#this is now the original cut as george lucas intended it

[steampunkforever]

Looking back at the latest run of movies I've filmposted on, you might be tempted to think I'm only watching the good stuff these days. Let me dispel any thought that I've abandoned horrendous cinema as we tackle what I believe to be the reason George Lucas is the way he is: the Star Wars Holiday Special.

For the uninitiated (people who became Star Wars fans around the time the term "Reylo" was minted) let me set the stage. It's 1977, and the world has been changed by the arrival of Jedi to the silver screen. Lucas et al. can now afford more matte paintings than ever before, and are busy planning out the thrilling sequels to carry on the Star Wars saga ("Planning the Star Wars sequels" is a sentence that will not be uttered again in studio conference rooms until 2017, at which JJ Abrams will precede the sentence with the words "We will not be"). CBS approaches Lucas with a revolutionary concept: worldbuilding for the Star Wars universe by developing discrete self-contained stories through the medium of Television (the book of bobos, coming soon).

Lucas says yes, develops an allegedly solid script off his idea for an all-wookie movie, and then will not budge on his idea for a movie entirely focused on a species of alien that grunts with no subtitles. He's just put out one of the biggest movies to hit the screen ever, and furthermore is a man of great artistic vision. With Lucas at the helm this is set to be a hit.

Except Lucas needs to move studios to fit all the matte paintings he can now afford. So Lucas drops the story in the hands of the ever capable CBS and heads to the matte painting store, leaving them to find another director after the first guy quit after finishing the Jefferson Starship concert and "Bea Arthur sings at the Cantina" scenes.

Lucas' trust was, to be blunt, misplaced. CBS' finished cut was simply terrible (with the exception of a charming animated segment), and Lucas even offered to pay them to keep the abomination off air. They declined, but the Holiday Special was only aired once, at which point all copies were destroyed at Lucas' behest. At this point Lucas is at the top of his creative game and we haven't been subject to anything like Indiana Jones 4 yet, so you can imagine what a blow this is to the man who has yet to mastermind Jar Jar Binks.

Much like the preservation of HBO originals in the present day, the Holiday Special was only preserved and propagated through outright piracy, to the point that Holiday Special bootlegs became a known fandom trope. And so this week, for the second time in my life, I watched a rip of the Star Wars Holiday Special made somewhere around Baltimore on that fateful night in 1978, slotting in right before Wonder Woman. It was bad, yes, just not spectacularly so.

There is no question in my mind: The Star Wars Holiday Special killed George Lucas' directing career more so than the runaway success of the first movie.

In my writings on film, there runs a throughline (often utilizing Lucas as a prime example) that discourages sequels. I'll admit that this comes predominantly from my upbringing in a world of shared universes and IP sprawl, but it's a pretty agreed upon point that A) serialization only serves as a chance to tarnish an otherwise solid first film and B) new, discrete stories are more interesting. That said, sequels are not bad, and my analysis of Star Wars does not lay blame on the fact that we got to see what happened after the Yavin Award Ceremony.

You see, beyond being bad, The Holiday Special taught Lucas all the wrong things with its failure. Artistic control is paramount, yes, but what his experience with CBS taught Lucas was that in order to secure his legacy, he had to chain himself to the Carbonite slab that was Star Wars and micromanage it for the rest of his life to ensure the world he'd created would maintain the quality he intended for it.

Looking at the state of Star Wars in the years after Lucas cut the series loose, I don't think this was an incorrect statement, but a singular devotion to guiding his store-brand Flash Gordon empire is what led to a 22 year hiatus between directorial efforts. Even after this, as much as I personally find the prequels to be misunderstood, they lacked the same spark Lucas had, making me wonder what he could have put out in his most creatively charged years had he not lashed himself to the helm of a franchise that's abandoned most of the work he spent years tailoring to his vision in favor of Baby Yoda.

The Star Wars Holiday Special is truly what separates Lucas from Coppola. Without that harsh lesson in trusting Star Wars to someone else, Lucas might've focused on directing future projects of his own rather than managing those of people expanding his space wizard universe.

Or maybe if you'd swapped their places Coppola would have Don Corleone meet up with cheerful Gungan Jar Jar Binks.

Of course this is all conjecture. Lucas has put out some of his best work as a writer and story lead working on projects like Indiana Jones and Willow, but it's sad to see one of the most influential film workers in the world, whose work I truly admire, with only a half dozen directing credits despite having all the matte painting money he could ever desire to make passion project films. Coppola went broke, but at least 2/3rds of his filmography didn't get coopted to sell Disney streaming packages.

Then again if I'd just put out three revolutionary films in a row and then saw what CBS did with my high concept wookie script, maybe I wouldn't be seeing things so clearly.

We're about a dozen paragraphs too long for a filmpost on the Star Wars Holiday Special, so I'll wrap up now: I can't say I recommend it.

#filmposting #star wars #star wars holiday special #george lucas #film #listen to me this is a lot of words on a bad star wars TV movie I understand this #you must also understand that george lucas and his success is a puzzle thats haunted me for a long time #Hes such a visionary despite literally so many of his contributions to film being pretty bad #its an enigma

[alcalexandria]

I’m a big fan of the terminator series, and I’ve read through some of your posts. You’ve mentioned a couple of times that T1, T2, and DF are “canon” and I was wondering if you could go into depth about that?

I'm sincerely sorry for missing this for like... ever. Sorry!

So "canon" is always subjective. What's considered gospel is always down to how you define it, but I generally defer to either whoever had the biggest part to play in creating or making something, or to what is current at time of writing, in the story universe, in the format of the original... depending on which has a stronger case at the time.

So what Chris Carter says is "true" to the world of the X Files is canon - what a spinoff novelisation has Mulder and Scully romp around doing is not, even if it's licensed.

It gets a bit trickier when you talk about something like Star Wars - George Lucas would historically have been the arbiter of ~Canon~, but no longer is. Star Wars is an ongoing movie universe now without his involvement. So, because the timeline is current and Lucas has bowed out, I consider the modern Star Wars movies to trump the older EU spin off content. They have the strongest claim to canon.

Canon is in some ways more fungible than usual when it comes to Terminator - it has multiple, mutually exclusive timelines branching out from T2, and the nature of the premise means something canon in one movie can be unravelled by the next even if they're in the same timeline. This is arguably even true in some ways of T1 and T2, which have contradictory concepts of time travel or where the future goes from here.

That said - let's start simple.

We can pretty much all agree T1 is, obviously, canon, because it's the first movie the rest all spring from.

T2 is canon, because James Cameron made it, and because *every* subsequent movie follows on from it as if it remains true. So there's no contest to it.

Dark Fate is a little less ironclad - but it still meets both the criteria I consider qualifying, easily.

Firstly, right now it's the "current" timeline - it's entirely possible it will be displaced by another movie in future, but right now it's the heir apparent. It overwrites all the previous movies since T2, and nothing has been handed the torch since.

Secondly, Cameron was heavily involved with it.

Technically, he produced the movie, and is credited as such - but James Cameron is a notorious control freak, and a James Cameron producer credit means something very different to what it seems to mean for most, as Robert Rodriguez can attest.

It's clear how involved in the conceptualisation he was in any of the press interviews he did -

In another interview I can't get to hand, he even went on to suggest he hoped to be more involved in any follow ups DF generated.

We know he had input to the script directly, having contributed set piece ideas to it - the first death we see (yes, that one), and the plane-to-dam stuff were his ideas - and even scenes (Sarah and Carl's confrontation) and was rewriting script pages up until shooting day, as has always been his habit.

We also know he also retained veto power - Tim Miller has mentioned a number of elements he would have done differently if not for being "overruled" by Cameron, including how the humans are faring in the war - and he was involved in edit suite decisions, much to Miller's frustration.

So we can say that, more than just giving it his seal of approval for the promo circuit (something he has, in fairness, done for previous post T2s), he was very actively involved in devising, making and steering the movie, had the final say over what ultimately went on to the screen, and even intended to tell stories continuing from the "facts" it established.

And on that point - in the Special Edition commentary for T2, Cameron makes it clear he actually considers the *Theatrical* cut of that movie canon, not any of the extended ones - which means that the chip removal scenes or Sarah's Kyle dream aren't considered gospel to the continuity. He considers these "might have been" scenes, referring to them as "donut holes", ie the fun little off-cuts of the real product.

Dark Fate takes his ruling on this as law - it adheres strictly to the "rules" of the Theatrical Cut, which is why we see a T800 capable of learning on its own. Per the Theatrical Cut, in canon, T800s can learn by themselves, so that's what Carl has done.

(And indeed, as brilliantly executed as the chip scene is, nixing it resolves an apparent contradiction in how the un-modded Phone Book Killer was already seen to learn independently in T1).

Now it is entirely possible Dark Fate will be overwritten in future - just as T3 or Genisys were - or that Cameron will withdraw the relay baton from Dark Fate and pass it elsewhere. But as it stands, at time of writing, I consider it pretty much as certified and canonical as it's possible to be. It's the current state-of-the-plot, jCam was all over it, it has the most direct continuity with T2, and it was the one Cameron hoped to run with.

So by my reckoning at least, that makes the official, canon, sealed by Word of God sequence of the Terminator story to be -

The Terminator -> Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Theatrical Cut) -> Terminator: Dark Fate

...at least for now.

I'm always open to argument otherwise though. :)

#terminator dark fate #dark fate #grace harper #dani ramos #terminator #tdf #terminator: dark fate #sarah connor #james cameron #terminator franchise #scifi #terminator 2 judgment day #the terminator #t2:jd

[pencilscratchins]

ms pencilscratchins i watched your star wars prequel reaction videos and i absolutely DIED at the britney spears lightsaber duels especially the darth maul one. also the obi-wan fancam set to bubblegum bitch? truly inspired! if you don't mind me asking what britney spears songs would you assign to the lightsaber fights in the originals and sequels?

AH thank you so much, bailey and i had a blast recording them! while i do not have the energy to assign a song to every single one (they fight with those things a lot babes,) i will share my personal favorite

[ID: the Sarlacc Pit fight from Return of the Jedi, set to Womanizer /END ID]

#athena14044 #thank you so much i love hearing people like those as much as we like making them LMAOO #my favorite from the prequels was probably if u seek amy from ep2 IT FIT SO WELL #video #image described #not art #audio #return of the jedi #star wars #ask #you would be shocked how little editing this took to fit #this is now the original cut as george lucas intended it

[bedlamsbard]

Putting aside aesthetics and characterization (inasmuch as I can), I have been trying to logic out why Mando Ahsoka feels so different from Rebels Ahsoka (to me, personally; I know many other people feel fine about it), especially in terms of having a character who’s known in Rebels for her “I am no Jedi” line going to a character who is specifically introduced as “The Jedi” in The Mandalorian.  (And who is identified as “Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight” on merch -- merch is merch, it’s essentially meaningless, but it’s still a choice that was made somewhere along the line.)

“Shroud of Darkness,” Rebels 2.17

“Twilight of the Apprentice,” Rebels 2.21

This is strictly Doylist and not Watsonian; I don’t care what went on in the character’s life in between Rebels and Mando; I’m trying to guess what was happening in the writers room.

I was noodling through this on Twitter, in case it looks familiar.

My first thought was Dave taking a cut scene from Rebels as canon going into Mando, something he shared on Twitter back in the lead-up to S4.  Looking at this again I’m not sure this was a cut scene or a scene that he wrote that never made it into the actual script. (Certainly I can’t see how it would have fit into the episode.)

Here Bendu specifically identifies Ahsoka as “former Jedi Knight.”  This is also obviously not canon, because Twitter posts aren’t canon, Dave.  (Though that doesn’t mean that he might have taken it as part of his working backstory for the character anyway.)

I was then thinking about TCW and the unused TCW arcs as they existed in 2016 when this aired (with the rough guess that Rebels S2 was probably written in 2014).  There are three Ahsoka arcs that were written and existed in 2016 in some form (”scripts and some artwork” is what Pablo Hidalgo says, and some pre-viz and recordings from the original Walkabout arc that were shown at a couple Celebrations), but which hadn’t made it into S6 (which came out in 2014): Ahsoka’s Walkabout (in its original form with Nix Okami instead of the Martez sisters), the Siege of Mandalore, and an arc which would have taken place between those two, “Return to the Jedi.”  We know about these because of a panel from Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2016 called Ahsoka’s Untold Tales -- I was actually at this panel, but I haven’t thought about it in a while.  Here’s the SW.com liveblog of it; here’s the video.

I remember hearing somewhere that the TCW team had nine seasons or so written, but can’t find the source for that number now.  When S7 was made, there were obviously a lot of compromises made that we’ll never really know about, minus a tell-all memoir or documentary, which probably isn’t coming any time soon.  Knowing that this Return to the Jedi arc existed, I wondered if at one point Dave had tried to get all three Ahsoka arcs into S7 before having to give one up for the Bad Batch arc (especially as we now know there’s going to be a Bad Batch TV show); it’s also entirely possible that at one point in the production process there was the possibility of a full 22 episode season floated, which would have made three Ahsoka arcs in one season less unbalanced.

I went to go look up what the Return to the Jedi arc actually was, since 2016 was a long time ago and I haven’t really thought about this panel since.  My guess is that it had been intended for one Ahsoka arc per remaining season (7, 8, 9).  Pablo Hidalgo says that after the Walkabout arc, Ahsoka would have stayed on Coruscant as “an under-city vigilante of some degree, helping people who can’t help themselves,” and Dave points out that he talked about this with George Lucas, as well.  The Return of the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka finding out about a nefarious plot targeting Yoda and working with the Jedi to figure out what’s what with that -- this revealed that below the Jedi Temple was an ancient Sith shrine. (Some details of this were revealed at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015.)

Ahsoka would have been protecting the holocron vault from Darth Sidious, putting her lightsaber blade through the door while Palps shoots Force lightning up the blade.

“The whole purpose of that particular arc would have been to bring Ahsoka back. She’s not a Jedi, she doesn’t change her decision, but she gets involved in Jedi business again.”

The next Ahsoka arc and the final arc of the series would have been the Siege of Mandalore arc, which “reunites Ahsoka with the clone troopers, with Anakin.”  My guess is that the end of the Return to the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka making the decision to go to Mandalore because the Jedi themselves couldn’t get involved in that conflict at the time (especially the emphasis in the panel that Pablo and Dave put on Ahsoka as being “a responsible person” who couldn’t ignore that the war was still going on, and because Ahsoka knew Satine).  (It would be interesting to know when if this arc would have fallen before or after the Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir comics, which are based off another unmade TCW arc.)  This would probably have put as much as a season between this arc and the final arc -- given TCW’s funky timeline that doesn’t mean much, but in terms of audience expectation it helps.

