So at this point it's pretty clear that Ben is the last remaining member of Anakin's family-tree and that things aren't really looking too good for the Skywalker line in terms of legacy or future generations.

Do any of you foresee any other outcome for Ben in Episode IX besides death? Is there any possible way the character can be redeemed and survive or is his death assured?

If his death is a foregone conclusion, how do you feel about the Skywalker line ending (technically it already has since he's a Solo, but you know what I mean).

Kathleen has previously stated that EPIX is the end of the skywalker saga....sounds like the story is already written.

So whilst I imagine Disney want to open up the Star Wars universe in order to have, for example, Captain Phasma fighting Doctor Strange, I suspect Disney will never move that far away from the Skywalker clan. They haven’t even got the imagination to move away from stormtroopers and Death Star’s let alone Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and Luke. I can’t blame them for wanting to hold onto such strong cinematic iconography as Vader’s mask and X-Wings, but boy is it lacking in creative intelligence at the moment... in my opinion of course.

...but, big ass slow bombers! that crumble, and have to "drop" a payload in space...

I'd love to see him get killed and not be redeemed. Like Macbeth or Richard III. Just kill the fucking bastard.

Even now, I still think there’s opportunity to end the ST on a high by perhaps ending it with Rey joining the darkside and Kylo being redeemed etc. etc. But the OT characters are already fu**ed in my opinion.

I’ve been expecting that he’ll be badly injured and put in a suit just for the sake of irony.

I still believe Rey is related to Kenobi.
And this is why they are holding off announcing the Kenobi stand alone film to add the element of surprise.
The reveal of this heritage in IX will drive interest into the Kenobi Film. She might even be part Mandalorian.

I am leaning towards Kylo being redeemed by Rey and you will again have a Skywalker and Kenobi defending the galaxy ala The Clone Wars.
Rey will do for a Skywalker (Kylo) what Obi-Wan could not do for Anakin (redeem him).
This ties-in/raps up/brings full circle the sequel trilogy along with I-VI as Abrams stated it would.
I think they will leave the door open to X-XII but it will be ten years from now and Rey and Kylo will defend the galaxy from an outside force.
They will re-introduce/reboot the Vong and that will be the unifying event that will bring the Empire/First Order and the Rebellion/Republic together.
A new, symbiotic relationship like Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan talk about in TPM.

The Skywalker saga will end after XII.

I interpreted Rey's cave moment as being a message that she should not worry about who her parents are, and that it's more important that she focus on her own journey.

I think Kyle's points are spot on - patricides are always, always punished somehow, with their death usually being a foregone conclusion.

I can only see two ways that the Skywalker line continues post Episode 9:

1) Kylo gets quickly redeemed, gets it on with Rey, and then shortly thereafter dies somehow.
2) The old fan-theory that it was Han himself who activated Kylo's lightsaber ends up being true.

Option 2 would be tough to pull off but not utterly impossible, and would be a pretty huge reveal for Episode 9.

Option 1 seems to be the only other logical way to get themselves out of the corner they've put themselves in.

This is all assuming that they would actually want to keep the Skywalker line going though. With 40 years of marketing and world-wide brand recognition on par with Coca-Cola, I personally feel that it would be insane for Disney to put a knife through it (and would make their shareholders scream bloody murder), but after the Last Jedi I'm realizing that Disney and Kennedy don't actually seem all that invested in the Skywalkers and that all bets are off when it comes to where they are planning to take this franchise.

I thought it was stated by Lucas himself back in 2012 that Episodes 7, 8 and 9 would mark the end of the Skywalker's story.

George's original plan, back in the day, was for 12 films....he later dialed it back, but I think, knowing George, he like would have made all 12. See the article below:

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-bits ... -republic/

Reading this Thread, i'd agree that there's more than likely a comeuppance for Kylo/Ben.

Some oddities that have floated through the brain pan how this Saga could end/continue, that i'd like to share ...

A Corny idea, but what if Rey's a Clone of Luke ? The Cave sequence on TLJ could be symbolic of such a notion.

That could keep the Skywalker bloodline as a continuing thread and there would be a Familial opposite to Ben Solo.

Also, aside from New Order vs Resistance/Rebels what if another faction comes into play ? A conglomeration
of organised Pirates/Ne'erdowells and the like (maybe with their own Force sensitives in the mix)

A one legged Boba Fett thrown in with a couple of Mandalorian garbed acolytes led by a Sith Witch at their
core perhaps. Their fleet a rag tag selection of old and new craft (Trade federation craft pimped with
Smuggler tech/ re-purposed iconic vehicles with new shapes)

A threat so ambiguous to the old contrasts of Goody Vs Baddy that the status quo is redifined to such an
extent, that Kylo Ren is good by comparison.

An opportunity for an about turn for the unredeemable.

What if Snoke was Palpatine was Plagueis was whoever came before?

Darth Sidious in episode III, the scene of Anakins inauguration the wheezy discordance.

