Just a head’s up: I’ll be featuring Star Wars Wednesdays less often for a while. I’m continuing my (very) slow trek through The Clone Wars, but I keep picking it up and putting in down—and there’s just so much of it! And at the moment, there isn’t a ton for me to talk about until after the Acolyte is out. So if I go three or four weeks at a time without writing about Star Wars, that’s why.
In the meantime, let’s look at Rose. As a new appreciation has grown for the prequels, for many fans, the sequel trilogy has taken their place as the Star Wars thing that let a lot of fans down. Now, there are definitely well-deserved criticisms of the sequels, and there’s also toxic bullshit that’s been super gross to encounter. The toxic faction of the fandom latched onto Rose as their main symbol of “ruined woke Star Wars,” harassing Kelly Marie Tran off of social media and just being an overall scum pit. Her severely reduced role in The Rise of Skywalker is seen by many as J.J. Abrams acquiescing to this loud, bigoted minority of fans.
Personally, I recognize a lot of faults with the sequels but still enjoy them. On the whole, I’d describe them as movies with a talented cast of interesting characters in stories that don’t always show off their potential. That’s very true for Rose, who I like a lot. We meet her as a mechanic in the Resistance. She’s wholly committed to the cause and willing to help in any way she can, even as she’s grieving her sister Paige, a pilot who was just killed in a bombing campaign.
Rose values dedication and bravery. Perhaps she’s so hardcore for the Resistance in part because she just lost Paige; she needs her sister’s death to stand for something, and so she stands even more staunchly against the First Order. She’s thrilled and a little starstruck to meet Finn, because she expects this bona fide hero of the Resistance to be stalwart and unwavering. She doesn’t know that he’s not fully committed to the Resistance yet, that he got into all of this because of Rey and she’s still his top priority. So when she catches him trying to leave the fleet, she’s crushed—she only sees someone who’s running from the fight, not someone who’s running toward a person he really cares about. Just like that, her admiration is replaced by disappointment.
But that doesn’t mean that Rose writes Finn off entirely. She’s much saltier and more skeptical of him when he comes to (she may have incapacitated him to keep him from bolting,) but their story doesn’t end there. Rose believes in the power of change in the galaxy, that small actions still matter and people should never stop trying to make things better. That includes change within people as well, and as Poe sends Finn and Rose on a secret mission to Canto Bight, she endeavors to help Finn recognize why it’s so necessary to fight against the injustices of the galaxy.
She’s disgusted by the opulence of the hypocritical wealthy on Canto Bight, and she frees exploited animals just because she can. As a mechanic, she hasn’t been on a mission like this before, but until recently, that was true of Finn as well. Heroes can come from anywhere, and Rose certainly has heart enough for it. When The Last Jedi comes to a head in the battle on Crait, she’s right there in the thick of things.
It's there that she delivers one of the film’s best-known lines: “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love.” That’s a sentiment I can definitely get behind, and I really appreciate Rose for giving voice to it. I don’t take it to mean that violence or sacrifice is never necessary—after all, Andor is my favorite Star Wars. Rather, I interpret it as being more about where one’s motivation comes from. Were the people of Ferrix fighting because they just wanted to kill ISB, or were they fighting to defend their homes and neighbors? It’s the reason people take up arms. Hate isn’t a strong enough reason to carry the day, but love is.
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