How To Fail At Character - The Rise of Skywalker

the consensus is in the rise of Skywalker completely failed to entertain most people who saw it and even though it was heavily criticized I don't think the main reason why was the main plot although if you wanted to dissect this film's plot you'd have an absolute field day for one it feels like it's ripped straight from a videogame where it's essentially nothing more than a MacGuffin huh all the characters are doing is going from area to area finding MacGuffin after MacGuffin and the climax suddenly happens and it's not because there's been this strong rising action as every choice the protagonist has made is built on top of the other with rising personal stakes and this led them down this inevitable path to face the consequences the combined actions that was a really mouthful instead when Rey faces down Palpatine it feels more like she's finally unlocked the boss level of the game because she's managed to collect all three keys from the desert level then the city level and the water level but that's not the biggest reason why this film were failed to engage its audience because it's absolutely worth saying that while this kind of plot is to be honest it's quite common in some of the more boring stories out there that doesn't mean it can't be done well and I've seen quite a few games and movies where the characters are on a quest to find the MacGuffins and there's still great stories and Avengers endgame is probably the most popular example of this specifically the time heist where they're hunting down the Infinity stones like both endgame and the rise of Skywalker have MacGuffin hunts that take up a large chunk of their runtime and it totally works in avengers endgame but for some reason Star Wars just doesn't pull that off anywhere near as well and why is that it's because the Russos understood that key aspect of a story that makes the difference between any MacGuffin based plot working or failing and that difference is character also often these kinds of plots make for really boring fiction because the write forgets they're in any kind of MacGuffin based plot because the plot itself isn't terribly exciting they need to put a massive amount of focus onto the characters as they grow and change as they overcome compelling internal conflict that has the audience gripped by their journeys all the while they just so happen to be hunting down magical stones or looking for an avenue but that's the problem and that's the subject of today's video because most grievous failing of the rise of Skywalker isn't the plot is because it failed its characters as completely as it did but that's not due to lack of trying I mean Abrams clearly tries to give ray a character arc and give this story some much-needed internal conflict I mean he doesn't pull it off but he does try with ray Abrams shows her getting angry at the training but at the start and when kylo destroys the nav key she throws a tantrum and gets all angry again and it's presented like she's undergoing a character arc in his falling to the dark side because she's getting all emotional but the issue is that there's no substance to back all that up beneath the surface it's like Abrams was trying to make a cake by focusing exclusively on the frosting and on the surface it may look like she's degrading as a character but the moment you take a bite you realize that this cake is just a shell of icing and at the center is a hollow core I mean we even get that ultimate moment that any character arc has where they make their final choice and in this it's where Palpatine asks her to strike me down and together we shall rule the galaxy that's really crappy impression but it's really clear that JJ Abrams tried to give Roy an arc in this film and if he succeeded like gods this movie would have been so much better for it but the problem is he failed because when Palpatine says kill me and my spirit will pass into you you will be Emperor nobody anywhere thought she'd actually take him up on the offer like nobody thought oh well I guess Rey really will fault the dark sight now you know because it's been so well set up and the reason why this offer just doesn't work for the story isn't because the villain asking the hero to join him and then the hero triumphantly refusing is a bit cliche I genuinely think that this moment could have made for a fantastic beat in this story if it was given the proper setup instead it's because JJ Abrams tried to make spaghetti bolognaise without the spaghetti nor the Bolognese like Abrams didn't apply the fundamental ingredients that any character needs in order for moments like this to actually work and I'll tell you what if you want to have the ingredients to watch some movies that are better than this one and yo you can't access certain sites because their region blocked okay look I'll level with you I I have no idea how to lead into this like just pretend I did a good Segway this video is sponsored by no VPN I don't know about you but like I'm bored as hell right now like you know that green screen I hadn't like my other video I'll have to sell it so I could Ford like an Amazon Prime video subscription and then I have to scrape the paint off the walls so I could sell that and afford a netflix subscription the problem is I've already seen all their videos and Netflix only has like 10 good films on it at a time the rest are just rubbish indie stuff that no one actually wants to watch I live in the UK like what if I could watch the USA or the Australian version Netflix or they have an entirely different category of great films for me to watch if only there a way to do that oh wait there is by using node VPN and if you click that link in the description that's not