#Possibly Ezra is on a completely different planet entirely | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gffa · 3 years

Photo

OKAY, I WILL DO MY BEST HERE, but it’s one of those cases where there’s A LOT of information and NOT A LOT of information at the same time! We have a bunch of details and some good general ideas, but it’s not like it was a set-in-stone process, so there’s plenty of wiggle room if you want it. The Inquisitorius was started in 19 BBY, the same year as the fall of the Republic and the genocide of the Jedi, but seems to have been officially started after the Purge happened. Sidious had been planning something like the Inquisitorius for a long time, but this specific version of them wasn’t necessarily always the only version in development. The Inquisitors are all fallen Jedi, presumably ones that were captured by the Empire and tortured into becoming dark siders. Several of them have mentioned that they were former Jedi, but the only one we’ve seen the process of is Trilla Suduri, who we saw being tortured for a very long time in Jedi: Fallen Order. (Link of the relevant scenes here. Warning: It can be a bit of a tough watch, Trilla is physically tortured and some of it you see from her perspective, as the electricity is jolted into her body, which can be kinda disturbing.) So, in theory, it’s possible that some of them fell on their own and agreed to join, but the one explicit example we have is where she was tortured into it and, while Cal is walking around their fortress, he talks about how multiple Jedi were broken there. (For another example, Prosset Dibs is a Jedi we saw falling to the dark in the Mace Windu: Jedi of the Republic comic, so he may have willingly joined or he may have healed while he was working in the Jedi Archives but not all the way and still had to be tortured into joining.) The Inquisitors are under the direct supervision of Darth Vader (after he’d discovered the program, he was put in charge of it), who trains them incredibly harshly--in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, he’s shown cutting an arm off one of them and basically telling them to suck it up and keep fighting, to remember what loss feels like.

Sometimes they’d work with Darth Vader (the Grand Inquisitor went to the Jedi Temple in 19 BBY with Vader, where they confronted Jocasta Nu, the Ninth Sister went with Vader on a mission to investigate a possible Jedi sighting on Cabarria, Vader took them with when he went to kill Eeth Koth and kidnap his baby daughter, Vader had them with when he went to Mon Cala to confront Lee-Char, etc.), sometimes they operated separately from each other (all the times in Rebels or Jedi: Fallen Order that Kanan, Ezra, or Cal faced them when Vader wasn’t around, etc.), probably based on whatever Vader felt like or whatever Sidious felt like on a given day. The Inquisitorius as a group seem to have some degree of command over Purge Troopers, as they would often be seen leading a group of them (this happened often in Jedi: Fallen Order especially) and they could commandeer military assets (or probably civilian assets as well) if they needed to, so they had a certain amount of leeway when it came to their missions--so long as they didn’t piss off Vader or Sidious. Their main goals were to hunt down any Force-sensitives in the galaxy, whether newly discovered Force-sensitive children, former Jedi (whether they had left the Jedi Order or were Jedi in hiding, it didn’t matter), or even Force-sensitive adults who had never been trained by the Jedi. They would turn them if they could, but otherwise it was to kill anyone who might possibly be a Force-related threat of any kind. (What this means for planets like the Bardottens, they’ve never said.) They were greatly successful at their missions, so they wound up killing a great number of Jedi who had made it into hiding, along with Darth Vader being one of the biggest reasons the Jedi were mostly entirely gone by the time of the OT, which was helped along by Vader training the Jedi style out of them. Part of why he was so harsh to them (including cutting off limbs, etc.) was to force them to be more aggressive and less defensive, to be sharp and quick and fast to overpower Jedi, who were used to a different type of fight. They still had unique talents (as all Force-sensitives are not the same), like Ninth Sister had a great talent for reading emotions (including Vader’s, where she could sense how much he wanted to die),

As well as they weren’t actually Sith. Only Sidious, Vader, and Maul were Sith, the Inquisitors were dark siders or fallen Jedi or possibly a category unto themselves. They have some sort of headquarters, as seen in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, where Vader is seen training them in issue #6 (same scene as above where he cuts off their hands or lightsabers their eye out), which is labelled as being on Coruscant, somewhere in The Works in the Industrial District:

There’s a training arena we see there and at least some sort of communication/strategy rooms that Vader and the Grand Inquisitor walk off into, while they discuss the other Inquisitors. Which means it’s a pretty big complex/building, but (according to Wookieepedia and I’ll trust them on this, instead of digging out my copies of the Complete Vehicles and Complete Locations book), it was a building of Sidious’ that he used as a hideout during the Clone Wars. To what extent Vader and the Inquisitorius took it over (whether they just had a few rooms or the entire skyscraper), I don’t think we know?

Later, in issue #20, we see there’s some sort of break room that Vader storms in on, when he returns to Coruscant, that the Inquisitors were sitting around and hanging out in:

From there, it would be reasonable to extrapolate that this was a base for their operations, the place they returned to after they came back from wherever they’d been sent, possibly even this is where they slept and ate and were sheltered in between missions. But that’s just reasonable conjecture, not hard canon! There is also Fortress Inquisitorius from Jedi: Fallen Order and it’s primary use was that it was where they took the Jedi they were torturing into becoming Inquisitors. I wouldn’t say it’s an academy, per se, but it was a place that they likely used as a headquarters. In issue #20 of Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, two of the Inquisitors rebel against Vader and he winds up chasing them down and cutting a huge swath of destruction in his path (LOL @ ANAKIN), which Sidious is not exactly pleased about. He says that he’s going to move the Inquisitorious off Coruscant to another world so this won’t happen again:

The comic was written in 2018 and Jedi: Fallen Order came out about 11 months later in 2019, so the above isn’t necessarily directly referring to that the Inquisitorious were moved to Fortress Inquisitorious on the moon Nur, but it’s also a very reasonable (and probably likely) assumption. We don’t have an exact timeline for when this issue takes place, but it’s minimum three years after Revenge of the Sith (the Mon Cala arc earlier in the comic is set three years post-ROTS), so probably around 15 or 14 BBY. However, Trilla seems to have been kidnapped much closer to Order 66, so it’s likely that Fortress Inquisitorius existed long before Order 66 happened, it was used to torture Jedi once their genocide happened, but it wasn’t the Inquisitor’s HQ until several years later. We don’t see a lot of Fortress Inquisitorious, the limited amount of areas you can play through it in Jedi: Fallen Order don’t tell you a ton about what goes on there, but it’s a pretty huge underwater skyscraper sized building and you do see several prison cells and at least one training dojo.

The galaxy at large didn’t know about Fortress Inquisitorious on the water moon of Nur or even the majority of the Empire itself didn’t know about it, it was a heavily kept secret. This is where Trilla and the other Jedi were taken, tortured, and forced into becoming Inquisitors and it’s likely that’s where the Inquisitors were based after the shitshow on Coruscant. It’s a big enough building that it’s likely to have pretty much whatever kind of stuff your clubhouse needs for the Inquisitors! But we don’t have much hard canon about it, no. As for the Inquisitors themselves, they’re complicated--some of them seemed almost loyal to each other, they would work together at times or even seem to avenge each other, but other times they would sneer at each other or mock each other, it seemed like they had a lot of shifting dynamics and probably a lot of it was fear at trying to survive being around Darth Vader. We don’t know for sure how many there specifically are or if, when one of them dies, they’re replaced by another, but it seems like there were at least twelve Inquisitors and we’ve never seen them be replaced, which I think implies that they were only ever meant to be a temporary measure and would be disposed of, as soon as Sidious knew all the Jedi were dead for sure/he could raise a new group of Force-sensitive children from birth. ANYWAY YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN: LOTS OF INFO BUT NOT A LOT OF INFO. 😂

#inquisitors #inquisitorius #fortress inquisitorius #meta #long post #really long post

299 notes · View notes

aziraphales-library · 3 years

Note

I’m really not sure how to word this, but can you list me some fics with like... a gimmick? Or a trope? As the basis of the plot? That’s not the best way to word it because it doesn’t have to be gimmickey or tropey, but just... You know, a plot that’s interesting... that starts out with a situation... unusual circumstances?? Am I making any sense? Like I’ve read the stuff that’s easily tagged like spells, fake relationship, soul mates, ect, but just fun, different stuff like that?? Sorry...

First of all, I want to apologise for the super later reply to this ask. I found it sitting unanswered in our drafts. To make up for it, here is an extra long list of gimmicky, tropey fics that i absolutely love!...

i've found a way (a way to make you smile) by curtaincall (T)

Crowley worked in Sales. He had never intended to work in Sales. It had just sort of happened. One moment, there he’d been, a newly minted university graduate off to change the world, exquisitely useless Philosophy degree in hand, and now here he was, having sauntered vaguely downwards into a Hell that consisted mainly of cold-calling new customers and sucking up to existing ones. AU based on The Office.

A (not quite) tinder date by NohaIjiachi (M)

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry—“ A man said, breathless, plopping himself down in the chair. He sounded like he ran a marathon. “Got held up at work— I couldn’t even check my phone! I’m so terribly sorry!”

Aziraphale would’ve beamed, at that. He would’ve immediately declared that it was no problem, these things happened, so no worries at all— Except the guy currently catching his breath in the chair in front of him was definitely not his missing date. That was unless he’d decided to shave his beard, make his hair grow magically, and dye it red.

“I—“ Aziraphale croaked, confused. The man tipped his chin down, glancing at Aziraphale above the rim of his darkened glasses with a surprising set of honey-coloured eyes, and winked at him. Aziraphale closed his mouth. “I— It’s quite alright. I’m glad you, huh— Could make it—“

Win a Date With Anthony J. Crowley! by Caedmon (E)

Crowley is a world-famous rock star who sells out arenas. His name is synonymous with 'rock-n-roll', and he thrives on the spotlight. When he agrees to raffle off a date with himself for charity, he's expecting to meet an overzealous fan that wants to wear his skin and very well might try to roofie him. What he's not expecting is to be instantly attracted to the quiet man with the unusual name who shows up for the date at the Ritz... and he's certainly not expecting for Aziraphale to have no clue who he is...

You’ve Got Kudos by curtaincall (M)

Aziraphale and Crowley both write fanfiction. As it happens, they both write Good Omens fanfiction.

Of course, neither of them would ever admit this to the other.

(A love story told primarily in AO3 comments)

The Best Laid Plans by hope_in_the_dark (T)

Ezra Fell has sworn off romance forever and is perfectly content with his books and his tea and his ugly wardrobe. At least, he is until a handsome stranger hits him with a car.

it’s a new craze by attheborder (T)

CROWLEY: I try not to make a habit of gratitude, but I must give our appreciation to everyone out there who’s been listening and subscribing to The Ineffable Plan. AZIRAPHALE: Ooh, yes, we’ve become quite popular, haven’t we? CROWLEY: Yeah, just hit number eight on the advice charts … No advertising at all. AZIRAPHALE: Mm. How … miraculous. CROWLEY: … Aziraphale. You did not.

***

Crowley and Aziraphale are very possibly the people least qualified, on the entire planet, to start up an advice podcast.

But what else is there to do when the world isn’t ending anytime soon, you’re technically on indefinite sabbatical from your lifelong careers, and you need a plausible excuse to spend more time with your best friend who you’re definitely not, absolutely not, maybe just a little, actually maybe overwhelmingly in love with?

happiness, more or less by TheKnittingJedi (M)

Renting a flat is all fun and games until you fall in love with the ghost haunting it.

An adaptation of the 2005 romcom Just Like Heaven.

on the same page by Chekhov (E)

Aziraphale Z. Fell is a rising star of the spiritual literary genre - the next Eat Pray Love guy - and his version of Chicken Soup For the Christian Soul is flying off the shelves. It's not that he's not grateful, but it's one thing to enjoy a career in writing and another completely to be pigeonholed into a specific genre, so much so that you are almost forbidden from writing anything else. So yes, maybe he has a bit of a secret. An outlet for his less... appropriate urges. And yes, if his typical readership got word of the sort of paragraphs he could put out on a particularly inspired night, they might suffer some form of heart attack typical for their age. But all of that is well hidden, and there is absolutely no way anyone would ever find out about his Arrangement with A.J. Crowley - the most debaucherous romantic fiction author of the decade. That is... until they have to pretend to be married to each other.

The Whole Damn World Seemed Upside Down by WyvernQuill (M)

"I just wish things were different," Crowley says... and the universe happily obliges.

Stuck - perhaps forever - in a reality in which Shadwell is the first Wiccan MP, Pepper's only aspiration in life is to be a dutiful wife to someone, and his beloved Bentley is a rusty VW bus, Crowley is slowly learning that "different" doesn't necessarily mean better...

But how long can he bear to live* in a world where Aziraphale hates him?

*Not that he has any other option. The Death of this world can't see blood...

