Knights are supposed to almost zen-like people
with Spock logic. They are not supposed to love
and they are not supposed to hate. But the Dark
Side, as we learned from Anakin in episodes 1-3,
is all about feeling too hard. Feelings
compromise your actions, and this is what turns
good Jedi into dangerous Sith- or in this case a
Knight of Ren. Kylo Ren was a completely
worthy villain to follow his Grandfather, Darth
Vader. Which brings me to reprised characters,
and most importantly my favorite franchise
character- HAN SOLO. Here is why Han Solo is
a fan favorite, and my personal favorite- he does
not care about a single thing for the most part.
Whats more is that he has not for the entirety that
we have known him! Sure, he has moments of
redemption where he chooses to do the right
thing, but most of that is driven by his
exponential love for Leia; if it were only he and
Luke puddling around the galaxy, he would
probably have left him on Hoth without a
thought or regret- let’s be honest, Luke was
always going to be a little too whiny for Han to
really roll deep with. And Han does not
disappoint in his return- we find out lovable
smuggler still scamming the foul and the rich
with his best friend, Chewie, and trying to make
a fast buck. When Rey and Finn escape from the
First Order in the Millennium Falcon off Jakku,
they are flying on their own for mere parsecs
(haha) before they are captured- luckily for them
it is the one and only Han Solo who has found
his missing ship and reclaimed it for his own.
Here is another element that is similar to A New
Hope in a few ways- Han is always stumbling
upon these rebels that are trying to fight the evil
powers from above, and having them convince
him to yet again help their cause. However, this
time he also serves to Rey in a way that Obi Wan
served to Luke- he wants to encourage her to get
off of Jakku and to live up to the potential he
sees in her- much like the potential that Obi Wan
saw in Luke. But that mentor role is cut short,
much like it was for Obi Wan, when Han’s son,
Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren takes his life at the end
of his lightsaber. There are some theories still
floating around about this incident, one citing
that Ben is attempting to take out the First Order
and his evil overlord, Snoke, by tricking them all
the way up the ladder. Its pretty far fetched in my
opinion, but we will have to see where they take
it in the next episode. Rey is completely the
breakout character of this film though- it is
established very early on that she was
abandoned, left in the care of someone that is
comparable to Miss Hannigan from Annie, she is
a pilot and that she idolizes the resistance (as per
her harboring an old helmet from and X-Wing
pilot), and that whomever left her told her that
they would come back. This is a plot point that
causes her character to really hold herself back
for a significant amount of the movie. She wants
to stay on Jakku and wait for her parents to come
back to get her, which is clearly never going to
happen. This is where more fan theory begins to
run rampant. In the extended universe of Star
Wars before our current story had been
canonized by Disney, Han and Leia had two
(well, actually three) children who were twins.
One, the male, was very strong in the force and
walked that path, and the other, the female, was
skilled in the way of mechanics and being a pilot
much like her father, Han. So when you learn
that Kylo (Ben) is the son of Han Solo and
General Leia, a lot of the extended universe fans
naturally assumed Rey was their daughter.
However, the first striking difference between
Ben and Rey are their ag es- Ben is clearly much
older than Rey is supposed to be. So when Rey is
taken to Maz’s temple/ Mos Eisley looking bar
ENTERTAINMENT 15