Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Lots of ret conning to fix the shambles of TLJ.
I think they can't wait to conclude this trilogy to get onto something else, so for that reason anything could happen in terms of deaths.
Let's face it though, the First Order will fall, the goodies will win. The only question mark is how will Rey vs Ren resolve itself.
I think it's likely we won't ever revisit any of these characters.

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Gandalf mentioned lots of ret con action in his post above, but I am not so sure JJ will spend too much time on that. There is one film left in the saga, and I would think they wouldn't bog it down too much attempting to rehash/change a lot of what has come before.

As for what we will see... your guess is a as good as mine. I will take a few shots in the dark, though:

Rey's heritage will matter, after all, even if her parents won't. It falls in line with dark side deception that Kylo made it a point to say her parents don't matter, and not her entire heritage in general. However, this idea is problematic on its own. I believe the decision to openly voice that her parents didn't matter was Disney's attempt to make a statement about heroism: that anyone can be a hero if they want it badly enough, and it doesn't matter where they come from. This is supported by the final shot in TLJ. This idea on its own is not bad, and I am fine with this decision, except...

Episode 7 set up Rey's heritage as important, at least to some extent. Why bother with the flashbacks and visions pertaining to this if they eventually planned on just tossing it aside? This is one of the pitfalls of not having one, long overarching vision like George Lucas, instead letting each respective director do whatever they wanted with the characters. Abrams is on record as saying that in television, this is the norm, that people often hand their stories off to others, and that he is used to changes being made and stories heading off in new directions. However he also said that the norm of for those new people in charge to respect what has come before, which it seems Johnson did not really do. In short, I don;t think JJ will do the same thing. I think he will respect what has come before, and try to work around and with the events of TLJ, instead of trying to sideline everything, even though he did say he has been allowed to pick up his old story threads and continue them. I think he still tell his story, with Rey's heritage being important, while still staying true to kylo's comments about her parents in TLJ.

Moving on...Palpatine. We know he is involved. I really hope his character/legacy doesn't get trashed, and I also hope he doesn't somehow return physically, which would be extremely hard to explain without some serious deus ex machina, as everyone saw him get tossed into a bottomless pit and pretty much explode. How can be involved without resorting to ridiculous measures? The most obvious is that Rey is his descendant. This idea has been getting kicked around for a while and it could work if done properly. This would explain her innate abilities with the force, her extreme natural power, and genetic memory or something like that could be used as a mechanism/explanation that would actually make a fair amount of sense. This would go a long way towards rectifying the problems with her character in eyes, anyway. This of course means Rey is not the Skywalker that rises, which leaves two possibilities...

Luke somehow reappears, regains his faith in the Jedi, and finally passes the torch to the new generation in a way that respects his legacy. However, I don't think this is likely.

Instead, Anakin is the Skywalker that rises, finally fulfilling the prophecy, bringing balance to the force while also turning Kylo to the light, while Rey succumbs to the dark side, embraces her heritage...nah. That isn't going to happen.

The sad thing is that would have been a pretty good story. Too bad they already released that lame teaser of Dark Rey, which is clearly misdirection, pretty much eliminating any chance of her actually turning to the dark side. Also, in today's climate, I doubt Disney would have the final savior of all things Star Wars be male. They have already established their penchant for progressive ideology in this latest trilogy. They are of course free to do such things, and I am fine with them standing by their politic; I just wish they were a bit more subtle in doing so. If they had had her go through more failures and trials and tribulations and such, they would have achieved their agenda of establishing a strong female character in a much better way. Making their agenda to obvious hurt the in this regard.

That said, I do hope they rectify Rey's character. The first hour of The Force Awakens is excellent, and really sets her up to be an awesome Star Wars character. I think she can still become one if handled properly in this final film. I also hope Finn and Poe get saved, as well, which can also be done, if they are handled properly.

Anyway, enough for now. This post is already a bit long, so I will cut it off here.

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There should be a Rey scene her Fixing or making a new Light Saber. No movie had done this and in ROTJ they cut that scene too. Building a light saber is an exercise and until rey can focus and do that she is no jedi.

I would dig that, yeah. The references to it are vague but I like it as a real trial.

Since they haven't had anyone lose a limb in this trilogy yet, and it's kind of tradition, she could slip while making the saber, and accidentally cut her legs off.

I can't imagine Disney allowing Rey to turn to the dark side. I would enjoy it, but it seems too social media risky and out of line with how far Disney seems to have gone to place the character where she is. I also think Kylo's comment on her parents was non-specific enough that J.J. could now just dismiss it as a lie to break Rey's hope in order to pull her to his side. As to Palpatine, I'm still hoping for a Dark Empire story line to come in. They could totally use the clone wars as a back door in without having to explain much of a story to get us there. While everyone may not be up on Dark Empire, everyone should at least be aware of the Clone Wars. A tiny bit of exposition would open and close that arc quickly enough to move on without much question, I think.

The only real Christmas Wish List item I got is that whatever new star/moon/planet/system destroyer they reinvent somehow blows up Canto Bight. That name alone....

Also, watching Rey methodically build (attempting to) a saber would go a long way to nullifying some of my irritations with the character as written so far. I would love it if that was some progressive sequence placed throughout the movie. I mean like, showing her in brief cuts making efforts but getting frustrated, until near the end. Mostly though, it would be nice to see her improve, over time, with ANYTHING. The saber build hasn't been shown before so that could be a very attractive geeky bit of honey to shut frustrated viewers like me up. Maybe.

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

I was enjoying a little time with my daughter, after eating my lunch, when I decided to fire up the trailer for The Mandalorian for my wife to view. After that trailer finished, YouTube randomly fire up the most recent trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, so I let it play. When the final shot of Rey came up, my wife said "Damn, she looks possessed!."

I just sat there for a couple of seconds as it all clicked into place.

Palpatine is going to possess Rey! Possess her clone? She is a clone?

Well, looks like I have been watching too many horror flicks again.

Never forget: the super elaborate/cool theories we come up with as a group basically never end up being what happens. The reality is almost always simple and accessible and not complicated.

For me what prevents kylo turning into the light is the fact that he killed his own father with his own hands....so it doesn t make any sense if he does...i would say, well i dunno at least im thinking out loud

A good point. Can't really come back from that.

Well there was a theory that Han did it for him to prevent him from truly slipping to the dark side. I mean he apparently pulled the trigger first back in A New Hope so (lol) yeah, he ignited the saber too? And kylo couldn't pull the trigger on his mom so it's ....possible.

The dialogue actually supports this...

Please put every rumor in spoiler tags.

Sorry I dont think it will happen but it however could. Seems kinda written better then we get super rey. Which has been my only issue with rey as a character. Nothing Daisy did playing Rey because she was great.

Vader did a lot worse in the Prequels, a lot worse.......... and came back at the very end.

I would also argue that part 7 and 8 show clear signs that Kylo isn't all the way evil, just trying desperately to be that way.
- Reprimanded by Snoke for feeling the call to the light.
- Clearly shows immediate remorse after killing Han.
- Refuses to do it again and fire on his mother.
- Saves Rey from Snoke (though perhaps for more selfish reasons).

Thinking a bit more on this:



On further review, this kind of holds up.

Look at this:

Interesting. But...

@Sedai