#rey has been through a lot of horrible traumatic stuff

[intergalactic-nebula]

Till Kingdom Come

Chapter one

Rain. That's the first thing that her senses process. The sound of heavy rain on a leaky roof. Rey blinked a few times before realizing she was curled up in her makeshift palette on the abandoned art studio floor, the brunette female huffing quietly before closing her eyes once more and snuggling down into her scratchy blankets.

She didn't want to wake up.

She didn't want to wake up simply because that meant going outside in the wasteland that was once a city many, many years ago, but after the war with the pale beasts, and losing, most towns were ruins. Deserted ruins that barely held any life whatsoever anymore. To put it in a certain sense, Rey was in a neutral zone of sorts. A place where the pale beasts barely bothered to venture out to because it was not up to their standards and they didn't see a point to leave their more bountiful lands where they had livestock waiting for them. Livestock. The thought made Rey's eyes open as she sneered, the young woman sitting up and letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. She had blacked out the windows months ago with tape, except for small cracks just so some light could come in, just to be safe, just to make sure no one could peep in and find her hiding place.

She didn't exactly need to hide, per say, but once a scavenger, always a scavenger, and survival was the only thing that mattered to her. Rey sat there for several minutes as she just stared at the wall as the rain hit the roof, her hazel eyes burning a hole into the yellowed, practically brown now, white paint. "...BeeBee, where are you?" Rey finally called out and a loud bark resonated from within the next room, Rey sighing in relief as she stood up and stretched. A large ginger colored retriever came running into the room, the dog barking once more as it ran a singular circle around her before stopping in front of her. "You slept okay, buddy?" Rey asked softly as she kneeled down and gently rubbed his head, BeeBee barking once in response before smiling one of those famous dog smiles. She had found BeeBee wondering the streets only three months ago, the dog having miraculously showed up out of nowhere. It was concerning at first, yes, but Rey took him in none the less. If Rey had to guess, the dog's owner must've died from starvation and BeeBee must've wondered off after his owner hadn't responded to his whimpering and barking.

"Let's go out today, yeah? Go try and find food? We could try that diner again." Rey hummed with a smile and BeeBee thumped his tail against the cement floor. "Alright, let me get dressed and ready." Rey laughed quietly before standing up and walking over to the other side of the room where a heap of clothes lay. They weren't filthy, she had found that there was a certain faucet that still worked in a bathtub in a decaying apartment building not but a few blocks from where she was, and she made a trip there once a week to wash her clothes with cleaning products she finds on her scavenging hunts. The last time she had been incredibly lucky to find lemon dawn soap that had been hiding under a sink in an office building bathroom for what she guessed to be fifty years, but the lemony scent was still vibrantly there and she couldn't stop smelling her clothes for at least a good few days. She picked up her usual wear, tattered, baggy blue overalls, firefighter jacket, and white tank top. It was a strange combination of clothes, yes, but the overalls fit snug and she didn't care if they got filthy, and the firefighter jacket was thick enough to protect her from rusty metal looking to scrape her unwilling sunkissed skin.

"Alright, BeeBee, I think we should head east today. We headed north last week and we were lucky enough to find those two cans of beans, but we're going to be more thorough this time. Let's surpass our goal of two cans and try for three!" Rey projected confidently as she quickly got dressed, BeeBee barking excitedly in response as she tied her hair up in an extremely messy (and tragically tangled) bun. Rey had a comb she used, but because it was so fragile (the plastic was brittle and weak as it was melted in numerous places and has countless cracks marring it) she only used it after she just washed her hair.

It wasn't but fifteen minutes later, after Rey had munched on canned beans, and after giving some to BeeBee, that she stood by the door after putting her goggles on and wrapping a red scarf around her head as well as pulling on her tattered combat boots and thick leather gloves (which served the same purpose as the firefighter jacket). The amount of dust everywhere mixed with floating dirt particles had always irritated Rey's senses since she was a child, allergies she assumed, and she had found that covering up significantly helped a great deal amount.

It wasn't but thirty minutes later that her and BeeBee were already a mile and half away from the art studio, the young woman humming softly as BeeBee stayed high and alert for any specific scents or sounds. It was normally almost always quiet though, then again, apocalyptic cities are almost always quiet, aren't they? Rey barely encountered any other life in the rusted ruins that was once Houston, Texas, and when she did it was only shadows of other survivors that knew better than to approach and try to befriend her.

There were no friends in survival, there was only you. Rey learned that a very long time ago as a child, and a shudder ran up her spine as Unkar Plutt crossed her mind. "He's not alive anymore, Rey, it's over," Rey breathed quietly to herself as she absentmindedly hurried her footsteps. "It's over." She breathed once before pausing on top of a large piece of broken cement, BeeBee pausing beside before looking up at her with what one would describe almost eerily as a confused expression. This happened sometimes. Rey would disassociate and not even realize it until fifteen, twenty minutes had passed. BeeBee barked and huffed before gently tugging on Rey's sleeve with his teeth, Rey blinking rapidly for a second before looking down and smiling softly. "Thank you." Rey smiled a tad bit more and BeeBee huffed once more before moving forward, Rey quickly following him.

It was another good hour and a half before Rey and BeeBee reached the diner she had found a few weeks ago, the brunette quickly hurrying in with the retriever hot on her heels. "C'mon, c'mon, I couldn't have taken everything...!" Rey frantically hissed under her breath as she made a beeline for the kitchen and started tearing through the cabinets ravenously. Sometimes, hunger can make you an animal, and Rey knew this very well. She tore through all the cabinets within minutes and she had started to feel defeated before a gleam of silver caught her eye in a cabinet above her. "Is--is that...?" Rey gasped softly as she slowly reached up and pulled it out from behind a few cracked plates, the brunette's hazel green eyes blown wide as she stared down at it in awe. Soup. It was Campbell's soup. Rey practically let out a choked sob of delight as she eagerly hugged it to her chest, a wave of gratitude washing over her. The last time she had had soup was when she was small, she couldn't place her age exactly, and even now she didn't quite exactly know how old she was. She assumed eighteen or nineteen, but for all she knew she could easily be in her early twenties.

"BeeBee, soup! Soup!" Rey grinned excitedly as she called out to BeeBee and BeeBee yipped happily in response as he slammed his paws on the ground as he got in a playful position. She put the soup can in her jacket pocket before combing the kitchen for more non perishables, only to find a can of beans within her hour search. "Well, the soup is a plus, huh?" Rey sighed as she and BeeBee started walking back towards the art studio, her pace quick as she noticed the sun would be down soon. It was dangerous to be out at night, it always had been, and there was no chance in hell Rey would be outside when the sun's rays no longer licked the dusty pavement.

She made it back to the art studio just in time, the brunette slamming the door behind her before feverishly undoing the scarf on her head and ripping the goggles off as well as ripping her gloves off. She leaned her forehead against the door as she closed her eyes tiredly, her stomach loudly grumbling in protest of not eating at that very moment. "Hush, I know...I get it..." Rey muttered in exhaustion as she forced her eyes open, BeeBee already off and about sniffing the apartment to see if any scents had changed while they were gone.

She forced herself to eat the beans, having put the can of soup lovingly in a cabinet and saving it for a special occasion, as she sat on the kitchen counter quietly. The bags under her eyes were preposterous, downright ghastly, but the poor girl couldn't help that she had insomnia. She perhaps only got an hour or two of sleep a day, going to sleep around twelve in the afternoon only to wake up at one or two, sometimes even three if she was lucky. Nothing felt...real. Sitting on the kitchen counter didn't feel real. Chewing and tasting didn't feel real. Was she dreaming? "No," Rey announced sternly as she put the cracked bowl down, the brunette wiping the back of her mouth with her hand. "No, I am not dreaming, I am here. I am real." She breathed shakily, but it sounded like she didn't believe it. She didn't, in all honesty, for there were days where she was convinced she was dead and this was limbo. Those were the worst days. "I'm--I--I need sleep," She choked on her words slightly as she jumped off the counter, the girl rushing to the main room and quickly burrowed herself in her palette.

The blankets were scratchy and, at one point, gave her hives, but it was all she had. It was the only blanket she had ever owned that she had found herself. It was hers, and so she dealt with it. "BeeBee, guard the door," Rey's words were slurred as she felt exhaustion take over, her eyes fluttering closed as blackness captivated her vision.

What she didn't see was the man on the glass roof staring down at her with wide red eyes, rain drizzle sliding down his ivory cheeks and kissing his tresses.

[very-grownup]

THE YEAR IS 2020 AND I WATCHED NEON GENESIS EVANGELION FOR THE FIRST TIME, MOVIE EDITION

Some brief thoughts on the movies with the possibly huge caveat that I liked the end of Neon Genesis Evangelion and I don't think you can retroactively "fix" art.

Evangelion: Death and Rebirth. My friends told me this was basically a recap of the series followed by an "explanation" of the ending and I feel I cannot overstate how /good/ this series was throughout and including the movies at reusing, repurposing, recutting material. So throughout Death it felt less like a recap and more like Anno trying to condense the salient points he might have had reason to think the audience missed? There's a really good moment where it's that awkward first meal in Misato's apartment with her and Shinji and the audio from one of Misato's inner monologues about her struggle to be good for her mother and good enough to be loved by her father is used and ... that's the core. That's Misato, that's Shinji, that's why Misato tries to be what Shinji needs and also can't be what he needs, why she ultimately fails him, and it's such an important thing to underscore because the core of the series is Shinji's inner self.

I'm also interested in the one bit that's used twice, near the beginning and again at the end of Death, which is Shinji and Kaworu's final confrontation in the underground tang ocean. Like, that's indicative of how well this stuff is done. It's not a recap, it's a framing.

Rebirth is the "explanation" of the end of the series where I guess explanation means "NERV and all the robot stuff" because I think this is never not the same ending as the series, with the congratulation tang world. It's just congratulation tang was inside Shinji (important).

