My Impressions: "The Little Mermaid Medley" by VoicePlay

 

Wait, Little Mermaid had a song like that in it? I like that style. Very nicely done, guys.

Serious vibes of VoicePlay Disney Princess Rachel Potter Collab Medleys right now. This is just, like, their thing. Fun beginning song (with Eli, too!), then Rachel’s princess “I Want” song. It’s also similar to their collab with Adriana.

“The girl who has everything”. Wasn’t that a TTS song? (now I want that VP cover of Ready As I’ll Ever Be even more)

Rachel’s got a good voice, all right.

That transition, y’all.

Oh my gosh, that “going up there” sounded AMAZING. This is gonna be a J song.

“What more is you looking for?” is so familiar.

Oh, wait, they did “Under the Sea” in their Sidekicks Medley, and Geoff did that part (but I guess with a different verse)

Definitely a J song. Slay those riffs.

Ooh, this part is a jam! Rachel goes into her thing, and then everything goes fun.

GEOFF, your bass riff, oh my gosh.

W…why? Why a snail? Why a J Snail? Just… why?

Sweet key change though.

Aaaand swiftly transition from fun sidekick to creepy henchman.

Those two are probably the best at being creepy henchmen. Earl was good, too.

Weird visual effect there.

Ooh, Geoff getting another villain song, I see. Should’ve figured.

This is probably the most of this song I’ve actually ever heard (except that one single time I watched the movie ages ago). I’ve only ever heard tiny snippets in medleys.

But seriously, that little “I’ve been a nasty” just sounded so good. I don’t even know why, I just love it.

Henchmen. Really trying to be creepy. End up kind of funny.

Ooh, that was cool. Fire in his eyes.

Vocal effects, interesting.

“Pathetic.”

So many visual effects in this one, gosh. I’m not used to this.

DUDE, that was cool sounding. Geoff goes high, then the harmonies!

Was that a sweet little riff there in the background, Eli?

Geoff: “Crying SPELLS—” Harmonies: “Ursula, please!” So nice.

Little country accent slipping in there on “yes I do”

Geoff, man, why do you want Rachel’s voice? Your voice is AMAZING. As evidenced from the way you even SAID you wanted her voice.

Nice little bit of acting there in the decision, Rachel.

Oh, I’m just remembering that Earl did this part in the Medley. Not going as high as he did on that bit, though.

OH MY GOSH YOU GO SUPER HIGH AND THEN JUST DRONE DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS AND WHAT

The spell sounds so creepy

SING.

Oh man, Phantom of the Opera vibes. Why’s VoicePlay always stealing her voice?

Sweet vocal effects making her voice go out of her.

What is this, Layne?

Oh no. This song.

This actually sounds a little like Be Our Guest… oh wait, never mind. Violently killing fish.

Is the French laugh just part of the lyrics? As in, part of the rhymes and everything?

Layne gets the weird songs in these Disney Princess Medleys, like, every time.

Whoop, never mind, Eli is a bird now.

Vocal… Romantic… Stimulation. Mission… Quest… Thing.

Ooh, such a smooth voice. Eli, you are GOOD.

Rachel looks so awkward at the start of this one.

Geoff’s “Sing it with me now…” What does that remind me of? He did something similar to that in something else. Was it the Moana one?

Pretty fireflies.

Nice dance moves, Rachel.

And back to the Bird Eli being weird.

Normal Eli is looking at Bird Eli funny. I mean, I would look at a squawking Bird-Me funny, too.

No, no, everybody is looking at him funny.

Those were some interesting sounds, Layne. Also, can I just say, his beatboxing has been on point this whole time?

Ooh, is Rachel getting a villain song too?

Man, she’s killing it. Maybe she should get villain songs more often.

OH THAT EVIL LAUGH FROM RACHEL TO GEOFF

The glowing voice breaking out and the look in Geoff’s eyes is just visually pleasing

He just really looks like a creepy old sea sorcerer, but also super cool, like not how you think of creepy old guys (because, ya know, it's Geoff).

I’m suddenly thinking of how this could be an alternate version of the story with the villain being like that.

I almost feel like this is them telling the whole story, but it doesn’t have the final battle. I mean, the final battle doesn’t have a song, so that’s fine. But it just seems odd for the voice to break out for no reason. #WriterNitpicks

Why does Geoff’s “No” look out of sync? Is that on purpose or something, because it seems to fit the voice going out, as if hers breaking out is taking his with it.