(also, damn, the context of the beginning of Siege of Mandalore in the original concept vs. how it actually happens in S7 is very different -- like, on the surface identical but the emotions involved are totally different.)

Before going into the next part of the panel (post-war), Pablo Hidalgo adds “We consider it to have happened and that’s how we inform the writing in Rebels, because that’s the history that these characters carry in their heads.”

So going into Rebels, the writing team was working with the background that Ahsoka had not only left the Jedi Order once, in “The Wrong Jedi,” but had reinforced her decision not to go back to the Jedi by not returning to the Order during the Return to the Jedi arc.  That explains why in Rebels she’s so adamant about not being a Jedi or being in the Order; it’s a decision that she has made not once, but twice.

Fast forward four years to 2020, where we have the Siege of Mandalore arc in S7.

It’s heavily implied that Ahsoka was planning to go back to the Order after the end of the war, and in fact Yoda treats her as such.

Now, there’s no way to know if this exchange was in the original Siege of Mandalore scripts short of those being released at some point (which is possible but seems unlikely when the character is still in play), but because of the way S7 plays out there is no way to put the Return to the Jedi arc back into the story, which means all the emotional context and Ahsoka doubling down on not returning to the Order is thrown out of the window.  That’s a fair chunk of backstory to take into the Rebels writers room.

(It should also be noted that presumably E.K. Johnston wrote the Ahsoka novel with the assumption that that arc was still part of Ahsoka’s working canon, though she may not have seen scripts for it; I feel like I read somewhere that she had seen scripts for the original version of the Siege of Mandalore, which changed quite a lot between original concept and the eventual 2020 version, as is evident from the novel vs the show.)

Going into The Mandalorian, then, Dave Filoni is not only working without a writers room (as Mando has only had two writers, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau), but working with an entirely different continuity than what the Rebels writers room was working with.

Trying to backtrack when various scripts were written is an exercise in futility to some extent; I usually guess anywhere from a year to two years out from when the shows air.  (I seem to remember that around this time in 2016 it came out that Katee Sackhoff was doing something for Disney, which ended up being the recording for Bo-Katan in Rebels S4, which wouldn’t air for another year, but don’t quote me on these dates.)  Dave ends the panel by saying that “After the season 2 finale for Rebels I was very adamant that that was it for Ahsoka...in Rebels...but after this reaction it might just be possible...it might be possible to see her again. She might have something to do. Maybe.”  (For those trying to run dates in their heads: the con was in July 2016, the season 2 finale aired in March 2016, WBW aired in February 2018.)  My guess is that they hadn’t recorded for that part of S4 yet (and S4 is so weirdly paced that I have questions about how it was made), but that the initial scripts for S4 had already been written at this point.

Looking back at the Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 TCW panel where Ashley Eckstein talks about getting the news about TCW S7 from Dee Bradley Baker (rather than from Dave Filoni, and hoo boy is this uncomfortable to watch knowing that the script for “The Jedi” had almost certainly been written and Dave may have already made the decision not to talk to Ashley about it), there’s still not like...a clear way to tell when that happened.  Except that Dee talks about “wine tasting with the Rebels,” which likely puts it back when Rebels S4 was either still actively airing (2017-2018) or before it had wrapped filming (2017).  (I actually vaguely remember seeing pictures from this wine tasting but I can’t remember whose twitter it was on and going to look feels creepy.)  Probably the scripts weren’t fully revised at that point but they may have been -- still, this was certainly after S2 and could potentially be before S4 had been fully finalized.  We got the TCW renewal announcement in 2019, but the animation wasn’t fully completed yet so didn’t get more than that teaser trailer.  This is only important insofar as it involves which set of backstory was being used for WBW Ahsoka, an episode that Dave Filoni wrote and co-directed.  (Honestly? I think Mando Ahsoka matches okay with WBW Ahsoka but is a little off Rebels S2 Ahsoka, but that’s off my memory of WBW, an episode I refuse to rewatch.)  Certainly with the epilogue he knew he was setting up for something else.

ETA: I FORGOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS TIMELINE AND THAT’S THE RISE OF SKYWALKER because I try not to think about TROS, frankly, but as we may remember Ahsoka is included in the “be with me” scene in the final confrontation.  This always struck me as weird given the “I am no Jedi” thing from Rebels, but she’s the most well-known female Force-user so I had just mentally written it off as easy shorthand and JJ Abrams being lazy about it. HOWEVER, presumably JJ talked to Dave about which prequel era Jedi to include (there’s a note in one of the previous SWC liveblogs about Rian Johnson being in the Rebels writers room at some point).  TROS came out in December 2019, I can’t recall exactly when they did the voiceovers for that scene (if anyone has ever mentioned it), but it was probably fairly late in the process since I believe that there were still edits being made up until fairly soon before the premiere.  (I have a completely different theory that the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special from this year was written off an earlier version of TROS.)  If Dave had already moved towards making Ahsoka more inclined towards the Jedi, with a full-on return to calling herself one regardless of the existence of the Order (as Mando implies), then her inclusion here makes a LOT more sense than it did a year ago.

Anyway this is all very conspiracy theorist, but it does explain something that was puzzling me: Rebels S2 Ahsoka and Mando Ahsoka (as well as TCW S7 Ahsoka and potentially Rebels S4 Ahsoka) were written off slightly different backstories which differed in one very key thing: how committed Ahsoka was to no longer being a Jedi.

Now, this sort of thing happens all the time in anything with an ongoing continuity; obviously TCW makes major changes to how viewers might read or write Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader in RotS or the OT.  I was just trying to narrow it down in this particular case because until I started thinking about it I had assumed that it was all being written off the same assumed backstory. And many people read Ahsoka differently in Mando than I did or found her perfectly in character, this was for me to track references down about something that was bothering me in hopes of an explanation that would satisfy me.

#bedlam watches the mandalorian #bedlam watches tcw #bedlam watches rebels #mando the jedi #btw this is the same sort of thing I do for academic work this stuff is just easier because I remember it better #and can google it which I usually can't for scholarship

[aion-rsa]

The Book of Boba Fett Just Pulled off Major A New Hope Callback

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett article contains spoilers.

In the flashback portion of The Book of Boba Fett episode 2, “The Tribes of Tatooine,” Boba Fett is on the hunt for something that can help the Tusken Raiders take down the Pyke Syndicate’s hovertrain, but it isn’t power converters. When the bounty hunter visits a cantina in the desert, he’s searching for the speeder bikes he needs to catch up with the Tuskens’ spice-smuggling enemy, and he has no problem punching and shooting his way through a biker gang to get what he needs.

But eagle-eyed Star Wars fans know that this is no ordinary cantina in the middle of nowhere. Boba Fett has brought us to one of the most famous locations from A New Hope.

Tosche Station

“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” young Luke Skywalker whines in protest after his Uncle Owen asks him to clean up their new droids. It’s an oft-quoted line from the original Star Wars that has immortalized a little piece of lore that until The Book of Boba Fett had never actually appeared on screen in an official capacity.

At one point, George Lucas did originally intend to bring Tosche Station to the big screen, with the scene serving as the audience’s first introduction to Luke and a group of his friends on Tatooine. But it was cut for time and pacing, and once you’ve watched the scene, it’s hard to argue with Lucas and the editors’ decision:

In the deleted scene, Luke rushes to Tosche Station to tell his pals Biggs Darklighter, Laze Loneozner, and Camie Marstrap about a space battle happening above Tatooine (the moment the Empire trapped the Rebel cruiser at the start of the movie). It’s during this scene that Biggs also tells Luke that he’s leaving to find the Rebellion and join them in the fight against the Empire. He invites Luke to come along but the young farm boy feels he must stay to help his uncle on the moisture farm for one more season. As we all know, that season will never come for the Lars family, who are killed by stormtroopers a little later in the movie.

Since 1977, Tosche Station appeared from time to time in the pages of Star Wars books and comics, usually as a background detail or easter egg within those stories. The power station/repair shop is located just outside the town of Anchorhead, which also gets a mention in the deleted scene as well as later in the theatrical cut when Luke offers to accompany Obi-Wan Kenobi on his journey “as far as Anchorhead.”

To this day, Luke has yet to pick up those power converters.

Laze and Camie

While Boba Fett is smashing bikers through glass windows, there are two terrified bystanders watching from a corner table. Nine years after the events of A New Hope, Laze and Camie are back at Tosche Station, this time being harassed by Nikto bikers, who use the station as a watering hole after their raids.

Like the station itself, these two minor characters have never appeared on screen outside of the aforementioned deleted scene from 1977. Laze and Camie did return in the old (now non-canon) Marvel comics from the late ’70s, at one point selling out Luke as a rebel to the Empire to protect their livelihoods. No, they’re not very good friends. (Even in the deleted scene, Camie likes to make fun of Luke, calling him “wormie” throughout, which is just mean.)

In The Book of Boba Fett, Laze and Camie are played by Skyler Bible and Mandy Kowalski, respectively, taking over from the original 1977 actors, Anthony Forrest and Koo Stark.

These A New Hope deep cuts are far from the only Star Wars easter eggs in “The Tribes of Tatooine.” You can check out a complete list of easter eggs and references here.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post The Book of Boba Fett Just Pulled off Major A New Hope Callback appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3GeYW4t

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[daughter-of-water]

He never had a chance

There has been some debate as to who is responsible for the failures of the sequel trilogy: J.J. Abrams, Chris Terrio, Kathleen Kennedy or Bob Iger. Certain Youtubers such as Mike Zeroh place the blame on the executive team but this article posted on StarWars.com in 2013 featuring a collection of excerpts from interviews with Abrams makes it clear the man was a willing participant and that TROS fully reflects his views.

I have always abhorred the idea that this needs to be a generational war between fans. Star Wars shouldn’t just be for children nor should it be just for those old enough to have seen it in the theaters during the late seventies and eighties. George Lucas set out to create a myth and myths are timeless. Unfortunately, Abrams doesn’t feel the same. From these excerpts, it’s clear that he holds nothing but derision for the generations that have succeeded his. How dare they identify with the troubled and flawed Anakin over the bright eyed idealistic Luke? It’s downright criminal! Their hero is the villain his generation fought to defeat. With that in mind, it becomes obvious what was intended with the character of Ben Solo. As with Vader he is the embodiment of the post Boomer/Gen X generations and accordingly needs to be smacked down by the personification of Abrams’ generation, the optimistic novice hero Rey. Of course that’s not at all what actually happened in the Original Trilogy but in Abrams’ mind and those who think like him, it might as well have. His glee in the commentary during the Force Awakens final battle sequence as Rey beats Ben back and slashes his face now makes sense. Whereas we saw an emotionally compromised, injured man barely holding it together, he saw the personification of an upstart egotistical generation in need of a spanking. 

Ben’s character was never going to get a fair shake under his watch. Abrams lacks the capacity and even the desire to understand someone like him. If there is an alternate happy ending for Ben, it only exists as part of the legendary Lucas cut or as a byproduct of Abrams “choose your own adventure/ humor the actor” style of filmmaking. I don’t think it would be something he would have wanted and lobbied for. The garbage “Rey Skywalker” ending fits much more in line with his erroneous ideas of what Star Wars is.

#Reylo #Rey #Kylo Ren #Ben Solo #J.J. Abrams #Star Wars #The Rise of Skywalker #The Sequel Trilogy #Fuuuck this movie

[nitrateglow]

My bottom five new-to-me movies of 2020

2020 sucked. So did these movies. Before I do my customary top 20 favorite movie discoveries list, I wanted to share five very special new-to-me movies that were painful to watch. Forgive me if it all sounds like ranting. It probably is.

(And remember-- if you like any of these movies, that’s fine. I am not attacking YOU. I just didn’t like a movie. I know this is a stupid disclaimer to put on a list of opinions, but combing the venomous old IMDB message boards has me on edge a bit lol.)

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Whether you love the sequel trilogy or hate it, everyone pretty much agrees this movie was a mess. I thought no movie could have a more structurally unsound screenplay than The Crimes of Grindelwald, but Rise of Skywalker gives it staunch competition. It creates a new artform from making things up as the plot requires: new powers for Rey, new Macguffins to pursue, new motivations and backstories for characters.

I admit I dislike The Last Jedi. I dislike it a lot, actually, and it appears JJ Abrams did too from the amount of retconning he does here (Rey isn’t nobody! Honest, guys!). But you can’t backtrack THAT much. Either plot out your entire trilogy before shooting the first film or play fairly with the cards you were dealt by the filmmakers of movie two.

If anything, these movies have become a cautionary tale about not having a plan when making a movie trilogy. Now, George Lucas didn’t really have one either when he was making the original trilogy, but in that case, he wasn’t even sure the first movie was going to be a modest hit, let alone the biggest movie of the 1970s. He had an excuse and did well enough finishing the trilogy. Here, Disney knew there would be sequels, they knew they had a hungry audience, but they chose to just wing it and the results are just-- so disappointing, especially given the talented young actors and lovely special effects they had at their disposal.

The more I think about it, the more poetic the image of Palpatine hooked up to a life support system/crane is. The best ROTS can do is riff on earlier, better movies and hope our affection will make us overlook the awfulness.

Artemis Fowl

Outside of Animal Crossing, Artemis Fowl might have been the only entity to benefit (if only slightly) from the pandemic. I cannot imagine it would have been anything but a box office bomb had the theaters been open.

Artemis Fowl feels like it should have come out in 2003-- not just because the books were more prominent then, but the whole style of this film in general. In 2020, it’s positively anachronistic. The whole thing is a joyless attempt at dipping from the old Harry Potter well, with a bit of Spy Kids thrown in for good measure. Beyond that, it’s so poorly done as a whole. I have never read the Artemis Fowl books, but I watched this with a friend who has and his head near caught on fire. Apparently, it cuts out everything that made the books cool, like the protagonist basically being a kid version of a Bond villain. Here, he’s anything but that: he’s the usual bland child protagonist surrounded by a cast of slightly more interesting characters. Josh Gad seems to be the only one really trying. Judi Dench shows up and somehow gives a worse performance than whatever the hell she was doing in Cats.

I was actually shocked Kenneth Branagh of all people directed this. I generally like his films, even the less successful ones like his musical adaptation of Love’s Labors Lost. Even the uninspiring live-action Cinderella remake he helmed is at least pretty to look at-- Artemis Fowl has neither brains nor beauty to recommend it.

Bloodline

This film was intended to jumpstart a career comeback for Audrey Hepburn. This decidedly did not happen. One has to wonder what she saw in this sordid material in the first place. Maybe she really just wanted to work with director Terence Young again? Or she thought this would be a good, more modern take on her screen persona? I have no clue. All I know is that Bloodline is one of the worst big-budget Hollywood movies I have ever seen.

No contest: this is Audrey Hepburn’s worst movie. Hate on Green Mansions and Paris When It Sizzles until the stars turn to ash-- at least there was some fun camp value in them. The plot in Bloodline makes no sense, going into unrelated digressions that lead nowhere (did we really need that extended flashback about the dead father? or the subplot with Omar Shariff’s two families?). Oh and then there’s the awful sleazy snuff film subplot that’s also poorly developed and goes nowhere. Hepburn is game, but she can’t save the sinking ship. The best she can do is be charming in a terrible 70s perm.

Luckily, she made the underrated They All Laughed two years after this cinematic fecal matter bombed, so at the very least, Hepburn’s big screen swan song was a film worthy of her presence. (Hint: there will be more about that movie on my top 20 of the year list!)

Halloween III: The Season of the Witch

You all have no idea how excited I was to see this. All the mentions of it on Red Letter Media made it sound like deliriously entertaining schlock. I mean, it’s a movie in which the villain sells cursed Halloween masks that turn children’s heads into bugs and snakes! That sounds awesome! Instead, the movie is badly paced and boring: the main characters are uninteresting and the plot takes an interesting premise then does.... nothing with it. Nothing whatsoever. The second act is the cinematic equivalent of treading water. In fact, so little happens, that the filmmakers squeeze in a pointless sex scene between two character who have all the chemistry of a lit match and a bag of M&M’s.

The thing that annoys me most about this film is that it killed off a great concept: that all of the future Halloween films would be standalone stories centered around the spookiest time of the year. Unfortunately, this movie botched itself so badly that people often think the absence of Michael Meyers was the problem. It wasn’t: it was the absence of a good story.

Blindsided

This is probably the most watchable movie on this list, but that’s not saying much. A bloodless ripoff of Wait Until Dark, Blindsided is an unimaginative thriller with no thrills, humor, or interesting characters whatsoever.

The whole film is just repetitive. The situation doesn’t slowly boil to something horrific, the threat presented by the villains doesn’t escalate, there are no interesting interactions between the characters: no, here the underdeveloped protagonist is interrogated, tortured and/or sexually harassed, tries to escape, is recaptured, rinse and repeat for ninety minutes. I admit there’s some clever resourcefulness on the part of the heroine in the last scene-- but it’s basically just Wait Until Dark’s climax (down to the twist with the villain finding an alternative source of illumination for crying out loud!) without the emotional payoff that comes from slow-burn pacing or the fantastic performances, so even that’s a letdown.

I thought the movie might at least be saved by Michael Keaton as the main criminal mastermind since he’s shown he can be a great villain in other movies (if they had remade Wait in the 80s, he would have been a perfect Harry Roat Jr.), but even he seems to be phoning it in here. Beyond a scene of attempted cat murder (I’m serious-- the bad guys are so incompetent they can’t even kill a cat), there’s not even anything so bad it’s good to enjoy. Blindsided is just dull and by-the-numbers.

#thoughts

[fallintosanity]

What are your thoughts on 7 Remake’s ~controversial~ ending? It’s been a few weeks now since I finished and I legit feel like I’ve journeyed through all 5 stages of grief and finally landed on Acceptance 😅

haha that’s fair! I have a lot of thoughts about the remake, but they’re coming from three different angles. 

(Spoilers under the cut obvs; also this got fucklong even after I cut a bunch of non-ending-related thoughts, and I apologize to those of you on mobile)

From the POV of someone who played and loved the original

Overall, I really enjoyed the remake, ending and all. I replayed the OG prior to the remake’s release, finishing literally four hours before the remake became available in North America, but it had still been months since I did the Midgar parts so it wasn’t too immediately fresh in my mind. Still, I was impressed by how faithful the remake is to the OG for the vast majority of the game. They noticeably cleaned up a few things, like Tseng slapping Aerith, which didn’t age well or stopped making sense with regards to the greater Compilation, which was nice to see. But they also doubled down on some of the ridiculousness of the original. I can’t tell you how much I cackled when the Hell House showed up, or how many times I said to my fiance in joy/disbelief, “They really managed to fit that in!” 

I also love all the little nods to the greater Compilation. I saw one interview excerpt from like... 2015 or 2014 or something that said the Remake is considered canon to the Compilation, and the content of the Remake itself suggests this. While some of the cameos could be considered nothing more than cameos (as much as I love Kunsel, I don’t think his name being dropped means anything other than that they needed a name and wanted to give a nod to him), there are other clear hints that Crisis Core and The Kids Are Alright, at minimum, are canon to the Remake. Hojo mentions “S and G type” SOLDIERs, i.e., Sephiroth-type and Genesis/Gillian-type. (Roche is a G type I am not taking arguments on this point) The description of the Buster Sword says it carries the hopes and dreams of those who came before, implying more than just Zack (i.e., Angeal). Zack’s scene right before he charges the ShinRa army is shot-for-shot the one from Crisis Core, which could have just been a nod, but the fact that he also says the same lines as the original is telling. There’s a lot of lore loaded into those lines. Leslie and Kyrie are both from The Kids Are Alright (which makes me wonder if the third ShinRa half-brother is floating around somewhere). You could make an argument for Before Crisis being partially or completely canon to the remake as well, since someone mentions a previous assassination attempt on the President, which happened in BC. 

But now we get into the issue of whether Advent Children is canon to the remake, i.e., the ending and the thing you actually asked about. ^^; This is where I’m more torn. My initial reaction to the ending was “Oh crap, we went from FFVII-Remake to Kingdom Hearts - oh shit now we’re in Advent Children - oh fuck now we’re in fanfiction-land.” Which... is definitely not what I was expecting from the ending of Part 1. 

On first playthrough it feels a bit like they overplayed their hand with Sephiroth in the ending: “everyone wants a Sephiroth fight in a FFVII game, so we’ll give them a Sephiroth fight”. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the fact that Sephiroth appears in person in the Midgar sequence, when in the OG all we see of him before Kalm is the aftermath of President Shinra’s murder. I do think Sephiroth’s appearances prior to the ending were done well - the writers clearly intended to emphasize Cloud’s mental issues, and Sephiroth is too big a part of them to ignore. His appearances prior to the top of Shinra Tower both serve as a bone tossed to those who wanted to see him in the remake, and set up the Cloud-Sephiroth relationship a lot earlier and in more depth. You can see how utterly terrified Cloud is every time Sephiroth is around - even sometimes frozen into immobility. Depending on how things go with the Kalm flashback, this may also help cue new players in to just how wrong things are with Cloud. (After all, a SOLDIER First shouldn’t be afraid of another SOLDIER First, should he?) But the final fight against Sephiroth, or at least, a clone wearing Sephiroth’s face, felt premature, out of place, something that’s only there to appease people who wanted to fight Sephiroth now. 

Aside from the Sephiroth thing, I’m reserving judgment a bit on the ending as a whole. On the one hand, I’m deeply curious to see where the story goes from here, and how the writers use their newfound freedom (more on that in a minute). On the other hand, I don’t want this to turn into Kingdom Hearts 4, and I don’t trust Nomura in that regard, especially after all the bullshit that went on with KH3, Verum Rex, and FFXV/versus 13. I love Nomura, but like George Lucas, he desperately needs someone to rein in, edit, and shape his ideas.

I’m also not sure how I feel about all the theories being thrown out there - such as that at least one of the Sephiroths we see is the one from after AC, somehow flung back in time to fuck things up; or that the OG was, 999-style, Aerith seeing into the future and now in the remake she’s taking control to put everything on the path she wants. They’re interesting, for sure, and I think that with careful handling, it’s possible Squenix might be able to pull one of them off - but given what I know of Squenix (again, more on that later), I don’t trust them to do it well. I am, to be blunt, very concerned that later installments of the remake are going to turn into an incoherent tug-of-war between those who want to be faithful to the original, and Nomura’s desire to inject weird Kingdom Hearts nonsense everywhere. 

I say this with all the love to Kingdom Hearts, but it’s a very specific kind of story and it’s not what I want to see in my FFVII.

On a writing meta level

On the meta level, I’m fascinated by the choice to go with the whole Whispers/Arbiters of Fate thing. I don’t know how much of that is pure Nomura-injected BS vs how much was a deliberate choice by the writing team, but for right now I’m going to assume it was mostly a deliberate and unanimous choice. 

I’ve seen a lot of other Remake opinions along the lines of a reluctant, “I guess they had to put the Whispers in there because a perfect remake wouldn’t have been satisfying to everyone. There’s always someone who would have complained.” I... don’t think that’s entirely true. Like, yeah, sure, someone’s always going to complain if it’s not a pixel-perfect remake, but based on the overall satisfaction I’ve seen from OG fans (including myself) regarding the parts that are true to the original, I think Squenix would have done just fine if that was the path they chose. And given how much attention they paid to making most of the game into a nearly-perfect recreation, I think the writers knew it. 

So why’d they go the whole Whispers route? 

My guess would be that the writers were giving themselves freedom, on a meta level, with the Whispers. It’s a way of both poking fun at, and solving, their own dilemma: do we make a perfect, hi-res copy of the original? Or do we change things to make it our own? 

The “change something to make it your own” is a longstanding trope when someone new is put in charge of something old. You see it in everything from Disney live-action remakes to new managers who change their employees’ routines just to “make an impact”. Most of the time, these changes are neutral / un-impactful at best, or outright frustrating / terrible at worst. I wonder if the Remake writing team wasn’t fully aware of this, and possibly tangled up in knots internally about how to handle it. Would it be seen as a bad, “make it their own” change to have Tseng not slap Aerith? What about adding Chocobo Sam, Madam M, and Andrea Rhodea to the Wall Market sequence? What about the changes to how the Avalanche gang reacts to Cloud, now that we have full animation and voice acting and it’s clear Avalanche has no reason to want to keep him around except for Jessie being horny on main? Where’s the line? 

I could see the Whispers being the writing team’s way of making sure they stay in line where it’s important, while also giving themselves the freedom to make the updates needed to allow the remake to work. They’re kind of a meta nod to the audience, a “don’t worry! If we get too far out of line, the Whispers will bring us back.” In that sense, the entire ending where you (the player) kill the Whispers and free yourself (the player) from destiny is you giving the writers permission to continue making those small changes. 

In FFXV, almost the entire ending sequence is a cutscene: Noctis on the throne, being murdered by his ancestors and descending into the spirit realm. But there’s one single quick-time event in there, one point where the player has to take action and push a button. It’s not even difficult, and on the surface it seems pointless. Except, if you don’t, Noctis lives. (Trapped in purgatory maybe, but he’s still there.) If you never push that button, Noctis doesn’t sacrifice his spirit and those of the Lucii to destroy Ardyn and wipe the Scourge from Eos. By asking - requiring - the player to push that button to commit that final act, the game makes the player complicit in Noct’s sacrifice. It’s a powerful moment, and similar to what (I suspect) the Remake writers intended with the Whispers. 

Because they could have left the Whispers in forever. They could have had them be a continuous presence throughout all episodes of the Remake, a little reminder that no matter what tweaks the writers might make to update the story, to “make it their own”, the Arbiters of Fate will ensure things are on track. That things will play out exactly as in the original. But by asking the player to destroy the Arbiters, the writers are asking for the player’s permission to make changes. And by killing the Arbiters, you’re granting it. Because, just like you can keep Noctis alive by not pushing the button when prompted, you can keep the original game more-or-less on track by never stepping through that portal, never killing the Arbiters. But if you do step through that portal and go through with it, you’re agreeing to accept that things might change, thus freeing the writers from the constant double jeopardy of changing things vs keeping them exactly the same. 

On a business meta level

As cool as (I think) that all sounds, the bigger question is, can Square Enix actually pull it off? And here’s where I start to have my most significant doubts. After the FFvs13/FFXV debacle and the hopeless mess that was KH3, I do not trust Nomura to tell a coherent story, even if it’s supposedly a retelling of an existing, well-known story. I don’t know anything about the inner workings or politics at Square Enix, other than that there are politics at play, so in fairness to him I can’t really say it’s because he himself is bad at telling a story, or just doesn’t have the support he needs to convey his vision well. But that gets into other issues with Squenix. We know their last several major games have had long and troubled developments. Someone way more attuned than me to the Japanese video games industry can talk in depth about why; all I know is that it happened (is happening?) and that it’s something of a miracle the remake came out as well as it did. 

On top of that, I’m a bit concerned that even if Squenix can get (and keep) its shit together, it might be up against external forces that constrain how it can tell the story of FFVII in the present. For example, from what I’ve heard, the reason Crisis Core never got ported the way so many other games did, and the reason Genesis Rhapsodos has never been seen outside it and a Dirge of Cerberus cameo, is due to image licensing fights with Gackt, Genesis’s face model. CC established Genesis as a key player in the events leading up to the original game’s story, and enough hints have been dropped about CC in the remake that, like I said earlier, it appears to be canon. But if Squenix can’t reach an agreement to use the character again, they might be trapped in a corner where they either have to completely rewrite the parts of the story involving Genesis, or dance around his existence. 

And on top of all that, it’s just expensive and time-consuming as hell to make games on the remake’s scale. Everyone expects the PS4 to be retired by the time Remake Part 2 comes out, which is going to pose huge logistical issues for releasing it. Squenix has been having a rough time of it lately, from what I’ve heard - are they, as a company, capable of handling all those logistical issues? I don’t know, and that makes me nervous. 

Still, they did do a remarkable job with the remake overall, even grappling with the pandemic around the launch date. So maybe they’re getting their shit together again, and things will be smooth sailing from here. We’ll have to wait and see. 

#anonymous #final fantasy vii #ffvii #ffvii remake #spoilers #meta #sanity replies #sanity talks a lot #tumblr massively fucked up the formatting somehow sorry

[romana73]

REYLO FANFIC: YIN AND YAN. CHAPTER 5, PART II

WRITER: Romana73 TIME: One year after Star Wars. Episode VIII. The Last Jedi THEME AND FANDOM: Star Wars RATING: Explicit TITLE: Yin and Yan CATEGORIES: M/F COUPLES: Kylo Ren / Ben Solo and Rey CHARACTERS: Rey, Kylo Ren / Ben Solo, Anakin Skywalker (nominated), BB - 8, Knights of Ren, Chewbacca, Darth Vader (nominated), Finn, General Hux, Han Solo (nominated), Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, Poe Dameron, Rose Tico, boys from Canto Bright, Snoke (nominated), various Resistance and First Order fighters WARNINGS: Star Wars characters, world and stories AREN’T MINE AND DON’T BELONG TO ME, but they are created and owned by George Lucas, Lucasfilm, Disney, J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson and the actors who play the Star Wars characters and their stories. I’M NOT IN ANY WAY LINKED TO THESE PEOPLE AND CINEMATOGRAPHIC HOUSES. I DON’T KNOW NO ONE OF THEM and I’M IN NO WAY IN CONTACT WITH THEM

WARNINGS 2: violence, also in terms of language. The starting idea of ​​this story derives from a leaks I read last year and which struck my imagination CHAPTER I can be found HERE: https://romana73.tumblr.com/post/189784450126/reylo-fanfiction-yin-e-yan CHAPTER II can be found HERE: https://romana73.tumblr.com/post/189959876431/reylo-fanfic-yin-and-yan-part-2 CHAPTER III can be found HERE: https://romana73.tumblr.com/post/190301208881/reylo-fanfic-yin-and-yan-3-part CHAPTER IV can be found HERE: https://romana73.tumblr.com/post/190662591396/reylo-fanfic-yin-and-yan-chapter-iv

CHAPTER V, PART I can be found HERE : https://romana73.tumblr.com/post/614181147435532288/reylo-fanfic-yin-and-yan-part-5

CHAPTER V (PART II )

Kylo had burst into bitter laughter when he saw cell where Resistance had locked him up. He imagined few were aware of his being only son of Leia Organa and Han Solo, nephew of Luke Skywalker, but that was no justification. Resistance would have had to learn more about enemies if it intended to fight effectively. Remaining on his feet, boy leaned back against a wall, looking around. Cell hadn't seemed to change since Luke had built it, except for two long, large chains attached to ceiling. Kylo had returned to focusing on what really interested him. Sitting on ground, legs bent and spread apart, looking ahead, he was fumbling with his right arm until he was able to press point of limb interested him. By keeping his concentration, he had managed to use his mind to operate watch on his wrist, although it was stuck under cuffs. Two minutes later, clock had vibrated. Kylo had smiled. - Wait for my signal - Supreme Leader had ordered in a calm tone, speaking to nothing. Clock chirped like a cricket and Kylo mentally turned it off.

"Rey ..." closing his eyes, the young leader had leaned his head against wall, looking for contact with girl, but nothing had come. She still had to be unconscious. His concentration had been disturbed by a strong, familiar presence. Supreme Leader had stiffened, snapping his eyes open, pulling himself to his feet. - General Organa ...- he murmured in a dark voice, taking a few steps, hiding in the shadows. Wrapped in a long gray silk dress, cut in empire style, with a long silver vest, sleeveless, high-necked, the princess and leader of the Resistance, Leia Organa was standing in front of the prison bars, which she stared at him with wet eyes. "Ben ..." murmured the woman in a broken voice. - No. Kylo Ren. I advise you to go back upstairs, General, to safety. I killed her husband Han Solo ... you don't want me to do same with you, do you?- He had cut him short, staying in the shadows. His tone of voice was cold and hard. Leia had pursed her lips and, with a trembling chin, straightening her back, had left the room. Kylo had sat on the ground, gritting his teeth. By time he chased her away, he had felt woman's heart break, her physical weakness resulting from being thrown out of her spaceship after his attack, her belief he was lost. In perceiving mother's thought, Kylo had darkened. General Organa's belief had irritated him, though she was nothing to him anymore. Only an annoying shadow of the past, which had considered him lost since childhood. Where was the news? The sound of furious footsteps had torn Kylo from his reflections. - What did you do to our General? - Standing in front of cell entrance, Poe Dameron, best Resitance’s pilot, had accused him.  Man's dark brown eyes sent flashes, his short, curly and black hair seemed unkempt from too much going through his hands.  Fleshy mouth, surrounded by a veil of beard, was tight in a thin line, sign of Poe's attempt to maintain control. Behind him, Finn stared at him frowning, looking at him from bottom to top. Resolute and tense, the ex-stormtrooper seemed ready to shoot. Poe had opened cell, entering with a firm step, standing in front of Kylo. Finn had joined him silently. BB-8, Poe's round droid, had rolled beside master, emitting a shy beep. Kylo had looked at both men with a hard but calm expression, then shrugged. - I only remembered who I am, what I did and I could still do ...- he had explained placidly. Two remained staring at him with a dark questioning expression painted on their faces. Kylo had sighed patiently. - I killed Han Solo, your dear General’s husband and I could do same with her... with all of you - he had clarified. - Damn you! - Finn was no longer able to restrain himself and jumped towards him, taking him by neck and slamming him against wall. In Finn’s mind were still vivid images of Leia crying alone in her room for death of her beloved husband. Finn remembered well evening when, passing in front of General's room, he had heard loud sobs. Concerned, he entered in room without asking for permission, finding Leia, sitting at table crying bent and desperate, with one hand over her mouth, in front of an Han Solo’s old hologram. Without saying a word, dark young man had placed one knee on the ground, bending other and embraced Leia, making her head rest on shoulder and rocking her, while she was letting off steam. Now Kylo Ren had dared to turn knife over in that not yet closed wound. - Finn! - Poe had intervened, bringing him back to reality. -Mr Finn! - C3 - PO had entered the cell agitatedly, followed by RD - D2 -Don't do it, please! Upstairs there is an air so sad! General heard you go down to prisons and sent us to check... princess closed herself in her room and Miss Rey is still unconscious! Please, Mr. Finn, don't complicate things! - The intervention of C3 - PO had been strengthened by the metallic noises of RD - D2. -Listen to your new friends, FN-2187. You won't want to disappoint Rey ...- Kylo had commented, before hitting Finn with a headshot in the face. The young man had fallen to the ground, rolling and moaning, holding his bleeding nose with both hands. -Finn!- Poe had screamed, running to his friend and bending over him. BB-8 had emitted a series of loud beeps. Pilot had frantically searched his pockets for something to dab the other 's nose until he found a cloth originally intended for cleaning his X - Wing and passed it to young man, helping him to pull himself up. - I don't need to use the Force to beat you. I can do it even in normal conditions...- Kylo had continued. Poe had grabbed him by collar. -I don't like using these methods, but you wanted it ... - man had hissed between his teeth, forcefully bringing Kylo towards  chains hanging from cell’s ceiling. Finn had watched the scene with a grim expression, before rising to his feet, quickly wiping off residual blood and putting cloth in a pocket of his blue trousers, helping to chain his former commander. - If you wanted to hang me without difficulty, You could use blinding light you used to capture me in forest... - Kylo had provoked. RD - D2 had issued some beep trades. He had taken a quick look at droid he had known since childhood, before returning to focus on the two men in front of him. - Of course, I didn't think you would involve Rey ...- he continued. - I don't know what you're talking about and I don't care! That light has knocked you out and that's enough. As for Rey ... don't you dare pronounce her name! - Finn had replied angrily, tightening chains on his wrists and going away. -Really? It seems normal to me to be interested in my ex-ally ...- Kylo had commented casually. Finn had snapped like a snake, grabbing him again by collar. -He has nothing to do with you! - Boy had screamed, narrowing his eyes. Kylo had hidden his surprise. Rey hadn’t revealed anything to his friends about he had killed Snoke and wanted to kill Leia and Resistance... for possessing Anakin's lightsaber, leaving him on the ground, passed out, and stealing a ship to join them on Crait. Furious, Kylo had followed her, ordering her pilots to shoot down the Falcon led by her, Chewbacca and Finn. -I'm not lying. Rey left Ach - To and Luke to come to me. We killed Snoke and Praetorian Guards together - Kylo had revealed in a calm tone, staring in Finn’s eyes. Moving fast, his former subordinate had hit him in chest with a dagger hidden in belt of his pants. Kylo had tensed, pursing his lips and holding on to chains with both hands. Blade’s cold had clashed with warm blood dripped from his chest, giving a strange feeling of unreality, if it hadn't been for burning pain coming from diagonal cut pierced his shirt and flesh. - Finn! - Poe had called his friend back, taking him by arms, fighting with him to keep him still.

RD - D2 had reinforced the pilot's words with loud metallic noises. C3PO had started pacing up and down like an agitated hen. BB-8 had made a disjointed tour of cell, immediately returning to Poe. Kylo had quickly looked down at wound. -Good, FN-2187. You gave me back blow I dealt you at Star Killer Base, but mine was on your back, though and... I didn't lie about Rey - he observed mildly. Finn had managed to free his arm from Poe's grip and, clenching his hand into a fist, had hit Kylo in face. Supreme Leader had found himself with his face turned to one side. Poe had blocked his friend again, murmuring something in his ear, then he had turned to BB-8, instructing him to go back upstairs to perform check rounds inside base. Without moving, Kylo had glanced sideways at round and whirling white droid, with orange and silver outlines. Months earlier he himself had searched for that little robot, in whose memory was kept map missing piece to find Luke Skywalker, man wanted by both Snoke and Resistance. Looking for BB-8, Kylo had met Rey, to whom the little droid had attached himself like a puppy. Something vague and undefined had warned him to keep an eye on droid. At that moment, a strong sensation had shaken Kylo, ​​who had remained silent and motionless. She had recovered, sensed pain from wound Finn had inflicted on him and she was coming. Rey had overwhelmed everyone like a cyclone, surprising even him. It wasn't she stopped torture and freed him from chains, surprised Kylo. He knew this was in Rey nature, but he never expected her to heal him, offering him side a second time. Such naivety wasn’t acceptable. Rey had seen him kill Han, hurt Finn, wildly attack his precious Resistance on Crait. She knew very well his intention to kill Jedi, Sith, Resistance and everything represented past, why help him? Irritated by those thoughts, Kylo had attacked Rey, hurting her, undecided whether to take her and drag her with him, as he had planned from the beginning, or leave her there and forget her... Cardo's arrival had shaken him. Resistance guards had done little. Taking advantage of knowledge of place, Kylo had instructed Cardo about where to hide and multitude of conflicting feelings aroused by his presence at base, had facilitated things. Following instinct, Kylo had jumped on Rey. He knew he was physically stronger than she was and she couldn’t use Force in that cell. Nonetheless, Kylo had been surprised at intensity with which Rey had struggled. At times, he had to struggle to hold her back, especially when others and children had arrived. Kylo frowned suspiciously when he noticed Chewbacca was missing. In all that time prisoner, only one who he hadn't seen was huge Wookie, inseparable companions of Han Solo's adventures. Hairy giant seemed to have disappeared into thin air and he didn't like it. Finn's thoughts had torn Kylo out of those considerations, leaving him stunned. Did ex-stormtrooper really detest him to such an extent he thought he would hurt Rey? Kylo knew Finn wasn't really going to hurt Rey and, judging by his reactions, he really ignored what that light was had knocked him and Rey down. His thoughts, however, surprised him. Shortly before, Rey had blamed war and its protracted for some harsh behavior of his friends and, perhaps, he was right, but he still could not end conflict. -Let them go and I'll go with you - he was dumbfounded, hearing these words coming out of Rey's mouth. On reflection, such an offer was part of she's disposition. Kylo had folded his mouth in a grimace. He didn’t like position in which Rey had put him with such a proposal. -Unlike what you think, I don't like blackmailing people or even being teased ...- Kylo had replied, staring into her eyes. His mind was racing when they beat Snoke and Praetorian Guards. He offered his hand to her, while she turned against him as soon as she learned of his intention to exterminate her friends. Kylo had thought, fault of that result was his, he should have been more subtle and put her in front of the fait accompli, not open up like that. -I'm not setting you a trap - Rey had interrupted his thoughts flow, as if she had read in his mind. He stared at her intently, feeling Leia's scrutinizing and attentive gaze on him, noisy protests of others filling his ears, Cardo's lively and silent curiosity pricking him. Kylo had imperceptibly shook his head, to get rid of that useless tangle of emotions. -Okay ...- he had conceded, freeing Rey from his grip and using Force, to free her from handcuffs. -Please, come on - he invited her, indicating to walk in front of him. Kylo had looked sideways at his mother who, on the contrary, was openly staring at him and Rey. This attitude had made him uncomfortable, causing him to quicken his steps, forcing Rey and Cardo to run to follow him. Traveling Finalizer hadn't been easy. Rey was a volcano of emotions overwhelmed him too. She proceeded in silence, between him and Cardo, trying to hold back tears. Kylo admired her. Rey had gone from being an orphan, full of dreams and hopes, on a desert planet, forgotten by everyone, to discovering she had skills few knew and understood deeply, finding herself catapulted into a conflict foreign to her. Cardo had torn him from these reflections, announcing he would precede him to Finalizer. As soon as they were alone, Rey had turned to him, informing him she would never bend to his will. Kylo had sighed patiently when a disturbance in Force drew his attention. Moving fast, he had imprisoned Rey's wrists in anti-Force handcuffs again, obscuring her perceptions. She was already quite agitated, she didn't want it to explode completely. Pretending not to have noticed pursuers, Kylo had taken Rey in his arms to hurry section separated them from Finalizer. She fought like a fury, but he was determined to resist. Sooner or later she would calm down. Rey's bursting into tears, her despair, letting go against his chest, had disoriented him. First time he had carried her to his ship, he had put her to sleep using Force and then secured her to interrogation table. Apparently he had done well, looking problems she was giving him now. Kylo had thought about using Force to make her pass out again, but when he lowered his eyes on her, he realized Rey had gone from tears to sleep, her face streaked with tears. Kylo had sighed again and he had better placed her in his arms, following last stretch of road. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kylo had just finished shower, wearing black leather boots and pants and was about to call a medical robot when he heard a new disturbance in Force. He quickly put on a black shirt, thick ribbed, knee-length, with a zipper in middle. He fastened a high black leather belt to his waist and placed his lightsaber into a passerby, glanced at Rey still asleep and, with his black and wavy wet hair falling on his forehead, he left the room. Along corridor, Kylo heard General Hux's sour voice, threatening someone in an amused tone. He snapped his tongue, thinking how much mere hearing of man's voice irritated him. -What happens, General Hux? - He thundered, arriving decisively behind the man. The shadow of a smile passed lightly on Kylo's face, as he saw soldier jerked slightly, at his voice sound. Three stormtroopers with Hux snapped to attention. - So?- Kylo went on, noting four men were surrounding something or someone. Hux moved from his view. - Supreme Leader, we have captured these intruders ...- General indicated prisoners with one hand and Kylo narrowed his mouth, surprised to see who it was. Desperate beeps reached his ears. Kylo raised his eyes, frowning in anger, to see what was going away from the ship. He raised a hand to use Force to block and bring fugitive back, when a blue lightsaber appeared in front of his eyes. Supreme Leader changed goal, using Force to disarm attacker with ease. Lightsaber landed on the ground, extinguishing itself and rolling away a few steps. Without moving or even touching it, Kylo drew it to him, commandeering it. - Thank you, General. He can go back to his duties, here I think - Kylo ordered, dismissing Hux with a hand’s gesture. Man pounded his heels together. Bowing quickly, with his arms stiff at his sides, red hair moved away with a firm and fast pace. Kylo went back to staring at intruders. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Thanks ... nothing ... yes, I know. No ... don't bother me - followed by a medical robot, Kylo returned to room after fixing the intruders. At thought of fugitive he frowned. Kylo expected an attack at any moment, but he had already alerted Hux and practiced troops, giving precise instructions. He had thought of something about Rey as well, although he already anticipated her reaction. Kylo took off his shirt, placing it on a shelf. Shirtless, he sat at table, clenching his teeth and his fist, when robot cut the flesh of his forearm, working with his sharp tentacles to extract microchip he had placed under his skin. A feeling shook him, causing him to look up at Rey's slender lying figure. -Rey ... I know you're awake- Kylo announced, sighing patiently. - I would have a ... surprise for you if and when you deign to get up- he continued, raising his eyebrows with a grimace. Problem wasn’t surprise, but her reaction. Rey tensed, staying alert, then resigned herself to turn slowly, on her side, finding herself staring at Kylo Ren's brown and stormy eyes.

