OMG STAR WARS!!! SQUEE!!!
I finally got to see Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith! *loud fangirl squee*
Yoda kicks ass. He kicked ass in Episode II and he still kicks ass now.
I want to drop-kick Palpatine into a black hole. Because he's an a-hole. That rhymes. ;) But seriously, HE'S the evil one. Not Anakin. Anakin's misguided, conflicted, has issues with authority, a touch paranoid, but he's not evil. Whatever evil he contains was planted, fertilized and tended by Palpatine. That man is a souless, heartless, manipulative bastard.
What was the deal with General Grievous? For the first several scenes I was thinking, "How the hell can a MACHINE have bad lungs and a cough?" Then we learn that apparently he has biological components. Eew. That explains that. But I'm still curious about his backstory. Who made him? Whose heart and other miscellaneous biological goo were inside him? Was his mind/consciousness formerly in that flesh-and-blood body, and he got transferred into the droid body after an injury, like Anakin got his life-support suit from Palpatine? Hmm...
Jar Jar should have died. In fact, he should have been killed by Ewoks. That would have been awesome on several levels. Fans might like Ewoks better, and the scourge of Jar Jar would be gone. Damn. Oh well, at least he didn't have ANY dialogue. That's a blessing.
For all the hype about Wookies being in this one, they really didn't have much of a part. Oh well, it's not like they're great conversationalists. ;)
Natalie Portman was great in this. I really felt the emotion she was going through. Poor thing! Especially that scene where Obi Wan comes to tell her what's happened with Anakin, and to ask where he is.
She also, sadly makes a beautiful corpse. It was a nice touch how they padded her belly so people would assume the child died with her, never suspecting that the babies--plural--were alive and well.
Anyone else half-expect Leia to be born with those buns on the sides of her head? *snicker*
I did like that Padme got to name them. *sniffle*
After Anakin stops Mace Windu from killing Palpatine and formally announces his surrender to the Sith, and Palpatine first calls him by the new name "Darth...Vader!", and his theme music started to play quietly and ominously... Too awesome for words.
I expected more graphic violence with the higher PG-13 rating, but aside from Anakin's crispy critter routine at the end there really wasn't significantly more than in the previous two episodes. And that bit of gore was completely necessary. Post-Windu-attack!Palpatine's pretty horrible-lookin', too, so that might have had something to do with it.
It's really saying something when Yoda is the better-looking character in a scene. *snerk* ;D
The climactic battle amidst the lava was awesome. I swear the temperature in the theater felt hotter during some of those scenes. o_0 As one reviewer pointed out, it makes a lot of sense (and irony) that the final stop in Anakin's descent into darkness takes place in such a Hellish landscape. Sure, it's sort of thwapping you over the head with the symbolism, but dangit, it works. And it looks cool. ;)
It's probably a no-brainer to set it up so that Anakin's rebirth as Vader, Luke and Leia's literal birth, and Padme's death were all taking place at the same time. It's sort of an obvious storytelling device, but it worked really, really well. The contrast between her pure white hospital gown and his jet black suit was especially effective.
The little scene near the very end with the Emperor, Vader and Tarkin looking at the first stages of construction of the Death Star was pure gold.
The special effects, costumes, cityscapes and score were, as always, incredible. I'd expect nothing less from the founder of ILM.
(Speaking of special effects, I got to see the trailer for the new War of the Worlds movie. WOOT!)
The irony of the self-fulfilling prophecy was wonderfully thick. If Anakin hadn't had that dream about Padme, how differently things might have turned out! In sacrificing everything to save her, he ended up bringing about the opposite.
At first I was, if possible, even more furious with Palpatine for telling Vader that he had killed Padme in his anger. One more insidious manipulation from the aptly-named Darth Sidious. But then I realized the horrible truth--he did kill her. Not with his neck-grip-o-doom, but with his embrace of the Dark Side. The hospital droids made that very clear: nothing wrong with her physically; she just lost the will to live. So while he may not have caused fatal damage to her body, he was responsible for her death. (OMG TEH ANGST!!!1)
And I just found it achingly poignant that the first words out of the hissing mouth of the black Vader helmet were inquires about Padme's welfare. :(
Now I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent that's sort of a cross-fandom meta-rant. What do Star Wars, the Iliad and Harry Potter have in common? Perhaps more than you think...
Although there were larger issues of insecurity, persecution syndrome, childhood trauma, a tiny whiff of an Oedipal complex, hunger for power and anger management troubles, the prime factor in Anakin's turn to the Dark Side was love. He resisted Palpatine's overtures about the Dark Side when it was mere politics and power on the table, but when he saw the chance to save the life of the woman he loved, then and only then did he take the plunge. As he stood at the window and made the final decision to go confront Mace Windu and protect Palpatine, a tear ran down his cheek. He knew was he was doing. He knew it wasn't right. But he also saw no other way to save Padme, and he sacrificed everything he had worked for as a Jedi on her behalf.
Now I'm not in the Star Wars fandom at all, so perhaps I simply haven't seen this reaction in the mainstream sources I've read and seen, but tell me... where is the outcry from fans about this? Where are the fans screaming for George Lucas' head because he made the love of a woman the lynchpin in Anakin's path to the Dark Side? Where are the fans complaining that it's too cliched and shallow? That it's disappointing and unsatisfying to reduce Darth Vader's character to such a sentimental motivation?
I certainly haven't seen such protestations. (Which is good because I don't agree with them!) ;) Yet for 20 years people watched the original trilogy and put Darth Vader on a pedestal as one of the greatest villains in modern culture. His motivations were nebulous. We just knew he was evil, but not 100% so. That was enough to make him a great tragic figure and a fun villain. I'm sure in the early '80s the fans wrote fanfics about what triggered the transformation from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. Lucas had given out some background information, I understand, but I don't remember hearing the "only the power of the Dark Side can save my wife's life" business. Again, perhaps I just missed it because I'm not in the fandom myself.
But this brings me to a recent discussion over at potter_cliche about the Severus/Lily ship. As often happens when this theory is mentioned in a non-ship-specific forum, a few people jumped up to express their disgust with the idea.
Specifically, one person wrote:
I stand by my assertion that unrequited Severus/Lily is utterly, utterly repulsive. If it becomes canon, I will have to give my entire Potter book collection to the charity shops because I won't be able to stay in fandom if my favourite character jumps the shark. Seriously, even this thread is making me shudder - I can't bear it.
I'd also like to point out that I loathe love triangles. I think they're the cheapest, easiest device around and all they do is turn one character into a demon and the other two into Mary-Sues. I would rather eat eyeballs in glue than have to sit through pages of wah-wah-wangst about who loves who and whether X loves Y or Z.
To which another fan replied:
I have to agree with you on this one. If JKR flips around and writes in a last minute "Severus never got over Lily" plotline it'll be pitchforks and torches time at a certain scottish castle.
Why in the world are people so viserally, vehemently against the idea? Now, granted, this is just a few fans, and there are plenty who either like the idea or think it's plausible. Still, those who are opposed to it feel very strongly about it, as the quotes above attest. I've seen similar sentiments before in other forums.
Snape could have loved Lily without her even realizing it. He'd be conflicted in a thousand different ways, because here's a Mudblood that his pureblood traditions say is scum, and here's the girl that James "I'm a cocky bastard" Potter's after--two very good reasons to dislike her--and yet, against his will, he falls for her. She defends him, treats him like a human being, etc. Is it really so hard to believe that, just because he's a nasty, bitter, antisocial git now, he once was in love? Love--especially unrequited or tragic love--is a very strong force. Certainly strong enough to make someone change allegiances in a war at risk to life and limb.
And say Snape turned to Dumbledore's side because, at least in part, he wanted to protect Lily. He heard Voldemort planning to attack the Potters, and it was the last straw for Snape. He took the warning to Dumbledore at tremendous personal risk, and it wasn't enough. He couldn't save her. She died a senseless, violent death. Yeah, I'd say that would be enough to make him bitter and antisocial! (Granted, from everything we've seen, Snape has enough reasons for his unpleasant personality, from a turbulent home life to terrible bullying at school, but I still contend there's something more to it.)
