Film Review - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Stupid Ewoks

The third and final entry of the original Star Wars trilogy, the sixth Episode of the later-named Skywalker Saga, opens with a visit by Darth Vader to the Second Death Star in the making above the forest moon of Endor, with none other than Emperor Sheev Palpatine himself overseeing its construction. The action then cuts to Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine, where droids Threepio and Artoo visit crime lord Jabba the Hutt's palace as part of a plan to rescue the carbonite-frozen Han Solo, Luke himself promising the pair as a bargain.

Jabba refuses and demonstrates overall that he isn't a very competent criminal since he comes to hold several high-profile members of the Rebel Alliance prisoner, encompassing the droid duo, Han, and Princess Leia, but doesn’t demand any kind of ransom for them, seeming to hold them hostage for the sake of holding them hostage (and describing Han as his "favorite decoration" in his palace). Boba Fett returns as well, with his own spinoff Disney+ series ultimately settling his fate, though Jabba’s having a son, Rotta, in the The Clone Wars pilot film still leaves to question what became of the younger Hutt.

Luke eventually comes to the rescue and gets everyone back in the Rebellion, Lando Calrissian joining their ranks and having been a part of the plot to get everyone free, with the Rebels gradually assembling to attack the Second Death Star above Endor. Before he joins the attack, though, Luke returns to Dagobah to complete his training with antediluvian Jedi Yoda, who does an about-face and says his training is complete, given his experience with fighting Darth Vader back in The Empire Strikes Back, though to become an official member of the fallen Order necessitates he defeat the Sith Lord.

Luke uses the four decades of technological progress since his dad's lightsaber was lost to build a new one and...make it green.

Obi-Wan’s Force ghost returns as well, agreeing with Yoda that Luke must confront Vader and his Sith Master the Emperor, after which comes the revelation of who the "other" the diminutive Jedi mentioned in Episode V is, and continuing the story of Luke's lineage. I know many critics and "fans" talk about the "inconsistency" of Obi-Wan not knowing of the "other hope" in Empire, although the late Jedi continues to insist that Luke is the Galaxy’s "last hope" within the film but given Kenobi’s experience with said "other hope" in his respective Disney+ series, I can semi-understand why he would feel that way.

However, Luke is hesitant to kill Vader given the iconic revelation in Episode V, believing there is still good in him, and since Obi-Wan had warned him about the young Skywalker's wish to "take the quick and easy path" to becoming a Jedi, Kenobi was pretty much going against his own advice, and had done exactly that in The Phantom Menace. Kenobi further warns that Vader is immune to redemption given that he's "more machine now than man, twisted and evil." Gee, now how exactly did that happen? Given Obi-Wan's actions before and advice to Luke, he could actually be considered one of the true villains of the Star Wars saga, too evil in fact for

Game of Thrones.

Luke is initially part of the plan to down the deflector shield protecting the Second Death Star in space, but believes he jeopardizes the mission and parts ways to allow the Imperials to capture him to meet Vader and eventually the emperor in the fledgling space station, culminating in a final duel while the Rebels deal with the trap Palpatine laid for them. The final scenes between Luke and Vader are among the most emotional in the Skywalker Saga, the Rebels down on Endor overcoming the emperor's trap with the help of the local Ewok population, after which everyone across the Galaxy celebrates their sudden obtained freedom from the Empire.

Luke could've just done this instead of killing everything he came across.

While I'm mostly fine with the changes effected to rereleases of the Original Trilogy, the scenes of everyone across the Galaxy including Coruscant, Tatooine, Bespin, Naboo, et all, celebrating in my mind was one I find issue with, since the Rebels just destroyed a space station and a fraction of the imperial forces, which would be akin to the destruction of the Pentagon causing America to collapse. Throughout history, furthermore, the deaths of national leaders rarely made regimes fall as well; for instance, the Ba'athist Iraqis still fought when Saddam Hussein fell out of power.

I know a trilogy of canon novels addresses what happens post-Battle of Endor, but George Lucas wasn't completely foresightful when turning Star Wars into a franchise, given the various clashes of continuity within and without the original and prequel trilogies. Regardless, Episode VI did really move me emotionally, more so than Empire, and John Williams's score as always is good and led me to fully watch the ending credits. Overall, Return of the Jedi, regardless of its faults, has aged well and is one of the cornerstones of the series.

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The Good	The Bad
Actually the most emotionally-moving entry of the Original Trilogy. A lot of great dialogue and moments. Great music. Excellent visual effects.	Some dumb moments as always. Questionable plot elements also.
The Bottom Line
Acutally the high point of the Original Trilogy.

Zootopia+

Since I reasonably enjoyed Disney’s Zootopia, I naturally watched its spinoff Disney+ series, consisting of six short side stories parallel to the film's events. The first sees Judy Hopps’ parents try to rescue their youngest daughter among countless children, Molly, as she hitches a ride on the train that takes her older sister to Zootopia. The second sees Fru Fru the shrew participating in a reality television series while dealing with her forthcoming wedding. The third sees Duke Weaselton ponder his life choices through singing, the next one providing backstory to Mr. Big in a further nod to The Godfather. The penultimate episode features Chief Bogo and Clawhauser participating in a talent show, and the last Sam, an otter waitress, as she serves the sloth couple Flash and Priscilla. I enjoyed this mini-series overall, given its addition to the film’s events (and a few scenes from the movie are even featured), though the franchise mythos likely won't be explored further due to Disney's decision not to make any more spinoffs based on their main films.

