Marvel Star Wars 58 (coming out Dec 5 2018) teases a Luke/Tula romance with cover art that looks a lot like a famous image of Luke and Mara Jade, Luke’s non-canon wife from the old EU.
There’s no way Luke got married between ANH and ESB (when the series takes place), but if she survived to post RoTJ, this could possibly be Luke’s canon wife. Many have speculated that Kylo murdered Luke’s wife in the Jedi Temple massacre and that his “moment of weakness” when he almost struck Ben dead in his sleep was because The Force showed him he was going to kill her.
That would change TLJ. It would explain a lot about Luke’s actions.
I mean, hinting at romance in SW48 doesn’t mean she’s going to have that much impact on the movies (Sana’s been ignored on screen so far), but here they are giving Luke a newcanon romantic relationship again. And, again, she’s a woman of color. IR is everywhere in the newcanon, including (lbr) TFA. Finnrey is no stretch if they keep the on and offscreen canon consistent.
(I don’t trust tumblr’s search engine to show the other promo post I made, hence this post)
For the first time in what felt like forever Luke and Lando were alone. They had the whole night together, no disturbances, and as soon as they closed the door they started to undress one another. It was quick and unceremonious. Even Lando just threw his clothes on the floor without care, but it had been too long, too long .
The first time Luke had seen Lando naked he had been at a total loss of words, and even now the sight still took his breath away. Lando was pleasantly soft in just the right places – beautiful , Luke had managed to call him the first time they had been together. Lando had laughed and asked if that was the only thing Luke had to say about him. It was. It still was. Luke had never been one with words, not the way Lando was. Surely there were many words to describe Lando Calrissian, but every time Luke tried, he was lost in the marvel that his lover was.
Morality, Trust, and the Force–toward a new model of Force instruction
What went so fatally wrong with the Jedi Order?
It’s a recurring and fundamental question. Through the prequel, original, and now sequel trilogies we’ve watched the Jedi Order fall, rise, and then fall again. Unless they can end this cycle the end of Episode IX won’t be an end, but rather a prelude to a new tragedy.
I believe the old Jedi Order’s reliance on inborn Force power became warped into blood worship in Luke’s new Jedi Order, and Kylo Ren was a product of this repugnant and ahistorical belief. To overcome the mistakes of the old and new Orders, a new model of Force instruction must arise: One that does not rely on inborn talent and certainly not on the nonsensical idea that a lineage confers a special destiny or rights. Rather the new model must recognize and nurture the Force powers inherent in everyone, and instruction itself should be a horizontal process where the students teach each other.
Below I will lay out these ideas in more detail. First I will explain the progression from the old Jedi Order to the new one, and how discontinuity in history led to Luke’s mistakes and Kylo Ren. Then I will lay out the new model that I believe must take the Jedi’s place in order to prevent new Kylo Rens from arising, or at least minimize their damage, while also avoiding the mistakes of the old Jedi Order.
The TLJ novelization seems to validate part of what I said here about Luke’s role. From Snoke’s point of view:
Luke, in other words, knew that the Jedi were flawed and he needed to turn to sources older than the Jedi to understand the Force and perhaps seek other ways to organize around it. Snoke saw this path Luke was on as such a threat that he used his knowledge and a young Ben Solo to manipulate Luke into rebuilding the Jedi.
Much like the history of the Jedi itself, Luke’s attempt to rebuild the Order was defined by fear and temptation, not faith–fear of his nephew falling to the Dark Side, and the lure of power. In doing so Luke seems to have abandoned his earlier attempts to seek the origins of the Force faith that Snoke found so threatening. History repeated itself, and the Jedi came down again in blood and fire.
Luke did take another apprentice, however, who received barely any instruction from him other than the basics of the Force, the roots that Luke had been seeking before Snoke’s interference and sought out again when Kylo Ren destroyed his fledgling Academy. In addition to these basics, Rey also has the first Jedi texts which Finn discovered in the Millennium Falcon. It seems the stage is set to realize Luke’s original vision for a new/old way of Force instruction, the one he was groping toward before Snoke distracted him.
