Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Reaction/Review (Spoilers) Submission & Lady Luck Updates

Welcome back to the Tramway in a galaxy far far away, but... not a long time ago (unless you're reading this in the future, like 2030). 😜

All right, jokes aside, welcome back to Tug & Tram Blogging, or hello if you're a first time reader (which you might be if you're here for peoples' opinions on the newest Star Wars movie. If so, bare with me a little).

So as you can probably tell from the title of this blog, I have finally seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. And BOY do I have thoughts on the film!! I'm very glad I was finally able to see it, having had some parts spoiled for me, and just hearing people's reactions, I was very concerned. I was worried that the film was going to be a disastrous end for the Skywalker Saga. I was pleasently surprised. But first, I'd like to discuss my senior project and my submission process for a short story.

Lady Luck Update

So for those who don't know, I'm working on my senior project a year early to get it done in time for my senior year. Because its a novel and most people do shorter poetry books, I figured it would be a good idea to get started ahead of time.

Currently I'm in the editing stage. I printed off my 144 page novel and have been working on trimming it down and fixing typos. So far I've been able to trim the page count down to 135 (136 if you include the title page). I'm about halfway through editing, I checked yesterday and I made it to chapter 7, and have 6 more stories to go.

I also realized that this means my book, about a superhero named Lady Luck, has 13 stories in it.... that was 100% unintentional. You should've seen my friend react when I told him that, he burst into laughter. I guess fate has a funny way of doing that to us.

Another change I haven't started on yet is doing more historical research. As I discussed in earlier posts, I will be tackling some very serious topics because my story is set in the 1940's. These will include Nazis, racism and the Japanese Internment of World War II. If you are not familiar with the latter, I suggest you look into it. (My school did cover it, but I'm not sure that all do. If they don't, they should).

Japanese Internment is still a sensitive topic for many people, as there are still survivors from that era with us, such as George Takei of Star Trek fame, who wrote a book "They Called Us Enemy," about his experiences. I want to read it at some point, but don't have access to it at the moment.

In any case, I want to make sure I handle the topic carefully, especially since history is sadly repeating itself with our current internment camps for refugees, or as the media sometimes calls them "illegal immigrants," (PSA: no one is illegal, remember the Golden Rule, and if you think about it, most white Americans are descendants of illegal immigrants).

A concern I have had is that, given I am white, that it might not be my story to tell or a subject that I should tackle. To remedy this I will likely include a disclaimer in case I get facts wrong, and work my hardest to represent the stories of Japanese Americans un-rightfully imprisoned with the respect they deserve.

Submission Update

As I have mentioned on Twitter, I have been trying to submit one of my short stories, "Ticket to a Wrong Time," and get it accepted. So far Ticket to a Wrong Time has been rejected 3 times, the newest being very recently. The quest for a home for my short story continues. Also, I wish to mention that I am not salty about the newest place rejecting my piece (which I will not name because that would be inappropriate and could lead to harassment of the publication)

So, what next? I'm not entirely sure. I guess I'll just have to keep submitting. If you know any places that accept weirder, more niche fiction, please let me know.

 All right, onto a more fun topic, shall we?

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Reaction/Review (Spoilers)

Ever since I was young, I have been a fan of Star Wars. The first film I saw was Return of the Jedi (don't ask me why, that just happened). Having seen all the films now, I've definitely become a big Star Wars Neeerrrrd. In short: I'm a fan.

What I'm NOT a fan of is the Star Wars Fandom and how they sometimes act. Ugh. The internet is just a brewing grounds for toxicity, which we've seen happen since The Phantom Menace. And every proceeding Star Wars film. I swear if we had the internet during the era of the original trilogy, I would pity the people who lived during that time.

But, that's beside the point. Kind of. When I heard the first reactions to Rise of Skywalker, I was concerned. My older sibling spoiled a big thing for me (which I was okay with, since I figured it would be a long time before seeing the movie). Hearing that without context made me VERY worried about how the sequel trilogy would end up being as a whole. Would it be a clear story or a clash of authorial intent and continuity?

Well, TROS does change some plot points, including Rey's parentage. From this point on, there will be spoilers.
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When I heard that Rey was Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter, I was shocked. WHAT?! This ruins the best part of The Last Jedi! I thought to myself. However, because I had time to think about it, and get used to it, I became more accepting of the idea, and it allowed me to enjoy the film without being distracted by the shock.

The Rise of Skywalker is an amazing end to the Skywalker Saga. We have several homages to the prequels and original trilogy. Like podracing? We've got a chase in the desert. You like aerial dog fights? We've got a big one in the finale.

Getting to see Harrison Ford as Han Solo one last time was great, and I was honestly surprised to see him. I'm glad they didn't reveal that in the trailers. He really bounced off Adam Driver in that scene, it was easily one of the most emotional of the film. It parallels Han's death in The Force Awakens, and I thought to myself "Is he going to stab his Dad again?" Thankfully he didn't, but it would've been funny.

I liked seeing Ben Solo's redemption. It was different enough from Darth Vader that Ben finally came out of the shadow of his grandfather, and became his own character. Seeing him throw his lightsaber into the waters on the Endor moon, killing off Kylo Ren for good, was amazing.

The finale of the film was gr8. We had hundreds of ships, including the Ghost from Rebels, joining together to finally end the war. I was a little annoyed that the Final Order (aka Neo-Space Nazis) had ships which could destroy planets, but AT LEAST it wasn't another death star. And was definitely more practical than one giant space station.

Rey's character arc as also handled really well. Rey has some very emotional moments, but grows and learns that you can choose who your family is. She rejects her legacy as a Palpatine, and at the end of the movie, says that her last name is Rey Skywalker.

A sad part of Rise of Skywalker is that this will be the last time Carrie Fisher is seen as Princess Lea. I was worried about how they'd use her character, but it worked well. They gave her a proper send off, that had my eyes watering.

Also, I got to see something I've ALWAYS wanted to see. Before going to see TROS, I told my friend Jacob that I felt the biggest mistake of Star Wars was that we never got to see Lea be a Jedi. And what does TROS go? Reveal that Lea had a lightsaber!

We get a flashback (which I never expected to see) with deaged/CGI Luke and Lea and Lea has a lightsaber!! We also see why she never used it, because she had a force vision that someone else would need it more. Rey and Ben make good use to her lightsaber and Anakin's.

At the end, Rey buries their lightsabers at the Tatooine homestead, and reveals she has her own lightsaber now, and that's how the movie ends.

Final thought: I was concerned about the Emperor returning, but it worked really well. The Emperor was a fun villain and just as mad. And he's once again dead (again). Hopefully this' the last time we see him.

Overall, I'd rate Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker a solid 9 Anakin lightsabers out of 10. It's a gr8 movie, and I recommend any Star Wars fan see it. Oh yeah, this was the first time I saw a Star Wars movie in theaters.

All right, that's all from me today. Let me know what you think of Rise of Skywalker, but DO NOT BE MEAN TO PEOPLE WHO DISAGREE. I want none of that toxic shit in my feed. On this blog, we do not tolerate hate. But I trust you all.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the Tramway!