![]() Let's start. Since the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, our society has been flooded with Star Wars merchandise, literature, television series, and movies. Whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, you can't help but notice the onslaught of publicity surrounding the new movies. The hype is tremendous and I, for one, can't complain. After the prequels, I'd lost my enthusiasm for Star Wars. I didn't hate them, but just didn't love them like Episodes IV, V, and VI. They didn't offer a new story. Even thought they filled in gaps, I wasn't surprised by anything I saw in the prequels. When The Force Awakens was released, I was intrigued by the new story and characters. Leaving the movie theater, I immediately knew it was one of my favorite movies ever. I had fallen in love with the characters, especially Rey. I liked how well Disney had characterized Rey, Finn, BB8, and Kylo Ren. Abrams and Lucasfilm did a tremendous job at creating relateable, interesting characters. Rey, especially, was so likeable, even if she was a Mary Sue. Once I got home, I couldn't help but start thinking about everything that I loved about the movie. Rey. The Force "awakening". Seeing Luke the last 30 seconds of the movie. The misdirection about who would be the Jedi in the movie. The First Order's power. BB8's thumbs up. Han's martyrdom. Kylo Ren's tantrums. The enigmatic Knights of Ren. Lor San-Tekka's comment that there can be no balance without the Jedi. The question about whether or not Snoke is a Sith. The immensity of Starkiller Base. There was so much to enjoy. But once I started thinking about the movie, I started to realize how many issues I had with it. The Problems with The Force Awakens Some have complained that Rey was too powerful and a Mary Sue. Rey's ability to pick up the force so easily is the crux of the movie, though. Others have complained that Luke should have been an integral part of the story instead of an afterthought. I actually loved that he was a mystery in Episode VII. It gets me excited for Episode VIII. In fact, not seeing Luke might mean that we might even see more movies than just 7, 8, and 9. The Characterization That being said there are some fundamental issues with The Force Awakens that make me question how intelligent the Star Wars braintrust thinks the average viewer is. One of the main reasons I struggle with The Force Awakens is the dearth of character development. It'd been 34 years since we'd seen Han, Leia, Chewie, Luke, and the droids. I'm confused that they hadn't progressed as characters at all. Han was a hero of the rebellion and had married Leia. Why had he fallen on such hard times and acted so immature in The Force Awakens? Granted, he'd seen his son turn to the Dark Side and his marriage broken, but he should have been much more heroic in the story than he was. I was blown away by how much I didn't care about his character in VII. He should have been beloved. I should have been shocked and then cried when he died. Instead, I was mostly unaffected by the loss. The same could be said for other characters. Abrams just didn't really work hard at making me want to care about them. Chewie seemed like he was still childish and not very wise for having worked alongside Yoda and other Jedi and lived through the Clone Wars, the Battle on Endor, and the Battle of Jakku. Even Leia seemed off to me. How could Lorr San Tekka say that she only "seems like royalty"? She IS and WAS royalty. Even the newer characters were confusing and undeveloped. Captain Phasma is supposed to be cruel and terrible and yet she willingly gives up the shielding on Starkiller Base to Finn and Han with little threat. She could have easily refused and even become a martyr, but she gives up an Imperial Superweapon shield for her own life. Finally, Kylo Ren, a character who had already shown his power by stopping a blaster midshot, was easily defeated by a severely outmatched and fledling force user in Rey. The only character that really made sense besides Rey was Luke, even though I'm confused by why he left the Resistance to face the First Order alone, and he only got 30 seconds of screen time. The Weapon of Mass Destruction...AGAIN Besides the characters, the use of Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens has to be the single-biggest mistake of the movie. I honestly don't understand where Kathleen Kennedy, JJ Abrams, and Lawrence Kasdan was thinking here. First off, we've already seen two Death Stars in the first three movies. With so many other options, why in the world would Abrams choose to have another Death Star-type superweapon? They could have made the looming weapon be a new type of ship, an overwhelming army of stormtroopers, or a new alien technology. ANYTHING would have been better than Starkiller Base. We'd already seen this before. Maybe even more disturbing than the use of a planet killer is how easily the Resistance was able to defeat the base. Almost accidentally Poe is able to blast a hole in the Thermal Occilator and enter the Base. After Han, Finn, and Chewie rescue Rey, they decide to set charges to destroy the planet, almost as an afterthought. This choice severely minimizes Han's sacrifices on Endor where most of his force almost dies and, more importantly minimizes the ultimate sacrifices the Bothan spies and Jyn Erso's group made to steal the plans to the first two Death Stars. They died getting