Star Wars Resistance [2018-2020] - Series Finale Review

Regarding the Star Wars Resistance series finale - The Escape - and the show as a whole, there's definitely two ways to look at it -- worth it OR waste of time.

#1) The show was about being part of a team/family. Let's race together and be competitive, but at the end of the day, we're still friends. We all live on the Colossus and we need to come together as a community to support each other. Team Aces, Team Fireball, Team whatever -- you were part of a family.

Losing Tam to the First Order as the end of Season 1 was huge and we were emotionally invested in her story because we could sympathize with her. We wanted to see the person that had fallen / made a bad choice to be saved/redeemed. That's Star Wars 101. And in the end, we got what we wanted, and some of the best episodes of the second season dealt with Tam's decisions on when to betray and not betray her friends. You could see she was torn. You could see the conflict. It was rewarding and heartwarming to see her finally make the right decision for herself and for the Colossus. So from this POV, maybe you feel it was all worth it.

#2) The journey of this season was roughly 7 hours of content. And it's quite evident that a lot of threads that were started were probably going to be addressed in future seasons. With the station now mobile, it was the writers opportunity to world build. Although, the overarching goal, the thing that kept us coming back each week was (a) was the Colossus going to survive being chased by the First Order? and (b) what was going to happen with Tam? We got to meet some interesting characters along the way that unfortunately didn't bear any fruit this season. Our only hope is that we get to see them in a future stories along with others that didn't get to shine in TROS. So from this POV, maybe you feel it was all a waste of time.

Personally, I love that we keep getting more animated Star Wars. I'd love to see the Poe Dameron comics in animated form. I enjoyed the art style and the designs and expressions of the characters.

Unfortunately, the story was very much lacking and I really don't see myself revisiting or recommending these series. I'm glad to have gotten a book-ended ending and I look forward to better stories (The Clone Wars - Final Season, The Mandalorian Season 2) in the future.

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker [2019] Spoiler Review

Personally, the first time I saw the movie was 12/19/2019.  My second viewing was exactly one month apart on 01/19/2020.  My initial thoughts that I shared with friends was that I didn't like it.  After letting it digest and upon second viewing my main problem was "the mission".

Before I get into that, what I did like was (1) Rey calling Leia - Master, (2) Babu Frik, and (3) Young Luke and Leia lightsaber flashback training.  That's about it unfortunately.  I wanted to like it more, but I couldn't as "the mission" is the essentially the plot.

Upon my second viewing, the thing that stood out the most was the repeated line about the mission failing.
(1) Leia says "This mission is everything. We cannot fail."
(2) Poe, then (3) Rey and then finally (4) C3P0 all say, "If this mission fails, it’s all been for nothing. All we’ve done, all this time."

It's repeated 4 times up until the "big" moment - C3P0's brain wipe and Sith translation - on Kijimi. We're constantly reminded that the mission is the most important thing - the plot is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, the mission isn't 100% clear at this point.

What we're told is that Palpatine is back and he has a giant fleet thanks to the mole in the First Order. So they trust the mole completely and believe it's not a trap ever? Yep. Got it. Sure.
So what's the plan? What's the mission? Rey needs to get to Exegol to face the Emperor and the only clue they have to finding and getting to Exegol is a mission that Luke started with Lando years ago but never finished. So they're essentially putting all their faith in winning the war and beating Palpatine by sending Rey/Poe/Finn/Chewie/BB8/C3P0 to Pasana to HOPEFULLY succeed where Luke and Lando failed. So far, this mission does NOT sound promising.

So how do they succeed in their mission? They don't. They constantly fail which is why the need to keep repeating the line above. We can't fail! Remember? It's in the script. We just can't.

Well, Kylo finds them on Pasana and he is on his way with his (useless) Knights. The FO patrol that happens to be on Pasana finds our heroes in the meantime while we wait for Kylo. Again, the heroes fail a speeder chase, but this time they fail upward by finding the exact spot where they need to sink into the ground to find the item they need to move the plot forward - the dagger.

Then the mission takes another set back when they think they lose Chewie when Rey accidentally kills him. So at this point, what is the "all we've done"?
They found a dagger which they don't need now (or they don't think they do, but they will) because they have C3P0's memory. So as it pertains to the mission, they only thing they've acquired is information that they can't access. It's like a bad Mission Impossible movie. We've acquired the laptop. Anyone know how to crack the password? So in the grand scheme of the movie, they haven't really done anything yet. They have a beer with no bottle opener.

So let's take a pause. Maybe the "All we've done, all this time" is meant to reference the past movies. So what have they done? They destroyed Starkiller Base which resulted in the thinning out of the Resistance to the point of extinction with no one coming to help. The FO still reigns AND on top of it all, Palpatine is back with another giant fleet. So what did they do since The Rise of Skywalker mission? They dropped a cup of coffee in the ocean.

Then the final insult to add to the injury, and we haven't even got to the final act yet, is that this SUPER IMPORTANT MISSION that CAN NOT FAIL - Rey decides, ya know what? - I quit. She burns Kylo's ship she stole from Kef Bir (good thing Kylo had two ships, one that was destroyed on Pasana and the one he had on Kef Bir) and decides that she's just going to stay on Ahch-To. She doesn't want to end up on the throne as a Sith and that's okay because Palpatine and the FO are just going to destroy whatever planets they want and that's that. Maybe she doesn't know what happened to Kijimi, but if she's super strong in the Force, she probably should have felt it, like when Obi-wan felt Alderaan.

The final kicker is that I haven't even touched on Palpatine's contradictory plan and how it makes very little sense and very little is explained. I digress.