I am sure that it come as no surprise to those who know me, I am a massive Star Wars fan. Before the reorganization of the Star Wars Universe, I had immersed myself in the Extended Universe, what is now called Legends, reading nearly one hundred of the books, novels and comics. I was disappointed by Disney’s decision to wipe away such rich history that dozens of authors, video game developers and others had built up over the years since the Original Trilogy, and the Prequel Trilogy were released. That disappointment was only increased after the release of The Force Awakens, mainly due to the film’s over the top use of easter eggs that harkened back to the Original and Prequel Trilogies.

With the release of the final The Last Jedi trailer on Monday evening, I decided to try my hand at making predictions regarding the plot of Episode VIII. Most people, myself included, believe that Episode VIII will follow the line of Empire Strikes Back, just as The Force Awakens followed A New Hope. And both of the trailers for The Last Jedi have seemingly shown that to be true.

The first trailer, which was released back in April, showed us, almost exclusively, flashes of Rey’s training with Luke on Ahch-To. There are bits and pieces regarding the other characters but for the most part, we are shown, what I believe, to be the beginning of Rey’s training with Luke. Now the most talked about part of the trailer, is Luke’s line at the end, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” I believe that this line is set at the beginning of the film, perhaps within the first few minutes as Rey is trying to convince Luke to train her. We know that Luke trained Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) and apparently failed miserably as Supreme Leader Snoke corrupted Solo and turned him to the Dark Side, and it is a commonly held belief that Kylo led the Knights of Ren to destroy the Jedi Temple that Luke had created. The destruction of the Temple, and Ben’s betrayal I believe is one of the major reasons why Luke has hidden himself away from the rest of the galaxy, and why he doesn’t want to train Rey. He failed in training his nephew, and look what that has caused, what might happen if he failed again.

I also think that during the attack on the Jedi Temple, which I am sure we will see in The Last Jedi, Luke suffers a personal loss. There have been rumors and rumblings that a character from the EU, Mara Jade, will appear. For those who don’t know, Mara Jade is Luke’s wife in the Expanded Universe. She was an Force-sensitive assassin under the thrall of the Emperor before changing sides and marrying Luke, as well as giving birth to Ben Skywalker, who is most likely the namesake of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. I would love to see this because in the Legacy of the Force novels, Mara Jade is killed by Jacen Solo, the son of Han and Leia, who turns to the Dark Side (sound familiar).

The second official trailer for The Last Jedi gave us a much more varied view of the Star Wars universe than the first trailer. We see the two sides of the conflict, the First Order and the Resistance, and get a deeper look into both major characters, Kylo Ren and Rey. We see Kylo Ren battling with his own demons regarding his path; will he return to the Light or stay bathed in Darkness? We certainly see him having doubts about his path in the scenes when he is flying his TIE fighter against the Resistance fleet, and possibly targeting the bridge of one ship where it seems like his mother Leia is. We also see him smashing his prized helmet, after possibly failing to kill Leia.

Regarding Rey’s training, we get to see her coming into her own regarding her strength with the Force, which hopefully will counter the absurd amount of skill she showed in The Force Awakens, being able to mind affect stormtroopers (Daniel Craig) and defeat Kylo Ren in a duel on Starkiller Base. We hear Luke’s line, “I have seen this raw strength only once before, it didn’t scare me enough then, it does now,” about halfway through the trailer, and a lot of people believe that Luke is comparing Rey’s strength to Kylo’s, I disagree. I think Luke is thinking back to when he fought the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, I think he has realized how dangerous such raw strength in the Force can be and how it can overwhelm someone. I believe this line is given in the first half of the film, pretty early on in Rey’s training when Luke realizes just how powerful Rey is. There is also rumors that Luke could be talking to Force Ghosts of possibly Obi-Wan or even Anakin regarding Rey’s strength, which would be an awesome thing to see.

The second biggest line that Luke gives in this trailer is later on saying, “This is not going to go the way you think.” I am of two minds regarding this line. My first thought is that Luke is telling Rey not to leave Ahch-To to go and save the Resistance during a major battle, much like how Luke rushed off to Bespin to save Han, Leia and Chewie in Empire Strikes Back, which would be a nice throwback to Empire. My second thought is that this line and scene is from the Battle of the Jedi Temple when Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren attack and wipe out Luke’s Jedi Order. It is rumored that during this attack, Kylo defeats Luke in combat, something I find highly unlikely, though that could be my Legends and EU bias showing through, as Luke in those stories is considered the most powerful and skilled Jedi to have lived. But if this Luke is weaker than his EU counterpart, and he has to fend off multiple attackers, including what seems to be Captain Phasma, then perhaps Kylo could beat his uncle. I would rather this second thought come true as my biggest issue with The Force Awakens was how JJ Abrams kept following along with the storyline of A New Hope.

We also get Supreme Leader Snoke apparently torturing Rey at the end of the trailer, which leads me to believe that Rey is captured or tricked near the end of the film, and that is what makes Luke come out of hiding.

The final scenes of the trailer have brought about the most conversation. At the very end of the trailer, we have opposite scenes of Rey and Kylo Ren, with Kylo extending a gloved hand. Now most people believe that Kylo Ren is extending that hand toward Rey in an attempt to sway Rey to the Dark Side, though others have pointed out that the lighting is different on the two faces. I also have noticed that Kylo doesn’t have that black bandage covering his scar in that scene, so that leads me to believe that these two scenes are not at the same time. I think that the Rey part of this scene is from the first night that she is training with Luke and Rey is explaining why she is really there.

Well anyway, there you go, my reaction to the newest trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I cannot wait for the film to be released on December 15, 2017, and I am really looking forward to seeing how Rian Johnson will add to the Star Wars Universe, and I want to know if any of my predictions will come true.

PS: I do not think that Rey is a Skywalker, that just seems to easy of an answer. I think she is an Anakin-type character for this trilogy, someone who has a massive amount of Force-power with no lineage links to the Skywalkers, Kenobis or the Emperor. But we will have to wait until December 15th to find out. Enjoy the speculation! And May the Force be with you!