#it matters to me that despair matters to people in canon. Even without the poe thing. It's sweet okay??

[onwardintolight]

Canon Catchup

With TROS coming out soon, I’ve been doing a lot of catchup on canon material that I’ve missed, particularly that which I think will be most relevant either for the movie or for Resistance Reborn (which I finished yesterday and will talk more about below). I will avoid major spoilers, as excited as I may be about some of them, haha, but I wanted to write out a few of my thoughts here while they’re fairly fresh.

A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova and Galaxy’s Edge by Delilah Dawson—these don’t seem quite as relevant to TROS, but I read these two Galaxy’s Edge tie-in novels a few months ago and I thought I’d say a few words. I REALLY enjoyed the A Crash of Fate; it was such a lovely, heartwrenchingly beautiful story that reminded me a little of Lost Stars in the way that it focused in on a friendship/romance between two people who wouldn’t ever be main characters in the movies. The story was told primarily over the span of a single day, and wow did I not expect my heart to be pulled in so many different directions. Definitely one I will read again and again. 

I’m not sure I’ll do the same with Galaxy’s Edge. It was a super fun read, with some great, Indiana Jones-like action sequences, and I’d recommend giving it a go especially if you’re planning on ever going to Galaxy’s Edge—but it also had a few seriously problematic elements that I just couldn’t overlook. For one, NO WAY is Leia going to force Vi to work closely with someone who tortured her, and speaking of torture, many black people have already commented on the problematic nature of the excessive violence Vi undergoes in this book.

TFA and TLJ Junior Novelizations by Michael Kogge—I wanted to get a refresher on these stories, and since I’d never read the junior versions, I decided to give them a try. Overall I enjoyed these quite a bit. The TFA one was way better imho than the adult novelization by Alan Dean Foster, and both had some really meaningful character moments. There was one Leia scene at the end of the TFA one that brought me to tears.

Aftermath: Life Debt and Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig—I’d originally read the Aftermath trilogy as each book was released, but with everything I was hearing about Resistance Reborn, AND with the return of Palpatine in TROS and the promise of finally figuring out what’s been going on in the Unknown Regions, I thought it was a perfect time to revisit it. I skipped the first one (my least favorite of the three, and also my copy is in a box somewhere from when we moved last and the library’s audiobook copies were checked out) and read a synopsis instead to refresh my memory, then dived straight into Life Debt. Both of these books were as good or better than I remember them. I enjoyed them the first time, but I enjoyed them even better this time around. I feel like they’ve gained even more significance now. My HanLeia shippy heart is happy with some of their scenes, and also I rediscovered that I absolutely adore and would probably die for Norra, Wedge, Jas, Sinjir, Temmin, and crew.

Spark of the Resistance by Justina Ireland—this was a super cute but ultimately rather forgettable junior novel. The best part about it was seeing Rey, Poe, and Rose interacting. I may revisit it sometime after TROS and see if my unexpectedly skyrocketing feels for these characters (see below) makes it better.

The Poe Dameron comic run—I’d previously read the first trade (Black Squadron), the third (Legend Lost), and maybe a tiny bit of the second (The Gathering Storm), and aside from a really poignant bit in Legend Lost I just didn’t find myself very invested. This time around, however, flipped that on its head. Trades 4 and 5 (Legend Found and The Spark and the Fire) completely did me in, and without warning, I found myself 100% invested in Black Squadron. Poe, Jess, Snap, Karé, Suralinda, and L’ulo have officially joined the Aftermath crew in my list of characters I would die for. I just want all my babies to be okay! There were numerous moments in those last two trades (including the AMAZING Annual #2, a must-read for HanLeia new canon fans) which made me cry. I’m not even joking. So good. Well done, Charles Soule.

Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse—Buckle up because I have a lot to say! I HIGHLY recommend reading the Aftermath trilogy, Bloodline, the Poe Dameron comics, and watching the Battlefront II campaign (which I talked about in another post) before reading this because HOLY MOLY. You won’t be lost if you don’t, but it will mean so much more to you if you do. Speaking of crying, I literally lost count of the moments that brought me to tears, and so many were significant because of how all the stories I mentioned and more have been so beautifully interconnected in this one. Wedge and Norra, Zay and Shriv, and so many others—each was given their due and it was amazing. One character’s surprise appearance had me practically on my knees with joy and heartbreak all at once, and I would say more but I’m really trying to keep that promise not spoil you, haha. 

If the Poe Dameron comic weren’t enough to win me over, this book has officially cemented Poe as one of my favorite sequel trilogy characters. Tbh, I’ve had trouble feeling much of a deep connection with any of the sequel trilogy leads—I love them, sure, but not like Leia, Han and Luke, the trio I grew up with. I’ve wanted to love them more, I’ve wanted to be more invested in them, but it just hasn’t happened. I’m really glad I read this book before TROS, because I think this has changed that. I was definitely getting a few OT golden trio vibes with Rey, Finn, and of course, my Boi™ Poe—except they’re completely their own characters, and I’m really starting to love them for who they are.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, it felt really meaningful, and I can’t wait to read it again. 

