RUINS OF CHILDHOOD is an excavation and recontextualisation of Tim’s 20th Century.
To many of us, Star Wars is the tale of Luke Skywalker, a simple farm boy who became a Jedi Knight. But following its prequels, the story could also be viewed as the fall and salvation of his father, Anakin. Episodes One through Three had a lot to live up to and, while considered the Star Wars of a certain age, aspects of its story fell perceptively short.
Now, with its third trilogy, Star Wars has presented another protagonist for a new generation. Rey is their story’s hero, through which they’ll first experience the spectacle of this enduring Space Opera. So, with that in mind, it is curious to consider how the original Episodes (4, 5, and 6) will play out as prequels.
REY OF HOPE
Heading into these films we’d want to learn more about Rey’s parents, specifically which was the Emperor’s child and how that relationship fell apart. This would also shed some light on just who the Emperor was and how he became the Sith Lord we saw in Episode Nine.
It would be exciting to follow Rey’s parents as they evade the Sith assassin Ochi, eventually stranding their daughter on Jakku. Things would then take a tragic turn as we followed their story to the unfortunate conclusion. It would be a fairly dark trilogy that at least ended with the glimmering hope of Rey’s survival.
And that hope would be dashed by the actual NEW HOPE of Episode Four. Refernces to Rey’s parents are completely absent and its not until halfway through THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that we even glimpse her grandfather, The Emperor. His role in RETURN OF THE JEDI would provide some fulfillment, specifically in our knowledge that his perceived defeat is actually a hollow victory.
Of course the world building doesn’t need to center around Rey’s ancestry but it would be nice to have some sort of tether to pull ourselves in. So, if not Rey, perhaps there is another character who could provide connective tissue between trilogies.
KYLO AND BEHOLD
Fortunately, the lineage of Kylo Ren plays an integral part to these three episodes. And with his parents, Leia Organa and Han Solo, separated before THE FORCE AWAKENS witnessing their courtship through these films would grant us some intriguing insight. Plus it would be a new plot to follow as that sort of love story is absent from Kylo and Rey’s trilogy.
Of his two parents, Leia would seem less recognizable. As leader of the Resistance we knew her as the respected veteran with a hint of weary humor. The younger Leia we encounter on the Death Star would seem quicker to sarcasm and more easily agitated. So it could be fun to watch this brash anarchy merge with her valiant leadership both in the evacuation of Hoth and the bunker attack on Endor.
More revealing would be our reinterpretation of what seemed like a throw away line in THE FORCE AWAKENS. Lor Sen Tekkas’s “to me, she is royalty” would take on new meaning once we learned Leia was princess of Alderraan. And while still a born leader, this would add an interesting flourish to her falling for a scoundrel like Han Solo.
With Han Solo comes Chewbacca and, of course, we’d be thrilled to see them together. We would also notice the notable absence of Maz Kanata. Her introduction in THE FORCE AWAKENS references a history between the three but, with the episodic passing of four, five and six, we would still be left wondering when they actually met.
While the Han in THE FORCE AWAKENS possess some swagger, he definitely displayed the weathered maturity of a father figure. As this youthful smuggler he’d display a more rebellious side perhaps an antecedent to some of Kylo’s more subtle moves. Tracking Han from smuggler to general would also add weight to Kylo’s eventual redemption in that, much like his father, he just had to find the right friends.
Still, there are a lot of unanswered questions toward Kylo’s initial descent. Neither of his parents exhibit the anger that propels him toward the Dark Side nor does Leia make any allusion toward using the Force. This might leave us scratching our heads toward where his powers originated from.
A SITH IN TIME
There is an imposing heritage to trace between Kylo Ren and his grandfather Darth Vader. Previously, our sense of Vader came only from Kylo’s admiration and the twisted relic of a metal helmet. So when Vader boards the Tantive IV amidst the fallen bodies of Rebel troops, we are getting our first real look at who this Dark Lord actually was.
