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gffa · 5 years

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LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT WHY I LOVE STUFF LIKE THIS. I had at least five different, “Hey, I recognize that!” in this single issue alone, and that makes total sense for it to have a bunch of nods to places and relationships and events that have happened all across the SW canon, because this is a Flight of the Falcon and they’re telling the story of what happened to the Millennium Falcon as it went from place to place, stolen over and over again, until Han finally got it back in TFA. Here, we finally meet Ducain, find out he was a sort of mostly okay person, who just wanted fame and fortune more than he wanted to be a good person, just this one time, just to get him started. We start by seeing him at Maz’s castle on Takodana, we see him have a really feelings-laden conversation with Han, we see him wandering the galaxy, going to what I’m pretty sure is Canto Bight, and then we eventually see him on Vardos, on a still pretty empty-looking Kestro, where the First Order contacts him, and we see him escape that and contact Bazine Netal, who talks with Lady Proxima again. I love this kind of thing because it’s so neat to see all these little details being drawn together, to watch this story that’s being told across so many different mediums, get fleshed out more and more. To always have another piece of just precisely how something happened, like “What happened to the Falcon before it came to end up on Jakku?” Or even just to see familiar planets popping up or familiar species in the background, because it feels like this galaxy is LIVED IN then, that it’s not just one isolated pocket after another. “Hey, I’ve seen that planet before!” is such a fantastic feeling for me because then it feels like, yeah, this story is connected to everything else. I’ve often expressed frustration that the ST movies don’t do more of this connective work, that so much of what we see is entirely new, which is exciting for creators looking to put their own mark onto Star Wars, but leaves me feeling like, “Is this even the Star Wars galaxy that I know? Where are the aliens I know? Why aren’t there more Twi’leks or Togrutas here? Why aren’t we even referring to Coruscant, the heart of the galaxy that these people are supposed to inhabit?” But it’s the comics and novels that put context to all that. They put the recognizable aliens back in. They add new worlds, sure, because this is a galaxy with thousands and thousands of worlds in it, but they also keep coming back to them, as well as show us the familiar ones, too. They tell us why people have moved away from Coruscant. They show us that this galaxy is connected to everything that came before. IT’S JUST REALLY NICE TO SEE SOME FAMILIAR THINGS, BECAUSE I LOVE THE GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY. THAT’S WHY I’M PICKING UP THIS COMIC TO READ, BECAUSE I LOVE THIS GALAXY AND THESE THINGS I KNOW ABOUT IT. ♥

#gannis ducain #bazine netal #takodana #vardos #canto bight #lady proxima #comics #meta #reading comics: star wars adventures #wednesday spoilers

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roxannepolice · 5 years

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Long asks anon again, here to offer my opinion on the current wank. Rey as a character is rather blatantly breaking sw story rules and nothing is going to get SFF fans hackles up like rule breakage. This is root of both the MarySue accusations and current wank. Rey has a tragic backstory thats doubling as the only failure she can call her own. But its a) damn near entirely offscreen and b) serves as convenient justification for why shes competent at near everything that comes up.

Reys instantly good at the force because of a convenient force download that to the best of my knowledge only occured in the noncanon KOTOR II and quite frankly cant blame most of the general audience for not getting because without prior knowledge or the novelizations why would they? She has darkness in her but as so far used and touched it consequence free and its almost entirely symbolically externalized on the Kylo (and in SW symbolism is Real in a way it isnt in other narratives) Shes strong in the force because Light rises to meet Dark but to quote the current crop of movies ‘thats not how the force works) or at least thats never how it worked before. Shes the first SW protagonist to go behind enemy lines and come out with both hands in the second movie. For ppl wondering how come Luke and Ani never get labeled MarySues, this is why, they got thier asses handed to them, Rey hasnt. There /is/ something /off/ in Reys story, and ppl pick up on it. if you can make a post (w/ over 1k notes!) about how great it is that a character meant to prop up 7hrs worth of movies has little to no character development to go through, somethings off. If multiple ppl can make posts about how its neat Rey can tap into the darkside (still characterized as evil in ST) consequence free (with some quite frankly stupid justifications, 'shes disciplined’ really? jedi lacked a lot of things thats not one of them) somethings off and again, if the only failure your main heroine has is /entirely retroactive something’s off/. If the story were getting with the is the story most ppl think we are, a 'female empowerment’ (i dont feel particularly empowered by being told I have an equal chance at being a deus ex machina but ok) than well, her story is over and theres no need for IX (hell it could have been over in TFA, most ppl assumed she had accepted her place as the future jedi in that one) and no need for reylo The ST was always gonna deconstruct all that came before it purely by virtue of being a sequel. The tragedy of anakin skywalker is now a farce, the happy ot ending now a tragedy, and the mythopoetic structure shot to shit in the name of serialization and perpetual warfare. this stand true for all the sequel characters including rey and ben. the only question is are we going to get anything out of it? I compare it to home renovation. You can knock out a wall and the walls gone, but new opportunities arise. With Benlo, I’m reasonably confident that there will be at least some attempt to take advantage of the new space. With rey and the resistance kids? not so much. it just feels like they knocked down a blue wall to rebuild it as pink one and at the point it just feels like a waste of time because ive seen this before. Ive seen pure cinnamon roll desert orphan reform jedi order If this was all youre going to do that the fuck was the point? which circles around to my problem with team good guy this go around and That Scene. JJ twisted the story into a pretzel to justify the winners of the last round being the underdogs again and then rian twisted so much further the storys head may as well be up its own ass. And then at the very end he shoots it all to shit and rushes to reassure us its all gonna be okay. He removes the entire point of the underdog trope /the tension that comes from the fact that they might lose/. I mean there wasnt a whole lot of that to begin with already but really? So theres no tension that Reys gonna win so her journey feels frictionless, and theres no question where shes gonna end up so full offense why give a shit? Thats where the whole 'can rey lose a fight?’ thing comes from. Ppl want conflict in her arc to justify its existence and give us a reason why this her story to begin with. if the only character going through growth for all three movies is ben, if the only characters whos fate is up in the air is ben, and if all the tension in the reylo relationship comes from ben, then why is this /reys story/? why not just make it about the character actually driving all the drama and thus, the story? As a final thought, im going to add that having Kylo be aware and insecure that hes never gonna be as Iconic as Vader was a great story choice, regardless of where ends up. Current Rebels, on the other hand, seems to have not gotten the memo that they are never gonna be as iconic as Original Rebels, and the story itself seems to being trying to sell them to me as being better. Rey is Luke but better, Poe/Finn are Han wo the smuggler grit, and id be lying if i said it didnt piss me off.

Long asks anon to kick down ur door again, AND ANOTHER THING. SW is a lotta things. Subtle aint one of them, and St hasnt changed in that regard. If you have to debate it chances are either a) ur arguing counter to the text in which case mor power to you but not really helpful for predictions or intended meaning or b) /it aint there. A bunch of ppl didnt like anidala, but nobody doubted we were supposed to think they were in love by the end of AOTC, bunch of ppl didnt like poes arc, but no one doubts he fucked up by not listening to holdo was the intended take away. Which brings to rey and flaws or lack there of. Were told rey has flaws but she has yet to suffer any real consequences from them with the exception of The Damn Parentage Wank, which again, pulls the double duty of making her hyper competent at everything. Because rey has no consequences for her flaws, from a story function pov there aren’t any. If rey did have a flaw to overcome, we would all agree what it was

Now won’t you all just look at this beautiful, spot on rant which has been lagging in my askbox since the last time Rey’s flaws or lack thereof were the discourse’s focus (November, I believe?) and suddenly became a thing again, courtesy of Tweetgate. I think you really summed up the crux of this debate wonderfully, anon.

I particularly agree with the part about Rey not getting narratively punished for whatever flaws we’d like her to have (great point about returning from behind the enemy lines with both arms still in place), when SW don’t stay away from allowing characters to get “punished” even for otherwise applaudable features - vide Padmé, whose idealism is what Palps manipulates into gaining more power (this is why Padmé will never come off as a Mary Sue or too perfect, btw). But I’ll say even more - Rey doesn’t even get called out on her flaws, except for by Ben, who’s mostly dismissed as a baddie like Palpatine saying Luke was foolish to rely on his friends. Let’s just consider one thing - both Anakin and Luke get called out on their flaws by Yoda (Anakin repeatedly and by lots of other people for that matter) whereas with Rey, the same grumpy-yet-jolly senex pops up from the afterlife to further inform us what a great jedi material she is.

