What SHOULD Have Happened In The Star Wars Sequels According To The Internet
Yesterday I got heated about Disney fucking up the sequels to the Star Wars saga after Daisy Ridley basically said that herself on Jimmy Kimmel a couple nights ago.
After I settled down a bit, I figured I'd turn it to the internet (my Instagram) to pose the question for a greater audience:
What should have happened with Rey in the sequel trilogy?
Here's what they had to say:
"Her and Kylo should have teamed up for good in the throne room in Last Jedi"
- It's one of my favorite scenes in all of Star Wars and definitely one of the more memorable sequences in the sequel trilogy. It was another "holy shit" moment which felt like endless possibilities until they continued to lead us no more than five minutes later but at that time we were thinking "WOW! We've seen bad guy vs. good guy, good guy vs. good guy but rarely do we see THIS kind of tandem together." It would have been cool if they would have joined there, but I guess my question then would be who would have become the protagonist and antagonist? Finn and Poe trying to bring down Rey and Kylo? Seems a little off-balanced to me.
"Honestly anything would have been fine if they would have had a plan to begin with"
- Yep. Highlighted that pretty heavily in the blog from yesterday. It's like with quarterbacks. When you say you have two, you really have none. Having three (probably more) different options throughout multiple while filming was pure FUBAR.
"Palpatine shouldn't have come back. Rey should have gone dark, Ben should have been the hero"
- I'll never forget the first time JJ dropped the teaser at Star Wars Celebration 2019 in Chicago. When that Palpatine laugh cackled at the end I about pissed myself. Couldn't believe it. Was so excited to think about how and why he'd come back until you saw the movie and they brushed it off with the guy from Lord Of The Rings simply saying "Cloning, dark science, only secrets the Sith knew". Uhhhhhhhhh OK. The lead-up to 9 I was enthralled with Palpatine coming back and it made sense on paper, but yet again, execution was just off. I'm all for Ben being the hero. I will forever be Long Live Ben Solo, but Disney and Kennedy were definitely NOT going to have the heroine the entire trilogy was based on turn evil. They just weren't.
"Thought they should have brought back past Jedi's to fight Palpatine at the end of IX"
- Ooooooh. That would have been a dream. To be fair, in a way they obviously did. Anakin, Yoda, Mace Windu, Qui-Gon, Luke, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, etc all spoke to Rey at the end telling her to "rise". We just didn't see them. It was the definite last minute watered down version of what would have been absolutely electric seeing those folks come back and fight that crusty fuck Palpatine. Maybe in the JJ cut??
"Needed more backstory on Finn. Dude is a legend but still don't know who he is"
- The theme of the sequel trilogy really could be "teasing". It seemed like with characters and stories all around they juuuust dipped their toe in without even getting in up to their waist. Force Awakens Finn is one of the most intriguing characters in Star Wars. Stormtrooper takes helmet off, turns good, and can wield a lightsaber fairly naturally? Sign me up. Then he got booted in Last Jedi and that was that. I mean from the moment this dude was fighting Kylo, a force user with power Luke Skywalker had only seen once before, you had to automatically think "OK there's something to this guy. He HAS to have some sort of force ability." Then once again in IX he has something to tell Rey. Is it he loves her? Wants to bang? Hates Poe secretly? Apparently they were leading on he is force sensitive, but again until they decide to flesh out more of these stories on Disney+ it's all kind of up in the air.
"Disney should have never bought Star Wars. They took the franchise and ruined it"
- I know I've been doom and gloom lately on these movies, but I strongly, strongly disagree with this defeatist, downer mentality. We got the thrill and excitement of new Star Wars movies and characters in theaters for over 5 years, PLUS Disney has been responsible for Rogue One, the wrapping up of Clone Wars AND The Mandalorian - three of the overwhelmingly, commonly agreed upon great parts of Star Wars. I'm not going to go this route completely.
"Lots and lots of sex"
- Not going to lie - there were some moments in Last Jedi I thought Rey and Kylo were about to get it on. The sexual tension on the way to Snoke's room was out of this world. And hey, Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver are both very good looking people.
"Rey should have been no one…would have been way more powerful"
- Would have been perfectly OK with this and then some. I know, that's what Johnson did in Last Jedi then they took it away, but if they just had that plan throughout (which they didn't as Ridley said on Kimmel) then I think we would have been fine. She was the next Chosen One. Just as Anakin came from nothing at one point way back when on Tatooine, so was Rey generations later from Jakku. Really, how much better would 9 and the whole trilogy have been if they just eliminated the "you have his power. You are a Palpatine" line? Then she's a no one, the new Chosen One, she rose to balance out Kylo, then even at the end of 9 if she chose the name Skywalker to continue the lineage and honor them I think the opinions on the whole thing would change a lot.
"Rey dies in 9. Ben (Skywalker) Solo literally rises out of the pit, saves the day, carries legacy on"
- This is it. This is the one. Combine the last answer (Rey is a no one who rises to turn Kylo back) then this happens. It's literally Skywalker rising. It makes perfect sense. It all comes together with a pretty bow on it. This is what I would have chosen, and what I would have liked to see 1000%.
Ahhh. But, we know none of these are what happened, but that's the great part of fandom and Star Wars - the opinions and discussion.
Here's to the next cast of directors and producers using their highly paid brains to come up with a real plan.
Long Live Ben Solo.