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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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plays-the-thing · 3 years

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The Mandalorian S2: Style Over Substance – A Companion Piece

This is a companion piece to this video where I examine the strengths and weaknesses of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian. It’s a collection of ideas and evidence that were cut for time or focus reasons from the main video. I’ve included both timestamps and quotes of what section of the video each idea refers to. Under a cut for length.

[1:48] Akira Kurosawa, whose movies would be very important in the western genre was very big on complete and realistic sets and effects because it helps the quality of an actors’ performance.

“The quality of the set influences the quality of the actors' performances. If the plan of a house and the design of the rooms are done properly, the actors can move about in them naturally. If I have to tell an actor, 'Don't think about where this room is in relation to the rest of the house,' that natural ease cannot be achieved. For this reason, I have the sets made exactly like the real thing. It restricts the shooting but encourages that feeling of authenticity." – Akira Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography

[2:27] Like the original trilogy, The Mandalorian has its fair share of humor. The sequel trilogy also had a lot of humor, and was criticized for it, but it wasn’t the humor itself that I think people had a problem with, it was how the humor was done. See, in the original trilogy humor never changed or undercut the overall tone of a scene. If a scene is tense humor might lighten or even break the tension but never undercut it. The original trilogy would never, ever, make fun of the plot, character, or scenes in its own movie. The Mandalorian follows this mold of lightening or breaking tension without undercutting the scene itself which also helps it feel like the OT.

Just Writes video on Bathos is a good expansion on this idea. Personally, I find that particular brand of humor, popularized by the Marvel movies, extremely off-putting because it just screams at me to not take the story seriously and that makes it pretty hard for me to stay immersed in it. My three favorite marvel movies are Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, and Thor Ragnarok because Black Panther doesn’t really do that kind of humor and Guardians and Ragnarok manage to make it seem natural by genuinely being comedies.

[7:18] This brings us to Episode 4. Last time I criticized this episode, but I wasn’t very specific, I just mentioned that we were starting to get away from showing and towards telling. Let’s take a closer look.

The first part of this scene, where the kid was being a nuisance, was actually really good. It kind of seemed like it was going to lead into some genuine frustration with him being a nuisance and therefore maybe some drama in their relationship.

[9:51] Cowboy Bebop is another space western with a strong style and a mix of vignettes and episodes which advance a characters story. But every single episode builds up the themes of the overall story even if the plot has nothing to do with it.

To be fair, not every episode builds up *Spike’s* story and themes, but Cowboy Bebop has four main characters and every episode works towards at least one of the characters’ stories, characterization, or relationships.

[12:20] Mando’s mistrust of IG, when they really have quite a lot in common, speaks to something about his character.

What does it speak to exactly? Well, everyone might have their own opinion about that but here’s mine:

IG-11 used to be a hunter, but now Queel has reprogrammed him. Mando still sees the droid as the hunter and is adamant that it can’t be trusted no matter how much Queel insists that Mando must trust his work reprogramming the droid as an extension of trusting Queel himself.

Now, why does Mando hate droids so much, and particularly this droid? Well, that’s an open question, but I have my theories. Part of it is the trauma he experienced when he was young, but I think it runs deeper than that. You know how sometimes the traits that really bother you the most in other people are the things that you don’t like about yourself? The IG-11 that Mando met is a lot like the part of Mando that I’ve been calling “The Professional.” IG is efficient and ruthless, just like Mando on a job. They are deaf to moral and personal appeals in the face of a contract. This is also the part of Mando that took the kid to the Imperials in the first place, the part that he conquered and redeemed by the end of the third episode.

But IG has been reprogrammed. Just like Mando, he has changed and now cares for the child over himself. IG even develops a personality, and at one point attempts to tell a joke. But because IG reminds Mando so much of that part of him he had to defeat, he can’t bring himself to trust him. The tension between them persists pretty much up until IG fully demonstrates to Mando that he is there both to care for the child, and for Mando. In this moment Mando begins to really see how similar they are.

This connection makes it hard for him to let IG make his sacrifice, and he even appeals to this by telling IG that he thought his old core functionality was gone. But by reactivating his old functionality as a part of his new core function, IG is also giving Mando a template to incorporate his Professional self into his new self. He shows Mando that those two halves of his self that came into conflict back in the beginning can be synthesized into one new whole. He doesn’t need to reject any part of his identity.

Then the newly synthesized Mando dons his jetpack, fulfilling his only stated desire in the entire season, and defeats a scenery chewing villain to win the day.

But that’s just my interpretation, and I’m willing to haggle over what exact interpretation the evidence best supports.

[15:29] Speaking of Luke, let’s talk about fanservice. Now to be clear, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with fanservice, what matters is what always matters: how you use it.

This also applies to the other two “Trademarked Star Wars Problems” I mentioned in the last video: repetitiveness and hamfisted merchandizing. These things are not necessarily bad. For example:

I would bet Baby Yoda is the most successfully merchandized product since the OT, but there’s nothing wrong with that because they’re part of the story being told. Baby Yoda doesn’t distract from the story, they are part of the story. On the other hand you have Ewoks, which were originally going to be Wookies. I would bet they went with Ewoks at least in part to sell more cute toys…but at least they still sort of work with the story. In TLJ the penguin things are there for no other reason than to be cute and sell toys. Same with the crystal dog. They have literally no purpose in the story, and their obvious and prominent inclusion only to sell toys distracts from my immersion.

