das-roog

[das-roog]

Perfectionists, repeat this mantra:

“It doesn’t have to be perfect. The amount of effort I’ve exerted is sufficient. What i’ve done works and isn’t improved by overthinking. The little nitpicks are purely personal and not worth my time. My magic looks perfect to the audience.”

[das-roog]

although it’s an inherent trait of a creator to be hypercritical of their own work, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, i feel that the most important thing you can do is to be proud of yourself for what you’ve made or else the joy of creation will become an ever fleeting high.

no matter how many faults you may see in your product or how many negative critiques you may get, allow yourself to feel proud that you’ve created something you saw in your mind out of nothing. you deserve that elusive reward of sublime happiness after all of your hard work.

convincing yourself that you are a shitty artist is to self sabotage your creative drive. preemptively robbing yourself of that great feeling of gratification when making progress on a project negates the desire of creating something at all. your unique creative vision has value.

it’s essential to congratulate yourself because you are your own worst critic. the most meaningful words you’ll hear will come from your inner voice, and you owe yourself that validation. praise coming from within and acceptance of your own appreciation nurtures your self esteem.

always make an effort to love yourself when creating things. self love grows your abilities, improves your techniques, promotes your motivation, stimulates your initiative, and is as key to the creative process as gassing up a car is key to powering it. you’re doing great.

[das-roog]

Mutants in the MCU

Before I get into this, I’d like to point out that this article is pure speculation. I highly doubt any of this is going to happen and it isn’t really based on any solid facts. Also, please be aware that there are going to be spoilers for various Marvel comics/movies so if you don’t want any spoilers, turn away; go back to your home and keep living your life the way you want. Otherwise, now that that’s out of the way, on to the show. Or the…the article, or…you get what I mean.

I recently came across this article while perusing Facebook. For those unable/unwilling to follow the link, here’s a tl;dr: It’s long been thought that Marvel has been phasing mutants (X-Men and such) from their universe for some time now. The big theory here is that Marvel is doing it mostly as a big middle finger to Fox, who has the rights to the X-Men movies and is loathe to share. This makes sense. Despite their pseudo-agreement about Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, Marvel would have to pry the X-Men movie rights from Fox’s cold, dead hands. So, you know, cooperation seemed out of the question. Thus, Marvel would phase the X-Men out to take away any potential storylines or potential revenue from Fox as far as the mutants are concerned.  However, the article claimed that at the very least, Marvel doesn’t seem to have it out for the children of the atom as much as we thought, considering the slew of new X-titles coming out. And yeah, as a huge X-Men fan that’s exciting. But the reason I’m writing this article isn’t to talk about that. What I want to talk about is a point made by the writer of the article I linked to earlier: that a reversal on a possible phasing out of the X-Men (and mutants in general) could mean the X-Men coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or the MCU) in general. 

This is a wonderful prospect that fills my heart with joy while triumphant music swells in the background. The thought of someone doing the X-Men right–whether it be MCU proper or Netflix or some combination of both–is enough to make my fanboy heart flutter. I mean, yeah Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is the shit and the recent movies with McAvoy are pretty cool but I mean, just imagine if the House of Ideas could make their own movies or series, the way they want to. Shut up and take my money. And so on, so forth. However, as the initial wave of ecstasy starts to fade, reality sets in. X-Men coming to the MCU is unlikely. Let’s talk about why.

Why It Probably Won’t Happen

The biggest reason: Fox. LOVES. MONEY. 

According to the numbers I’ve found, and after I did a little bit of math, the X-Men movies have made a worldwide box office of $4,384,477,711 against a budget of $1,271,000,000. That’s a profit of more than $3 billion dollars ($3,113,477,711 to be exact). That’s not counting box office from Wolverine’s solo films OR Deadpool. That’s a lot of money, guys. Fox intends to keep making that money as long as they humanly can. They’d puppet Patrick Stewart’s body using an elaborate system of pulleys, strings and a ventriloquist if it meant more money. 

