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A quick note to anyone complaining about the

Luke projection. Ben never hits him until the kill shot. As soon as Ben touches him, it’s game over. Luke dodges everything. The only person to touch him is Leia. And I’m sure she “felt him” due to force twinsies!

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The more I think about that scene, the more I realize how much raw power Luke contained. He shut himself off from The Force for unsaid amount of time (five years?), then goes from having not used it to ripping buildings apart to fighting Rey to projecting himself across the galaxy in maybe an hour or two. But more than that, he had to trick a droid (C-3PO) and sensors (those on the First Order ships) into thinking he was there. Luke didn't just make people see him, he made everything actually believe he was physically there. Again, all within hours of reconnecting to something he had shunned for years. Anybody who says his death was weak is not paying attention.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I said this on Twitter a few days ago: I am not sure I see Poe as representative of “toxic masculinity.” Fiction has always had headstrong subordinates who annoy (usually male) authority figures over them, especially by running off for revenge or something. See Dirty Harry and James Bond.

I think people are projecting a lot of SJW stuff into TLJ that isn't there.

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The movie's main critique of toxic masculinity is in Kylo Ren, though I think to a lesser degree Poe, because the movie goes out of its way to show that his actions almost got the Resistance wiped out entirely, and is responsible for a good deal of deaths in that last third of the movie. 

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Honest question: What did Kylo Ren do that was toxically masculine? I mean, hell yeah, he's a toxic person. But I don't recall anything that was overtly toxically masculine.

Poe, though, cannot come back from his actions:

  • He brazenly defies General Organa's orders.
  • Said disobedience results in the deaths of dozens of people, including the loss of the entire bomber squadron.
  • Upon his return, he's demoted. When the new leader is about to be announced, he comes this close to standing up to take said role. After. Being. Demoted.
  • When he sees Vice Admiral Holdo, he openly questions her prowess.
  • He then instantly questions her plans, and mansplains the situation to her.
  • He Ignores her orders to shut up, take his post, and do his job and sends two unqualified (Finn and Rose) people on what's tantamount to a suicide mission.
  • Before they return (and to buy them time), Poe stages a mutiny against VA Holdo, resulting in lost time and resources.
  • Because he sent Finn and Rose on that useless mission, DJ overhears the resistance's plans (RE: escape pods sent to Crait). This is information he sells to the First Order, resulting in more deaths. This includes VA Holdo's. (She wouldn't have had to enact a suicide mission had Poe not fucked up her plans.)
  • On top of this, the First Order invades Crait to wipe out the remaining members of the resistance. Which they nearly do.
  • Finally, Luke wouldn't have had to face Kylo Ren on Crait had the First Order not known about the planet. Which, again, they would not have if not for Poe being a toxic asshole.

Sure, in the end Holdo and Leia soften his bullshit with the whole "I kinda like him" scene (or whatever they said as his KO'd ass was being loaded onto the pod) and when Leia hands him the reigns with the "don't look at me" crap, but Poe is a major fuck-up in the movie and it all stems from his inability to listen to women.

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I'm worried about the Solo movie. We are just 4 months away and we have only seen one promo picture. Nobody is talking about it, even on Star Wars sites and forums. Nobody is even asking for a trailer. In the stores they still have the Last Jedi promo stuff up. What is going on with the lack of promotion? They aren't moving it because they moved Deadpool 2 to give it some room.

 

Edit:Apparently the trailer is dropping on Monday. That still doesn't change the fact that nobody seems interested in this movie, even Disney. 

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I don't know if it's inability to listen to women, or just the trope of the aggressive person who cannot obey any authority. (Dirty Harry, James Bond, etc.) I think Poe would have acted the same way had the authority figures over him been men, and had that been the case the whole argument about him being an example of "toxic masculinity" would have never taken place.

Anyway, I'm about as far-right as it gets, and I just wasn't seeing a social justice warrior agenda in this movie.

Maybe I'm just a total mark for Star Wars. I like all three of the prequels, after all.

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15 hours ago, The Master said:

Honest question: What did Kylo Ren do that was toxically masculine? I mean, hell yeah, he's a toxic person. But I don't recall anything that was overtly toxically masculine.

And this is where I insert 'he's a far-right reactionary shitlord, he's practically swimming in toxic masculinity'

But yeah, no, I get where you're coming from, Mike. Personally, I kinda hold that both Poe and Kylo show off different kinds of toxic masculinity. With Poe, it's obvious and it's been said. With Kylo, it's more rooted in the fact that he's a) essentially a neo-Nazi, and b) he's clearly socially stunted, and thinks that Rey would obviously want to join him in his conquest of the galaxy. The hazy thing about the second one, I recognize, is the fact that I don't know if it's too clear whether that feeling comes from the toxic masculinity promoted by the First Order, corruption from his use of the Dark Side, or legitimately thinking that Rey would want to do so after the time they spent together. 

Kylo perpetrates a toxic masculinity, essentially, through his use of far-right reactionary principles, at the very least. I've also got the other read on it, but that could be off-base, and totally misreading the situation.

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Additionally, Kylo comes off in very basic fanboy terms as a fanboy contrarian, because even though he's the son and apprentice of the original heroes he absolutely hates them for what's been demonstrated to me as superficial reasons. Like "I fucking HATE Han Solo! I FUCKING HAAAATE Luke Skywalker! And I don't love my mom!" And sure, they weren't perfect, but thus far he comes off as a teenager locking himself in his room.

Which I love. I love Kylo Ren as a character.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
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So, that sure was a movie.

Spoiler

Definitely the least good of the new movies. Felt little for the characters. The middle part's dialogue and action scenes went too long. Female characters were done so wrong in this. 

Found the acting to be pretty good,  Alden Ehrenreich was better than expected. Donald Glover as Lando was fantastic, of course. Action scenes were great on their own.

Doubt I'll see it again. But hey, we'll see if that Crimson Dawn thread goes anywhere, maybe in the next anthologies. I don't want a Solo 2.

 

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