Chocolate and Howling at the Moon

Taking a break from crying about Hamilton, I was completely blindsided by the news about Bowie...

And today, watching Lazarus, I felt like this little girl, totally unable to cope with the reality of aging and death.

Our Hannibal watch continues apace, but we are deep in s2 prison territory, so there's not much relief to be found there, although Cleolinda tries...

And now I hear SMAP is breaking up?? The management needs to get their shit together and stop all this backstabbing of each other, ffs. The one thing that made me laugh when I was deathly ill with a cold recently was rewatching the SMAP Saiban. :(

On the Star Wars side of things, I'm totally enjoying all the OT3 fics!!! And the What if Ep III Were Good finally came out! I shall now edit my memories of these films accordingly...

Last weekend I went to a friend's house to watch machete order!

This article convinced me of this order, but I didn't really find that it enhanced VI at all for me. We did make it through II and III though, which is always touch and go, because of the promise of VI. III actually isn't as BAD a film so much as it is depressing. Obi-Wan and Anakin have some good banter, actually. But the endless CGI battles...

Ep II and III would have been a LOT stronger if they used Anakin's mother as his ongoing motivation. You know, his one actual human relationship? They never explained why Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan couldn't buy her at the same time as Anakin or come back for her later with their vast Jedi funds. Or why Anakin himself couldn't come back for his mother in all those years (while he thinks "every day" about Amidala, gag me.) If the Jedi had somehow prevented her from being freed (because of their anti-attachment philosophy or whatever... never mind that close Master/Apprentice relationships are A-OK) that would have been a much more believable motivation for Anakin to resent the Jedi order. Instead of "ohhh our love is so forbidden... also Palpatine really needs me... and we don't need those younglings anyway..."

Why not just turn the younglings (or even other Jedi) to the dark side? Bringing balance to the force makes no sense? But none of SW philosophy makes sense so...

What was clearer with the machete order were the annoying repeats (We must have FOUR DOTS in the opening crawl! HOW many times does a character say "I've got a bad feeling about this..."?) and the inexplicable plot holes. (Why does no one USE THE FORCE to lift people or spaceships, or throw things at their enemies, or short out robot circuits or door circuits? Size makes no difference to the force, remember?)

And then we watched the stupid specialized editions, so terrible Teen Anakin RUINED the end of VI after all our well-earned celebrations.

I did notice that Leia kisses Luke on the mouth TWICE. Pimp Leia! I kind of ship Han/Leia/Luke OT3 now, with Luke and Leia as sister-wives. It's not like they were planned to be related until RotJ anyway. This article points out the valid flaws in RotJ's Vader arc, but I still have a soft spot for the bridge scene with Luke and Leia.

I have been consuming so much SW media! These two Rolling Stone articles are really interesting! (I really love Carrie!) And I assume everyone now knows that Yoda was originally named Buffy. (Lucas is such a disaster. Redlettermedia has it right that he ruins anything he touches. Speaking of, has everyone read about the truly hilarious original synopsis and rough draft? Please direct all credit for SW's success to Marcia!) I also learned that Kenny Baker is 81 freaking years old and is still going to play R2D2. That is hardcore.

I already have tickets to opening weekend! Don't let me down, JJ!

Musical inspiration:

• Fett's Vette
• Star Wars Musical
• Ani: A Parody
• Going Solo

Bonus:

• Honest Trailer
• Deleted scenes IV, V, VI

• What if ep 1 were good?
• What if ep 2 were good?