Force Lightning, Natural Hair, A Lesbian Kiss, and Leia's Lightsaber

Just in case the subtitle didn’t tip you off, this will be a review chock full of spoilers so if you don’t want the movie ruined for you, please stop reading.

I was given the opportunity to see Star Wars tonight with my company a little early. About two hours before the first opening showing. I am both humbled and grateful for the experience. I got to see it in a private setting, with no one’s kid’s kicking the back of my chair in a small theater in Seattle. I got to see it with my coworker, friend, and regular movie going partner, which was also a pleasure. The overall movie going experience was pleasant, but you’re not here to read about that. You are here to read about the movie.

As a woman I view movies a little differently than how I assume most of the authors of the first reviews of this movie. As a person who cares deeply about social issues, and the narratives told in popular culture and how that relates, I can’t ever just enjoy a movie to enjoy it. I always view it through the lens of someone sensitive to the impacts that pop culture and film have on subjugated groups.

There were several things about this movie that made my heart sing. First, despite the largely male outcry regarding the fact that Rose Tico (Played by Kelly Marie Tran) was not attractive enough, were ignored and she returned to this film. She wasn’t a main character, but she was in it, had lines, and screen time. I appreciated that, especially since there is a lot of Hollywood directors that would have left her out of this film after so much of the fan base revolted against her presence in the second film. Her presence in the film felt a lot like the thumbing of noses in the direction of self-righteous fans who don’t think women have any place in the realm of science fiction.

Second all the characters portrayed by black actors had natural hair. Finn was sporting little dreads, Lando was rocking a natural hair style, and there is a new character, a defected Storm Trooper, who also is wearing a natural hair style. I can’t stress enough how important it is to have that kind of on-screen representation. While most of the cast remains largely white, it was nice to not only see black people in a Star Wars film that aren’t either betrayers (redeemed though Lando was) or having their helmets removed to reveal, in the infamous words of Kevin Smith, “A crusty old white man.”

There was also a lesbian kiss in the final scene of celebration, which I don’t necessarily mean to gloss over, but I am going to because while it was nice to see, it did kind of feel like a op out for not making Poe and Finn as gay as all of us wanted.

Ok now that we have talked about that, here are some things that I really feel like need some deeper diving.

In the opening scene we have Poe, Fin, R2D2, C3PO and Chewbacca, getting some information from another Resistance fighter from a spy inside the First Order. The spy reveals that Palpatine lives. With the news Kylo Ren, thirsty for power, seeks him out to kill him. When he finds him he does not kill him, instead he builds a new plan. When Kylo Ren enters the room full of generals to deliver the news that they have a spy and that Palpatine lives, and has indeed built a fleet of new Star Destroyers, that all have the planet killing power of the Death Star, he says something to General Hux about feelings of disloyalty. Hux deflects and another general airs his distrust in Ren’s plan. In true Vader fashion he is dealt with by being smashed against the ceiling of the room with Ren’s force push powers.

Later when it seems as though General Hux is about to really get his revenge and murder Poe, Finn and Chewbacca, he instead sets them free. He tells Finn to shoot him in the arm, so that he can say that he was overpowered. Finn instead shoots him in the leg and stands over him menacingly and says something to the tune of, “Why would you help us?” To which Hux says something along the lines of, “It doesn’t matter if you win, it only matters that Kylo Ren fails.” Please forgive this paraphrase.

Why am I bringing this up? Hux is the embodiment, not of Nazis, but of Neo-Nazis. The kind of smug asshole that would keep Milo Yiannopoulos and Richard Spencer good company. He thinks he is fighting for something that will benefit him, but when it comes down to it, all his “ideals” are truly nothing and all he cares about is beating the person who made him feel foolish.

Rey, Finn, Chewbacca, C3PO, and BB-8 go off in search of a Sith device that will lead them to where Palpatine is, and in the scene, Chewbacca is captured by The Order. The transport takes off just as Rey and Ren are set to face off, they have a battle of Force strength on the transport ship that they believe Chewbacca is in, and when Ren pushes Rey too far, she shoots out Force Lightning and destroys the ship. She believes in this moment that she has killed Chewbacca (she didn’t) and in her rage and shame and despair, she flees back to the ship with Finn and Poe and takes off to find the next piece of the quest. Later when She and Kylo Ren are in one of their weird force conversations and kicking the shit out each other with lightsabers, Ren reveals that he knows who she really is.

Before we get to this bit, it is important to note that there were a lot of fan theories about Rey’s parentage. That she was a Skywalker, or (my favorite and what I hoped for) a Kenobi were the ones that I saw flying around on fan sites the most, but alas apparently, we were all wrong. Ren reveals to her that she is in fact a Palpatine. I both hate and love this, and we will get into why later.

