The Basic Plot of The Rise of Skywalker, Updated and Expanded: Act I (Via JediPaxis)

Luke's entire story arc in TLJ was conceived of and approved of by Lucas in 2013 during the pre-production process for TFA, and he collaborated directly with Abrams and Terrio on the methodology behind Palpatine returning for TRoS.

Lucas may very well have been hurt and angry at his full story treatments being discarded, but elements of them were in fact used and he was given an opportunity to have a direct hand in the development of a key piece of TroS' narrative.

That is why it is disingenuous to make the claim that his outlines were completely discarded and to overexaggerate the degree to which his relationship with Lucasfilm and Disney soured.

 

Fair. Though Luke very much wanted Vader to live as well.

And Han and Leia are Kylo's parents, so them wanting their son to live is completely logical. If their characters thought any differently than this you wouldn't feel any maternal or paternal connection between them.

From a story telling perspective, this helps the audience feel the familial relationship and be on board with a heroic, sacrificial death.

 

An old but relevant thread:

https://thecantina.starwarsnewsnet.com/index.php?threads/did-snoke-force-drain-luke.10153/

"Did you know that Sith Lords could sometimes drain the Force energy from their captives? Siphoning life from them using it to strengthen their connection to the dark side? Extending their own lives, as well, so that they could live for centuries beyond their intended expiration?"

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 9, 2019, Original Post Date: Dec 9, 2019 ---

So it seems pre-ROTJ "death", Palpatine learned of the old Sith technique of Force draining. He likely went to Exogon and found Snoke and had him cloned. Sent the original off to do his dirty work and then used the clones to drain them in order to keep himself alive. But he cannot return to full power until he siphons the Force from Rey/Ren. Or perhaps needs Rey's healing power to fix him up (which requires her to turn).

OR. Or...this is all Plagueis and I haven't wasted 15 years posting ludicrous fan theories about him. A tragedy indeed.

 

twist arises and cringe to meet it.

 

Closest we've com is this:

“Everyone hated it in Phantom Menace [when] we started to talk about midi-chlorians.”
“There’s a whole aspect to that movie that is about symbiotic relationships. To make you look and see that we aren’t the boss. That there’s an ecosystem.”
“[The next three Star Wars films] were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force.”
“Back in the day, I used to say ultimately what this means is we were just cars, vehicles for the Whills to travel around. We’re vessels for them. And the conduct is the midi-chlorians. The midi-chlorians are the ones that communicate with the Whills. The Whills, in a general sense, they are the Force.”
“If I’d held onto the company I could have done it, and then it would have been done. Of course, a lot of the fans would have hated it, just like they did Phantom Menace and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would be told.” - Lucas speaking to James Cameron for James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, 2018

And historically, FWIW...

"I have story treatments on all nine. I also have voluminous notes, histories, and other material I've developed for various purposes. Some of it will be used, some not. Originally, when I wrote Star Wars, it developed into an epic on the scale of War and Peace, so big I couldn't possibly make it into a movie. So it cut it in half, but it was still too big, so I cut each half into three parts. I then had material for six movies. After the success of Star Wars I added anothet trilogy but stopped there, primarily because reality took over. After all, it takes three years to prepare and make a Star Wars picture. How many years are left? So I'm still left with three trilogies of nine films. At two hours each, that's about eighteen hours of film!
"The next chapter is called 'Revenge of the Jedi'. It's the end of this particular trilogy, the conclusion of the conflict begun in Star Wars between Luke and Darth Vader. It resolves that situation once and for all. I won't say who survives and who doesn't, but if we are ever able to link together all three you'd find the story progresses in a very logical fashion."
- George Lucas, 1979

"It [the sequel trilogy] deals with the character who survives Star Wars III [Return of the Jedi] and his adventures."
- George Lucas to Bantha Tracks, Spring 1980

Rolling Stone: "Do you have story lines for the seven Star Wars movies left to be done?"
George Lucas: "Yes, twelve-page outlines."
- Rolling Stone, June 1980

Starlog: "Is there going to be character continuity among all three trilogies?"
Lucas: "No - possibly the robots, but they weren't originally designed to go through the whole... nobody was designed to go through all three [trilogies]. I'd like to see the robots go through them, but I don't know whether they will."
- Starlog, July 1981

