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flying-elliska · 5 years

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S3 Rewatch - Episode 2 - Vendredi 19h34 “Surprenant”

I really was looking forward to see if I could write anything new about this scene and like ...of course I can, I could write a whole ass essay about it. So here goes. (it’s a long one sorry lmao)

The first few seconds set the scene perfectly. The scratchy white noise of the vinyl after it’s done ; the low golden lighting, the smoke Eliott blows in the air, the sated expressions on their faces - that feeling of perfect contentment you get when you are perfectly at ease being with someone, even in silence. Lazy afternoons where time just seems to disappear, the feeling of being high, skipping your obligations, taking time for yourself - makes the clip feel somehow nostalgic, timeless and expectant all at once. Something has happened in the time between last clip and now, because they’re suddenly much more comfortable with each other. The tension is of a different kind now. The short moment where they turn their heads towards each other feels almost too intimate to witness - we’ve never seen Lucas like that before, so comfortable, letting go of outside pressure. Then he gets up to change the music and vinyl is a great prop to use because it’s so tactile, as is the piano - the fact that Lucas is touching Eliott’s instruments is both a shorthand for their newfound closeness and umm...a bold move lmao not to mention the obvious connotation. (He doesn’t even put the vinyl back in its jacket that heathen...can’t see Eliott too bothered lmao).

I laughed out loud at Eliott’s “I don’t want to impress you” because that is both a big fat lie and sort of true in the sense that he doesn’t want to intimidate Lucas but still wants him to think Eliott’s cool (and the two previous sentences were sort of a boast, still.) Beethoven and Star Wars feels like a very Eliott type of mix. Fur Elise is a sad but beautiful piece, that the compositor apparently dedicated to a female friend he proposed to but turned him down (?) That fits with Eliott’s tendency for pessimism and melancholy. On the other hand the Star Wars theme is playful and hopeful and geeky ; I looked up how it sounds on the piano and it’s absolutely adorable, like it was made to be a Porg lullaby. The way Eliott talks about it, slightly ironic (plus the Star Wars theme is pretty simple and Fur Elise is often played by dabblers) makes it sound like he probably taught himself a few pieces on a piano that was already in the house, as a party trick. I see Eliott appreciating this type of music, but maybe not having the persistence and discipline that getting actually good at classical demands. (And I don’t see his parents being around to push him either.) Maybe he tried and gave up or figured it wasn’t for him, which would give his admiration for Lucas’ playing a new dimension, like he knows how hard it is and brings him something he doesn’t have (but alright, I’m reaching a bit here).

Lucas plays a few notes and Eliott teases him again about also having a triangle if he wants. Is he trying to find his bearings again after not having played for a while ? Is he also teasing ? Is he nervous, careful ? We can see him nod ever so slightly once he gets it and starts to play faster, like he’s happy to come back to this piece. The actual piece of piano by RIOPY starts fast right from the beginning but I like that they start slower here ; the whole piece is a beautiful metaphor for their relationship - starts hesitant and slow, withholding, and then the notes become deeper and the passion moves in all at once and it’s like he almost can’t contain it ? But you can also hear the effort it takes ? The emotion is just perfect for the story and I am so impressed at Axel learning it from scratch. I wonder in what context Lucas learned it. With the title and the emotion behind it, was he dreaming of having someone to adress it to ?

Then we have, for a brief moment, Eliott’s perspective as he sits up with a look of disbelief, amazement and then enthusiasm. And how fitting is it, really, that the first time we ever get his worldview is the exact moment he falls in love. Plus the perspective crossing adds to the impression of connection of the moment. And the way Lucas is framed from Eliott’s perspective - the light behind him gives him a halo. We go on this whole emotional journey in a few seconds with Eliott, falling in love with Lucas too. First it’s pure surprise as his eyes zoom in, like he’s just automatically drawn to get closer, to pay attention, cutting through the haze (of weed, but also his life). Then it’s awe as he just lets himself realize how amazing this boy he’s developped a crush on really is, and for a few seconds he looks almost fragile, almost like it’s too much. Then finally he smiles and it’s just the joy of the music and Lucas sharing it with him. Maxence just absolutely nails this crucial moment (and also this is the prettiest he is all season tbh fight me ; how fitting. Eliott is a ‘lover of life’ - love would make him the most beautiful, too.)

Why does this moment feel so special apart from how well it’s acted and filmed ? Well, from what we’ve seen so far from Lucas, it’s unexpected. We know that he’s clever, that he can be very manipulative, that he’s repressing his sexuality, and that he’s got trouble at home, that he’s closed off and trying very hard to pretend to be “normal”. Apart from that, there isn’t much to set him apart from the average teenage boy who likes to go out and drink beer with his mates and say slightly insulting stuff about girls and try a little too hard to be cool. So far, we can all empathize with him, but we don’t know that much positive stuff about him, to be honest. The piano scene is the first clue of how much there truly is under the surface. It’s a step away from the macho player image he’s careful to cultivate ; it’s a sign that he does have somewhat of an artistic, sensitive temperament. It’s the first revelation about him that feels wholly positive, unburdened by shame, and yet highlights how fake his closed off daily demeanour is. It’s a clue that he’s not only repressing the fact that he’s gay but a whole world of emotions, how caring and sensitive he can be - because of how rough life has been for him the past few years - social clichés, the pressure, the stuff with his family disintegrating, the homophobic jokes around him for not being masculine enough or liking ‘gay music’, how lonely and confused he must be. This season, in short, is not only about Lucas accepting he’s gay, but about himself opening up and growing into his own person, someone both strong and compassionate, bold and sensitive, defining himself beyond clichés or the heritage of his asshole father, stepping beyond his insecurities, to become his own man. That’s what the piano scene represents and why it will always be god tier. Oh and also : it’s an offering for Eliott. He’s taking a chance here, too, and the joke he makes when he’s done...it’s almost he’s expecting to be mocked so he does it himself. I would bet that his piece of shit father probably said something about piano being too effeminate at least once. That’s kind of heartbreaking. It’s also a clue to how safe he must feel with Eliott, or at least how strongly he wants to, well, impress him to take that risk. He’s seen Eliott’s drawings and he wants to say hey me too I can be artsy !!! And his intuition is so spot on. We know Eliott’s been making drawings about them already, that he’s a romantic daydreaming about finding love stronger than fear. He’s a pessimist because of his condition and yet he really wants to believe that his emotions can be valid (that’s a key part of his arc in the season) and he can find love. So then he met Lucas ; it must have felt like love at first sight but he must also have told himself, what if this is fake, what if it’s just a random obsession, what if what if, he doesn’t even know him, what if he’s a crappy person, etc. So to discover that Lucas is actually so brilliant, and that they can connect over art, that they share this sensitivity about beauty and meaning, about wanting life to be more, and that Lucas is brave enough to reach out, and just the amount of feeling in that short piece...it must have felt so validating, and like destiny, too (we know it’s a word he will use for Lucas later). I think this is probably when Eliott really started to believe that Lucas could be his Polaris story. It’s already a ‘you’re not alone’ moment, too.

So that scene is absolutely key in both their story arcs and their relationship. But it’s not over ! There is an awkward moment moment after Lucas is done because it feels like he’s given too much, too soon - but Eliott catches him like in a trust fall, he says yes, this meant something, it was amazing, it was surprising and I like surprising people - like I said, Eliott wanting to surprise people to test them and loving to be surprised in turn says so much about him as a character. And then the touch at the door, how did Lucas and we with him not collectively die on the spot. Because that was absolutely unambiguously a mark of interest. Love the idea that Eliott is trying not to kiss him but I also feel like he felt kind of bad for kicking Lucas out and he wanted him to know he was really interested and it was not just a buddy hang because like...in that particular context that’s just not something you do with a buddy aahhahaha. Love how the shot is framed with Eliott standing in the dark, Lucas in the light, and Lucas’ little shocked smile when the door closes.

And then drama. Chloé is such an overdramatic teen, god - a guy she’s talked to twice stands her up and she’s like “men are trash” hgdfhgd...But it is an apt parallel with Eliott kissing Lucille. It is such a slap in the face after the earlier intensity but also like. Eliott is such a dumbass in that moment, how did he not see Lucas standing there ? To me, it means that in his head, Lucas and Lucille really are separated - Lucille is his safety net and he kisses her a little bit without thinking, automatically. The whole Lucas thing is in another world, scary and thrilling and uncertain and so he doesn’t want to give up his safety net yet. It’s ...not super healthy tbh. It’s kind of a pattern with him, of not being honest out of fear and i don’t like it, but at the same time, coming from his perspective, it is somewhat understandable. He just lives with a different set of stakes. I’m not excusing it, but yeah. Poor Lucas though.

