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ariainstars · 4 years

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Thank You, Disney Lucasfilm… For Destroying My Dreams

Warning: longer post.

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So… I watched The Rise of Skywalker on Disney+ a few weeks ago. Again.

Sigh.

I guess it has its good sides. But professional critics tend to dislike it and even the general audience doesn’t go crazy for it. I wonder why?

The Fantasy

When his saga became a groundbreaking pop phenomenon in the 1970es, George Lucas reportedly said that he wanted to tell fairy tales again in world that no longer seemed to offer young people a chance to grow up with them. The fact that his saga was met with such unabashed, international enthusiasm proves that he was right: people long for fairy tales no matter how old they are and what culture they belong to.

“Young people today don’t have a fantasy life anymore, not the way we did… All they’ve got is Kojak and Dirty Harry. All the films they see are movies of disasters and insecurity and realistic violence.” (George Lucas)

I’ve been a Star Wars fan for more than thirty years. I love the Original Trilogy but honestly it did not make me dream much, perhaps because when I saw it the trilogy was already complete. The Prequel Trilogy also did not inspire my fantasy.

The Last Jedi accomplished something that no TV show, book or film had managed in years: it made me dream. The richness of colorful characters, multifaceted themes, unexpected developments, intriguing relationships was something I had not come across in a long time: it fascinated me. I felt like a giddy teenager reading up meta’s, writing my own and imagining all sorts of beautiful endings for the saga for almost two years.

So if there’s something The Rise of Skywalker can pride itself on for me, it’s that it crushed almost every dream I had about it. The few things I had figured out – Rey’s fall to the Dark, Ben Solo’s redemption, the connection between them - did not even make me happy because they were tainted by the flatness of the storytelling reducing the Force to a superpower again (like the general audience seems to believe it is), and its deliberate ignoring of almost all messages of The Last Jedi.

Many fans of the Original Trilogy also were disillusioned by the saga over the decades and ranted at the studios for “destroying their childhood”. Now we, the fans of the sequels and in particular of The Last Jedi, are in the same situation… but the thought doesn’t make the pill much easier to swallow. What grates on my nerves is the feeling that someone trampled on my just newly found dreams like a naughty child kicking a doll’s house apart. Why give us something to dream of in the first place, then? To a certain extent I can understand that many fans would angrily assume that Disney Lucasfilm made the Sequel Trilogy for the purpose of destroying their idea of the saga. The point is that they had their happy ending, while every dream the fans of the Sequel Trilogy may have had was shattered with this unexpectedly flat and hollow final note.

I know many fans who dislike the Prequel Trilogy heartily. I also prefer the Original Trilogy, but I find the prequels all right in their own way, also since I gave them some thought. However, it can’t be denied that they lack the magic spark which made the Original Trilogy so special. Which makes sense since they are not a fairy tale but ultimately a tragedy, but in my opinion it’s the one of the main reasons why the Prequel Trilogy never was quite so successful, or so beloved.

Same goes for Rogue One, Solo, or Clone Wars. They’re ok in their way, but not magical.

The sequel trilogy started quite satisfyingly with The Force Awakens, but for me, the actual bomb dropped with The Last Jedi. Reason? It was a magical story. It had the spark again that I had missed in the new Star Wars stories for decades! And it was packed full of beautiful messages and promises.

The Force is not a superpower belonging solely to the Jedi Anyone can be a hero. Even the greatest heroes can fail, but they will still be heroes. Hope is like the sun: if you only believe in it when you see it you’ll never make it through the night. Failure is the greatest teacher. It’s more important to save the light than to seem a hero. No one is never truly gone. War is only a machine. Dark Side and Light Side can be unbeatable if they are allies. Save what you love instead of destroying what you hate.

Naively, I assumed the trilogy would continue and end in that same magical way. And then came The Rise of Skywalker… which looks and feels like a Marvel superhero story at best and an over-long videogame at worst.

Chekov’s Gun

“Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

(Anton Chekov, 1860 - 1904)

If you show an important looking prop and don’t put it to use, it leaves the audience feeling baffled. There is a huge difference between a story’s setup, and the audience’s feeling of entitlement. E.g. many viewers expected Luke to jump right back into the fray in Episode VIII, because that’s what a hero does, isn’t it? The cavalry comes and saves the day. And instead, we met a disillusioned elderly hermit who is tired of the ways of the Jedi. But there was no actual reason for disappointment: in Episode VII it was very clearly said (through Han, his best friend) that Luke had gone into exile on purpose, feeling responsible for his failure in teaching a new generation of Jedi. It would have been more than stupid to show him as an all-powerful and all-knowing man who kills the bad guys. Sorry but who expected that was a victim to his own prejudice.

A promise left unfulfilled is a different story. The Last Jedi set up a lot of promises that didn’t come true in The Rise of Skywalker: Balance as announced by the Jedi temple mosaic, a new Jedi Order hinted at by Luke on Crait, a good ending for Ben and Rey set up by the hand-touching scene which was opposite to Anakin’s and Padmés wedding scene. Many fans were annoyed about the Canto Bight sequence. I liked it because it felt like the set-up for a lot of important stuff: partnership between Finn and Rose whom we see working together excellently, freedom for the enslaved children (one of whom is Force-sensitive), DJ and Rose expressing what makes wars in general foolish and beside the point. So if we, the fans of Episode VIII, now feel angry and let down, I daresay it’s not due to entitlement. We were announced magical outcomes and not just pew-pew.

The Star Wars saga never repeated itself but always developed and enlarged its themes, so it was to be expected that delving deeper, uncomfortable truths would come out: wars don’t start out of nowhere, and they don’t flare up and continue for decades for the same reason. In order to find Balance, the Jedi’s and the Skywalker family’s myths needed to be dismantled. Which is not necessarily bad as long it is explained how things came to this, and a better alternative is offered. The prequels explained the old political order and the beginnings of the Skywalker family, and announced that the next generation would do better. The sequels hardly explained anything about the 30 years that passed since our heroes won the battle against the Empire, and while The Last Jedi hinted at the future a lot, The Rise of Skywalker seemed to make a point of ignoring all of it.

The Skywalker Family Is Obliterated. Why?

Luke was proven right that his nephew would mean the end of everything he loved. The lineage of the Chosen One is gone. His grandson had begun where Vader had ended - tormented, pale and with sad eyes - and he met the same fate. Luke, Han, Leia, all sacrificed themselves to bring Ben Solo back for nothing. Him being the reincarnation of the Chosen One and getting a new chance should have been meaningful for all of them; instead, he literally left the scepter to Rey who did nothing to deserve it: merely because she killed the Bad Guy does not mean she will do a better job than the family whose name and legacy she proudly takes over.

