There were a lot of long comments on my last post about Star Wars.

Rather than respond to them individually, I thought I’d just do one more post on the subject.

It seems to me that Rey’s backstory was an attempt to stop her from being a Mary Sue, and as much as Forbes tries to make the case that Rey is not a Mary Sue, they end end up defining her perfectly as one.

There are two tropes that writers follow in these types of stories and Rey and her ilk, as well as most of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, and the X-Men universe (most superhero universes for that matter), follow one if not both.

One: The Chosen One.

Two: It is the idea that you are born with “it” or not.  You have a high midichlorian count, or you don’t.  You are born a wizard or you are a muggle.  You are a mutant with powers or not.

Once you have A Chosen One, nobody else’s contribution towards the action really matters unless they are directly enabling The Chosen One.  If The Chosen One is key to defeating the bad guy, why die in an X-Wing far from The Chosen?  Why take on Death Eaters anywhere else in the world?  Every good person should just relegate themselves to being a human shield for The Chosen One.

Beyond that, there is just the improbability of events that surround the Chosen One.  Everything t Hogwarts revolved around Harry Potter, to the detriment and death of other students.

The nuke the fridge moment for me in The Phantom Menace was when Anakin built C3PO.  What did that add to the story except being so entirely improbable in the whole wide galaxy far away, that I couldn’t get over it.  In a whole galaxy, the same dozen characters do everything and keep running into each other.

Being “born with IT” is just as bad.  Effort really doesn’t matter if you are lucky enough to have IT.  Rey doesn’t need a lifetime of training because she has IT.   The entire wizarding world is predicated on those with IT are special.  X-Men are heroes because they are born with IT.

This is in direct contrast with actual life.  Sure, you can tell me it’s fantasy, but that detracts from the story, not adds to it.  Natural talent or skill is a good start, but effort makes the man.

Batman is great because he trained and trained and designed all his gadgets.

I think the born special trope is loved by kids because they all think they are special.  Reality is they are not and a magic owl is not going to show up with a letter to change their lives.

Incidentally, this is why I don’t like the Harry Potter universe as a whole.  Kids identify with the wizards.  I identify with the muggles.  Once you realize that the wizards think of themselves as Ubermensch, and Voldamort’s motivations seem perfectly in line with history, the muggle persecution of wizards makes sense.  When one wizard could subjugate whole nations of muggles, freedom loving muggles have every right to burn a wizard at the stake.

The anti-mutant humans in the X-Men universe are equally justified.  When you can control people’s minds or blow up a building by looking at it, what stops a person like that from trying to appoint themselves a god-king?  Every mutant would be more like Apocalypse than not.

I much prefer the magical universe of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians (the show is hot garbage, read the books).  Sure, natural talent is a good start, but to become a magician takes work (the name of the wizarding school is Brakebills, but the students call it ‘Break-balls’ because of how hard it is).  One of the most powerful magicians in that universe was rejected from Brakebills and learned magic on the street.  Dedication and work is what did it.  In Harry Potter, no muggle, no matter how hard they worked could out magic a Hogwarts graduate.

I’d much rather see training and dedication than “*POOF* your mystical heritage grants you world changing powers because plot.”

Then again, I’m an adult that has to work for things.

Dear Jews of Texas,

I just saw this though it is a couple of days old.

Texas Imam: Judgment Day Won’t Start ‘Until Muslims Fight the Jews in Palestine.’

The Clarion Project report on this Houston based Imam contains a video with English translations.

What we have seen throughout Europe is ISIS inspired Islamic terrorism, fomented by radical European Imams.  The attitude is “if [a Muslim] can’t go to the Middle East and fight for ISIS, it acceptable for him to fight on ISIS’ behalf at home.”

While this Imam in Texas may be calling for Muslims to fight Jews in Palestine, but based on the way other Islamist terror groups have behaved, attacking Jews who support Israel locally would be an acceptable proxy target.

Here is the website of the Texas Department of Public Safety section on a Licence to Carry (LTC) a handgun.

Here is a list of ranges and instructors for LTC training in the Houston, TX area.

I suggest you follow these links and gets yourself a handgun, apply for your LTC, and start practicing with it as quickly as possible.

Right now there are a lot of pre-Christmas deals on guns out there, including some serious manufacturers rebates.  Now is the time to arm up, if you haven’t already.

Shit might be getting very real for you very soon.

God bless.

I haven’t seen Star Wars The Last Jedi yet.  I didn’t see The Force Awakens in theaters either (the joys of having a toddler).

I figure I will probably get around to seeing The Last Jedi as some point, but the more I read about it, the less I care to.

The Guardian says the movie is “A Force for good: why the Last Jedi is the most triumphantly feminist Star Wars movie yet.”

The New Statesman says “The Last Jedi is the first properly feminist Star Wars.” It goes on to give this warning “Warning: spoilers and deconstruction of the patriarchy ahead.”  Fantastic, that’s exactly what I want to read.

Australian News says “Feminists praise Star Wars: The Last Jedi”

Inverse Entertainment goes on to lecture me about Star Wars feminism with:

“Side note: feminism isn’t just about people who identify as women. The film’s main male characters — Finn, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, and Luke Skywalker — were all allowed their own room to grow and change and feel their feelings, which is a subject that more male-focused feminism often looks at. In our world, men are often told time and time again that they’re not allowed to feel emotion; the guys in The Last Jedi were not only allowed to feel emotion but encouraged to, and that’s lovely.”

