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momojedi · 1 month

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— THE HUNTER topic. original characters

type. one shot? drabble? idk note. just my oc stuff ... this is set in an au where death watch is far stricter with the religious views and uses the same rules as the children of the watch. Mi’dek and Nike are actually two characters a friend of mine made up when we were talking about the Mandalorian. warnings. none word count.

translations. gedet'ye - please; gev - stop it; k’oyacyi - hang in there

star wars masterlist || pinned post

"Stop!"

A beat. Suddenly, the world goes silent. The mandalorian bounty hunter is pinned down, barely fighting back after the dull hit his head had taken when Wrecker had roughly forced him to the ground. The Batch stills. Then, all eyes drift to her.

Omega's hands are in the air, her bow discarded somewhere on the ground next to her as she desperately stares at her brothers with widened eyes. "That's enough!" Hunter barely catches a glimpse of her before he understands. Then, he throws a quick signal to the others who swiftly holster their blasters, too.

The injured girl next to Omega lets out a relieved sigh that is quickly interrupted by a pained groan. "Gedet'ye..." Omega jumps to her side, supporting her weight as the girl slumps against her. "We need to help her!" "Get her to the ship," Hunter orders before turning to Wrecker under whom the Mandalorian is still caged, "Him too. If he steps out of line, you know what to do." "Sure thing!" The Mandalorian grunts dizzily as the huge man hoists him over his shoulder, still not fully conscious.

"What's your name?" The girl hisses as she feels the sharp prick of a bacta shot in her arm, barely registering Omega's curious questions. Then, she opens her eyes again. "Nike," she rasps, her voice almost a whisper. She looks fragile, with her meek figure and her greasy long hair. The low bags under her blue eyes and the hollow cheeks tell a story of month-long torment, torment the Empire probably had played a role in. This poor girl must’ve been to hell and back. How could Omega not have acted? "I'm Omega." Then, the young clone points at the other men roaming the former military shuttle. "And those are my brothers. They're very nice once you get past their, er," Omega grimaces, "rougher exterior?"

Nike listens to her wordlessly while observing Tech with a piercing glare, watching his every move as he stands beside the Mandalorian whom they’d previously cuffed and shackled to the ship’s G.N.K. droid. He’s still not moving, limply lying on the floor, the only proof of him being alive coming from the subtle heaving of his armoured chest.

Omega follows her stare. When she understands, her heart cracks at the longing expression on the girl’s face. “He’ll be fine,” Omega softly says as she carefully grabs Nike’s hand. But Nike remains worried. With a determined expression, Omega turns to look at her brother.

“Echo, could you take a look at him, too? He’s been out for some time now…” She pleads, pointing at their prisoner. “Just to make sure?” Echo hesitates, searching for any sign of displeasure in Hunter’s face but the sergeant just nods. With a sigh, Echo stands up and kneels down next to the unconscious man.

As if a switch had been flipped inside of her, Nike jumps up the moment the clone reaches for the helmet. “Gev!” The clones freeze, all heads turning to look at her. Nike rubs her temples, eyes scrunched shut as if she was searching her mind for her words. “Wait,” she then croaks, a subtle accent in her words, “You can’t take off his helmet.”

“What?” Echo raises a brow, “How else am I supposed to check on him?”

“It’s against his beliefs. No sentient being is to see his face.” Nike kneads at her hands, scanning the room for a way to persuade them not to act any further. “Isn’t there any other way?” Before anyone can bring up another argument, Tech pipes up from behind his datapad.

“I may be able to run a scan on him, though I’m unsure how effective that will be considering his beskar armour … either way, I am willing to give it a try.”

“Yes, yes, that will do,” Nike gratefully replies, quickly nodding. With that, she joins him by crawling over to the prisoner, kneeling next to Echo on the ground who curiously watches her as she cradles the Mandalorian’s helmeted head and carefully settles it in her lap. “K’oyacyi.”

Wrecker's low snores erupt through the Marauder's stomach few hours later, accompanied by the distant hum of the shuttle's machinery as it flies through the blue swirls of hyperspace. Omega hums silently as she sits next to Nike, focused on the set of cards on in her hands. When she finally draws another one, her eyes drift to the other girl, whose gaze had once again drifted to the still unconscious man. "What's his name?" Nike's head snaps back to Omega. "What?" "His name. You haven't mentioned it so far."

Hesitantly, the redhead lowers her own set of cards. "Mi'dek," she rasps, fiddling with the sleeves of her jacket, "my family hired him to find and bring me back to them when the Empire rose to power. After he’d found me, his shuttle crashed and we were stuck. That is, until you showed up."

“He did try to attack us,” Echo barks from his seat with a strict expression. Nike frowns. “He was protecting me!” At that, Omega raises a brow but before she can inquire any further, a stir from beside them catches their attention.

