Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Additional Thoughts

It has been a month or two since I last saw The Last Jedi and I had originally posted a first-impressions review here. Since that time, however, I have had a few more thoughts than "OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS SO GOOD!" and these are those thoughts. PLEASE NOTE: There are some spoilers in this post if you have not seen it! 

As Relates to Plot: 
The first time you watch the movie, you don't realize this, but a whole lot of the plot was actually not even necessary.

FIRST: Can we talk about this lady? I have quite a few questions, such as: 

1. Who is she?
2. Who does she think she is bossing Poe around like that?
3. Why does she have purple hair? 
4. What kind of an outfit is that? It's awful! 
5. Why didn't she tell them the plan? 
6. Why was she even in the movie?
7. If she was so important why didn't we ever see her before this?
8. Just WHY? 

The thing is that I think Holdo would have been a competent leader but she had severe communication issues. I mean, she obviously knows what kind of a guy Poe is and knows that he's a loose cannon ready to blow something up if nobody tells him the plan, so why didn't she tell him what was going on? It would have been simple: "Poe, I'm fueling up the transports because there's an abandoned rebel base on a nearby planet that I think we can reach so that we have a safer place to get our battle plans ready." This would have solved a lot of problems. Poe wouldn't have started a mutiny (even though, admit it, we were all on his side), Finn and Rose wouldn't have gone on a completely useless mission (which I will talk about in a minute), and maybe people wouldn't have died as much.

This leads to the whole mutiny thing. Now, I know that mutiny is bad and any pirate captain can tell you that too, but, like I said, we were all rooting for Poe and his buddies. Why was this? Because Admiral Holdo was a jerk and annoying and we all hated her! Okay, okay, once she blew up the bad ship in that cool soundless scene, I hated her less because at least she did something helpful.  I guess my whole point is that I don't understand why she couldn't just tell Poe/everyone else the plan instead of just telling him that "you're the last thing we need right now." Yeah, maybe he is, but at least tell him what you're thinking of doing. You know he's going to do something equivalent to jumping in a spaceship and blowing something up if you don't tell him what's going on. Instead she starts sassing and just being obnoxious, rubbing it in his face that he was just demoted (which was hilarious when Leia did it, but nobody likes Holdo). Naturally, he's going to go blow something up. Poe was a little pigheaded and didn't think things through, but, overall, I think we can agree that the percent of things going wrong was 90% Holdo, 10% Poe. 

You can't tell me that this wasn't your reaction to Holdo

Okay, that's topic one. Topic two is the whole Rose and Finn side quest.

They go to the city and park ON THE BEACH instead of like, in the grass where nobody would notice their ship????? Hello? Then we get the whole "don't be cruel to animals or small children" lecture from Rose, which is true, yes, don't be cruel to animals or small children! But right at that time they really needed to get out of there and go save the galaxy. Then again, without the little kids' help (that little boy was so sweet though) they wouldn't have been able to actually survive, so I guess it worked out. 

And then there's the codebreaker. Who was slightly useless. They got in, got the thing, and then it turned out that all their efforts were for nothing and they were just gonna die anyway and the codebreaker was deserting them. I wonder if he's going to conveniently return in the next episode and help them out for real, or actually turn out to be a significant character? But seriously, everything that Finn and Rose did just seemed extra, and they really didn't accomplish anything other than set the animals free and say hi to the cute little kids. Maybe that'll turn out to be important later. But other than that, they just return to their friends on the red salt planet (why was the salt red?) and all is as it was before. (And we got to see some of BB-8's skills.) 

There isn't much to say about Luke, because he was just...Luke.  He was funny at times, and just very much like Luke. I've heard complaints that he was too mean and angry, but, take into account that he's been alone on an island for years without any other human interaction and he is still bitter about what happened in the past.  His duel with Kylo was pretty cool, even though he wasn't actually there and was just a ghost. (I don't understand how Yoda could use force lightning as a ghost, though. Was he just that strong?) And also, the Jedi texts (insert derisive snort here) aren't lost like Luke thinks they are. "Rey has everything she needs," said Yoda, and later, right when Finn is getting bandages out of the Falcon for Rose, we see the texts in a cupboard, at least I'm pretty sure. So Rey stole them. 

