‘A suitable end to a wonderful saga. I enjoyed every second of it’

Your say on Star Wars’ last gasp, the latest gender furore, and festive lessons from the Boris landslide.

Force fed: Love it or hate it, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brings the saga to an end.

Welcome to the column where you provide the content. The final instalment of a saga that hit our screens a long, long time ago, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is upon us, and it was savaged by this newspaper’s Steven Romei as “poorly directed, lamely scripted, badly acted”. Not so, said many readers, including Chris:

“A great film and a very suitable end to what has been a wonderful saga. I enjoyed every second of it and cant see how anyone could have a problem with it, especially the way it tied up everything that had taken place over the last two films. A must see on the big screen (preferably v-max). I am going to have to give it 10 out of 10.”.

Garry agreed:

“If it is entertaining then it hits the mark because that is what Star Wars is all about.”

Michael was excited:

“I am booked into see it this weekend with my 11-yr-old son, who loves all the films, the spin-offs and is thrilled by this next instalment. Seriously, if you’re a Star Wars aficionado, you officially need to broaden your interests. All the critics here just want their piece of the grievance pie via something so asinine and insignificant as a movie. Find something meaningful to do and leave the rest of us in peace.”

Family feud: Daisy Ridley as Rey, left, and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren prepare to get it on.

Karl wasn’t convinced:

“Is this a parallel universe? Star Wars wowed small boys in 1977. By the time the sequel came out, puberty had been and gone, and with it our fascination for Luke whatsisname and his fluorescent lightbulb. And here we are, 42 years later, reverentially reviewing this puerile drivel in, of all places, the hallowed comments page of this great nation’s mightiest organ?

How did it come to this?”

Roger was unmoved:

“I am in my 60s. I have never seen a Star Wars movie. Never will. Just not my cup of tea. My millennial son loves them. Whatever floats your boat.”

Shane pointed out:

“You have to be a Jedi, to float your boat.”

Wayne wasn’t wowed:

“Don’t watch it. Give people like Disney the message that we won’t accept this drivel. Reinstate the Extended Universe, make this a force dream and start over again and stop pushing the leftist propaganda and feminism through a Mary Sue, bland ridiculous character. What a mess. I hate the new trilogy as much as I love, the previous 2.”

John was satisfied:

“You need not be concerned about asking if we’ve had enough Star Wars. The legions of fans of Star Wars were asking the same four years ago when Abrams and the new Disney producers gave us a rerun of the plot of the original Star Wars with a Mary Sue out in front of it all. Those of us who have ponied up the cash to see this latest one have done so only for completion, and we won’t feel any need to come again. Star Trek is all over, James Bond is all over, and Star Wars is all over.”

Kelton was convinced:

“Just saw the movie and I thought it was really good. Thoroughly enjoyable. Do not listen to this negativity — go see it yourself and make up your own mind. 2 star rating-reviewer must have seen a different movie than I did!”

Brian argued:

“I’ve always thought Star Wars movies were badly acted. So I can’t see that this one would differ much from its siblings in that regard. The big deal back in 1977 through early 80s was the blue screen special effects. The stuff we all take for granted now. The imperial walkers marching across a frozen landscape et al. This was amazing to us at the time. Star Wars was the first time we had seen fantasy bought to life in that manner and it was ground breaking.”

Andrew’s assessment:

“My rankings:

1. Empire

2. A New Hope

3. ROTJ

4. Rogue One

The rest are garbage.

But Disney’s The Mandalorian is terrific.”

Amanda was amazed:

“It was fantastic. Easily in the top three Star Wars films of all time. It’s a space opera, or a western in space. Chill — it’s not meant to be this amazing evolving artistic spectacular that reimagines and reflects reality. It’s a genre unto its own, set up in A New Hope and carried well or poorly in each of the nine canonical and two spin-off films throughout the saga. This one was fantastic and did the ‘lore’ of the saga justice. I hope all fans enjoyed it as much as I did.”

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Absolutist fabulous: Maya Forstater’s beliefs were found to be incompatible with the human dignity and fundamental rights of others.

The belief that people can’t change their sex is “absolutist” and “incompatible with human dignity and fundamental rights of others”. That is the ruling just made by a UK employment tribunal judge in the case of a woman denied work over “offensive” tweets. The judge also declared “not worthy of respect in a democratic society” the belief that a person born male is not (and cannot become) a woman. Ralph saw a silver lining:

“So we could solve the pay gap and women on corporate boards issues by having a couple of blokes sign a bit of paper stating they are a women. Will this also apply to women’s sports? I might apply for the next women’s AFL draft or see if the women’s cricket team needs an ageing leg spinner.”

