Note: I'm not going to discuss specifics but am going to talk about my take on the overarching message, so totally understand if you want to save this post until after you have seen it.
I cried through a lot of "The Rise of the Skywalker". It may have partly been stress but a lot of this movie, in a totally expected way is about saying goodbye to those who came before and being unsure you can possibly live up to their legacy.
I vaguely remember the seventies. Enough to tell you that, World War II, and the sense that tyranny was a thing that if it happened there, could creep everywhere had faded. I know my great gramdparents and grandparents probably felt a little differently about that. But so "Star Wars" entered pop culture in a place where it felt like a thing we could make silly space movies set a long time ago about.
And now, well, the idea of creeping fascism taking over seems far more beleivable for some of us. (I realize it was never far for some.) So what we needed from this final trilogy wasn't just the vision of defeat but the message. The idea that some people have more power than others, but that if we choose, we can all be a piece of this. That you may feel unready and unprepared, but guess what? That's adulting! That you are stronger with your friends than without. That sometimes you get help from unexpected places. And that seriously, being rude to your droid will always come back to bite you.