Not even gonna talk about Leia surviving floating through space using the Force because I think we all understand that's stupid and she should have died then. Not that I want people to die, but...it would have worked plot-wise.

I was disappointed that Kylo didn't turn good or Rey didn't turn bad, I was expecting one of the two. When they fought as a team, I was so happy, but then he had to go and wreck it. Also, I still don't know if I believe that Rey's parents were nobody. She had a rebel pilot doll in her old home on Jakku! What does that mean? Also related to the Jedi island, why are people so crazy about Porgs? What's so great about them? I mean they're cute and all but they have absolutely no impact on the plot or character development at all. Chewie should have eaten them.

All right, last thing. When they are fighting on Crait (that's the name of the salt planet right?) and Finn is flying straight into the battering ram laser beam, that whole sequence didn't make sense. For one, Finn would have been dead just from the intensity of flying straight into the laser beam. For another, I thought he was going to fly into the cannon and sacrifice himself (wow a move that is not running away for once!), thereby saving the rest of the Resistance, but Rose wrecked that idea. Yeah, it would have been sad for Finn to die, but at least he would have saved the rest of them somewhat. Oh well. It was not to be. 

So anyway, these are my further thoughts on The Last Jedi. I still love it, but of course there are some things that make me scratch my head and wonder "why?" The characters are great and already becoming iconic in the Star Wars universe. Most of the humor is great too.

All right, that's all. Now I need to go watch it again. Also just found out that the working title of Episode IX is "The Black Diamond." 

I'm not sure how I feel about that title....

Any thoughts? 

Valentine's Day, Ash Wednesday, or In Other Words February 14

All of a sudden it's February 14th. How did that happen? Yesterday it was Christmas and now it's Valentine's Day!!!! So, this post is going to be very discombobulated, BUT I had a few thoughts with the arrival of this holiday that I wanted to get out in writing.

Personally, I've never been a huge Valentine's Day person. When we were little, my mom would help us decorate cookies for our cousins and maybe our music teachers, and of course every year we make my dad a big cookie, but I have never put much stock in the whole idea of Valentine's Day. Of course, there's the whole St. Valentine thing, but, considering everything, for some reason I've just never been a 'roses, hearts, and baby Cupids' person. One story of the origin of Valentine's Day is that it was set up, supposedly, to commemorate the martyrdom of Christian saints, especially by the name of Valentine, who were executed in Rome, but another origin story has the day coming from the Roman holiday of Lupercalia, which was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, Remus, and Romulus (according to History.com). The legend is that the church made an attempt to "Christianize" the holiday by commemorating the saints on the day that the pagan festival traditionally took place. But anyway. That doesn't have anything to do with anything.

This year, Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lent season leading up to Easter, coincide.

I've never considered myself a romantic person. I get mad if a movie is too mushy for my taste or if kissing scenes last more than three seconds (about). But, as much as we yell at the TV screen, as much as we groan and complain and gripe about romance and how big a deal we make about how gross it is, I think that down in their hearts everyone, EVERYONE, appreciates a good, clean love story.

And that's what so interesting about Valentine's Day and Ash Wednesday coinciding this year. Even though Valentine's Day was set up, allegedly, to be a pagan holiday, Ash Wednesday reminds us of Lent, which reminds us of Easter. And the whole story of Easter is the greatest love story ever told, of a Savior who gave Himself up for his loved one, the church, and the people of of the church as individuals. It's interesting, how things that were (allegedly) instituted and kept up by pagan or non-Christian traditions have a way of pointing to Christ in the end.

 Now, I'm not saying anything against baking people cookies or making a card or giving roses to somebody. That's fine, make your friends, teachers, family members, and sweethearts (if applicable) cards and cookies, smile and say thank you if you receive something. Remember the martyred saints and their loving service to others. But remember also that Ash Wednesday leads to Easter. And Easter leads to the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that, my friends, is the greatest love story ever told, "which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”-C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle.