I think someone talked about it before but to actually hear it yourself? Whaaaaa? This lines up with Rey seeing a child Ben with Snoke leaning over him in the TFA novel. And then there’s the whole “It is you” on Starkiller base. I firmly believe these were cut out of the movie because it made things too obvious. And then there’s the fact that Jason Fry couldn’t write too much about what was going on in Ben’s head in TLJ.
And then we get some weird time stuff going on in Rebels.
That child’s voice definitely belongs to a young Ben Solo. And he’s known about her since he was a child because he had visions/dreams of her.
Hi! I’m the anon! Sorry, I’m a little shy.
They’ve been doing some really strange stuff with time and space and the force recently and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if ep IX got really weird. I’ve seen a few folks claim they hear whispers in the wind of Ach-to, too but I haven’t been able to make anything out. And in addition to everything you’ve mentioned there’s some other weird stuff, like the Mortis arc which lasted only a few seconds of real time but at least like a day or two for Obi, Anakin, and Asokah – and then the Mortis gods showing up in Rebels for the weird world between world stuff. Rey having dreams of Ach-to and of Ben before she ever met him. Apparently, there’s some stuff in the Empire’s End novels about Jakku but it never actually mentions what’s on Jakku that’s important…
Idk, I’m not 100% ready to make any predictions or claims yet but there’s something really interesting going on under the surface and I wish I knew what it was. It just makes me go “hmmmm” a lot.
Everyone 🙂 Please 🙂 Take 🙂 A Look 🙂 At 🙂 These 🙂 Posts🙂
Even if you are not into discourse, I want everyone to see and condemn the racial misogyny of these posts. This is what fandom racism and sexism often looks like.
Please, don’t be fooled by any of the social justice rhetoric. The only thing that is racist and misogynistic is the degradation of Finn’s character to that of a race token who must be infantilized, undeveloped and valued most strongly only with either white or male characters, the indictment of Rose’s personality as not befitting of the docile Oriental woman, and the mental gymnastics required to short circuit an entire storyline to institutional racism…because of shipping and that’s fucking it.
Anti Rose discourse is so ridiculous and it makes me glad my sister isn’t on Tumblr. Her name is Rose and she’s Asian too, and she was so excited to see an Asian heroine with her name in the Star Wars franchise. Rose is a lot like my sister, strong and fiercely independent and not afraid of anything. It’s great that she has a heroine she can connect with like that and it really sucks to see people reduce Rose to an ‘unworthy’ love interest for Finn.
I agree that a lot of what people say against Rose and against ships she might be a part of are extremely racist and full of misogyny (and homophobia, etc.). People who do really like her character and people who like ships with her in them don’t seem to be more racist than the rest of the fanbase, and a lot of the time are less racist. Even if it did have the problems people say, it would still be fine to ship, and while people’s fan events are their own, I think restrictions on them make them limiting and less accessible, especially when tagging would cover most concerns people have, and tagging rule could be implemented.
That said, I found Rose’s character as written extremely racist and stereotypical, I found Finn’s character racist and stereotypical, and I found their canon relationship to be very much viewed through a white (supremacist) lens. A lot of people found these things to be true, and treading carefully with these topics is always going to be necessarily when writing within a white supremacist world (which we all live in). I don’t think it’s fair to say that, just because some people overreach or react badly to the criticisms, there’s nothing racist in the portrayal of either of the characters or their relationship. It’s no reason to dislike either of the characters and it’s no reason to dislike the ship (and people who are vocal about their dislike for those things are frequently horrible), but the problems are still there, and something interesting to address through meta, discussion, fic, art, or whatever people want to produce.
Things don’t have to be perfect to be defensible, and I feel like there’s too much of a push to read things the other way; “I can like whatever I want” lately seems to be becoming “no one can say anything bad about something I like.”
Yes…a story about a black man and brown woman taking on the military-industrial complex and a fascist organization is extremely racist. Yes that makes sense I see.
This person jumped on my post and blocked me right after replying and so I thought I’d post their reply here and respond to it since it’s been a while since I’ve seen all the “reasons” why Finn and Rose were “racist”.
1. Your first point about a Black man being the least threatening hero of color to a white audience makes no sense and moreover contradicts your later points about the threatening possibility of Black male sexuality needing to be subdued by directing it toward a non-white woman.
2. These characterizations of Finn are non-existent in the movie. Finn is NOT portrayed as an object of suspicion except when he is undercover because y’know, he’s on a secret mission. And even then he mostly slips under the radar until a certain point.
3. At no point do I see any of the characters whitesplaining or otherwise talking down to Finn unless you are talking about Phasma. John Boyega is on record saying that he plays Finn as an extrovert and the fact that you are mischaracterizing that as fumbling says more about the racialized lens you are forcing onto him than it does about the characterization or story. Also Idk if you noticed but um he’s a defector that starts the movie waking up from a coma in a place he’s never been, he better be wondering what’s going on.
4. There story is never framed as a side story. It constituted the main drama and action of the Resistance story line and was focused squarely on developing it’s characters and was crucial to reiterating the theme of TLJ – failure is important, collaboration is what will save the day.
5. “her entire motivation is fridging a woc” ??? Do you know what words mean?
6. The fact that Finn and Rose are portrayed as characters with humble origins is exactly what makes their narrative so powerful. How thick can you be to see marginalized folks playing marginalized folks who represent an insurgency from below that threatens the powers that be as racist? If anything that is what anti-racist work dreams about. I’m not sure what you’re problem here is? That they weren’t depicted as privileged people? With their destinies laid out before them by right of birth? In other words you wanted them to be…whiter?
