STAR WARS: It’s Time to Accept the REAL Problem is the Scripts

Star Wars: It’s Time to Accept the Real Problem is the Scripts

Dustin Pinney at CBR.com (formerly Comic Book Resources) recently wrote an article entitled “Star Wars: It’s Time to Accept the REAL Problem Is the Fans.” It’s one of many such articles about Star Wars and its fanbase that have been published on Star Wars / The Fanbase since Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker were released in theaters.

As of writing this response to that article published on January 3, 2020, the aforementioned article has accumulated twenty-one comments, both in favor of the sentiments in the article and against the contents of the article.

In this response article, I will be looking at what Mr. Pinney said in his article and offer my opinion on specific aspects of it.

“Fans lash out, not because the movies didn’t suit their personal tastes, but because they offend their sense of identity.”

For a person’s sense of identity to be offended, wouldn’t you have to see yourself, top to bottom, external and internal, in a character, in a role, in a group represented on-screen before you could be offended by how they are portrayed? Star Wars is a movie about space wizards and a nearly off-screen totalitarian government. I agree that people see themselves in the archetypes on-screen e.g. the young adult that dreams of escaping the drudgery of his or her life but these characters are make-believe and they exist in a fictional world. Since most people realize this while watching a Star Wars film, how is their sense of identity offended while watching one of these movies?

In addition, many of the characters are classic archetypes and can be found in works of literature going back to the beginning of time. Star Wars doesn’t own them. It didn’t invent them. It uses them like other works of art have in the past and will in the future.

“From review-bombing to outright hate speech, the negativity swirling around Star Wars isn’t coming from objectively bad filmmaking, it’s coming from the fans themselves.”

The negativity swirling around Star Wars is directly coming from bad film-making but also from bad script-writing. When your plot makes no sense or contradicts itself (or the films that came before it), people see that and it lowers their movie-going experience.

Example (from my review and analysis of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker):

Sheev Palpatine asks Rey to kill him in The Rise of Skywalker so he can move into her body and become one with her.

“Kill me and my spirit will pass into you…You will be Empresses, we will be one.”

The screenwriters create a brilliant Catch-22 scenario: kill me and I win (I take your body). Don’t kill me and I win (my fleet launches and I take the galaxy).

And what do the screenwriters do with this cleverly constructed Catch-22 scenario in the film? Nothing. They don’t execute the Catch-22’s effect after its primary stipulation has been completed and hope no one notices – Rey kills Palpatine, like he asked, and nothing happens.

When Rey is revived, Palpatine and Rey aren’t one, and Rey isn’t a Sith.

The screenwriters expect the viewer to forget what Sheev just said four minutes ago and the implications of those words.

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This is how badly The Rise of Skywalker is written.

“Following the 2015 release of The Force Awakens, fans came together to theorize about a number of the film’s unresolved story threads, including Rey’s parentage, Snoke’s origin, and speculation regarding Rey and Kylo Ren’s perceived romance.”

Very true but who speculated about a Rey and Kylo Ren romance after The Force Awakens? Kylo murdered his father in front of Rey, Rey called Kylo “a monster,” then she nearly killed him, scarring his face for life. Who thought that was romantic? Fans speculated about Finn and Rey after the release of The Force Awakens and how that relationship would be continued in the next film, not Rey and Kylo.

“When [The Last Jedi] didn’t go the way they expected, a vocal contingent of fans became angry.”

Fans weren’t angry because Star War: The Last Jedi didn’t go the way they expected. Fans were angry because The Last Jedi sucked (that is my opinion and not everyone shares it. Some people thought TLJ was great). It was badly-written, badly-edited, and it was filled with narrative points that were non-sensical.

Example (from my review and analysis of Star Wars: The Last Jedi):

the empty Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) vs. Finn fight in The Last Jedi (pure fan service, its creation and inclusion in the film obvious wish-fulfillment).

During the fight scene with Finn, the combat skills presented by Captain Phasma were pathetic. How does a female Stormtrooper rise to the rank of Captain yet be so skill-less that they are beaten by a soldier formerly relegated to garbage detail? It was inexplicable that Captain Phasma lost that fight. It was ridiculous that Finn was even able to hold his own against her. Think of all the combat experience a veteran soldier like Phasma would have had to utilize and fall back on. How did a seasoned soldier like that fail to beat and kill someone who amounted to a rookie in comparison? Hubris? No. Worse. The Last Jedi‘s screenwriter. Captain Phasma was handicapped by her writer and forced to lose. The viewer could feel it as they watched the cartoon fight unfold.

“they review-bombed sites like Rotten Tomatoes…and produced countless video essays chronicling the purported sins of The Last Jedi.”

By review bombed, you mean people went to the public comment section for that film on Rotten Tomatoes and utilized that site function as intended? One person commenting can’t control other people on the site, whether that’s the content they publish or the volume of people publishing said content. People went to Rotten Tomatoes because it was popular and they knew their voices would be heard there (and they were). I miss IMDb’s forums as well but since it’s gone, people have found other places to quickly publish their reviews: blogs, websites, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and in this case, Rotten Tomatoes.

With all of The Last Jedi reviews that popped up on YouTube after The Last Jedi‘s release, no one has claimed that fans review-bombed YouTube. There is an inequality in that but YouTube is a far more open forum than Rotten Tomatoes. People used both to express their positive, negative, and indifferent feelings on The Last Jedi. The audience and fan reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, because of its mainstream status, got more attention. That’s all.

