#considering his other comments about Holdo and her dress

[watchingtheearthrise]

I want everyone who goes “hmmm but JJ set up nothing for Finn and put him in a coma at the end of the film so he never meant for Finn/John Boyega to be the lead” to understand:

First of all: No :)

Secondly: Hold onto this same energy for Rian Johnson regarding Rose Tico/Kelly Marie Tran

Because the Venn diagram that is people who claim JJ was the one who did Finn/John dirty and the people who claim Rian Johnson didn’t treat Rose Tico/Kelly dirty is a circle.

Rian only wrote Rose in because he thought “it’d be really boring” for Finn & Poe to go on an adventure together. He then erased a scene where Finn & Paige would’ve been together when Paige died, which could’ve given us a chance for Finn & Rose to actually bond over something but nope (Point 5 on the list).

Rian wrote Rose to ‘contrast’ with Finn (Point 8 in last link) but really just had her explain slavery and be part of a “war is bad” storyline for Finn? The same Finn who had been stolen as a baby and raised in a brainwashed boot camp to be a child soldier for an evil facist regime?

“Oh he gave her more screen time than in TROS.” He gave her ten minutes. Ten minutes out of a 2 and a half hour slog of a movie. Yes the difference of time is a bit drastic (ten minutes to almost 2) but it’s not that much when you put it against the actual length of the entire movie.

Overall, Rian also did Rose/Kelly dirty. Just like how he did with Finn/John. And I don’t trust people who only mentions her when talking negatively about anyone else (aka not Rian) involved in the making of Star Wars.

[brokenedgeben]

So This Is Not Going To Make Me Any Friends On Tumblr...

...but I realized something about Leia in TLJ that is no doubt a “no shit Sherlock” moment, but took a while to dawn on me. (Shows how much I know) (Likely trigger/content warning for discussions of physical assault and other unpleasantness) What really strikes me as Leia being not Leia in TLJ is her lack of compassion. Now, when you think of the more compassionate of the siblings, Luke is usually the one who gets mentioned with his faith in Vader (which Johnson decided to discard considering his inexplicable thought of killing Ben). But Leia is no slouch in being a genuinely kind person. I think one of many reasons she works isn’t just because she’s a self-rescuing young woman (though there is that too) but she also proves that you can be kind and still strong. As someone who’s not good at being assertive and feisty, I appreciate that looking back. (Seriously, when I was a kid, I hated that I wasn’t “feisty” enough. I didn’t know where I’d get just being timid and nice) And she is — remember her comforting Luke after Obi-Wan was struck down in cold blood while he couldn’t do anything about it? Remember her reassuring Luke about Han after Han’s temporary departure in ANH? Remember her bonding with Wicket? Hell, remember TFA when she expressed sympathy for Finn regarding his worry about Rey, praised Finn for ditching the First Order, and expressed hope that her son could be saved from himself? True, she had a bit of a temper, and a bit of a dark side — see also her nearly letting Chewie strangle Lando for his indirect part in getting Han carbon frozen. (Which, admittedly, is not one of my favorite scenes of OT Leia, especially since Lando really did do the best he could in a no-win situation) But that is a far, far cry from TLJ Leia where there seems to be no real compassion. OT Leia had her moments of anger, but that’s a far cry from slapping someone in retaliation for something that was critical to saving lives. (Seriously, even putting aside the hyperspace tracking, that dreadnaught wasn’t something to be trifled with) And even if he had done something wrong, you don’t strike someone in anger. If I were writing Leia, I would have had her speak to Poe in private and had her come off more like Christopher Pike in Star Trek Into Darkness — basically, explaining what went wrong and why it was wrong. (Assuming Poe actually did something wrong, which he didn’t, but even if he did, physical assault is never the answer) In this case, maybe show a bit of humanity in that she was possibly scared for Poe — it would also do well in setting up that allegedly loving relationship we never saw between them in TLJ. Besides the slap being grossly out of character for Leia and heavily Unfortunate Implications-worthy in regards to treatment of men of color (people accusing this film of misandry are missing the point entirely; it’s not just that the film’s portrayal of men isn’t good, it’s that Poe and Finn get the brunt of it. Luke may have been portrayed as a crotchety hermit, but he also was framed as fundamentally The Hero in the narrative, and Kylo was framed as fundamentally the Sympathetic Villain. *), it really gives worrying implications to how Johnson views women. Does he genuinely believe that women are only strong if they’re aggressive and violent? Not to mention trying to frame Leia and Holdo as good leaders when the execution of that framing is flawed at best. (Rey’s a completely different topic and something I can’t talk about without upsetting any Reylos who follow me) Seriously, two women in power and they’re portrayed as basically incompetent. How many cis male leaders are portrayed that way? They get the whole spectrum of competency that female leaders don’t. It’s galling because I know woman authority figures in my life who were genuinely positive influences and they were nothing like the caricature of female authority that I saw in TLJ. (Seriously, putting aside the excluding NB and trans people with that stupid “a woman in a dress with feminine energy was the toughest thing I could think of Poe going up against” comment from Rian Johnson — I saw it on Twitter; I wish I was making this up — what is so unfeminine about a woman in a military uniform? Better yet, why do women have to be traditionally feminine? I’m sure the Jedi Exile from KOTOR II would chew Johnson out if she heard that comment, to say nothing of women who’ve served in the military. **) I don’t know why it’s so hard to write women kicking ass and taking names. Are we not people? Do we not have the full goddamn spectrum of emotions like *people* do? Can we not be as competent as anyone else and not have to look like unintentional buffoons? And can’t we be kind and strong at the same time? I don’t blame Carrie Fisher for this, for what it’s worth. She did the best job she could, and she was a genuinely good actress (and from what I heard, really kickass and funny). She always was. I don’t blame anyone who acted in TLJ for the way their characters went, and I didn’t *want* Leia and Holdo to be incompetent. (While we’re at it, I don’t blame Laura Dern either. Seriously, check out her role in Jurassic Park; she’s absolutely adorable when she sees the park for the first time) Honestly, before I saw the spoilers on Tumblr about Poe, Leia and Holdo (and Luke, and others), I had some faith that TLJ could be good. But Rian Johnson effed up big time on this one. It’s sad when a film trilogy lasting from the late seventies to the early eighties gets a woman in authority down better than a film released in 2017. Representation for women isn’t just including them. (And that goes out to people of color, LGBTQPIA people, anyone you can think to represent) It’s giving them meaningful stuff to do. One of my favorite portrayals of women in authority were the minor characters Terena Adare and Queen Talia in KOTOR II, and that game came out in 2004. You should know better, Rian Johnson. And we? We deserve better. All of us. * I’m talking about intentions, not execution. ** And what is our obsession with femininity and what it means to be feminine? Back in my day (yeah, I know, I sound old), girls could do whatever they wanted as long as it wasn’t illegal and wear shorts and a T-shirt if they damn well pleased, at least in the books I read. And that was in the fucking 2000s.

[rishi-maze]

I’m going on hiatus

It has been two months since The Last Jedi came out and I still feel no desire to post anything related to SW. I hate to say this, but the movie drained my passion for the series.

Just to be clear, I have been a Rey Nobody fan since day one. The Force Awakens and Rogue One relighted my love for the franchising. For two years I couldn’t stop talking about Star Wars. I red the new novels, comics, visual dictionaries. I listened and red b-t-s, interviews, analysis, podcasts. I bought the merchandising and played the card game. Star Wars seemed to be in good hands and Disney proved to be in control of its investment.

Then TLJ came and I was left speechless by the lack of cohesion with the previous canon. What happened? Why did LucasArts allow Rian Johnson so much freedom to the point of writing a script that contradict previous established characterizations, goals, timelines and world-building? What was even the point to have a Story Group? LucasArts and whoever worked with them gave all the same POV on the making of the movies. Rian, by contrast, keep giving an opposite version. What the fuck is happening? Who is lying?

The joy of commenting, reblogging, following secondary projects, enjoying the bts, etc...is to get a better idea of what is happening in the movies and who the characters are. Now I can’t post or read anything without thinking: “what is even the point anymore? They may change things randomly anyway”. I was left with no desire to analyse and research. What is even worse is that I was left with no desire to see Episode IX.

I felt let down as a fan. I felt played.

As I also felt played by the script of TLJ.

