Thoughts on Rogue One (yes, I've finally seen it)

[swiftsnowmane]

 

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"There is more than one prison -- I sense that you carry yours with you wherever you go."

- Chirrut Imwe

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As anyone who has followed me this year knows, after the crushing, soul-destroying blow that was TFA, I’d had absolutely zero intention of seeing this film. I’d had it blacklisted all year long, and had doggedly ignored all but the very earliest teaser trailers for it. The thought of even going to the cinema to see it, of being trapped in a dark room full of strangers while watching something I loved being destroyed before my very eyes again….it was unbearable. I had actual anxiety attacks in the lead up to its release. The crapfest that dared to call itself a ‘sequel’ to my beloved saga had given me such a bad case of what I can only call ‘fandom-ptsd’ that I had no desire to see another live-action SW film in cinemas ever again.I had no intention of bringing more pain upon myself by watching yet another movie that I would only end up wishing I could erase completely from my mind.

All year, I’d had so many fears and concerns about this film. How would it depict the Rebellion in the days leading up to A New Hope? Would it try to further legitimatize TFA’s horrible storytelling choices, its insidious character assassination, and its destruction of the most important themes of Lucas’ saga? Would it try to convince us to care about ‘new’ characters at the expense of the old? Would it attempt to undermine or override the importance of my favourite animated series, aka The Clone Wars and Rebels?

And, most importantly, would it even remotely do justice to my beloved Ani/Vader?

After TFA, and after so much confusing and seemingly-contradictory ‘new canon’ over the last year, it seemed simple: I could no longer trust Disney with Star Wars. I had come to a place where I had made an odd sort of peace with this fact, and was contented to just exist in my own little online happy place that I had so carefully created for myself over this past year.

But then, Carrie Fisher passed away.

And as with so many of my fellow Star Wars fans, her loss has absolutely devastated me. Even more so perhaps because of the immense amount of sadness and disappointment that I have felt this past year over how Leia’s character (along with the entire Original Trio) was handled in TFA. The destruction her most important relationships, the distasteful retconning of all three of the characters' storylines via tie-in comics and novels…I could go on. And most of all, the guilt and frustration that I have felt about not being able to enjoy Carrie’s final performance(s) as Leia because of it.

All of this lead me to a place where, in the aftermath of her passing, I suddenly, desperately needed something. Some kind of closure perhaps. And while I was not even aware at the time that [spoiler] ”Leia” was even in the film, I knew that Bail Organa was. And at least here was a chance to watch something that was set right before A New Hope, during the OT period, and before any of that ridiculous awfulness that supposedly ‘happened’ after RotJ.

Here was a chance to have one, final Star Wars cinema experience in her memory and in her honour.

After asking several piercing questions of my husband (who had gone to see the film twice already by this point), along with carefully interrogating certain extremely patient and helpful fellow Anakin/Vader fans on tumblr, I came to the conclusion that I might, just might, be able to handle seeing this film.

And so, yesterday, I went with my husband to see it. He’d promised me beforehand that if at any time I felt that I wanted to leave the cinema, we would just…get up and go. I decided to trust in his word, and trust in the Force, and just…take my chance.

In the end, and to my everlasting relief…

…I did not regret it.

While perhaps some of the above-mentioned concerns were originally legitimate (based on the earlier trailers prior to the re-shooting of several scenes), in the end, and to my undying shock and surprise….most of my darkest fears about this film proved entirely unfounded.

Now, after all of that, I will try to get to my thoughts on the actual film itself.

But omg….ahhh, where to even begin? I guess I’ll start at the very beginning of the film, and just go from there.

I’ll be honest: at first, during the opening scene, I was so distracted by the fact that WTF THEY ARE IN ICELAND OMG that I could barely focus on what was actually happening. But once I realized that the main character’s father was an Imperial deserter and scientist who was inextricably linked with the creation of the Death Star, and was being portrayed by MADS FUCKING MIKKELSEN, the film suddenly had my full attention! ;D

Nonetheless, I remained a bit unsure about how I felt about the main character and somewhat skeptical about film’s overall premise…until we came to the location of Jedha. I LOVED this place and the entire concept surrounding it. How fitting, to have this sort of ‘last stronghold’ of the Jedi beliefs in a film set immediately prior to ‘A New Hope’. And visually, it was simply stunning. How the city was built upon that high plateau, like the SW version of Masada or something. And the giant, fallen sculpture was evocative of something akin to the Argonath in LotR, and was very effective world-building. (Far more so than the empty and meaningless shot of the Star Destroyer ruins in TFA’s equally empty and meaningless ‘Jakku’ *ahem*.)