those plans and, after much trial, were able to help defeat the Death Stars. The Force Awakens literally undermines Rogue One, the movie that Lucasfilm released directly after it by showing the audience that sacrifice doesn't matter when fighting the Empire and First Order. All a person needs is to be lucky. If Lucasfilm had decided to use Starkiller Base in Episode IV I think that this would be a much more dramatic and unexpected ending to the saga (especially if we hadn't seen a Death Star type in Episode 7 or 8. Too Similar to the Originals Finally, the most disturbing aspect of The Force Awakens are the obvious similarities between the new movie and Episodes 4, 5, and 6. The movie is the story of a lonely orphan who becomes a powerful force user. A weapon of mass destruction. A powerful dark force user. A droid with important information. The master of the droid being captured. A sinister and even more powerful dark force user behind the scenes. A resistance facing overwhelming odds. A wise sage dying at the end. The planet-killer being destroyed. The list goes on. I'm almost insulted thinking back about the story and wonder why I liked The Force Awakens so much. How could JJ Abrams basically just copy the plot of A New Hope and call it his own by changing the gender of a few characters and the names and places of a few destinations? The only answer I can come up with is the movie is supposed to parallel A New Hope because the Chosen One journey is being reset. It is clear that Anakin and Luke never fulfilled their destinies as the Chosen One. Balance has not been brought back to the galaxy and the force. Lor San-Tekka said himself that balance CANNOT be achieved unless without the Jedi and the Jedi have not come back since Vader massacred them on Coruscant. The only way I can deal with The Force Awakens is if Rey is the new Chosen One and she must complete a copy of the journey that Anakin and Luke started. If this were true, it would not only make the movie enjoyable for me, but it would make the series that much more interesting. How awesome would it be that Rey is finishing what Anakin and Luke had first set out to accomplish? It would legitimize the entire movie for me. In spite of this post, I still really enjoy watching The Force Awakens. It is an entertaining and fun movie for me and, above all, it is more Star Wars. I still have questions after watching the movie. I wonder why Chewie walks past Leia after Han dies even though they should have not only hugged but hugged first. Whos is Snoke? Why should I care about him as a bad guy? Why should I care about the multiple planets being destroyed by the Starkiller Base if I don't even know who is on those planets. There are definitely some things that could have been done differently, but I still love the Force Awakens and can't wait for the Last Jedi. Here's to hoping it answers and confirms some of my questions and theories. May the Force be with You.
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![]() Kenoobbbbaaaiiiiiiii! (In my best Darth Maul voice) One of my wife's favorite things to do after watching a movie with me is talk about all of the questions that she had after watching. Ordinarily she has a litany of questions to discuss and usually I'm speechless after a few because I just want to enjoy the movie so I usually don't think too hard about what is going on. However, after watching The Force Awakens, I had one question in my mind that I had to talk about with her: Who are Rey's parents? But before I get too far ahead of myself, I'll just say that I know that Daisy Ridley herself has come out and said that her parents don't really matter and that she didn't understand why people that they would be important. When I heard that, I was blown away. Rey's Parentage Matters The importance of Rey's Parentage, for me, cannot be understated. She is an orphan and doesn't even know her OWN past. Rey's greatest desire should be to find her parents or discover her past. Also, the entire Star Wars story is based on parentage and family. Family is essential to the storyline. Star Wars (so far) is about the Skywalker family. Why would Rey's family not matter? In the Clone Wars, the Jedi searched for force-sensitive children throughout the galaxy which could point to her just being a force-sensitive child, but she is just too powerful to just be a random kid on a random planet (although her story does mirror Anakin's). Daisy Ridley's comment has to be a misdirection attempting to lead movie-goers astray. Irregardless, Rey's parents/family matter so the next question is "Who are Rey's parents?" After watching The Force Awakens, most people said that Rey was either a Skywalker or a Solo. However, with some research, we can rule out two families: The Skywalkers and the Solos. During a Q & A at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, JJ Abrams stated that Rey's parents are not in Episode VII (even though Daisy Ridley says that after watching The Force Awakens, her parents should be obvious). That rules out Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and R2. Also, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2016, Daisy Ridley confirmed that she is not a Solo. So if she's not a Skywalker or a Solo, who is she? Maybe Daisy Ridley was right. Maybe Rey's parents don't matter. Maybe it's her grandparents that matter. I believe that her grandparents, in fact, do matter and may