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#skam france #s3 rewatch #it's overinterpretation time !!!

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ash-etherwood · 6 years

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I'm extremely scared for no reason to upload my interpretations of A and B from Death Note but I'm just gonna do it now to have it out of the way ok? ok. (-:

I love the newer fan interpretations of B as a weird gross stupid depressed trash boy, because I am absolutely weak for weird gross stupid depressed trash boys. Also I love pretty much any kind of A, and the 'handsome delicate white boy' type A was the first one that stuck with me, but I also love female A, so my interpretation of them is a delicate handsome genderfluid sad baby. (I wanted their hair to resemble Ls in the rain scene in ep 25 because yea haha.)

They both appear in the prologue of my fic (pretty much only for the fanservice tbh ahhh), together with Theo who is Maus' OC (I'm just gonna stick with the name until you make up your mind ok ;-D I'm already sold for it tbh,,) and a mean jock bully who is also already a gay icon whom I love. Greasy teenage girl ... edge lord ... I smorch her.

And then there's Cinna(mon) who looks like a fucking porg in this picture god they look so stupid I love them!!!! They're an idiot who crushes on girls they've seen on photos from 8 years ago and whose birthmark patterns they memorized from looking at pictures of her because they're a gay idiot ANYWAY I wanted to draw the main OCs of my fic as kids and also A and B thank you.

#ref drawing #the dn fic revival #Death Note #im too scared to tag this as fanart haha so i wont (-:

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clairen45 · 6 years

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Heey, I love your bird meta! Really! So, I have a question: this porg adventure comic with Rey and chewie? Plays this after TLJ or meanwhile TLJ? Because she has this new outfit but her old hairstyle, so I'm a little bit confused😂

This is a great question you are asking, dear Anon. Thank you, thank you for reading and liking the bird meta! I was like, yea, got an ask! I love those! And even better, a question about costumes and hairstyle! You are so right, this is a mix of this clothing:

But with the old hairstyle:

Obviously, it would make no sense to have Rey return to her old 3-bun hairstyle after all this growth and development (aka wet cave and smut hut). And I think it is safe to assume that the trademark hairstyle is gone for good. After all, they didn’t keep Leia or Padmé in the same hairstyle in the OT and PT. They need to acknowledge the change of hair. So now, Rey is rocking what the lovely lady from @starwarsconnection compared -with reason- with Natalie Wood’s style in West Side Story.

So here is your answer. This comic was published in December 2017, so right around the release of TLJ. I frankly had never heard of it before reasearching about the porgs. So hang on, because from I understand, this is exactly when it took place: right before meeting Kylo!

This even adds more fodder to my bird meta and the nesting theory! Proof in picture:

This is Rey and Chewbacca boarding the Falcon, leaving the island. In terms of accuracy there is ONE mistake, though… The scene is supposed to take place at night in the rain, not in broad daylight. In terms of continuity, it doesn’t seem to fit, but it has to be. I would have expected her to change aboard, honestly… It has to be the island because of porg on the ground, and the color palette in the background, plus it is the crew that was on Ahch-To: Chewie, R2D2, Rey. no one else. So it can’t be post TLJ: no scar, no other characters rescued on Crait.

Rey is next seen with the old hairstyle… Again, continuity problem… Her hair should have been down and wet. But they probably kept the old style to make her recognizable at once. Also, it was just at the time they had released TLJ, so Rey was still very much associated with that type of hair. Not so much anymore.

So the only possible moment this fits in the timeline is RIGHT before shipping herself to the Supremacy. And I have a particular fondness for this little scene, in that respect:

Now that the SOLO movie has given us THE double bed, we now have the bathroom. Little scene with the Porg doing quite SOME cleaning up: brushing teeth and brushing its hair…. Ummmm… Isn’t it what we all joked homegirl did right before meeting Kylo: changing her hairstyle and putting some make up on, groomed as we had never seen her before. Replace the porg with Rey. Honestly. Again, as I said in the Bird meta, there is a cutesy little game at play with the birds and the characters… (Personal note: wonder what delightful song Rey will croon when pleased… Ok… that was trash)

So there you have it. Girl made a last minute change in her hair to meet uber-well coiffed Kylo (in TFA anyways).

Now compare with the canon we have post TLJ:

The clothing is the same. Hairstyle is long but back to disheveled, a la TFA.

Homegirl is sticking to the new more mature womanly look. But she is not trying to sex it up with other dudes. I have a problem with what I see from the pictures in the Poe Dameron comic (no visible scar…).

Honestly, I can’t wait to see what they came up with for her style in ep IX. I know that there was boobgate when this picture was released…

So, oh boy, can’t wait for the controversy for the one they will throw at us in the promos in 2019! As fellow Tumblr @sulfisreen suggested recently, it can indeed go either way: something darker since it is what we got for Anakin and Luke in the third installment. Or something white, coding her as the angel/white knight. I don’t know. I hope something badass but also something womanly. I hope we can get the two looks that reflect her coming into the role of the mother. And probably some flowy hair (a la Padmé?) eventually….? I am sure @assortedfruitsnacks212 can design us something gorgeous!

#rey in comics #rey costume and hairstyle #rey meta #the last jedi #porgs #porgs and rey #star wars extra material #reylo fandom #reylo #star wars parallels

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hereitalkonandon · 6 years

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Porgs

I already know you don't put up with nonsense and all of that, what I meant is that maybe you would tone it down two times out of ten, and that you should make it one time out of ten but ideally zero out of ten. I noticed I wrote the fractions wrong last night.

But I already knew you are not a pushover, I can't find that one post of course because it's so old, but it basically said you would sometimes not speak your mind about a stupid compliment because you wanted to be accepted/liked, something like that, by men that you like, I wouldn't know if you meant, admiration or attraction by now since I don't remember the quote, or maybe it was someone else's post and then you added a tag, but it wasn't about them being mean, they were actually thinking they were complimenting you and calling you special by saying you are not like other girls.

So, I was just guessing, that maybe you were only at 90% instead of 100% in that sort of situations, to not be too much until you felt comfortable or maybe to not be mean since their intentions were good even if they were being stupid.

But I would never assume you allow people to walk over you, or that you don't speak your mind most of the time, just that maybe you would ignore a few things that you would rather not ignore.

But I was probably wrong because as I said I have no idea of the way that you behave outside your blog with the people that you respect but that you are not comfortable around, I was only guessing because of that one post and maybe four or five other posts.

I was thinking about me too, I'm a lot for most people, but as man, at worst I would get called overdramatic or too intense, but it's fine, a man can be overdramatic and a man can be too intense, they don't make a big deal out of it.

If they did, I still wouldn't stop, as you probably wouldn't, I've lived at 100% ever since I'm 17 or so and couldn't care less and I never once have tried to tone it down in the slightest. Until I met you, but that's different, I'm just so concerned with not being disrespectful because I've never approached anyone for anything, so I feel, as I said, that it's up to me not to be rude, that it's my responsibility because all of this was unasked for.

But of course I hide so many things when it comes to feelings, but just positive feelings, things that mean I care about something, out of some reputation, but it's not even about being masculine. I used to be so into Hello Kitty, it started at 19 or so and it stopped once my girlfriend left, and I told everyone how into it I was, and then I still like her now I just don't care that much. My room wasn't full of Hello Kitty things or anything but I own all that merchandise still. I've always liked Snoopy better but Hello Kitty merchandise was everywhere. I love Porgs now.

But I don't think the things someone likes make him masculine anyway, most men are so concerned about it. I’m only worried about my principles. I've seen men that are obsessed with superheroes and fighting and they are not masculine at all. And I know it doesn't matter if you are feminine or masculine, but most people would say I'm pretty masculine and I'm usually into cute things. I certainly couldn't care less about violence other than spaceships shooting other ships, lightsabers, and sword fights, and then I know you like superheroes so it isn’t meant as an offense but I find them so boring, and movies about people shooting each other too, I just don’t see the appeal.

I've seen a lot of women that hide all their positive feelings too and I wouldn't say they are being masculine, I just can't think of the word right now but I know that what I'm protecting isn't my masculinity because if I were a woman I would also try to protect whatever reputation I’m protecting, I've just always kept compliments and all that sort of things to myself. I've never hugged anyone, kissed anyone, or told anyone I loved them other than my girlfriend, but I also never felt the need to do those things with other people, I don’t have to hide anything, it’s just not there to begin with. So other than that I always say what I'm thinking and do whatever I want to do.

