Starting a new Last Jedi thread; we're going back through All the Callbacks, so it's going even longer than usual. Gonna warm up slowly with some miscellany. #sithmas
A year from now, I will not even begin to be able to explain why this made me cry laughing last night #sithmas
UPDATE #sithmas
I’m still struggling to get Jedi Training Rey in the game, but I took a peek at someone’s else’s: #sithmas 
Meanwhile, Rey and Chewie have zoomed off to find the Resistance; Luke seems to be afraid that he has fucked up yet once again by giving Rey just enough training to go get in trouble, so he's gonna bURN THE JEDI TREE #sithmas
“I WILL CLEANSE TRACE OF THE OLD JEDI ORDER WITH FIRE! Wait... no... I am conflicted.” Force Ghost Yoda: #sithmas
I am sure that Force Ghost Yoda is fully aware of a later shot on the Falcon where we see that Rey has already run off with all the Jedi books ("nothing that Rey does not already possess," lol) #sithmas
I really need Yoda to stop being so smug about Luke fucking up, though. I really want Luke to be like, "Oh, I lost Ben, huh? Let's talk about MY FATHER." Luke's been a good teacher to Rey over the past, idk, 48 hours! #sithmas
"The greatest teacher, failure is." Well, GOOD, because we've all got plenty to go around here. (I promptly wrote this down on a post-it note.) #sithmas
Yoda himself is really lovely, though--the extras show how they found the original ESB cast and remade the puppet, so it's very real and practical-looking, yet smoother than in the OT (there must be a little CGI for the "Force ghost" quality). #sithmas
Back to the previous scene--yeah, I think this is what happens, because he looks at the ground he's not yet fallen to, surprised. #sithmas
Meanwhile, Rose's pendant--which matches her deceased sister's--is made of a valuable "Haysian smelt," and DJ insists on taking it before helping the Resistance. Later, he gives it back! We misjudged this guy! WAIT NO WE DIDN'T. (or did we) (no) #sithmas
DJ's a "complex" character, but I think his shiftiness actually makes him worse than someone who's openly out to get you. It's the hope (ding ding ding) he gives you, then takes away, that's worse. #sithmas
(Heh, DJ insists that "we," he *and* BB-8, stole the ship. I am fully willing believe BB-8 stole it himself and DJ saw an opportunity. Just stunned some motherfuckers and rolled them out the hatch, wee-WOOOO) #sithmas
DJ makes the point that there's no such thing as "bad guys or good guys," and that the ship belonged to an arms dealer who sold to both sides. I'm not a moral absolutist, but I also don't see the Resistance shelling poor miner children. #sithmas
That said, I think Rogue One really, really helps this scene--particularly the parts where Cassian stone cold murders a guy and then, with the group, says they've all "done terrible things." Different war, but without Rogue One, I don't know that this works. #sithmas
It's also interesting to have DJ alongside the argument that the movies keep merrily blowing stormtroopers away despite having us sympathize with Finn. #sithmas
Unless you really stop and look for examples like that, though, it's easy to think that what DJ is saying is something of an in-movie cop-out that relates more to the real world. #sithmas
Yeah, it's funny how DJ actually makes a good point but (realistically) doesn't spell out examples for you, so you have to sit and really think about what all the movies have shown you. #sithmas
Because this is my third viewing of TLJ over as many weeks, and my instinct is still "FUCKING REALLY, DJ? YOU DON'T SEE A DIFFERENCE?" But then, don't we all assume the best of our side and the worst of the other? Which is part of the point. #sithmas
And here's Poe yelling at Holdo because their last support ship went boom. She refuses to confirm that there is a plan/hope. But she quotes Leia: "Hope is like the sun," you have to believe it even when you can't see it. She's KIND OF telling him. #sithmas
I'm struggling here because I get what Holdo's saying, but I also can't remember why she couldn't just say "we have a plan, now sit the fuck down." At a certain point it feels like the writing straining to create conflict. #sithmas
Side note, Poe bursts in yelling "CUT IT, LADY"--can you IMAGINE him saying that to Leia? We briefly discussed sexism earlier--I think it's a subset of sexism, he clearly respects Leia (and his mother, also a pilot) #sithmas starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Shara_Bey
But you can't "respect women" only when they look like the kind of woman you've decided you respect, which is a great nuance. And IRL it's a mistake even other women have made. #sithmas
"Are you fueling up the transports?" Oh my god, now he DOES know the plan. There IS a plan, he just DOESN'T LIKE IT. Aaaand he blurts this out to Rose and Finn so that DJ can overhear it. DAMMIT POE #sithmas
That's my underlying concern, a sense that a lot of this is happening just to make something happen, and it *kind of* works and it kind of doesn't. #sithmas
I think I would handle "narrative movement necessitates having conflict" better if it didn't make heroes we like look petulant and gullible, respectively. Not that it's unrealistic human behavior--I just feel BAD for them. #sithmas
Again, yeah, he kind of bought his own ticket on this ride by defying Leia and getting a ton of people killed at the beginning. #sithmas
That's the thing, it's SO sure-footed with Rey, Luke, Kylo, etc., but the entire other half of the movie--I keep looking for ways to make it sound reasonable and I'm struggling here. #sithmas
Uncle Chewie drops Rey off at Ben's house. Ship. Whatever. I told you I saved tweets for later: #sithmas
Interestingly, Palpatine was great at appearing to have compassion for Anakin. Snoke (as far as I've seen) just browbeats Kylo, AND THEN he purposely brings in Rey and her compassion and, arrogantly, assumes that would never blow up in his face. #sithmas
Aaaand Kylo hands her over to stormtroopers. WE WERE ROOTING FOR YOU! AT LEAST A LITTLE, FOR A MOMENT!! #sithmas
I think it's a testament to how much better this storyline works than the other that I accept Xerox Palpatine without any question or desire to know more. #sithmas
"SO A STORMTROOPER AND A WHO NOW ARE DOING *WHAT*?" Poe doesn't even try to be like "it's better than it sounds!" And so: mutiny. It's a damn good thing he's Oscar Isaac, because this is a sympathy killer otherwise. #sithmas
Although, I may feel that way because I immediately identify with Holdo as a woman. I have seen several pretty misogynistic complaints about what a [slur of your choice] she is. #sithmas
Maybe I AM just seeing it from her perspective, because... #sithmas
You know, I was just thinking--I take it back, when I first watched this I was very confused as to where the movie might be going with Poe vs. Holdo. #sithmas
When I think back--I initially thought that the movie was giving us traditional cues that Guy We Like was right (how can he not be?!) and New Character must be wrong, but... search your feelings, something's not right #sithmas
The weird thing is, I haven't exactly talked myself out of liking the movie; the parts that are good are SO GOOD, it's just that a few others are like, "well.......... that happened" #sithmas
I think that's the real solution to a lot of the criticism--she should have looped him in somehow, even by keeping him in the dark, but giving him something to DO in that dark. Like a herding dog that you can't just leave unexercised. #sithmas
I do enjoy the First Order laundry, it's so unexpectedly logical. OF COURSE they have that. And a shiny black laundry basket for BB-8 to wear, and a "BB-H8" who's like "wait, that's a fucking laundry basket" #sithmas io9.gizmodo.com/star-wars-the-…
Rey tells Ben/Kylo that she knows he's full of conflict and "it's tearing you apart," calling back to TFA. And then they start (gently) arguing over who's gonna turn who. IS IT THRONE ROOM TIME, I'M SO EXCITED #sithmas
Granted, we gotta get through a lot of Force torture and Snoke boasting before the good stuff. I just really wish they'd let Andy Serkis do all this with a smidge of makeup. Watch the comparison, you'll see what I mean: #sithmas
The degree to which Snoke is relishing all this really icks me out (on purpose, I'm sure). It's about his (assumed) total control over Kylo, and the irony is delightful, but do you have to ENJOY it so much? Eughhhh, fucking Snoke #sithmas
We do more plot cross-cutting here than in the rest of the movie; I will note that "steal bad guy uniforms and sneak in" is a traditional genre of Star Wars scene, and the "you really look wrong for this" vibe is very Rogue One. #sithmas
Like, there's "aren't you short for a stormtrooper?" and then there's stubble clashing with that uniform. #sithmas
Heartwarming musical cue as DJ hands the pendant back to Rose! Except that he's still gonna betray them! The last hour of discussion has basically led me to "this movie really likes fucking with your assumptions." #sithmas
And then Holdo mutinies the mutiny with a dangerous-seeming shot, at which point I swayed back to "wait, is the movie now telling me I should root against her, what is happening" #sithmas
"but I don't want to root against her, she's lovely and purple and I feel her irritation on a spiritual level." Apropos: #sithmas
OMG IT'S THAT SCENE. How could I have doubted her? #sithmas
I like how Threepio is trying to skitter away from Poe, because he knows Mom is gonna be SO MAD. He is completely me as a child. Teacher wouldn't like it? My ass was GONE. #sithmas
And BB-H8 busts everybody and they're caught and Poe is listening to "GET DOWN REBEL SCUM" on his radio and suddenly it occurs to him that *he fucked up.* He is not in the movie where he's right because he's the hero. Even now I'm facepalming. #sithmas
This is a really great point and that was really thoughtless of me, my apologies for that #sithmas
Speaking of Mom, Leia has gotten *out of her infirmary bed* (granted, a bit earlier she woke up to have a Force moment with Luke) and she is here to TURN THIS MUTINY AROUND, KIDS #sithmas
So a stunned (literally, blaster-stunned) Poe is carried off, and Leia and Holdo discuss how they... like him. I get it for Leia, since he's Sequel Han Solo, but it's verging on shoehorned absolution, which may also be the name of my next album. #sithmas
Leia doesn't want Holdo to sacrifice herself and stay behind with the ship--"too many losses"--but Holdo gently says that Leia taught her how to deal with loss. "May the Force be with you... always." What's going on *there*? #sithmas
Please tell me there is or will be a tie-in book about Amilyn Holdo, I need to know what was going on there #sithmas
I DO have to get this #sithmas
Snoke's talking about darkness rising and light to meet it, which brings up that "do the math" idea again--nobody here is specifically Sith, but the fewer Light/Dark Siders there are, the more powerful they'll be. #sithmas
It starts out feeling very much like Palpatine viewing Luke as a new acquisition and Vader as yesterday's news, except that "one of you kill the other" goes in a very different direction here. #sithmas
It does occur to me that right now we're balanced, Snoke and Kylo vs. Luke and Rey; by the end of the movie, the balance is one to one. #sithmas
"lmao, it was **I** who installed Force Skype!" #sithmas
And of course he's got to get in one more dig about how the trap worked because Kylo was basically weak unwitting bait. Man, I am telling you, this is not how you retain employee loyalty #sithmas
And now Poe is told that the plan the whole time was to send the small untrackable transports out to a base on Crait. "That could work!" YES, POE. IT COULD. #sithmas
I really hate to say this: I love Phasma, I love the actress, I leaned really hard on this character in the early days of the mobile game. I don't think her extended scene needs to be in the movie. It feels like third-movie business. #sithmas
I love the entire Crait sequence that follows, LOVE IT, but so much time is spent here that it feels like it ought to be the end of the movie. There's like two, two and a half movies in this movie, but I don't know how you'd separate them. #sithmas
There's a deleted scene that's even longer, where Finn tells the soldiers with Phasma that she's the one who helped him sabotage Starkiller Base--so she shoots all of them. Again, cool, but doesn't feel like it's this movie. #sithmas
Oops, looks like DJ betrayed them. In fairness (?) to him, "We got caught. I cut a deal." He wasn't planning to sell them out, he realized he was in a movie where the heroes keep fucking up and took his chance while he had it, I guess #sithmas
So now Hux and the First Order know Holdo's secret escape plan that she went to so much trouble not to tell Poe, who blurted it out in unsecured communication the first chance he got, and I'm just clutching my face. #sithmas
I'm trying so hard to read this as anything other than "our heroes got hundreds of people killed." The most sympathetic interpretation is "You can do what you think is right, like people always tell you, and everything can still turn out awful: A Star Wars Story." #sithmas
Apparently Snoke got Luke's location out of poor Rey, the plot-hopping blessedly sparing us most of the Force torture, and she's still trying to run at him with any saber she can grab. Gold star, you MUST DIE. #sithmas
There's a theory that maybe the Knights of Ren, already kind of murky, became the Praetorian Guard, possibly after Snoke turned their loyalty from Kylo to himself. #sithmas outnow.ch/Movies/2015/St…