And as to “the purported sins of The Last Jedi“, they are n.u.m.e.r.o.u.s.

“The Rise of Skywalker was similarly met with backlash, albeit largely from a different corner of fandom: those upset that Rey and Kylo’s arc didn’t culminate in romance. While Ben Solo found redemption (or “Bendemption”), he didn’t survive the film.”

The Rise of Skywalker faced backlash because the first draft of the film’s script was the one on-screen and not the fourteenth draft. The Rise of Skywalker is multiple films crammed into one. That is why fans are upset. Because of the slop, not the film’s Rey and Kylo arc.

From my review:

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a triage film that tries and fails to suture the plot-holes and bandage shut the canon-defying mistakes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In point of fact, The Rise of Skywalker adds to those very mistakes throughout its narrative. The Rise of Skywalker‘s story-line would not exist in its current incarnation if Disney’s Star Wars trilogy had been planned out before production began on Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

“when like-minded Star Wars devotees gather to share theories, likes and dislikes, it can create an echo chamber”

That is partially true. People gravitate to like-minded individuals and do the opposite with those they disagree with. Some people do this but not all. Some people want to hear a differing opinion. Sometimes there are truths in a dissenting opinion that a person is blind to, didn’t recognize, or saw in a completely different light.

“Buoyed by a sense of entitlement, theories can morph into certainties. And when those expectations aren’t met, some fans lash out.”

Being in an echo chamber and having your opinion agreed with doesn’t guarantee a sense of entitlement.

That is like saying “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

Many things lead to suffering and so to do many things lead to entitlement. Entitlement is created on a case by case basis, situation by situation. There is not some universal formula that leads to it. Being in an echo chamber and having your opinion validated may lead to a sense of entitlement in some people but not everyone. Entitlement is not some tarp that you can throw over fans of Star Wars who are animated about their like or dislike about the direction the franchise has headed.

The quality of Star Wars film scripts has been on the decline, not the incline. Some fans have noticed that and have written about it in reviews, editorials, essays, podcasts, and/or made YouTube videos about it.

Whether their opinions are valid or not, their opinions have not made Star Wars bad or the fandom bad. It’s the scripts for the gorram films. They have made Star Wars bad. They have gotten progressively worse. They have become a mess of explosions, pointless sword fights, MacGuffins, space battles performed out of obligation not necessity, etc.

People weren’t irked because of the Mary Poppins moment in The Last Jedi. People like new, well-written plot points e.g. good surprises. Fans were upset because that moment had absolutely no foundation based upon the previous films in the franchise and the previous characterization of Princess Leia.

“There is a strong undercurrent of racism and sexism at the heart of these attacks. For some, the original Star Wars movies were about mostly white men doing amazing things. To have women or a black man in lead roles challenges their notions of what Star Wars is.”

Racism and sexism isn’t at the heart of these attacks. If the Disney Skywalker trilogy had been expertly written and filmed, filtered through canon and logic, infused with heart and ingenuity, you would likely not hear a beep from fans. On the contrary, you would hear a roar. A roar of gratitude, the clamor of crowd-after-crowd standing in line for hours at a time for the newest installment of Star Wars. Remember those days? That does not happen anymore because the story-lines in the current films are of a far inferior grade. The plots aren’t big anymore. They are rehashes: desert planet? Check. Stormtroopers that can’t shoot straight? Check. Cute, cuddly character to market and monetize? Check. You can literally see the boxes that were checked off behind-the-scenes when you now watch Star Wars.

The original Star Wars films were about good storytelling. Marketing, maximizing Chinese box office returns, those weren’t considerations. It was always the story. Not hitting a theatrical release date or the inclusion of this or that. It was about transporting the viewer to a land far, far away and making sure that their voyage there, and their brief stay, was an entertaining and engaging one.

Now Star Wars films are assembly-line products were narrative cohesion is the last thing their producers care about. The checklist comes first, profits second, the script third, fan and critic reaction fourth.

“One could argue that those fans are simply voicing their “opinion” of a character or a screenplay. That argument is void, however, once a racial slur or sexist comment is uttered.”

I agreed wholeheartedly with that. When you make a racial slur or sexist comment, that becomes the subject of your comment, no matter what your comment was originally about. You destroy the point you are trying to make when you stoop to that.

“Was Luke Skywalker accused of being a Mary Sue when he was able to project himself across the galaxy and fight Kylo Ren?”

Luke Skywalker Force Projecting himself was a horrible plot point in The Last Jedi. It was anti-climatic. Why not have him fly his X-wing to Salt Hoth using lightspeed and physically face The First Order? Remember the script problem point I previously brought up regarding Disney’s Star Wars films? Luke physically showing up, blasting his way through The First Order fleet in orbit to get to the surface of the planet to face Kylo Ren literally would have been Luke facing the past, demons and all, to protect the future. But no. Instead, audiences got a projection.

“Loving Star Wars is not a bad thing. Being disappointed when the thing you love changes into something else is understandable.”

I agree.

“It’s natural to feel some dissonance when a constant in your life suddenly shifts.”

I agree again.

“At the end of the day, however, fans don’t control who is cast in a movie, the story the writer decides to tell, or how we feel about it.”

Fans and critics can’t control the former but they can control the latter. Fans and critics do control how they feel about a particular film, especially the story the writer decides to tell within that film.

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