ST Who Should Have Been the Main Villain in Episode IX?

Who Should Have Been the Main Villain in Episode IX?

 

A lot could've been the same if they just went with Plagues or a Snoke clone instead of a resurrected Palpatine. But I voted for Kylo Ren because he's enough of a poor man's Anakin without slapping on the redemption stuff at the end.

 

Assuming TFA/TLJ are set in stone, then Kylo definitely. How do you not center him too much and make a story as equally compelling for Rey as the protagonist? Write a story that does that

 

The person who approved the script?

 

I think Kylo could've worked as the main villain, whether he became Ben Solo again or not. Had JJ done all three films, I think Snoke would've lived in VIII and would've still been the main villain in IX. Had Rian done IX after VIII, I think he would've had Kylo the main villain of IX.
Kylo is pretty much the main villain of VII and VIII, despite being subordinate to Snoke until about 3/4 of the way into VIII.
Colin's "Duel of the Fates" had Kylo still as the main villain. I didn't like the idea of Kylo and Rey having a final battle isolated away from everyone else and seemingly diminished authority in the First Order.

 

EP8 set up EP9 with Kylo Ren to be the main villain - no if's buts or maybe's Kylo Ren should have been the main villain of EP9 but as RJ didn't follow set ups from EP7 to EP8 JJ did the same thing by not following set ups from EP8.....as said in the previous post Colin T had Kylo Ren in his EP9 as the main villain. The set up for Kylo Ren in EP9 could have been quite simple he could have gone to the wreckage of Death Star 2 and unlocked a hologram of Palpatine who told Kylo where the star Destroyer fleet was and how to command it sending all for a battle over Coruscant.

 

But Kylo sucks...

 

Each to their own opinion but in my opinion Kylo was one of the best things about the ST.

 

To me, he was among the worst and most worthless, as a character and a villain.

 

I think Kylo and Palpatine was the right choice, though the potential wasn’t utilised.

Kylo thinking he’s so smart by becoming Supreme Leader only to discover that his old master / the true Emperor is going to take it all back is so fitting for Kylo Ren, a galactic embarrassment for a character who seemed to be defined by dealing with fear of failure the wrong way, hoping that dominating the dark path would solve his problems, and learning the hard way that it won’t.

And Palpatine, though he may seem like a retread, is kind of the logical end for a trilogy that was all about retread, with history repeating itself. I only wish they used utilised it more to explore the theme of hope vs despair.

Kylo shouldn’t have been the only one thinking that he’s going in circles with his seemingly unkillable master, but also our heroes, who ought to be questioning if their efforts are in vain, or if progress is being made. And the answer should to that should be unknown, thus the importance of hope and fighting anyways.

 

I don’t think Kylo Ren was ever envisaged as being the central villain of the ST (whilst acknowledging that maybe Johnson disagreed). And the reason being is that they (DLF execs) were never going to have Leia and Han’s son as the ‘big bad’ of a Star Wars trilogy. He was always going to be an Anakin/Vader lite redeemed villain … and I believe that as soon as TFA revealed him as being a Solo, and as soon as they (Han and Leia) started talking about Snoke’s influence etc., the ‘redemption’ angle was the clear trajectory that Kylo/Ben was on.

 

But you could still have Kylo redemption without a Palpatine or another villain in the mix.

 

Then you don't really have a central antagonist for the ST, which weakens any potential drama/peril for the protagonists.

 

Kylo could have been the central antagonist while still being redeemed in the end, ala Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2. There’s plenty of ways for a villain to redeem themselves without another villain.

 

I don’t see how Rey being a Skywalker or not dictates the kind of fates Ben can have.

The writer of 9 has the power to focus on the details, characterization and dates of Ben, regardless.

 

As GIA points points out, Doc Ock is a ‘villain of the week’, but we’re talking about Kylo Ren being the main antagonist of an entire trilogy, which also has to resonate with the 6 films that proceeded it… so not really the same thing IMO. I’d also point out that having the main villain be redeemed is exceedingly derivative of the previous trilogies, so I believe that one has to position the central antagonist of the ST differently e.g. don’t have the villain redeemed at all, or do something different like mirrororing Anakin’s story in the PT, but rather than them choosing the dark, they choose the light and turn back before they get to the point of killing children etc. etc. but I think, for dramatic purposes, one would still need another villain to personify the larger threat.

 

I like having Snoke be the main antagonist using Vaders helmet and "fake" voices to Kylo to keep him on the darkside. Then after Ep7-8 with Kylo fighting alongside KOR against Rey, and Luke against Snoke in Ep8 like we were expecting, have Kylo follow up on Han' s words from Ep7 & Luke's words from Ep8 in that Snoke is using him, by having Anakin Force ghost show up to Kylo in Ep.9 as he would then discover it was a lie, that the Vader helmet was not Anakin/Vader voice but Snoke's/Palpatines, and thus a final battle with Rey and Luke's, Leia's & Anakin's Force ghost all battle Snoke/Palpatine at the end.

 

It should have been Palpatine. However, I wish his return would have been built up in a manner similar to Voldemort or Sauron. Have the dread/speculation/paranoia of this build and build into a crescendo of a return.

 

I think Palpatine is the worst option available (not taking the Jar Jar option seriously), with 'Vader clone' probably tied. Though at least a Vader clone would technically be a different character that wouldn't undermine any legacy character's sacrifice and victories that came before. It'd be a stupid, gimmicky retread, but it at least wouldn't be the actual Vader; like Snoke, you could create something different.

But the actual Palpatine returning undermines way too much. And no, I can't agree that it's an OK idea because it's another retread in a trilogy that's been all about retreads.

 

I voted other. I was one of those that supported the whole "Snoke is Plagueis" thing back then...ya'll remember that???

Anyways, after seeing TROS, I felt that it WOULD work to have Plagueis be the main villain, instead of Palpatine. IMO it would totally have fit-with very minimal changes to certain small plot points. And Kylo Ren could basically be the Darth Vader to Plagueis' Sith Emperor or whatever. At any rate I would've liked that much more than Palpatine being resurrected. It also could have let the whole Exegol and Sith Eternal storyline stay the same (even Snoke's origins), without cheapening Anakin's sacrifice in ROTJ.

 

I'd rather stay away from the whole "resurrected (fill in the blank)" or "clone of (fill in the blank)" because so many other franchises have done it. There's no need for "Star Wars" to beat that dead horse.
I'd prefer that they'd kept Snoke alive and made him some new villain. Say, an alien from the Unknown Region who's been hanging around waiting for the Sith and Jedi to kill each other off, then move in. Someone with shadowy motives beyond "take over the galaxy" or something like that.
Or, as I've written elsewhere, keep K/B in charge of the FO, but have him be on the ragged edge of insanity. He's determined to be the ultimate Dark Side ruler, but he's hearing voices (like Ani's Force Ghost) trying to tell him to repent. That, plus a big dose of paranoia are making his underlings seriously doubt which side they should be working for. Having a Dark Side madman as a villain would be interesting.