NERV, the robots, all that stuff (not important but very cool to look at and a useful conduit for information about Shinji and the people who inform Shinji as the series is happening) basically goes to fuck with MAGI getting hacked and the UN bombing NERV and killing everyone.

Shinji is inert and passively trying to die while Misato saves him and tries to propel him to action. Asuka is put in her EVA for protection and discovers the soul of her dead mother inside it and regains the will to do some badass fighting and throws a battleship at tanks. Rei has broken Gendo's damaged glasses and is hanging out mysteriously and nakedly in a tang vat until Gendo comes to her but like ... the kids are all essentially returned to some aspect of their square one. Shinji is passive and non-responsive, without will to live. Asuka is furious and fighting and confident and the confidence feels false, wrong in the way the congratulation applause in the tang felt wrong. Rei is once more an unknowable cypher. And then MASS PRODUCED WINGED EVA UNITS CIRCLE DOWN ALL RELIGIOUSLY. END.

Because throughout the series no one has really been interested in helping these damaged, lonely kids with their problems and the adults are all operating at mysterious cross purposes, of course what was happening outside the tang congratulations was fucking disaster war.

There's also a bit at the beginning of Rebirth that I guess I should acknowledge happening where Shinji goes to see Asuka comatose in the hospital and wants her to wake up to save him because she's the proactive one who /does/ things and isn't afraid. So he's shaking her and crying and jerks her body around and her bare breasts are exposed and he masturbates and feels horrible about it but I'm honestly more interested in what direction was given to Megumi Ogata for "sad masturbating teenage boy noises" than the scene itself. Like, Shinji hates himself, Shinji's disgusted by himself, Shinji does not feel he can trust himself, his body, his impulses, anything. Everything's tainted and violence and the self-loathing is all-consuming.

End of Evangelion, I am told, is the response to people hating Death and Rebirth which in turn was a response to people wanting a "real" ending to the series and this is why you should never let fans dictate you work to you and also why you can't /fix/ art. It contains all the stuff from Rebirth and maybe after a certain point you'd notice the "real" ending is all the stuff from the last real ending and understand that /was/ the ending, that everything else is a coda or a post-script that is elaborating on what was already there. Nothing in either of these films /changes/ the final episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

But fuck does End of Evangelion allow Anno to append some gorgeous and horrifying visuals to the series. Like we get a look at the mass produced white, winged EVAs and WOW I HATE THEM and their weird smooth lizard heads with white human teeth and red lips pulled into smiles.

Gendo and Rei, by the tang spa? Part of her arm just /falls off/ and there's the little nubin of white bone jutting from the remains of her shoulder and Gendo puts his hand INTO HER and draws it downward so she can make him one with his dead wife once more.

Asuka's EVA is unplugged and runs out of power after she's defeated the white EVAs and then they regenerate and she tries to muster up the energy to fight them again and a spear /pieces her head/ and goes through her eyes and the white EVAs swarm her like vultures. The white EVAs /eat her/ and expose her EVA's entrails and leave her and the EVA ruined and then just pepper her all over with even more spears and she's writhing and contorted with agony, dying, and they're flying away.

Rei rejects Gendo and goes to merge with Adam Lilith Trevor but not before Ritsuko shows up to shoot Gendo, only to get shot herself, and Rei goes into Adam Lilith Trevor and they are one and the purple ... faceplate? Mask? Falls off and underneath the face becomes Rei's.

Misato dies getting Shinji to the robot, sending mixed messages and good lessons mixed with bad right until the end, but ultimately Shinji doesn't get in the robot, the robot awakens and forces Shinji into the robot and there's a massive surfacing and laser wings and screaming.

End of Evangelion: there's a lot of screaming.

Rei becomes a terrifying giant and guess what /everyone is turned into the orange tang/ except Gendo who gets eaten by the EVA and screaming traumatized Shinji who is kind of forced to be the key in a sephiroth arrangement in space by the white EVAs. Shinji's ego dissolves and he and his EVA become a new world tree and there are eyes all over it and that's how giant Rei can turn the whole world to tang and it's visually stunning, there's so much cool visual stuff but it's not really telling us anything new. It feels like the animated version of having a really solid five page essay and being told you need to hand in a ten page one. So you tweak the font size, the margins, the spacing. You pad out the word count by restating things unnecessarily. Maybe some of those redundant sentences are beautiful, maybe they're better than what you originally wrote in some aesthetic sense ... but they're saying the same thing.

The Human Instrumentality Project is about saving humanity by destroying it, finding safety and understanding by removing individuality. With no separation of self and other there can be no hurt, no betrayal, no lies, no being alone. That still happens. That still has a great appeal to a psychologically troubled child who has only known abandonment and disappointment and being seen by others only when he has value to contribute to their goals.

The addition to that brought by End of Evangelion is Shinji having dialogue with Rei and Kaworu about what is lost in choosing the tang and explicitly coming to choose leaving the tang and becoming an individual again, even knowing it comes with pain. I don't think that's a change to the original ending so much as it is an explicit acknowledgement that the series ending was not good or real or happy for Shinji, but neither is the ending when Shinji chooses individuality and pain and risk.

There isn't a happy ending for what Neon Genesis Evangelion was really about, there isn't a simple happy ending for Shinji (or Rei or Asuka), there's just figuring out that you are someone who deserves to continue to get to choose, no matter how fucked up you are.

And when the giant Rei gets her head sliced from her neck and it falls and you see the individual bones from her spine fall, that's really fucking cool. There's so much here that's /really fucking cool/. But nothing that made me cry like Shinji being made to destroy Tohji.

I'm glad I watched both movies with my friends tonight. Anno's an incredibly skilled director, but I think it's that skill combined with the messy, raw emotional core of the series that's made the series so iconic.

Shinji's a good kid and '90s weeb culture did the series dirty.

[ariainstars]

Why I Don’t Want Ben Solo to Die

Look, I am aware that Kylo Ren is a widely unpopular character with Star Wars fans. And that seems only legitimate, after all he killed his own father.

But reading and listening to fans’ comments, I come across the same judgement all over again: he is simply hated because he’s not badass.

The moment he destroys the ship’s console in a fit of rage it was already clear to most fans: what a baby.

When he took off his helmet so we could see his vulnerable features: that is supposed to be the villain?! He’s neither ugly nor beautiful enough! He looks normal!! (How awful.)

Kylo Ren / Ben Solo after the patricide, obviously traumatized. What a sissy. He did not enjoy the terrible thing that he did. He’s in pain and sorrow because his father is dead by his own hand, which means that he did love him.

A villain who loves someone? Who doesn’t enjoy the terrible things he does? My, my, how uncool is that. What a bad example to kids watching the show.

Ben watches Rey leave with the Falcon, tears on his face. He’s more miserable than ever, kneeling on the ground, literally having hit rock bottom.

But he’s the Supreme Leader now, folks!! Wasn’t that what he wanted all along? Why isn’t he triumphant?!

Ben Solo / Kylo Ren, like Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader is a split personality. Many fans have never seen Ben behind the mask, not even in his interactions with Rey, because hey, if he was secretly a hero, he ought to be badass. And Ben is not badass, the son of Han and Leia is vulnerable and timid. So there can’t be a good guy in there somewhere, am I right?

Sorry, but I can’t help wondering how people can be so blind. It has been staring us in the face from the start that this man is not the story’s villain, that he is on a painful but ultimately successful way to redemption.

And by “redemption” I don’t mean coming back to the Light, but finally finding and sharing the balance the Force and the galaxy so desperately need. It wasn’t for nothing that he had promised his grandfather that he would finish what he started.

A guy I know claims that the wide-spread sympathy for Kylo / Ben (mostly coming for females) springs from the fact that for some unexplainable reason the role was given to Adam Driver, and that the actor’s personal charisma is leading fans to unhealthy and illogical conclusions. He never wondered why Disney gave Driver of all people this role in the first place, and that there actually might be a very good reason for that.

It’s easier to pretend that the saga is ruined, that Lucas has lost his magic touch and Disney is defiling the saga’s miserable remainders, than to sit down and try to think about it for just a minute. To listen, instead of believing to know everything by breaking down a 9-film-3-trilogies story to “it’s always black against white, ka-boom, the white ones win, the end”. Maybe, just maybe, Lucas had a good reason for telling the prequels the way he did and for selling the rights for the sequels to the Disney studios of all places.

One of the things that annoy me most is that so many fans keep calling Ben “Kylo Ren” and simply refuse to accept that actually they are speaking about Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia and the nephew of Luke. Hence, also, the stubborn and unrelenting “it will turn out that Rey is a Skywalker / Organa / Solo / Kenobi”, even if in the first three cases these fans would actually be expecting her to kill her own cousin or half-brother.

Many of us have grown up with and loved the Star Wars original saga. I can understand that a lot fans are irritated by both prequels and sequels because used to stuff like Jaws, Rocky, Rambo, Alien etc. they of course expect a diluted and warmed-up rehash of the original story and not a development of themes and characters.

But these antis never seem to consider that Ben dying, and dying unrepentant, is the very worst service the saga could do to the original story. It has been said and shown over and over that Rey is a nobody from nowhere. Ben is, thus, indeed the last scion and heir to the heroes from the original trilogy. If he “gets by his deserts”, all that his family suffered and went through was in vain.

His father sacrificing himself - for nothing.

His uncle - ditto.

But to these fans, Kylo’s miserable death would be the only thing that could still halfway reconcile them with the allegedly disastrous, or at least very unsatisfying, sequel trilogy. If they were “real fans” like they claim, in my opinion they rather ought to pray day and night for Ben’s redemption. If they would dare to look beyond their noses, they would realize that Ben has his uncle’s learning, his father’s slyness, his grandfather’s protectiveness and his mother’s empathy and that these qualities are only waiting for the right spark to ignite inside of him and light the galaxy.

I have my own, personal reasons why I’m hoping for Ben Solo to be redeemed, and I’m going to admit that they are pretty personal.

