#('finn why did you use the behind the scenes footage of the love scene' ever heard of color palettes. fucko)

[nextimeiny]

#i'm insane. i'm deranged. i'm a fucking goner. FINITO!! #chainshipping #sorry i've been listening to a lot of mitski as of late and dudes. it's been a time #it's so them coded. bag of bones is also them coded in like a adam lives but it's sad and toxic way. aka one of the better ways #(i looove soft and domestic and fluffy chainshipping and i absolutely think it's possible. but there's something about that toxicity man.) #('finn why did you use the behind the scenes footage of the love scene' ever heard of color palettes. fucko) #adam faulkner stanheight #lawrence gordon

[kalinara]

I did think I would feel a bit more satisfied when an actor finally confirmed what, I think, most of us knew about Kylo Ren's intended arc in the Sequel Trilogy.

Blah, blah, the redemption arc wasn't supposed to happen. Kylo was supposed to be a villain throughout. Where's that Captain Holt vindication gif when you want it?

I'd agree, personally, that it would have made for a better movie if Kylo had remained the big bad. Adam Driver, I think, is the one who really missed out. I feel like he missed out on his chance to go full out, balls to the wall evil overlord. He'd have killed it, I suspect. And I say that as someone who isn't particularly a fan of the guy.

I do think though I get why they went with a half-assed redemption arc, though. I don't think it had anything to do with the Reylos (the kiss maybe, but I'd like to think they're smart enough to realize that rabid shippers generally don't go for the romantic - die for your love type of ending. At least not if the hot guy is doing the dying...)

I think it's because of Carrie Fisher's death.

They'd said for a while that the third movie was supposed to be Leia's, in the way that TFA was Han's, and TLJ was Luke's. Whether or not this made you optimistic probably depends on how much you liked the fates of those characters in those movies. I didn't hate them, personally.

I'm not going to speculate too hard on what the original story would have been. I certainly can imagine some pretty epic stuff with Princess Leia as the Big Good set against her son as the Big Bad. But...well...when you lose one of your primary actors before you get a chance to actually film anything...well, that limits what you can do.

I suppose that's why I'm willing to give Rise of Skywalker a bit more slack than a lot of folk. They were kind of stuck. Ultra-evil Kylo Ren is a more satisfying story with the set up they had, but it's also a tragedy. For what it's worth, the man does have a mother, who will grieve him if no one else does.

Except...we can't actually film the grieving, can we? We can't film the confrontation between despairing mother and lost son - whatever resolution was likely to happen. We can, at least, use some lost footage to TRY to build the relationship between Leia and Rey that needs to happen for that side of the story, but even then, we'll need Force Ghost Luke to help with the more reactive parts.

And of course, they need to write Leia herself out as gracefully as possible. In a way that doesn't require a lot of new footage and still gives the character a sense of accomplishment. Otherwise, you might as well have just blown her up with Hosnian Prime.

So...half assed redemption arc. With not-exactly-force-ghost Han to help there. I do feel like they could have done a better job with Kylo's part there. You know, made it look like he was at least interested in doing something OTHER than violating a woman's mind and terrorizing her for a good third of the movie. But well. No one's ever completely happy with things.

I don't know. In the end, I think the folks behind the Sequel Trilogy did what they could to give us a final, reasonably satisfying conclusion. There were fuck ups along the way (see: Finn, see: Poe. Though that fuckery started with TLJ, IMO) but, I think if we sat down and watched all nine movies in a row, and got to Rise of Skywalker's closing scene...I think we would end it feeling like we'd reached a workable ending to the Skywalker Saga.

Probably because we'd be too exhausted to notice the plotholes at that point. C'est la vie.

[cctinsleybaxter]

2020 in books

2020 was a year of changed reading habits; people reading more than ever or not at all, some changing their tastes and others turning to old comforts. While there weren’t any huge overhauls on my end, more free time did mean a total of 32 in a wider range of genres. In the past couple of years I found a lot of the things I read to be kind of middling and ranked them accordingly, but this year had some strong contenders in the mix. With college officially behind me I love nonfiction again, and I really need to stop being drawn in by novels with long titles that ‘sound interesting.’ A piece of advice to my future self: they will only make you angry.

The Good

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky I loved the BBC radio play when I first listened to it back in 2017, but didn’t know if I could stomach the idea of actually reading the 700-page book, especially since I already knew the plot (spoiler alert: this had no effect and I gasped multiple times despite knowing what was going to happen; Fyodor’s just that good at atmosphere.) The story follows Prince Lev Myshkin, a goodhearted but troubled man entering 1860s Petersburg high society and meeting all of the wretched people therein as he navigates life, laughs, love, unanswerable questions of faith, and human suffering. I care about it in the same way I think other people care about reality TV shows and soap operas. I’m so personally invested in the drama and feel so many different emotions directed at these clowns that it’s like being a fan of Invitation to Love (with an ending equally upsetting to that of the show ITL is from, Twin Peaks.)

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlanksy I adored this book. The first half reads a little like a Wikipedia article, and I was worried that it was leaning too clinical and would be disaffected with colonialism and indigenous peoples, but even that oversight is corrected for as the text goes on. It’s not going to be for everybody because it really is just the world’s longest encyclopedia entry on, well, salt, but it’s written with such excitement for the topic and is so well-researched and styled for commercial nonfiction that I think it deserves any and all praise it’s gotten. We have to talk about that time Cheshire was literally sinking into the ground, and companies who were over-pumping brine water to steal each other’s brine water said ‘no it’s okay it’s supposed to that’ so were legally dismissed as suspects.

Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy Cried. 10/10. The plot of Midnight Cowboy is very classic and actually has a lot in common with The Idiot, as 20-something Joe Buck moves from the American Southwest to NYC and meets myriad challenges as a sex worker. I’ve been obsessed with the movie for a few years now and the book made me appreciate it anew; I think it’s rare for an adaptation to take the risk of being so different from its source material while still capturing its spirit. The movie doesn’t include quieter moments like the full conversation with Towny or time spent in the X-flat, nor does it attempt to touch Joe’s internal monologue or his and Rico’s extensive backstories, but these things are essential to the book and are some of the best and most affecting writing I’ve ever read. Finally! The Great American Novel!

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones I would firmly like to say that this is probably the best horror novel ever written. The setup is very traditional in that it’s about a group of friends facing supernatural comeuppance for a past mistake, but delivery on that premise is anything but familiar. A story about personal and cultural trauma that raises questions about what we owe to each other and what it means to be Blackfeet, with a cast that’s unbelievably real and sympathetic even at their absolute worst. Creepypasta writers trying to cash in on the cultural mythos of lumped-together tribes wish they were capable of writing something a tenth as gruesome and good as this. It could very well be a movie the visuals and writing style were so arresting, and I can’t wait to read whatever Jones writes next.

Found Footage Horror Films: Fear and the Appearance of Reality by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas This is the least accessible title on the list since it’s a college textbook for people with background in film, but it was so nice to read a woman unpacking film theory with the expertise and confidence it deserves that I have to rank it among the best. I had an absolute blast reading it and am going to have to stop myself from bringing up the horror of 1960s safety films as a cocktail icebreaker.

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson

The year’s toughest read by far, but also its most rewarding. Thompson uses mountains of documents, government-buried intel, and personal interviews to explain what happened at Attica from beginning to end, and does a fantastic job of balancing hard facts and ‘unbiased journalism’ with much-needed emotion and critical analysis. It’s more important reading in the 2020s than any kind of ‘why/how to not be racist’ book club book is going to be, and the historical context it provides is as interesting as it is invaluable. The second half drags a bit in going through lengthy trial processes with some assumed baseline knowledge of legalese (which I did not have. All that criminal minds in 2015… meaningless), but aside from that editing and prose are some of the best I’ve seen in nonfiction. 

The Bad

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn A friend and I decided to read this together because I’m obsessed with how insane the author is and wanted to know if he can actually write.

He cannot.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron Barron is an indie darling of the horror fiction scene, so I was excited to finally read one of his collections but can now attest that I hate him. If you’re going to do Lovecraft please deconstruct Lovecraft in an interesting way. I had actually written a lot about the issues I have with how he develops characters and plots, but one of the only shorthand notes I took was “he won’t stop saying ‘bole’ instead of tree trunk” and I feel like that’s the only review we need.

Bats of the Republic by Zach Dodson Look up a photo of this author because if I had bothered to glance at the jacket bio I honest-to-god wouldn’t have even tried reading this.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone I went in with high expectations since this is an epistolary novella I’d seen praised on tumblr and youtube but oh my god was there a reason I was seeing it praised on tumblr and youtube. This is bad Steven Universe fanfiction. Both authors included ‘listening to the Steven Universe soundtrack throughout’ in the acknowledgements, and to add insult to injury there’s a plug from my nemesis Madeline Miller.

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton The premise of this one plays with so many tropes I like that I should have been more suspicious. It’s a dinner party with stock characters one would expect of Clue, and rather than our protagonist being the detective he’s a man with amnesia stuck in a 24-hour time loop. Body-hopping between guests, he must gather evidence using the skillsets of each ‘host’ until he either solves Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder or the limit of eight hosts runs out. I read a lot of not-very-good books, and it’s so, so much worse when they have potential to be fun. This is how you lose the most points, and how I abandon decorum and end up writing a list of grievances: • Our protagonist can only inhabit male hosts, which I think is a stupid writing decision not because I’m ‘woke’ but because wouldn’t it make sense for him to also be working with the maids, cooks, and women close to the murder victim? • Complaining about the limitations of hosts makes some sense (e.g- there’s a section where he thinks that it’s hard to be an old man because it’s difficult to get to the places he needs to be quickly), but one of his hosts is a rapist and one of his hosts is fat. Guess which one gets complained about more. • One of the later hosts is just straight-up a cop with cop knowledge that singlehandedly solves the case. We spend some time being like ‘wow I couldn’t have done it without the info all eight hosts helped gather’ but it was 100% the detective and he solves the murder using information he got off-screen. • The mystery itself is actually well-paced and I didn’t have a lot of issues with it (e.g, there’s a twist that I guessed only shortly before the end), which makes it all the worse that the metanarrative of this book is INSANE. No spoilers but the reveal as to why our unnamed protagonist is even in this situation is stupid. I just know they’re going to make it into a movie and I’m preemptively going to aaaaaaaaa!!!

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi The fact that this was the worst book I read all year, worse even than the bad Steven Universe fanfiction, and it won multiple awards makes my blood boil. I could rant about it for hours but just know that it’s a former theater kid’s take on perception and memory, and deals with sexual abuse in a way that’s handled both very badly and with a level of fake deepness that’s laughable. Select fake-deep quotes I copied down because at one point I said ‘oh barf’ aloud: -I’m filled with melancholy that’s almost compassion. It’s sad the same way. -[On a friendship ending] We almost never know what we know until after we know it. -Because we’re none of us alone in this world. We injure each other.

There are also bad sex scenes that I can’t quite make fun of because I think (HOPE?) they’re supposed to be a melodramatic take on how teenagers view sex, but I very much wanted to die. Flowers were alluded to. Nipples were compared to diamonds.

Honorable/Dishonorable Mentions (categorized as the same thing because, well,)

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North This book was frustrating because the first third of it is fantastic. It’s set up to be a takedown of the manic pixie dream girl trope, jumping from person to person discussing their relationship with the titular Sophie, and indirectly revealing that she was just some girl and not the difficult and mysterious genius they all believed her to be. Then in the third act, BAM! She was that difficult and mysterious genius and she’s now indirectly brought all the people from her past together. I wanted to scream the plot beefed it so bad, but the good news is I really liked this octopus description.

It was the size of a three-year-old child, and it seemed awful to me that something could be so far from human and obviously want something as badly as it wanted to get out of the tank.

Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore Cool new nightmare speedrun strat is to hear a 2-second anecdote from a documentary that people used to get radium poisoning from painting watch faces, be curious enough that you buy a book to learn more, and be met with medical and legal horror beyond anything you could have imagined. This was almost one of my favorite books of the year! Almost.