"The third [trilogy will] deal with moral and philosophical problems. In Star Wars, there is a very clear line drawn between good and evil. Eventually you have to face the fact that good and evil aren't that clear-cut and the real issue is trying to understand the difference. The sequel is about Jedi knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned."
- George Lucas, Worrell, Icons: Intimate Portraits, 1983

Starlog: "Will you return to the Star Wars universe?"
Lucas: "Hopefully, I will someday be doing the next three Star Wars, but I'm not sure when. The next three would take place 20 or 30 years before the films they're celebrating here today. I'll do the first trilogy first. There are nine [films] floating around there somewhere. I'll guarantee that the first three are pretty much organized in my head, but the other three are kind of out there somewhere."
Starlog: "Why didn't you give Luke a girl?"
Lucas: "You haven't seen the last three yet."
- Starlog, issue 127, February 1988


"Luke would now be a 60-something mentor figure like Kenobi. Hamill and the others will get first crack at the roles – if they look old enough.”
- George Lucas, 1983

"[Episodes VII, VIII and IX deal with] the rebuilding of the Republic [and] the necessity for moral choices and the wisdom needed to distinguish right from wrong. If the first trilogy is social and political and talks about how society evolves, Star Wars is more about personal growth and self-realization, and the third deals with moral and philosophical problems. In Star Wars there is a very clear line drawn between good and evil. Eventually you have to face the fact that good and evil aren’t that clear cut, and the real issue is trying to understand the difference. The sequel is about Jedi Knighthood, justice, confrontation, and passing on what you have learned."
George Lucas, 1983

"Empire and Jedi were what that first film was supposed to be. And after that, I can tell another story about what happens to Luke after this trilogy ends. All the prequel stories exist: where Darth Vader came from, the whole story about Darth and Ben Kenobi, and it all takes place before Luke was born. The other one - what happens to Luke afterwards - is much more ethereal. I have a tiny notebook full of notes on that. If I'm really ambitious, I could proceed to figure out what would have happened to Luke."
George Lucas, circa 1990

Interviewer: "Will Luke Skywalker ever get married?"
George Lucas: "Not in the next three, since he is not born."
I: "In the final trilogy?"
GL: "I don't know. I'm not sure which kind of characters will be in the sequels. Nothing definitive. We'll have to wait and see."
- Youth TV interview, 1997

Johnny Vaughan: "The way I imagine it is that George has this great big leather book, covered in dust, it's the Chronicles of Space and you've written the whole thing already and it's complete in your own mind. Is that right?"
George Lucas: "No, that's wrong."
JV: "You don't have the complete story, mapped out from the start, all those years ago?"
GL: "No."
JV: "Okay, nice one, so you're winging it."
GL: "No, I have a little story treatment, a little outline that says this happened here, this happened here and, in the first one I had all the scripts, but I had to rewrite the scripts so they went along because since they became three movies, they had to have different structures and things, but the ones I'm working on now, was the back story which I'd written out, which was this was where he comes from, this was were he comes from, this is what the Clone Wars were about; it's just a little outline that goes right through the plot of the movie and where the characters came from and what they did - it's only about seven or eight pages."
JV: "Oh, that's brilliant, all those people that think you've schemed the whole thing up, but in fact, George Lucas, he makes it up as he goes along."
GL: (Chuckles)
- The Big Breakfast, BBC Television, July 16th, 1999

"The story of Star Wars is actually recounted by R2-D2... [to a Shaman of the Whills] 100 years after Return of the Jedi."
- Making of ROTS, 2005

"The final episode is the restoration of the Republic."
- Making of TESB, 2010

"So once Kathy came on board we starting working with writers and started working on all the processes of doing the films. So, we've got a plan for seven, eight and nine, which is the end of the trilogy, and other films also. So, we have a large group of ideas and characters and books and all kinds of things, we could go on making Star Wars for the next hundred years. I have story treatments of seven, eight and nine and a bunch of other movies. And obviously we have hundreds of books and comics and everything you can possibly imagine. So, you know, I've sorta moved that treasure trove of stories and various things to [Kathleen Kennedy] and have I complete confidence that she's gonna take them and make great movies."
- October 2012

"It was originally a 12-part saga. The three most exciting stories were 7, 8 and 9. They had propulsive action, really interesting new worlds, new characters. I remember thinking, ‘I want to see these 3 movies."
- Dale Pollock, October 2012

"Ultimately you have to say, ‘Look, I know what I’m doing. Buying my stories is part of what the deal is.’ I’ve worked at this for 40 years, and I’ve been pretty successful, I mean, I could have said, ‘Fine, well, I’ll just sell the company to somebody else.’?”
“I mostly say, ‘You can’t do this. You can do that,’?” Lucas says. “You know, ‘The cars don’t have wheels. They fly with antigravity.’ There’s a million little pieces. Or I can say, ‘He doesn’t have the power to do that, or he has to do this.’ I know all that stuff.”
- Businessweek, March 7, 2013

 

my two cents...
I believe Disney acquired the treatments just to make sure that nobody will ever make them public.
Not even Lucas. I don’t think he can. And I think he cannot even talk about them - about
the details of said story - in a interview or bio.

