This week, in preparation for the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker, I'm rewatching all of the live-action Star Wars films. Some for the first time in years. As I go along I'm collecting some of my thoughts on how each film has changed in my own estimation, and how well I think they hold up overall in the story as it stands.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film I've watched pieces of many times, and one I've seen all the way through only a couple. I should also add a disclaimer to this because this rewatch happened on the heels of a massive cleaning spree where I moved most of the furniture around my apartment and did four loads of laundry, so I had to pause at the end of the first act to take an hour nap. This is, in an of itself, not a hugely terrible thing, as Rogue One has an extremely well-defined three act structure... and the first two acts are kind of messy. Like, it's a fun mess, but chunks of this movie are kind of a mess.

( Be careful not to choke on your aspirations. )

Now that The Rise of Skywalker has had it's London premiere, I've now entered the three day phase of staying off most of my social media, which is harder than it sounds when I'm not actively busy with a major work task or a weekend getaway. Case in point: I avoided twitter this morning by cleaning up my long neglected Pillowfort account now that a year has gone by and they've worked out some of the bugs. I still don't know entirely what I'm going to use it for, since its functionality seems to fall somewhere between DreamWidth and Tumblr - which are sites I still actively use - and the activity level is markedly lower than either of them. But hey, it gave me another chance to utilize that shirtess GQ photo of Hayden Christensen I've been obsessed with the last two days (as seen in the icon of this post as well). If you have a Pillowfort account feel free to follow me!

I've gotten bits and pieces of writing done but I'm mostly on a standstill mentally this week during my Star Wars binge, since whatever additional energy I have is being channeled to actually being functional at work and dealing with nonsense with my landlord. Unless TRoS is awful and sends me spiraling into a depression (or is so good that it utterly consumes me creatively), I've set aside this weekend to doing Christmas-themed fic, in particular those two Doctor Who prompts I've been battering about the last couple of months. I still think about them enough that I'm relatively sure I can just sit down and write once I'm in the headspace for it.

I'm also going to try to be more active on DreamWidth since I've fallen off of it in a big way the last few weeks. I really enjoy the platform and I like taking a more proactive role in using it.

This week, in preparation for the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker, I'm rewatching all of the live-action Star Wars films. Some for the first time in years. As I go along I'm collecting some of my thoughts on how each film has changed in my own estimation, and how well I think they hold up overall in the story as it stands.

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope is yet another example of a film that I remember fairly well, but have completely forgotten the pace of, which provided for a much richer viewing experience and a deeper appreciation for its structure and use of characters. Because the story is relatively simple, even as it's building a setting from scratch, the majority of the plot is driven by the characters. There are long stretches of Luke, Obi-Wan, Han, Leia, Tarkin, and Vader all riffing off each other in various combinations, not to mention C-3PO and R2-D2 have much more screen time in this movie past the opening act than I remembered.

( But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters! )

This week, in preparation for the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker, I'm rewatching all of the live-action Star Wars films. Some for the first time in years. As I go along I'm collecting some of my thoughts on how each film has changed in my own estimation, and how well I think they hold up overall in the story as it stands.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is a movie where I remember certain segments with crystal clarity, but completely forget about others. This isn't a lead in to how, actually, I actually hate the movie now. If anything, I appreciate how many things this movie was able to do at once, and I completely get why many (including, sometimes, me) consider this the best Star Wars film ever made. Even though apparently on release, people didn't believe that Vader was actually Luke's father and they had to have Obi-Wan confirm it again in Return of the Jedi. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

( You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me. )