The fact that those who guarded this place were not actually Jedi or even Force-sensitive beings themselves, but were just regular people who held fast to the Jedi teachings and beliefs, and to their belief in the existence and power of the Force, was just…perfection. It made so much sense—because at this point, it has only been nineteen years since the fall of the Republic and the Great Jedi Purge, and so of course there would still be many people left who remembered the Jedi and were waiting, faithfully, for their return.

All of this rendered the scene where the Death Star arrives all the more powerful. The visual of this ‘dark sun’ eclipsing the real sun and blotting out the daylight as it hovers right above the city on its high plateau, and then the beam that shoots down to destroy it…. I mean WOW. (And don't even get me started on my feelings about Anakin/Vader as the 'Dark Sun' eclipsing the Light. I could go on for ages with comparisons between him and the Death Star itself.) And then the ensuing apocalyptic style devastation… damn. I haven’t been so impressed by a scene in a film since the sandstorm in Mad Max: Fury Road. This is my kind of thing, right here.

And while the destruction of Jedha is certainly a crushing blow to the Rebels, it feels necessary. Necessary for the Rebellion to be faced, head-on with the sheer scale of the destructive power now within the Empire’s grasp, and the pressing need to do something to stop it.  And since we, as the audience, know that in only a short time, 'the Jedi' *will* be re-emerging onto the galactic scene (well, at least, in MY version of the SW universe, this is the case), the loss of this sacred place doesn’t feel as bleak or nihilistic as it might otherwise. Rather, it only serves to highlight just how hollow and short-lived the Empire’s ‘achievement’ will truly be!

Speaking of the Death Star itself, I just have to take a moment here to say how much I loved the entire premise behind Galen Erso’s role in both the creation of the weapon…and in its destruction. I adored that, in the relationship between him and his daughter, we got a beautiful continuation of that theme which is SO intrinsic to Star Wars: that of believing in the hidden goodness of a family member and/or loved one until the very last, even when it seems like all hope is lost. Even when it seems like that light might have been consumed by the darkness forever. And in being rewarded by that faith, by being proven right.

The fact that it was members of the Rebellion who had 'lost faith’ in Galen, and who wanted to kill him, and who ultimately did bring about his death, added a very interesting nuance to the story. So-called ‘Rebels’, carrying out, without question, some very questionable orders. And an an ‘Imperial’, giving up his life in the faint hope of saving the entire galaxy. All of this made Galen’s death scene on the platform at the Kyber crystal factory a very poignant moment indeed. In some ways, it even felt like a hint or foreshadowing of Luke-and-Vader on the second Death Star. And even the fact that, like Luke, Jyn declared that she ‘wouldn’t leave him’, but was, in the end (and in contrast to Luke) forced to leave her father’s body behind, only served to underscore the thematic links and contrasting parallel between the two scenes.

And this brings me to yet another wonderful connection between this side story and the main saga--namely, to one of the most beautiful themes presented in the Revenge of the Sith novelization. The quote by Matthew Stover about how the “The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins” is well-known in the Star Wars fandom. But we cannot forget the second part of the quote: “but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness.” And here we see at once a symbolic and yet also quite literal demonstration of this very theme. For nothing more perfectly illustrates this quote than the character of Galen, who has hidden his own goodness for so long, who has made himself an intrinsic part of the Imperial war machine in order to conceal the fault, the ‘weakness’ he has placed within the heart of the super weapon itself. And indeed, we see that this ‘one lone candle’ (aka, love, in the form of his daughter, ‘Stardust’) is enough to, quite literally, ‘ignite the stars’. Or rather, to eventually bring about the possibility of destroying of the Death Star.

Along with this surprisingly beautiful continuation of one of my most cherished SW themes, there were several other details that pleasantly surprised me. Initially, I had cringed when I heard that there was going to be a blind character it, thinking that it would somehow undermine the importance of Kanan Jarrus’ role in Rebels, but in the end, I actually LOVED the character of Chirrut. How, even though he was not technically a Force-*wielder*, he had so much faith *in* the Force, that you got this sense that the Force was surrounding him, protecting him, because of it. Here, we have someone who can’t even *use* the Force, but who staunchly believes in it. In a way, it can almost be seen as the ‘Light-side’ version of Vader’s famous line in A New Hope: “I find your lack of faith disturbing”. Because, for me, Chirrut was the embodiment of unwavering faith. The perfect example of ‘the belief in the unseen’. And indeed, for though he was physically blind, his faith was anything but. (As you can tell, Chirrut was probably my favourite of the ‘new’ characters in this film, lol.)

The fact that I could enjoy some of the new characters came as such a relief, because not only was I extremely disappointed in this regard by TFA, but also, one of the many reasons I’ve resented this film's existence from the beginning is that I felt like it was being made for those who either could not be arsed to watch Rebels, or who thought themselves above a ‘mere’ animated series. I’d worried that Rogue One was just going to be a glorified, live action version of SWR for a more general audience. And you know what? That’s…kind of exactly what it turned out to be. The only difference is that this ended being not such bad thing, after all. :)

If anything, in my opinion, the film is better for taking this route. Not only does it feel more like an episode of Rebels, but it also manages to continue the process of linking both the The Clone Wars and the Star Wars: Rebels animated series with the Original Trilogy in a beautiful way. The reprogrammed Imperial droid, for instance, is such a Filoni-esque touch, and there are many nods to TCW and to SWR throughout (The Ghost appears in the hangar at the base, as well as during the space battle, ‘General Syndulla’ is called over the comm, and Chopper rolls by at one point).

But what totally blew my mind was the appearance of Saw Gerrera, from the Onderon arc of The Clone Wars. I had not been spoiled that his character was soon going to be re-introduced into Rebels at the time when I saw R1, so it was a complete and utter shock to me! I’d always felt that the Onderon arc had been set up very purposefully to have at least some kind of effect later on during the Dark Times of the Empire, so even though Saw’s story post-TCW is likely a heartbreaking one, I was gratified at least to see that my understanding of those particular TCW episodes as having had an impact on future eventswas indeed the case. Not to mention the fact that Saw was originally trained in the arts of guerrilla warfare by none other than General Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Captain Rex, making this character and his contribution to the Rebellion—and his rescue and training of young Jyn!—yet another fascinating example of Anakin's direct legacy living on to work against the Empire, even while Anakin is himself imprisoned by it.

Of course, no film is perfect, and there were several things I was not super enthused about. The opening scene felt a tad awkward and clunky to me, and not very ‘Star Wars-y’, but maybe that was just because I was so distracted due to recognizing Iceland (a place I used to live) as the filming location. ;)  The music/score was sort of…idk. I haven’t decided yet. It was very understated, and in some ways that was ok, because if it had been too bombastic, it would have seemed like it was trying too hard to be ANH. That said, I did think there were certain key scenes that could have used maybe just a slightly more emotive and/or dramatic score.

When it came to the main characters, Jyn Erso was, thankfully, not nearly such a ridiculously unbelievable character as Rey, and was actually very sympathetic in parts, especially in the scenes relating to her father (which I’ve mentioned above). Some of her inspirational speeches to her fellow rebels might have come across as a bit too ‘on the nose’, perhaps, but overall I thought she was an effective and moving character. The male lead, Cassian, was interesting in his own way and well-written enough to 'work' alongside her. It seemed to me that the role of these two leads was to demonstrate how the different aspects and 'approaches' of the Rebellion could, by working closely together, achieve something incredible -- though not, of course, without immense sacrifice. (And the heroic sacrifice of Jyn, Cassian, and their entire crew was indeed most effective.)

[Sidenote: at this point, I was admittedly still so distracted by my concerns about how Vader would be portrayed that my attention wasn't always fully on the main leads, and I probably need to see the film again before I'm able to do them justice.]

And so, in the end, I'm not complaining. I had been worried that, like with TFA, I would  not be able to enjoy the new characters because they were being shoved down my throat at the expense of the integrity of the old characters' long-established storylines and character development, but this was thankfully not the case. In R1, there were plenty of characters, both new and old,  in the film who captured my attention: Chirrut and Baze, the sassy but lovable droid K-2S0, Bodhi the pilot, Galen Erso (I mean, it’s Mads, come on!), Admiral Raddus, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, hell, even General Merrick (aka Blue Leader) caught mine eye. Pretty much all of the new characters, and even *gasp* the old, were actually decently written.

And what is more: Jyn, Cassian, and the whole Rogue One crew’s sacrificial ending, rather than seeming pointless or hopeless, actually gave the story some much-needed gravitas, and made the entire movie feel so much more worth it. If they had lived through or escaped that second blast, the impact of the whole film would have been greatly lessened.  Many people had to die to bring the Rebellion this information.

I must also say that I thought it was so extremely fitting that the main villain, Director Krennic, had to watch, helplessly, as the Death Star appeared in the sky, instantly transforming before his eyes from the symbol of his material successes to the harbinger of his own doom. Gawd, I LOVED THAT. :'D

And now, finally, this brings me to Vader. One of my all-time favourite fictional characters, and the character I had been most dreading to see on-screen in this film. I had so many concerns about his portrayal, and knew from the start that how he was handled in this context would make or break the entire thing for me.

