I think you're underplaying how little of a 'journey' Rey actually undergoes. She never has any real moments of powerlessness or failure, even at the beginning of the story you see her fending off multiple attackers, then expertly flying the Millennium Falcon (including lining up an utterly implausible shot to take out a fighter), then immediately transitions into saving Finn from the tentacle monsters and then fixing the Falcon's hyperdrive in literal moments. The closest she comes to failure is being captured, but...she then proceeds to resist being interrogated (and even turn whatever force crap Kylo Ren is doing back on him), immediately and trivially learn the Jedi Mind Trick to escape, and is well on her way to freedom before she runs into the rest of the characters that came to rescue her. THEN she beats Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel (completely neutering any threat he might have posed in later installments). Essentially, she spends the entire film moving from strength to strength, and while some of her skills could be justified (like how Luke was a good pilot and a decent marksmen in ANH), she is never shown to have any notable flaws or weaknesses such that she actually *needs* to develop as a character, or *needs* to lean on the other cast members to succeed. I tend to agree that TFA was not 'woke' in the same sense as some more modern media can be, but I don't think it can be called a successful implementation of the hero's journey when the protagonist starts the story in a dominant position and is never actually portrayed as an underdog at any point.
It was over the top, but it also struck me as Young Adult (YA). You get that kind of unearned superperson protagonist in the YA genre all the time, male or female.
@FiestierThread Spot on - rooting for Rei would be something like rooting for Gaston in Beauty & The Beast - begins to sing, “No one fights like Gaston ..”
The Force Awakens has some elements of performative woke, like Ray and Han, but it's not in your face. I never felt it when I watch the movie in the theaters. But The Last Jedi is the one that's really performative woke - to the nth degree: all man bad or evil, all women cannot make mistakes (or at least they try to represent them as always being correct) etc. When I exited the theater all I could think was: what did I just watch (and not just because of the performative wokeness)?
@@amys0482 That's why I wrote: "they try to represent them as always being correct". For example, when Holdo deliberately didn't tell Poe about her plan which led to him mutanee, which was a mistake, it was presented in the movie as: "See! She was right! Her plan worked!" And let's not talk about that scene when he tries to get information from her and all the characters in the scene apart from him are women where they tried to imply he was mansplaining while he was actually asking legitimate questions.
@@amys0482 The movie doesnt present those things women do as mistakes. When things go wrong its blamed on men, mostly Poe. This is further demonstrated in the directors commentary track. But we can get back to that when there is a "The Last Jedi" video :)
I'm not sure I agree with the definition of woke as being a money-grab based on a wide representation of the cast. I think it's about the message it's trying to deliver. TFA isn't an especially preachy film IMO. It is a terribly written one, and it definitely has woke elements (the women are amazing at everything and have no flaws, all the villains are whiney white men-children, the legacy character has been reduced to being a dead-beat dad, etc) but at least it isn't preachy. I could make an argument that it isn't intended to be particularly woke, except that the advertising for the movie was pushing "the force is female" angle too hard to make that argument credible. Perhaps that's a disconnect between various factions within Lucusfilm. I think JJ Abrams was just pushing for a super lazy rehash of ANH with fan service and the volume turned up to 11. Kathleen Kennedy on the other I believe is an ideologue.
@@amys0482 tone deaf and woke are not mutually exclusive 😉 Personally, I dislike all the sequels, but for different reasons. TFA is just a nostalgia fest. It's a familiar tale with a villian dressed all in black, an orphan from a desert planet, a giant planet killer (the size of a planet this time rather than just a moon... because bigger is better), a plucky resistance, an evil empire, etc. It's not an offensive movie except in so far as it's easy to see behind the curtain. Fin and Kylo actually have real possibilities for good character development at this point, but overall it's lazy. TLJ is mean, miserable, and vindictive. ROS is a hot mess like no other, but I feel a bit for the writers of that movie at least given the mess they were left to try and clean up. That isn't enough, but it's something.
One of the criticisms of "Wokeness" is that Black and/or Female characters are invariably good, while the evil characters are invariably White and Male characters. If Rey does not have to deal with the same moral choices that Luke and Anakin wrestled with, a central theme of Star Wars will have been eliminated.
@@amys0482 Of the Sequel Trilogy, I have only watched the middle one. So I don't know if Rey had to choose to follow the Dark Side Of The Force. After all, that is the central theme of the first two trilogies, and it's why The Empire Strikes back is considered the best episode of the franchise.
TFA invalidates every single achievement of the OT characters. The republic? Gone. Luke's Jedi academy? Gone. Han and Leia couple? Gone. The Jedi? Gone. Even worse, it regresses them to their episode 4 starting points, as if the OT character arcs had never happened. Han become a lonely smuggler again, Leia became a struggling revel general again. And Luke... don't get me started on Luke. It gets even worse in the next two movies, but I guess that's a topic for another video.
I think the "wokeism" of Force Awakens rest on Rey being (like you said) great at everything without explanation and training (even better than Han at flying his own ship, really?), liked by everyone for no reason, has no flaws (at least Luke was a naïve farmer) and makes no real mistakes. Her journey isn't earned. Also the fact that the draw of the movie seemed to be "same story as before but now with a female lead", instead of telling anything new. BUT I don't think the first movie is particularly bad or woke, its just mediocre. The truly bad movie is the 2nd.
To be fair, being good at everything was also Anakin's thing and nobody complained about it there even though there was no explanation for why he was good at things like piloting and tech.
@@Bl4ckDr4co Well with the tech bit he was a slave who fixed droids, could have used more scenes for explanation though as for piloting i've got nothing i just chalked it up to bad writing.
One of the interesting things about how they portrayed Rey was that each time she did something like this, everyone went "Hmmmm!" And we got the impression there was a reason for it, a reason that would explain it all later. The most obvious example is when she picked up Anakin's lightsaber and had an inrush of memories. It was enough to make everyone curious, and expect *really* good answers. I remember some of my friends were thinking she could absorb memories and even skills through touch, which was a cool concept.
I love the video and your points are great, but the Rey "Mary Sue" thing stems from actual Star Wars lore. Compared to other main characters, Rey never got the proper training to be able to do the things she did in the movies. She was partially trained by Luke and the rest was finished by Leia. She learned abilities that not even some masters could manage and it got pretty ridiculous to see. Once again, love the video. Keep up the great content
I think what ruined this trilogy for me, personally, was mainly outside the film. As it was being developed there were apparently campaigns through out social media about how, "The Force is Female", because Star Wars is an interest to me that popped up more than I'd care to have it shoved in my face. Not only that, but the constant debates and waring between two factions and yes both sides were unruly I felt. If I remember correctly, I heard Harrison Ford only agreed to be in the movie if they killed him off. Which tracks, he wanted to be killed off in the original trilogy, but they decided not to do that. I love Harrison Ford and is work in film, but he was not interested in the franchise, he saw the instant fame of Star Wars as a way to get more/better work as an actor, which is amazing for him, cool. But with the rumors around the water cooler and him being killed off, I feel like that got in the way of a good story, its changed the natural progression of a good story. I also didn't care for how many times it was brought up that some seasoned actor was placed in the background because they were friends with someone. Thats just a dumb gripe i know, but it changes my perspective, like anytime i see someone i know its more like them taking a selfie and tweeting it out to others going, "look I'm in Star Wars ain't that cool?!?!", no other reason for them to be there then that. Also, let me say, I am thrilled you enjoyed Rey. If you did then great someone involved in the development of Star Wars hit the mark where you are concerned. I feel like Jeff Goldblum when he was talking to Richard Attenborough about scientific power in Jurassic Park, "It didn't require any discipline to attain it". For me there was no Journey for Rey, she got confirmation from Han Solo that Luke Skywalker and The Force is real, so great, she can do everything a Jedi does defeat trained warriors with a light saber and use the force any time she needs it even if the take off is a little rocky. While this doesn't make the movie unwatchable it is harder to stay in the zone and enjoy it. I can't remember if this happens in the first movie or the second, but the First Order or whatever they are called reminded me of The Muppet Babies or at least a misbehaving bad guy version with Snoke being their nanny. And the only cool character on that side of the line was Captain Phasma and if you haven't seen the third film yet, I'll let you see how that ends up playing out. Did I see all 3 in theaters, yep, do I own them for home watching, yep, I want to believe they're better films than I originally thought. Maybe one day my mind will be changed.
