ST Diversity in the Sequel Trilogy (see warning on page 11)

When it comes to speculative fiction, casting many different ethnicities has been a feature for decades and you can do it well or badly, or, really common right now, awkwardly. Disney seems to be doing it a bit awkwardly, as if they have forgotten about Lando, different ethnicities in Star Trek, in everything that Whedon has directed and pretty much in everything in speculative fiction for at least 10 years or so. They seem to be thinking a bit too much how to make all these different minorities good people, morally, and have them tell us how good they are. Rose is a character like that, spoiled by preachy dialogue. Thats a bit patronising to every ethnic group and nationality. Its really easy to shake though, just give us a non-white villain, a really interesting villain, and that solves the issue right away.
Whedons Angel series did diversity in a less patronising way. Or the new series Expanse (fantastic show) Its funny that the speculative fiction story that did diversity the best is the horribly cheaply made teen dystopia soap The Tribe from New Zealand in the turn of the Millennia. Disney should watch that and take notes. Why is this all so natural in TV but so so awkward for movies?

And at the same time, more that even before, people mingle, befriend and marry across ethnic and national lines. And watch tv shows and movies from all over the world. This is a weird timeline, when Western speculative fiction makes a big fuss about stuff that has been part of everyday life for decades.

 

Well, he’s right that Disney are acting like they’ve been the only ones to raise the diversity bar. Other franchises have started it already and Disney is just now gaining on the train.

 

it seems like you want no female hero to ever need help from a man in movies ever again. male or female every one has their bad times and need help. sometimes superman helps wonderwoman out of a bad spot and sometimes wonderwoman helps superman out of a bad spot.

 

I was sorted to Hufflepuff thank you very much...

 

They took away Rey’s ability to reason. It wasn’t even just that Kylo did all those things in the last movie. In this one, while Rey was obsessed with saving him, his side was actively massacring her side. Rey was bonding with him by a campfire while her people were dying thanks to him and his people. In order to tell the story of Rey failing (therefore no she was absolutely not a Mary Sue) by being manipulated by the bad guy, they made her a stereotype swayed by a sexy guy with abs.

 

But didn't Luke do the same thing with Vader?

 

And the difference with Padme is that she actually knew Anakin when he was a good person, unlike Rey. Also keep in mind that her infatuation starts just a few days after Kylo tortures her, kills Han, and tries to kill Finn. A few days.

Luke isn't a girl so it doesn't tie into the sexist trope, and Vader was his father, not some random dude he just met. there was also a year between TESB and RotJ, not a few days.

 

Rey probably felt sorry for kylo when he told her about Luke trying to kill him. she knows about family letting you down since she was abandoned by hers.

 

Rey was abandoned by her parents in a desert planet at 5 to live with a creepy like Unkar. Even with Luke almost killing a 23 years old Kylo, he still had a better life than Rey.

It could be make more sense if Rey felt she has something in common with Finn (who also grew up without his family and had to survive in a terrible situation)

 

Luke didn’t try to save Vader because of Vader’s hot abs and intimate campfire bonding. These things are not the same. One is a sexist stereotype as old as fiction, one was interpersonal, believable motivation-driven drama. It makes sense that Luke would see himself in his father, and therefore want to believe the best in his father. It doesn’t make sense that a young girl desperate to save her people would bond with the guy currently massacring her people because he’s sexy and sits by a campfire with her.

 

I didn't see anything that made me think she was attracted to Kylo. Where in the movie does Rey say she thinks Kylo is some hot handsome dude? the only thing I see is her trying to help out some guy she feels sorry for because he got a raw deal out of life like her because of family.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the actual text of the film lays out Rey's motivations for turning Kylo pretty clearly:

"There’s still conflict in him. If he were turned from the dark side, that could shift the tide. This could be how we win." ... "Just now when we touched hands, I saw his future. As solid as I’m seeing you. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn."

 

The movie gave us Kylo’s abs and the campfire scene. The movie gave us Rey opening up to Kylo in an intimate way by a campfire after seeing his abs. You see her as trying to help out some guy she feels sorry for? Except that “some guy” is currently slaughtering her people in real time during the course of the movie. Where is the disconnect there?

And why did she reach out to touch his hand? Are you denying that there was something personal going on between them?

 

So If Kylo had a shirt on, Rey wouldn't have tried to turn him? Is that what you want me to take out of that scene?

 

Nah. The movie gave us Rey opening up to Kylo in an intimate way after being seemingly discarded by Luke and after she underwent a very personal and disappointing force vision within the dark side cave. She feels alone, she has no one to talk to, and she continues to connect to this man within the force for reasons they both can't explain.

 

She was forceskyping with him before he told her his version of the story

 

I don’t want you to make out anything from the scene. I’m just pointing out what I take from RJ’s choices. Kylo’s abs indicate something about how RJ saw these characters.

So what you’re saying is it makes sense that after the Jedi master turned her down, the young girl would turn to her torturer currently massacring her friends for guidance?

Yeah, that makes the kind of sense to me that doesn’t.

 

And Luke had 6 months to deal with the fact Vader is his father while TLJ there's no time jump so Rey felt "compassion" for Kylo 1 or 2 days after Han's death. And Finn (her friend!) was in coma because of Kylo.

 

You say her torturer, But Kylo is the one who is humiliated by Rey twice in TFA, She turned the tables on him when he tried to read his mind plus she left him scared and a bloody mess after their light-saber duel.

 

Just a few days after being tortured