#the last jedi is toxic

[swsequelsalt]

"Why The Last Jedi Isn't Just Bad - It's Toxic" by M. Krasava

DISCLAIMER: This editorial was originally published on Scavenger's Holocron, a sadly-now-defunct Star Wars news site. I feel like it's a tragedy to have it deleted from the Internet and only accessible to dedicated parties who know about it via the Wayback Machine, so I'm reposting it here as a form of greater preservation/availability.

Currently being regarded as the most controversial Star Wars film to date, fans of the popular franchise seem to have settled into two groups: this is either the best Star Wars film ever made, or the worst. Cinematically speaking, the movie has stunning visuals and a great cast of actors, but that’s not the problem.

The problem is that while The Last Jedi is being branded as the most feminist Star Wars film to date, its “feminism” seems like a cheap marketing ploy to appeal to a wiser audience and downplays some of the key problems within the film itself: it’s built on a foundation of sexism, misogyny, and racism. In other words, if you’re anything other than a white male, this film isn’t made for you.

And director Rian Johnson hasn’t exactly been shy about his opinion regarding the film’s white male villain, Kylo Ren. Rian told Empire Magazine that, “We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man.”

The only problem is that we can’t. Despite Rian’s insistence that this film is about the “transition from adolescence into adulthood,” Kylo Ren is already a well-established adult with a history of bad choices. We know from the canon Star Wars novel Bloodline, written by Claudia Gray, that Kylo Ren was at least 23 years old when he destroyed Luke’s Academy. At this point, he’s already an adult capable of making his own choices.

The film reveals that the final push towards the “dark side” was when Ben Solo awoke to see Luke standing over him with his lightsaber while he was sleeping. Without considering the possibility of a miscommunication, Ben Solo brought the roof down on the last Jedi, and then systemically went about converting or eliminating the rest of the students in Luke’s school before burning it to the ground. From there it can be presumed that he officially took on the role of Snoke’s apprentice, dubbing himself Kylo Ren as he joined the ranks of the First Order.

The problem is that it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing relateable about being a white adult male who decides to sign up with a Nazi organization and the very premise that we should try to have sympathy for such a character is chilling, especially when you consider that he murdered Han Solo not more than a week prior in film time.

(PUTTING THE REST UNDER A CUT)

But there’s another element to Kylo Ren that makes him harder to relate to. He comes from a place of privilege in society. Ben Solo was born to two war heroes, and while those might be big shoes to fill, there’s nothing that would indicate that Han and Leia were terrible parents to their son. In The Force Awakens, Leia admits that she sent Ben to train with Luke because she feared Snoke’s growing influence on her son (turns out, she had a right to be concerned). In Chuck Wendig’s canon novel, Empire’s End, from the Star Wars: Aftermath series, we see Han excited, if not a little daunted, about the possibility of becoming a father.

In other words, there’s nothing relateable when you think about a wealthy white male growing up sure of his place in the world and deciding to leave it all behind to join a fascist organization.

Compounding on this, there is someone who is relateable: Finn. Finn was not born from a place of privilege. If anything, we still know very little about Finn’s origins aside from the fact that he was abducted from his parents and raised to be a Stormtrooper. Despite years of conditioning and being ranked as the top cadet in his class, Finn was able to maintain his sense of self and when it came down to his first battle, he decided not to shoot and kill an unarmed villager.

This is the character that most people should be able to relate to. Finn is a character that isn’t sure of his place in the world. He grew up with the First Order and left everything that he knew behind him in order to try to do what he thought was right. Although he initially planned to seek a quick exit from the conflict at Maz’s castle, he didn’t hesitate to rejoin the struggle when he discovered that Rey was in danger. Finn spent most of his time in The Force Awakens running away from something – the First Order, from Jakku, from delivering BB-8 to the Resistance, but we see his progression throughout the movie to the point where he risks his life for Rey and helps the Resistance destroy the Starkiller base. At this point, Finn has rightfully earned his status as a hero.

Until The Last Jedi where Finn is again painted as selfish and cowardly, and the film does not shy away from this fact. Initially branded as a traitor by Rose when he tries to get the beacon as far away as possible to prevent Rey from falling into a trap, he is consistently belittled by Rose throughout the film. She consistently calls him cowardly and self-centered, and Finn’s characterization seems to shift in order to fit this description. When Finn is explaining his plan on hyperspace tracking to Poe, he is excited and confident: he can do this. When he gets to Canto Bight, he suddenly regresses, becoming immature and distracted by the glitz and glamour all around him. Finn knows what’s on the line. Rey is on the line. Poe is on the line. The Resistance has less than 24 hours, and yet he suddenly becomes bumbling and distracted.

This becomes Finn’s character throughout the rest of the film. Brash, impulsive, and worse, being frequently portrayed as the butt of everyone’s jokes. When we first see Finn, he is wandering about the halls of the Resistance in nothing but a bacta suit, as if Finn has suddenly forgotten how to care for himself. The film plays into the stereotypes that many people have about black male individuals. Instead of being treated as the hero of the Resistance, Finn is relegated to a comedic side role based on slapstick humor and unfunny comedy that ultimately doesn’t contribute anything to the plot.

In other words, Finn’s side plot reflects the film’s stance of diversity: we’ll wave it in your face for a few minutes before we wave it aside to make way for the two white protagonists. It’s a bold statement, but not untrue. Rian Johnson first joked that it would be “funny” to leave Finn in a coma for the entire film: “We did at some point joke that it would be great to just have him be in a coma for the whole movie and keep cutting back to him.” He explains that each of these cuts back to Finn would have him uttering some nonsense in his unconscious state, and at no point in the entire run time of the movie would the former Stormtrooper wake up. 

When John Boyega first accepted the role of Finn, JJ Abrams told him that he was going to be the new star of Star Wars. Rian Johnson blatantly admitted that it would be “funny” to simply delegate the black lead to the sidelines, where he doesn’t have more than a few scenes of incoherent babbling to serve as comic relief.

Not to mention, it’s Rose who ultimately has to teach Finn about the seedy belly of Canto Bight and how it operates: through slave labor. Another character shouldn’t have to explain to Finn, of all characters, the tortures and ills of slavery. After all, that’s the only life Finn’s known, taken as his family and raised in a life of servitude as a Stormtrooper to the First Order.

The underlying racism in The Last Jedi does not, unfortunately, stop with Finn’s character. We know a lot more about Poe Dameron’s character from the popular Poe Dameron comic series that highlights Poe’s adventures with Black Squadron before they find Lor San Tekka.

In fact, Poe’s arc is highlighted by its racism, as Poe’s character is reduced to a mere stereotype of his ethnicity. From the Before the Awakening, piloting flight logs, and comic series, we have a complete picture of who Poe is as a character. He tells L’ulo, “I’m the best. But you’re the best too” which highlights who he is as a person. He is a gentle soul that sees the best in people, trusting Finn not only to help him escape, but to lower the shields on the Starkiller Base when he said he could. Poe is a genuine nice guy who would give the shirt, er, jacket off their back to help a stranger.

And we see absolutely none of this in The Last Jedi. 

Poe is described as rash, dangerous, and aggressive by Vice Admiral Holdo, played by veteran actress Laura Dern. She’s dismissive of him, and while a part of it does play into more harmful stereotypes that I’ll get into later, in this instance, it’s hard not to. In the opening first scene, Poe is prepared to let everyone, everyone die just to take out a First Order Dreadnought. Even though successful, Poe seems more focused on the success of his mission than the countless deaths of his fellow Resistance fighters.

And that is not who Poe Dameron is. To say so makes a complete mockery of a fantastic character whose character has already been set and esteemed by fans. Changing his character to comply with stereotypes in order to try to advance the plot isn’t “moral ambiguity” or “challenging the character” – it’s just bad writing.

In short, Poe becomes aggressive, dangerous and hotheaded, all to fulfill the stereotypical role that the narrative wants him to play. His character attitudes are changed in order to fulfill a plot device, and that’s the conflict set up between himself and Vice Admiral Holdo.

This conflict is disappointing. It focuses on a female leader putting an aggressive, chauvinistic male in his place. It’s supposed to be empowering, but it’s not, especially when you have to have one character act so differently in order to get to that point. The problem is that the kind of feminism this movie is preaching is white feminism, which is dangerous in and of itself.

But what does white feminism mean in this case? Vice Admiral Holdo, and even Rose, both undermine and belittle Finn and Poe, treating them like children. This concept of infantalization upholds racist stereotypes of black and Latino men being both incompetent and irrational. In Poe’s case, it works to also uplift the alleged moral superiority of white women over people of color. And it’s not feminism.

It’s just disgusting.

Holdo is held up as someone that people in the Resistance are supposed to respect as a leader, and yet she refuses to tell the very people she’s leading what their plan is, citing Poe’s earlier reckless actions as an excuse. Even according to the Navy’s Leadership Principles, keeping your people informed is the second principle on the list. In other words? It’s pretty important. Vice Admiral Holdo’s refusal to do so is driven by petty motives, and while Poe is painted as ridiculous and childish the entire movie, he’s actually proven right when the First Order does the very thing he was afraid they would do.

One of the “lessons” from Poe’s story line is you should always blindly trust authority figures even when they provide no valid reason for doing so, and this is an extremely dangerous and topic example to set, especially in today’s society when people of color are so often made targets of police brutality, which again feeds back into the movie’s underlying theme of systematic racism.

Holdo herself seeks redemption from her mistakes by turning around and ramming her ship through theirs – an admittedly cool move, although it would be cooler had we not seen Admiral Raddus suggest the idea of plowing through a ship no more than a year earlier – and dies so that Leia can explain to Poe that Holdo was a good leader (without really stating how) because she was more concerned with fulfilling the mission without getting credit for it.

The problem with this? It means that Holdo had to die in order for Poe to “understand” what it meant to be a leader. This doesn’t work for two reasons. For one, Poe is a decorated Commander who had already served as a leader in the Republic Navy before joining the Resistance. Painting him as a cocky flyboy with a chip on his shoulder just doesn’t work when it goes against everything we’ve been told about his character. The “lesson” Poe was supposed to learn was one he already knew.

The second problem is that it meant that Holdo had to die in order for Poe to learn this lesson. In other words, we’re back to that age-old trope: a woman had to die in order to advance the plot/characterization of a male character.

And that’s where we get to our final topic: sexism. For a movie that preaches itself as so overtly feminist, it is rich with sexist undertones that are immediately apparent on the surface. Most of these are notably in the interactions between Rey and Kylo Ren, but there’s another character that I wanted to touch upon first. Rose Tico.

Despite Kelly Marie Tran’s boundless enthusiasm for her role, Rose Tico is ultimately underwhelming as a character. Despite mourning the death of her sister, her ultimate presence in the film seemed to be reduced to a girl with a bad crush on Finn.

