Star Wars deserves better: an Ahsoka Analysis

Posted: October 7, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in short films/interviews
Tags: , , ,

Note: I haven’t watched the Season 1 finale yet.

The latest Star Wars movies and TV shows suck. I watched Episode 7 with my son on opening night, and while I gasped along with everyone when Han Solo died, I was left wanting. At the time, I said “Man, Rey seems a bit overpowered and kinda dull.”

Well, she only got more overpowered and dull as the series went on. The Ahsoka TV series is, sadly, the same way. Now I should mention I love the character of Ahsoka that was built up in the Clone Wars animated series. She started off as a kinda-snotty little kid, and I didn’t care for her attitude, but when she lost a bunch of clone troopers by not following orders, as a military officer, I felt very much in her shoes. She grew on me as the seasons went on, becoming a more interesting character that worked hard to overcome her flaws. When she went on trial and was kicked out of the Jedi Temple, only to be found innocent and eventually offered to be readmitted, I shed a tear when she rejected the offer and walked away. She was a cool character with believable motivations and a character arc I enjoyed following.

I liked her so much I purchased her light saber set while at Disney, and they hang up in my office. So when Disney announced an Ahsoka series, I was thrilled, and quite willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

And sadly, I wasn’t happy.

Ahsoka is nowhere near as interesting in the TV series as the Clone Wars. By far the best character is Baylan Shen, with Ahsoka a distant second, and almost everyone else far from that.

So I wondered, why is Ahsoka, a character I’m already primed to like, so bad? I think it boils down to two things:

  1. People taking dumb actions
  2. No consequences for the “good guys”
  3. Weak bad guys with poor motivations

Let’s start with dumb actions. The season opens with two dark jedi, Baylan Shen and Shin Hati, requesting to come aboard a New Republic jail vessel. The ships commander thinks their transmitter is fraudulent, so he personally plans to meet the ship with a security detachment and arrest them. Obviously, this goes horribly wrong, and Baylan and Shin lay waste to everyone and rescue a prisoner on the ship.

How many ways is this wrong? First, if you suspect a ship has ill intentions, why don’t you BLOW IT AWAY AT A DISTANCE??? Nobody, and I mean nobody, in the military wants to get close to the enemy if they have a safe way of killing them at a distance. This decision makes no sense and we’re only 10 minutes into the episode.

Then the captain brings a security detail with no armor and light weapons, which they don’t even have pointed at the ship. Baylan walks right up and gets within arms length of the captain, and nobody thinks this is a bad idea?? If you were to walk up to a military gate looking even remotely suspicious, you’d have at least one pistol trained on you. How are the guards not nervous and on-edge? Why would they let a potentially dangerous person, or at least a person that they don’t know anything about, get within choking distance of their captain?

None of this makes sense. It’s totally illogical and used to drive the plot forward. It would be more believable if Baylan snuck onboard, or boarded stealthily, or hired a band of pirates to hijack the ship. You’d still get a cool fight scene, and it would make far more sense. We get illogical decisions all throughout Ahsoka: stormtroopers don’t shoot at Ezra on site, robots trying to steal a map decide to try and blow it up instead, etc. etc. etc. None of these actions make sense, and it makes the show feel cheap.

There are never consequences for the good guys. Sabine runs off with the mystical map and eventually takes a lightsaber to the gut, but then she’s fine at the beginning of the next episode. Somehow a magic laser sword that CUTS THROUGH HARDENED STEEL only leave a tiny mark when its rammed into your stomach. Like, really? I don’t believe that at all.

Protagonists have to suffer consequences or else the audience doesn’t get invested in them. Look at Tony Stark in Iron Man. He’s a playboy millionaire in the beginning of the movie, banging hot chicks while riding around in limousines. And then in the first half hour of the movie, he gets captured, tortured, hooked up to a battery, and has to build his way out of a mess. Along the way, he loses a friend that is a far more ethical and moral person than him, all because Tony wasn’t strong or fast enough to save him. It’s heart wrenching. We got from thinking Tony’s a total loser to rooting for the guy to punch terrorists on his way out of a cave.

More importantly, consequences have to be permanent. Tony Stark has metal shards that must be held outside of his heart. He turns this otherwise bad turn of events into a power source for a suit to do good. He uses his bad consequences to grow and become a better person in the end. But Sabine, Ahsoka and Ezra never do. Nothing is permanent. Lightsaber gut stabs, isolation in another galaxy, getting knocked off a cliff…nothing permanently damages our heroes. They are never in danger, and thus they never need a reason to grow.

Lastly, our bad guys are weak. Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Timothy Zahn books is amazing. He’s cunning and smart. He takes over planets through trickery. He rebuilds the Empire. He defeats enemies by studying their art and understanding them as a person. Thrawn always has a plan B. He’s like Bismark, always scheming, always taking advantage of the situation, always one step ahead.

Thrawn in Ahsoka? Not imposing at all. Why even be scared of him? He lays mines for space whales…that fail. He uses some mystical Night Sister magic to try and ambush Ahsoka…which fails. He sends his troops to kill Sabine Wren and Ezra…fails (why didn’t he kill Ezra earlier, btw??). He’s not imposing. None of this plans come off.