But in 20 years for now, or more, I won’t be surprised if Disney to milk SW again, will realize a brand new Skywalker saga (I mean a remake of the Skywalker’s saga) as the “true and fully GL’s story”.

They’ll sell it as an homage to the genius of George Lucas.

 

Rey is burying a lightsaber? How did I miss this? Is it a leak or footage I missed in a TV spot?

 

It's one of the rumors. Apparently she buries the remains of both Luke and Leia's lightsabers on Tattooine and then tells someone she is Rey Skywalker.

 

Burying lightsabers.. that’s sacrilege! poor Kyber crysals: “we can’t breath!”

 

She apparently uses parts from both to build her own and then buries the remains of the two.

 

Returning to her Scarapper Jakku roots eh? I still would not bury the remains of the sabers.

 

they basically screwed Han, Han and Leia as a couple and as partentes, Luke, Anakin and even Palpatine to serve Ben/Kylo character arc.
A character that no matter how hard they tried, is - imo - a not compelling villain and that won't end up with a compelling redemption arc.

And in my opionion... even Rey in TLJ. Who had not purpose, no agency in that movie, because she was used as the romantic counterpart. That was RJ's vision for her - because... (the irony!) she a woman, and what else one can possibly imagine for her?

Now, I am pretty sure ROTS may actually be a good ride. And entertaining to watch..
But the "story" of this ST is absolutely forgettable.

Which at the end of the day, is not even that bad.

In few weeks I'll totally forget about it.
As I forgot every other pointless and weak sequel that is simply no worth to be remember.

SW is I to VI. End.

 

Well going out on a huge limb here, couldn't the force ghosts that help her in the end of the movie just tell Rey where it is? Its not like they've never done that before, Luke had never heard of Degobah before the ghost of Obi Wan mentioned it to him.

 

It's possible. Not sure of what the purpose of going to Tatooine really is here other than nostalgia. In all honesty it's going to be hard to top The Mandalorian in the nostalgia/Tatooine department.

 

My guess it's to end the story where it began, with Luke looking out at the Tatooine sunsets. This is a very common story telling technique. Perhaps Rey builds a Jedi academy at the site of the Lars Homestead, I could also see Rey living there. Its a place similar to where she came from. So there is that.

 

Lol Mace Windu and not Anakin? The only people who could have been confirmed to have seen the film already is cast and probably crew. There is a premiere event tomorrow in Japan and they're only going to show the first hour. So will see. It's awfully convenient though (especially the part were this person won't remember everything they saw) that it happens to coincide with his leaks.

 

Spoiler: Anakin

Is Anakin in the movie?

• "He was not at all that I noticed.

Well I hope that is not the case. It would be such a let down if this is true. Wow J.J. really hates the prequels if this is true.

Spoiler: Come On....

How can you have the last film of the SKYWALKER SAGA and not have the Force Ghost of the chosen one, Anakin Skywalker? How can you have Palpatine back and not give us a Force Ghost Anakin? I did not expect Anakin Skywalker have a large part or even a significant part, but I least hope that we would get a Force Ghost at the end of the movie like ROTJ. I feel so bad for Hayden Christensen, it's like Lucasfilm is like F. you, your contribution to the saga is not important. If this leak is true, this is how I am going to feel about the sequel trilogy over all: A lot of great moments, but a lot of glaringly MISSED opportunities (example: no scene of Han, Leia and Luke together, only one film with Rey, Finn and Poe together on an adventure (not establishing a friendship throughout the trilogy, and no Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker. )

I won't hate the sequel trilogy if this leak is true, I just will have a sad thought of "What if, or If only, or What could have been" everytime when I watch this sequel trilogy.

 

Looks like I lost a bet. Damn Reylo's!

 

Lucasfilm be like: "you'll get Mace Windu [who doesn't even know the ability to become one] AND LIKE IT"