Star Wars Chat Pack: What is your favorite Rey moment?

Welcome to Day 21 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, where I randomly choose a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

Today’s question is: What is your favorite Rey moment?

Yay! Finally, a Sequel question! But it’s kind of hard, because there are a lot of Rey moments I love. Here’s a few I can think of:

Claiming the Skywalker Lightsaber:

At the end of The Force Awakens, Rey faces Kylo Ren and must defend an injured Finn. Finn had battled Kylo with the Skywalker lightsaber, but lost it during the fight. As Kylo reaches for it, he’s surprised when it flies right past him into Rey’s waiting hand. This is Rey’s first steps in accepting her destiny and leaving the past behind. The Force theme swelling during this scene makes it truly a special moment.

I call this one The Pasaana Flip:

In The Rise of Skywalker, Rey and friends are on Pasaana, searching for clues as to where they could find Exegol and the Final Order. Kylo finds out she’s there, and duly goes after her. She senses him coming, and waits for him to arrive in his TIE fighter. This whole sequence is awesome, as she runs in front of the TIE and then flips backwards over the wing, cutting it with her lightsaber. She lands neatly as the TIE goes rolling across the desert like a giant smoking ball. Just for the sheer Force-supported acrobatics alone, this scene is super cool.

Defeating Palpatine

On Exegol, Rey faces Palpatine after nearly being drained of her life-force. Ben has been flung down a crevasse, and she must face him alone. But not completely alone–the Force ghost voices of Jedi past are finally with her, encouraging her to get up and fight and finish the job. So she does, pushing Palpatine’s Force lightning back onto himself and dissolving him once and for all. This is a great scene and brings the Skywalker saga to an end, but there’s another, quieter scene that I like most of all:

Healing Kylo

“I did want to take your hand. Ben’s hand.”

On Kef Bir, after piercing Kylo with his own lightsaber, Rey decides to heal him instead of letting him die. This is a great act of compassion, as Kylo had just been about to strike her down before his mother’s voice distracted him. He’d been ready to kill her. When he drops his lightsaber, she catches it and thrusts it viciously through his torso. It’s an act of instinctual fury. As he sits there dying, both of them knowing that Leia had just died, she takes pity and decides to heal him, as she’d healed the giant snake earlier (the symbolism of that scene, while a little obvious, gets me every time, lol. Kylo’s just a wounded animal, lashing out.) It’s Leia’s reaching out and Rey’s compassion here that cause Kylo to re-evaluate his life decisions and bring Ben Solo back. That’s why I love this scene so much.

I realize I have no Rey scenes from The Last Jedi here, which kind of pains me, since I adore that movie. And there are great Rey scenes in that film, but they just didn’t make the cut for this little list. I think that movie is a good pick for the best Kylo Ren scenes.

Now I really want to re-watch the Sequel trilogy! Perhaps after this Challenge, I’ll settle down with some popcorn and sink into it. I’m actually thinking of a Star Wars marathon sometime soon, watching in chronological order. But one challenge at a time…

Anyway, what’s your favorite Rey scene? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello my friends, and happy weekend!

I’ve finished Shadow of the Sith, and it’s a great book for the most part, and gives quite a bit of insight into the Sequel trilogy. For instance, many people (sequel haters, to be precise) criticize Rey for knowing so much about starship mechanics when she’s never flown one before. Okay, I get that, but in this book we learn why. Miramir, Rey’s mother, has a natural ability when it comes to mechanics, computers, slicing, etc. She’s brilliant at it, actually. And so Rey apparently inherits this trait from her mother. It’s an inborn knack. So the book seems to be going back and explaining how Rey was so good at it from the get-go. Does it bother me that the book is trying to fill in some holes in the films? Not really. I figured because Rey had the Force, maybe a lot of things came naturally to her. That it came from her mother only makes it more special.

There’s also a situation that I never really thought about until I read this book. When Rey is left behind on Jakku by her parents, they take off in Ochi of Bestoon’s ship. That’s how she recognizes it later on Pasaana. But…why were they on the ship that belonged to the guy who was chasing them? Well, this book explains that, too. So it’s answering questions I never knew I had!

