#the captain proton trilogy

[recentanimenews]

Star Trek: Lower Decks – 09 – No Need For Theatrics

Ensign Mariner is in the midst of helping lizard people overthrow their oppressive masters (who also have a habit of eating them) and earnestly thinks she’s finally done something worthy of praise from her mom/captain, but Freeman isn’t having it, accusing Beckett of going against the Prime Directive.

Mariner vociferously protests in front of the aliens, and her mom orders her back to the ship, where she’s to report not to the brig, but somewhere even worse (to Mariner): therapy. Predictably, she makes no progress other than trashing a bonsai.

But when Boimler shows her a holodeck program of the Cerritos and near-perfect (and privacy-violating) approximation of its crew for the narrow purpose of practicing for an interview with the captain, it dawns on Mariner that the simulation could be used to work out her anger over her mom.

This results in one of the sendupiest good-natured sendups of Trek yet, this time focusing on the feature films. Appropriately, black letterbox bars appear to accommodate the wider aspect ratio and there’s suddenly a film grain and much more dramatic lighting and music. Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford are all along for the ride, but only Mariner knows the script.

What’s hilarious is that interwoven within Mariner’s unofficial holo-therapy session, Boimler still tries to use the modified simulation to determine what to say to the captain during their interview, even interrupting her birthday jet-ski session reserved only for senior staff.

But when the Cerritos is given a mission (which Mariner notes would normally be given to the Enterprise), we get the full Star Trek: The Motion Picture dramatic starship flyaround, with some truly epic beauty shots of the ship in spacedock, while the bridge and corridors are also more cinematically lit (a contrast to the usual TNG-style even TV lighting).

The impostor ship the Cerritos investigates suddenly decloaks off their bow; it’s a klingon ship crewed by Mariner in her vengeful villainess persona “Vindicta” (a clear reference to Captain Proton’s Chaotica from Voyager).

Tendi somewhat reluctantly portrays an Orion pirate (as she’s not your usual Orion IRL), Rutherford is similarly unconvincing as a baddie, while Mariner simply replaced Boimler (still on the Cerritos) with a knockoff she quickly vaporizes (the first of many grisly deaths) to show she means business.

Vindicta & Co. board the Cerritos and a corridor firefight ensues. Boimler is about to learn from Ransom what the captain is allergic to, cookie-wise, when he’s shot and killed before he gets the words out.

As Mariner seemingly takes more and more sadistic glee in massacring simulations of actual Cerritos crew members, Tendi is put off and leaves the holodeck (as well as the letterboxed format!) Tendi does not think it’s okay for Mariner to play up the Orion pirate/slave stereotype, especially if it means offering her Shaxs’ Bajoran earring as a trophy…with part of his ear still on it.

Still very much reveling in her Vindicta character, Mariner has the Cerritos crippled and it careens through the atmosphere of the nearby planet and crash lands in some snowy mountains, a truly epic scene that references both the saucer crash in Star Trek: Generations (albeit at a differen saucer angle) and the crash from Voyager‘s excellent 100th episode, “Timeless”.

Rutherford, who like Tendi really isn’t into this whole villain thing, instead decides to use the program the way Boimler intended, to get more insight into his engineering chief. He even manages to create a program that systematically transports the entire crew to safety before the ship crashed, impressing his superior.

Vindicta ends up in the climactic fight with Captain Freeman, but it’s not as satisfying as she’d have liked, since Freeman character has no idea who Vindicta is. That’s when we get a very cinematic twist and the “real” Beckett Mariner appears to beam her mom to safety and duel Vindicta (shades of Kirk fighting himself in Star Trek VI). 

Out on the planet surface, Boimler presents Freeman with some chocolate chip cookies on a blind gamble, but it turns out the captain is allergic to chocolate, and when Jet accuses him of trying to assassinate her, Freeman recommends Jet, not Boimler for promotion.

The two-Beckett fight ends in an apparent stalemate, but the one created by Boimler’s program never meant to win, only to buy time while the rest of the crew escapes and the self-destruct counts down. Vindicta (AKA the real Mariner) realizes that while sometimes she feels like blowing up the ship and stabbing her mom with a metal pole, at the end of the day she loves her mom, her friends, and her ship.

The self-destruct of the Cerritos ends the program. Mariner ends up making up with Tendi, Rutherford is unable to reach out to his superior, and most importantly, Mariner properly apologizes to her mom for how she acted with the Prime Directive-breaking. The movie transitions to a standard Trek All’s Well That Ends Well conclusion.

But that’s not all: when holo-Captain Freeman honors Ensign Mariner for sacrificing herself saving them, she no longer has any reason to conceal the truth: Mariner is her daughter. Believe it or not in all these nine episodes this is the first Boimler has learned of this! Unsure how to process the bombshell, he forgets his preparation and totally bombs in the interview with the captain. So he’ll remain an ensign for a little while yet.

As for Mariner’s movie, it ends a lot like Star Trek II, with a soft-landed photon torpedo tube in a lush jungle. But rather than a baby Spock, Vindicta rises and prepares for another round of bloody vengeance…only to be shot dead by holo-Leonardo da Vinci! That irreverent ending is followed by a more heartfelt homage, as the Lower Deckers’ signatures fly across the screen like those of the cast of Star Trek VI. 

It all makes for a marvelously-detailed, deliciously indulgent homage-parody of Trek movies while still moving forward the serialized character elements in preparation for Lower Decks first season finale.

Stray Observations:

The cold open’s statue-toppling is a reference to the fall of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad following the capture of the capital by coalition forces in 2003.

The vehicle used to pull down the statue is an ARGO, first seen in Nemesis.

The Cerritos therapist wears civilian clothes but has a Starfleet commbadge. He is also apparently a green hyperchicken, similar to the attorney in Futurama.

Voyager’s Captain Janeway often visited da Vinci’s workshop for advice and inspiration. He was played by Jonathan Rhys Davies, better known as Gimli (and the voice of Treebeard) from the LoTR trilogy.

That said, I love how the Cerritos’ Lower Deckers just do skeet shooting with him!

Mariner’s messing with Boimler’s program is reminicnet of Tom Paris and the Doctor’s dueling holo-novels in the Voyager episode “Author, Author”.

Mariner fills Vindicta’s early viewscreen dialogue with quotes from The Tempest, which is a nod to Klingon General Chang’s similar tendency throughout Star Trek VI.

The Cerritos’ warp effect is given more bells and whistles for the movie treatment, while there are numerous lens flares, a nod to J.J. Abrams’ lighting style in 2009’s rebooted Star Trek.

Shaxs mentions Pah-Wraiths, who were the evil version of the Prophets introduced in DS9.

In his engineering technobabble, Rutherford mentions both “sativa” and “indica”, the two major strains of marijuana.

Rutherford also explains how he was able to transport the whole crew to safety as the ship was crashing with the hand-waving line “It’s a movie! We can do whatever we want!” For good or worse, many of the movies did just that.

Due to technical difficulties, I had to take screenshots…with my phone.

By: sesameacrylic

[linuxgamenews]

Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle is certainly worth a look

Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle offers 28 games for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the joint effort between publisher Team17 and Humble Bundle. Available as a pay what you want deal worth a look. So, the greatest hits and bits by Team17 have a decent number of Linux games. Sheltered? Awesome. Overcooked! 2? Plenty of fun, either alone or with friends. The Escapists? Above all, you can appreciate some light hearted prison insight?! You certainly will when you grab the Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle. Full of some of the studio’s best games. And while you’re enjoying yourself, you can enjoy knowing your purchase benefits a charity of your choice. Pay $1 USD or more. Since the total cost for the games in this bundle is as much as $366 USD. Even more, the Humble Bundle team lets you choose the price. So you can increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle. Also, for convenience, I've marked all the Proton games. Most have at least Gold support with an average of Platinum. While Worms Rumble has Bronze support. As a result, take this into account with the Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle.

Tier 1 - $1 USD

Overruled!

Mugsters (with Proton)

11 item tier @ $15 USD

Flockers

Sheltered

The Escapists

Aven Colony (with Proton)

Alien Breed Trilogy (with Proton)

Ageless (with Proton)

Hell Let Loose - 20% Off Store Coupon (expires Oct 6, 2021) [with Proton]

Hokko Life - 25% Off Store Coupon (expires Oct 6, 2021) [with Proton]

Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle Games

Tier 3 with 19 items @ $15.82 USD

Overcooked - The Lost Morsel (DLC)

The Escapists - Alcatraz (DLC)

Worms Rumble - New Challengers Pack (DLC)

Worms Rumble - Legends Pack (DLC)

Overcooked (with Proton)

Worms Rumble (with Proton)

Yoku's Island Express (with Proton)

Yooka-Laylee

The Escapists - Escape Team (DLC)

The Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle 28 item tier @ $20 USD

The Escapists 2

My Time At Portia (with Proton)

Overcooked! 2

Worms Rumble - Armageddon Weapon Skin Pack (DLC)

Worms Rumble - Captain & Shark Double Pack (DLC)

The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever (DLC)

My Time At Portia - NPC Attire Package (DLC)

The Escapists 2 - Big Top Breakout (DLC)

Overcooked! 2 - Too Many Cooks Pack (DLC)

Of course, all of the games in Humble Team17 Greatest Hits Bundle are available on Steam. Since this includes 100% support for Windows PC. Likewise, the better games seem to have Linux and Mac build. So pick and choose which bundle works for you. Above all support charity with a pay what you want deal. You choose where the money goes. So between the developer and a charity of your choice via PayPal Giving Fund. You can also drop a Humble Tip too. But finally, it's all totally up to you.

[xspiderfanx]

Hetalia America headcanons:

one of America's favorite movies is Ghostbusters. he actually has the uniform and a replica proton pack and he will usually be a Ghostbuster for Halloween.

America sleeps in a Captain America onesie. America will turn up the AC just so he can wear that onesie if he has to.

America sings the Ghostbusters theme song in the shower. and sometimes instead he'll sing the song Star Spangled Man With A Plan, from the first Captain America movie.

sometimes America will do entire performances of Hamilton in his living room, with him being all the characters. all of them. he tries so hard to act as everyone at once bc he's the only person even there.

America LOVES the Back To The Future trilogy. he has an entire Marty McFly cosplay (he can't do Marty's hair, though, he can't get his cowlick in a wig and doesn't wanna dye his hair). he even secretly has a DeLorean in his garage.

[dalekofchaos]

My problems with The Last Jedi

I did not like The Last Jedi, I strongly feel like it's the worst Star Wars movie ever made. It’s The Room Of Star Wars and worse than The Holiday Special, but let me tell you why I don’t like it and why I feel it killed the Sequel Trilogy for me

My other Sequel Trilogy Critical posts

My TFA critical post

The Incompetence Of The First Order

Why Kylo Ren being redeemed is a bad idea

My problem with Rey

The wasted potential of Captain Phasma

The lowsped chase. Now onto the chase, or as I like to call it “the dumbest bit of military nonsense since the Emu war.” You have the First Order Fleet chasing the Resistance flotilla, supposedly the Resistance fleet is “faster” but they aren’t opening the gap between them and the First Order because… it would burn more fuel (because inertia isn’t a thing in Star Wars Space)? So they stay just at the extreme range of the First Order’s guns, and the Raddus has to be on the receiving end of a potshot every once in a while. Meanwhile said Resistance ships are flying in a straight line, direct away from the First Order fleet, so why not just set course past them and Hyperspace in front of them and catch them in the middle? Are interdictors at play here? Are they content to just think the fleet will run out of fuel and they can just catch them? It bothers me to understand that the heroes are only alive because of the gross incompetence of the First Order, because it doesn’t speak well to the capabilities of the heroes. Let me ask you what would be more exciting? The Resistance and The New Republic uniting their forces and having a big battle while Leia is using battle meditation so she can lead The Resistance to victory? Or a boring lowsped chase that involves being low on fuel, something never being talked about in Star Wars at all and have a edgelord ending where The Resistance is in ruins and only has 12 members left just so The Resistance can fit on the Falcon? It was so STUPID. Hyperspace fuel is never talked about for a reason, it cheapens the greatness of hyperspace travel and is not needed. We watch Star Wars for oh I don’t know a war in space. We didn’t need a boring lowsped chase, we needed an actual fight between The Resistance/New Republic and The First Order. With Leia’s battle meditation up against Snoke’s battle meditation. Leia’s will against Snoke’s might. 

