15. Jedha (Rogue One)
For my money, this is the new Star Wars planet (technically it’s a moon) that feels the Star Wars–iest. It’s basically an interstellar Tibet — a cold, mountainous place where holy men and galactic backpackers exist alongside an Imperial occupation. And if you like your planets to contain chilling reminders of the impermanence of earthly glory, Jeddah also has a few gargantuan Jedi statues crumpled across its landscape, “Ozymandias”-style. Docked a few spots for its most interesting city getting blown up.
Validation on my Jedha meta from Variety! Docked a few points for “Jeddah,” but the article makes up for it with piping hot takes on Hosnian Prime and D’Qar. (It also made me appreciate Jakku in a way I’d never thought to before, aka At All.)
Also, on a little bit of SERIOUS Star Wars talk and hypothesizing (yes, I can still do that!):
I saw a proposition going around about Rey killing her parents when they flew off in the ship–she yelled for them to come back, the ship didn’t turn around, her Force powers crushed the ship and brought it down and killed them, she suppressed all of her memories after that.
You know what? That’s a great hypothesis!
The only reason why being that this could have confronted her in the cave beneath Ach-To. “Oh, hey, girl, remember how you were judging Kylo Ren for murdering his dad? WELL GUESS WHAT, HON, HAVE I GOT A SURPRISE FOR YOU!”
Alternatively, when Kylo revealed the truth about her parents, he could have said “You killed your parents. You’re no better than me.” Done the whole “projecting” thing. “You hurt your parents because you couldn’t control your powers, Skywalker refused to teach you because he knew you could do it again, and if you leave, you’re only going to hurt someone else.” You know, really turn up the gaslights and the abuse.
Now, if such a revelation comes–in the final act of the Star Wars saga–what’s the point? Why does it matter? You had two powerful wham moments to bring the truth out: once when Rey was determined to master the power she’d found within her but didn’t know what direction to go, and once when Kylo wanted to bring her to his side.
I mean, it’s possible that this was the story mapped out from Episode 7, but if it was, it’s already crashed and burned. Having Rey broken and confused at the end of the second episode, without a teacher to help her control her powers and surrounded by friends and loved ones she might hurt…that’s a personal fall for her. That’s character and depth that raises questions for the next films and makes us say “What’s Rey going to do in the next movie? How is her arc going to conclude? Can she forgive herself? Is this equatable to Kylo? Did something else actually happen, did Snoke bring the ship down and she blamed herself?”
It’s irrelevant because the story dismissed it. Whatever darkness Rey might have had to wrestle with was gently taken from her and given to Luke or something.
anonymous asked:
If you could guess, for the fun of speculation, what do you think the desert planet is? I know the top options are Jakku (for Rey integrating her past/return-to-Tatooine parallels) and Jedha (kyber crystals and/or Resistance mission) but I'm wondering what you think
I knee-jerk operated under the assumption it’s Jakku but yes it could be Jedha or even Tatooine, I guess. all three make sense either plot wise (Jedha, for the kyber crystals or something connected to some Force revelation or to the origins of the Jedi) or character wise (Jakku, as part of Rey’s heroine journey, in a “to go forward you must go back” kind of way), or on a thematic level (Tatooine, to bring the story full circle to where it all started, especially if the desert scenes take place late into the movie).
Might also be some other planet that has never appeared before, though it’s less likely imo.
anonymous asked:
I find it a bit weird that this time around we’re only getting leaks (or ‘leaks’) about the Resistance. Maybe it’s because those are the scenes filmed on-location instead of on a set, but I wonder how the plot setup of this movie will be, if the Resistance vs FO thing will be more cleanly separated, or if there’s going to be a lot of ‘Resistance has adventures!’ in the first half.
I think all the leaks so far are about a particular sequence that might take a grand total of, like, 3 minutes of screentime. And yeah, the bulk of the emotional development is probably not being filmed on location.
or if there’s going to be a lot of ‘Resistance has adventures!’
it’s the final act, not some random filler episode; so no, I don’t think they’re going to waste any more time than necessary with plucky Resistance tales where Kylo is just some distant background villain. They might use some Resistance adventure as an introduction to the movie, sort of what TLJ did with Poe’s stint. But I don’t think the Resistance will be more, or less, prominent than it was in the previous 2 movies.
I think we could also consider the possibility of disguises: if they were on some sort of covert Resistance mission gone wrong on a desert planet, it wouldn’t be surprising if Rey dressed in old, scavenger-type clothing, like Leia dressing as a bounty hunter in ROTJ. Of course all of these are hypotheticals that could very well end up as another cliff scene.
Good point!
Also, I think people are forgetting one other desert setting from Star Wars: Geonosis. And guess who wore a white costume and updo on Geonosis? Maybe we’re looking for aesthetic parallels with PT Anakin and OT Luke, but we should’ve been looking at aesthetic parallels with Padme too.
Another good point. We all tend to underestimate the importance of the prequel trilogy when it comes to the overarching narrative in the present one. I also think Rey will never wear full black nor it would fit her symbolism-wise. Her arc isn’t about struggling with her inner dark side like Anakin or Luke as much as it is about finding her worth, her sense of self, her belonging. It makes sense that before finally embracing her adult self she has to “go back to Jakku” one last time, literally and figuratively, and incorporate the version of herself who remained a willing hostage of that planet for years trapped in eternal childhood without letting it rule her. If one of the main themes of this trilogy is “moving forward without negating completely the past”, then Rey making peace with her child self and forgiving herself for believing in fairytales is not only logical, but necessary for her development. (also, both Luke and Anakin went back to their home planets at some point in their journeys.)
Cliffgate was hilariously wild, lol. To this day I am trying to figure out how anyone in their right mind saw Adam and Daisy shooting the force bond scenes and concluded that they were actually dueling in the rain. Were these witnesses blind or what? Lol.
Maybe they mistook Rey fighting Luke for a Reylo duel. Another reason to take everything with a grain of salt—even when people actually “see” something from the set, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re interpreting it correctly.