There are some very beautiful and cool scenes, but overall it is didactic, overcrowded, rushed and at times stupid. I have already explained some issues in this post. It feels more like a draft than a final script. I couldn’t immerse myself in the story, because I kept seeing in front of me a list of plot-points that were progressively checked to get the to nth “cool moment”. With the exception of Kylo, who has the best arc, the characters are there just to let the story goes where Rian wants. Mark Hamill expressed the same issue: “[...] Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective. That’s the crux of my problem: Luke would never say that. [...] He’s not my Luke Skywalker, but I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well”.

The characters in this movie are not the same characters I liked so much in TFA, despite it been set right after it. Where is Rey? How could she behave like that? Why does she looks like that? but most importantly, why she is not the protagonist anymore? TLJ!Rey? I do not know her. I am too disappointed to even write down anything more.

Poe’s and Finn’s arcs were a mess as well.

I got the feeling that Rian doesn’t really care about Finn when he said that weird “joke” during Star Wars Celebration, but now it is obvious. Finn is a secondary character. He seems in the story only because he “has to be” in the story, but beside providing an useful intel about the FO, he spends the movie passively tagging along. Yeah, he has a “character moment” (the face-off with Phasma), but it is so short that is ridiculous and lacks any pathos, unlike the fight he had against FN-2199 in TFA. I get Finn needs to have a reason to stay with the Resistance, but he could had had an arc that does not treat him as someone who needs others to didactically explain things to him as he were a kid. One thing that really bothers me is that, while TFA makes the audience laugh with Finn or at what he is going through, TLJ makes the audience laugh AT him. I especially despise how his injuries are only there to serve as a comic relief. I have already said how disappointed I was of Rose’s out-of-the-blue kiss, but re-watching TLJ, even her’s final words (”That's how we're going to win. Not fighting what we hate, but saving what we love”) sounds off. At the very beginning of the movie Finn was doing exactly that: not fighting what he hates (the FO), but saving the one he loves (Rey) by bringing the beacon away from a doomed fleet. Even more striking was the lack of interest from Rian to make Finn react to the  the slave children in Canto Bright, despite the fact that Finn is an ex-slave child himself...but...like...who cares?

Poe. Poe was...I don’t know where to begin and I will offer links to others people’s posts to keep it short [ x x x x x x ]. The Poe of the previous canon didn’t need to learn “his lesson”. The Star Wars universe didn’t need sexism (one of the great thing about Star Wars was that its galaxy didn’t have a sexism problem)(or, if we want to split hairs, it was an issue relegated to “retrograde” Outer Rim worlds). As the granddaughter of a military commander and a partisan who fought against real fascists, I felt played by the Holdo/Poe plot. It is stupid and forced just for the sake of create a conflict. Based on real life war stories I have heard since childhood, Poe’s mutiny is comprehensible, not the total misstep Rian portraits it to be. Also, regarding Holdo, she didn’t need to die, not when the Resistance has droids. Set coordinates and press a lever is a simple task, there is no real reason for Holdo to do it herself. I hated to see her killed off right after her role (prompt up the male lead) was completed, especially considering how rare queer older female character in a leading role are. It was similar to what happened to Rose: she deliver her last “lesson” to her male character and then she is out of the picture. WTF? As a woman I felt mocked by Rian’s reason for Poe to despise Holdo. It is so stupid. What does “real feminine energy” even mean? What fuck up idea does he have about gender? Moreover, when I red that Rian wanted Holdo to wear an unpractical, out-of-place, floor length dress, without any belts or pockets, just to make her look “feminine”, I couldn’t not think of the times I and my girlfriends have been forced to dress and behave “feminine” just to be taken seriously or keep a job. Our personalities, tastes, comfort, health, they were all dismissed, because what was more important was to appear feminine. Like...fuck it! I didn’t need Holdo to wear an uniform (especially when in Star Wars uniforms are not mandatory for military leaders), but I would had wanted, at least, something that makes sense on a military starship under attack: a practical outfit with space to keep a com-link and a blaster. Instead I get the usual “gender over logic” rhetoric when it comes to female outfits.  ----------------------------

Hiring David Benioff and D.B. Weiss was the last straw. I lost any trust in LucasArts and any upcoming projects. Maybe Ep. IX will make me come back, who knows? but until then, I am out.

