r/TheSequels

So, when Kylo Ren regains consciousness in the throne room near the end of TLJ, he lies and tells Hux that Rey killed Snoke.

At first I thought that he wasn’t consciously lying, like in his mind he genuinely believed that Rey was responsible for Snoke’s death. However, at the very beginning of TROS, he brags to Palpatine about killing Snoke, so that means that he did consciously lie to Hux.

Why? What did he gain from lying?

• Rey is already an enemy of the First Order and they’re already actively hunting her down.
• Is he afraid of being punished for killing Snoke? Why? Realistically, what’s anyone going to do to him if he openly admits to what he did?
• Is he worried that Hux will question his loyalty if he knew the truth?

Was he just throwing dirt on Rey’s name because he was hurt and angered by her rejection? Is it just meant to remind the audience of the absence of trust between Kylo and Hux?

I watched TLJ and TROS back-to-back last night and it seemed like nothing much really came of this onscreen. I was wondering if it was a plotline that got dropped between movies or if it was never really intended to go anywhere.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the lightsaber scene in TROS and the potential possibilities were this ability to be further explored. It seems like the films were setting up a feature of the Force in which full-scale teleportation could be achievable. Imagine being able to bring someone from lightyears away to where you are. Or being in the midst of battle like Rey and Ben were and being transported out of harm’s way. It seems pretty neat and I wish we could see more.

I love these little thematic nods to our favorite couple:

• In TFA, Kylo bridal-carries Rey onto his ship
• In TLJ, he offers her his hand
• In TROS, he offers her his hand again . . .
• . . . to which Rey responds with the Freudian slip "I do"
• Of course, in this movie Kylo is wearing tuxedo black, and Rey is in wedding-dress white
• "We're a Dyad in the Force, Rey. Two that are one."
• Palpatine's comment, "The life force of your bond. A Dyad in the Force. A power like life itself."
• Rey and Ben standing side-by-side in front of Palpatine's throne visually looks as if they are a bride and groom standing at the altar . . .
• . . . and after he's defeated, Rey finally takes Ben's hand, and he kisses the bride.
• Finally, Rey takes Ben's ancestral family name on Tatooine

I rlly don’t understand this sentiment at all. It’s fine if fans don’t like these movies but to act like Disney murdered Star Wars is…a bit extreme lol. Just curious how you guys feel (I love the sequels btw)

For context, I have found myself as one of two sequel defenders in my friend group and I'm also someone who really liked Episode VII and VIII but didn't really like IX.

Legit issues with Colin Trevorrow's film resume aside, I really thought the outline of Duel of the Fates melded JJ's and Rian's visions and actually gave Star Wars an intriguing new status quo. I know the term "grey Jedi" has some detractors but I always loved the idea of true harmony in Star Wars being a move away from the binary Light/Dark dynamic and embracing all aspects of the Force....one of the few philosophies of Palpatine I actually agree with.

Now I know the official reason Trevorrow was let go was the classic "creative differences" but I seemed to have heard some credible rumors at the time (again this was waaaayyyy back in 2018), that the reason Duel of the Fates didn't work was that the story couldn't work without Leia and that neither Trevorrow nor Jack Thorne could figure out how to do it without Leia. I admit I love the idea of Leia activating a galaxy wide communications beacon not only in contrast to the ending of TLJ where no one picked up her signal but as a way of saying the way fascism controls everyone is to keep us all insulated in our spheres. I also know Leia, much like what happened in Rise of Skywalker, did ask Lando to rally the spice guilds around her cause.

Given that the big moment Leia had which both Duel of the Fates AND Rise of Skywalker used was her reaching out to Ben Solo through the Force as a means to distract him from his fight from Rey and turn him back to the light, do you feel they could've kept this moment in and had some other character, maybe even Lando or Mon Mothma take the other tasks Leia would've done? I know there's some pretty sweet artwork of General Leia giving BB-8 a data disc as an homage to her first scene in A New Hope that wouldn't end up being, and I know there would been no easy decision on this, but there had to be a way to keep Duel of the Fates more revolutionary elements and re-work the story so Leia can keep this last big moment and her story duties could have been re-distributed.