The Annual Tadfield Cheese-Rolling Festival by summerofspock (T)

Disgruntled newscaster Anthony Crowley is forced to cover the annual Tadfield Cheese Rolling Festival...again. Only this year he's accompanied by a new producer who he can't seem to get his mind off of even though he's swiftly realizing he has far bigger problems. Namely, the fact that the Tadfield Cheese Rolling Festival refuses to end.

- Mod D

#good omens #ineffable husbands #tropes #fun #mod d

232 notes · View notes

transmalewife · 3 years

Text

Alright, let's talk about attachment

I can’t find clear information on when exactly the non-attachment rule was added to the code. It was either soon before or soon after the great sith war. Either way, for the VAST majority of the existence of the Jedi, it wasn’t a thing. Jedi got married and had families for over 20000 years, then added the non-attachment rule, which ultimately led to their destruction. And before anyone tries to tell me I believe they deserved to be genocided, I don’t. I have never actually seen anyone say that, but I see people argue against it constantly, and imply anyone who doesn’t think the Jedi were perfect and blameless thinks that. I don’t think they deserved to die, I think they needed to change. And Yoda says that himself, many times. The Jedi weren’t prepared for the return of the sith, or the war. They had separated from the military 1000 years before, and the galaxy was in relative peace all this time, so the order’s role changed to one that worked very well with their rules. Detachment meant they could be impartial when overseeing political disagreements, lack of possessions meant they would be focused on the mission at hand and not prone to taking bribes, and distancing themselves from the general population meant they were more or less uniform, and could be trusted not to side with someone for personal reasons.

All of this falls apart once they become an army again. Impartiality is a flaw when they have to defend one side at all cost and not even allow themselves to consider compromise. Lack of possessions and attachment to people means they are prone to taking unnecessary risks, because they have nothing to lose, and do things like send 14 year olds into battle, thinking of the “greater good” over the safety of children. And the order being a monolith, with set rules and philosophy distinct from the rest of the population meant the Jedi trusted Dooku long after they should have stopped, because he used to be a Jedi after all, surely he still follows the code.

Now, I am not saying non-attachment is always bad, I think it served a very specific purpose in the order, and to some extent worked for many years. However.

Humans are a social species. Human babies NEED physical contact and affection to develop physically. Children need a stable, strong, and supportive relationship to their caregiver to properly develop psychologically. And after last year I don’t think anyone will argue that adults don't need connection with other people just as much. And not just shallow interactions, but open affection and love. Love of any kind, because claiming that the Jedi only forbid romantic love is just untrue. I think people tend to forget that "Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is essential to a Jedi's life. So you might say, that we are encouraged to love." isn’t the actual doctrine, it’s a literal pick up line that Anakin uses on Padme.

Ahsoka and Obi-Wan both get criticized by other Jedi for their entirely platonic attachment to Anakin, and vice versa. Now, humans are the most common species in the galaxy, and in the Jedi order. Many other species are near-human, so it’s safe to assume at least some, if not most of them also need that companionship and affection to develop and live happy and stable lives. I do believe that non-attachment is a valid philosophy and chosen path in life if done carefully and within reason, I just don’t think we have a single major character that actually applies to. And chosen is an important word here. Jedi don’t get much of a choice. I’m not trying to start the baby-stealing debate here. I hear the argument of ‘force sensitives are dangerous if left untrained, and said training should start as early as possible’. I think finding a way to deal with that problem was an insanely complicated decision, and taking children into the temple as young as possible is not a bad solution. I don’t entirely agree with not letting them see their families later, (especially since in legends Obi-Wan was allowed to visit his family, which implies Anakin couldn’t go free his mother specifically because he was already too attached), but the idea is sound. I do also understand that no one is forcing Jedi to stay in the order and they can leave for whatever reason at any time. But that isn’t exactly a free choice either. Leaving the order means leaving the only home you remember, the only people you know to make your own way in the galaxy, and staying with those people means you can never fully love them. It’s a difficult solution to a complicated question, and for the most part, it worked (not always, and not exactly as intended, but I’ll come back to that.) Children grew up in the order, were trained to control themselves and the force, and became Jedi who were impartial, patient, and balanced. But everything falls apart when you introduce someone who wasn’t raised in the temple.

In The Rising Force, 13 year old Obi-Wan had barely been off Coruscant in his life. He describes himself as sheltered and unaware of all the pain in the galaxy, and says it was done on purpose, so younglings wouldn’t have to face the dark side before they were ready for it. But Anakin had seen nothing but darkness, pain and injustice before he joined the order. He was severely traumatized, and while the temple might have had some ways of dealing with trauma and PTSD in adults, they had no experience in treating the same in a child, because their children were kept safe and protected. The idea of letting go of your pain and fear only works if you know you have a safe place to come back to, if you’ve spent the first decade or so of your life in the most protected place in the galaxy. Anakin spent the first decade of his life as a slave. He couldn’t let go of his fear, because fear was what kept him alive. Fear is not irrational if you are constantly in danger, it’s what protects you, keeps you aware of the limits you can push before you get punished. And that mindset doesn’t fade just because you’re out of that situation, especially if your only family, the closest person to you, is still facing that danger every day.

I’ve seen people use every excuse possible to explain why Anakin didn’t see his mother again to avoid blaming the council, including, and I shit you not, “He just didn’t have her comm number”. But to me that seems disingenuous, when we see in his first meeting with the council that they already consider him too attached. It's one of the main reasons they don’t want him to be trained, so it seems logical that they wouldn’t allow him to see her once he became a padawan. I also want to mention that what Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Is just… blatant catastrophizing. Right? Like we can all see that the escalation is not rational there at all. Maybe it could apply to something else, but not to a child who just left his mother for the first time in his life and went from a tiny dustball in the middle of nowhere to the most populated planet in the galaxy, and is now being tested by a bunch of old people with the power to decide his future. Obviously he’s afraid, and obviously he’s not dealing with it the way Jedi younglings do. That, in and of itself doesn't doom him to fall. Also what Yoda misses there is that suffering leads to fear. This is a closed loop, and one that has defined Anakin’s entire childhood.

Let’s come back to how the system doesn’t always work. The way I see it, most of the characters we see are attached. Obi-Wan is considered one of the greatest Jedi of his time. Windu describes him as “our most cunning and insightful Master—and our most tenacious”. And yet, he was not insightful enough to look past his love for Anakin, his attachment, and see how close to falling he was. Ahsoka was so attached to Anakin she refused to listen to Maul on Mandalore, refused to even consider the posibility he could fall. She was arguably the person with the best shot at preventing the empire forming at that point, and she loved anakin so much she doomed him and the entire galaxy. Aayla admitted to thinking of Quinlan as her father, and also, apparently in legends had a long relationship with Kit. Even Mace didn’t follow the code when he decided to kill Palpatine, which directly led to his death and the empire. He also indirectly caused the war to start. According to wookiepedia “Windu viewed Dooku as the shatterpoint of the entire Separatist movement, which meant striking Dooku down would theoretically end the imminent clone war before it even began. However, Windu's prior attachments to Dooku clouded his judgment.” I’m not even going to mention Kanan and Ezra, who are obviously family.

So basically everyone is attached and lying about it. How has no one thought that maybe this isn’t the healthiest way to live and tried to change the code? Well, I have a theory, and it’s Yoda. He was 900 years old when he died, and was on the council for the vast majority of his life. I can’t find when exactly he became grand master, but it’s safe to assume he held some degree of power over the entire order for most of a millennium. At the end of TPM he tells Obi-Wan “Confer on you the level of Jedi knight, the council does. But agree with your taking this boy as your padawan learner, I do not.” Then he reverses that decision by himself. So either he has the power to veto the council’s word, or who gets trained is entirely up to him. Either way, not great, considering his lifespan is so much longer than most Jedi, and therefore his approach to life is vastly different. Humans need love and closeness to live. However, while we don’t know much about Yoda’s species, it probably isn’t a social one. You could count all the characters of this species on two (human) hands, and Yoda lived in complete isolation for 20 years on Dagobah, and only went a little bit insane. They are naturally rare, and therefore probably lead solitary lives in nature. Moreover, Yoda outlived every master who trained him, and almost every padawan he trained himself, (there’s a great post about that here) so even if he wasn’t naturally predisposed to non-attachment, he would have had to learn it to deal with all the loss he had to live through over the years.

A lot of people think that Anakin fell because he had attachments, which is not true. He fell because of how his attachments played out and/or ended. The most obvious example being Palpatine, who used Anakin’s trust and friendship to groom him for over a decade and actively undermine Anakin’s trust towards anyone else, especially the order. (more on that here). Obi-Wan refused to take on the role of a father figure that Anakin tried to shove him into, so he turned to someone who did accept it. It’s not Anakin’s fault that it turned out to be the worst person alive, nor can we expect him to notice when he’s known Palpatine since he was a child. Another failure of jedi non-attachment, because a loving parent or guardian would not let their child be used as a bargaining chip when the most powerful politician in the galaxy blackmailed the order into allowing him to meet Anakin regularly, but a distant teacher and detached knight thinking of the greater good might. The other attachments Anakin had were taken from him (Shmi and Ahsoka, the last orchestrated by Palpatine who was fully ready to give her the death penalty to make Anakin more unstable), or he was forced to lie and hide them, compromising his vows as a Jedi (Padme) or refused to choose Anakin over the order/their principles (Obi-Wan, and again Ahsoka, and to some extent Padme, but he’d already fallen then). All these people had every right to make the choices they made, but it wasn’t the act of loving them that made Anakin turn to the dark side, it was how those attachments played out.

I think everyone agrees that Yoda is as detached as a Jedi should, if not can, be, and that didn’t prevent Dooku from falling. We see that explored in more detail with Barriss and Luminara. Luminara is detached and distant, she’s fond of Barriss, but their relationship is not familial in the slightest, and she repeatedly shows her willingness to put the greater good and the mission before Barriss’ safety and even life. And yet Barriss still falls. A complex combination of events and choices caused each of those characters to fall, not the simple presence or absence of attachment.

And lastly, just as attachment can make you unstable if your relationship with that person is unstable, it can also make you stronger. There is a reason Anakin and Obi-Wan were the face of the army. Not only did their obvious attachment (the strongest between two jedi we are shown) make them more relatable to the public, but they, when working as a team, are shown repeatedly to be more or less undefeatable. They spend half of aotc flinging themselves off great heights because they know the other will be there to catch them. They know from years of experience that they have backup and they know each other well enough (or force bond communicate) that they can trust the other will be where he needs to be to help/save them. Contrast that to how Windu and Palpatine fight in rots once the window breaks- very carefully, clearly holding back to keep themselves safe. Neither of them has backup until Anakin arrives, but until the last second they can't be sure which one he will choose. Anakin and Obi-Wan fight the same way on Mustafar, especially when balancing on that thin bridge. No acrobatics, swinging arms to keep balance, keeping their distance, being almost uncharacteristically careful compared to how they treated heights in aotc, in tcw, and on the invisible hand in rots, because they both know the other won't catch them if they fall this time.

#star wars meta #attachment #star wars #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #yoda #jedi order #mine

160 notes · View notes

artsy0wl · 3 years

Text

Maul: A Broken Evil Retrospective

On a Star Wars Amino I’m in, I had made an introspective on why I feel that Maul, while he is a villain is not whole heartedly evil, but broken. I took from said Amino post, with a few needed edit tweaks.

Chaotic Evil

Of course given the fact he was a Sith and some of the decisions he’s made, I don’t completely want to negate that in this discussion. If we were to use the alignment chart (lawful good, true neutral, chaotic evil, etc), he would probably fit best in Neutral Evil. From my understanding, Maul would fit Neutral Evil as a lot if what he does has to do with benefiting himself. Even if that means using allies (i.e. Ezra initially) and potentially betraying them (i.e. blinding Kanan once the Inquisitors were dealt with). He’ll follow things as he needs and can be calculating when he needs (like his take over of Mandalore). He’s not spontaneous enough or lacks enough restraint to be Chaotic Evil (like the Joker for instance), nor is he as calculating and “lawful” to be Lawful Evil (like say Thrawn and/or Palpatine). With that said, I’d agree that Maul has a darkness/evil in him considering all of the things he’s done. Obviously, he’s not winning any hero points by killing people like Qui Gon and Satine or blinding and attempting to kill Kanan.

Onto why I feel he’s broken.

Palpatine: Taken From a Young Age and Molded into what Sidious Wanted

Whether it be Talzin offering Maul as a child in Canon or his mother giving Palpatine Maul as a baby in Legends (Darth Plagueis), Maul was caught in a situation that he really didn’t have much control over. Granted, his life may not have been much better on Dathomir, given how the Nightsisters used their male counterparts, but there’s no telling what kind of life he could have had, had he not been handed over to Palpatine. Maul was molded into a weapon as Darth Sidious’ apprentice. And Maul spent most of his younger years being molded into what Sidious wants. Only to be “cast aside” when he is presumed dead. With Sidious being his only form of human contact/interaction, it’s fair to say that Maul feels a level of rejection/abandonment by the only person he had a bond with.

However, rather than having a level of depression because of it, he’s angry about it. For him that seems to be a common response, along with hatred and arrogance (the latter of which was used to explain how he survived the Phantom Menace). Sidious created a weapon out of Maul. And with that, a character with no real coping mechanism or knowing how to let things go.

A lot of, if not all of, Maul’s issues can be linked back to Sidious in some way. Sidious isn’t exactly Mentor of the Year material. Especially with Maul. Though that could be chopped up to him being a Sith and very manipulative. He wasn’t the kindest person to the Zabrak pre or post Phantom Menace (both in canon and Legends). Either way, a lot of Maul’s issues are a direct result of Palpatine’s involvement in his life.

If it weren’t for Sidious, Maul would have a normal life (or whatever that would equate to on Dathomir). He would have had his family, would have been more level headed and maybe less cocky, and he wouldn’t have enraged abandonment issues. The amount of grief, trauma, and hatred would be vastly different

Family: He Lost a Brother and a Mother

Let’s be real, thanks to Sidious, Maul’s lost a brother and a mother (two brothers when you count Feral, though he never got to meet him). By the time Savage came around in Clone Wars, we got to see Maul sort of build his character more than say the Phantom Menace (the novels did too, but I can’t say that everyone’s read them). We also get to see Maul exhibit more emotion where, again, the movie lacks as well as the introduction of his family, Mother Talzin, Feral, and Savage. And while Maul may not have been what you’d call an “affectionate” brother, he does care for Savage to the best of his ability.

Their deaths still haunted him years after the events of the Prequel Trilogy and Clone Wars. These deaths stuck with him psychologically to the point that he is still effected by it in Rebels. Which in turn, may have contributed some to him wanting Ezra as an apprentice (among other factors).

Torture After Loss

In Son of Dathomir after Maul tries to get back at Sidious, he is captured after his last battle with Sidious in Clone Wars (season 5). It starts off with Maul being interrogated and tortured by Sidious. He makes it through without faltering and escapes with the help of the Shadow Collective. That being said, we never really get to see where his mindset is. During Son of Dathomir, he gets a lot done, capturing Dooku and Grievous (taunting Sidious and working with Dooku to fight Obi Wan and a few other Jedi before escaping). However, we don’t get to see the mental toll Savage’s death here. Though with everything going on, I guess there wasn’t time.

Now the reason I bring this up, is because part of me felt like I should and the timing. Prior to Son of Dathomir, Maul had recently lost Savage. At the end, he loses his mother. The torture and the scheming in between shows how he didn’t catch a break. And while he was able to stay strong when he had to, they never really explored how the torture effected him, which one would think he would have been.

Obsession, Insanity, Arrogance: Maul’s Faults

I do feel like I address this point. I’ve already kind of touched on his anger and arrogance (synonymously with cockiness). While training Maul, Sidious didn’t consider how arrogant he had let the Zabrak become (according to Darth Plagueis, the novel). This has Maul’s Achilles Heel since the Phantom Menace. While having a healthy dose of pride never hurt anyone, a healthy dose, Maul dose not possess.

His obsession with getting Obi Wan and Sidious is another issue. This really only pops up after his apparent death in Phantom Menace. Because after that point, Maul finds out that he was replaced by Sidious (with Dooku) and that he was bested by a mere Padawan (Obi Wan). I feel like this obsessive tendency is a combination of his feelings of abandonment and having his ego damaged.

And of course, I feel like Maul’s roughly decade long battle with insanity really didn’t help his psyche. While his sanity was restored thanks to Mother Talzin and Savage, I do feel like that’s caused more harm than good. Something like that had to feel draining after getting his sanity restored. He was sitting on a trash planet and on his own. Along with not having anything from the waist down and forced to manage with what he had. Hatred may have helped keep him alive, but his psyche during those ten years didn’t.

He has a lot of internal conflict in an emotional and mental sense. Unfortunately, these negative emotions, obsession and pride especially, cause him more harm than good.

The Ezra Bond: Feeling a Need to Replicate a Connection, Even if He Approaches it Incorrectly

By the time Rebels rolls around, Maul is older and calmer (though still proud). Obviously, he still wants to get back at the Empire for what they (more specifically Sidious) did to him. And at first, Ezra seemed like someone that he could use. This is an element that is prevalent, however, not the only aspect of their relationship.

According to Sam Witwer, Maul’s VA, Maul did have a (platonic) fondness for Ezra. And on top of wanting to make Ezra his apprentice, Maul wanted to emulate a sense of brotherhood between him and Ezra. For example, his phrase in Visions and Voices when Maul says “...We can walk that path together. As friends. As brothers.” How he said it shows how he does miss Savage and wants that family back.

That being said, how he approached this connection could be seen as manipulative and more than likely one sided. Sure, over the course of Twilight of the Apprentice, Ezra grows on Maul, to the point where Maul wants to make him his apprentice and has an appreciation for Ezra. However, his pride and lack of planning cause a rift between them and there was a lot of mistrust on Ezra’s part, not that one could blame him.

Subsequent episodes show that Maul is hellbent on making Ezra his apprentice through any means possible.

Maul lost Savage and Talzin, and Ezra was one of the first few people to trust him in years. I think it’s safe to say that, in Maul’s mind, Ezra gave him a sense of belonging or connection.

Maul’s need for a connection could be interpreted as him trying to find something good in life. However, manipulative tendencies and how he was brought up, hinder him doing that in a healthy and positive way. With Savage, he didn’t need to do anything as they both had a similar plan when they met (Savage being indoctrinated into the ways of the Sith). But subsequent relationships (i.e. Ezra), Maul is at a bit of a disadvantage emotionally and morally.

Sure, he could relate to Ezra since they both lost people they care for because of the Empire (and by extent Sidious), but manipulation and harming Ezra’s allies hinder a smoother connection. Even if a force bond was eventually made. Ezra, arguably, could have been what he needed for what he wanted and a possible change/redemption/blank slate only for things not to entirely go as plan.

Could Maul Have Something Along the Lines of PTSD?

Now, I could do a mini theory about this as I’ve speculated that with another character before. It’d be an interesting way to look at Maul’s psychology. It’s one last little avenue I thought I’d address before closing this post out. Of course, it’s worth noting that I am not a Psychology major (as interesting as psychology is). I have, however, done some research.

I do believe that Maul, to some degree, may have PTSD. But instead of exhibiting panic/anxiety, depression or easily startled, Maul has more aggressive tendencies and is easy to anger. He still lives with the trauma of the death of his brother (and mother) and flashbacks of that and other events in his life, I’m sure he’d be effected by.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while I certainly think that Maul is no hero, his life experiences certainly effected what kind of person he became. Being raised as a weapon, abandoned, and tortured would bring any normal person way down. And because that was all Maul knew, I don’t think that entirely means he’s evil. Rather, he’s a character who’s been used and abused to the point that he’s mentally and psychologically broken. Unfortunately, that effects his life in ways that make him arrogant, hateful and obsessive. And when he tries to build bonds later in life, he doesn’t know how to in a way that, while laced in trauma, has manipulative and one sided undertones.

That being said, I feel like I should round out this introspective with a little positive. While he’s definitely been through a lot, Maul is pretty resilient all things considered. He’s cheated death and managed to live through a lot of abuse. The fact that he could keep bouncing back shows just hoe resilient and determined the character is.

#Darth Maul #Star Wars #Rebels #Clone Wars #Movies #Retrospective #Theory #Speculation #Discussion #PTSD?#Chaotic Evil #Maul #Star Wars Rebels #Star Wars Clone Wars #Zabrak #Prequel Trilogy

26 notes · View notes

fandom-blackhole · 3 years

Note

Assuming all your spots aren't taken, thank you!

F/M ship, she/her pronouns, 32 years old, bucket boys please 🥰

I'm tall, curvy with strawberry blonde hair and grey blue eyes...covered in freckles. I'm typically more in darker colored basic clothing staples; jeans, solid tees in greys blues greens blacks, slip on shoes like vans.

I am a bi INFP, introverted, need recharge time, and value my alone time. I have a sarcastic, dry, snarky side and enjoy making people laugh. I'm extremely loyal but hold a grudge -- even as a kid I was always sticking up for the underdog. I am an animal lover, nature lover, and love rainy days. I'm re-evaluating what I want to do with my life but I want to be a storyteller whether that's writing or my current side hustle of character inspired candles.

So my apologies if you get this twice, I sent it on mobile and then it was wonky so I’m not entirely unconvinced that tumblr didn’t eat it. I ship you with Ezra from Prospect! You are the perfect foil to the oftentimes dreamy head-in-the-clouds Ezra. He sometimes needs reeling in and your sharp, strategic mind keeps you both on task in the dangerous world of prospecting, but your keen awareness and analysis is always helpful and welcome.

(2) Even better, you are one of the few that can parse his flowery non-stop talking and keep up with the man – a trait he finds most attractive. He doesn’t mind that you are introverted and quiet at first, openly smiling and commenting on how you’ve bloomed for him once you are comfortable with him and show your more dry, sarcastic side.

(3) He marvels at his new prospecting partner; smart, knowledgeable, but willing to stand up for what you believe is the right thing to do and willing to draw the line on what isn’t. The irony isn’t lost on him either that your eyes match the plants you bring into the pod to make it more homey, match the green moon of his last fateful prospecting job. Ezra keeps thinking he’s finally found the plant to match those eyes of yours, but he keeps finding new depths in them that take his breath away.

Hello and thank you for participating! Also your ship for me only sent once so you don’t need to worry about it

For your ship, I ship you with Boba Fett!

Boba completely understands your need for space and time to recharge away from people every once and a while. Being alone for the majority of his life has left him with some of the same needs because people can just be irritatingly overwhelming for him. Boba also very much enjoys your humor and will laugh almost every time you make a sarcastic comment, usually returning it with one of his own. Now be warned that if you push too much and are snarky with him all day he will put you in your place later that night, if you know what I mean wink wink. Boba appreciates your level of loyalty because it isn't something that is common among the bounty hunters and smugglers and crime lords he has associated himself with both in the past and the present. He also finds it quite cute when you hold a grudge against someone or get worked up over something someone has done to you or the people you are protective of, and he finds it endearing that you always find a way to route for the underdog in any situation possible. Boba as a surprise for you went out and get you a pet lothcat just so you would have a little companion around the palace, especially when he is away on business. Boba also is very aware of Tattooine's lack of nature and rain, and when he has the time he will take you to a planet where you can enjoy both, even just for a little while (I also headcannon that Boba is fond of rain because of his childhood on Kamino and it just reminding him of simpler and happier times).

I am literally screaming at how cute your ship for me is!

I love Ezra with my whole heart and love how poetically charming he is. I am a pretty philosophical person and I think the two of us would have the most interesting of conversations.

Also all your comments about him loving me and my plants has me giddy, as well as swoon at the idea of Ezra always bringing home different plants to me because they remind him of me. Gosh I just love it all!

(Also you have character inspired candles?! I am a candle hoarder and I would love to see your selection if you have an online shop!)

Request a Ship (5/20)

#500 followers #ships #boba fett x reader #boba x reader

11 notes · View notes

mightydragoon · 4 years

Text

Prince Luke fanfic Recs

@silvereddaye you know the drill

For all your Prince Luke Skywalker/ Amidala/Organa etc needs. Also ft a lot of Leia Skywalker along with that.

1. The Prince and the Bodyguard Toomanyfandoms99

Bail is unsure why he’s being told this, but he is intrigued. “Where is the boy now?”

“Here,” Mon smiles, “on this base, being cared for by Shara Bey and Kes Dameron.”

Bail nods upon recognizing the names. Shara is their best pilot, and Kes is their best combat leader.

“However,” Mon states, “they cannot care for the boy full-time. There is something...unique about him. Something you are more equipped to handle.”

Bail narrows his eyes. “What?”

“Ezra Bridger is Force-sensitive,” Mon reveals.

Bail leans back in his chair and blinks once. “I see…”

“If your son is anything like his true parents,” Mon says, “he will soon require guidance. This boy also requires that guidance.”

“So,” Bail says, “you want me to shield them both from the Empire. Get them a...teacher.”

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22633573/chapters/54092221

2.First Impressions Idhren15

Mara Jade attended the rich party on Coruscant for one purpose: to kidnap the Alderaan heir, Prince Luke Organa.

She didn't expect any of these complications.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740592

3. Crowned Usurper planningconquest

Princess Leia managed to capture the elusive rebel Jedi. She finds someone she never expected.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663147/chapters/41657678

4. The kidnappings of a Sith Lord maedre13

How a certain Sith Lord may or may not kidnap his rebel son. One-shots. Strongly inspired by sparklight´s “Where Our Intrepid Hero Doesn´t Get Away”.