[ryttu3k]

The Last Jedi, thoughts and comments!

Spoiler space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Just in case people are reading this on mobile, you know?

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

Space

The short version: better than I was expecting given the spoilers, not as good as the OT, TFA, or Rogue One, better than the prequel trilogy (in my opinion). If the OT is a 10/10, TFA is 9.5/10, and Rogue One is 9/10, and my favourite of the PT (Revenge of the Sith) is 6/10, I’d put this at a solid 7.5/10.

Good Bits

Luke and Leia have a reunion. There’s no hug, but Luke does kiss her on the forehead. I cried like a baby.

Leia Leia Leia I still love her so much. She’s a much harder character but I understand where she was coming from when she was giving Poe his dressing-down. I love how even after that, she and Poe still had that wonderful rapport: “You can’t just jump in an X-Wing and blow something up!” / “Permission to jump in an X-Wing and blow something up?” “Permission granted!” The scene of her in space had me hyperventilating (and crying, yes), and even if the way she saved herself was visually a bit naff, the imagery of her fingers starting to move gave me literal chills.

Luke’s death is poignant, peaceful, and feels appropriate (given that it’s generally expected that the previous trilogy’s trio doesn’t make it to the end). Also, the visual of the binary sunset.

Related: Force ghosts Luke and Han gonna fuck Kylo uuuuup! (IMPLIED GHOST REUNION. CUE GENTLE SKYSOLO WEEPING. Look I’ve shipped it since I was twelve let me have this.)

Speaking of deaths, while I didn’t like Holdo much, her death was amazing. Like, just the silence.

Luke and Yoda’s conversation!!

And Luke and Artoo’s! The ‘watch your language’ line! THE HOLOGRAM OF LEIA! Thank you for your emotional blackmail, Artoo <3

BB-8 CONTINUES TO BE THE BEST CHARACTER. BB-8 HEADBUTTING TO VICTORY. BB-8 IN AN AT-ST. MY BELOVED ROUND CHILD I LOVE YOU.

Poe was an amazing rebel who made mistakes but was also a goddamn hero. I also loved his allies, especially Connix (Billie Lourd’s character). Go you beautiful rebels!

Rose is a delightful character and I love her dynamic with Finn and she badly needs a hug. The escape scene on Canto Bight (the casino city, the planet itself is apparently called Cantonica) was wonderful and I loved Rose’s response to it. Also the Fathiers were beautiful and I loved, loved Rose freeing them. I feel her crush on Finn may be one-sided and I don’t really want to see her hurt, but tbh I’d be happy for my OT3 to become an OT4, haha.

Related: the Finn/Rey hug made me feel Emotions. They better kiss in the next film, okay. I also love how their immediate concerns were each other - Rey’s name being the first thing Finn says after getting out of the coma, his first question being, “Where’s Rey?”, wanting to leave to ensure Rey’s safety, and also Rey telling Chewie that if he sees Finn first, then to say. Something. They just worry about each other so much my BABIES.

Speaking of shipping. Leia/Holdo. I’m just saying.

Speaking of not shipping, look let’s face it Re//ylo is not going to work :D They do have a Force Bond, yes. It’s an artificial one completely created by Snoke intended to play both of them and is not seen as healthy or natural. Rey might genuinely hope to redeem Kylo but he is not going to have it and wants to turn her instead and at the end she shuts him the fuck down and frankly that bit was very satisfying. For more, see the episode 9 section.

The action was just. Fucking cool. The Falcon to the rescue on Krait (I think it was Finn’s line, “Oh, they hate that ship!”?), Finn versus Phasma (I may have nearly bounced out of my chair in sheer glee when he rose up on the platform!! “Rebel scum.” Yes!!), the Canto Bight escape, just so many rad action scenes!

Kylo’s overkill reaction to seeing Luke. Luke just brushes off his shoulder. Badass. Kind of out of character (see below) but badass. Related: the ‘every part of that statement was wrong’ callback. Rey, you’re our only hope!

Hux gets beaten up a lot and it’s very satisfying. Also his call with Poe I was fucking dying.