But even if I didn't mean what you thought I meant, I can assume now that you speak your mind at 100% too no matter what the situation is and that you also do what you want. Other than when you could put your life at risk, but that's just like when you avoid walking alone at night as I've read that you do. Men are awful and that's reality, there's nothing to be gained by ignoring that fact.

And of course you never said anything stupid about my relationship, because everything you said could also apply to someone that had a bond as long as mine if what they truly needed was to move on. Even if we had met at 5 and I were 60 now, and she was over me and truly loved another man and believed he is the love of her life. I would be an idiot to refuse to try to get over her and move on with my life. And anyone with common sense would tell me the same things you told me. It's just that my beliefs are too specific.

What you said about your ex-boyfriend, I understand how our emotions can make us have thoughts that are the opposite of what we truly think a day or two afterwards, even if I'm not impulsive at all, and if I really think before I act, if I'm so stubborn and sure of what I want, it happens to me, just five minutes at a time or so, but I feel it sometimes too.

I have said it before but at this point I highly doubt I love her because of who she is, I probably haven't loved her because of who she is since 2014 or so, at that point it started being as if I were her dad and I owed it to her, but I have never forced myself, it's there.

I don't want her to be someone else but I don't think I'm ever going to say that I can't get over her because there is no one like her. The one thing that I hate about her, other than things that have to do with other men, is how chill she is, it bothers me so much. And I know she will always be that way. And I feel like punching all chill people (not her) but not actually, they just frustrate me when I try to understand how their brains work but I don't feel any hate towards them, they aren't hurting me.

I've never been in a fight. I think you shouldn't hit someone unless they hit you first and no one has tried to hit me yet, and you can't hit women either no matter what of course.

You have your dumb child and that's what parenthood means. I took care of her for so long, in the sense that I spent so many years worrying about her, the way parents do, to me it makes sense that at some point I ended up just living for her safety and well-being, while I'm so proud and had to put my pride first, therefore we are not in contact anymore.

It's just because I know I wouldn't be able to stop yelling and getting so angry if she started talking about men and it's my right to not want to pretend I care to hear that, but I never told her this when I said I wouldn't be her friend. She knows anyway, it's obvious.

I love her like this because of who I am not because of anything in her. It doesn't mean she is a boring person either, she's not like most people. We were so alike sometimes but I don't think she shaped me or that our memories together shaped me, my love for her is probably what shaped me and it has nothing to do with her.

I don't want children but even if I ever did, I wouldn't dare. I feel like you should only have a child if you can make him your priority in your feelings too, not just with your actions, that you should know you would never love anyone over your child and I've already failed that step without even trying, I know who I am and that I could never put anything over romantic love.

But what you said about it taking you a long time to get over that relationship, after my break up I read that it usually takes you at least half the time that you spent together. So knowing who I am, I always assumed it would take me about ten years anyway, and I'm not who I used to be, my feelings are so strange, but I can't say I feel as awful as when she left, that makes me think that maybe in two years it will be better than now too, whether I still love her or not, because right now I love her just as much, the pain is just different.

I know you aren't normal, I just meant you are able to feel any love at all for your family and for your friends, for your boyfriend even when you don't feel as connected to him as you would like, the fact that you can feel love for anyone other than a soul mate, I know that's normal, but I can't do that anymore.

Other than that you are obviously not like most people, I've seen about half your blog and I've a good memory. The special snowflake jokes people keep making on Tumblr, only make me think that the ones making them truly have no idea that there are people that are just different, and if they were different they would know it themselves.

I know you are not trying to sound edgy, I'm old enough and you are the first person like yourself that I know of. I'm aware though that sometimes they make that sort of jokes about people that choose a lot of weird labels and odd interests just in order to feel special, and I don't mind them but that's stupid, that doesn't say anything about their actual character.

I've never assumed that you were in a position to help me though, I merely noticed that you were helping me anyway, even if I didn't want to, that to keep interacting with someone that I could relate to was fixing something inside me, what you were talking about had nothing to do with it. Just the act itself.

And the fact that I realized that I'm able to feel all those things again if I ever want to can't be erased, not even if you murdered my entire family and I ended up hating you, which is something stupid, but just so you understand.

Because of you I'm sure it can be done now. That it’s just up to whatever I decide to do. For now I'm perfectly happy being trash but the problem is I keep feeling more like who I used to be before, and I know it's not a bad thing and that it would be an awful thing to fight it, not awful, but that it would be wrong so I don't fight it, but I struggle, because I feel like fighting it often.

Yeah, when I write in my journal no one is reading it and I don't want them to, but I start feeling better just by doing that. But I don't understand why you say that people around you don't care that much for the kind of things you are telling me, I know you must be right if you are seeing it, but they love you, they should care.

At the same time though, people that love me listen to me, but I understand what you mean now that I think about it, it's just that it doesn't bother me. Precisely because I'm messed up and I don't mind anything that isn't about my break up. So I don't feel alone or anything, but I never did even before I met her. I feel misunderstood way too often, though, but again, I don’t mind it.

It bothers me that I don’t feel that people are as intense as me, I know there are a lot of intense people, it doesn’t feel like the same wavelength though, I’m not even talking about likes and thoughts, it’s something different, I’ve never seen it, I wish more fictional characters were like that, I said fictional characters because I know that if I found fifty people that had that thing that I’m talking about but can’t explain I wouldn’t bother with them anyway, I would like them, but I enjoy being alone and not having a social life. I never have enough time, for some reason. I don't actually mind if no one cares about what I have to say or my interests.

What is new to me is that you aren't often thinking about the other guy, and I thought that maybe you were confused or annoyed because you thought that maybe you could get what you wanted from him. I read the post where you said you were disenchanted when you actually went out with him to eat or something, but I didn't know the reason, so I thought you could still be into it.

I don't know if it was an experiment, but what I know is that it sounds like a terrible idea and I see why you lost your interest. It could be that he kept talking about her because she was such a big part of his past.

For a while now, sometimes I end up talking about her because she has something to do with what I'm saying, she was always in my past, and the point is that if I avoided talking about her, I would have to modify the story or sometimes even lie about it, I don’t lie, I don’t like it. The first letter I wrote to you, it was so long, and it talked about me, I didn’t mention her once and yet, everything I said about her gives you a better description of who I am. I could see how talking about your ex-girlfriend doesn't necessarily mean you aren't over her but I also know that sometimes that's exactly what it means.

So if you say he wasn't over her, he probably even told you himself and it's usually what it means. Maybe one time out of ten it's not what it looks like.

I enjoy that you talk more about yourself when you answer me, I enjoy your thoughts no matter what they are, but the more you talk about yourself the more I can try to talk less about myself. I sort of always end up doing that.

I spent so much time on your blog, because of you of course, at first you didn't even know I was doing it. So it makes sense that I actually love to know about you. I already know everything about me, I just talk a lot, and I enjoy writing about anything really.

But whenever you write a new letter I read it plenty of times and think about everything you say, and when I don't say anything is just because I would rather not write a forced answer and end up writing something dumb just for the sake of writing it. I wish I had something to add about everything you tell me.

I've always been too selfish and it suits me. Just not with my ex-girlfriend. I try to not be selfish with you and maybe I fail, I try, not because it makes me feel good about myself, it doesn't because it's not about that (I've always felt good about myself already),but because it makes me feel human.

I told you before that once I start writing something I can't stop until I finish, so that's why I'll actually keep losing sleep if I have to when it comes to sending you an answer. But it's just because of who I am. These two weeks though I haven't been sleepy at all, so I barely sleep and that's why I'm often falling asleep at night when I'm writing to you.

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bafras · 7 years

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Part 2.

Poe figuring out Luke was stalling.

Rey gunning the falcon. Her saying 'I like this.'

The whole scene where Finn wakes up and bb8 informs Poe.

Force bond. (I was expecting it.) I was thinking since we heard reys' thoughts that we may hear kylos' but ya know... I did like how rian did it tho. I liked how they could only see each other. Also it was easy to see that they weren't controlling the visions themselves right off the bat.

Rose tico you beautiful cinnamon roll.

Lukes' smirk. Lukes' wink.

Rey shooting the blaster and Kylo jumping.

Luke and R2 in the falcon. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi you're my only hope.

Then he is our only hope.-rey.

Poes' necklace.

Kylo choosing Rey over snoke.

