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these-are-the-first-steps · 5 years ago

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“The Rise of Skywalker”- A Review from Memory

So it’s been a week since I’ve had to live with this film in front of my eyes, and a week and a half that I’ve had to grapple with the brunt of its sins. With a heavy sigh, I think I’m ready to go through the play-by-play of every plot hole in this film that I can manage from memory without the thing in front of me. And even then, the laundry list is hefty. Keep in mind that this is a FILM-BASED review only- I have tried to refrain from including new information we have learned since its release last Thursday in an effort to keep this as focused and topical as possible.

+The first scene of this film is weird. I’m all for watching Adam Driver wild out on some dudes, but it is never explained who these guys are and if it’s just Kylo ‘committing more slaughter’ (as the casual audience is wont to think) or if there’s something significant here. As the movie goes on and Kylo makes it clear that he’s under no one’s thumb, *and* that the object he was after was Sith, you start to get an idea that maybe those guys at the intro are No Good, but this is never explained or confirmed. To a casual audience with no interest in additional materials, it just looks like Bad Ole Kylo Doing More Bad Ole Stuff. *sigh*

+Exogol and Palpatine’s hideout looks like the Borg Cube from Star Trek: First Contact from 1996. This really smacked me in the face how similar it was.

+Snoke’s significance getting sniped by Palpatine in one fell swoop felt like two five year olds arguing over action figures in the sandbox. “No! He’s dead now! Now the good guys can go on their quest!” “Well if he’s dead now, it’s only because MY guy was the REAL bad guy! DOOSHDOOSHDOOSHDOOSH!!” Like….really? At least Palpatine’s never-spoken-of Snoke manufacturing lab was vaguely interesting. Too bad we never saw anything about that- what a story of intergalactic puppet-masters that would have made! We’re not here for clever storytelling, though, so moving on…

+I don’t think they should have included Leia in this film. It really added to the disjointed nature of this movie with flat audio, crippled dialogue, and CGI where Leia only really had one facial expression for 90% of her appearances. It really wasn’t worth it. I know Star Wars doesn’t do flashbacks (which, frankly, I appreciate a lot), but I think they could have utilized the IDEA of Leia better than her actual self. Leia was forced, it showed, and it wasn’t good. Honestly they did a WAY better job reviving Tarkin in RO.

+An incredibly unnecessary amount of new information for the third act of a series was introduced in this film, starting with Leia suddenly being a well-trained Jedi or something. At least enough to ‘train’ Rey, which…frankly wasn’t believable. Leia having the force was a given. That she distanced herself from active application of the Force as a residual reaction to the bombshell of Darth Vader being her father is what is, and always has, made sense. THAT is a nuanced perspective, but it gets thrown out in favor of not just shoe-horning Leia in to the movie, but also because they had no idea what else to do with her at all in this film. This is also why Leia shouldn’t have been in this movie the way she was.

+Oh, you knew Palpatine was behind all this the whole time, Leia? Really? Always there, huh? When in TFA it was always snoke? Obvious dialogue lift is obvious, but the use of it was just Bad and inconsiderate to the story.

+Poe’s backstory was published on December 18th, 2015 in a book called “Before The Awakening” that details the lives of Poe, Finn, and Rey leading up to TFA. Poe is the son of two famous Rebel fighters and he grows up with a nice quiet life on Yavin 4 learning about ships and loving to fly. He goes straight from his home world to joining the Republic navy. It’s a handful of months before Leia Organa picks up on him and brings him into the Resistance. Now…this is a backstory that is JJ Abrams approved, has been out since 2015, and yet Oscar Isaac said he ‘never knew’ Poe’s backstory, and JJ somehow thinks four years later that there is space in this incredibly concise timeline for him to become a drug runner. What?? This was possibly the BIGGEST wtf moment for me in this film. What in the actual world. WHAT.

+Sidelining old characters to pointlessly introduce new ones does not serve a story, it clogs it up, drags down its rhythm, and confuses the hell out of it. As seen by Zorri and Jannah. And out of those two, only Jannah carried any kind of actual literary weight, because for Finn, he’s found more people like himself. This sort of setup is a typical play to foreshadow where Finn eventually settles down and goes at the end of the war. But this is never expounded on or explained further. It’s just, BOOM, more former troopers and a girl who is suddenly irrationally attached to him at all times.

+Rose gets replaced by Jannah, a brand new character that we only know one single thing about, and who gets to latch on to Finn out of the blue while Rose is left at home or on a ship. It was weird. It was obvious. It was incredibly awkward to watch. There was no point to Jannah clinging to Finn like this. She was reduced from a strong character to a cringy clingy one, while Finn’s love interest was completely ignored.

+The ‘Journey to The Rise of Skywalker’ comics released a couple weeks before the film heavily implied we’d get a lot of great Rose and Rey team time. We received none of it. It felt like someone had jerked a present away from us and it was a gross omission.

+It is only by the very end of the film and after multiple watches that you THINK they are trying to hint that Kylo is spiraling, thus why Leia steps in in death, but it never ever gets shown. Never once are we let in on Kylo’s state of mind. In fact, never once are we let in on *any* of these characters’ states of mind. We never really see what they are feeling or thinking or going through. Kylo is nothing but action when in TFA and TLJ we see him falling apart. This is what bad direction looks like, and it takes a Real Talent to fuck up directing an actor like Adam Driver. Another big sigh…

+There are only two cool things about this movie- The bleeding of reality between Kylo and Rey, and Palpatine’s shadow senate. When Kylo and Rey fight and the red bits go flying on the floor, it screamed serious TLJ aesthetics to me that I had to blink a moment. I think this ‘Bleed-through’ of their realities is the only TLJ hold-over we were allowed. It was a genuinely fascinating touch, which is how you know it didn’t come from *this* film’s production office.

+When you stick three people in a closet together, you expect some sort of progress in two-thirds of the potential relationships in such a cramped space. We received no such thing. Forced Trio Time resulted in no character development and seemed more like an unnecessary comic relief vehicle than anything.

+In ‘Before The Awakening’ and ‘Rey’s Survival Guide’, both publications printed under JJ Abrams’s blessing, we learn Rey named *herself* after a helmet she found in the desert. How is it Rey’s alleged parents know her fake name? Gross, gross plot-hole.

+Four years was spent emphasizing that you don’t have to come from anywhere ‘special’ to be Important to a big story. Then they threw it out. Post-TROS interview with JJ reveals it was because they ‘couldn’t think of how else to get rey engaged in fighting palpatine’. Because he wasn’t a nasty enough dude on his own? Seriously? This is pure negligence.

+Four years was also spent emphasizing that you also don’t even NEED the force to be important to the big story and make a huge difference to the future. But let’s throw that out, too, and give Finn the force. Clearly regular people are absolutely worthless in the Star Wars Universe, according to JJ Abrams.

+Finn is only used to babysit Rey the entire time they share screen time together. The number of times he shouts her name could be turned into a drinking game. It’s one thing to care about somebody, and another thing entirely to act like you’re their high school chaperone. The whole thing was weird and awkward.

+Zorri Bliss sounds like a stripper name and she served no purpose other than to shoehorn Felicity into a star wars movie. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Babu Frik is the only true-to-star-wars critter in this whole film.

+Leia literally goes and lays down on her own funeral spread? What was that about. And that’s what that was because why would her bed be out in the open like that? That was really, really weird. And the RoTJ medal throwback was just a tacky tether to the past.

+Everyone seems so irrationally tethered to the past in this film. Kylo Ren’s spent two movies desperate to ‘leave the past behind’ and I don’t blame him at this point because it’s getting exhausting.

+As stated previously, it’s only vaguely suspected but Kylo seemed to SUPPOSED to be spiraling. Adam Driver plays Kylo like a man finally free of the voices in his head, but the plot and dialogue point to an entirely different direction saying that REALLY the monsters have allegedly doubled-down and he’s even more unhinged than before. Here is a MAJOR indication of story re-working after the film has already been shot. Adam Driver, and Daisy for that matter, is a PRECISE actor. It seems almost impossible to tell a story with him that you did not originally MEAN to tell. And it shows. JJ tried to U-Turn the story but it absolutely failed- Adam’s Kylo Ren is a calm, free man, focused, who finally knows what his purpose in life is, and that is uniting with his Dyad in the force. When really JJ tried very hard to suggest that he was spiraling so hard and so ‘lost’ in the Dark Side that it took his mother’s last breath to swing him back around. No one is going to see that narrative. The only reason why I see this shoddy attempt is because I’ve been absolutely immersed in this shit since December 2015. But the main audience? This was absolutely not conveyed.

+Seeing Dark Side Rey was nothing but a ‘cool’ moment and actually served zero function to the plot. Rey was always shown as being Grey in the force and someone who struggled to maintain balance. If that whole scene was removed, it wouldn’t change anything.

+Kylo was never in a position to kill Rey on the Death Star, and Rey taking her cheap shot to stab him while he heard his mother’s voice is an attempt to convey how much seeing her Sith self affected her than Kylo’s already very faded aggression in this film but it failed. It was weird and out of character, and even coming to that conclusion took may rewatches to come to because there is NEVER a ramp-up to Rey’s darkside taking over long enough to stab Kylo- there’s no fire, no red eyes, no teeth, none of it, to indicate she was ‘overcome’ so it just looked like bad mischaracterization. Yikes.

+Kylo and Han’s moment on the Death Star is the most moving scene of the entire film. The dialogue starts out rather familiar, and it almost seems like a cop-out, until you realize….how many times has Ben had this conversation with himself?? He doesn’t seem shocked at all that his father is there. Not at all. In fact, that Last Conversation on the bridge of Starkiller comes off as a well-rehearsed dance that Ben puts himself through regularly. And every time he hopes it’ll be affirmation enough that it’s all been worth it. But here, at the last reenactment of the worst day of his life, the script changes. He surrenders. He says dad. And he rejects Kylo Ren forever. Harrison Ford and Adam Driver are two beautifully matched, talented actors and I’d watch a movie with the two of them in it any day. God bless them.

+Hux has been wasted for the past two films. He was Terrifying in TFA and Dom gave him such significant presence that I was genuinely terrified for what he might try in the future. But instead he was lost as comic relief. When it is comically delivered that HE is the spy, every single person in my movie theatre shouted “WHAT??” in a way that was not a Good what, but in a “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” kind of what, and I will never ever forget that. I hate seeing Star Wars diminished like this.

+Luke rehashing Obi-wan’s speech to him about how Rey MUST confront the Big Bad was an obvious rehash, and way too convenient to what Palpatine wanted. This whole appearance of Luke is very suspect, but that would be crediting them again with clever storytelling, which again this is not.

+Luke claims that Leia saw ‘the death of her son’ at the end of her Jedi Path, which one can assume why she threw it away. But then Luke says something bizarre about ‘hoping someone else would pick up her path someday’. Is that...is that not the same path leading to Ben’s death that she was avoiding in the first place? And if someone else picks it up, is that not no longer Leia’s path but that other person’s? Therefore, is not the outcome automatically going to be different and thus *avoid* Ben’s death? This was an attempt at supposedly clever foreshadowing or Mystical Talk or some shit, but all it was was dialogue that backfired in meaning spectacularly due to looping-in on itself too many times. Luke negates himself at the same time he tries to prove his point...which he then negates in the same breath. What a mess.

+All of Ben Solo’s lines were cut the last act of the film to stuff more pointless exposition at the END of film and to give more screen time to Ian McDiarmid. Ian’s great, but he’s not the main character of this series, and cutting Ben’s lines for this was Gross.

+Space Horses? Really?? I didn’t like them in TLJ but at least there they had context- they had zero context here. The size of the horses and the ship they came off of was absurdly mismatched. Is that ship the TARDIS? That whole bit was so unnecessary and ridiculous, especially with zero setup. Which is amazing because this film is 90% set-up.

+All those ships at the end? That’s all it took? After books and comics going on about how everyone’s too terrified to help Leia because of FO scorched earth policy? Jesus it was weak, and too obvious a Deus ex Machina with THAT many ships.

+Palpatine’s Shadow Senate is cool. The idea that this guy trapped on an ugly planet stuck on Sith life-support couldn’t go two seconds without attention and praise to the point where he had to recreate the exact same senate he destroyed years ago is a concept I like. Is the Shadow Senate just in the *shape* of the old senate but filled with animated Sith proxies? Or is it actually comprised of the enslaved souls of former Senators now forced to attend the Emperor for eternity? Either way, destroying the Shadow Senate at least either set those souls free or sent them back to wherever they came from. That was actually interesting, and it’s a shame we didn’t get to learn more about such a genuinely creepy thing.

+Palpatine’s ‘we’re family’ routine drops the moment he realizes Ben and Rey are a dyad. This is suspicious, but considering the whole movie so far, it seems incorrect to giver JJ and Torrio credit for a possible mis-direct.

+Rey and Ben’s realities bleeding into each other is experienced again in swapping the light saber. This is cool. This is probably the coolest moment in the film. And then the coolness literally gets thrown into a pit when, instead of the both of them, as a Dyad, defeating Palpatine, Rey is left to carry the burden alone.

+Oh hey look a cop-out to save Rey from being bad- just have her reflect his own power back at him so it’s like he’s killing himself, wow, so original! The second Palpy revealed his gameplan about wanting to die, this became the obvious choice to both kill him and avoid giving him what he wanted. Eh….

+The Star Wars 9-movie series is the story of one man desperately begging anyone within hearing range to kill him, apparently. This is so, so old by the 9th friggin movie.

+Ben Solo spends his entire life begging for guidance from his ancestors only to be ignored and Rey get all their attention instead. Ben Solo spends his entire life since the womb being a burden to his parents by merely existing and being manipulated by gross sith ghosts. But nah, let’s be parents to Rey and help out Rey. This is not to say she doesn’t deserve any of this, but to say there are priorities here- Rey has had a lonely life, but at least she had her sanity and was self-sufficient. Ben had neither his sanity or any control over his own life whatsoever. And to place Rey above Ben is a literal mess. The two of them were meant by the Force to rise TOGETHER, and it didn’t happen.

+Rey doesn’t disappear when she ‘dies’ after using the last of her life force to both feed Palpatine, fight him, AND defeat him. And yet while Rey has two strikes in her before kicking it, Ben, someone who is RADICALLY more trained in the force, its lore, and mechanics, only has one? This doesn’t make any sense.

+Rey has no reaction to the literal other half of her soul vanishing in front of her. Because this is a mangled JJ Abrams Finale(tm) and why should anyone, let alone his own characters, have any space to Feel? I mean, that’s not what movies are even about, right? Feeling and Telling A Story? It’s not that, right? Right?? JJ Abrams covers up Rey’s reaching-hands scar on her arm for the entire film, doesn’t address it, and apparently hates the shit out of it. I don’t know how the King of Cheese could possibly hate something like that. It was a weird and obvious omission, and frankly disappointing because the scar had come to mean something at the end of TLJ and it, like a lot in this film, got thrown in the trash.

+More forced trio time in the form of a group hug where nothing gets actually expressed because we ran out of space for dialogue 30 pages back.

+Anakin Skywalker viewed Tatooine, his place of enslavement, as the worst place in the galaxy. Luke Skywalker spent his entire youth trying to escape. Leia hated it on principle because it was where Darth Vader came from and where she herself had been enslaved in a gross gold bikini for a giant slug. Rey spent 14 years of her life dreaming of leaving the sand planet she was trapped on. But I guess that’s a fitting place to bury some memories, yeah? The place where nothing good ever, ever happened. That’s a nice spot, right?

+Rey Skywalker isn’t explained, is never led up to, and feels like a gross gimmie after four years of trying to create a Better Message that names don’t matter. HEAVY SIGH.

+Rey watches the two suns set as she is left with little more than she started- alone, on a sand planet, but this time taunted by the Twin Suns of Tatooine that the other half of her soul is literally missing and that she is now left with a gaping wound in her Force signature and her own spirit worse than if she’d just lost a Force Bonded mate.

+Ben Solo is left missing, vanished on a world that is supposedly a thin spot in the force, with no ghost, no presence, and no one to mourn him- not even by the other half of his very soul. THREE GENERATIONS of Skywalkers over NINE FILMS died to try and rescue their future embodied in the form of Ben Solo and it looks like it was for nothing. Instead, the incessant bad guy no one can move on from looks like he ultimately wins the day through an alleged granddaughter, and even that claim is on shaky ground considering the mistakes in the vision and how quickly the family conversation vanished upon the revelation that Ben and Rey are a dyad. Ben is lost, so every family member died for nothing, apparently. But hey, this is a Fun and Hopeful narrative, right?

+While the Final Order fleet is destroyed at the end, the First Order is.....still out there? It’s still out there. Nothing in that department has changed whatsoever. Leaders die. They get replaced. The cycle goes on. We spent three movies batting at a fly we didn’t even kill. Amazing.

Overall this movie is BRUTAL. Every other scene is a plot hole served to us on a silver platter, with the biggest insult being that they are plot points JJ created HIMSELF 4-6 years ago. This man literally shot himself in the face and then said it was fine as he bled out all over the film reels and it shows. If you were anyone who came along for the Additional Materials ride of the past four years, you were greeted by this film with a hard, swift, and REPEATED, backhand to the face. There was no reward here at the end of this road for fans, old and new, who actually paid attention and took an interest in the deeper lore surrounding this sequel trilogy. There was just a big fat Disney-branded middle finger as all your hard work and cash was ripped from you with a trademark villain laugh.

And that is what we’re left with.