#adam driver #ben solo #daisy ridley #fanfiction #fanfictions #fanfic #kylo ren #my fanfiction #rey #reylo #reylo fanfic #star wars #star wars episode viii #Star Wars fanfic #star wars fanfiction #star wars the last jedi #star wars tlj #the last jedi #tlj

[inqorporeal]

That’s Not How Hyperspace Works

I’m gonna rant for a bit. Can I rant? Nevermind, gonna rant anyway.

I hate How current Star Wars creators have handled hyperspace.

Well, I hate how it’s handled in general, because in the years since the Prequel Trilogy (PT) came out, they’ve been breaking their own rules.

Let’s take a step back.

I’m not ranting about infeasibility and unrealistic science. Fictional worlds are 100% allowed to make up their own physics rules. The trick is that those rules need to remain consistent. If there is one thing George Lucas did right, it was expressing how hyperspace worked in the media he had a direct hand in creating: the Original Trilogy (OT) and the PT are absolutely consistent about it. All films and shows produced since the PT have repeatedly fucked things up. (Yes, Rogue One, I love you but you’re massively guilty of this.)

This is kinda long, so hit the cut for more.

Here are the established rules of hyperspace travel, as understood from the OT and PT material:

Standard Real World laws of physics apply -- light-speed travel is not possible by conventional means. E=mC² and you’re a pancake in space.

Hyperspace travel bypasses the limitations of conventional physics

Hyperspace is affected by gravitational fields

Hyperspace travel happens in Real Time (meaning the time a traveler perceives as passing whilst in Hyperspace is identical to the time someone in Realspace perceives the traveler spending in transit)

It still takes time to travel from Point A to Point B

Hyperspace travel rarely happens in a straight line from Point A to Point B due to the presence of subspace anomalies and gravity wells.

The presence of hyperspace obstructions is more concentrated the closer one gets to the Core, and less concentrated towards the Rim, meaning hyperspace travel between outlying systems can theoretically be somewhat faster due to more direct hyperspace routes

In the OT, there’s no indication of how much time is spent traveling in hyperspace. However, the time spent IN hyperspace is not crucial to the plot, and as such, there’s little point in actively showing life onboard the starships whilst in transit.

In A New Hope, we don’t know how much time passes between the Millennium Falcon departing Tatooine on the Outer Rim and reaching Alderaan in the Core, but it’s intimated that there’s at least a couple days of travel: long enough that Ben doesn’t have to talk Luke through the few simple training exercises and Han doesn’t express outright shock at walking into the lounge to see a lit lightsaber. In the system I use for gauging travel time in FtRP -- which I will happily acknowledge is not canon* -- the fastest they could get there is roughly two and a half days, making use of the known hyperlane routes and some fancy flying by Han and Chewbacca to evade Imperial patrols at the points where they would have to drop out and course-correct. We know that Alderaan is destroyed during the last few hours of their journey, because that’s when Ben feels it. Later, the Death Star arrives in the Yavin system a comparable time after the Millennium Falcon does, and a bit further toward the system’s outer reaches (for a number of reasons up to and including the mass of the Death Star making it more subject to stellar gravity wells and thus requiring greater caution). Again, there’s no indication of how long the trip takes (my calculations say a bit shy of two days, but again, it’s not important to the plot).

A notable point where distance between worlds is actually rather important is in Attack of the Clones where Obi-Wan tries to send a message back to the Temple from Geonosis -- but without access to a signal-booster, his message doesn’t get much further than Tatooine (this is discussed in greater detail in The Droids Have Ears). If you look up any Star Wars galaxy map, the two systems are practically on top of each other -- still light years apart, but space is 3-dimensional in a manner the 2-D maps can’t properly express. It still takes a rescue team almost three days to get to Geonosis from Coruscant, and that’s with Yoda already having a head start on his way to Kamino after Obi-Wan’s previous communication. It might seem a long time to wait to hold a public execution, but if one wants to make a political statement of it -- as the Separatists under Dooku intended to -- there are certain preparations to be made, and a three-day delay isn't unfeasible.

And then the Clone Wars series and later films just throw all concept of how hyperspace works out the window. The Clone Wars makes a big deal over the hyperlanes and access to them; the later films either ignore travel time (Rogue One, ignoring a full day of travel between Yavin and Scarif), express a complete ignorance of physics by the creators (The Force Awakens), or just make a complete hash out of everything (The Last Jedi). Additionally, I was playing through the Shadow of Revan story in SWTOR and nearly tore my mohawk out over the assertion that hyperlane routes were being “changed” by heavy amounts of starship traffic.

Let’s start with the hyperlanes. What is a hyperlane, exactly? If you look up the resources online, most of which come from the old tabletop RPG, hyperlanes snake across the galaxy map seemingly at random, like highways on a map. They look pretty immutable, right?

A hyperlane is not a highway.

A hyperlane is not a fixed tunnel in hyperspace.

It is not possible to blockade a hyperlane.

It is not possible to change the path of a hyperlane via artificially inflating the traffic concentration

What a hyperlane is, is a well-mapped, established route that takes the shortest path between one point and another while avoiding obstructions.

A hyperlane is space!parkour. And just like regular parkour, a skilled navigator can plan their own routes, which might actually be faster, if a bit more risky. See, things in space aren't static: every object in space is continuously in motion, and thanks to gravity and inertia, everything is largely moving at the same rate in the same direction. But there are shifts, and by necessity there would be survey teams constantly updating the safest paths around objects in space, uploading the data to the HoloNet so that ships don't accidentally hit something unpleasant. If you're making up entirely new routes, you're playing with chance, but a good navigator takes those survey teams’ results into account.

When a ship enters hyperspace, it slides from the realspace dimension into a coterminate alternate dimension where matter reacts differently, enabling transit at speeds far outstripping that of light. Anything that falls off or is ejected from a ship in hyperspace falls back into realspace immediately. A ship may leave hyperspace at any time, although to do so without having reached a pre-set coordinate is risky. A ship my enter hyperspace from any point which is not being affected by a localised gravity well. A surprise localised gravity well such as that produced by an interdiction field or unanticipated stellar event will interrupt a ship’s transit in hyperspace, and prevent the ship from re-entering hyperspace until the ship has moved beyond the gravity well’s affect zone.

Communication is slightly different: the hyperspace beacons that enable HoloNet and other communications are set in a hyper-spatial state but in a fixed location. As has been established, ships in hyperspace cannot send or receive communications, but the beacons function by opening a tunnel -- effectively a tiny wormhole -- between two beacons and sending the information as a string of pulses between the fixed points. Because this method of transfer differs from physical hyperspace transit, it is possible to experience only the shortest of delays in communication with even the furthest-flung locations, while one still requires several days to cross the same distance physically.

Now that that’s established, let’s discuss the feasibility of a blockade.

Space

Is

Vast

You have no idea how vast it is.

To get a sense of perspective, let’s look at a smaller blockade first: the invasion of Naboo. Naboo’s diameter is 12,120 km. For reference, Earth’s diameter is 12,756km. So it’s about Earth-sized, a bit smaller. If you want to prevent a ship from getting onto a planet and you don’t have the benefit of a planetary defense shield, you need ships. Lots of ships. More than that. A bit more.

See, Star Wars weapons have a range limit. In theory, a weapon's discharge in null-gravity vacuum will continue off into nothingness at exactly the same power as it had when it left the weapon, but sci-fi!physics doesn’t address this because then you’d have to take into account what the advanced effects of where, like, several zillion free-flying blaster bolts fired over the course of millennia eventually hit, and that just gets a bit silly. So we fudge it and assume things are designed to dissipate. So you want to position your largest ships in such a way that their firing range overlaps. Then you fill the space between with smaller ships to intercept anyone trying to get through. You want to do this within range of the planet’s gravity well, so that anyone trying to get through the net can’t simply jump to hyperspace and escape. The whole point is to prevent people from getting in or out, so you want more ships -- faster ships -- on patrol beyond the gravity well’s influence to shoot down anyone who gets out past the blockade net.

Now, Naboo’s surface area is 461,482,000km². Turbolasers are often used in planetary bombardment, so we’ll estimate that their outside range before they start losing energy is 300km. Maybe 500km at most. You want these ships to have a good overlap, so say you park them 500km apart from each other, evenly spaced. In order to park enough Lucrehulk-class battleships over Naboo to make an effective blockade, you need 922,964 ships. That’s just the battleships, not including the smaller ships needed to complete the net.

That’s ludicrous.

In the film, they only show a few ships in one location, as if all incoming vessels will only approach from one place. This is also ludicrous, for the reasons stated earlier. Space is a 3-D environment and you have to account for this.

That being established, let’s talk about hyperlane access.

Hyperlanes are subject to gravity wells, and using gravity wells to slingshot past or around a star or anomaly will reduce some of the fuel demand. It is often completely unnecessary to drop out of hyperspace at every system a route passes. The only times it would truly matter are if the route changes direction from one established hyperlane to another or if the system one needs to reach is nowhere near an established route. Again, space is three-dimensional, and such a shift might require some travel via subspace to another point in the system before the ship can enter hyperspace in the new direction.

For safety’s sake, most systems would have predesignated coordinates for ships dropping out of hyperspace on approach; these coordinates will be rather far from the populated planets, likely above or below the orbital plane so as to avoid the orbital paths of other planets, and in such places where space debris and asteroid belts do not pose a hazard. The further out from the high-traffic areas you enter, the less chance there is of accidentally colliding with another inbound ship. Again: Space is Vast. These are merely advised coordinates, of course: a ship can drop out of hyperspace anywhere. Ships departing a planet will often enter hyperspace shortly after escaping the planet’s gravity well, and this is actually a good thing: it clears the local subspace area quickly. Systems with exceptionally high traffic will have a traffic-control system to prevent collisions.

Without the aid of an interdiction device -- creating an artificial gravity well at the place where ships are most likely to pass through on their approach or journey past -- there is no way to actually stop ships entering a system or traveling past in hyperspace. A blockade might lurk in the predesignated entry coordinates and hope they can tractor a ship in, or they might lie in wait along the subspace approach route to the inner system, but their efficacy fails if the target ships’ pilots know what they’re doing and use custom coordinates.

During the Clone Wars, nobody is using interdiction devices. They did exist, but the energy demands were prohibitive. The Republic started funding research into making them more feasible, but only the Empire benefited, and they still couldn’t devise them such that an entire system might become impassible.

The stress during the Clone Wars about not being able to move ships and supplies along the trade lanes/hyperlanes is genuinely pointless, because there is literally nothing that can stop them from using the established routes or calculating new ones.

What they should have been concerned about regarding the trade lanes, were planets that had provided staple goods to much of the galaxy either seceding or being invaded, thus harming more vulnerable worlds which relied on those goods and cutting off the entire army off from essentials needed to extend the war.

But nobody likes discussing politics in Star Wars, right?

And then the new films have come out and just… made an absolute shitfest of the established world physics. Throwing the old EU/Legends/canon out seems to also extend to how the hyperphysics function.

The explanation given by Pablo Hidalgo for the way Starkiller Base’s weapons discharge is shown -- “What they're seeing is some weird hand-wavy hyperspace rip. Side-effect of the Starkiller." -- is utter bullshit. Light still travels the same way in Star Wars as it does in the Real World; given the locations of Takodana (J-16), the SKB (G-7), and the Hosnian system (M-12), nobody on Takodana would see anything for thousands of years. A “hyperspace rip” cannot account for realspace physics. Never mind that the SKB superlaser would have to contend with the massive cluster of black holes in the galactic center on its way to Hosnian, which would play merry hell with their targeting.

Also, you cannot convince me that Starkiller Base is not actually Ilum. (Edit: It’s since been confirmed in Jedi: Fallen Order that the SKB is Ilum. I feel vindicated.)

Crait and Cantonica are on opposite ends of the galaxy from each other. Even supposing Finn and Rose found a straight-shot route between them, it would take days to travel one-way. The least the creators could have done is hand-wavied some highly experimental ship for it, but all they proved is that they have no fucking idea how Star Wars’ physics work. There's a massive difference between fictional science technobabble and effectively saying, “we just didn't want to admit that the established setup was inconvenient, so just assume it works.”

Hand-waves only work if you have actual intent behind them.

Han and Chewbacca couldn't have simply shown up as soon as the Falcon left Jakku; not unless they were already in that part of space (I dunno, could have been the Force, because that really is how it works). But that, coupled with the pirate gangs also appearing right then, is completely improbable. If a ship can be tracked and jumped to as easily as Han’s ship was tracked by some asshole pirates, then the entire pursuit plot of The Last Jedi is completely pointless. Regardless of how Kylo feels about Han, he wouldn’t have given the First Order’s secret weapon away.

Likewise, there's no way reinforcements from Yavin could have reached Scarif in time. The main story of R1 should have taken at least a month, considering Jedha is way the fuck out in the middle of nowhere without a mapped hyperlane at all.

It's exciting science fiction, but the way the recent media have depicted hyperspace is just bad writing, which is shocking and disappointing coming from creators who have an established background in sci-fi.

The only reason hyperspace travel in the games is instantaneous is because players would get bored waiting.

*When I gauge hyperspace travel in FtRP, I make heavy use of the SWCombine nav map (which is intended for use with the SW tabletop RPG) in conjunction with the Star Wars Galaxy Map. It’s not perfect by any means, but it keeps things consistent.

Star Wars images courtesy of https://starwars.fandom.com/ Andromeda image courtesy of https://www.sciencenews.org/

#star wars #star wars meta #sci-fi!physics

[khtrinityftw]

Part 7: Blank Check

But despite all that I've said, Birth by Sleep didn't truly ruin the Kingdom Hearts series until the very end, with the secret ending video "Blank Points".

