Star Wars Joy and Fun-Ness Episode III: Revenge of the Questions
Okey-okey, pallies - let's wrap this thing up. As it stands, today is the day The Rise of Skywalker comes out and I'm in radio silence on social media, so while I'm posting this today, you're probably reading it after the fact.
A note: I've been getting wrapped around my own axle about the mixed reactions and reviews of The Rise of Skywalker - it's clear it's not getting universal acclaim but also not universal lambasting. I'm nervous for my own part about what I may or may not like, how good or bad it may be, and I keep telling myself to just let go. On the way to work today I listened to a brief special podcast from ForceCenter, my absolute favorite group of Star Wars podcasters, in which one of them gave the best bit of wisdom in the form of a quote from The Empire Strikes Back: What's in there? Only what you take with you. It's a great message, listen here - I absolutely recommend it.
I need to stop worrying about what might happen and just go and sit in my seat with the excitement for whatever will happen. That's what I plan to do.
Now, it's time for the last set of Star Wars favorites - you can read the first two parts here and here. Don't forget, there will be a bonus post about what I liked from TROS, so stay tuned.
21: Favorite Revenge of the Sith moment - the opening scene. It's one of the best sequences in the saga: the drums of war, the music, tracking the two fighters as they fly, the moment where the larger ship drops out and you see the giant and deep battlefield over Coruscant. Certainly A New Hope has the most iconic opening scene of the movies, but this one is my favorite in the saga.
22: Favorite The Force Awakens moment - it for sure has to be when Luke's lightsaber flies through the air on Starkiller Base into the waiting hand of Rey. When I first watched TFA, in that moment I was sure this was when Luke Skywalker would show up and he would catch it. Nevermind it would have made no sense how he ended up on Starkiller, but that's what I thought. And I was so much happier then, and now, that it was Rey who summoned the saber to her. One really great note (pointed out by a friend) is that the music in this moment is the same as when Luke returns to his home on Tatooine and sees what the Empire did to his family. It carries the idea and emotion of decision, like in each case that's the moment where each character stands at a crossroads and decides which path they'll follow.
23: All-time favorite outfit #1 - I gotta go with my mans Han Solo and his classic black-vest-white-shirt look. It's so classic, on Endor, Han ditched the whole camouflage thing HIS WHOLE TEAM WAS GOING FOR and just went back to basics.
24: Favorite The Last Jedi moment - There were so many moments as I watched this the first time where I about jumped out of my chair in awe and excitement. The one I'm going with is what I call (not uniquely, probably) the Holdo Maneuver, where Vice-Admiral Holdo takes the Resistance's largest and last ship, the Raddus, and flies it at HYPERSPACE SPEED right into "old man Snoke's boudoir." I was absolutely and completely FLOORED in this moment. The visual effects and the dropout of sound (a masterstroke on director Rian Johnson's part) combined with the sheer awesomeness of the moment to make it one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a Star Wars show.
25: Best Star Wars meme #1 - Again, I don't really dive deep into meme-land, but as Baby Yoda is the current meme king, here you go:
26: Craziest theory you've heard - the whole "Jar Jar is the true Dark Lord of the Sith" got really popular for some reason, and I don't get it, because I think it's a really stupid theory.
27: All-time favorite quote - How in the world do you distill the entirety of a saga - eleven movies - down to just one favorite quote? Impossible. But one of my lasting favorites is from an exchange between Luke and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back during the former's training, just after Yoda raises Luke's X-wing from out of the swamp and sets it on firm ground:
- Luke: I don't believe it!
- Yoda: That is why you fail.
It's a great quote about how Luke's own doubt is a contributor to his own shortcomings, and it's got a lot of application to my own life as well.
28: Craziest theory you had - I haven't been one for crazy theories, but the one I spent most of my brain energy on was the identity of Rey's parents. NOTE: I'm writing this pre-Rise of Skywalker so we may well learn more than we've been told about Rey's origins. But from my first viewing of TFA I was convinced Rey was a Skywalker, that somewhere along the line Luke had a daughter and then left her. Before The Last Jedi, I'd also started to maybe believe she was related to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I had determined my hope was that she wasn't related to anyone special, that she was powerful in her own right, not because she was a Skywalker or Kenobi or Palpatine. The Last Jedi certainly has us believing that, which I love, but one wonders if there will be another twist coming.
29: All-time favorite character - Han Solo. No question. Number two is Rey.
30: Best Star Wars memory - Again, how do you distill this down to just one? For my answer, I'm going to put all the awesome and weird and funny conversations I've had with my sisters and friends and people on Twitter and at work and church. I love that Star Wars gives us so much to talk about and be excited about and think is weird but awesome. Below: my sister Sarah and me before seeing The Force Awakens.