I have talked before about how the Resistance could still grow its forces post-TLJ (link). However, in light of Oscar Isaac’s comments about the Resistance being a smaller, underdog guerilla force, I’ve also started thinking about how the Resistance could win without being a huge military force like the Rebellion was. According te Oscar:
“[The Resistance] are guerrilla fighters, adhering closer to something like the Revolutionary War fighters or even the guerrillas in Cuba with Che and Fidel and all these guys living in the mountains, coming down to do some attacks, and going back and trying to hide from the ’empire’ of the United States. It’s that kind of ragged at this point.”
Episode IX could still show the Resistance growing, of course; Oscar could be talking about an early stage in the movie, since he says “at this point.” However, if the Resistance is a much-outnumbered guerrilla force for most of Episode IX, could they still win?
A depressing possibility under the small-Resistance scenario, of course, is that the Resistance is defeated or reaches a ceasefire with the FO so that both sides retreat to their own regions of space in preparation for farther movies and series. I’ll rule that out for the moment, though, because it would be a rehash of the TLJ ending and is not a real ending to the saga at all. Besides, this entire situation with the FO has its roots a compromise with the Empire remnants and I highly doubt it’s a good idea to let that history repeat again.
Another point is that Oscar referenced victorious guerrilla fighters, the
Continental Army and Castro’s 26th of July Movement, each of which won their wars and
successfully took power. (What they did with the power afterward is
another matter. This is not meant to be an endorsement of either the U.S.’s or Cuba’s political systems so hold off on the anons please.)
If we leave out the unsatisfactory defeat/ceasefire ending and assume the Resistance stays small, there may still be paths to victory. To that end let’s examine Oscar’s historical parallels.
The British Empire lost to the Continentials because of lack of political will (many in Britain did not believe war was a solution at all), lack of command skill and command line coherence, lack of supplies in hostile territory, the failure of expected Loyalist support to materialize, and the Continentals gaining useful allies like France and Spain. The Cuban government under Batista lost because his commanders made crucial mistakes, he couldn’t get necessary arms and parts for his military due to a U.S. embargo, and he lost both United States and domestic support.
These factors can be boiled down to four things: Unity, supplies, support, and allies. If the FO is disunited and its command are at each other’s throats or simply failing to coordinate; if it loses crucial sources of supplies and has its supply lines disrupted; and if the populations of the occupied territories rise up against it while the Resistance gains allies, there is a chance for even a small Resistance to prevail.
For one it gives an alternative type of conflict, or at least how the conflict plays out, to the last two trilogies.
Another is that this gives Rose a place and time to shine as a mechanic. Who better in the Resistance to know where they should strike and how? She never got to show off her abilities in TLJ with this she has a great chance.
Finally there’s the possibility that the end game battle will be fairly small. As in, not a whole lot people involved. And I know there are people who hate that idea, but to me the battles in the Star Wars movies that kept me engrossed had nothing to do with how much pew pew was going on.
Think about the climatic battle in RotS? It’s basically two one on one duels: Anakin vs Obi-Wan and Sidious vs Yoda.
Or for that matter the action climax in ESB. Vader vs Luke and Leia, Lando and Chewie’s desperate attempt to first rescue Han and the escape the Empire all the while picking Luke up.
Or TPM. The battle with the Gungans on the plain and all the shenanigans up in space are really distraction from the main plot, Padmé capturing the viceroys. And a lot of emotional payoff is invested in Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Maul.
Last, but certainly not least, TFA. Yes we have pew pew up in atmosphere above SKB and yes we want Poe and Red and Blue squadron to blow it up. But where is our attention and emotional investment? Down on the ground, with Finn, Han, Chewie and Rey. In the end all the pew pew up there feels like a distraction from the “actual” battle.
So small scale final conflict does not to me mean lack of payoff for the trilogy or IX on its own. Maybe the final battle is an attempt to capture or kill key First Order officers in an attempt to cut off the head of the snake so to speak. If the First Order is already pressed and internal conflict rampant, removing key figures one way or the other could be a method how a fairly small group of people, or number of small groups, could bring down a behemoth like the First Order.
