2019 has seen the two biggest movie franchises come to their conclusions. (Or perhaps more accurately, to their end-of-an-era moments). Of course, this meant that the heroes of these movies were set against their biggest foes, and of course, good won in the end, because with Disney, Hollywood and blockbusters in general,
it always wins.
Nothing wrong with that, except that, at least in the times we are living, it is so predictable and expected that it does not have the same emotional and inspirational impact that it used to. It just feels like running through the same familiar script, enjoying the visuals and the witty dialog of the protagonists. It's just not
relatable.
Let's start with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thanos was such a great villain not only because he was the most powerful one that the Avengers have had to fight, but because he was always right. What ever he said, it had truth in it, even though the others didn't like it. And you cannot defeat truth. You can fight it, hide it, ignore it, hide from it, but it will be always there, haunting you.
Or you can use some magic stones and snap your fingers to make it go away. Yeah, that always works.
If you ask me, the perfect end to the Marvel saga would have been the first scenes of Endgame, where people are coping with their losses. Some better than others, some worse: Captain America, as always, doing what is right, leading the way, showing others and helping them go on with their lives; Tony Stark, settling down, realising he cannot put a suit of armour around the world; Banner, accepting what he is, Thor not accepting he is and becoming a hobo; Hawkeye not dealing so well with the loss of his family.
But I can see why this could not be the end, as the franchise needs to keep rolling, and offer a satisfying conclusion to the heroes of the last decade. Obviously, the status quo is not satisfactory, and they couldn't lay back and do nothing about it. And this brings them back to fight Thanos, who bluntly summarises their ultimate flaw:
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| You could not live with your own failure. |
Indeed! That is basically the story of the whole franchise, or at least of the Avengers movies. Because of them, Earth almost got occupied by aliens. It wasn't, but the aftermath was incredible, changing the lives of millions of people in dramatic ways. Then they thought of solving the problem once and for all. And that led to Ultron, another walking-talking lesson, that they "solved" with even more tragedy and destruction, ending with a not so friendly break-up between the world's most loved superheroes. Surely, after more than 20 instalments, they would have learned their lesson. Surely now, when the lesson itself is talking to them directly, staring them in the face, ready to crush them once and for all, surely now they will learn to live with their failure.
Nope. Because Iron Man. And because, like I said, that was pretty much inevitable.
Well... if we think about it deeper, Thanos may have been defeated, but the good guys didn't win. Because you can't win against truth. You cannot ignore it, for it will always come back to haunt you. (
Where did that bring you? Back to me. - IV Avengers 128:11-16) And if you do fight it, you will not come out triumphant. Tony Stark, who was instrumental in the whole reverting things to how they were plot, whose core simply could not accept the truth - that he failed (over and over) at protecting the world, would pay the price for his sin. Not being able to accept his family life over his failure, he payed the ultimate price for it. Captain America on the other hand, accepted that things are not as simple as they were in the good old days when you could always punch evil in the face, and that you can live with not always having to fight just because you're right. Perhaps the most endearing of all, Banner has learned to live with the Hulk. Like I said, you can fight the truth, you can hide it, ignore it, and that's what Banner always did. But it will always come back to remind you of it. So it's much better to just accept it and learn to live with it.
Hmm, now that I've thought about it, I guess the writers actually did a great job.
Let's move on to Star Wars, where the evilest being in the Universe is back. And gone in like 16 hours. Phew! And millions of worlds probably didn't even know about it.
So the big twist about Episode 9 is that JJ Abrams wanted to have his "No, I am your father" moment. Well, I don't know if he wanted that or not, but the reaction to that scene was more like "She's a Palpatine. Oh, ok, whatever." Well, I loved the idea of The Last Jedi, that you don't need to have the privilege of your ancestry in order to be special, but this setup does make things interesting.
Just like Hulk, Rey is now confronted with what she is. There is something dark inside her, but since she wants to be good, she now has to deal with it. And the climactic moment of this decision is when she confronts Palpatine himself, just like Luke Skywalker did. And both are put up against similar decisions: Luke should kill his father, but doing so he would have given into his negative feelings, while Rey should strike down Palpatine as the only way to stop all of the incredibly bad going on around, but doing so she would inherit the throne of darkness. (Don't know why there needs to be a ritual involved for something that is just giving into your instincts and acting out of impulse, but whatever.)
