#my tlj bias is showing

[ylojgtr]

i just watched patrick willem's video from 2018 on the last jedi called "what do we want from a star wars movie?" and im going to share my thoughts because no one can stop me, im 6 years late and i don't care

i like his channel a lot and i think he did a good job explaining it, but i agree maybe 50% with his main point. he says that fans who were upset with tlj were looking for the Star Wars Feeling™️ from a star wars movie, the feeling of nostalgia essentially, and that the eu normalizing explications for everything made fans less open to new stuff. the main thing *i* want to say though is about one of his supporting points: that the prequels didnt feel like star wars in that they weren't relatable like the ot.

i love the prequels man. of course, i grew up with them in a way many didn't (as well as tcw which just serves to heighten the movies), so there's definitely bias, but one thing i love about the prequels *is* that vastly different feeling. looking back, the ot could be described as campy, but every person ive talked to who saw Star Wars in 1977 said the effects and presentation were beyond any immersion they'd ever experienced before. the same cannot be said for ep. 1, even people who got into star wars from that movie (at least that ive heard), despite also being on the cutting edge of movie technology, and obviously the dialogue is way cheesier than anything written by anyone other than george lucas, but all that just adds to the vibes, ya know? the galaxy was in a different time then too, and i can't explain how much fun it is to experience these completely separate times in such a visceral way, intentional or otherwise, when watching through the saga

i hate the sequels. of the 3, tlj is far and away my favourite. i would have LOVED to see what trilogy rian johnson and his team could have cooked up if they'd been given control over the whole thing. i love tfa visually, and introduces some great characters (ahem, KYLO...also finn i love him) but just *feels* like anh remastered. if that's what you wanted, great! but for me, i was just sooo stoked to see what a new era would feel like that it really disappointed me. the main thing i hear from people who like tlj is that it takes the story in a different direction. and while i really appreciate that, and do like the force dyad stuff and finn and roses subplot and the not-lightsaber fight at the end AND what all that stuff means for the saga, it still has that feeling of sameness, at least to me, because it's trying to be something so different. the way i see it, it's trying to be *opposite* of what everyone expects, which means it needs to have that same feel in order to subvert it. which, again, is fine by me! tfa was already done and it has to fit that aesthetic to fit into the trilogy, and im just one fan. of course everyone hates ros which i guess tried to do opposite of what they did opposite in tlj? i don't know what they were on making that movie

another thing i wanted to bring up was the whole interconnectedness of the franchise. patrick brought up the eu to show how fans were taught that every detail has an explanation. no second of the ot was without a dozen books detailing what every character was doing in the background and how they came to be there. his point was that, when new characters are doing new things in unexpected ways, people don't like it cause there isn't a wookiepedia article on it yet to explain it exactly, and that that ties into why people hated tlj. i don't doubt it, but i also want to point out that that eu is a source of a lot of enjoyment too. i don't think he was denying this, or saying it was bad at all, but i just wanted to share that the eu is basically the reason im as big a fan as i am. the idea that everything is connected is appealing to me, and the way that star wars does it, where expanded material takes place in all different times and settings with no correlation to publishing date, just really appealed to me in contrast to the marvel way or any other big franchise like that. in any other series, each new installment progresses time forward. in star wars, we have infinite time to explore any era we want...which brings me back to how much i love the completely different aesthetics from the ot and pt. the variety is so refreshing. the galaxy feels so different between eras where the sequels just make it rebels vs empire again. we already have a billion books on rebels vs empire so...what expanded stories can i look forward to thats different in the sequel era? im sure there are lots, but the difference just won't be as great. also, star wars *is* goofy. patrick says it himself, bringing up that there were a lot more jokes in the ot. id argue the prequels take themselves so seriously that the seriousness becomes the goofiness (and i love it). ive said many times on this blog that i LOVE the stupid part of star wars lore. like yes, the fact that it's explained who the stormtrooper is that han killed and stole armour from and that he's fucking tarkin is SUPER UNNECESSARY but it's FUNNY AS FUCK. no one needs to know palpatines name is sheev but that's the best name ever? the problem isn't the lore, it's when people take it too seriously and don't allow for that innovation to happen that leads to more fun lore and stories. which i think is exactly what patrick was saying, he just didn't emphasize how enjoyable the unnecessary-ness of it all is and how distinct feels in different star wars eras are imperative to all these diverse avenues for story and fun to arise. (now do i think people should be able to survive lightsaber wounds? only cause of how much i love qui-gon, i admit to being a bit angry about that...but at the end of the day i don't really care that much? im here to have fun and yeah ill complain about it sometimes but just cause complaining is also fun)

that's why i love tcw (it fleshes out this distinct time period and political setting) and rebels (again, fleshes out the distinct era of extremely fleeting hope between the empire's reign and the coming of the saviour) and the heir to the empire novels (they establish a new era with a different feel—much more similar to the ot than the prequels are to the ot but still) and kotor (same as with htte but more similar to prequels) and the new jedi order and legacy (although it's also basically rebels vs empire, it has enough of a divergent story and tone that i like it) and the high republic in the disney canon (although i haven't digested as much of it as id like cause fuck disney)

but my main point: the thing i want from new star wars is a mix of things patrick seems to love,l AND things he seems to hate. yes i want it to be star wars, so there's some sort of familiar feeling there that needs to present, but i also want a twist on it. the ot was a classic fairy tale. the prequels were political thrillers (sometimes not so thrilling, but still). other stories people really liked act completely differently again, like the mandalorian being a western and also a heartwarming family bonding adventure or andor being a spy thriller and also the best star wars show. each era or sub-franchise has their distinct aesthetics and feels that future artists can make feel even more distinct and special yet theyre all connected which is just fun don't you think? the sequels would have made me a lot happier if they gave us some new ground for new feels the same way the prequels did. anyway that's my official response no one cares about to a 6 year old video. yay!

[tfa-archived]

Top five Poe moments? 👀

I've answered this one a couple of times, but I've recently (ish) rewatched majority of the trilogy so I'm going to focus on scenes from those (as opposed to stuff from books + comics)!

that slide around he does in the x-wing at the start of tlj to take out the tie fighters from behind is. needlessly hot. I made a very embarrassing noise watching it the other night.

when he properly meets rey for the first time! I love how damn soft he gets around her, to the point even his theme gets a softer variant in the moment, it's the sweetest thing 🫶

honestly just the whole opening of tlj with the call to hux, full stop. Rian Johnson described it as smth like "pure star wars" in a recent interview and I heartily agree, it's the funniest fucking thing. "Hugs, with an H? Skinny guy, kind of pasty" did you know I'm in love with Poe Dameron, did you....did you know that?

I've also been having feelings about the lightspeed skipping scene lately because I think it perfectly shows the difference in Poe and how much he's grown - he's still that reckless flyboy he's always been, but he's steering that recklessness away from fights he doesn't need to tackle. He doesn't even try to confront the squadron(s) of ties, he's entirely focused on getting away — but he's still Poe, so he's gonna run away from the bad guys in the most exciting fashion possible. (it also adds smth I think to his argument with Rey and his frustration that all they're focusing on is the state of the Falcon, cos he's more focused on the fact that he managed to get everyone back safe).

when he shows back up in tfa on takodana. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen that movie, I feel the same amount of excitement and wonder as I did the first time I watched it (if not slightly increased) when he shows up on screen for the first time since the tie fighter escape 🫶

ask me my top five anything

[theladyelara]

Could a tv show save the sequel trilogy?

After watching Clone Wars and Rebels and Clone Wars again and getting my heart absolutely wrecked every time, it brought me to two conclusions. One, Dave Filoni is a god and must be protected at all costs, and two, animated shows and tv shows in general have immense power 

So there’s a fair share of prequel hate out there, a camp which I sort of understand but definitely don’t belong to, but it’s pretty much universally accepted that the clone wars is golden. For a lot of people it made the prequel trilogy so much more meaningful and impactful than it was before. Rebels only continued this trend, continuing to give depth to the world of star wars, tying in some of the EU and continuing stories of tcw characters while also simply telling a really good story of a new cast. 

Which led me to the question I posed at the beginning. Could a tv show save the sequels? We’ve seen tcw ‘save’ the prequels, could a new show do the same for Disney? 

Disclaimer, I have not watched Resistance, and I have watched Mandalorian. 

In order to break down the question we’ll have to outline some things. First: Why did tcw ‘save’ the prequels. I think it comes down to these things. They... -- expanded upon and added depth to existing characters -- expanded the world building, and lore -- successfully introduced compelling new characters  -- continued the thematic elements of the prequels and sw as a whole  -- had really good storytelling overall  -- none of these above things contradicted or disconnected from the existing world of the movies

Now, is there a show that could do that for the sequels? Explore the characters more, delve deeper into the world, and tell a compelling and cohesive story? (listen I really am asking, lmk your opinion!) 

I am going, also, to posit some of the base ideas I have as well.

First: The year is before the Force Awakens, and after Ben genocides Luke’s temple. The show will center around one Jacen Syndulla and friends. Jacen is now a young Jedi who survived the temple razing, as he had been studying under Luke beforehand. Jacen is a quick tie in to the rest of the tv shows, being the child of Hera and Kanan from Rebels. He would travel the galaxy, perhaps trying to reach out to Ben, perhaps trying to stay the heck away from him. At some point he’ll find out about Something On Jakku and we’ll see him try to get there, always thwarted at exactly the wrong moment. Rey never meets him and it’s a tragedy. I could see him working with the resistance, and we could see other facets of the ST characters through him that way. The most potential I see with this idea is exploring Ben through a character like Jacen who grew up alongside him, and we could see more of exactly how Ben fell to the dark side, Snoke’s(and ig palpatine’s) influence and Luke’s teaching. It could also be used to salvage Luke as a character and give him better motivation for whatever happened in TLJ.  Of course, if you haven’t noted it already, we come to the stumbling block with this plot thread that FA made possible. It’d be almost exactly like Rebels. And I choose to blame this entirely on the New Hope Awakens episode 4 7 and not on my elevator pitch! 

Second: The other idea I had would be half about the sequel trilogy? It’d be more of a direct sequel to episode 6, basically following the OTs as they set up a new Jedi and a new Republic. But this may be bias talking, as that’s what I’d have wanted to see, and I also don’t know how well it’d work into the ST we actually got. The potential with this story thread again is Luke and Ben and Snoke, figuring out how Palpatine, one, survived, and two, has been pulling strings this whole time. The worldbuilding potential here is also huge, chances to explain what the first order is and why it exists.  However, I don’t know how well this would make for a tv show, and does little to help the characters of the ST, as it’d largely be set slightly before their time. 

Third: Somewhere between TLJ and ROS. This is the only time skip present between the mainline movies. It’s not like tcw, where the showrunners had something deliberate and fleshed out to talk about in their show. So they don’t have much low-hanging fruit to pick up for plot, and I think the time skip is pretty short. Still, this gives the most potential for the ST characters, and expounding upon them. We could see the trio actually work together, discover their relationships together as they go on missions. Rey is trying to learn how to be a Jedi, and is getting increasingly frustrated because she can’t get it. There could be darker hints as to her heritage. Also some proper bloody foreshadowing to the rise of palpatine and the Sith in the next movie. We should see her struggle and grow, go back to Jakku and deal with that, keep confronting Ben and Luke and Leia in more interesting ways. In my head the structure is pretty much like tcw or rebels, but maybe that’s just how I expect star wars shows to be structured at this point. A series of missions, exploring themes over arcs of a few episodes. And again we come to lovely originality problems, because this would be basically TCW with OT flavor and ST characters. But if it works it works, and I think this is really the best option to ‘save’ the ST. We need to get invested into these characters, and their best bet (as far as a tv show goes), is to do for Rey what TCW did for Anakin. 

[padme-amitabha]

I just watched a video countering a couple of Prequel bashers and, my god, the things the haters said should happen to Jake Lloyd! It's an abhorrent injustice that these disgusting people were catered to by the 2008 CW series. You know, however terrible they are, I'm almost glad for the sequels, because if there's one good thing that came from them, it was watching the Prequel hate coming back to bite these people hard.

Tell me about it. The people who bullied Jake Llyod are despicable. I think the actors in the sequel trilogy sometimes overacted and it came out as too forceful at times and I wasn’t a fan of Daisey Ridley’s wooden acting but that’s no excuse to bully the actors! Jake tried his best and did exactly what George instructed him to do i.e. play a simple good-natured kid. The sequels have been criticized but I think the acting is rarely brought up while prequel actors like Ahmed Best, Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman had to deal with this nonsense because people didn’t agree with their characters’ actions, how they were written and/or couldn’t handle character flaws.

Still Jake Lloyd showed more emotional range than the adult sequel trilogy actors (I mean is Rey even capable of other expressions than being wide eyed or smiling in inappropriate situations or looking like she’s trying too hard?). I understand getting teased at school because let’s face it kids are immature and they were probably just jealous he got the role in such a highly anticipated movie but what angers me is when grown men picked on him and bullied him like the man-babies they were AND had the nerve to blame it on George (who still defends the prequels and it’s characters). I know it’s hard for them to swallow this but Star Wars is George’s creation and doesn’t exist solely to fulfill their male power fantasies. I have seen their version of “fix-it” videos where they are like Anakin should have been born with the suit and basically making him a psychopathic soulless monster and also a demon child. The atrocious Darth Vader Marvel comics are still trying to please said man-babies but TCW started that trend. These days actors can gain sympathy and support from fans on social media but back then people rarely stood up for little Jake and Ahmed Best. What’s worse is some reporters continued to harass and insult Jake in interviews to the point it permanently damaged his mental health. They even harassed his mom and continued to make those awful podracing jokes after the car-chase incident. He didn’t deserve any of this. And people still continue to ridicule him. I have seen people joke about him being unattractive compared to Hayden Christensen which is just so shallow and mean. Anakin is a fictional character - he can be played by any actor as long as it is convincing. 