PTP pointed out:

“Many more men transition to be women, than women becoming men. Perhaps it suggests that today, people find that it is easier/higher status/more powerful/less unpleasant to be a woman, and not a man?”

Anthony argued:

“ ‘Forstater’s beliefs were found to be incompatible with the human dignity and fundamental rights of others (implicitly, of transwomen).’ Real women are human and have dignity. This ruling is incompatible with their dignity and their fundamental rights. Colonialism has long since been considered a dreadful evil but what if the colonisers had identified as members of the colonised? That’s the case here. The female sex is being colonised by men who identify as women. Who should we be supporting — the colonised or the colonials who identify as the colonised?”

Meh, said Michael:

“Frankly, I have no concern about these matters. Should someone be or want to be a homosexual, transsexual, asexual or not is not a concern of mine. Nor should it be a state’s concern, for this should be a private matter. People should not be discriminated on the basis of sex preference either.

“This being said, I resent the situation when these matters are considered so overwhelmingly important that they becoming a subject of a law making, school education and judicial inquiries. Don’t we have better and more important things to consider — security, defence, education, terrorism, immigration and what not, instead of concentrating on matters, which by their very nature are private?”

Elizabeth wondered:

“Across several countries, a war over words is raging: what is a woman? Why is there no war over words raging on the question what is a man??"

Anthony answered:

“Who in their right mind wants to be a man when men are despised and blamed for all of the world’s historical, current and future ills?”

Fullbore fulminated:

“Like all collectivist extremism the ideologists have entered the barbaric stage where insanity and pure fiction is labelled as fact and morality. George Orwell was a prophet, he saw this coming 72 years ago.”

Jason was jaundiced:

“As the insanity of this becomes apparent the laws in question won’t be repealed — they will be amended, tweaked and hedged about with regulations, but never just done away with.

As always only the lawyers will be the real winners.”

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Festive spirit: On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a landslide full of Tories.

In the wake of Boris Johnson’s landslide victory in the UK, Janet Albrechtsen offered up 12 festive lessons for the woke-erati. BruceM bought in:

“ ‘Only the very rich can afford socialism’. Watch out Zali Steggal. The quiet Australians are waking up that inner city elite, and those working for the ABC in Sydney aren’t concerned for the welfare of their fellow country men and women.”

Iain imagined:

“ ‘Most people — outside of public broadcasters, the public service, universities, artsy types and dishonestly labelled ‘progressive’ political parties — don’t go about their day measuring people and issues according to class, race, gender, sexuality, religion.’ Fortunately, these are relatively few, which is why the Greens vote here is stuck on 10pc.
“Unfortunately, as history has shown, it only takes a few per cent with a monomaniacal ideological focus to control all the levers of power and influence (increasingly the case in western democracies), and not many more again who are willing to harness violent confrontation to take over a nation by force (any number of socialist revolutions).

“Unfortunately, when these ‘progressive’ types continually say they hate our systems of belief, our economic systems, our history, our national identities, I really do have to believe them, and that they have every intention of sweeping them away if given an opportunity.

“Fortunately, they do not (yet) control the process of democratic choice of political leaders, which is why Corbyn was summarily crushed despite an overwhelming barrage of support from most other centres of power and influence. The bitter, venomous aftermath in the UK, and here in May, demonstrates how vigilant supporters of western civilisation must remain, to ensure that it continues to triumph over the forces of regression, division, fear and chaos on the left (but I repeat myself).”

Ralph reiterated:

“Totally correct. Our self appointed elite operate in a bubble of exclusively like-minded people. And don’t they throw hissy fits when their bubble is popped by the great unwashed.”

John, actually:

“Perhaps we should be encouraging more woke and know-it-all celebrities to preach to the masses during election campaigns if this is the outcome?”

Last word to GeeDee:

“Insulting huge parts of the electorate has always been a great idea, just ask Hillary and her coterie of celebrity supporters. One would think that Labour might have paid attention to what had occurred in recent elections elsewhere but were obviously so far up their own manifesto that the facts were obscured.”

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Each Friday the cream of your views on the news rises and we honour the voices that made the debate great. To boost your chances of being featured, please be pertinent, pithy and preferably make a point. Solid arguments, original ideas, sparkling prose, rapier wit and rhetorical flourishes may count in your favour. Civility is essential. Comments may be edited for length.