VPN com fourth slash the closer look or use code the closer look at the check out you'll get 70% off a three-year plan plus a month extra for free that's a very good deal you should do it so I can have more money and pay my bills and be able to live doing oh no I'm an average viewer of the closer look and I'm bored thankfully the closer looks uploaded and give me rest like for my endless boredom but once this video is over I'm gonna be bold again but look at all of those tantalizing movies I could watch right now on other countries Netflix all I would have to do to watch them immediately is go to node VPN comport slash the closed look or you could the closer look at the check helps but how could I ever do that for I have no body and I am just ahead anyway back to it these two ingredients that would have made Palpatine's offer work really well are both a want and a need and I'm fairly sure that most of you know exactly what wants and needs are at this point because I've talked about it in my spider-man video and it's a kind of a common knowledge at this point but as a quick recap for those who don't a characters one is their surface level goal and their need is a lesson that they gradually learn over the course of the story and that lesson is almost always to learn how misguided their initial want that's really the bread and butter of any good character arc for example Ironman wants to live a lavish life as a Playboy devoid of responsibility and his need is to see the consequences of his actions realize his one is childish and to learn to be a man who takes responsibility Ironman has a well executed one to need in his first film and as a result his character has a thoroughly engaging arc the kind of arc that this film desperately needed in order to remedy it's incredibly unengaging videogame plots but when it comes to ray in the rise of Skywalker Abrams was trying to go for a less traditional approach for doing an arc and that approach is actually a really valid way of doing a character journey by the way I think that if you do exactly what Avis was trying to do right I'd argue that it's the most engaging way to do an arc and what Abrams was trying to do is convince us that Rey is going to fail her arc and how does a character fail enough well it's basically when your character has that one that they're striving to achieve and they have their need to learn a valuable lesson about how petty or wrong their one is but in the end they fail to realize their need and as a result they're surface level wants consume them and if you can write your stories in a way where the audience truly has no idea if your protagonist is gonna succeed or fail in realizing their need which is what Avis was trying to go for in this film the key word being trying then your story will be incredibly engaging for it but why does Palpatine's climactic offer actually come across as an empty forced moment that just doesn't work for the narrative is because it's a moment that abrams hasn't even remotely earned and the biggest reason why this just doesn't work is Ray has never once voiced the desire for more power like anywhere so Palpatine offering her [Music] offering her something that she has never once said she wanted it comes across as an offer so hollow like so lacking in narrative setup that it completely failed to generate that juicy internal conflict that choices like these always should and what I went like you haven't heard the best part you haven't had the best but hold on a second the best part about all this is that Abrams realized how dreadful this moment was he realized how weak the audience's fear was that she might turn to the dark side so he panics and a ham-fisted in a black male motivation where Palpatine says if there's one thing that feels like it's becoming a trend in recent movies like the most terrible terrible trend it's that there's always a fallback plan for you as a writer basically if you ever feel like you've done a crappy job as setting up a character motivation to do a certain thing don't worry about going back and doing hard work to edit what you've already written and to make your whole character's motivation have a nice Cajun with exactly what they do just force a blackmail plot in there just have someone blackmail them into doing it it's so easy I mean isleta did just that with Batman vs Superman like Superman's motivation fighting Batman was so like god-awful that snider panicked just like Abrams did and forced in a black male motivation but here's the problem with why black male motivations just are a terrible substitute in moments like these because blackmail in itself can be a perfectly fine form of conflicts but the issue is is it's an external form of conflict it's an external force putting pressure on the protagonist to make a choice the issue is that any and all forms of character arc need to have this end catharsis to come from inside as they independently make a choice not from outside as someone forces them to make that choice for them otherwise the catharsis is nowhere near as powerful as it might have otherwise been it's really quite interesting because Abrams is trying to give away an arc in this film but the same time he's constantly undermining himself and is making every beat of her journey full flat on its face and do the opposite of what it needs to do if you forgive me I'm gonna get out my marker pen now and make a few suggestions as to how result could have been made well you know a narc all the while I'm gonna stay completely true to this film's plot firstly ray needs a want so out to start this film Ray's doing her obstacle course and she's failing at something maybe there's a massive boulder at the end which she just can't lift but she's tried so