Star Wars Rogue One: SPOILERS

[alias_sqbr]

SO MANY SPOILERS OMG.

So, first, off, the triggering content warning!

***********Spoiler: Just a line describing the trigger**********

And the trigger is.....Major character death!


Ok and now some more detailed spoilery discussion, read at your own risk etc.


***********MORE SPOILERS!!!! BIG ONES**********

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First, for anyone who got here by mistake, a very minor spoiler: CGI Tarkin was...weird. I don't see that tech taking over movies any time soon but it works well for cameos and hey he was always a bit weird looking anyway.

Second: At last, a sympathetic Star Wars character with breathing problems! And I'm glad the pilot didn't actually go crazy. I wonder if the slimy thing actually CAN read thoughts, or if it's just a trick, would explain why the empire don't use them.

Anyway. I wore a Han Solo shirt to Episode 7, and now refer to it as my Lucky Star Wars Shirt.

It SURE IS PRETTY LUCKY.

Right to the end I was like "Maybe...there's a way they can.....not get swept up in the giant tidal wave?" I mean I kinda knew (almost) everyone would die from the nature of the movie, but it was worth a shot. Am still trying to figure out a semi-plausible Everyone Lives AU, Episode 4 compliance be damned.

I was annoyed that they fridged the mother and then the disabled black guy on pretty flimsy premises, but then they fridged Jin's dad to fuel her Woman Pain, and then they killed EVERYONE ELSE.

It's a pity tragic old Asian dudes don't tend to appeal to slash fandom cos they were endearingly slashy. But yeah I predictably ship Cute Major Female Character with Cute Major Male Character. They had such a lovely arc and need to kiss and not be dead ;_;

ALSO I neeeeeed to see Hux shot in the face with his own superweapon now, living just long enough to realise that's how he's going to die and that all his plans have come to naught. It's not even that I hate him especially that was just really satisfying.

Comments

[lizbee]

Oh wow, I didn't even think of Saw's death as a fridging! It sort of is in just the movie's context, isn't it? I first met him as a teen in Clone Wars, so it felt like a fitting-yet-tragic end.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, Cam had exactly the same reaction. But he was actually MORE annoyed with the mum's death as a result of being familiar with her from other media, because he thinks she's cool and she didn't really get to do anything.

[aris_tgd]

I TOTALLY SHIP THE TWO ADORABLE ASIAN GENTLEMEN, they were so totally in love, OMG. But yes, OMG. CGI Tarkin was a surprise, I thought done fairly well but yeah a little uncanny valley still. Vader was awesome. An Everyone Lives AU would be fantastic but I don't know how. And! And! THAT ENDING. For a movie in which everyone in the cast died, I don't know, when Leia said "Hope" my heart grew three sizes and I felt like everything was worth it. A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

So yes, happy birthday to me, that was amazing.

[alias_sqbr]

YES the bit with Leia (and in general knowing their sacrifices would achieve something amazing) did make it all much less sad.

[pedanther]

I had tears welling up in my eyes during that last sequence. The good kind, that you get from people doing something amazing and uplifting.

[pedanther]

It's a funny thing: I read the content warning when you first posted, in case it was something that would bother me, thought "I'd rather not have known even that much, but okay" - and then by the time I actually went to see the movie I'd completely forgotten about it, and happily spent two thirds of the movie assuming all or at least most of the main characters were going to make it through until the evidence began to pile up that they weren't.

CGI Tarkin was weird, but I got used to him fairly quickly. Of the ring-ins, the one who really bothered me was Darth Vader, the one who didn't have a pasted-on face. You'd think it would be easier to impersonate a man with no face, but maybe without the face drawing attention the wrongness of the body language shows through more. (Further evidence of this is that Leia with her back to the camera registered as an obvious stand-in, but Leia with her face visible didn't even while part of me was going "obviously not her real face".)

I have to admit that while Jyn and Cassian were sitting on the beach at the end (and how did they get down there so quickly, anyway?), I was sitting going don't kiss don't kiss don't kiss. Not that I have anything against shipping them, if that's the way a fan tends, but I was glad the filmmakers didn't force it on us as a last-minute token gesture.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, sorry, couldn't think of any way to hint without giving it away! I'm glad I didn't manage to spoil you in practice anyway :)

It didn't consciously bug me but now that I think back Darth did lack...something.

And yeah I didn't want them to kiss then, that would have felt rushed and tacky. I want them to survive and have a long drawn out courtship that leads to both kissing and dying of age :) (While also admitting the ending worked really well)

[alias_sqbr]

Ok I totally replied to this via email, maybe dreamwidth hasn't processed it yet.

Anyway, a more detailed description of how the movie seemed to me, with some arbitrary timestamps.

1 hr: Alliance meeting to discuss possible battle. Mixed gender.
1.1 hr: bunch of rebels sign up to fight with Jyn. All dudes.
1.1-1.3 hr: Shenanigans on Scarriff, including aforementioned dudes and a bunch of new stormtroopers etc who are also all dudes.
1.4 hr: Rebels attack Scariff! All dudes. I start to get annoyed.
1.5 hr: Rebels still attacking Scariff. Some of them are women all of a sudden.

[liliaeth]

Well a lot of the ones signing up with Jyn at 1.1, were Saw's people, and other undercover spies and stuff, the women pilots attacking Scariff, were regular rebel fighterpilots.

[alias_sqbr]

Sure, but why couldn't they be women?

[liliaeth]

Would you want most of the women to have been killed off at Scariff as the explanation as to why they aren't seen in 'A new hope'?
Because that's the reason Disney gave the writers of Rogue one, as to why they were allowed to kill all the main chars of the movie.

[hokuton_punch]

I just saw it this afternoon and LET ME TELL YOU, I AM 100% HERE FOR SPACE MONK HUSBANDS. I kept waiting for the movie to sneak in some reference to them being brothers and make my life (slightly) more difficult, BUT THEY NEVER DID SO I'M GONNA SHIP IT FOR ETERNITY. They were so great. ;o;

Hux dying by Starkiller 2.0 does sound very satisfying, though it will be hard to live up to the satisfyingness of Krennic dying by Death Star. >:D

Also, K-2SO DEFINITELY backed himself up along with the Death Star plans and lives forever. ;o; I LOVED HIM INSTANTLY AND WITHOUT RESERVATIONS, HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME STAR WARS.

[alias_sqbr]

He's a robot MAYBE THERE WAS A BACKUP.

[mooreeffoc]

Space Monk Husbands are the most popular m/m ship for that section on AO3 (and third most popular overall, after Jyn/Cassian and Jyn/Mr. Death Star - the second one did surprise me, I will admit), so fandom is pretty into them! WHICH IS GREAT, BECAUSE THEY WERE AMAZING. Torn between them and K-2 as the highlights of the movie. I loved everyone so much and am here for all the fix-it AUs, no matter how much sense they make within canon. ;_;

Also, damn, this was a nice-looking film. I mean, even beyond the usual Star Wars space/planetary scenery metric.

[alias_sqbr]

I am very happy to be wrong about Space Monk Husbands :)

And yes, it was very pretty. I love space-y stuff and it gave me lots.

[leecetheartist]

The ending sure was a shock to me. Saw it last night and I'm still processing.

[alias_sqbr]

Wow, yeah, it was intense enough even when I saw it coming.