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trashquisitor-shirozora · 3 months

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*enables you* what happened with TLJ 👃

After all these years I still can't properly find words to explain how deeply betrayed I felt after the credits rolled and I shuffled out of the movie theater with everybody else. There was a TON of hype surrounding this movie, an absolute fuckton. I only saw positive reviews about it, the cast, the director, the plot. I got excited to see where Rian Johnson & Co. would take the ST.

The only remotely negative comment I saw before watching the movie was a fandom blog saying they didn't like what happened to Poe. Since this blog was about racism in fandom, I knew something was off. That was my only warning.

And y'know, it was like, five minutes in? Ten minutes? And Poe makes a "Yo mama" joke at Hux? I used to go into movies with an open mind and spent days gathering my thoughts about them because I was always slow to react, slow to gather my thoughts into coherent strings of words. It's how I enjoyed Michael Bay productions and JJ Abrams' love affair with lens flare. I never got actively angry with a movie I was watching, and I was fucking angry by the time the movie ended. I still remember texting a friend while standing out in front of the theater because I was so confused. The response to TLJ was so positive so why did I come out of the movie so frustrated and confused and dissatisfied with the whole thing?

It's been years and we all know how this movie divided the Star Wars fandom and just... broke Fandom Spaces in a way I never expected. We all know what TLJ did and didn't do, and how TROS provided the final nail in the coffin that was the ST experiment. But back then, all I saw was positive commentary about the themes and messages of TLJ, how it portrayed failure and the dangers of putting someone like Luke Skywalker on a pedestal, how the Force was female, how... important it was to see Poe get characterized as a hotheaded hotshot who needed to be demoted, slapped around, and stunned in order to learn some kind of lesson, how important it was to see Finn lose everything he gained in TFA so that he could relearn how not to be selfish or something while starring in a fucking incredibly tone-deaf B plot, how Rey... I'm not sure exactly what because she didn't need training anyway and then spent most of her time trying to bring Ben Swolo back to the light????? Rose was so promising as someone who grew up under the FO's thumb but she and Kelly were fucking abandoned by Disney so I don't know if Rose existing was actually a good idea if it meant giving Kelly unending trauma. Mark slipped up by calling Luke "Jake" and expressing his displeasure in front of cameras, and I was so fucking baffled and alienated by his character after knowing how his story ended in ROTJ that I couldn't connect with whatever lessons I and he are supposed to be learning. JJ set up Snoke like a mystery box and Rian just yeeted him off without so much as a fucking explanation so what was the point of that? Hux was a fucking joke. Phasma was barely there. The only character that Rian cared about was fucking Kylo Ren and Adam says years later that he was never supposed to get a redemption arc anyway.

Like, this was the movie everyone hyped up? This was the movie that didn't answer any questions left unasked by TFA and didn't bother to move forward with character development for any of the known characters? I spent money watching a slow space chase that ended on a planet made of salt and killed off Luke for Reasons? Am I stupid? Am I dumb? Am I a peasant incapable of understanding the masterpiece Rian directed, this so-called Best Star Wars Movie Since ESB?

But I couldn't say anything. I couldn't be dogpiled for hating such a empowering movie for women, a diverse and inclusive movie that had the likes of John and Kelly and Oscar. I couldn't be lumped in with the Star Wars dudebros with their raging misogynistic and racist takes on the movie, the cast, Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm, Disney, etc. I couldn't be seen as one of them just because I didn't like a movie that I should like, I'm supposed to like. So I sat in silence, read meta, witnessed the fucking catastrophic explosion around some wild ass AO3 fandom essays written by a racist OG member of OTW about Finn/Poe, saw hate piled on black and bipoc fans, saw r*ylo fans come for John and John clap back at them, just saw an absolute fuckton of hate, and so by the time TROS came around I just... checked out. There was no way JJ could salvage what Rian had done and I was right. TROS was a corporate-run soulless garbage end to the Sequel Trilogy, but it ended just as The Mandalorian finished its first season and regained a lot of good will with this small story about a lonely Mandalorian bounty hunter who encountered a Force-sensitive Baby Yoda.

And then TBOBF/Season 3 of the Mando Show happened, just like how TLJ happened. All the promise, all the unanswered questions of the previous movie/season, all fucking dropped or provided with the worst, most unsatisfying answer. I'm sure others have found better answers and can live with what Star Wars gave us, but I haven't been able to. TLJ came out years and years ago, and I am still so bitter today. I'm still so bitter because TFA had such an incredibly compelling setup with such promising characters, and then TLJ Did That.

I got so heated while writing this. I'm still so mad. I'm still so bitter. I bury my head so deep in the sandbox I built for myself so that I don't have to think how Disney is twisting and contorting all these Mando'verse shows so that they all eventually lead to the ST, their precious hot potato child that just... didn't have to end the way they did if they actually had a fucking plan and fucking stuck the landing. I'll give the MCU this - their Phase 1? They fucking stuck the landing. I fell off the train tracks and haven't really watched the MCU since Captain Marvel, but at least they had a fucking plan and didn't fucking derail themselves like Disney did with the Sequel Trilogy.

I could be nice to people who like this movie but I'm not going to be. They can be nice on their own blogs.

Man, I can't even watch Knives Out or Glass Onion because my blood starts boiling. Just. TLJ did a lot to ruin what I hoped would be a positive and creative connection with Star Wars, and it took the Mando Show and the 2 minutes where Din and Luke locked eyes on the Imperial light cruiser to bring me back.

I'm gonna stop before I get way too heated for sleep.

#shirozora awkwardly responds to asks #anti TLJ #this is 100% a TLJ hate post and blog #i spent so many years holding in my thoughts about this cursed movie #when I say spite fuels me this is what I mean #this is how I find comfort in 'love star wars. wish it was good'#anyway this was the movie that made me feel crazy for years because how could i hate this movie if everyone said it's good #how can a movie be good if all i got from it was confusion and betrayal #time to go art something and calm down before bed

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jessicas-pi · 4 months

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📙 📕 please?

OOOO ok since you sent two I'm gonna give you two AUs--a short one and a long one!

the short AU idea is one I call Hi, You've Reached The New Republic. How Can I Help You?

It's based on the premise that, at the end of TRoS, Ben doesn't die. He lives and joins the good guys! But he did a lot of bad stuff, so he's going to be punished. Originally he gets sentenced to death, but Rey is sad about that, and so Poe and Finn step in because Rey Cannot Be Sad. But, also, they understandably resent the bad stuff he did, and they're allowed to be a little petty, as a treat. So they suggest Ben be sentenced to a fate worse than death.

And by "fate worse than death," I mean customer service.

So now Ben works for the New New Republic, answering phones, and he has to deal with all the garbage that customer service workers get, and at this point, Rey's Not Mad Just Disappointed face is the only thing keeping him from turning evil again. Force Ghost Anakin Shenanakins optional.

the other AU I have in mind is a crossover based on Crooked House, which is an Agatha Christie novel! It's long so i'm putting it beneath a cut.

SO, when I read Crooked House, I got like half a chapter in and was absolutely OVERWHELMED by the sabezra vibes from the main couple. It's like, guy meets girl, guy is in love with girl, girl reciprocates, guy goes off to war for a few years, guy and girl are reunited. also, girl has an absolutely insane family where literally anyone could be a suspect in a murder.

ANYWAY i immediately came up with an AU, as one does. I call it Crooked Clan.

I haven't decided if I want this AU to be set in our world in the past, in the canon star wars universe, or in a star-warsy-yet-vintagey universe that is different from canon. I'm thinking the third option probably.

So, the idea is that Sabine's clan isn't ruled by her mother, but by her grandmother, who also owns the Darksaber. Sabine and Ezra are friends in this AU--which happens in a universe where Order 66 was never a thing--despite Ezra being a Jedi and Sabine being Mandalorian. They've known each other since their teenage years, like in canon, and they're very close.

When Sabine is about 22, her grandmother dies under mysterious circumstances, and Sabine asks Ezra to come help her. Ostensibly as moral support, but she actually suspects there was foul play. Ezra agrees immediately because he would do anything for her.

it becomes clear soon that there WAS foul play. The obvious suspect is Gar Saxon, Ursa's distant cousin, who invited himself into their home and is known to be ruthless with a dislike for the Wrens. And due to a technicality, he would become ruler of Clan Wren unless the previous Countess specifically left it to someone else. And the will Sabine's grandmother supposedly made is missing.

