ST How do you feel about how Anakin's grandchildren were handled in the Sequel Trilogy?

So to recap we have Anakin Skywalker who turned evil, killed a bunch of children, basically killed his wife, and then killed countless others when he turned into Darth Vader. Then we have Luke Skywalker who did a lot of great things until he gave up on the Jedi and the galaxy in their moment of need after contemplating killing his own nephew, and then we have said nephew who turned into a mass murderer. Oh and we have Rey "Skywalker" who was more emotionally connected to the aforementioned mass murderer than her friends. Kinda feels like the Skywalkers weren't such a great family after all.

 

As far as Rey adopting the Skywalker name goes it seems like it would have made more sense and worked better if TFA explicitly identified Rey as a rando, (which also means not a Palpatine), and then developed her story and relationship with the Skywalkers from there. Give her a more positive relationship with Luke, and one that lasted more than a couple of days.. Same goes for Rey and Leia. Give Rey more screen time with Leia in TFA and TLJ.

 

In relation to the short time periods, I think it would have been nice not to have had so many explicit indicators of short duration in the sequel trilogy. People talk about minutes, weeks, and even hours remaining to do things when there could be plenty of suspense without it. This is one of the formal differences I wanted to address in my "filmmaking" thread, which was retitled but basically deals with anything formally different in how the different trilogies are put together. The PT already deviated by having them talk about "ten years" and such but the ST took it to a whole new level.

In the original, apart from the Death Star countdown, which was in minutes and referred to things happening within a single planetary system, the only reference to time as such was Ben Kenobi's lore about "a thousand generations" which was comfortably imprecise.

This relates to problems in the ST because one could imagine the trip to Alderaan took days (although there are indications it didn't) or that Luke spent weeks or months with Yoda. Many fans interpreted things this way. There were also clear indications that substantial time had passed between episodes, an underappreciated factor in the epic quality of the saga. This was an objection I had to overcome going into The Last Jedi. I still think it was a mistake on their part, but granted the decision had been made they worked around it reasonably well.

 

No, I wasn’t satisfied. They could’ve done anything with the characters and they do this? The obvious route is more often the best route. But no...

 

Because Star Wars is supposed to be about the Skywalkers. It's always been about the Skywalkers. And as much as I believe in adoption, Rey just slapping the name onto herself doesn't make her a Skywalker, no matter how much Disney/Lucasfilm wants us to just accept it and be okay with it. As far as I could tell, no one adopted her. She was just there and was the character who survived because she was supposed to. She could have said she was Rey Dameron, or Rey Organa, since she did spend more time with Leia than Luke, or basically any last name.
And as far as I'm concerned, what was ludicrous was to just eradicate the Skywalker bloodline while Palpatine's just continues and flourishes in the new canon.

 

Rey's choice to follow the Skywalker tradition and assume their mantle extinguishes the evil legacy of the Palpatine bloodline. I think she will avoid revealing her biological heritage to the public so as to avoid any attempts to crown her empress.

 

That's an interesting take. One could see her choice as too "meta." However the criticism is also "meta" since she is the only one who knows about Luke's moral failings and the galaxy sees him as a hero.

The what-if discussion will be a part of fandom probably as long as fandom exists. But she is taking the heroic name she'd heard of before she knew she could be a Jedi herself.

I think viewing the Skywalker line as having done more harm than good is a niche reading. It's a criticism of interest though, and worth discussing.

 

I think it would have been a pretty weird ending if she had said "Rey... Organa!"

There is substance in your deeper analysis, but in the fairy tale mythology here, the Skywalker legacy has to do with heroism and the Palpatine legacy with tyranny and evil. In simple terms she has chosen the new family over the old, and rejected the option of continuing am evil dynasty.

We might want a film created for obsessive fans, but these are "popular" films in terms of genre. As a very devoted fan, I liked this ending but I understand other devoted fans can see it differently. However I think most casual fans or casual viewers will repond as intended. This ending communicates something they will understand and accept.

 

I like the ST and love Ren, one of my favorite SW, and I love Ben. I was skeptical about his redemption. But it was well done and very moving. But I voted disappointed. We only got one grandchild of Vader.

