by Ian Doescher
We did it, Poe! Our battles finish’d well.
POE
[into radio:] We did it, Finn, all expectation spoilt.
The epoch of this too-eventful tale
Now may know peace, for hope doth here prevail.
[Exeunt.
SCENE 2.
On Ajan Kloss.
Enter POE DAMERON, FINN, CHEWBACCA, LANDO OF CALRISSIAN, ROSE TICO, JANNAH, MAZ KANATA, C-3PO, R2-D2, BB-8, D-O, ZORII BLISS, BABU FRIK, COMMANDER D’ACY, LIEUTENANT CONNIX, BEAUMONT KIN, NIEN NUNB, AFTAB ACKBAR, WEDGE ANTILLES, KLAUD, and other SOLDIERS and PILOTS landing and reuniting. Enter CHORUS, aside.
CHORUS
A celebration of both hope and life
Breaks out as each unto the base returns.
The battle o’er, the former mood of strife
Becomes relief that ev’ry soul discerns.
E’en droids share tales of bravery in battle,
Of overcoming when they were afeard.
With grateful hearts and unrestrainèd prattle
Resistance hath toward rejoicing veer’d.
Whilst all embrace each other with delight
And lovers reunite with tender kiss,
Finn calmly waiteth for another sight—
Best friends with whom to share this untold bliss.
[Exit Chorus. Finn searches for Rey and Poe in the crowd.
FINN
[aside:] The merriment fulfills my heart not yet,
For I may not be whole without the two
Parts of my heart which yet I have not found—
My friends who have been with me from the start.
[Poe spots Zorii from afar.
POE
[aside:] There is sweet Zorii cross the field from me.
With simple nod I bid her for a kiss—
She laughs with both her arms and legs at me,
And shakes her head with gentle reprimand.
Not yet, nay, but the future who may know?
MAZ
I bid thee, Chewie, step aside for me.
[Chewbacca kneels at Maz’s side. She gives him a medal.
This token is for thee, though overdue.
CHEWBAC.
Egh, auugh!2
[Finn spots Poe and rushes toward him.
FINN
—There’s Poe, adopted brother found!
POE
Ho! Ev’ryone doth know the finest place
In all the world is with comrade best.
[Finn and Poe embrace.
Enter REY, landing and emerging from the X-wing. She disembarks, spots BB-8, and runs to him.
REY
Thou tender droid, I’ll thine antenna check.
I could not fail this mission, dost thou see—
What wouldst thou do sans me to straighten it?
BB-8
Zzwa flibrooh roilzoom fllizooz blisflit blis!
[Jannah approaches Lando.
JANNAH
I prithee, General, whence comest thou?
LANDO
Gold system. What of thee, kid? Whence com’st thou?
JANNAH
Nay, I know not.
LANDO
—Belike we shall find out.
[Finn and Poe spot Rey and approach her. They all embrace.
REY
We three at long last reunited are.
POE
We three, the blessèd words ring as a knell.
FINN
We three who e’er have fought and lov’d as one.
REY
Here let the story rest, the battles cease,
Here is the glad conclusion of our tale,
Here friends and comrades are elated, and
Here shall they mourn for all whom they did lose.
POE
Ye watchers all, amid the earnest woes
That crowd around our path, which turn e’en now
To gladness, hear this message we relay:
Hope is the spark that ye should ne’er forsake.
FINN
Our story finishes, but yours endures.
Resistance is the pathway of the just.
Our star wars, now, are ended, for the nonce—
Have they mov’d ye to meaningful response?
[All freeze as Rey takes center stage.
REY
Flew I, thereafter, in the Falcon fast,
Obtaining Tatooine’s bleak fields at last.
Resolving to perform a final deed,
By way of Luke’s old home did I proceed.
Eventually, I came to the place,
Near unaffected by time’s steady pace.
Applying nimble, scavenger-like skill,
Next I slid down a gentle, sandy hill,
Descending to the home where Luke once grew—
I sens’d, therein, his presence through and through.
The lightsabers I carried in my care—
One Leia’s, which she later did forswear,
One Luke’s, with which he fought the Empire strong—
Now I wrapp’d in a cloth I’d brought along.
Entrusting all their power to the land,
Sand, by the Force, engulf’d them as I’d plann’d.
