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My GMMTV 2023 predictions
First I'm going to list the things I would like to happen, and then the ones I think are likely to happen.
This is for fun, to have a bingo card on the 22nd and see how many predictions I got right (probably not many). Speculating is entertaining, at least until the day comes and I realize none of the things I want will be happening.
My wishes
MilkLove gl
Gls in general. GMM needs to get on with it and quickly. The bare minimum would be two gls and more gl side couples.
TayNew series. My head knows it's a bad idea, but my heart wants it. For whatever reason I just like them, individually and together
More adult series. I still really like university settings and they are much better than high school ones, but I crave characters in their late 20s/30s trying to get their shit together and navigate falling in love. I would also love stories about people in their 40s, 50s, etc, especially queer ones, but I know GMM it's not going to do it.
Gun as a lead. I really hope we get another Gun series, he's probably my favourite actor from the company. I would also like to see him with another partner, man or woman, it could be interesting. But I wouldn't mind if it is with Off either. Also more diverse roles for him, like Black in Not me, I feel like he has a wide acting range that he rarely gets to show.
Same with Nanon. One of my favourite actors too.
JoongDunk series. As I said in my favourite bls list they have a lot of chemistry and it would be great to see them in a 12 episodes series.
More main roles for women, gl or not. GMM has some amazing actresses and they deserve big roles too, P.S. I Hate You style
Some actresses that are great and I would like to see are Jennie, Mook, Jan, Tu, Film
Not me season 2 (yes I know it's not going to happen)
Series directed by Aof, Golf and Nuchy, even though I don't know if I entirely trust Golf after what they let them do to the last episodes of The eclipse
My predictions
First, the actual 2023 series to not start airing for a while because I counted and we have at least 10 series from this year which haven't started to air yet
Main roles for the usual 'big' actors, Bright, Win, Nanon, Ohm, Luke, Joss, Krist
A Gun series, he was being cryptic earlier on Instagram, practically confirming he has a series with someone, we don't know if it's Off yet. I don't feel like GMM is brave enough to give Gun a different couple but we'll see
TayNew series: if I'm correctly informed this is the most probable one. Safe house together, a lot of events and fan meets and a couple of slip ups from them. I never thought this would happen again but here we are, all the evidence points to it. It's possible it's not even a bl but a series where they are main protagonists but not a couple, like BrightWin on Boys over flowers
I was going to write about Dew and Tu as a pair but I just read she's going on a break in 2023 so that's dismissed. I still think he's going to have a series though, he became very popular this year and has had a lot of events
PerthChimon series, they were together in Safe house
MilkLove gl series, also many events together and still branded as a pair a year after Bad buddy. They have to be a side couple on a series at least
No EarthMix series, they had so many series in so little time, and one of them hasn't even aired yet
OhmNanon, JimmySea, FirstKhao and JoongDunk: possibly one or two of these pairs are going to have a series but I have no idea who. The four of them are branded as a pair and still do events together but all of them had recent series
Bl series with rookies no one knows yet. I feel like every year they tried to replicate the 2gether formula, and will do the same next year
#gmmtv 2023#gmmtv#thai series#thai bl#thai gl#thai drama#taynew#offgun#earthmix#feel free to talk to me about this if you know anything else or want to guess#or if I'm wrong about something#this is my first time watching I'm so excited !!#gmmtv2023#mine
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You know, there’s an alternate universe where Luke Triton is the puzzle/mystery solver while Hershel Layton is his loyal apprentice
I know I’ve already said something along these lines before, but I was thinking about it yesterday and it’s just something weird to wrap your head around. And you know the opposite would be just as true for the people in that universe
#thinking about multiverses is fun sometimes#I was thinking about this bc I may or may not be working on a role/age swap au for Layton characters#unfortunately the one thing I can’t figure out is what I should do with Desmond and whether I should make him older or younger#*than Hershel I mean#since I’m changing the age differences between other characters and making those who were older than others in the original#*younger now#if I keep Des older it sort of breaks that rule#but then what do I do with him if he’s younger?#anyways I’m getting sidetracked#but just think about the universe where Luke is the main adult protagonist#what would the stories be like there?#bc they probably aren’t just a one to one repeat of Layton’s#Luke definitely has more history and people connected to him#meanwhile Layton would have many less people#it’s just fun to think about#anyways#professor layton#hershel layton#luke triton#have I seriously not tagged him yet? Huh#random stuff#au idea
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My ranking of all 11 Star Wars films in order.
Disclaimer: I actually like all the SW films in some way except my least favorite. But there are definitely some that have more that I dislike about them. Also my opinions are 100% the only opinions one can have, and if this list offends you, it was meant to offend you personally.
11: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
I have watched this movie twice, once in the theater and once during a marathon. I also have never seen this movie in it's entirety because I cannot focus on it. It bores me so much that I keep blanking out and daydreaming. I cannot tell you anyone's name except the main character and the main imperial officer. I just could not get into this movie, but I will say if nothing else, it had the best Darth Vader scene ever.
10: Star Wars 9: Rise of Skywalker
It took me days to figure out if I liked this movie or not. There are actually a lot of things that I like, but the things I didn't like I REALLY didn't like. So much so, that this movie actually really hurt me to think about. And apart from a movie being boring, it shouldn't feel like personal stab to what matters to you. I liked Palpatine (pointless as that plot was), Kylo Ren and Rey's amazing acting, and seeing old friends again. This movie also had good humor. The bad things are too many to count, but mainly this film was poorly directed, full of 3 films worth of plot that make no sense, and the worst offender is that it felt like the director (JJ Abrams) did not care about these characters at all. I had fallen so in love with pretty much everyone in the ST, and to see almost all of them sidelined, stereotyped, and departing from any previous character development just hurt. This film made me cry, and not in a good way.
9: Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace
I don't hate this movie. In fact when it first came out, I enjoyed it. Sure I was a dumb little kid, but I rewatched it a lot. Sadly, as an adult I see now all the issues with it, none I have to really get into since everyone knows at this point. The parts I enjoy are Darth Maul (hell yea), the podrace, and this film also probably has the best score of the entire series.
8: Solo: A Star Wars story
This one was good, it just wasn't great. The actor's portrayal of Han Solo was perfect, Lando was perfect, I loved seeing places that you only hear about in passing in the films. Freakin Darth Maul (hell yea). The not so good was this movie had a very generic heist plot, it felt incomplete, and I didn't really connect with anyone besides Han and Lando.
7: Star Wars 6: Return of the Jedi
This one also falls into the 'just okay' category. There's no real plot except a recycled one from episode 4, Luke has no personality in it, Leia is sidelined. The goods are that Vader's sacrifice to save his son was so unexpected and beautifully done (at least in the original cut), the Jabba Palace scene is one of my favorite parts of the entire series, and the rebel characters in this movie are super fun (Ackbar, Lando, ect). Also the ghosts at the end was a very nice touch.
6: Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones
I HATED this movie when it first came out. I only saw it once and not again until last year when my friend insisted we marathon the SW movies. Now I love this movie, because it's the good kind of bad. The whole thing is just a meme, with some of the worst dialogue of the entire series. However, the characters are all super fun. Rewatching it years later, I was pleasantly surprised that I now love Hayden's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. His character is by far the best part of the movie. He brought so much energy to the character, and I actually really connected and felt for him. I always loved Kamino, and I think it's very creative. The effects were also a lot better. The bad is the poor directing, horrible dialogue (sand), and that this movie killed Boba Fett for me.
5: Star Wars 4: A New Hope
These next three are hard for me to rank. Episode 4 is fun, creative, makes you feel like a kid again, has effects that were so groundbreaking that they held up for 40 years, changed filmmaking itself, introduced us all to a universe that has touched so many lives around the world. I am convinced that the Lightsaber sound is the best sound design in history. All the characters are likeable, the score is the best in all of cinema, and there is such a sense of satisfaction when this movie ends. It's hard to find faults with this movie, but of course our dear Mr. Lucas had to change this movie that was perfect, so now it's full of ugly cgi. That added Jabba scene is so dumb.
4: Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith
I loved this movie when it came out and I am still very fond of it. When it came out we all thought it was going to be the last SW (lol) and I was determined to enjoy it as much as I could. It has the best effects of the prequels, all the characters are well acted, there's so much emotion and heart in it, and it has some of the coolest planets and settings in it. I LOVE the opening scene, I still can't watch it without my jaw dropping a little. There was a lot of hype leading up to it, and I grew really fond of General Grievous and was disappointed to see him barely used. It also suffered from the bad dialogue issues that plague Lucas films. Despite the good acting, there were awkward moments that I feel were a case of bad directing. Padme dying from a 'broken heart' despite now having babies makes me feel that Lucas doesn't understand people.
3: Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens
This movie is very special to me for personal reasons - I almost didn't live to see it. But it was well worth staying alive for and gave me a new reason to live. It introduced me to Rey, a nobody who has had to deal with being alone for so long. Something that I can relate to. And it also introduced me to Kylo Ren, the angry and also very alone character that quickly became my favorite character of all time. I even legally changed my name to Ren. Finn, Poe, BB-8, Hux, Phasma... so many characters that I all love and have spent hours talking about, roleplaying, reading about, drawing, and just enjoying. My complaint is the plot, which is simply a remake of episode 4. I also am not the biggest fan of JJ Abrams directing style, as I feel he can make movies very well, but he's not a very creative storyteller and is infamous for simply repolishing things other people have done. Also Rey's theme is my favorite song in the entire SW score.
2: Star Wars 5: The Empire Strikes Back
Before the ST, I had watched this one more than all the others. Hoth, the battles, Yoda, the asteroid field, cloud city, Vader, Lando, I am your father moment, Leia being force sensitive, the list goes on. Also this movie gave us the BEST bad guy theme (until dual of the fates that is). This movie felt a lot cleaner than the one before it and the one after it. It also had good dialogue, character development, and depth that's missing when Lucas is directing. It was less fanservice and more just a good film. However I never understood the tree scene (wtf was that). And it always bothered me that Lando allowed them to hurt his friend, granted it wasn't what he originally thought was going to happen.
1: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi
I went to this movie 10 times in the theater and have seen it countless times since it came out. I LOVE everything about this movie. It's creative, full of new ideas and concepts, has so many emotions, beautiful art direction, and deepened every single character in it. Rarely does a movie come along where every character develops and is different at the end. Rarely do we get a movie in a huge series that focuses on being a good movie rather than fanservice. I could not predict this movie, and was on the edge of my seat for the whole thing wondering what in the world was going to happen next. The director, Rian, is clearly a fantastic storyteller who can also do subtlety. The first 4-5 times I saw this movie I was still seeing new things. It revived a love of Star Wars in me and I dreaded what would come after because I doubt anything will ever be this good again. I certainly hope we get something as good or maybe better one day. This movie solidified Rey as my favorite SW protagonist.
#star was#ranked#rogue one#phantom menace#attack of the clones#revenge of the sith#a new hope#empire strikes back#solo#return of the jedi#force awakens#the last jedi#rise of skywalker#luke skywalker#rey#finn#poe#hux#kylo ren#han solo#leia#boba fett#grievous#chewbaca#lando
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Currently Airing Cartoons to Watch: 2019 Edition Part 1
You may remember my list of upcoming cartoons to look out for last year, but this time around I would like to do something different! I am personally recommending cartoons that are currently airing (or are confirmed to get more seasons) and give my opinions on each of them. There may be other good cartoons out there, but if they are not on the list, it means I was not a huge fan of it, it’s a super popular show like Steven Universe or Star vs. the Forces of Evil, or I have yet to watch it. If you are looking for something to watch, this is the list!
Currently Airing:
The Dragon Prince
Summary: The Dragon Prince is an epic fantasy series by the head writer and director of Avatar: the Last Airbender. In the magical land of Xadia, magic comes from six primal sources. But when human mages create a seventh kind of magic, Dark Magic — they begin capturing and harvesting the unique magical creatures they need as ingredients. This sparks a catastrophic war between Xadia and the Human Kingdoms. Three kids from opposite sides of the conflict — two human princes, and the elven assassin who was sent to kill them — discover a secret that could change everything. They decide to join forces and go on an epic journey that may be their only hope of ending the war, and restoring peace to both their worlds.
Opinion: This is probably my favorite currently airing show right now, mostly since I am a huge fan of fantasy shows. Dragons, extremely hot elves, and magic- what more could you ask for? Every one of the characters is complex and likable (well most, depending on who you ask). But even the antagonists are compelling at there are always shades of gray present. Season 2 truly blew me away with how much the stakes were raised and the number of surprises that occurred. There is even going to be a AAA cross-platform video game coming soon set in the same world! The company that creates The Dragon Prince, is doing a fantastic job on their social media (it’s hilarious, trust me), and I cannot wait to see what else they create. A quick warning, the animation from season 1 will take a little while to get used to, but for the most part, it has been improved for Season 2.
