#the star wars trilogy are the first movies i have actual definitive memories of seeing

[marisatomay]

thought about this again. kind of amazing how we’re all just chasing ways to duplicate how this scene makes us feel, either in life or in art.

[the-force-awakens]

Yeah, that's a pretty good analysis. I don't see Poe included hardly at all, in fandom or in canon to a degree, and I think it's safe to say he has one of the least number of fans who are specifically fans of him. Like I don't see many blogs/accounts that are specifically Poe centric.

Oh man, I actually got up to answer this on my computer rather than my phone, so we'll see how into it I'll get into this ask, but yes! It's vastly unfortunate that he often gets excluded or overlooked when he's the entire catalyst for the sequel trilogy. He is, archetypically and narratively within the story, the Leia of our generation: if it was not for Poe and BB-8 (who is really like an extension of Poe), then Finn wouldn't have been able to escape the Finalizer, and Rey would have never left Jakku.

While yes, it's true that Poe wasn't initially meant to survive The Force Awakens (and other nine word horror stories for me), Poe is still one part of the primary trio of the trilogy and has been since 2015. He is not only Leia's first protégé, but the eventual leader of the Resistance, and according to the Rise of Skywalker novel, the heir to the legacy of House Organa (cue me loudly proclaiming him a Disney Prince). Yet, somehow, at the same time......no one seems to ever want to include him as part of the saga, and an important one as that?

(@dameronalone points out ever so often how much they love the shot where everyone leaves Exegol for this reason, because we see Poe flying alongside the Falcon, which really hammers in that Poe is an important player in the history of the saga).

More thoughts below the cut, because I have more and this is already lengthy.

The worst thing is that Poe was extremely popular. Lucasfilm and Marvel pretty much immediately greenlit a comic series for him, and while that was definitely to flesh his story out, if my memory serves, it was so popular that I believe the first printing sold out? And it was originally only meant to last 25 issues (which personally I think it should have stayed at, because I don't super vibe with 26-onward and it feels off and tonally disconnected to the rest of the series and also the ending of TLJ, and the characterization for Poe also feels off, but that's!! a different rant!!!) but the title was so popular that Marvel decided to extend it for two more storylines!

The issue was the fandom backlash to TLJ.

You don't have to look too far into my blog to know that I adore Poe in TLJ, and that I like his arc in the movie, and that I avidly defend him for it, but the internet in 2017-2019 was an entirely different universe from that. You could not go anywhere - Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, fucking hell, even most major media news outlets and clickbait websites - without hearing about how much everyone hated Poe Dameron.

Why? Because they walked away from his arc deciding that he was sexist and the movie's perfect example of toxic masculinity (although, lmfao, the First Order clowns are right there). It went further than that, with headlines about how everyone hated him, how he was personally responsible for everything that happens in the Resistance in the film, and how he was the worst character in Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks (because clearly the Star Wars fandom never learns from its previous toxicity, right?). It was to the point that, to my immense horror and frustration, even as far as into promoting TROS, a reporter described Poe as a "secret villain" in TLJ to Oscar (and man do I hope that man knows Poe is loved, actually).

Fandom wasn't much different. Fanon Poe prior to TLJ was....a lot different. In some ways, a lot of fics hit the nail on the head on who Poe was, but there was a definite unifying idea of who Poe was: a pure cinnamon roll who never, ever swore, and always listened to Leia and never argued with her - let alone disobeyed her orders or put a toe out of line (this is even illustrated in canon, with the first Poe Dameron annual, where the author has Poe declare that Leia is "always right" and instantly caving in an argument).

And TLJ Poe is about....as far removed from that vision of Poe as you can possibly get - although nothing about him in TLJ is ooc. We see the bare bones of it in The Force Awakens, and Before the Awakening and the comics further flesh out Poe in a way that perfectly leads into the Last Jedi. But the cinnamon roll fanon was made so common and leaked so far into fandom consciousness, that there was this strange concept that Poe was never, ever angry even in expanded material, which...he does. He gets pissed off plenty of times in the comics, and with the Defense Fleet while arguing with Deso.

So, canon Poe did the unthinkable and, y'know, didn't fall in line with how fanon saw him, which resulted in a huge backlash over the fact that he was a character with agency and a personality (that is NOT sexist thank you), which resulted in us getting books like Resistance Reborn, by authors who can't stand him or describe him as anything besides "supremely arrogant" and spends three hundred pages emotionally torturing him, claiming he needs to die, physically assaulting him, and you know...having the person who attacked him and the other person who claimed he needed to die flirt with him, because it also spends an ungodly amount of time sexualizing him to an uncomfortable degree, because the one thing fanon could agree on outside of the fact that he had been "ruined" or that he was a jackass or a "fuckboi" (yeah that went around too), was that Oscar Isaac is really goddamned fine in the Last Jedi (he is, I'll give them that, there's something about tlj!Poe, scientists remain baffled).

And on top of all of that, a particular fraction of the fandom developed an interesting habit of taking new pieces of canon and spreading them around online out of context, claiming that the writers were now intentionally writing him as sexist and as a jackass, and ruining his character further. I don't know for certain if this had any effect overall on the fandom's perception of him, but I know that it did almost break my spin in him for a while because I thought people were being very genuine, and it wasn't until 2020 that I got curious and started doing my own research into the panels/paragraphs being shared online, and sure enough, discovered that the angle had been falsified to paint Poe into a worse light (which, if anyone is curious, is why I did my deep dive into everything that he was in, because I didn't want to be fooled again. You can't trick me if I know everything lmfao).

So essentially, his popularity nosedived after the Last Jedi. It seemed to bump up a little bit, or at least there definitely seemed to be more people interested in him/writing for him in 2020 coming off the lockdown, but obviously that has very much dwindled. But I've definitely not seen any blogs dedicated to Poe as a character since 2017, and you don't ordinarily see him in miscellaneous Star Wars gifsets that go around either, let alone solo Poe gifsets (I know because I lose my shit anytime there's a new one that's not by me), and Poe creations that have nothing to do with a ship is.........even less likely to be found.

I definitely think canon is at least trying to keep him in our minds though. He was the second character to lead one of the Lego Specials, and that Rey short story ("Through the Turbulence") was focused on her friendship with him. Whether or not that's because of the possibility of Oscar returning for the Rey movie (which feels fairly tangible, considering he's been kind of shady about it after mentioning he'd come back for a good story, and doing that Halcyon video), or if it's just because of Lucasfilm maybe warming up to him as a character again*, I don't know, but I hope it means we get good-faith content for him again soon.

*Because I'm tired of the story group constantly being a little bitch about him, and the same goes for the Topps Trading Card App. Maybe people wouldn't think he was a villain if you stopped describing him like a terrible person? Just a thought.

[rebornofstars]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite alien (non-human *and* extra-terrestrial) characters? And what do you like about them?

They can be from sci-fi or fantasy, from other worlds or dimensions or realms. All that matters is that they're not from Earth and that they're not human in any traditional sense (and, most of all, that you find them interesting).

MY FAVOURITE ALIENS. i've been a little bit in love with space since i was 9.

firstly for the definitely non-human:

the doctor. of course. and literally everyone from his show. the weeping angels. the sky fish. nardole. missy. romana. the ood. the list goes on

um. bumblebee. 😅

star wars creatures

estraven from le guin's the left hand of darkness.

d'lacey's erth dragons are from the planet ki:mera

those martians in the war of the worlds. i had a h.g. wells kick halfway through high school. this wasn't my favourite of his works, but it was fun.

and for the recognisably human, but still extraterrestrial, because i really wanted to include these guys:

mara of the acoma from feist & wurts' empire trilogy. she is one of my favourite fictional women ever. in the context of her own series, she's not an alien, but in the context of the riftwar saga (which was published first and contain more elements of feist's mainline plot than the empire trilogy), she is, so. i think she counts.

the mandalorian. i'm not immune to single fathers... or general badassery...

darrow from brown's red rising. born on mars.

todd from the knife of never letting go (book) / chaos walking (movie). i have fond memories of going to see this at the drive-in with a friend when it came out.

actually, this list is shorter than i thought it would be 🥺 there's a couple of other books/movies i love about space but they're all human-focused and mostly about astronauts. if anyone has any recs pretty please drop them below?

[romilly-jay]

[What is] the right amount of the right kind of pummelling people [in movies]?

***spoilers***

Tonight we watched Unlocked (2017), a spy thriller starring Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Toni Collette doing a fantastic Emily Blunt cut glass accent and sporting Excellent Short Hair, John Malkovich just this side of utterly menacing, and Trust Me Michael Douglas.

I'll try to get this first point out of the way quickly and efficiently - presumably I've already blathered about this on these very blog pages only my ST memory isn't marvellous and I can't quite recall.

I've learned that Me Loving A Thing - or liking it or finding it tolerable - is a very poor indicator for how popular That Thing is likely to be.

[It's not a neat negative correlation, either - it's not that I can *always* look at things I've enjoyed and know that this means that popular media take is to Hate Them. It... depends...

For a not-really-on-topic case in point, I share what I understand to be the very wide consensus view that The Empire Strikes Back was the best of the original Star Wars trilogy - and I think Rian Johnson's marmite-middle-movie was the best of the most recent trilogy, which I appreciate is a far more controversial take, though I'm not alone in holding it. And yes, I'm on that end of the opinion range that would be more likely to enjoy it... Might be losing the thread here a little.]

Back to the action movie in question. Didn't love love it, but definitely liked it considerably more than the critical 26% consensus on Rotten Tomatoes and, yes, quite a bit more than the audience rating.

I'd have given it - ack - 60 ish? Yeah, 60 ish.

I mean - look at that CAST...

For why?

NR is super watchable and IMO super credible (movie credible, not actually-capable-of-surviving-all-this-stuff credible) as the lead.

[That low score - not connected to being asked to watch a woman anchor this movie? One who Doesn't Sleep With Orlando Bloom?]

Speaking of... I'm projecting of course, but I got the impression OB was enjoying his Cheeky Burglar Chappie With A Secret role. On which note, I have a great deal of respect for movies that acknowledge the short cuts the audience is using to assign characters as Goodies, Baddies, Hotties, Untrustables, Victims, etc. And then plays around with those expectations with a nice blend of To Type and Against Type casting. Looking at youse, OB and JM.

Also speaking of... OB's character certainly learned that most basic of movie lore lessons - Do. Not. Kill. The. Dog.

Sort of a side-bar but I vm enjoyed seeing certain scenes playing out in parts of East London I was familiar with - and I also got a certain kick from the moments when I then found myself thinking WHERE's THAT and then it turns out that part of the movie was shot in Prague.

There was a moment near the start when I found myself worrying that the setting was going to be too Gritty and the violence Too Real.

Thankfully, not the case. From the moment NR rumbles what's going on and goes about digging her way out again, we were dealing with Spy Cartoonish Violence - where the look is superficially "realistic" but the beats are closer to graphic novel than graphic.

Personally, for me, the more cartoonish the better - and if it's Artfully Unrealistic in an overtly choreographed way - THAT's the dream.

Saw The Transporter for the first time the other day - and the fight sequence in the bus station is pretty much at my perfect level. Enjoy.

The kind of nonsense they get up to with Jason Statham's top in this scene is truly *chef's kiss* fight fantasy IMO - and thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my pedantic lil heart to whoever decided he was going to go back for the shirt once he'd erm - wiped the floor - with the rest of the Baddies? (watch the scene...)

PS I'm in what is perhaps the less popular opinion group [AGAIN!] where the thing I like re the top is the clever use of it as a resource NOT the way using it requires JS to remove it. Fair play, the guy has clearly worked extremely hard for that bod. His muscles have muscles. But do I need to see 'em? For me, no, not really. Entirely happy to trust that he's doing all the gym-work you'd anticipate.

[rafasbiscuits]

Tagged by @schumi-nadal and @fisherkings thank u for tagging me guys it's always an honour, love youuu😘😘

Rules: post 10 of your favorite comfort mfovies then tag 10 people.

1. X Men movie series. Definitely, absolutely, undoubtedly, comfort movie. X Men. I remember watching the prequels with my brother as a kid when it's only the two of us at home. It's not just a comfort movie it's literally a fricking nostalgia for me. Then continued watching the whole timeline when I had my own computer.

2. STAR WARS MOVIES!!! Been a fan since I was a literal toddler and grew up with this. All sorts of nostalgia will come rushing to me and I will immediately feel hugged everytime I listen to the theme and just, see a familiar character. hey I don't know any lore cause I don't watch the cartoons but I watch enough to know what's going on🤷

3. Mean Girls. Yes, I watch Mean Girls on repeat everytime I eat lunch, it helps me eat cause I get distracted by all the drama going on, it's not nostalgic or anything cause I first watched it like two years ago but it is definitely a favourite and an absolute comfort movie.

4. Any Ghibli movies, I mean cmon, Ghibli!!! All my childhood anime movies are made from Ghibli. I love every single one of themm

5. Any Barbie movies (especially the Mariposa one, and the Princess Academy one and OMG THE MERMAID ONE!!) wait the mermaid one definitely needs its own like thing but I'm just putting it here. THE MERMAID BARBIE IS SO ICONIC I LOVE THAT MOVIE SO SO MUCH omg I have to rewatch

6. Twilight Series. Don't- actually. yes. I don't care anymore, I will not keep denying the fact that I LOVE this movie. It's part of my childhood and this movie really gave me alot of memories, I always watch the series whenever I'm sad or stressed about school..which is, all the time.

7. GOTG trilogy. Ugh, I mean I'm a Marvel fan in general (but I lean more to X Men), but Guardians Of The Galaxy will always be special to me. And the trilogy ended this year too and lemme tell you i CRIED. I remember begging my brother to lend me his USB so I can watch the first movie, and I did (took me a few weeks) and then BAM! Found comfort characters, all their songs became my comfort songs and immediately became a comfort movie, seriously the whole movie feels like home to me, god I love them.

8. Brokeback Mountain. I don't need to say anything about this, explains alot already.

9. Interstellar. Loved that movie to the CORE. watched it on the cinema and this movie made me fall in love with Nolan.

10. mmm I can't think of anything anymore but uhhh 2001: A Space Oddysey. Love it forever and always, the beginning of time and all that, loved the book it's one of my favourite books. And then the movie was just out of this world (literally) soundtrack? Top. Acting? Absolutely fantastic. Cinematography? yES. Perfection. I have an interest in the topic which is why I just feel so happy when I rewatch it..