TBH, I have a very cynical theory as to why Rey is being pushed as the main character while it’s difficult to deny that it’s Kylo Ben who does all the plot heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure Ben’s arc was the first one DLF thought out (and the big question is, was it the only one they thought out) and only later on decided to make Rey the main character, which also involved much less spontaneous writing. Mind you, it’s not as if benepemption didn’t have a manufactured subtaste to it, but with Rey’s heroine’s journey stiff structure occasionally substitutes any in-world explanations of her actions (this is why I have to hope renperor has some narrative purpose rather than happening because lovers need to be separated and anti-hero needs to achieve what he wanted in 2nd act). I feel as if whatever potential her character had (and hopefully still has, pending IX) got smothered by layer upon layer of making her likable by everyone, which largely relied on negative characterization: she’s not helpless, she’s not too naive, not cynical, not too emotional, not too emotionless, not morally corruptible, not anything you’ve ever complained about regarding any SW character, not falling for the bad boy, not not not - and in the end it’s kinda difficult to say what Rey is like and while the goal of making her widely likable was achieved, it also made it almost impossible to view her as loveably flawed/annoying like the classic characters. And on top of all this is the matter of making her a nobody just like you!, as DLF appears to say with uncle Sam’s gesture (which also kinda assumes the existence of a Star Wars fan as some uniform entity? because if you identify with her, good for you, I just don’t understand why the franchise assumes I’ll identify with her by the grace of being a SW fan alone), because, as you excellently put it, the message here is that everyone can be chosen by God - which again, it’s not as if the saga ever contradicted this, so why the hell make a case of it? I can’t agree that it’s made into Rey’s flaw, though, imo her low birth only serves to further frame her as an oppressed virtue. And I definitely agree regarding too much of her growth being left off-screen, or before the story ever begins. The problem here isn’t even that it is left off-screen (it’s not as if we had huge insight into any of the pt or ot characters) but rather that her characterizations is left off-screen while being depicted as at least untypical (unique to put it bluntly) for her situation (same goes for Finn). A hopeful, kind person growing up on her on her own in slavery under a nicer name is a rarity and DLF makes a case for it being a rarity - and this sparks up curiosity in her past, as if market pandering to Re/sky wasn’t enough. So from this pov her un-reveal being frustrating isn’t just a case of not wanting to love her or her self only a potentially deeper psychological question getting answered with well, light.

I should add, Ben’s arc feels like the most spontaneous one (though Finn’s may yet be a masterpiece) and he’s the one to admit his fear of not living up to Vader’s legacy, because I think he’s the character serving as the creators’ vessel, more or less like Luke was Lucas’ avatar in ot. In his fear regarding Vader’s legacy one can feel Disney’s fear due to having bought popculture’s holy grail and not being entirely sure what to do with it. On this background, Rey (a literal scavenger of OT’s pieces) and rebels 2.0 repeatedly blessed by Leia come off as what DLF would want to be. And the result is that the character which was supposed to be Vader 2.0 proves the most original and surprising one, whereas “breaths of fresh air” come off as room aromatizers with “fresh” written on them.

And as far as the plot being bended into a pretzel and then disappearing up it’s own ass, well, a part of me is still hoping that taking virtually the same villains as before is a mythological-psychoanalitical metaphor of a nigredo repeating itself until the unconscious gets accepted by the conscious…. but, tbh, as the leaks flow this hope is withering.

#asks #cleaning up the askbox #long asks anon #sw negativity #let rey free from the corset disney

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benperorsolo · 5 years

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I think /some/ of the Reylos saying that Ben might be a good ruler or that he was in the right and ~gray morality could be buying into the antis' mentality about redemption, that there's such a thing as "too far" and they're trying to make Ben's evil deeds "not so bad after all" to sustain hope about his fate in IX. I've certainly seen other Reylos say that they didn't think Ben was redeemable after becoming SL or he couldn't end up with Rey, so they might be trying to cushion it for themselves.

(I digressed a little here, sorry!)

All very valid points.

I think a lot of it honestly also comes down to a lot of people wanting SW to be more morally grey than it is. One of the biggest points of contention between me and I think a lot of the reylo fandom (this isn’t an attack, but it’s just how I’ve observed it) is that a lot of the reylo fandom is really obsessed with this idea of grey balance as equal light/dark, where the light and the dark are equally good or equally bad, that Ben Is Dark/Rey Is Light, etc etc. I think it’s pretty obvious that I disagree strongly with this interpretation, and I don’t feel like I really should have to defend this because it’s actually the entire conceit of the story, but if you need my apologetics on that point here’s a meta I wrote about it, and also here’s something from more recent canon to elaborate my point.

Regardless, for that equal light/dark balance take to work, you have to believe that Ben being on the dark side is not actually all that bad (equal light and dark in Ben, just as in Rey), or that Ben’s darkness actually needs to happen in order for ‘balance’ to happen (if Rey is the counterweight Light to Ben’s Dark). You have to believe that Ben needs to cling to some elements of the Dark Side, otherwise he would tip over completely into the Light, and that’s bad for this morally grey version of balance that I see lauded a lot. Because Ben already clearly has many Light traits– for all of his faults, canon has revealed that beneath his rage is a person who is compassionate, who is capable of empathy and good deeds. And I think a lot of the fandom takes Ben and kind of– gives the credit of his whole person to the Dark Side, like Hey look, Ben is on the Dark Side and he’s capable of compassion and Feeling Feelings, while entirely ignoring the point that these are qualities Ben has despite the Dark Side; they are not compatible with the Dark Side. If Ben were truly the mascot of the Dark Side, the Dark Side is fuuuucked.

