More Star Wars thoughts

[sabotabby]

The one person I know IRL who did not enjoy the movie said that he felt the villain was really underpowered and unimpressive compared to the protagonist, and Star Wars should be all about the scrappy rebels taking on more powerful forces. But...

[Zizek voice] This is the face of white male privilege and thwarted masculinity, you see. Under the mask, Kylo Ren is a scrawny emo teenager. (Yes, of course he is supposed to be in his 30s, but he doesn't look it or act it.) He is Reddit and 4chan and UKIP and Donald Trump. He has had every privilege—his parents are among the most powerful and celebrated people in the universe, and on the winning side of the war that defined their generation—and still he's unhappy. Resentful. Longing for the era of the Empire, when he could have had more power. The beauty of the Triumph of the Will scene is that it's all about nostalgia for fascism; it's Golden Dawn and the National Front, not the National Socialists, because they're dead and gone.

And to a large degree, at least in the West, we don't face great epic battles of good and evil. If we die violently, it's at the hands of an abusive husband, a mass shooter, a trigger-happy cop, all of whom have, at the basis of their motives, a toxic combination of privilege and resentment. They have most but they want all.

That's why Kylo Ren is scary. Because he's not Darth Vader. Darth Vaders are rare, and more easily toppled because of that scarcity, and the fact that everyone can be aligned against them. Kylo Rens are everywhere, and you're much more likely to have encountered one. I know I have.

Naturally, the people who arise challenge him? A woman, a black man, a Latino man, and an enslaved robot. And his lightsaber malfunctions, which is clearly a metaphor for impotence. [/Zizek voice]

The more I think about this movie, the less derivative it seems and the more I like it.

Comments

[the_axel]

That is brilliant. Can I repost that?
Possibly on FB with big ***SPOILERS WILL ROBINSON*** signs all over it.

[sabotabby]

Sure! I would have posted it on FB myself but I don't know what the spoiler protocol is now.

[metawidget]

Seems to me like your post is something like a "I channel Slavoj Zizek to discuss Star Wars in the comments. HERE BE SPOILERS!" And then put the post in the first comment.

[sabotabby]

I could, but then I'd get 50 communists and anarchists arguing over Zizek. That's what my FB is like.

[ironed_orchid]

100% true fact

[mle292.livejournal.com]

That was awesome.

[sabotabby]

:)

[dragoninthecup.livejournal.com]

Love this meta more than I can explain. Thank you. (((HUGS)))

[sabotabby]

:D You're welcome.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

No, its still shit. Its still a lot of rationalizing for a movie thats basically a retread of the first one, and a glorified toy commercial. The efforts at "diversity" are feeble compared with all the huge flaws.

[sabotabby]

It depends very much on one's perspective. Diversity isn't just some aesthetic gloss put over movies to draw in the Tumblr crowd; the first six movies showed a world in which women and people of colour had been all but eliminated. And I'm not singling out SW here; nearly every big sci-fi universe imagines a future in which the only humans who survived whatever cataclysm occurred were, for whatever reason, white men. As an adult, I have a framework for analyzing that; a child does not. And children are the target market for these movies.

I went through my whole childhood liking nerdy things and not having an outlet to express them, until the internet became a thing, because everything in popular culture was telling me that I didn't belong there. You ever try having ginormous boobs and walking into a comic shop in the 80s or 90s? I don't recommend it.

Is it a toy commercial? Sure, they all are, as is all media marketed primarily at children. It's a pretty subversive toy commercial by mainstream standards, though. It's a smart business decision to market SW shit at something other than a shrinking demographic, but that doesn't mean that it ain't important culturally.

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[sabotabby]

Hah, I'm on a roll lately.

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

Wow... you're like one of the Plastics of Livejournal.

[sabotabby]

Ooooh I understand this reference now!

[priscillagreen.livejournal.com]

My not liking the movie had actually very little to do with the villain, and very much to do with the protagonist. She's just so good at everything. Too convenient. Who is she anyhow? Do you think she might be Luke Skywalker's daughter? No one has agreed with me on that so far. Haha.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I thought it was obvious she was luke's daughter.

[sabotabby]

She's totally Luke's daughter. That's how it works in SW. The Skywalker family is why we can't have nice things.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I saw a well laid-out fan theory this morning that she's Ben Kenobi's granddaughter.

[sabotabby]

I'll accept it, but it's probably too convoluted for the franchise.

[priscillagreen.livejournal.com]

I mean, if she's Leia's daughter she's still a Skywalker.

[priscillagreen.livejournal.com]

I thought it was obvious too, but I also heard some theory, from folks with pretty good argument, about her being Kylo Ren's little sister. Maybe?

[sabotabby]

Sure, but then why wouldn't Force-sensitive Leia recognize her? I guess for the same reason Darth Vader didn't recognize Leia, but modern audiences are less forgiving of that kind of ass-pull.

[sabotabby]

She's Luke Skywalker's daughter.

I didn't mind this, because the silliness is pretty much baked in. Luke trains in the Force for like three days and is the one pilot in the entire Rebellion who manages to take out the Death Star, in one shot, with his targeting off and his eyes closed. Magic is hereditary and while I believe this to be quite reactionary as a construct, SW is stuck with it now. So of course his daughter is magical.

[priscillagreen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I get the whole magical thing. Still, taking down the Death Star was the one thing Luke did. Stuff made more sense with him, I think. Rae, though, she IS a Mary Sue.

[sabotabby]

It's a weird position, defending a franchise I'm not really invested in and spent months complaining that I didn't care about, under the helm of a director who screwed up two franchises I did care about, but I am heavily invested in overanalyzing pop culture, so here goes.

The definition of what a Mary Sue is now is so watered down from the original meaning that it basically amounts to "any female character who is good or special in some way." Back in my day (when we had to climb uphill both ways in the snow to find fanfic) it meant a silly self-insert who romanced the lead male character by being unrealistically good in stuff. The difference between Ebony Raven Darkstryder with brilliant violet eyes and a psychically bonded unicorn companion and Rey is pretty astronomical.

But the definition changed, so here goes. My bar for whether a character is a Mary Sue is two-fold:

1. Is what the character can do unrealistic for the universe?

With Rey, nope. There is magic, it's established that she's magical, and every skill she shows makes sense for the world (she's good with ships because she scavenges old ships, she's a good pilot because she understands the mechanics based on scavenging old ships, and she can fight with a melee weapon against an injured and untrained opponent because she's had to defend herself with a similar weapon for years, she can do mind control because she's just had it viscerally demonstrated by someone else who can use mind control, and it takes her a few goes). If she was doing the kind of backflip acrobatics we see trained Jedi do in the prequels, I'd agree with you, but within the context of heroic fantasy and a character that likely has two parents who are Force-sensitives, it's impressive but not insanely overpowered.

2. Would the character be considered a Gary Stu if she were male?

Again, no. Plenty of male Force-prodigies in the originals and prequels and no one objected. People forget just how compressed the timelines of A New Hope and Empire were because they're cemented in our cultural consciousness, but they both stressed that Luke could do special things because of hereditary magic and because instinct and feelings were more important than training. Rey, who is shown to have the basics of most of the skills she's uses, is only being dubbed a Mary Sue because she does special things and is also female.

Ultimately, it either works for you or it doesn't. But I don't think it makes sense to criticize this movie for working off rules established in the old movies.

[priscillagreen.livejournal.com]

Well, I can only speak for myself when I say I don't think Rey is a Mary Sue because she's a girl who can do a bunch of stuff. I would certainly feel the same were the hero a guy. With that said, it just didn't work for me, that and many other things. The characters don't make too much sense. Not only Rey, Finn doesn't make sense either. And then there's Kylo Ren, although I will reserve criticism here, because I do see potential in him.

I won't say it's a bad movie, it is a fun movie to watch, it just isn't great. But I do feel sorta the same about the old ones too, so I kinda get what you're saying about working off pre-established rules.

Two things

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

Thing the First: Post Cuba posting and (yes) in my cups, I decided that since I hadn't actually got out to see the damned movie yesterday (as I had sort of intended), I would fire up the ol' desktop and watch the original (for probably about the 21st time since 1977, but the first time this millenium.

To make a long story short, it had its charms, but didn't make me feel like I'd missed something in not going to the theatre.

But suddenly, your brief note makes me want to add to Disney's billion $. I'll let you know later whether I owe you a thank you or a fuck you.

Thing the Second: God damn it, I forget what Thing the Second was. O well.

RE: Two things

[sabotabby]

You'll probably think fuck you, but I'm eagerly awaiting your thoughts.

For a reference point, I recently re-watched the original with my kids and the_axel thought, "damn, this is an awesome movie that holds up really well."

[firecat]

I like this analysis a lot.

[sabotabby]

Thanks!

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

This is making me want to watch the movie.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Hm, reluctantly agreed.

[sabotabby]

It's not, like, groundbreaking or revolutionary or anything except in the way I mention and for the genre it's in. But it's highly entertaining and it is pretty politically progressive within the restraints of the SW universe.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I love this analysis. :D

[sabotabby]

Thank you!

Also hee hee hee at the other thing.

[mad-bertha.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love this perspective. Kylo Ren's tantrums and then odd disjuncture between the hard uncompromising visage of his mask and the petulance and vulnerability whenever he took it off falls into place much more neatly than the popular explanation (he's a baby Darth, a crysalis). So glad that the film took this path with the big bad... still not sure about the giant gollum, although I'm still hoping he turns out to be as small as Yoda...

[sabotabby]

I read an even better article expressing the same idea today.

I dunno about Darth Voldemort either. I hope there's some cool twist there.

[ironed_orchid]

This is an excellent analysis. I'm kinda curious about whether JJ Abrams realized that's what they were doing, or if it just turned out that way.

[sabotabby]

I always try to remember that as well as fucking up the Star Trek movies, he did Fringe, and up until the last season, it was completely brilliant and nuanced and turned a lot of sci-fi tropes on their head.

[ironed_orchid]

I always associate him with Fringe because it had the big "CREATED BY" credit, but I got the sense that he was not super involved due to other commitments like fucking up Star Trek (I haven't seen those movies, btw) and that the writers who did most of the work on Fringe were the team who went on to make Sleepy Hollow.

[sabotabby]

That makes me want to watch Sleepy Hollow but I heard it was a bit shit.

[ironed_orchid]

Season One was delightful. Season Two was shit. I am about to embark on Season Three any day now, and will try to write a report when I'm done.

ETA: Season Two was shit, but all the annoying stories were tied off neatly at the end, so I hope that they can move on in Season Three

(I have a do more blogging goal this year, so because writing about how I am fat and happy and have cats is kinda dull, I will try to do more reviews, or more likely angry rants and squee posts about stuff on the medias.