ST If you feel jaded, how can IX make you fall in love with Star Wars again?

If you feel jaded, like you no longer love Star Wars like you once did... whether it’s from TLJ, or TFA, or both, or even the prequels or ROTJ...

Or even if you don’t feel as strongly as “jaded,” but still feel a little disappointment, like Star Wars hasn’t been meeting your expectations lately...


... how can IX make YOU fall in love with Star Wars again?

 

It's called keeping your expectations under control. A lot of the people bashing star wars to no end on this site now are the same ones that spent seemingly 24/7 theorizing about everything they wanted ep viii to do. So it was no surprise that when TLJ pretty much stomped on two years of theorizing they went into a rant phase.

 

After TLJ honestly I am only and unfortunately in a very limited way interested in movies about the past or spin offs. I don't care what happens in IX. It is even hard for me to look forward to the movies about the past that I want to see after TLJ while knowing what will be the outcome.
TLJ killed the Jedi and Luke and made them look like fools and in addition it killed their spirit. Instead it brought Kylo-Rey. I don't care about them. For me SW is Jedi, LS, mystery boxes, etc. I can speculate about.
I feel more attached to everything else than to the characters Rey and Kylo after TLJ.

What can they make to get me back?
- Bring Luke back and repair his arc as well as the reputation of the Jedi
- Bring back the mystery flair of the previous films
- Stop pressing obvious political propaganda into the movies
- Stop praising RJ all the time and keep him far far away from SW in the future

After TFA I was expecting a large galaxy full of new and interesting adventures. The unknown regions, answers about the Jedi, something that is .... like Luke said in the TLJ trailer .... so much bigger.

We got Rey Random - and Kylo.
Thanks, but the relationship between a psycho and a nobody is not my cup of tea. Thats not big, that is a disappointment

 

Episode IX opening with Luke waking from a bad dream. And then he goes to train Rey as a Jedi properly.

 

Lordy, it's hard to imagine them being able to make it interesting again. To make a coherent thread to the story. So far it's going nowhere except copying scenes from the old movies with no plan.

There's so many ways that they could do it, but they'd need to actually put in more effort than "mining OT nostalgia lol".

These are some awful, awful, ideas, but are just some stuff which has been ruminating about in my head about how it could be tied together coherently. They could:

Make it so Luke's severed force jumped to Rey, making a coherent reason for all those copied scenes, and it poses a story problem for Rey's character in that Luke is dead and she's racing through his destiny, straight towards an invisible doom. All her auto-good talents - after the previous 2 trilogies were explicitly about characters failing due to not training enough - are solved with a new reason which poses a challenge for the character to boot. We could get the first glimpse of the force afterlife when Rey gets sucked there before a critical moment, and has her force taken from her by Luke, in an effort to save her (she is in the final step of copying Luke's past). She arrives back powerless, and doesn't feel very saved, she'd perhaps been getting cocky before that.

Make it so all that jank in TLJ actually leads to something interesting, and we find that the 'resistance' didn't recover, it's down to 3 people starting the movie with landing a broken up falcon, and writing it off. Poe keeps ranting about starting the spark, Finn and Rey are exchanging glances and try to explain to him that they're leaving now. He doesn't hear them. This might go full Logan, with them being seen pawning off one of R2D2's legs in a dusty market, the rest of him is nowhere to be seen. The opening crawl start with "Luke Skywalker's final gambit has failed." Eventually they have to leave Poe ranting in a market place, they try to say goodbye but he isn't really listening, still scheming about impossible comebacks. The last two agree that this was never their fight, that Luke was a crazy old man, that they've done enough. Maybe Kylo Ren shows up having been relentlessly tracking Rey down, they taunt him about how he was kicked out of his own order, with his subordinate now in control. Rey kills him at the start of the movie in a surprisingly anti-climatic duel like Kenobi and Maul's final battle. Possibly done by them goading him in the marketplace until he charges towards Rey (who has an equally flawed and failing lightsaber), and Finn using the force to pull the saber from his hand as he charges, surprising him as Rey impales him in one move. After he's dead and they are exhausted from the moment, they comment that it went as they'd practiced. All those teases about Finn also being a potential jedi in the first movie, doing well against Kylo Ren, actually lead to something. They decide they've done enough now, and walk away. They talk about a farm, but needing to go somewhere where they won't be found, this is obviously still dangerous for them, you cannot just walk away from social problems in truth.

