Extratextual context & TFA
Jul. 21st, 2016 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineAt Tumblr, I responded to a conversation about how TFA creates a completely different experience if you know the wider context from the novelization/script/interviews.
I haven’t read the comments, so maybe a million people have said it, but this is something which I … get, but which isn’t my experience at all. I thought the movie was perfectly clear that the Resistance is fighting a proxy war, funded (it seems inadequately) by the Republic, to prevent open war. Like… clear from the opening crawl, but certainly by the end of Hux’s frothing speech about it.
I thought Ben was likely brainwashed by Snoke while very young–my best friend and I talked about it coming right out of the movie. We both got a decided ‘fanatical cult follower’ vibe off his scenes with Snoke and how he talks about him. We both thought it was extremely clear that he’s trying to follow the path he believes is right, and regards the Light and the Resistance as morally abhorrent; he’s acting on a moral compass, but that compass got completely warped at some point. And we’re told that Snoke fucked with him, and that he was still a boy when he turned, so it’s not that much of a mystery.
[Note from the present: scripts and novelizations outrank other pseudo-canon according to both Lucasfilm and me; I'm aware that Bloodline dates his turn further along, but until it shows up in a film, the novelization takes precedence in my view. Claudia Gray is clear that she was given very little information about Ben's turn in any case.]
There is stuff in the novelization, script, etc that takes it from “well, that’s what I thought” to pretty damn incontrovertible. But I’ve been completely bemused by, say, the school shooter MRA thing, because it … ignores almost every word out of his mouth? I don’t see how anyone could reasonably get from “Forgive me” “Supreme Leader senses it” “Supreme Leader is wise” “I just need your guidance” to “clearly this is all about male privilege”. ??????????
There’s plenty that’s more or less up in the air/subjective–like, his youth is emphasized, but nobody was going to get “groomed from inside his own head from infancy” out of the movie. We can find out the precise relationship between the Republic and Resistance, how Rey learned her mad desert skills, etc etc. And they might go a different direction with VIII, who knows. And there are plenty of things there is very little detail on in the movie (how does the Republic … work? at all?). But honestly, most of the things people point to as confusing or unexplained or dependent on outside sources seem either being saved for later films or perfectly clear in this one.
I haven’t read the comments, so maybe a million people have said it, but this is something which I … get, but which isn’t my experience at all. I thought the movie was perfectly clear that the Resistance is fighting a proxy war, funded (it seems inadequately) by the Republic, to prevent open war. Like… clear from the opening crawl, but certainly by the end of Hux’s frothing speech about it.
I thought Ben was likely brainwashed by Snoke while very young–my best friend and I talked about it coming right out of the movie. We both got a decided ‘fanatical cult follower’ vibe off his scenes with Snoke and how he talks about him. We both thought it was extremely clear that he’s trying to follow the path he believes is right, and regards the Light and the Resistance as morally abhorrent; he’s acting on a moral compass, but that compass got completely warped at some point. And we’re told that Snoke fucked with him, and that he was still a boy when he turned, so it’s not that much of a mystery.
[Note from the present: scripts and novelizations outrank other pseudo-canon according to both Lucasfilm and me; I'm aware that Bloodline dates his turn further along, but until it shows up in a film, the novelization takes precedence in my view. Claudia Gray is clear that she was given very little information about Ben's turn in any case.]
There is stuff in the novelization, script, etc that takes it from “well, that’s what I thought” to pretty damn incontrovertible. But I’ve been completely bemused by, say, the school shooter MRA thing, because it … ignores almost every word out of his mouth? I don’t see how anyone could reasonably get from “Forgive me” “Supreme Leader senses it” “Supreme Leader is wise” “I just need your guidance” to “clearly this is all about male privilege”. ??????????
There’s plenty that’s more or less up in the air/subjective–like, his youth is emphasized, but nobody was going to get “groomed from inside his own head from infancy” out of the movie. We can find out the precise relationship between the Republic and Resistance, how Rey learned her mad desert skills, etc etc. And they might go a different direction with VIII, who knows. And there are plenty of things there is very little detail on in the movie (how does the Republic … work? at all?). But honestly, most of the things people point to as confusing or unexplained or dependent on outside sources seem either being saved for later films or perfectly clear in this one.
no subject
on 2016-07-22 04:50 pm (UTC)THIS x 10000000. And I agree about a lot of details being fairly or mostly clear from the movie even without the supplemental stuff.
no subject
on 2016-07-23 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
on 2016-07-23 06:14 am (UTC)