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qqueenofhades · 3 years ago

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so…now that we all know what you DISLIKE about star wars (and 400% fairly so, you have my full support here)…

what drew you into the universe, what keeps you around?

favorite characters, ships (OTPs or actual spaceships lol), overall themes, do you have a favorite random weird creature or robot that you adore? whatever you wanna talk about!

go off honey (again, but supportively 💖💖💖)

tax paid: the very nerdy star wars punk vest i made and the even nerdier matching vest i made for starsky

Lmaooo, entirely valid. You were like "star wars?" and I was like the drunk person at the bar who can't stop shouting about how much their ex sucks. But now that I have gotten all that off my chest, let's talk about why I love it (since if I didn't love it, I wouldn't have such strong opinions). Basically my feelings on the OG SW trilogy are similar to my feelings on the OG LOTR trilogy, as that tumblr post floating around somewhere put it: sure, they have flaws, but also, they're perfect. I have a complicated relationship with the prequels, as do we all, since George Lucas cannot write dialogue or direct actors to save his life (stick to what you're good at, George, hire other people to do the rest), but even they have their moments. Like. Hit me with that "Across the Stars" love theme, John Williams. Gahh. Just like that.

Because... Star Wars wasn't actually this omnipresent corporate global entertainment monolith when it started out. It was a dorky low-budget indie sci-fi film in the 1970s which everyone thought was going to bomb. But it told a simple and compelling story in an interesting way, everyone agrees that ESB is one of the best films/sequels ever made, and then ROTJ gave it a happy ending while it was still okay to do that. My main thematic gripe with the Disney trilogy (I will try to keep those to a minimum, lol, but I have to bring it up to compare) is that it very clearly fell into the "actual happy endings are naive and unrealistic and a cynical postmodern audience won't accept anything less than things being Bad" trap that, yet again, we have GOT to thank for. It obviously existed to some degree before that, but GOT blew it up to huge levels, where the only valid situation or character is that which is Grimdark and Depressing. Which, in my view, misses the heart and soul of what SW is all about??

Like. ESB is genuinely dark. ANH was this fun plucky little sci-fi film where the scrappy good guys won the day against the Nazi stand-ins, as they were supposed to, and then ESB comes along (speaking of John Williams, let us all chant together, DUH DUH DUH DUHDUHDUH DUHDUHDUH, DUH DUH DUH DUHHHH DUHHH DUHHH DUHHHH) and things go... wrong. Leia and Han are on the run for most of the movie, then get captured and tortured by the Empire and and betrayed (however unwillingly) by Lando. The Rebellion is attacked on Hoth (I tell you, those fuckin AT-AT walkers were SCARY when you see it as a young kid for the first time), and forced into hiding. Luke loses his hand, doubts Obi-Wan and Yoda and realizes that his mentors are fallible, makes dumb mistakes, and of course gets hit with The Most Famous Line In Movie History. But it's also just adrenaline and excitement. THE ASTEROID FIELD! THE HAN-LEIA BANTER! THE FIRST LUKE-VADER DUEL! THE FACT THAT YOU HEAR TWO FRICKING NOTES OF THE IMPERIAL MARCH AND YOU'RE JUST LIKE OH YEAH OH YEAH OH YEAHHHH!

But also then... Return of the Jedi. It gets shat upon for the Ewoks and reusing the Death Star as the Big Bad and being supposedly cheesy and not as Thematically Dark as ESB. Which is all kinda silly, in my opinion, but also, can we talk about Luke Skywalker's character arc and how he chooses possibly the most radical compassion ever demonstrated by a hero in an action movie, let alone a space opera. He insists that Anakin Skywalker is still in there somewhere and puts his own neck on the line to prove it. Luke doesn't save the galaxy by being a Badass Jedi. He saves it by throwing away his lightsaber and saying "I will not fight you, Father." He saves it by trusting that even in the depths of darkness, Anakin can come back from the charred ruins of Darth Vader and finally do what he was supposed to do all along. He can end Palpatine for good and all (we don't talk about "Somehow Palpatine has returned" because it's nonsense, obviously). Anakin can avenge the Jedi and what was done to him and all the lies he believed and the pain he wreaked on the galaxy, even then. It's not too late. It's not too late. Like. I don't care if this is Lightweight or Childish or whatever. It makes me CRY every time I watch it. Especially the moment where Luke takes off Anakin’s helmet and sees how ruined he actually is under there, and yet the downfall and death of the trilogy’s chief villain is not triumphant at all but instead utterly heartbreaking. “You were right about me Luke... tell your sister... you were right.”

Excuse me, I need to just /CRIES INTENSELY/

Luke won't be tempted to the dark side for his own sake, but Leia's ("If you will not join me, then perhaps she will"). I likewise hold firmly that Anakin/Vader is one of the best movie villains/antiheroes of all time and likewise have many feelings and Strong Opinions about his arc, prequel writing clumsiness and eye-rollingly tepid love story aside. (See: he and Obi-Wan were deeply in love and in a way they still are, don't @ me. I have no problems with Padme and obviously stan Natalie Portman at all times, but Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship is the real love story, the heart of the prequels, and in some ways even the subsequent movies, the end.) And “so this is how democracy dies, with thunderous applause” is... raw af as a line. For being in a Star Wars prequel movie. What?? (Also, the Revenge of the Sith novelization had no business being as good as it was. If only that dude had also written the movie.)

Anyway, my point is: the OG trilogy had plenty of moments of staggering emotional weight and where things genuinely sucked for the good guys and the outcome wasn’t entirely clear. The difference is that it didn’t choose to dwell on them, and it allowed for a transformative fictional space where a happy ending, fiercely fought for and squarely earned, was the right outcome. We didn’t need to go back thirty years later and make everything suck for fear that a cynical modern audience couldn’t connect with it otherwise. (Like I said, we didn’t need the new movies at all, but Disney heard that Cha-Ching of the Almighty Dollar). Star Wars was sci-fi, sure, but it also had the fantasy elements that allowed a happy ending to be the right choice for what we saw the characters go through and the philosophy that carried us through the original trilogy.

Likewise it’s just... Peak as far as dynamics go. C-3PO the fussy metal butler who worries about Everything and R2-D2 who is the droid embodiment of YOLO? Flawless. Sassy scruffy space pirate and badass politician warrior princess bicker constantly, butt heads, drive each other crazy, and then fall in love? Iconic. (And has shaped my ship tastes for... all of eternity, oops.) The above-discussed transformation of Luke Skywalker, whiny ordinary teenage kid, to the truly great man who fulfills what Obi-Wan, Yoda, AND the rest of the entire Jedi order couldn’t manage to do, because of their own flaws and blind spots and black-and-white moral views that didn’t know what to do with a man who loved as passionately as Anakin Skywalker, for better or for worse? The guy who managed to save the galaxy with love? STAN.

So... what? The Disney trilogy decides to retcon all that, throw everything that they’ve fought for out the window, make Han, Leia, and Luke miserable and rejecting the roles they grew into in the original trilogy, and die without ever really reuniting or seeing each other again as a trio? The underlying message was that “these happy endings aren’t satisfactory/realistic/sophisticated enough” and idk, maybe it’s just the shitshow of the last few years, but I’d like to see some entertainment that had the cojones to tell me that despite all the darkness and despair, maybe there’s a chance for hope. (”Rebellions are built on hope,” thank you Only Valid New Star Wars Movie Rogue One.) And Rogue One worked so well, despite being utterly GUTTING as all the heroes died one by one, because we knew what was coming next (A New Hope) and that their sacrifice was going to be worth it. I don’t care if that’s “realistic” or not. As I’ve said before, that’s what stories are for, and if I only wanted things that were Real Life, I would only read the news. Besides, the idea that happy endings never happen in reality is equally bullshit. We as a culture need to accept that more, instead of finding reasons to tear everything down.

So just... yes. The original trilogy might have flaws, but also, it’s perfect. And do I want to rewatch it all now? Kinda.

(Anyway. I warned you this was gonna be long. Oh look, it’s long, and I’m sure there is even more I could say, but still. Ahem.)

sleepover weekend asks

#buffaluff #ask #star wars #long post

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cali-holland · 4 years ago

Text

Risky Quizness- Tom Holland One Shot

Pairing: Tom Holland X Reader

Requested by Anon: meeting tom at one of the pub quizzes he goes to at his local pub, he and his mates need more people on their team to sign up, so they asks you and a couple of your friends to join, you and him connect. Xxoo

Prompt: When you meet Tom at a pub quiz, sparks fly between the two of you.

Word Count: 1800

A/N: Huge shoutout to @saysomethingspiderman for being a major help with this one. I’m hella American and never experienced a pub quiz before lol aka brits dont hate me for this

Masterlist Tom Holland Masterlist

*Gif is not mine*

~~~

“Damn it.” Tom muttered, looking at his phone with a frown.

“What?” Harrison asked, sitting next to him at the table with their two pints.

“Harry just texted me. He’s sick.” He replied. “And Sam’s with his girlfriend and you know mum would never let me take Paddy.”

“So it’s just us then?” The blond let out a sigh.

Pub quizzes weren’t much fun with two people. Normally, they’d go with Tuwaine, Harry, and Sam- sometimes even Sam’s girlfriend would tag along, but Tuwaine had a family thing come up, and now the twins had bailed.

“We could always try to find someone to join our team? Right?” Tom offered weakly, and his friend shrugged.

“We’d have to find people willing to actually join us.” He stated and Tom nodded. The pub was already filling up with hopefuls for the pub quiz, there was no way they’d find others to team up with them-

“You can’t do a pub quiz with two people! It just doesn’t work like that!” You let out a frustrated groan as you passed by Tom’s table with your friend. And just like that, a light bulb went off in Tom’s head as he jumped after you.

“Hey, wait!” He called out and you and your friend paused, turning to him skeptically as you held your drinks.

“You only have two people for the quiz? My mate and I are also a team of two. Did- did you want to, maybe, join us?” Tom asked, realizing how stupid it sounded to ask that out loud- to ask a couple strangers to be on his team for a pub quiz. Your friend looked at you and you contemplated it for a moment.

“Sure, but we better win.” You stated, following a triumphant Tom back to his table (much to Harrison’s surprise). You sat down in an empty chair, leaving one open between you and Harrison, and Tom slid into it.

“I’m Tom, and this is Harrison.” He introduced the two of them.

“Y/N, this is Jess.” You replied with a smile. The quizmaster quickly made his way around the pub, handing out a sheet of paper to each of the teams.

“What should our name be?” Tom asked, looking at the paper in front of him.

“Risky Quizness.” You said simply and Jess let out a laugh beside you.

“Risky Quizness?” Tom and Harrison both repeated, and you nodded.

“Every time we’ve used that name, we’ve won the pub quiz.” You stated.

“That’s because the only time we’ve won it was our name!” Jess added, and you rolled your eyes at her.

“We still won. Maybe we wouldn’t have been second last time if our name was Risky Quizness, not Universally Challenged.” You picked up the pencil from the table and grabbed the paper from in front of Tom.

“Risky Quizness, like the Tom Cruise movie?” Tom asked you, a small smile on his face.

“I’m writing it!” You announced and Jess groaned, but the boys just laughed.

“In case you couldn’t tell, she runs the quiz.” She teased.

“Shove off.” You groaned, “I’m competitive.”

“How many of these have you won?” Tom inquired. He honestly wasn’t sure how well he and Harrison would do with their usual team; by the end of the night, he would have always had enough beers to be a bit hazy on how many he actually knew on his own. He wanted to do well though because who didn’t love winning? And he also may have wanted to impress you a little.

“Just the one.” You mumbled, not wanting to fully admit it, “But we keep coming in second. There’s this group at our usual place called Let’s Get Quizzical and they win every single time. So we’re here in hopes that they won’t be.”

“What about you two?” Your friend asked.

“We’ve won a few times, but honestly, I don’t remember if I got any of them right.” He laughed.

“So, it’s up to you then, blondie.” You joked, and Harrison smiled with a grimace. “You two are lucky you’re attractive.”

Before either could respond, the quizmaster began to speak, announcing the general knowledge round. Some were easy questions like name the longest river in the U.K., complete the line from Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which you knew immediately), and how many hearts does an octopus have (that one you and Harrison got in a heated debate about whether it was two or eight, when Jess stepped in as the marine biologist to tell you it was three).

The next couple rounds went by smoothly, the four of you working together to make sure you got the right answers. By the time you were on the final round, the movies round, you felt fairly confident that your answers were like 90% right (you still weren’t sure if you trusted Tom and Harrison in saying that the DeLorean in Back to the Future had to hit 88 to time travel because you definitely thought it was 85 like the year the first movie came out).

“Which Star Wars character gets namechecked in Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom?” The quizmaster asked, making the four of you pause.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that movie.” Harrison stated.

“Yoda?” Tom suggested, thinking it was a fairly iconic Star Wars character.

“It’s Obi-Wan.” You said as you wrote down the answer. “I just watched the movie like two days ago, and trust me, you’re not missing out if you haven’t seen it.”

“Two hours I’ll never get back.” Jess shook her head with a sigh.

“That bad?” Tom asked and you both nodded.

“The worst.” You shuddered just thinking about it.

Though that question stumped Tom and Harrison, it wasn’t until the last question of the round that you really didn’t know the answer.

“Last question. This sequel film is the 10th highest grossing superhero movie of all time.” The quizmaster read off the question, and you turned to the rest of your team, unsure of the right answer.

“I don’t know? Captain America?” You asked, wracking your brain for any good superhero sequel films you’d seen. You watched Harrison try to nudge Tom inconspicuously, who was blushing beside you. He mumbled something to you, but you couldn’t hear it at all. “What movie?”

“Uh, Spider-Man: Far From Home.” He spoke up louder, the blush on his cheeks darkening as he shot Harrison a glare.

“Oh, right, never saw that.” You replied, and Tom laughed nervously.

“You really never saw it?” He asked.

“Nope.” You shook your head, “I don’t even think I saw the first one, honestly. Not that big of a Spider-Man fan.” As you wrote down the answer Tom had given you, you missed him sending a look back to his friend, trying his best not to be slightly offended by your words.

“You should watch them. They’re really good movies.” Tom said with an encouraging smile when you looked back up at him, ignoring Harrison’s kick under the table. It wasn’t until then that he realized you had absolutely no clue who he was, and it was the best thing ever for him; you were treating him like just another random guy who invited you to join his pub quiz team.

The quizmaster announced the end of the quiz, and everyone went over their answers. Much to your familiar disappointment, your team ended up second again.

“Maybe, it’s just you.” Tom teased you as Harrison and Jess went to go get more drinks.

“Rude.” You playfully scoffed, though you were still a bit upset by the loss. “Maybe if you had known that Wisconsin was the dairy state then we would have won.”

“You didn’t even know that one!” He refuted. It was true- the American geography round just about wiped your team out. Tom shifted a bit closer to you, leaning on his arm, flexing it almost, “So you think you’ll be back at this pub for next week?”

“I think I could be convinced to return.” You replied slyly. Before Tom could ask for your number, you already had your phone unlocked, sliding it over to him. “Here.”

“You already knew.” He chuckled, handing you his phone in return. You both typed in your numbers and switched phones back.

“That one Spider-Man question. How did you know that?” You asked, thinking back to all the sigh’s the erupted throughout the pub when the answer was revealed- most had gotten it wrong, so how did Tom know so quickly that he was right?

“I just know.” Tom shrugged in an effort to play it off.

“You know off the top of your head the 10th highest grossing superhero movie of all time?” You eyed him suspiciously.

“They said it was a sequel, so it had to be either that or Incredibles 2.” He joked, but you weren’t too amused. He leaned in closer to you, creating an intimate distance between your two faces, “Can I tell you a secret?”

“What, are you Spider-Man or something?” You asked teasingly, but his smile never faltered.

“Yeah, I am.” Tom replied. You laughed before you realized the complete seriousness in his voice and his face.

“Seriously?” You managed through a fit of laughter.

“I really am! And you said you didn’t like my movie.” He teased.

“I said I never saw it.” You corrected him. “That has to be cheating for it to be your movie as the answer.”

“No, it definitely isn’t.” He shook his head with a laugh.

“How much did it gross? How much?” You asked, wiggling your eyebrows at him jokingly, “You check the box office daily, don’t you?”

“I do not!” He protested, chuckling, “And it made over a billion, thank you very much.”

“Did you drop your pants for that to happen or something?” You quipped, and his face heated up. You gasped, “You didn’t!”

“It was just for one scene and I had my underwear on!” Tom insisted, “You’d know that if you saw the film.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll watch it- both of them.” You laughed.

“How about I quiz you on them next week?” He joked, and you groaned.

“No, that means I’d have to pay attention.”

“Fine, I won’t quiz you on them on one condition.” Tom rested a hand on the back of your chair, leaning in closer to you. You raised your eyebrows at him, telling him wordlessly to continue, “Go on a date with me?”

You nodded, laughing as you spoke, “Yes, but I gotta say, I really thought you were going to make me watch your own movie with you.”

“Trust me, darling, we can do that, too.”