Rey possibly travels to find disparate old masters who taught at Luke's academy, who walked away from the order when Luke did. They mention that they had some training as Jedi too, show old Ahsoka and Ezra without giving their whole backstory beyond that, even some EU characters could be brought back. The spirit of the Jedi Order dream is broken. They saw it fail too often.

Have trailer scenes heavily featuring an old force user man surrounded by animals who he clearly controls, let fan discussion get going that this is the kid from Rebels so that even general audiences get sort of on top of the idea. Tease that he might be Rey's father, even plant those seeds of discussion. Get the audience sure that they know how this will go down. However the actual scene goes nothing like that, it's Rey's meeting the old force users of the galaxy, people who perhaps trained at Luke's academy before walking away alongside him. This old Ezra's scene is actually him scoffing at the mention of Luke Skywalker, saying that for a man who wanted to quit the Jedi he sure kept talking about them a lot, always going on about the Jedi Order, supposedly going to end their first temple but there was no way he could do it. Ezra might have dabbled in ancient teachings, but Luke was the worst quitter at being a Jedi out of all of them. Reframe Luke as a true believer and the true carrier of the torch of the Jedi order. Have Rey be talking him down throughout the whole movie as a jerk who hated the Jedi, now she breaks down as she understands how much she misunderstood him, and so did the audience. Tie together all these other lore-breaking Jedi characters out there as not holding a torch to Luke Skywalker in just not quitting the order, give him his importance back.

The old forceuser (Ezra) might state that he feels the touch of Luke on Rey, that he must have found another like him and called her in to him, hence all her dreams, hence events going the same. I want a full breakdown of Rey and maybe even a few audiences members as we realize Luke was misrepresented. He was the truest believer of the Jedi Order there ever was.

With a few old masters maybe roped in, after Rey gives some passionate speech about how Luke stayed a believer til the end. That the time to fight is now. They maybe start a new school, just an amphitheater pit in the ground where Rey and Finn and a few force sensitives are taught by old masters while a few more non-force users sit at the edges looking on, an iconic moment in the galaxy's history. The camera zooms out and the ghost of Luke Skywalker is watching, his mouth agape.

Possibly discover that old Ahsoka's people - a group of cloaked cultists in a cave - wear the symbol from Rose's necklace. Finn is frowning at it, until it dawns on him that Rose was never what he thought, that all her weird antics were manipulating him in some way. Maybe even that stupid DJ guy shows up as part of this cult to give a purpose to all their pointless ranting, they were trying to get Finn to realize something, they believe he's a figure of prophecy - the traitor - who will understand where the final battle happens, who will direct the armies there, and they were spending all this time trying to get him to focus on the mystery of the First Order's impossible weapon supply, far beyond what dealers could produce, without telling him directly and risking messing with the prophecy. Finn tries to recall a beach where he was incorrectly assigned once, but says he can't remember now, it's all such a blur, those final days, meeting Rey, becoming free, etc, he begins to segue into his feelings about Rey from the get go, but can' remember it now. Rey surprises him with a kiss which sparks his memory, we see a few snippets of the first movie, but then goes back further, Finn begins to recognize stone pyramids on the beach, symbols, draws them in the sand of a cave in a trance, possibly using a lightsaber in stone which is hande to him. Eventually old Ahsoka stops them, and firmly names it as Rakata, the place of the final battle. The First Order has found some sort of ancient weapons-making device there which makes them this impossibly strong. The final outcome of the Imperial research. They leave Finn and Rey telling them that they're no longer important, rolling out with this secret army which was just waiting for the moment of prophecy (Ahsoka could name drop it as the prophecy of mortis or something). Rose is there and leaves with them, she's a Mandalorian, her and her sister are descendants of Sabine or something. God, anything to salvage that character.

If the old masters are brought around to Luke's vision, and begin training a few again, they may even recreate this sort of lesson - hell they could just re-use the music they already have to save on budget for once, and it would sort of tie their franchises together by understanding yeah those other guys were out there too trying, and Luke is like them in ways. There could be an exchanged look to signify that these old characters know this lesson.