I'll fully admit I can count on one finger the number of times I've watched Rise of Skywalker whereas Force Awakens and Last Jedi I'll pop on a ton, and I think the best elements of Rise of Skywalker were actually the things Trevorrow came up with (like expanding the Force dyad of Rey and Kylo for instance, planting the seeds of Finn leading a stormtrooper defection which is one element I was REALLY sad didn't get fleshed out more).

Making a movie is hard, making a Star Wars movie is even harder, and I don't envy JJ Abrams for balancing a lot of cooks and doing what he had to do what he had to do to satisfy KK, but it still kind of bums me out that some of the more interesting elements of Duel of the Fates were either ejected or filed down in Rise of Skywalker, and that they seemingly abandoned these elements because they couldn't make the Leia movie (Force Awakens was a "Han" movie, The Last Jedi was a "Luke" movie) as centered around Leia physically whereas I'm sure they could've found a way to make Leia's view of the galaxy the thematic center of the movie even if she wasn't there.

https://preview.redd.it/o15zq3nsfv1h1.png?width=1140&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e5abf3162956444abaaee69c2dcf464494f3429

When the sequel trilogy first got started in 2015, I was 14 and in love with Star Wars. I saw TFA multiple times, and then saw TLJ even more. I love them both. TRoS however very much disappointed me at the time because I felt it was so reactionary to the garbage that got spewed about TLJ to the point that I left feeling like the film betrayed the two before it. I was mad that they weren't standing by the bold new path the saga was heading in and instead trying their best to please folks who they should have never taken seriously in the first place.

In the midst of that disappointment, the bombardment of negativity around Disney Star Wars online just really made it difficult to even engage in anything Star Wars. I was already frustrated and everyone seemingly making it a mission to be as childish as they possibly could about these movies made it worse. In 2020, I sort of unplugged from the movies completely and instead shifted over to the TV shows and such. Still a lot of negativity from folks there, but a lot easier to tune out than when it concerns the films.

But this year, I moved to New York City and my roommate had never seen the saga before, so I decided it was time to watch it all again. And I am happy to say I've found a love for these films once more, and I'm thankfully old enough now that the behavior of others won't ruin that for me.

I decided to re-rank the saga based on this rewatch and was shocked to discover how much my rankings changed from where they used to be. I found myself warmer on two of the prequels (though colder on the remaining one), much colder on one of the originals, and appreciating what I loved about the first two sequels even more (one of them even moving up a tier). Unfortunately, I still am not really keen on TRoS and I'm afraid I probably never will be (there's really just no way for me to come around to just how much of it's runtime is spent undoing so much of what I adored about The Last Jedi and how much of it screams like giving in to people I wish had never been given any legitimacy), but even it hit me a little bit better this time (it's no longer last in my rankings like it used to be!)

For reference, I consider anything that is C or above to me a movie that I like. S I consider to be incredible. A I consider to be truly great. B I consider to be good, I like it. And C I consider to be perfectly fine and acceptable, not my favorite at all but I definitely don't mind watching it.

D and below is dislike. D I consider to be there's things about I can enjoy but overall I don't really like it, and F is there's really nothing here that I enjoy at all.

Back in 2020 on my last rewatch prior, my ranking was as follows:

S: The Empire Strikes Back, The Last Jedi
A: Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, Return of the Jedi
B: The Force Awakens, Rogue One
C: N/A
D: The Phantom Menace, Solo
F: Attack of the Clones, The Rise of Skywalker

I’m a Star Wars fan by heart and I happen to love the sequels. I especially love TLJ and I just want to express that it’s perhaps my fav Star Wars movie :) Happy to find my ppl within the community. I think the fanbase being so toxic to ppl who like these movies is pretty harsh and the fanbase is sadly forever split /: