#tlj critical

[multitrackdrifting]

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017) sets out to change the series by getting to the heart of what Star Wars is, in order to cast it out so that the series can change for the better. Whether it succeeds or is not is a topic of intense debate. Despite its noble goal of subversion, I do not believe it gets to the heart of the series and its problems. While some characters get thoughtful character arcs like Luke and Rey, others like Finn, Poe and Rose are treated poorly by the narrative and having a grander goal in mind does not wash out the bad taste from my mouth.

I loved this movie as I walked out of theaters, but it only gets worse as I rewatch it more and more.

Clicks, likes & comments appreciated!

#the last jedi #tlj #video essays #video essay #star wars #tlj critical #Youtube

[stonegoldsxcrxt]

ppl argue that Vader is “redeemed”— I guess I can see where they’re coming from, but really I think Vader is forgiven by Luke, and the narrative is kind enough to forgive him too. This is helped, of course, by the prequel storylines and our extensive understanding of Anakin’s character, which is that rarely was Anakin presented with very many choices, and he often chose wrong when he was, sometimes out of anger but mostly out of a very intense love and desire to protect those around him that he cared about. They don’t say that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” for nothing, after all. Luke seems to understand his father at one point thought he was doing what was right, and has the kindness to forgive him, but not absolve him of all crime. The original trilogy, being largely about Luke and generally following Luke’s feelings, offers Vader a lenient sentence for a lifetime of crime. For example, you might expect that if Han was the ‘main character’ you’d be presented with an entirely different point of view. Even Leia at the end of rotj— knowing full well her father is Anakin/Vader and her brother is hosting his funeral pyre— doesn’t seem to care, laughing and enjoying the Ewok party, and she doesn’t have to care. We aren’t mad at Leia for presumably not feeling the same way about her father that Luke does. Thus my argument is that Vader is forgiven by Luke after a selfless act which saves the latter’s life, not washed of all sin and guilt from the narrative. Anakin and Vader are the same person, condemned to death to deal with the sum of his choices, but forgiven by a son who loves him, who he died for.

This is where the sequels fail to convince me I should offer the same treatment to Kylo Ren. In a film trilogy that largely ends up being about him (much to my and many others chagrin), I rarely find myself understanding why he repeated chooses evil. Perhaps in tfa the lines from Leia about snoke whispering to him as a child were meant to imply he’s been being corrupted since birth, but in theory when snoke is killed in tlj, shouldn’t Kylo’s behavior also become altered? As in, he should be able to think more clearly about his decisions? There’s wobbly logic throughout— in tfa Leia says it’s snoke, in tfa Kylo claims his choices are largely motivated by the fact he worships his grandfather, then in tlj the narrative tries to push us to sympathize with him by telling us Luke tried to kill him (at 23, btw— common misconception that the incident happened in his childhood, which it did not).

Arguably, if I were to be led to believe snoke corrupted “Ben”, then the events of tlj— wherein Kylo kills snoke yet remains Kylo instead of reverting to Ben— suggest Kylo actively is choosing evil of his own volition. If I were to believe Kylo is acting out because he idolizes his grandfather, Vader, then Kylo is actively seeking to chose evil of his own volition. If I were to believe Luke attempting to kill “Ben” caused Kylo’s fall, I would still believe Kylo is choosing evil simply to choose evil, seeing as how an attempt on your life is scarring, but not grounds to murder others. Where Anakin’s misguided actions were motivated by fear of those he loves being hurt, Kylo… kind of just seems like he wants to be bad. All of this would be fine, compelling even, as a villain, but outside of tfa, the narrative absolutely refuses to let Kylo be what he wants to be— a villain!

For some reason, starting in tlj, the audience is repeatedly expected to excuse Kylo’s behavior. Sympathizing with an antagonist isn’t always bad, per say, but it generally comes with some sort of buy-in as to why we should care. Absent that, it kind of just seems like the narrative is bending over backwards to forgive a guy who doesn’t really seem to want forgiveness. Mutilating Rey’s character in particular to have her insist there’s good in him when he never hesitates to stalk, physically or emotionally torture, or gaslight her any chance he gets becomes baffling. Unlike Luke with Vader, she really has no reason to care this much about Kylo, or even believed Kylo IS CAPABLE of earning her forgiveness— so the narrative starts spewing more ridiculous premise to try and force a reason for her to forgive him, when he’s done nothing to indicate he WANTS to be forgiven. Though subtle, even Vader visibly has hesitation when confronting Luke— he deals him serious blows, but no where near what we know is the extent of his power. Kylo doesn’t hold back from hurting Rey any chance he gets.

