Disney, Star Wars, and Feminist: three words that don't belong in the
same sentence. At least, until Vice Admiral Holdo happened. Now, it's
hard to say who exactly created this character: perhaps she is taken
from the Extended Universe. I have never been a fan of the Extended Universe, and have not delved into it much beyond being aware that Han
and Leia have a son and things don't end so well for him. Or perhaps she
is a creation of JJ Abrams. What I think we can be very certain of, is
that she is not a creation of George Lucas. Nor is the story of The Last
Jedi. But it isn't exactly typical of Disney either. Subverting staple
tropes of the genre is usually left for Marvel or European auteur
directors.
Yet, here we have the subversion of one of the most staple tropes in the science-fiction genre. The rogue hero turns out to be wrong. Now, Poe isn't a "villain", and he certainly isn't capable of destroying the Resistance on his own. Nor will the Resistance face much possibility of dying out so long as Rey lives. Still, there have been two major deaths in the story and Poe's machinations do not make things better. Usually, when the head honcho general gets replaced with someone who looks like a politician, which Holdo definitely does, the hero who mistrusts this replacement turns out to be right. Honesty and forthrightness are key heroic traits, and a hero who doesn't have them is usually at least shady. But Holdo definitely is not, despite her secretiveness. She even wears an actual halo.
Not only is Holdo a genuine hero: she's a tactical genius who ends up saving the Resistance from itself. I mean, she has purple hair: with the aforementioned halo. She wears a beautiful gown much of the time with a detached collar that flows into a cape. Very reminiscent of Queen Amidala, aka Padme, from the prequels. This makes sense as the Organa family were a rich family from Queen Amidala's homeworld of Naboo. They were friends of the Queen, and so agreed to raise her child secretly. Thus, Leia grew up with other rich Nabooans as her friends. Holdo is one such. Now, Star Wars has vastly superior technology to ours: and our modern technology already allows us quite a bit of luxury even while fighting a war. Yes, even while leading a hardscrabble resistance. If you really want to know, you can actually find out just how well the leaders of Al-Qaeda and DAESH live: it's not at all what you might think.
Holdo's soft and feminine appearance belies a no-nonsense personality. She is committed to the Resistance, and she means business. But she is also not outwardly passionate: again, subverting our expectations of a female character. Indeed, one of the most damaging and yet most consistently used tropes for female characters is as "the heart" or the emotional center of a group. Placing the burden of creating and maintaining relationships on women is not fair, and not realistic. That is not what Holdo is here for, Holdo is here to take care of business.
She is here to save the Resistance, and she is going to do it no matter what Poe or anyone else thinks. As it turns out, Poe is a whiny and immature idiot. His ego gets the better of him, which is what puts him in Holdo's crosshairs initially: then he does it again, costing the Resistance valuable lives and equipment. Holdo cannot bear the waste. Which again, subverts the audience's expectations for her. She is clearly very wealthy, thrift is not what we expect from her. This character is so unexpected that there has been quite a furor caused over her portrayal in The Last Jedi, because people don't understand what's happening. Ironically enough, the very reason behind Poe's ill-fated betrayal. There hasn't been suspense like this in a Star Wars movie since the years between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
Vice Admiral Holdo is a true feminist character, not simply a powerful woman who isn't portrayed as evil. Rather she is a character who actively confronts and subverts the tropes which lead to misogynistic portrayals. How a character dresses reflects the way they wish to be perceived. Vice Admiral Holdo is a military leader, who does not want to be perceived as such despite being very capable. Indeed perhaps her intention was in fact to confront notions about the proper role of women head-on. Naboo is a planet where women have traditionally ruled, and where feminine values such as commitment and thrift have traditionally held sway. We see this in the prequels. We also see in the prequels that Naboo is a paradise planet, one of the few in the galaxy where we see living things other than humans. While I very much doubt that this was George Lucas' intention, in hindsight it does make it seem as if a message is being sent. The male order of things, represented by both the Jedi and the Sith, is fundamentally flawed. Holdo represents a rebellion against that order: as does The Last Jedi itself. Again, clearly this was not Lucas' intention. He intended the Jedi to be straight heroes, and the Sith to be villains and for the tension between them to be considered good. But Lucas' creation is no longer his. Which brings me to an important point: even stories that have some frankly disgusting sexism in them can be turned in a different direction by a clever author.
Any society can evolve, real or fictional. Vice Admiral Holdo represents the evolution in the fictional society of Star Wars, and indeed the first glimmer of the world that could be established when the Resistance wins. Not "if" but "when". No empire lasts forever. And when the dust settles on this ages-long conflict that has shaped generations: it will be a feminine order that reigns supreme under the likes of Rey, Leia and Holdo. A society that values the collaboration, loyalty, and good sense that these characters embody. A society that cares about it's members, and it's resources, rather than using them as pawns in endless and pointless games. A society that is not run by the loudest and angriest, but by the cleverest and most committed. No more bullies, no more Sith and no more Jedi. There will always be force-users, and perhaps always be a corps of light-saber wielding warriors. But Jedi, they do not need to be.
This is the meaning of the movie's title: The Last Jedi means the downfall of the Jedi order and with it the masculine order of plain good vs. evil. It means the rise of something new, as yet undefined. Yeah, it's basically just JJ Abrams pressing the big red button on the entire Star Wars franchise: but he's doing it in a really awesome way. After all, it's been thirty years and science fantasy has moved on from Star Wars. The tropes that were good back in the day, fall flat with audiences of today. People don't even have the same expectations of movies as they did back in the day. JJ Abrams catches a lot of flack, but he's actually something special in the world of cinema: a director who actually cares about the consumer. Movie tickets are not cheap these days, and neither are DvDs. But most movies still aren't worth these hefty price tags. Most movies are still little more than a marginally fun way to kill 2 hours. In the era of video games, that's bad. A JJ Abrams movie will never be that: even if it isn't the best quality movie ever made, like the Star Trek movie. You can't fault that film for it's character creation: it's faults lie elsewhere. Even that one left the audience thinking about who Captain Kirk really was, and what the Federation really is. The thing that most of it's detractors rail against, was actually it's greatest strength: it tore down the childhood idol of Captain Kirk, simply by showing us what was there all along. Just deconstructing tropes does not make a movie good (see, Suicide Squad). However, some tropes do really need deconstructing. Bravo Mr. Abrams, and Bravo Disney for letting him do it. There is nothing worse than a good story being ruined by corporate meddling, so I salute Disney and you can count me firmly in the camp of JJ Abrams supporters.
Yet, here we have the subversion of one of the most staple tropes in the science-fiction genre. The rogue hero turns out to be wrong. Now, Poe isn't a "villain", and he certainly isn't capable of destroying the Resistance on his own. Nor will the Resistance face much possibility of dying out so long as Rey lives. Still, there have been two major deaths in the story and Poe's machinations do not make things better. Usually, when the head honcho general gets replaced with someone who looks like a politician, which Holdo definitely does, the hero who mistrusts this replacement turns out to be right. Honesty and forthrightness are key heroic traits, and a hero who doesn't have them is usually at least shady. But Holdo definitely is not, despite her secretiveness. She even wears an actual halo.
Not only is Holdo a genuine hero: she's a tactical genius who ends up saving the Resistance from itself. I mean, she has purple hair: with the aforementioned halo. She wears a beautiful gown much of the time with a detached collar that flows into a cape. Very reminiscent of Queen Amidala, aka Padme, from the prequels. This makes sense as the Organa family were a rich family from Queen Amidala's homeworld of Naboo. They were friends of the Queen, and so agreed to raise her child secretly. Thus, Leia grew up with other rich Nabooans as her friends. Holdo is one such. Now, Star Wars has vastly superior technology to ours: and our modern technology already allows us quite a bit of luxury even while fighting a war. Yes, even while leading a hardscrabble resistance. If you really want to know, you can actually find out just how well the leaders of Al-Qaeda and DAESH live: it's not at all what you might think.
Holdo's soft and feminine appearance belies a no-nonsense personality. She is committed to the Resistance, and she means business. But she is also not outwardly passionate: again, subverting our expectations of a female character. Indeed, one of the most damaging and yet most consistently used tropes for female characters is as "the heart" or the emotional center of a group. Placing the burden of creating and maintaining relationships on women is not fair, and not realistic. That is not what Holdo is here for, Holdo is here to take care of business.