The score.

Kylo skidding across the floor.

Luke saying to Kylo and Rey 'Amazing, every word you just said, was wrong.

Rose and Finns' faces when bb8 was in the atst.

Kylo destroying his helmet in the elevator.

Leia slapping Poe.. <yes. Did anyone see that post that said Carrie and Oscar had to do that take 27 times?

Luke telling Rey to sit on the rock and reach out towards the force.

CHROME DOME.

Laser sword.yes bringing it back.

Canto bight.🤑

So I realized that Kylo killing Snoke gave him the ability to become darker.

I feel like Poe was Leias real son. Anyone else?

Luke blowing over a stone hut when he sees Rey and Kylo touching hands. How is he gonna explain that to the caretakers?

When Rey kept breaking things and the ahchto nuns just took it.

The dice in the falcon.

Luke dusting off his shoulder. (Like if you try to blast him away with tons of missiles , wait for the smoke to clear away, and he's still there? Come on man.)

Leia telling Poe he can't go blow up stuff then 5 seconds later tells him he can.

Luke with that gigantic fish.

Poe is going to make a perfect leader.

Yoda you sweet pea. His laugh was adorable.

Poe embracing bb8 at the end.

The salt on crait.( Which was actually the salt flats in Bolivia.)

Reylo feels? Like I was expecting one or two, but oh my rian Johnson what have you Done?

Reys belief that the force is moving rocks.

Retro rebellion stuff.

Poe sliding into the trench.

Bb8 magnetizing his head back on.

Finn waking up and Poe saying he must have 1000 questions, and he asks 'where's rey?'.

Can we talk about phasma. Her scene was short lived. I feel like she's still alive.

That shot at the end of movie where the 10 rebels are in the falcon...yeah someone get me an hd pic now!

Kylo pronouncing Jakku weirdly.

Holdo surprised me. Did anyone else think she may've been evil? She's a true rebellion hero.

Rey and Kylo in the elevator.

That finrose kiss. I didn't know I needed that. I'm mean I shipped them but now I ship them even more now. LET THE FANFICS ROLL!

Trash can bb8 was #goals. Like legit no one had a clue.

Kylo calling Rey nothing, but 'not nothing' to him.

Rey has to build a lightsaber. Ya know I'm kinda hoping it's a white or pale gray.

Porgs. I needed more porgs.

UH, snoke you're kinda gross looking,no offense.

Rey calling kylo 'Ben' multiple times and him not correcting her.

Skelling michael. BREATHTAKING. #irishblood

Adam, your teeth are larger than I thought they were.

Rey moving the rocks. Poe and Finn staring at her. Rey and Finn finally getting a hug in.

Hux are you thinking about switching sides cuz this is the perfect time to get out?

POE AND REY MEETING. WHAT WAS THAT LOOK. DID YOU SEE THAT LOOK? DID I MAKE IT UP IN MY MIND? AM I THE ONLY ONE?

No one is ever really gone.-luke #rip

Snoke hitting Rey in the head with the light saber.

Chewie hitting the porgs multiple times.

Luke closing himself off to the force. He didn't know. He didn't know.

Finn pulling the blanket over Rose.

Rey closing the door on kylo. (U done messed up jimmy.)

IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR PRINCESS CARRIE FISHER.

#tlj #starwars #kylo ren #beautiful #poe dameron #bb8 #the last jedi #loved it

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simonjadis · 7 years

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Review: The Last Jedi

I’ve been wanting to write this since I saw TLJ opening night, but I write for a living, which cuts into free-time writing. Here is my review of The Last Jedi.

Warning: The Last Jedi spoilers Also Warning: this is very long

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Before I dive into what works and what does not work for The Last Jedi, I want to say two things:

First, that my favorite installment of Star Wars canon is Star Wars: The Clone Wars and that my three favorite Star Wars films, independent of The Last Jedi, are Return Of The Jedi, Revenge Of The Sith, and Rogue One, in no particular order.

Second, that someone's opinion on The Last Jedi differing from my own does not change my opinion of them. There are some films—such as 2016's Ghostbusters—where fondness or dislike is heavily politicized in a way that makes me wary of people who dislike them (If it's any indication, my cheeks hurt from laughter when I left the theater after seeing Ghostbusters). The Last Jedi is not one of these films.

I mention my favorites from Star Wars because I believe that every reviewer should start with that. I cannot tell you how many vague reviews I saw of The Last Jedi (I avoided any detailed ones, post-embargo) that I didn't know if I could trust. I saw other takes from reviewers—that The Last Jedi was “the best Star Wars film since Empire Strikes Back.” These reviews are not helpful to me, because while that's a popular favorite, anyone using Empire as a touchstone for best Star Wars films has different priorities than my own.

And that ties into why I wanted to make that second statement. Everybody has different priorities when they see films, and there's more to that than genre. I don't just mean that some people love space battles more than others, or that different people have different favorite characters. Some people (including writers and showrunners) are more invested in story, while others are invested in continuity or worldbuilding or character consistency. And the list goes on.

So, someone who likes or dislikes the The Last Jedi isn't automatically stupid or wrong or problematic. And I have to mention that because I have seen some alarmingly bad takes—not on the film, but on people's reactions.

For example (because I've seen this a lot, though not directed at me), assuming that someone dislikes a film because their fan theories weren't correct is toxic and rude.

I should also mention that I have still not read any post-embargo reviews of The Last Jedi, including from good friends of mine (though I'll read those as soon as this is complete). Though I discussed the film with my companions for a couple of hours after we returned, as we were still processing it, I want to give my take on the movie.

So, The Last Jedi is, in my opinion, not a great Star Wars film. I struggle to think of a film aside from The Phantom Menace that I enjoy less. The Empire Strikes Back probably ranks just above it, at the bottom of the Star Wars barrel.

To quote George Lucas, The Last Jedi was “beautifully made.” I never thought that I'd be impressed by George Lucas' shade, but here we are.

Spoilers below:

THE GOOD

I'll explain why I feel that way, but I want to start by talking about positives. True spoilers abound beyond this point, folks.

The film was beautiful and beautifully made.

I have longed to see Leia use the Force since I, as a child, first saw Return of the Jedi. I was disappointed to not see it in The Force Awakens, but very glad to see her racing through space. Some people suggested that the scene was not realistic, but I would point out that Darth Vader (Leia's dad) survived being delimbed and ignited. Darth Maul survived being cut in half. Those are trained Sith, but it sets a powerful precedent for surviving the unsurvivable through the Force. Leia was not hit directly by the explosion, but sucked out into the vacuum of space. Cloaked in the Force, she survives long enough to pull herself to the airlock door. It was a powerful scene and I loved it.

I don't know that I'd die for anyone, but I would certainly kill for Billie Lourd. Or for Gary Fisher. We all mourn Carrie Fisher, but seeing how extensive Billie Lourd's role was in The Last Jedi—particularly in comparison with her small cameo in The Force Awakens—really warms the cockles of your heart. Her character is not explained, and while that might irritate me if she were played by essentially anyone else, I enjoy that she's Billie Lourd and the audience knows who she is and implicitly accepts her friendship with Poe Dameron and trusts her to be a good person.

There is a lot of good about Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo. First of all, she has a baller first name. “Holdo” is a little close to “Hondo,” as in Hondo Ohnaka, Obi-Wan's pirate boyfriend acquaintance. But it's Star Wars and Star Wars names are bound to overlap. Some people apparently believed earlier in the film that she might be a traitor, but I only took her behavior as a typical Lawful Good performance versus Poe Dameron's Chaotic Good antics. Things turned out to be a little more complex than that. Also, she had really nice hair. Her “he's dangerous” and “I like him” lines about Poe were honestly delightful. I wish that she'd been more forthcoming (especially given how wildly informal the Rebellion, from which the Resistance seems to have been formed, has always been).

Finn's bacta outfit (what a neat idea!) and interactions with Poe early on were great. I know that it's technically queerbaiting, but if Disney won't let the canon Star Wars gays appear in films, it's at least appreciated that Poe has had zero female love interests. Unless we count some semi-flirting with Holdo, which is fine since they're both gay. It was clear that Poe being the one to find Finn was a gesture to the fact that they're almost universally shipped with each other. That may be the closest that we see to StormPilot on screen, but at least it's something.