You’re right, supply attacks would be a PERFECT way for Rose to shine! She’s built a crucial new technology herself and has experience with supply runs. I really hate how she was reduced to searching for a dude hacker in TLJ and then ending up with a different dude hacker. From TLJ you would never know that she was a brilliant mechanic and inventor who had supervised a whole team of bomber flight engineers to implement the technology she built. Having her cause chaos in the FO by cutting off its supply lines with maximum effect would go a long way toward doing her character more justice. Put your fist through the FO the right way, girl.
Yes, the climactic last battles in the SW movies have always been personal, even intimate. Even the destruction of the Death Star in ANH came down to Luke, his connection to the Force through Obi-Wan’s ghost, Vader trying to shoot Luke down, and Han coming through for a last-minute assist. One hero, the hero’s mentor, the hero’s implacable shadow, and the triumphant culmination of the friend’s character arc.
In fact, the operations to ultimately take down the FO as I outlined in the op are so vast they’d be a better subject of a between-movies TV series along the lines of The Clone Wars. (I wonder what this war against the FO would be called? The Shadow War? The Force War? The Star War?) Episode IX can show the final results, with a little exposition on how they got there, and then have our core group of heroes finish things off. It’s the Star Wars way.
It’s okay, it turns out it’s all part of an elaborate hair-care routine. Rey is still uncomfortable with not EATING all nutrients thox
When Rey dreamed of Ahch-To all those years it was in the throes of her hunger pangs and parched thirst, dreaming of meeting the thala-siren that so generously gave nutrients and drinks to the needy.
Also, Kylo’s trauma from his uncle considering killing him for .1 second makes him a soft boy who can’t be held accountable for any of his heinous actions, while Finn’s lifetime of trauma makes him a scary obsessed stalker who should stay far away from Rey in any romantic sense.
Not to mention, Kylo’s trauma doesn’t exist. The whole reason Luke considered killing him was because “Snoke had already turned his heart”. And Kylo proved him right by fighting after Luke lowered his weapon. Kylo had been planning to betray Luke well before Luke became suspicious. When Kylo turned and saw Luke’s lightsaber ignited, he didn’t get scared. He got caught.
Meanwhile, Rey “I’m not giving you anything”-“get out of my head”-“murderous snake”-“don’t do this. Don’t go this way” of Jakku isn’t being harmed by Kylo Ren just because the writers went a little overboard on making her special.
And simultaneously, Rey “you can’t go. I won’t let you.”-“don’t go.”-“you came back for me”-let me just lay here in the snow and die with my man-“we will see each other again”-“thank you my friend”-“if you see Finn before I do” of Jakku is afraid of, and being stalked by Finn. 🙄
I don’t blame Kylo for fighting Luke or bringing down the hut on him regardless of his evilness or intention, because when Luke brought down his saber it could still be seen as him trying to strike Kylo. (Because the greatest living Jedi Master somehow doesn’t know how to turn off his lightsaber? Sounds fake, but let’s roll with it.) I would not have blamed Kylo for killing Luke, either. But Kylo’s slaughtering other the students who did nothing to him is clearly nowhere in the region of justifiable and shows long planning and premeditation.
So you’re right, absolutely, that he was caught before a premeditated attack, but I don’t put it past him to be still be traumatized by the encounter and what he did in the aftermath. There is zero conflict between him being a mass murderer and being heavily traumatized, since perpetrator trauma is a known phenomenon (link) and suffering does not ennoble a person.
Yes on all your other points. Jason Fry himself, though I have a ton of problems with him, has explicitly debunked the reylow fiction that he said Finn needs to overcome his affection for Rey. And can you believe that reylows say Rey was trying to let go of Finn during their hug and Finn wouldn’t let her 😂 So what was Rey holding her hand out to Finn, hugging Finn first, collapsing on top of an unconscious Finn, and kissing his forehead–did he Force pull her or some shit? Ooh wait, did they just confirm Force-sensitive Finn?
L.J.'s Obsessions 