But, one-by-one, it becomes clear that everyone in Sabine's family is suspect.

As follows:

Ursa, Sabine's mother, who was supposed to inherit rulership of the clan

Alrich, Sabine's father, who would willingly do anything for his wife

Tristan, Sabine's brother, who was ruthlessly bullied by his grandmother and openly hated her

Eris (an OC), Sabine's aunt and Ursa's older sister, who was disinherited less than a month ago for her supposed "madness"

Bo-Katan, a family friend who turns out to have previously been associated with a terrorist organization known as Death Watch

and finally, Sabine herself becomes suspect, when her grandmother's will finally resurfaces, and she learns that the rulership of the clan--along with the Darksaber--was left to her.

I haven't worked out ALL the details yet, but I have a LOT of vibes in my head, and... yeah, that's the ramble! There may be more someday! But I make no guarantees!

Thank you for the ask!! :D

#ask game #AU ask game #star wars sequel trilogy #star wars rebels #sabezra #jessica's writing nonsense #(kind of)

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io-lu-art · 4 months

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just a looong ramble analysing and rethinking Rey's character and turning whatever conclusions I get to into my headcanon without changing any plot points in TFA because I don't have the energy for that....

First things first. With everything I write here and publish on my blog from now on I refuse to believe that TROS ever existed. Everyone is free to have their personal opinions as long as they don't harass or hate on anyone, and this is mine. Almost every choice in that movie has left me scarred, even up til now, 4 years after its release. I thought I can ignore it, like any other healthy human being, but - oh boy, I cannot. If you are interested in reading another ramble on that, here's the post.

Since I am writing my own take on what could happen after TLJ (you may call it a fanfiction, I'm gonna call it a fanscript since that's gonna be its format), this post serves the purpose of getting my head clear around what's the deal with Rey, analysing, and lying down a solid foundation for my WIP. The story I'm writing has barely reached the end of Act I (out of III) at the moment I am composing this commentary, and I constantly notice that I get stuck with Rey's character every time I have to think about her for different reasons I will address down below.

I will make some rewrites as I see fit and necessary along the way for her character to make sense to me. All rewrites are in Tumblr's

chat style

This post will be linked to my AO3 fancifction as a reference for people to understand how I treat her character as soon as that one will be finished... *clears her throat* ...ANYWAY-

Let's have a look at Rey, shall we?

Rey's introduction.

When we first meet Rey, there is already a lot we get to learn about her. She's a scavenger. On a pretty much deserted desert planet. Water and food are scarce. She gathers parts during the day to sell them in exchange for food rations.

She has no friends, no family. She's lonely. And has been for quite a while. And yet, though hard, it looks like a pretty peaceful and stable life. If it were significantly different, we would have gotten introduction scenes of her battling some gangs or other scavengers for parts or something. But instead we were provided with beautiful, peaceful cinematography and John Williams' incredible score.

She manages. She manages because she has to and has never known to do otherwise. This on its own is already a very solid introduction. And it becomes even more powerful as we are provided with additional context later on, as she tells BB-8 that she's waiting for her family.

We know who she is, what she does and what she wants. No more questions, right?

Well, this is where it gets confusing, at least for me: there's one shot in Rey's introduction which always leaves me puzzled about her actual wants. It's the moment she puts on the rebel pilot helmet.

Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it feels like it kinda wants to draw parallels to Luke Skywalker in ANH? What exactly is the purpose of this shot? Is she putting on the helmet just for fun? Is it to show that she is still a kid inside? She seems to enjoy herself. Is it to show us that she maybe wants to be a pilot...? The gesture on its own is too little information to imply that, let alone that she already is a very skilled one, so probably no. Then, is it, perhaps, to show us that she dreams of more? Like Luke, who wanted to get off the planet that is "farthest away from the bright center of the universe"?

The interpretations, especially when looking at it in context to the rest of the movie could go on and on and on.

Quick detour.

The reason it works so well with Luke's character is because from the very beginning, with everything he does and says, it is perfectly clear that he doesn't want to stay on Tatooine. It's his only want when we first meet him.

Luke has friends who tell him about the galaxy. He seeks adventure.

And he's very impatient about it.

Everything he says basically SCREAMS how much he hates it there.

Now back to Rey.

Am I expecting Rey to show the same interest in getting off Jakku with the same attitude and level of energy as Luke, should that have been what TFA was going for? No, of course not. They are (supposed to be) two different characters after all. But I do believe that, given the setup, that helmet scene leaves too much room for confusing and unnecessary interpretation. (More so because I am trying my best to avoid nostalgia bait wherever I can.)

I am not denying the fact that she wouldn't have heard about the wider galaxy, that she wouldn't wonder about what it would feel like, being out there. People travel. And with people traveling, so do stories. So if you want to hint at that, do it subtly, all the while keeping the focus on her biggest want.

I might really just be reading too much into it, but still, in my humble opinion, a way to solve this confusion is cutting out her interaction with the pilot helmet completely. Let me demonstrate.

Inside her home we already see this self-made rebel pilot puppet. Just like the puppet lying around, instead of having her pick it up and putting it on,

the helmet remains part of the environment, stuck in the sand. There could even be a close-up on it as Rey puts down her empty plate next to it when she has finished eating if you really want to show it. She then rests her arms on her knees and looks up into the sky, following the ship that has just departed from the far outpost into the high atmosphere until it disappears. Waiting.

What is achieved by changing the interaction with the helmet is that it keeps her wants just as clear as Luke's. Luke wants adventure. She wants her family back. Period.

...I rewatched this scene after writing these paragraphs and yes, I admit, in the end it happens so fast that one could probably just let it pass and interpret it as Rey being very bored and using it as entertainment to wait out the days. But even if it were just that, the effects this little tweak would have on the following scenes is quite interesting to look at nonetheless.

The tweak I am going with from now on: Having her not actively wonder about possible adventures at all. She doesn't believe those stories to actually be true, because she's never allowed herself to. She's never allowed herself to actually want to ever leave Jakku.

What would it mean for her characterisation? It would make her slightly more serious and grounded. And the movie (except for the helmet scene) actually already treats her that way. Notice how she, while fixing BB-8's antenna, takes a moment to look at him before asking:

She's never seen such a droid before. At least not in such good condition. So, of course, she's curious. But when BB-8 says it's classified, she only laughs about it. "Classified? Really? Me too. Big secret," as if to say, haha, yeah, right. She rejects that possibility. And she doesn't bother asking any further, because when she is confronted with the choice to go and explore, she is reminded of her promise to herself, which is that she will wait for her family until they return.

Now, here is where I insert some very subtle "rewriting". When Rey first meets Finn, she is suspicious of him...

...and should actually remain suspicious,

instead of admiring him and falling into this, let's call it, "excited, fangirly smile"...

She doesn't know him. She has no reason to trust him. Instead, the tone of this line should be one that reflects her emotions as it slowly gets to her that those stories she's been hearing about might actually have some truth to them, that there might actually be a wider world out there. So make her be gradually interested.

Huh. This man I just forcefully hit to the ground, a Resistance fighter, knows about BB-8 and his classified information. What are the odds of that?

"So you're with the Resistance?" Rey asks suspiciously, looking down at the man.

The man stands up, brushes the sand and dust off his jacket and answers, "Obviously. Yes, I am. I am with the Resistance."

Rey frowns, "I've never met a Resistance fighter before," scanning him with her eyes. Why would there be any on Jakku? Nothing ever happens here.

"Oh, this is what we look like, some of us. Others look different."

Rey cannot help a little smile at his strange attitude. She looks back to where BB-8 rolled off to. Puzzled, she tells him, "BB-8 says he's on a secret mission. He has to get back to your base..." Even hearing herself pronounce that out loud feels so surreal to her. None of this makes any sense. Why-

"Apparently he has a map that leads to Luke Skywalker and everyone's after it."

What? "Luke Skywalker?" she asks, confounded.

CUT TO ACTION.

Whether she wants it or not, the plot forces her into the stories she's been hearing of. You don't want to believe they are real? They're real, all right. She has no choice but to run and get along. And later, she does get more and more interested, specifically when she meets Han Solo, the legend himself. Her whole beliefs turn upside down. It's exciting and she embraces it. Why? She's made a promise to BB-8 that she will get him home, and those things kinda come hand in hand.

Rey's physicality.

Rey is very fast to jump into action. She doesn't think twice about what she's doing. She just acts. Because that's how she's learned to survive all this time on her own. When she but hears BB-8 struggling in the distant sand dunes the first time they meet, she immediately reacts and goes to help (which also shows how compassionate she is towards people - and droids - in need of help).

And she's incredibly stubborn about it. If I may even word it like this: it's something she carries with pride.

So she's a good fighter. And I have but one request: DO. NOT. FORGET. THAT. HER. FIGHTING. STYLE. IS. ROUGH. AND. DIRTY. AND. HAS. NO. TECHNIQUE. WHATSOEVER. WHILE. THE. STORY. PROGRESSES. OK? Ok. What else? Ah, yes. Piloting. I don't know which of the two aspects has brought more uproar in the SW community, with the addition of the Force to these 2 points making people call her a Mary Sue, her being overpowered and so on. Let's have a look at that.

Rey's piloting skills.

She obviously knows her way around the Falcon. And it's plausible. "This ship hasn't flown in years!" It's been there for quite a while. Maybe she has had the opportunity to sneak onto it once. What about her flying skills? Well, that takeoff definitely had me worried. At this point I am even amazed this ship is still all in one piece. Which has me thinking... just a thought...

While trying to get those TIEs off their tail, Rey damages a visibly big part of the Falcon's exterior. "Ups," she comments, hastily checking the controls. Ok... The ship still flies. All good.

"What was that?" Finn calls from the gunner position, seriously worried for their lives.

"Nothing to worry about!" Rey quickly shouts back. All in all, the flight is messy as hell, and the Falcon needs some heavy repairs. But they still manage to get out.

"Nice shooting!"

"That was some flying! How did you do that?"

"Thanks! I don't know! I've flown some ships, but I've never left the planet."

(This is me reacting to their dialogue in the new context:) Yeah, guys, good work! You've almost destroyed the Falcon in the process, but you're alive, so I guess it's fiiiiiine.

What am I going for here? Adding to their level of expectations, which are... pretty low, and hopefully Rey's likability.

And then, later, Han is horrified of the state his ship is in, "Who did that?" Rey doesn't answer his question, but instead immediately offers her help, "I can fix that for you," feeling a bit ashamed of handling the ship of a legend this carelessly. And Han is... well, Han about it.

When would the Falcon get those repairs, you might ask? Eh, *hand gesture* there's plenty of time on D'Quar for that while they discuss how to blow up the third Deathst- *clears her throat* Starkiller Base. And obviously it's not gonna be Rey doing those repairs.

This addition tones down her abilities, puts more focus on her skills as a scavenger and makes her more relatable. I'd also argue that it puts more weight to her decision to eventually decline Han's offer to join the crew because of her wants. You see, once immersed into the real thing, the stories becoming true, meeting the legends, she becomes genuinely curious. She asks questions. Why did Luke leave? What fight? She gets incredibly excited when Han offers her a job. And yet, despite all, she still wants to go back.

Nevertheless, Rey displays pretty amazing piloting skills under those stressful circumstances on Jakku. After all, flying the Falcon is....

Her instincts are implacable. One might even say that she*

She just isn't aware of it yet. It is not until some scenes with Han and the rathtars later that we get the first hint.

The Force.

Now I might be wrong, but I have a theory, which is that the piloting performance under high pressure on Jakku might have been it. The Awakening.

The Force calls to Rey through Luke's lightsaber. And she listens to it, not knowing what will follow. She experiences the Force vision, and is horrified.

"That lightsaber was Luke's, and his father's before him, and now, it calls to you!"

"I have to get back to Jakku." Again.

Even when Maz tells her, "You already know the truth. Whomever your waiting for on Jakku, they are never coming back,"

she still refuses to believe that.

Tears run down her cheeks

and she shakes her head. No.

"But there's someone who still could."

Rey frowns. What is Maz implying there? "Luke?" she asks and realises what it's leading up to, and doesn't like it. Her emotions are a mess. She gulps back and keeps shaking her head as Maz speaks.

"The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead. I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. [...] The light. Feel it. [...] The lightsaber. Take it."

Rey doesn't want to hear of it. Any of it.

"I am never touching that thing again!"

Rey just witnessed complete horror. She is in denial. Keep in mind her clear wants from the beginning of the movie. Ideally her want for her parents to come back should be replaced by the character fulfilling her needs at the end of her arc. But we're not nearly there yet. What Maz tells her about the Force completely contradicts Rey's experiences. She cannot just accept the truth. And how does she handle it? She runs away. She's terrified.

She wants to go back to the way things were before any of this mess started. But the plot doesn't let her run away that easily. It knows she has to face her fears, one being her fear of the Force and one the fear of perhaps never making it back to Jakku ever again.

It forces her further into these situations, making it impossible for her to get out of them. She's trapped. Literally and figuratively. And fighting her way out won't work this time, the one ability she always relied on to save herself. It's her darkest moment. And if that were not enough, Kylo Ren, this stranger, this man inside that mask, the man from her vision, shoves all her insecurities right into her face.

"And Han Solo." Rey jolts up. Either out of fear of possibly betraying Han and slipping, giving away a location, or out of rage that Kylo has gone too far into her personal space. Either way, this rage gives her some strength to oppose him. "You feel like he's the father you never had. He would have disappointed you."

"Get out of my head!" He backs away for his own reasons, not wanting to think any more of his father, but still holds onto her mind. Rey does all she can to withstand him, and the longer she does, the more time it gives her to understand what is going on.

And Kylo senses it. What he's trying to do here is not working. Concern washes over his face, which makes him lose control over the situation. The connection opens, inviting Rey to tap into his mind. She's inside his head. Now she understands. She understands she can use this power on him, too. So she does.

And there it is. She's strong with the Force.

And that's intentional. Why? For reasons we discover in TLJ and numerous other fanfictions. (TROS? w-what's that-)

She has found a way out of the situation. Now, has she ever heard of Jedi mind tricks? Maybe? But remember what she just discovered: She just tapped into Kylo's mind. So she tries that again on the stormtrooper. Because when she knows how to act, she just does. She's always been confident in her physical abilities and skills. Why would she have to treat this new power any different? And luckily it works, after 3 tries.

And that's fine. Let's move on. Kylo kills Han. Explosions.

Notice this. Even though she knows she now has these new powers, the same powers Kylo has, she still draws her blaster at him after calling him a monster. She acts on emotion and choses the quick, familiar way.

I actually like to believe that Rey really doesn't know what the Force is and how it works, at all. How would she? Yes, Maz did tell her about it, but how do Force-powers manifest in people? She's never seen anyone use it before, upon meeting Kylo Ren. So in every scene she does use it, she just copies Kylo. That's the only reference she has. Remember how proud she is of her physical abilities. And she is so naive that she just goes and tries it for herself, without thinking of whether it will work out or not. And it works out for her. Because, again, she is strong in the Force.

It's true that her flaw, her naivety, is not really addressed in TFA. It never really backlashes on her. And, to be completely honest, I have no idea how to make room for that without some heavier rewrites yet. But maybe it's not necessary. TLJ takes care of that. TFA just introduces us to Rey as a character after all.

Now, is the force-summoned lightsaber making her overpowered? If you interpret it as "Kylo couldn't get that thing out the snow but Rey could," then yes, yes it is. BUT, if you see it as "while Rey is observing the fight, she sees Kylo trying to summon it, so she copies him, the way she copied him with the mind-tapping, and reaches for it the moment Kylo conveniently gets it out of the snow for her," I don't think it is, though I do agree that in order for the second version to be true, the scene happens too fast with too little shots to explain it. *OP takes a breath* So, here is what I suggest:

Kylo reaches out for the lightsaber. SHOT of the lightsaber in the snow, fidgeting slightly. BACK TO Kylo, pulling anew. BACK TO the lightsaber. It gets free. CUT. Another shot of it flying through the air towards the camera.