Radium Girls is very lovingly crafted and incredibly well-researched; one of those things that’s hard to get through but that you want to read sections of again as soon as you’ve finished. The umbrage I take with it is that it’s very Catholic. The author and many of her subjects are Irish and their religion is important to them, but it casts a martyr-y narrative over the whole thing that I found uncomfortable. Seventeen-year-old girls taking a factory job they didn’t know was dangerous are framed as brave, working-class heroes, but there’s not a set moral lesson to be gained from this story. Sarah Maillefer didn’t make “a sacrifice” when she agreed to the first radium tests, she agreed because she was terrified. She didn’t think she was helping she was begging for help.

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Tsing Tsing is an incredibly skilled researcher and ethnographer; there are so many good ideas in this book that I’d almost consider it essential leftist text… if I could stand the way it was structured. Tsing posits that because nature is built on precariousness she will build her book the same way, allowing it to grow like a mushroom, and thus chapters don’t progress linearly and are written more like freeform poetry than a series of academic arguments. Some people are really going to love that, but I’m me and a mushroom is a mushroom and a book is a book. I don’t think in the way Tsing does, and while I tried to keep an open mind it’s hard to play along when something is this academically dense and makes so many ambitious claims. As if to prove how different our structuring methods are, I’ve made my own thoughts into a pros and cons list

Things I liked: • ‘Contamination’ as something inherent to diversity • ‘Scalability’ as a flawed way of thinking (Tsing has written whole essays about this that I find very compelling, but a main example here is that China and the US have come down on Japanese matsutake research for being too ‘site specific’ and not yielding enough empirical data) • Discussing how Americans were so invested in self-regulating systems in the 1950s we thought they could be applied to literally everything, including ecosystems • “The survivors of war remind us of the bodies they climbed over- or shot- to get to us. We don’t know whether to love or hate the survivors. Simple moral judgements don’t come to hand.” • Any and all fieldwork Tsing shares is amazing; I especially liked reading about the culture of mushroom pickers living in the Cascades and their contained market system

Things I didn’t like: • Statements that sound deep but aren’t, e.g- “help is always in the service of another.” (Yep. That’s what that means. Unless an organism is doing something to help itself which then nullifies your whole opening argument.) • A very debatable definition of utilitarianism • “Capitalism vs pre-capitalism,” which seems like an insanely black-and-white stance for a book all about finding hidden middle ground • A chapter I found really interesting about how intertwined Japanese and American economies are, but it tries to cover the entire history of US-Japan relations. Seriously, starting with Governor Perry and continuing through present day, this could have been a whole different book and it’s a good example of what I mean when I say arguments feel too scattered (the conclusion it reaches is that in the 80s the yen was finally able to hold its own against the dollar. Just explain that part.) • A chapter arguing that ‘true biological mutualism’ is rarely a focus of STEM and is a new sociological development/way of thinking which is just… flat-out not true

For all the comparisons art gets to ‘being on a drug trip’ this anthropology textbook has come the closest for me. Moments of profound human wisdom, intercut with things I had trouble understanding because I wasn’t on the same wavelength, intercut with even more things that felt false or irrelevant. I can’t put it on the nice list but I am glad I read it.

#2020 #books #long post #(in case the read more isn't working)

[hail-the-supreme-leader-kylo-ren]

My final musings/speculation on all the TROS TV spots

I’m so sad that this is my final write up for TROS speculation.  You can find my previous “End” TV spot breakdown here, “Fate” one here, and my other TROS trailer breakdown here. 

Timeline stuff

Costumes are the biggest indicator of the timeline in the TROS footage we’ve seen so far. Poe starts by wearing his scarf and gloves, then he gets an arm injury and wraps the wound with said scarf. Later back at the Resistance base, he gets it properly bandaged and takes off his gloves. And I suspect that, for the final fight, he changes into his pilot get up and helmet (see the images below for his outfit timeline). Similarly Rey has her staff and bag or does not in various trailer footage.

JJ told us that Pasaana takes place towards the start of the film. I reaaally want to know why Rey, Finn, and Poe all have bags. They must serve a function in the story. I feel like the Resistance gang is on a mission to collect something, hence the bags. And I think that one of the things that’ll eventually be carried in Rey’s bag is the mysterious dagger she’s seen with.

Here’s Rey on Pasaana at the Aki-Aki’s festival, with a beaded neck with bits of material or paper that are pastel pink, green, and yellow. They remind me of “omikuji” which are Japanese fortune-telling paper strips that can be found in shrines and temples (see below). As Pasaana is at the start of the film, this seems very fitting for Rey, “what will her fortune be?”. Rey still has her saddle bag on.

We can see that the FO crash the festival and are in pursuit of the Resistance members, we know from the comics that Kylo has placed a bounty on them all.

On the left of screen you can see some Aki-Aki angrily chasing after the resistance and the two speeders. So I think the resistance definitely borrowed (*stole*) them from the locals to get away from the FO. 

I like how the shape of the two speeders are very different. TROS has some great design all round from what we’ve seen so far.

Here’s Rey looking v angry, and she still has her bag on but no longer wears the necklace. 

We know that Kylo and the Knights of Ren are also on Pasaana, so it’ll be interesting to see how/when the KoR interact with the Resistance. I have a feeling that the two speeders will be spilt up, and Rey will end up coming face-to-face with Kylo. 

And then there’s this scene of the Resistance inside a cave on Pasaana, all with their bags on, and they don’t look happy to see something/someone one. I think this may be once they all meet up again after the chase?

Now for the Rey flips over Kylo’s TIE Silencer scene. It’s odd because for this scene Rey doesn’t have her staff or her bag with her. Just her ignited saber. But this is still clearly Pasaana. So maybe this is after the speeder chase, or on a whole other day? The sun is setting after-all, (which will make for ~very~ romantic lighting hehe).

And I really don’t know if Rey destroys his Whisper, with her saber or with the force, but his ship is definitely toast.

Rey looks at her hand, either because she used the force to destroy his ship OR he force grabbed the legacy lightsaber out of her hands because he is now worthyyyyy. Either way, she looks shook. 

Also on Pasaana, we have footage of Rey standing in pretty much the same spot (the landscape background matches up), and she shouts “CHEWIE” and is looking up and distressed. I really don’t know what is happening to Chewie, but the trailer footage does seem to be point towards him being captured by the FO and then Finn/Rey/Poe/C-P30/BB-8/D-O go to Kylo’s FO ship to rescue him. To be honest, I don’t really understand why they’d kidnap Chewie but if it does go down like that then I would love to see the Kylo/Chewie interaction, it’ll be amazing.

And there’s also this footage of Poe on Pasaana, next to a different ship yelling “REY”. Perhaps he’s watching the Reylo stuff go down:

This is The Knights of Ren walking through the same FO ship the Resistance runs through (the corridor is the same shame/blue LEDs). The squad all leave behind muddy footprints. Now in all the images we have of the KoR, they’re outfits are muddy at the bottom, but I wouldn’t have thought they’d get muddy from Pasaana, dirty yes? but not muddy.

(See in this Vanity Fair image, all their boots/pants/coats are covered in dried brown mud).

I wonder if the KoR were with Kylo on this other planet, with the ashy/sandy ground (pictured below). This extended shot also shows that Kylo does slice through that guy he body slams. 

Kylo is muddy himself during this fighting scene. I’m also really curious as to why he doesn’t have his helmet on for this forest fight. I feel like this killing/forest mission Kylo is on is more-so a personal one, hence why he’s not wearing the helmet and that’s why he’s alone in his TIE afterwards, still all muddy.

After Pasaana, I think the Resistance gang goes to Kijimi, where they meet Zorri Bliss, find D-O, and Babu Frik does something with C-3PO’s memories. I personally hope they learn more about Anakin/Padme. Finn, Poe, and Finn all have nice warm puffy jackets on. Poe still has his scarf so he hasn’t been injured yet, and as far as we know the crew didn’t have D-O on Pasaana, so this seems to be the correct timeline regarding planetary visits. Chewie is not present.

This is an intersting shot of Rey and Zorri talking outside. I wonder if Zorri will have any juicy information for Rey.

The FO must be notified by someone that the Resistance is there, because the Stormtroopers and Supreme Leader Kylo Ren arrive:

I find it funny how Rey’s warm jacket is gone for her saber confrontation with Kylo:

I also think this scene of the TIE’s chasing the Falcon could be Kijimi as well, because its very cold/icy/snowy.

Then after Kijimi, the Resistance gang *sneaks* into Kylo’s FO ship, to free Chewie, and interestingly they’re not flying the Falcon but another ship (see below), which is weird because in later footage we see the Falcon waiting for Rey to leap to “get away”. This different ship looks a lot like the same one Poe is next to on Pasaana when he shouts “REY!”, as the ramps hinge details look the same.

We see Rey, Finn, and Poe, D-O and BB-8 leaving the ship and killing all the Storm Troopers in the hanger. We can also hear C-3PO, so I think he’s with them too. Rey still has her staff and bag, and so do Finn and Poe. 

We see the “trio” (HA) run into some Storm Troopers in a hallway, but Rey uses the Force on them. Then my guess is they decide to spilt up to find Chewie, or whatever else they’re after/doing there.

Rey takes the stairs and HAPPENS TO STUMBLE INTO THIS WHITE ROOM:

This room may be just a shrine to Vader or a gallery style room of Kylo’s Jedi/Sith artefacts. But regardless I think Rey actually has a few minutes to herself in here, because she puts her bag and her staff down. She leans her staff against a big column with mechanical parts (AND RED WIRING *red string of fate*), and you can see that Chewie’s bowcaster is also there. 

Sidenote: this kind of doesn’t make sense because in a different shot Rey’s staff is leaning against a white ‘cabinet’ along with Chewie’s ammo belt and bow which is directly opposite the Vader statue. See below, you can glimpse their stuff beneath the falling Vader helmet. And that mechanical column is to the right of screen. 

But I digress. At some put Kylo shows up: Enter Kylo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s so Pride and Prejudice, where Mr Darcy finds Elizabeth in his house. And from somewhere Rey produces a dagger. It was either in her bag, or its one of Kylo’s artefacts that she’s grabbed.

This set is SO COOL. It’s very symmetrical and geometric, and it reminds me sooo much of Vader’s ESB mediation chambers shapes plus its white interior! (see below).

They fight, and either purposefully or haphazardly destroy the Vader stand.

And I wonder what happens post-fight, because later in the bunker THIS HAPPENS AND IT LOOKS SO LONGING AND ROMANTIC. His helmet is off, Rey no longer has her staff or bag. Where is her stuff? He is gonna give it back to her?? Regardless, Ben stands there looking forlorn watching her leave.

While Reylo was happening, Finn and Poe must find Chewie and have to make it back to the ship. 

I suspect that right here is where Poe gets his arm injury as Finn yells “POE!”. The background is very FO.

We have this footage of a Rey and Chewie hug in the Falcon which could be a reunion post-rescue, who knowsss.

After the Resistance gang is all back together maybe they go back to the Resistance HQ, or they head straight to the planet with the Death Star ruins (it may be Kef Bir, because they seem to meet Jannah there).

Here’s the DAGGER again! But this time Rey appears to be using it as a wayfinding tool, guiding her to the ruins. What ever are they searching for in the Death Star II ruins??? 

The quillon of the dagger also look longer than in the fight scene with Kylo. It looks like carved Ivory and the tip looks red like its blood stained.  Very sinister.

We see then have seen footage of Rey taking the water-boat thing by herself, presuming leaving the others behind? Then she’s climbing the Death Star ruins solo.

Somehow she finds herself in the ol’ Throne Room and KYLO IS THERE. She no longer has her bag, and he doesn’t have his saber lit but she does.

Then for the zillionth time Rey attacks Kylo. I wonder how this fight must come to an end but then also continue outside??

It seems that Kylo follows Rey outside to the debris, his saber lit this time. These two shots look super romantic, and paint the picture of an inventible watery angsty fight kiss. Ben looks so determined to sort this shit OUT. 

But then here Rey appears to Force Freeze Kylo, which is karma for when he did it to her in TFA. This demonstrates how better attuned Rey has become with her abilities. Maybe this happens mid-fight? Anyways, this is the third Reylo fight and everything comes in threes, so I think this will be the final fight they have. One that will end with a resolution that changes everything for the rest of the film. By this point Reylo has an audience, Finn and Jannah are there on the ruins also.

The Resistance foresty HQ stuff

This is the shot where Rey says “Its too dangerous” and want to go alone, but everyone wants to go with her etc. Poe doesn’t have his scarf on and his “injured” arm is hidden, but he has no gloves on. And him and Finn do still have have their bags. So this seems to be both after both Pasaana and the Death Star ruins?

This is early on in the film, (see Poe’s outfit), and it may very well be inside the new ship the Resistance crew uses going into the FO hanger.

This is the same ship you can tell by the dusty window shutters.

Also I think Rey’s training in the forest with Leia will be early on in the film.

On to PALPATINEEEE

This is that awesome sequence of Kylo arriving at  ~planet/Sith Temple~ to show down with Palpatine. And its hard to tell, but I don’t think that it’s his Tie Whisper, looks just like a regular Tie Interceptor.

In this shot, we can see the trademark blue Palpatine force lighting, and also water below the floating cube/triangular structure. I think this is the same frozen water, where see the Imperial Star Destroyer’s emerging from:

I’m lovvvvinggg, the sheer scale of these statues compared to tiny Kylo/Ben, its giving me such prequel vibes.

And here he is quietly sneaky around, saber ignited. His demeanour and facial expressions in this sequence are calm/sad/determined. On the right there’s this machine thing that looks like a tooth, and it reminds me of an incubator. I wonder if Palpatine is in there or uses it as a healing pod etc. I wonder why Kylo seems to be seeking the Emperor out? And at what point of the film could this be occurring in? I cannot fathom Kylo seeking Palp’s out because he’s after more power, that doesn’t fit his character.

I’d say this place is definitely all the same location where Palp’s throne is and where Rey finds herself face-to-face with him.

Then there’s this footage of Kylo from a different trailer. Originally I was getting a “I’m in cave of a wise mystic by a fire” vibe (like Yoda in ESB). And I thought this may take place on the ashy/forest planet. But perhaps, this is Kylo coming across Palps because the flashing cyan lighting is correct for that.

Anyways, I've always has this head cannon that Kylo would find out first that Palpatine had “returned” and he’d immediately go to Rey and warn her (The TIE Pasaana scene). OR either Rey or Kylo would accidentally “awaken” something that caused Palpatine to stir. And I would love them to already be a Reylo team and actively go and try to take Palpatine down, but I also think they could follow that trope of one person going solo to defeat the villain (to keep the other person safe), but then they fail and are held captive as “bait”, and then later the second person shows up and frees them and together they take down the villain. 

And speaking of Reylo, cannot wait for more Force Bond scenes. I think they’re 100% happening because why else would Daisy have her hair done but be in warmer clothes doing the clapperboard for a FO ship scene??? Force Bond offscreen reading with Adam.

(This is just a little humble brag, that I was CORRECT. Those pods being deployed from the Imperial fleet do hold Sith Troopers whom are ready to fight the Resistance on the orbaks. he he)

Now for some footage that I cannot put into context:

I reaally want to know when the reforging of Kylo’s mask happens with KoR, because it seems funny that he’s been Supreme Leader for a year without needed a mask but now for some reason he now needs it again. Very interesting.

Rey is rocking her Jedi hood and she looks heavenly. I cannot wait to see Kylo/Ben also rocking his hood as well, no helmet. (After all he has one for a reason, EEEP). Rey looks very mature and drained in this shot, and the background is green and rocky and could very well be Ahch-to but its hard to know. I definitely do not think that this shot is from the burning TIE moment because the lighting on her face would be much stronger from the huge flames that she’s standing like 5cm away from.

This is such a dramatic and beautiful shot. Who’s TIE Interceptor is this? Did Rey destroy it and why?? Does she just go around continually destroying ships in TROS haha? Also it really looks like Rey dos not have her arm wrappings in this fiery shot.

I have no idea when this green alien chase sequence happens. But Rey does not seem to be there, she’s probably busying with Ben and Palps. The Resistance is being pursued by the FO, and Klaud is somehow aboard!

Also here’s the Falcon is being chased by more First Order TIE’s, and there’s a possible sun in the background, and lots of red sharp rocky shards. Where is thiss???

Also here’s the Resistance allies flying, but I have no idea why the light is red. It looks hellish.

There’s still sooo much we don’t know about the film. We’ve only been shown a few minutes of footage in total, and there’s probably so many locations/sequences they’ve shown us nothing from. (Fingers crossed for “The World Between Worlds” Force stuff). Also we really don’t have any context for the epic stuff we’ve seen so far, there’s still a lot of mystery and questions! I am soo excited to watch this film in a few days! 

#tros #tros speculation #sw spoilers #reylo #the rise of skywalker #Rey #Kylo Ren #Ben Solo #palpatine #daisy ridley #adam driver #finn #poe #myown #star wars #rey x kylo #rey x ben

[aphrodites-law]

The Clarke Show

(A take on The Truman Show)

Nia Reign is as imposing as Lexa imagined. Her suit is a dark green with silver cuffs, nothing that Lexa could ever hope to afford. 

"Why Clarke?"

She isn’t the only live show, but she's certainly the most popular in the nation. Arkadia's darling. Arkadia's golden child. Lexa has never had the time or luxury for escapism, but everyone knows that even the nation's prince, Lincoln, trails Clarke in views by millions.

"Because Clarke is getting restless. It's a phase I'm sure you're familiar with––the yearning for the world you've never been a part of. She wants spontaneity. Adventure. We've scripted something that’ll show her the grass isn’t always greener. It'll make for a thrilling story arc."

Lexa looks at the hundreds of screens, each one a frame of the town built for Clarke and the twelve other Selected. The grocery store she shops at; the movie theater she goes to; the streets she walks on; the beach; the offices; the coffee shops; the parks; the neighborhood––every single place ready to spring to life should the Selected decide to take the trams there. It's an exceptionally well-oiled machine.

"What role would I play?"

"You'll be the dark horse. The wild card Clarke never thought she'd hold. You'll take her places she's never been­––new sets we've built. You'll win over her heart and then you'll break it, right in time for us to introduce Finn."

"Finn?" Lexa asks, still gazing at a screen where a bird briefly flits in front of the camera. She wonders if its species is native to the area or if it's even real at all.

"Clarke's future husband if all goes according to plan. Finn is a perfect match for her in every way. Your opposite."

Lexa turns to the control room below the glass panels. There are hundreds of employees in headsets pressing hundreds of buttons, rushing from right to left, biting into sandwiches and yawning while they craft the details of Arkapolis. There are workers in shirts designing objects on large screens; workers in lab coats testing liquids in vials; workers with grease smears tweaking the settings of androids. There is so much energy and talent being poured into a fake world. Lexa wonders why these people couldn't better their real world instead. Lexa’s neighborhood in Arkadia is crumbling apart, the infrastructure rusting and rotting, and yet here she is watching engineers design sets with swimming pools and amusement parks.

"No offense meant," Nia says behind her.

Lexa shakes her head. "I'm no princess."

"But you can be charming.”

Lexa turns to her. "I'm not a good actress."

Nia sits in her leather chair, utterly in control of the room and the conversation.  "I've seen the women you seduce. They don't hold a candle to our Clarke. Surely it won’t be difficult for you to muster some passion."

What Nia means is that prostituting herself for entertainment should come easily. Lexa knows that's exactly why she was picked for the role.

"Clarke made a whole nation fall in love with her the moment she opened those blue eyes onscreen for the first time," Nia reminds her. "Right now there are millions of souls watching her and yearning to spend time with her. Time you'll be afforded. You don't need to be a good actress, Ms. Woods, you need to be exactly who you are: a lowlife drifter who seduces lonely women to get something out of them. In this instance, more money than you've seen in your entire life."

Anger boils inside Lexa, but the words aren't all lies. "You think you know everything about me based on police records?"

Nia chuckles at Lexa's naïveté. "I don't care to know everything about you. I know what's necessary. You need the money and you’ll do anything for it. Am I wrong?”

Lexa thinks of her sister Anya and the medical bills sticking out of drawers; the leaks in her apartment; the skittering of roaches on their floor. She thinks of her nephew and niece––Aden's gaunt face and Marla playing with dolls made out of cans and wires. She thinks of the floor she sleeps on in the corner of Anya’s room, cold and damp.

"When do I start?"

Nia smiles victoriously. "You’ll go through scrubbing and fitting first. An implant will be placed in your ear canal; it’ll be used sparsely but I will be communicating with you when needed. It’ll also track your location. Training will take three weeks––you’ll need to know Arkapolis like the back of your hand, not to mention your new profession. You’ll spend time with your new best friends, Raven and Costia, for familiarity purposes. We’ll have Clarke meet Lexa in a month’s time.”

Lexa’s eyes flash at her own name being used so strangely, as if she isn’t the one being referred to. As if she will exist separately from the character they have made up for Clarke, the Lexa who’ll take pleasure in seducing and using and discarding the nation’s sweetheart. She wonders how hated she will be coming out of it. 

"I want the money, a weekly stipend, sent to my sister," Lexa tells Nia, looking at her with a set jaw. "You control so much of the media––I want a guarantee my family will be kept out of it. No one bothers them. No one even mentions them.”

"We can do that." Nia looks up and smiles, the once cruel curve of her lips turning tender. "Look."

Lexa glances back at the screens, watching as Clarke walks out of her small house with her dog. She waves at her neighbor and grins. Her life is so simple that Lexa feels some anger toward her. Why couldn't Anya have been one of the Selected? Why did Aden and Marla know more about suffering than Clarke did? All she will know of pain is an orchestrated heartbreak before true love swoops in.

Lexa doesn't pity her. If it keeps her family safe and fed, she'll lift Clarke Griffin to unimaginable heights before dropping her. She'll be the villain her story needs; take her heart and crush it with a smile.

"Do you stream everything live?" She asks Nia.

Nia seems bored now, the formality of convincing Lexa over and done with. "Clarke's channel is family friendly, with a slight delay in the feed. We expect you to alert us at the beginning and the end of explicit footage. The public knows Clarke is only broadcast live for eighteen hours a day. It'll make our lives easier if you'd ensure physical intimacy happened within the closed window, but if not the delay gives us time to cut to our planned programming. Obviously you won’t start conversations that further the storyline within those six hours either. There is nothing more frustrating to the public than missing out on milestones.”

Lexa rolls her eyes as she watches the ants hard at work in the control room. "How romantic," she drawls. "Bet those guys enjoy the show when it goes offline."

Nia hardly contains her disdain at Lexa's crassness. "We have a number of protocols in place for private scenes."

Lexa vaguely recalls that bathrooms have no cameras, but ‘private’ has an entirely different meaning for the Selected. Surely it was private when Clarke’s father passed away onscreen, followed by a close up of Clarke’s sobs. Surely it was private when she kissed a girl for the first time and embarrassed herself with a sneeze, not knowing the entire nation was laughing at her clumsiness. 

But if it bothers Lexa that Nia talks about someone's reality as footage and scenes, she reasons she should get used to it fast. Soon she'll be a part of the show too, and her life will be nothing more than snapshots stitched together for the purpose of entertainment. Nia suddenly stands by her, surveying the control room like a Queen would survey her land from her castle's highest tower.  

"Believe me, the novelty of working behind-the-scenes wears off quickly. These people aren’t different from you. All they want is to get the job done so that they may go home to their families. Surely you understand that."

Lexa looks at Clarke again, her body in a medium shot as she walks her pet with no worry in the world. In a month things will change for her. For both of them. Lexa takes a deep breath and nods, knowing exactly what she would sacrifice for her family’s sake.

#this is not a fic #i know i'm behind on updates #i'm just dumping my docs #😬 #the more i think about the truman show the more fucked up it is #anyway i think they would've expanded with more people to follow #and the public can pick and choose the stories when there's a lull in one #some dystopia fuckery #obviously lexa falls for clarke #w

[supremeprince-bensolo]

The Rise of Skywalker thoughts/review

I’ve now had two weeks to process my thoughts on the movie. Immediately after, I was actually feeling quite okay (but mostly sad due to the fate of my favourite character). But I didn’t hate the movie, I actually loved most of it after the first initial viewing. I went with my family who are casual fans. My dad said it’s his favourite SW movie, my mum loved it too, and my brother thought it was a satisfying ending to the saga. My feelings were a lot more complicated. There were things I loved, but also things I absolutely hated and thought should have been done differently.

First off, I had a bit of a memorable experience at the cinema. The projector stopped working twice (only in Australia will the temperature cause the projectors to malfunction!). But it meant they rewound the film a little so I got to see the scene where Rey shoots lightning to take the transport ship down (and Kylo strutting up looking like a prince) and Dark Rey/Kylo showing up on the Death Star twice. So, thankfully they stopped during Reylo scenes so I got to see them again (but if only it had stopped right after the kiss and they couldn’t get the projector working again…).

I was actually looking forward to Palpatine being back. He is the ultimate evil and the person who seduced Anakin to the Dark Side which started this whole saga. I could buy that he was behind everything. And as much as I’d hoped to find out how he survived, it didn’t bother me too much that they didn’t tell us. The Sith use the Force in very unnatural ways so it doesn’t surprise me that he somehow managed to cheat death.

“I have been every voice (Palpatine), you have ever heard (Snoke), inside your head (Vader).” The entire time it was Palpatine. It was him pulling the strings, wanting revenge on Vader by ruining the Skywalker legacy and grooming Ben into becoming a stronger and more loyal Vader. He made Snoke, literally (the jar full of Snoke clones was creepy). Kylo believed he was talking to his grandfather when he talked to the Vader mask, but it was really Palpatine feeding him lies and manipulating him. This entire sequence was unsettling and really worked for me.

‘The dead speak!’ In theory, Palpatine’s return could have worked very well. But it’s between movies that it all happens. There is a lot of exposition in the opening crawl, perhaps a bit too much. It was overwhelming. There was no build up, he’s just back and no one questions it and we’re straight into the action.

And also Kylo finding out that it was Palpatine who had been this voice in his head, that should have had huge ramifications. He should have had an identity crisis and started questioning everything. But there wasn’t time, there was too much plot to get through, no time to sit with a huge reveal like this I guess.

I was actually very surprised how well all the Leia scenes fit in. I can only imagine how limiting it must have been with only old footage from TFA, but considering the circumstances I think they did a good job. Having her training Rey and the reveal that Luke had actually trained her to become a Jedi, and she even made her own lightsaber. I did enjoy that. And it was very impactful to have her final word be ‘Ben’.

I hate that Rose was completely sidelined. She had one minute of screen time and had absolutely nothing to do. She was a important character in TLJ and this movie completely ignored her. She literally saved Finn’s life in the last movie and he didn’t even acknowledge her.

I enjoyed the trio adventure! It was just a lot of fun! Great to see Rey and Finn together again. And I loved how Rey and Poe were constantly at odds with each other couldn’t stop arguing. I love how they disagreed on everything. It made for a fun ride. Fun, but ultimately devoid of any real depth.

I didn’t like the whole thing of Finn constantly wanting to tell Rey something. He loves her? He’s Force sensitive? Who knows because we never find out. Poe was looking jealous (because he thought he loved Rey?). And Finn completely ignored Rose (which was awful). And Jannah being yet another love interest for him? I wasn’t a fan of any of that at all.

I actually like the idea of Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter. I would much prefer her to be a nobody, but I do like the concept of her being a Palpatine. In theory, it is the basis for a great story. Vader’s grandson and Palpatine’s granddaughter falling in love and bringing balance to the Force. It could have been great. All the set up was there for it to be a compelling story that tied everything together. But the way the movie dealt with it was a letdown.

So I guess they didn’t completely retcon Rey’s parents reveal from TLJ. Her parents were nobodies, but by choice. To protect her. So… they sold her for drinking money to protect her? They apparently cared about her yet they left her with Unkar Plutt?

What didn’t work about Rey being a Palpatine is that it was essentially to explain that she’s only this powerful because of her bloodline. But what that does is undermine her. Why can’t she just be powerful on her own? I guess it also gave her a reason to want revenge on Palpatine, but that should have been Ben. You know, the actual descendant of the bloodline that he tried to corrupt.

The MacGuffins. The cave where they encounter an injured snake which Rey heals by passing on some of her life force to it, showing off her healing abilities which come into play later. Conveniently finding the Sith relics and an abandoned ship where Rey’s parents were killed. The dagger, which is map to the Wayfinder on the wreckage of the second Death Star. And it’s also the dagger that was used to kill her parents. The Wayfinder which leads them directly to Exegol. All these things that are necessary to get from point A to point B in order to further the plot. But there were just so many of them.

And all the fake out deaths. We thought Chewie died, but he didn’t. C-3PO’s memory was wiped, but R2-D2 restored it. Zorii Bliss may have been on Kimiji when it was destroyed, but she wasn’t. Either kill them or don’t. It just felt like there were no stakes because they weren’t bold enough to actually kill anyone.

All the Force Bond scenes were great! Kylo sensing where Rey is and SNATCHING THE NECKLACE!! First time they’ve connected in this movie, and possibly the first time in months?? There was a lot of tension between them. It showed how much stronger their bond has gotten. This is a long way from touching hands. The lightsaber battle through the bond in Kylo’s chambers causing damage to each others surroundings. Loved that!

Basically all the Rey/Kylo scenes were great! But the one thing I couldn’t believe that these two idiots were still so at arms with each other. I know they felt rejected from everything that went down in TLJ, but really Rey? She didn’t seem like herself. I guess this was to show us her dark side and the extent of her power. I LOVED Kylo strutting over to her on Pasaana like the prince he is. She was obviously a little impressed (and relieved!) that he managed to survive her little backflip/slice trick. The tug of war over the transport ship, neither could overpower the other because they are equals. And then Rey shoots FORCE LIGHTING OUT OF HER HANDS and he just looks on in awe at her. She can’t believe what she just did, and damn, just imagine how amazing would it have been if she’d accidentally killed her parents by bringing their ship crashing down. She looked absolutely traumatised by what she did to that transport ship. Missed opportunity.

Kylo repairing his mask did mostly work for me. I love the symbolism of it. He destroyed it in the last movie so he couldn’t hide anymore, but now he decided he did want to hide again. The obvious red cracks in the repaired mask representing how torn he is inside, and if there are cracks it means the light can still get in. I did like that. But I do feel like they just repaired it cause it looked cool and not for the symbolism but I’ll take what I can get.

Crushing the Wayfinder in his massive hand was something. The power he has. The lightsaber duel on the Death Star wreckage was EPIC! With the waves plummeting around them. Very visually stunning. And as always, Rey is the one who is angry. Kylo blocks her attacks and defends himself, but he never makes the first move. He wants Rey to join him. He wants them to team up and defeat Palpatine together. He wants her to take his hand and and he knows she will one day.

The death of Kylo Ren. His mothers voice distracts him, Leia uses the remainder of her life force in the hopes of bringing him back. All she wanted was for him to come home. That’s all she ever wanted.

“I did want to take your hand. Ben’s hand.” After Rey stabs him, symbolically killing the Kylo Ren persona, she heals him. This moment was so sweet, and emotional. After everything, I’m sure he doesn’t feel that he deserves to be healed. He looks on at her in awe, the only person who has ever showed him this kind of care and compassion. She looks so sad and regretful of what she did. And his scar is also healed.

That moment is important because that is when he realises he wants to come back. He does want to become Ben again. After trying so hard to kill that identity, the realisation that the woman he loves wants to be with Ben, not Kylo, is the motivation he needs. It’s love that brings him back. Love from from his mother and the love he has for Rey. Kylo Ren is dead. Ben Solo is reborn. I LOVED that moment.

I also loved when Han shows up to Ben. He shows up as a memory (I assume it was only a memory although it’s not entirely clear). Han tells him to come home, but Ben says he can’t. Leia is gone, but Han points out that her cause isn’t. He can go to the Resistance. He can still choose to do the right thing.

“I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it.” He has the chance to replay this moment in his mind, and this time, he does what he wishes he had done back then. Instead of killing his father, he throws his lightsaber away, completely shunning the identity of Kylo Ren and chooses to be Ben Solo. He calls him ‘Dad’, and the way he said it is so fragile and so broken. And then his father puts his hand on his cheek, where his scar used to be. I loved that scene. It hit all the right emotional beats and was a huge turning point for Ben.

Hux being the spy was hilarious! I couldn’t help but laugh. We all suspected he’d try to overthrow Kylo, but this was just ridiculous. His character turned into a joke and then he was killed and the new officer took over just like that. What a waste.

Force Ghost Luke appearing to Rey. And only to her. After TLJ I thought he’d be haunting Ben, his nephew, and try to knock some sense into him. But he only appeared to Rey to give her Leia’s lightsaber and his old X-Wing. Oh, and he and Leia knew that she was Palpatine’s granddaughter and yet they helped her anyway. I’m sorry, they helped this evil’s offspring and completely neglected their own blood?? And Leia gave up becoming a Jedi after foreseeing Ben’s death at the end of her training. If she was scared of him dying she should have actually tried to help him, instead of neglecting him and sending him away. They all failed Ben and it just hurts.

“It’s not a navy, sir. It’s just people.” When everything seemed hopeless all these ships suddenly appear at lightspeed. But these aren’t armies, it’s the people. They were never alone in the fight. They never were. Good people of the galaxy came to help them fight. I loved that moment!

THE RETURN OF BEN SOLO!! He was wearing this crew neck sweater (which even has a hole in it! Adorable!). That little ‘ow’ when he lands on the structure (his final word, sob). The moment when Rey senses him close and their bond opens up. They relief on her face at seeing that someone came back for her. The look in her eyes and the blue illuminating her face. That was amazing!! And then passing the legacy lightsaber behind her and BEN TAKES IT and does this Han Solo shrug and obliterates the Knights of Ren!! The power of their bond. That moment was INCREDIBLE!!

Palpatine wants Rey to kill him so his spirit can be transferred into her and she can ascend as Empress. So lets get this straight, he wanted to kill her as a child, and he wanted Kylo to kill her, but now he wants her alive and wants her to kill him so she can take his power? What was his plan? I don’t even know. I was very unclear by what he was trying to do.

“The life force of your bond…a dyad in the Force. A power like life itself. Unseen for generations.” As Rey and Ben stand together with the lightsabers ignited, Palpatine senses their bond. They are a ‘Dyad in the Force’. Essentially, they are two halves of one soul. They explicitly give an explanation as to why they are so deeply connected to each other.

When Palpatine throws Ben down the pit, not gonna lie I was worried. The last Skywalker, gone. Rey hearing all the voices of the fallen Jedi was a powerful moment. Anakin, Luke, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu among others. With their help, she single handedly defeats Palpatine. But after they blatantly told us that Ben and Rey’s power combined is a power like life itself, they should have defeated him together. She shouldn’t have been able to defeat him alone. And after everything that Palpatine has done to the Skywalker’s, Ben should have been a part of his downfall.

And do not even get me started on the fact that the voices only came to Rey. They completely forgot about Ben who was down in the pit. He had to pull himself out and he manages to crawl over to Rey and cradles her in his arms. And he looks around for help, for anyone to help, but he’s all alone.

He uses his life force to revive her, because he can’t bear the thought of her dying. When she takes his hand, I swear my heart almost stopped. She takes Ben’s hand. She’s stunned, like she’s waking up from a nightmare, and then her face softens into a smile when she sees him. When she sees Ben. This was who she wanted all along. And the kiss WAS EVERYTHING!! She kisses him, and he kisses her back so desperately. And BEN’S SMILE!!! That lit up my entire world. He felt loved. He’d found his belonging. For a fleeting moment he was happy…

And then he falls and dies. But this whole scene was incredibly moving. He gave his life for her. He succeeded where Anakin failed and saved the woman he loved. He made the ultimate sacrifice. But it was cruel to have him finally find peace, to finally be on the path to a better life, and then take it all away. Ben never had the chance to really live. And now he never will. He chose to come back. He did the right thing, and he should have had the chance to keep making good choices. But instead they took the easy way out and killed him.

After all the fake out deaths I was waiting for him to show up at the end very much alive. But there was nothing. Rey didn’t mourn him. She didn’t tell anyone what he did. He didn’t come back as a Force Ghost. He was just forgotten. He was neglected, as he had been his entire life.

