Oh, he seems to have Johnson’s authorial intent down pat. “Racist, sexist creep” is an exact description of RJ anyway.
IDK the intent, but he made it WAY too easy to interpret it this way. And honestly, with all the glowing reviews that act like Driver’s performance is the pinnacle of performance art (It’s not a bad performance, but it’s hardly different from the awful guy on Girls), I can’t help but think a lot of people were relieved that they could easily focus on the importance of the white villain/victim.
The sad thing is the actual narrative says the angry white man who tries to fashion himself as the real victim is actually a bad guy and we shouldn’t be taken in by him. That’s a message we can actually use, and one that Rian either can’t or won’t articulate. When he does use words like sick, evil and manipulative to describe Kylo, fans don’t take it seriously because he’s always acted like Kylo is the character we’re meant to relate to first and foremost.
It’s like he’s playing both sides. Alienating the angry white male contingent (including people turned on by angry white men) too much right now could lead to financial loss, so they go along with the idea that this is their movie, while in reality the narrative is painting the “misunderstood” white bad guy as the bad guy, period, in the end. It wasn’t even ambiguous, yet it totally WAS because it’s so hard for western audiences to comprehend that a white man who feels sad could possibly be an evil man. When Rian actually does call Kylo evil, it’s beyond comprehension because Rian said he was relatable.
In 10, 20 years, this will be fascinating. Right now, it’s just disturbing that it was so easy to make people believe Kylo is “The Real Victim” and so hard to get them to see him as anything else once they were allowed to believe it.
I don’t see how someone can sympathize with Kylo or not see him as evil when, after his internal struggle culminated with killing Snoke and the rest of the Praetorian guard with Rey, he was in THE perfect position to dismantle the First Order and end the galactic conflict, and he instead chose to keep that ball rolling. Mind-boggling.
Tag: exactly
reylos: if anakin can be redeemed so can kylo!!!!
george lucas: “Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, he [just] stops the horror.”
I have seen two arguments that always surface in defense of R*se during THAT scene. The arguments are that R*se is a) acting in accordance to the resistance and is meant to be stopping deserters, b) that she is grieving for her sister who idolized (along with R*se herself) Finn and to see him leaving made her lash out or some combination of the two. I would love to see your thoughts on this, because it really makes me uncomfortable.
There is a lot to say about this and what it shows about how black people are regarded in fandom. I’m not really saying anything new here really? I feel like a lot of what I’ve said has been stated by a bunch of other black people? I dunno. Here’re my thoughts, under the cut because it’s a little long.
its so obvious the reason finnrey (and its shippers) get attacked by everyone from the demonic reylos to the racist stormpilot shippers to the irrelevant damereys…is cause its the most likely to be canon. its obvious that theyre all threatened heavily by finnrey because otherwise why would all these people spend so much time trying to disprove it?? its not abusive, its just healthy and fluffy so what exactly makes so many different groups of losers so angry?? why cant yall just accept that finnrey has a lot of canon evidence and that its a good ship and stay the fuck out of their tags??? thats why yall stay stealing finn and reys scenes together to make ur badly put together edits. its sad. finn loves rey and rey loves finn. die bitter about it!
What she says: I’m fine
What she means: Poe, Finn, and Rose are frequently blamed for losing the transports, but that assumes Holdo’s plan would have worked and the First Order is so colossally inept that it wouldn’t have occurred to anyone aboard that perhaps their targets were speeding towards a life-sustaining planet for a reason, or that it was worth investigating why the Raddus never deployed escape pods or made a last stand or appeared to take any life-saving actions throughout the hours-long pursuit. Realistically, even if the Resistance had slipped onto Crait without being detected, the First Order would have recognized it was probably not a coincidence their plotted course took them near a planet with a breathable atmosphere and looked into that. It seems just as likely that the Resistance fighters would have been discovered hiding on Crait with or without the interference of DJ, and perhaps Holdo’s plan shouldn’t be held up as a watertight example of military cunning that our protagonists fucked up with their reckless antics. However, the director really wanted to force the belief that those losses are on Poe because he undermined the leadership, so we receive no acknowledgement that Holdo’s plan was also a huge gamble and instead have to settle for Leia and Holdo being alarmingly cool with the fact Poe staged a mutiny during a time of crisis. In all this is a case of a director being so enamored with his narrative that he threw logic and characterization out the window in order to support it. The end result is a product that turns characters into convenient plot devices with inconsistent personalities as well as underestimates the audience’s intelligence, and I really hope the next movie does not follow the trend
do you ever think about how han and luke got married by leia at the end of a new hope and then han suddenly remembered he was married to lando
“you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler, you’ve got a lot of guts coming here after what you pulled” is obviously referring to han’s bigamy open ur eyes people
Finn was not deserting. He can’t desert. The Resistance is a volunteer organization that’s not recognized by any government. And not only that, it’s a volunteer organization that Finn didn’t even enlist with. Yes, he led them to victory against Starkiller Base, but that mean he is beholden to them. It’s actually the other way around.
It short, there’s no defense for Rose assaulting Finn, shocking him so hard his recently injured back slammed into a hard surface, and knocking him unconscious. It’s not a “she didn’t let him explain” situation. It’s a “she was completely wrong and RJ did a bad job introducing her character” situation.
Finn: Chooses to runaway from the First Order in shame and disgust in what they brought him up to be
Finn: Spares the life of the villagers he’s supposed to be slaughtering because he’s not fucking braindead evil
Finn: Sees Rey (a complete stranger at that point) being attacked; instantaneously runs to her defence because he sees danger
Finn: Takes Rey’s hand when he hears TIE Fighters and realises he’s marked her
Finn: Assures Rey if she’s okay after caught up in the blast
Finn: Takes care of Chewie after he was shot
Finn: Literally fucking requests Rey if she wants to go with him to the outer rim because he KNOWS how fucking dangerous the First Order are, and wants her to be safe from that shit
Finn: Warmly accepts her decline and says “take care of yourself. Please.”
Finn: Cancels the fuck out of his plans when star destroyer is used and fights
Finn: Fucking screams R E Y at the top of his lungs when she’s kidnapped by Ren
Finn: Goes back to his trauma, what he wanted to run away from to get his friend back
Finn: Fights Ren and literally ends up in a coma to defend himself as well as Rey
Finn: Wakes up in a coma and his first inquiry is Rey’s whereabouts
Finn: Literally wants to runaway with the beacon to ensure that when Rey returns, she doesn’t return to danger
LucasFilm: Finn needed to go to Canto Bight so he could learn to stop being a selfish assh0le!!1!1!
I agree with what @reystars, @rose-tico and others are saying about the intended *purpose* of Finn’s storyline: after a lifetime of being enslaved and brainwashed his instinct was to flee as far away as possible and take Rey with him to safety, and it was important for him to understand that there was no safety anywhere in the galaxy as long as the FO existed, because the war affected everything and people were supporting it for their own profit, and therefore Finn needed to join the Resistance and actively fight to defeat the FO in order to create a galaxy where the satefy for him and Rey and everyone else could become a reality. I understand that.
HOWEVER
– if the only way the director could think of to achieve this was to put Finn in a sideplot which nearly every reviewer agrees had no impact on the main storyline and felt tonally disjointed from the rest of the movie;
– if Finn, the male lead, is put in a sideplot instead of the main plot, period (and it was percieved as a sideplot, just check how few TLJ reviews in non-fandom media even mention the Resistance storyine at all);
– if Finn is not allowed to learn the truth about Canto Bight on his own e.g. by observing or overhearing something, figuring it out himself and only then asking Rose for a confirmation/more information, but Rose has to explain the world to a naive Finn instead;
– if Finn, the male lead, is repeatedly used for comic relief; repeatedly physically harmed, often for comedic effect as well; and generally not treated with the necessary respect and seriousness by the narrative (e.g. his duel against Phasma lasting only a couple of minutes and its gravitas diminished by silly quibs like “chrome dome” and Finn and Phasma’s relationship and shared past not further explored; scenes that would have given Finn more character depth and background about his childhood and life as a FO stormtrooper and set up a possible stormtrooper rebellion storyline for episode IX being cut; or even just Finn’s shirtless scene in the bacta suit being presented as something comedic and ridiculous (and used for queerbaiting) with his recovery from a life-threatening injury not further commented on, while Kyle was shown recovering from his injuries over time and his shirtless scene was presented as “sexy”);
…so in short, if the male lead is treated this way then it’s small wonder most viewers do not care about his arc or even realise what his arc is supposed to be in the movie.
Intentions: good, execution: piss poor 😦
Countless fanfiction authors have proven that it is absolutely possible to write a narrative where Finn learns about the state of the wider galaxy and decides to commit himself to the Resistance’s cause wholeheartedly *without* sidelining or disrespecting him, so TLJ could have and should have done better.
(Also Disney really needs to have a serious word with the guy in charge of the SW Facebook account 😦 )
so, you said you didn’t understand why people took rey random at face value? Well for me it was because I guess it seemed like it would be amazing to have her be more than her parentage, like to attach a famous name to her would be to reduce her and her accomplishments. I don’t know if that makes much sense, but i did try to communicate my feelings.
Listen I get how that story could be great, again Rey Random isn’t wrong in terms of Rey being a jedi or being a powerful one. Rey Random makes no sense in regards to Rey being the sole person in the sequel trilogy to be connected to all of the Skywalkers. If they wanted to make Rey Random work they should have decided from the begining to spread out the connection between Rey, Finn, and Poe.
Look at all these connections and tell me how she isn’t connected to the Skywalkers?
- Super Connected to Han Solo (Whom she spent less time with then Finn, who never mentions him in TLJ), she’s so upset over his death even in TLJ she’s crying about how Kylo murdered him. Han Solo looks at her in utter astonishment at times, and offers her a position without even knowing her. It’s clear Han wanted to get to know Rey better.
- Super Connected to Princess Leia, she has two scenes which are mothering scenes. Leia walks right pass Chewie to embrace Rey after Han’s death. Leia is Rey’s “guiding light home”. Leia chooses again to be comforted by Rey in the aftermath of TLJ. Leia wears a specific ring which has two stones sitting directly opposite of each other, which is panned to multiple times in both movies.
- Super Connected to Luke, her story is a 1 to 1 parallel with Luke’s. The music swells and time slows down when Luke Skywalker is mentioned around Rey in TFA. She is chosen to go bring Luke back. She feels Luke’s death through the force.
- Super Connected to Kylo, literally they have a force bond, which doesn’t just form overnight and yet somehow Kylo and Rey’s formed days after meeting. They literally parallel Vader and Luke in TLJ. Kylo Ren says “It is you!” in the novelization of TFA.
- She’s even connected with Darth Vader in some regard, she’s the only member of the sequel trilogy to mention Vader by name. Which I find important. The Skywalker lightsaber calls to her specifically, she can grab it over Kylo, she and Kylo tear it in two.
I think people need to understand Rey Random doesn’t make sense from a narrative POV. The narrative tells us Rey is connected to the Skywalker family. Somehow she is connected to them. It’s not about her accomplishments or about her being a powerful jedi. They gave all the Skywalker connection to Rey. That’s why people still believe that Rey is a member of this family. The parentage wasn’t some cool add-on just because she didn’t know about her parents. It made narrative sense.
They could have told the story of Rey Random, in fact they already did in Rebels. Rebels is about a random force user named Ezra, nobody thinks he’s a secret Skywalker, you know why? Because the narrative does nothing to indicate that he is. They could have told the story of Rey Random. They chose not too. They chose to have her be the sole connection to the Skywalker legacy. That’s what the issue is with Rey Random.
L.J.'s Obsessions 