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finsterhund · 8 months

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Oh shit a new episode of the Ahsoka show came out while I was on my camping trip...

Spoilers under break.

Still genuinely confused about Sabine being force sensitive. It kinda feels like the show is too???? Idk maybe Luke took to everything so fast in A New Hope because he was a Skywalker but Sabine is really struggling????

Jesus Christ this episode continues to just show the New Republic as stupid bureaucrats. :( "You're wasting resources trying to find this missing kid, even though it's specifically to track down Thrawn being alive also because he's a threat." Bruh. I looked up to you guys when I was little you're breaking my heart.

Jacen is sweet. They made him look a bit more on the human side though? Why isn't he being trained? He's a good age to start considering how old Anakin was and also probably actually force sensitive.

Yeah Sabine is straight up "I don't feel the force" Ahsoka is like "not everyone can handle the discipline it takes" like bro you were trained since you were an infant!!!!

Okay so now Huyang is like "the Order wouldn't have accepted her" so he just straight up lied to Sabine in the last episode. Mean.

I see where the writers are going now. But Ahsoka isn't being smart about it. I really am clashing with this writing. What's basically "plot armor" except it's a "character being made to be stupider than they canonically should be" called?

THE RETURN OF TEARSTAINS WHITE DOG!!! MY BLORBO!!! In a little fighter ship aaaaaa fuck why has this character grown on me so much in such a stupid fucking way bro

God a part of my brain has retroactively decided that Hati is a lichthund and her ship is actually some sort of SW canon compliant synth wing alternative. It makes her feel a lot more realistic tbh. God I'd never want my hounds to be an actual canon SW race because that'd mean Disney would own them now but I haven't actually thought about them ACTUALLY seriously literally showing up in a piece of SW media for AGES.

Okay so I've had an internal running joke where I just go "haha lichthund" every time Disney has someone do something that doesn't make sense under normal pre Disney canonical circumstances but would be a possibility in my own work. ie: hyperspace ramming: this is a very lichthund thing to do fyi they're fucking obsessed with that, surviving lightsaber stab wounds in vital places: sounds like somebody's part lichthund to me, etc. It's a joke, it's coping, it's genuinely silly, but now I'm actually taking it seriously. FFS.

The idea of a lichthunde who relies entirely on their synth wing is hilarious to me though. Maybe in this hypothetical lichthund-Hati is physically disabled, or spent most of her life clipped or something.

Oh shit I think Morgan is actually force sensitive. Unless that's all just Hati doing the telepathy. Because it still really fucking feels that Hati isn't force sensitive.

God I can't stop reinterpreting her as a lichthund. This is actually helping me suspend disbelief.

Bro Ahsoka leaving the ship and jumping around in space. Only Ahsoka in this situation could make sense but it still is weird to see. She's wearing a suit thankfully. I know Disney has had people survive outside of ships without them before but I don't like that. I've seen Jedi in space suits in the CW cartoon before and clones wearing spacesuits so I'm not bothered by that but I don't think lightsabers are supposed to handly firepower from ships? Only the fact that she was Anakin's Padawan is making me accept this. Because this sounds like something stupidly dangerous and excessive that he would do. I can fucking hear Obi-wan ribbing them both about it.

Wait why can't Ahsoka propel herself back to the ship using the force? So Leia can do this unconscious but Ahsoka can't? Disney...

Hati apparently being force sensitive and not being able to hit Ahsoka with her ship guns makes sense with my stupid little game where she's a lichthund because manually having to control a gun rather than her own biological weapons would be fairly dysmorphic tho so...

Like the live action purgill designs. Flying around them was cool.

Still cursed with the thought of Hati being a little white fluffy tearstained lichthund that has body dysmorpha though. Fuck I want art of this so bad. Just this fucked up little lichthund (Indigo sized) with wings permanently held resting folded using front legs to man the ship steering looking around with a constant semi deer-in-the-headlights expression. This is canon to me.

Was able to flow along and understand a lot better than the first two episodes. Still not sold on the series but if this turns into the lichthund blorbo development experience I won't be mad.

