smash and grab (some Star Wars meta)
Someone I used to follow on tumblr made this post about the recent trailer for Star Wars IX. Most relatable quote: I’m not inherently against Bendemption either, which the marketing certainly seems to have been hinting at over the past few months, but if TRoS goes with that arc, I’m skeptical that TPTB will manage to pull it off in a manner that I personally find satisfying. I’d love to eat my words, though! Sell me on it, please, Disney!!!
The problem is that "selling" Kylo's redemption means giving him focus and screentime, and I'm just not interested enough in him to want that.
And apparently it's not just me, because this is from her next post on the topic.I acknowledge that lots of ppl find [Kylo Ren] an interesting, relatable character-no judgments there, but at the same time, I’m not one of those people. And in order to theoretically get me invested in him, the movie would need to dedicate some quality screentime to him… screentime that they could be using on other characters I already care about. And if/when that happens, I’ll probably resent the fact that said screentime could have been used elsewhere. Unfair? You bet. How I feel anyway? Yep.
As it is, it feels like a significant portion of Rey’s story is now all about her connection with [him], and I find that frustrating. Yes, you can argue that the opposite is true-that [Ben]'s story is all about his connection w/ Rey-and you can certainly argue that the seeds for this were in TFA with his obsession over her, but… idk. The direction that TLJ took their dynamic in just didn’t work for me on a personal level, and it had very little to do with the actual tropes in question (ex: Foe Romance Subtext) and a lot more to do with the movie’s execution of said tropes.
Also related: pieces that build toward redemption for Kylo Ren have either ended up on the cutting room floor, or exist only in external content such as novels and comics. The general audience is probably going to have a justifiable negative reaction to his redemption because it wasn't built up the way it should have been.
Somewhere recently I read another fan's take on it--and he likes the films, by the way. He said that Disney was "outsourcing" content by making a coherent narrative dependent on material outside of the films.
It's incredibly frustrating.
Posted at Dreamwidth: https://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/336479.html. Comment where you wish.
The problem is that "selling" Kylo's redemption means giving him focus and screentime, and I'm just not interested enough in him to want that.
And apparently it's not just me, because this is from her next post on the topic.I acknowledge that lots of ppl find [Kylo Ren] an interesting, relatable character-no judgments there, but at the same time, I’m not one of those people. And in order to theoretically get me invested in him, the movie would need to dedicate some quality screentime to him… screentime that they could be using on other characters I already care about. And if/when that happens, I’ll probably resent the fact that said screentime could have been used elsewhere. Unfair? You bet. How I feel anyway? Yep.
As it is, it feels like a significant portion of Rey’s story is now all about her connection with [him], and I find that frustrating. Yes, you can argue that the opposite is true-that [Ben]'s story is all about his connection w/ Rey-and you can certainly argue that the seeds for this were in TFA with his obsession over her, but… idk. The direction that TLJ took their dynamic in just didn’t work for me on a personal level, and it had very little to do with the actual tropes in question (ex: Foe Romance Subtext) and a lot more to do with the movie’s execution of said tropes.
Also related: pieces that build toward redemption for Kylo Ren have either ended up on the cutting room floor, or exist only in external content such as novels and comics. The general audience is probably going to have a justifiable negative reaction to his redemption because it wasn't built up the way it should have been.
Somewhere recently I read another fan's take on it--and he likes the films, by the way. He said that Disney was "outsourcing" content by making a coherent narrative dependent on material outside of the films.
It's incredibly frustrating.
Posted at Dreamwidth: https://rose-griffes.dreamwidth.org/336479.html. Comment where you wish.