Even ignoring the Vietnam War allegory in the OT, the first prequel series episode was literally a movie about a trade embargo? There was a galactic senate where people debated?? Like very literally a political movie.
Whole message of the prequels was that crises (all manufactured by Palpatine for simplicity) could persuade people to vote to give up their “democracy” in favor of security.
The prequels were about liberalism's decay into fascism. The OT was about revolutionary resistance to fascism.
Then Disney bought it and wrote them as trying to reinstate liberalism only for it to decay into fascism again, so the sequels were about fighting fascism again in order to reinstate liberalism again.
At least we have Andor where it's clear most of the Rebels are revolutionaries that get ratfucked by Mon Mothma and her libs.
I read Andor's rebels as a surge of popular discontent against Imperial rule that got hijacked by the deposed ruling class into a movement to restore the old shitty system instead of actually effective change.
Damn I gotta watch that.
It's pretty good. Main character is loosely based on Young Stalin. There's a great speech by Space Lenin that directly quotes Brecht and Gramsci (Gramsci gets a few other quote drops too.)
By the time of 9 they are not even talking about restoring liberalism or the pretense of democracy again. It is just the rebellion. The rebels become totally apolitical, thus Abrams keeps the franchise in an eternal state of rebels vs empire like he is a kid playing with toys reenacting the OT over and over again
thus Abrams keeps the franchise in an eternal state of rebels vs empire like he is a kid playing with toys reenacting the OT over and over again
He's the worst kind of uncreative brat in the neighborhood, the kind that bashes the toys together until they break (killing off characters and undoing any changes that they had established) and scratches his name on stuff that was never his (like the not-Tatooine "Jakuu" and the not-Corsucant "Hosnian Prime" that was almost Coruscant until the suits said he can't quite break that toy, and the not-Empire "First Order" and the not-Rebellion "Resistance" and don't get me started on the not-Sith "Knights of Ren.").
renaming the chancellor to bushaltine and watching as people still don't get the exceptionally straightforward allegory
I remember talking to my coworker when the first avatar movie came out and I said it was good but thought it was a little too on the nose about the American military and he just gave me this surprised look and said “wait it’s about the American military?”
It's interesting because it kinda isn't, like obviously it's meant to be about the US and there are symbols all throughout the movie (like when they show the villain in front of a window with stripes that form the US flag), but IIRC Cameron stated the movie is supposed to be more evocative of European colonialism.
cameron must have been bullshitting there. the movie is pocahontas in space. someone told him to make it 'not about america' somehow.
Maybe he considers Pocahontas as being about European colonialism too? I’m not sure when that crosses over from American colonialism to European colonialism, seems like a fuzzy semantic thing.
Well, there's no delimitation there. American colonialism is just an independent form of european colonialism. The way I see it that's a sleight of hand that helps things stay kosher, so to speak.
The curtains are blue, sir!
Renaming the Rebel Alliance to the Viet Cong still wouldn't be enough for them.
Fucking Nute Gunray didn't turn many heads as a name, even when Newt Gingrich was still in the news.
Do people really believe that ''fictional work'' are really 100% fictional and not the product of their time or based in some real life history?
They absolutely do. It's genuinely breathtaking to realize what a surface level read most people have of the fiction they consume. Back when I was on I remember being downvoted into oblivion for pointing out that literally the entire genre of science fiction and fantasy is political because the whole point is to reframe various social/philosophical/political concepts in ways that let you recontextualize your own ideas and biases.
I remember talking to someone about Starship Troopers once, the conversation made me seriously question if the person I was talking to had a grasp on what was and what wasn't reality. He was arguing that society should essentially be exactly like it's depicted by Heinlein, and I was trying to point out to them that the only reason that type of society works in the book is because the author wrote it that way, but they kept referring back to the book itself to try and prove that that type of society would work in reality.
I remember talking to someone about Starship Troopers once, the conversation made me seriously question if the person I was talking to had a grasp on what was and what wasn't reality. He was arguing that society should essentially be exactly like it's depicted by Heinlein, and I was trying to point out to them that the only reason that type of society works in the book is because the author wrote it that way, but they kept referring back to the book itself to try and prove that that type of society would work in reality.