That being said, when I finished it yesterday I felt a little bit disappointed, like it tasted a little bit bittersweet. I’m still trying to figure out why that is, but I think it may be down to three things: 

1) Though there were a number of fantastic character reveals, there were some obvious people absent and I can’t help but wonder where they are. I hope they’re not dead. I hope TROS includes some of these characters, too. I hope we get the rest of their stories either way.

2) The book is way too short. Especially on the heels of the Aftermath trilogy, this feels like only the first act of at least three. The ending comes way too soon, just after it really seems to get going. This I don’t blame the author or the publishers for at all; they are very limited, after all, in what they can portray leading up to TROS. But it really left me longing for more. This book had such a wonderful focus on character, but in the end, I wanted to see the character arcs get even more resolved than they do here... but I guess they really couldn’t be, and that’s what TROS is for. I just hope the movie does it well! I need all these people to be okay <3

3) It doesn’t shy away from grief, struggle, and the mental cost of war. Honestly, that’s part of why I love it so much, but I think that’s also part of why it left me feeling a little melancholy. The Resistance is in such a seemingly hopeless place, and while things do get better over the course of the book, there’s still such a terribly long way to go.The First Order rains merciless terror on anyone or any planet who gives even the slightest hint of opposing them or of aiding the Resistance. The whole galaxy is afraid. Poe struggles deeply with guilt and with how to make up for the horrible mistakes he made in TLJ (this is not brushed off in the slightest, not by the book or by the characters in it, and I appreciate that). Rey is confused and still unsure of her place in things. Characters are faced with the fact that they will almost certainly die because of their choice to join the Resistance, and it’s heavy. And Leia. Oh, Leia. I am deeply grateful to Roanhorse for her very realistic portrayal of Leia as someone who has lost so incredibly much (most recently her husband and brother), most definitely has PTSD, and probably is dealing with a bit of depression. Leia is weary. Leia struggles to keep stepping forward, struggles to figure out the next step for those she leads. Leia struggles to keep hoping. The battle between hope and despair in the face of terrible loss and terrible odds is very much felt in this book. But as ever with Leia, hope always wins in the end. By the end of the book, you can still feel the struggle, but hope wins. 

I think that because I personally relate so much to Leia, reading some of that was hard. Not because I feel like it’s contrary to who Leia is, but because I resonate with it so much and because it reminds me in a particularly strong way of some of the struggles I’ve dealt with that I’d like to forget. It’s no wonder that my heart felt heavy after I closed the book. But along with that, I also see how Leia perseveres, how she’s finally gotten to a place where she lets herself rely on and be comforted by others, and how she accomplishes the seemingly impossible just because she damned well refuses to give in to despair, no matter how tempting it may be. It reminds me that I, too, can accomplish incredible things despite all my struggles, despite the odds stacked against me.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. Resistance Reborn hasn’t quite come up to the level of Bloodline or LPOA in my personal ranking, but with future rereads, it very well might someday. 

This book—along with all of this reading—has put me even more on the edge of my seat for TROS than I was before, if that’s possible. I desperately want it to be the best ending possible for the Skywalker Saga and for all these characters who’ve become so beloved to me. I’m trying to temper my expectation—TFA still isn’t especially my jam, after all, and while overall I’m a fan of the ST (the TROS trailers made me cry, for goodness sakes), I have a somewhat complicated relationship with it in general—but goddammit, I’m hoping anyway. There’s so much beautiful setup in the new canon EU, such a deliberate focus on character, and so many hints that this might reach through the whole saga and bring together something bigger than we can imagine. 

I’m hoping anyway.

[greenjacketwhitehatdocmui]

Susan Ivanova or Amilyn Holdo as a Strong Character?

    When it comes to strong female characters, I have to admit a bias:  I much prefer Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5 as an example of a strong character than Amilyn Holdo.  And I am perfectly willing to admit that this is patently unfair of me to even make this comparison.  But if you’re willing to follow my reasoning and read the rest of this, I think you’ll find that I have an interesting perspective in this matter.  

    When it comes to depth of character determined from onscreen appearances, Ivanova has the advantage.  After all, Ivanova had four seasons of characterization and development.  Holdo only had one appearance.  I’ve placed this limit because someone, somewhere out there will cite “Leia, Princess of Alderaan” as being a major exploration of Holdo’s character.

    (Yes, Babylon 5 had its ancillary novels. However, only a few are truly relevant to the main plot.  You don’t need them, but they’re nice to have around.  The Leia novel, on the other hand, is de rigeur if you wanted to know ANYTHING about Holdo, bar a Wookiepedia entry.)

    On a related note, let’s compare the emotional range of these two women.  By this, I mean that I am not comparing the acting range of Claudia Christian vs. Laura Dern.  I am merely pointing out the emotions we see onscreen.

