Star Wars Rogue One MASSIVE SPOILERS BY BERKUT

[Barrister]

re: Rey and Finn - remember that Jedi are not supposed to have romantic relationships.  It's what led Anakin to the Dark Side after all.  I imagine there will be some level of romantic tension in Ep 8 or 9 revolving around that point.

[Valmy]

Show me an action movie where the main protagonist is a woman who isn't saved by a man and there isn't a love interest. I'll wait for your list of "hundreds".

Huh? Yes lots of movies have male and female leads where they are not each other's love interests. Most of the Star Wars films for example.

The "Mako Mori test", formulated by a Tumblr user and named after the only significant female character of Pacific Rim, asks whether a female character has a narrative arc that is not about supporting a man's story.

So if Jyn and Cassian smooch as they are being killed suddenly Jyn's arc is about supporting a man? WTF?

Anyway that was not really where I was going with my thoughts.

I was just curious as to why this choice was being made. They seem to have set it up so not only is there not going to be any romance but that you notice there is not going to be any because you are expecting it. So some kind of message is being communicated. Maybe it is a feminist thing. Not sure.

[Valmy]

re: Rey and Finn - remember that Jedi are not supposed to have romantic relationships.  It's what led Anakin to the Dark Side after all.  I imagine there will be some level of romantic tension in Ep 8 or 9 revolving around that point.

I think they pretty much established Rey has no interest in Finn. It would be weird at this point to go back on that. IMO anyway.

[celedhring]

re: Rey and Finn - remember that Jedi are not supposed to have romantic relationships.  It's what led Anakin to the Dark Side after all.  I imagine there will be some level of romantic tension in Ep 8 or 9 revolving around that point.

I think they pretty much established Rey has no interest in Finn. It would be weird at this point to go back on that. IMO anyway.

Unrequited romance is the basis of many love stories. I think it will get played in the future Eps, and it doesn't have to end with Rey and Finn living happily ever after.

[Valmy]

Unrequited romance is the basis of many love stories. I think it will get played in the future Eps, and it doesn't have to end with Rey and Finn living happily ever after.

Ah. Maybe so. I never liked that arc though.

But I guess people always like the Eponine character.

Anyway none of the couples in Star Wars have ever lived happily ever after. Even if they come close they usually get murdered by Storm Troopers eventually.

[The Brain]

Show me an action movie where the main protagonist is a woman who isn't saved by a man and there isn't a love interest. I'll wait for your list of "hundreds".

Huh? Yes lots of movies have male and female leads where they are not each other's love interests. Most of the Star Wars films for example.

The "Mako Mori test", formulated by a Tumblr user and named after the only significant female character of Pacific Rim, asks whether a female character has a narrative arc that is not about supporting a man's story.

So if Jyn and Cassian smooch as they are being killed suddenly Jyn's arc is about supporting a man? WTF?

Anyway that was not really where I was going with my thoughts.

I was just curious as to why this choice was being made. They seem to have set it up so not only is there not going to be any romance but that you notice there is not going to be any because you are expecting it. So some kind of message is being communicated. Maybe it is a feminist thing. Not sure.

Man you are a relic. Sex isn't sexist? It's in the fucking word.

[merithyn]

I don't get why "no romance plot!" is such a litmus test. Most protagonists in commercial Western flicks will get a romance plot no matter their gender. It's tired but that's how Hollywood rolls, for females AND males. The issue is whether being the object of the romance plot is the character's sole reason for existence, which is never going to be the case if the female in question is the protagonist.

So, the question you can point at Rogue One is not why Jyn and Cassian look lovingly at each other when they die, but why there's not a single female besides Jyn in the Rogue One team.

That came up during the movie... I assure you. 

"Oh, but there were female pilots during the fight!" 

[merithyn]

That sounds like a pretty bad movie. Anyhow, I would really have to watch it in order to comment on it, and I certainly won't.

Anyway, the main point I want to make is that there's no escaping a romance plot if you're the protagonist of a Hollywood movie, regardless of whether you have a dick or not. There are outliers, and you'll find many more male-led outliers than female-led outliers, just because there's so many more male protagonists around. That's the issue.

That's true, but it's such a ridiculously weighted situation.

Here are the top 50 movies without a romance in them, according to Playboy magazine:

http://www.playboy.com/.../50-best-movies-without.../slide-1

Of those 50, I counted 12 with female protagonists, three of whom were children and one was a fish.

[Berkut]

I am not sure what the point is here Meri.

There should be more movies with female protagonists in general, or there should be more movies without love interests, or there should be more movies with female protagonists without love interests?

The last two Star Wars both had female lead roles. This is a good thing...right? Not good enough though? What?

[Admiral Yi]

Meri's point is it's icky when boys and girls kiss.

[derspiess]

Rogue One team should have been at least 50% female. 

[The Brain]

MOAR SWEDES

[LaCroix]

I can't click meri's link right now, but how many of those top 50 movies, of which only 12 have female protags, were made in the last decade or so?

[viper37]

I am ok with the idea of a second death star.  It is the logical thing to do.  If I can build a death star, which is a weapon that I believe will bring me ultimate victory, but it was destroyed due to a design flaw, then it is natural to build another one with the flaw corrected.

they likely started building it before the 1st one was fully operational.

[FunkMonk]

In A New Hope Leia has to save the two bumbling male characters asses when they practically botch their rescue attempt of the "damsel in distress." She basically rescues herself, along with help from the two comic relief characters, the droids. Luke and Han are bumbling bystanders during the Death Star rescue.

A New Hope was a classic, unlikely to be repeated, despite the silly attempt made by Hollywood darling JJ Abrams.