Mi’dek groans, his voice filtered through his helmet as he shuffles against the G.N.K. droid. The clanging of the binders quickly wakes him when he pulls at his shackled hand, once, twice, but to no avail. Then, a rougher pull. Immediately, he sits up, scanning his hand before snapping his head around. “Mi’dek! It’s okay,” Nike crawls to him, grabbing his free hand, “We’ll be fine.” At the sound of her voice and the sight of her freckled face, the Mandalorian visibly relaxes, though not before giving his surroundings another quick glance. Then, he nods at Echo. “Who are you people? What do you want from us?” he drawls lowly, “if you’re planning on handing her over, you’re going to have to get past me.”

Hunter’s deep chuckle catches him off-guard as he raises his head to look over at him. “I doubt you’re in much of a position for that.” Then, as if time suddenly slowed, the sergeant wordlessly paced over to him and finally, knelt down next to him. “Now, you’re going to explain to us what this is all about.”

The air grows tense when the worn hilt of the lightsaber hits the floor, a metallic clang breaking the silence.

“Who are you?”

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thebluevipersden · 2 years

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Rrrrraaawr... Watch yer' mouth...

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outerspacesushi · 2 years

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Cad Bane walk cycle. I am very new to animation and just started animating in procreate last night. I think this is the first time I have tried a genuine walk cycle so its...Kinda rough. 😭 Oh well! Practice makes perfect so I just gotta do it more!

#cad bane #procreate #star wars the clone wars #bounty hunter #doodle #fanart #star wars #star wars fanart #starwars #sw #animation #gif

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xinambercladx · 2 years

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Shoulda Known...

Me: a woman born and raised in the great American South West watches Star Wars all her life but never develops a crush on a single character until... Cad Bane: a Space Cowboy rolls up in a speeder and proves to be extremely capable in less than 2 minutes of screen time...

#of COURSE I fall for the ONE Cowboy in the SW Galaxy #cad bane #you and your deep voice and big hat and do-or-die-trying attitude #fml #why did you make me fall so hard?#cowboys are hot in any galaxy #hello there #if he called me lil' lady i'd faint #bounty hunter

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wackyart · 1 year

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Great Hunt's Champion

The Great Hunt's Creator: You simply cannot enter ma'am. It's reserved for selected Bounty Hunters only and you do not appear on the list- Mako: The hell she can't. Waran'ye Charcry *Cathar, Daughter of Madken Charcry, Ex Imperial Agent on the loose, turned Bounty Hunter, seeking revenge for the murders of her mentor and friends with a bounty of 25K Credits on her head, accused of sabotage, treachery, terrorism, basically a full on war criminal, who dealt with all the 7 bounty hunters sent after her*:

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djarincore · 4 months

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Drawings

summary: You buy Grogu art supplies.

word count: 678

tags: pure fluff, gn!reader, crayons exist in the sw universe bc i said so

a/n: part of my 500 words a day series. the letter is D for drawings!

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The brand-new Nevarro marketplace was bustling with vibrant life. You swept through the crowd with Grogu in your arms, looking for things that would brighten up your new home. On your way to the florist, a smaller stall filled with art supplies caught your eye.

After being on the run for so long, it would be nice for Grogu to get to be a child for once and do normal childlike activities. You and Din already enrolled him in the local school and the supplies would be useful as well. You looked over the many different mediums laid out on the table.

“Do you want to try watercolors or crayons, Grogu? Or maybe acrylics?” You tapped your chin. His babble did not offer much help for your indecision, but you came to a decision soon enough.

—

“I’m home!” You announced, balancing a bouquet of red and yellow flowers in one arm along with a bag filled to the brim with half the art supply stall and Grogu in the other. You made your way to the kitchen and set him down on his high chair.

Din appeared from the bedroom, helmet-free, and rushed to take the overflowing flowers from you. “I could have helped you carry all this.”

“We could handle it.” You turned to Grogu, setting down the bag of art supplies in front of him. “Right, sweetheart?”

“What are these?” Din peeked inside the bag and pulled out a pan of watercolors. He inspected the box as if he’d never seen them before. You supposed being brought up under the Creed and being a bounty hunter most of his life didn’t allow time for leisurely activities like coloring. Maybe arts and crafts would be good for both boys.

“For Grogu, figured it’d be a nice little hobby for him.” You took out the stack of papers you bought and the rest of the supplies, laying it all out on the table for Grogu to choose from. He grabbed for a silver marker, fumbling with it a bit, teething on the cap. You helped him uncap it and drew a simple circle. “See? You can draw with it.”

When you placed the marker back in his hand, he recreated your circle, a bit lopsided and wobbly. You clapped your hands and cheered, “Perfect! Good job, bug.”

He let out a cheerful giggle and continued dragging the marker across the page in random directions.

Din chuckled. “He’ll be an artist in no time.”

The two of you got to work preparing dinner, leaving Grogu to continue drawing at the table. You would occasionally glance back at his artwork, seeing the new colors he was using and attempting to decipher what he was drawing. Din guessed it was a mountain and you chose a tree.

