#and i KNOW i say starkiller is a mary sue but that's because he's starkiller and my favorite and he's stupid and i love him

[oimoi-op]

Anytime I see a Star Wars post where it’s “X character is a Mary Sue” I want to fucking die because. Dude. It’s Star Wars. The main character is Space Jesus. Revan, who you will see on almost every “Top 10 Best Characters” or “Top 10 Most Powerful Jedi” list is literally a player character. Legends!Luke killed an actual eldritch Force entity. Kyle Katarn has done every cool thing ever as well as your mom AND your dad. A character ain’t powerful unless they’ve had some ultra-cool ultra-rare never-before-seen power that was invented for them specifically. Nobody’s gonna give you the Smart Guy Award™ for pointing out obvious bad or inconsistent writing because Star Wars might as well be called Obvious Bad, Inconsistent Writing: The Franchise.

#god #''obi-wan is a mary sue'' how. HOWWWW #personal #star wars #fandom #oimoi rants about pointless fandom bullshit #also i'm so sorry for reminding y'all about abeloth but i was making a point okay #does bringing up our lord and savior kyle katarn make up for it tho #and i KNOW i say starkiller is a mary sue but that's because he's starkiller and my favorite and he's stupid and i love him

[redrascal1]

Unashamed Ben/Kylo fan

Okay, I’ve already touched on this but here I go...

As Rey turned out to be JJ Abrams’ ‘Luke insert’, I’ve been comparing the two characters...and their antagonists, and several things have occurred to me.

First of all...Rey isn’t a patch on Luke as a character...and second...

Why is it the DLF...and a lot of Rey’s supporters....think that somehow Kylo ‘owes’ her?

Let’s look at the history of these characters. Luke has every right to hate Vader. He ordered the murder of the only parents he’d ever known. He saw him kill Obi Wan, a man he had come to love and respect. He fought for three years against him, and witnessed many of his comrades in the Rebellion, people he’d come to know and love, killed on his orders. And the icing on the cake...he also cut his hand off.

Yet on discovering he was actually his father, his initial shock and horror gave way to a determination to save him. 

Now, look at Rey. Just exactly what had Kylo/Ben done that made her hate him?

‘Kidnapped and assaulted her in the Forest’....oh please, FinnRey and John Boyega fans! He put her into a Force sleep, he didn’t assault her at all. If you guys see that as an ‘assault’ I’m genuinely disturbed by your way of thinking. He captured his enemy. The first thing she did on seeing him was shoot at him. Up until then, he’d done nothing to her. In the novel, he even pointed that out. Why this little line was omitted from the film I have no idea..unless Abrams didn’t want his little Mary Sue to be wrong for once. And you couldn’t say it was because he’d destroyed Maz’s castle because Rey had no idea he’d done that at that precise moment in time.

Then there is the ‘infamous torture scene’....I noticed post TLJ supplementary material started referring to the interrogation scene as ‘torture’, presumably to appease wokesters like those on the JCF. But Kylo did not ‘torture’ Rey. He tortured Poe. He poked his nose into Rey’s memories. Not nice. But compared to what he did to Poe he was gentle. Rey then invaded his mind. But, hey it’s okay, because she’s REY OF LIGHT, and everything she does is right and natural. Just like it was perfectly okay for Obi Wan, in both the OT and PT, to mess around with people’s minds using a Jedi Mind Trick, and for Prof. X to erase Moira’s memories of him in First Class. They are good guys and therefore get a free pass.

And here is another example of Rey getting a ‘free pass’....Luke was repeatedly told off for being too reckless, and having a lot of anger in him by Yoda - yet NOT ONCE did anyone actually point out Rey’s flaws to her - except Kylo, but he doesn’t count because he’s the baddie.Sigh.

Let’s continue....so, Rey witnesses Kylo kill Han. Fair enough. But Rey DID NOT have the same relationship with Han that Luke had with ObiWan. ObiWan twice saved Luke. Han didn’t save Rey, in fact he intended to drop Rey and Finn off on the nearest planet once he’d retrieved the Falcon. He went to StarKiller to destroy it, not rescue Rey. That was Finn’s idea.

Following Han’s death, Rey and Kylo fight. Before this, he throws her against a tree. Oh no! Naughty woman abuser Kylo! But um....she was trying to shoot him at the time. Nevertheless, she’s Rey, he’s Kylo so once again, he is the abuser, she the blameless good guy.

Then the two of them fight, Rey quickly overpowers Kylo...and then she tortures him. Yep, torture. Watch the scene. Watch how she deliberately pokes at him with the sabre, burning his leg and his shoulder, despite him clearly dropping on his feet. Once again, her fans can argue that she is ‘morally right’..but did Luke ever do this. No, he did not. And these are not the ‘qualities’ looked for in a potential Jedi.

Rey scarred Kylo. But not once is this addressed. He never accuses her of disfiguring him, of deliberately dragging the fight out to cause him pain. This is one of the few things in TLJ I didn’t like. How many bets if Luke had behaved like this in the OT he would have been called to account on it. But, no. Free pass for Rey yet again.

Kylo if anything helped Rey throughout TLJ. Daisy Ridley herself said it wasn’t Luke who was nurturing her....it was Kylo. He was the person she went to, in tears, when she failed to find answers at the mirror cave. He killed Snoke for her - I’m absolutely sure of that. He couldn’t betray his master to spare his father - but he did for Rey. His haters argue he did it for power....but notice his expression after the fight? He didn’t look smug, or triumphant - but thoughtful. I suspect he wasn’t thinking that far ahead when he killed Snoke....but thought about taking over the First Order after he’d killed him. He offered her a chance to rule the galaxy as his queen.

And what did she do - attack him. Again. Apparently for the Resistance.

Why?

Luke’s love and loyalty for the Rebels in ESB was understandable. He had fought alongside them for three years. He was a Commander. His sister was a leader. But Rey hardly knew these people. The only one she owed anything to was Finn - and she had no idea if he was still alive.

Unlike Luke, Rey had had a hard life. Luke was an idealist, looking for adventure, and then he lost his family to the Empire. So, of course he would gravitate to the Rebels. But Rey is a very different character. Someone with her ‘upbringing’ was far more likely to behave like Jyn Erso...’what have the Rebels/Resistance done for me?’

And finally....we come to TROS. And once again, Rey the Aggressor. Her supporters insist she destroyed Kylo’s ship because he was attempting to run her down. Please explain why, if he was attempting to kill her....he didn’t just shoot her?

And the ultimate act of aggression.....she stabs him with his own sword, while he was grieving for his mother. I think for me, that sealed Rey’s fate - the last of my affection for her died then. 

Rey was supposed to be our hero, our ‘Luke’. But she isn’t a patch on Luke Skywalker. He suffered through blood, sweat and tears to achieve his ultimate position of Jedi master. He chose compassion over violence, unlike Rey, who had no reason to hate Kylo where Luke had every reason to despise his father.

Luke also earned his position as a leader, as a hero, as a friend. Did Rey? Maybe rescuing the last of the Resistance on Crait got her Brownie points, but her adoration by the likes of Poe bordered on ridiculous. Zorri, and older, more experienced fighter, was her best friend after five minutes. Luke had to earn Han’s respect...and in fact, it was Han who was always rescuing Luke until ROTJ. 

The ST trilogy ends with Rey proudly claiming the name of Skywalker. Rey who showed plenty of ‘dark side’ traits, but unlike Luke, who was forced to confront his darkest self, she simply gets a pep talk ....ironically from Luke....and hey, all is forgiven. Rey said she’d ‘earn’ Luke’s sabre. But what she actually got was the Skywalker name and position of ‘hero’. And she didn’t ‘earn’ any of it. Yes, she ‘died’ killing her grandfather...but the real hero of TROS, Ben Solo, immediately gave her his own life. And I find it so jarring that Luke won by REFUSING to kill his father...and Rey by killing her grandfather. It went against everything SW stood for.

Just like the entire ST.

[starfanatic]

Luke Skywalker vs Rey... Nobody

I hate the argument that a lot of sequel trilogy stans use whenever anyone criticized Rey or labels her a Mary Sue. It’s probably the weakest argument a sequel stan can ever possibly say to me. (Besides the people hate Rey because she’s a women argument).

Lets compare them shall we?

Luke Skywalker in A New Hope is whiny, inexperienced, and very naive. There is multiple moments in a new hope that proves this. When he was whining about not wanting to stay on the moisture farm and wanting to join the Academy like his friend, Biggs. He constantly was slightly annoying throughout the film, especially to Han. When Han named his price and Luke was like “We can buy our own ship with that!” or when Han was flying the Milennium Falcon and Luke was practically yelling in his ear to go into hyperspace. Han and Luke did not get along at first because of Luke’s behavior. Luke went against Obi-Wan’s orders and saved Princess Leia, not thinking of the consequences. How he could possibly be killed or put in a cell with the Princess. He doesn’t think of a plan to get out AFTERWARDS only the spur of the moment. He was constantly shown to be inexperienced and needed his friends help or HE WOULD HAVE DIED THE FIRST MOVIE. While on the millennium falcon, Obi-Wan taught him things about the force. Maybe not a lot but he knew how to use the simple basics of it. Like sensing the force and letting it guide your actions (as Obi-Wan was trying to teach him before). For once Luke listened and trusted Obi-Wan and destroyed the death star.

Lets do Rey now WHOOP. So far the only personality flaw she seems to have is that she’s also naive? She had the same wide-eyed innocence as Luke had but it’s different and here’s why. Rey never suffers for any of her so-called almost non-existent flaws. Rey is experienced enough to hold her own in a fight against men WAY stronger then her (that’s realistic though but that’s one tool in her belt). She’s bilingual. She can fly the millennium falcon better then Han Solo even though she never flew one before. She is constantly saving people by herself, never the one being saved. (Before y’all bust my balls, Rey escaped that damn starkiller base by her damn self. Luke didn’t and couldn’t). She uses powers that takes years to learn and the excuse is the force dyad. So she downloads Kylo’s skills and training. Great. Magnificent. Rey is on a amazing start. And this is the first movie! She can only get stronger from here.

Luke is more mature and responsible in ESB. He’s a respected hero of the rebellion. Luke still struggles using the force. Even with the training Luke goes through with Obi-Wan he had to truly focus to pull the lightsaber to him. Plus as a common occurrence, he still needed help from his friends. He’s not invincible. He actually gets severely hurt (makes sense). He goes to Dagobah to get trained (because unlike Rey he doesn’t have the “learn force jedi shit that takes years to learn” cheatcode). And then he’s impatient. He wants to learn how to use the force so he can help his friends. Luke is again reckless, impatient, and he’s also insecure in his own belief. Him not believing he can lift the X-wing was why he couldn’t. Against his master’s and Obi-Wan’s orders he decides to save his friends. It’s a noble reason to but it still got him fucked up. He got his hand cut off, he was beaten and humiliated, and then he was told a horrifying revalation that twisted around everything he knew and believed. He was scared of Vader, you can see it on his face, but he did not succumb to fear.

Rey goes to the island to convince Luke to go help them fight the war. Why doesn’t Leia go instead? Who knows. Why does Luke act the way he does? Who knows. Luke dismissed her and was quite rude to her. Rey was having cute little talks with Kylie Renner in their little force dyad BS. She called him a monster and a murderous snake. I like the insults. It fills me with joy! But then she finds out the truth. Rey did do something reckless and stupid but as usual she doesn’t suffer the consequences to her actions. Technically she’s morally superior to Luke because she saw the good in him and felt like she could turn him to the light (after slicing his face open. Ok). Rey decides to give herself up to the First Order thinking Kylo would save her. And he does. So she wasn’t even wrong... Rey fight the very elite guards of the (bootleg emperor palpatine) Supreme Leader Snoke. Reminder, TFA and TLJ are like 3-4 days apart. She had zero training within these days. Luke refused to train her so don’t start that bullshit. Luke trained her for like 5 minutes and none of that training had anything to do with lightsaber dueling. Rey is then told she was a nobody. Now why did Rey cry about this? I truly don’t know. How the hell would Kylo accurately know that Rey’s parents were nobody? Didnt Rey been know this from the force awakens? Eh whatever. She tries to force pull the lightsaber from Kylo Ren and do a dumbass tug a war instead of walking up and grabbing it. It reminds me of JJ and Rian fighting over where the star wars sequels). Anakin must be screaming and yelling from above... or below... idk. The lightsaber then breaks. Rey then saves her friends by showing her once again superior piloting skills that rival or is possibly better then Anakin Skywalker himself. Hitting 3 in one shot? You go girl! She then uses the force to effortlessly move the big ass boulders out of the entrance to save the resistance. Last I remember... Luke struggled to do that with a few way smaller rocks and was also focusing hard to do.

Luke is finally at jedi status! Woohoo! Now Luke first saves Han from Jabba. It shows his very dark side tendencies by choking the guards (like father like son). Luke thinks of a actual plan before going in (CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT). Luke “Chanel Boots” Skywalker goes to Yoda on his death bed. All he wants is answers but Yoda wants to be cryptic as fuck. Luke has been lied to for years by his mentors and his family. Luke’s father isn’t hero Anakin Skywalker but actually a big, asthmatic, merciless, murderous asshole who has a choking kink. Luke then says he cannot kill his own father and Obi-Wan, who believes Vader isn’t a human but a machine, has no faith in Luke. He believes that Luke will fail and the Empire would win. Luke feels the conflict and good in him that nobody else does. He knows that Vader is unloyal to the emperor and he actually cares about his own son. When he is with Han and Leia he realizes he made a mistake and has a bad feeling about it. (*gasp* Luke is not being super reckless). He’s not arrogant (not in anyway) but he’s completely confident that Vader would turn. (He isn’t flawless there is still obvious problem with this plan he has. He fails, the empire wins. He dies, the emperor wins. Vader doesn’t turn, Luke fails. Luke almost succumbs to the dark side and it’s actually plausible he might fully turn. He wants to desperately save his friends and his father has done horrible things to Luke. Luke had every reason to kill Vader. But he doesn’t. He throws the lightsaber away and foolishly puts his life in Vader’s hand. Luke doesn’t save the galaxy because he can make things levitate with the force. He wins because he had the strength to resist the dark side and has so much love and pure good in his heart he saw the good in his father.

Rey starts off with a training session (no idc it’s too fucking late now. 3 movies in? Is she doing reverse character development?) and basically Poe gets mad at Rey for not accompanying them on missions. I still don’t know why she needs training, when she is at a decent strength to fight elite guards, fight kylo ren, and a variety of other things that typically takes a long time to learn. After finding out Palpatine returned, Rey goes on a mission to find the way finder almost like a shitty videogame. I don’t even want to talk about the force dyad anymore because it’s fucking dumb. Rey gets chased by the force order and hear this out, FORCE HEALS (i forgot what the animal was but idrc). Which means Rey had the power to stop the painful truth of death themself. Why am I not surprised? Rey did something that no other jedi nor sith or jedi have ever done this. Anakin went to the dark side to save the ones he love. This movie was just a slap in the face to Anakin. Rey then fights Kylo Ren and lost??? again it seems a little too late and it also didn’t make sense. Rey defeated those guards all by herself with Kylo needed help from her. She’s obviously the better lightsaber duelist but hey, at least JJ was trying to mellow her out a bit. Rey stabs him while our beloved Princess died. She then regrets her decision and as always, doesn’t have any consequence to her actions. By the force I forgot, the whole scene where she is revealed as a Palpatine? Completely invalidates the first two movies but eh whatever. She uses a power that only the elite sith does... something Kylo Ren himself could not do (and he’s on the dark side). Rey “killed” Chewie but actually no she didn’t because Chewie is perfectly fine. Rey is supposed to be all dark and edgy now, “you don’t know me” BS. Yeah I’m sorry I won’t tolerate this because my only allergy is the fish smelling coochie bullshit called the sequel trilogy. Rey got scared of her dark self. Well at least JJ tried? Rey then almost gives up but Luke was like “nah fam you cant”. Rey dies trying to fight Palpatine but then as usual, she gets zero consequence cuz Benny Simp saved her using the force. Then she kissed him... no. No. No. This made my eyes burn like they just threw bleach in my eyes. It made no sense. “A Kiss of Gratitude”? What the shit was that? GIRLS DO NOT INSPIRE TO BE REY.

#anti sequel trilogy #anti rey palpatine #anti reylo #luke skywalker #star wars #leia organa #han solo #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #rebel scum #anti rian johnson #a new hope #empire strikes back #return of the jedi

[ariainstars]

Feminism (and Not) in Star Wars

Warning: unpopular opinions ahead.

 During the last few years, I have often heard and read people arguing that the Star Wars sequels are “feminist”, that Rey in particular is a Mary Sue and, at worst, that “feminism ruined Star Wars.” So, I would like to add my two cents. 

It cannot to be denied that the end of the sequels, and with it of the saga as a whole, is highly dissatisfying. But feminism is not what caused it.

The sequels are not feminist at all. Especially not in Star Wars, where the greatest hero Luke Skywalker had ended the conflict through compassion and forgiveness. TRoS in particular is a slap in the face of female dignity and virtue, both for the male protagonist’s mother and for his love interest. 

Unfortunately, and that is one of my major issues with the sequels, many things are not being said or explained. This might be due to the fact that Episode VIII was subversive and that so many classic fans ranted and stormed against it; but that didn’t prevent Episode IX from showing, if not saying, a lot of things. 

Star Wars is all about subtext, that’s what makes it compelling. Please:

Read between the lines.

Look at what is not being said but shown.

Compare the attitudes of different people in similar situations.

  Rey

„You cannot deny the truth that is your family.” Lor San Tekka in The Force Awakens

  Rey was introduced as a positive female character but then, over the course of three films, her moral corruption was displayed under the lame excuse of a black and white morality (“I am all the Sith” vs. “I am all the Jedi”).

Rey seemed like a reboot of Luke Skywalker at first, but watching her throughout TRoS we see her fail in all instances where Luke had proved himself a hero.

  - Luke had forgiven his father despite all the pain he had inflicted on him and his friends. Rey stabbed the „bad guy”, who had repeatedly protected and comforted her, to death.

- Luke never asked Vader to help the Rebellion or to turn to the Light Side, he only wanted him back as his father. Rey assumed that she could make Ben Solo turn, give up the First Order and join the Resistance for her. She was thinking of her friends and her own validation, not of him.

- Luke had made peace by choosing peace. Rey fought until the bitter end.

- Luke had thrown his weapon away before Palpatine. Rey picked up a second weapon. (And both of them weren’t her own.)

- Luke had mourned his dead father. Rey didn’t shed a tear for the man she is bonded to by the Force.

- Luke went back to his friends to celebrate the new peace with them. Rey went back letting everyone celebrate her like the one who saved the galaxy on her own - the woman who was tempted to become the new evil ruler of the galaxy and had to rely on the alleged Bad Guy to save both her soul and her body.

- Luke had embodied compassion when Palpatine was all about hatred. Where he chose love and faith in his father, Rey chose violence and fear.

- Luke had briefly fallen prey to the Dark Side but it made him realize that he had no right to judge his father. Rey’s fall to the Dark Side did not make her wiser.

- Confronted by Vader’s disclosure of his true identity Luke was forced to face himself, to realize that he had been judgmental, arrogant and biased; and after the initial shock he accepted his origins as a part of himself. - Rey did not reconcile with Palpatine as a part of herself. (When she says to him “I don’t hate you” it’s not a sign of superior attitude. It merely shows that she sees him as separate from herself.)

- After realizing what he had done to his nephew, feeling responsible and disillusioned, Luke went into exile for years waiting for his death. - Rey also was appalled at herself, but she spent just a few minutes on Ahch-To until Luke appeared to her, this time telling her exactly what she would have wanted him to say to her on her first visit on the island. This scene was so ridiculously opposite to his attitude in TLJ that I believe he was a fantasy conjectured by her like Ben’s vision of his father.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Rey failed where Ben had been strong.

- Ben killed Snoke to save Rey. Rey killed Palpatine to complete her Jedihood. (Or at least, what she believes being a Jedi means, i.e. “being always right and winning at all costs”.)

- Ben loved Rey despite all she did to him and took away from him, and she didn’t even honour his name in the end.

- Ben knew the stories of Luke, Vader and Palpatine well enough to wanted to end the Jedi and Sith at last and start something new and better. Rey only knew scraps of old tales and wanted to have them her own way.

- Ben had been under an evil influence in his mind since before he was born; when he finally turned to the Dark because he had nowhere else to go, he was 23. Rey gave in to her Dark Side minutes after meeting her “mother” in the Death Star ruin; the same happened to her again with Palpatine on Exegol.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  On the ruin of the second Death Star, Rey is at her lowest on the same spot where Luke had won over himself thirty years before in RoTJ.

- Vader had provoked Luke to make him turn - Kylo hadn’t.

- Vader hat traumatized Luke - Kylo had protected and spared Rey repeatedly.

- Vader hardly had had a kind word to spare for his son (except perhaps when he said to him “It is too late for me, son”) - Kylo had comforted her and shown her his human side.

- Vader had lured Luke into a trap twice in order to keep him by his side. - Kylo hadn’t, on the contrary, he wanted to prevent her from running into Palpatine’s trap.

- Luke did not know what had made Vader the way he was when he came to find him, but he was adamant to save him. - Rey knew by the time of their duel that Kylo was largely also a victim, and she stabbed him to death.

- Luke always fought fair. - Rey used the distraction made by Leia’s reaching out to him to impale him - the way she had seen him impaling Han.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  It is ridiculous to say that it’s a victory of Good over Evil when a young woman uses Jedi training to kill her master’s own son, who was on the defensive, with his mother’s help and blessing. That their weird connection, which was already introduced during the first two films, is explained by way of their being a dyad (one soul in two bodies) only makes it worse. Rey will rather kill the man she belongs to, or die herself, than admit that she needs him. If that is supposed to be “feminism”, it’s a very distorted idea of female independence and strength. Just like it’s not automatically “feminism” to make a girl pose as the heroine because she wants to be a Jedi no questions asked.

Fans discussed and argued about Rey’s family for years; it was a great move in TLJ when she admitted her parents were “nobodies” and that they left her on purpose. It was refreshing to see her carve her life and personality on her own. TRoS shattered this by making her the descendant of the most powerful man in the galaxy; and what’s worse, she wound up being a usurper just the way he was, taking over the Skywalker mantle.

  The sequels are feminist only when the audience believes that it’s a happy ending if a female ends up alone with no one standing in her way. They are told from her point of view, so as viewers we will automatically believe that she’s the heroine and root for her (or not, but still believe that it’s her story). Looking only at the bare facts, Rey is much less heroic than she first seems.

  At the end of TRoS Rey is alone with two dead people behind her, on a desert planet in company of a droid and with an old, wrinkled woman as her only interlocuter, the way she began, and her mind still has hardly developed beyond that of a child. She is willing to embrace the legacy of both Skywalker family and Jedi although the fate of Ben Solo should have taught her how fu***-up both of them were.

  Rey doesn’t want to see. She’s in denial like when she pretended that her family was coming back for her on Jakku. Inside, she is still a child - everything she did was motivated by her desire to find the belonging she ardently craved. She can’t be blamed for that. But does that make her a “strong woman”, or even a “Mary Sue”, like many annoyed viewers claim? No.

  Leia 

“If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will.” Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi

There is something I find much worse than Ben’s patricide or Luke’s panic attack at the Jedi temple. Those were actions spurred by the moment and provoked by Snoke, and both men regretted it immediately. Leia’s behaviour shows an unpardonable attitude for entire decades. Being a trained Jedi herself, she could have taught her son - instead she sent him to his uncle. This seems a practical choice since she was politically active while her brother wanted to start a new Jedi Order, but from the novels we learn that Ben heard his parents arguing and talking about him like he was a monster ever since he was a child, and that when he was sent away this seemed to confirm to him that something was wrong with him and had to be fixed. (From the novels we also learn that he actually had no ambition to become a Jedi and wanted to be a pilot - true Skywalker and also Solo that he is -, but he had no say in the matter.)

 After the tragedy at Luke’s temple and the rise of the First Order, Leia fought with the Resistance for years knowing that her own son was on the other side. What if she had met him and been forced to kill him (or if he had come into the situation, as we see in TLJ)? In TFA, she sent his own father to bomb Starkiller Base knowing well that their son might be on board. Leia had felt Snoke’s influence on Ben’s mind when he was still in her womb; so, she knew he had been manipulated for decades, but when she heard of his fall to the Dark Side, she automatically assumed he had made the choice to be “evil”. Only after he had been a part of a criminal organization for years Leia sent her estranged husband to him. She only reached out to him when she was on her deathbed, and I still am not certain whether she wanted to help him, or to make him stop fighting against the girl she had adopted in his stead. 

Would Padmé have left her own son in the dumps? Never. Padmé refuted Obi-Wan’s disclosure about Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side adamantly, and went to a volcanic planet alone, with a highly advanced pregnancy, to see a terrorist and murderer because she still saw the good little boy he had been in him. And she would have gotten him out of that hell had Obi-Wan not interfered. If you don’t believe me, watch the scene again: Slowly but surely, Anakin’s expression changes totally on speaking with his wife. Padmé was literally reaching out to him, and she was succeeding. Love, as always, was stronger than anything else in him. And Padmé believed in her husband until her very last breath. “Obi-Wan, there is still good in him.”

Din Djarin, the Mandalorian of the eponymous tv show, is an outcast who earns his living with dubious business and has killed his fair share of people. But had anyone attempted to do to his little protégé what Snoke did to Ben Solo, I don’t doubt he would have marched on the Supremacy and strangled him with his bare hands. (At least, he would have died trying.) Han would probably have done the same, but Leia deliberately never told him of Snoke’s influence on her son’s mind ever since before his birth. By the time she finally does, as we witness in TFA, their son has been Kylo Ren for six years. 

Leia, the princess, the general, the war heroine, had feared her son before he was even born because she sensed that he was like her own father. But she had no qualms and no fear accepting and instructing the granddaughter of her worst enemy. Why? 

Because Rey doesn’t waver. She has no doubts. She is not conflicted between both Sides of the Force. In Leia’s eyes, Rey is pure Light Side, so she embraces her wholeheartedly as the child she always wanted. As far as I can remember, Leia has never, the way her brother did, offered love to anyone who didn’t fight on her side. And Rey, who had angrily confronted Luke for his moment of terror which “created Kylo Ren”, did not consider for a moment Leia’s responsibility towards her son. Despite training with Leia for a whole year, she never tells her about Luke’s failure which pushed her son into Snoke’s clutches. Nor does she realize that Leia’s love for her is not unconditional but that it is parallel to her Jedi training. Rey literally becomes both a little girl and a Jedi with Leia, down to wearing pure white for the whole of the last instalment of the trilogy. 

Most fans admire Leia for her rebellious, spirited nature. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not necessarily such a good thing if one spends one’s whole life fighting instead of learning how to preserve peace. Leia is adamant that the side she’s on must win. Like every Jedi before her, she does not know, want or even consider that what the Force actually needs is Balance; and that both her father and her son were not evil because they were strong on both Sides, but that this meant they might have found balance, had they not met opposition to this in everyone they knew. 

Leia never approached her relationship to her father (at least as far as I know), never tried to understand him better and forgive him the way her brother had. Considering what Vader had done to her and her friends, she can’t be blamed for pushing away her memories and living in terror of the Dark Side. However, on the long run her incapacity or refusal for introspection is not a strength but a weakness. The one who paid the price is her son, and with his fall to the Dark, the whole galaxy again became prey to the terror that she herself had always fought against in first line. 

Vader had been right after all: Leia did fall prey to the Dark Side, though unknowingly. Not only did she give up on her son, she actively helped evil come back to the galaxy by believing to do the right thing: she trained Palpatine’s granddaughter, taught her to deny her own fears and weaknesses, gave her justification for her actions, helped her killing her own “evil” son. If that is not the Dark Side’s influence, I don’t know what it is. Leia denied her son’s potential for good and given up on him long before his fate was sealed, and in the same way she closed her eyes on Rey’s potential for evil. The same “bad” son had to prevent the girl she had taken under her wing from becoming what the old devil Palpatine had in mind, at the cost of his life. 

 Conclusion

 I am not an advocate for feminism on principle. If females can be independent and self-assured, if they shed the cloak of “damsel in distress”, on the downside this also means that they can be or become villains just like men. Many people tend to believe that a woman is naturally better, kinder, softer than a man. The Star Wars saga never bowed to this cliché.

 The idea that a woman does not necessarily need a man is positive on its own, but it becomes poisonous if it undermines female trust in men. Star Wars has a long story of lonely, unhappy men (all three generations of Skywalkers), who were denied their natural right to be needed by their women and to keep their families together. One of Anakin’s dilemmas was that he saw Padmé as being too good for him and wanted to prove to her that he was equal to her in his own way. Ben, ironically, felt that he was not good enough for Rey because he was tainted by his larger-than-life heritage, so he wanted to “let the past die” and start something new and fresh with her.

 A man naturally wishes to protect others, in particular wife and children. But in all three generations, we find these men whose personalities are split in two and cannot reconcile the two halves of their self: Anakin / Vader, Luke / Leia, Ben / Kylo. Due to the similarity in his two names, I expected the last of the Skywalker blood to finally heal the wound in his personality and become one. Had anyone wanted and needed both, Ben and Kylo, he might have. But Kylo was an aberration to everyone including Rey. Kylo was a villainous figure and as a male, he was aggressive and arrogant; but at least he made his own decisions and had chosen his own name, things Ben Solo never got to do.

 This is not to say that the sequels are against strong females or prefer the guys over them: no, the guys f** up at least as often as the women do. But to pretend that Leia’s and / or Rey’s portrayal is unrealistically positive and that “feminism ruined Star Wars” is either extremely short-sighted or a mockery of femaleness.

 It is true that women have more and larger roles in the ST, but I can’t see anything wrong with that. Not any more than with the fact that in the OT there was practically only Leia (the few other female characters almost had no impact on the story), and that there were few females in the PT, too. The Jedi Order consisted almost only of men, and you hardly hear anyone complain.

 I know that many fans dislike Anakin and Ben, but please let us consider why.

 One reason is that in an action movie we usually value coolness in a male protagonist above everything, and that the Skywalkers are hot-headed by nature. Most fans prefer Darth Vader, Han Solo and the likes to the Skywalker men.

 Another reason is that the filmmakers have deliberately manipulated our emotions. The prequels are told from everybody’s point of view but Anakin’s, and the same goes for the sequels with Ben, despite the fact that the trilogies are about them, not about “the Jedi superheroes saviours of the galaxy” or “the almighty and untainted Skywalker family”. So, as viewers we automatically identify emotionally with anyone but them. We never get to really know the “villain’s” point of view, we only see how other people react to them; and since these reactions are much more often negative than positive, we get to the conclusion that both of them are inescapably evil, that they chose to be so, and that they deserve their terrible fate.

 My suggestion: rewatch both trilogies again and this time try to look through Anakin’s or Ben’s eyes. (And possibly also read the novels and the Kylo Ren comics.)

  You could be surprised.

#star wars #rey #leia #ben solo #han solo #luke skywalker #emperor palpatine #kylo ren #the Force #the Jedi #the Sith #bendemption #darth vader #anakin skywalker #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #return of the jedi #revenge of the sith #feminism #read more

[dangerouslysmartslime]

Let’s Write About While Watching: LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special (2020)

This is a celebration of Life Day (Winter Veil tiding) only for the Sequel Trilogy. Rey is the main character here, instead of a big mess with the wookiee family of Chewbacca. With freedom restored Life Day could once again be celebrated, so to Kashyyk again we go. Finn and Rey are working on training with a lightsaber, that Rey senses force potential in Finn, and Finn ends up not “letting go” as she tries to read the ancient texts. When traveling down a wrong path, one must find another, a new path. That she is actually challenged. She ain’t a Mary Sue you hacks! There are other parts of the crew post Rise of Skywalker for celebrating Life Day, and Rey continues to study the Jedi texts as she doesn’t know what she is missing. As she is not as nmater in the forc,e of both darkness and light. And this is where I wish that she had a teacher, whether of Light like Luke or Dark like the OC Aliana (not Kylo Ren, he’s shite). And apparently there is a prophecy on Kordoku to help them both with training. That Life Day is today so they have to go. Chewie is knowing about the fact that family and spending time with each other. So Rey is trying to balance training and spending time with people. BB8 leaves and then a sir cries and says “I have a plan” and they know that his plans are terrible. So he resolves to make the biggest party ever with the best food. Rey didn’t take Finn with her to the Jedi Temple on Kordoku. It is a very snowy place with an Aurora Borealis all around it, then again such is probably not the mame for winter lights in general, just for Northern lights or such. Rey looks through the ruins and finds the symbol the Jedi are known for and inside is a green Kyber Crystal wrapped in linen, and with waving it she created a portal. So her and BB8 walk in to explore what’s next. A force gateway to… Empire Strikes Back where Luke was training with Yoda. She found that such is true and she thinks that it is a lot more interesting than it really is. That she could learn something from Master and Apprentice. “Do or do not, there is no try” “Participation trophies for Jedi, there are not” That is an amusing quote, and then there’s a sea monster which is right behind Rey, so they had to get out, and then to the next place. Watch other Jedi masters train their students. Do or do not and I’m going to do, he says. Obi-wan and Qui-Gonn Jinn are together at the start of The Phantom Menace, only for the appearance of Attack of the Clones where they see Anakin and Obi-wan talking about the fact that Anakin loves Padme. Jumping to Luke, where she ends up in his cockpit and they still need to shoot. “Listen to your master, use the force!” The shot goes through, which guiding a shot into the exhaust port is rather odd. Technically Rey did help him blow up the Death Star, and she thought that it was awesome. Switching back to Finn, Chewie, Rose, and… Captain turned general… He ends up burning a  porg. Rey reflects on all of the things that she saw with the time traveling Kyber crystal and it was rather intersting, so then she jumped into a new portal caused by the crystal and then there is a monologue from Sidious. Death Star Two is commented as derivative, Starkiller Base was thought of by Vader, “Galaxy’s Best Emperor” only for Vader to be send into the future with Rey to find what happened. Return of the Jedi Vader vs Rise of Skywalker Rey… Interesting. Then the family of Chewmbacca comes and they start getting into a ruckus. Then I findally remembered the camptain turned general’s name is Poe Dameron. “All too easy, now I have the… what is this thing.” Quite humorous, and the fact that they are fighting and Vader didn’t know from what point in time she was so he assumed that it was during RotJ. “Impressive, I almost feel bad having to destroy you.” There are two Darth Vader’s because of there being RotJ Vader and ESB Vader, so they end up fighting. They say that their skills are impressive, only to conclude that they are the same being and agree to kill Rey. Rey runs off along with a Snowtrooper, where the RotJ Vader follows Rey as they appear on Mustafar where Anakin and Obi-wan were fighting in Revenge of the Sith. This is entertaining, only for The Child with The Mandalorian to show up in their adventures so Rey and Vader agree that The Child is cute. Only to continue fighting. Clone Wars have two clones talking about hating traffic duty, they joined the chase with Pod Racers from The Phantom Menace’s Pod Race scene. Then there are some from the ESB Hoth base, space battles, only to appear in A New Hope’s opening shot with Luke Skywalker drinking blue milk and a bunch of people from different points in time fighting amongst each other. Different versions of Jedi and Sith, clone troopers and stormtroopers. Only for Luke from ANH to chase after them and the key is taken by BB8 and then Vader is almost done taking it and the mug… He succeeds so now there’s ANH Luke and Rey in the temple. Kylo Ren is found dancing around saying that he’s Surpreme Leader, and Hux ends up perving on him. Palpatine and Vader are found by him and it is commented that Kylo Ren is a total fanboy. Palpatine doesn’t doesn’t rule anything, so Kylo is told to put on a shirt. Luke and Rey end up talking and Luke is at the point in time where he doesn’t know who Darth Vader is or the fact that he is Luke’s father… Although Vader did hint at that in a conversation. Kylo Ren finishes the story of RotJ to Rise of Skywalker. Kylo Ren speaks of the fact that he didn’t kill his master by Reactor Shaft, but didn’t tell Palpatine that he would kill his master in a different way. So now Palpatine is trying to work on stealing the time to have an Infinite Empire… Switch back to Finn and Poe, Finn sings Huttese Jingle Bells. Rather entertaining, as Poe Dameron. Palpatine likes everything that Kylo says, even things which Vader already said like Starkiller Base being seen as a good name when said by Kylo but when said by Vader it was a ‘lame name’ (earlier in the special). One thing that Disney does know how to deal with is making fun of the movie series along with the fan perception of it, while having cheesy bits like Huttese Jingle Bells, just as in the original Holiday Special Luke, Leia, and Han were on Kashyyyk to spend time with Chewbacca for Life Day. Skywalker is on the forest moon of Endor, so Vader is told to go and get him. Sending Vader down to pick up Luke when it would go to the same chain of events? Well, Palpatine now has Kylo Ren instead of Vader. Voda’s force ghost appears to Rey while she’s moping to herself, and it is noted that failure is important, to be a better student and a better teacher. One for doing a reminder of A Chrismas Tale from Charles Dickens. So focused on the books that she forgot the most important part. Useless knowledge is without connection. That there are friends that people have, and not just the connection between master and Padawan. Luke then talks to Rey about what was being said, while kind of just repeating it. “Had the power al along” So then she alights kyber crystals and they swirl together, along with holding the hands of ANH Luke to create a large portal using those crystals back to ANH. Kylo Ren like having a swirly chair. It is noted that Kylo Ren loves his grandpa so doesn’t want to send him down the shaft, two lightsabers of Kylo and Rey, then there is ANH Luke throwing milk at Kylo Ren, only for BB8 to stop him and then Rey to stop him. Uncle Luke “Uncle” “What did you mean by destroy Vader too?” Stop everyone in a  black cape. “All of us, make with the fighty fighty!” So now there’s two versions of Luke around, Kylo, and Rey, as Palpatine is a pain in the ass. “Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy” “Really should’ve seen that coming” Only for Kylo Ren to fall back into his chair and he gets really angsty, destroying his chair with his lightsaber. Now it’s Rey, Vader, Rey, and Luke… “You’ve failed before, you’ve failed again.” I do enjoy the jokes that Palpatine has, only for Rey to stop him by having the help of Vader and Luke? “Luke, do you remember the first Jedi lesson you ever knew?” That she already knows and then Palpatine is still thrown into the reactor shaft. “Hey, what’s with the sweater” only say “Happy Life Day” Then Palpatine reflects on the fact that he a complete asshole and is always so mean, so he gets a Scrooge Reflection while he is falling to his death that being on the Dark Side and ruling the galaxy isn’t that good of an idea. Which is rather amusing but for something to actually come of that would be odd. Where Luke drinks his blue milk and reflects on what just happened, as Rey sends everyone else back to their proper time, puts the crystal back, and then gets back to the Millenium Falcon to the Life Day party. Rey actually sows up and speaks of the fact that she actually made it back in time, only for BB8 to tell the adventure to C3PO. There was a reflection that Finn is ready to become a  Jedi and Rey to train him, as for the events, snow on Kashyyyk and Finn accidently destroys the table with the lightsaber. Plus it’s a yellow lightsaber, which is traditionally mainly used by Jedi Temple Guards. Well… That was the end and it was quite interesting. That plus the fact that apparently another LEGO special for Star Wars is a Battle Droid RO-GR which came from Clone Wars to fighting the First Order.

#LEGO Star Wars #Star Wars #star wars holiday special #Renari'sReviews

[moved--306389]

I'm replaying The Force Unleashed, because that game was my childhood and I really love it lots, but also I went to look it up for fandom content and found out most people don't share my feelings over it.

So like, why is that? I've seen a lot of people calling Starkiller an overpowered Mary Sue, but c'mon, isn't this the franchise of overpowered mary sues? And like, I think most of his impossible Force antics are just gameplay material, specially considering Darth Vader can do everything he does when you play as him in the first level. And damn if it isn't fun gameplay material when you get to just jump around and wreck shit, so what's not to like.

Is it because it's not canon? I'll admit I don't know a lot of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (considering the ammount of it there is) but I'm guessing it isn't canon because the Darth Vader himself having an apprentice he practically raised surely would have been something to bring up in other Star Wars stuff... but, you know, why must a game be "canon"? Is it not enough that it's a story about an abused kid breaking free of his chains and ditching a life's worth of oppression, while doing cool heroic stuff in the middle and providing a great and emotion-inducing gaming experience?

Or idk maybe you guys just didn't play the right version of the game. I've seen both the original ps2 game and the remade ps3 one, and I must say, the latter, with all of it's superior graphics, didn't impress me. For some reason it vanished with some levels, didn't have a lot of cutscenes or dialogue lines that added life and character depth to the game, and the levels it did include were totally remade and the gameplay didn't feel as smooth and fun as the original. Makes you wonder why they even remade the game at all if they were gonna do such a bad job at it.

But I have considered that, in the end, it might be just the Star Wars fandom being the Star Wars fandom. Those guys are constantly angry over any thing at any given time, so why do I even bother.

#I mostly made this post as an excuse to gush about the game and why I love it #sfw #star wars #the force unleashed #galen marek #starkiller #star wars expanded universe #meus posts #review of stuff

[dalekofchaos]

My problems with Rey

I want to like Rey and I adore Daisy Ridley but her character was poorly written. There is very little development at all. It feels like everyone involved wanted Rey to be this strong female character without any build up or achieving an arc or struggles as a character, so style over substance. Instead of writing a great arc for Rey in TFA, JJ decided oh so brilliantly the best way to write Rey was to make her a mystery(mYsTeRy bOx) and her lack of development is even worse in TLJ. The other issue is Daisy doesn’t think Rey should have any flaws and that’s the problem. So here are my issues with Rey

Note. I’m not going to make the claim that she’s a ‘Mary Sue’ What I will claim though, is she is extremely overpowered, in ways that Luke and Anakin were not. They had special abilities sure, which was explained by them being ‘strong with the force. But they also had fatal flaws, they had obstacles to overcome -and what kept you interested in what was going to happen to them. Rey, besides being overpowered and hyper-competent, is pretty much well liked by everyone she meets (Luke and Anakin were not). She also seems to have no trials, tribulations, obstacles, or character weaknesses that force her to grow (Luke and Anakin both did).

Here are my issues with how they chose to write Rey’s character throughout the Sequel Trilogy

Rey selflessly chooses not to give away BB-8. Rey grew up on Jakku, dog eat dog world. She had no reason to be selfless on that planet. I do love Rey, but it really makes no sense that a person who was raised on a ruthless and violent planet of thieves and scavengers, abandoned and lived the life of a scavenger who barely makes enough to survive. It doesn’t work that she would be selfless and was willing to pass up all that food for a droid she just met. So I think it would help if Rey starts off as a mix of Han Solo and Jyn Erso. Someone who only cares about her own survival and is consumed by her own trauma but learns to overcome her trauma, start caring for other people and something bigger than herself. This would be shown by having Rey sell BB-8 and later after meeting Finn, she learns of the importance of the droid and she feels guilt and fights to get BB-8 back and learn to fight for something bigger than herself. That I think would’ve improved her arc in TFA

Rey perfectly flies The Falcon despite not flying a ship. In the movie she says she’s never flown before and doesn’t know how she did it. In The novel she says she flew ships at night and simulation. That’s all well and good, but if you choose to explain things in the novel, but not in the movie. Then you deliberately chose not to explain how a scavenger who never leaves the planet knows how to fly the Millennium Falcon.

She pulls off maneuvers and mechanical tricks that not even Han Solo could think of and a scene later he is dumbfounded and astonished by Rey

Being mentally probed by Kylo Ren is not a convincing nor acceptable excuse for her to somehow “get the idea to try using the same technique”. It doesn't work that way. it has never worked that way. Kylo Ren had to train all his life with Luke and adulthood with Snoke. All of a sudden, just because Rey turned the probe back on Kylo, she gained mastery over the force? Like Han Solo said "That's not how the force works" You can’t mind trick someone without knowledge of how to do it. You do not just magically figure it out on conjecture and a hunch…. and I don’t care if she failed the first time she attempted it. That doesn’t make up for it. Further, Rey should not know how to use a lightsaber, let alone be able to use it against someone who seems to actually have training with such a weapon.  It makes little sense for a lightsaber to be usable in any meaningful way by someone without formal training in its use. The thing is supposed to have a powerful gyroscopic force that makes it unwieldy when it is activated, requiring use of the Force to control it. Furthermore, all the weight is in the hilt, which also makes it unwieldy by that fact alone. An untrained user has a greater chance of hurting themselves than another person. they sure as hell can’t deflect blaster shots with it without use of the Force.

Effortlessly beats Kylo. Rey has no prior training. Never held a lightsaber. Rey fighting off thieves with her quarterstaff is not the same thing, it is understandable that Kylo was struggling because of his injuries, but Rey didn’t struggle against Kylo. Even Luke struggled with Vader and Anakin struggled with Dooku. What should have happened is as it looks like Kylo is about to win, Chewie from the Falcon fires his bowcaster to keep Ren at bay and both Rey and Finn make it to the Falcon. This way we can keep Kylo Ren strong and show Rey struggling to overcome Kylo. It will also show This is how powerful he is when injured, so imagine him at his peak. Instead we get a pointless fight instead of Rey and Finn just escaping Starkiller base while Ren collapses due to injuries and Rey beating Kylo served no purpose(the end goal to destroy Starkiller Base was already accomplished) and helped derail their villain of the trilogy.

The lack of a Hero's Journey. Imagine the traditional Hero's journey but take away any growth or struggle. Just teleport to the end. That's Rey

Rey hugs Leia. Leia hugging Rey out of nowhere instead of Chewie just doesn’t work. Why is she hugging and grieving with someone she just met when Chewie is right there?

Everything TFA was building her up was instantly ignored. How Maz got the Skywalker lightsaber? Never mentioned again. How Rey was drawn to the Skywalker lightsaber and what the force vision was meant to mean? Never addressed. Rey says that she’s classified information, “none of your business” Then her parents are revealed as junk traitors who sold her for drinking money and died in Jakku. If her parents were just junkers, how did they afford that space ship if they spent the money on booze? All that build up for nothing. The force can come from anyone, we all feel it but you build Rey up only to do nothing with her.

Rey has no character arc in TLJ. Rey doesn’t learn anything and I don’t feel like she has a character arc or journey. She starts her journey in TFA and I was excited to learn where her character would go. And TLJ does nothing with Rey. I do love Rey, but I don’t feel like it truly tests Rey and forces her to grow as a character. Rey is intriguing and we care for her, but her journey feels non existent. Luke and Anakin had struggles and journeys. I just don’t feel it from Rey. While learning the truth is a struggle for Rey, she already knows. She knew her parents, it really is not that big of a reveal. I am really disappointed with how TLJ handles Rey. Rey doesn’t have any struggles. Rey is all powerful and she is the same character she is from TFA.

Rey has a connection and starts to trust Kylo Ren…when only ONE DAY passes since Kylo has tortured her, killed Han Solo, and injured Finn. Rey then seeks comfort in the same man who has done nothing but hurt her instead of Luke. There’s a difference between being “forgiving” and there’s being blindly gullible. She went from wanting to kill him to believing he’s “our last hope”….for reasons. If there were a time skip, I could understand this change of heart, but one day passes and suddenly there is a change of heart?

Rey’s stupidity in TLJ. Rey’s plan. Rey has some vision of Kylo Ren deciding to help her out and locks herself in a box to fly straight to him, with no escape plan or regard for her own safety. As bad as JJ chose to develop Rey, I will admit that Rey is adaptable. Rey makes plans and strategizes. She has been raised as a scavenger, working hard for every day of survival and fighting for every item in her possession. While Luke and Anakin throw caution to the wind in order to succeed, Rey keeps a level head and fights her way through things. TLJ acts like that version of Rey doesn’t exist. 

Rey and Kylo Ren displays “raw power” in the force and doesn’t use that raw power to end the Throne Room fight against The Praetorian Guards sooner than it should have ended, instead resulting in the absolute worst fight in Star Wars history. There is no tension in the scene and it is pointless. Kylo Ren and Rey are fighting a faceless a group of guards that we know absolutely nothing about and have literally no purpose in the entire story except for this one fight. We know neither of the characters are going to die because these are just faceless red shirts and there is still like 30 to 40 minutes left of the movie. There are times where you can tell that some of the guards are just waiting their turn to fight and in one shot the editor literally digitally removed a knife from one of the guard’s hands because it would make no sense why he didn’t just stab Rey. There are multiple times where Rey, Kylo and the guards are just doing motions and actions because they look cool but serve no purpose but to look cool. Kylo stabbing the ground? Pointless. Rey twirling her rave stick around while someone falls behind her, pointless. Another annoying thing is that both of the characters are acting like they don’t have monumentally strong force powers. Hell, both of them get into a force tug of war right after the fight. Kylo can freeze people in place and stop blaster fire in mid air. Not even  once do we see them displaying their powers is what cheapens the fight. Kylo Ren is powerful enough to freeze a blaster and a person in place and Rey herself unlocked Kylo’s powers, so the two of them could have easily ended the fight sooner than it was dragged out. Kylo is powerful in the force but he SERIOUSLY could not stop a Praetorian Guard choke holding him and Rey struggled with a guard? Rey and Kylo were stronger in TFA and are just made weaker in the duel with the Praetorian Guards. Kylo could have frozen half of the guards and Rey could have mind tricked the other half into killing the frozen guards and Kylo and Rey could have finished them. They are masters of light and darkness, but they are made weaker.

Rey openly trusts a murderer and a proven liar because “they touched hands” and is surprised that said lying murderer wants to kill her friends and the very cause she believed in and only used her to kill Snoke. Rey then openly believes that said lying murderer about her parents being nobodies who died on Jakku when Rey is seen visibly watching her parents fly away. Rey KNOWS who her parents are, she does not need to hear it from Kylo Ren. Here’s the thing. Rey never wanted her parents to be anyone special. Rey never thought or wanted her parents to be important in TFA, she was literally going to pass up adventure and being important to stay on Jakku because she wanted a family. She didn't want to be important, the audience wanted her to be. Rian Johnson couldn't tell the fucking difference.. Rey knew who her parents were, she did not need to hear it from Kylo Ren. She did not want or need her parents to be anyone special, she just wanted them home. Rey sure is willing to believe someone who has done nothing but lie and hurt her over and over again.

My big issue with how TLJ handles Rey, is she does not learn anything. She was awakened by Kylo’s mind melding and has his powers transferred to her, she doesn’t even earn her powers on her own, it’s all from Kylo. She has the powers of the man who's been trying to kill her and her friends, she doesn't learn anything on her own nor is it her own awakening. Your big feminist icon has to learn everything from a man that’s been harming her from day one. How empowering....please kill me. She doesn’t learn anything from Luke and she feels like the same character in The Force Awakens. We see Luke showing Rey to feel the force and the Jedi’s hubris. The third lesson was deleted, but we did not really get to see Luke train her as a Jedi. Rey doesn’t learn anything. In the end we see Rey has the sacred Jedi texts, but Yoda pointed out that those texts were holding back the Jedi and doesn’t teaches her what she doesn’t already know. SO in the end, Rey doesn’t learn anything and that’s the problem.

The lifting rocks scene. Rey lifting the big rocks like they’re pebbles without even a hint of struggling physically drives me insane in the worst way because even if she’s powerful, so was Yoda and Yoda had a problem lifting the debris to save Anakin and Obi-Wan. We see trained Jedi struggle to use the force in The Clone Wars and that was the Jedi AT THEIR PEAK. We see Ahsoka, Kanan and Ezra struggling to use the force successfully in Rebels. Luke Skywalker struggled to stack those couple of small rocks on Dagobah and couldn’t lift his X-wing out of the water either, which I think would be pretty comparable to the weight of all those boulders. I love Rey and I want her to be strong but holy shit was that just completely unbelievable to me, she wasn’t even breaking a sweat and the fact that her smiling and running to Finn didn't break her concentration and crushing anyone coming out of that cave is completely laughable. Just look at similar characters in similar situations who show struggle and what Rey should’ve looked like during the boulder scene.

Rey in TROS looks like nothing ever changed. The same type of outfit from The Force Awakens, the same Lightsaber and the same hairstyle. Like nothing ever happened or changed. Like nothing ever changed. God forbid Rey looks like a mix of a Jedi Knight and Resistance Leader, godforbid Rey builds her own lightsaber, especially a Saberstaff. It’s almost as if JJ and Lucasfilm are afraid to develop Rey as a character and let her look different at all….*sighs*

And the big problem is we are expected that Rey will learn everything off screen….that’s the problem. You cannot just have a character who can do all these amazing feats, show her not being trained as a Jedi and make her even more powerful in the final movie with no build up whatsoever. Luke had like 3 years after ESB to learn more to become a Jedi Knight. This is why there should have been time skips. Three years of training with Luke on Ach-To and they return to The Resistance. 5 years pass in between TLJ and TROS and Rey has become a Jedi master. Instead we are expected to believe Rey has learned everything in the Jedi Texts in just a year.

When we first see Rey in the movie, she is levitating with the rocks while meditating. Just...what the hell? In all 6 movies and in the clone wars. We witness Jedi meditating, but not once do we see them meditating with rocks all around them. This was basically JJ Abrams “Hey fuck you, you think Rey’s overpowered? Well too fucking bad” The first moment I saw this scene, I knew the movie was going to be complete and utter bullshit

Rey’s lack of empathy for BB-8′s injuries after dropping a tree on the droid

Rey thinks she needs to earn Anakin’s Lightsaber....despite being an overpowered demigod

Despite wielding the force, Rey uses a blaster on the Stormtroopers

Rey suddenly learns force healing after only a year? Force Healing takes a long time of learning, but Rey just knows it because the plot demands it

Instead of talking and realizing they are both being used by Palpatine, Rey constantly goes apeshit and fights Kylo Ren every chance she gets

Rey accidentally kills Chewbacca(oh but not really because JJ doesn’t wanna make Rey a morally grey character)

One fight with Zorri Bliss and they’re good.....okay, sure, fine.

Rey, Finn and Poe treat C-3PO nothing but contempt and annoyance and suddenly he “takes one last look at his friends”

Rey is now Palpatine’s granddaughter. No build up or hints, she’s suddenly NOW Palpatine’s granddaughter, you know Rey nobody worked better despite my problems with it. But no, JJ the man who literally only has a job because of his family won’t let anyone come from nothing and build themselves into being a hero, she has to be related to the literal Satan of this universe.

Rey faces her inner darkness and Dark!Rey her face looks like Pregnant Bella Swan and has shark teeth....I wish I weren’t making this bullshit up.

Despite Ben being emotionally distraught by Leia’s death, Rey uses this opportunity to kill him. But only being too late does she realize she did the wrong thing and heals him.

Rey tells Finn. “People keep telling me they know me. No one does” That’s the problem. It’s three movies, we still don’t know Rey. We don’t know her because the movies haven't taken the time to actually get us to know anything substantial about her. By movie three of both the OT and the PT, we already knew the major conflicts/obstacles and dilemmas that drove both Anakin and Luke to take the respective paths they were currently walking. By the third movie in the sequel trilogy I still don’t know what Rey’s motivations are, why she has stake in anything or why Rey is a nice person when she grew up on a planet like Jakku. We still know nothing about Rey and that’s a problem

Rey constantly treats her friends as afterthoughts and extra baggage 

Rey attempts to go to Ach-To to exile herself and suddenly Luke appears. This movie attempts to paint the picture that Luke and Rey had this great relationship. She even calls him “Master Skywalker” Rey and Luke did  not have a good relationship. They barely even fucking train for like 3 days. She slices a rock in half, looks at some books, then argues with Luke and runs away. Even in a deleted scene, their third lesson. Rey shows nothing but disgust in Luke. But now they are a loving master and padawan? SINCE FUCKING WHEN???????

Luke lifts Luke’s old X-Wing because nostalgia and Mark’s fuck you to Rian. And Rey flies it because JJ desperately wants Rey to be the female Luke Skywalker

Rey is able to destroy the Emperor. Palpatine has the ability to destroy ENTIRE SPACE FLEETS WITH FORCE LIGHTNING and somehow Rey is able to send it back to him and destroy him. “I am all the Jedi” bullfuckingshit

“I’m Rey...Rey Skywalker” Rey didn’t need to be a Palpatine or take the Skywalker name. This isn’t me hating on Rey. Rey can be a great character by standing on her own. Rey being related to NO ONE was powerful and shows us that even someone who came from Jakku can be a powerful Jedi. She doesn’t earn anything on her own. She downloaded all of Kylo’s abilities. She took the Falcon, she made Chewbacca her personal uber, she took BB-8 from Poe and buried Anakin and Leia’s lightsaber on the literal symbolic oppression of the Skywalker family instead of something peaceful like Naboo or Ach-To. She has her own Lightsaber, but never uses it. Rey being a Palpatine and taking the Skywalker name undoes the beautiful story the revelation TLJ had does. She didn’t need to be a Palpatine and she didn’t need to take the Skywalker name or even their relics. Rey Nobody works. Here’s why. Rey’s story is her own, it is not her parents, it is not about where she came from, it’s about where she is going, and who she decides to become. Maz Kanata said “The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is in front of you.” Rey in the TFA trailers said “I’m no one” Rey never thought or wanted her parents to be important in TFA, she was literally going to pass up adventure and being important to stay on Jakku because what she wanted was her family to finally come home. She didn't want to be important or wanted her parents to be important. The audience wanted that. Any more lingering discussion of the possibility of Rey’s parents being ‘somebody’ only is distracting you from the actually beautiful story that is being told. Rey is a story of a girl who raised herself, who held onto hope for people who didn’t deserve it, she is a story of how light can be born from darkness, and Rey is story of someone who was scared of her own truth—but then finally faced it. Rey being a Nobody is the story I was skeptical of at first, but grew to love, the story that gives me more hope than any Rey Skywalker or Rey Solo story ever would. Rey calling herself "Rey Skywalker" was so forced and unnecessary because all the whiny pissants did not like that a girl was skilled and powerful in her own right and because Rey did not have a good relationship with Luke in the first place. JJ was so set in just making Rey a Luke clone that it just undoes character development. If Rey had to take a name, Solo or Organa would make the most sense since she actually had a relationship with Han, Leia and Ben. Say what you want about how RIan Johnson handled Rey in TLJ. At least he treated Rey like her own person, with her own journey, and her own desires and fears, rather than consigning her to be a vessel for OT nostalgia. And at least he allowed her to actually have a new outfit and new hair style. At least he let her change. Like him or not, Rian Johnson treated Rey with more respect and identity than JJ Abrams ever did. It means more than making her related to anyone because Rey was every lonely girl who wanted to be a part of something but didn't feel like they belonged. Every woman who learned to make her way in the world alone. Every person who clung to hope when they had nothing left. She is so many things to so many people. Rey Nobody can be fierce, angry and powerful without it connecting to a man or evil bloodline. She can love, be curious and emotional without being weak. She is a scavenger, a Jedi, and one half of a powerful Dyad. She is Rey of Jakku and that's all we needed. Rey calling herself a Skywalker denied her every last inch of who she was. Her character arc was ruined to please men that thought her power needed to be connected to a man for it to make sense. All we needed her arc to be was Rey accepting that she needs to be her own hero and loving herself for who she is, rather than who she wanted her hypothetical parents to be. And honestly Rey in TROS was a huge disappointment. Her entire character arc was regressed, she's back to wearing the buns and dressed all in white and sticks to the glorification of the Jedi. It's like everything she learned in the last movie never happened. And honestly her character in TROS  is what men think a "strong female character" is She fights, but they don’t have to deal with her processing internal pain. She loves, but they don’t have to deal with her fully exploring her desires. She’s a “badass,” & for them that is enough. When I say "A Palpatine is left and steals the legacy of the Skywalkers" I am not suggesting she doesn't deserve the title. I am saying that essentially, Palpatine won. Anakin, Padme, Luke, Han, Leia and Ben are all dead. Leia died for nothing. Leia deserved to see her son come home, and to see the end of the monster who ruined her family. She didn’t deserve to feel her child die. The entire line of the family is now extinct. The wiki even says "the extinction of the family name" what kind of depressing garbage is this? JJ Abrams ended the entire Skywalker saga on Palpatine successfully using love to manipulate, corrupt, hurt or kill every single Skywalker across three generations, ultimately resulting in the total eradication of the Skywalker, Solo and Amidala bloodlines, whilst Palpatine's heir lives on and claims the Skywalker name and legacy. Rey calling herself "Rey Skywalker" was patronizing and insulting and demeans what Rey's journey meant in the first two movies to everyone who loved her. Rey coming from Jakku and nothing but rising up as a heroic Jedi means more than "you have his power...you are a Palpatine" or "Rey Rey Skywalker" ever will. Women Of The Galaxy author Amy Ratcliffe says it best. “Even beyond the trappings of the Star Wars saga — the First Order, the Resistance, the Force — Rey’s story is inspiring, familiar, and timeless. Just because you come from nothing doesn’t mean you’re not part of the story. You’re not no one, because anybody can save the galaxy. Anybody.“

Compare Rey and Luke’s journeys in ANH and TFA. Rey wanders around and stuff is handed to her. Luke takes initiative and works for what he has. Let's compare ANH with TFA

Luke screws up on watching R2, then chooses to chase him down. He makes another mistake by spying on the Tusken Raiders instead of getting the hell out of dodge. This leads to him being knocked out, and rescued by Ben Kenobi.

Luke initiates the meeting with Ben Kenobi, and it happens because of his early bad decisions.

His aunt & uncle are killed, but thanks to his screw-up with R2 & the raiders, he and the droids are spared.

He chooses to follow Kenobi to Alderaan instead of staying on Tattooine.

He chooses to accept Kenobi's instruction in the ways of the Force, even though most people think it's a myth and a joke. Even though he's bad at it and doesn't seem to get any results at first.

He makes the decision that they're going to rescue Leia, potentially dooming their escape from the Death Star. This sets off a chain of events that leads to Kenobi's death.

Then he chooses to help fight the Death Star, even though he's not a member of the rebellion. He was offered a job with Han, and he could have ensured his safety by leaving with them. Instead he chose certain death.

Finally, he chooses to trust a literal voice in his head instead of the targeting computer.

Let's contrast that with Rey.

BB-8 runs into her. She tries to send him away, but relents and lets him follow her home.

She chooses not to sell him for food.

Finn wanders into camp on his own initiative.

The camp is attacked because BB-8 is there. The camp would have been attacked no matter what Rey did. The other scavenger was, I'm pretty sure, from the same camp. And if she'd sold him, BB-8 would also have still been in the camp.

She is forced to take the Millennium Falcon when the ship she wanted to use was blown up.

She chooses to go with Finn and bring BB-8 to the Rebellion Resistance.

She stumbles upon Luke's lightsaber, and runs away from it.

She accidentally runs into Kylo Ren while hiding in the forest.

He chooses to kidnap her because he senses something special about her.

After her first exposure to the Force, she learns how to use some of it, successfully, and escapes from Ren. And to her credit, escaping and trying the Force out is a choice she made, rather than something that passively happened to her.

Then she, um, is standing there when Han is killed.

She chooses to fight Kylo Ren, and beats him in her first lightsaber battle after closing her eyes and thinking about the Force.

She sort of chooses to go summon Luke back to civilization - I say sort of because it's not clear why she was picked to go over, say, Leia.

Luke makes mistakes, and he is an active participant in his story. Rey is just kind of there, most of the time. She doesn't make mistakes, but she doesn't really do much else.

Here is a thought, what are Rey’s motivations?

Rey wants to find her parents.

Rey wants to do the right thing.

Wants to bring back Luke Skywalker

Rey wants to find her place 

She wants to suck Ben’s tiddies. Wants Ben to return to the light, home and to call off the fleet

Has no real motivation to be on either side of the conflict, but chooses The Resistance anyway

Says she wants to kill Palpatine in cold blood, was close to giving in

What are Anakin's motivations?

Wants to leave a life of slavery and come back and free his mother

Wants to become a Jedi and become a hero

Wants to protect Padme

Wants to save Obi-Wan

Wants to stop Dooku and end the war before it can begin

Wants to be a good master to Ahsoka

Wants to clear Ahsoka’s name

Wants to stop the war

Wants to save Padme and his children's lives at the cost of the Jedi and doing whatever it takes and becomes Darth Vader

What are Luke’s motivations?

Luke is a farm boy who dreams of leaving his mundane life.

Luke discovers that his father -unlike what his uncle told him, was a heroic Jedi Knight

Luke, is reluctant and refuses the ‘call to adventure’, but after the Empire murders his Aunt and Uncle, he decides to Join Obi-Wan on the quest.

Save the Princess

Luke is angered by Obi-Wan’s death at the hands of Darth Vader, and seeks retribution.

Destroy the Death Star and save the Rebellion

To be trained by Yoda

Save Han and Leia

Luke discovers his father, the heroic Jedi, is none other than Darth Vader. After years of training, he sets out to redeem his father and turn him back to the light.

Rey has no personal stake in this war or motivations and she’s supposed to be the main protagonist.

Rey has never left Jakku before TFA and she tells Han that ”she never knew so much green existed” when they go to Maz’s castle.

In other words Rey must have had very limited knowledge of the world outside of Jakku and all she has heard from it are stories.

Rey who barely knows anything about the rest of the galaxy, to the point that she didn’t even know that forests existed what exactly is her personal stake in the current galactic conflict?

In TFA we saw The New Republic’s capital systems blown up by Starkiller Base and we never saw a reaction from Rey. We do see Finn and Han’s reactions. Also worth noting about Rey is that if she was unconscious throughout her involuntary travel to the Starkiller Base she was never actually aware of the Starkiller Base until just before Han, Finn and Chewie started planting the explosions in order to sabotage it.

Luke while he had no personal attachments to Aldeeran did actually get to see the horrible aftermaths of it’s destruction.

But Rey was barely affected by the destruction of the Capital systems. Most characters were not as affected as they should have been in my opinion but we didn’t even get to see her have an emotional reaction to it.

This was probably the greatest genocide in Star Wars history and our main hero is unaffected by it? Finn has a reaction to it and he’s supposedly NOT the main protagonist?

Rey really has no reason to care about the state of the galaxy. She only seems to care if people she knows are in danger.

The fact that she is supposed to be our main hero of this trilogy when she has next to no personal stakes in the well-being of the rest of the galaxy feels wrong to me.

Finn actually has stakes in this conflict since the FO took his family and childhood away from him and Poe has stakes because he actually lives in the New Republic and doesn’t want it to be under FO’s rule. Yet neither Finn nor Poe are considered the main protagonist? But oh wait, I forgot we can’t have a black or Latino man be the leading protagonist in Star Wars

The big issue I have with Rey as a character is she is a boring, lazily written character with a complete lack of development, barely any motivations and not a believable protagonist.

Rey is not allowed to have flaws or personal struggles or has a real hero’s journey. Which is disappointing because I truly loved having Star Wars be centered around a female lead and feel like it’s a missed opportunity. It’s not Daisy’s fault, I feel like the blame lies with Disney. I’m not sure if Disney got cold feet with a female protagonist and felt they would get backlash if they made her character naturally flawed but it’s storytelling 101 to have your protagonist faced with problems that aren’t easy to overcome and correlate to said flaws. Instead we got a hero who faces no real consequences, has no real goals, and can defeat everything in her path with abysmal training. Which ultimately makes for an extremely uninteresting hero. No hard training, no real consequences, no real flaws, no struggles or not even an arc and everything is handed to her. It just makes Episode IX predictable and boring. There is just not a reason to care to see what will happen with Rey. Finn and Poe are what’s keeping this trilogy alive, Finn had the most development in TFA, but someone decided "We can't have Finn be the protagonist of this trilogy", so they sabotaged his character the moment Finn uttered the word "sanitation" and reduced him to the black comic relief in the next movie. Poe is the one person with the most development and shows heroism in TLJ and someone decided "we can't have Poe be the hero of the trilogy" and proceeded to demonize and belittle Poe throughout the entire movie. The point is Finn and Poe had the most potential and their potential was squandered to prop up Rey as the protagonist of the trilogy when no one has a reason to root for Rey. Disney just failed Rey as a character.

#Anti Rey #Anti TFA #Anti JJ Abrams #Anti TLJ #Anti Rian Johnson #Star Wars #Rey

[coe-lilium]

TroS reaction (1st view)

Necessary premise in bullet points:

- I liked TFA when it came out and still do but as I dug into the franchise/canon (Disney only by choice) my enjoyment of it became more lukewarm. Came out of it dreading a potential Reylo but liking the two charas on their own. 

- went into TLJ worried I’d hate it, came out with it being my favorite saga movie and sold on the Rey-Ren connection, whatever road it would’ve taken. Loved the “Rey’s powerful on her own/bc the Force wants to set Kylo’s wrongs right”. It felt good after two years of being bombarded with “this fucking Mary Sue can have any power only if she’s connected to powerful men of the saga, she has otherwise no right in being powerful” in forums spaces.    

- went into TroS non-spoiled, wary of Palpatine return but relatively hopeful if soured about the “JJ our lord and saviour pleease save us from evil evil Jonhson” (HA!). The rumors about lore from the tv series being featured into the movie had me excited.  

That said, here goes: [SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MOVIE, ENDING INCLUDED, RIGHT OFF THE BAT]

I didn’t like it. I really hope to warm up to it more in future views, there’s absolutely stuff I liked or even loved, but as it stands now it was overall a massive disappointment on many sides and -worst of all- threatens to retroactively ruin my enjoyment in other previous stories. 

First, the positives: 

- Parentage notwithstanding, Rey was good. Her rage, her fears, her good heart, her commitment to the fight and the training, her longing for guidance… truly, if the bloodline revelation hadn’t retroactively ruined my investment in the character and themes I’d have fully, 100% loved her even if every single other part of the movie had been the same. 

Except for a brief war flashback to Starkiller game abilities (I lolled) I wasn’t even troubled by all the new abilities or their scope. Movies’ been inventing new powers since the beginning and the Force does what the Force wants. Again, fuck the genetics “twist”, garbage stuff. 

- Kylo, next to… 95% that involved him? TLJ did a great job selling him to me and surprisingly this movie added to that instead of retconning it away. More competent but still stupid and petty from time to time. I’m glad he came back, glad he choose right and glad he was allowed more time on the right side than Anakin. I love redemptions and he was portrayed as wavering the entire trilogy, I don’t even really care that it could’ve done better. I’m happy for him and his family, that’s all. The kiss got a laugh out me but not a malicious one, I was kind of running out of reasonable reactions by then. 

I’m just conflicted on how I feel about his death. Back when TFA was released I wanted him to survive to face what Anakin didn’t: justice (the kid-friendly setting prevented a death sentence anyway), atonement and growth from there, I still wish it happened and maintain that a different pacing would’ve allowed it. On the other hand, I’m also kinda okay with him dying. He righted at least a bit of his many wrongs, he saved a person he cared for, that his parents cared for and that could help the galaxy much more than he ever could and he was at peace. It was a good death.      

- Kylo’s vision/illusion of Han. A surprise but a very pleasant, well acted one. Would’ve I maybe liked Anakin more, as Ben idolized him so much and for all the wrong reasons and because I love that disaster? Yes. Does Han work much better in the economy of the movie and trilogy story and do he and Ben have a much rawer relationship and history? Absolutely. I am a teeny tiny bit baffled as  for why Luke didn’t also show up, but the actual scene was good enough I forgive it.  

- Rey and Kylo bond and connection was one of the saving graces of this mess and I utterly loved it. Both actors worked their asses for for all their scenes and it payed off, oh if it payed off. Their DSII duel was perhaps a tad long but great nonetheless (Republic era Jedi jumps!), the hurt and the sense of absolute loss and grief they both conveyed -and shared!- after Leia’s passing was incredible, Rey regretting the near kill and softly going “I would have stayed, had you renounced the dark side”. She cared, yes, but not to the point of ignoring the horrors (something Anakin never quite understood). The “dyad” stuff was a bit overkill, just call it a force bond, we can see it’s freaking powerful, but the Force Skype and sharing of objects that came with the package, that I loved. Surprise lightsaber, Ren fuckers! :D Bet Anakin and Obi Wan were really jealous, that would’ve come in handy during the war.       

- Finn was now fully invested in the cause, at ease, visibly happy to be with his friends, ready to bond and reach out, quick to plan, to act and to adapt to the situation, brave but cautious and calculating. I wish it was given a bit more focus, but I loved he found other young FO defectors. Also fuck yeah, he’s force sensitive and his ability is used, not just thrown in as a useless wink. Jedi Finn in future material, c’mon!

- Poe’s also grown. He was probably going to have more screen time with Leia had Carrie not died but there was nothing to be done for that. I’m not as happy as for previous 3 charas for the backstory retcon I’ll tackle in the negatives.

- Jannah was cool, the addiction of other FO defectors a welcomed one and the scene were she and Finn excitedly went over their “I broke free” moment was adorable. Good bean, I’d read more about her and her company. 

- A bit lot annoyed at Bloodline being kinda tossed outta the window but getting Leia with lightsaber was nice. Give me some ancillary material to deal with the clash and I’ll fully forgive it. 

- Jedi! MY GIRL AHSOKA MY MAN KANAN! I mean, I sure wish they were in a better movie, but hey, recognition for something more than the OT? No slandering of the Order but all of them collectively kicking Sidious ass once and for all? I’ll gladly take it. Anakin, my dude, I’m sorry your sacrifice was next to nullified but it was good to hear you again ;_;  I didn’t hear Ezra’s voice anywhere so I can still hope he’s alive, well and with the Ascendancy teaching all their Navigators. “I am all the Jedi” remains a terrible line. 

And now, oh boi. Here comes the long list of annoying - bad - stinking shit stuff: 

- If I wanted to watch a 2 and half long videogame cutscenes I’d have done that in the comfort of my home without spending money for tickets. Go to level x to retrieve related macguffin, move to next level to get next macguffin and so on and so on. I liked close to everything in the DS II sequences, but what would’ve that dagger pointed at if the wreckage had fallen even a little bit differently?   

In general, many plot points gave me the feeling they were stolen from the tv series and badly executed, like a mockery (or incompetence?). Case in point: Hux betraying the 1st Order out of personal, spiteful hate? Potentially good! The execution? A poor man’s Rebels Agent Kallus, already over in little more than 5minutes. 

- Palpatine himself is a poorly, ridiculously poorly executed Maul resurrection storyline from tcw and rebels. 

Because Maul was 1. explained and 2. got a good, long arc that made you forgive the undoubtably contrived ass-pull it took to bring him back while Sidious is just… there. You gotta accept it because the writer said so. 

How did he survive? We don’t know and fuck you if you expect an explanation (they really had the absolute galls to have him say the iconic/meme line from Rots and apparently it was supposed to be enough?!) How could he “have all Sith reside inside me” when canon’s clear that Sith do-not-get-to-retain-their-individuality-in-the-Force, do not work well together (lmao) and he as an individual never gave a shit about the Sith except when they could serve his own personal desires? His entire approach to the rule of two and other Sith stuff is “fuck that noise, everything in the galaxy exist to serve me”. He’s fine dying as long as “the Sith rule”? Who IS this character, because he’s not Darth Sidious (as presented in Disney’s own canon, mind). Oh, you wanted explanations? FUCK YOU, screams the movie. 

The mess gets somehow salvaged in the end as he comes to his senses and siphon the life out of Rey and Ben to de-rotten/revive himself to rule in person, now *that* was in character. Was he actually lying his ass off the entire time waiting for the moment he could siphon them? Hopefully but who the hell even knows.

In the end it just wasn’t worth bring him back. A holocron, a different Sith, even a hive-mind of old records/tainted wraiths of Sith (perhaps wearing Palps face to buy the old empire aficionados loyalty, idk) would’ve been better than “actually, Anakin suffered nearly his entire life and sacrificed himself for barely more than 25 years of peace and it still wasn’t enough to rid the galaxy of the monster who destroyed his and countless other lives”. But Johnson was the one shitting on beloved characters legacy and accomplishments, uh? Surely at least he’s got company. 

Ian was clearly having a blast, so there was… that? And the initial sequence being legit creepy and the Sith storm or whatever the fuck was that. That can stay, it was cool.     

- Poe, the latino character, got retconned from former Republic pilot (a backstory established before TFA came out and faithfully respected ever since) into a smuggler and gang member. Classy. What does Lucaslfilm have a story group for if not for stopping stuff like this from happening? Bonus Zorii being used for a “no homo! homo? no homo?” wink wink and for generally being a poor man Solo’s Qi’ra.   

- The movie makes you worry for a character death three (3) times in a row only to immediately backpedal on it. The survivors are grieving, the scene is sober… and then suddenly! they’re alive! isn’t it wonderful? let’s insert a comical scene now that we’re at it! Sigh.   

- The whole Threepio stuff was a contrived waste of time in a movie already full of more relevant plot treads that could’ve put that screen time to better use. 

- Rey’s parents apparently aren’t assholes anymore bc they sold her into slavery to protect her from Sidious, which is… supposed to make it alright, a sacrifice in the name of love? If they had been shown trying to give her to a trusted person and then she was kidnapped that wouldn’t had been their fault, just unfortunate, but the movie shows them leaving their 5yo daughter with her in-all-but-name slaver so?? 

- Rey Palpatine… Rey. Palpatine. Gesù Cristo benedetto che minchia mi è toccato di vedere. That hurt. That was so hilariously over the top bad I just…I started laughing. On top of the entire thing, thank you so, soo much for validating all those fucking assholes who demanded Rey be connected to a powerful man in the saga to accept her powers and value, you hack. Jedi were never about power of blood and then you went and reinforced the very opposite. She ain’t powerful bc the Force recognized her as worthy to stop evil and chose to aid her anymore, she’s powerful bc grandfather was. Lovely stuff. Hilariously, now she has a lot more legit “Mary Sue” traits than before. 

- Rose’s sidelining was a blatant bow to her and her actress haters whims. If in VIII she jumped at the chance of action, now she was fearful and “had to stay behind” studying maps. Fuck that noise. 

- Even if she rejected it, underline is that the Skywalker line is wiped out and the Palpatine one thrives. I… just… wtf wtf wtf. A final “Just Rey” would’ve been more powerful -because now it would’ve been reclaimed- and less corny and in poor taste than a Palpatine taking on the Skywalker name. I’m not sure if Sidious is more offended or if he’s laughing his ass off in space!hell. Probably the 2nd. Bad.      

- The final scene on Tatooine. It rang so empty because the planet brings warm memories only to the audience, not the characters. In-universe, that place brought nothing but misery to the Skywalkers: Anakin and Shmi were brought there as slaves and lived as such for years, Shmi was tortured to death and Anakin began his descent into the dark for crying out loud. Luke had to hide and saw his relatives murdered. Leia had no connection whatsoever to the place. The mera idea of burying Anakin Skywalker lightsaber into the sands of Tatooine and considering it a way of paying respect is… I don’t know, hilariously in bad taste? Rey, dear, what did you have personally against the guy? Put those sabers to rest on Naboo! Ah, but we can’t truly acknowledge the PT now, can we? Wack.   

- It’s not TroS complete fault, that “honor” mostly sit at TFA’s feet but for all its omages, copies and almost slavish references, from a in-universe point of view it’s like the OT barely occurred. 

The same evil man has been defeated (until next time?), the Republic must be rebuilt from scratch, a evil military is all over the place and must be dealt with, the Jedi Order has to be rebuilt… it’s depressing. A new evil taking advantage of the empire leftovers would’ve been one thing, but Sidious? He’s been effectively winning nonstop ever since he was elected Chancellor. He had all the power, all the influence, all the control and he maintained it all even as a rotten corpse in exile, the entire galaxy marching on his tune, controlled by his strings. And as the cherry on top of the cake he even managed to wipe out the family that could’ve, should have been his undoing! He effectively destroyed the Skywalkers. He outlived every Jedi, every survivor, every clone. I hate this. It’s sickening. I can’t even be happy Rex was on Endor anymore.      

In general, the best word I can find for this movie is: coward. 

So blatantly desperate to please, to be “forgiven”, to reference every single irrelevant thing -except the PT and the TV series in a intelligent way-, to throw fanservice after fanservice after fanservice no matter how nonsensical from all over that crossed the “corny” to wander into embarrassing territory many times over (Maz giving Chewie a medal outta nowhere? Come the fuck on now). 

The cartoon series had twenty time the guts of this movie and I vehemently wish for Filoni to take the helm of the entire creative team in a very near future.                  

#tros spoilers #sw tros #star wars #star wars spoilers #tros negative #the more i think about sidious the more it sickens me #tros negativity

[sweetengineerenemy-blog]

Stop Trying To Eliminate Flaws from the character of Rey.

She’s only a Mary Sue if you’re covering your ears and eyes.

Here’s what is probably an ‘Old Hot Take’:

You know what’s been grinding my gears... Folks who assume that every time Rey cries in front of ‘Kylo Ren’ it’s because she’s distressed about him and focused on his affect on her.

This is- to put it frankly- such utter weird, vaguely-misogynist, reductive bullshit. I will allow this interpretation of her tears on Takodana (she’s ‘powerless’ and terrified), I will even give you the beginning of the Starkiller interrogation (more of the same), but if you think my badass-survivor Force-prodigy homegirl was weepy over how some boy thought about her after that??? After she came into her own and turned those tables? I don’t know what to even tell you.

Each time Rey cried in TLJ it was due to her confronting her own internalized issues.

Yes, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo isn’t the most nurturing advisor or the smoothest wordsmith (put mildly), but he only told her the truth. She wasn’t ever really confronting him, she was confronting herself.

Rey as a character is founded on a denial of her own truths. It’s part of her set of flaws and what makes her an actually well-rounded ‘strong female protagonist’. She buries the truth about her parents and childhood, AND the truth about her being ‘somebody’- being someone who can be a hero in her own right *. 

You take that away from her each time you see her tears as being fueled by whatever the fuck Kylo/Ben says. 

Personally, I find it extremely irritating to see people interpreting a woman physically expressing her emotions as being only reactive. The fucked up implication being that a woman who is dealing with her own demons will not react with raw physicality unless there is some kind of audience. 

Additionally, their mutual force-bond (the possible result of their dual-mind-probe) I think is the real catalyst for her finally confronting reality. She never believed anyone before him because she was never had to really look at herself from the outside. But then, their wires got crossed. They both had led such internal lives- lonely and living inside their own heads- and then BAM they got all jumbled up together with some crazy Force-Juju. She can’t help but to be forced out of her own bullshit. Evicted from her own mind fortress if you will. ...My feelings about the effect this had on Ben is a whole ‘nother essay. But suffice to say, this mutual brain-scramble of two of the most powerful Force users in decades has powerful and interesting implications for both of their characters. 

* IMHO: This is something that I think Rian Johnson was trying to express in a very nuanced and interesting way which I think went over a lot of heads. People couldn’t see past Luke Skywalker as The Hero and thus missed what was presented as the middle of Rey’s journey to see herself as ~A Hero~. She doubted her own power throughout the movie seeking Luke to be ~the Hero~ and then turning to Ben to be ~the Hero~ which also wasn’t ever going to work. Thus, Rian perfectly set her up to understand her capacity to be *A Hero* for the next film.

#sw #rey #ben solo/kylo ren #fandom wank #the last jedi #the force awakens #and whatever comes next #rian johnson made the most feminist star wars #dont @ me #star wars #taken perhaps too seriously

[red-applesith]

I love your blog and I have a question. What do you think is going on with Luke's old lightsabre? I'm afraid it means their bond is severed.

Hi, anon! Thanks for enjoying my brain farts. Sorry, it took me so long to respond, but I have many thoughts about the lightsaber, and I tried to summarise as best as I can.

First, I’m going to postulate that on a meta level, the Skywalker lightsaber represents Star Wars itself and the place of the person wielding it inside the narrative of the saga.

WHAAAAAT? I hear you asking. That’s not what my question is about! I know, I know, but let me explain because it means an awful lot for Reylo. :P (You’ll see, it will all make sense.)

2015, The Force Awakens brings back Star Wars. For ten years the franchise has been “locked away” in  Lucasfilm’s basement the same way the Skywalker lightsaber has been locked away in Maz’s castle.

Maz Kanata: I’ve had this for ages. Kept it locked away.[hands Solo Luke’s lightsaber]Han Solo: Where did you get that?Maz Kanata: A good question - for another time.

Translation: We don’t have time for useless backstory, we’ll keep that for tie-in materials.

Force Awakens introduces new characters, never seen before: Rey, a scavenger and Finn, a stormtrooper. Both are without parents, which leads to wild speculation from fans.

Who are they?

Why are they here?

Star Wars is about the Skywalker family, always been, so it means they have to be linked one way or another to the Skywalker legend, right?

Otherwise, what place do they hold in Star Wars?

Apparently for some fans, none.

The movie also introduces Kylo Ren, formerly known as Ben Solo, who turns out to be the legitimate heir to the Star Wars legacy. The problem is, He’s one of the baddies. Shock and horror!

Back to the story: The Skywalker lightsaber calls to Rey, but she freaks out and refuses to answer the call to adventure and runs away.

[to Rey] That lightsaber was Luke’s. And his father’s before him. And now, it calls to you.

Translation: The Star Wars saga was about Luke, and his father before him. And now, it’s about you.

While in the forest, she meets Kylo Ren. Ultimately, the Force awakens in her thanks to this fateful encounter.

Translation: Here is our heroine and, whether you like it or not, her narrative intertwines with Kylo Ren’s (He is what narratively drives her right back into the story after she refuses the call to adventure). Hold your horses before screaming that it’s reducing Rey to a plot device; there’s more to come.

Interestingly enough, after Rey ran away, Finn is literally handed Star Wars when Maz tasks him to bring the Skywalker’s lightsaber to Rey.

Maz Kanata [To Finn]: Take it. Find your friend.

Translation: Your role within the story is to support Rey. In Star Wars, you are instrumental in her success. Hold your horses before screaming that it’s erasing Finn; there’s more to come.

That’s why the fight on Starkiller is so amazing; it’s a fight for the control of Star Wars. Of course, we know that the answer is that Star Wars now belongs to Finn, Rey and Kylo, but this is how the story unfolds:

[Finn wields Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber]Kylo Ren: That lightsaber… It belongs to me.

Translation: I am the rightful heir to Star Wars. This story is about me.

Finn: Come get it.

Translation: Yeah? You better earn your place in that narrative then! It’s not because you are the son of two main characters that you deserve to be the focal point of the story.

And for a brief instant, Kylo Ren succeeds. For a short moment, he’s about to “win” the legacy battle. He’s the centre of the Star Wars saga. Until the Skywalker lightsaber ‘slips through his fingers’ (flies past him) to end up in Rey’s hand.

Translation: You forgot about something kid, your Skywalker heritage doesn’t give you a free pass. It’s Rey’s story as much as yours. We’re not going to make it easy for you.

What follows is a beautiful fight in the snow, chock-full of raw emotion and symbolism and at the end, Rey uses Ren’s legacy against him: She “steals” his knowledge of the Force and uses his moves and the weapon of his family against him.

He ends up deeply wounded yet strangely fascinated. Rey leaves confused but stronger; and when the Resistance decides to send her to Ahch-To, she finally accepts the call to adventure.

Translation: Rey, you have earned your place in our narrative by embracing what the Skywalker saga been about so far. Go, girl! Kylo, you’re a total mess, and Rey is more deserving than you to be a Skywalker.

By rejecting a side of your family/history, you lost the central place in our narrative, but we didn’t kill you because there is hope for you. You have two movies to get your shit together or to mess up so badly that the Skywalker will go extinct.

NOW, LET’S EXAMINE THE LAST JEDI.

Allow me to get poetic here: Picture J.J. Abrams, wearing Jedi Robes handing over the Skywalker Lightsaber to Rian.

“Here. Star Wars is yours now. Go play with it.”

And the first thing that Rian does is to take his toolbox and take the lightsaber apart.

What is it made of?

What part goes where?

Do I need all the parts for it to work?

How can I make my own lightsaber?

For the second instalment of a series, you want to shake things up, push the characters further. And that’s what Rian does.

The film starts; Rey hands the Skywalker lightsaber to Luke, who looks at it dramatically before throwing it away.

Translation: I’m not the main guy anymore, why are you trying to bring me back into this shit?

The fact that this time it’s Luke who refuses the call to adventure is funny and unpredictable. It also leads Rey to question her place in the narrative because she took the mantle of Star Wars and she expects to follow Luke’s Steps.

Rey: I need someone to show me my place in all of this.

Translation: If I’m not here to be a Skywalker, what am I? Who am I? Why did the writers bring me here for? Aren’t you supposed to hand Star Wars to me?

And the thing is, Rey’s origins have been at the heart of all Star Wars speculations for two years, so the audience demands answers as much as Rey. And they want her to be this big, never-failing hero because girls have to be absolutely perfect because our society is too sexist to let them be just humans. To the MRAs she’s a Mary-Sue, to the toxic social justice activists, she’s nothing but a precious cinnamon roll who becomes a victim as soon as something remotely dangerous or sexy happens to her.

After Luke’s introduction, the next big scene where the Skywalker lightsaber makes its apparition is that funny scene where we see Rey training.

First, she’s using her staff, because that’s her trademark weapon, then she looks at the Skywalker lightsaber, picks it up and starts playing with it. And if you pay attention she’s not wielding it elegantly; she’s just waving it around until she slices the rock, destroying the Caretaker’s wheelbarrow.

Translation: I want to be part of this story even if Luke doesn’t want me to be, but right now no one takes me seriously, and it hurts.

There’s also a lot to say about why she’s waving the lightsaber like a metaphorical… well… you know what. I mean… And why Luke and the nuns are looking at her disapprovingly for wielding a phallic object on the island, but I’ll keep that for another meta.

Rey: I felt something… it awakened, but now I need to know how to wield it.

Translation: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Now, let’s jump to the fight in the Throne room because Rian successfully managed to make a brilliant Star Wars movie without that much Star Wars in it so we don’t see the Glowing Sticks of Skywalker Legacy as much as in Force Awakens.

Luke being an ass, Rey turned to Kylo Ren to find answers. In turn, Kylo found in Rey his counterpart, his equal and his dream to be loved and accepted for who he is (But since in this movie he believes he’s a monster, the relationship is kinda doomed from the start). The silver lining is that he also found the motivation to get rid of his abuser.

Rey ships herself to the First Order, holding the Skywalker lightsaber very close to her heart.

In the elevator, Rey and Kylo have a quick conversation about what they saw when they touched hands. Both saw the other “turning.”

REY: Ben, when we touched hands, I saw your future.  Just the shape of it, but solid and clear.  You will not bow before Snoke.  You’ll turn. I’ll help you.  I saw it.

Translation: I think I finally understand what my place in this narrative is. I’m here to be the heroine who will bring Ben “You’re-my-only-hope” Solo home and everyone is going to love me for it. Also, I hope the audience understands that I’m not your sister because I want to climb you like a tree.

The next thing, they’re standing in front of Snoke, who is being a creepy, manipulative mofo as usual. Note: if you hadn’t caught up on the sexual predator subtext of Snoke in the Force Awakens, I hope you finally opened your eyes because it wasn’t subtle at all and I was like a 3-year-old watching a pantomime, crying and shouting at Snoke to leave Rey alone.

Immediately Snoke takes the Skywalker lightsaber away from her and reveals that “he’s the one who bridged their minds together.” He even goes as far as bumping her head with it like we’re in a cartoon.

She tries to take control of Kylo’s weapon instead and is denied that power too.

Translation: I’m making Star Wars about myself. I’m the important one. Me! Me! Me! It’s all about me. I deny my apprentice his true heritage, I deny your right to live in this story. You’re both pawns, and I’m going to use and discard you as I please.

In the meantime, Kylo is finding the resolve to kill his master. When he strikes, it’s with the lightsaber that belongs to the side of the family he’s been trying to reject for so long. He’s embracing the truth that is his family. And in a poetic, climatic turn of event, he floats the lightsaber into Rey’s hand so they can fight together.

Translation: I have the same flirting skills as grand-daddy: when I fancy a girl I float stuff to her, but lightsabers are way cooler than pears. Also, I’ve changed my mind since Force Awakens; you can definitely share my story, and maybe my bed.

During the fight, the non-stop swapping and sharing of weapons is not only highly erotic but also symbolic of that shared destiny/story, and it’s no coincidence that their last conversation becomes so meta.

Everyone and their mother has been latching onto Kylo’s harsh words towards Rey’s parentage to say he’s gaslighting her into accepting his marriage proposal but Rian spoke up about that and I’m not going to repeat the obvious.

Instead, I want to talk about Rey trying to take control of the lightsaber because it’s significant of where her character can go.

(Anon, I’m going to address your question finally!)

For an instant, she looks tempted to take his hand but then, she calls for the lightsaber.

REY: Ben?

Translation: I’ve started to develop feelings for you, but they’re not strong enough for me to give up my life, my friends and my dreams. I misunderstood the vision. I thought it was my role to save you and “bring back hope” to the galaxy. You say I have no place in this story if I’m not a Skywalker or if I don’t become your better half, but I don’t believe in that.

Perhaps the audience expects in this instant that she’s going to grab the weapon and strike Kylo Ren because he was the bad guy all along. But that’s not how it plays. Unexpectedly the Skywalker lightsaber REFUSES to fly into her hand as it did in the previous movie and the Force once more separates Rey and Kylo Ren.

Translation: We’re not done yet. We have another movie to make. Come back in two years.

The lightsaber makes its last apparition at the very end. Rey is holding the broken pieces and speaks with Leia

Rey: Luke is gone.  I felt it.  But it wasn’t sadness or pain, it was peace.  And purpose.

Leia: I felt it too.

Rey: How can we build the rebellion from this?

Leia: We have everything we need.

The last frame looks as pretty as a Renaissance tableau. End of the movie.

So, wait a minute you’re going to say, you haven’t really answered the question. Is their bond severed because the lightsaber is broken in two?

Long story short; no.

First, their Force bond is still present, but I assume you are talking about the chance to see their relationship moving past being enemies.

And I want to say, yes. A thousand times.

Rian spent a whole movie shaking up Star Wars and he knows it. That’s why he shows the shattered lightsaber. It is “broken” but not beyond repair. You just need to reassemble it. At the same time, it is no longer the “Skywalker lightsaber”, it’s about to become something new, something else.

So do I think Rey and Kylo’s relationship is beyond repair? Absolutely not.

Despite their difference, their destinies are still intertwined and 2 major obstacles to their growth have been lifted:

Kylo is now free from the influence of his abuser and the two male figures who failed him.

Rey took control of her narrative by refusing to be reduced to the role of “Kylo’s wife” and The Last Jedi demonstrated that it was never her job to save Ben Solo in the first place.

The next time they meet, no one can argue in good faith that their relationship is platonic in nature. If they end up together in episode 9, no one will be able to argue that Rey has been weak and useless (or whatever sexist BS people will throw at her) or that Kylo was given a free redemption card.

The soil is plowed, the seeds are planted. Brace yourself for the harvest.

#reylo #star wars #the last jedi #skywalker #kylo ren x rey #rey x kylo ren #imho #asks #MyMetasAndTheories

[18tpaz]

character assassination of po and luke ^^i'm not entirely sure if this occured but i'd like to hear your thoughts on their respective arcs. 😊

Odg where do i start.

Luke, our farmboy turned Jedi, is most known for his compassion and eagerness. Look at what he is in TLJ and how much this distorted image has reverberated the entire story. The biggest issue I have with him is what he did to Kylo. Saw too much darkness, how??? Where??? They should have given not just me but my also my good boy Luke a fucking reason - a VISUALLY EXPLICIT REASON to have ignited a lightsaber and be tempted to kill him in his sleep because the last time that sorta coward pathetic shit was done was by Darth Sidious aka Palpatine aka one of the characters i hate the most. Before Luke decided to fight Vader in ROTJ remember that he surrended himself to Imperial forces on Endor and patiently reasoned with his father through sincere conversation. Oh my God. And he was actually goaded and emotionally manipulated into his short minutes of anger and darkness by these Sith Lords. That was sufficient layers gdi. Not some couple of lines tossed to a newcomer. That’s not the Jedi way at all. And it has made Kylo Ren’s backstory even more stupidly shitty.

Also what Luke’s link to the Force and Jedi knowledge is right now…wtf was he doing in the First Jedi Temple in Ahch-to????? Just to be dramatic??? Okay?? But I would think that he’d be searching for answers since the Force, like many spiritual and religious concepts, demand lifelong unraveling of mysteries… of how or why things came to as it is… and how to somehow conjure a solution. Ffs stuff from the legends EU could have helped if Rian can’t actually think of anything (and this director claims to have played kotor??? *scoff* it’s either i’m einsteine or you’re dumb). Furthermore look how uneventful his “teaching” Rey is, especially now that she’s a random. A few jokes here, a few statements there, and she’s ready face Snoke and his guards lol wth. (You know sometimes I think that should have been enough reason for luke to intervene. This innocent random life is about to get herself absolutely wrecked beyond hell and he didn’t budge a bit on that tsk). This just worsens the mary sue accusation I’ve always defended my bb Rey against. What can I say in Rey’s defense now???

Now we move to Poe Dameron. This guy, as seen in various reading material, has high respect for utility beings such as droids… was commanded by Leia to leave as soon as they destroyed Starkiller Base but refused until he was sure that the Falcon (and Finn and Rey and Chewie) were also safe and ready to go home. And now at the beginning of the movie he was partly responsible for Paige Tico’s death because he refused Leia’s orders again in the name of an ambition to destroy a big ship despite the Resistance’s being on the verge of death. And I will admit that I didn’t see the expanse of his character assassination at first but after hearing what people had to say, I agree (no wonder my first words on his arc wasn’t that it was the best but that it was merely the most acceptable). I now see the racist/sexist moves on Poe Dameron. Chauvinism, being unreasonably tossed around by superiors (like they completely forgot the comic series where poe learned literally the same leadership lessons they wanted to give Poe in TLJ. LOL good job lucasfilm story group go retire), bouts of aggression when one time this guy actually said “I LIKE YOUR EGG” just to avoid confrontation). What happened to the Leia fanboy??? This guy, who spent a shitload of time investigating the Lor San Tekka thing, couldn’t spare to do the same about Holdo’s military decisions before deciding that she was shitty (she’s not ffs and she was equally shitted on by Rian compared to Claudia Gray)??? It’s all murky now. And Poe should have apologized to Rose like the concerned leader and friend he was to the likes of Snap and Karé. Ugh thank God for his meeting with Rey and his moments with Finn and BB-8 though. I take all my comfort about Poe’s character assassination on those scenes.

#tlj spoilers

[nemrut]

Star Wars - The Last Jedi thoughts

So I saw it last night and I have mixed feelings. There were things I liked a lot and things I didn't like at all, but overall, I think it was mostly a positive experience to me. Like, I didn't regret seeing it, I never was really bored, even though I rolled my eyes a few times and had instances where I had to exchange a suffering look with my mate, when seeing something particularly dumb.

I liked it a lot more than Rogue One, that's for sure but then again, all the prequel movies were better than Rogue One, so not a high bar to clear.

The movie definitely did have problems but Rey being a "Mary-Sue" wasn't one of them. As with most times, that term is thrown out a bit too easily for female characters and I honestly doubt that most people using that term would have applied it to Rey had everything been exactly the same but her gender.

It just didn't really feel like Star Wars at times, not the way TFA did. I think in that regard, TFA was the better Star Wars experience.

Well, to the more in-depth stuff after the spoiler:

- I think one of my biggest problems though, that I have a bit of a hard time understanding the state of the galaxy at the moment and who exactly each faction is and how many factions there even are, because both new movies really did a bad job at explaining things. Who exactly is who? There is the Republic but that one was destroyed in the last movie, kinda, but do they have nothing else left? Then is the First Order the new faction that has absorbed the old Empire bits or is it a different entity from them? I would think the former but honestly, the first movie kinda implied that the First Order and the Empire Remnants are different things. Also, why is the Resistance so ill-equipped? Did nothing from the Rebellion/Republic remain? Weren't they kinda in control for a good while? Why and how is the First Order so massive? And why was the movie behaving as if the First Order was constantly winning? Sure, the Resistance lost a good portion of their fleet and the Republic planets, but their fleet was nothing to write home about anyway, about a dozen ships if you counted the bombers, but hell, the First Order lost 2 of their dreadnoughts, one massive fleet with more than a few star destroyers, their starkiller base and the fleet around that and their supreme leader. Since I don't know the scale of anything, I can't tell if these losses have been devastating or something not even worth mentioning. Was this a "darn, lost two dreadnoughts. Oh well, let's roll out our other 60" moment or a " FUCK! SHIT! FUCK! WE LOST 2 OF OUR 3 BIGGEST SHIPS!" moment? It could be either one, seeing the potentially unlimited resources and manpower the First Order seems to have. At the same time, whenever we see a planet that isn't any empty battlefield, the people on that planet never really seem to give a shit about what is going on one way or another. So what's the deal there? Are the people of the galaxy so jaded about the Rebellion/Empire conflict that they are so done with it that they are just living their life and hope they won't get hit? Who is in control of what? I don't know and honestly, I doubt even the movie knows. All I got is that the Resistance lost a good portion of their people, maybe, but they have allies sorta waiting and the way these movies treat these kinda things, those allies could be anything from a full-fledged fleet of destroyers to a few junk ships with misfits and cast-outs. Say what you will about the Prequels, but they did give the GFFA a tangible feeling of scale and life. We saw how things worked there, we understood how different kinds of people lived in different places in the galaxy. We knew who was what. Sure, people joke about the taxation and border politic stuff, but honestly, at least it gave us something. I kinda knew how people on various planets lived and felt about the state of the galaxy as it was, whereas I have really no clue whatsoever about anything in these movies, except that the First Order is evil. - And while TFA was way worse in the sense of how it used time, this one also had moments where the timeline was questionable, to say the least. The excursion to the gambling planet, while I appreciated the message they were going for and I did actually kinda like that, the gambling stuff itself was rather meh, it didn't really feel Star Wars-y. It was just a 20s-30s casino with an alien paintjob, which was disappointing. - The movie's humor was a bit obnoxious as well. Most of the shoehorned in plushies can die in a fire, as can the humor that came with them. I could tolerate those ice pokemon on the last planet but those furbies which you can no doubt buy for 9,99€ at some point with Chewbacca were just obnoxious and broke the illusion for me whenever we saw them. That one weird alien pushing coins into BB8 was just dumb, for example. In general it seemed to me there were a few inappropriate for Star Wars moments in it, but then i remembered the things Jar Jar and R2 did in the prequels so never mind. - I too feel that Luke got a bit shafted and I can see why Mark Hamill would hated these things. I have a really hard time believing, that even for split second emotional reaction, that Luke Skywalker would have considered decapitating his sleeping nephew who at that point hadn't done anything yet. Luke wasn't really supposed to be jaded at that point. He was willing to give his father a chance in the face of the Emperor and I have a lot of trouble that he would even consider walking up to his sleeping nephew with his lightsaber on his person, let alone draw it "in a moment of weakness". What I would have believed is that after the Kylo debacle, that Luke would have been tempted to kill Rey, sensing the same darkness potential in her that he saw in Ben before he turned. That at that point, a Luke who lost his faith, sense of self and was plagued with doubt and guilt, would be tempted to do such a heinous thing. And that Rey would wake up, and see him doing that and would have served as a similar point of her hero falling from the pedestal, only it would have made more sense, imo. But not a Luke who at this point was by all intent at a good point in his life with a new jedi order on the rise, the galaxy seeming okay, his family being okay and all, that that Luke would even for a second have the notion that killing a sleeping family member is something he should do. - Similar to the factions thing, I think I would have liked to know a bit more on Snoke. I guess that we didn't really need to know anything more than that he was basically the Emperor for all intents and purposes but I dunno, I felt he fell short of that. The Emperor was initially like Sauron, in that even as barely as he appeared in the first movies, he cast a long shadow on the Empire and we felt that it was his will and influence that drove things, that behind Vader was an even bigger threat. Didn't really have that with Snoke. - Rey being a nobody. Don't know how fair that complaint is, since it is mostly because I had liked the idea that she would be a Kenobi. I do like the concept that it is the Skywalkers fucking things up/fixing things in the galaxy and Rey having been someone completely unconnected to that was a bit weird. Like, I got what they wanted from that, and fair enough, but I felt a bit let down. Things that I did like: - I quite liked the characters. I like the new characters Finn, Rey, Poe, Kylo and Rose. Didn't really care much for the hacker guy. That whole side-quest thing and resolution with him was just meh. I liked the Vice-Admiral and the lesson/conflict she had with Poe. That clash of vastly different viewpoints and the lesson that there is a time and place for everything and that you can't solve everything with grand actions and risky gambles was actually nicely done and I appreciated it. -The old guard was really great to see again. The robots didn't get a lot to do and I am honestly disappointed with how they used Chewbacca as he seems to have resigned himself to just be a follower. I had hoped he would take charge at some point, like he would tell Rey and others what to do in certain situations but he wasn't really active. I guess him not being able to talk English/basic is kinda the reason but dunno. Luke and Leia were of course great and had such a great presence that they always stole the show. Their scene together was great. Leia's dynamic with Poe was interesting and compelling, as was the Luke and Rey thing. The Rey-Kylo dynamic was a bit...difficult. It wasn't bad, it just was, I found the change that Rey underwent with regards to her opnion on Kylo a bit unrelatable. She got sympathetic to him a bit too fast, for not good enough of a reason. Sure, redemption is a good thing to seek and probably the reason why Rey got so force chosen to begin with, being the thing that Luke is no longer, but at the same time, I felt a familial connection would have gone a long way to explain that better. Like, if they had gone with the Jaina-Jacen thing in the books, or even the family relationship to the Kenobi's or something else. I dunno, it wasn't terrible but for Rey it felt a bit like too fast of a jump, from "you're scum" to "we all make mistakes and it is not too late for you". I get that she had a vision but come on. I also quite liked the Rosa and Finn team-up. It was interrupted by a bit of a lame humor at times but the perspectives they shared were interesting enough. And not going to lie, i really liked Rose's sister and was rather sad she died, would have loved to see more of her. - maybe a bit childish but I really loved that they finally used the activating/deactivating mechanism meaningfully in a fight. That was pretty neat to see. And while I think TFA had the best lightsaber battle scene in the whole star wars franchise, the battle against the Imperial Guards was a pretty good one. The lightsaber fights all around are handled excellently so far, in both movies. A lot more visceral and brutal than the jumping around in prequels but also more impactful and exciting to watch than the OT, where it was always more of just a conversation between the characters. Which wasn't bad or anything but the new ones were that as well on top of exciting and raw fights. That said, weird that Kylo forgot his ability to freeze enemies/things in place, but maybe he was too emotionally torn to use his fancier force powers. - Luke being all badass. Every AT-AT unloading on him and him just walking out, completely unphased was such an anime moment, that I kinda loved it, cheesy as it was. The twist there, that Luke was projecting from his backwater planet, was rather interesting. The force in general is used rather differently all around. - I actually liked the Yoda scene, was a great moment and when i first saw him, I was prepared to hate it but honestly, really good use of the character. He didn't look horrible either. - the space battles were fun enough.

-Luke dying was a bittersweet moment and I expected to have a stronger emotional reaction but I was kinda alright with it, the way it was done.

That's as much as I remember right now, probably some other things that I might recall later on. But yeah, overall, I didn't love it but nor did I hate it. It had its many, many flaws but it also did a lot of things well, so, overall sitting on a more pleasant experience than a bad and boring one like Rogue One but I can't deny that I was somewhat disappointed despite going in there with the expectation that it would be horrible. Apparently I didn't, and believed deep down it would be amazing.

#star wars #star wars spoilers #the last jedi #star wars the last jedi #spoilers #star wars the last jedi spoilers

[officialdeathbycinema]

Star Wars Official Trailer Analysis

OK! So i've watched...and re-watched...and rewatched...and analyzed this two and a half minute piece of cinema hypeness, and i've a few things to say if you don't mind...well, I really don't care if you do mind or not because it's 2:10 in the morning and i've been trying to bring my thoughts together on not only a trailer, but two movies as well, so fight me.

So we open to see an Imperial Officer looking silhouette staring at an assembly line. This could be Ben Solo, but for all intents and purposes, i'm going to assume this is the previously unseen "Rose" character, only officially depicted in Funko Pop! form. I'm honestly kinda interested to see what we see in this character, considering she's been so prominently featured in toy sales but no real promotional material for the movie itself (As i'm typing this however, I looked back and it really is just Ben).

Six seconds in and we transition, the change in scenery accompanied by Ces- I mean Snoke's voice over towards Ben, giving the audience a taste of what we have in store when it comes to the new Emperor-type Big Bad. We see a bunch of AT-M6 Walkers in a line for a span of three seconds, which then transitions into an overhead location shot of what i'm going to assume is Snoke's actual lair, which we see Ben and a good number of troopers walking in formation, presumably on the way to see the Supreme Leader (HA, Rocky and Bullwinkle reference!) at thirteen seconds in. Then a profile shot of Ben with his helmet on at fourteen seconds, which leads into him reaching down and picking up a new saber. This being essentially the same saber design, only sleeker, blacker, and more refined.

After that, a few seconds of black, followed by the blasting sound of a saber igniting and we see Rey on Ahch-To. We're gonna skip ahead to thirty-five seconds in, and watch Luke Skywalker take back his saber from Rey. But at thirty-eight seconds, we hear Rey say the line "Something inside me has always been there." Ok, that's a pretty cut and paste line, so i'll move on because that's probably one of the least interesting things to talk about in this trailer. Forty-one seconds into the trailer and Rey is entering the temple tree, where the books are held. Now in the first trailer we saw the insignia of the "Grey Jedi". Think of them as the agnostics of the Star Wars universe. That's obviously an oversimplification, but we can get to that topic later. Maybe when the films come out, but later. Forty-seven seconds in and she's training with a saber, and I'm really wanting to assume she's been here for a few months, and not just a week or two after the first film when this scene plays out (*cough cough, make Rey not a Mary-Sue anymore cough cough*). The force is apparently so strong with Rey that she can make the ground crack beneath her, which prompts Luke to say, in my opinion, a very interesting line.

At fifty-two seconds we hear Luke say the line: "I've seen this raw strength only once before. It didn't scare me enough then, it does now." Couple that with imagery of a building burning, more burning, and Luke's robot hand emerging from debris like he's in The Evil Dead, and people are going to assume one thing. They're going to assume that he's talking about Ben Solo. I however, do not think this is the case. Sure he underestimated Ben, but he wasn't scared of him because he was family, not because he had darkness in him. No, he's not talking about Ben, or Vader, or even Starkiller. No, I think he's talking about Sideous. Because if you remember the original trilogy, Luke was very, VERY headstrong when it came to defeating the dark side, and in turn didn't take the Emperor as a serious threat until it almost cost him his life...but now that he sees that same pure, raw power, it TERRIFIES him. But then it plays into the whole "Old man doesn't want to train young pupil for something that happened to them personally until they reluctantly give up" cliche that this series seems to want to jerk off like Ron fuckin Jeremy...but I digress. From one minute and three seconds in to one minute and eight seconds in, we hear Ben say the words "let the past die" while he subsequently DESTROYS his Darth Fanboy helmet (Which is what i'm going to be calling it from this day on forth). He could be talking about his time as an agent for the light side, or this could be a potential scene beginning a redemption arc for Ben where he tears away from his Kylo Ren persona. But then again, a redemption arc wouldn't be that fun when you can just kill the character before that happens in the slightest....or just have him evil, you know, because evil apparently isn't cool anymore, everything has to be "tragic and misunderstood"...AGAIN, I digress. Then comes a starship battle, and boy HOWDY is Ben one hell of a pilot. He says the line "Kill it, if you have to", which is in relation to the previous line of "Let the past die"...and then at one minute and fifteen seconds, we see General Leia....which basically is an "oh fuck" moment because I'm basically just calling it that she's gonna kick the bucket HARD in this movie, and the news of her playing a "pivotal role" is highly exaggerated.

One minute, seventeen seconds: Mommy senses baby through force, and vice versa...or IS IT? My whole thing about how the trailer is edited is weird, because there are some obvious weaving techniques being put in here to deceive the audience. So how I think this scene is going to play out is that Ben is ordered to destroy the Resistance base on that particular ship, which he does. But you know, since Snoke's whole thing is manipulation of Ben, and losing his mother (since it was explained in the last movie that his bond with Leia was far stronger than his bond with Han) would essentially put him in a state of darkness, making Snokes job WAY EASIER. So Snoke tells Ben "Hey, I don't like this Resistance ship. Blow it up." to which Ben replies "Alright, you've not really sent me astray before, why would you do it now? It's not like you're a manipulative dickbag that looks like a scrotum wrapped in one of Hugh Hefner's robes.". But then Snoke "fails" to mention that Leia is on that ship. She senses him, but since he's STILL not mature enough in the ways of the force (and sometimes this series throws continuity into the wind like Nana's ashes on a late summer evening), He doesn't sense her until it's too late. He doesn't sense her persay...but he senses a lack of her. He feels that classic disturbance in the force. He doesn't know why until later...and he doesn't know that he had just killed his own mother, a woman he loved so dearly, and the reason he was so conflicted about going fully dark side. But now that she's gone...Snoke can take him, and Ben is so distraught...that he listens, and fully accepts his role as not Ben Solo, but Kylo Ren.

BUT THAT'S JUST HOW I WANT THE SCENE TO GO DOWN, I DON'T THINK THE WRITERS ARE GONNA BE CLEVER ENOUGH TO DO IT THAT WAY.

One minute and thirty three seconds...Porg.

One minute, thirty seven seconds, Poe Dameron vs Ben Solo dogfight which is no doubt gonna be really cool. One minute, forty seconds, Finn vs. Brienne of Tarth in a giant Aluminum onsie...I mean Captain Phasma. Probably gonna be really cool, I just want more character growth in Finn since he had a pretty weak arc in Episode Seven (well, at least it was stronger than Rey's).

There's some more lines said by Luke which are pretty uninteresting, but at one minute and fifty-seven seconds, we see our first look at Snoke, and boy was I accurate in my description. You guys remember that scene in Deadpool where they basically just let TJ Miller riff at Ryan Reynolds for three uninterrupted minutes? Yeah, that. But my sister did raise a pretty good theory for this scene earlier, and she said that Rey might be experiencing one of Ben's memories...even though she's probably not.

Two minutes and three seconds, black screen with Rey's dialogue leading us into the most misleading part of the trailer which has the #Reylo shippers up in arms. We hear Rey say the words "I need someone to show me my place in all of this." and then we see Ben raise a hand towards the camera. Now upon first glance, we assume he's offering to take Rey under his wing...but these two shots aren't even in the same scene. The lighting is all wrong for this to be possible for one thing, two the tones of each shot are different as well. The light that is facing Rey camera left is pure, and unobstructed. She's in the temple tree on Ahch-To, presumably talking to Luke and convincing him to train her. But when the camera is on Ben, he's obviously in the tail end of a battle sequence. He COULD still be talking to Rey, but no, the line given is in a completely different scene. So no #Reylo shippers, your beloved character parallel fetish fodder is not canon yet, keep writing your fanfiction. Now that last paragraph could potentially label me as Anti-Reylo, but then again not only do I not care if I am labelled as such, I just don't care about the delicious death threats i'm BOUND to get from subsequently posting this analysis on Tumblr once i'm done posting it to Facebook.

Anyways, the credits roll three seconds after that, we're promised a film on December 15th, and the first week of tickets are probably already sold out as i'm writing this. But overall it was a decent trailer as far as analytical material goes, and I don't really think we need another since the movie is two months off.

So yeah, weeee Star Wars...I think the internet is just RUINING this new trilogy for me.

#reylo #star wars #the last jedi #rey #kylo ren #film criticism

[culturevulture73]

Rant for today

You know that “people should learn the difference between plot holes and things that will be explained later in the trilogy” post?

Yeah. There are things that are actual plot holes and I should not have to wait through THREE MOVIES for an explanation.

I’m in a mood today. So why not?

Responding to things I saw in the comments...

I’m SORRY -  I want an explanation for how Starkiller Base works. Because IT DOESN’T EVEN WORK AS SPACE FANTASY, as someone claimed it does. You CANNOT see planet killing beams on one planet killing another planet that is light years away. You can’t! And how does the damn thing move to the next place? It’s as stupid as JJ’s “let me put a swamp in a Romulan star ship” or “let’s put a big ol’ Rube Goldberg set of water pipes in to drown Scotty.”

Han found the Falcon after years because the PLOT NEEDED HIM TO. There’s no reason he was there at that time etc because bullshit. He needed to be there, so he was. He obviously knew what Jakku was and never looked there?

Rey is a Mary Sue. I’m sorry, she is. If she could do SOME of what she does - fight Kylo to a draw? Got no problem - well, okay you also have to forget the fact she’s never handled a lightsaber and doesn’t know how to turn it on, but I’ll spot you that. Maybe fly something but..

Not fly the Falcon, which she doesn’t even know she’s on, BETTER THAN HAN and better than trained TIE pilots, not speak droid, not speak WOOKIEE, not do a Jedi mind trick when she’s never seen one - and please STOP with “she had Kylo in her mind so she figured it out” because that isn’t the Jedi Mind Trick! Also the other part of the definition of Mary Sue besides “great at everything and better than the hero” is “beloved by everyone.” Finn loves her in 30 seconds, Han’s offering her a job before he even knows her name, Leia’s hugging her and doesn’t know her from the Emperor’s house cat.

Everything Rey does is because they need to solve a plot problem, and quick. So we’ll turn her into Luke at the end of Jedi without all the training. Even WONDER WOMAN trains! And she’s a goddess or a demigoddess at least.

And if she’s one of Luke’s students - seriously, she was five to seven, maybe. So she magically remembers it all, closes her eyes and has it back? Uh huh. Sure.

Look, I want a female Jedi as much as anyone, but part of the reason people love Luke is he STRUGGLES. He goes down hard in Empire. So when he comes back and is awesome at Jabba’s, we know he’s grown. But whatever. Everything has to be instant anymore because everyone has to be a superhero immediately. I get that. I have sat through enough movies of it.

And let’s stop with “Luke is a Mary Sue” because he ISN’T. He can do one thing - fly well. He says he does, Ben says he does, he says specifically that he can bullseye things that are the size of the exhaust port and his ship is the non space faring model of the X-Wing. The radio drama adds in him training on a simulator before he flies in space. He grew up on a desert planet so he can shoot. He doesn’t use the saber he’s training with, badly, for anything other than training. He doesn’t speak droid or Wookie or know how to do a Jedi mind trick. He isn’t beloved by everyone - Han comes to respect his skills OVER THE COURSE OF THE MOVIE before offering him a job. Most of the first part of the movie, he’s sniping at him. Luke is a self insert for Lucas, sure. But he’s not a Mary Sue. There’s a difference.

Why does Phasma lower the shields? Why? She’s a trained First Order officer. If I am Hux ::shudder:: and I find out she just lowered the shields because two yahoos with a blaster told her to? Dead. I’m not even passing Go and collecting $200. Out an airlock or firing squad. Vader would choke her. She’s supposed to be fanatically dedicated to her cause. Yeah, not so much. So, if someone should be getting a redemption arc, let’s go with Phasma, because she did something good. Unlike Darth Emo, btw.

And THE MOST EGREGIOUS THING. Maz not explaining why she has Luke’s saber. As that Cracked video said, that’s a story for right goddamn now, Maz! 

Look, I love a lot of movies that don’t make much sense. But don’t tell me that “plot holes” are “things that will be explained later.” Because there’s a whole parody of Doctor Who that revolves around that phrase and no, they never explain things later!

#sw negativity #sorry in a righteous mood tonight

[c2ley]

I wasn't aware that dramatic narratives contained so much exhausting and cringe inducing jokes i.e. forced humor for its own sake. Really? It says what it wants to say in a deeply effective manner? Then why are its scenes constantly contradicting themselves? Poe wouldn't have needed to come up with and execute a Hail Mary play had Holdo communicated what the plan was for the Resistance. She has no motivation, want nor need to withhold the information from her crew, which showcases terrible character design and awful writing. Laura Dern deserved so much better. How can you be a responsible leader if information is purposefully withheld from you for no real reason? Rey is much more complex? Really, because by the end of the movie Daisy Ridley looks very bored and all of her power has just been handed to her by Rian Johnson. No work, No effort, No struggle, No journey. Also, in Episode 7 Rey isn't concerned with her lineage, she wants her family members to come back to Jakku, to return for her. Maz Kanata very explicitly tells her that this isn't going to happen and it's devastating for Rey, she cries. This idea is then abandoned by Rian Johnson because he didn't care about Episode 7's plot. Rey's parents are nobodies is brilliant, huh? Aside from the fact, that that's easy and lazy character design (doing nothing instead of something is always easier and lazier) well then, the revelation that the chosen one of the Force is a nobody slave from Tatooine aka the planet farthest from the bright center of the universe as Luke says, should be considered superbly brilliant genius then, right? Han is a selfish smuggler and Finn is a cowardly deserter. Han is interested in credits and Finn is fleeing for his life and safety out of fear. These are only similar arcs if you don't know what fiction is and choose to believe your own ideas absent of any kind of supporting evidence. She doesn't trust how reckless he is... so as an effective and intelligent, strong, smart, and independent leader Holdo thought telling the reckless guy nothing would curb his reckless tendencies? Wow, that's dumb and highly ineffective. Also, Holdo doesn't just not tell Poe, she doesn't tell ANYBODY. It's why Rose is guarding the escape pods and electrically stunning her crewmates to keep them from abandoning ship. Here's the REAL reason. She doesn't tell Poe the plan because Kathy wanted feminism in the movie and Rian tucked his tail between his legs and said, "...okay." I love pointing this out to people. Lockheed Martin = 51.048 Billion USD (2017) Disney = 55.137 Billion USD (2017) There’re lots of businesses that will make you rich, not just defense contracts. Also, The First Order can build Starkiller Base, but it has to buy weapons? So when TFO conquers worlds and enslaves indigenous populations they don't force the slaves to produce resources and materials? Yeah... again... that's really dumb. In our world we have sweatshops, illegal in some places but not in others. Hard to believe that TFO is that desperate for support and if that is indeed the case how did they conquer the galaxy? How do they reign supreme? I love how DJ argues for no objective morality after five planets were genocide-ed. Makes total sense DERP. Kylo, "You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing." This line is spoken right after Snoke revealed that Rey is deus ex machina Kylo's counterbalance within the Force. This is also after Luke compared Rey's force potency and proficiency to that of Ben Solo a member of the SKYWALKER bloodline. Why doesn't Rey just tell Kylo to shut the fuck up and fight him? Wouldn't that be the strong independent thing to do? Why is she even listening to him? Why does she care about Ben's redemption? I'll remind you that Kylo Ren is a man that TORTURED her. Rey becomes an emotionally stable Jedi, with no help from old what's-his-name. Wow, becoming a Jedi these days is really easy. I thought if you wanted to become a black belt in a type of martial art it took practice, skill, focus, drive, determination, challenge, and success. Not so anymore. The Disney fairy can just tap you on the head and now you're a Jedi, please to enjoy your new Jedi status Ms. Mary Sue. Finn... was never like DJ. You're an idiot and a liar who's only fooling him/herself if you think so. Kylo Ren was already a villain when this movie started. WTF are you talking about? Competent... wow... really (see link)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ECwhB21Pnk&t=12m35s Do you know what the definition of a plot hole is? Yeah sure. The TLJ is a quote unquote real story if you throw away guiding, rock solid character motivations, well-loved antagonist tropes, beautiful mythology, and basic common sense. Here's a question for you, how do you miss the easiest layup in film history? It's also interesting how you characterize deeply loved and shared understanding as "indulgence." Though, that's common for hipster nihilists and meta-narrative obsessives. I wonder if "indulgence" (that is to say deeply loved and shared understanding) has been celebrated and successful elsewhere... http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars7.htm http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel0518.htm How can you claim this film doesn’t pander to the audience? So Rian referenced NOTHING from Episodes 5 and 6? Here’s another question for you directly from Mike Stoklasa, “Have you seen Star Wars?” This franchise and audience needed this movie as much as a man needs a kick in the nuts or a woman needs a boot to her boobs. Super stupid massive gigantic plot holes. Bigger and more massive then Black Holes themselves. You can sniff your own butt hole all you like and intellectualize BS until it shines like gold in your mind, but that will not stop bullshit from still being of terribly poor quality.

#The Last Jedi Sucks

[benperorsolo]

Don't do the first one I messed up lmao okay so heisaki and zutara for 001, ben solo for 002 and for 003 zuko, aang, sokka, katara, toph

001. (heisaki)

when I started shipping it if I did:

I honestly don’t even remember. I usually don’t start shipping couples as I watch a show, but after when I’m looking for fanfic to distract me from my schoolwork. So sometime after finishing S1.

my thoughts:

Heisaki pretty much caters to every grossly trash thing I like in ships: enemies to lovers, preferably with some kickass woman and some super-evil looking masked dude with Secret Depths and Softness™ (I know I’m garbage okay I’ve made my peace), where Sad Angry Scary Dude is shown affection from someone who believes in their goodness more than they’re disgusted by their evil, and Strong But Soft Woman discovers tenderness and support in the unlikeliest of  places.

What makes me happy about them:

All of the above, and also the way they cycle through various identities with each other in canon, the way canon teases them as people who would make an amazing team if they weren’t pawns for organizations bigger than themselves. The way both of them are uncompromising in their work but have secret private vulnerabilities. The way both of them love the stars. 

What makes me sad about them:

The way canon bastardized Misaki in the second season into being obsessed with catching Hei because of her weird unresolved feelings for him. But not in a cool or respectful way; just in a way that made Misaki into a lovesick waif whose personality completely went out the window. 

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Mostly when Hei becomes to emotional or emotionally honest with Misaki without a lot of buildup, considering he’s been emotionally constipated for going on a decade now and for reasons that involved not dying. Likewise when Misaki turns into a damsel to be saved.

things I look for in fanfic:

Some sort of clear ideological friction between the two of them; Misaki’s discovery of the Black Reaper’s identity and/or interacting with the Black Reaper in person. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

No one? Hei’s other options are Amber, a ship which I find interesting as something in Hei’s past but not one I would endgame bc abusive, and Yin, who is mentally basically a child and it feels like pedophilia.

My happily ever after for them:

Haaaa the grossly indulgent Office AU. Hei becomes a contractor working with Section 4, develops a little friend/family unit with Section 4 and astronomics; he and Misaki get married; Hei reconnects with his family in China; Hei and Misaki have a little girl named Seiko and it’s gr9. Everything is beautiful and occasionally hurts but never, y’know, forever.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Hei, probably. But it could vary. They’re just about equal in height so there’s no reason one should be the big spoon over the other.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Stargazing.

001. zutara

when I started shipping it if I did:

Don’t even remember. Sometime after finishing Book 3, I think. 

my thoughts:

Gold standard ship. The ship I keep shipping in other fandoms, just in different iterations. The ying-yang, ‘you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun’ way they complement each other, and yet at their cores are so similar: highly driven, compassionate, passionate people who are proven in battle to make a great team.

What makes me happy about them:

The way their relationship beautifully unfolded over three seasons of mortal enemies, to maybe-allies (and then would-be-ally and traitor), to allies and friends. The way each season of ATLA ends with a fight between them; the first two against each other, and the last one with each other. The way they are safe places for the other— Katara confiding to him in the crystal caves, and again about her mother in Southern Raiders; Zuko confiding to Katara about his fear of facing his uncle, and Katara’s reassurance, and then the way Zuko took Katara with her to fight Azula because he knew he needed a steadfast ally he could trust.

What makes me sad about them:

The way Bryke have insulted the ship over the years, calling it too ‘dark and mysterious’ for Nick, but then fucked up all of the canon relationships in ATLA by having their kids have extremely dysfunctional relationships with their parents, or just making the relationships straight-up dysfunctional coughMaikocough 

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

When Katara gets the Mary Sue Strong Independent Woman treatment, or when she becomes some helpless crying waif (usually Book 1 kidnapping fics, which can be good, okay, they can), and likewise when Zuko post-redemption is still a jerkass. I mean he can still be a jerk, but he’s not a jerkass.

things I look for in fanfic:

I’ll read almost anything. I like S1 fic (typically Zuko captures Katara, and Katara takes none of his shit, and then TEAMWORK HAPPENS), s2 fic where crotchety I-once-did-something-good-and-gave-myself-a-coma Zuko and Katara are forced to work together in lovehate, and post-s3 Western Air Temple fics where Zuko has to earn Katara’s forgiveness. 

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

No one lmao. I’m not a multishipper.

My happily ever after for them:

Fire Lord Zuko and Fire Lady Katara rule the Fire Nation in peace and harmony and are happy, the end.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Zuko’s the big spoon.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Sparring.

002. Ben Solo

How I feel about this character:

ALL THE THINGS. I LOVE MY BOYFRIENDSON BEN SKYWALKER-ORGANA-SOLO.

More seriously— I love how he’s desperate for villainy, and yet cannot achieve it no matter how hard he tries. I love that this is a character who has to pray away the Light within him. I love how even after killing his father, the Light still won’t go away. I love that he is the beloved son of one of the most loved couples in cinematic history, related in a significant way to almost everyone in the prequels, OT, and sequels. I love that he effectively flips the conflict of the original films, wherein the fallen father is saved by the goodness of his son, and now it is the fallen son who will be saved (mark my words) by his father. I love the angst inherent in watching this character, who was practically born to be a hero, do everything he can to shirk his destiny and ensure his Darkness, and yet fall short. And most of all, I love the possibility (inevitability) of his redemption. I love the idea of getting to explore what redemption looks like when you don’t die before its completion, like Anakin. I love the idea of Ben realizing that his father did save him after all; of getting to smile at his uncle again;  of getting to hug his mother again; of it hurting so much— the hurt of a healing wound, at last, and not the hurt of the Dark Side. Of Ben getting to reclaim the person he might have been, had Snoke and misfortune and his own hamartia not found him, so that he no longer has to hide behind a false name and a mask, but can finally as himself face the sun, unafraid. Ben Solo means a lot to me. Maybe the hypotheticals of his character more than what we have now. But I honestly think that my strange compassion for this fake person has made me a better person. Because, if I can sit here and rail for his redemption no matter his sins— then what excuse do I have not to try to become a better person myself?

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Rey the bae all the way.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

BenPoe/Knightpilot, especially involving them as childhood friends, and Poe having to come to terms with Ben, who he was, and who he is, after Ben defects back to the Resistance. Some of my favorite character pieces to this end are This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine and Orbital Period. Also the BenPoe fandom are pretty much the nicest people ever?

My unpopular opinion about this character:

The fact that I like him is probably an unpopular opinion. 

Okay okay my real unpopular opinion (ESSAY AHOY) is my insistence of Kylo Ren’s true name still being Ben Solo (ofc you know this is a thing with me bc you very diplomatically asked me to talk about ‘Ben Solo’ and not ‘Kylo Ren’ in your ask lmao, and you know I call him ‘Ben’ just like I call Vader ‘Anakin’— practically always, in both cases, because it’s for the same reason). Kylo Ren is a shadow archetype, an alter ego, a mask and a costume— the thing Ben is trying desperately to become and yet never will, not only because he failed so horribly at being a proper villain in TFA (going for Rey instead of the droid; not torturing the bejeezus out of Rey immediately; feeling immediate regret after killing his father, not pushing Rey off a cliff during their fight when he had the chance, and then losing to her), but because it’s just how Star Wars works. It’s the same with Anakin and Vader— as Luke says to Vader in ROTJ, ‘[Anakin] is the name of your true self; you’ve only just forgotten,’ and ultimately Luke is proven right. Throughout canon, the Dark Side is depicted as a corruption of your true self; a warping of who you really are. Your Dark Side is not your authentic self, it’s a gross imitation, and whatever you call yourself under the thrall of the Dark Side is not your true name either. This is how it functioned for Anakin/Vader in the OT; and how it was for Galen Marek/Starkiller in the EU. Your Dark Side name is your slave name. It’s just another mask; a type of verbal disassociation— another way to remove yourself from the reality of what you’re really doing and what you have become. There is also the gross, skeevy observation that Anakin was given the name Vader by Palpatine, the creep who groomed him, and it’s not a difficult leap to assume that Snoke, the creep who groomed Ben in utero, gave Ben the name Kylo Ren. It is canon that Snoke has forbidden the name ‘Ben Solo’ to be spoken by anyone in the First Order, including Ben. But who the hell knows that Kylo Ren is Ben? It’s treated as an extreme secret, and currently I’d say the number is limited to Snoke, Hux, and Ben himself. So who is Snoke really forbidding from saying the name Ben Solo? Ben. He’s forbidding Ben. He’s giving Ben a gag order on his own name— which should immediately ring your bells as being sketchy AF for OBVIOUS REASONS, including but not limited to the fact that you only forbid people from doing things you know they are in danger of doing. If Ben were really completely dead, if he were really Kylo Ren all the way down, then what is Snoke afraid of? All of this to say, it annoys the everlasting and eternal fuck out of me when I see fics or headcanons where a redeemed Ben does not go back to that name, because then to me it represents a person who is still hiding behind the verbal equivalent of a mask. It would be like a redeemed Anakin still going by the name Darth Vader. It’s watching a man stand by the name of his abuse. It stands in literal opposition of everything a true redemption symbolizes, especially in Star Wars, and it’s gross gross gross I hate it.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

A REDEMPTION ARC BITCHESSS

my OTP:

Reylo. Okay technically Reyben. But yeah. More recently I’ve become obsessed with the idea of them as parents, because it would be such a beautiful capstone for them both. Rey, lonely, orphan Rey, finally having a family of her own. Rey being terrified of motherhood, because she can’t even remember her mother. Rey feeling that fierce, wolfish upwelling of maternal protectiveness for the first time and knowing she wouldn’t trade it for the world. Ben, terrified of making the mistakes his parents made with him; Ben, terrified of his past poisoning his children’s future. Ben, now a father, realizing the sort of unbreakable love that let his own father walk out on that bridge knowing he might die, and still taking the chance on his child. Ben, looking at the bundle in his arms and knowing he’d do the same. asdfghjkl;

my cross over ship:

Ben Solo x happiness, probably. I know it’s a wild concept.

a headcanon fact:

Ben is naturally good at pazaak and other gambling/card games. It’s one of the few roguish/smugglerish things he has in common with Han. Poe, Finn, and Rey always accuse him of using the Force to cheat, but he never does. During sessions of strip Pazaak (Poe’s idea), Poe, Finn, and Rey will be almost completely naked while Ben sits across the table fully clothed.

003. zuko, aang, katara, sokka, toph

1. zuko

2. aang

3. katara (tied w/ aang but just for overall character arc aang’s affects me more powerfully)

4. sokka

5. toph

#asks #kida to my milo #anna rambles #anna's unpopular opinions on ben solo