Hereafter they shall rest from all their toil,
Amidst a hidden vault of sandy soil.
Revealing my new lightsaber of gold,
Excited, once more, to my friends behold,
Declaring my work done on Tatooine,
Arose I with a most contented mien.
In mine own thoughts consumèd, by and by,
Met I a woman as she wander’d nigh.
Anon she ask’d my name while passing through.
Rey was mine answer till she ask’d, “Rey who?”
Emerg’d then Luke and Leia, wondrous pair,
Delivering mine answer o’er the air:
Rey Skywalker. Yea, thus shall I be known,
Asserting that their fam’ly is mine own.
With hope I look’d toward the double sun,
Now mindful that my tale had just begun.
[Exeunt omnes.
END.
1 Editor’s translation: I shall, good Lando. For the nonce I’ve seen
Enow of death and shall not leave my friends!
2 Editor’s translation: The medal once awarded to brave Han—
Hard won for courage in the battle long
Ago, for which I once was overlook’d—
Now given unto me by kindly Maz.
Keen am I this memento to receive,
Yet did assume ’twas lost some years ago.
O, decades after swiftly fall the tears
Unbidden but sincerely from mine eyes.
Past all mine expectation is this gift,
E’en as I from this final battle rest.
True kinfolk have I found within this band,
Exciting ventures making my soul bright—
Replete this Wookiee’s spirit is with light.
AFTERWORD.
How fortunate we are to live in a time when Star Wars is experiencing a resurgence in movies, shows, books, comics, theme parks, and more. Like millions of other people, I was looking forward to The Rise of Skywalker, watching the trailers but trying to preserve as much mystery as possible. On opening night, I experienced the joy of seeing the movie unfold with various surprises, resolutions, and emotions. I hope you had the same experience. Almost immediately, I was thinking about how to adapt it into Shakespeare’s voice.
Many people noticed that the final scene between Rey and Ben is similar to the end of Romeo and Juliet; one person appears dead, the other enters and sees them
dead, then the first person awakes and the other person dies. My adaptation gives full voice to that parallel, as Rey and Ben borrow lines from Juliet and Romeo (respectively) once Ben enters and sees Rey lifeless. (Of course, edits were required. After all, when the scene is over Rey is still alive—unlike Juliet.)
In 2019, I listened to the audiobook of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars for the first time in a few years, and I was reminded how strict my iambic pentameter was in my first book. Not only did I adhere to the meter, but I used almost no weak endings (an eleventh syllable at the end of the line). As I started writing William Shakespeare’s The Merry Rise of Skywalker, I decided to give myself the challenge of stricter iambic pentameter than I’ve used in years. As a result—not that I expect you to have noticed—there are fewer than ten weak endings in this book.
Because of the characters who appear in The Rise of Skywalker, I revisited almost all of the conventions I created in my previous eight books. In case you’re keeping track, or in case these conventions are new to you: Rey has some acrostic speeches, Finn uses fs and ns in every line, Poe borrows from Edgar Allan Poe in each of his lines, the villains deliver villanelles, R2-D2 addresses the audience in asides, Chewbacca’s grunts and growls are “translated,” BB-8 uses a skip code, the voice of Yoda has two haiku, Mace Windu references the title of a Samuel L. Jackson movie, Aftab Ackbar inherits his father’s-ap endings, and we even get brief lines from Ewoks and porgs.
You’ll find Easter eggs throughout the book, as always. These include a tribute to Peter Mayhew, lines borrowed from various well-known authors, and throwbacks to other installments of the William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series. As in William Shakespeare’s Jedi the Last, one Easter egg bears explanation. The Rise of Skywalker includes a brief cameo from John Williams, the famous composer of the Star Wars score and other well-known cinematic soundtracks. In the movie, he plays a bartender named Oma Tres, who glares at the main characters as they enter his bar (particularly C-3PO, because we all know droids aren’t welcome in cantinas). Oma Tres doesn’t speak in the movie, but I decided he should have some lines here. More than that, I wanted to write a speech that uniquely captures John Williams’s music. I decided to hide the Star Wars theme in the speech itself, encoding the melody in the dots above the lowercase is and uppercase Os to represent music notes on a staff. The dotted is represent eighth notes and the Os indicate either quarter notes or half notes. Turn the book 90 degrees counterclockwise, and you can see the sheet music come to life. (This is the kind of thing that makes my geek heart very happy.)
