Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Festivus: The Airing of Grievances: Chloe Sullivan, Finn and Padmé Amidala

I totally forgot it's Festivus and with that comes the Airing of Grievances. Here are few of mine:

- I really wish Chloe Sullivan was written off of Smallville after the fourth season. She was important to Clark's story in high school but afterwards she should have been written off so that Clark could start to figure out who he was in the next chapter in his life. After Chloe found out Clark's secret that he was an alien and had powers in the fourth season, she had become the "brain" and would provide all the answers to whatever problems Clark needed to deal with. Unfortunately, this went on for several seasons making it seem as if Clark couldn't figure out anything on his own. Which was not true because prior to Chloe finding out, Clark solved all his hero problems on his own in seasons 1-3 and most of season 4. It was obvious the writers didn't know what to do with Chloe and she stayed on the show for way too long. It wasn't until the later seasons that Clark was finally able to start thinking for himself again.




- As much as I love the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy, I'm still disappointed by how Finn went from being a main character in The Force Awakens to being a supporting character in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. His character had so much potential as a former stormtrooper turned rebel but instead he was turned into nothing more than comedic relief after TFA. The marketing for the TFA really made it seem as if Finn was going to be the Jedi but the movie totally did a bait-and-switch and revealed Rey was the Jedi. Finn's best character development was in TFA and after that he was pushed to the sideline. As interesting as his side mission with Rose Tico was in TLJ, it really didn't add anything to the story. And in TRoS, he was mostly trying to keep an eye out on Rey but he at least got a chance to help destroy the Final Order. But overall, his character was treated so poorly after TFA. 




- Something that has always disappointed me is the way Padmé Amidala was written after The Phantom Menance. I've wrote about this before because my disappointment is something that I can't shake whenever I think of the former Queen of Naboo. I absolutely adored her in TPM, she was smart and take charge but in Attack of the Clones, she changed when she fell for Anakin Skywalker. I can't believe she comforted Anakin after he killed the Tusken Raiders and then eventually secretly married him despite Anakin being a murderer. Her judgment was so off in regards to him.

And by Revenge of the Sith, she was so delusional that she couldn't believe that Anakin had murdered Jedi and younglings at the Jedi Temple. He had murdered others before so why wasn't she able to accept this one? How could she go from being so smart in TPM to turning into a shell of herself in the other two movies? In the first movie, she may have been a young Queen but she still seemed to have a better grasp on understanding things. Unlike in AotC and RotS where she's older and should have had a better understanding of the world and romance. I guess in airing this grievance, my disappointment is still there but I've decided to see this as a cautionary tale that even smart women can make really bad romance and life decisions.

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