HelloThere

This bullshit about Cowboy Dave will not stand!

The lack of JJ in this is unforgivable.

Fair point, but let’s not pretend that that scene in 7 was anything more than JJ’s usual mystery box, set up with no plan for execution, writing.

How on earth Disney allowed a trilogy of films in a franchise as massive as star wars to not even have a speculative outline for an overall arc blows my mind.

In short, it’s a JJ Abrams film.

As said, I don’t think Last Jedi is a good film, so my defence is going to be pretty half arsed, but just a few points I’d like to challenge.

• Finn joined the resistance because he witnessed an atrocity as a trooper and didn’t want to be a bad guy. He got disillusioned and questioned whether the resistance were actually good because they had to do things that also killed lots of people. He ultimately decides it’s justified. I’d argue that characters overcoming struggles and having a bit of depth is a good thing.
• Carrie Poppins was a bad, bad, choice, agreed.
• Poe leading a mutiny because he didn’t know what was going on, because he’d been demoted, because he didn’t follow orders, demonstrates that while he may be a great pilot, he’s far too impulsive and his own actions are what holds him back. This shows where his character can, and needs to, grow if he’s ever going to be at the top table.
• Canto continues with the strong anti-imperialism of the original trilogy. The purpose of that entire piece is as a commentary on the military industrial complex, and how it has conflicted goals as it benefits more from continued war than peace.
• “The animal rights bit” - dude, the culmination of RotJ was the Empire being beaten by teddy bears, this again is a constant theme throughout the OT, that exploitation occurs everywhere within an imperialist system.
• it’s been 30 years since we last saw Luke, and even then his training was incomplete, because he’d run away impulsively to get back to Han and Leia. Luke is flawed - my biggest peeve with certain parts of the old EU was how some authors painted him as almost christ like and perfect, perfect is boring - and ultimately failed to rebuild the academy. He fucked up so badly that, yes, he misunderstood a vision, and thought Ben was going to go to the dark side. He then caused this, couldn’t forgive himself, and lived in self-imposed exile as penance. Of course he didn’t want the lightsabre that he’d already given up. Wouldn’t it be even weirder for him to be all “oh, thank you so much for giving me back the sabre I purposefully discarded after I tried to murder my nephew and turned him away from the light, it would look great on my wall!”
• don’t kink shame blue titty drinking! 😂

Again, was it a great film? No, far from it. But at least it tried to give depth to characters, had them tackle challenges, and overcome them and/or grow through failure.

With Palpatine coming back, somehow, in 9, it completely destroys Anakin’s redemption, because it turns out that he didn’t actually kill Palpatine after all, so no final great act, no meaningful sacrifice, Vader dies for nothing.

For all its faults, and there are many, nothing Last Jedi did destroyed the main character of the fanchise’s arc quite like that.

“Somehow”, lightspeed skipping, 3PO not being able to translate from sith, the ancient dagger that is also the shape of the crashed death star from a highly specific angle, Palpatine fucks, whatever a diad is, 10,000 star destroyers.

I’m not pretending that 8 is a masterpiece, it isn’t, and it’s worse than any of the OT, but at least Johnson tried to do something to keep star wars at a galactic scale.

The worst bit of 9 is how small it makes star wars. Everything comes down to a tale of two families - Palpatine and Skywalker - in a way that nullifies everyone else’s involvement. For a story that spans a literal galaxy, having it come down to those two families, twice, is terrible writing.

How anyone thinks 9 is better than 8 is beyond me.

Where’s the curve?! Take that globehead!

There should be a space on the Internet to enjoy Star Wars, and to discuss and critique Star Wars content itself without being sidetracked by talking about how other people have wrong opinions.

Absolutely agree.

My favourite thing about lemmy, compared to the other place, is how with much smaller communities the discussions are much less vitriolic and antagonistic.

I’ve missed being able to have discussions about star wars based on media and literary analysis, instead of “the main character is a woman and thus BAD”.

Like the OT.

Yeah, agreed, it’s like 6.5/10. Nothing amazing, but not actively bad.

That’s kind of you to say, thanks.

Fair enough. Enjoy your life.

What happened when you stopped being a child?

I try. I don’t always succeed.

No, I don’t think you’re going to hit someone, but you did say worse people than you are in relationships, and I was reminding you that bad people do hit women, and scare them in to never leaving. Neither of us think that is the type of relationship you want.

As I’ve said before, one day you’ll realise that your attitude contributes to - but didn’t create - your situation. Insisting you are utterly powerless keeps you in that hole.

I am not saying you need to change. What I am saying is that the negative part of your personality is drowning out all other parts. Those parts are still there, they are still as much a part of you as they always were, but you just can’t hear them.

You are not helpless, you are not broken.

When was the last time you can remember being happy? Think back, it may have been a very long time ago, what was it you were doing?

So your bar is what, not being an absolute cunt?

You’re aware that people are not typically in consentual relationships with bad people, right?

Being shit scared of your partner is not a good thing.

If it was only that, it wouldn’t be representative of reality. For me to be able to have a good relationship required a lot of change. Namely I had to accept some responsibility for my situation and stop pretending it was only other people’s fault.

A relationship is a partnership, it requires everyone involved to bring good things to it. If they don’t, it will fail.

You don’t have to be beautiful, or rich, or famous to be in a relationship, but if you aren’t nice to speak to, or be around, trustworthy, caring, considerate, etc, why would anyone want to spend their life with you?

You refuse to except your attitude and actions have contributed in any way to your situation. As a result, you will never be in a relationship.

It’s your decision. Your circumstances won’t change over night, it will take a long time and a lot of work, but if you really want to, you’re absolutely capable of it. You are not fundamentally broken and irreparable.

Now you’re just lying to yourself, this is from my original comment.

Many, many, years and 3 more failed relationships on, I’m 9 years in to a very stable long term relationship with someone I absolutely adore. My single goal is to not repeat the same mistakes as before, and we tackle everything as a team. If we’re feeling uneasy we speak to each other and help each other. I’m so proud of what we have built together. She is the smartest, most empathetic and kindest person I know. I count myself so lucky that she is my best friend, a willing big spoon, and I get to play with her boobies. It’s incredible.

Friend, you were the one who asked the question what it’s like. I’ve told you, and also explained how you can get from where you are to being in a relationship.

I can’t force you to seek help, but if in the future you ever feel like you’d like to chat, feel free to message me.

You don’t have to push everyone away, not everyone is out to hurt you. I hope you realise this before it’s too late.