ST Subverting Expectations in E9: Not What We Want, but What We Need

Padme shows up again. She faked her death to marry Palps. Snoke was her son and Snoke is the father of Rey

 

I'm surprised no-one has brought this up yet, but we need Darth Jar Jar. The mastermind behind it all!

Also we need to discover the Galaxy Far, Far Away has been a computer simulation the entire time.

 

Imagine if he showed up at the end of Solo instead of Maul

 

Most fans may not want Hayden back as Anakin in a cameo, I think if we're talking about what this story needs to wrap up the saga, having Anakin's ghost appear to Kylo would make sense. Kylo is going around doing all this evil stuff to be like Vader, and that's part of Anakin's responsibility to address that, even if from beyond the grave. It's not really fair if his spirit just gets to skate off without taking responsibility and attempting to right more of the wrongs he did while alive.

 

Darth Maul returns. Why, well why not?

 

The entire idea of subverting expectations seems to have mostly been heavily discussed with regards to TLJ, when in truth each film in the Skywalker saga has subverted expectations to varying degrees. I think it's inevitable that Episode IX will continue to do so, especially with regards to how the relationship between Rey and Kylo evolves / resolves.

 

This is a good point, Ewoksimon. Can you give some examples in the thread?

Here's one I've brought up elsewhere as a critique for why Luke didn't need to be deconstructed in TLJ -- his actions at the end of ROTJ already subvert our expectations for the classic action hero by throwing his light saber down and getting good results: changing his father's heart.

That may be the most successful subversion and deconstruction of heroism in action films of all-time.

While we don't want this to become a general Saga discussion, I do think it's relevant at times to point to other examples of subversion. For the sake of imagining what might be done in E9.

I wonder if people would consider the First Order troops rebelling a subversive action or just something we want? It seems perhaps too much of an expected, traditional move.

A subversive take on it would be Finn rallying them all to action -- and then they, or some of them who are unable to overcome their programming, attack Finn and kill him.

Or Poe shows that he's really unable to grow as a leader -- although TLJ suggested that he was growing. In E9, we see Poe yet again get rebels killed simply because of a short term goal.

The subversive move for Rey (one of many but perhaps the greatest) would be for her to be unable to quit Kylo despite his increasing evil. She just keeps going back to him, no matter how terrible he is, simply because she finds him attractive and dark. That's subversive -- and not in a good way.

 

Rey, Finn, and Poe... in the same scene, interacting with one another.

 

Sure thing @Resistance Trooper 2 , here's just a few:

ANH defied so many expectations for the type of film that it was at the time, and became a success far bigger than anyone anticipated.

ESB subverted expectations by putting the heroes on their heels for the majority of the film, and obviously had the great twist of Vader being Luke's father.

ROTJ had the reveal of Leia as Luke's sister, but more importantly decided to make Vader a sympathetic character capable of being redeemed, rather than killed by Luke.

TPM took the visual vocabulary of the saga into new directions, and also chose to start Anakin's journey as an innocent young boy.

AOTC probably has the fewest subversions, but I still remember finding it surprising that the Clone Wars involved the Jedi and clones fighting together, and not against each other.

ROTS also doesn't subvert expectations as much since it had to tie both trilogies together, but having Anakin's visions of Padme's death become his primary motivation for falling to the dark side was pretty surprising to me.

TFA revealed that our old heroes had been hit hard with loss and guilt with the fall of Ben Solo as Kylo Ren, and holding off Luke only until the very final scene (with no dialogue) was a bold choice.

And yes, TLJ has many subversions of expectations, nearly on a scene by scene basis, but the biggest ones involve Luke's motivations for his inaction and desire to end the Jedi Order, as well as Kylo's ostensible path to redemption in killing Snoke, only to take over the First Order himself.

 

I want and I need less ranting...

 

In that case we need to kill off Hux in the opening crawl and Kylo in a spacebanana-peel-related accident in the first five minutes. No more ranting, and the good guys can sit around playing "Snap" for the rest of the film's running time.

Now that's a subversion!

 

We need to see the stable kid wielding a Broomsaber, consisting of a rod with dozens of very thin laser blades shooting out of the end. It will bear a remarkable resemblance to one of those LED fibre-optic wand toys.

As in, it will actually be one of those LED fibre-optic wand toys. Price: approx. $3.00. Welcome to the new, budget-conscious Lucasfilm!