Star Wars VIII: Spoiler Time

Or Poe’s “Oh, you rascal!” after mutiny.

I don’t know about that. My kids love dressing up as Darth Vader and Kylo Ren was his favorite from the new movies. Could just be an aspiring space nazi but there’s plenty of merchandising out there for the bad guys.

How do you figure he “betrayed” Rey? He saved her from Snoke and then when she is unarmed and he has her lightsaber, he offered he the chance to rule the galaxy as a partner. It’s only after she tries to force-pull the weapon back from him that he starts to fight her… if anything, SHE betrayed HIM.

I think you might have missed the point – Rey’s parents are not unknown at all. She knows who they are and (at least vaguely) where they are buried; it’s just that before the throne-room scene she was repressing the fact that they had sold her off into slavery. We’ll probably never be told their names, and that’s fine.

Personally, I loved that reveal. David Brin’s essay on the mythic “chosen one” monarchist theme of Star Wars vs. the populist meritocracy of Star Trek has always stuck with me, and Rey is a nice counterpoint to that criticism.

Yes, give me more!

Come on, man. Girls finally get to be the hero in Star Wars and then they see her turn into the bad guy. That’s way beyond merchandising opportunities for boys.

I’m just saying…“Cool” is valued by kids way more than “Good”. They could sell a lot of gothed up “Bad” Rey costumes and action figures.

I watched Rogue One again last weekend and yea, the space battles in most Star Wars movies are pretty lame.

To boys or girls?

The good girls would have to wear frumpy Holdo costumes. No one wants that.

Maybe Leia, and they could recreate the space flying scene in their sofa fort. Just not seeing it.

Girls. I haven’t been able to totally get by boys on board with Rey as a cool hero unfortunately. They are deep into the ‘girls are icky’ phase. They dig her in the movie just fine but they wouldn’t go so far as to get a action figure or tshirt or anything.

Disney has pushed hard on villian merchandizing in recent years:
https://www.shopdisney.com/movies-shows/disney/disney-villains

And check out that link…most of that stuff is girl oriented, that’s kind of weird.

I know a fair amount of young girls. I find it hard to believe they would be that interested in an evil Rey. I think the Disney princess comparison is fairly silly here though. I’m talking pre-teen and younger. I am sure at some point some girls might go with evil girls are awesome.

Anecdotal, for sure, but my daughter went through a heavy Darth Vader phase. I think it’s less about being pro-evil and more about the power fantasy.

I’d think Rey as bad guy would be cool if this was the first movie. After accepting her as the hero, kids would probably not enjoy seeing their hero go bad.

And do kids like Ren? I’ve assumed he’s a bit too wishy washy to be “cool”, he’s not the sure of himself Vader, always throwing tantrums and the like, but my niece is too young to watch Star Wars (subtitles) so, haven’t had the opportunity to fact check my gut feeling…

Based on the amount of Kylo Ren costumes I saw on little kids this past Halloween, I’d say they must like him.

I think a lot of kids love Kylo, for a lot of reasons. Young girls do like Rey too, and there is not enough merchandise for her.

Is it? All I saw in the ads was pre-teen and younger girls in the costume with their hair done up in that odd style waving around a toy lightsaber. Rey is a merchandising opportunity first, movie character second. The result is a bland symbolic character who has little complexity but is awesome at everything without having to earn it though hard work or suffering.

Rey will never:

  • need a jedi master to train her
  • have part of her body chopped off and replaced with a cybernetic
  • run away and become a hermit wracked by self-doubt
  • go to the dark side (thus the lack of drama in her “exploration” of the dark area in Ep 8)
  • lose a fight
  • get frozen in carbonite or end up in a medical coma at the end of a movie
  • hurt an innocent wampa or sandperson
  • need to be saved by being jammed into a dead tauntaun’s guts
  • get gut-stabbed by her own child (and probably will not have children, that’s not fantasy princess stuff)
  • fail at anything

If Star Wars is going to be interesting in the future, it will be the supporting cast.

I think you’re making a lot of assumptions here. .This is not yesterday’s ancient movie Star Wars. You don’t have to like Rey, but none of the new heroes have all these glaring flaws and disfigurements you crave…nor do they have to.

I crave not these things. But this was the mythos Disney bought from Lucas. Now it is “fixing” Star Wars to suit their need for a perpetual cash cow with no ending.

That you think none of these nasty Episode 1 to 6 things will happen to the new trilogy characters is proof that we are dealing with a newer, blander cast of characters once the original trilogy characters (well, at least the ones that won’t be played at theme parks by “cast members”) have been sent to their reward. One to go!

That’s not what I said, but I will say this… these movies were not made in the 70s. That was over 40 years ago. You certainly don’t have to like what they’re doing, but they’re catering to more than the existing Star Wars fan. I think it’s pretty silly though that you would hold the prequels as anything worthwhile. 1-6… really? Yeah let’s get more neon stalking love, but hey at least he got a scar.

Canon is canon. Working with what’s there.

I agree with this. It was a waste of screen time (and our time) to go through all that and for Ben to just once again end up the villain, with everyone still on the same sides. I suppose Rey might try to turn him again in Ep 9 since they ostensibly still have the psychic link, but his cray cray antics vs Luke make me doubt this.

The prequels had some nice CGI battles too, but they weren’t enough to save the movies overall.

I was impressed by Rey’s maturity and thoughfulness in this movie. Better than the obnoxious Poe and Finn.