I found this to be an interesting perspective on the film …https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-most-important-thing-the-rise-of-skywalker-reinforc-1841069664
Read the article, and I gotta say that’s pretty dumb. I’ll explain how:
TLJ: Rey is nobody, just a random girl from a random planets, her parents were nobody and they don’t matter. Anyone can be a powerful Jedi.
TROS: Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine and she’s powerful because of her bloodline. In the end she chooses to take the name Skywalker because Luke and Leia Skywalker are who trained her.
Gizmodo: See? If TROS really wanted to reject TLJ they would have made Rey an actual Skywalker and have that be why she’s so powerful!Making Rey the descendant of literally any character we know, regardless of who they are, is a rejection of TLJ. The only way to not recon TLJ is to accept that her parents are nobody and don’t matter, and to throw that mystery box away and not touch it for the rest of the trilogy.
I don’t see it that way. In fact, I see an interesting parallel to the OT. ANH: Luke, let’s kill off your only living family to make you go on this quest. TESB: Luke, well, actually, your father became Darth Vader. ROTJ: Luke, that girl you like and kissed, well, she is your sister. A lot of fans are still arguing about that one to this day. They thought the other should have been somone else, but the answer to why it is Leia is in the movie. What else would spark Luke’s rage? Vader senses his secret and threatens Leia and Luke loses it. The story required something personal enough for Luke to risk the dark side. The finale of the ST and saga required an epic villain and who better than Palpatine risen from the dead. And what better curve to throw Rey than to make her his granddaughter (I would have made her the great granddaughter). It questions every success she has had to this point and makes her doubt. It was a risky choice, but one I don’t feel negates TLJ’s message that anyone can be a Jedi. It solidified its own message with broom boy at the end. TROS has its own message, that we can overcome the faults of our ancestors. That we are not what our blood dictates. Our heroes are revealed to be a former stormtrooper, a former spice smuggler, and a Palpatine. Like Han in the OT, they overcame their past to be the heroes the galaxy needed.
- I’m sure you’ll respond with some quip about how I’m not a really fan or part of the community or whatever but I’ve never heard debates about whether or not Leia should have been Luke’s sister.
- No, there didn’t need to be an epic villain, and the Duel of the Fates script is evidence of that. Rian Johnson clearly was leading up for Kylo to be the antagonist in episode 9. Do something original and have the turning of the antagonist to the light be the conflict audiences care about, not just beating the same bad guy from the last 6 movies again.
- Yes, TROS does tell a different message than TLJ, that’s my point. It shouldn’t in regards to Rey because telling a different story requires changing Rey’s backstory. It throws Rey around all over the place with clearly no plan and it greatly dimishes her growth. Yes character growth is possible with a mystery backstory but it’s much more difficult (and these movies don’t pull it off), especially when who she is in the eyes of the audience changes very much between movies. I think you give these movies too much credit
Rey in TFA: A powerful scrapper girl from a junk planet whose parents, whom we don’t know, abandoned her.
Rey in TLJ: A powerful scrapper girl from a junk planet whose parents, whom we don’t know and who don’t matter, abandoned her.
Rey in TROS: The granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine who was left on a junk planet to protect her from her grandfather.
Luke in SW: A farmboy.
Luke in TESB: A farmboy-turned rebel, whose Father is Darth Vader.
Luke in ROTJ: A farmboy-turned rebel-turned Jedi, whose Father is Darth Vader, and sister is Leia.
See how these changes to Luke’s character are only additions to his character and not complete changes in the nature of the character and where they are from, and the nature of their strengths and what not? Leia being Luke’s sister doesn’t change how we see Luke like how Rey being the granddaughter of the greatest Sith Lord changes how we see Rey.