many times and she has never been able to lift this boulder it's an immovable object for her and we see how desperate she is to be better as the opener for this movie then while ray is on the desert planet and they're being chased by those jetpack troops one of the main characters is either killed or horribly wounded it could be layer or Poe or Finn it doesn't really matter the important part is that ray tries to help them and she fails one of the main characters is dead or terribly wounded because she wasn't good enough and after Finn says ray don't blame yourself for what happened like none of us who are powerful enough to stop it either yeah well you're not a Jedi are you she snaps it's fine for you being normal but you can't lift a mountain with your mind like I'm the most powerful here therefore your safety is my responsibility but I can't even do that without my help you don't stand a chance but I can't give it to you because I I'm just not good enough and she voices how absolutely terrified she is at the idea of losing Finn and Poe and everyone else she loves because she's just not powerful enough and we make it clear as day that that's her wand and gradually from this point on in the story her walk consumes her this can't be like a normal arc where the character improves and improves we need to have a ray degrade a bit because that's the angle Abrams was trying to go for and it's the angle that best fits this movie's direction so then she has her face off against kylo Ren in the desert and he is kicking her ass like since the last time like he has been training non-stop to be her and he's doing it flawlessly he breaks her guard and readies for the killing blow but just as she's a second away from death fear takes hold of her she taps into the dark side and accidentally uses force lightning just like she does in the film and she just devastates he gets caught completely off-guard by this gets horribly hurt and she forces him to retreat and kylo Ren the most terrifying opponent that she's ever faced she's completely bested in a fight because she embraced the dark side now she feels unstoppable like she's always been afraid of being too weak but now a whole new worlds opened up as she starts experimenting with this new lightning power and she is just in love she feels so powerful and unstoppable and we visually show this by her lifting a boulder that was way more heavy than the one that she couldn't lift at the start of the film but the thing is her friends have no idea about the light and dark side of the force because why would they they're not Jedi so they just perceived these as cool new lightning powers as why would they see them as anything else but maybe Finn is the voice of reason and he insists that she's in unexplored territory she's doing something she doesn't understand and she should just be cautious with these new powers then very branks him or snaps to reply saying she knows what's best for herself and to get off her back now we've generated some good much-needed conflict between the party as Rey and Finn's friendship is getting strained by this disagreement and as you can see slowly bit by bit we're fleshing out not just the general internal conflict of this movie but also Rey is falling deeper into her want to be more powerful so she can protect though she loves and as a result this movie is far more engaging now because we have characters who actually go on interesting personal journeys and if you asked me that's the best way of remedying having a hackneyed and MacGuffin based plot but here's the problem at this point in the actual movie we're very needed to use the dark side for the first time and have it go well for her in order to have like this comprehensive arc we get Rey feisty with kylo to save Chewie ship but she accidentally uses the lightning and kills Shoei oh yeah you know she thinks she does and this moment what abrams was trying to make an indicator that Rey is falling to the dark side actually does nothing for her arc in fact I'd argue that has like a catastrophic ruinous effect for any kind of arc that Abrams is trying to give her and why because at the core of any good failed arc is temptation ah this moment where she uses the lightning does the perfect opposite of what this moment should be doing for her like she's been using the light side of the force the whole time she's been a Jedi and the one time she slips and uses the dark shoe Becca dies because of it or you know she thinks he's died if this moment achieves anything it would make Rey completely and utterly refuse to use the dark side ever again all this moment does for Rey's character is validate her beliefs and her teachings that the dark side should always be avoided because the one time she used it one of her best friends died like she even expresses terrible remorse for using the dark side on the ship afterwards and if you're trying to build an ark where they're slowly being seduced by a darker side of themselves like this is a nonsensical way to go about it like hell if not what I just suggested about her beating Kyler with the force lightning we could have had it go the other way where rain kind of were fighting over the ship but instead of her blowing it up kylo uses the dark side and in some way overpowers her with it and lets the ship escape therefore removing that force Chewbacca was on another ship twist but more importantly making very envious of his power making Bryce think that the light side just isn't good enough and if she really wants to save her friends in the future to beat kylo Ren in her next engagement with him she'll need to tap into that same power kylo does to do it like that's how you do a character ugh you temperature protagonist into indulging in the