We get a lot more insight into Lando Calrissian and his grief over his missing daughter, Kadara. I feel like this is mostly Lando’s story, and that I know him much better now than before. I can’t say the same for Luke, though. He seems strangely flat to me. I think the author is trying to show him as the calm, collected Jedi Master, but it only makes him seem, I don’t know, empty–like he doesn’t have a personality anymore. It’s disappointing. There’s no character arc for him, except to find this Sith villain, face it and defeat it; but there’s no personal challenges or changes. He’s exactly the same throughout the entire book, while Lando struggles with his grief, his purpose, his impatience, his not knowing. In other words, Lando is portrayed as a flesh and blood human being with flaws, while Luke is…kind of boring. I feel like the author was maybe afraid to do anything with Luke for fear of being criticized like Rian Johnson was for what he did with him in The Last Jedi. And that’s unfortunate, because I was really hoping for a great Luke story, and I didn’t get one.

Otherwise, the rest of the story was quite good and I did enjoy it.

So Padawan by Kiersten White will release on Tuesday the 26th, and I’m looking forward to this one. It’s a YA novel about Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, and anything Obi-Wan is exciting to me! Can’t wait to dig into that one.

I noticed on Disney+ that the Assembled episode for Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was released, and I gladly watched it even though MOM wasn’t my favorite Dr. Strange story. I always feel a huge appreciation for all the incredible amount of work and the armies of people that are involved in making these stories come to life, just so we can enjoy ourselves for a couple of hours, lol. Bravo.

So after finishing up Stranger Things Season 4, I was poking around Netflix to maybe find something else to watch, and there are a few movies I’d like to watch in the near future, even though I’ve seen quite few of them. But I came across the TV show Merlin, which came out in 2008 and ran until 2012. I watched every episode when it came out and loved it, and decided to revisit it.

It’s a more family-friendly version of the Arthurian legend, so it’s been defanged quite a bit, but it makes up for it in charm. I’ve rewatched the first episode so far, and it’s going to be great fun revisiting this show. Anybody ever watched it?

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Inner Jedi Notebook Week 3

I’ve been working on my Inner Jedi Notebook for three weeks now, and I’m really enjoying the experience.

Here’s the question for Week Three:

Yoda assigns Anakin Skywalker a Padawan in Ahsoka Tano, in the hopes that mentoring a young Jedi would help Anakin discover his own best traits.

Decades later, Yoda would implore Luke Skywalker to pass on what he has learned to a new generation of Jedi. How can you be a mentor to people in your own life?

I answered with this:

“The obvious example that comes to mind is my daughter. We care for our children, protect them, play with them, but I think we also hope that we can guide them, teach them, impart some wisdom. My daughter is thirteen, so is probably at an age where she doesn’t quite want to listen to my lessons, lol. But I’m hoping, throughout the years, that a few things sink in that she can later retrieve: Be kind, always (she’s already pretty good at this; in fact, she’s got the biggest heart in anyone I know). Love yourself. Stand up for yourself. Listen to your intuition. Respect yourself. Believe in yourself. These are actually things I’m still working on. I’m hoping by imparting these lessons to her, I will also learn them. Be the example. Like a Master and a Padawan, the hope is that you can learn from each other. I know that eventually I will need to learn to let go, to teach her to be independent and send her out into the world. This terrifies me, lol, but is probably the most important lesson of all.

Yoda says over and over, especially in the High Republic books, that Padawans teach Masters the hardest lesson: to let go. Yoda ought to know–he’s probably had dozens of Padawans over his long life. And he had to let each one go. People with multiple children must guide and protect them, and then let each one go, one by one. I only have one child, and that seems hard enough!”

I got up to fifteen minutes of meditating this week, at least until Wednesday, but then I didn’t feel well, and didn’t do it for a couple of days. But I’m better and back on track, so I’m planning on fifteen minutes every day next week. It’s a habit I want to get into, like brushing my teeth; and also work my way up to thirty minutes, if I can. It seems impossible now, but so did meditating in the first place, so we’ll see.

Rey meditating on Ach-To by Shawn Duddridge on artstation.com

Are you a mentor to anyone? If you’d like, let me know about it in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

Star Wars Fan Art: Women of Star Wars

Here’s a collection of great fan art I’ve been finding of the wonderful women of Star Wars:

I love images of Ahsoka with Morai, and this is one of the best I’ve seen.