Rey’s new lightsaber. The hilt looks to be made of her staff and the blade is yellow. Neither light nor dark. It signifies that she’s found balance. I liked that.

Rey Skywalker. I get the whole sentiment of rejecting your bloodline and choosing your own family, but in a saga that has been about this one family to kill them all off and then have someone else take over their name? It’s insulting. The Skywalker family were all defeated. How is this a satisfying end to their story? And if anything, she should be a Solo, not a Skywalker. Or better yet, just Rey. Why does she even need a last name? Why can’t she just be Rey?

And she ended up alone on a desert planet, which is exactly where she began. She ended up in the same place she started. Except now she’s been on this adventure and she did find her belonging. But it was all taken away and now half her soul is dead.

So, I certainly have a lot of issues with this film but I didn’t hate it completely. There was a lot I loved. But it seems that they cared more about the spectacle and nostalgia rather than writing a cohesive conclusion to the saga. The seeds were all planted for them to nail the ending, but they didn’t. This movie was one big action packed mess with no clear vision.

This was supposed to be a fairytale but it ended in tragedy. How the hell is this satisfying? I do not understand. The last Skywalker died. Rey ended up alone with half her soul dead. This was not a happy and hopeful ending. This is not the ending the Skywalker Saga deserved.

#reylo #ben solo deserved better #save ben solo #tros spoilers #the rise of skywalker spoilers #sw spoilers #tros review #long post #mytxt

[demigodofhoolemere]

Saw The Rise of Skywalker last night. I went in totally expecting to hate it because that tends to be the way with my favorite franchises these days and I’d heard about how bad everyone seemed to think it is. No one is more surprised than me, but... I really liked it?? I do understand why others don’t, plenty of the content is pretty subjective in terms of the tastes of individuals. But I really didn’t have all of the problems I thought I was gonna have.

