Anemmane

He may be a cowboy, but I know the breed. His word is his word.

For the sake of balance, here’s a meta on something I really actually loved from TROS, to counteract the salt of my last one on the ending. It’s sort of Part 2 of a meta series on why the existing story devices point to an entirely different ending. For this installment, let’s talk about the Pasaana Force Bond. 

This probably ranks in my second tier of favorite scenes in TROS. (Top tier is “I did want to take your hand,” Han and Ben, and Ben showing up on Exogol because addtsdhhbjgdghgfnkiu of course). I love it for a couple reasons but mostly because it is very good at blatantly Implying A Lot of Things, as well as being very obvious foreshadowing. It doesn’t pay off in the finished film but it’s so scrupulously intentional that the only reason for it to exist, the ONLY reason for someone to sit down and write this scene in ANY WAY like it is written was because it was building toward a particular ending that was changed. (*Puts on my tin foil hat*). Anyways, let’s break it down a bit. 

It’s important to remember that this all takes place at a “festival of ancestors.” Given its “42 year” watermark, this definitely fits with the OT hero worshipping fun fest going on elsewhere in the film. But such festivals themselves often celebrate something like the cycle of life. Moreover, the design of this festival seems very evocative of the Hindu festival Holi, which (and this is from Wikipedia so please correct me if I’m wrong) celebrates the coming of spring (re-birth), forgiveness, reconciliation, and repairing of relationships. Hmmm

Holi festival vv 

People having an opinion about the film is absolutely fine. You pay your money and you’re allowed to have an opinion, and you’re allowed to like it or dislike it.

She finds a family with Finn, Leia and the Resistance. She becomes a part of something bigger than herself.

But there is this Force that has awoken inside of her which they cannot understand.

She then finds someone who does understand. Someone who is like her. Someone who knows what she’s going through because he feels it too. Ben Solo.

They’re not so different from each other. They’re both incredibly powerful with the Force. They both need to move on from the past and embrace the people they are meant to be. They are equals in every sense of the word.

It is then revealed that they’re a ‘Dyad in the Force’. Two halves of one soul. Bonded for life. A connection that transcends space and time.

Rey found a family in the Reisistance but once the war was over, I can only assume they disbanded when there was no longer anything to fight for. She loved them, and she had a home with them, but they didn’t know the real her. She needs that intimate connection with someone and they couldn’t be that for her.

There was only one person who could. Ben, the other half of her soul. And he died. He gave his life for her.

And in the end, she ended up exactly where she began, alone on a desert planet. But the difference is she did find a family and her belonging. But now it was all gone.

Before, she didn’t know any different. She’d been alone almost her entire life and had no comprehension of what family or belonging felt like. But now she does and she has to live with the loss of what she once had.

So @little-scribblers-heart, @ricca-raccoon and I got the chance to do an interview with Spencer Kornhaber from The Atlantic about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.