By the time you were setting the table, he’d gone through several sheets of paper, filled with various scribbles and colors.

You plucked the marker from his hand and shook your head when he whined. “You’ll get to draw after dinner.”

Neither of you would have imagined the monster you created by giving him art supplies. He drew day and night, changing mediums and improving by the day. You and Din would sit and draw with him whenever you were free, praising each abstract doodle and painting. But, his paper supply was running thin and you were planning to take a trip to the market again.

“Hey!”

You poked your head into the living room to find Din crouched by the front door, running his finger across a blob of green marker colored onto the wall. As you approached, you realized it was not just a blob, but a head with two long ears sticking out. On either side of the head was another drawing that looked suspiciously like Din’s helmet and your face.

“A family portrait?” You mused, a proud smile forming on your lips as you crouched beside the two. You picked up a red marker and uncapped it to draw a large heart around the three heads.

“Hm,” Din hummed, “Perfect.”

#din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #the mandalorian fluff #the mandalorian fanfic #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian #my works

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david-talks-sw · 2 years

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Hi! I’m a big fan of your SW takes (particularly ones addressing the criticism towards Jedi) lol

I was wondering what you thought of the Deception arc in TCW? Personally with most of the Jedi’s decisions during TCW i feel like they’re making the best choices they can, but with this arc it seems almost uncharacteristically cruel. Even if Anakin had not been attached to Obi-Wan (which the council surely knew he was?), his death would’ve been very painful to Anakin. Doesn’t that kind of go against Jedi compassion and the kindness we consistently see?

Again I’d love your take on this, but either way I’ll continue to enjoy your blog in the future!

Hey @soopisoop! Thank you very much for the kind words 🙌! I'm glad to hear you enjoy the posts!

So I lightly touched on the "Obi-Wan undercover" arc in this older, more general post about Anakin's relationship with the Jedi Council, but, hey, let's zoom in!

Not telling Anakin... was wrong. Plain and simple.

Yoda says so himself.

But the train of thought was:

"The chancellor - leader of the free world - is gonna die if we don't do this, so the stakes are high. We gotta send Obi-Wan deep undercover behind enemy lines, but Anakin is very close to him and known for being volatile, so there's a 50/50 chance he'll go AWOL and fuck the mission up and those are unacceptable odds."

It's not an excuse, but a justification.

And, in a slightly different context, Anakin seems to use this justification too.

Hell, if anything, Anakin thinks the Jedi should employ even harsher methods in the war and that their values are holding them back.

It's just that, in this case, it hit closer to home.

There's a "hypocrisy" argument to be made, but honestly... that's the Clone War in a nutshell for you!

The Jedi repeatedly told the Senate and the Chancellor "please don't ask us to fight, we're not made for this, we're diplomats, we act on compassion not violence”...

... because they knew that's what the war would force them to do: compromise on their values, tarnish every principle that defines them and that they hold dear, turn them into hypocrites.

Yes, the Jedi are compassionate, but they're also at war, and they're forced to pick between two shitty choices on the daily.

And the deciding factor, EVERY time, is not "which option is the better/more compassionate one" but "which option does less damage?"

Lying to Anakin is just one of these hard "no other choice" choices.

And EVERY time they see an opportunity to step back from the fighting and let diplomacy start again, guess what Palpatine says?

"Fuck you, go back to the front."

And when you listen to Dave Filoni's commentary on this arc, it turns out that this whole plan by Dooku and Morallo Eval was actually engineered by Palpatine to:

1) Distance him even further from the Jedi so Palpatine can swoop in and manipulate him more and more.

2) Set the board for another Anakin vs Dooku confrontation, to gauge how much more powerful Anakin has become.

"Y’know, ultimately, what we realize is that the whole thing is a fake-out on the Jedi. That Dooku is conspiring with Sidious to set-up this whole bounty hunter plot to make the Jedi believe that they have once again saved the day, and it’s all an effort to get Anakin isolated. So what I really liked about this story that, y’know— as George handed it out, was: we tell the story that’s really about Anakin and Palpatine trying to tempt him to the Dark Side… and we tell it more from Obi-Wan’s point of view. And you see this whole other tale that’s going on, and we check in with Palpatine and Anakin every now and then, until finally, it’s really about them and their struggle. And we see that this is a point that Anakin really wasn’t ready to become the Sith apprentice. He wasn’t strong enough, I think there’s a possibility that Dooku would’ve killed him here." - Dave Filoni, The Clone Wars: “Obi-Wan undercover” video commentary, 2012

So, again, like... sure. The Jedi made a mistake.

But ultimately, had Palpatine not hatched this particular plan, hell, had he not engineered a whole war designed to corrupt the Jedi's morals... that mistake would never have been made in the first place.

To use an analogy:

If a dude tries to make his way in a pitch black room (the Jedi playing catch-up to Sidious' plans) and steps on a Lego brick (their mistakes)... you don't blame him for it, you blame the guy who turned the light off and emptied the Lego box on the floor in the first place (Sidious).