Yes, I like Ben Solo and I like Adam Driver: not because of their pectorals and arm muscles (although they’re nice to look at 😊) but mostly because I identify with them. I want Ben to change and be happy and I hope for Adam to make a marvelous job of this role. I know he and the rest of the crew won’t be capable to convince everyone, but I do hope that they will make Ben Solo’s character, life and development understandable to as many viewers as possible.

I don’t want Ben Solo to fail and die miserably, unrepentant.

Nor do I want him to become Rey’s pet, only good enough to have kids with her so that she will finally have her own family.

I don’t want Ben Solo to die “because that whiny sissy deserves it”.

I don’t want him to die because he’s sensitive and “a real guy isn’t sensitive”.

I don’t want him to die because “he’s done so much evil and doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.”

I don’t want him to die by Rey’s hand because she’s badass so whatever she does, it’s ok.

I don’t want him to die because “he’s not good-looking so he can’t be the hero”.

I want the last scion of the Skywalker saga, the oversensitive, doubtful, patient, emphatic, funny-looking Ben Solo to prove to the world at large that you can be a hero and find your place in your own place, as a man, even if you don’t come up with any of the common prerequisites for a hero in the common sense of the word.

I want him to show the galaxy and the audience at large that it’s never too late, that you can change, grow beyond your wounds and weaknesses, find your own place among humanity and a happy ever after.

I want him to be a role and an encouragement for everyone like me who is introverted, insecure, thoughtful, sensitive and overall not badass.

For the same reason, I was happy when I saw that my theory that Rey would take a plunge into the Dark Side was founded. Rey is being mistaken by most fans as the true heroine of the saga because we see the story unfold mostly from her point of view, so we tend to identify with her and to overlook the arrogance, stubbornness and aggressiveness that were already hinting at her personal development.

I hope that Episode IX will finally make abundantly clear down to the last fan that even the most pure and intelligent and well-meaning heroine can still go down a dark path. (Louder for the people in the back: Anakin and Ben had all chance to be heroes and they were turned evil by the events around them.)

I want the Star Wars saga to end on the note “you don’t have to be badass to save the world.”

I want Love to be the triumphant end note.

I want vulnerability and empathy to be portrayed, in this action science-fiction world-wide known saga, as qualities that do not necessarily make you weak but can make you strong if you’re in the right place and employ them in the right way, instead of denying them and secretly admiring who has no qualms with going over corpses.

I know that many, many fans will never have compassion for Vader or Anakin. For some reason, if someone is frightening, they are likely to bow down before him and to think he’s right with everything he does, even killing and torturing.

Most fans hated the prequels’ depiction of Anakin Skywalker because he wasn’t a fearsome person like Vader but so desperately human.

They similarly hate Kylo Ren and wish him to end in the most horrible way because he’s conflicted and suffering instead of “enjoying” his crimes.

I know I’m being mean now: but I really hope that the expectations of these fans for “the badass wins” will explode in their faces when Episode IX comes out.

I predict that countless viewers all over the world will howl to the moon in frustration, claim that Disney ruined the franchise for good and sign petitions to start everything all over again.

But I hope that viewers who are less prejudiced will listen with their heart and find confirmation for what, in Lucas’ own words, the saga is all about: compassion and family.

And I also hope that future generations who will watch the saga on the whole, in particular boys and young men, will grow up with the message that you don’t have to be canonically handsome, formidable, violent and cruel in order to be a hero, but that loyalty and belonging to something bigger than yourself are more important; that a true hero is not someone who saves the world all by himself but who overcomes himself and creates a better place for other people and together with other people.

I don’t need to watch the lonesome hero, the cowboy riding away into the sunset. There are more than enough action films like that. Let Star Wars be a glorious exception for that cliché. I want it to give encouragement to people who, like me, are not cool and badass but for this are not useless, weak and have nothing to give to the world. If the saga ends the way I hope, I will assuredly not sign petitions for some of its chapters to be removed from canon but send George Lucas personally an enormous bouquet of flowers together with a card offering him all of my admiration and gratitude.

Do it for us, Kylo, Ben, Adam, George, please. Show the world that it’s always love that ought to win, not violence. Prove in a convincing way to whoever watches the saga that emotionality and doubts are not weaknesses but virtues, and that you can be a worthy and happy person without being cruel, vicious and creepy. I’m right here rooting for you and waving your flag.

See you in December. 😊

[avesmonster]

WOW, I’d never even thought about it before, but I LOVE the idea of past loop nightmares for Shinji! It’s a great way to tie him into the continuity without fucking up established canon too much. Idk if you’re a writer, but if you are, a fit with this concept could be super cool! Also-“I just don’t want to let you down anymore”-you’re really not pulling the punches! If you’re down to talk more, how do you think things would have changed if SEELE sent Kaworu to NERV earlier? I feel like (1/3)

Oh that’s a really good concept!! I’m sure Kaworu would be really happy to have more time with Shinji, too. And he’d definitely like having the chance to be there for Shinji during the more traumatizing events in his life. Every time Shinji woke up in that hospital room, Kaworu would be there to keep him company.

After the whole Leliel thing, Shinji would definitely need Kaworu for comfort. At that point in time, he’d probably already have a lot of trust built up with Kaworu (which wouldn’t be terribly difficult seeing how quickly Shinji was able to trust him in episode 24– maybe Shinji subconsciously retains varying amounts of trust in Kaworu from life to life?) so Kaworu would be the first person he went to talk to about what happened. In fact, Kaworu might be the only person he’d talk to about all that. 

Leliel gave him a lot of information and made him think about a lot of things he didn’t want to think about– his fear of what others thought of him being the main one. No matter how much Kaworu told Shinji that he loved him, I’m sure Shinji would still have some insecurities. He’d just be terrified of losing Kaworu and Leliel would take advantage of that. Actually I think Leliel would focus on Kaworu a lot? Because they talk to Shinji about his father for awhile– mainly about how Gendo told him “good job” and how Shinji had been focusing on those two words and pretending everything else was fine. Leliel berated Shinji for doing that, telling him that he can’t just focus on something like that for the rest of his life and be happy.

So if Kaworu was around and was a huge source of Shinji’s happiness, then Leliel would play on Shinji’s insecurities about all that on top of all the stuff about his father and everything else. Which just means Leliel would mess him up even more than they originally did in the series– so that’s fun. Anyway, Kaworu would be able to offer him a lot of comfort after the whole thing by reassuring Shinji of how much he cares about him. Kaworu couldn’t deny everything Leliel said– the part about handpicking happiness and ignoring everything else in life is true, unfortunately. But that doesn’t mean that things won’t get better. There’s always the opportunity for more good things and better things to happen in the future. There’s always hope, and Kaworu will be there for him through both the good and the bad.

The whole Bardiel thing is super rough on Shinji and I feel like not even Kaworu would be able to make him feel better. Not at first, at least. Nothing would be able to erase the fact that Shinji was used by his father to severely injure one of his friends. Kaworu would tell him that it wasn’t his fault– the dummy plug system was what controlled the Eva, not him. Though Shinji already knew this, Kaworu’s words would carry more weight simply because of all the trust he has in him.

Now when it comes to Shinji running away after Bardiel, I’m torn between two options. Either he would tell Kaworu that he was leaving, or he would leave without him. With the former, I feel like Kaworu would encourage Shinji to do whatever was best for him. There was no shame in running and none in staying, either– as long as Shinji was taking care of himself and keeping his own happiness in mind. 

The main reason Shinji always came back to NERV even though he didn’t want to was because he didn’t want to be alone. He had a purpose at NERV and felt as though he was actually doing something with his life– furthermore, he knew people there and the praise said people gave him made him feel useful and less lonely. So if he was talking to Kaworu about leaving, his fear of being alone would come up in the conversation– Kaworu would assure him that no matter whether Shinji stayed or left, Kaworu would be with him. This would encourage Shinji to leave. Kaji, Asuka, Rei, and the other people at NERV would remain his reason for coming back to fight Zeruel.

On the other hand, Shinji might just leave without talking to Kaworu about it at all. He might feel so ashamed and terrible and angry that running away was all he wanted to do– he’d be too afraid to tell Kaworu about it because what if Kaworu was upset by his decision? What if Kaworu thought he was weak or useless or any of the things Shinji thought about himself? Or maybe Kaworu was simply just disgusted by the fact Shinji hurt one of his closest friends. He couldn’t bear the thought of letting Kaworu down, so with all these fears in mind, he would just leave. Either that or he would still talk to Kaworu about it, but decide to leave without him because he figured he didn’t deserve Kaworu or something. That opens up the possibility that Kaworu would end up fighting Zeruel and would become a huge factor in Shinji coming back.

Moving on to the aftermath of Zeruel– the main reason they had so much trouble getting Shinji back was because he didn’t really want to leave. I think Kaworu being around would definitely help give Shinji the motivation needed to unmerge from the entry plug. Near the end of his month away, Shinji starts to hear the voices of everyone he knew calling his name– Kaworu’s voice, the voice of someone he was sure loved him, would give him a stronger will to live. Kaworu’s positive influence on his life might even help give Shinji the will to leave before a whole month passed.

But even if he got out earlier, the loss of his physical body would still be strange. Have you ever seen those videos of astronauts adjusting to life back on earth after living without gravity for so long? I wonder if it would be similar to that,, and if so, Shinji would probably be really embarrassed about it. But Kaworu would be super helpful and comforting, as always, so Shinji wouldn’t need to feel embarrassed around him. The idea of Shinji cuddling with Kaworu at night for comfort is adorable!! And I feel like he would definitely do that. Not only after being merged with the Eva but pretty much as soon as he found out Kaworu was ok with him doing so. Because honestly almost every fight is extremely traumatizing for Shinji and his life is pretty horrible in general, so he would need all the comfort from Kaworu that he could get.