    It’s obvious that Holdo is under a great deal of pressure.  She cannot afford to let anything show.  As far as she knows, the Resistance could live or die on her decisions.  So, she decides to play it close to the vest. She has no problems expressing sarcasm and anger, especially to Poe.  For most of the movie, she seems to be this stiff martinet.  It's only when Leia has returned to duty that Holdo shows a softer side, even a grudging admiration for Poe.  We then see her aghast as her evacuation plan fails, followed by her resolve to ram the Raddus.

    In contrast, Ivanova is more open to showing her emotions.  We have seen her cynical side ("no boom today, boom tomorrow.  There's always a boom tomorrow."), her sarcasm, her joy and her heartbreak.  I daresay that she shows a wider range of emotion than Holdo does--but that's primarily because she has more of an opportunity to do so.  There's no question that when she's on duty, she's in charge.  But there is no moment where we don't see her expressing herself.  She could be frustrated at the squabbling of diplomats. She could be terrified at the prospect that the Psi-Corps would discover her secret, that she's a low-level telepath. She can be funny as well, ranging from a quick quip to the infamous "sex for humans" scene.  And, of course, there's the cold anger she exudes when taking on a hopeless battle with advanced destroyers.

    (Mind you, for being a no-nonsense officer, she can be quite kind.  Delenn and Vir have come to her for advice.  She's the one who tells Dr. Franklin to stop pushing himself so hard. She cares, but don't mistake that for weakness.)

    When it comes to situational awareness, Ivanova has the advantage.  She is the type who prefers to keep appraised on everything that happens on Babylon 5. This is obviously not an easy task, but she finds out the Rangers—who were, at the time, meeting clandestinely. She even states to Captain Sheridan that if she doesn’t know what’s going on onboard Babylon 5, it's time to worry. She, along with the rest of the command crew, decisively end a mutiny with crewmembers sympathetic to NightWatch. This is in no small part to her keeping her eyes and ears open for trouble.  After all, in her words, “there’s always a boom tomorrow.”

    In contrast, Holdo was caught unaware on several occasions.  First, she did not have all unnecessary communications cut and thus, did not notice that Finn and Rose had contacted Maz on the sly.  Second, she did not notice that Finn and Rose had launched a shuttle without authorization on their doomed errand to Canto Bight.  Third, she wasn’t aware of the crew’s morale after her initial speech—or discounted it and Poe.  The atmosphere of resentment and despair was such that half the crew mutinied. It was only through Leia’s intervention that it didn’t go further.  But the thing is, this should never have gotten that far in the first place, had Holdo been more aware and careful with her words.

    To be fair, Ivanova's tactics are based off of wit, directed force and sheer determination.  She simply will NOT give up until the objective is reached or she dies. In contrast, Holdo's retreat strategy does take into account the dwindling resources available to the Resistance.

    Let’s talk representation.  If you look on social media, some would ship Holdo with Leia. Given the obvious bond they share in the screen time they share, it’s easy to think that there might have been something more than friendship—at least, in the eyes of the shippers.  It’s been implied heavily that Holdo is bisexual, though that doesn’t get mentioned in the film.

    Ivanova is a canon bisexual.  She had a relationship with Talia Winters before the big twist.  She even admitted to Delenn that she loved Talia.  She was falling for Marcus Cole before his final sacrifice.  Lucky in love?  No.  

    (It should be noted that JMS did not announce this prior to any episode airing.  Considering the thought patterns of the network executives, he thought that it was best to set it up for those who could see what he'd intended.  When people asked, he confirmed it.)

    So, with all these obvious advantages, the question remains:  Why do people idolize Holdo so much when Ivanova has more to her in just about every category?  Well, the fact is that Holdo is a far more recent addition to the geek collective consciousness than Ivanova.  It certainly doesn't help that Babylon 5 is over 25 years old as of this writing and is limited in distribution, no thanks to certain network executives.  Star Wars, on the other hand, is far more ingrained and has the 800 pound gorilla of marketing, Disney, behind it.

    I look forward to people's opinions on this matter.  I still think that if you want a strong female character, Ivanova is a better example than Holdo.  But I do welcome discussion.

[willidleaway]

Star Wars, episode 9

In short: Without spoiling anything, remember how I was on about how Episode VIII was a good movie, a mediocre one, and a bad one fighting for space to each other’s detriment? And remember how this (I thought) left Episode IX with way more to bite off than it could chew?

Well, probably not, but it seems I had reason to worry. Episode IX is full of droids and spaceships and fights and explosions, but it also feels simultaneously empty and overstuffed. The plot isn’t stretched nearly as thin across so many parallel subplots as was the case with Episode VIII, but it’s still got two to three movies’ worth of story squeezed together into something resembling a supercut with just the essentials, and part of the problem seems to be it's more of a sequel to Episode VII than it is to Episode VIII.

So even though it competently hits familiar beats for fans of the original trilogy, and even though many people will like it well enough for that, it feels regressive and conservative and lazy. Good actors are wasted. Good characters are underused. Noise and nostalgia take precedence over sensible storytelling. It warrants more disappointment than anger, but maybe not a non-zero amount of anger, and it worries me about the future of Star Wars movies.