The First Order reigns. I am just baffled at the crawl. “The First Order reigns” HOW??? They lost Starkiller Base and a huge majority of their forces. How are they in control of the galaxy?  SINGLE DAY HAS PASSED, HOW DO THEY HAVE ENOUGH FORCES TO TAKE CONTROL OF THE GALAXY??? The New Republic just gives up? That’s like saying the terrorists took control over the world after 9/11. The First Order are a fringe terrorist group, they are not the Empire. They should not be in control. Unknown Regions resources or not, they should not be powerful enough to reign supreme over the galaxy. What should have happened is The New Republic’s forces should’ve joined forces with The Resistance and take the fight to The weakened First Order. It’s also complete bullshit The First Order would take over considering The First Order’s terrible tactics. It’s just...baffling.

The First Order’s Incompetence during the Evacuation of D’Qar. Hux is goaded into allowing a Starfighter into point blank range with one of their fleet’s more valuable assets, he doesn’t launch a fighter screen to keep that fighter at bay, and when a real danger is detected, still does nothing. Captain Canady is left to launch his own fighters from Fulminatrix, and gets no support from Hux or the rest of the First Order fleet. Hux doesn’t launch support fighters, direct their batteries to put up defensive fire covering the dreadnought, nothing, no he’s too busy massaging his bruised ego because some flyboy put him on tilt with what amounts to a practical joke, and an 8km long warship pays the price for their incompetence. Now onto said Dreadnought. They have this weapon that is capable of dealing planetary bombardment and chooses to fire on a nearly abandoned planet instead of targeting the Resistance ship that is used to carry The Resistance fleet. Destroy The Raddus and you can easily pick a part The Resistance easily. Instead of doing the most intelligent thing, they chose to do the stupid thing.

The horrible bombing run. The bombers chosen for the Evacuation of D’Qar are a goddamn liability. MG-100 StarFortress SF-17 or The Resistance Heavy Bombers is just bad. It makes no sense. The Resistance has updated X-Wings, so why wouldn’t they have  Y-Wings, B-Wings, and A-Wings? They are more effective and less of a liability.  Y-Wings would have been way more effective than those new ships, which basically all just flew around until they were shot down one after the other and accomplished nothing. Like, only one of them even achieved what they set out to do... Pitiful. Y-Wings are fighter/bombers, they would have destroyed the Dreadnought with no casualties whatsoever. Y-Wings upgraded with new proton bombs would’ve got the job done, but that would’ve been overkill. They are the ships that beat the Malevolence and cut through the Ryloth blockade like butter, after all. They pack a punch with proper support, and they can at least outrun the explosives they drop. Before anyone tells me the Y-Wings, B-Wings and A-Wings are outdated technology hasn’t radically advanced in Star Wars for thousands of years. The Y-Wing is relatively young compared to most other ship designs. The A-Wing is conceptually older, being a derivative of the old Aethersprite Jedi Starfighter that was in use before the Clone Wars, just like how the X-Wing is a derivative of the ARC-170 and Z-95 Headhunter, and the B-Wing was probably inspired by the V-19 Torrent, and everyone knows the Star Destroyers haven’t changed at all for probably thousands of years. There’s no reason why it couldn’t have just been refined and improved upon like every other starship in the universe has been. If we go with the assumption that they were outdated and ineffective, then there were far better replacements than some slow bombers made of paper. For example, B-Wings, which were supposed to be their replacement in Return of the Jedi and were brand new at the time, and K-Wings, which were a replacement for both of them in Legends, both would’ve been very viable options. They also wouldn’t have broken the “small, fast, and maneuverable” tenet of the Rebel/Resistance design philosophy. Anyway, the Resistance still didn’t need any specialized bomber. All the Resistance needed to do was replicate what they did to Starkiller Base in the last movie. The dreadnought’s “point-defense” turrets aren’t fast enough to target one X-Wing (lol, what a stupid movie), so there’s no reason why a squadron of X-Wings can’t just bombard the weak spot with enough proton torpedoes until the dreadnought gives up. It’d probably just take one or two, as well. Instead, we got a glass cannon sent to destroy another glass cannon, with no trace of escorting ships or other noticeable strategy beyond “FIRE EVERYTHING!!!”    

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

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

The treatment of Chewbacca. This movie failed Chewbacca. Chewie is not allowed to mourn the death of his decades-long companion to whom he owed a life debt nor is he allowed a moment of forgiveness and reconciliation with Luke. Nor is he given a scene mourning the deaths of Han and Luke with Leia. What does Chewie get? Barely any screen time, Rey has to translate Chewie to Luke WHEN LUKE KNOWS HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH CHEWIE and instead of just letting him eat in peace, he is made to feel guilty of his predator nature and is used as a bad “eating animals is bad” message. He doesn’t even try to talk Rey out of her dumbass plan and is used as a matchmaker tool for her and Finn. His biggest moment is a fucking comic relief scene with Porgs. In this new trilogy they don’t treat Chewie like a person. I was pretty appalled in TFA too, when Chewie and General Organa literally ignore each other, walk past each other without so much as a glance and then Rey gets a hug? Chewie was Han Solo’s companion and best friend for at least a half-century, stuck with him when Han and Leia broke up, and he’s not even allowed to mourn onscreen? Chewie and Leia don’t even interact during the end of TLJ at all. Chewie is not allowed to mourn for any of his best friends at all nor is he allowed to try and talk Rey out of her obvious dangerous plan by going to the man WHO KILLED HIS BEST FRIEND, in what way would Chewie even be okay with that? This is a day later, a single day and the wounds are still fresh. And he is mainly used as comic relief and is not used as a character and hero of the rebellion nor is he allowed to grieve. Chewbacca deserved so much better.

The lack of respect for Admiral Ackbar. The fans hated it and the puppeteer Tim Rose and actor Jamie Stangroom hated it. “So in The Last Jedi, I was quite looking forward to maybe them giving him something more juicy,” Rose said. “We were only given the script on the day when we were shooting that piece of script, so each day I would come to work going, ‘Is today the day when Ackbar gets something a bit more involving?’ And I looked at my script and I went, ‘Oh, Ackbar’s going out of the window. Well, that’s that then!’ I wasn’t quite dead yet.” “We finished all of our bits and they asked me to come down to camera. And I thought, ‘Oh well, maybe they’re going to say thank you for being one of the heritage characters and giving 30 years and all that.’ But what they did was, they gave me a Millennium Falcon sign that had the day and the date on it, the scene number, and they said, ‘Can you look at camera and say ‘It’s a wrap?’ Because that would be really funny.’ “I was actually in tears in the suit because I thought – after everything, after hoping there’d be something, after knowing there wasn’t going to be anything else, Ackbar’s final moment before he went in to the box was a big joke about ‘It’s a wrap.’ They just thought ‘Wouldn’t it be funny?’ And that was the sum total of my life as Ackbar.” Once again, absolutely no respect for the legacy characters, Rian Johnson doesn’t give a damn about the characters from the Original Trilogy. Ackbar was crucial to the Rebel Alliance, he is an iconic character and is given an off screen death and the actor is made to give a tasteless joke. Fucking garbage.

No emotional scene of Leia and Chewbacca. Leia lost her love and her brother. Chewie lost his two best friends. We don’t get to see the two of them grieve and comfort each other. It’s in the novel, but not in the movie. This is one of the moments where showing is better than telling. 

The Death of Paige Tico.  if you are a casual fan and have no knowledge of who these new characters are in TLJ, then you would have no idea who Paige is and why Rose is crying until you see their twin pendants. And the way they went about her death was just bad. The bombers they chose to have were so slow and clunky that it’s laughable. Why don’t they have Y-Wings? The Resistance has weapons and ships from The Rebel Alliance and you’re telling me there are no Y-Wings? More onto Paige.  Killing Paige without establishing who she is or why she is important to Rose is just god awful. You establish characters and connections they might have before killing them or it’ll lose all the impact. What could have been done after destroying the Star Destroyer. Paige escapes and rejoins the fleet. We get a touching scene of Rose and Paige reuniting. We also get to see Paige mourn for the losses of her squad members. We see a love/hate relationship with Poe, but eventually Paige trusts Poe and sees him as a leader. While Finn and Rose go to Canto Bight, Paige and Poe work together on the Raddus. And if Paige has to die, then show her sacrifice herself to stop the canon. There you go, we have a tragic death that is just as emotional and you get to see why she is important and instead of being killed off so early we get to know her and her relationship with Rose and her death is not wasted potential. The worst part about Paige’s death is that Ngô Thanh Vân has no speaking lines and we never get to see Rose and Paige’s sisterly dynamic and a WOC with no speaking lines was fridged.

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

Finn is changed from one of the main protagonists to being a side character in his own trilogy.  Finn’s character arc from The Force Awakens was dropped completely in The Last Jedi. He does want Rey to be safe, but Finn just wants to run away, despite the fact that he learned to be courageous, face his fears and stay and fight at the end of TFA.  The First Order kidnapped Finn as a child, from his family(possibly killed his family) he was able to leave The First Order and resist the indoctrination. He no longer wanted to fight, he wanted to leave everything, he wanted Rey to come with him. When Rey was captured, Finn had something to fight for and when Kylo Ren pushed her. Finn finally stood up to his past and The First Order. He overcame his fear. So Finn should have been wanting to fight The First Order and become a big deal in The Resistance, we could have even seen Finn inspiring a Stormtrooper rebellion  against Phasma and The First Order. Finn just wanting to leave is just bad writing and backtracks his entire character arc from TFA.  Finn is the first Stormtrooper to show a real personality, child soldier, who risked his life to find his own freedom and save the known galaxy and ended up in a coma for it. Finn was meant to be a main character, instead he is a supporting character to Rose. Forced to be embarrassed and pointless.  He already learned about being brave and truthful. What happened about his past? His brothers and sisters? The family he’ll never know? Why does he share close to no scenes with Rey and Poe? Why does he get nothing to do?  Finn was the FO’s best Stormtrooper, one of the best, to the point where he was considered Captain material and because of this Finn would recognize the Hyperspace tracker. Finn also has an almost perfect photographic memory due to being able to memorize the layout of both Starkiller base and the Supremacy with extreme accuracy. Kylo Ren had been impressed with Finn‘s capabilities during their lightsaber duel on Starkiller to the point Kylo had to tap deeper into the dark side to beat Finn. Finn is one of the most compelling protagonists of the franchise, right along with Ahsoka and Luke, because while he is the most dangerous to both sides of the war due to his skills and knowledge, he actively tries to save lives instead of end them. Finn’s upbringing left no room for love. He was stolen away from his family before he could even make memories of them. He tried to dedicate himself to the the First Order, but couldn’t. Finn chose to leave the only life he had known because he couldn’t let even one innocent life be senselessly killed. Finn deserves to be known as one of the Sequel Trilogy’s main heroes and not shoved to the sides. Let’s talk about Finn in TLJ.  My problem for Finn in TLJ is that he is reduced to Rose’s sidekick and is made into a racist slapstick caricature. The first real problem for Finn. He is reduced to a slapstick joke in his very first scene. Finn awakens from his coma, slams his face and it is revealed that he isn’t even on the medical ship or even in the medbay on the Raddus...he is in the cargo hold and is made to be a joke. This is the Co-protagonist of the trilogy, and he’s reintroduced as a slapstick joke. Then once again he wants to runaway. I am getting a real racist vibe that Rian Johnson sees Finn as the cowardly black man troupe. That’s just downright disgusting. Moving on. Finn is paired with Rose Tico, honestly I want to like her, but bad writing prevents that. Finn is put with someone who abuses him and we are supposed to root for this and see it as romance? Let me explain. Finn is then tazed by Rose, which is understandable, she thought he was running away and she was in mourning. He also was objectively posing absolutely no threat to her, wasn’t running away, and was even trying to explain himself. Additionally, just the threat of the taser seemed to have been enough to stop him from leaving. But Rose attacked him anyways. The difference between Rey and Rose attacking Finn is Rey subdued Finn just enough to stop and interrogate him, Rose went completely overboard by paralyzing him and knocking him unconscious. It was completely unnecessary and gratuitous. Rey and Finn have a real friendship and partnership from the last movie. Rose, on the other hand, spends the rest of the movie belittling Finn and talking down to him. The book also says that she thought about using violence against him more than once after the tasing (for annoying her) and even pushed him. This displays a really problematic pattern of violence and disrespect towards Finn so yeah,  multiple uses of violence and expressed desire to inflict violence on him as being abusive. I would argue that she is undeniably verbally abusive with Finn. In the movie and in the book (more so in the book) she often belittles him by calling him names and using other put downs. It seems she wants to make him feel bad about himself and bring him down, which is abusive. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what her intent is, even if she doesn’t “mean to be mean” it still counts as verbal abuse. So, in summary, her repeated threats and use of violence against Finn and her continual use of insults and put downs causes me to come to the conclusion that she is abusive to Finn. Then Finn is made to fail. The only time he is allowed to be portrayed has the protagonist is him facing his abuser and taking him down. My only problem is they cut out Phasma’s better death scene. Finn reveals Phasma shut down the shields for Starkiller Base, and that gets the Stormtroopers to turn on Phasma. This is what I would hope starts a Stormtrooper Rebellion. Finn’s defection was withheld information by Hux and Phasma in fear of a full on rebellion. Humanizing Stormtroopers and having one become a hero is kind of genius, but the way they did it in Episode 7 made it seem like Finn was the ONLY good Stormtrooper, which has to be an impossibility. If one Stormtrooper can suddenly switch sides, what's to say that others couldn't? And since Episode IX will most likely see the fall of the First Order, I personally think that Finn should convince all (or most of) the Stormtroopers to turn against Kylo and Hux, leading to a cool final scene where the First Order is ultimately destroyed by their own henchmen, children who were abducted and indoctrinated take back their narrative. That would be cooler and more unique, I think, than another Resistance vs. First Order space shootout, or Rey and her possible Jedi apprentice army taking them down. The most insulting part of the movie is the last part. Finn’s suicide run. Finn was the best Stormtrooper and knows about The First Order’s weapons, he should know full well that speeder would be destroyed trying to destroy the mini death star. Finn’s attempted sacrifice was pointless, Finn was treated like garbage throughout the movie, he deserved better.

The lack of empathy and care for Finn in TLJ. He is constantly belittled and mocked throughout the movie. In The Force Awakens, Finn fights Kylo Ren. He does well, but is ultimately defeated.  He is slashed in the shoulder and the spine by Kylo Ren and falls into the snow, unconscious. Now if this were in the first 6 movies, Finn would be dead or would be paralyzed. But because it’s a Disney movie, Finn heals up. Rey continues the fight and slashes Ren across the face, leaving him with a gash. The characters all escape, but Finn has to be carried to a medical station, unconscious until TLJ. Kylo Ren seems fine, ultimately jumping in a TIE fighter to try and kill his mom before getting patched up further.  Finn, again, has to wake up before doing anything. Here’s the difference between Finn and Kylo’s injuries.  Finn awakens in a medical bed wearing a bacta suit.  His first instinct is to call out for Rey. As he jolts up, he slams his head against the medical container.  He slams against it again. Regaining awareness, he opens up the medical container to find himself alone in a cargo room.  He falls out of the bed, spraying medical fluids all over the place.  He trudges down the hallway until Poe and BB-8 find him. His injuries are never mentioned, shown, or even referenced again.  Kylo, on the other hand, is asked by Snoke how his wound is, to which he responds “it’s nothing.”  He then takes that ridiculous thing off, complete with a close-up of a sad kylo Ren face, with his sutures  framed to draw attention to them. This happens again in the elevator.  Then we get a scene of him getting patched up soberly by a medical droid.  Then we get a shirtless scene as a final showcase of his other two scars.  Throughout the film, Kylo’s scars are present and framed as a constant reminder that he went through pain.  Finn’s injuries are used as a joke once and promptly forgotten, and let’s not pretend that these injuries are  one-to-one aside from how they’re framed.  Remember Finn received injuries trying to protect Rey, while Kylo received injuries trying to murder Rey. Finn received a deep wound across his spine, which can often be fatal in the real world.  Kylo received a gash across his face.  Finn’s injuries were worse and nobly gained. Kylo’s injuries were comparatively tame and well deserved.  Yet the movie uses Finn’s pain as a joke, and Kylo’s pain as a humanizing factor. That Rey, as well as the director, cinematographer, and a considerable portion of the audience sees a scar and is willing to find sympathy with the person, no matter what they have done, is pretty reprehensible. Not only is Kylo Ren’s scar not enough to be considerably a change to his appearance, as Rian Johnson specifically modified the location of his scar because, “it looked goofy,” the scar is not the mark of an accident or from an assault, but rather from a failed assault on his part. Also, I could get into how messed up it is that scars that don’t fit Rian Johnson’s preferred model are considered goofy. Is a scar that isn’t kept to one side of the face not worth showing? Is a person with a scar you don’t personally like somehow less able to be taken seriously? By treating Kylo’s minor wounds as a big, life-changing deal, and treating Finn’s life-threatening wounds as a trivial matter of no more consequence than a joke, The Last Jedi reinforces century-old stereotypes about Black people. Specifically, it implies that Black people are somehow less affected by pain, have higher pain tolerances, or cannot be physically damaged the way White people can. This is a demonstrated, dangerous trend, where white people actually perceive Black people as experiencing less pain than White people under the same situations. Older textbooks, including some used as recently as late 2017, suggest Black people over-report the pain that they are experiencing. Doctors have declined to give painkillers to Black patients expressing the same level of discomfort that would grant a White patients the same painkillers, and some surgeons even believe that less anesthesia is needed for operations on Black people. This, of course, goes beyond the medical field, where Black people are not believed when they speak about suffering, and are expected to take more physical abuse than their White counterparts. However as the injuries are framed in a medical setting in this movie, I wanted to primarily address the medical bias as in the real world. This has been referred to as an empathy gap. When two people are hurt, with everything except the skin colour being the same, and White people feel worse for the hurt White person, there is a gap in empathy. Now, when the conditions are not the same, and the White person deserves to be hurt, and is hurt much less, and is still empathized with more, and the White man’s acts of attempted murder are framed as romance, while the Black man’s friendship is framed as harassment. Let’s also talk about Finn’s treatment. He’s placed alone in a room filled with cargo, without any monitoring.  It’s almost like the medical staff doesn’t even deem his injury serious enough to receive attention.  He’s not on the medical ship, which we know they have.  He’s not even in the Raddus’s Medical Bay, which, again, we know they have. Finn is isolated, left unattended,  injures himself, and stumbles out into the hallway without any assistance. All for a joke.  Finn’s injury should have been treated with respect and acknowledgement. A scene with the doctors examining his injuries, telling Finn he is medically clear to join The Resistance and Finn  sorrowed by his inability to help his friends, would have been light-years better than a scene where Kylo looks sad getting hurt while trying to kill people.

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

Poe was right and Holdo’s incompetence.  Poe was absolutely right. He was right on taking down the Dreadnought. He was right in sending Finn and Rose to find the codebreaker. He was right with the mutiny, but the film for some reason tries to paint Poe as a dumbed down trigger happy flyjockey.  big portion of the drama would have been saved if she just informed her now second in command her plan, hell she doesn’t even tell Connix who is the expert in evacuation. She disrespected pretty much everyone on the Raddus and surprised when Poe starts a mutiny?  This is why I believe that Poe did nothing wrong in The Last Jedi.   - While he lost a lot of lives, Poe was right in trying to bring down that Dreadnought. Poe’s reasoning for this run is that the Dreadnought is a “Fleet-killer”, and taking it out now could save hundreds, if not thousands of lives down the line. Yes, they lose all of their bombers and some of their fighters. Maybe 50-60 soldiers. However, the run is successful. The Dreadnought, which we see obliterate the surface of a planet with a single shot, is destroyed. - Poe was revealed to be completely justified with the attack at the beginning, that destroyer was the only First Order ship with orbital bombardment cannons that have longer range, punch through the toughest shields and shred the biggest ships. If he didn’t do that, it would’ve followed them through hyperspace and destroyed the Raddus pretty quickly. Leia probably realized this which is why she gave her blessing to Poe to “jump in a ship and blow stuff up” just before the attack by the Supremacy. - Poe didn’t disobey an order, he had convinced Leia of the plan. She was always in command, the call was always hers, and she decided to go through with it. However, when the consequences of the run are made apparent, she blames Poe instead of taking responsibility for her own call. - The Resistance drops out of hyperspace and is followed by the First Order. Poe’s concerns are entirely vindicated, and I think it’s hard to deny that the following engagement would have gone far, far worse for the rebels had the Dreadnought still been in play. Even assuming they survived that, what were they going to do once they got down to the salt planet? We saw this thing kill a planet earlier in the film. - The only reason the rebels ultimately survive is because of this bombing run. This is never acknowledged, however, and Vice Admiral Holdo takes command and proceeds to dress Poe down just for asking for his orders and the plan. Keep in mind that Poe isn’t just some grunt. Even with his demotion, he’s your second or third in command, and he has the respect of the entire crew, as evidenced by his later leading a majority of the crew in mutiny against Holdo. - Finn and Rose come up with a plan to stop the Hyperspace Tracking. He knows The Supremacy will continue to track the Raddus no matter what,  at this point Poe doesn’t really see any other alternative besides just possibly letting everybody die at the hands of an incompetent commander. It’s the only plan he’s been given, so he goes for it. -Holdo brought her personal crew from her ship and worked with them while snubbing the main rebel crew entirely. That’s a bit of a dick move, protocol or not. Continuing on Holdo.  In Bloodline, Holdo doesn’t stand up for Leia when Leia presents evidence that the First Order is a real threat. Why would Holdo have a ranking position in the Resistance when she didn’t think there was a need for it? -Connix assisted in Poe’s mutiny and she is  the “ultimate authority” on carrying out a retreat. Why was she not told about the plan? Her position and placement on the bridge next to Holdo is pretty “need to know”. -One of the biggest issues was not that Holdo wasn’t telling Poe the plan, but it was acting as if there was really no other plan. She was literally taking personal jabs at him when he was trying to find something out. If she said something like. “While it seems bad , we are working on a plan right now. We are not just going to stay here and have everyone die. Just have your pilots ready to go at a moment’s notice” But she didn’t even give him that. Remember up until Poe taking over, they were watching ship after ship being picked off slowly. The crew was given nothing and was told just to trust her. Blind faith in leadership is a horrible message. If that is the take away then why not just do what the First Order or the Empire wants. I mean seemingly they are in charge of stuff now. And we should follow orders blindly. Moreover they were down to < 1000 people, and from the POV of everyone else she was just watching people die. Rank be jammed. Anyone who cared about their crew would do something. He was a Commander and the flight commander there is NO way he should have been left out in the cold. Then I like how they talk about his spunk over his knocked-out body. -When Poe finally mutinies with a large portion of the crew, Leia stuns him and it’s revealed that the plan was to empty their fuel reserves and send the escape pods to a nearby salt planet. However, when the plan goes into action, Finn and Rose’s contact betrays them and tells the First Order about the escape pods. This results in many of the escape pods being destroyed.This is played up to be Poe’s failure, but I disagree immensely. It’s Holdo’s failure.She had literally no reason not to tell anyone the plan. Poe, while his plan ultimately failed, had no reason to believe that Holdo wasn’t going to get them all killed. Nor did the crew. She’d given neither of them any indication that she was a competent commander, or that she had anything resembling a plan. In the face of that, Poe had the choice of either possibly letting everyone die, or trying something that, while it probably wouldn’t work, might just save the lives of everyone on that ship. In the context of the situation, I think Poe absolutely made the right choice, and any blame for what happened falls firmly on Holdo’s shoulders for being an incompetent leader who never inspired her crew or gave them any reason to believe in her, and yet expected them all to trust her with their lives and just believe that she was making the right decisions. -Holdo’s plan was stupid. Based on the First Order not having any WINDOWS. And based on being unwilling to admit she HAD no plan, and WAS in fact just trying to bail everyone out and see how many, if any, survived. She didn’t ram the Supremacy until almost every escape pod had been destroyed. HOLDO caused the deaths of far, far more Resistance personnel and soldiers than Poe ever did. HOLDO let her vanity and vainglory get in the way of effective leadership – if the people ON THE BRIDGE, FUELING YOUR TRANSPORTS, are helping to organize a mutiny against you because your plan is bad and going to get them killed, that’s a bad plan.  Holdo’s entire action was based on wanting Leia to be proud of her, and not Poe, honestly. And granted: that’s a perspective we know that Poe can have, too, but what Poe wants more than anything else is to make sure the Resistance survives and the First Order is brought down without a chance of restarting the way the Empire did. Holdo mainly seems to want to be in charge and restart the New Republic that failed to stop the Empire’s roots to grow into the First Order in the first place, and she was unwilling to ACT against the First Order until what, twelve Rebels were left?  She could have saved all of those unarmed, unshielded escape pods if she’d rammed the Supremacy as soon as the last pod detached from the cruiser. But she didn’t, because she never planned to take any actual actions to stop the First Order. Holdo’s idea of resistance was so passive, so laissez-faire, that she might as well have been a First Order mole for all the good she did. The difference between “the fire that will restore the Republic” and “the fire that will burn the First Order down” is immeasurable. Holdo – quintessentially in a White Feminist move – wanted to “rebel” only as far as it restored her own place of power in the Galaxy as a Senator in the broken New Republic that ignored the growing threat of fascism until the NR itself was destroyed. (This New Republic she wants to restore being the same one that allowed slavery to flourish “in secret” across the Galaxy, allowed for poverty like that on Jakku, allowed for the immoral disparity of wealth and power on Cantonica). In the novel Leia Princess Of Alderaan, Holdo’s “rebellion” doesn’t actually exist – she cares about people, specifically her own friends and the people for whom she is the Junior Senator, on Gatalenta. Holdo doesn’t really care about the good of the Galaxy. She cares about herself. Poe doesn’t care about restoring the New Republic. The New Republic is who looked him in the face and said that deaths caused by the First Order didn’t matter – or didn’t exist. They were corrupt and complacent, and they refused to acknowledge that the ideals of the Empire had not actually died down. Their treatment of poor, disenfranchised Systems – those whom the Empire had most exploited, in some cases – caused those same Imperial ideals to take root again and blossom as an open secret. They allowed for the Centrists’ (literal) xenophobia to be communicated like a legitimate viewpoint, keeping some Imperial POVs mainstream when they could have been condemned. The New Republic did not deserve to be destroyed with Starkiller Base, but it also didn’t do enough good to warrant being restored as it was. Poe cares about ending the First Order. Holdo doesn’t.If Holdo doesn’t care about preventing the tyranny of the First Order, then what exactly is she resisting…? Poe Dameron did absolutely nothing wrong in this movie, and he’s by far the most competent commander the rebels have at the moment.

The wasted potential of Rose Tico. Rose could’ve been so much more. I wanted to like her, Kelly Marie Tran did an amazing job, but bad writing held the character back. From the promos and info about Rose, I was excited. She wax this underdog Resistance mechanic who along with her bomber sister, was going to do her part in fighting the First Order, I thought she was a welcome addition to the Sequel Trio, the Lando for the Sequel Trio. What we got instead was just...bad. Instead of actually using her mechanic skills to help save The Resistance and keep The Raddus flying, we got a sideplot takes place away from the central story, on some random casino planet that’s message I could get from any grade school understanding of the world while calling the sole black man/use to be male lead a coward the whole film, forgetting he helped come up with the plan that destroyed the last movie’s super weapon then fought space Neo-Nazis. Then her trying to stop Finn’s sacrifice, and “that’s how we win, not by fighting what we hate, by saving what we love.” That makes no sense and ignores the entire narrative of Star Wars and heroism of the saga. Paige, her sister sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. Holdo sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. The Rogue One sacrificed themselves. Finn's entire arc in the movie was learning not to just think about running away with Rey and fight for a greater cause and when the time comes for Finn to prove that he's grown as a character, he can't? What was the point of Finn's arc in the movie? And let's talk about Poe. Shouldn't Poe be sacrificing himself? Poe has spent the entire film watching others die and give their lives and he's never backed down, so shouldn't Poe be in Finn's place? And if Rose stopped Finn who would save The Resistance? We saw after Rose stopped Finn, the bunker was blown up by the battering ram. Absolutely NO ONE knew that Luke was going to make his surprise entrance and save everyone. For all we knew, The First Order would've moved into the bunker and killed everyone and The Resistance. I actually personally love Kelly Marie Tran, I just think her character was wasted and really hope they truly use Rose to her full potential in Episode IX. I want Rose Tico to appreciate and value not only herself, but her skills as a mechanic. Maybe even develop some computer skills and be The Resistance’s hacker. It’s not unrealistic for the Resistance to have one. She could still think her skills aren’t useful considering most Wars have been won by soldiers and Jedi, not hackers but grow and learn that her skills as a mechanic and hacker are valued.

Kylo Ren is downgraded from his amazing character in the Force Awakens.  Everything about Kylo Ren in TFA is amazing. Kylo Ren was  a well-rounded antagonist that broke the clichés of most of modern villains. Kylo Ren was a complex and layered character who wasn’t glorified or idealized for his morally wrong actions, so powerful in both the force and with his lightsaber. A hint that the lost child was still in there, but still chose to kill his father to reject redemption and chose to be who he was by choice regardless of his positive upbringing. Kylo Ren is exactly the right villain to succeed Darth Vader in this new trilogy despite not being a Sith. Had Chewbacca not shot Kylo, I don’t think Rey or Finn would’ve made it out of Starkiller Base alive. My problems with Kylo in TLJ is he is downgraded to the great character he was in TFA in TLJ. In TFA there was already a moral ambiguity with his character, but it was subtle. It was made in your face that he was sympathetic in TLJ. An interesting antagonist/villain isn’t a mustache twirling generic character that does things for no reason. Villains are meant to be the antagonist. We are meant to disagree with their actions and understand the flaws in them, to have a villain/antagonist who not only acknowledges what they are doing is wrong, but feels guilt about it. This is something that is extremely difficult for a writer to convey believably. Most of the time a director/writer will go out of their way to make their antagonist/villain sympathetic at the cost of the overall story. They only want the audience to relate to the antagonist/villain so they only put emphasis on that character’s sympathetic traits and ignore their negative ones. Ben has to earn his redemption, he doesn’t need it to given on a silver platter. His whole personality changed. While Han’s death would be enough, it just doesn’t work. In TFA his goal was finding and killing Luke Skywalker. In this movie I just don’t even know what his end game or motivation is. He went from this powerful dark side warrior and in TLJ he was downgraded and made weaker. And of course he is made into a meme cause of the shirtless scene. His bond with Rey was really the only good thing about his character arc in TLJ. The problem is everyone just assumes that this leads to redemption and Kylo turning back into Ben Solo, it was manipulation. And my issue is with how Kylo doesn’t explain why he killed Han. He doesn’t explain to Rey that he killed Han because he felt like he was being torn apart by the light and dark sides of the force and he thought killing Han would help him, but all it did was make it worse. It’s not explained that Snoke has been preying on Kylo ever since he was a child(though Kylo is responsible for his actions. There is no scene with Kylo and his mother. They never once interact.  The sad thing is they will never get to interact because of Carrie’s  passing.  At the end of TFA Snoke said he was going to finish Kylo Ren’s training but no training is given to him. It doesn’t add up that Snoke does not train Kylo. Snoke said that he would complete Kylo’s training when he told Hux to bring Kylo Ren to him at the end of TFA. Yes, he did fail him and he sensed his father in him, but I really thought we’d see Snoke sending Kylo to Vader’s castle on Mustafar to allow the dark side energies in the castle and what remains of Vader to strengthen the dark side within him to snuff out the light. Killing Han broke his spirit, but he could use the castle to complete Kylo Ren’s training. Then we would see Snoke personally train Kylo himself. Snoke begins by telling Kylo the Sith code ” Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.” teaching him the ways of the dark side, using torture and force lightning to draw Kylo’s rage to bring out his full potential in the dark side of the force. We needed to see Sith training. We never once got to see it, so we needed to see it with Snoke and Kylo Ren. The throne room fight is just bad. Not even  once do we see them displaying their powers is what cheapens the fight. Kylo Ren is powerful enough to freeze a blaster and a person in place and Rey herself unlocked Kylo’s powers, so the two of them could have easily ended the fight sooner than it was dragged out. Kylo is powerful in the force but he SERIOUSLY could not stop a Praetorian Guard choke holding him and Rey struggled with a guard? Rey and Kylo were stronger in TFA and are just made weaker in the duel with the Praetorian Guards. Kylo could have frozen half of the guards and Rey could have mind tricked the other half into killing the frozen guards and Kylo and Rey could have finished them. They are masters of light and darkness, but they are made weaker. As for their final scene together. Kylo’s proposal works because he’s a manipulative asshole. Kylo Ren doesn’t even have a clear motivation. He wants to kill Luke because he thought he wanted to kill him. There’s no reason why he killed the other Jedi, there’s no reason why he joined The First Order,  What did he hope to accomplish by joining the First Order? It’s never even explained why he has Vader’s mask. He never explains why he killed Han or why he even wants to destroy The Resistance. He says “let the past die” yet continues to  lead the First Order in the same direction that Snoke did. Snoke wanted the Resistance dead, so why take up his mission? He spent the duration of the movie as the most calm and collected and even most Jedi like character throughout the movie, but by the end he turns into  a screaming lunatic again by the end. There is no motivation for why Kylo Ren is doing anything. He acts how the plot needs him to act and that’s it. Vader wanted to crush the Rebellion and turn Luke to the dark side. With Kylo Ren I just don’t understand, turn Rey and start a new order? He knows full well Rey doesn’t want anything to do with that, if that’s his plan, it’s a bad one.  And if he doesn’t have one it hurts him as a villain. it’s not like he’s Michael Myers or The Joker where it works for them. But with Kylo Ren it just hurts him and the story and hurts the potential of The First Order. There is no motivation or a clear endgame for Kylo Ren or anyone in The First Order, if Kylo is to be redeemed, that hurts his entire narrative, that just makes his path as a villain bad since he has no motivation or endgame. and that just hurts Kylo Ren as a character.

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

Tallie Lintra’s death. I did not know much about the new character, hell I didn’t even know her name until I played Battlefront II. But I loved this pilot. I loved how good she was and I wanted more of her and god killing her off was pointless. What’s the point of introducing these unique Resistance fighters if only to kill them off? 

