(no subject)

[skygiants]

I CANNOT BELIEVE I JUST WATCHED A BIG-BUDGET ACTION MOVIE ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF DATA RETRIEVAL FROM LONG-TERM STORAGE ON TAPE.

I found everything in that sequence (the file was too large to send over the network! OF COURSE IT WAS, CAD DATA IS HUGE) 100% plausible, including the giant stupid robot retrieval system -- well, except that that the process of operating the tape deck itself was definitely not frustrating enough and it should have taken Jyn Erso at least 30 minutes longer to unspool all that data for transmission off of linear tape. But I'll allow it.

Anyway, I can't wait for:
- the fic about the reactions of the Empire's IT and records management departments when they learn that some trigger-happy general just literally BLEW UP an entire unique archival repository of KEY BUREAUCRATIC DATA
- the comic about the first time some maintenance technician tries to repair something on the Death Star and the guy's like, 'where's the documentation?' and their boss is like 'um, well, funny story about that....'
- the in-depth analysis about various mistakes the Empire makes in the original trilogy and how they operate in context of an organization that has just LITERALLY BLOWN UP ALL OF THEIR OWN BACKUP DATA. Of course it's easy for any random hero to impersonate a Stormtrooper! THEY DESTROYED ALL THEIR OWN PERSONNEL FILES.

...in other news, and obvious flaws (WHERE ARE ALL THE OTHER WOMEN) aside, I also liked the rest of the movie very much! What struck me most about this film was how well this movie conveyed the sense of rebellion as a movement, an organization -- we don't get very much backstory on any of the characters, and I think intentionally so, because this isn't a story about a Few Lone Heroes, it's about the massive collaborative effort that it takes to achieve anything of importance. Which is not something you see very often from Hollywood, because it's much easier to invest audiences in a Great Man story about a couple protagonist-y individuals, and therefore which I was especially glad to see here.

Comments

[aella_irene]

I ended the film screaming because I want, frankly, at least a decade of Cassian, Jyn, Bodhi, Chirrut and Baze giving the Empire hell.

Hugs were needed, and received.

[skygiants]

They were an awesome team! I trust there will be plenty of AU 'everyone lives and continues to give the Empire hell' fic.

[evewithanapple]

I came out of this movie much the way I came out of The Magnificent Seven: thinking that the fanfic will undoubtedly provide far more characterization and depth than the movie, and also that ficwriters will give nary a fuck as to who dies in canon.

[skygiants]

HANDWAVING IS MAGIC.

(I didn't honestly mind that the movie didn't have that much characterization though -- which sounds like a weird thing to say, but it felt like individual character backstories were almost besides the point, in a movie so much about a movement and the force of collective action.)

[raven]

Yes. This, absolutely this. Sometimes everyone dies at the end and that's how the story goes.

[skygiants]

Yeah. Hope frequently comes at a cost. But it doesn't make it any less hope!

[sdelmonte]

I did not read the above as I am not getting to see this till Boxing Day. But I love that you used a Sisko icon to confuse all the fandoms.

[skygiants]

THIS IS A SERIOUS POST ABOUT SERIOUS SCIENCE FICTION

[ghost_lingering]

I want those fics and essays so much! All the people hyping shooting in 4k and transferring the finals to LTO are clearly right: archiving your shows on tape will future proof them, unless the city where they are kept is blown up.

I think this is the Star Wars film I've most enjoyed. It showed the work that the usually nameless characters are doing behind the Great Man (and now in Rey's case Woman) stories of the trilogies and, even more, it showed the hard fought decisions behind winning a war. It also made me like these characters so much more: I believe that morality is easy in theory and hard in practice and unlike Luke, Anakin, or Rey whose actions tend to be coded as either obviously wholly good or wholly evil, these characters have to deal with the messy in-between. They live in the grey areas. Not by choice, but by circumstance.

[skygiants]

If the Empire had just kept two geographically (and ideally planetarily) dispersed LTO tape backups, as every archival protocol recommends, they wouldn't have had this problem, but nooooooooo!

I wouldn't necessarily say I enjoyed it the most, but I think it works really, really well -- as you say, especially in balance with the other movies, it's pretty necessary and I didn't realize how badly I was missing it until now. All the decision-making scenes of political disagreement about how to fight the rebellion!

[ambyr]

If they had just accepted the archivist's offer of help, they could have saved sooooooo much time! But no, they had to hit him upside the head instead. Sigh. People! Be nice to your friendly archivists!

[skygiants]

He would've known how to properly work the tape robot!

[melita66]

Good thing I wasn't taking a sip when I read the first sentence--I probably would have had to get a new keyboard!

The part at which I rolled my eyes was the "of course you have to walk out on a catwalk to realign the satellite dish." Why aren't both controls INSIDE? Yeesh.

The whole movie's been occupying a lot of my brain since I saw it on Friday morning. I don't often read fanfic but I want the team to survive so much, I'll likely be reading a lot of AU stories in the future.

[skygiants]

I'm pretty sure 'pointless catwalks and ENDLESS PITS OF DEATH' are signature Empire design elements, much like Doric columns or Brutalist concrete.

I went to AO3 immediately out of curiosity when I got back from the movie, and then almost immediately navigated away again in disgust when I saw that the second most-prominent pairing is "Jyn Erso/Orson Krennic." FANDOM. WHY.

[vivien]

Lol, I have an answer for that. Tumblr jumped on that ship out of spite and amusement when the trailers were released. It's a crack ship. For the most part.

I'll look for any archival mentions in fic and meta! I know there will be some serious analyses. I'll hook you up, archivist.

[skygiants]

I feel slightly better knowing that, but if Baze/Chirrut doesn't outpace it in the next few days I may set something on fire. (Spite at what? No, don't answer that, I don't want to know.)

Ha, I know I can count on you to be my eyes in Star Wars fandom! :D Thank you!

[lnhammer]

I'm pretty sure 'pointless catwalks and ENDLESS PITS OF DEATH' are signature Empire design elements, much like Doric columns or Brutalist concrete.

That's Janni's theory.

[princessofgeeks]

So much this.

[happydork]

I'm pretty sure 'pointless catwalks and ENDLESS PITS OF DEATH' are signature Empire design elements, much like Doric columns or Brutalist concrete.

Haha, I believe it to be true!

[marginaliana]

Ahaha, I have just seen it with some other librarians and literally the first comment after the credits rolled was along the lines of "that tape retrieval system is some 1992-era bullshit, what were they even thinking?!?"

I would like a job as an archivist on a planet of tropical islands, though.

[skygiants]

lololol you'd THINK it's some 1992-era bullshit but it bears an uncanny resemblance to the one that we were using at my workplace until 2014 ...

(Now we're using standalone LTO tapes instead! NO MORE ROBOTS.)

[bookblather]

DONNIE YEEEEEEEEN

Also yeah, I was SCREAMING at that part. "DO NOT HAVE LIVE WEAPONRY IN THE ARCHIVES WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOOOOOOOOU"

also, guys, why didn't you ask the archivist. Why did you knock him out. He does not give a fuck why you want it, he is here to help you find it. DO NOT KNOCK OUT THE FINDING AIDE.

[skygiants]

MAGNETIC DATA TAPE IS MORE FRAGILE THAN YOU THINK!!!

(Donnie Yen was a delight in every possible way.)

[bookblather]

Tarkin's just goddamn lucky he died on the Death Star, because if he turned up at Coruscant after that bullshit he would've been shanked by a bunch of very angry architects.

[pedanther]

some trigger-happy general just literally BLEW UP an entire unique archival repository of KEY BUREAUCRATIC DATA

You noticed that too? Of course you noticed that too.

[skygiants]

genarti tells me she spent a significant portion of the final sequence watching my face progress through various levels of !!!!! instead of watching the movie.

[genarti]

IN ADDITION TO watching the movie. But it was a hilarious sideline!

(And yeah I'm not even an archivist and I also noticed that decision which SURE WAS A CHOICE WHICH WILL NEVER COME BACK TO HAUNT ANYBODY EVER, IT'S NOT AS IF ARCHIVAL DATA IS IMPORTANT FOR LARGE BUREAUCRACIES)

[schneefink]

Thinking about the poor archivists and bureaucrats is fun xD

[skygiants]

I liked a lot of things that have come out of this movie but that is definitely my favorite!

[qian]

I'm interested that you found that whole sequence at the end plausible! I was just like ... surely they have backups of all that data ... he wouldn't have blown up the archive if they didn't have backups, right? (Who am I kidding, of course he would and he did.)

I don't know why I focused on Galen Erso's character specifically but I just kept thinking that there was absolutely no reason why he couldn't have been the one who was shot at the beginning and her mom be the brilliant engineer who designs a flaw into the Death Star, etc.

[pedanther]

I think it's possible to handwave the existence of backups -- Galen says that the only accessible copy of the full Death Star schematic is on Scarif, but that might be because they're keeping it under lock and key, and everything else is stored multiple places. But on the other hand, I would totally believe that Tarkin would blow the place up without even asking himself the question.

That is a good thought.

[skygiants]

oh man I found it hilariously, depressingly plausible. The number of large organizations who have 'offsite backups' of their data tapes that are actually just 'well we've put the backup copy in our storage unit down the street from the main archive until we figure out where we can afford to send them, but that's a problem for next year's budget, or maybe the year after that --' anyway. ANYWAY. My working theory is that there WERE data backups, and they were all packed carefully in boxes in a small storage hut literally right outside where Bodhi was parked, with an inventory scattered across 342 separate Excel spreadsheets created at different times by different interns.