Current chapter: In which the prince of the Sith gets a new bodyguard (3/3)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10606992/chapters/23453241

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10606992/chapters/52681459 (Part 1)

(Note* Fic is episodic often not connecting, sometimes is, so there is a good variety of stories, some involving Prince Luke others not)

5. Sparks SpellCleaver

Vader had every intention of ignoring that petty—if notorious—burglar on Coruscant, until evidence suggested that this "Angel" had Rebel ties.

Meanwhile, Luke never expected his father to actively hunt him down, and he doesn't like it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20031373/chapters/47433331

6. No Distance Far Enough KaelinaLovesLomaris

Imperial Prince Luke Skywalker is kidnapped by the Rebellion. His father is not happy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549516

7. Hostage Slx99

AU in which Luke grows up as the Prince of Alderaan and Bail and Breha Organa’s son. When Luke is sixteen Bail becomes too outspoken against the Emperor, who sends Lord Vader to take the young prince as a hostage and cow his father into submission. Held captive aboard Vader’s ship, Luke is faced with the unpleasant reality of being the pawn in this power play under his captor’s watchful eyes; until they both realize a thing or two…

https://archiveofourown.org/works/9707774/chapters/21902741

8. Hostage Interludes Slx99

Interlude pieces of the ‘Hostage’ universe from my ongoing long-fic that don't fit into the main story, but which I still wanted to share. Some will be more fun, others more serious. They have no influence on the main story.

Basic premise of the main story: Luke grew up with Bail and Breha Organa as the Prince of Alderaan. When Bail becomes too outspoken against Palpatine he orders Vader to take the young prince as a Hostage. Luke now lives aboard the Executor. He finds out rather soon that Vader is his father and the story goes from there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15148811/chapters/35129507

9. Hostage

https://archiveofourown.org/series/1063433

10. Runaway SilverDaye

Imperial Prince Luke runs away from home to escape his overprotective father Emperor Vader. Jumping from planet to planet he finds himself creditless on Tatooine. While working for more money to leave the planet, Luke meets an old man named Ben Kenobi. But Luke knows he can't stay in one place for long for surely his father is hunting him down.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14630196/chapters/33813027

11.A Song of Dragon's Fire & Slaves Blood Fan0fFIM17

A Slave is finally truly made Free.

Lost in a strange primitive Land, he takes advantage of his circumstances to rise to the position of King. A Slave, a Jedi Knight, a Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, Father, Son, all this and more. Read as he Fights for the Iron-Throne!

Winter Is Coming!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15400920/chapters/35743227

12. My sister has it jedileia (cptnwintersoldier)

"You want me to fight my dad? Kill him? How could you think I would be capable on any of that, after what I just heard? Have I been training just so I could kill my father? Is that what this Jedi training was about? If so then i deeply regret the evening I went to look for parts for my speeder and ended up at Obi-Wan's yard."

Leia, a farm girl from Tatoiine, learns that she is force sensitive and the daughter of the evil Darth Vader, once known as Anakin Skywalker. She begins her Jedi training, meets her twin brother Luke Organa and confronts his father.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6537682/chapters/14957098

13. what is lost in the darkness.....hanorganaas

Starkiller is destroyed, the great Jedi Hero who saved the Galaxy Leia Skywalker Solo and her husband Han are presumed dead, and Luke mourns. But he isn't alone in his grief

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668604

14. our eyes; they were pointed at the sky (looking for answers) pieandsouffle

The last few weeks have been a nightmare: Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are dead and gone, the farm is skeletal and dead, she found out her father was a Jedi, brutally murdered by a traitorous friend, and now she's going to die because Han Solo is an incompetent nerf-herder who is apparently completely incapable of opening a krething door.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159772/chapters/24904917

15. Possibilities of If May Be - Valerie_Vancollie

Co-authored by Selinthia Avenchesca.

What if two different Star Wars realities started to merge?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12946578

16. Skywalker Swap - stitchy

https://archiveofourown.org/series/930435

(Note Series is a mixture of a fancomic and a fanfic and it is glorious)

17. There Is Another stitchy

A comicbook retelling of Episode IV in the spirit of the old Star Wars Infinities!

Luke and Leia are placed in opposite homes after the fall of the Republic. Young Leia Skywalker is called to adventure when she meets two droids that belong to the strange witch, Old Kah.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10597686/chapters/23428284

(Note* Seriously this comic retelling is fantastic )

18 Here Among The Clouds stitchy

In a universe where Leia Skywalker joins the Rebel Alliance of her long lost brother Prince Luke Organa, the Millenium Falcon and her crew arrive to Cloud City with a fully functioning hyperdrive. In the weeks following the Battle of Hoth, Lando Calrissian becomes entangled in their their quest to defeat the evil Empire.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507038

19. A Farm girl, a Twink, and an Uber driver- Daniellecluck

This is literally just a collection of drabbles of a New Hope rescue scene various original trilogy scenes but gayer and Luke and Leia swapped places.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13345347/chapters/30553272

20. The Adventures of Leia Skywalker, Episode One: The New Hope MaraWinchester

Nineteen-year-old Leia Skywalker lives with her Aunt and Uncle on the remote desert planet Tatooine, where there’s something ready to kill you behind every corner. Three moons make the nights bitterly cold, and the two suns makes the days unbearably hot. When a droid bought by her uncle contains a message by a prince, asking for help from a legendary Jedi Knight, Leia senses her ticket off world. Little does she know that her journey will take her right and center to a galaxy torn apart by war, involve smugglers of ill repute, and possibly shed more information on her father that she could possibly imagine...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122483/chapters/18619693

21. Another Kind of Hope Skyrissian (ErinacchiLove)

In a period of a galactic civil war, the brave Rebel Alliance has won their first victory against the Galactic Empire and stolen the plans of the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star.

When the starship of Prince Luke Organa, who is transporting the plans, falls under the Empire's attack, the future of the galaxy depends on two droids carrying the secret plans and their new owner, a farm girl named Leia Skywalker.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18705637

22 The Princess, the Smuggler and the Sith Lord's Son Sassaphrass

Han Solo was trying to rescue her Royal Annoyingness from the Death Star when he runs smack into Vader's kid. Naturally he does the logical thing and takes him hostage. This is where the story starts. OR

Luke just wanted to get some snacks when he ran into a Wookie, a Princess and a Space Pirate. The day's pretty much downhill from there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5751661/chapters/13252696

23. At Least the War is Over Sassaphrass

The only thing Luke and Leia have in common are those nine months they spent in the womb and that time they brought down the Empire.

It's hard to build a new family when the last one got blown to smithereens with the entire planet, but Leia's never thought anything worthwhile would be easy.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12663834

24. His Imperial Highness Luke Amidala - Sassaphrass

https://archiveofourown.org/series/744999

25. Chiaroscuro SpellCleaver

A series of oneshots focusing on Luke and Vader's relationship, with other characters occasionally thrown into the mix.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/16363772/chapters/38293637

26. Prince Luke Organa: A New Hope -lightningbisexual

An AU where Leia was sent to Tatooine with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and Luke was sent to Alderaan as the prince. It begins from where Luke is captured by the Empire in A New Hope. I follow more his story than Leia's because we all know she's going to be a badass on her own and I really want to see Luke grow up and learn to face his fears.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19024390/chapters/45181531

(Note* see sequel below Leia centric)

27. Leia Skywalker: The Empire Strikes Back lightningbisexual

A continuation of my twin swap fic. Leia Skywalker is being sought by the Dark Side and the Light, who both hope to use her power for their own agendas. However, her ferocity and anger make it difficult for her to train as a Jedi. Han Solo is also developing feelings for Prince Luke Organa and has no goddamn clue how to deal with it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20533487/chapters/48737117

28. Between the Light and Shadows: Luke & Vader One-Shots SilverDaye

One-shot collection focused on Luke and Vader. All AU.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15128117/chapters/48583628

29. How the Other Half Lives -aradian_nights

(Note* How can I talk about Prince Luke fics without mentioning them cause WOW. 10/10. I highly recommend even if you aren’t a fan of the Prince Luke trope cause wow. It is something. Warning: Angst . )

https://archiveofourown.org/series/609151.

Trial and Error - https://archiveofourown.org/works/8417668

Layers of Dust - https://archiveofourown.org/works/8900971

For Love of a Queen - https://archiveofourown.org/works/9342596/chapters/21167591

Deep Doubt- https://archiveofourown.org/works/10361913

Vision Void- https://archiveofourown.org/works/10628475/chapters/23511120

Fate Defied- https://archiveofourown.org/works/10947714

When Destinies Split - https://archiveofourown.org/works/11017986/chapters/24552093

Risk and Chance - https://archiveofourown.org/works/11506092/chapters/25817655

A Shout in the Dark - https://archiveofourown.org/works/11699232/chapters/26341971

Walking the Line Between - https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172817/chapters/30129249

AO3 Tag

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Prince%20Luke/works

#prince luke #luke skywalker #star wars #fanfic recs #fanfic reccomendation #list #sw #leia organa #long post #i am reccomending a lot of fics so hold on

175 notes · View notes

aerynwrites · 4 years

Note

Relationship alphabet with Ezra? But only if it inspires you. 🥰

Ahh thank you for sending this in friend! I love Ezra and hope to write for him more. I Hope you enjoy and I captured his character well!

A- Activity (What is their favorite activity to do with you.)

Ezra loves to read with you - well, read to you since you always take pleasure in just listening to his voice as he reads you his favorite tales.

B- Beginnings (How do they act in the beginning of a relationship)

Ezra is kind of skittish at the beginning of your relationship. As we all know, this man has severe self-esteem issues. He is constantly baffled that you chose him as your SO and is sure that you’ll leave him when you get the chance. But as time goes on, you assure him that you love him and don’t plan on leaving.

C- Communication (Are they good communicators? How do they normally talk about their problems or solve issues)

Ezra is an extremely good communicator. He always wants to talk to you and talk about any problems that may arise. He usually tends to be the one bringing up an issues and is adamant about resolving them as peacefully as possible. The only thing that might affect his communication skills is his very eloquent and roundabout way of speaking - sometimes you get a little confused and have to have him clarify something

D- Drunk (What are they like when they’re drunk)

If you thought Ezra was a talker sober - you are in for a surprise. This man seems to talk even more when he’s drunk.

He also becomes very handsy when he has s few drinks in him. not that your complaining of course.

E- Emergency (How are they in emergency situations? You get hurt, they get hurt, someone is dying etc..)

Ezra is very levelheaded. Automatically trying to find the quickest and most efficient way to help. If you are hurt, he is a bit less composed, his worry over losing you clouding his judgment. However, if he’s hurt, he is as levelheaded as ever, walking you through what to do if you don’t know and helping you help him.

F- Free Spot (I’ll give you any headcanon I come up with)

Ezra is a handsy motherfucker. He just loves to have his hands on you whenever possible whether its holding your hand in his, resting his hand on the back of your neck, wrapping a hand around your waist, or even going a little lower...

yeah, he just loves to touch you.

G- Gifts (What kind of gifts do they give? What kind of gifts do they get?)

with both of you being harvesters and wandering ones at that, you never had much money. Sp the gifts you give each other aren’t usually bought.

Ezra loves to give you flowers he finds when he is out and about, or if he finds a particularly beautiful gem he will give that to you instead.

Meanwhile, you always give Ezra any books you come across. you know he loves to read and hate that he has to read the same ones over and over. So whenever you find a discarded book or can trade for one, you jump on it.

H- Hugs (How do they show affection/cuddle)

Ezra loves to hold your hand - not sure why he just does. But more than that, he loves slipping into your cot as you are going to bed and wrapping his arm around you, pulling you into his chest. He just loves to be close to you, feeling your breathing and heartbeat, and taking in the smell that is just completely you.

I- Irritation (What is something that irritates them? How do they show their irritation?)

since the loss of his arm, his inability to perform tasks as efficiently irritates him to no end. he usually shows this irritation by muttering curses under his breath or just going silent altogether.

J- Jackpot (How would they spend their winnings if they won the lottery?)

Ezra - even though he’s been a drifter his whole life - would use the money to settle down somewhere with you. finding a nice planet with a quaint house that the both of you could spend the rest of your lives together in.

K- Kryptonite (What is their ultimate weakness?)

as cheesy as this sounds - you. you are the only thing that could truly break him if anything were to happen to you. He loves you too much and too deeply.

L- Laughter (What makes them laugh?)

one of the things that makes him laugh is when you try to mimic his way of speaking - it’s just so endearing to him that he can’t help but laugh.

M- Morning ( How do they wake up in the morning? Are they a morning person or a morning grouch?)

I think Ezra is a bit of a morning person, not by choice but by trade. the life of a drifter means early mornings, rising with the sun to get the day started early.

before you came into his life, he woke up and pretty much instantly got out of bed - getting dressed, eating a ration bar, and then heading out to the dig site.

