Top Five New Year’s Resolutions for Fanboys and Girls

In the spirit of making this page about all things nerdy or for the various fandoms, I decided to make a list of my top ten New Year’s resolutions essential for every fanboy or fangirl. These are designed to make us better fans with less strife and in fighting than we had in 2017.

5. Do not feed the trolls

It is essential to our existence as a fanbase to recognize when someone is just being a troll and to not bring them the attention, fame, or glory they seek by engaging them. It can be damaging to an entire fandom to do so. (Either by clicking on their click-bait, or trying to argue with them in the comments section). Some trolls are easy to recognize. Others or more subtle. It will be another entire blog for how to avoid them, but the simple resolution is to ignore all trolls.

4. Try not to make or subscribe to ridiculous fan theories

Sometimes hindsight is 20/20 in revealing how ridiculous certain fan theories are. However, most should be obvious from the start, and should not get a huge amount of attention. The reason for this is exactly what happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. We as fans run the risk of setting up unreasonable expectations. Fan Theories like Snoke is Mace Windu or an avatar of an evil Luke Skywalker should never gain so much traction. Making fan theories is part of the fun of being a fan, but we can lose ourselves in them and forget what a screenwriter is actually going to do. Our resolution should be to be more level headed about them.

3. Do not support loot crates or extras with real money in video games – EVER.

Honestly we gamers and fangirls/fanboys are at fault for EA attempting to get us to pay extra money in their games. The digital gambling idea works because we the people shell out the cash. We even buy virtual real estate in video games for hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. If we want to just play our video games and have good stories, we need to stop paying for the extra content. We are only the best at something if we have paid zero extra dollars to prove it. The more our resolution becomes to stop paying for the loot crates, the more they will stop trying to make an extra buck with shady practices.

2. Do not dress up as Harley Quinn, Joker, or Deadpool for comic con

Comic cons have come a long way since my college days at the turn of the millennium. More and more fantastic cosplay can be seen, and even the low budget costumes are always so creative. But every comic con also has become overrun with certain characters, and unless you are going to do a creative twist on these characters, we as cosplayers should try new things. When Deadpool 2 comes out there will naturally be a surge in Deadpool again, but by then maybe some people will try to be Cable, Colossus, or Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Maybe? I think it is a good resolution.

1. Play and watch less, read more

I can already hear some of my blog readers gasping. “Read? I don’t . . . read!” It has become sort of a dirty word in our instant gratification culture, but I would be remiss as an author if I didn’t plug the importance of reading. How many of us have actually read the book “Ready Player One” and knew it was awesome before we saw a trailer for the feature film? I am guilty. I did not. Read comics. Make them give us the good stories when these things turn into movies. Support struggling and new authors. Reading is where the true good stories come from, so make a resolution to support it, and treat your imagination, not just your eyes.

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful - Part V (Spoilers)

Part 5 of 5. From a Certain Point of View – The Passing Shadow and Luke’s Failure

Acknowledgement: Even if you were fine not learning anything about Snoke, loved that Rey was a nobody, loved silly plot points with bunny-horse races, and liked the idea that Luke had become a grizzled old hermit who gave up on the Jedi, there was one moment in the film you still cannot bring yourself to forgive. I was right there with you the first time I watched the film. When Kylo Ren explained that Luke had come in to kill him in his sleep, I thought, “No. That’s an outright lie. They wouldn’t bring Luke Skywalker so low as to basically give in to the same temptation he defeated in Return of the Jedi.

But they did. The film has Luke explain that for a fleeting moment “that passed like a shadow” he considered nephew-cide. Nephew cide? Is that a word?

Murder a “kid” in his sleep.

 Even if it were to save the galaxy, I acknowledge how this can make Luke look pretty despicable and perhaps even ruin his character for some people. However the real flaw in the film here, if any, is that, as a writer, Rian Johnson is perhaps placing too much trust in his audience to figure some important details out on their own.

“Show. Don’t tell.”

This is the mantra of every experienced story teller. The ability to find the balance between when to show, and when to add exposition through telling is the greatest challenge every author has. Most of the time, it is better to ere on the side of showing at the risk of telling too little.

Trust your audience.

The rule of thumb on showing is to trust the audience to figure out your intent without beating them over the head with exposition. Rian Johnson figured he could trust his Star Wars audience in comprehending Ben Solo’s turn to the dark side. (Therefore leading to Luke’s lowest moment) The big divide in fans indicates he may have been wrong. Star Wars fans are a difficult fanbase to gauge. I do not envy his task.