~~~

Tag List: @viagracex @theamazingtomholland @hellomoveonby @heyitsshrez

Tom Tag List: @quaksonhehe

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland fanfic #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland fluff

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kjack89 · 4 years ago

Text

gold rush

As was requested, a sequel to ‘tis the damn season (tumblr, AO3). ExR, modern AU, former relationship. Still not a happy ending. Still the potential for writing more.

I’m here.

Enjolras sent the text message and tried to ignore what felt an uncomfortable amount like nerves as he leaned against the fence, scrolling aimlessly through Twitter. He jumped when the gate swung open next to him, relaxing only slightly when he saw Grantaire. “Hey,” Grantaire said, his breath fogging the air.

“Hey,” Enjolras returned, a little awkwardly, wondering what the protocol was for greeting an ex.

Luckily, Grantaire solved the problem for him, reaching out to give him a quick, one-armed hug. “I honestly wasn’t sure you’d call,” he said as he let go of Enjolras. “Considering how we, uh, left things.”

Enjolras was tempted to ask if he was referring to how they’d left things a few nights ago after their chance meeting outside of the bar, or how they’d left things a decade ago when they broke up, but decided against it. “Technically I didn’t call you,” he pointed out instead, shoving his phone in the pocket of his coat. “I texted.”

Grantaire grinned. “Pedantic as always,” he said.

Wordlessly, they fell in line next to each other, walking down the sidewalk in momentary silence, which Grantaire broke with a sideways look at Enjolras. “So are you still scared of my parents?”

Enjolras scowled. “I’ve never been scared of your parents,” he said, somewhat insulted.

“Then why would you not just come up and ring my doorbell instead of texting me?” Grantaire asked, amused. “For that matter, why did you never once ring my doorbell the entire time we were dating?”

“I don’t know,” Enjolras said honestly. “I guess it never occurred to me that I should have.”

Grantaire chuckled and shook his head. “Well, I suppose I can forgive you,” he said, nudging Enjolras lightly with his shoulder. “You were in high school, after all. And an idiot.”

“Thanks,” Enjolras said sourly.

“But I’m sure you’ve had a lot more experience meeting the parents of your significant other, Grantaire continued, glancing sideways at Enjolras. Right?”

Enjolras hesitated. “Depends on what you mean by experience,” he hedged.

Grantaire raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“In my defense, I haven’t really ever dated someone that seriously.” Grantaire didn’t say anything and Enjolras winced with sudden realization. “Besides, um, besides you, I mean,” he muttered.

To his surprise, Grantaire just laughed lightly. “You don’t have to do that, you know,” he said, and Enjolras frowned at him.

“Do what?”

Grantaire shrugged. “Pretend like we were more than what we were.”

Enjolras frowned at him. “I was under the impression we dated for three years in high school,” he said warily, wondering where exactly Grantaire was going with this.

Evidently, nowhere, since Grantaire just shook his head and looked down at the slush-dotted sidewalk. “You know what? Let’s not do this right now.”

Part of Enjolras wanted to ask, again, do what?, but he figured playing dumb wouldn’t get him particularly far. Instead, he asked, “Why not?”

“Because this is our last night in town together, and I assume when you texted me this morning to ask if I wanted to grab a drink that there would actually be drinks involved,” Grantaire said with a sigh. “And I don’t know about you, but I prefer my drinks without dredged up decades-old arguments.”

Enjolras cocked his head slightly. “Does it count as an argument if only one party is seemingly involved?”

Grantaire didn’t laugh. “I’ll defer to the lawyer among us on that.”

“Then I would say no,” Enjolras said, but Grantaire still didn’t so much as crack a smile. “Seriously, I’m not sure where you’re going with this, and I’m definitely not sure I can table something that I don’t understand.”

Grantaire sighed and crossed his arms tightly across his chest. “Can we please just get that drink?” he asked, sounding tired. “It’s too fucking cold to have this conversation out here. And you know that I’ve always been better arguing with a drink or twelve in me.”

“On that point, the defense will stipulate.”

“Ok Yoda,” Grantaire said with a snort.

Enjolras scowled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Grantaire gave him a look. “Please tell me that I don’t have to explain Star Wars to you.”

“Fuck off, you know that’s not what I meant,” Enjolras said, without any real heat. “But if you see me as Yoda, of all characters—”

“I didn’t say that, but your turn of phrase was particularly Yoda-esque,” Grantaire shot back.

Enjolras’s eyes narrowed. “So you don’t think I’m like Yoda?”

Grantaire smirked. “Didn’t say that either.”

Enjolras rolled his eyes and huffed, “I feel like I’m beginning to understand why Han shot first.”

“Oh, so now I’m Greedo?” Grantaire asked, half-insulted and half-amused.

“And I didn’t say that.”

The familiar bickering carried them all the way to the bar, where they settled at a table in the back. “Uh, vodka tonic for me,” Grantaire told their waitress as he struggled to peel his sweatshirt off, the tshirt he was wearing underneath caught up in it as he tugged it up over his head.

Enjolras tried not to stare at the swath of taut skin revealed, and it took several tries before he realized the waitress had asked him a question. “Uh, what?”

“Can I get you something to drink?” the waitress repeated, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

“Uh…” Enjolras trailed off as Grantaire, finally triumphant over his sweatshirt, settled back in his seat, his arm muscles shifting as he reached up in vain to flatten his hair. “I’ll have the same.”

The waitress nodded and headed over to the bar, and Grantaire frowned at Enjolras. “Since when do you drink vodka?”

“Since when do you?” Enjolras returned, arching an eyebrow. “Last I saw, whiskey was your drink of choice.”

“Yeah, well, too many Jamo shots will ruin even the best whiskeys,” Grantaire said with a light laugh. “Besides, clear liquor has less calories, and I’m trying to watch my girlish figure.”

Enjolras laughed and the waitress returned with their drinks. Grantaire picked up his drink and made a mock toast. “Happy holidays,” he said, taking a large sip, as Enjolras just shook his head, his own sip much more reasonable.

“So now that you have alcohol in your system,” he said, setting his glass down on the table, “can we revisit what it was you were talking about earlier when you said that I shouldn’t pretend we were something we weren’t?”

Grantaire sighed. “Just when I was beginning to have a nice time,” he said mournfully.

“Grantaire.”

Even after all those years, it appeared Enjolras saying Grantaire’s name had a similar effect as it used to, as Grantaire sighed again, tracing a finger around the rim of his glass. “I just think you and I remember things a little differently,” he said carefully. “Maybe it’s just nostalgia coloring your memories, or maybe you’ve got early-onset Alzheimer’s.”

Enjolras frowned. “That’s not funny.”

“And the one thing I ever had going for me was making you laugh,” Grantaire said, a little too wry to be a joke. “But seriously...whatever you and I had, it wasn’t a relationship.” He tried to smile, but to Enjolras, it looked more like a grimace. “Not in the traditional sense of the word, anyway.”

Enjolras searched his expression for a long moment, trying and failing to understand what he meant. “What are you saying?” he asked finally.

Grantaire picked his drink up and drained it before glancing around for their waitress. “I’m saying that you were my boyfriend. But I wasn’t yours.” He spotted their waitress and gestured to her before meeting Enjolras’s eyes again. “I was, at best, your friend with benefits.” He made a face. “Probably more accurately, I was your booty call. Physical release. Whatever you want to call it.”

“That’s—”

Not true was what Enjolras desperately wanted to say, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to. Mostly because he had a sinking feeling that Grantaire was correct. Grantaire arched an eyebrow as he waited for Enjolras to say something, taking a sip of his drink when the waitress returned with a refill. “Fine,” Enjolras said finally. “Maybe it was mostly physical, but that wasn’t all it was.”

“Sure, it was also your rebellion against the heteronormative world,” Grantaire said, nodding.

Enjolras scowled. “That’s not what I meant.”

Grantaire sighed. “Enjolras—”

“I loved you.”

Grantaire’s expression was unreadable. “Maybe you did. I can’t exactly claim to know every thought that’s run through your head. But I can tell you that that’s not how you acted at the time.”

“Was I really that horrible to you?” Enjolras asked quietly.

Grantaire considered it for a moment. “I think to be really horrible, that would have required you to care more about me,” he said slowly. “Instead, you...tolerated me, I guess.”

Enjolras’s chest felt tight as he thought desperately back on their relationship, on some piece of evidence he could present that would prove Grantaire incorrect. Instead, his mind replayed a litany of memories he had long since buried, of all the times Enjolras had scoffed when Grantaire tried to do something romantic, or told him to be serious when Grantaire asked him to homecoming or prom, or blew off their date nights because he had work to do on a protest.

Or, worst of all, that early morning in Enjolras’s bed, when Grantaire told him that he loved him, and Enjolras had told him that he needed to leave before Enjolras’s parents woke up.

Enjolras swallowed, hard, and forced himself to look at Grantaire. “You must’ve hated me for how I treated you,” he said softly.

Grantaire’s smile was sad. “I’ve never once in my life hated you, Enj,” he said quietly. “If anything, I hated myself for not being someone you could love.”

“I’m sorry.”

Grantaire shook his head. “That’s my issue, not yours. You didn’t do that to me.” He managed a tight smile. “I knew who you were when we were together. I knew what you wanted out of life, and I knew I wasn’t going to be a part of that.” He took a swig of his drink before adding, “And let’s also not pretend like I was some kind of stellar boyfriend. I was a fucked up mess.”

Enjolras huffed a sigh. “Maybe we both were,” he mused.

“Is that what this is about?” Grantaire asked mildly.

Enjolras frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, is this whole trip down memory lane with me just you trying to figure out where it all went wrong for you?”

“I– Who says it all went wrong for me?” Enjolras blustered. Grantaire just arched an eyebrow and Enjolras sighed, frowning down at his own, mostly untouched drink. “I guess I did envision a very different life for myself,” he admitted.

“And you’re not happy with where you are right now?” Grantaire asked, in a way that suggested he knew the answer and just wanted to hear Enjolras say it.

“How could I be?” Enjolras asked, aiming for levity as he added, “I wear a suit to work everyday, Grantaire. With a tie. My father told me he’s proud of me.”

Grantaire snorted. “The horror.” He propped his chin on his hand. “But speaking of your father, what happened to your college fund?”

“My college fund?”

“Yeah, you said that you’re working as a corporate attorney because you have to pay off your student loans, right?” Enjolras nodded and Grantaire continued, “If memory serves, your grandparents left you a fairly sizeable college fund that you were supposed to use to pay for school so that you didn’t have to take out student loans.”

“Ah,” Enjolras said, wincing. “They did.”

“And?” Grantaire prompted.

Enjolras sighed again. “And in a moment of well-intentioned idiocy, I donated every cent of it to charity.” He paused and took a sip of his drink. “Well, almost. I did pay for undergrad with it. But what was left went to charity. And then my father told me that he would be happy to pay for law school.”

Grantaire raised both eyebrows. “Really?”

Enjolras made a face. “Yeah, if I agreed to specialize in business law.”

“And?”

“And I told him to get fucked,” Enjolras said bluntly before making a face again. “Of course he’s clearly had the last laugh, so.”

Grantaire shook his head, his expression softening. “Don’t count yourself out yet. I mean, for Christ’s sake, you’re not even 30 years old yet. You’ve got time.” He paused before adding, “Besides, I still believe in you.”

Enjolras gave him a look. “Be serious.”

Grantaire half-smiled. “I am wild.”

A small smile twitched at the corners of Enjolras’s mouth and he shook his head slowly. “I keep thinking that you’ve changed so much, but then you go and say something like that and it’s like we’re 18 years old again.”

Grantaire laughed and took another sip of his drink. “I don’t know that I’d say I’ve changed,” he said.

“Then what would you say?”

“That I’ve had a lot of therapy, mostly,” Grantaire said, suddenly serious. “And grown up a little. And that while I may not have changed as much as you’re giving me credit for, I’m also not the fucked up mess I was in high school.”

Enjolras nodded, looking down at his drink again. “I wish I could say the same thing.”

“Well, it’s not too late to try.”

“I suppose not,” Enjolras allowed, managing a small smile, though it quickly faded. “And now I feel even worse.”

Grantaire frowned. “Why?”

“Because we’ve spent all this time talking about me and I haven’t asked you anything about you.” Grantaire made a face but Enjolras continued, “What are you doing these days? Hell, where are you living these days?”

“In a van, down by the river,” Grantaire said dryly.

“Hilarious.”