Also, there a lot of memes, so get ready for that.
gen:LOCK
Summary: In gen:LOCK, Earth’s last free society is on the losing side of a global war, and recruits a diverse team of young pilots to control the next generation of mecha—giant, weaponized robot bodies. These daring recruits will find, however, that their newfound abilities come at no small cost. As Julian Chase leaves behind his life as a fighter pilot to become the first candidate for the program, he finds his endurance, as well as his very identity, will be tested beyond anything he ever imagined.
Opinion: For any current/past fans of Voltron: Legendary Defender- WATCH THIS SHOW! If you are a fan of mechas, you will surely enjoy this. But if you were more a fan of the character interactions from VLD, this show also has you covered. It has an amazingly diverse cast and even has a canon genderfluid character. It is a show made for adults, so the stakes are real and dark subjects are treated seriously. Even the romance is done very well with the characters acting like adults instead of arguing over each other like teenagers. Even from the first episode, you can tell that the show is willing to take risks and is sure to become one of the greatest shows of the decade. The animation is also beautiful, and is definitely the best looking show Rooster Teeth has created. The fan base is super small right now since the first season just aired and is RT First exclusive. But trust me, it is worth a watch.
Carmen Sandiego
Summary: Carmen is a modern day Robin Hood traveling the globe and stealing from V.I.L.E. and giving back to its victims. Carmen is publicly perceived as a criminal by most law enforcement agencies – correction, make that a master criminal due to the sheer scale and theatricality of her heists. We will follow her escapades and get to determine not only where but WHO in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
Opinion: This show really caught me by surprise- I was fully expecting a kiddy edutainment show, but what I got was something much more complex and intriguing. Carmen this time around, as the summary suggests, is an anti-hero, and not an antagonist or villain like she was in the past. While some may not want to watch it due to this, I think this take on her is done very well, and once you get past the two-episode backstory, you will find the show is fun with a diverse cast of characters from all over the world. This GIF doesn’t quite do it justice but trust me when I say this show has some one of the best looking art styles I have ever seen. Surprisingly the weakest aspect of the show is the educational factor, which is puzzling as it was very much promoted as a show to teach children geography. In some cases, I have seen posts/tweets pointing out factual errors the show made! Normally it wouldn’t be the biggest deal, but this is a show that prides itself for its educational value. Also, some of the characters have pretty flat personalities or are just straight up incompetent, but hopefully that will change as the show progresses further. The finale was amazing, and I am patiently waiting for the next season!
Tangled: The Series/ Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure
Summary: Set between the events of the feature film and the start of the 2012 CGI short film, Tangled Ever After, the animated series unfolds as Rapunzel acquaints herself with her parents, her kingdom and the people of Corona. Her irrepressible spirit and natural curiosity about the world drives her to the realization that there is so much more she needs to learn before she can truly accept her royal destiny. She boldly puts her crown and impending marriage on hold to seek out epic adventures, much to the dismay of the King who, after missing out on Rapunzel's childhood, must accept that his daughter is now an independent young woman. Accompanying Rapunzel on her journey will be Eugene Fitzherbert; the plucky chameleon sidekick, Pascal; the no-nonsense horse, Maximus; most of The Snuggly Duckling's pub thugs; and newcomer Cassandra, a tough-as-nails handmaiden, who becomes Rapunzel's confidant.
Opinion: This series is truly a delight, and definitely exceeded my expectations for a television series based off a Disney show (I did not expect much as most of those types of shows from my childhood weren’t the best). But I was truly wowed, and this is a must see for any Disney fan.The series does not ignore anything that happened in the movie, far from it. Events that occurred in the movie still impact Rapunzel and are treated seriously. The cartoon mixes comedy, adventure, lore, and mystery quite well. It is also very beautiful, much like Carmen Sandiego (both have similar styles but I like CS’s lighting a bit more). The show can even get quite dark, as is evident with the season 1 finale. This show deserves a much biggest fanbase, so give it a watch!
Hilda
Summary: Hilda follows the journey of a fearless blue-haired girl as she travels from her home in a vast magical wilderness full of elves and giants to the bustling city of Trolberg, where she makes new friends and discovers mysterious creatures who are stranger –and sometimes more dangerous– than she ever expected. Based on graphic novels by Luke Pearson, who storyboarded for Adventure Time.
Opinion: Hilda is definitely a comfort show, and if you liked Gravity Falls there is a good chance you will also like this show! The art style is simply adorable, and Hilda is a delight to get to know. I love the way that the show not only has magical creatures, but it goes in depth into how these creatures live and survive in a modern world. Having read all the comics, I personally enjoyed the addition of Hilda getting some human friends. I know some people did not like this, but she seemed quite lonely once she moved to the city, and I liked seeing her interact with children her age. Season 2 is coming out next year, so there is plenty of time to watch the first season! If you love a feel-good show with mystery and magic, this is the show for you!
Star Wars Resistance
Summary: The series is set between the events of Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, in a time when the Resistance is still learning about the growing threat of the First Order. It centers on the character of Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot in General Leia Organa's Resistance who is tasked with spying on the growing threat of the First Order.
Opinion: This show was one I was not expecting anything from at all, but as the show has progressed throughout the first season I have begun to enjoy it more and more. This show, like many on this list, features a very diverse cast (including some aliens, of course). Probably the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that the main character, Kaz, is 20 years old! I feel like that is not something you see with action shows these days, as they usually make the protagonist 16 or 17 years old. I really like the animation style, as I always felt that without the big budget, the Clone Wars style just didn’t look that good in Rebels. Resistance is so... shiny! As for the plot itself, it is sad that most of my favorite aspects of Star Wars are missing, namely the Force, Jedi, and Light Sabers. But since it may eventually tie in more with the sequels, there is hope to see more of that eventually! It’s definitely not at Clone Wars level of good, but I am finding it more enjoyable than Rebels (excluding a few episodes and the season finales). It may never end up being as serious as Rebels, but I am sure it will get darker as time goes on and the stakes get higher.
Young Justice: Outsiders
Summary: Young Justice: Outsiders is the third season of Young Justice. The backdrop for the season is one that will touch on “all corners of the DC universe,” and this time the team is tasked with stopping a metahuman trafficking ring, as well as dealing with the “intergalactic arms race for control of these super-powered youths.” You can also count on new heroes Arrowette, Spoiler, Thirteen, Halo, and many more joining in the fight.
(^I can’t recall if this is the exact line from the show but this whole episode is the best)
Opinion: If you loved the first two seasons of Young Justice, it is easy to say that you should give this one a watch. But now that it is on DC’s streaming platform, DC Universe, IT IS DARK. Seriously, this is no longer a show for children. And that’s pretty great. I truly love that the show can now explore darker themes and have some adult jokes from time to time. However, unlike the first two seasons, I feel constantly confused about new characters or things that have happened to returning characters offscreen. Unless you are very knowledgable about DC characters, there is a good chance you will feel this way. So, it is sadly a bit more unwelcoming to those unfamiliar with the comics. I still love the show’s characters and superhero stuff, in general, is always a lot of fun. There’s also LGBT characters apparently already in the show (and some that were LGBT in the comics have appeared, but nothing in-show is confirmed), so hopefully, there is also that to look forward to in the second half of the season when it airs in June.
Big Hero 6 The Series
Summary: The series continues the adventures of 14-year-old tech genius Hiro and his robot pal Baymax. Joining the pair on their journey is control freak Wasabi, scientist Honey Lemon, fanboy Fred, and no-nonsense Go Go Tomago, whom together form the Big Hero 6 superhero team. As the new prodigy at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro faces daunting academic challenges, not to mention the social trials of being the little man on campus. The stakes are also raised for the high-tech heroes when they must protect their city from an array of scientifically enhanced villains.
Opinion: Another very well made series based off a Disney movie. Once again, this show stays faithful to the source material. The art style is very interesting, and while not my favorite gives the show a very cool feel. Once the main villain is introduced, I was glad to report that he became a major threat very fast. And the season 1 finale was pretty great as well. My biggest issue concerning this series so far is that is still really hasn’t developed the side characters at all, despite them being in almost every episode. These are college students, so their families should still be quite important to them. But besides Fred, we have yet to really learn about them, and with that, a potentially important part of who they are as a person is missing. After a movie and a whole season, these characters should not seem as flat as they are, so I hope we learn more about them too. But we also get flashbacks of Tadashi, so for that alone the show may be worth a watch.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Summary: Deep in the sewers of New York City, four mutant turtle brothers lurk. Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo are in their early teen years, and the brothers go on new and exciting adventures. They tap into their mystic ninja powers to learn to work together as a cohesive unit and become a team of heroes as they navigate the modern world and other hidden realms. The brothers get a whole new look, new weapons, and new powers as they discover the hidden city beneath New York and find time for a slice of their favorite pizza.
Opinion: Okay I will admit this is one I haven’t actually seen all of yet. But the art style is just so cool I had to include it and will likely update this entry when I catch up. This show may be a worthy successor to the 2012 series, which I know a lot of people loved.
So that’s the end of my list. If I remember any other good shows airing, I may update it. But, if I got you to watch any, let me know and tell me your thoughts!
Shows to Look Foward to: Glitch Techs, Amphibia, Owl House, Twelve Forever, Hazbin Hotel, Villainous, Infinity Train, 101 Dalmatian Street
Shows Omitted due to being super popular already: Steven Universe, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, RWBY, Bojack Horseman, OK KO, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Duck Tales
Join my Cartoon Themed Discord: https://discord.gg/cartoonuv
And give us a follow if you enjoyed the post! We talk about cartoon related stuff a lot! I will probably do a part 2 later in the year when more of the cartoons to look forward to have aired. And I might even add some shows omitted or other shows I may have forgotten!
#tdp#the dragon prince#gen:lock#tangled#hilda#carmen sandiego#tmnt#bh6#young justice#star wars resistance#rwby#she-ra
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Real talk, the only reason Anakin had to go to Jedi school to git gud is because he needed to be a kid when he left his mom and an adult when he began his romance with Padme. If the plot had called for it, he would’ve been a Master Jedi in a week because the needs of the story outweigh the need for “realism”.
Just look at Luke. His training lasted maybe a couple of days or weeks at most because it just wouldn’t make sense for Luke to stay out of the fight for years and years. He could only train for as long as it took Han and Leia to get captured by Vader, but he also needed to not instantly lose to Vader when they fought. Therefore, the amount of time it took for Han and Leia’s storyline to play out was the exact amount of time Luke needed to get good enough to face Vader.
Afterward, in RotJ, supposedly there’s a timeskip of a year, but you’d be forgiven if you thought, as I did, that only a few days or weeks passed, since there’s 0 mention of a timeskip in the film and no reason to think it would take that long to get to Tatooine or plan Han’s rescue. In fact, it seems out of character for a dedicated Rebel like Leia to take that much time off for one person, no matter how she felt about him. But I digress. Regardless of whether it was really a year or only a few days, the fact remains that Luke didn’t have any additional training during that timeskip. He only returned to Dagobah after rescuing Han, and upon arrival Yoda was on his deathbed telling Luke he was already ready, no additional Force training or lightsaber combat instruction required.
In any event, however much training he received, it was definitely significantly under ten years and, from what we saw, didn’t even cover lightsaber fencing, at least not nearly as much as lifting rocks and reading minds and other Force skills. Yet, he still managed to overpower Vader, the strongest Jedi/Sith to ever live. Because the story required him to be that powerful at that point so that he could complete his arc by rejecting the opportunity to slay Vader.
Now, let’s consider Rey’s skills, abilities, and accomplishments, starting with the dumbest of the dumbshit things people complain about when trying to use the “she’s too good at too many things/gets too good too fast” argument for why she’s a Mary-Sue.
First of all:
Why does Rey speak droid and Wookie (as if that’s a particularly uncommon skill)? Because she needs to befriend BB-8, so BB-8 can bring her together with Finn and because someone’s got to be able to understand Chewie once Han’s gone and that someone should probably be the one who’s going to be spending a lot of time alone with him co-piloting the Falcon when they go to find Luke. The better question to ask is why anyone cares about shit like that? Like, is that on some Mary-Sue litmus test somewhere? “Is bilingual in a world where most people are?” If you’re going to complain about something that stupid I have to assume you think character writing should work like Pokemon where you have to drop traits in order to stay under a certain limit, even if half the stuff filling up the quota is stuff like “can ride a bicycle” or “doesn’t burn the house down when they cook”.
Second:
Why is she an ace pilot (as if half the characters in Star Wars, both Force sensitive and non-Force sensitive aren’t also Ace Pilots, and also as if Rey has more than ONE SINGLE flying scene or had any trouble handing over the spotlight to any of the other THREE ACE PILOTS JUST IN THE SEQUEL TRILOGY)? Because she has to be a pilot because Finn can’t be, because he had to need Poe so that he could get his jacket, in order to catch BB-8′s attention, so that BB-8 could bring him and Rey together. Also, because it emphasizes Rey’s major character flaw; that she is the architect of her own misery. She has the means to leave Jakku but doesn’t, something directly acknowledged immediately after her one and only flying scene.