This review does not go into detail over what we’ve discovered since the release of the film, either. That it was never finished in the editing room. That a current comic series, Rise of Kylo Ren, and what’s in the new TROS visual dictionary maddeningly contradict themselves. That allegedly SIX different endings were shot for this movie, and in the end the one they chose looks like it was *literally* reverse-engineered to confusingly kill, as JJ once called him, ‘The Other Half of Our Protagonist’. There is no time to go into detail about how Oscar Isaac just told us that noone in the cast knew that Rey Palpatine was going to be endgame except for maybe Adam when they made him do ADR declaring it with a masked face on screen (convenient). There is no room to show you the collective cast reaction they all gave to the end of the movie- none of them good, and John Boyega looking like he was holding back from punching something (he loved Kylo/Ben as much as the audience did and more). And there is no room to include what we will continue to find out as the days roll on about the tangled mess of a film that was edited and reedited, and how word on the street is a cocky director demanded Carte Blanche from Kathleen Kennedy, and I guess the story group too given the state of things, and then promptly self-destructed in the grossest, messiest end to a 40+ year series in cinema history.

There’s just no space.

But there IS a lesson.

And the lesson is this: No matter what, never stop investing in Story. Never stop caring about the details and about plot and about moving a story FORWARD. Never be afraid to move FORWARD. Look at TROS, the mess it is and the potential it had it in itself to be, and then look at the beauty that is TFA and the love that went into TLJ, and study that shit until it burns into your brain- Do not repeat those mistakes. Go out into the world and write better, shoot better, direct better, and BE BETTER. Because these producers and directors? They’re old and they’re on their way out. Just like the stable boy at the end of TLJ who secretly has the Force, know and realize that those of you out there reading this are the next generation of storytellers. YOU. And YOU, and I, and others out there like us who loved this series with our whole heart and who are watching it bleed out now on a floor that doesn’t give two shits about it, have the ability to make sure this NEVER happens again. But in order to do that….we have to pick up that pen. Pick up that pencil. Pick up that camera. Jot down that story idea and share it with likeminded friends. Go out there and CREATE, and create BETTER. Because it’s up to us now- the future of cinema is up to us. And my god, we have so much potential….

#reylo #@starwars #star wars #TROS #The Rise of Skywalker

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mccoy-says-yalldve · 4 years ago

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my neighbor is running heavy y machinery at 5:15 in the morning so here's my rating of a few popular star trek ships from TOS, AOS, TNG, DS9, and DISC.

Spock/Kirk

10/10 I ship it. It has a long and glorious history, and there's just so much homoeroticism in TOS. They stare at each other so freaking much. Also the hand thing. Plus, even if you don't see it as romantic, they definitely could be a queerplatonic relationship. Gene Roddenberry himself said Spock thinks they're soulmates sooooo yea.

Kirk/McCoy

10/10. While Kirk and McCoy may not have had quite the level of heart eyes that Spock/Kirk did, they vibe really well together. They've also got a great friendship in AOS, despite JJ Abrams kinda mangling everyone's character.

Spock/McCoy

9/10. It loses a point because of how often McCoy called him a hobgoblin. Their frenemies like relationship reminds me a lot of me and one of my friends.

Scotty/Uhura

7/10. I see this one mentioned a lot in fics and I just don't see it. It's a good ship, people do a good job writing it, but I personally don't ship it.

Spock/Uhura (AOS only)

4/10. I do not approve. They just. No. Why. Who's decision was this? They don't go well together in TOS so why were they together in AOS?? Also did they get together while she was his student or after? Because l have more opinions depending on the answer.

Sulu/Chekov (AOS only)

4/10. I've only seen this in AOS fics and I have objections. Chekov is 17 in the first movie and while Sulu's age is unknown, his general accepted year of birth is 2237 which would put him at about 21 during the first movie. That's only a fourish year age difference so, after the events of the first movie? I'll accept it. They've got a good vibe, I can see it. But during academy era or the events of the first movie?? Absolutely not. And guess which one I see more of.

Picard/Q

12/10 it's hilarious. It's a total enemies to lovers trope and I am here for it. I can just see like, Picard slowly warming up to Q but refusing to acknowledge that and Q slowly falling for human and at first being like wtf but then wholeheartedly accepting it and annoying the shit out of Picard with like thousands of rose bouquets.

Data/Geordi

10/10. I haven't seen this in very many fics but I've loved it in the ones I have. I've also seen a fair bit of fanart for them here on tumblr and it's honestly adorable. They would make a great couple.

Riker/Troi

10/10. They're cute. They're a canon couple I like and that doesn't happen often. They had a good arc in TNG and seemed pretty happy together in Picard.

Jadzia/Worf

9/10. I'm getting into territory I don't entirely know here cause I've only seen a few episodes of DS9 but I have seen quite a bit of content about them on tumblr and they seem like a good match. The fanart is cute at least.

Garak/Bashir

8/10. I sincerely hope I spelled those right and got the right characters. Again, I've really only seen fanart and incorrect quotes on tumblr but they seem like a good couple.

Michael/Mirror Georgiou

10/10. Definite enemies to lovers trope and while canon has been a bit shitty at addressing that, some of the fics explore the nature of their relationship so well, it's just like, amazing. There is so much potential and everything and I just love it. I love it. 10/10.

Michael/Tilly

10/10. Adorable. Freaking adorable. Tilly is adorable and she and Michael are like perfect together. Don't tell me you can't see Michael and Tilly on a date where Tilly is excitedly talking about the latest project in engineering and Michael is just listening and watching her with a soft smile. Small kisses in the turbolift on the way to work. Cuddling in their room after the alpha shift. Michael encouraging Tilly every time she feels like she can't do the command track. Just everything about them is like, yes. Make it canon, please.

Michael/Pike

7/10. Why are there so many Michael ships. Anyways. I could not see this one at all until I read a few fics with them and then rewatched a few episodes of season 2. There's definitely a dynamic there that I like, but I don't think it would last even in a timeline where they didn't have to go to the future. Pike would be going back to the Enterprise and I can't see Michael leaving Discovery for him. Long distance relationships can work, yes, but we're talking millions and millions of miles of space and they wouldn't even meet up often on shore leave because Enterprise and Discovery have entirely different missions. I like the ship, I just don't think they would easily stay together long term.

Kayla/Owo

10/10 yes. They work really well together. I haven't read many fics so I can't give an in depth analysis but I definitely ship it.

Okay that's it. I haven't seen season 3 of DISCO yet btw, so any new characters or ships, I don't know about. And these aren't all the ships I know or like by any means, just a few of the more popular ones I see on ao3 and tumblr.

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save-ben-swolo · 5 years ago

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The backtracking on FinnRose makes me nervous. Do you think they’re gonna do that with Reylo?

I’m not worried AT ALL. Who Finn ends up with has no major bearing on the main plot. And who knows, he could still ultimately end up with Rose. But even if he’s with Poe, some rando, OR he stays single, it won’t change the overarching story which so far is Reylo.

Reylo is the central story. Both Rey and Ben are key in the force plot and they are the ones who need to come together to make everything right for the Galaxy/defeat Palps once and for all. They also, more or less, told us in the trailer that that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Showing that Rey still feels alone/misunderstood and that Ben is the ONLY ONE who can TRULY understand her is like.... a huge neon Reylo is endgame sign. Finding belonging has been Rey’s main goal this entire saga and they WILL complete her arc.

Before anyone says that Reylo can happen platonically especially if they “backtracked on FinnRose”, No it can’t. This is completely different. Please no one send me hate mail. I am NOT anti FinnRose (if it happens great!) and I love Rose/KMT but I’m going to be real with you guys for a minute:

FinnRose came OUT OF NOWHERE at the end of TLJ. None of their other interactions were coded as romantic except maybe that Rose was all flustered about him being “THE Finn”. I know the novelization elaborates that she found him attractive but there was no reciprocation or interest shown on Finn’s end of things. That kiss was obviously coded as a WTF just happened kiss on Finn’s part. If that was meant to be a “they are lovers now” kiss it was very poorly done and I KNOW JB and KMT are amazing actors so it was directed to be that way. Finn was totally confused because, again, it came out of nowhere since there was ZERO romantic build up.

I was never “sold” on FinnRose being canon even though they shared an awkward kiss. I don’t personally feel like it’s really “backtracking” for Finn to say he talked about the spontaneous kiss with Rose and it was “a moment” but they were just friends. That was essentially my reading from TLJ already.

Conversely, Reylo is DRIPPING with sexual tension and romantic build up. They are THE REASON TLJ has been called out as the horniest SW movie. Their VERY FIRST scene together (written and directed by JJ Abrams) was a PAINFULLY OBVIOUS romantic trope.

And things just escalated from there. The creators and the actors have been talking about their relationship “evolving” in multiple interviews. Relationships don’t “evolve” (cue Daisy Ridley eyebrow waggle) into, “Hey thanks for saving the Galaxy with me let’s just be friends and forget about how we’re clearly attracted to eachother/seemingly destined by fate to be together. We can just ignore this whole force bond thing. Maybe I’ll see you around.” O_O NO.

Ending Reylo platonically or in an open ended way is also VERY anticlimactic for THE END of a DRAMATIC saga. It’s not going to happen. They’re going to kiss and we’re all going to spontaneously combust in the theater. RIP. 🖤

#resistance reborn spoilers #reylo #romantic reylo is endgame #they will kiss #asks #answered out of order because on topic

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dyadsaber · 5 years ago

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A New Reylo Shipper Reads the TFA Novelization Part 3: In which I Have Squishy Feelings About Rey Being Taken Care Of, and The Dyad Meeting Each Other Makes Me Capslock a Lot

One of the fun things about reading this novel was discovering all of the little differences that hadn’t been all over tumblr. Not that I minded being spoiled. All of those “I should be afraid of YOU” snarky Kylo Ren gifsets brought me great joy. But you know what I didn’t know going in? That Unkar Plutt was supposed to catch up with Rey at Maz’s place, and when he’s about to turn her over to the first order, Chewie shows up and RIPS HIS ARMS OFF.

I get that they likely cut it for time, but it was just really a gratifying scene to read, and I am 100% here for Rey being witness to the fact that there are people in her corner who will rip the arms off of those who would use her and hurt her.

And then we get to the scene where Rey finds the legacy lightsaber and OH BOY.

So Finn just decided to leave for “as far away from the First Order as one can get,” and here’s Rey’s PoV:

“Under the weight of her loneliness Han’s voice seemed to fade, and Maz Kanata’s as well, until there was nothing surrounding her but a silence as deep and profound as the distant reaches of space itself. Then something came, stealthy and unidentifiable, to fill it.”

Part of this is her own individual connection to the Force , but reading backwards, part of this could definitely be her connection to Ben through their dyad bond, because she isn’t alone, neither of them are, even if they don’t know it yet. They always had each other, and no, I didn’t cry a lot at those panels of young Rey from The Rise of Kylo Ren, WHY ARE YOU ASKING???

And then, in the MIDDLE of the flurry of things she sees/hears, THIS HAPPENS…

“Someone, somewhere, somewhen, spoke her name. “Hello? Wreathed in the irrationality of the moment, she called hopefully, but received no answer. A boy appeared at the end of the hallway.”

It was in this moment that I screamed at my kindle, in my best Kylo voice, “WHAT BOY???” No really did she see a much younger version of Ben here? My personal answer from now on is YES SHE DID.

I remember a whole lot of talk a couple of months ago about the following two “I’ll come back for you” lines, and about JJ Abrams confirming who said them, but all I can find now is speculation from before TRoS came out, and that is NOT HELPING ME REMEMBER. If you have a link to the article/interview where Abrams or anyone else clarifies this, please @ me.

She’s seeing Starkiller from the future, here, and I think that’s telling. Because after describing all of the noise of battle, we get…

“Then behind her, another voice. That voice. “Stay here. I’ll come back for you.”

“That” is actually italicized in the text, which means that it’s a voice Rey hears enough to recognize and give importance to it, but WHOSE VOICE? I mean I know that it was left vague intentionally here because ADF didn’t know whose voice it was supposed to be, and neither did anyone else, but the vagueness makes it COMPLETELY possible that this was Ben, and that she’s been hearing little fragments from him for years. This line, though, raises questions that I don’t think anyone at DLF thought about as hard as we are now, but the idea of this being WBW Ben telling her to wait for him because he’s trying to get back to her GIVES ME A LOT OF FEELINGS EVEN IF IT IS NEVER GOING TO BE CANON. (I’m from the school of “canon can go jump in a lava pit if it doesn’t respect the fans or the characters” so I’m an old hand at reimagining things shitty creators screwed up.)

In between this scene and the one where dyad finally sees each other for the first time, we get:

An incredibly frustrating tease of a line from Maz about how she acquired the lightsaber. I want a whole comic about how that thing fell into her hands. TAKE MY MONEY, DLF.

Leia feeling the Hosnian system being destroyed, thinking about Alderaan, and making me very very upset in ways that aren’t fun to read or write about, so…

On to the first meeting! Mostly, I got really sarcastic in my kindle notes at this point.

Rey sees Kylo Ren from a distance for the first time.

“She had seen this man before, in a daydream. In a nightmare.”

...in the weird Force-induced version she just experienced not fifteen minutes ago…

Also, what happened to Rey back at Maz’s place is NOT something I would describe as a daydream, which can only lead me to wonder about but having random “Wtf where did that come from” daydreams about Ben “I am in FULL KYLO COSTUME” Solo in the middle of scavenging a Star Destroyer, shrugging it off as her mind playing tricks on her, and going about her day. Someone PLEASE draw this. (I know this is a reach and I’m nitpicking at less than awesome writing, but it’s day I don’t even know what of quarantine, and this is how I’m making my own fun.)

And the first time he becomes aware of her…

“Sir, we’re still searching for Solo, but the droid that’s wanted was spotted heading west, with a girl.” At this Ren said nothing, but instead looked sharply in the indicated direction.

“WhAT gIrL” - Kylo Ren at this point definitely

“Each shot from her blaster he deflected with the lightsaber’s beam. Almost as if it were a game, she thought in terror as she continued to fire. He was playing with her.”

“Let's see what you can do, Scavenger”. - Kylo Ren playing with the dyad partner he doesn't know he has yet IN THE MIDDLE OF A BATTLE. Typical.

“When he finally spoke, he sounded at once impressed and surprised.”

Ben Solo begins as he means to go on... She is constantly impressing and surprising him.

“So afraid,” he murmured. “Yet I should be the one who should be scared. You shot first. You speak of the Order as if it were barbaric. And yet, it is I who was forced to defend myself against you.”

“Wow you’re SCARED?” he says, looming in black, waving his red lightsaber around, and using the Force to control her…

“Something.” He sounded mystified. “There is something…Who are you?”

She’s a Force user, what you’re feeling is your Force bond, and she's your other half, Kylo my guylo. Get it together, jeez…

“Is it true, then? You’re nothing special after all? You’re just a—Jakku scavenger?”

Keep telling yourself that, KR - Love, Your Future Self

And then there’s this Rey PoV that breaks me a little…

“She’d tried to keep her mind blank, her memory locked, and still he had wormed his way in. He touched her anew. This time the pain of trying to stave him off brought tears streaming down her face.”

I think Daisy gets this across in her performance her really well, but being reminded so starkly of the fact that what he’s doing when he roots around in her memories HURTS HER drew me up short when I read this. I headcanon that this is one of the things Ben spends a lot of time apologizing for later because he feels so guilty about it.

But before I can get too wrapped up in Ben Solo’s occasionally crushing guilt, we have THIS delicious dose of irony: (He’s talking about her affection for Finn, here…)

He drew back slightly, bemused. “You’ve even begun to care for him. A weakness, such distractions.”

YOU HAVE NO IDEA, DO YOU, SIR… COME TALK TO ME WHEN YOU’RE CUTTING YOUR MENTOR IN HALF INSTEAD OF HURTING HER, OK?

And finally… just because the visual of this cracks me up… the novel implies that Kylo Ren let Rey DROP TO THE GROUND when he force-whammied her, instead of catching her like he does on screen. My proof (this is PoV of some random First Order officer):

At a gesture from Ren the young woman standing before him collapsed. [...] He had no wish to join the woman on the ground in a state of oblivion.

WHAT A CAD! Not CATCHING the woman you just made PASS OUT with the Force? Bad form, KR. (Movie Kylo is a gentleman and keeps her from hitting the floor. A++ “not as much of jerk as you could have been” moment.)

And that seems like a good stopping place for Part 3. Next time: I scream about Han and Leia’s characterization as parents and try to defend one of my oldest ships from the outright character assassination this novelization engages in. Also, there’s some scene with Rey in an interrogation chair thingy and Kylo taking his mask off. I had some thoughts.

#reylo #tfa novelization #the force awakens novelization #dyadsaber text posts

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virtualreylo · 5 years ago

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My review of TROS:

As some of you may know, I went to see TROS on the premier night, and I wanted to give myself a full week to think everything through to see what stil stood out to me. See-the-fuck-below:

I want to first say that TROS was honestly better than I thought it would be, however, IT WAS SO RUSHED.

I felt like we the audience had zero time to actually react to what was happening because this movie literally had two, maybe even three, movies crammed into a single one.

Rush Job / Leia:

We weren’t given the opportunity to actually feel as though Chewie had died, or really get to know Dio, or properly grieve Leia-Effing-Organa-Skywalker-Solo.

Like seriously, what the hell was up with that? This woman had given so much to the Star Wars universe, and the characters along for the ride couldn’t even have a minute to respond and process.

It was always just so “Onto the next thing!”, and I hated it.

Poe/Finn/Rose:

I did like that we were able to kind of get a glimpse of Poe’s background a little more, but when he was given the title of ‘General’, I WISHED they would have also given him just an extra five seconds to process and acknowledge this! That was a huge step for every one around him, and for Leia to do, and it was just glossed over.

With Finn, I hated how he interacted with Rose. Those few seconds reminded me of how we deal with an annoying little cousin. Those two characters literally spent an entire movie together, at least show they’re more than strangers.

I do like how it’s more obvious that he’s force sensitive, but I HATE that JJ made it seem as if he was trying to tell Rey that he had feelings for her or some shit. I mean, if you were paying close enough attention, Finn was telling everyone else around him about it, so it made sense that that was what he was also trying to tell Rey (John Boyega has also confirmed via Instagram that Finn was not trying to tell Rey he loved her). It just could’ve been handled differently, and I don’t think Finn’s story had to be based around Rey, of course, until he met Jannah...

Rose - My, my, my. It was such a shame to see her character pushed to the sidelines in such a harsh way. I understand she may not have needed to be such a big character in TROS, however TLJ made me feel like she was part of the gang.

If JJ wanted to exercise his creativity, he could have included her and formed it in a way where it wasn’t so in your face. Instead, after alllll the backlash and harassment Kelly had dealt with, her character was pretty much trashed, and at a time when female friendship was needed in the Star Wars films.

C3PO/Chewie:

I actually loved C3PO’s humor in this one - But part of me did feel a little betrayed about how easy it was for the gang to decide to just destroy his mind (Its rediculous when you think about it lmao). I am not saying it didn’t make sense, I just wish they would have taken only an extra 5 seconds to be like “Mmm... Are we sure?” - But no, it was always “On to the next thing!”

Chewie - Yall already know that I wanted a bigger reaction to the almost-death. Again, literally 5 seconds more could have made the difference.

In addition, it would have been amazing to see Chewie and Ben interact...

Lando:

Okay.

What the actual fuck?

I seriously felt as though I blinked and Lando just popped up with no acknowledgment.

AGAIN.

I was soooo frustrated, because Lando was a big character that I think a lot of people were looking forward to seeing, and the only one excited to be there, was Lando himself.

Everyone just kinda had the reaction of: “Oh, hey.” on screen. WTF!!!

Hux:

The spy, eh? Full on caps-lock-pissy-mode activated.

HOW FUCKING RANDOM AND THROWN IN WAS THAT?! WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING IN TFA AND TLJ? WHERE WAS THE HELP THEN?? WHY DID HE ALL OF A SUDDEN CARE NOW?!

ALSO, SMALL FUCKING REMINDER, HE STILL WASN’T ON THE RESISTANCE’S SIDE!!!

HE HELPED THEM ONLY TO TAKE KYLO REN DOWN, HE SAID HE DIDN’T GIVE A DAMN WHO WON.

Sorry. The end.

Also, he looked hot af in this movie.

Rey:

Now, let’s get into the heavy.

I, again, hated how rushed this movie was, and that included how they dealt with Rey’s character and growth.

Only one year had passed, you’re telling me she learned all of these powers and moves by Leia? Let’s say that was the case, JUST SHOW US HOW. Even a 10 second clip of just their various training methods or sessions! Anything.

Don’t get me wrong: I know Rey is a Palpatine (Rolling my mf eyes) - so she would obviously be very powerful. But the last we saw of Rey, she was lost and struggling how to move on.

Her saber was broken, she had the Jedi textbooks, and she was lost.

What happened??

Along side this, I was extremely disappointed to find out that she was indeed a Palpatine. I had my theories when TFA came out, but I, along with so many others, loved the fact that she didn’t have to be part of any big name in order to be a strong, self sufficient lead, and I think Rian Johnson did a great job at letting us know and feel that during the mirror/cave scene in TLJ.

Rey’s overall attitude this movie really left a sour taste in my mouth. I get that she was hurt, and angry, and panicking... But, she acted like an ass quite honestly.

But, to me, it kind of played into the dark side of herself, though I wished that was explained a bit more for people that don’t really get into Star Wars as much as we do.

With that said: I wished Rey was still a nobody from Jakku, and that she kept a little bit of her curious/sweet side. And I wished her growth was shown a bit more - Not in just the powers she used against Kylo Ren.

Ben Solo / Kylo Ren:

Can we seriously just take a minute to thank Adam Driver? This isn’t me being up his ass. As an aspiring director, his acting was amazing in this movie, and I feel he really out did himself.

With that said: I, again, hate how everyone’s characters and growth were glossed over in TROS, as if TLJ never happened and it’s really so childish and disheartening. If Abrams wanted to literally skip TLJ, he should have manned up and taken on TLJ himself.

I feel like Kylo Ren was back in his TFA ways; Demanding, with a little charm now. I liked it, but I would have liked it a little more if he actually talked to Rey like a normal human being like he did in TLJ.

(But, Kylo Ren with an attiude? FuCk YeS pLeAsE.)

Ben Solo: Can we all just marry you now? That fucking switch was everything, his ‘Ow’ was everything, his lightsaber throw-age was everything, his interaction with Han was life, and kicking ass and forgetting names was the best fucking time.

I wished he had more lines in the end, literally, how does he barely have any lines as BEN SOLO!!!!

But jesus, the way he literally crawled out of the dark to save Rey was everything.

And that kiss? I could stare at it for hours.

Amazing acting with these characters, brav-fucking-o.

The end (+THAT “death”):

Ben Solo is not dead.

That is not denial.

I think that is the “hope” that JJ kept referring to. There are so many big points that show he isn’t, and I think down the line, we will get another movie with his comeback.

With the end, I hated how Rey didn’t seem to react to his death either, but I think it leads to something bigger: She feels him out there somewhere, in the in-between.

I do not like how she adopted the Skywalker name... I wished she stuck with the “Just Rey.” shit. I lived for that.It’s great, she has some sense of belonging, if that’s what you want to call it... But again, it was thrown together and it isn’t real.

The ending itself was left open: Yellow lightsaber, and walking around on Tattooine? I really doubt she stayed there.

Overall:

I hated how rushed it was, and how JJ tried to erase TLJ (Seriously, if you aim to do that shit to a movie, JUST DON’T TAKE THE JOB, YOU SCARED/POSSESSIVE POS!! Let’s say the movie was split up in two, with the same outcome, but at least TLJ still existed in his world - I would be 100% okay with that!

But, that’s not how it was handled, and we the fandom, were provided a “close” to a saga that we rode with for many, many years just to have it all thrown down the drain without a second thought.

I do believe a LOT of last minute decisions were made, especially with editing. But I sincerely hope that we get a glimpse into the shit that was left out, at least on the DVD extras, or an extended version of the movie (GOD, PLEASE).

When all is said and done:

- Ben Solo will come back.

- Rey’s story will continue.

- Hopefully we have a director that actually cares about the characters and story.

- I am looking forward to the novelization, the Kylo Ren comics, those DVD extras, and once the dust settles I really want to see what JJ and the cast have to say for this shit.

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emperorren · 5 years ago

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If that's the case I don't know wtf they were thinking? Rey Palpatine isn't going to win those who complained about Rey Nobody back. They all saying it's dumb as fuck. I've always believed JJ Abrams doesn't understand why the OT was popular and tries to shoehorn the same elements but with 1/10 the emotional substance. He wants a "I am your father" reveal but it won't be like in ESB. Also, if Palp was behind Snoke why would he tell Ben to kill his granddaughter in TLJ? Fuck me up JJ.

None of this makes the slightest sense. Palpatine means nothing to the younger audience who hasn’t grown up watching the OT or the prequels. While he works as the ultimate ubervillain to defeat, there is zero emotional payoff in revealing Rey is related to him. And yes---if Snoke was Palpatine’s puppet, how come he was so blind to Rey’s powers, to the point that he only thought of using her as a tool to torture Kylo and nothing else?

And the fanbro wanted Rey to be the new perfect Skywalker hero, not the heir to Palpatine’s lineage. The general audience doesn’t react terribly well to heroines who struggle with the dark side, so if this was a way to make Rey more *likeable* then it’s gonna backfire.

And what about all the things they’ve said about how everyone can be strong with the Force, you don’t have to come from a powerful lineage to be powerful, and Rey’s importance shouldn’t be defined by who her parents are? All trash talk? Turns out that Rey’s powers can only be hereditary? The Force didn’t choose her, after all? Only male chosen ones can be strong just because?

MEH.

#tros leaks #sw negativity #anti rey palpatine #tombliboos #asks

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inevitably-johnlocked · 5 years ago

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So CBR posted an article -- "Star Wars: It's Time to Accept the REAL Problem Is the Fans" -- which made me think -- Anyone else think of the parallels of similarities and differences between the negative receptions of Sherlock S4 and Star Wars Rise of Skywalker? I was thinking along the lines of 'desired designs/plans' and the degree which, creator and fans, becomes to too overly entitled.

(referencing this article here)

Hi Nonny!

Hmm, I never honestly really thought of it that way, but I suppose there are some parallels to be drawn there. But I’m going to be honest here: while yes, some fans are unbelievably entitled and think the whole world should revolve around what they want, I honestly don’t think it’s the fans’ fault… it’s “the media is looking for an easy scapegoat and rather than blame terrible writing / studio interference, we’re gonna blame fans because eewwww aren’t “nerds” the worst even though we’ll never in a million years say the same thing about sports fans who cause millions of dollars’ in damages if their team does OR doesn’t win a big game”. Because that’s genuinely how I feel. I read a blog post recently that revealed that JJ had no idea how much Disney interfered with the final cut he begrudgingly signed off on AFTER he signed off on it. And that doesn’t include how infuriating it seemed to be when he kept getting pushback on his cut. Now, I’m not saying he didn’t fuck up either – it seems to be as someone who hasn’t seen the movie but watched a lot of reviews that he was trying to rewrite TLJ and cram TRoS into the same movie – so he has to take a bit of blame there, but the mistake I’m seeing with SW is that unlike the MCU, the Disney SWU didn’t have a figurehead overseeing the entire plot to ensure there was a coherent narrative between the three movies, so when TLJ changed hands, Johnson had his vision from Abrams’ and then Abrams wanted to go back to his vision.

So yeah, none of that is “fan problems”, that’s “Disney trying to appease shareholders and make the most money possible and who cares if it makes sense or not”.

Same could be said about what I know of the GoT ending too. Cocky writers thought they knew better and gave a shitshow of a series finale.

Same with Mofftiss, though we don’t know what went on behind the scenes, so I WILL give them the benefit of the doubt that perhaps they also faced studio interference when they wanted to make Johnlock canon, but I really honestly have a hard time with this because Moffat does have a history of similar behaviour; this is a pattern with Moffat anyway, to draw in a particular audience and then just WTF the series / seasons. Mofftiss are better single-episode writers than showrunners. They needed that third writer for each episode to help it flow better, rather than let them get cocky.

I’m sure there’s a tonne of other examples of shows in recent history that are having the fandoms blamed for the poor reception rather than, you know, shit writing / directing / shareholder/studio interference / etc., but that’s the gist of how I feel.

No, fandoms are not perfect and a tonne of them have the toxic aspects of it (god knows I was disgusted at the SW fandom for their horrid behaviour towards first Boyega, and then Kelly Tran), and unfortunately those are the loudest bunch and the ones the media LOOOOOOOVESSS to place blame on, but in general, the fans are just good people who are trying to make sense of a story that took a huge 180˚ from the initial plot, and just want answers.

As I’ve said, it’s okay for a fanbase to be critical of something, just don’t attack the actors for just doing their jobs. We should be asking questions of Disney/Abrams/Mofftiss about why we got what we got. I can understand Abrams’ hesitance to say anything because Disney could literally ruin him if he effs up, but Mofftiss have time and again been asked “why” and they continue to belittle people who do, or tease at something it’s clear they have no interest in persuing.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts anyway. Take them or leave them. I worked in media, so I know they’re a bunch of vultures who will do anything to avoid angering the people who probably secretly own a share in them, so yeah, blame the little guys instead.

#steph replies #shitposting steph #sherlock parallels #sherlock vs star wars #fandom life #sherlock fandom #fandom problems #Anonymous #my thoughts #my opinions #don't matter so don't get upset #i just have big feels

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raptorific · 5 years ago

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TRoS was, like all JJ Abrams movies, exactly Pretty Good. It had one major thing I hated and a few minor WTF moments, and their efforts to include Carrie Fisher in the plot were unfortunately pretty obvious, but I’d say it was overall a strong finale. I felt like it corrected a lot of people’s problems with TLJ but unfortunately may have overcorrected in some areas.

As always, it’s neither as amazing or as terrible as the angriest nerds on the internet would have you believe, and like all “Star Wars” media, it’s flawed but overall mostly fun. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’s grown weary of the sequel trilogy or to the certain subset of die-hard fans whose expectations for new Star Wars media is “I want to watch the original trilogy again, but I want to not have seen it before.” It did make me cry for good reasons a lot more often than it made me say “what the hell was that” and as a Finn stan and a Poe stan it made me immensely happy. Not my favorite in the trilogy but also doesn’t even break the bottom 5 of Star Wars movies.

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liberty-belle-a · 4 years ago

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My rambling thoughts on episode 2x05 under the cut...

So they all do their own movies? There’s not like actors playing them? I mean...I guess that way you don’t need stuntdoubles.

“This new Joss rewrite really zings.” DAMN. I love that they’re subtly throwing shade at the whole “Snyder Cut” drama.

Homelander is such a dick. I love his whole conversation with Ashley. “I’m inspired. Are you inspired?”

MM WATCHES OUTLANDER!

Trivia: -tells me JJ Abrams and Greg Grunberg have been besties since kindergarten- Me: WHY DID YOU LET HIM FUCK UP TROS, GREG.

I see what you did there. With the whole female hero line up. Also I love how the set looks like the battle of NY from the first Avengers movie. So many call backs in these bits.

TERROR! And he has a piggy friend! Fun Fact: My puppers has a batty bat that is his best friend. He likes to take it to the window with him so they can both look out it.

The whole thing with The Deep being married is so weird.

The Russians discussing musicals is amazing. That is all.

My dog does NOT have the same relationship with his bat that Terror has with his pig.

CONFIRMED BISEXUAL QUEEN MAEVE. HELL YEAH.

“It ain’t that kind of massage parlor.” Seriously, Billy?

I’m gonna need A-Train to beat Stormfront’s racist ass.

THAT SCENE HAD ME GASPING OUTLOUD UNTIL THEY REVEALED IT WAS A FANTASY.

Also, I just keep thinking about how much Vought would be parading Maddie about during this. An actual born super. Young. Beloved. Have her doing all sorts of crisis management.

WAIT WHAT. WTF. IS LAMPLIGHTER WORKING WITH STORMFRONT??? CAUSE THAT IS LAMPLIGHTER, RIGHT????

Is she...is she teaching him about memes???? I just can’t with that.

I have so many thoughts about the end of this episode. Cause just...what even.

#(ooc: behind the curtain)#the boys spoilers #the boys season 2 spoilers #kerry watches season 2

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alistairs-raven · 5 years ago

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My ranking of all 11 Star Wars films in order.

Disclaimer: I actually like all the SW films in some way except my least favorite. But there are definitely some that have more that I dislike about them. Also my opinions are 100% the only opinions one can have, and if this list offends you, it was meant to offend you personally.

11: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I have watched this movie twice, once in the theater and once during a marathon. I also have never seen this movie in it's entirety because I cannot focus on it. It bores me so much that I keep blanking out and daydreaming. I cannot tell you anyone's name except the main character and the main imperial officer. I just could not get into this movie, but I will say if nothing else, it had the best Darth Vader scene ever.

10: Star Wars 9: Rise of Skywalker

It took me days to figure out if I liked this movie or not. There are actually a lot of things that I like, but the things I didn't like I REALLY didn't like. So much so, that this movie actually really hurt me to think about. And apart from a movie being boring, it shouldn't feel like personal stab to what matters to you. I liked Palpatine (pointless as that plot was), Kylo Ren and Rey's amazing acting, and seeing old friends again. This movie also had good humor. The bad things are too many to count, but mainly this film was poorly directed, full of 3 films worth of plot that make no sense, and the worst offender is that it felt like the director (JJ Abrams) did not care about these characters at all. I had fallen so in love with pretty much everyone in the ST, and to see almost all of them sidelined, stereotyped, and departing from any previous character development just hurt. This film made me cry, and not in a good way.

9: Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace

I don't hate this movie. In fact when it first came out, I enjoyed it. Sure I was a dumb little kid, but I rewatched it a lot. Sadly, as an adult I see now all the issues with it, none I have to really get into since everyone knows at this point. The parts I enjoy are Darth Maul (hell yea), the podrace, and this film also probably has the best score of the entire series.

8: Solo: A Star Wars story

This one was good, it just wasn't great. The actor's portrayal of Han Solo was perfect, Lando was perfect, I loved seeing places that you only hear about in passing in the films. Freakin Darth Maul (hell yea). The not so good was this movie had a very generic heist plot, it felt incomplete, and I didn't really connect with anyone besides Han and Lando.

7: Star Wars 6: Return of the Jedi

This one also falls into the 'just okay' category. There's no real plot except a recycled one from episode 4, Luke has no personality in it, Leia is sidelined. The goods are that Vader's sacrifice to save his son was so unexpected and beautifully done (at least in the original cut), the Jabba Palace scene is one of my favorite parts of the entire series, and the rebel characters in this movie are super fun (Ackbar, Lando, ect). Also the ghosts at the end was a very nice touch.

