The Redemption of Ben Solo: Does it Work?

I agree; I like that storyline better, but the TROS outcome works well, too.

 

Yes, I loved the idea of 'Rey Nobody'.

 

How does Rey being from a Palpatine make her successes and mistakes not her own?

Nobody likes to be nobody. Imagine going up to someone and telling them they can't be anybody because you only like them as a nobody.

 

I feel the same about my affection for Kylo...unfortunately it hasn't stopped the 'hate' I've got off quite a lot of SW fans.

 

Reminds me of when it was OK to like whatever you wanted and complain about everything else, exactly as you saw fit. And when your Mom got tired of hearing about ALL of it, she finally relented and let u outside to play in the snow go save Echo Base.


Before the Dark Times, before the internet.

 

The good old days when your mommy's threshold for listening to your incessant crying determined what you could and couldn't do.

 

Ah yes...now it's social media...

 

Do people even internet anymore? How did ya miss the four you's? - And I have \no idea who "your Mommy" is.... I was raised by wolves!! Fun times.

 

For me it doesn't the way it is presented in the movie. I would buy it better, if Kylo went his evil ways throughout and the whole Palpatine reveal was done better in the third act as the plot twist, with heroes putting the puzzle together and then the bomb about every voice in his head and being manipulated was dropped.
Then we could see Kylo finally choosing his fate and make his character even more tragic.
Episode IX has good ideas, but handled bad, really bad.

 

I'd just like to know why the sequels, supposedly the last films in the Skywalker saga, had a central protagonist that wasn't one.
You can love or hate Kylo/Ben, but the sequels should have either been about him, or Rey should have been the Skywalker. Then they could make their spin off tv series and spin off films about non Skywalkers.
Apparently, there was a bit of a fuss regarding a poll on the official SW site where they 'asked' the GA who they wanted to see most in Episode IX and Kylo won with 81% of the votes...and they reset the poll, more than once. Someone wasn't happy.

 

Interesting thought. It just blatantly shows one of the shortcomings of the sequels in general.
Even tho I like the first two episodes and have problems with IX, the cheeky question from George Lucas pops in my head: "What happened to Darth Vader's grandchildren?"

And that sums it up pretty much. Original Trilogy is the story of Luke and by the reveal in Ep. VI Leia, Prequels are story of their parents and Anakin's downfall mirroring the fall of the Jedi and Republic which he was hands on.
What is the story of Sequels in this? Of the youngest Skywalker doing Vader cosplay, everyone dying... If the beats are supposed to rhyme, we have a Downfall in prequels, Redemption in originals and I really struggle to come up with what the Sequels are supposed to be.
For me it is the extra with laser swords, spaceships and familiar world, but beyond that, there is not much.

As much as I am not a huge fan of old EU, the original story of siblings on the opposite sides of the conflict was actually a strong theme, that could have been about defeating your destiny and final redemption (there has to be ballance, so imagine resolving the conflict in a way that doesn't need to be necessarily for good to destroy evil as that is impossible).
I have actually liked the idea from Last Jedi and Kylo hitting on that, that you don't have to be from a "royal" bloodline to matter, that everyone can be a hero, even nobody. That is a strong theme if we forgo the Skywalker family.
But Rey being Palpatine through another wonky and cheesy plottwist killed it pretty much, plus the family simply dying and Rey being adopted somewhat.

You can always find pleasing explanation in it, like: The Skywalkers failed (which makes the ending of Episode VI kinda anticlimactic in my opinion) and the galaxy and ballance was ultimately delivered by offspring of their greatest enemy.
I don't know what the morale of that is, instead of putting poodoo on the whole saga with a troll.
Plus it should be straightforward than the convoluted mess we've got in the end.

I don't have a problem with Rey being Skywalker by a mental adoption or any ideas in general, but with writing involved and the story culminating in a way it did, I seriously thought at the end in cinema 3 years ago WHAT THE FLUFF!