matter more to the Star Wars canon than any other couple, even Padme and Anakin. There are basically only two possibilities for Rey's parentage that make any sense. Either she is "noone" like she says in the Force Awakens (an unknown) or her grandfather is Obi-Wan Kenobi. There is no other argument that makes sense. The Rey Kenobi Theory is Not New Before I get into why Rey is a Kenobi, I will admit that this argument has been made a million times already. Bloggers, podcasters, and Youtubers have all staked their claim for why Rey is or is not a Kenobi. Some have been compelling and others not so much. Some have argued that because Rey has a British accent, she is a Kenobi since he is the ONLY other character in the movie that has one. Others have argued that the Jedi Mind Trick scene proves she's Obi-Wan's grandaughter because she is more skilled at the trick than any of the Jedi we've seen (including all of the Jedi in the Clone Wars and Rebels) except Kenobi. Many argue that the parallels between her and Kenobi when they are poking around Starkiller Base and the Death Star are too coincidental. JJ Abrams claims that Rey's loneliness is a key to her origins, which points to Kenobi. They have similar costumes, they hold their lightsaber similarly, both save a droid, both scream "No" similarly when one of their friends is killed, Rey's duel with Kylo is very similar to Obi-Wan's with Anakin on Mustafaar. You get the point. All of these points, while interesting, are still not completely convincing. What are the more convincing reasons why Rey is a Kenobi? Rey's Force Vision The Force Awakens, Star Wars Rebels, and The Last Jedi trailer all point to Rey being a Kenobi. Rey's Force vision in Maz's castle in The Force Awakens is possibly the biggest clue that she is a Kenobi. In the vision, a few different characters speak to Rey. Prominent among them, Alec Guinness' voice tells Rey that "these are your first steps." This phrase isn't natural unless Kenobi had had a prior relationship with Rey and that relationship had to have been familial. Such as "Rey these are your first steps" when she starts beginning to learn how the force works or "Rey these are your first steps" when she starts training to become a Jedi under the tutelage of Obi-Wan. It even fits in the context of "Rey these are your first steps" when it comes to walking as a baby. Why would Old Ben Kenobi says these words to Rey unless her knew her? It is also notable that Alec's voice, not Ewan McGregor's voice, says these words since the younger Kenobi would have been too young to say this to his granddaughter. Obi-Wan's voice is the only voice to show up TWICE in the vision, which is also noteworthy. Rey IS Kenobi Star Wars is about parallels. Ben Ostrower says, "Star Wars has always had a certain narrative symmetry: good versus evil, light versus dark, small versus big, faith versus technology. Characters even refer to bringing “balance to the force.” These patterns abound in the Star Wars universe, appearing again and again in both minor and major ways. Many have even been critical of how closely The Force Awakens mirrors earlier narrative patterns and beats. That criticism is fair, but it’s being used for intentional effect to both guide and misguide and play with our assumptions and expectations." Rey's parallel is Obi-Wan. In the penultimate episode of Season 3 of Star Wars Rebels (and possibly the best animated episode of any of the Star Wars animated series), Ezra Bridger visits Obi-Wan on Tattoine a year or so before we see him in A New Hope to warn him that Darth Maul is coming for him. This is the first time we've seen Obi-Wan since he took Luke to safeguard him on Tattoine and it's evident that he's grown infinitely more wise and powerful. He treats Ezra like a good friend even though he's never even met the kid and wisely and lovingly counsels him to return home. Also, even though the Jedi Order is basically dead, Kenobi is strong in the Force. He knows Maul is coming for him (by listening to the Force) and even treats Maul kindly even thought Maul himself killed his old Master and his friend, the Duchess Satine. When Maul threatens young Luke, Kenobi obliterates a very angry Maul in three strikes even though he supposedly hasn't lightsaber fought in years, but respectfully talks to Maul as he's dying. He's much stronger than any Jedi we've ever seen except for maybe Yoda and Anakin at their peak. He is essentially what we've all wanted the Jedi to be. Wise, kind, loving, and powerful in the Force. He is an older version of Rey. Rey parallels Obi-Wan. She is kind and loving. She is giving and forgiving. She is poised and calm. She is nonjudgmental. She is passionate and strong, especially strong in the Force. In many ways, she is the anti-Skywalker. She is everything we wanted in the Jedi, but never got because they were misled by Yoda into thinking that they couldn't have emotions and because we've seen a very flawed version of a Jedi (i.e. Anakin, Luke, Dooku, Quinlan Vos, Mace Windu). She parallels the one Jedi that has really been flawless in the entire series: Obi-Wan Kenobi. Clues in the Last Jedi Trailer The third reason why Rey is a Kenobi is the clues in The Last Jedi trailer. It is evident after watching The Last Jedi trailer (and the Force Awakens) that balance has NOT been brought back to the Force. In the Force Awakens, Lor San-Tekka, the old man Kylo Ren murdered at the beginning of The Force Awakens, says that "without the Jedi, there can be no balance in the Force" and all of the Jedi are dead besides Luke. So who is going to bring balance back to the force? Rey. She is poised to take up the Chosen One mantle that Anakin and Luke did not fulfill. And how is she going to bring balance back to the force? By reading her grandfather's teachings. Rey touches a book in the trailer and says that she sees a balance. The way to bring the balance back to the Force. That book is Kenobi's journal from the Clone Wars animated series. Kenobi is the key to bringing balance back to the force and, since she is the main character in the series, she MUST be a Kenobi. Wouldn't it be infinitely significant if she must study her grandfather's journal to learn how to use the Force correctly? Episode 9's Director Comments Finally, Colin Treverow, the director of Star Wars Episode 9, has said the following about Rey: "I've seen all the theories [about her parentage and]....what I do know is that we're going to make sure that the answer is deeply and profoundly satisfying, because Rey is an important character in this universe, not just in the context of the Force Awakens but in the entire galaxy and she deserves it....so we'll make sure that that answer is something that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....By the time we get to Episode IX, I look at that one movie as three movies, six movies, nine movies. It's something that needs to honor a story that has BEEN TOLD OVER THE COURSE OF 40 years. Star Wars is a belief system, it's not just a story, and it's not just a movie." So what would be most satisfying for audiences? Rey being a Kenobi. How satisfying would that be to learn that the nine episode arc is really, underneath it all, about the Kenobi family and not the Skywalkers?” Here's what Ben Ostrower says about the theory: Assuming that Rey isn’t just the hero of this new trilogy, but also the character that ultimately brings “balance to the force”, the reveal that Rey is a Kenobi and not a Skywalker, as we’re being led to believe, would be the twist of the entire nine episode arc. We’re told at many points in the Prequels that Anakin Skywalker was “the chosen one” — the Jedi who would bring balance to the force. Not only was this obviously false, but in Episode 7 we’ve essentially learned that Luke has also failed miserably in his attempt to bring peace to the galaxy. Luke’s Jedi training of Ben Solo (a Skywalker descendant) was clearly such a disaster that it turned him to the dark side. In all, the Skywalkers are a pretty mixed bag: powerful, but emotional, petulant and frequently tempted by the allure of evil. It’s Ben Kenobi in the earlier episodes that is truly virtuous, noble and pure of heart. He’s our true hero. He’s incorruptible. He sacrifices himself at the end of A New Hope to show Luke the power of faith in the force, saving him and the galaxy in the process. Wouldn’t it then make complete narrative sense for a Kenobi (Rey) to be the true hero of the saga — perhaps even saving the soul of another conflicted Skywalker (Ben Solo/Kylo Ren) later in the new trilogy? How satisfying would that be to learn that the nine episode arc is really, underneath it all, about the Kenobi family and not the Skywalkers? My favorite moment in the series comes in Episode 5 when Luke has abruptly and hastily cut short his training and Force Ghost Obi Wan laments, “That boy is our last hope.” Yoda replies, “No... there is another...” Written originally to be a reference to Leia, how dramatic would it be for the “another” to ultimately mean a Kenobi? After all, we do learn pretty quickly in Episode 7 that Leia never becomes a Jedi. If Rey is a Kenobi and if by the close of Episode 9 she’s brought “balance to the force,” then all of the previous movies take on a new meaning. Even Obi Wan’s Force Ghost from Episodes 5 and 6 takes on a much more spiritual purpose than to just provide convenient story exposition. If Rey is revealed as a Kenobi, it changes the entire paradigm of the series. Kenobi himself always thought that he was training the Chosen One. Wouldn't it be so much cooler if all along he had been raising his own family who would bear the Chosen One in his line? The Anthology Movie One more point. Since Disney announced they were going to do more Star Wars movies, they told the public that various anthology films would be released in conjunction with Episodes 7, 8, and 9. Lucasfilm subsequently announced Rogue One and The Han Solo film, as well as stating that there was a third film that was going to be made, but that they weren't going to announce the subject. How cool and fitting would it be if the unannounced Anthology film has to be unannounced because it was related to the mystery of the new trilogy? What if the third movie is a Kenobi film about him having a family and Rey's parents? Not only would this be amazing and brilliant, but the Internet would explode knowing that Rey is a Kenobi and everyone would want to see the movie I'm convinced that the new film must be a Kenobi film so that we can find out how Rey came to be, especially knowing that Jedi can't "love" or have families. |
AuthorThree-time Spartan Beast. Utah Jazz fan. Cougar. Aggie. Pioneer. Colt. Teacher. Auror. Earthbender. Ranger. Jedi. Hero of the Lance. Guardian of the Galaxy. Archives
December 2017
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