I mean this is just true, imo. "Rey Palpatine" may be hackneyed but it's the truest expression of the metaplot of Rey-as-Star Wars-Fan-Living-Her-Own-Self-Insert, & actually gives a writer somewhere to go with her formative experiences that "your parents were shit & your childhood a waste" doesn't. - ThreadSky

loudpenitent.bsky.social • 18 days ago

I mean this is just true, imo.

"Rey Palpatine" may be hackneyed but it's the truest expression of the metaplot of Rey-as-Star Wars-Fan-Living-Her-Own-Self-Insert, & actually gives a writer somewhere to go with her formative experiences that "your parents were shit & your childhood a waste" doesn't.

Reposted from Émile: Air Will Be Bud

My meanest Sequels opinion is that ‘Rey Nobody’ is just an unironic, non-deconstructive Chosen One story with an extra step, while ‘Rey Palpatine’ actually has a real personal conflict for her to confront. Handled clumsily, but still better as an actual story!

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collect-turnip.bsky.social•18 days ago

I figured part of the issues with Rey was due to having two directors for a trilogy, thus no consistent direction for how the movies go.

koinskock.bsky.social•18 days ago

I mean the originals had three directors and like five writers, and those all went pretty good.

collect-turnip.bsky.social•18 days ago

They were all involved in the overall process for all three films though, right?

Was JJ Abram’s involved in the second film at all? I’m pretty sure he was working on a different project at the time.

emperorholly.bsky.social•18 days ago

I’m also really biased here because ‘hero who is told by Destiny/society/family/whatever that they Have To Become Evil and chooses to fight against it’ is by far my favourite type of story

emperorholly.bsky.social•18 days ago

Like, that’s basically Luke’s entire story from the OT, distilled. He’s ‘destined’ to follow in his father’s footsteps, and his triumph is from saying ‘no’ to that! The Sequels didn’t handle it as gracefully, but it’s still a fundamentally Star Wars story

emperorholly.bsky.social•18 days ago

And Anakin’s story (handled far worse than Rey’s, imo, at least in the actual films) is this trope in reverse! He’s ‘destined’ to be good but ultimately chooses evil. The conflict for the Skywalkers (and by extension, the Palpatines) is that of people fighting their own assigned ‘destiny’.

ordinalandsman.bsky.social•18 days ago

Rey as a nobody provides an in to exploring how the force works for people who aren't part of a lineage of chosen ones. You could explore what *makes* someone strong with the force beyond 'medichlorians' in ways the franchise hasn't shown interest in in decades.

ordinalandsman.bsky.social•18 days ago

The irony is that it's actually much easier to imagine yourself within Star Wars if the force is something you can learn and believe in with enough faith/dedication, which was clearly what Johnson was going for with TLJ.

pnictogen-wing.bsky.social•18 days ago

(*thinks of adding something more, sighs and thinks better of it*)

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