Rey was my favorite part of The Force Awakens. I thought that a lot of her time in The Last Jedi seemed . . . wasted isn't quite the right word. She went to Porg World (whatever you call the planet where Luke has retired to satisfy his lactation kink) to learn the ways of the Force. Honestly, I feel that she might be better served if she were to go unearth forgotten secrets on Moraband, but I resigned myself pretty early on to the idea that Rey will probably avoid the Dark Side. Anyway, I still absolutely love Rey. Not only because she's a tiny Sand Lesbian from Sand Trash Planet, and not only because she's powerful. She earnest and somehow, despite being a scavenging orphan, manages to be relatable at times. Truth be told? I like her more than I ever liked Luke.

Rey's look was also amazing, though, as my friend pointed out, Rey's wearing a vest, and vests are as much a lesbian uniform as leather jackets are for bi girls.

ROSE IS SO GOOD. I don't just mean that her actress is a precious wonderful delight of a human being, though that is also true. Rose herself is really likable. As with Leia, this is a character where my adoration for the actor certainly exceeds my love for the character but the character is also great. Anyway, while “Rose” doesn't seem like a great Star Wars name (and, worse, we now have “Rose” and “Rey” as two of the, like, seven new characters who are still alive), I liked her blend of sweetness and determination.

Speaking of Rose: Finn is wonderful. I don't know what to make of that kiss (except that, it makes sense, especially if you think that you're dying), but even though I was bummed that Finn didn't wield a lightsaber in this film (what are they doing with him?), I think that he's a treasure.

In many ways, The Force Awakens was a rehash of A New Hope. I am so pleased that The Last Jedi did what appears to be a speedrun of both Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi so that we can have more, new storytelling in Episode IX.

There's that moment where Rey is on Porg World and she talks to Luke about the rise of the Empire and about Darth Sidious and it's a sign of how starved I am for references to or even acknowledgement of the prequels that this was a highlight for me, but it was. It was my favorite character from the sequels saying the name of my favorite character from all of Star Wars canon (and one of my all-time favorite characters from anything), Sheev Palpatine.

If you ask me what I liked about The Last Jedi, the first image that's going to pop into my mind is the image of the First Order's weapons firing at the Resistance ships at range, and we see . . . shield impacts. The recent-ish Star Trek films (and, sadly, Star Trek: Discovery, which I love but that's another post) have refused to show shield impacts during space battles, for reasons that I cannot fathom. It has long been part of Star Wars that we just don't see more than a flash of light when energy weapons impact standard deflector shields (we do see it with thermal shields and certain types of terrestrial ray shields, but not with ships). Anyway, I love space battles and spaceships and there's something about seeing energy weapons impact on shields like that . . . it just lights up my mind's happiness centers like a christmas tree.

Vice Admiral Holdo's big Space Kamikaze (though problematic from a worldbuilding/plot holes perspective) was really fucking cool and such a powerful moment. More on the negative aspects of that in the next section.

Rey's parentage wasn't really a let down. Like most fans, I had my own theory (Rey Palpatine), but since she clearly wasn't a Skywalker and since really the only lineage storyline in Star Wars canon is about the Skywalkers, it's nice to see an ex nihil Force-user with power like Rey's. It's hardly unprecedented. Even ignoring Anakin (who may have been created by Darth Plageuis or by the Force), neither Yoda nor Palpatine are ever suggested as having originated from Force dynasties. Sometimes, it doesn't matter who your garbage parents were, and that's a great message for Rey's backstory. (Though, truth be told, some wonder if this is a deception)

When a friend of mine got to a certain Plot Point of Dragon Age, she DMed me on Twitter, with “Flemeth you ol' bitch! Tits out and everything!” While that message warmed the cockles of my heart, it also really stuck with me, because that went through my head at Kylo Ren's topless scene. I'm not making fun of him (he looked great; even better than in The Force Awakens), but my friend's thoughts echoed through my mind. Also, she was in the theater with me.

BB8 is my beautiful precious son and I was so delighted to see him get to gleefully murder people!!! That moment really helps him fit in with other murderous Star Wars droids like R2, Kaytoo, and Chopper. But BB8 was more adorable and reminds me of a precious chihuahua I used to walk. BB8, you're doing amazing, sweetie!

That red, salty planet? Gorgeous. I've heard that it was Krayt, though we did not see one of its famous dragons. Maybe someone mentioned the planet's name during the film? I should disclose that I can't follow every word without subtitles and only take away, at best, 80% of the dialogue from a film without subtitles. I hear the noises just fine, but I have auditory integration issues that are just one of several factors that make me a nightmare to talk to. Anyway, love that gorgeous planet.

Speaking of subtitles, I've heard that someone saw The Last Jedi with subtitles and that, during that early scene with Poe negging General Hux, he referred to Hux as “Hugs.” That is amazing and beautiful and I would never in a thousand viewings have caught it.

The First Order Dreadnaught? Gorgeous. You shouldn't need a Death Star to absolutely demolish a base from orbit. And orbital bombardment is right up there with space battles among my favorite things. It just goes right to my happiness centers.

The Red Guards: like all of the aesthetic choices that Snoke inherited from Palpatine, his Red Guards were truly inspired. I love the variety in their vibro-weapons. The Soul Calibur-style weapon was particularly memorable. That whole fight scene with Kylo and Rey and the Red Guards? Absolutely stunning.

I love that the Skywalker Legacy Lightsaber is destroyed. That thing has a terrible track record with hands. I also love that Rey was the first to recover after that tug-of-war with Kylo; it reminds me of the end of Palpatine besting Yoda in the Senate. I'm excited to see what sort of lightsaber Rey crafts for herself . . . and also interested in learning where she plans to get a kyber crystal.

THE BAD

Snoke was, for me, the biggest disappointment of this film. A lot of The Last Jedi's angrier defenders have mocked fans for having the audacity to want to, you know, know who the characters are or what's going on. No one in the sequels has been as enigmatic as Supreme Leader Snoke.

Here's the set-up: in The Force Awakens, we see Snoke only via hologram as he instructs Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren, though interesting in concept, has not impressed me (I'll go into that), so I had hoped that perhaps I would at least like Snoke. As I mentioned, Palpatine is my favorite character in all of Star Wars. He lifts me up where I belong. He's also one of the most iconic characters in all of fiction, and a tough act to follow. With Hux being rude (and not Force-sensitive) and Kylo being weak, I hoped that Snoke, at least, would excite me.

We do see more of Snoke in The Last Jedi, but his is . . . profoundly rude. As my friend Rachel said as we sat processing after the film: “In my day, the Dark Side had a little class!” Snoke has a Hugh Hefner vibe to him and I mean that in the worst possible way. His golden robe was, I thought, an inspired design choice as it deviates from Dark Side Black while still allowing him some contrast from his (gorgeously) decorated throne room and Red Guards. The man wearing that robe, however, was not to my liking.

Back to the set-up: We briefly see Snoke in The Force Awakens, and he piques our curiosity. And then we begin to read the canon novels, where we learn that Palpatine—as Emperor—sensed some sort of profound Dark Sidedness beyond known space. He set up multiple observatories in order to assess that part of space, and was apparently planning an expedition before he was betrayed and murdered at the Battle of Endor. Apparently, it was his will that any Empire that could not support its Emperor was too weak to do its job, so his contingency plan, should he fall, was for only the best of the Empire to venture into unknown space and find whatever Dark Side presence he'd felt and, hopefully, find new leadership with the strength to bring order to the galaxy. In the novels, Admiral Rae Sloan goes with Brendol Hux and Brendol's young son, Armitage Hux (that's the general we see within the First Order), on this voyage into unknown space.

I can only imagine the disappointment that Palpatine's Force Ghost (or whatever the Dark Side equivalent is; we know that they exist in canon, as Darth Bane was able to manifest before Yoda on Moraband) must feel at Snoke. Palpatine was betrayed and killed by his apprentice, sure. But that apprentice was Darth Vader, one of the most powerful beings that the Galaxy Far Far Away has ever seen. And Palpatine was, at the time, a little occupied—you know, killing Luke.

In contrast, Snoke was actively reading Kylo Ren's mind when Kylo killed him. Though the words that Snoke uttered were transparently misleading (along the lines of the Delphic Oracle's famous prophesy to Croesus: “If you proceed, a great power will fall”), Snoke was actively sensing Kylo's thoughts and, well, we haven't seen anything about Kylo Ren to suggest that he's some master at the arts of deceit through the Force. Hell, Kylo didn't even sense whatever Force connection Snoke apparently forged. In contrast, while Palpatine and Vader went on an adventure together in the novel, Sith Lords, Sheev was able to sense Vader's dominicidal thoughts. At one point, Vader silently imagines grabbing his Master and lifting his frail, old body into the air, and Palpatine grins with delight at him, and Vader understands that Sheev knows exactly what's going on in his mind. Palpatine also foresaw an attack against his Star Destroyer with such clarity that he remained in “safe” zones of the ship at all times, sensing well in advance which portions of the vessel would be the first to fall.

What's more is that, not only should Snoke have seen it coming—he just died immediately when Kylo ignited the saber. A normal person might die from being cut in half, sure. That's not shameful. But a master of the Dark Side? Darth Maul was cut in half and then fell a distance that I wouldn't even care to guess. He went on to survive for many years on a planet made of garbage and fire. Maul was only Palpatine's apprentice; meanwhile, we see Snoke lose consciousness and die immediately from a (cauterized) wound to his waist. Unless his heart is stored in his waist (I know that he's an alien, but his heart definitely isn't there; it's usually useful to keep those behind ribs), that makes Snoke a lil' bitch among Dark Side “masters.”

The lack of information about Snoke also means that we don't know a lot about the First Order.

First, we don't know how to feel about the First Order's goals. Obviously, their means are immoral—abducting children and turning them into soldiers, destroying an entire solar system in an effort to destroy the New Republic government (which really shouldn't have worked, by the way, since the galaxy could just elect new senators). But is their goal to conquer the galaxy to create a safe and secure society? We don't know their goals beyond taking over the galaxy; more insight into Snoke would help us to better understand what drives the First Order.

Second, was Snoke some kind of Dark Side hermit that Rae Sloane and Brendol Hux found somewhere in the unknown reaches of space? If so, where is the First Order getting its resources? Was Snoke instead some sort of local ruler within uncharted space? If so, why is his entire army (right down to his interior décor and his personal guards, not to mention his fleet and soldiers) drawn directly from Palpatine's playbook?

And, again, what is Snoke?

For a lot of reasons, he's clearly not a Sith; that has been confirmed. He says that Kylo is “first of the Knights of Ren,” so . . . are Knights of Ren all Dark Side wielders? The simplest explanation is that “Ren” is like “Sith” or “Darth,” and another school of the Dark Side. What does that make Snoke? Is he the “Lord of Ren” or something?

We've seen exactly one thing from Snoke that's entirely new, and . . . we only see the Force Immobilization from Kylo Ren. Interestingly, and please correct me if I failed to notice an instance of it, we did not see it at all in The Last Jedi, but saw it more than once in The Force Awakens. Snoke presumably taught that to Kylo, but . . . other than that, he doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table.

Snoke Force-bullied General Hux through a hologram. This is not new. In Return of the Jedi, Vader Force-choked Admiral Kendal Ozzel after establishing visual contact via a communicator screen. We don't know Snoke's distance from Hux in that scene, but since Palpatine Force-chokes Dooku, lifting him into the air, via holo transmission over the considerable distance of Coruscant to Dooku's homeworld of Serenno, this was already established as a possible (though likely difficult) feat.

Snoke struck Kylo Ren with Force-lighting, which of course is well-established as being a power of the Dark Side, wielded by Palpatine and Dooku, but also wielded in slightly different forms by The Son (on Mortis) and by Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsisters.

Kylo Ren uses the Force to interrogate, but this is a simple combination of Force Persuasion (Jedi Mind Tricks, used by almost every Force-user at some point or another) and sensing things through the Force. Vader duels Luke on the Death Star II and learns that Luke has a sister. Palpatine is almost always aware of the thoughts and feelings of those around him. Multiple Jedi use Force Persuade simultaneously to try to force the truth out of Cad Bane. We see the Force used for interrogation (almost precisely as Kylo Ren does) when the Seventh Sister, one of the Inquisitors who answers to Vader after the death of the Grand Inquisitor, attempts to use the Force to interrogate Ezra Bridger. It's a two-pronged effort to divine the truth while also attempting to pry secrets from the individual.

Snoke is not shown forging the bridge between Rey and Kylo, but this has precedent—once again, we look to Palpatine. He once used Dooku's connection to Yoda (remember, Yoda was once Dooku's mentor) in order to assault Yoda's mind in an effort to break him. While Yoda spends the final decades of his life as a barely-intelligible swamp-hermit who would rather literally die than tell the truth, this particular assault on his mind was not successful. Palpatine accomplished this without any proximity to Yoda, but rather through the use of Sith Sorcery. Snoke is not a Sith, but we must imagine that he accomplished this “bridge” via . . . well, I suppose that we'd call it “Ren Sorcery.”

Don't get me wrong, the “Force Pause” or whatever it is that Kylo Ren did in The Force Awakens was super cool and I love that it's a thing. But, in general, Snoke feels like a bargain basement attempt to fill Palpatine's role until Kylo could kill him and take his place as the Supreme Leader of the First Order. That might not be as bad if Kylo seemed, you know, impressive.

Finally, because I've just written the last 1,608 words about Snoke and need to move on to my second greatest disappointment with The Last Jedi, I should mention that I've been joking that Snoke has never actually killed anyone in his life and just bluffed his way into leading the First Order. He's weak and rude and the sequels could have done better, even with a temporary character meant to die in his second movie.

So, yeah, what we don't know of Snoke is a frustrating mystery and what we do know of Snoke is disappointing.

My second biggest issue was one of Luke's characterization.

Contrary to what you might assume, I am not talking about Luke's retirement to Lactation Kink island on Planet Porg.

I mean, that's an issue—since he's repeating the Cranky Old Hermit mistakes of Obi-Wan and Yoda who came before him. In fact, even Obi-Wan seemed to have a better attitude and degree of optimism than Luke, and that's after his apprentice, uh, personally purged the Jedi Temple. Luke lost his first class of students but Obi-Wan lost an entire galaxy and a Jedi order of thousands.

But, you know, sometimes Jedi just go off to do loner stuff on strange old islands that are home to whimsical characters. The Light Side is rough like that.

No, my issue comes from that, frankly, inexcusable scene in the tent. The one that “explains” why Kylo and Luke had their big falling out that resulted in Kylo murdering his fellow students.

Luke has never been one of my favorite characters in Star Wars, but I can tell you this much: the whole point of Return Of The Jedi was that he would literally rather die than kill Darth Vader, who had personally killed thousands and was an accomplice to everything that the Empire had done for, well, all of Luke's life.

So, to put it plainly, I cannot reconcile Luke Skywalker, the character, with the man Mark Hamill played in The Last Jedi. With a man whose first instinct after sneaking into his nephew's room to probe his thoughts is “gotta murder him in his sleep!” I'm not opposed to the idea of characters who are willing to murder other characters in their sleep. Again, Palpatine is my literal favorite character. But that particular deed is simply not in Luke's wheelhouse.

Now, some argue that this scene was necessary in order to bring Luke and Kylo to where they are for this trilogy.

I don't believe in adjusting a character's established behavior to suit the story. I like character-driven stories where what happens makes sense based upon the individuals involved and their environment.

But there are totally doable ways to tell that story.

How I would do it? Luke would notice warning signs about his nephew, sense that things aren't quite right (from his point of view), but appear to other students to be ignoring a problem. Meanwhile, one or two of Luke's other padawans might attempt what Luke attempted—trying to sense what's going on with their fellow student. An inexperienced pupil, sensing a darkness, might draw a weapon, causing young Kylo (before he was Kylo Ren) to awaken . . . just as Luke bursts into the room. So then we get the panic, and the tearing down of the roof. When Luke digs himself out of the rubble, Kylo has killed all of the padawans who were unwilling to join him. He might even believe that Luke was involved in the “attack.”

Luke being arguably too passive would be a totally believable and character-consistent mistake. Instead I just sat there, thinking . . . this is like telling me that, actually, Tarkin adopted all of the children who were off-world but orphaned by the destruction of Alderaan. That's just not something that this particular character would do. If you want to write a different character, do that.

As a result of this huge character difference, I've nicknamed Mark Hamill's character in The Last Jedi: “Jedi Joe.” Because, you know, he's just not consistent with Luke.

My third biggest issue with The Last Jedi is the timeline.

How long was Rey on Planet Porg? Days? Weeks?

Meanwhile, Vice Admiral Holdo and the Resistance are literally counting down the hours until they run out of fuel.

I say “meanwhile,” because Rey and Kylo's little ForceTime conversations make it emphatically clear that these are concurrent storylines.