I think the reason a lot of people try to defend Ben’s leadership is because it softens the FO, and it softens the Dark Side; it turns it into something defanged, something that can be harnessed for balance. It makes the Resistance more easily ‘just as bad’. The fandom is often obsessed with villainizing the Resistance/Rebellion (’There were people on the Death Star too’) and with making the FO into something not as bad as it is or which can be turned around for good as though it is not an ideological organization based completely around authoritarianism and imperialism. And look, while this is a neat and supposedly nuanced take and all, it’s not compatible with the internal logic of the GFFA. Just because real life has this kind of ambiguous complexity doesn’t mean SW does; SW does have complexity, but ‘are the Rebels really the good guys’/’is the Light side really the good side’ is not one of them. The complexity of SW stems from how to make ethical decisions in a complex world, but it upholds the central idea that there is a frame of external, ‘divine’ ethics from which to adhere or fall away (the Force).

I digress a lot, but what I’m trying to say is that I think a lot of benevolent Benperor takes are underscored by a desire for SW to be more morally ambiguous than it is; where it is not as simple as Ben literally saying, I was wrong, I want to go home (and no shade, but we also gotta admit that a lot of people find that kind of edgy greyness hotter in their leading man; we all saw how Ben’s characterization in TFA fic was compared to his muuuch softer canonical characterization in TLJ). I’ve flipped through a lot of the fics where Rey joins Ben as Empress, just to see what people’s logic was, and it seems a lot of people just like, again, the ambiguity of the situation, and how it allows Ben to maintain power and a certain mystique and gives Rey some more leeway to also dabble in Dark ambiguity. Which is all fun and fine for fic, but I’m talking about how the movie actually presents this situation and what the movies are likely to do with it. This logic of ‘the Resistance would never accept me’ that I see in so much fic from Ben is bull. There are so, so many instances of FO/Imperials defecting to the Rebels/Resistance after killing/torturing/shooting Rebels out of the sky, and the Resistance is like, Wow cool, new peeps who have decided to stop doing bad things and start doing good ones. It’s just not how SW is to have repentant people be cast out by the good guys; they are the good guys for a reason.

And to be sure, I think a lot of reylos just don’t want Ben to have gone ‘too far’; as if there is a ‘too far’ in SW until you are literally dead. For reals, all these reylos should read the Vader comics, remember with all of that horrifying context that Anakin was still unequivocally redeemed and that George called his redemption the point of the saga, and come back to me.

#asks #nonnie #benperor discourse #hmm dabbling with a tagging system

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alixofagnia · 6 years

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Reylo Twins Theory

(Reylo Babies Den of Nerds)

I love that there are YouTube channels talking about this and that it’s not only women doing it. While I’ve come around to the idea of Reylo babies (though, not in or by the end of Episode IX), I don’t really agree with the concluding ideas in this video, mainly:

that the main SW saga will continue to be about Skywalkers

that Reylo will have twins

that one Reylo twin will be Dark and the other Light

that this old new dichotomy will then perpetuate the Skywalker family conflict

Just to be clear, I’m not trying to shit on other theories. This is just my criticism, and is meant to add to constructive speculation.

Skywalkers Will Always be the Focus of the SW Saga Story

I think this guy brings up really great points (especially early on in the video) with regard to Disney’s intent with the Skywalkers. I’ve said this before, and I agree that it would be too risky, too polarizing a move to end the Skywalkers. But I don’t believe that J.J. Abrams’ quote “conclude the Skywalker saga in IX” equates to “end the Skywalker line in IX”.

I think the real problem with making the main SW story always only about a Skywalker is that it will contain risks in and of itself, the two biggest being repetition and limitation when it comes to story and/or characterization, to say nothing of endless wars with butt-hurt fanboys. But that’s not to say that Skywalkers won’t factor or feature in some way in every installment of the main SW story. Not at all–I think they absolutely should; not only that, they deserve to. I just don’t agree that a Skywalker must be the central character—that’s why we have Rey (and even Finn, Poe, and Rose, too) and her theme of “nobody from nothing” in this trilogy.

To keep SW fresh, we have to move on to different characters with different stories and conflicts. It’s why I love the ST so much.

Reylo Twins

On one hand, I see the poetic balance in this—if you wanted to take it even further, then the twins would be a boy and a girl, right? How cute. But that’s actually why I dislike it, and I say that as a twin. There’s something a little too neat there, and it’s definitely repetitive.

Even with Reylo babies, I’d be looking for something less predictable: 3 kids, maybe all girls, maybe all boys, maybe 2 girls and 1 boy, etc. I suppose twins and a spare (or the spare and then twins) might be a good compromise, and a callback to Han and Leia’s family from Legends.

