Long, long, long article dissecting the heart of TLJ and fandom's response

[elisi]

The Beautiful, Ugly, and Possessive Hearts of Star Wars

Money quote: [The reaction of the most hardcore of fans] to The Last Jedi proved exactly why it needed to be made.

It also reminded me of a tweet I saw by someone who asked whether people could take Vice Admiral Holdo seriously [what with having purple hair and wearing a 'prom dress']. And there were plenty of people in the comments talking about Leia's hair & clothes and how the other admiral was a fish etc. But what I thought was that it's not really about that person (who wrote the tweet). It's about the next generation and trying to deprogram them from the Straight White Male Authority Figure template.

The kids of today will remember Holdo as one of the great heroes of the Resistance, purple hair and all. And hopefully the world they grow up in will reflect it.

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

Also

[elisi]

That was literally next on my list to post!!

(Great minds think alike...)

[orangerful]

Really wish people would stop saying these are "hardcore fans". They are not, they are fans who feel entitled.

[elisi]

Yup. They are doing fandom WRONG. >:(

[sea_thoughts]

Another perspective on why some people hated TLJ: prescriptive fandom and expectations

[elisi]

Thank you, I'll have a look. :)

[sea_thoughts]

It was a really good article.

I especially loved these bits:

General Holdo doesn’t trust him one iota and finds his recklessness to be absurdly dangerous (especially as she doesn’t have the same affinity for him that Leia clearly does). Given everything we have seen thus far, she is absolutely right to do this. [Poe] comes up with a secret plan to stop the tracking beacon, one that’s reckless and dangerous and puts his closest friends in danger... he stages a coup to try and enact his own plan.

Put like this, Poe is lucky that Leia just shot him in the chest and not the balls.

I love that the big bad of Star Wars is now imagined to be a moody, impetuous and entitled young man.

*GESTURES*

embracing our kid-like sensibilities, along with all the sadness and range life has to offer, is maturity itself.

ties in with one of my favourite C.S. Lewis quotes:

When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Possessing something doesn’t mean you love it.

In fact, that’s not even really love. That’s need. That’s dependency.

Illustrated both by Kylo and by Luke.

[elisi]

It was a really good article.
Wasn't it just? I couldn't stop reading.

Put like this, Poe is lucky that Leia just shot him in the chest and not the balls.
It's one of the things I love the most, how that film takes scenarios we are familiar with and just... switch everything around. If it had been Leia in charge, obviously we would have known Poe was in the wrong. But the trope of 'Wrong headed person gets put in charge, doesn't listen to Young Bright Sparks and they then go on to save the day' is *so* familiar that to see it upended clearly upset a LOT of people. :D

*GESTURES*
MRAs ARE THE ENEMY!

ties in with one of my favourite C.S. Lewis quotes:
I love that quote too! <333 So accurate.

Illustrated both by Kylo and by Luke.
Mmmm. I want to go back and re-read it all.