Geoff is just staring into the abyss now.

Rachel’s voice gets closer, and you can just HEAR it. It’s so cool.

Oh, that last note as she gets her voice back and the harmonies go into the last song. Ahh.

Geoff is still just staring, by the way, doing his bass part motionlessly. Defeated, I guess.

Rachel, your VOICE. I’m starting to see why Geoff wanted it.

WHOA WHOA WHOA, is this foreshadowing?!

No, like, is Rachel going to become part of their world? Is that what this is? Is Rachel singing “part of your world” meaning she’s going to officially join VoicePlay, and be officially a part of that world?

Also, am I reading too much into this? I think I could be. Maybe just disregard everything I just said.

...

But I swear, if she does join VoicePlay, I am going to know this was foreshadowing, and I WILL say I told you so.

Anyway...

Wait, wait, who did that “Sing it with me now”? That wasn’t Geoff, was it? It almost sounded like him, but I saw him, that wasn’t him.

Was that J? I think that was J. That’s kind of cool.

Also, I’m just noticing J’s red fingerless gloves, and they’re very nice.

Costumes are actually pretty chill in this one, if that makes sense. Not crazy over the top. Well, except Bird-Eli. And Geoff is purple.

That’s not to say they didn’t do an epic job on it, because they totally did! The costumes fit the roles really well, they look great, but they aren’t so over the top as to distract from the actual people and the talent.

Nice ending. They always make the last chord count.

Oh, slipped it in. “Pathetic.” XD

And… the remix? Apparently? Very odd. Geoff’s good, though.

…

Geoff did a LOT in this one. I think he got the majority of the video, just because of that one song.

I forgot how much I loved Geoff, actually.

I think this is the third Disney Princess Medley they’ve done (well, except for that Tangled one they did with aca-Disney). I wonder how many of them they’re going to do.

(I really really want them to do Ready As I’ll Ever Be, please please please please pl-)

Overall, very good. I only ever watched this movie once, when I was like twelve, and I did not like it. So I only know maybe three of the songs, and even that’s because of VoicePlay’s other medleys.

So to put it simply, VoicePlay is the master of taking songs I’ve never heard from movies I don’t like (or haven’t watched, in other cases), and making me love them just through their own sheer talent.

This whole thing is just SO FUN, thank you very much. I think it will be on repeat for quite a while.

FANDOM DISPUTES: LEAP YEAR

 

Since today is February 29^th, I figured now would be as good a time as any to bring up the question: where did Leap Year come from? Who invented it? How did it start?

Well, two of my fandoms have come up with answers—two interesting, funny, and quite different answers, at that.

From Adventures in Odyssey:

 

From Milo Murphy’s Law:

 

Which one is right? You be the judge.

Musings: How Shipping Seems to Work

 Guys, I think I’ve figured out shipping.

Now, whenever you’re watching a movie or a show or reading a book or something, if the story is SPECIFICALLY a romance, or something where the romantic outcome is a given from the beginning, it’s not really shipping. It’s just reader (or viewer) expectations.

I mean, nobody doubts that Philip and Aurora will be together by the end of ‘Sleeping Beauty’. That’s just how fairy-tales work. We EXPECT it to happen. What makes it most interesting is how they manage to get there—through curses, orc-hordes, thorn-forests, and a witch-fairy dragon and, quote, ‘all the powers of Hell’. We know what’s coming, but we want to see the journey it takes.

But ‘shipping’, in my mind, is taking the reader/viewer expectations for a romance, and applying it to EVERY story and EVERY relationship. It’s assuming that every genre of story is just a subgenre of the romance.

It’s looking at every relationship—be it a band of companions on an epic mission or quest, a bitter rivalry, a mentor and learner, a pair of bickering best friends, or even a FAMILY (just think about THAT for a minute)—as a relationship that invariably leads to romance.

It’s ignoring the storytellers and the intentions they have for their own movies, shows, and books. And I don’t think that’s the way we should look at stories. It’s downright disrespectful. I mean, who’s telling the story here?