No Lando Calrissian in The Last Jedi. I read Rian Johnson’s reason for no Lando Calrissian that he would’ve taken DJ’s place. But Johnson wanted the plan to fail….for reasons. Like god forbid they make it all worth it by having the plan succeed and they get captured when they get to the escape pods. Here’s how I would have put Lando in The Last Jedi. Lando is the person Finn and Rose are meant to get help from. They leave with DJ, but Lando was expecting to meet two members from the Resistance, so he leaves Canto Bight and on his way out he gets Leia’s message and mobilizes old friends from the Rebellion(a cameo from Wedge Antilles) and goes to give the Resistance some reinforcements. We then see a little reunion with Lando, Leia and Chewbacca and Lando revealing that he was who Finn and Rose were meant to meet. That’s how I would have included Lando in The Last Jedi. 

Phasma was wasted in The Force Awakens and she was completely wasted in The Last Jedi. While I love that we got to see Phasma and Finn fight, again they did not do anything with Phasma. In her novel she is a completely different and better character. In the novel  which is a fascinating study of how utterly ruthless and selfish she is, how completely dedicated to her own survival at the expense of others, and how there is no one and nothing she would not betray to further herself. It’s about peeling back the layers of a seemingly perfect First Order warrior to show her morally empty core, and with it the rottenness of the First Order itself. The novel shows with unsettling clarity that, under all the pretty words about the ideals of justice and order, the First Order is a place where actual idealistic soldiers are used and then thrown away (see: Finn, Cardinal) while backstabbers, abusers, and murderers like the two Huxes and Phasma are actively shielded and rise to the top. Phasma is a survivor. She will always align herself with the most powerful force. Phasma is extremely intelligent and a brilliant battlefield commander. Outside of the movies, she’s lost approximately one fight. Ever. the movies portray her as a minor annoyance but in the book she is the most badass human to ever live and I’m upset with how they’ve treated her. But really, what would’ve helped Phasma is her deleted death scene

General Hux, the man who caused the destruction of the Hosnian system and is shown to be a younger angrier version of Tarkin in TFA, is shown to be an incompetent bumbling fool and Captain Canady is the only intelligent officer in The First Order. He does not deploy the Tie Fighters, order the fleet to move in when The Resistance are evacuating D'Qar and vulnerable, instead orders the Dreadnought to move in, and instead of ordering the Dreadnought with it’s devastating canon to fire on the cruiser thus giving the transports nowhere to go, he orders an orbital bombardment to an almost empty planet. But does not fire because he sees Poe’s X-Wing When Poe arrives in his X-Wing, the only X-Wing in view. Hux does not order deploying the Tie Fighters or even ordering the Dreadnought to fire on Poe. They do absolutely NOTHING. How is Hux a general again? Did he just want to hear himself talk? The turrets are being destroyed by Poe and Hux tells Captain Canady to fire the Dreadnought, Canady responds it’s too small and too close of range to fire their turbolasers and orders the Tie Fighters to be scrambled which should have been done 5 minutes ago. Canady knows Poe is not aiming to penetrate their armor, he knows Poe is clearing out their surface cannons. Here we have it. The only intelligent officer in The First Order, everyone else including Hux are incompetent. How exactly is Hux a general again?  Moving on. Hux is slapped around with the force by Snoke, okay understandable, it’s for failure. Vader did the same. But god it is done in almost every scene by Snoke and Kylo. When the Silencer pretty much destroyed all the X-Wing fighters, and The Resistance command is jettisoned in space, Hux just orders Kylo back. They have the opportunity to end The Resistance, just calls him back, a scene later Hux complains he let them go. Sure they can still track them, but the fact that they let them goes shows that Hux is a fool. The only time Hux is allowed to be villainous in the movie is when he is prepared to take out his blaster and kill Kylo Ren. Everything else he is either an idiot or someone’s toy to be slapped around. And you expect me and the general audience to believe Hux is going to be the villain in Episode IX?

The First Order’s incompetence at the Battle Of Crait. So now the Resistance is stuck on Crait, the First Order knows they are there, we know implicitly that the First Order has more than one dreadnought in their fleet, we also know the Resistance is fresh out of bombers. Maybe instead of calling for a costly ground invasion just call in another dreadnought and finish the job once and for all. This isn’t next level thinking, this isn’t superior tactics. This is using a rock to smash a bug levels of thinking. But they don’t, they land a ground invasion bigger than Hoth and bring a mini Death Star with them. Note again, that while Hoth was defended by more men with better equipment, Crait is defended by a quarter as many with rusting, dilapidated equipment… but it was enough to keep the Order stalled for Luke Skywalker to video-conference in.

The ending. The way they did end the last jedi, it leaves nothing to show that there is a reason to see Episode IX. There is no cliffhanger or showing anything of a Struggle. AOTC ended with the beginning of the Clone Wars. Empire ended with Luke learning the truth and Han was taken to Jabba. Last Jedi ends like the end of the trilogy. The Rebellion is saved and shows it can fight the First Order. It doesn’t feel like there is anything that can be done to make us feel like there is a reason to watch the next movie as it feels like everything was resolved. Doesn’t feel like there is anything to be fighting for or a reason to care.

[schraubd]

Review: The Last Jedi

*Warning: Spoilers* We saw The Last Jedi last night at a theater in Destin, Florida. Apparently, the goyim know about the "see a movie on Christmas trick" (I suppose they all could have been Jews, but we're on the panhandle, so I doubt it). Overall, I thought the movie was very good. But before we go any further, I should probably address the issue that's at the foremost of everyone's mind. To wit: The Last Jedi decisively proves (as if there ever was any doubt) that Poe Dameron is no Wedge Antilles. By my count, Poe's impulsiveness and "I know best" arrogance ends up ruining carefully-laid Resistance plans not once but twice. Losing the bomber squadron may have been forgivable, but Vice Admiral Holdo's escape plan would have worked were it not for the infiltration plot that Poe decided he just had to try. Poe Dameron has the deaths of literally half the Resistance on his hands thanks to that stunt. Okay, that's out of the way. Overall, The Last Jedi is clearly better than The Force Awakens. If the latter was a shot-for-shot remake of A New Hope, the former is an amalgamation of Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But not only is it different enough from both of these films to not feel derivative in the way The Force Awakens clearly was, focusing on its original-trilogy predecessors distracts from the bigger influence on The Last Jedi: Rogue One. One of Rogue One's greatest strengths was how it started to turn away from the "one true hero whom everything revolves around" tenor of the series, in favor of a narrative equality between main characters and side players. Like Rogue One, this is a grim movie, and not only does not everyone get a happy ending, not everyone even gets a glorious, cinematic ending. In both major revelations and smaller, more subtle moments, The Last Jedi continues to reinforce a refreshingly egalitarian message that to my mind opens up more storytelling potential untethered to the "What are Luke/Han/Leia and/or their children/relatives/secret lovers up to" well. Obviously, the big iteration of this is the strong implication that Rey is, in fact, nobody. Not a child of destiny, not secretly related to the Skywalker clan, just ... a nobody, who happens to be force-attuned. But for me, some of the most powerful moments in the film were where it made clear that every member of the Resistance has a rich inner life and story that (for them at least) is on par to that of any of the main characters. The knowing nod between two starfighter pilots as they prepare to take off -- only for both of them to be vaporized when a proton torpedo enters the hanger bay. The bombardier clutching her necklace charm as she desperately tries to complete what she now knows is a suicide mission (this was an effective scene even without the later revelation that she's another major character's sister). None of these characters "matter" in the grand scheme of the narrative. But people who don't matter, still matter. They have their own lives, motivations, relationships, and personalities, and The Last Jedi does a very good job communicating that throughout the film. What makes these sequences so effective is that they are not emphasized or given any special significance. Most directors don't bother to pay attention to such side players at all, and those that do often revel in accentuating the head fake ("Oh you thought so-and-so was going to be a main character? Surprise! Laser to the face!" Looking at you, Joss Whedon). By playing it straight, The Last Jedi reinforced one of the most powerful narrative themes there can be in a war movie: everybody has a story, everybody has a narrative, and so having a story and a narrative doesn't make you special and doesn't offer any protection. From a fan-boy perspective, I appreciated some of the new tactical permutations that were shown in space combat. Getting to see B-wing bombers was pretty cool, and the "slice open the Star Destroyer by hyping through it" was a neat trick (though if that works, its unclear why the Resistance wouldn't have used it more often as a Kamikaze tactic -- it is a brutally effective way of neutralizing the First Order's capital ship advantage). We can quibble with some details (has nobody invented autopilot yet?), but for the most part I was able to suspend disbelief. Obviously, the newer iterations of Star Wars are light-years ahead of their predecessors in terms of gender equality. A slew of excellent female characters are well presented and fully fleshed out -- and again, what's most important aren't their presence among the leads (Rey and Leia, though they both are fantastic) but as integrated up and down the supporting cast. Plenty of action movies have one or (maybe) two Strong Female Characters surrounded by a sea of indistinguishable dudes. Rarer is the film wherein women are just a normal part of the universe -- occupying mid-level command posts, serving as infantry grunts, working as unremarkable technicians, and so on. The Last Jedi is exceptional along this front, and deserves much credit for it. Overall, The Last Jedi was to my mind the best Star Wars film since the original trilogy. I don't really understand the backlash against it, and I do think it works very well as a strong second act setting up a potentially epic Episode IX. So well done Disney, and well done Rian Johnson. The Force is strong in this one. Assorted bullet thoughts:

Where are all the aliens? If the Resistance and the First Order are finally gender-integrated, the conflict still seems strikingly human-on-human. Aside from Chewbacca, I counted one indeterminate alien starfighter pilot and one Sullustan (apparently Nien Nunb -- his fan club can rest easy). There actually could be something darkly amusing if this huge galactic conflict really was basically an intra-human spat and the other species of the galaxy just didn't care ("Humans ... there they go again"), but that doesn't seem to be the message of the film.

Captain Phasma continues to hold the "Boba Fett character who seems like a total badass even though she actually doesn't really do anything award. The Praetorian Guard certainly made a good run at it, though.

I love the humor in The Last Jedi. All the major laugh moments do it for me, but the one that really killed me was when Rey "reaches out" to grasp the Force. Mark Hamill's eye roll game is on point.

Speaking of, I have mixed feelings towards how Luke is portrayed in the film. I neither love it nor hate it, but I do think that Mark Hamill gives it everything he has. His "brush your shoulder off" move is also on point.

Kylo Ren is turning into a pretty solid villain. It might have been interesting had he succeeded in turning Rey, though. Now that would have been a plot twist nobody would have seen coming.

I appreciate Vice Admiral Holdo is shown to be competent along all dimensions. Again, her escape plan would have worked had Poe not ruined it. And she also seized an opportunity to escape her captivity when it was presented.

Man, Jedi have gotten a lot more powerful in the past few decades. Remember when Yoda could impress us by lifting one starfighter out of a swamp?

via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2pDXJR1

[eirianerisdar]

Clone Wars/Galactic Empire problems

One of the greatest problems about being a Clone Wars fan and keeping an eye on the OT and EU at the same time is that all the lovely Navy officers end up on the wrong side in the OT or dying outright in Imperial-Rebel clashes.

Take these two, for example.

Admiral Yularen, head of Anakin Skywalker’s star destroyer the Resolute: 

Moustache-eyebrow guy in the Clone Wars, fairly harmless. Even likeable at times for a rare sort of dry humour.

But then he became a Colonel in COMPNOR (basically in charge of the Empire’s security and anti-rebel stuff and all the lovely things that entails) in particular, apparently Agent Kallus (from Rebels) reports to Yularen. Eventually he became deputy director for IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE of all things. Yularen came to a not-so-lovely end on the Death Star when the son of the General he once served shot two perfectly-aimed proton torpedoes down that particular exhaust shaft, courtesy of Galen Erso’s particular designs.

Captain Pellaeon, in command of Leveler and later, Chimaera:

If you’ve read Karen Traviss’s novels, especially No Prisoners, Pellaeon seems like a fairly decent chap. He was besties with Rex (“Come and have a drink!”). He got Ahsoka to put on army fatigues because he was worried about her getting into accidents on board.

But then.

In the Republic-Empire personnel reshuffle he was put high up in the command crew of the new destroyer Chimaera; this ship often made slaving runs to Kashyyyk.

And then Pellaeon became Thrawn’s second, and in command of the Chimaera proper. Here follows the dubiously-canon-even-by-EU-standards stuff of the Thrawn Trilogy (A pity TFA did away with all post-OT canon, but well). Amazingly, Pellaeon continued to serve the splinter remnant of the Empire even after the Battle of Endor, and a whole mess of stuff later, somehow managed to find peace with the Skywalkers and Solos. Huh.

And then, already older than many, many characters in Star Wars could ever hope to be, he was assassinated. He died rather heroically, though given his history I’m not sure that means much.

Admiral Tarkin, later Grand Moff Tarkin:

He-

Well.

Let’s just say he deserved his place on the Death Star.

[impactcomicscbr]

Meanwhile... Manga, Pops, toys and other things that arrived recently!

Every single day we unpack boxes of amazing stuff from scores of different suppliers. At the start of each week we publish a big list of things we are expecting from our major US comics distributor, but that list doesn’t include all of this other stuff!

This stuff has arrived over the last week – if you spot something you might like, rush in or get in contact NOW!

101 SCI FI MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFO… ABANDONED SACRED BEASTS GN VOL 03 ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 02 ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 06 ADVENTURES OF JO, ZETTE & JOCKO [1]… AKAME GA KILL GN VOL 09 ALICE IN WONDERLAND MAD HATTER TEA… ALIEN – OUT OF THE SHADOWS (Book 1)… ALIEN VS PREDATOR ARMAGEDDON – The… ALIENS – SEA OF SORROWS (Book 2) MM… ALIENS SET PHOTOGRAPHY HC ALL YOU NEED IS KILL 2in1 GN AMERICAN GODS – ILLUSTRATED Edition… ARE YOU ALICE GN VOL 01 ART AND MAKING OF THE FLASH (TV) HC ART OF CASTLE IN THE SKY HC ART OF MIYAZAKI’S HOWLS MOVING CAST… ART OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT HC ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 01 ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM GN VOL 02 ASSASSINS CREED COMPLETE VISUAL HIS… ASSASSIN’S CREED HAWKE TRILOGY (Vol… ASSASSIN’S CREED TP VOL 01 TRIAL BY… ASSASSIN’S CREED TP VOL 02 SETTING… ASSASSIN’S CREED: TEMPLARS TP VOL 0… ASTERIX #21 AND CAESAR’S GIFT TP ATTACK ON TITAN COLLECTION 01 (2 DV… ATTACK ON TITAN COLLECTION 01 Blu-R… ATTACK ON TITAN COLLECTION 02 (2 DV… ATTACK ON TITAN COLLECTION 02 Blu-R… ATTACK ON TITAN END OF THE WORLD NO… ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 01 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 09 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 10 ATTACK ON TITAN GN VOL 11 B.C. – BEST OF B.C. (Johnny HART) H… BARAKAMON GN VOL 03 (MR) BATMAN – HARLEY QUINN MUGSHOT BUST… BATMAN (Batman Vs Superman: DOJ) -… BATMAN ANIMATED SERIES HARLEY QUINN… BATMAN BAT SIGNAL KIT BATMAN BATMOBILE KIT BATMAN COLLAGE 1000pc PUZZLE BATMAN CUFF LINKS BATMAN DARK KNIGHT CUFF LINKS BATMAN HARLEY QUINN NECKLACE BATMAN I CAN READ – MEET The SUPER-… BIZENGHAST 3in1 GN VOL 01 SPECIAL C… BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 02 BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 03 BLACK BUTLER TP VOL 23 BLACK HOLE (MR) SoftCover [Charles… BLEACH COLLECTION 01 (5 DVD-SLIM) BLEACH COLLECTION 02 – Eps 21-41 (5… BLUE (Pat GRANT) TP BUFFY The VAMPIRE SLAYER COLLECTION… CALVIN & HOBBES ESSENTIAL HC CAPTAIN AMERICA SHIELD CUFF LINKS CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY – BLUE BOX (… CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY – GREEN BOX CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY – RED BOX (E… CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY (AU Edition) CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY (BIGGER) BIG… CATS VS HUMANS FAIRY TAILS (Yasmine… CHICKEN WITH PLUMS SC – Marjane SAT… CHILDREN OF PALOMAR HC (New Tales o… COMPLETE ALIENS NOVEL OMNIBUS MMPB… COWBOY BEBOP REMASTERED SESSIONS Co… COWBOY BEBOP REMASTERED SESSIONS Co… DANGANRONPA THE ANIMATION TP VOL 01 DC COMICS BOMBSHELLS 1000pc PUZZLE DC COMICS CHIBI PLAYING CARDS DC COMICS FLASH RETRO PLAYING CARDS DC COMICS HARLEY QUINN RETRO PLAYIN… DC COMICS ICONS WONDER WOMAN STATUE DC COMICS The NEW 52 POSTER COLLECT… DC COMICS UNIVERSE CAST 1500pc PUZZ… DC DESIGNER SERIES HARLEY BY BRUCE… DC SUPER FRIENDS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK… DC YR My First SUPERMAN BOOK (Touch… DEADPOOL – MOPEEZ PLUSH

DEADPOOL 1:4 SCALE AF DEADPOOL CUFF LINKS DEATH MARCH TO PARALLEL WORLD RHAPS… DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP V0L 01 DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 02 DEATH NOTE BLACK ED TP VOL 03 DEATH NOTE COLLECTION (9 DVD) Fatpa… DEUS EX TP VOL 01 CHILDRENS CRUSADE… DEVIL IS PART TIMER GN VOL 03 DEVIL SURVIVOR GN VOL 08 (MR) DISHONORED – CORRODED MAN MMPB DISNEY GRAVITY FALLS JOURNAL 3 DISNEY MANGA STITCH GN VOL 02 DOCTOR WHO – 10th DOCTOR with Sonic… DOCTOR WHO – 12th DOCTOR (White Shi… DOCTOR WHO – ELEVENTH DOCTOR BOBBLE… DOCTOR WHO – HIDDEN TARDIS MUG DOCTOR WHO – TENTH DOCTOR BOBBLE HE… DOCTOR WHO – WAR DOCTOR AF DOCTOR WHO & The CRUSADERS DOCTOR WHO & The DALEKS HC DOCTOR WHO & The ZARBI HC DOCTOR WHO 10th DOCTOR HC VOL 01 RE… DOCTOR WHO 10th DR’S SONIC SCREWDRI… DOCTOR WHO 10th HC VOL 06 SINS OF T… DOCTOR WHO 11th DOCTOR HC VOL 02 SE… DOCTOR WHO 11th TP LTD ED VOL 01 AF… DOCTOR WHO 12th DR’S ‘SECOND’ SONIC… DOCTOR WHO 12th DR’S SONIC SCREWDRI… DOCTOR WHO 4th Dr 12ft SCARF DOCTOR WHO COLOURING BOOK! DOCTOR WHO DALEK MUG (Light Green) DOCTOR WHO MICRO MONSTERS MULTI PAC… DOCTOR WHO SONIC SCREWDRIVER TOOL DOCTOR WHO TARDIS (11th) USB 4 PORT… DOCTOR WHO TARDIS BOTTLE OPENER DOCTOR WHO TARDIS CERAMIC MONEY BOX DOCTOR WHO TARDIS COOKIE JAR w/ LIG… DOCTOR WHO TARDIS COOLER BAG DOCTOR WHO TARDIS COSTUME DRESS L/X… DOCTOR WHO TARDIS EMERGENCY FUND DOCTOR WHO TARDIS LADIES CLUTCH WAL… DOCTOR WHO TARDIS LIGHT-UP KEYCHAIN DOCTOR WHO TARDIS MEGA MUG DOCTOR WHO TARDIS MUG WITH REMOVABL… DOCTOR WHO TARDIS NECK TIE DOCTOR WHO TARDIS TEA POT DOCTOR WHO TARDIS TOTE BAG DOCTOR WHO TARDIS UMBRELLA DOCTOR WHO TITANS HEAVEN SENT/HELL… DOCTOR WHO Yoat INTERACTIVE SONIC S… DOCTORS (Dash SHAW) GN DORBZ X-MEN – WOLVERINE (Logan w/ J… DRAGON AGE – ASUNDER (David Gaider)… DRAGON AGE – STOLEN THRONE (David G… DRAGON BALL 3in1 TP VOL 14 DRAGON BALL COMPLETE COLL PART 1 (1… DRAGON BALL COMPLETE COLL PART 2 (5… DRAGON BALL FULL COLOR FREEZA ARC T… DRAGON BALL Z REMASTERED MOVIE COLL… DRAGONS DEFENDERS OF BERK COLLECTIO… DRAGONS RIDERS OF BERK COLLECTION T… EC JOHNNY CRAIG & AL FELDSTEIN VOOD… EVANGELION 1.11 YOU ARE [NOT] ALONE… EVANGELION 1.11 YOU ARE [NOT] ALONE… EVANGELION 2.22 YOU CAN [NOT] ADVAN… EVANGELION 3.33 YOU CAN [NOT] REDO… FABRIKATIONS DEFORMED PLUSH – GOTG… FAIRY GIRLS GN VOL 01 FAIRY GIRLS GN VOL 02 FAIRY TAIL COLLECTION 01 (2 DVD) FAIRY TAIL COLLECTION 01 Blu-RAY FAIRY TAIL COLLECTION 02 (2 DVD) FAIRY TAIL COLLECTION 02 Blu-RAY FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 21 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 22 FAIRY TAIL GN VOL 36 FIRE FORCE GN VOL 01 (Pyrofighters… FIREFLY – LEGACY COLLECTION MALCOLM… FIREFLY A CELEBRATION ANNIVERSARY E… FLASH CUFF LINKS FOOD WARS SHOKUGEKI NO SOMA GN VOL… FOOD WARS SHOKUGEKI NO SOMA GN VOL… FORGET ME NOT GN VOL 05 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3in1 ED VOL 01 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 3in1 ED VOL 03… GAME OF THRONES POP! DAENERYS & DRO… GAME OF THRONES POP! DROGON 6″ (Gre… GAME OF THRONES POP! RHAEGAL 6″ VF GAME OF THRONES POP! TYRION VINYL A… GAME OF THRONES POP! VISERION 6″ VF… GANGSTA CURSED GN VOL 01 (MR) GARDEN Of WORDS Blu-RAY GAZE OF DRIFTING SKIES SC TREASURY… GHOST IN SHELL KODANSHA ED GN VOL 0… GHOST IN THE SHELL 1.5 HUMAN ERROR… GHOST IN THE SHELL Arise Part 1 Blu… GHOST IN THE SHELL Arise Part 1 DVD GHOST IN THE SHELL Arise Part 2 Blu… GHOST IN THE SHELL Arise Part 2 DVD GHOSTBUSTERS PROTON PACK AND WAND GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME (2 DVD) GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME Blu-RAY GREEN LANTERN CUFF LINKS HAGAR THE HORRIBLE EPIC CHRONICLES… HAIKYU GN VOL 01 (MR) [Haruichi Fur… HAIKYU GN VOL 02 (MR) HAIKYU GN VOL 03 HALO – FRACTURES MMPB HAPPINESS GN VOL 02 HARLEY QUINN (SS) Jrs WOMENS LOGO G… HARLEY QUINN (SS) Jrs WOMENS LOGO G… HARLEY QUINN (SS) Jrs WOMENS LOGO G… HARLEY QUINN (SS) Jrs WOMENS LOGO G… HARLEY QUINN RED BLACK & WHITE HOLI… HARLEY QUINN RED WHITE & BLACK STAT… HARLEY QUINN ‘ROLLER DERBY’ BLEACHE… HARLEY QUINN Sublimated BILL SNAPBA… HARLEY QUINN WOMEN’S CARDIGAN SLIM… HARLEY QUINN WOMEN’S CARDIGAN SLIM… HARLEY QUINN YR SC WILD CARD (Backs… HARRY POTTER – GOLD HOGWARTS CREST… HE-MAN & MASTERS OF UNIVERSE HC MIN… HERGE & TREASURES OF TINTIN (Domini… HE’S MY ONLY VAMPIRE GN VOL 07 HOBBIT SPECIAL PARCHMENT HOKUSAI X MANGA JAPANESE POP CULTUR… IMMORTAL HOUNDS GN VOL 03 IN SPECTRE GN VOL 01 INCREDIBUILDS BATMOBILE SIGNATURE S… INTERVIEWS WITH MONSTER GIRLS GN VO… IRON MAN CUFF LINKS JASON SHIGA DEMON HC GN JEM & The HOLOGRAMS – LIGHT-UP SYNE… JOHNNY RED – FLYING GUN (Tom TULLY)… JOJOS BIZARRE ADV PHANTOM BLOOD HC… JOJOS BIZARRE ADV PHANTOM BLOOD HC… JOJOS BIZARRE ADVENTURE VOL 11 TP KIDS ARE WEIRD – OBSERVATIONS FROM… KIKIS DELIVERY SERVICE (MIYAZAKI )… KINGDOM HEARTS II TP VOL 01 KINGDOM HEARTS II TP VOL 02 KISS HIM NOT ME GN VOL 02 KISS HIM NOT ME GN VOL 07 K-ON! COLLEGE TP VOL 01 KUROKO BASKETBALL 2in1 TP VOL 01 KUROKO BASKETBALL 2in1 TP VOL 03 LAID WASTE GN LEGEND OF ZELDA HYRULE HISTORIA HC LEGEND OF ZELDA LEGENDARY ED GN VOL… LIFE & LEGEND WALLACE WOOD HC LIFE & LEGEND WALLACE WOOD HC LIVINGSTONE GN VOL 04 LORD OF THE RINGS SPECIAL PARCHMENT MAGI GN VOL 21 MANDRAKE MAGICIAN (Lee FALK & Phil… MARVEL CAPTAIN AMERICA PLAYING CARD… MARVEL DOCTOR STRANGE RETRO PLAYING… MARVEL HERO PLAYING CARDS MARVEL IRON MAN PLAYING CARDS MARVEL IRON MAN RETRO MAN PLAYING C… MARVEL SELECT DOCTOR STRANGE (Movie… MARVEL VILLIANS PLAYING CARDS MASTER KEATON GN VOL 09 URASAWA MODESTY BLAISE TP VOL 28 MURDER FRA… MOOMIN & The WISHING STAR (Tove JAN… MOOMINS: I SPY! WITH MOOMIN (Jansso… MORE HEROES OF COMICS HC PORTRAITS… MR POTATO HEAD – DOCTOR WHO DALEK F… MUSNET GN VOL 02 IMPRESSIONS OF MAS… MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 05 MY HERO ACADEMIA GN VOL 06 MY LITTLE PONY GLORY & ILLUSTRATED… NARUTO ITACHI STORY SC NOVEL VOL 01 NARUTO ITACHI STORY SC NOVEL VOL 02 NARUTO SHIPPUDEN COLL 01 (2 DVD Ep… NARUTO SHIPPUDEN COLL 02 (2 DVD Ep… NARUTO VOL 01 NED KELLY – MAN BEHIND THE MASK (Hu… NGE SHINJI IKARI RAISING PROJECT TP… NICHIJOU GN VOL 01 NICHIJOU GN VOL 02 (Keiichi Arawi) NIKOPOL TRILOGY VOL 01 (MR) NINTENDO LEGEND OF ZELDA LINK 12″ P… NINTENDO LEGEND OF ZELDA LOGO SUBLI… NINTENDO LEGEND OF ZELDA SHIELD THR… NORAGAMI STRAY GOD GN VOL 13 NORMAL (Warren ELLIS) NOVEL SC NORSE MYTHOLOGY (Neil GAIMAN) SC ONE PIECE (UNCUT) COLLECTION 01 (2… ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 01 (v1-3) ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 02 (v4-6 EAS… ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 07 ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 17 ONE PIECE 3in1 TP VOL 18 ONE PIECE TP VOL 02 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 01 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 03 ONE PUNCH MAN GN VOL 08 PAC-MAN GAME BELT BUCKLE PEANUTS – SNOOPY (Charles M SCHULZ)… PEANUTS – YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR MIND,… PEANUTS EVERY SUNDAY (10) 1958-1961… PEANUTS FINGER PUPPET THEATRE PEANUTS MOVIE SNOOPY FLYING ACE FIG… PEANUTS SNOOPY & WOODSTOCK KIT PHANTOM (FREW) #1000 UNBAGGED (n.mi… PHANTOM (FREW) #1001 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1005 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1007 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1009 (VF+) 1992 ‘CO… PHANTOM (FREW) #1012 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1013 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1014 (FN) Trial of… PHANTOM (FREW) #1016 (FN+) [100 Pag… PHANTOM (FREW) #1020 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1021 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1022 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1023 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1024 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1025 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1026 (FN+) Secret M… PHANTOM (FREW) #1031 (NM) PHANTOM (FREW) #1034 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1035 (VG+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1036 (NM-) PHANTOM (FREW) #1037 (NM-) PHANTOM (FREW) #1040 (VF) Drug Shar… PHANTOM (FREW) #1041 (VF+) “GOES TO… PHANTOM (FREW) #1045 (VF+) [1993] PHANTOM (FREW) #1046 (VF+) [1993] PHANTOM (FREW) #1047 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1049 (FN) Son O/T D… PHANTOM (FREW) #1055 (GD) PHANTOM (FREW) #1062 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1064 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1065 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1066 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1067 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1068 (NM-) Julie! PHANTOM (FREW) #1068 (VF) Julie! PHANTOM (FREW) #1069 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1070 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1071 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1072 (NM-) Maestro!… PHANTOM (FREW) #1073 (VF+) Dinosaur… PHANTOM (FREW) #1074 (VF+) Ghost of… PHANTOM (FREW) #1075 (FN) Charlyle’… PHANTOM (FREW) #1076 (FN) Operation… PHANTOM (FREW) #1077 (FN) Charlyle’… PHANTOM (FREW) #1078 (VF) 100 Pages PHANTOM (FREW) #1079 (VF) Election… PHANTOM (FREW) #1080 (VF) Election… PHANTOM (FREW) #1081 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1082 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1083 (GD) Demon of… PHANTOM (FREW) #1083 (VF) Demon of… PHANTOM (FREW) #1084 (VF) Hunted! PHANTOM (FREW) #1085 (VF) Princess… PHANTOM (FREW) #1086 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1087 (VF) Evil Game… PHANTOM (FREW) #1088 (VF) Evil Game… PHANTOM (FREW) #1090 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1091 (VF) Commander… PHANTOM (FREW) #1092 (VF) King of C… PHANTOM (FREW) #1093 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1095 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1096 (VF) Triads PHANTOM (FREW) #1097 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1098 (GD) PHANTOM (FREW) #1098 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1099 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1099 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1100 (VF) Triads Pt… PHANTOM (FREW) #1101 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1101 (VF+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1102 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1102 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1103 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1104 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1105 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #1106 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1107 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #1108 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #1108 (VF) PHANTOM (FREW) #981 (FN) PHANTOM (FREW) #982 (FN+) PHANTOM (FREW) #983 (FN) Ape Idol o… PHANTOM (FREW) #986 (VF) Blue Gang/… PHANTOM (FREW) #994 (VF) Cathedral… PHANTOM (FREW) #995 (PR) Vultures O… PHANTOM (FREW) #995 (VG) PHANTOM (FREW) #996 (VG) PLANTS VS ZOMBIES RAISE YOUR OWN ZO… PLUTO URASAWA X TEZUKA GN VOL 01 POKEMON ACTION POSE FIGURES ASSORTM… POKEMON OMEGA RUBY ALPHA SAPPHIRE G… POKEMON PIKACHU RUBBER KEYRING POKEMON PIKACHU RUCKSACK POKEMON POCKET COMICS XY GN POKEMON POKEBALL MOLDED MUG

POP ANIMATION – COWBOY BEBOP – ED V… POP ANIMATION – COWBOY BEBOP – FAYE… POP ANIMATION – COWBOY BEBOP – JET… POP ANIMATION – COWBOY BEBOP – SPIK… POP ANIMATION – DRAGON BALL Z – BAD… POP ANIMATION – ONE PIECE – Portgas… POP ANIMATION – ONE PIECE – TRAFALG… POP DISNEY – ALICE IN WONDERLAND AL… POP DISNEY – BEAUTY AND THE BEAST -… POP DISNEY – BEAUTY AND THE BEAST -… POP DISNEY – BRAVE – MERIDA VF [57] POP DISNEY – CINDERELLA – CINDERELL… POP DISNEY – DUMBO VINYL FIGURE [50… POP DISNEY – FROZEN ANNA VINYL FIGU… POP DISNEY – FROZEN ELSA VINYL FIGU… POP DISNEY – FROZEN SVEN VINYL FIGU… POP DISNEY – LADY & The TRAMP VF 2… POP DISNEY – LILO & STITCH – STITCH… POP DISNEY – LION KING – SIMBA VINY… POP DISNEY – LITTLE MERMAID ARIEL V… POP DISNEY – MICKEY MOUSE VINYL FIG… POP DISNEY – MOANA – MAUI (w/ Weapo… POP DISNEY – MOANA – MAUI VF [214] POP DISNEY – MOANA & KAKAMORA VF 2… POP DISNEY – MOANA (Voyager) VF [21… POP DISNEY – MOANA (w/ Oar) VF [216… POP DISNEY – MOANA (w/ Pua) VF [213… POP DISNEY – MOANA (Young) VF [215] POP DISNEY – MOANA (Young/Sitting)… POP DISNEY – MULAN VF [166] POP DISNEY – SNOW WHITE EVIL QUEEN… POP DISNEY – TOY STORY BUZZ LIGHTYE… POP DISNEY – TOY STORY WOODY VINYL… POP DISNEY – UP DUG! VINYL AF POP DISNEY – WALL-E VINYL FIGURE POP DISNEY – ZOOTOPIA – JUDY WILDE… POP GAMES ASSASSIN’S CREED – EZIO (… POP GAMES DARK SOULS – RED KNIGHT V… POP GAMES FIVE NIGTHS AT FREDDY’S -… POP GAMES FIVE NIGTHS AT FREDDY’S -… POP GAMES FIVE NIGTHS AT FREDDY’S -… POP GAMES STREET FIGHTER – RYU (Hea… POP GAMES STREET FIGHTER – RYU VF [… POP GAMES TITANFALL 2 – JACK & BT V… POP GAMES TOMB RAIDER – LARA CROFT POP HEROES BATMAN ARKHAM ASYLUM – N… POP HEROES BATMAN ARKHAM KNIGHT – S… POP HEROES DC JINX (Teen Titans Go!… POP HEROES DC LEGENDS OF TOMORROW (… POP HEROES DC LEGENDS OF TOMORROW (… POP HEROES DC LEGENDS OF TOMORROW (… POP HEROES DC SUICIDE SQUAD – JOKER… POP HEROES DC SUPERMAN (DKR) VINYL… POP HEROES MARVEL BLADE (Classic) V… POP HEROES MARVEL DEADPOOL (w/ Rubb… POP HEROES MARVEL IRON FIST (Gold)… POP HEROES MARVEL LUKE CAGE (Power… POP HEROES STAR WARS – BB-8 ROLLER… POP HEROES STAR WARS – C-3PO EP 7 P… POP HEROES STAR WARS – CAPTAIN PHAS… POP HEROES STAR WARS – CHEWBACCA EP… POP HEROES STAR WARS – FINN EP 7 PO… POP HEROES STAR WARS – FIRST ORDER… POP HEROES STAR WARS – FIRST ORDER… POP HEROES STAR WARS – LUKE SKYWALK… POP HEROES STAR WARS – R2-D2 VINYL… POP HEROES STAR WARS – REY (w/ Ligj… POP HEROES STAR WARS ADMIRAL ACKBAR… POP HEROES STAR WARS BOBA FETT VINY… POP HEROES STAR WARS C-3PO VINYL AF POP HEROES STAR WARS CHEWBACCA VINY… POP HEROES STAR WARS DARTH MAUL VIN… POP HEROES STAR WARS DARTH VADER (U… POP HEROES STAR WARS DARTH VADER VI… POP HEROES STAR WARS EP7 – BB-8 (TH… POP HEROES STAR WARS EWOK – WICKET… POP HEROES STAR WARS FIGRIN D’AN VF POP HEROES STAR WARS FN-2199 (TROOP… POP HEROES STAR WARS JABBA The HUTT… POP HEROES STAR WARS LUKE SKYWALKER… POP HEROES STAR WARS NALAN CHEEL VF POP HEROES STAR WARS OBI-WAN KENOBI… POP HEROES STAR WARS R2-B1 VF POP HEROES STAR WARS REBELS – EZRA… POP HEROES STAR WARS REBELS – HERA… POP HEROES STAR WARS REBELS – KANAN… POP HEROES STAR WARS REBELS – SABIN… POP HEROES STAR WARS REBELS – ZEB V… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – CA… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – CH… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – DA… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – DA… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – IM… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – K-… POP HEROES STAR WARS ROGUE ONE – OR… POP HEROES STAR WARS YODA (Dagobah)… POP HEROES STAR WARS YODA (Force Sp… POP HEROES STAR WARS YODA VINYL AF POP MOVIES – HOBBIT 3 SAURON VF POP MOVIES – HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAG… POP MOVIES – LABYRINTH – HOGGLE VF… POP MOVIES – LABYRINTH – JARETH VF… POP MOVIES – RED SONJA (Bloody) VF POP TELEVISION – POWER RANGERS – BL… POP TELEVISION – POWER RANGERS – BL… POP TELEVISION – POWER RANGERS – PI… POP TELEVISION – POWER RANGERS – RE… POP TELEVISION – POWER RANGERS – YE… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – ADIPOSE… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – DALEK S… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – DALEK S… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – DALEK V… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – ELEVENT… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – ELEVENT… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – ELEVENT… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – FOURTH… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – K-9 VF POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – RIVER S… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – ROSE TY… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – TARDIS… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – TARDIS… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – TENTH D… POP TELEVISION DOCTOR WHO – WEEPING… POP TELEVISION ORPHAN BLACK – COSIM… POSTER HANGER 64 CM POWER OF TANK GIRL OMNIBUS TP (Gift… PRINCE IN HIS DARK DAYS GN VOL 02 (… PRINCE VALIANT HC VOL 14 1963-1964 RE ZERO LIGHT NOVEL VOL 02 STARTING… REAL ACCOUNT GN VOL 05 RICK & MORTY TP VOL 02 RICK & MORTY TP VOL 03 (MR) ROMEO AND/OR JULIET (Ryan NORTH) TP ROSE GN GRAPHIX ED (BONE prequel) SAILOR MOON Part 1 (Eps 1-24) (4 DV… SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 01 SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 02 SAILOR MOON TP KODANSHA ED VOL 06 SAKURA HIME LEGEND OF PRINCESS SAKU… SEVEN DEADLY SINS GN VOL 17 SIMPSONS COMICS COLOSSAL COMPENDIUM… SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SONIC & TAILS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG TP VOL 04 CONTRO… SPAWN REBIRTH 7″ (Blue Wave) AF SPIDER-MAN CUFF LINKS STAR TREK 50TH ANN 3000pc PUZZLE STAR TREK COSTUMES (Paula M. BLOCK)… STAR TREK LIGHT UP ENTERPRISE STAR TREK LOGO CUFF LINKS STAR TREK SPOCK’S LOGIC PUZZLES

STAR TREK TNG COMMUNICATOR Bluetoot… STAR TREK TOS COMMUNICATOR KIT STAR TREK TOS PHASER KIT STAR TREK TOS PHASER KIT STAR TREK TOS ROMULAN BIRD OF PREY… STAR TREK TOS SHUTTLECRAFT KIT STAR WARS – GOODNIGHT DARTH VADER H… STAR WARS COSTUMES HC The ORIGINAL… STAR WARS COURTSHIP of PRINCESS LEI… STAR WARS CROCHET STAR WARS DARTH BANE (3) DYNASTY of… STAR WARS DARTH VADER & FRIENDS HC… STAR WARS DARTH VADER (Rogue One) B… STAR WARS DARTH VADER CUFF LINKS STAR WARS ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WARFAR… STAR WARS GALACTIC ATLAS HC STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK COLLEC… STAR WARS LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK I AM P… STAR WARS LOGO CUFF LINKS STAR WARS OLD REPUBLIC MMPB ANNIHIL… STAR WARS REBEL SYMBOL CUFF LINKS STAR WARS REBELS – A NEW DAWN (1) M… STAR WARS STORMTROOPER CUFF LINKS STEVEN UNIVERSE TP VOL 01 STEVEN UNIVERSE TP VOL 01 SUCH A LOVELY LITTLE WAR SAIGON 196… SUPERMAN CUFF LINKS SUPERMAN GLOWING KRYPTONITE KIT SUPERMAN RETRO COLLAGE 1000pc PUZZL… SWEETNESS & LIGHTNING GN VOL 03 SWORD ART ONLINE 1 Part 1 Blu-RAY SWORD ART ONLINE 1 Part 1 DVD – Ain… SWORD ART ONLINE 1 Part 2 Blu-RAY -… SWORD ART ONLINE 1 Part 2 DVD – Esc… SWORD ART ONLINE 3 Blu-RAY – Fairy… SWORD ART ONLINE 3 Blu-RAY – Fairy… SWORD ART ONLINE 3 DVD – Fairy Danc… SWORD ART ONLINE GIRLS OPS GN VOL 0… TANK GIRL 2 GIRLS 1 TANK TP (MR) TANK GIRL REMASTERED ED TP VOL 03 TARZAN I/T CITY OF GOLD: Burne HOGA… TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMA… TIM BURTON SC (Art of) TINTIN FLIGHT 714 TO SYDNEY (Hergé)… TINTIN in the LAND OF THE SOVIETS H… TINTIN IN THE ORIENT The BLUE LOTUS… TINTIN TP CRAB W/T GOLDEN CLAWS TINTIN TP EXPLORERS ON THE MOON TINTIN TP LAND OF BLACK GOLD TINTIN TP SHOOTING STAR TINTIN TP TINTIN IN AMERICA TINTIN YOUNG READER ED CRAB & GOLDE… TINTIN YOUNG READER ED GN KING OTTO… TOBINS SPIRIT GUIDE – OFFICIAL GHOS…

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[aclockworkfilmsnob]

Thoughts on Elle (2016)

Elle was one of my most anticipated movies of 2016, but since it had such a limited release it was next to impossible for me to see it at the time. Now that I finally got to see it last night, I must say it definitely lived up to my expectations of being something truly great. Paul Verhoeven is a director I admire quite a bit. Though I'm not a fan of Showgirls and have not seen Basic Instinct, his unofficial sci fi trilogy (Robocop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers) are three films that I constantly sing praise about. Considering the fact that he hadn't directed a film since Starship Troopers in 1997, I was very excited for this. Elle is a film that almost works in the opposite format of his sci fi trilogy. His sci fi films are very over the top and campy in their presentation, but deep down are tackling a very serious subject matter (Commercialism, Government Control, Censorship, Brainwashing, Fascism, etc.) Elle, on the other hand, presents itself in a very serious and dramatic tone, but every now and again has elements of satire and humor. Being the story of a single woman hellbent on finding the man who broke into her house and raped her, this story is nowhere near as predictable as it sounds. I cannot spoil anything, but all I can say is her approach to the matter seems so idiotic and nonsensical that you're almost convinced you're watching a terrible movie with no sense of direction, until about 75% of the way through when you realize what is really going on. While the rapist storyline is, by default, the focal point of the storyline, there is still much more going on in the story involving Michèle Leblanc (she is never referred to as Elle in the movie) dealing with her every day life. To call her family dysfunctional would be an understatement. She has a son whom she feels no emotional connection to (or his pregnant girlfriend, who treats him like shit), a mother she loathes for no great reason, and a father she refuses to forgive for the murderous crimes he committed in the past. That's not including her best friend who almost acts more as a mother to her son than she does (there's a very interesting explanation for that) and the fact that she's fucking her best friend's husband. Did I mention she also wants to fuck her neighbor, who is also married? Elle is not an easy film. Nothing about it is obvious or clear cut, unlike Verhoeven's most notable filmography. And for the kind of story it is, that works tremendously in its favor. Michèle is a very complex and troubled character. She is the true definition of a three dimensional female character, one that Tumblr SJW's would be furious at (sorry that she is not in the vein of Kate McKinon licking a proton gun in the oh-so progressive hit Ghostbusters) She is a character with a lot of flaws, and a lot of strengths as well. She is strong, smart, very resilient, and also very funny. She makes a lot of provocative, cynical and mean spirited jokes in situations most people wouldn't dare think lightly of. She lives on her own and often likes to take things into her own hands. She is one of the leading founders of a video game company, and as a result she has a lot of power and control. Though that can also work to her disadvantage, as she can be too manipulative and too controlling for her own good, hurting the people who don't deserve it as a result. While her independence can at times be her downfall, there are also instances where she lacks any independence whatsoever, and to avoid spoilers that's all I can say on the matter. But, like Michèle herself, this film is not without its flaws. As you can tell by my description, there is a LOT going on in this story, and at times the film cannot mesh them together as smoothly as one may hope. This is also an issue I had with Starship Troopers, where all of these singular elements of the film are fantastic, but he presentation of it all is kind of off. However, Starship Troopers also suffered from some of its statements contradicting each other, which by the end of it only felt like it took away from the movie. Everything in Elle is warranted and fits into the story just fine. Sloppy execution is certainly not something I can overlook, but when I consider it to be the only real problem of the film, it brings me to my final conclusion that I absolutely saw a great film. It is not quite as good as Robocop and Total Recall, but I do consider it better than Starsip Troopers, which is still a film I love. Hopefully this is a new brand of filmmaking for Verhoeven, because I would love to see more films done in the vein of this style as he did for Total Recall and Starship Troopers following the style of Robocop. I gotta give Elle a 9/10, and definitely recommend it to anyone who can see it when it's released on Blu Ray next month. My 2016 list so far: 1. The Neon Demon 2. The Nice Guys (might be #1, not sure yet) 3. Elle 4. The Witch 5. The Conjuring 2 6. Deadpool 7. Captain America Civil War 8. 10 Cloverfield Lane 9. The Lobster 10. Cafe Society I still need to see Arrival, Silence, Kubo and the Two Strings, La La Land, Jackie, Moonlight, Hell or High Water, Manchester by the Sea, Moana, Fences, and Paterson, so chances are my list will change significantly once I've completed my checklist. As much as I really liked 6-10, to have them on my top 10 of the year list would be kind of disappointing. 1-5 were amazing films, and chances are within the next few months I'll own them all on Blu Ray.