It just makes perfect sense to me. It explains so much about Snape's motivations. Yet some fans have spluttering fits of rage at the thought that Snape left the Death Eaters for Dumbledore's side because he wanted to protect Lily, even knowing that she didn't love him (and was in fact happily married to James, raising James' son, etc.) Doesn't this add strength to Snape's character? Flesh out his backstory? Make him a more admirable, understandable character? Explain why Dumbledore trusts him?
I suppose part of it might be that people have read really bad fanfics on that theme, but come on, people--give JKR a little more credit than Fanfiction.net's latest Mary-Sue-writing grammar mangler.
Hasn't she already taken numerous "cliches" and turned them into a massively successful and entertaining series? The orphan turning out to be a prophecied hero? Gee, that's never been done before. The bumbling but well-intentioned comic relief sidekick? The other sidekick who's the smart one and full of exposition? The wise old mentor figure? Ooh, this is all so original!
There is nothing wrong with using, exploiting and breathing fresh life into centuries-old archtypes. They've survived this long for a reason. No one's bitching at Homer for having the love of beautiful Helen of Troy be the sticking-point that started the Trojan War. (Granted, Homer was working with existing traditions and legends and possibly parts of real history, but that's beside the point.) Shakespeare used the love-as-a-source-of-conflict-and-villainy plot device all the time. I don't see anyone looking down their noses at him for it.
I'm also reminded of the series finale of the old "War of the Worlds" TV series from the early 1990s. Some fans were horribly disgusted that the last episode showed that the only reason the aliens returned to attack the Earth again was because their leader's wife was killed in the first invasion and he was out for revenge. You know what? I LOVED that idea. I latched onto it and wrote 300+ pages of fanfic chronicling this couple's lives, constructed a very plausible scenario in which, "Oops, she's not dead after all," and wrote oodles more fanfic showing the rest of their life together. Yes, Malzor/Tila was my OTP for several years, and after writing so many stories about them, and extrapolating from the tiny, tiny bit we knew about their homeworld, I eventually spun off more and more, diverging from the show, rewriting things, adding things, removing things, until, years and years later, I had an original universe. I sat down to write a prequel that took place 100 years before the show's characters were born, and by the time I was 90 pages into the darn thing, I realized it was all my own stuff. ALL my own stuff. Except for a few place names, it was entirely original. It became Heritage in the Stars. I ended up writing an original novel because some lazy writer at Paramount circa 1992 used the "I'll become a villain to protect/avenge the woman I love" plot device in the last episode of a low-budget SF show that had already been cancelled.
Anyway, back to the main topic of this rant...
So is it really so hard to believe that JKR wouldn't use a similar plot twist?
After all, it's already pretty clear that the central theme of the HP books is the power of love. Lily's love as a parent. The trio's love as friends. The Weasley's love as siblings. Etc. It would only make sense that romantic love would fit in somewhere, eventually. Given that the main characters will still be teenagers at the end of the series (18-ish?), it can't be expected that a lot of deep, passionate romance will be going on. Plus there's, like, a huge war going on and stuff. ;) So having a romance of the past come back into play would be a nice, smooth way to incorporate that aspect of love.
(Not that I don't fully expect Ron and Hermione to be an item at the end of the series, but I don't see how that would have a huge impact on the overall plot with Voldemort. Unlike the legions of obsessed shippers online, the Dark Lord couldn't care less about the love lives of Hogwarts students!) ;D
So what I'm getting at, in a long, rambling, ranting way, is that these HP fans who are revolted by the idea of Severus Snape having an unrequited love for Lily Evans must therefore also take George Lucas, Homer and Shakespeare to task, or they're hypocrites. If JKR does make unrequited Severus/Lily canon, she'll be following a long line of authors who have used the powerful, poignant and real influence of starcrossed love.
*phew* Holy crap that was a lot of typing. o_0 I shall now shut up with my literary analysis and fandom soapboxing and do the sleep thing now. G'night.
