Loftwings and Demons

I personally think that TROS was an absolute mess of a movie, but it's also bizarre enough that I have this desire to pick over the pieces and turn them around and around and see what I can make of them.  Like, the movie is so incoherent that it requires external explanation that Palpatine is a clone (even while Lucasfilm had previously asserted that Palpatine was not a clone).  It also didn't say Rey's father was a clone.  Basically none of this stuff is really canon, and even if it was, it's so bizarre and disjointed that it doesn't make any sense.  This is in a series where cloning has a clear on-screen precedent which could have easily been drawn on to tie it in with the previous narrative.  TROS is an enormous disappointment after The Last Jedi, but I'd also argue that it's only the incomprehensibility of it that's new, not the narrative direction. 

While I think The Last Jedi was much more coherent and had a lot more sensitivity in its handling of certain plot points (even though I would argue that sensitivity is conspicuously absent at times), if one looks at the plot points themselves, they absolutely are continuous with this movie: the focus on Rey and Kylo and the shunting of the other new protagonists besides Rey to side plots that ultimately had no impact on the movie's final direction.  Though I also want to be clear that I think The Last Jedi has the strongest thematic core of any of the three sequels because I have a lot of criticisms of its criticisms as well.  Even if you can't sell me on that thala-siren scene.

Anyway, this makes me wonder who was responsible for the overall arc continuity and how that was managed.  With the rest of Star Wars that would be the director, but in this case that's not possible because the movies didn't all have the same director (and originally were all to have different directors).  Though I have to say, something particularly awful happened in the last movie, which suggests to me that *something* went on with management behind the scenes between this movie and the last.

While I'm fine with the fact that Disney decided that Palpatine's son was a clone, I want to extend my condolences to those of you who were disappointed by it and felt this fact precluded the possibility of Sith orgies.  In fact, Sith orgies are not at all ruled out by this fact. 

And though I am personally also fine with a complete lack of Sith orgies I would like to present a hypothesis consistent with that possibility: Palpatine was sterile.  Therefore, no matter how many Sith orgies he may have had, he could not produce a child from them.  But no Sith has ever been deterred when they could not achieve an outcome through natural means...

Some thoughts about Finn in TROS. 

( Spoilers Ahead... )

I'd like to now give some of my thoughts about Rey in TROS. 

( TROS Spoilers past here... )

One thing about The Rise Of Skywalker was that I found it difficult to pay attention to what was going on at times.  I don't know if the movie was just moving too fast in those spots or what, but I would be watching a scene, then start thinking about it, then realize I'd missed a part because the characters had moved somewhere else or the scene had switched to different characters.  Since I don't want to give Disney more money for this movie I'm going to wait until I can watch it at home from a secondhand DVD or something so I can actually pause and rewind the thing.  That might be the only way my brain can keep track of what's going on.

I really want to talk more about my thoughts on TROS because I have a lot of them.  I have so many though it will take a long time to write them.

Well, I enjoyed this film!  I was pretty much right about a lot of the areas where it didn't deliver, though.  One just has to go through the film with the acceptance of "well I guess this is happening now".  While I didn't try to avoid all spoilers, I wasn't really interested in knowing the whole film plot before I saw it, either.

( spoilers under the cut... )

So we all know Disney freaks out about secrecy regarding their films, which tends to reduce the quality of the end result.  Well, I have an absolutely terrible (if hopefully wildly unrealistic) idea here for how they might go about that with TROS.  Has anyone else seen that rumor about them shooting six different endings to the movie?  Well, what if that wasn't to decide which one to use, but because they plan to use all of the endings?  Then they play them randomly with each showing so there's only a 1-in-6 chance you'll be spoiled by someone who saw the movie before you.

This is just the kind of terrible idea they might come up with in the name of secrecy.  What's even worse is if they then release a different DVD for each ending so then you have to spend way more money if you want to get all possible endings.

Wow, I am just a font of terrible ideas today!

Going to see this movie on Thursday.  It's so soon now.  Even without knowing for sure how everything will play out, I know this movie can't give me the ending I really want, because it won't have the time to give all the characters involved that kind of focus and development.  These movies haven't even given the most popular characters that kind of development, much less the entire cast of characters I'm interested in.  So I'm trying to keep my expectations in that regard low.  I just want some explosions, swooshy lightsabers, and Palpatine wreaking havoc (and hopefully unleashing at least one Cackle of Ultimate Doom).

Still squinting to try to see everyone who's on the TROS tusk horses.  I may have to do...an in-depth examination.