Solo - June 6

So, ‘Solo’. Where to begin?

With Rose Tico, who, just like her friend and co-worker Rey Ridley cancelled her Instagram account. Okay, they aren’t really Rey and Rose, but everyone assumes that this is why the ‘trolls’ have been giving them so much flak – and they are at least partially right.

Here is the thing. Democracy – works. Freedom of speech – works. Only, what the US have been experimenting since the Cold War has ended is internationalism – they’ve been trying to turn Earth into some sort of a global, international, republic, and that is something different from democracy. Bitcoin and the rest of cryptocurrency are a part of internationalism, as are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so forth. Until 2014 or so, the US encouraged this sort of thing; it fit into their vision/invention/reinvention/etc. of globalism, (internationalism), which was depicted as a global/international village, that sort of thing. And then, in the last few years, Russia’s president Putin stood-up, looked the U.S. in the eye and told to bugger-off, and annexed Crimea, and exposed the American weakness, and also – EU’s strength, and that hurt the U.S. even more. Officially, they did not acknowledge any of that, but unofficially, they are trying to change all that – hence why the American 45^th president is the Donald, who does what he does…

Tone down to SW proper? The latest SW movies are still about internationalism, something that might not be so welcome in the newer, more nationalistic, U.S. society anymore on one hand. And on the other, the new reboot has problems that have nothing to do with the greater US society – SW might be a classic by now, but Disney are messing with it. A classic is a classic, it is retired, fossilized, eternal, it withstood (or withstands) the test of time and is also unchanging, rigid, permanent, set in stone, as Mozart’s melodies are, (as an example of classical music), and Disney took the wrong approach to them from the start.

People may or may not have forgotten, but until Disney bought Lucasfilm™, the SW franchise had plenty of novels, comics, and etc. about what happened after the Empire fell – without waxing poetic, it consisted of numerous other wars, culminating in the Republic and the Jedi knights battling the Yuuzhan Vong or whatever they were called. Disney bought Lucasfilm™, and promptly declared all of those works to be ‘Star Wars Legends’, or apocrypha, basically. That angered many people, so from the start, Disney and SW fans were not getting along. Incidentally, this is atypical for Disney, because usually they are instead all about pleasing people so that Disney can make more money, and here they started on the wrong foot, period. What next?

It got worse after the SW7 movie – people were already unhappy with Disney’s treatment of SW, and so when the SW7 movie aired, they began to criticize it, and that tendency caught steam. In part this was because Disney did start messing with the classic by giving it new material – and in doing so the SW classic stopped being that, and became ‘just’ SW, a movie business franchise.

…Didn’t we talk about that before? Yes, we did – a long time ago, about AoS. AoS itself experienced the things that SW had, including controversy…and the same went for MCU in general. It just that in case of AoS & MCU the battle lines were clearly drawn, as a rule – was Hydra Nazi or just evil, was Grant Ward a victim or a villain, who had the truth on his side – Stark or Rogers, and so forth. Somehow, MCU managed to split its fandom into factions that did not get along with each other, something that neither it nor Disney wanted. They did damage control, or tried to – for example, in S1, Skye calls Red Skull a Nazi; in S4 conclusion, she calls Madame Hydra’s old kingdom a fascist state instead. These are two different terms, two different terminologies, but in AoS’ case, the damage was already done, and while the Internet can sing AoS accolades, it cannot deny the truth – post-S5 AoS is in a bad shape, so keeping it going may not be a good thing, not to the show itself, and not to MCU in general.

Another thing that AoS has in common with the SW films is the negative attitude towards the cast/crew, though in SW’s case the brunt is aimed more at the actors – KMT and Ridley, for example, and in AoS the brunt was more towards Whedon and co instead, them being the scriptwriters, and sadly, it wasn’t undeserved – AoS script was reworked repeatedly, seems of those reworks were still visible, which made things works. SW – especially the SW8 movie – has the same issue, though not as severe, because it is a single film, and not an entire TV series. SW8 feels like two movies smashed and stitched together, not as a single film. For example, Rose/KMT feels toned down as a character, (even moreso than Finn), hopefully not so that she could eclipse Rey/Ridley, for otherwise, that could be more motivation for her not to return to the SW9 movie, whenever that will come out.

