lj-writes:

lj-writes:

Come on Lucasfilm, announce it already!

Link to tweet

Found via ScreenRant

Please don’t die or fuck a droid again

Please don’t die or fuck a droid again

Please don’t die or fuck a droid again

Please don’t die or fuck a droid again

You know, I was so convinced Lando was going to die in ESB, then in RotJ, and that nervousness kept me from enjoying the films the first time around. The fact that Lando made it to the end alive and a hero went a long way toward endearing SW to me. Low bar, I know.

Considering this it’s bitterly ironic to me that Lando may be among the last heroes of his generation to have survived, depending on what Episode IX decides to do about Leia. I would be ecstatic to see him again but it’s so sad that he won’t have a reunion with his old friends.

And yeah, instead of droid fucking how about if Lando shows up with his husband Lobot? Show us older queer people and don’t turn their sexuality into a joke, Lucasfilm you cowards.

Come on Lucasfilm, announce it already!

Finn Meta/Theory Week #1 – Finn Parentage

saltylikecrait:

When I mull over Finn’s parentage, I have two specific ideas with one
being more likely than the other. Since there are hundreds of
ways to handle Finn and his origins, I don’t really hold myself to these
theories, especially after the disaster that was the Rey parentage
reveal.

So, I’ve broken my ideas down into two theories.

1) Finn Kyrell/Ree:

This could easily be a crack theory, so I won’t be one to
say that I am convinced that this is correct. I really liked the novel Lost Stars and the love story between
Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree. If you
have not read the book, I recommend it. There is also a manga version out
now, but there are some key differences in the stories.

Keep reading

Finn, Moses, and Parentage

I like a lot of different Finn theories, including Finn Skywalker, Finn Aphra-Starros, Mandalorian Finn, you name it. For this Finn Meta Week, though, I would like to talk about Finn as space Moses and what that may mean for his parentage, especially if JJ decides to carry forward the parallels in Episode IX.

The parallels Finn’s story has had with that of Moses is well-discussed, so here is just a brief summary: A child raised in an enslaving genocidal empire with no knowledge of his heritage, he escapes into the desert when faced with its atrocities and discards the trappings of the empire along the way. He meets a young woman and her father figure in the middle of nowhere, refuses a call to go up against the empire but chooses to join the struggle anyway with the girl, her dad, and others. He is now committed to fighting his former captors and colleagues.

If Finn’s story continues with these parallels, the fact may have implications for his past and future as well. Could Finn’s family have been part of a population subjugated by the First Order, much like Moses’s family were enslaved Hebrew people? We know from Rose’s story that the FO has strip-mined and enslaved entire planets of people, probably entire systems. This is very likely to be Finn’s background as well, since in general people do not give up their children if they have a choice.

If the Finn and Moses parallels continue we may watch him play a leading role in the liberation of populations subjugated by the FO, including Stormtroopers but also civilian populations who live under de facto FO rule. If his parents or other family members are part of that number, Finn may well be reuniting with them as their liberator much as Moses did. It would be a neat tie-up of his heroic arc, and would make for an emotional reveal–that by following his heroic calling Finn was making a personal journey as well, and was fighting for his family’s future all along. It would put human faces on the struggle for galactical liberation.

One further point about the Moses parallel is that Moses’s parents were Levites, the priestly tribe as I understand it. We know at least one heavily human-populated place in the new SW canon that is known for religious significance: Jedha, the moon that was destroyed during the events of Rogue One. Since the destruction since spread to the whole moon and it became uninhabitable, the refugees who survived the initial blast must have fled elsewhere if they could. A displaced and vulnerable population, they may well have fallen under First Order rule.

Yet Finn’s family and others may have kept the ways of the Force in secret, perhaps in disguised ways, in the midst of not only impossibly hard lives but possibly active repression of Force faiths, something we saw at the massacre of Tuanul at the start of The Force Awakens. If this was the case, Finn may be reunited with this tradition as well as with his family.

I am so intrigued by the parallels between Finn’s and Moses’s stories and hope to see them borne out in his parentage. Most of all, no matter who they are or in what form, I hope that Finn will reunite with his family and reconnect to his heritage. It would mean so much not only for the character but also to millions of viewers who were themselves deprived of their heritages and homes, with director JJ Abrams himself being a member of one such group, the Jewish people. The character of Finn is coded as a member of another such group, African Americans. I hope Finn will find healing, and that people who identify with his loss can find catharsis through his story.

leg-grestrade:

Finn Meta Week Day 1: Finn’s Family – Finn of Taris?