I do hope there was a good reason if the sequels did not tell “The New Adventures of Luke, Leia and Han” and instead showed us a broken family on the eve of its wipeout. It would have been much easier, and more fun for the audience, to bring the trio back again after a few years and pick up where they had left. Instead we had to watch their son, nephew and heir go his grandfather’s way - born with huge power, branded as Meant to Be Dangerous from the start, tried his best to be a Jedi although he wanted to be a pilot, never felt accepted, abandoned in the moment of his greatest need, went to his abuser because he was the only one to turn to, became a criminal, his own family (in Anakin’s case: Obi-Wan and Yoda) trained the person who was closest to him to kill him, sacrificed himself for this person and died. And in his case, it’s particularly frustrating because Kylo Ren wasn’t half as impressive a villain as Vader, and Ben Solo had a very limited time of heroism and personal fulfilment, contrarily to Anakin when he was young.

The impact of The Rise of Skywalker was traumatic for some viewers. I know of adolescents and adults, victims of family abandonment and abuse, who identified with Ben: they were told that you can never be more than the sum of your abuse and abandonment, and that they’re replaceable if they’re not “good”. Children identifying with Rey were told that their parents might sell them away for “protection”. Rey was not conflicted, she had a few doubts but overall, she was cool about everything she did, so she got everything on a silver platter; that’s why as a viewer, after a while you stopped caring for her. Her antagonist was doomed from birth because he dared to question the choices other people made for him. It seems that in the Star Wars universe, you can only “rise” if you’re either a criminal but cool because you’ve always got a bucket over your head (Vader / the Mandalorian) or are a saint-like figure (Luke / Rey).

One of Obi-Wan’s first actions in A New Hope is cutting off someone’s arm who was only annoying him; Han Solo, ditto. These were no acts of self-defense. The Mandalorian is an outlaw. Yet they are highly popular. Why? Because they always keep their cool, so anything they do seems justified. Young Anakin was hated, Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen attacked for his portrayal. For the same reason many fans feel that Luke is the least important of the original trio although basically the Original Trilogy is his story: it seems the general audience hates nothing more than emotionality in a guy. They want James Bond, Batman or Indiana Jones as the lead. Padmé loved Anakin because she always saw the good little boy he once was in him; his attempts at impressing her with his flirting or his masculinity failed. Kylo tried to impress Rey with his knowledge and power, but she fled from him - she wanted the gentle, emphatic young man who had listened to her when she felt alone. Good message. But both died miserably, and Ben didn’t even get anything but a kiss. Realizing that his “not being as strong as Darth Vader” might actually be a strength of its own would have meant much more.

The heroes of the Original Trilogy had their adventures together and their happy ending; the heroes of the Prequel Trilogy also had good times and accomplishments in their youth, before everything went awry. Rey, Finn and Poe feel like their friendship hardly got started; Rose was almost obliterated from the narrative; and Ben Solo seems to have had only one happy moment in his entire life. Of course it’s terrible that he committed patricide (even if it was under coercion), but Anakin / Vader himself had two happy endings in the Prequel Trilogy before he became the monster we know so well. Not to mention Clone Wars, where he has heroic moments unnumbered.

The Skywalker family is obliterated without Balance in the Force, and the young woman who inherited all doesn’t seem to have learned any lesson from all this. The Original Trilogy became a part of pop culture among other things because its ending was satisfying. We can hardly be expected to be satisfied with an ending where our heroes are all dead and the heir of their worst enemy takes over. What good was the happy ending of the Original Trilogy for if they didn’t learn enough from their misadventures to learn how to protect one single person - their son and nephew, their future?

For a long time, I also thought that the saga was about Good vs. Evil. Watching the prequels again, I came to the conclusion that it is rather about Love vs. War. And now, considering as a whole, I believe it to be essentially Jedi against Skywalker. The ending, as it is now, says that both fractions lost: they annihilated one another, leaving a third party in charge, who believes to be both but actually knows very little about them.

Star Wars and Morality

After 9 films and 42 years, it still is not possible to make the general audience accept that it is wrong to divide people between Good and Evil in the first place. The massive rejection of both prequels and sequels, which have moral grey zones galore, shows it.

It is also not possible without being accused of actual blasphemy in the same fandom, to say the plain truth that no Skywalker ever was a Jedi at heart. As their name says, they’re pilots. Luke was the last and strongest of all Jedi because he always was first and foremost himself. Anakin was crushed by the Jedi’s attempts to stifle his feelings. His grandson, too. A Force-sensitive person ought to have the choice whether they want to be a Jedi or not; they ought not to be taught to suppress their emotions and live only on duty, without really caring for other people; and they ought to grow up feeling in a safe and loving environment, not torn away from their families in infancy, indoctrinated and provided with a light sabre (a deadly weapon) while they’re still small. A Jedi order composed of child soldiers or know-it-all’s does not really help anybody.

The original Star Wars saga was about love and friendship; although many viewers did not want to understand that message. The prequels portrayed the Jedi as detached and arrogant and Anakin Skywalker sympathetically, a huge disappointment for who only accepts stories of the “lonesome cowboy” kind. The Last Jedi was so hated that The Rise of Skywalker backpedaled: sorry, of course you’re right, here you have your “hero who knows everything better and fixes everything for you on a silver platter”. The embarrassing antihero, who saves the girl who was the only person showing him some human compassion, can die miserably in the process and is not even mourned.

Honestly: I was doubtful whether it would be adequate to give Ben Solo a happy ending after the patricide. I guess letting him die was the easiest way out for the authors to escape censorship. (I even wrote this in a review on amazon about The Last Jedi, before I delved deeper into the saga’s themes.) The messages we got now are even worse.

Kylo Ren / Ben Solo

A parent can replace a child if they’re not the way they expect them to be. A victim of lifelong psychical and physical abuse can only find escape in death, whether he damns or redeems himself. An introspective, sensitive young man is a loser no matter how hard he tries either way. A whole family can sacrifice itself to save their heir, he dies anyway.

Rey

Self-righteousness is acceptable as long as you find a scapegoat for your own failings. Overconfidence justifies anything you do. You can’t carve your way as a female child of “nobodies”, you have to descend from someone male and powerful even if that someone is the devil incarnate. You are a “strong female” if you choose to be lonely; you need neither a partner nor friends.

In General

Star Wars is not about individual choices, loyalty, friendship and love, it is a classic Western story with a lonesome cowboy (in this case: cowgirl) at its centre. Satisfied?

The father-son-relationship between Vader and Luke mirrors the Biblical story of Cain and Abel, saying that whoever we may want to kill is, in truth, our kin, which makes a clear separation in Good and Evil impossible. The “I am your father” scene is so infamous by now that even non-fans are aware of it; but this relationship between evil guy and good guy, as well as the plot turns where the villain saves the hero and that the hero discards his weapon are looked upon rather as weird narrative quirks instead of a moral.