You’re right about TCW, that’s one of the reasons why I can never accept it (no matter how much I overlook the other terrible retcons). They were made to “fix” the prequels and even George was forced to change his characters a little because of the intense backlash. TCW caters to those horrible bullies and introducing that Ahsoka character wasn’t the best decision. You know, I once saw a video where fans voted for their favorite Jedi and she came in no. 2 and one of the common reasons they provided was because they found her attractive. Now female characters in a male dominated fandom have always been sexualized but the number of times TCW sexualized a minor is disturbing. And of course, Filoni’s blatant bias for his OC is extremely annoying. TCW caters to the fanboys’ ideals of toxic masculinity and are indirectly supporting these bullies. It started this trend of changing the prequel characters to make them more “acceptable” and “stereotypical” because fans can’t grasp the concept of complex and emotional characters and changing the “cheesy” romance to an abusive/unhealthy one to make it more “realistic”. Star Wars is more like a fairytale, even George said it’s a space opera. It’s meant to be dramatic and have mythical themes. But fanboys absolutely love these changes because now the prequels have been “improved” like this show was made specifically to please them and apologize for the prequels. They complain about how prequels ruined characters like Darth Vader because sometimes you should be able to use your imagination to fill in the gaps but TCW was that gap. The originals left so many valid unanswered questions like who was the Emperor (and how could he use force lightning), what was the clone wars, how exactly did Anakin fall from grace and who was Luke and Leia’s mother? The prequels answered them all and did a fantastic job at world-building. TCW is the unnecessary extension, we didn’t need to see their everyday lives and still if anyone was curious the 2003 CW was there to bridge the gap perfectly while staying true to the characters and keeping the tone consistent.

I agree with you on the sequels. I have never been invested in them in the first place to be outraged. I was bored watching TFA and its unoriginal plot, mildly amused at how ridiculous the TLJ was and just confused at how pointless and messy TROS was. So yeah the trilogy served those people right who thought a shallow unoriginal remake of ANH “revived” Star Wars after its creator “ruined” it and thought a director (whose other films are not very original either) could do better than one of the most creative and intelligent men in Hollywood.

Star Wars is so much more than these pointless action movies with stereotypical action heroes. George had combined elements from mythology, history, literature, science fiction, fantasy to create a beautiful story with symbolism, depth and a great message. The prequel trilogy and the original trilogy are two halves of that story and both are needed to complete the saga. Hollywood and these fans don’t deserve George Lucas. They disrespected him and his work.

[onewomancitadel]

Personally I just liked how the characters interacted a lot more, and that was my favourite part when *watching* the show. Perhaps you are right and the narrative overall is better, but I’m not very good with spotting these things in real time, and so watching it live was more enjoyable beforehand.

I mean yeah, I liked V1-3 more buuut I don’t hate V4-8 like a lot of people XD. Maybe significantly is the wrong word, my bad ;c.

I’m still watching it because I still do enjoy it, not as much but I do like it. And as for the five year thing, it being older doesn’t make it worse in my opinion

And like I said, we can totally just agree to disagree on here as to which is better, it’s subjective at the end of the day. But I do really enjoy V4+’s Knightfall developments and such!

Yeah which is so weird/interesting, because I loved V4 for the pure character interaction. Then again, I actually preferred RNJR for a while over R/WBY themselves. I also prefer the high-stakes plot, and Cinder Cinder Cinder.

And yeah I mean, I sort of think the age thing does matter, because a lot of viewers conceived of a completely different show in their head and got upset when it didn't align, and they're not prepared to go with what stories do. I understand a show committing to something 90% of the time and fucking up the landing, that's an understandable situation, but there is like a serious disconnect I feel with that side of the fandom.

Yeah you can like what you like. I think on my side there's a bit of defensiveness because R/WBY fandom can be as exhausting as going through the TLJ debate again, and I think also I'm generally embarrassed to be myself, so I'm like, why do you even like my blog then lololol. I recognise there's personal bias there.

[meandmyechoes]

Something I wrote May 8th, 2020 02:44 about Rebels that I forgot to publish. But actually contain a lot of context for how I feel about reusing Ahsoka in general. I formally apologize for every ill will I had for Rebels Ahsoka’s design.

hot take: I don’t like Rebelsoka. Yeah, as if you can sum up my opinion like that.

Why I don’t like her is a really petty and subjective bias, so I am not being fair.  The real problem I have with Rebelsoka was mostly my personal lack of enthusiasm in her art style and early on her role was... replaceable. Her unique place is as an ex-Jedi, which is why I’m glad and more accepting when they turn her story away from the Rebellion to focus on Jedi Business. Her early lines in Rebels was... delivering information that could easily been given to another rebellion officer. And it felt off to switch from that unsure teenager to this full-blown wise mentor.

With everything, the final verdict is of course, Rebelsoka is amazing. In the end the potential outweighs my complaints. Yeah, information feeder, cryptic vocabularies or poor cosmetic choices can be forgive in exchange for awesome duels, delightful mentoring and GOSH THAT ANGSTY “ANAKIN”. not that i hope we see more ahsoka stories but i hope we see more ahsoka stories you know. more than that 45 minutes of it ◔̯◔

As a TCW traditionalist, of course that was my definition of Star Wars. Bitter of replacement was a common feeling in the year 2015, but I’m also reasonable enough to expect a major stylistic change with Disney’s acquisition. So all in all, I am glad we at least have another show instead of none at all.

Even though I dropped out, I was there for Rebels in the beginning. If nothing, I learnt from Clone Wars not to underestimate a Season 1. Yes, no one from the Ghost crew captivated me the way Ahsoka did, but I liked them all equally. It was an enjoyable show when I judged it as an exposition and sanely do not compare it to the finale that Clone Wars was building. So Ahsoka coming back at the end of Season 1 really put me in a difficult place, when I thought I could move on to this new family, having accepted her departure.There were rumours, but I kinda expected her to set off the S2 premiere instead. I was also spoiled of that very last minute of revelation. Anyway, when she came back, and I heard Ashley’s voice, I just broke into tears. It’s literally a resurrection. I also couldn’t believe, that I actually get to see Ahsoka again in my life, and that she is suddenly so mature and wise.

It was difficult for me to adjust for two reasons: the art style and her maturity. I guess now I could put myself next to Anakin in 709 describing how I felt meeting Ahsoka again. I also really hated her art style in Rebels initially. She was... streamlined? had slick skin, but her lekku stripes are jagged, and i never get to see how her lekku grew into the shape they are now. and her whole facial patterns are different too?? and she actually doesn’t have clear sky blue eyes anymore? but somehow has deep purple eyes? and just all around no-no with the art style when it first came out. The style wasn’t an issue when you don’t have the my favourite as a veteran character for comparison. (say you don’t see me complaining about Hondo that much but didn’t they do him dirty) Even though I had no problem with her outfit or headdress, it’s just not my favourite of hers. and the fact that they’re forcing me to watch a cartoon character lined with age! and how tired she looks, with wrinkles! and pouches under her eyes! don’t do this to my poor daughter! let her stay happy and carefree as a 14-year-old 5ever! (18-year-old me holding an angry PTA sign)

It also closed a book on however I want her to be. stupid war in the stars making me accept canon. I would’ve been content with her just leaving and staying alive, when every fan set out on her dying before RotS. Yeah maybe she threw her entire ‘life’ away but at least, she’s not, dead you know. And seeing her thrown into another war, threw herself into another war, I wan’t sure I could handle that. The grief, the guilt, the regret, the sight of not seeing her standing by her family again. (good lord Filoni gave us the Rex and Ahsoka hug ;_;) I just want her to stay happy and carefree in my head okay?

and that constant battle of wanting to see more of your favourite character but also level enough to not want her to steal the spotlight form a promising new cast? and the lowkey distrust towards Disney that they brought in Ahsoka to trick more audience into a less-popular show? as a fake-ass apology? Are you suppose I’m ever gonna forgive you for cancelling Clone Wars even though you brought back its characters and basically made a TCW sequel? Are you asking me to overlook the damage, done to both TCW veteran characters AND Rebel’s originality if you don’t do it right? And when they really don’t give us much Ahsoka mid-season it was kind of.... *deflating high-to-low 7-note crescendo* If Disney is actually giving us “what the fans want”, it’s because we damn well deserve that apology without ever needing to forgive, less alone thank. 

So anyway, I did dropped out of Rebels after the Season 2 finale. A bit of real world reasons too because I was getting busy in college and I have Rider, an all-year-round show to fall back on. So i just totally turned away from Star Wars in general after March 2016 where it was dead dead for Clone Wars. I caught up a bit of S3 but never finished it, and I’ve been on and off trying to do it to recover from TLJ but it didn’t feel enough (+ plus real busy irl)

I only even found out Ahsoka the White on social media and was utterly confused. Not sure if it was the best decision creative-wise then, and frankly hand’t given much thought since. But I definitely don’t mind Ahsoka Not Dying. I think I have more questions directed to this girl in person on her life and fashion and spaceship choices more than anything. You just sort of reached a point where like god let them rest. 

I only wrapped up the series before I saw Walkabout. And there was like a 3-month gap since I started rewtaching late January after ep9. But I ran through the last season in 2, 3 days? It was really good. I didn’t expect it focus on just one planet, but the plot was good, even though the primary enforcer villain monkey just looks meh. Somehow strangely, the character I grew attached to is Kallus. You know, he is not in the main cast whatsoever so he really may not die? And the whole time as the finale draws closer I just was on the edge of my seat hoping none of my faves die. (Yeah the only mistake that finale made was sacrificing Gregor. not nice Dave.)

And the epilogue was amazing. The resolution again subverts expectation in a good way and gave us what’s plausible but not expected. And I love how the show actually balanced warfare and lore. The mythological episodes border on fantasy fairy tales but it still suits my taste. The balance is actually better done here than on Clone Wars. In a show titled Clone Wars, you kind of expect it to be about Clones and Wars. But Rebels connected the spiritual journey of the characters to the wider warfare. They needed the Force to train and guide them to their victory. And this prominence of the Force as a plot element and narrative influence is something I found missing in the later seasons of the Clone Wars (6 not withstanding).

The show made me genuinely escalates in loving these characters and gave us a well-rounded, complete Star Wars experience. It’s not my favourite, but it’s definitely a good show. 

[gffa]

I read your faves and least faves and realized you're a lot less sequel positive than I thought you were and also a big mood. The alien thing bugs me so much. Not only are there almost NO previously established races, but they're all either orange, grey, pink, or Caucasian flesh tone. And then they retcon Snoke from being chalk white to human white. Star Wars Resistance is FULL of aliens we've seen before but as soon as you step off the Colossus you get one-mouthed Ithorian knockoffs.

I never really know where to put myself re: the sequels, because there’s a lot I feel could have been so much better in easy to fix ways, but then I have to wonder how much of that is my own bias because one could say the same about the prequels, except could they, because I never really see a lot of, “if they had just tweaked this one thing here, then this one thing over here, the prequels could have been great!”, that a lot of the criticisms against the prequels are that they didn’t like what they did, but don’t really have ideas for what they would have liked, while the sequels I see a lot more, “I liked the basic set-up, but here’s what needed to be addressed”.Which is assuming it’s even fair to pit the prequels and the sequels (or the originals) against each other, because they each stand on their own, they can be taken on their own merits, BUT I keep navel gazing about why I’m so easy on the prequels when I’m harsher on the sequels.I think a lot of it, for all that TROS is actually my favorite of the sequel movies, that the prequel trilogy absolutely nailed its ending for me, that Revenge of the Sith is my all-time favorite Star Wars movie, and I thought that it really showed that George Lucas had a strong sense of who these characters were and where they were going and why they did what they did.The sequels have a ton of charm and I really do love the set-up, there’s been some really excellent worldbuilding (especially re: the political situation) in the supplementary material and they’ve worked to put more aliens back in the galaxy, and I’m softer on the sequels in that regard because I live in the supplementary materials much more than I do in just the movies (setting aside the whole aspect of how I do consider the movies to be the “foundation” of SW, at the very least for I through VI) and I’m willing to give them time to integrate TROS into things, just as I was willing to give them time to integrate TFA and then TLJ into the bigger tapestry of SW.It’s hard because I don’t want to be negative about the sequels so much, but I’ve been slipping into that mindset a lot because I see all these things that could have made the story stronger, could have used the pieces that were there better, could have widened up the scope of these movies so they don’t feel like they have such a narrow focus, how they could have better incorporated the worldbuilding (planets and aliens alike) to actually make this feel like the GFFA, but the more I focus on that, the more I get ensnared in that mindset.  The more I vent, the more frustration I feel.I think, too, part of the problem is that I’m not terribly enamored with the creators of these movies and it’s very hard to get enthused about interviews or insights when I’m so annoyed by both sides of the JJ/Terrio vs Rian Johnson thing and want both sides of this entire thing to just chill out already.  Not that it’s up to me, people do what they want on their own twitters, but sometimes I do feel like every tweet made about it saps a little more good will from me re: the sequels.  Also, you know, my fault for being on twitter to rubberneck the wank, fair enough! XDWhich means I keep trying to get back to a more positive place about the sequels, but it’s hard when it doesn’t feel like I’m finding the right corners of fandom who are just chilling out and enjoying the movies and characters and stories.  It feels like I’m constantly seeing everything pitted against each other and it wears my enthusiasm thin, especially when I have a lot of problems with the movies, but I want to be charitable towards them yet not ignore them.Nobody really seems to be having fun with the sequels and it’s hard for me to generate my own when it’s not the era of my heart, so I wind up being kind of more negative than usual, despite that I ACTUALLY REALLY LIKE THE SEQUELS ERA AND THE CHARACTERS.  *wistful*  I miss that time when the Phasma novel or Cobalt Squadron came out and I was just BURSTING WITH FEELINGS about the sequels and their amazing characters.Because I think another book like Spark of the Resistance would do a lot to jump start my positive feelings on the movies again.  Or a novel that better explains Ben Solo and his relationships with his family to me, to actually show us what’s going on in his head, to help me connect to the movie version better.I AM READY TO LOVE, STAR WARS, PLEASE GIVE ME MORE TO READ OR WATCH WITH THEM, I WILL YELL HAPPILY ABOUT IT IF YOU DO, I’M PRETTY SURE.

