7 Comments
Feb 7, 2023Liked by coldhealing

Aside from the original trilogy, I only saw The Phantom Menace and The Force Awakens but, as you say, living in the world does lead you to know at least a bit about the rest of the franchise.

It seems like the huge theme from the original trilogy that gets dropped in every other iteration is the fact that, aside from the Jedi themselves, everyone in the Star Wars universe thinks that the force is really dumb.

Imperial officers mock Darth Vader to his face and Han Solo does a tight 5 about how non of it is a match for his blaster.

This is despite repeated evidence for how powerful it was. As a child of the era, it basically matched the general public's view of computers and electronics in general.

That tension was definitely gone in TFA. Rey being good with the force is unquestionably viewed as a positive trait, not a nerdy, niche interest. Everyone in the Star Wars universe has started viewing the force just like we, the audience view it.

Of course, times change, but it doesn't feel earned or explained. The force hasn't become ubiquitous the way technology has in our world but somehow its status has still improved. It just feels like that attitude was dropped by the filmmakers because they forgot about it.

Expand full comment
Dec 15, 2023Liked by coldhealing

I'm going to talk about Andor, but first: I like this article. I was also born in '97 and I also grew up with Star Wars fandom as a sort of heirloom from my father, an aerospace engineer with a strong love for sci-fi. He's pretty much hated every Star Wars movie since the first two, yet he's watched each piece of content religiously because his love for the universe was that strong. I always strongly preferred Star Trek, and still do.

My dad was always a sort of cold, aloof parent. He found it difficult to talk about feelings so he let his love show through in his enthusiasm for the world around him when he could muster it up. Growing up, I didn't understand this, I only understood that my dad was supposed to love me and didn't seem to. When I went to school for music, my relationship with my dad went to shit, because he's an engineer and a scientist and that's what he wanted for me. Our relationship stayed strained over the years, and eventually I told him that I blamed him for making me feel unworthy of his love, that his constant belittling of me stuck around as a voice in my head that made me feel like I was failing at every turn. Etc., etc. Conversations with parents can be hard.

A couple weeks later, my dad and I had to spend about a week together alone, and we had to figure out how to move forward with our relationship. My dad proposed that we watch Andor, which was (according to him) the best Star Wars IP he had seen since the original trilogy. We watched it together, and it was impressive. My dad's favorite character was Luthen Rael, the Stellan Skarsgård guy, which I don't feel like saying too much about because I didn't watch Rogue One, but he gives a speech that my dad loved to rave about, and he was involved in a ship battle that was pretty well-choreographed.

I liked the show because it had a lot of great visuals, the characters were more compelling than the characters in the film series (with more complex and human motives), and the world felt grittier in a good way, i.e. it felt more lived-in, with more texture and more humanity. The authoritarianism plays a big role, but it follows characters at every level of the Empire's hierarchy, which is interesting. I preferred it to the original Star Wars movies, of which The Last Jedi is my favorite. It also marked the beginning of the gradual process of my dad and I coming to understand one another, which makes it meaningful to me.

Expand full comment
Feb 7, 2023Liked by coldhealing

I'd like to have your opinion on the SWTOR cinematics and how they've constructed the idea of fantansy within the star wars universe ,,, great read Cold :)

Expand full comment

Disney should honestly just rip off the plot of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and plop it in the Star Wars universe. Make a mature movie about love and duty with cool fight scenes and go from there. The big problem with Star Wars movies is the same as with the Marvel movies: the stakes are always too high. Not every movie has to deal with an existential threat to all life as we know it. Sometimes you can just retrieve a stolen heirloom or have two people fall in love.

Expand full comment

Get a load of this nerd. But congratulations. Now you are free from a franchise to successful for its own sake.

Expand full comment