Third:
Why does she show Han up on knowledge of his own ship? Well, for one thing, she fucking doesn’t. She only knows about one thing installed in the ship after it left his custody. But even if you wanted to make the claim that this was supposed to demonstrate that she was some kind of Superstar Mechanic (as if mechanics are something rare and special in Star Wars) and that the reason for her being a Superstar Mechanic is just to get Han to like her, even that has a story-related justification that isn’t just about wish-fulfillment or using a cool character to shill for her. Having Han take a liking to her creates another opportunity for her to demonstrate her character flaw when she rejects his job offer in favor of returning to Jakku to wait forever for parents that don’t love her when there’s a man she already thinks of as the father she never had right in front of her. Also, having her bond with him makes his death at Kylo’s hands more personal for her, thereby creating a greater hurdle for her to overcome in order to come to have compassion for Kylo, making it more satisfying when she does.
Fourth:
Why does she have the Force when she’s already a pilot, mechanic, and proficient stick-fighter (as if any of those things are unique or special. Or more importantly, ever used at the expense of letting other characters shine)? Couldn’t she have been a Badass Normal? If this were just about beating bad guys and winning the war maybe. But it’s clearly not. This is about the old heroes passing the torch to the next generation. The main character was always going to be Force sensitive, always going to become a Jedi, and always going to replace Luke no matter what gender they were, who they were related to, whether they were a scavenger or a stormtrooper or secret royalty or Born of the Force or who, if anyone, they were going to be romantically partnered with. Rey needs to be Force sensitive because, as the main character, her ultimate purpose is to define what it means to be a Jedi for a new generation.
Fifth:
Why can she do things with the Force without training? Well, the only reason Luke needed a training montage was because the Force was a brand new concept for him and he was limited by his own ideas about his capabilities, and because the audience was going in blind as well and needed to hear the Force 101 lectures just as much as he did. Rey meanwhile, has no reason to think lifting rocks or picking up a lightsaber hilt is hard when she’s grown up hearing stories about Luke doing much crazier things. Between that, having Kylo demonstrate all those abilities to her beforehand, and also being able to access his training through the Force Bond there is 0 reason for her to need a training montage in-universe. But more importantly, because the audience has already gotten a crash course on standard Force abilities from the previous movies, a training montage would be redundant. We don’t need the same exposition given to us again anymore than we need to see Rey repeat the same character journey as Luke. The Force Bond and Rey’s preexisting fighting capabilities may be a convenient workaround to explain why Rey doesn’t need a training montage, but they exist because a training montage would be dead weight that adds nothing to the story. And that’s just the Force Bond’s ancillary purpose. Its much more important function is getting Rey and Kylo to stop fighting and start talking.
Sixth:
Why couldn’t Rey and Kylo at least fight to a draw or better yet, have her forced to retreat in their first battle? Why did she have to beat him at the very beginning of her journey? Doesn’t that make her too powerful with no room for advancement and him too weak, leaving no tension for future confrontations?
Because Kylo’s defeat isn’t about Rey at all. It’s not about making her look good. Kylo’s supposed to be at his lowest point going into TLJ. He’s supposed to look weak, not because the screenwriters think it’ll make Rey look stronger in comparison. They know damn well that the way to write a villain is to present them as an impossible obstacle to overcome. To hide any semblance of vulnerability in order to keep you in suspense as to how the hero could ever prevail against them. But that’s not Rey and Kylo’s dynamic. That’s Kylo and Snoke’s dynamic. Kylo isn’t the villain, he’s the “other half of the protagonist”. He doesn’t exist for Rey to be afraid of him. She’s meant to sympathize with him, which means he needs to appear vulnerable and human in front of her. They couldn’t build the romantic (or even platonic) connection the film clearly intended for them if Kylo actually did come across as threatening as people wanted him to be. The appearance of physical or emotional invincibility would be antithetical to the entire story they’re trying to tell.
Also, Rey isn’t even that good with a lightsaber. Kylo had been shot with a bowcaster, injured further and tired out by Finn, and handicapped himself by not aiming to kill or maim since he wanted to recruit Rey to his side and Rey still spent 98% of that fight running and only won because Kylo chose not to kill her when he had the chance.
Believe it or not, some dumbasses have actually heard all this and still tried to argue that Rey shouldn’t be in any fighting shape after hitting a tree hard enough to lose consciousness and that should nullify all the advantages she was given. If you make this argument, you’re being an anal contrarian fuck and you know it. Getting hit in the head is NEVER portrayed realistically in fiction. It is completely standard and in no way exceptional for a fictional character to awake from unconsciousness with no impairments. It has fuck all to do with trying to make characters look cool. It never has been and never will be a Mary-Sue trope.
In conclusion:
None of Rey’s abilities or feats are just there to make her look good. They’re either there to move the story along, or to add to her characterization and character journey, or to add to Kylo’s. Furthermore, they’re nothing special in the context of Star Wars, the stuff she learns quickly has in-universe justifications and it’s not even unprecedented for characters to git gud enough to match someone more experienced in a very short amount of time with no in-universe justification.
#reylo#rey#kylo ren#ben solo#star wars#star wars tlj#tlj#the last jedi#star wars the last jedi#luke skywalker#anakin skywalker#mary-sue#mary-sues#mary-sue litmus tests#are a blight upon humanity#that have taught a generation#that writing#and writing critique#is about what boxes you tic#rather than the meaning#purpose#or execution#of the tropes used
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d gray man liveblog part 5! (part 1)(part 2)(part 3)(part 4)
Love the amount of personality Allen conveys by code-switching into different formality levels. the translators here are doing an excellent job conveying that, though i suspect the foul language there could have been legitimately punched up.
asserting that his oath to mana and the love that underlies it are his even though he can’t know that is...what makes Allen main character material i guess.
XD I want to ask when ‘being a total maniac with a personality whose internal contradictions are never entirely resolved’ became the shounen protagonist standard but i’m paging through mentally and it basically goes all the way back.
Ashita no Joe was like this. it’s always been like this. only the details change.
I will give Cross Marian .3 points for the possibility he predicted that offering Allen no mercy would inspire him to pull out his hardshell rage against the whole situation rather than crumpling under the weight.
stg allen walker is composed of 93% layered trauma like fine lacquerware and 4% mental invasion. the remaining 3% of his personality is what’s subject to contest. when XIV exceeds 7% encroachment is when shit is going to get real.
oh woo there is Politics afoot and Bookman is...actually intimidated by them, that scares me.
also he and Lavi keep conversing through thought bubbles and i can’t tell if we’re meant to understand they have a telepathic link or this is just an idiosyncratic method of indicating whispers.
lavaliere thinks allen is funny. or that komui’s attempts to reframe shit in allen’s favor are funny.
he’s not actually wrong that the XIVth can’t be trusted, but you want to insist he is wrong somehow because he’s already demonstrated that his standards for treatment of people who even might be compromised are inhumane as fuck.
i want to keep making Pope jokes but the recurring phrase ‘the central government’ just. it really does emphasize how much this organization is modeled on a modern Japanese concept of hierarchy rather than an early-modern European one.
...i am reminded that early European accounts of Tokugawa Japan recorded the shogun as the Emperor and the Emperor as the Pope.
labubibir just smirks when komui asks if his unilateral ‘we’ll tell everyone all about this in the morning’ decision has the pope’s imprimatur behind it.
srsly if we get to a twist that the current Pope is like. an animated corpse or a stuffed bear or a wooden statue or something run by a committee, i’m not even going to be shocked.
oh look it’s Link in that outrageous papal magic ninja getup. XD the role of Timcampi in this story is so weird. and great. he’s like. magic floating R2D2 stg, only if Luke threw R2 at Yoda’s head at some point.
...the point would be when Yoda actually explained about Vader before Vader could, but did it in the most assholish and unhelpful way possible
which you know i would believe would have happened.
Cross Marian it is so completely in character for you to turn up dead and thus useless at such a politically vital moment i almost don’t believe you’ve actually been killed.
only the fact that you actually shared significant information last night makes it seem reasonably likely this is not a fake death.
the disappearing body is a good trick. the guards sleeping and not dead is suggestive either way.
i like the juxtaposition that made it look link Link was blowing shit up by playing chess. (instead it is the marginally less ridiculous ‘playing chess at the site of a battle while ignoring the fighting’)
are those things even akuma? they’re fighting them in a graveyard and either the fight is non-serious enough or the chess is important enough that Miranda’s multi-tasking...
if she needs to use reverse on the board then presumably it...got spilled? but then they could just memorize the positions and let her let it go...
lol yeah okay allen scold the monster for its lack of manners toward a lady.
lmaoooo okay the chess was to win an Innocence-infused ring back from the ghost of its chess-master previous owner! normal duties have resumed in spite of the massive loss of personnel and allen’s identity issues, and apparently Link is now contributing to team efforts. this won’t divide his loyalties at all of course.
the chessboard didn’t decay with the ghost, so i still don’t know what Miranda was reversing time on it for.
+1 sassy old lady.
wow they’re actually building Order operations around use of the Ark, which only Allen can pilot. i guess anyone can use the doors he’s established so once he’s got a solid network running they can axe him but....
...Miranda it is rude to crush on a priest, though he has very pretty hair. (i mean, i’m assuming he’s catholic, since he’s with the Order, which works for the Pope. all indications really are that England is a catholic country in this universe.)
...it’s also a country where the Noahs are installed at high levels of government I don’t understand how no one in the Order has noticed that.
‘even if only for the moment’ ffffffffs link shut the fuck up.
...if anyone is inexplicably reading this without familiarity with the media property involved and picturing the hero from Legend of Zelda when i yell at link, please continue doing that, it’s basically correct except for being wrong in almost every particular.
oh good grief. So, they actually agreed with me about ‘can’t get rid of Allen’ for all the reasons i stated! they just announced to everyone he knows that they have an ongoing mission to kill him if he goes rogue.
that’s entirely reasonable, really, though depressing, but they had to be so viciously dehumanizing about getting there! wtf. “our very own pet noah” imma wring your throat.
...ten years has made Miranda Lott so much more relatable but never more than in this moment where she’s reminding herself she’s the only actual adult in this group.
also really feeling Allen’s “I don’t understand anything, but time keeps moving on.”
Holy shit the guy who knew Kanda when he was a small person now counts as foreshadowing of horrible things to come.
...how long have they left the bloodstained shattered window unrepaired so Rebeliel can sit here staring at it?
i don’t know whether i’m more focused on how absurd it is that this man does fancy baking (19th century! powerful! man!) or how terrifying it is that he’s offering Allen a slice of cake.
lmao apparently Reever is not a typical example of his role, probably because Komui isn’t. in fact, i don’t think i previously realized the ‘section’ he’s ‘chief’ of is the hq science section, because Komui acts like he’s Head of Mad Science and leaves Reever to be his chief minion.
also, this poor woman. her brother got horribly murdered working with these people and it traumatized them and now they’re treating her as a replacement goldfish because she looks just like him. that’s messed up on so many levels, though presumably she’s at least moderately okay with being misgendered or she’d dress differently. it being the 19th century and all.
...also i can’t tell if she’s meant to be a very pale black woman or if hoshino just did a ‘fat person’ character design around racist caricature visual tropes, but she’s got the blackface lip outline and a dreadlock ponytail, so welp.
wow Cross’ disappearance just gets more mysterious even as the evidence of his death mounts.
oh never mind Lebubble says it was definitely his bosses but he’s concerned because he was left out of the loop.
hmm okay that’s two women getting instant crushes on pretty boys and two relatively minor cases of sexual harassment in three chapters, all four times intended as humor, do not like this trend.
hmm now a trans woman being used as a visual gag. i’ve seen worse uses of this trope, but ugh.
the Ganimard expy is funny, tho. the amount of personality conveyed in a few pages is reliably high.
...i feel like he’s pointedly not given his prisoners any changes of clothes in order to maintain the illusion that it makes some kind of sense for there to be an entire gang of phantom thief that gets caught every single time.
that doesn’t actually explain why they’re all still wearing the outrageous hat.
aaaaand back to allen’s identity crisis.
wow, on the one hand cross is pressuring him from beyond the grave not to rely on Mana’s memory because that’s not his real self, but on the other hand he has to seriously consider that his recent lapses in the formality adopted in imitation of Mana were even less himself and in fact the result of a hostile alien consciousness breaking through.
haha this heist scenario is so exactly like a Magic Kaito one I’m guessing that’s a deliberate allusion and not just shared Phantom Thief tropes. (Though how do you tell in a genre like this, Ganimard-Nakamori-Galmar lmao.)
