The Fart Awakens (Spoilers)

[Schwalbe]

does not carry any weight in the film.

This sentence, repeating throughout the article (I THINK, I'm still reading it), might describe pretty damn well what I think about the newest Star Wars film - paced too fast, so fast, that NOTHING carry any emotional or whatever weight. I just couldn't give single tiny fuck mostly...

[Schwalbe]

I just found this on 9Fag:

[HamsterIV]

I finally got around to seeing the movie yesterday. There were several plot holes you could drive a bus through, but overall I was satisfied with it. Having studies sword fighting for over a decade I was prepared to be let down by the light saber fight, and the movie lived up to my low expectations. However from a plot perspective I saw something very interesting. During the Rey vs Kylo fight at the end of the movie Rey is loosing, and understandably so, this is her first time holding a light saber.  Then they get to that dramatic cliff scene where Kylo says she needs a teacher and does the creepy force glare at her. Last time he creepy force glared Rey she learned that he feared not being as strong as Vader. My theory is that when Kylo was trying to persuade her to accept him as her teacher she was downloading everything Kylo knew about swordsmanship strait from his brain. After that moment she get significantly better with the weapon and I think purposefully strikes Kylo in ways that will wound but not kill him. Leah would be pissed if she found out Ren killed her boy, and nobody wants that.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

So Rey is actually a female Kakashi.

Now that change I could get behind. Rey the copycat Jedi. Just give her a sharingan and we're good to go.

[Schwalbe]

Just give her a sharingan and we're good to go.

...start speaking like a normal human being, or I'll bash you with a plank.

:p

[HamsterIV]

Kylo is still a crap swordsman, but a little training is better than none. I interpret the fight as a mediocre fighter beating on two novices (Fin and Rey) until Rey downloads Kylo's mediocre weapon knowledge from an unsecured Jedi mind meld. Then she purposefully inflicts a series of no fatal wounds because she didn't want Leah to deal with the loss of both Han and Kylo on the same day.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Ya know it would then make sense why Luke just gives her the death stare...

He knows...

That's why he left her to die on Jakku. GASP!!

SHE WAS GOING TO TAKE LUKE'S SEXY JUTSU!!! SHOCKU DESU!!!

[HamsterIV]

I consider this a good place to rant about the new movie, so here comes another one.

Luke Skywalker began his narrative as a teenager in a two parent house hold. His family had a stable source of income and were it not for the heavy handed antics of the empire he could have lived a long uneventful life on Tatooine.

Han Solo was a ship captain with a crew that undertook jobs of questionable legality or a crime syndicate. While he is shown as being in trouble with the Hutts, it would be safe to assume he had a fairly successful career as an independent contractor prior to the events of the film and if he had made a few different choices he could continue making a living moving high value cargo.

Leah Organa was the daughter of presumably wealthy nobility who got involved in political activism to right the wrongs being done to other people. Her contacts within the Senate probably mean that she could have lived a live of comfort and luxury if she had decided to accept the status quo.

My point is that at the time the original films were made these were the characters that the makers felt the audience could invest themselves in. Given that it was the late 70's it makes a lot of sense. Two parent families who owned land and sometimes business were portrayed as the societal norm. Prohibition had ended one generation ago and tales of the dashing rouge who flaunted government rules about alcohol were no doubt among the tales the generation who made star wars grew up on. The protests against the Vietnam War were also a recent memory, and most of the protesters were from affluent/connected families that could send their kids to college and avoid the draft.

Now lets look at the origin stories of the new cast of star wars:

Fin grew up in the military having never know his parents. It is implied that he was sold to the First Order at an early age, so even if he had stayed with his parents he would not have been welcome let alone loved. He and every one of his peers know their job and their future involves being a storm trooper. It is only after he watches one of his squad mates die in his arms and is told to fire upon unarmed prisoners does he question his place in the world. Also what kind of crap sack world is poverty so prevalent that you could build an army of disposable shock troopers by purchasing unwanted children?

Rey was abandoned by her parents or care takers old enough to have memories of the events. While she has a place to rest at night it would hardly be considered a home. She lives hand to mouth on the whims of a scrap dealing middleman. She is one injury away from loosing her ability to collect scrap and therefor eat. Her life mirrors the life of many children in Vietnam and other former war zones who scour the jungle for scrap metal left over from the war and occasionally get injured or killed when they blunder into unexploded ordinance or mines.

Poe is a legitimate good man, but we don't know much about his history aside from being connected enough to General Leah to be sent on a risky mission. At any rate his screen time is minor and he acts as more of a foil than a main character.

Kylo/Ben is born into a powerful family with promising future ahead of him. He was probably being groomed by his uncle to take over the new Jedi order. Yet he decides to hook up with some people his parents and uncle hate. Then emulate a grandfather he has never met but every one assures him was a powerful, respected, and feared individual.

These are the characters the makers of the new film think will resonate with this generation, and for the most part is seems to be working. Yet their origins are and potential futures are bleaker than their predecessors. What does that say about our culture?

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Exactly why I barely watch any western entertainment anymore. I'd rather watch a rehashed anime based on another show, which took ideas from another show, on top of some classic anime...than sit five minutes watching western entertainment tell me I'm not a normal person unless I'm some overly traumatized, verbally abused, adult who's goal in life is to sleep with anything that moves and father another generation of kids with even worse issues.

VII is the culmination of every horrific Disney story we've had for 50 yrs. Really, analyze Disney stories and you'll wonder what was wrong with your parents for letting you watch them.

At least in anime they have a reason for showing the home as a mess with fathers never home and mothers either working or overwhelmed. Kids get raised by the group of friends they establish which is pretty much what has happened there as their family unit structure has broken down. But, they still know how to run shows with main characters showing intact family units that, surprise surprise, don't end in everyone dying in some horrific way.

Trouble with western studios is they do not know how to not run Disney stories. Because those in charge are very fearful of trying new ideas. It's all about if something will sell or not and Disney has made a lot of money off their formulaic settings. Course eastern studios do similar, but theres often more titles that take risks. Next thing you know, new genres start or another anime copies it but does things right where another fumbles. They're very quick to ride the next flavor of the month where we sit in a flavor of the month for years till it's done to death and studios decide "reboot time!"