The above picture is of Senator Tynrra Pamlo, who represented the planet Taris in the Galactic Senate pre-Empire and was shown in Rogue One. The actress, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, has said that she was initially just going to be in the background of this scene, but her part was expanded to a minor speaking role.

I think this was deliberate. I do not think Senator Pamlo is Finn’s mother. But I do think that there may be a hint that Finn is from the planet Taris. Taris is described as being a planet in the Outer Rim whose prosperity soon led to overpopulation. Then when the trade routes proved no longer to be profitable, civil disorder and social unrest rose, the environment suffered, and it led to civil war. It’s also mentioned that there was a huge issue with classism, and that the society was very stratified, with the alien underclass being crushed under the heels of the wealthy human nobles at the top of the food chain. Jedi and Sith struggled for dominance there, but Taris ended up being abandoned by both groups, and unrest, rampant crime, poverty, and lawlessness reigned, even though it was able to retain some of its former glory during the Galactic War.

It would have been easy for an organization like the First Order to swoop onto a shattered planet like Taris and scoop up children who were members of the lower strata. Maybe even the parents felt that the First Order was a better option than having their children stay on a world where there was no real future for them. While I’m not super-thrilled with some of the stereotypical “inner city” signalling of Taris, when I think about how Finn could have been stolen from his family, it makes sense to me that he would come from a world that was either broken by the First Order or was in such disarray itself that the snatching of children was relatively easy.

Finn’s desire to escape to the Outer Rim could be some ingrained memory that he has of his home planet or possibly the Force guiding him there. Taris has a lot to offer, but has been through hell and back. It would be interesting, if Finn really is from Taris, to see him return home and help rebuild.

@finnappreciation

That’s brilliant, that Finn was drawn to the Outer Rim for subconscious reasons–somewhere he felt safe for reasons he couldn’t explain and rationalized as getting away from the First Order, even though the Outer Rim could be pretty wild and lawless itself.

fuckyeah-finnpoe:

jewishcomeradebot:

fettjango:

Billy Dee Williams is gonna be in Episode 9 and of course certain shippers is making it about their ship

@fettjango Wait is this confirmed? I mean Billy Dee, not the shipper thing because of course they are.

I’ve heard speculations about him but nothing remotely confirmed.

@jewishcomeradebot this is the source https://www.fanthatracks.com/editors-choice/rumour-exclusive-a-huge-name-is-part-of-episode-ix/

according to folks on StarWarsLeaks their track record for rumors is pretty good

How Finn and Rey saved each other again in The Last Jedi

Or: How TLJ is RotS averted far more than RotJ subverted

At
the end of The Force Awakens we watched Finn and Rey both stand up to Kylo Ren for each other, effectively saving each other and
themselves from the Master of the Knights of Ren. When Rey was knocked
out Finn took up the lightsaber; when Finn was injured, Rey woke up to
his screams and snatched the lightsaber from Ren to defend Finn and
herself.

This dynamic takes place again in the climax of The
Last Jedi, except Finn and Rey were not in the same scene like they were
during the dueling sequence in TFA. in TLJ, though kept apart until
their heartwarming reunion hug, they saved each other through the
choices they made and what each meant to the other.

The A-plot of
TLJ has been called a subversion of Return of the Jedi, for good reason.
Rey attempts to bring Kylo Ren back to the light in scenes that are
some very direct callbacks to Luke and Vader in RotJ, except
Kylo Ren, unlike Vader, refuses Rey’s plea and rises to the position of Big Bad
instead.

TLJ is only primarily a subversion of RotJ if you focus
on Rey and Ren, however. If you broaden the focus to Rey, Finn, and Ren
and the dynamics between them, it is the tragic ending of Revenge of the
Sith averted.

In fact, seeing TLJ as RotS averted subverts
the very idea that Kylo Ren was ever Anakin to Rey’s Luke: Rather he is
Palpatine, and Finn and Rey parallel Padmé and Anakin respectively, except
they each avoided destruction and enslavement. Rey, in no small part due
to Ren’s manipulation, saw him as a tortured soul who could be
redeemed. In fact he was a master manipulator who was drawing her
in for his own gain.

Rey’s lack of genre savviness, based on
a mistaken character reading, almost led to her meeting Anakin’s fate
as the subservient apprentice to an abusive master. Instead, she was
able to avoid it because of the love between her and Finn. In turn, Finn
and the Resistance avoided destruction in part because Rey did not turn
on Finn as Kylo wanted and as Anakin turned on Padmé.

