x comes from a desert planet where she was sold into slavery by her ‘parents’
x amazing mechanic
x stellar pilot
x lightsaber calls to her; this hasn’t happened to a single skywalker yet; it calls to her because it recognises its true owner
x grows strong attachment (finn, bb8, han)
x has big dreams of helping the resistance like anakin dreamt of freeing the slaves
x has a propensity to the dark side
x wins her first lightsaber battle and hones her abilities quite quickly because she has done it before in her previous life
x maz told her in tfa to forgot her past (her traumatic past as anakin) and focus on her future (finn, luke)
x rey immediately thinks of luke because unconsciously is hopeful to finally have a relationship with her son
finn is padmé:
x incredible goodness and kindness
x amazing blaster aim
x finn is a born leader; used to head his team of stormtroopers just like padmé led her planet
x has a way with words, knows exactly what to say to get what he wants; he gets the resistance to save rey through his clever deception; reminiscent of padmé’s diplomatic nature and her job
x will do anything to save his loved ones despite opposition; finn will save rey no matter what han says and padmé will save obi-wan no matter what anakin says
x thinks of others first before himself. when he gets knocked out on jakku by the blast he immediately asks rey is she’s alright just like padmé asks if anakin is alright when she’s, uh, dying
x “same eyes in different people” we know that maz has lived for a long ass time and it’s not unreasonable to assume she has met padmé or at least heard and seen of her
x they’re both beloved by many people. finn is loved by rey, poe, and rose and padmé is shown to be the crush of quite a few people. they have a magnetism which attracts others
finnrey is anidala:
x they met on a desert planet
x finn is 4-5 years older than rey just like padmé was 4-5 years older than anakin
x rey believes finn is with the resistance and anakin believes padmé is a handmaiden at first
x padmé: come away with me; finn: come with me
x (in case finn is not confirmed FS) jedi x rebel couple (yes padmé is a rebel in rots)
x immediate, unexplainable connection
x soulmates
x finn stares at rey when he first sees her. as if … she is familiar
x rey: we will see each other again, I believe that. she believes that because they already did once
x finnrey is established as main pairing in tfa just like anidala
x finn and rey hug in tfa like anakin and padmé do in tpm
x finn’s priority is rey just like padmé’s priority is anakin
Jango saw the lightsaber coming for his head and the sounds of the battle faded. All he could hear was the hum of the saber and Boba screaming for him.
He ducked.
The saber hit his helmet, shearing off a portion of it and scoring a line of fire across his jaw. If it had caught him in the neck or if he hadn’t been wearing beskar’gam, he’d be dead. He fired at the dark-skinned Jedi again before turning to run across the sand towards his son.
Boba was already running towards him… straight through the battle.
“Boba, no!” He lifted his blaster as a battledroid took aim at Boba’s unprotected chest. As fast as his reflexes were, he knew he wouldn’t be fast enough to stop it.
Instead it was a clone who tackled Boba to the ground, taking the shot to his shoulder. Jango shot the droid and three more with it before reaching the fallen clone and Boba.
“Kriff, that hurt,” the clone said in Jango’s voice.
Jango scooped Boba into his arms, holding him tight.
“Thank you,” he said.
“No problem sir.” The clone started to stand, favoring his injured shoulder. “Might wanna get the little nipper outta here, though. This is no place for a cadet.”
“You’re right,” Jango said.
Standing there in the middle of a battlefield, feeling the burn of what should have been a fatal blow and holding his sobbing son, it finally occurred to him that some things were more important than contracts. He ignited his jetpack and left.
Eventually he and Boba settled in the outer rim, as far from the developing war as they could get and still be in semi-civilized space. There was enough money to keep them situated comfortably, though he still sometimes took the odd bodyguard job or shipping escort. Mostly, though, he just spent time with Boba.
“Dad, please? I’ll take care of it, I promise!” Boba cradled the squirming kitten in his arms. Both of them were covered with dirt and cobwebs.
“There’s a lot of training involved with keeping a cat,” Jango said. “It isn’t like an eel that’s content to stay in its tank, a kitten will want to run around and shred things. It needs to be trained to a litterbox.” He crossed his arms and stared down at his son. “Are you sure you’re up for the responsibility?”
“Yes- ow!- Yes, I am!” Boba wrinkled his nose as the kitten crawled up his chest to perch on his shoulder. Boy and kitten stared up at him with wide eyes. Jango sighed, knowing he’d already lost and having a hard time feeling sorry about it. He reached out to scratch the kitten’s head.
“I guess he’s yours, then.”
“Thank you!” Boba flung himself into a hug, almost dislodging the kitten, who mewled in protest.
Jango returned the hug, feeling warmed right through. He smiled, feeling the tug of scar tissue on his jaw. He could have afforded a better healing job, but sometimes it was good to have a reminder of how close he’d come to losing everything.
Twelve, or “almost thirteen,” as Boba insisted, was a little old to still be needing your hand held as you walked, but when his son reached up Jango held tight. Part of him suspected that Boba only did it to comfort him, but if so, he wasn’t about to say anything.
Some of their lessons had changed, too. Jango still made sure Boba knew how to take care of himself. They still went out to the woods to practice with a variety of weapons and went into town so he could learn how to negotiate with sellers in the marketplace. There were practice runs in Slave 1 so Boba could learn the controls and get a better grasp of navigation as well as all the secrets the ship had to offer. But in addition to all of that Jango also started teaching him how to play and have fun. He had friends, now, and in order to fit in he needed to know the games other kids knew. Ballgames and racing games and games with inexplicable rules. Sometimes Jango learned right along with him.
