#but also it’s very funny thinking that somewhere else in the galaxy while this gritty political thriller is happening

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I’m taking this weekend off to catch up on all the estar guars shows I missed and like. Hey. Was anyone going to tell me that andor is the best Star wars show ever made

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So in honor of me finally rewatching The Last Jedi, I thought it might be fun to do a little retrospective and also rewatch the Force Awakens just to see how they flow together etc. Here is a rambling list of my thoughts

The Force Awakens rewatch:

1. It really has to be said, but Finn objectively has a much better part in this movie. He’s so funny and so charming and so relatable. But one of the things I think fan fiction made me mentally edit out was that he really is a super reluctant hero! Like, he legitimately never has any interest in joining the Resistance, most of the help he gives to them is motivated by quid pro quo for helping rescue Rey. Basically, I think this sets up his TLJ plot line a lot better than I had initially thought, because Finn is super uncommitted to the cause.

2. Finn and Rey are a fucking delight. One thing that this movie does so well is keeping them almost constantly in peril and they are just electric when they’re bouncing back and forth off of one another. Also I’d kinda forgotten (again, the perils of fan characterization) but Rey is actually very prickly to everyone at first and seeing her warming up to Finn and eventually even hugging him when he inadvertently does the most powerful thing he could (coming back for her) is absolutely precious. I ship them hard. And yes romantically, but I also feel like I won’t be mad if it doesn’t end romantically in the movies as long as they still are the most important people in each other’s lives. 

3. Rey is also pretty unnerved by her Jedi powers and I think that subtly sets up a lot of her reactions to Luke’s training. She really is trying to play it like she knows what to expect and she’s ready to be trained, but she’s basically just putting on a brave face when her powers actually really confuse and overwhelm her in TFA. Also I TOTALLY forgot Kylo Ren being a weirdly elitist dick the whole time about her like “what? some girl? some rando scrapper???” like calm down there is meritocracy in this universe. 

4. There are a lot of good jokes, to whoever says that Star Wars shouldn’t be goofy and have a lot of tension ruining humor, I raise you the scene where Finn is trying to put a bandage on Chewbacca and BB-8 hears him roaring and literally screams and runs away. Also Harrison Ford having the best two lines of his career essentially back to back with “that’s not how the Force works!” and then immediately “what do you mean you’re cold???” 

5. I know he doesn’t have a lot to do in the second half of the movie, but the pure gleeful joy I feel when Poe is shooting down TIE fighters and there’s this huge pan shot and Finn goes “THAT’S ONE HELL OF A PILOT” will rectify any sins. 

6. Seriously note, but this also gave me a better sense of how Leia’s storyline was meant to progress. She’s the one who has hope in TFA that her son can be redeemed and not just that, he can be brought home and everything will be fine. It takes Han’s death and all of the events of TLJ before she is finally ready to admit to Luke that her son his gone and he can never come back. I think by the time I saw TLJ I’d forgotten just how wildly hopeful she was and how crushing it is to see her abandon that. 

7. Additionally, Kylo Ren is super fucking creepy in this movie. Like, I think again that the fan culture has made me forget that, but he’s legit terrifying. And that’s great, I really like how scary he is and he’s a great villain. But one thing I noticed is that everyone sorta portrays him like this super emotionally volatile explosive screaming guy, but he actually spends the majority of TFA speaking in a very creepy flat monotone. Essentially the only hints of anger you ever get are in his violent actions, but his voice is always calm. It’s only at the end when you see him really come apart at the seams and start screaming at people. Anyways, I think that was very telling for how accurate Snoke really is when he says that killing Han kinda made him snap. ALSO DAMN THE SOUND EDITING OF THE FORCE INTERROGATIONS IS GREAT. 

8. Rey’s theme fucking goes. That’s all I have to say, it’s dope. 

9. The stormtrooper screaming TRAITOR is exactly as funny as I remember it being.  

10. Hux is a lot more... competent here? Or at least, he’s not a cartoon character. I don’t really feel strongly that one or the other is better though because I got enjoyment out of both. 

11. This movie is a lot more of a World movie than a plot movie. I don’t know how else to put it. I think that’s why some love it and some felt cold while feeling completely differently about TLJ. But this movie is trying to get you hype for the world of Star Wars whereas TLJ is really focusing in on a particular plot and thus narrows scope and focus a lot. 

The Last Jedi rewatch:

1. So switching from one movie to the other rapidly, I definitely felt a bit of tone whiplash at the beginning. Particularly the Poe and Hux dialogue is just super goofy and Hux’s face is making really campy expressions the whole time. But as I continued, I think I realized that actually the tone of this movie isn’t that much sillier. Yes it has porgs (and you can pry them away from my cold dead hands) but the majority of the scenes are actually pretty grim. Overall, this movie has a lot more death and destruction. No one but Han really dies in TFA and we barely notice when the Resistance loses a ship. The tone of this movie is actually pretty bleak for the most part, which is why I think the humorous sections seem more jarring. 

2. Canto Bight. Ah Canto Bight. The part no one likes. It bothers me less with each rewatch because I can see how it sets up so much thematic material that I really do like. For example, DJ is a great foil to Finn in that he is pretty much what Finn could have become if he’d continued on his path from The Force Awakens without Rey. Disillusioned with both sides, motivated only by survival, no hope in something better. Also I really think it does give you complexity that TFA lacks with its pretty vague description of what exactly the Resistance is and what is happening in the galaxy. 

3. You know actually, I think the reason people don’t like the Canto Bight sequence is because it’s basically the prequels! Hear me out: full of wacky aliens, showing the rich and powerful part of the galaxy not the gritty part, moral ambiguity for the good guys, dialogue is HIGH camp (”this lousy beautiful town” lol Rose plz no), CGI chase scenes. There is even a small boy yelling “woohoo!” at a race. It is the prequels. 

4. I still love Luke’s plot and I don’t see how it could have gone any differently and still worked. There is literally no better reason for Luke to have randomly gone away to enjoy #islandlife alone when the Resistance needs him. Like... The Force Awakens sets up that he’s disappeared mysteriously and even Leia can’t find him with the Force so you’re expecting something bad.

5. Rey’s parents. I realized this time that she never actually clarifies in TFA whether she knows her family or not. So it does actually make sense that she remembers them from being like a 5 year old, felt horribly abandoned when they sold her, and hangs on to this naive belief they probably gave her about returning one day to save her. She’s not really searching for their identity so much as their whereabouts. 

6. I know this is controversial, but Poe really does have a better plot line in this movie. I’m sorry, but he doesn’t really even have a storyline in TFA, he’s just like... a chill guy they meet. You don’t have to like the storyline, but you should admit that it is nice that he got one this time. I also noticed some really nice details/transitions where his dialogue mirrors Leia so it’s really clear that this is all a setup to him assuming command of the Resistance. 

7. So... right... I don’t want to delay this any longer, but this movie does have some... awkwardness. The random scene with Maz. How coincidental it is that they find DJ. Holdo holding the idiot ball a little and being randomly suspicious around Poe. It isn’t quite elegant with its plot, but I do respect that it is due to the fact that the movie is trying to convey a much more complicated series of events. And TFA isn’t without some of these contrived moments, it just covers them a little better (I’m looking at you Rathtars and jumping to light speed whenever Han damn well pleases and Phasma in the trash compactor).

8. Kylo Ren is like way crazier in this one, but much less frightening. In fact, I noticed that while I previously mentioned this movie is way darker and more upsetting, the villains are actually much less scary. Snoke is like... super not scary. Hux is a loony toon now. Kylo Ren is somewhere between sympathetic character and petulant walking tantrum. I think that serves to put the focus of the story less on defeating some evil guy, and more on the evils of systems and organizations. The threat isn’t a guy with a mask or a gross face in this movie, it’s the endless consumption of war that ultimately makes human life meaningless. I like the message, but I also like scary guys in capes so... conflicted. 

9. I’ve watched this movie three damn times now and I still can’t tell if I like Rose because she’s a good character or if Kelly Marie Tran is just That Charming. 

10. I still really like this movie and whenever something doubtful happens, the movie immediately follows it up with something so mind bogglingly awesome you can’t even think about it anymore. The highs are high even if the lows are more obvious. 

11. They should have fucking kept that Phasma deleted ending.