I’ve yet to present quotes from the ninth entry, The Rise of Skywalker. That will be rectified next week.
Unlike its predecessors—especially Episodes IV, V, and VI—the more recent Episodes VII and VIII in the Star Wars universe did not provide us with a plethora of memorable quotes. Still, if you look hard enough, you’ll find quite a few fun/entertaining/poignant lines in these long-awaited sequels. Here are some of my favorites.
EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015)
A longer-in-tooth Han Solo and Chewbacca board the Millennium Falcon for the first time in years. Han says, “Chewie, we’re home.”
Rey is not impressed with the Falcon: “This is the ship that made the Kessel run in fourteen parsecs?” Han (miffed): “Twelve!”
Finn and Rey
Han and Rey are sort of connecting with each other. Rey: “Are you offering me a job?” Han: “I wouldn’t be nice to you. Doesn’t pay much.” Rey: “You’re offering me a job.” Han: “I’m thinking about it.”
Rey touches Luke Skywalker’s light saber and has a freaky vision that includes Obi Wan Kenobi, who says, “Rey? These are your first steps.”
It has been a long while since Leia and Han have seen each other. Leia: “You know, no matter how much we fought, I’ve always hated watching you leave.” Han: “That’s why I did it, so you’d miss me.” Leia: “I did miss you.”
Arch-villain Kylo Ren—Han and Leia’s son—sees Darth Vader’s helmet and says, quite ominously, “Forgive me. I feel it again… The pull to the light… Supreme Leader senses it. Show me again… The power of the darkness… And I’ll let nothing stand in our way… Show me… Grandfather… and I will finish… what you started.”
C-3PO, upon seeing R2-D2: “Oh, my dear friend, how I’ve missed you.” Apparently, droids have feelings too.
Leia and Han, then and now.
Maz Kanata to Finn: “If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in different people. I’m looking at the eyes of a man who wants to run.” To which Finn replies, “You don’t know a thing about me. Where I’m from. What I’ve seen. You don’t know the First Order like I do. They’ll slaughter us. We all need to run.”
Han and Finn have infiltrated the Starkiller base but are not exactly sure what to do. Han: “People are counting on us. The galaxy is counting on us!” Finn: “We’ll figure it out. We’ll use the Force.” Han: “That’s not how the Force works!”
But Han does believe in the Force. When Rey asks him if the Jedi were real, he says, “I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo jumbo. A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light. Crazy thing is, it’s true. The Force, the Jedi. All of it. It’s true.”
Leia speaks the film’s last line as Rey makes ready to go and look for Luke Skywalker: “Rey. May the Force be with you.”
EPISODE VIII: THE LAST JEDI (2017)
Rey has found reluctant Jedi Luke Skywalker at the end of Episode VII. After bugging the crap out of him, she convinces him that she if worthy of learning the ways of the Force.
Luke asks Rey, “Where are you from?” Rey: “Nowhere.” Luke: “No one’s from nowhere.” Rey: “Jakku.” Luke: “All right, that is pretty much nowhere.”
Yoda appears to Luke, who is conflicted about what he must do. Yoda: “Lost Ben Solo you did. Lose Rey we must not.” Luke: “I can’t be what she needs me to be.” Yoda: “Heeded my words not, did you? Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also. Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”
The kick-butt women of The Last Jedi.
Supreme Leader Snoke addresses Kylo Ren: “You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.” Words that he will come to regret.
Luke asks Rey, “What do you know about the Force?” Rey: “It’s a power that Jedi have that lets them control people and…make things float.” Luke: “Impressive. Every word in that sentence was wrong.”
Leia offers some wise words: “Hope is like the sun. If you only believe it when you see it you’ll never make it through the night.”
Pilot Poe Dameron asks Leia, “Permission to hop in an X-wing and blow something up?” Leia: “Permission granted.”
Kylo Ren “communicates” with Rey: “Do you know the truth about your parents? Or have you always known? You’ve just hidden it away. Say it.” Rey: “They were nobody.” Ren: “They were filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money. They’re dead in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert. You come from nothing. You’re nothing…but not to me.”
The Resistance has cause for concern.
Rey tells Luke, “You didn’t fail Kylo. Kylo failed you. I won’t.”
Siblings Leia and Luke see each other for the first time in many years. Leia: “I know what you’re gonna say. I changed my hair.” Luke: “It’s nice that way.”
Their dialogue becomes more serious. Luke. “Leia, I’m sorry.” Leia: “I know. I know you are. I’m just glad you’re here at the end.” Luke: “I came to face him, Leia. And I can’t save him.” Leia: “I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone.” Luke: “No one’s ever really gone.”
The film ends with a confrontation between Ren and Luke, the former obsessed with destroying his uncle. The remaining Resistance force escapes as Ren, unable to kill Luke with enough firepower to take out a planet, engages him in a light saber duel. But Luke is only a projection, sent from his island of exile. Luke dies peacefully there and becomes one with the Force.
Sadly, Carrie Fisher passed away after the filming of Episode VIII. During the end credits we see, “In loving memory of our princess, Carrie Fisher.” Yet the stage is set for Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, in which Princess Leia, via unused footage and CGI, will play a key role. And thus will end the third Star Wars trilogy. Will we ever see another? Perhaps only Yoda knows.
May the Force be with you.