There were classroom courses as well. Some were conducted virtually at home, but some also happened in person to help with socialization. It hurt Jango’s heart to watch his son leave the house on those days, but he wanted to do what was best for Boba, and if bounty hunting was out of the picture then he needed to find something else. Something that he loved rather than what his father told him to do.
“Dad?”
“Hmm?” Jango glanced down, shaken out of his musings.
“Can we stop at the library on the way home?”
That was another change, and one Jango had been slow to accept. Boba loved to read. Not just history books and instruction manuals, but fiction. He’d always discouraged such frivolities before, but after they’d been out here for a few months Boba had come up to him and asked about it. He’d squirmed and shuffled his feet and looked so guilty before admitting that he liked to read adventure stories and other silly fluff like that. It was something he’d been afraid to talk about and that convinced Jango that maybe the old way of doing things hadn’t been the right way. At least not for Boba. Reading made him happy, and if his son was happy then that made him happy, too. The library became one of their regular stops. Jango still didn’t see the point of fiction, but it wasn’t all Boba read, either. There were plenty of texts on biology, ecology, engineering, mechanics, and so many other subjects he wasn’t sure he could remember them all.
“I don’t know if they allow animals inside.”
Boba’s face fell, his lower lip pouting out as he rubbed his face against the kitten’s fur.
“But I suppose I could stay outside with the little monster while you go in and browse. Thirty minutes only,” he warned.
Boba beamed at him. “You’re the best, Dad!”
Jango wasn’t and he knew it, but he was getting better every day. He smiled, tousling Boba’s hair and earning a resigned “Daaaaad!”
They’d stop at the library. And maybe they’d grab ice cream on the way home. And then after Boba and his latest acquisition were sound asleep Jango would send another message to his contact within the GAR. He still hated the Jedi. He still hated their war. But that trooper’s selflessness on Geonosis had reminded him that while Boba was his son, he owed a lot to the rest of the clones, too. He’d make sure they were free to live their own lives, and with the information he’d stolen from the Kaminoans those lives would now be just as long as Boba’s. And it it happened to ruin the Jedi’s plans and cause a certain Korun bastard a lot of headaches, well, that was just a bonus, wasn’t it?
Yeah I know he’s Buddhist. That doesn’t mean his cultural Christian influences are any less, though. Even atheists in the U.S. are frequently very Christian in their culture. Also George’s understanding of Buddhism is kinda shit if the PT are anything to go by.
There’s more than just Christian themes in Star Wars though, and George’s religion should have nothing to do with how the movies from either eras our judges. If you’re judging a person’s understanding of their religion based off their movies than most the filmmakers would have shit beliefs.
I live in the US and there’s many other religions in the country, not every atheist came from a Christian belief system. I was raised Muslim and Catholic, but I chose to be Agnostic.
We can’t judge people by their religion unless there’s firm proof that’s what their motivation was from.
That’s kind of the dilemma of literary hermeneutics. We often tend to interpret things based on the writer’s religion or the religious influences they might’ve had or what was going on politically in their country at that time but in the end all we do is guess. Not to mention that there is never such a thing as THE interpretation, no matter how much information we collect about George, JJ, RJ and the current time and context. Then we won’t ever be able to seperate ourselves from our own socialisation which will – no matter how hard we try – influence our judgement. And even those of us who grew up in the western world have very different thinking patterns that won’t only be different from each others’ but also from those of the writers, not to mention the differences that occure between people literally from all over the world. So even when I for instance write that TLJ is a result of RJ’s racist and sexist thinking patterns, it’s just the most logical conclusion I came to, but it’s still an interpretation. (but if people interpret his work that way it’s bad, no matter what RJ’s intention truly was, thus he would need to apologize and reflect on his writing anyway) So the OT as a Christian story is an interpretation. Every parallel we discuss, no matter how likely it seems to us, is an interpretation. That doesn’t mean we should stop doing that of course (LOL then we could throw all literature studies into the trash) but we have to be aware of it.
Like I forget it sometimes as well but I have the feeling so do many of you. It’s a normal thing bc some of these conclusions are so natural to us that we forget or never realise where they came from. But I can for instance say that the OT as a Christian story or TLJ as a Christian story seem completely alien to me. (even more so with TLJ) And I did grow up in a Christian society too. So it’s just one way to interpret it which seems very likely to some people but unlikely to others. And what truly influenced George… maybe even he doesn’t know. Same for RJ.
“If you’re judging a person’s understanding of their religion based off
their movies than most the filmmakers would have shit beliefs.“
@themandalorianwolf Isn’t that pretty much Hollywood in a nutshell 😂 What I’m talking about, however, is Yoda’s prattling about how attachment is bad and so on, which people keep saying is Buddhist when it’s more a bastardized understanding of Buddhism popular in the West. I have written about this before (link).
And where did I judge someone for their religion? Like, am I being accused of Christophobia or Buddhaphobia or something here? 😛 I don’t have anything against Christians or cultural Christianity in of itself–I’m a very culturally Christian atheist/agnostic myself. My issue is with people discounting the clear Christian themes (forgiveness, redemption etc.) because of George’s religion. I didn’t bring his religion into this, I made a plausible reading of themes in the story, which is one of many possible readings as @thelastjedicritical said, and someone brought up George’s religion to invalidate that. So I retorted that someone having a different religion or no religion does not discount prior cultural influences. I know that from personal experience, as I said.
I also never stated that Christianity is the only religion in the U.S., I know how diverse it is ethnically, religiously and otherwise. However, it’s just fact that the U.S. is a heavily majority Christian country with some 70% of the population belonging to some sect of Christianity (link), so the statement that atheists in the U.S. are frequently–not exclusively, I never said that–culturally Christian shouldn’t be controversial.
*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.
L.J.'s Obsessions 