And I could write a lot more about all this but I’d better leave it there before I write an entire novel– however, I have one more thought to share. Him and Shinji would have a much more developed relationship which only means that Kaworu’s inevitable death would be that much harder on Shinji. It was already horrible, so it could only get worse if they knew each other longer. So this AU is super interesting and fun to think about but it also makes me sad for that reason specifically......

[mnemehoshiko]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi [BULLETPOINT TRASH EDITION]

A  SPOILERS AND OPINIONS ABOUND AND POOR FORMATTING CHOICES

(with bonus citing of external canon sources mainly the visual dictionary leaks)

Short version: I FUCKING LOVED THIS MOVIE ON SO MANY LEVELS AND IASDFSDFDASFASDSFDSFDSFSSAFDSADFSDF

Long version:

I enjoyed TFA. But it was very much a safe remake movie because JJ can literally only do remakes and monster movies. I’m also still bitter over Into Darkness BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE HERE FOR SO I’M GONNA MOVE ON.

I really enjoyed Rogue One. It broke new ground etc etc but it had the freedom to do that because it wasn’t dependent on anything ultra important.

TLJ had the awkward positioning of figuring out how to move the main story forward in new and interesting ways AND not remake ESB. And I’m going to be super honest, I was 20% certain they were going to go Rey Skywalker??? Mainly because fanboys are amazingly uncreative but also because it would be a very safe way to go. Ohhhhh, of course Rey has the force. It’s because she’s of the Skywalker bloodline. ALL MAKES SENSE IN THE WORLD AGAIN.

As soon as Luke tossed that saber off the cliff, I knew that all my expectations were going to be subverted. AND IT WAS AMAZING!!!!

AND ON THE TOPIC OF LUKE, there seems to be two camps the

HELL YEAH LUKE SKYWALKER camp or the

OMG RIAN YOU RUINED STAR WARS AND LUKE ANDFS@#EWREWRWE camp, to which I’m like

so like did you watch the Original Trilogy my dudes?

No really did you watch the “OMG SHE’S PRETTY WE TOTALLY NEED TO RESCUE HER!!”

the “WELP BRB HEADING TO DAGOBAH WITH NO WARNING BECAUSE REASONS!!!!”

“NO WAIT MY FRIENDS NEED MY HELP SORRY GOTTA GO”

“BRB I JUST GOT MY WORLD VIEW TRAUMATIZED AND I NEED TO FALL IN THE ABYSS LIKE AN EXTRA (TM) BITCH”

“OH HEY I’M GONNA FIGHT MY DAD IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT I HAVE NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER BECAUSE YOLOOOOOOOOO”

like Luke Skywalker lives on impulse 

much like his father

like according to the visual dictionary, Leia was supposed to be his first student and she like said no due to like politics and family stuff

but lbr she probably looked at Luke YOLO Skywalker and was like....yeah no my dude you are a messssss

never be the first grad student

also like IF REYSKY was a thing

you’re basically saying 

YES I WANT MY HERO LUKE SKYWALKER

TO DROP A KID OF A SANDY WASTELAND THAT EVEN HE BELIEVES IS NOWHERE

which like my dude, he’s from Tatooine and if he’s saying Jakku is nowhere. then like that place is like purgatory

like I STRONGLY BELIEVE if like Rey was his kid he AT LEAST would have dropped her 

somewhere with reliable foster parents

and like water

LOTS OF WATER

OKAY I’M DONE RANTING ABOUT THIS

ANYWAY like I can totally believe with like Luke seeing the #darkness + probably Snoke’s influence in his head his immediate response was OMG WE GOTTA KILL IT and then went...oh wait this....is not a chill idea maybe we should talk shit out first/meditate etc

and like IMMEDIATE REGRET AFTERWARDS

honestly this is like textbook Male Skywalker bullshit 101

I HAVE DONE A THING!!!  i regret everything now

THIS IS A HORRIBLE SEGUE BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY AVENGING SPACE ANGEL LEIA ORGANA!!!!!

*CRIES A LOT*

RIAN JUST LOVES LEIA AND CARRIE SO MUCH

*UGLY SOBBING*

LEIA USED THE FORCE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

EAT IT FANBOYS!!!

FUCKING IT!!!

LIKE I KNEW BUT LIKE PURE PROOF IN FUCKING CANON

LEIA! IS! FUCKING! FORCE! SENSITIVE!!!!!

also i’m 99% certain Luke didn’t teach it her that trick so like my homegirl literally DID THAT

i just love leia so fukcing much and yes okay the cgi was kind of wonky BUT I DON’T GIVE A FUCK BECAUSE MY GENEARAL/PRINCESS JUST USED THE FORCE LIKE A BOSS THAT SHE IS

Also i just love Leia so much in this

like That Shot on Crait with her eyes over the collar is like 

POETIC CINEMA

no really someone hook a girl up and give me that shot as a lock screen

Also that scene post mutiny showing up in a 3000-thread count couture bathrobe, a matching cane, and blaster? #AESTHETIC

also personal opinion but Billie Lourd in that scene wasn’t acting as much as oh god i’m in trouble face that all children go through

**MORE UGLY SOBBING*

OKAY LETS TALK ABOUT POE ONLY BECAUSE IT’S MY BLOG AND I DO WANT I WANT

*steps on step stool*

I DID NOT CARE ABOUT POE DAMERON IN TFA BECAUSE IT WAS SUPER OBVIOUS THAT HE WAS GOING TO DIE AND ONLY GOT TO LIVE BECAUSE OSCAR ASKED JJ TO LIVE AND OSCAR ISAAC IS PRETTY BUT LIKE THAT’S ALL I GOT OUT OF THE MOVIE.

*climbs off soapbox* Poe in this film GAINED SOME DEPTH, sadly it seems to be very polarizing and I think that’s in part due to the fact that it’s pulling on backstory from the EU, primarily Shattered Empire and the Poe Dameron Comics. Shattered Empire doesn’t directly include Poe but it involves his parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron. His mom, Shara, went on a mission with Leia and some others for some reason I can’t remember BUT ANYWAY SHE’S A BOSS. A HERO OF THE REBELLION. Poe literally grew up around heroes. One of his squad mates in Poe Dameron is another hero from the rebellion. He has a very wide-eyed view on the concept of heroism? For him it’s daring deeds and important war-changing missions, he’s very much a soldier and not at a leader. At least not yet. You get this immediately from the fight scene with First Order and the bombing run and the aftermath of it. 

Poe sees what’s in front of him which is a destroyed Star Destroyer (?), Leia sees the whole picture which is a single ship destroyed at the cost of a significant part of their fleet. Yes, there were heroes but a resistance can’t survive on dead heroes.

You see this again in his willingness to go after the high-risk plan to somehow hack the main ship to get them to stop tracking them. He’s thinking YES THIS IS THE BOLD PLAN MISSION OF MY DREAMS!!! Except it fails, and yes I completely understand that this could have been avoid with like communication but to embark on communication? You need to let go of your ego. Ego is not a BAD THING, but sometimes it can prevent us from being our best self. The best leader we can be. And Poe does learn this as you can see with Leia passing the baton of leadership to Poe on Crait. As Poe realizes that a dramatic last stand isn’t worth the loss. It’s better to run to let the rebellion live than to die in a burst of glory. Those are the hard choices a leader has to make.

OKAY MOVING ON BECAUSE I SUCK AT TRANSITIONS, LETS TALK ABOUT ONE OF MY SONS, FINN TICO

I LOVE MY SON AND HIS TRANSITION FROM BEING A MERE FIRST ORDER DEFECTOR TO A MEMBER OF THE REBELLION !!!!!!! First I loved the fact that his characterization followed naturally from TFA which TO RECAP consisted of:

 realizing that the First Order is a horrible idea; 

getting the fuck out via some convenient pilot dude who (supposedly) dies; 

meeting a girl who STRAIGHT UP ATTACKS HIM under the hearsay of a droid

realizing she’s the BEST THING SINCE TROOPER RATIONS and attempting to flirt because running away from a organization is best done in at least a pair

getting caught up in Resistance nonsense you are 1000% Not Here for because YOU KNOW THE FIRST ORDER and you know losing odds

aforementioned Girl is taken by the First Order and you’re like WELP GUESS I GOTTA TEMPORARILY JOIN this horrible idea to save girl

Tries to save girl but gets knocked out

END OF MOVIE

TLJ PICKS UP immediately after this in which his first and only thought is FIND REY AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS NONSENSE. THIS IS NOT WORTH DYING FOR Y’ALL ARE CRAZY. Which lets be real, you’re dealing with an organization.....that can destroy an entire space system that you have personal experience with. You’ve just been attacked by the First Order, the Resistance is worse off than they were BEFORE YOU WENT TO (attempt) SAVE REY. Finn’s main priority is WELP THIS IS A LOSING CAUSE GONNA GET MY FRIEND AND BOUNCE BECAUSE I DON’T WANT HER TO DIE.

Then it hit’s him like a shock. Figuratively and literally because Rose shows up.

BEFORE I TALK ABOUT ROSE I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT PAIGE ALSO KNOWN AS i was pretty sure she was gonna die but it felt natural-ish and I also know need to buy Cobalt Squadron for like TICO SISTER FEELS. But during that bombing run you immediately got the sense of

what she was doing was already extremely risky

YOU’RE IN SHIP FULL OF BOMBS

and that her last moments were of someone incredibly important to her

and like eventually TO ALL OF US AND MEEEE

I’m going to be honest and say that this plot was probably the weakest for the audience and for me. I understood what they were trying to cover but I feel some sections got cut for the final version.

BUT BACK TO CHARACTERS, FINN!!!!

had to deal with the struggle of moving past Rey as his sole guiding focus of his story?