The problem with Kylo Ren’s turn is over the course of two films we are shown only a little, and told even less. We are shown Han and Leia reuniting in the Force Awakens, and most of their conversation revolves around their son. We are shown a key moment with Kylo Ren and Han Solo (you all know the one). We are shown some limited flashbacks of the tragic end of Luke Skywalker’s attempt to rebuild the Jedi. We are told over and over Snoke was behind the whole thing. This is the core at why people wanted to know more about Snoke, is that he somehow ruined the Happily Ever After of our heroes, but he is dispatched before we ever learn how he did it. So I acknowledge that the reason The Last Jedi is not working for some people, is because they were not shown enough for their imagination to fill in the gaps.

Naturally, I feel it my duty to help point out what Rian Johnson was hoping his entire audience would figure out on their own.  

The Tragic Tale of Ben Solo: Somehow people got the idea that Disney and Lucasfilm are making this up as they go. People say the decision to have different story tellers is ruining Star Wars. However, there is enough connective tissue from The Force Awakens to The Last Jedi to suggest there is a bigger plan for these films than most people realize. Most, if not all the misdirection from Disney is to preserve the ending of this trilogy. They want to surprise people—a feat near impossible this day and age. But they aren’t building surprises without purpose. 

If Star Wars fans would calm down and consider all of the information we had on Ben Solo and his turn up to the moment where Luke gives Rey the truth of his most shameful moment, I think you will empathize with Luke more. All of these conclusions I reach from only watching the movies. Sure, there are plenty of books and comics that can fill in some gaps, but the movies are what counts for most people. The information is there in the films nonetheless.

1. The slow turn of Ben Solo to the dark side destroyed Han and Leia’s marriage.

We are given plenty of information (from both show and tell) to draw this conclusion. Some people think Han and Leia were bad parents leading to a troubled kid. I did not see this at all. They were both parents out of their league with the very special child they had. They both perhaps had some flaws which Ben resented, but in the end it is clear he still loved them both. As the dark side grew in Ben, Leia sent him away to train with Luke. Han probably disagreed with the decision so much that it caused him to leave and go back into smuggling. Leia resented him leaving and probably pushed Han away. Everything for Han and Leia revolves around sending Ben away, not as parents who did not care, but as people who didn’t know where else to turn.

2. Luke Started a New Jedi Temple, not an Academy.

We are used to books where Luke trained his two nephews and niece from the moment they were old enough to hold a training lightsaber. Han and Leia were frequent visitors on their adventures as young Jedi. We need to let go of that vision. I need to stress this again in bold letters. Leia sent Ben away. Luke didn’t have a Jedi Academy like in the books we all cherished for so long. He started a Jedi Temple. The difference in these two words is critical. Luke was trying to restore the Jedi order to what it was in the prequels. If he did that, he may have tried to discourage attachment . . . even in himself. Can you see why Han would object to something like that so passionately that he would give up his marriage over it? I can.

I don’t think Luke realized the folly of the old ways of the Jedi until it was too late. After his mistake, he learned much. But he also grew to hate the old Jedi ways and their hubris. So his lesson to Rey in the Last Jedi comes from experience at almost becoming just like the old Jedi Order. He wants those teachings to die with him. However, the beauty of the Last Jedi is He realizes a new way for the Jedi to move forward, and places his hope in Rey.

3. Snoke found and Corrupted Ben BEFORE he went to train as a Jedi

Everything about the way this story has been told over the course of two movies suggests to me that Snoke found Ben at a very young age. Leia and Han did not want to have been trained. It was a last resort to them. They probably wanted a normal family. Who can blame them?

But Snoke probably offered the young boy power and started to manipulate him away from his parents. Maybe they had normal parent problems. Maybe Leia was away too much trying to build a new nation. Maybe Han couldn’t relate to Ben on the same level his mother could, but maybe he could show his son a thing or two about how to fly around space. Maybe this is all we need to know about Snoke since we have been shown how easily Snoke could communicate through the force (and force other people to speak to each other).

I think a lot of people are missing this in the timeline of events in their head, so I am thumping it over your head like Yoda bopping you with his wooden stick.

  

4. Ben Solo corrupted at least a few of Luke’s other Students

This comes from one throwaway line as Luke (somewhat desperately) tries to explain the whole truth to Rey. Yet, it could be critical to the big picture and explain the Knights of Ren.

It is not a huge complaint that the Knights of Ren do not show up in the Last Jedi. Compared to other things people are finding to complain about, it is a relatively minor grievance. However, I think it should be greater. I think maybe this is where any disconnect in story telling vision between Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams did actually effect things. The Knights of Ren should have made an appearance in this movie, because when they inevitably show up in Episode 9, I think people are going to find it a little jarring.