I’ve already touched upon how poorly Rose treats Finn, but Rose herself seems to have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of the plot. Her character exists only to serve Rian’s image that your heroes aren’t what they seem, tazing Finn when she sees him trying to escape. From then on, Rose’s status seems to be downgraded to “Finn’s crush” as seen in the description of this deleted scene:

Originally, the film spent some more time clarifying the dynamic between Rey and Finn, and further setting up Rose’s crush on the Resistance “hero.” Rose chastises Finn for “pining for Rey,” which Finn quickly denies, claiming that he was “raised to fight” and that he finally found something to fight for in his friend, Rey. “Whatever,” responds Rose with a hint of jealousy.

Rose’s constant nagging of Finn and being catty about Rey enforces a negative female stereotype that has no business in a Hollywood blockbuster that claims to be catered to young girls, especially when it seems that Rose’s role has been reduced to working the love triangle dynamic between Finn and Rey. This seems like it could only lead to a destructive end for the character, especially considering how she attempts to save Finn’s life by almost sacrificing her own at the end of the film. Rose presents us once again with the trope that a female character must sacrifice herself in order to advance the plot of the male character, in this case, to prove her love for him. It’s a frustrating trope, made all the more exhausting when you consider what her role might be in the next film.

If you focus on the look Rey gives Finn putting a blanket over the unconscious Rose, it sets up tension for the next film: assuming Rey and Rose engage in competition for Finn’s attention, putting the two girls at odds with one another.

Because if the sexism in this movie wasn’t blatant enough, that’s just what Star Wars needs: two girls fighting over a guy. While frustrating to watch, it’s also extremely degrading to both characters and reduces both of their arcs into nothing more than instruments to direct the story of a male character.

Hopefully JJ will take the next episode in a different direction, but the damage that has already occurred in this film cannot be understated. There is, unfortunately, a lot of ground to cover regarding Rey’s story, so I’m going to start with the most visually striking one: Rey’s costume.

In The Last Jedi, Rey adopts what has been dubbed her “Jedi Training” outfit, trading out her three signature buns for a simpler hairstyle and trading out her light Jedi garb for a bit of a darker color. It’s a way for Rey to separate herself from the girl we saw crying desperately over her parent’s retreating ship on Jakku, keeping the same appearance a decade later in the hopes that they would come back to recognize her.

Many who speculated that Rey would undergo this physical transition after she discovered the true origin of her parents and worked to free herself of that disappointment found themselves disappointed. Rey didn’t change her clothes and her hair after she learned about her parentage from Kylo Ren, she learned about it after.

Despite being wet from the rain, another reason for this change is that she was shipping herself off in a box to see Kylo Ren, prompting those who want them to be romantically involved to start citing the Snow White parallels. It’s not hard to believe that the reason for this change was to make Rey appear more feminine. With her hair down, she looks more like a girl and less like the hardened warrior who had to fend for herself back on Jakku.

But wait, wouldn’t that mean that Rey’s entire role in the movie basically focused on developing Kylo Ren as a character? It does, and you wouldn’t be wrong to think that way. Even during Rey’s training sessions with Luke, the conversation is always geared back to Kylo Ren in some way, whether it’s Luke talking about his past or Rey assuring Luke that she won’t end up like Kylo. Either way, we hear Kylo’s name spoken more times between them than we actually hear anything about the Jedi or the things that Luke learned about the Force on his travels (say, Pillio, perhaps?)

It becomes clear early on that despite Rian Johnson saying that the film isn’t about what the fans want, that certain scenes were added in to appeal to a certain demographic. For example, Adam Driver’s uncomfortable shirtless scene?

Rian himself says that the scene had a “specific purpose” of creating an increasing feeling of “uncomfortable intimacy.” In other words, Kylo Ren’s shirtless scene is basically synonymous with a dick pic: no one asked for it, but there it is, one of the most subtle forms of sexual harassment. Think about this another way: if Rey’s character was really a boy, would the shirtless scene still be present? Or necessary?

Hint: it’s not.

The fact that Rey’s character only seems to exist to play a role in Kylo’s story is concerning, considering that she is touted as the protagonist of the sequel trilogy. Even though she witnessed him murder Han Solo no more than a few days prior, she becomes emotionally intimate with him pretty quickly, opening up to him about the strange experiences she had in the “dark place” beneath the island.

And therein lies the problem. When they touched hands, Snoke gave her a vision of Kylo Ren turning back to the light side to compel her to rush off to the Supremacy in the hopes that she could turn Kylo Ren back to the light and turn the tide of the war.

There’s only one problem with that.

It’s not her problem.

Rey was a civilian. As Kylo Ren himself told her, “You have no place in this story.” She has no part in the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, and yet she was swept up in it all the same. It shouldn’t be necessary for her to rush off and turn the tide of the war, and while it fits with the Star Wars theme of how one person can make a difference, the trope that a woman must rush off and sacrifice herself in order to progress a man’s character and offer him redemption has been a long-running frustrating trope. If Rey wants to help the Resistance, that’s her choice, but it shouldn’t be necessary to rush off and try to save the person who kidnapped and abused her.

It’s one of the things that makes any sort of Kylo Ren and Rey team-up so off-putting. In The Force Awakens, he kidnaps her and invades her mind in order to try to find the location of the map. After she escapes, he confronts her in the forest, throwing her into a tree several feet up in the air in a move that could have potentially killed her. Then she wakes up just in time to watch him slice through Finn in a move that could have killed him.

Oh, and did I forget to mention how she watched him murder a defenseless Han Solo right before her eyes only moments before? The man who, as Kylo himself taunted, presented a father figure that she never had?

In other words, Rey has absolutely no reason to trust Kylo Ren. She has no reason to even want him to get redemption. For all of Rian’s talk about how he wanted to keep this film “morally grey,” trying to make a genocidal murderer relateable, or even redeemable, was not a step in the right direction. Wouldn’t it have been more compelling to watch Rey wrestle with the ramifications of eliminating Kylo Ren once and for all? Instead of trying to find redemption for the dark side, wouldn’t it have been far more interesting to explore a situation in which Rey realizes that good people must sometimes do bad things for an overall good to result? 

Perhaps, but that’s not the film we got. Instead we got a team-up between Kylo Ren and Rey where, moments after they work together, their alliance is quickly severed. Rey asks Kylo to call off the attack that is sure to eliminate the Resistance, including Finn. Kylo, however, refuses and tells her to move on and join him in ruling. He tells her, “You come from nothing. You’re nothing. But not to me.”

Fortunately Rey grabs the lightsaber and rejects his offer, and the final scene of her closing the Millennium Falcon doors on him seems to confirm that she has severed her connection for good. The problem? The damage has already been done.

Rian Johnson has already set up the Kylo Ren and Rey dynamic to be potentially romantic, between the shirtless scene, the hand touching scene, to be filled with an uncomfortable kind of sexual tension between the girl that declared to Maz, “I don’t want a part of any of this” and the man that murdered his father.

As troubling as that notion is, it does get worse. Kylo Ren tells Rey, “You come from nothing. You are nothing. But not to me.”

The problem is that Kylo Ren’s frequent gaslighting and emotional manipulation throughout the two films reaches its climax: he has discarded Snoke and wants to use the powerful, yet naive Rey, to further his own power. Still, the sexual if not romantic implications are there, pushed along by a group of shippers that call themselves “Reylos,” who desperately seek for Rey to redeem Kylo through, well, you get the idea.

There are several problems with this. One of the first ones is the fact that Kylo Ren is 32 years old, whereas Rey is only 19. While many are quick to claim that age is just a number, Rey is emotionally immature, having been isolated on Jakku for most of her life. There is absolutely no good reason to try to push her into any sort of relationship with someone who is so destructive, especially when the sole reason for doing so is to help Kylo Ren find redemption.

The line, “You’re nothing…but not to me” is a quote that unfortunately most women have heard far too often. It’s an emotional manipulation tactic in order to try to isolate a woman from her friends and family until she only relies on her abuser for support, and this is exactly what Kylo Ren is trying to do here. With Luke unwilling to teach her, Kylo wants Rey to rely on him, and solely him, so that he can use her power and manipulate her to further his own goals (which is to lead the First Order to…conquer the galaxy? It’s not quite clear.)

It’s a frightening message, especially when you think about who this movie is supposedly marketed to. Think about how many children dressed up as Rey for Halloween. How do we explain to girls that the man who killed Han Solo, the man who emotionally manipulated her and tried to use her just to validate himself, is the person that she should ultimately fall in love with? It paints a dangerous picture that girls internalize before they have enough experience to make their own decisions regarding their own relationships.

Remember Edward Cullen’s creepy manipulation in Twilight? Apparently that’s crept into Star Wars as well.

And this gets to the heart of the overall problem. The Last Jedi is ultimately soaked in sexism, misogyny and racism, and yet Kathleen Kennedy and Bob Iger widely praised the film before its release. How can Kathleen Kennedy, who said that she was proud to have a feminist icon in Rey, be willing to reduce Rey’s entire story to “the love interest?” If the executives and storygroup approved such blatant racism and actively worked to rewrite characters in order to fit their stereotypical narrative, what hope do we have that the next trilogy will be better, especially when they gave Rian Johnson full control over its content?

Rian himself believes that Darth Vader was worse than Kylo Ren, and while that is probably a conversation as controversial as the movie itself, Rian still wholeheartedly believes that despite what happened in The Last Jedi, that Kylo Ren can be redeemed. It shows that the storyline that JJ Abrams set up has been reduced to simply furthering the narrative of the white villain, and the rest of the characters are simply players in his story, which is why they exist as nothing more than stereotypes in Rian Johnson’s version of Star Wars.

And that’s the disappointment. While The Force Awakens received criticism for being too similar to its predecessor, A New Hope, JJ did set up some interesting and mysterious characters. While Captain Phasma’s role was ultimately underwhelming, fans were assured that she would have a much bigger role to play in Rian Johnson’s world.

Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out. 

Phasma’s quick dismissal wasn’t the only disappointment. Snoke was killed off without any satisfying explanation to who he was or even what he wanted the First Order to do. The Knights of Ren, which were mentioned in The Force Awakens and played a role in Rey’s vision, disappeared from the narrative entirely, instead being replaced by Rian’s Praetorian Guards.

For many, Luke Skywalker’s return was the biggest disappointment. Mark has made no secret in recent weeks citing how he didn’t agree with Rian Johnson’s vision of Luke and how he wished George Lucas had directed the sequel trilogy instead, a mere three days before The Last Jedi hit theatres. It fits into Rian Johnson’s grim version of reality: our heroes can be defeated, and idolizing legends is ultimately unsettling and disappointing when faced with reality.

But by disappearing into the Force, did Luke not himself become a legend, the very thing that Rian seems to chide against? The film’s “message” seems to give audiences such mixed signals, it’s not surprising that audiences claim that the film seemed better after a second viewing: basic elements of the plot just doesn’t make sense, like how the First Order has suddenly developed hyperspace tracking despite the film only taking place a few days after the events of The Force Awakens. 