In an action movie fan, things are simple: good guy vs. bad guy, the good guy (e.g. James Bond may be a murderer and a misogynist, but that’s ok because he’s cool about it) kills the bad guy, ka-boom, end of story. But Star Wars is a parable, an ambitious project told over decades of cinema, and a multilayered story with recurring themes.

A fairy tale ought to have a moral. The moral of both Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy was compassionate love - choose it and you can end a raging conflict, reject it and you will cause it. What was the moral of the Sequel Trilogy? You can be the offspring of the galaxy’s worst terror and display a similar attitude, but pose as a Jedi and kill unnecessarily, and it’s all right; descend from Darth Vader (who himself was a victim long before he became a culprit) and whether you try to become a Jedi trained by Luke Skywalker or a Sith trained by his worst enemy, you will end badly?

Both original and prequel trilogy often showed “good” people making bad choices and the “bad ones” making the right choices. To ensure lasting peace, no Force user ought to be believe that he must choose one side and then stick to it for the rest of his life: both sides need one another. The prequels took 3 films to convey this message, though not saying so openly. The Last Jedi said it out clearly - and the authors almost had their heads ripped off by affronted fans, resulting in The Rise of Skywalker’s fan service. It’s not like Luke, Han and Leia were less heroic in the Sequel Trilogy, on the contrary, they gave everything they had to their respective cause. They were not united, and they were more human than they had once been. Apparently, that’s an affront.

The Jedi are no perfect heroes and know-it-all’s and they never were, the facts are there for everyone to see. Padmé went alone and pregnant to get her husband out of Mustafar - and she almost succeeded - although she knew what he had done and that he was perfectly capable of it (he had told her of the Tusken village massacre himself) because she still saw the good little boy he had been in him; Obi-Wan left him amputated and burning in the lava, although he had raised Anakin like a small brother and the latter had repeatedly saved his life. But Padmé was not a Jedi, so I guess she still had some human decency. Neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda lifted a finger for the oppressed populations of the galaxy during the Empire, waiting instead for Anakin’s son to grow up so they could trick him into committing patricide. Neither Luke nor Leia did anything for their own son and nephew while he became the scourge of the galaxy, damning his soul by committing crime after crime. On Exegol, Rey heard the voices of all Jedi encouraging her to fight Palpatine to death. After that, they left her to die alone, and the alleged “bad guy”, who had already saved her soul from giving in to Palpatine’s lures, had to save her life by giving her his own. The Jedi merely know that “their side” has to win, no matter the cost for anyone’s life, sanity, integrity or happiness.

Excuse me, these are simple facts. How anyone can still believe that the Jedi were super-powerful heroes who always win or all-knowing wizards who are always right is beyond me. Luke, the last and strongest of them, like a bright flickering of light before the ultimate end, showed us that the best of men can fail. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. But it is wrong and utterly frustrating when all of the failure never leads to anything better. If Rey means to rebuild the Jedi order to something better than it was, there was no hint at that whatsoever.

And What Now?

The Last Jedi hit theatres only 2 years before The Rise of Skywalker, and I can’t imagine that the responsible authors all have forgotten how to make competent work in the meantime; more so considering that Solo or The Mandalorian are solid work. Episode IX is thematically so painfully flat it seems like they wanted us to give up on the saga on purpose. The last instalment of a 42-year-old saga ought to have been the best and most meaningful. I had heard already decades ago that the saga was supposed to have 9 chapters, so I was not among who protested against the sequels thinking that they had been thought up to make what had come before invalid. I naively assumed a larger purpose. But Episode IX only seems to prove these critics perfectly right.

The last of the flesh and blood of the Chosen One is dead without having “finished what his grandfather started”?

Still no Balance in the Force?

And worst of all, Palpatine’s granddaughter taking over, having proven repeatedly that she is not suited for the task?

Sorry, this “ending” is absurd. I have read fanfiction that was better written and more interesting. And, most of all, less depressing. I was counting on a conclusion that showed that the Force has all colours and nuances, and that it’s not limited to the black-and-white view “we against them”. That’s the ending all of us fans would have deserved, instead of catering the daddy issues of the part of the audience who doesn’t want stories other than those of the “lonesome cowboy” kind. I myself grew up on Japanese anime, maybe that’s one of the reasons why I can’t stand guys like James Bond or Batman and why I think you don’t need “a great hero who fixes the situation” but that group spirit and communication are way more important.

It was absolutely unexpected that Disney, the production company whose trademark are happy endings and family stories, would end this beloved and successful saga after almost half a century on such a hollow note. Why tell first a beautiful fairy tale and then leave the audience on a hook for 35 years to continue first with a tragedy (which at least was expected) and then with another (unexpected one)? And this story is supposed to be for children? Like children would understand all of the subtext, and love sad, cautionary tales. Children, as well as the general audience, first of all want to be entertained! No one wants to watch the legendary Skywalker family be obliterated and a Palpatine take over. The sequels were no fun anymore; we’ve been left with another open ending and hardly an explanation about what happened in the 30 years in between. If you want to tell a cautionary tale, you should better warn the general audience beforehand.

The Original Trilogy is so good because it’s entertaining and offers room for thought for who wants to think about its deeper themes, and also leaves enough space for dreams. Same goes for the first two films of the Sequel Trilogy; but precisely the last, which should have wrapped up the saga, leaves us with a bitter aftertaste and dozens of questions marks.

We as the audience believe that a story, despite the tragic things that happen, must go somewhere; we get invested into the characters, we root for them, we want to see them happy in the end. (The authors of series like Girls, How I Met Your Mother or Game of Thrones ought to be reminded of that, too.) I was in contact with children and teenagers saying that the Sequel Trilogy are “boring”; and many, children or adults, who were devastated by its concluson. There is a difference between wanting to tell a cautionary tale and playing the audience for fools. This trilogy could have become legendary like the Original Trilogy, had it fulfilled its promises instead of “keeping it low” with its last chapter. Who watches a family or fantasy story or a romantic / comedic sitcom wants to escape into another world, not to be hit over his head with a mirror to his own failings, and the ones of the society he’s living in. Messages are all right, but they ought not to go at the cost of the audience’s satisfaction about the about the people and narrative threads they have invested in for years.

This isn’t a family story: but children probably didn’t pester the studios with angry e-mails and twitter messages etc. They simply counted on a redemption arc and happy ending, and they were right, because they’re not as stupid as adults are. I have read and watched many a comment from fans who hate The Last Jedi. Many of these fans couldn’t even pinpoint what their rage was all about, they only proved to be stuck with the original trilogy and unwilling to widen their horizon. But at least their heroes had had their happy ending: The Rise of Skywalker obliterated the successes of all three generations of Skywalkers.