 

Disappointed. However I felt about Rey and Kylo before the release of TROS doesn’t matter, for the film just ruined anything compelling in the first two installments of the sequel trilogy. Rey in particular jumping from being an obvious Skywalker descendent in TFA, to being a “no-one” in TLJ, only for TROS to make her a Palpatine with no proper build up shows how poorly thought out her story is.

 

Realistic.

Vader’s crimes loomed large. Luke and Leia were hidden to prevent his influence both directly and indirectly on his children.

Now the grandchildren or grandchild:
So it makes sense that his offspring either didn’t want to have children (Luke) or wanted to (Leia) but didn’t hide them, and thus Vader’s influence got to them.


If you consider Jannah as Lando’s daughter, then the remnants of OT villains targeted the offspring of the generation that defeated them.

The OT heroes had three options to prevent their children being targeted from their enemies.

1. Don’t have kids (Luke)
2. Raise their kids in secret (what Owen Lars and Bail did to Luke and Leia).
3. Complete annihilation of their enemies without mercy. Which would be inhumane for the OT guys.

 

How was Rey an obvious Skywalker in TFA. I certainly got the impression she wss maybe Han and Leia’s daughter by their interaction, and had hoped she ess Luke’s daughter.

 

GL: "The ST is about Darth Vader's grandchildren."

LFL: "Yes, the ST is about Darth Vader's grandchild Ren."

 

This is Rey we're talking about. She of capri pants and chaste demeanour.

 

The obsession with Rey's backstory in ST has essentially damaged the goods, particularly what Rey's story arc should be.

The endgame was always Rey calling herself a Skywalker. That is self-evident if she is the main character. The final scene of TROS is what the whole trilogy was building up to. That's a simple goal. The trick is getting there. How do you get to Rey to embrace the Skywalker family as her family and her heritage? Long-lost daughter of Luke? Or an orphan nobody that Luke adopts? It's actually quite flexible.

The problem is... they want to be super progressive and end up cancelling out a lot of progressiveness with Rey due to indecisive thought. She has to be the ultimate nobody yet also the ultimate paragon. I heard way too many people claim that Rey shouldn't claim the surname Skywalker and just call herself Rey. As if being a Skywalker somehow diminishes her. She has to be the face for people who have no family or just plain nobodies. And guess what? Just having Rey embrace being a nobody left her with no personal conflict in the third movie. Thus, they invented a new one with Palpatine. And how do you resolve the conflict of being legacy of Palpatine? By adopting the surname Skywalker and inheriting their legacy. So much for ultimate paragon for nobodies.

Rey should have been treated like a character with a particular endgame in mind, not the ultimate role model to fulfill every fan's wish. Such direction is impossible and honestly betrays the humanity of Star Wars. We are not perfect beings, pure and incorruptible, which is why every day is another broken pedestal for followers. We want role models but fail to realize them as people, warts and all.

That's why Luke is so relatable to many people. He's not just the typical hero of a thousand faces, he's the character that Lucas put a lot of himself into, such as his love for fast vehicles and daddy issues. And since Lucas' children are mostly adopted, it stands to reason that the filmmakers should have ask them for input regarding Rey and her journey to become a true Skywalker.

 

you see that's where my personal head Canon that Anakin was created by Palpatine helps..

 

How so?

 

I don't think it "was always" Rey calling herself Skywalker. Going by the leaks that we heard, i think there was probably other endings they thought about going with too, which is why the Rey skywalker thing really feels disconnected, because it was just an add on.

Saying that though. i don't know where this idea came from that "Skywalker" is some honourable name that you have to earn. like oh if you are a good person you are a true skywalker! thats not what the Skywalker linage was about. Anakin turned the dark side. Luke didn't. where has this whole Skywalker can be earnt thing come from? the name is legendary to the audience, but not for that reason.

 

You're talking to the film company that thought being from a family of nobodies is a big deal... in a galaxy where nearly the entire Jedi Order came from nobodies. In-universe, Rey has no reason to believe her parents were special or anyone beyond nobodies. But the audience does and thus, Rian Johnson choose that path.

It was also evident that they knew they screwed up bigly by the time they fired Colin Trevorrow, considering that his script took the logical conclusion to Rian Johnson's sequel. And apparently, that's not what they were going for as the endgame. They didn't want Kylo Ren to die as a villain, and they didn't want to give Rey an original surname. They want it to be about the Skywalkers and one with a happy ending rather than one that ends in tragedy.