So, you can imagine how I felt when he finally appeared. In a freaking DARK TOWER OF DOOM. On a volcano in…wait a minute, MUSTAFAR??? My thoughts were simultaneously an incoherent blend of ‘WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK???” with ‘OMFG, YES, GIMME!”

For someone who is so used to seeing Dark Times-era Vader set against the coldly-glittering, black backdrop of space-warfare—more often than not standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, or, as in Rebels, looming menacing atop his TIE fighter, seeing him in this particular setting was just… rather unexpected, and even a bit unnerving.

I admit, it took me completely by surprise. And took some getting used to.

But as the scene progressed, and once I started to wrap my head around it, the more I didn’t actually mind the concept as much as I’d first thought. It seemed like it was done at least in part for those amongst the general audience who maybe haven’t been watching Rebels, and for whom therefore Vader’s second-to-last on-screen appearance was the moment when he first ‘awoke’ as Vader-in-his-suit on Mustafar. Regardless of the intention behind it, the scene did indeed create quite a powerful visual link between the final scenes of Revenge of the Sith and the OT period. Also, I could not help but be reminded of the famous Mortis arc of The Clone Wars, at the beginning of which Anakin approaches a looming Dark Tower, wherein sits enthroned the mysterious figure known as ‘the Father’—a powerful Force-wielder who is neither Jedi nor Sith, but ‘so much more’.

And after thinking about all of this even more, I have to admit that the idea of Vader shutting himself up in that big, lonely dark tower, is strangely appealing, like something out of a high fantasy or dark fairytale. Along with lending him this almost otherworldly quality, it also highlights his ‘alone-ness’, and makes him feel somehow ‘removed’ from the rest of the Empire. As though he may be one of the most powerful tools of the Empire, but is still somehow not entirely contained by it.

My only real issue with it, and one that I’m still trying to work through in my mind, is that….it’s Mustafar, and thus a location of extreme horror and pain for him. And whatever the intended reason for his presence there in the film (it was unspecified), I have no doubt that remaining there for any length of time would stoke his anger and thus also his Sith-powers. Which, I suppose, is perhaps the entire point. I can easily imagine him hiding away up in his tower, licking his wounds after his shattering encounter with Ahsoka, or brooding upon his many losses. Shrouding himself within the all-consuming ‘power of the Dark Side’.

And so, by the end of this scene, l was still a bit wary, but feeling much more intrigued. I’d been expecting them show us Vader’s ‘military general’ side, but instead they focused on his Otherness…..and as  a result, he came across as almost this dark demigod. Which is quite fascinating, really. Especially because it casts the line from ANH about Lord Vader and his ‘sorcerer’s ways’ into a whole new light!

** ETA: I have since realized that the design for Vader’s tower in R1 is, in fact, based on previously unused Original Trilogy-era concept art for Bast Castle by the great Ralph McQuarrie himself.

And now this brings me to… Vader’s scene at the end of the film. My heart was in my throat the whole time, waiting to see how this would play out. Under any other circumstances, I probably would have found his single-handed slaughter of nearly an entire Rebel crew too upsetting to watch. In the Original Trilogy, we don’t really actually see Vader ‘kill’ anyone with his lightsaber (other than Obi-Wan, whose ‘death’ is ambiguous). And most of the others he kills on-screen are his own officers and underlings, who are generally 'choking on their aspirations', lol. In fact, this is probably the only time we’ve *ever* seen Vader killing en masse like this on-screen. [Edit: interestingly, we do, however, see the first few moments of Anakin slaughtering the Tusken tribe in AotC.]  Which is not to say he’s *not* doing this all the time as Vader….we just haven’t been privy to it in such a way before.

Normally, this sort of thing would greatly upset me. Not because I don’t accept the fact that Vader is ‘evil’ at this point in the story, but because, over the past year since TFA, I have felt deeply concerned that Disney is continuing to portray Darth Vader as a villain without *also* giving due (on-screen) attention to Anakin Skywalker. In the PT and OT, George Lucas created a very particular and very deliberate ‘balance’ between both sides of this character, and I am wary of anyone tipping that balance too far—especially when it seems to be in the direction of Vader, rather than Anakin. (To favour Vader has always seemed too much like a purely commercial move, seeing as his mask/visage is *the* most recognizable image in the SW universe and thus, lucrative.)