In less than 15 minutes in Star Wars: A New Hope, Darth Vader lifts a dude in the air and chokes him to death. He is imposing and downright frightening. He never loses his cool, and he ALWAYS wins, right up till his last fight with Luke and the Emperor. He’s imposing, intimidating, and when he is finally defeated, we all sigh in relief at how HARD he was.

Thrawn in Ahsoka? Or even Thrawn in Rebels? Lame. It’s not significant when our heroes beat him because he’s just not imposing.

I wish Disney would stop focusing on “ooooo oooo we’ve got a female character!!” and instead build us cool protagonists and scary villains that interact in a cool setting with an intriguing story. That’s what we need now more than ever.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Five Random Thoughts Under the Fedora: A Side Effect of Texas Success, An inconsistent COVID stat, Good Advice delivered the right way, The Three Second Solution and Groktoberfest Oct 28th

Posted: October 7, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, medicine, opinion/news, personal, special events, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

There is a story about how the special rare style of eclipse that will be viewed from Texas is going to produce issues with Texas’ power grid renewable side because said eclipse will be so long.

This highlights one of the things that sane Red States need to address. As people flee to them the demand on basic services from Electricity to water are going to increase which means you have to build the infrastructure to handle said increases. This means power stations, dams etc which will mean some expense for state budgets.

Of course they might decide not doing this will keep the liberals out.

There was a story out of New Zealand that I referenced briefly yesterday that based on their specialties Doctors were given Covid Vaccine exemptions but only if they did not reveal said exemptions is yet another “post Christian” horror story where the general population was kept in the dark for fun and profit but there was a stat in the story that I must confess throws me off. To wit:

The most highly Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are in order Portugal, Chile, Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Spain and Australia. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is 91 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 12 per cent above the five-year historical average.

The least Covid vaccinated nations in the OECD are Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Switzerland. Their average percentage of the population vaccinated is just 63 per cent. Their average rate of excess deaths so far in 2023 is 0 per cent compared to the five-year historical average. In other words, they have averaged a normal death rate.

The great difference between excess deaths is not a surprise but the 0% figure from countries that have a 63% of the population vaxxed is. 63% is a solid majority of the population. I’m no doctor but the math seems inconsistent that there would be no statistical excess deaths given that more than 3 in 5 of the population took the jab if the jab is the cause.

I’d be interested in seeing the historical rates of some of the known COVID jab side effects pre-covid in those countries vs the others and I wonder what the booster rates were in those countries. That might be the difference.

Stacy McCain took on the Trevor Bauer story on great Major League pitcher who insisted on his innocence and had the courage and wisdom to hold out till said innocence could be proven.

While I suspect the lawsuit against MLB will be epic as his suspension cost him tens of millions of dollars the bottom line is that by not embracing the Church’s teaching on marriage and sex Bauer put himself in that situation. However as many young rich men won’t listen to that point Stacy pointed out some basic facts both about there statistical odds of a genital herpes but more importantly a basic fact of life that might make a more effective argument:

If a woman is very attractive, why is she still single at age 27? Why is she still in the dating market? What’s wrong with her?

Now if you’re date her for a while with the thought of Christian marriage you might be able to find out the answer to that question but if you’re out for a quick lay these are the risks you take.

God’s laws aren’t just the right thing they’re the smart thing.

Thursday I was at a stop light in Fitchburg with a large truck on my left next to me. The light turned green and because I was running early I paused before going because our two lanes were going to merge into one not wanting to bottle neck.

It’s a good thing I did because the very next moment a car from the lane whose light just turned red passed just in front of me at high speed, jumped the curb and crashed into a parked car at the bank parking lot where I had been five minutes earlier.

If I had been a second or two faster in moving forward that car would have hit my drivers door square and you would be reading something else this morning.

I seem to have run into a lot of things over my lifetime where the difference between life and death was a split second away. I guess all those Rosaries make a difference.

Finally if you are in the New England area on Saturday October 28th consider Groktoberfest put on by the good folks at Granite Grok .

It will be an excellent chance to meet up with other conservatives. There will be music, comedy, Local Groups and Vendors, food, beverages, Speakers and even a gun raffle. (Ruger 10-22)!

Tickets are on sale now here. I’ll be buying mine before the end of the week.

Why The Answer to Britt Hume’s Question For the Left is Easy (But not for the reason you might think)

Posted: October 6, 2023 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, culture
Tags: , , , ,

Screwtape: If such a feeling is allowed to live, but not allowed to become irresistible and flower into real repentance, it has one invaluable tendency. It increases the patient’s reluctance to think about the Enemy. All humans at nearly all times have some such reluctance; but when thinking of Him involves facing and intensifying a whole vague cloud of half-conscious guilt, this reluctance is increased tenfold.

C.S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters #12

Today I’ve been re-importing my hundreds of Big Finish Doctor Who CD’s that I’ve gathered over the last 15 years and in between I’ve been taking a peek at the news and noticed this excellent tweet from Britt Hume vis Twitchy concerning General Miley’s insistence that Joe Biden is “Alert” and “Sound”

Let’s for the sake of this piece stipulate that the General is using the same definition of “alert” and “sound” that Mr. Hume is (which given the Democrat/Media/Deepstate left’s redefining words for their purposes might be a leap) and let’s further stipulate that a leftist who sees this tweet also uses the same definition of said words that Hume is.

With those stipulations one might think that the answer to Mr. Hume’s question is rather obvious.

It is not.

That would seem an odd or even impossible thing to say. Given the evidence at hand it would seem impossible for any reasonable person to believe the general’s words, but you must understand that even if we did not live in an age where objective fact is under attack there is a choice to be made here for any leftist who seriously considered Mr. Hume’s question.

If he believes his eyes then such a leftist must acknowledge several things.

  1. That Joe Biden is not fit for office due to his mental state likely caused by age
  2. That the media/establishment left has been lying to him about said state for years.
  3. Conservatives who have been saying this for a while were telling the truth.

It is those last two things that are the real struggle here, because to acknowledge this opens up a Pandora’s box of questions about things that the left has believed without question and disbelieved without question. They would have to acknowledge their complicity in not only believing the lies but in advancing and promoting them socially.

In short they would have to see themselves in the light of truth and that light might not be a flattering one.

But consider the alternative:

If they choose to ignore the evidence and believe the General vs their eyes then none of those beliefs need be questioned. They can remain in their bubble and enjoy the social affirmation that said bubble offers and insures, free from guilt, free from responsibility, free from the need to look in the mirror and see themselves as they are. To quote Screwtape: “His aim will be to let sleeping worms lie.”

To many that might seem incredible and impossible but remember just this week the girlfriend of Ryan Carlson who saw him murdered right in front of her refused to give the police a description of the murderer for “social justice” reasons.

In short apparently the answer to Brit’s question for the left is in fact obvious not because the answer reveals an obvious truth, but because it supports a convenient lie being told to themselves. Unexpectedly of course.

Rather sad actually

,

To win future elections Republicans must fight the Culture War

Posted: October 5, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

For far too long members of the Republican Party stood on the sidelines while the Democratic Party waged an all-out war on all aspects of tradition American culture.  The Republican establishment did not believe this was a war worth fighting.  They did not believe the culture war mattered at all.  They believed that it was a war they could not win. 

The sorry state our society is in is proof that that the culture war was most definitely worth fighting.

This article is proof that standing up for traditional American values against the Cultural Marxism of the Democratic Party will be a winning issue in 2024: Trans Mania, Culture Issues Top Concerns In New GOP Voter Poll (thefederalist.com)

A new poll out Wednesday reveals a major shift in Republican voters’ attitudes, emphasizing “culture war” issues such as the transgender craze instead of the “Old Right” consensus prioritizing taxes and trade.

According to an American Compass/YouGov survey of 1,000 Republicans who voted in the 2022 midterms, respondents overwhelmingly emphasized cultural issues as the most important challenges to face the nation. When asked to select at least two and up to five topics from a list as the most pressing problems of the day, voters were by far most concerned with cultural issues such as transgenderism, woke capitalism, and critical race theory, in addition to the border crisis and globalism. “Transgender activism” was selected the most, at 69 percent. 

Previous surveys this year have revealed a shift in opinion among the broader American public away from transgenderism. A Gallup poll in June found 55 percent of Americans believe it is “morally wrong” to attempt to “change” one’s sex, up from 51 percent two years ago. Overwhelming majorities opposed bending sex requirements for athletic competitions.

Because the Republicans have let the Democrats run the table on cultural issues Democrats have become emboldened.  They have used these cultural issues to amass massive amounts of political power.  Because the Democratic party has been taken over by radical Marxists, they seek to achieve complete control over the American people.  The culture war is the perfect vehicle for this, Almost Like Metaphysics: Democrats Use Issues to Push for Total Control – American Thinker

Climate change is useful because it is a planet-threatening problem that requires systemic change enforced by the government, requiring ever-greater government control over our lives, like the Covid pandemic. Transgenderism is another power play, an attempt to override reality by government fiat. It places the state in the middle of the family, giving the state the last word on the question of the human person, fracturing the natural power structure of the family, and establishing the state as a competing authority with parents.

Transgenderism is a step towards creating a competing power center within the family. If it succeeds, other “children’s rights” issues will emerge. The radical international left wants all people, beginning as children, to have their principal relationship with the state, which they are determined to control. Pitting children against parents or a parent against a parent is an attack on our civilization. Civilization is founded upon interlocking communities of mutual support. The family is the ur-community of civil society.

Unless Republicans take up the fight in earnest in time for the 2024 House and Senate elections it will be too late, Democrats Have Become The Party Of Authoritarianism (thefederalist.com)

Despite the outdated moniker of “social justice warrior,” leftist Democrats aren’t interested in real justice. They’re interested in gaining and using power. Once they have it, they’ll use it against their enemies. Appealing to their desire for civil comity is futile. They have no use for comity so long as they have power.

Older Entries
Newer Entries