#tros speculation

So what gives?

You know why?

At first we are told Leia has a vision that her son will die if she continues her Jedi path, so she stops training. This makes sense, no mother wants her son to die. 

Also, though, she somehow gets another prophecy that someone will complete her journey for her, which seems like a new thing in the world of the Jedi that we really aren’t talking about enough, by the way. Apparently, you can get other people to do your path for you, which raises some questions--does this mean you are destined no matter what to have a path that HAS to be followed? No choice for the path to just not exist? Other media have young would-be Force sensitives debating whether or not to take the Jedi path, and the old Jedi Council had no issue with people leaving the Jedi to pursue a family or other thing. It’s not regarded as inherently bad to reject being a Jedi, so why does Leia need someone to “complete her path”?

Anyways, Leia knows Rey will continue her path. Okey dokey. This is good because it means her son won’t die.

So far, so good right?

But then we get to where Leia dies. Her body does not vanish. Then her son dies as Ben Solo, and they both go to the Force.

This seems like a narrative way to signify that mother and son are reunited, in death sadly. And naturally, I don’t think that Leia would believe her son would die when Rey took her lightsaber, or else she would not have had Rey do it--I mean she refrained from being a Jedi to keep her son from dying, why have someone else do it if you know your son will die?

But if Leia was waiting around for her son to die, then it suggests that Leia DOES know her son was going to die within a short time.

Which raises the disturbing specter of a theory that Leia DID know Rey’s taking the lightsaber would ensure her son’s death, which seems massively contrary to what was said earlier in the film, and against her own character. 

(This is the concept model so you can see the whole thing, hence the stormtrooper model for scale). But, here we have a picture divided into two halves. The left represents the cosmic force—the “light side”, enlightened, spiritual, detached and thus giving. The right is full of animals and natural things—the “dark side”, the realm of the physical, of desire, of experience. They have a big crack running between them—a divide. A divide which needs a bridge. 

So you could say Ben and Rey have brought balance to force by being that bridge. Their bond is the bridge holding them and the Force together, connecting the light and dark, the cosmic and living force, the spiritual and physical. They are the bridge between worlds. (Where is that one meta on bridges in Star Wars, now I have to find that.)

Hey Nonnie,

I've been avoiding official releases lol, but that's not surprising all. So much of the third act is just tonally... so fucking weird. Like, I'm not averse to tragedy, but it has to be done well and we should be going into the story with that as a framework that the audience is aware of (actually, I LOVE a good tragedy, but this is not a good tragedy).

I was ok with Han and Luke dying (and blowing up my RotJ hea) because I thought it was in service of something grander, or that the story would make the sacrifice worth it, but with all the Solo/Skywalkers dead and Rey alone (irrespective if they meant it that way or not, the last shot is of her in a graveyard, surrounded by ghosts, so that's the visual takeaway we have as our final moment of this 42 year series), it feels pointless to me (if you're reading this and enjoyed the movie, I'm happy for you, but it did not resonate with me, so this is my personal take--all my negativity is tagged with TRoS negativity, or whatever thing + negativity).

That we get basically no reaction to Ben's death from ANYONE, let alone his soulmate, that we get this tonally weird, emotionally all over the place content just makes it all feel so fucking cheap and pointless and careless (and it fucking shouldn't with a 275 mil budget). Did they bother, I wonder, filming s reaction? Realize it was too fucking sad, and cut it? Ugh.

Anyway, not surprised that the theory that Rey's flight shot was used from elsewhere ended up being right. I'd seen that theorized and, given her emotion in that scene, it makes sense.

For all of us tinfoil hatters...

Gosh, I can't even begin to imagine who in their right mind would bang shrivelly Palpatine