Obviously repetition is part of stories. That’s why we have tropes, and the Hero’s journey, as tools for a writer to communicate information quickly. Just from his outfit we know a lot about Han before he ever opens his mouth, same with Obi-Wan. In RotJ, the heroes need to blow up the Death Star again. It’s kind of annoying that we’re literally doing the same thing we did two movies ago, but at least it’s a little different. In TFA Han Solo reassures us that the Starkiller Base isn’t that big of a deal by saying “don’t worry, there’s always a way to blow it up.” This is an example of a character reaching out from the script and telling the writer to change their story because the repetition is getting ridiculous.

[18:32] So…why is it here? Yeah, I know who Thrawn is. I don’t know why Ahsoka does, or why she cares, or why I should care. If the writer had cared about that they would have made her talk to Mando about it so she could give some sort of story or character-based explanation for why she cares, instead of just dramatically saying his name.

I mean I know the most likely reason it was here: to build hype for her solo show, but they could have done that without punching my immersion in the kidney.

[20:20] So it was no surprise that in the end the Expanded Universe’s greatest hit of all piloted his X-Wing into the show. But, I didn’t mind this. They had been seeding that a Jedi would be coming to collect Groghu for a while now, and if you had been running through the timeline in your head you were probably at least half expecting this. It’s foreshadowed well, it’s part of the story, and it triggers our emotional climax.

The reveal is quite well done too. First it’s an X-Wing, then we see a Jedi dressed in Luke’s RoTJ gear but it’s over the security cameras so there’s no color, then we see it’s a green lightsaber, then they clearly show that it’s Luke’s lightsaber hilt, then they finally have him peel his hood back. Each small reveal builds up the suspicion in your mind that it’s Luke until it’s confirmed.

That being said I would totally understand if someone thought it was obnoxious and hamfisted to shove Luke into another story, even though it did work for me.

[29:12] Parts of it even connect back to Mando’s story and character, though not in a new way because it’s mostly a redo of Mando’s relationship with IG last season.

I understand that Mando breaks his rules a little bit more here, but it’s still a riff on the same theme of: Mando has a conflict with a character, the he sees the similarities between between them, and then circumstances force Mando to take his helmet off in front of the character.

However if his arc with the other Mandalorians was functioning properly than this could work as a synthesis of a change in ideology and a reassertion of his willingness to bend the rules, but instead it just comes across as another redo of stuff in the last season. It’s still halfway functional because by this point it’s easy to forget that Mando had a character arc last season and it reminds us of that right before they pull the trigger on his and Groghu’s separation…but redoing the development from last season doesn’t count as a real character arc.

[31:08] There is so much more I could say about all of the bad writing, plotting, and characterization in this season. There are so many things that just don’t make sense, waste our time, or just plain don’t work.

I’m still confused over what the writer was trying to do with the snow planet. Like they crash land there and Mando decides to go to sleep inside his hull-breached freezing ship and the fish chick is like “Mando this is dumb you should fix your ship” and then he just fixes it. What was even the point of handing Mando the Idiot Ball there? Why not just have him fix the ship without trying to commit suicide by hypothermia first? Like…what?

[31:27] Why are you just listing off a bunch of names that mean nothing to us like she’s a video game character telling us where we need to go next?

I want to point out that even though I’m using this footage of Delphine as a reference she’s actually managing to tell you something about Malborn and why he is trustworthy, so it’s actually better than what Bo is doing. Though to be fair the tidbit about “the forest planet” is cute since it will be a deforested planet when we show up, that line needed some character connection to not sound so weird.

[33:13] That’s what the point of Show Don’t Tell *really* is, it’s not about how much dialogue you use or whether a character is explaining something. It’s about using exposition to tell us something about a character at the same time. It’s about putting the camera in a place that shows us something about the character or the action, not just what’s happening. It’s about packing as much of the story as possible into every choice you make.

In Avatar, the way that Zhao tells us about Zuko’s banishment tells us a lot about both Zhao and Zuko. The camera angle here emphasizes Katara standing encouragingly over Aang’s back as he stares dejectedly at the ground (contrasted with Toph’s angry stare) and tells us about the nature of Katara’s relationship to Aang as his teacher and friend as opposed to Toph’s. In the opening shot of A New Hope, the low angle of the camera implies dominance and the length of the Star Destroyer shows us the long reach of the Empire. Every single time Zuko is on screen it is worth paying attention to which side of his face is dominating the shot: scarred or unscarred. Exactly what each side represents is up for debate: I tend to think of it not as good Zuko vs. bad Zuko but more as Zuko’s feelings of obligation to his family and people and Zuko’s obligations to his own sense of what he believes is right and what he needs to self-actualize.

Show Don’t Tell is just a saying. It’s a saying to encourage writers, particularly new or inexperienced ones, to focus on the *art* of telling the story instead of focusing solely on the plot and facts. I am using it somewhat liberally here to say it’s about “using exposition to tell us something about a character at the same time” but since that is about the art of telling stories, and not just a recitation of facts, it does technically count.

[34:32] With television shows and the way they can go on forever, and with how much money there is in going on forever, it seems like they always become a sagging mess at some point. Some of them manage to bring the quality back, but some of them don’t. So to a certain extent, these problems with the Mandalorian are kind of normal for television shows.

I can’t remember exactly where I stopped watching How I Met Your Mother, the last thing I remember is Ted dating some crazy girl and swearing off relationships. I abandoned The Expanse midway through season 2 earlier this year…maybe I’ll go back but boy was I bored. I made it all the way through the Wire. Season 2 had its problems but eventually got back on the right foot midway through or so, but the problems came roaring back in season 5 which it took me almost a year to finish because it was so agonizing.

Avatar is probably the most controversial choice here of a show in which the quality slipped but I firmly believe that if they cut out the second half of season 2 and the first half of season 3 the show would have been much, much better. Most everything in Ba Sing Se is tonally weird and the whole idea of a city with too many rules and bureaucracy is way too complex an idea for this show to tackle. Avatar does tackle incredibly complicated and adult themes for a kids show but in my view this was one step too far. They get Zuko to a place where he’s ready to join the Aang Gang but then have him backslide temporarily. There’s this whole idea of an invasion on the Day of the Black Sun but it would be such a story cheat to allow Aang to beat the Firelord without actually mastering the four elements and so obviously isn’t going to work. All of these things together just make it feel like wheel spinning where the story and characters aren’t actually growing or developing but just being padded out.

Except for “The Tales of Ba Sing Se” and “Appa’s Lost Days” obviously, those are great.

It’s actually pretty funny because the episode before Aang is supposed to fight the Firelord the first time (the Black Sun time) he’s a nervous wreck and everyone is trying out different psychological techniques to try and make him feel better which is…I guess sort of valuable for kids to see that nervousness is normal. But when you compare it to the second time he’s going to fight the Firelord, for real, it’s *so obviously* for real this time because Aang is having a *character* based crisis about the conflict between his pacifism and his duty to stop the Firelord. The comparison of the two is telling in terms of what was going on in the story of each.

[35:03] Now they are spinning it out into not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different shows all based on the Mandalorian. It’s almost gross how hard they are milking this.

Okay apparently they fired Gina Carano so I guess it’s not four anymore. Or maybe it is who knows. Listen, the point is they *intended* to make four shows okay.

[35:06] Thanks for watching all the way through to the end. These videos take a ton of time and effort so that means a lot. Even though I’ve reset my subscriber count to zero now that I’ve criticized the Mandalorian, I will continue to work on the channel as much as I can, so subscribe if you want to see more videos like this.

I promise to always give you my honest opinion.

Also I know I was shooting for one video a month and, well, I still am but these videos are really time-consuming. I want to make sure I maintain a really high level of quality and so sometimes I get halfway through a video, realize it’s no good and have to start over with something else. Sometimes it takes months of rewrites to get it to a place where I’m happy with it. This one came out pretty quickly, it was about 6 weeks from when I started the script to when I uploaded. Hopefully I’ll only get better and more efficient at it as I get more practice.

#star wars #the mandalorian #plays the thing #video companions

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wakingbetweenworlds · 4 years

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Reylo/Star Wars Tag

So, since I’m diving head first into the community after 5 years, I’ve been searching for ways to meet more of you. Anyway, I found this adorable Tag from @supremeprince-bensolo and thought I’d join in!

Rules: Answer the 25 questions and tag some people you think might like to play.

Tagging: I don’t really know anyone to tag, but I’m looking forward to getting to know some of you!

1. When did you start shipping Reylo?

I started shipping Reylo as more of an “oh this could be an interesting dynamic” type thing after watching The Force Awakens in 2015. The chemistry between Adam and Daisy, even as strangers/enemies, was compelling. It wasn’t until I watched The Last Jedi that I thought “yeah, this is totally a thing and I’m not the only crazy person that loves it”. The similarities between the two characters was fascinating.

2. Favorite Reylo moment?

Out of all 3 movies, my favorite Reylo moment is the first ‘force-bond’ scene while Rey is on Ahch-To. She’s still filled with so much anger and hatred for him, but Kylo is more interested in figuring out what is going on between them. To me, it illustrates the deeper motivations of the characters and their evolving relationship.

3. Three words to describe Reylo?

Conflict | Passion | Redemption

4. Favorite thing about Reylo?

My favorite thing about Reylo is, despite the difference in their upbringing, they have suffered in the same way. Both have been alienated from their families and forced into a role that they didn’t necessarily choose. Both are incredibly lonely and feel as though they are misunderstood by everyone close to them.

5. Favorite character?

Darth Vader. As an OT kid, I really don’t think another answer to this question exists. Vader has to be one of the most epic villains ever created. #LongLiveDarthDaddy

6. Favorite droid?

K2-SO. This may be a stretch, but come on! I just love the attitude!! Rogue One is a fantastic addition to Star Wars and Alan Tudyk is absolutely AMAZING!

7. Favorite planet?

This is tough. I’ll cheat and say it's a tie between Mustafar and Kashyyyk. Mustafar because of Vader. It would be a cool place to visit and explore. Kashyyyk because of the Wookiees. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live with Wookiees on a beautiful jungle planet?

8. Favorite spaceship?

Again, another tie. Of course, the Millenium Falcon is the most iconic ship in all of Star Wars. I seriously cried when I got to see it on my first trip to Galaxy’s Edge! Other than the Falcon, the one ship I would love to fly is the TIE Interceptor. That thing is just badass!

9. Favorite alien species?

JAWAS!!! Oh. My. God. I’ve been obsessed with Jawas since I was a kid! I used to parade around the house in a brown blanket shouting “UTINNI!” at literally everything! I just love those sneaky little ass holes!

10. Favorite actor/actress?

Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. I know. I know. It’s the OT kid, again. Besides Star Wars, the only other movies I would watch as a kid were the Indiana Jones movies. I was 6 before I realized that not all movies had Harrison Ford in them. And Carrie? Forget it. She was the first female role model I had in movies. If Princess Leia could do it, so could I.

11. How did you get into Star Wars?

I can honestly say I can’t remember the first time I watched a Star Wars movie. I can remember watching Empire almost weekly as a kid. My dad had the OT on VHS and I would watch them whenever I had a chance.

12. Most memorable Star Wars moment?

Ugh. This one is hard! There are so many moments from each film and trilogy that stand out. I think I’m going to have to go with a Vader moment though. The scene in Rogue One where Vader hacks through everyone on the Rebellion ship. Shit. That has got to be one of the coolest, most well choreographed scenes. He’s the baddie to end all baddies!

13. Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader?

Don’t get me wrong, I love Anakin. I love that the Prequels explain his backstory so well. I love that we get to see the conflict build in him and that his choices felt right at the time. And, I love how Haden portrays the character. BUT, Darth Vader is iconic. He’s truly the villain, no matter what his backstory says.

14. Ben Solo or Kylo Ren?

Ben Solo! So, here’s the thing. I don’t really see Kylo Ren as a separate entity. Kylo feels like a costume that Ben wears to protect himself. He becomes what he has to. Not to spoil anything from The Rise of Kylo Ren, but Ben is a victim of abuse. There’s no doubt about it. It’s canon. I don’t think he ever truly falls the way Anakin does. It feels like he finds a role he thinks he can play, so he puts on a costume and acts how he thinks he should.

15. OT, PT or ST?

OT!!! While I love all three trilogies, the Original will always have a special place in my heart. If it weren’t for those, I don’t know if I would love Star Wars as much as I do.

16. TLJ or ESB?

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!! Are you kidding? There’s no contest. Yes, TLJ is amazing, but Empire is quintessential Star Wars. It has action, adventure, fantasy, violence, and romance that all of the other films try to emulate.

17. ROTS or ANH?

BIG OOF! I’m probably in the minority here, but Revenge of the Sith. I love the fall of Anakin Skywalker.

18. ROTJ or TFA?

Return of the Jedi. TFA is great and I love the new characters that it introduces, but ROTJ is amazing. Vader’s death is so poetic.

19. TPM or TROS?

I never thought I would find a Star Wars movie that I hate more than The Phantom Menace, but TROS did the damn thing. Like shit! What a HORRIBLE way to end a franchise that I’ve loved my entire life. Seriously, TROS is the Jar Jar Binks of the Star Wars universe.

20. Rogue One or Solo?

Don’t get me wrong! I LOVED Solo. Seriously, Donald Glover as young Lando is absolutely fantastic casting and seeing Han and Chewie’s backstory is perfect. BUT!! Rogue One’s storyline is much more compelling. It also has my favorite Vader scene….. sooooooo.

21. Favorite quote?

There are soooooo many fantastic quotes in Star Wars, but I’m going to have to go with one that always made me giggle. Master Yoda is the original savage.

“When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.”

22. Favourite meme?

I am literally obsessed with this little shit. I mean… Come on!!

23. Favourite gif?

Does this count?

24. If you could change one thing about the Skywalker Saga what would it be?

For the Rise of Skywalker to actually have a Skywalker rise? Is that really too much to ask? For there to be at least one Skywalker left at the end of the Skywalker Saga. No, still too much? Maybe, not have the nemesis of the Skywalker line survive though his granddaughter? Maybe have a female character that is strong enough on her own? One who doesn’t need some powerful dude ancestor to justify her strength. Ok. I’ll stop now.

25. Top 3 Star Wars movies?

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Rogue One

The Last Jedi

#reylo #reylo fandom #tag game #tagged #star wars tag game

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onwardintolight · 4 years

Text

My initial TROS thoughts

I’m still on cloud nine from last night. Not only did I get to fulfill a dream of trooping at a local premiere with the Rebel Legion, but the movie.

THE MOVIE.

It was so much more than I’d hoped for. It was an incredible end to this saga.

I have a lot of thoughts, and it’s still all kind of jumbled up since I only just saw it last night (I know I’ll have a crazy amount of thoughts and theories and meta after I’ve seen it a few more times and had more time to digest it all) but I just wanted to get some of this out right now because I can hardly bear keeping it all in.

I will keep this spoiler free initially, then delve into spoilers under the cut.

First of all, I haven’t felt this way watching a Star Wars movie since I was a little girl watching Return of the Jedi. I seriously felt like a kid again. I felt that “Star Wars” feeling, that magic. I felt completely immersed in the story, led on a wild ride with no clue where it would lead. I felt the enormous stakes, I felt the camaraderie and love between the characters, I felt the depth and the meaning of the story that was being told and how it was both incredibly personal and galactic in scope.

