ST What does the ST add to the Saga? What is its story purpose?

I think the point you're missing is that you are interpreting those parallels to fit your own fulfilment. That you believe they exist, doesn't mean they actually do... outside of your own experience that is. And, for example, drawing a very tenuous relationship between the ST and the previous films, based on a poorly conceived character relationship isn't really a parallel... certainly not one that's contained to Star Wars, given that the vast majority of popular cinema features romance of some kind or other.

 

Padme&Anakin and Han&Leia and&Qi'ra are one thing.

Ben/Kylo and Rey are another, and closer to Luke&Leia. If you are bad at suspending disbelief (a deadly sin when it comes to watching a fantasy film) then you will see something that's not there, much like Han in ROTJ:

Who is Rey Skywalker? Is that kiss incest? Or just a 'crude matter' approximation of a 'luminous' fact?
A SW kiss is sex, as Irving Kershner said, and sex is 'two that are one'...but not in this film.

 

I do remember Mark Hamill saying that the 'hands touch' scene in TLJ was definitely meant to be sexy!

 

They obviously do exist visually just like 3PO/Finn parallels exist visually. So it seems to me that there's more denying of their existence to one's own fulfillment for they are there. Love blossomed. Love hit the roadblock when he embraced the dark side. Love saved the loved one's life. It's all there in the movie with visual presentation that mirrors PT.

 

He was joking.

 

Prophetic joking. All of it turned true.

 

Please point me to the quote where Abrams is stating he was parralelling the Anakin and Padme story from the PT No? Difficult to find?

 

There's no such quote and there's no Rian quote either. And I don't need a quote to see visual parallels. I'm also quite sure that JJ is never going to say "I was paralleling Finn and 3PO" even though he totally did. The movie doesn't lie. Also, I see no problem with people pointing out that Rey is paralleling Luke (and some thought that meant she was his daughter). It's only divisive stuff that some people want to pretend it isn't there because it doesn't fit in their narrative. We can go on in circles forever and neither is going to change the fact that Rey and Ben loved each other romantically and that love saved Rey because it gave Ben new power (to save her). You may hate the execution all you want but that doesn't make it not there. It's there so that's that. And also the last I'm going to say on this topic because circling is pointless.

 

Imo they were telling their version of it.

 

I think the. ST was at the end of the day created to dispose of the Skywalkers. No matter how many times I go over it, that's the only thing it seems to have done.iily.

For all the talk of 'balance' Rey at the end is a 'classic'Jedi - virtuous, unattached, without friends or family.
No attachments. Which means at some time in the future 'darkness will rise to meet her light'.

The First Order fleet is gone. But not the First Order. And in any case, what's to stop yet another totalitarian regime from rising from it's ashes? The FO was the heir to the Empire.

Essentially, the ST is just another version of the OT, nothing in the galaxy changed much, did it?The only big difference is the Skywalkers are gone.
Bit pointless really. Shame.

 

So you can't provide any evidence to suggest it was the intention of the filmmakers... pretty much as I thought... and pretty much as I already stated i.e. it's an extremely subjective reading you're putting forward.

And it's valid enough to have your opinion. But given that Abrams went out of his way to dismiss the PT, and seemingly Lucas' ideas, I don't see any evidence on screen to suggest he's drawing any parallels ... other than perhaps 'Look at me... I can make a Star Wars film better than George Lucas'.

 

Do you by chance have evidence that JJ went out of his way to dismiss the prequels?

 

It's more that Kylo Ren was paralleling Anakin, rather than Kylo/Rey was paralleling Anakin/Padme. Kylo was always Vader 2.0. But Rey had nothing in common with Padme. She is paralleling Luke, if anyone. Kylo's arc always involved Vader.

 

Interestingly you can also kind of see Rey as to Kylo as Luke is as to Vader. Obviously not note for note but there are parallels there.

But I also see some vague links between Rey and Padme. Like both Padme telling Anakin she can't follow his path in ROTS and Rey saying similar to Kylo in TLJ. Both Rey and Padme are distraught by what they realise. The difference is Padme is broken by it and Anakin attacks her - where Rey fights back and ends the exchange sparing an unconscious Kylo by her own choice.

 

Again, I think it's down to Kylo Ren being a clear parallel to Vader. Everything involving him, including his plea to Rey, is similar to things Vader does. Vader asks both Luke and Padme to join him, like Kylo does with Rey. Rey/Luke/Padme all deny him.

 

True I suppose.

Also Kylo's last moment in TLJ is him sitting on the floor after Rey slams the MF door on him, having rejected his offer of power. Much like Vader being rejected by Luke in ESB and silently storming off.

Going further into Kylo/Vader links, you have Anakin in the middle PT film doing everything to hold onto his mother yet losing her anyway and taking a step towards the dark.
In the middle of the ST Kylo, despite trying to resist the light, spares his mother on the Resistance ship's bridge. A hint at future redemption.

Anakin loses everything in the next film while trying to keep firm hold of the very things he loses. Kylo lets go and willingly gives up his life to bring back Rey.

 

Which is similar to what Vader does in ROTJ, by saving Luke, at the cost of his own life. Kylo's arc is very much Anakin's, only it's done in 3 movies instead of the 6 Anakin had.

 

I agree.
Vader gets the selfless to selfish and back again arcs over six films.
Kylo arguably gets only the second half.
I kind of had hoped we would get some Ben Solo flashbacks in IX so we would get a condensed fall and redemption narrative within TROS. I guess it wasn't to be.

 

Lucasfilm should have abandoned Kylo Ren's redemptive arc. It was never set up properly in the first place.

 

I think that's why people fall so easily on the "reverse Padme/Anakin," despite, imo, the story being more that Kylo Ren is simply paralleling Anakin's arc. Kylo doesn't have an entire 6 arc story to show his fall and redemption, but it's still very much the same story as Anakin's.

I think had they wanted to be more original with his character, they'd have kept him evil all the way through. Or had him turn to the Light in TLJ.

 

I can understand that.
Though personally for me the ST story was done differently enough to the OT to make it interesting.

Like Kylo inversely killing Han in the first film instead of the mirrored ROTJ father son reconciliation.

Or a Ben Solo without a Vader-esque suit for a few scenes at least.

And Rey "killing" Kylo Ren by stabbing him with his own saber - then healing "Ben". This is pretty different to the manner by which Luke inspired Vader to come back to the light.

I dunno, it still felt different enough to me.

 

In the most superficial way, it's hand warmers or whatever those not sleeves are called

 

This is fair I can understand the dynamic is a bit different and one has to take into account that Rey knows Kylo through Han and the situation at large, where Ben Solo is the one being used and in the middle of it all. We know from the films that Snoke turned him and is using him for his powers. Rey and Ben become the two key figures present in the all powerful force, that between the light and the dark.

Anakin kills an entire camp/family of Sand People. Women and children.