Debt of Bones

Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In author Terry Goodkind's first Sword of Truth prequel story (occurring in between the second, The First Confessor, and Wizard’s First Rule, the first main entry of the franchise), protagonist Abigail, born of Helsa, carries a sack whose contents are revealed later in the novella, going to Aydindril to seek the assistance of First Wizard Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander on account of soldiers from the D'Haran Empire, led at the time by Panis Rahl, occupying her hometown of Coney Crossing, although her plea for assistance is initially declined. Abby ultimately does get aid when she speaks of the titular debt, and she, Zedd, and others head to her village.

Abby is a "skip," the child of a magician who has no magical capability, and has a daughter, Jana, and a son that died at birth. Conflict erupts back in Coney Crossing after an initial encounter with a Mord-Sith, a torturer and assassin of the magically-inclined, with Zedd promising a country without magic for those who would prefer such a society, and the story ending with his maxim that enemies are the price of honor. Overall, this novella is an enjoyable diving board into the greater and lengthier Sword of Truth novels, although division into chapters would have been welcome.

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Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

David Graeber begins Bullshit Jobs by noting that everyone is familiar with jobs that don't seem to do much of anything like human resources, communications, people who discuss unnecessary committees, and so forth. In 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by the end of the century, technology would be sufficient to the point where the average work week would be fifteen hours, which of course hasn't been the case today. The ruling class figured out that happy and productive populations with plenty free time would be a mortal danger, with Graeber mentioning that neoliberal ideology was the opposite of what it claimed, a political project dressed up as an economic one.

The first chapter attempts to define what a bullshit job is, mentioning military contractors and subcontractors and stories such as postal carriers who decide that rather than delivering mail, they dump it into various locations, letting it go undiscovered for years. Graeber further defines bullshit jobs as forms of employment so pointless that even the employee can't justify its existence even though they feel obliged to pretend otherwise. He mentions specific forms including telemarketing, market research, consulting, that allegedly produce little positive social value. Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia University professor that designed "shock therapy" reforms for the former Soviet Union, mentions that America's duopolizing political parties are beyond corrupt, still the case today.

The second chapter asks what kind of bullshit jobs exist, obtaining testimony from across the world. Graber indicates five varieties: what flunkies do, with examples such as managers playing Pokémon all day rather than doing meaningful things; what goons do, including soldiers that don't fight wars; what duct tapers do, like coders patching defective computer programs; what box tickers do, such as checking stuff off on checklists and bureaucrats; and what taskmasters do, including allocating tasks to others. The author makes an analogy about imaginary friends, mentioning fake advertising and compliance firms, concluding by mentioning that you can have a bullshit job without realizing it.

The third chapter explores some of the moral and psychological effects of being trapped inside a bullshit job. Graeber mentions a Brish man who worked as an Interface Administrator for a content management system, being a combination of a duct-taper and a box checker, a not-so-dream dream job. He notes that students learn five main things: how to operate under others' direct supervision, how to pretend to work even when nothing needs to be done, that one is not paid money to do things, however useful or important, that one actually enjoys, that one is paid money to do things that are in no way useful and one does not enjoy, and that at least in jobs requiring interaction with the public, even when carrying out tasks one doesn't enjoy, one has to pretend to be enjoying it.

The fourth chapter asks what it's like to have a bullshit job, Graeber saying that if being forced to pretend working is infuriating to the point where you're under another's power, then bullshit jobs are entire jobs organized on that same principle. He notes that holders of bullshit jobs aren't always miserable, but such jobs are uncommon nowadays. Graeber cites several examples, including one of Charles, who worked in Sega in "localization" but did barely any work, and Greg, who spent two years designing "annoying banner ads," among others. He concludes the chapter by stating that it's possible to find purpose and meaning even in the worst bullshit jobs.

The fifth chapter asks why bullshit jobs are proliferating, mentioning the rise of the service economy, with the simultaneous decline in industry and agriculture due to relocation to other countries, not to mention the rise of information-oriented jobs since the 1990s. One could argue that the whole financial sector is a scam of sorts, since it represents itself as largely about directing investments towards profitable opportunities in commerce and industry despite actually doing little of that. Graeber touches upon the concept of development hell in the entertainment industry, where certain media goes unproduced for years, even decades, which appealed to me as I am familiar with that term.

Chapter Six asks why society doesn't object to the growth of pointless employment, mentioning that opinion writers are modern moralists, secular equivalents of preachers, and when they write about work, their arguments reflect long theological traditions of valorizing work as sacred duties, both curses and blessings, seeing humans as lazy and inherently sinful, and such. Graeber touches upon the Puritan Gospel of Work, where those who work are happy, and mentions the rise of the Gospel of Wealth that arose in the decades following the American Civil War. He mentions the American stereotypes of laziness being affiliated with racism towards the end.

The seventh chapter inquires as to the political effects of bullshit jobs and if anything can be done about them. Graeber mentions that critics claim we aren't working fifteen-hour work weeks because we have consumerism over leisure, which isn't too off the mark, but we are working harder because we feel pain the workplace as a justification for our furtive consumer pleasures as they take up more of our working existences, a form of sadism. He calls out the Left for trying to collapse the gulf between self-interest and high-minded principles despite its main messengers being Hollywood elites, while the Right is about preserving wealth that conflicts with moral traditions like religion.

The author concludes by mentioning universal basic income as a solution to the problem of proliferating bullshit jobs, and I found that automation through AI could help ease along that process, which prominent American elites like Elon Musk support, serving as President Donald Trump's "first buddy," and as a fellow autistic to Elon, that really appeals to me. The book is really good and makes some great points that could easily apply today, although the author does get some of his facts wrong like mentioning school administrators are part of teachers' unions, and some of the references to media like Douglas Adams' books will fly over many readers' heads. Regardless, this was an illuminating read that I would highly recommend.

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