Also people are like OMG WHY IS HE SO WIDE EYED ON CANTO BIGHT?!?! THAT’S OOC!!!

and i’m like my dudes

he’s never been outside of the pod of stormtroopers like EVER

HE’S FROM A LIFE OF MONOCHROME AND NOW INFUSED IN A LIFE OF COLOR

Finn: OMG THIS PLACE IS AWESOME Rose: this place is trash and I’m gonna fight it

Also can I give a shout out to that section where he’s explaining the plan to Poe and like Rose is like AHEM I’M HAPPY TO HAVE A FELLOW NERD BUT ALSO I CAN TALK!!!!

Poe on the otherhand is like....ah yes...cute nerds are talking....OH WE CAN BLOW SOMETHING UP FOR FREEDOM!!! YES SOUNDS GREAT!!!

Also his interactions with DJ are essentially him seeing a potential future for himself

and like trash meta moment, unlike Kylo “I Make Poor Life Choices” Ren, he makes the decision to reject that future for himself.

Like Finn’s arc in this movie I would argue is to stop being a passive observer in the narrative and to start CLAIMING his space in the narrative that is Star Wars

like FANON!Finn is very much the Resistance automatically accepting him and him become The Dude in The Resistance

this movie ACTUALLY DID THE CHARACTER WORK for him to become a leader in the Resistance

Look I really love Finn and he finally got the character development he deservessssss

MOVING ON TO MY NEWEST DAUGHTER!!!!

ROSE!!! TICO!!! BEST DAUGHTER!! GOOD DAUGHTER!!! MY SMOL ENGINEER!!

Okay, first off. I will like forever and ever be thankful to Rian for casting Kelly Marie Tran SO JOT THAT SHIT DOWN

BUT MNEME SHE ABUSED--

finish that sentence and i will unhinge my maw to consume your filthy soul

AHEM, I mean you’re entitled to your opinions

which are wrong

SERIOUSLY THO, every time someone goes “Rose straight-up shocked a black boy till he passed out!!!!!” I’m like

okay one, he’s canonically 23 years  old

like as a black woman and one with a little brother I’m very cognizant of the impact of black violence in media and the constant view of black boys as adults

but also HE’S 23

two, Rey straight up clobbered him under the hearsay of BB-8 saying that “oh that dude has my dad’s jacket” compared to Rose catching him escaping via escape pods after catching 2/3 people doing the same thing earlier that day + losing her only living family

like if this is the hill you want to die on!?!?!?!?

I JUST REALLY ROSE BECAUSE SHE’S THE ENGINEER TAKE NO SHIT DISNEY PRINCESS OF MY COLD DEAD HEART SPACE

I just she’s so quick and smart but  get put into the ANTI-SOCIAL ASSHOLE BOX???

like yes she’s very good and detailed at her job

She also wants to fight everyone

like if i wrote an academia au (but Mneme you do---) she would be like the HELLO CLASS THIS IS OUR EXAM ALSO BONUS POINTS IF YOU GO ON A FIELD TRIP WITH ME ^_^

Student: Dr. Tico, that field is a protest.

Dr. Tico: I HAVE SIGNS AND HANDCUFFS!!!!

I just really loved her arc on Canto Bight and her care for the little people and also the emphasis it’s not the wide dramatic actions that make the resistance but the people that make it thrive.

“We win by saving what we love.”

Mneme that kiss was sexless--

THE GIRL JUST KNOCKED A SHIP OUT OF THE WAY OF A CANNON, GIVE THE GIRL A BREAK

She’s be more than down to climb him like a tree later.

OKAY WHILE WE’RE STILL DEALING WITH THE RESISTANCE

I UNDERSTAND WHY ADMIRAL AMILYN HOLDO DIED AND THE SHOT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND ELEGANT AND JUST 

#POETIC CINEMA

but also *UGLY SOBBING*

so like yes I understand that this probably could have been solved via OPEN COMMUNICATION but

Poe has literally just been demoted for flyboy antics

Poe initial interaction with Admiral Holdo consists of “soooo do you understand the situation” in front of a bunch of upper level brass

like maybe if he was like HEY HOW CAN I HELP it would have been better but he literally goes

HI ADMIRAL PLEASE LET EXPLAIN YOUR JOB AFTER I JUST MANAGED TO GET A HUGE CHUNK OF THE FLEET DEMOLISHED

cue Oscar Isaac’s prettiness

so like I understand but also I DISAGREE

also when Amilyn talks to Leia when Poe is like being carted onto the transport saying “I like him!” I’m 99% certain it was implied that she was also down to bang

actually knowing what I know from Leia, Princess of Alderaan

she’s TOTALLY DOWN TO BANG

OKAY LETS FINISH UP THIS NONSENSE WITH REMAINING TWO CHARAS ALSO KNOWN AS THIS IS A BIASED REVIEW AND IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHO YOU CAN LIKE STOP HERE AND GO

......

.....

....

*looks around* okay they’re gone?

*TAKES  OUT MIC*

FIRST THING FIRST, I HAVE BEEN REY NO ONE SINCE FOREVER AND NOW I AM VALIDATED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD~~~~

It also follows from what Maz said in TFA, “you know they aren’t coming back.” This movie is Rey coming to terms with the failure that her parents inflicted on her, abandonment, and realizing that she doesn’t need some grand legacy to save the galaxy. Being herself is enough, and that’s so so beautiful to meeeeeeeeeeeeee. *weeps*

#POETIC CINEMA

SECOND, KYLO’S ARC WAS GEARED TOWARDS MEEEEEE!!! THANK YOU FOR VALIDATING ALL THE CHARACTER SHIT I HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT KYLO REN SINCE TFA THAT I THOUGHT WAS FUCKING OBVIOUS!!!!!!

Them: KYLE RON WAS TOTALLY DOWN TO KILL HAN AND UNREMORSEFUL. Me: ???? did we watch the same movie??

did you like look at the lighting in that scene???

the facial expressions??

LITERALLY EVERYTHING BEFORE THAT SCENE ABOUT BEING SEDUCED BY THE LIGHT?!!?!?

Kylo himself in TLJ: i didn’t hate him

THIS CONFLICT, THIS UNBALANCEDNESS CONTINUES THROUGH OUT THE FILM!?!? Also, I’m going to be hella honest 

pre-TLJ: Renperor is such a horrible trope because Kylo Ren is a disaster human being who has no business and no interest (see Bloodline) in ruling??? LIKE YOU ARE ASSIGNING COMPETENCE TO MY SON WHERE THERE IS NONE

post-TLJ: alright, I can Work With This and I’m 99% certain he is going to be ousted because the FO is like who is this human disaster with the political savvy of a blunt post 

like any credibility was lost as soon as he decided to have force tantrum when Luke showed up

and the SHOOT THAT SHIP OUT OF THE SKY!!!! moment

like my son leads wears his trash heart on his sleeve and EVERYONE KNOWS IT

honestly the fact that he managed to lie about killing Snoke is a miracle

but this CANON!renperor 

this Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, which i am like laugh my ass of over, is not some triumphant Dark Fuck Prince??

He’s broken man who has thrown so so much into rejecting the light, becoming the monster that his uncle he feared he would become and realized that he done fucked up. 

He tells Rey, Let the past die, kill it if you have to.

LITERALLY CANNOT LET THE PAST DIE

does copy his namesakes dramatic robe dropping so like there’s that

Also pre-TLJ: meh there’s a 50/50 chance he’s a virgin but lol it will never but touched on in canon

Post-TLJ: oh god he’s a virgin i will fight you on thissss

AND NOW BECAUSE I AM THAT PERSON REY AND KYLO’S OVERLAPPING ARCS

*SCREAMS* FORCE BOND FORCE BOND FORCE BOND

oh did i mention FORCE BOND!?!?!?!?!

Okay yes Snoke helped it along but like THAT LAST SCENE WITH THE DICE AND KYLO LOOKING UP AND SEEING REY

Snoke is dead bitches

what is it

it’s the Force

it was so good to meee

Honestly that face was peak “I’m disappointed but not surprised, I left all your shit on the porch. *SLAMS DOOR IN FACE*”

Like THE INTIMACY OF THOSE FORCE BOND SCENES

and like the evolution and like ASDFDSFSDAFDS

this was so good to me y’all

so good

no really i like never rec meta but like this *kisses fingers* http://corseque.tumblr.com/post/168629533017 good shit 

THAT REGENCY TRASH PROPOSAL OF FAILURE

so good

so awful

congrats Kylo, you’ve surpassed your granddad in poor wooing skills

Like literally I can see Anakin standing next to him Force Ghost!Stylez and is just like appalled

so appalled

okay i’m done I’m going to think about star wars and start throwing all my money at the EU YET AGAIN

[renaroo]

Wednesday Roundup 15/6/2017

So this is a day late but in my defense I had a ridiculous amount of comics to get through with no one to blame but myself here. And you know what? I genuinely enjoyed almost everything. But does that mean every comic was good this week? And even so what did I think was the best? 

Honestly I don’t know how to write these intros for people who wouldn’t be here to read my opinion anyway so let’s just jump into it. 

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester, DC’s Justice League of America, Image’s Motor Crush, DC’s Superwoman, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DC’s Titans, IDW’s Transformers: Salvation, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #21 Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Cory Hamscher, Terry Pallot, Michael Garland

Okay I need this issue to reread a million times over because there are just so many things I love all at once. Like, oh my gosh. I was almost in tears multiple times because relationships! Healing! Supporting each other!

Wade and Gabby alone could just about make this issue perfect, but then you have Laura and Daken hugging and worried about each other, and Old Man Logan being likable for the first time in any of my readings of him. There’s so much I enjoy, though I find the cover rather deceiving. This is much more of a Howlett family reunion than anything else, though I did enjoy Riri’s parts in it.

I just eriously adore these characters and it meant a lot to see them all come together like they have here and that cliffhanger HURT so much more for it. 

I will nitpick the art a bit because we’ve been doing so good about keeping Laura in the Wolverine costume which is much preferred to her X-23 wardrobes, for sure, but this issue it pretty much looked exactly like one of her old costumes without the midriffs and it was kinda weird. I know she took off a lot of her armor for skin contact but it’s... idk. It was weird. 

