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Okay. So, I promised you guys a TROS review, and it’s coming, I promise… except I’ll be making two “spin-off posts” about specific issues just in order to clear up some stuff, mainly because in my mind, those issues are important.

First post is going to be, of course, about Rey’s parentage.

So. After TFA, it would have been possible for Rey to have been the kid of “someone”. However, TLJ made it impossible to do so, unless you’d have some serious, bullshit retconning going on – which is exactly what happened.

I know this is a VERY controversial thing to say at this point, but post-TFA, Rey Palpatine “could” have been possible. Okay, maybe not have her be Palpatine’s granddaughter, but more of a descendant of his.

This said, I “tried” making an origin story for Rey Palpatine that “works” for the purposes of this meta, on a hypothetical basis, while making it consistent with canon (something JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio clearly couldn’t be bothered to do, LMAO). I had plotholes no matter what. I do think I could have eventually found something with a little bit of brainstorming, but truth is, IT’S HARD, and a lot of exposition would have been for novels/comics only.

From a thematic perspective, though? It wouldn’t have been a bad idea. For this to work, though, you would have needed to go on full-blown Romeo and Julietmode with sprinkles of Anastasia, though. I mean, The Lion King 2 did something similar, so why the fuck not. Because, yeah, Ben Solo, the grandson of Darth Vader, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, the last prince of Alderaan, who falls in love with the last Imperial princess Rey Palpatine while they’re on opposite sides of the war but not the ones you’d think of is the stuff of fairy tales and star-crossed romances, except this one would have a happy ending and brought peace to the galaxy.

Truth be told, I still really enjoy fanfics who go for that story and find a way to make it work in canonverse or in AUs – because it’s genuinely fun. But in canon itself, as I point out earlier… it’s not easy.

So, we have Rian Johnson who said he made a list of potential origins for Rey while he was working on TLJ’s script. You bet Rey Palpatine was on that list. However, he came to the conclusion that Rey Nobody was the best way to go, and whatdyaknow, he made the right call.

Why? Rey Nobody requires minimal exposition. Storytelling-wise, you don’t have a lot of brainstorming to do, and it’s easy to have Ben revealing it, and easy to present it as a repressed memory of Rey’s. On a thematic level, that puts Rey on the same level as Jane Eyre or the main character from Rebecca: she’s a nobody from nowhere who is thrown into a family drama, and since she’s the glitch in the matrix, she must stop the story from becoming a tragedy.

See? Simple. You got your easy exposition, you got your thematic coherence, and you got the literary call-backs.

So, JJ and Terrio decided to retcon this shit because, as they said, they thought it was boring. I think Colin Trevorrow probably thought it was boring too, because I have my reasons to think a lot of TROS is from him (but more on that in my main review). But thing is, it’s not it’s “boring”, it’s literally that they didn’t know what the fuck to do with Rey. No, more than that, they don’t understand her, and frankly, they can’t be bothered to do so. She’s an empty vessel they can toy with at their ease, and in the process, turn her in a Mary-Sue. Because yes, TROS!Rey was a Mary-Sue, whereas TFA/TLJ!Rey was not. So, what I say above regarding Rey might be a bomb for some, considering how people are (understandably) defensive when it comes to that statement. I promise I will elaborate more about it in the main review, once again.

So, with the lineage aspect addressed, it’s time to talk about Rey’s parents themselves.

It’s hilarious how HARD JJ and Terrio tried to make Kylo’s explanation work – because as much as they butchered the shit out of him, they said: “Well he’s a bad liar, right? Gotta keep that in mind.”

Although, I don’t think it was a case of them being concerned with Kylo’s characterization – they’re not that graceful. They had to figure out QUICK why the hell Kylo wouldn’t have known Rey was a Palpatine from the get-go, because the Force is a great DNA test and shit, and I guess that’s how Palps located Ben’s Mighty Skywalker Blood™. Except that still doesn’t work because Palps couldn’t even locate his own goddamn granddaughter, but I digress.

Seriously, why would Kylo lie to Rey about her being a nobody instead of her being a Palpatine? It makes no sense, because if you’re going to roll with the theory Kylo just wants UNLIMITED POWAH, the Palpatine princess is not only a great asset (since marrying her legitimizes your claim to the throne in the eyes of the Imperial Remnants, I mean, that’s literally why Henry VII married Elizabeth of York), it’s also the one argument she needs to hear in order to sway her to your side. So I guess JJ and Terrio’s one shared brain cell kinda flicked a bit at that moment.

This said, getting the Palpatine princess on his side is clearly Kylo’s intention in TROS (which, again, makes no sense with what was set up in TLJ but that’s something I’m keeping for another post), except they trip all over themselves by having Kylo say he didn’t lie to Rey in TLJ. Except…

So, what Ben said in TLJ was the following:

Her parents sold her for drinking money.
They’re dead and buried in a pauper’s grave somewhere on Jakku.
Rey is related to no one.

Here’s what Ben reveals to Rey in TROS:

Her parents sold her for her protection.
They died on another planet, while being hunted down by a guy working for Palpatine and instructed to bring Rey back to them.
Rey’s dad is a Palpatine and Rey’s mom is Villanelle (nah, for real: the actress who plays Rey’s mom is Jodie Comer).

So, um, yeah, it’s the EXACT opposite of what Ben said in TLJ. Just say Palps was fucking with Ben’s mind-reading or Rey’s memories instead, JJ. Not that “Oh Ben was telling the truth, but he didn’t have the whole story”, because that’s not it.

For the latter, once again, it would have been feasible: the one thing, for me, that was possible to be added was that Rey had killed her parents accidentally, by having their ship to leave Jakku crash down with the Force: that’s what made her Force powers go dormant for all those years and provoked her trauma. It would also make sense that Ben would willfully not bring that back to her memories, because she’d understandably not be able to cope with the truth, which is often what happens to a lot of trauma victims. THAT was the theory I had pre-TROS, because that’s the only answer I could come up with when it came to JJ saying that there was more to Rey’s past. I guess I expected JJ to be, like, actually able to write, lmao.

I even wonder if that was actually in the cards, considering we see Rey in TROS bringing down a transport that supposedly has Chewie in it… but I guess they deemed that to be “too dark” for their heroine. Except the bullshit that comes instead is actually… much worse.

To make things simple, I’ll just take the above points and develop them.

Rey’s parents sold her for her protection.

Okay, so, Rey’s parents need to hide her to make sure Palps doesn’t get his hands on her. Fair enough. This said, why did it have to be Jakku and not, like, ANYWHERE ELSE? Especially that Palpatine had interest in Jakku at some point and that maybe having Rey anywhere close to that place would not be a good idea?

But let’s play the game and say that Jakku is the only place they can hide her because… I don’t know, it’s hard to find someone there with the Force. Whatever. Even then, why the fuck would they think Unkar Plutt is a proper guardian for a tiny little girl? You know they could have walked a few miles more and found a nice old man who likes the Light Side of the Force and the Jedi and all that shit called Lor San Tekka? Hey, why not even try to find a guy like Luke Skywalker who’s like, a Jedi and shit, and have him take care of their little girl and protect her?

Even then, why the hell doesn’t Rey’s mom stay with her daughter? Her husband is the Palpatine, not her. All Rey’s mom has to do is find a nicer hiding place for her and Rey somewhere on Jakku, like, not Niima Outpost (again, Tuanul is just a few miles away), and just let Dad hide somewhere else. He’s a grownass man, he can take care of himself and he just has to hide on Nar Shaadaa or some shit. Fuck, why don’t all three of them hide on Nar Shaadaa? Or in the Coruscant undercity? ANYWHERE ELSE?

Also, wouldn’t Plutt clearly see two desperate parents as a business opportunity? Like, if you want to do a Les Misérables comparison here, he wouldn’t “buy” Rey from them, he’d try to get money for them à la Thénardier with Fantine. Except Rey’s parents make Fantine look like frigging Einstein because at least she had the excuse of thinking Madame Thénardier would take good care of Cosette since Éponine and Azelma seemed well-cared for.

Again, a creepy-looking alien who exploits the outpost’s inhabitants for portions in exchange for junk, who asks you to pay him to take care of your kid should be a big fucking red flag – unless you want to involve blackmail, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

Seriously, why the hell would Rey’s parents even ACCEPT money that comes from selling their own child? Were they really that desperate? Fuck, even if I had no other way of getting off Jakku, I wouldn’t even THINK of using money that comes from selling my own child. Any parent who’d even CONSIDER doing that is automatically a godawful parent in my book. Shame on you. And shame on JJ for trying to make me buy them as saints, because THEY’RE NOT, JUST BY THAT SINGLE ACTION.

They died on another planet, while being hunted down by a guy working for Palpatine and instructed to bring Rey back to them.

I didn’t notice it until Jenny Nicholson pointed it out in her TROS review, because it SOMEHOW completely escaped my notice, but… Rey’s mom saying Rey is DEFINITELY NOT on Jakku is like the worst fucking lie I’ve ever seen in a film because it’s so hilariously bad. Congratulations, Space Villanelle, may you be forever remembered for this line.

Also, it’s stupid af that Oshi (that’s his name, right? Can’t be bothered to Google it, might just call him Barney the Bounty Hunter from now on) just kills Rey’s parents, because HE’S EVUL MUAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA, because he literally creates a dead end for himself. He still has no fucking clue where Rey is, and he just killed off his only leads. CONGRATULATIONS BARNEY THE BOUNTY HUNTER, YOU SUCK AT YOUR JOB.

Rey’s dad is a Palpatine and Rey’s mom is Villanelle.

So, Rey’s dad looks like he’s in his early thirties at most, right? Maybe a little younger than Luke and Leia, then. So, unless he got frozen in carbonite at some point, that means Palpatine fucked at some point while looking like this:

Anyway, I sure hope Sly Moore was Grandma Palpatine because she’s pretty much the only person who’d be game to smash raisin ass. Which leaves me with extremely disturbing pictures of Palps and Sly having sex, so I’ll spare you the more graphic details of my twisted mind that’s screaming for an end to this misery. I sure hope having Rey’s mom as Jodie Comer isn’t a clue that we’ll get spin-offs with those two (GOD PLEASE NO), but while I crack jokes about how Rey’s mom is Villanelle and Palpadad kinda looks like Ramsay Bolton… I find it fucking hilarious they dressed Rey’s mom in BLUE. LIKE, SEE? SEE? SHE’S IN BLUE, LIKE THE VIRGIN MARY, BECAUSE REY IS SPACE JESUS!!!! GET IT??? GETIT???? PLEASE TELL ME YA GET IT, OKAY???? *gross sobbing* I knew we should have had Rey born in a manger, that would have made the artistic intentions clear *wipes tear*

All right. There’s a lot more that could be said about Rey’s lineage, but I’m keeping that for my main review because what’s left to say ties up to the bigger picture. What I tried to point out with this preliminary post is that while Rey Palpatine *could* have worked, in different circumstances, it couldn’t have had post-TLJ… and we’re left to see a mutilated horse who was dead on arrival. And that’s tragic.

One thing that annoys me so much about POTO sequels in general (those for the musical specifically, and not just LND) is that when it comes to Raoul and Christine’s marriage, it’s either that Raoul cannot stand how amazing Christine is and the marriage goes to shit because only Erik can really understand her, either that they live happily ever after without anything troubling their happiness.

And of course, I know people spoke AT LENGTH that Christine is not at all in the same social class as Raoul is - Raoul is a nobleman, Christine is a dancer turned opera singer, which did not have the same prestige at the time as it does today - but to assume those two are going to have a happily ever after, or that Raoul will see himself as lesser… that’s forgetting two important points.

Of course, there’s no denying Christine and even Raoul will suffer from PTSD for a very long time, especially that they probably won’t get proper care for it as it is the 1880s and psychology wasn’t there yet (PTSD became a thing mostly when they examined traumatized soldiers after WWI, although I could be wrong on that one).

But the 1880s-1890s is a really interesting time because you have noblemen in the UK, meanwhile, who are marrying American ladies - the Gilded Age Heiresses, as they are called. It was at a time where some English lords were starting to realize their income wouldn’t be enough to sustain their properties (see Downton Abbey, also Winston Churchill’s own mother, Jennie Jerome).

Obviously, Christine doesn’t quite measure up to the American Dollar Princesses: they have money, and she doesn’t. But you can guess some people in the good British society didn’t exactly welcome those ladies with open arms, although there was no denying that times were changing.

I don’t know how French noblemen were faring at the time, although my guess would be that for many of them, their position would be a lot more precarious since France isn’t a monarchy anymore, unlike the UK. But again, I’d have to dig it into it.

Anyway, just Christine trying to adapt to a whole new society entirely, which is the upper class, not as a potential protegee but as an equal by marriage, bringing along her trauma baggage in the lot, makes a fascinating story in itself I haven’t seen developed in any fanfic. It’s a time where being a noble birth isn’t a requirement anymore to marry into nobility, and society is changing as they enter the 20th century. It would be a Cinderella story of sorts, but with a lot more realism than most stories of the type. Of course, Raoul would back her up, but she’d have to face brand new challenges, and probably have to change again as a person.

~~Can someone actually please write that fanfic before I start doing research and outlining it and writing it while I have zero time to do so~~

Current Mood: pensive

“As such, she is suddenly aware of her child’s mind and spirit: she senses pluck and wit and steel blood and a keen mind and by the blood of Alderaan is this one going to be a fighter!”

- Aftermath: Life Debt, Chuck Wendig

“[…] with the blood of a scoundrel and a princess in his veins, his defiance will shake the stars.”

- Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel, Daniel José Older

Before I start: If you haven't read this post, which is an introduction of sorts to this one, I strongly suggest you do so, as I'll be referring to it a few times here.