There are other plot holes that point out the flaws in logic in the story: where did Rey learn to swim on Jakku? How can bombers drop bombs in space when there’s no gravity for the bombs to fall? Since space exists in three dimensions, why didn’t the First Order just have a ship drop out into hyperspace in front of the Resistance Star Cruiser and blow it to bits? And why was General Hux, a serious, straight-faced villain in The Force Awakens, who ordered the destruction of the Hosnian System, delegated to a comedic side role who’s only function was to serve as a cheap laugh and be the butt of an awkward your mom joke? Instead of using the antagonism between Kylo Ren and General Hux to show the crumbling of the First Order and how the small band of Resistance heroes we’re left with at the end of the movie might stand a chance against them, it seems that the First Order’s army, which was flowing with Nazi imagery in The Force Awakens has just been reduced to campy slapstick humor.

Despite these obvious problems, the most glaring ones still remain in the fact that Star Wars is a film that claims to market itself to the people it exploits and ultimately rejects. It’s no wonder that merchandise and ticket sales have dropped when the movie is back to focusing on a white male lead, like so many other before it. Kylo Ren tells Rey that you have no part in this story, that she doesn’t belong – something that minorities, women, and the LGBTQ+ community have been hearing their whole lives.

But if this movie isn’t made for these people, then why does Disney keep trying to insist that it is? Most people who have been critical of the film have been met with the chorus of, “You’re just upset that you didn’t get what you wanted” as if it’s somehow wrong to expect more from what you receive. The story was set up so that we would get answers. How someone as powerful as Snoke managed to manipulate Kylo Ren from the womb and grow the First Order from the seeds of the Empire, Phasma’s increased involvement, and especially the question of Rey’s parentage, has been dangled in front of us like a carrot on a stick for the past two years, and it’s ultimately unsatisfying to see all those threads being clipped off and brushed aside with a, “Oh! It didn’t even matter!”

If it didn’t matter, then why feel the need to keep up the secrecy and suspense for two years, when the final product is ultimately disappointing? (Point not withstanding, Kylo Ren tells Rey that Snoke showed him that her parents were buried in a pauper’s grave on Jakku. Why her parents would actually return to Jakku, or whether Snoke was actually telling the truth, is a matter that JJ has yet to resolve.)

It’s not wrong to be a critical consumer of the media that we consume. It’s not wrong to say that we deserve something better. Minorities and women can and should demand to be treated with more respect than they were shown in this film, and the overwhelming amount of racism and misogyny in this film is something that most avid fans of the film have not provided an answer for.

People who claim that The Last Jedi is a good movie, while at the same time acknowledging how deeply misogynistic and racist it is, are contributing to the larger problem we have as a society. It’s saying, “I know it’s racist and misogynistic, but it entertained me, so I’m okay with it.”

It might just be fiction. It might just be a story. But all media we consume influences us, subconsciously or not, in ways that we may not even be aware of. Star Wars may not be real. These characters may not be real.

But it still affects how you feel, and that seems pretty real to me.

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[thecleverqueer]

Random Thoughts on Star Wars Ships (Part One)

First, I’m going to focus on toxic Star Wars ships that I absolutely despise. There are three. They are all canon. Some of them are more serious than others, but all of them are incredibly pernicious and problematic. To say they’re my “least favorite” would be selling my hatred of them short, but yeah… the word “loathe” comes to mind. They are as follows:

1.) Luxsoka (aka Ahsoka Tano and Lux Bonteri)

This is my least favorite ship of them all because watching it unfold at times was physically painful. Part of me doesn’t understand it, but the other part of me knows that it was likely just a tepid attempt by Filoni egged on by Lucas to make Ahsoka more relatable. It didn’t work.

I guess the premise didn’t start out too bad with “Heroes on Both Sides” aside from the fact that it sort of felt forced and completely unnecessary, but holy fuck did it go off the rails fast!

Lux’s behavior in “A Friend in Need” was completely unacceptable and inexcusable. I mean, less than 10 minutes into that episode, Lux is threatening to shoot Ahsoka with a deadly firearm, followed by him stunning her unconscious, stealing her ship, hiding her lightsabers from her, then meeting up with known terrorists with anti-Jedi sentiment and history of violence against Jedi. Then, there’s the unwanted kiss. He just sort of grabs her and kisses her against her will to shut her up. She tries to wiggle herself out of it, and when she finally succeeds you can tell she’s PISSED. Rightfully so. Technically, that’s sexual assault. The episode ends with Ahsoka somehow being more fond of him, I guess… I assume it’s related to trauma. I don’t know.

Anyway, the last time we see them together is in the Onderon arc, Lux has fallen for and appears to be in a romantic relationship with Steela Gerrera, and Ahsoka finds a way get over him, which, good for her. It takes two episodes (of a four episode arc) of her being completely insufferable, but she gets there. Ahsoka deserved better anyway. By the end of the arc, she sort of does this attaboy shoulder slug to Lux after Steela kisses him for luck. By that point, Ahsoka probably also found Steela to be pretty hot, and at least one of them got to kiss her. Steela should have kissed you, Ahsoka, but we can’t win them all.

Filoni basically said he was experimenting with this anyway, and I would say that this particular experiment was an abject failure. I’m just glad that it fizzed out before it ever became anything. It was trash. Utter fucking trash.

2.) Anidala (aka Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala)

This is another toxic relationship that I don’t really understand. No. I mean, I do get it. It’s a plot point that gets us to a specific place in a character’s development.

It’s unfortunate really. Padme is supposed to be this badass strong, independent woman, and yet, she blatantly ignores countless red flags during “Attack of the Clones” that should have made her turn away… Anakin being generally creepy, crossing her boundaries, frequently interrupting her, admitting to being a dictatorial fascist… I guess I could technically write all of that off because sometimes your brain short-circuits when you’re in love, and you miss red flags. But… genocide? That was a bridge too far. She should have ran. She should have reported the incident to the Jedi council, but she didn’t because she’s “in love” and actually just a prop.

Their relationship didn’t get much better during the Clone Wars. Anakin guilted her often when she chose duty over desire, something her role in the galaxy required. It was also pretty apparent that Anakin didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her based on the way he acted during the Rush Clovis arcs. There was a point where it felt like their relationship should have ended during season six. Padme needed a break, and told Anakin that she just couldn’t do it anymore after Anakin brutally beat the dog shit out of Clovis. But then, more trauma. Maybe the moral of the story is to avoid “romantic” relationships when you’re in the midst of a traumatic experience because it’s going to end badly, I don’t know.

Then he kills her in “Revenge of the Sith”. Well. He force chokes her and she dies of a broken heart… and then he proceeds to lose his shit, force crushing an entire room with overwhelming emotion (say what you will about the Jedi and their obsession with not forming attachments and overcoming feelings but… *gestures vaguely at this incident right here*).

It’s just an incredibly disastrous toxic sludge of a relationship. And, I know I was more vague about this one, but honestly, I could write a novel about it… so, I’ll spare you.

3.) Reylo (aka Rey Palpatine/Skywalker and Kylo Ren)

I hate this one too… mainly because Kylo tells Rey that she’s “nothing” except to him in “The Last Jedi” and that bothers me. This is something a narcissist might say to someone they’re abusing and gaslighting in an attempt to make them stick around, and that is just gross.

If Rey had actually been a nobody, it may have been less offensive, but she’s a fucking Palpatine. She’s not a nobody. Her grandfather (who isn’t actually her “grandfather” as her father was just a Palpatine clone, and goddamn, I’m going to need a better explanation for all of that shit because it just makes me dizzy, but I digress) was an oppressive emperor that reigned in terror for decades. She’s far from a nobody. In fact, Kylo’s grandfather (actual grandfather, not a clone) was Palpatine’s bitch. He should at least show her a little respect.

He was also generically mean to her during the entire sequel trilogy.

This one ended in death too, but at least it was Kylo’s and not Rey’s death. Again, Rey exhibited this weird mental exercise where she sees Kylo Ren and Ben Solo as two different people instead of them being one-in-the-same (much like the mental gymnastics that everyone does with Vader), so she tries to validate the whole thing. But, he’s an asshole too. She should have faced it.

#star wars #toxic ships #star wars ships #ahsoka tano #lux bonteri #the clone wars #sw tcw #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #the attack of the clones #revenge of the sith #pro jedi #rey skywalker #rey palpatine #kylo ren #ben solo #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #anti luxsoka #anti anidala #anti reylo #there is nothing romantic about any of these ships #they are all problematic trash

[sjbattleangel]

#hiding from bullies meme #meme #star wars #star wars memes #the last jedi #tlj #star wars tlj #pro tlj #i love the last jedi #toxic fandom #relatable #me in pic #star wars fandom #sw fandom #fan culture

[aripithecus]

#Instagram #rey star wars #some grown men will literally base their entire identity off a movie series conceived for 12 year olds #and then whine and throw tantrums about it like babies when it doesn't go their way #star wars fandom #fandom discourse #media literacy #toxic fans #the last jedi

[alastaircraig]

This widely-circulated satirical article was written literally seventeen years ago. It really might as well have been yesterday.

#star wars fans #star wars #toxic fandom #obi-wan kenobi #the rise of skywalker #the last jedi #star wars fans hate star wars #jive magazine #andrey summers

[stealingpotatoes]

Based off the asks for all ships, I feel like if padme lived, she would be hosting seminars called “your Jedi significant other and you” lol

ok but NOBODY should listen to her. she saw the human version of a red flag, thought "but he's cute" and then had the most wholesomely toxic marriage ever. i love her so much but she is literally the last person i'd go to for relationship advice

#would i have done the exact same thing in her situation? of course #she said 'im dying under the pressure of being a senator and former child queen i need to do something reckless' #and anakin walked in and said 'im reckless' so she did him #thanks for the ask!

[motherofdogs1010]

Masterlist

I write with chubby-coded/plus sized, racial inclusive readers in mind; very rarely do I mention anything about a reader's physical appearance, all are welcome and are written in mind for everyone to enjoy!!

Must be 18+ to join taglists

I also take frequent mental health breaks since I do suffer from poor mental health, BUT writing is my safe space so I will always come back to you guys ❤️

Key:

💋 18 + Smut

😊 Fluff

💔 Angst

🖤 Dark Storyline

😉 Omegaverse

Laurel Sickness (Sonny Carisi x Reader) 🖤

Summary: Laurel Sickness is an case of extreme case of obsessive love that is sweeping the globe with no explanation. People are becoming just as mad as Apollo once was when he first set his godly eyes on the virgin nymph, Daphne.

Warnings: 18+ only, dark!fic, toxic behavior, gaslighting, dystopian society, dark!Sonny Carisi, stalking, stalker!Sonny Carisi, the world's messed up in this story, age gap relationship, forced relationship, eventual non-con/dub-con, Stockholm Syndrome

Part I Part II TBA

Need to Know (Peter Parker x Reader) 💋

Inspired by Doja Cat's "Need to Know"

Summary: When she was ready to get back out on the dating scene after dumping a certain Winter Soldier, Y/N was a woman ready to get back out there. She just never expected to find herself in a relationship with a certain nerdy spider.

