<p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-the-rise-of-skywalker-theriseofskywalker-LkqusQ2TH0Ed9UaIiK"> via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <p style="text-align: justify;" data-type="item-text"> </p> <p style="text-align: justify;" data-type="item-text">Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. We’ll finally get to see how this all plays out when <em>Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker</em> hits theatres on December 20 (though, if you’re like me, you’ll be seeing it on the 19th!).</p> <p style="text-align: justify;" data-type="item-text"> </p> <p style="text-align: justify;" data-type="item-text"> </p> <p> </p> <div class="pager"> <ul class="pagination-list"> <li><a nofollow="" title="Next article" href="https://younghollywood.com/scene/5-modern-holiday-tunes-by-your-favorite-artists-to-stream-under-the-mistletoe.html" class="pagenav" onclick="infload('https://younghollywood.com/scene/5-modern-holiday-tunes-by-your-favorite-artists-to-stream-under-the-mistletoe.html?ajax=1', jQuery(this)); jQuery(this).parents('.pager').remove(); return false;"> <i class="icon-next">Next Article</i> <i class="fa fa-chevron-right icon-rarrow"> </i></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> <script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[ console.log('firing infinite ads - 1080'); // jQuery('.tab-divs').on('load', function() { (window.asc = window.asc || {"cmd":[]}).cmd.push(function(){ window.asc.processAdsOnPage(); }); // }); ]]></script> <script type="application/ld+json"><![CDATA[ { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://google.com/article" }, "headline": "8 Things That NEED To Happen In 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker'!", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "/templates/yh2016/images/logo.svg", "height": "867", "width": "950" }, "datePublished": "2019-12-12T13:00:00", "dateModified": "2019-12-11T23:16:25", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "<i>Katie Marzullo" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Young Hollywood", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://younghollywood.com/templates/yh2016/images/logo.png", "width": 107, "height": 78 } }, "description": "<div> <span style="font-size:10px;"><em>( &copy; Disney/Lucasfilm)</em></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> We made it, fam. After 4 years, the <em>Star Wars </em>Sequel Trilogy is only ONE WEEK away from coming to an end, taking with it the entire Skywalker Saga that began over 40 years ago.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <em>Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker</em> hits theatres on December 20 and with it comes a lot of expectations, for better or for worse. Writer and director <strong>J.J. Abrams</strong> has promised us a satisfying wrap-up to this decades-long story, but everyone seems to have their own definition of &ldquo;satisfying&rdquo; when it comes to <em>Star Wars</em>. For me, it&rsquo;s all about payoff. Not just payoff for the Saga as a whole, but for the Sequel Trilogy in particular. It&rsquo;s not enough to just have an ending that appeals to the masses &ndash; it also needs to stay true to the heart of <em>Star Wars</em> in general and to the groundwork lain in the previous 2 movies.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> With that in mind, here are 8 things that NEED to happen in <em>The Rise of Skywalker</em>!</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>1. Ben Solo Must Be Redeemed (and Live)</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Look, guys, you do not cast an Actor&trade; like <strong>Adam Driver</strong> just to have him play a one-note villain. You also don&rsquo;t make that villain the son of two Legacy characters just to have him stay evil and die. And you DEFINITELY don&rsquo;t kill off Legacy characters for nothing. For many, Kylo Ren, AKA Ben Solo AKA the son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, murdering his own father was a complete dealbreaker, utterly unforgiveable, and therefore he does not &ldquo;deserve&rdquo; redemption. Here&rsquo;s the thing about that, though &ndash; it doesn&rsquo;t matter. Sorry, but whether or not YOU think he is &ldquo;deserving&rdquo; is irrelevant. What matters is how the characters in the story, and the story itself, feels about it. What matters is what the FORCE thinks about it! It&rsquo;s important to remember that <em>Star Wars</em> is a fairy tale, a parable set in outer space, and not social commentary. People are afraid of the &ldquo;message&rdquo; it would send to kids that Kylo Ren would be redeemed after such dastardly deeds. The only message it would send is that change is possible and even the worst of us can get a second chance. It&rsquo;s a message <em>Star Wars</em> has been beaming across the Galaxy since 1977. If even Darth Vader can get a redemption, so can his grandson!</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-movie-star-wars-3o84stMkKVCQHzyQqA">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> But does he deserve to be redeemed AND live? Heck yes! True redemption isn&rsquo;t possible if you don&rsquo;t stick around to prove that your change of heart wasn&rsquo;t a fluke. It&rsquo;s easy to make ONE good decision and then peace out for the Great Beyond, like Vader did. While it might seem like a good idea for Kylo Ren to sacrifice himself for the Greater Good, it does not make for a satisfying end to the story of Han and Leia&rsquo;s only child. It renders the deaths of Han and Luke meaningless. Besides, this movie is called <em>The Rise of Skywalker</em>, and Ben Solo is the heir apparent of the Skywalker legacy. Which brings me to&hellip;</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>2. Kylo Ren Must Finish What His Grandfather Started</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In the first chapter of the Sequel Trilogy, <em>The Force Awakens</em>, Kylo