Do we have the same relative?
Mine also had a long unsolicited rant about how Gambo "corrupted" his preteen children because there was a gay blowjob once. Yeah, the rest of the Gambo show's sexual violence and gory torture scenes were fine for those same preteen children though. According to him, they are "mature for their age" so that's all fine, as long as no gaaaaay.
To them all art is entertainment and all entertainment should be escapism.
No one is immune to propaganda, and those that only see the blue curtains still absorb the rest, just in an unexamined way that is more dangerous in many cases.
They believe that AND they think art is 100% separate from the artist, just so they can consume their treats without feeling guilty.
It was really funny to watch my friends drop companies and stuff they liked because of something the CEO or whatever did until it was JKR and Harry Potter was at stake. Suddenly separating the art from the author was really easy to them.
I don't even think most people believe in history in the real world to be honest with you
'Political' is such a useless word in the context of what media you consume. Even if a piece of media doesn't explicitly have a political message, it's still political because people made it and people will act on their politics whether they're aware or not.
If they're unaware, then the politics likely have shallow messaging that reinforces the status quo, or the media goes through an approval process by whoever is funding the project/its distribution.
It's so oversimplified, the belief around where politics can exist. Rarely do these people consider outside factors affecting a piece of media. Marvel movies get to use US military resources as long as the military gets to veto any creative decision for any reason. A creator can have their work removed or changed based on someone else's politics.
Here we are, nearing 2024 and the understanding of what it means to be 'political' is factually stating that there are people other than straight cisgender white people.
That's pretty disturbing to me - that my existence is considered not just political, but a political threat.
The term isn't useless, it's a weapon. They know the above is true, but they use it to mean "you better not say anything I dislike, or support anything I dont, or else."
Nothing more.
I guess I more meant that the term is made useless when it's used to describe Rey being competent in the Star Wars movies. Kinda like how therapy/abuse terms have been overused and diminish conversations around improving conditions.
But that's a fair point. It's not just being made useless, it's being weaponized to advance reactionary politics.
What are the stupid nerds mad about now?
This is probably old. I think it's the kiss that happens for a second in Rise of Skywalker.
context
They celebrate the defeat of the bad guys, and there's two women kissing. It quickly cuts to this guy . Dweebs got mad about it for reactionary reasons.
So unbelievably dumb.
I can't remember if there was any dork outrage regarding Bix and Vel in Andor, but I think that show didn't have enough shiny jangling keys for types.
It is absolutely amazing that the first good star wars in 40 years bounced right off supposedly their biggest fans.
The biggest fans with the littlest media literacy lol. Let's be honest, they were never going to be into it, and it's a miracle that it even exists!
They really want a giant galaxy where only 12 people ever did anything important so they can jack off to some published fanfic about Bonti'iib Fucko's adventures in the Nood Thorwok piss mines cause he was some alien in thar bar from episode 2.
“stupid nerd” just hit me so hard
like how are these clowns into nerd shir and so fucking dumb?
Star Wars is stupid as hell, which is fine if taken for what it is, but being someone who understands the average wookiepedia article doesn't make you smart, it means you know a lot about something really dumb
https://youtu.be/fv9Jq_mCJEo?t=60
George Lucas has actually said this himself. He says that the Rebels in Star Wars were the Viet Cong and the empire is United States.
The Empire has a such a nazi feel to it I guess I could see how they missed that.
The nazis were inspired by the US and immediately incorporated into their institutions after nazi germany's failure.
That's true, but aesthetically the Empire doesn't really evoke the USA. Avatar succeeds better in that way
All powerful empire that tells everyone else what to do - or else - evokes the US to everyone that's not in the US.
It's easy not to notice when you just feel at home.
I still remember when MAGA chuds in places like Fox News whined about Rogue One being "anti-Trump propaganda."
That was an amazing self-own.
"War is the continuation of being non-political by other means" -anti-woke ~~Bismark~~ Clauswitz
Damn woke blue haired Prussian generals.
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Here's a list of tons of leftist movies.