The Force Awakens was like a Golden Apple sitting under the sun. It tasted great! But we've eaten that apple before, so at least we could enjoy the enhanced taste forty years of technology provided. The Last Jedi was the chewed core of that apple sitting in the sun too long. It turned brown and flies had started to gather. In desperation, someone took seed from that rotting core and planted them, covering it with lots of fertilizer. And that seed was the Rise of Skywalker, but the apple that grew never ripened. It was hard and crunchy. Sure, there was echoes of those good tastes of yore....but really it was bland. Too many gardeners tended those apples.
I don't think you can honestly call Rey's journey a hero's journey, as at no point does she really struggle with anything. You mentioned some of her unearned mechanic talents, which considering her scavenging on the first planet make much more sense than Jedi mind tricking a storm trooper with powers she didn't know she had and besting Kylo Ren who's at least a Jedi knight in a lightsaber duel when she's never used a weapon (which would be incredibly awkward to fight with, as it has no weight to it, and requires specialized training.) This is why people call her a Mary Sue, which has expanded beyond the original fan fiction definition to mean a female character who has no weaknesses, which Rey perfectly exemplifies. According you your definitions of woke and Mary Sue - sure, but I don't think you're using the right definitions as they're commonly used.
The word I would use is "over powered", especially for the first leg of an arc. Rey did know how to fight already, though, and she was also already a scavenger for ship parts. The Jedi powers... How hard are they to learn? I am honestly not sure because the movies dont do a good job explaining the magic system. I kind of thought it had more to do with "force" of will (and midichlorians?) than actual technique, but that could be wrong. Rey's development definitely could have been better but I didn't think that was the worst part of the film.
@@amys0482 well in the current use of the term, overpowered would be a Mary Sue. The issue is that an overpowered main character is just boring, as there's no real hero's journey and no struggle. I do realize that the magic system is poorly explained, so the best thing to do is harken back to the original trilogy and Luke's training. He trained in using a lightsaber with Obi-Wan, and was really weak until he trained with Yoda on Dagobah, and from what we can deduce quite some time had passed during that training. The same problem is a huge reason why the WoT TV show really fails - characters are just given power, they don't need to earn it. In the books, characters have to earn their power, but in the show they're basically just given limitless power with zero training. It diminishes the struggle and makes characters really one dimensional. I couldn't really connect with Rey as a character not because she was a woman, but because I could never understand her motivations.
With regards to Rey and the Falcon. - We know she's a pilot (she tells Finn this while they're running from troopers). - We know she's mechanically inclined as we see her scavenging for valuable parts in crashed destroyers to sell. - She says that the Falcon hasn't flown in years, yet it starts right up. The only way that is going to happen is if someone has been maintaining it all these years. - Given that we see that she works for the guy who currently owns it, and that she knows how to start it and fix it, it stands to reason that she was the one charged with its upkeep. ,...you are right though. Star Wars movies are not for deep thinkers. They're just space wizard fantasy adventure films with which to escape from reality for a couple hours.
@@amys0482 Given Star Wars is a universe where a nine year old kid built a droid, built a race car, won a very dangerous race with said car, then flew a starfighter into battle knocking out the enemies command ship,...Rey is pretty tame. 😁
"The only way that is going to happen is if someone has been maintaining it all these years." I mean, we're talking about space technology thousands of years away from our own. We don't really know that kind of things.
I found hilarious when you said you didn't like Finn's arc in the first 2 movies, I thought you meant that in the 3rd it was good, but later you clariffied you haven't watched the 3rd yet, so makes sense.
Rey is definitely a Mary Sue You should watch MauLer s videos on these movies. If you have the time of course. He does the best break down of these movies
I do agree that Rei doesn't undergo much of an arc and that that is a wasted opportunity. I see this in YA all the time, though. We'll get to that in the subsequent movies since the first one just sets up her character.
I didn't like The Force Awakens solely because they re-hashed the same movies when there was so much original content from the books that followed the original trilogy. So much lost potential.
The Force Awakens (2015) is really before the era of "performative woke" The first Star Wars movie to be labeled as such is "The Last Jedi ("2017)". The beginning of performative "woke" however was Paul Feigs Ghostbusters reboot (2016). Another prominent example is "Terminator Dark Fate" (2019)
Should just call her "Rey." The struggle for narrative device and utility burdens the entire fabric of plot. Characters have two-dimensional depth. Collected, and traded, they shuffle about on the tableau of the performative framework; the static nature of the boundaries presented by obvious commercial dictates. Like a massive multi-billion dollar corporation, we are asked to be patient as they repackage and repurpose "a new hope."
Rey’s mechanical and Force abilities are unearned. It took Luke 2 movies to tap into his Force abilities and that took the help of a 900 year old Jedi Master. Rey from the get go was able use the Jedi Mind Trick and wield a Lightsaber more effectively than Kylo Ren who had been studying the Force and Lightsaber techniques from a very early age. So yes, Rey fits the definition of a Mary Sue.
Hi. thanks for the review. For myself I would never call something "woke", unless it actively goes out of it's way to portray it's male cast, and especially it's caucasian male cast as universally weak and cowardly in contrast to it's female characters, and likely contain a strong element of lecturing to the audience. Force awakens I'd never consider a "woke", film. Fin is probably the most intriguing character, or at least had the most interesting backstory, and in this film at least, though Rey is slightly too invincible at acquiring skills such as using a light sabre or flying a space ship, I didn't get the sence that this was due to the film makers actively pulling her to the for front to eclipse male characters. What I would say though, regarding your comments on original starwars and the status of force awakens as a "family", filmis that for me, force awakens falls down because of the shallowness of its world. yes, a new hope is a simple story, with archetypal characters, but in A new hope there are enough references to a larger world and set of events outside the immediate circle of the plot, that the world it takes place in feels so much larger. Mentions of the republic Senet being disbanded, Obi wan fighting in the clone wars, the empire's use of the death star as a tool of control while regional governors hold general authority, Leya's ambassadorial status, even the regional checkpoints, or Luke mentioning wanting to attend the imperial pilotting academy. For myself, when I rewatch starwars a new hope as an adult, it is pondering those sorts of questions I find interesting. This is something all great fantasy literature, from tolkien, to stephen king, to Jordan does. Force awakens did not give me that sort of idea that there was! a larger world behind the story at all. It setup questions concerning the progression of it's plot and its characters, who were the first order? Where did snoke come from? How did Ben solo turn to the dark side? and of course who are Rey's parents, but it did not setup the idea that there was much of a world outside those characters and events for the answers to be found in, even in your review you did not remember the name of Maz Kanata's planet, (not a criticism, just imho a reflection of the less than stellar Job Force awakens did at establishing the credibility of it's world and investing people in it). this is also true of the characters. Rey has mechanical and piloting skills just because she does! Han Solo has gone back to being a smuggler just because he has! When Luke meets Bigs in the rebellion and talks about his history with Bigs, I get the idea of Luke as a person with a backstory we don't know. Rey has absolutely no backstory, no relation to other characters, just a looming question of her heritage. Same could be said for po, and even Leya, yeah, she's a republic general, but what has she actually been doing? Why are she and Han separated? fin was for me the most interesting character and the person I wanted to find out about (especially with the hint that he might have force powers). this however is again where Force awakens just feels far shallower than the original. Just as a contrast, I am currently rereading and reviewing Marissa Meyer's space fantasy Lunar chronicles book series. It's a YA series, the stories are fast paced, the characters are mostly young, a lot of the world it setup just so the plot can happen, heck each book is even based on a classic fairy tale. However, Meyer takes the time to show the world as larger than her characters experience, and to give each of her characters a backstory which implies they've had experiences outside of what she is creating, backstory which expannds as the series goes on, with each book showing more on the world, and different perspectives, indeed so much so Meyer wrote a prequal between books 3 and 4. thus, even though I'm clearly not the intended audience for the Lunar chronicles, I still read them, and very much enjoy them, (also a series where each book centres around a different female protagonist, but one which is about as far from woke as it's possible to be). Contrast this with Force awakens, where my chief thought coming out of the cinema was: "Yeah, that was okay, I hope they answer some of those questions. I suppose in that sense Force awakens did the job Disney wanted, since yes the questions it did ask did get me to go to the sequel in hope of some sort of answers, even if it didn't do anything more than that. A shame that sequel was such an absolute travesty! indeed my feelings, and those of my lady, coming out of the last Jedi were pretty much one long scream of aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!! One reason I'm looking forward to the next review, since while Force awakens does not qualify as Woke, Last Jedi definitely does!
I would agree with most of this. The worldbuilding is subpar and it makes for a foundation of sand. I think this is actually the core of the problem with the Disney movies.
@@amys0482 I'd say Lack of effort or depth in writing generally, is one of the major problems for the disney starwars trilogy, both in world building, and character backstory, albeit with Force awakens this lack in world building seems more an attempt to simply leave as many plots open as possible since they had no defined direction for the series, whereas with last Jedi I feel it was an active desire to push an agenda, rather than tell a coherent story, much as the WoT series did, though that is obviously for the next review.
It seems to me the biggest issue is always when shows change the books to meet some sort of agenda. Movie only worlds to me anyway have more latitude to change things to fit an agenda what ever that might be. Just my thoughts. So lost in space has more latitude than Dune as an example. They need we get to decide if we like them. If you change Dune from the books in a “woke” way then what is the point of even watching it.
Personally:- Rei - overcomes every single situation that she encounters, there is no struggle, only a fight, which she wins (or overcomes a technical situation with 'intrinsic' abilities). She just doesn't really have any need to learn or train, just to encounter a situation. Han - has reverted back to a less capable version of his original self. Luke - too big a (negative) change without a real story behind it, not impossible, just too big a leap without real explanation. Leia - is the only one from the original trilogy that 'survived' the post film story without 'negative' consequences. Kylo Ren - not a threat in any respect. Were they enjoyable movies, first 2, yes, last, not really. but all well put together, well acted, just... lacking... the inspiration that lit the original 3.
I though Amy made good points about nostalgia and putting what type of movie this is in context at the end of the video. Overall I thought TFA was decent when it first came out and was interested to see where they were heading. Rey was a little too perfect when it came to her tech expertise, flying, the Force etc, but maybe it was her midichlorian count, I thought. 🤔 but she really showed no flaws except she was really really persistent! (Like the age old interview question where you have to explain that your biggest flaw is you’re a workaholic) Heck, Luke was whiny and impatient in the first two movies of the OT. I heard someone say that in contrast to the traditional Hero’s Journey, the new trilogy started with the premise that Rey was already a hero and everyone else had to figure it out. Clever. Finally, movie itself didn’t present as overly “woke” to me. However, there was a lot of publicity that highlighted the diversity of the cast, “The force is female”, etc. All that being said, my problems with the new trilogy really started with the second movie. Looking forward to that video! (I originally posted this as a response to someone else's comment but meant it to as a direct response to the video. Thx).
The Return Of The Jedi ended brilliantly, the "sequels" were always doomed to fail. Being woke is the least problem of these poorly written and executed movies.
Unless the reason they were poorly written and executed rests on the objective of being woke and preaching a message rather than delivering a story with interesting, flawed and sympathetic characters that go on actual hero journeys, in which case every failure of the sequel flows back to the source: being woke.
@@lookingforwookiecopilot Well if you get hung up on Ewoks maybe you don't like it. I was thinking more about the throne room scene, its impact and how it wrapped up the trilogy very neatly.
@@gator7082 The throne room scene is ok, but as Luke never really seemed tempted to join the Emperor (especially given he didn't offer Luke anything worthwhile) and his totally impractical sabre toss (as cool as it looked) I would hardly call that "brilliant" either.
@@lookingforwookiecopilot I think you are wrong, but we can't all agree now can we? There is a reason why the OT is still a Jauggernaut after 40 plus years, and nobody cares about the sequels that just came out within the past few. It has to do with heart, and even though you may not care for ROTJ, it had heart, something sorely lacking in most modern cinema. Some folks may not like ewoks, but you certainly understood what Lucas was trying to portray, and never doubted that he cared about his story. That is the difference.
I don't think the Force Awakens is woke. I actually liked it, it made me curious about everyone. The movie did a good job of setting up a good sequel trilogy
I am not sure about woke but Rey is just not an interesting character. I believe the possibility was there after the first movie but they just kind of blew it. The Force Awakens would have been better with better follow up movies. Rey's mechanical skills I can believe as she was a junker and I got the impression from her comments she helped work on the Millennium Falcon previously. I can buy some of the flying skills as she has supposedly flown before and we can expect someone with the force to latently have better reflexes and awareness than a regular human. We see this a bit with Anakin and podracing. The overt uses of the force they never came up with a good reason for. Mind trick, using the force to grab the lightsaber when Kylo Ren was trying to grab it. My opinion of course. I was hoping they would come out in the second or third movie stating she was a lost disciple of Luke who had her mind wiped. Similar to KOTOR. Rehash I know but I would have liked it better than a force dyad. I can buy her resisting her mind being probed. Lei did the same in ANH. Kylo Ren jogs something loose in her mind and she starts to remember her training from when she was younger.
