Star Wars calls to me

Star Wars calls to me and I must heed the call.

I’m going to tell you something in all honesty and seriousness (I’m always honest though not always serious). I will only watch the original theatrical cuts of Star Wars. I will not watch the re edits with the added cgi nonsense. The main reason is Han and Greedo’s scene. Yeah, lots of people argue about Han  shooting first for all sorts of reasons but it’s incredibly important to me for only one reason, it changes Han’s character development.

In the original cuts when we first meet Han he is a smuggler who cares about exactly 3 things; himself, Chewie, and the falcon. He is not a hero. He is not that sort of man to wait for someone to attack him. Oh no, he is the sort of man to shoot first and calmly flip a coin to the barkeep apologizing for the mess. Han doesn’t even want to save Leia, he only does it for the money. Han is more than just a reluctant hero, he is dragged kicking and screaming into being a hero. 

  
That’s what makes his character arc so much more interesting. Here’s this guy who has only ever looked out for himself until he meets these two idealistic kids and starts having feelings, first for this kid (Luke) who becomes his friend that he actually wants to help then for Leia, and by the end of the story for the rebellion. He goes from not caring about anything to realizing people actually care about him and he doesn’t hate them either. You see that come to fruition in The Force Awakens in the way he takes care of Rey. 

This is important to me, if you take away his starting point you cheapen his story line. How dare you!

  
I guess it’s kind of a dumb thing for me to get so up in arms about but really I will die before I accept that Greedo shot before Han. Han shot, end of story.

You’re probably saying, “woah Katie, you care a little too much.” And you would be right but I do, I care very deeply about this. Part of why is Han is one of the characters in fiction that connect most deeply with (please don’t start arguing, I’ll explain in a minute).

  
There’s that whole ‘3 fictional characters’ thing going around Facebook and I’ll be honest, I jumped on that bandwagon hard but the 3 characters I said were a lie. I connect with all of them but not on the level that I connect with others. I chose to keep my real 3 to myself (until now). I was afraid of being made fun of or argued with for my choices, including Han Solo. Seriously though, if anyone is Han I’m Han (and my mom agrees).

The other reason was… They’re all men and every woman I know was posting female characters. I felt cornered, like I needed to post female characters too. Well no more. I’ve never fit in the box anyway.

The 3 characters I connect most with are Han Solo, Flynn Ryder, and Sokka. Quite frankly, when I watch those movies/shows I think I am those characters.

  
  
  
(You’ll notice none of them are the main/heroic character, none of them have super abilities, and they are all very sarcastic) (meat and sarcasm, that’s basically my whole personality)

Everything I like about my personality is embodied in Han Solo; his attitude, his insouciance, his sarcasm but also his genuine care for his friends. I mean, he goes out into the tundra of Hoth to find Luke! Han Solo puts into words the way I feel about myself. So I’m sorry if I get a little defensive about his character arc but it’s important to me. 

The Selction in Review

Now that I have officially and actually finished reading The Selection series by Kierra Cass, I would like to share my opinion on it (you can trust me, my degree is in English).
I found the whole series to be insipid wish fulfillment on the part of the author.

  
Now let me tell you a quick story. About a year ago I started reading The Selection. A lot of my friends had read it and called it “adorable” and “amazing.” I didn’t see it could do any harm to my brain to read something “adorable” and “amazing” so I checked it out from the library. About a third of the way through reading “the one” my copy of Winter by Marissa Meyer showed up and I couldn’t be bothered to read anything else.

Unfortunately, after reading winter I could not bring myself back to “the one” without wanting to vomit. The whole thing is too sickeningly sweet and predictable and I could not do it. I had to get some distance before I could give it another go.

Yesterday I picked up the audiobook so I would have something to listen to while I tackled my 29 item weekend to do list.

After finishing the book I stand by my 2 star review on goodreads and I’m about to tell you why.

Oh, P.S. This post is going to contain some spoilers so buckle up.

So the basic plot of the series is this; there’s a prince, he has to find a wife, girls from every province are selected and they play a high stakes version of the bachelor. There is also a rebellion and some political intrigue. Which, incidentally, leads me to my first point.

Why the HELL does one of the rebellions not want to overthrow the monarchy that has a long history of abuse? Oh no they support the monarchy they just also want elected officials. BULLSHIT! The only reason the author did not dissolve the monarchy at the end of the series was because they wanted our plucky, rise of the proletarian, heroine to be a princess in the end. Yuck, I just got a cavity thinking about it. If you want America to be a princess in the end that is fine, just don’t make the monarchy currently and historically abusive.

On a related note, I found the fact that she named her freedom fighting heroine America a little heavy handed.

I’m not saying that I hated every minute of these books, some of it was most enjoyable (like eating cake for breakfast) but jeeze Louise lady, pick a theme! Was it love? Was it self acceptance? Was it freedom? I wish I knew.

I also found the books boringly predictable. I could call every twist 10 pages before it happened, including the final rebel attack. I get it, the books were for teens but come on Cass have a little respect for your readers.

In fact, the only surprise I did not see coming was the murder of Celeste, which in hindsight I think I should have. 

I found the whole thing to be insipid wish fulfillment and could have been much better. That being said, if you are looking for a book to read that is a little like eating whipped cream, this is probably the book for you. It was adorable with only a few cringe-worthy moments.

Enjoy.