Star Wars: Looking Forward to Episode IX

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the days since The Last Jedi was released, it’s that looking at a new Star Wars movie with too much expectation is a fool’s errand.  Not because the movie will or won’t be great but because the franchise’s fandom maybe feels a bit too much ownership of decisions over which it has no control.  

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Maybe I’d be disappointed in the new trilogy if I hadn’t already lived through the prequels as an adult.  When they came out, though, I already had a lifetime of Star Wars fandom in the rearview.  Which is why I think the folks who’re disappointed now have maybe lost a bit of perspective.  I remember the hype leading up to The Phantom Menace.  I remember searching in vain for some hint of the spark that once animated the Galaxy Far, Far Away.  Personally, I think the anti-cheese edit goes a long way towards redeeming Phantom Menace, proving that there’s a legitimately great story in there that just happens to be stuck behind a lot of George Lucas’s self-indulgent impulses and (lack of) editing.  Attack of the Clones, however, is God-awful, and nothing I’ve ever seen can save it, not even the last two seasons of The Clone Wars, which I loved.

As it is, I’m just happy that there’s more Star Wars, that it’s fun, and that it looks on track to continue.

With all of that said, there are five things I’d like to see from Episode IX.

1. Some sense of closure, not just on the Rey trilogy but on everything we’ve seen.  By any kind of storytelling logic, these nine episodes should be the story of Anakin Skywalker.  The prequels were his early years and his fall.  The Original Trilogy was his reign of terror and eventual redemption.  This new trilogy, if it’s actually of a piece with the Original, should theoretically be the story of Anakin’s legacy.  

This to me was the one serious failing of The Last Jedi, that we dealt with Anakin primarily by calling Kylo his heir.  We’ve made the Skywalker legacy a net negative.  I don’t know how we move forward from here except by trying to redeem that legacy and perhaps by putting into some sense of perspective.

Rian Johnson went a long way towards turning the page.  That’s fine, but it’s still fair to ask, “What was point?”

After a lifetime of Star Wars fandom, I’d really like to know.

Concept art: Vader as force ghost.

2. Along the same lines, I would like to see Anakin’s force ghost—and maybe Obi Wan’s as well.  We know that they had concept art on Anakin’s force ghost.  I honestly don’t know how they rap this series without giving our original heroes another turn on the stage.

3.  If the original Jedi failed, then what would success have looked like?  I mean, I feel like I know the answer, that it would have been fine if only Anakin and Padme had been allowed to marry.  That this concept that Jedi should eschew personal attachments was always a ludicrous convention.  

Can we maybe play that out?

The Last Jedi sets up the beginnings of a potential love triangle… or even a quadrilateral.  We’ve got Ray and Finn, and they obviously have feelings for each other, but now Rose has confessed love for Finn, and we saw Rey look on as Finn cared for Rose on the Falcon.  And then there’s Poe, and oh by the way, Kylo Ren.  He has feelings for Rey, too, and *spoiler alert* he is not a particularly stable guy.

I don’t need to turn Rey into Katniss Everdeen—dear God, do I not need that—but neither does she strike me as the “live in the wilderness” type, either.

This issue of attachments is one that they’ve never figured out.  Anakin never figured it out, and neither Luke nor Leia figured it out, and it doesn’t look real good for Ben Solo, either.

4.  They’ve hinted pretty strongly for the past two movies that Poe is Force sensitive.  He does things in a starfighter that we’ve only ever seen Anakin Skywalker do previously.  Yes or no?

Oooo... shiny.

5.  Finally, I don’t know how much more I need to see of Genera Hux, but battle-scarred Captain Phasma is a must.  She and Finn still aren’t finished, I don’t think.

At the beginning of The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jin says, “I didn’t come here to free slaves?”  But somebody has to free them eventually, right?  This, to me, is Finn’s purpose.  The brainwashed stormtroopers are the ones he needs to save.

* * *

“This is not going to end… the way that you think.”

Yeah.  Probably not.  Hopefully I’ll still be able to enjoy it for what it is.