Naturally I can’t find the artist for this one. It was uploaded by Dorothy on Pinterest, that’s all I know!

This is a simple drawing of Admiral Amylin Holdo, but I love the purple in it in honor of her awesome hair, lol.

I think the artist’s name here is Niki LeFay. Maybe?

Jyn is one tough woman but she looks pretty and vulnerable here.

No artist info, but it’s on displate.com.

This is a gorgeous portrait of Rey. Again, a tough young woman whose youth and beauty are captured in a still moment.

I could never find any Sabine Wren fan art that I really liked, but this one is great. I wanted one without her helmet on, since I like to see faces, although this one has a manga kind of feel. Love the colors.

What “Women of Star Wars” fan art collection would be complete without Leia Organa? This one is lovely, capturing her regal face with an underlying sadness.

I tried to find one of Hera Syndulla that I liked, of just Hera without Kanan, but most of them were either cartoonish or sexualized (or they didn’t look like her at all). I’ll keep looking. Do you have any favorites of Hera?

What do you think of these images? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

5 Stories I’d Love to See in Star Wars

I know, I know. Every single Star Wars fan on the planet has, at one time or another, said, “I wish they’d make a story about….” and put in their two cents worth on future Star Wars projects. I’m no exception. And while of course the good people at Lucasfilm/Disney can’t satisfy every fan’s wishlist, we all do have our opinions; I simply see it as proof of the richness of Star Wars and its storytelling potential.

So in an ideal world, what stories would I love to see? Well, here are my top five ideas (and this includes movies, books, comics, TV shows, or whatever medium may tell the story best):

Okay, so I know LF/Disney are done with the Skywalker saga, at least in film, but I’m hoping that books aren’t off the table in continuing Rey’s story. I would love to see what she does next, if she trains more Jedi, what the galaxy is like after the Emperor is gone. Is there another central government, or do all the worlds and systems simply rule themselves now? What about Finn’s Force sensitivity? Does he become a Jedi? What role would the Jedi play in this new world? What kind of adventures can Rey, Finn and Poe go on? And what is the legacy of Ben Solo, pertaining to Rey in particular? Is he with her in some form? Force ghost? Voice? I want to know!

Ochi of Bestoon was responsible for the death of Rey's parents, but he was involved with the dark side of the Force way back during the Clone Wars.

I’d love to know Rey’s parents story. Palpatine’s clone cast-off–what was his life like? How did he meet Rey’s mother? Who was she? What were their names, for goodness sake! What was their life like on the run from Papa Palpie, and how did they survive? Tell me this wouldn’t be a good story.

Satine Kryze and Obi Wan Kenobi star wars poster prints

I would love a book telling the story of how Obi-Wan met the Duchess Satine Kryze when they were young during the Mandalorian Civil War. Qui Gon and Obi-Wan’s mission to protect her, what they did and where they went, the budding relationship between the two young people. And where does Bo-Katan fit into the story? Who are Satine’s parents and what happened to them? What are the particular politics involved? There may be some answers to these questions somewhere, but I want a book, darnit!

Shmi Skywalker‘s story. Where is she from, who are her parents, how did she become a slave? I suppose we could go back and back into the history and genealogy of the Skywalkers, but I’d love to know at least Shmi’s story. What were the circumstances of her discovering her pregnancy? I’ve heard a reference about Thrawn and the Chiss’ knowledge of “Sky Walkers,” though I haven’t read any of the books about Thrawn yet to quite know what they are. Coincidence? I think not.

This one is kind of obvious, and may be answered in some form someday, but the mystery of where Thrawn and Ezra disappeared to has to be addressed. Some people think perhaps The Mandalorian may shed some light on it, but who knows? Where do they end up, in what circumstances, do they become allies against a common enemy, or do they remain antagonists? And what about Sabine and Ahsoka’s journey to find them? Aarg, so many questions!

There’s literally a zillion spin-off stories that could be told in Star Wars, but these are at the top of my mind. They’re mostly character-oriented, personal stories, the kind that I particularly enjoy. And if none of these stories get told, that’s okay. That’s what imagination is for. Or fan fiction, if that’s your thing!

What stories would you love to see in Star Wars? Comment below and we’ll talk about it!

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