Dark Twin vs Light Twin

Continuing to draw from Legends, this idea seems to speak directly to Jacen and Jaina Solo from Legends. I’ve barely read anything from Legends, but always knew about the continuing drama/conflict in the Skywalker-Solo line with this pair of twins. While I do think story/character parallels can be made between Legends, TFA, and TLJ, I feel like this would be too specific a pull.

Furthermore, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is essentially Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus insofar as another Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side goes, as well as the commonality they share as fallen sons of Han and Leia. In short, the Dark Twin theory is already being done with the sequel trilogy.

The Perpetuation of the Skywalker Complex

This theme is highly problematic to the ST: It would tear the theme of balance and failure that Reylo brings to the saga. In other words, the Sequel Trilogy wouldn’t at all be a conclusion to the Skywalker saga, which is about their Force complex and its resolution. Rather, the ST would, in fact, be made redundant, premature, and inconsequential.

To prevent that, what I would prefer to see is one thing we haven’t yet seen and is what I believe they’re building toward: the Skywalker family working in complete harmony as a single, powerful unit. How awesome would it be to see Reylo kicking ass with their kids? A cohesive family of Force-sensitives is something that has eluded the galaxy far, far away.

It’s time to change that.

#reylo #rey #kylo ren #ben solo #reylo babies #skywalker complex #star wars speculation #sequel trilogy #star wars episode ix #star wars legends

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engagemachine · 6 years

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@valyriansword and I have been talking about TLJ and it’s been the most rewarding/validating conversation and I’M SO GRATEFUL to have someone who is able to express how they feel (AND HOW I ALSO FEEL) so articulately. I’m just so excited because walking out of that theater was such a conflicting experience and I didn’t know how I felt or how I was supposed to feel or what to make of what I’d just seen, but I feel more at “peace” after discussing so thoroughly the film’s high and low points. I’ve also just come back from seeing the film for a second time and feel that I’m better able to express a lot of my thoughts.

So with all of that being said, SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THINGS KATRINA SAID and then my own additions added on at the end (spoilers ahead):

“what I really disliked was the little “oh I feel the force” joke, mostly because it felt like I was seeing Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill fooling around then actual Rey and Luke. I don’t know, the humor did not work for during a lot of parts.” –This is something I echoed several times to different people after seeing the film, because there were a couple points in the film where the humor felt entirely misplaced and even inappropriate at times. The scene where Rey is meditating on the rock and thinks she is feeling the Force (when in actuality it is Luke waving a plant over her hand) was one of those scenes that felt overtly comical. I don’t appreciate humor when it feels so forced. There were moments meant to be funny that simply did not feel genuine. Maybe the humor felt oddly placed at times because there wasn’t really time to properly laugh over it before the characters were moving on and were back into serious mode. The “reaction time” felt cut short, in a sense, and I’ve never seen that happen in a film before.

“Yeah the pulling her [Rey] around the room stuff was weird. He [Snoke] was the most one-dimensional character in TFA but I liked him so much better back then? I liked how mysterious he was? But here he was SUCH a twirling-mustache villain in this movie, and he talked way too much. Actually, everyone in this movie talked too much. what made TFA so great was the subtext, the things /not/ said, like the interrogation room scene, peppered with so many ambiguous moments “don’t be afraid I feel it too” “I see it, I see the island”…so ripe with tension because of that, and so magical. But this movie kinda broke the fourth wall a few times and was very self-aware and I was not a fan of that.” –I firstly wanted to address Snoke, because I agree full-heartedly with what Katrina said about him being such a mustache-twirly villain in TLJ. He was mysterious in The Force Awakens, and while I don’t think anyone really liked him much in TFA, he was, at least, much more threatening and scary than he ever was in TLJ; I think there was some initial disappoint in seeing him in non-hologram form—before, he was only this crackly, large shadow figure. Now we’re seeing him in all of his full glory, and not only is he wearing this sparkly, gold bathrobe, (which: what the FUCK?) but he’s talking way too much. The speech he delivers moments before he is killed probably bothers me more than anything else he said. He goes on and on about how he sees everything, that nothing surprises him… and then is killed by the lightsaber sitting next to him. It was too easy. I also thought him pulling Rey around the room was very strange, perhaps it was the way it was filmed, but there was just something off about it to me.

About characters saying too much—I’ve never agreed with a comment more. There was so much dialogue that was just flat-out bad, so many moments that felt so strangely out of character. I think my biggest grievance with the dialogue was that a lot of it felt so circular. (The whole film felt circular, but I’ll save that for later) in that it never actually accomplishes anything or establishes a theme that we didn’t already know. Certainly the most revealing dialogue came from Kylo and Rey’s shared moments. But I’m still scratching my head over some of the dialogue between Rey and Luke, and the scene on Ahch-to where we’re led to believe that Rey’s parentage is about to be revealed, and then… isn’t. What was the point of the multiple reflections of Reys? Even the moment between Yoda and Luke wasn’t as impactful as it could have been—the piss-poor dialogue being the causative factor, in my opinion.

