#i can't believe this happened in the era of Disney Star wars

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

I cannot believe that Andor exists.

If you like Star Wars; if you don't like Star Wars; if you've watched every star war or none; you should watch this show.

Its message is timely, relevant and poignant. It's not pulling its punches literally at all when it talks about the rise of fascism, police brutality, the prison industrial system, and what it takes to resist authoritarianism. It's not all storm troopers and laser guns, it's cops in riot gear tasing and shooting civilians. And regular people figuring out that they can't keep ignoring what's going on; they have to do something.

It's also extremely engaging if you like political dramas at all (or heists or prison breaks or whatever).

Plus it's got Diego Luna's big doe eyes.

[the-far-bright-center]

There's a fundamental disconnect between my view of Star Wars and that of, well.... the majority of the SW fandom these days. Whether this is due to lingering disdain for the Prequels (despite fandom claims of acceptance, there's still plenty of prequels-hate going around, it's just taken on a different guise) or the constant onslaught of Disney’s big-budget fanfic muddying the waters, or a combination of both, I don’t know.

But ultimately, it's quite simple. I view 'Star Wars' as the Skywalker saga...aka the six-film Lucas saga, which tells the story of Anakin Skywalker's rise, fall, and redemption. I don't personally see 'Star Wars' as some ongoing, open-ended franchise that can or even should have indefinite *canonical* additions to it. (An optional expanded universe is one thing, but additions that we, as fans, are just supposed to accept as canon without question because Disney says so is another thing entirely.) Because 'Star Wars' is not just some cinematic universe that exists for its own sake. The fact is, almost the entirety of the world-building from the Lucas-era was done in service of the story and characters of the Original Trilogy and the Prequels. The galaxy far, far away was created specifically to be the backdrop for the Skywalker saga.

So when people debate topics like ‘pro-Jedi’ vs. ‘Jedi critical’, I’m often unable to relate to the angle that these discussions take because I feel like they are largely missing the point. Story-wise, the Jedi don’t exist for their own sake, they (along with the Jedi vs. Sith struggle) are simply part of the mythic backstory of the saga. As a concept, the Jedi exist primarily to serve Anakin and Luke’s respective journeys. So, the Jedi Order of the Prequels-era is written as having become rigid and flawed because that is the necessary context for Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side. And likewise, Luke bringing Anakin back to the Light through the power of love and familial bonds is what rectifies the Old Order’s failings and thus restores the Jedi to the galaxy.

That's just... the story. As in, how it was told. So when I write meta about the Prequels and Original Trilogy, and how they work together as one story, my descriptions and interpretations of both the Jedi Order and the Jedi religion (these are related but not exactly the same thing) are simply neutral in my mind. I'm just talking about what the story is trying to convey. I can't relate to this idea that we must leap to the Jedi Order's defense, nor the converse, that we must condemn the Jedi eternally for having lost their way by the time of the Twilight of the Republic. Rather, I step outside of the story for a moment, and look from the outside in to try to see what is happening from that perspective.

I'm not sure that everyone in the fandom is willing or even able to do that.

Whether that is because very few people actually appreciate the Skywalker saga as Lucas told it to begin with (many people still loudly proclaim that 'Star Wars sucks!', which leads me to believe they must not value the core story at its heart), or they have been so confused by the Disney nonsense that they think the 'new canon' has automatically overridden any meaning that once existed in the PT x OT saga...again, I don't know. I have purposefully tried very hard to stay away from any Disney-related SW discussions for years now, so this is just all what I've gleaned from glimpses here and there.

But it seems to me that many SW fans have trouble accepting that the concept of the Jedi (and the Sith) are inextricably linked to the Skywalker saga and the Skywalker saga alone. These things would never have been created in the way they were without that story. But to acknowledge this would means fans have to accept how central Anakin is to the entire thing. All of it exists for Anakin's story. There are fans who don't like this for a slew of reasons, whether it be that they became attached to a certain idea of the Jedi based on how they were portrayed in Expanded Universe stories that came out during the interim between RotJ and the release of the Prequels (stories that were largely jossed by Lucas' canon), or because they hate Anakin for in-story reasons and have never been able to accept that Star Wars is about him whether they like it or not.

It certainly doesn't help that Disney has played into this discomfort by largely ignoring Anakin (at least, until fan-demand forced their hand) or even outright denying his importance to the story as Lucas told it. (Anakin is the Chosen One whether Disney or fans want him to be or not. Being the Chosen One is not about whether he 'deserves' it, it's literally just his role in the story. And Lucas' saga simply doesn't work without Anakin in the central role.) If fans are confused and disoriented these days, I can't entirely blame them. Disney's version of SW doesn't 'match' the Lucas saga and in many places outright contradicts it. But everything can easily be made clear if people step back (and put aside the Disney stuff for a moment) and just look at the actual story being told in the PT and OT. Likewise, any debates about the Jedi can easily be resolved in the same way. It's really not about how much fans like the Jedi as a group or as individual characters, or how much fans might wish they could be a Jedi themselves. It's about the role the Jedi play in the story, and it's about acknowledging whose story it really is.

[notasapleasure]

I had this draft for the 8 shows to get to know me meme that no one tagged me in, but then @batri-jopa tagged me for this other meme, so I'm doiing them as a mash-up.

10 comfort shows -

- that tell you more than you wanted to know about me. reasons below the cut, but the tl;dr is:

The Terror

Garrow's Law

Ripper Street

The X Files

Utopia

Interview with the Vampire

(BBC) Ghosts

Futurama

Avatar: the Last Airbender

Detectorists

Honourable mentions: Andor (will probably make the list once season 2 is out, but my trust of Disney Star Wars is *so* thin, I can't commit until then, no matter how excellent season 1 is); The Great (it's so good. The script is still one of the most astonishing works of art I have ever encountered. But comfort TV? hell no.); see also, Bojack Horseman (objectively great. Not comfort TV); Grease Monkeys (I've got to get hold of season 2, but I'm really fond of its coarseness, wish-fulfilment and sureallism).

Tagging 10 people if they wanna join in, but others feel free to say I tagged you! @stripedroseandsketchpads, @notfromcold, @notabuddhist, @donnaimmaculata, @erinaceina, @boogerwookiesugarcookie, @elwenyere, @kheldara, @bellaroles, @jimtheviking

List 10 comfort shows and then tag 10 people

The Terror: Like Ripper Street below, I feel this show deep in my bones and think I must be actually insane when I try to explain to people what I like about it (watching it literally made my husband's depression worse so I'm not allowed to talk about it. Jk. Sort of. About the last bit anyway). The sheer ridiculousness of that era of exploration has been a firm fave for years and I love how the show weaves horror and hubris together, how it's not a straightforward 'natives get vengeance on colonisers' story, but the colonisers ruin it for everyone, poison life for Silna, too (all without any threat of sexual violence towards her CAN YOU BELIEVE IT). I love all the attempts to impose 'civilisation' on the life the men try to live as they come to realise how doomed they are, how key the trappings of their life become - objects as tethers and talismans. I love how utterly futile it all is. How much they all care, and the audience cares despite that. Self-destruction and salvation all jumbled up together. Two full crews go into the ice and die. The end. They do everything they can not to die and it happens anyway, it's the ultimate 'the love was there and it didn't change anything'. And no one learns anything. Perfect TV.

Garrow's Law: Sometimes I do want my historical drama to be wish fulfillment actually, and this is the actual og fave. No, most of the cases weren't actually Garrow's, yes, it's a fluffy liberal take on things that played out in a more complex way, but the cast is so good, and Garrow is such a likeable guy, but then you see his flaws emerge in such a gentle way through the four series, and it really does case-of-the-week with characterisation so well, and it's got that amazing British TV character actor cast where there's always someone in the background you know, and the building romance between Garrow and Sarah, and the real repercussions of it for her are handled so sensitively, augh the culmination of the series with their own personal legal cases is so good.

Ripper Street: in my head this show was so much more than the sum of its parts. Season 1 was on the surface a fun BBC historical romp. Season 2 I had to watch through gritted teeth because Susan's situation quicked me out too much, among other reasons. Season 3 leaned into the more sinister side of the protagonist and came through as something weirder and darker, a vein which ran through Seasons 4 and 5, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I live for my alternative reading of the migration stories and nightmarish flipsides of people that we get running through the background of seasons [3/]4/5, but uh. the show's tumblr fandom is not a place for me. Reid is actually monstrous, and I like him despite/because of that. Oh man, I have so many feelings about this show, and I'd love to do a rewatch and blog about all my crazy theories but I'd probably have to go into witness protection afterwards. But rest assured, it isn't a show about the Ripper, and it's all the better for that. It does class and trauma so well, it also captures all the optimistic curiosity and the utter hypocrisy and hubris of the Victorian era so well.

The X Files: I mean, it's a formative influence, innit. Seasons 1 and 3 are the best, a lot of the 'classic' favourites are episodes I actually really disliked, even though the early seasons are the best a lot of my favourite episodes are from later...the beauty of TXF is that there's so much of it you can hold contradictory opinions about what makes it good, though, and my theory is that it's at its best when it's early and still being allowed to take its course, where even the mytharc hasn't tied itself in knots yet so every episode is of a higher standard, and then later, when the actors have wrested control of their characters from CC enough to play them like they want, but the good episodes are really just MotW ones because the mytharc has vanished up it's own fundament and I've lost track of whose turn it is to have a near-death season arc. Not technically the TV series, but still, Fight the Future is just so much of its time, watching it is like having a warm bubble bath in childhood nostalgia. Even the later series have things to recommend them - I always enjoy Doggett much more than I'm expecting to, and it's about bloody time Scully got a decent female friend in the form of Reyes...I haven't watched seasons 10 onwards though, I don't feel I'm missing much. Five fave episodes: 1.13 Beyond the Sea, 3.4 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, 5.4 Detour, 7.17 all things, 6.19 The Unnatural.

Utopia: Tragically incomplete at 2 seasons, but what a pair of seasons they are. Brutal and uncompromising, horrible and compelling, but also frequently hilarious and full of the warmest, most fascinating characters who are all on a journey to Getting Much Worse. It's not something I've been able to watch since the pandemic *weak laugh* but I know when I do go back to it it will remain painfully prescient and uncomfortable. The longing for a 'balancing' and a righting of a historic wrong that drives it, and the desperate failures between people who are really just searching for love and don't know how to give/receive it...ugh so good.

Interview with the Vampire: Just rewatched season 1 and I'm just. No notes, five stars. The way Louis think he's a narrator in control, the way Daniel knows such a thing isn't possible, the way Louis does let himself get drawn on things, the way Armand sees the danger in this but it's not in his control any longer. Memory is a monster. The Odyssey of recollection. Fucking won my heart with those lines alone.

(BBC) Ghosts: Ok, I will say that I think the last season was actually a bit weak. They were in a hurry to finish, and they got away with wringing the feels from the important bits (The Captain's death was perfect and I will say this over and over again), but it felt like it was in a rush to come up with scenarios that would force admissions like The Captain's, whereas the show is at its best meandering around in a buffonish way that suddenly results in a Big Oof moment. Robin's arc in season 4 was a great example of this, as was Mary's. But basically it's still simply perfect comfort TV: silly but not malicious, unfair but kind to its characters. I'm going to miss them all so much, but I'm also going to rewatch so much.

Futurama: bit basic maybe, but I have watched it so often and I can watch any episode (ok, except for Jurassic Bark) again and again and again. I don't think I've binged any TV show so often with so many different people. Not sure how I feel about the immanent revival, but this has always been my favourite Matt Groening product, so fingers crossed.

Avatar: the Last Airbender: without getting into like...fandom discourse, man, this is a really perfect show. No need to say 'ooh it gets good after--!', it's just good from the beginning. A really well fleshed-out world, great characters who grow through the series, enough self awareness that the 'clip-show' episode Ember Island Players actually builds on the characterisation and addresses ambiguities in its own plots. A show that sticks to its principles and doesn't fudge the ending and also consistently looks gorgeous.

Detectorists: I had to put it on because no other show has literally made me fall off my chair laughing. Are the main characters useless? Yes. Is it often perplexing that the women in their lives spend any time with them? Yes. But that's forgiveable, because it's ultimately so kind to its beleagured characters and things work out despite their stupid decisions. Also it just captures rural English eccentricity so well. They're all such freaks (affectionate).

[skydalous]

I know everyone has a problem with the Sequels of Star Wars.

I did not watch it when the movies were released because I was not a Star Wars fan back then. I watched it now after all the hype has gone and Disney is leading the canon to another part, going back to the post-original trilogy era.

And I am mad as everyone with the way the movies went.

They had a ton of good concepts of characters and also a lot of money. Then why did it go so bad? Why did it fail terribly?

First of all, it is NOT Rey's fault. At least, not alone. Because they wrote every other character far away from the way they presented them, to the point it was not development what they were passing through, but a total change of personality that in the end did not make any sense to whom was watching.

Star Wars is not a complete saga in the movies. They are more like a collection of key scenes that are important to the overall story. That is why people love the movies alone but the people who love the lore go after any other type of media that talks about Star Wars (especially the books because they expand the canon greatly).

It is not a bad aspect. Every media has its challenges and the movies can't be that long or they would bore the medium watcher, and no producer wants their product to not sell.

But when it comes to the Sequels, instead of putting the essentials on the screen to the watcher, they instead put a lot of scenes for the nostalgic effect only — even if they did not connect with anything more. An example: why does Han appear suddenly in the Millennium Falcon at the same time Rey and Finn are there? I can't give you a good reason. I can to why he agreed to help Luke and Obi-Wan even though he did not have to though.

Another thing the sequels missed: they never explained to us what was so terrible that Luke had to go and kill Ben before he did whatever was prophesied. I always hear people say that Luke would never kill because he was the person who believed that Darth Vader still had good in him. Well... Luke saw good in Vader, but he tried to kill him anyway. People seem to forget they fought before the whole "I am a Jedi just like my father before me" scene. Luke only considered killing Kylo, he never did it.

So as presented before, key moments of the trilogy were left up to the imagination of the telespector, they were never explained or approached in the movies. That is why the overall story is not that good, only a wrap-up of nostalgic moments in the saga with only one or another interesting and refreshing scene.

I always wondered why they did it. I have no answer honestly. Maybe they thought the Star Wars fans would buy the "MCU formula" and it would make the movies popular. Or maybe there was something inside happening that we as public will never known.

However after saying my opinions about the movie I have to reach the moment where I can give a solution to what happened. One thing that would make all this messy storyline makes more sense.

Instead of not showing how Kylo went to the dark side at all, they had chosen to show how Kylo and Rey meeting and teaming up would destroy the balance of the Force. This would help solve two problems: first of all, why did Luke "betrayed" his own character (though he never did, his turn was only poorly made that is all) and second, it would explain why he was unwilling to help Rey when she came up looking for him. Or better, it would explain why he had hidden from everyone in the first place.