We don't know how long the Resistance “fleet” (it's just a few big ships) spends in hyperspace before they return to normal space and the First Order shows up to attack them, but it can't be for long, because Star Wars FTL is much, much faster than, say, Star Trek's. I can't imagine them spending more than a couple of days in hyperspace, if that long.

So, how much time did Rey spend on the island with Luke? Are days just very short on Planet Porg? Running parallel to the Resistance being pursued by the First Order, this seems to be a problem.

Speaking of the Resistance fleeing from the First Order . . . what the hell was up with their “tracking.”

So, let's say that the First Order has developed the tech to track a ship through hyperspace. Or maybe they just have an infiltrator (or someone turned traitor) or got a tracking device aboard one of the ships. I'm willing to accept that . . . random technological development or whatever.

But General Hux was on a regular Star Destroyer when he established that tracking lock, right? So why is it that, later, that tracking lock—the one that they need to disable—is on Snoke's command ship? Can you just pass it back and forth like it's no big deal? They talked about it like it was some sort of delicate connection, easily foiled. One or two lines could have explained it, but if there was an explanation, I missed it.

Incidentally, I mention the idea of an infiltrator or a traitor within the Resistance because this would have really made it easier for them to explain why Vice Admiral Holdo was being tight-lipped about her plans. Though, quite frankly, Poe Dameron destroyed Starkiller Base. He should be above suspicion. The Resistance shows no signs of being a formal military. They're sort of a cobbled together grassroots thing, not unlike the Rebel Alliance, so it's not like they have this strict need-to-know command structure where no one is allowed to ask questions.

As my friend Rachel pointed out after the film, a lot of problems could have been resolved by the characters if they had simply spoken to one another and communicated like adults. This isn't necessarily a flaw in the film, but it sure is frustrating for the audience. The message that bold heroic actions aren't always the answer is an admirable one, but the circumstances make it seem to be a failure of leadership on Holdo's part.

Speaking of Holdo, I'm alarmed that these Sequels seem reluctant to give us new alien characters. We've seen Maz Kanata and Snoke, but all other aliens have been in the background or they've been Chewie. Holdo could have been an alien. She could have even retained the lavender look as a Theelin (like Asajj Ventress' bounty hunter gal pal, Latts Razzi). I totally support Rose being a human, but Holdo—particularly since she was not going to survive anyway—could have been a sorely needed alien character.

Also while we're on the subject of Holdo:

As I mentioned, Holdo's death was one of the most powerful moments of The Last Jedi. In science fiction universes such as Stargate or Babylon 5, FTL travel is entirely removed from the physical world. Flying a ship “through” a planet is fine in the same way that, on a planet, flying an aircraft far above a building does not damage the building below. In Star Wars, that is not the case, which is why they have complex hyperspace lanes and elaborate calculations (often made by specialized droids). Which is why, when she went to “lightspeed” (no more the speed of light than their “lasers” are actual lasers), her ship so effectively damaged Snoke's flagship and took some Destroyers with it. But the implications of this were obvious. Why, then, has this sort of tactic not been employed widely before? Could a few carefully placed transports in FTL have demolished the Death Star without Luke's special magic aiming? Couldn't every Star Destroyer be disabled or destroyed by, say, a garbage scow piloted by a single droid that goes to hyperspace in the direction of the ship? This kind of tactic would forever change warfare in Star Wars—even retroactively.

The only way that I can wrap my head around it is to suggest that perhaps the flagship's shields were recycling and therefore couldn't be brought back up in time to prevent Holdo's maneuver from being effective. Perhaps normal deflector shields protect ships from being impaled by other ships traveling through hyperspace. There's precedent for shields recycling (for example, thermal shields are shown to have a brief cooldown between being deactivated and reactivated), so we can accept that whatever type of Star Wars shields the First Order uses were on cooldown to conserve power while they leisurely bombarded the Resistance ships from range, and that Hux and the others on the bridge couldn't bring them up quickly enough to save the ship. Because otherwise . . . Star Wars seems to be broken.

Did they just kill Captain Phasma? Or did they seem to kill her . . . again . . . after doing basically nothing with her this whole film? I was hoping to see more of her in XIII, not less.

Maz Kanata's scene? Where she's doing vague cool stuff while also on the Space Phone? That was kind of a mess. It's fine if you liked it, but I felt like it was trying too hard.

C3PO had a red arm, taken from another droid (there's a whole backstory to it). He had it in The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi seems to begin precisely where The Force Awakens ended (just look at Luke receiving the lightsaber), so . . . when did C3PO get an arm transplant? Or did he receive it between the destruction of Starkiller Base and Rey's arrival at Planet Porg? We don't know how much time passed (though it seems silly to suggest that Finn would be comatose for for all that long; in Star Wars terms, his injuries were not that severe).

Empire Strikes Back has some of the heroes go to a gambling planet—Bespin Cloud City is effectively Space Vegas. The Last Jedi does the same, but this time it's more like Space Monaco. There were parts of that sequence that I enjoyed, but other parts I did not. I get that Rose and Finn's journey wasn't supposed to succeed for narrative reasons, but they actually harmed the Resistance. DJ didn't just fail; he betrayed them. Also, DJ is a terrible Star Wars name.

Of course, there are questions as to how DJ betrayed them. Perhaps I need to watch the film again, but as my friend Cattlin pointed out, Finn and Rose spoke to Poe, and then Poe was knocked out and woke up in the escape pod along with Leia. That's when Poe learned about the pods. How exactly did DJ learn about them in order to betray the knowledge to the First Order? (If anyone knows, or if I am missing something here, I am genuinely asking, so please let me know)

You know the scene at the beginning where, thanks to Iden Versio's intelligence-gathering, the Resistance knows where to hit to First Order Dreadnought in order to cause the most damage? Those bombers don't make sense to me because they are literally bombers. A bunch of slow-moving ships that literally drop bombs, perhaps using their own internal gravity, seem like a terrible choice. I'm not demanding that they use Y-wings again, but they could use, like, a ship that's in any way practical or good to deliver bombs. Perhaps a vessel that doesn't set off cataclysmic secondary and tertiary explosions in the form of its fellow bombers when it gets hit by enemy fire would be nice. (I know that Star Wars tech isn't based on Earth tech and therefore doesn't have to make sense in a speculative sense, but literally dropping round black bombs is not the way to win a fight).

Speaking of not winning fights: Kylo Ren.

I get that, because The Last Jedi takes place immediately after The Force Awakens, Kylo didn't have time to undergo character development that would be required to make him in any way impressive, either through his skill with the Force or through his temperament. But it was disappointing to see that not only was Snoke a weak jerk, but Kylo still has his issues. I like that he killed Snoke—like, the old guy's good at moving stuff around with the Force, but you don't get an award for that. I like that he seized power for himself. I liked that he put Hux in his place. But I'm not impressed with him as a character yet. I want to like him. I think that he has a lot of really cool potential, but I don't see him meeting that yet. I hope to see that in Episode IX. I hope to see him acting as a real leader, making smarter choices, and ideally giving orders to other Dark Side individuals (where are these other Knights?).

I also want to see Kylo showing greater strength and insight through the Force.

I don't know what the First of the Knights of Ren is, exactly, but ideally, he should notice when his creepy boss is using Space Magic to set him up with Rey. And he sure as hell shouldn't be getting tricked into a fake duel with an illusion in front of his whole army.

I'm okay with Luke having the power to project an illusion. While there's precedent in Star Wars canon (Mother Talzin does a lot of illusion work, including projecting an illusion of herself to Serenno from Dathomir while attacking Count Dooku), I do wish that he'd at some point hinted that he'd learned some things that the old Jedi Order had never managed. Maybe through meditation, maybe through old Jedi lore, or maybe through people he's met on his travels. (So far, the only Dathomir Witches that I know to be canon are the Nightsisters, and also they were all murdered by General Grievous under orders from Count Dooku; older, EU materials portrayed Nightsisters as only one faction on Dathomir, with other clans that were much friendlier to Jedi and to the Light Side of the Force—that would be an easy option)

I'm even okay, from a lore perspective, with Luke being able to deceive Kylo Ren with it. Maybe tricking Force-users is part of the ability. That scene's parallels to Obi-Wan's final duel with Vader are obvious, though Luke's death at its conclusion were more reminiscent of how his mom died.