Warnings: older woman/younger man, age gap relationship, heavy smut, drinking, swearing, daddy kink, mentions of cheating, toxic ex behavior, eventual pregnancy

Part I Part II Part III COMING SOON

Little Darling (Thomas Shelby x Reader) 💋

Summary: Birmingham has received a new club, one that is showcasing a exotic type of dance that is drawing in crowds, but it is one particular dancer that catches Thomas Shelby's eye... one that goes by the stage name: Little Darling

Warnings: 18+ only, eventual smut, stripper!reader, mentions of prostitution/sex work, canon Peaky Blinders violence, swearing, drinking

Part I Part II Part III Part IV COMING SOON

Letters to Juliet & Romeo (Thomas Shelby x Reader) 😊💔

Inspired by 'Letters to Juliet' film...

Summary: Heartbroken and in the midst of the Great War as a nurse, Y/N L/N writes to a person she never expected to write to before... her brother's friend, Thomas Shelby... But the war's over now and it is time to face the letters...

Warnings: angst, wartime talk, fluff, reunion, pre-Peaky Blinders Tommy, solider!Tommy, nurse!Reader, chubby!reader, age gap (everyone is of age)

Part I Part II

Of Messiahs and Seeds (Dark!Paul Atreides x Reader) 🖤💋

Summary: Emperor Paul of House Atreides has set forth with expansion of his empire on the planets that have resisted and has now come across the last stronghold that resists him: Terra Millennium...

Warnings: 18+ only, eventual NONCON/DUBCON, eventual forced marriage and pregnancy, violence, language, drinking, chubby!reader, dark!Paul Atreides, spoilers for Dune Part 2

Part I Part II Part III COMING SOON

A Jedi in Arrakis (Paul Atreides x Reader) 💋💔😊

Summary: While on the run from Empire troops, Jedi padawan Y/N comes to find out that hyper-driving in a compromised craft can have some major setbacks when she discovers not only is on a new planet but a whole new galaxy as well...

Warnings: jedi!reader, eventual 18+, NSFW, angst, fluff, eventual smut/pinv!sex, oral sex, talks of questioning the Force and teachings, spoilers for Dune Part I and II, eventual marriage

Part I Part II Part III TBA

Solar Flare (Feyd-Rautha x Reader) 💋

Summary: Chosen as the bride of na-Baron Feyd-Rautha, Y/N finds herself at the hands of the sadistic na-Baron who seems keen on having his bride on their wedding night...

Warnings: 18+ only, NSFW, arranged marriage, DUBCON/ pinv sex, fingering, loss of virginity, brief knife kink, small breeding kink, crude language, forced arranged marriage

Dividers by @firefly-graphics & me

Banner by @vase-of-lilies

#masterlist #law and order svu #peaky blinders #dune #peaky blinders imagine #dunexreader #svuxreader #tommy shelby x reader #reader x character

[antianakin]

One of the saddest patterns to notice is how often Jedi who fall to darkness (whatever the reason) often turn against the Jedi themselves and use the Jedi as a scapegoat, with or without any real outside manipulation leading them there.

Anakin is obviously directly manipulated by Palpatine, as is Dooku, and the Inquisitors are specifically tortured and broken into turning on the Jedi, but characters like Krell and Barriss are not, we don't even have any indication either of them ever spoke to Palpatine once in their entire lives. But when push came to shove, when they lost hope and faith, both of them turned on the Jedi. Krell dismisses the Jedi as "naive" and weak, and Barriss explicitly bombs their home to try to send a message about the corruption she believes exists in the Jedi Council and then frames her own friend.

And then you have characters like Bode Akuna and Taron Malicos who seem to last through Order 66 and turn on the Jedi seemingly as a result of that particular trauma and the resulting struggle for survival afterwards. The immense loss and the confusion about why it had even happened, what had caused it, keeps leading Jedi survivors to blame the Jedi themselves rather than turning their anger at the Senate or the Republic or even just Palpatine.

Some of this is due to out-of-universe beliefs by the writers that the Jedi WERE in fact arrogant and corrupt, but if we take that away and just look at it from a slightly different perspective, as just a trauma response that has no real basis in reality, it becomes SO SO SAD.

The galaxy turned on them, the galaxy cheered when they were killed, the clones they all trusted betrayed them, and they're constantly being hunted by former friends and colleagues who have been tortured and broken into killing their own. And maybe, maybe they start to look at all of this hatred, all of this anger directed at them simply for being a Jedi at all, and start wondering if perhaps the galaxy was right. If so many people believe it, maybe there's a grain of truth there, maybe the Jedi WERE at fault for all the problems in the galaxy, maybe they caused their own destruction. They don't have any other answers, so it's easier to just... take the one the galaxy is forcing down their throats than live with the uncertainty.

And it's bad enough that the galaxy blames them, that the galaxy sees the Jedi as little more than tools to be used up and tossed away afterward, that the galaxy refuses to mourn them.

It's INFINITELY WORSE that the Jedi themselves can be made to believe they were at fault for what happened, that they're surrounded by this vitriol for long enough that they just... decide to accept that it's true. It's just yet another layer of injustice done to them and yet another way of killing the Jedi, but perhaps the most insidious one of all. Palpatine creates a galaxy so toxic to the Jedi that the Jedi would rather strip away what makes them Jedi than be associated with the people the galaxy has come to hate so much. And one by one, as their hope is sapped from them, they start to fall to selfishness and greed because it's so much easier than sticking to the Jedi path.

And maybe that's part of why Reva feels so unique and refreshing as a character. She falls, yes, but not ONCE does she ever blame the Jedi for their own downfall. The closest she gets is blaming Obi-Wan for being unable to stop Anakin, but she is still aiming her anger at an INDIVIDUAL, not the entire culture. She's pretty explicit that her motivation is justice for her fallen family. When she DOES hunt down the Jedi, there's no real indication that she's doing it because she believes they deserve it. She's doing it because she believes she has to in order to kill Anakin, and she's obviously lost sight of herself in the process, she's killing the very people she claims to be getting justice for, but there's no real hatred towards the Jedi in her. Reva has let the pain of her loss become an attachment that eats away at her, but not once has she allowed it to bring her to the point of blaming the Jedi for what was done to them. Not once does she blame the Jedi for the loss of the people she loved. It might be one of my favorite things about her.

#star wars #reva sevander #jedi #pro jedi

[bethanydelleman]

Redemption arcs are great, you love to see one done well. We eat up Mr. Darcy overcoming his pride and Elizabeth learning the truth about her prejudices. But the one thing that rarely comes up narratively is backsliding.

In fact, if someone writes a fan fiction follow-up to Pride & Prejudice with Darcy falling back into his old ways, people get angry. "Where did his character growth go?" they cry. It feels like when Han Solo was back at square one in The Last Jedi, that can't happen, can it?

Except it can! My husband says that when I visit home, I act younger and somehow my 'character development' of the last 20-ish years means very little. And then we have the most common serious cases: addiction and leaving domestic abusers. You can in fact hit "rock bottom" more than once, you can return to a toxic person and then escape multiple times. You can leave one bad relationship and fall into another. I think part of the reason this is so hard to accept is that we are taught that once you mount the top of that redemption arc, it's over, you'll never slide back down. But humans can and do, again and again and again.

I have had trouble with this mysterious concept of "tact" since I was a child. I have grown (I think), but every so often I just say the stupidest, most tactless thing to someone. If I was a book character, someone would scream at the page and ask where my character development went. It's there, I've been working on it, but I still make mistakes. I get tired, I misjudge, I get too comfortable and tell a stupid joke around the wrong people. At this point I've just accepted that it will always be a struggle for me, I will never complete my arc, I have to just keep trying.

So... the point is have a little mercy. We aren't characters in an epic novel, hopefully we learn, hopefully we grow, but we also stumble and backslide and screw up. And we are prone to make the same mistakes over and over again. You just have to decide to keep loving people, flawed as they are.

#literary tropes #redemption arcs #somewhat Jane Austen #character development #and also I feel like people never give credit to what being tired does to you #like your brain cells just keel over and die #for a bit until you get a good night's sleep #literally so real #fan fiction

[emeraldspiral]

I never watched any Star Wars, why is Reylo problematic? Is incest or what?

It's really not problematic at all. The films go out of their way to show that Kylo Ren takes it easy on Rey compared to other opponents and never actually tries to kill her. If you look at how their fights are choreographed he clearly has multiple opportunities to cut her down but doesn't take them because his goal is to turn her to his side, never to kill her.

Some people really, really wanted Rey to be the daughter of Han or Luke or one of their other favs as wish fulfillment and kept insisting on it even though there were clips out there of Daisy Ridley saying stuff like "Rey's parents aren't important" and "Have you seen the movie? Clearly, I wasn't (the daughter of Han Solo)" before The Last Jedi even came out and made it explicit that Rey and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo weren't related and the romantic tension between them wasn't in the fans' heads. The scene where they hold hands was literally described as "the closet thing to a sex scene in Star Wars" and people still act like them kissing at the end of TROS was "forced" or "out of nowhere".

People just had a massive hateboner for the ship because it was more popular than their ships, because they thought Adam Driver was ugly, because he killed their fav, because he wasn't a self-insert Gary Stu fanchild who was totally stoked about being related to their heroes, or because they projected an idea of Ben as a stand in for their toxic exes or white supremacists or incels or whatever group they despise the most. But in actuality, Ben is so soft inside being evil makes him miserable. The only reason he does it is because he's looking for approval from a toxic paternal figure who groomed him his entire life and took advantage of the generational trauma he inherited and even then he still can't help but empathize with Rey, long before she sees any good in him.

#ask #asks #tinyriver-neonlights #reylo #kylo ren #ben solo #star wars #it's honestly #the softest most vanilla etl ship ever #but for some reason #a staggering number of people lose their goddamn minds over it #even when their own ships are 10x as problematic #as anything they accuse reylo of being

[lomlspidey]

༊*·˚ sleepover | reggie peters (jatp)

★ summary → reggie had a bad day at home and you comfort him with his favourite movie. 

★ warnings → FLUFF for reggie but little sad bc of his situation 🫶 reggie deserve the world & some mentions of toxic household/fighting. 

★ hana’s notes → this is just a repost from my wp account :) i hope yall like this mwah mwah <3

MAIN MASTERLIST

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

Take On Me by A-Ha was playing on the radio as you bopped your head back and forth, mumbling the lyrics under your breath. A magazine in your hand, and a pen in the other. You were drawing moustaches at the people that were featured on the papers.

The calm atmosphere was disturbed by a sudden knock on your door. "Who is it?" you answered not moving from your spot on your bed. 

The door creaked open but you were still concentrating on the magazine you didn't turn to look at the door. 

Suddenly, the bed dipped down as a body cuddled up with yours. The frame you knew very well enveloped you as his scent hit your nose, the few dark hairs peeking your vision. 