SHOT on Rey witnessing that - she is already on her feet again - and immediately reaching for it as well, outstretching her arm towards it.

SHOT of Kylo as he feels the momentum of his pull shift and dodges out of the way. The lightsaber flies past him, into Rey's hand.

Rey has always been fast to react to action. So it would make sense for her to be able to do that. Ok. Now to the fight itself.

*sighs* I don't even know where to start. ...One thing's for sure. Kylo at this point is pretty much destroyed emotionally from having killed his father, but he's still big and strong and aggressive in his movements. Rey, on the other hand, kinda seamlessly knows how to handle a lightsaber, which... is definitely not believable at all.

Let's step back for a moment. Why do we have this fight? Rey needs to get Finn and herself out of there and Kylo is pretty much in the way, so she wants to eliminate the problem. And what does Kylo want? Sure, he is interested in Rey and her raw powers which eventually adds up to them being equals in the Force, so he doesn't want to kill her...

But he also wants that lightsaber, doesn't he?

(God, I am looking at this fight to find any clues and I'm just sitting here, elbows on the table, resting my head in my hands, massaging my temples, wondering, "why the hell are there so many cuts in that fight scene?") (I am no expert in fight choreography, so bare with me as I try to make this work.)

Rey is the one who draws first at him.

She has never wielded a lightsaber before, but knows how to handle a staff... so she treats the lightsaber like a staff within its limitations.

Because remember, HER. STYLE. OF. FIGHTING. IS. ROUGH. AND. DIRTY. AND. HAS. NO. TECHNIQUE. WHATSOEVER. So, pretend we have some well thought out choreography in this part.

Kylo blocks her with ease. Rey is frustrated. The lightsaber feels heavy and difficult to handle. It doesn't take long for Kylo to

get her cornered at the edge of the newly formed cliff.

"You need a teacher! I could show you the ways of the Force!" he exclaims.

Rey considers, out of breath, "The Force?" Rey takes a moment as her mind connects the dots. So that's what these new powers are? Kylo watches her, waits for her to make a move. No time for pondering about the Force any more. Rey moves. Kylo LETS her duck and free herself from his block. She runs, backs away from the crater. He follows her. He outstretches his arm. Rey is stuck. She's literally petrified. Again. Kylo draws nearer. He twirls his saber, now holding it backwards (you know, Ahsoka style). "No," she hisses through her teeth, struggling. Heavy breaths. She closes her eyes. When he almost touches her hand holding the lightsaber, "No!" she RESISTS his force-cage and GOES FREE.

Because, you see, even though Maz told her to "close her eyes" and "feel the light", Rey has never done that before, and when under stress, I do believe she would rather choose a quick, familiar way to get out of the situation. The only thing she knows how to do with the Force at this point is to copy or resist Kylo. She wouldn't know how to to draw power from the Force, yet. She'll have plenty of time to learn that from Luke later, should she survive this fight, so we better continue.

Kylo stumbles back as she draws at him. Rey goes for a swing to hit from above, which Kylo manages to block last second, bringing his lighsaber up from behind his back. As their lightsabers are crossed again he quickly reaches for her right hand, which is holding Luke's saber, with his left hand and moves it aside to his right towards the ground, using his crossguard for more momentum to force her down. He steps his left foot accordingly to keep himself stable. Rey cries out from the unexpected movement. They are kinda back to back. His left shoulder against her right one. The position is uncomfortable. He squeezes Rey's wrist. Rey cries out in pain. Then, she realises how close they are.

Time for some close combat, ladies and gentlemen.

She gives in and lets go of the lightsaber, lets it fall to the ground. Kylo releases her to reach for the fallen lightsaber. But before he can pick it up, Rey KICKS his left hand away with her right heel and PUNCHES his JAW with her right elbow from below. Kylo's head rocks back. He stumbles backwards from the harsh impact, causing him to turn his back to her in order to catch himself. Rey summons Luke's lightsaber back into her left hand, and ignites it. When Kylo turns back to his opponent, left and unprotected side first, Rey is ready to stab him in his left shoulder.

Kylo stumbles back some more, she brings her hands together for another strike leftwards, he barely blocks it, he stumbles back some more, it leaves his posture open, Rey strikes again, rightwards, lower this time, wounding his leg, he falls to his knee, leaving Rey the final blow to provide him with his scar.

The reason I started writing this entire ramble in the first place is a conversation I had with my friend which brought up the fact that Rey should be able to beat Kylo by using her rough, unpredictable moves. Shout out to my friend who, bless her, is willing to listen to and survives every one of my sw rants and who pointed this out in the first place!

Is this a good fightscene now? I have no idea. I hope so? I do have it very clear in my head now though, so I might go and have some fun storyboarding it in the nearest future.

You know the rest. The ground splits, she runs to Finn, Chewie picks them up. . . .

There are some more moments which I believe need some tweaks, like the meeting with Leia, which is just so unfair to Chewie, really, but if I go on and on about this, I would end up changing the entire movie, which I do not have the strength for atm. This ramble was supposed to be about Rey and her alone, so I am done here.

I guess in the end Rey does realise her needs and is able to let her wants aside for a bit longer and focus her hope on actually helping the Resistance and get Luke. Hope that, with finding Luke, she will get to understand these new powers. I do feel like the movie could have provided us with a more emotionally rich reactive scene to the fight and her abilities, and generally just more of those, but then, what am I expecting from a JJ Abrams film? We have Rian for that.

My conclusion? I'm bad with conclusions and summaries, so here you have it, my take on Rey by only adding to the existing dialogue, changing some attitudes here and there, adding a scene, and changing the fight sequence at the end and how she treats the Force.

I do have a clearer understanding of her character now, which was the entire purpose of this ramble, so I guess, mission accomplished. Congratulations on having made it till the end. It was a long ride. I did consider splitting this beast into 2 parts, but while writing this, at one point I just decided to fully commit to it.

You are totally free to, of course, agree with me and stay tuned for my WIP fanscript or disagree, never read through this thing ever again, ignore it and leave it to die on Tumblr's graveyard.

Before you ask, because I also considered doing that just for the sake of having fun with GIFs on Tumblr (all text gifs are taken from YARN btw), I will not do a post like this on TLJ, since I have no problems with Rey's character there at all. Props to Rian Johnson at this point, for managing to make sense of her with what TFA gave us.

#rey #rey nobody #the force awakens #the force is strong with this one #character analysis #character rewrite #headcanon #this is my headcanon now #ramble #long ramble #long reads #have i mentioned it's long?#star wars #star wars fanfiction

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beepsalotl · 4 months

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crying ugh i love these characters so much and i hate the world so much except i dont and i just wish i could have what these characters had and be in a place that isnt like this one

im gonna cry ugh i dont know why i care so much, theyre not even real. but, like, in my head, they are, yknow? as in, they exist in the space i built for rhem as i read the series and learned about them and their world

fun fact, they were the first two characters whose books (each is the continuation of the story from a different third-person-limited perspective) had their names in the title. black hardcover w green embellishments for moonwatcher, a nightwing. white hardcover w blue for winter, an icewing. books six and seven, respectively. all the symbolism was there before you even open the goddamn books. yin and yang. AND YET.

and also they had two different histories and their tribes had a stale feud for thousands of years bc of some asshole jerkface. moon knew nothing about it bc she was raised in the rainforest practically by herself bc her mom had to sneak away from the shitty volcanic island the nightwings lived on to hide from the historic nightmare jerkface. winter knew all about it (or he THOUGHT he did bc he only knew the icewing side) bc he grew up surrounded by heirarchy and laws and rules and structure. moon didn’t grow up with the resentment at all, which allowed her a chance to see the truth.

she had to be self-sufficient. he had structure to lean on, even if it made him narrow-minded and nearly hard-hearted. he had to break through that, and she learned how to have patience. i feel like moon herself is sorely underdeveloped but i take the hints i can get and i feel that she learned how to forgive him by understanding who he was through his thoughts and, after skyfire, remembering that he was different inside than out and was still struggling.

when they were together, he was trying to be better and learn and he was kinder and softer even though he struggled to always be like that, and she was so patient with him.