Also bizarrely in comparison to Vader, Kylo is weirdly absolved of his responsibility regarding the devastation the first order has caused and allowed to revert back to “Ben” before actually facing any consequences in terms of story. It comes down to this: he is stabbed, hallucinates his father (who canonically CANNOT be a force ghost— Han in tros is NOT a force ghost, supported by both his lack of glowing blue appearance and the fact that Han doesn’t have the force), hallucinates his father forgiving him and thus forgiving himself via Han’s imagined proxy, then is suddenly Ben again. He has made no choice up to this point which allows us as an audience to understand why he deserves forgiveness from others— just an abrupt 180 in character. It comes off clunky and gauche because it is; Kylo, after a lifetime of choosing evil willingly, using his autonomy to hurt others and gain power for himself, suddenly thinks better of it for no reason. We as the audience are suddenly also expected to do a very quick 180– see! He’s good now! It is no where near as natural as seeing Luke’s journey with Vader because there is no realistic way to interpret the scene; we are forced as the audience to accept this random new “Ben” character as if he’s a different person— an affliction I might also add that doesn’t befall Anakin until he dies, meaning we see a broken Anakin still scarred and wheezing in the Vader suit— again, lasting, permanent effects of his behavior. Where as Kylo is just suddenly “Ben”— new wardrobe, no facial scarring. As if woken from some sort of trance that narratively speaking, if you wanted me to be more compelled, he should have woken from a whole film ago. It’s as if nothing he did as Kylo mattered at all, which is nigh impossible to accept when it involves literal genocide. It’s implied at the end of tlj that he Made. His. Choice. by not only remaining with the first order after snoke is slain but becoming the supreme leader!

In fact it’s the entire opposite of Vader— Vader rises up against his master and chooses to save his son. Kylo rises up against his master and chooses to clench power for himself.

I could only dream of a world where tros was brave enough to allow Kylo what he wants— to be truly corrupted and evil. I could only dream of a world where the sequels explored the impact and importance of that choice, and how to confront an evil that is no longer forgivable

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #tlj critical #tros critical #in case

[thehollowprince]

I know I've talked about this before, but I absolutely loathe how the character of Finn was treated in this movie. Not only the redundancy of his plot, but the sheer laziness of it.

#fuck rian johnson (derogatory) #finn deserved better #tlj critical

[phytine]

I have my problems with TLJ but I am amazed by people saying that everything was detroyed by this film and thus TRoS was left with nothing when...

Well, so many people did fanfictions about it (and I don't necessarly speak about shippy ones) that found loose threads to continue.

(Not to say that fanfiction is the alpha and omega and the same as writing a film's scenario but the elements were here.)

And on top of that, it doesn't destroy that much you know? At the end of the day, the Jedi are still celebrated. RJ backpedalled a lot in the last part of the movie.

It was not a radical movie at all and the next instalment was pretty much written tbh. Stormtroopers rebellion, big enemies in the technocrats and likes with Hux, the knights of Ren. Maybe even Rey being less of a self-righteous asshole. It would not have been the most inspired thing but it could have worked.

(And I don't speak about Kylo Ren's character.)

That was not that difficult to make a continuity. DLF was just too weak to criticism and had no plan.

But please stop saying that the TV shows are saving Star Wars. I watched some of them and even the best are not that great.

I like fast food but even the best fast food are still fast food, you know...

#tlj critical #who could have guess I would be back for a hot second in sw discourse? #but I just see so many bad takes #and rolls my eyes so much #i wrote a +150 pages master thesis on this fucking trilogy and I swear some of you have been so manipulated 😒 #anti rey #star wars critical

[lesbian4lqg]

one thing we dont talk about enough is tianlang jun calling out shen qingqiu for knowing his was around the holy mausoleum

like the "bullseye" thing? crazy

sqq literally swaggered in there and kinda beat tlj on his own turf that he should have known nothing about and tlj is the only (living) character that really knows it, and as far as we know he never bothers to snitch!

hes just. tlj about it. like hes just like "wow thats crazy haha sqq is so cool"

to me it feels like one of sqq's biggest weak spots in his not-so-secret identity bc just about everything else can be explained by the usual "it was,,,,, a qi deviation" bs but like. how tf would he know his way around the holy mausoleum. nobody knows their way around the holy mausoleum thats kind of like the whole point

