Chat corner 105: The Rise of Skywalker

[annathecrow]

Welcome to the Monday chat corner!

This week the topic is the movie “The Rise of Skywalker”, the last of the Sequel Trilogy and the as-yet-still last Star Wars film.

Yes? No? Rather not talk about it? (And reminder, you’re welcome to speak your opinions, whatever they are, but be kind to the others here who might not share them.)

If you don’t feel like talking TRoS itself… it isn’t that long since 2019, is it? How did the SW fandom change for you since that time? Did it change at all?

Comments

I loved it! 10/10 would recommend

[extrapenguin]

Oh hey, my favorite Star Wars movie! I absolutely love how this is all about Leia's legacy and how Leia trained Rey. Words cannot describe how well that pushed my buttons. I was a bit annoyed at how Poe got to do so much Resistance stuff (I always considered him a bit extraneous) that should've been Leia's speech to give, but, well, RL happened. And the way Rey spared and healed Kylo because that was her Jedi Master's son while Kylo immediately stopped killing Rey because his Mom reached out to him and Rey was his Mom's student as excellent.

Palpatine was also great ("Master Luke Skywalker was saved by his father. The only family you have here is me.") and I absolutely loved his and Rey's final battle, cheesy though it might have been. Also the fact that, after the Resistance didn't get any help in TLJ, the entire galaxy rallied under the banner of Fuck Palpatine In Particular was hilarious. Poe's speech at the end was great, too.

If I got to change anything... Well, a) Rey Organa, not Rey Skywalker, and b) Rey gets a saberstaff! Also, as pointed out by someone else somewhere, c) Finn should hold a speech to the stormtroopers so that at least some of them defect.

(This movie also has the dubious distinction of making much more sense if you've played through KOTOR and SWTOR. All of the Final Order ships were obviously made by the Star Forge, and Palpatine's plan with Rey was originally [spoilers for KotFE & KotET]!)

Oh, and Zorii Bliss was cool. I think she got a crush on Rey for beating her ass.

Re: I loved it! 10/10 would recommend

[sathari]

Ooooh, it's my favorite too!!!! :D :D :D :D :D Yay, another TROS fan!!!! :D :D :D

that should've been Leia's speech to give, but, well, RL happened

This is how I feel about a LOT of TROS... and frankly why I love it so much; if they'd made a lot of the same choices with Carrie Fisher alive, I would... well, not. But they did the best they could under the circumstances.

the way Rey spared and healed Kylo because that was her Jedi Master's son while Kylo immediately stopped killing Rey because his Mom reached out to him and Rey was his Mom's student as excellent.

COSIGNING THIS SO HARD.

And I too like "Rey Organa" as opposed to "Rey Skywalker" although I understand that as being Leia's birth surname. And SO MUCH YES to wanting Rey to get a saberstaff! :D :D :D :D

Also cosigning the love for the "Dunkirk armada" at the end with the entire galaxy rallying. And it kinda makes sense to me that Lando would be the one to do it and not Leia--- I think I said something about this somewhere in this comm before, in fact. It makes sense to me--- we see in TLJ that there are some assholes playing both sides against the middle and making bank on it... and I suspect that Princess and Senator Leia Organa would have gone "straight to the top" in her bargaining for allies, and dealt with... well, the kind of people who would hedge their bets, planetary leaders and the like, the kind of people who would figure that their wealth&&power would let them survive whoever landed on top politically and weren't going to risk themselves for a lost cause--- or, even if they personally might have wanted to, they learned the object lesson Tarkin was handing out with Alderaan and perhaps felt they had a more immediate duty to their subjects/citizens/employees/etc. not to get them blown up. Lando, on the other hand, probably knew just how to get hold of anyone who had just enough means to own a ship, or even a fleet, of their own, and who was low enough on the wealth-and-power totem pole that the powers-that-be in a dictatorship would not only not have to play nice with them but would actively crack down on them. So Lando is definitely the one to recruit a grassroots army.

[rose_griffes]

The unsurprisingly messy end of a trilogy that wasn't given enough time to figure itself out before the films were made.

I appreciate that Finn was recognized as force-sensitive, wasn't made to wear a leaky water balloon suit, and didn't get tasered. But I would have liked an arc for him in this movie. Alas. I could complain about other things as well, but I'll leave it at that.

I had already backed away from SW fandom quite a bit after Last Jedi, so TRoS didn't really change anything for me in that regard. (Andor brought me back in.)

Some parts I like: Master Leia. Kylo dying. (Sry to his fans tho.) The clothing and hairstyles worked for me. Rey Skywalker. Trio hug.

[yourlibrarian]

It still feels recent to me, maybe because I saw this movie shortly before the pandemic began. However since then I got involved in the fandom, started reading fanfic, etc.

To me the post-movies time has been the best because I like the way the verse has been developed in TV shows. Even though the shows have varied in quality, they've all given us a better insight into what was happening during those time periods.

[atamascolily]

I remember reading a leaked plot summary in the run-up to this film when everyone was still speculating what was going to happen; suffice to say, I enjoyed all the drama and what-ifs more than the film itself! I didn't watch it in theaters--I watched it on DVD in July 2020, after most of the discourse had died down, and my summary at the time was "fifty ideas in a trenchcoat pretending to be one movie". Suffice to say, I was not and am still not a fan, particularly of lack of consistent worldbuilding/explanations and the Reylo Force dyad subplot.

Most of this moving is not visually appealing to me, but I did like Rey climbing through the Death Star ruins, and the swirling snow and stone on Kijimi made for some excellent shots.

I wonder a lot about Colin Treverrow's ideas for a third film, which make for a fascinating counterpoint to what actually happened.

[primeideal]

As someone who does a lot of fandom participation through exchanges, it changed for me but less than expected? Like, I stopped requesting/offering sequel trilogy stuff mostly, but continue to create every so often, mostly for Rebellion era stuff but occasionally just going based on characterization vibes for what I wanted the ST to be and...somehow it's fine.

[goodbyebird]

It was like they had ten different scripts and just smoshed them together haphazardly. I remember sitting in the cinema, watching scenes that should have been highly emotional, and feeling nothing.

Maybe the upcoming Rey show can bring something back, idk.

[fleurviolette]

I don’t remember much from this movie, nor do I want remember lol.

I did remember watching the Mandalorian in its first season, streaming on D+ around the same time TROS was in theaters. I had a better time watching Mando.

Imo the last Star Wars movie was Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith, released in theaters in 2005. And that was the end of the entire saga.