Your hear fluttered at the sight but it immediately fell when you were met with your boyfriend's sad eyes. 

"Aw bub what's wrong?" you cooed, letting your hand travel up to his hair as you softly ran your fingers through it.

He instantly dug his head on your chest, his hands squeezed your waist as you massage his scalp. 

Another few moments of silence, you softly asked, "Parents?" a frown made its way to your lips.

He softly nodded and got off your chest, turning to his side so that he could pull you in closer. 

"You smell really good." he muttered as you let your legs tangle together and nuzzled his face into your neck.

You let out a small chuckle and wrapped your arms around his neck. "You okay?" 

"Better now." he replied, his face peeking out and stared at you lovingly. 

A grin made its way onto your lips and gave him a little peck. He hummed flipping you so you're on top of him. 

You giggled when he ran his hand on your sides. "How about we have a sleepover?" you asked as you pulled away from the kiss.

"Really?" he beamed. He loves spending time with you, you are sometimes the only person that can make his bad day into a great one. 

"Yeah of course! We can have pizza, and watch Star Wars, we can cuddle, some popcorn also sounds nice.” you started to ramble your plan, not realising that he was staring at you not saying a thing. "Whats with the look?” you laughed.

"Have I mentioned that I am so deeply in love with you?" he said as he sits up, you now on his lap. 

Your heart melts at his words as you kiss him again, "I’m deeply in love with you too." you pecked his lips one last time before getting up. 

"Now sleepover time!" 

• • •

Popcorns were popping, pillows were fluffed, pizza has arrived, and last but not least, the movie has been picked.

This was your normal saturday sleepover, Reggie usually sleeps over at your house because sometimes the sound of his parents fighting was too much and you were more than happy to give your boyfriend comfort. Your parents adores Reggie, and didn't mind him sleeping over, they too know about his parent's banter. 

Ding!

The sound of the microwave brought you back from your daze as you took it out and went to your bedroom. You opened your bedroom door and saw Reggie engulfed in layers and layers of blankets with Star Wars : Return Of The Jedi playing.

"You look comfy," you laughed, making your way to the bed. 

"Babe! Babe! Hurry!" he exclaimed, excitedly.

Seeing him so happy has made you wonder why out of all the people, Reggie has to deal with shit. He's the kindest, sweetest and most caring person you have ever met. He deserves all the happiness the world can give him. 

Reggie must've felt a gaze on him because he turned his head around and saw your focus was all on him and not the movie. "What you looking at?" he cheekily asked. 

You didn't even bother being caught staring as you quickly answered "You.”

"May I ask why?" 

"Just thinking about how strong you are and that I am the luckiest person in the universe to even meet you." you shamelessly spewed out, heart beating out of your chest.

Reggie's heart skipped a beat, no one has ever thought that highly of him and to think you out of all people are feeling lucky to have met him, hell, he's so grateful he met you. 

"I love you" he beamed, kissing you. 

"And I love you... and our sleepovers." you chuckled feeling so utterly happy at the moment. 

And that's enough. 

reblog for a kiss <3 | check out my other works <3

#mine ♡ #reggie peters #reggie peters x reader #reggie jatp #jatp imagine #jatp fanfiction #julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms imagines #jatp reggie #jatp reggie x reader #reggie jatp x reader

[north-peach]

Doth a Good Spouse a Sith make?

Listen, listen.

I know the Sith are....extreme. The Dark Side is addicting and feeds off of power, ambition, pain and hunger for more.

I am aware.

But.

A Sith falling for a Jedi.

Hear me out!

Like, a Mandalorian Sith, preferably, just out doing their Sithly business, I dunno maybe ruling a planet or two, in an AU where the Mandalorians are either few and scattered or an Empire spanning a good chunk of the galaxy.

The Jedi- like for this to work the relationship would either have to be entirely secret from other Jedi or it's a Last!Jedi AU where said Jedi is rebuilding the Order after a Purge.

like a good Sith!Mand'alor!Din and Luke fic....

But the Jedi would absolutely be conflicted, because first, Sith are violent, have little to no morals and once they decide they want something, they usually do everything in their considerable power to have it. Not to mention the typical disregard for people's lives if they aren't useful to them.

So very high potential for a toxic relationship, yes.

But, if we define Sith as being a person who uses the Dark Side of the Force, swears to the Sith Code and has been trained by a Sith Master, we could have a loophole.

If we define a Darksider as someone who uses the Force with strong emotions, emotions such as passion, the justified rage of the oppressed, righteous fury and the bloodlust every person, regardless of race, gender, creed, religion of age should feel towards slavers and people who harm children....

Technically you would have a socially acceptable Sith Darksider who could be a perfect match for a Jedi who maybe has a history with slavers and is spread too thin in a galaxy that is too large for them to make a drastic difference.

Besides, who didn't like the thought of a Jedi, kind, compassionate and strong, who loves children and just wants to be wrapped in soft blankets, fed good food and be given as many hugs as they want with a significant other who is fierce, intimidating, powerful and strong, also loves children and wouldn't hesitate to destroy the galaxy for their family wrap their loved ones in many soft blankets?

Like honestly, what soothes someone's very strong emotions more then someone you care for wrapped up around you and telling you they'll slaughter all your enemies take care of you so you can sleep and bring their power to bare against any who would threaten them keep you safe, and would love to keep you by their side forever marry you?

#star wars #fanfic ideas #au #dinluke #maybe would be a good pairing? #sith #jedi #sith and jedi #this could be us but you don't exist and i am ace

[darlin-djarin]

List of Star Wars Medias

navigating star wars is tricky and complex but here's everything (mostly) in order based off of the timeline. some of the medias overlap.

Prequel Trilogy Era (Galactic Republic)

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Star Wars: The Clone Wars [the movie]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Szn. 1 - Szn. 7 Ep. 9)

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Szn. 7 Ep. 10 - Szn. 7 Ep. 12) [you don't have to watch ROTS before you watch these last episodes ^^ it's just what fits better on the timeline]

transition era from prequel trilogy era to original trilogy era (galactic empire/rebellion)

Tales of the Jedi [takes place in different times throughout the prequel era (everything above) so the order of watching this show doesn't matter but it's best to watch it after the clone wars most likely]

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Star Wars: Rebels

Andor [season 1 takes place same time as rebels season 1, 5 BBY]

Original Trilogy Era (Galactic Empire/Rebellion)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

transition era from original trilogy era to sequel trilogy era (new republic)

The Mandalorian (Szn. 1 - Szn. 2)

The Book of Boba Fett (Szn. 1)

Ahsoka [takes place after mando s2 and close proximity to mando s3]

The Mandalorian (Szn. 3)

Sequel Trilogy (New Republic)

Star Wars: Resistance [overlaps with the sequel movies so i suggest you watch the movies first before starting this]

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Extra, but not necessary

Star Wars Visions [no specific timeline. highly recommend]

Star Wars: Clone Wars [the 2d cartoon show, not the 3d. not necessary to watch. takes place during clone wars, obvs]

Star Wars: Droids [takes place after the bad batch and before the solo movie]

The Star Wars Holiday Special [takes place after a new hope and before empire strikes back]

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]

The Ewoks [takes place after empire strikes back and before return of the jedi]

Important things to note:

"BBY" stands for "before battle of yavin". "ABY" stands for "after battle of yavin". like B.C. and A.D., it's how the star wars universe counts their years for some reason. 0 BBY takes place during Episode IV: A New Hope, where the battle of yavin literally happened.

prequel trilogy was widely hated when it came out, mostly by toxic dudebros. the fandom HAS healed, and now it's regarded well and favorited often. sequel trilogy is widely hated and continues that way, for some reason. original trilogy is loved.

there ARE inconsistencies within the media. some media will contradict others and it's just something you gotta accept.

legends is a non-canon thing. idk anything about it but if you hear anything about legends, it's not canon to the storyline, though it's useful to pull resources and concepts from.

some people may or may not switch up the order of things based off of the years going off of BBY and ABY, and that's fine. this is just the list i use that i think is easiest to follow.

following up on the point above ^^ some of the clone wars episodes are out of order, timeline wise, but that doesn’t affect watching experience or anything. if you want to find the episodes in timeline order, i’m sure a bit of research will get you a list easily.

enjoy!

#newly updated version bc i forgot some stuff #star wars #for refs and whatnot #oil.

[atinylittlepain]

Your Creed, My Quest - Prologue

Din Djarin x jedi!reader/jedi!oc

series masterlist

She's been tasked by her master to watch over the child, but things become complicated when she picks up a rogue Mandalorian along the way.

series warnings | 18+ canon-typical violence, angst, eventual smut, like a moderately-paced burn lol

chapter warnings | 18+ canon-typical violence, angst

a/n | ahhh! i am so excited to share the first entry of the series with you. let me know if you'd like to be added to the taglist for this series and I will start it up with the first chapter. thank you for reading! alsoooo, props to the darling @toxic-seduction for sending me the idea for this scene which really started it all, love youuuuu

................................

She doesn’t like this one bit. When Mando had told her about the job, she had initially refused it outright. It sounded like a suicide mission to her, banking on a prison ship to free a man with a group of people they didn’t know, but he had assured her that Ran had good contacts, people they could trust, at least as long as it took to get the job done.

But now, as they’re stalking the halls of the prison ship, her mind is a swirl of anxiety all over again. All she can really think about is the kid they left on board with that damn droid, the kid who is her one mission. She had found the child nearly at the same time Mando had, and had aided him in freeing him on Nevarro, saving Mando’s life in the process as well.

While there aren’t words for what she is, not really, not anymore, she is a wielder of the force, and when her training is complete, she would call herself a Jedi, if such a title wasn’t so dangerous to hold these days. She had trained from a young age with a master, and she had given this task to her, to reunite the child with his own kind, and to keep him safe from those who wished him harm. And somehow, she managed to pick up a Mandalorian on the way.

They’ve already had a run-in with a prison guard, Xi’an quick to kill him, something that sent a prickle up her spine. It was the first thing her master taught her, to respect all life, and to choose peace over violence, always. These people certainly do not live by the same tenets. But she supposes things are a bit different now in this New Republic.

“Should be down this hall, let’s go.” She pulls up the rear of the group, Mando further ahead with Mayfield leading them all. It’s not her weapon of choice, a blaster rifle held in her hands, but she knows it’d be foolish to bring out her sabers, keeping them stowed behind a loose panel in her bunk on the Crest. 

Suddenly, Xi’an is letting out a high-pitched squeal, rushing over to one of the cells and pressing up against it. Mayfield quickly deactivates the lock, the door swinging open with a loud hiss, letting a twi’lek man step out as he hugs Xi’an in a tight embrace, murmuring that it’s so good to see his sister. She’s surprised when it appears that he recognizes Mando, a not altogether friendly grin spreading across his face.

“Mando, can’t say I’m happy to see you again.” It happens in a flash, the twi’lek man kicking Mando in the stomach, shoving him back into the cell and moving to slam the door closed. She moves before she can even think about it, stretching out her palm, willing the door to stop on its hinges. It halts, but she already knows she’s made a grave mistake revealing her powers. Not even Mando knew she could wield the Force. 

A harsh pain burns in her thigh, and she glances up to see Xi’an holding a dart gun aimed at her, a wicked grin across her face. Sure enough, a dart with a now empty vial is sticking out of her thigh, the room already starting to darken and tilt around her. The last thing she hears before collapsing to the floor are Mayfield’s words.

“Do you think Jedi heads are worth more if they’re pretty?”

…

He can’t quite believe what just happened. Getting double-crossed by Qin, he could have expected. But seeing her use the Force, something he had only heard of in myths, something he thinks he may have seen the kid do, has sent him reeling. He steadies himself as best he can, ears pricking to the sound of a prison droid coming down the hall. 

Getting out of the cell isn’t a problem, making quick work of the droid and using its key to free himself, but he knows he’s in a race against time to find them before they get to the Crest and strand him on this damn ship.

He hurries back to the control room, finding the group of raiders making their way through the halls on the surveillance footage. She’s still slung, unconscious, over Burg’s back. He has no idea what he’s doing, but he figures it’s all he’s got as he starts flipping switches on the control panel, sending the halls into darkness as doorways start to shut throughout the prison. The staticky surveillance screens show the group getting separated by one of the closing doors, Xi’an and Burg getting shut off from Qin and Mayfield. It’s a start, and now all he has to do is pick them off, one by one.

…

When she was little, she was given a sedative H4b injection before a tooth extraction to keep her asleep during the procedure. She woke up in the middle of the operation and had bit down so hard on the medic’s fingers that he needed stitches. It was one of the first signs of her sensitivity to the Force, her nervous system working just a bit differently than everyone else’s. So, it’s no surprise now that she’s waking up a whole lot sooner than would be anticipated with the kind of dart she was hit with. 

The world starts to come back to her in hazy patches of sound and light. She can hear what sounds like two men fighting, loud crashes and grunts a little ways away from where she’s slumped on the ground. Her vision comes back last, blurry blobs of movement that start to focus in until she realizes it’s Mando grappling with that Devaronian, Burg. Something foreign stirs in her chest at the sight of Mando getting thrown to the ground. 

It’s as if someone, or something, is whispering in her ear, directing her focus to the way the Devaronian is standing right in the doorframe, hulking over the struggling Mandalorian, and once again, she moves before she can even think about it, power running through her that is new in its speed and might as she whips the door closed on Burg with a twist of her palm, crushing him where he stands.

She doesn’t have much time to think about how different this power feels, not when a knife is whirring past her head where she’s still sitting on the ground. She jerks around to see Xi’an slinking down the hallway toward her, teeth bared in a hard cackle.

“Well, look who’s awake. Looks like your boyfriend is a bit indisposed at the moment. What say we have a little girl time?” She scurries up onto her feet as another knife comes hurling her way, grabbing her blaster as Xi’an runs toward her.

It’s a quick blur of jolting hand-to-hand combat. Twi’leks are notoriously squirrelly, but she has been trained for this, letting her instincts take over as they twist around each other, a tangle of blocked jabs and hard hits. Her mind becomes singular with the task to such an extent she doesn’t notice the door to the control room reopening, but Xi’an is quick to lob a knife Mando’s way, lodging deep in the sliver of unarmored skin over his shoulder. The twi’lek’s distraction costs her, though, as she grabs her, pressing her lips to her ear and whispering words that put her to sleep, slumping down onto the ground.

She finally looks up at Mando who is stilled in his place, his helmet tilting subtly as he looks between Xi’an’s unconscious form and her.

“You– you’re–” She cuts him off before he can finish that sentence, already turning and heading back to where they came in from.

“There’s no time for that right now. C’mon.” 

…

“If you and the kid are gonna keep traveling with me, I need to know what’s going on. All of it.” She sighs, eyes tracing the streaking patterns of lightspeed darting by outside the Crest’s windows. 

They had made it out, barely, taking Qin back to Ran’s station to complete the job while the others were left behind in a cell. Mando had thought fast, bringing along that alarm device, and as she watched Ran’s station get blown up by two New Republic fliers, exhaustion finally washed over her, the reality of just how much power she had used settling in and rendering her unconscious in the cockpit of the Crest. She was surprised when she woke up in her own bunk, the kid curled into her side and watching her with his impossibly large eyes. Mando must have carried her down to the hull while she slept. She still feels woozy, sapped, as she joins him again in the cockpit, and has to immediately sit down as he starts asking questions. She can feel his stare, even through his helmet.

“Are you– is the kid–” She huffs, picking the kid up from where he was grabbing at her pants and settling him on her lap, a contented coo sounding from him.

“Technically, I suppose we’d be called Padawans during a different time in this galaxy. But yes, we have both been trained up in the Force, though under different masters.” Having this conversation with someone behind a mask is unnerving, all he gives her is a small nod.

“Is this a part of your training then? Looking after him?” She shakes her head, glancing down at the kid who has slumped into sleep on her lap. 

“No. My training is as complete as it can be. This is my mission, a trial of sorts. If I succeed, my master will give me the title of Jedi. It is not how things once went for our kind, but it is the path I must walk in this new world. I vowed to bring this child to my master so he may continue his training with her, and to keep him safe so long as he is in my care.” Mando nods, resting his elbows over his knees as he leans closer to her.

“I will travel with you then. The child is as much my ward as he is yours. I will do what I can to keep you both safe.” She frowns at his solemn words, wrapping a comforting arm around the child who is fussing in his sleep.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you wish to part ways with us. It’s not safe to be our kind in this galaxy. And it’s certainly not safe to aid our kind either.” Mando straightens in his seat at that.

“You have saved my life, multiple times now. I am indebted to you and I am tied to this child by my creed. So long as you need my help, I will answer your call.” She can’t help the shiver that runs down her spine at his words, swallowing thickly and nodding, but her attention quickly shifts to the darkening fabric over the front of his one shoulder.

“You’re bleeding.” He jerks his head down to assess the damage, shrugging lightly.

“It’s nothing. I can cauterize it myself.” She feels that whisper again, a jolt running down through her fingers. She quietly picks up the child and tucks him into his bassinet, making sure he’s still sleeping before turning back to Mando.

“Come with me, I can fix that for you.” 

…

“I’ll give you a moment of privacy– please remove your armor and unbutton your flight suit.” He seems hesitant to heed her command, but he eventually nods as she turns around to face the wall of the hull. She can feel energy skittering up and down her spine, the anticipation of power being used only being heightened by the muffled sounds of Mando removing his armor. He finally clears his throat, and she turns around to find him bare chested, the top part of his flight suit shrugged off his broad arms and hanging loosely around his hips. But of course, his helmet is still on.

She moves quietly back toward him, eyes focused on the wound over his left shoulder, a deep gash smeared with blood. She brings her one palm to hold steady over his chest, her other hand coming to hover directly over the wound. His helmet is tilted down just slightly, she figures so he can study her as she closes her eyes and centers her energy toward the task. 

Everything falls away as she feels the power flowing through her, like magnets pushing and pulling her toward him. It’s over in a flash, and her knees start to buckle in the aftermath, Mando wrapping his arms around her to hold her flush to his chest so she doesn’t collapse. Her eyes squint open, darting to the now smooth expanse of skin over his shoulder where the wound once was. 

“Dank farrik. Are you alright?” His words are a bit breathless, clear wonder lacing his tone at what he just witnessed. She lets out a ragged sigh, still not quite able to hold herself up in his arms.

“I am– I just– need to sit down, I think.” He helps her over to his open bunk, sitting her down on the edge of his sleeping mat while he pulls over an old fuel tank to sit down on across from her.

“You didn’t have to do that– not when it obviously drains you so much.” She props her elbows on her knees, holding her chin up in her palms as she offers him a tired smile.

“It’s better than a cauterizer, though, isn’t it?” For the first time, she hears the Mandalorian laugh, a breathy chuckle as his helmet tilts at her.

“I suppose it is, thank you.” 

“My pleasure, Mando.” She can hear a sigh crackle through his helmet.

“If we’re going to do this, I’d like you to know my real name.” She perks up out of her exhaustion at that. She hadn’t been sure if names were another sacred part of Mandalorian culture, something that didn’t get shared just as they covered their faces. She understands that this means something, for him to tell this to her. He holds out his hand to her, for once uncovered from his usual gloves. She takes it in a firm shake, trying to ignore the energy that she feels once again rolling through her.

“I am Din Djarin, and I will travel with you and the child so long as you need me. I will not break my vow to you. This is the way.” 

#din djarin angst #din djarin x oc #din djarin x female reader #din djarin #din djarin series #din djarin au #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian angst #the mandalorian fluff #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fic #din djarin fanfiction

[suzannahnatters]

Trope Talk #1: Enemies to Lovers: A Deeper Dive

Reports of my death have been exaggerated, but not greatly. While I was in bed for a week lately, roleplaying a Victorian invalid, I watched a YouTube doing a deep dive on the enemies to lovers trope. While it was really fun seeing her break down subtropes (hate to love, rivals to lovers, reluctant allies, villain romance, and more - all of which I adore), I found myself somewhat disappointed by her attempt to discuss the deeper issues surrounding the trope. Like, yes: a lot of people enjoy things in fiction that they would not enjoy IRL and mature readers CAN distinguish between fantasy and reality...but also the media we consume DOES shape us, not all readers ARE as mature as we'd like to think, and while this trope can be executed in a way that's not problematic, it can also be executed in a way that is. Even if we wouldn't all personally draw the line between toxic and healthy in precisely the same place, I think that line does objectively exist. So, here are some of the ways I've subjectively drawn that line in my personal writing and reading when it comes to this trope...

SOME WAYS OF DOING ETL RIGHT

1. Not everyone is going to agree as to what's healthy and what's not, and it's important to listen to others.

Some are going to be mad at me for loving this trope at all, and some are going to be mad at me for thinking that one still needs to exercise judgement and that not everything goes, but hear me out. As a writer, the harder you go with this trope, the more divided your audience will be. Given that we all tend to draw the lines in different places, I think that listening to each other and discussing the reasons behind our own preferences and choices is going to help all of us understand the stakes, avoid hurting or triggering readers who have trauma from toxic relationships, and extend grace to storytellers who don't make the same decisions we would. And we shouldn't be defensive that this is necessary. ETL is actually a fairly new and under-explored trope, which I think is part of why it can be so divisive, especially in a post-#MeToo landscape where a lot of us are starting to rethink the controlling men and helpless women in pairings we've been conditioned to see as romantic. Meanwhile, as an author with a deep love for this trope, I hope that posts like this will help more cautious readers to understand that writing about dark and spiky relationships doesn't necessarily mean romanticising abusive behaviour. Either way, I've benefited from listening in humility and I truly think my stories are better for it.