Grantaire smirked. “I like to think I am.” He shrugged. “I also prefer keeping a little mystery about me. Keeps ‘em coming for more, you know?”

Enjolras arched an eyebrow. “So you’re not going to answer even basic questions?”

Something darkened in Grantaire’s expression. “I mean, what is there to say? You want the square footage of my apartment? You want me to drone on about my terrible, awful, absolute godsend of a cat? You want me to talk about the latest exhibit I’m curating at the gallery I work at?”

“Actually, yeah.” Enjolras said, a little defensively, even if he didn’t quite understand the hard edge in Grantaire’s voice. “I’d like to hear about your life, if you’d let me.”

Grantaire shook his head and finished his second drink, already looking around for their waitress. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?” Enjolras asked impatiently.

“Pretend you’re interested.”

“What makes you think I’m not actually interested?” Grantaire scoffed and looked away, and Enjolras swallowed, hard, realization hitting as the theme of the evening returned in full force. “Because I never used to be.”

“Not particularly, no.”

“I’m—”

Grantaire looked flatly at him. “I swear to God, Enjolras, if you try to apologize one more time…”

Enjolras held his hands up defensively. “Fine, then I’m not sorry for being a completely self-absorbed asshole.”

It was a little too caustic to be a joke, which is probably why Grantaire just shook his head, something contemplative in his expression. “You were never self-absorbed. A little self-important, maybe, and with a white savior complex to rival the colonizers you so desperately hated—”

“Watch it.”

Grantaire smirked, though it quickly faded. “But your problem was never that you only cared about yourself. Your problem was that you cared so much about saving the world that you didn’t have a lot left for the people right in front of you.”

Enjolras nodded slowly. “Yeah, well, I don’t have that problem anymore,” he said tiredly.

Grantaire just raised an eyebrow. “That remains to be seen.”

“Harsh, but fair,” Enjolras said with a dry, humorless laugh. “Well, in the spirit of trying to show you that, tell me about yourself. And I will actually listen.”

Grantaire’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, I will tell you about myself – if you answer one question for me.”

“Anything.”

“Why now?”

The stark question took Enjolras by surprise, and he blinked at Grantaire. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, why do you suddenly want to know about me?” Grantaire asked, a challenge in his tone. “My phone number hasn’t changed. Facebook exists. Hell, you could even find me on LinkedIn if you really wanted to. But you never made that attempt. So I want to know why you care now.” He gestured around the bar. “Because if it’s just proximity, you go back to your life tomorrow, and I go back to mine, and since the likelihood of us running into each other again is pretty slim, you don’t have to waste time pretending to care.”

“That’s not fair,” Enjolras said quietly.

Grantaire jerked a shrug. “Maybe not. But like I said, I grew up. And I don’t have time for anything but honesty.”

Enjolras’s brow furrowed. “Fine, you want honesty?” he snapped, more riled than he had any right to be. “The phone works both ways. If you had wanted to stay in touch, you could have just as easily.”

A ghost of a smile crossed Grantaire’s face. “Objection. Presumes facts not in evidence.”

“I beg your pardon?” Enjolras said coldly.

“C’mon, you’re a lawyer, if I can pick up what that means from watching reruns of Law & Order, surely I don’t have to explain it to you.” Enjolras just gave him a look, and Grantaire sighed. “Fine, I guess I do.” He picked up his drink and lifted it in a mock toast once again. “I never said that I wanted to stay in touch.”

Grantaire didn’t deliver the words harshly, but Enjolras still recoiled. “Now who’s the one who doesn’t care?”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted them, but it was too late to take them back. Hurt flashed across Grantaire’s face before his expression evened out. “There are a lot of things you can accuse me of,” he said quietly, “but don’t ever accuse me of not caring about you. Not after everything.”

“I’m sorry,” Enjolras said softly. “That was...out of line.”

“You think?”

Enjolras swallowed and looked away. “So why didn’t you want to stay in touch?” he asked, a little roughly.

Grantaire sighed. “Because I preferred not knowing,” he said simply. “If I didn’t know where you were at, what you were doing, then I could imagine you however I wanted to.” He managed a small, slightly sad smile. “And, at the beginning at least, I could imagine a way that we could still work things out.”

“Like what?” Enjolras asked, intrigued despite himself.

Grantaire glanced at him. “Do you actually want to know?”

“Yes.”

Enjolras wasn’t sure if Grantaire would believe him, but it didn’t seem to matter. Or maybe Grantaire had been looking for an opportunity, and this was as good as any. “I used to imagine showing up at your fancy law school,” Grantaire said slowly, with a genuine if wistful smile. “I used to imagine that I’d sneak into one of those fancy alumni dinners – I don’t know how – and I’d hide in the background, watching you, biding my time. Then when the opportunity came, when you made some claim about the working class or something, I’d casually speak up, contradict you or ask for your sources, just to watch the recognition on your face as you looked at me.”

“But you never did,” Enjolras said, his heart beating painfully in his chest, and Grantaire snorted and shook his head.

“Of course not,” he scoffed.

Enjolras frowned slightly. “Why not?”

Grantaire just shook his head. “Logistics aside, because I knew the reality would never have been as satisfying as what I imagined.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, in the version in my head, you’d smoothly counter my point, we’d bicker like old times and then you’d excuse us to discuss this further. And then…” He trailed off, his smile turning sad. “Well, then we’d wander around campus, bickering some more and it would be like you’d never left. Like we never ended.” His voice cracked and he looked away. “Perfect.”

Enjolras almost didn’t want to speak, to interrupt the moment, but he also couldn’t stop himself from asking, “And you didn’t want to try for that?”

Grantaire shook his head again. “Of course not. Because it was a dream. That version of me and that version of you don’t exist.”

“Do you think they ever could have?” Enjolras asked.

“I don’t know,” Grantaire said honestly. “But it doesn’t matter. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the past decade, looking back only gets you so far.” He finished his drink and set it down with a clunk on the table. “Let that be the lesson of the evening, I guess. And speaking of…” He looked at his bare wrist as if pretending to look at a watch. “It’s probably time I got home. I’ve got an early train to catch in the morning.”

“Hang on,” Enjolras said, frowning. “You still didn’t tell me anything about you.”

Grantaire smirked. “Oh, you noticed that, did you?”

Enjolras gave him a look. “So stay,” he said, more of a request than an order. “Have one more drink. Tell me about your life.” Grantaire shook his head and Enjolras reached across the table, closing his hand around Grantaire’s wrist. “Please.”

“I can’t,” Grantaire said quietly. “But you’ve got my number, if you ever want to continue this conversation. Or, y’know, start a different one.”

“I wish…” Enjolras trailed off. “I don’t know. I wish I had more time. To make things up to you.” He met Grantaire’s eyes. “Or to at least try.”

Grantaire smiled crookedly at him. “Are you kidding me?” he asked, twisting his hand in Enjolras’s grip so that he could grasp his hand. “You’ve given me the only thing I’ve wanted for ten years.”

“What?”

“You asked me to stay.“

Enjolras’s throat felt tight. “Grantaire—”

Grantaire let go of Enjolras’s hand and stood, grabbing his coat and sweatshirt. “Take care of yourself, Enjolras,” he said softly. “You know how to reach me if you want to. Otherwise…”

He didn’t bother finishing his sentence, just rapping his knuckles lightly on the table before walking away. Enjolras watched him leave, wondering not for the first time if this is how Grantaire had felt watching him leave a decade ago.

Wondering if this was really the end for them.

And wondering, just a little, if this was what heartbreak felt like.

#enjolras #grantaire #exr #enjoltaire #enjolras x grantaire #fanfiction #les miserables #modern au #former relationship #light angst #idk what even to tag this as #there's a lot of painful honesty here #things that should have been said a long time ago etc etc #and then it fades into the gray of my day-old tea 'cause it could never be

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bedlamsbard · 4 years ago

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Luke and Leia?

two problems: one, I think when they made the ST the writers and directors swayed closer to Mark Hamill’s and Carrie Fisher’s personalities rather than what Luke and Leia would have been like thirty years on -- for me, this is more noticeable with Leia/Carrie than Luke/Mark, and there’s some knock-on of this in the books/comics. (This is probably true for Han and Harrison Force, too? But I feel like they were closer together originally, and then having Alden!Han balanced some of it.) Which is not to say that there shouldn’t have been any Carrie in Leia, obviously, but for me there’s a big disconnect between EU Leia and current canon Leia, bigger than just different writers and different canons should account for.

two...these are somewhat messy feelings, and they are very, uh, I have a feeling. not that these other thing isn’t, obvs, but this is also very I Have A Bias And It’s Called Rebels. I really am resentful of the fact that Rebels decided to sideline its main Jedi characters for whatever reason -- yeah, there’s the oft-cited “you’re the last one!” or whatever the actual line is from the OT, but that’s something that’s easy to handwave away in the ancillaries. Even Yoda’s cameos in Rebels show him as kind of waving off Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka (god, I really hate Henry Gilroy’s take that Yoda controlled everything in the Jedi temple in Shroud of Darkness, he might be the writer but I disagree); I’ve always gotten the vibe that Yoda in this era was completely focused on the Skywalker twins as the solution to the Sith problem, and everything else was essentially extraneous. Which, tbh, works for Yoda, because Yoda. Obi-Wan in Twin Suns...honestly, doesn’t feel right for Obi-Wan? And Obi-Wan comes out and goes “this is not your story!” wow, way to make the subtext text, Dave. (He and Gilroy wrote the ep, which I just realized when I went to check the writer, and wow, that explains a lot about my problems with it.)

I think there was a chance to do something really interesting with Rebels by presenting an actual rival to Luke as ~savior of the Jedi, or ~future of the Jedi, or however you want to frame that. And honestly, S1 seemed to be going there. And then Rebels started leaning away from it -- slowly at first, and then faster and faster, until we get to the “we’re making the subtext text” part in Twin Suns and then straight-up killing off Kanan and flinging Ezra into space in S4, along with whatever the hell they’re doing with Ahsoka. And I don’t necessarily mean “rival to Luke” in terms of “Ezra and Luke have to fight” (though I do genuinely believe that Ezra’s and Luke’s approaches to Jediness and how to be a Jedi are so different as to be essentially incompatible), but in terms of “is this actually Luke’s Destiny?” Is the role that Luke played in restoring the Jedi to the galaxy (ST and whatever went down prior to that aside) actually something that only he could have done, or was he the only option? Rather than actually deal with that question, SW went the (in my opinion) lazy route and went with “he had to do it because he was the only option.” (And honestly, not dealing with whatever the hell Ahsoka was doing between Malachor and the Rebels epilogue and/or Mando, which is still at minimum a good ten years, actually makes this worse.) If your means of dealing with a character’s role in a story arc is to get rid of all the rivals before they can actually be rivals (and again, I mean, like, thematically, not literally), then to me that says that role is not something that they could have been able to accomplish otherwise. For me it really weakens Luke as a character, and that’s to the detriment of both Luke and honestly the entire saga story arc.

okay actually there’s a third thing about Luke and Leia -- I said this on Twitter before the Mando finale aired and because it was many moons ago I now can’t find it, but honestly? Star Wars is weakening its main story line by no loner telling big name stories about the OT trio. These are supposed to be big name famous characters who have all accomplished extraordinary things, and yet as far as Mando is concerned, they might as well not exist. Up to the finale there was not a single piece of evidence that Luke or Leia actually existed, and even the Luke cameo...they can CGI Mark Hamill for that because it’s not going to have lasting consequences. If it was going to have lasting consequences, they would have recast. (I mean, if he’s got a recurring role next season we can revisit this in 2022, but until then.) These are saga characters! These are people who have RESHAPED THE GALAXY. They should have an impact in Star Wars’ big name ongoing projects in one form or another!

The impression I get right now from the current slate of upcoming projects is that Star Wars is gambling that their viewership is, by and large, more interested in the greater Star Wars universe than it is in established Star Wars characters. They may be right; Mando is certainly very successful. The upcoming character spin-offs -- Ahsoka (yikes), Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Lando project -- those are all main characters but they’re not the main characters. And honestly, we’ll see how this goes. It may go well. It may go poorly. It may be all over the map. (this is the most likely option.) I did love Solo, but as far as Lucasfilm’s concerned, and a lot of the mainstream audience, it was a flop. The post-RotJ EU and the post-RotJ new canon have varied in that the new canon has, with a few exceptions (which are not ~mainstream, with the exception of Battlefront II), mostly shied away from telling stories revolving around the OT trio. The longer they go without doing that, without showing the impact that these people have on the galaxy, that they have right now -- the more they’re weakening the impact that Luke and Leia ought to have. Yeah, I came in from the EU, I do think that Luke and Leia should be, to some extent, living myths. The problem is that Lucasfilm wants to do live action TV and frankly, I think they’re wary about recasting Luke and Leia after Solo. (Even though Alden is a great Han, imho.) This is honestly the perfect time to do a post-RotJ animated series -- use Mark Hamill’s VA skills! he’s not going to live forever! that gets around the Carrie Fisher problem! the weird Force shit works REALLY well in animation in a way that it does not in live action, and come on, don’t Luke and Leia deserve to deal with the weird Force shit too? WOULD YOU NOT ACTUALLY LIKE TO SET UP FOR THE SEQUEL TRILOGY sorry it’s star wars dumb question

#let me sing you the song of my people (star wars fans): SCREAMS #bedlam watches star wars #bedlam watches rebels #thatdarnalicat #bedlam answers #star wars criticism

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introvertguide · 4 years ago

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Star Wars: The Franchise

Back in the mid 70s around Modesto, California, it is doubtful that George Lucas could have imagined that his idea for a space opera would become the second highest grossing movie franchise of all time. There has been some questionable content, however, since the groundbreaking original, and the returns have not been as great. There were also some one-offs that a lot of the younger fans might not be aware of. For my own sanity and organization, here is a listing of all feature length movies in the franchise:

Star Wars IV: A New Hope (1977) -

Definitely the most successful film (heck, one of the most successful films of all time) that made almost a billion dollars at the box office worldwide...in the 80s. Amazing. The story mimics the hero's journey as described by Joseph Campbell, giving it basically the most satisfying story imaginable. Nobody except for friend of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, thought it would be as successful as it was. This kind of popularity meant there was going to be some sequels and, since George Lucas was the man behind the whole thing, only one man was about to get tasked with future success.

Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) -

This was a TV movie that was made to cash in on the massive popularity of the first movie while the second one was in production. It is terrible. I generally try to hold back judgement and point out subjective opinions, but I think I can say that this made-for-TV movie is objectively bad. It is the equivalent of a variety show, a format which was popular at the time, and it was awful. It is widely considered to be one of the worst visual productions of all time. Just to give a hint of its awfulness, the movie follows the adventures of Chewbacca's Wookie family and they only speak in growls with no interpretation or subtitles. Laughably awful.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) -

Arguably the best of the films as far as story and plot, this film was actually directed by Irvin Kershner with a George Lucas story adapted to the screen by Lawrence Kasdan. This film is legitimately fantastic and not just new and fun. It is so well written and directed with the famous reveal between Luke and Darth Vader. It also is incredibly downbeat at the end that perfectly sets up the next film. I personally think this is the best example of fine film in the franchise, although it doesn't have as much big action and no giant space laser. Well worth watching and makes the third film a must see.

Return of the Jedi (1983) -

Well, not as good as the first two, but still pretty darn good. This film introduced the Ewoks and the Endor moon battle. Many fans thought that the introduction of living teddy bears was a mistake that distract from the story. What really made the film, apparently, was the whole sequence at the beginning that takes place at Jabba the Hut's palace and involves Princess Leia in a metal bikini. We also find out that Luke and Leia are twins, so that kiss in the second film suddenly becomes kind of awkward. This becomes kind of a theme from here on out: should we disavow canon or put in throwaway lines and scenes to cover things that were mentioned in previous movies. It plagues the prequels.

The Ewok Adventure (1984) -

I get a lot of garbage about it, but I love these movies because I grew up with them. They are not that great and the copy that I saw over and over had ads from the early 80s throughout. Heavy nostalgia. Also, some of the Ewoks were played by established actors from what is now called Episode VI, Warwick Davis as Wicket and Tony Cox as Widdle. It was a lot of fun, but definitely a higher budgeted TV movie. It did become so successful that it got a theater release as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. This naming style stuck around for the spin off films that were made in the late 2010s.

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (1985) -

Hot dang, they made a second one with Wilford Brimley! Both of the Ewok films were thought up by George Lucas and sold to ABC. Both films were also given special Emmy awards for special effects. I can't fault either Ewok film as far as visuals since both got the ILM treatment. I have stated that I liked both of these movies more than some of the prequels, and I stand by that.

The Phantom Menace (1999) -

The next three films followed the first three episodes in the Star Wars saga and are now generally known as the prequels. They are also pretty widely hated. One reason for that was the introduction of young Anikan Skywalker (eventual Darth Vader) and his growing attachment to Lord Palpatine (Darth Sidious). The problem with the prequels is that it was a path leading to a result that had been established over 20 years ago in the first film. They also introduced a character named Jar-Jar Binks who was just awful. There was a great pod racing scene and an epic Sith vs. Jedi battle that really were the highlights of the film. The music was also pretty epic, but the film was otherwise not that great. It was completely made under the helm of George Lucas and fans were suddenly starting to wonder if he was the genius they had thought him to be. What I consider to be the best YouTube deep dive movie review of all time, a group called Red Letter Media made a seven part review that explains why the movie was such a problem. You can watch the first part and it will auto load all seven here:

(1) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7) - YouTube

Attack of the Clones (2002) -

Alright, here is where things really start to go down hill. There is a fine actor by the name of Hayden Christiansen that is just awful in this film. He is given nothing to do for the most part. He is supposed to be this amazing Jedi general, but he spends most of his time walking around speaking in a very monotone voice. He does have some fun piloting scenes, but he is written as such a whiny brat. There are two epic battles (the coliseum and Dooku vs. Yoda) and we get to see a bounty hunter in action. It does seem like a lot of fan service glued together by boring politics and horrifically bad acting.

Revenge of the Sith (2005) -

This is widely considered the worst of the prequel movies and generally laughable at some points. There is supposed to be an epic lava battle at the end, but it is just a bunch of screaming about a failed bromance. We get to see the end of the characters in the prequel and set up the original movies...that were now almost 30 years old. It was unsatisfying and not even slightly worth the wait. It was at this time that George Lucas said that there would never be a seventh episode that would follow the original trilogy.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) -

There was a very compelling series of Star Wars shorts in 2003 made by Genndy Tartakovsky that did very well. George Lucas saw this and decided that a lot of the most interesting Star Wars events had occurred during the time between the prequels and the original series. Lucasfilm put out an animated movie to test the waters and it was so successful that 7 seasons of great animated adventures were made to show the epic battles that were supposed to take place between the second and third episode. I honestly believe that this was the very best space action of the entire franchise.

The Force Awakens (2015) -

George Lucas sold the Star Wars franchise over to Disney and fans got a new movie that was never supposed to happen. Once Disney came on board, the brand became much more prolific. Until the pandemic, there were plans to put out a Star Wars movie every year for a decade. The first was episode seven and was made by J.J. Abrams. It was similar to the first film (episode IV) in so many ways that fans started to think it was just a remake. It even had a lot of the characters from the original trilogy. It was much better received by fans following the prequels and introduced a storyline that was not already spoiled by previous movies. There was a lot of unnecessary fan service for those who loved the original trilogy. This makes since because it involved Lawrence Kasdan, who helped with the screenplay for episode five and six from the original trilogy.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) -

A full big budget release of a Star Wars movie that wasn't one of the episodes was an interesting idea. It was an entire movie to explain a throwaway line from the original 1977 movie. I lot of people died to get some plans for the big weapon in the first film and people wanted to know exactly how that happened. Actually they didn't. But Disney thought it was a good idea and it seemed like it would make a lot of money (it did). It gave the producers a chance to make a movie with new characters and only mentions of the famous story (this was important because the other actors where making the next episode).

The Last Jedi (2017) -

This was an interesting change of pace from the rest of the films because it seemed to drop the idea of the "chosen one" and say that anyone could be a Jedi. It is basically one giant escape story and is closer to Mad Max in space than it is to the other Star Wars films. It was given in full by Disney to Rian Johnson and it shows. This was the first episode film that had nothing in common with any of the production group from the original trilogy. No Kasdan, no Kirschner, no Lucas, all Disney. It was not very well received.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) -

The worst performing of any of the Star Wars live action feature length films, this was the story of Han Solo. That's it. There is not a lot of history about the character and he is so cool, fans needed to have a stand alone movie about his youth. That's a lie, Disney wanted a movie to come out between episode eight and nine. This was the best that the suits could come up with and it definitely made money, but it is lame.

The Rise of Skywalker (2019) -

Well, the movie completely helmed by Rian Johnson was not popular enough so there was a total retcon situation and this film basically picked up where episode seven left off. It was the same team from episode seven (since that film was so much more popular) and they made a final film that wraps up with a bow. Sort of. There was definitely room in the film world for more Star Wars movies to be made (it is owned by Disney) and I really don't believe it is finished as a franchise.

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Just in case there are people who were nervous that this was the end of the franchise, there is currently a stand alone film called Rogue Squadron that is supposed to come out in 2023. Thank goodness. There was also the popular Mandalorian series on Disney +. But the franchise has been making huge films for almost 45 years now, so maybe it is time to stop. We have the MCU that has made almost twice as much money as the Star Wars universe, so most movie goers have picked their setting that they want to see. Maybe there could be a crossover (I am kidding, please no) and it would be the most watched film of all time.

#star wars #franchise #lucas #disney #introvert #introverts #movie franchise

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elbiotipo · 4 years ago

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MANDALORIAN SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY

ALSO LONG POST

Ok so my problem with Ahsoka refusing to train Jorge Gorgu is the lack of Change for the Jedi

The old EU was full of very stupid things, but the Jedi changed through time. The Republic Jedi Order was a terrible organization, with very good people for the most part, but it was self-centered, arrogant, it was unflexible and unable to deal with new challenges or even political issues like slavery, and of course there’s the whole “kidnapping children” thing

And yes, the “fucking is inmoral” thing which no doubt let to a lot of sexual frustration, but I don’t think that’s as bad as the main thing the prohibition of “”attachment”” implies: the Jedi Order was against its core value of love and compassion. Anakin wasn’t allowed to love Padmé, of course, but he also wasn’t allowed to love his mother, or to trust into his master or his padawan. And this led to the downfall of the Jedi Order. This isn’t just me projecting btw, it’s a subtext through all the prequels and even explicitly told to us in Attack of the Clones. George Lucas practicaly hits you with a stick and tells you that the problem isn’t that Anakin Can’t Fuck you dumbass, it’s that Anakin Can’t Love.

And thus the Order falls, and the Empire rises. And when Luke comes along, Luke who loves his friends, who loves his father despite everything, who tries to see the best in people and adheres to the Jedi values of love, compassion and justice, defeats the Empire, he refounds the Jedi Order and tries to correct the errors of the past. Now, Luke’s Jedi Order in the old EU had a lot of problems (the EU in general had them) but he TRIES, OH MY GOD DOES HE TRY to do things better than the previous order. And that was the whole point, the Jedi changed, things change.

So what does this all has to do with Ahsoka and the Mandalorian?

Well the thing is that Ahsoka is an amazing character with an amazing arc. She starts as the optimistic padawan of Anakin Skywalker, one of the order’s most powerful jedi, and ends up disillusioned with the Jedi Order, but instead of falling to the Dark Side, she tries to find her own path in the Force and becomes a knight errant and leader of the rebellion, helping people through the galaxy in her own way. She is a wandering hero who has doubtlessly experienced much, walked down a lot of paths, and sees the Force beyond the dogmatic way she was taught as a child.

And what happens after 40+ years of wandering and seeking her own path when she returns in The Mandalorian? She concludes that just like Yoda said, Attachment is Bad, and you should start training Jedi as newborns or else they will be contamintated by the evil spirit of, having a family I guess. Basically parroting the same lines of the failed order she left long ago.

If she had said “I cannot train him, I’m busy with my own quest” or “I am not sure I can train anybody, but maybe someone else can help you...” (because of course, we can’t end the series just with her taking baby yoda away in the middle of the season, I understand that) it would have been bad writing but tolerable. But instead, they confirm that the closeminded dettachment they taught was right, and her own experience during all those years of exile was wrong. This is such a disrepect to the character because it erases the path she had walked through decades. It’s just bad.

But it’s also bad because it also tries to confirm that being “detached”, loveless, and rejecting family and any connections is also a core trait of the Jedi now, something that all Jedi Must Do. The fact that that lack of connections led Anakin to the Dark Side is brushed away, the fact that it was Luke’s attachment and connection what led to the ultimate defeat of the Sith is also brushed away. There is no change. It also confirms that the old Jedi were “right”, despite the narrative telling us again and again that it wasn’t the case.

So does this mean that being a Jedi is now just wearing a bathrobe, using a blue-green lightsaber and being a virgin? After all that, we return to the same thing? We haven’t seen much if anything of Luke’s Jedi Order, but the writing seems to imply that. If so, what was the point of all this, of just returning to square one and remaking the Jedi like they were before, a closed order of arrogant mystics?

(well, it doesn’t matter because according to Disney Kyle killed them all later lol... but that’s a whole other problem)

ok maybe I’m ranting too much but whatever, my point is that the entire Star Wars narrative makes it clear that the old Jedi had flaws, and that the new Jedi should avoid them. Justifying the terrible teachings of the old Jedi order is just bad writing, and is just another example of Disney trying to write the same thing again and again (see: the entire Sequel trilogy) instead of meaningful change.

#cosas mias #sw #star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #ahsoka tano

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fallenrepublick · 4 years ago

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Alright so I like hoe the sequels look like the scene where all the star destroyer rised from the depths of Exegol? YES. That scene whre they flew over thr surface of Crait? Beautiful. Even the Star Killer scene was nice to look at. But the story is bullshit to out it simply. I honestly think that TFA was a good start, not great but good, whereas TLJ destroyed that and TROS tried to fix everything 🤔

Valid takes. I think Star Wars has always been the type to be at the forefront of the visual effects game for the time period each trilogy is released in, and as far as I’m concerned, they work well with what they’re given. And the sequels are no exception to the rule. The well-developed graphics are enough to immerse practically anyone in the setting, and it’s something I have to applaud them for.

All this being said, I understand what you mean about the plot. Oftentimes we describe the sequels as one big collective issue as we do with the OT or PT, but in this case I’m inclined to claim that it’s more complicated than that. I don’t hate The Force Awakens. Not most of it, at least. In fact, I found the majority of the movie pretty enjoyable, and my initial thrill at adding a whole new trio to the existing collection played a big part in it. Then the end of the movie hit. What? She kicks his ass? Just like that? I take a walk around some stores advertising the movie. Why do the promo pictures have Finn holding the lightsaber? They gave it to him for an upwards of two minutes. Okay, I think, maybe it’s foreshadowing for his role in the next movie. I get excited again. Two Jedi? The rise of a new Jedi Order?

It is not foreshadowing. There are not two Jedi. It’s The Last Jedi and now I have to balance the main three, in addition to Leia and Luke. But they also added a new character. Rose. Cool, an Asian female! Not cool. She’s flat, one dimensional. There’s too much going on with all the other characters that the writers don’t bother developing her past a tragic backstory. Okay... How’s Luke? Oh, he’s a carbon copy of Yoda, now? Okay... How’s Leia? Oh, we don’t know? Okay. Who’s the chick with the purple hair? Oh she’s dead now? Alright. The main villain isn’t a villain? Oh he is the villain? Wait, now he isn’t. But he is. Then the big plot device. Rey Nobody. That isn’t too bad, in my opinion. Anakin was basically a nobody as well, until he was given a chance to become something more. I like that idea. Wait a second, Luke’s dead?? When did that happen??

My hopes for The Rise of Skywalker, in my opinion, were not astronomical. I wanted real, sassy friend-group interaction from the main three. I wanted Finn with a lightsaber like the posters promised me all those years ago. I wanted development for newly introduced characters that I saw myself in, and therefore had hope for despite the backlash. I wanted to see the moment in the main villain that Vader had in ROTJ when everything clicked. When he realized why he was still alive and what he had to do with the time he was given. And finally, I wanted a proper tribute to Carrie Fisher. Instead, Poe and Rey argued with a familiarity that was never shown on screen. I got “Somehow... Emperor Palpatine has returned...” (what?). Finn never got the lightsaber back. Hell, I don’t remember most of his lines. His force-sensitivity was hinted at, but required an official statement from Disney to confirm those theories (never a good sign). I saw Rose maybe three times. Did I get the click? No. Some may argue I did, but I didn’t feel it. The weight landed on Han, when it should not have. That emotional weight belonged to Leia through and through. The click relies on seeing your family hurt by your direct actions and deciding to stand against it. Leia was hurting. Han was already dead. Was it a proper tribute to Carrie Fisher? No. This was supposed to be the Leia movie. TFA was for Han, TLJ was for Luke, this should have been hers. Instead, the last scene has her share the spotlight with Luke, a character that Rey had practically nothing but negative interactions with. Why? I have no idea.

The Last Jedi pulled the trilogy off of the path it should have taken. But TROS ruined it even more. It was a last ditch effort to un-fuck everything that TLJ had done, but crudely and poorly put together. Writers and directors weren’t on the same page, and by the time the novelization came out, it was clear the authors were desperately trying to salvage plot-holes in a movie that glossed over details and existing world-building worse than a child taking an ungraded quiz. Maybe I’m being harsh, and sure, the other trilogies have issues that I could write a whole book about. But it’s been 43 years for god sakes. They’ve had plenty of time to work out the kinks.

#rant

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let-fans-be-fans · 4 years ago

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STAR WARS Episode 8 - The Last Jedi

Only read after watching The Mandalorian s2 e8

Imagine a Lucasfilm Story Group that has actually worked as a group since 2015. Chuck Wendig’s draft of the first Aftermath novel has been roundly mocked and pulped before ever being committed to print. This isn’t about that, though. This is the germination of the story seed that is planted in The Mandalorian, so join me as we explore one of the possibilities that could have happened within the Star Wars universe: What If Grogu (the Child/Baby Yoda) first appeared in TLJ?

Ahch-To, the steps. Luke Skywalker regards his guest Rey with a quizzical expression, telling her simply but firmly “I can’t take that, but there is a place for it somewhere...” and the two move inside Luke’s little hut. Passing by a large levitating pod, Rey (and the audience) experiences mental flashes of meeting Finn. Smash-cut to Finn himself waking up in the recovery suit in the med-bay. Finn/Rose/whatever sub-plot (this post isn’t about fixing THAT car-crash, let it marinate) ensues, does what it does. This timeline’s Rian Johnson, however, is co-existing with LFL’s Story Group and especially Dave Filoni. They’ve cooked up one hell of an A-plot, and it continues thusly:

Rey never sees what is in the pod, and begins to wonder if Luke is messing with her or starting to go a little peculiar from isolation, on account of how he talks to it. In fact, something is starting to make her feel slightly more at ease. Maybe even a little guilty when Luke’s mood turns sombre and he says, “I know. About Han, and Ben...” We maybe even get a little nostalgia-boost by Luke opting to use the training remote and blast-shield helmet to start training Rey. It’s like poetry, it rhymes.

All through this time, Luke has not withdrawn himself from the Force out of shame. He has always kept himself open to it, learning from the spirits of his teachers. The night that Rey decides to leave and try to aid the Resistance (or to confront Kylo Ren for her own reasons) is the night that Luke receives a visitation from two very unexpected spirits.

That’s right, y’all. The first Force ghost appearance of a non-Force-sensitive character in the Saga. Padmé and Anakin show up to give Luke the news that some strange, dark figure has attempted to kill Leia by shooting at her private chamber on the Resistance flagship, only for Luke to not understand why they don’t know the attacker’s name. “You don’t need to hide it, to protect him. You know, as well as I do, that it was Ben!” Anakin shares a concerned look with the spirit of his wife, and the next thing he says would absolutely blow the cinema audience out of every single seat in the house. “Luke? Son, listen to me. Who is this Ben?”

That’s right. Anakin Skywalker, the former Sith Lord Darth Vader, has absolutely no idea that our sequel trilogy’s Vader-like antagonist (his own grandson) even exists. Even as the Force ghosts watching over Luke and Leia and their families for all this time, both Padmé and Anakin explain that from their perspective, something is bending the Force itself around Ben Solo, pulling him away from not only the Light side, but also from its Dark side. “The boy, Ben Solo, is living his entire life surrounded by a wound in the Force. This wound, it’s very subtly, slowly eating him!”

Luke is still in shock from hearing the ghosts of his parents telling him what is happening to Kylo Ren. Rey is trying to keep him out but the villain is urged by his twisted Master, the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Their telepathic communication is picked up on by Luke, who all at once sees what has truly become of his nephew. Ben Solo appears to his uncle, surrounded by tendrils that look like animated cracks in a pane of window glass. This is the wound in the Force, and its presence is felt most strongly by the eldest living Force-sensitive on the island of Ahch-To. A short cry splits the cracked and bleeding image of Kylo Ren and Rey wakes with a sudden start. Luke is frowning as he looks toward the floating cradle, then he makes his decision. We (and Rey) are about to meet the 100 % physical in-camera puppet. Cast and crew are made to sign an infinite supply of Non-Disclosure Agreements, Rian Johnson is talked into only letting Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley and the puppeteers onto the sets while everybody else is shooting their things.

The cradle pod swings back its protective lid slowly, and there he is making his debut before an audience that paid full movie theater (remember those?) ticket prices. Exuding full fucking “Gizmo in the box on the coffee table” energy, the Child glances sleepily between Rey and Luke. This is why the legendary Jedi Master left the civilized New Republic, he tells Rey. The massacre of his first generation of Jedi students, the betrayal by his nephew, all of it would have been for nothing if he couldn’t save one very important life. Rey is sworn to protect the Child, who is old enough now to speak his own name. “Grogu? Is that what he said?” “One of his protectors told me it’s his name, right before telling me how I looked just like my father. We had a pretty good laugh about that...”

Leia/Poe/Holdo subplot, and [THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH WILL ONLY INCITE SHOUTY BEARDO YOUTUBERS TO SCISSOR THE HEADS OFF ACTION FIGURES THEY BUY WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, THEREFORE IT IS CENSORED TO SHIELD THE AUTHOR FROM PROSECUTION]

Before the Holdo manoeuvre, the Hyperspace Karen or whatever you want to call it, Rey acts out the plan that she and Luke have concocted in secret so that Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon can safely evacuate both Luke and Grogu. Rey hasn’t been told about the wound in the Force that swirls around Kylo Ren, but for some reason she can now see the same churning mass of tiny cracks in reality, and they spread out behind the Supreme Leader Snoke in much the same manner that Palpatine’s throne sat before the spiderweb-looking window of his tower on the Death Star. This is it, we think. Snoke is the wound in the Force drawing Ben away from his true self. Even as the lightsabre that Rey brought with her ignites and strikes Snoke dead, the audience is thinking along with Rey that the wound is going to close up.

IT GETS BIGGER. AND IT FUCKING CONSUMES SNOKE’S BISECTED CORPSE LIKE A SHADOW VERSION OF THE THING FROM THE 1982 MOVIE

So no. Rey sees it happen, but Kylo remains completely oblivious as he takes up leadership of the First Order. Something about the way he accuses Rey of the murder makes us think he really believes it too. As Rey narrowly escapes, haunted by the sight of the living animalistic wrongness that ate Supreme Leader Snoke, General Hux is rather confused. “Forgive me, ah, Supreme Leader. But you are the first Supreme Leader of the First Order. There was never a previous holder of that position, my Lord.” I know! Right!?

The Resistance’s last ships have limped along the supply line to the long-abandoned old Rebel holdout on the silicate world of Crait. The wreckage of Snoke’s flagship the Supremacy, hangs in space, permanently suspended in the wake of the Holdo manoeuvre. From the epicentre, a single pinprick of darkness begins to expand hungrily to devour the light from the hyperspace explosion. The great wound left in the Force crawls across the destroyed vessel, the thinnest tendril of its immense darker-than-space form now separated from Kylo Ren. Or, so it would seem, anyway... Reunited with Rey, Luke gives her an understanding nod when she informs him of how the lightsabre of his father was literally ripped in half by the destruction of Snoke’s flagship. Some of the elder members of the Resistance don’t have the slightest clue what Rey’s mysterious words mean. As far as they know, Kylo Ren has been the brutal enforcer of the First Order, only recently declaring himself the first Supreme Leader of the faction. Finn and Rose both speak up in defense of Rey, both of them surprised to hear that Leia also knew of Snoke’s death and the destruction of the flagship by her erstwhile friend, Amilyn Holdo.

Nobody can agree what happened, because a large subset of Resistance personnel share vague, half-formed memories of things as Luke, Rey or Leia tells them. No droids, or Chewbacca, share their recollections, and uneasy looks pass between members of the post-war generation and the Skywalker twins. It’s a quirk of the Force! Every sentient born after the death of Emperor Palpatine, the unfortunately waylaid Maz Kanata informs them via hologram, possesses a significantly higher potential for Force abilities than the generation who grew up on the fringes of the rise of the Empire, the clamp-down on Jedi and suspected Jedi.

It would seem that this Force baby boom did not extend to First Order space (being mostly disaffected ex-Imperials, their families would be more careful to weed out any aberrations in the bloodline and try not to be of interest to the Emperor) as only Kylo Ren, their rightful Supreme Leader and master of the Knights of Ren demonstrates any ability to touch the Force. That voice that only he can hear in the presence of Darth Vader’s ruined helmet tells him, its tone and pitch and cadence shifting (starting as the booming bass rumble of Vader’s synthesized voice before being joined by the harsh rasp of Snoke. The low, menacing tone of Maul and the cackling, wheezing Palpatine.) Power is the only thing worth holding onto. Let the past die, kill it if you have to. Cut out the weakness that keeps you bound to things like family...

“This is not going to go the way you think.”

Driven on by the maddening chorus of voices, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has now managed to track his hated Resistance opposition to the deserted world of Crait. Ships entering the vicinity of the mysterious hyperspace blackout are slowly consumed, vanishing into the great wound and becoming officially non-existent. Alone against his crazed nephew, the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker steps out onto the crystalline plain before the bulkhead doors of the former Rebel base. He cannot be hit by the guns of the lumbering walkers that his errant nephew orders to fire on him. Kylo’s attempts to telekinetically barrage Luke with the salted earth of Crait simply do not phase the man. As he calmly reminds Kylo: “The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi.” Kylo Ren’s dangerously unstable lightsabre blade harmlessly passes over Luke as he ducks out of its reach. Finally, the angry young man seizes his moment and lashes out at Luke’s midsection. Nothing?

The Jedi Master nods his head slowly, the camera pulling back to reveal him sat in a meditative posture atop a flat-headed rock just off the shore of his home island on Ahch-To. Focusing his will through the Force, Luke appears not only in front of Kylo Ren, but also between Leia and Rey inside the base. The two of them in turn are surrounded by a loose semi-circle of the younger, more Force-sensitive recruits of the Resistance including Finn and Rose Tico. All of them, opening their conscious selves to the Force, are helping to shoulder the burden that Luke has taken on. Proudly, Luke slowly rises from his seat and sends a mocking salute to Kylo. “See ya ‘round, kid...”

The last supplies are loaded onto what few Resistance carriers and short-range fighters they have left, as well as the famous Millennium Falcon. Rey and Grogu both agree that their first priority is to properly re-establish contact with Luke Skywalker. Furious, Kylo retreats to his ship-board meditation chamber, pounding his gloved fists into the ashes surrounding the remnants of Vader’s helmet. Cursing the scavenger girl seems to spark some interest in the bizarre otherworldly whispers, the flash-image of Rey in the dark young man’s thoughts prompting the inner voice to remark, “We shall be re-united soon enough. Yes, you will see what new powers I possess in time, sister...”

SMASH TO END CREDITS!

#megapost #Star Wars #Baby Yoda #The Last Jedi #Luke Skywalker #basic story structure

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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years ago

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Movie Review: Sonic the Hedgehog (Spoilers)

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day the movie is first released in the U.K, so if you haven’t yet seen the movie do not read on until you have.

General Reaction:

It's difficult with today's movie going audience to predict how movies like Sonic are going to perform and be received. Especially when the ad campaign did absolutely no favours for this movie other than convince Paramount that Sonic needed a more truthful redesign than what they originally put out.

Here's the thing. Sonic the Hedgehog to me is trying to be 2020's Detective Pikachu capitalising on that nostalgia of a beloved classic franchise.

However, I do feel that the haters and internet trolls out there are not going to be able to get past the comparisons this movie draws to 2011's Hop, which was a live-action/CGI-hybrid movie starring James Marsden who becomes the companion of a somewhat overbearing CG creature.

But, I encourage all movie goers, including the haters, to go into this with an open mind...particularly if you have any history with Sonic because you will get some enjoyment and walk away afterwards feeling happy overall.

My personal history with Sonic is slightly less-so than I would like. I played the original 2 SEGA games countless times and did watch some episodes of the earlier animated shows.

Having said that, my main Sonic fandom actually comes from the mid-noughties series Sonic X, which I feel this movie could have adapted but alas. Also I played the Shadow the Hedgehog spinoff game and more recently Smash Bros where I actually won as Sonic recently.

Now this movie reminds me of those shows and games practically in no way. I mean there is that opening sequence where you see Sonic running around and looping like he does in the SEGA games, I do also feel like James Marsden's character could easily be an older version of Chris, the boy from Sonic X, but aside from that, the gold rings and Robotnik...there's not a lot for the Sonic fans to spot.

I can't say this is a perfect movie, because it really is not. There are a lot of super speed gags and some of them do stick but some just fall flat and at times feel repetitive.

The worst crime this movie commits in my opinion is stealing Quicksilver's gimmick of speed scenes. By which I mean there are not one but two occasions when time is slowed down to almost a halt and we see Sonic running around still. They even have songs specific for these scenes.

Also, because I'm not fully aware of every Sonic incarnation, I did not understand why Sonic is effectively The Flash with being able to generate lightning. I mean I understand the laws of physics of generating enough friction can create static but I have never known Sonic to have any electric attacks.

I did like how the static electricity was preserved in his quills when they fell off though. In animation and the games you don’t think about Sonic’s realistic hedgehog qualities such as having quills so it was a nice touch.

I am also aware that Sonic has turned Super Saigen before with the help of the Chaos Emeralds I believe, so the fact we see a similar transformation here is quite good to see for that reason.

In terms of story I do think this is a simple plot that has been done numerous times, Hop is definitely one example that comes to mind, but I feel it’s also a very accessible story for non-Sonic fans.

I don’t know if Longclaw the Owl is an original character or one from Sonic mythology but I did not really vest much interest in her. Baby Sonic I thought was cute, but I refuse to accept anyone saying he is cuter than Baby Yoda as no one is cuter than Baby Yoda.

On the subject of age, it was good to see them acknowledging Sonic’s age for a change as opposed to just presuming because up until now I did always think he was some sort of teenager but this confirms it. If Baby Sonic is around 5-9 years old then Sonic in present day is late teens which makes sense with his temperament.

The gold rings being used as teleportation devices, I don’t know if they’re meant to be in the games but loved their use here.

I enjoyed the use of technology in this movie and particularly Robotnik’s commentary on how technology is more reliable than people which ties into his ultimate fate of being stranded alone without another soul on the planet he is sent to which forces him further into insanity.

The fact Sonic’s story is about fitting into society while James Marsden’s character is about figuring out what’s right in front of him are great parallels and do balance each other out rather well.

Also where he ends up with effectively being part of a family as well as a town hero was a nice way to wrap things up.

However, that mid-credits scene showing the arrival of Sonic’s faithful protege Tails to the real world looking for his friend screams for a sequel, especially if this means that more of Sonic’s companions could be introduced in the future like Knuckles, Shadow or even Rouge the Bat.