“Where the hell have these guys been the whole time?”

Perhaps they were busy subjugating all the other worlds while Kylo Ren and Snoke were busy trying to crush the last of the Resistance. It doesn’t matter though, because the reason they should have been shown in this movie is it would have given some context to Luke’s failure that maybe a lot of people needed.

Ben – or maybe he was pretty much Kylo Ren already at this point – managed to sway some of Luke’s other students. Can you imagine Ben running up to his friends and telling them Luke just tried to kill him, so what they should do is murder all of the other students and burn the place down?

No. Ben and Snoke had been working darkness into the other students for some time in order for them to turn on Luke that night. Luke was trying to protect students he loved from the dark side by probing Ben’s mind. It just so happens Luke might have been too late for those other students as well. But as Rey points out, even then, there was always hope.

Conclusions:

Considering all the context I have given to this point, it is obvious Luke was looking for a way to break Snoke’s link with the boy when he crept in to Ben’s quarters at night, but saw he was too late to do anything. He was NOT creeping in thinking he might have to take drastic measures.

The movie even tries to give us an audio cue for the future Luke sees in Ben. We are treated to the sound of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber and screams. Some of these screams even seem to be from Finn and Rey when Han Solo dies. Luke’s mistake was only for instant, but it was the worst timing. Luke faces the same temptation in Return of the Jedi, only when he faces it in that film, he has time to reflect. He has time to stare for a moment at his father’s severed hand and then look at his own robotic one. Ben Solo wakes up and the frightened boy assumed the worst from his point of view.

I think this was obvious to most people. What wasn’t so obvious was all the events leading up to the crucial moment, because we as the audience are trusted by the filmmakers to piece it together ourselves. Isn’t it ironic that for a film sage in which “point of view” and the truths we cling to are such a large motif, that we should bicker so passionately because our point of view on a single moment is also so drastically different? My hopeful conclusion is that episode 9 and time will help our point of views merge, and we can all continue loving Star Wars together for it is. 

The most awesome-est, dumbest, goofiest, thought provoking, bad ass, modern myth ever told.

Five Points of Controversy in Star Wars: The Last Jedi That are Actually Beautiful (Spoilers)

PART 1 of 5

        A small boy recounts the legend of Luke Skywalker facing down an entire battalion of giant First Order walkers, and how he came away without a scratch. He does this with some homemade toys as his friends look on with a mixture of skepticism and amazement. A bulbous, angry, alien slave master barges in to ruin their fun. One of the boys runs outside to the peace of the stables on Canto Byte, where he absentmindedly calls a broom to his hand with the force. He stares up at the night sky as a shooting star flashes by overhead. The John Williams score swells, and the silhouette of the boy looks a bit like a Jedi holding a lightsaber. The credits roll, and the audience applauds. I sit through the scrolling names and try to process the film I just watched.

            I am in love. There is much to ponder—so many layers. I feel like I am seeing modern myth go to a place it has never dared. I was not prepared for anyone not to feel the same. Never in a million years would I consider that I would step outside of the theater, pull out my phone, and find an internet full of youtube videos titled, “Why the Last Jedi Sucks!”

            One Youtuber with a Star Wars-themed channel hates the film so much he decides to quit making videos. Quit. He stops doing something he loved, just like that. Poof . . . gone. In his farewell address, he blames Disney. Disney has de-monetized his videos for using John William’s score. Disney has catered too much to young kids in other Star Wars media. The Last Jedi is the final straw, proving to him that Disney is ruining Star Wars.

Maybe he will come back to youtube in time. My youngest brother had many misgivings about the film as well, and I have been able to shed new light on The Last Jedi for him. I hope I can do the same for anyone who reads this blog. I will acknowledge that I understand why some people have deep emotional problems with the film. I have found five different points of contention. I intend to examine each one from the standpoint of a writer, and from the context of the characters within the Star Wars universe. However, first I would like to share a section of a movie review from the Washington Post on May 23, 1980.

…when light entertainment is done well, someone is bound to make extravagant and unsupportable claims for its being great art. You will hear that this sequel to "Star Wars" is part of a vast new mythology, as if it were the Oresteia. Its originator, George Lucas, has revealed that the two pictures are actually parts four and five of a nine-part saga, as if audiences will some day receive the total the way devotees now go to Seattle for a week of immersion in Wagner's complete Ring Cycle.

Nonsense. This is no monumental artistic work, but a science-fiction movie done more snappily than most, including its own predecessor. A chocolate bar is a marvelous sweet that does not need to pretend to be a chocolate soufflé; musical comedies are wonderful entertainment without trying to compete with opera; blue jeans are a perfect garment that shouldn't be compared with haute couture. There are times when you would much rather have a really good hot dog than any steak, but you can still recognize that one is junk food and the other isn't.

