So I did find out that Light Side Sith actually exist in the canon of stars or did because you know...disney. But, as you would expect, because it's lily orchard and it practically feels like the only star wars media she's capable of enjoying other than the prequels, These
Light Sith only actually exist properly in The Old Republic MMO. That said, even then they were all hunted to extinction. So there is all that.
Anyhow.
Chapter 21 begins with the crew of the Resistance ship coming together for Aliana to reveal the plan.
Naturally this special strike force is Rey, Poe, Finn, and Rose. a regular power rangers of the sequel trilogy.
The Immediate next scene is Aliana sending a transmission to Hux, stating plainly she heard about his offer and states so much she would like to surrender in exchange for allowing the resistance to leave.
Hux, reasonably questions why she would so willingly do this, to which Aliana simply says there are people on the ship she cartes about and would gladly lay her life down in exchange for their freedom.
Incase him being first order wasn't enough to remind you he was the bad guy.
They all prepare and get ready to board the ship. There's a moment where we find out durnig the space between chapter 18 and 19 Aliana got crystals for Rey's new lightsaber. By the way the lightsaber is literally the thing Evil Rey had in episode 9. a folding lightsaber held together on a hinge. I liked it in episode 9. I hate it here.
The plan is that everyone with Aliana is going to hide in the ship while they board, Rey mind-trick's any Stormtrooper that does a sweep through the ship while Aliana is taken away. They board the ship. Scene ends.
New scene begins with Aliana approaching Hux and his collective of guards. they ask her to relinquish her lightsaber to which she says she doesn't have it on her and she left it with Rey. I bring this up because I remember Lily once making a show of trying to get upset that Fluttershy from mlp suddenly grew assertiveness halfway into season 5. I know, I didn't expect to bring up MLP either.
Aliana asks what will happen, Hux says thats up to the Supreme Leader and that the resistance will likely live to see another day
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So we just randomly named a Knight of Ren with out any real introduction.
There's a snarky back and forth at how Hux easily commands the knights of ren and his response is to thank her for how much she's thoroughly whipped Kylo Ren for that, citing that-
His incompetence so brazenly displayed to the Supreme Leader has made him more appreciative of my skills. Ren and his Knights all refer to me as a result, and the First Order is stronger for it.
I'm trying to figure out who the actual antagonist/Villain in this story is. The meta-narrative/subtext says Kylo Ren, The broader narrative says First Order. The immediate narrative gives me mixed answers and I can't help but feel I would only get "The First Order"if I ever could ask the writer directly. But who's actually the antagonist here the story doesn't really fix on anything that I should hate.
Hux asks Aliana why she didn't join the first order given you know...Sith are nazi's and so are The First order.
Aliana's response is to say "Snoke has nothing of interest to me because he trained a punk ass loser and I'm already powerful even though it's all self taught". Because everything comes back to Kylo Ren
I'm not joking, by the way.
Like...I know I keep circling back to this, and it gets repetitive but imagine how much you have to hate something, that you're able to so consistently come back to this. Like, Every written story has themes in their writing. Bladerunner is what makes a person human, Zootopia has a racism thing going, Steven Universe is how kindness and love are the best things that you can do in response to evil. The Sith Resurgence's only theme is "Kylo Ren is disgusting" and everything goes back to that no matter what how logical it would be to consider it irrelevant. Mind you, the themes that could be gleaned from the Sequel Trilogy as a whole are things like Self Authorship, carrying legacies of those who came before you while still being uniquely yourself, and things like that. but The Sith Resurgances idea of much better theme that improves upon the problems of The Sequel Trilogy is "Kylo Ren is gross, Lesbians will save the galaxy" and like, I'm down with that second part, but the first part is ultimately what ruins this whole ordeal, it permeates everything; Why is Aliana even in this story? Kylo Ren is Gross. Why is Aliana a sith but not evil. See previous answer. Why is she so powerful? Why have luke and leia been flanderised to resemble the ReyLo shippers the author hates? See previous answer. Why are all the things that were actually good and noteable from the sequel trilogy absent like Chewbacca still helping the resistance and living his life in spite of his best friend being dead, literally anything with Finn and Poe existing. Because if Lily had to dedicate time to anything other than proving how much better her perfect mary sue was she couldn't tell you about how gross Kylo Ren is. Yes. Yes I'm probably going to end up repeating this every fucking time I do a chapter break down.
Anyway Hux says the experience of meeting Snoke might change her mind. Citing he needs a better apprentice anyway.
oh and just to remind you The First order is full of homophobic nazi's we get this.
Yes, this is disgusting. but also I hate the protagonist so I feel nothing.
Snoke and Aliana finally meet and banter. It's annoying, predictable and barely worth trying to summarise. The Praetor guards have been swapped out entirely for two knights of ren and Kylo Ren himself.
Oh and then there's this exchange.