That's how you know ST had no direction despite having basic ingredients to do it. They had an endgame in mind but didn't bother to enforce it until it's too late. Whereas Lucas would intervene personally to prevent his appointed directors and scriptwriters from going off-beat (even taking over the director's chair like in ROTJ or rewriting the first draft of TESB), the folks at Lucasfilm simply were hands off and just let the directors take the story wherever they like and assume everything will be wrapped up nicely for the finale.

 

The two minutes of Ben Solo we got in TROS made me wish we could've had an entire trilogy of the grandchildren of Palpatine and Skywalker running around the galaxy setting everything on fire

Or better yet, have Rey go Dark and then have a Skywalker redeem a Palpatine for maximum poetry and reversal of Palpatine's grooming of Anakin

They could've done something good if they'd planned things out instead of trying to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe approach to storytelling and finishing the script two minutes before filming begins

 

As things stand now, most people were disappointed according to this poll. I don't regret voting for Option 2. Personally, I think it would have been better if Rey had simply said she was Rey with no surname. The strange thing is that she had more of a connection to Leia and Han than Luke in this trilogy. Luke actually behaved like Luke as a ghost in TROS, but he was a disappointing mentor for her in TLJ. It would have made more sense if she accepted that she was her own person without a surname. Honestly, this is really nerdy of me, but Palpatine rejected his first name in Darth Plagueis by James Luceno for very different reasons, and so it would almost be poetic if she rejected his surname.

As for Kylo Ren, I've already stated how I don't like how he was handled in TLJ or TROS. I honestly can't see Leia or Han failing an only child like that. In the EU, two of their kids, Jaina and Anakin Solo, turned out just fine. Jacen Solo actually was great in The New Jedi Order series, but he gradually was corrupted by his messiah complex and insecurities. Now, while there were some problems with how that story was told (mainly inconsistencies), it's head and shoulders above the Kylo Ren situation.

I will say this. I feel sorry for Rey as a character, but I felt she had a lot going for her in TFA. And I truly feel that her emotional arc is backwards. She loses her temper and is conflicted in Part 3, she's conflicted and confused in Part 2, and by comparison she's more mature, despite self-doubts, in Part 1. It's strange how she's introduced as very self-reliant and strong and she becomes overly attached to this terrible man, Ren, when I felt her friendship with Finn was a lot healthier in TFA. But the main reason I feel sorry for her is because she is traumatized in TROS. To this day, I do not own TROS. I refused to buy it. And one of the reasons is because Rey screams at Kylo, "I don't want this!" and he has a way of going against her and saying he knows her better than anyone else...which is Abuser 101. It's difficult to watch. I mean, I do not agree with certain things that female characters like Nomi Sunrider, Ahsoka Tano, or An'ya Kuro do in Star Wars, but I can understand them and root for them consistently. The problem with Rey is that her relationship with Kylo Ren is unpleasant to watch, to say the least. It's also strange how she doesn't talk with Leia about it when she has presumably trained under her for a year by the time TROS begins.

A couple final things. I will say about it is that I was one of the people who wondered if Kylo Ren was lying to her near the end of TLJ when he said that her parents were no one. Given his disturbing behavior in that film, I at the time would not have put it past him to lie to her as if he wanted to be in a relationship with her despite being siblings or something. He was that gross in the movie. And I know I wasn't the only person to believe that was possibly in his character. The other thing is that it's strange how Kylo Ren has become so calm in TROS. I actually think it fits the character better. But this whole idea of Rey being the one with emotional imbalance issues and Ren being the calm sociopath could have been a good one, but it would have worked better at the beginning of the story and with better execution.

So, Anakin's grandchildren: terrible execution, and terrible choice. Someone once said that about Darth Plagueis choosing Palpatine as his apprentice, and I say that about how this disjointed trilogy turned out.

How do you feel about how Anakin's grandchildren were handled in the Sequel Trilogy?

1. 
   Were you satisfied about it?
   10 vote(s)
   14.3%
2. *
   Were you disappointed about it?
   51 vote(s)
   72.9%
3. 
   Or do you have mixed feelings about it?
   9 vote(s)
   12.9%