Sure, sometimes there’ll be a romantic relationship that’s seriously just cardboard, and anybody can see that there are better people for either of them. That’s just bad storytelling. There, I totally sympathize. (Example, even though I haven’t watched it in a while: Harry and Ginny)

Sometimes there’s a romantic relationship that people have come up with that I think seems sweet, but unlikely. And I kind of enjoy those, if only to imagine it in an alternate timeline or something. (Example: Jason and Connie in Adventures in Odyssey)

Heck, sometimes people come up with crossover ones, where characters from totally separate stories meet and fall in love. Those, of course, are usually INCREDIBLY implausible, but they are sometimes fun to imagine. (Example: uhh… I know Jack Frost and Elsa are one that goes around on the web)

And yes, occasionally I do just go all in and see two characters as a couple. It’s rare, and really only when there’s not another existing relationship it breaks up, but it happens. Example: Reuben and Shirley from The Partridge Family.

(Hey, he’s the only one that can really handle them! Besides, it’s better to go with someone you actually know than a guy that showed up a week ago (like all the guest stars that pop up so they can have a romance episode.) Plus… well, okay, I just really like it and feel like it fits. See, I can do it too.)

But aside from those rare instances and the fun-to-imagine ones, there aren’t a lot of exceptions for the rule of canon for me.

(And don’t even get me started on slash. It’s the worst. It basically slashes the ties of friendship (or even hatred, oddly enough) between two male characters and shoves their faces together. So stupid.

Oh, and if you decide that you see the two characters as friends, as brothers, as father and son even—literally as ANYTHING besides romantic partners—you get endless flak for it. @julientel knows about this firsthand. It’s tough being a non-shipper. Why doesn’t anybody appreciate FRIENDSHIP anymore?

Now, I love a good romance as much as the next person. Honestly, I do. Heck, I’m posting a theory about one of the sweetest ones in all creation tomorrow.

But unless the story is a romance, I just wait to see what the story does, where AND IF they bring in that sort of thing. And unless the story itself comes right out and says ‘these two are a couple,’ I don’t generally assume otherwise (or ‘ship’). Friends until proven lovers, amirite?

In short, enjoy character relationships for what they are. Enjoy the romantic relationships, yes, but enjoy the friendships too. There’s more to love than the ‘kissy-and-touchy’ kind.

HEADCANONS: EVANGELINE

 So far as I’ve found in the Princess And The Frog fandom, there are three fan theories about Ray’s star-love, Evangeline:

#1 – She is the Blue Fairy (from Pinocchio)

#2 – She is the Second Star to the Right, and the Portal to Neverland (from Peter Pan)

#3 – She was once a firefly too, but died

(of course, some people might think she’s just a star, but come on, where’s the fun in that?)

Most of the time, these theories are at odds. But I think the answer could be all three.

---

First off, she is/has always been the Blue Fairy. She lives in the Star to the Right (only one as of yet). Hence, she is the unofficial Queen of Neverland. As long as she’s there, the portal to Neverland is open, and the star is visible. But, as the queen of the Wishing Star, she also goes down to Earth to grant some wishes personally. When she does this, the light of the star goes with her, and the portal closes. She also has to take different forms when she comes down. Mostly, she takes a human form, like in Pinocchio.

However, one night, she came down to New Orleans to grant the wish of a little girl. She appeared at first as a human, but when she heard someone at the girl’s door (her father), she changed into another form – the form of a firefly – and hid. The girl’s father missed her, and left, so she went (still in that form) to grant the wish. But someone else had seen her.

Yeah, I think you know who I’m talking about.  ;)

Well, I think he’d seen the light from the window, and flew on up to see what it was. He peeked in at just the right moment to see her come out of her hiding spot. And Ray fell in love on the spot.

When the Blue Fairy flew to the window to go back to the sky, he came up and started to talk to her. I’m thinking she was just so surprised at him just coming up and starting a conversation, she wasn’t sure what to do. But she had to go, and so she did, without telling him who she was (or revealing what she really was).

But they did meet again, and the way it happened was that the Wishing Star found one that was surprising – Ray wished to see that firefly again, just talk to her a little. So she went down and granted the wish.

One thing I’m not sure about is the name. Did Ray try to guess her name, and when he hit upon that one, she liked it? Or is Evangeline her real name, that she’d never told anyone (since she’s mostly known by her titles)? You tell me.

So, they met, and they talked (well, I guess Ray did most of that), and they danced – I mean, you know Ray would want to show her a good time. And I don’t doubt she had a good time. Then at the end of the night, he asked if she’d like to come back again sometime, even just to talk. And… she said yes, she’d love to.

