"Neo-Sithism and Neo-Imperialism are the same ideology."

December 28, 2016 8:14 PM

Leia Organa: A Critical Obituary

Leia Organa, the politician and revolutionary who led the defeat of the Galactic Empire, died after a short illness. She was 60 years old. Hers was a life laced with controversy concerning everything from her tactics to her very ancestry, but her intelligence, commitment to the Republican cause, and place at the heart of the Rebellion, and later the Resistance against Neo-Imperialism, remains the indisputable core of her legacy.

posted by Faint of Butt (30 comments total)

My best friend now plans on dressing up like General Organa for the Women's March with a sign that says "Proud rebel scum." (Also, the "A candid moment" captioned picture kinda wrecked me.)
posted by Ruki at 8:23 PM on December 28, 2016 [22 favorites]

Well, that's just great.
posted by suelac at 8:48 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

That was remarkable for being a very good character analysis and also an obit/testament that serves to actually increase the stature of its subject.

(If I may ask: does this count as film critisim or fanfic or what? It's certainly very well done and perhaps some of its impact comes from the way it bridges categories.)
posted by wenestvedt at 8:51 PM on December 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

Its things like this that raise fandom to an art.
posted by sotonohito at 9:14 PM on December 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

Am I correct in deducing that the author is MeFi's own mobunited?
posted by vanar sena at 9:26 PM on December 28, 2016 [7 favorites]

Yes, it was me.
posted by mobunited at 9:27 PM on December 28, 2016 [130 favorites]

Well then - nicely done, you.
posted by vanar sena at 9:27 PM on December 28, 2016 [11 favorites]

> does this count as film critisim or fanfic or what?

How about Augmented Reality?
posted by I-Write-Essays at 9:31 PM on December 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

It was wonderful. Thank you.
posted by rtha at 9:32 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Thanks. I don't know. There was something about Carrie Fisher passing away (drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra) that got to me in a different way from everyone else. Leia represents part of the problem of being a nerd and confronting problematic things in highly immersive media, where you end up with a rewrite/commentary track in your head, and of course Fisher as a writer *was* a "re-writer" at times, a script doctor, practicing this very thing at the source. (Note: I am a defender of Revenge of the Sith, which she worked on.)

Plus of course, I'm a gamer, a media zombie, and Star Wars has a probably-unhealthy degree of reality for me, to the point where a lot of this stuff was submerged when we played the Star Wars RPG (I was the son of an absent clone father, I liked swoop bikes, I thought Darth Vader must be a droid when he came up in Holonet propaganda, my R2 unit wore a tatty hat), read the spinoff media, argued online, all that stuff. And you have these characters in the films where you know there *must* be something going on while they grimace, listening to Luke and whoever wax about their problems.

So beyond a weird tribute to a very intelligent woman who eventually did as she damn well pleased, I guess I'm interested in that commentary track/rewrite in fans' heads. I guess that's always criticism.
posted by mobunited at 9:41 PM on December 28, 2016 [54 favorites]

Bravo, mobunited!
posted by Kwine at 9:49 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Fantastic! Thank you, sincerely. This helps somehow
posted by pt68 at 10:30 PM on December 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Fantastic mobunited!
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:36 PM on December 28, 2016

This should become official SQ canon.
posted by smartyboots at 11:12 PM on December 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Very deft, very heartfelt. I imagine she would have appreciated the sentiment, and the craft of the piece.
posted by wenestvedt at 11:21 PM on December 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Loved this. Surprised to see the Endor Holocaust controversy was glossed over. I wish to read Senator and General Organa's revolutionary treatises.
posted by mwhybark at 11:29 PM on December 28, 2016 [6 favorites]

Does anyone else think that Rey is Luke's daughter?
posted by brujita at 1:08 AM on December 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

Damn, son, that is fantastic. I am not a serious Star Wars fan at all, and you have me wanting to read a whole lot more like that.
posted by briank at 5:14 AM on December 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

[this is good]
posted by Joey Michaels at 6:34 AM on December 29, 2016 [1 favorite]

I share a small number of things I find on metafilter on facebook. Only the really good stuff. My facebook friends love this. I love it too.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:50 AM on December 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is delightful.
posted by minsies at 6:50 AM on December 29, 2016

.

Because Leia deserves it just as much as Carrie.
posted by blurker at 7:00 AM on December 29, 2016 [5 favorites]

My best friend now plans on dressing up like General Organa for the Women's March with a sign that says "Proud rebel scum."

Holy Jawas, if I hadn't been bummed about not being able to go to the Women's March before, I sure am now!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:05 AM on December 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

This contains a very cogent analysis of Imperial military doctrine, one that has application beyond the various "superweapon" projects, extending even to the need to elevate even the smallest fighting vehicles several meters above ground combatants (leading, in part, to some of the most impractical troop-carriers in galactic history).


Personally, I still remember the shockwaves she sent through the more moderate elements of Coruscant intellectual society with the big character posters Lay In Wait Like the Wampa and The Model of The People's Rebellion Will Be the Womp Rat, For With 10, 000 Bites She Will Subdue the Krayt Dragon.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:29 AM on December 29, 2016 [12 favorites]

expect an extra kitten in your pay envelope this month
posted by thelonius at 9:29 AM on December 29, 2016 [12 favorites]

This is the greatest fan wank since the discovery of the Endor Holocaust. Leia, of course, would have been implicated in the cover up, even if she wasn't directly responsible for the situation. Blowback will get you every time.
posted by vibrotronica at 9:55 AM on December 29, 2016 [2 favorites]

The knowledge that there won't be a triumphant General Organa at the end of Ep 9 is painful.

This, however, is wonderful. And telepathic!Leia is one of my favorite fanwanks.
posted by steady-state strawberry at 11:15 AM on December 29, 2016 [3 favorites]

You gotta love the dryness of this:

She worked under deep cover as the bounty hunter Boussh, and during Galactic Concordance negotiations at the end of the war, admitted that during this period, she personally assassinated Hutt leader Jabba Desilijic Tiure.

Oh, it does mention later that Jabba "held her captive," but kinda forgets the word "slave" and the sexual humiliation which Jabba must have deliberately studied, since surely one of his species would derive no personal excitement from exposing a human female's body that way. Galactic rape culture anyone?
posted by Bringer Tom at 2:36 PM on December 29, 2016 [4 favorites]

So well done. Thank you!
posted by h00py at 5:51 AM on December 30, 2016

I love this.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:34 AM on January 4, 2017