#long post #The Clone Wars #in defense of the jedi #star wars #jedi order #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #deception arc #meta #QnA #jedi #as soopisoop put it in the comments...#it may have been the Jedi's mistake but it wasn't the Jedi's fault

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seriowan · 1 year

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STAR WARS OC GALLERY — INTRODUCTION

hi there! my name's nay and i have a quick question for you.

do you have a star wars original character? an original story? perhaps some art of your creation? lore? an info-dump post about your oc? oc x canon character ships? oc fanfiction? maybe they're a jedi or a sith? a saleucami farmer or a coruscant mechanic? a clone wars medic or a mantell mix merchant on ord mantel? a unique-looking creature? a mandalorian warrior or their one-of-a-kind youngling?

well, welcome to the star wars oc gallery! if you're interested for more info, head down below the cut!

the purpose of this gallery is to provide a safe, non-judgmental, and positive platform for oc creators. as an anxious overthinker and an oc creator, i understand the fear behind putting a personal character out there, especially in a fandom that tends to favor big creators and their canonized characters. there are constant questions and insecurities: will they be liked? will they be appreciated? will they be judged? ignored? am i being too pushy? do people even care? what's the point?

this gallery is here to not only encourage others to be creative and confident in their ocs, but to also provide community. let's face it, you and i both know that we aren't the only anxious oc creators. there are so, so, so many people who feel the same as you do! they're scared and anxious — and it is understandable, which is why we as oc creators need to come together and give a lot more love to the creative community that we are a vital part of!

which is why this gallery is here to exhibit your creations, free of judgment or comparison. there is no competition. there is no 'who drew better' or 'who wrote the best story' or 'who has the best lore'.

every oc is different. every oc is unique. every oc is special. every oc is valued.

there will be people who find beauty in how your oc looks. there will be people who find comfort in how your oc acts. there will be people who find interest in the stories and lore. there will be people who find appreciation — people like me!

reaching out is encouraged — AS IN PLEASE TALK TO ONE ANOTHER! it could be as simple as — i love the way your oc looks! i love the way they act in your story! i love the thought and detail you put into their lore! talking/reblogging/commenting could even lead to collaborations and that would be AMAZING! the whole goal of this is to get people's works out there so that beautiful connections and friendships can be created over people who share the same interest!! (if this takes place, please tag your collaborative works with #sw: oc gallery so that i can drop by and show your works some love!)

reblogging is emphasized although it is (sadly) not enforced. but let's be honest, your blog 'aesthetic' won't be ruined if you reblog someone's oc art, stories, or lore. you can do someone a huge kindness and give them a massive burst of confidence by reblogging... BUT!!! WHILE REBLOGGING SHOWS APPRECIATION AND LOVE, IT DOES NOT DETERMINE WORTH OR VALUE!!!! the goal of this gallery is to provide a positive platform for exposure, not a ground for competition, comparison, or "how many likes/reblogs can i get".

MONTHLY THEMES

to keep this a fun and organized event, there will be THEMES for each month that this event takes place. the star wars universe is a vast, enormous pool of intricate characters and unique species, so these themes are here to divide and organize — and i am open to other theme suggestions as well! HERE ARE THE THEMES SO FAR — SUBJECT TO CHANGE* - MARCH [FACTIONS] — JEDI AND SITH, REBELS AND IMPERIALS - APRIL [CLONE WARS] — CLONES AND DROIDS - MAY [MANDO MADNESS] — MANDALORIANS & YOUNGLINGS - JUNE [SPECIES SPECIAL] — ANYTHING THAT IS NON-HUMAN! (ex: togrutas, twi'leks, wookies, droids, mirialans, pantorans, etc.) - JULY [ROLE ROULETTE] — (ex: princesses, senators, bounty hunters, pirates, bandits, doctors, medics, pilots, smugglers, etc.) - AUGUST [CLONE WARS] — JEDI, SITH, and CLONES - SEPTEMBER: CREATIVITY CHAOS (anything, everything, and everyone! this theme will allow anything ranging from clones to mandalorians to monsters, bounty hunters, and droid sidekicks )

I AM OPEN TO OTHER THEME IDEAS! repetitive themes will most likely take place until i can get some new ideas in

RULES

PLEASE READ! — Failure to follow these guidelines will result in your submission being deleted or ignored

SUBMISSIONS WILL ONLY BE OPEN UNTIL THE 15th OF EACH MONTH — this leaves the rest of the month for community and conversation! — submissions must be sent through THIS FORM

Repetitive submissions from the same account/blog are allowed, as well as old and newly created ocs!

NSFW media is accepted as long as it is explicitly stated in the submission! since my blog is an actively NSFW 18+ blog, minors cannot and will not be allowed to participate

the goal of this gallery is to encourage self-submissions, but if you know a friend/mutual/blog that has an oc, you are more than welcome to refer and recommend them! just follow the guidelines in rule #1 to ensure a proper submission.