Maz Kanata.

The score was beautiful. Not just the new parts, but the callbacks! Favourite callbacks include Luke and Leia’s theme during their reunion, and was that the Trench Run? It was either the Trench Run or the Death Star run from Return of the Jedi, I can’t remember off the top of my head. John Williams can do no wrong, honestly.

Porgs, Fathiers, Vulptices. They are all completely beautiful and adorable and I want to hug all of them.

Okay! Fine! I admit it! Rey and Kylo taking out Snoke and his guards together was badass!

Bad Bits

The cinema didn’t include the dedication to Carrie :-\ Unless it was at the end of the credits? Still, not cool.

Snoke remains (remained?) totally one-note and Generic Bad Guy. We know nothing about him other than He’s Bad. Like, oh good he’s dead but why was he around in the first place?

DJ as a character is completely repellent and needs a punch in the face.

Poe flirting with Rey was awkward as hell. Like excuse me FINN is the middle of the OT3, not Rey or Poe!

The heck was that scene with Rey and the mirror-images? I mean it’s visually cool, but what?

Basically the entire Resistance is dead? The entire Resistance fits in the Falcon alone? Not a single response to the distress call? Goddamn that is depressing. How do you recover from that?

No BB-8 vs BB-9E showdown! We got robbed!

JFC Kylo put some clothes on no one wants to see that. ...Okay a depressing amount of people do, but I sure as shit do not!

Okay, so probably my biggest grievance, now. Luke’s characterisation. Like, I can kind of understand, I can, but it just - feels uncharacteristic. (Also tbh the milk and fish scene was just gross. Ew, Luke, ew.) The fact that he did ultimately regain his connection to the Force and confront Kylo was wonderful, but the fact that he needed to do that in the first place was... very much questionable. I also just cannot see Luke thinking, even for a moment, that killing his sleeping nephew was in any way acceptable. Like yes he admits that it was a moment of weakness, but god, even after that, his response was to continue being harsh and pushing everyone away? Abandoning Leia? Just fucking off to some island to die? Like, that’s not my Luke. That’s not... “No. You failed, your highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” He came good in the end but it shouldn’t have been like that in the first place.

I stand corrected. Biggest grievance: CHEWIE COOKED A PORG D:

Bits That Will Need Episode 9 To Make It Into A Coherent Narrative

So, the whole dynamic between Rey and Kylo. This is going under ‘needs episode 9′ and not ‘bad bits’ just because I think it can be handled well with a proper conclusion? So Snoke intentionally forces (haha) the Force Bond between them because he knows Kylo is weak and Rey is untrained and can’t block it. Rey comes to empathise with Kylo because she’s having such a miserable time, which honestly, uh, doesn’t speak well of Luke either, frankly. She comes to honestly feel he’s redeemable, and that bit I do feel is unrealistic considering how much she loathed him only a few days earlier, whereas he just wants to rule over the galaxy with her. Rey continues to believe he’s redeemable in the Snoke scene and Kylo promptly proves that, nope, he always has been a raging dickcanoe. And finally, when they next connect, she shuts him the fuck down. I’m interested in seeing if this will end up as Rey’s Magical Healing Boobs or whatever, or if there’s a more familial relationship (see below), or if she just gives tf up on him. Which. I wouldn’t blame her for, really! So this gets a question mark and a, “Don’t fuck this up, JJ!”

Related: Rey’s identity. Frankly, I feel the bit about her parents is misdirection and manipulation. Kylo is openly saying she is nothing and has no one and can only rely on him, that is a goddamn textbook emotional abuse tactic! And there is just too many hints that she’s a Skywalker. This is the story of Rey, Kylo, Luke, and Leia, and both Lucas and Hamill have stated explicitly that Star Wars - and specifically The Last Jedi, too!! - is the saga of the Skywalker family. Rey is just too entrenched in it to not be, and if she really is just some random, it’s frankly bad storywriting. (Also, if Rey truly is a random, how would Kylo even know?) I just don’t feel it’s over as easily as that.

Frankly the bit with the kids at the end was cheesy as hell but I’m willing to wait for two years to see where it goes.

So, tl;dr - many grievances and some parts I’m cautious over, but definitely a lot to love.