Yoda kicks ass. He kicked ass in Episode II and he still kicks ass now.
I want to drop-kick Palpatine into a black hole. Because he's an a-hole. That rhymes. ;) But seriously, HE'S the evil one. Not Anakin. Anakin's misguided, conflicted, has issues with authority, a touch paranoid, but he's not evil. Whatever evil he contains was planted, fertilized and tended by Palpatine. That man is a souless, heartless, manipulative bastard.
What was the deal with General Grievous? For the first several scenes I was thinking, "How the hell can a MACHINE have bad lungs and a cough?" Then we learn that apparently he has biological components. Eew. That explains that. But I'm still curious about his backstory. Who made him? Whose heart and other miscellaneous biological goo were inside him? Was his mind/consciousness formerly in that flesh-and-blood body, and he got transferred into the droid body after an injury, like Anakin got his life-support suit from Palpatine? Hmm...
Jar Jar should have died. In fact, he should have been killed by Ewoks. That would have been awesome on several levels. Fans might like Ewoks better, and the scourge of Jar Jar would be gone. Damn. Oh well, at least he didn't have ANY dialogue. That's a blessing.
For all the hype about Wookies being in this one, they really didn't have much of a part. Oh well, it's not like they're great conversationalists. ;)
Natalie Portman was great in this. I really felt the emotion she was going through. Poor thing! Especially that scene where Obi Wan comes to tell her what's happened with Anakin, and to ask where he is.
She also, sadly makes a beautiful corpse. It was a nice touch how they padded her belly so people would assume the child died with her, never suspecting that the babies--plural--were alive and well.
Anyone else half-expect Leia to be born with those buns on the sides of her head? *snicker*
I did like that Padme got to name them. *sniffle*
After Anakin stops Mace Windu from killing Palpatine and formally announces his surrender to the Sith, and Palpatine first calls him by the new name "Darth...Vader!", and his theme music started to play quietly and ominously... Too awesome for words.
I expected more graphic violence with the higher PG-13 rating, but aside from Anakin's crispy critter routine at the end there really wasn't significantly more than in the previous two episodes. And that bit of gore was completely necessary. Post-Windu-attack!Palpatine's pretty horrible-lookin', too, so that might have had something to do with it.
It's really saying something when Yoda is the better-looking character in a scene. *snerk* ;D
The climactic battle amidst the lava was awesome. I swear the temperature in the theater felt hotter during some of those scenes. o_0 As one reviewer pointed out, it makes a lot of sense (and irony) that the final stop in Anakin's descent into darkness takes place in such a Hellish landscape. Sure, it's sort of thwapping you over the head with the symbolism, but dangit, it works. And it looks cool. ;)
It's probably a no-brainer to set it up so that Anakin's rebirth as Vader, Luke and Leia's literal birth, and Padme's death were all taking place at the same time. It's sort of an obvious storytelling device, but it worked really, really well. The contrast between her pure white hospital gown and his jet black suit was especially effective.
The little scene near the very end with the Emperor, Vader and Tarkin looking at the first stages of construction of the Death Star was pure gold.
The special effects, costumes, cityscapes and score were, as always, incredible. I'd expect nothing less from the founder of ILM.
(Speaking of special effects, I got to see the trailer for the new War of the Worlds movie. WOOT!)
The irony of the self-fulfilling prophecy was wonderfully thick. If Anakin hadn't had that dream about Padme, how differently things might have turned out! In sacrificing everything to save her, he ended up bringing about the opposite.
At first I was, if possible, even more furious with Palpatine for telling Vader that he had killed Padme in his anger. One more insidious manipulation from the aptly-named Darth Sidious. But then I realized the horrible truth--he did kill her. Not with his neck-grip-o-doom, but with his embrace of the Dark Side. The hospital droids made that very clear: nothing wrong with her physically; she just lost the will to live. So while he may not have caused fatal damage to her body, he was responsible for her death. (OMG TEH ANGST!!!1)
And I just found it achingly poignant that the first words out of the hissing mouth of the black Vader helmet were inquires about Padme's welfare. :(
Now I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent that's sort of a cross-fandom meta-rant. What do Star Wars, the Iliad and Harry Potter have in common? Perhaps more than you think...