...the thematic element of speech-mode equating identity is really nicely used but lmao sticking out the tongue has sufficiently different connotation in Japan to make this possession sequence weirder than intended. which was already pretty weird.
daaaaamn link’s papal ninja moves are finally seeing some use. also way to signal your real identity bodysnatcher kid, allen’s like sixteen, an adult would definitely not call him niichan.
wow you can even use his papal ninja paper magic! somehow! that is a really high-tier bodysnatching skill. also lol of course kanda can recognize a papal ninja crow by skillset.
i am a huge fan of allen’s capacity for headgames.
oh my goodness is he seriously donating all the money from his thefts to an orphanage? specifically the orphanage where he lives?
and again with the boob grab.
...allen walker weeping that he’s bleeding is quite the hilarious sight but come to think of it if he can’t hold off one random crybaby bodysnatching kid his odds against XIV don’t look that hot, eh?
oh no evil undead nun.
oh that’s a great idea, ask komui for advice about what to do in the situation that an exorcist and his guardians are rejecting summary kidnapping. it’s not like he devoted his entire life to regaining contact with his sister after the Order kidnapped her.
oh no it’s another hideous potbellied angel monster and they’ve figured out how to jam allen’s curse radar. that curse was a present from his dad you bastards!
...mana was a really weird person.
you know link, i’m pretty sure from you that was protectiveness.
oh! a twist! the nun is evil without being an undead monster!
meanwhile the nice nun and all the orphans have been turned into puppets.
daaaaamn the Papal Ninja Paper Magic is good stuff! why don’t they teach it to more of their staff, maybe they wouldn’t have such high turnover.
...Kanda just referred to Noise Marie as ‘she’ but I’m pretty sure that’s a translation error based on the fact that his surname is ‘Marie’ and ‘Noise’ sounds like a descriptor based on his hearing-based power rather than a first name.
it would frankly be awesome if Noise Marie were a woman, but considering the only two not-conventionally-boobalicious and also not elderly female characters we’ve had were minor visual gags (plus i guess Miranda during her initial nervous breakdown), and that hoshino was genuinely startled people thought Jasdero was a woman, presumably because of the lack of visible breasts, i reallllllllly think she would be unlikely to design a huge bald muscle woman, let alone treat her with this much casual respect, let alone while writing her as gay.
regardless, if Noise Marie actually dies imma be so mad. not that me being mad has had a perceptible affect on the death rate--though Kanda and Krory did survive the Ark Battle Arc so maybe i do have power. or rather we collectively as readers do.
hah he cut his own fingers off with wire, badass.
allen’s talent for inspiring compassion claims another victim in Bodysnatcher Timothy and holy cow Emilia The Nice Middle Class Girl is here with a handgun to menace the giant monsters, nice.
i mean, they’re not very menaced, but she’s shooting them anyway, because fuck you.
...holy shit that’s a powerful ability. the fact that it leaves his real body vulnerable is kind of a major drawback even with good teammates, but wow. also for some reason his Innocence has its own consciousness???
which can pilot his body for him while he’s walkabout, how helpful!
Bonne the the translady prison boss has joined the count of girls who see a cute guy and get an instant crush recently, but for some reason she’s really into Reever? I mean, he’s good-looking, sure, but he’s not one of The Pretty Boys.
Just realized that part of what’s vibing so weird is, this is a shounen series, but the specific way it juxtaposes elements of extreme shittiness with elements of brilliant concept and execution is more shoujo in style.
sameface isn’t normally a big issue in this series but Link-with-his-bangs-blown-back looks confusingly similar to Timothy’s Innocence Spirit, whom Timothy identified as his adult self with startling ease.
kneeling there out of options thinking you’re going to die and you dedicate your last thought to revellier, link? really??? that’s extremely sad. did he actually do anything to earn your loyalty or is this just brainwashing?
I feel like last time through I failed to absorb the political implications of the Order having managed to put together agents who can stop a Level 3 akuma with their hands and then eat it. with their hands. i think they’ve been spliced with akuma, because ‘nothing human can get through this barrier.’
Lenalee going one-v-one on a Level 3 was a nigh-self-destruct big deal a couple of months ago. This isn’t just sloppily managed shounen power creep this is the obsolescence of the excorcists.
which in theory would be a good thing, but the way these guys are made has to be awful and our main characters were already disposable enough in the eyes of their masters.
At least Allen’s getting Power Creep too! New tactic: drop sword. Stab enemy in the back with it while standing in front of them because it’s still part of your body somehow.
oh good grief allen you saw what happened to tiki myk! how did you not see this coming. ughhhhhhh. i know why. your current life plan is to Denial so damn hard the universe breaks your way. this is your god letting you know she’s not going to indulge that touching optimism.
i think it shocked me the first time, but i’m not sure anymore.
yeah, deeply counter-productive course of action.
...i’m now used to the way XIV uses Allen’s face but the akuma seeing him as a flaming skeleton monster i had forgotten about. wut?
with kanda it’s not a question of did he count on allen being able to dodge or did he not care if he stabbed him too, it’s both.
the cognitive dissonance of the story trying to treat Timothy joining the Order as a Good End to this episode, the same way it did back in early days when they recruited Miranda, when the prevailing atmosphere of the story has become one of institutional cruelty and corruption wherein the Order is a hellish slave-taking death trap that eats its people alive is just...fucking me up big time.
am i actually expected to accept the content here at face value?
...i mean, it’s a good end in that our heroes are spared having to forcibly kidnap him into indenture, but Emilia joining to look after him is just. It’s not funny or heartwarming or empowering.
we’ve recently gone over how komui doesn’t want lenalee to see his joining the Order for her as self-sacrifice even though it was, and also how much it fucks him up being accountable for how evil this organization is.
and not to be awful but lenalee’s his actual family and actually sweet, whereas timothy is a horrid brat with a habit of sexually harassing Emilia.
And that was before the war reached a point where we’re seeing 90% mortality.
don’t do this emilia. nooooooope.
on the upside, the nice nun and all the children survived somehow!
allen’s relationship with Link is weird.
i wonder if i was meant to be disturbed by how similar Mana’s body language was to the Earl’s for a second there?
okay so can we talk about how in this moment of extreme drama where Allen has sat up in bed possessed by evil, timcampi (who never communicates except via body language and is a floating orb) gets a speech bubble containing a picture of a toilet?
because it was really important to let the readers know that the little golem theorized that Allen needed to have a pee, in between cutting from the unsettling Symbolic Dream to the terrifying murder face.
and the thing is, it even kind of was! it contributes to the pace of the whole scene, it reminds us that timcampi is a conscious being with opinions even if he can’t communicate much, and is witnessing this incident. and yet. toilet.
the entire storytelling style of D. Gray Man revolves around creating cognitive dissonance and it does not suit my brain.
...i honestly don’t know what to think about Link being uncomfortable sharing a room with Lenalee flashing that much thigh, but i know i like him better for the fact that he let her drive him out of his own room by falling asleep on his bed, and just stood around in the hall like a chump waiting for her to finish her nap.
and he escalates from threatening allen with a formal complaint to threatening to tell komui he’s alone in a room with lenalee lmao.
he really is fitting right in.
oh hey. it wasn’t just timcampi who saw.
yes okay thanks for the tyki myk update good to know there are long-term consequences for running a noah through with Crown Clown.
aaaand North American Boobs Lady didn’t seem half this menacing last time she came up, but now she’s flanked by Hungry Hands Dude and his partner and komui is looking freaked out.
he does that a lot lately.
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Why Reylo Should DEFINITELY NOT Happen
Is this an unpopular opinion now?
Disclaimer: I am not anti-Kylo. I love Kylo Ren for the potential his character does have (view profile picture!). I do not excuse any of his actions, but I do understand that had he not been mentally fucked by Snoke as an impressionable adolescent and had he not pushed away everyone who cared about him and tried to help, he would not be in this mess. Very much Snoke’s fault, very much his own. I love Rey for the beautiful being and character she is. How strong she is, her emotionality, and her fierce and beautiful desires. I am a fan of both Rey and Kylo Ren, so please do not take this as me saying one is too good for the other.
Well, everyone knows how very, very sure I am of myself when I say Rey is Rey Skywalker. This would make her Kylo’s first cousin, their parents being twins, so that is very, very fucked up to begin with. This is the MAJOR, and first, reason I was ever anti-Reylo.
But let’s PRETEND she isn’t Rey Skywalker. Maybe she’s Rey Kenobi or Rey whatever. It doesn’t matter. Let’s PRETEND she’s not a Skywalker, even though that is so wildly unlikely. View the attached videos to the last few words to see why I say it is that.
Have you viewed the videos? No? Well, I suggest you do. But whatever…I don’t know your schedule nor your interest level in this. Anyway, moving on…
So I’m sure you’re wondering, “Why, if you love both of the characters and they weren’t related, would you not ship them together?”
Simple: Because it is insulting to their characters, detrimental to the character development they could potentially have, and ends Star Wars for good.
I can hear the jeering now, “Those are some WILD assertions. How can you prove this, OP?”
Dissertation:
We have only been just introduced to them as characters, so how would I truly understand their motivations and who they really are? Well, to tell you the truth, I am one of those people who knows who people are based on how they act and respond to situations. It’s easy for me to predict what you will want and how you will act later. If I am so confident after TFA that I am willing to put myself on the line for jeering and my opinion up to all criticism on this website littered with differing opinions, I must be pretty confident that I know what I’m talking about. Especially true because I avoid conflict at pretty much all cost. So here goes…
Kylo Ren is a child trapped in a man of 30′s body. He pushed everyone who loved him away and was brainwashed by someone who cared only about what he could do for them. Kylo Ren’s main desire is that he wants to be wanted, he wants someone to be proud of him. He is unstable, unpolished, and very, very frightened…of Snoke, of himself, and of what he feels inside him. He is not emotionally mature enough, at least at this point, to handle a romantic relationship…at least a healthy one, one that which Rey would hypothetically deserve. And even though Kylo is allegedly more “polished” in TLJ, deep-seated fears like those just don’t go away.
Rey is a grown adult. She grew up alone by nothing more than circumstances brought on by her parents, of whom we don’t (but probably do) know. Rey is 19…probably 21 by this movie…and has dealt with way too much in her life. She is emotional, but strong. She is fiercely loyal and desires nothing greater than to belong somewhere and feel that she belongs. She has every capability to have a healthy romantic relationship, but she doesn’t seem to really push for that. She desires friends and companionship and belonging, but not…a romantic relationship. At some point may she? Probably, but she doesn’t seem like the type of person, in my opinion, to prioritize a romantic entanglement. She is just getting her footing in the new world outside of Jakku.
Now, keep all that in mind while I explain why it’s insulting to their characters and the franchise itself!
I am writer myself. I am, admittedly, predominantly a songwriter. I have written screenplays and short stories and whatnot…you may have seen one of my screenplay ideas for Kylo Ren’s redemption because I did, at one point, post a few of them on Tumblr. However, not the point.
I took a screenwriting class about 2 years ago in college. Stay with me here! There was one time, I remember, we had an assignment for a short screenplay. I was writing a story…I don’t remember about what exactly, but I remember how much trouble I was having in keeping it within the time limit and due date I had. Finally, I had 3 days left to hand it in and still was trying to think of a decent way to end it. I had ideas and ideas that I loved, but the only thing that fit within the page limit and that would allow me to hand it in on time was the ending I hated…but it was the only choice I had at this point. I did it. I had the main antagonist fall in love with the main protagonist. I hated myself for it and it dissected their characters and destroyed the story, but I did it. I handed that paper in on time and in the page limit I had.
You see what I’m getting at, don’t you?
I used…a cop-out.
And that’s what endgame Reylo is.
A cop-out.
A cop-out is, as I’m sure you all know, something you do when you have no other choice or can’t think of a way to bring about your next goal. You do it because you gotta do it to make what you want happen happen. In this case, making Reylo canon would bring about a natural close to the saga.
But at what cost?!
Star Wars, as I’m sure we’re all aware, is littered with themes that extend back to the beginning time of storytelling. Good versus evil being the most notable theme, familial love, love in general. A lot of basic AF themes, but all good stories tend to have similar themes. We all know that because there are truly only 6-8 real stories in life and cinema. You can only have so many good things.
Now, TROPES are a different monster all together. Redemption is a trope that Star Wars utilizes a lot and that’s okay because it makes sense and grounds their good versus evil theme. Also, the Star Wars universe is so expansive and well-designed that it’s even kind of difficult to identify the trope until you really step back and say…”…huh.” It’s fine to utilize some tropes in wonderful movies. Don’t get me wrong…
But not when it sacrifices your characters.
The trope I will be talking about now is the one in which “the bad guy falls in love with the good girl and shirks his bad ways to make her happy and be with her”. We all know what I’m talking about. And we all know how played out it is. We’re all tired of it.
How many movies have we seen this year with the very same endgame trope? 12? more? I don’t know, I barely go to the movies anymore.
Do you want Kylo Ren and Rey’s character identity as it stands and their potential character development to devolve, which that’s what it is, into a romantic endgame?
That is my question for you.
Kylo Ren has the potential to pull a Vader and decide for himself, with the help of the people whom he pushed away earlier and those new friends, that what he’s doing is wrong. Darth Vader decided that when his son’s life, whom believed steadfastly in his goodness, was threatened that what he was doing was wrong and changed because he wanted to. Luke did not coerce, did not guilt, did not even truly fully persuade Darth Vader to turn back. But having Rey profess her love or even Kylo admit he is in love as a method of change is such a disservice to both of their characters. You are eliminating the fact that Kylo Ren must take responsibility for what he’s done and make amends as necessary.
To degrade Rey’s very presence in the series to a method to bring about change in her male counterpart is disgusting to me. Her potential to grow as a Force-user, her potential to be stronger than Luke, her potential to be her own person is GONE. We all know this to be true. Once she becomes the object of the male villain’s affections, she becomes a sex symbol, she becomes nothing more than an object, and she is now forever thought of as “Kylo Ren’s Girlfriend” and not “Rey”. She becomes his property in the thoughts and minds of fans and those not fans because she loses her own name when that happens because now all that matters is the relationship.
To use a female of Rey’s caliber to FORCE CHANGE in a male such as Kylo is reprehensible because it negates his need for true redemption, for taking responsibility, for fighting back from the Darkness. We all know Kylo needs to show effort because of who he is. He is denying and fighting the light, so therefore, he needs to fight the Darkness even harder. But…
If they fall in love…we all know, that’s all that will be remembered.
Not who Rey really is. Not what she could have been. Not Kylo’s struggle to turn back. Not his betrayal of Supreme Leader Snoke.
It’s all just them falling in love now…
Do you want that for Star Wars?
Because you know that’s what would happen. “Search your feelings, you know it to be true.”
I, personally, would not want that for this amazing franchise that has literally brought people joy for 40 years.
Aside from that, if they did fall in love and potentially go on to have children, that would be the end of Star Wars.
I know Return of the Jedi was kind of that way too. ROTJ was really a nicely tied bow on top of a Christmas present, sealing the whole Saga of 6 (yeah, I know ROTJ came out before the Prequels!)
TFA is really a second Christmas present for someone.
Since X, XI, and XII are all confirmed, if Kylo and Rey get together in IX, I do not see where they could go from there, especially considering they’re probably intending to follow the formula from before where the first saga was Anakin and Luke’s story, this saga really couldn’t be Kylo and Rey’s. IX would feel too final for people to want to rehash and reopen the gift. They’d lose viewers. They’d lose revenue. They’d lose our trust. If something feels too final, people won’t want to come back to it. That’s the problem with older people not liking TFA and the new trilogies. ROTJ was too final. But now that we have this and I’m open-minded to the new story, I’m all in…but
THEY HAVE TO DO IT RIGHT.
And Reylo is not the right way.
It would bring everything to a natural close before its time. I don’t know if I’d want to come back to SW after that because I don’t see the potential for a future in the series with that as a trilogy-closer.
Now, I’m done. I’m just trying to let you all see what I’m seeing here. The quote that Rian Johnson made in the NYT that “Rey and Kylo are really two sides of the same protagonist” is the truth, but it, in no way, alludes to Reylo becoming canon. If anything, it alludes to: 1) Kylo’s Redemption or 2) Rey’s Turn to the Dark Side.
Now please understand…I’m not trying to make y’all feel anything if you ship Reylo. This is just how I feel and how a lot of others feel. I’m very Pro-Kylo and very Anti-Reylo and I admit that. But I have legitimate reasons and legitimate concerns for the future of the franchise if Reylo sets sail.
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Flair Reads: What to Read in 2020
At the start of every new year, a new booklist comes out predicting the must-reads of the year. This list is often compiled before many of the books are even published nevermind read and reviewed. 2019 was an incredible year for publishing, from fiction to poetry and everything in between— it was easy to miss a great read amidst the avalanche of new releases. We have rounded up the best books of the last year so you can catch up on anything you might have missed.
“The answers to making it, to me, are a lot more universal than anyone’s race or gender, and center on having a tolerance for delayed gratification, a passion for the craft, and a willingness to fail.”
If you need a good laugh then grab Ali Wong’s latest book and jump in! Her Netflix comedy, Baby Cobra captured her hilarious thoughts on everything from being a working mom to her views on modern marriage. This unfiltered collection gives fans more of Ali’s wisdom as she shares her life in the most personal and hilarious ways.
“In fact I need you to know it was all true. The friendly guy who helps you move and assists senior citizens in the pool is the same guy who assaulted me. One person can be capable of both. Society often fails to wrap its head around the fact that these truths often coexist, they are not mutually exclusive. Bad qualities can hide inside a good person. That’s the terrifying part.”
Most people know her story but very few know her name—until now. Emily Doe was the sexual assault victim of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner who assaulted her on campus and sparked the conversation around white privilege, #MeToo, and the fault lines in the U.S. criminal justice system. The story of the Stanford rapist was front-page news for weeks but this memoir gives the power back to the victim and tells the story from her point of view allowing readers to get to know the real Chanel Miller.
“We must be the masters of our own destinies. I did not learn that until it was too late. You have to fight to take back control of your life. Sometimes you will hurt the ones you love the most. But in the end, it will always have to be your choice.”
This Young Adult (YA) novel is perfect from start to finish and gives insight into the world of third culture kids. Being a teenager is hard enough but what happens when your home life doesn’t quite match the world you live in? Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali tries desperately to be a good daughter and friend—with a scholarship to Caltech she can’t live up to her conservative parents’ expectations. Will she be able to become the perfect Bengali daughter or will she lose it all to become her true self?
“I heard Carl shout, and I turned to see Roland now on fire, though not as bright as his sister. Carl simply kicked him into the pool, where he fell like a rock, extinguished.”
This book is impossible to put down—quirky characters, unique plotline, and ridiculous dialogue make it one of Kevin Wilson’s best books. The story is about two unlikely friends, Madison and Lillian, who met at an elite private school but were separated for years after a scandal that got one of them kicked out of school. The other stays in school and leads a life of privilege thinks she has everything figured out until her husband’s ex-wife dies and she is now responsible for her twin stepchildren. The friends reunite as they try to keep the stepchildren from going up in flames—literally.
“Home is never the same for anyone not just refugees. You go back and find that you have grown and so has your country. Home is gone. It lives in the mind. Time exiles us all from our childhood.”
Dina Nayeri is a brilliant wordsmith who crafts the most beautiful stories by weaving in her personal narrative into each of her books. At age eight, Nayeri fled her native Iran with her mother and brother to Italy finally calling America home. The brilliance of her words has earned this book notoriety and was a finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction.
This is maybe the most creative poetry book to come out this year because it is not only a work of art but a collage of President Trump’s words like they have never been seen before. Rob Sears has hand-crafted the tweets, speeches, transcripts, interviews, writings, and musings of the American president into sonnets, haikus, and free verse poems. While this might not be the read-of-the-year for everyone it is a refreshing take on the 45th President’s musings.
“Once a story you’ve regarded as true has turned false, you begin suspecting all stories.”
Canadian author Margaret Atwood has been famous in her native country for decades but took center stage internationally when Hulu released the series The Handmaid’s Tale in 2017. Based on her chilling novel, the series shocked audiences to the core and left everyone wanting to know more about the disturbing dystopian society of Gilead. Atwood picks up the story more than fifteen years later in this long-awaited sequel. Will the protagonist Offred face freedom, prison, or death?
“Back in the main corridor—what Luke now understood to be the residents’ wing—the little girls, Gerda and Greta, were standing and watching with wide, frightened eyes. They were holding hands and clutching dolls as identical as they were. They reminded Luke of twins in some old horror movie.”
The undisputed king (no pun intended) of horror writing is back with a new book to give you nightmares. In the quiet suburbs of Minneapolis, a murder takes place leaving Luke Ellis kidnapped and taken to The Institute. The Institute is a place where people are checked in but so far, no one has ever checked out. This psychological thriller is reminiscent of Stephen King’s earlier work and is a must-read if you are a King fan.
“By embracing your calling and refusing to hide your glow, you wouldn’t just make your world brighter, you’d light the way for the women who come behind you.”
A bit of self-help can’t hurt! Author and the founder of a multimillion-dollar media company, Rachel Hollis is here to remind women that they are often not living up to their full potential. In this #1 New York Times bestselling book Rachel writes about the positive behaviors to adopt, the things to let go of, the path to growth, and the ways to better believe in yourself.
“It’s because I’m tired of being branded a terrorist; tired that a human life lost in my country is no loss at all.”
The East is often seen only through the gaze of the West. Underlying that reality is the fact that the region is often only spoken about my males in the media and the complex stories of women are often lost. In this collection of essays, nineteen female journalists discuss their homelands and how reporting on conflicts in the region has given nuance to the women who are often misunderstood as stereotypes.
Flair Reads: What to Read in 2020 was originally published on FLAIR MAGAZINE
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The H Word - The Defenders blog
(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)
Truth be told, I wasn’t really looking forward to this. For starters the showrunners are Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez, the incompetent twosome behind Daredevil’s lacklustre second season. I knew the Hand were going to be the focus again, which I wasn’t excited about because the Hand are by far the stupidest, most nonsensical and downright uninteresting villains in these Netflix shows. Also... why? What’s the point of all this? Marvel are acting as though this has all been building up to the Defenders, but it really hasn’t if you think about it. With the Avengers, each movie in Phase 1 felt like another piece of the puzzle clicking into place before the grand finale. Here the Netflix shows don’t really have any sort of link with each other. It just feels like they’re doing this Defenders crossover because... well the characters are there. They might as well do something with them.
So did this first episode of The Defenders win me over?
...
Not really, no.
Well, okay, I suppose it’s not terrible, but it’s a tad underwhelming. Not a lot of ground is covered and there were a number of aspects about The H Word that were very irritating.
Let’s start with my biggest pet peeve. The colour coding. I can understand doing it in the title sequence, but the entire fucking show? Are you taking the piss? See all of the Iron Fist scenes are highlighted in green, all of Luke Cage’s scenes are highlighted in yellow, Jessica Jones’ are in purple, and Daredevil’s... okay, that doesn’t even make any sense. What in-universe reason could there be for his flat to be in red? Is Matt running a private brothel now?
Oh but wait! The courtroom scenes are brown! And the scene in the hallway with the disabled kid is in yellow! Doesn’t that make this a Luke Cage scene? I’m so confused... except I’m not because I’m an intelligent adult that can keep track of a story quite easily without requiring a fucking colour palette as though I’m in kindergarten.
I know this must seem like a massive nitpick, even by my standards, but this genuinely got on my nerves. It felt as though I was being patronised. That Marvel think I couldn’t possibly follow their little magnum opus without having all the characters colour coordinated for me. How about crediting your audience with some intelligence?
Still at least the villains aren’t colour coordinated... OF COURSE THEY ARE! Why stop there Marvel? Why don’t you have a flash of lightning and wolves howling in the background too, just to really ram the point home for us?
Let’s quickly talk about the villains. Only Marvel could take a group of Japanese ninjas and not only confuse Japanese with Chinese, but also have a corporate white woman as their supreme leader. It feels as though they’re doing this on purpose now. Still, I can’t deny Sigourney Weaver adds a touch of class to the proceedings. Although it was hard to stomach watching Madame Gao being ordered around like a skivvy. Not even Kingpin treated her like that.
What I’m really confused by is how come the Hand are taking orders from Sigourney Weaver? Wasn’t it established in Iron Fist that the Hand were made up of separate factions? Doesn’t having a supreme overlord figure kind of defeat the purpose of that? Where was she during Daredevil Season 1? Why would she allow one of her subordinates to work for a rival? Why allow her organisation to become so fractured and so splintered? Maybe all of this will be answered in a future episode, but I doubt it. At this stage the Hand have become so convoluted that I’ve practically given up trying to make sense of how their nutty organisation works and the mechanics of their incomprehensible plots.
Also Elektra is back. Yeah, because I TOTALLY wanted to see her again. And she’s wearing black as opposed to white. Typical. There’s always one nobhead who doesn’t get the memo and ends up clashing with the aesthetic. As if I need another reason to hate you, you monster!
Anywho, let’s talk about the main protagonists. And for future reference Marvel, if you want to win over your audience in the first five minutes of your story, maybe don’t start with arguably the most hated character in the franchise. What’s more, don’t then put said hated character into a fight scene that’s so poorly lit and poorly filmed that it becomes difficult to make sense of what the fuck is going on. The shaky cam in that first Iron Fist fight was so bad I was actually starting to feel seasick.
So Danny and Colleen have been travelling the world looking for the Hand (even though they already know the Hand are in New York, which begs the question why don’t they just go back to New York? Oh look! They’ve gone back to New York! I knew they’d work it out eventually!), while Danny keeps having nightmares about K’un L’un. Yes it seems we’re going to be getting a bit of a messiah complex from Danny now as he experiences intense levels of guilt for leaving K’un L’un undefended and possibly letting the Hand slaughter the inhabitants. It’s either that or constipation. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell with Finn Jones’ so called ‘acting.’
So far there are two problems with this (well technically three. The most obvious problem being I don’t give a shit about Danny because he’s about as likeable as a nettle rash on my bottom, but apart from that). The first is that it’s hard to believe that K’un L’un would be completely defenceless without the Iron Fist. They must have warriors. How else were they able to train Danny? So I doubt there’s anything for Danny to really be worried about. The second is a problem I mentioned in my Iron Fist reviews. If K’un L’un’s only defence against a potential army of ninjas is one man with a luminous fist, then frankly the citizens of K’un L’un are clearly too stupid to live.
Next is Jessica Jones (the purple one, in case you’re lost). Now Jessica was in a very interesting place when we last saw her. Her abuser Kilgrave is dead and she looked like she was ready to pick up the pieces and move on with her life. I wonder how she’s grown and evolved since... Oh she’s lying unconscious in a pub. She’s still an alcoholic. Her private eye business has gone to shit. In fact she seems to be in a worse place than she was before. Bummer.
Obviously I don’t want to trivialise any of this. Recovering from sexual abuse and alcohol addiction can be extremely difficult and there can be ups and downs in one’s recovery (I can personally attest to this), but I’m extremely disappointed that the writers have made no effort to try and have Jessica improve her life. I’m not saying she needs to make an instant recovery, but show that she’s at least trying to get her life back on track. What we’ve got instead is what feels more like a caricature of Jessica Jones. The writers also seem to have confused being a hardened survivor with being an obnoxious prick. I’m not going to lie. I straight up hated Jessica in this episode. The way she talked to that woman outside her apartment was so unnecessarily cruel and there just doesn’t seem to be any good reason for it. Why doesn’t she want to take her case? Why has she allowed her business to fall into disrepair when she seemed ready to get back on the horse at the end of her first season?
In the end Darth Vader gives her a tinkle on the old dog and bone (on a side note, I do hope that voice scrambler wasn’t supposed to be intimidating because it wasn’t. It was probably the funniest thing in this episode), and threatens her not to take the case, which paradoxically causes her to take the case.
Having traced the phone number almost insultingly easily, Jessica encounters an empty apartment and a box full of explosives. I wonder where this is going.
Luke Cage’s story is by far the most underwhelming. Remember at the end of Season 1 when he got sent back to prison? Exciting, right? I wonder what they’re going to do with this? Maybe have Luke break out of prison when he hears about the Hand. Maybe have Claire and the other Defenders break him out. Maybe have the police illegally release him because they figure he’s the only one that can do something about this. i wonder... Oh they just release him as though nothing had happened.
Okay, what’s the fucking point of setting up interesting scenarios if you’re just going to reverse them immediately afterward? You might as well have not sent Luke to prison in the first place. (Also Foggy Nelson is there because... um... Foggy Nelson is there).
So Luke returns to Harlem and has vigorous sex with Claire (considering his superpowers, I’m amazed he didn’t accidentally break her in half. Also I hope they’re going to give that coffee table a wipe before they eat or drink anything off it. Cum stains can put people right off their cornflakes in the morning, I can tell you), before he takes a pleasant stroll with Misty Knight who deters him from pursuing Mariah and Shades because they want to save that for Luke Cage Season 2, instead informing him of some kid who’s gotten involved with a mysterious organisation whose couriers end up dead. Luke goes to visit the kid and tries to persuade him to leave, he tells Luke to fuck off and then Luke saves some woman from a lamppost. Well that was pointless.
The only character I in any way gravitated towards was Matt Murdock, who has given up being Daredevil and gone solo in his legal career becoming very successful. In my reviews of Daredevil Season 2, I described his vigilantism as being like an addiction and this episode continues with that theme. His conversation with Karen certainly reflects that as they try to figure out how their whatevership should progress from here. While Matt is really making something of his life now, he still misses being Daredevil as he confesses to his priest (he’s also still mourning Elektra for some reason. Yeah, I’ve never bought their supposed romance and probably never will) and feels slightly empty and unfulfilled without his alter ego. Charlie Cox really sells the internal conflict exceptionally well. At the end when the earthquake happens, we see Matt start to contemplate a metaphorical relapse of sorts (while the cameraman films him as though he’s on a merry-go-round). The difference here is that before he was acting out this Daredevil power fantasy as a way of getting back at the people who killed his father, but in this case (because he doesn’t know this is a criminal conspiracy. It’s just an earthquake) he seems to be contemplating becoming Daredevil again in order to perform a public service and actually help people. It could be the start of a slippery slope, but it could also represent a significant transition in his character. We’ll have to wait and see.
On the whole, this first episode of The Defenders feels like a bit of a letdown, truth be told. Hopefully things will pick up in the next seven episodes, but at the moment, colour me unimpressed.
Ha! Do you get it? Colour me unimpressed!... Because... of the colours and... Oh fuck off.
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Badass Women Sci-Fi Writers Are The Real Heroines We Need
New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/badass-women-sci-fi-writers-are-the-real-heroines-we-need/
Badass Women Sci-Fi Writers Are The Real Heroines We Need
Earlier this week, a rousing headline shot at warp-speed across browsers and Twitter feeds: Women Swept The 2015 Nebula Awards, taking home the prestigious science-fiction and fantasy prizes in the categories of Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy work.
The news might’ve come as a surprise to — or, at least, to the chagrin of — a boisterous group of science fiction writers and fans who’ve taken up the cause of restoring the genre to its tenants of yore: lighthearted adventure that’s sleek, zippy, fun, and — oh yeah — comprised of shelves’ worth of white male writers.
The ostensible platform of the Sad and Rabid Puppies, whose name is meant to mock heartfelt liberalism, is meant to support action stories sans political or moral message. And the cost? Last year, they rigged the voting for a similarly lauded set of prizes, the Hugo Awards, favoring white male writers and effectively quelling women and authors of color. Unlike the Nebulas — which are voted on by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, an organization comprised not just of writers but editors and publishers — the Hugos are controlled by readers, so the Puppies were able to leave their mark.
They didn’t succeed entirely. The categories they stocked with their own nominees received “No Award” due to voters rejecting their white male nominees. But for writers whose books were unfairly overlooked, the damage was done.
This year, the conversation howls on, especially in light of the woman-centered Nebula slate. Nnedi Okorafor, who won for her novella Binti, an interstellar story about a girl who leaves her people to attend the prestigious Oomza University, worlds away from her home, says she’s thankful that issues of prejudice in the industry are being discussed.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Okorafor said, “Honestly, I love hearing people arguing out in the open, not hidden away in their own echo chambers. That’s what I want to see more of: Dialogue.”
The issues swirling around the Hugos are merely manifestations of the growing pains this country is experiencing as a whole. Growing pains are painful, awkward, annoying, sometimes destructive in order to create. -Nnedi Okorafor, author of “Binti”
“The issues swirling around the Hugos are merely manifestations of the growing pains this country is experiencing as a whole,” she added. “Growing pains are painful, awkward, annoying, sometimes destructive in order to create. What I hope will be the outcome of the Hugos is an airing out, an addressing, a debate, and a moving forward.”
Naomi Novik, who took home the 2016 Nebula for her novel Uprooted, a fantasy book about a girl whose taken from her beloved community by a seemingly harmless dragon, feels differently. For her, the Sad Puppies’ rhetoric has been damaging, manipulative and unreflective of true fandom.
“I am glad to trumpet my disdain for this loudly,” Novik told HuffPost. “What I very much hope will come out of this year’s Hugo Awards is that the rules will be changed. [The Puppies] need to just go away.”
Both women agree that prejudiced lines of thinking have been historically damaging to women and writers of color working in the genre, who have both been recognized in their time, but largely forgotten by history. Kate Wilhelm’s suspenseful speculative fiction has won multiple Nebulas and a Hugo; Vonda N. McIntyre, whose longstanding attachment to the “Star Trek” franchise rocketed her to acclaim, won both awards as well. Yet neither is discussed alongside Orson Scott Card or William Gibson.
“You constantly see articles about, ‘Women are suddenly in sci-fi and fantasy!’ and we’re like, we’ve been here all along,” Novik said. “It’s an insidious kind of prejudice. It’s not an immediate sort of thing. Increasingly we don’t see a lot of overt prejudice, Puppies notwithstanding. It’s an unconscious thing where you’re listing, say, the 10 greatest science fiction writers, of all time, and somehow you don’t end up with women on this list. These things get reproduced, regurgitated.”
Ursula K. Le Guin, who won her first Nebula Award in 1970, expressed her concern for her own legacy in an interview with HuffPost last year. “It’s just my general worry, about all women writers, including myself,” she said. “We go along happily in our lifetime, and then, poof! All of a sudden we have to be dug out by feminists 50 years later.”
If women writers are underrepresented in science-fiction and fantasy, the protagonists they write are, too, making it difficult for young women readers and readers of color to find themselves in the books they read. Okorafor, for example, said she didn’t even read much science fiction until she discovered Octavia Butler in 2000.
“I found most science fiction I came across to be inaccessible and way too white and male in way where it was clear other types of people didn’t exist, or when they did, it was only in relation to the white male main character’s narrative,” Okorafor said.
Novik did grow up reading sci-fi centered on both men’s and women’s stories, but often found herself disappointed by the proliferation of the idea that women protagonists must follow a certain masculine template for success. She cites Lara Croft as a heroine she finds, well, heroic — her Indiana Jones-like savvy and strength is inspiring — but she hopes that other narratives, perhaps more feminine narratives, can be given attention, too.
I wanted a heroine who was willing to risk her life, not for revenge, not to gain power or even necessarily to tear someone down, but in order to protect her community. Revenge is a very cold, sad motive. -Naomi Novik, author of “Uprooted”
“There’s a kind of distance forced on me by the fact that she’s so sexualized, and her heroism is a kind of masculine heroism,” Novik said. “There’ve been a lot of characters like that; I’m super happy with those characters. I want Lara Croft, I want Wonder Woman, I want Honor Harrington. I’ve written these kinds of characters. Women who are succeeding on male terms in a male-dominated environment — I think that is heroic. At the same time, I can’t help but feel like that’s not the only model of heroism there should be.”
Novik saw Uprooted as an opportunity to offer an alternate narrative, one that was less involved with violent, vengeful heroism. In her book, protagonist Agnieszka prides herself in her heritage, and in belonging to a quiet, idyllic village that she finds worth preserving. Unlike Luke Skywalker, Batman, or, more recently, “Star Wars” star Rey, she’s not fighting to avenge a lost family or hometown; instead, her journey is fueled by broader ideals.
“I feel like Batman has become the only story that’s getting told, in a way. Everybody’s got to lose somebody they love to be motivated and to fight and risk himself or herself. That’s clearly not true,” Novik said. “I wanted a heroine who was willing to risk her life, not for revenge, not to gain power or even necessarily to tear someone down, but in order to protect her community. Revenge is a very cold, sad motive.”
Aside from their political or artistic reasons for championing representation in the science fiction and fantasy worlds, both Novik and Okorafor said they value diversity for more selfish reasons: it makes for more realistic storytelling, and as readers, that’s what they value most.
“I really want to be taken out of my own experience,” Novik said. “That’s a huge part of the excitement of speculative fiction. When you multiply the voices in our community, and the kinds of stories told in our community, you get more of that, and you get better, more novel universes.”
Okorafor echoed, “I love, love, love stories and in order to enjoy a story, I have to believe the story, no matter what it is about. If the story is about our world or reflecting our world, well, our world is diverse.”
If magical, immersive science fiction and fantasy requires a bedrock of plausibility to be believed and enjoyed by readers, it also must go a step further, imagining future or alternate realities both bleak and aspirational. These stories can serve as cautionary tales, as seen in the still-explosive sub-genre of dystopian fiction, or as worlds to work towards, worlds that improve upon the problems extant in our own, whether technological or social.
“Science fiction is speculative, it imagines, and very often it creates,” Okorafor said. “Consider our tech. Ideas for much of it germinated first in science fiction stories. Consider what it means to have science fiction that speculates about a diversity of people, traditions, cultures, societies, etc. The stories will be richer, as will be the ideas. Everyone benefits.”
More science fiction coverage on HuffPost:
The End Of The End Of The World
Priscilla Frank
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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My Favorite Fandoms and Why
I’m a huge nerd. Hopefully that’s clear for anyone who follows my blog or posts. So naturally I like a lot of fandoms, but there are a number that I really really like and some I’ve followed since childhood.
Pokemon
A fandom I’ve followed since childhood. I was part of the original Pokemon generation who were kids when the first games (red, blue and yellow) came out. I love how even in the beginning there was no end of things to do in Pokemon. Bored with your team? There’s 151 of them and more on the way. Then you could battle and min-max your team to your heart’s content, and way back in the day you could even gamble in Pokemon games. I love the art style of Pokemon and the beloved creatures that are way too easy to get attached to. It’s like to the point where when someone (I’m not naming names) KOs your favorite Pokemon and then it’s time for some serious payback. We’re talking Hyper Beam on a 10% health Pokemon payback. Modern games have given us even more to do in games. If battling isn’t your thing, you can breed them for cool moves and other things (and potentially become a twisted Pokemon eugenicist). You can hunt for oddly colored Pokemon (shinies), something I never had the patience for. You can participate in Pokemon contests, and bond with your team by feeding or petting them. Pokemon designs are really diverse too, from ‘normal’ animals to plants to the gods themselves. Gods that can be caught and battled by ten year olds for some reason. Also it needs saying that for some reason teenage boys (and perhaps girls too) detest Pokemon because it’s not cool. What’s cool for teenage boys? Skateboards and saying ‘radical’ all the time? Ninja Turtles reference by the way. I was definitely in the minority liking Pokemon in my teenage years, but when I got to college, suddenly it was cool again and everyone was allowed to like it just like when I was a kid. Pretty awesome right? I’m really hyped for Sword and Shield, just like I’ve been hyped for every new main series game.
Star Wars
Another fandom I’ve followed since childhood. While Pokemon took us to a land of wonderful creatures of all stripes, Star Wars takes us to that galaxy a long time a go and far far away where there are adventures, cool ships, and magic space wizards. In my opinion, Star Wars introduced the world to some of the coolest and most iconic ships. Like the wedge-shaped Star Destroyers that struck terror into all who saw them, or the Millennium Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy. And who could forget the characters. Definitely a diverse cast in terms of archetypes, Luke the naive and idealist farmboy, Leia the tough no-nonsense princess, Han Solo the lovable rogue, Darth Vader one of the most feared men in the Empire and an extremely iconic villain. The list goes on. Even if the galaxy is almost always at war, be it the clone wars, galactic civil war, or other conflicts, it was somewhere I always wanted to go some day. Meet the characters, try not to get force-choked, fly a ship through hyperspace. Star Wars may have started as three very well-done movies, but it has turned into an incredible multimedia franchise. The Legends series (formerly expanded universe) really fleshed out the galaxy and lore beyond what the movies did and so did the prequels. Say what you will, but they had some really good aspects to them. Then there are the games like my favorite of all time, Empire At War, game that would transport you into that galaxy far far away for a few hours at a time and let you blow up stormtroopers or rebel scum to your hearts content. Or clones or clankers (battle droids) if you prefer that. The fans have definitely done their part too, like the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion, two incredible professional-quality Star Wars costuming organizations (both of which I want to join some day). They really do their part to bring the galaxy to life.
Disney/Pixar
Ah, Disney, the company that has been entertaining us with beloved child-friendly characters and stories for many decades. A lot of generations can say they grew up with at least one Disney movie. I love how Disney movies appeal to people of all ages. They have characters both kids and adults adore and stories and even humor for both adults and children as well. Then there’s Kingdom Hearts, the massive Disney and Final Fantasy crossover that brings tons of Disney characters into one universe. Also Disneyland and Disney parks which bring the magic of Disney to life with animatronics, costumed actors, and various other things. Unless someone outright hates Disney or animated films, there’s bound to be something in the Disney canon for almost everyone. I have too many favorite Disney films to name, but some I’m particularly fond of are Mulan, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Alice in Wonderland (my namesake). I’m definitely planning some Disney cosplays in the future, and now that Disney owns Star Wars, those characters could count too.
Fire Emblem
A tactical RPG with one of the world’s saltiest fanbases (at least in my opinion). I’ve described the series as chess-meets-Final-Fantasy to people who have never heard of it. Basically you have an army of very relatable characters who can talk to each other for combat bonuses and you have a bunch of enemies and undoubtably a giant evil dragon to fight. These games have been pegged as being rather difficult, considering weapons can break mid-battle, characters who die in battle never come back (until recent games), and experience points are limited (more in older games). Fire Emblem used to be such a niche series, only known to a few dedicated fans, but luckily Fire Emblem Awakening saved the series and made it really popular, to the point of being a mainstream series now. I only got into the series in high school, but I’ve been hooked ever since. The mix of strategy, RPG elements, and interesting characters and plots really was a winning combination. The character relations are deep, especially when there are 40+ playable characters per game. Each character can talk to around half a dozen others several times, revealing character backstory, personality, and interesting and sometimes funny interactions between them. I think Fire Emblem Awakening is one of my all-time favorites, and not just because it saved the series. It was a great standalone game. Some of my favorite characters are Lilina from Binding Blade, Nino from Blazing Sword (just Fire Emblem in the international release), Lissa, Chrom, Frederick, Robin, and Nowi from Awakening, Flora and Mozu from Fates. I even cosplay Mozu. I should honestly dust that cosplay off and wear it again. I love the character.
Hyperdimension Neptunia
Definitely still a rather niche series. It’s extremely meta and loves trampling on the fourth wall. This series is basically the video game console war (Wii vs Playstation 3 vs Xbox 360) with all the players (pun intended) personified as anime girls. It’s not just those systems either. Sega is a major player, as in main character major, and video game piracy is personified too. The characters are fantastic and their interactions are equal parts endearing and hilarious. There are way too many video game references and tidbits. Like how Vert (Xbox personification) complains about overheating just like a real Xbox 360. Or how the enemies you fight are based on classic video game enemies like the ghosts from Pac-Man or the space invaders. This franchise is rather unique for me in that I like almost every character. With Star Wars or Fire Emblem for example, there are definitely a fair number of characters I’m neutral towards, but both those franchises have way more characters than Neptunia. I think my favorite characters are Vert and Nepgear (personification of the Sega Game Gear).
RWBY
Say what you will about the animation style at first (believe me, I was turned off at first but then I came back years later to give it another try) but this series has some of the most epic fight sequences and choreography in any series I’ve seen. All the main characters have superpowers of varying sorts called semblances and throw in a bunch of cool weapons that are also guns and you’ve got a recipe for epic combat. It’s so tragic and sad that Monty Oum, the series creator passed away, since he was a real driving force behind the epic fight choreography. I normally don’t like series just because the fighting is good (I’m not into most shounen battle anime). There needs to be more than just epic fights. I like character-driven stories and RWBY provides quite the diverse and likable cast. The team dynamics (RWBY stands for the names of the four characters on team RWBY) make for very interesting character interactions.
Disgaea
Probably the most wonderfully absurd fandom on my list. Disgaea is about playing as the demons as they get into mischief and are forced to fight even worse demons and sometimes rogue human super-villains and angels too. Also did I mention the exploding peg-leg penguins called Prinnies who also talk like surfers for some reason? Because they do exist and they’re so great they even got a few games that star them as the main character... even though they’re supposed to be the fall guy and cheap slave labor of the Disgaea universe. The main characters, Laharl being a great example, are a departure from the ‘good guy’ protagonists of your typical RPG. He’s greedy, petty, and likes to brag about himself. Sure he’ll do the right thing after much prodding, but he really likes to play the role of the villain too. Aside from the absurd characters and plots, there’s the absurd game mechanics. Lv 99 look too low for you? Try Lv 9999 and then reset to lv 1 and grind back to Lv 9999 multiple times. Also stats reaching the millions and billions and damage several magnitudes beyond that with the right overpowered sword (which you can level up by going inside it).
Tales Series
A series that’s somewhat similar to Final Fantasy in terms of being a mostly fantasy RPG, but also with hack-and-slash team battle mechanics. It’s a series that I feel is terribly underrated and needs more love. Final Fantasy is great but I feel like Tales deserves more recognition. The series has a lot of great characters and heavily emphasizes character interactions and character development. A perfect example is Luke fon Fabre, a character whose spoiled, whiny, abrasive personality makes him hard to like, but due to certain events he becomes one of the most beloved protagonists in the series (and a personal favorite of mine). This series is known for playing archetypes and tropes straight (like the chosen one trope, or unshakable destiny) and then turning them on their heads and deconstructing them, only to reconstruct them, then deconstruct them again. The combat is fast-paced and exciting, and while I love turn-based combat as well, the Tales fights, especially boss battles are fantastic. I describe the series as Final Fantasy meets Super Smash Bros in terms of battle system. My favorite game in the series is Tales of the Abyss.
#Pokemon#Hyper Beam#pokemon sword#pokemon shield#Star wars#magic space wizard#star destroyer#millennium falcon#Luke Skywalker#leia organa#han solo#Darth Vader#clone wars#galactic civil war#star wars legends#expanded universe#battle droid#clanker#stormtrooper#rebel scum#501stlegion#rebel legion#Disney#kingdom hearts#disneyland#Mulan#Tangled#wreck-it ralph#alice in wonderland#cosplay
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AHHHHHHHHHH The Last Jedi AHHHHHHHHHHHHH
It feels like I'm in a mobile strip or something, or a a hamster wheel. Because we're talking about The Last Jedi. We're still here. We haven't moved on. There's still a million link pieces and everybody is obsessed on Twitter over the fucking Last Jedi.
Never has a movie I liked been so irritating for me to think about, but we're here. We do this. I want to give my thoughts about The Last Jedi so I can stop fucking thinking about the goddamn Last Jedi when people bring it up. Let's go through this. And I have a couple of points, or contentions that I want to make, and in no particular order.
First the twist with Rey. It turns out Rey isn't anything. She's a random nobody. I guess people are angry about this, because we want I don't know. We want it to be noted how important it is for bloodlines of certain people to be the only thing. Is that what the story is?
I don't like when fantasy and sci-fi does this. I hate it in fact, when fantasy and sci-fi does this. I don't know why people keep doing this. The blood line thing, is this what, the 15th century and most important thing is the reign of kings? Has the last couple of 100 years like 300, 400 years not taught us, even since Greek antiquity that democracy and the will of the common man is as important as the bloated ego of the elite? The chosen bloodlines? Did you really want Rey to be Luke's daughter? Did you really want Luke to have abandoned his daughter for like 20 years? I thought one of the main complaints was that Luke turned into a sad old man in this movie. We're going to get to that part but did you really want Luke to be a fucking asshole? Did you want it to Obi Wan Kenobi's daughter? How would that even work? He died 20, 30, years ago (I don't know how old Rey is supposed to be) but before any of this stuff even happened. Why is it so important for each hero to be the direct descendant of the last hero? This sieges into my next point.
The casino sequence. This is one of the more controversial ones, the casino sequence. The complaint about this is that it's filler. Think about it. If they cut that out there would be no explanation. If they cut that out they would have had to have just been on the First Order's ship. No wait, they did need to do that. Okay so the casino sequence had a point. It wasn't filler because it was important to bring Benicio del Toro's character on board to this whole thing. They could have cut out that whole part with the New Order attacking the ship. Then there would have been no plot to the movie. Simple, write a new plot to the film. Easy. To the more fuller explanation to this and to play into what I was talking about earlier, wasn't one of the great appeals of Star Wars that Star Wars was a living breathing world that existed outside of the Skywalker family? Wasn't it the fact that there was history and side places and interesting towns and cities that were full of stories in and of themselves part of the appeal?
Guys, you do realize it also sets up the fact that the force lives on right and introduces us to characters like that? The casino sequence, you could start at the end. The casino sequence introduces us to a new Jedi. That's a pretty big important plot point too. The casino sequence, it's a couple of things. It's answers a couple of questions about how they all get the guns. It grays the world a little bit but it makes the world fuller. That was always Star Wars appeal was that the world was full and interesting and full of neat people. I loved it for that. That was great. To a full extent, the casino sequence emphasizes why Rey is an interesting character because she's a person from outside this. The lower rung of the people who are now going to be the heroes of the stories. Why was Luke Skywalker an interesting protagonist? Because, he was a nobody kid from out in the farm lands. I feel the lesson that is always missed from these stories is that the more interesting character is the lower person.
Now that I brought up Luke Skywalker, let's talk about Luke. Okay so this was the hardest one for people to swallow because this is not how this stuff is supposed or your action hero stuff is supposed to go. No, the guy he kills the bad guy, saves the universe. It's done right? He lives a happy life and that's it. What is this movie where Luke is sad and depressed and contemplative and stuff like that? That's not going to be me right? You further go on because you identify as Luke. Angry man watching this movie. I'm not going to grow up to be that. I'm already in my 40's. I watched these movies obsessively as a kid. Star Wars has been with me my whole life. Why is Luke sad? Maybe you don't want to hear this or maybe you do. That's life, man. Here's the thing, you wanted new Star Wars movies with Luke in it, you're going to see a 60 year old man. It's not like there isn't precedent for Jedi doing this. In fact, it seems very unprecedented that many Jedi do this sort of thing. See Jedi, Obi Wan Kenobi, Yoda both left society to contemplate on the nature of the force and the Jedi.