I only wish they had done the Sequels better :(

[the-far-bright-center]

I agree there is something really baffling about certain parts of SW fandom's obsession with the Jedi ORDER, specifically. It's a religious institution, ffs. It's a militarised monastic order, much like others in history, such as the Knights Templar, who likewise had quite the memorable 'fall' (which served as an inspiration for Order 66). Even just at a surface level, you can still separate the individual Jedi characters from this. You can even separate the Jedi religion (or at least its more esoteric/spiritual teachings) from the Order, if you want. The Force (and the Light side of the Force) is something that exists with or without a religious institution. It's common in the history of our own world for such insitutions to fail and dissolve, and yet the religion manages to survive, just without that particular organisation. And sometimes these religions evolve, shedding outdated laws or other teachings that are no longer relevant to daily life. (See: Love and family saving the day, despite not being permitted to Jedi by the Old Order. The implication being that this rule is no longer relevant to Jedi life, as proven by the outcome of the PT x OT Skywalker saga.)

So, it's a little strange that SW fans can be so staunch in idealising the Old Jedi Order even in the face of its many long-established flaws. It often seems like they can't distinguish between the Old Jedi Order of the Prequels era and the more general Jedi religion that likely existed long before the Order was founded. Or between the Old Order and the Light Side of the Force. (To me, it's like if people were constantly equating the Knights Templar with the entirety of Judeo-Christian history and with the concept of 'Divinity' itself.) Perrsonally, I am not a Jedi-hater, and I am fine with the Jedi religion continuing in the SW universe. It's how I interpret the ending of Luke's arc in RotJ, that he's re-established the Jedi, just in a new and improved form. A version of the Jedi where the precise manner of Anakin's fall could NEVER happen again, because Jedi will not ever be denied love and family in the New Order. However, I am a huge critic of the OLD Jedi Order. Their servitude to a corrupt Senate was simply not sustainable, and many of their teachings and practices seem to have become dogmatic. They no longer truly served 'the Will of the Force', but rather the will of a corrupt government. I believe strongly they were doomed to fall eventually even without Anakin Skywalker's presence. Their time had come. It just didn't necessarily have to be so violent and horrible, but something had to change.

Why this is so difficult for some to grasp is beyond me. The only way anyone can presume 'the Jedi' are flawless white knights is if they take Obi-Wan's description of them in A New Hope at face value. Obi-Wan, the completely biased fellow who likes to speak in half-truths and hyperbole. I mean... ha! The 'cynical reveal' in the Prequels that the Jedi were actually quite flawed by that point in their history was one of the BEST things about the Prequels films. It made the PT x OT saga even better and more meaningful. People seem to forget that the main characters of Lucas' Star Wars are the Skywalker family, NOT 'the Jedi'. And the Jedi Order being flawed makes the SKYWALKER's story even more compelling. Maybe some SW fans are stuck in the mentality of idealisation due to being into the EU books prior to the release of the Prequels? Idk. It still doesn't explain the reason why some of the younger Disney-era SW fans seem to think this way, though..

every time i post abt the jedi a bit too much my for you tab gets flooded with awesome jedi apologist posts arguing things like “child soldiers are okay if the children have superpowers” and “anakin wanting his wife to be alive was possessive and selfish”

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

What's your opinion on Qui-Gon Jinn?

Oh boy, do I have a *complex* relationship with Qui-Gon Jinn. 

This isn't going to be a rigorous meta, more like a personal rambling, because @gffa already did a great job analysing his character and I don't want too spend to long on this. 

So upon first watching the prequels - a mere four and a half years ago - I absolutely adored his relationship with Obi-Wan, because father-son dynamics were what spoke to me most. I read about a billion fics with them as main characters, even though I hadn't read the JA books. I also wasn't too knowledgeable on what was canon and what wasn't at the time. I wasn't that into the Jedi as a whole at the time, just into specific individuals. I thought the Order was neat but that Qui-Gon was cool as a maverick. I wanted to excuse every single mistake he made because I just hated to see his bond with Obi-Wan compromised in any way, and I didn't yet have the maturity to understand and accept that flaws don't make a character less worthy of love or that fights are normal even in a healthy, strong family. 

