The setup for IX, and where the story could go

Yes, I know. But in that scene Kylo presented himself as superior to Rey because of her apparent lack of heritage. That's not what I'd call "balance."

 

Should it be Hayden Christensen or a CGI’d Sebastian Stan?

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 10, 2018, Original Post Date: Aug 10, 2018 ---

The more I think about it, I feel that if Ben Solo is redeemed, he should be redeemed earlier in the film. That way it will be different from ROTJ. We could actually spend some quality time with Ben Solo as a hero. With Snoke gone, that would leave the Knights of Ren as the main villains. Maybe one of the
KOR would take Kylo's place as master. They are the dangling thread that hasn't been explored yet. It would make sense to have them be the main villains in IX.

 

I would say Hayden Christensen. A younger Anakin can empathisze much better with Kylo Ren.

I though Kylo would have been redeemed by the end of TLJ. Obviously it didn't happen. But maybe you're right and Kylo will be redeemed by the end of act one of the next movie. The main villains would be the KOR and Hux then. This could be very interesting.

 

even though i prefer Stan at the end of the RotJ, i have no objections to it being Christiansen for this reason too; they'd be roughly the same age and could relate to one another better.

i don't see him "redeemed" at the start per se, but i do think he'll make a break from the FO early.
but like you said, i thought it would happen at the end of the TLJ, so clearly my story-foo is off.

 

Yeah, this. He gets betrayed by Hux and the KOR.

It was exactly the opposite then. At the beginning of TLJ he was much lighter and at the end he was dark. Yeah, we were way off. xD

 

in retrospect it makes sense: leave everybody at their lowest point in the second part and come out swinging in the third.

 

that's exactly what i want. i find the thought of Kylo (still in the dark) finding himself as an enemy of pretty much every sod in the galaxy - mouth watering.

yes i want that to culminate in Ben coming back to the light, but i've loved this roller coaster ride so far and i'm happy to go around it a few more times

 

he won't be redeemed until the fighting stops. he can't be.
so long as there's a choice of sides, he's going to be conflicted and confused.
his place is neither with the FO nor the Resistance. he'll find it in the balance.

 

My guess is that the main theme of the film will be about, leadership. What makes a good leader. Rey and Kylo have both been placed into positions of leadership by loss. Examination of how those who want power don't deserve it, and how fearmongering is not a good leadership practice. Contrasted with Rey who doesn't crave power, thus deserves it. Doesn't want to spread fear. Makes for a good leader. We'll see the result of Kylo forcing (no pun intended) himself onto the role of leader in contrast to Rey being thrust into the role against her wishes. Kylo's kingdom will crumble (probably at the hands of Hux) while Rey's will flourish. Kylo will find himself utterly alone like Rey on Jakku. Rey will find herslf surrounded by friends and allies.

I expect probably some insight into the past. The real reason for Kylo's turn to be revealed in full. Thus creating an "Ah, so that's why he turned" in order to set up an easy contrast to "Ah, so that's how he's redeemed" by fixing that simple impetus in some way (obviously through Rey).

Other than that nothing comes to mind.

 

Good idea here. They will be leaders and as such thebe looked at a bit differently,hmmmm

 

I actually think the leadership theme is more between Kylo and Poe. Kylo should be a good leader, Poe shoule be a bad one.

 

Let me disagree on that. Poe has waaaaaaaaay more chill than Kylo.

 

I'm talking future. ;D We will probably get a big time jump between TLJ and IX. And btw Poe and his terroristic way of doing things isn't much better.

 

hahahaha ~ yeah, just because he asks permission doesn't actually make him better than Ren.

Ren does have his moments of demonstrating that he can take instruction well enough.
though i do think one of the strangest moments in TLJ is when Hux tells Ren he's out of range and to come back home.
because why does Ren care, first of all, and secondly, why does Hux care?

while it's probably just a matter of convenient plotting, filling in all sorts of subtext there is so delicious. XD

 

And that way was undone in TLJ. Yeah, yeah, the whole "burning the First Order down" thing still exists, but he's definitely not gonna do anything that costs more Rebellion's members lives than there needs to be spent.

The only sensiblle angle for Poe's arc in IX, at least in my opinion, is a progression from a war-time leader to peace-time leader. He's no terrorist, he's a general but not that much time later there'll be a need for a chancellor and being a chancellor and being a general are two different things. If that's what you meant by the leadership theme, then I think I agree with you because Kylo's not gonna be a good leader by any means. He has too much of his grandfather's heart and Anakin was an impulsive boor.

 

That could be a factor, true. The reason I contrasted Rey with Kylo is that, in the story, Kylo's mentor is Snoke, Rey's is Luke and Poe's is Leia. In TLJ both Kylo and Rey's mentors left the story, leaving their respective place to be filled. Kylo of course forced the mantle onto his shoulders by eliminating his mentor, while Luke's mantle is passed to Rey who didn't willingly desire it.

Poe on the other hand? As far as we know Leia is still around so I couldn't say that he is inheriting any mantle of leadership. It's certainly possible that Poe will become a leader in the next film, but I honestly have no idea what they're planning with Leia so, not enough information to formulate an adequate hypothesis, as it were. But if the mantle of leadership does fall on Poe, then we just run the same contrast as Kylo-Rey except now divide to Kylo->Rey-Poe; meaning we contrast Kylo's "governmental" leadership with Poe, and Kylo's "religious" leadership with Rey. By "religious" I mean, as force users.

Okay that's an interesting conclusion. I'm not sure I follow how you're getting there. So far, Kylo looks like he should be a tyrannical despot who rules through fear and intimidation. I don't see any indicators of him being some kind of, benevolent dictator. I would think that benevolence and light go pretty much hand in hand, and Kylo seems to be pretty bent on being as distant from light as possible. Plus there's just the history of dark side rulers in the saga being, awful rulers who bring "peace through tyranny". Not to mention all of Kylo's actions we see in the movies don't seem to point to any kind of, great leader. Unless we count our Captain Bligh's as great leaders, but I certainly wouldn't.