I don't know; you tell me. #sithmas starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Elite_Pra…
Ah. Well, it's not a star war without a left-field theory #sithmas
So Kylo's now ordered to execute Rey, and yes, I *would* argue that she's his best friend, which is... really saying something #sithmas
I don't know where Kylo learned occlumency, but he's somehow able to use Snoke's unbecoming glee at what Snoke thinks Kylo's doing to mask what Kylo's really doing while Snoke narrates what he thinks Kylo's doing. You played yourself, BYE! #sithmas
(Just gonna. Drop this here.) #sithmas
THRONE ROOM BATTLE TIME! It's so good! IT'S SO GOOD! Even this official poll is like IT'S SO GOOD THOUGH #sithmas starwars.com/news/poll-what…
As I mentioned before, I love how ROUGH this whole fight is--it's not sleek high-speed expert choreography like the prequels; they are genuinely fighting for their lives and you can feel it. #sithmas
Look at that gorgeous red, that clean red background and the wide shots and the actual seeing how people are fighting instead of a mishmash of closeups! IT'S SO GOOD #sithmas
It's not quite Eowyn's "I AM NO MAN" prophecy, but: #sithmas
I've also had several replies over the last couple movies about how great it is to see Rey not fight "pretty," which I also like #sithmas
Back at Starbetrayal Base, DJ tells Finn, "They blow you up today, you blow them up tomorrow. It's just business." Finn tells him he's wrong. DJ: "Maybe." A really great line reading there. #sithmas
I don't know what kind of chain light whip this Praetorian Guard is using, but I am outraged that it is not in the mobile game *right now* #sithmas
This whole business is just wild, somebody gets poofed out from a shredder and burning backdrops are fluttering everywhere and lightsabers are thrown all over the place and everyone's getting the hell beat out of them, how are all these people not dead #sithmas
"It's time to let old things die," and Kylo (Ben? I don't even know what to call him now) includes Snoke and the Sith in this. Please also refer to "sons have to kill fathers" and "Rey, the idea of her parents." #sithmas
He also includes the Jedi and the Rebels, "Let it all die." Which, again, not too far off what Luke was saying either. #sithmas
"I want you to join me. We can rule together to bring a new" (new's good!) "order" (oh no) "to the galaxy." Yeah, Rey immediately hears what he's really saying: "Please don't do this." #sithmas
Tucked into a post I wrote ten years ago about critiquing the first Twilight book (NO, STOP, WHERE ARE YOU GOING) is Item 2, about the "I can chaaaaange hiiiiiim" bad-boy trope. It gets me every time. I'm sorry. I'd have gone with him. #sithmas cleolinda.livejournal.com/602881.html
"I can do more good by chaaaaanging hiiii~iiiim" LISTEN I CAN'T HELP THE WAY I AM. YOU KNEW WHAT I WAS WHEN YOU FOLLOWED ME (actually, I have a lot of new followers this week, you probably don't. Hi. Yeah. I wrote a lot about Twilight. This is awkward) #sithmas
And now Kylo forces Rey to admit that her parents were "nobody," "filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money." Holy shit, that is dark. Every mention of Rey waiting for her family in TFA is somehow even more painful now than it already was. #sithmas
"They're dead in a paupers' grave in the Jakku desert." I guess for Kylo to know that, Rey also knew that. "No, Han, I can't take a job on the Falcon, I have to wait for my family." This is... Jesus, this is all so dark and sad. #sithmas
"You have no place in this story." Ah, like his uncle, rude and meta. Hold on, are you ready? "You come from nothing. You're nothing. BUT NOT TO ME." This is both 1) a brilliant line and 2) the most brutal neg I have ever heard #sithmas
But it IS brilliant because Kylo is saying the quiet thing loud--he has explicitly stated the hook of many romances. Yes, I AM going back on my literary bullshit. Let's mix in Rey's "you're a monster": #sithmas
"You're nothing, but not to me." "Get the fuck out of here": Darcy's first proposal to Lizzy in Pride & Prejudice #sithmas
"I'm nothing but I won't let you treat me like it." "Uh but not to me!" / "I'm a bigamist, but--" "I need to leave now" / "God has punished me for my jackassery and now I am unlovable." "But not to me": Jane Eyre #sithmas
"He's nothing, but not to me." "Uhhhhh, he overheard you but he left before the second part." "HEATHCLIFF!!!!!": Wuthering Heights #sithmas