Unlike previous secret ending videos which were FMV concept trailers for Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep respectively, "Blank Points" was a few consecutive cutscenes that presented a clear path forward for the series. And it was a path that I was utterly horrified to see it go down.

There is a talk between Terra and Master Xehanort within their conjoined heart that indicates that Eraqus didn't really die and is somehow inside of Terra, and then Master Xehanort makes it clear that he intends to stick around and has some master plan at work. Then we cut to Braig being further positioned as some important, manipulative figure. None of this set me at ease when first watching it, and then it only got worse.

We cut to Aqua in the Realm of Darkness, where she meets Ansem the Wise, who has been retconned into having been transported there after his heart encoder exploded in KH2. Ansem the Wise already had a completed character arc and a perfect, definite ending, but it's being tossed aside for what exactly? To use him as an exposition machine here?

Ansem the Wise tells Aqua about Sora and how he can save everyone who is suffering, and then we get to see Namine, Roxas, Axel, Xion, Terra, Ventus, and finally a tearful Aqua herself look up at the sky and say "Sora", with the music and on-screen text narration pushing this blatant religious, messianic vibe. Sora, whose appeal was largely in his ordinary background, is now being pushed as some kinda Jesus figure who will be the savior of everyone's personal problems and even bring the dead back to life so that they can have a perfect happy ending.

Finally, we cut to Sora on Destiny Islands, who tells Kairi that he has to go because "he is who he is because of them", and he needs to save them. Kairi, in stark contrast to what KH2 showed of her, just smiles and takes this, giving Sora her lucky charm again and making him promise to come back soon. And that's when those accursed words flash onto the screen for the first time ever: "Reconnect. Kingdom Hearts."

"Reconnect. Kingdom Hearts." is basically the tagline for the Dark Seeker Saga, and this video that it debuted in encapsulates that saga's goal: to twist the series inside out in order to make it some kind of vast, inter-connected story that the KH Trinity, which was already a complete story in of itself, is merely a part of. The real story, "Blank Points" claims, is Sora saving everyone with even the vaguest of connections to him from their 'hurt', and thwarting the master plan of Master Xehanort. And this is a major trade down.

The story of the KH Trinity worked so beautifully because it was a personal story: we wanted Sora, Donald and Goofy to reunite with Riku, Kairi and King Mickey because we came to care about all of those characters and their direct relationships to one another; we enjoyed Sora, Donald and Goofy as a heroic party because we believed in the friendship they developed over the course of their journey. And even the villain's motivations were rooted in the realm of the personal: he was a nihilistic scientist who felt insufficient as he was and desperately wanted to be something more.  

There is nothing personal about this new set-up: Sora either doesn't know or remember any of the people he's been charged with saving due to some bullshit about owing who he is to them, a notion that also goes against what made the KH Trinity so great since it was a coming-of-age story where Sora made himself a hero through connecting his heart to others; he put in the work to do that, it wasn't just handed to him. And Master Xehanort's plan has nothing to do with anything personal or relatable: no matter what justification he attempts to make or what retcon is applied to his backstory, there's no solid reason for him to do what he's doing other than because he's evil and the plot requires it from him.

The series was no longer telling the story everyone fell in love with, and that would have been fine if it wasn't now trying to rewrite that story in order to accommodate its new meta-narrative. It's fitting that it happened in a game that rips of a Star Wars prequel, because this is the exact same bullshit George Lucas pulled when tried to use the Prequel Trilogy to recontexualize the Original Trilogy as just the 4th, 5th and 6th acts of "The Tragedy of Darth Vader". 

I guess Xehanort would be the Darth Vader equivalent here, and honestly given that this saga bears his either name or title, he deserves a deeper look.

#Plinkett-Style #Anti-Series Beyond #Anti-Nomura

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

What if Star Wars had tanked?

May 1977, 20th Century Fox distributes a really WEIRD movie.  It’s a science fiction fantasy story about medieval knight samurais in space with laser swords and fighter pilots.  Nobody expected it to be a hit, it seemed to be such a niche movie, one that would garner a small cult following then be swept under the rug by the other summer tent poles like “Smokey and the Bandit” or “The Spy Who Loved Me.”  To everyone’s surprise, it became an instant success, rocketing no name George Lucas from a no-name bush-league indie director into the echelon of A-list Blockbusters.  His idea for a decade spanning six part saga (two sequels, three prequels) was greenlit then and there, and the budget for Star Wars 2, now called Star Wars 5, was double what he was given for the original.  Star Wars 1, nor 4, was given the subtitle “A New Hope” to let audiences know it was just the beginning of a series, and the rest is history.

But in 1977, George Lucas was not as confident in his vision as he would soon become.  He figured, as every producer did, that his film would be a flash in the pan genre piece, something that would play in theaters just long enough to make it’s budget back, then disappear into obscurity.  In 1976, he planned for the worst.

Star Wars, like many other films of the day, was being given a novelization.  Before home media became ubiquitous, the only way people could experience the film was to see it in theaters or buy the book version.  Lucas hired a ghostwriter, Alan Dean Foster, to write the novelization of Star Wars 1, AND to create a tentative Star Wars 2 that could be adapted to the screen if the original film failed to meet his high expectations.  Star Wars 2, titled “Splinter of the Minds Eye,” was written to be as low budget as possible; no big set pieces, and for that matter no big sets.  Every scene had to take place in a set that the studio already owned, and couldn’t include any major space battles because there was no guarantee that the special effects would fit into the budget.  On top of that, it meant that none of the characters played by big name actors would be included; no Harrison Ford, no Alec Guinness.  Splinter was a bare bones story set entirely on what would essentially become Dagobah, and would have taken the franchise in an entirely different direction.  None of the story elements from Lucas’ dream sequel were included, and none of the plot twists either; there is no connection between “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” and “Empire Strikes Back,” and in fact, once Empire was released, Splinter was relegated to secondary canon because the official sequel had overidden it so the story no longer made sense.

But if Star Wars 1 had flopped, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye would have been made into the official sequel, and the story would have had to pick up where it left off; Lucas didn’t plot out a low budget version of Star Wars 3, so we can only speculate as to what may have happened.

In Splinter, Luke and Leia are going on a diplomatic mission to convince some neutral star systems to join the rebellion.  Their ship crash lands on a backwater swamp planet (called Mimban, a name eventually used for the World War I trench planet in the Disney movie Solo), which is roughly analogous to the Dagobah we saw in Empire.  Stranded on the swamp planet, Luke and Leia find their way to an imperial mining colony, get into a scuffle, and escape with the help of a Jedi witch named Halla.  The titular “splinter of the mind’s eye” is a broken fragment of a magical crystal, because this was the 1970s and crystals were a big thing in fantasy (the splinter was called the kaiburr crystal; this name would later be re-purposed in canon as the crystals used for lightsaber and Death Star laser construction).  The splinter is said to focus the force, allowing the wielder to become more powerful or something; it’s a MacGuffin, the book is vague as to what it actually physically does.  After a confrontation with locals, and a duel with none other than Darth Vader (in which Leia wields a lightsaber and Luke cuts off Vader’s whole arm), Halla takes over the role of Luke’s mentor to train him in the ways of the Force.

At this point in the series, Luke and Leia were never intended to be brother and sister.  It was clearly supposed to be a chivalric romance between a knight errant and his courtly love.  He is the royal bodyguard to the Queen of Alderaan (the entire Royal Family was destroyed in Star Wars 1, so Princess Leia should by all rights have been coronated as Queen Leia).  George Lucas added the twist that they were brother and sister well into production of Empire; in fact, in Empire he shot two scenes of Leia kissing Luke (one was to make Han jealous, the other was near the end, right after she rescued Luke from cloud city; I’m glad they cut the second one, because it undermines the fact that she literally just told Han that she loves him).  Han Solo himself is mentioned in passing, not even by name, just as some pirate Luke used to know who took his reward money from the first movie and went to pay off some debts.  If this movie had been made instead of Empire, there’s no guarantee that a Star Wars 3 would even be greenlit.

But if it had been, here’s what would have happened.

Darth Vader is not Luke’s father in this version; that too was a twist Lucas invented after the series took off.  So, in this version of Star wars 3, which I will call “Revenge of the Jedi,” Luke goes on a quest to slay the evil Emperor.  It’s a fantasy movie, in any other setting the point of the franchise would be to kill the main bad guy; imagine if Lord of the Rings had ended without the heroes destroying the ring and defeating Sauron, that would have made no sense.  In this version of the story, Darth Vader is just the archetypal Black Knight; tying back into the Japanese influence on the series, he is an evil Shogun, appointed by the Emperor to be the military dictator.  There would be more emphasis on fight choreography in this version, drawing influence from the works of Akira Kurosawa.  The word Jedi comes from the word for the Japanese film genre Jidaigeki, meaning ‘period piece,’ featuring samuri and ronin (for western audiences, “Ronin” are nomadic heroes, like Clint Eastwood’s man with no name, or the Road Warrior).

Revenge of the Jedi would end with a climactic fight scene in the Emperor’s palace, with Luke battling his way through the many levels, defeating wave after wave of imperial soldiers and those red guards fans love to care about even though they do literally nothing on screen.  The prequels we got in canon were bogged down with boring politics about trade federations and unions and guilds and alliances, but politics can be interesting if done well (and written by someone who isn’t George Lucas; the original trilogy we got was good DESPITE him, not BECAUSE of him).  Revenge of the Jedi would see Leia building an army, the rebellion becoming an actual superpower in the galaxy; the New Republic wouldn’t just be restored after the Empire was defeated, it would be restored during the war with the express intent of rallying neutral systems behind an actual government body against the Emperor.

Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Luke’s father, but more importantly he committed genocide against Leia’s people, the survivors of which now live in diaspora.  Sound familiar?  “The Rebellion” isn’t a great name, but “the Alliance” is perfect because it evokes the Allies of World War II and shows that it is a galaxy-wide phenomena, not just a single splinter cell as depicted in the films in our timeline.  Luke wants to avenge his father, but if you’re insistent that the good guy isn’t allowed to kill the bad guy, you could have Vader go out the way he did in “Return of the Jedi,” turning back to the light side and sacrificing his life to kill the Emperor.  Everyone loves a redemption story, but Darth Vader really was a piece of shit and didn’t deserve to just get a free pass into Jedi Ghost Heaven because he decided to stop being evil five minutes before he died.

Maybe in this version of Star Wars 3, Harrison Ford returns for a cameo as a favor to George Lucas.  If so, he dies; Ford wanted Han to die in “Return of the Jedi,” and only agreed to do “The Force Awakens” if they finally killed him off then.  If he returns for “Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Jedi,” he will sacrifice himself for the Alliance, going out as a hero.  After the Emperor is defeated, the threat doesn’t just go away; suddenly there’s a power vacuum, with all the admirals and regional governor’s vying to replace him.  In both pre- and post-Disney Star Wars, the Emperor had a son (Triclops in Legends continuity, and Rey’s dad in Canon), so he would be heir to his father’s throne; perhaps he is propped up as a puppet for the military leaders, or maybe he surrenders to the Alliance and allows his Empire to be balkanized into dozens of independent powers, as with the fall of every great Empire; Rome (East and West), Mongolia, China, Austria-Hungary, Britain, the USSR, the list goes on.

This Star Wars trilogy would not be the enormous franchise we know today, it would still be a very niche series with a cult following.  It would be a step up from the Planet of the Apes series; sure, people have heard of it, and there have been attempts to revive it in the modern day, but it’s not even close to being a tent pole of the modern cultural zeitgeist.  Nobody looks forward to the new Planet of the Apes movie every year, it’s not a multi-billion dollar multi-media enterprise, there’s no dedicated “Planet of the Apes Celebration,” no cartoons, no streaming service shows that everyone geeks out about online, no triple-a video games, nothing.  This version of Star Wars would be just another weird artifact of the 1970s.  Maybe there would be a push to release a sequel, Star Wars 4, in like 2007, but that would be closer to Rambo IV or Superman Returns or Tron Legacy.

There are dedicated fans, but it’s not the biggest movie of the year.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars 2: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1979)

Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Jedi (1982)

Star Wars: Journal of the Whills (2011, a prequel set during the Clone Wars mentioned in the first movie)

#star wars #star wars 1 #star wars 2 #star wars 3 #a new hope #the empire strikes back #return of the jedi #splinter of the mind's eye #revenge of the jedi #star wars series #star wars franchise #star wars expanded universe #expanded universe #canon #legends #star wars legends #disney #lucasfilm #original trilogy #fanon #fan fiction

[delayedcritique]

TOLKIEN REVIEW

“A dry, irrelevant story of the legendary J.R.R. Tolkien.”

BY COLLIN DELADE

Making a biopic off a famous artist is a tricky task to pull off successfully. As enjoyable as the work the artist creates can be, the person, in general, might not be that interesting. The HARRY POTTER novels are full of excitement and wonder, but J.K. Rowling is nowhere near as fascinating as her characters. This idea is just as important when talking about the latest biopic, TOLKIEN.

TOLKIEN is the latest drama based on the real-life story of legendary author, J.R.R. Tolkien. Grown up as an orphan without a loving family, Tolkien (Nicholas Hoult) finds new love with the friends he makes in boarding school. As they mature into young university students, they make a promise with each other to change the world with the power of art. As Tolkien grows up with his fellowship of friends, he also finds love with a nearby girl named Edith Bratt (Lily Collins). Through the hardships of life and war, Tolkien gets inspiration to build a fantasy world full of elves, hobbits, and other magical creatures.

TOLKIEN caters to a very niche demographic that not only appreciates THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT but mainly in the literature and early history of J.R.R.Tolkien. This biopic is not for the cinematic fans of the legendary series brought to life by Peter Jackson. Instead, this is for the die-hard fans of the novels and want to know what inspiration Tolkien got from his life. In this hour and fifty-minute biopic, minimal direct reference is made to the property.

Aside from a couple of background lines and an ending monologue, TOLKIEN exclusively tells the story of the man’s struggles through university and how his friends and lover affect his path. This biopic is for the intellectuals who would enjoy a quiet British drama about scholarly literature. The majority of the story surrounds Tolkien trying to get by and keep his scholarship to make it through university.

Do not expect much action or excitement out of this film. The legendary shot of Tolkien in the middle of a battlefield going up against a smoke monster is the closest to any enthusiasm in the entire movie. While this is a drama based on a classic literary author, there needs to be some excitement to warrant a cinematic retelling of his life. I am not looking for sword battles and explosions in this period piece. I was expecting to understand the cultural impact that Tolkien achieved with his writing.