If Luke does have to take Rey's force to save her from his destiny, he may show up again later to recreate his force call out to Leia from ESB. He says that she could pass her power onto Rey, it still has a living destiny unlike his, and in doing so will gain a daughter, to make up for her lost son. A new Skywalker, by adoption. Yoda and Obi Wan had some lines about they maybe wanted Leia over Luke in the original movies anyway, maybe this is fulfilling the destiny which they saw, tying so many story elements together. The movie could be titled The Last Skywalker, yet Rey kills Kylo at the very beginning, and meets her aunt who she's reconnected with not long after, establishing that her original parentage really wasn't tied to them, making the title about the Last Skywalker a growing mystery throughout the movie.

Hux might be shown early on as a cold ruler who has booted out Kylo Ren. He's having issues with a twitch in his hand or something. He's not seen again until near the end, where his demeanor has changed, and he sits on a throne. He giggles as Rey confronts him, says some lines, her brow furrows, she eventually realizes it's Snoke. Snoke is some sort of darkside parasite, there's a reason that Palpatine was so strong and had many of the same lines, there's a reason that he seems to also fit Plageus quite well based on rings and clothing and such which people noticed. The last host of 'Snoke' was just some random disfigured politician. He's been feeding on the force and making it unbalanced for millenia. Maybe after Rey defeats the Hux form, the ghost looms, taunting that it is darkness and pain, that a jedi child would never understand, it has killed countless jedi, only for Anakin Skywalker's ghost to show up, half dressed as Vader similar to Thor's torn up Ragnorok costume, grabs it, says that it doesn't know darkness, it knows nothing compared to Lord Vader, who killed all the jedi, and drags it off into some sort of force hell, a portal which closes behind them. Some sort of... balance to the force restored, explaining away that stupid prophecy, and why all these evens are repeating and tied together. With one of the true ancient enemies of the Jedi Order defeated, they realize that they can rebuild. Things are finally looking to go right. It's a new dawn.

Oh and they blow up a starforge cause you know it explains the first order being so stupidly powerful and brings back a good idea which has sort of been hinted at by the material as well. IDK, I stopped following it after The Last Jedi when it became clear that they had no plan in truth.

edit Oh and Ahsoka should just be CGI with the same voice actress, like the children of Thanos, possibly with a physical body actor to add the face to.

 

i)Return to the humour of the OT - i.e. comic relief rather than slapstick.
ii) Expand on what has come before.
iii) A plausible reason for a) why Rey is so powerful b) how the hell Snoke turned Ben Solo in the first place c) why Rey could give a damn about Ben in the first place.
iv) Relate Ep IX to the rest of the saga. I don't mean by using familiar characters and callbacks. I mean making Ep IX the ending of the saga that Ep I set up.
v) Remember that adults love SW too. It needs to appeal to everyone! So - no BB8 antics that make adults roll their eyes! There's a difference between cute and annoying!
vi) Good solid story-telling. Could the film stand up on its own without the SW label? If not, go back to the typewriter and start again!!

 

To me, the bolded part is key. Episode 9 can't just feel like the end of this latest trilogy, it has to feel like the end to the entire saga. If I'm being honest, I would expect to see Anakin in some form then, I would expect happy closure for Luke in some way and a rebuilding of the Jedi. If they do that, I will show up and watch...it's got to feel so much bigger than Rey and Kylo.

I don't hold out much hope though. Some, yes. But not much.

 

1. Fix Luke's reputation - They should either bring him back or explore the force ghosts more. Mend his relationship with Rey last time they were together they fought. Also have Luke teach her a bit more so that her being the Last Jedi and her power don't feel so unearned and stolen from Luke. This also brings us to....
2. Give us the full story of Ben and the Knights of Ren's turn. Show that it wasn't Luke's fault and that there was far more to it than what Luke did. Seriously how the hell do half of your students fall to the dark side? Also there is a huge problem because Snoke the person assumed to be responsible is already dead.
3. Give a satisfying end to Leia's story. Give her a peaceful end not one like Han and Akbar.
4. Actually give Finn a good arc and properly make use of his Stormtrooper background.
5. Make Rey less invincible. Have her lose to the Knights of Ren or something
6. Reduce Rose's role
7. DON'T KILL OFF OLD CHARACTERS. DON'T KILL R2, 3PO, CHEWIE, NIEN NUNB and if they bring Lando back DON'T KILL HIM
8. Don't kill off the Skywalkers and give them a good legacy. There's pretty much no hope with this Luke is a failure, the last surviving member is the main villain and Rey is a random.
9. Tie it in to the whole saga. Anakin needs to talk to Kylo.
10. No forced comedy
11. Give R2-D2 back the spotlight. Don't just flat out replace him with BB-8
12. Make us feel like this trilogy was actually something that needed to happen
13. Stop forcing characters in for the sake of representation. Just make great characters and story.
14. Actually show us the state of the Galaxy. Show how Kylo's rule is affecting people