But, as a quick reminder, I'll just re-state my theory here:

Ben knew about Palpatine all along.

I have to admit we should have seen the Palpatine reveal from the teaser coming. After all, they did “randomly” confirm a few weeks ago that Anakin really was a result of Palpatine manipulating the Force to create life. In a certain way, that makes Palpatine the Evil Father to end all Evil Fathers, and when The Powers That Be promote Episode IX as “the end of the Skywalker saga”, what they actually mean is that finally, the lineage Palpy created by unnatural means is finally going to defeat him, once and for all, and not that the line will die off with Ben (for the gazillioneth time: NO, REY IS NOT A SKYWALKER BY BIRTH).

After all, keep in mind that Force sensitivity is NOT hereditary: Jedi were for the most part Muggles, if I can describe them this way, and if it was otherwise, they would have been extinct a long time ago. Skywalkers are therefore the exception to the rule, and being extremely powerful, you can bet Palpy wants to take full advantage of them: Anakin, and indirectly his descendants, are “his” creation, after all.

It's basically a very twisted version of the Creation according to the Bible - at the risk of being blasphemous (don't hate me, Jesus, I'm just trying to make a point here), imagine a story where Satan (Palpy) creates a superhuman species (the Skywalkers) to manipulate them and destroy God's creation. Except the superhumans end up having families of their own, multiply, and ultimately turn against Satan cos he's an ass, and also because God (the Force) has enough of Satan's shit. That's the Skywalker saga in a nutshell.

Skywalkers messin' it up (again)

Luke and Leia growing up unbeknownst to Palpatine could have been an important glitch in the matrix, but they revealed themselves early enough for his backup plan to be ready (I’m going by the assumption Palpy did the math in the time gap between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back – roughly three years. Not a lot of time, all things considered, but still. Note that I don’t have extensive knowledge of the comics). Or, you know, they wanted to make more films so Luke and Leia couldn't be the Glitch in the Matrix, so because of that, you can guess Palpatine went for the next best thing (Vader was kinda damaged goods anyway), someone who would theoretically be even easier to manipulate and mold than even Anakin ever was: Ben.

Why did I say previously that the Solo side of the family is a wild card? Simply because it’s one thing Crazy-Prepared Palpatine didn’t take into account, since Han is just an inconsequential, non-Force-sensitive smuggler. But combine Han’s heart and loyalty to Leia’s mind and stomach of steel, and as said in extra material, you get a fighter whose defiance will shake the stars.

How did Ben come to know that Palpatine was around and ready to strike back? No way of course Snoke would have let him know, even less Palpatine. But there is one thing, however, that could have definitely done so, and it’s hardly surprising since Ben is space!Hamlet:

Source: Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens (dir. JJ Abrams)

Source: Royal Shakespeare Company
(IT'S JEREMY BRETT AS HAMLET YOU GUYS)

We don’t know when or how Ben came across Vader’s helmet: I’m going to assume, for the sake of the theory, that it was during his travels with Luke and Jedi Camp.

Why didn’t Ben tell Luke, you’ll ask? Probably because he didn’t have time to: after all, Luke knowing is the last thing Palpatine would want, isn't it?

Source: Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (dir. Rian Johnson)

Based on what I've said in my previous post, I’m kind of debating right now whether it was Palpatine or Snoke trying to break into Ben’s mind, or whether it was a joint effort. A tweet from Pablo Hidalgo (which I do not have a screencap of right now) pretty much hinted that Snoke wasn’t behind the darkness tormenting Ben from a young age. People at the time interpreted it as Pablo saying “some people are just born bad”, which is pretty much opposite to EVERYTHING we’ve had so far. Long story short, Pablo was telling the truth… from a certain point of view, since it indeed wasn’t Snoke: it was Palpatine.

As for Luke reading into Ben’s mind and seeing death and destruction, I’d also say Palpatine was at work here. Seriously, what is the one thing that would scare Luke enough for him to want to kill his nephew, even just for a split second, and kind of diminishes the gravity of his action since trauma is involved? Palpatine.

Ben runs away, of course, but now he realizes that after Anakin’s reveal about Palpy via Vader’s mask, he’s really the only one up for the task on his side of things. Luke? Probably influenced by Palpatine now, and it might just be Ben’s fault if it happened. I mean, if we look at the scene from Ben's point of view, as he tells it to Rey... tell me Luke's face here doesn't give you the creeps.

Looks like Luke didn't have his morning caf.
Source: Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (dir. Rian Johnson)

It also explains why Ben didn’t go running back home to Han and Leia - since, logically, it's the first thing a scared young person with few resources would do - look, I'm around the same age as Ben when he "turned", and we're both adults, legally speaking, but running to Mom and Dad for help is sure as heck what I would have done right away. But he doesn't, because who knows? Palpatine might try to get to them as well.

