Thank you for the link. I’m afraid it is. I came to this community seeking an outlet for Star Wars conversations, as I do not know many people who like Star Wars as much as I do in my personal life.
I realize though that this online community, like many others I’ve tried out, is not for me. I know my stay has been brief, and although my first interactions were positive, it’s increasingly apparent to me that this young, meme-driven, argumentative environment was I was not what I looking for.
Disabling my account is a necessary action. I would rather not have the option to return.
Thank you for the kind words. I wish you the best.
May the Force be with you.
At your convenience, could someone provide me with a link or direct me to where I can disable my account?
EDIT: I deleted my retort, per mod request.
I don’t really care what your opinion of Rey is.
I’m telling you that Mary Sue does not refer to the fact that Rey can beat anyone, and is an inappropriate use of the term in this discussion because the critique is one of her character competency (her ability to fly and fix the Falcon, suddenly using the Mind Trick, etc). It is not a valid explanation for why she would beat Qui-Gon.
If you dislike how powerful she is, say as much. Say she’s overpowered. Mary Sue is not a synonym for overpowered. It’s not a relevant topic here.
If you read the original Mary Sue text by Paula Smith, “A Trekkie’s Tale,” there’s nothing about Mary Sue that’s overpowered. She’s over-competent.
"Gee, golly, gosh, gloriosky," thought Mary Sue as she stepped on the bridge of the Enterprise. "Here I am, the youngest lieutenant in the fleet - only fifteen and a half years old." Captain Kirk came up to her.
"Oh, Lieutenant, I love you madly. Will you come to bed with me?" "Captain! I am not that kind of girl!" "You're right, and I respect you for it. Here, take over the ship for a minute while I go get some coffee for us." Mr. Spock came onto the bridge. "What are you doing in the command seat, Lieutenant?" "The Captain told me to." "Flawlessly logical. I admire your mind."
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott beamed down with Lt. Mary Sue to Rigel XXXVII. They were attacked by green androids and thrown into prison. In a moment of weakness Lt. Mary Sue revealed to Mr. Spock that she too was half Vulcan. Recovering quickly, she sprung the lock with her hairpin and they all got away back to the ship.
But back on board, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Mary Sue found out that the men who had beamed down were seriously stricken by the jumping cold robbies , Mary Sue less so. While the four officers languished in Sick Bay, Lt. Mary Sue ran the ship, and ran it so well she received the Nobel Peace Prize, the Vulcan Order of Gallantry and the Tralfamadorian Order of Good Guyhood.
However the disease finally got to her and she fell fatally ill. In the Sick Bay as she breathed her last, she was surrounded by Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott, all weeping unashamedly at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability and all around niceness. Even to this day her birthday is a national holiday of the Enterprise.
If you read my previous comments, you’ll see I sided with Rey. I’m merely calling out the misuse of the term Mary Sue.
I like the concept ... for the most part. Disliked the fact that Echo survived and joined them.
Then say as much.
As it stands, you simply called Rey a Mary Sue, which has no intrinsic bearing on her skill or power and more speaks to your dislike of her as a character. It says nothing about how she would match-up against Qui-Gon.
Mary Sue refers to competency, not power. A character can be powerful and incompetent and vice versa. They aren’t the same thing.
I don’t see how the label of Mary Sue is relevant here. Calling Rey a Mary Sue refers to the view that the plot of the ST nonsensically bends to Rey in order to make her a flawless character. It doesn’t mean she’s inherently overpowered.
A little disappointed that a potentially great discussion was stifled by the ill-informed use of Mary Sue. Oh well.
Not saying she needs to be the protagonist of anything, but to outright reject her from the franchise simply because you dislike her public image is strange to me.
Behind-the-scenes drama is inevitable in Hollywood. Sure, she’s high-strung and opinionated in interviews, but I haven’t heard any coworker explicitly call her out or anything. Hard-to-work-with actors can still give great performances.
We obviously don’t have any whole story anyways, and I’m not willing to dismiss her out of conjecture, even if it’s not unfounded.
Every actor brings their own baggage to set. Adam Driver is a notoriously reclusive and an introverted method actor, but he still delivers a solid (if occasionally overcooked) performance as Kylo. Harrison Ford thought the OT was silliness - you could see the phone in his hand throughout ROTJ - yet still gives an iconic performance.
The OT trio’s chemistry was lightning in a bottle. If the pre-requisite is that the leads have to be good friends on and off camera, we’ll be waiting for awhile.
In the same regard, the actors don’t need to have Mark Hamill levels of likability to a candidate for a franchise role.
I don’t understand the overwhelming aversion to her as an actress. I’m assuming most people are judging her solely based on her role as Captain Marvel in the MCU and her public image. I don’t think that’s completely fair. Her career is broader than that.
She has dramatic talent. Room is one of the best indie films ever I’ve seen.
And if she is a fan of the franchise, what’s the harm in employing a big-name actress who would engage with the fanbase?
So sure, why not.
None of the above.
Thrawn already appeared in Rebels and has two book trilogies (one in development) devoted to him. And that’s just in Canon.
Revan already has an entire RPG videogame dedicated to him, as well as subsequent appearances in SWTOR. And a novel (not that we speak of it).
Darth Vader is already at the center of six saga films, steals the show in an anthology film, and has countless books and comics that focus on him.
All three are overexposed. Give other characters a chance to shine.
A fair conclusion. I’m simply pointing out it’s not as cut and dry as some are saying.
I wonder, how important is training and experience when matched against a Force prodigy like Rey?
Several fights in Star Wars saw the more naturally powerful combatant win over the better trained/experienced duelist (e.g. Anakin vs Dooku in Revenge of the Sith, Luke vs Vader in Return of the Jedi, Rey vs Kylo in The Force Awakens).
We’ve only seen Qui-Gon duel Maul, a Sith apprentice with considerably less training than Qui-Gon. Yet in both his solo encounters with Maul, Qui-Gon quickly grew exhausted when his brutish, strength-oriented fighting style failed to penetrate Maul’s defenses.
And we’ve seen Rey be able to keep pace with Kylo, whose fighting style is similar to Qui-Gon (quick and aggressive attacks), yet who outshines the latter in stamina. Indeed, Kylo beats Rey in The Rise of Skywalker by goading her into taking the offensive, tiring her out until she couldn’t cope with his heavy strikes.
It seems to me that, should Rey approach the duel with a defensive mindset, she would be able to exhaust Qui-Gon.
Or perhaps Qui-Gon could overwhelm her. The point is, the match-up is far more interesting than to be simplistically decided by training and experience alone.
EDIT: I realize what I wrote doesn’t really address the post as much as it does the first line. Forgive me, I’m mostly just using this as a place to sort out some thoughts.
This reminds me of a question I encountered some time ago: are you considered a Star Wars fan if the only films you liked are A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back?
(Obviously, I came across this when we only had the original six-movie saga, but the spirit of it still holds relevance nowadays, I surmise).
Far be it from any of us to determine what makes someone a “true fan” or not. The term lends itself to a gatekeeping attitude that implies one’s own love or knowledge of Star Wars is somehow superior.
That said, I do find it odd that some members of the Star Wars fanbase enjoy a only a minority of the content. Equally strange to me are the fans that do like most of what Lucasfilm pumps out, but are driven to primarily discuss what they didn’t like.
A healthy balance of praise and criticism promotes more level-headed discussion, in my opinion.
That opening line though of the post was interesting: “A lot of Star Wars fans hate Star Wars.” It’s not entirely accurate, but it’s not altogether false either. I don’t know if I have a point to this, as much as I am just musing over some thoughts.
Of all the half-baked VS battles I’ve seen populate the feed, this is one that actually interests me. It pits skill and tact (Qui-Gon) against power and resourcefulness (Rey).
I’m tentatively going with Rey. Skilled enough to survive an onslaught from Jinn, and creative enough to more effectively incorporate the Force into her combat style.
A solid argument could be made in Qui-Gon’s favor, however.
“Head-Canon” is more than an acceptable method of viewing the franchise. Sure, it’s cherry-picking, but before the Great Retcon of ‘14, it’s the only way I could make sense of the Legends Clone Wars timeline (which had incorporated TCW into the mythos, thereby completely overriding previous material).
While the “sequel de-canonization” movement is of course ridiculous, don’t put too much stock in what is “Canon” and “Non-Canon.” The quality of a story is not determined by whether it’s “official” or not.
To create an argument over what should or shouldn’t be Canon is to propagate an unnecessary fan divide, in my opinion.
I concur. As cool as the Duel on Mustafar is, the fight slogs on longer than it should. A good 5+ minutes could’ve been cut from the fight.
Which reminds me of another gripe I have: there’s too many lightsaber fights. Lightsaber fights feel more special and climatic when there’s less of them. At a point, Revenge of the Sith feels like it relies more on flash than substance.
My love for it has dwindled over the years. It’s becoming apparent to me that PT fans seem to minimize the abundant flaws of the film (in no small part due to the rise of “Meme Culture”) in order to prop the film up as indisputable proof the of PT’s supposed genius.
To be fair, it is a decent film. The tragedy is poignant, the score is brilliant, and the action sequences (primarily opening sequence and the lightsaber fights) are epic in all the right ways. Ian McDiarmid’s and Ewan McGregor’s performances makes the more wretched moments of dialogue bearable and even enjoyable, in a campy sort of way.
But the film isn’t at all what it’s since been hailed as, in my opinion. Anakin’s fall is contrived and unearned, Padme is still reduced to the lovesick damsel the end of ATOTC turned her into, Mace is distrustful towards Anakin for no apparent reason, Dooku and Greivous died far too quickly to be considered interesting antagonists, etc.
The narrative becomes stronger when viewed in conjunction with TCW, but the film’s reliance on a seven season TV series to become fully appreciated speaks volumes to its inability to stand on it’s own as a character driven story.
KOTOR is available on the App Store for $10, with the occasional discount here and there (I bought it on sale for $3).
I think the reason why Luke becomes the “ultimate Jedi” so many of us see him as is because he was never trained as Jedi.
He wasn’t taught to rein in his emotions to the point of apathy or numbness, and although Yoda wasn’t altogether out of place in telling Luke “Control, control, you must learn control,” it was only through his brief spat with the dark side in Return of the Jedi that Luke gained victory, and only his immediate horror of giving into that anger that he laid down his weapon and preserved the Jedi.
Luke’s emotions - his humanity - made him whole in ways other Jedi weren’t.
We’ve seen the fulfillment of that humanity in Legends - in his marriage to Mara, his New Jedi Order, etc. - and the consequences of his humanity in Canon through his exile.