Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

SPOILERS AHEAD -  It's been a while since I blogged here. A bunch of reasons I won't go into here but after seeing the first trailer for what they are billing as the last episode of "The Skywalker Saga". I thought it might be a good time to return....

    First off, I am one of the ones who disliked The Last Jedi. I find a lack of good editing and pointless plot twists to be at fault. In defence of Disney, if you have been around long enough how could you have missed the fact that George Lucas' original plan for Luke was to become a hermit like Obi Wan in A New Hope... but I'm not here to tear into what went wrong with that movie either. The question now is can Episode 9 get it's act together and be what the fans hunger for?

    A few days before the release of the first trailer and the title reveal I saw on Instagram a poster claiming to be leaked from the new film. I was skeptical. What a lot noticed was CP3O carrying weapons… yes, this is a poster for the new Star Wars film Revenge of the Droids!

    Ok, more serous though, I did notice what Rey is wearing in this. I had never seen it before which I thought was strange coming from a fan made poster. Where did that outfit come from? Well, we get to see a lot more of this outfit in this trailer! In fact at least the photo of Rey in this poster must have been leaked. The thing I noticed about her first outfit on Jakku in The Force Awakens is it is clearly made to resemble Jedi robes. So that begs the question, why is she wearing Jedi robes unless at some point in her life she was with a Jedi. That does not add up with Kylo's, you are nobody pitch. Also while remarking on her outfit the color tells you something if they are playing the same game as with the original trilogy. In that Luke's clothing symbolizes where he was in the story. You will notice in The Return of the Jedi Luke wears black until the very end when his shirt opens to reveal white. This symbolizes Luke's decision to not turn to the dark side. In The Last Jedi you will notice Rey's clothing darkens from her original Jakku outfit and like Luke is tested, tempted to the Dark Side but she as well chooses the light. We now see Rey dressed in all white. I don't know if that can give us info on the story line of The Rise of Skywalker but I feel it's an interesting detail.

    Now lets look at the title...
    When The Last Jedi was revealed it told a lot about where the story was going. Again another strike against The Last Jedi. At this title unveiling I expected something final like "Balance of the Force".But no, we get "The Rise of Skywalker"! I had a, are you kidding moment when I saw it the first time! It was obviously not what I was expecting. After it sat in my brain a minute. I started to get excited...what on earth does that title mean?!?!

    So, I'm going to throw a few ideas out there for you. Who is Skywalker? Well, at this point the one that we know of as "Skywalker" is Luke... who died in The Last Jedi. Luke is also speaking in the trailer telling Rey that she has been given all the knowledge and the fight is now hers. Luke is a force ghost at this point and I greatly doubt he is the rising "Skywalker".

    Who is Skywalker?
    Well, there is no one living that actually can go by that name that we know of... and my mind goes to Rey. Is she somehow Luke's daughter? I can argue more against this theory then for it. I'm going to have to force myself to sit down and watch The Last Jedi again to look for more clues but I think in one scene Luke flat out asks her "Who are you?" If he had a daughter out there somewhere he sure didn't look like he knew about it. There is that one scene where Anakin's lightsaber calls to her like she had some connection with it's past owners like possibly a blood connection but who knows what they were getting at there. It's possible she has an original Star Wars character parent but going on what we know so far it's unlikely it's Luke. Quite honestly Han Solo seems like a better candidate. We know he had a girlfriend who could be force sensitive going by her connection with Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Up to this date Rey is up in the air but unlikely a "Skywalker" more like a Solo.
    Lets look at Kylo Ren aka Ben Solo. Well, that speaks for it's self. Ben is a Solo not a Skywalker though he has Skywalker Blood in him. Can he come and claim the name "Skywalker" to spite his uncle? Guess it's possible but a stretch to title it, The Rise of Skywalker. One possibility that crossed my mind was if the Jedi end perhaps a new force wilding group could call themselves "Skywalker" in honor of Luke. Who knows... But it is a compelling title unlike "The Last Jedi".

    Now lets get to the meat of the story. Where are they going with this?
    Watching the trailer the first time I almost did it with the sound turned down! I did not see that coming! I'm going to give you my theories as to what is going on. Some people find this plot twist silly and I bet some fans are not aware of it (I missed it for YEARS!) Apparently some fans hate it so much they want to pretend it is not there... but it is and it is a huge plot twist.
    In the Prequels Anakin is said by his mother that he did not have a father which fit with a Jedi prophecy that such would bring "balance to the force". However in Revenge of the Sith it is made fairly clear that Anakin may indeed have a father, from a curtain point of view... Darth Sidious's master Darth Plagueis had found a way to create life. Anakin is the creation of Darth Plagueis and is why Darth Sidious is so interested in him from the very beginning. In the same conversation it is noted that only one had ever gained the ability to cheat death. But it is un clear who that was...
    But back to Anakin. He is thought by several Jedi like Obi Wan to be the one who brings balance... it is assumed by many fans that is Anakin's roll as well... but what if that is not what is going on at all? What if Anakin and his descendants are just the results of a Sith science experiment with the force and Anakin was never the one they think he is?