2. Remember that evil is not misunderstood.

If you'll be writing ETL, then you need to decide early on if the love interest is evil or just misunderstood, and be careful to write him accordingly and be honest about it. If the love interest literally goes around killing innocent people, deal with that. That's evil, that's not (just) a traumatic childhood. On the other hand, if the love interest is antagonistic because of a misunderstanding, but is a fundamentally decent person deep down, he probably wouldn't casually slap the heroine around or otherwise act like a jerk. One mistake I used to see a lot of writers making (less often these days) is trying to convince me that some loathsome jerk is just misunderstood. No, if he's been doing bad things, don't try to explain his guilt away. Confront it head on.

THE LAST JEDI was my gateway drug to ETL precisely because I'd never seen this trope done so beautifully and so uncompromisingly: when Rey is forced to face the fact that the boy she likes is unrepentantly evil, she refuses to join him, explodes him and gets out of there. Ben isn't ready to seek repentance yet; he's a proud, if wavering, villain. Because the movie was absolutely honest about the evil within Ben, I was able to genuinely hope Rey might confront that evil and exorcise it, instead of being gaslit into thinking it was all right.

By contrast, in the very Bluebeard-vibes kdrama MASK, the love interest believes he's responsible for the death of his late fiancee and is being manipulated by the villain into thinking he's criminally insane. As a result, he believes that he's going to kill the heroine, his new wife. Physical touch and dirt are both triggers for him, too, and what the audience sees as a trauma response comes across to the heroine as strong hostility. He tells the heroine he is going to kill her, and she believes him, but the truth is that he dreads it as much as she does. This is a really beautifully done form of misunderstanding. Just remember that to be believable, misunderstandings need to be resolved fairly quickly.

3. Enemies doesn't need to mean hatred or toxicity.

While hate to love is a valid subtrope - especially in contexts where the characters aren't literally trying to kill each other, like in a contemporary romcom - ETL does NOT need to involve toxicity. There's a difference between ordering the assassination of an enemy, versus strangling your wife to terrorise her into obedience; both are bad, but only the latter is classic domestic violence, which casts doubt on any "HEA". Enemies need not hate or even abuse each other to be at odds; they may feel deep personal respect for a worthy opponent, who just happens to be ideologically committed to an opposing cause and therefore duty bound to antagonise the other. Personally, these characters may like, respect, or even passionately love each other - but thanks to duty, they're obliged to thwart each other.

A favourite example of this is Nikita and Michael from the spy show NIKITA. The pair started out as master and pupil before becoming coworkers for a rogue government agency, Division. Now Nikita has gone rogue herself and is working to bring down Division. She knows that Michael is still hanging in there for several reasons - he still believes Division serves his country, he's been skilfully manipulated by the head of the agency, and above all he feels the need to protect Division's young agents who are increasingly exploited by them. Nikita still has respect for Michael because of all these things and because he's the man who trained her to be as awesome as she is - and because she's his best student, Michael returns the sentiment and still goes out of his way to protect her, even as he's trying to hunt her down. Midway through the season, Nikita tries to protect Michael by preventing him from taking out the man who once killed his family - at which point Michael's view of Nikita sours. But she never stops respecting him and he's still willing to work with her when necessary to protect his agents. Throw in some mad chemistry and you've got the ingredients for a perfect ETL situation - although it has some hostility from Michael's side, it's never without that solid core of care and respect for each other. This is what makes the romance work, of course; all romances need a good reason for the character to care about each other. 

4. Remember that ETL is a fundamentally transformative relationship.

This builds on my first point. In ETL, unless there's a valid misunderstanding at play, there are probably moral/ethical differences between the characters. Thus, a huge part of your romance needs to be about resolving those differences, usually for the better. In other words (unless you're really into a corruption arc for the protagonist), the villainous/antagonistic character needs to genuinely repent and change, and we need that change to be demonstrated convincingly in story. At this stage, then, a good ETL story becomes about character growth, which means that it cannot be rushed. If the love interest has genuinely been evil, then he needs to change and prove it.

LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL is a great example of a transformative ETL story. At the beginning of the drama, Dongfang Qingcang is a terrifying evil overlord who has frozen his emotions, killed his own father to rise to power, mastered hellfire magic and terrorised the three realms. As the story unfolds we do learn that there are some misunderstandings: Dongfang's father is the one who destroyed his emotions and forced him as a child to kill him, as well as instilling in him the fear that his people will be destroyed unless he conquers their enemies. But, this doesn't make Dongfang's villainy okay. Even after his emotions have been reawoken by our adorable heroine he still needs to realise that invading her homeland is not the right way to say thank you. By the end of the story we see that Dongfang is indeed a changed overlord. It takes a while, but it is believable.

5. Related, the characters should be a match for each other, especially when it comes to power and to morals.

I think a lot of the objections to ETL and villain romance pairings come from a perceived mismatch between the two characters: a weak person with a stronger person, or a pure and good person with a despicable manipulative blackguard. I think that it's always a good idea to balance this out. If your story begins with the love interest kidnapping your heroine to be his queen, why not let your heroine run a coup and replace him on the throne - right when he least expects it? The fact that your heroine is willing to get her hands dirty when it comes to this antagonist is not just delicious drama - it's also evidence that the two of them have more in common than they might think, and that in a longterm relationship she won't have any problems standing up to him. Alternately, if your heroine is going to remain pure and good throughout, she should probably be a match for the villain in terms of power, however that is measured in your story (and it can be a totally different sort of power than the villain wields). One of the most delicious things when watching any villain fall in love is finding the one woman whom he's absolutely helpless before.

I think Holly Black did this really well in the FOLK OF THE AIR trilogy. At first, Jude is a powerless mortal in the deadly fae court, and Cardan is the fae prince who delights in tormenting her. Jude proves herself far more cunning and ruthless than Cardan as she maneuvers the two of them into power as reluctant allies. It's clear that what Jude lacks in magic she makes up for in sharp intelligence and will to survive, and her ability to find a happy ending hinges on her ability to let down her guard and be vulnerable to Cardan. On the other end of the scale, Beauty and the Beast in most of its incarnations is about two kind people who want different things for sympathetic reasons, so that even though Beauty is held captive by the Beast we can understand the Beast's desperation to break his curse (and the Disney animated classic makes his motivations even more sympathetic by imposing a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity in which to do so). The Beast is truly gentle, and Belle is just spirited enough to snap back at him when he snaps at her. Both these stories work because the lovers are fundamentally a match.

6. Be creative.

There are all sorts of ways to create that delicious see-saw between "I adore you" and "I am going to kill you". The kdrama THE MASK, as mentioned above, uses the hero's mental health in an incredibly respectful way to create a sense of antagonism. The kdrama FLOWER OF EVIL does something similar. In Megan Spooner's absolutely incendiary SHERWOOD, there's a scene where the love interest goes from nearly killing the protagonist to tenderly embracing and caring for her within the very same chapter. Normally this would be the red flag to end all red flags, but it doesn't work that way here. How did Spooner manage it? Simple. The love interest doesn't know that the outlaw Robin Hood, whom he's trying to capture, is actually the same person as Maid Marian, the fair lady he's in love with - and when a quick costume change takes our heroine from one persona to another, the love interest's behaviour changes too. The emotional rollercoaster is real - but only for her.

7. There doesn't need to be a HEA.

I know, a lot of you are going to be up in arms about this, but it's true. Sometimes, especially in a straight up villain romance, the villain shouldn't get the girl. Maybe that's because she wants someone else, maybe it's because he's too manipulative and evil to be convincing as a long term relationship. But, let me frame it like this: why limit yourself just to writing the viable romances? There's a lot of good fun that can be got out of unviable romances too. You may not feel comfortable settling down with the villain, but that doesn't mean he can't be kissed :3

For example, in THE RINGS OF POWER the showrunners did something I never expected and gave Sauron himself a little crush on his greatest nemesis, Galadriel. The final episode, as he revealed his true identity and did his level best to manipulate her into joining him to rule Middle Earth, put joy into the souls of fangirls everywhere. It also caused a whole lot of people to clutch their pearls for some reason which remains opaque to me. After all, Tolkien was the man who wrote Eol, Maeglin, Wormtongue, and that moment when Morgoth himself was perving on Luthien Tinuviel. That aside, this is never going to be a viable match. Galadriel is married and hates Sauron's guts and Sauron is still a manipulative snake whose plans for healing Middle Earth involve him ruling as its lord and master, hopefully with Galadriel at his side. Galadriel doesn't fall for it for a second, which is one of the very things that makes this kind of story so incredibly satisfying to me. The fact that she won't succumb to his manipulation and temptation is incredibly empowering. As in THE LAST JEDI, the ball is in Sauron's court as to whether he changes to deserve her. And of course he won't - not just because he goes on to become the Lord of the Rings of Barad-dûr but more importantly because he never loved Galadriel for who she is but because of the way she made him feel, powerful and purposeful.

Not all villain romances need to end this way, of course, because some villains are capable of change. I think this is what makes Reylo viable where Haladriel is not. While Sauron and Galadriel each appeal to the EVIL in each other, Rey appeals to the good in Ben; he meanwhile desires the Light in her. This is why her refusal does ultimately prompt him to change, although of course the story's resolution was massively bungled in THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

8. Love should be what the villain needs - but not what he wants.

It's hard to make absolute rules when it comes to any artistic choice, but this is probably the closest I come when dealing with this trope: because there should be consequences for the love interest's misdeeds, especially when it comes to the heroine. I call this the POTO rule: if the love interest wants the heroine romantically or sexually abuses her, he should not be rewarded by getting her. Enemies to lovers may fight over anything by any means, but not over romantic or sexual possession of each other. If the villain becomes a villain in order to possess the heroine, then a HEA for them involves giving him exactly what he wanted and thereby justifying his bad behaviour. Mind you, this doesn't mean the love interest can never want the heroine on some level; if he did not then this would not be a romance. We're talking about his most fundamental motivation and his most important story goal. She should not be either of them; she should be a distraction, an impediment to them.

This is simply good writing sense. Enemies to lovers normally implies a positive change arc for the love interest. Every good positive change arc involves a character who Wants one thing, say, to rule the world; but Needs something totally different - the capacity to make peace through compassion, say.  Such characters may or may not get what they Want, depending on how good it is for them and the people around them, but they'll always get what they Need. This is why I think ETL works best when the heroine herself is the thing the antagonist doesn't know he Needs. As an enemy, and even more so if he's a villain, he's likely to be unscrupulous in getting what he Wants, and he shouldn't get her for the same reasons that characters often don't get what they Want. Think about it: the villain probably needs some hard consequences for what he's done. He can get them, *and also get the girl*, but only as long as the girl isn't the motivation for his crimes.

