I thought it would have been cool if rey fell to the dark side and that this pushed kylo ren back into the light.
Like, he was clearly struggling to even UTILIZE the dark side. He was begging for guidance from the totem of Anakin’s mask, and Anakin wasn’t even fallen anymore.
Rey, meanwhile, seemed to demonstrate clear dark side aptitude and compatibility. While kylo had to STRIVE to act out and push himself for emotional volatility and it turned out kind of pathetic, Rey just easily slipped right into emotional impulsivity.
If Kylo watched Rey descend, attain what he thought he’d wanted, only to discover that it’s horrifying and painful, and that he doesn’t like what it does to her… That could have not only scared him straight, but also driven him to try to save her.
There were relatively few people left in the galaxy who were still even receptive to the force after decades of Anakin slaughtering every force sensitive individual the empire could find AND THEN Luke’s little failed attempt at reviving the Jedi order turned into a honey trap that lured the ones that remained into one place where they were all murdered right under his nose
Rey and Kylo were two of the only few people in the galaxy left who were force sensitive and ALL THAT POWER was trying to flow through them. Kylo struggled to overcome his inner good, what with the training he HAD received having been focused on the light side and therefore interfering with the dark’s influence. Rey on the other hand was just raw unfiltered potential, a big ole unregulated CRACK in the dam–as perfect a tool for the dark side to possess and manipulate as there could have ever been.
Kylo had family who loved him and were still alive, he had a home, he had a future, and not only did he have to struggle to throw that all away, his parents KEPT trying to reach out to him, right up to the moment just before killing his father lamenting that he WAS indeed struggling. Killing Han didn’t even measurably empower him in any way for fucks sake–he went on to LOSE a saber battle against a literal nobody!
Rey meanwhile had had EVERYTHING TAKEN FROM HER. she was isolated, lost, questioning, unguided, no prospects, and nothing to lose. Even Luke saw how she didn’t resist the dark side at all.
It still feels like how these films turned out was just a bad dream and part of me is still waiting to wake up and find out things were going to head in a more meaningful direction. Instead, everything that COULD have happened inverted completely.
At the end of TLJ, on top of all the other pointless house shit that happened in that movie, REY AND KYLO SHOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED TOGETHER because it would have opened up possibilities that would have been very satisfying
HUX seizing the power vacuum of the first order instead of literally the opposite, which was becoming even more of a sniveling nitwit liability
Finn, Poe, and the other members of the resistance crew would be in a position to actually be fucking USEFUL instead of mere comic relief–i especially despite how TLJ did them all dirty. Kelly Marie Tran’s character Rose Tico could have been a fantastic everymanperson POV where she grows in competency, agency, initiative, and leadership…
Instead of palpatine we could have had something actually interesting as a bigger bad behind the scenes.
Now I know this is controversial but … While most people only joke about the concept of a Darth Jar Jar, i think it could have been a worthwhile twist. Without that stupid childish vocal affect and dopey weaponized pretend-incompetence, he could have been legitimately sinister. Imagine the way the temperature drops in a room when a cynical sociopathic manipulator discards their charade and shows their true colors.
… oh well. It’s just going to suck forever now. Just gotta accept it, live with it.
right, that’s what i’m saying. what they did with the blurring of lines in tlj could have gone even further. what if there is no “light side”, it’s all just puritanical bullshit by a bunch of dried-up space monks that unilaterally decide what’s good or evil. they’re basically thought police.
one possibility i particularly like to consider, though…
is what if the force is all dark-side?
What if the so-called “light side” and all the jedi teachings exist solely as mechanisms of internal defense against a phenomenon that is inherently ontologically evil and absolutely would take any opportunity whatsoever to corrupt anyone it can?
I like to imagine that the force is, on the whole, a weapon. The way it fucks with probability on the quantum scale and can even rest an elbow on the scales of free will… look at all the technology we see in star wars: despite all its incredible capabilities, it’s all chonky, thicc, and analog. I for one think that digital microcomputing as we know it in our galaxy would be rendered impossible by the interference of the force… on purpose. my wacky zany headcanon proposes The Force was created to render a ‘grey goo’ nanite swarm inert and incapable of functioning wherever it is present, because it ruins the deterministic phenomena upon which nanoscale computational systems rely.
anyway, outside of that, even if it WEREN’T like that, i’m rather a fan of morality being something that sapient minds manufacture. Not to say that it isn’t real or valid or useful, but that the universe–or at least the living beings within it–benefit from the imposition of this abstract framework of right and wrong. it’s not intrinsic, but rather the gift that sapience delivers upon the causal volume within which it lives. the meaning of life being to create meaning, to put it another way. And when we take that abstraction too far into absolute/fundamentalist/puritanical extents, that TOO is an overwhelming imbalance that causes harm. Exploring the boundaries of benefit and harm in this environment we’ve created is itself a compelling narrative hook.
i do prefer the theory that it’s just a fifth fundamental force, with no inherent good or evil built in. which is why i like johnson’s nod to the fact that anyone can pick it up by themselves, rather than being trained for years. you’d still probably need training to focus properly but it’s not about “powers”, more about reading the world. less harry potter magic, more discworld magic.
there are certainly moral and immoral uses of a power like that, just like there are moral and immoral uses of… magnetism.
as for the more hard sci-fi stuff… eh. star wars doesn’t hold up to scrutiny like that. it’s a pulp space opera, sword and sorcery in space. a lot of the eu tried reeeeeally hard to lean into the science fiction aspect, but it really doesn’t work imo. i was really enthusiastic about shit like the space ship layout as a kid, still have all the “essential guide” books, but the fact is that nobody thought about that stuff when creating the world like in 90s trek, it’s all just rule of cool. once i realised that my interest sort of waned.
