#mostly mad

THE MOVIES SHOULD’VE INCLUDED SOME OF THIS SHIT instead of burying it under 100 layers of subtext

like u telling me it’s canon leia and han were afraid of ben as a kid and didnt know how to handle him, and talked about him behind his back like he was a monster??? at age 10?? THIS IS IMPORTANT AF.  instead of dwelling on this in the movie, we only get it in the novelization. NOPE. this irks me because well, it makes TFA and TLJ look fucking flimsy. and it makes it look like they underwrote kylo ren’s character. it gives antis ammunition to say “nah, he was happy & loved, he just turned out bad when he was sent to luke’s”. btw, this ALSO makes han and leia look like chumps because we never get to explore the conflict in-depth so it’s either that a) kylo’s perspective is selling us lies...which...no...why would he invent a conversation between his parents about him, or b) a force!strong person like leia shouldnt’ve had any kids cuz apparently no one can handle this shit when the force is involved

this just points more and more to the force being a flawed concept in both philosophy and execution and again, MAYBE we should’ve focused on this more in the movie. like where was grey jedi??? where was balance???

SECOND, the fact that rey can tap into his powers and borrow them via bond SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE MORE EXPLICIT. because lots of anti reylo folks say she’s just naturally better than him and can whoop his ass no matter what. which man, i love rey but FALSE. she’s strong but she gets her technique from him! that’s not the death of feminism, jfc, they’re working as a team! it’s a breath of fresh air she’s not some mary sue who just inherited her powers via plot-convenience. and this makes her a better character because she manipulates the bond in a way that is useful to her, while still having genuine feelings for kylo. complexity!! nuance!!! what i am here for!!! instead, half the time both TFA and TLJ frame it like she’s just a goddamn messiah natural. when...we all know what happened to that other messiah, anakin....

again, i’ve been in the trenches with this ship and i know what im talking about when i say we had to fight so much BS about how it was all in our heads. the fact that these pretty damn important details are only included in the book makes it easier for antis to tear down our arguments. 

i’ve seen other spoilers with reylo moments (and while i’m thrilled about them), some of them feel like a cop-out. like here, we couldnt commit to this dynamic entirely and go into some uncomfortable places, so u got a book instead

star wars isn’t art-house. it’s supposed to have a clear enough narrative to follow. i’m not saying i need everything spelled out, but wow, when the novelization is 80% more character-oriented than your movies, that’s a problem.

and i love TLJ, but they gotta do better in episode 9 if they wanna untangle this han/leia/ben/rey mess for me