In her search for the Sith Device, she ends up on a moon of Endor, and faces off with Ren again on the wreckages of the Death Star, in a churning sea. He tells her he knows that when he offered her his hand the last time, he knew she wanted to take it. She bests him, but only because his mother, Leia Organa, uses the last of her life force to speak to him. I knew it was coming, I knew Leia had to die. But nothing on this earth could ever make watching Carrie Fisher die again easy for me. I watched it (figuratively) happen in real life, and to see her die, with her real-life daughter Billie Lourd sitting by her body. I will tell you folks, I cried like a baby. Rey and Ren both feel her soul depart and though Ren is grievously injured, Rey heals him through her tears, by transferring some of the force into his body and tells him she wanted to take Ben’s hand, not Kylo Ren’s, and leaves in his ship.

After she is gone, Ren has a conversation with the father he killed. He says, that it’s too late for him, that he can’t go home, both his parents are dead, and Harrison Ford, who I still can’t believe agreed to be in another Star Wars film due to his documented dislike of the series, tells him that it’s never too late. A sentiment I both appreciate and rather dislike. Ren responds by saying that he knows what he must do and throws his lightsaber into the churning sea.

Rey seeing that she has the blood of the Palpatine line in her, tries to run away to the island of Luke’s exile, destroying Ren’s ship, and trying to destroy Luke’s Lightsaber in the process. Luke, comes back to her as a force apparition, a la Ben Kenobi in Return of the Jedi, stops her from destroying it, and reveals to her that he has Leia’s lightsaber. He tells her that on the final day of Leia’s training she saw the death of her son, and relinquished her lightsaber to Luke, saying that it would see the end of its tale in the hands of another.

Rey eventually finds her way to the Sith planet of Exogol, and she fully intends on killing her grandfather. However, when she gets there, she sees him, and he reveals, that all the Sith live inside him, that she must kill him so that all the Sith may live inside of her, and she can ascend to the Sith throne having finally ended the Jedi. Meanwhile Poe and Finn are leading a rag tag band of what is left of the central Resistance to defeat an absolutely massive fleet of Final Order (what Palpatine evolves the First Order into) Star Destroyers. All of which are now equipped with enough firepower to kill a planet. Palpatine, uses his old tricks and lines. He shows Rey the battle, says the only way to save her friends is to “Strike me down” and it appears for a moment like she might do it.

Queue the Snape-esque redemption story. Kylo Ren, now shed of his leather, and his mask, and his Sith name, now just plain old Ben Solo, has pursued Rey to Exogol, and they commune via the force. To the surprise of the Emperor through their communion Rey hands off Luke’s saber to Ben, and the two of them attempt to take him on. They fail. Epically. Palpatine tosses Ben into a pit, after healing himself using the force he sucks out of both Rey and Ben, leaving them largely powerless and drained. Rey then discovers that while Palpatine has the souls and power of all the Sith in him, she has all the power of the Jedi in her. She takes him on using Luke and Leia’s Lightsaber, overpowering Palpatine’s force lightning and destroying the tombs of the Sith, and all Palpatine’s disciples at the cost of her own life.

Ben Solo somehow finds the strength to pull himself out of the pit, comes to her side, sees that she is dead, and heals her in the same way that she had healed him earlier. She opens her eyes, sees him, kisses him, he smiles in h is knowing redemption and dies.

Here is what I both love and hate about both story lines. I think that it is important to remember that redemption is possible, for anyone. I like that message. What I don’t like is the idea that it only takes one brave thing to wipe out a lifetime of cowardice. That in this act of sacrificing himself he is redeemed of the genocide he is responsible for. That he is forgiven for murdering his own father. That he is somehow no longer the same person who required the life sacrifice of his mother in order to not kill Rey. This is why I hate it. He had to die, because if Rey had come out of that cavern hand in hand with him and walked up to Poe like, “no no no guys it’s ok! He saved me!” they would have probably killed them both. It’s not too late for anyone to come back from a life lead in awfulness, but it does take the rest of one’s life to be dedicated to good, and even then, no one owes you their forgiveness.

And the Rey being a Palpatine thing. I get where they were trying to go. That blood and genetics do not dictate behavior. That even if one is born of evil, that they can make the choice for themselves to be good. That is a message that I support. I also don’t see how in the cannon timeline of Star Wars it would be possible for Palpatine to be Rey’s grandfather. That would mean, sometime after he was disfigured by Mace Windu, he had a son. And that sometime after Leia and Han had Ben, that son had Rey. I think it makes much more sense on the canonical timeline of Star Wars for her to be the grandchild of Obi Wan Kenobi. I mean the man was exiled in the deserts of Tatooine for like 40 years, what else is there to do but fuck?

In short, I really did enjoy the movie, even if I disliked some aspects of it. I understand why the story was told in this way and the lessons it was trying to teach, but I wish that it had been a little better researched in the canonical lore of Star Wars before making those leaps.

I always want to hear what you thought about the movie, please comment on wherever you saw this and tell me your thoughts!