{How does this fit with the "stolen bride" genre of story, usually a fairytale? Do I disapprove of those on principle? Mm, no. If the bride was stolen primarily because the kidnapper claimed to have a romantic or sexual attraction to her, I might object. But there's usually some other motivation. He wants to break a curse; he wants to annex her kingdom; he wants to keep her out of his enemies' hands; he might have been ordered to marry her by someone he dares not cross, or bound by an ancient custom; in any case he ought not to be personally motivated to control or possess her. This is one of those grey areas where lines blur and it's wise to listen and be careful because so many real women have been trapped in marriages to real live villains; but the thing is very doable under the right circumstances.} 

I call this the POTO rule because it was inspired by THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. In this story, Erik is obsessed with Christine to the point where romantic and sexual possession of her drives everything he does. He kills, manipulates, and gaslights everyone at the Paris Opera in an attempt to win Christine's heart, and ultimately he's willing to threaten to kill the man Christine truly loves in order to get the thing he Wants: Christine's hand in marriage. Now, I know a lot of you ship this pairing and I'm not going to scold you for it; maybe you ship them the way I ship Haladriel, loving the relationship without thinking it should end in a HEA, or perhaps you think Christine can fix Erik through some genuinely transformative plotline, or maybe you just want Erik to get what he wants even though it's messed up, and whatever it is I hope you have fun with it. But personally, from the perspective of a published author with a sense of responsibility to my readers, I really think the story ended in the best possible way. Erik doesn't get what he Wants (Christine) but he does get what he Needs (a transformative moment of transcendent compassion that enables him to act in a truly loving manner, by letting Christine go).

So, most of the time, I think it's wisest if the heroine is what the love interest doesn't know he Needs. Again, LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL does this SO well. Dongfang Qingcang doesn't have time for love - emotionless and too busy Evil Overlording, he's never been in love before. So, when he's saddled with an adorable, dimwitted flower fairy, he can't wait to break the spell that links them together so that he can kill her and get on with his villainous plans. When her emotions begin to infect him, he can't help falling in love with her, even though he fights it every single step of the way. She's absolutely not what he Wants, but she is everything he Needs to thaw his frozen heart and teach him to act with compassion and empathy. Even though he spends much of the series planning to kill her, the HEA doesn't strike me as being Problematique the way that an Erik/Christine HEA would be - because a HEA with Orchid represents the moral growth that Dongfang needs, rather than the selfish desire he wants.

9. Maybe the villain's HEA is with someone else.

This doesn't mean a villain is irredeemable or shouldn't get a HEA. It just might mean that his HEA is with someone else. (Unless he's actually a rapist. Then just light the man on fire.) Erik shouldn't get Christine because he's done so much evil in order to possess her. But, once she's broken through to him to show him compassion, he might be ready to learn to love and to make amends for his past crimes...perhaps with someone else.

This was a huge part of the inspiration for the character of Vasily in my Bête Epoque stories. He does something which traumatises the heroine so much, there's no realistic HEA for them. Like Christine, she forgives him anyway, even in the midst of betrayal. And like Erik, he finds he's unable to go through with his villainous plans. She gets her HEA with somebody else, but I found myself with this incredibly compelling character whom a lot of people were pulling for. Vasily has already learned a huge lesson through having loved and lost my first heroine - so when he meets my second heroine, even though in a lot of ways he's still a treacherous monster, he's able to start afresh, and do better, with someone far more resilient who holds far greater power over him.

10. Individual characters will need individual things.

Finally, I think it's necessary to use judgement based on the individual characters and what they need. This is another reason why it's so difficult to make hard and fast rules here. For instance, I said that if the enemy sexually assaults the heroine he should forgo any hope of a HEA with her. But I think we've all seen romances that involve, say, some dubiously consensual kissing, which we can understand the kissee forgiving. By the same token, the act which disqualifies my character Vasily from his first HEA is not sexual assault but something which is coded that way within the story world, and experienced that way by the heroine (vampire bite). The fact that it's not literally sexual assault is what makes it possible for Vasily to get a romantic second chance, but the fact that it is figurative sexual assault is one of the main things that decided me against a HEA the first time. So, I think that whether you're a writer or reader, it's important to exercise judgement based not just on the things that are obvious, but also on less obvious things like the characters' specific needs, the thematic symbolism of the story world, and more.

--

So those are my best ETL writing guidelines - and again, this is only what works for me! I think it's really hard to make hard and fast rules for any artistic work, but from thinking about what works for me and what doesn't, these are some of the lines I've drawn for myself. If you're reading this, I hope it provokes some helpful thoughts :-)

#enemies to lovers #etl #villain romance #the last jedi #tlj #reylo #kdrama #the mask #flower of evil #foe #nikita #michael x nikita #lbfad #love between fairy and devil #clj #cang lan jue #dongfang qingcang #the folk of the air #the cruel prince #jude x cardan #beauty and the beast #sherwood #megan spooner #the rings of power #trop #haladriel #halbrand x galadriel #saurondriel #galadriel x halbrand #phantom of the opera

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Happy holidays to you 🎄🎁🌟❤️

*whispers* , who do you think deserves better

Lotor or Ben Solo/Kylo Ren

First of all: thank you so much! Happy Holidays to you, too!! I hope you are enjoying this holiday season with your loved ones 🎄🎀☃️💖

And second of all: NOOOO Anon how could you make me choose??! 😭😂😂

My gut reaction is to say both of them, but that's not really the answer we're looking for here, is it? Hehe. So I have tried to seriously consider this and provide a sincere answer to your question.

A quick heads up, I will be mentioning reylo and lotura here and there throughout this little essay!

The most fun part about comparing Ben and Lotor I think comes from the fact that these two are suuuuper similar to one another. I covered this a tiny bit in this ask where I talk about how protective the two of them are, but to reiterate:

Both Lotor and Ben are from sci-fi/fantasy franchises that were released around the same time, both have troubled relationships with their fathers, both are great swordsmen and pilots and engineers, both murdered their fathers, have complicated childhoods, rarely show their true faces to others, killed their dads, fell in love with fierce and powerful women, kissed said fierce and powerful women before shortly dying afterwards, said bye-bye to papa by doin a lil stabby stab, became intergalatic leaders of the most powerful empires in the universe -- oh, and did I mention daddy issues? You tend to find that a lot with long-haired emo boys from fiction. It's just the way it is. And for these two in particular you can also sprinkle in a little "mommy issues" just for funsies.

But in all seriousness, Lotor and Ben share a LOT in common, which is pretty crazy! So who deserves better, really? In order to make a fair judgment my first thought was to take into account their crimes and if they were able to redeem themselves in the end. But this is also fiction. As soon as people slap the label "toxic" on a character or ship, I usually tend to tune them out. This is by no means a hot take, but fiction is a form of escapism. It is a way for people to experience a thing (e.g. horror, adventure, romance) without actually having to experience it. So if we have a couple of sad boys who murder and manipulate people but also want to find love, who's gonna stop us from rooting for them? Absolutely no one!

I digress, but my point is that I usually don't care which character did what and why they're a bad person for it. But even then were Ben and Lotor really all that bad? After all, we learned from "The Rise of Kylo Ren" comics that Ben was ultimately not the one responsible for destroying Luke's Jedi school, and in TROS we found out that he was being manipulated by Palpatine the entire time.

For Lotor, we never really got a clear picture of what exactly he was doing with that Altean colony. To this day I still don't get it! In S6E6 he says, "Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence." But then in S8E13 Allura says, "Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately he wanted to preserve life." Like, what does any of that mean?? There are cracks in the armor, Anon! Cracks!!! Not to mention all of the theories with very convincing evidence that there were a ton of changes made to season 8, and unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get a solid answer from the showrunners as to what was really supposed to happen.

In the end, the complicated and morally gray choices that Lotor and Ben made throughout their lives are what make their characters so interesting! They did the wrong things for what they believed to be the right reasons. If they didn't come across as the mysterious and devious fellas as they did when we first saw them, we wouldn't be such big fans of them. We would've chosen someone else 😉

So any bad deeds aside, maybe we oughta take a step back and do one last comparison. Most notably, comparing how they died. Ben died saving the person he loved, while Lotor died fighting the person he loved. I would have to argue that Lotor's death was far more gruesome and superfluous than Ben's. Not only did he go mad from all of the raw quintessence coursing through his body, but we find out in season 8 that his body had remained in his ship for three whole years, decayed and melted (seriously whose idea was it to share that imagery? I'm scarred for life) and left to sit there by his own mother.

Ben's passing was also deeply upsetting. I cried in the theater. But you can't deny that it was a peaceful one. From the way his body faded into nothingness, leaving beind only his clothes, the audience is able to assume that he became a Force Ghost (or did he? 🤔). He was battered and beaten, but he brought the woman he loved back to life, and in giving his life to her and helping her defeat Palpatine, he redeemed himself. And not only did he redeem himself, but he was also able to reconcile with both of his parents.

Lotor didn't get to do either of those things. He never got the chance. He was manipulated by both of his parents, and he never had the opportunity to redeem himself on his own terms. You know, for someone who directly influenced the entirety of season 8's plot, Lotor is hardly in it! I suppose he sort of redeemed himself, at least in Allura's eyes, but he was long gone by then. He wasn't around to see any of the stuff going on in season 8, stuff happening specifically FOR him because his mother wanted him back. In season 6 he went out like your average cartoon villain--dying because of his own hubris while the heroes looked on. In season 8 we only get: a flashback episode, him showing up in Allura's bedroom ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), and him copied and pasted into the background as a ghost in the finale, almost like something is amiss in this scene (cracks in the armor, Anon!!!). UGH. You hate to see it.

But at the same time, I'm not too upset that Lotor died if I'm being completely honest with you. At least not anymore, anyway. Don't get me wrong, at the time I cried when his death was confirmed, and then I cried again when Allura died. But at least they get to be together in the afterlife. Ben had a lot going for him. He was only 30 years old when he died, and that's still very young. He could have had a long, happy life with Rey, and to truly redeem himself in the eyes of the resistance, could have devoted his time to restoring peace and order to the galaxy, as well as teach the new generation of Force-wielders alongside Rey.

Lotor, on the other hand, was 10,000 years old. The idea of having lived that long is not only unfathomable, but the fact that he probably spent most of that time being completely alone is just... really, really sad. If I were him I would have been ready to kick the bucket, too. I think the kindest thing to do for him at that point was to give him a peaceful, as well as justified, departure in the series finale. Allura had suffered as well. She had lost everything, just like him, so the two of them finding peace in the afterlife would be the most merciful conclusion, I believe.

Soooo I'm gonna cheat again with my answer 😂 Who deserves better? I would say BOTH of them deserve better, but in different ways. Ben Solo deserved to live, while Lotor deserved a better death.

Thank you so much for this question, Anon! I really had to think a lot about this one, and even though in the end I couldn't actually choose between the two, I still enjoyed coming up with this long-winded answer haha! If you have any further insights you would like to add, or if you even disagree with any of the things I've said, please don't hesitate to say so! I am always happy to discuss anything Ben or Lotor-related 😁 My love for these boys knows no bounds 💖

#asks #meta #lotor #kylo ren #ben solo #lotura #reylo