However, now that you are here, he takes his time waking up. He pulls you into his chest, nuzzles his nose into the crook of your neck, pressing gentle kisses there until you too wake up. Then you both get ready together.

N- Needy (When do they feel particularly needy? How do they show it?)

Ezra still has days where his depression over losing his arm haunts him. Those days he doesn’t want to do much else than lay in bed and hold you close to him as you whisper calming and loving words into his ears.

O- Oasis (Where is their happy place? Where would they go if they didn’t have anything holding them back?)

His happy place is wherever you are. And if he didn’t have anything holding him back, I would like to think that he would take you back to his home planet - wherever that may be.

P- Pain (How do they handle pain? How do they handle when you are in pain?)

Ezra is pretty used to pain, he has gotten injured one too many times being a drifter not to be used to it. However, when you’re in pain, he will do anything to make you feel better - he may be used to pain, but that doesn’t mean he wants the same for you.

Q- Quote (What’s a quote that fits them and your relationship)

Kiss me and you will see the stars. Love me and I will give them to you. - Author Unknown

R- Reunion (How do they celebrate seeing you after a long time of being apart)

If you are apart for a long time its because of being pulled to different parts of the galaxy. Neither of you knew if you’d see one another again. So when you do, Ezra - for once - Is speechless. after he recovers, he is striding over to you and pulling you into a tight embrace.

“You truly have no idea how much my heart has ached for you all of these moons little bird.”

S- Stress (What stresses them out? How do deal with stress and how do they relieve it?)

Any altercations at dig sites tend to stress Ezra out. Before, he would become territorial and confrontational. But now, with you here, the last thing he wants to do is put you in danger.

he relieves this stress in one of two ways usually it's by moving to another site and digging there, getting back to work helps calm his mind. But if that doesn’t work than he always finds comfort in you. both figuratively and literally 😏

T- Terror (What are they afraid of?)

As we have discussed several times already lol, he is terrified of losing you. He has finally found his person, someone he loves more than anything in the entire galaxy. He never wants to lose you, and that is an ever-present fear in his mind.

U- Unique (What is a quirk that is unique to them?)

Definitely his way of speech. His way of speech and his accent are all unique to him.

V- Violence (Do they fight a lot? Are they a good fighter? What is their fighting style?)

I wouldn’t say he fights a lot, only when necessary for survival. He is a decent fighter when he has his thrower, having become skilled in using it while being a drifter. He tried to fight from a distance rather than up close.

W- Wow (What do you do that really surprises them? What do you do that they really like?)

Your constant and unwavering affection and love for him. He had never expected to be loved like this - so it always surprises him when you show him this.

X- (Explicit headcanon. For all you degenerates)

okay so like - we all know Ezra fucks right? okay, good. Because this man fucks. Ezra absolutely loves getting you into bed and just worshiping your body. constantly praising you and cooing to you in that all too familiar lilt and elevated speech. yeah...Ezra also lives for dirty talk (sorry not sorry😬)

Y- Yucky (Is there something that grosses them out so badly that they can’t deal with it?)

hmmm...I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s really anything that grosses him out that badly, or at all really

Z- ZZZ’s (What are their sleeping habits? Both with and without you)

When he’s without you, Ezra tends to sleep on his stomach, arm under the pillow, and blanket around his waist as he snores softly.

when he’s with you however, his favorite way to sleep is on his side with your back to him while he holds you to his chest. he just loves to hold you while he sleeps, the fact that you are right there next to him comforting him and lulling him to sleep.

#ezra (prospect) x reader #ezra x reader #Ezra Prospect #pedro pascal x reader #Pedro Pascal #queue were my new dream

53 notes · View notes

planet-crait · 3 years

Text

Oversaturation in Star Wars

Before we start this is a warning this post gets very salty towards Ahsoka so if you like her character and are excited for her to be in the Mandalorian I would advise you skip. If you want to see my opinion on her overutilization then please feel free to read on.

Whilst everyone is frothing at the mouth at the thought of Ahsoka being in the Madalorian I have to admit I am much less pleased about this development. Ahsoka has been shoved into media after media with no regard for whether or not it actually makes sense or works to do so. Back when season 4 of Rebels ended, Filoni specifically said that he did not show any snippet or scene with where Thrawn and Ezra wound up because he didn’t want to write himself into a corner later on should he decide to write the search for Ezra. With Ahsoka’s appearance in the Mandalorian makes all of that seem like complete bullshit. The Mandalorian takes place 5 years after the fall of the Empire, this is important because Ahsoka and Sabine do not start their search until after the Empire has fallen. The Mandalorian implies Ahsoka has been on this planet for some time which carries the implication the search for Ezra is over and they’ve found him. How can this not be seen as anything but writing oneself into a corner? They are literally deciding the ending of the story for the search for Ezra with seemingly no thought put into what happens before that moment. In shoehorning in some fanservice they potentially ruin the chance at writing a meaningful and organic story for Ezra and how he finally comes home.

Now it is possible this all takes place before Ahsoka and Sabine decide to go out and search for Ezra but I highly doubt that. In the Rebels epilogue it is heavily implied Sabine and Ahsoka head out to search for Ezra not long after the Empire has fallen given Jacen’s age. While yes, it is doubtful the search for Ezra would take five years to complete, there is still the issue of the fact that odds are the search for Ezra will in one way or another inevitably come up, which will reveal some information as to how he was found which later on in order to keep from creating an inconsistency will need to be kept in mind when eventually writing about the search for Ezra.

It is certainly possible that the story of how Ezra was brought home will never be written, my biggest fear is that that entire plot will be resolved in this episode which is a massive disservice to Ezra’s character. He suffered over and over again throughout his lifetime and sacrificed everything, he fought to save his planet. That kind of sacrifice deserves to have the search and him coming home again be devoted to its own media, however they choose to do so. Not shoehorned in as an afterthought in a show with characters that have never even met him before nor care about him.

With all of this in mind, there is also the burning question of why Ahsoka and not another Jedi we have not heard from we know on some level is probably alive. Why shoehorn in a character over and over again into media when there are so many other characters that could be utilized that we know nothing about what happened to them, like Ventress, Barriss, all of the kids from TWC arc who Ahsoka took to get their kyber crystals? Any of them would have been a very interesting addition and would have allowed us to find out what happened to them instead of throwing in a character who is becoming overutilized, creating a “small galaxy” conundrum. Why would Ahsoka keep getting involved with all of these different people who in the grand scheme of things have very little connection to her? Why not allow other characters to have the spotlight and have an influence on the story? Why is this one character who regularly claims she is not a jedi keep getting to do cool Jedi stuff? It’s infuriating given the fact that she is allowed to live because she “is not a jedi” but then does all this jedi stuff and is called a jedi by other people. Either she is a jedi or she is not, she cannot have it both ways. Either stop acting in the role of a jedi or fucking die like all the other Jedi are forced to. This will get me a lot of hate, but if Kanan had to fucking die for being a jedi then so does she. (Or bring Kanan back, that is a viable option but one that will never happen because only Ahsoka is beloved by the force enough to bring her back over and over again).

I know I get really salty over Ahsoka in this post but I am just over her being in everything. She comes back in TCW even though she makes a point of leaving the order, she shows up in Rebels to be a wise Jedi mentor despite saying she isn’t one (which feels more like an excuse to keep her alive rather than something that actually makes sense for her character.) In the final CW season she decides she wants to be a Jedi again, only for order 66 to happen shortly before she can. I bring this up because she keeps saying over and over again that she is not a jedi. Having Ahsoka decide to go back to the order though completely undermines this viewpoint she has and again makes it come across as more of an excuse to not kill her off rather than something she believes in.

I could write an entire essay on why all the Jedi having to die is the dumbest decision I have ever heard but that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is to point out how Ahsoka being brought back into media so much is creating issues and plotholes LF and Filoni keep claiming they are trying to avoid.

Though the Mandalorian episode has not come out yet, I have a lot of concerns as to what will happen in the episode: that Ezra will be revealed to have died in some bullshit way to save Ahsoka to keep the status of no other Jedi alive, that Ahsoka will take away baby yoda and he will die for bullshit reasons to again continue that thread or give him to Luke to once again seal his fate of dying later on by Kylo’s hands. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised, but when it comes to Ahsoka so far all I have been is disappointed and frustrated so I won’t hold my breath.

#the mandalorian #SW #Star Wars #Ahsoka Salt

12 notes · View notes

lannister-slings-and-arrows · 4 years

Note

Which of pedros characters would be the best cook?

Lol ok see this is a tough one because we have evidence of the Man Himself admitting freely on multiple occasions that he is a shit cook and has no idea what to do in a kitchen so my answers are being swayed by outside influences.

Din is terrible. Like to the point that he has honestly never even TRIED. Why should he? He was raised in a tribe where other people cooked for him and then when he was finally sent out to go hunting bounties he could just eat ration bars/packs what have you and get all the nutrients he needed, no muss no fuss. It’s not like he ever had the opportunity to learn or experiment and what fun is that to do for yourself anyways. Of course, now that the little womp rat will be staying with him permanently, he’s going to have to learn pretty fast. Even he knows that babies need a little more than freeze dried protein.

Whiskey is surprisingly competent. You are actually shocked. With his bachelor playboy lifestyle you kind of assumed that when he said dinner at his place he meant “I will buy dinner and we will eat it at my place so we are closer to my bedroom where I will eat you for dessert”. Apparently that is NOT what he meant. You show up and he is actually cooking. Like with stove burners and an oven and everything. He laughs at your surprise and tells you that that surprise on your face is why he knows how. If it’ll impress a lady of course Jack Daniels knows how to do it. He does however have you for dessert. Baking requires a little too much discipline for him. And you’re just sitting there looking so pretty- as if anything else is gonna compare.

Javi is less shit at it but he’s faaaaaar from what anyone would claim was higher than a college dorm room level. He can do pretty much anything with eggs (except poach them. Which is fine with him because if god had intended him to eat runny egg yolks he wouldn’t have him cooking them in the first goddamned place.), and he can put together a mean sandwich. He can grill a burger, most of the time doesn’t incinerate steak, but the one thing he is actually proud of in the kitchen (not that he would ever say so out loud, but you can tell from the way he carefully makes this and then gently sets it in front of you, watching you eat it and waiting quietly and intently for your verdict) is his chili. It IS really good chili. Like probably the best you’ve ever had, and once his shoulders relax and he turns around to hide the pleased smile on his face at your compliment you ask him about it. It was his mom’s recipe. It’s one of the only things of hers he kept after she passed.

Oberyn is an amazing cook. Of course he is, you think to yourself as you watch him at work. Because what can’t this man do? It makes sense you suppose that cooking is something he excels at. He is famed the world over for his potion and poison making, and what are the culinary arts but another form of chemistry? Watching him handle all of the different pots and pans is like watching him train in the yard every morning- it’s a dance to him, he knows exactly where he wants to be and knows exactly how to get there in the most elegant, attractive, and dazzling way possible. You know he is showing off for you and Ellaria as you sit together in the shade, eating the pieces of fruit he hands over occasionally- you’re sure that there was no real reason for him to flambé that dish, but you’re impressed and more than willing to admit that the grin that lights up his face when he sees how impressed is stunning, that you can only bring yourself to roll your eyes and smile back at him. Your meal is excellent, the dessert tart and crisp, and when he takes the two of you back to his rooms both dishes taste excellent on your partners’ lips.

Ezra is worse than Din. He is the shittiest cook in any galaxy, on any planet in any of those galaxies. No one besides Ezra likes those chocolate protein/ration bars. They are disgusting and that might be the source of his complete lack of skill. He has horrible taste. That man has travelled near and far in every manner of ship and circumstance for his entire life and hence learned at a very early age not to be picky where his calories came from. He will eat anything- you think he must not actually be able to taste anymore. So when you asked him once when you were sick to make you some soup, he readily complied and you pretty instantly wished he hadn’t. He laughed at the face you made after one spoonful and didn’t take offense when, despite your greatest of efforts, you couldn’t eat any more of it. He slurped the whole thing down himself and opened a ration pack that wasn’t one of those awful chocolate things.

Max does not cook. Ever. Why should he cook when he has people to do that for him? When he could go to the best restaurants in the city and eat michellin star rated cuisine? He doesn’t make a habit out of taking you out to eat- that’s not really the kind of relationship you have- so when he does you know you’re in for A Night. He wants to make sure you’re well fed and have the energy for him to put you through all the paces he wants. Otherwise why should he be providing meals for basically a sex toy? He calls you into his office, he fucks you, he marks you up, he gives you a slap on the ass, and he sends you on your way. What you do for meals in between those assignations is your business, as long as it doesn’t involve another man.

Catfish is average. He has to cook, he can’t afford to be eating out constantly, especially with that new baby. You know that first time you were living on your own and you kept your meals pretty simple bc you were still feeling your way around not having them provided for you? You knew you wanted real food but were kind of limited to spaghetti and meatloaf and casseroles and maybe some dishes with chicken breast? That’s Frankie. He’s gotten better since he left the military, but he still has quite a long way to go. But he’s determined to keep learning. The kid deserves that much from him at least. And it’s pretty cute the way he sets dinner on the table in front of you, so very proud at what he’s accomplished. You don’t really care that you had pretty much the same thing four nights ago.

#ask and ye shall recieve #the mandalorian #din djarin #agent whiskey #jack daniels #kingsman #oberyn martell #got #asoiaf #javier peña #narcos #maxwell lord #ww84 #francisco morales #catfish #triple frontier #ezra #prospect #pedro pascal

129 notes · View notes

thestarkerisobvious · 4 years

Text

Witchesmarks, Superheroes and Tom Dylan Post

amazing art by @starker-stories snugglefic for @mrstarksbaby

Tony’s gentle examination of Peter’s body was very nice. Embarrassing, but nice. For a long time he stood naked before his friend and let Tony inspect every part of his body, his neck, his underarms, even allowing Tony to spread his asscheeks with gentle hands while he giggled and blushed. Then he turned and

allowed Tony to the same to his chest, his stomach, finally moving his awakening cock from side to side, combing fingers through his pubic hair. He kept his hands on Tony’s shoulders while Tony looked. Finally he lay down and allowed Tony to continue his search around his scrotum. He kept his eyes closed, reminding himself to breathe. Reminding himself of the dream-rules and the awake-rules, until Tony sat up, clearly disappointed.

“You have none.”

“I have no… what?” Peter said, pulling on his boxers hastily and diving under the covers.

“No witchesmark.”

“But I thought… I read a witchesmark could be anything, a mole or a freckle or a scar…”

“To an inquisitor, yes. In truth, no. The witchesmark is special. You were not born with one.”

“But you said they could be made…”

“It will hurt you, sweet Peter.”

“We’ve talked about this, Tony.”

Tony’s examination of Peter’s body was very nice. The tense argument they had for days afterward was not. Walpurgisnacht was upon them. The last day of April was a night of power for Tony. Peter had Tony search out a large stray dog and lure it to their house. Peter was feeding it on the sly, but steadfastly refused to name it, or even acknowledge to May and Ben that he had seen it. They wouldn’t miss it when it was gone. Peter had made a list of memories he was prepared to feed Tony, books and magazines, even a Star Wars movie or that thing he had gotten up at 3 in the morning to watch on the special channels, memories that Tony could take completely if it gave him enough strength.

“But it cannot do it without pain, my Master. I am an excellent dreamweaver, but I am not a skilled body-weaver. I have done it, but it is painful.”

“I’m not afraid of pain, Tony. I’ve caused pain. I’m not afraid of it.”

What Peter was afraid of, the thing that was the ultimate sacrifice, was the knowledge that the whole project would take weeks to complete, and in weeks there would be no more Tony. It was one thing to ask Tony to hurt him, it was another thing to ask Tony to commit to a task that would be his last before he left to sleep out the summer under the bed. Still, Peter was determined.

“I keep telling you Tony, every superhero in my comic books had to go through a lot of pain to get their powers. I’m willing to go through the pain to give you more powers, Tony. You will be the superhero. You could have a lot of cool superpowers, Tony. And I have to make up for the mistake I made. I have to do this.”

* * * *

When Peter awoke in Castle Dracula and found Tony standing beside him, he was certain that everything would be alright. Tony was dressed in odd clothing and old-fashioned spectacles, like a scientist in a Victorian drama. The laboratory he led Peter into certainly could have come straight from a Frankenstein movie. Still, Peter felt very brave. He was with Tony, after all.

There were two Tonys in that dream. Four, if the hunchback assistants lurching around the background were Tonys too, but Peter never looked to see. Doctor Tony didn’t look scary as he cuffed Peter’s wrists and ankles to the table. He looked very calm. But he was also very calm when Peter was screaming, and somehow that was even more unnerving.

The other Tony, Peter’s Tony, stayed very close to him, sometimes climbing right up to the other side of the table and lying down next to him, whispering in his ear, one hand firmly on his bare chest. Peter knew exactly what he was doing – he was urging Peter’s lungs to keep taking in oxygen through the excruciating pain, he was convincing Peter’s heart to continue it’s steady beat even though his body was clearly being taken apart. He kissed the side of Peter’s face and sang him songs in Portuguese.

For hours upon hours, for what seemed far longer than an actual night, Doctor Tony, who sometimes sported 3 or 4 pairs of arms, stitched into his body with long needles and white thread. Peter tried to picture himself as the Million Dollar Man on TV, suffering through the constant surgeries. He tried to remember how the newspapers said the Incredible Hulk experienced excruciating pain every time he transformed.

But mostly he just remembered what he had done to Missy Lovelace. He just reminded himself how he had ordered Tony not to make reports when he returned from the Lovelace House, although Tony clearly wanted to. The idea of adults yelling had always upset Peter, but the idea of adults yelling at each other was more than he could bear. Over and over again Peter had sent Tony out to feed on Missy’s fear without listening to a word about what Missy was afraid of. That’s why he let Doctor Tony continue with the needles. That’s why he steadfastly tried to concentrate on his Tony trying to teach him to count in Portuguese.

* * * *

For the entire weekend Peter didn’t even get out of bed. But when the weekend was over he had to haul himself up and struggle through school. Staying home from school required a doctor’s visit, and Peter didn’t want to see a doctor.

He didn’t want to have to explain to the doctor, let alone Ben and May, how he had managed to grow a third nipple on the left side of his chest.

He kept it hidden under a bandaid which he hid under a larger bandage which he hid under an undershirt that protected him from his shirt. He felt every layer. It throbbed and ached on his body, radiating throughout his whole frame. Every touch against his shirt, or anywhere near his chest at all, went through his body with a painful and embarrassing electric jolt.

His only relief came after dark when Tony came out from under the bed to hold him. He feasted on the pain, holding Peter gently, laying underneath him like a warm body pillow. Tony stroked his hair and told him endless stories and taught him a song in Portuguese about chickens. Tony knew a lot of children’s songs in Portuguese. He fed gently from the vein in Peter’s neck, but never ventured to touch the witchesmark, assuring Peter it would heal in time.

Peter hoped it would. Peter couldn’t even conceive of letting Tony touch it, let alone use it to feed.

“Is this how you gave the Post family members superpowers? By a body-weaving? Is that why only did it for one generation, and then stopped?”

“No, that magic is of spells.”

“Did someone do something bad, or see something bad, and then had to spend the rest of their lives being a hero?” He was laying with his back against Tony’s chest, looking out his window as Tony played with his finger’s idly, sometimes kissing or licking the vein in his neck, sometimes suckling at the fingertips.

“That’s what heroes do. Batman watched his parents be murdered, so he had to spend the rest of his life fighting crime. All heroes have tragic backstories. Not Superman though, although I suppose having your whole planet blow up is pretty tragic. Or was it because of the Civil War? Was that why you did it?”

“I ‘did it’ because the spells tasked me to do it.”

“But it seems like it all happened at once, like all the family members of one generation got powers, and then they just stopped. What happened?”

Tony was sucking gently at Peter’s neck. Often he would feed to avoid answering questions, but when Peter insisted, he told the story.

“It was after I killed Tom Dylan Post and consumed his body. His father, Thomas Post, sought to forbid me from harming, killing or consuming the body of any post male, ever. To this end he, and his brothers, and his sons, they brought out all the German books from the hidden rooms. Books that had not been opened in many generations. One had not been opened since the death of Nehemiah Post.

“There they found many spells that they had never seen before, had never heard of. Some were written in the old German, but others were in Latin.

“They found many different protections of the body, as well as other extraordinary spells. But those tasks, I told them, took great strength. More strength than I had. More strength than I could take from cattle or swine or any other meat offering. ‘Without the infernal vapors, how can it be done?’ I argued. I tried to deceive them… I thought I could convince them to abandon their plan… but then the Post sisters sought out the seals of Evorá, and the spells from the Book of The Student, and I feasted. I could not continue to feast upon that magic and also deny that the German spells were possible…”

“Wait, you deceived them?” Peter wondered, trying to turn his head enough to see Tony’s face. “You lied to them?”

“I did not lie…”

“You exaggerated. Same thing, Mr. Spock.”

Peter moved his body away enough so he could watch Tony’s face while he spoke. Watching Tony’s face while he spoke always revealed as much, of not more, than his actual words.

“I didn’t know you could tell them things that weren’t true…”

“Ezra and Nehemiah Post sealed me to always speak the truth to them and to their sons. They died. Their sons died. After that, no one thought to repeat the spell.”

“Wait… you’re saying the Posts had… they had spell books with spells in them, that they didn’t even know were there? And they always could have… but why didn’t you want to give them superpowers?”

“It was very difficult work. Tedious. To make Cecil Wayne Post impervious to the bullets we had to spend three days and nights in each other’s arms…” The look of disgust was obvious on Tony’s face. Clearly Tony did not like Cecil Wayne.

“Alright, now go back and tell me why you killed Tom Dylan Post.”

“He tasked me to do it.”

“Oh, he committed suicide. I wondered if that’s what happened.”

“Thomas summoned me to determine what befell of his son. When I told him what I had done, he sealed me to the spot where I stood. It was in the south dining hall. For days I stood there, immobile, while they prepared the spell to compel me to speak only the truth. It was a difficult spell, it required a black cat, a black sheep, and a black duck.”

He laughed ruefully, his eyes lowered. He looked like a man talking about a recent pain, not a pain from a century ago. “A waste of their time,” he muttered. “I was never bound to conceal what I had done to him. Ada and Enid and the girls came to me and I told them true. They cried and held each other. Ada clung to my feet and begged me to take her own life as well…”

“Oh my gosh, Tony... you were… you were like a loaded gun in that house. What did you say to her?”

“I vowed to obey her. I could not deny her. She sat down at my feet in the middle of the night and wrote down the spell.”

“The spell… to kill her?”

“Yes. Should she bring me a coffin made by her uncle, a shroud stitched by her sister, and lay down in a grave dug by the youngest member of the family and read a prayer written for her by Justina Post.”

“Oh. I think I get it. One of the four of them should have been able to talk her out of it. So then… when they did do that spell with the three animals, and you told them the truth and… did they punish you?”

“They had no time. They had to release me to protect the land from the angry townsfolk.”

“And from all those people who set fire to the house that was on Chimney Hill?”

“The South House. They set it alight because they thought it was the Post House itself.”

“Oh. That was genius, Tony. But I thought… I thought that was Tom Dylan’s house.”

“It was the house where I killed him.”

“So, that makes sense, after Thomas Post finds out that you could be used as a suicide weapon, it makes sense that he disarmed you that way before any of his other kids decided to... so he found a spell to make it so you could never kill another Post...”

“That no Post could be harmed, killed, or their body consumed, by demon, angel or fae or spirit. The family disagreed on the nature of my substance, and so they put a seal on all Post descendants against demon, angel, fae or spirit.”

“The Post family thought you were fae? Or at least some of them?”

“Justina Post called me “Oberon.” Lysander Post called me “Puck.”

He nuzzled his face back into Peter’s shoulder and told him the story. About the entire family working together, the men and the women, to provide Tony with enough strength and subsistence to him, which in turn allowed him to give special powers to the family members, one by one. It was a time of great cooperation and collaboration that went on for years. For generations the women and the men had kept their books separate, even hidden. It was normal for the Post women to put wards on their books so that their brothers couldn’t even touch them. For a decade the entire family worked and studied together to the same end. Until the day the message came that Cecil Wayne had died in the war.

“Because he couldn’t withstand a cannonball?” Peter asked.

“He most certainly did withstand the cannonball!” Tony exclaimed, clearly insulted.

“But he did not withstand the second.”

“Could you do these things for me?” Peter asked finally. “You could make me impervious to bullet wounds, or snakebite, or make me able to jump out of a 20-foot tree? No of course you couldn’t,” he said before Tony even spoke. “You would have to have a whole family working together… what?”

Tony had slipped out from under him, and was now at his side, caressing his face and whispering in his ear.

“Each night, from dusk to dawn, we must needs lay intwined in each others arms. You could not sleep whilst you were with me. You would need give your body over completely to me,” he said with a grin, his hand staring and caressing Peter’s stomach. “For the whole of the time you could give me no command, nor forbid me in any way. You would need give up to me your most guarded secrets…”

“I’m listening.”

Tony sat up on one elbow and, still grinning, turned Peter’s mouth to his. “Many Post men could not succeed in the ritual,” he teased. “You could wear nothing but a white linen sheet for three days. In that time you could not invoke the holy name of God, or any saint. And you would submit yourself to the five-fold kiss…”

“What is the fivefold… you know what? Never mind,” Peter said, pushing Tony away, but just a little bit. “This sounds too complicated for now,” he said, grinning himself. “I’d have to have my own place before I can start walking around in a linen sheet for three days. Not that it matters. You said the Post Daughters had to work to create enough power for you to feed on so that you could… what?