 

I am likely jumping off the train after ep 9 as my real interests will have been served. I can always get back on with Rian's films later on if they look appealing to me. As for the next film, I need reasonable closure for the Skywalkers and not just at the end of the film either. I am talking about something significant and lasting. My dream would be all but impossible but I would like to see FG Luke set into motion a series of events that aid both Rey and Kylo to save all. Then I want a redeemed Ben to fulfill his destiny and croak like a Skywalker

 

Use the movie to tie demonstrate how TLJ is a continuation of TFA, and to tie all 9 movies together. Leave minor things open-ended while giving the Saga closure.

 

Give us an ending that satisfyingly wraps up the Skywalker Saga but also plants some seeds for future movies. I might jump ship on the franchise for a while if Episode 9 doesn't give us any hooks for the future and all LFL churns out for the next ten years are prequels prequels prequels.

 

I still love SW. SW just doesn’t include the ST right now. I’m skeptical IX can save the trilogy as a legit part of the saga in my mind. I guess the best they can do for me is tie it to the PT and OT and somehow turn it into a conclusion for the larger story. Luke should be key to that, with Rey. After the damage they chose to do to Luke in TLJ, there’s no avoiding that.

Also, I’m aorry but TLJ lore has gotta go. Light inevitably rising to meet dark, skill downloads, no training, etc., that stuff doesn’t belong in SW.

On a much more personal note, if they deliver Reylo angst in any form, I’ll be an incredibly hard sell. I didn’t like it with Anakin/Padme at the end of RotS, I didn’t like it in TLJ, and I also don’t like Twilight or anything like that, so it’s a safe bet I’ll tune out here as well.

 

As ever I think THE Star Wars (the ones that really matter) Episodes I through VI are among the great movies of all-time. That story and circle is complete. Rogue One is a strong addition as a saga side-step that if I want to add it to a saga watch I can. Solo is a nice diversion and if they do a strong Obi-Wan movie then that will be a good inter-trilogy between the PT and OT.

After that we'll have to see. As for the ST I don't really look at that as a continuation of Lucas's saga because I just don't see it there. It's as if those movies were made by people who didn't see the actual complete original saga but some fan edit that cut the near 13 hours down to 4 and then went from that.

 

I'm not hanging on Ep9 to save the day. It's not like I fell out of love with SW anyway - I haven't equated SW with "live action film" to me since 1991. Disney can kill their cash cow but they can't kill SW. SW is far bigger than them.

 

I loved the Force Awakens, except for Starkiller base, so in JJ I trust. Some killer light saber battles, heroics, and a new hope for the franchise. And a ROTJ like ending with numerous Force ghosts so I can celebrate the love.

 

Wait for E10-E12 to make me nostalgic for the ST.

 

This would never happen, of course, but I personally would fully support a decision to de-canonise Episode 8 and essentially remake the film (ie: JJ can finish a new 8 - and 9). Ive got no problems with Disney writing TLJ off entirely as nothing more than a bad experiment that should be taken with a grain of salt and then forgotten.

Given that it wont happen, however, I think they need to retcon some things TLJ did. Reys parentage. Whether Luke really is dead - those are the two biggest and easiest things they could reverse. Then add in a healthy dose of tried-and-true crowd pleasers: lightsaber fights, big space battles.

The fact that this is such a difficult question for Ep IX answer... is really alarming.

 

Well...

I'm no longer interested enough to think about it.

 

And yet, here you are.

 

I don't think they need to retcon Rey's parents; they could just say that Ren was lying in order to demoralize her and then pick her back up again when they join forces. If they somehow tied Rey into being Luke's daughter and revealed more to the story which would redeem Luke I would owe Rian a big apology. Assuming this was part of the plan all along. And more backstory of the Knights of Ren and the fall of the academy.

 

FOR ME,

I need Luke to come back somehow. Whether it be force Ghosts of the past telling him "it's not his time yet" and sending him back in real form, or some type of new force power ala Yoda where he can interact w/ the present just as if he were never gone (which I'm even kind of on the fence about that as well b/c then what's the point of a force ghost if you're not really a ghost).