Ren vows to &ldquo;finish&rdquo; what his grandfather Darth Vader &ldquo;started&rdquo;. He didn&rsquo;t specify what exactly that was, but we can guess it had something to do with murdering his master to become the ultimate ruler of the Galaxy. Well, with the death of Supreme Leader Snoke in <em>The Last Jedi,</em> seems like mission accomplished on that front! But on a bigger, thematic scale, what Kylo Ren must <em>actually</em> finish is Anakin Skywalker&rsquo;s true purpose &ndash; to bring balance to the Force. Anakin was the Chosen One, after all, but his fall to the Dark Side upended his trajectory, thanks to the meddling of Emperor Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious. Vader (presumably) killed Palpatine at the end of <em>Return of the Jedi</em> in order to save his son Luke Skywalker, but now we know that, somehow, Palpatine survived. Yes, the same Palpatine who has been the TRUE villain this whole time! The same Palpatine that corrupted Anakin, who tried to do the same to Luke, and who is now back to sow more havoc. Thus another thing Kylo Ren must finish &ndash; destroy Palpatine once and for all.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/steve-bannon-10JDuY7HVQCMta">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Another thing Kylo needs to finish is reverse the tragic ending to the love story between Anakin and his wife Padm&eacute; Amidala, but we&rsquo;ll get to that later&hellip;</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>3. Leia Must Live</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> When the legendary <strong>Carrie Fisher</strong> tragically passed away in 2016, it left Lucasfilm in quite a quandary as to how to proceed with the final film of the Trilogy. Whereas <em>The Force Awakens</em> was Han&rsquo;s movie, and <em>The Last Jedi</em> was Luke&rsquo;s movie, <em>The Rise of Skywalker </em>was supposed to be Leia&rsquo;s movie. Luckily for all involved, they discovered unused footage from <em>TFA</em> that they were able to repurpose for <em>TROS</em> and, according to them, seamlessly craft a coherent plotline for her. It&rsquo;s anyone&rsquo;s guess as to what this will entail, as we have precious little information about Leia&rsquo;s role in <em>TROS</em>, but we can make some speculations. For starters, it looks more than certain that Leia will be training Rey in the ways of the Force, thanks to footage we have seen of her holding the Legacy Lightsaber in the same location as the footage of Rey training in a heavily forested locale.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-l2JJOsEYzQbtvV0A0">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In the tie-in novel <em>Resistance Reborn</em>, which takes place shortly after the Battle of Crait in <em>TLJ,</em> Leia is portrayed as being utterly exhausted, both mentally and physically, and it&rsquo;s heavily implied that her health is in decline. While this seems to be foreshadowing her death in <em>TROS</em>, I am hoping against hope that this will not be the case, and that she will simply decide to &ldquo;retire&rdquo; from kicking butt across the Galaxy and hand the reigns off to the remaining Resistance members (and possibly even Lando Calrissian). After having lost so much, wouldn&rsquo;t it be amazing if she survived long enough to see her only son come back to the Light? Wouldn&rsquo;t it be great if she just didn&rsquo;t follow her brother and husband into the afterlife? Leia deserves better, Carrie deserves better, we all deserve better. LET LEIA LIVE!</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>4. Dark-Rey Must Be Real, Not Just a Vision</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Many fans, myself included, fully expected Rey to go dark at <em>some</em> point in this Trilogy. I thought it would happen in <em>TLJ</em>; many others assumed it already did. But after the trailer released at D23 in August showed Rey in a black hood and wielding a double-sided red lightsaber, we knew we had seen nothing yet! Speculation immediately abounded, arguing whether or not this was &ldquo;real&rdquo; or just a vision. Personally, I think it would be a cop-out for it to be just a vision. Rey has been struggling with the darker aspects of herself since the first movie, and it&rsquo;s no secret that there is a LOT of trauma in her past that she has yet to fully deal with. This vulnerability makes her ripe for Palpatine&rsquo;s evil schemes, who will likely try to recruit her (since he is probably 1000% DONE with dealing with those dang Skywalkers). The only way in which a &ldquo;vision&rdquo; plays into this, in my opinion, is that it is likely a manifestation of the vision Kylo Ren said he had in <em>TLJ </em>after he and Rey touched hands &ndash; that she would turn and join him. But being confronted with that reality in the flesh, though, methinks Kylo would have major reservations about it and want to stop her from falling and stop Palpatine from messing with her the way he did with Anakin and Luke. But the real value in Dark-Rey happening is Rey being able to confront the nastier aspects of herself so that she can either let them go or integrate them into herself in a healthy way.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/star-wars-ray-sabre-duplo-S58lSaxenMvQHV46Kv">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>5. Anakin Must Return (In Force-Ghost Form)</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Just the mere memory of Darth Vader has had to do a lot of heavy-lifting in this series. You can argue that we wouldn&rsquo;t even be here if it weren&rsquo;t for him, and it&rsquo;s clear that his sins continue to reverberate through the Galaxy and are coming home to roost. It feels kind of strange that this character, who has not only been the backbone of the entire Saga but also a driving force for many of the main characters&rsquo; actions, has been physically nothing more than a charred and mangled old helmet all this time. We know Anakin can manifest as a Force-ghost, because he did just that at the end of <em>Return of the Jedi</em>, so the time seems ripe for him to show the eff up at the climax of this story which has invariably revolved around him in one way or another.