Random thoughts from Rogue One second viewing
Well, to start with, as we were leaving the theatre someone complained that there wasn’t enough Yoda in the film, so to each their own, I guess. Personally I think there was the perfect amount of Yoda in the film, but I’m not a big Yoda fan.
Spoilers beneath the cut -
Honestly, this still feels so much like one of the Star Wars comics on the big screen that it’s astonishing and delightful to me, and I have no idea how the filmmakers managed to nail that tone because it’s so specific.
For some reason one of the funniest lines in the movie for me is Krennic’s “oh look, it’s Lyra back from the dead” at the beginning.
I’m sensing a real disconnect between the civilian/political and military branches of the Rebellion, and possibly with the different military branches of it as well. After the Council has decided that they’re going to do nothing about the news of the Death Star except flee and the Rogue One team takes off, when the comms guy comes running up to Mon Mothma and General Merrick to tell them about the attack on Scarif, Mon asks for Admiral Raddus - only to be told that he and the fleet have already left. Which suggests that either he heard the news at nearly the same time as the comms people on Yavin 4 or as soon as the Council meeting broke up he was like “lol, fuck this, I will do it my own damn self if the politicians aren’t going to bother.”
Trying to figure out Leia’s timeline at the end - C-3PO and R2-D2 are at the base as the X-wings are leaving, and they have to be on the Tantive IV with Leia at the end, which suggests that the Tantive IV wasn’t originally with the fleet when it left and didn’t leave until after or while the X-wings were leaving. Which means she must have already been on Yavin 4 with Bail, but when Bail left she didn’t go with him since she was being sent to go get Obi-Wan. And knowing Leia…I suspect that the Tantive IV cleared atmosphere and she went, “Well, better go to Scarif to help out the fleet!” and since the Organa family and their retainers are all adrenaline junkie idealists that seemed like a good idea at the time. And then possibly they docked with the Admiral Raddus’s flagship at the end when it became clear it was disabled and the only way to get the plans out was manually, maybe because for whatever reason they couldn’t send the data file (which is, canonically, huge).
Y’all know how Luke’s call sign in ANH is Red Five? Well, the original Red Five dies onscreen in Rogue One.
I have no idea where these complaints that Jyn is flat and affectless are coming from. Some re/viewers just can’t decide on what the right amount of emotion for a woman to show is, I guess. (Same for the complaints that Lyra Erso didn’t show enough affection to Jyn, which I have also seen.)
Living in a Star Wars bubble, as I do, I have literally no idea how someone would watch this movie without *gestures at shelf of Star Wars material* all that background knowledge. Like, this is always the thing that fascinates me about Star Wars, because I know all this, but how does it read to someone who doesn’t, a.k.a. most of the viewing audience? (I wonder this about Rebels, too, it’s not reserved for the films.)
One of my other favorite lines is K-2SO telling Bodhi, “Well, you’re a rebel now" on Eadu.
CASSIAN <3333
Ugh, I just love how the Guardians of the Whills and the Kyber Temple and all the Jedha stuff is so clearly removed from the Jedi Order - like, the giant freaking statues there do prove that the Jedi were there at some point, but given the amount of weathering and damage, my guess would be “some point” was centuries if not millennia in the past, and they split a long, long time before Order 66. But all that is essentially meaningless to people like Krennic and Tarkin, who just lump them all together; Krennic tells Galen that the last vestige of the Jedi is destroyed because Jedha is gone, and Tarkin does his whole “their fire has gone out of the galaxy” speech to Vader in ANH. It’s all the same to them, but it’s also very clearly…not the same, even remotely.
(Archaeologist voice: FUCK PEOPLE WHO BLOW UP ANCIENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES, HOW DARE THEY. Not that I’m guessing the Empire has ever allowed much dig work to be done on Jedha; I’m somehow guessing that they aren’t giving out permits to people to conduct archaeological digs there. *indignant archaeologist screaming*)
This is the first time I’ve actually gotten a real sense of the Force as something religious.
This time I managed to spot the Ghost on Yavin 4 and Chopper in the background, which I didn’t the first time. (Fun fact: I actually hate the term “Easter egg” because it makes it sound like these are meaningless details that are only there for funsies, not to establish that this takes place in a shared universe.)
how in the name of GOD does this manage to feel so much like a Star Wars comic, I am honestly baffled.
Going back to Rebels for a sec, like - yeah, getting the Hammerheads in S2 obviously ended up being super-important, but what I was thinking about is the end of Call to Action, when Tarkin orders the communications tower on Lothal destroyed. What he does on Scarif is essentially the same thing on a much larger scale.