Plenty of spoilers below.

~~~

Negative:

- I can really only think of one huge negative which is just knowing behind the scenes info, assuming this redditor’s source is telling the truth (looks credible to me and we already know that things have been disastrous behind the scenes of the sequel films in general so I really have no trouble believing this): https://www.reddit.com/r/saltierthancrait/comments/eisnd8/heres_what_ive_been_told_from_a_source_that/ . In which case my biggest problem is how severely Disney/Lucasfilm screwed JJ and the cast over and altered what they’d made. From the perspective of ‘this isn’t what we created anymore’, if I were among them I’d be ticked, too, and I am ticked on their behalves. I do want to see the un-altered, complete version that they did and even though I enjoyed the movie as is, I would probably enjoy that version even more because it sounds like important emotional stuff got shelved, and it didn’t deserve to be (Finn being force sensitive, dang it!). There were a couple of things that made less sense because of the way it got pared down (like the fact that Han’s appearance was apparently Leia manifesting him to Ben and that’s what sapped her strength so badly - that wasn’t made clear at all to me) and I’d love to see what it was like before it got messed with. But this knowledge is really my biggest problem. If I’d never seen this, I wouldn’t have anything truly bad to say about the released product.

Iffy:

- Re: Leia, without it being made totally clear what was happening, I thought they were repeating Padmé’s ‘lost the will to live’ send-off. It’s not something that particularly bothers me about RotS, Padmé did just have the stress of pushing two human beings out of her body all while living with the stress of her husband falling to the dark side and all of the Jedi are being murdered and the list of awfulness goes on, so even though she definitely has her kids to live for, I also know that she was undergoing unimaginable agony both physically and emotionally, and you CAN die from your body physically giving out and from broken heartstrings, so I don’t think that was stupid the way others seem to. But they needed to make what happened to Leia clearer, because I thought they were reusing that, and *that* I did think was weird, and kind of a cheap way to take her out of the picture. Not that Leia hasn’t been through hell enough for broken heartstrings, and losing her son on top of having lost her husband and brother could certainly do it, but because the movie didn’t give any further context for what was happening and what she was doing, it just looked like she passed out and then the next time we see her she’s covered with a sheet and I’m like, “Wait, that’s it?” So I do wish we’d gotten a little more in the way of explaining that sequence, so that Leia didn’t die from just passing out. That didn’t feel completely right to me. I much prefer the idea of her using up her strength to save her son.

- Leia dying at all. I get why, but... owie.

- Shortchanging Rose. I don’t feel terribly strongly about her but in any case it’s not fair to her and especially not to Kelly.

- Very convenient dagger rofl.

- The Palpatine stuff was very sudden. No prior hints anywhere. I don’t know if it’s something they decided late in the game, or if they were going to allude to it but felt TFA was too early and would have in TLJ if Rian hadn’t had such full control over doing whatever he wanted, but whatever the story there is, it felt very out of nowhere. We’re supposed to suddenly accept that Palpatine survived the fall down the shaft and has been living on life support in a cave making creepy clone Snokes. And like... it seems like the sort of crap he’d pull, so I can buy it and I’m not really too bothered, but wow. I can also get behind Rey being his granddaughter, I thought they dealt with that very well and I surprisingly enjoyed it, but again, it’s very sudden, and also because of the implications of that I have to live with the mental image of Palpatine getting it on with someone and for that alone I could have added another to the ‘negative’ list.

- So... Reylo. I constantly have mixed feelings about Reylo. I’ve very much enjoyed their force bond (one of the only things I did like in TLJ), I love the focus on redemption and good winning out, their dynamic is very interesting and I can see the allure of pairing them because of the balance of light and dark, they just have a fascinating thing going on. But I also can’t help but think about him having tortured her in TFA, and as much as I’m here for redemption and I love Rey’s heart I still think it’s weird how TLJ is like three days later at best yet she’s so ready to look past what he did to her, what he did to Han, and to plenty of other people, and those things still really aren’t acknowledged. We can have redemption without having amnesia lol, especially when those are the things he needs to redeem himself of. By all means, redeem him, I love a good redemption and I’ve found myself far more attached to his character than I would have ever expected, but don’t have Rey immediately ignore the past to do it, and... I don’t know how to feel about that kiss. Part of me liked it (especially his sweet genuine smile), but part of me still kind of goes, ‘Wait... no. Didn’t want this. Not like this.’ It’s not the affection that bothers me at all, but the fact that it’s romantic affection. I love the dynamic that’s been built between them but considering their history I’d prefer that they actually get some footing as proper friends (whether that be before anything else happens, or it just stays that way). Way too sudden for anything romantic. And really I just wish this trilogy hadn’t attempted any new romances at all, because I feel like things would be more meaningful if they were all left to be platonic friendships. There really wasn’t room for couplings in this trilogy and it sours things a bit for me that they tried to fit them in anyway. So tl;dr, I very much enjoy Rey and Ben as a dynamic but I’m more here for a platonic Reylo.

- I get the poignancy of having him use his life force to save her, I understand killing him off, but for ONCE can I have a redeemed character continue to live their new life and figure out how to navigate that? It also makes better sense to have characters like Ben try to pay for their past while they’re still, idk, alive and have the chance to do more. For once. Please. I’m not mad that they did this but I’m tired of redemption=death.

Positive:

- Pretty much everything else. I can’t believe how much I actually liked this movie.

- LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN LANDO CALRISSIAN

- FORCE GHOSTS!!!!! ANAKIN. OBI-WAN. AHSOKA. ALL OF MY FAVORITE JEDI FOLKS. LIGHTS OF MY LIFE. I’VE BEEN WANTING TO SEE THEM THIS ENTIRE TRILOGY AND I FINALLY HAVE THEM EVEN IF THEY’RE JUST VOICES. NEW HAYDEN-AS-ANAKIN CONTENT. I’M OVER THE MOON. Ahsoka must be dead then but I’m overlooking this.

- Whatever the heck they did to use the deleted Carrie Fisher footage to give us more Leia in such a seamless way... hats off.

- Seeing the sequel trio actually all be together and working as a trio. I can finally feel like they’re actually a unit.

- That hug between the three of them at the end, my heart.

- I really do adore Rey. She has such a good heart. Seeing her fight against her ancestry and adamantly trying to be a force for good makes me happy, I love that she believes so strongly in redemption despite her anger, and I love that they still keep character details like her brilliance with mechanics and the way she’ll use scrap to slide down sand hills. I’m so proud of her progress with using the force. Rey is precious and I love her.

- Ugh I love Finn, too. He has a strong spirit and he’s come so far. I love that they delved (or tried to delve) into him being force sensitive as well, and that he has such belief in it now. It made me so happy to see other former Stormtroopers who couldn’t live that life and that Finn can have those people to relate to. Can’t say enough good things about Finn. Very proud of him.

- Interesting learning more of Poe’s past, and I enjoyed getting to watch him try to be a leader in Leia’s absence and feeling like a failure, since I felt he was the least developed of the trio up to this point so I’m happy I have more to go on. He felt a lot more fleshed out in this one and I really appreciated it. I’m glad to be able to say that I genuinely love all of the new trio now, because it used to be that I casually liked them but couldn’t connect. Although I connected to Poe’s love for BB-8 from the start and that’s still going strong. Only he and Anakin have ever truly understood my droid love.

- Always a sucker for redemption arcs. I never used to have many feelings about Ben one way or another, I didn’t feel there was anything in TFA to make me like or dislike him from the get-go because it was too soon to say, but TLJ (for all my issues with it) made me care more about what happened to him, and now this movie got me super invested. Did not see this coming. I’m glad I was able to like him and be emotional about his conflict and his ending.

- Already covered this but I really like Rey and Ben’s dynamic. I loved seeing them use their force bond to their advantage and work so well as a team. And I love that her healing his wound also healed his scar, symbolically healing him of Kylo Ren. GAH.

- Han!!! Just Han.

- CHEWBACCA GETTING A MEDAL. Both incredibly emotional because that’s probably Han’s medal and incredibly satisfying because darn right he deserves a medal! In your face, ceremony scene from A New Hope! Now give them to the droids and I’ll be appeased.

- Chewbacca just generally destroying me. His wailing hurt me even more than Leia’s passing itself did. Did not need that but also thank you. (Why am I such a masochist?)

- C3PO taking one last look at his friends 😭 I cannot tell you how relieved I was that R2 really did have his memory backups, because I was fully prepared to put “C3PO losing his memories!!! 😡” under the negative column. Thank goodness for droid friendship.

- Speaking of droids, new droid! D-O really had little purpose for being there but I’m a sucker for a new cute droid to love so I’m all for him. Bring on all of the new cute droids!

- Really liked that planet with the festival. So many cute baby creatures and I loved the subtle Easter egg of 42 years referencing the original release in 1977.

- Rey healing the snake thing! I’m all for NOT shooting or killing Star Wars creatures, there’s too much of it and it makes me sad (R.I.P. Rancor, so sorry Rancor handler. And I’ve never gotten over Ratts Tyrell and his crying family and I never will. Stop killing Star Wars creatures 2k20). Rey gets me.

- Liked the new characters. Zorri was interesting and Jannah made me emotional.

- With the context of Jannah having been meant to be Lando’s daughter, the scene she has with him in the end has even more to it than on the surface (not that either of them would know, but still), but I really do just appreciate Lando reaching out to a stranger to help her uncover her past and recover her life. Sweetheart.

- I loved that Hux was the spy, and not because he cares one wit about the rebellion but just because he really hates Ben. Talk about petty.

- The fact that Palpatine was behind every voice Ben has ever heard means that he manipulated him his whole life just like he manipulated Anakin and now I hate his guts all over again for the same darn thing. Incredibly satisfying to watch him shrivel away. Screw you Palpatine.

- LUKE AND LEIA FLASHBACK. LEIA TRAINING IN THE FORCE AND OWNING A LIGHTSABER. FINALLY.

- Briefly seeing other old characters like Nien Nunb and Wedge Antilles. That kind of thing just makes my day. Also pretty sure I saw Naboo ships in that enormous fleet and I know I’m never getting Padmé back in any shape or form so I’ll take it.

- Seeing Luke’s old home wrecked me. Seeing the binary sunset wrecked me. Luke and Leia’s force Ghosts wrecked me. Rey calling herself a Skywalker wrecked me. That ending wrecked me.

I think I covered most of it which leads me to my verdict:

I understand why this isn’t popular with everybody. A lot of it is completely dependent on personal taste. Luckily for me it actually was very largely to my taste, somehow, which I never would have seen coming because I’m usually so frustrated with recent things in the big franchises like this, and after TLJ I had no trust. But I was pleasantly surprised and actually pretty satisfied. They hit a lot of nostalgia buttons for me, made me care a lot more about the new characters, made me cry a ton, and generally delivered something I could be pleased with. Don’t know how it happened but I really liked this movie and no matter what people feel about it I don’t think it deserves the sheer vitriol it’s received (there’s criticism and then there’s yikes). I thought it was a pretty good movie and I’d watch it again willingly.

#star wars #the rise of skywalker #spoilers #tros spoilers #sw spoilers #sw: sequels #review

[jackiestarsister]

My thoughts on “The Rise of Skywalker”

I just saw The Rise of Skywalker with my friend @ewoking-on-sunshine. I’m still processing it, but I have many thoughts. Spoilers below the cut.

It’s not a perfect movie. But I enjoyed it and am, for the most part, satisfied. All I wanted was for it to be enjoyable and make sense and bring some resolution to the story. I think it succeeded overall.

I feel like I can’t complain too much, because the biggest things I wanted to happen did happen: we got Ben’s redemption, a freaking Reylo kiss, and Ben smiling. We even got beautiful things I wasn’t expecting, like Han’s scene, and the revelation that Leia trained as a Jedi for a time. I think it can stand on its own as a story in itself, though The Last Jedi may remain my favorite installment as far as story craft.

Here are my miscellaneous thoughts and opinions:

~ Much of it feels like fan fiction. Whether that is good or bad, I’m not sure. It could just be that the fans were particularly good at predicting possible developments and the general direction of the story.

~ Nothing was revealed about Kylo’s style/method of governing, or whether he did anything to expand the First Order’s power as Rey predicted they would do in TLJ

~ Palpatine’s return could have been set up better

~ The symbolism and significance of Kylo killing his abuser is changed, if not completely ruined, since Snoke was Palpatine’s puppet, and Kylo seems to enter Palpatine’s service after learning that he was the one who manipulated him throughout his life. Maybe Kylo thought if he refused he wouldn’t be able to get away alive?

~ Palpatine’s plans are as confusing as ever. Just how much he controlled, what he was aware of, and what his true intentions were is unclear. In particular,  I’m confused about the fact that Palpatine made Snoke, who seemed ignorant of Rey’s origins and told Kylo to kill her, and the fact that Palpatine told Kylo to kill Rey when it turned out he wanted her to come and kill him. Were Snoke and/or Palpatine using reverse psychology in giving Kylo those orders?

~ Palpatine probably had the means to prolong and/or restore Padme’s life the whole time Vader was trying to find a way to do so

~  It is unclear whether Rey ever told anyone about her bond with Kylo or how he killed Snoke (which is pretty relevant information for the Resistance).

~  It’s unclear whether Rey and Kyko have seen or felt each other through the Force at all in the past year. Each movie shows several Force bond connections in a short period of time (one or two days each), and that would add up to a lot in a year, so I’m guessing they didn’t have any for that interim. It seems that although Rey closed the door, Kylo opens it. I don’t really like what that implies.

~ The beginning revealed so much and moved from one set of characters to another so quickly that I wondered whether the story was going to continue following the hero/heroine’s journey(s). Eventually it did, but it felt like the strangest beginning for a Star Wars movie, especially compared to the brilliant opening sequence of The Force Awakens.

~ Rey and Poe’s bickering was fun to watch

~ They did pretty well using those bits of Carrie Fisher footage and making Leia’s death play a role in the story. I’m sure if Fisher were still alive they would have had more justice for Leia.

~ I wish Rose had played a bigger part in the story, and that her relationships with other characters had been clarified and explored more.

~ I wish Ben had interacted with other members of the Resistance. He and Finn had so many parallels in their arcs, and the two of them actually had a couple scenes together, but they were always distant, with Finn watching as Rey interacted with Ben.

~ What was Finn going to tell Rey? What was their relationship about when it came down to it? They had such a wonderful dynamic and intertwined arcs in The Force Awakens, but in this installment it felt like they were running parallel to each other.

~ Giving Poe a shady past as a spice smuggler contradicts his canon backstory revealed in Before the Awakening by Greg Rucka.

~ Hux’s death was disappointingly anticlimactic. Seemed like a waste of his character. I’m not sure how I feel about the twist of him being the spy. He seemed so much less the crazed man who fired Starkiller or the calculating menace who considered killing an unconscious Kylo. Before TROS, Hux’s motivations seemed more political and ideological, a contrast to Kylo’s motives which seemed personal.

~ In what capacity did Pryce serve Palpatine in the previous war?

~ The fact that Rey is a Palpatine raises all kinds of questions about her family. There could be a whole trilogy about what kind of relationship Sheev and his child had. I wonder if the mother of his child was Mara Jade or someone like her who worked closely with him. But the mention of cloning and other strange techniques for making or passing on life makes me wonder if his child was even “natural” or somehow made.

~ Rey’s Dark Side heritage makes her affinity with the light side even more ironic and miraculous. Or maybe the irony is that someone as dark as Palpatine could come from such an idyllic utopia as Naboo. Maybe they are trying to show that it is our choices, not our origins, that define us.

~ The fact that Rey is descended from a powerful established character takes away from the idea that Rey represented for me and many others, that a great person can come from humble, unimportant origins.

~ Finn’s arc was opposite of predicted stormtrooper rebellion. The stormtrooper paradox still holds.

~ The hunt for Sith clues doesn’t make sense. It makes even less sense than the search for Luke in TFA, which was full of holes and unexplained coincidences.

~ The way Ben stands on the Death Star looking out at the horizon was 100% Byronic hero, but also similar to Luke’s posture when looking at the Tatooine suns.

~ Seeing Kylo talking to Han and Rey talking to Luke underscored how Kylo and Rey are co-protagonists.

~ How long did Ben stay at the Death Star ruins contemplating his and Rey’s situation? Apparently long enough for Rey to go to Ahch-To, talk to Luke, and go to Exegol, because he arrives there later than her. Time and distance in these movies have never made much sense, but I wonder if there might be some deleted scenes involving Kylo at this point. Did he realize he had lost control of the First Order? Did he ever think about ordering them not to follow Palpatine?

~ Regarding minor pilot characters: Happy to see Wedge Antilles back, sad to see Snap Wexley die.

~ Poe could have had better resolution for his arc as an emerging leader

~ Finn tries once again to sacrifice himself despite what Rose said to him after he tried to do that in TLJ. (While I don’t think it was necessary, Ben’s death was in keeping with her words because he died to save what he loved.)

~ We finally got a Reylo music theme! If I’m not mistaken, it had the Force theme sort of underlying it but there were other things going on too. I look forward to hearing the What the Force podcast’s discussion on this.

~ Rose was right that they would win by “Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love.” Rey refused to even hate Palpatine. Ben came to save Rey and that enabled her to save everyone else.

~ My favorite moments of each sequel involve Rey, Ben, and a light saber passing between them.

~ Everything that was said to Rey and Ben about home, family, coming home, coming back ... it was all leading up to their teaming up. Palpatine was wrong when he said he was Rey’s only family. Ben became her family, and that was part of the reason why she took his family name. Whoever wrote the caption “The belonging you seek is in Ben Solo’s arms” was right.

~ We still don’t know what, if any, ideology Ben held, how he felt about political power and different forms of government. That pretty much reinforces my belief that for him this has never been about politics, it’s all been personal for him.

~  Ben’s death is problematic if he is supposed to represent people who have been abused and made poor life choices. It’s a beautiful sacrifice, but did Rey really have to die and necessitate it? She could have been mortally wounded, and he could have healed her without dying himself.

~ If passing his life force to Rey cost his life, Ben should have died before Rey kissed him.

~ Ben’s death is tragic, but not technically a tragedy in the literary sense, because it’s not about learning how to avoid making mistakes like his. For all his faults (narcissism, anger that manifests in violence), Ben didn’t have a particular fatal flaw. He fell because he was a victim of circumstances and forces beyond his control. He died saving the woman he loved, which sounds like a good thing.

~ I’m surprised the Lars homestead was still standing after it seemed to have burned to ash in A New Hope, and I find it difficult to believe that on a planet like Tatooine someone else would not have claimed it.

~ The title refers to both Ben and Rey, since Rey becomes a Skywalker

~ From a certain point of view, Reylos and Rey Skywalkers were both right, and both wrong.

~ Why didn’t Ben become a Force ghost like Luke and Leia? Can he become one in the future? I find the matter of whether a Jedi/Force-user leaves behind their physical body or fades away to become one with the Force, and whether they become capable of manifesting as a ghost, sketchy and inconsistent.

~ What is Rey going to do now? Was she moving into the Lars homestead? Will she raise a family of her own? I think it unlikely that she would fall in love with anyone as deeply as she did with Kylo, and I think she might be hesitant to have biological children who would inherit her (Palpatine) Force abilities, but I can picture her adopting and/or mentoring children.

~ The theme of IX seems to be “You’re not alone,” the way 8’s was “Failure is the greatest teacher.” It is the lesson Rey, Finn, Poe, and Ben each learn. But in the end Rey does seem alone.

~ Rey’s greatest fears were being alone and being insignificant. Is the takeaway supposed to be that she is okay with being alone? That would go against the movie’s overarching theme. Similarly, Star Wars is about family, and while that theme definitely comes through, it would have been so well punctuated if the story ended with the main characters starting families.

~ Nothing was resolved regarding the government(s) of the galaxy. Is it in a state of anarchy now? Were they able to learn from the mistakes of the past two republics?

~ Did Rey, Ben, the Jedi, and/or the Resistance bring balance to the Force? Is the corresponding rise and fall of the light and dark finally over? Will this peace last? Will Rey be the last Jedi or will she pass on their legacy?

~ What was the point of this trilogy as a whole? What message are we supposed to take away from it? Is it still a Prodigal Son type of story?

Now I’m going to spend time thinking about how this will impact my fan fiction and my essays on the Christian themes of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. I will look forward to reading the (apparently expanded edition) novelization and having good quality screenshots and one more Shakespearean parody by Ian Doescher.

#The Rise of Skywalker spoilers

[youremyonlyhope]

The Force Awakens

Almost 4 years ago, I started my Star Wars rewatch by watching the original series in preparation to watch the Force Awakens. Then I rewatched the prequels before The Last Jedi. And now I’m seeing Rise of Skywalker on Sunday, so it’s time to rewatch the 2 other sequels.

I’ve rewatched the Force Awakens a couple of times since I first saw it, so it should still be fresh in my mind. As for the Last Jedi, I have not been able to bring myself to watch that one because of the ending. Not because I hated it, I loved it, but because it hurts.

Also, this gives me a distraction so I don’t get spoiled for Rise of Skywalker. Again. Can’t believe I’ve been spoiled twice already in just 2 days... luckily it was the same spoiler twice. One that was vague and I hoped it wasn’t right, but then the other one was a gif of the scene so now I know it’s true. Ugh...

This is super long and I apologize in advance.

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...” I didn’t see the Force Awakens in theaters. I saw it at home nearly a year later (after getting spoiled for all major plot points during that year). So I can’t IMAGINE the pure joy that people felt when they got to see the opening title crawl for the first time in 10 years. I wish I had seen it in theaters. Ok. I don’t like that I can’t pause Disney+ with the spacebar like other streaming sites let me... or maybe it’s just my computer. ANYWAY. I forgot that the opening crawl literally says “Skywalker, the last Jedi” in it, accidentally telling us the title of the next movie. Yeah so I can already tell I’ll be pausing every like 2 seconds. But I love this opening shot of a ship blocking out a MOON. Oh and NOW the spacebar works to pause. One of those stormtroopers is Finn. Awww. BB8! I didn’t realize he’s (they’re?) the first character we see (that we know is an important character since at this point we don’t really know which stormtrooper is Finn). Poe! Giving a message to a droid... so I know we like to think of Poe as the Han of the sequel trio... but honestly he’s the Leia. Yeah I mean... a friend (or at least co-worker) smearing their blood on your face with their hand as they die is definitely traumatizing enough to make you rethink your life. Finn, I don’t blame you. I started this scene like “Oh we’re gonna get the Knights of Ren and Kylo freezing the blaster ray using the Force” then I got so into the scene that I forgot Kylo was going to show up at all.

It’s not a Star Wars rewatch if my grandma doesn’t call and interrupt at least once. This time it was right as Kylo came out of the ship.

Kylo’s powerful. I’ll give him that. Holding that blaster ray for as long as he's about to. I love Poe looking back at it. Poe’s first lines to Kylo are joking about who gets to talk first, when Kylo’s literally still holding a blaster ray in midair and knows Poe has the map he wants. And people say “General Hugs” during a battle was out of character. GENERAL PHASMA! GWENDOLINE MY QUEEN! Poor baby Finn. [BB8 moans softly] BB8 NO DON’T CRY. Oh poor Finn. But yay first time we see his face! It just hit me that now I’m the same age/older than John and Daisy when they filmed this... great.... AND REY! I remember when we first saw footage of her climbing around, I said to my dad “I think that’s supposed to be Han and Leia’s daughter.” So far I’m wrong. I’ve been holding out hope for years that maybe just maybe there will be a twist and I’m right. I’m fine with her parents being nobodies, but I kind of want to be right. I’m probably not. The scale of that ship behind her... The shot of her speeding across the desert has such... original trilogy vibes. It never registered to me that Rey has some wilting flowers. That brings new meaning to the “so much green” scene later... Awwww the practical effect bread... Ok. I’m being nit picky, but they drained it just a split second too early. If it’d drained just a millisecond later, it would have been perfectly timed with the inflation of the bread. But that’s just me nitpicking for no reason. It’s an impressive effect. “Classified? Me too. Big secret.” LOL even at the time I knew the fandom was making a big fuss about that line for nothing. Too on the nose for it to truly be a big secret she’s keeping from the world. I figured she meant it was a big secret to her. Of course... then people got mad that they wasted their time analyzing that... it’s their own fault really. I forgot that they actually eventually get the location of the map out of Poe. Oh and hi General Hugs! “This is a rescue. I’m helping you escape.” Yep Poe is Leia. She was initially being rescued, but then ends up having to help rescue her rescuer(s) while they’re trying to rescue her. “Because it’s the right thing to do.” If Finn was raised as a stormtrooper, even just to work in sanitation, he wouldn’t necessarily have a moral compass since he wouldn’t know what’s right... at this point I think he just knows he doesn’t like killing... Like how Zuko didn’t realize he wasn’t good because he was taught something else was good. (YES. Finn is closer to Zuko) “You need a pilot” “I need a pilot” Ok see so it’s not necessarily what’s right, but he knows this is how he can get out. Sorta selfish, but not really. Oooooh yeah! It’s Thomas Brodie-Sangster! Forgot he was in this. Wilhelm Scream! Poe naming Finn. Aww. Ok see. How does Kylo know Finn’s identification? Did he ask Phasma “who was the one with the blood on his helmet?” right after they got back on the ship? Because otherwise, he’d have no way to tell them apart in that moment, I don’t think they have their names on their armor unless I never noticed, and even then Kylo would be too far away to read it. There’s a picture of little baby Finn... he was so young when the First Order took him (I assume they took him, I’d hate it if his parents sent him there) OH WOW. ANOTHER WOMAN! Oh and it’s whats-her-face, she was in Deathly Hallows Part 1. (IMDB says Kate Fleetwood) See, back in the day the Empire had no women in their ranks. This is the only thing the First Order is doing right, equal opportunity to be a space Nazi. I forgot that the wreckage gets sucked into the sand... that sucks. Here’s where Poe would have died if Oscar hadn’t been so charismatic. Also, do we ever find out how he survived this? I forgot about the explosion afterwards that just adds insult to injury. Was that necessary? Was that supposed to be funny? If it was, why are people criticizing the Last Jedi’s humor if this moment tries to make us laugh at a character dying... I hope that wasn’t meant to be funny... My poor baby... stranded on a strange desert planet... alone... with the First Order looking for him... I love this giant hippo thing. I want one.

Whiny fanboys: Rey’s a Mary Sue! She can’t know how to fight already! Rey: *Been fighting creeps at the market since she was born*

And I love how she caught Finn. Oh nooo BB8 no don’t cry! Finn, babe, why would you just tell Rey about the map!? Babe! I get that you want to seem reliable and credible, but baby! No! The way Rey was sort of horrified by Finn holding her hand... makes me really wonder what she’s been through. “Stop taking my hand!” Aww and how she offers her hand to him. “The garbage will do” Oh how I wish I hadn’t been spoiled that that was the Millennium Falcon reveal. But that line did create a meme so that’s fun. Wow the Millennium Falcon has been through a LOT. That dramatic zoom in as they fly into the ship (I’m sorry, I do not have ship names memorized) was very Torchwood. The sudden, almost shaky and unnecessary zoom. That upside down shot though. Amazing. And also terrifying. “You’re ok. He’s with the Resistance” *BB8 gives Finn a pointed look* I am DEAD. Oh and the Powerpoint style transitions between scenes. Very necessary. Vital to every Star Wars movie. Kylo. You’re like 30. You should not still have temper tantrums. Grow up. Awww BB8. The internal battle. Followed by the thumbs up. Adorable. Literally for a second I was like “How could the First Order override the controls of the Millennium - HAN!!!!” HAN AND CHEWIE!!!!! I will never forget watching the Force Awakens trailer for the first time with my dad, and nearly sobbing over “Chewie... we’re home.” Also what the hell, Chewie has been through SO MUCH and he’s STILL around! He was protecting Yoda in Revenge of the Sith! And then ends up enslaved and being fed people before Han meets him in Solo!?!?!? What?!?!?!? AND had a whole family before all of that!?!??!?!?!?

Also, watching Solo and realizing that Chewie’s been forced to eat people literally shattered my heart into a billion pieces. I wanted to cry seeing him covered in that mud and trying to kill Han.

Aww, Han and Chewie know the hiding places. I’m not even a third of the way through and I’ve written way too much.

Finn: Han Solo, the Rebellion general? Rey: No, the smuggler! Finn: Wasn’t he a war hero? Chewie: *Grunts and shrugs ‘I don’t know’*

That says so much about all of their characters. Oh god the 12 parsecs thing. I was legitimately MAD when I was watching Solo and realized that they had actually figured out a way to make the 12 parsecs thing make sense. That they actually solved and fixed George Lucas’ mistake, when he was literally just trying to find a cool word and didn’t care about the actual meaning. I am still so angry they managed to fix it in a way that made sense. I started raging once I realized that they were doing it. Awww Han in the cockpit. Ok Finn there you go again, telling everyone about the map to Luke. You’re lucky that Han’s one of the few people it’s good to tell. It could have gone so wrong with Rey. That subtle Binary Sunset piercing my heart. Hey it’s that kid from that Eaters of Light episode of Doctor Who. And when I watched that episode I was like hey it’s that kid from the Force Awakens. He looks familiar to me, but those are the only two things I’ve seen him in. “I got a bad feeling about this” He said the thing! Yeah the Rathtars are gross. Aww and he grabbed her hand again to run. I just noticed that they made the camera lens blurry on the edge, like some of the goo got on it. “That was lucky.” Rey’s so modest. I forgot that they hyperspeeded through the Rathtar... also did that happen in the original series too or am I just remembering it wrong? Anyway, Admiral Holdo did it best. 2nd mention of the last Jedi. Also, LOL remember when everyone was theorizing who Snoke was? My favorite theory was that he was Mace Windu. That was a WILD conspiracy theory. “In the hands of your father... Han Solo.” Oh the dramatic reveal. Awww BB8 running away from Chewie’s roar. Awwww the hologram game! And it’s still stop motion! “It’s true. The Force. The Jedi. All of it.” I forget what video I was watching, but they pointed out that this was Han’s arc. Learning to believe in the Force. I guess in that way, he has a satisfying ending. “I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy” I remember people saying that Han’s face is basically him thinking ‘...oh no... looks like I gotta adopt this kid.’

...It’s hitting me that we’re going to see Leia in this movie... and I’m gonna be emotional...

...AM I JUST NOW REALIZING THAT CHEWIE’S STRAP OVER HIS CHEST IS A STRAP TO A BAG? I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST TO HOLD AMMO OR SOMETHING?!?!? I’ve been a Star Wars fan for HOW many years and I’m just noticing this?!!? Also, in an alternate universe, Han survives and Rey goes off with him and Chewie and they have smuggling adventures and everyone’s happy and alive. Catina music by Lin Manuel! Yay! WOLFMAN! THEY PUT THE WOLFMAN IN THIS! WOW. Look at them shading George Lucas’s rerelease edits. ...Ok so Maz is definitely Force sensitive if she knew Han was there right away, right? Also, Maz is an example of how before Rose Tico and whoever Naomi plays in RoS (I will not google her character name because I know I will get spoiled), we very rarely see AND hear women of color, we get just one or the other. They’re either in the background with no lines or playing a character that isn’t a human if they have lines. The only exception coming to mind is the Queen of Naboo who took over after Padme, Jamillia. Ok I forgot that the lady who rats them out to the First Order actually gets a line and isn’t painted green, so good for her! I love her costume too. Too bad she’s evil.

See. We hear the breathing of Vader, because Ani is so done with his idiot grandson worshipping him that he’s sighing in defeat in the afterlife. Ani needs to Force Ghost himself over to Kylo and be like “DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT WHEN I THREW A SITH LORD DOWN A HOLE THAT IT MEANT I WAS TURNING AGAINST THE DARK SIDE? DID THAT GO OVER YOUR HEAD? DID MY ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC GO OVER YOUR HEAD??” Please, what I want most from the Rise of Skywalker (besides making sure Leia gets the proper send off she deserves) is Hayden coming back as a Force Ghost and knocking some sense into Kylo.

Oh Finn. The captions tell us who was talking during the vision... and there WAS a lot of Obi-Wan dialogue... Also poor Rey. She probably definitely remembers her parents, but just blocked it out. Now. If after the endless lines of soldiers, the podium with a giant red and black flag behind it, and the arms rising up still make the space Nazi thing go over your head... then we just can’t help you anymore. HEY! WAS THAT WHATSHERFACE?!? Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp? Was that her? Yes! IMDB says it was Hannah John-Kamen! Look at you girl! Too bad you’re evil too. Ok. I will admit that I blanked out for General Hugs’ speech because who wants to listen to a space Nazi. But, has the Star Destroyer been mentioned before this point in the movie? Because I literally can’t remember. If Hugs said it then I probably let my mind wander. Oh and I do appreciate these two dudes who were like “Yeah sure Finn, come with us, work for a bit, and we’ll help you get far away” and were going to let Finn come along with them. They seem nice. Also. Here’s the girl who’s not Freema Ageman. Not every black girl is Martha Jones. The entire internet was like “Martha was in Star Wars!” then I watched the movie and I was like “...that literally was not Freema what are you all on about?” IMDB says she’s Maisie Richardson-Sellers, she’s also in Legends of Tomorrow, which is something I do hope to watch one day. So good for her. The ion engines sounded like the TARDIS for a split second and I was VERY confused. “How did you get that?” “A good question for another time.” Ok JJ you gotta stop with all these unanswered questions that you pose. I get that that’s your thing. And that you have some term for it. But there’s too many now. This one better get answered in Rise of Skywalker. That behind the back shot though. I’m convinced Han’s Force sensitive too. Not even convinced, I think it’s canon. LOL remember when everyone named that stormtrooper who recognized Finn TR-8R.

Finn: *Manages to function using a lightsaber even though he’s only trained with blasters* Fanboys: *Silence* Rey: *Fights with a lightsaber well since she’s fought with sticks her whole life and it’s a similar concept* Fanboys: MARY SUE! SHE CAN’T BE THAT GOOD THAT FAST!

Oh my god it’s the Resistance FINALLY. POE!!!! Yes, I did just scream “Poe!!” out loud. Now, I’m not sure where these forest scenes were filmed, but if you told me the same forest where half of Merlin’s forest scenes were filmed then I would not be shocked. Merlin had some scenes in a similarly narrow trench/valley/pathway/thing. No but seriously, yes the plants look like they’re more tropical than whatever forest Merlin filmed in in the UK, but the trench looks so similar. Oh god the second we saw Leia I froze. And then Leia’s Theme played and I had a sad smile. And then C-3PO popped up and I laughed. Awwww. I love C-3PO so much. There’s so much that body language can convey. Oh no. While watching Finn and Poe reunite, I suddenly remembered that fanedit that put Helpless from Hamilton as the background of the scene. And i laughed. Oh 2015. When all we cared about was Star Wars and Hamilton. That lip bite. Oscar stop it. Billie Lourd! So I’ve realized over the years that R2D2 kind of sucks. Not that I don’t love him. But he spends the entire original trilogy lying by omission, when he could have just told them everything he knew from the prequels (since he WITNESSED everything and didn’t have his memory erased like 3PO did). And now, he just sits back while everyone scrambles to find Luke and does nothing, WHEN HE HAS THE ANSWER. Yes. I get that it’s deeper than that. But still. It’s funny to think that R2 just wants to sit back and watch the drama unfold while not telling anyone that Vader is Luke’s dad or that he has Luke’s map. (Unless I’m remembering it incorrectly and R2 doesn’t have it. If that’s the case R2 gets a pass this one time.) [It wasn’t the case, R2 doesn’t get a pass] “It is very doubtful that R2 would have the rest of the map in his backup data.” C-3PO are you sure? Because I’m not. I think low-power mode means R2 wants to relax and watch the soap opera that is Star Wars unfold. “There’s still light in him, I know it.” For your sake Leia, I hope there is too. But Kylo is going to need a hell of a redemption arc in tRoS. See, and I can’t remember when I found this out, but the ashes that he puts his helmet in are the ashes of people he’s killed. Kylo Ren SAVES the ashes. He has a TUB of them in his office. What is WRONG with him!??! Yeah so him reading her mind about the ocean was just plain creepy. I just... don’t understand Reylo shippers. “You. You’re afraid... that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader.” And he’s right to be afraid! Ani eventually had the strength to turn himself around! Kylo Ren could never! I won’t believe it till I see it! And even then I might not believe it! I think that people forget that Kylo’s supposed to be like 30 years old. I will say that Adam plays the role in this first movie like Kylo’s very young with a hint of a tiny possibility that he feels like he’s in over his head. Really he only plays it that way when the helmet’s off. So I get that he seems younger, but Adam was like 30 when he filmed this too. So why do so many fans coddle Kylo when he’s a grown man? A grown man who’s killing people. After a certain point, you can’t blame Luke or his parents or Snoke... if the guy is literally worshipping his grandfather and ignoring the fact that even Ani turned back to the light side... then the guy has issues. Rey failed twice before getting the Jedi mind trick right. Also, I love that Daisy’s face kind of sorta softened with less fear before she said the command and got it right. I’ve seen the scene of the stormtroopers literally going “Nope” and turning away from Kylo’s tantrum many times over the years, but I didn’t realize that Kylo screams “GUARDS” as he does it until I saw the caption just now. So not only are the stormtroopers like “I don’t want to get into that” they’re like “Let’s act like we didn’t hear him scream for us and let someone else get into that.” Which is even more hilarious. Ok it’s Starkiller not Star Destroyer. Whatever. I was close. But I knew that Luke’s last name was originally Starkiller, so I honestly should have guessed Starkiller in the first place. Whatever. Hey Admiral Akbar! The guy talking about the thermal oscillator looks familiar... was he in Night Shift... IMDB says he’s Ken Leung and yes he was in the Night Shift! Good for him! Awww that was the last time Han and Leia ever saw each other... “That’s not how the Force works.” The captions are telling me that the stormtroopers Rey is hiding from are just talking about how much their new weapons suck. That’s hilarious. “Is there a garbage shoot? Trash compactor?” Oh Han, I see what you did there. Wow, I didn’t notice that the walls of the base are rock, that it’s literally built INTO the planet. Awwwww Finn gave Rey his jacket! I was thinking she must be cold in just a t-shirt after living in a desert. Because I rewatched the last half of RotJ after Force Awakens, I was able to realize that this scene of Han and Chewie planting the bombs was a reference to RotJ, but only because of watching Force Awakens earlier that day. Really, I should have gotten the reference the other way around. “We’ll meet back here.” NOOOOO BUT YOU WON’T. THIS IS THE LAST TIME! Wait, did we not know his name was Ben before this? Was that the moment we all realized he was named after Obi-Wan? (Also, never really got that since Han and Leia knew Obi-Wan for only a couple of days at most... but whatever) Chewie keep going! Keep going and planting bombs while they’re distracted by Han! Come on! Ok I wanted to mention it earlier, but there was a lightbeam hitting Kylo when Snoke’s hologram disappeared, and that was after Snoke told him to be careful of going back to the light. Now as Han walks towards Kylo, there’s another lightbeam. It’s all very literal, but still. I like it. UH OH. I forgot about the light from the sun going away. Now Kylo’s literally in the darkness. We’re getting super literal now. (Also, I now realize that Poe’s line of “As long as we have the light we have a chance” was also a on-the-nose reference to light vs. dark and not just exposition about stopping the Starkiller, though it was also exposition.) I like to think that Han sorta knew that Kylo would kill him, and that he hoped it would eventually lead him to the light in some way and be worth it. But wow seeing Han fall hurts. OH AND LEIA. I FORGOT ABOUT LEIA KNOWING IMMEDIATELY AND JUST SINKING DOWN. OH I HURT. See. Finn’s literally just using a lightsaber like any other sword. Just hit your target with it. Because anyone can do that. Yes Rey! Summon that lightsaber! Earn that Binary Sunset! Trench run. Because Star Wars. Ok I gotta replay all of that because I was too busy getting lost in my mind about something and got distracted. Why is the Starkiller base falling apart? Ok got it, Poe hit a bunch of stuff that exploded. Cool.

Ok see. Some of the fans think fighting with a lightsaber is like a integral part of being one with the Force and being a Jedi. But literally, you just need to know is how to fight with a sword or a stick and you can fight with a lightsaber. The Force just means you’re better at predicting your opponent’s next moves, sensing the danger, knowing the best move to make, etc. That’s why Rey started winning against Kylo when he said “Join me and let me teach you the ways of the Force.” Before that, she’s just fighting like she would with her stick and all that’s doing is helping her survive and keep Kylo at bay, but she’s not winning. Being reminded that she’s Force sensitive let her tap into that and start incorporating that into the fight. Now she’s using the skills she already has, and using the Force to help her predict Kylo’s moves. She’s not magically good at using a lightsaber, she just already had skills that were easily transferable to a lightsaber and using the Force to enhance it.

I don’t think we’ve lost any arms yet in this movie, besides C-3PO off-screen.

OH. AND SNOKE SAYS KYLO NEEDS TO COMPLETE HIS TRAINING! He’s not even a full Sith Lord yet! He’s still being trained! So no, Rey did not just defeat a powerful Sith Lord, she defeated a Sith Lord in training. And she barely defeated him, he was already injured, she just fought hard enough to bring him to the ground. Then the ground literally separated them. Basically, I’m tired of people being mad that Rey has skills, she already had them. Plus, she’s not magically the most powerful Jedi ever like Ani was, she’s just strong. So go critique Ani for being literal space Jesus.

Oh Chewie. He’s alone saving Finn and Rey. My heart is breaking. All teams, Poe? You mean you and the other two who are left? Ok fine, there are a couple more X-Wings behind the Millennium Falcon. You and the other 6 who are left. Playing the Love Theme one last time. I am hurting. OH. NOW YOU WAKE UP, R2D2? NOW YOU WAKE UP? AFTER HAN DIES, YOU WAKE UP? Aww BB8′s like “Dad! Give me the map! I wanna put the puzzle together!” So I was right to be mad at R2D2. Literally sitting back, watching the drama, then at the end is like “Oh by the way, I have all the rest of the information you needed.” (Yes, I realize that I guess we’re supposed to infer that he spent all those years in low power mode trying to find the map, but whatever.) “May the Force be with you.” Oh Leia. Oh Carrie. Oh R2D2 NOW you’re excited. If you wanted to see Luke so bad, you should have found the map faster. You just know Luke knew they were coming, so he was like “Let me get my cloak out and stand on the highest point all mysteriously.” since he too lives for the drama (as we saw from all the flips in RotJ). Oh I love that ending so much. Some people think Last Jedi ruins the suspense of the ending. I love it. I love that Luke takes a minute to just stare at Rey and the lightsaber before deciding to chuck it over a cliff.

I’m watching the credits, and I noticed that Harrison gets first billing. I literally just said out loud “Why does Harri- ok no fine actually” since I realized this was his last Star Wars movie, so give him first billing. He deserves it.

So that’s the Force Awakens. Very enjoyable. I forget where I heard/read this, but the Force Awakens and Rogue One are like Star Wars comfort food. Super full of nostalgia.

And I do agree at least to an extent. Especially since the Force Awakens is like A New Hope all over again. A droid with a special message. Evil character with a spherical base that destroys planets. The evil Empire’s gone, but the evil First Order has taken over. And the Rebels are now the Resistance and are not that much better off than they were before.

But I LIVE for the nostalgia. Throughout the entirety of the prequels, I said that the best moments were the callbacks/references to the original series. The sequels do that better, so I really enjoy them.

Also I don’t actually hate R2D2. But the theory/idea that R2 is secretly a horrible person because of the fact he seems to know everything but never actually tell anyone what he knows is hilarious to me. And I never realized how well the Force Awakens fits into that theory. So it’s super funny to me.

Now hopefully, I can watch all of The Last Jedi tomorrow. I have a bit of a day... and this rewatch took like 4 hours since I literally paused every 2 seconds to write something. For the Last Jedi, I need to try to write less so I can pause less and finish the movie.

#hope rewatches star wars #ignore me if you want

[kevinpolowy]

'Last Jedi' mystery solved: John Boyega explains why Finn had different haircut, costume in set footage

If you happened to go Deep Nerd on a that behind-the-scenes video released from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you may have noticed that Finn (John Boyega) was spotted with a different haircut and different costume than anything we saw in the actual movie. What gives?

Well, Boyega had an explanation when Yahoo Entertainment caught up with him a recent press day for his upcoming sci-fi sequel Pacific Rim Uprising.

Turns out the footage was from a screen test he did with breakout star Kelly Marie Tran; Boyega wasn’t in production yet, thus his un-Finn-like fade.

As for the wears, “When Finn was escaping, he was actually supposed to be in Resistance pilot gear,” Boyega said (watch above), referencing the scene he’s caught (and subsequently tased for) attempting to bolt from the Vice Admiral Holdo-led ship by Tran’s mechanic Rose Tico.

Another thing we didn’t see in The Last Jedi: a funeral procession for lost hero Han Solo (who caught a lightsaber to the heart from son Ben/Kylo Ren during that fateful bridge confrontation in The Force Awakens), a sequence that was included in The Last Jedi‘s new novelization.

Boyega has gone on record (repeatedly) for being a hardcore Han enthusiast, but he didn’t seem bothered that movie audiences didn’t get to witness a proper sendoff.

“[There was] no need,” Boyega said. “Keep the story moving.”

Boyega even handed out some posthumous tough love. “He knows what he got into walking onto that damn bridge. As Finn I was kind of like, ‘Oh no!’ As a Star Wars fan I was like [stone-faced], ‘Han. You should’ve stayed at home.”

It did allow us to entertain the notion that Han (Harrison Ford) would return someday in the form a Force Ghost. ���I pray he does because he would be the best Force Ghost ever,” Boyega laughed, before launching into a golden impersonation.

Pacific Rim Uprising opens March 23.

Watch the trailer:

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

‘Last Jedi’ breakout Kelly Marie Tran reveals which ‘Star Wars’ characters caused her to geek out on set

Fan-favorite Phasma gets dramatically different ending in this ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ deleted scene

Here’s John Boyega piloting in an epic Jaeger-on-Jaeger battle from ‘Pacific Rim Uprising’

#Star Wars #_author:Kevin Polowy #_revsp:wp.yahoo.movies.us #John Boyega #News #movie:star-wars-the-last-jedi #video #Interviews #_lmsid:a0Vd000000AE7lXEAT #_uuid:85f84eb0-5e53-3d7d-82aa-7ca461f5611e