Also, I WANT JEDI & SITH! When I was a kid I so wanted to be a Jedi in my imagination. I mean the vast majority of online debates about SW tend to center around the most powerful Sith v. the most powerful Jedi and who would win. It's fun to think about it. No different then Marvel & super heroes v. villains. Imagine if Marvel decided to go the route of well....there's really no more heroes or villains. There just these guys w/ powers and the good and evil aren't really defined. After episode 9 SW became a political soapbox. Guess what Disney, I go to the movies to ESCAPE the real world. If Marvel did that, they too would face HUGE backlash.

Not to mention Sith yellow eyes adds to the mystique and fear factor and sense of power they have for the audience IMO. It's kind of that demonic, we are dealing w/ a real powerful, evil entity here. It was definitely a small faction of what made the Emperor such an iconic character IMO.

They also need to have a major baddie for Luke to confront. I've been waiting to see this guy go at it at the fullest of his potential since 1983!! Come on Disney, let;s see it.

Saw on SW Theory website, a speculation that Snoke isn't the real baddie, he's a front man for an even bigger baddie. That would be a cool twist that could win me back.

Basically NO REYLO.....btw, did I say NO REYLO!!

I guess what I'm saying is it's not that hard to fix if they WANT TO. Force Ghosts decide it's not Luke's time and the galaxy needs him & "send him back". Can they do that? Why not? Luke persists he's tired and done and then Anakin appears and talks to his son about his importance and how he was the chosen one BECAUSE he fathered Luke just for THIS TIME & situation. That gives Luke a renewed sense of purpose and determination and he comes back ready to roll. It would also be a good time to unveil that a much greater threat then we ever thought still existed in the galaxy. Luke comes back w/ the purpose of confronting and defeating this entity and restoring the dignity of the Jedi.

Then basically, Luke & Rey battle Kylo and his "true master".

Also, you could easily say Snoke was a cover and Kylo was in on it b/c he wanted to keep Hux in the dark to have a tactical advantage over him as well as use Snoke as a ploy to try and turn Rey to their side w/o truly revealing who was pulling the strings the whole time.

That would get my interest. If Rey & Kylo become the focal point, I will see it, but it just won't / isn't the same. SW will have become just another set of movies (many of them not even very good ones).

PS - Sickens me that Luke essentially died of a heart attack. I mean, come on! Let's give him diabetes while we're at it. Could you imagine if GL would've had DV i the middle of a light saber battle w/ Luke in ROTJ and suddenly he has a grabber and dies? It's just so stupid IMO.

 

One thing pretty much but at this point would be a miracle: Luke Skywalker being redeemed for me.

No idea if that is even possible but it would be my sole requirement.

 

I don't have a specific "This is how to FIX Star Wars" idea, but more of what has to be the state of things when the ending credits begin roll in IX.

1. Luke can't seem like he turned into an absolute failure one week after defeating the Emperor, and simply went pouting to exile completely abandoning his family and the rest of the galaxy.
2. Please let Leia have a heroic and respectful end. No need to continue trashing the main characters from the OT. People can be just as accepting of the new cast while all along loving the OT 3.
3. Let a new lightsaber wielding force order begin to take the place the Jedi once occupied. They can retain the name Jedi (my preference) or give them a new one, but some group needs to be in that roll in GFFA. Introduce a darkside faction to counter the light side faction to give them purpose. This can be the KOR (my preference), or something else.
4. Give the resistance a big victory at the end to establish the new heroes as viable characters for future movies. Yes this will mimic the ending of ROTJ a lot, but at this point I think that element is necessary to make any continuation of the series marketable. They could end it similar to ROTS, and show clearly that the story isn't over, but I'm not sure that builds up the new trio enough.

I don't hate the series, I just hate that RJ felt it necessary to destroy the hero of the OT just to promote the hero in his movie. I expect to have IX fall somewhere around the middle of my ranking list. If the story fits in the same universe as the OT then I'll be happy, IMHO TLJ didn't fit in GFFA very well at all.

 

I mean TLJ might be terrible but I still love Star Wars, I'm just not interested in seeing any more movies the current leadership at Lucasfilm is pumping out. I already brought up in other threads that the ST lifted too many plot points from the OT to even feel like a meaningful continuation of the classic movies so I see no point in making any new movies, as far as I'm concerned, ROTJ was the end of the story in this new canon. The only way that they could redeem the franchise for me is if they redo the post-OT time period with a new animated series inspired by the Legends timeline.