Nine movies—and nine books—later, the Skywalker saga is complete. It has been a privilege to reimagine all nine episodes of the Skywalker story, and I’m honored to have made my small contribution to the stories we all adore. See you around the galaxy, friends.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
This book is dedicated to my parents-in-law, Jeff and Caryl Creswell. To have wonderful in-laws is to be a lucky man indeed.
Thank you to my parents, Bob and Beth Doescher, my brother Erik and sister-in-law Em, and their daughters Aracelli and Addison.
Thank you to Josh Hicks, Alexis Kaushansky, and their daughter Ruby. Thank you to Tom George, Kristin Gordon, Chloe Ackerman, and Graham Steinke. Thank you to Heidi Altman, Chris Martin, Naomi Walcott, and Ethan Youngerman. Collectively, they are the Rey and Poe to my Finn (minus the fan theories of our romance).
Thank you to Murray Biggs, my friend, my former college professor, and a Shakespearean scholar par excellence. While I wrote this book, Murray wrote to me: “Well, aren’t you something. Mind you, we always knew that—though there’s still some doubt about what that something is, and how much we should have to do with it.” I can’t think of a more accurate description of what most of my family and friends think of me.
Thank you to the good people of Quirk Books, each one of them a joy: Jhanteigh Kupihea, Nicole De Jackmo, Rebecca Gyllenhaal, Brett Cohen, Christina Tatulli, Kelsey Hoffman, Jane Morley, Andie Reid, Ryan Hayes, Megan DiPasquale, and the rest of the team. Thank you to Nicholas Delort for illustrating all nine of these Shakespeare’s Star Wars books.
Thank you to friends and family near and far: Audu Besmer, Jane Bidwell, Travis Boeh and Sarah Woodburn, Chris Buehler and Marian Hammond, Erin and Nathan Buehler, Melody and Jason Burton, Cate and Josiah Carminati, Antwon Chavis and Nate Housel, Joel Creswell, Sibyl Siegfried, Sophie, and Caroline, Katherine Creswell and Spencer Nietmann, Jen Echternach, Jeanette Ehmke, Holly Havens, Mona and Roland Havens, Jim and Nancy Hicks, Anne Huebsch, Apricot, David, Isaiah and Oak Irving, Jerryn Johnston, Rebecca Lessem, Lisa Lomax, Andrea Martin, Sierra Maxwell, Bruce McDonald, Joan and Grady Miller, Tara and Michael Morrill, Lucy and Tim Neary, Bill Rauch, Scott Roehm, Helga, Michael, and Isabella Scott, Susan Scharfman, J. and K. Thomas, Ryan, Nicole, Mackinzie, Audrey and Lily Warne-McGraw, Steve Weeks, Eva Williams, Ben and Katie Wire, and Dan Zehr.
Thank you to the 4,000-plus members of the Shakespeare 2020 Project, who are reading through the complete works of the Bard this year. It’s more fun—and a much larger group—than I imagined possible.
Thank you to my spouse Jennifer, heart of my heart, who after nearly twenty years is still the person I choose every day. Thank you to my sons Liam and Graham, who got me to download Snapchat.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616) was a poet and playwright. He is widely considered one of the greatest writers in the English language.
GEORGE LUCAS is a film producer, screenwriter, director, and the creator of the Star Wars motion picture saga. He lives in California.
IAN DOESCHER is the New York Times best-selling author of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Visit him at IanDoescher.com.
SONNET 9
The hurly-burly’s done, the web is won…
The battle o’er, the villain vanquish’d quite,
Rey, Finn, and Poe now lead a merry band,
Good hath prevail’d, the wrong hath come out right—
Our heroes rest in celebration grand.
With smile upon your face, your browser ope
And hie unto the Quirk Books website soon.
There shalt thou put within thine eyeballs’ scope
Frivolity throughout the website strewn.
A teachers guide is gratis on the site,
With which thou shalt learn more about the book.
An interview with Ian Doescher might
Be just what thou dersir’st: a closer look.
All this and more find thou with much aplomb,
When thou dost get thee to quirkbooks.com.
www.quirkbooks.com/merryriseofskywalker