[sugdendingle]

So there’s this article that’s going around bashing the Reylo fandom as a response to Katie McCort’s article on ‘Systemic Hatred of Women’. Normally I would link back to whatever it is I’m referencing so people can draw their own conclusions but I refuse to post the link to the first article mostly because it’s just a nicely worded hate piece against Reylo and our fandom and it doesn’t need more attention from me. I’m sure you can find it if you look around the antis are sharing it. I’m still going to respond to some of it though because it’s a lot of the same things I see going around about our fandom and I want to address some of them.

There is this misconception that the Reylo fandom is almost exclusively made up of cis gendered, straight, white women and that’s just not true. We’re an incredibly diverse community made of various races, sexualities, genders, ages, etc. It’s clear that it’s easier for people who dislike us and the ship to dismiss us by saying well they’re all just a bunch of white women who want to ship the two main white presenting characters. They also mostly assume we’re teenagers so that’s another way they get to patronize us by acting like we’re simply a bunch of children who can’t make good choices even when it comes to which fictional characters to ship.

To that effect I think because many dismiss us all as a small (but loud) fraction of white women in the SW fandom it makes it easier to say we’re all racist. We as a fandom need to stop allowing this. This idea that our fandom as a whole is racist is false and in many cases is being used mainly as a weapon against us not to call out real instances of racism. People who don’t like us and our ship have just decided it’s okay to blanket our whole fandom as toxic and racist without real proof to back it up. Even those times when there have been people claiming to ship Reylo sending harassment and being racist they don’t represent our fandom. There’s a different between the actions of single individuals and an entire fandom using their collective power to hurt people and the Reylo fandom has never done that.

I also resent the idea that it’s our responsibility to find these people and deal with them. Is it important to call out problematic behavior when you see it? Of course. But we are not responsible for babysitting every corner of the internet looking for someone who has a Reylo icon and possibility sent out a racial slur. I’m genuinely confused why this responsibility falls on the shoulders of Reylo shippers to police our entire fandom but not on the SW fandom as a whole to do something about the many many problematic people calling themselves SW fans and sending hate. I don’t see people calling all SW fans racist because some chased Kelly Marie Tran off social media. I don’t see people calling all SW fans misogynistic with the amount of disparaging things that’s been said about Rey as a character and with how many didn’t even want a female protagonist for the ST. Or how TLJ was one of the most criticized in large part because it was more inclusive to female fans.

No apparently those are just trolls who don’t represent real SW fans. So why then does that logic not apply to the Reylo fandom? Maybe perhaps because it’s easier to try and get rid of a ship that the general SW fandom hates and silence it’s fandom by claiming it’s one of the worst things a person can be. Who is really going to want to be associated  with a ship or fandom if they think it’s racist right? I’ve seen new SW fans coming on tumblr asking about Reylo and the antis are quick to jump to them and tell them how toxic and racist it is (not to mention they claim it glorifies abuse against women which 🤦) filling these people’s heads with lies. I don’t care what people think of me I’m used to shipping the ships that everyone hates but I do care that people lie about us and our ship and don’t even give people the chance to make up their own minds.

As for the situation with JB which was also included in the anti Reylo article it’s clear the person who wrote this has a huge bias. Anyone who cares how people are treated would look at that situation and recognize JB was out of line, his actions caused real world harm to people. NO ONE is saying JB hasn’t been the target of racism from SW fans but to put ALL of that on the Reylo fandom is not only messed up it’s simply factually wrong. There are people who would never ship Reylo and who never wanted a leading black character in SW who have sent JB hate. The Reylo fandom just continues to be the easy target.

There’s a part of the article that talks about how some of the people who ship Reylo do so as a way to work through trauma in a fantasy that’s not possible in reality. They also say that one of the reasons people ship Reylo is about kink and bsdm which maybe these things play a factor (for some) but it’s not necessarily the main one. In the first place yeah Reylo is a fantasy not possible in reality it’s a soap opera in space. I recognize there are things that happen within their relationship that wouldn’t happen in real relationships but there’s also a lot about their ship that’s very much grounded in reality, which is a significant part of the reason people are drawn to them.

I’ve been through trauma myself and media has definitely helped with healing but I don’t look at Reylo as some fictional manifestation of reclaiming power that was stolen from me. I don’t look at Ben as some de facto stand in for my abuser and Reylo as some fairytale version of how things should have been. I don’t see Rey as someone who managed to get her “abuser” to change and then they lived happily ever after. I see two messy people who helped each other grow and change throughout the course of three movies. If anything I think Reylo helps me because I relate a lot to Ben. He’s shown me that it is possible to break free from the darkness and as person who has struggled with mental health problems my whole life it’s an incredibly important message. Rey and Ben together showed me it is possible to find someone who can understand you no matter what you’ve been through and no matter how alone you feel.

As for incorporating kink into Reylo many of us definitely do enjoy the smuttier side of fandom but I know for me that wouldn’t matter if I wasn’t emotionally invested in the ship. I think some assume the main reason we ship Reylo is because Adam is hot or Rey and Ben together is hot and it’s all simplified to being about sex but for the majority of us the ship is about so much more than that. I’m drawn to Ben and Rey because of the complexities of their stories both together and individuality. There’s this idea now that liking a character who does anything with questionable morals means you’re a bad person but I personally have never been drawn to the innocent characters. Both Rey and Ben are more grey not fully good or evil and I love that about them. More importantly I’m drawn to how much it’s clear they love each. Even in TFA they understood each other in ways no one else could because of their bond.

I feel like in order to get Reylo and especially Ben as a character you have to be willing to think deeper about the media you consume and some people only want surface level SW. On the surface it’s just bad guy Kylo Ren vs Rey but there is so much more going on than that if you look. I think people forget that fictional media is open for interpretation. Scenes like where Ben tells Rey “you’re nothing, but not to me” is one people have twisted to mean something manipulative when I don’t see it that way at all. To me Ben was trying to tell her he sees her. He sees that she came from nothing that she has no one like him (because he’s felt so abandoned by his family for so long) but she’s not nothing, to him she’s everything you can tell in how he literally begs her to stay with him. This is isn’t some example of me deliberately twisting facts to suit my narrative of what I want the characters to be this is simply that I see the scene differently than some one else might. I don’t get what’s wrong with that?

I know this got long and kind of rambly I just needed to vent. I just wish the hate would stop. If you don’t like Reylo don’t ship it. Learn to live and let live. Nothing we are doing is hurting anyone. We are shipping two adult characters because we see something positive here. I don’t get how something that’s about love something that brought so many people together can inspire such hate in others.

[ct-hardcase]

TROS Review

I’ll start by saying something I already did: I liked the movie, but it wasn’t a good film.

What I mean by that is, as a fan, I like some of the beats it hit. It had good trio moments, good stuff for Rey and Finn individually, as well as Leia, and I genuinely enjoyed those. The pacing, however, was interesting. The entire first quarter of the movie was driven by plot devices and shock value, and I found myself wondering, after they went to yet another planet to find the macguffin, when the real plot was going to happen. Things picked up in the second half, but there were still some weird choices made. Specifics below:

Stuff I did like: 

Force Sensitive Finn! It’s about damn time, honestly, but I’m very glad that Finn got to realize the Force within him (and I think that’s what he was trying to tell Rey this whole time? This was unclear). The fact that he had some conflict with both Rey and Poe over that was also great.

I thought I was going to hate Rey Palpatine a lot more than I did. Because of JJ spinning it into a “it doesn’t matter who your bloodline is, as long as you choose your family/destiny” theme, I didn’t mind it as much. Still kind of cheesy, but not the worst way they could have gone about it. I like Rey adopting the Skywalker name.

I was hoping for “power-drunk bastard” Kylo and I did cherish him while I had him. The fact that he was determined enough to find the Wayfinders and find actual literal Palpatine was pretty neat. The fact that he was also briefly power-drunk enough to try to turn Rey into his equal in the dark side was pretty cool too.

This movie surrounded the Force in general--Kylo and Rey are good saber duelists, but they aren’t the best, so I think it was a smart decision to focus more of their impressive feats on the Force.

General Poe! I really wish it didn’t have to happen like that, but I’m so glad to see Poe Dameron get his due in this regard. His fear at leading and everyone comforting him along the way was a good story to tell.

The actual creepy, cultlike aesthetic of the Sith was really fun in the last half, complete with faceless crowds and soul-transfer rituals.

I have wanted Rey with a yellow lightsaber for SO LONG and I finally get it, yeehaw everyone.

The entire trio dynamic was really great. They promised a movie with them and it delivered. In particular, the Poe and Rey dynamic really picked up the slack from the last two movies. Finn’s dynamic with Poe and Rey were the sweetest things, and the end of the movie really showed that he found family and love with those two.

Chewbacca is great, and I’m glad he got a scene where he could mourn.

I’m also glad he at least got to say hi to Lando.

Jedi Master Leia!!!! I’m so happy that it’s canon that she got trained as Jedi and that she’s Rey’s Master and Rey feels connected to her which makes sense because Leia actually put time and effort into training her (no offense Luke, your Force Ghost cameo was really powerful too and nice).

Loved Jannah’s plot with the group of deserter stormtroopers (and the fact that all of them are implied to either be in-tune with each other or Force Sensitive???? Hello??? Some of Rey’s first students there perhaps?)

Rey jumping toward Finn, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Despite my feelings toward bendemption, the moment with Han legitimately got me. Ben finally being candid with Han, Han talking to his son frankly, Ben finally accepting Han as his father, and Ben throwing the bled saber into the ocean called back to tlj really nicely and makes that moment hurt a bit less for me now.

(also, it paid off to read Rise of Kylo in this instance--because the lightsaber is the “Ren” he was effectively throwing his title away when he threw that out and that’s also probably how the Knights knew he was gonezo)

Palpatine getting defeated by his own hubris is very very nice. You can’t outfight Palpatine. You’ve got to beat him Ezra-style: by having him underestimate you.

If Kylo had to get redeemed, at this point in his career, redemption through death is a good path for him.

Hi Knights of Ren!

Stuff I didn’t like:

Bye Knights of Ren!

I’ll just be blunt and put the rylo kiss up here. That kiss was nowhere near necessary. A romance with Ben wasn’t pursued after the fact and he died, so it didn’t even fulfill rylo that much, and so now we have a kiss where nobody’s happy. Congrats.

I’m conflicted on Leia dying in order to give save Ben/give Rey the opening to kill him. On one hand, I’m glad she died for the mission, on the other, it put such a weird taste in my mouth that I couldn’t even mourn when she died because I was so conflicted.

I also felt :/ about Rey healing Ben because of my obvious anti-bendemption bias, but also, if we’re going to commit to killing people and Rey fearing her inner darkness, go all the way with it. If she’s trapping herself on ach-to, have it be because she did kill Kylo, finally, and she’s feeling conflicted about it.

I’m usually not one to say that a m/f romance is “making a character straight” because I’m bi and I don’t like that erasure, but Zorri definitely felt like a way to “no-homo” Poe because so many people thought he was gay. It was unnecessary, super straight, and really felt like a bird flip to LGBT+ fans.

Also, Poe being a spice runner both ignores his canon backstory of being a new republic military brat that went into the resistance, but is also just straight-up racist. Thanks for having your latino character be a drug runner, lf.

RIP Hux. Domhnall Gleeson played the part so well and he deserved better. I like the spite direction, both Rian and JJ can stick the fact that they made him comic relief where the sun don’t shine. I like the impunity with which he was killed but he was way neutered. Glad Finn got to shoot him.

They way overused the “did [x] die??? did they not?????” in this movie. It loses its punch after a while. Chewie, Threepio (in terms of memory), Kylo, Kylo again, Rey, and then Kylo for real this time.

I loved Finn being Force Sensitive but they really dropped that thread and kind of ignored it after they introduced Palpatine. If you’re going to introduce him as FS, commit.

Ditto Jannah and the deserted stormtroopers.