But … the dice? The Fake Ghost Dice? That struck me as weird, after. Sure, Star Wars illusions can be powerful, but why bring your sister a fake memento? Aside, I mean, from a desire to deceive the audience. (Though seriously, shout-out to my best friend, Jeff, for predicting that Luke wasn't really there. I did not; I had assumed that his X-Wing being underwater on Lactation Kink Island was a Chekhov's Gun device to prepare us for Luke's departure. I was bewildered that Fake Ghost Luke was wielding a blue lightsaber in his duel, which only made sense after it was revealed that he was an illusion)

Weird that he died from it, though. My friend Cattlin was dreading the possibility of Luke dying, but I had accepted it. (After all, I already watched my favorite Star Wars character die, in Return of the Jedi)

Speaking of the Skywalker Legacy Lightsaber . . . the blade on it looked like it was filmed in 1980. Lightsabers looked so much better in the prequel films. Based on how Kylo Ren's lightsaber looks, lightsabers could look incredible in this film. In some scenes, they do. But that particular one tends to look washed out.

Along those same lines, they used muppet Yoda in a transparent attempt to distance themselves from the prequels. Thanks, I hate it. I don't know why dead Yoda has weather-control powers now, but even that pales beside how annoyed I am that both Sequel films seem to be scrambling to assure fans that they're not like the prequels.

Cattlin has a shirt that reads: “Shut up, nerd. The prequels are good, actually.” It warms the cockles of my heart whenever I see it.

There were a few bits that struck me as odd directing choices, but I don't know enough about cinematography to identify them.

Like everyone else, my opinion about The Last Jedi is a product of my personal interests and priorities. That's life.

#Star Wars #The Last Jedi #Star Wars The Last Jedi #The Last Jedi spoilers #TLJ #I wrote this all in one day because I am out of my got dam mind

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agent-nemesis · 7 years

Text

The Last Jedi! Review! Opinions!

I haven’t had a chance to really write about the movie due to travel, etc., but here I am now. I’ve watched the movie four times now and will probably go see it in the cinema again!

Spoilers below!

The midnight experience

I saw the movie at midnight. I was cosplaying Kylo and my sister was cosplaying Rey. There were a few other people dressed up too, including a guy I know who was cosplaying Chewy and was like “Hey!!” to me when I was in the line for drinks, and I was like “??? I don’t know who you are because you’re in a mask???” and he was like “It’s me!” and I’m like “???” and he’s like “Chris!” and I’m like “oohhhh!” and we hugged.

I was visiting my old grad school town which is kind of a small place, so I also saw a girl I know from Taekwon-Do, and we were in the line next to the owner of a Japanese restaurant we used to go to all the time when we lived there. He was there with his daughter and recognised us immediately. Then I saw another friend as well, who had taken a photo of me from across the lobby, thinking that I was my own doppelganger because he thought I was in the UK and not in town.

My sister and I engaged in shenanigans with our lightsabers and took photos and videos. Lots of people photographed us as well. They filled up the whole theater (6 cinemas). The atmosphere was great. The audience was lively, and I think a good time was had. Unfortunately, it was cooking in the theater and I was wearing full Kylo regalia, sans helmet. I was too warm.

The film

As soon as “Star Wars” appeared on the screen, everyone clapped. I realised that I forgot to put my glasses on, and scrambled to find them in the dark during the first few minutes!

Notable observations and things throughout the movie:

I thought the Hux prank call was overly cheesy for an opening. I appreciated the jab at Hux’s mother, but the scene was too cringey for my liking.

The cinematography! Holy shit, the cinematography!

I practically jizzed in my pants when the Supremacy appeared. It comes out of hyperspace at the top of the screen, and it really feels like it’s right over your head.

I lived in fear for Hux’s life for the ENTIRE MOVIE. Any scene could have been his last, and I was terrified.

Snoke ripping into Kylo and telling him that his mask was stupid.

Luke and Rey on the island and Rey trashing everything <3

When Luke milked that creature, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. If anyone would have told me that TLJ would include a lactation scene, I would never have believed it. Expect the unexpected, indeed.

Rey reaching out with her arm when Luke says “reach out”.

“Wipe that nervous expression off your face, 3PO!”

Lots of excellent dialogue. So many good quotes.

I thought the Leia flying through space scene was too cheesy.

Chewy spit-roasting porgs XD

Force Skyping. I absolutely loved this. I found Rey gaining sympathy for Kylo believable. He remained his usual self-absorbed self throughout the encounters.

TIDDIES! THANK YOU, RIAN!!!

There were a lot of gasps from the audience when the tiddies appeared.

I’m of two minds about Luke’s confrontation with Ben. Was it in line with Luke as a character? My interpretation was that it was Snoke’s hold on Ben that terrified Luke so much and caused him to ignite his lightsaber on impulse. I can live with that. I don’t think Luke would have turned on Ben otherwise.

Rey calling Kylo “Ben”.

Return of the Jedi music from the Luke/Vader/Palpatine scene in the Rey/Kylo/Snoke scene.

HOOOLY SHIIIIIT I didn’t expect Kylo to kill Snoke. I loved it!

Kylo and Rey fighting together was absolutely fucking amazing. Rey shouting while fighting, all of it! Full credit to Daisy. She’s amazing!!

I thought that maybe Kylo was slightly more chill during this movie, but then he lost his shit when Rey rejected him, and it was glorious.

Hux showing up in the throne room and reaching for his gun, then stealthily un-reaching for it was spectacular. The theater roared with laughter. Brilliant scene.

Kylo lying to Hux about who killed Snoke XD

I FELT SORRY FOR HUX BEING FORCE-CHOKED.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Rose is the sweetest. However, some of her lines were too good and kind of cheesy.

While I liked the idea of Rose and Finn going undercover, i thought the Canto Bight quest was a bit contrived. However, I enjoyed BB-8 and DJ teaming up. “What’s your story, roundy?”

Overall, I felt like the Canto Bight section was there to overtly tell the audience that weapons dealers are bad and people who profit off of war are bad with an obvious nudge nudge to our present day situation. It’s a direct reflection of aspects of the real life military industrial complex, which I don’t think is a bad thing to portray, but it felt too in-your-face to me.

Unpopular opinion? I liked DJ.

The ironing droids made me crack up.

Hux is a pipsqueak noodle, so it makes sense that all he can do is slap Finn across the face.

Why so little BB-H8???

Holdo lightspeeding the ship into the Supremacy. Holy fuck. Most. Beautiful. Space. Explosion. EVER.

Finn was amazing throughout.

Poe was a dick! He meant well, but everything got even more screwed up by the infiltration plan.

Yoda is a little shit. Rey had the books already when he burnt the place down!! And he didn’t tell Luke!!

BB-8 saved the day???

Crait was so pretty.

“They hate that ship!”

Kylo and Hux co-commanding. All of their interactions were a gift. Though I didn’t like Hux being Force-thrown!!

I thought Finn was gonna die and I was freaking out!

I don’t know how I feel about this kiss? Rose was enamored with Finn from the start, so I’m not surprised, but Finn sure was!

I lost my shit when Luke appeared. I didn’t pick up all the hints that he was an apparition until Kylo slashed him with his lightsaber and nothing happened. I was hands-down wowed when the reveal happened.

Hux’s glare at Kylo at the end.

Rey lifting rocks. i was like, “YOU GO, GIRL!!”

Overall, I loved the movie. I was a ball of nerves during my first viewing, both from two years of built-up anticipation, and also fear for Hux’s safety! On top of that, the pacing of the movie was too frantic for my liking. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire fucking movie. I watched it again the next morning, and it was way better on the second viewing. I could actually sit back and enjoy it!

Everyone’s acting was phenomenal! Kylo Ren wouldn’t work as a character without Adam Driver. Daisy was amazing!! The contrast between her portrayal of vulnerability after her cave experience to raw aggression when she’s fighting is quite a feat. I’m in total awe. Her and Adam work so well. Domhnall was great. Carrie was brilliant. The whole cast is really superb.

Despite liking the movie, there are things I didn’t like. A little too much cringey humour, a bit too much in-your-face morals in the casino bit (even if I agreed with them, I didn’t like the presentation). They essentially crammed together The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (for better or for worse!), leaving a total unknown for the next movie. I’m looking forward to it! There are so many scenes and lines I loved, and so many great interactions between the characters that it’s a movie I can watch over and over, just like I did with the original trilogy as a kid.

Okay, but what about kylux??

I feel sad that Kylo pushed Hux around so much! A lot of my old “secretly dating” headcanons don’t really apply in light of this, at least not in the context of a somewhat healthy relationship. However, there is a lot of new material to fuel my kylux fires, with angst on the menu!

The verdict? Onwards!

#tlj spoilers #the last jedi #i need to get cracking on some fanfic

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