Honestly, I think people seriously misinterpret Kylo Ren’s role as a villain, and not in a “he’s so misunderstood” Draco in leather pants kind of way.
He’s fascinating because he’s one of the few fictional villains that has some stuff in common with some of the real men who do dangerous and deadly things– he’s posturing, he feels persecuted, he’s explosive and uncontrolled, when he tries to look like a cool villain and give off that glib/‘badass’ vibe, it feels forced and awkward, it’s easy to laugh at him, but then he does something incredibly evil and reminds you that pathetic wannabes can be really scary dudes, too. He reminds me of school shooters, domestic abusers, extremely vitriolic alt-right internet trolls.
He doesn’t represent some grand vision or evil master plan like Voldemort. It’s all about outwardly channeling his inner turmoil and rage into self-aggrandizement, getting control over other people because he can’t control himself. He has thoughts, feelings, weaknesses, and at least a little bit of good in him. That doesn’t make him a misunderstood hero. The fact that he’s human and three dimensional and has people who care about him is part of what makes him more like the real evil that walks among us every day in the world.
People are always saying, “Kylo Ren is such a pathetic villain, he’s a whiny emo trying to dress up like a cool bad guy,” but that is lampshaded IN-universe, that people think that’s lame, too, even Snoke. People keep thinking that Kylo was supposed to be a cool villain like Darth Vader and that the movies failed miserably in portraying him as one, but I don’t see how.
White dudes are just pissed that they don’t have any heroes to identify with in the new trilogy, but see a lot of themselves in Kylo Ben, so rather than admit that they can be (and usually are) the villains in other people’s stories, they feel the need to justify that the one character they identify with is actually a hero…
Huh, it’s almost like it kinda hurts to only be represented by villains in blockbuster movies or something…
*sips this scalding hot tea*
He reminds me of school shooters, domestic abusers, extremely vitriolic alt-right internet trolls.
i really liked that women have a range of costuming in “the last jedi” and none of it is objectifying.
rey’s athletic, low maintenance yet stylish costuming “matures” without becoming hypersexualized. that is accomplished through adding more complexity/layering in terms of multiple colors/darker colors. and her hair style becomes more “adult” without becoming impractical for fighting.
rose dresses for her work and is too focused on the mission to mess around with fancy dress: actually, the fact that she goes to the fancy peoples’ party in her Resistance jumpsuit is a visual representation of how she rejects their phony, corrupt beauty. she sees through it and wants nothing to do with it.
and yet femininity is not associated only with phony beauty! the noble leaders leia and holdo are dressed very feminine… holdo has purple hair ffs! they’re both elegant in gorgeous colors and textures, dresses, jewelry, etc. but it’s not done in an objectifying way. they’re women dressing feminine for themselves not for the male gaze. and clearly they consider (and most people read) their dressing as an expression of authority rather than frivolity.
that part of it was SO IMPORTANT. it’s easy enough to simply only show strong female characters who are not dressed feminine. but it’s something special to show femininity that isn’t about the male gaze as well, to have that wide of a palette.
in terms of showing a wide range of women with a wide range of gender expression, it was much better than the get-up they had leia in in TFA, which seemed to imply that Leia would be disallowed from expressing her Star Wars-y feminine sense of style because she’s a general now… so everything has to be beige and blah
bull. shit.
leia would not stand for such a fool notion!
There were so many different women in TLJ, it makes me happy.
TLJ IS CHOCK-FULL OF AMAZING WOMEN WHO ARE NOT OBJECTIFIED, WHO ARE DIVERSE, YOUNG, OLD, WISE, CUNNING, EVIL!!
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND PEOPLE WHO ARE SO UP THEIR ARSE THEY DON’T THINK IT’S FEMINIST ENOUGH.
Asdfghjkl!!!
I particularly appreciated Holdo and Leia’s farewell. There were some beautiful hand shots in this movie, and theirs with two pairs of hands dripping with Space Jewelry (apparently Carrie Fisher insisted the movie needed more Space Jewelry! ❤ ) was a highlight for me. It’s like a visual + costume extravaganza version of passing the Bechdel Test; a scene of conspicuously feminine emotional connection between two Resistance leaders and old friends.
ealdor 