</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/80s-star-wars-return-of-the-jedi-12Vg35jCqP610Y">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> So how would that actually play out? Well, I have heard plenty of people complain that this should have happened way earlier, that he should have manifested to Ben Solo long before his grandson&rsquo;s fall, but it&rsquo;s important to remember that Force-ghosts can only manifest to those whom they knew when they were alive, and Anakin/Vader died before Ben was even born. HOWEVER, there might be a loophole available &ndash; Luke can manifest for Kylo, so who&rsquo;s to say he won&rsquo;t drag dear ol&rsquo; dad along with him to give his nefarious nephew a stern talking-to? Or perhaps he&rsquo;ll even appear to Leia&hellip; Whatever the case, Anakin needs to stand up and be accountable for all the nonsense he has been complicit in over the years! (This goes back to my previous argument about Ben Solo needing to be redeemed and live to tell the tale &ndash; Anakin got off way too easy by just dying! At least let his ghost come back and take some damn responsibility!)</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>6. The Resistance Must Team Up With The First Order</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> It already seems like a good given that the Resistance and the First Order will have to put their (monumental) differences aside in order to defeat Palpatine. I know there are plenty of folks who think the First Order will JOIN Palpatine, but that doesn&rsquo;t seem like something Palps would be too interested in. Besides, Rey and the Resistance cannot defeat a foe this formidable alone. We can already guess that she and Kylo will team up to end Palps once and for all, but I would like to see it go the distance and have both sides of the war come together to fight the REAL enemy in all this.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Besides, just picture it &ndash; Poe Dameron and General Hux formulating attack strategies together??</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-movie-star-wars-l1ugpiu9HmHlbimTm">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>7. Finn Must Find His Family</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Actor J<strong>ohn Boyega</strong> has promised that we will learn more about Finn&rsquo;s backstory in <em>TROS</em>, which will be a welcome relief. We know precious little about him pre-<em>TFA</em>, other than he was taken from his family at a very young age (possibly a baby) and that there was something in him that somehow compelled him to reject the First Order&rsquo;s programming and brainwashing to escape being a Stormtrooper. There are definitely some missing pieces here, and I for one would not only like to discover those pieces but would like some of them to be put back together again, and finding his family will go along way to satisfy that. I mean, we already have a major character in this Trilogy who lost her parents and will never see them again, and another who not only rejected but killed one of his, so can we please at least have Finn not suffer the same fate? SOMEONE has to have a happy family reunion in this damn Saga!!!</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-movie-star-wars-3oeSATLmWQX6mHHYuQ">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <hr class="system-pagebreak" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:26px;"><strong>8. Rey Must Get Her Happily Ever After</strong></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I dunno about y&rsquo;all, but I&rsquo;m sick to death of the independent-woman-don&rsquo;t-need-no-man trope that&rsquo;s all the rage in Hollywood lately, especially when it goes against what the female character in question actually wants. Yes, Rey can kick anyone&rsquo;s ass, she is strong with the Force, and she can take care of herself. But that&rsquo;s only because she&rsquo;s had no other choice. From the moment we met her in <em>TFA</em>, one thing has been abundantly clear: she&rsquo;s lonely as hell and just wants a family. How sad, then, that the end of <em>TROS</em> would just have her end up exactly where she began. What an awful message that she should just learn to embrace her isolation. NO. Maz Kanata made it clear in the first movie: &ldquo;The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.&rdquo; She also says, &ldquo;Whoever you are waiting for on Jakku, they are never coming back. But there is someone who still could&hellip;&rdquo; At the time, Rey (and we the audience) assumed Maz was referring to Luke. But in <em>TLJ</em>, we realized she was actually referring to Ben Solo. The belonging Rey seeks is not with the Resistance &ndash; it is with Ben. They are Force-bonded, they are soulmates, they are stronger together. They were able to hold hands from across the Galaxy, for Maker&rsquo;s sake!!! <em>TLJ</em> director <strong>Rian Johnson</strong> called Rey and Kylo &ldquo;two halves of our protagonist&rdquo;. Together, they will defeat Palpatine once and for all, bring peace and balance to the Force, and continue the &ldquo;mighty Skywalker bloodline&rdquo;. If that doesn&rsquo;t happen, then literally what was the point of any of this?</div> <div style="text-align: center;"> &nbsp; <p> <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-the-rise-of-skywalker-theriseofskywalker-LkqusQ2TH0Ed9UaIiK">via GIPHY</a></p> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. We&rsquo;ll finally get to see how this all plays out when <em>Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker </em>hits theatres on December 20 (though, if you&rsquo;re like me, you&rsquo;ll be seeing it on the 19th!).</div>" } ]]></script>