Fast forward just a bit. They’d met a few more times. But by now, she was starting to think about whether she should keep it up. She’s not supposed to keep coming down to Earth, or staying for extended periods of time. But she knew Ray was sweet on her (and worse, she was starting to feel the same).

So one night she came down, decided on telling him she had to leave. But something happened she didn’t count on – Ray saw her come down. He saw the star come down out of the sky and become Evangeline.

And I don’t know if he came out right then and asked her about it, or if he waited until later to talk to her. But he did ask her about it, and she had to tell him everything. She was a little worried he’d think she was just fake, and you know how she hates lies. 

But Ray? He decided to make a wish, since she was the Wishing Star and all. He wished that he could come up there and they’d be together. He loves his Evangeline better than anything, and he wants to be with her, firefly or no. 

Slight problem, though. For someone to live inside a star like she does, they’d have to be a magical being like her. And her magic isn’t strong enough to living things into other kinds of beings – not on a whim, anyway. To gain a new kind of life like that, you have to lose the old kind. That’s what happened with Pinocchio: he died to save his father, proving himself brave and selfless. Only then could he become a real boy.

So she promised that if he was faithful, one day, his wish would come true. He would become like her, so he could come join her up there. And they’d be together, forever. Because she loves him too. 

Well, Ray clings to that promise for a long time. He’s happy to wait, if it means he’ll be with his Evangeline. And his family, they don’t know if that star up there is really that girl he met all that time ago. They think it’s sweet anyhow, whether it’s true or not.

But Ray knows. And one day, his wish comes true.

---

Well, that’s my headcanon. And I’m very much obliged to you if you managed to stay through to the end, because that was LONG.

Oh, and one other detail is that since Ray became a star right next to Evangeline, it made her the Second Star to the Right, which is how things are when Peter takes the kids to Neverland.

So yeah. Ray is true to her for all that time (and that time is in human years, as per rfr67gal's headcanon on DeviantArt), even when it's been so long that he could just pass it off as a dream, especially when other people say she’s not real.

But he's a faithful little firefly, as the film shows. He's faithful to Tiana - even after she yells some harsh words at him - and says she's just speaking out of a broken heart. He's faithful to Naveen - even when he saw him standing up there with Charlotte, human - and determines to find out the truth. He's so faithful to them both, he fights for them against shadow demons, which costs him his life.

And he's faithful to Evangeline above all else, whatever her true nature, whatever anyone says about her. And his faithfulness is rewarded in the end.

Really, you all, that faithfulness of his is a powerful example of true love—love of family, love of friends, love of his sweetheart, and a forgiving, sacrificial love that is both higher and to something higher than himself. And true love is what this day—St. Valentine’s Day—is all about.

SW Fanfiction: Episode 9--Secret of the Kyber Crystals

Well, last time I was on here, I told you I would be doing a post that would NOT be just a fun picture or video. It would be something original, something where I actually talk about fandoms. Something more than just “oh, look at that, isn’t THAT awesome!” I’m Clara Murphy, Queen of Fan Theories, and today, I’m going to do exactly what I promised. 

Okay, but before I do that, HAPPY BACK TO THE FUTURE DAY!! 

I couldn’t resist. This is just such a cool video! Gremgem did such a good job, and she has a BEAUTIFUL voice. I kind of love acapella music, and this is at the top of my list.

But once you’re done watching and listening to this lovely video, I do in fact have a fan theory. Or… well, maybe not a theory. Sort of like a HISHE (or How It Should Have Ended) But since it hasn’t ended yet, I guess it’s not that either. How It Should End, maybe.

What “it” am I talking about?

 

Yes, “it” is Star Wars!

And I know, today is supposed to be Back to the Future Day (a tradition started by Grace on Time Traveller’s Daughter). But I have my reasons for posting this on Back to the Future Day. You'll see those soon enough.

Anyway, as you may have deduced, this post will deal with the new Star Wars trilogy, specifically Episodes VIII and IX. It’s my idea of what they might do in Episode IX. To be honest, they might have to do something like this just to follow up Last Jedi.

Last Jedi.

 

 

It stinks. I can’t believe Kathleen Kennedy worked on both Back to the Future AND this.