#and to be clear im not calling this a plot hole #tlj doesnt care! hes always in a silly goofy mood! #why would it ever come up? #and if it did he would never even say it in a critical way hed just be in a silly goofy mood and be like 'lol sqq this is just like that #one time in the holy mausoleum' and leave sqq to awkwardly deal w the fallout #idk the bullseye thing just lives in my brain rent free #like what the fuck was going on and why did we never address it again #shen qingqiu #sqq #tianlang jun #tlj #svsss

[mooncheese3]

au where sutian have a happy ending and they rule over the demon realm + huanhua palace. when everything settles tlj goes to all sects (all as in ALL) to read and "critique" their literature, and then recommend them books they should put into their libraries (if they cant afford he'll send them over). yknow, like kitchen nightmares.

and since no one wants to cause a war with the demons, huanhua (one of THE most powerful sects), and all their allies, they just let tlj prance around

he stays in the open for guests section of the libraries so they dont rlly have that big of a problem with it (AND he gives them a 3 day notice! how considerate!)

so he goes around fixing up libraries to his standard and also inadvertently fixing relationships

yes he helps qijiu. and liujiu. and then he sees their poly potential and absolutely schemes to make them a thing

xianshu peak has the best library so far. 10/10 stars.

worst library in cqms would be qiancao. the vibes were just NOT it (its the hundreds of souls of the medstudents trying to digest the textbooks infront of them)

#sutian #basically what if tlj had gordon ramsey's job in kitchen nightmares #but with literature #like if ego from ratatouille had an entirely different impact on gusteau #tlj in his self proclaimed critic era

[sjbattleangel]

Behold some of the worst Star Wars takes you've ever seen. "I love Star Wars!" No you don't, Lily. Just like certain reactionary hacks, you hate Star Wars for the most idiotic reasons ever. Case in point: 1) Lily decides to rewrite the sequel trilogy into angst-fest that over-worships the Sith as a misunderstood, persacuted race of people, turns classic characters like Luke and Leia into "old racist white folk" and of course, has her "heroic" character straight-up murder unarmed rich people!

Plus, as someone who adores The Last Jedi as one of the best Star Wars films since The Empire Strikes Back, Lily completely missed the point of the film! It doesn't need to be "fixed" as it's already a compelling deconstruction of Star Wars that challenges the notion of destiny and fixed traditions by having the characters grow through their mistakes: Like Rey learning she doesn't need to be related to someone special know where she belongs; Poe learning to stop and listen to other people's ideas; Finn learning about how other people are effected by the war; Luke learning not to give up on himself.

I get the feeling Lily's bitter because it didn't line up with her own bloated "SWTOR-and-KOTOR-II-are-the-only-SW-media-that-matters-and-the-Sith-are-the-real-good-guys" headcannon.

That and the real reason Lily hates Rose Tico is because she wasn't a sexy traumatized black lesbian with a high body-count. Because, let's face it, Lily didn't create Darth Amorosa because she wanted "diversity" and "representation". No, it was simply because she wanted a black woman to fetishize.

#lily orchard #anti-lily orchard #lily orchard is a hack #lily orchard critical #star wars #rey of jakku #rey nobody #the last jedi #pro-tlj #rose tico #poe dameron #finn #star wars the last jedi #tsr #the sith resurgence

[tarisilmarwen]

Ahsoka "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord" Liveblog

Woo boy, there were certainly some Choices in this.

Yeah yeah, I'm late and spoilered to hell I know, look, I have been Going Through It out in realspace and my priority has been finishing Whumptober fics, cut me some slack.

Anyway.

Lars Mikkelson continuing to crush it as Thrawn.

"Even I fell victim to the... heroics of a single Jedi." Looooooool another bit for my collection of Pissy!Thrawn moments.

We're not going to get an explanation for why the Nightsisters and Thrawn are so tight, are we?

Morgan looks a little bit trepidacious about all of this ha ha.

All right, a point in this show's favor, this look at Nightsister rituals and culture is interesting.

And the flaming sword is cool, I'll admit.

Ngl, the editing really needs to be tightened up in this scene, we really only needed the one or two establishing shots before cutting into the interior.

Eman continues to be the perfect Ezra. I love him. 10/10 no complaints.

Ngl, this is sweet on the surface that Ezra's new saber has pieces of Kanan's buuuuuuuut *waves Green Saber Ezra Supremacy flag*.

Sabine, let him borrow y'all's lightsaber and YOU build a new one.

Ah goody, an Exposition Reveal.

-_-

This... doesn't actually explain Baylan's "Your family is dead because your Master didn't trust you." line btw. JUST SAYING.

I don't even know what the narrative wants anymore re. Sabine's choice to gamble Thrawn's return for Ezra.

Aaaand please not to be reminding me of the Wrong Jedi arc kthnx.

Oh good an action scene.

Ezra and Ahsoka being cool Jedi together, nice. Could be more emphasized and staged even more coolly tho.

Well poop, I guess that's the reason why we had to risk stowing away on Thrawn's ship.

Oh good! This holomap thing is exactly the kind of plot device I actually needed for one of my Sabezra Week fills.

Lol Thrawn be taking NO chances lololol.

Oh hello finally some of Thrawn's theme in the score here. Thrawn using the men's loyalty and fanaticism towards him personally to achieve his goals, fits the culty vibes, sure.

I am liiiiiviiiiiiiiiiiing for the subtle nervousness in Ezra's voice when talking about Thrawn finding the Dathomir castle and waking the witches. PLEASE CAN I HAVE A THOUSAND WHUMP AND ANGST FICS ABOUT THE IN-BETWEEN BEFORE EZRA'S ESCAPE FROM THE CHIMAERA?

His arms are so comfortably around Sabine awwwwww.

Thrawn be all srs bznss and I'm loving it.

Yeah no, Jedi!Sabine is REJECTED, she did not have any kind of necessary mental or emotional breakthrough, she wasn't shown calming her mind properly, sorry Dave THE LEGWORK AIN'T THERE, Imma fix this to be Ahsoka in the inevitable rewrite/fixfic that I've apparently decided I'm doing.

Oh Ahsoka is helping too, well I'm still not having Sabine be able to do it.

HAAAAAAAAAA THAT PISSED LOOK OF THRAWN'S OH MAN THE SNARLING LIP CURL, THE RAGE, YES PLEASE MORE.

The struggle to recompose himself OH MAN.

This is peak Mirrorverse!Thrawn and I'm here for it. I love seeing my headcanons playing out onscreen.

Aaaaaand this would have been the perfect scene to have Ezra and Sabine sharing the Our Lightsaber, meanwhile Sabine should be fully kitted out Mando style.

*simmers*

STAGE THIS DIFFERENTLY SO THAT SABINE'S BESKAR IS NOT CONSTANTLY LITERAL PLOT ARMOR PLEASE.

Aahhhhhhh Ezra my love! <3

Should have either let him use the Our Lightsaber or continued with the Force martial arts though, pick a lane. Or have a conversation about why they need to actually get him another saber.

Eman is... waaaaaaay better at this than Rosario, sad to say, lol.

Look at him GO THERE'S MY BOY.

I love him.

Oh what are we doing now?

Ohhhhh the zombie!troopers!

Lol Ezra must have left before the Nightsisters could show Thrawn their zombie techniques.

Eman makes this look flawless, I am in love.

Battle Couple Sabezra moment, awww.

"I missed you."

FAKSJHFAKJFHHKKHHHFHFH OKAY DEAD.

DEAD AND DECEASED.

LIKE THE ZOMBIES LOL.

Aaaaaaaaand I'm gonna adjust this in the fixfic, because right now it looks like they were waiting to actually dock.

And my typing is being slowed down hang on a second.

Still dumb.

Okay back.

Thrawn basically telling Morgan, "Right, so you're going to have to go fight the Rebels and stall die for me, mmkay?"

She's looking like she might regret all of this now lolol.

I do like how the finale is making it very very easy for me to fix later lol.

Like here. Morgan should have attempted to stop Ezra and Sabine. Just a small attempt, and then blocked by Ahsoka, and Ezra and Sabine run around and outmaneuver them.

BATTLE COUPLE SABEZRA. :D

Aaaaand final trailer shot accounted for.

Okay, can there be a little more effort on the choreography there please?

Oh no Sabine, EZRA SAVE HER.

Or we could retcon Sabine into actually legitimately being Force Sensitive and have her pull the Our Lightsaber.

SIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHH.

*grumbles, takes down notes about how to fix this in my rewrite*

Oh come on Ezra, you can jump that.

Catch me melting at the sheer and utter trust Ezra has in Sabine's abilities.

(But also, screw this, she's getting a jetpack in the rewrite.)

Aaaaaaaaaand I do hate that they got separated again, screwing alllllll of that.

Nice of the troopers to just politely stop shooting.

Yeah so, this is basically gonna be a 1 v 100 for Ahsoka when I rewrite it, let my girl have a hard fought climactic battle, she can take it.

"Your friends are dead." Uhhhh nah they ain't what does this bit of dialogue even connect to?

Lol Ezra gets to put on the big boy stormtrooper armor.

The vaaaaaaaaaguely panicky twitches that Thrawn has here. A+, excellent, no notes.

No kill like overkill LOLOLOL.

Thrawn, internally: Shitshitshitshitshitshitshiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Ah Thrawn is going to try Break Them By Talking. Ezra tanked this let's see if Ahsoka can do the same.

Nope, she's Affected.

Aaaaaand he out.

Bye Thrawn!

Hmmmmgh, yeah no, because in my rewrite I'm axing the entirety of Sabine actually becoming a Jedi it's going to be better that she goes with Ezra on the Eye of Sion instead of stays with Ahsoka, if she stayed a Jedi then yes that's what the conclusion should have been that makes narrative sense now that I see it.

But also again, I Do Not Like That Plot Point so--*grumblegrumble mumble*

Hi Morai!

Bandit queen Shin? I could dig it.

Baylan chilling with Mortis god statues.

I STILL DO NOT SEE ANY SOLID EVIDENCE THEY'RE GONNA DO ABELOTH GUYS, SORRY.

And Thrawn is setting up base on Dathomir. Lol wait til he finds out that there's basically nothing there anymore lololol.

Those uh... those be a lotta dead troopers. Probably most of the Chimaera crew.

...Cripes did they die naturally, did Ezra kill them, or did Thrawn pull some kind of Jonestown thing in order to enact his eventual revenge?

Oh maaaaan what if it's that last one, that would fit with the cult-like chanting in his intro omgghghhhggkajsfkjh.

Frick man, Thrawn fixing to unleash an undead army on the GFFA that can really only be taken out by lightsabers.

Oh come on, you're telling me Ezra was on the Eye and didn't pull some last minute shenanigans before he left?

Didn't screw Thrawn over one last time for nostalgia's sake?

(He and Sabine are blowing up some engines before they skedaddle, in the fixfic.)

HERA AND EZRA SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED A HUG, FILONI.

The attempt at bookends here is cute but no. LET HERA HUG HER SON.

THIS DOESN'T EVEN REALLY WORK AS A BOOKEND.

YES THE PART WHERE CHOPPER RECOGNIZES HIM IS CUTE BUT THIS IS WASTED DRAMA. THERE'S NO REASON FOR THIS.

LET HERA HUG HER SOOOOOOONNNN.

This whole scene just doesn't work because we're trying to shoehorn it into being a bookend for the opening, it doesn't wooooooooooorrrrrk.

THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

*furiously taking down notes on how to rewrite this scene*

*grumbling*

Blah blah Sabine can feel Anakin there but Ahsoka can't? blah blah blah.

Aaaaaaand closing us out with "As The Sun Sails And The Moon Walks"

Well.

Where do I begin?

Okay so... final verdict... I DO actually like this show.

THAT BEING SAID.

There was soooooooo much about the execution and so many of the narrative choices that I just NEEDED to be better and it frustrates me. Because this show by all rights should have been a spectacular emotional thrill ride like Kenobi and it just wasn't.

A lot of the problems and nitpicks I had with Kenobi are exacerbated here, especially under Filoni's brand of, "I didn't care for what Lucas did with the Prequels, here let me fix it." NO FILONI IT DIDN'T NEED FIXING IT WAS FINE! HOW THE FORCE WORKED WAS FINE! THE JEDI WERE FINE!

But there's such GOOD STUFF in here that I can't discount it all fully like I can with the Sequel Trilogy. (Which, believe me, I have attempted to workshop and fixfic but ultimately gave up on.) The purrgil lore! The Ancient Dathomiri! Another galaxy! Whatever Baylan was up to! Sabezra being adorable! Thrawn!

Soooooo yeah, basically join me sometime in the future for when I inevitably create a fixfic AU for this show like I did for Aldnoah.Zero because unfortunately I can't give up on this show I need to fix it, just hand me the characters and story and I can fix it.

Can't do much for the camerawork, choreography, and occasional stiff acting (Not you Eman, Natasha, Ray, Evan, and Lars, you're all great.) but I can at least salvage that part lol.

Ultimately... mid. Excellent premise and cool concepts brought down by subpar execution and some frankly baffling narrative decisions. But gimme like a week and I will workshop a Fanon AU that I can be completely happy with.

Hopefully we get a Season Two? Maybe? Or resolve everything in the Mandoverse movie?

Peace out, y'all.

#star wars #sabezra #ahsoka show #spoilers #liveblog #i don't have a generic writing woes tag ah man #ezra bridger #grand admiral thrawn #you know what imma shove this under #TLJ salt #because i blame that film for deciding a lot of the direction of this bullshit #and i guess i should tag #filoni critical #i don't have a lot in that tag granted but this fits

[caripr94]

Unpopular opinion: I know that a lot of Star Wars fans are peeved about the tragedy of the sequels negating much of the happy ending of the original trilogy, but honestly, that's actually one of my favorite parts of the sequels. Why? Because it means that well-intentioned hypocritical nutheads like Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Bail Organa don't get to get away with underhanded, morally unethical stunts like separating the twins from each other, kidnapping them from their biological families, lying to them about their heritage, grooming them against their own father, and using them to try to restore their own power and get everything back to the old status quo that got them into this mess in the first place. We all get to see the consequences of such tactics and nobody (who's paying attention) gets to say that "this and that" was okay because everything turned out fine in the end.

Because even though Luke managed to break the cycle of darkness and abuse on his end by the end of the original trilogy, we never really saw that happening with Leia on her end, nor did we see many of those family issues from that separation and manipulation or many of the problems with the Old Jedi Order or any of the problems with the Old Republic get even addressed. Many of the underlying issues of the prequels that came from people not learning from their mistakes just got swept under the rug. At least with the tragic events that happened in the sequel era (at least in TFA, before Lucasfilm messed everything up in the subsequent sequels, which I don't count as canon), we get to see many of the effects of such corrupt and dysfunctional methods that these "heroic" elders used, and in some way, there's some poetic justice in that, even at such a high price. And I know that many of you are saying that "Star Wars is supposed to be a fairy tale or myth; it's not supposed to be realistic", but let me remind you that not every fairy tale has gotten a happily ever after (at least in its early versions) and it was actually quite rare for mythological heroes to get a happily ever after either.

Disclaimer: This is mostly about TFA, which was much more consistent with the original lore. I acknowledge that the later two sequels didn't have as much consistency or respect for the original lore (or even with TFA), so I don't count them as canon.

#politics #star wars #anakin skywalker #darth vader #luke skywalker #princess leia #leia skywalker #obi wan critical #anti yoda #bail organa's privilege #bail organa critical #old republic #jedi critical #star wars sequels #sw sequels #star wars prequels #star wars original trilogy #anti tlj #anti tros

[poelya]

actually, speaking of lore consistency, i've been thinking about a lot of the tie-in material for the sequels here lately and i have to say there's a lot less consistency I feel like than there could have been. and i'm not just talking charles soule 'oh fuck what tfa said about the fall of luke's temple actually', but like...generally speaking i feel like so much emphasis being put on, at the time, that everything expanded 'verse worked consistently with the films, actually harmed the perception of the films themselves.

because when you divorce the films from their book/comic tie-ins, they flow very well. better than typical criticism will have you think (and before anyone brings up Rey's parentage, first off I lived through tasm2. that shit WAS nonsensical. second off, traumatized brains genuinely work like that. doylist explanation of the writers waffling - something very common in star wars, unless you've forgotten luke and leia's romance fizzling out because hanleia was more popular and george last second retconning them to be sibs - could be criticized, but the watsonian explanation that Rey's memories are that badly fucked up from trauma fits. source: my memories are that badly fucked up from trauma). the only thing is that the movies don't remain consistent with the tie-in material.

which, duh. they're the source material, not these one-shots. the opening scrawl of tfa says that leia has support of the senate behind her with the resistance, which is why poe introduces himself as commander of the new republic fleet. it's why the resistance is in dire straits in tfa/tlj, they just lost their support system. but tie-in material built off a deleted scene, where the senate largely doesn't take the resistance seriously. so we wind up in this bizarre land of "the senate didn't support the resistance but actually they did". if it had been better fleshed out, it would've worked (my partner came up with a great explanation for how both would work and it's simply not there in the 'canon' text). then you have the poe comics, which decides that despite tfa making it extremely clear that looking for tekka was ren's responsibility (with battlefront ii backing this by having him torture del), we get....random first order intelligence officer being in charge of the hunt, because soule was more interested in doing mission impossible-esque stories than the kinds of stories that would better fit the tekka search. this isn't even counting the back and forth of poe's character development in the comics (listen i love those comics, but there's a LOT of two steps forward, three steps back, especially in regards to Poe handing Tekka over. That arc perfectly set up Poe from BTA growing into the Poe we see in the films, annnnnnnnnnnnnd then Soule like. retracted it in the very next issue. This does not upset me in the slightest, why do you ask [chewing through drywall] and like. poe and leia have no familial dynamic to them in those comics either, to the point that watching tlj for the first time was a tRIP for me because i had a !!! oh!!! they're family!!! moment bc that's not present in the comics, with the exception of maybe l'ulo's funeral)

and of course my favorite example of the source material going "ew wtf" is tros just. point blank. saying "who the fuck is resistance reborn?" specifically through poe. iconic, showstopping, i love it to pieces because that novel deserves a slow death rotting at the bottom of the ocean.

