Read on Twitter
Heads up, I'm gonna be talking about The Last Jedi A LOT over the next few days, so if you're in my very small followers who doesn't like that movie, nows a good time to mute me
First off let's clear this up.... @rianjohnson knows more and understands star wars better than you, me, or anyone else ever will.
Unrelated but hey @rianjohnson if you wanna play @PokemonGoApp sometime i know some great places in the philly area
This is a small moment, but Leia focusing on the lost fighters raised the hair on my neck, "oh they've never acknowledged this level of failure before" and I began questioning everything
Then of course, the moment we thought we wanted.....
....Followed by the most divisive moment ever, and for my money, the smartest. Fuck your hero's journey, I've seen how this ends, and its always in pain and failure.
And this isn't really here or there but golly I love porgs
I love their dumb little faces, their furry potato bodies, that they were designed purely because they couldn't get the fuckin puffins to fuck off...
Who wants me to get into the "characters as star wars fans" theory because THATS WHAT I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT
Kylo Ren/Ben/Captain Beefcake: this asshole IS the so called "fandom menace" (beefcake notwithstanding)
Petulant, impulsive, interested only in his own power and looking like a darth vader knockoff. Infuriated beyond reason when GIRL (who he claims to hate) spurns his "advances," which he probably thinks are romantic
Rey Nobody: fuckin LOVES star wars. ALL star wars. Probably wore out her VHS of ROTJ. But is terrified of change and the future, and would rather stay in her comfort zone of the familiar.
Finn: has never seen Star Wars. Only knows of it through pop culture osmosis, thinks of Indiana Jones when someone says Harrison Ford. Probably dragged to see TFA opening night by their spouse (not unlike my ex).
Han Solo: The Convert. Never liked sci fi or lasers, but saw Star Wars at a formative age and now its the exception to their rule. (Fun fact: this applies to my mother, who only likes Hallmark movies and...star wars.)
Mom saw star wars in 1977 when she was 16. As she says, the first movie she ever saw where the whole audience gave a standing ovation.
Luke is, essentially, me from 2005-2015. A former fan, burnt out by shitty versions of what they love, buckled under the weight of perceived failure, choosing instead to remove themselves from the board when some new scrappy protagonist comes a knockin....
Poe: wants so desperately to be cool like han solo but completely misses the point, which is that han solo was never "cool," han was perpetually the underdog with his back against the wall
Poe probably justifies his actions by claiming greedo shot first
Leia is...harder to get a bead on, as we never got HER movie. So we enter into wild mass guessing here, if only for a moment
Leia is a war hero, Princess, general, career politician and spy. She has been everywhere, and facilitated the actions of much more well known, more prestigious heroes and spotlight more "exciting" characters
Who in terms of meta star wars was more responsible for your childhood than anyone else but was never forefront, getting the right people in the right places at the right time resulting in amazing experiences?
If you ask me (you're reading this so HAH), it's Kathleen Kennedy. Take a stroll through her imdb and you'll take my meaning.
Which, finally, brings us to my beloved Rose Tico.
Rose is who I WISH I could be. She's lost so much and been burned by these star wars, but still knows we NEED heroes, and demands better of those heroes.
Rose isn't fooled by the hollow special effects if there's no story or emotion to them, she sees right through the bullshit. She recognises when a film or character is made purely to sell toys (lookin at you, general grevious)
Rose Tico: do no harm, TAKE NO SHIT
@baltimorecomics 2018. There's me in the middle as Luke. I had never seen so many star wars cosplayers in one place outside a wholesale sw event. Nary a "leia bikini" in sight.
The Last Jedi is the first, and so far, ONLY star wars to do a deep dive inward, asking difficult questions about the failures of characters and of the franchise as a whole.
Because if you've not noticed this franchise is fucked up
Star Wars is flawed as hell, but when you're in it, you accept those flaws and love it even more because of it. I cheer whenever I see that stormtrooper nail his face on the death star door, at every vaseline smudge under lukes landspeeder.
What could have been? What's "canon?" Well, I know my truth.
It's definitely not perfect, but like the rest of Star Wars, I can't not love it.
Does Rey reconcile her identity as "nobody?" Does she find, not light or dark, but balance? Does she get a kickass double bladed saber?
Does finn complete his arc from unwilling soldier to revolutionary?
Does kylo finish what Vader started, and find a way to cheat death?
The truth is...who cares? "Canon" doesn't mean shit, it's a pretend Western Samurai story in Space with goddamned WIZARDS.
I've had friends and family fight me on my love of TLJ. I have one response...
I love Star Wars. My favorite is The Last Jedi. I'm sick of fighting what I hate, might as well try saving what I love.
TLJ is about failure, but Star Wars as a whole is about Hope.
So, see you around, kid.
You'll know where (and when) to find me.
You'll know where (and when) to find me.
