A Star Wars Reccing Community

Title: How The Last Jedi Defies Expectations
Creator: Pop Culture Detective
Rating: -
Word Count/Length/Size: 20:49 minutes
Characters/Pairing: Poe Dameron, Finn, Luke Skywalker
Warnings/Notes: TLJ-Positive
Creator's Summary: The Last Jedi is a movie that’s designed to defy fan expectations. Nowhere is this subversion more evident than in the way the film handles its three male heroes: X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron, renegade Stormtrooper Finn, and legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker.

Reasons for reccing: This is a good analysis about how TLJ expertly defied and subverted expectations, specifically in regards to its male characters. And how a lot of the anger against this film (not all) is because of the ways the male characters are portrayed to be more vulnerable rather than perfect power fantasies and how the male characters are challenged by the female characters. This is a great analysis that examines how TLJ subtly talks about femininity and masculinity and the ways it challenges traditional masculinity.

Link: YouTube

Title: The Stormtrooper Paradox
Creator: Pop Culture Detective
Rating: -
Word Count/Length/Size: 10:47 minutes
Characters/Pairing: Stormtroopers, Finn
Warnings/Notes: Created before The Last Jedi.
Creator's Summary: The Force Awakens does what no other movie in the long running Star Wars franchise has even done before: it humanizes Stormtroopers. Strangely the filmmakers seem unaware of the rather profound implications their new narrative has for the rest of their cinematic universe.

Reasons for reccing: This is an interesting analysis and criticism of the sequel trilogy. It examines the implications of Finn being a humanized Stormtrooper and what it means--or rather should mean--for the world and franchise of Star Wars. He criticizes the “paradox” of humanizing stormtroopers through Finn, but then jarringly returning to treating the Stormtroopers as “disposable grunts” to be killed and defeated by the heroes.

I find this a really interesting analysis and it is one of my major criticisms of the sequel trilogy so far and the creator of this video does a great job of analyzing and creating a coherent and clear argument. The directors seem to be half-heartedly addressing the humanity of Stormtroopers but have failed to fully commit to the idea. I think this can also be seen in The Last Jedi.

There was a scene that had Finn briefly reunite with an old Stormtrooper he knew on the base, the two share a conversation and the nameless stormtrooper seems to share a friendly camaraderie with “FN-2187,” but the scene is ultimately deleted from the final product. There is another scene, an extended one of Finn & Phasma’s confrontations, which has Finn challenge the Stormtroopers loyalty to Phasma and the First Order and the troopers react by displaying a moment of questioning before being killed by Phasma. These two deleted scenes would have helped further humanize stormtroopers, but they were taken away from the final product. And the Stormtrooper Paradox continues.

Link: YouTube