[emperorren]

I think you hit the nail on the head regarding JPX’s biases and what he can/can’t imagine the dynamic being, and I feel like some people are going straight into another Cliffgate because they’re accepting everything he says (like Rey as a Palpatine or Rey stabbing Kylo or Kylo following Palpatine’s orders) and *then* trying to sprinkle some Reylo around it. He’s changed his mind on completely random things and gotten so many basic Wookieepedia facts wrong that he presented as part of “leaks”

I think JP’s leak process is more like *someone describes a scene to JP or shows him an image* *JP assumes the context of the image* *JP writes leak around his own fanboy assumptions* And this way his doubling-down against naysayers would make sense because he’s probably thinking, “What *else* could the movie be? This is the best option I can think of based on my legit sources, so it must be the *only* option”

yeahhhhhhhhhh

he has some legit info / seen some legit stuff, but his bias is creating the context. If he thinks that it would be absurd for Rey and Kylo to be on non-antagonistic terms and that a Reylo romance is not plausible, of course he’s gonna fill the blanks with that assumption in mind, because that’s what makes sense to him. 

Rey and Kylo have a lightsaber fight? Of course that can’t be more to it other than fighting and stoic hatred on Rey’s part. Kylo has some kind of interaction with Palpatine and then comes to Rey? He’s acting on Palpatine’s behalf. Rey goes to seek Palpatine? That must be because she’s his granddaughter or otherwise related to him, it can’t have anything to do with Ben. Ben falls into a hole and my source is vague about what happens afterwards? Oh, so that’s how he dies.

Just ask anyone who hates Reylo to describe the plot of tlj as detailed as they can, and see what happens. And TLJ is an entire movie that has been out and publicly available for 2 years; at this stage, the leaks are more like a telephone game.

[commanderkurama]

you know its funny poe was supposed to die in the first movie but you dont see anyone claim finn got sidelined by him when poe got an arc which could easily have been deleted for a finn arc no they try to claim finn got sidelined for reylo when reylo was planned since the beginning that shows their bias ( not to mention trying to claim reylo happening is racism just because two white people are getting together rather than finnrey. they are the ones who complain about a characters race 1/?

My dude....you are in the wrong inbox.

Poe has the least amount of screentime of the trio by far. He ain’t stealing nothing from Finn.

With as much as everybody confirmed Ratlo to be hella abusive in TFA I highly doubt it was planned from the beginning, not that it even really happened at all.

You look at TLJ with its weak ass “force connection” between Rey and Kylo that wasn’t even natural but constructed by Snoke/Palps as part of his nefarious scheme and all the chemistry Finn and Rey have on sight and tell me its not borderline racist to just say “nah fuck Finnrey imma ship her with the dude that wants to destroy everyone she cares for”. Its either that or bc you have the hots for Adam Driver for some weird reason cuz yall damn sure salty at Rey for living.

[forceprojecdin]

The Ultimate Achievement of the ST Is It Succeeded At Making The Mythological Messiah Archetype Female For The First Time In A few Thousand Years

I’ve been reflecting on the Sequel Trilogy now that it’s over, really trying to boil down one clear statement of what it really means. What did it actually do? What is it’s big achievement? Like, really. Without all the noise of fan gripes, and controversial details. Once the one big sweeping success if it? Well, it’s ultimately that one of the world's biggest mythologies succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imagination in creating a female messiah figure, for maybe the first time in thousands of years. One that resonated enough to be a 2 billion dollar intro film and grew into a successful trilogy that means something to girls everywhere. You can not overstate that. That is it’s single greatest achievement. Anyways, below is smoothing along these lines that I wrote to some of my Star Wars friends a few days ago. It will be my last SW blog in a while. I’m pretty exhausted from all the new content and fan reactions, but I wanted to make one last post that would sum it all up for me.  After a few days of reflecting on the blog I wrote about the STs (yes, not just TLJ) deconstructionism as symbolized in Anakin's/Luke's broken saber, and Rey reconstructed yellow-reyed saber, I've concluded they succeeded in the best way they could have. And it already happened in The Force Awakens. The deconstructed male messiah saviour lead archetype was successfully reconstructed into a female in the arguable most successful franchise of all time. Her lineage is secondary to that. The new Rey of light is a female. End of story (for me). For me. Goal achieved. And she has everything she needs inside her. And the ending yellow saber has a greater connotation of new en-light-enment achieved to light the way forward. If Star Wars is to follow it’s path, it must keep pushing along these lines. Not regressing as it did with Rose in The Rise Of Skywalker.

That's why it's actually good that the alleged Force Ghosts were replaced with audio Rise. Those Jedi would have stolen the spotlight from her at that most crucial (cru-ciform) moment.This new light is about the girl. Her name is 'Rey Skywalker'. The new messiah archetype is for once, in the past 4000+ years, finally a female. I don't say that lightly.

Anyhow, I've spent a few days making sure that's my final opinion. And btw, if Dominic Monaghan is campaigning for a director's cut, as a friend of JJ Abrams I would say that means there is some truth that JJs vision wasn't fully released (to some degree). Although, Dom thinks the film needs more him at the expense of Rose, which is so mind numbingly ignorant I can’t even... Anyways, I'm not agreeing with any side of fandom that's wants a directors cut for their bias - I just want this JJs true full vision, for good or ill.  My gut has told me the movie was too short from the get go. I feel it in my gut that JJ may have wanted more in it. It seems to messy for him. His movies are always tight

Christmas day is the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice. Jesus is light symbol, and that’s why that day was chosen for his birth.  Days start getting longer and lighter after that. It was a pagan holiday for the same reason, birth of the sun. The last shot is the new pop Jesus in a Middle Eastern desert. They yellow saber is the colour of the sun. Can you see the light? People may ask, what does this mean for the Jedi? The real question is, what does this mean for the Saviour of The Light archetype. The yellow light-saber was a perfect reflection of the single most important shot in all of the Disney era SW: Rey catching the saber in TFA instead of Kylo.  In one single stroke they succeeded in giving one of the world's biggest mythologies a female messiah figure that resonated enough to be a 2 billion dollar film and a movie that meant something to girls everywhere. You can not overstate that achievement. You might say that other franchises in the past occasionally had a female lead (Like Alien or Hunger Games), but none a messiah archetype figure in an actual global mythology that even spawned a registered religion (regrettably on the latter point).

The Son (sun) is female. Time for a little break but I’ll see you all here soon, The Clone Wars is coming! Din

P.S. As for giving everyone the feeling they have that power too (Rey as a nobody from nowhere really is a great idea), they needed to show Finn using The Force more fully towards the end. Instead of yelling "Rey" all the time, they should have said something visually about him. If there is truth to the claims that JJ shot that and was in his supposed 3 hour cut, that's the one thing I want to see the most

[dalekofchaos]

My Problems with the sequel trilogy

I do love The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have any problems with it. 

There is no background, motivation or an endgame for The First Order or a reason why we should care about the war. Biggest mistake of the sequel trilogy is not explaining The First Order or giving them motivation. The Empire’s goals were order, security and control. The First Order’s motivation in the movies are nonexistent. I came up with my own First Order motivation. And honestly I don’t see why we should even care about the war. The New Republic didn’t even care enough to take the threat seriously. 7 planets destroyed and The New Republic is just gone? What? That’s like saying America was no more after 9/11 and terrorists became the new world power. You’re seriously telling me the rest of the worlds of the Republic are not motivated enough to join forces with The Resistance? The First Order is not the Empire, they are a terrorist like organization, they should not be the strongest power in the galaxy. Hell, there isn’t even a name for this war. We had The Clone Wars and The Galactic Civil War, but the world building for the sequel trilogy is so bad that there isn’t even a name for this war. As for The Resistance. They were almost destroyed and there are less than 50 members of the Resistance left alive...and they are celebrating like they just won the war. Why should I care when no one else does?

There is no originality in this war. Everything is just a copy of The Empire and The Rebel Alliance. Say what you want about The Prequels. It was original and creative. We had a war that isn’t just a copy and paste of the Galactic Civil War. There was no planet destroying weapon, the Death Star was being built, but that’s it. There was creativity in The Clone Wars and it really worked. In The Sequel Trilogy, there’s a just a bigger Death Star and a mini Death Star. Really? And while I can understand that there is an Imperial remnant, I don’t understand why with The Resistance. For some reason they are redoing the Rebel Alliance instead of having the New Republic fight the First Order. It really felt like it undermined what Han, Luke and Leia were fighting for.

The complete lack of marketing for Finn, Poe and Rose. The marketing of TLJ is 100% focused on Rey and Kylo Ren...that is a problem. Focusing on your white heroine and white villain, while your POC protagonists is barely featured in your marketing. JJ Abrams fought for a diverse Star Wars cast, and that diverse cast are not featured in marketing and are given the shaft in the story.

Billie Lourd is wasted in this trilogy. Billie Lourd has displayed in Scream Queens and American Horror Story that she is a talented and wonderful actress. In the sequel trilogy she is a background character in The Resistance. Billie should have been Leia’s daughter and Ben’s sister. I like her name, but honestly Billie’s character should have been Breha Solo. The only survivor of Luke’s academy as Ben could not kill his sister, the only part of his past he could not kill. Breha would run to her mother and hide herself away, so her brother and Snoke could never find her. It’s only when Rey awakens and gives a hint that there is hope for her brother that Breha finally reveals herself to bring her brother home. 

The lack of empathy and care for Finn in TLJ. He is constantly belittled and mocked throughout the movie. In The Force Awakens, Finn fights Kylo Ren. He does well, but is ultimately defeated.  He is slashed in the shoulder and the spine by Kylo Ren and falls into the snow, unconscious.  Rey continues the fight and slashes Ren across the face, leaving him with a gash. The characters all escape, but Finn has to be carried to a medical station, unconscious until TLJ. Kylo Ren seems fine, ultimately jumping in a TIE fighter to try and kill his mom before getting patched up further.  Finn, again, has to wake up before doing anything. Here’s the difference between Finn and Kylo’s injuries.  Finn awakens in a medical bed wearing a bacta suit.  His first instinct is to call out for Rey. As he jolts up, he slams his head against the medical container.  He slams against it again. Regaining awareness, he opens up the medical container to find himself alone in a cargo room.  He falls out of the bed, spraying medical fluids all over the place.  He trudges down the hallway until Poe and BB-8 find him. His injuries are never mentioned, shown, or even referenced again.  Kylo, on the other hand, is asked by Snoke how his wound is, to which he responds “it’s nothing.”  He then takes that ridiculous thing off, complete with a close-up of a sad kylo Ren face, with his sutures  framed to draw attention to them. This happens again in the elevator.  Then we get a scene of him getting patched up soberly by a medical droid.  Then we get a shirtless scene as a final showcase of his other two scars.  Throughout the film, Kylo’s scars are present and framed as a constant reminder that he went through pain.  Finn's injuries are used as a joke once and promptly forgotten, and let's not pretend that these injuries are  one-to-one aside from how they're framed.  Remember Finn received injuries trying to protect Rey, while Kylo received injuries trying to murder Rey.  Finn received a deep wound across his spine, which can often be fatal in the real world.  Kylo received a gash across his face.  Finn's injuries were worse and nobly gained. Kylo’s injuries were comparatively tame and well deserved.  Yet the movie uses Finn's pain as a joke, and Kylo’s pain as a humanizing factor. That Rey, as well as the director, cinematographer, and a considerable portion of the audience sees a scar and is willing to find sympathy with the person, no matter what they have done, is pretty reprehensible. Not only is Kylo Ren's scar not enough to be considerably a change to his appearance, as Rian Johnson specifically modified the location of his scar because, “it looked goofy,” the scar is not the mark of an accident or from an assault, but rather from a failed assault on his part. Also, I could get into how messed up it is that scars that don't fit Rian Johnson's preferred model are considered goofy. Is a scar that isn't kept to one side of the face not worth showing? Is a person with a scar you don't personally like somehow less able to be taken seriously? By treating Kylo’s minor wounds as a big, life-changing deal, and treating Finn’s life-threatening wounds as a trivial matter of no more consequence than a joke, The Last Jedi reinforces century-old stereotypes about Black people. Specifically, it implies that Black people are somehow less affected by pain, have higher pain tolerances, or cannot be physically damaged the way White people can. This is a demonstrated, dangerous trend, where white people actually perceive Black people as experiencing less pain than White people under the same situations. Older textbooks, including some used as recently as late 2017, suggest Black people over-report the pain that they are experiencing. Doctors have declined to give painkillers to Black patients expressing the same level of discomfort that would grant a White patients the same painkillers, and some surgeons even believe that less anesthesia is needed for operations on Black people. This, of course, goes beyond the medical field, where Black people are not believed when they speak about suffering, and are expected to take more physical abuse than their White counterparts. However as the injuries are framed in a medical setting in this movie, I wanted to primarily address the medical bias as in the real world. This has been referred to as an empathy gap. When two people are hurt, with everything except the skin colour being the same, and White people feel worse for the hurt White person, there is a gap in empathy. Now, when the conditions are not the same, and the White person deserves to be hurt, and is hurt much less, and is still empathized with more, and the White man's acts of attempted murder are framed as romance, while the Black man's friendship is framed as harassment. Let’s also talk about Finn’s treatment. He's placed alone in a room filled with cargo, without any monitoring.  It's almost like the medical staff doesn't even deem his injury serious enough to receive attention.  He's not on the medical ship, which we know they have.  He's not even in the Raddus’s Medical Bay, which, again, we know they have. Finn is isolated, left unattended,  injures himself, and stumbles out into the hallway without any assistance. All for a joke.  Finn's injury should have been treated with respect and acknowledgement. A scene with the doctors examining his injuries, telling Finn he is medically clear to join The Resistance and Finn  sorrowed by his inability to help his friends, would have been light-years better than a scene where Kylo looks sad getting hurt while trying to kill people.

Finn who is meant to be one of the protagonists is made to be a side character and the comic relief in the trilogy. Finn’s character arc from The Force Awakens was dropped completely in The Last Jedi. He does want Rey to be safe, but Finn just wants to run away, despite the fact that he learned to be courageous, face his fears and stay and fight at the end of TFA.  The First Order kidnapped Finn as a child, from his family(possibly killed his family) he was able to leave The First Order and resist the indoctrination. He no longer wanted to fight, he wanted to leave everything, he wanted Rey to come with him. When Rey was captured, Finn had something to fight for and when Kylo Ren pushed her. Finn finally stood up to his past and The First Order. He overcame his fear. So Finn should have been wanting to fight The First Order and become a big deal in The Resistance, we could have even seen Finn inspiring a Stormtrooper rebellion  against Phasma and The First Order. Finn just wanting to leave is just bad writing and backtracks his entire character arc from TFA.  Finn is the first Stormtrooper to show a real personality, child soldier, who risked his life to find his own freedom and save the known galaxy and ended up in a coma for it. Finn was meant to be a main character, instead he is a supporting character to Rose. Forced to be embarrassed and pointless.  He already learned about being brave and truthful. What happened about his past? His brothers and sisters? The family he’ll never know? Why does he share close to no scenes with Rey and Poe? Why does he get nothing to do?  Finn was the FO’s best Stormtrooper to the point where he was considered Captain material and because of this Finn would recognize the Hyperspace tracker. Finn also has an almost perfect photographic memory due to being able to memorize the layout of both Starkiller base and the Supremacy with extreme accuracy. Kylo Ren had been impressed with Finn‘s capabilities during their lightsaber duel on Starkiller to the point Kylo had to tap deeper into the dark side to beat Finn. Finn is one of the most compelling protagonists of the franchise, right along with Ahsoka and Luke, because while he is the most dangerous to both sides of the war due to his skills and knowledge, he actively tries to save lives instead of end them. Finn’s upbringing left no room for love. He was stolen away from his family before he could even make memories of them. He tried to dedicate himself to the the First Order, but couldn’t. Finn chose to leave the only life he had known because he couldn’t let even one innocent life be senselessly killed. Finn deserves to be known as one of the Sequel Trilogy’s main heroes and not shoved to the sides.

Rose’s treatment of Finn. I desperately want to love Rose. Rose is a wonderful character held back by bad writing.  Finn is put with someone who abuses him and we are supposed to root for this and see it as romance? Let me explain. Finn is then tazed by Rose, which is understandable, she thought he was running away and she was in mourning. He also was objectively posing absolutely no threat to her, wasn’t running away, and was even trying to explain himself. Additionally, just the threat of the taser seemed to have been enough to stop him from leaving. But Rose attacked him anyways. The difference between Rey and Rose attacking Finn is Rey subdued Finn just enough to stop and interrogate him, Rose went completely overboard by paralyzing him and knocking him unconscious. It was completely unnecessary and gratuitous. Rey and Finn have a real friendship and partnership from the last movie. Rose, on the other hand, spends the rest of the movie belittling Finn and talking down to him. The book also says that she thought about using violence against him more than once after the tasing (for annoying her) and even pushed him. This displays a really problematic pattern of violence and disrespect towards Finn so yeah,  multiple uses of violence and expressed desire to inflict violence on him as being abusive. I would argue that she is undeniably verbally abusive with Finn. In the movie and in the book (more so in the book) she often belittles him by calling him names and using other put downs. It seems she wants to make him feel bad about himself and bring him down, which is abusive. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what her intent is, even if she doesn’t “mean to be mean” it still counts as verbal abuse. So, in summary, her repeated threats and use of violence against Finn and her continual use of insults and put downs causes me to come to the conclusion that she is abusive to Finn. Then Finn is made to fail. The only time he is allowed to be portrayed has the protagonist is him facing his abuser and taking him down. The most insulting part of the movie is the last part. Finn’s suicide run. Finn was the best Stormtrooper and knows about The First Order’s weapons, he should know full well that speeder would be destroyed trying to destroy the mini death star. Finn’s attempted sacrifice was pointless, Finn was treated like garbage throughout the movie, he deserved better.

Poe was changed in between movies for no reason. Poe started out as the most levelheaded, compassionate and trusted soldier in the entire Resistance, so trusted that he was given the mission to find the map to Luke Skywalker and leading the strike force to destroy Starkiller Base, why is it that he is suddenly a hot headed fly boy who ignores orders and is getting no respect from his commanding officers? The character change for Poe Dameron was unnecessary and so out of place. Poe before TLJ would not be okay with sacrificing lives to stop one ship that can be easily replaced.  In all source material and the last movie he refused to let anyone die. Not even Finn, a man who was an enemy an hour before they met formally, even though Poe shot his squad mate before during the fight on Jakku. Everything about Poe’s portrayal in TLJ is so unnecessary.  Poe Dameron went from a caring and experienced rebel pilot to an arrogant, hotheaded latino stereotype in the span of like…a day. That’s not subversive writing, that’s racist and bad writing. I just don’t understand why no one even tells Poe the plan. Poe is a respected and highly trained, top ranking rebel fighter, who had been covert enough to execute a highly delicate and secret mission to retrieve the Map to Luke Skywalker, responsible for destroying Starkiller base and the biggest asset to the resistance and biggest threat to the first order, anything about the plan? He’s literally a war hero and is more than likely only second to Leia. And honestly? Holdo didn’t just leave Poe in the dark, she left the entire Resistance in the dark. When Holdo meets Poe, she then proceeds to dress Poe down just for asking for his orders and the plan. Keep in mind that Poe isn’t just some grunt. Even with his demotion, he’s your second or third in command, and he has the respect of the entire crew, as evidenced by his later leading a majority of the crew in mutiny against Holdo. Holdo brought her personal crew from her ship and worked with them while snubbing the main rebel crew entirely. That’s a bit of a dick move, protocol or not. One of the biggest issues was not that Holdo wasn’t telling Poe the plan, but it was acting as if there was really no other plan. She was literally taking personal jabs at him when he was trying to find something out. If she said something like. “While it seems bad , we are working on a plan right now. We are not just going to stay here and have everyone die. Just have your pilots ready to go at a moment’s notice” But she didn’t even give him that. Remember up until Poe taking over, they were watching ship after ship being picked off slowly. The crew was given nothing and was told just to trust her. Blind faith in leadership is a horrible message. If that is the take away then why not just do what the First Order or the Empire wants. I mean seemingly they are in charge of stuff now. And we should follow orders blindly. Moreover they were down to < 1000 people, and from the POV of everyone else she was just watching people die. Rank be jammed. Anyone who cared about their crew would do something. He was a Commander and the flight commander there is NO way he should have been left out in the cold. Then I like how they talk about his spunk over his knocked-out body. How Poe was treated in TLJ was absolutely atrocious and a complete insult to Oscar Isaac, Poe deserves better.

Rey has no character arc in TLJ.  Rey doesn’t learn anything and I don’t feel like she has a character arc or journey. She starts her journey in TFA and I was excited to learn where her character would go. And TLJ does nothing with Rey.  I do love Rey, but I don’t feel like it truly tests Rey and forces her to grow as a character. Rey is intriguing and we care for her, but her journey feels non existent.  Luke and Anakin had struggles and journeys.  I just don’t feel it from Rey. I am really disappointed with how TLJ handles Rey. Rey doesn’t have any struggles. Rey is all powerful and she is the same character she is from TFA. Everything TFA was building her up was instantly ignored.  How Maz got the Skywalker lightsaber? Never mentioned again. How Rey was drawn to the Skywalker lightsaber and what the force vision was meant to mean? Never addressed. Rey says that she’s classified information, “none of your business” Then her parents are revealed as junk traitors who sold her for drinking money and died in Jakku. If her parents were just junkers, how did they afford that space ship if they spent the money on booze? Also the best theory I thought was gonna happen is that Rey has ties to the Empire or at the very least because of the novels it is stated that Palpatine had secret labs on Jakku and the Empire was invested in Jakku, hell it’s last stand WAS on Jakku. Rey herself told BB-8 she was classified information. All that build up for nothing. The force can come from anyone, we all feel it but you build Rey up only to do nothing with her. I’m not upset that Rey is a nobody, I’m just upset that what TFA was building up for Rey was dropped entirely.  My big issue with how TLJ handles Rey, is she does not learn anything. She was awakened by Kylo’s mind melding, but after that nothing. She doesn’t learn anything from Luke and she feels like the same character in The Force Awakens. We see Luke showing Rey to feel the force and the Jedi’s hubris. The third lesson was deleted, but we did not really get to see Luke train her as a Jedi. Rey doesn’t learn anything. In the end we see Rey has the sacred Jedi texts, but Yoda pointed out that those texts were holding back the Jedi and the Jedi Order needs to be reborn  So really, Rey does not learn anything.  

The romanticisation of Reylo. Reylo is a toxic and abusive relationship. Their interactions make me uncomfortable and all their interactions reminds me of is every emotionally abusive relationship I’ve witnessed in real life and in fiction.  Kylo has manipulated, mind tortured(Rey admitted she was tortured in the canon comics and no torture is not sexual tension) murdered her father figure right in front of him and mocked her about it “Han Solo can’t save you now” threw her into a tree, sliced Finn’s spine and put him in a coma, when Rey refused to let him become her teacher he tried to kill her. Throughout there force bond sessions it was a means to manipulate Rey so he can find Luke Skywalker. Gaslighted Rey about his past with Luke and shattered her faith in Luke. Used Rey as a pawn to kill Luke, tries to get her to join her and rule The First Order together, then tries to emotionally break her resolve by attempting to destroy her self identity by making her think she is nothing, and then when that doesn’t work he tries to kill her and blames his killing of Snoke, on her. Kylo assumes control over the First Order as it’s new leader, asserts his dominance over Hux and makes him submit, leads an attack against the Resistance, again, tells the soldiers to take no survivors, orders the Falcon to be shot down, and ends up being the cause of his own uncle’s death because said uncle had to sacrifice himself to prevent Kylo from killing more people. Kylo has sworn to kill Rey, her friends and The Resistance. Han and Rey have given him second chances and every time he has chosen the dark side over bettering himself as a person. He choose his path as a villain, he has shown no remorse for his actions, he did for Han, but everything else he’s shown no remorse and has chosen The First Order every time. Their interactions is meant to be antagonistic, not romanticized. 

Kylo Ren is downgraded from his amazing character in the Force Awakens.  Everything about Kylo Ren in TFA is amazing. Kylo Ren was  a well-rounded antagonist that broke the clichés of most of modern villains. Kylo Ren was a complex and layered character who wasn’t glorified or idealized for his morally wrong actions, so powerful in both the force and with his lightsaber. A hint that the lost child was still in there, but still chose to kill his father to reject redemption and chose to be who he was by choice regardless of his positive upbringing. Kylo Ren is exactly the right villain to succeed Darth Vader in this new trilogy despite not being a Sith. Had Chewbacca not have shot Kylo, I don’t think Rey or Finn would’ve made it out of Starkiller Base alive. My problems with Ben in TLJ is he is downgraded to the great character he was in TFA in TLJ. In TFA there was already a moral ambiguity with his character, but it was subtle. It was made in your face that he was sympathetic in TLJ. An interesting antagonist/villain isn’t a mustache twirling generic character that does things for no reason. Villains are meant to be the antagonist. We are meant to disagree with their actions and understand the flaws in them, to have a villain/antagonist who not only acknowledges what they are doing is wrong, but feels guilt about it. This is something that is extremely difficult for a writer to convey believably. Most of the time a director/writer will go out of their way to make their antagonist/villain sympathetic at the cost of the overall story. They only want the audience to relate to the antagonist/villain so they only put emphasis on that character’s sympathetic traits and ignore their negative ones. Ben has to earn his redemption, he doesn’t need it to given on a silver platter. His whole personality changed. While Han’s death would be enough, it just doesn’t work. In TFA his goal was finding and killing Luke Skywalker. In this movie I just don’t even know what his end game or motivation is. He went from this powerful dark side warrior and in TLJ he was downgraded and made weaker. And of course he is made into a meme cause of the shirtless scene. His bond with Rey was really the only good thing about his character arc in TLJ. The problem is everything they went through together was undone. And my issue is with how Ben doesn’t explain why he killed Han. He doesn’t explain to Rey that he killed Han because he felt like he was being torn apart by the light and dark sides of the force and he thought killing Han would help him, but all it did was make it worse. There is no scene with Ben and his mother. They never once interact. Ben shows absolute no desire to save his mother despite everything him and Rey been through. He could have shed a tear that he believed that he killed his mother and Rey tells him Leia is alive and that all convinces Ben to help Rey save the fleet and save his mother. The sad thing is they will never get to interact because of Carrie’s  passing.  At the end of TFA Snoke said he was going to finish Kylo Ren’s training but no training is given to him. It doesn’t add up that Snoke does not train Ben. Snoke said that he would complete Kylo’s training when he told Hux to bring Kylo Ren to him at the end of TFA. Yes, he did fail him and he sensed his father in him, but I really thought we’d see Snoke sending Kylo to Vader’s castle on Mustafar to allow the dark side energies in the castle and what remains of Vader to strengthen the dark side within him to snuff out the light. Killing Han broke his spirit, but he could use the castle to complete Kylo Ren’s training. Then we would see Snoke personally train Kylo himself. Snoke begins by telling Kylo the Sith code ” Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.” teaching him the ways of the dark side, using torture and force lightning to draw Kylo’s rage to bring out his full potential in the dark side of the force. We needed to see Sith training. We never once got to see it, so we needed to see it with Snoke and Kylo Ren. You could still have Ben and Rey’s force bond and their closeness, and the throne room fight, but not even displaying their powers is what cheapens the fight. Kylo Ren is powerful enough to freeze a blaster and a person in place and Rey herself unlocked Kylo’s powers, so the two of them could have easily ended the fight sooner than it was dragged out. Ben is powerful in the force but he SERIOUSLY could not stop a Praetorian Guard choke holding him and Rey struggled with a guard? Rey and Kylo were stronger in TFA and are just made weaker in the duel with the Praetorian Guards. Kylo could have frozen half of the guards and Rey could have mind tricked the other half into killing the frozen guards and Ben and Rey could have finished them. They are masters of light and darkness, but they are made weaker. As for their final scene together. Ben’s proposal still stays, but it makes no sense for Ben to say “you are nobody, you have no place in this story.” it makes no sense because Ben told Rey in TFA in their duel “it is you.” the scene just makes no sense. Kylo Ren doesn’t even have a clear motivation. He wants to kill Luke because he thought he wanted to kill him. There’s no reason why he killed the other Jedi, there’s no reason why he joined The First Order,  What did he hope to accomplish by joining the First Order? It’s never even explained why he has Vader’s mask. He never explains why he killed Han or why he even wants to destroy The Resistance. He says “let the past die” yet continues to  lead the First Order in the same direction that Snoke did. Snoke wanted the Resistance dead, so why take up his mission? He spent the duration of the movie as the most calm and collected and even most Jedi like character throughout the movie, but by the end he turns into  a screaming lunatic again by the end. There is no motivation for why Ben is doing anything. He acts how the plot needs him to act and that’s it. Vader wanted to crush the Rebellion and turn Luke to the dark side. With Kylo Ren I just don’t understand, turn Rey and start a new order? He knows full well Rey doesn’t want anything to do with that, if that’s his plan, it’s a bad one.  And if he doesn’t have one it hurts him as a villain. it’s not like he’s Michael Myers or The Joker where it works for them. But with Kylo Ren it just hurts him and the story and hurts the potential of The First Order. There is no motivation or a clear endgame for Kylo Ren or anyone in The First Order, if Ben is to be redeemed, great but that just makes his path as a villain bad since he has no motivation or endgame. and that just hurts Kylo Ren/Ben Solo as a character.

Supreme Leader Snoke is wasted and there is no reason to care now that the villain you’ve been building your trilogy around is dead. Snoke’s death was too soon. Snoke is a dark side user. Calm and collected. Old enough to see the rise and fall of the empire. He takes no risks and does what it takes to win. He was different from Palpatine and I dare say he even had potential to rival Kreia. He was a mastermind and did not allow himself to be a slave to the dark side. He did not want his apprentice to die like the Sith masters of old. He did not want to keep power until his dying breath. Snoke was not the average Sith Lord, he was different.  He was respectful, he was very powerful, and watching his scenes, even when faced with failure, he remained calm and collected because he was playing the long game and was not a slave to the Darkside like the Sith. He was invested in turning Kylo Ren into Vader’s heir and even has a ring from the catacombs of Vader’s castle. Snoke was so interesting, so many unanswered questions and this well thought out villain. And then TLJ turned him into a dumbed down Palpatine rip off. The claim that Snoke and his backstory is not important is dumb, considering that we know nothing on why this war is even happening or even why The First Order is doing ANYTHING! We want to know who Snoke is because we want to know how this random evil guy was able to destroy the lives of the entire original trio, corrupted Ben Solo and override the happy ending the entire original trilogy and prequels were fighting for. The struggles of the prequels, the clone wars, rebels, original trilogy, all of these stories and struggles were undone because of Snoke, so of course we have questions. Why do the remnants of the Empire follow Snoke and where did he come from? Not wanting to know the motivation of the villains is just plain ignorant. They completely wasted Snoke. Snoke is a power from the unknown regions. He was SO powerful that Palpatine sensed him, Palpatine was so focused and invested in Jakku in hopes of getting closer to the Unknown regions and he wanted to meet what he believed was the source of the dark side of the force. And they just kill him off so easy? Now there is no reason to care. Kylo Ren is not an intimidating villain and it’s pretty obvious he’s turning to the light in Episode IX. Hux is a bumbling incompetent fool and I’m pretty sure they already confirmed he will be more comedic in Episode IX instead of being a threat. There is a villain problem for the Sequel Trilogy. There is no menace in The First Order anymore and I really feel there is no reason to care. The only possible way The First Order will be an actual threat to the Galaxy is if Rae Sloane usurps Kylo Ren. Problem is, that would actually make the First Order a legitimate threat, and Disney could never allow that.   

Paige Tico and Tallie Lintra were pointlessly killed off. Okay if you are a casual fan and have no knowledge of who these new characters are in TLJ, then you would have no idea who Paige is and why Rose is crying until you see their twin pendants. And the way they went about her death was just bad. There was no need for so many bombs, Y-Wings would be enough.  Why do they need that many bombs to blow up the shield generator of a Star Destroyer when X-Wings in episode six could destroy that with their normal lasers with enough sustained fire power. Killing Paige without establishing who she is or why she is important to Rose is just god awful. You establish characters and connections they might have before killing them or it’ll lose all the impact. What could have been done after destroying the Star Destroyer. Paige escapes and rejoins the fleet. We get a touching scene of Rose and Paige reuniting. We also get to see Paige mourn for the losses of her squad members. We see a love/hate relationship with Poe, but eventually Paige trusts Poe and sees him as a leader. While Finn and Rose go to Canto Bight, Paige and Poe work together on the Raddus. And if Paige has to die, then show her sacrifice herself to stop the canon. There you go, we have a tragic death that is just as emotional and you get to see why she is important and instead of being killed off so early we get to know her and her relationship with Rose and her death is not wasted potential. And Tallie, I did not know much about the new character, hell I didn’t even know her name until I played Battlefront II. But I loved this pilot. I loved how good she was and I wanted more of her and god killing her off was pointless. What’s the point of introducing these unique Resistance fighters if only to kill them off?

Canto Bight and the plan to disable the Hyperdrive tracker was ultimately pointless. Canto Bight works, what doesn’t work is DJ and having the plan fail. They are specifically looking for THE master codebreaker and they just happen to find someone else who has the same skills? And honestly what ruins Canto Bight for me is the fact that neither Finn or Rose cared enough to park legally, it’s pretty much their own damn fault for being caught.  While I do like DJ as a character, I read up on what was planned for the Master Codebreaker character and I like it so much better, if they had gone with what was intended with the Master Codebreaker character and maybe made Lando the Master Codebreaker, I don’t think anyone would’ve complained. My big issue with the plan failing is it did not have to fail. If Finn and Rose had to be caught, they could’ve been caught on their way to the escape pods. The betrayal felt so forced and out of place. The plan should have succeeded with them being caught on their way to their escape. What I’d change is  Lando is the person Finn and Rose are meant to get help from. Lando is on Canto Bight to stop the crime lord and he is grieving in his own way for Han by gambling. But he is willing to drop everything and help Finn and Rose disable the  Hyperdrive tracker. But Finn and Rose wants to help Lando in exchange for helping them. So after they leave we see a scene of Lando grieving for Han Solo in front of Finn and Rose. And as we get to the Supremacy, the plan succeeds, Lando and Rose successfully disable the tracker but as they make their escape they are found and caught by Phasma.

The Original Trilogy’s characters are only brought back to be killed off. At this point I honestly expect Lando to die, then Chewbacca and finally C-3PO and R2-D2. What was the point of bringing the original trio if you were just gonna kill them off? I honestly would have preferred it if they were all killed before the events of the new trilogy and actually build on the new characters without relying on nostalgia.

Captain Phasma is nothing but product placement when she could’ve been a great character. Both TFA and TLJ just wastes Phasma. In TFA she just orders her troops to slaughter villagers. After that all she does is look cool and imposing. Phasma should have been the one to fight Finn on Takodana, Phasma easily overpowers Finn, but Han of course knocks her out with Chewie’s bowcaster. And in Starkiller base, Phasma would not budge.  This scene in the movie is what bothered me with how she was handled the most While she is said to be completely devoted to The First Order, she is so easily intimidated into turning the shield generator off. I don’t see this happening with the character they were trying to establish. I see her choosing death over betraying The First Order so instead I’d prefer Phasma either go out fighting or getting knocked out by Chewbacca  and thrown in the trash compactor while Han and Finn shut the shields off by themselves. She survives and escapes in time And oh god, TLJ just wastes her AGAIN! They did nothing with her. Once again she is just there to look cool and sell toys. There is a difference between Boba Fett and Captain Phasma. Boba Fett HAS character. we learned about Boba in The Clone Wars. We learn nothing about Phasma and they do nothing for Phasma. She looks cool and easily shows her defeated by Finn. Phasma does have a character in her own novel.  In her novel she is a completely different and better character. In the novel  which is a fascinating study of how utterly ruthless and selfish she is, how completely dedicated to her own survival at the expense of others, and how there is no one and nothing she would not betray to further herself. It’s about peeling back the layers of a seemingly perfect First Order warrior to show her morally empty core, and with it the rottenness of the First Order itself. The novel shows with unsettling clarity that, under all the pretty words about the ideals of justice and order, the First Order is a place where actual idealistic soldiers are used and then thrown away (see: Finn, Cardinal) while backstabbers, abusers, and murderers like the two Huxes and Phasma are actively shielded and rise to the top. Phasma is a survivor. She will always align herself with the most powerful force. Phasma is extremely intelligent and a brilliant battlefield commander. Outside of the movies, she’s lost approximately one fight. Ever. the movies portray her as a minor annoyance but in the book she is the most badass human to ever live and I’m upset with how they’ve treated her. My suggestion about having Finn inspiring a Stormtrooper rebellion  against Phasma and putting an end to Phasma would be a far better ending for the character. But SOMEHOW Phasma will return cause they need that toy money.

The movies make it absolutely impossible to take Hux seriously as a villain.  Here’s the problem with Hux in TLJ. He is completely changed from how he was in TFA. In TFA Hux was a competent military leader that came up with plans and made necessary risks in order to find the resistance, talked back to Kylo Ren and didn’t fear him or his power and Hux has the populations of 5 planets to his body count. In TLJ, Hux is so incompetent to the point where I am wondering how he was a general, he is reduced to a slapstick cartoon and why am I believing Jar Jar Binks is a better general, and they expect me to believe Hux will usurp Ren as Supreme Leader? General Hux, the man who caused the destruction of the Hosnian system and is shown to be a younger angrier version of Tarkin in TFA, is shown to be an incompetent bumbling fool and Captain Canady is the only intelligent officer in The First Order. He does not deploy the Tie Fighters, order the fleet to move in when The Resistance are evacuating D'Qar and vulnerable, instead orders the Dreadnought to move in, and instead of ordering the Dreadnought with it’s devastating canon to fire on the cruiser thus giving the transports nowhere to go, he orders an orbital bombardment to an almost empty planet. But does not fire because he sees Poe’s X-Wing When Poe arrives in his X-Wing, the only X-Wing in view. Hux does not order deploying the Tie Fighters or even ordering the Dreadnought to fire on Poe. They do absolutely NOTHING. How is Hux a general again? Did he just want to hear himself talk? The turrets are being destroyed by Poe and Hux tells Captain Canady to fire the Dreadnought, Canady responds it’s too small and too close of range to fire their turbolasers and orders the Tie Fighters to be scrambled which should have been done 5 minutes ago. Canady knows Poe is not aiming to penetrate their armor, he knows Poe is clearing out their surface cannons. Here we have it. The only intelligent officer in The First Order, everyone else including Hux are incompetent. How exactly is Hux a general again?  Moving on. Hux is slapped around with the force by Snoke, okay understandable, it’s for failure. Vader did the same. But god it is done in almost every scene by Snoke and Kylo. When the Silencer pretty much destroyed all the X-Wing fighters, and The Resistance command is jettisoned in space, Hux just orders Kylo back. They have the opportunity to end The Resistance, just calls him back, a scene later Hux complains he let them go. Sure they can still track them, but the fact that they let them goes shows that Hux is a fool. The only time Hux is allowed to be villainous in the movie is when he is prepared to take out his blaster and kill Ben. Everything else he is either an idiot or someone’s toy to be slapped around. And you expect me and the general audience to believe Hux is going to be the villain in Episode IX?

Leia is wasted as a character in The Sequel trilogy. I don’t feel there is an issue with Leia’s character  outside the fact they are redoing the Rebel Alliance despite the fact the New Republic exists, but the big issue I have is that Leia is not a Jedi. Luke does train Leia in the force but they were dead set on not making Leia a Jedi.....for reasons. They don’t even do anything with Leia. Leia could have used Battle Meditation to ensure the destruction of Starkiller Base was a success. in TLJ Leia’s knocked out for half the movie. Leia is taken out 90% of the movie and it doesn’t feel like Carrie’s swan song and TLJ does absolutely nothing with Leia. Carrie Fisher is gone. The character herself does nothing to affect the plot. We all knew that Leia was strong and powerful with the force, but the way they decided to have it be shown is baffling. Instead of showing Leia using  the force to send the missiles flying at Kylo’s wing men or use Battle Meditation to inspire the Resistance to fight, instead we see the most impressive, and stupid looking, display of force powers, nothing follows from that. Leia goes into a coma for most the movie and then just hangs around. Isn’t it weird that Leia, one of the most important characters in the entire franchise only sees her brother for a moment, never mentions her husband, shares no screen time with her own son and isn’t even the focus in the very rebellion she’s been fighting for her entire life. In the end, all of her loved ones are dead, her son is wants to destroy her legacy, her allies abandoned her, her soldiers were almost all killed, and due to Carrie Fisher’s passing, TLJ is her swan song and curtain call. The most iconic and empowering woman in all of cinema gets to go out as a supporting character and Mary Poppins meme.  

The Force Awakens undoes everything about Han’s character arc in the original trilogy.  Han starts out as a selfish smuggler who is COMPLETELY fine with letting other people die if it meant his own survival and goes through an internal and external journey to not only give a damn about his fellow person but also grow as an individual to be a hero that is willing to risk his own safety for a much larger cause than himself. And all that character development is thrown out the window.  The new canon is dead set on making Han a bad father. They made it so that Han goes back to smuggling. Han learned that there is something more than smuggling and Han and Leia breaking up because their son turns to the dark side? Han would never leave Leia or abandon his child. It is simply bad writing to redo his entire arc from the original trilogy again and to make him a bad parent when it is out of his character to do so.

Han and Leia are portrayed as neglectful and bad parents. Han and Leia are two of the most selfless people in the entire Star Wars franchise. Han and Leia were two strong, kind people who helped save the galaxy. They sacrificed everything to do so. They were overjoyed when they had a son and did everything in their power to keep his happy and safe. They had left him with a droid, a babysitter briefly like any other parent would and even that didn’t last long . He wasn’t almost killed by it. Were these books only skimmed through once.? There are plenty of written evidence of Kylo with Han or Leia in his childhood. They loved him. The only reason they sent him to Luke was to help him.

The ruination of Luke Skywalker. I will never forgive how Luke was portrayed in TLJ. I will never forgive the treatment of Mark Hamill by Lucasfilm. I just cannot understand how Luke would even consider igniting his lightsaber and try to kill his own nephew in his sleep. I will never accept this. This is not Luke Skywalker. Luke ALWAYS saw the light within Anakin. Darth Vader was evil and committed atrocities for decades but he saved and redeemed his father.  But he gave up on Ben because he saw Snoke’s influence on Ben and instead of helping him like Luke would actually do and what Leia wanted Luke to do, he goes with the intention of killing him but stops with the shame. But the problem is that Ben saw him with his lightsaber, what he saw was Snoke’s whispers proven right that Luke was afraid of his power and wanted him dead. Ben’s family abandoned him, but Luke would never do this. Luke Skywalker would never try to kill Ben, his nephew and his family.  Darth Vader committed countless atrocities and Luke still saved his father and brought him back to the light. I will never believe that Luke would try to even ignite his lightsaber on Ben. Leia gave him her son to train, allow him to control his raw force abilities, love Ben like he were Luke’s own child and to protect him from Snoke. Even if Luke sensed the darkness in Ben, he would have talked to him and try to meditate and do anything that would help Ben. But no, instead of doing what Luke would actually do he ignites the lightsaber and it’s too late and Ben sees what Luke tried to do. Luke is ashamed and sorry, but it’s too late. We were given 3 out of context flashbacks. 2 of which were altered by the storyteller. Ironically Kylo Ren doesn’t say Luke tried to kill him because he thought he was a monster. Kylo Ren didn’t say he didn’t know why Luke was in his hut. All Kylo Ren said was Luke feared his power and he defended himself. Then he killed half of Luke’s students and burned the temple. All Luke said was that he saw death and destruction in Ben’s mind and then he ignited his lightsaber. Ben and him had an altercation, then Ben killed half of Luke’s students and burned down the temple. There is no context in what happened before that even led up to that moment. And still that scene is so frustrating. Luke Skywalker, the man who would literally die for his family, who risked the entire galaxy to save his friends and family, then again to save his father, would ever think his own student and nephew was beyond saving and deserved to die in his sleep.  What’s even worse is that Luke continue’s the old ways of the Jedi, instead of reforming the Jedi Order. In Legends, Luke reformed and made the Jedi better. But instead he continued the old ways and  just gave up. He is written to be  broken and hollowed out by his past mistakes and painfully out of character. TFA kept on insisting he left a map behind. Lor San Tekka has it and said Luke’s return would make everything right. Han and Leia said Luke left behind the map. In TFA script “It is Luke Skywalker. Older now, white hair, bearded. He looks at Rey. A kindness in his eyes, but there’s something tortured too. He doesn’t need to ask who she is, or what she is doing here. His look says it all. Hold on Luke Skywalker’s incredible face, amazed and conflicted what he sees, as our music builds, the promise of an adventure, just the beginning” Luke looked touched at seeing Rey in TFA and Rey was on the verge of tears, finally someone to help her with the belonging she seeks. In The Last Jedi, no tears and Luke just tosses away his father’s lightsaber like it’s nothing. We are not allowed to see Luke react to Han’s death or Luke to grieve that his best friend is dead. Han was a big influence and friend it was dismissed as if he barely knew him. To quote Mark Hamill on the matter “They had time for me to milk that big alien but to show any human emotion? Nah" He does not even care that his sister’s life and the Resistance she is leading is in danger. He does not train Rey. Again, he gave up on Ben instead of trying to save him. He is sorry and regrets it, but it is too late. You might say that Yoda and Obi-Wan also gave up. But for those two, the Sith took over the galaxy, they had to go into hiding to protect and guide Luke and Leia. Obi-Wan wanted to save Leia and guide Luke. Yoda always wanted to train Leia as a Jedi and bring Anakin back to the light. He was reluctant to train Luke but he still did his duty as a Jedi Master. They did not just give up and wanted to die and they did not betray their characters at all. Luke spends most of Last Jedi on a windswept island, brooding in solemn silence and frozen by indecision. He doesn’t connect with Rey on any meaningful level, doesn’t impart wisdom or knowledge, and never reasserts himself as the powerful Jedi he once was. A brief physical duel against Rey ends with her as the undisputed victor, completely killing his deserved mythos and her potential character arc in one fell swoop. It’s clear in that moment that he has nothing to teach her, and nothing to contribute to the overall narrative. The boundless potential that seemed poised to explode at the end of The Force Awakens fizzles here but never ignites.  And without any training at all, Rey defeats Luke Skywalker and Luke acts all cowardly and begs her to leave. When he goes to Crait. He does buy time for the Resistance to escape, but he is not allowed to display his power, he’s not allowed to wield his green lightsaber, he does not bring down all the AT-ATs or bring down the star destroyers. He doesn’t even show that he wants to help and save  his nephew, all he’s doing is trolling his nephew. He’s not even there thus making their final confrontation ultimately pointless.   He toys with Ben, but we don’t see a lightsaber fight between them. Luke Skywalker is not allowed to be Luke Skywalker. The Hero’s Journey that he was following was ignored completely and he just gave up and wanted to die. And he dies instead of reuniting with Leia properly. Mark Hamill wanted Luke to live until Episode IX where he would pass on what he learned to Rey. No big battle with Snoke, no saving his nephew and no passing on, instead Luke dies and all we’re getting is force ghost Luke. Luke Skywalker was a hero to an entire generation.  Luke was the true heart of Star Wars. His was the journey we followed from idealistic farm boy dreaming of adventure, to reluctant warrior, and finally to savior of the entire galaxy. The original trilogy built him up, and The Last Jedi finally broke him down. I for one mourn my hero’s passing.

The EU handled Han, Luke and Leia’s characters far better.  Let me explain why the old Star Wars EU/Legends handles and understands the characters of Han, Luke and Leia better.  Han and Leia stood strong in their marriage for 3 decades despite a hostile extra Galactic invading species killing both Chewbacca and their 14 year old son Anakin, their other son Jacen becoming a Sith, him killing Luke’s wife Mara, and having to be killed by his twin, their daughter Jaina. And they both still kept up their roles as a General and Chief of State/Ambassador all the while.   And Luke, bless this dude, not only fully rebuilt the Jedi Order, but in his first class of Jedi, when Kyp Durron went to the Dark Side he went out and brought him back and redeemed him. He had to deal with internal schisms in the Order about the nature of the force and the role of the Jedi and kept the peace and the order united. He lead the Jedi through a war with the Yuuzahn Vong that saw trillions die and helped end the war on diplomatic terms just like his mother Padme would have done. He dealt with the Galactic suspicion of the Jedi and even after he was personally blamed for his nephew becoming a Sith and being exiled by the Galactic Alliance he still held to his role as leader of the Jedi and his role as a father to Ben Skywalker and continued to fight for peace and against the dark side. And even after his death his Force Ghost was still working to save the Galaxy and help his descendants stay on the right paths.  The nonsense we got in TFA and TLJ betrayed their characters. Even if I could understand TFA, I cannot understand TLJ. What I really wanted is in TLJ we see Han, Luke and Leia go on one last adventure together to bring Ben back home. They confront Snoke and Ben is shown that everything Snoke told him was a lie and his family loved him enough to confront Snoke. and Ben goes back to the light to help his family stop Snoke. And together we see the Skywalker family reunite. That’s what we should have gotten.

[kylosbreedingkink]

You already know my views, that I would argue against it not being clear in the film that Kylo knew what Hux was about to do. The only way imo they could be clearly that he knew would be if he explicitly said it, which would be very out of character for Kylo as he isn't really a talker and more a doer. What we know of Kylo's character up to that point and the clear parallels with the Luke and Ben scene make it more clear.

What he did was really minor compared to the fact Hux wanted to kill him whilst he was down. That sort of betrayal led him to completely changing his life path last time it happened with Luke, it really sent him on a spiral. Given the progression of TLJ and the death of Snoke and rejection of Rey just before, he entered another spiral but this time didn't have a master in place to guide him. (Remember the comic last year, where he's desperate to find Luke's ghost? He's hardly going to kill a ghost now, so all he could have been looking for even if only subconsciously was guidance)

I think the story tried to leave it to viewers to piece things together. Especially when the book came along and made it explicitly clear, and we gained even more material of Kylo going off the deep end and his history of poor mental health and betrayals framing his actions and decisions. But so much was going on with Kylo at this point that it is just one big ball of trauma. We know he doesn't trust hux again afterwards, but I think his keeping Hux close thing was more in the hope that maybe things would change.

The films aren't set up for kylux being the main thing, Hux at the end of the day is a very minor character and a minor character having motivations based around what a main character did is normal. Whilst the main character has multiple motivations and focuses the minor characters will have some impact. The whole ST has far too much going on for things to be explored properly so a lot of it is just left to implications, especially with the main characters who have multiple stories to juggle each compared to Hux single story.

As much as I dislike TLJ and think it fucked the direction of the ST, I actually like this scene as I feel it shows a lot about Kylo. I think fandom focused too much on the Hux being choked part and threw aside the rest of the scene. There's a lot of bias there.

And again, Kylo is not a talker, so we never know the specific reasons for what he does, just that a lot of shit happened and he doesn't have the emotional maturity to know how to deal with it.

But Kylo putting full effort into life, into living, going full steam ahead into a brick wall, is very true. It makes him very manipulable which Snoke used to his advantage. I don't think Hux knew, if he did he surely would have done something about it for his own benefit. But it was going to be very hard after that scene as the trust would never build up again.

also, sorry, i've gone off on a tangent here lmao. i need to try stop doing that. but i really like this scene. I think it would have been so in character and fitting for Hux to actually have taken the shot even with Kylo awakening, but I suppose he's not Force sensitive and doesn't really believe it. So probably honestly thought he was able to hide his intentions from Kylo as he woke.

(Okay this is a twitter thread that I wrote in a haze of emotion and people seemed to really agree so I’m putting it here too. Half meta, half personal opinion, and not edited into tumblr format as much as I’d like cause editing on mobile sucks and it seems I’m always on mobile these days lmao so read it if you like, don’t if you don’t)

I think, all these years later, I’ve figured out what it was about post-tfa kylux vs every variation after that just. Irks me a little. And it’s something I’ve written myself, so like. I’m not coming at anyone except canon with this, because we worked with what we were given. It’s what canon *set up* and forced us into that I have a grievance with

And it’s this feeling of unbalancing. Of tipping the scales. It’s taking them from a position of mutual animosity to a point where Kylo has something to make up for

Keep reading

[permian-tropos]

Thought about how Finn and Poe are depicted in TLJ: 

I don’t think Johnson was deeply racially biased in the way people think, though I think he might have a racial bias that’s not malicious, but also worth pointing out, since I always butt heads with that bias as a white writer. 

I think Johnson wanted to give Finn and Poe solid character arcs to fit with the theme of overcoming failure, and I don’t think he wrote them as if they were Other, because I do feel somewhat familiar with what it feels like when characters are Other. I’m very alert to women being framed as Other, and in SW most droids and aliens are framed like that. also, old mentor figures can be Other, definitely maternal figures, most villains, expendable side characters, NPC-type folks in the plot who help the story along.

Stories have to be full of Others of one sort or another, and you can be Other in a sympathetic light or a negative light. You can be revered or reviled or ignored. You can be reduced to a stereotype or an archetype. And some stereotypes are more harmful than others because of their connection to real world structural oppression. 

The only characters in a story who aren’t Other are characters who get POV time -- that’s just how it works, if the movie makes you see through a character’s eyes, they want you to project onto that character for those scenes. Finn and Poe are POV characters, so they’re not fully othered. Something else is probably going on. 

I think Finn and Poe are written in ways that white men would comfortably project onto, if the characters were white men. Take Finn and his running away. It’s not as if male characters who have to learn to care about the cause are deeply disliked. Han Solo is a scoundrel with a heart of gold who spends a lot of time in ANH being reluctant to help the heroes, and then he finally shows his true goodness and saves the day. Finn being a bit jittery and focused on saving a girl he likes might seem less flattering, but think about all the awkward, foolish white male protagonists who get dunked on a bit for their flaws, but ultimately win girls’ hearts and save the day. I’m thinking Emmett from the Lego Movie as a key archetype. That’s... clearly something that white guys find relatable and enjoyable to project onto. Self-deprecating, but ultimately a power fantasy. Part of the power fantasy is watching someone who’s a bit of a loser become a hero through adversity, it makes you feel like you too could take adversity and turn it into positive change as well. And Finn isn’t even such an overstated example, but he does have a lovable-loser thing going on in TFA and TLJ. And then of course he gets to be fantastically heroic and good and brave, because we (lovable losers in the audience) would like to be that way as well.

Poe’s behavior in TLJ gives me very... uncooked Captain Kirk dough vibes. I love me some Kirk, and he’s such a passionate guy who breaks rules and defies authority whenever he thinks it’s right. And sometimes he gets it wrong, and misjudges the situation, but the narrative usually doesn’t punish him too much. And the reason for this is because Kirk has Spock and McCoy and the rest of his crew with him and he deeply trusts their advice and expertise. Spock will almost always tell Kirk to cool his tits, so Kirk feels safe getting hot-titted when he thinks it’s called for. He knows he has a limiter. That’s what makes him a good leader, he knows his shortcomings and surrounds himself with close friends who can balance those shortcomings out. He’s also a seasoned captain, wiser from having dealt with a lot of messy situations. But (forget the reboot movies lol cause I do) if you imagine a younger Kirk, you can imagine him getting all riled up about injustice and hatching one of his daring million-to-one gambits to save everyone -- and it turns out to be a bad move. It turns out he was wrong. And he gets a lesson about that, and this helps him grow into the good Kirkboy we love and respect. 

The fact that Poe wants to rush out and save the day, but needs to learn patience, is something white men can find relatable and sympathetic.

But the thing is, I can understand people seeing Finn and Poe being written in this way, and understandably perceiving it as race-blind. Johnson put all these bits of character into them, but because he’s a white male writer who does in fact want to write Finn and Poe as likable and dynamic and engaging, he seems to have written things for them that are endearing when a white male does them. 

People see the expressed interiority of Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi and get White Male vibes from it, not because they were written to be disposable or Other, but because they were given White Male interiority.

Now, arguably, Star Wars seems not to discern human races, and since so much of White Male interiority involves seeing yourself as the default and not ever questioning that status, while existing in an industrialized Westernized capitalist society, the idea that Finn and Poe would at least reflect some of that attitude kind of isn’t... entirely unrealistic? 

I say this as a woman who had a lot of weirdly externalized misogyny and mistrust of feminism as a kid because I grew up in a bubble where I was free to express my gender however I liked, and adult women made all the decisions, and had status and value, and men were kind of just there also. I didn’t actually understand the feeling of not being default, of being Other, of being secondary, and when I was first exposed to feminism I was angry because I didn’t like to be told that I was oppressed. I didn’t want to be oppressed, so don’t you dare imply it could happen! I grew up without a lot of the social pressures women get, and now I actually recognize male-privileged attitudes ingrained in myself. I feel like aspects of masculinity (but certainly not all of them!) are just the gendered appropriation of Human Default, which women would default to if they weren’t pressed out of it (and aspects of femininity are extremely Human Default too and denying them to men is very damaging to them). So Finn and Poe being written by a white man trying to make them Human Default (or at least Male Default since gender disparities do exist in SW), could come across as infused with whiteness. Also humans in SW have heavy privilege over aliens and droids so they probably would act like privileged people when you think about it......

Still, I don’t and can’t begrudge anyone (particular a person of color) who doesn’t like that, because it’s probably not relatable and it’s missing a lot of nuance and perspicacity that a writer of color would infuse the situation with, in portraying a fictional fantasy world that’s relatively blind to race to an audience in a racialized society. You have to balance both fiction and reality.

White writers sort of have to learn that. A writer wants to engage with their audience authentically, and writers can’t get that if they pretend their audience won’t be hyperalert to racial dynamics. “But I didn’t know people would have that reaction” yes you did, or you should. “But I want to live in a world where people don’t have to have that reaction since it’s coming from so much suffering and injustice” me too buddy, but one movie can’t change everything overnight. Obviously if you care about marginalized people, what you want to do is make them feel appreciated and comfortable for the space of time your movie is playing. But I understand you do also want to write in your style. All the characters you write will be coming out of your own heart, that’s inevitable. 

It feels like the “why didn’t Johnson listen to the actors” anger is because people kind of wanted to see the actors’ takes on the characters, so they didn’t have to see Rian Johnson interiority throughout all of them. Except... the thing is. If Lucasfilm really begged Johnson to write and direct their movie, he’s allowed to put Rian Johnson interiority into it. Even the characters of marginalized identities -- ultimately, wanting to project onto and empathize with characters of color is not at all bad. Johnson feels like Rose is his self insert. She’s a woman of color, and he specifically wanted KMT for the role. He felt like he could deeply relate to this character. It’s not that he identifies as an Asian-American woman, it’s that he did actually think that distinction wasn’t a barrier to relatability. (On top of that, I think Rose is written to have some backstory elements that strongly parallel her actress’s Vietnamese heritage, and I think it’s a pretty big deal and I wish more people cared about that but we’ve been brainwashed to forget the Vietnam War I guess.)

White writers do need to take care not to project too much of their own interiority onto characters of color, to the point where audiences feel like they’ve been pushed out, like they’re seeing someone who looks like them but clearly is not like them on the inside (an uncanny, unnerving effect). But at the same time, I can’t imagine writing that doesn’t come from the writer. And white writers absolutely need to project onto and relate to characters of color. It’s always going to be a mess and there’s a lot of work to do to get it right but the alternative where you’re convinced you could never relate is not at all better. 

TL;DR: Rian Johnson did indeed fall into a white male writer pitfall, but I think it’s not malicious and it’s also both problematic and potentially a good thing. Also JJ Abrams basically did the same thing it’s just that he didn’t have to write “overcome my fatal flaw” arcs for Finn and Poe.

Johnson also definitely put a lot of work into prioritizing female perspectives and female fantasies and female wish fulfillment and female POV, and I think (as a Female... or. something approximating female lol) the film is a lot better about it than any other Star Wars movie to date. Or that may be because he sat down with Carrie Fisher for hours and hours brainstorming ideas and took her suggestions seriously enough to have notebooks full of them. I imagine he should have done the same with non-white script doctor but when it came to script doctoring and a deep connection to SW, Carrie was kind of without equal.

[ryqoshay]

I was tagged by @lonelypond : Answer the questions below before tagging a fairly random number followers you want to get to know better.

I’ve never done one of these before, so what the heck, why not. First time for everything, right?

► Nicknames: In real life, mostly childish variations of my name, used by family and long-term friends. Here on the net, I’ve gained “Grandpa Ryqo” on Sukutomo, which I find amusing as all get out, so I’ve just gone with it.

► Gender: Meh…

► Sign: Not sure, honestly. And I’m too lazy to Google it atm. The only time I remember caring about astrological signs was when a friend got me into playing a modded version of Final Fantasy Tactics. Oh, and rolling my eyes at jokes about Nico being a Cancer.

► Height: A bit taller than average here in the U.S… I think? At least that’s been my observation

► Time: 14:07 CST at the time that I began filling this out… as of posting this, 16:55… I may have gotten distracted a few… oh look, another NicoMaki post!

► Birthday: In the third month of the year, probably

► Favorite Band/Artists: µ’s (They have maintained their top position for quite a while and likely will continue to do so for a while yet), Aqours, Hatsune Miku, Pentatonix, The Pillows, Queen, Benny Goodman, IOSYS, The Three Tenors, OK Go, Gorillaz, Peter Hollens, 2Cellos, The Supremes, The Beatles, Weird Al Yankovic, Lindsey Sterling, Johnny Cash, 403 Forbiddena, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Ink Spots, Buddy Holly, … how many pages are you willing to read?

► Song Stuck in My Head: Dancing stars on me (Probably because it was the last song that was playing as I pulled into the garage a while ago)

► Last Movie I Watched: … Is it wrong that I honest don’t remember? My former roommate’s family owned a theater, so I used to keep fairly current. But ever since I moved, I’ve kinda fallen out of the loop. I mean, I watched just the musical numbers of several movies; Love Live (as if that should surprise anyone who might read this), Oliver, Sound of Music, Camelot, The King and I, etc, etc, etc, over the past however long, but I couldn’t even tell you which one of those was most recent. And on writing this, I realize I haven’t seen a movie in the theater since TLJ… Geez, almost halfway through the year and I don’t think I’ve watched a single move from start to finish. I should probably look into fixing that soon.

► Last TV Show I Watched: Shooter (Not sure what episode of the second season, as it was simply where my mom and stepdad had left off. Can’t say I’m entirely sold on the show, but it’s free on Netflix so maybe I’ll watch the first episode someday)

► What Do I Post: NicoMaki (Currently just my own fic and reblogs of pics I like. However, I really should start reblogging some of the other amazing fics out there.), YohaRiko (Again, my own fic and the occasional reblog of pics I like), and more NicoMaki.

I’m not big on getting into politics or religion or the like on the net, so while I may occasionally hit the Like button, I pretty much never reblog; though I might someday make a sideblog for such things. Also, since it seems some people like my writing style, perhaps someday I might start posting some of my other, non-LL stuff.

I actually started this blog posting non-LL stuff (or rather, not-immediately-obvious-LL, or only-LL-if-you-squint stuff) and honestly didn’t expect it to go anywhere. (14 posts with a grand total of 1 Like among them) Heck, even my first two posts for HtHaN didn’t even reach double digits in Notes. But here I am, almost two years later, posting away, and loving it.

Oh, did I mention that I post NicoMaki?

► Do I Get Asks: Yes. Which reminds me, I need to respond to the last few… I have a bad habit of checking my Inbox while I am on break at work and not having time to reply right away, and then forgetting about it when I get home because the notification is gone. (Sorry for delays in responses)

► URL Meaning: Despite my obvious bias towards NicoMaki stuff, and some YohaRiko as well, my screenname, Ryqoshay came from elsewhere. When I first started playing video games, I often named my character (or one of my characters) Ricochet, if they were a ranged character, as a joke referencing a favored sound effect from movies. However, as I entered the world of MMO’s, that name was often already taken, so in the case of City of Heroes, I added -chan to the end and gave her some Japanese ancestry. Also, as part of her bio, it became a nickname granted to an energetic girl who was “always bouncing off the walls.”

Then came City of Villains and once again, Ricochet was taken so I decided to take a different route with the character name by intentionally misspelling it. But, as I fancy myself a writer, I couldn’t leave it at that and had to give her an in-universe reason. And as she was a villain, I was more than happy to take a romp down the well-worn “tragic backstory” road. Thus, her parents finally got names, Yuri and Quentin, and were sacrificed to the deities of drama. After the tragedy, Rico augmented the spelling of her existing nickname to include the first letters of their names. Through my time with CoV, Ryqo gained a mercenary guild as every character I created thereafter became a member, with bios that expanded my new lore.

Things ended up taking a turn for the medieval when what was supposed to be a two paragraph bio for a D&D game turned into dozens of pages and the entire guild being translated over to the new genre. Strangely, it wasn’t even Ryqo that I was going to be playing, rather a member of her guild that had been hired out. This is the story I mentioned earlier that I am still considering posting someday, either here or on AO3, maybe both. Also, more recently, Ryqo found herself translated yet again, into a modern, LL-style world, as an aspiring idol. These are what ended up as the first posts I ever made on this blog, as I had been inspired by an idea that came up on my other digital haunt, Sukutomo.

TL;DR version: Ryqoshay is an intentional misspelling of Ricochet and actually has little to do with my current obsession with NicoMaki and Love Live in general, but I like the name and see little reason to change it now.

► Average Hours of Sleep: You’re going to make me do math…? Hrm… 4 hours there… 6 there… 3 for those nights (days, since I work nights)… I, uhm… dunno. I work nights over the week and shift to a different schedule when I want to spend time with my day-dwelling family or friends. I haven’t had a regular sleep schedule probably since high school.

► Nationality: North American mutt with lineages tracing back to all parts of Europe.

Alright, so I’m supposed to tag a few of my own followers... ... when the heck did I get over 300? Uhm... as this is my first time making one of these, I’m going to take the easy route and stick with names I recognize from the notes on my posts. Let’s go with: @nicoismywaifu​, @nocturnal-one8​, @sayowo​, @kurotheyamineko, @cupcakedesuwa and @thelegend31 for now. I tried tagging spiritpandora and westomaki as I look forward to seeing them show up in the notes of my fics, but Tumblr won’t let me for some reason.