Characters:

Dr. Robotnik:

I don’t want to say he is the best character because I feel all four of the main cast members do a great job, but my favourite definitely is Jim Carrey as Robotnik. This is Carrey back on form and there were so many great shades of back when he was at the top of his game in the 90s with work such as Ace Ventura, The Mask and The Grinch.

From his first scene he stole every scene he was in. You could tell that he was taking the role seriously while also having the time of his life with it and this is why, back in the day, he was on such high form.

He may not have been the overweight bald megalomaniac, at least with the latter two not until the end of the movie, but he was the evil genius and mad scientist and almost every line he delivered he nailed.

I think “rockonnaissance” is going to be the new “joygasm” for him but it worked for The Riddler and it works for Robotnik.

I’m also happy he was nicknamed Eggman in the movie by Sonic because of the shape of his drones, I thought it was fitting. I can’t wait for Sonic to see the new bald version.

Sonic:

Yes Sonic is second but I said it before, there were times when he was overbearing.

Ben Schwartz by the way does a fantastic job voicing the character, I know he voices Dewey in the new Ducktales series and also for some reason voices BB-8 in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, but this is my favourite role of his voice is so realistic for a wide-eyed and somewhat innocent “alien” hedgehog.

I enjoyed how when he first came to Earth he was this urban legend around Green Hills who spent those 10 years people watching and either making up nicknames for the citizens while also longing to fit in with them but knowing not to.

Also the movie’s comedy was never as vulgar as Ryan Reynolds or immature as Russell Brand. I think they had one fart joke in the movie but the rest was generic comedy movie material which was hit and miss in comedy.

It was quite touching also that he was so protective of Green Hills and the status quo so much so that when Tom said he was planning on leaving to move to San Francisco, he was so offended and I thought it was going to be that trope of “Oh now they’re going to separate only to discover they need each other later” but instead it was a few digs and then they got over it.

I am so happy they did redesign the character because the movie’s original look for him was horrendous and did make Cats look reasonable whereas this is more like the Sonic everyone knows and I did not realise he didn’t have his traditional running shoes until Jojo, the niece of Tika Sumpter’s character, replaced them for him.

I will keep saying I want a sequel just because I am interested to see where Sonic’s story takes him next, especially with Tails now on Earth and the potentiality that others could join.

The Wachowskis

Again I thought James Marsden and Tika Sumpter did very pleasant jobs. This is my favourite James Marsden performance to date. Up until now his roles have been either corny or simply bland for me but here, yes there were a couple of dodgy jokes and moments but overall I thought Tom was a very likeable character and at the very least a driven character.

His wife Maddie, first of all props to the movie writers for having a mixed-race couple front and centre in the movie. But also, Maddie, who is also an accomplished career woman alongside her accomplished career husband, did not weigh Tom down or the story down as simply being “just the wife”.

I also enjoyed Maddie’s sister and niece, Jojo is quite cute and for the little screentime that she has does well with it for a child her age. While Natasha Rothwell continues to grow in my estimations after her fabulous turn in Love, Simon as the very sassy teacher.

Others:

As for the rest of the cast, this was a great who’s who for spotting the great jobbing actors as Lee Majdoub, Neal McDonough, Michael Hogan and Adam Pally all have minor supporting roles that do not go unnoticed.

Meanwhile Colleen Villard (née O'Shaughnessey), who voices Tails in the video games as well as voicing Wasp in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes series and Sora in the Digimon franchise, reprises her role as the anthropomorphic fox in an uncredited mid-credits scene. I am hoping she returns for the sequel because it is good to hear her acting again.

Recommendation:

I do see a future for this movie in terms of a franchise. I do not quite see it crossing over with Detective Pikachu as I know there were rumblings of some sort of Super Smash Bros. movie cinematic universe.

However, if the movie does warrant a sequel, and with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 64%, considering this seems to be a deciding factor for some cinema goers, I don’t see why not. I am hoping the future of this franchise does see the introductions of Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and even Amy.

Potentially also spinning off from this franchise, there could be Donkey Kong, Mega Man and maybe even Mario to create that Super Smash Bros. universe.

Overall I rate the movie 8/10, it’s a great movie and definitely has some rewatchability to it.

Having said that I can see where some cinema snobs or even haters may come from as they inevitably target the movie but I encourage everyone not to be taken in by other people’s opinions, not even mine, make up your own minds and see it for yourself.

So that’s my review of Sonic the Hedgehog, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Movie Reviews as well as other posts.

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thedroidsyouarelookingfor · 4 years ago

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Mando Chapter 13 Spoilers ...

There’s a lot to process here

WOW.

First off, like most of people, I had SO MUCH ANXIETY over seeing Ahsoka in live action.

I mean, she’s my #1 favorite Star Wars character of all time. If she isn’t done perfectly it will be so sad.

Well, I’ll me honest when she said her first line, I was HEARTBROKEN she wasn't dubbed by Ashley Eckstein. Ashley IS Ahsoka and I honestly believe she was highly disrespected by not at least being the voice. I’m truly bummed about it. She deserved that role, even if just the voice.

That being said, I do think this woman did a good job. She looked good and her voice wasn’t so different that it was distracting. I guess she grew on me to the point of being ultimately okay with it. I would not complain if Ashley dubbed her in the future though!

As far as the plot goes,

Grogu ?

Okay. Not terrible, but will definitely take some getting used to! He has a whole history at the Jedi Temple and was trained by many different masters. I actually like this. It makes sense, I guess, but since he’s still a baby in his species I wonder when he was taken from his parents and HOW does training work when you age so differently. I still want to know the species name and home planet.

And which Jedi hid him? It had to be someone who had the time to do so??? Will we get a flashback scene!!!????? Was is Yoda? It was probably Yoda. Now I need to rewatch Revenge of the Sith and see if Yoda specifically says there’s no survivors. Or I can not worry about that and just enjoy the ride lol. BUT WHERE was he hidden? This makes me think maybe it wasn't Yoda or why would he have abandoned him? Dagobah was clearly safe. I know Baby Yoda didn’t exist when the OT or PT was made, but the story has to make sense as if he DID. SO who hid him and where and how did he end up with bandits or whatever where Mando first found him? This has always bothered me anyway. Was he in some type of stasis? Were the bandits feeding him? How long was he just there?

OH, OKAY AND AHSOKA IS LOOKING FOR THRAWN !?

So where the heckie deckie are Ezra and Sabine !? If we see more of the New Republic (or whatever the heck these former rebels are called, I’m sorry I generally hate what Disney added to the post OT timeline) are we gonna see Hera and her son? (Side note, but Rebels really messed up by having her child have green hair instead of just differently pigmented skin like the kids in Clone Wars). Anyway, maybe Thrawn is actually Moff Gideon’s boss??? Maybe Thrawn has Ezra hostage?? I don't know.... We don’t want people who have never seen the animated series to be too lost. Wasn’t there supposed to be a sequel series to Rebels soon anyway? WHERE DAT AT!?

Another thought,

I really enjoyed the scenes with Ahsoka and the ch.....Grogu. I have a feeling that the stone and ship control ball thing are actually significant. I could be wrong, but maybe he didn’t want to let it go for a reason. Maybe he’s missing something that’s significant to him that is similar in shape. Just a thought.

Sooooo... we got Cara Dune thinking about joining the New Republic forces, Mando taking Grogu to a Jedi Temple in search of someone who may train him, the remnant Empire forces doing some shady experiments with Jedi blood. We got Mandalorian/Death Watch cultural struggles and stuff. And Boba Fett fits in here somehow??? Okay. And people say nothing happens in this show. WILL FORCE GHOST YODA APPEAR TO GROGU AT THE TEMPLE ?!

WAIT WHAT IF EZRA REACHES OUT TO THE CHILD AT THE TEMPLE!?

He wasn’t trained by the Jedi Order so he doesn’t have the whole “no attachments” thing as drilled into him as Ahsoka does. Maybe ??????

Anywayyyy

This show literally has the structure of a video game and I think that’s one of the reasons why I like it. The tv western and Japanese samurai influences are appreciated as well. Best Disney Star Wars content, for sure!

Whew... what does this show have in store for us!?

#the mandalorian spoilers #just star wars thoughts

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thegirlwholied · 4 years ago

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I haven’t heard before that there was changes made from the OT before, can you recall some of them? Also what was your opinion on the Luke and R2D2 appearance in the finale? I’ve heard varied verdicts on it (ranging from people calling it fanservice to people being really angry that grogu was taken away so fast after din got him back)

Oh wow the changes made to the OT, WELL...

My guess is you maybe have heard of these changes before without realizing what they were referring to. If you’ve ever heard or seen the phrase “Han Shot First”... you’ve heard of these changes.

So the first Special Edition, re-released in theaters, was in 1997, & it added back in deleted scenes (that the story didn’t really need imho, looking at you, repetitive Han & Jabba interaction), new visuals, played with sound/color etc. ...so, messing 20 years on with elements Star Wars won Academy Awards for, which, fine, cool, just a special edition project except...

Except the tweaks kept coming. Most notably with the 2004 DVD changes to bring the OT better in line with the prequels, changes which, personally, I categorize as “thanks I hate it”.

Here’s the much, much more thorough Wikipedia breakdown. And the Wookieepedia breakdown of the same.

...oh no even my version of a ‘sum up’ isn’t going to be brief, is it...

Filed under ‘annoys-me-personally-the-most’ change? The Return of the Jedi end across-the-universe montage where the Gungans are celebrating, Coruscant’s liberating itself, Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost suddenly looks like Hayden Christensen... please leave me with the happy Ewoks & characters we care about & the older version of Luke’s father he just said goodbye to please! AND the Empire’s fall post Death Star II all too easy... and likely contributed to the sequels’ choice to firmly establish (via Jakku) a timeline of a rapidly defeated-Empire/fully-fledged New Republic within a year of RotJ, which closes the door on way too many potential still-fighting-the-ongoing-Empire adventures.

One of the smartest things The Mandalorian’s done, in my opinion, is to bring back the Imperial Remnant, and YES, they actually used that phrase in a recent episode, and yes I geeked out about it. The falling Empire, with warlords jostling in the vacuum of power, becoming increasingly ragtag is just a vastly interesting antagonist to me than the ‘it’s the Empire but with a dumber name’ First Order.

Generally: I think The Mandalorian’s a smartly-made show. Fanservice is not a bad thing; it just needs to be approached intelligently, and imho, the finale scene was incredibly smart fanservice. The moment the Child was revealed to be Force sensitive, way back in episode 2, the time period we’re in demands that Luke become involved in the narrative. You can delay it, sure, but we, the audience, are aware of one Jedi in existence, one Jedi who’s looking to rebuild the Jedi Order, and so from that point on it’s really only been a matter of time. The moment Din Djarin is given the quest of finding other Jedi, the thought is “Luke”. Any other Jedi, like Ahsoka, is coming from ancillary material that not every fan is as familiar with: you can handwave it with ‘it’s a big galaxy’ but especially when you’re trying to reach as many fans as possible, the natural answer is Luke Skywalker.

And it doesn’t really make sense, for Luke Skywalker, central hero of the franchise, to do nothing and just have the Child (...I still can’t say ‘Grogu’ with a straight face) be delivered to him on some temple or such. We’ve also already had sitting-out-the-action Luke in Force Awakens. We also had Ahsoka deny she’s a Jedi. Luke arriving in the way he did, fulfilling the narrative function of ‘here’s a Jedi, here’s what a Jedi can do’ in the show for the first time, in a scene reminiscent of Vader’s Rogue One hallway scene? Oh damn that was good. That was chills-down-the-spine good from the ‘one X-wing’ arriving on.

...Of course then he inevitably had to pull back his hood and then we’re in uncanny valley territory. CGI’d!Luke didn’t really blink. He both looked-and-did-not look like Luke Skywalker. My sister pointed out he looked like an Instagram filtered Luke, where the filtered eyes don’t blink, and yes exactly.

Do I wish they’d just recast him? ...No? Hard call? They’d already played with de-aged Luke in Rise of Skywalker, and they’d already recast characters in Solo: so it’s a weird mix currently. Does this ultimately lead to a place where Donald Glover or Alden Ehrenreich interacts with a de-aged Luke? They’ll probably avoid that, but theoretically! I’m happy that Mark Hamill’s happy he got to play the character again; I just wish the technology was a little better & less creepy.

...and writing-wise I don’t know why we didn’t get Luke Skywalker crouching down to get more face-to-face greeting the kid. (Or introduce himself! I get why they avoided an “I’m Luke Skywalker and-” moment, but how could they resist!) They were going for more RotJ-austere Luke, and Jedi shock-and-awe, and I’m sure were limited by technology too... but at least Artoo rolling up, and of course he would be with Luke, provided more warmth!

As to people being really angry that the kid was taken away so fast after Din got him back... well, it’s a finale. As powerful as they’ve established him to be, training for ...Grogu... seems essential; this happening felt inevitable to me, but placing it where it did allowed it to be both a surprise and bittersweet. I found it good writing. They have set up a problem now though: the adorability of a baby Yoda has been a drive for the show and usually an episode highlight; how long they’ll go without showing us that cute little green face is an interesting mystery. The longer they stall in bringing him back, the more impact the return will have. But fans want baby Yoda! So will the writers be able to resist?

And that drives us back to my thoughts on fanservice: it is not a bad thing to give fans what they want. That’s part of what media/fiction of all kinds exist for. That’s the entertainment part!... but there’s also the art part. And that’s where fanservice becomes a negative: when it detours or derails, when it distracts or detracts from the story being told. Where narrative purpose is buried under a pile of ‘here you’ll like this!’ Giving us Luke was imho the best kind of fanservice: downright well-done entertainment that fit the narrative. It worked, in the same way the show itself works, for me.

What happens next, though... both for The Mandalorian and the myriad Star Wars projects announced... what kind of fanservice that will be remains to be seen.

#the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian #star wars spoilers #star wars ot #luke skywalker #on fanservice!#yes i loved that scene and i wish i hadn't seen a post first #so i made sure to get the spoiler tag on this ASAP #i may not use a blacklist myself but i always try to tag *all of the things*!#i also don't object to Lucas making whatever changes make him happy - always enjoy a director's cut!#but the way he then makes it as difficult as possible to get the true originals! that's weird #and so ye olde VHS tapes it is for me #answers!

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arabian-bloodstream · 5 years ago

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TROS: The Good, the Bad & the Huh?

So, I watched The Rise of Skywalker on Thursday. It met my expectations which were to not expect too much. I hadn't read the leaks, but I had still been spoiled. I didn't want to believe that Ben would actually die, but I knew it was a very real possibility so when it happened, I wasn't terribly surprised. Overall, I liked the movie, because, duh, it's Star Wars. However, I had a lot of problems with it because a lot of things didn't make sense.