There are several other moments where I wished the actors had been given the ability to just act—this is one of the most talented ensembles of actors in a single film, and their freedoms to do what they do best have been stripped from them, and they’re instead forced to spout all this useless dialogue that doesn’t really advance the plot, and that doesn’t reveal to us anything we don’t already know.

Yoda’s speech wasn’t all bad—what he said about failing to teach your failures, and how that can be just as harmful as hiding them completely was very poignant, I thought.

“Rian just seemed weirdly obsessed with the Resistance storyline when it was a much simpler, off-to-the-side thing before. I came in ready to see a movie about Rey’s growth as a person, learning the ways of the force, learning about balance, having mixed feelings about Kylo. instead it was more like… “you’re a MONSTER… but I forgive you and I want to save you and I’ll recklessly give myself up to the first order just to be with you, baby” which. was so. out of character. I had way more issues with that than with the force bond itself. And then the rest of the movie was a cheesy story about how heroic the resistance is and a tiny subplot about Rey bickering with retired Luke. Who apparently disconnected from the force but then reconnected with no issues?” –I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: there was no forward momentum in this film, no real advancement in the plot beyond what happens to Kylo, and I’m so baffled as to why. The Resistance spent the entire film running away from the First Order (all on the premise that their fuel supply was running low, which… what???), a storyline that could have been effectively told in under 15 minutes.

I’m also crushed by what was done with Finn. Such a central character in TFA, in TLJ, he was reduced to completing some side quest that ended up having no relevance to the film. And why the fuck did Rey and Finn NEVER EVEN SPEAK? They hugged, yes, but the fact that no dialogue was shared between them practically kills me. If Poe and Rey can share a split-second of dialogue, surely that same courtesy could have been extended to Finn and Rey, who share one of the most beautiful friendships in the Star Wars universe.

Katrina pointed out something else that I would have loved to of seen, which is more of an internal struggle within Rey, specifically her growth as a Jedi, and my desire to see more conflict between her and the Dark side. There was so much conflict driving her in TFA, and in TLJ it felt as if her conflict was presented and then solved within an hour into the film, tied off with a neat little bow on top, and that was that. I just feel very sad for her character. I wanted more for her story.

As for Luke, which I’ll get to more in a minute—it goes without saying that I am sad about what became of him in this film as well, everything from his portrayal to his subsequent death. (Which, by the way: WHY MUST THIS NEW TRILOGY KILL OFF EVERY SINGLE TRIO MEMBER FROM THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY. W H Y.)

“Yeah Luke was extra and I feel like that Fashion statement was the only truly in-character moment for him. I feel like they did not do him justice, certainly not enough justice for him to be offed in the end like that. It’s weird because with Han I felt his death so, so deeply, even when I didn’t know anything about him, but with Luke I was just way too “the FUCK” to really react emotionally.” –This is exactly how I felt about Luke’s death, which was so jarring in a way that’s difficult to even put into words. Luke deserved a proper burial, something commemorative, something honorable, something more than just a split second scene of him disintegrating into dust, and his Jedi robe mystically blowing off into the wind. Darth Vader got a proper burial, it just stands to reason that Luke should have gotten one too. I felt like I’d been robbed of the moment to properly mourn Luke’s loss, Luke—the character who is arguably the centerfold for the entire Star Wars universe.

Some of my other grievances include whatever the fuck that casino scene/subplot was supposed to be, which was just so messy and jarring inside the Star Wars universe that I didn’t feel like I was watching a Star Wars film at all. I hate admitting to experiencing boredom in a Star Wars film, but both times I’ve watched that scene, I found my thoughts drifting to ways they could have better utilized that time and space in the film. It’s such a tragedy to me.

Another thing that I strongly disliked—and I wasn’t able to put my finger on this until the second viewing—but some of the transitions are so poorly done, I couldn’t help but notice how much they stand out, and not in a good way. There’s something very clunky and awkward about how the scenes cut from one to the next, it doesn’t feel smooth and organic like in TFA. I felt as if I was being tugged from one storyline/set of characters to the next and then back again, leaving me with a sensation that felt almost like whiplash.

Which brings me to my final point, which is that TLJ is simply not a cohesive film within the Star Wars universe. It doesn’t feel like a Star Wars film to me, and that perhaps is what saddens me more than anything else. I know a lot of fans criticized J.J. for what they assumed to be his apparent lack of imagination, or his lack of risk-taking within the Star Wars universe when it came to TFA, but what I appreciated were his subtle nods to the previous SW films, I appreciate him reinventing the Star Wars universe while still maintaining the feel and tone of the previous films. It felt honorary and appropriate.

