Hah... I should explain (Rogue 1 Spoilers) (Gaming)

by Kermit , Raleigh, NC, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 09:35 (2441 days ago) @ cheapLEY

I think the difference is that the praise (that I’ve seen anyway) is that Rey (and even Holdo and obviously Leia) is a strong female character, and not praise for the fact that they intentionally made the men fuck-ups as some sort of commentary. That’s not the important part—they didn’t make mistakes to put men down, they did so because it served the story they were telling. Every character in the movie is obviously flawed.

I guess it's not apparent to me what the principal female characters' flaws are. And maybe you haven't read the same articles I have, that take such delight in seeing the women educating the men. It's not that I'm the least bit offended by women educating men. Men need educating by women, but the reverse is also true. I don't recall any significant reciprocity represented in the TLJ--it's nearly all in one direction. Compound that with actual content of what the characters say. Leia's get your head out of your cockpit is clever and in character, but there's no Han to balance it. Rose's "protect what we love" speech is the nadir in my eyes. It's vacuous, and makes no sense given events that just happened in the film!

Obviously it’s not black and white, it’s just not an argument I can really listen to in good faith. Maybe that makes me a dickhead I don’t know. But it makes me roll my eyes a bit.

I gave one example of serving trendy cultural narratives instead of mythological narratives to satisfy Cruel, but there are more. The bottom line is the movie just didn't hold together for me as a story--I often couldn't believe the characters would act the way they acted and several plot lines ended up being a waste of time unless you're on board (consciously or subconsciously) with the political messages those sections communicated. I can understand the arguments that I'm reading too much into it, but again, I can point to one think piece after another praising the movie for its politics. If politics are the motivation for creating your art, it's not art.

A key to the popularity of the original movies were their timelessness. Now I fear that the preoccupation is with making them timely.