SUBMISSIONS CAN NOT AND WILL NOT INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: - oc clonec*st/clonesh*pping - oc master/padawan ships - ocs with racist/harmful traits or implications - any references/mentions of rape/non-con in oc media

if you do the wonderful act of reblogging someone's oc content, PLEASE TAG IT #SW: OC GALLERY so that i can see! this tag would help me witness the growth of this community and see the positivity that this monthly event may spread

have any questions about the rules? drop into my ask box and i will do my best to answer them!

if you'd like to be tagged in the monthly exhibit posts (the master post where submissions have been finalized and collectively put together), and updates concerning sw: oc gallery, then slide over to this taglist and you'll be added!

questions? comments? concerns? please don't be afraid to DM me privately or anonymously slide into my ask box!

remember: do not use this event to determine the worth of your oc.

every oc is different. every oc is unique. every oc is special. every oc is valued.

#sw: oc gallery #please reblog this for boosting!#star wars oc #sw ocs #star wars original characters #star wars original stories #original characters #original stories #original concepts

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grigori77 · 4 months

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2023 in TV - My Top 10 Shows

10. THE MANDALORIAN (Season 3)

The fortunes of post-George Lucas Star Wars have really fluctuated over this past decade, for almost every blissful high there has been an excruciating low to tip the balance back on its axis … thank the gods, then, for the consistent success of Lucasfilm’s biggest success story since they were bought by Disney, their streaming service’s epic and expansive series following the (mis)adventures of Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (the legendary Pedro Pascal) and his adopted ward, the impossibly adorable Force-sensitive baby Grogu. The show’s gone through some major shake-ups as it’s expanded its outlook in the SW universe beyond just Din’s own experiences to take in the larger canon, and some purists have complained that it’s starting to lose its identity because of this, but as long as Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni continue to present a finished product of this consistently high standard it’ll remain EMINENTLY worthy of our time. I for one actually really LOVED the greater prominence of Katee Sackhoff’s Mandalorian royal scion Bo-Katan Kryze throughout this third season as her rise to prominence makes her almost as much of a key character now as Din himself, and given how this season delivers what feels like a comfortable close to the original Mando’s story, I think this does a really beautiful job of setting up how the series could most smoothly continue in the future. So long as it remains as exciting, inventive, emotionally rewarding and downright GORGEOUS as it has been, I’ll keep watching.

9. THE GREAT (Season 3)

Hulu’s opulent black comedy satire from Aussie playwright and screenwriter Tony MacNamara (The Favourite, Poor Things) recounting the youthful rise to power of the mighty world-renowned Russian monarch Catherine the Great (albeit very loosely) has been a very enjoyable TV distraction these past few years, particularly once things starting really going to shit, and this latest (seemingly LAST) season is no exception. Elle Fanning continues to excel in what’s become the best role she’s had to date as Catherine, still effervescently self-confident despite her growing exasperation with her ongoing struggle to bring her adopted home of Tsarist Russia into Enlightenment and away from the far more base urges that have held it in their grip for so long. This is made all the more difficult by her persistently complicated and tempestuous love-hate-love-hate-love-murder-murder-stabby-stabby relationship with her husband Peter III (the always brilliant Nicholas Hoult), who’s FINALLY trying to learn to better himself for the sake of his own deep love (and throbbing carnal obsession) for his wife and the mother of his adorable infant son Paul. Fresh difficulties arise to baffle the lovers at every turn, from dastardly courtly machinations to civil unrest and an EXTREMELY ill-advised “accidental” war with Sweden, and it doesn’t help that their various friends and advisors – including Phoebe Fox’ spiky Marial Brezhnev, Peter’s complicated aunt, the Empress Elizabeth (the delightfully ODD Belinda Bromilow), and, of course, Adam Godley’s spectacularly perverted Russian Orthodox Archbishop “Archie” Samsa – largely seem to be in it for themselves. It’s anarchically brilliant as ever, every episode proving more chaotically unpredictable, gleefully off-the-wall and endearingly, downright FILTHILY hilarious than the last – it’s a rare thing indeed to get a comedy show that’s THIS fiendishly ingenious, making it a consistent must-watch. Unfortunately, the story has finally reached its (admittedly wise) conclusion, but I’d love to see Fanning revisit Russia’s greatest ruler sometime in the future …

8. AHSOKA

It was one of my greatest pleasures from the second season of The Mandalorian to get to see the live action (re)introduction of Anakin Skywalker’s wayward padawan Ahsoka Tano, now grown up and truly come into her own despite years spent in self-imposed exile after the Galactic Jedi pogroms and the subsequent collapse of the Empire. Seeing her return (however briefly) in the ultimately disappointing Book of Boba Fett was one of that show’s saving graces, so it seemed to only be a matter of time before she got her own series on Disney+, and gods knew I was one of the most hopeful. Thankfully, the wait has not been in vain – this is BY FAR the best piece of Star Wars-based TV I’ve had the pleasure of indulging in this year, Dave Filoni not only allowing us to spend plenty more time with our girl but also getting to see a resolution to the open ending of the very enjoyable Rebels series as we see some of her key Rebellion-era comrades return as well. Rosario Dawson has really grown into the title role now, bringing fresh nuance and complexity to a character who was already SO INTERESTING, and the new additions here are very welcome ones, particularly Natasha Liu Bordizzo (The Society) as my very favourite Mandalorian, Sabine Wren, who’s become Ahsoka’s very reluctant apprentice after showing some small aptitude with the Force, as well as the late Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno (The Spy Who Dumped Me) as mercenary former Jedi Baylan Skoll and his vicious apprentice Shin Hatti, who are working to bring the infamous Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn (the legendary Lars Mikkelsen, finally getting to portray his chillingly masterful villain in live action) back to the Galaxy Far, Far Away. This is a rich, evocative and epic adventure story that takes this well-trod universe to intriguing and exotic new worlds as it opens the saga out to intriguing new possibilities, and while this was conceived as a limited series I’m personally holding out real hope for more moving forward … and I KNOW I ain’t alone …

7. GOOD OMENS 2

Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of his own much beloved collaborative novel with the legendary late fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett was such a perfect piece of television that it was a no-brainer for Amazon Prime to greenlight more, making it most fortuitous that the two writers had already made impressive progress planning further adventures for the wayward divine duo of the angel Aziraphael (Michael Sheen) and the devil Crowley (David Tennant), so he already had a starting point for more. Ultimately this is less THAT specific story than a bridge between the main story from the novel which formed the first season and the next saga, but that doesn’t make this any less worthwhile an experience, Gaiman again proving he’s one of the very best writers OUT THERE by presenting us with another exquisitely crafted sextet of hour-long episodes of gleefully comic theology-themed speculative fantasy which does a beautiful job of expanding the universe and offering rich and rewarding new character arcs for our two favourite gay angels. Giving away much of any of the plot would do the brilliantly twisty story an injustice, suffice to say that the arrival of a VERY NAKED amnesiac archangel Michael (the wonderfully game Jon Hamm in a MUCH more expanded role this time round) on the doorstep of Azirapahael’s book shop sets another potentially cataclysmic true-existential crisis into gear which will have massive repercussions for our reluctant heroes moving forward into the inevitable third season. Nice to see that Amazon have ALREADY asked Gaiman to bring the series to a satisfactory close, then.

6. THE LEGEND OF VOX MACHINA (Season 2)

More rightly renewed genius from Amazon Prime, this time with the second season of the animated adaptation of the first campaign of Critical Role’s TTRPG live-play webcast series, still undeniable essential viewing for both fans of professional Dungeon Master Matt Mercer and his friend’s online antics and just those who enjoy their fantasy adventures a bit more irreverent and adult. Given that the second major arc of the campaign was already a doozy, I knew ahead of time we were moving into what was sure to become an even more potent stretch of the saga than we got in the already impressive first season, and the deeply-committed folk behind it have NOT disappointed with this follow-up. The stakes have been raised CONSIDERABLY as the fantastical land of Tal’dorei falls under the brutal sway of the Chroma Conclave, a collective of tyrannical dragons bent on bloody conquest, so it’s up to the dysfunctional adventuring party of Vox Machina to save the day. Oh dear … this is JUST as much fun as the first season, with plenty more thrilling action, side-splitting satirical comedy (thank you AGAIN Sam Riegel for the gift of pure, unadulterated R-rated JOY that is the gnomish bard Scanlan Shorthalt) and inspired creative invention, but once again proceedings are tempered with plenty of powerful emotional heft and heartfelt LOVE for the characters these players created and remain STRONGLY connected to so many years later. Since Amazon wisely made the decision to commission the THIRD season WELL in advance of the second’s release we already know there’s more coming, and given where I already know this story is headed I can’t help getting REAL excited for its future …

5. THE LAST OF US

Okay, here we go, finally time for the proper ORIGINAL STUFF … yeah, it’s been a particularly great year for new IPs on the small screen, meaning that my Top Five all get to be completely fresh and “original” properties instead of continuations or spinoffs from existing series. One of the most deservedly long-awaited, well-received and rightly ACCLAIMED new shows to emerge in 2023 was HBO’s highly anticipated adaptation of the much beloved post-apocalyptic zombie survival horror video game series from Naughty Dog, and their wise move to team the games’ original creator Neil Druckmann with Craig Mazin, the man behind the now legendary Chernobyl miniseries, has paid off SPECTACULARLY here, since this is one of the very best TV series I’ve come across in a good long while, a work of breathless brilliance and soul-destroying POWER which just left me SPEECHLESS at the end of SEVERAL episodes in its all-too-brief run back in the New Year. Pedro Pascal may be The Mandalorian, but I think he's found his TRUE greatest role EVER here in Joel Miller, the world-weary survivor of a particularly nasty zombie apocalypse who lost EVERYTHING in the collapse, only to be given an opportunity twenty years later to make a difference when he’s charged with taking Ellie (Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey), a wilfully tough teenage girl who’s IMMUNE to the cordyceps fungal infection that brought down the world, across the American hellscape in the hope that she can help with the creation of a cure. Given that Joel lost his own daughter in the initial outbreak they naturally start to bond, their burgeoning connection creating a powerful driving throughline at the heart of the series as it goes from bad to worse to TRULY FUCKED and beyond … this is everything The Walking Dead always tried to be but never QUITE managed to become, a brutally challenging but infinitely rewarding tale of hope, love and compassion in the face of Armageddon, and since there’s still a second game to adapt and plenty of potential for expansion besides, I for one CANNOT WAIT for the second season’s arrival in 2025 …