And it's the same sort of threat that Thanos poses, only more direct. Here I am, all the evil in the world, yet you cannot defeat me, because I represent the truth about yourself and doing so in this case would just mean that you are also evil. And not doing it would just mean that I kill you and nothing has changed. That is the inevitable truth. You can fight it, ignore it, hide from it, but it will always be there. And that's why Luke never defeats the Emperor.
He was feeling pretty smug when Darth Vader brought him to face Palpatine. "Oh, this is going to be so awesome." he was saying to himself. "I'm going to convince my father to turn good, we're going to kill the Emperor together, Han and Leia will bring down the shield and the Rebellion will blow up the Death Star. Live happily ever after, for ever and ever and ..."
Ooops! Just a reminder from the
TruthEmperor that being arrogant is not so nice, and that you're still an animal driven by your emotions and before you know it you're smashing your own father with a lightsaber. And all because you could not accept failure above your precious Jedi principles.
Of course, Luke does realise all that and stops himself just in time and does the right thing. He accepts his defeat, and therein lies his victory. He throws away his lightsaber (ghasp!) and proclaims:
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| I am a Jedi, like my father before me. |
You should note the subtlety: it's not just that Luke didn't kill the Emperor. That would have just been hiding from the truth. He openly accepts the truth, thus showing Anakin that there is another way. Yes, Anakin, the one who could never accept the loss of his mother, nor the fact that you cannot stop all suffering, that you cannot stop death, the one who has fought the truth, and then just ignored it and hid from it under a mechanised suit. Yes, Luke has shown him that acceptance is the way, and Anakin is the one who kills the Emperor, redeeming himself and his life of neglect. But Luke could never have defeated the Emperor himself, lest he go down the same path as his father.
Well, turns out Luke didn't really learn the lesson himself, as he thought that evil can be defeated for good, and that good can live on by itself and he can happily train good Jedi forever and ever. Except he couldn't and once he realised the truth, how did he confront it? He ran away to hide from it.
But luckily Rey showed him the way (in
The Last Jedi) and he could advise her (in
The Rise of Skywalker) not to make the same mistake as he did and act out of fear. Although I'm not sure how necessary that advice was, considering that the biggest threat of the Universe is ready to strike and if you don't act upon it, no matter the consequences, there will literally be no place to hide!
Anyway, Rey inevitably stands in front of her eeeevil grandpa, given this impossible choice of striking him down and taking his place, or not doing that and letting him destroy his friends and everything she ever cared for. So what does she do? Strike him down, of course! Ok, she reflects his lightning with her lightsabers and the power of all the Jedi, but that still counts as striking him down! And it seems she didn't take his place after all. I guess that ritual was really important, huh?
Well, you could say that the point actually is that Rey was confronted with having evil inside her but choosing to be good. In the final scene when asked her family name, s
he says Skywalker, instead of Palpatine, showing that she chose to be a Skywalker, rather than a Palpatine. Yeah sure, I guess one family of Universe-level mass murderers is better than the other one. Good on her for listening to her heart. I guess that also means that Luke's failure in defeating evil for good is due to not changing his own name to Luke Kenobi.
Sarcasm aside, that's not the way things work. It's not just choosing who you want to be. It's not the same as being born in a family of gangsters and choosing to become a cop and arrest them. Being the ancestor of a force-wielder is more like being born with a disability (or a super-human ability, but the disability analogy fits better in this case, because it's something that Rey would rather do without). If you're born deaf or mute, it's kind of hard to choose to be a musician. If you're born with something like the Down syndrome, you can choose to be a better person, but it's more than just choice. You have to accept your flaws and deal with them. And, once again, dealing doesn't mean fighting them, ignoring them, or hiding from them. It means living with them and becoming better because of them, not despite them.
If you ask me, the best plot for the next Star Wars trilogy would be that Rey is driven mad by her inner conflict which she obviously does not even understand nor is even aware of, and actually becomes Empress Palpatine, only instead of being driven by an urge for absolute power, she's just demented and does irrational things. Sometimes for fun, sometimes out of anger, or hatred. And when someone confronts her, she just tells them that they're talking nonsense, that she's a Skywalker, and she's all good. Who would save the galaxy this time? Don't know. Many people. The kid with the broom from the last scene of
The Last Jedi would surely be involved. The first two movies wouldn't even have to show her. Maybe keep some mystery about who the Empress is at first. And where the hell is Rey? The gang of good guys could have an adventure to some unknown world, where they find her true ancestry (because no one besides her knows, right?). Anyway, I'm just blabbering here. But in the end, they face her. And they persuade her to admit the truth. And then she crumbles inside. And she commits suicide, finally accepting the truth. Because
it always wins.