The main thing I’m happy about though is that as we go on, I realize that literally all of the Marvel books I’ve kept are going out of their way to not involve themselves in Secret Wars and it’s kind of beautiful. Laura and Gabby are stuck on an island that’s quarantined (and I can pretend Wade’s there with them instead of whatever’s going on since I dropped Deadpool for the summer crossovers, thanks Tom Taylor!), Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are literally off world, and the rest are non-616. So yay me!

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #8 Gerry Conway, Ryan Stegman, Jesus Aburtov

For those who don’t know, Mary Jane Watson is genuinely one of my favorite Marvel characters and is easily one of the reasons I ever stuck with the Spider-Man comics for as long as I did was because of my interest in her and wanting to see her and Peter.

I can also thank her for my genuine attraction to redheads probably.

But one of the main reasons that I’ve loved this book so much is because, as written by Gerry Conway, this is the Peter and MJ of my dreams. I love them so much, and the complications that comes from their relationship and from growing older, raising a daughter, and MJ’s desire to continuously be the glue to keep both Peter and Annie together logically causes her to seek out a way to continue being Spinerette without syphoning off Peter’s powers. 

It’s almost like growing old, having a stable relationship, trying to keep things fresh while raising a kid, are all dramatic and worthy of good storytelling in their own right or something HMM.

Anyway, yes it’s completely on the nose where this is going and it’s a little curious how MJ’s not immediately aware of the connection between what’s going on with her right now and the horrible, arguably traumatizing experience she and Peter had, but who knows what’s canon anymore lol

Basically, I sideye a bit from a story point of view, but this series continues to make up for it with the real thing that matters to me: these characters and their development.

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #958 James Tynion IV, Aluaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson 

Honestly I really love the slower issues where Tynion takes more time to make moments for the relationships between the characters and give us interractions we didn’t know we wanted -- Kate going with Luke and Jean Paul to a basketball game, Cass and Clayface being adorable by reciting a play, Bruce at a poker game with a bunch of assholes in homage to Almost Got ‘im!? It was a lot of fun honestly. 

...

Okay I take issue with Cass’ dialogue. I know she was repeating lines from a tape and such but it’s weird to see her make so much progress when just two issues ago she was almost monosyllabic. Like... I want to see Cass gradually learning, I want to feel her frustration with hitting walls, I want to see her struggle and achieve despite the struggle because that gradual progression was honestly something we weren’t delivered in the former canon. We have a great opportunity for it here. 

But y’know. I’m particular with Cass and it’s hard to say where her baseline for reading and speech even is in this canon because her dyslexia may be in tact but her circumstances growing up are completely different. So I don’t know. 

Now. I’m a sucker for Bruce and Zatanna team-ups because I’m a schmuck but I’m really excited for next issue. Had a lot of fun with this one. This feels like a decent pace for Tynion -- at least in my opinion. 

DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-2017) #10 Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Adam Archer, Massyk, Sandra Hope

This comic is speeding toward an end and I’m not sure if I’m ready! 

From the beginning, for me at least, the selling point for Gotham Academy has been just how much these kids felt like real teenagers and real friends with all their various relationships and connections, platonic or romantic or something in between. And it’s powerful to see that coming to play as an advantage to completing Olive’s arc, but also as a disadvantage since the consequences of many of her actions hurt that much more.

I’ll save a lot of my thoughts for a complete wrap up of the series but overall, very happy and very grateful for the continuously good read that is GA

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Volume 1: Road to Rebirth Steve Orlando, Jody Houser, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald, Stephen Byrne, Jamal Campbell, Mirk Andolfo

WE GOTTA GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER. WE’RE ON A MISSION FROM GAD. 

In all seriousness, I’m a huge fan of Vixen and Ryan Choi as well as a big fan of Justice League International, as it was in its 80s glory. So my interests with this particular lineup were piqued from the beginning and I made myself wait for the first volume to dive in. 

For the most part, this is a team gathering exercise. Characters that have lacked the spotlight in the last few years -- Vixen, Ray, Killer Frost, and the Atom -- were given whole issues to reintroduce them to this continuity. And honestly those issues were great. I really, really love the updated origins for them and feel that they’re a good blend of honoring the past of the characters as well as adapting them for a new world. 

Lobo, Batman, and Black Canary took back seat, but considering that there were already tensions showing within the group, I think it’s safe to assume that giving the spotlight to the rest of the team won’t always last this long. Things are nothing if not explosive among these members.

I really did mean it when I said this is a team gathering exercise, because there’s no first case to unite everyone. There’s not any real antagonists or team-ups we see to speakof. It was just getting hte jLA together. 

And for me it’s enough to get me intrigued, though I’d completely understand if people told me it was far from enough for them. 

Now they just need to add Big Barda, Booster Gold, and Ted Kord and I’ll be satisfied. 

Image’s Motor Crush (2016-present) Vol. 1 Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr

I was not the biggest fan of this team’s Batgirl team though I appreciated the aesthetics and what not. There just never seemed to be a storyline that really interested me and I couldn’t be sold on the characterization for Barbara. So I kept hearing about Motor Crush for the last year and was really itnerested in it so I wanted until this volume came out and. 

Well, quite simply, I’m in love.

Tell you what, those biker gangs that kept coming up really confusingly out of place in Batgirl make a hell of a lot more sense now that I can see this team’s actual passion project. 

So I love Motor Crush a lot, I’m really invested in Domino, the mystery that is her origins and the powers of Crush itself. I love her relationship with her ex, Lola, I love her father -- I love just about everything and the cliffhanger really surprised me. 

I will say that while I love having a world that speaks for itself rather than constant narration, it’s a little hard to follow this world entirely, I’d like a bit more explained than what has been, but at the end of the day I’m very excited to see more. 

DC’s Superwoman (2016-present) #11 K. Perkins, José Luís, Ray McCarthy, HI-FI

You know, I have made it clear that I’ve been worried about this title for a while now, really just hoping it was going to find its direction and wow us with the great potential that is the Super Family outside of the main Kent triad. And I feel like that’s for good reason -- the end of Jimenez’s run let a lot of people feeling justifiably scorned, there was a mishandling of a lot of heavy and important subjects that were raised, and at least the initial stuff with Perkins taking over kind of left one wondering if they had a fully formed direction to go toward next. 

But I am really glad that I stuck it out for this long because the family of John, Lana, Nat, and everyone else is so important and so fundamentally different from the dynamics found elsewhere in the new familial renaissance of the DCU that I needed it. And I hope it continues to emphasize these relationships and how important they are to each other.

I’m still unhappy with how anxiety and mental illness is being handled in the title and find it lacking since it was brought up to begin with and now being ignored. That subject alone is making me rethink my disinterest in Green Lantern books as a whole because I have loved and felt inspired so far by what I’ve seen of Jessica Cruz and their handling of anxiety, and it’s why I picked up Silk at the high recommendations of a close friend. 

So I’d like for mental illness to be treated better in this title -- the least it can do after bringing it up and treating it the way it did at the end of Jimenez’s run, but there’s so much value in the non-nuclear family dynamic of the Irons household and of the uniqueness of Lana’s powers and her approach to fighting crime that it’s worth it. For me anyway.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #70 Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Mateus Santolouco, Ronda Pattison

I knew the end of this storyline was going to be, at the very least, explosive but wow, WOW I had no idea how many twists and turns it was going to take in that time. That was a phenomenal ending to the Mutanimals storyline for the time being, and I just feel so bad for Slash, down to my core. I’m so worried about him, and whenever he will be allowed to recover.

At least I hope he’ll recover.

This series is seventy issues strong and i’m just so blown away by the way they still manage to keep me on the edge of my feet while so many different storylines and character developments are happening at the same time.

I mean, I even feel for Old Hobb here!

I do suppose a complaint I could hold here is that the titular turtles themselves have ultimately not been very front and center throughout this storyline, and that really showed in the conclusion, where for the most part they were lost to the colorfulness of the huge, colorful supporting cast that has been developed over the years. 

For me, personally, I think that’s honestly okay. We can’t have the same story over and over again with only the main four characters driving the narrative, and it’s been a long standing tradition in TMNT for a good 30 years now to sort of embody the concept that our main guys don’t really look for situations to get involved with but sort of fall into them naturally. 

Not to mention it’s probably a strength that 70 issues in, we haven’t once repeated plots or stories or put any of the characters on a loop of development to end up right back where they started. I don’t think the achievement of that can be understated, especially as we near that landmark #75!

DC’s Titans (2016-present) #12 Dan Abnett, Kenneth Rocafort, Dan Brown

Bleh. BLEH. I was holding out judgment on the twist of Wally and Donna and Roy ending up in some kind of love triangle because I wanted the context but honestly the context is kinda... bleh. It would be awesome if we lived in some world and time where Donna’s origins were not constantly retconned and thus the source of her characterization in every run of every thing she showed up in. Which is by no means a new problem but still.

And my opinion is... Wally and Donna are both going through a hard time and Wally is having to accept that his life is fundamentally different from the previous world he knew, that he can’t just badger people into returning things to the way they were -- especially Linda, who he loves but it’s a very one-sided relationship as a result of the parallel universe paradox and stuff. It makes sense to me that in a ploy to gain some sense of control over that, he and Donna both would try to take fate in an unexpected direction, into their own hands. 

But making it a love triangle with Roy just kinda keeps my eyes firmly rolled into the back of my skull. 

I overall like Lilith, Dick, Garth, and Karen’s development and characterization in this issue. I think they’re taking Lilith in interesting directions and I’m really curious about what her omen means for the future, since apparently there’s a traitor among them. And they set up plenty of reasons for various members to be that traitor in this issue but I can’t help but assume already that it’s going to end up being a twist. Good twist or not remains to be seen. 