Most people assume Snoke picked him up not long after the whole drama with Luke went down. That's what I'm assuming as well - but overall, what happened in the 6-year gap between the Jedi Camp Disaster and The Force Awakens is left in the dark - probably deliberately. Considering Snoke is dead, there isn't really much of a reason to keep it a mystery. We all know how turning someone to the Dark Side works - through pain, emotional (Anakin, pre-Vader suit) or physical (Savage Opress in the Clone Wars TV series).

The Hateful 8 (or are they?)

There's also the whole matter of the Knights of Ren - for people who are apparently going to play a part in Episode IX, we honestly don't know much about them. I'm mentioning them here since it is kind of hinted they're Luke's former students who ran off with Ben in The Last Jedi. Well, otherwise, what the hell happened to those kids? You could say Snoke killed them off to focus solely on his pet project, but wouldn't you want a few more Force-sensitive kids under your belt, even if they aren't as powerful as your central piece?

Then again, even if Rey was Ben's equal in the Force, Snoke didn't seem to hesitate about whether he needed to get rid of her or not - and I'm assuming Ben's feelings towards Rey were a lot stronger than those he may have for his former "classmates". But the point about where the heck the Knights of Ren comes from still stands.

It is odd, however, that the concept art for TFA refers to them as "the Seven Light" (and I will not make a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves joke here). Despite their positive-sounding name, all the more surprising considering they look like a bunch of brutes dressed in black, their alignment is also kept in the dark, if you'll excuse the pun. Are they loyal to Snoke? To Kylo Ren, who's supposedly their leader? Are they his former music band where he was their lead singer and he eventually quit because he was sick of all the preps in the media referring to them as a boy band? Are they actually serving Palpatine? Are they double agents? Again, it's all questions that will be answered in due time, but there's still too little information to really know.

Glitch In the Odds

Remember how Han infamously said: "Never tell me the odds"? All things considered, it makes perfect sense that one of the wild cards would be Han, instead of Luke or even Leia.

Of course, Luke *was* technically the glitch in the matrix in the Original Trilogy, since he was the hero of the story, destined to change the status quo. But in order to continue the story, the Happy Ending we got in Return of the Jedi had to be broken somehow, so there could be a story to tell.

And let's face it: if you remove all the emotional aspects (Vader becoming Anakin again by saving Padmé's baby! Yay!) and the rule of drama, Palpatine's death is pretty stupid in retrospect. As hammy as he is, we're talking about a guy who provoked a galactic war, managed to be the boss of both factions, ended the conflict by taking over the galaxy as a dictator/Emperor, all the while being the most powerful Dark sider of his time, since Anakin got conveniently roasted and therefore limited in his power. Getting thrown down a ridiculously long chasm may work for a Disney villain (SEE WHAT I DID THERE), but for a Sith Lord, I guess it's just another Tuesday afternoon at work. And it's still more plausible than Boba Fett getting out of the Sarlacc pit. (*ducks tomatoes*)

That's not to say that Luke "failed", or that Anakin wasn't the Chosen One as predicted by the prophecy. Once again, it's all a matter of point of view. Luke and the Rebellion did succeed in bringing down the Empire and giving the galaxy some respite, even if it lasted only thirty years and that the New Republic had its problems. Anakin did "bring balance" to the Force, since the Rule of Two of the Sith was broken for the first time in a thousand years, even if that meant wiping out the Jedi Order, which itself had become obsolete due to sticking to principles in a theoretical way more than practical, although that's a topic for another day.

It's unclear what Palpatine's intentions are at this point - well, UNLIMITED POWAH, obviously, but either he'll want his Empire back or them thirty years in hiding got him even more batshit and he wants the destruction of the galaxy just for shits and giggles - I mean, look at this guy.

Source: Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (dir. George Lucas) via Giphy

He'd totally destroy a galaxy just for shits and giggles.

Of course, someone like Han would be totally insignificant for him - heck, Han was pretty much just a MacGuffin of sorts for Vader in ESB to get Luke to fall in his trap, so you can guess someone like Palpy would give him even less the time of day.

And against all expectations... the Solo side of the family might just be one of the two reasons why Ben didn't go deep into the void entirely.

Of course, Anakin, Padmé, Luke and Leia all had admirable qualities of their own, which permitted them to do great things - but they all had one thing in common that caused their downfall or had them fail, one way or another: pride.

To elaborate, I'm just going to copy-paste a thread of tweets I've done in the past.