I watched it a second time on Saturday and sadly, those things still didn't make sense, but I still liked it because, you know, Star Wars. So, here are my thoughts, first off with all of those things that don't make sense without having to rely on the SW visual dictionary or EU (because you should NOT have to rely on outside source to understand stuff) to explain them, then my biggest issues with the film, the things I did really like and my rankings of all the films as of now before it comes out and I can do a full rewatch:

Questions... So Many Questions

Where is Kylo in the beginning? Who is he mowing down? How does he find the wayfinder?

How did Palpatine come back?

Who has been taking care of him for the last 30-odd years?

Who are all of those hooded creatures in the stands?

Why are there a couple of Snoke puppets? Molds? What the fuck ever? In aquarium tanks?

Who is this General Pryde dude and why is he so high up and we've never heard of him before?

Who was Palpatine's girlfriend/wife/one-night stand that led to Rey's dad(?) mom(?)?

Where did this all come from!??!? Palpy having a child seems like a pretty fucking big deal to just OOPS! pop out of nowhere?

Some random THERE ARE ONLY TWO SUPER-SEKRIT-SITH wayfinder thingies to find Palpatine that Luke was on a SUPER-SEKRIT mission with Lando THAT WAS NEVER MENTIONED in between him training his Jedi students and his temple getting destroyed, having a split-second 'maybe I should murder my nephew' moment, 'nah!' and going into exile. Uhm, OK.

Leia was trained in the Force by Luke? Uhm... when? When she was pregnant with Ben? Because she got pregnant pretty much right after Endor. So... she learned enough from Luke--even though she didn't complete her training--to train Rey... enough that Rey became super-duper powerful. Because I highly doubt that Leia had time to train while pregnant and helping to start up a new government. OK, then.

So, Leia and Luke *knew* that Rey was the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine--the most evil who ever eviled--and had no problem believing that there was good in her and she could be molded into an awesome Jedi... but didn't believe the same about their own son/nephew because he had too much "Vader" in him? Even though, Luke believed that Vader could be redeemed? Huh?! I mean... huh?

And on that note... so, all of the old Jedi decided to let the grandson of The Chosen One fall down a pit and crawl back up in agony with a shrug, but were like, 'yeah, we're gonna help the granddaughter of the man whose goal in life and in-between life and now life again after sucking out the life-force of the two remaining Jedi in the Galaxy.' OK, then.

So... how come, when Rey died she didn't just fade away? I mean, when Ben died he faded away right away. Why didn't Rey fade away right away?

So those horse-creature thingies... why were they on the ships to be on the destroyers? I mean, like... was there even room? And when that was destroyed, did like those horse-creature thingies all die? How sad... and no one cared.

The 'Rey, I need to tell you something' from Finn. I know now it was that he's Force-sensitive. AFTER watching the movie and hearing other people say it. Watching it the second time, I picked up on the clues, but those I watched it with the second time thought it was that he loved Rey. A lot of people thought it was that he loved Rey. I thought that the first time. It was clumsy, it was tacked-on. It was... stupid. Why would you leave a dangling thread, one of JJ's "mystery boxes" in the final chapter of the ninth-film saga? WHY?!

Also, more importantly, why were the Resistance celebrating at the end? Because "The Final Order" were taken out, but uhm, The First Order is still around. Unless I'm remembering it incorrectly (and I could be), it was the Final Order ships, General Pryde's destroyer and a bunch of First Order fighters, but not ALL of the First Order destroyers were there. They've got thousands of destroyers spread across the galaxy. They weren't all there. They took out the Emperor's fleet, not the Supreme Leader's fleet. And sure, the Supreme Leader is gone, and Pryde and Hux are gone... but there are other Generals who will step up. So, yeah, the First Order is still around. The First Order is the huge, massive enemy that our heroes are fighting the entire two films. And there is LITERALLY no mention of their defeat, of how THEY are brought down in this film. Instead, JJ brings in Palpatine and his thousands of somehow functioning Final Order fleet... and *that* fleet* is destroyed. YAY! Celebration ensues. WHAT ABOUT THE FIRST ORDER!?!? The one that we spent the last two films fighting?!? The ones that the rest of the galaxy had zero interest in helping to fight during the battle of Crait and ANYTIME in the interim before the Battle of Exogol. That's kind of huge.

Why did Rey go to Tatooine? Seriously? Why. Did. Rey. Go. To. Tatooine? Luke hated Tatooine. And besides, Rey spent at most a week with the guy and didn't have a very good relationship with him. Sure, they had a decent post-death conversation, but that was it. It really was like JJ intended (after TFA) for Rey to go to Luke and for Luke to train her in the ways of the Force and for there to be this great relationship, much like Luke and Yoda. I guess he expected for Rian Johnson to redo so much of TESB much as he had done with ANH. But Johnson didn't do that, and Abrams clearly didn't care. So he just ignored the relationship that Johnson *did* establish between Rey and Luke and pretended like the one that he envisioned had happened had, well, happened. (Psst, even though it didn't.) But it made no sense. Again, at most a week Rey spent with the grumpy old dude who wasn't very nice to her, whom she fought with and who told her--yeah, no, this ain't how it's gonna be, and so she took off and went her own way. Sure, Luke changed his mind, but she wasn't there for that.

Why did Rey have BB-8 with her? BB-8 is Poe's droid, not hers. Oh, right... it paralleled TFA--where it made sense that BB-8 was with her, when Poe was "dead" which he is not now. Mmhmm.

Why did Rey take the last name Skywalker? She didn't have the relationship with Luke that warranted it. You know who she DID have the relationship with? Han SOLO. Leia Organa-SOLO. Ben SOLO. Those are the people with whom she had that kind of relationship. The man who DID become like a father to her in a few short days. The woman who did become like a mother to her. The man who was literally the other half of her soul. If she was going to take a name... it should have been Solo. Rey Solo. Taking the name Skywalker, much like going to Tatooine was not in character for Rey, and it wasn't FOR Rey. It was nostalgia for the Original Trilogy fans (oh, like JJ Abrams). It wasn't true to the narrative, the character, of the story that has been told over *this* sequel trilogy.

Why was there no Force Ghost of Ben? There needs to be some specific training in order to be a Force Ghost, sure. Which Luke *probably* got from FG Yoda. And which Luke gave to Leia in cut footage. And this specific training was mentioned briefly in the Prequel Trilogy, and more extensively in The Clone Wars.... but unless you remember that one line from the PT or watched TCW and know about that cut footage, you have no clue. So, many are left wondering, again: Why was there no Force Ghost of Ben? If Luke *probably* got that training from Yoda, why didn't Luke train Ben in it? He's gotta know how tragic the lives of the Skywalkers are... ain't no way he didn't train that boy early on about that bit of info, right? So, yeah, why no Force Ghost of Ben?

So many questions, so many things that had me going: Wait? What? Huh? Why... I don't... huh? How did--? When? Huh? That should not happen this much in a film. Period. That is bad writing. That is bad directing. That is bad pacing. That is just bad film making.

The Big Four Issues

I. Ben Solo Dying.

Had he had not been the last Skywalker, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had Han not sacrificed himself essentially which was then used as a narrative to build into a huge reason as to why Kylo was having such a hard time staying on the Dark path, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had we not been given some hints that Ben had been manipulated his whole life by the Dark Side and abandoned by his family, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

Had we not been told that he was literally sharing a soul with Rey (one soul-two bodies), meaning that she will be bereft and lost without him for the rest of her life because her literal soulmate is dead now, I would have been OK with him dying. Not happy, but narratively, I would have been OK with it.

However, because of all of the above, narratively speaking, no, I am not OK with it. I have always said in every fandom I have been a part of that if it makes sense from a narrative point of view--even if I'm not happy as a fangirl--I will be OK with it. From a narrative point of view, this did not make sense. So, yeah, I had an issue with Ben Solo dying.

II. Kylo Ren's Helmet and Rey's Hairstyle

I said when I first saw the triple-bun-hairstyle again and Kylo with the helmet that I was wary because I felt that JJ had fundamentally missed the symbolism of what Rian did with the progression for both characters. I hoped that I would be proven wrong and there would be a reason for the return of both things (beyond needing the hairstyle for scenes with Leia to match the footage). Alas, I was not.

Kylo without the mask was him no longer in Vader’s shadow. The mask was about him being the scared, little boy, hiding who he was. At the end of The Last Jedi, he supposedly got everything he wanted. He no longer needed to hide. By destroying the mask, he was doing his best to let go of the past. He let go of Snoke, let go of Vader. But, of course, that wasn't the story that JJ wanted to tell. He wanted to keep Kylo answering to someone else, holding onto Vader. So because Rian got rid of Snoke, JJ brought in Palpatine for Kylo to be submissive to, beholden to Vader still, no longer the leader and back came the helmet, undoing all of that great character progression that Rian had crafted.

As for Rey and those buns, sigh. Once she realized–as she did in the cave, even if she didn't admit it fully to herself until Kylo called her on it–that her parents weren't coming back, she let go of that hairstyle. Why? Because that hairstyle is the only way she could figure that her parents would still recognize her. It's the hairstyle she had when she last saw them. By letting her hair down and not putting it back up, she let go of the fantasy that they were coming back. JJ putting her back into that ridiculous style, like with Kylo, he erased that huge, beautiful character arc of Rey's. She was once more a girl in search of her identity, her self. That self, that woman that she had found at the end of TLJ was gone. *double sigh.*

III. Rose's Presence or Lack Thereof

The toxic bullying and horrible way that Kelly Marie Tran was treated was completely unjustified in every way, shape and form. JJ Abrams pretty much rewarded that treatment by sidelining the character of Rose and wrote her as a glorified extra. Period. There's pretty much nothing else to say about it. Anything else will just devolve into ranting. It--yeah, just gonna stop here.

IV. The Force Bond Scenes

Least "big" issue, but it bugged me. I noticed it the first time I watched the film and hoped that it would be more clear the second time I watched it. That second time, I watched it with my brother-in-law and nephews and asked them if they had the same issue. They did. I wasn't sure honestly when Rey and Kylo were actually together or were having Force Bond moments. One of my nephews didn't realize that Rey and Kylo were actually fighting in person on the Death Star until Kylo was talking to Han. That entire scene from when he showed up inside the Death Star remains, through the fight scene, through her stabbing, then healing him and her taking off... my nephew thought that it was a Force Bond scene. Both times, I didn't realize it wasn't a Force Bond scene UNTIL they moved outside of the Death Star remains. When they were talking inside, I thought it was a Force Bond scene.

Rian Johnson did such a wonderful job establishing they were having a Force Bond moment. It was like the air was being vacuumed out of the room. You could feel the tension. It was obvious, but in these Force Bond scenes unless the scenes were drastically different or there was dialogue establishing it, you just could NOT tell.

But, It's Not All Bad!

The Han/Ben scene gutted my very soul in all the best way possibles. I ADORED the callback to The Force Awakens scene. How the play on the dialogue worked in the opposite direction, with Han urging him that he could it, he did have the strength to turn to the light. How Ben held the lightsaber, and once again, Han reached out to touch his face. Oh, God, and when he said "Dad," his voice breaking and Han said, "I know." I died. I was just.... gah, a total mess. I teared up both times. That was just everything. SO. VERY. HARD!

Babu Frick may be my new spirit animal. No, I do not find him cuter than Baby Yoda (puhleeze!), but dear Lord, I loved him so. When C3P0 (who will forever remain in my heart, I love him so) had his memory wiped and was introducing himself, I laughed out loud both times when Babu immediately pipes up with, "I'm Babu Frick!" and then later on when whoever mentioned that Babu sent them a message, 3P0 pipes up, "Oh, I know Babu Frick, he's my oldest friend," I lost it. So good.

Speaking of C3P0, every moment with C3P0 was gold (hehehe, see what I did there?). I seriously do love Goldenrod. I liked the sentimental, the sweet, the serious and the funny with him. Outside of the Babu Frick moments, my favorite was when he mentioned something about the Passana Desert festival and they all looked at the annoyance that is 3P0 and he has no clue and turns around himself to see what they are looking at. Oh, I love him so.

When Finn told Rose that he was staying on the ship... JJ may have cut the Finn/Rose dead in the water that Rian set up, but damn did KMT give it her all. That moment where she looked after him, oh it was beautiful. You could see all of the worry, the love, the pride... everything on her face in that moment. So good.

I may have felt that Zorri Bliss was a completely useless and pointless character, but that final bit with her Poe was hilarious.

The lightsaber battle on the Death Star remains was AWESOME-SAUCE. Every moment of it. I especially loved: Kylo walking out of the rain/water. Kylo and Rey both so exhausted they can barely keep going. Kylo having the kill-shot like two or three times and just not able to do it. Ben hearing Leia say his name. Ben dropping his saber when he senses her end is near.

Chewie finally got his damn medal!

Chewie mourning over Leia. That was all of us.

Man, when Rey and Kylo were fighting over the destroyer and then lightning came out of her hands... it was like WHOAH!! SO FREAKING COOL! I loved that. I really totes did!

I loved every single, solitary moment of Ben Solo. From his running to save Rey. From his free-for-all jump to his "Ow." To his facing of the knights, knowing he was outnumbered, but still determined to take them all. From his 'We got this babe!' look to Rey to his shrug once he held that lightsaber in his hand and took on every one of those Knights and took them all down, Ben Solo was sassy, bad-ass and amazing all without saying an actual word.

Dear Lord. Crawling from the pit, forcing himself across that rocky floor on a broken leg, gathering the woman he loved in his arms. The relief of finally, finally, truly holding her in his arms, the devastation at knowing she was lost to him, and then the determination, the refusal to let her go, to lose her. He truly finished what his grandfather started. He would not let the woman he loved die. So be brought her back, pouring every ounce of his life, his love into her.

I loved that she told him that she wanted to take Ben's hand, and so she did. And she said his name, one last time. "Ben." And I loved that we got that beautiful, beautiful smile. So happy, so free, so full of light. And no pain.

*sigh* The kiss. I loved, loved, loved that we got our beautiful, epic space kiss. *double sigh* Because it was beautiful. And it was epic. And it's canon, bitches! Yeah, baby!

Overall, I liked the movie. I believe that when I watch all the films together, I will be satisfied. I just wish I loved it. I AM happy for all of those people who do love it though. I truly, truly am.

The Skywalker Saga Rankings

Yes, I consider Rogue One part of the Skywalker Saga since both Darth Vader and Leia appear in it.