heartbroken enraged screaming ensues, really.

like the rey and ben situation at the end of tros.

having him die in the end undermines everything the skywalker legacy stood for and all the development he had and it still breaks my heart bc he proved people can make bad, horrible choices and can survive abuse and break through it and change and be better and be loved. and then he DIED instead of getting his happy ending, which practically is what happened to winter bc the author basically said fuck you go live in the mountains doing work for peace and studying scavengers (which i know is his passion, but….) and your friends will hardly visit or write and they wont tell you the truth about how they defeated the bad guy WITHOUT ANY OF YOUR HELP EVEN THOUGH YOURE MORE THAN CAPABLE and they wont trust you and youll be alone forever.

my list of pairings and characters that i’m unreasonably heartbroken over:

ben and rey, winter and moon, catra and adora, draco and harry, zuko and katara.

catradora got together, ik, but their story still breaks my heart no matter how much hope it also gives me.

anyway, there’s no way for me to end this bc i dont even know what im feeling. it’s been years but winterwatcher’s fate still tears me up inside with the way it dashed my dreams of seeing a character like winter learn to let himself be loved.

i want to learn to let myself be loved, but i dont know how.

these characters are my attempts at finding myself out in the world and seeing if it’s possible. i dont attach my self-worth to them, but it hurts to see them fail to find romantic love where i saw it. idk

— a quick journal entry i wrote in my notes app years ago, as an emotional 16 year old with identity issues and way too much alone time on my hands

#wings of fire #wof #winterwatcher #winterwatcher wof #moonwatcher #moon wof #moon #star wars #reylo #catradora #queer #journal #journal entry #romance #thoughts

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charlottesbookclub · 1 year

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Armitage Hux Headcanons

okay so I'm back at it again with the Hux brainrot. I was hoping to do another little fanfic tonight but I just don't quite have the creative energy for that rn, so instead I decided I'd finally collect all the random Hux headcanons that have been living in my head rent free for years and finally send them out into the world.

General Armitage Hux headcanons below the cut since this got a little long -- oops!

he hates being cold when he sleeps since it reminds him of his childhood. arkanis was cold and rainy, the ships that took them into the unknown regions were cold and sterile. so now that he has his own private chambers, he makes sure to keep a pile of blankets on the bed.

his mother was a baker and was particularly known for her breads. when armitage was little, she would cut slices of warm bread, smother them with butter, then dust sugar and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves on top (or whatever the space equivalent of those are). because of this, the smell of bread and/or spices always reminds him of his mother, although aboard first order ships, it's not something he smells often.

he was bullied pretty ruthlessly at the academy. his slight frame, unique hair, and status as a bastard were all mocked and taunted almost constantly. he tried to ignore it most of the time, feigning indifference, but it actually fostered in him a deep-seated mistrust and fear of his peers.

following off that, he struggles to make personal connections with members of his crew. not that the first order really encourages that sort of thing, but friendships and other connections are pretty much bound to happen when you live and work with the same group of people. so he sees that other personnel are closer with each other than others, but whenever he makes an attempt to be more than strictly professional, people always seem put off. this is mostly because he has had so few friends, so he's incredibly awkward and unsure of what to do in a social situation (he's just like me fr fr). it's a vicious cycle.

the visual encyclopedia for tros said that pr*de was friends with both br*ndol and his wife (altho I deny that most of tros happened, just putting that out there. Hux Lives). this is just another reason that he hates pr*de, bc when he came to visit, he would join in with armitage's father and step-mother in belittling him.

he is constantly picking at the skin around his fingernails, often without even realizing he's doing it. this is another reason he prefers to wear gloves at all times when in the sight of others, so no one can see all the tiny little infected cuts on his fingers where he pulled the skin away. this is very much a symptom of his anxiety/paranoia. (also, this one is just completely me projecting lmao)

whenever he's planetside, he struggles to sleep (not that he sleeps very much or very well anyway, but it's even worse when he's planetside). he always assumed it was just the change of environment, which does account for part of it. but actually it's the silence he can't stand. on the finalizer or whatever other ship he might be on, there is the constant whirring and humming of machines. air circulators and the huge engines that keep the whole ship running along with the chatter of droids and the myriad other machines that all contribute to a thick blanket of white noise. the absence of it makes him uneasy, even though he doesn't know that it's the lack of noise that gives him the feeling of being unsettled.

he considers the huge polished war ships of the first order to be his home, but he does think about the sea on arkanis sometimes. fleeting memories will come back to him in dreams, or when he's collapsed in a state of semi-consciousness after overworking himself again. he remembers the crashing waves, the waters that shifted from deep blue to slate grey, the smell of salt on the wind, the screech of seabirds high above, the feeling of the sea spray on his cheeks and the waves lapping at his feet. he dreams of it and, although he will never admit it, he misses the sea.

that's all I have for now! but there are always more lmao. I'd love to hear anyone else's opinions on these or any other headcanons that you might have for our favorite ginger general 🧡

#armitage hux #general hux #hux #armitage hux headcanon #general hux headcanon #hux headcanon #charlotte rambles #tw bullying #tw skin picking

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weedle-testaburger · 4 months

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I've been thinking about Star Wars again, as you do, and something I find really funny is how just about every reason people have for hating Last Jedi is a reason why I like it actually.

'It's a character assassination of Luke!' He actually gets his character flaws focused on after the original trilogy treated him as pretty infallible and has to grow as a person. Plus his Force spirit fighting Kylo is still the most badass scene he's ever gotten to me.

'Snoke was pointless!' He was pointless in TFA, in this he actually served a point because Kylo betraying and killing him to take control of the First Order himself sets him apart from just being a Vader clone. Frankly Kylo works better as the main one in charge of the First Order anyway, Palpatine being so pointless in TROS kinda proved that.

'All that buildup of who Rey's parents could be didn't matter!' It did matter because it made her think she had to have more important roots than she did to be a 'proper' Jedi, and the point of the movie is that anyone can be a Jedi.

'They did Poe dirty!' Poe barely got a storyline in TFA, so in this we (and the Resistance) got to see his faults and he had to grow as a character and learn to work as part of a team.

'Finn didn't get anything good to do!' Finn and Rose's story builds up the universe and shows the corruption that keeps the First Order going, hammering it home more to Finn that he was right to leave it.

'Leia using the Force was dumb!' She's a Skywalker too, and besides she already used the Force to find and save Luke in Empire.

'It contradicts the previous movies!' It contradicts midichlorians, the mystery big bad who does nothing having to be the main villain, and the mystery boxes that JJ Abrams didn't have an answer for. That stuff deserves to get contradicted imho.

Maybe my brain's broken but I get to enjoy a movie and a lot of other people don't, so don't bother fixing it.

#personal crap #sorry this is a hill i will die on #tlj slaps the evangelion and su finales are great and the doctor who specials are some of the show's best eps don't @ me #oh and black panther if you don't like black panther you're not necessarily racist but you are an idiot with bad taste

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rhea-of-kaylie · 4 months

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Just so we're clear - because I've seen this way too much recently - not all reylos are implicitly racist? Not sure why this is hard to grasp for y'all.

The misbelief comes from the assertion that because reylos don't want Finn and Rey to be romantically endgame, they're racist because they don't want a white heroine involved with a black hero. On the surface, I understand these concerns. Rey is the morally pure white heroine. For her to be anything but Finn's friend complicates the comforts of traditional, conservative American society. However, I am not trying to undermine the validity of interracial relationships in storytelling or in real life by finding the reylo dynamic more appealing. We can and should include more representation of interracial couples in all storytelling mediums and genres.

Personally, the mythicality and balance between Rey and Ben is simply more exciting than the possible strangers to friends to lovers dynamic Rey and Finn could have had.

I've also seen criticisms of reylo as it relates to Kylo Ren being essentially an active agent for the First Order, the newest iteration of Star Wars space Nazis. Rest assured, internet, I also hate the First Order and what they stand for. Additionally, I hate what Ben Solo did when he was called Kylo Ren. Most, if not all, reylos will condemn the actions and ideologies of Kylo Ren. Reylo is and always has been about Ben Solo's inevitable redemption. He couldn't be with Rey until he reconciled his evil choices. (And most of us are wholly dissatisfied with how TROS inadequately addressed Kylo Ren's redemption).

We do also know that there's a very large overlap between stormpilot shippers and reylos right??? (ie reylos are the same people who want a gay relationship between a black man and a hispanic man, both of whom are fervent believers in violent revolution against a white supremacy-coded regime. Cathartic as hell and a 'fuck you' to the real basement-dweller racist Star Wars fans if you ask me.)

Anyway, hope this helps.

#reylo #rey #kylo ren #rey skywalker #ben solo #finn #poe dameron #finnpoe #stormpilot #star wars #the force awakens #the rise of skywalker #the last jedi #fuck the racist star wars fans #hope this explanation helps

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marinersubmariner · 3 months

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I finished Jedi Survivor, gotta blab about it!

SPOILER SPACE

BODE?!??!??!? I kept thinking he was gonna die, especially in the lead-up to the final Dagan fight—they gave him so many hallmarks of a tragic death that I never suspected a classic video game companion betrayal (one of my favorite things!!!)! So that twist threw me for a LOOP, not just the betrayal but then the reveal that HE WAS A JEDI TOO WHAAAATTTTTT!!??!?!?! Absolutely bananas.

It's funny because Dagan's death felt pretty anticlimactic, and I knew the game wasn't over yet so I was like… what else is there? And I still couldn't have anticipated how OH SHIT the "what else" part could be.

Because then it's PLAYABLE CERE!!!! Which was so fun because she felt SO powerful to play as, and the whole time I was reeling about the betrayal and why am I Cere now what the fuck what the fuck what the fuccckkkkk. And then as soon as the door opened on Vader I instantly got teary-eyed because I knew exactly how that was gonna end. Of COURSE you're out-of-left-field playing as Cere for her last stand. ;___; Of COURSE they couldn't include Vader just for the player to narrowly escape again. ;___; Cere wasn't even my favorite character and she felt so distant in this game, but having her death take place amidst the destruction of the archive that she'd been building that whole time, plus HER LAST WORD BEING "TRILLA," plus BEING MURDERED BY VADER EXACTLY LIKE TRILLA... way to make it as painful as it could possibly be!!!!!! I gotta say, not only do these games make Vader VERY scary, they also make me hate him more than ever. FUCK YOOOOUUU MURDER MACHINE

I am shocked they went all-in on Cal/Merrin just because… romance in Star Wars????? Since when??? Hahahahaaaa…….. I kid, I kid, we have fun. I love them. Although my main inclination in the first game was Cal/Trilla (it was immediately after TROS and the extreme Reylo of it got to me!!) and somewhere along the way I had gotten the impression that Merrin was a lesbian (or maybe that's just the default Nightsister vibe). But truly I consider everyone in SW to be bi/pan/ace/anything but fully straight, so honestly, whatever. Related side note: I was really pleasantly surprised by the directness about how many supporting characters here were gay!

I LOVED the first kiss followed by the totally bonkers portal-jumping battle, that was such cool teamwork. And the end of the game was sooooo saaaad but thankfully they both lived and so now I'm real emo about the orphan Jedi and the orphan witch and how far they've come since she tried to kill him. 😭

Backtracking a bit I REALLY enjoyed Dagan getting dumped out of the bacta tank, getting pissed off, and IMMEDIATELY bleeding his crystal. It was very ooooohhh SHIT dude making some major life decisions here!! So cool! So dramatic! Escalated so quickly! I'm pleased that I did end up enjoying Dagan a decent amount, because going into this I was annoyed by a) not liking Cody Fern's face and b) not liking the High Republic aesthetic.

Honestly I was very ready to dislike both Dagan and Bode because I was really not happy with the previews showing they added a bunch of dudes while hiding Merrin and Cere, and Trilla being dead…… blugh. But thankfully trailers are misleading and there was plenty of Merrin. (and her surprise entrance was THRILLLINNGGGG) And the dudes were alright and they wound up dead anyway. So! …Hm.

IT WAS SO SAD. I'M SO SAD. The "Ghost Star" lullaby was so pretty and haunting and it messed me up BAD, because of course I'm not just thinking of this game I'm thinking of all my dead Star Wars friends (and obvs one ghost in particular…….. sob). There are so many. Star Wars is littered with corpses. AND IT'S SO SAD.

Cal using the dark side was craazzzyyyyyy and when the first prompt for it came on screen I was like "uh oh!!!! I don't wanna." Wild how becoming more powerful in a video game can be so fun and so upsetting at the same time. I did actually die in the final fight with Bode because I refused to tap into the dark side when prompted, lol. I was like "maybe if I don't do it something different will happen!" Haha, nope! USE THE DARK SIDE OR DIE. Which is an interesting moral quandary for Star Wars, because if the dark side is always more powerful 100% of the time, and there are certain situations where it's either fight a dark side opponent or die… what does the Force really want you to do? Stick to the light side and be defeated? Is the ultimate end goal of the Force for everything to die and become one with it? AH JEEZ

Part of me expected Tanalorr to not work out in the end, because "magical top secret planet where we can hide and be safe forever" is obviously too good to be true. But I also think every pre-OT story is always having to find an out for why these characters weren't around for the OT, so in that sense of course Tanalorr had to work out! It's the perfect loophole for this time period! It just felt like every story beat was pointing to the dream of Tanalorr being too much of a corrupting influence—Dagan lost his arm, Santari, and then his life because he refused to let go, and then Bode did the same, and I thought it would come down to Cal also facing that dark path and being forced to give up the dream, like by having to choose between Merrin and Tanalorr. In Grail quests you always have to give up the Grail! But no, now they're really gonna live in the ethereal weird forbidden promised land. FEELS CREEPY BUT OKAY

On the one hand I do kind of wish there had been more planets to explore—it felt strange for the journey to be less expansive than Fallen Order. But there was still so much to do on Koboh and they had some cool locations in there nonetheless. I'm just greedy for ~*~galactic exploration~*~! Anyway they made up for it with the strong story, because I think the plot and character work in this one were even better than Fallen Order.

I'm not sure how to piece it all together but I liked the small late-game talk of Vader and the Inquisitorius acting outside of regular Imperial command, when you're undercover and you get the scoop that there's a rivalry with the ISB and that the Jedha attack that happened was not the Jedha attack that was planned. Empire/Sith infighting, Vader vs. Tarkin and Krennic, how does stifled ISB employee Dedra Meero fit into all this, hm hm hm much to think about. Bode was a former Jedi being used by the Empire but he wasn't an Inquisitor—it was the same thing in the end but the particular type of tragedy was different. Wizards in the Empire but the Empire hates wizards, which type of leash are they gonna put you on and who's actually holding the leash?

Fav saloon regulars: TURGLE, of course I knew everybody loved Turgle, what a goober, A+, amazing frog; Caij, because apparently it's a biological imperative that all Nautolans are cool as hell; best bartender Monk; and I particularly enjoyed all the conversations with Tulakt and Moran.

Of course I was thrilled when I first encountered Skoova, his little hover fishing schooner was the BEST. Just an absolutely stellar amount of funky alien dudes in this game.

The powerful heavy swings that the crossguard stance uses…… hehehehehehehehehe. Where did they get that idea I wonder!!!!!! The only thing is that I don't like how small and thin the High Republic-style quillons are, so the aesthetic isn't as satisfying and proportional as Kylo's saber. You gotta beef up those crossguards fellas!

I didn't know that there was an interim story to explain why Greez has a prosthetic arm now, so I was like "did I really forget THAT MUCH of Fallen Order?" Even I can't keep up with all these Star Wars! I liked Greez a lot in the first game (MY PLANT GUY!!!!) but I really loved him even more in this one—he seemed much softer than I remember with his devotion to Cal and their whole family unit. And his braided hair of course delighted me.

And speaking of delightful new hair: Merrin's haircut! I LOVE HER SO MUCH. They gave her so much great deadpan humor while also enhancing her emotional maturity, so not only is she still super cool she's also soft and nice when it's called for, and I'M SO GLAD SHE DIDN'T DIE.