Of course, Ben does have some... distinctive Skywalker traits. He has Anakin's recklnessness and Straight-Outta-Gryffindor fire, Padmé's tenderness, Luke's impulsivity and loyalty, and Leia's stubborness and her mind of steel. Because of those traits, Ben is convinced that what he's doing is the right thing - which is something Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley have been consistent about regarding Kylo in interviews.

I don't think Ben is on the Kill Palps Quest out of the goodness of his heart, or because he particularly *cares* about the galaxy. He obviously wants to live up to Vader's legacy, and that's also why he fears he won't be as strong as he is. So it's probably first and foremost a case of "I'm Vader's heir, therefore it is my duty to kill Palpatine".

But most importantly, he has Han's heart, and the capacity to "think outside the box". But we'll expand on that on part 2.

When I heard Palpatine laugh in the teaser, I guess you could say I had a bit of an Eureka moment.

(For real, it was a HELL of a Eureka moment. My Star Wars fan fatigue was in full swing for a few months, but I won't detail it too much here (disclaimer for those who don't know me very well: no, I didn't hate The Last Jedi. I liked it fine enough, but whether I love it or not will be determined by the upcoming Episode IX.)

And what is that Eureka moment, you’ll ask? Simple.

Ben knew about Palpatine all along.

But before I get into the crux of that particular point, there are a few things I need to clear up before we get in the crux of the matter, which do not relate to Ben directly, but still had an impact: and by that, I mean that we need to talk about Snoke. Again (and hopefully for the last time).

I was one of those people who thought they could have put in a little effort to elaborate Snoke’s backstory: not that I wanted some Darth Plagueis reveal or something of the kind, and not that I was angry about it. But I did think: “Heh, a throwaway line in The Last Jedi about him being one of those shitty rich people we saw on Canto Bight but with a Dark Side twist would have been nice.”

But now, what is obvious is:

a) They stayed cagey about Snoke’s backstory for a reason;

b) Snoke really wasn’t important in the long run – just a tool.

We do know thanks to the novelization for TLJ that Snoke pretty much killed his way to the top, because that’s pretty much how Dark Siders operate in the Galaxy Far Far Away. The First Order was probably in dire need of resources and a solid leadership (at least from their perspective, since I can easily imagine a lot of infighting among the old Imperials), and Snoke took the opportunity to take control.

How did he know enough about the First Order to become its Supreme Leader, though? And, more importantly, how did he know that Leia and Luke were Darth Vader’s children and that Ben was his heir?

Of course, Snoke is a powerful Darksider. But he’s not omnipotent (his demise being a striking example of it, excuse the pun), and it’s shaky at best to explain how he found out about Ben’s true lineage. You could argue Snoke got a specific interest in Luke, for having been there when Vader died, and he eventually found out about everything using the grape vine.

(I do wonder whether it’s known in the galaxy that Luke was on Death Star 2.0 and that he participated in Palpatine’s demise and that he was alongside Vader as he died (the Rebellion for instance might not have been informed of it since that stunt could definitely endanger all of them): the “official” story could be that both the Emperor and Darth Vader died when the Death Star was destroyed. It’s probably been said in the additional material, but I’d need confirmation for that one.)

But again, mind-reading is not something subtle, especially not for a Force-sensitive person: if Snoke had read Luke’s mind from a distance, Luke would have sensed something was amiss, and that’s not something Snoke can risk without raising alarm. It’s also probably for that reason Palpatine and Vader spent years not knowing of Luke and Leia’s existence, after all…

So, long story short, Snoke couldn’t have discovered it by himself… someone would have had to tell him.

Who was that someone? Palpatine.

If the Prequel Trilogy taught us anything, it’s that Palpatine is the Magnificent Bastard to end all Magnificent Bastards. He’s a Sith, and he’s more than aware of the Rule of Two. Would he have considered the eventuality of him being killed off? OF COURSE he would, and as we all know thanks to Darth Maul, our favorite burned circus peanut Darth Vader, and the Sith we can encounter in both Knights of the Old Republic games, Sith are resilient AS SHIT, and hard to kill.

We also knew thanks to additional material such as the Aftermath trilogy and Thrawn books that Palpatine was up to something, but we didn’t know what. I was expecting the canon equivalent of the Yuuzhan Vong ~~but less shitty~~ (and I could still see them popping up, but that’s a topic for another day), but of course, we all know good ol’ Palpy will think about himself first and foremost.

There’s too little about the specifics right now, but one thing I am pretty sure of is that Palpatine had a backup plan, and that backup plan included Snoke, and Anakin’s family.