"You're a monster, but not to me": any Beauty and the Beast-themed work, including some tellings of Phantom of the Opera, some tellings of Hades/Persephone, and many vampire/supernatural romances #sithmas
"You're nothing, but not to me." "You're a monster, but not to me": Twilight for the double whammy (and I will hypothesize, THAT is one reason it was ridiculously popular) #sithmas
Anyway: take this formula and use it wisely. With great trope comes great responsibility. #sithmas
It IS possible, although they lean heavily on "you know it's true, you've always known." There's just enough room that JJ Abrams could retcon this in the next movie. I hope he doesn't, dark as it is. #sithmas
"Join me." Yeah, sorry, he got me. You hit me in the trope, I'm already on the spaceship, ready to rule, where's my throne. But it has to be *good* order, okay? Good intentions never go horribly wrong! That's not the entire theme, right? I CAN CHANGE YOUUUUU #sithmas
But Rey is wiser than me, and she fakes him out: here's the lightsaber tug-of-war. I saved this up all the way back from Revenge of the Sith: #sithmas
I can't believe there's a First Order Executioner in the game and I don't have one single goddamn Praetorian Guard. #sithmas
In my defense: #sithmas
We're cutting back and forth between Finn and Rose waiting for execution, and Poe and Connix watching Holdo maneuver the ship; I think part of "too much movie in this movie" is a well-meaning desire to give everybody lots of screen time. #sithmas
And I get it, because I WANT Finn and Rose (and Poe and Holdo) (and Phasma!) to be here, and I honestly don't know what I would cut. But you also get an "are we still on this" feeling now and then. #sithmas
Holdo's Sacrifice, as this chapter is titled, basically saves everyone--the Resistance, Finn and Rose from execution, and, uh, Kylo and Rey from eternal tug-of-Force, I guess #sithmas
Oh god, this part--a walker starts firing on Phasma et al, saving Finn and Rose, and I was like, did DJ come back? No, it's BB-8. HE ROLLED UP A WALKER, CLIMBED IN, TURNED IT ON, AND OPERATED A GUN. **HE'S A BALL AND A HALF** #sithmas
I love it, in case I wasn't clear. Phasma should always return from apparent death with no explanation, and BB-8 should always do things impossible for a ball to do. #sithmas
I've heard a number of things about how Holdo's maneuver is or is not possible. As usual, I'm ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about it. #sithmas
Yeah, the showdown between Finn and Phasma officially feels like 1) this movie is ending or 2) it's a third movie. "Chrome dome" doesn't land well for me, either. Although: the "REBEL scum" line shows that Finn is now oriented towards the group, not himself/Rey. #sithmas
An alternate view of it: in watching umpteen star wars, I do get a sense of "just put the movie on and soak in it." The movies are big and overstuffed with action and world-building and visuals; if you love them, tight storytelling isn't the point. #sithmas
I do love that shot of Phasma's eye right before she falls into the giant cataclysm of flame she will totally survive #sithmas
Back to Holdo, I forgot to mention: the reason I'm eternally salty about not getting to see this in the theater was that 1) I found out what was going to happen and 2) it just couldn't have the same impact on a small screen. #sithmas
I can't imagine what it must have been like to sit in the theater on opening day and have this amazing visual unfold, those few seconds of silence. And unlike the OT, I was old enough to be there. But surprise spinal surgery. Woe. #sithmas
Well, I think there's two versions of "tight" here. It's very tight for the amount of story they decided to cram in. It's not the simple progression of A New Hope. And what I mean is, that's okay. #sithmas
Hux arrives at the throne room and it really is that "pizza, fire, wtf" gif--everything's sizzling, Snoke's in halves, Kylo's passed out on the floor. What happened? "THE GIRL MURDERED SNOKE." Excuse me! Lies do not become us! #sithmas
Okay, I love how Hux starts yelling that he has an army and they have no supreme leader now, and also he clearly contemplated shooting Kylo while he was down. You tried! CLASSIC FORCE CHOKE AHOY #sithmas
So much for "doing things differently." I mean, yeah, Kylo killed off his past with an abusive "mentor," but now that Rey's rejected his proposal, he's going back to the same First Order way. "Long live the Supreme Leader." #sithmas
All right, that puts us at Crait, where I was hoping to stop today. Success! When I get to pick up again, we'll finish the movie. #sithmas