"The Empire Strikes Back" has no plot structure, no character studies let alone character development, no emotional or philosophical point to make. It has no original vision of the future, which is depicted as a pastiche of other junk-culture formulae, such as the western, the costume epic and the Would War II movie. Its specialty is "special effects" or visual tricks, some of which are playful, imaginative and impressive, but others of which have become space-movie clichés. (Washington Post, Judith Martin)

             
        This review for perhaps the most beloved of all the Star Wars films is very telling, and there were many like it at the time. Who among Star Wars fans would say this about Empire today? People forget (or were not born) how families used to have heated arguments around the dinner table as to whether or not Vader was lying to Luke about being his father. I find it incredibly interesting that some of the same complaints are being made of The Last Jedi today. Now we argue in a much more self-indulgent and entitled way on the internet as to whether or not Kylo Ren was telling Rey the truth about her parents. We used to scoff at the idea of a nine part saga, and even Lucas gave up on this at one time. Yet here we are in film number eight. What will become of The Last Jedi? Will it stand the test of time like Empire, or has Disney truly gone too far? Let us now examine five different points of controversy in The Last Jedi. 

1. Snoke

Acknowledgement: The name says, “bad guy” even more than Voldemort, Scar, or even Dr. Evil. It’s some kind of weird conglomeration of “Snake” and “Smoke”. This is the most Disney name Disney has ever Disney-ed into Star Wars, and it ruins nothing. His name alone makes him sound like he is going to be the main villain of the series, especially considering how much both Episode 7 and 8 hype him. So I can understand the shock and annoyance some fans have that it seems like we are never going to learn why this guy was such a threat. Sure he plays force marionette with Rey, bops her on her head with the Skywalker lightsaber when she goes for it, and says some mean things to Kylo Ren. Sure he seems really stinking powerful. However, considering he is the reason for our beloved original trilogy characters not getting their happily ever after, we wanted to know more about how he infiltrated the Skywalker – Solo family. We never got to know the half of it. Snoke is gone and with him important information which might have made Kylo Ren a little more redeemable. Or is he?

How to Write Snoke: If I am writing this new trilogy, I have to decide who my main villains are going to be. I have a few options when it comes to Star Wars. I could—as many feared would be the trend after The Force Awakens—redo the same classic story, but with different characters. I could play it safe. Conversely, I could go completely off the rails and just do whatever the hell I wanted. Star Wars is my playground and maybe if I burn down everything that has come before, nothing can stop me from telling my story. This is what many fear is happening after watching The Last Jedi. These fears exist for all five of my points of controversy, not just Snoke.

When it comes to this trilogy, the writer in me gives the same advice Anakin gives Obi Wan when they find themselves trapped in a force field in Revenge of the Sith—"I say patience". Episode Nine will develop Snoke more through the point of view of Kylo Ren and his quest for power. I use this particular example because, like Anakin, I am often not a very patient person.

I advise patience because this was always going to be a nine part story. It is True Lucas called The Force Awakens his divorce from Star Wars. And yet, he showed back up at celebration. No matter how much he becomes old and crusty like Luke is in Episode 8, this story is still the brainchild of George Lucas, and it always will be. This is not blind faith. You can find Lucas’ fingerprints all over The Last Jedi if you know where to look, and it all begins with Snoke.  

Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards, J.J. Abrams, and anyone else who gets to play in this sandbox recognize where this story comes from. They may deviate from the original vision, and Lucas himself might dislike those deviations, but the people telling this story are writers who recognize that the story won’t work without the key mythology. For example, in my opinion Lucas probably didn’t like the idea that the reason for the fall of Ben Solo was that Han and Leia were pretty much bad parents. He didn’t even want to name the kid Ben. He probably wanted him to be called Sam. Rey was supposed to be a fourteen year old girl named Kira. Much of Lucas’s original vision can be pulled from the visual dictionary of The Force Awakens, and the original villains were supposed to be a group of Dark side people called “Jedi Hunters.”(Force Awakens Visual Dictionary,  2015)

So what was the original idea for Snoke and his Jedi hunters, and how much did Kathleen Kennedy and her Star Wars crew stick to the original ideas? It is hard to say. We can infer the Jedi hunters became the Knights of Ren, but that tells us nothing about Snoke. In order to find clues on Snoke, we need to go all the way back to early drafts of Return of the Jedi. In those drafts, the emperor survives or escapes. In fact, he is not even revealed in person. He is not brought down until episode nine of the final trilogy. (Kurtz Interview, 1999)

This leads me to believe that the avatar of the dark side would go into hiding, rather than be destroyed. This would mirror the way Yoda was forced to go into exile. Snoke can be seen as a stand in for the Emperor who would have survived. However, to give my saga significance, he has to be more than a stand in. He has to be connected. Snoke is the embodiment of a dark side that went into hiding, and of a force that is still not balanced. In the throne room scene with Snoke, we even get the Emperor’s theme song when he is demonstrating the full range of his powers. They are telling us with music that Snoke is connected somehow to the Emperor we used to know. So as a writer, if I am to follow Lucas’ original ideas, I need not just a new villain, but someone who is taking up the mantle of Emperor Palpatine and the dark side.  He even twists Kylo Ren to have a desire to finish what Vader started, and he considers Luke Skywalker to be the greatest threat to him. These are thoughts that perhaps manifest from the Dark Side itself. In other words, the dark side is rather pissed at Luke for messing up its plans. 

If I am a writer and I want to deviate a little bit from Lucas, maybe I make Snoke not a Sith. Maybe he is even more ancient than Yoda, and has been lurking on the sidelines this whole time in the unknown regions. The books and comics are full of clues as to Snoke’s origin, but we shouldn’t need books and comics to flesh out a movie. They should be extra. Still, the books and comics seem to promise a large backstory for Snoke. I do this as an author. I build huge backstories for all my characters. Usually, I only end up using a small percentage of this backstory as the main story moves forward. It has been the same for Snoke. However, from the standpoint of the Force Awakens Era mythology, Snoke still has a role to play even if he never pulls himself together. I believe we stand to learn more of him through Kylo Ren.

  

Snoke as a point of view character. Perhaps the most important aspect we need to know about Snoke is how he managed to manipulate a troubled but extremely powerful child to the dark side. We are given glimpses of a marriage between Han and Leia that for one reason or another did not work out, and we get the impression it may have been over whether or not Ben Solo should be trained in the force (Sent Away to train with Luke). We get the impression that Ben felt shunned or out of touch with his parents. I will touch on this more later as I am working on a whole section on Kylo Ren’s turn and his point of view versus Luke.

The only thing The Last Jedi tells us about Snoke’s perspective is that Snoke “Found” Kylo Ren and that he was surprised by his power. He thought he had found someone “truly special” and he tells Kylo Ren that he may have been wrong in an effort to shame him. We are shown once again the abusive sort of relationship the dark side is known for, and it works. We don’t need any more from Snoke than this as a character. Why does it work?

Because Snoke is so well realized in his short amount of screen time we sympathize a lot with Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. If we did not sympathize with Ben and his turn to the dark side, then it would be safe to say these films are not working. Nobody is angry about the way Ben Solo/Kylo Ren is portrayed. They were angry because Snoke made our beloved Luke Skywalker look like a fool by stealing his student out from under him. Not only that, but he had Luke so afraid that he considered, even if only for a fraction of a second, that maybe he should end the darkness in his nephew by striking him down. How Snoke managed to do THAT is never fully explained. I maintain that it will be in Episode Nine. The reasons have everything to do with what the dark side is to the saga as a whole.

An underlying theme throughout the entire saga is in the way light and dark achieve immortality. The crux of what the dark side is about is in the Opera Scene between Anakin and Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith. The ultimate goal of the dark side is to cheat death, and have ultimate control over life. However, the pursuit of this power, instead of transcending or letting go by becoming one with the force, warps an individual physically. Snoke looks like he does for a reason. He has cheated death time and again. To me, this says he will come back in some form. But even if he doesn’t we will see him again as an avatar of the dark side in some future film, probably that trilogy Rian Johnson has planned.  

The way we will learn more about Snoke if he does not return outright will be through Kylo Ren as he seeks more power. No matter what direction they take the story, Kylo Ren will seek more and more power until either Rey is able to find balance with him through a loving and equal relationship (more on that later), or until he is redeemed or destroyed. He might even literally give us some exposition on some of Snoke’s teachings. However this trilogy ends, the dark side will not be destroyed as it was before, but rather it will be finally left in balance with the light. It will be an interesting and thought-provoking conclusion. However, just as Rey had her Jedi texts, Kylo will have some studies of his own. We will see the meaning of Rey’s vision. We will see the Knights of Ren. We will see the influence of Snoke and the dark side through all of it. No matter what happens, Snoke is never truly gone until Ben can balance the darkness within him and accept Rey’s light. (Or literally, a Ray of Light). This leads me to the next point of conflict for some fans. Rey and her nobody parents. 

Go on to Part II HERE