I thought it would have been cool if rey fell to the dark side and that this pushed kylo ren back into the light.
Like, he was clearly struggling to even UTILIZE the dark side. He was begging for guidance from the totem of Anakin’s mask, and Anakin wasn’t even fallen anymore.
Rey, meanwhile, seemed to demonstrate clear dark side aptitude and compatibility. While kylo had to STRIVE to act out and push himself for emotional volatility and it turned out kind of pathetic, Rey just easily slipped right into emotional impulsivity.
If Kylo watched Rey descend, attain what he thought he’d wanted, only to discover that it’s horrifying and painful, and that he doesn’t like what it does to her… That could have not only scared him straight, but also driven him to try to save her.
There were relatively few people left in the galaxy who were still even receptive to the force after decades of Anakin slaughtering every force sensitive individual the empire could find AND THEN Luke’s little failed attempt at reviving the Jedi order turned into a honey trap that lured the ones that remained into one place where they were all murdered right under his nose
Rey and Kylo were two of the only few people in the galaxy left who were force sensitive and ALL THAT POWER was trying to flow through them. Kylo struggled to overcome his inner good, what with the training he HAD received having been focused on the light side and therefore interfering with the dark’s influence. Rey on the other hand was just raw unfiltered potential, a big ole unregulated CRACK in the dam–as perfect a tool for the dark side to possess and manipulate as there could have ever been.
Kylo had family who loved him and were still alive, he had a home, he had a future, and not only did he have to struggle to throw that all away, his parents KEPT trying to reach out to him, right up to the moment just before killing his father lamenting that he WAS indeed struggling. Killing Han didn’t even measurably empower him in any way for fucks sake–he went on to LOSE a saber battle against a literal nobody!
Rey meanwhile had had EVERYTHING TAKEN FROM HER. she was isolated, lost, questioning, unguided, no prospects, and nothing to lose. Even Luke saw how she didn’t resist the dark side at all.
It still feels like how these films turned out was just a bad dream and part of me is still waiting to wake up and find out things were going to head in a more meaningful direction. Instead, everything that COULD have happened inverted completely.
At the end of TLJ, on top of all the other pointless house shit that happened in that movie, REY AND KYLO SHOULD HAVE DISAPPEARED TOGETHER because it would have opened up possibilities that would have been very satisfying
HUX seizing the power vacuum of the first order instead of literally the opposite, which was becoming even more of a sniveling nitwit liability
Finn, Poe, and the other members of the resistance crew would be in a position to actually be fucking USEFUL instead of mere comic relief–i especially despite how TLJ did them all dirty. Kelly Marie Tran’s character Rose Tico could have been a fantastic every
manperson POV where she grows in competency, agency, initiative, and leadership…Instead of palpatine we could have had something actually interesting as a bigger bad behind the scenes.
Now I know this is controversial but … While most people only joke about the concept of a Darth Jar Jar, i think it could have been a worthwhile twist. Without that stupid childish vocal affect and dopey weaponized pretend-incompetence, he could have been legitimately sinister. Imagine the way the temperature drops in a room when a cynical sociopathic manipulator discards their charade and shows their true colors.
… oh well. It’s just going to suck forever now. Just gotta accept it, live with it.
right, that’s what i’m saying. what they did with the blurring of lines in tlj could have gone even further. what if there is no “light side”, it’s all just puritanical bullshit by a bunch of dried-up space monks that unilaterally decide what’s good or evil. they’re basically thought police.
i love seeing others ask that same question!
one possibility i particularly like to consider, though…
is what if the force is all dark-side?
What if the so-called “light side” and all the jedi teachings exist solely as mechanisms of internal defense against a phenomenon that is inherently ontologically evil and absolutely would take any opportunity whatsoever to corrupt anyone it can?
I like to imagine that the force is, on the whole, a weapon. The way it fucks with probability on the quantum scale and can even rest an elbow on the scales of free will… look at all the technology we see in star wars: despite all its incredible capabilities, it’s all chonky, thicc, and analog. I for one think that digital microcomputing as we know it in our galaxy would be rendered impossible by the interference of the force… on purpose. my wacky zany headcanon proposes The Force was created to render a ‘grey goo’ nanite swarm inert and incapable of functioning wherever it is present, because it ruins the deterministic phenomena upon which nanoscale computational systems rely.
anyway, outside of that, even if it WEREN’T like that, i’m rather a fan of morality being something that sapient minds manufacture. Not to say that it isn’t real or valid or useful, but that the universe–or at least the living beings within it–benefit from the imposition of this abstract framework of right and wrong. it’s not intrinsic, but rather the gift that sapience delivers upon the causal volume within which it lives. the meaning of life being to create meaning, to put it another way. And when we take that abstraction too far into absolute/fundamentalist/puritanical extents, that TOO is an overwhelming imbalance that causes harm. Exploring the boundaries of benefit and harm in this environment we’ve created is itself a compelling narrative hook.
i do prefer the theory that it’s just a fifth fundamental force, with no inherent good or evil built in. which is why i like johnson’s nod to the fact that anyone can pick it up by themselves, rather than being trained for years. you’d still probably need training to focus properly but it’s not about “powers”, more about reading the world. less harry potter magic, more discworld magic.
there are certainly moral and immoral uses of a power like that, just like there are moral and immoral uses of… magnetism.
as for the more hard sci-fi stuff… eh. star wars doesn’t hold up to scrutiny like that. it’s a pulp space opera, sword and sorcery in space. a lot of the eu tried reeeeeally hard to lean into the science fiction aspect, but it really doesn’t work imo. i was really enthusiastic about shit like the space ship layout as a kid, still have all the “essential guide” books, but the fact is that nobody thought about that stuff when creating the world like in 90s trek, it’s all just rule of cool. once i realised that my interest sort of waned.