The Empire Strikes Back

The Last Jedi

A New Hope

Rogue One

Attack of the Clones

The Force Awakens

Return of the Jedi

The Rise of Skywalker

Revenge of the Sith

The Phantom Menace

#star wars #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker #reylo #ben solo #rey

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hauntedfalcon · 5 years ago

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Happy Christmas, Star Wars Is Over

that was a thing I saw with my own two eyes

“we have to End the Saga! ... but also leave ourselves opportunities to make more money” you really clearly cannot have it both ways

there was... so much about that movie that I would have been able to tolerate... if the trio had been together the whole time

but the instant Rey left the group, it became a terrible movie where stupid things happened for no reason, and there was nothing good going on to balance that out

the trio interactions were, give or take one uppity Poe, everything I wanted

they were so good together

literally I yearned for two whole movies and I finally got what I wanted for a little while

anyway as for the rest of the movie, you know the trolley problem?

they had a couple options for tracks to follow after TFA and TLJ

and instead they just... steered the trolley off a cliff

what hit me hardest was the moments where Rey had the helmet on in Luke’s X-wing, and the moment where she sleds down into the Lars homestead

cute moments! recognizable moments! music cues that helped us recognize them

but the actual takeaway was that she had received absolutely no development since the first time we saw her put on an X-wing pilot’s helmet or sled down a sand hill

none of them did

when people kept asking her in TFA who she was, I never took that to mean “tell us your family name” or “which extremely powerful being gave you your powers” but what is your identity and how do you find it for yourself

which is a theme that could have been explored if they weren’t busy driving the fucking trolley off the cliff

what did any of it really mean? what’s the plan for the future? in thirty years does it all start over again when another Sith lord turns out to still be debatably alive?

also everybody saying “we have to do this or the General died for nothing” like by that point? she had already? died? for nothing???

she projected herself through space to distract her shitty son long enough for Rey to stab him! that was the point!!!

that was the death of her son that she foresaw at the end of her Jedi path! coming to terms with that and making it happen herself for the good of the galaxy could have been a thing!!!

all of these plot points are stupid, but there was a coherent way to connect them, and the movie just kept trying to contradict itself instead

disrespectful honestly

keeping her corpse under a sheet until Kyle faded away was extremely disrespectful

also not a fan of how they tried to build scenes around the scraps of extra Carrie Fisher footage they had to work with

I maintain Leia should have been the one to do the jump at the end of TLJ, and then we wouldn’t have had to deal with this bullshit

Rey should have been a Kenobi

Rey Should Have Been A Kenobi

but moreover, Rey Should Have Been Able to Forge Her Own Identity Independently of a Lineage

which would have done wonders for the trilogy and put her on equal footing with Finn’s character concept

if, let’s say, Palpatine was not a thing in this movie, and let’s say she ended up in Transport Tug of War with Kyle anyway, and she still accidentally Force-lightninged the ship and had to deal with that afterward?

that would have been interesting! grappling with your own capacity for doing evil is interesting! “you have a capacity for doing evil because of your wrinkly granddad” is NOT

imagine the conversation in the ship after the lightning where Finn says he gets it and Rey says he doesn’t, and Finn says yes, yes he does, because everyone has the capacity to cause harm regardless of the scale of it, but it’s the choosing that counts

imagine if these characters got to say things to each other that actually mattered to the plot

what a waste of Jodie Comer

why hire Jodie Comer and only put her onscreen for five seconds

that’s like hiring Thandie Newton and killing her off after twenty minutes, or hiring Ming-Na Wen and killing her off after one epis--oh wait

I was listening hard during the Every Jedi Talks At Once bit and it did my heart good to hear Qui-Gon again

no Chirrut Îmwe though. see? disrespectful

my beloved Finn

my beloved Finn is finally confirmed Force sensitive, and there is no time to build on that afterward

my beloved Finn meets more people who broke First Order conditioning and refused to fire on civilians, who escaped and lived free, and we get a thirty-second conversation about it and it’s never mentioned again

that should have been the A-plot

my beloved Finn held. Poe’s. hand. and it was clearly a thing they do regularly

my beloved Finn was so competent

my beloved Finn was a GENERAL

and that’s it. that’s all I’ll ever get of my beloved Finn

Lucasfilm is not going to mention him ever again

I am getting emotional now, back to things that made me angry

what the fuck are they trying to pull with Poe

a spice runner? a spice runner???

no nope no you’re not making him the Han of the sequel trilogy Abrams

and then the whiplash of him being given command and wishing he had Leia’s guidance again and getting guidance from Lando instead and immediately acting on it? there’s actual Poe! right there!

I don’t understand who it is they keep trying to convince us he is, but the real Poe always comes through in the end, thank you Oscar Isaac

the hug

the hug and the focus on Finn holding both of them and crying with relief

I sure did miss Rose

introducing just enough new characters for everyone to have a ~safe~ potential love interest was so transparent

there’ll be a comic book or a novel set decades down the line where some background character will be mentioned in passing as Finn and Jannah’s kid, and that will be that

that being said now that we have Jannah you can pry her from my cold dead hands

the fact that they didn’t even talk about why Lando left the fight???

the leaks I read were from an earlier cut of the movie where Lando told them he had a young child who was kidnapped by the First Order

he didn’t get to say anything about it this time??? it was implied to have been Jannah but they didn’t even get that much? they want us to believe he’s been hanging out on One Party Every Forty-Two Years Planet just because?????

hyperspace gets more and more watered down with every consecutive movie

it’s to the point where even the purrgils don’t seem that special anymore

the disposability of all the ships was almost as irritating as all the planet-hopping

ships, just like lightsabers, are entirely renewable resources, there is one around every corner

my “the Force is really just the ghosts of dead Jedi intervening for the living” theory is still going strong, especially now that Luke could lift his X-wing

Yoda had to do it in ESB because Yoda had more dead Jedi friends than Luke :)

I legit squealed “WEDGE” when he appeared for 1.9 seconds

afterwards my best friend was like “what’s a Wedge? was it that Mike Pence guy” and I lost it

Leia’s lightsaber was so pretty but I’m sad the blade wasn’t red in this canon

Disney hopes you enjoyed 1.5 seconds of lesbian representation in a Star Wars movie, now never ask for anything again

Dominic Monaghan was also there for some reason

I’m running out of things to say, everything else in this movie was too fucking stupid to even talk about

especially That

we’re not talking about That

at least we’ll always have The Mandalorian (pending any fuckery in the finale)

#Star Wars for ts #The Rise of Skywalker SPOILERS

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gffa · 5 years ago

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hi! i really want to get into the EU stuff, but i have absolutely no idea where to start. can you point towards a few good books, maybe? thank you, and i absolutely love your account btw!

Hi! Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. ♥ Recommendations for EU stuff often depends on what you’re interested in, because there are a lot of books I really enjoyed, so I’ll organize them by era, since that’s how fans are often divided. I’ll also include comics, because often times the comics are some of the absolute best stuff!If you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels yet, those are absolutely the places to start as they’re key to the fabric of the bigger story, imo. Not that you can’t understand the movies without them or anything, but TCW is especially important for understanding just how grueling the clone wars really were. And Rebels is important for showing the fates of a lot of the TCW characters and seeing the Empire vs the Rebellion (it does a lot to flesh that out, too).PREQUELS:

Any of the Star Wars Adventures comics that contain the prequels characters are great. Well, ALL of the Adventures comics are great, but the prequels ones are adorable, funny, and yet really well-told. They’re light-hearted and largely oneshots, but the IDW comics have been incredible for still being some of the absolute best SW content out there. Especially a not-miss is #12-13 and the 2019 Annual for the Padme&Leia&Breha story.

Obi-Wan & Anakin comic by Charles Soule. A five-issue mini series that has the most stunning art of all the comics I’ve ever seen pretty much, it’s also a really good look at the time of Anakin’s apprenticeship and provides some interesting glimpses into their early days together.

Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic by Charles Soule. This comic was an absolute phenomenon to read month to month and one of the comic series that I’ve spent the most time analyzing and felt it’s really held up to scrutiny, which shows just how much thought went into it. It’s 25 issues of Vader fresh off Revenge of the Sith, over the span of a couple years, and really does an AMAZING job of exploring Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader, all the choices he made and the themes of the comic are all about showing he can’t admit to the HUGE mistakes he’s made. It was incredible.

Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure by book Cavan Scott. I’m not usually a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories, but this one was worth it to me to get an absolutely DELIGHTFUL book with Obi-Wan and Anakin, who are cranky with each other, but ultimately show that they can come back together and obviously care about each other. Sprinkle in some other cool stuff (Jedi details, Bant Eerin being recanonized) and it was lovely.

Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama by Cavan Scott. If you’re interested in Dooku, Asajj Ventress, or the Jedi at all, this drama was pretty amazing, it gave a ton of worldbuilding detail, but also did a lot to fill in the backstory of Dooku and gave us a long look inside Asajj’s head as well. Qui-Gon makes some appearances, he has an amazing dynamic with Dooku, and my heart as always skips a beat for how much I love the Jedi.

Age of the Republic comics by Jodie Houser. Holy shit, these comics were SO GOOD. They’re a series of oneshots about the various heroes and villains of the time, a glimpse into the lives of all of them, and Houser really nailed it here. My favorite is the Obi-Wan one, because the conversation he has with Anakin about Qui-Gon is a must and delves deepest into the characters’ stuff, but all of them are worth reading.

Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic by Matt Owens. A five-issue mini series that, okay, the art is Like That but the storyline really worked for me because it’s a really good look at Mace’s character and his belief in the Jedi Order and how he came to master himself and how the galaxy looks at Jedi. It’s woven around a fairly typical action plot, but one of the things that always strikes me is the compassion the Jedi show one of their own, even when they’re falling into darkness, as well as this is a comic about Mace Windu’s faith and his work to master himself and it’s SO GOOD.

Kanan: The Last Padawan comics by Greg Weisman. Stunning art plus a look at some of the characters/relationships that I want so much more of (TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT DEPA BILLABA) and more glimpses into life at the Jedi Temple, as well as telling the story of how the character went from Caleb Dume to Kanan Jarrus, all of it heartbreaking and so, so good.

While the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover is no longer canon, but it does an absolutely phenomenal job of breaking your heart all over again for the characters and expanding on everything that was going on during that time and really, really gets into the headspace of Anakin’s character in a way that was line-edited by George Lucas himself, so I think of it as having a lot of emotional truths to it, rather than being part of canon (which it’s specifically said as not being).

ORIGINALS:

The ongoing Star Wars comic (by Jason Aaron, then Kieron Gillen) + the original Darth Vader comic (by Kieron Gillen) are the absolute best place to start, they’re an incredible addition to the characters’ journeys between ANH and ESB. The two comics are meant to be read concurrently, so I recommend them together, they often show the same scenes from different points of view, but you can roll with either of them if they’re going well for you. They’re my favorite for what they add to the story.

Star Wars Battlefront II’s storyline can be watched on YouTube like a movie, which is about two hours long, has some fantastic characters (Iden Versio and Del Meeko are amazing, but also the brief storylines the OT trio have in the game are fantastic) and it does a really great job of helping to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, explaining a lot about Jakku’s significance and how the First Order popped up.

From a Certain Point of View novel by various. MY FAVORITE BOOK IN THE EU, FULL STOP. A series of point of view stories from various supporting characters during A New Hope is exactly what it sounds like and, okay, not all of them worked out for me, some of them are very skippable if you’re not enjoying it, but the Obi-Wan one, the Qui-Gon one, and the Yoda one are all must-reads because they are HEARTBREAKING and fill in so much of what’s going on with those characters in the OT with regards to the PT events. Also the Motti one is the single funniest thing Star Wars has ever put out.

Lords of the Sith novel by Paul S. Kemp. While I’ve only read about a third of this one so far, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, as it’s a look at some of the worst parts of SW’s timeline, where Vader and Palpatine are at their worst, where Ryloth is suffering, but it’s done with deftness and gravitas, imo. Possibly better after you’ve seen TCW and Rebels because Cham Syndulla’s character will have more weight then.

Legends of Luke Skywalker novel by Ken Liu. This book came out around the time that The Last Jedi came out (or at least that’s when I read it, iirc) and it was a balm for my soul that needed Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. It’s an in-universe series of myths, so it’s not literal, it’s stories told about Luke Skywalker as he travels the galaxy trying to understand the Force and the Jedi. It’s lovely!

Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn. I still think the first Thrawn book was really good (even if the shine came off the apple after that) and it does a fantastic job of setting up the character’s backstory, intro into the Empire, and creating the character of Eli Vanto, WHOM I LOVE. It’s a great read and some of the best of Zahn’s Thrawn work.

ROGUE ONE + SOLO:

The Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed. I had trouble connecting to Jyn Erso when I first watched the movie, but the way Freed wrote her as this messy, complicated, thorny person who was trying to do the right thing was perfect for making me fall in love with her. (Freed is really, really good at writing messy, complicated, worthwhile women, imo.)

Most Wanted novel by Rae Carson. I loved this book a lot, where it’s a young adult novel set before the events of Solo and helps tell Han and Qi’ra’s backstory and is a great space adventure at the same time.

Catalyst novel by James Luceno. This does a really great job of bridging the Republic era with the Empire era, how the galaxy went from the Clone Wars to what we see in Rogue One, AND expanded a ton on Galen Erso’s character, his relationship with Orson Krennic and Lyra Erso and Jyn, so it made the R1 experience just a ton more valuable for me.

SEQUELS:

Bloodline novel by Claudia Gray. This book still does the absolute most to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, to explain the events of what happened in that time period. Gray’s writing is best when she’s writing Leia as a character and this book works as a novel for her and as a story about the rise of the First Order and some of the problems of the New Republic.

Spark of the Resistance is a young adult novel (so about 200 pages) by Justina Ireland. I only recently read this one and I just thoroughly enjoyed it, it was Rey and Rose and Poe off on their own adventure, which was typical cute Star Wars stuff, but the chemistry and adorable banter between these three was so good I could have read an entire series for them! (I also liked her Lando’s Luck YA novel, if you’re interested in his character.)

Poe Dameron comics by Charles Soule. Soule’s writing is some of the best stuff in SW so far and he does an absolutely phenomenal job of capturing the charisma of Poe’s character, while also giving him an actual character arc to work through. The comics just fly by, they’re so good and so smoothly easy to read and so damn charming.

Cobalt Squadron novel by Elizabeth Wein. If you get the audiobook of this, it’s narrated by Kelly Marie Tran, who does a love job of reading it, and was a book that helped me just utterly FALL IN LOVE with Rose Tico. It’s a book that does a lot to explain her back story and who she is and it’s just absolutely wonderful.

The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry. If you really, really hated TLJ, this might not be the book for you, but I found it to be a book that helped fill in some smaller details that made the movie work better for me and got inside the characters’ heads just enough to help grease the wheels to put me in a better place with the movie, so I always really like it.

#fic recs #(not really but that's my tag)#novels #Anonymous

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