[quarantining my star warps posts to this thread]
and this is one of the things that i think is (accidentally?) interesting about the overarching plot of star wars, in that it tells a story of a deeply conservative institution (the jedi) that exists within a revolutionary movement. i don’t think the sequels stick the landing at all, but the first six movies at least are about the collapse of an old regime into an even worse one, and then the remnants of the old one sort of reconfigure themselves in relation to a new movement. i think it’s significant that ep 4 begins with the dissolution of the senate altogether, reaches its climax with the death of (one of) the last members of the jedi council, and the destruction of alderaan, and then ends with the first major victory of the rebel alliance.
luke’s jedi training in ep 5 is radically different from what we know to be true about all other jedi before him, so even though he calls himself that and ideologically aligns with this idea that ‘balance must be restored to the force’, the movement that he is a part of is not particularly interested in reestablishing the jedi council or going back to the old way of doing things.
i think the better aspects of the sequel trilogy continue this in some ways, but not others. i mean it is definitely what ep 8 is about, but i think it’s kind of ridiculous that in 7 whatever new order was established after 6 is already on its way out, which makes it feel like everyone is just fighting to return to some kind of imagined post-death star 2 normalcy, which didn’t seem to ever exist. it would have been much more interesting to tell a story about the former rebel alliance trying to create something new, but what do i know i guess.
and then i think the interesting thing about ep 9 is how it attempts to do both at the same time - like it’s supposed to be this hugely nostalgic thing for audiences (everyone you liked from before is back!) but, imo, within the context of the movie it still is ostensibly about how dangerous it can be to cling to the past. i think it is possible to read the sequel trilogy as being about the necessity of finding ‘balance’ not in a return to old institutions, but in between the ‘destroy the past, kill it if you have to’ approach of kylo ren and the literal resurrection of the past through the emperor’s attempted reincarnation.
it comes across as extremely incoherent, but if you’re able to be as generous with the star wars movies as apparently only i am, i think there is a genuine difference in what it means for rey to have ‘a thousand generations’ behind her and yet still be in charge of her own decisions and fate, and allowing herself to just become the physical vessel inhabited by the actual consciousness of the past.
i also think there is something kind of brilliant about how ep 9 takes the thing that everyone assumed/predicted would be the ‘happy ending’ of the saga, the restoration of balance through the union of the dark and light, and turns it into some kind of dark and twisted omen–the ‘force dyad’ that brings kylo and rey together is also something that can be corrupted and manipulated and ultimately has to be destroyed