And yet AoS had an advantage over the SW movies – it was not apocrypha, it is more like a supplementary material to the MCU’s movies. Consequently, its’ fandom, while divided between each other, did not really go for any of MCU’s cast or characters: they were too busy fighting among themselves instead. SW does not have that, people are divided largely on whether they love it or hate it, and that leaves them plenty of time and energy to turn onto SW’s cast and crew if they hate it.

Not that AoS’ advantage is such a good thing: eventually the fan base collapsed, leaving AoS with a fraction of what it initially had: the damage control came too late, the audiences just are not interested in watching it very much anymore, and the cast seems to be hemorrhaging characters constantly. This did not appear to be happening with SW franchise, but then came ‘Solo’.

‘Solo’ is not an apocrypha; it is a part of prequel that is a part of the canon by now, but it was not as successful as the other SW movies were: it only brought in tens of millions of dollars on its first weekend, not hundreds, and that can signal new troubles ahead. Disney may pretend that it is ‘progressive’, or ‘conservative’, but at the end of the day, they are all about the money, and everything else is secondary.

Recently, we have discussed the latest Rick Riordan book about Apollo’s adventures in the mortal/demigod world. Unlike the previous novels, which had plenty of such features as a same-sex family, this one had none. It isn’t known for sure as to the reason for why such change, but Rick Riordan is also associated with Disney, just as MCU and SW franchises are, and his franchise, at least, is able and ready to pick and drop any of the ‘progressive’ or political correct values depending on what would make his works sell better. Can something different be said about SW? Considering that ‘Solo’ also is not as ‘progressive’ or diverse as the ‘Rogue 1’ movie had been, maybe it can.

But the damage? It has been done. Plenty of people got upset for Disney & SW for changing things and going in new directions, more fools them, but – they’re the customers, they are the ones going to watch the movies, and if they stop, then Disney got a product that people won’t buy, and that isn’t what Disney wants. Already ‘Solo’ brought only tens of millions of dollars rather than hundreds, and that Disney does not like.

Does this bring us back to the trolls who trolled KMT and Ridley into quitting Instagram? Yes. Are they in the wrong, not to mention despicable? Oh, yes. But are they part of the reason as to why Disney got involved/bought Lucasfilm™ and the SW franchise? Yes. They are the ‘fanboys’ who would spend all of that crazy money on the SW movies, at least in theory, and without them, there is no crazy money, only – some money. That is not a problem, but Disney is primarily about money and without it, there is no reason for Disney to stay.

The relationship between Disney and the SW fanbase began on the wrong foot, and the new SW trilogy continued that trend. As a result, there are people who feel that SW is ruined and either become some sort of an ubertroll on the Internet, or stop going to SW films at all.

The first are becoming a problem for the entirety of the American society. There is little to no caveat or responsibility to be held accountable for one’s words in the U.S. society anymore. One’s actions can still have repercussions, but words? Not so much, as the case of Ridley and KMT show.

In Russia – since we moved back out of the SW sphere – the situation is different, as an example. There, the people always knew that if you say anything that goes against the state, you could be punished, and most likely, there were. Therefore, they kept mum, unless they did not, unless they intended or accepted that they will be punished, and went forth all the same, consequences be damned. Thus, the revolutionary movement in the Old Russian Empire was born, and it is being alive to this day. ‘Comrade Navalny’ embodies that spirit in our time and day, and Putin knows it, and he has a problem.

Russia is still an Asiatic, rather than a European country, and most of its political workings, external and internal, are still not very Western. Its’ monarchs – regardless of what they are labelled as in different days and ages – are autocrats and are completely obeyed, until they aren’t. Nicolai II, the last tsar of the Russian Empire, got – first deposed by his generals (the future leaders of the so-called ‘White’ movement) with the full support of the rest of the elite, - and then – he and his immediate family got executed by the proletariat slash communists (the ‘Red’ movement), with the elite not doing anything to save him. Then the White and the Red forces fought each other, (as well as the various separatists, nationalists and etc., known collectively as the ‘Green’ movement), until the Red forces won. They became the first Russian communists, but their modern political descendants have much less common with them, than Navalny and his people do – and Putin recognizes that. So?