To me, TLJ falls into a pitfall that I’ve seen too many times before, which is that it is extremely difficult to carry on a story and trilogy of films that is cohesive when you have different directors overseeing them. Regardless of the decisions that were already predetermined at the time that the plans for this new trilogy were mapped out, there’s no doubt that the director oversees and greatly affects the overall tone and feel of the film.

And look, this isn’t a totally awful film—I think we can all agree, collectively, that while the prequels are pretty bad, we like them because they’re Star Wars films, because we grew up watching them and there’s a pretty strong sense of nostalgia we’ve tacked onto them. Maybe in some years’ time, The Last Jedi will acquire that same sense of nostalgia. One can only hope.

#Star Wars #The Last Jedi #spoilers #don't want this to wind up in the SW tags but do wanna have my bases covered so I don't spoil anybody #was going to talk about all the high points and the things I loved but this is almost 2k so like...#maybe in a separate post #there are lots of things I Loved #namely Adam Driver's incredible performance

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webwych · 7 years

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This is your Han Solo now ...

So we had the first as-yet-untitled-Han Solo project cast photo this week, wow, the “SW” Facebook page deteriorated into the childish and moronic “if you don’t want this; you’re not a fan” generation-gap mentality argument pretty damn quickly.

I don’t know how alone I am in this, but being one of the people who were part of the last Lucasfilm/fan focus group; I, at least, can say that I have pretty much directly told Lucasfilm in no uncertain terms what I thought of this particular project and I assure you that my comments were not very pretty and, in my opinion, rather scathing. I must state for all purposes that I did that knowing that the “go/no-go” point to have this project green lit was at least 18 months ago and understand that anything I had to say had absolutely no effect on the outcome.

I can see that this film has currently split the fandom somewhat evenly, but I think the “don’t want” have the edge for the time being. I know that there will be fans who are not happy about this project now who will be swept up in the coming months as more BTS shots are released, and there might be a “something” at this year’s Celebration to give buzz about, and there are many fans are looking forward to it. Yes, there will also be those fans who will see it 6 times (at least) and whom will take to the myriad of social media platforms to tell just everyone who watches or listens or reads just how much they hated it every single time they saw it.

But is this project a good idea – no, it is not. Personally, for those of us who continue to feel Solo’s fate in TFA deeply, simply have not been allowed to grieve by Disney/Lucasfilm and this as-yet-untitled-Han Solo project does very much feel like the character is barely cold in his grave and we are being presented with a new step-father and told to call him “daddy”. OK, that’s probably a bit too Drama Queen-y, but, gorramit, it’s how I feel.

These standalone projects highlight Disney’s business model need for this franchise - a “SW” film every year ad infinitum. They are also, unfortunately, the embodiment of Lucas’ extremely ill chosen and inelegant analogy made during his Charlie Rose interview in 2015. However, the decision for the return to the May release date is in itself fascinating (for those of you interested in the business of distribution) as it actually doesn’t give the title the potential longevity of theatrical release as keeping the mid-December date does, but hey; that’s likely to be all about getting it onto the home entertainment market ASAP to recoup that ROI, but I digress ... Would it have been better if the decision had been made to simply find a new director for the Boba Fett project and proceed with that? Yes and no.

I say yes, because following the character’s somewhat gauche exit in ROTJ, Boba Fett’s “myth” has become even more entrenched especially being one of the remarkably few (and I am counting the fingers on one hand) OT characters that has a rich (read cinematic) backstory exploitation potential. And, hey, his costume’s, like, really cool!

I say no, because it doesn’t take away the “meat-grinder” element of what this fandom has to now accept. And those canon novels, comics and video games will simply not write themselves.

As a 1 of those characters ripe for cinematic exploitation – Han Solo has it all. Being the eldest of the original OT triumvirate, his backstory is an untapped source, which if handled correctly, could go for more than 1 film (and I don’t care what Hidalgo vehemently countered last year on his Twitter regarding the “news” of possibly more than 1 Han Solo film; potential further Solo sequels or similar is likely to have been considered due to Disney’s business model and the last thing the studio want is to keep negotiating with Alden Ehrenreich’s reps especially as this could open big enough). Considering the career that Harrison Ford went on to have; Solo has audience brand awareness like you wouldn’t believe and is consistently voted as The Favourite “SW” CharacterTM. This was very much put to maximum use for TFA when that film was sold to the general public on Ford’s back.