@@amys0482 Ha! I like cats... and he/she looks like he/she gets plenty of groceries... neither too much nor too little, from what I've seen. The ALGORITHM, however... now THAT needs some more feeding!
Woke means pushing girl power, diversiry, poc, lbgt etc... inspite of the negative bottom line In force awakens, i accept ray as being that good. She was alone from the begining while luke barely started training. Of course shes this good already. As for her mechanic skills, the stronger you are in the force, the better you are. All jedi were not told how to build a light saber. They were simply given the parts & were to expected to make a perfect light sabre. Jedi are able to feel everyone & everything so its easy for her to sense the problem & fix it. I liked it. But...the sequals got progressively worst n worst.
I don't think that merely having representation and diversity, not when it actually FITS the story, as in the SW Universe, is anywhere near enough to earn the title of "woke". IMO, The Force Awakens isn't woke... but, oh... The Last Jedi is something else altogether.
Adding to my previous comment... Rey IS overpowered... but I have ZERO problem with the premise of Rey "assuming the mantle" and becoming this generation's "Luke". But... IMMEDIATELY being able to fly the MF better than Han Solo... AND being able to repair IT... SPECIFICALLY THE MF.... better than a guy who worked on it for YEARS? That's over-the-top. Being able to defeat Kylo in Jedi skills, without any Jedi training at all? Again, over the top. Then, there's the way the writers had the other characters interact with Rey... Instead of "here's a new character, we hope you like her..." They went... "here's a new character... you WILL like her... or else we'll tie you down, cram a funnel in your mouth, and feed her to you until you choke on her." So, by the end of TFA, Rey is definitely a Mary Sue, in the sense of over-powered + unearned... not in just one way, or two... but at least FOUR ways. Still, at the end of TFA I *wanted* to like her, wanted to learn more of her backstory in the next two movies we knew were coming... But I was also more interested in Poe and Finn, and Kylo... there was SO much room to grow with them... and then along came TLJ.
@@Nyet-Zdyes When does Rey fly the Falcon "better" than Han? I missed that scene? ,...and Han couldn't even fix the hyperdrive for the entire movie back in 1980. He's not exactly portrayed as an ace mechanic.
@@Nyet-Zdyes Well, she's a pilot. She works for the guy who.owns it. It starts right up despite having not flown in years. Just put two and two together. Unkar Plut put her in charge of maintaining the Falcon, that's why she knows how to start and fix it.
Honestly, you are basically my voice of reason in the culture war, I hope you have 100k subscribers in the next year because you offer nuanced, clear and frequently high quality objective assessments of situations, and address the creator motivations in realistic ways. You are thoughtful and entertaining, and I appreciate your voice.
Have you seen Mauler's...responses to these movies? He's literally making hours long video essays going through all the reasons, and the background behind those reasons, that these three movies are objectively the worst garbage ever written.
I actually don't think the new Star Wars trilogy was all that woke so much as it was just terribly written. I was surprised the first one was as well received as it was. I had no problem with Rey when I saw her in the previews or at the start of the show. She looked perfect for a jedi in training role. But she had no arc. But nothing else in the series had a meaningful arc or plot either. The woke thing actually started in comics and games a long, long, time ago. Star Wars signalled the start of a different trend: Characters behaving irrationally or inconsistently soley to move the plot forward. There is no reason for why anyone does anything other than to set up a certain scene that the director wants to happen. A character behaves one way at one instant and a completely contradictory way in the next. Events happen not because of prior events, but because they need to happen in order to set up future events. I guess I'd call it teleological writing. Characters and actions aren't based on their histories but on where the plot needs them to go. Look at almost any major blockbuster movie or series in the last ten years and you'll see this type of writing in most of them. It makes the worlds feel hollow and meaningless. There's never any sense of drama because there's never any consistency to the world or its actors. So yeah. The casting was mildly woke - they obviously wanted a 'diverse' cast. But it wouldn't have been a problem if anyone could have written worth a damn.
Books are written this way too. Plot driven books can be decent, even wildly popular (think Dan Brown), but they lack depth and are not rereadable in my opinion. If I don't like the characters or feel they are unrealistic, I lose interest. Disney's Star Wars trilogy actually has some likeable characters, but they are wasted, as you say, by having them take actions that don't make sense in a setting that is never explained.
You ask the wrong question. The disney trilogy is mostly dumb spectacle without logic, cohernt story and regard to star wars lore. After what they have done to Finn you should ask if the trilogy is racist. I also don't think the depiction of women is doing any justice to them. I think they tried to be woke, but failed. Can u be woke and racist at the same time?
That's a good question, personally, I think yes. because no one seems to be able to agree, or define, what constitutes a truly balanced/neutral approach, too many eyes nit-picking for easy targets to decry.
The definition of woke (according to google) is "alert to injustice in society, especially racism." Based on that defintion, I would say that a woke film is one that puts emphasis on race to A) draw parrallels to the real world or B) corrects injustices in the real world by showing the victims injustice in a victorious role. The fact that EVERY white male is either a villain (Kylo, Hux) or a failure (Han Solo) and that EVERY POC is a victim who becomes a hero would qualify this movie to be a woke film in my opinion. Woke meaning the film is showing that is was made to show an alertness to racial injustice in society.
Keep in mind that google's definition is written by people who would be categorized as woke themselves, and thus it is not an accurate definition for how it is actually used. Also, attempting to pretend to fix a perceived real world injustice by categorically depicting in fiction new injustices (every white male character is evil, incompetent, or a blend of the two) is itself a great injustice and evil in the real world.
@@jadapinkett1656 The only reason I used the google definition is because Amy must have a different definition of 'woke' than a lot of people. She said she didn't believe TFA was woke. I had to literally put the definition there to illustrate that TFA is clearly woke even by the absolute most favorable definition.
The real question is: Is Amy Stewart's youtube channel woke? Yes. Yes, it is. You're not going to be able to recognize wokeness in anything any more than a fish can recognize when things are wet. And the more you insert woke religious dogma into your channel, the more your channel will suffer from the same flaws that Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, Halo, and Star Wars have, for the same reason. If you could set your woke beliefs aside, and just criticize the flaws in shows, your channel would be much better.
I think you're underplaying how little of a 'journey' Rey actually undergoes. She never has any real moments of powerlessness or failure, even at the beginning of the story you see her fending off multiple attackers, then expertly flying the Millennium Falcon (including lining up an utterly implausible shot to take out a fighter), then immediately transitions into saving Finn from the tentacle monsters and then fixing the Falcon's hyperdrive in literal moments. The closest she comes to failure is being captured, but...she then proceeds to resist being interrogated (and even turn whatever force crap Kylo Ren is doing back on him), immediately and trivially learn the Jedi Mind Trick to escape, and is well on her way to freedom before she runs into the rest of the characters that came to rescue her. THEN she beats Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel (completely neutering any threat he might have posed in later installments). Essentially, she spends the entire film moving from strength to strength, and while some of her skills could be justified (like how Luke was a good pilot and a decent marksmen in ANH), she is never shown to have any notable flaws or weaknesses such that she actually *needs* to develop as a character, or *needs* to lean on the other cast members to succeed.