See, the thing about the Jedi is one of the most important aspects of them is that they're warrior monks. They do all the fighting but also, one of the important parts they contemplate. They meditate on the nature of the force and what connects us and the guiding principles of the universe. This is true. This is a thing that monks do. They will leave the world and think on this stuff. Yes, Luke did it bitterly but he wasn't wrong and he didn't betray any Jedi. He left to meditate on the nature of the force. The thing about it is, in the end yeah he sort of dies but he achieves enlightenment so it's a happy ending in a away. Not in a way, it is a happy ending. Luke Skywalker achieves the highest level and exactly what a Jedi hopes for. To become one with the force and achieve contentment. He's an old man who now passes along the wisdom and the knowledge to a younger generation and he removed the issues that the Jedis faced in the past. Luke gets a happy ending. He already got a happy ending it's just not a happy ending that ... It's a happy ending from a different culture's point of view and it's an interesting one. This was the best ending Luke probably wanted.
Many sci-fi and fantasy pertain to include warrior monks who think of deep philosophy but in a way that's meant to valorize more than it is In the end it's all about acquiring the cool powers and stuff. Let's move on to another point. The Jedi. The Last Jedi has cynicism about the nature of the Jedi. We must be living in a new world because I thought one of the main complaints was always fucking stupid. The Jedi were in the prequel trilogy. Did you want them to not acknowledge that? They're not not going to do that. That's always going to be a thing but Star Wars is about Star Wars growing. The Last Jedi is about the world growing and maturing, but not being mad or sad. I don't know the ending kills me. Where the kid uses the force to have a broom. Isn't that one of the single most hopeful endings Star Wars has ever achieved? That the world goes on. That there's great adventures always out there. Isn't that a great ending? Happy endings are only happy because of where they stop. This is the ending Luke needed, not the ending ... He doesn't fight anybody. He achieves everything with peace. He achieves what the Jedi were supposed to have done all along. He becomes a better Jedi and for that he joins the force, finally fully understanding it.
Let's move on to reboots. Why did they even need to reboot it? First, let's move on to another point of contention. The New Order. I don't know if this is a point of contention but I want to complain about it, because I still don't fucking get this. Has the republic fallen again? Because, the new movies are super unclear about this. I don't understand because I think the first movie implied that the resistance in the small controlled space that the New Order was in charge of. I thought that's what the story was, but in The Last Jedi it's now they've taken it all over again? Was there a point where I missed it? It's really confusing and arbitrary and I don't get it. It's not a perfect movie. What are you talking about? Why aren't these movies as good as the originals? Okay, they were never going to be as good as the originals. To you. They were never going to be as good as the originals to you is the fuller statement to that. No matter what happens, you were never going to like them.
But you don't know me. I do. You're most likely saying I totally could have liked them. No, you couldn't have because what you wanted was to feel Star Wars. You wanted to be a kid again experiencing the greatness of Star Wars, and this gets into the problem you have with Luke. You were never going to feel that again. You're an adult now. You can never feel that maybe childlike wonder that you do when you first saw Star Wars because no movie can ever live up to the greatness that you've built up in your head. That childhood experience feeling Star Wars? You're never going to top that with new Star Wars movies because the new Star Wars movies that you want, you've already played a thousand times over in your head. There is no way. You can make them like the original maybe? You're saying, more like the originals? That wouldn't satisfy you because you would have the originals and you'd go I can just watch the originals again. Wasn't that the main complaint of The Force Awakens? That it was pretty much like the original one over again?
You want something different. You got something different and that was The Last Jedi. It was new and original and groundbreaking but you weren't happy with that because it wasn't what you remember and that's the fundamental truth of it. You're never going to be happy with rehashing the past over and over again, because to do this not only do they have to appeal to you but they have to the younger generation. The younger generation wants different things but further than that, the older generation doesn't know what it wants anymore. If any of that makes sense. You are not a kid any more is what I'm trying to say. You are not a child any more. You want new things. You want different things. You're more mature now. You want a more edifying story but you're sticking to the stuff you know. Reboots will never make you happy because they will never satisfy that childlike wonder you have. You're only hope to do that is find original exciting stuff again.
The world would have been better if Disney made a new space opera probably. They used all the lessons of Star Wars but made their own. We lost the right to originality because we don't want it anymore. We want to be reminded of our childhood over and over again and we're never happy because we're not children anymore and we can't recapture that. You have to move past that. You have to live past that. You have to try new things. I'm not saying skydive but for the love of god, please go fucking skydiving. You have to maybe watch different movies, read different things. There's a beautiful great world out there that you could experience. Run out there now to your local cinema and watch something great that you've never seen before. Do something great that you've never seen before because none of this shit matters. Star Wars doesn't matter. Your life will not get better if they make a great Star Wars movie and that's the truth of it. Your fandom is what's getting in the way of you being truly fully happy.
If you live your life for what a giant corporation does for you, you will never achieve happiness. You have signed your rights away to it. Please, for the love of god do something great. See, so that's Star Wars in a nutshell. If you didn't like it, you're free to not like it. You're an adult. You shouldn't have to like everything but I don't know. These are my thoughts on it. You probably have different thoughts and I didn't convince you. I know I didn't convince. You're not reading this now, if you are reading this you've probably discovered by googling stuff. I'm okay. I did it googling stuff and landing on my site. It's a fun site. I'm proud of it but you probably stopped like a quarter of the way through and I'm sorry I didn't entice you. But, I'd like it to be pointed out that I didn't bring up race or sex of the characters in this whole thing. I brought up points why it's good without mentioning that and even though a lot of the criticism is totally predicated around this but I hope you do well. I hope you live a life well but relax. Be happy and calm.
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Blogger’s Note: I’ll apologize ahead of time for the fact that while I’ve seen this movie a few times, it’s not old enough to have gained my refined eye… With the other movies, I’ve fit them into my Episode narrative and every time I watch them, it’s with more attention on a different aspect. Rogue One is not even a year old yet- so I’m not as familiar but here goes! To borrow a phrase from my favorite show on TV now, “Let’s Rock!”
What They Did Right: This is the first anthology film. This has never been done before in Star Wars. If this movie sucked then it’s unlikely more anthology movies would follow. I think it’s pretty well done, especially the end half. It’s nostalgic and exciting, and heart wrenching at the same time. I think it’s funny that there’s a meme out there that said, “Pictures released from Rogue One’s sequel” with pictures from A New Hope. There are many layers to the hilarity because A New Hope was the FIRST Star Wars film, and this comes directly before it. Another thing is that people were like, “Don’t spoil the ending.” And I’m like, “If you’ve seen A New Hope, you already know how it ends. Were you shocked when you watched TITANIC and the ship sank?” now, granted- you wouldn’t know what became of the characters, but that’s its own thing. Moving on…
They introduce you to the heroic team that got the Death Star plans to Princess Leia. You see all they went through to get the plans, and what people went through in the Rebellion- how there was hesitation and disagreement between the members of the Council. (I also think it’s interesting that they call it the Council which has a Jedi-like feel).
Baze and Chirrut! I loved them.
K-2SO was like a talking version of R2-D2 mixed with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory with Han Solo’s snarky-ness.
While we know we’re watching something that takes place A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; this movie had a real-world depiction of war so you get why it’s important to destroy the Death Star and the Empire a little more than just by watching the Episodes.
Seeing Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in this movie- just before Bail Organa goes home only to be blown up when the Death Star is used… It has a twinge of irony…
While it’s not the typical Star Wars film- it’s not an episode of the Skywalker Family Drama; it still feels like it belongs in the same universe.
Even though I have to say I didn’t care for the music as much in this one- I still liked it a lot. I liked the nods to the Force theme or the Imperial March that were put in there in the right scenes.
Seeing Darth Vader. He is just awesome and it gives me chills seeing him.
That scene where the Rebels on board the ship are desperately passing the hard-drive/ disk from person to person to get it to Princess Leia on the Tantive 4. Vader is just chopping them down- and it shows him as this angry person driven by hatred and purpose. Once Jyn started to change her opinion towards the Rebels, I was with her. We got to see Vader’s awesome lava planet castle. Even though it didn’t have subtitles for this one planet- we know it to be Mustafar which I’ve talked about in several of my theory posts. We see him chilling in a bacta tank- and even though its hard to see, we get a shot of his scarred head sort of like in The Empire Strikes Back when he’s in his meditation chamber. We see him Force Choke Krennic for a while until Krennic falls on the floor. We can see that he’s still feeling the effects of it later on. It’s good that they used Vader sparingly since Anakin/Vader has been in every movie either in body or in spirit (I’m talking about Kylo Ren having Vader’s helmet and the lightsaber Rey brings to Luke was Anakin’s lightsaber which Obi-Wan gave to Luke which Luke lost when Vader cut off his arm in Empire.) He’s so iconic that having him in it seemed natural. That whole last half of the film gave me chills and I remember that I watched it with my friends, Hannah and David- I was totally geeking out in my chair, hands impulsively clapping excitedly on my leg, and we’d share looks of delight. The ending was so sad, and tragic- but sort of joyous in a way. It definitely made me appreciate A New Hope a little more- that’s for sure. We see Tarkin. I don’t know why but recognizing his foul stench made me happy… When I read the novel and the novel that’s meant as a prequel to the movie Catalyst, it helped the movie make a little more sense and I was actually more invested in the characters. I thought it was funny that the team and the movie are named Rogue One- and in Empire, we see a pilot rescue Han and Luke- his call sign, he says- is Rogue Two… (that was a second-time- watching revelation). There was something fresh about this film, and it was very interesting to watch. — What They Did Wrong A lot of these are probably ones you’ve heard before, but I happen to agree with the complaints or comments that others have made regarding this film. The first act is a little slow. While I think the scene on Eadu provides Jyn much needed emotional closure, it is sort of anticlimactic from a dramatic point of view. Jyn is a passive protagonist until the last part of the movie, and sometimes her reactions aren’t those of what would happen logically in that circumstance. We’re sort of dropped into her life as an adult after seeing her as a kid. She’s in prison and we don’t exactly find out why until later. She is really angry with The Rebels but we can tell she doesn’t agree with the Empire either. We however don’t really know what she DOES believe in. We’re never told or shown. A lot of the end is really depressing. (But I expected that honestly) Bor Gullet and the whole thing surrounding him. Bodhi defects and brings the message- Saw doesn’t believe him and then after exposing him to Bor Gullet, he still doesn’t believe Bodhi- so all we really know is that Saw Gerrara doesn’t trust people… not that I blame him…
Krennic’s callousness towards Galen and his family. I know he’s an Imperial officer, but Galen was one of his friends back in the day and Krennic used him, and took credit for a lot of the things Galen did… then he has Galen’s wife, Lyra shot… I don’t know- something about that bothered me for more than one reason. The whole trip to Jedha seemed a little pointless or anticlimactic and it feels like they botched the mission. First, they got captured by the Imperials and then by Saw’s people. When the actual message is lost and Jyn tells the team what it said, Cassian doesn’t believe her. The whole mission to kill Galen Erso seemed a little (for lack of a better word), mean. Sure, he helped develop the Death Star and its weapon, but he didn’t commission it, and he didn’t use it on anyone… and killing him seems a little harsh… I know Cassian didn’t end up killing him, but still- he died, and it seemed extremely unfeeling and callous to kill Jyn’s father with her in their group. And then it’s like he’s mad at her for being upset with him… Everyone is so against Jyn when she gives them the fatal flaw in the Death Star’s design. They don’t believe her and they chicken out… funny enough- it DOES sort of line up to many characters’ arcs-especially in Star Wars- so I guess I can live with it, and I get why they’d be skeptical. Most of the time, the hero ignores or pushes away their call to action. When Obi-Wan tried to get Luke to go with him in Episode 4, Luke initially refused and then changed his mind when his aunt and uncle died at the hands of the Empire. Rey wouldn’t take the lightsaber when Maz offered it to her… Over all, I think it’s main flaw is just that it’s long and the first half is long and almost uneventful when you consider the last half of the movie is jam-packed with action, adventure, emotion, and resolution to the main plot. All this being said, I appreciate Episode 4 more now, and I am excited for this new set of anthology films coming out. I think we will learn so much more about our favorite saga!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Blogger’s Note: I’ll apologize ahead of time for the fact that while I’ve seen this movie a few times, it’s not old enough to have gained my refined eye… With the other movies, I’ve fit them into my Episode narrative and every time I watch them, it’s with more attention on a different aspect.
#Anthology#Bail Organa#Baze#Bodhi#Cassian#Catalyst#Characters#Chirruit#Darth Vader#Empire#film#Galen Erso#Jyn#K-2SO#Krennic#Leia#Mon Mothma#Movies#pop culture#Reviews#Rogue One#Saw Gerrara#Star Wars#thoughts
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