    What if it's really Rey?

    I do believe Rey has been around Jedi due to her clothing and the fact she seems to be hidden here on a remote planet with the Millennium Falcon. So frustrating. So many variables! We do know many of Luke's students were murdered and some went to the dark side. In Rey's vision in The Force Awakens it looks as if Rey is being hidden from The Knights of Ren. 

Who hid her?
    I'm pretty convinced again that is wasn't Luke. Leia, Kylo, and Maz seemed to be the only one who has much of a clue as who she is and Kylo seems to be the only one who knows exactly who she is. Here's my thought, what if Kylo is the one who hid her? For some reason his relationship with her is so strong he wanted to spare her life? The only other he felt that way about was his mother. This is also shown when he turns on Snoke and saves Rey. This does not fit into my theory of her being the one from the prophesy but this would show a much closer connection to Rey then a fellow student in Jedi school. I would say it is more like they are siblings. That goes back to Han and Qi'ra. We don't know what went on in Han and Leia's marriage. Is there any chance he and Qira got back together? Maybe Ben's half sister? I believe if Han and Leia had another child together they would both realize it was Rey. However had it been a short affair Qi'ra could have never let him know... Rey belongs to someone even if it is the force or Disney messed this up good. I'll leave it at that.

    Insert evil laugh here... Did the Emperor really survive? This would not be a new idea as in the Old EU the Emperor did return by creating clones to live in. I'll say one thing about the trailer to this new and so called last installment of the Skywalker Saga, it sparked my interest which is surprising considering how bad The Last Jedi was. So I'm still holding on to a little "Hope".

Allegiance

    How did I miss this book before now?! The reason I have a copy is that when I find a EU Novel at a good deal I'll will buy it knowing I'm going to read it eventually. This has been a good practice and saved me the time and the pain of cliffhangers due to having to track down the next book! (I'm currently dealing with a cliffhanger in the New Jedi Order! Till I get my hands on a copy I picked up this one.)

   Really I started off reading Choices of One. I had been looking forward to reading it. I knew it was about Mara Jade when she was working for the Emperor as "The Emperor's Hand". It takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. About 2 chapters into Choices of One I realized I was missing something! Something came before this book... characters I have never heard of were too well established. It didn't take me long to figure out it was Allegiance. And as I said before I already had a copy. I had not looked at it sooner being the cover of storm troopers and I had never seen anything about the book being about main core Star Wars characters. I thought it was about some pack of random storm troopers. But it was a Zhan novel so I picked it up at some point in my adventures of Star Wars book hunting.
 
  The only other novel that takes place in this time period is Splinter of the Mind's Eye. Splinter of the Mind's Eye is a good book. I recommend reading it if you're a Star Wars Fan but it was written as an alternative sequel had A New Hope not done well in theaters. It's a good "what if" but doesn't work with Star Wars as it later became. I have to wonder if the next movies by Disney are going to turn this EU into something similar... we shall see...

   Why is it that Zanh is the only writer that is able to capture Mara and Luke dead on. I mean yeah, Zhan created Mara Jade but other writers can not capture her spirit, fire, and strength very well. He seems to understand Mara and Luke so well. I love the super hero type character Mara is in this novel. In the Thrawn Duology a point is made that Mara believes Luke has willfully gone to the dark side in the past and therefore effected in his life up to that date. But you're thinking, she has a lot of room to talk! She was the Emperor's Hand! But she claims she never willingly went for the dark side. The explanation seem to be that she is young, idealistic, and ignorant about what is going on around her. She repays kindness with kindness... you have to wonder if Darth Sidious is aware of Mara's rebellious nature for doing good.

 And what about Vader? They went to all that trouble to destroy the Jedi but now Sidious is training this young girl. Could the plan be to use her against him to take his place or at least make him uncomfortable that Vader could be replaced. After all he used Luke against him later on... and hey, they are Sith, they like mind games. It is clear Vader does not like the girl but there is no clear answer as to exactly why.

    I wish I could recall if Mara had a light saber ever before Luke gave her his father's. In this book she does carry one. The color being magenta. An interesting color choice being she's sort of a bad guy cause it's in the red spectrum but yet it's not red either. Ah, symbolism!

Mara Jade

    One inconsistency I noticed, correct me if I'm wrong, was Mara being able to put herself into a healing trance. In the Thrawn Duology Mara is injured but she was unable to put herself into a healing trance so Luke had to put her in it. As he does so she remarks that is something she needs to learn how to do.

    There were a few other flaws in the story but hey, don't really care. That was just the one that really jumped out at me.

    So... is Disney going to do away with Mara??? She is one of the most loved EU characters in the Star Wars EU galaxy! And she is such a strong female hero... I don't know if Disney will use her but it's a sad for those of us who love her if they don't. We can only hope they can create an equally dynamic female to replace her with... let's have it Disney.... gives us what you got!