Author: sean

sarahreesbrennan:

rj-anderson:

Hey, Tumblr, that ship you’re so angry about and point to as a sign of what happens when immature and vulnerable teenaged girls romanticize violence in males and mistake abuse for romance? Yeah, that one. May I point out that this ship is also a fairy tale. It’s called “Beauty and the Beast,” and it’s the story of how a courageous young woman transforms a horrible monster into a handsome prince – not by embracing or excusing his violence and cruelty, but by steadfastly remaining true to her own kind and caring nature and showing him a better way. And by the time her duty to her loved ones calls her away from his side, he has grown to value her so much that he’s prepared not only to let her go, but even to lay down his own life rather than keep her against her will.

I don’t actually ship Reylo, for the record (Rey/Finn all the way for me); but I don’t think it’s the sign of the shipping apocalypse, or a dire commentary on how susceptible young women are to false and potentially self-destructive ideas of romance. It’s just another variation of a tale as old as time, and there are a million different ways to approach it. Relax. Breathe. Think happy thoughts. And don’t assume you know other people’s motives or what’s going on in their heads (or lives, for that matter) for liking a different ship than you do.

Such a smart post by my friend R.J. Anderson, noted smartie. I do not personally think Rey and Kylo Ren should be together, because I watched Star Wars for John Boyega and I LOVE FINN and Rey is a smart girl, why would she go for anyone but FINN? She never seemed into anyone but Finn. In conclusion, FINN! 

However, I was saddened to see people saying how concerned they were by girls’ reactions (wanting these two to be together), how it reminded them of girls liking this stuff in YA media (you know, the media seen as too female-focused). It makes me uncomfortable how much more people scrutinise girls’ reactions to media, starting from back when it was thought ladies should not read novels because it would overexcite them. I don’t see as many people going ‘Boys are going to all drive their cars way too fast because of the Fast and the Furious movies!’ 

Lots of relationships in media are fraught, between flawed and often highly dramatic people, in highly dramatic situations. And it’s natural and awesome to discuss those relationships and how they might play out (Jane Eyre, Rochester is gonna sell the kids to pirates!). I like generally when people end up being made happier and healthier by their relationships. But no fictional relationship is going to get the Healthy Award Now You Get To Happen In the Text And Also Be Regarded as the Best Relationship By All prize: there is no such prize. And I’ve loved many such relationships. I love Beauty and the Beast. I trust ladies. I trust them to enjoy flawed, highly dramatic media, to wish for any flawed, highly dramatic fictional-character relationship that strikes their fancy, to have their feelings, and to–in the main–drive their feelings cars safe.

SRB is also always so smart and thoughtful.

(I, on another hand, am not.) But if I have anything useful to quickly add, and I don’t know if it is, the idea of redemption or merely change, itself, is not new for Star Wars antagonists. I don’t ship Reylo, but probably inherent in that would have to be those themes. Luke, in the end, refused to fight his father, almost dying (and by extension, forfeiting the wellbeing of the galaxy) just because he believed he saw more in Darth Vader than was apparent. So we should be kind to fans for engaging with stories, for all the reasons above.

unicornempire:

astrariums:

crazyintheeast:

Quick reminder that Luke had about five minutes of training with a lightsaber and NONE of it included actually fighting against an other opponent. Remember Ben sparring with Luke? Nope. It was just him playing around with a robot that tased him

Do you remember Yoda sparring with Luke? Nope. He was teaching him about the Force but we never saw him ONCE teaching him how to actually fight with a lightsaber. Luke had precisely ZERO experience when it came to fighting with a lightsaber.  And yet none of you said anything when Luke actually kept up with Vader and later on actually defeated Vader

Rey on the other hand spend her ENTIRE LIFE defending herself with her staff. She is very well versed in fighting with a melee weapon. But when she fought against a HEAVILY INJURED Kylo Ren you immediately cry Mary Sue and unrealistic.

Think about that. Think about what this attitude says about you.

Also an important thing about fight choreography:

A great deal of thought was put into that scene, particularly Rey’s fighting style. She may seem pretty well adapted to lightsaber combat, but in reality she struggles a lot during the fight. 

This is a character who has trained exclusively – as far as we know – with a quarterstaff, which is completely different from fighting with a two-handed weapon. Form, stance, strategy – you name it. And this is actually quite apparent in Rey’s choreography for the first half of the scene.

She starts attacking Kylo Ren with these jabs that would probably crack his ribs if she were wielding her quarterstaff. But since she has a brand new weapon in her hands, the strikes are completely ineffective. 

But that’s what’s so amazing about this scene. Rey adapts. She’s analyzing Kylo Ren’s form the entire time and she’s learning how to apply it to her own fighting. When she uses the Force to help her focus, she overcomes the translation between one style of weapon to another and secures her victory.

Rey is the first character we’ve actually seen learning how to use a lightsaber against another opponent. And we see it happening in the middle of a fight. 

I really enjoyed this scene because I knew they’d spent all this time building up how smart and quick and adaptable Rey is as a character, and we get to see her really shine when she’s pushed into a corner and has to think on her toes.

Remember how she lost that second Tai Fighter when they lost their guns? How she remembered that giant ship she’d been excavating for years and used it to her advantage and knew how to position the gun to get Finn a shot?

Or how she used the doors on that freighter to cut off the (Whatever’s) tentacles when it had ahold of Finn, because she couldn’t run to keep up with it?

There were so many instances of great improvisation for Rey, but I don’t think a lot of people who watched the movie really caught on that she was very quick thinking or smart because the other characters didn’t spend a ton of time congratulating her or patting her on the back for being smart, and these are traits that are often only given to male characters, so people are confused as to why she’s so successful and simply think it’s poor writing, when the reality is that she’s just as smart/quick as Han was in the original Trilogy.