Second viewing was GREAT, but nothing can really top that slow-growing horror of the first viewing when it becomes clear that yeah, they’re really going to kill EVERYONE. I’m so glad I had no idea that was going to happen.
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comments)
Spoilers beneath the cut -
Honestly, this still feels so much like one of the Star Wars comics on the big screen that it’s astonishing and delightful to me, and I have no idea how the filmmakers managed to nail that tone because it’s so specific.
For some reason one of the funniest lines in the movie for me is Krennic’s “oh look, it’s Lyra back from the dead” at the beginning.
I’m sensing a real disconnect between the civilian/political and military branches of the Rebellion, and possibly with the different military branches of it as well. After the Council has decided that they’re going to do nothing about the news of the Death Star except flee and the Rogue One team takes off, when the comms guy comes running up to Mon Mothma and General Merrick to tell them about the attack on Scarif, Mon asks for Admiral Raddus - only to be told that he and the fleet have already left. Which suggests that either he heard the news at nearly the same time as the comms people on Yavin 4 or as soon as the Council meeting broke up he was like “lol, fuck this, I will do it my own damn self if the politicians aren’t going to bother.”
Trying to figure out Leia’s timeline at the end - C-3PO and R2-D2 are at the base as the X-wings are leaving, and they have to be on the Tantive IV with Leia at the end, which suggests that the Tantive IV wasn’t originally with the fleet when it left and didn’t leave until after or while the X-wings were leaving. Which means she must have already been on Yavin 4 with Bail, but when Bail left she didn’t go with him since she was being sent to go get Obi-Wan. And knowing Leia…I suspect that the Tantive IV cleared atmosphere and she went, “Well, better go to Scarif to help out the fleet!” and since the Organa family and their retainers are all adrenaline junkie idealists that seemed like a good idea at the time. And then possibly they docked with the Admiral Raddus’s flagship at the end when it became clear it was disabled and the only way to get the plans out was manually, maybe because for whatever reason they couldn’t send the data file (which is, canonically, huge).
Y’all know how Luke’s call sign in ANH is Red Five? Well, the original Red Five dies onscreen in Rogue One.
I have no idea where these complaints that Jyn is flat and affectless are coming from. Some re/viewers just can’t decide on what the right amount of emotion for a woman to show is, I guess. (Same for the complaints that Lyra Erso didn’t show enough affection to Jyn, which I have also seen.)
Living in a Star Wars bubble, as I do, I have literally no idea how someone would watch this movie without *gestures at shelf of Star Wars material* all that background knowledge. Like, this is always the thing that fascinates me about Star Wars, because I know all this, but how does it read to someone who doesn’t, a.k.a. most of the viewing audience? (I wonder this about Rebels, too, it’s not reserved for the films.)
One of my other favorite lines is K-2SO telling Bodhi, “Well, you’re a rebel now" on Eadu.
CASSIAN <3333
Ugh, I just love how the Guardians of the Whills and the Kyber Temple and all the Jedha stuff is so clearly removed from the Jedi Order - like, the giant freaking statues there do prove that the Jedi were there at some point, but given the amount of weathering and damage, my guess would be “some point” was centuries if not millennia in the past, and they split a long, long time before Order 66. But all that is essentially meaningless to people like Krennic and Tarkin, who just lump them all together; Krennic tells Galen that the last vestige of the Jedi is destroyed because Jedha is gone, and Tarkin does his whole “their fire has gone out of the galaxy” speech to Vader in ANH. It’s all the same to them, but it’s also very clearly…not the same, even remotely.
(Archaeologist voice: FUCK PEOPLE WHO BLOW UP ANCIENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES, HOW DARE THEY. Not that I’m guessing the Empire has ever allowed much dig work to be done on Jedha; I’m somehow guessing that they aren’t giving out permits to people to conduct archaeological digs there. *indignant archaeologist screaming*)
This is the first time I’ve actually gotten a real sense of the Force as something religious.
This time I managed to spot the Ghost on Yavin 4 and Chopper in the background, which I didn’t the first time. (Fun fact: I actually hate the term “Easter egg” because it makes it sound like these are meaningless details that are only there for funsies, not to establish that this takes place in a shared universe.)
how in the name of GOD does this manage to feel so much like a Star Wars comic, I am honestly baffled.
Going back to Rebels for a sec, like - yeah, getting the Hammerheads in S2 obviously ended up being super-important, but what I was thinking about is the end of Call to Action, when Tarkin orders the communications tower on Lothal destroyed. What he does on Scarif is essentially the same thing on a much larger scale.
Second viewing was GREAT, but nothing can really top that slow-growing horror of the first viewing when it becomes clear that yeah, they’re really going to kill EVERYONE. I’m so glad I had no idea that was going to happen.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)