Writing challenge day 11: The Rise of Skywalker

The final chapter in the Skywalker era of Star Wars was the exclamation point to the failed sequel trilogy. JJ Abrams failed to save the three films and instead left a mess for Disney to clean up. The Rise of Skywalker is such a hot mess and so bad. Here is why.

ANAHEIM, CA – APRIL 16: New Storm Troopers on Day One of Disney’s 2015 Star Wars Celebration held at the Anaheim Convention Center on April 16, 2015 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)

In all fairness the movie starts alright. Emperor Palpatine is alive, well he cloned himself. It turns out the he has been pulling the strings the whole time. Waiting to revive his empire for “the final order.”

Rey still training to be a Jedi. The small band of rebels need to attack Palpatine and choose to do so on the Sith planet of Exegol where the Sith Lord has been devising his plan.

The film is so clunky that a semi decent middle of the movie still misses the mark. There is a nice Rey vs Kylo Ren water lightsaber battle. Also a rather ho-him attempt at a tear jerkingĀ  moment between Ren and Han Solo.

The Rise of Skywalker cracks under the pressure to save the trilogy after the mess of The Last Jedi. The worst possible moment came when Rey decided she was going to be a Skywalker.

So now, characters can be whoever they want to be? Other than be trained a little bit by Luke and Leia she had no ties to the Skywalker name or family. It simply did not fit, did not work and again angered the fan base.

In the end Disney failed miserably. The Star Wars sequels were not good and fans bailed on the franchise. To the point that movies were put on the backburner until they could come up with some that would sooth things over.

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 19: “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” posters at the “Star Wars” Marathon hosted by Nerdist on December 19, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)

The failed movies also made Disney focus on streaming shows. Something they have been better at because Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are overseeing the projects.

Jonathan Ericsson’s time as a Detroit Red Wings may be coming to an end

Embed from Getty Images Last season Jonathan Ericsson was plagued by injuries to start the season, the injuries came back at the end of the season as well. At least two different times Ericsson was a healthy scratch in back-to back games. The only consistent in Ericsson’s career has been his inconsistent play.

His time in Motown is coming to an end. So much so that Jonathan Ericsson, is not guarantee a roster spot this coming NHL season. Red Wings likely defenders this year will be Danny DeKeyser, Mike Green, Patrik Nemeth, Filip Hronek along with Madison Bowey and Dennis Cholowski.

The veteran defensemen Ericsson faces an up hill battle to knock out one of the younger better defensive players. In order for that to happen Ericsson will need to be both healthy and consistent. Two things he has yet to be in his career.

Atrocious, that is the description that is most commonly associated with Jonathan Ericsson’s defensive play. He turns the puck over way too often and has next to no pace to his game. When Ericsson is on ice his lack of pace, makes the rest of his line play without a good pace as well.

Ericsson loves to join the rush up ice, but is incapable of getting back to the defensive end because of slow foot speed. For a big defensive player, Ericsson is regularly beaten in board battles and in front of the net.

As a fan, it is unkind to point out a players flaws. However, for the rebuilding Red Wings there is no masking Ericsson’s bad play. Coupled with the fact Detroit needs to make roster spots for young defensive player makes Jonathan Ericsson the odd man out. That may not be a bad thing.

Players that will be sent to Grand Rapids to get seasoning with the Griffins will get called up for a look during the season to see how far away they are from helping the Red Wings.

Jonathan Ericsson has had opportunities and failed. It is time for the Detroit Red Wings to move on and in so doing strengthen the defense.