If the film studios wanted to tease us, they’ve excelled. If they expect the general audience to break their heads over the sequels’ metaphysics, they have not learned from the reactions to the prequels that most viewers take these films at face value. Not everybody is elbows-deep in the saga, or willing to research about it for months, and / or insightful enough to see the story’s connections. Which is why many viewers frown at the narrative and believe the Sequel Trilogy was just badly written. This trilogy could have become legendary like the Original Trilogy, had it fulfilled its promises instead of “keeping it low” with its last chapter. As it is now, the whole trilogy is hanging somewhere in the air, with neither a past nor a future to be tied in with.

The prequels already had the flaw of remaining too obscure: most fans are not aware that Anakin had unwillingly killed his wife during the terrible operation that turned him into Darth Vader, sucking her life out of her through the Force: most go by “she died of a broken heart”. So although one scene mirrors the other, it is not likely that most viewers will understand what Rey’s resurrection meant. And: Why did Darth Maul kill Qui-Gon Jinn? What did the Sith want revenge for? Who was behind Shmi’s abduction and torture? Who had placed the order for the production of the clones, and to what purpose? We can imagine or try to reconstruct the answers, but nothing is confirmed by the story itself.

The sequels remained even more in the dark, obfuscating what little explanation we got in The Rise of Skywalker with quick pacing and mind-numbing effects.

Kylo Ren had promised his grandfather that “he would finish what he started”: he did not. Whatever one can say of this last film, it did not bring Balance in the Force. What’s worse, the subject was not even breached. It was hinted at by the mosaic on the floor of the Prime Jedi Temple on Ahch-To, but although Luke and Rey were sitting on its border, they never seemed to see what was right under their noses. It remains inexplicable why it was there for everyone to see in the first place.

We might argue that Ben finished what his grandfather started by killing (or better, causing the death of) the last Jedi, who this one couldn’t kill because he was his own son; but leaving Rey in charge, he helped her finish what her grandfather had started. The irony could hardly be worse.

Episode IX looks like J.J. Abrams simply completed what they started with Episode VII, largely ignoring the next film as if it was always planned to do so. We, the angry and disappointed fans of The Last Jedi, may believe it was due to some of the general audience’s angry backlash, but honestly: the studios aren’t that dumb. They had to know that Episode VIII would be controversial and that many fans would hate it. The furious reactions were largely a disgrace, but no one can make me believe that they were totally unexpected. Nor can anyone convince me that The Rise of Skywalker was merely an answer to the small but very loud part of the audience who hated The Last Jedi: a company with the power and the returns of Disney Lucasfilm does not need to buckle down before some fan’s entitlement and narrowmindedness out of fear of losing money. And if they do, it was foolish to make Rey so perfect that she becomes almost odious, and to let the last of the Skywalker blood die a meaningless death. (Had he saved the Canto Bight children and left them with Rey, at least he would have died with honor; and she, the child left behind by her parents, would have had a task to dedicate herself to.)

The only reason I can find for this odd ending is that it’s meant to prepare the way for Rian Johnson’s new trilogy, which - hopefully - will finally be about Balance. We as the audience don’t know what’s going on behind the doors. Filmmaking is a business like any other, i.e. based on contracts; and I first heard that Rian Johnson had negotiated a trilogy of his own since before Episode VIII hit theatres. Maybe he kept all the rights of intellectual property to his own film, including that he would finish the threads he picked up and close the narrative circles he opened, and only he; and that his alleged working on “something completely different” is deliberately misleading.

Some viewers love the original trilogy, some love the prequels, some like both; but I hardly expect anyone to love the sequel trilogy as a whole. What with the first instalment “letting the past die, killing it if they had to”, the second hinting at a promising future and the third patched on at the very last like some sort of band-aid, it was not coherent. I heard the responsible team for Game of Thrones even dropped their work, producing a dissatisfying, quickly sewn together last season, for this new Star Wars project and thereby disappointing millions of GoT fans; I hope they are aware of the expectations they have loaded upon them. George Lucas’ original trilogy had its faults, but but though there was no social media yet in his time, at least he was still close enough to the audience to give them what they needed, if not necessarily wanted. (Some fans can’t accept that Luke and Leia are siblings to this day, even if honestly, it was the very best plot twist to finish their story in a satisfying way.)

I’m hoping for now that The Last Jedi was not some love bombing directed at the more sentimental viewers but a promise that will be fulfilled. “Wrapping up” a saga by keeping the flattest, least convincing chapter for last is bad form. Star Wars did not become a pop phenomenon by accident, but because the original story was convincing and satisfying. Endings like these will hardly make anyone remember a story fondly, on the contrary, the audience will move to another fandom to forget their disappointment.

On a side note, I like The Mandalorian, exactly for the reason that that is a magical story; not as much as the original trilogy, but at least a little. Of course, I’m glad it was produced. But it’s a small consolation prize after the mess that supposedly wrapped up the original saga after 9 films.

We’re Not Blind, You Know…

- Though Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) has Darth Vader’s stature, his facial features are practically opposite to Vader’s creepy mask. This should have foreshadowed that his life should have gone the other way, instead of more or less repeating itself. - As a villain Kylo was often unconvincing; by all logic he should have been a good father figure. (Besides, Star Wars films or series never work unless there is a strong father or father figure at their center.)

- Like Vader, Kylo Ren was redeemed, but not rehabilitated. Who knows who may find his broken mask somewhere now and, not knowing the truth, promise “I will finish what you started”. - The hand-touching scene on Ahch-To which was visually opposite to Anakin’s and Padmé’s should not have predicted another tragedy but a happy ending for them. - The Canto Bight sequence was announcing reckoning for the weapon industry and freedom for the enslaved children. It also showed how well Finn and Rose fit together. - Rey was a good girl before she started on her adventures. Like Anakin or Luke, she did not need to become a Jedi to be strong or generous or heroic. - Rey summons Palpatine after one year of training. Kylo practically begged for his grandfather’s assistance for years, to no avail. Her potential for darkness is obviously much stronger. - Dark Rey’s light sabre looked like a fork, Kylo’s like a cross. - The last time all Jedi and Sith were obliterated leaving only Luke in charge, things went awry. Now we have a Palpatine masquerading as a Skywalker and believing she’s a Jedi. Rey is a usurper and universally cheered after years of war, like her grandfather. - The broom boy of Canto Bight looked like he was sweeping a stage and announcing “Free the stage, it’s time for us, the children.”

