Another Fourth Low on Enthusiasm
May. 4th, 2019 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerI’ve admitted a few times already how the proclamation “May the Fourth be with you” feels a bit too smirky for me (to say nothing of noticing in the past few days “big online sales” promoted that way), even if last year I did go on from there to try and articulate my impending detachment from the upcoming Star Wars movie (which I still seem to be getting by without having seen). The franchise instalment for this year does lie further ahead, and I do have to admit that where additional trailers for The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi could have diminished my interest in them in advance of actually seeing the full movies my interest in Rogue One built a bit with its additional promotion (enough that I saw that movie twice, even if that second viewing then detached me from it). There might be some special-effects showiness to The Rise of Skywalker in place of “with big sets and bland locations triumphant inoffensiveness will surely follow!”, and I can imagine it’ll be less eager to undercut exciting setpieces for the sake of “midway through ambiguities.” At the same time, the remaining flotsam of the past bobbing up (“Rebel medals! Lando! Death Star wreckage! A familiar laugh!”) might just point back to “but why wasn’t that past heroism allowed to build anything beyond last-second rallies to self-sacrifice?”, and stepping away from “the heroic lead’s costume gets darker and darker over the course of three movies” might only encourage speculation about what’ll happen to a villain who’s been offered chances to do the right thing but has only used them to drive in knives.
Of course, I can imagine “oh, get over yourself; your ‘personally satisfying six-movie saga’ amounts to sacrificing your discernment two decades ago” responses, even if they might not be pitched quite that way. Perhaps the recently announced death of Pater Mayhew deflected me a bit from trying to pick my way deeper into a minefield, even if its distraction amounts to me wondering about a bit of minutiae introduced in the ramp-up of the “Expanded Universe” and that ever-possible option of “personal theories.” It’s one thing to say “Wookiees have ‘climbing claws’; how else would they live in giant trees,” but with Chewbacca seeming quite ready to use great strength against enemies an elaboration emerged that “they have a deep compulsion to only use them for climbing.” It did start feeling a bit too particular for me; remembering that apes can climb trees with fingers I do seem just as ready to theorize Chewbacca might have strong and dextrous digits under his mops of fur.
Of course, I can imagine “oh, get over yourself; your ‘personally satisfying six-movie saga’ amounts to sacrificing your discernment two decades ago” responses, even if they might not be pitched quite that way. Perhaps the recently announced death of Pater Mayhew deflected me a bit from trying to pick my way deeper into a minefield, even if its distraction amounts to me wondering about a bit of minutiae introduced in the ramp-up of the “Expanded Universe” and that ever-possible option of “personal theories.” It’s one thing to say “Wookiees have ‘climbing claws’; how else would they live in giant trees,” but with Chewbacca seeming quite ready to use great strength against enemies an elaboration emerged that “they have a deep compulsion to only use them for climbing.” It did start feeling a bit too particular for me; remembering that apes can climb trees with fingers I do seem just as ready to theorize Chewbacca might have strong and dextrous digits under his mops of fur.