“Let me guess…” he scolded, running his fingers over Tony’s smug grin. “You exaggerated about how much power you needed.”

Tony shrugged. “To learn a new spell is always difficult. The first time. The second and third times, it becomes no great matter.”

“Is it like your dreamwork? The first time you make it takes a lot of strength, but once it’s already made…

“Wait… Tony… I forgot to ask you. Some of those books you told me about, I found one called the Book of St. Cyprian. I mean not the book, but I found the title in the book catalog. I could order it, if I could afford it. Would it be the same book the Post daughters had?

Tony was clearly surprised. “My diligent library-pilgrim,” he said, kissing Peter’s hand with a small smile. “My master scholar. Was it copied by hand?”

“Well… no. It’s published, it’s printed just like a regular book.”

Tony’s smile faded. “The only true books of St. Cyprian are copied by hand.”

“And written in Portuguese?”

“Of course.”

“So I’m going to have to learn Portuguese,” Peter said with a heavy sigh, snuggling, as best he could, back into Tony’s arms.

“AND build a huge rabbit hutch and stock it with rabbits. And build myself a house on the Chimney Hill foundation. That’s a lot of work. I think I’ll build the house first.”

He turned his head and kissed Tony’s cheek.

“I think it’s time I moved out.”

-------------------

The Master Post (not THAT Master Post, the other one)

------------------------

AS ALWAYS please direct questions, comments, and constructive crit to @witchwayisright

#The Thing That Lives Under The Bed #Demon!Tony #But not THAT Demon!Tony #Von's Moodboards #TheWitchwayWritesStuff #Starker #Peter Parker/Tony Stark

19 notes · View notes

aaronmaurer · 3 years

Text

Music I Liked in 2020

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

I can’t say I discovered a lot of new artists in 2020, but I did find a lot of solace in new records by familiar voices. During days of intense isolation and lonesomeness, music provided support, hope and the occasional semblance of peace. I’m especially grateful for the musicians who found new ways to perform live from their home studios, once the entire touring industry completely shut down. I’m sure we all found our own rabbit holes, but live-streamed sets from the likes of Ben Gibbard, Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Atkins, Better Than Ezra’s Kevin Griffin, Geographer’s Michael Deni and Ben Folds kept me sane during April, May and beyond. As did all of these albums, which I highly recommend.

15. Serpentine Prison – Matt Berninger

The National frontman’s first solo record is a slow-burn that may not reach the heights of his work with his main group (or sideproject El Vy), but still has signature moments of poetic beauty. The title track is a clear standout (and when it gets stuck in your head, you can have fun brainstorming your own alternate non-sequitur couplets; examples: “Tripping on Molly / Salvador Dalí”, “Praying to Jesus / Ramona and Beezus” / “Sell it on Etsy / Heavens to betsy” / “Patio tables / Anne of Green Gables” It’s fun! Try it out!)

14. Local Honey – Brian Fallon

Speaking of Matt Berninger (and solo projects from alt-rock frontmen), I hear a lot of his influence on the latest from Gasoline Anthem’s Brian Fallon. This largely stripped-down affair has quiet splendor to spare and provided a balm in the early days of the pandemic.

13. Gigaton – Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam’s latest record finds the band operating in a variety of different modes – head-on rockers, balladeers, experimentalists – yet doesn’t quite gel into a whole the way their very best work does. That said, it’s an energetic album with many songs I look forward to hearing live, someday…

12. George Clanton & Nick Hexum – George Clanton & Nick Hexum

A vaporwave collaboration between electronic artist George Clanton and 311’s Nick Hexum? Really? Somehow it works, and its chill vibes were a perfect backdrop for lonely summer malaise this year.

11. Petals For Armor – Hayley Williams

Paramore’s Williams branched out on her first solo record this year, allowing her to operate in a variety of styles without losing her powerful voice. Moments of slinkily seething electronica (“Simmer”) share space with pop smarts (“Dead Horse”), quietly pretty harmonies (“Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”) and all points in between.

10. Mordechai and Texas Sun EP (with Leon Bridges) – Khruangbin

Houston psych-rock trio Khruangbin did double duty this year, first releasing a collaborative EP with Leon Bridges then following it up with a new full-length a couple months later. Both records hang in the air like hazy, languid summer heat, in the best possible way.

9. RTJ4 – Run the Jewels

RTJ4 is just as rollicking and propulsive as Killer Mike and El-P’s previous collabs, but with a greater sense of socially conscious urgency and righteous anger, giving it an even rawer power. Tracks like “Walking In The Snow,” “JU$T” and “a few words for the firing squad (radiation)” are just the tip of the iceberg on this incendiary record.

8. American Head – The Flaming Lips

American Head returns the Flaming Lips to the melodic soundscapes of The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which is my preferred mode for the band, and thus is my favorite thing they’ve done in at least a decade. The record is a bit more dreamily melancholic than those earlier releases though, creating atmospheres of contemplative beauty.

7. Punisher – Phoebe Bridgers

Coming after collaborations with boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center, it’s hard to believe this is only Bridgers’ sophomore album. Punisher takes the winning palette of Stranger In The Alps and mixes in more colors and texture. This is an album that rewards repeat listens; tunes that I had initially dismissed have ended up becoming my favorites as they get their hooks into me. The most immediate tracks like “Kyoto” and “ICU” don’t lose any impact over time, but the likes of the quietly devastating “Chinese Satellite” sneak up on you and gradually reveal their layers.

6. Imploding the Mirage – The Killers

I was done with The Killers. My interest always ran hot and cold anyway, but after 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful, no thanks. So imagine my surprise when I gave Imploding the Mirage a shot and found I LOVE it! It may be my favorite of their records yet, at least the most consistent, where they most fully realize the confluence of their Springsteen-tinged Americana fetish and electro-rock sensibilities. Bombastic 80s arena percussion and over-the-top synth flourishes combine in the best possible way. There’s not a dud on the album for me, but I’m especially fond of “My God,” “Lightning Fields” and “Dying Breed.”

5. The Ascension – Sufjan Stevens

The Ascension hits with similar energy to 2010’s polarizing Age of Adz, but with more easily accessible songs. It’s a dark and introspective record about disillusionment with America and oneself, but also highly danceable – if a bit overlong. Standout tracks like “Goodbye to All That” and “Lamentations” provide transcendent moments of soaring beauty like calm in the storm. And the brilliant title track plays like a self-interrogating rejoinder to Adz’s pep talk “Vesuvius” in which, instead of cheering himself on, Stevens probes and calls into question his motivations and beliefs.

4. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez – Gorillaz

The latest record from Damon Albarn’s ever-evolving cartoon collective is its most engaging since Plastic Beach, with a spirit of musical exploration that reminds me much of 2001’s self-titled debut as well. The project was introduced as a series of one-off singles, so what really surprises is just how well they cohere into a full record, featuring a plethora of A-List guest artists and Albarn holding down the fort with some of his best songwriting yet.

3. 10 Songs – Travis

Travis are a band that I’ve casually enjoyed (2001’s The Invisible Band is great) but never followed all that closely. I certainly wasn’t expecting much from a latter-day record from them, but 10 Songs is one of the 2020 releases I have returned to most. The songs are the audial equivalent of a warm blanket, with a lovely wistfulness permeating through. Standouts include “The Only Thing,” “A Million Hearts” and “Kissing in the Wind,” but all ten songs are great.

2. Devastator – Phantom Planet

Phantom Planet’s first record in 12 years doesn’t miss a beat, finding a sonic middle ground between their early indie-pop leanings and their later punkier direction. The hooks are plentiful and the lyrics poignant (this is basically a breakup album about the end of frontman Alex Greenwald’s relationship with Brie Larson), with highlights including the up-tempo “Only One” and the elegiac “Time Moves On.” Return of the year.

1. folklore and evermore – Taylor Swift

Top 40 Pop Music is not really my thing and while I’ve certainly appreciated some of Taylor Swift’s work before (Red has jams!), I wouldn’t have called myself a fan. 2020’s pair of surprise release records are a different mode of songwriting for her and right in my wheelhouse, with indie-leaning production courtesy of fun./Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner. While my impressions of Swift’s past work have been navel-gazy and self-mythologizing (not a problem, but not that interesting to me), folklore and evermore broaden her storytelling to paradoxically become more specific in its universality and/or more universal in its specificity. The moments that are autobiographical (“mad woman,” “invisible string”) have an authenticity and self-assuredness that make them all the more accessible. This is romantically nostalgic poetry with the power to reopen old wounds and maybe also start rehealing them at the same time. While I still give folklore the edge (I love “august,” “exile” and mirrorball,” to name just a few), evermore is steadily growing on me with each listen.

Here’s a playlist songs from each of these records for your sampling pleasure:

Bonus! 2 Unexpected Cover EPs:

Switchfoot – Covers EP and Death Cab For Cutie – Georgia EP

As society grappled with lockdowns and concerts were uniformly cancelled the world over, many artists kept occupied with livestreams from their home studios. Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman and Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard were among those who posted daily songs or shows during the early days and their bands would each end up releasing EPs of cover songs during the year. Switchfoot take on a range of songs from the likes of Vampire Weekend, Frank Ocean and The Verve and Death Cab honor Georgia artists like R.E.M. and Neutral Milk Hotel for a Bandcamp fundraiser for voting rights. Both efforts provide some unexpected reinterpretations that elevate them above the average covers album.

#music

4 notes · View notes

jemichi90 · 5 years

Text

JeMiChi talks Star Wars

If you follow me here, you can't possibly have missed the fact that I've gotten into Star Wars after all the posts I've been spamming lately. So I'm going to talk about that a little.

First of all, my relationship with Star Wars is slightly... complicated. I've always loved sci-fi and considered SW a classic in a way. Yet I hadn't watched a single (full) Star Wars movie until last December. There are some reasons for that. One of them is the fact that anything war or military related used to be a major trigger for me. I'd get panic attacks if someone even mentioned something military related. It would have been IMPOSSIBLE for me to watch a movie so focused on war. And I'm not talking about something from my childhood or teen years. It was like that only a few years ago.

And I can still feel that part of me somewhere under all these new layers shudder at the idea. After all, Star Wars is FULL of war – obviously. There are military ranks, weapons, and countless deaths everywhere. Messed up war politics are the setting for anything else that happens.

Yet, here I am now. I had several reasons to give it a try (now that I can). Not just because I've always liked sci-fi, but also because I have friends who LOVE Star Wars. Some of my older friends actually saw the original trilogy when those movies were new. I wanted to join in their conversations when it was clearly something they enjoy talking about. And of course, anyone following me here would also know that I have a major obsession for Boku no Hero Academia, and this manga is full of Star Wars references. I felt like I was missing out on a lot of stuff when I wasn't familiar with them. So I started catching those references ”in reverse”, so to say.

Now I've seen most of the movies. I was surprised at how little the original trilogy has aged. It was made so brilliantly at the time it still looks amazing.

People can say whatever they want but I really enjoyed the prequels too. They really helped me to understand the characters and events better, as I was VERY confused at first. There are some interesting parallels too. And as I see it, George Lucas has all the right in the world to expand that universe as much as he ever wants to!

And then I also watched all the animated series. The Clone Wars took me like three seasons to warm up to, but then it got really interesting.

But what really captured my heart more than anything was Rebels. I'm so grateful for Dave Filoni and everyone working on the series for giving us this wonderful Space Family! It's a series I could recommend to even people who know nothing about Star Wars as the show works just fine on its own. I went from having mixed feelings and disliking the art style to utter adoration in record speed there! I'm weak for this kind of found family themes. It stole my heart in an instant! Unlike the other Star Wars things it focuses more on the family and their relationships than the war (although obviously it's still there at all times) and gave me a serious case of feels way more often than acceptable..! But it's a ”show for children”! Is it? At this point I don't care. Maybe I'm a child then. So is Zeb, and he's like 40. It's a bit dark for ”just” a show for children at times. People die and get hurt. Just be prepared for that if you decide to watch it. But this show also gave me the biggest smile more often than I can count. Right now I can't even decide a fave character as they are all so amazing in their own unique ways so I keep switching between them all depending on my mood.

Rebels led me quite naturally into the books and comics that expand the story further. Kanan comics and A New Dawn novel gave me a good idea of the kind of person Kanan was before he became the Space Dad from Rebels. Then I got into the Thrawn novels – which were amazing. A completely different point of view and they feel like a detective story, with a ton of funny moments and unexpected space adventures and allies included.

I'm almost scared at how much I like these various Imperial characters now. Kallus is fine. I really really like him, and he made it very clear that he's learned his lesson and turned his life around completely. Then there is Thrawn who is super smart and complex, but seems 100% loyal to the Empire. His story is not over yet, so I'm quite curious to see where he'll go from there. Will he have Space Adventures with Ezra too? I'd love if he did! And I'm looking forward to see Eli return. I miss him.