She is here to save the Resistance, and she is going to do it no matter what Poe or anyone else thinks. As it turns out, Poe is a whiny and immature idiot. His ego gets the better of him, which is what puts him in Holdo's crosshairs initially: then he does it again, costing the Resistance valuable lives and equipment. Holdo cannot bear the waste. Which again, subverts the audience's expectations for her. She is clearly very wealthy, thrift is not what we expect from her. This character is so unexpected that there has been quite a furor caused over her portrayal in The Last Jedi, because people don't understand what's happening. Ironically enough, the very reason behind Poe's ill-fated betrayal. There hasn't been suspense like this in a Star Wars movie since the years between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
Vice Admiral Holdo is a true feminist character, not simply a powerful woman who isn't portrayed as evil. Rather she is a character who actively confronts and subverts the tropes which lead to misogynistic portrayals. How a character dresses reflects the way they wish to be perceived. Vice Admiral Holdo is a military leader, who does not want to be perceived as such despite being very capable. Indeed perhaps her intention was in fact to confront notions about the proper role of women head-on. Naboo is a planet where women have traditionally ruled, and where feminine values such as commitment and thrift have traditionally held sway. We see this in the prequels. We also see in the prequels that Naboo is a paradise planet, one of the few in the galaxy where we see living things other than humans. While I very much doubt that this was George Lucas' intention, in hindsight it does make it seem as if a message is being sent. The male order of things, represented by both the Jedi and the Sith, is fundamentally flawed. Holdo represents a rebellion against that order: as does The Last Jedi itself. Again, clearly this was not Lucas' intention. He intended the Jedi to be straight heroes, and the Sith to be villains and for the tension between them to be considered good. But Lucas' creation is no longer his. Which brings me to an important point: even stories that have some frankly disgusting sexism in them can be turned in a different direction by a clever author.
Any society can evolve, real or fictional. Vice Admiral Holdo represents the evolution in the fictional society of Star Wars, and indeed the first glimmer of the world that could be established when the Resistance wins. Not "if" but "when". No empire lasts forever. And when the dust settles on this ages-long conflict that has shaped generations: it will be a feminine order that reigns supreme under the likes of Rey, Leia and Holdo. A society that values the collaboration, loyalty, and good sense that these characters embody. A society that cares about it's members, and it's resources, rather than using them as pawns in endless and pointless games. A society that is not run by the loudest and angriest, but by the cleverest and most committed. No more bullies, no more Sith and no more Jedi. There will always be force-users, and perhaps always be a corps of light-saber wielding warriors. But Jedi, they do not need to be.
This is the meaning of the movie's title: The Last Jedi means the downfall of the Jedi order and with it the masculine order of plain good vs. evil. It means the rise of something new, as yet undefined. Yeah, it's basically just JJ Abrams pressing the big red button on the entire Star Wars franchise: but he's doing it in a really awesome way. After all, it's been thirty years and science fantasy has moved on from Star Wars. The tropes that were good back in the day, fall flat with audiences of today. People don't even have the same expectations of movies as they did back in the day. JJ Abrams catches a lot of flack, but he's actually something special in the world of cinema: a director who actually cares about the consumer. Movie tickets are not cheap these days, and neither are DvDs. But most movies still aren't worth these hefty price tags. Most movies are still little more than a marginally fun way to kill 2 hours. In the era of video games, that's bad. A JJ Abrams movie will never be that: even if it isn't the best quality movie ever made, like the Star Trek movie. You can't fault that film for it's character creation: it's faults lie elsewhere. Even that one left the audience thinking about who Captain Kirk really was, and what the Federation really is. The thing that most of it's detractors rail against, was actually it's greatest strength: it tore down the childhood idol of Captain Kirk, simply by showing us what was there all along. Just deconstructing tropes does not make a movie good (see, Suicide Squad). However, some tropes do really need deconstructing. Bravo Mr. Abrams, and Bravo Disney for letting him do it. There is nothing worse than a good story being ruined by corporate meddling, so I salute Disney and you can count me firmly in the camp of JJ Abrams supporters.
Elise raised an issue with this analysis. However I stand by it as an analysis of the film. Like I said, I have no knowledge of the Extended Universe: which this film seems to make non-canon anyway. The film in my view seems to vindicate Vice Admiral Holdo's position by giving her a heroic death. Poe does eventually become a good commander: but only after his interactions with Holdo, and his flaws are still present ultimately leading to the death of another character. He isn't a villain or even a bad person, and he isn't really a misogynist either. He is genuinely devoted to Leia, and his actions are in part a result of him believing that Leia is dead, but has not fully internalized the values that she and Holdo stand for.
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