Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful winter holiday and the beginning of your year is equally wonderful. I was fortunate enough to have a longer vacation than normal and took that time to soak in all the Star Wars hype. I finally finished Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and saw Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. I'm the only one in my family who has seen the movie so far and I'm dying to talk about it with someone, so here we go. Warning: Spoilers ahead! If you are not familiar with the Star Wars films or are worried about reading something that spoils the new Star Wars video game or film, save this link and give it a read through at another time. If you are ready to continue reading, let's begin. If you are leaving for the time being, we will see you soon and may the force be with you.
The closer we got to the release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, the more excited I was. I'll be honest, I've had a difficult time getting into this new trilogy, but as a fan of the Star Wars universe and its characters I haven't lost hope in it (Princess Leia would be proud). During the first week of November, I started re-watching the films and animated series to psych myself up for the December 20th film release. There are tons of different ways to view the film series all over the internet, but my preferred method of viewing is as follows: Solo, Rogue One, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Phantom Menace, The Clone Wars, The Clone Wars (TV series), Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi, Mandolorian, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi. I haven't watched Star Wars: Rebels yet, but I plan on adding that in wherever it fits in with the canon timeline.
I like this viewing order because it makes sense (to me) chronologically. We are introduced to the universe by meeting Han Solo and Chewbacca. It is during this backstory film that we first learn about the Empire, but it isn't heavily touched upon. We move on to Rogue One, the film that entirely revolves around the Empire and their Death Star, and leads us into the original trilogy. A New Hope introduces, and reintroduces, us to the core characters that the series was originally based (Luke, Leia, and Han). We also meet R2-D2, C-3PO, and a slew of many other characters. During The Empire Strikes back, we find out (much to our amazement) that Darth Vader is Luke's father (NOOOOOOO!). It's at this point in the story that I travel back in time to learn about Anakin Skywalker.
The Phantom Menace is the beginning of his story and continues through The Clone Wars film. My friends, many of who are Star Wars fans, don't watch the Clone Wars television series but I always do. The Clone Wars television series tells about the three year time period that the Clone Wars take place. We meet tons of new characters and learn a lot about the Clone Troopers who we later see executing Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith.
(Side note: I'll let you know, once you watch The Clone Wars series and then watch Episode III, your heart breaks even more than it did the first time you saw Anakin and the Jedi younglings.) Once I've discovered the truth of Darth Vader's rise to power, I go back to the original trilogy and watch as Luke reminds his father of his past and together they destroy the Empire. Finally I watch the newest trilogy. I love the ideas of the new trilogy and I really enjoy the characters but I've had some issues with the story and how it fits in to what we've already seen and what makes sense moving forward.
With that being said, I was super excited to see Star Wars Episode IX. Episode VIII had so many different stories going on, I couldn't wait to see how the film wrapped everything up and brought the trilogy to a close. While I was waiting for Avengers Endgame to be released, I enjoyed spending time reading fan theories of what would, could, or should happen to the Marvel Universe. While I didn't buy in to any of these theories (i.e. Ant-Man shrinking down to minuscule size, climbing into Thanos' anus, and then turning into Giant-Man to kill Thanos from the inside out) it was fun to explore possible outcomes for the Avengers. Before seeing Episode IX, I did the same with Star Wars fan theories and there about as many theories out there as there are Midi-chlorians in Anakin's body (just went super nerd there).
I won't go into all of these theories, but I would encourage you, even if it's just to get a chuckle, to read through some. I will, however, tell you about my favorite and least favorite theories. My favorite theory is that Kylo Ren will end up discarding his villainous persona and become a hero. I like this theory for two reasons, number one, I like the character Kylo Ren. He's a villain who is multidimensional and really struggles with the choices he faces and truly balances between the dark and the light. There are moments where I think, dude dick move. But there are other times when I cheer for him and the choices he makes (i.e. slicing Snoke in half). My second reason for liking this fan theory is because I have to believe that Han Solo sacrificing himself wasn't in vain. When I first watched The Force Awakens and saw Kylo Ren kill his father, I was so upset. I'm still upset, but after watching Ren's character grow, I feel that it was done in order to convince the true villains that he was on their side. After watching and re-watching this seen, I'm convinced that Han Solo knew this was the only choice both he and his son had and that's why he willing walked forward and hugged his son as the saber struck him down.
The fan theory that I dislike the most is the one that says the Millennium Falcon and Chewbacca will meet their end. I understand why this would make sense, Han is gone and so it would be symbolic if his ship and co-pilot went out in a blaze of glory sacrificing themselves for the Rebel cause, but this would be emotionally destructive. As I sit here and think of this theory I imagine myself sitting in the theater, seeing Chewbacca fly the Falcon into a Star Destroyer, giving one last RRRRRRRRRR before exploding. The thought of Chewbacca being killed off and the beloved Falcon finally meeting its end seems too cruel. It would be as if the Death Star pointed itself at our hearts and Governor Tarkin gave the order "fire when ready." The thought alone is painful enough to pull anyone over to the dark side.
Anyway, I seriously encourage anyone to give the fan theories a read. Some are humorous, some very serious, and others so far out there it might just work (i.e. Darth Jar Jar). Since I have seen the movie, I can confirm that a few of the theories out there were correct. About 90% of them were wrong and not even close, but some were right or at least on the right track. As I was sitting in the movie theater, waiting for the trailers to finally end (they lasted exactly 30 minutes), I silently went through all of my own theories, wishes, and dreads about the movie in my head. When the film finally started and I heard John William's Star Wars theme, I pushed them all out of my mind so I could focus on the text floating across the screen. I have to say, after the first five minutes of the movie, I was even more confused than when I finished watching Episode VIII. So much took place within the first five minutes that it was like a brain overload.
I continued to watch the movie in silence, chewing my popcorn and sipping on my root beer. For the most part, I didn't make a sound, although there were moments when I openly laughed, said "Oh no," or "I've got a bad feeling about this." I am glad to say that Chewbacca and the Falcon survived, although for a few minutes it seemed like we lost both of them. I was excited to see the addition of some new force powers into the film series that have only previously been seen in the television shows or in the novels. The story of the Sith and Jedi continued and made it seem like the entire movie was one gigantic climax.
I pre-ordered Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order the Deluxe Edition about a month before it's release. With the Deluxe Edition I received and orange lightsaber blade color, two lightsaber hilts, a skin for my crew's ship, a skin for the droid BD-1, and a few behind the scenes materials. If you're someone is super into unlocking or receiving all the cosmetic options for your characters, then I recommend getting this option, but if you are looking just to play the game to enjoy the story I think the standard edition will be just fine. On New Years Eve I completed my first play through of the game and I loved every minute of it.
Within the first few minutes of playing, I was reminded of Marvel's Spider-Man game for the PS4. The detail that the designers put into the scenery of the different planets, characters, creatures, and plants is incredible. One of my favorite things about the Star Wars films is the soundtrack and this game, plays like a movie. The soundtrack is phenomenal. This is a game that fully immerses you because of the powerful visuals during game play and cut scenes and because of the soundtrack. I was equally impressed the movement of the characters. My first play through of the game I called some friends and tried to describe to them how cool the lightsaber movements were. "It's beautiful. Literally like a dance the way you move around and twirl your lightsaber." I'm going to compare the game again to Marvel's Spider-Man because I think both games did an amazing job at making the combative moves fluid and true to the fighting styles that we would see in the films or what they are based on.
I listen to the podcast by Kinda Funny Games and I won't take away anything from their review and what they said (if you're interested in viewing that show you can find it here) but I will echo their comments of the game playing like all our favorite games. Cal, the main character, moves and interacts with his environment much like Drake does from the Uncharted series. The Uncharted games were some of my favorite because of the play style and the humor so I greatly appreciated the similarities between the two games. There are times throughout the game when you must use the force to solve puzzles. Look at just about any adventure game and you can find similar puzzle activities that are the perfect level of challenge.
As the game begins, we are obviously introduced to the main character Cal. We find that we are a scrapper who is collecting metal and other materials from downed ships from the Clone Wars. The first task to complete is to make our way up to the top of the ship by climbing, jumping, swinging and showing off our athletic abilities. A wonderful introduction, in my opinion, because it allows us to become acquainted with the movements of the character while also allowing us to take in the scenery of the first planet. As you progress through the game and level up your character, you gain access to a variety of force powers and lightsaber moves. All of the moves were fun to use but there are definitely some that you will use more than others. The lightsaber moves that you learn look spectacular on screen.
Like with many other fans of the Star Wars series, I was super excited to customize and create my own lightsaber. As you progress through the story you realize there is a significant story behind the look of the lightsaber, but the game does allow you to customize the hilt, switch, emitter, material, and color of the the blade. As much as I like the single bladed lightsaber, I always imagined that if I were a Jedi I'd use a double-bladed lightsaber that could split in half into two individual sabers. I was super excited to find out that I could unlock a double-bladed lightsaber partway through the game. There were times when enemies were super difficult and the game got frustrating, so I was super thankful that I was able to adjust the difficulty level whenever I wanted to.
It's pretty clear that I'm in a Star Wars phase right now. Between the films, television series, novels, and video games, I've fully immersed myself into the galaxy far far away. The timing of Episode IX, season 7 of the Clone Wars series, and Fallen Order was perfect. It's let me revisit the entire series and enjoy my time in a world that was a part of my childhood. I thoroughly enjoyed Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker and loved Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I look forward to what happens next in the film series and can't wait to see what will come of Fallen Order's sequel.
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