forbidden not scaring them away from it like Abrams does but now we give reh her first slap in the face of her first hints that her one is terribly wrong something awful happens maybe she gets kidnapped singing as that's already in the film it could be anything else but the important part is actually tries to stop it with her new powers but she's still not powerful enough she still fails to stop this terrible thing from happening and again she convinces herself that it happened because of her and how weak she is we see this make her feel even more guilty she gets even more agitated and easily frustrated at this point Finn's disagreement with her has stopped being him saying maybe you should be cautious and now it's become a fully-fledged shouting match as they argue about what she's becoming and the inner party conflict grows and her friendships grow even more strained her kern leads in this whole arc is to realize that it's impossible to exert total control sometimes awful things happen and it truly is impossible to stop them and you should never blame yourself for everything that happens and also she's got to realize that the light side is equally as powerful as the dark side but the dark side is just more seductive like it's easy of her to reach her max power potential but she could be equally as powerful if she just trained more with the light side but she doesn't realize that need yet and now she falls even deeper into the dark and I firmly believe that if Abrams didn't per se do exactly this but he gave rayon equally as interesting argh far more people would have loved this movie but will definitely need another change to flesh out her arc more and make it even more engaging like when Ray speaks to Luke's force ghost on the island she says that he always liked her the dark side is more powerful Luke says no it's not and they go back and forth in an argument and just when Ray's about to leave Luke sighs does something that's clearly his last resort he reaches out and we see the water in the ocean bubble and then this massive ridiculously large island of rock something that is a thousand times bigger than any rap sheets ever lifted hovers in the sky and Luke shows ray that the dark side isn't more powerful it's just more seductive but despite this visual clue that ray is wrong she still storms away and refuses to listen to what he has to say and now after all this happens in this revised arc as the audience is already feeling like considerable fear that ray will fully fall to the dark side Publishing establishes that he's not with kylo Ren he is his own faction a faction that race they've actually got to see do evil things because that was all before her time and Palpatine tells her that he needs a protege an enforcer to carry out his will and spearhead the next generation of sith and he promises that she will be the most powerful person in the galaxy nobody will defy her and survive to talk about it and we see the hunger in Ray's eyes as he says there we just see it in her face how much she craves that power if only so she can protect her friends and the sheer difficulty of this choice for Rey is something that the audience really feels like if Abrams approached Rey like that it would have made Palpatine's offer of like a so much more compelling moment as the audience really does believe that she might take him up on the offer and just as she's out to fall to the dark side and strike him down and take him up on the offer she looks to her friends and realizes how terrified they are of her or maybe she looks in a puddle and sees her pale face and sunken eyes and she just staggers back and has a reality check where she realized that she's become the enemy that she always fought against and she finally realizes her needs god I would have loved if Abrams gave Ryan actually fleshed out arc like that like it would have done so much to remedy this movie's flaws so right now I'm working on what I would say is the largest project I've ever made for this channel and hopefully it will be out by the end of the month it's something that I think a lot of you'll be really interested in and it's gonna be a full retrospective on this recent Star Wars trilogy and I'll be asking why were so many fans just disappointed with it it's probably gonna be an hour long video I say the longest video I've ever made and I can't wait to get it out for you guys anyway if you guys like this channel and want to support me make more of these videos please do hit their patreon link in the description and support me there too my patrons like your support is incredibly valuable to me like it really is helping me live my dream and do this full-time and even if you can only pledge like one dollar that helps me out massively especially when you guys do that as a group but anyway thanks for watching please do like and subscribe and I'll see you guys next time on the closer look [Music]

Channel: The Closer Look

Views: 1,342,274

Keywords: the rise of skywalker, skywalker, rise of, of skywalker, star wars, star, wars, rey, finn, jj abrams, character, character arc, macguffin, avengers, avengers endgame, the closer, the closer look, closer look, video, video essay, essay, kylo ren, abrams, palpatine, the last jedi, the force awakens, luke skywalker

Id: FVkIsr52Lxw

Length: 20min 54sec (1254 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020

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[u/Charon711]

Great channel and I agree with all the points he made. There was absolutely no build up, character arch or payoff to Rey's character.

[u/spyrothefox]

I actually felt emotionally invested in the character arc he suggested for Rey as he described it, wow. Just goes to show how much potential was wasted.