Star Wars | Neko Atsume

[thistlechaser]

I really, really wish I could get into Star Wars.

I watched the new movie this weekend (downloaded, because there's no way I would take the time and money to see a movie I suspected I wouldn't like, even if I had had the money to spend), and I couldn't even get through it.

I love the idea of Star Wars (a giant story that so many people love and are into), and I like how complex the canon seems to be, but even though I keep trying to make myself get into it, for some reason it just never hooks me.

I tried rewatching the original three a year or two back, but they did nothing for me.
I'm watching Clone Wars on Netflix, but I watch at most one 20 minute ep a week, and often miss weeks.
I gave this new movie a chance, watching more than an hour and a half of the two hours, but I had so little interest in it.


I did like the idea behind the Finn character, and I had hoped that would be enough to make me like the movie, but that part of the plot seemed so shallow, like they just barely mentioned who he was and why he left the Storm Troopers, then had to move on to the action. I would have liked it if they had spent a whole lot more time on that, on his struggle to break away from his training and conditioning. /end spoiler


I had to pause the movie to google and see if I understood a part right. If this is a spoiler, I suspect it's nearly as old as I am, but I'm cutting just in case I'm wrong about that.



So... Han Solo was Darth Vader's son? That seems so... cliche? Odd? Off? Something is very, very strange about that, like a fic where the author wants to make their most popular characters related somehow. [Edit: Oops, I'm wrong! See comments.]

And then I found out Han Solo had the kid with Princess Leia, and I really started rubbing my head.

Questionable storylines aside, their kid is quite hot!

/end spoiler


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Neko Atsume is killing me. I cannot believe how much I love these little cartoon cats! It's insane! I talk to them in my head, just like I would real kittens. I have real feelings for these silly little cats! I don't understand it, I feel like I'm going crazy!



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I had some other stuff I wanted to post about, but I forgot to upload the screenshots, so that will be a post for another day.

Comments

[twissie.livejournal.com]

Don't beat yourself up over not being into Star Wars! And to clear up some confusion, Han Solo is not Darth Vader's son, but Luke is! (and Leia is Luke's twin sister).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

OOOOH I see where I made my mistake. Darth Caedus is Darth Vader's grandson, and Han is his father, so I followed the wrong line. I should have realized -- I knew Luke was Vader's son, and Leia is his twin...

Thanks!

[twissie.livejournal.com]

There's definitely lots of family stuff in Star Wars xD I'm looking forward to seeing where the new trilogy will take us :)

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Han Solo is not Darth Vader's son. Leia is Darth Vader's daughter. She is Luke Skywalker's twin sister. Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) is Han and Leia's son, thus Darth Vader is his grandfather.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I see where I made my mental misstep -- I knew Caedus was Darth Vader's grandson, and Han was his father, so I followed the paternal line instead of realizing it was the maternal one.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Aha.

Another problem you're having is that you're conflating the movie Kylo Ren with the Expanded Universe character Darth Caedus, from the novels. He has not shown up in the movies and may well not.

I never read the books, so I was confused for a sec. The books /were/ official canon but are no longer, as I understand the change. They may take elements from them, but it's not guaranteed.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

OH! I've read LJ posts talking about a "Ren", but I had no idea who that was. (I got Caedus from the SW wiki.)

I wonder if the books would work for me better than the movies (even if they're not canon anymore, per doxxxicle below).

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Dunno! I've heard some of them are pretty good, but I don't know which ones. I never read them. (Despite reading Star Trek novels. I think I just had more access to Trek novels.)

Movie!Han's kid's original name was Ben. (Which is said somewhere in the movie by Leia or Han, not sure which.) His current use name is Kylo Ren, and there's some mention that there are Knights of Ren, so Ren is a title. (But the mention of the Knights may be in the movie's novelization.)

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

The Knights of Ren are mentioned briefly in the movie.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Heh. OK. I've only managed to see it once, so far, so I was going from not-very-good memory. (So, thank you!)

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

Pretty much all of the expanded Star Wars universe is no longer canon.

See: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Legends

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

I'm expecting them to expand on Finn's backstory and reasons for defecting in the sequels. This movie felt like it specifically set out to invoke memories of the originals (the parallels are so clear they're almost distracting) while trying to wash the taste of the prequel trilogy from our mouths, and...it doesn't do a whole lot else. Definitely not something that'll sway someone who's already found Star Wars isn't for them!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.

I actually was wishing there was less reference to the originals/more focus on going forward, which matches with me not being a real fan of the franchise.

[http://users.livejournal.com/spieler_/]

Yes I felt so too!
Episode VII is too much copied from episode IV, really.

When the alien lady who kept the light sword said that she is not a Jedy but she feels the Force, I expected her to be Yoda's daughter.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! I did raise my eyebrows at that. Seemed a tad Mary Sue-ish (but who knows, maybe that's a perfectly fine thing to happen in SW canon).

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

If Star Wars isn't your thing, don't feel bad. I love and adore Star Wars but only the movies. And just the originals. I am not really into the books (which don't matter anyway because Disney deleted them) and have only seen a handful of the tv shows.

And the problem with planned series - movies and books mostly - is how they have the piece meal out the information, knowing that they have more stories to tell. If it was a TV show, leaving out some backstory wouldn't surprise us because we figure we will learn more later on. But having to wait over a year to find out what parts of the film are intentional plot holes and what are not...that can be frustrating.

But if it's not your thing, that is ok :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That macro made me snicker. :)

I think I'm going to hunt down a book and give it a try. If that fails for me, well... I did give it the best try I can.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

LOL the books are not going to help, some of them are okay but they will tie into the movies so much and probably be more confusing. But you tried, it's all good, I respect you for trying! There's plenty of fandoms I'm like "can't get it, won't get it, not even going there" :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Someone else recommended the book tie-in for this movie, so I grabbed a copy of it. If that doesn't work, then I give up. :) I gave it the best try I could to get hooked! And I'll keep slowly pecking away at the Clone War cartoon, since I'm liking that well enough.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

My Dad LOVES the Clone Wars cartoon. I think he thought Ashoka was kick ass. He tried to steal the action figure I got for Christmas LOL. I need to watch it, I wasn't pulled in by the first season, but I've heard it gets intense later on.

I did watch the first season of 'Rebels' as well because the library got it on DVD. It also took awhile to get going but I liked it. Not a lot of shows marketed to children where people are getting shot with blasters LOL

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

If you have Netflix, both Clone Wars and Rebels are on it.

He tried to steal the action figure I got for Christmas LOL.

Ha! That's too cute.

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

I love hearing from people who don't enjoy the things that I do! That sounded like sarcasm, but I enjoy when people have intelligent opinions that disagree with mine.

If you want a bit more of Finn's backstory, it came out in a book http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens/dp/148472822X . Greg Rucka is a great writer, though I have mostly only read his comic book stuff, so I can't attest to this book.

I loved The Force Awakens, I liked the humor and found all of the characters to be compelling and the humor and action to be lots of fun and very exciting.

I also enjoyed the original 3 movies quite a bit, but it is just a movie, there is no reason everybody should like everything, and it annoys me when other people get hung up on someone not liking a thing that they enjoy.

Also, to clarify what everyone else is saying, the original three movies, the prequel three movies, The Clone Wars cartoon, The Force Awakens and books and comics released since Disney bought Lucasfilm are all that are in canon, all that "count". This was largely because there had been hundreds of books and comics and card games and video games released since the mid 90's, leaving almost no corner of that universe unexplored, almost no storyline or plot not gone over, so they chucked the lot of it. Well, not chucked, it all still exists, it is just out of canon, or as they call it officially, it is "Legends".

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I grabbed a copy of the book, looks like that might be more to my taste. Fingers crossed!

because there had been hundreds of books and comics and card games and video games released since the mid 90's, leaving almost no corner of that universe unexplored, almost no storyline or plot not gone over

Funny they chuckled all that out -- that's the part that really draws me in. All that history, all those details, such a rich and complex world (universe!).

I'm with you, I did like the humor, but for me action is generally the last thing I'm looking for in a movie. Sometimes, like in Avengers, it does work for me, but nine times out of ten, I could do without it. So in this case, every time things started to get interesting for me, we'd take a left turn into ACTION and that would be the end of the part I was enjoying.

[adam-0oo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was interesting. I know they do books and comics and such for lots of popular genre shows, but I don't know if any universe has been as well explored as the Star Wars universe. Every single background character in the original series has stories written about them, names assigned to them. And considering how many background characters there are, that is pretty wild.

Of course, even though all the old stuff is Legends now, they started off pretty fast again. There are already 3-5 books and twice that number of comic book series. We will also be getting at least one Star Wars movie a year for...ever basically or until they stop making a profit.

[wow-hazmat.livejournal.com]

I've always enjoyed the Star Wars movies and such, but they never have grabbed my emotional core the way Star Trek and Doctor Who did. It never sparked the whole "Playgrounds of the Mind" thing that Larry Niven used to talk about.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That spark is exactly what I'm missing. I need an emotional reaction/connection to things to really be interested in them, and for me the only emotion I feel for SW is frustration (so many other people love it, I want to, too!).

[quistie.livejournal.com]

It may help to read what other people are saying about Star Wars, then. There were some Rewatch articles featured on Tor.com before the release of the new Star Wars movie, many of them are worth reading.

Here is one of them: http://www.tor.com/2015/12/01/everyone-loves-star-wars-the-empire-strikes-back-because-han-solo-is-the-hero/

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh, very interesting read. Thanks for the link!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I can never get this app. Because my reaction was a gasp and then a delighted, "BAAAAAABIES!" I would never get any work done again, I'd be checking on kittons all the damn time.

... I am less amazed that you aren't into Star Wars (that's why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors) than I am by the fact that you have somehow gone your entire life without seeing some reference to LUKE, I AM YOUR FATHER, because spoofs of that shit are EVERYWHERE. Of course, I may just have seen/heard more of it than anyone else, because my brother's name is Luke. So he got a lot of that growing up (and also USE THE FORCE, LUKE).

I get being disappointed you weren't into it, though. It's never fun to feel left out of something all your friends are enjoying. I liked the new movie fine, and did enjoy the whole thing, but I'm not as into it as all my friends. I don't feel any need to post and collect fanart and discuss theories or anything, I'm just kind of like, "That was nice! Movin' on."

It did make me want to watch the old ones again, which is fun because I can color during them, having seen them numerous times, and also because it's really hilarious and uncomfortable for me watching how many times Luke and Leia made squiggly heart eyes at each other before they knew they were siblings.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really can't recommend the app. It's so annoying! It's the very first thing I check in the morning (What cats have I missed overnight? Must refill the food bowl! -- It's a good thing my cat doesn't know that fake cars get fed long before she does.) and the last thing I do before turning out my lights to sleep. Using your cellphone at all while your car is turned on is illegal here, but for the first time in my life I want to use it -- to check on these darned cats. SAVE YOURSELF! Do not download this app!

I think I mostly just tune out Star Wars stuff. I strongly associate it with my father, who was the source of most of my problems in life, so when people start making references and such, my brain tunes out. (Which, hm, could also be why I'm struggling to get into it now... DUH!)