Then I discovered TCW and Ao3, when I used to read only on FF, and both completely changed my way of relating to Star Wars, shifting my focus to the Clone Wars era. Later I dropped from the fandom for a year and a half, and I came back clearer on what content I was willing to engage with and what I didn't like. 

So, what do I think of Qui-Gon now? Well first, I dumped all my knowledge of JA into the trash because I do not vibe with these books at all (except for a few really, really good fics). So I don't think Lucas' Qui-Gon was abusive, that he ruined Obi-Wan's mental stability because of The Trauma, that everything bad in SW indirectly happened because of Xanatos-related shenanigans. That's not the lenses I see TPM through. I'm also not too keen on engaging with the Disney EU, because while it does try way harder to stick to Lucas' worldbuilding and it is overall less contradictory and closer to my understanding of the Prequels, it also has a lot of stuff I really, really don't think are true to the original intent for the characters (cue the re-canonization of Siri Tachi and Obi-Wan feeling Sinful™ for *gasp* wanting to hold a girl's hand *gasp* uuuugh). 

So I tend to try and understand Qui-Gon purely from his TPM and TCW appearances. I think he was stubborn, a bit judgmental, sometimes impatient, I think he rushed into things too much - more than he cared to admit - and I think he was a very good man. 

Stubborn, well - it's kinda obvious. He's kinda bull-headed and Obi-Wan calls him out on that when he asks that please, they do things the Council's way this time. 

Judgmental... Welp. He's very quick to dismiss Jar Jar (who, I'll readily admit, is absolutely INSUFFERABLE in TPM - but he's so sweet in TCW that I can't help liking him) and his interactions with the Council kinda feel like him riding a moral high horse he really has no business being on. Like the "you must see it," bit. 

My dude, you just dumped an admittedly powerful but completely untrained kid onto their laps, told them he had no father - something that you didn't even verify and can't prove, and that isn't even that significant in a world where cloning exists - and told them they HAD to accept he was the mystical incarnation of the entity they've pledged their lives to because of some prophecy half of them don't believe in and the other half don't care that much about. 

The fact that he was right in no way invalidates that the Council questioning the whole Chosen One thing for about three minutes was perfectly rational. 

About the impatience and the rushing, well... That's kinda what he does throughout TPM. He keeps forcing the issue and strong-arming fate - when cheating to free Anakin on Tatooine, with the Council, when he renounces Obi-Wan immediately instead of maybe waiting a bit to try and work something out (like idk, asking another maverick Master to take Anakin?), and finally with his dying wish. 

While taking action is not a bad thing, sometimes you need to slow down to be level-headed, which I think is why the Council dug their heels in so much with him when we see them go along with all sorts of insanity on Obi-Wan's part. 

I think he was wrong to dismiss Anakin's attachment to his mother (a very real problem and the root of many of Anakin's issue according to George Lucas, so the Council were *right* to be wary) as inconsequential in the face of his possible prophetic status. 

I don't think he would have done a "better job" training Anakin than Obi-Wan did.  

I also think he was a genuinely good, caring man. He loved Yoda very much - and the TCW bits between them really get me - and the other Jedi loved him too. (Like when Jocasta tells Obi-Wan how great Dooku was in the AotC deleted scene and she cheerfully talks about how alike he and Qui-Gon were.) They respected and valued his input - as evidenced by the fact that the Council sent him on important missions and didn't immediately pull him out of the field when he came back claiming he had fought a living fossil and found Jesus. He was patient and caring with Anakin at least, and he managed to attain immortality, which requires an immense mental and spiritual fortitude from what we see of Yoda's own trials. He was the kind of man who spent a year on the run with two sassy teenagers in love and managed to stay sane. 

All in all, I like him. He's not my favorite Jedi, he's not my favorite character, but he's a good guy. Seeing how amazing of a person Obi-Wan turned out to be, he was a good Master. 

I don't see him as "everything the Jedi should have been" or "the Greatest Jedi Ever" or an abusive blind asshole who had no business teaching kids ever. He did what he liked, he liked what he did, was a bit of a prick sometimes, super kind and gentle other times, and all in all he's a very interesting, well-rounded character with lots of contradictions.

[padawanlost]

I get really annoyed when people say "but that's not canon anymore (therefore it's not valid)" I have no problem with people enjoying Disney's new canon if it's their cup of tea, but it's not as though the old novels and comics etc have suddenly been wiped from existence and can't be used to gain deeper insight into a character, for example. Canon and Not-Canon are both just as fictional and are completely arbitrary constructs, anyway.

You know, I think about this a lot and, much as I roll my eyes at the arrogance people usually desperately when saying stuff like that, I understand why they do it. Based on my overall experiences with fandoms, I believe that people now use the term canon as a weapon in a desperate need to seek validation. I mean, back in the old days of letter writing and message boards, canon was nowhere near as important as it is now. Back then people are more interesting in keeping the conversation going then pointing out if something was canon or no. don’t get me wrong, people  still discussed ‘canon’ but you could have a long conversation about pretty much anything without someone coming up to say ‘tHat’S nOt CAnnON’. 

Tbh, I blame Disney. People wanting to have their fandom validated is normal, even is some folks that it way too far and too seriously. But by dividing the lore, they divided the fandom. now you have this group of people who dedicated a big chunk of their lives to star wars before Disney and a new big chuck of people who were just introduced to the franchised and they are clashing because the worlds presented to them don’t match. 

It’s not only the timeline that’s broken, characterizations are too. and I fear we will eventually reach a point where the two versions will look completely foreign to each other. to someone who grew up with the New Republic era, the ST looks wild and I suppose the same can be said to people who were introduced to SW by the ST and never heard about Mara Jade, Anakin Solo or anything else that happened during that time. these two world do not coexist, at all. 

Disney’s divide only alienated fans. I mean, not going to pretend the last 20 years of my life didn’t exist because a multi billion dollars company wants to make more money. it’s not about rejecting the new content, it’s about keep on loving what was always important to me. 

That’s why it hurts me to see new fans so easily dismiss the original lore, even though I understand their feelings towards it is totally different from mine. Disney’s created this mentality where the past doesn’t matter, that only their new, shiny toys has value and meaning. And, as a fan, it’s hurtful. I’m not mad a people for enjoying the new stuff. I’m mad at a greedy company for trying to erase my fandom experience. That’s what I feel I’m fighting against, I’m protecting my own fandom experience. The things that bring ME joy. 

On another level, the tHat’S nOt CAnnON line irritates me because it’s lazy. I mean, it is not a proper argument.

[lol-jackles]

I can't believe I'm saying this but, Rian Johnson may be the best thing that happened to Star Wars.

Rian did something of something of importance for Star Wars.  It relies on your expectations of 'what should happen in Star Wars' for some of its best moments, when it will pull in another direction. I love it.  Love or hate something, you don’t usually discuss it passionately a year, two years later if it was of little impact to you.  I think  The Last Jedi will age the best out of the Disney-era Star War films, it's the most complex of the five, going beyond the surface-level.  Rian also brought new life to the characters.  The Rey/Kylo dynamic was great, and Mark Hamill nailed the role of Luke once again, showing far more depth to his character.  Finn and Poe had a purpose and even though they failed, the whole movie was a study of persona failings and how we come back from it.

I think history will vindicate Rian/The Last Jedi the same how Empire Strikes Back was declared the best in the fanchise years after the initial hatred by fanboys and “meh” by general audience, save for that plot twist.  Like Elrond, I was there for the real time reactions towards ESB.  The same thing happened to Star Trek Deep Space Nine, at the time it was treated as the red headed middle step child of the fanchise.  Now it is acknowledged that it is actually the best series in the fanchise.