Superhero movies are big money right now. Keeping X-Men is the move that makes the most business sense. They tried to cash in with Fantastic Four in 2015 to dismal results and they STILL want to keep trying to beat every last penny from that dead horse’s not-so-fantastic corpse. So yeah, them giving up a franchise that IS actually making them money is a long shot at best. 

Likewise, Marvel has no real reason to pursue the rights at this point. I mean yeah, the current arrangement isn’t a great deal for them but they don’t need the X-Men to succeed. They have the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, their critically-acclaimed Netflix series, freaking Spider-Man. They’re not hurting. 

As sad as it is to say, I don’t think this status quo will be changing for quite some time. 

Well, That Was Depressing…

Yeah, it was. But you know, that’s reality, I guess. But who said we have to accept reality? It’s way more fun to speculate about what it would be like if the X-Men and other mutants did show up in the MCU? 

So, put on your bright yellow spandex, hop in the Blackbird and let’s talk about the challenges of fitting the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

So What are the Problems?

The X-Men have always been a weird franchise. They’re the children of the atom, the next stage of human evolution. They fight to defend a world that hates and fears them. Their whole deal hinges on the idea that people are super OK with–even enthusiastic about!–giant robots being sent to kill them. It’s a racism allegory, or a homosexuality allegory: mutants are the minority that is viciously persecuted by the old, white politicians in charge of the status quo.

Aaaand in the same world, the Avengers are on the news every other night, the Fantastic Four are bonafide celebrities and superpowered indidivuals are not only common, but popular and accepted. Sure, Spider-Man has bad press but he seems to be the exception. So, in this world, why are the X-Men so hated? It doesn’t make a lot of logical sense to me and it never really has.

Introducing them into the MCU at large would require some finagling to get around this fact. The comics can ignore it because the comic status-quo is akin to the Gospel to hardcore fans. Things are the way they are because that’s how it’s always been; we just accept it. But putting it into the movies? They need to at least address the problem or at least put a lampshade on it. 

Also worth considering, where have the X-Men been all this time? Where have Professor X and Magneto been? What about Wolverine? Why hasn’t Tony made a smart-alec comment about the Sentinels? Why didn’t Nick Fury contact the X-Men or any of the other mutants about the Avengers project? 

Also, in the comics, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are Magneto’s kids. In the MCU, they got their powers from crazy HYDRA experiments. Sooo….yeah, that’s a little awkward. They even bring up Quicksilver being Magneto’s son in the newer X-Men films.  

So Where Were They?

Getting around the “where were they?” question is relatively simple: mutants have existed for decades at least, considering that Xavier and Magneto are at least middle-aged, but nobody knows about them.

It might seem weird at first, but it makes sense in the broader scope of the MCU. After all, everybody seemed kind of surprised about the Inhumans in Agents of Shield, so nobody knowing about the existence of another naturally-powered species existing seems plausible. Hell, maybe SHIELD did find out by Xavier wiped their memories? Who knows? 

A World That Hates and Fears Them

Either way, in our movie, the existence of mutants would be relatively recent; in essence, the world would find out about mutants at the worst possible time. 

Think about it. The world in the MCU is undergoing some extreme changes. The world’s nearly ended twice. The Avengers did a lot of damage while they’re out saving the world and the Sokovia Accords aren’t making things any less tense. There are vigilantes running around Hell’s Kitchen, a spider-kid swinging around Midtown, and SHIELD is struggling to keep the Inhumans under wraps. Superpowered people are coming out of the woodwork left and right, explosions and city block-destroying super-fights are happening commonly, the entire US Government was recently overthrown by secret HYDRA agents and nobody quite knows how to process it. 

Take this scene from Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” (spoilers for episode 4, “aka 99 Friends”): 

For those unable to watch the video, the takeaway here is that Audrey and her husband have lured Jessica to this abandoned apartment to kill her because they are terrified of the changes wrought by the emerging superhuman culture. Or as she puts it, “gifted”.  

“Gifted. Stupid word. It’s like calling someone ‘special’; they’re not special, they’re retarded. You’re not gifted, you’re a freak….you ‘saved the city’.That’s what the newspapers said. You were ‘heroes’….but I was there. I saw what really happened. I saw my mother crushed to death under a building that you people destroyed…I was trying to pull my mother out of the rubble…while all around me you people were raining down hell.”

Jessica points out that she had nothing to do with the Incident (referring to the events from the first Avengers movie) but that doesn’t matter to Audrey. She just wants to kill Jessica because she’s “gifted”, an act she calls a “preventative measure”. 

I’m willing to bet that Audrey isn’t the only person who feels that way. I also bet she isn’t the only person who’d try something like that. Hell, there are some who’d take it even further. The world is scary, uncertain and changing. People are afraid and they just want some security. 

Now imagine if people found out that there were thousands of “gifted” people and not all of them wore American Flags on their chests or worked with SHIELD. Some of them look just like me and you. There’s no way to tell who they are or if they’re dangerous. They could be anybody and they could do anything.

That’s the atmosphere of our X-Men movie. Fear and propaganda that paint mutants as inhuman monsters who want to eat your babies. The powder keg that the Avengers lit has finally exploded. 

Xavier and Magneto

The Xavier Institute is not a school. It’s a safe house; a sanctuary for young mutants with nowhere else to go. The mansion is a safe haven protected by both Charles’ telepathy and Forge’s technological marvels. 

Sure, Xavier teaches them to control their power but his primary focus is on helping them accept themselves and embrace their gift. He’s a hippy, the eternal optimist, espousing philosophy and understanding like a Buddhist monk. He believes that with some understanding, humans and mutants can live together in peace. He does not believe in violence. Love is stronger than hate. He is crippled, a solemn reminder of his previous failure with Magneto.

Speaking of which, Magneto is angry and bitter and so are the young radicals who follow him. They’re ready to fight and to show mankind that they’re not going to take it anymore. Mutants are the next step in evolution and they’re not waiting around for nature to finish making its selection on its own. 

Magneto is a shadowy figure who has the utmost loyalty from his followers. They’re almost a cult in their fanatic devotion to him and Magneto is almost a Messianic figure. He knows that war is inevitable and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to be on the winning side of it. 

A note here is that neither Xavier nor Magneto were alive during World War II. Even if they were each 60 years old, that’d mean they were born in the 1950′s. Lucky for us, humanity has a long tradition of inhuman cruelty, so any time period works for Magneto to experience those horrors. I vote we make them a little younger (both around their mid-40s). 

Xavier’s background doesn’t have to change much but Magneto’s will, since being in his 40′s means he isn’t a Holocaust survivor. I’d suggest perhaps having him grow up in South Africa during Apartheid, but there are other options. Regardless, he doesn’t have to be from Nazi Germany. I’ve never heard him voiced with a German accent so why not go with it? 

I’d also have another reason Magneto is pissed is because his son, Quicksilver, died in Age of Ultron. But wait, what? Yeah, you read that right. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are still his children. They didn’t know that they were mutants and the HYDRA experiments simply activated an X-Gene that was already present. I mean, you don’t have to include it but that would give Magneto yet another reason to hate and resent SHIELD. 

The Brotherhood of Mutants

Magneto’s mutant supremacy cult is made up of angry, young mutant radicals with a fanatic devotion to Magneto. His movement is relatively young but its numbers are already impressive. Most prominent (ie, actual characters) are: Mystique, Toad, the Blob, Mastermind, Avalanche, Domino and Rogue. As a group of mostly punks and anarchists, they are vicious, ruthless and destructive. 