7. Your assessment of Asian female representation is waaaaaay off. Asian women are frequently hypersexualized and fetishized and at no point is the White Male Gaze catered to with Rose. In fact they way she is presented is a noticeable subversion of that – unisex clothing, a ‘masculine’ job, not rail thin and an assertive personality.
8. In order for Finn to be ‘neutered’ by an Asian woman you’d have to believe that the black male character was already being sexualized in a particular way.
9. Framing Rose as an obstacle to Rey and as an ancillary to Finn, something the story never demonstrably does, is racial misogyny which you should know by if you read and subsequently agreed with my original post.
10. Get your symbolism right – the original Empire were the ones who were meant to represent the US in Vietnam while the rebels were meant to echo the guerrilla resistance. Rose is explicitly stated to be from a mining colony and is played by a Vietnamese woman.
11. Interracial representation in media is often reduced to a black/white affair, with the white person often serving as the relatable and assuring element. Your diagnosis of ‘ofc they havge to pair off the minorities’ makes no sense in light of this history and I suspect is an attempt to recenter the white woman.
12. The stuff about Nazi-coded villains has nothing to do with my post, idk why you brought that up.
You talked and talked endlessly about stereotypes – yet I see not a single stereotype articulated here. Again, do you know what words mean? You claimed at first to agree that some people go overboard – now I see that what you really mean is that people are not being polite and PC enough since you are reiterating many of the tired racism and racial misogyny that you claim to refute (and some novel things too, I’ll give you that…”fridging a woc” wtf).
This person can say they hate seeing finn with a woc and wants finn be with a white woman
You know, I’d respect people a lot more if they just came out and said they didn’t like certain pairings instead of trying to pretend the pairings they find objectionable are racist for some reason. But I guess that would expose their objections as petty opinions and not undeniable facts… or something.
In The Last Jedi, Rey and Kylo Ren get better acquainted through a shared Force connection. It begins with swapping snide remarks and sarcasm, but quickly blossoms into something fertile, friendly and, yes, even erotic.
So strong is their connection that they appear to be in the same space, as if they could reach out and touch. In one of the most striking shots of the movie, the camera is filled with Rey and Ren’s hands before cutting in closer, to their fingertips just millimeters apart. Fans, critics, commentators and even Mark Hamill himself have described this moment as a sex scene and it’s easy to see why. It’s loaded with sexual imagery, bathed in warm romantic light and sensually shot. The viewer can almost see how the lines of their fingerprints fit together like missing pieces of the same puzzle.
I adore this article from raisingarebel.com. Great parallels and amazing study of the way hands have been portrayed throughout Star Wars. I high five this!
First this:
The example of Vader is an especially heartbreaking one. Re-watching the
prequel trilogy and paying particular attention to Anakin’s hands
yields some impressive insight into his character. There’s so many
subtle touches and tremors, be that gently stroking Padmé’s bared skin,
keeping them under his cloak and out of sight, or grinding grains of
sand between his fingers. We know that Anakin doesn’t like the feeling
of sand, so as well as revealing the contempt he holds for his home
world, it shows how deeply he feels, both emotionally and physically.
So well observed that in losing both hands, Anakin has lost all connection with life and love. At the same time than Padmé died. So every physical connection has been severed from him. He can now just feel through the Force. Touch has become an abstraction. Even more interesting, I am going to add, since Anakin, to me, is pretty much defined by his hands in PM. The boy gets attention because he is skilled with his hands. He is a mechanic. He pilots. Using his hands is an intrinsic part of himself. After the traumatic event with his mother and his first brush with the Dark Side in AOTC, what does he do?
He gets his hand busy. He goes back to tinkering because that is his comfort zone. Using his hands is what used to bring him joy and a sense of freedom. So losing his hands is really losing his identity. I am no surprised that they both disappear when he becomes Vader.
It is also fascinating, as the article points out, that THE definining moment when Luke fully identifies with his father, and is able to feel love and empathy in a way that prevents him to fall in the dark side (and become a new Vader) is when comparing his artificial hand with his father’s severed hand (again). “
He pauses, contemplates his own mechanical limb and sees his whole
future before him. By staring into the depths of the abyss and seeing
himself reflected, Luke was able to turn from following the same path.
“
And finally, this very cool part:
So, hands have always held significance in the Star Wars saga, but this was taken a step further in ‘Wolves and a Door’, the twelfth episode of the final series of Rebels.
In an attempt to get into the Jedi temple on Lothal, Ezra and Sabine
are confronted by a beautiful mural of the Father, Son and Daughter from
the Mortis arc of The Clone Wars. With more than a little help
from Sabine, Ezra realises that hands are the key to opening the
doorway. Touching hands is literally a language – perhaps the purest,
most basic and universal language here on earth and in a galaxy far, far
away.
Hands and fate have always been intertwined somehow. By touching hands, Rey and Kylo are able to read each other’s lives. Hands are the key to something important in Star Wars. I also want to contribute to this great article by including these important hand moments:
The dying parent touch
Another erotic hand moment that was overlooked:
The Creepy Touch (and the fact that both Snoke and Palpatine only use their hands to strike)
And the honorable mention of Rose biting Hux’s hand in the deleted scene from TLJ (sorry, the pictures were too crappy).
Kylo Ren – Belladonna The belladonna, or deadly nightshade is a highly poisonous plant, that grows best in the shade;, the more sun and light a plant is exposed to the more poisonous it becomes. The belladonna flower symbolizes ancient magical lore, bewitching, the power of attraction and mystical lure.
This is Not a Blog 