The Paradox of The Force II The Quest for Revenge in Star Wars Edwardo Pérez What if Obi-Wan had saved Anakin? Wouldn’t that have been the Jedi thing to do? It seemed cruel (un-Jedi-like) for Obi-Wan to leave Anakin as he lay on the ground in flames, struggling to cling to whatever life was left…
Check out the discussion of God’s Not Dead and reverse scapegoating here. “The culture wars of Pat Buchanan and God’s Not Dead undermine this idea that we do not need an Enemy, for they would not know how to make America or Christianity great without some threat that is implicitly in the way of making…
The Unworthy Thor Humility and Worthiness By Armond Boudreaux ***Major Spoilers follow for The Unworthy Thor.*** “I’ll bet the Hulk could lift Thor’s hammer.” My oldest son said this several years ago when I first introduced him to superheroes. (It’s a fairly common mistake, thinking that Mjolnir is so heavy that only the very…
The Aesthetics of Survival in The 100 Edwardo Pérez About five minutes into “We Will Rise,” the sixth episode of The 100’s fourth season that aired on March 15th, we see Clarke sitting on the edge of her bed gazing at a drawing she made of Lexa. When the camera pans out, we see several…
The Paradox of The Force The Quest for Balance in Star Wars Edwardo Pérez There is a disturbance in The Force. For Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope, it’s the destruction of Alderaan. For the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back, it’s the emergence of Luke Skywalker as a Jedi. In Revenge of the Sith,…
A Day Without The 100’s Women Edwardo Pérez Those of us who expected a new episode of The 100 on March 8th were more than disappointed when we realized that we were going to have to wait another week. It’s unknown if this “one week hiatus” was designed to coincide with the international “A Day…
Discord in the Doghouse My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic By Andrea Zanin It’s true, Equestria is immersed in pimped-up ponies singing, sauntering, and socializing in forests wrought with candy canes and heart-shaped confetti (as such) but before you book your summer vacation, dip in to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and you’ll soon…
Logan, Human Dignity, and the Integrity of the Body by Armond Boudreaux [Some spoilers for Logan follow.] Who would have imagined that a movie full of brutal violence would turn out to make a persuasive plea for human dignity and the integrity of the body? Logan might have more graphic violence and death in it…
The Rhetoric of War in The 100 Edwardo Pérez “War is here,” sputters a barely alive Octavia to Clarke toward the beginning of Season Four’s fifth episode “The Tinder Box.” Unfazed (just another day on the ground), Clarke begins ordering people around like the seasoned general she’s become – focused, slightly emotionally detached, and always…
When Chance Took Us to Church The Problem with (White) Liberal Neutrality By Matthew William Brake Did you watch the Grammys last week? Yeah, me neither, but I heard about them the next day. One of the main stories to come out of the Grammys was Chance the Rapper’s performance of various Christian worship songs…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 