Good morning! And a Happy Birthday
to Aunt Julie! I hope you have a fantastic day!
Yes, I should be out milking but
Zoey isn’t giving much milk right now so a wait won’t kill her. Also, if I am
still at this in ten minutes or so, I’m going to need a break anyway so it
really isn’t a matter of life and death.
I have been very quiet as of late
for several reasons. One being that I have been busy. There is so much to do,
never enough time to do it. Still, if not for the next reason, I’m sure I would
have still found time. Another is that a couple of weeks ago I was in the
middle of a project and I got up to do something in the kitchen and when I
turned around, my screen had gone blank other than a Microsoft logo and a
circle indicating that something was happening. Well, nothing really was and it
appears that my hard drive fried. This is the second time since I’ve had that
lap top which has been only four years. Highly annoying because I had so much
stuff on it that I hadn’t backed up; namely my story about Hywel and Cailín and
all of my doula and midwifery homework.
However, last night I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with a
friend, Diana Chunn, and Joanna. It was fun. It was annoying. If you have not
seen it yet and do not want any unwanted rather blatant plot hints, you should
go see it first. Just let it be known that I have warned you so you can’t get
mad at me if you find out more than you want to.
For one thing, I’m pretty sure I
read at some point in time that George Lucas had decided not to do any further
movies because there was so much material already out there in the form of
books published about the Expanded Star Wars Universe. At one point in time, I
had around fifty of these books and had read them all. At that point, there
were approximately fifty more in publication that I did not have and I felt so
overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material combined with my lack of money to buy the books and my lack
of time to read them if by chance I found the money that I sold them at a yard
sale. Only four exceptions including The
Art of Star Wars which included the script and the three books from the
original movies. I still kick myself over this upon occasion; some of those
books were very well written by some very good authors. And right now I could
use them for reference.
For another thing, I did a search
before beginning to write/type this: “how is star wars the force awakens
different from the books” (using correct capitalization doesn’t typically
matter so I don’t usually bother when performing a search although sometimes I
do). Hmmmm. Well. It’s time to go milk because once I continue down this
particular path, there will be no turning back. See ya!
In other news while I’m waiting for
the water bucket to fill, I’ve begun saving anything important on my R2D2 flash
drive and that is where this document will be living once I’ve finished up for
today.
In the past couple of weeks we’ve
had two goats die. They were both young but I have no idea what happened with
either one. Twinkle Toes got diarrhea and it had gone away but then he just got
super thin and fell asleep and didn’t wake up. Gabriel seemed fine until a
couple of days ago when Seth and Joseph went out and said that he was laying
down and couldn’t get up. They took a blanket out and put him on it with lots
of hay piled up around him and some grain to nibble at but the next morning he
was dead. We still have Zoey and Goldilocks but that’s it. I don’t get it.
Julia actually asked if someone might be poisoning them; someone cut the
Christmas lights she had on her porch into about 9-inch lengths so I guess it’s
possible.
Also on my fried hard drive is all
the stuff for Seth and Joseph for school. Let me just say that that is highly
annoying. Starting over from scratch is not really much fun. Unless perhaps you
want to make big changes, which I did not.
Now I’ve milked and eaten breakfast
and helped Joseph scramble eggs. Time to get back to this Star Wars thing.
Maybe I shouldn’t make such a big deal
about things. Maybe I should. Maybe if George Lucas had been in charge things
would be different. Maybe not. I think they would. This is why: ‘Lucas was
initially involved as creative consultant,[2] though he stepped away due to
Disney's descision to take the story in a different direction than his original
outlines.[24][25] He later elaborated in an interview with Stephen Colbert:
"The original saga was about the father, the children, and the
grandchildren. I don’t think that's a secret to anybody—that’s in the
novels—and the children were in their 20s and everything. But they’ve taken it
in a different direction, and I'm excited—they didn’t use my story, so I don’t
know what they’re doing."[26]’
Here are the notes from the above
paragraph (which I got from Wookieepeida: The Star Wars Wiki’s Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens):
24. Breznican, Anthony (November
20, 2015). George Lucas on new Star Wars film: 'They weren’t keen to have me
involved'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on November 22, 2015.
25. Romano, Nick (January 20,
2015). How George Lucas' Star Wars 7 Ideas Were Used By Disney. Cinema Blend.
Retrieved on January 20, 2015.
26. Crow, David (April 18, 2015).
Stephen Colbert Says He Never Wanted to Host the Daily Show. Retrieved on April
25, 2015.
One of these days I think I’ll read
the sources but that day is not this day (partly because I gave the goats hay
and I’m beginning to itch and I’d really like to get this done before I take a
shower).
So, Lucas is quoted as saying Disney
had “taken it in a different direction…” Let me just say that I’ve never been a
huge Disney fan to begin with and I guess I should not have been too surprised.
I mean, really, every movie they’ve done based on a book or story has been
changed from the original. Plus, I can’t stand Snow White.
Well, they departed. Big time. Big,
huge, humongous, gargantuan, time. I can’t begin to overemphasize this.
Gigantic, colossal changes. Holy freaking heck, man!
Han and Leia do get married (which
is not actually mentioned in The Force
Awakens) and they do have offspring. But instead of a boy named Ben, they
have twins named Jacen and Jaina as well as another son named Anakin (which Han
was in favor of but Leia really had to work through because she had to forgive
her father before agreeing to name him that). Luke marries a woman named Mara
Jade who is the Hand of Thrawn. Thrawn was a grand admiral, and not human which
is amazing because Palpatine did not like non-humans. At first, Mara’s job was
to kill Luke but with the death of Thrawn, Mara was able to overcome her
brainwashed past and while fighting the Ssi-ruuk, they fell in love and were
married (long, interesting courtship, they had). They had a son named Ben and he was a good ten years or so younger
than Han and Leia’s children. So the fact that the bad guy wearing the mask is
Han and Leia’s son named Ben just doesn’t work for me. Sorry, Disney, big fail
on that one.
Jacen actually does turn to the
Dark Side and becomes a Sith Lord and his sister Jaina is the one who kills him
but that happens in the books after I stopped reading (I need to do some more reading,
I think).
Chewbacca is in The Force Awakens. I love Chewy, don’t
get me wrong. But he was killed in a battle with the Ssi-ruuk. His death was devastating;
not just to Han and company, but to the reader. I still can’t believe it
happened. And yet it did. Death is like that. At the point this movie is taking
place, he should only be appearing in flashbacks. I guess I knew when Peter
Mayhew was slated to be on the cast for this movie that all was not well but
one can always hope.
Luke is instrumental in finding those
strong in the force to found a New Order of Jedi. He may have been the last one
for a time, but certainly not long enough to go off and hide from the universe
because his sole pupil went bad. He did teach the twins and Anakin but as of
the time I stopped reading the books, none of them had gone bad. There was a
young man who did. His name was Kip something and he did cause a lot of damage
but he did turn away from the path he was taking toward the Dark Side although
he died in the process.
There is no Resistance. Leia is
elected as Chief of State after Mon Mothma of the New Republic which she did a
lot to help create. There is no First Order, which in The Force Awakens is the remnants of the Empire.
And Supreme Leader Snoke? Are you
kidding me? The actor who plays the part is good (it’s the guy who played
Gollum) but that’s all I can say positive about him. The name is laughable. The
character is ridiculous.
All I can do is release a huge sigh
and wonder if I’ll live through watching it again when I take the boys. The
purist in me says no. The purist in me says I shouldn’t even take them because
they won’t even know the difference between the real story and this piece of
crap that is making Disney a cartload of money. And I didn’t realize I felt
quite so strongly about it, but I guess I do.
However—Will I go watch the next
installment? Yes, I will. But only to see how the story progresses, not because
I love Star Wars. Honestly, I really hope that none of the actors read any of
the books because to have read them and to agree to take part in this
enterprise would be sacrilege of the highest order.
So, my low down is this: the
special effects are fantastic (way better than Episodes IV, V, and VI), the
acting is pretty good (way better than Episodes I, II, and III), the story
leaves a heck of a lot to be desired and I honestly do not recommend it for people
who love the Expanded Star Wars Universe.
Have a great day!