And about the protagonist... Yeah. Supposedly, Kylo called it out as well when he told Rey that she is not the part of the story!
We haven't seen Kylo's journey at all, just him trying hard to go dark through the movies from a point of evil he starts at in Episode VII and climbing up power ladder in First Order, just to be redeemed after he is basically tired from it.
The main protagonist is logically Rey, but somehow, it misses all the established SW storytelling beats and is shoehorned in by a retcon in the last movie, to basically ditch the poor kid's potential dreams in those stables. Sure, she is Palpatine and overall, I don't have issues with her being the star of the show, but just because there are Skywalker kids old and young, it doesn't make it a Skywalker saga in my opinion. In that case, it could be Obi-Wan's saga as well, as he basically mirrors Luke, we just didn't saw his bad years in-between Prequels and Originals (until Obi-Wan series). For Skywalkers themselves, I somehow miss the story itself.
What is the lesson here? That history repeats and everything happens in cycles?

 

Nothing wrong with being raised by wolves, is it?
Nose to the wind and howling to the moon every now and then... Fun times, inded!

 

Bit of a depressing finale, methinks.
Once upon a time, there was an innocent child who grew up into a passionate young man. He fell madly in love, but when he began to fear losing his love, he was corrupted and turned into a monster by another monster. His son and daughter were hidden from their own father to keep them safe, but fate reunited them. Although his mentors urged him to destroy his father, the boy refused, and believed he could save him. And then when hope seemed lost, the father turned on the monster....and destroyed him to save his son.

Then thirty years later....the monster returned, and brought about the end of the son, the daughter, her husband ....and their child, the last of the line. The heroes are all dead, their bloodline ended forever....but the monster's blood lives on, in his own descendant, who is apparently good....
......for now.

Thus ends the Skywalker Saga, from fairy tale to horror story with just one film.

 

I actually felt quite depressed after the first time in cinema and watching it at home still feels depressing.

But hope dies last… somehow, Palpatine may return again!

 

Nothing would surprise me after TROS; they killed off all the heroes and their bloodline and gave the uber villain a descendant. So, if Rey makes Little Reys with Poe or Finn, one of them may be the New Palpatine.
Heck, it's like the 'bad guy wins'.

 

Let's hope that the biology works the same as spaceflight physics... or rather no.

 

Is it possible that way too much leverage has been put on Rey being a descendant of Palpatine? He was "dead" before she was born, she wasn't raised by her parents, who by the way, obviously were not hellbent on controlling the Galaxy like dear old dad... So if a bloodline is merely a passing on of midichlorians or Force sensitivity, or whatever, wouldn't her learned behavior and upbringing influence her Light/Dark tendencies? Nature vs nurture. Kylo was trying to seduce her to the Dark just as Snoke did him, Vader with Luke, Palpatine with Anakin, so on and so on... Rey clearly grew up with stories of the Heroic Rebellion and she was being influenced toward the Light by Han, Leia, Finn, Poe, Luke, etc. From the first idea in Lucas' mind this has been a story about balance. Balance within leads to balance with others which leads to balance Galaxy-wide. Looking at things with that idea make the silly and non-sensical parts, like Emporer Palpenstein and his ghost fleet seem much less consequential in the grand scheme of things. Just another Evil to be defeated. He absolutely could(should) have been written as a new character, for whatever reason TPTB decided better to contort into this.
The ending with the yellow lightsaber and the taking the name Skywalker signaled that balance, and that it really doesn't matter WHO you came from as much as WHERE you came from. The Skywalker name is one of Epic Heroism and that is who she feels kinship to.

 

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it. This whole thing of Rey taking up the Skywalker name sounds like a salvage job created by Abrams and Lucasfilm to make up for ending the Skywalker lineage - an act that was completely unnecessary to me. Just because the Skywalker line continued, doesn't mean Lucasfilm was obliged to continue making future movies and TV shows solely about the family. If Lucasfilm was not prepared to create more stories about the Skywalkers, then it shouldn't have created the Sequel Trilogy in the first place. What a **** up.