A vessel possessed by spirits passed ?

A Ghostly puppetmaster with vast riches stashed, who returns in gnarled forms (Darksides toll)

The power of foreseeing, ragged tattered visions of futures untold. The Plagueis paradox ability to
bring into being via the Midi Chlorian manipulations of sentients biology, new Force gifted life.

That only the strongest subjects survive, seeding the universe with chaos.

The puppetmaster as an eternal nemesis throughout the generations.

A new face for a new Trilogy.

It's all such a clusterf**k now that I am really finding it hard to be interested in what they do.

I still can't get over the fact that they're writing this trilogy as they go.

It's not. Believing that George had a grand plan for the OT is revisionist.

Lucas didn't know if he would even be allowed to make a sequel. Disney doesn't have this excuse. They also don't have a benefit of one main storyteller to provide at least some semblance of consistency. They didn't even have EU stories since they discarded them. Certainly Star Wars (1977) provided enough information about Luke and the universe he inhabited to make for a satisfying coming of age story. By contrast, Abrams admitted he didn't have a clue about Rey's origins and left it to Johnson to decide. That's storytelling 101. I'm sure he didn't know about why Ben fell to the dark side or how the New Republic (the former Rebels) allowed a much bigger Death Star to be built or why Luke was behaving like a coward. He just set up his idiotic mystery box hoping someone else would untangle it.

So what was the excuse for Leia being the other or the second Death Star? Isn’t that also “lazy storytelling?”

No one is saying all Lucas's ideas worked out great but there's usually a reasoning behind his decisions (i.e. Leia became a sister because he felt he didn't have time to introduce a new character), another Death Star happened because he couldn't do two Death Stars and an Imperial City (at least DSII was used in a different way from ANH). Despite all that the OT is still way more consistent and doesn't rely on the outside sources to explain the basic world building or character development. You can't blame the fans for coming up with all sorts of theories to explain Rey's super powers so different from what came before (ironically, most of them were better than the final product).

I don't really understand your point, though. Is your argument that it's OK for ROTJ to have undercooked or repetitive elements because it was still the product of a single creative vision? I don't care what Lucas' reasoning is, it doesn't stop those beats from being less successful aspects to the OT. We overlook that because, well, we love those movies.

Empire Strikes Back is my favourite movie of all time, but that doesn't mean that there aren't several leaps of faith the audience has to make for that movie to work. How did Luke go from clumsily waving a lightsaber at a wompa to skilled swordsman who can take on Vader in just a few days? Why did the Empire deactivate the hyperdrive on the Falcon rather than just blowing up the ship? How did Luke know that he could communicate telepathically with Leia? Where did he learn that Force power? So yes, I also want to know why Rey is so skilled (I think we got the hint of an explanation in TLJ with Snoke's line "darkness rises, and light to meet it") but let's not pretend that Luke didn't get real good real fast.

Ultimately, I don't care how many cooks are in the kitchen as long as the story beats pay off. I was irritated by Starkiller Base as much as it sounds like you were, and I thought the second half of TFA was worse for it, but I did think that the characters were great and there was enough set up for the story to go in a bunch of interesting directions. All I care about is for the ST to feel necessary, and finish the tale of the Skywalker family. I hope Episode 9 fulfills that.

It’s not that the sequels are “undercooked”, it’s that they are raw. For example, it takes Luke 2 films to confront Vader, and even then he is soundly defeated. That Luke goes from swatting Wampa’s to duelling Vader in the space of a ‘few days’ is just the economy of filmmaking. The film (TESB) is at pains to show Luke going through intensive training with Yoda. That development is a significant and specific element of the plot and film. Rey on the other hand, goes head to head, and soundly defeats, Kylo Ren without any training... indeed, she’s never even used a lightsabre (she doesn’t even have any real lessons from Luke in TLJ). So it’s really not comparable... the sequels aren’t being economic, they simple avoid building the narrative. The net result is, IMO, that characters and situations are undermined by poor writing. They are not believable and the drama, which these films rely on, lacks credibility. I’d agree that TFA does a good job of establishing the main characters, but they are just not developed... either within TFA or TLJ.

Yes I agree. I don’t have issue with, non-trained, Force sensitives being shown to have subtle powers per se... it’s just that they (the writers) seem to be using it as a plot device to avoid what’s already been established in the films... simply to artificially extend the premise. That this then works to undermine the original characters is, I suppose, only an issue if one has been following those original characters. For me the issue is two fold... 1) It lessens the original characters, and their personal journeys. 2) It turns new characters into caricatures and undermines the overall drama/sense of scale.

Because the Force awakened. Maybe it awakened in a new way we haven't seen yet.

It doesn't mean that the Force has been asleep all this time. It just means this is something we haven't seen yet. And it's not Disney making these decisions, it's the filmmakers under Kathleen Kennedy doing it. Disney just owns the property. They don't dictate what color to paint it.