Friday, November 11, 2016
Two Things...
1. I think am more excited to see this than I was to see The Force Awakens. I mean, Wow! This looks amazing. I hope it lives up to the hype because the Episode VII gave me reason to be hopeful again for Star Wars movies. Don't burn me, Disney.
2. To millennials distraught over Donald Trump's election, please, please, PLEASE, in the name of Jesus, do not make Rogue One political. As I watched this trailer in light of Tuesday and the aftermath, it almost immediately occurred to me the film's theme - the struggle of the rebellion against impossible odds against the overwhelming might of the evil Galactic Empire - could easily be co-opted as a metaphor for the heroic opposition to the sinister Donald Trump. Given the highly diverse cast of heroes that appears absent of white men (which I'm not criticizing), pitted against the new villain, an old white guy, it's not a stretch to see how this could seized upon and embraced on social media, and become a thing. That would suck.
Star Wars is for everybody. It's not political. And it would be a crime to make it a source of division, so please don't make it one. Star Wars was my first love, and I am genuinely gratified that Rogue One (like Ep. VII) by virtue of its international cast, has the potential to allow more different kinds of people, especially children, to feel what I felt for Star Wars as a child, which was magical.
Maybe I'm being ridiculous. Maybe I'm too cynical. I hope so. Perhaps the apparent themes of unity in Rogue One will have the opposite effect and bring people together in these uncertain times. That would be cool. Here's to me being wrong. There's been a lot of that lately.
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3 comments:
Love this. Star Wars should unify. Here's hoping it does...
got some bad news for you.
http://www.avclub.com/article/white-supremacists-want-boycott-rogue-one-over-its-247037
Literally cheering on the evil Empire.
Wow. I guess I should have this coming after the year we've had.
Stories like this make me wonder if stuff like this really is more common than before. On the one hand, I would readily acknowledge that Donald Trump's candidacy and election has emboldened white nationalists, racists, and anti-semites to be more vocal than before. On the other hand, the media and some of the left, it seems to me, are more motivated to find this kind of stuff on the fringes, which I would argue has always been there. Perhaps, it's a little of both. I don't mean to downplay it, but this whole election season has scrambled my radar and it's hard to know what's really what.
But well done, white supremacists. At least the whiny millennials I was worried about still identified with the good guys. You are "Literally cheering on the evil Empire."
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