4. SCAVENGERS REIGN

It’s also been another really great year for ANIMATION, particularly grown-up fare, and this brand new series for Max was EASILY the year’s most unusual and effortlessly ORIGINAL piece of work, in some ways frequently becoming downright DISTURBING, but often with a stark, challenging BEAUTY to even its most TWISTED creations. Relative newcomers Joseph Bennett and Charles Hueffner have taken their original short film and expended it into a sci-fi story of rare vision and endless invention, following a scattered collection of desperate survivors from a colony ship crashed on a miraculous but deeply hostile alien world fighting to reach what’s left of their ship in order to have a fighting chance of building a new life, maybe even ESCAPE if at all possible. They’re an interesting and rewardingly well-rounded collection of characters, each of their disparate storylines providing equally fascinating arcs across the series as they encounter weird, wonderful, unfathomable and sometimes downright TERRIFYING alien phenomenon building up to a thrilling and suspenseful climax which gives the season a strong conclusion while laying ground for possible future development. The animation from Titmouse (The Legend of Vox Machina, Pantheon) is FIRST RATE and refreshingly unique, with the design-work frequently reaching OFF-THE-CHART levels of artistic creativity, while the writing proves impressively robust too, creating realistic character arcs and compelling stories that keep the viewer invested to the end. Given how the ultimate climax, I wouldn’t be sad if this really WAS all we got, but I hope this gets picked up for more, it’s DEFINITELY worth signing up for a longer haul ...

3. ONE PIECE

Another year with Netflix DOMINATING the small screen with their Original Programming then, although I’ll admit when they were putting THIS together I was, like a whole lot of people, extremely pessimistic of its chances. If there’s ONE THING I’ve learned over the years as a fan of the genre, it is EXCEEDINGLY RARE for Western adaptations of manga and anime to work, PARTICULARLY in live action – like many, I STILL ain’t gotten over the HORROR of what Netflix themselves did to my beloved Cowboy Bebop … thankfully, somebody in creative control was paying attention to that, because FOR ONCE, this is one of those infinitely rare occasions where it’s actually WORKS, and VERY WELL INDEED. Thankfully, the original creator of One Piece, Eiichiro Oda, was brought onboard as creative consultant by showrunners Matt Owens and Steven Maeda (Lie To Me), and they CLEARLY listened to him because this is EVERY INCH a madcap, sprawling classic anime comedy adventure show brought to vivid life in live action – I’ll be honest, I never actually got into the manga or anime myself, there’s just WAY too much of it for me to even know where to begin or really want to commit to it, but I’ve watched plenty of other shows like this, and I’ve learned the ropes well enough to know they got it VERY RIGHT here. It’s a fantastically rich world for their creatives and an incredibly game cast to play in too – obviously, the beating, thriving HEART of the series is, rightly, Iñaki Godoy (The Imperfects) as Monkey D. Luffy, the irrepressibly UPBEAT wannabe pirate who wants to find the legendary treasure of the title and become truly the new King of the Pirates, although like many I’m sure I definitely fell hardest for Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), a roguish master swordsman who wields THREE BLADES, and Sanji (Gassed Up’s Taz Skylar), a talented cook and unapologetic ladies’ man who’s also a powerful martial artist who fights exclusively with his FEET. The whole crew that Luffy brings together are a sweet, lovable bunch, while the bizarre assortment of freakish pirates, criminals and marines they encounter are uniformly bizarre and thoroughly memorable, while the show is a masterclass in controlled anarchy, well-written character work and the perfect balance of riotous comedy and stirring pathos. The end result was definitely the year’s most effortlessly ENJOYABLE TV show, and one I’m definitely in for the long run with. Good thing Netflix have already greenlit season 2 …

2. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Mike Flanagan really has become one of Netflix’ most powerful secret weapons, each one of his original series proving to be an undeniable MASTERPIECE of inventive writing and ingenious direction coupled with sheer, heart-wrecking FEELS. Such is the case with his latest offering, an admittedly BALLSY take on the collective works of Edgar Allan Poe, all filtered through a modern-day reimagining of one of his most famous stories, although this is definitely something a little different from Flanagan. This time, instead of focusing on a family of dysfunctional but ultimately decent people who love each other deep down, the Usher clan are, almost to a man, some of the most DESPICABLE excuses for human beings you’d probably never wish to really encounter in your life. The head of the family, Roderick (another magnificent turn from the great Bruce Greenwood, alongside Midnight Mass’ equally excellent Zach Gilford as his younger self), is a morally bankrupt born salesman who seized control of the massive pharmaceutical conglomerate of Fortunato with the help of his even more viciously sociopathic genius twin sister Madeline (Mary McDonnell and Willa Fitzgerald), and his equally precocious offspring are, collectively AND individually, just as unpleasant as him – the only ray of light is his granddaughter Lenore (Doctor Sleep’s Kyliegh Curran), the only Usher with compassion, decency and a truly gentle heart. Unfortunately their empire is built on lies, murder and a dark, demonic bargain made with an unknowable angel of death, Verna (Carla Gugino), who’s finally come to collect on the debt, and she plans on taking THE WHOLE FAMILY as payment. This is the most PURE piece of horror that Flanagan has made to date, his usual restraint largely absent as he lets rip in a series of brutally ironic and fiendishly twisted murderous reckonings that sees each member of the family meet the worst fates you could possible imagine, while the true monstrous depths of how this all came to be are slowly revealed in typically non-linear narrative fashion. In the end, while The Haunting of Hill House remains Flanagan’s finest hour on the small screen, this may be his finest work for Netflix since, and it’s definitely the darkest and most cathartically MONSTROUS work he’s produced to date. I really do hope he lets his dark side out to play again before too long …

1. BLUE EYE SAMURAI

While we champ at the bit for the long-awaited second season of Arcane, Netflix have thrown us a fresh bone to chew on in the meantime with this truly INCREDIBLE new adult animated series from screenwriter Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049), who co-showruns here with his wife Amber Noizumi and animation storyboarder-turned-director Jane Wu (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). To be honest, this show could have been PRECISION CRAFTED expressly to appeal directly to ME, this is SO MANY THINGS I love all in one package – it’s a gorgeously animated, super-violent action thrill series telling the story of Mizu (Man Seeking Woman’s Maya Erskine), a half-white, half-Japanese woman who has to hide both her heritage AND her gender as she wanders Edo period Japan as a lethal ronin samurai in search of the unknown white man who fathered her so she can murder him for making her a monster in the eyes of the country she was born in. Thankfully there are only FOUR of them in Japan at this time, and her current target is Irish gunrunner Abijah Fowler (a fantastically oily vocal performance from Kenneth Brannagh, who gets to use the accent he originally grew up with), a brutally subtle hulk of a man who’s got his own far-reaching plans for the conquest of the very country he’s a dirty little secret in … Mizu is an INCREDIBLE creation, a fierce warrior with truly astounding talent with a blade matched only by her ice cold determination to mete out her vengeance by ANY MEANS NECESSARY, and I am ABSOLUTELY BESOTTED with her, I swear. Fowler, meanwhile, is one of the very best and most well-written, super complex villains I have come across in a good long time, while he’s just another one of a whole RAFT of fully fleshed out and compelling characters which also includes Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) as arrogant but principled samurai Taigen and Heroes’ Masi Oka, who frequently STEALS THE SHOW as Ringo, a portly sushi chef born without hands who becomes Mizu’s incredibly unlikely protégé through sheer force of will and an unendingly sunny disposition. The action sequences are some of the best the year’s offered up, captured in a fascinating mixture of 3D flare with a distinctive mock hand-painted 2D finish which makes for some very distinctive animation that obviously owes a whole lot to the influence of Arcane, paying off equally well in the distinctive character designs and gorgeous watercolour-styled panoramic vistas. Most of all, this is some of THE MOST SKILLFUL writing I came across in all of 2023, even putting some of the year’s most impressive BIG SCREEN offerings to shame with its ingenious plotting, peerless character development and handling of intriguing, powerful themes of gender and sexual identity, body positivity and systemic racism which are just as potent today as they were in the historical period they represent. This is IMPORTANT television then, but most of all it’s just DAMN FINE WORK, and I cannot wait for the now greenlit second season to arrive …

Honourable mentions:

Our Flag Means Death (season 2, HBO Max), Sweet Tooth (season 2, Netflix), Loki (season 2, Disney+), Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Netflix), Foundation (season 2, Apple TV+), Star Trek: Stange New Worlds (season 2, Paramount+), Shadow & Bone (season 2, Netflix), Chainsaw Man (Crunchyroll), The Witcher (season 3, Netflix), The Wheel of Time (season 2, Amazon Prime Video)

#best tv shows of 2023 #the mandalorian #the great #ahsoka #ahsoka series #good omens 2 #the legend of vox machina #the last of us #the last of us hbo #scavengers reign #one piece #one piece live action #one piece netflix #the fall of the house of usher #blue eye samurai

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