Star Wars! A few thoughts and a linkspam

[owlmoose]

We saw The Last Jedi on Sunday but for various reasons I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Spoiler-free summary: I enjoyed it a whole lot, am on board with most of its various twists and turns, and appreciate the way it subverted a number of expectations. Also, as if losing Carrie Fisher hadn't already been awful enough, I am super bummed that she can't be in the next movie in any meaningful way. I would say that, if you liked The Force Awakens, you will almost certainly like this, and if you were bothered by how much TFA repeated the beats of Star Wars, you may be pleasantly surprised by TLJ. (Is anyone else bothered by how we've now lost the ability to refer to one of the movies as just "Jedi" and be clear on which one you mean?)

Anything more I could say is better informed by the thoughts of others, and those thoughts are all full of spoilers, so let's put up the spoiler wall.

• Star Wars: The Last Jedi Offers the Harsh Condemnation of Mansplaining We Need in 2017 by Joanna Robinson: One of the great things I loved about this movie was how many competent women were on display. Not just Leia and Rey, but also Holdo, Rose, the brief glimpse of Phasma, and all the various women shown at work. Robinson goes into how the film is a lesson in the importance of listening to and trusting women, focusing on Poe Dameron's behavior as her main example.


• Star Wars’ Vice-Admiral Holdo and Our Expectations for Female Military Power by Arkady Martine: In a similar vein, Martine talks about Holdo and the ways in which she subverts Poe's (and, by extension, the audience's) expectations for a woman in power. Laura Dern played the hell out of this role, and I only wish we had seen her character earlier.


• The Last Jedi and the Problem with Fan Theories by Carly Lane: Speaking of subverting expectations, one of the things I love most about this film is how it knocks down the conventions of genre and especially Star Wars films at almost every opportunity. From Luke taking that lightsaber and tossing it off a cliff to Snoke's unceremonious death, from Rey's parents being nobody of galactic significance to the end of any potential redemption arc for Kylo Ren, I was thrilled to see the story take directions I would never have expected. Lane talks about why this change in direction was necessary, and why it's probably contributed to the mixed fan reaction to TLJ. Look, I'm in fandom; I get being disappointed that your pet theory was incorrect, or seeing a beloved character undertake an unexpected shift. But as far as I can, everything that happens in TLJ is consistent with what came before, and like Lane, I'm excited to feel like I have no idea where the final installment in the triple trilogy is going to take us. (See also The Last Jedi Doesn’t Care What You Think About Star Wars – And That’s Why It’s Great on /Film.)


• Star Wars: The Last Jedi is proof that a franchise needs to mature with its fans by Swapna Krishna: In this article, Krishna explores a similar theme. TLJ builds on what came before, but it faces relentlessly forward by taking Rey out of the line of Skywalkers and destroying Anakin's lightsaber. If only (some of) the fans would mature along with the franchise...


• The Force Belongs To Us: The Last Jedi’s Beautiful Refocusing of Star Wars by FILMCRITHULK: To expand on that theme, FilmCritHulk delves deeper into this idea that Rey is a "nobody", and what that means for the future of the franchise and the people of the Star Wars universe. I am super excited by this concept of the democratizing of the Force and can't wait to see where it goes.


• Finally, I'm sure you want an article about how the porgs were designed, right?