What role was Snoke playing in Palpatine’s backup plan? Essentially the same type of role Count Dooku played in the Prequel Trilogy: he existed to serve a purpose and be the smokescreen to Palpatine’s real plan, permitting him to work in the shadows (THAT'S WHY HIS NAME IS SNOKE, GETIT, HURR HURR). And this time, with everyone believing the Emperor was dead, it was probably a piece of cake.

But there were two wild cards in Palpy's Big Evil Plan For Being the Evil Guy To End All Evil Guys (for real, that's literally what it is): the Solo side of the family, and Rey herself - two elements that seem absolutely inconsequential, but ended up being the catalyst to a chain reaction.

When you fool around with the Force like Palpy does, the Force will bite you back like a bitch.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked - Cage the Elephant

I've reading up a lot about Hollywood in the 20th century, listening to podcasts - and it's incredible and heartbreaking all at once to see the number of actresses who were put through so much abuse and strain because of pressure not only from the studios, but also their relatives. And that included stage moms from Hell, who, for the most part, projected their own career failings through their daughters and made them into stars - no matter the costs.

And for some reason - I thought of Meg Giry and her mother, and how they were portrayed in the Phantom of the Opera not-sequel (I mean, at least according to certain parts of the fandom, including yours truly), Love Never Dies.

I'm not trying to give an explanation here, but... thinking about it, it does seem like perhaps Andrew Lloyd Webber might have been trying to go for a stage mom from Hell approach for Madame Giry. I mean, who knows what he's thinking in that nut head of his. Thing is, Meg in LND is the kind of character Bette Davis would play. Because Bette Davis' specialty back in the old days was playing the bad girl you loved to hate. (But with a script like LND, if you would have given that to Bette Davis, she probably would have glanced at it, laughed in your face and not even bother to tell you she refused the job.)

Except Meg... well, she's not a Bette Davis type. If you look at her in POTO, she's rather the type of role you'd meet for female leads in the silent era, or heck, if you want to get more modern, she's a Debbie Reynolds (actually, yes, let's go back in time and let's have a Meg Giry movie with Debbie Reynolds. I'd pay big money for that).

From the little we see of Meg in POTO, I just... don't see her as the type to become embittered. If you take the 2004 movie (I know, it's not great, but I use it as reference since that's where Meg is the most thoroughly developed), you can see she wishes to be in the spotlight like Christine is, during the Think of Me scene - but is she upset about how her friend gets to be the star? No, quite the contrary. I don't find a Pollyanna type of Meg interesting, mainly because the setting of POTO doesn't really adapt well to that type of character, since this isn't a sitcom, obviously.

So I don't think Meg would project any "failures" or lack of recognition on Christine, necessarily, but considering the type of mother Madame Giry is, she'd probably be the type of kid who'd have some pretty low self-esteem, mostly because it'll seem to her she can never satisfy her mother. The only case where I could see Meg becoming resentful of Christine is if Madame Giry started favoring her - though again, Madame Giry taking care of Christine is 2004-movie only, and in both the musical and the movie, Madame Giry doesn't really give any signs she prefers Christine to Meg - quite the contrary, since she's more often openly affectionate to Meg than to Christine. And Madame Giry is not the affectionate type to start with...

One thing LND is kind of unclear about in the revised version is whether Madame Giry knew about Meg sleeping with powerful men to gather money for Phantasma. Meg does mention towards the end that she "did as Mother said", but did that involve that as well? In the London production, it was made clear she forced Meg to do it, but it was changed afterwards because I guess ALW realized himself it was a bit much. Obviously, Madame Giry still pretty much brainwashed and emotionally abused Meg into only thinking to please the Phantom via her career (and unlike a lot of people, I can buy Meg falling in love with the Phantom, but I'm a Erik/Meg shipper, so I'm biased obviously), but did she go as far as to pimp out her daughter, or did Meg do it all behind her back without her knowing? The latter... is shaky at best, because considering how Giry seems to oversee everything and that nothing escapes her notice in both musicals, she'd ask herself FOR SURE where the money Meg brought back came from. So, unless Meg came up with a REALLY good excuse (and I myself can't think of a good one right now), it wouldn't be hard for her to put two and two together.

I'm not sure whether it's worth including or not, but in the Prologue to the original London production (which was later removed in the Australian production and the others that came after), Miss Fleck calls Madame Giry "Madam Giry", with "Madam" said in the American way instead of the French way. The explanation could be as simple as Fleck, well, being American, but "Madam" said in the American/English way instead of the French way means you're a woman running a brothel. So it could be a jab to Giry for what happened to Meg, just like you could honestly wonder whether Meg was the only one who was pimped out to get money for Phantasma...

But either way... Meg doesn't seem to be frightened by or angry at her mother. All her anger and despair go to the Phantom and Christine, and I know that if I was in her spot and that Giry forced me to sleep with men while I didn't want to, my breakdown wouldn't have been drowning Gustave: it would have been grabbing the closest metal chair and slapping Giry in the face with it for being such a godawful mother.

So either Giry did pimp out Meg (the most plausible option at this point, even if it's just AWFUL), either she was just that irresponsible and inattentive - which I have trouble to buy, since her number one characteristic in LND is that she's the Stage Mom from Hell.

So look - in POTO, Giry was definitely strict and demanding with Meg, but there was a certain benevolence to it, and nothing hinting anything abusive - since Meg does get to pipe back at her mother cheekily without being reprimanded ("Rehearsals! Always rehearsals!"). You could still tell she was fiercely protective of her daughter, not to say she was pretty much her only soft spot.

And yes, ballet dancers and even actresses at the time didn't have the prestige they have today and were pretty much considered to be akin to prostitutes, since a lot of them managed to go up the ladder by becoming the mistresses of powerful patrons. Meg in the original novel by Gaston Leroux becomes a baroness, which makes her one of the lucky ones. So if Meg just went on and slept with powerful men because "that's just what dancers do", wouldn't she and Madame Giry but a lot more savvy about it? Heck, the story would make a lot more sense if Meg became a 1910s Lily Garland from On The Twentieth Century and either fucked her way to the top à la Eva Perón or found a guy powerful enough to give her a good career in New York. Both Girys would have realized pretty quickly that for all his genius, the Phantom was dead weight thanks to his Christine moping and that "investing in him" would be a waste of time.

And - personal headcanon coming in here, but - I always believed that one of the reasons Christine became friends with Meg in the first place was because of how "ingenuesque" and innocent in a way both of them were - Christine because of her Angel of Music "watching over her", and Meg because of her mother's eagle eye. So that Madame Giry would chose to throw that all away once they would both be on Coney Island is a bit... drastic, to say the least, unless, again, you go with the theory that Meg did it all behind Giry's back and that it was her way of rebelling against her mother. But again, Giry not knowing anything isn't plausible for me. Or the explanation could be as simple as Meg taking the initiative and Giry just rolling with it - but she seems a bit too authoritative for letting that happen.

The saddest thing about it is that in real life, mothers pimping out their daughters to the Harvey Weinsteins who were around at the time to ensure they had a successful career really did happen. The number of Hollywood stars back in the Golden Age who had to go through this is as horrifying as it is sad. Jean Harlow died pretty much thanks to having a Stage Mom from Hell. But LND, like in so many other aspects, not only failed to understand the roots and clues we had in the original musical, but they also did give a proper follow-up and didn't even denounce the abusive aspects of stardom that could have been done with the two of them - instead shifting the blame on Meg, who ends up in the end just being a crazy hag who would kill a child to get the attention of the man she loves - and said man, in the context of LND, can only be described in one word: pathetic.

Because just like LND, the Phantom in this musical is just that: pathetic.

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: The Man That Got Away - Judy Garland

You know, I'm the kind of gal who thinks you shouldn't spend weeks and months ranting about what you hate and if you can't do something constructive with it, focus on what you like. It took me some time to realize that, but I came to that point.

But ya know - sometimes, there are some things that are just bad. Like (as it says on the tin) the last season of Voltron.

And look - my sympathy for a writing group for a show or a film goes up to a certain point - but I consider that point to have been reached. Yes, you have a right to tell the story you want to tell, and you don't have to bend to the fandom's whims. No, you can't satisfy everyone. Yes, factions of the fandom have treated you and the cast like crap because their ship wasn't happening, and you don't owe them shit.

So yeah, for me, the extent to which I can have sympathy, in the case of whoever is responsible for season 8? It's been exceeded.

More under the cut for those who don't want to get spoiled.

( enter the salt mine )

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Life on Mars - David Bowie

Well, looks like I'll have to be here more often...

I'll probably still hang out on Tumblr. But since the staff, to no one's surprise, thought that Female-Presenting-Nipples was a more pressing matter than the actual Nazi blogs that are still up and running, their flagging system went on and decided that things such as Renaissance art, Adam Driver's pecs, Leroux!Erik fan art and many other things were deemed inappropriate.

So there's a max exodus, obviously.

My blog has always been pretty SFW ~~since I wouldn't want my mom to see NSFW Lotura fan art on my blog~~, but again, since the flagging system is going nuts, I'll have to backup everything since I have some good stuff on there I don't want to lose. It's kind of disappointing, since Tumblr as a platform is really easy to manage, especially when you have little time to yourself, but I guess I'll have to get this thing up and running, for real this time. *le sigh*

Ah well.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: My Heart Will Go On (Recorder by Candlelight) - Matt Mulholland