Spoiler-filled breakdown behind the Read More break.

In less short: OK, so let’s review where we were when Episode VIII ended:

Kylo Ren has killed Snoke and become Supreme Leader, with nobody to dictate his actions. Cool.

Rey’s parents are nobody and we shouldn’t be fussing about her heritage as if heroes always have chosen status or weird bloodlines. Cool.

The Resistance are basically now a ragtag crew that fits in a light freighter, with no allies to come to their rescue. ... This is a bit of a difficult spot to get out of.

Within the first 30 minutes of so, Episode IX sets it up so that:

Not only is Snoke not dead, but it turns out he was Sheev all along, and he’s still going to dictate Kylo Ren’s actions. Oh.

The Resistance is magically where it was at the end of Episode VII. Oh.

Then a bit further in—maybe an hour or so?—it turns out Rey has some kind of weird bloodline after all, namely Palpatine’s. Oh.

Palpatine being Snoke is annoying because Palpatine’s supposed to be dead and Snoke’s supposed to be dead, and when you have a long-dead Sith Lord that turns out to have been pretending to be a recently dead Supreme Leader, it seems reasonable enough to demand an explanation—none is given, of course.

The Resistance being magically reverted to its Episode VII state is understandable given the need to have Carrie Fisher in the movie through unused footage from that movie, but in view of all of the other retcons of Episode VIII, one can’t help but give this a bit of side-eye as well.

The retcon of Rey’s heritage is the real tell that

this is trying to be half of the trilogy all at once, which is a problem because it’s supposed to be the third act;

and in the process it’s also trying to erase a lot of the actual Episode VIII, which is a problem because it’s canon.

The thing is, much of what happens in the sequels could fit sensibly into three films with just a bit more work. Keep VII mostly as is; for VIII, trim the pointless safecracking subplot and the misguided mutiny subplot (and ideally replace them with a single subplot that keeps Poe and Finn in the same madness), and extend to include the reveal that Snoke was Palpatine and that Rey is his granddaughter; and then this leaves IX with enough breathing room to actually flesh out the implications of those reveals, the Force dyad, and so on, before moving on to the action of tracking down the Sith dagger and everything that ensues from there.

Of course, then it would follow exactly the beats of the original trilogy. Episode V ends with a big family reveal, and Episode VI then spends time dealing with the implications and reconciling the reveal with what was previously stated. But the sequels have been in such lockstep with the original trilogy that frankly I’m surprised that’s not what they went for to begin with.

Yet it makes sense when you take into account the completely on-the-fly plotting that the sequels have obviously been subjected to. VIII basically tore down some of the most delicious set pieces of VII—the mystery behind Rey’s identity, the presence of Snoke as Kylo Ren’s puppetmaster—and IX is basically tearing down that tearing-down. I know JJ Abrams wasn’t wholly responsible for the story of Episode IX, but it does feel quite a bit like he’s going ‘oh god no, that’s not what you were supposed to do with that from my movie! or that! or that! this is what you were supposed to do!’ and trying to build the house of cards back up. He’s not got enough time to do it right in two hours and a bit, and he knows it, but gosh darn it he’s still going to try. And maybe at some point he gets frustrated and yells ‘okay, Snoke was supposed to be a puppet of Palpatine, all right? just—just start the movie with that, it’ll be fine, because I don’t know how to even make that work with the carnage that Rian left behind’. So then facts are rapidly established and moved on from, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover—mainly a lot of ground from VIII, to cover up.

It’s funny how the themes of these movies are supposed to be progressive—VIII was all about moving forward from failure and fear and despair, IX about recognising you are not alone and facing the problems of the world with that knowledge—and yet the plotting of these movies are continually regressive, retreating to ground already trodden to death by the original trilogy (both figuratively and, in the case of JJ’s films, literally—Death Star II, Endor, ...), and in many cases retreating within itself. A regressive strategy may work for prequels—after all things must gravitate towards the ground truth laid down by the originals—but it doesn’t work quite as well for sequels.

That’s really the key thing I wanted to say—IX feels insular, like it came from a parallel universe with a completely different JJ-led VIII and only realises it about ten minutes of the way in, and it feels a bit lazy falling back on clichés that VIII tried to explicitly preclude. But I do have some more specific thoughts on a few characters.

Rose: So, there was a lot of media buzz when VIII came out about Rose because ooh look she’s the first Asian woman to get any kind of significant screen time in a Star Wars movie isn’t that nice. And then there was a lot of racist and sexist abuse thrown at Kelly Marie Tran and that’s not very nice at all. And Rose’s character arc in VIII unfortunately overall turned out a bit lacklustre frankly so that’s just a bit mediocre. So clearly, given that Rose has been held up as this point of diversity in an otherwise not-terribly-intersectionality-friendly universe, we want to maybe shore this up a bit, right? Make sure that if Star Wars is going to have an Asian woman, that she’s going to be really prominent as things start going down in this last movie?

Erm, no. We’re just leaving her at the Resistance base to do tech things. Oh, we’ll bring her back out for the final battle, sure, and she’ll be part of the ground invasion, but for most of the movie you’ll barely realise that this was almost a major character in the last movie. The droids will have more agency and screen time than her.

Good choice, lads.

Hux and Pryde: VII wasted Max von Sydow, VII and VIII mostly wasted Gwendoline Christie, and now behold: the whole sequel trilogy wasted Domhnall Gleeson.

As demonstrated by performances in films like Brooklyn and Ex Machina, Domhnall Gleeson is actually an excellent actor, not merely competent. Yet in these movies, he doesn’t seem to have actually been given a role, only a caricature of one and a set of gags. First, he’s supposed to be a sort of perpetual rival to Kylo Ren—very mad, but very competent. Then, he’s basically openly laughed at by the Resistance and entirely subdominant to Kylo Ren. But finally in this movie, the writers remembered he’s supposed to be a peer, and makes him a mole out of spite against Kylo Ren, but basically absolutely nobody involved can take this seriously because of course it’s ridiculous. 

To be honest, I don’t see how they could have ever made a rival to Kylo work. Here’s a more compelling idea. How about this: a former Imperial officer, high enough in rank to occasionally report directly to the Emperor himself, obviously loses all of his power and prestige with the end of the Empire. But then the First Order rises up, and he somehow gets to head the First Order’s military forces—but has to report to this upstart, this Kylo Ren. It disgusts him to have to report to this undignified hull-tearing snot nose, but he does it because he knows that behind the mask of Snoke is the Emperor, having cheated death, and through his devotion and the devotion of many others, the Emperor will rise again and—Kylo Ren or no Kylo Ren—reclaim what is rightfully his!

Oh right that’d basically have been General Pryde if they’d thought of him back when they were making Episode VII.

And of course, Richard E Grant—star of Withnail and I, of Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and of many fascinating Doctor Who stories of various canonicity—is in this role, and good god that’s even more of a tragic waste because of what General Pryde could have been if they’d actually plotted out a proper trilogy and realised that someone like Pryde would have worked a lot better than someone like Hux as right-hand man to the main villain.

Still nowhere near as wasted as Gwendoline Christie, mind.

Jannah: Yeah, Jannah and her company are all right. I just mention her because I am so glad that we didn’t get another Mickey Smith and Martha Jones situation where the black people just got coupled up at the last minute. Just thought I’d mention that.

Poe/Finn: Look, it’s like Kirk/Spock, okay? All the subtext is there, and it’s just a matter of you reading between the lines. How you read between the lines is entirely up to you—I argue there is a place for deep platonic relationships as much as romantic relationships, homo- or hetero-gender (although there may be a personal bias involved here).

But let me just say this: in the original trilogy, you had a young Jedi trainee and a pilot and his rescuee, with the latter two having this bickering old married couple dynamic. Those two are absolutely an item by the end of the trilogy, as in they have their big rotten kiss at the end of VI. (Possibly at other points too. I couldn’t possibly tell you.)

In this sequel trilogy, you have a young Jedi trainee and a pilot and his rescuee, with the latter two having this bickering old married couple dynamic. So where’s my Poe/Finn kiss at the end of IX?

As I say, though, it’s like Kirk/Spock, and like Kirk/Spock, it’s such brilliant chemistry that you can always rely on fan fiction to compensate for the cowardice of the canon writers. But it’d have been nice to have some level of canon validation.

Kylo and Rey: Yeah, speaking of big rotten kisses ... That is not the kiss I wanted at the end of IX. You didn’t have Luke kissing Anakin at the end of VI, did you?

That’s my main complaint, really, and otherwise I still think Adam from Girls (I’m sorry that’s just how I think of Adam Driver for some reason??? even though I’ve never even seen Girls???) looks a bit goofy at times. But Kylo and Rey’s arc felt like one where they were equals (possibly the bloodline reveal helps a bit there), they worked together well, it had a reasonable conclusion, etc. The Force bond thing is still creepy, and still a bit weird in how you can pass matter back and forth, but I suppose it was established in VIII, and I happen to think the way it was used in this movie on Exegol was actually pretty brilliant.

The droids: You thought I was going to talk about C-3PO, but it was he, D-O!

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Overall, I'm still not entirely cleared up on what happened with the droids, actually. It seemed like there was just this whole roundabout subplot around Threepio only to return everything to status quo, and maybe D-O had some information they could probably have used to begin with???

Other miscellaneous thoughts:

How much study in the Living Force does it take to do the becoming-one-with-the-Force thing, anyway? We see that Leia and Ben both vanish into nothing after death, and Leia definitely is a Force ghost confirmed at the end. But I thought season 6 of TCW made it pretty clear that this required a lot of training and study, which is why Qui-Gon was training Yoda so that he could then presumably train Obi-Wan (as the end of III suggests) in the art of immortality. To be fair Anakin never was trained in this, but given that he’s the Chosen One, I think he gets a bit of slack on what Force powers he can use. Luke and Leia were never trained on screen, of course, but Luke had years to read all the sacred Jedi texts, and he knows Force Telepresence (still can’t be bothered to find the actual name of that), so I figure he’s a very good autodidact, and likely trained Leia at some point as well as a Force ghost. So where does that leave Ben? I don’t know, maybe the Force ghosting thing is just a thing that runs in the Skywalker bloodline.

‘The dead speak!’ is the goofiest way to open a crawl since ‘War!’ from Episode III. Another reason the Palpatine reveal should have just been towards the end of Episode IX.

Trebuchet jetpack troopers? Really? Was that meant to be threatening, hilarious, or both? Because I only found it hilarious.

Also oh hi Wedge. Also oh hi Hayden Christensen’s voice. God I wish they’d had his actual visual Force ghost alongside Luke and Leia.

Did ... did Maz do anything other than basically be at the base and then give Chewie a medal because har har we love making references to the original movies? No? ... What a waste of Lupita Nyong’o, then.

[bunny-wan-kenobi]

Bunny Reviews: Star Wars The Last Jedi *SPOILERS*

**spoilers abound!** You’ve been warned…

So I finally saw The Last Jedi today after DAYS of scrolling through my dash and seeing every possible reaction along the spectrum of outright loathing and disgust to adoration and glee. So basically, I went into the film nervous, skeptical, but hopeful. 

To give some background, like many of you reading this, I’ve been watching Star Wars since I was a toddler laughing as my dad acted out scenes as Jabba and the Emperor. My sister and I staged lightsaber battles when we were 8 and my library bag was filled with books from the now “Legends” era. I love Star Wars, I love its characters, and I’ve enjoyed it through its many iterations, including the prequels (I will defend them to death so don’t start), the animated shows (I still remember how awesome those first shorts were), the comics, the EU books, and The Force Awakens. 

Now that we’ve established that, here is my opinion of The Last Jedi in a nutshell: It’s a beautifully shot film with some poignant character moments draped over an uneven plot and some disheartening characterization choices. 

Okay, that’s out of the way *exhales* 

Now let me say this: I get it. There’s a lot of good in this movie, a lot of genuinely evocative material and solid performances to praise here…but I also understand the complaints because this movie does have A LOT of problems. So here’s my (fair as I can be) take:

The Great (like I teared up and it was so GOOD)

- Mark Hamill’s performance. Whatever script he was given, he still shone and gave this role his all–as always. He was wry, anguished, conflicted, and strong, and you believed every single nuance of emotion he imbued this film’s Luke. The gravitas and dedication he brought to this character intensified my already deep love for Luke Skywalker, and nothing can change that. I felt his despair, his bitterness, but there was also fierce pride I felt when he chose to take a stand and defend what he believed to be right, leading to…

- Luke vs. Kylo. Any fight that starts with Luke Skywalker giving you sass is a win in my book, no matter how it ended. I just enjoyed seeing Luke as I know him best: self-assured, unflappable, and utterly human. The fight was well-shot and I have to say I got chills when Luke declared “And I will not be the last Jedi” and then cutting to the shot of Rey being a Force boss. Everything right with this movie can be encompassed in that one sequence about courage, persistence, and hope, which is at the heart of Star Wars. 

- Carrie Fisher. Every scene with her carried more weight knowing she is no longer with us, and her last conversation with Rey especially made me tear up. We do indeed have all we need. Her Leia remains in this film as beloved, strong, and defiant as always, maybe a bit worn and weary, but still every bit a Princess–our Princess, and this film allowed her to captivate us once more. 

- Luke and Leia’s reunion. I wanted MORE of this, so much more, but this quiet scene of a brother grieving with and loving his sister was beautiful. 

- Yoda shows up. Guys I NERDED OUT here, like to have Frank Oz come back and play ROTJ!Yoda was the perfect surprise I needed. And to have him show such understanding and affection for Luke during one of his lowest points felt fitting and was another lovely character moment. 

- Luke’s final scene. Context aside, the way his passing was framed against the double sunset and the Force Theme wrung tears out of me and I couldn’t help it because it’s LUKE and all of my love for this character just streamed out in this moment. 

The Good (it’s solid, thumbs up)

- The female characters. This film is still very much Rey’s story, and I still appreciate the innocence, compassion, and thoughtfulness Daisy brings to this protagonist. And now she is joined by more of Leia, Admiral Holdo (a role that really surprised me–in a good way), aaaand…

- Rose Tico! I love Kelly Marie Tran, and her Rose is adorkable, caring, and endearingly noble. It’s unfair that we haven’t had another Asian lead in Star Wars until her, but I’m glad she’s here now. I like that she does get a bit more narrative heft with her love for her sister and desire to see the oppression of the First Order end. And she’s an animal lover! And frees exploited creatures! She is actually the best. 

- Finn’s arc. I will disagree with some people by saying that he actually has an arc, but I believe he does. In TFA, we meet Finn as a former child soldier escaping from the First Order and trying to just survive. He’s inspired and encouraged by Rey and is determined to stay with her and protect her, and so he helps out the Resistance towards that goal. But he hasn’t actually joined in the Resistance–he still believes their cause is pretty futile because he KNOWS how vast and awful the First Order is. And so in TLJ, he has to process all of that and decide whether he wants to commit to this effort for the long haul. In being exposed to others like him also exploited by the First Order and working with Rose and Poe, he comes into his own and chooses for himself to be part of this, and that’s a big step for him. It could have been executed better, but there was a discernible change by the end of the film, and we see a Finn who is more settled in his decisions and less afraid. He has never been a coward, and now he’s showing more courage in choosing to stand against those who used and harmed him. 

- The opening sequence. It was frenetic, desperate, and moving, similar to the feelings I got during the opening of the new Star Trek film during Kirk’s birth–the same sadness and sacrifice permeates this scene. 

- The cinematography. I have to give this film props for some gorgeously framed shots and good use of color and atmosphere. There were a lot of moments that stayed with me simply because of how they were captured. 

- The acting. Everyone here is dedicating themselves to these characters, and it shows. This is a truly solid cast, and I appreciate them so much. There is a true sense of camaraderie among these characters, and they have good chemistry together. I also have to give a shout-out to the visible diversity evident in the different worlds visited, the Resistance pilots, and even the casino scene. That matters, so keep it front and center. 

- The PORGS. Y’all knew this was coming but how could I NOT mention my precious smol birbs with vacant, souless eyes and pudgy tummies? I just…love them (and we got to see baby Porgs OHMYGERSH) 

The Problems

- This does not feel like a proper sequel to The Force Awakens. There are so many major plot points and themes developed in TFA that are either tossed out or wrapped up messily in TLJ. Rey’s parentage being a significant struggle for her character and alluded to symbolically through her connection to the Skywalker lightsaber and other motifs? Nope, she’s an abandoned nobody (Kylo’s words, not mine) and we should all just leave that question in the past like it doesn’t matter who would make you think that? Snoke being a major villain player behind the scenes? Nope, he’s axed off in the height of anticlimax before we even find out who he is and where he came from (not all of us should need to read EU books to understand a movie plot y’all). Rey and Finn having an immediate connection with romantic dimensions? Nope, let’s throw in a last-minute love triangle! (everyone LOVES those). You can really feel the tension of the writing and directing problems plaguing this sequel trilogy because it’s so apparent in the lack of continuity. It’s like several interpretations of Star Wars got mashed together and this is what happened…

- Luke Skywalker. Oh Luke, what have they done to you? Look, I am not against seeing Luke struggle with failure, despair, even loss. We’ve seen it, and it can certainly be part of a character’s journey. I could even appreciate it in this movie…if it was detached from the larger context and motivations of this character as established by previous canon. In TLJ, I’m supposed to accept that Luke Skywalker, who could not even bring himself to kill his father because of his compassion, would attempt to kill (even on “impulse”) his unarmed nephew because of his dark potential? I’m supposed to believe that Luke, stuck in a depressed and bitter stupor, would exile himself for more than a DECADE and abandon his beloved sister and friends while KNOWING they were suffering? I’m supposed to accept this bitter, Logan-ized version of Luke for two hours and then watch him die without ever truly forming a connection with Rey or reuniting with his loved ones? He dies alone, and I’m not okay with that. Yes, characters change, but it’s not always necessary to make a character suffer and harden to make them interesting. We’ve already seen Luke fail. We’ve already seen him suffer. I didn’t need nor want to see Luke, defined by his compassion and optimism and openness, portrayed as cold and closed off from the world and calloused from pain. As I said, Mark played him beautifully, but he deserved a much better story than this–and I think the fans did too, leading to…

- The overall treatment of the original trio. So TLJ is on one level about accepting failure and making peace with the past while moving forward. But the thing is, the sequel trilogy has so far piled SO MUCH FAILURE onto our original heroes that the original trilogy begins to leave a bitter taste in hindsight. Every single thing these characters we love fought and struggled for is rendered broken and scattered here, and then they die with their aspirations tragically unrealized. Star Wars is predominately a space fantasy opera with hope at its center, but it takes a fatalistic edge when you look at what they did with Luke, Han, and Leia. Not only do we NEVER get to see these characters all reunited, but their sendoff is tragic and more bitter than sweet. Han is separated from Leia and killed by his son. Luke lives alone for years in self-loathing and bitterness, and after his glorious re-entry into the world and knowing another Jedi is out there, he still dies alone. Leia loses her husband, son, brother, the Republic and only really gets to say goodbye to one of them. This is depressing as hell and not the note you want to end on for some of the most iconic characters in cinema. And if this all was meant to service the theme of “failure is part of life,” it did it in the most unwieldy way possible by reaching the suffering threshold that tested the limits of not only these characters, but also fans. It honestly would have been better if these characters were dead from the outset, legacy intact, and the sequel trilogy focused entirely on the new characters. 

- The fact that the entire Canto Blight subplot could be excised from the movie and little would change. It gave us more time with Rose and Finn, which was good, but it didn’t further the plot, especially given that it takes up a good 20-30 minutes of screen-time. It felt unnecessary, and I wish it had been better woven into the main plot rather than as a side adventure. 

- With that comes also the issue that the Resistance plot…doesn’t really make much sense. So this handful of ships are just cruising along on fuel and the First Order is just…not destroying them all? Like they HAVE smaller ships to destroy them with…why not just be done with it already? Why are all the Resistance’s plans failures because of simply poor logic? That undermines one of the main themes of the movie because this failure doesn’t hold much weight if we know it’s mostly plot contrivance rather than a genuine character struggle! Like…many of the conflicts in this movie feel engineered by plot need rather than organic. 

- The Rey/Kylo dynamic. This was by far one of the most problematic aspects of the movie for me and the part I found most disturbing. In a year that saw the visible emergence of neo-Nazism and the #MeToo movement, the way the scenes of Kylo and Rey were framed felt downright uncomfortable. Kylo is a space Nazi–let’s just own that. He already contributed to genocide of several planets, believes in the First Order’s cause which has oppressed so many vulnerable peoples, and uses manipulation and torture to reach his ends. And Rey knows that. He tortured her in what must have been only a few days ago in this timeline AND murdered his father and her new father-figure. Not only that, but in THIS movie we see Kylo manipulating her further by calling her a nobody, outlining everything wrong about her, and then coercing her to join him. What kind of messed up BS is that? I’m angry about this because this is not okay. Luke tried to save Vader because he believed love could turn his father’s heart. Though it proved that Vader still had the capacity for good, it didn’t absolve Vader of his previous crimes. Rey barely has any real connection with Kylo and then suddenly in this movie wants to redeem him and put the rest to the side. This is not the same situation because it is framed with a romantic tension in this case as if we are also supposed to feel really bad for Kylo and want him to get together with Rey on Team Good. Do I see Kylo’s complexity? Yesss….but he also made choices that brought him to this place, and the movie made Rey look foolish in light of diminishing the weight of Kylo’s previous atrocities. The Light Side is NOT equal to the Dark when the Dark is defined by its selfishness, corruption, and persecution of others–don’t use the Force to make your “both sides” argument. 

- That’s not how the Force works! Okay, so apparently the Force really DOES give one unnatural abilities because there were many scenes in this film that strained my credulity–think mountain of salt, not the grain. Even my mom (not too big of a Star Wars fan) was like “She [Leia] CANNOT survive in space like that–that seemed unbelievable.” That and Luke’s astro-projection were jarring plot conveniences that did not feel consistent with the logic of the Force that had been established so far and also felt kind of cheap in the way they were used. Using the Force does have limits, but here Force abilities were treated like a crazy AU mod. 

- This film rides on plot conveniences rather than characterization. The story works by stringing set pieces together without giving enough heft to the characters’ development. The side characters and even Rey’s arcs are left strangely underdeveloped alongside these big battles and scenes framed as epic (like Finn’s battle with Phasma), leaving some moments oddly hollow. I honestly can’t say much about what Rey’s arc was…failure? Letting go of the past? Becoming a Jedi? Not enough was explained to chart a significant internal change in her, an issue that plagued other characters like Poe as well, who suddenly was framed as this hot-headed aggressive man in contrast to his buoyant but level-headed presence in TFA. Leading to…

- The treatment of the POC characters. There were a lot of moments that felt sadly tone-deaf for our current time. We didn’t need to see Rose tase Finn for laughs and then see both of them get stopped by white police telling them to put their hands up. We didn’t need to see Poe slapped and shot by white superiors and alluded to as this seductive “bad boy,” fitting neatly into certain Latino tropes. We didn’t need the total erasure of Finn’s backstory and past trauma, which was completely unacknowledged in this film, which spent more time lecturing him about being a coward (again–he’s not). As a woman of color, these moments irk me because it’s been so normalized to treat POC this way, and I don’t like seeing a franchise that boasts about its new progressiveness take advantage of that goodwill by sidelining its few main characters of color. 

The Whole Nutshell

There was much of TLJ that I enjoyed, but by the end, I left the theater in much of the same state that I arrived: confused, conflicted, and yet hopeful. I’ll be honest and say that this was not the sequel to TFA I would’ve liked to see, and it will probably go down as the most mixed bag of Star Wars movies for me. The fact that my father, decades-long Star Wars lover, said this movie “was disappointing and didn’t emotionally connect to him” speaks volumes. This is the only Star Wars movie he has EVER described in that way–he didn’t even say that for Phantom Menace! Again, reactions to TLJ span widely, but even that is telling. 

Considering everything that has been going on behind the scenes, I think TLJ represents a failure to realize a cohesive vision for the next chapter of this space saga, and a failure to understand and honor the characters who built it. There’s a solid movie still in there, and it has its flashes of brilliance and beauty, but its overshadowed by the continuity issues and divisive characterization decisions. It’s better than what I expected, but it’s not one I’m looking forward to re-watching anytime soon. 

Bunny’s Grade: 6/10