The Last Jedi and the Shakespeare Novelizations

IoJovi wrote:I am almost done with the book and have approximately 5 pages left to go.  I freaking love this thing - every piece has been fantastic so far.  I actually don’t read jealousy into Rose at all, and was very amused by how thoroughly she wrecks FinnRey.  It’s not jealousy because every thought she has on the matter is true - Finn’s entire arc is about moving away from Rey, not being scared and going into greater and braver things.  I think it’s well done.  She’s also not wrong when she compares him to a puppy who imprinted on the first person met. I think Roses thoughts on the matter are justified. It reiterated that Rey and Finn’s journey together ended in TFA and are now moving in separate directions.

So far my favorite moment though is the elevator scene - Rey senses Ben’s churning feelings for her and is....terrified.  Terrified because she knows what it means and I’m sure she fears her own feelings as well, if she was willing to look at them deeply enough.  But Rey being the queen of denial (as with the subject of her parents) isn’t that strong yet.  This is reiterated again in the proposal scene when she’s terrified (there’s that word again) as he takes a step forward, that has no threat to it whatsoever.  She’s going to have to face this head on in IX, no if’s ands or buts.  

I also love how many allusions to Reylo there are through the novel, even in scenes that on the surface aren’t related to them.  On the heels of the second Force bond scene, going into the next chapter, the words “Finn fell in love with Canto Bight.”   Funny how the words “falling in love” come right after Reylo.  

On the Raddus, Holdo thinks about salvation and how no one ever arrives there alone.  

There’s too many countless other things to list out here, but those are the ones that come to mind.

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:@IoJovi


I don’t see FinnRey as a threat that needs to be put down, so maybe that’s why I feel it’s excessive? I didn’t think Finn was as infatuated with Rey in TFA as this book is making him sound. I mean, he even leaves her at Maz’s so he can flee without her.

That part when Finn’s watching DJ count his money, and he realizes why he has to fight the FO rather than remain neutral, had me in tears.

Ugh.

“Ben?” she asked.
“That’s my old name,” he said.
“What?”
There was neither fear nor anger in Kylo’s eyes now — just a deep resolve.


There are some glaring typos? When Finn says, “May the Force be with you,” to Rose, it’s written in my book as “May for Force be with you.” Rey says, “Please don’t go his way,” instead of “this way.” Who proofreads?

I’m almost to the saber breaking part

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:@IoJovi

I don’t see how the “Rey, Rey, Rey” (“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” ) thing reads as anything but jealousy, especially after Rose fangirls over Finn. I can appreciate what they’re trying to do in prying FinnRey apart in the minds of the audience, but it seems a little much. Of course Finn is going to be worried sick about his friend who he last saw unconscious in the woods with a “bad guy” after them, and Rose is like “Get over it. The cause is more important.” Maybe Finn needs to hear it, but poor guy. He gets yanked in to reality as harshly as Rey does.
I haven’t gotten to the rest of the throne room or the proposal part yet (go to bed, kids!) but I’ll look for the “terrified” there.
I liked Leia saying that Han only did the right thing after exhausting every other alternative (Ben parallel?!) Also, Rey being good at salvaging broken stuff and waiting. The Holdo thing about salvation sounds great too. I love looking for that stuff.

“When she comes back, will she be a Jedi like in the stories?” she asked. “Brown robes, little rat tail?”

That made Finn laugh. “No. Rey a Jedi? Nah.” He tried to figure out where an egg-laden Xi’Dec might affix a red plom bloom, then gave up.

“But she’ll be different,” Rose said.

“No,” he insisted. Rey would always be Rey. He was sure of it, and a little annoyed by Rose’s failure to see that.

Rose looked skeptically at him before returning to her glowering appraisal of the wealthy gamblers around them.

“She’s on her own path,” she told him.

Rose didn’t know what to think about the fact that a man trained to be a First Order stormtrooper could be innocent enough to assume a feral, unapologetic thief actually owned a fancy yacht. She supposed it made her feel simultaneously better and worse about the galaxy.

On the one hand, maybe there were painfully naïve young men behind many more of those expressionless, skull-like helmets—lost boys who’d never been allowed to have so much as their own name.

On the other hand, battalions made up of those lost boys had destroyed Rose’s homeworld and so many others. How much more ruin and misery would they inflict on the galaxy? How many more people would they rob of loved ones?

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:Alright, if Rose doesn’t view Rey as romantic competition in the beginning, then I guess I’m crazy. I know it’s not the only reason Rose doesn’t like him bringing her up, but... It’s in there and she works her way through it.

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:Alright, if Rose doesn’t view Rey as romantic competition in the beginning, then I guess I’m crazy. I know it’s not the only reason Rose doesn’t like him bringing her up, but... It’s in there and she works her way through it.