Star Wars as a whole has super interesting (and way too tragic) characters. The world building is impressive with all these different alien species and their cultures and languages and entire societies. The planets with their unique ecosystems and wildlife are interesting on their own. The various space ships and other technology is super cool! And even the war isn't so black and white that you could just call one group good and the other evil. The deeper you look, the more messed up it gets. It's that kind of complexity that tends to draw me in. And yes, as expected BNHA is indeed filled with SW references – some more obvious than others – so there is that too. I got what I was looking for, and so much more!

So expect my Star Wars spam to continue as May the Fourth draws closer. xD

#JeMiChi talking #star wars #just some thoughts I have about it #Space Fam is the best #basically Filoni's Star Wars OCs that became canon #I love them #found family done right #including all the weird uncles #just adopt them all #I also have a serious case of feels for Maul #and for Thrawn #and stuff about lightsaber colors and that symbolism stuck in my mind because of a conversation with Samira #and thinking about Zeb and how he gives the best hugs

2 notes · View notes

24pts · 6 years

Text

book review: the illuminae files

“Am I not merciful?”

The Illuminae Files is one of my favourite book series this year (not that I read many). I was slightly hesitant going into it because I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, but seeing the gorgeous covers I decided to give it a try. The books have a very unique format. There would be messages, emails, transcripts of videos, interviews, etc. This makes the story incredibly easy to read and to get into.

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.”

I was most impressed with the world building and the amount of detail the authors put into it. I enjoyed the pretty diagrams about the spaceships. It is set in the future, where it is the year 2575 and there is an evil mega corporation which has invaded a tiny ice-covered planet named Kerenza.

“She is catalyst.She is chaos.I can see why he loves her.”

In the first book, we follow our characters Kady Grant and Ezra Mason as they deal with the bad guys and also a deadly virus called Phobos that essentially turns human beings into zombie like, dangerous creatures. Kady has pink hair and is a coding genius while Ezra gets thrown into being a pilot.

“He presses the triggers. And like roses in his hands, death blooms.”

Oh, and there’s also AIDAN, a crazy and unpredictable AI. I really enjoyed the AIDAN parts in the book because every time I read them there’s this detached, monotone, slightly sinister voice in my head. Lol. For me, the first book sets the stage for the next two.

“And now, born from the ashes, she’s a warrior in bloodied black.”

In the second book, Gemina, we are brought into a different setting at a jump station where we meet other characters and get their perspective. This one was a little harder to get into at first but about midway through I got hooked and went all the way. There was a lot of action and—no spoilers—but you will get mindblown later in the book.

“Now, children, watch closely. Hold your breath. Listen. And I will show you the components of calamity.”

The characters we meet in this book are quite possibly my favourite. We have Hanna Donelly, a blonde and beautiful rich girl who is also quite possibly the most kickass female character in the series. She gets entangled with Niklas Malivov, the gangster who sells her drugs. I loved their dynamics, I’m a sucker for playful banter and love interests with completely different backgrounds.

“It’s not about what I say, right? It’s what I do that matters here.”

And have I mentioned Ella Malikova? Another hacking genius also known as pauchok, or little spider. She’s young, weighed down by illness, but also extremely witty and so so important to the novel.

“The traces of worry, sorrow, fear, all of them smoothed over as she slips into the code, the network, the world where she doesn’t need a pair of legs to run.“

In Obsidio, the characters from Illuminae and Gemina will come together to go back to their home planet in hopes of rescuing everyone. Again, we get new characters but this time they are not as fleshed out as I would like them to be, given that we don’t have too much time with them as we see the previous characters in action too.

“Every story needs its hero. And its villain. And its monster.”

We meet Asha Grant and Rhys Lindstrom, ex-lovers who meet again, only that Rhys is working for the enemy. My favourite minor character is Sergeant Oshiro (although it did get pretty annoying when she said "Welcome to Kerenza, Cherry” like 20 times throughout the entire book). She follows orders and what is expected of her, but she is not a flat character that is entirely evil. I wished we could have seen more of her character because she is much more interesting then Asha or Rhys to me.

“I was thinking,“ he murmurs. "There'a billion different versions of you out there, in a trillion different universes. And I still can’t get over how lucky I am that, out of all those versions, you’re the one that’s mine.”

There were many interesting themes explored like war and humanity. Throughout the three books humanity seems to be the main theme and the authors do a pretty good job at exploring this.

“The die is cast. But today we will shake the table upon which it lands.”

I had the same experience with obsidio as gemina—a slow start, and then midway through, the pace picks up and things start happening and I finished it all in one setting. This last instalment had me laughing and crying (especially towards the end). When I reached the end, I was almost wistful and sad that I wasn’t going to be seeing more of the characters.

“Live a life worth dying for.”

Overall this was a compelling read, with young yet capable characters and plenty of wit. It’s tense at moments and heartwarming in the next. I would highly recommend this to everyone.

★★★★✩ 4.0

#the illuminae files #gemina #obsidio #book review

3 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Why It’s Better Than the Joss Whedon Cut

https://ift.tt/3lqZB9g

This article contains spoilers for zack snyder’s justice league.

The long-awaited Snyder Cut is here at last. After nearly four years of rumors, innuendos, hints, allegations, online harassment, and everything else that’s good and bad about fandom, Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been willed into existence by the filmmaker and his legions of fans.

Four hours long–one for each year you’ve had to endure the clamor of Snyder acolytes demanding the filmmaker’s vision be restored–Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the ultimate version of the movie that Snyder never completed in 2017. Instead the version of the film that reached theaters was a truncated, patched-together mess that nearly stopped the DC cinematic universe in its tracks.

If you detect a bit of snark in the preceding paragraph, you’re not off-base. The very notion that a vocal contingent of fans could make enough noise to actually get a version of a piece of art or entertainment in their preferred format opens a proverbial Pandora’s box. Everyone treats whenever fans sign online petitions to get movies, television finales, or the like remade as jokes. But a cynic might wonder if the Snyder Cut gets us closer to that happening.

There is of course a key difference between Snyder finishing his passion project and other flair ups between fans and creators: The Justice League that came out in 2017 was a Frankenstein’s Monster of a movie, with half of the finished picture rewritten and reshot by a director (Joss Whedon) with a completely different tone and approach. This occurred after Snyder had to abandon it due to a terrible family tragedy–which, in the most cynical version of this tale, the studio (Warner Bros.) saw as an opportunity to hijack the film and retool it to their liking.

So now that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a thing, with the original director restoring hours of footage that he shot (and adding some freshly filmed material at the end) while throwing out everything he didn’t, there is one question that burns as fiercely and brightly as the raging eyes of Darkseid himself: Is it better than the 2017 theatrical version, aka the Whedon Compromise?

The answer is unequivocally yes.

Now that doesn’t automatically make ZSJL a good film. Nor does it necessarily make the Whedon version a wholly bad one–but there’s no question that the 2017 version suffers greatly and is diminished by comparison. In fact, it’s almost not fair to call that version the “Whedon” one; regardless of the man’s personal controversies, it seems apparent that he was put in an almost impossible position when he was recruited to finish Justice League back then.

Whedon was tasked by the studio to make a movie more like his own The Avengers out of material that couldn’t be more different in terms of tone, visual style, pacing, and structure. He was also asked to recreate what Marvel had taken six movies to do: introduce and assemble a team of superheroes all in a single film and in less than two hours (minus credits). And he did that by stitching together footage that was already shot by a different director with scenes that he had to craft almost on the fly, all with a desperate, panicking studio breathing down his neck. Whedon could have summoned Scorsese, Coppola, and the ghosts of Hitchcock and Kubrick to help him solve it and it still might have defeated him.

The result was a movie that was the soulless, corporate product that critics accuse all Hollywood blockbusters, particularly superhero movies, of being–but which most are decidedly not. Whedon’s own The Avengers is proof that a studio can make a heartfelt, earnest, charming, and still awe-inspiring spectacle with the right people, story, and vision in place. The vision behind 2017’s Justice League–which does have its lively moments and does benefit in some ways from better pacing (but is ultimately hurt more by its shortened running time)–is a vision only of bottom lines and quarterly profits.

So, yes, ZSJL is the better movie. For one thing, it’s clearly a personal work. Whatever one thinks of Snyder’s directorial vision and peculiar take on superheroes, it’s all there on the screen and unashamedly his, just as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and, to a lesser extent, Man of Steel were. The fact that the DC film franchise has long moved past his approach doesn’t necessarily factor into ZSJL. It stands alone.

On its own terms, it hits all the marks that Snyder probably wanted to hit. The story and several of the characters are developed much more than they ever were in the 2017 edition. True, a lot of exposition is needed to make that story more cohesive and complete than it was before, but there are plenty of new visuals to go along with that foundation building as well. There is much more representation here of the full breadth of the DC universe, from ancient gods to Jack Kirby’s Fourth World.

The back story of Darkseid and the Mother Boxes, and the first battle for Earth with the Atlanteans, the Amazons, and everyone else somehow seems better articulated and executed. The connective tissue joining Darkseid’s quest to that of his lackey Steppenwolf–tying it all to the death of Superman, whose removal from the board cleared the way for Steppenwolf to return–is strengthened. Bruce Wayne’s quest to put together the team to defend the planet takes longer and has more steps to it, making it feel like much more of a challenge than it did four years ago.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Some of that team are given much better treatment this time, with Victor Stone/Cyborg getting the most out of the deal. He truly does become the heart of the picture in many ways, getting two extensive flashbacks that are equal parts elegant and clumsy but do a lot to round out a character who was little more than a special effect in 2017.

Ray Fisher’s performance is assured and graceful, and one can now see why he is so angry about what happened with the theatrical cut: it’s quite possible that some backroom studio committee meeting came up with a variation of “we can’t have an unknown take up so much space in a movie starring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.”

Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen/the Flash also has more to do than make jokes, although the much-ballyhooed introduction of Iris West (Kiersey Clemons) is little more than a walk-on, seen once and never heard from again (there’s a bit of that going around in this picture). Similarly, Lois Lane’s grief over the death of Clark/Superman is explored with somewhat more depth, although an otherwise poignant scene between her and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) is nearly ruined by a pointless twist.

Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) are less developed here, and their characterizations clash with what we’ve seen since in their standalone movies. There is a much more melancholy resonance to the absence of and longing for Superman. And although he’s still no Thanos in terms of complexity and nuance, Steppenwolf at least has a clearer motivation in this film. He just wants to get back on the boss’ good side, which kind of makes him weirdly amusing in a movie notable for its almost complete lack of humor.

All the banter that Whedon wrote and shot–the flirting between Bruce and Diana on the plane, Aquaman sitting on the Lasso of Truth–is gone. There are still some laugh lines in the movie, but ZSJL is as self-serious and grimdark as Snyder’s previous two DC entries. That makes it feel heavy-handed, as does Snyder’s deployment of agonizing slow-motion for so many scenes that it feels like he could have lost an hour just by speeding up the film. The colors are murky, mostly brown and gray, and while a number of visual effects are pulled off handsomely and seamlessly, this is supposed to feel mythic but ends up feeling just artificial more often than not.

But most importantly, the story and characters in this Justice League are still ill-served by the way the film was conceived in the first place. Even though our heroes are overall given more to do, this is still a movie that has to introduce three of those heroes, their backstories, and their worlds in one fell swoop. There’s no sense of culmination or victory in seeing them together, like there was in The Avengers. And in the end, Steppenwolf’s pursuit of three magic boxes just doesn’t carry the entire four hours.

Movies

Zack Snyder’s Justice League vs. the Whedon Cut: What are the Differences?

By David Crow

Movies

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: A History of Steppenwolf

By Marc Buxton

For all the world-building that Snyder (and screenwriter Chris Terrio) do, the placement of the “Knightmare” epilogue and its Joker cameo undermine everything that has come before, and undermine the character of Superman again. By the time the movie’s ending rolls around, Snyder is still basically saying that our heroes are going to keep letting us down–especially poor Superman, who’s going to turn evil in the future after being killed off and brought back once already as a rage monster. The addition of a Martian Manhunter cameo (his second!) at the very end is also superfluous, pointless fan service.

It certainly seems as if Snyder put every scrap of footage he shot into this version of his magnum opus, and perhaps that is what it took to give him closure, both for the film and for the unspeakable loss he endured while making it (there is a poignancy now to the movie’s major plot point of trying to bring back someone from the dead). But just because he could do it doesn’t mean he should have. Incredible as it seems, there may be an even better two-and-a-half or even three-hour cut of this Justice League that we’ll never see.

As it stands though, this one we now have will be the one spoken about in the years to come. Meanwhile the 2017 version will fade into history as an oddity. And that is, in the final analysis, the way it should be.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is now streaming on HBO Max.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Why It’s Better Than the Joss Whedon Cut appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3150FWJ

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes