Digest

Inspirational song: Your Body Is a Wonderland (John Mayer)

Weeks of prep. Decades of dedication. A not-early-enough arrival. Seats too close to the screen. And now we have seen the conclusion of a forty-two year saga.

I threatened anyone who ruined my experience with spoilers, so I will give as good as I got. I won’t spoil it for anyone else. It has only been out a week. I will wait months before I assume all who want to see it have had a chance to do so. I will find roundabout ways to say whatever needs to come out of me tonight while I process it through my brain.

There was a whole lot of magical Jedi stuff. That’s not a surprise. Sometimes the physics-defying bothered me. Sometimes I just let my logical brain take a bathroom break and I enjoyed the weirdness. Even having just watched almost all of the series, I have to wonder why it seems like they just keep adding new powers (not saying to which characters) any time they need a plot device, without sticking with existing abilities that were already canon. I had a great deal of trouble trying to figure out how they decided when they were in space and when they were in atmosphere—gravity seemed to work awfully well when I thought they were in space, and there was always air to breathe. I still wonder where the air locks are on landing bays. That never ceases to disturb me.

I wondered who the secret storm troopers were, now that we all seem to know that famous people would have “cameos” as them. (Which movie was it where Daniel Craig was a storm trooper? Episode 7 or 8?) Sitting super close to the screen, I noticed a detail I never did before, in my whole life. One of the actors who started in the original episodes (not saying who) has a remarkably asymmetrical face. How did I miss this before? Since we skipped 4, 5, and 6, now I have to go back and study this person’s face when they were a much younger adult. And honestly, in a week or two, I will probably go back and watch the movie again when I can sit much farther back in the theater, and catch other details I missed from row B.

I think I’m at peace with whose story arcs ended and whose will continue, even if it’s just in our minds. That part definitely needs more digesting to make sure I’m not angry or unhappy with who lives and dies and why.

I obviously did not take pictures of the movie for my illustrations tonight. I’m not stupid enough to run afoul of Lucas and Disney that way. The only new photo I have for the day wasn’t taken by me, nor was it of me. In fact, I’m forbidden from sharing it, and the penalty is probably as severe as anything the most powerful movie studios could hand down, even if it would be significantly cheaper. Feel free to imagine anything you like. I’ll be as tight-lipped as all those actors with their NDAs for the Star Wars movies before the premiere.