There’s just so much wrong with this movie, I don’t even know where to begin! And I don’t know how THEY’LL know where to begin, with the next one, or where to go with it. There’s pretty much nothing left.

Of course, that’s why I’m writing this “How It Should End”! I don’t know what they’ll do for real, but this is one possibility. And I think it’s rather a neat one. I’ll call it…

EPISODE IX
  
SECRET OF THE KYBER CRYSTALS
 

The Resistance is dying. With forces spread thin, and the First Order burning cities and assassinating old heroes, it seems little hope is left.
 

However, after an SOS from famed hero Lando Calrissian, a team is dispatched by Resistance Leader Rey to meet him on the planet Telcontar, and bring him and his crew to safety.

 

However, the leaders of both sides are nowhere to be seen. Supreme Leader Ren gives orders from his throne room, seeing no one. And Jedi Rey, putting General Dameron in command, has left on a mysterious mission of her own…. 

 

***

All right, so it’s not a genius title crawl. But now you know what’s going on, so it does the job. Now I can go on and describe the plot of the film without any confusion.

 

Finn and Rose meet up with Lando on the planet. And Lando is not impressed with them or the state of the Resistance. However, he teaches Finn a few things, as a sort of mentor I guess, while they’re trying to get back to their hidden transport.

They also run into DJ on the planet (that’s the guy who betrayed them in TLJ), and one or other of them chews him out. Rose seems more unstable, so probably her. They might even meet Phasma on the planet—badly scarred, and they don’t realize who she is until she tells them, but still alive. If so, she’s probably following them, bent on revenge.

Meanwhile, Rey is on some other planet with R2. She’s looking for things—really strange, mystical-seeming things. She confides in R2 that in the Jedi Books, she found out there was a way to travel through time.

 

 

 

Yeah, NOW you see how this ties in to Back to the Future Day!

Well, Rey read about it in the Jedi Books. The Jedi thought it was too dangerous, so they hid the instructions on how to do it in several different places. Scattered them across several books. Part was in one of the Jedi Books they have, and part was in other books. Those books are hidden somewhere on this planet.

Oh, and the Jedi Books she already has also say that time travel is the reason they used Kyber crystals for their lightsabers, rather than something else. Kyber crystals act as time shields, protecting the Jedi’s minds, memories, and bodies from being affected by changes in the past. (More details on ‘time shields’ here) If some Sith were to get hold of the information and went back in time, the Jedi would be unaffected by whatever he changed. ‘Kyber crystals remember’ is probably an old saying.

So, Rey wants to travel back in time to see who her real parents were. Maybe she thinks she can even bring back Luke, I don’t know. But when R2 hears that she’s trying to time travel, he gets really excited, beeping and whistling and all. She can’t figure out why. But they try to find things to do with time travel—like how Doc needed plutonium and the Flux Capacitor for his time machine—and the other Jedi books.

 

 

Meanwhile, the Resistance and First Order are doing things too. Poe is in charge when they witness the destruction of one of the old places, and the death of some old heroes, at the hands of the First Order. Poe realizes they can’t keep hiding like this. They have to take action. But with so few men, what can they do?

 

 

As that’s going on with them, Hux is starting to have doubts. Kylo isn’t having them go after military targets, but historical targets. Burning the past, you see. He’s staying in his room, comming his instructions to the leaders, and rarely even showing his face then. And when he does… Well, Hux is beginning to think Kylo is crazy, and maybe even dangerous to the First Order. In the past, the Empire has always had a Sith Lord as its leader. Perhaps, he thinks, it’s time to burn down that particular tradition of the past.

 

 

What ends up happening is that Hux finds the Resistance, and comes to them, alone (or maybe with two troopers) to meet with Poe. He wants the Resistance to kill Kylo Ren. If they do so, they’ll all get a pardon for their past crimes. And he’s in earnest, too—he’s not trying to trick them. They’re both kind of wary of each other, but they agree to work together.

 

 

It comes to a bit of a head on one planet. Finn, Rose, Lando, and that group escape to the planet, pursued by a group of First Order Troopers. (I think they lost Phasma somewhere along the line). Rey, having found clues to the location of the final book, goes to the planet to find it. Hux and Poe bring their forces to the planet to take down Kylo. They all sort of run into each other there. To be honest, they probably would have all worked together to take down Kylo Ren.