Although there were larger issues of insecurity, persecution syndrome, childhood trauma, a tiny whiff of an Oedipal complex, hunger for power and anger management troubles, the prime factor in Anakin's turn to the Dark Side was love. He resisted Palpatine's overtures about the Dark Side when it was mere politics and power on the table, but when he saw the chance to save the life of the woman he loved, then and only then did he take the plunge. As he stood at the window and made the final decision to go confront Mace Windu and protect Palpatine, a tear ran down his cheek. He knew was he was doing. He knew it wasn't right. But he also saw no other way to save Padme, and he sacrificed everything he had worked for as a Jedi on her behalf.
Now I'm not in the Star Wars fandom at all, so perhaps I simply haven't seen this reaction in the mainstream sources I've read and seen, but tell me... where is the outcry from fans about this? Where are the fans screaming for George Lucas' head because he made the love of a woman the lynchpin in Anakin's path to the Dark Side? Where are the fans complaining that it's too cliched and shallow? That it's disappointing and unsatisfying to reduce Darth Vader's character to such a sentimental motivation?
I certainly haven't seen such protestations. (Which is good because I don't agree with them!) ;) Yet for 20 years people watched the original trilogy and put Darth Vader on a pedestal as one of the greatest villains in modern culture. His motivations were nebulous. We just knew he was evil, but not 100% so. That was enough to make him a great tragic figure and a fun villain. I'm sure in the early '80s the fans wrote fanfics about what triggered the transformation from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader. Lucas had given out some background information, I understand, but I don't remember hearing the "only the power of the Dark Side can save my wife's life" business. Again, perhaps I just missed it because I'm not in the fandom myself.
But this brings me to a recent discussion over at potter_cliche about the Severus/Lily ship. As often happens when this theory is mentioned in a non-ship-specific forum, a few people jumped up to express their disgust with the idea.
Specifically, one person wrote:
I stand by my assertion that unrequited Severus/Lily is utterly, utterly repulsive. If it becomes canon, I will have to give my entire Potter book collection to the charity shops because I won't be able to stay in fandom if my favourite character jumps the shark. Seriously, even this thread is making me shudder - I can't bear it.
I'd also like to point out that I loathe love triangles. I think they're the cheapest, easiest device around and all they do is turn one character into a demon and the other two into Mary-Sues. I would rather eat eyeballs in glue than have to sit through pages of wah-wah-wangst about who loves who and whether X loves Y or Z.
To which another fan replied:
I have to agree with you on this one. If JKR flips around and writes in a last minute "Severus never got over Lily" plotline it'll be pitchforks and torches time at a certain scottish castle.
Why in the world are people so viserally, vehemently against the idea? Now, granted, this is just a few fans, and there are plenty who either like the idea or think it's plausible. Still, those who are opposed to it feel very strongly about it, as the quotes above attest. I've seen similar sentiments before in other forums.
Snape could have loved Lily without her even realizing it. He'd be conflicted in a thousand different ways, because here's a Mudblood that his pureblood traditions say is scum, and here's the girl that James "I'm a cocky bastard" Potter's after--two very good reasons to dislike her--and yet, against his will, he falls for her. She defends him, treats him like a human being, etc. Is it really so hard to believe that, just because he's a nasty, bitter, antisocial git now, he once was in love? Love--especially unrequited or tragic love--is a very strong force. Certainly strong enough to make someone change allegiances in a war at risk to life and limb.
And say Snape turned to Dumbledore's side because, at least in part, he wanted to protect Lily. He heard Voldemort planning to attack the Potters, and it was the last straw for Snape. He took the warning to Dumbledore at tremendous personal risk, and it wasn't enough. He couldn't save her. She died a senseless, violent death. Yeah, I'd say that would be enough to make him bitter and antisocial! (Granted, from everything we've seen, Snape has enough reasons for his unpleasant personality, from a turbulent home life to terrible bullying at school, but I still contend there's something more to it.)