The similarities between Finn/Padmé and
Rey/Anakin, and also their story together, have been commented on enough
times, recently in posts like @jewishcomeradebot’s (link with my addition).
What I have not seen discussed is the similarities of their dynamics to
Kylo Ren/Palpatine, the man who manipulated a powerful younger Force
user under the guise of friendship only to use them to grasp l power,
and tried to take his rival out of the picture for good.

Put
simply, Finn is Ren’s opponent and rival, much as Padmé was Palpatine’s
opponent and rival. They share a common background and know each other, have opposing convictions and goals, and work against each other. Rey on the other
hand, is someone Ren wants to turn and make his apprentice, much as
Anakin was targeted and groomed by Palpatine. The tragedy in RotS was that Palpatine achieved his goal
of defeating Padmé and making Anakin his apprentice. The happy ending in
TLJ is that Finn and Rey escaped that fate.

How did Finn and
Rey avoid the tragedy that was Padmé and Anakin’s story? On Rey’s side,
it was because she knew Kylo Ren was full of bantha poo-doo (and also
was poo-doo himself) when he told her she was nothing except to him. She
had incontrovertible proof that this wasn’t true, no matter how he
might twist the knife in the wound of her abandonment, no matter how
alone and desperate she felt by his design.

She knew because
Finn had come back for her to Starkiller Base. He had returned to the
very heart of the nightmares that he was ready to flee to the ends of
the galaxy to run from, and he very nearly paid the ultimate price for
it–for her. She knew that Han had thought of her as a daughter and that Leia
and the Resistance loved her. The love she had been filled up with
since she left Jakku, with Finn and his sacrifice for her at the center of it all,
anchored her and prevented her from being swept onto the shoals of Kylo
Ren’s deceit.

On Finn’s side,
he avoided total defeat and death in large part due to Rose’s and later
Luke’s intervention, but even their help would have meant little in the long run if Rey had turned against him and the Resistance as Anakin had turned against Padmé and all
she stood for. Where Anakin and later Kylo himself had committed mass
murders at their masters’ behest, Rey refused to stand by and let her
friends be slaughtered and joined forces with them. Where Palpatine had
triumphed by turning Anakin against Padmé, Rey was steadfast in her
loyalty to Finn, and Kylo failed to tear their bond apart. Their love
proved stronger than his violence in TFA and his wiles in TLJ.

The
culmination of TLJ, then, repeats that of TFA with Finn and Rey saving
each other through the strength of their love. The duels in TFA were
just between Finn, Rey, and Kylo with a personal, even claustrophobic
feel. Only Finn’s life and Rey’s freedom were in suspense since the
destruction of Starkiller Base was already imminent. In TLJ the stakes
are even larger, with more people involved and the future of the
Resistance–and by extension, the galaxy–in the balance.

Incidentally,
seeing TLJ as RotS averted and Ren as a so-far unsuccessful Palpatine
means there is no need for Ren to have an understandable motivation. As @jewishcomeradebot has pointed out (link),
Vader’s motivation for falling to the Dark Side is completely opaque in
the OT. Luke, the actual protagonist, had no reason to know or care
about Vader’s reasons. I would like to add that the PT explored Anakin’s
internal life, but that was because Anakin was the protagonist of that
series. Kylo Ren is not a protagonist, he has been and remains the main
antagonist. The motivation behind his fall is irrelevant to Finn and
Rey. It may be that there is no reason other than his belief that he is
superior to others and is entitled to power, much like Palpatine.

Where
does Finn and Rey’s story go from here? With the pretension of TLJ
being the new RotJ dispensed with and the tragedy of RotS avoided for
the moment, SW is on entirely new ground. The ends of both preceding
trilogies were teased but subverted or averted. There is no precedent to
guide us now.

One constant in the ST, however, is the strength of
the bond between Finn and Rey. Both the ST movies so far ended with
that bond both reaffirmed and acting as a powerful force (maybe even
Force) for good in the lives of our protagonists and the ongoing war. To
carry this motif forward Finn and Rey’s love could be tested even more,
with still larger stakes–the outcome of the entire war.

On Rey’s
side, one interesting dilemma would be whether she can accept the risk
of losing Finn in order to honor his conviction. This was a test that
Anakin had failed in regard to Padmé, to both their destruction. Rather
than stand with Padmé Anakin turned against everything she believed in,
and the desire to control her to avoid losing her overwhelmed his love for her. We know that
Rey, like Anakin, wanted nothing more than a sense of belonging and
attachment and she found that with Finn. Now that Finn, like Padmé
before him, found a cause bigger than the two of them, can Rey honor
that cause even if it might mean she cannot be with the only person who came
back for her? What is love? is it
holding on to the beloved no matter what? Or does it lie in accepting
change if it may come, and accepting the beloved’s free will even if it means parting with them?

On Finn’s side, his story has been about freedom and the
ever-expanding awareness that he cannot be free by himself. From the first he needed another person, Poe, to escape the First Order. After losing Poe he sought freedom for himself as he continued running, unexpectedly picking up a comrade that he became more and more attached to. This attachment grew to the extent that it overrode his original goal–he
found that his individual freedom meant little if Rey was suffering. Then, in
late TFA and TLJ, the Resistance and a larger awareness of the galaxy were enfolded
in his circle. In the next movie the galaxy itself, including possibly the Stormtroopers in forced servitude, is likely to be included
in his fight.

With his circle of moral obligation expanding so much, can Finn remember to think about himself and his closest relationships? This was something actively discouraged in him in the First Order as selfish and inconsequential, and after his arc in TLJ his earlier conditioning may lead to his falling into the same habit of self-effacement, though for an opposing cause. Is it selfish to think of his beloved when the universe is at stake? Can he bring himself to think he deserves to love and to be loved? Does true freedom exclude considerations of love, or is freedom only complete with love? Rose gave one answer at the end of TLJ, that freedom can only be won through love, and certainly Rey avoiding servitude through love is a case for that assertion as well. This conclusion is likely to be tested, though, as the fight intensifies and the demands of the war grow harsher.

Where Rey’s continuing story seems to be about the nature of love with implications for freedom, Finn’s appears to be about the nature of freedom with implications for love. Resolving this continuing arc will hopefully lead to a satisfactory conclusion of the sequel trilogy and the story of Finn and Rey.

(For @finnreyfridays )

Does Kes Dameron know of his son’s capture and torture, near-death and escape? Has he heard from his son since the events on Jakku? Does he wonder and try to keep busy, checking his communicator too many times? Or has he gotten a short message while the Resistance base is in an uproar behind Poe? Despite his son’s assurances that he is fine, he’s just about to deploy can’t talk long, I’ll be fine love you Dad, does Kes see the cuts and bruises despite the grainy quality of the transition, does he sense something has happened to his boy, something Poe would not tell him? Does he ache to be there by Poe’s side, to kiss the scrapes away like he and Shara used to? Does he play the recording again and again, looking for clues, just wanting to see his son’s face in the flesh again, a small and traitorous part of him wondering if he ever will?

When the Resistance is–thankfully, oh, he can breathe again–back in communication and Kes learns, in bits and pieces, what has happened, does he keep up a brave front for his son? Does he hold in the tears and the screams in front of Poe because he can’t make this about himself? Do father and son tear up together as Kes hugs him, repeating how happy he is to have his son back and how proud he knows Shara is of him, just as in life? Does he assure Poe that he can stay and rest as long as he likes, knowing that much like Shara he can’t ground Poe for long while others are still out there fighting?

When Poe wakes from nightmares, is Kes on his feet before the first scream is finished, is he running down the hallway like he had never slept, because he had known this was coming? Does he call Poe’s name, never complaining that Poe’s arms around him are too tight, because it is a reminder that his boy is with him, is alive, that the darkness has not taken him? Does he stay for the rest of the night by Poe’s bedside, and when Poe starts sobbing or groaning in his sleep again does his father stroke his face or pat his shoulder, and is that enough to give him peace–for the moment?

Later in the calmer day, when the night has receded for a while and Poe is laughing outside with the dogs, when Kes takes out his old rifle from the Rebellion days–its main use now to scare away local wildlife from the livestock–to clean it, does he stare at it for a long time? Does he aim it into the air, imagining Kylo Ren’s head at the end of the barrel? Do the great, wracking sobs come then, as he imagines against his will what his son went through? Does his whole body shake from the effort of keeping them silent from Poe outside, an unheard earthquake of pain?

Frantically he runs the numbers through his head. How long was Poe held before that former Stormtrooper, seemingly sent by the Force itself, took him from his cell? How many hours, how many questions, how many screams? How much agony slammed again and again into a mind already torn and bloody from watching a mass murder that he was powerless to stop?

A sense of waste, of failure rises up in him, threatening to choke him with the foul taste. He and Shara, they had dreamed together of peace. They thought their son would grow up in a galaxy without war. It was what they fought and risked their lives for, what they built their home for after the war. What was it all for, with that very son shattered by this new cruel fight?

Stranded in a universe without answers, with nothing but the sounds of his son out in the yard to anchor him, Kes wipes his face and finishes cleaning his weapon with practiced, unthinking hands. He locks the blaster away, not admitting to himself he doesn’t want Poe to stumble on it, as though Poe doesn’t have a weapon of his own that he carries at all times, as though there were anything left to shield his son from.

Poe calls for his father and Kes goes outside, a smile on his face as he steps into the light, laughing to watch Poe mobbed by a pile of wriggling and overenthusiastic puppies. He runs to “rescue” his beleaguered son, kissing each happy pup as he takes it off Poe. The sun shines high above and the night is far away, for now.

Do you think it’s rude to assume John/Finn will be sidelined again in the next movie like he was in TLJ? Someone said it’s weird that people are already writing off JJ Abrams and that we should wait and see?

ori-ebon:

lj-writes:

I completely understand people’s need not to get their hopes up. As long as people aren’t derailing other people’s positive speculations about the movie I think everyone is entitled to their pessimism/caution. In general I hate it when people police others’ reactions. As long as things are tagged properly and people stay in their lanes, let people deal with their hopes, fears, and whatever other anticipations in peace.

Still, the fear is understandable at this point. JJ is the one who made Finn into a red herring for Rey in the first place and downplayed his competence to boost her up by comparison. It’s entirely possible that that was just the first stage of a what was to be a phenomenal arc for the character that got derailed when it was determined that fumbling, bumbling Rian Johnson would helm Ep VIII, but we’ll never know now. All we have to go on for certain is what JJ’s done with Finn so far, and it doesn’t inspire a lot of hope, at least not in me personally.

Yeah, JJ just looks so much better than RJ by comparison which… talk about low bars. I put more trust in John here: he has talked before about Finn being more of a growing hero than one who gets everything right from the start, and though a lot of his best qualities were artificially curtailed and downplayed in TFA they were still there. So I’m cautiously optimistic.

This may sound silly, but it’s hair of all things that’s giving me a sense that things may be different this time. John is the only cast member so far to have announced a change in appearance, and hair often has quite a lot of visual and story significance. This was thought out and planned ahead of time, since JJ would have had to let John know to grow his hair out through the spring and summer. It also had enough story meaning and prominence that John teased it well ahead of the first teaser, saying we would see what it was for when we saw the trailer. As I jokingly pointed out, a certain section of the fandom would have gone batshit if this had been for one of their white faves. Though a small detail, this points to more care and thought being put into the character, and excitement on John’s part if he’s discussing it already.

It also gives me hope that JJ has evidently been talking to Ava DuVernay and accepted her recommendation of Victoria Mahoney as second unit director. Obviously neither Ava nor Vic can influence Finn’s story in any final manner, but it’s a reminder that JJ respects Ava and is receptive to her views–if not specifically about Finn, at least about the importance of representation and diversity. That is my hope anyway.

All this is just me, of course, and I agree JJ deserves no passes at all for how he’s treated Finn. He could have done a growing hero without using Finn as bait or turning him into the butt of the joke in so many scenes. I hope he’ll be better than RJ but that is, again, a massively low bar.

Hux would only depose Kylo if he’s sure that he can kill the man. Not ony is he something of a coward, he has enough sense not to let someone as dangerous as Kylo who possess abilities Hux has no way of countering, alive to seek revenge. We all saw him in TLJ, he meant to shoot Kylo and would have if Kylo hadn’t woken up at an inconvenient moment.

lj-writes:

jewishcomeradebot:

lj-writes:

Very true! It looks like infighting in TFO will be a major plotline in EPIX.

Personally I doubt it. I think Kylo will be the one in charge and apart from occasional snark Hux will do as told and once again the character – if he can be called that – will go back to his TFA self, an ambulatory plot device.

I’m hoping Hux will do more than that and do something to throw a wrench in Ren’s plans at an inopportune moment before he is destroyed himself. I love villainous backbiting!

@thehungryvortigaunt Yeah I don’t think we need any more Villainous Promotions (or successful defenses) at this point. I don’t want either of them to be the poor woobie fascist uwu, I want Hux’s betrayal to create an opening for the heroes at a moment when all seems lost and Ren to waste his energy killing him. I guess that would be enough for large sections of fandom to mourn him as a hero but at least it’ll be amusing to watch the Kylostans and Hux stans at each others’ throats.