#text post #sw spoilers #long post #spoilers

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angelicjadamv · 3 years

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The story so far

One month after graduating high school in 2015 I was finally able to move away from my family. I was 18 and moved to California for college. Fortunately one of the scholarships I earned was accompanied by a summer program that started in the middle of the summer before fall semester. Shortly after settling in a safe, stable environment for the first time in my life I started to get better. A lot better at first. Then life happened, as it does, and 18 years of repressed trauma and abuse broke me. My nervous breakdown ruined my fall semester, I couldn't go to classes or take exams or function as a student anymore. Until this point, being an exceptional student was all I had and basically how I survived. My safe and stable environment now was dependant on maintaining a certain GPA, among other requirements I could no longer meet. I failed one of my main courses because I had a 0 on 2 exams, including the final. When I went home I was put on antipsychotics. Returning to campus for the 2016 spring semester, I attempted to seek more therapy. I wasn't successful in finding a good therapist (for me, therapy is a personal thing. Just because someone isn't a good therapist for me doesn't necessarily mean they are a bad therapist). I did continue to see my 2 psychiatrists (emergency and regular) often as they attempted to adjust my medication to find something that work. My agoraphobia worsened, I stopped sleeping, I could barely eat, I was manic one moment and dissociative the next, SH and suicidal ideation worsened. I was a burden to my friends and loved ones. I made it through this because I had a beautiful support system that I will forever be grateful for, but I ended up taking a leave of absence academically for my second semester, earning no credits and putting my scholarships at further jeopardy. I was allowed to stay on campus because it was clear I was dangerously unstable with no safe environment to return to and because I had incredible advocates looking out for me. I had realized that I wasn't going to get better in time to salvage my academic career and my life, and was mostly clueless as to how I would survive. I had had an internship in my field since I started college, but I earned basically no money. STEM internships aren't really made to be livable for undergrads, so I had mostly been working for experience in a field I would no longer be able to progress in. Bummer. My physical health had taken a huge dive for all of 2016. I basically always knew I was chronically ill, but I had been abused and gaslit my entire life to believe and act like I was fine, I was just a weak baby, I didn't know what real pain or suffering was, seizures were to be ignored, no I didn't have migraines or pinched nerves (um hello SCOLIOSIS), etc etc. And 2016 was the year my body finally started to break, so I knew "regular" jobs weren't going to be a viable option for me, at least not for long.

And thus I became a survival SW. I stayed in college for a final semester, because I didn't want to miss my friends, I loved my campus and didn't know where else to live, I still needed a lot of campus resources. I also kept my internship as long as I could, because I knew I would miss it for the rest of my life. I didn't really go to classes, again, because as much as a desperately wanted to and as much as my advisors moved heaven and earth to try to make it work for me, I couldn't handle it. I was finally able to find 2 great therapists who I started seeing regularly who actually knew how to diagnose and treat me, one at school and one outside. This is also when I met Daddy (Jace) online. After talking for what is probably a stupidly short time, we fell in love and started dating. This is honestly my first real relationship and time actually catching genuine feelings for someone, something that I hadn't thought I was capable of. Despite being happier than I had ever been in so many ways, my mental and physical health was still steadily declining. My migraines and pain were getting worse, I hadn't been able to eat normally in months and relied entirely on medication to eat or sleep at all. Many people recommended mmj at this point in my life, but I was afraid of how it would interact with my other meds. I only smoked occasionally at parties at this point (because no way was I spending my super duper limited money on weed). I wonder if medicating with something that actually worked well for me, like weed, would have allowed me to finish college. Oh well I guess. Because of my inability to attend classes, I had to take another leave for the fall semester 2016. I worked at a strip club briefly, but my health couldn't handle it for long.

I didn't want to go home for the first winter break in 2015, but campus closed and I had nowhere else to go. It was turbulent. When summer 2016 came, I still didn't go home despite having no place to stay. Until a month or so later, it was revealed to me a relative had terminal cancer. I had to go home again. It was worse than turbulent. When winter 2016 came, my relative was in much worse condition. They only had a few months left, and this was probably my last chance to say goodbye. This visit was by far the most traumatic, and more because of my parents than watching a loved one die. At least Jace was able to come meet me for the first time in person. He also got to meet my relative before they passed 🖤

Freshly fucked up by family, I retuned to California at the beginning of 2017. I was mostly taking a break from SW because of my health and was working vanilla jobs as I could (so not much). I had a pretty decent job that I was really good at and had been promoted, but then my relative passed. I started losing consciousness again ( I had many seizures and fainting spells in my childhood and during high school) and had to quit my job. the funeral was in spring 2017, I flew to Jersey to be with Daddy for a few days and then he drove me several states over for the memorial. That was the last time I saw my family. I wanted to transition to online/content creating, but I had no tech knowledge or equipment (even my phone was a potato). In high school I wasn't allowed to have a smartphone, most social media other than what was heavily monitored (and still had 0 experience with platforms sw is popular on besides Tumblr I guess), I didn't really know much about cameras. Way too sheltered and broken to feel like I could start anything. I was now seeing my outside, or I guess regular and only, therapist twice a week and doing treatments that while working for me were insanely (literally) hard. I had been able to get an apartment with roommates at a super discount in return for taking care of their crazy dog, which was a win win for me (he was a good boi just crazy from a bad past and had the worst separation anxiety). The agreement was that I would live with them until the lease was up in September, and then we would reevaluate the situation. Then they both got promoted at their mega corporation jobs. And after their wedding found a really gorgeous apartment in a much fancier part of the city, and paid to break our lease early in June leaving me homeless. I had been fired from my last 2 jobs (probably for being disabled because California is at will employment but who knows I might have been fired from the nanny job because the husband wanted to fuck me). I had no money or anywhere to go. All of my friends were almost as broke as me, so while I had offers to couchsurf at a few of their places they had other roommates who would have been pissed and in a few months they would be going back to school anyways. Daddy and I had been trying to save up to move in together for months, but he was going to move to California. We didn't have any money for that, so instead he asked me to move in with him in New Jersey. Leaving meant I lost my health insurance and my therapist. It was supposed to be much more temporary and we were supposed to move back to California much sooner than we were able to. I try not to be mad at those roommates because being angry doesn't change anything, but it really sucked.

Moving in with Daddy meant we could start our blog! And I was super happy at first, the happiest I could ever remember. But the years had been too hard and my health started to get worse than ever before. Without treatment and so traumatized, my brain and body were constantly at war. I would wake with splitting migraines, throwing up, my chronic pain became completely unmanageable. I started to need weed all the time because it was the only thing that stopped my cyclical vomiting episodes and kept me out of the hospital. My antipsychotics and other meds had been high-key fucking me up (probably shouldn't have been on them in the first place, thank you doctor who also ignored my seizures even when I had one in front of you) and were almost impossible to come off of because the withdrawals. (Seriously, kicking xanax was easier for me than my antipsychotics.) I'm not anti medication or anything, I just know the ones I was on were not good for me anymore. I'd actually like to be on something again, I just need a doctor who actually understands PTSD and DID.

My health continued to be shit for most of 2018, with several ER visits for severe dehydration from vomiting for days on end. We started to make videos and do snapchat and online sessions to be able to make ends meet. Despite being in the worst situation and thus everything being a trizillion times harder, we really loved (and still love 😇) doing SW and creating content. Our fans and clients have been there in some of our darkest moments, just being lovely or pulling through for us when we needed it most. During 2018 and 2019 I became actively suicidal for the first time since I was 13. I struggled with self harm again. I have gotten worse than I ever thought possible. But I wouldn't have made it at all if it wasn't for SW, this community and our supporters.

At the beginning of 2020 we were finally able to move back to California. Obviously, the pandemic severely disrupted many of our plans, especially regarding my recovery. Despite things being delayed or shifted, we are in a much better place currently. I have what I need to get better and I can build a support system again. I will get better.

Talking about things is hard for me. Being open and honest is hard for me. For 18 years I was trained and abused to not be sad or show negative feelings, or talk about upsetting things, and it has been killing me slowly my entire life. I genuinely don't want pity or to make others feel bad, but I do want to give you the chance to get to know me. I don't always talk about things so much. But I'm trying to get better at it.

#angelicjada #oc #about jada

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jedi-order-apologist · 4 years

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Hello there! Could you maybe put together small SW novels recommendation list? You reference books often and I assume you can suggest a few good ones that shed light/give more insight into the Jedi culture. Thank you for your blog and have a good day 💗

Thank you! I hope you have a good day too.

I actually haven’t read that many Star Wars books, all things considered - there are a lot, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the prequel era stuff, let alone the rest of the franchise. I only recently started getting into the books, and there’s probably a lot more really good ones out there that I just haven’t had the chance to get to yet.

What I could do is go through what I have read and give my opinions on those. So far, in no particular order, I’ve read:

- The novelizations for the prequels and some of the original novelizations for the OT. More on my thoughts on those here (and specifically for the ROTS novelization here), but in summary: TPM novelization is a bit weak, AOTC novelization is decent and really helped sell the romance to me in a way the film fell flat for me, ROTS novelization is nothing short of phenomenal, ROTJ novelization is also pretty good, I don’t remember the ESB novelization enough to say anything on it, and I never read the ANH (or technically just Star Wars) novelization. I’d say they’re worth checking out at least once.

- Shatterpoint. I really like this one, it deals a lot with Mace struggling with the dark side, and it captures the idea of falling to the dark side as something rooted in defeatism, which really resonates with my interpretation. There’s quite a bit of discussion of Jedi philosophy and why they do and believe the things they do (or at least how Mace Windu sees it) - I’ve cited it before in my meta because I think it lays out pretty well why they resist the dark side. It also deals a lot with the costs of war - especially psychologically. There’s also a decent element of Jedi as family through the father-daughter relationship of Mace and Depa. On top of all of that, it’s very well written (same author as the ROTS novelization). I strongly recommend this one, though be warned that it is a very heavy, brutal book - oh, it’s not completely bleak, and it has it’s moments of humor, but it is not a happy story. It ends in victory, both in the immediate situation, and with Mace coming to terms with some of what he’d been struggling with, but I wouldn’t call it a happy ending, more that…well, as Mace says, he’s the last one standing.

- Yoda: Dark Rendezvous. I read this one most recently, and I made a long post on why I absolutely loved it. It’s not perfect but I think it’s the best portrayal of the Jedi in the books that I’ve come across so far - this book really goes hard on the “Jedi as family” idea, which I love, and there are really good conversations on (and inspiring examples of resisting) the dark side, and working through but not giving into grief. Everyone should read this book, it shows the Jedi as an inspiring people with so much tenacity and compassion, doing their best. And it eviscerates every bit of nonsense about the Jedi (and especially Yoda) being “emotionless” or “loveless”- it’s full of amazing passages that are absolutely perfect responses to these notions, direct refutations of them even (as well as refutations about the idea of the dark side having any kind of merit at all) because they get slung around in the story by a lot of the characters. If I could only pick one Star Wars book to suggest someone read, it would be this one, absolutely.

- Kenobi. Do you like Westerns and a sad Obi-Wan with a chronic hero syndrome that doesn’t help him with the whole ‘staying under the radar’ thing? If yes, you will probably like this book. It doesn’t really get much into Jedi culture, since…well, they’re dead, and most of the book is written from an outside perspective, not Obi-Wan’s. I think that was a good choice, because while he’s understandably going to be very sad during this time (it takes place during his very early days on Tatooine), constant exposure to that, in my opinion, would overdo it and wear out the audience. So the outside perspective of how sad and weird he is, where the characters don’t understand the context behind his behavior, but the audience does, works really well. I have some issues with it - for instance, while it’s kind of hilarious how much everyone wants to jump his bones in this book, I do wish that they’d kept the chemistry between Obi-Wan and Annileen strictly platonic (and the language around romance in this book rubs me the wrong way). And how people find out his last name is a bit contrived. But it’s a decent read that I’d recommend.

- Jedi Apprentice (series). I’d recommend this with the caveat that you have to go into it keeping in mind that it’s written for younger readers. Which absolutely does NOT mean it’s all fluff and sunshine and rainbows, very far from it (I call this series “Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Collection of Childhood Trauma” for some very good reasons, and the fact that he tries to sacrifice himself to suicide-bomb a door open with the slave collar wrapped around his neck before he even gets taken on as a padawan is just one of them), but there’s a lot of stuff that…doesn’t feel like it was explored fully to an adult reader’s satisfaction. It has a lot of the usual kind of fridge logic that often comes into play with kids’ media, and while it was written to be favorable towards the Jedi, that fridge stuff gets taken by fandom as reasons to criticize the Jedi quite often. More on that here.

- Cloak of Deception. This one’s…okay? It does spend quite a bit of time with the Jedi, but it feels pretty surface level. Luceno’s strength is in the fantasy space politics; for whatever reason his character interactions always fall flat for me, though I’m not sure if I can articulate why they’re so unsatisfying to me outside of a handful of good moments. But if you’re looking for a look into the politics leading up to TPM (or at least, Legends take on it), this is (one of) the books to look at. I say one of because I actually read Darth Plagueis first, and there is a bit of overlap.

- The Approaching Storm. This is the lead-in book to AOTC. It does a decent job with a look at the Jedi, I think, with a few snags (Barriss straight-up heals brain damage/mental illness to the point of complete personality changes, which seems way outside Jedi abilities to me, and there’s a bit of “maybe we shouldn’t take people from their families” angle instead of the Jedi as family angle). Also for some reason it refers to Barriss and Luminara as humans. And while the book tells us a lot about how important it is that the Jedi negotiate this conflict, most of their actual obstacles are getting places, with the negotiation itself getting glossed over. But it was a decent read, I think.

- Labyrinth of Evil. This is another Luceno book, this time for leading up to ROTS. The character interactions worked a little better here - or at least they had more of their moments - Anakin basically going “Marriage what marriage I don’t see a marriage” in front of Obi-Wan was pretty damn funny…and everyone knows the “infinite sadness” line that follows off of that. I’ll be curious as to what the current continuity gives us for what set off the invasion of Coruscant, because this (as part of Legends) gave us a pretty good reason for it. I’d recommend it, again, for the examination of the political situation, and there’s some decent action in here too. There’s a few insights into the Jedi but it’s hit or miss whether I agree with them, and they’re not the focus.

- Darth Plagueis. This one’s probably the best of Luceno’s books (that I’ve read), but it’s not Jedi-friendly. Most of that’s because, well…it’s from the Sith’s perspective, so they’re not going to be very pro-Jedi. I’m mostly okay with that because a lot of their criticism of the Jedi is very clearly coming from an obviously bad faith position (”the Jedi let the Republic decay” the Sith say as they devour a man’s heart and talk about how the Sith need to make all the problems of the Republic worse), although there’s one scene at the end that I really don’t like because it appears to really claim that the Jedi would’ve told Anakin to never talk about his mother, which doesn’t match up with, well, AOTC, for one thing, or just my impression of them in general. But what this book does do well is a look at how the Sith influenced the political situation, and a lot of midichlorian lore (seriously, this book feels like a middle finger to prequel hate - “oh you thought the fantasy space politics were boring? You thought midichlorians were stupid? Here’s why you’re wrong”). Luceno’s way of doing character interactions actually serves this book really well, because the Sith are able to be written as the focus characters without making them sympathetic in the least. If you’re looking to get invested in characters, probably not the book for you, but if you’re looking for fantasy space politics, it’s pretty good.

- Rogue Planet. This one has a good interpretation of the Jedi, I think, though you do have to contend with the “written before AOTC” issue of authors not realizing that Jedi weren’t supposed to get married and have children. But I liked the look at how they handled discipline - Anakin gets in trouble, and he’s brought before the Council, and the whole process is about questioning him to get him to realize and admit what he did wrong, not punishment. They then make the decision to redirect his energy into something productive by sending him and Obi-Wan on a mission. Also, Anakin sees a Jedi therapist at the end of this book, so it’s a good one to throw back at anyone who claims that the Jedi never helped him or that the Jedi don’t do therapy. But…plot-wise…it’s a little weak, mostly in that not much is resolved because it’s mostly setting up for stuff that won’t pay off until much, much further down the line (as in, whenever the Yuuzhan-Vong show up). The ship-growing thing was cool though.

- Wild Space. If you’re looking for a ridiculously dramatic Obi-Wan whump fic that’s one step away from sticking Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, and Bail in a foursome, this is the book for you. If you’re looking for things like accurate characterization, an interpretation of the Jedi consistent with the films, believable interpersonal communication, or an actual plot…you will be sorely disappointed by this book.

- Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth. This is the sequel to Wild Space. It has a second part, Clone Wars Gambit: Siege, which I have not been able to bring myself to read, which probably tells you all you need to know about my thoughts on the first one, though you can read more about them here. In short, I strongly do not recommend this book at all, and find it to be pretty terrible characterization (even though it’s played for sympathy) of the Jedi and especially Obi-Wan. Wild Space at least has absurdity going for it. Stealth does not.

And that’s it! That’s all I’ve read so far. I’m sure not everyone will agree with my opinions, but in terms of my personal recommendations/non-recommendations, this is what I have.

#book recommendations #or not recommendations as the case may be #discussion #jedi #on jedi culture #Anonymous

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webwych · 5 years

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Soooooo, ICYMI (I’m getting down with the buzz acronyms - go me, huh?!), towards the end of last week, Mark Hamill posted photoshopped pic of himself, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams as their aged characters as seen in the ST. Personally, I’d say judging from the thread it generated it was accepted and challenged in somewhat equal measure by those who chose to respond it. I have to admit this and a recent article for The Independent online by journalist Clarisse Loughrey titled “Why There’s Still Hope For The Star Wars Fandom Yet”, made me think again about this labelled “toxic fandom”.

For those of us first fan generation, I personally take great affront at pretty much all of the descriptions thrown at us since December 2015, but I also recognise that due to the open social platforms where this is consistently happening, this has been one of the millions of social generational changes both for good and bad brought about by the invention of the mass internet. As a lady of somewhat mature years, I personally feel that I don’t have the life hours to waste on social media sites, but yet to be part of the enormous conversation that LFL have kept a monitoring eye on since the first SW chatroom appeared online, one has to, to a degree.

I missed Hamill’s “missed opportunity” tweet and had it bought to my attention by @culturevulture73. However, for a laugh, I thought I would look at the thread it had clearly generated. As I said I feel there was an equal measure opinion, however, looking at the thread, I did wonder if those who disagreed with the post realised that rather than being a sane voice, were actually inciting further toxicity through their need to respond.

There are a few cold, hard facts that those fans who want the fandom focus to be on the here and now simply can’t erase, and the first one is for 22 years the only SW we had were the OT on screen characters joined by the expanded characters from the former EU until 1999. That’s 22 years for fans to develop a relationship, and that’s important for ongoing business. The second one is nostalgia. While LFL was under sole ownership, I think the company was able to navigate it’s diverging timelines and characters well enough. Not being a massive merchandise collector, I couldn’t even begin to discuss or offer opinion (except in these broadest of strokes) on how focus was from the PT to 2012. However, once LFL was sold to Disney this was going to change. As it currently stands, corporate Disney is not about original creativity any more. It’s acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel LFL and now Fox have proved that. Why should they develop their own creativity or move once again into different area of film (remember Touchstone?) when they can acquire a company to do it for them. When you sit and think about it, the only major ongoing cinematic franchise not under the Disney label is James Bond but I’m sure if the current MGM management were able to obtain agreement from EON Productions to asset strip, Iger would be in there like a shot because he is a consummate, and currently very astute, businessman. Presently it is somewhat clear that Disney (when it comes to their own product) have commenced a carefully crafted race regarding IP copyrighted extension. Why do you think they are now offering live action (or non-pen and paint animated) versions of some of their successful animated titles? Of their back catalogue, I don’t think we will get a re-imagined “OLIVER & CO” or “THE BLACK CAULDRON” somehow but who knows? Again it all started somewhat innocuously with “101 DALMATIONS” with Glenn Close, “MALEFICENT” with Angela Jolie, “CINDERELLA” directed by Kenneth Branagh (sorry, but that is sorta like having David Lean in the director’s chair!), “THE JUNGLE BOOK”, “BEAUTY AND THE BEAST”. But suddenly it’s all got ratcheted up and audiences have had “MARY POPPINS RETURNS” and “DUMBO” with ��THE LION KING”, “ALADDIN”, “MULAN” and “MALEFICENT 2” on their way. I have no doubt that more are in development. Disney is all about feeding audience nostalgia and making every character it owns pay their way (seriously, Browncoats - wait this one out, they’ll get to us, but I’m not sure we’ll like it when they do!) because that is how they keep their shareholders happy. Nostalgia sells because we all look back. A third one is that simply without us first gen fans who made SW a thing, there would be nothing to rail against.

So where does this social media/journalistic label “toxic fandom” come in this scenario? Within the context of the Clarisse Loughrey article is definitively with those who have clearly gone down the revoltingly obnoxious racism and sexism paths because they are the easy surface issues to investigate. On Twitter, the Dataracer account posted the Loughrey article with others to evidence that Disney/LFL have weaponised the social media treatment of both Ridley and Tran. I am not for one single word here making light of what happened to these 2 women because it remains heinous, obnoxious and must be continually universally be condemned by this fandom, but this twitter post also has a point whether we like it or not. A corporate entity, and those who comment are using this to bludgeon the very people who make this worthy enough to comment on. Where some will shout “fake news”, fandom observers scream “toxic”. This idea of what these 2 words, “toxic” and “fandom” are describing constantly twists by whoever is using them and are being used to describe the personally levelled hate as in the case of Ridley and Tran as cited by journalists to simply not liking the films as often used by Disney/LFL. That’s a Grand Canyon of distance and also prompts a further thought of when is it OK to dislike? And what is the actual issue, is it the mere act of offering a different viewpoint to the majority? Or is it just saying “it sucks!” and not trying to explain why? Or can it be that we all want to be heard but none of us can listen? What I’m writing here is all so very simplistic to what is a deep issue for which there will never be a pan-fandom fix.

With the release of TFA, the ST has clearly divided the fandom and we now have many social media platforms upon which to vent our pleasure or displeasure. Unfortunately, the easiest pushback is to bring up nostalgia and accuse older fans of not wanting to look to the present or the future as happened with Hamill’s tweet. I can only poorly make an argument of my issues with the ST which lie with the story creatives and developers but I have noticed a rise in voices like mine. I also believe that when it comes to the OT3, regardless of the agreements that Lucas obtained prior to selling to Disney, there would have been many points on that journey where Ford, Hamill and Fisher could have been told that plans have changed and they were not required. That is all part of a film’s development and a scenario to be accepted as par for the course. But someone made the concrete corporate decision to keep them, and not only keep them, but to have them as a focus in each film. Surely, that decision in itself becomes a corporate fan pander because Disney/LFL needed to ensure complete financial success or what what the point of the venture?

Overnight, Hamill felt the need to clarify his first post which I think is appalling in itself, but that’s me. As LFL continue to move forward with their SW plans, this is a situation that is never likely to improve and I have no doubt that in 20 years time the fans of SW then will be doing exactly the same to the SW fans of now.

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starwarscommonwealth · 6 years

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Do you miss Marvel at the cons?

So recently Tim from The Nerd Room asked the question: Do you miss Marvel at the big cons lately? They’ve been conspicuously absent! What’s going on with this? Where are they? What are they up to?

My approach on this tends to be to put myself in their shoes. Before we get into the weeds, though, I think it’s worth keeping in mind a couple of different things…

1) Production and Marketing are two very different departments internally. I saw this a TON when I worked in the video game industry. And perhaps rightfully so, you want the production team to focus on making the best possible product, and let the marketing team worry about how to sell it.

2) We don’t hear nearly as much about this with regards to Marvel as we do about Star Wars – but keep in mind that Disney owns Marvel Studios. So just as we theorize that sometimes the SW marketing has to be in sync with what the Mouse House wants, don’t we have to imagine the same is true with Marvel Studios?

Ok, that being said – let’s walk down this path…

Disney is clearly putting a lot of money behind their streaming service. That’s obviously including not only Star Wars, but also the MCU properties. We’ve already started to hear how these properties are going to be dropping off Netflix potentially at the end of this year.

For a few hours, on Thursday 24th May, 2018, we actually saw Netflix bypass Disney and become the most valuable media company in the world. On that day, Disney’s market cap was $153 BILLION, and Netflix bypassed them ever so briefly, but then came back below $152B by the final bell. With Disney and Netflix vying for that top-dog spot, we see how close this race is. This situation informs us as to the importance, at least in part, about the Disney/21st Century Fox deal. This only further increases the value of Disney as a media company.

Now, it’s not all about market economics in terms of market cap ...or is it? Let’s go back to the Disney Streaming Service (I can’t wait until it has a better name ;) ). For this to be any sort of success, it MUST have content. As much content as possible. Every little bit they can get. Competitively, that means they have got to give people a solid reason to subscribe to it ALSO – because let’s face it, people aren’t likely to drop Netflix in place of Disney (at least at first? And as much as Disney would like that to happen) – so the big hurdle for Disney Marketing is to convince consumers to ALSO shell out another $8-10/month for their service. That’s a big ask in today’s market.

Now, the challenge here from a consumer market perspective is that this starts to fragment the offerings in the market. We already have Netlfix roughly owning the movie streaming market, and Hulu having the lion’s share of TV show streaming (although Netflix has a lot of TV shows as well). But now we’ll have Disney. And before long the DC streaming service. There are other niche players, plus the potential of other networks spawning their own services hoping to grab a piece of the pie. But today people already hand over $20-30/month for Netflix & Hulu. Now they may add $10 for Disney ... and then will they also drop another $10 for DC? Now they’re potentially doubling their monthly spend on streaming services (and for cord-cutters like me, now we’re starting to pay cable TV prices again). So as the market fragments, these services really have to fight for those monthly fees from subscribers, because before too long, consumers are going to start making choices about which to keep and which to drop.

So if Disney wants to maintain its spot as Top Dog (or Mouse), they’re going to have to offer seriously premium content, and a diverse set of content to boot, in order to compete with the deep library available to Netflix.

Okay, that’s a lot to absorb just to set the stage for hypotheses as to why Marvel has been quiet on the con-front. Let’s talk about what we know is coming from Marvel Studios.

We have a small view into the Marvel roadmap right now, with Captain Marvel, Avengers 4, and Spider-Man due in 2019, and Guardians 3 to round out that trilogy in 2020. Those will all be box office releases, which will, we’d expect, eventually end up on the Disney streaming service (which all depends on how Disney deals with 2019 movie releases relative to the existing Netflix deal). Beyond 2020, Black Widow, Black Panther 2, Dr Strange 2, maybe Thor 4. All-in-all, however, even with the first release of those, Captain Marvel, less than a year away, we’ve heard virtually nothing about any of them.

Now what about TV shows? It’s been pretty quiet. Iron First S02 is confirmed for the end of 2018 (no specific date yet). That will be a Netflix release. Daredevil S03 is confirmed for early 2019. Probably too early for the new service, so let’s also call that a Netflix release. Punisher S02 is due mid to late 2019. Jessica Jones S03 is slated for end of 2019 or into 2020. Now we’re definitely into the Disney Streaming Service time-frame. Beyond that, there’s potentially (though nothing confirmed) about Luke Cage S03, and the ensemble Defenders S02.

What you see today is that Marvel (and Disney) have NOT been talking a huge amount about these future properties. Go back to putting yourself in the shoes of Disney Marketing. Let’s consider the scenario.

Back in 2012 when Disney inked the deal with Netflix, it was said to really be 3 deals: Netflix would get rights to stream new Disney movies starting from 2016, Netflix gained rights for direct-to-video films starting in 2017, and then also access to the Disney back-catalog. All in all, these rights were said to be worth in the realm of $300 million a year. Another way to look at it is this: That alone pays for 1-2 MCU movies per year, which those alone could be worth $2-2.5B in revenue. That’s virtually free money! So there are literally billions of dollars on the table for Disney here.

Here’s a key data point for you: The deal is set to expire at the end of 2018.

It doesn’t look like Disney will immediately pull content come 1 Jan, 2019 – in fact Netflix expects to continue to be able to stream Disney movies through 2019 (although 2019 releases may be in doubt – which means they may not be able to stream Avengers 4 or Star Wars Episode 9) – but beyond that looks unlikely from what both companies have said. That’s also interesting because it potentially speaks to the timing of Disney’s new service. But let’s consider what Disney has to think about: Will the Disney Streaming Service bring in at least $300M/year (the value of the Netflix deal)? Let’s look at the quick-n-dirty numbers.

Let’s assume a subscription fee of $10/month. That’s 30M subscribers. Does that sound realistic? Here are some comparisons. Netflix is currently at 130 million subscribers worldwide, having added 5M new subscribers in Q2-2018. On the other end of the spectrum, you may be aware of the CBS “All Access” streaming service (which people wonder if it will survive in the long run); they report having close to 5M subscribers today, with their CEO stating a goal of 8M by 2020. (FYI: CBS All Access is closing in on being 4 years old, with a price of $5.99US/month). With that in mind, is it possible for Disney to pull in 30M subscribers? It’s lofty – that’s 23% of the Netflix base. Conservatively, it’ll take time for Disney to hit that level – and obviously want to grow well beyond it. In order to do that, they’re going to have to pull some Netflix subscribers over.

The Q2 reports by Netflix did show growth, but still missed Wall Street expectations were for 6.2M. Missing their target by that much caused their stock to drop a huge 14% following that news. This last year for Netflix, they’ve gone from $160 in Aug’17, peaking at $418, and now down to $350. So while it’s been a huge year for Netflix, missing those numbers caused the market to react, even though they’re still significantly up Y/Y. However, you start to see the value of the subscriber base as it impacts the market value of these big powerhouses.

So…why has Marvel been absent at the cons? Look at the money on the table for Disney. They have the capital to invest in building a service almost without blinking. Disney has gotten very good at marketing, as we’ve seen with the MCU and Star Wars movies the last couple years. They know how to trickle things out and build the hype. We have to imagine Disney Marketing has a MasterPlan™ for how to launch the streaming service and with that make big announcements about properties which will be exclusively available on it – that’s the key messaging which will grow their subscriber base.

Already many of us nerds are ready to hand over our cash. We already expect that Star Wars and Marvel movies will move from Netlfix to Disney’s service, so please take our money. The average consumer, who may not budget as much of their discretionary income towards nerdom as we do, may need more convincing. To that end, Disney is being very strategic about building any hype around future properties which people may very well automatically think “well, I can catch it on Netflix” – I think we already see some people making the choice to skip the box office and catch it 3-6 months later via streaming. With so many great movies in these key genres coming out, competition for box-office tickets is growing. We’ve seen people having to make hard decisions about which movie(s) to see any given month, given the growth of releases. Years ago, we might talk about the (one) blockbuster movie of the summer. Now we’re talking about which 3 movies during the summer will be blockbusters. Competition is fierce, so marketing has to become more and more strategic, as a process.

I know we all want these movies to be about “us” – the fans. In a way that’s true, because we’re so happy to go buy tickets, buy the blu-rays, and contribute towards their bottom line -we’re a core audience for Disney, and also key influencers; we are very important to the market. However, in the end, this is a business with billions upon billions of dollars up for grabs. The Mouse House is poised, with LucasFilm and Marvel Studios specifically, not only to maintain their spot at the top of the dogpile, but to grow their lead. I think we’re going to continue to see some radio silence from them until, at best, the end of 2018, but probably into 2019. Some key dates to keep in mind are:

Captain Marvel releases March 8, 2019

Star Wars Celebration Chicago is April 11-16, 2018

Avengers 4 is set to release April 26, 2019 (UK first)

The D23 expo is August 23-25, 2019

Spring has some big stuff happening. That March/April timeframe could be a very good time to start talking about the new Disney service, at least to as a start to the marketing campaign. D23 then sets the stage to give “more detail” at the end of summer. Maybe that’s when they start to talk about market details (US, Canada, UK, worldwide), and also announce the monthly cost. Now this is all predicated on a potential fall launch to the service, which is strictly speculation at this point; however it seems to line up time-wise given that Disney has only said “sometime in 2019” so far. But this all seems to flow logically so far.

The last few years we’ve really looked forward to Marvel panels and exhibits at places like San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con, and the likes. Now, we’re getting virtual crickets. Do we miss them? Absolutely! But perhaps here you start to see that it’s on purpose, it’s poised for them to make a major shift in their own business because of the billions of dollars up for grabs. If we’re patient for a few more months, beyond the holidays I think the House of Mouse will start whispering in our ear, we’ll start hearing “leaks” of information about the Disney Streaming Service, announcements will be made at their own events potentially, and the future will start to come into focus.

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swunlimitednj · 6 years

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How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing

Posted by MiriamEllis

You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.

That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about your job at all.

And that’s the problem.

If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.

By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of customer acquisition, service, and retention via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.

Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.

The roots of the divide

Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:

1) Early separation of the local and organic algos

Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came Google’s Pigeon Update in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.

This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.

2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy

Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is highlighted by historic stats like these showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite studies like this one which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.

My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only 17% of small businesses investing in SEO. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.

3) A lot to take in and on

Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:

Technical website audits

On-site optimization

Linkbuilding

Keyword research

Content dev and promotion

Brand building

Social media marketing

PPC management

UX audits

Conversion optimization

Etc.

Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:

Ongoing citation management

Local on-site SEO

Local landing page dev

Store locator SEO

Review management

Local brand building

Local link building

And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...

And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or why their work matters.

To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:

Sharing is caring

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” - Jeff Bezos, Amazon

Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.

As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.

Before I buy that kayak…

On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?

Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.

I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand.

On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.

And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.

“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”

Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.

The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.

My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.

After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase.

“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” - Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn

There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, and you may miss out on the customer. It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of your team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.

It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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