6: Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones

I HATED this movie when it first came out. I only saw it once and not again until last year when my friend insisted we marathon the SW movies. Now I love this movie, because it's the good kind of bad. The whole thing is just a meme, with some of the worst dialogue of the entire series. However, the characters are all super fun. Rewatching it years later, I was pleasantly surprised that I now love Hayden's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. His character is by far the best part of the movie. He brought so much energy to the character, and I actually really connected and felt for him. I always loved Kamino, and I think it's very creative. The effects were also a lot better. The bad is the poor directing, horrible dialogue (sand), and that this movie killed Boba Fett for me.

5: Star Wars 4: A New Hope

These next three are hard for me to rank. Episode 4 is fun, creative, makes you feel like a kid again, has effects that were so groundbreaking that they held up for 40 years, changed filmmaking itself, introduced us all to a universe that has touched so many lives around the world. I am convinced that the Lightsaber sound is the best sound design in history. All the characters are likeable, the score is the best in all of cinema, and there is such a sense of satisfaction when this movie ends. It's hard to find faults with this movie, but of course our dear Mr. Lucas had to change this movie that was perfect, so now it's full of ugly cgi. That added Jabba scene is so dumb.

4: Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith

I loved this movie when it came out and I am still very fond of it. When it came out we all thought it was going to be the last SW (lol) and I was determined to enjoy it as much as I could. It has the best effects of the prequels, all the characters are well acted, there's so much emotion and heart in it, and it has some of the coolest planets and settings in it. I LOVE the opening scene, I still can't watch it without my jaw dropping a little. There was a lot of hype leading up to it, and I grew really fond of General Grievous and was disappointed to see him barely used. It also suffered from the bad dialogue issues that plague Lucas films. Despite the good acting, there were awkward moments that I feel were a case of bad directing. Padme dying from a 'broken heart' despite now having babies makes me feel that Lucas doesn't understand people.

3: Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens

This movie is very special to me for personal reasons - I almost didn't live to see it. But it was well worth staying alive for and gave me a new reason to live. It introduced me to Rey, a nobody who has had to deal with being alone for so long. Something that I can relate to. And it also introduced me to Kylo Ren, the angry and also very alone character that quickly became my favorite character of all time. I even legally changed my name to Ren. Finn, Poe, BB-8, Hux, Phasma... so many characters that I all love and have spent hours talking about, roleplaying, reading about, drawing, and just enjoying. My complaint is the plot, which is simply a remake of episode 4. I also am not the biggest fan of JJ Abrams directing style, as I feel he can make movies very well, but he's not a very creative storyteller and is infamous for simply repolishing things other people have done. Also Rey's theme is my favorite song in the entire SW score.

2: Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Before the ST, I had watched this one more than all the others. Hoth, the battles, Yoda, the asteroid field, cloud city, Vader, Lando, I am your father moment, Leia being force sensitive, the list goes on. Also this movie gave us the BEST bad guy theme (until dual of the fates that is). This movie felt a lot cleaner than the one before it and the one after it. It also had good dialogue, character development, and depth that's missing when Lucas is directing. It was less fanservice and more just a good film. However I never understood the tree scene (wtf was that). And it always bothered me that Lando allowed them to hurt his friend, granted it wasn't what he originally thought was going to happen.

1: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi

I went to this movie 10 times in the theater and have seen it countless times since it came out. I LOVE everything about this movie. It's creative, full of new ideas and concepts, has so many emotions, beautiful art direction, and deepened every single character in it. Rarely does a movie come along where every character develops and is different at the end. Rarely do we get a movie in a huge series that focuses on being a good movie rather than fanservice. I could not predict this movie, and was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing wondering what in the world was going to happen next. The director, Rian, is clearly a fantastic storyteller who can also do subtlety. The first 4-5 times I saw this movie I was still seeing new things. It revived a love of Star Wars in me and I dreaded what would come after because I doubt anything will ever be this good again. I certainly hope we get something as good or maybe better one day. This movie solidified Rey as my favorite SW protagonist.

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pryde7 · 5 years ago

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Reylo had potential but failed.spoilers

So I finally watched rise of skywalker and I must say it is just a bad movie. Reylo in particular was a let down. I think this is the problem you have when there is not one vision of a person making this movie.

As for the kiss, it felt more like fan service to the Reylo fans than for the story reason, the kiss is a wtf moment in the content of what good screen writing is. the kiss felt like a very badly done version of the last scene between Rose and Jack from titanic because of the lack of dialogue or genuine screen writing.its was ours fan fiction fan service.

Also it would have helped, if rey had seen Ben’s ghost too with Luke and Leia as she changes her name to Skywalker. which makes me question, just how much did JJ Abrams actually liked or wanted to do Reylo?

Overall I am mixed on this movie and mixed on Reylo, I wont say I am a shipper but I did see great potential in the ship that never made it into fruition.

So many problems with this film and the entire trilogy, what a shame.

#star wars #rise of skywalker #reylo #reylo spoilers #kylo ren and rey

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tariqk · 5 years ago

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So I watched Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker last night

TL;DR: Glad I got that out of the way.

Spoilers under the cut.

J.J. Abrams can’t write or direct to save his life. It was evident that he had a lot of help this time from an editing and pacing perspective, because 1) Rey and Kylo were put in a lightsaber battle on a place with ocean spray and she was wearing a white outfit and there were no gratuitous nipple shots, and 2) there seemed to be less of the classic Abrams fakeout than usual. Which means that there were still an egregious amount, but it felt like the other adults in the room reined him in.

Even despite all of that? The end result was mostly… bland, apart from the few moments of outrage, annoyance, and occasionally (occasionally) squealing joy.

I’ll get to the parts I did like first:

Wedge Antilles (played by Denis Lawson) makes a very brief cameo. Like, a very brief cameo. I still squealed.

The OT3 moments between Rey, Finn and Poe were real. I knew I was being pandered to, but if there’s an AU where the three of them don’t settle in the old Skywalker ranch, where Finn plays the oblivious hot homesteading dad that everyone wants to bang, Poe’s the crusty old smuggler with a paramour in every spaceport, and Rey becomes the cranky old uncle with a gaggle of Force-sensitive children, apprentices, and droids I will scream.

Okay, it’s nice that Finn gets to bond with more ex-stormtroopers. I’d have liked to see more, but this was good. Maybe Finn can start group therapy sessions with former ex-child-soldiers and stuff.

It’s also nice that we get Finn as the secondary Force-Sensitive character in the movie! He’s not going to be the Jedi, but he’s definitely taking on the role of the Leia. And it’s also nice that everyone secretly wants to bang him treats him like a respected, even natural leader!

The reason why Zorri was so willing to help Poe and his gang was so obviously because she was gay for Rey. GAY FOR REY! GAY FOR REY! GAY FOR REY! (Honestly I don’t see the point, Rey’s such a skinny white girl and there were major vibes of that in that once-every-42-years festival scene)

The actors did great despite the limitations of the script. Yes, even Adam Driver. But to call out, specifically: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Dominic Monaghan, Kelly Marie Tran, Oscar Isaac, Ian McDarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Domnhall Gleeson (Hux Spite 110% 5eva lmaooo), Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fischer, god rest her soul. All of you were amazing and did a great job despite the crap materials you were saddled with.

That’s about it honestly. It’s honestly evident that JJ Abrams made this movie to be sliced up into a series of awesome movie clips from the movie, because the movie is jam-packed with all of them. But put together the way it was in the cinema, it all blended into this bland, empty experience.

Like, honestly… my bladder was so full that I had to go to the can, got lost a bit, peed up a storm, and wash my hands, came back and I honestly can say that I didn’t miss a damn thing. You could see where things were going. Rey would keep wandering off by herself and experience Force visions. There’d be a terrible tragedy that would be a fakeout that would be undercut by subsequent scenes. Kylo Ren would look all wooby while gaslighting the shit out of Rey.

That being said… fuck the kiss, man. Fuck the kiss. I loathe Reylo so I’m biased as hell, but even if I was, can you honestly expect me to believe that someone as violent, abusive, and gaslighting like Kylo Ren just had to believe that his momma still loved him before he’d turn back to the light? The fucker, who massacres entire villages, was responsible for the genocide of billions, murders the shit out of everyone, subjects his subordinates to Force and lightsaber-based abuse, just needed to know that momma loved him? This man ran a lightsaber through his daddy’s gut, the same daddy who loved and trusted him so much that he literally risked his ass (and paid dearly for it) to try and tell him that he and his momma loved him very much despite all the shit he pulled? All he needed was the love of his Sainted Mother (RIP Carrie you will be missed) who had to die for him to get the message? And for that he gets smoochies with Rey and then gets to pass into the Force?

Fuck that. I hope he never comes back, good riddance.

That being said, Adam Driver is an excellent actor, able to portray both Kylo Ren (who is a terrible person) and Ben Solo (who is an uncertain child in a grown man’s skin) amazingly well. It’s just that… when he’s in Ben Solo mode, I can’t help but notice his giant nose. Like you don’t notice it when he’s being a gaslighting, abusive dipshit, I guess? But when he’s the lost, uncertain boy who’s forced to grow up too fast through associating with abusive persons? That nose just like, grows three sizes or some shit. I don’t understand it, but there you have it.

And it’s also nice that Lando Calrissian, the token Black dude in the original series, remains literally the last surviving member of the gang. Well, other than Chewie. WHO NEEDS A PROPER MEDAL CEREMONY WTF.

Also, Rose Tico got done dirty in this episode. MORE ROSE TICO! Ian McDarmid also was amazing, despite the fact that for most of the movie he was tethered to a massive cybernetic machine as zombie Emperor Palpatine. I have no opinions about Rey being a Palpatine. It honestly doesn’t matter. When the reveal happened I kind of shrugged and moved on. Doesn’t matter, she’s her own person. The fact that she can do the whole Force Lightning shit? Who gives crap, man! Darksiders can all do that, it’s classic Dark Side Force User power, it’s hardly signature to Palpatine though Abrams tried to make it so (remember that Count Dooku could do it). Evil!Rey was pretty good, though. I loved that feral smile. Too bad it was a Force image and there wasn’t a real personality behind it.

#Star Wars #spoilers #the rise of skywalker

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starwarshyperdrive · 5 years ago

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Predictions after seeing the D23 footage and reading too many stupid fan theories..again.

So now that the ‘special look’ has been out for a while and there are some alleged plot leaks on reddit, I think it’s time for to go over my predictions. Mostly to be able to say ‘I knew it’ and ‘I told you’ later on, because there is no chance in hell that Rey is just one many clones from Lukes hand or the emperor or any of the other wild theories that spread across the internet. And without pointing fingers or mentioning names, if you can’t even get minor (hint) details right and have a horrible track record, how do people still listen to you? Because you have a lot of subscribers on Youtube? Welcome to the Internet..

This might contain spoilers so be warned:

- Finn is not Landos son and Jannah is not his sister, because there are more than 3 black people in the galaxy you know. Star Wars might be about family, but not everyone is related. Palpatine was a bit ginger, that doesn’t make him Hux’ grandfather either.. Will we learn about Finns family. What for? What is there to gain story-wise. That’s something everyone coming upon with wild theories needs to ask themselves.

- is Jannah (Naomi Ackie) Landos daugher? See above. Looking at the little evidence we have so far she has always been seen on a grassy planet, whereas Lando is known to have filmed Millennium Falcon and Pasaana scenes at a sound stage. There are theories that the planets won’t be one biosphere, breaking with Star Wars tradition, so it’s still possible however unlikely that they are related.

Just look at the pilots gloves and helmet. This isn’t the Millennium Falcon

- C-3POs red eyes. There are conflicting rumors about the cause, one being spiritual and the other being.. technical. I think it’s more likely that his eyes change color due to operational rather than ‘esoteric’ reasons. Also in relation to him being shown holding a bowcaster and Anthony Daniels telling Vanity Fair that ‘C-3PO does something in this movie that surprises everybody’.

- Red laser destroying snow planet. I assume that’s Kijimi where Zorri Bliss is located and where according to some plot leaks some altercation takes place. Looks like the First Order doesn’t fuck around.

- Rey training in the forest throwing her lightsaber is most likely connected to Leia standing in the same environment dropping some Jedi knowledge she got from Luke. I’m wondering what the red ribbon is about. I’m gonna get crazy and say it might be a blindfold. There is also a Jedi training droid present, so why wouldn’t she training ‘blind’ with it just like Luke did. I’m gonna go out on a limb and propose something with a 5% likelihood of being true, but.. as is looks a bit as the red ribbon is also wrapped around the double bladed light saber ‘dark Rey’ is holding later on, so what if.. it’s something related to her parents and her ‘holding onto it’ is a dark side trait she needs to conquer. Star Wars is filled with symbolism and philosophical motifs like that. ‘Let go’ of your need to belong. Don’t dwell in the past. Even Maz told her ‘The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.’. Could be that or just a regular rag. Probably the latter, but it’s sure fun to theorize. #theorizeresponsibly

- Rey and Kylo fighting on what looks like the Death Star remains. I think a lot of people now tend to believe that JJ Abrams is bypassing The Last Jedi and continue his initial story, not ignoring the movie but positioning it as a detour for the characters to find themselves. And for once I agree what seems to be the consensus amongst Star Wars theorists. I think what we see here is not unlike the force flashes Rey had when she first touched the lightsaber. I can imagine them changing environment with every stroke of their lightsabers. That allows for a ‘best of Star Wars’ highlight reel, so desperately needed to reunite fans after the The Last Jedi backlash, that would combine all the previous movies. And that’s what they promised.

- voiceover ‘your journey nears its end’. Is it just me or does it not sound like the emperor. I mean it sounds like Ian McDiarmid alright, but I’m missing the uber-evil timbre of his voice. Who is he talking to and will the emperor appear in this movie? First of all.. when we talk about tying together all the movies, we must not ignore the so called ‘tone poems’ used for The Phantom Menace. Based on that I’d say he isn't necessarily talking to anyone. Or even more recently, in The Force Awakens trailer they used Lukes ‘the force is strong in my family..’. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just a distraction or to set the mood. My guess is that the emperors ‘spirit’ looms above everything and had the power to influence other people, just like depicted on the poster. There had been speculation about Snoke being some sort of Wizard of Oz early on. What if the wizard behind the wizard is actually worse. Wouldn’t that be wizard?

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- Dark Rey. I will say one thing, I was happy to see that most fans immediately were like ‘dark side vision!’. If you read my earlier posts you will know how much I LOVE new lightsaber designs in every movie. Not. Especially when they are pointless. When I said I want a saber staff this is not what I mean. The only thing that makes me a bit skeptical is that Daisy Ridley said she was surprised that they’d show that scene in trailer. If it’s just a vision like the one Luke had, what’s the big deal? Then again, they also claimed that everyone will absolutely love the movie and especially the end. Enter wild fan theories from ‘she saw multiple reflections of herself in the cave. Clone Rey confirmed!!!11!!’ to ‘She must be Palpatines granddaughter’. I said it before and I’ll happily say it again. That would be SHIT STORYTELLING. After all the impatient smart-asses calling Rey a ‘Mary Sue’ not knowing anything about her origins, how would the public react to good old Palpatine having a granddaughter? That’s Robot Chicken level stupid. Now.. considering that an early draft of Revenge of the Sith had Palpatine telling Anakin that he ‘is his father’ for manipulating the midichlorians to create life, from a certain point of view that would make him Reys father IF he tried again. And it would fit much better into the established story structure of Star Wars. Every story that requires knowledge of the extended universe outside of movies or lengthy exposition will lead to casual fans and ordinary moviegoers to be like WTF?! It might be the last movie for a while but they still want people to go and not be appalled from early reviews about the movie being a convoluted clusterfuck. I also think the ‘clone’ idea is a cop out. Whenever you’re stuck because you can’t explain the origin of a character or don’t know how to deal with the death of a character - BAMM! Clone! Problem solved. That's just lazy. So to sum it up. Dark Rey? Vision of what she was supposed to be or should be because it backfired? ‘Darkness rises, and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger, his equal in the light would rise.’ (Snoke)

- Sith Fleet / Sith Troopers ..those following the new canon even just a bit are already aware of the importance of the ‘Unknown Regions’. Its hard to miss references to it these days, from Galaxys Edge to Rebels. So how are they gonna explain this in the movie? From a storytelling point it makes sense. The empire was defeated and its remnants were hiding and regrouping. Hang on. This sounds like a job for OPENING CRAWL. OK, so there is a massive fleet. Maybe unrelated to the First Order, but looking pretty similar. Based on the state of the Resistance after the Last Jedi one might assume it’s not really needed. Does that mean we’re dealing with an internal struggle of sorts.There are persisting rumors of a high ranking First Order member leaking details to the Resistance, which doesn’t come as a surprise given Kylo Rens personality. Reminds be a bit of Operation Valkyrie.

I’m delving deep into leaks and rumors but as things are now I have no idea how this pans out and what the relationship between Sith Trooper and First Order will be. Apparently you need a certain navigational device to be able to make it to the Unknown Regions, so my guess is Kylo is looking for more knowledge/power there just like Palpatine did, the rest is pure speculation so I will leave it for another time when more details surface. Same goes for stuff that’s not directly related to the ‘D23 Special View’ such as ‘who is Zorri Bliss?’.

#star wars #star wars the rise of skywalker #the rise of skywalker #star wars leaks #star wars rumors #Star Wars facts #star wars spoilers #star wars episode IX

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