the best tie-in material is often either ones built AFTER the films all released (looking at u free fall) or the rare time you can tell the author genuinely loves the characters/era and writing it isn't just a gig. my point is i think by having authors largely ignoring the canon text, and making this very inconsistent lore built around a deleted scene, etc, very seriously harmed the sequels.

#like i don't think it's a coincidence that CASUAL fans like those movies a ton #but a lot of the hardcore invested in the lore fans doesn't #like the tie in for them is SO inconsistent and throws a middle finger to the source material so frequently it's depressing #don't even get me STARTED on the tlj visual dictionary just point blank /rewriting/ poe's arc entirely #and releasing ahead of the movie which i'm sure had 0 impact on people's opinions of him #anyway. #just my thoughts lmao #nym speaks #sw negativity #I GUESS? #i didn't actually mean to be that negative but it's fairly critical so #long post

[burn-4u]

Lol why do tlj stans keep trying to compare their movie to andor. Andor is the Star Wars equivalent of better call Saul and tlj is a joss whedon movie.

#star wars critical #andor #anti tlj #am tag

[ragnarssons]

you know what, last episode really was the one where i started to feel like din djarin had taken the role of side-kick on his own show, being replaced as a main by bo-katan. up until then i was fine because din working as a team with his family isn't din being sidelined, he was still making his own decisions and his bond with grogu was still somewhat explored.

but then last episode happened: we don't even know why din came with bo, like no scene at the beginning to explain din's motivation to accompany bo in some kind of exile to find the other mandalorians?? when all he supposedly wanted during the whole season was just raise his kid to become a mandalorian?? when a storyline on nevarro for him was just there?? his ship isn't even there anymore?? the main interactions with grogu are bo's?? din just sighs at his son jumping in lizzo's arms and that's their only interaction through the whole episode?? because din djarin... DIN DJARIN paranoid!papa "where i go he goes" papa... leaves his son with two complete strangers?? one being ex imperial on top of that?!! ("reformed" but oh we know how well that program is going huh?). it's one thing that he leaves grogu with his family, the armorer, heck even paz fcking vizsla because they're his family. but rich entitled capitalist-royalties, one of them being - a g a i n - EX-IMP? like were they secretly holding grogu hostage or something? because there is no justification to me as to why din would just leave grogu in THAT place of all places. (i guess there was that time with peli too, but it's peli sooo i'll just say that it was natural to trust her lol). and at the end of the episode, he's like "nahhh the only plot element that could tie me in significantly to the final episodes, imma give it to bo because like 4 episodes ago she did some stuff but yknow actually never explain my actual motivation in all of that". the only scene showing him as the character we've followed was the one with the ugnaugths, a good callback to kuill...

it's like... i wouldn't say he's ooc for the sake of the plot or bo katan's story, because he's not but it's not delved into or explored. the story doesn't take the time to shine a light only on din on this episode, and tbh even tho i sure have accepted din's covert as part of his story, i sure hadn't expected bo katan kryze to become the main focus of, again, what is supposed to be din's story.

also before anyone comes and say "well actually the show is called the mandalorian so it could be about any mandaloriaaan-" well maybe they should correct their marketing techniques then because i'm pretty sure DIN AND GROGU are still front and center of all the promo materials we had before s3. and i'd be fine with some bo katan storyline, yknow if it were like the covert's storyline, to enrich din's storyline and grogu's storyline and journey, not the other way around. (for example one of my favorite scene this season is grogu getting is armor piece: din isn't even there with him but it was such an important moment of acceptance, of belonging and hope for the future between grogu and the armorer that i looooved it!)