Ah yes, the “men can’t feel emotion” trope.  I guess Rocky was just about punching people and Saving Private Ryan was and action movie.

What I learned from all these articles (and more) is that hooray Social Justice Feminism and if you don’t like the new Star Wars movies, it’s because you are a sexist neck-beard.

From Wired: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi Will Bother Some People. Good.”  Ah yes, nothing says feminism like “if you don’t like this movie it is because you are a shitty person.”

This movie is going to be insufferable.

Well, from what I saw in The Force Awakens and what I know about The Last Jedi, this movie is completely feminist, in all the worst ways.  The movie is totally sexist, and that makes it terrible.

What sexism am I talking about? The sexism where you can’t really hurt the pretty girl (especially with head shots).

Anakin Skywalker has both arms and both legs cut off in lightsaber battles.  He is also burned alive by lava.

Luke loses a hand to Darth Vader.

Luke cuts off Vader’s hand, bringing the Anakin limb loss count to five.

Mace Windu loses a hand, and Coun Dooku loses both.

Pretty much getting a limb chopped off is a right of passage for a Jedi.

In The Force Awakens, Rey fights Kylo Ren.  Ren is about as bad ass a Sith as we’ve seen so far.  He is the grandson of Vader.  He defeated Luke Skywalker.  He can stop blaster bolts in mid air.

He goes up against Rey, who has had no training and has held a lightsaber once, and he gets slashed in the face and she comes away with all her body parts.

If there is anything to go on from Episodes 1-6, Rey should have come away from that fight in several pieces, to be rebuilt with droid parts in a Rebel ship somewhere.

Instead, because she’s a girl, she doesn’t even get her makeup smeared by Ren.

There will never be any character growth as long as she can defeat any bad guy she comes across because the writers don’t want to take an arm off the pretty girl.

That’s Third Wave Social Justice Feminism in a nutshell.  Hooray women!  Girl power!  Except you can’t hurt the hot chick, because that’s mean…

Insufferable.

P.S. Here is why I don’t like the New Trilogy.

Spoilers ahead, BTW.  Oh yeah, and they bred raptors, you’re gonna need a bigger boat, and I’l be your wingman anytime.

They are just giving force powers away at this point.  In the Prequel Trilogy, it is established in Episode 1 that nine-year-old Anakin was too old to start training to be a Jedi, and 25 year old Obi Won was still a Padawan.  Becoming a Jedi took a lifetime of training.  Despite being incredibly powerful, Anakin loses his fight with Obi Won.

In the Original Trilogy, Luke is 18 (old enough to enlist in the Imperial fleet) when he starts training with Obi Won.  Luke never fights Vader in A New Hope.  He goes to Dagobah to train with Yoda, leaves, gets beaten by Vader, then trains some more before fighting Vader a second time.  We don’t know how long that is, but it is long enough to Luke to age visibly between these points and for the second Death Star to get nearly finished, so some time.  It two movies for Luke to be able to take on Vader in a lightsaber battle and not die (and I think Vader taking it easy on Luke because he didn’t want to kill his son).

In the New Trilogy, the actress who plays Rey is 25, so Rey is some time around that age.  She’s never even heard of the Jedi.  She picks up Luke’s lightsaber is some poor man’s Mos Eisley cantina, has a flashback, and BOOM is a super powerful Jedi.

Rey does an amazing force pull and gets a lightsaber away from Ren, slashes him in the face, and beats him in her very first lightsaber battle.  No training, no spending years in seclusion, no character development.  She just about became a Jedi from a box of Cracker Jacks.

Me (home alone): *Sees spider, steps on it.*

Wife (some time later): “What’s that?”

Me: “A dead spider, I stepped on it.”

Wife: “Why didn’t you pick it up?”

(I was too lazy, that required bending over)

Me: “I wanted its corpse to serve as a warning to all the other spiders.”

The Germans really don’t know what to do with the Start of David.

When they are not making Jews wear them on public, they are telling them not to wear them in public.

Outward displays of being Jewish (wearing a Yarmulke or other identifiable Jewish religious item) is angering Muslim migrants in German cities and has provoked attacks on German Jews.

And this is why I carry.

I have a Star of David I’ll be happy to display for them.

Consider it a warning.

So first President Trump fulfilled America’s promise to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, acknowledging it as Israel’s legitimate capital.

The UN Security Council then tried to pass a resolution criticizing the move and demanding America move its embassy back.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley proceeded to veto the resolution and tell the rest of the Security Council, in her most diplomatic language, that they can all go fuck themselves with an iron rod.

Trump doubled down and went full Trump, threatening to hold back foreign aid over this.

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

  I can only hope and pray that he follows through.

If he does, I feel that that United Nations has no option but to send UN Peacekeepers to the US to force our compliance in accordance with international agreements.

I just got a brand new Trijicon optic mounted and zeroed and I’d love an opportunity to test it out.  Some corrupt, third word, child rapists in blue helmets would be perfect for that.

According to the Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:

Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.

Apparently that list includes banging sexy robots.

“Annual sex robot convention is axed from London’s Goldsmiths university over fears it would provoke a terror attack by Muslim extremists” is a headline I never thought I would read in my entire life.

I’ve said before that it’s time robots should start carrying, and I really mean it.

When some people put on the “Draw Muhammad” thing in Texas, and it was attacked, the Jihadis didn’t make it through the parking lot.

I know that the UK has banned guns, but if someone can build a sex bod capable of throwing a 20,000 PSI punch into a Jihadi’s face… that should be good enough.