 

 

But things don’t go so well. Rey wanders off to find the last Jedi book, and accidentally alerts their presence to… certain parties. When the Resistance tries to take down Kylo, they aren’t very successful—it’s like he gained all these powers he never had before. Then Hux and his troopers join in and try to help them. But then the troopers that had been chasing Lando show up, and Kylo tells them Hux is a traitor, and they start fighting. And it gets worse. When Hux sees the Sith Lord, he realizes—that’s not Kylo Ren. This golden-eyed Sith, even though he looks like Kylo, is in fact Snoke. He’s possessing Kylo.

 

  

So yeah, things aren’t going so well.

 

 

The other heroes show up, though. Lando leads them, I think, and there’s a big battle. He and Finn do the best. Rose is kind of impressed. But Snoke-as-Kylo wasn’t alone on the planet, because the Knights of Ren come on the scene. Those are the Jedi students he corrupted way back when, the ones mentioned in Force Awakens. They’re powerful and dangerous, and turn the tables on them.

 

 

Things go from worse to horrible. Even the Resistance, Hux’s First Order troops, AND the other heroes, all combined, are no match for their enemies, and badly outnumbered. Lando gets shot down (which is particularly hard on Finn). It’s like that Alamo thing in America. No way of escape, surrounded, outnumbered. The soldiers of both Poe and Hux are fighting and dying side by side.

 

 

But that’s when Rey and R2 show back up. She shows Finn what she’s found. If it works, they can stop this battle from happening, they can save Luke Skywalker, they can stop Snoke-as-Kylo. They can fix this.

 

 

Now, here’s how I think the way to time travel is. You hold up the lightsabre, unignited, and you channel the Force and focus on the crystal inside the lightsabre. And it’ll ignite on its own, in a strange, different way. The ‘light’ of the lightsabre looks different somehow. And you whirl the lightsabre around in a specific way, and it sort of cuts open a time travel portal. Rey explains it to Finn.

 

 

Of course, right as Rey is doing this, Snoke-as-Kylo shows up. He tries to stop them from time travelling, and there’s a bit of a fight. Even R2 does something. But then, just as Rey gets a time portal opened, there’s a sort of explosion—a wayward grenade or something—and all four of them get knocked into Rey’s time portal.

 

 

They find themselves in… well, what you might call an Inbetween. Not in the normal world, not in eternity. And they can actually physically see the Force, both the Light Side and the Dark Side (though they probably can’t use the Force there, now I think about it). And they can physically see Time as well. They’re in the Force-Time Continuum, you could say.

Now, I’m not entirely sure how Time and the Force look, how they tell the difference. Or how they can tell which parts are past and which parts are future. Because I’m sure they can do that.

But since they can in fact see the Force, and can in fact see Time, they also see that something isn’t right. The Dark Side is grown bigger than the Light Side, especially in the not-too-distant future. And Time… well, they can all tell somehow that something’s not right. That something hasn’t been right all this time.

Well, the four of them end up in the future—oh, we’ll say about a decade or two—and are separated. Rey and Finn are together, but they don’t know where Snoke or R2 are. But then they see what this future is like. Snoke, still in Kylo Ren’s body, is in complete control of the galaxy. His Knights of Ren control the people’s minds. He reigns supreme with his Sith Queen, known as Averna, who never shows her face. All opposition is gone. In this future, Snoke’s plan has succeeded.
  

Something is very wrong here...

 

It’s at this point that R2 finds them again. And he’s more excited than ever, beeping and whistling all over the place. They don’t know what it is. R2 plays them a message, recorded in his data banks. But it’s not the one we’re familiar with, the one where Leia asks Obi-Wan Kenobi for help. It’s a message recorded by Luke.

And it’s not the Luke of the Original Trilogy, but an older Luke. He is dressed in Jedi robes. He says that Snoke is attacking the Jedi Library to capture the books about time travel. If the worst comes to the worst, and he succeeds… well, that’s why he’s recording this message. 
 

You see, he’s installed, in R2, a Kyber crystal. R2 is protected from the time waves, and will remember what really happened, if the past is ever changed. Luke gave him instructions to find someone who would be able to stop Snoke, and show them this message.

(Side note: I think he also explains about the map. It’s actually a locator, activated by the piece Lor San Tekka gave Poe Dameron in the first movie. It locates Luke’s Force presence by using the Kyber crystal or something. It’s very experimental tech, though, so it might shut R2 down until the activator is plugged in. I don’t know. But what that means is that Luke wants to rejoin the fight, no matter what is changed in his past, and gives them a means to get to him.)

 

Well, he tells them Snoke’s plan was to change the past and get rid of all opposition, so he can successfully take over the present. That’s the plan that succeeded and resulted in the future the heroes are currently in, and that’s what was wrong in the Force-Time Continuum.

  

Luke starts to mention something further, an ultimate weapon Snoke created. But just then, Han comes in and tells him they’re gonna have company real soon. Luke draws his lightsaber, then ends the message by admonishing the heroes. They have to go back in time and stop Snoke from changing the past, and restore the galaxy. They’re the only hope they have left. Then the message cuts off.

 

Well, the trio heads off to fix the timeline, but they are followed by the Snoke-as-Kylo from their time, as well as Queen Averna. There’s a chase scene through the Continuum as they find their way into each of these different places in time. It’s easy enough to find them, since they can physically see things that are wrong in time. There’s chases and fights, and they change stuff back. Sometimes, they’re stopped from fixing things—oh, and sometimes, Rey sees someone changing things, someone who looks like Queen Averna (but not the one chasing them).

 

So they keep changing things, but then they see that the messed-up parts of Time keep popping back up. Something keeps changing things back. And it’s not Snoke-as-Kylo, because he’s right there, and it doesn’t appear to be Averna. So the heroes go to the mess-up that goes back the farthest. The place is a Sith Temple, somewhere in the wilderness.

 

But there’s a fight between the two heroes and the two villains. And during the fight, Averna’s face is revealed, and that’s when they get a huge shock. Because it’s the face of REY. They don’t understand what’s going on. But as they fight and hide, Snoke-as-Kylo explains.

 

Turns out Darth Plagueis really could manipulate midichlorians, and at this one special Sith place (and I think it’s the last one the Jedi didn’t destroy), he created a Sith being that could be the greatest Force-user ever. But Darth Sidious, afraid that this being would make him obsolete, decided to sabotage this plan, and kidnapped the being before her Sith genes could be activated, sending her forward in time.

 

Of course, he didn’t know that Plagueis had made a clone of himself, just in case. The clone found out Sidious’ plan, and went to find the Sith. The clone went through many times trying to find her, and got scarred up pretty bad. (About here, they realize the clone was Snoke.)

 

Well, Snoke found out she was in this time, but didn’t know where. So he decided to use it to his advantage, and took Kylo Ren under his wing, setting up the First Order with resources stolen from other times. Turned out she was the perfect age to begin the mission, so Snoke also stopped Kylo’s search for Luke after Rey got there.

 


Why? Because Rey is the Sith being. Their plan to change time to their advantage is imprinted on her genes. She carries it out without even trying or knowing what she’s doing.
 

 

All Snoke needs is to activate her innate Sith nature, and she will become unstoppable. I guess Averna (Future Sith Rey) went back in time after she became a Sith and changed things to be really bad.

 

At the end of this explanation, Snoke-as-Kylo finds Rey. He tries to activate those Sith genes, and red lightning dances around her, and actually hurts her. But every time he tries to do that surge of Dark energy, it dies back down. Something is stopping it. Is it the Light Side? No, there would be blue lightning if it was. They don’t know what it is.

 

 

But Finn and R2 rescue Rey. They get split up when they run off, but they manage to hide. They also realize that the Sith Temple they're near is the place where Plagueis is about to "create" Rey. In fact, Plagueis is on his way there right then. Finn is the one who realizes this, and looks for the others so he can tell them. He spots Rey and R2, and it appears as though she just finished recording something, like a message. He comes over to them.

Rey says that it’s literally imprinted on her genes to mess up their future. They can’t unravel her being and reorganize her DNA—that would take a Force-user the likes of which the world has never seen (except in Darth Plagueis, and he’s clearly not going to cooperate). The only way to change things back to the way they should be is if she never existed. So they come up with a plan to stop this.

 

Rey, lightsabre in hand, steps out in sight of Snoke-as-Kylo and Averna. She says she knows why his Force surge isn’t working, but she’ll only tell him if he lets Finn and R2 go free. He agrees, because Finn is stupid (he thinks). She tells him that there can’t be two Sith versions of her in the same time—it would cause a paradoxical imbalance in the Force, so the Force compensates by preventing the creation of another Sith Rey. She read about it in the Jedi Books. It makes sense to Snoke, so he orders Averna to return to her own time.

 

Finally, facing Snoke alone, Rey throws away the lightsabre. Snoke comes up and does his Force surge again—at the same time that Plagueis is creating Rey out of midichlorians. She’s currently not ‘she’, but a swirling mass of red and black lightning.

 

So Snoke-as-Kylo is turning Rey into Averna, but he forgot about Finn. And Finn takes the lightsabre that Rey dropped and stabs it into the Sith-storm that Plagueis is manipulating. That destroys it. Rey vanishes. Then there’s a huge explosion when he gets rid of the Sith-storm, and it destroys the place.

 

What happens then? Does Snoke vanish forever? Is he kicked out of Kylo, because his mind is reverting to normal? I think so. Kylo is returning to normal, because he doesn’t have his lightsabre, I guess—his mind is being restored to the natural, good future version, the one where Snoke isn’t in his mind. So Snoke’s evil Sith spirit goes out before he can be destroyed and goes into the Force-Time Continuum. He can’t do any harm there. He probably becomes one with the Dark Side or whatever.

 

Kylo, upon Snoke’s exit, falls over, unconscious. Finn gets him, and uses the lightsabre and the technique Rey showed him to send him, R2, and Kylo back to the future.

 

(And yes, he is able to do that, even though it’s a very difficult Force thing. You see, after he destroyed Plagueis’ Sith-storm, and everything was going back to normal, he felt a surge of energy, as if the power of the Force just suddenly flowed into him. He wasn’t sure why at the time.)

 

Kylo wakes up in that time, still remembering what happened. Finn tells him it was just a bad dream. And he believes it.

 

But now they look around at the present, and see how it’s changed. Kylo remembers it—or, I should say, Ben. He woke up with all his memories of this time. But Finn doesn’t remember this present. Not at first. But the longer he stays, and the more people he meets, the more new memories appear in his head of what his present self is like.

 

 

To start with, Han and Luke are alive and well, and they’re happy. Luke is the teacher of many young Jedi, and the Jedi are thriving. Han and Leia are happily married with several children (of whom Ben is only the second). In fact, the oldest of these is actually Poe, who had in the alternate timeline been taken away from them early on.

 

The galaxy is at peace. Those who had been in the First Order—Phasma and Hux specifically—are no longer enemies. They’re probably in the Senate or something, as is Holdo. Finn recognizes Phasma, his old commander, but she doesn’t recognize him. She’s very different.

 

But what about Finn himself? For one thing, I think Rose is his girlfriend—his pretty, feisty, but above all, stable girlfriend. She’s actually got a consistent personality. But for another thing, Finn himself is a Jedi now. His family (yes, family) put him into training with Luke, and he’s one of his best students. Might even be a classmate of Ben. He’s still friends with Poe, too. But he’s now one of the top new Jedi.

 

That night, at the end of the movie, he calls them all together. He plays for them a message from Rey, recorded on R2 (so it survived the time change). Nobody there knows who she is, except for Finn and R2. They say that she’s a friend, and a hero.

 

But she knew nobody would know her. She knew what was going to have to be done. So she recorded this message. She says that even though she wasn’t meant to, she’s learned a lot from those she knows to be heroes, and considers her friends. She's learned that they should honour the past, and never let it burn or be forgotten. That they should take what time they have now, and use it to work hard for peace, and fight for it if needs be, always staying true to each other. That if they do, they will build a future of strength, of light, of hope.

 

And at the very end of her message, she actually changes her expression, and smiles.

 

Trumpet flourish! Roll credits! Everything is right in the galaxy once again!

 

Well, I certainly hope that you all were able to stick with me throughout that whole thing, because it was long.


But that’s my idea of Episode XI of Star Wars (coming out... what is it, next year?). Not too bad, I think. Of course, they probably won’t do anything like it. But since we don’t know anything about it yet, who knows? Even if they don’t, it’ll always be here.


Either way, I hope you enjoyed this little How It Should End—the first—no, I'm wrong, second fanfiction I've posted on my blog! If you include the Summer Holiday Tag. Anyway, let me know what you thought of it down in the comments!


Happy Back to the Future Day, everyone!