Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker review and update…

Apologies for around 7 months since my last blog post, a lot of crud has happened, real-life stuff and the like, but for this post, I’ll focus on two things to write about; the future of Pokémon - The Equestrian Chronicles & my thoughts on Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker. I’ll start with the finale of the Skywalker Saga…

Non-Spoiler thoughts: I found it very satisfying and well worth the watch, but I can see why many people have issues with it, mostly pacing (which is not entirely an issue with me). The plot twists in it are well worth looking back at canon Star Wars material to see how it all fits together. The only real issues I had are the questions the film left me with, and there are justifiable reasons to these that other people would go “I hate this film! Star Wars is ruined forever!” because that seems to be the norm lately with films because people don’t like what they don’t get, like a bunch of greedy, selfish brats (which is kinda Disney’s m.o. for the sequel trilogy).
I kinda agree with one reviewer who stated that this probably needed to be the fourth film of a tetralogy instead of a trilogy for proper build up. But, for what it was worth, it passed off reasonably well, and it did do something that really bothered me in The Last Jedi…it put space between itself and the previous film in regards to time (which all Star Wars films had but between number 7 & 8, which were minutes or seconds apart), which I wish was done for the first & second films of the sequel trilogy…

Spoiler thoughts: The trailers for this film confirmed that Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sideous has a major role in the final film of the Skywalker Saga. And boy, was he unsettling in this film, because I felt the same fear the characters felt when it was revealed that the Sith Lord didn’t perish in Return of the Jedi, but survived and was behind everything that happened in the sequels. On top of that, he’s amassed an armada with the power to effectively destroy all life in the galaxy if he gives the order. His presence in this film is akin to that of some eldrich horror, he’s obviously alive, but he looks like decrepit corpse, rotting away, and he’s essentially the cultist leader of a dark, ‘satanic’ group that, as said in the film, have greater power than the First Order, which adds more fear to his already ominous presence in this film. It has been hinted at with rumors and the like that he had some connection to Rey, and the reveal that Rey is his granddaughter was a shocking development to say the least. Despite some people having issues with Palpatine being in the movie, (some saying he should’ve been left out), I actually am in the minority that believes it makes more sense for him to be in it in some capacity. He’s the catalyst for the Skywalker Saga, so it fittingly makes sense for Palpatine to be in the final film, as Sideous is synonymous with the Skywalkers, from Anakin to, spoilers for the end of the movie, Rey, as she takes the name for herself in honor of the Skywalker family. This also makes incredible fanfiction fodder on how Palpatine survived, or how his personal life went as his son is stated by Kylo Ren to be Rey’s father.
People have issues with this film mostly because it ‘catered too much for the fans’ and it ‘didn’t have enough setup with what was already established’, I can partially see where it comes from, with the pacing not really helping with that mentality. I agree there should be more setup for a premise like the one it provides, but when looking back (and a few YouTube reviewers reminding me), it definitely helped tie together all the films, even the ones some people refuse to acknowledge they exist (I,II,III)…While some do think it didn’t set up enough, which I can agree on in some aspects, I think it actually had plenty of setup if you look back on it. I think people's problems with it are mostly first viewing shock, it needs a rewatch for the pieces to fit together, but most folks also seem to be on the ‘I did not like it the first time, so I will not watch it again’ mentality that I think is what plagued some good movies getting slapped with a ’Ruined Forever’ sticker.

Overall, it’s worth a watch, and is a nice send off to characters generations grew up with, and it leads me to hope on what the future will bring for this behemoth of a franchise. (Hell, maybe fifty years from now, the series could get a remake that would more closely tie together all nine films, and fix the grievances all of them have)

As for my fanfiction, Pokémon - The Equestrian Chronicles, well it will be short…

I’m in the works of completing the last part of Chapter 14, but once that has been completed…

I may have to completely reboot the story from that point onwards (with the current version of PTEC becoming a kind of standalone story as the unpublished chapters will migrate to the new version for rewrites and such). Plenty of new stuff was added to both the Pokémon & My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series, and some other contemporary series for now I’ll mention, to the point where plenty of ideas I initially had, have to be scrapped because I started getting the mentality that I shouldn’t screw around with the canon of the franchises (mostly on MLP’s side) which this was after the AU tag I put for the story where it would diverge after the season 4 finale of MLP.

A few of the ideas I had (when this was mostly an Alternate Universe on both sides of the canon), included;
- Tirek getting killed and devoured by the demon who would be the main antagonist for a majority of the story, in which the centaur would make some appearances only physically as a kind of puppet.
- The United Kingdom Pokémon League (which is Galar as of Sword & Shield) being constructed during the story, but the Pokémon series made it clear it was set up for some time (unless one theory turns out to be true).
- The Tree of Harmony being the creation of the creator god of the reality Equestria sits in, instead of the now canon, being the creation of the Pillars of Equestria (the predecessors of the Elements of Harmony).
And a few other circumstances that aren’t worth including here. I would greatly appreciate a co-writer to help me set up this NEW version of the story. For what’s in it, and if I’m gonna start from scratch, well…
For now, I’ll save all that for later, even answer a few other questions in a kinda Q&A kind of post, but for now, here’s two things to give you a taste…

- I will not start from scratch. It will either start like I planned initially with the saga that would take place during the climax of Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, or I’ll skip to the Delta Episode saga…
- As for the setup of the rebooted story, the current PTEC is good enough, as I can say that, aside from a few instances, the beginning of the new version is largely the same, maybe it has some Gen 7 & 8 Pokémon under the possession of the main character trainers…

Hopefully this explains a few things, and I await your response to either my review, my plans for PTEC, or both. As incentive for a co-writer to come forward, I may offer my co-writer the opportunity to be the full writer (with me providing notes that have to be in there regardless) of either the saga that involves Time Travel & Aliens (The climax for sure has to be set within the Age of Dinosaurs, my mind’s made up on that front), or the saga that comes after, dealing with the Supernatural (featuring a more anime isekai-ish style of story regarding a dimensional plain alongside the Earth that is the source of the Hollow Earth theories).

Until next time, we’ll see what happens in 2020…