So, while Putin can order – in theory – that any of his subjects can be dragged out of their home, be arrested and/or executed, his subjects can also do the same to him. During the Russian historic period, the Russian rulers were assassinated, regardless of whether we are talking about Tsars, Emperors, or General-Secretaries. Nikolai II was the only one to be publically executed, Nikita Khrushchev – the only one to be de-facto fired, Mikhail Gorbachev – the only one to leave the throne of his own volition, but Putin doesn’t seek to imitate any of them, (and he is unique as his farce with Medvedev the Prime Minister has established in the not-so-distant past), hence, he is also forced to restrained himself. He may have mountains of plans, but a threat of physical violence restrains him…at least until he hadn’t mended bridges with the West, after which he can always flee to the U.S., or the EU, or wherever as a political refugee instead. Insane in a surreal way maybe, but also Russian.

Now. The Russian restraint based on violence is bad and barbaric, but what the Americans have in its’ stead? Nothing at all. As one of their top historical figures spoke, “I have what you’re saying, but I will defend your right to say it!” Fast forward for decades, and what we have is an unbridled and abused power to speak anything to anyone. There is no restraint, no control, no responsibility. America as a political state is trying to reign it in – hence its’ escapades against Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, as well as against the cryptocurrencies and immigration, and so forth. Sadly, they have chosen the Donald to execute these countermeasures, so now the American political landscape sucks. Ever since the end of the Cold War, for more than 20 years, U.S.A., government and society, went towards an international utopia, (not unlike how the now-defunct U.S.S.R. did, especially during Leonid Brezhnev’s reign), and it had achieved some of it, but during this process it had lost much of its’ own strength and clout with its’ fan base, (such as the EU – just look at the latest events), and now, yes, it is trying to turn back the clock by a lot of kneejerk, frantic, ugly movements. This is not working – as it did during the Civil War, the U.S. is going for a quick solution where something much more long and lengthy is required. And that returns us to SW, and the second group.

Just as the U.S. in general, SW – and Disney – lost influence among the SW fans. That is bad, because it brings forth the trolls, but while they are despicable, it is the quiet ones who are worrisome, because if they stop going to Disney’s SW films, then they are not going to Disney’s SW films and they aren’t spending money on it, and Disney is suddenly making only tens of millions on SW films and franchise rather than hundreds. Considering that they bought the franchise from George Lucas for a fortune that would make Tywin Lannister greedy, this loss of revenue makes them upset. And?

And one hand, they cannot do anything about the trolls. Facebook, at least, is making movements to make trolling harder, but when there is a will, there is always a way. On the other, they can pull a Riordan and return back to basics, without any particularly politically correct or progressive traits and features in their films – as, say, ‘Solo’. Yes, there is something going on with Lando, especially in regards to Solo, but compared to ‘Rogue 1’, ‘Solo’ is mild.

Again, AoS did something similar to this already – it had shuffled characters and their roles, starting from the second half of S2. This strategy backfired upon them especially by damaging the continuity from the first season to the fifth – whatever the writers had in mind, however grand did they want the series to end, it didn’t work. And now Disney/MCU/etc. have advanced AoS to a S6, however truncated…

Back to SW? This strategy will not work for them, because they are a movie franchise, not a TV series’ one. Yes, the SW franchise now has several TV shows under its belt – cartoon TV shows of various complexities, but regardless this fact does not affect anything – not the trolling, and not the money loss. If Disney/SW tries more films in the style of ‘Solo’ rather than ‘Rogue 1’, or the other new SW movies, and it doesn’t work, but just angers more people – other people, who’d been happy with the direction that SW went now instead – and causes more money loss, then maybe Disney will decide: okay, let’s shelve the SW project for now until the noise dies down and the old (okay, older) movies are forgotten. And that would be it – the end of the SW movies for the near future. Now even more people would be upset, but Disney would not care anymore – they would still have Marvel™, as well as their own prince-and-princess thing. The end and Disney would avoid any ugliness, as the one happened to Rey and Rose – that is, KMT and Ridley – as well.

However, will this happen? We will have to wait and see, and for now – enjoy ‘Solo’ and the rest of SW films. See you all soon!