#blunt blathers

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That moment when someone says "name a better romance than AotC, go on then" like they really think they threw down the gauntlet. Not to be mean to anyone who likes the ship (I'm more on about the film's execution of it), but... the scope of my bafflement defies comprehensive description.

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There's something quite funny about how Hiddleston appears in those "where are they now" clickbait articles along with Orlando Bloom and Jai Courtney, but in his case it's not that he's been banished to DTV movies, it's that he's steadily working his way through Shakespeare roles onstage.

[abluntblade]

Jedi Cannot Wear Armour is one of those quintessential Star Wars conventions, and by that I mean it's got this weird disconnect where if you say that you fancy having Rey, Finn, Jannah and the OCs don armour for really dangerous missions, people will write you essays on why that cannot possibly happen, then get into lots of specifics of why special metals weigh far too much (not that this stopped Sabine doing acrobatics or indeed did much to slow down Phasma or the Praetorians, among others) but really the main reason is just that once upon a time, George Lucas didn't really fancy doing that and wanted to have them look like Obi-Wan's OT robes.

(yes I'm aware of Jedi in armour from a number of Legends books and comics, but people seem to write that off as something the Jedi only did in the olden days and wouldn't bother with now)

[abluntblade]

One of the most underrated skills in writing prequels, it struck me lately, is avoiding the temptation to try and do suspense in situations are foregone conclusions (as Rings of Power screams CAN THEY POSSIBLY SURVIVE?! for the umpteenth time) but by bringing a real sense of significance to the moment. Like, you feel the weight of history in that instant (I guess the creation of Mordor would be there were it not so incredibly dumb).

And it comes up in historical drama too. Thinking of things like the Trinity Test (where the "will it destroy the world?" question is already defused) in Oppenheimer - the emphasis being on this as a fulcrum point in history - of the first appearance of the wyrms in A Day of Fallen Night. Actually a personal favourite is the Valdor book from the Horus Heresy, and the moment you realise just what you're about to see.

[abluntblade]

Star Wars needs more boarding actions. Take some inspiration from Master and Commander and let me see some heroes fight their way from hangar to bridge.

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Writing Finn as a Jedi with all this distance from TFA and having my thoughts on it flip so much is an odd experience, mostly because I think it's less "the writers were cowards" and more "the writers were desperate to throw a bone on Episode IX and retrospectively some ambiguous sound cues have been interpreted as rock-solid foreshadowing, irrespective of whether the character's arc had anything to do with the Force and if you compare against Rey in the same movie, the supposed reveal of his Force-sensitivity is treated with zero emotional weight by the movie itself (and it's a documented fact that his Stormtrooper origins were themselves a late addition in writing)". Which is to say that I find myself wrestling more to find a relationship to the Force for Finn because it feels like an extra hurdle to get past the sedimented fanon and lock into something which I believe in properly.

In retrospect, introducing Zudea as the Darksider Finn helps bring back to the Light and train as a Jedi was the first point where this really clicked for me.

[abluntblade]

One day I will actually sit down and essay exactly why I don't think Star Wars has the metaphysics to support the "Dark Side is cancer and unnatural" interpretation, but today... shit, must put the bins out.

[abluntblade]

Belatedly realising that the element the Jedi armour in my head was missing is... tabards.