Kata is extremely cute and I'm already dreading her looming apprenticeship and the long-term outcome of who makes it to the next generation. I'm always having to remind myself of the bigger picture that Cal is older than Luke. And I certainly can't handle the thought of old Cal or dead Cal, but when you add kids into the mix, that's where this is headed!!!!!!

I took so many goddamn screencaps I'm probably only gonna post a minuscule fraction of them, but there were so many good aesthetic things and fun details to look at. And honestly part of my excessive snapping away involved lofty notions of using things as fanart reference. I LOVED all the new hair and wardrobe options because I absolutely just used Cal for Ben Solo AU cosplay. 🤪😎🤩✌️💀 The windswept hair is so good!!!! I mean I mainly chose it to look like Ben but it also just looked really good on Cal, to the point where it's hard to see him with short hair anymore, although I really should try out some of the goofier looks. (so many facial hair options that I hate and look stupid on precious ginger babyface!!!)

I just get soooooo excited about being able to explore and take pictures inside a Star Wars thing, and play dress-up and pick hairstyles and decorate and do all that silly life sim stuff but in space! Games capture such a unique experience of discovering worldbuilding minutiae, and I love having the ability to just look at things and take in the environment at your own pace, it makes me so happy. Even the goofy LEGO game gave me that feeling. It's just so nice! I love wandering! Observing! Interacting! Running my little guys around! Having my own experience that can't be easily ruined by a shitty story!

It's made me reminisce about playable Kylo and Rey in Battlefront and how I wish you could combine them with the exploration/story/gameplay style of the Jedi games and the [nearest approximation of] post-canon Ben Solo of the LEGO game, and THAT would probably be my ideal Star War (outside of, you know, a new movie that checks off every single item on my impossible wish list hahahaaagdhagdsf). Dress them up and customize their lightsabers and their home base and their spaceship and give them a droid friend and a garden and take them on new adventures on new planets… The Dream 😭

I actually started ruminating on whether I can do screencap mashups of Battlefront character models in Survivor outfits/environments, because I can't do mods, I am just a simple photoshopper and console gamer, but I want to pretend!!!!!! The problem is I don’t really like the Battlefront faces because they all look dead in the eyes. :/ The idea I settled on is that I might do some straight-up redraws instead. (WE'LL SEE. But the fact that I'm even mentioning this should tell you how completely lost in the sauce I am.) I briefly went looking and of course people have made Ben Solo mods for Survivor, but what you really gotta do is graft Cal's customization options onto Bode's body type or else it doesn't look right. Y'KNOW?!?? Size… matters……… I'm so sorry Yoda

Anyway!!!!!! Excellent gaming experience despite being terrible at Jedi parkour! Now back to tending my garden, hunting down post-game Force echoes, and rearranging Cal's wardrobe

#star wars #jedi survivor #sw meta #time once again for another round of star wars word vomit #will i find a way to make it about benjamin organa solo? you bet!!#coincidentally posting this while the reylos are melting down on twitter 🙃 every day i am in pain

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pacificwanderer · 1 year

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Soooooo what are your thoughts on the Rey film?

Hey Nonnie,

I have a lot of feelings LOL. None of my ire is directed at you, and I'm trying not to get too worked up given that we know who the director will be and that Daisy will be in it (everything is meant in a general sense, and it's just my feelings on the matter so whatever). Also, given their track record with directors and writers.... we'll see how it all ends up going!

As far as story, well...

So this is such a coincidence, given that I just saw Su//zume and was thinking that if anything that follows up TRoS ISN'T at least thematically similar to that movie, I don't want it. It still holds.

This is my interpretation, and if others don't agree. That's fine. I'm not really looking to argue with anyone or win anyone over lol. People are allowed to have different interpretations of media, but for me, TRoS didn't work. Both as a fan of the ST and as a lifelong fan of SW. And I don't know how they plan on moving forward with that fucking albatross weighing them down! I really don't!

My problem was and remains that TRoS IS NOT REY'S STORY or really any of the ST characters, it's all focused on the past and that's not a great way to build a point to go forward from. Hell, it's not really even a story so much as characters moving from one set piece to another in an effort to disguise how it's a movie that's basically serving one purpose: address and make up for prior criticism (mostly from re//ddit and prolific you//tubers).

I could go point by point about how that film was set up to make up for "disappointing" certain fans with how TLJ went, but I don't have the time rn for that (I have a lot of work to do in the next few days and not much time, but here i am on tumblr lol). I'm sure it's been done to death, anyway, but people far more eloquent than I.

That film is and was and ever will be is a reactionary film that was made to be an answer to very specific criticism from a very specific subset of the fandom, and it failed. Not only to address their criticisms but to stand on its own as a film. That story takes Rey, takes her character and her story, and reskins her to be Luke 2.0.

But they didn't want that. Those fans didn't want her to be a stand-in for Luke. They didn't want her to symbolically be a Sky//walker, they wanted her to BE one via BIRTH (Luke's daughter or whatever). What we got was insulting to those fans and to fans of TLJ. It's one of the more blatant examples of pandering that I can think of (even if it's badly done), and I really don't know if I'm ever gonna get over it entirely lol. Like I've mostly moved on because there are storytellers out there busting their ass telling stories that deserve to be told, so I have other things to focus on.

Rey's story needs to be her own, and I don't know how they're going to accomplish that given what's happened in TRoS. She's not her own character anymore. She's just... a vessel. Fuck I hate that. I hate saying that! I HATE IT! But that comes from the creators themselves! I love Rey! I wouldn't have written like three-quarters of a million words of fanfic about her world otherwise! AND THEY DID NOT. AND IT SHOWS.

And it's personally offensive to me that they took a character that I loved THE WAY SHE WAS and tried to make her fit for people who were committed to hating her from the start!!!! How dare they! And not just her, but what they did with the rest of the ST characters makes me so fucking angry i have a hard time being chill about it lol.

Anyway, I have some reservations about their ability to craft a tale that's going to honor her character and not just be some sort of way for Luke to jump in and take over the narrative again. As he's done before and will do again (hi there, man//do, nice luke you got there for no fucking reason).

Anyway, I very much try to keep to my own corner of the fandom because I just don't have the energy for much these days, so I'm sure other people have different feelings about it all. I hope it goes well! I doubt it will! Like Andor was great, but Tony is a great storyteller, and I don't think the person they've tacked on to finish the Rey script is capable of doing her justice (sorry bro, PB is good, but it's tragic, do I want that for Rey??? no).

Storytelling should be the first and foremost thing they're focusing on, and... I don't really trust them in that regard anymore. The SW ip is too all over the place, and there's a certain note of cynicism that just seems to infect everything these days. I'm fucking tired of the american monomyth, i'm tired of campbell redux (with no deeper thought or criticism of the aforementioned, just shallow retelling to tick of fucking plot points and NOTHING MORE).

It just... feels like they're trying to find their way without really thinking about what got them to this point. I hope it doesn't suck, but if it does, then there's always fanfic.

PERSONALLY idgaf about rebuilding the gd jedi temple, so i hope THAT changes because it's been done and they fucked up REPEATEDLY like how many movies do we really need of that!!!?? God, there's a whole wide sw universe out there, and they make it feel so small.

So fucking small. What a waste.

TLDR:

Anyway! Hope it works out for anyone who's interested. If anyone's really interested in how I'd like a post-tros narrative to go, please go see su//zume. i fucking adore it to bits and pieces.

Cheers, Nonne!

