a multi-platinum American singer-songwriter. Being in two groups, Dawn already has 2 consecutive platinum #1 albums under her belt with Danity Kane. D∆WN is one of music’s most distinctive voices and songwriters, developing her own unique style via a tirelessly independent route. Her latest solo album ‘Redemption’ strikes the perfect balance between future-facing electronic music and the music of D∆WN’s New Orleans upbringing, bound together by an untouchable approach to song-writing and flawless vocal range. The final part in a trilogy that started with ‘GoldenHeart’ and continued with ‘Blackheart’, it represents her most focused, complete album yet… The Seventh Hex talks to D∆WN about the DIY approach, literature and Game of Thrones…

TSH: How much effort and work is involved knowing you're taking on so much as a solo artist?

D∆WN: I didn't realise initially how much I would take on doing so much of my solo ventures on my own. However, it's been so rewarding, even though there's a lot of hard work involved. Trying to deliver on a variety of different fronts can be hard, you're doing the booking, you're setting up the stage and you're musically just putting it all together. Sometimes you think it's too much, but when you get on stage and see the reception, and to see the audience on your side - it's all worth it.

TSH: Have you found much time to catch your breath?

D∆WN: I haven't had a chance to look up! I've been so busy with these last three projects. You know, people were telling me I'm being over ambitious taking all of this work on, but I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do work of real quality with no machine backing me.

TSH: You're primarily leading and going in with pure passion?

D∆WN: Exactly! I love this approach, some might say it can feel challenging and not worthy, but I find it more odd when some media don't see you as indie and they just clump you in with the rest of the artists in a similar lane. The independent artists have it tough, especially when you're not backed my millions of views and sales. We're pitted against our peers and expected to deliver the same art than each other with no machine behind us. It's basically up to us to deliver and work twice as hard. You can certainly feel like quitting when it's not built for you to win, because our fanbase has to search and find us, we're not force-fed to them, so we have to work twice as hard. Nonetheless, it is gratifying and the DIY is becoming a bigger movement.

TSH: Is the idea of versatility a defining factor for you?

D∆WN: Yeah, the target is to always do something different. It just so happens that I'm not doing what everyone else is doing, which can be a great thing or a horrible thing, because when you're too different, sometimes people don't know how to embrace it. It can be disruptive to the social idea of what things are supposed to look like. However, I'm just born to be the disruptive pop girl. I'm just challenging myself to make people feel what I'm feeling - telling them a story that's worth telling and when they listen constantly, hopefully they can find and dissect new meanings within that they can relate to. I never like to make my art simple; therefore I tend to straddle the line of having depth but not being so deep that people don't understand me. One thing is for sure, the moment people don't understand something, they hate it instead of trying to understand and feel it. People don't like being uncomfortable.

TSH: Were you looking to capture a certain type of energy with 'Baptize'?

D∆WN: I definitely had a direction in mind. We actually did this song two years ago when I first met Kingdom. All those songs on that EP were done on the day we met. The entire project felt like the scene in the movie Moonlight, where he's teaching him how to swim and it's like a renewal. I felt like the sparseness and space between the recordings had this emptiness that we were capturing. I felt like I filled various gaps and it felt like a baptism type of moment. Throughout my voice wasn't really a part of the production but like water instead. I like the idea of applying the analogy of water all throughout the record alongside a feeling of fluidity. 'Baptize' definitely has this sense of stillness too.

TSH: What does 'How I Get It' signify to you?

D∆WN: That track signifies the angst that I have to consistently put middle fingers up to those who give me an idea of what success should look like. The movement I have behind me are very much 'the others'. We don't have this clichéd idea of how to reach success or what it's defined as on a specific path. This track is an F U to people who say we cannot create our own lanes. It entails a cockiness that we're still here and that our direction is unconventional. My entire story is unconventional. I'm tired of people saying black girls can't be in electronic culture or pop culture has to have one type of black girl. I'm over that idea. There is a revolution of the black girl and women in general coming into the music industry. We are just not going to accept the idea that we represent or are just one thing. I am definitely not your poster idea of pop. I am an acquired taste.

TSH: How do you commonly decide on your vocal direction?

D∆WN: It normally depends on the sounds being formed or the general feel of the record. I'm a fan of switching tones and manipulating my voice. I like to use my voice as an instrument a lot. Sometimes people think my voice is processed because I can really stretch it, thin it out and add volume to it. I like to also manipulate my voice on my own before I even get to using plug-ins or effects. It's fun to lay down vocals without effects and it definitely shows depth and versatility.

TSH: How empowered do you feel onstage?

D∆WN: The stage is my happy place. I love the stage because it's where the communication happens. It's my form of church with my movement. I'm grateful because my movement isn't just singers and artists, but dancers too. Overall, when I perform, I want to create a world where people can escape, it's all I want to do. I want the audience to have a cathartic feel. Dance helps make this happen. The audience can move their bodies and it gives them strength in a way that they normally might not have. The live shows should consist of a vibe of non-judgment - the crowd can feel free to take whatever form they want.

TSH: You come from an educated family and your mother has taught four generations of kids. How amazing has it been to have such strong ethics and values instilled in you from an early age?

D∆WN: It's so amazing. You know, it's funny because when I was younger, it was horrible, haha! My parents being teachers meant they wanted us to be great all of the time. Now, as an adult, it's brilliant to look back because it's forced me and my brother to accept only greatness. We constantly push ourselves, and, for me, it can be stressful. I am a workaholic and I don't know when to stop, but I'm eternally grateful for what my parents represented and I appreciate them for making me a lover of the book...

TSH: You cite the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and Gustav Klimt as influences...

D∆WN: For sure. These days people don't read anymore. I love authors, novelists, sonnets and poems. I personally feel a lot of the depth in my lyrics and my stories comes from my love of literature. My parents were educators and I was able to be around a family of librarians. I was surrounded by people with masters degrees and PHDs. I got to see both sides - the artistic and intellectual side of academia; therefore I like to apply both worlds to my music.

TSH: Is Hans Zimmer very much your dream collaboration?

D∆WN: Oh man, if I could work with him, I could die after that! What he is, is the dream for me. He makes me full when I listen to his scores. When I saw him at Coahcella, I was taken back and so glad that the youth could see what he's all about.

TSH: You also very much admire the female characters in Game of Thrones, in particular Olenna Tyrell...

D∆WN: Lady Olenna is a boss! She's like my spirit animal. I think most of Game of Thrones' female characters influence my style, fashion and also what a woman should be. I feel the show gets it, you know? When you think about the show, the real strengths are the women. Cersei, Sansa, Daenarys and Arya each have a warrior like spirit that shows women can be more. Also, the way Lady Olenna died is how I'd go - I can relate to that - never bow down and tell it to someone's face. That show has a lot to do with the rising female power. The men are only great in the show because they have great women around them.

TSH: How do you like to unwind, outside of music?

D∆WN: I take time to do yoga, but I'm just blessed to have an amazing family. I keep my personal life private and close to me on purpose, because it's been good to me. In my spare time, I separate the woman from the work. I'm lucky enough to have a group around me that will tell me I need to relax. I live in a vegan household, which is also very refreshing.

TSH: What are the key aspects that you hope to maintain and stay true to as you look ahead?

D∆WN: I just want to continue to move people. We've become so complacent and desensitised with things that we don't even realise how to embrace the new. I'll be happy if I inspire other DIY artists to push this independent route. Overall, I want to leave a legacy where people can see that you could do it without yes people and without force-feeding people. I want people to know that your passion and hard work can be enough to achieve greatness. The machine is not the only way that you can be successful, you can be self-made - it is possible. There is a lane I want to burst open, whereupon independent artists can thrive.

D∆WN - “LA (feat. Trombone Shorty)”

Redemption

#Interview #Dawn Richard #D∆WN

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