Rey failed in all instances where Luke had proved himself (so much for feminism and her being a Mary Sue): - Luke had forgiven his father despite all the pain he had inflicted on him. She 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. She assumed that you could make Ben Solo turn, give up the First Order and join the Resistance for her. She thought of her friends and of 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 even 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, she who were 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, she 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. - Rey has no change of mind on finding out that she’s Palpatine’s flesh and blood, nor after she has stabbed Kylo. Luke had to face himself on learning that he had almost become a patricide. Rey does not have to face herself: the revelation of her ancestry is cushioned by Luke’s and Leia’s support. Rey is and remains an uncompromising person who hardly learns from her faults.

This is cheating on the audience. And it's not due to feminism or Rey being some sort of “Mary Sue” the way many affronted fans claim. Kylo never was truly a villain, Rey is not a heroine, and this is not a happy ending. The Jedi, with their stuck-up conviction “only we must win”, have failed all over again. The Skywalker family was obliterated leaving their worst enemy in charge. Rey is supposed to be a “modern” heroine which young girls can take as an example? No, thank you. Not after this last film has made of her. Padmé was a much better role model, combining intelligence with strength and goodness and also female grace. The world does not need entitled female brats.

Bonus: What Made The Rise of Skywalker a Farce

- The Force Awakens was an ok film and The Last Jedi (almost) a masterpiece. The Rise of Skywalker was a cartoon. No wonder a lot of the acting felt and looked wooden. - “I will earn your brother’s light sabre.” She’s holding his father’s sabre. - Kylo in The Last Jedi: “Let the past die. Kill it if, you have to.” Beginning with me? - Rey ends up on Tatooine. - The planet both Anakin and Luke ardently wanted to leave. - Luke had promised his nephew that he would be around for him. - Nope. - Rey had told Ben that she had seen his future. What future was that - “you will be a hero for ten minutes, get a kiss and then die? (And they didn’t even get a love theme.) - “The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.” On a desert planet with a few ghosts. What of the ocean she used to dream about? - Ben and Rey were both introduced as two intensely lonely people searching for belonging. We learn they are a Force dyad, and then they are torn apart again. - Why was Ben named for Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first place, if they have absolutely nothing in common? - The Throne Room battle scene in The Last Jedi was clearly showing that when they are in balance, Light Side and Dark Side are unbeatable. Why did the so-called “Light Side” have to win again, in The Rise of Skywalker, instead of finding balance? - Luke’s scene on Ahch-To was so ridiculously opposite to his attitude in The Last Jedi that by now I believe he was a fantasy conjectured by her. (Like Ben’s vision of his father.) - Anakin’s voice among the other Jedi’s. - He was a renegade, for Force’s sake. - The kiss between two females. - More fan service, to appease those who pretended that not making Poe and Finn a couple was a sign of homophobia. - We see the Knights of Ren, but we learn absolutely nothing about them or Kylo’s connection with them. - Rose Tico’s invalidation. - A shame after what the actress had gone through because for the fans she was “not Star-Wars-y” (chubby and lively instead of wiry and spitfire). - Finn’s and Rose’s relationship. - Ignored without any explanation. - Finn may or may not be Force-sensitive. - If he is: did he abandon the First Order not due to his own free will but because of some higher willpower? Great. - General Hux was simply obliterated. - In The Force Awakens he was an excellent foil to Kylo Ren; no background story, no humanization for him. - Chewie’s and 3PO’s faked deaths. - Useless additional drama. - The Force Awakens was a bow before the classic trilogy. The Rise of Skywalker kicked its remainders to pieces. - The Prequel Trilogy ended with hope, the Original Trilogy with love. The Sequel Trilogy ends on a blank slate. - “We are what they grow beyond.” The characters of the Sequel Trilogy did not grow beyond the heroes of the Original Trilogy. - The Jedi did not learn from their mistakes and were obliterated. The Skywalker family understood the mistakes they had made too late. Now they’re gone, too.

P.S. While I was watching The Rise of Skywalker my husband came in asked me since when I like Marvel movies. I said “That’s not a Marvel movie, it’s Star Wars.” I guess that says enough.

P.P.S. For the next trilogy, please at least let the movies hit theatres in May again instead of December. a) It’s tradition for Star Wars films, b) Whatever happens, at least you won’t ruin anyone’s Christmases. Thank you.

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marithlizard · 4 years

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Ace Attorney: Rise From the Ashes (Day Two, Trial Latter) (part 3)

Wherein I attempt to liveblog a mostly text-based videogame. The trial continues! Lunch is over and yet we’re still being fed indigestible statements.

Court has recessed briefly for information-gathering. The clock says it's not even noon, but I feel like we've heard hours’ worth of (mostly untrue) testimony.

Lana has been called to the judge's chambers for reasons unknown. Ema is realizing just how much of a, what's the polite word, “freewheeler” she's chosen to represent her sister. But Phoenix is still flailing about when any other defense attorney in this world would have given up, so she'd best appreciate him.

It's the cowboy! Who pointedly mentions Lana's scarf, which he saw her wearing on the day of the murder. Since she wasn't wearing it in the photograph taken afterward, presumably the missing muffler is...in the car muffler? Was she trying to hide something, or give Edgeworth carbon monoxide poisoning? And just why is Marshall dropping us this helpful hint?

Court resumes with Edgeworth on the verge of some kind of conniption fit. The judge lists off his symptoms concernedly - oh NO surely you didn't eat one of the lunchboxes, Edgeworth! I've already been wondering how Angel Starr resisted the urge to give you food poisoning for two years, and that was before you verbally eviscerated her on the witness stand.

...Hello, who's this?

Peach suit, white hair, pink glasses and an avuncular folksy charm. You. I don't like you.

"Udgey?" Is that the judge's name, or some sort of twee pig-latin nickname for Judge? And "Wrighto" and "Worthy". And he can get away with calling people slightly demeaning and offbeat nicknames, because apparently he's the district chief of police, Damon Gant. Phoenix is chastised for not recognizing him, which is probably fair.

Okay, that technique of taking away the dialogue box for several seconds while Gant cocks his head and blinks at us is quite effective. This, we're silently being told, is a character so powerful they can interrupt the flow of the game itself.

The judge notes that it's been "over two years" since Gant was in the courtroom. That matches when Angel was fired. This is all about one case, isn't it? The case Lana and the victim worked on, the case that got Marshall demoted.

Gant has brought some false sympathy for Edgeworth and also Lana's missing scarf, which was indeed found stuffed in the car muffler. (So the lunchlady was telling the truth about at least something.) The scarf was wrapped around a switchblade with a tag on it. So, not a personal possession like Edgeworth's knife, but...an exhibit? Something from storage? Like, evidence storage?

Edgeworth is justifiably upset that the police investigation didn't notice a scrap of red cloth hanging out of the car muffler inches away from the body. Gant's initial sheepish admission that "this is embarrassing, even for us" suddenly turns into that blinking Look again. I feel like a trap is about to be sprung.