I still feel concerned about this aspect of things, but more recently I have come to a place where I would almost *prefer* material focusing on Vader as ‘Vader’, rather than to have someone attempt to portray the Anakin or ‘Vaderkin’ side of him  and end up doing it badly. I was decidedly not happy with certain aspects of the characterization of ‘Vaderkin’ in the Vader comics this past year, which caused me a great deal of anguish, and contributed to my overall concern and unease over R1, and over Disney’s ‘version’ of Darth Vader in general.

But in the end, sometimes context makes all the difference. And as I’ve already mentioned, this entire film is taking place against the backdrop of a father-daughter tale, in which the father’s contribution to the Empire is negated—and the father himself ‘redeemed’—by the persistence, faith, love, and heroic actions of his child. And so, always, we have in the back of our minds, the story of Luke and Anakin/Vader. Not to mention the fact that all of this is taking place mere minutes (?) from the beginning of A New Hope sort of…changes the feeling behind this entire scene. I mean, one can easily view this as Vader’s ‘last hurrah’, so to speak. One of the last times when he is operating completely under the Sidious-fed lie that everything from his past—and thus the entire identity of Anakin Skywalker along with it—is completely lost.

Because, in just a short while….a certain Luke is about to burst onto the scene. And as we know, Luke’s mere presence in Vader’s life will begin the process of tearing open the crack in the prison-fortress of his armour, left behind by Ahsoka. The process of freeing his True Self, once and for all.

All in all, Rogue One is not a perfect film, but neither is it anywhere near as awful or destructive to the meaning of the PT and the OT as I had feared it might be. My biggest fear in this entire film was, of course, Vader’s portrayal, but in the end he only had two very brief yet highly memorable bits of screen-time. (His over-the-top punny line in the tower was actually quite amusing, and the shot of him standing with his cloak billowing after boarding the Rebel ship was just as memorable as his now-iconic entrance atop his TIE-fighter in SWR s2 finale.) For me, the fact that the film ends not with Vader’s slaughter of the Rebels, but with his very own Rebel-daughter standing poised and ready to make away with the stolen plans, says it all.

Along with the fact that final word of the film, spoken by a (CGI’d) young Princess Leia, was “hope”, I could not help but feel that it was an incredibly fitting tribute to the original films…and now, also, to Carrie Fisher. :’)

In my opinion, the best thing this film has going for it is that it doesn’t feel like an entry into the main Star Wars saga. That might sound counterintuitive, but one of my biggest issues with TFA was that it was trying to be something it was not and could never be. It was trying to be a direct continuation of the saga, and thus all of its faults and failings were magnified and made glaringly obvious, because it fell so incredibly short of that mark. Whereas, with Rogue One, any and all nitpicks I had with it were just that—nitpicks, of the sort I might have with an episode of The Clone Wars or Rebels. Such nitpicks are minor, and usually over things I maybe would have personally done differently, but that I can ‘live with’.

For me, it was therefore extremely heartening that the film was not claiming to be anything other than what it is: a side story. The very intentional omission of an ‘opening crawl’ was itself illustrative of this fact. (In fact, the lack of an opening crawl makes complete sense in the case of R1, because this film is essentially a retelling *of* the opening crawl of A New Hope!) It is, rather, a ‘missing moment’, or a missing link between various important moments.The lead up to the main event. And as any decent addition to ‘canon’ ought to do, all of its references to the PT, TCW, Rebels, and the OT only serve to enhance one’s enjoyment of each (and of the overall saga), rather than detract from it. I would even go so far as to say that Rogue One is not only worthy prologue to A New Hope, but it also has the effect of making the original film even more interesting. :)

There are still many aspects of the film that I’m processing, so my views on certain scenes or characters might yet shift and change. But my overwhelming feeling after seeing it has been to heave an immense sigh of relief. I was so afraid that I’d have to spend yet another entire year ranting and raging and attempting to erase this movie from the files of my mind, and I am just SO thankful that this is not the case. In some ways, going into the cinema, I felt as I thought I were walking blindly into a firefight, repeating the mantra over and over again: “I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me”. ;)

In the end, I needn’t have worried…at least not to the extent that I was worried all this past year. Has my faith been restored in Disney and in the ‘new canon’? Uh, no. I’m sorry, but TFA has scarred me too badly for that. I’ll probably always have residual fandom-pstd because of that film. :/

But at least, there’s this. At least, there’s something else, something that upholds the meaning of GL’s saga, and that I can actually bear to watch. And that I will probably watch again, in honour of the one who is so very sadly no longer with us. ;_;

To anyone considering seeing this film who might still be unsure about it, please feel free to ask me any questions or express concerns you might have about it, and I’ll do my best to answer. :)



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