Reylo Reylo Reylo

https://youtu.be/DS0vuwr5bV8

Husband: Yes, he is. He disappeared.

Me: That doesn't mean he's dead.

Husband: Yes, it does. That's what happens when Jedi die.

Me (triumphant): But he's not a Jedi! He never was!!

Husband: <blink> <blink>

Ok, so, I'm convinced the ending was changed and we were originally going to get a conclusion to TRoS that would have had us all crying for entirely different reasons. At least, if I'm not convinced logically, then I am emotionally!

But here's what I still don't get... WHY?

Why do you think JJ or Kathleen Kennedy or whoever decided it needed to change? And why to what we got?

The end of TRoS was accidentally spoiled for me because I saw gifs on Tumblr that showed the kiss and Ben's smile, along with a caption lamenting his abrupt death. I saw that around 8:30 the morning of 12/20 and I had my tickets all ready to go for 10:15 that night. I'm glad I knew going into the theater how it was going to end. I don't want to imagine my emotional state had I been blindsided by that.

But here's what I don't get...

I saw the gifs. Once I realized what they meant, I went back to look at them again. And I stopped because I didn't understand. What was that smile about? What was the context of the kiss? What were they saying? I decided I needed the context around the whole scenario and then it would make sense. (I was still so f*cking naive and placing my faith in filmmakers I now realize never deserved it...) But there wasn't any. Other than the music, there was nothing to contextualize or explain anything about that moment.

Four days later, it still doesn't make sense. That whole sequence... it's all so rushed, so abrupt. There's no time for the characters to react, let alone the audience. And that's a problem of pacing. There's a video on YouTube about how the original Star Wars movie was saved in the editing room. Well, if that's the case, it seems that's where this one died. Because the idea that something changed during the editing process and a fundamental shift in the narrative was made and the footage was edited and mutated and forced into a shape it was never meant to have...

What if the whole B.S. ending to the Skywalker saga was intended to be disappointing just to drive up sales of the Blu-ray/DVD when the come out?

Think about it. With the way streaming services and Redbox becoming so common, sales of home videos must be way down because they're just not as convenient for us as consumers. But the extras that typically get put on homme videos and nowhere else (and often at premium prices because they made cheap versions without any extras too) are now the only thing that Disney has full control over if and how we get access to them. Even more, they can advertise the hell out of there being alternate endings and deleted scenes in the homme video release, and they can get two major cash cow releases out of one movie.