It's the envelope from yesterday, the one delivered by the hapless mailman! Who told Edgeworth it wasn't related to the case, so he refused to take it. Ouch. It is Edgeworth's error, but there's something gleefully malicious about the way Gant just set him up and then sucker-punched him. There was no need for this to be a public humiliation. In fact, it could've been discreetly sorted out before Gant got on the stand. Or before trial started this morning.

(Why IS he on the stand? He's not a testifying witness. He just kinda...strolled in and took over. )

The judge asks Phoenix to examine the switchblade. The knife tip is broken off and the blade and handle have bloodstains. The tag, when I zoom in focus to max, says "S-L 9 2". As for the envelope, it appears to be an autopsy report on Goodman, and doesn't mention the muffler or switchblade at all. It also has a much vaguer timeframe than 5:15.

Edgeworth tries to regain face by demanding an explanation about the missed evidence. This is a bad, bad idea. I could've told you that even before Gant delightedly agrees to testify.

Gant says the knife is special, but that he can't say how unless a "connection is proven between the knife and Goodman." Um. Doesn't the very presence of the knife, deliberately concealed at the crime scene, in itself mean it's not only connected but vital to understanding what happened? I don't think you should get to withhold that information.

Nor do I think "we were having a bad day" is an acceptable excuse for not investigating the crime scene properly. Cops get aggressively motivated when one of their own is attacked, everybody knows that. Or was Goodman some kind of pariah?

...wait. What??? What Gant's saying is so bizarre I misread it. There was a SECOND murder, at precisely the same time (and that's an awfully precise time), at the police department? "Not officially linked to this case" my aunt Fanny.

And Phoenix isn't supposed to ask about it in cross-examination? I predict that will last about five seconds, because we're going to press every one of these statements hard enough to extract olive oil.

Starting with the knife. Both Phoenix and Edgeworth push for more, but Gant refuses. Can I make a connection that will impress the judge? My inventory contains a phone, a shoe...and a note found in the trunk of the car that says "6-75 12/2". Which looks a lot like "2/21 SL-9" if you turn it upside down.

Gant is acting as though this is a circus and he's never seen a clown before, delighted at everything Phoenix and the judge say. This conveys an impression of total contempt behind a fig leaf of friendliness that can't be questioned. It's a passive-aggressive masterpiece. Somewhere in the audience Himemiya Anthy is probably taking notes.

And his facade barely flickers when faced with the memo. The knife was evidence in a case (duh). Stolen from the evidence room...and that's it? That's all we get?

Oh, this guy is skilled. Edgeworth quite reasonably asks why he wasn't told about this impossibly coincidental murder, and Gant promptly insinuates that he's incompetent because he didn't proactively ask. As though a proper prosecutor would have called the department every day with a checklist of possible events. Why, I bet you didn't even consider a Godzilla attack contingency, did you? Tsk tsk.

Gant continues to playfully refuse to give information on this second murder (except that a suspect has been arrested). He offers to give Phoenix one data point of his choice: where, how or when. Apparently this trial has turned into a game show.

We already know when, so I choose where. And Gant makes a curious distinction. The crime took place in the evidence room (where the knife came from), but he won't say where the corpse was found. Was the body moved? As they say, he is playing a game and it is called silly buggers. I'm absolutely assuming he is behind both murders (though sadly he can't have committed both, unless something paranormal or very complicated is going on).

Phoenix points out that a knife being stolen from the evidence room and then found at crime A, precisely when crime B is committed in the evidence room, is a pretty "duh" link. Edgeworth supports by mentioning the note. Whoever wrote it (Goodman, the murderer, or Lana) presumably either stole the knife or was investigating its theft. Even the judge agrees this has to count. Gant just does his blink thing again.

And says his men took two days to assemble that logic. In other words, he knew. And he STILL wants to play games. He'll talk "unofficially", but not reveal the name of the victim. (Why is that so important?) When pressed, he offers another one-data-point choice. I choose ID number which should be easy to link to a name...although apparently Gant doesn't think so.

Victim ID number: 5842189. The judge looks expectant. I have a horrible idea, and check the court record.

Yep. It's Goodman's ID number.

Simultaneous murders of the same victim in different locations? That's an impressive level of silly buggers, chief. And you didn't want this to come out in the trial? If I didn't already know Lana was innocent by video-game rules, I'd know it now.

Even this doesn't faze Gant. (I really wanted to see him look thwarted. Damnit.)

Edgeworth keeps on asking "Why didn't I hear about this?" even though the answer is always "Because Gant has it in for you, and you just gave him another opening to attack." It's as though he can't quite believe what is happening.

Yep, there's that trap-springing look again. With the first honest expression I think we've seen on Gant's face so far! Just for one frame, a flicker of anger and malice. This time he claims the police department sent Edgeworth all the information in that envelope delivered by Hapless Mailman Meekins, which Edgeworth didn't look at.

Hang on. That's not even true. We have that envelope in the court record, and...*scrolls up*...it's an autopsy report on Goodman. It doesn't say which. Even if Edgeworth had read it, he would have had no reason to think there was a second crime and victim. Moreover, Gant already raked him over the coals for not reading it, in this same trial session! No...as the trap unfolds, Gant seems to be claiming this is an entirely different envelope also delivered by Meekins(?) It doesn't make sense.

But truth isn't going to matter here. This is a career-destroying maneuver, and it's uncomfortable to watch. Edgeworth is helpless under the crushing accusations, protesting vainly that Gant could have submitted all this evidence when the trial started. Well, yes, that's what anyone but your enemy would have done... The flicker of malice is back as Gant rubs it all in with a technicality about evidence law.

(Ah, this detail might be relevant: Edgeworth apparently submitted a list of evidence to be used in the trial, which of course did not include things he didn't know existed. That flies in the face of all Phoenix Wright games past and present, in which new evidence is produced about every five minutes during trial, this one included.)

This morning's Public Career Assassination, I mean trial, comes to an end with Gant mentioning the rumors about Edgeworth, and even using his own brief status as a defendant against him. Edgeworth can do nothing but formally grovel. He begs for one more day of trial to investigate all this new information. The judge grants it,of course, but joins in condemning him.

I don't know why Gant wants to get rid of Edgeworth, but it's obvious the plan is to fire him after tomorrow's trial no matter what happens. The only way to save Edgeworth (and oh yeah, our actual client who's barely been mentioned lately) is to bring Gant down. I am on board with this. He's a mean lying stinkyhead and he's smug about it. Get him, Phoenix!