I could go on for years and years and decades. Throughout my life I've varied on which thing I geek harder about at any given moment - Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Marvel, Warcraft - but by far the fandom that has defined my life and personality and geekdom is and likely will always be Star Wars.
A note: I've been getting wrapped around my own axle about the mixed reactions and reviews of The Rise of Skywalker - it's clear it's not getting universal acclaim but also not universal lambasting. I'm nervous for my own part about what I may or may not like, how good or bad it may be, and I keep telling myself to just let go. On the way to work today I listened to a brief special podcast from ForceCenter, my absolute favorite group of Star Wars podcasters, in which one of them gave the best bit of wisdom in the form of a quote from The Empire Strikes Back: What's in there? Only what you take with you. It's a great message, listen here - I absolutely recommend it.
I need to stop worrying about what might happen and just go and sit in my seat with the excitement for whatever will happen. That's what I plan to do.
Now, it's time for the last set of Star Wars favorites - you can read the first two parts here and here. Don't forget, there will be a bonus post about what I liked from TROS, so stay tuned.
21: Favorite Revenge of the Sith moment - the opening scene. It's one of the best sequences in the saga: the drums of war, the music, tracking the two fighters as they fly, the moment where the larger ship drops out and you see the giant and deep battlefield over Coruscant. Certainly A New Hope has the most iconic opening scene of the movies, but this one is my favorite in the saga.
22: Favorite The Force Awakens moment - it for sure has to be when Luke's lightsaber flies through the air on Starkiller Base into the waiting hand of Rey. When I first watched TFA, in that moment I was sure this was when Luke Skywalker would show up and he would catch it. Nevermind it would have made no sense how he ended up on Starkiller, but that's what I thought. And I was so much happier then, and now, that it was Rey who summoned the saber to her. One really great note (pointed out by a friend) is that the music in this moment is the same as when Luke returns to his home on Tatooine and sees what the Empire did to his family. It carries the idea and emotion of decision, like in each case that's the moment where each character stands at a crossroads and decides which path they'll follow.
23: All-time favorite outfit #1 - I gotta go with my mans Han Solo and his classic black-vest-white-shirt look. It's so classic, on Endor, Han ditched the whole camouflage thing HIS WHOLE TEAM WAS GOING FOR and just went back to basics.
24: Favorite The Last Jedi moment - There were so many moments as I watched this the first time where I about jumped out of my chair in awe and excitement. The one I'm going with is what I call (not uniquely, probably) the Holdo Maneuver, where Vice-Admiral Holdo takes the Resistance's largest and last ship, the Raddus, and flies it at HYPERSPACE SPEED right into "old man Snoke's boudoir." I was absolutely and completely FLOORED in this moment. The visual effects and the dropout of sound (a masterstroke on director Rian Johnson's part) combined with the sheer awesomeness of the moment to make it one of the coolest things I've ever seen in a Star Wars show.
25: Best Star Wars meme #1 - Again, I don't really dive deep into meme-land, but as Baby Yoda is the current meme king, here you go:
26: Craziest theory you've heard - the whole "Jar Jar is the true Dark Lord of the Sith" got really popular for some reason, and I don't get it, because I think it's a really stupid theory.
27: All-time favorite quote - How in the world do you distill the entirety of a saga - eleven movies - down to just one favorite quote? Impossible. But one of my lasting favorites is from an exchange between Luke and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back during the former's training, just after Yoda raises Luke's X-wing from out of the swamp and sets it on firm ground:
- Luke: I don't believe it!
- Yoda: That is why you fail.
It's a great quote about how Luke's own doubt is a contributor to his own shortcomings, and it's got a lot of application to my own life as well.
28: Craziest theory you had - I haven't been one for crazy theories, but the one I spent most of my brain energy on was the identity of Rey's parents. NOTE: I'm writing this pre-Rise of Skywalker so we may well learn more than we've been told about Rey's origins. But from my first viewing of TFA I was convinced Rey was a Skywalker, that somewhere along the line Luke had a daughter and then left her. Before The Last Jedi, I'd also started to maybe believe she was related to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but I had determined my hope was that she wasn't related to anyone special, that she was powerful in her own right, not because she was a Skywalker or Kenobi or Palpatine. The Last Jedi certainly has us believing that, which I love, but one wonders if there will be another twist coming.
29: All-time favorite character - Han Solo. No question. Number two is Rey.
30: Best Star Wars memory - Again, how do you distill this down to just one? For my answer, I'm going to put all the awesome and weird and funny conversations I've had with my sisters and friends and people on Twitter and at work and church. I love that Star Wars gives us so much to talk about and be excited about and think is weird but awesome. Below: my sister Sarah and me before seeing The Force Awakens.
I could go on for years and years and decades. Throughout my life I've varied on which thing I geek harder about at any given moment - Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Marvel, Warcraft - but by far the fandom that has defined my life and personality and geekdom is and likely will always be Star Wars.
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