Omg 😂😂😂 yeah that would have been awful. You’re right, Jyn is listed as born 21 BBY and RO took place 0 BBY, so she was 21 when she died. I’m critical about casting older actors play much younger characters, especially teens. Like you said, why not just have older characters? John Boyega in Attack the Block is one of the few actors I can think of who was actually age-appropriate for a teenage character and also absolutely crushed it with his performance.
Tag: ask
Finnrey played out albeit not on screen in the canon book Rebel Rising where Jyn for a boy named Hadder who was coded as black. So along with Lost Stars, that’s good enough for tie-in material but not for the big screen.
Forgot to mention: Jyn and Hadder canonically lost their
virginity to each other so yeah. Really not happy with LF’s bullshit
with Finnrey rn.
I think it’s the nature of movies as a visual and commercial medium and how racism and white male entitlement interact with it. The way Denzel Washington put it, as remembered by Virtuosity co-star Kelly Lynch: “[W]hite men bring women to movies, and they don’t want to watch a black man with their woman.” Comics and novels, though they are still heavily racist, are generally enjoyed alone. They’re not tied into dating rituals for most people, and though comics are a visual medium they are not as immediate as the big screen. Big franchises like SW can change the range of what’s possible, though, and I really hope Disney/LF will break this barrier.
Also while I’m glad there are more interracial relationships and other representation in the tie-ins, Jyn/Hadder doesn’t sound that great from the Wookieepedia description and it’s certainly not what I want Finnrey to be. Hadder gave up his chance to fly with the Rebellion so he could be with Jyn, and then the story had him blown up so she could feel bad. This brings me right back to the time I quit watching The 100 over its treatment of Wells (link). Fridging Black boys for white girls’ stories is not progressive, it’s just a tired reiteration of a racist cliché.
Not that I’m doubting but is there a source other than CNN for that story about boring plaid guy? CNN has proven itself untrustworthy, and it’s not just because Trump says it is. (Anyone remember when they blackmailed a Reddit user? Yikes.) I usually roll my eyes at “Trump is a Nazi” stuff, but if this is legit, that’s some scary stuff and we should do something.
Hey no hate it’s not bad as plaid goes 😂 The story was on the kid’s say-so and frankly if he’d meant to make something up it would have been a lot more dramatic. So I don’t find it totally unbelievable even if CNN could have done better. Probably the best practice would have been to contact the Secret Service for comment, even if the result would probably have been “no comment.”
Chill. I was just asking a clarifying question. I WAS under the impression trans people were using SJW logic to guilt people into dating them, but I have no illusions about anyone, trans or otherwise, being desperate enough to date me that they would use manipulative tactics. You’ve made your point and I see where I was mistaken. I wasn’t trying to make trans people feel unsafe or anything of the kind.
It may not have been your conscious goal, but that is the effect. This is the kind of rhetoric terfs use to attack people. They did it to me, calling me a rape apologist who wanted lesbians to be raped by trans women (who they don’t see as women, of course), and I shudder to think what they do to trans women if they’d treat a cis person this way. That second part was addressing a larger problem which is why I didn’t put it in my answer to you but in a reblog–it wasn’t just about you, but about the discussion of transphobia in dating in general and how it is weaponized. I thought of making a new post for that reason but trans people’s voices should be centered in this discussion and I didn’t want to go into the whole context from scratch. If you’re more mindful of how this rhetoric is used to attack trans people and make them unsafe, that’s a good thing.
I’m very confused about what’s wrong with a person not wanting to date a trans person because they have different parts. Is it wrong if a penis or a vagina is a must for some people’s sexual partner? I wouldn’t call someone skinnyphobic if they only wanted to date plus sized-people, or think it’s wrong if armpit hair or a lack thereof is a turnoff. Even people who don’t like dating outside their race… I mean, that’s messed up, but what are you going to do, force them?
There’s nothing wrong with not dating a trans person, which might be motivated by transphobia but is completely your prerogative. What’s wrong is generalizing about trans people. Trans people of the same gender don’t all have the same “parts,” for one thing. If you’re so prejudiced against trans people please don’t date any trans person ever, they don’t want you. What’s wrong is your transphobia, not the fact that you won’t date them.
I remember when people said, even before TFA release, that Finn can’t be Luke’s son because he is black. Luke can’t have children with a black woman?
I’m reminded of that hilarious and horrible story about a reylow shipper who said Finn and Rey can’t have babies “because genetics” (link).
Could I ask how TLJ is more racist than the prequels? I always thought they were both equals in their racism, just TLJ’s brand is more obvious and overt.
*obvious and overt to not just people of color but also white people
The prequels used a lot of racist tropes and caricatures, but generally on non-human characters. While that doesn’t make it okay, it did make the racism less obvious and overt, like you said. The prequels’ vanishingly few characters of color weren’t treated like racist caricatures, for all fandom turns Windu into one. TLJ was racist against human characters of color, which to me seems worse.
Got a Rec! If you’re looking for a diverse ongoing manga to read I highly suggest Kaoru Mori’s A Bride’s Story. Set in turn-of-the-century Turkmenistan, it focuses on a young Nomadic girl living and working in a rapidly changing world. The artwork is GORGEOUS, the characters are lovable and it is fantastically well-researched. Check it out if you have the time!
Oh, I love A Bride’s Story! I mean it has its problems–people should be aware, for instance, that the main bride is a 20-year-old woman married to a 12-year-old boy. I’m not about to call the wife Amir a predator because the marriage was arranged and she didn’t even know who the groom was, much less his age, until the wedding. Nevertheless, a big part of the story is the developing feelings between Amir and her husband Karluk as he tries hard to grow up and be a man for her, and people may be understandably uncomfortable with that. I’m not as disturbed by the relationship as others might be because child marriage between older girls and younger boys was traditionally rather common in Korea, but the Karluk-Amir romance is not my favorite part of the story either. I read it mostly for the other brides, see below.
On a similar note the manga has been criticized for sanitizing and even glorifying customs and practices that are oppressive in many contexts, such as the aforementioned arranged marriage and the very circumscribed lives of women. It has the Perfectly Matched trope in spades with young brides falling in love with appropriately young grooms, incredibly kind and understanding husbands everywhere, and hardly any mention of polygamy except where a wife wants it.
If you can get past these problems A Bride’s Story has a lot to commend it. The story has a slate of memorable characters and well-drawn relationships. The twin brides Laila
and Leyli from the fishing village were absolutely hilarious, and I am
currently all over my feels for Pariya, the very clearly autistic girl
who struggles to navigate love and traditional womanhood (that… damned… embroidery!!!). The manga has
wlw representation as well with Anis and Shirin, the Persian wives who
are in love with each other. I love stories of queer romance in
historical settings well before non-straight identities were openly
recognized.
Regarding sanitation, ABS to me is an interesting study in how people’s choices are shaped by
their circumstances and how people find happiness and love, if they’re
lucky, in even fairly restrictive societies. The deep sense of family
and community in this traditional society is deeply moving and
interesting as well, and it saddens me that a lot of communities like
these were–and will be, in the manga–destroyed or forced to undergo
serious upheaval. I think the author is similarly reluctant to put these
characters through the wringer because she’s been dragging on that war
plot for several books now. XD
Verdict: A Bride’s Story is my beautiful problematic fave. I recommend it highly, too, with caveats.
I think the reason Palpatine just wanting power doesn’t bug me is that I never saw any reason why he shouldn’t. But Kylo being the way he is either feels inorganic to his background, or is an indictment of Leia’s and Han’s parenting skills that just feels like one more ST fuck-you to the original cast. No character trait comes from nowhere, and a reason that even people who want Kylo to stay a villain might be unsatisfied is that we want to see how Leia and Han failed.
I mean there is definitely the fuck-you angle so I can understand why a lot of OT fans don’t like the ST. On the other hand, I can see how Kylo got there and I don’t think it needs additional explication. Here’s a guy who was told implicitly his entire life that a) he is born to save the universe and b) he is special. It doesn’t matter if that’s not what Leia or Han thought or what they consciously instilled into him, these two tenets were baked into the narrative of his life. Put a) and b) together, sprinkle in a few wrong choices and add someone (Snoke) who told him what he wanted to hear encouraging his mushrooming narcissism. Stir, shake, and you get the belief that he is entitled to shape the universe however he sees fit.
This is exactly why I believe that not only should the Skywalkers die out, or at least the idea of them as a special anointed dynasty (which was always more fanon than canon anyway), Luke was halfway onto the right idea and the Jedi as we know it do need to end. Rather, Force instruction should change radically to bring out the Force inherent in everyone, not select for genetic superhumans which is a system that just begs for another Palpatine, Vader, or Kylo Ren. That’s what my Force-Sensitive Five post at heart was about (link), and that’s the direction I hope the franchise is going. It would go a long way toward making SW more palatable and any victory in Episode IX a lasting thing.
Comparing Finnrey to romantic Lukeleia… YIKES.
L.J.: Funny how EVERY INTERRACIAL COUPLE EVER gets comments along the lines of “brotp!” and “siblings!” and so on, isn’t it? As @diversehighfantasy pointed out, it’s just another way of saying their having sex would be an abomination. This, disregarding the fact that Finn and Rey’s dynamic was nothing like Luke and Leia’s beyond being friends. Did Luke pour out his deepest secrets to Leia in a blatantly romantic scene? Did Luke cry out Leia’s name in a soul-rending scream? Did Leia overcome a lifetime of trauma to stand over Luke, defending him with her life? Did Leia lie down with Luke to die with him, crying on his chest like her heart was breaking in two?
L.J.'s Obsessions 