(Rereading my notes from last time, I'm remembering the moment when Angel Starr told Edgeworth "I might be able to save you". Did she know this was coming down? )

#aa #ace attorney #ace attorney spoilers

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mrgameandpie · 7 years

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So hey, I’ve been drawing a lot of Joane Vemb lately, probably not gonna stop for a while, so now that y’all have seen her design (or what I’m capable of drawing of it, anyway) I may as well throw out some factoids about what she’s like!

I came up with Joane Vemb via a collision of two trains of thought. For one, I really love both the Kirby and Mega Man series of videogames, and these series both share a central game mechanic in common: copying enemy abilities. Kirby copies regular enemies and tends to get powers that are often only tangentially related to what the specific enemy is capable of, having a wide variety of techniques for every ability. His main limitation is that when he gets hit he loses the ability he has (or has a chance of losing it depending on the game). Mega Man, meanwhile, copies only bosses, and the weapons he gets from them generally act exactly how the boss used the weapon and will only have on potential use. There are exceptions for both of those stipulations, but that’s the general rule of thumb. Mega Man’s limitation is ammo, he can only use his special weapons so many times before they run out of shots and need to be refilled again. Kirby can only have one copy ability on hand at a time (with the exception of during Milky Way Wishes and Kirby Squeak Squad) while Mega Man tends to get around 8 abilities he can switch between at will. I looked at these mechanics, and thought, what if you put them together? The ensuing concept was a game character that could absorb regular enemies, and get a slew of weapons associated with the enemy type. So for example, lets say Kirby inhaled a fire enemy, and thus gained the ability to use Fire Storm, Atomic Fire, Pharaoh Shot, Flame Blast, Scorch Wheel, Flame Sword, Wave Burner, Magma Bazooka, and Solar Flare at will, but they all used the same ammo bar, and the only way to refill the ammo bar would be to gain a copy ability again.

The other train of thought requires much less explanation. I find chubby women to be very aesthetically pleasing. I like sweetness and softness and a combination of both is absolutely fantastic. However, I don’t generally see chubby women represented in media that often, and certainly never as the main starring role of an action/adventure story. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone when I say that it’d be nice to have more diversity among fictional characters in media. As such, why not make our ability copying hero a chubby woman? It’d certainly give the game a unique edge in the protagonist department right from the get-go! There was also an element that games like Skullgirls and Shantae give basically every female character the same busty body type, while games like Touhou and Rabi Ribi give basically every female character the same moe body type, so what if I made a game where basically every female character had basically the same chubby body type? I don’t think I’m gonna stick down that route, I’d imagine should I get to the point where the game is becoming a reality as a game it’ll have a wide assortment of body types, but still, it was something.

So hey, we got to see the early inspirations and conceptualizations for Joane, so what’s she actually like? While most of this could change in the future at some point, this is the backstory I’ve got planned for her at this time. The world we’re looking into has a variety of supering sources. Super sciences, a variety of magic forces, extradimensional nonsense, the works. As one might expect, most regions of the world have their own supervillains of the like always trying to take over. Well, one day they all succeed practically simultaneously! This is completely random happenstance, none of them were working together whatsoever. So of course, now that these villains have taken over the region they’ve always sought after first, their next step in their world domination plan would be attacking eachother. This climaxes in a huge battle where each force unleashes their Ultimate Weapons upon eachother, and what results is a massive vortex absorbing each of the weapons. In just an instant, the backbone of each force’s capabilities disappear, resulting in a constant stalemate for an exceptionally long time on all fronts. Out of this vortex, an infant appears, a baby Joane. She was picked up and brought to a hidden civilization that raised her in a more peaceful situation than any place currently existing under the villains’ rule. We skip forward to years later, and Joane is an adult with a full understanding of her abilities. Due to the fact that her creation was the result of each faction’s greatest weapons being combined, her physical and magical biologies are unstable and flexible, allowing her to augment herself with any of the group’s weaponry, copying their abilities and powers. Eventually, Joane decides that it’s time for her to do something, and goes out in the world with the intention of freeing the lands from their tyranny.

So we have our gal’s backstory, and that’s cool, but what about her as a person? Well one thing to note is that she decides to go on this adventure of her own volition. She has a unique birth into the world, certainly, but she’s not exactly a chosen one. Nobody’s got any predestination “oh man you’ve gotta be the one to save the world” stuff going on. Even within her family and community, nobody is particularly expecting her to go out and save the world herself. Despite the fact that these empires have been continuing for well over 20 years, nobody within Joane’s community really takes them seriously. “They’re not stable enough, they’ll collapse on themselves any day now!” Well, Joane says any day now should be this day right now, and she’s gonna do something to make sure it is! She cares about the people these empires are hurting, even if she hasn’t met them before, and she’s ready to use her incredible power to restore order and stability to the world.

Joane tends to be a sweet, positive person. She believes in herself and she believes in you too! Very little of what she says is ever mean-spirited, unless she sees someone as being particularly terrible, she can actually be something of a doormat to the people she particularly cares about.

If she wasn’t out adventuring and saving the world, Joane would definitely be a geologist. She’s the kind of person to go out on a walk and just pick up pretty much any rock she sees. She has a pretty big rock collection with only a few types of rocks due to the low variation found in the place she lives. Maybe going on an adventure across the world will increase the variety in her collection! She also has some interest in astronomy, mostly relating to how planets across the galaxy operate with the kind of rocks and minerals that would form given different planet densities, temperatures, and compositions. In this regard she also has tangential knowledge of other studies like physics and chemistry, all areas she has a talent for. Though ironically, despite her powers coming from her unique biology, that’s actually one of the few sciences she doesn’t have a natural knack for.

Joane tends to be a pretty silly person. She loves laughter, both from others and from herself, and loves making people happy. You can pretty easily expect her to make silly quips and puns for just about any situation she finds herself in, even if her life happens to be on the line. Unsurprisingly, her favorite movies tend to be comedies. She’s not afraid of being or looking ridiculous. In fact, she kind of revels in it. No matter how dark the world around her may become, Joane consistently acts as a light of positivity to look upon.

So, there you go, there’s some stuff about Joane Vemb. Like I said near the beginning, a lot of this is liable to change over time, but I guess we can consider this something of a time capsule. I hasn’t even been a full week yet since I came up with the character, and this is what I have so far. Maybe in a few years this’ll all be totally different! Either way, I’m gonna be working on this stuff quite a bit, so I hope y’all look forward to it!

#Joane Vemb #oc

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reubscubes · 7 years

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Horizon Zero Dawn: ReubsCubes Review

Mankind has a few standout achievements. The Wheel, Fire, Internet, cheesecake. Sadly however, the list does not include robot dinosaurs. And until such time as the scientists of the world rectify this grievous error, videogames will have to make it up to us. I can only assume that was the opening of the design document for Horizon Zero Dawn, because this the best thing since Cheesecake.