The X-Men  

Beside Professor X himself, the first team of X-Men are the main focus of this story. Xavier is the leader of the team and Forge is his tech guy; Forge made the mansion’s security system, he made the Danger Room, the Blackbird, the X-Men’s uniform (which hides their mutant gene in public) and he helped Charles make Cerebro (which functions like JARVIS in addition to boosting Xavier’s psychic powers to locate mutants). Alternatively, Beast could replace Forge.

On the team proper are: Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Iceman, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm. Why them? Well, because they’re the coolest. They’d have a sweet dynamic and they all have interesting powers, aesthetics and personalities. 

The Story   

Our story is in the chaotic first days of mutants being known to society. Magneto and his Brotherhood have committed a few acts of terror and public outcry to do something about the “Mutant Menace” is at an all-time high. 

Our protagonist is Jean Grey, a young woman from New York with the power of telekinesis and limited telepathy. She’s a little socially awkward and is borderline unable to control her ability. In fact, she thinks she’s got mental problems. The Inciting Incident has Jean’s telekinesis bringing attention to her status as a mutant, introducing Jean and the audience to the world’s hatred and fear of mutants firsthand. Luckily, she’s saved by the timely intervention of Cyclops. 

While I could write a beat-by-beat outline of the entire movie (which I will absolutely do in another post), I’ll stick to an outline here. 

The main story revolves around the X-Men working to stop the Brotherhood’s assassination of controversial politician Senator Robert Kelly. There’s at least one fight with the Brotherhood early on when the X-Men go to recruit Nightcrawler. The X-Men aren’t soldiers and they don’t want to fight their fellow mutants; Xavier’s way is one of peace. But in the end, they need to protect innocent lives and Magneto will not bow and will not move from his path. Thus, Xavier reluctantly realizes that if Magneto is choosing to be an unstoppable force, he and his students must be an immovable object. 

The final battle of the movie is a big, drawn out, all-out fight between the X-Men and the Brotherhood in New York (probably) or Washington DC. During the fight, Rogue nearly drains Jean to death. However, Jean’s telepathy is stronger than Rogue anticipated, and it is also revealed that Jean has something else inside of her: the Phoenix. Rogue is overwhelmed and loses her memory from this incident, which will lead to her switching sides in the next film. Or at the very least, a short scene after the main fight where Rogue wakes up without her memories and Xavier essentially takes her in.

While the X-Men are victorious, the people still see the Brotherhood as proof that mutants are dangerous and something needs to be done. The Sentinel Project is approved but the movie ends with Xavier and Jean having a hopeful conversation. Maybe humanity doesn’t accept them yet but love is stronger than hate. Tomorrow is another day, after all.

The post-credit scene would be Magneto talking to an off-camera figure. 

“It seems Charles Xavier and his camp are more of a threat than I originally thought. I need someone qualified to…dispose of the problem before he can convert any other young mutants to his naive, integrationist agenda. Can I…rely on your skills and discretion in this operation?”

The figure replies, “I’m the best there is at what I do.” 

The camera reveals the Wolverine and he is rough; wicked, almost feral looking. He smirks, the claws revealed from one hand. “Just point me in the right direction, bub.”

Bam.

The X-Men Will Return…

Where do we go from there?

Obviously, we need a TV series to go with this right? New Mutants on Netflix. While the main X-Men are becoming public figures, this series would focus on a new group of mutants who come to live with the Professor, though they aren’t involved in the main team’s work. Xavier would be in the show, which would involve a plot surrounding Mr. Sinister in its first season.

The Netflix series could also possibly be the Jamie Madrox-era of X-Factor, where he and his associates essentially have a private-detective agency. Jamie is a former student of Xavier’s from years ago in our tale and essentially opens the business with a few friends to “make a living” but that might be a bit too much like Jessica Jones (who is also a private detective).

The second movie would focus on the Sentinel Project and the rumors of the Mutant Registration Act. Evidently, the Sentinels will only be hunting down unregistered mutants. This is a divisive point among the X-Men themselves. 

To help foster a better public image for mutants, Xavier has the X-Men intervene in natural disasters and other such incidents; they mostly stay out of politics and other superhero situations because Xavier doesn’t want the X-Men associated with any political movement or faction (thus explaining why the Avengers, SHIELD, etc. aren’t really involved in these movies). Rogue is the newest member of the team, struggling with the fact that she’s lost all of her memories and old personality. She remembers bits and pieces, but struggles telling them apart from the memories of the people she absorbed.

Jean is still our protagonist who has a will they/won’t they with Scott but that’s challenged when Wolverine rolls in. Logan is kind of our second protagonist. He’s there undercover to kill the Professor. Yes, that’s an Ultimate X-Men storyline but it works here. Wolverine pretends to be the good guy until a combination of Xavier’s unyielding philosophy and Jean’s innate goodness actually make him defect to their side by the end. We can also introduce Kitty in movie #2 or #3. 

Jean and Logan have a bickering relationship. They can’t stand each other. Of course, this means they’re attracted to each other. Emotionally, Scott represents safety; he’s a good guy. Logan is wild, dangerous; he’s a being of pure id. The love triangle is not the main thing but it’s definitely a solid Plot C that helps further the development of all three characters.

As the movies go on, we introduce Emma Frost and the Hellfire Club and go into the Dark Phoenix saga, the Messiah Complex, X-23, the Morlocks, and maybe even Apocalypse. The latter could be done like a monster movie and even necessitate the assistance of the Avengers and/or Dr. Strange! I mean, the dude’s called Apocalypse. SHIELD Might want to intervene with that one. I know we had an Apocalypse movie already, but if we can reboot Spider-Man eight thousand times, we can do another Apocalypse movie, especially if it’s done right and has other Marvel characters in it. 

Eventually, when the Avengers line-up inevitably changes, we can always bring Wolverine in, just like they did in the comics. How awesome would it be to see Wolverine and Spider-Man both on the Avengers, alongside Captain America and Iron Man? 

In Conclusion

X-Men is at its best when it’s an allegory for racial or societal tensions in the modern day. Emphasizing the atmosphere of fear, blind hatred and propaganda against “an enemy that could be anybody” is perfect for this day and age. Build that on the foundation of the Sokovia Accords and the tension that’s been building up throughout the Avengers movies and the Netflix series and bringing X-Men into the MCU would not only be easy, it’d make narrative sense. 

I hope you enjoyed this (admittedly long) breakdown of Mutants in the MCU. Thanks for taking the time to read this and let me know what you think or what you’d do. Do you agree? Do you think I’m an idiot? Let me know! 

Thanks again for dropping by!

In my next post, I’ll go into more detail with the MCU X-Men movie and we’ll even hash out a cast! See you next time! 

[das-roog]

Star Wars Thing

So I love Star Wars. Big surprise, I know. I have a shrine to the original trilogy in my closet, rage-vomit when I think about the prequels and I’m very happy with the trajectory the movies seem to be taking recently, with “The Force Awakens” and, more recently “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, both feeling like a return to form in a galaxy I feel more at home in than the one I’m actually from.

As such, I like to keep reasonably informed about what’s happening with it without spoiling myself silly. It’s a delicate balancing act, especially on the internet, which tends to be a spoiler minefield. Even trailers are becoming increasingly reliant on showing too much. 

Movie posters, however, are a completely different matter. They’re juicy morsels of information, tantalizingly promising space adventure without actually telling you anything; you can indulge as much as you want because they have little substance to them. 

I, like many of you, salivated over the newest little nugget released a little bit ago concerning Episode VIII: “The Last Jedi”. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the banner that was recently revealed: 

Cool, right? That looks pretty badass and it’s got me pretty pumped. There’s not a lot of information to glean from this piece, considering it’s kind of just our three heroes in action poses, but it still gets me excited. So, I’m going to talk about it and make some observations. 

