Spoilers throughout for everyStar Warsmovie.
Luke Skywalker was an orphan, but that wasn’t the only important thing about him.
(He barely seems to know what the Empire is.)
Credit: Lucasfilm
The important thing about Luke in the firstStar Warswas that he wasunencumberedby all that.
But their absence isn’t some void in his heart, some trauma he will never get over.
In the prologue, Jyn’s mom dies and is never mentioned again.
Her father gets taken away.
At one point Jyn has a dream, which is just a clip show of this prologue.
Jones is tough without calling attention to her toughness, sad the way tough people can be sad.
Is it weird that I would prefer that direct remake toRogue Ones lateralizedNew Hoperemix?
But something occurred to me when I was daydreaming about the Felicity Jones version ofNew Hope.
He wasin defianceof the representatives of that previous generation.
His two paternal figures are a weird hippie in a desert and a weirder hippie in a swamp.
And they lie to him, and he’s not happy about it.
I know Jyn’s a different character and I’m not saying everyone needs to be the same.
Theydependon you having some context.
So indulge me, for a second, and compare Luke’s arc to Jyn.
She is defined, exclusively, inthisfilm probably her only film by her parentage.
Luke Skywalker was an orphan who didn’t care that he was an orphan.
Luke was off on adventures with his generation and he ultimately fought back against the generation that bore him.
I’m not doing this.'
Now, she reports, the teenagers have no sense of agency.
They still complain bitterly about all the same things, but they feel they have no choice.
But I know what that feelinglookslike now.
Ridley basicallydidplay Luke Skywalker, except Reywantsto stay on her desert planet.
it is only by following that path that she can become her true self.
That film didn’t underline Han’s journey as a “journey.”
He was a cynic and a profiteer, and then suddenly he came back to help Luke.
That’s a false character turn, and not a particularly interesting one.
His character arc was acharacter arc.
Han lived in an open world, and the newStar Warsmovies put everybody on rails.
So of course most ofRogue Oneis just people flying Jyn places so she can experience epiphanies.
(The film actually gets much better if you imagine Cassian Andor is aWestworldhost.)
A heroic woman, trapped on all sides by men.
Written by Chris Weitz and John Knoll and Tony Gilroy and Gary Whitta, directed by Gareth Edwards.