The following contains spoilers for Horizon Zero Dawn. I will attempt to keep overall plot points and character moments vague, but if you’ve not played the game then proceed at your own risk.

Tumblr ReubsCubes Twitter ReubsCubes

I love dinosaurs. Love is a strong word and it is exactly the one I want to use. I was obsessed with them as a child, dragged my long suffering parents to the Museum of Natural History at every opportunity and Jurassic Park remains one of my favourite movies. As a consequence I am incapable of being objective about anything involving dinosaurs, large aquatic or avian reptiles and almost all megafauna in general.

But my predilections for animatronic extinct reptiles aside, HZD is already a contender for my favourite game of this year. Please note that I haven’t played Neir Automata, Resident Evil 7, Persona 5, Mass Effect Andromeda, Breath of the Wild, Torment: Tides of Numenera or any other fantastic games that came out in 2017.

Horizon (and i’m choosing to shorten the name because the whole thing is a really awful mouthful) tells the story of Aloy, a young woman born under mysterious circumstances into a primitive world that humans share with gigantic highly advanced machines, in a world that is clearly our own, an unknown time after some kind of apocalypse. As Aloy attempts to understand more about her own origins she is drawn into conflict with a evil cult known as The Eclipse and must battle for the fate of the world. Along the way she discovers more about the long gone old ones and the secrets of her origin.

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary there, naive but intelligent hayseed sets out to find their place in the world and finds evil deathcult. Friends are made, difficulties overcome and we all learn a few precious lessons about friendship, family and how entitled tech sector dickheads will be the downfall of us all.

The world itself is more interesting than either the bog standard medieval fantasy or nuke blasted post apocalypse might be. Rather than the immediate aftermath of the calamity, where people are trying to rebuild their societies and loves with the shattered remains of the world they’ve lost, the time and distance between the old world and the societies that have followed after are much more pronounced. There’s a lot of sun and nature worship and even the most basic and obvious facts about our world have been lost in time. Case in point, the scholar in the city of Meridian who’s convinced coffee cups were ceremonious vessels used in holy rituals, as opposed to cheap tat mass produced to drink instant coffee from. The issue of instant coffee itself never comes up as presumably nescafe did not survive the downfall of humanity.

Women are at the forefront in Horizon Zero dawn. Aloy’s belongs, ostensibly, to a tribe called the Nora. They have a tribal society where led by a group of venerable women called the Matriarchs and worship a goddess they call the All-Mother. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of proscribed gender roles for men and women, they all share in hunting and fighting and childrearing. Members of the tribe are of various different ethnic backgrounds, although again in a post apocalypse racial origin become a little vague. It’s a pretty equal society for all genders and races and a society that respects and elevates women is pretty rare, especially in the overly macho world of videogames. Diversity is dealt with pretty well, gay and trans characters are given plot lines and backstories that don’t hide their identities, but also don’t get caught up pointing out how inclusive they’re being. The interaction with the character of Jeneva, the warden of Sunstone Rock prison, is a particular standout. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbow in the valley of the Nora.

The Nora are a fair and equal society true but they’re also intensely superstitious and insular. They see themselves as one of the chosen people and anyone who leaves their blessed homelands is not allowed to return. Aloy was raised s one of the outcast, the members of the tribe exiles for various crimes. The Nora only ever treat her with disdain or fear and as a result she has even less respect for their customs and traditions as you might expect. Aloy cares about people and wants to do what she can to help them but has absolutely no patience for their restrictive belief systems.

The characters are noble but flawed in all too believable ways. This kind of excellent writing defines the world of horizon. The world is a mix of ancient cultures mixed with hyper advanced technology. The world is full of machines, technology so far beyond the imagination of the people in the world around it regard it as the magic of the gods. Which bring me to the most impressive part of Horizon’s incredibly detailed and designed world. The machines.

Holy mechanical t-rex they’re amazing! Most open worlds populate themselves with flora and fauna to hunt and be hunted by. Whether it’s the more grounded animals from the Far Cry series or the creatures of european myth that haunt the fields and forests of the Witcher, worlds are defined in a very significant way by the creatures that roam them. And the machines of of Horizon are spectacular, in design and execution. Based at least partly on real life animals mixed with the stylized technology, they’re the apex predators of Aloy’s world. Many of the designs, like the Behemoths and Watchers, recall prehistoric animals, but even the more recognisable critters like Grazers and Lancehorns straddle the line between beautiful and practical.

If the machines themselves are spectacular then the places they’re built are even moreso. The cauldrons are secret caves deep within mountains at the edges of the world where the machines are built. Once it has been located and the outer perimeter breached, either by solving a puzzle or overcoming the powerful machines guarding the gates, then Aloy can descend into a puzzle dungeon that would not seem out of place in Legend of Zelda. These environments are absolutely beautiful and more than a little eerie. And once you realise what they are and how they work you’ll want to run through them all again.

Where Horizon differentiates itself from a lot of other games in the genre is how it expects you to hunt its wildlife. You don’t have the firepower or defense to go in guns blazing so instead you have to use stealth and manipulate the environment to bring down the beasts. Aloy is armed with only a bow and arrow and a few gadgets like trip wires to take down sentient robots capable of crushing her underfoot. You can’t go up against a herd of Tramplers and expect to melee them to death. Much more likely they’ll trample you. Hence the name.

Instead you have to pick your moment, analyse the weaknesses of each type of machine, (a process which becomes easier and more natural as the game progresses) choose the type of ammo then set your traps. Then, when halfway through your perfectly constructed ambush a lone Ravager suddenly dives into the melee and ruins your painstaking set up you have to improvise feverishly to try to salvage the situation or at the very least not die. There are shades of Witcher and Monster Hunter to the combat, even some Shadow of the Colossus. Like the titular Colosi, the machines feel like part of the world, and feeling the more majestic creatures is almost tragic.

Once the beasts have been felled they can be scavenged for parts, although this whole system does feel underdeveloped. There two types of collectables that you can harvest from enemies but most of them only really need to be used once or twice. You can sell them for money but that leads to you having far more than you can possibly spend. After a little while it becomes a little tedious to hunt machines for its own sake. Although the combat is reminiscent of monster hunter it has a very long way to go before it matches that franchise as far as rewarding players goes.

That a slightly unfulfilling crafting system is the worst thing horizon has going for it is indicative of how excellent a game it is. The world manages to be familiar and brand new all at once, and the same applies to the mechanics of its open world. Guerilla games have created something very special in horizon and I hope that we’ve got lots more of it to look forward to.

Thanks for reading!

#horizon zero dawn #horizonzerodawn #hzd #hzd spoilers #guerrilla games #guerillagames #playstation #video games #videogames #review

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