“You’re a selfish traitor.”

Finn looked up. “ ’Cause I want to save my friend? Yeah, you’d do the same.”

“I would not,” Rose insisted.

“No? If you’d had the chance, you wouldn’t have saved your sister?”

That was too much. Rose turned, took two steps, and shoved him.

Her fury shocked him into silence. He looked so startled—and hurt—that Rose found her anger ebbing, replaced by a sick sense of weariness.

twilekempire wrote:

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:Alright, if Rose doesn’t view Rey as romantic competition in the beginning, then I guess I’m crazy. I know it’s not the only reason Rose doesn’t like him bringing her up, but... It’s in there and she works her way through it.

@Cowgirlsamurai

I think it's definitely supportable! But for me, the primary thing I see is her having understandable seething jealousy that Finn gets to keep this person he cares about - someone he barely knows but has decided to be obessed with - when she had to give *everything* up for the Resistance. Paige was her only remaining family; someone who she'd never spent more than a few days parted from. And now she has nothing but the cause Paige died for and this JERK who thinks a day spent in a girl's presence means she's more important than what Paige died for.

This moment really hit me:

“You’re a selfish traitor.”

Finn looked up. “ ’Cause I want to save my friend? Yeah, you’d do the same.”

“I would not,” Rose insisted.

“No? If you’d had the chance, you wouldn’t have saved your sister?”

That was too much. Rose turned, took two steps, and shoved him.

Her fury shocked him into silence. He looked so startled—and hurt—that Rose found her anger ebbing, replaced by a sick sense of weariness.

She's definitely attracted to him! And the text supports a reading of her as jealous. But I just personally feel and think that her deep anger comes from the inexplicable nature of his commitment to Rey, who he's known for such a short time, and how nasty it seems to Rose when her only family, her beloved sister, is gone, and Finn won't pull his head out of his butt. I feel that more and think that reading works and, I guess, want it to be the intention because I really want Rey and Rose to get along in IX.

I have a pretty small family and when I think about only having one family member and losing them -- I totally get Rose. I'd shove Finn too!

Cowgirlsamurai wrote:@twilekempire

Well, it’s like Finn just says he wants to save his friend Rey, and Rose immediately labels it an infatuation even though he denies it. I think there’s also a hint of, “How dare you think about your romantic interest at a time like this,” but he never says his feelings for Rey are romantic. She has a crush on him early on and is jealous that he’s concerned about another female. I think you can even see it when Rose teases about Rey coming back with a rat tail and a brown robe (that doesn’t sound attractive...). I think she is trying to keep herself from falling for Finn in the way she thinks of him at first. She would make you believe that he’s a weak traitor with a pathetic crush that he puts above all else, until she actually gets to know him and works through her preconceived notions (and she works through her grief a tiny bit) I’m just glad they didn’t put this “Ugh, Rey,” stuff in the movie because the GA would perceive her as “the jealous woman.” Fry could’ve included it in the book without being so heavy handed about it, in my opinion. Like, just mention it a couple of times When it got to the avian imprinting thing, I was like, “DANG. Rose REALLY feel the need to justify Finn and Rey’s friendship.”

And I don’t think we should make light of Finn’s concern for Rey despite only having known her for a couple of days. They helped each other survive some scary situations in TFA, and the last time he saw her, he was trying to save them from what he thought was certain death. He pretty much owes his life to Rey, and he just wanted a safe place for her to return to. I hope the three of them really get to be friends in IX.

nickandnora wrote:I'm so impressed at what he said about Rose/Rey.

But I do understand why he wrote those passages the way he did (or at least the intent behind them) because he actually elevates a parallel that I'm not sure the film made crystal clear. Rose ends up basically at the same place that Finn is at the beginning of the story, and Finn ends up where Rose is. ie. he becomes singularly focused on a cause (and a sacrifice for the cause), and she becomes singularly focused on saving him (one individual). Of course it's nicely wrapped up when she tells him how the two ideologies will be connected in the greater war (win by saving what we love), but I suspect Fry's intention was to show that subversion, and thus show that Rose had an arc as well.

And it's obviously connected to what's going to happen with Reylo in IX. I suspect that Kylo is the one who is going to need saving, and in saving/protecting one, Rey will save the world entire (in some manner).

StarWars.com: I also love looking for the smaller details — in this case, the AT-M6, ski speeder, and Rey, Kylo, and Snoke. How did you decide upon those elements?

Nicolas Delort: Rey and Kylo are really at the center of the plot in The Last Jedi, and on past covers we’ve mostly always used those little statues to show the central conflict of the movie, while the central portrait shows an iconic character. The fight scene in Snoke’s throne room is one of the most fantastic scenes in the entire saga for me and I wanted to hint to it on the cover.