The early screening I attended had a post Q&A hosted by Stephen Colbert interviewing the film’s director and stars. Watching this Q&A completely opened my eyes to the biggest problem with TOLKIEN; the lack of showing the audience why millions of fans have been inspired by Tolkien’s work. Colbert and the film’s creator and stars completely unleash how they grew up with THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT. While this was a one-night event that will not be included in the theatrical release, it completely brought in a crucial, emotional element that the actual film completely failed to cover.

The film covers all the minimum inspiration Tolkien received from his life. What this film fails to show is how Tolkien brought all his inspiration together and sold this fantasy series to lead to its mass popularity. There is not a single new piece of knowledge to learn on how and why THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT became such a classic piece of literature. Understandable, this is the story of the man behind the stories rather than the origins of the stories themselves. However, watching Tolkien’s struggles through university and bond with three interchangeable friends does not make for a good movie.

Imagine making a biopic on George Lucas and his inspiration to make STAR WARS. Now write the script exclusively about his years at the University of South California. Lucas’ story is nearly identical to Tolkien’s early life. He shared a dorm room with four of his classmates; Randal Kleiser, Walter Murch, Hal Barwood, and John Milius. They all became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. With this quick scroll through his Wikipedia, which part of Lucas’ life would you rather hear about; the origins and history of The Dirty Dozen or the struggles and impact of making STAR WARS? One would make for a decent novel while the other is perfect for a cinematic retelling.

Everything about TOLKIEN screams to be appropriate for a novelization; not for a cinematic or visual medium. The initial inspiration segment that would take up a fourth of any other biopic is stretch out into a nearly two-hour drama where the exciting part of the story is cut off. The actual filmmaking and performances are passable, which help guide you along through this uninteresting snore.  

I did not hate TOLKIEN, as I understand how a literary, scholarly type would get a lot out of it. However, this biopic is meant for a very little market that honestly would not be interesting in going out and seeing this in a theater. At best, this is a high-quality Netflix or Hulu movie which can reach it's intended demographic with ease. For everyone else simply looking to learn more about how Tolkien’s work was created, this movie is a hard pass.

#tolkien #jrr tolkien #drama #lord of the rings #movie #review

[postedbygaslight]

No One’s Ever Really Gone: The Synergy of Narrative and Poetic Structures in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

IMPORTANT: The following essay will draw upon existing work for a lot of its content and conclusions. I do not claim credit for the work cited to others below, though my interpretations and commentary are included throughout. Most of the content I’m referring to can be found in links included below, and the primary sources are @ohtze‘s “Kill the King and Take His Crown,” and @ashesforfoxes‘ “The Descent.”

You can also find a lot of really insightful work on this stuff by listening to related podcasts, like recent episodes of SW Connection, Metamashina and Scavenger’s Hoard. Literary theory isn’t new stuff, and any analysis will necessarily stand on the shoulders of giants. However, I hadn’t seen any analysis on the synergy and interplay of the various tropes and archetypes discussed.

TO BE PERFECTLY CLEAR: The summary of the constituent parts of these tropes and archetypes is based on the work of others, in both written and commentary form. My contribution is the assignment of the various elements to the heroic, character, and narrative structures, and a guess as to how those elements will play out on screen. Some of the guesses are close to or identical to those suggested by Ohtze, because I think she’s right, but I’ve added editorial commentary and my own spin on it. The summary of the literary structures is intended as crib notes for anyone unfamiliar with these terms or other works.

So, if you’re ready, join me below the cut. [I’ve tried about seven times to add the cut so it’ll show on mobile, and it won’t for me, so idk]

I wrote this meta about six weeks ago, and have put off posting it here for a number of reasons. But, having looked it over, I feel fairly sanguine about it. I’ll probably add pictures/gifs later, but for now, I’m not going to bother. Strap in, though. This is a hell of a ride.

My lit theory engines have been running non-stop since The Last Jedi was released, because I could see there was a highly developed structure underpinning everything. I just couldn’t put my finger on it, and, while some tropes and archetypes I’ve encountered as applied by analyses in the fandom fit in certain areas, others didn’t match up. But now I think I see what’s being done, and, well, goddamn.

What we’re seeing here is the synergy of the entire saga being brought together. J.J. Abrams himself said Episode IX is intended to do just that. The question is: how do you accomplish that? Through the evolution of the saga, different through lines have been adopted and integrated. First, there was the mythic, then, the tragic, followed by the poetic, and, finally, the gothic. Now that there are four distinct and synergized elements guiding four distinct elements of the saga’s conclusion, finding one pure parallel is nigh impossible, and for good reason: this is more ambitious than anything a major production has really tried.

As my professional training is in the law, it wouldn’t do to structure this as I would a creative work of fiction. So, in deference to the legal tradition, here’s a summary of conclusions:

Star Wars operates first and foremost as a Hero’s Journey, or, more specifically, three separate journeys: The Hero’s Journey of Luke Skywalker, the Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker, and the Heroine’s Journey of Rey of Jakku. These three journeys are distinct and operate within an overall poetic structure that binds the saga together. Each trilogy represents a poetic stanza, and the three trilogies are arranged overall as a palistrophe (wherein the tragedy of the first stanza is unwound and reversed by the third).

[In earlier versions of this essay, I incorrectly identified the poetic device being used here as palindrome. Credit to a Facebook user to calling me on my bullshit and not letting me talk my way around it. The device I intended to identify is a chiasmus, and more specifically, a palistrophe, in which chiastic structure is used to address broad elements, rather than exact mirrors. A palindrome is far too constrained a device for it to be the appropriate device, and I ought to have known it. A good example of a palistrophe is the Biblical story of the Flood, in which the first act details the coming of the Flood, the middle act deals with the consequences of the Flood, and the third act unwinds and reverses the first and presents the elements as mirrors, thus arriving at different thematic conclusions.]

The Original Trilogy features monomythic character archetypes and narrative, needing nothing else. The Prequel Trilogy features tragic character archetypes and narrative, utilizing a failed Hero’s Journey as its mythic foundation. The Sequel Trilogy features the same tragic character archetypes as the Prequel Trilogy, but inverts the roles and elements as befitting the palistrophic poetic arc, and, as the gender roles are reversed, employs a Heroine’s Journey to counteract the tragic conclusions of the Prequel Trilogy. Because neither the monomythic nor the tragic narratives are applicable to a non-tragic Heroine’s Journey, the Sequel Trilogy adopts a gothic romantic narrative to carry the poetic and heroic arcs to the Heroine’s Journey’s conclusion.

In the applications of these various tropes, the Sequel Trilogy uses the base narrative of the gothic romance, but those elements that do not comport with the tragic character archetypes are overridden by the archetypal dicta. Similarly, because the Heroine of the Sequel Trilogy does not have a tragic flaw, when the conclusions reached by the tragic archetypes or the gothic narrative would conflict with the requirements of the Heroine’s Journey, those conclusions must be controlled by the Heroine’s Journey.

Here follows the more specific discussion. Let’s follow the bouncing ball:

The Original Trilogy was powered by a simple Hero’s Journey: Luke Skywalker’s. The classic Campbellian monomyth is applied in almost perfect step-by-step progression. Taken on its own, this is all that’s needed. George Lucas took the pulp elements of space opera and placed his Hero on his journey through it.

But then Lucas decided to make the prequels, and he wanted to use the same mythical structure, but the archetypes of the monomyth didn’t work. Why? Because Anakin Skywalker is not a classic heroic figure. He is a tragic hero; that is, the Hero of the monomyth, but with a fatal flaw that prevents him from completing his journey. To do this kind of story, Lucas elected to draw from Sophocles himself and took the base archetypes from Oedipus Rex (the greatest of all Greek tragedies), applied them to the Star Wars universe through the Hero’s Journey, and we saw that play out exactly as one would expect it.

In Ohtze’s excellent meta, “Kill the King, and Take His Crown,” she details the application of the Usurper/Holy Mother trope as established by Greek tragic tradition (and supplemented by Freudian analysis), and I’ll be discussing that here. The trope, by my reckoning, applies mostly to the characters moving within other structures, but applies very broadly to the Prequel Trilogy by dint of being a straight transfer of both tragic character archetype and narrative.

By using the Usurper as the male archetype, Lucas fundamentally changed the way Darth Vader’s entire arc is to be interpreted. Instead of a messianic crusader, Vader is redrawn as a Dog of War, corrupted in the absence of his female counterpart, taken from him as a result of his own tragic fall. This also reframes Luke’s own Hero’s Journey, as his arc takes shape through the Oedipus archetypal structure, and transforms him into an avatar of his dead mother; i.e., the only figure through whom the Usurper can be redeemed. However, Vader’s crimes were too great, and his Queen (Holy Mother) was dead. Redemption had to be followed by death, and Luke’s Hero’s Journey ends, as all must, with the Hero assuming the legacy left by his father, gaining mastery over two worlds (here the Light and Dark Sides of the Force).

When confronting how to approach the Sequel Trilogy, the first thing I assume they established was using the three films to reverse the tragedy of Anakin’s fall. So, in some ways, they found themselves hemmed in by what had come before, but also had some serious decisions to make concerning a final element: by subverting the tragic trope, it makes the narrative of the tragedy inapplicable, and it must be supplanted by something else. Also, because the poetic device used to reverse prior stanzas is palistrophe, all major elements and roles needed to be reversed. That leads to a few conclusions that explain a LOT.

In reversing Anakin’s fall, the same tragic archetypes must be used for the new characters. However, because of the palistrophe, the production’s hand was forced in a few areas.

First, the heroic role had to be the female counterpart to the Usurper, taking the tragic figure out of the Hero’s role. This is key. If the tragic figure is not the capital-h Hero, the tragedy can be avoided if the Hero/Heroine’s Journey overrides the tragic conclusions. Second, by reversing the roles, that put the Sequel Trilogy into a Heroine’s Journey, with the Holy Mother archetype as the Heroine.

Ashes+For+Foxes’ excellent analysis of Valerie Frankel’s work on the Heroine’s Journey, and its application to The Force Awakens informs this next section a great deal. The most pertinent meta is “The Descent,” linked above.

The Heroine’s Journey differs fundamentally from the Hero’s Journey in that the Heroine is much more attuned to the Shadow than a Hero, gaining mastery over the darkness through understanding instead of conflict. Another important distinction is the Heroine’s Journey’s interest in family, and the transition from childhood to womanhood to motherhood. Where the Hero’s Journey is more anodyne and chaste, the Heroine’s Journey is explicitly a journey of sexual awakening, with one of the elements including marriage to the Animus (often portrayed as Prince Charming, et al), and eventual consummation and sexual union with him. The Animus is a true counterpart, representing the yin to her yang, completing the whole, and this relationship is essential in the Heroine’s Journey.

There are many examples of conflation of elements in the Heroine’s Journey, and here, as in Beauty and the Beast, Kylo Ren is both an agent of the Shadow, and the Heroine’s Animus. Because the Heroine must confront and overcome the Shadow, and also wed the Animus, the major conflict of her Journey becomes freeing her lover from the Shadow’s influence.

Fairy tale offers a lot of rich territory to mine, but it’s short on substance. This is where narrative structure comes into play. You have the poetic goal, the tragic character archetypes, and the Heroine’s Journey running through it. But what structure will the story adopt?

This is the point where my analysis of the synergies of these elements hit a snag, even though it was staring me right in the damn face: the story is being told as a Byronic gothic romance. The first response to this might be: why? Because Star Wars uses what works. And the Byronic tradition is perhaps the most effective and emotionally resonant model that employs a capital-h Heroine with a tragic lover who must be freed from the darkness.

[The ladies at SW Connection did a great video on comparisons between the Reylo arc and Jane Eyre that is very well done. I’m quite familiar with Jane Eyre and its other gothic kin, but somehow missed the parallel for all the talk of Pride and Prejudice.]

I’m far from the first person to notice the parallels between the Sequel Trilogy and the female driven stories of the gothic era. The most often cited has been Pride and Prejudice, and some story elements do indeed fit, but the fit is awkward. Rey and Kylo’s relationship mirrors the intensity and tension of Darcy and Elizabeth, but one must remember that P&P is satirical, not strictly romance. Instead, one must look to actual gothic romance, and the most prominent and applicable is Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre’s story is eerily similar to the Reylo arc. The only things that truly don’t fit are those things filled in by the use of the tragic archetypes (the Usurper and Holy Mother archetypes override gothic character motivations), and the Heroine’s Journey (which is and will always be supreme in this kind of story). Jane and Rochester fit the class and gender roles of Reylo; their attraction is similar, and they also share an unexplained and occasionally supernatural connection (the Force Bond scenes seem to draw a lot from the implications of a supernatural gothic romance). The Byronic tradition also typically includes a bungled proposal that is always refused by the heroine, and the eventual reunification of the lovers after time spent apart takes its toll on them both. The Byronic heroine loves her counterpart, and does so even though everyone else thinks he isn’t worth it, and he, for his part, is irascible and cruel to everyone but the heroine. The Byronic male character suffers for his moral failings, and is brought low, makes a life change and corrects his awful behavior, and is redeemed through the love of the heroine (again, through implied supernatural means, though the nature of that intervention varies dramatically from story to story). The lovers then get their happily ever after.

Gothic romances very often end in tragedy (see Wuthering Heights), but only when there is no true capital-h Heroine to drive the narrative. When there is no true heroic figure, tragic flaws will rule the day in stories heavily tilted toward tragic ends. But in this iteration of Star Wars, we have a Heroine, whose mythic archetype and narrative role are tied up in the redemption of her lover, and since she’s on a Heroine’s Journey, and doesn’t have a tragic flaw herself, the rules of the game dictate she has to triumph.

Perhaps, at this point, a demonstration is appropriate:

In The Force Awakens, Rey and Kylo’s first encounter is, to say the least, confrontational and unfriendly. This dynamic does not improve throughout the film, though he does soften toward her to some measurable degree. In The Last Jedi, as the elements of their supernatural connection become apparent, their dialogue becomes more comfortable, less acrimonious; they connect on a spiritual level, and achieve a unique understanding of each other. But Kylo is an absolute shit to everyone other than Rey, sometimes violently so. He, however, is also devoted to her in a very obvious way by the climactic moments of The Last Jedi, and proposes his version of marriage to Rey, but the terms of this union are unacceptable to her, and she has to leave him.

This sounds a lot like Jane Eyre. But the parallels don’t line up like they should. The reason they don’t is we’re not in 1830s England, and the supernatural elements aren’t abstractions or allegory. Rey and Kylo are, like their tragic archetypes, playing in the realm of the Gods, replete with actual magic and cryptic prophecy. Rochester isn’t a murderer and war criminal like Kylo is. But the Usurper archetype is, and the mythic setting dictates a more visceral level of antagonism than verbally abusing servants and violating the norms of polite aristocratic society.

Like Jane, Rey is an orphan, and discarded multiple times, left to fend for herself in the face of constant abandonment. But Jane, though strong, is always subservient to the authority figures that surround her, having no other real choice. Rey is not bound by those constraints, but if that’s so, then, shouldn’t the Holy Mother archetype dictate her motivations? Well, she is driven by a desire for belonging and family, and she fiercely protects those she holds dear, but she is in no way attended by the pomp and circumstance of the queen in the tragic trope. So, the Heroine’s Journey rules the day, setting her on the path to her magical weapon, call to adventure, and confrontation with the Shadow, etc.

BUT WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN

I’ll tell you. Jesus.

With this formula, it becomes possible to game out what will happen in Episode IX with a startling degree of specificity. Remember, this is my interpretation, applying the formula I’ve detailed above and supplementing my own personal conjecture and assumptions as necessary. So, again acknowledging that some of these basic predictions have been made before, here goes:

WARNING: Basically lit theory informed fanfic from this point.

Rey and Kylo will remain severed in their bond for the first part of the movie. They must be made to feel the sting of loneliness and recognize the incompletion only cured by the other’s presence in their lives.

Rey will find solace in her new family for awhile, but will not be able to replace the feeling of belonging and completion she feels with Kylo. This longing will act as a real source of conflict and represent a constant struggle to stave off the Shadow (the Dark Side).

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren will try to convince himself that he only used Rey to help him usurp Snoke’s throne, if only as an attempt to shield himself from the reality that he has been abandoned by his Queen, and will continue to seek her, but probably use the excuse of pursuing the Resistance as justification.

The Knights of Ren will appear as Kylo’s personal honor guard and act as military commanders as well, another poke in the eye to General Hux. I think this primarily because J.J. Abrams stated after directing TFA that he’s love to do a Knights of Ren movie, and here’s his chance. The Knights will represent Kylo’s stated ideal to begin a new order of Force users, one that has its basis in the Dark Side. If this is the case, I foresee Rey tangling with at least one of them in the front half of the movie (she’ll probably kill the Knight, having no other choice, and giving the other Knights a vengeance incentive to track her down and kill her).

Leia’s death will cause a real shift in the status quo for both Rey and Kylo, as the shock of her passing will leave them both vulnerable. I assume this will cause the Force to join them, and they will have a reckoning about their parting and an acknowledgment/reinforcement of the feelings they have for each other (though it’s likely this will still remain implicit for the time being). Unless they go for the gold and have them initiate physical contact through the Force again, only this time without Uncle Luke outside the door (the tragic trope suggests physical contact here due to the loss of the Usurper’s birth mother, but that could be toned down or delayed for dramatic effect). It’s also entirely possible that this could actually be an in-person meeting, but I doubt that for plot reasons.

[I also think that there’ll be a number of Force Bond scenes, because there’s a real need to have these two share serious screen time in Episode IX.]

Rey’s connection with Kylo will be revealed to the Resistance. Not sure how this will happen exactly, but its effect will be to cause separation and distrust between Rey and her adopted family.

The consequences of the revelation of the Force Bond to the Resistance will cause the rebels to make a fatal mistake. The First Order will move to finish the Resistance, and this time it’ll be for good.

About this time, Kylo is going to find himself in the midst of some extreme conflict. The pull to the Light will be stronger than ever, and I anticipate he will call once more to Vader for guidance. Typically, Sith cannot be Force Ghosts, but Anakin was redeemed, so his spirit endures. I anticipate it will be a riven, tortured existence, and we’ll get some spectacular visual effect that shifts his ghost from blue to red, with the red one maimed, burned, and scarred. This experience will shake him to his foundations.

For her part, I wrestled with whether Rey would also receive supernatural guidance from Luke’s Force Ghost, but I’ve come down on the side of that not being the case. Rey is past the point in the Heroine’s Journey where she’s looking to father figures for guidance. Rey’s reconciliation with the mother figure will probably have to come through some form of interaction with something left behind by Leia, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Maz Kanata reprise her quest giver role in a more motherly capacity, with a symbolic or literal passing of the torch, so to speak.

Having made his decision (“I know what I have to do” part 3?), Kylo will attempt to sabotage the First Order’s assault from the inside. This attempt will not go as planned (Kylo’s not much of a planner), and Hux’s long-anticipated coup will spring into action. I also think that Hux will have, by this point, convinced at least some of the Knights that Kylo murdered Snoke, and to join his insurrection.

Having learned of his betrayal, the Knights of Ren will turn on Kylo, each of them having been trained to seek power over all else. I expect some of them will go with the assault force (which was at least partially successfully fucked up by Kylo’s attempt at sabotage— something that the Resistance will know was his doing), while the rest lie in wait to ambush Kylo as he goes to either escape or re-establish control.

During his fight with the Knights, Kylo will be badly wounded (or perhaps will have been wounded by Hux just prior; this is a guy who keeps a knife in his sleeve), but will manage to escape. Having made his way as far as he can on his own, he’ll either consciously or unconsciously call out to Rey through the Force.

Rey will hear his call and will go to him, and I expect that will be over the objection of her friends, and may result in Rey threatening violence against one of them (Finn, probably) if they try to stop her (still on the fence about this).

Finding him wounded, Rey and Kylo’s reunion will be cut short by the remaining Knights of Ren. Rey will fight them and hold her own for awhile, but will soon be overpowered, and an injured Kylo will join the fight and save her life. Together they’ll finish off the remaining Knights, thus bringing an early end to the new order.

Meanwhile, Hux and the First Order, having been more debilitated by Kylo’s betrayal than it first appeared, are losing to a resurgent Resistance fleet. Hux’s brief tenure as Supreme Leader will end in ignominy, his death coming in as humiliating a fashion as befits the smallness of his character.

The defeat of the First Order will be attended by Something Very Bad (I haven’t a clue as to what that could be, but suffice it to say I anticipate it would be some kind of kamikaze self-destruct protocol that’ll threaten both the Resistance fleet and a massive number of civilians).

Rey and Kylo, able to see this Something Very Bad happening from their vantage, will risk everything to save everyone else, and do something with the Force, working together, that will blow our minds. Like stop a Star Destroyer from falling on a city, or something equally as impossible. I expect this will involve them coming together physically (probably holding hands), to juxtapose them being separated at the end of TFA and TLJ.

The Resistance will be saved, and the First Order decimated beyond reckoning. Those who witnessed it know they were saved by the Force, and the only two people capable of wielding it in such a way.

But.

Kylo Ren will die. Having sustained serious wounds, and having had to expend a titanic effort using the Force, Kylo will collapse into Rey’s arms in a La Pieta motif. This will probably be shot either like the Luke/Vader scene or the Anakin scene with his dying mother in Attack of the Clones. It’s going to be rough.

“Hey! Hold on! You said happily ever after, you motherfucker!”

I sure did. Remember, we’re on a Heroine’s Journey. Kylo Ren is not a capital-h Heroic figure. He is a tragic figure given the opportunity for redemption through penitence and selfless sacrifice. And what is the last stage of the Heroine’s Journey before the final triumph?

Mastery Over Life and Death.

Where the Hero’s Journey can often involve the resurrection of the Hero himself, the Heroine’s Journey ends with her saving her lover from death, often resurrecting him through magical means. The Force is nothing if not the space fantasy version of magic, and the desire for this kind of power is exactly what caused Anakin to fall. But Anakin’s desire to achieve mastery over life and death was inextricably tied to his tragic flaw, meaning that the very act of seeking it would lead to the tragedy he sought to prevent. The Heroine, however, never seeks this power explicitly. It is made available to her when she is in greatest need, and is realized through the love she has for her counterpart. Because the Heroine’s final triumph requires her lover to be alive (so she can finally achieve motherhood in her own right), this step is essential. Don’t think you’ve ever seen this before? Think Beauty and the Beast and Tangled.

So.

Ben Solo will be reborn. Having passed through death and been reborn through the grace of his lover, Ben Solo will have achieved an earned redemption, and a chance at a new life.

What then? It really depends on the circumstances of the Something Very Bad being averted, and how public Kylo/Ben’s betrayal of the First Order is. But, once loose ends are resolved:

A time jump. A few years, I think. The Jedi Temple at Ahch-To. Rey and Ben teaching a new generation of Jedi. And, yes, babies. Probably twins. Sunset, Force theme swells, circle wipe to a star field, the end.

Okay, so that was way longer than I expected. Thanks for staying with me on that one. Of course, all of the above could be spectacularly wrong, but I’m bringing all of my instincts and education in lit theory to bear here, and incorporating the best ideas I’ve encountered in the fandom, and this feels right.

I’m sure at least some of you would agree.

Tagging @raven-maiden because she encouraged me to actually get off my digital ass and post this.

#reylo #reylo meta #star wars meta #reverse anidala

[undertheinfluencerd]

https://ift.tt/38EXRDw #

A human actor was originally on set to play Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars: A New Hope, but neither the actor nor the scene made the final cut in 1977. The notorious slug-like gangster is one of the key villains in the Star Wars saga, making trouble for the galaxy’s heroes from the Clone Wars era through the rise of the Galactic Empire. While Jabba’s most prominent onscreen role in the series thus far has been Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (in which he’s killed by Princess Leia), the character was originally supposed to appear in the first Star Wars film.

In the summer of 1976, George Lucas was in the middle of shooting principal photography for Star Wars. Among the scenes he filmed at England’s Pinewood Studios was a brief but memorable encounter between Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his boss, a gangster Lucas had named Jabba the Hutt. In the scene, Jabba chastises Han for killing Greedo and reminds the smuggler that he still owes him money. Han promises to pay Jabba back, and is told that a price will be placed on his head if he fails to deliver.

Related: Every Upcoming Star Wars Movie & Release Date

If this scene sounds familiar, it’s because the sequence was reinserted back into Star Wars in 1997 when George Lucas released his Special Editions for the original trilogy. But while audiences of the late ’90s saw Han talking with a CGI Jabba the Hutt (a scene that remains part of the film today on Blu-ray and Disney+), the original scene featured a human actor named Declan Mulholland playing the role as a stand-in for special effects that were never added in 1977.

The production of Star Wars was famously troubled. Lucas’ vision for his far-away galaxy exceeded the technological limits of the time, and much of what he was actually able to do was ultimately hampered by time and money. One sequence that fell victim to this was the Jabba scene, which was originally intended to be far more ambitious. The plan was to use Declan Mulholland as a stand-in for a non-human Jabba the Hutt, and then use a matte process to essentially cover his performance with a brand-new creature for the finished film. Unfortunately, Lucas lacked the time, funds, and ability to pull the scene off, and so it was abandoned for the final cut.

However, by the late 1990s, film technology had finally caught up to Lucas’ vision for Star Wars. When Lucas began preparing the Special Edition of the first film (since retitled to A New Hope), the Jabba scene was dusted off and given a CGI makeover. Using the now-iconic slug-like design from Return of the Jedi, a computer-generated model was created and inserted into the sequence, covering up Mulholland’s human Jabba completely. The finished scene was then edited back into the film, and while future editions would include a more-realistic CGI Jabba, the scene has remained a part of A New Hope and the larger Star Wars story ever since.

Next: How Solo Connects Up To Jabba the Hutt & A New Hope

#marvel #avengers #marvelcomics #spiderman #mcu #ironman #comics #captainamerica #thor #avengersendgame #marvelstudios #xmen #dc #marveluniverse #art #cosplay #tomholland #hulk #disney #comicbooks #dccomics #peterparker #tonystark #blackwidow #marvellegends #endgame #deadpool #marvelcinematicuniverse #loki #bhfyp

The post Why Star Wars Originally Had A Human Actor As Jabba the Hutt appeared first on undertheinfluencerd.net.

#entertainment, screenrant #tumblr #aesthetic #like #love #tumblrgirl #follow #instagram #photography #instagood #likeforlikes #s #likes #art #cute #o #girl #followforfollowback #a #tumblrboy #grunge #fashion #photooftheday #tiktok #l #photo #sad #k #frases #f #bhfyp

#Undertheinfluencerd

[aion-rsa]

Link Tank: Ultraman Animated Movie in the Works at Netflix

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Tsuburaya Productions and Netflix have partnered up for an Ultraman animated movie.

“Tsuburaya Productions has announced that it is teaming with Netflix and Industrial Light and Magic to create an entirely original Ultraman animated movie at Netflix, separate from the streaming service’s current anime series. Directed by Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima, the movie follows a young baseball superstar, Ken Sato, who returns to Japan to inherit the powers of the Ultra Warriors and become the next Ultraman.”

Read more at Gizmodo.

HBO Max has announced a release date for Friends cast’s 2021 reunion. Here’s everything you need to know.

“Ever since Friends fans first found out that a reunion special was in the works, news of its progress has mainly centered around pandemic-related delays. Now, we finally have some good news. In a new teaser trailer, HBO Max revealed that the special will be available to stream on the platform starting May 27 (which, as The Wrap points out, is also HBO Max’s first birthday).”

Read more at Mental Floss.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

For Mac users who occasionally have to use Windows PC, check out some tips to make the transition easier.

“Ardent Mac users claim they never would use a Windows PC. This article is not for them. It’s for the Mac users who either need to use PCs for their work or have some curiosity about what’s going on in the other camp—particularly with the arrival of new Windows 10 features and intriguing hardware like the Surface line, from the massive Studio down to the Surface Go. Switching from one OS to another always involves adjustments; our tips are intended to smooth your transition.”

Read more at PCMag.

A new Doctor Strange 2 leak reveals that the movie may have recasted a major Agents of SHIELD character.

“Doctor Strange 2 could be even wilder than we thought. The upcoming sequel (officially titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and promising movies in Marvel’s Phase Four lineup, with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff starring in a lead role in the film opposite Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange.”

Read more at Inverse.

Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead isn’t hitting Netflix until May 21, but there is a free sneak peek of the first 15 minutes online.

“Fans of filmmaker Zack Snyder are used to waiting. Years passed between the release of 2017’s widely loathed superhero team-up Justice League and 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League (aka the ‘Snyder Cut’), which dropped on HBO Max in all four hours earlier this year. Luckily, the wait for his blood-and-guts-filled follow-up, a Netflix produced zombie heist movie called Army of the Dead, will be much shorter.”

Read more at Thrillist.

Happy birthday to the creator of the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas, who turns 77 on this day.

“Today marks George Lucas’ 77th birthday, and with that comes the knowledge that we, as Star Wars fans, owe him a lot. Not just because he’s a filmmaker that we enjoy but because George Lucas created something so special that fans are willing to dedicate their lives to it.

Read more at The Mary Sue.

The post Link Tank: Ultraman Animated Movie in the Works at Netflix appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3eJ6ZLo

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek