The Last Jedi Trailer- Porg Screams, Ice Foxes, and Dark Side Intrigue

Insert those geeky goosebumps and giggles here because after much anticipation the second trailer for Star Wars The Last Jedi dropped last night during one of the dullest first halves of football ever. Seriously, it was 3-2 at the half. That’s a baseball score. I digress. There are more important matters to discuss.

I for one have really enjoyed the way Disney has marked The Last Jedi in the sense that less is more. The huge gap between trailers didn’t do anything to derail a rabid fan bases desire to learn more about their favorite galaxy far, far away but in fact allowed them to dive a little bit deeper. Suddenly, theories upon theories upon theories were coming out of the teaser trailer as fans tried to get just a glimmer of an idea of what the movie would be about. Yes, Luke believed that the Jedi should end and it seems that Kylo has scar issues and Rey is sort of training but what else did the first trailer really tell us? And that my friends is the beauty, in a pop culture world that feels that they have to show you everything in trailers in order to draw you into a movie theater, Star Wars relied on the fact that we’re going to this film because we’re Star Wars fans. Keeping the plot details limited helps add to the buzz opposed to hurting it. Keeping a little mystique (not the mutant) never hurt anyone.

Last night’s trailer came with a spoilery buzz but after watching it a handful of times, seriously only three at this point… four, I can say that this newest trailer still doesn’t give up the farm. We do get a glimpse of the bigger picture but not enough where I feel confident in telling you what I think Episode VIII is about. For starters, the trailer heavily implies that Rey could be heading towards the dark side of the Force which I personally think would be an excellent twist. Doing a flip-flop between her and the already conflicted Kylo Ren would be quite the curveball and could really change the dynamic of this new trilogy heading into the JJ Abrams-directed Episode IX. But don’t believe everything you see Geeklings. The scene at the end where Rey is looking for explanation and Kylo is reaching out are clearly cut from two different scenes in the film. The impression is given but I’m not entirely sure that that hand reach is for Rey. I would argue that it still is but the circumstances are entirely different and too important to give away on the trailer.

Think about it, Kylo’s voiceover within the trailer seems to be the dead give away. Who else would he be talking to other than Rey? She seems to be the only character who fits that the speech of giving up the past even if you have to kill it. Rey has been holding on to the hopeful return of her parents for quite some time, don’t forget the tally marks in her home, and now is searching for purpose through the tutelage of Luke Skywalker. It is completely possible to believe that Kylo is using these life events into manipulating Rey towards the dark side, or at the very least, a meeting with Supreme Leader Snoke. Who is seen Force torturing Rey later in the trailer.

Why would Rey be so conflicted though? The trailer gave us a bigger glimpse of Luke Skywalker, he had more dialogue in this trailer than he did in all of The Force Awakens, who happens to be doing his best Yoda impression. Reluctant to train, afraid of the power of the Force, and possibly going mad (did you see his eyes?), this will clearly be a different Luke Skywalker and is it possible to believe that his fear of training Rey could drive her right to Snoke? Which is probably what the Supreme Leader wants considering he doesn’t have a great deal of faith in Kylo. My working theory is that his voice-over work is directed at Rey and he is somewhat responsible for Jakku becoming her home. This would work in the flip-flop between Kylo and Rey as Ren would feel betrayed by his mentor for choosing Rey. A character who is already emotionally conflicted could spiral out of control and I’d be really curious to see what that could mean. Maybe. There’s nothing in the trailer that confirms this, it’s is just my over activetive brain at work.

Outside of all this though there isn’t a lot of plot to go on and I love it. We know that Captain Phasma, who was tremendously underused in Force Awakens, actually gets put into action in The Last Jedi as she battles Finn in an awesome visual. Po gives a speech looking to spark revolution and Leia is in trouble of being blown to bits by her son. I highly doubt that Kylo will kill both of his parents and again this could be why Snoke becomes fed up with him. Not to mention, and I’m hoping I’m not the only one here, but did anyone else get the vibe that Luke isn’t Rey’s father? This is the first time I’ve truly felt that way and am really suspecting that she’s Kylo’s sister. Things to think about.

All of this in three minutes of trailer and nothing is confirmed. It’s all guesswork which will most likely end up wrong, but that’s the beauty in how Disney is marketing this film. I don’t want to know what’s going to happen. I really don’t. I want to be teased and build up theories but I want to sit in the theater and be wowed. Star Wars is such a large fabric of my life and I want to go in and watch as the magic unfolds before me. That’s the true fun.

That and porgs. Porgs and ice foxes.

Image result for porg

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s