Michele and I saw Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker the other night, more out of obligation than anything else. Spoiler Alert…Michele and I have seen the first eight and I thought VIII was a turn away from the force being about elitist royalty with Rey being a nobody and the broom kid at the end but, what I didn’t know was that VIII was an anomaly (because, I keep reading, too many fans complained). It turns out that Rey is a Palentine and the whole saga is just a squabble between a couple of powerful groups, sort of the Capulets and Montagues of space.

It reminded me how right-wing – for lack of a better word, I don’t want to say fascist although that may be more accurate – most Science Fiction is with the heroes being royalty or the richest men in the Universe. They are always engaged in a climactic battle with the other side which is unadulterated evil. There do not seem to be any Rosencrantzs or Guildensterns – or nuance, for that matter – in space as far as Science Fiction is concerned although, strangely enough, the opposite is usually true in the subset of Alternate Histories.

Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker has all the proper Star Wars tropes and I think how much somebody likes it depends on much they want to see a “greatest hit” movie as opposed to new material. The craftsmanship of the film is spectacular, however, and I’m glad we saw it on the big screen.

Merry Everything is my favorite greeting that I’ve seen this year, twenty percent into the Twenty-First Century. I’m shocked by the number of “best lists” that reference that as a Milestone. Then I think back twenty years to the turn of the century and how different the world seemed then. Then it was possible to imagine that the American Century would go on for another hundred years, that the world was becoming more peaceful with war a relic of the past, and that racism and antisemitism were on the wane along with Nationalism; but all the signs of today’s world were there. Still, the American economy outpaced the rest of the world – except China – during the last ten years and Trump is actually cutting back on our wars, so, Happy New Year and Merry Everything.