Yet Another Star Wars Review

Dennis Sanders

Dennis is the pastor of a small Protestant congregation outside St. Paul, MN and also a part-time communications consultant. A native of Michigan, you can check out his writings over on Medium and subscribe to his Substack newsletter on religion and politics called Polite Company.  Dennis lives in Minneapolis with his husband Daniel.

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6 Responses

  1. Mike Dwyer says:

    Really good point about the older ones handing off to the younger ones.Report

  2. Jaybird says:

    My only issue was trying to figure out the geo-political framework of this galaxy far, far away (like, why is there a New Republic and a Resistance)

    One of the best things that the original trilogy did right was how handwavey it got when it started talking about things vaguely related to a religious framework. The Force flows through all living things? Sure. Why not. Okay. I’ll buy it for the two hours we’re sitting here. Jedi, Sith… sure. Fine.

    While the sins of the prequels were legion, one of the things that it did worst was attempt to discuss the geo-political framework of the galaxy. We opened Phantom Menace with a trade embargo… and it didn’t get any better from there. When they tried to explain that The Force was something for which you could test positive, it was as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

    I very much like how it looks like we’re back to The Force being “mumbo jumbo”. I mean, how awful would that scene on the Millennium Falcon have been had Ben Kenobi pull out a chart and explain how Luke’s numbers were consistent with a case of Jedi/Sith?Report

    • DensityDuck in reply to Jaybird says:

      I don’t know if they actually referred to midichlorians in any of the movies other than Episode I.

      (It is kind of annoying to write about these movies because when you say “the first one”, do you mean Ep I or Ep IV?)

      As a friend said after Ep I, “I was kind of disappointed to learn that all along the Force was just germs”.Report

  3. (like, why is there a New Republic and a Resistance)?

    There’s a Resistance because in that galaxy far, far away, the New Republic is still owned by Martin Peretz.Report

  4. DensityDuck says:

    “why is there a New Republic and a Resistance”

    My fan-wank about that is that after the second Death Star and most of the Imperial Fleet was destroyed, the Empire’s government no longer had the strong military force it needed to maintain its centralized rule. Many systems broke away and formed a loose confederation that calls itself “the New Republic”, and the Empire has developed into the First Order. The Resistance is an insurgent movement operating inside the First Order, supported by the New Republic, which is working to destabilize the FO and encourage systems to declare independence or affiliation to the New Republic.Report