And this works because we don’t actually know anything about him. We don’t know how he died, we don’t know his connection to the Emperor, I’m not sure we even know he’s Luke’s father. So the moment Vader reveals that connection to tempt him to the dark side would still hold suspense, seeing how Kylo accepted a similar invitation from Supreme Leader Snoke.
But, again, we’re looking to further understand Kylo Ren. Darth Vader speaks of hate but does so in a dignified manner. And he’s seemingly embraced the Dark Side without the anger and rattled emotions Kylo possesses. We’ll get that from Anakin in ATTACK OF THE CLONES but, to just work off these three films, Kylo’s outbursts still make him an outlier.
LUKE AT THAT
So maybe he got it from his uncle?
We’d come into these films knowing Luke Skywalker as a hermit who turned his back on the Jedi Order. What we would soon learn is he was once young and impulsive with a passion for the Force. And this passion threatened to get the better of him through flashes of anger on both Dagobah and the second Death Star. Following this rise to Jedi Master might fill in some blanks on how he failed Kylo and why he was reluctant to teach Rey.
Luke’s story might also clarify, or potentially alter, the closing moments of Rey’s story. In RISE OF SKYWALKER we see her burying two lightsabers on a desert planet. Without knowing Tatooine we might assume she had returned to Jakku. Symbolically it would make sense that she’d want to bury her past spent in that desert. Learning those ruins were actually Luke’s homestead could spark a mind-blowing moment of Deja Vu. Or it could take away from Rey’s story by now making it part of Luke’s.
Equally questionable would be the treatment of Luke’s lost saber. We could guess that he lost it when he loses his hand on Bespin but we never get the exciting story of how Maz claimed it. What would be exciting, regardless of interpretation, is watching Luke pilot his X-Wing against the Death Star. Knowing it was the same fighter he sank off the coast of Ahch-To and the ship Rey used on Exegol, would make for possibly our grandest moment of fan fulfillment.
NO MUPPET FOR OLD MEN
Not to keep mentioning Maz’s absence but it’s hard not to notice when some gnome who burnt down a tree gets billed in two of these. Glimpsed only briefly in THE LAST JEDI, this Yoda character seems to have a history with Luke. So it makes sense that he might put in an appearance but wasn’t he just a spectral vapor that glowed in the dark? Force Ghosts weren’t really present until the end of Episode Nine so we may not have put together that Yoda was once corporeal. And while his onscreen death might still play as a surprise we’d probably just regard him as a Katana-type stand-in.
While RISE OF SKYWALKER introduced its villain as if from nowhere, episodes five and six might actually set some of that up. We wouldn’t be getting the Emperor’s origin but we would at least see his machinations in action. His relationship with Vader could predict his need for Snoke and we’d more easily accept his surviving the Death Star since we already knew he’d have to come back. And in the most impressive stunt of this particular trilogy, his presence would now be retroactively felt in both THE FORCE AWAKENS and THE LAST JEDI.
THE FORCE A SHOOKEN
So is that the ultimate purpose of this trilogy? To set up the after-thought of a third act villain? Despite the epic nature of these characters and their adventures, we’d be coming to these three films as fans of Rey and Kylo and (apparently) Maz Katana. We’d want to enjoy this epic but, because its labeled STAR WARS, we’d come in unavoidably expecting it to be our STAR WARS.
When viewed as prequels these stories are just novelty. We want more stories, and that’s great, but anything prior to a hero’s journey is always going to seem less epic. It’ll be a different character’s narrative so it will be a different character’s saga and, therefore, a diffrent audience’s STAR WARS. And we might want to be enthralled by it. And we might enjoy it. But we can’t expect (or demand) it to be our STAR WARS.
For us, its going to kill a few hours, fill in some plot holes and finally make sense of a single trash compacter reference.
About the author
TIM BLEVINS is a multiple podcaster, left-handed hairstyle and next to last star fighter.
SUBSCRIBE to his podcasts 20TH CENTURY POP! & MÉNAGE Á POP.