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian critical #im just trying to wrap my mind around that last episode tbh #like im sorry the other episodes to me it still felt like din was an active part of the driving force #on that episode?? nah #and honestly i was super pumped at the idea of grandma!armorer taking care of grogu #and some paz/din rivalry and daddiness #these were episodes i liked even tho i could sense they were pushing bo katan more and more to the front #but this episode ugh the more i sit on it the more i hate it #kinda like tlj #i was really happy about episode 3 and i feel like it'll be a big payoff soon on that one #but THIS episode felt unnecessary tbh #politics but not enough to justify it yknow??? #yeah i think i found it #to me especially at the end of the season they could have written a way more complex and significant episode #of bo and din getting some army and all #but it was just.... THAT ???

[stonegoldsxcrxt]

This is the most insanely targeted ad I've ever seen on tumblr if I wasn't convinced they are selling my data, I am now. Who paid for this ad and what do they know about me

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #Star Wars sequels #tlj critical #my fav tag to use hehe #tumblr what is this

[thehollowprince]

It's just the sheer audacity for me.

The fact that Finn, the former child soldier who ran away from the First Order, is somehow the one that needs to be told how bad war really is.

Really?

#fuck rian johnson (derogatory) #tlj critical

[boasamishipper]

[image description: a comparison of luke skywalker in 'the last jedi' to maverick mitchell in 'top gun: maverick'. under a picture of luke, there is a list of traits that read:

old luke:

old and grumpy

nothing like the real luke

gives up on the jedi

ridiculed

refuses to train rey

sad and pathetic

won't fight

dies for nohing

under a picture of maverick, there is a list of traits that read:

old maverick:

older and wiser

same core character

still believes in top gun

respected

trains new pilots

jaded but inspiring

fights despite the odds

puts his life on the line

end id.]

listen i hate rian johnson and the last jedi as much as the next guy but this post Just Ain't It

#top gun: maverick #the last jedi #first of all if you're gonna talk shit about tlj don't compare apples to oranges to prove your point #mav and luke are completely different characters with completely different motivations #'ridiculed' by whom?? exactly?? if anything mav is the one ridiculed he's literally thrown out of the bar by his own students #and cyclone makes a point of saying he wouldn't piss on mav if he was on fire #whereas luke is respected and feared by Everyone in the galaxy #'sad and pathetic' i hate what rian did with luke's history with kylo too but like can you blame luke for being sad?? #and how is he pathetic exactly?? #'still believes in top gun' what the fuck does this even mean #mav believes in himself and his wingman and his kids Not in the system #'won't fight' luke very much did fight tho?? that was a thing that happened?? #he literally astral projected and fought the first order at the cost of his own life?? #(yes that was a stupid way for luke to go out but you can't say he didn't fight.) #second of all if you're gonna criticize rian and tlj Do It Right #talk about him completely sidelining all the characters of color in favor of making the white fascist villain more sympathetic #or rey's entire personality narrowing down to 'kylo can be saved!!' literally five canon minutes after kylo killed han #and then tried to kill finn (for which rey almost killed kylo) #or rose teaching finn (a former stormtrooper) about the cruelty of the first order like he didn't know Full Well firsthand?? #or the fact that rian was so invested in telling His Story he tossed everything jj gave him in the trash #even tho it threw a wrench into the narrative and everyone's characterizations and thereby fubar'd the sequel trilogy #also you mean to tell me the man who was so kind and forgave darth vader would've been tempted to kill his own nephew (even for a second)? #I Don't Think So #good characterization shat on because rian and kathy kennedy wanted to make kylo the byronic tragic hero or whatever #which is why it's so shocking that rian wrote knives out and glass onion. apparently he Can give characters of color depth. #he just didn't want to for john boyega and kelly marie tran and oscar isaac. #which. again. is why he's on my eternal shitlist. #my stuff #anti rian johnson #tlj critical

[bluntblade]

I tend to talk in the abstract about how TLJ's style would've suited the Ahsoka show so much better than trying to ape Rogue One without the scale (remember when Rogue One's look was kind of a bold experiment for the franchise, chosen for a film that wasn't about the space wizards, instead of a default?) but then I'll rewatch it or spy some GIFs and oh man, how I wish the Ahsoka show was shot like this.

Because besides the fact that it's just beautiful (the delicacy of the lighting in the voidbound scenes is a particular favourite for me) there's heaps of great visual storytelling, and a mix of eeriness and soulful expressiveness which I think would've worked wonders for the weary, wounded protagonists of the show. Not to mention the way Ahch-To is treated as a genuinely mystical place, while also feeling wild and rugged.

And of course, there's the lovely kineticism to the action (which obviously Abrams did too, but I think Johnson, like Gareth Edwards, does with more purpose). Those racing dolly shots in the throne room, bring 'em back Star Wars!

#Ahsoka critical #pro tlj #pro the last jedi