Tagging...uhhh: @yoellglia @swaggypsyduck @tam-is-blogging @thefrootloopman @hubillusion @jcferrero @bluespring864 @raulsevyn @soronya @janesurlife (I'd love to tag all of you, yes the one who is reading this, but it says 10, I love you all very much tho😘)

[novelmonger]

Star Wars: Battlefront II - I actually didn't play this game as much as I expected to when we first got it, at least not in terms of multiplayer. I mostly just played the campaign where you hear the story of the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire from the perspective of a clone trooper. I'm pretty sure that was my first exposure to anything to do with clones outside of the movies, and at the time I thought it was super compelling and original. I can't really remember any of the guy's story itself, mostly just the vibes.

The Witness - This is an intriguing puzzle game where you explore an island and figure out how to solve a series of puzzles without any sort of instructions, just using logic and trial and error. When you can figure the puzzles out on your own, you feel really smart. When you can't, though.... ^^' In that way, as well as it all taking place on an island in the middle of nowhere, this game reminded me very strongly of Myst. In fact, because there's not really any story to the game, I pretended I was a young D'ni who had been sent to a Training Age before I'd be allowed to start writing my own Age for the first time. I really liked this game, and played all the way to the end, but the major downside is that it triggered my motion sickness in a bad way >_< Even after fiddling with various settings, sitting as far away from the screen as possible, and trying to get into the habit of looking away from the screen periodically, I could often only play for half an hour at a time before I'd feel like I needed to lie down and try not to hurl. I'm not sure what exactly it is about the game that did this to me, but according to my research, it's not just me.

Shardlight - Not surprised no one's played this. It's a rather obscure indie adventure game set in a post-apocalyptic world where the remaining survivors of World War III suffer the effects of uranium poisoning in the form of a sickness called Green Lung. The only known cure has to be administered periodically, but only the rich can afford it, so those who can't purchase it can get tickets for a lottery that gives them a chance to receive the medicine. The main character has contracted Green Lung, and is taking on jobs that will give her lottery tickets so she can get the medication, but eventually she ends up entangled with the resistance movement against the government. I thought it was an interesting setting, gorgeously rendered with beautiful pixel art. But I think it suffered from some suspension-of-disbelief problems, as well as an odd detail that stuck out like a sore thumb to me: The people you'd see in the background were as diverse as you'd expect a post-apocalyptic city in the future to be, but all of the characters who were voiced and had character portraits were white except for one who was maaaaaaaybe Asian. I don't think it would have struck me as quite so strange if I couldn't literally see people of various colors and cultures walking around in the background.

Penumbra: Requiem - The third installment in the Penumbra survival horror trilogy. I actually don't remember what happens in this one versus the second one, except for the ending, which I thought was a bit weak. Nice to get some answers to a few dangling threads, and...I mean, Penumbra is one of my all-time favorite horror games. It's a classic, in my mind.

Tekken 5 - Sooooo many memories of this one! <3 My siblings and I never did play any other Tekken games, but this was a great diversion if we just wanted to beat each other up one-on-one. My go-to character was Asuka Kazama; I loved spamming her extremely powerful kicks. And sometimes we'll still mimic Lei Wulong's weird dying cry when he'd get KO'd XD

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones - Definitely an improvement on Warrior Within, but not quite as good as The Sands of Time. I really like all the conversations the Prince has with his darker side, as well as the banter with Farah. Excellent choice to bring her back. They never should have bothered with any other female lead.

Ratchet & Clank - Okay, when I compare this game to the others in this poll, I can't say I'm exactly surprised that it won. Really solid action platformer, and it can be quite funny and cute when it's not being a bit gross. I do really like Ratchet and Clank's friendship, which sees its rocky beginning in this game <3

Princess Maker 2 - Woohoo, represent! I honestly don't remember how or why I ended up playing this game, and not any of the others in the series. It's a really cute old game where you are the king of a fantasy realm, and you're raising your daughter. You can adjust various stats, arrange her daily schedule and lessons, and guide her along various different paths her life can take. I think I played it all the way through twice, once with a very studious princess who became a businesswoman and a conscientious leader of the kingdom. The other one is the one I remember most fondly: Eileera, the warrior princess who would venture beyond the walls of the city to battle monsters and find treasure! Very fun game, very replayable.

Arbitrarily-Chosen Video Game Tournament, Round 1.7

Welcome to the Arbitrarily-Chosen Video Game Tournament, where we will find out which of the games I've played is the best game of all time!

Why? Don't ask. Just vote and reblog!

[giuliadrawsstuff]

Hello, my friend! I see you love movies, what are your fav movies everyone should see? I used to watch the Oscars every year, except this one and I missed the whole Will Smith fiasco lol, but I still remember when they did the mistake to give the best picture oscar to La La Land when it was Moonlight all the time....what a night.

Oh yes I LOVE movies, I watch the Oscars every year too 😂 I was there for Ellen's selfie and for the La La Land/Moonlight thing hahha I loved the surprise, thought Moonlight deserved it more. And I saw Will Smith's slap live, I actually thought it was all a joke in the beginning, then the Italian speakers said something had occurred and I realized it wasn't planned at all. I also think his punishment is a bit too much, I mean he shouldn't have hit Chris Rock, but he did indeed make a very poor and mean joke about an illness. Definitely not funny. 10 years ban is a bit too much, but we know Oscars have weird rules, sigh.

As for my favourite movies, damn tough.

- The Lord of the Rings trilogy is all time favourite, there's nothing better than this and no one can convince me otherwise 😌 I love everything about it I watch it 2/3 times a year (extended edition) and the soundtrack is the best ever.

- Howl's moving castle, possibly my favourite animated movie, anime for sure. I love everything about it from soundtrack to characters and the book is a masterpiece too even thought it's very different.

- Spiderman Into the Spiderverse, the animation is worth it alone, mind-blowing, never seen anything so amazing in my life, probably the next best one is The Mitchells Vs the Machines (I'm mad cause Encanto won instead of this one ugh).

AND there's Olivia Octavius that's the American version of Hange so bonus point hehe

- Alien tetralogy, well mostly the first three, the fourth is pure trash but still enjoyable. I like to watch it like a watch the Machete movies and Robert Rodriguez movies in general 😂

I think my favourite is Aliens, that's the one from James Cameron, but I love the first and third one too.

- Hook, Ghostbusters, Jumanji, The Addams Family, The Blues Brothers. These are all my childhood movies. I love them all and they're a part of me. They're not perfect, but the stories, the special effects and the acting are true and heartwarming. Maybe it's my nostalgia talking but who knows you might love them too.

- Coraline. Almost like Howl hehe, love the book too. And I'm a big fan of stop motion especially Laika's they're the absolute best.

- Star Wars (the old and the prequel trilogy only). Childhood movies and memories once again, though they teach valuable lessons about family, love, self-discovery and fabulous special effects (for the time).

- Some like it hot. Old but one of the best movies I've ever seen. Billy Wilder is a genius director and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon are Oscars good. Plus there's the best ending/movie line ever:

And they almost made me like Marilyn Monroe so 😂😂

- The Invisible Man (1935) yes it's ooooold but I love old movies even silent one (this is not though). Love the sci-fi story and the invisible effect on him is top notch.

- Becoming Jane. I'm not a fan of romantic movies or comedies (there are very very few I cherish, the others meh I get easily bored when there's too much romance involved), but this one, boy I love it. Maybe it's the chemistry between James McAvoy and Anne Hathaway or the Jane Austen setting (I love Jane Austen movies, these are one of the few romances I like, dunno why), but my heart melts every time I see it, and I cry A LOT. I'm huge crybaby, you don't wanna know how much I cry every time I watch LOTR 😂

- Tim Burton movies, I don't have a real fave, probably The Nightmare before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands or Big Fish, but he's my favourite director, there are few movies he's made I don't like. Lately he's lost a bit of his touch but I'm so close to him can't not like him 😂 don't know if it makes sense.

Right now these are the ones that come to mind, but I'm sure I'm missing some movie for sure. I'm sorry it's so long you don't have to let me talk about movies 😩 I can go on forever and ever, I'm kind of autistic when it comes to cinema. Thanks for asking though, anon 💜

[hecallsmehischild]

Recent Media Consumed

Books

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. About ten or fifteen years ago, I tried to read this and was totally overwhelmed by it. I kept it around, hoping maybe someday I might be able to read it. I finally have, and here are my impressions: WHY SO MANY NAMES. WHY YOU HAVE TO NAME EVERYBODY, AND EVERY TRIBE OF PEOPLES, AND EVERY INANIMATE OBJECT, AND EVERY LANDSCAPE FEATURE. WHY. *ahem* So. I have a general comprehension of the events of The Silmarillion, but I dealt with it by doing what you do for an impressionist painting. I (mentally) stepped way back and let all the names flow by me, and if there were names that were repeated a lot, then I mentally attached appropriate plot points and character details to those names so I could track with who they were and what they were doing. And, actually, I found myself able to hang on and enjoy the book for the most part. This is going to lead into a re-reading of the Lord of the Rings books, since I haven’t read those in about as long…

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I haven’t read some of these books since pre-teen years, with one required re-read of The Two Towers in high school (i.e. it’s been many an age since I’ve read these and my memory of the stories has been far more heavily influenced by the movies). In re-reading the first book, I was struck by the extreme tone shift for the Elves and Dwarves. Elves seem much closer to happy, mischievous fairies than these ethereal, solemn pillars of elegance and grace the movies show them to be. And Dwarves are far more bumbling and craftsmanlike than the movies show. Aside from that, The Hobbit was a pretty solid adaptation from the book, and the book also reminded me that this story was the first time I experienced “NO, MAIN CHARACTERS DON’T DIE, HOW DARE YOU,” and probably was the first book to make me cry. I must have been 8 or 10 years old. I FORGOT HOW MUCH THIS STORY INFLUENCED ME.

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell. I have a longer-than-usual list of things to say about this book. First is that it was just that level of difficult that I was struggling to understand while reading it (on Audible), but I think I got it. Sowell has several base concepts that I see repeated throughout his books, though he does like to dedicate whole books to specific aspects of the same topic. He is pretty damn thorough that way. So, for example, I would put this book in the middle of a three-book spectrum of similar concepts: Intellectuals and Society (most concrete and easiest to read), A Conflict of Visions (next-level abstraction, a little difficult to read), Knowledge and Decisions (root abstract concept, very difficult, I have not been able to get past chapter 2). The second thing I have to say is about a couple interesting concepts it proposes. Its whole point is to help readers understand the roots of two ways of seeing the world that come into severe conflict politically, and he calls them by their root titles: the constrained and the unconstrained visions. He traces the path of each back through the intellectuals that most spoke of them (tending to contrast Adam Smith with William Godwin and Condorcet). Though he leans heavily toward the constrained vision (based on reading his other works) he does his best to make this book an academic study of both, with both of the visions' strengths and flaws and reasoning and internal consistencies fairly laid out. In doing so, he helped me understand a few things that make this situation really difficult for people on opposing sides to communicate. One of them is that root words and concepts literally mean different things to different people. I had some vague notion of this before, but he laid out three examples in detail: Equality, Power, and Justice. It was kind of astounding to see just how differently these three words can be defined. It makes me think that arguing about any specific issues rooted in these concepts is fruitless until first an understanding has been reached on terms, because otherwise two parties are endlessly talking past each other. Another really interesting idea he brought up is the existence of “hybrid visions” and he named both Marxism and Fascism as hybrid visions. This was especially fascinating to me because I have seen the accusation of “Nazi” flung around ad nauseam and I wondered how it was that both sides were able to fling it at each other so readily. Well, it’s because Fascism is actually a hybrid vision, so both sides have a grain of truth but miss the whole on that particular point. In any case, this was a little difficult to read but had some fascinating information. For people who are wondering what on earth this gap is between political visions, how on earth to bridge the gap, or why the gap even exists in the first place, this is a really informative piece.

Movies

The Hobbit & Fellowship trilogies (movies). I mean, it’s definitely not my first watch, not even my second. But I went through it with Sergey this time and that means the run-time is double because we pause to talk and discuss details. This watch came about partly due to Sergey’s contention that Gandalf’s reputation far outstrips his actual powers, so we ended up noting down every instance of Gandalf’s power to see if that was true. Conclusion: Gandalf is actually a decently powerful wizard, but tends to use the truly kickass powers in less-than-dire circumstances. That aside, this movie series was always a favorite for me. I rated The Hobbit trilogy lower the first time I saw it but, frankly, all together the six movies are fantastic and a great way to sink deep into lore-heavy fantasy for a while. And I’m catching way more easter-egg type details after having read the Silmarillion so it’s even more enjoyable. (finally, after about a week of binge-watching) I forgot how much this story impacted me. I forgot how wrenchingly bittersweet the ending is. I forgot how much of a mark that reading and watching this story left on my writing.

Upside-Down Magic. Effects were good. Actors were clearly having fun and enjoying everything. Story didn’t make enough sense for my taste, but it was a decent way to kill flight time.

Wish Dragon. So, yes, it’s basically an Aladdin rewrite, but it’s genuinely a cheesy good fluff fest that made me grin a whole lot.

Plays

Esther (Sight and Sound Theatres). < background info > This is my third time to this theatre. There are only two of these in existence and they only run productions of stories out of the Bible. The first time I went I saw a production of Noah, the second time I saw a production of Jesus. My middle sister has moved all the way out to Lancaster, PA in hopes of working at this theatre. My husband and I came out to visit her. < /background info > So. Esther. They really pulled out all the stops on the costumes and set. I mean, REALLY pulled out all the stops. And the three-quarters wrap-around stage is used to great effect. I tend to have a general problem of not understanding all the words in the songs, but I understood enough. I highly recommend sitting close to the front for immersive experiences. This theatre puts on incredible productions and if you ever, ever, EVER have the opportunity to go, take it. Even if you think it's nothing but a bunch of fairy tales, STILL GO. I doubt you'll ever see a fairy tale produced on another stage with equal dedication to immersion.

Shows

The Mandalorian (first two seasons). Well. This was pretty thoroughly enjoyable. It felt very Star-Wars, and I’d kind of given up after recent movies. Felt like it slipped into some preaching toward the end? Not sure, I could be overly sensitive about it, but I enjoyed this a lot (though I did need to turn to my housemate and ask where the flip in the timeline we were because I did NOT realize that the little green kid IS NOT ACTUALLY Yoda).

Games

Portal & Portal 2. Portal is probably the first video game I ever tried to play, back when I had no idea what I was doing. Back then, I attempted to play it on my not-for-gaming Mac laptop. Using my trackpad. Once the jumping-for-extra-velocity mechanic came into play, I just about lost my mind trying to do this with a trackpad and gave up. Later I returned to the game and played it with my then-boyfriend on a proper gaming computer. Now, after having played several games and gotten better at "reading the language" of video games, I decided I wanted to see if I could beat the Portal games by myself. Guess what. I BEAT 'EM. Yes, I remembered most of the puzzles in Portal so that's a little bit of a cheat, but I'd say a good 2/3 of Portal 2 was new puzzles to me. It is crazy how proud I feel of myself that I could beat Portal 2, especially. Learning how to play video games at this age has really knocked down the lie, "You can't learn anything." Though I still suck at platformers and games that require precision. Since I find those types frustrating, I probably won't be playing many. Games are about enjoyment, so I'll push myself a little, but not to the point where I can't stand what I'm playing.

The Observer. I like the concept and the art but I don't think I could keep trying to play this game. It's really depressing. My in-game family members all died of illness or accident or committed suicide. I also kept getting executed by the state. In order to keep us all alive I'd have to do pretty terrible things that I have a hard enough time contemplating even in a fictional setting.

Baba Is You. Fun and interesting concept, but I got stuck pretty early on. Don't think I want to push as hard on this one.

[selezione-innaturale]

List 7 comfort movies and then tag 7 people!

I was tagged by @regina-del-cielo , who (unknowingly) decided to put me through a challenge. As a person who tends to not rewatch movies, I will get as close as possible to the concept.

1) The Aristocats (1970). When I was three I used to watch it once a day, sometimes twice. It's part of my very first memories!

2) Trading places (1983). Now, I have no idea whether people abroad even know about this comedy from the 80′s (there are racist characters saying the n-word and one of the scenes is set in the world trade center, so uhhhh do USAmericans even watch it anymore?) but one TV channel in Italy has been scheduling it regularly on Christmas Eve for, like, what, 20 years? Edit: since 1997. It’s kind of a meme but a few years ago I finally caved in and watched for the first time, and boy it’s hilarious. It’s not a crass comedy like cinepanettoni nor a sappy christmas movie, but a quite mature comedy. Heck, it isn’t even a christmas movie, it’s just set around christmas! Ever since then I often watch it together with my family when The Season® comes.

3) Ecce bombo (1978). It’s the first movie by Italian director Nanni Moretti. Definitely not a film you’d expect in such a list, but it depicts a generation of young people who don’t know what to do in their life and it’s just *on point* and extremely relatable, and the source of many inside jokes. The only problem is that, watched in a single setting, it can be  e x t r e m e l y  b o r i n g.

4) Allegro non Troppo (1976). Bruno Bozzetto has been called the Italian Disney and this is his masterpiece. It’s a homage/parody of Fantasia, so it’s composed of many animated segments accompanying a musical piece - but whereas Fantasia is purely art for art's sake, Allegro non Troppo shows Bruno Bozzetto’s talent for satire and cynicism. This and the animation is super pretty and creative.

(I could go on by complaining how the “Italian Disney” is almost unknown to the great public in Italy and had so little success that he only made 3 movies, and this because this joke of a country is not able to valorize its own creative people, but I digress)

5) The Blues Brothers (1980). That’s a movie I’ve last seen too long ago! But whenever I think about a movie I’d like to rewatch I think about this

6) Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998). Listen. I was born in 1993. I was there when it all began (in this part of the world, at least). The first movie was kinda the cherry on top of the pokémon mania - and at first I didn't even want to see it because Mewtwo looked scary! It features some very juicy 90's sci-fi anime designs - à la Ghost in the Shell - which is just fantastic, and I'm actually still impressed by Mewtwo.

The CGI remake kinda sucks.

7) the original Star Wars trilogy (1977 - 1983)

Movies that I never missed the chance to watch any time they aired on TV. If I see them one more time I'm going to puke, though

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Re-Write

(Inspired by the fantastic work of @dalekofchaos) 

“Fix it” fics are a thing, yeah? Well, here’s my shot at writing one for the ninth Star Wars film. Contrary to popular opinions, I’m only going to change one or two things about the two movies beforehand, because I unironically loved both of them. But I can admit that there were mistakes, and TLJ tied up most of the loose ends, leaving it difficult to follow-up with a sequel. So, regarding Episodes eight and nine, here’s what changes. 

I have exactly one change for TFA. That random ass stormtrooper who called out Finn as a traitor and inexplicably had a melee weapon that could fight lightsabers? Yeah, just make that Phasma and have done with it. I don’t understand why it wasn’t her in the first place. Also, Finn being able to wield a lightsaber isn’t “evidence” that he’s force-sensitive if you ask me. The films never confirm that non-force sensitives can’t use them. This will be important later.

Moving on to TLJ...replace that stupid milk scene with the deleted scene of Luke reacting to the news of Han’s death. I mean, come on, that’s a given. Another given, Luke uses his green lightsaber in the illusionary duel against Kylo Ren. That’s just common sense. 

After Kylo Ren asserts himself and force-chokes General Hux, and the two of them depart...the camera pans in on the pieces of Snoke’s corpse, onto his face...and his eyes suddenly open. Yes, this will be important later. Somehow, Snoke survived.

I genuinely liked Vice-Admiral Holdo, but they kind of fumbled her role in the story. She was never given a reason for why she did not share her plans with the rest of the Resistance. The most popular theory being that she assumed a mole was on board, but this was never stated in the movie. In my opinion, Poe had every reason to call for mutiny based on what he knew, so the whole message/character arc of him learning to be a leader rather than a hero didn’t quite stick the landing. So how will I fix it? Simple, replace Holdo with Leia. First things first, we don’t get the superman-flying, which is just an objective improvement. We also are more inclined to trust Leia over Poe, because of the legacy the character has. We’re also going with the plot-threat there is indeed a mole. What’s more, Leia is given the sendoff she deserves with the light-speed kamikaze scene. Sure, she may be force-sensitive, but it’s clear that she chose a different path in her life and I think she should go out as a warrior, not a Jedi, because that’s what she was. General Leia. Plus, you avoid the awkward interactions with CGI Leia from the canon episode 9. 

I think we can all agree that Finn deserved better, and he absolutely deserved to have the scene that was deleted, where he called out Phasma in front of her soldiers, telling them what happened in TFA, when Phasma caved so easily. This is the beginning of the Stormtrooper rebellion, and Finn is responsible for igniting the spark. He can definitely duel with Phasma, but he’s not going to win for one simple reason. The mole suddenly reveals herself and puts a blaster to his head. 

Spoiler alert, the mole is Rose. The reason why could vary - perhaps she blames the resistance for the death of her sister. Perhaps the First Order captured her sister alive and is threatening her. Either way, Rose’s efforts help turn the tide and allow her and Phasma to escape. The code-breaker can still be part of the movie, but he doesn’t really matter. The Canto Bight sequence is unchanged, because I honestly don’t dislike it at all. 

So who saves Finn from his attempt to follow General Leia’s example, and give his life for the cause that he now truly cares about? Poe does. This moment already causes their character arcs to intersect, with Poe being in the position Leia was in at the start of Last Jedi, Finn being in Poe’s position. Poe crashes their ships to save Finn, and because I’m #Stormpilot trash, and we deserved an onscreen LGBT relationship between leads, Poe does indeed kiss Finn. However, don’t worry about Rose. I have plans for her. 

That’s about all that changes. But in the grand scene of things, most of these aren’t really issues with the film itself. But they’re necessary to set up for my idea for a Rise of Skywalker re-write. Speaking of...

The Rise of Skywalker - let’s begin with the name. 

I hate this name and everything it represents. I’ve heard rumors of an alternate script where Ben Solo is not redeemed, called “Duel of Fates.” I’m not a fan of Ben not being redeemed, but I like the concept of that film name. So I’m thinking this movie will be called something like “One Last Bout” or “One Last Stand.” Something simple but effective, with the air of finality. I truly doubt Episode 9 is the end of Star Wars forever, but if we think of it as a conclusion to the first two trilogies, this can work. 

The film opens with the funeral of General Leia. With Rey, Finn, and Poe (who are holding hands for sure) all standing together with Chewie, who is in shambles as we can expect. Lando is also present and he gets re-introduced. Luke’s force spirit appears and looks on, but does not reveal himself to everyone else. Likewise, pan the camera over, and we see Kylo Ren observing the service as well, out of sight. Luke makes telepathic contact with Rey, to warn her of danger, at which point both Rey and Ben double over in pain, the sound design giving us an uncomfortable high pitched screech, or something similar. There’s a disturbance in the Force. Something is returning. Something terrible. Ben is spotted, and the main trio open fire with blasters, but Ben escapes. Lando stops Rey from pursuing him, suggesting that it would dishonor Leia’s memory to do it right then and there. 

Ben, on his ship, struggles with horrible pain, a serious headache. Until at last, he is telepathically contacted by a voice we do not hear. But it terrifies him, and he takes off in his ship in pursuit of it. 

A scene similar to the one where the Resistance analyzes Palpatine’s message, but there is no message and there is empathically no Palpatine in this movie, though I won’t get into why that was a horrible idea right now. Never mind, Rey is simply recounting to Finn, Poe, Chewie, and Lando that there’s a disturbance in the Force. Luke’s spirit appears and warns them that a great evil that long predates their time, is returning. He disappears, explaining that he needs to await Leia as she “crosses over” and becomes one with The Force. This is the last we see of Luke in the film, because his story is over. The torch has been passed.

Ben/Kylo Ren arrives at what we saw as Exegol. I don’t mind this planet being Exegol, it was about the only new location I actually remembered from the canon film. He confronts the voice in his head, proclaiming that he will kill any threat to The First Order and it’s Supreme Leader. A familiar voice in the dark chuckles. “You have yet to finish off your predecessor. By what right do you claim his job?” Snoke leans forward, and reveals himself. A similar scene to TROS plays out but with no mention of Rey. Despite Ben’s shock, Snoke is amused. “You are not the first apprentice to try and take my life. You probably won’t be the last. I have fashioned many into tools for the Dark Side, even the Emperor himself learned at my feet. Did you think you were special? So, yes. Snoke is the final Big Bad like he should have been (Andy Serkis was robbed) and he really is Darth Plagueis because he was totally supposed to be. By means of mental torture, Snoke reassumes control of Ben and tells him to gather the Knights of Ren “Wherever you’ve hidden them” and prepare to crush the rebellion once and for all. 

Instead of visiting a random planet for a lead, Lando and Chewie lead the gang back to Endor. Or it could also be Kashyyyk, I suppose. Like before, Lando and Luke were there. They spent years documenting the history of the Jedi and the Sith. This could be contained in “Holocrons” I realize they have meaning behind them in the lore, but I don’t know much, so just consider the “Holocron” to be a storage unit for information. Arriving there, we still have the scene of a local asking for Rey’s family name, but this time she’s going to stay no one like she should have. While researching, Finn expresses the theory, or more like the hope, that he might be Force-Sensitive. Rey tells him that everyone is, to an extent, but Finn clarifies that he means it the same way that Rey is. “Y’know, the way you can push stuff around and sense people’s feelings. Make stuff float.” An echo back to Rey’s line from TLJ. What I’m going for here is that Finn is not force-sensitive in the traditional way. His arc in this movie is going to be about accepting that, and realizing that he doesn’t need that to be a “hero.” He already is one, with everything he’s done. But as of right now, his insistence that he could be leads to bickering between him and Rey.

Things only get worse as Rey uncovers more about the Jedi. Sees some of the ways in which they were not the white knights that history remembers them as. Luke was right, they played no small part in creating Darth Vader. What’s more, she discovers the “Rule of Two” which has been hinted in the films but never discussed outright. The idea that there are only ever two people wielding the Dark Side, a master and an apprentice. And that the apprentice invariably kills the master to succeed them. A tradition dating back for millennia. The Sith, the practitioners of the Dark Side, always betray each other. She’s disheartened, thinking of Ben killing Snoke and how he offered her his hand. What it all would have led to in the end. 

They finally discover what could be the answer - the “great evil” that is returning. A Sith lord called Darth Plaguis, who, when they bring up the hologram of him, strongly resembles Snoke. They put two and two together, reading more about Plagueis’ file. How he vanished without a trace. How he was said to have performed an unspeakable ritual in the Dark Side to allow him to control life and death itself. He could revive those he loved from death, and could not truly he killed, having become an anomaly in the Force. Only another anomaly of equal power would be able to stop him. 

An ambush occurs, with assassins in masks attacking the heroes. They wield melee weapons that are not lightsabers, and they force the group to split up due to simply being outnumbered. The gang realizes that, apart from being here to kill them, they probably want that Holocron, but the Resistance must be the ones to get it. We get a similar scene to the canon film, with Chewie heading to the Millennium Falcon with the Holocron and trying to take off, to blast the assassins from the sky...but then the assassins reveal their ace card. They have force power. And they start to pull the Falcon back down. Rey struggles against them, but she’s outnumbered, still upset from everything that she’s learned, and easily angered when Finn rushes in to try and help, despite not being able to. Rey succumbs to her anger and unleashes Dark-Side lightning. Just like in the canon film. The differences? Number one, this doesn’t foreshadow any lineage for her...but importantly Chewie is actually dead, not just a fake-out. He’s dead, and the Falcon and Holocron are destroyed with him. Seriously, the emotional weight of that scene is completely drained by not having Chewie actually die there. The potential is lost, and I’m going to prove it. 

Rey is appropriately mortified, shocked, and despondent.  The assassins are too - they can’t believe their enemy killed one of their own just to win. Everyone is shocked, but Poe is the quickest to regain his head, dashing in and blasting at the assassins to help cover the heroes while they escape, Finn half-dragging a stunned Rey. So, everyone feels awkward about what just happened and though they believe Rey that it was an accident, it still happened and both Finn and Poe feel distant from her. Lando, understandably, is a lot less patient than them. He knew Chewie for years. His old feelings about losing Han might resurface, and he could say something about how Rey is no better than Kylo Ren, before catching himself and apologizing. At this point, Lando also departs. He needs to get back to the Resistance, because he has been named the Acting General, since Leia’s death. 

Meanwhile, Poe deduces that the assassins were the mythical “Knights of Ren” rumored to be the Supreme Leader’s private army. Rey is shaken from her stupor at this news - it doesn’t make sense, it completely violates the “Rule of Two.” Could Ben still be saved? Or is it too late for him? Is it too late for her, Rey, even? Cue Ben Solo/Kylo Ren opening up the force-bond once again. A similar conversation about how they’re both uncertain of their place in the galaxy, and a confirmation that Snoke is back, and is really Plagueis. Ben reveals that he’s been ordered to kill Rey, and he apologies - he truly doesn’t want to do this, but Snoke once again has control of him, and has proven that killing him won’t matter. Rey senses terrible pain, and gets a taste of what Ben has been put through - think, like, the Cruciatus Curse. Whatever “pain” move Kylo Ren used on Poe in TFA. He learned it from Snoke, of course. Ben closes the force-bond, telling Rey to run. Run as far and as fast as she can, because he’s no longer able to take it easy on her.

Finn and Poe overhear the conversation, or at least Rey’s side of it. They hear enough to deduce who she’s talking to, and this further plants the seeds of doubt in their heads. As we see in Last Jedi, Rey doesn’t really tell people about the force-bond, so we can assume she never told her friends. The family is fracturing more and more. Rey is slipping closer and closer to the Dark Side. And all without needing to give her a bloodline. See? I told you Chewbacca’s death had potential. 

They make a pit stop on Coruscant, because there’s no reason it couldn’t have been Coruscant, hiding from First Order ships. Here is where the character of Zorii originally showed up. As compelling as the performance was, she’s not going to show up here. Let’s be honest, she was only there to no-homo Finn and Poe, as well as give Poe a backstory that is apparently racist? (I’m not knowledgeable enough about this topic to comment, so let’s just throw out the whole idea.) Instead, the team is confronted by none other than Rose, the mole from TLJ. She reveals that more and more stormtroopers have been rebelling since Finn gave his speech. There’s only one faction that she is confident will never turn on the First Order - the Knights of Ren, who “seem to worship the Supreme Leader like a damn god...though, I guess he isn’t the Supreme Leader anymore, is he?” News is spreading of Snoke’s return, and Rose has the heroes cornered with a band of loyalist stormtroopers. 

Finn pleads with Rose, and the other Stormtroopers, to reconsider. Here is where we outline Rose’s character. She despises everything about war. She’s intentionally attacking both sides, seeking to see both the Resistance and The First Order collapse. She has a personal vendetta against Poe and actively tries to kill him, for his role in the battle that killed her sister. Poe likewise despises Rose for having betrayed Finn. Whether Rose’s actions are tactical doesn’t really matter - she’s responding from a place of emotion, not logic. Poe, showing his growth, apologies to Rose and talks her down. Explains the situation, how dire the circumstances are. Rey chimes in and identifies with Rose, having made plenty of mistakes of her own. There’s a moment of solidarity between the team once again. A moment, anyway. Poe makes peace with Rose, and she lets the heroes go. However, her stormtroopers turn on her, and attack everyone. The gang helps Rose escape with them, and after the escape, they realize that those stormtroopers were in fact the Knights of Ren, spying for Kylo Ren, which means Snoke as well. 

Rey, tortured by nightmares about Snoke, leaves in the middle of the night. Finn is awake, and tries to stop her, which leads to a major fight. Finn is having trouble trusting Rey, and it shows. Rey is likewise fed up with Finn trying to insert himself into the story, as it were. However, having been told by Rose the impact that he had on the galaxy, Finn no longer wishes to be a Jedi. He then redirects the question to Rey - does she want to be a Jedi? Like Luke? Honest answer - she doesn’t know. The Jedi of old would never have accepted her. She’d have been expelled and become another Darth Vader. Rey is impulsive, confrontational, she has a short temper. She gives in to the Dark Side too easily, and now it’s gotten someone killed. She feels diseased. Though Finn tries to dissuade such talk, it comes out that he and Poe overheard her conversation with Kylo Ren. Both sides are angry here, because Rey kept this secret, and because her friends spied on her. She cries out in anger, causing several nearby lights to blow out. Rey storms away, seeking to be alone.

This fight scene takes the place of the ESB rip-off with an evil Rey. That just wasn’t necessary. Instead, Rey leaves to confront Snoke, kill him once and for all, and rescue Ben if she can. After that, she isn’t sure what she’ll do. It is at this point that she is captured by the Knights of Ren. However, they don’t kill her, as instructed. They remove their masks - humanizing them as just being people. They reveal that they were the Jedi who followed Ben after he left Luke. When Starkiller Base was finished, Ben told them to go and evacuate their families from their home planets, just in case. The Knights stayed away for a long time, per Ben’s orders, but returned when he bid them too. They love him, seem to look up to him, and they can tell that he loves Rey. That he’s not his own man anymore. And that his best interests don’t align with Snoke’s. They know Snoke has to die, but also realize they aren’t powerful enough to stop him. The only one they can think of who might be - is Rey. They beg for her help, and she agrees.

The movie now offers a montage of Stormtroopers abandoning Phasma and Hux, and turning themselves in to the Resistance, explaining that they want to fight for the light. Meanwhile, Finn talks to Rose and Poe, and they all agree that they can’t just leave Rey, they have to go after her. They regret not trusting her, and conclude that even if she is tempted by the Dark Side, even if she falls...she’s still their friend. They don’t believe that she’s a spy - Rose offers useful tip in this sense. Observing that Rey offers none of the “tells.” Finally, we come to Rey training with the Knights of Ren. The transformation of her staff into a lightsaber pike. And it’s gold, baby. It’s gold. (Oh, since I forgot to mention this, Anakin’s lightsaber never gets repaired. Rey has been using a blaster up to this point.)

Bring us back to Snoke, torturing Ben once again as he can sense the betrayal of the Knights. Ben doesn’t realize that they’re still loyal to him, he thinks they just abandoned him, and his spirit is broken even further. Snoke talks more about his past, and here we can get a philosophical discussion. Perhaps Snoke discovered the midichlorians during his research, and exploited them for more power. He could analyze the Force as being, not a difference between light and darkness, but a shallow body of water that only gets deeper the further you venture. Snoke boasts that he was the first to risk “drowning” himself in it’s depths. Meanwhile, Ben hallucinates seeing Han, encouraging him to get up and fight back. We can also have Leia’s voice here, if we want. Ben fights back in a scene that echoes TFA, the way Rey resisted his own control. “You are no Master, Plagueis. Not of anyone or anything. You act so powerful, but your thoughts betray you. You’re afraid you will never get it right. Your desperation grows with every failure. But Today is not the day you finally succeed.”  snaps free of Snoke’s control and when Snoke attempts to dominate him with Force Lightning, Ben goes full Prince Zuko and redirects it, Yoda style. With that, he escapes, now on his own. 

Finn, Poe, and Rose show up to fight the Knights of Ren. Assuming Rey to be their prisoner. Rey, faced with her ultimate conflict, the symbol of her uncertainty, a literal metaphor between the two sides of her being at war...her loyalty to Ben, and her loyalty to her friends...her desire to be good, but her tendency toward darkness...finally completes her character arc and solves her identity issues. She creates a barrier between both sides, knocking them all down. She explains herself, telling her friends that the Knights want to stop Snoke. That she has joined them freely, for this reason. She apologizes for how distant she’s been. Admits that while she would never support the First Order, she does care for Ben Solo, despite all he’s done. This leads to Rey making up with her friends, and making peace with the Knights, who were already kind-of friends with Rose, once upon a time. This can lead into a bigger discussion about The Force, the concepts of good and evil as a whole. While Finn and Poe contact Lando, to tell him where Snoke is hiding, Rey reaches out to Ben through the force-bond. 

Meanwhile, Ben has returned to the planet where Luke’s old school of Jedi was. He visits the smoldering remains, and unearths Luke’s green lightsaber. He struggles, still feeling that call to the light, and now that he’s alone and able to meditate, he attempts to do what Snoke did, and “drown” himself in the Force, in the hope of stopping him. He doesn’t drown. Instead, he meets a spirit who he had unconsciously blocked out a long time ago. Anakin Skywalker, portrayed by Hayden “The lines were terrible but his acting was actually pretty good” Christensen.  The call to the light that Ben had always resisted had come from Anakin. These two finally talk, and Anakin urges Ben to choose the right side. They find solidarity in understanding that they were both drawn to the Dark Side, and both felt that this meant they “had” to be evil. Anakin doesn’t dissuade Ben from the Dark Side, but advises him to do what is right for the galaxy, defeating Snoke. Ben is helpless, he doesn’t know how. But Anakin tells him that an anomaly of equal power to Snoke could be enough to kill him forever. It’s definitely worth a try. Anakin fades, promising Ben that the answer is closer than he thinks. He can sense it right now...

After Anakin fades, Rey appears. She has succeeded in contacting Ben, and they catch up. Ben learning that The Knights still care about him, and that Rey has joined them. Rey expresses that Ben was right - it’s time to leave the Jedi and the Sith behind. To start something new. They can discuss the Force in greater detail, how being Dark doesn’t always mean one is evil, but the teachings of the Jedi suggest that it is a binary system. They express affection for each other. With everyone around Rey seeing her talk to someone invisible, Rey reaches out her hand...and Ben takes it. Suddenly appearing in the ship with everyone else. 

Rey and The Knights take turns embracing him, and he exchanges awkward nods with the others. With the help of the Knights, the group comes to the conclusion that Rey and Ben are some kind of Dyad in the Force, irrevocably connected. The two that are one. Such a thing has not been seen in millennia. It’s almost like a glitch in the universe. But this anomaly could be what it takes to stop Snoke for good. 

The main team makes their way back to Exegol as we see Lando giving a speech to the Resistance, now much stronger with the added former-Stormtroopers. As much as I love Jannah, she’s just as unnecessary as Zorii. That screen time could have and should have gone to Rose as she re-establishes herself back into the squad, same as Ben. Everyone arrives at Exegol at the same time, and Resistance soldiers move to open fire on Rose and Ben, understandably so, but here come Poe and Finn to talk them down and explain the situation. No one is happy about it, particularly having Ben Solo around, but Lando, with much consternation, accepts the situation and tells the Resistance not to fire on their new allies. However, he also instructs Finn to kill Ben if he steps out of line. We can get a callback when Finn gives the “I’m watching you” look to Ben, and have a line like “Don’t be a traitor.” Or something. 

Final battle time. Another montage. Finn leading the former storm-troopers in the battle against the last of Snoke’s loyalists, led by Phasma. Together with Rose, Finn defeats them and Phasma is left on her knees. She pleads for mercy, and Rose is prepared to kill her, but Finn intervenes. They take her prisoner instead, because killing people who are already defeated and defenseless is the “Stormtrooper” way. 

Rey, Ben, and the Knights are helping out with their Melee weapons. The Knights are also using the Force, because not using it offensively was a Jedi message, and they didn’t always follow it anyway. Though he’s definitively good now, Ben is still wearing his Kylo Ren armor, and wielding the cross-guard saber. I mean, imagine if he showed up to a warzone in day clothes with a blaster, just because his previous weapons were “evil?” How stupid would that be, right? However, at one point the cross-guard saber is destroyed in the right, and left empty-handed, Ben pulls out Luke’s lightsaber, stares at it...and then ignites it to rejoin the fray.

 We likewise get a battle of wits and strategy between Poe and Hux, as Poe commands a legion to take out the forces guarding Snoke’s throne room. In the end, Poe’s armada is saved by another that Lando commands. Hux manages to fatally shoot Lando, but Poe quickly repays him in kind. While everyone crowds around Lando, Hux dies alone, symbolizing the difference between the two causes. Lando expresses pride in how far Poe has come, tells him that Leia would be proud too, and with his dying words, he addresses Poe as “General Dameron.” It’s a truly emotional moment and afterward, Poe simply turns to the loyalist stormtroopers, carrying the poise and energy of a powerful leader. He tells them to drop their weapons. To surrender now, and they won’t be harmed. It’s badass. And the loyalists do as instructed. 

The path is clear for Rey and Ben to rush in to the Throne Room and kill Snoke, with the Resistance following them as backup. Only Snoke is nowhere to be seen. All of a sudden, we hear that high-pitched screech again. Rey and Ben collapse in terrible pain, hearing Snoke’s voice. His physical body no longer matters or plays by the same rules. He has essentially taken the practice of returning as a force-spirit and perverted it to become Dark. We now get Snoke’s final backstory, and the answer to why he’s able to do this. Snoke himself was part of a Dyad, centuries ago. Though exceptionally rare, Rey and Ben’s bond is not unique. However, Snoke murdered his counterpart for his own selfish reasons. A total violation of nature. This is what splintered him and turned him into the unnatural being that he is now. Rey and Ben vanish, to the alarm of Finn and Poe, as they disappear into the Force. 

The three of them - Rey, Ben, and Snoke, all appear to be in some kind of void. Snoke recounts having sensed the awakening of another Dyad (”The Force Awakens”) and that this is what prompted him to return to physical form in the first place. He reveals his final plan. Rey and Ben must now fight to the death - the winner becoming as powerful Snoke himself. He promises that the winner can rule beside him. This is probably a lie, and both of his opponents refuse. But Snoke also warns that without achieving that kind of power, they’ll be hopeless to stop him. He dual wields red lightsabers in the subsequent duel. Notice how Rey and Ben are using sabers of gold and green - the opposite of red and blue, which  have traditionally symbolized the Jedi and the Sith conflict. Snoke tells them that they have no future. They cannot become Jedi, not with the crimes they’ve committed. If they become Sith, well...he cites the “Rule of Two” insisting that Rey and Ben cannot coexist because one will inevitably slay the other. Rey and Ben respond that they are neither, that they simply fight for what they believe in. That they are...knights of Ren. 

Together, they strike back, plunging their sabers through Snoke’s chest. He vanishes, and the void world vanishes. Rey and Ben reappear in the throne room, and Snoke is there too, staggering to his feet. The Resistance takes aim at him, but he pays them no mind. He warns the two heroes that there is no telling what will happen if they choose this path, that the Galaxy needs structure when dealing with an entity as vague and infinite as The Force. Rey responds simply that “The Force is not some stranger or threat. It is not a vice for power. The Force...is us. All of us. The good and the bad, the light and the dark. So long as we stand together, you will never influence The Force again. You will never control us. You will never return again.” With a roar of defeat, Snoke’s body turns to dust, and a shadowy mass is left in it’s place. Finn and Poe fire at at it, to no avail, but Rey and Ben join hands, and as the shadowy mass surges toward them, The Dyad employs it’s full potential, causing Snoke’s bastardized force-spirit to vanish. Not sure how this would be filmed without looking silly, but I swear, it’s compelling. 

The battle is over. Everyone celebrates. When Finn and Poe kiss, it’s earned, not some nameless background characters. The team returns to the Resistance base. Poe has been unanimously voted to be the new General, which is the closest thing they have to an elected leader right now, so he is in charge of the trials for the loyalists, and the Knights of Ren. The people who committed treason or other crimes. But we only see three of these trials. Ben Solo, Rose Tico...and Rey. After all, she did kill Chewie, right? She conspired with the Knights, too. Rey is pardoned almost immediately, Rose not long after, but Ben Solo...after much consideration, Poe charges the Knights of Ren to a path of atonement. To go around, helping fix the Galaxy. Community service. 

Ben and the Knights prepare to leave on their trip, and Rey and Ben say goodbye. How ship-teasy this is, if there’s a final kiss...eh, interpret how you like. I’m a Reylo fan personally, but I know a lot of people aren’t. Ben promises to see Rey again, and they both acknowledge that thanks to the Dyad, they won’t have to go without seeing each other, not really. Likewise, Rey and Finn and Poe and Rose will be helping to fix up the galaxy, so it’s certainly not goodbye. 

I lied, Luke’s force-spirit appears one more time, this time with Leia, though she doesn’t speak much for obvious reasons. Luke is proud of her, and says something to the effect of “Not bad for a scavenger girl with no family from Jakku of all places. Well done, Rey from nowhere.” Rey looks around at everyone - at Finn, Poe, Rose. At Ben and the Knights. At C3PO, R2D2 and BB8 (Who were definitely involved the whole time I just didn’t have much to say about them) she looks back at Luke and replies that she does have a family. She and her friends go to wave goodbye as Ben’s ship takes off, flying into the sunset, and....ENDING CREDITS!

Let me know what y’all think! Hopefully this doesn’t throw out quite as much from Last Jedi, and does the characters justice! 

[mrsgaryrennell]

hiii! 6, 8, 15, 18, 23, 25, 26, and 28 for both chloe and dicky! (sorry if these are too many lol) 💕

Oohh hii sis 💛💛💛miss you a bunch but thanks for asking 👀which btw don’t worry about putting to many lmao 🤡 

Just beware of my lengthy essay 💀 alright so Dicky and Chloe

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate?

Dicky: This man was a problem as a child lol And no nothing tragic about his backstory, he’s just a chaotic mess 😂He was never a bully or anything, it’s just that he was really intimidating and really mean if ever approached lol but if he liked you enough, he’ll definitely be a chill guy to hang around with haha he’s not antisocial either. He hated school lol Dicky just never paid much attention and there were even times when he would skip class because he simply wasn’t interested 💀So you could say that he didn’t like the majority of the school material. Nonetheless, he did finish secondary school lol

Now, there were a few subjects he did enjoy or in his language were “alright” lol He didn’t mind staying for math class since it’s something he picked up pretty easily on lol I can see the teacher all 😯the first time because they didn’t expect Dicky to be so amazing at it and he’s very nonchalant about it, too lol I feel like math is something he’s naturally really skilled with but he doesn’t really see that in him haha And another school activity he enjoyed was a debate class lol he didn’t like learning laws and all but he really liked sitting across from someone and winning the debate every time 😂 mechanic boi has great argumentative skills 😌 

Chloe: She was a very bright child in school. People were always impressed because of her talent and wit. And kids loved partnering up with her for school projects because she was great at leading the team to create great outcomes. Although, I can’t say that she was too popular in school nor did she make too many friends because they just thought she was a little weird for their taste lol Chloe tells herself that she didn’t mind being alone since she likes her alone time but she’s always been self conscious of being the oddball of the group 😭

While in primary and secondary school, she didn’t mind any of the classes like science, math, literature, etc. She did find charm in each subject but her most favorite subject in school was and still is history lol She’s fascinated by historical figures that committed stupid decisions 😂and she actually enjoys to sit down and watch history documentaries of anything really. Other than history, cello girl also found her love for music and performing arts 💛Music has always been kind of like her escape to peace 

Lastly, she did go to uni and attended Juilliard School in New York for her musical career 🎶 Chloe has always enjoyed music and arts ever since she was a child so expanding her knowledge in this and making it into her professional career has become a huge highlight to her life 😌Of course, she came as one of the top of her class for her creativity, talent, and uniqueness!

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?

Dicky: So he didn’t have any pets while growing up nor does he have any right now. Jason doesn’t mind animals but they seem to not like him lmao So he rather stay away from nature 😂 

Chloe: She didn’t have any pets when growing up either! She honestly had a lot going on during her childhood and asking for a pet was probably the least thing in her mind. And this could be a little be spoilery lol but it’s okay! Chloe does currently have a beautiful little boy named Frédéric, or Fred for short lol but named him after one of her favorite composers Frédéric Chopin!

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

Dicky: We all know how much this grumpy man loves his food lol so he does know how to cook! I want to think that he does enjoy cooking since he knows he’s about to devour all of that within seconds lmao so he likes the anticipation. At this point in the story, I’m not sure anyone has tried Dicky’s cooking actually 🤔I guess we’ll see what others think of Dicky’s food later in the chapters 👀

Chloe: She is great at cooking, she loves it! She views it like a form of art so there’s a lot to appreciate for the uniformed ingredients for her 😌In fact, Chloe loves to cook in her spare time and learn more about it from other cultures. Cello girl also has a fascination for food so all the love and care she puts into the meal, it really comes from the heart 💛 So far, the people that she’s fed in the Villa has been the Chatham boys, Gary and Dicky, and they definitely approve of it haha 

18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else?

Dicky: I don’t think he really reads lol but he loves going over magazines with old fashioned and retro vehicles. He likes to learn about the evolution of cars, that nerd 😂With music, I think he has a liking for alternative rock, mellow rock, maybe a little of metal lol Although, Dicky did listen to some cringey emo music when a teenager but he doesn’t like to talk about that lmao He’s not into any TV shows but likes to watch Fast & Furious movies to trash on it but lowkey likes admiring the sports cars lmao And lastly on video games, he like horror types 💀He has a collection of horror video games and likes to sit down in the dark and play them lol

Chloe: Well, Chloe likes her history lol so she will gladly sit down to read about WWII or something like that 😂 And aw man lol music! This girl appreciates all types of music, but good music. Even though she’s really elegant and a classical musician (which still adores the classics ofc), she really appreciates the modern music like pop, hip hop, indie music, rock, you name it! So Chloe listens to anything and everything and her I’m sure her spotify is random af haha She’s not really into TV shows either but as far as films, she’s a huge nerd: Star Wars! She first fell in love with John Williams’ movie scores and came across the Star Wars one and was infatuated 😌She found out about the trilogy when she was a little older and loves to marathon the movies 💛And no video games lol she’s not really into that haha 

23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces?

Dicky: This guy will only have a good memory if he cares lol So if he has any interest in anyone, he will remember names and faces but if he doesn’t care, then you’re out of luck 💀 you’ll be pretty forgettable to Jason lmao Overall, I think he does have a great memory if it’s regarding his job ofc and with the people he cares about and that’s about it haha 

Chloe: She has a great memory! Because of her career and learning all those musical sheets by heart, Chloe gained a photographic memory 😌It will only take a couple of chats with someone for her thoroughly remember your name and face. 

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

Dicky: He has dark humor okay 💀he enjoys to mess with people for his own amusement. And he because dark humor is part of his personality, Jason doesn’t realize that he will say something dark and it’ll seem like a joke so people find it funny lol Overall, he is a funny guy but his humor isn’t for everyone 😂

Chloe: Cello girl is a sucker for bad puns lol And when anyone delivers a bad pun and no one laughs, that’s what she finds funniest lmao Her humor is the dry type, very “The Office” type lol I don’t think she’s aware of the US show but when she finds out, it will become one of her favorites lmao Chloe is also unintentionally funny, too. She’ll say or do something weird or random and it’s very humorous for others 

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?

Dicky: Oooh Dicky, Dicky, Dicky lol this man always has a poker face hah But, you can still determine what his gestures are when he’s happy 😌Dicky may not be a very expressive man but he has a lot of micro expressions and mannerism. It’s really hard to spot it but if you’re an observant person, you’ll be able to determine when mechanic boi is in a good mood! Dicky’s eyes are a major give away lol his eyes will have a little bit of a shine and the outer corner of his eyes will squint a bit. Because he doesn’t wanna show too much of his smile, if he catches himself cracking a smile, he’ll run his hand down his face lmao that dork 💛

Chloe: The humming! She will instinctively start humming a song whenever she’s in a good mood. Like Dicky, Chloe has expressive eyes. She may not say she’s in a happy mood but just looking into her eyes, you’ll be able to tell that there’s something different to the shade and brightness. She doesn’t necessarily hide her emotions when she’s happy since she already has a calm and composed nature but her tone of voice is more friendlier than usual if she’s in a great mood, too. Another way to determine if she’s in a good mood is hearing her giggle a little more often than usual lol but more sore just little short giggles! 

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared?

Dicky: lmaoo Jason would act like he’s a tough guy and say nothing scares him 😂 But he does have his moments where his voice will mildly crack after gasping if there’s ever a jumpscare lol 

Getting a little real and serious about fright tho lol Dicky is afraid of failing able to protect the people he loves. That’s why Dicky is so protective of Gary since he knows Gary has body issues so he tries his best to be as supportive as he can for his friend. Another thing Dicky is scared of is losing a near and dear friendship. Again, he’s not one to make a lot of close friends, so if he ever screwed up and notices that they’re getting distant, this is something Dicky gets anxious about. 

Chloe: She isn’t that type of girl that gets all scared of anything or everything lol she actually finds those type of girls a little annoying 💀She does have a fear for the ocean lol Chloe loves going to the beach, soaking in the sun and even taking a little bit of a swim but the thought of sailing scares her lol A way someone could tell that she’s scared is if her hands unevenly tremble and this is also a mannerism she has if she’s worried about something, too.

Now, a more serious fear she also has is trusting the wrong person. Chloe is a loyal person and can be devoted to them but if she’s always afraid of investing all of her energy into someone that doesn’t reciprocate the same devotion. This is why it’s really hard for her to let anyone in so easily and though she’s still a super friendly and polite girl, it’ll take a lot for someone to make her open up about her life, dreams, aspirations, etc. 

Damn that was long and I apologize girl 🤡 but I hope you enjoyed it 💛 appreciate you asking about these dorks haha and if anyone is still interested in asking, here’s the link to the questions. I got another one to answer and I hope I get to it either tonight or tomorrow!

[obsessively-obsessed-fangirl]

The Rise of Skywalker was the downfall of Star Wars (MAJOR spoilers)

Oh, J.J. Abrams, I had high expectations for you. I trusted you with one of my most important things...And you absolutely destroyed it. After seeing both your contributions to Star Trek and Star Wars, all I can really say is that you may know how to start a story...but you sir, do not know how to finish it and it is my own fault in believing that you could.

Yes dear reader, I have just come back from watching the final installment of the series of Star Wars movies. I have just come home feeling out of sorts because The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t necessarily the worst movie I’ve ever seen, yet it wasn’t that great nor what I expected the final installment of a Star Wars movie to be. In fact, the only way I can describe it, is just OK, and as we know from my favorite TV commercial, just OK, is not OK.

Why were Finn and Poe even in this movie?

From what I hear, the actors who play Finn and Poe tried hard to play the characters as if they were in a romantic relationship, despite Disney’s specific instructions. I would have loved this! These two characters have amazing chemistry when they are around each other, but that’s not how the story played out, and that’s not exactly why I’m so upset with them. I’m upset because despite being part of the main trio of the current installment, Finn and Poe had no growth in this final movie, and at the end of the day, I can’t really say they had TONS of character development in the series. At least within the first two movies, Finn and Poe were given their individual “tasks” and started to grow towards their final selves ...yet in the final movie, they were constantly being sidelined and overshadowed by Rey and Ben. 

One example of this is the idea that Finn is force sensitive. Now we don’t know “for sure” if this is true or not because of a scene within TROS where Finn tries to tell Rey something but never gets the chance to. Now some, especially those who remember how Finn flirted with Rey in episode VII might believe that he was planning to say that he loved her, but according to the actor who plays Finn, John Boyega, he says that Finn was planning to tell her he was force sensitive. This would have been a great plot point for Rey and Finn’s friendship, yet we never saw ANY sign of this within TROS or the other installments of the current trilogy. In fact, J.J. Abrams instead chose to continually portray Finn as almost overly concerned about Rey in TROS, like he was leaving the option open for those who ship Finn and Rey. Along with this, we were also lead to believe there could be a possible romance between him and Rose, one of the characters introduced in Episode VIII. Now I love Rose on her own, I think she is absolutely fantastic. Yet in TROS we barely saw her and she said maybe 3 lines to Finn. Why create a budding friendship/relationship between Rose and Finn, to completely sideline it in the final movie?

Now, to be quite honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of Poe within this trilogy. He is definitely one of those “know-it-all” characters who needs to be taken down a few pegs (which Leia 100% does in episode VIII). But, I don’t think it’s totally fair to Poe or the actor who plays him, to give him the beginnings of a backstory in the final movie. At some point during the film, we learn that Poe used to work on a planet and royally angered a girl. OK, great, glad to hear he is more than just a resistance pilot, but this adds nothing to the story being told in TROS, and I’ll be quite honest, I don’t remember the name of his “girl who is a friend” or even what planet they were on. All of this seemingly important character information would have served the audience a lot better if had been introduced A LOT earlier, like in the second movie when we were actually learning about his headstrong and destructive character.

Rey is a Palpatine?

So I guess the question of who is Rey’s family finally gets answered. Yet, it makes absolutely no sense and was a huge plot point that was not set up well at all. Yeah, so we find out that Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine and everyone pretty much knew about it except for her. Also, Palpatine somehow survived and is really been the one controlling Rey and Ben, not Snoke, who was killed by Rey and Ben in Episode VIII. Now I do not know if this was J.J. Abrams plan all along, or he felt that the story needed to change after the events in Episode VIII and Rian Johnson’s vision, but bringing back Palpatine and making him the big “villain” of TROS was so underwhelming and underdeveloped. 

TROS should have focused on Rey walling herself off from Kylo Ren after the events of episode VIII. As we saw during the film, her powers and the bond between Kylo and Rey were getting stronger to the point where they could manipulate items between each other and fight with lightsabers as if they were together. This should have been a huge problem for Rey as she battles with the idea of her going to the dark side, yet instead it just became a thing between them that they could do, where they just had the same conversation over and over again. 

Rey should have just been the daughter of nobodies. They should have left her as someone who had a calling, not the granddaughter of someone who had no purpose being in this movie. TROS should have focused on Rey resisting the pull of the dark side while Kylo Ren wrecks havoc as the new supreme leader. It should have been about the Rey battling Ben and pulling him away from Kylo Ren and back to the light. Not about her defeating someone who wasn’t part of her story until now.

Ben was finally redeemed and it was done poorly:

 Like with Rey, Palpatine served no purpose in Kylo Ren’s story. The whole point of episode VIII and of killing Snoke, was to show how Kylo Ren is no longer a puppet to anyone else. He is now his own master and in charge of his own choices (that of going to the dark side). Yes, he was conditioned by Snoke to listen to his darkness, but at the end of Episode VIII, it was about him CHOOSING the dark side, and TROS should have focused on this instead of making him a puppet to someone else.

While there were some good moments for Kylo/Ben within TROS, like when he is confronted by the memory of Han Solo, it wasn’t nearly enough. Ben had no interaction with Luke and only 0.1 seconds with Leia which really hurt to watch. While her death was absolutely pointless and really made no sense, it hurts even more to see how much it impacted Ben. We saw nothing of a relationship between him and his mother in any of the episodes. They were shown to be so far away from each other, that it really made no sense to see how much her death impacted him. If you were going to do this, give her a death that matters, and at least give to us after you show some development between Ben and Leia.

I was also extremely upset at how Ben was treated after he chooses the light side. When Ben chose to throw his lightsaber into the water, that should have been his welcome home in the eyes of the Jedi who came before him. They should have been there for Ben like they were for Rey during her battle with Palpatine. Along with this. Ben should have been there helping Rey to defeat him. Showing her she wasn’t alone, not on some rocks down below forced to wait until the battle was over. When he climbed back up to Rey after the battle, the force ghosts should have been there with him, helping him to bring Rey back to life. 

As some fans have noticed, Rey and Ben’s final moments together were shot very...off. As in, it looks like the events of Ben’s death were really shot in reverse and he wasn’t supposed to die. I’ve also seen that Daisy Ridley, Rey, was recently talking about the last scene of the movie. From certain reports, it seemed as if Ben was supposed to be there with her in the final shot. According to Ridley, the ending was supposed to be emotional and “tear worthy.” Yet, the ending wasn’t even close. Which once again leads me to believe that what we saw in the theater was not the original ending and instead was some last minute change that shows how much J.J. Abrams doesn’t care for Ben or his other characters.

Final thoughts on trash:

I could go on...and on…..and on about what bothered me in this movie because there is a lot that does (LANDO’S POINTLESS PRESENCE). But, in the end it really doesn’t matter. I know deep down that whatever happened with J.J. Abrams and the team behind TROS, that it wasn’t meant to be this way. Maybe it was Disney’s fault, maybe it was J.J. Abram’s fault ...I don’t know. All I do know, is that every character and every actor that was part of  Star Wars deserved far better things from Episode IX than they got. I’m so sad this is where we ended up and I’m so sad at how we got here. And all I can do now is hopefully move on and up.

[oreobunny1]

Chapter 2: The Other Side of Hollywood

(AO3: Oreobunny1)

The sun shone brightly on the roof of the Molina household that morning. Julie and Carlos were at school, and Ray was on his way to work. The house was peaceful and empty.

Well, all except for the three teenage ghost himbos messing around in their garage.

“All I’m saying is they shouldn’t have killed off Han Solo and Luke Skywalker! It’s just too much.” Reggie exclaimed from the second floor of the huge garage, bouncing around as he got dressed for the day.

“I know,” Alex answered from beneath him. “And why was Luke on fat bird island anyway, shouldn’t he be doing more, y’know… Jediy things?”

“Pfffft-” Reggie laughed, “Fat bird island. Honestly though! He-”

His rant was interrupted by Luke banging on the garage door from outside.

“You guys are SLOW! Sloooooooowwwwwwww-” Luke whined. Reggie didn’t need to see Alex to know that he was rolling his eyes at their friend. Luke couldn't even talk. He had only teleported out there a second ago himself!

“We’ll be out in a minute!” Reggie yelled out to him. It wasn’t like they could be late. They didn’t even have tickets!

“ImPATIENT!” Alex gasped, mock-offended. Reggie snickered, and they heard muffled laughter from outside too, followed by Luke starting another round of “slooow...”.

Alex sighed and muttered, “If only our Luke was the one on that island, huh?” Reggie was just about dying of laughter at this point, but he tried to be as quiet as he could so their Luke couldn’t hear them.

Today, the local movie theater was showing a marathon of the new Star Wars trilogy. All of them were big Star Wars fans, and ever since seeing the premiere on the website they had been looking forward to this particular Wednesday. Reggie couldn’t sit still. He was so excited! They had been anticipating this for a week now, and he was looking forward to a fun, geeky day with his best friends. And, to top it all off, Julie and the Phantoms had a gig later that night! It was shaping up to be a pretty great day.

They were all a little bummed Julie couldn't come to the movies with them, but being alive and still having to go to school made her unavailable at the time. It’s fine though, they would be done with the movies before she got out of school anyway. They could all hang out then!

“But Finn and Poe though...” Alex started, moving into Reggie's view as he waited for him.

Reggie pulled on his flannel. “YES I love them already, I honestly can’t wait to watch these movies just because of the newer characters.” He had only heard spoilers for these movies, and he didn’t really like what he heard. But he was optimistic, especially about the new characters Julie had told them about.

“Okay. I’m ready!” he said finally after grabbing his bracelet, smiling as he prepared to jump down to Alex. “By the wa- WHAT?!”

Reggie yelped as he was suddenly pulled harshly away from where he sat on the ledge in the middle of his sentence. There was a bright flash before his eyes as he was unwillingly teleported… somewhere else.

His blood froze as another flash dropped him onto hard, cold ground. He didn’t move. He couldn’t see anything! Did I go blind or something?!

Don't panic. Don’t panic. Don’t panic.

The first thing he noticed was the cold. He drew his flannel tighter around him, but the frigid air seemed to go directly though it and he started shivering almost immediately. Reggie hadn't thought that, as a ghost, he would be able to feel pain, discomfort, or cold. But that was before they were all almost electrocuted out of existence. Yup. He could definitely feel cold.

The second thing he noticed was that he was, indeed, panicking.

His breath came in short gasps. He didn’t understand what was happening! Where was he? Why was he there? Neither Alex nor Luke had been close enough to touch him and teleport him, besides, they wouldn’t scare him like that! The only person(or ghost) he knew that could teleport people without touching them was Caleb Covington. The last person he wanted to see.

Reggie finally took a slow breath, counting to ten in his mind. That’s what Alex always did. It was fine. They would get out. We will get out. He looked at his new surroundings, or rather, tried to look. All he could “see” was darkness. It surrounded him.

“Alex? Luke?” He called, reaching out in the dark. Caleb had only ever teleported them altogether. He was positive that any second now, his hand would land on one of them, proving to him he wasn’t alone.

“Luke! Alex!”

“Okay s-stop it guys, this isn’t funny!” If they were trying to prank him or something, they were going to be in so much trouble.

“Guys?” Reggie whispered into the darkness. But silence was his only answer. His breathing picked up again. Where are they? I need them here!

He needed to find the light switch.

“Jeez, why is it so cold in h-here?” He thought out loud with chattering teeth as he found the icy wall with his hands. He traced his fingers along it, ignoring the dull pain. The cold made his fingers feel like they were slowly turning to ice.

“C’mon, where is it… Oh!” His hand found a switch of some kind and he immediately flipped it up. Light flooded through the small room and Reggie blinked furiously as his eyes adjusted.

“Uhhh...”

The first thing he noticed was that Alex and Luke were not there. He was alone in a musty room. The walls were a faded yellowish color. Cracked frames held declining pictures of…old Hollywood stars? Oh no...

There was movement, and Reggie jumped, but it was only his reflection. There was a mirror and a worn wooden desk in one corner of the room. The mirror was old-fashioned, the ones with the large light bulbs around the sides of it. This is a dressing room.

Or was. Cobwebs covered the ceiling and the dusty crystal chandelier. Everything looked breakable, and the makeup on the desk looked like it hadn’t been used since he was alive. Yikes. Besides, the temperature in this “dressing room” had to be below freezing, definitely too cold for any alive human to stay in for a long period of time.

It was confirmed. This room failed the vibe check.

“Okaaay… Sorry c-creepy room! It’s been fun-” Not. He needed to get out of there and find his friends. Reggie picutured their studio in his mind, easily his favorite place and the main place they teleported to, and willed himself to appear there.

Instead, he ran into a wall.

“Ugh..” Reggie groaned. He was still there! He had only teleported to the other side of the dressing room! No. He tried again. Again. This has to work! It has to!

But he was trapped.

Before he had time to have a panic attack, there was a sudden pop from behind him. Reggie spun around. Maybe it’s Luke or Ale-

It wasn't.

“Good morning Reginald!”

“C-Caleb,” Reggie gasped, his worst fears confirmed.

This was the ghost that stalked his nightmares. This was the ghost who had tried to take everything away from him. Reggie immediately clutched his wrists. Caleb had never gone so far as direct physical aggression, it was always a stamp. As long as I keep my wrists completely covered, everything will be fine. He can’t hurt any of us if he can’t get a stamp on us.

Luke promised that he would never see him again. On a particularly bad day, when a stamp that was long gone felt like it was still there and the memories of a performance they would never be able to tell Julie about haunted all three of them, he had sworn that they would never go near that club again. That they would never have to face this villain again.

Yet there he was. There was no way Luke could have known. No way they could have prepared for this.

Caleb smiled his huge fake grin that now sent a shiver down his spine. “Reggie, why aren't you dressed? You have a show in ten minutes!”

He probably looked so dumb, standing there like a deer in headlights, but he didn't care. There was only one thing on his mind.

“W-where are Luke a-and Alex.” Reggie stammered, his teeth chattering as he tried to speak.

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Why, in their own dressing rooms of course. They have to get ready too, you know.”

Reggie gave a small sigh of relief. At least they aren't being forced to perform. “We d-don’t want to join your b-band. Let us go.” He wasn’t in the mood for his usual jokes. Not without his friends.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that Reginald.” Caleb replied simply.

What do you mean “I can’t do that”?! Of course you can! Reggie definitely wasn’t the one that got angry easily. He would much rather just joke around, be the fun one. Be cool in the moment, and deal with the consequences later. But Luke wasn’t there to take charge. Julie and Alex weren’t there, supporting him, bringing him comfort. He didn’t even know where his friends were! All he wanted was for them to be there so they could escape this situation! But he was facing Caleb alone. Everything about this situation was scaring him to death. The fear and anger came spilling out of him, and suddenly he was screaming.

“YES YOU CAN! Caleb, none of us will ever join your band! We already have one! Nothing you say or do will ever change that! Now LET US G-GO!”

Breathing heavily, Reggie glanced at the man with wide eyes, but his mouth was set in determination. He wasn’t sure how Caleb would react to that.

He didn’t look scared, as Reggie had silently hoped, or even surprised. He didn’t look mad either. He was just staring at him. Studying him, with a small smile on his face, as if he was but a clue to be cracked. An interesting equation to be solved. Reggie took another step backward. That was not what he had been expecting.

“Your costume is over there.” Caleb said happily, pointing at something shiny draped on the clothing rack as he turned and walked away from him. “See you on the stage!” He exclaimed.

Is he actually going to ignore everything I just said? Reggie opened his mouth defiantly and followed him, desperate to say whatever he needed to to get him and his friends out of this place. But the man kept talking...

“Oh, and I almost forgot-”

Caleb spun around and slapped him viciously across the face.

Reggie was thrown backward and hit the cold floor, hard. He froze in shock, a hand clutched to his cheek as his attacker towered over him.

He should have anticipated it. He should have at least flinched away when the hand came down on him, but he didn't! It had just been so long, so long since someone had hit him like that. So long since he had been in danger of being struck for speaking out of turn. So long since he didn’t have his friends to go to for protection. He had finally lost the reflex.

Sharp pain radiated from where he had been hit, and black spots clouded his vision. His eyes watered as he looked up at Caleb, his entire body trembling. He was terrified.

“Like my new stamp design? I just finished it!”

No, Reggie thought, his heart dropping inside his chest. No, no NO!

It was true. Keeping both eyes on Caleb he moved a shaking hand over his cheek. Sure enough, he could feel the raised outline of a dreaded stamp there. Caleb stalked towards him, his voice growing dangerous as he leaned closer. Reggie scrambled backward, trying to keep a few feet between himself and this monster.

“You will do exactly as I say, when I say it,” Caleb hissed, his smile growing wider. Distorted. Demented. “If you ever disrespect me like that ever again, I will show your friends the true meaning of pain. Would you like an example?”

Reggie didn’t even have time to answer. Caleb whipped something small and gold out of his suit pocket before clicking it.

Then Reggie knew only pain.

“Ahh!” He cried out, clutching his chest. He thought that nothing would ever be more painful than their final jolts on the night of the Orpheum performance, but boy, was he wrong. Reggie keeled over as every part of his body was electrocuted by a massive jolt from the stamp. The burning, excruciating pain lingered in his chest and cheek and tears sprang to his eyes.

Reggie had always handled physical pain the worst out of all his friends. The tears threatened to fall, just as they had on that fateful night when Julie found them in the garage, but Reggie quickly wiped his eyes.

He would never give Caleb the satisfaction of seeing him cry.

Caleb opened his mouth to say something, but instead his eyes fell to something on the ground in front of him. Reggie hesitantly followed his gaze.

My bracelet!

Reggie’s arm shot out, pain ignored as he snatched the little woven thing into his hands. He must have forgotten to put energy into it while he was reeling in pain.

I won’t let that happen again.

Last week, after watching the new Mandolorian episode with Julie, they were all bored. They followed her upstairs, where she went into her closet and got out this old case. She blew off the dust and inside… was a whole bunch of colored string! She patiently showed them how to weave simple bracelets. It was fairly easy. All they had to do was make sure they focused a little bit of energy into their hands, and they could hold the string! They sat there for a good hour, making bracelets and talking quietly.

As expected, the peace didn’t last long.

All he did was make fun of Alex’s knotted-up “bracelet”. Once! Before Reggie knew it, the various colors of the rainbow came flying at his head. Soon enough it was a free for all. They grabbed the bundles and chucked them at one another. There was string everywhere. They had a complete friendship-bracelet string war, laughing wildly as pillows and string flew through the air. At one point, him and Alex tackled Luke to the ground and held him there so Julie could braid string into his hair. In the end, each of them had string tangled in their hair, Julie’s room was absolutely trashed, and they were all exhausted. They crashed immediately afterward, covered with string and cuddled up on Julie’s bed.

Also, each of them had 4 or 5 woven bracelets that they made themselves. His were obviously the best, but Julie’s were pretty good too. They traded them around, and now they each had one from everyone else. They even had some for Willie and Flynn!

The one he picked to wear today was the one Jules made him, and in order for the ghosts to wear them they continually focused a tiny bit of energy to keep it on their wrists. It was so simple that he hardly ever thought about it.

Until now.

Caleb’s voice yanked him from his thoughts.

“Stings more than the worst of the other ones, doesn't it?” He gloated as Reggie coughed. If he wasn’t already dead, Reggie was sure he’d be coughing blood into his hands. But Caleb didn’t care. “Yes. And they will only get more painful. Unlike those other stamps, this-”

Caleb bent down and reached for Reggie’s face, but he was ready this time. He flinched so hard that he dodged Caleb’s hand altogether. Yes! The horrendous smile faltered and Reggie thought he just might leave him alone. Nope. The rough hand made contact a second time and Reggie’s chin was jerked upward.

“This will give you only a few more days to live!” The excitement in his voice was sickening.

“Reginald, the only escape from nonexistence is to join my band.” Caleb sobered. He had the nerve to look sympathetic. As if he wasn’t the one doing this to them.

“Never.” Reggie spat, the fury and pain fueling his confidence once again, if only for a moment. He shoved the hand away and struggled to his feet. There was a flash of something unusual in Caleb’s dark eyes. Surprise? Fear? It was gone as fast as it came.

If Caleb thought he was just going to give up that quickly, he had another thing coming. As long as his friends were in danger, Reggie Peters would fight.

“Hm. We’ll see.” He messed with the little gold device in his hands as Reggie sat there, still trying to catch his breath after the jolt, before suddenly barking orders. “Now get up! Get ready. And keep quiet. We wouldn't want Luke and Alex feeling like this now would we!”

No! Never! That was the absolute last thing he wanted. Reggie glared at him, some choice words ready to leave his mouth.

Click.

Another purple flash and Reggie doubled over, unable to speak. His clenched teeth were the only thing keeping him from screaming in agony. The bracelet, the bracelet, remember the bracelet!

“Would we?”

“N-no!” He choked out.

“That's better.” The button was slipped back into the pocket, and Caleb turned. He’s gonna teleport away!

“Wait!” Reggie blurted. He couldn't let this happen to his friends too. “D-don’t put a stamp on them. Please. Just don’t put a s-stamp on Luke or Alex.” He would do anything if it meant Alex and Luke didn’t have to go through this. They didn’t deserve that. Not that he thought he did, but he would much rather it be him than them. His bandmates, plus Julie now, meant everything to him. He could do this for them. He just hoped it would be enough for Caleb.

“That’s entirely up to you.” Caleb concluded, not even looking at him.“ I hope you will consider my offer.” With a flash he was gone, leaving Reggie alone in the small, freezing room, the threats and orders echoing in his head. Reggie waited before taking a breath. He’s gone.

Darn. We're so gonna miss those movies.

Reggie was certain of one thing. He was not going to put on that costume. Caleb could poof him into whatever atrocious, uncomfortable clothes he wanted, and he could pry the red flannel from Reggie’s cold, dead hands(literally).

He looked into the icy mirror at his already swelling face, the bold purple stamp standing out against his pale features. His immediate reaction was to claw at it, get it off his skin, but he knew it wouldn't do any good.

He tried to poof out approximately 7 more times before slumping against the desk, shivering and sore. The ground swayed under his feet, and his head pounded. He just sat down on the freezing ground. Reggie didn’t feel like he could do anything in 10 minutes, especially not be forced to perform. But no matter how much he hated it, he knew he didn’t have a choice.

Great. The tears were back. No. No crying. Not here. He shoved all his feelings of dread and fear away. He had to be confident, no matter how fake it was. He could not show weakness to Caleb. In his mind he heard Luke, telling him off for suppressing feelings again. “That will only make it worse Reg. You know that.” He did! But this time it was necessary. His friends could help him deal with the feelings later, once they got out.

He was going to work on an escape plan, he just needed a minute of rest first. He was so tired(yes, ghosts can get tired too). Just...one minute...

Reggie closed his eyes, imagining he was back in the garage, still joking around with his best friends. Pretending he still felt safe. Pretending, just for a second, that he was home.

[unintentionalgenius]

ok @ongreenergrasses tagged me in this and like, I’m here for it. No one actually follows me anymore unless they want to hear my opinions so leggo!

List 10 different female faves from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people! no particular order bc they’re different fandoms and also i have this weird complex around ranking people

1. Brienne of Tarth (ASOIAF) - perfect. flawless. not here for femininity all the better a character for it. Living her truth. Inspirational. A badass and has great comedic timing. What more could you ask for? No I do not know what happened to her in the last season of GOT.

2. Miranda Barlow (Black Sails) - a female character with a complex inner life??? I mean, Black Sails has so many to choose from, but I really think she’s interesting for her role as someone who was loved by two people who were the absolute love of each other’s life, and also (bonus) Max in her relationship with Ann and Jack is perhaps a foil or set up for a comparison between the two triads (and when did we last get two triads in a piece of media, with their own complexities??). Plus! She spends a lot of time being a character in her own right aside from her role as an oppositional force and erstwhile conscience for Flint.

3. Leia Organa (Star Wars) - Leia is a fucking badass and also a really interesting character! especially in the most recent trilogy, even if they fumbled the ending. She gets her happily ever after and then we see her later and honestly, in most of the ways that matter, she failed!!! Her happily-ever-after fell apart. How wild is that! But she is not A Failure she’s just a human who tried and learned that she couldn’t fix everything, but damn, she was going to keep on trying.

4. Tara Knowles (Sons of Anarchy) - this is Not a Great Show but it has the bones of a great show. Tara is such an interesting character and she’s SO angry and it’s beautiful. She has all this furious energy pent-up inside of her and also no matter what she does, she’s always a little bit of an outsider. She is both from Charming and not of Charming, because she could have gotten out. Who amongst us didn’t have a toxic teen relationship? Relatable. Incredibly morally ambiguous and I love it.

5. Rose Tyler - honestly I will fight anyone who says even one (1) bad thing about Rose. She is brave, and clever, and working class (even poor) and written in such a way that you cannot ignore this fact about her! She is not posh, she didn’t go to uni, she’s utterly ordinary and absolutely unique and worthy of love and who among us didn’t need to hear that in high school, amirite? 

6. Lydia Martin - I never try to write Lydia in Teen Wolf fic because even fictionally she intimidates me. Teen media when I was a kid would have never had a smart, popular, attractive math genius who simply got to be a character. She’s not nice and that’s ok! I also stopped watching teen wolf a long time ago so if some shit went down with her character later on we will just Ignore It. 

7. Basira Hussain (The Magnus Archives) - I love her. I love every woman in this entire show and there are so many to choose from, but Basira gets to make the most glorious mistakes, as a character, and has moments of incredible hypocrisy that I find fascinating. And she’s in love with Daisy Tonner and the way that love manifests for them both is ALSO so interesting. All cops are bastards and Basira does not even dispute that characterization, if anything she leans in.

8. Angharad "Harry" Crewe (The Blue Sword) - is there a Blue Sword fandom? There is now, I’m making it happen. This girl is who I literally modeled myself after as a kid. She’s a little tomboyish, a little weird, not quite conventionally attractive, and she gets magic??? and she’s funny? and she does what she feels is right even if it means her maybe-boyfriend will break up with her, or banish her? It’s a story about finding home with a people you never knew were yours and like Maybe There Is Some Resonance With My Life or whatever but man, she’s also just an excellent character. 

9. Mickle/Queen Augusta (The Westmark Trilogy) - once again I have to ask, is there a Westmark Trilogy fandom or am I inventing it? She honestly had the best of both worlds; raised as a princess, lost her memory and got to go gallivanting around, leads a whole-ass rebellion, falls in love with a pretty writer (slash potential war criminal??? he definitely has Grade School-Appropriate Trauma™️) who fought for her and then they’re also pro-democracy? I love it. I love her. I love how much they care about each other and also about justice and Doing The Right Thing for The People.

10. Furiosa (Mad Max Fury Road) - This movie was about Furiosa, first of all. (also as an aside? the visual language and storytelling was unparalleled.) This is an incredible character and I love her evolution over the course of the film. We get to see so many ways to be a woman and I love that! She has such trauma and she holds it in her own way - not the way we might be conditioned by media to think of. She is an action hero that usually only boys or unrealistically pretty girls get to be, but she’s not conventionally pretty while she’s doing it. Beyond just her physical heroism and bravery, though, she saves the wives and acts as emotional support, a first-level deprogramming, and how often do we get to see that kind of salvation playing out at multiple levels and then they get to save her in return? I’m crying now

I don’t think I even know 10 people on this hell site anymore but @ragequilt you have to have some opinions about this right???? Any other mutuals are more than welcome to pretend I tagged you if you want to do this thing

[yourwakingnightmares]

Now, I’ve made no secret that I loathe the new Star Wars movies. However, I do want to take a moment to point out all the potential that was there.

Fans of the movie will often say that people who disliked are...

1. Old school fans who wanted to see the OT cast be the main focus

2. Evil white men who hate women and minorities

3 (and the one I hate the most). Taking a movie about ‘space wizards’ too seriously.

However, this discounts the fact that many people WANTED to like the new movies; many who disliked the movies will admit that there was potential, even with the mess that we were given.

Let’s talk about Kylo Ren. I think Adam Driver did an amazing job with a character who had no internal consistency, or logic. I came out of the trilogy WANTING to like Kylo. I wanted to know more about him, despite being (as one YouTuber put it) the definition of tangled up Christmas Tree lights drenched in yogurt and acid.

Despite this inconsistency, despite his steady flipflopping around the screen, he had so much potential -why did Luke sense this potential for evil in him? Were the Knights of Ren the students who went with him? Why is he so intent on living up to Darth Vader? Where did this hero worship come from? Why was Snoke able to latch on to him? How did he even get to Snoke as a presumably young teenager? Why is he so desperate for Rey to love him back?

(Be advised: Spoilers for all three Star Wars sequels below)

One of the moments that evoked a heartfelt emotion in meme, while watching these movies, the only memorable moment I felt an emotion other than disgust or annoyance watching this, was when Kylo tells Rey, “You’re nothing; a nobody. You have no place in this story,” while seemingly choked with emotion. Here is a man, desperate for this woman to come with him. He’s telling her that, sure, maybe she doesn’t have a place in this large, intergalactic war, but she has a place with him. He doesn’t care that she’s a nobody; he wants her as she is. She can be a nobody to everyone else, but to him, she’s important, and she has a place in his story.

I wanted so much more from this! Is Kylo so desperate for love because everyone was always too busy for him as a child -Leia organizing the Republic, Han at her side? Or, if Han and Leia had broken up before he went off to Luke for training, was he stuck in the middle of their fighting?

While he was training with Luke, what was their relationship? Why did the sting of Luke’s betrayal drive him to become a near-sociopathic mass murderer, trying to resurrect the Empire? Did he love his Uncle? Idolize him? Was Luke the only one there for him as a child? Is that why Luke’s betrayal drove him into such a frenzy?

What about Kylo and Chewbacca? In the Rise of Skywalker, we see that he’s captured Chewbacca, yet we’re given no emotion in this scene.Think of the lost potential here!

“Chewie. I’m sorry it came to this; you were always kind to me, and you don’t deserve this.”

Or how about...

“My father was always so busy with you, Han and Chewie, off to save the world; you were more family to him than I ever was.”

Either of those lines would’ve given us so much more background on the two of them, and would’ve been a highly emotional scene for both the old fans, and the new fans.

Why was he so prone to fits of rage whenever something went poorly? Was he afraid of failure? Afraid that Snoke would turn on him, as Luke had? Was he trying to prove that he could be better than Luke, the uncle who betrayed him?

What was his life like, after leaving Luke? I’m fairly positive we can all agree that Snoke wasn’t ‘kind’ or ‘nurturing’ to Kylo; were failures punished with torture, or humiliation? That would explain the outbursts of rage whenever something doesn’t go according to plan. Was he raised to believe that only Snoke could teach him the true secrets of the Force?

After all, we see that Kylo is incredibly powerful in the Force; he’s able to stop blaster bolts in midair, rather than deflect them. He’s able to pull the information he wants directly from someone’s mind. He’s able to hold his own against Rey in Rise of Skywalker, keeping her from pulling the ship back down.

So why was he content to be on an equal footing with Hux for two movies? Why did he never rise up against Snoke, to take over as Supreme Leader? Why did he allow Snoke to humiliate him in front of Hux? Why would someone as powerful as Kylo Ren allow Snoke to belittle him, calling him a child, in front of Hux, his rival? Why wouldn’t he have argued the point, or at least try to defend his actions?

Let’s switch over to Poe. We’re told that Poe is the ‘greatest pilot in the Resistance’ -that is all we have to work with for 2 and 2/3rds of these movies; no other background is given. Eventually we find out that he was a spice runner (the drug du jour in Star Wars), and he ‘betrayed’ his old crew -however, we don’t know how he ended up as a smuggler, or what that ‘betrayal’ actually was.

For example: in the books, we find out that Han -who didn’t have a last name at the time -was simply a child that a group of smugglers picked up somewhere, and raised by Dewlanna -a female Wookie who took care of him, and protected him until her death in his teenage years. This drives him to leave the smuggling crew, and eventually join the Empire (yeah, Han wanted to be a Tie fighter pilot). However, when he sees a storm trooper beating Chewbacca, he kills the storm trooper to save him, telling Chewie later that he owed a life debt to Dewlanna, and since he’d never been able to repay that debt, he’d saved Chewie.

What if we were given something similar with Poe? Perhaps he and Zorii were orphans together on Kijimi; they grew up together, and always had each other’s backs. Eventually, through their street smarts, they and their friends turn themselves into a gang, eventually earning enough money to buy their own ship, and begin smuggling spice. However, perhaps during one of their smuggling runs, they accidentally kill an innocent bystander; perhaps Poe sees one of their crew OD and turn into a mindless vegetable after a bad hit of spice. Perhaps he sees the First Order kill a settlement of villagers while they’re off world. Any number of these things could drive Poe to forsake his old life, and flee to the Resistance. He leaves everything behind, including Zorii, the woman he loves, to try and clear his conscience. 

Any of these would’ve given us a reason to understand Poe better; as it stands, all we know is that he used to run drugs, and now he’s just a super good pilot who defected to the Resistance for some reason, and ended up as a Commander. How did he learn to fly an X-wing? How did he become such a great pilot? How did he become a Commander? 

We see, frequently and repeatedly, that Poe is afraid of nothing; that he’s able to resist interrogation without giving up information, forcing Kylo to eventually use the Force to pull the information from him. We see that’s he brave, and he is -at heart -a good man; the death of the villagers in the opening scene of The Force Awakens shows that he was unwilling to leave this village of innocent people to their fate; that despite being hopelessly outnumbered, outmanned, and outclassed, he stays to try and help them.

Yet we have no idea why he does these things; we have no background information on him, so we’re unable to truly appreciate these actions. Is he just a guy who won’t ever run from a fight? Does he have a personal beef with the First Order? Did he believe that he would be able to buy time for someone to come and save him?

We don’t know, so his actions mean nothing to us. Hell, for all the background we have on this character, he could’ve been a blind idiot, who couldn’t see how many storm troopers there were until it was too late, and his actions were simply him screwing up, and not heroic at all.

And then there’s Finn. Finn, who was the first Storm trooper given a face. The disappointment with his character was immense. How did he end up so happy go lucky, so bumbling, given his supposed brainwashing into something that had one purpose: to kill.

We’re given the impression that the storm trooper Poe kills -the one who leaves the blood on Finn’s helmet -was his friend; how did they become friends? What impact did this other storm trooper have on him? How was he even able to form an emotional connection with someone, if he was raised as a child soldier, and brainwashed to hate and kill?

What, exactly, did this ‘training’ consist of? Was it propaganda, like the Nazi Youth? Was it torturous and cruel, punishing them for any act of kindness, or empathy? A mix of the two?

And how was Finn able to overcome this upbringing? How as he able to remain such an empathetic, protective adult, with a sense of humor on top of it? Could any stormtrooper defect as easily? Was it something from his home world, some small memory of a ‘life before’ that he was able to hold on to? Did something happen during his training to jolt him out of his ‘programming’? 

With this character alone, the possibilities were endless; this was completely uncharted territory. We could have been given any background on this, and it would’ve been brilliant. However, we were given nothing more than it happened.

If we were given answers to even ONE of the numerous questions I’ve asked, even just one per character, it would’ve given us reason to root for these people. Reason to love them, reason to hate them, or a reason to sympathize with them. 

Look at the characters from the OT -we know that Luke was only searching for adventure, to begin with. To save the damsel in distress, the chance to be a hero -something that a bored farm boy from the middle of nowhere couldn’t pass up, particularly when we’re told his friends were off fighting.

Leia was raised by her adoptive father into the Rebellion- Bail Organa was one of the founders of the Rebellion, and one of its most prominent leaders. After the destruction of her home world, we see that it becomes a personal vendetta for her, to make the Empire pay for the deaths of her friends, her family, and her planet.

Han was a smuggler: he was just there to get paid, and accidentally got stuck fighting. He insists he’s only in it for the money, a cold-blooded businessman, until he starts to fall for Leia. Until he realizes that Luke needs him, and will die without his aid.

In the OT, we’re given characters with background, characters with depth. Characters whose actions we understand, because we’re given details about them as characters.

And before someone says, ‘time constraints’... I would like to point out that these three movies combined were seven hours, and fifteen minutes long. Seven hours and change, for zero character development. Hell, we spend 152 minutes (TLJ) watching a slow speed space chase, that -as it turns out -was redundant anyways. 2/3rds of The Last Jedi ended up being completely pointless, as we find out, and Finn and Rose’s quest was pointless. Finn’s mutiny was pointless.

Most of the suggestions I made above could’ve been given with a line or two of dialogue.

Here are a few quick lines that would answer many of these questions. Mind you, I’ve taken minimal time to come up with these; most of them are off the top of my head as I sit here.

Kylo:

“No one has ever understood me; I’ve been alone my entire life.”

“Luke was my hero; my idol. I looked up to him, I wanted to be him, and he betrayed me. Tried to kill me in sleep. He didn’t even have the courage to look me in the eye.”

“My parents didn’t know how to deal with my strength in the Force, so they shipped me off to Luke as soon as they could; they didn’t even try to understand me.”

Snoke: “Careful, Kylo; you know the price of your arrogance. Or do I need to remind you again? Do not think yourself above being taught a lesson about your station.”

Poe:

“Yes, I ran spice, okay? Is that what you wanna hear? I was young, I was stupid, and I was just trying to survive. You wanna criticize me for that, go ahead. But I had nothing, and nobody aside from Zurii, and we did what we had to do.”

While being tortured by the First Order: “You guys think this is torture? My friends used to hit me harder just to wake me up!”

When Holdo tells him to just ‘have hope’: “Look, lady, I grew up in Kijimi; ‘hope’ wasn’t gonna feed us, ‘hope’ wasn’t gonna give us somewhere to sleep with a roof over our heads. Doing nothing gets you killed faster than doing the wrong thing.”

While in the desert of Passaana: “There’s always First Order patrols in outer rim worlds like this; when I was a kid on Kijimi, they’d beat you down just for walking in front of them.” or “There were festivals like this when I was a kid on Kijimi; I used to watch ‘em and wonder what it would be like to actually celebrate it. Don’t suppose we have time now.”

Finn:

“Look, something about me was always off, okay? I don’t know why, but I always just... knew that what we were learning was wrong.”

“I don’t remember much about my parents, but I remember my mom used to tell me stories. About Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, and their adventures.”

“There was one man, who trained us. He was... nice, in his own way. He used to try and help us when he could, comfort us after we’d been punished. They made me kill him.”

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to avoid being the killer they wanted me to be; now you’re asking me to become a killer for your side.”

These lines would’ve taken a minute; one minute, perhaps two at most. 12 lines that would’ve given us details about these characters. Even at two minutes, that’s 24 minutes across a series of movies that was 429 minutes long.

Instead, we were given mere hints of the characters these people could’ve been. The smallest glimpses of stories and backgrounds that would’ve made these characters amazing.

That aggravates me worse than the terrible story-telling; there was potential here, and they just squandered it.

[gibelwho]

Top 5: Nostalgia Movies

This Top 5 is taking a trip down childhood memory lane to choose the best Nostalgia Movies - films that I loved as a kid and continue to love to this day. The film must have been watched multiple times during my youth and continue to be associated with a memory or tradition that was an important marker of growing up. Therefore, any film produced past 2004, when I graduated high school, has not been considered - and, to even make the cut, the film must be associated with more than just constant re-watches in our downstairs rec room (arranged with a HUGE - well, big for the ‘90s - screen with actual surround sound that my dad installed); rather, these films must be an essential part of my childhood progression into adult-hood and laid the groundwork for a future of loving cinema.

Gibelwho Productions Presents Nostalgia Movies:

5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

4. X-Men

3. The Little Mermaid

2. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1. Newsies

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986): As my high school career began to wrap up and I was looking ahead to college (where I had already committed to attending film school), my mother informed me of a proclamation - I was not allowed to leave her household without watching Ferris Bueller. Perhaps she knew that she needed to instill a little bit of rule-breaking encouragement into her straight A / type A child before I was to head out into the unruly world of college, but nonetheless, this film left a mark with it’s delightful adventures of Ferris, Cameron, and Sloane. Years later, I attended an LA rooftop screening where the audience all danced during the Twist and Shout parade, bringing me straight back to the joy of discovering this film with my mom. In the same tradition, I will be sure to make my kids watch this film before they leave our household for the wide world so they can learn to cause a little innocent rule-breaking. Save Ferris!

X-Men (2000): I had a secret obsession when I was a kid - I LOVED Marvel Comics. I had read all of my dad’s comic book collection from when he was a kid, I started my own collection, and had even started tracking the value of each issue. But I was a girl, and did not share this particular passion with my fellow elementary school friends (ahhh, the fear of being judged by your peers). So when I entered a movie theater as a freshman in high school (with my secret still intact) to see an X-Men film and the place was PACKED, I couldn’t contain my excitement that maybe, just maybe, more people would be into these characters and storylines. Then, when I went into my summer theatre program and my friends used X-Men characters as improv inspiration, I thought...this is going mainstream! I still didn’t confide my true colors until the MCU began and my college friends discovered that I knew a...lot more about Iron Man’s backstory than should be possible and I was officially outed. So, fully embracing my nerdom, I traveled to San Diego to the sacred ground that was Comic Con, truly cementing my love of Marvel. And now the rest of the world has caught up to why these characters are so special. That first inkling of a wider world loving what I loved started when I watched X-Men in theaters - seeing my heroes on the big screen, fighting their super villains, and the packed crowd around me was digging it!

The Little Mermaid (1989): One of my earliest memories of opening presents was from my 6th birthday, sitting in the living room and ripping open the wrapping paper to discover the VHS for The Little Mermaid - a film I had seen at school and LOVED - and now it was mine to watch at any time! Truly a special Disney moment, which is also matched with many other memories of Disney animated films (the momentous opening to Lion King and the cut to black that took my breath away in the theater, playing the Mulan soundtrack on cassette over and over singing Reflection, and identifying with Belle’s obsession with reading). I was very much the target audience for the Disney Renaissance, and I ate up all the music, the (slightly) stronger portrayal of women, and our VHS collection only grew to include all of these modern classics. The Little Mermaid kicked off a golden age for Disney Animation and little Katie grew up on the Alan Menken soundtrack.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Our family had three fancy VHS boxed sets for three different franchises and we watched these flicks on repeat - Star Trek movies (TOS with Kirk and Spock), the Star Wars trilogy, and the Indiana Jones films. Literally any one of the movies from these collections could make this slot, but since both of the Star franchises have already gotten love in these Top 5 lists, I’m going to pick representation from our resident archaeological professor / international adventurer. My favorite of the bunch is the third - from the thrilling opening of young Indy, to the dynamic between father and son, and the epic ending of selecting the correct Grail (“you have chosen...wisely”). Watching any one of these films is just comfort food for my soul, taking me back to the family settling in to watch in our downstairs rec room, setting the foundation for the nerdom that my parents instilled into me at a young age and that has continued to guide my interests and movie-watching to this day.

Newsies (1992): Growing up, my family had Friday movie nights, where we ordered from the Pizza Hut that was right next to a Blockbuster; my brother and I were allowed to each choose a movie to rent for the weekend. I went through a phase where I just rented Newsies on repeat. It was as though this film was made just for me - a musical, set in a historical time period, with cute boys singing and dancing, music by the magical Alan Menken - what is not to love?!? I was so obsessed with this movie that in the pre-Internet age, I wrote down the lyrics by meticulously listening, pausing, writing down, rewinding, and repeating - which was an onerous process when one was working with manual VHS tapes. I eventually got a copy of my own, the DVD when it came out, the CD of the soundtrack, and also the piano sheet music. I knew all the lines to the songs, and could probably to this day quote the majority of the movie. Years later, imagine my delight when Disney produced a Broadway musical of the movie - we took a special trip to New York on my birthday to see the show (which of course, doesn’t match up to my love for the film, the true effect of a nostalgic love for a piece of your childhood). Living in LA affords us the opportunity for magical movie-going experiences, and my husband and I scored tickets to a special showing of Newsies at the Disney El Capitan theater - and then the traveling Broadway company of Newsies the musical that was in town and performing just up the street at the Pantages theater made an appearance and performed for the audience after the movie wrapped. This film has held a special place in my heart and is the epitome of nostalgia love for a movie from childhood.

Honorable Mentions:

The Music Man (1962): The two music genres we listened to growing up were 90s country (Garth, Reba, Trisha, Wynonna!) and also musicals. Our family was very much into theater and starting at the age of twelve, I started acting in musicals at our local performing arts program for youths. Our family also watched many of the classic musicals that were filmed in the 1950s and 60s, such as Hello, Dolly, Oklahoma, and Music Man. This last film stands in as a proxy for all those classics, but was also selected in particular because I performed in a production during a summer in junior high, where I was in the background chorus (and featured in the Wells Fargo song!). The music and lyrics of this story, written by Meredith Wilson, are of such cleverness and variety - from the 4-part harmony barbershop quartet to the love song ballads, the pre-hip hop rhythmic talking song to the genius opening number of the salesmen on the train. The translation to film is serviceable and very much in the style of the musicals brought from stage to screen in the 1960s - nothing too clever and some blocking that sought to recreate a theater stage on the film set, but these series of musical films cemented my love for the genre in an accessible way just as I was starting myself to perform on stage.

Jurassic Park (1993): Oh, the raptor in the kitchen stalking the two kids stills brings me chills thinking about it. Watching that scene as a kid, I (more than once) fled the room because it was so scary! This film had it all - creepy dinosaurs, a smart teenage girl and an even smarter heroine that was a scientist, great music (whose theme I diligently learned how to play on the piano), and plenty of action! My family definitely had this on repeat in the VHS player, but I loved the movie so much that I ended up reading Michael Crichton’s novel to experience the source material - and became more aware of how a film is an adaption of a novel’s storytelling, translating from the page to the screen. I do fall in favor of reading the novel before seeing the movie, but if a film helps you discover an incredible book, it can be like diving into an extension of the world beyond what the screen can fit.