#post tros speculation #rey nobody speculation #sw negativity #i'm not looking for a fight anyone lol #long post #text #asks #asks and answers #ask pacificwanderer

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letoscrawls · 6 months

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Who do think are the most overrated and underrated characters in Dune and Star Wars? For me I think Kylo Ren and Rey are overrated and Luke Skywalker gets way too much hate for being "whiney" (Kylo stans' pot calling the kettle black) and for not being some stereotypical kill the bad guy male hero. As more Dune, I find Paul too know-it-all and bitchy and laughed when he got blinded (also hate his treatment towards his consorts and giving his twins awful names, at least his son was smarter to treat Farad'n better than Paul treated Irulan). I think Scytale and Harah need more love in the fandom as do all the ladies in Heretics of Dune who deserve their own graphic novel.

hmmmm i think it really depends on what side of the fandom you are tbh! star wars is such a huge fandom, and i tend to be on the funny lighthearted side i think? i mean if i open the comment section of any post from the official accounts i can see other type of fans (i gotta say it got a little better in recent years but still, i tend to avoid those hyper critical and close minded fans). So kylo ren isn't really a popular character to me, at least i haven't seen many people talk about him after tros in 2019, or maybe i just ignored him al this time lmaooo

anyways, i think luke is a very beloved character worldwide (rightfully so!), anakin and ahsoka are getting sooo much deserved love as well these days, and of course obi-wan, leia, all the main ones i would say. And i'm so so happy that after Ahsoka the rebel crew (and Ezra in particular) are finally getting the recognition and appreciation they deserve :)

As for Dune, i don't know many fans in general, but the cool thing is that all characters have good and evil in them, they aren't traditionally "good". idk dune characters are a bunch of little evil creatures and i love them all dearly. fuck paul though!!!!

jk jk yes you're so right about heretics characters. they are all so cool but not many people know them because a lot of readers get permanently traumatized by God-Emperor and don't get to see the rest of the story. big mood btw

#ask #dune #star wars

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solohux · 6 months

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hi lottie!! i hope your day has been wonderful!! i adore your works and commentary on the boys so much, i remember being into kylux around the time TLJ was being teased before i fell out of it shortly before TROS came out. i really thought i was over it, but lately ive reeaallyy been falling back into this pit and i just remember seeing you around the fandom a whole lot. i just wanted to come and say hi hello! and that i adore all your works ive been perusing on ao3 again :) i rarely see any other kylux enjoyers now unfortunately, but im glad that youre still around even after all these years <3

on another note, i just wanted to share a song that really made me think about them, kind of like in a lovers to exes type of way. autumn gloom by jake hill. the lyrics of "i bet you still plot to bring me down again, i don't think it's gonna work 'cause, i don't like the way you taste anymore, you've gone stale, i'd rather waste away than bite your lips again." its just so bitter and painful that i couldnt help but associate them with the song, and i just wanted to share with someone haha

lots of love!!

Hi, darling! ♥

Your message has really made my day!!! Thank you so much! I'm not as active in the fandom as I'd like to be but that's purely down to my new job and the amount of work I have to put into it. And I'm completely and utterly in love with my boyfriend so the rest of my time is spent with him. I'm still utterly obsessed with Kylux and, after all this time, I don't think that will ever change! ♥

And as for these lyrics!!!!! Oh my gosh!! ♥

Autumn Gloom Lyrics

[Chorus] In the night, hear you sigh till I pass out A phantom watching through the blinds of a glasshouse The only memories are haunting, I know But I replay them, I just don't know where the time goes On, and on, and on I can’t sleep Cause the thought of you can make me so weak I bother you when I’m in your dreams This autumn gloom has got me in deep now

[Verse 1] Did you even care? Was it all a phase? I saw it on your face You love to walk away And I was only there For your entertainment I was lost in mazes, now I'm coming undone You got a hold on me, yeah, I'll admit it I've been wasting my time every time I hit someone different, I'm sinnin' And you're still all I see on any given day, but, by the time you hear this, you’ll be dead to me anyway I bet you don’t think that I’ll be fine Let’s run away now, see you on the way down I bet you still plot to bring me down again I don’t think it’s gonna work cause

[Bridge] I don’t like the way you taste anymore You’ve gone stale, I’d rather waste away than bite your lips again

[Verse 2] I've been moving way too fast for you You're getting jealous now, but don't be overzealous now Put the hammer down, it's not your choice And I really hate the sound of your burned-out voice Now the pressure built, you sung a lonely anthem But I ain't gonna be another lonely answer A siren calling ships I'm stalling Try me, darling, I'm not falling I bet you thought I would end up bruised Just run away now, see you on the way down I bet you still plot to bring me down again That isn't gonna work cause

#kylux

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lord-squiggletits · 11 months

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I think I've explained this before on my blog, but for everyone who's new here, I have a massive hate boner for supplementary material and extra lore books/comics/etc that are paired alongside Transformers continuities specifically because of my bad experiences being into Star Wars and Warcraft as my previous fandoms lol.

World of Warcraft was a fucking nightmare because once the franchise got big enough, they started releasing stories in the forms of comics and novels and stuff. And the lore in these supplementary materials would be necessary to understand a lot of plot lines that happened in the video games themselves, so it was really annoying because if you liked Warcraft for the lore (as I did) then you had to either buy all of these novels and comics or go on Youtube and read summaries from people who had. And then ON TOP OF THAT the Warcraft writers regularly did retcons and rewrites to the lore, sometimes multiple times for the same characters/plot points/etc (I'm looking at you, Wrathgate), to the point that they basically released new lore bibles every expansion or every other expansion. And it was just really fucking annoying because while I would have loved the chance to have more lore about WoW that didn't fit within the storytelling medium of a video game, in practice it felt more as if Blizzard was just trying to get WoW lore enthusiasts to shill out more money for supplementary materials, but since their writing was so inconsistent that they made constant retcons anyways, it basically felt like a waste of money because why bother buying the lore bibles and caring about continuity when it would probably get retconned in an expansion or two anyways? And then this practice of publishing vital lore in supplementary materials made it so that if you did nothing but play the video game, you would miss out on a lot of lore that ranged from fun tidbits about fan favorite minor characters to entire fucking plotlines informing the entire premise of the new expansion. So basically you had to shell out money to be able to see the new lore that should've been in the actual game but instead was in some random novel that you probably don't care about reading because you're a WoW fan to play a video game not to read a bunch of random novels. And then the Blizzard writers would probably retcon things later so why bother?

And then Star Wars was infuriating because I became a fan during the Sequel Trilogy, which as we all know is a fucking travesty of shitty writing and lack of continuity. The ST is absolutely RIFE with vital information being contained entirely in supplementary materials with little to no way of inferring it just from watching the movies, which were supposed to be self-contained narratives in themselves. Do you want to know how and why Ben Solo destroyed the Jedi temple and became a Knight of Ren? You have to read a comic. Do you want to know how the fuck the Resistance recovered from being a single spaceship full of people to a functioning army by the start of TROS? Read a novelization. Do you want to know what Kylo Ren's motivations were as the new Supreme Ruler of the bad guys and what he's been up to between movies? Read some comics and novelizations. Do you want to know why there's a random fucking army of dudes keeping Palpatine alive on some planet in the middle of nowhere? Read a tweet from the LucasFilm twitter account explaining it. Like, the writing of the movies made no sense and there are HUGE gaps in the narrative that aren't explained in the movies. Instead of just planning out the storyline of the movies and hiring competent writers/directors who would make tight, well-written movies that explain everything to a casual watcher, they decided to spread out vital lore information in comics, novels, novelizations, and other random bullshit.

Do you see now why I hate supplementary material so much lmao? In my experience, when companies have a main story (be it a cartoon, a movie/movie series, etc) and split up lore into supplementary material, such moves are nothing more than a cash grab attempt at swindling fans of the franchise into shelling out money for story details that would have been shown in the actual main story if handled by competent writers.

It's why I hate stuff like TFA's Allspark Almanac and other supplementary materials so much. Sure, there's some stuff in there that lines up neatly with stuff that was shown in the actual TFA cartoon (I'm thinking of the Autobot prison camps that drove Waspinator insane and the way that the Jettwins were created by experimentation), but a lot of the fan favorite details that fans like to incorporate into TFA fanon don't show up in the cartoon literally at all???? Like how supposedly, the Decepticons used to be warbuilds and the Autobots were workers, and the Decepticons rebelled because they didn't want to be used as fodder for wars. You would have literally no way of knowing that just from watching TFA alone and that's why it feels like such horseshit to me; it doesn't show up in the actual TFA cartoon, so if you went through the trouble of buying/finding this Almanac then the extra knowledge you get from it wouldn't be reflected in the cartoon, so it's basically as if the lore doesn't exist and all you got was a bunch of random trivia to put in your headcanons.

I know some fans really enjoy getting extra material exactly BECAUSE it's headcanon material, but to me it feels more like a compensation for rushed/lazy writing at best and an outright money-grab at worst.

#squiggposting

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