There is...a lot here. I'll cut to the meat. The fact that lily wants us to believe a non-evil, "Light Sith" like this can exist but refuses the notion of grey jedi or a non-binary shades of grey in the Force users is...certainly something. It says a lot that she's ready to insult Snoke, a literal "sith in all but name" a "Jedi." The Grey Jedi is just a barely concealed stand in for "Centrism" because lets remember that lily is the kind of political activist willing to go "Whoevers punching nazi's? Those are the good guys" even if the people punching nazi's are also fascist bigots. I call this what it is and It's Aliana calling a nazi a nazi by calling them not a nazi....I don't it's 2a.m.
Snoke decided to rub his victory in Aliana's face by showing the resistances getting bombarded by the supremacy
Aliana does...mary sue shit.
Yes. Aliana, a self taught Sith is able to keep snoke out of her mind by shitposting inside her own mind.
The next scene is Rey. stabbing a storm trooper There;s a throwaway line about The First orders ships all having Dark Chasm's built into them which all I Can think to say is "how many first order ships have you been on rey? Just one. shut the fuck up"
Am I supposed to recognise this as Finn using the force? if so, why did we never get any training with Finn?
the group find a panel, do the hacky shit. Rose gives Rey her necklace, they do more hacky shit. Rey feels super fucking anxious/force aware.
a patrol office shows up. Finn shoots him
I don't understand the point of this moment?
They succeed in deactivating the tracking system on the resistance ship. Rey splits from the rest of the group as they're expected to run to the ship.
Next scene cuts back to snokes throne room. Everyone is justifiably pissed off.
Snoke asks what the fuck is wrong. Hux says "IT FUCKING BROKE"
There's a moment in the writing where it talks about Snokes internally feelings and he realises Aliana was distracting him so he couldn't sense The other force sensitives in the ship.
He tells the Knights to kill Aliana slowly, painfully, and humiliatingly.
Kylo and the othet two knights approach. Lily takes the time to underscore Kylo is being "slightly hesitant as he approached"
There's a moment of fighting, again taking a second to inform the audience of the specifics of a maneuver where Aliana throws kylo ren into the two other Knights of Ren.
Rey shows up, Flirty banter happens. the fighting resumes with a moment where Rey tells Aliana to keep snoke distracted while she acts out a plan to take care of snoke.
So there is a defining moment in each of the sequel trilogy entries that can be said to be the character defining moments for Kylo Ren/Ben Solo.
The Moment where he kills Han Solo. an act that is symbolic of him permanently distancing himself from the legacy of Han Solo, his uncle Luke Skywalker, and and in effect burying Ben Solo as he embraces what he believes to be the real him.
In episode 9 after being healed and abandoned by Rey after their lightsaber duel he is confronted by a memory/ghost of Han Solo, and in the moment of that discussion realises that Kylo Ren isn't the true self, and in symbolism of abandoning that identity and begining anew throws his lightsaber into the ocean and runs to go met Rey at exegol to make things right.
The scene in episode 9 is informed by
this scene in episode 8. The scene where Kylo Ren in an act of defiance refuses to do what is ordered of him, refuses to accept any idea of what his future is supposed to be and kills snoke as he monologues in hubris. He kills snoke, rendering the entire future of himself, Rey, the first order and resistance entirely into a state of uncertaint because in that moment he is taking his future into his own hands after years of being told who he is he refuses to accept anythign but what he makes of himself good or bad.
But this is Lily's rewrite. Kylo will never not be a shitty greasy nazi abuser so this is what we get. This story is about Rey overcoming her abusers and the world out to make her struggle and the Sith who gives her that supposed ability of self actualisation
which is aptly shown here when through the use of the force Rey spins Aliana's lightsaber and kills snoke in the exact same way Kylo would have in the movie.
The emotional gravity of the canon version of this scene is absolutely scrubbed away leaving us with only a petty hollow framing for acts of vanity. Our writer refuses to acknowledge at the very best, or at the very worst, is incapable of seeing the nuances of whats going on between Rey and Kylo in the canon. This is not improvement, this is an act of vandalism.
to further stomp down on this whole "Aliana is a replacement of Kylo Ren and will be a better version of him in every sense of the word" in an act of self sacrifice throws her lightsaber to block the blows from two lightsabers that would have killed Rey. This act gives Kylo Ren the perfect opportunity to sever Aliana's leg, and then follow through with stabbing her in the stomach.
And despite having knowledge of the scene I've been transcribing I'm still more than a bit angry and frustrated with what I've chosen to read.
There's an exchange between Kylo and Rey
It is stupid.
Hell I'm gonna fucking say it. Lily Orchard has 180'd my opinion on Episode 8.
The whole chapter ends with Rey carrying Aliana out to her ship. Encountering Phasma only for Phasm to get force thrown by Finn.
They get on the ship to reunite with the Resistance.
