Something awakens

[melannen]

I went to see the new Star Wars movie today! I had not tried particularly hard to avoid spoilers, but the entire internet had tried so hard to protect me despite myself (thanks internet!) that it just seemed ungrateful to put it off until it was too late.

So, that was a Star Wars movie! As the first Star Wars movie to hit the big screens since 1983, it was almost worth the wait. If seeing a Star Wars movie is something you think you would like, you should go see it.

(It was definitely the first Star Wars movie to hit the big screens since 1983, if that tells you anything.)

I haven't read any of the fanfic yet (I'm trying to get through YT) but I keep seeing pairing tags on Tumblr, and, well. Here, have a missing-scene ficlet that says pretty much everything I want to say to fandom about that movie:

"Hey, Rey, come over here," Han Solo said. Rey was trying to make some kind of modification to an old repair on the Falcon's hyperdrive; to be honest, Finn's mind had glazed over as soon as the rest of them had started talking about mechanical stuff.

"Um, okay," Rey said.

"I want to give you crazy kids some advice, while we have a little breathing room," Solo said, as Rey settled beside Finn in the little lounge area. "Voice of experience and all that."

The Wookiee said something and Solo pointed at him and said, "You. Shut up." He turned back to Rey and Finn. "So. Story time. A long time ago, and far, far away, there was a kid who was stuck on a desert planet. No parents, but big dreams, hotshot pilot skills. And then this astromech droid stumbled in, a droid that was carrying secret plans that were vital to defeating the forces of evil and really tacky outfits. And then they got mixed up with some crazy old man who liked to tell pointless rambling stories, a guy who was running away from a rough past, a kid who was secretly a big deal with some freedom fighters, and a bunch of other losers, and they took off on an old Corellian freighter to save the galaxy. Any of that sound familiar?"

"A little," Rey said, holding up two fingers close together. "Especially the old man with the rambling stories."

"I gotta be honest, it's sounding awfully familiar to me too," Solo said. "Of course that's not how the story ended, a bunch of other stuff happened - they blew up a planet-killing superweapon, somebody turned out to have Force powers, the crazy old guy died in this unnecessarily Freudian way--" The Wookiee - Chewbacca - inserted another comment there.

"I told you to shut up," Solo said. "Anyway, evil was defeated, yadda yadda, they set off to find the last Jedi master - but the point, the relevant point that I am getting to, is you get a bunch of young people together, high-stress situation, lots of adrenaline and triumph going on, and feelings are going to start happening, and in this case, everybody knew the ace pilot and the rebel bigshot were going to turn into the romance of the century. There was kissing. Public displays of affection. It was sickening."

"That's the story of how you and General Organa got together," Finn said, and added "Sir," when Solo gave him a look.

"You'd think," he said. "But no. No it is not. That is the story of the sweet sweet love of Princess Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker."

Finn blinked and recoiled. "Isn't he supposed to be her brother?"

"Oh yes," Solo said. "So here is my sage advice for you. And I'm afraid it's the only sage advice you're getting out of me. Don't either of you get your hearts set on anybody involved in this whole mess - anybody, you hear me? Until you're absolutely sure how many siblings you have, and where exactly they ended up. And I'd keep an ear to the ground for cousins, too. Got that?"

Rey and Finn looked at each other. "Got that," Rey said.

"Good," Solo said, and then pulled himself up. "BB-8! You pull those couplings yet?"

BB-8 whistled from somewhere in the ship. "Chewie?" Solo said, with a jerk of his head, and the two of them sauntered off toward the droid.

Finn and Rey looked at each other again, and by mutual silent agreement got up and left in opposite directions.

My sister is taking all of the old-EU novels back to Chicago with her after break, which is great, because that means I won't be tempted to fall back into the Sarlacc pit after her.