Disney, like all companies, has its shareholder obligations and therefore quarterly projections to meet. And I have no doubt whatsoever, that numbers have already been run for this as-yet-untitled Han Solo offering (but please, indulge me a second time while I contribute some title suggestions: “21 Jump Falcon” or “48 Parsecs” or tapping into Kennedy’s western idea, “Butch Calrissian and the Sundance Solo” or maybe it should just be “Firefly” … Oh, wait, that last 1 already happened, didn’t it?) so there’s an idea of possible BO both domestic and worldwide that will be gaining traction within the Mouse House. Just add the audience …

As a Han Solo/Harrison Ford fan for 4 decades I have a number of issues with this as-yet-untitled-Han Solo project (bet you’re surprised by that, huh?) The primary one is this: Following the events regarding this character in TFA, why on Earth would I, as a consumer, want to buy into a Han Solo film, especially when it has been written by 2 of the architects of the character’s fate and personality in TFA?

I was never a particular fan of the former EU, so I never bought into the Han/Leia white picket fence around the Millennium Falcon scenario as was presented. But I most definitively do not buy into the never around father and husband as presented by J J Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan in TFA (which is being currently cemented by both Chuck Wendig and Claudia Gray into a man who felt confined in his relationship and impending fatherhood, more interested in racing and general itchy-feet in their “canon” novels) as it would appear that their Han Solo remained as we first met him in ANH. My Han Solo grew up without knowing who his parents were, very much lived a hand-to-mouth existence on whatever planet’s streets – an “SW” version of the Artful Dodger if you will, and yet was able to pull himself out of wherever to make it to the Imperial Navy to pursue a dream. I, personally, have great difficulty in acknowledging how that Han Solo would condone his child to a similarly emotionally difficult life. Han Solo was at that point in ANH and by the end of ROTJ, he’d found enduring friendship (the people he’d dismissed at the beginning rescued him at great danger to themselves), companionship (he’d developed love) and a sense of belonging (he stayed with the Rebellion – yes, in the beginning it was likely for ulterior motives, but not by the closing shots of ROTJ) – that is a character arc which someone who has experienced the worst that life could throw their way would not easily give up. As it stands, for me, the Han Solo of TFA is tantamount to character assassination solely for our leisure cash.

Of course, I understand that the Han Solo we will be presented with in the as-yet-untitled-Han Solo project will be the Han of ANH as the Messer’s Kasdan can put the character in more thrilling situations, and minus Leia, give him a passing, but no doubt intense love interest. But we’ve seen how this character’s story ends - being callously murdered for narrative purposes on the modern screenwriting altar of cheap audience manipulation; so, again, why should I spend my hard earned money on this? And anyway, with Woody Harrelson admitting that his character’s name is Garris Shrike, I can only wonder just how much of this film will be owe to A C Crispin’s 1997 Han Solo trilogy novels (yes, OK, former EU has no place … Right …) The very sad thing is that if this film has scenarios recognizable to her novels there is likely to be no credit for Ms Crispin which is beyond awful while the Messer’s Kasdan will call it their own work.

The last fan focus group survey was about this project and it would appear that I was one of very, very few people who actually knew who Ehrenreich is and could recognise a photo of him. I have seen his performance in “HAIL, CAESAR!” and enjoyed it; in fact it was of a standard that I would expect of a Coen Brothers production, so do I think he will give a poor performance? Most definitely not; but his Han Solo will not be my Han Solo and creatives/business involved in this ignore that at their error.

Rightly or wrongly, I feel that a lot of this has to be with clearing the copyright decks of Lucas’ vision (and again whatever you think of Lucas IN THE SLIGHTEST; you feel it BECAUSE you bought into his original creation) and as I’ve stated earlier, there is an element of churning out product. I am of a certain age where I feel that quality is superior to quantity, but I also accept that there are fans (regardless of age) who are extremely happy with the thought of a film every year ad infinitum and all good luck to you. If your question is do I think it will be a bad film? No; no it will not, no one spends the money these days on film production expecting to make a bad film!

Once upon a time, the former EU evolved from the foundation of the OT and weaved its own path for 6 years until the announcement was made in ‘96/97 regarding the PT. By 2005, Lucas expressed that in his opinion there were 3 streams for “SW”: The films which was his vision and which were canon (just think, kids, there was a time when if it wasn’t on screen it simply wasn’t canon); then there was the merchandise, which included the EU, comics, etc; and lastly there was ours, the fans’, “SW” – and none of those necessarily met in a neat junction, but all ran parallel with the films trumping everything, and Lucas (whether you remain supportive or dismissive) very much recognized that, and as long as the fandom played that game, acknowledged the fandom in a manner in which no other entertainment producing entity every has or is likely to again.

The last word I have to make regarding this as-of-yet-untitled Han Solo project is this: I can not wait for the utterly ridiculous blustering explanation that will come from Pablo Hidalgo and the Lucasfilm Story Group either in a direct social media proclamation or a canon novel which addresses how a mature adult male in his mid-20s grew 5 inches by the time that mature adult male was in his mid-30s or will that physical element simply be part of the “this is your Han Solo now” mentality?

#star wars #Han Solo #harrison ford

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