Overall Presentation

I like how sleek this looks. It’s designed really well and the eye is really naturally drawn from Poe, past Rey and along her lightsaber to Finn. I like the warm color scheme of the poster, with the reds, browns, tans and blacks. It contrasts really well with the stark white background, which I also really like. It gives this a cleaner sort of look. Not the sort of sterile feeling I get when I watch Star Trek, but clean as in the design is simple, smooth and strong. Star Wars promos and posters tend to be really busy and epic, and I’m sure the final poster for “The Last Jedi” will be also, but this image really works for me. The weird red fragments in the background are strange, but it feels like it’s part of a larger design, so I don’t have a problem ignoring it, for the most part. 

The Characters

The banner features our three heroes from “Force Awakens”: ace pilot Poe Dameron, Jedi-in-training Rey and ex-Stormtrooper Finn. The banner is effective in communicating their basic characteristics; they look ready for action and each communicated pretty effectively their roles. Poe is pretty clearly a pilot, Rey’s obviously a Jedi. Finn’s has the least to communicate in that regard but it’s okay; he’s still got an action pose, though it does look like he’s the only person concerned with whatever’s going on to the left of them. 

A few things to take away and, warning, this is going into speculation territory and I’m 100% about to drop some spoilers about “The Force Awakens” so, uh...you know, if you haven’t seen that movie yet, turn back now. Abandon all hope (of avoiding spoilers) ye who enter here. 

Poe’s presence as one of the three characters featured on such early promotional material suggests that he’s going to play a bigger part in Episode VIII. Now, as a guy who ranks Wedge Antilles in his top 3 Star Wars characters of all time (he’s #2 if you’re wondering; Han Solo is #1, obviously), this is nothing but good news; Poe was probably my favorite character in Episode VII and more of him in the next episode can only be a good thing. Thankfully, it appears his capacity as a badass pilot seems to be intact and hopefully we can expect more X-Wing awesomeness. Also preserved, I hope, is the buddy-dynamic between Poe and Finn, which was one of the more enjoyable aspects of “The Force Awakens”, at least in the early parts. 

Finn is still wearing his jacket, which is good because that jacket is rad and I want one in real life. Again, his pose is the least telling of the three. I’ve seen it said that the shirt he’s wearing in the picture looks like a Jedi robe, but it actually looks more like Han Solo’s shirt from “The Empire Strikes Back” (pictured below). 

It’d be cool if that suggested his turn as a sort of psuedo-Han smuggler in the wake of Solo’s death at the end of Episode VII but I doubt it. I mean, it’s probably just a shirt. I’m all for nitpicking the tiny details to make outlandish claims but it’s only a shirt. Not much to glean there, I think.  

Rey, though, looks absolutely radical. I love her hair style change. I’m not a hair guy so I can’t tell you why it works, but I can tell you that I like it a lot. Her pose is confident and powerful. She’s got a firm grip on the Skywalker lightsaber and an expression that dares you to try to duel her. It’s an awesome hero pose and I’m looking forward to seeing how the character grows under Luke’s tutelage.

The Story?

So I don’t know what the story for the next episode will be. I’ve read a bunch of weird theories, like Rey being the reincarnation of a Force-Tree or something (really!), but none of them seem likely. The story for “The Force Awakens” left things open-ended but vaaaaague. We know there’s more to the story (outside of the fact that it’s a Star Wars movie and Disney loves the Scrooge McDuck-style pool of money it’s going to make them). Kylo Ren escapes the destruction of Starkiller Base and the nature of Supreme Leader Snoke is largely a mystery. Luke’s whole deal is a big question mark, as is the identity of Rey’s parents (a question I care less about than most people on the internet, apparently). If nothing else, none of the characters really finished their arcs (not in a bad way): Finn’s in a coma, Poe’s...I don’t know, making a sandwich or something and Rey ended the movie on that powerful moment with Luke. 

Soooo yeah, there’s a lot of open story threads but no clear indication of where the story is going outside of basic presumptions one can make based on the earlier films. For example, this one will probably be the darkest and might not have a happy ending (being the second in a trilogy). 

But there are a few things to consider. I don’t claim to know where the story’s going or what’s been happening but I have some mostly-baseless speculation. After all, Lucas has said that the movies are supposed to “rhyme” and Episode VII sure did rhyme with Episode IV, so one can assume that Episode VIII might rhyme with Episode V. By “rhyming”, I mean that certain themes, plot elements and tone are similar to the other episodes in that position in their respective trilogies (As the first episode of their trilogies, for example, Episodes I, IV and VII all had a lot of similarities, which I might cover in a future post). 

Baseless Speculation!

So while I don’t have much concrete information to go on, a lot of my speculation comes from A) What I’d do as a writer and B) The fact that I read somewhere that “The Last Jedi” is supposed to pick up like, literally where “The Force Awakens” left off.

Finn’s main thing at the start of the story is looking for Rey.

Poe is probably going to drag Finn along on a mission for the Resistance. I doubt the movie will have the “war movie in space” feel that “Rogue One” did, but Poe’s involvement outside of working for the Resistance feels out of place at this point, especially if little to no time has passed between Episodes VII and VIII. 

Kylo Ren will be much more intimidating this time around due to his “increased” training. Odds are low that he’ll kill Luke, though. He just might end up maiming Rey, however, considering main characters tend to lose hands fighting the Big Bad Guy in the second chapters of these movies. Anakin lost most of his friggin’ arm to Count Dooku in “Attack of the Clones” and Luke famously lost his hand to Darth Vader in the iconic Bespin Duel in “The Empire Strikes Back”. It’s not terribly out-there to suggest the same might happen to Rey. 

Rey and Luke are going to have some philosophical training sequences and will become involved in Poe/Finn’s mission through sheer “The Will of the Force”. Possibly (hopefully!) because she has similar force visions of Finn and Poe suffering, as Luke once did. 

Luke will be awesome, I hope. Though he’ll probably be a little unwilling to train Rey at first because of what happened to his last crop of new Jedi (hint: the movie is titled “The Last Jedi”). 

Speaking of the title, “The Last Jedi” does not refer to either Luke or Rey; it’s referring to the both of them together. The plural of Jedi is Jedi, after all. Just another thing they have in common with Moose. 

While I have little doubt that the movie will be the darkest of the third trilogy, I don’t think it’s going to go too dark. Like, it’s not gonna pull a “Rogue One” on us. Whatever happens, even if the good guys technically lose, I think it’s going to end on a slightly hopeful note, much like the end of “Empire”.

We’re going to get some answers regarding Rey’s parents because apparently people care about that. That’s fine, you need to expound on that a little bit for sure since you set it up in “The Force Awakens” but I just hope to god she isn’t a Skywalker. I know the main trilogy is the Saga of the Skywalkers but like...I don’t want Rey to be a Skywalker. I have a bad feeling, though, that Luke being her father is going to be a funhouse mirror to the Darth Vader being Luke’s father reveal. But maybe that’s too obvious, I don’t know.

We’ll get a liiiittle more info on Snoke, but I think any big reveals about his character will come in Episode IX, where I think stopping him is going to be a bigger focus. 

There will, without a doubt, be BB-8 + R2-D2 duo shenanigans for the kids. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.    

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s my two cents on the whole thing. Feel free to share your own thoughts, theories, speculations and opinions on anything I talked about here. I love talking Star Wars, so you know.

Thanks for dropping by. 

[das-roog]

Hahaha! Oh, man. That is so me. I love those cute little guys.

[das-roog]

This is why Reading Rainbow was so amazing. This guy loves books. He loves the written word so much and it’s contagious. This guy is one of the reasons I write. 

[das-roog]

Reiteration.

Hiya. I’m Aaron. I write things for a living. 

This is a place where I write things. My goal is to have at least one post every day, working through the book of “300 Writing Prompts”. It’s mostly for my own personal work and satisfaction, and to just kind of keep writing.