IDW’s Transformers: Salvation (2017) John Barber, Livid Ramondelli

I’m going to be completely “original” here and say that I’m not a fan of Ramondelli’s at for the various Transformers comics. i know! I know. Shocking, never said before, completely going against the general fandom consensus. I’m such a brave soul. I know. 

Okay, joking aside though... I didn’t think the art was bad in this one-shot. Actually! I’d argue a lot of it was even good. He may not be my favorite artist and I’ll think that his colo gradients are butt ugly most of the time, but there was better handled action sequences than usual, the characters looked like they had weight, and we even got a range of expressiveness in the characters that is... well, frankly, not usual for Ramondelli. 

So other than that shocking revelation, I thought Barber performed good once more on tying the TF universe together again, answering some prior plot points and nicely knotting off loose ends. Trypticon being a Titan is not the biggest revelation in the world, but the development of Sandstorm and the Dinobots was great, and I loved just how devious Starscream truly is under Barber’s pen even though I’ve fully been enjoying the characterization for him in Till All Are One. 

But the most important thing of all: SPARKLINGS. SPARKLINGS. All I’ve wanted for years is baby transformers so I am HAPPY BEYOND BELIEF. THEY’RE NO LONGER A DYING SPECIES AND THESE PRECIOUS BABIES COULD BE BORN WITHOUT EVER KNOWING THE CIVIL WAR AHHHHHHHH

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #24 Greg Rucka, Bilquis Evely, Romulo Fajardo Jr. 

WOW! I mean, just wow! What a resolution to everything. I have so many emotions for Diana, for Barbara Ann, for even Veronica Cale of all people. Etta and Steve were great, the art was amazing.

It’s just such a relief and such... honestly just an amazing feat that Greg Rucka is beginning to wrap up this just phenomenal run of Wonder Woman 

I really enjoyed how everything turned out and it was so remarkable to see Diana’s resolution to save Veronica but also to not turn her back on her friends and loved ones as well as the torment it is for Barbara to not be able to get into Themyscira after all her life’s work.

And I liked Diana’s assessment of Veronica at the end, it was true and also blunt to the point of cruelty. But fitting also. 

It’s amazing what a turn around I’ve personally felt when it comes to Veronica’s character because in all honesty I was not a fan of her most of the time in the preboot, but Rucka really has fleshed her out and done something unique with her perspective now. There is tragedy but there’s also less deniability for her fault in all of it. 

I’m sad to be coming toward Rucka’s end on the run, but I’m also so happy to see the love and passion he’s put into everything culminating to what it is now.

This is a genuinely hard choice but I think if I go by what tugged on my heartstrings the most, what gave me the most joy overall and just feelings unrelenting from start to finish, I would have to say that my pick of the week is All-New Wolverine. I adore this series and I couldn’t be happier with this issue and how they’re keeping my precious Marvel girls faaaaaar away from Secret Empire. A close second would be Wonder Woman but really I would happily recommend my entire pull this week. It was a geat week for comics.

But that’s just my opinion! I’d love to know your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Think I missed something I should’ve picked up this week? I’d love to hear from you!

[c2ley]

u/benjamin7887 Wrote

With a heavy heart, I have to say, this was a bad movie I’ve been a huge Star Wars fan since I was seven years old. This series looms so large in my life, and unfortunately this gives it a lot of power to hurt me. The Phantom Menace was traumatizing to me at 11 years old in the theater opening night, and years of increasingly horrible digital additions to the original movies has made Star Wars an albatross of constant dissatisfaction hanging over me. But when The Force Awakens came out it redeemed everything, it wiped away all the distress from prequel trilogies and special editions and gave my childhood a beautiful nostalgic gift. Next year when Rogue One came out I was further impressed. Rogue One took the universe into uncharted territory and showed us that there was no limit to where the Star Wars series could go from here on out. My hopes were so high for The Last Jedi. This one was most important because my childhood hero, Luke Skywalker, was going to be an active character. Now after seeing it, I feel like I was just being built up over two years for an even harder fall. I couldn’t believe that critical reviews had been so positive. I thought I was missing something, I was worried that I’d be alone in my disappointment, which is worse because it would mean that everyone else was getting something I wasn’t. It was such a relief to look at audience ratings on rotten tomatoes and metacritic and here on reddit and see that others saw what I saw. So many people have similar criticisms to mine, and the defenders of it seem more to be in denial than to have actually liked it. I understand that too, at 11 years old I was in denial over Phantom Menace at first. When you’re so sure something is gonna be great it’s hard to process it’s failure right away. So I’m not someone who participates in online comments and stuff, it’s too hateful and the arguments never persuade anybody one way or the other, they just get people more entrenched in the opinions they already had, and more resentful of the other side. I’ve never posted on reddit before, I just like reading threads sometimes, but since this is Star Wars, and I have so much frustration over this franchise that has built up over twenty years, I need somewhere to get it out this time. I need to shout into the void about this. I don’t care if people hate on me, or if no one cares what I have to say, I just need to let it all out somewhere. So the first sign that something was wrong was when Poe was fucking with Hux, pretending he was on hold. It was kind of funny, the whole theater laughed, I laughed a bit too, but still something seemed wrong to me. That kind of humor would fit perfectly in the upcoming Han Solo movie, but in a main series movie it was out of character right off the bat. It was Disney thinking that their formula for the Marvel movies could be applied to anything. They don’t realize that different series’ have different tones. I think this mentality also speaks to why the critical reviews for this movie have been so good. Critics don’t actually understand or appreciate the fandom for these movies, just like with the formulaic Marvel movies. Marvel movies get great reviews from critics but at the end of the year when critics make their Years-Best lists, how many Marvel movies actually make those lists? Basically none. Movie critics don’t understand these franchises but they don’t want to be completely out of touch with the masses, so they’ll give a superhero movie a fair grade as long as it fits a certain formula. They’re doing the same with The Last Jedi. They are not fans, they review Star Wars movies and Superhero movies the same way they review children’s movies. They look down on them and only give them good reviews if they’re formulaic enough. The space fight was over the top. One thing I loved about The Force Awakens was that they used practical effects so much, the worst parts of the movie were when heavy digital effects were used. That method was largely abandoned in this movie, the opening fight was just a bunch of digital pixels moving around, just like in the prequel trilogy. Then came the moment I had been waiting for for two years, hell, more than two years, 23 years I’ve been waiting to see the further story of Luke Skywalker. The ending of The Force Awakens was such a glorious moment. I can’t put into words how exciting it was to see the icon of my childhood again, and Mr. Abrams knew exactly how to build up that anticipation to the perfect payoff. Of course I’ve seen Mark Hamill plenty of places over the years, I’m a big fan of his voice work as well, but seeing him in character as Luke Skywalker again is a totally different story. Nothing compares to that. Well, the follow-up to that huge wondrous moment when Rey holds his lightsaber out to him is that he dismissively tosses it over his shoulder and storms off.... and my heart sunk. It’s like all the glory from that final moment of the last movie was in that lightsaber and he tossed it away like it was nothing. I liked what I had seen in the trailers of Luke saying the Jedi must die, but that’s a sad thing, Luke should be sad about it, instead he’s a jerk about it. It’s out of character for him. He should understand all the hope that the rebellion have put into finding him and be sympathetic at least. This is out of character for Luke. This is not my Luke Skywalker. Of course apologists are excusing this by saying that he’s changed over the years. Yea, obviously, but that doesn’t make it good. He’s changed for the worse. And it gets worse. We see a snapshot of his day to day activities in his solitude, and it’s weird as hell. Why did we need to see him milking an alien and immediately drinking it? On the plus side, the Porgs that everyone had been freaking out about since one appeared in the trailer are not so bad. When I saw the plush toys appearing everywhere ahead of the release I was worried it would be a pointless cutesy character thrown in to sell merchandise. They weren’t overdone though, they were utilized nicely, it makes sense that we would see some creatures native to the island. They may still just be merchandise bait but that’s not always a bad thing, only when it’s relentlessly shoved in our faces for no logical reason, and I didn’t feel they were. So kudos on being subtle enough with the cutesy critters. Intercut with these scenes of Luke and Rey’s lack of chemistry are scenes of Poe and Leia squandering the chemistry they had from the previous film, and Finn failing to have a spark of chemistry with the girl he will be spending the whole movie with, just some unmemorable new character who leaves barely any impression. And here we have what is maybe the biggest problem with the movie, the editing. The interlaced stories are thrown together at such a slapdash pace that there’s no time to get invested in any of them and by the time they come back around together it’s hard to tell how or why they all got there. Empire Strikes Back had all it’s characters going in different directions for the bulk of the movie as well, but there was plenty of time given for each story to develop. Here they keep cutting away at confusing times, just when we’re getting invested. They cut away from Luke just as he says “What happened to Han?” That was a moment where we could have seen some much needed emotion from Luke, but they cut away and never pick that up again, by the time we get back to the Luke and Rey story they appear to have completely forgotten about it. I want to see Luke’s feelings about his old friend dying, I want to see Rey reminisce about what he meant to her, most of all I want to see Luke and Rey have some sort of connection over this! It was the perfect opportunity and it’s lost forever in favor of cutting away to more pixels battling in space and Fin bonding with a character we don’t care about over the death of another character we don’t care about! What a waste. At least we get a good moment with Luke and R2. There’s nothing bad to say about that. It may have been the best moment in the movie. So let’s give credit where credit is due. That was a lovely little moment. Around this time we also get the rediculous moment that even those who are defending the movie can’t justify. Leia is blown out into the vacuum of space and uses the force to float back to safety. This is just dumb on it’s face. I realize we’re meant to suspend our disbelief with these movies, but there is always a limit to that, don’t pretend that there isn’t. Leia is not a water bear, she’s not gonna survive the vacuum of space. It seemed foolish right away but they push it even farther when she floats back into the ship like Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother. It was an already foolish situation made even more foolish by the execution. She looked silly. This puts Leia out of commission for a while and her role is temporarily usurped by Laura Dern. Laura Dern is an actress I’m typically a fan of, mainly from her work with David Lynch, and of course Jurassic Park, she also recently made a guest appearance on one of my favorite shows, Unbreakable Kimmmy Schmidt, and she was hilarious. She’s usually someone I am happy to see, but here she is an unwanted presence. Why did they decide to take Leia out and give what could have been her greatest moments to someone else? They had already set her and Poe at odds and began a storyline of the two of them vying for control and having opposing ideas on how to escape the danger right behind them. Then rather than see this through, they inexplicably take Leia out of it and bring in a character we don’t know and don’t care about. Why? What could possibly be the reason for this? Apparently it was all to establish this character ahead of time so that she could be sacrificed later, in an undeniably awesome scene. When the escaping resistance is attacked and all hope appears lost, Laura Dern does a kamakaze at light speed into the attacking First Order ship. This scene is executed phenomenally well. The sound cuts out completely as we see the light speed impact from multiple angles, the giant ship is split in half by a perfect slice of fiery light blue and the sound suddenly cuts back in with a huge crack. Amazing. The moment would have been perfect if the character sacrificing themselves wasn’t someone we were glad to see go. They had a perfect alternative, as many have already pointed out. Admiral Ackbar is a character the fans already have an attachment and affection for. For him to deliver this blow would have been a greater conclusion for this beloved character than anyone ever expected. Who would have ever thought that the funny fishhead guy most famous for his hammy screaming of “It’s a trap!” would go out with such a bad ass self-sacrifice? It would have been awesome! How perfect would that have been? How many wasted opportunities can you fit into one movie? Instead this beloved character’s death is nothing more than an afterthought. When we’re told that Leia is the only survivor of the attack on the ship we’re also told ‘by the way, Ackbar died.’ He went out like he was nothing at all. In the buildup to the release of this movie I was keeping invested in a lot of the media surrounding it, reading and watching a lot of interviews with those involved. What I learned about Rian Johnson was just that he was a big fan of the movies since he was a child, obvious enough, you’d clearly expect him to be. Why then, if he’s as big a fan as the rest of us, was he so disrespectful to a popular supporting character? Why did he feel a fan-favorite should be killed off with so little impact while a bland, uninteresting character of his own creation should get the biggest moment of the movie? It’s baffling. Meanwhile, Finn and whatsername are on a mission to do something for some reason, they’re supposed to find some guy but they get some other guy instead. Why? Structurally, from a writing standpoint, why send a main character to find some guy we’ve never heard of and instead have him go with some other guy we’ve never heard of? Are you just deliberately wasting time? What story purpose can the one guy we’ve never heard of serve that the other guy we’ve never heard of cannot? What is the point? Damned if I know. Anyway, the second guy we’ve never heard of is Benicio del Toro, he betrays them because he’s just like all the other amoral people at the casino where they found him while they were trying to find the other guy, so it seems like the other guy probably would have done the same thing, it seems like anyone they got from this pale imitation of A New Hope’s Cantina would have done the same thing. They established that it was full of amoral people so why the hell waste time switching from one unknown guy to the other? It all turns out to be useless anyway because they’re betrayed and their mission fails. The whole purpose of the plot line, story wise, was to set up the relationship between these two characters, a misguided move at best. We began to like Finn in The Force Awakens because he was on a journey that had a purpose and his story brought us to the other characters that we were just meeting, and who we already knew and were dying to see again. This time he was used only to introduce us to one character who serves no purpose at all except to join him on an ultimately purposeless distraction. Back at the Luke and Rey story, we learn the backstory behind the falling out between Luke and Ben Solo that caused him to become Kylo Ren. This was one of the many mysteries set up by The Force Awakens. I’m reminded of Lost, how the early seasons with JJ Abrams at the helm set up so many intriguing questions that had the whole world salivating for answers to. Later, after Abrams left the show, we get our answers and see that they weren’t nearly as exciting as the questions. Well JJ did it again. The questions set up by Abrams were so intriguing, and the answers so underwhelming. Maybe this is Abrams’ fault, he’s developing a pattern of teeing people up for failure. He should use the golden rule of mystery writing which is to start with an exciting conclusion and work backwards, that way you’re ending can’t disappoint. It’s unfair of Abrams to keep asking such huge questions and then leaving it to someone else to give a satisfying answer. You can almost forgive Rian Johnson for that one, but not for what he did with Snoke. If Abrams created Snoke during the writing of the first movie, and he’s directing the third, then Johnson could have just passed the buck to Abrams, left it on him to explain Snokes’ origins. Instead he killed him before we learned anything about him. The mystery of Snoke was not something that could be ignored this way. We saw the galactic empire destroyed and somehow this guy rebuilt it as the First Order with himself as the supreme leader. We saw the only two living Sith Lords die, there was no one left to train him, and somehow he became such a powerful Sith Lord, seemingly even more powerful than Palpatine based on what we saw him do in this movie. Now I guess the only answer we get to how he achieved this status is “somehow.” In Return of the Jedi we don’t need an explanation for Emperor Palpatine because his existence could serve as it’s own exposition, we didn’t need to know his origins because his existence was taken as given from the very beginning. That is not enough for Snoke, we know this universe now, we know the Empire was defeated and the last of the Sith died. Killing him without any explanation where he came from is unforgivable. Even if there is a plan to cover his origins in the third movie, it’s too late now, he already died and his death had almost no impact cause we still have no idea who he is. It’s treated like the mystery of Snoke was never a mystery at all, which is an insult. As for the mystery of Rey’s parentage, I actually kind of liked the revelation that they were nobodies. The connections throughout this series have gotten too over the top over the years. Of course the first familial revelation, between Luke and Vader, was a spectacular classic moment. Then the revelation that Leia was Luke’s sister was already pushing it, by the time we got to young Anakin building C-3PO, ugh. Not everything needs to be connected, it just makes the universe seem smaller, and what was initially so exciting about these stories was that the world the characters inhabited seemed so big, like there were infinite stories going on within it outside of our main characters. So I liked that they went the opposite way with the reveal on this one. I also liked the Yoda scene. The reveal was handled well, and Yoda was a puppet again instead of CGI’d, which I appreciate. His famously imitatable speech pattern was also done appropriately, unlike in the prequels where it was so embarrassingly overdone. Best of all, he was funny again. In the prequels, George Lucas apparently felt the need to drain all the humor out of Yoda, he doesn’t get a single laugh in the whole trilogy, but this movie restored Yoda’s comedy, and I love that. Great little moments like that kept giving me glimmers of hope that the movie might get it’s shit together at some point. But those short moments of greatness are fleeting, and do little to improve the overall product. By the time all the characters meet up at the climax I had very little hope anything could improve. After two movies of build-up to the return of Luke Skywalker, we get another nice little reunion, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher’s reunion was short but sweet. The ultimate climax is a build-up to what could have been a great Lightsaber battle, and then a major let down when it’s revealed that Luke is just using an unexplained Jedi power that’s never been seen or even hinted at before in this series. You can explain away a lot by saying “it’s The Force” but at a certain point you’re just using it as a crutch. In this case, it’s definitely a crutch. You think a satisfying conclusion is making up a random new magic power that hasn’t been seeded in any way and having that solve everything? That’s lazy. On the bright side of the conclusion, we get more cute little critters. There are these little foxes made of crystal or ice or something that live in the ice cave the rebellion retreats to, and when they’re looking for a way to escape they follow the ice critters to a hidden exit. It was good, they were appealingly designed and used sparingly but effectively. I honestly think that’s Rian Johnson’s strong point. He handles cutesy creatures very well. After all of this that is the best thing I can say about him. He can’t handle story structure worth a damn, he can’t edit in any logical way, he misses every great opportunity that falls in his lap, and he seems to have no respect for or understanding of the characters he has supposedly been a fan of all his life. He sure does know how to introduce a marketable space critter though. Maybe it seems like I’m being harsh on Rian Johnson, but if this movie had turned out good who could deny him the reward of relishing his success and lapping up the acclaim? People deserve to enjoy their victories, so they should also have to accept their failures as well. Famous people looking down on their critics drive me crazy, they live for the attention and acclaim when they do good work, and dismiss criticism of their bad work. You have to accept both extremes. Rian Johnson has failed us with this movie. The critics have not held him to task for it, so I hope the fans do, I hope people here on Reddit and on twitter and on every comment section of every website that mentions The Last Jedi complain about this movie endlessly so it cannot be ignored. I hope the fans force him to face the music for this. That may seem foolish to some, but nobody begrudges anyone when they say a piece of art inspired them, meant something to them, so we shouldn’t begrudge anyone for being angered by a bad piece of art, especially when it’s part of a series that means so much to so many. When the creator of this franchise came back to it to make the prequels, and they turned out to be a condescending insult to the fans, we held him accountable. For years he stubbornly brushed off the criticism like it didn’t matter but eventually he let someone else take the series. Because of that, we got two great movies, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One. If everyone involved in this movie is held accountable too, then maybe future movies will be as great as the others. Internet comments have to be good for something other than holding celebrities accountable for minor infractions of not being PC enough. How about we hold them accountable for their work instead? I’ve loved this franchise for 23 years. I’ve been tempted to give it up numerous times, but I always come back to it, because the best movies are better than the worst of the worst movies. I want these movies to be good, as so many fans do, but as so many other fans do as well, I will continue to pay good money to see them again and again whether they’re good or not. The studio knows this and if there’s no incentive to make a good product then they will continue to shovel out the same garbage. So Godspeed all you critics and haters and naysayers! More power to all you Negative Nancies! Get out there and complain, make your anger known on every corner of the internet! Let them know that you will not take a bad Star Wars movie lying down! Fight the good fight! May the force be with you always.

SOURCE https://www.reddit.com/r/STAR_WARS_LAST_JEDI/comments/7l5sx6/with_a_heavy_heart_i_have_to_say_this_was_a_bad/