It just makes perfect sense to me. It explains so much about Snape's motivations. Yet some fans have spluttering fits of rage at the thought that Snape left the Death Eaters for Dumbledore's side because he wanted to protect Lily, even knowing that she didn't love him (and was in fact happily married to James, raising James' son, etc.) Doesn't this add strength to Snape's character? Flesh out his backstory? Make him a more admirable, understandable character? Explain why Dumbledore trusts him?
I suppose part of it might be that people have read really bad fanfics on that theme, but come on, people--give JKR a little more credit than Fanfiction.net's latest Mary-Sue-writing grammar mangler.
Hasn't she already taken numerous "cliches" and turned them into a massively successful and entertaining series? The orphan turning out to be a prophecied hero? Gee, that's never been done before. The bumbling but well-intentioned comic relief sidekick? The other sidekick who's the smart one and full of exposition? The wise old mentor figure? Ooh, this is all so original!
There is nothing wrong with using, exploiting and breathing fresh life into centuries-old archtypes. They've survived this long for a reason. No one's bitching at Homer for having the love of beautiful Helen of Troy be the sticking-point that started the Trojan War. (Granted, Homer was working with existing traditions and legends and possibly parts of real history, but that's beside the point.) Shakespeare used the love-as-a-source-of-conflict-and-villainy plot device all the time. I don't see anyone looking down their noses at him for it.
I'm also reminded of the series finale of the old "War of the Worlds" TV series from the early 1990s. Some fans were horribly disgusted that the last episode showed that the only reason the aliens returned to attack the Earth again was because their leader's wife was killed in the first invasion and he was out for revenge. You know what? I LOVED that idea. I latched onto it and wrote 300+ pages of fanfic chronicling this couple's lives, constructed a very plausible scenario in which, "Oops, she's not dead after all," and wrote oodles more fanfic showing the rest of their life together. Yes, Malzor/Tila was my OTP for several years, and after writing so many stories about them, and extrapolating from the tiny, tiny bit we knew about their homeworld, I eventually spun off more and more, diverging from the show, rewriting things, adding things, removing things, until, years and years later, I had an original universe. I sat down to write a prequel that took place 100 years before the show's characters were born, and by the time I was 90 pages into the darn thing, I realized it was all my own stuff. ALL my own stuff. Except for a few place names, it was entirely original. It became Heritage in the Stars. I ended up writing an original novel because some lazy writer at Paramount circa 1992 used the "I'll become a villain to protect/avenge the woman I love" plot device in the last episode of a low-budget SF show that had already been cancelled.
Anyway, back to the main topic of this rant...
So is it really so hard to believe that JKR wouldn't use a similar plot twist?
After all, it's already pretty clear that the central theme of the HP books is the power of love. Lily's love as a parent. The trio's love as friends. The Weasley's love as siblings. Etc. It would only make sense that romantic love would fit in somewhere, eventually. Given that the main characters will still be teenagers at the end of the series (18-ish?), it can't be expected that a lot of deep, passionate romance will be going on. Plus there's, like, a huge war going on and stuff. ;) So having a romance of the past come back into play would be a nice, smooth way to incorporate that aspect of love.
(Not that I don't fully expect Ron and Hermione to be an item at the end of the series, but I don't see how that would have a huge impact on the overall plot with Voldemort. Unlike the legions of obsessed shippers online, the Dark Lord couldn't care less about the love lives of Hogwarts students!) ;D
So what I'm getting at, in a long, rambling, ranting way, is that these HP fans who are revolted by the idea of Severus Snape having an unrequited love for Lily Evans must therefore also take George Lucas, Homer and Shakespeare to task, or they're hypocrites. If JKR does make unrequited Severus/Lily canon, she'll be following a long line of authors who have used the powerful, poignant and real influence of starcrossed love.
*phew* Holy crap that was a lot of typing. o_0 I shall now shut up with my literary analysis and fandom soapboxing and do the sleep thing now. G'night.