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Post #1199510

Author
RogueLeader
Parent topic
The Last Jedi : a Fan Edit Ideas thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1199510/action/topic#1199510
Date created
23-Apr-2018, 2:51 AM

I do really like Adam’s performance in 8, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that if possible.

I guess the best thing to do would be to cut the shot of the ship leaving Jakku, and/or replace it with something else that better fits Kylo’s story, if possible. But it would be easier to cut Kylo’s lines to make the stories line up more. Decisions, decisions.

Rey’s arc in TFA is an interesting one. I actually took a Media & Myth class the semester after TFA came out, and I did the focus of my research on Rey. Rey’s journey in TFA does fit in with the hero’s journey, so it inevitably bears many similarities with Luke’s own journey. She has an initial refusal to the call on Jakku regarding getting BB-8 back to the Resistance, but I would say her true “burning homestead” moment is at the end of the film, when she takes the saber, which is also why I think the use of that motif was so perfect in that scene. That was her finally accepting the call to adventure for the story that will take place over the course of the trilogy.

A lot of literary scholars also suggest that a dinstinct heroine’s journey exists, where the heroine goes on a journey from self-negation to self-affirmation, which fits Rey’s arc pretty nicely. A big theme of TFA is identity. Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren all deal with their own identities in the film. For Rey, she experiences a denial of self, this path the Force is trying to put her on, and it isn’t until the end that she accepts this true self the Force is trying to show her.

I think TLJ is definitely a continuation of that journey. While I think TFA had a complete physical journey for Rey, I think TFA was only the beginning of her spiritual Hero’s Journey, so to speak. I haven’t really read any analyses regarding the hero’s journey in TLJ, but if I had to guess, TFA ended/TLJ began with Rey meeting the Mentor (Han was her mentor in the TFA journey). Her learning about the Force, entering the Special World, was crossing the First Threshold. Her Tests were not physical tests, but tests of her beliefs. The Darkside cave was obviously her Approach to the Inmost Cave (in TFA it was Maz’s basement and the Force vision). And the revelation about her parents was likely her Ordeal, Death, Rebirth. The escape pod being like a casket, a descent into the underworld. Snoke’s throne room being very reminiscent to hell (red, flames, Snoke/Satan figure). And her escape and subsequent scenes being her Rebirth.

While each Star Wars film (like many films do) have their own hero’s journey, the trilogy will have an overarching journey, so I would guess IX will complete that circle and cover the “Return” part of her major journey.

I’m very sorry for rambling so much, all of the research I did for my papers on Rey and the hero’s journey bubbled up again. This might be better for the discussion thread but I suppose this could be useful when one considers heavily restructuring the films.