And yeah, there was no reason for this at all. >:(

[raven]

I thought precisely that about Galen. Keep the name, even, with its wonderful resonances, and have female!Galen run through the same plot.

[princessofgeeks]

I love your point about the huge collaboration we saw.

And I loved the LIBRARIANS UNITE aspect to this as well.

Thanks!

[skygiants]

The archives world has definitely united in their delight about this film!

[sandrylene]

I 200% want to see the "but we have no idea what's in our IT infrastructure! All the serial numbers, makes and models were in hard copy on Scarif!" fic where it turns out 70% of Empire IT hardware is 4 years behind on patches because no one knows it exists.

[skygiants]

Remind me to link you to some of the amazing and hilarious meta regarding this I've been seeing going around over the last few days!

[happydork]

the in-depth analysis about various mistakes the Empire makes in the original trilogy and how they operate in context of an organization that has just LITERALLY BLOWN UP ALL OF THEIR OWN BACKUP DATA. Of course it's easy for any random hero to impersonate a Stormtrooper! THEY DESTROYED ALL THEIR OWN PERSONNEL FILES.

I love this point so much! SO MUCH.

My work ICT actually emailed us all today saying, btw, over the winter break we're going to be offline at time X to check we can restore from the main offsite backup that is in place Y [several miles south] and offline at time Z to check we can restore from the other offsite backup that in place W [about a mile north], and I'm pretty sure that they just shared all this information with us because otherwise they'd get complaints about why do you have to be offline TWICE, what is this nonsense, but a tiny part of my heart hopes that this was written in direct response to Rogue One.

it's about the massive collaborative effort that it takes to achieve anything of importance.

I loved that so, so much. It's interesting -- it worked for me well while I was watching it, but BRILLIANTLY in retrospect, once I had the shape of the entire film in my head. I want to watch it again, as I think I'll be more emotionally engaged on a second run through, knowing what's happening and that the central character is The Rebellion, rather than any of the people.

[skygiants]

Every archivist I know is THRILLED. People are legitimately using the movie to win arguments about data backup within their organizations! Like, everything else aside, I am so happy it exists because it is going to be a hell of an archival advocacy tool.

(I TOO HOPE IT WAS A DIRECT RESPONSE.)

I kind of want to see it again too! The shape of it is so interesting -- like, when Cassian shows up with all his pals to join the mission, my first thought was "why are they bringing all these redshirts, narratively we won't have time to get to know any of them?" BUT NOW I UNDERSTAND.

[labingi]

I also liked the tape! There was a weird kind of courage (and a '70s shout-out?) in making it a tape. And, yes, where were the women indeed!

[skygiants]

The hilarious thing to me is that I'm seeing so many people talk about how retro it is that they used a tape, but you have no idea how much of my professional career to this day is spent dealing with data tape!

[starlady]

I really appreciated that this movie fixed one of the most famous plot holes in ski-fi, among many, many other things. I loved it so much.

[skygiants]

Yes! Man, can you imagine how proud of themselves the screenwriters were when they came up with that, if I were them I would have spent WEEKS just remembering how clever I was and patting myself on the back.

[tsuki_no_bara]

i just came here from happydork's reaction post, and OH MY GOD YES ON BULLETPOINT ONE. WHAT THE HELL. someone LOST THEIR SHIT when they found out that whole archive and all the invaluable, irreplaceable information in it was VAPORIZED. HEADS ROLLED. THEY ROLLED SO FAST.

also, YES, where were all the other women? we only got like two female pilots. where were the lady pilots? (i was hoping for poe's momma, to be honest.)

[skygiants]

I sincerely hope that an accountant and an archivist teamed up to write an incredibly scathing report pointing out exactly how much money the Empire just wasted in terms of the actual cost of the archive + the many thousands of man-hours that went into generating that information the first time round + the many, many thousands of man-hours of delay on essential projects that will result from NOT HAVING IT ANY MORE.

(oh man, that would have been so cool! we could have had such nice things, Star Wars ;__;)

[ephemera]

*reads with appreciation* - SO MUCH YES!

[skygiants]

THOSE POOR ARCHIVISTS

[dhampyresa]

THE STORAGE SYSTEM IS SO OLDSCHOOL

The Empire is so fucked if that really is the only back-up for everything -- I though it only held weapons designs.

[skygiants]

To be fair, my actual guess would be that it's a regional backup -- primary repository for weapons research + maybe bureaucratic backups for the local systems, but not all across the Empire. I'm not sure there's much evidence either way about how much it actually held (I would have to see it again), but it's REALLY fun to imagine it as the primary bureaucratic backup archive.