I tend to agree that TFA was not 'woke' in the same sense as some more modern media can be, but I don't think it can be called a successful implementation of the hero's journey when the protagonist starts the story in a dominant position and is never actually portrayed as an underdog at any point.
Everything you said ALSO just makes her BORING.
The woke point is that she doesn't need development. This movie was terrible.
She did hit the ground a couple times and slam into a building while "expertly flying the Falcon".
,...and Rey's struggles are emotional not physical.
It was over the top, but it also struck me as Young Adult (YA). You get that kind of unearned superperson protagonist in the YA genre all the time, male or female.
@FiestierThread Spot on - rooting for Rei would be something like rooting for Gaston in Beauty & The Beast - begins to sing, “No one fights like Gaston ..”
The Force Awakens has some elements of performative woke, like Ray and Han, but it's not in your face. I never felt it when I watch the movie in the theaters. But The Last Jedi is the one that's really performative woke - to the nth degree: all man bad or evil, all women cannot make mistakes (or at least they try to represent them as always being correct) etc. When I exited the theater all I could think was: what did I just watch (and not just because of the performative wokeness)?
I thought a lot of mistakes were made by everyone in TLJ, women included and arguably most of all
@@amys0482 That's why I wrote: "they try to represent them as always being correct". For example, when Holdo deliberately didn't tell Poe about her plan which led to him mutanee, which was a mistake, it was presented in the movie as: "See! She was right! Her plan worked!" And let's not talk about that scene when he tries to get information from her and all the characters in the scene apart from him are women where they tried to imply he was mansplaining while he was actually asking legitimate questions.
@@amys0482 The movie doesnt present those things women do as mistakes. When things go wrong its blamed on men, mostly Poe. This is further demonstrated in the directors commentary track. But we can get back to that when there is a "The Last Jedi" video :)
I'm not sure I agree with the definition of woke as being a money-grab based on a wide representation of the cast. I think it's about the message it's trying to deliver.
TFA isn't an especially preachy film IMO. It is a terribly written one, and it definitely has woke elements (the women are amazing at everything and have no flaws, all the villains are whiney white men-children, the legacy character has been reduced to being a dead-beat dad, etc) but at least it isn't preachy. I could make an argument that it isn't intended to be particularly woke, except that the advertising for the movie was pushing "the force is female" angle too hard to make that argument credible.
Perhaps that's a disconnect between various factions within Lucusfilm. I think JJ Abrams was just pushing for a super lazy rehash of ANH with fan service and the volume turned up to 11. Kathleen Kennedy on the other I believe is an ideologue.
The advertising might just be tone deaf. I didn't really pay attention to it at the time.
@@amys0482 tone deaf and woke are not mutually exclusive 😉
Personally, I dislike all the sequels, but for different reasons.
TFA is just a nostalgia fest. It's a familiar tale with a villian dressed all in black, an orphan from a desert planet, a giant planet killer (the size of a planet this time rather than just a moon... because bigger is better), a plucky resistance, an evil empire, etc. It's not an offensive movie except in so far as it's easy to see behind the curtain. Fin and Kylo actually have real possibilities for good character development at this point, but overall it's lazy.
TLJ is mean, miserable, and vindictive.
ROS is a hot mess like no other, but I feel a bit for the writers of that movie at least given the mess they were left to try and clean up. That isn't enough, but it's something.
One of the criticisms of "Wokeness" is that Black and/or Female characters are invariably good, while the evil characters are invariably White and Male characters. If Rey does not have to deal with the same moral choices that Luke and Anakin wrestled with, a central theme of Star Wars will have been eliminated.
I didn't this from these movies
@@amys0482 Of the Sequel Trilogy, I have only watched the middle one. So I don't know if Rey had to choose to follow the Dark Side Of The Force.
After all, that is the central theme of the first two trilogies, and it's why The Empire Strikes back is considered the best episode of the franchise.
TFA invalidates every single achievement of the OT characters. The republic? Gone. Luke's Jedi academy? Gone. Han and Leia couple? Gone. The Jedi? Gone.
Even worse, it regresses them to their episode 4 starting points, as if the OT character arcs had never happened. Han become a lonely smuggler again, Leia became a struggling revel general again. And Luke... don't get me started on Luke.
It gets even worse in the next two movies, but I guess that's a topic for another video.
Unearned - understatement of the decade Amy!
I think the "wokeism" of Force Awakens rest on Rey being (like you said) great at everything without explanation and training (even better than Han at flying his own ship, really?), liked by everyone for no reason, has no flaws (at least Luke was a naïve farmer) and makes no real mistakes. Her journey isn't earned. Also the fact that the draw of the movie seemed to be "same story as before but now with a female lead", instead of telling anything new. BUT I don't think the first movie is particularly bad or woke, its just mediocre. The truly bad movie is the 2nd.
To be fair, being good at everything was also Anakin's thing and nobody complained about it there even though there was no explanation for why he was good at things like piloting and tech.
"The Force is Female" Nothing more needs to be said.
@@Bl4ckDr4co Because Anakin is the villain
@@Bl4ckDr4co Well with the tech bit he was a slave who fixed droids, could have used more scenes for explanation though as for piloting i've got nothing i just chalked it up to bad writing.
One of the interesting things about how they portrayed Rey was that each time she did something like this, everyone went "Hmmmm!" And we got the impression there was a reason for it, a reason that would explain it all later. The most obvious example is when she picked up Anakin's lightsaber and had an inrush of memories. It was enough to make everyone curious, and expect *really* good answers.
I remember some of my friends were thinking she could absorb memories and even skills through touch, which was a cool concept.
I love the video and your points are great, but the Rey "Mary Sue" thing stems from actual Star Wars lore. Compared to other main characters, Rey never got the proper training to be able to do the things she did in the movies. She was partially trained by Luke and the rest was finished by Leia. She learned abilities that not even some masters could manage and it got pretty ridiculous to see. Once again, love the video. Keep up the great content
I think what ruined this trilogy for me, personally, was mainly outside the film. As it was being developed there were apparently campaigns through out social media about how, "The Force is Female", because Star Wars is an interest to me that popped up more than I'd care to have it shoved in my face. Not only that, but the constant debates and waring between two factions and yes both sides were unruly I felt. If I remember correctly, I heard Harrison Ford only agreed to be in the movie if they killed him off. Which tracks, he wanted to be killed off in the original trilogy, but they decided not to do that. I love Harrison Ford and is work in film, but he was not interested in the franchise, he saw the instant fame of Star Wars as a way to get more/better work as an actor, which is amazing for him, cool. But with the rumors around the water cooler and him being killed off, I feel like that got in the way of a good story, its changed the natural progression of a good story. I also didn't care for how many times it was brought up that some seasoned actor was placed in the background because they were friends with someone. Thats just a dumb gripe i know, but it changes my perspective, like anytime i see someone i know its more like them taking a selfie and tweeting it out to others going, "look I'm in Star Wars ain't that cool?!?!", no other reason for them to be there then that. Also, let me say, I am thrilled you enjoyed Rey. If you did then great someone involved in the development of Star Wars hit the mark where you are concerned. I feel like Jeff Goldblum when he was talking to Richard Attenborough about scientific power in Jurassic Park, "It didn't require any discipline to attain it". For me there was no Journey for Rey, she got confirmation from Han Solo that Luke Skywalker and The Force is real, so great, she can do everything a Jedi does defeat trained warriors with a light saber and use the force any time she needs it even if the take off is a little rocky. While this doesn't make the movie unwatchable it is harder to stay in the zone and enjoy it. I can't remember if this happens in the first movie or the second, but the First Order or whatever they are called reminded me of The Muppet Babies or at least a misbehaving bad guy version with Snoke being their nanny. And the only cool character on that side of the line was Captain Phasma and if you haven't seen the third film yet, I'll let you see how that ends up playing out. Did I see all 3 in theaters, yep, do I own them for home watching, yep, I want to believe they're better films than I originally thought. Maybe one day my mind will be changed.
The Force Awakens was like a Golden Apple sitting under the sun. It tasted great! But we've eaten that apple before, so at least we could enjoy the enhanced taste forty years of technology provided. The Last Jedi was the chewed core of that apple sitting in the sun too long. It turned brown and flies had started to gather. In desperation, someone took seed from that rotting core and planted them, covering it with lots of fertilizer. And that seed was the Rise of Skywalker, but the apple that grew never ripened. It was hard and crunchy. Sure, there was echoes of those good tastes of yore....but really it was bland. Too many gardeners tended those apples.
The silver apples of the moon...the golden apples of the sun.
3:30 - "Kylo Ren, who is the son of Leia and Luke..."
Oops!
I know
Not all shows force woke agenda, but there are some that do it flagrantly.
I don't think you can honestly call Rey's journey a hero's journey, as at no point does she really struggle with anything. You mentioned some of her unearned mechanic talents, which considering her scavenging on the first planet make much more sense than Jedi mind tricking a storm trooper with powers she didn't know she had and besting Kylo Ren who's at least a Jedi knight in a lightsaber duel when she's never used a weapon (which would be incredibly awkward to fight with, as it has no weight to it, and requires specialized training.)
This is why people call her a Mary Sue, which has expanded beyond the original fan fiction definition to mean a female character who has no weaknesses, which Rey perfectly exemplifies.
According you your definitions of woke and Mary Sue - sure, but I don't think you're using the right definitions as they're commonly used.
The word I would use is "over powered", especially for the first leg of an arc. Rey did know how to fight already, though, and she was also already a scavenger for ship parts. The Jedi powers... How hard are they to learn? I am honestly not sure because the movies dont do a good job explaining the magic system. I kind of thought it had more to do with "force" of will (and midichlorians?) than actual technique, but that could be wrong. Rey's development definitely could have been better but I didn't think that was the worst part of the film.
@@amys0482 well in the current use of the term, overpowered would be a Mary Sue. The issue is that an overpowered main character is just boring, as there's no real hero's journey and no struggle.
I do realize that the magic system is poorly explained, so the best thing to do is harken back to the original trilogy and Luke's training. He trained in using a lightsaber with Obi-Wan, and was really weak until he trained with Yoda on Dagobah, and from what we can deduce quite some time had passed during that training.
The same problem is a huge reason why the WoT TV show really fails - characters are just given power, they don't need to earn it. In the books, characters have to earn their power, but in the show they're basically just given limitless power with zero training.
It diminishes the struggle and makes characters really one dimensional. I couldn't really connect with Rey as a character not because she was a woman, but because I could never understand her motivations.
With regards to Rey and the Falcon.
- We know she's a pilot (she tells Finn this while they're running from troopers).
- We know she's mechanically inclined as we see her scavenging for valuable parts in crashed destroyers to sell.
- She says that the Falcon hasn't flown in years, yet it starts right up. The only way that is going to happen is if someone has been maintaining it all these years.
- Given that we see that she works for the guy who currently owns it, and that she knows how to start it and fix it, it stands to reason that she was the one charged with its upkeep.
,...you are right though. Star Wars movies are not for deep thinkers. They're just space wizard fantasy adventure films with which to escape from reality for a couple hours.
I was okay with Rei's character. I think they maybe took it a step or two too far but there was a rough believability for a YA story.
@@amys0482 Given Star Wars is a universe where a nine year old kid built a droid, built a race car, won a very dangerous race with said car, then flew a starfighter into battle knocking out the enemies command ship,...Rey is pretty tame. 😁
"The only way that is going to happen is if someone has been maintaining it all these years."
I mean, we're talking about space technology thousands of years away from our own. We don't really know that kind of things.
I found hilarious when you said you didn't like Finn's arc in the first 2 movies, I thought you meant that in the 3rd it was good, but later you clariffied you haven't watched the 3rd yet, so makes sense.
New to your channel. Ty for the upload. Yea Hollywood ran out of new ideas in the 90s
Rey is definitely a Mary Sue
You should watch MauLer s videos on these movies. If you have the time of course. He does the best break down of these movies
I do agree that Rei doesn't undergo much of an arc and that that is a wasted opportunity. I see this in YA all the time, though. We'll get to that in the subsequent movies since the first one just sets up her character.
@@amys0482 it doesn’t improve
Love that you’re engaging!
I didn't like The Force Awakens solely because they re-hashed the same movies when there was so much original content from the books that followed the original trilogy. So much lost potential.
The Force Awakens (2015) is really before the era of "performative woke" The first Star Wars movie to be labeled as such is "The Last Jedi ("2017)". The beginning of performative "woke" however was Paul Feigs Ghostbusters reboot (2016). Another prominent example is "Terminator Dark Fate" (2019)
Great video, looking forward to more!
Should just call her "Rey." The struggle for narrative device and utility burdens the entire fabric of plot. Characters have two-dimensional depth. Collected, and traded, they shuffle about on the tableau of the performative framework; the static nature of the boundaries presented by obvious commercial dictates. Like a massive multi-billion dollar corporation, we are asked to be patient as they repackage and repurpose "a new hope."
Rey’s mechanical and Force abilities are unearned. It took Luke 2 movies to tap into his Force abilities and that took the help of a 900 year old Jedi Master. Rey from the get go was able use the Jedi Mind Trick and wield a Lightsaber more effectively than Kylo Ren who had been studying the Force and Lightsaber techniques from a very early age. So yes, Rey fits the definition of a Mary Sue.
I would argue that that isn't the definition of a Mary Sue, but overpowered without explanation fits
Hi.
thanks for the review.
For myself I would never call something "woke", unless it actively goes out of it's way to portray it's male cast, and especially it's caucasian male cast as universally weak and cowardly in contrast to it's female characters, and likely contain a strong element of lecturing to the audience.
Force awakens I'd never consider a "woke", film.
Fin is probably the most intriguing character, or at least had the most interesting backstory, and in this film at least, though Rey is slightly too invincible at acquiring skills such as using a light sabre or flying a space ship, I didn't get the sence that this was due to the film makers actively pulling her to the for front to eclipse male characters.
What I would say though, regarding your comments on original starwars and the status of force awakens as a "family", filmis that for me, force awakens falls down because of the shallowness of its world.
yes, a new hope is a simple story, with archetypal characters, but in A new hope there are enough references to a larger world and set of events outside the immediate circle of the plot, that the world it takes place in feels so much larger.
Mentions of the republic Senet being disbanded, Obi wan fighting in the clone wars, the empire's use of the death star as a tool of control while regional governors hold general authority, Leya's ambassadorial status, even the regional checkpoints, or Luke mentioning wanting to attend the imperial pilotting academy.
For myself, when I rewatch starwars a new hope as an adult, it is pondering those sorts of questions I find interesting.
This is something all great fantasy literature, from tolkien, to stephen king, to Jordan does.
Force awakens did not give me that sort of idea that there was! a larger world behind the story at all.
It setup questions concerning the progression of it's plot and its characters, who were the first order? Where did snoke come from? How did Ben solo turn to the dark side? and of course who are Rey's parents, but it did not setup the idea that there was much of a world outside those characters and events for the answers to be found in, even in your review you did not remember the name of Maz Kanata's planet, (not a criticism, just imho a reflection of the less than stellar Job Force awakens did at establishing the credibility of it's world and investing people in it).
this is also true of the characters. Rey has mechanical and piloting skills just because she does! Han Solo has gone back to being a smuggler just because he has!
When Luke meets Bigs in the rebellion and talks about his history with Bigs, I get the idea of Luke as a person with a backstory we don't know.
Rey has absolutely no backstory, no relation to other characters, just a looming question of her heritage.
Same could be said for po, and even Leya, yeah, she's a republic general, but what has she actually been doing? Why are she and Han separated?
fin was for me the most interesting character and the person I wanted to find out about (especially with the hint that he might have force powers).
this however is again where Force awakens just feels far shallower than the original.
Just as a contrast, I am currently rereading and reviewing Marissa Meyer's space fantasy Lunar chronicles book series.
It's a YA series, the stories are fast paced, the characters are mostly young, a lot of the world it setup just so the plot can happen, heck each book is even based on a classic fairy tale.
However, Meyer takes the time to show the world as larger than her characters experience, and to give each of her characters a backstory which implies they've had experiences outside of what she is creating, backstory which expannds as the series goes on, with each book showing more on the world, and different perspectives, indeed so much so Meyer wrote a prequal between books 3 and 4.
thus, even though I'm clearly not the intended audience for the Lunar chronicles, I still read them, and very much enjoy them, (also a series where each book centres around a different female protagonist, but one which is about as far from woke as it's possible to be).
Contrast this with Force awakens, where my chief thought coming out of the cinema was:
"Yeah, that was okay, I hope they answer some of those questions.
I suppose in that sense Force awakens did the job Disney wanted, since yes the questions it did ask did get me to go to the sequel in hope of some sort of answers, even if it didn't do anything more than that.
A shame that sequel was such an absolute travesty! indeed my feelings, and those of my lady, coming out of the last Jedi were pretty much one long scream of aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!
One reason I'm looking forward to the next review, since while Force awakens does not qualify as Woke, Last Jedi definitely does!
I would agree with most of this. The worldbuilding is subpar and it makes for a foundation of sand. I think this is actually the core of the problem with the Disney movies.
@@amys0482 I'd say Lack of effort or depth in writing generally, is one of the major problems for the disney starwars trilogy, both in world building, and character backstory, albeit with Force awakens this lack in world building seems more an attempt to simply leave as many plots open as possible since they had no defined direction for the series, whereas with last Jedi I feel it was an active desire to push an agenda, rather than tell a coherent story, much as the WoT series did, though that is obviously for the next review.
It seems to me the biggest issue is always when shows change the books to meet some sort of agenda. Movie only worlds to me anyway have more latitude to change things to fit an agenda what ever that might be. Just my thoughts. So lost in space has more latitude than Dune as an example. They need we get to decide if we like them. If you change Dune from the books in a “woke” way then what is the point of even watching it.
I honestly don't give a bantha's furry ass if this movie is "woke" or not. It brought back what I love about Star Wars,..a simple fun space adventure.
Personally:-
Rei - overcomes every single situation that she encounters, there is no struggle, only a fight, which she wins (or overcomes a technical situation with 'intrinsic' abilities). She just doesn't really have any need to learn or train, just to encounter a situation.
Han - has reverted back to a less capable version of his original self.
Luke - too big a (negative) change without a real story behind it, not impossible, just too big a leap without real explanation.
Leia - is the only one from the original trilogy that 'survived' the post film story without 'negative' consequences.
Kylo Ren - not a threat in any respect.
Were they enjoyable movies, first 2, yes, last, not really. but all well put together, well acted, just... lacking... the inspiration that lit the original 3.
I though Amy made good points about nostalgia and putting what type of movie this is in context at the end of the video. Overall I thought TFA was decent when it first came out and was interested to see where they were heading. Rey was a little too perfect when it came to her tech expertise, flying, the Force etc, but maybe it was her midichlorian count, I thought. 🤔 but she really showed no flaws except she was really really persistent! (Like the age old interview question where you have to explain that your biggest flaw is you’re a workaholic) Heck, Luke was whiny and impatient in the first two movies of the OT. I heard someone say that in contrast to the traditional Hero’s Journey, the new trilogy started with the premise that Rey was already a hero and everyone else had to figure it out. Clever. Finally, movie itself didn’t present as overly “woke” to me. However, there was a lot of publicity that highlighted the diversity of the cast, “The force is female”, etc. All that being said, my problems with the new trilogy really started with the second movie. Looking forward to that video! (I originally posted this as a response to someone else's comment but meant it to as a direct response to the video. Thx).
will spend more time on TLJ!
The Return Of The Jedi ended brilliantly, the "sequels" were always doomed to fail. Being woke is the least problem of these poorly written and executed movies.
Unless the reason they were poorly written and executed rests on the objective of being woke and preaching a message rather than delivering a story with interesting, flawed and sympathetic characters that go on actual hero journeys, in which case every failure of the sequel flows back to the source: being woke.
I wouldn't quite call the Empire being defeated by teddy bears, "brilliant".
@@lookingforwookiecopilot Well if you get hung up on Ewoks maybe you don't like it. I was thinking more about the throne room scene, its impact and how it wrapped up the trilogy very neatly.
@@gator7082 The throne room scene is ok, but as Luke never really seemed tempted to join the Emperor (especially given he didn't offer Luke anything worthwhile) and his totally impractical sabre toss (as cool as it looked) I would hardly call that "brilliant" either.
@@lookingforwookiecopilot I think you are wrong, but we can't all agree now can we? There is a reason why the OT is still a Jauggernaut after 40 plus years, and nobody cares about the sequels that just came out within the past few. It has to do with heart, and even though you may not care for ROTJ, it had heart, something sorely lacking in most modern cinema. Some folks may not like ewoks, but you certainly understood what Lucas was trying to portray, and never doubted that he cared about his story. That is the difference.
I don't think the Force Awakens is woke. I actually liked it, it made me curious about everyone. The movie did a good job of setting up a good sequel trilogy
I am not sure about woke but Rey is just not an interesting character. I believe the possibility was there after the first movie but they just kind of blew it. The Force Awakens would have been better with better follow up movies. Rey's mechanical skills I can believe as she was a junker and I got the impression from her comments she helped work on the Millennium Falcon previously. I can buy some of the flying skills as she has supposedly flown before and we can expect someone with the force to latently have better reflexes and awareness than a regular human. We see this a bit with Anakin and podracing. The overt uses of the force they never came up with a good reason for. Mind trick, using the force to grab the lightsaber when Kylo Ren was trying to grab it. My opinion of course. I was hoping they would come out in the second or third movie stating she was a lost disciple of Luke who had her mind wiped. Similar to KOTOR. Rehash I know but I would have liked it better than a force dyad. I can buy her resisting her mind being probed. Lei did the same in ANH. Kylo Ren jogs something loose in her mind and she starts to remember her training from when she was younger.
Just feeding that hungry algorithm!
I saw "just feed that hungry" and assumed it would end with "cat"
@@amys0482 Ha! I like cats... and he/she looks like he/she gets plenty of groceries... neither too much nor too little, from what I've seen.
The ALGORITHM, however... now THAT needs some more feeding!
Woke means pushing girl power, diversiry, poc, lbgt etc... inspite of the negative bottom line
In force awakens, i accept ray as being that good. She was alone from the begining while luke barely started training. Of course shes this good already. As for her mechanic skills, the stronger you are in the force, the better you are. All jedi were not told how to build a light saber. They were simply given the parts & were to expected to make a perfect light sabre.
Jedi are able to feel everyone & everything so its easy for her to sense the problem & fix it.
I liked it. But...the sequals got progressively worst n worst.
I don't think that merely having representation and diversity, not when it actually FITS the story, as in the SW Universe, is anywhere near enough to earn the title of "woke".
IMO, The Force Awakens isn't woke... but, oh... The Last Jedi is something else altogether.
Adding to my previous comment...
Rey IS overpowered... but I have ZERO problem with the premise of Rey "assuming the mantle" and becoming this generation's "Luke".
But... IMMEDIATELY being able to fly the MF better than Han Solo... AND being able to repair IT... SPECIFICALLY THE MF.... better than a guy who worked on it for YEARS? That's over-the-top.
Being able to defeat Kylo in Jedi skills, without any Jedi training at all?
Again, over the top.
Then, there's the way the writers had the other characters interact with Rey...
Instead of "here's a new character, we hope you like her..."
They went... "here's a new character... you WILL like her... or else we'll tie you down, cram a funnel in your mouth, and feed her to you until you choke on her."
So, by the end of TFA, Rey is definitely a Mary Sue, in the sense of over-powered + unearned... not in just one way, or two... but at least FOUR ways.
Still, at the end of TFA I *wanted* to like her, wanted to learn more of her backstory in the next two movies we knew were coming...
But I was also more interested in Poe and Finn, and Kylo... there was SO much room to grow with them... and then along came TLJ.
@@Nyet-Zdyes When does Rey fly the Falcon "better" than Han? I missed that scene?
,...and Han couldn't even fix the hyperdrive for the entire movie back in 1980. He's not exactly portrayed as an ace mechanic.
@@lookingforwookiecopilot So let me flip it back around...
When would Rey have learned ANYTHING about that ship... like even how to start the engines?
@@Nyet-Zdyes Well, she's a pilot. She works for the guy who.owns it. It starts right up despite having not flown in years. Just put two and two together. Unkar Plut put her in charge of maintaining the Falcon, that's why she knows how to start and fix it.
Honestly, you are basically my voice of reason in the culture war, I hope you have 100k subscribers in the next year because you offer nuanced, clear and frequently high quality objective assessments of situations, and address the creator motivations in realistic ways. You are thoughtful and entertaining, and I appreciate your voice.
thank you!
Have you seen Mauler's...responses to these movies? He's literally making hours long video essays going through all the reasons, and the background behind those reasons, that these three movies are objectively the worst garbage ever written.
I think they are better than the prequels.
I actually don't think the new Star Wars trilogy was all that woke so much as it was just terribly written. I was surprised the first one was as well received as it was. I had no problem with Rey when I saw her in the previews or at the start of the show. She looked perfect for a jedi in training role. But she had no arc. But nothing else in the series had a meaningful arc or plot either.
The woke thing actually started in comics and games a long, long, time ago. Star Wars signalled the start of a different trend: Characters behaving irrationally or inconsistently soley to move the plot forward. There is no reason for why anyone does anything other than to set up a certain scene that the director wants to happen. A character behaves one way at one instant and a completely contradictory way in the next. Events happen not because of prior events, but because they need to happen in order to set up future events.
I guess I'd call it teleological writing. Characters and actions aren't based on their histories but on where the plot needs them to go. Look at almost any major blockbuster movie or series in the last ten years and you'll see this type of writing in most of them. It makes the worlds feel hollow and meaningless. There's never any sense of drama because there's never any consistency to the world or its actors.
So yeah. The casting was mildly woke - they obviously wanted a 'diverse' cast. But it wouldn't have been a problem if anyone could have written worth a damn.
Books are written this way too. Plot driven books can be decent, even wildly popular (think Dan Brown), but they lack depth and are not rereadable in my opinion. If I don't like the characters or feel they are unrealistic, I lose interest.
Disney's Star Wars trilogy actually has some likeable characters, but they are wasted, as you say, by having them take actions that don't make sense in a setting that is never explained.
You ask the wrong question. The disney trilogy is mostly dumb spectacle without logic, cohernt story and regard to star wars lore. After what they have done to Finn you should ask if the trilogy is racist. I also don't think the depiction of women is doing any justice to them. I think they tried to be woke, but failed. Can u be woke and racist at the same time?
That's a good question, personally, I think yes. because no one seems to be able to agree, or define, what constitutes a truly balanced/neutral approach, too many eyes nit-picking for easy targets to decry.
The definition of woke (according to google) is "alert to injustice in society, especially racism." Based on that defintion, I would say that a woke film is one that puts emphasis on race to A) draw parrallels to the real world or B) corrects injustices in the real world by showing the victims injustice in a victorious role. The fact that EVERY white male is either a villain (Kylo, Hux) or a failure (Han Solo) and that EVERY POC is a victim who becomes a hero would qualify this movie to be a woke film in my opinion. Woke meaning the film is showing that is was made to show an alertness to racial injustice in society.
Keep in mind that google's definition is written by people who would be categorized as woke themselves, and thus it is not an accurate definition for how it is actually used.
Also, attempting to pretend to fix a perceived real world injustice by categorically depicting in fiction new injustices (every white male character is evil, incompetent, or a blend of the two) is itself a great injustice and evil in the real world.
"I saw it on the internet bro, believe me!"
@@jadapinkett1656 The only reason I used the google definition is because Amy must have a different definition of 'woke' than a lot of people. She said she didn't believe TFA was woke. I had to literally put the definition there to illustrate that TFA is clearly woke even by the absolute most favorable definition.
Wow you have a strong resemblance to Hayley Atwell...just blonde.
It’s not Woke, the trilogy is terribly made, confusing and stupid
The real question is: Is Amy Stewart's youtube channel woke? Yes. Yes, it is. You're not going to be able to recognize wokeness in anything any more than a fish can recognize when things are wet. And the more you insert woke religious dogma into your channel, the more your channel will suffer from the same flaws that Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings, Halo, and Star Wars have, for the same reason. If you could set your woke beliefs aside, and just criticize the flaws in shows, your channel would be much better.
I don't know what this means.
@@amys0482 I think it means you can’t see the woke from the woke forest
It's covertly woke. As is this channel.