Vrex360 said:
I honestly do encourage people to watch this one. I welcome other opinions too but it might be nice to hear counter arguments beyond the screeching 'FEMINAZI SJWS TURNED MY STAR WARS INTO BETA MALE SOY AND IT CUCKED MY CHILDHOOD WITH AN INTERRACIAL GAY TRANSEXUAL PENIS' chorus that is my fucking youtube suggested feed any time this movie comes up.
Okay, fine. How about this one.
Johnson's writing of both Leia and Holdo betray a vastly deeper-seeded misogyny than even is accused of those who criticize the film. Leia is an accomplished, galactically-famous, stateswoman, diplomat, and strategist with decades of experience, and Holdo as we're straight-up told in the movie, even though we've never seen her to this point, is a decorated and celebrated veteran military commander and strategist.
So naturally, Leia slaps Poe right in plain view of the entire command deck, chewing him out for taking out the dreadnought. Sure, Leia is well within her rights and (at that point) completely vindicated in tearing his ass from one bulkhead to another and demoting him, but you do it in private and
you do not assault subordinates. You know, because it's damaging to morale and fosters distrust in the lower ranks.
And, seconds later, Poe is
completely vindicated when the whole damn First Order fleet jumps out of hyperspace hot on their trail, and had that dreadnought still been around they wouldn't have stood a chance.
This is a fact that should not have been lost on Holdo, who is as described above, which should have proven the quality of Poe's gut instinct along with his past service record with the Resistance. So naturally, Holdo proceeds to give Poe the stink-eye when he tries to give her a basic situation report -- something she would have actually needed, given her flag was on the
Ninka and transferred to the
Raddus when Leia was incapacitated -- and at least dresses him down in (semi)-private, and sidelines him despite still being the senior flight officer who had a lot of trust and respect among the
Raddus' crew.
Then, Holdo tells
no one her plan to cruise to Crait and sacrifice the
Raddus to screen for the evacuation craft. This is despite her knowing full well the First Order was tracking the vessels directly, and that there was no tracking device aboard the vessels nor any security leaks. Not even her own senior staff, apparently.
Literally all that had to happen was for Holdo to take Poe aside and basically say "you're a hot headed flyboy and I don't like your type. But, you have this crew's trust and respect, they need your leadership, and I need you on my side to help keep their morale up. Our only play is to cruise in normal space to Crait, abandon ship, and shelter in place. I'm keeping this information limited to senior staff because it will devastate morale, but this keeps us alive. People are counting on us, and it's time for you to step up and be a leader outside the cockpit. Get to work."
They could even have done it off-screen, showed Poe not being a jackass, saved the film a good 45 minutes of filler content and give Finn and Rose something to do meaningful to the plot, and
then once they abandoned the
Raddus showed Holdo's and Poe's conversation as a flashback to maintain the "subversion!".
Rose gets a pass as far as I'm concerned. She's grieving her sister's loss, and grief makes people do stupid shit. I would personally have preferred a story arc for her that involves her and Finn staying on board the
Raddus doing techy stuff like what their characters are, and her working through her grief and even confronting Poe about how his "misguided" attack on the dreadnought got her sister killed, which would have been a character-defining moment for all three characters.
Now look, I'm not advocating turning Star Wars into a full-on military sci-fi. But the bottom line is the franchise deals with military and paramilitary powers, so maybe take that into consideration when writing militaristic characters. There was no logical reason for Leia or Holdo to do any of the shit they did early on, that set later events in motion. Period.
I know the hot shit is to accuse people of calling out these characters misogynist. But I'm cantankerous ass and dead-set on going against the grain. The question I want answered, is
why are the women characters the exclusive designated idiot ball carriers throughout the entire movie?