Everyone has their own Star Wars, and I’m of the opinion that it’s all valid. Whether you’re primarily an OT fan, a prequels fan, a sequels fan, strictly old EU, or whatever else you may be, I’m here for you enjoying Star Wars in your own way. So please understand that when I say that, to me, this movie is the Star Warsiest Star Wars to ever Star Wars since the OT, that’s my perspective, and I respect your right to disagree (and I know many probably will).

But to me, this movie felt like coming home. This was, once again, my Star Wars, the Star Wars I fell in love with as a little kid.

When I say that, I also say that as someone who is a fan of the entire saga. I’ve grown to love and deeply appreciate the prequels. While I was initially disappointed by them, I’ve grown to love and appreciate the sequels, too. Rogue One is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I adore Solo. But TROS will likely be among my top Star Wars movies of all time, right up there with ESB and ROTJ.

I know this movie has divided a lot of people. Many people who had specific hopes had those hopes dashed. And I acknowledge that there were some problems that should be critiqued. If you didn’t like this movie, your feelings are valid.

But right now, for the most part, I don’t want to think about all that. I just want to celebrate something that I love and that has already meant so much more to me than I could have possibly guessed.

Before I go to the cut, I just want to urge you not to continue reading if you haven’t seen the movie and haven’t heard all the major spoilers. There are some pretty huge moments and reveals in TROS. I managed to avoid all unofficially released spoilers, and I’m so glad I did, because it wouldn’t have been the same. Seeing the facts laid out on a page is not the same as watching the journey. If I’d seen the facts, I may have scoffed at some of them. Instead, I let the story lead me, and I believed in it and I was invested in it with my whole heart. Unless you have your heart absolutely set on a specific outcome and you know you will feel devastated if it doesn’t happen, I HIGHLY recommend going into this movie with an open mind, free from spoilers.

AGAIN: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DON’T WANT MAJOR, MAJOR SPOILERS. THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING

Okay, now for some random spoilerific thoughts! This is by no means comprehensive (and rather OT-character heavy, though I feel a lot too about the ST characters), but just a few things I wanted to get out.

First of all, they did my OT characters so right. This was a better ending than I could have imagined. I do wish we’d gotten to see all three of them on screen together one last time, and I also wish Han and Leia had never broken up before TFA. But those objections feel pretty small now. The books made Han and Leia’s separation much easier to bear (it was clear it was only for a few years, and they still loved each other). And despite not being physically all together, I felt almost as if they were together in this movie in spirit. Each of the three got to play a part so magnificent and meaningful, I can still hardly believe it.

HAN!!! HAN APPEARING TO BEN!! I HAD NO IDEA HE WOULD BE IN THIS MOVIE BUT HE WAS AND IT WAS SO INCREDIBLY GOOD!! I want to cry just thinking about it. I know Ben said he must have been projected from his memories, but I think maybe, just maybe, it might be something more. Either way, it was one of the most powerful moments in the film and I wept.

LUKE. Luke got to prove that, as Yoda said, “the greatest teacher, failure is.” He was such a strong, benevolent, encouraging figure in this movie. I have no objections to where Rian Johnson took his character in TLJ—we all spend our lives learning and relearning the same lessons, after all, in deeper and deeper ways, and I felt it made sense for his character, AND it was a meaningful and powerful message/representation for those struggling with mental health—but I was also incredibly glad to see this Luke in TROS, “more powerful than you can imagine” as a Force ghost and just as much the Jedi he was when he threw his lightsaber away in ROTJ—and more, because of all that he’s grown through and how much wisdom he’s attained since then.

And OMG LEIA.

THEY DID MY PRINCESS RIGHT.

JEDI MASTER LEIA. LEIA TRAINING REY. LEIA’S LIGHTSABER!!!

I started sobbing the moment it became clear that she was going to use her last strength to try to reach Ben (more on that later). The sobbing continued when her lightsaber was given to Rey, and then that AMAZING FREAKING TRAINING FLASHBACK scene happened, and I was sobbing so hard from pure happiness, just processing all the joy, that I hardly noticed any details and had to ask someone later what color her lightsaber was and what was said.

This was, truly, Leia’s movie, just as it was always supposed to be, just as TFA was Han’s and TLJ was Luke’s. I couldn’t believe that they managed it. It was so incredibly meaningful and it was an incredible tribute to Carrie and to my favorite character.

Back to Leia reaching out to Ben. Over the years, I’ve slowly grown to be pro bendemption. That might surprise a few people on here since I haven’t written much about it—not for lack of wanting to, but just because I never really got around to it. I know many people who fervently aren’t a fan of the idea. I could write a whole essay on this, but it’s late so I’m gonna leave it at this for now: to me, it became so clear that he still had light in him, and the potential to turn back and atone. Plus, it hurt too much to think that Han and Leia’s son, and the Skywalker legacy, could fall and end in such evil and ruin. I wanted the Skywalkers to ultimately change the galaxy for good and bring balance and all that, just as was promised. I wanted this family to ultimately be this vast force of Light, despite all the evil the Dark unleashed through some of them.

Well, I feel like I got that in this movie. And not only the Skywalkers, but the granddaughter of Palpatine, too. It was as if everything that was dark and evil got overturned from the inside. It was so triumphant. The Skywalker legacy lives on in the best way.

But yeah, Leia being the one to really reach out and help bring Ben back to the light, and Han helping, was just everything my heart could have wanted.

Gaaaahhhh there’s so much more, and it’s getting late and I need to go to bed, but a few short things before then:

- THAT FINAL CONFRONTATION HOLY CRAP. I have so many questions but also I just loved it

- I even loved the kiss.

- Ben crawling back to help Rey 😭

- LANDO LANDO LANDO

- FREAKING WEDGE

- the whole dynamic between the new cast was just perfect

- the one thing I’m mad about and probably always will be is that Rose was horribly sidelined :(

- however I’m not mad, like a lot of people are, that Rey isn’t actually a “nobody.” I’ll write more on this later but for now I’ll just say that, while Rey being a nobody is a powerful story, I never felt like it had to be that way, because we’ve already got Anakin’s story. And, tbh, many of the Jedi. Star Wars, while revolving around a certain family, has never indicated that lineage is everything or that people can’t be heroes from anywhere.

- And FINN

- OMG FORCE SENSITIVE FINN I JUST WANTED TO JUMP UP AND DOWN AND CHEER

Okay this is really enough for tonight. Can’t wait to see it again tomorrow!

#TROS #TROS Spoilers #The Rise of Skywalker #The Rise of Skywalker spoilers #Star Wars #thoughts

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drnucleus · 6 years

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I don’t know what to expect from IX. I’m really hoping it is endgame and they don’t just drop the romance angle, but it’s also kind of what I’m expecting? Like I don’t expect follow-through from it, even though I would love it if it happened

Hi Nonnie,

I totally get it. I understand that completely. Do I think it’s endgame? Yes.

However am I going into IX with any expectations? NOPE. I’m a fandom granny. No seriously I have lived through so many fandoms that I simply go in with no expectations. That way if what I think might happen if even in some small way happens then I will be super happy and overjoyed and if it doesn’t I am usually able to divorce myself from my disappointment and respect the creator’s vision.

As a writer and someone who was professionally trained to do so, I know that creators have a vision. They have an endgame in mind. And they drop breadcrumbs about it from the beginning and if you’re clever enough to see them you usually can figure out any story.

This is why I ruin police procedurals for my mom. My dad and I made a game of it watching Law and Order as a kid growing up (and I mean OG Law and Order with Det. Lenny Briscoe). Whomever could figure out who committed the murder first won. We used to keep a running tally. My dad was really good at it, but when I got really into reading and started reading mystery novels and horror novels and other stories that rely heavily on mystery boxes I started getting better at it. We also watched Law and Order because my two actor 2nd cousins have been guest stars as defense lawyers idk how many times but that’s neither here nor there.

And tbh ESB’s twist of Vader as Luke’s father came as such a shock because IDK if even Lucas really knew he was going to do it until he did it. Luckily the story was vague enough in ANH that a throw away line about certain points of view was enough to close what could have been a crippling plot hole.

My mom is an OG Star wars fan. Mostly bc she loves the pew pew and the lightsaber battles, and secondly because Harrison Ford is a very handsome and talented man (tbh my first crush was Han Solo and second was Indy).

My mom was there when everyone was UP IN ARMS about Leia and Luke kissing. And how that was SOOOOOO going to be endgame. Which originally Lucas had intended that Leia would be a love interest for Luke and that the twin sister would be revealed in 7, 8 and 9 someday. However during writing ROTJ and filming ESB he decided to really hone in on Leia and Han’s chemistry (granted Irving was directing then) but he made the narrative choice to make Leia the sister and Han her love interest. It simultaneously elevated Leia’s narrative importance and made her the leading lady of her own story on equal footing to her equally powerful twin brother instead of just being Luke’s sidekick love interest.

Even when I was a KID and I saw ESB it always kind of made me laugh that Leia’s response to Han goading her about liking him was to smack lips with the only other humanoid male in the room just to prove how NOT smitten she was with Han. (AND if that doesn’t make her simultaneously Padme and Anakin’s child I don’t know what will convince you otherwise).

TPM came out when was was 13 and a half which will be 20 yrs ago next May - HOLY FUCK. And I’ve been an avid reader since I could read so I had gobbled up countless numbers of books by then. I was in the theater with my parents and legit held my hand up over Ian’s eyes and gasped and tugged on my mom’s sleeve.

“Mom that’s THE EMPEROR” and she was like “No honey he’s just a senator who’s now chancellor of the republic”

And this was still in the age of Dial-up internet and no IMDB. So I did my own digging and found our VHS copies of the OT and looked at the cast listing at the end of the movie. And saw the same name playing the Emperor as the man playing Senator-Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. Now the movies in the OT never actually say the Emperor’s real name. He’s just the shadowy, scary Emperor with lightning bolts shooting out of his hands. So like we knew in TPM that Palpy was going to become the emperor. Now say what you will about the Prequels but Lucas did do a fair bit of narrative arc planning with it than what he threw together with the OT.

He knew we had to meet Anakin as a boy, see him as a caring and compassionate individual who is uniquely gifted in the Force. And that had circumstances been different he would have probably been the paragon force sensitive and balanced the force. However due to realistic flaws of all characters, good and bad alike, including flaws within Anakin’s character himself he falls prey to the darkside and it’s temptations and then becomes the very thing he feared.

Tbh next to TLJ, ROTS is right up there with ESB as my favorite in the saga. Sure the dialogue is wooden and clunky. Lucas is not a dialogue director. He’s a vision director. He has a scene in his mind, and he wants it played like that. Which is fine. He also came from a school of thought in the 1970s where sci-fi was pure camp and overdramatic. His style never really changed. The OT is so lauded because he didn’t direct all of them. He had other people come in and he had script doctoring and his first wife in the editing room taking his vision and turning it into a cohesive narrative. We seem to forget that Lucas was a young dude right out of film school when he made ANH. He barely knew how to string a narrative together and the early cuts of ANH were terrible and nowhere near what people saw in the theater. Don’t believe me? Google “how star wars was saved in the editing room” it’s a remarkable story about how Lucas’s first wife and principal editor basically made ANH into an actual story instead of a mish mash of ideas that it was before. The prequels had Lucas at the helm for all three. Yes by then he had gotten a hold of narratively what he wanted to convey, but he still didn’t always convey it in the most efficient ways.

But there are moments in the prequels that I’m stunned by their perfection. “This is how liberty dies? With thunderous applause.” as Padme watches in horror as the Republic becomes an empire before her eyes. It’s perfect to convey the horror she feels and her disgust at what the thing she’s fought for so long to just crumble and slip away.

Or the entirety of the Anakin v. Obi Wan Mustafar battle. Visually STUNNING, and heartbreaking. You can feel how much neither of them want to fight the other but how they both are so entrenched in their now opposite ideologies that they know they have to fight.

I’ve also been a fan of JJ’s for a long time.

Sure he loves mystery boxes but he usually makes the answer SO obvious that most people ignore it.

Like on Lost which I never actually watched save for maybe a few episodes, it’s pretty clear that something metaphysical is going on in that island with the crash. And there are clues dating back to the pilot as to what happened in the finale.

In TFA we’re introduced to Rey. We’re given a mystery box of who is Rey and why is she important and who is her family. But we’re also given the answer. She’s no one. And that’s why she’s important. She is no one. She doesn’t need to have this huge galactic sized legacy on her shoulders to be important, to be special. SHE IS NO ONE. And that’s why the Force chose her as its vessel.

Reason why is that she’s narratively the perfect foil for her counterpart Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. He has all that legacy and weight on his shoulders. They’re equals in power in strength, in light and darkness. They are complete equals. And TFA was all about establishing that fact. Now TLJ was all about deepening that initial connection. To get them both to scratch beneath the surface of one another, and get under one another’s skin. In doing so Ben learned that Rey just wants to belong, to be loved and have a place in the galaxy. And Rey, she learned that Ben is just as lonely, but has rejected his birthright because he felt rejected and abandoned by those who should have unconditionally loved and protected him from Snoke (which granted OT Trio tried but they def didn’t have great parenting examples either sooooo).

Now as an adult Ben is bitter, full of resentment and rage because the people he should have been able to count on fucked up royally. And I love that. I resonate with it because of my own experiences as an abuse survivor too. But even more so because it makes Han, Leia and Luke less perfect legends and more human. It makes them real and relatable that they tried to do everything right by their kiddo but ended up fucking him up. Luke’s betrayal itself was the least shocking part of TLJ tbh. Like does no one remember him going ABSOLUTELY banana balls insane when Vader threatened Leia in ROTJ?

That kind of Skywalker level extra doesn’t just go away with age.

And yeah Ben needed someone in the fam to be like “so kid, um, lets talk about this.” No one in the OT Trio is good at talking about their feelings. Luke tries to control his by just not dealing with it - the kind of thing you’d expect from a “pray the depression away” type. Leia ignores it and bottles that shit until it comes out as thinly veiled anger. And Han is the most ridiculous of the three with his constant hot and cold routine throughout ESB.

The ST is yes about the failures of the OT trio, the failures of the Jedi and the Sith. But it’s also a story about the force and it’s two chosen vessels. A girl from nowhere and the last scion of the Skywalker line. The fact that their connections in TLJ are coded as sexual awakenings is very indicative of where I think this is all going to go. The Force is basically the Skywalker Patriarch if we’re going on the whole immaculate conception with Shmi. And Ben fell from his path for years now thanks to the other Skywalkers falling from the path and inadvertently pushing him down the rabbit hole with Snoke, manipulating everything like a master of puppets.

JJ himself even said he was upset that he didn’t get to direct TLJ because he loved Rian’s script so much.

I have faith we’re going to get a hell of a finish to the 9 film Skywalker saga. With Reylo as endgame or not I think we’re going to get something truly satisfying that links all 9 movies together in a way that will have meta writers writing for years to come about all the parallels and thematic Leitmotifs within the narrative as a whole that encompasses technically 4 generations of Skywalkers (Shmi, Anakin, Luke/Leia, and Ben).

When Ben killed Han in TFA and you get that focused in shot of Adam’s face as the weight of what he just did HITS him and his eyes widen and his lips part, you see the exact moment he shatters his soul realizing that he just seriously fucked up. I leaned over to my best friend that night in the midnight showing and said “do you smell redemption arc?” and I’ve been on that train from day one.

If he were truly irredeemable he wouldn’t have split his spirit to the bone by killing his father. He wouldn’t have cared to try to convince Rey to be her teacher in the middle of their battle. He wouldn’t care that Rey stares at him like she did that night and call him a monster. A real monster wouldn’t care at being called one. And is so very shook and pained by that moniker with his lower lip quiver and his eyes red rimmed. If he were truly irredeemable he wouldn’t have killed his master just to save the girl, he’d have just usurped power and shrugged her off instead of trying to convince her to stay with him. He wouldn’t have addressed her fear and insecurity of being nothing and no one while shaking his head and saying “but not to me”. If he were truly a monster he would have pulled the damn trigger when his had the bridge of the Raddus in his sights but couldn’t because he felt his mother’s love for him even after everything he’s done.

Has he done terrible things? YES. He definitely has. But he has the equal potential for amazing things as much as he has for the terrible things he’s done. And I for one will be happy to see him begin to even slightly embrace that potential by the end of ep 9. Reylo or no Reylo I’m sure I’m going to be happy with ep 9. There’s no way Adam and so many other brilliant actors would have signed on without at least knowing where this is all gonna go. Adam himself was hesitant to take on the burden of SW but was convinced to do so because of the complexity of Ben’s character. That to me says we’re getting something amazing in ep9. And I can’t wait.

#ask drnucleus #sw talk #drnucleus writes things #Anonymous

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dcarevu · 5 years

Text

Batman TAS: Joker’s Favor

“She can't open the door and push it in all by herself! THINK!”

Batman the Animated Series. Teaching the dangers of road rage since 1992!

Episode: 22 Robin: No Writer: Paul Dini Director: Boyd Kirkland Animator: Dong Yang Airdate: September 11, 1992 Grade: B

Char’s main reaction to seeing this episode for the first time was, “My girl!!” She loves Harley (and Poison Ivy). For me too, it’s nice to finally introduce Harley Quinn to the DC Animated Universe. Of course, back when this episode initially aired, it was also her introduction to the world of comic books in general. Written to be a one-off henchwoman to the Joker, wow, who would have seen the massive Harley Quinn storm coming. I was working at Party City when Suicide Squad came out, and by far the most popular costume we sold to young girls and women alike was Harley Quinn. People who know nothing about Batman are at least a little familiar with her. Sometimes even more familiar with her than the Dark Knight himself. And good lord, have fun trying to buy a copy of Batman Adventures #12 for a decent price. Even reprints can cost you around 100 bucks. You know how annoying that is for someone who just wants to own a physical copy of the damn thing to read?

I can only assume that Suicide Squad was the major catapult for the hype surrounding the character. I don’t remember seeing her around nearly as much before. Although I’m sure the Arkham series helped a little bit too. And I won’t lie to you, I’m a little salty about it. Oh, believe me, it’s definitely petty “nerd rage”. Or maybe you could call it the “hipster effect”. What annoys us about liking something for so long, and then, much later, finding out that it suddenly blows up with admiration? It’s stupid, this should make us happy, right? But yes, to let the cat out of the bag, I really do love Harley Quinn’s character. At least, the DCAU version of her. I’ve never seen Suicide Squad, I’ve never read any of her comics outside of the DCAU tie-ins, and I’ve never seen any episodes of other Batman cartoons with her in it. Doesn’t particularly interest me (not that I’m directly opposed). But I know that in the DCAU she’s really interesting, she’s a lot of fun, and some of the best moments of the entire series involve her heavily. The Laughing Fish, from what I remember, is up there among my favorite episodes. And how about the flashback in ROTJ? That’s one of the best Batman stories ever told, period. She’s not my favorite villain by any means, but the show would definitely be missing something without her. Speaking of her roles in the DCAU, maybe that’s where that “hipster effect” comes from. Maybe we get salty when people are oblivious toward a character’s…or a band’s…or a show’s…or whatever’s…early days. Yeah, that’s gotta be it, right? When Pokémon Go was new, I saw people complaining because these kids hadn’t played the original Red and Blue versions. And no one would ever really get annoyed if an old album by Blink-182 suddenly spiked in sales. No, it’s only when someone discovers new stuff and isn’t familiar with anything before that. I’m not saying this behavior is rational, and I hate it whenever I feel this way (for the record, I defended those kids just getting into Pokémon through Pokémon Go who were being shit on by “gen-wunners”). But it’s a possible explanation. Maybe we feel that people are missing out or not putting in the effort to fully appreciate/respect a thing and why it is the way it is.

Even though Harley Quinn was an amazing addition to the series, she didn’t exactly start out that way. Ignoring her popularity, she doesn’t particularly stand out in this episode, at least, not to me. But she must have back then. Fans liked her so much, she started appearing in the Batman Adventures comics! But I won’t start complaining about Batman Adventures #12 again. At least, not yet… Of course, where this is the first Harley episode, it figures as such that Paul Dini is the writer. This episode shows us again that he knows how to write a great story to be taken seriously, but also knows how to inject a lot of fun into it. That seems to be what separates Dini from some of the other best writers. A lot of the most serious episodes are really damn serious, with virtually no fun to be had. But Dini throws in some cheeky bits. Harley, for example. Or Batman coming down with a cold in Heart of Ice. It’s certainly welcome, but honestly, I prefer episodes like Two-Face a little bit more. And that’s why I’ve settled on a B for this episode. Yeah, I know. Everyone raises this episode up on a pedestal and says how much of a classic it is. I won’t argue with y’all. It’s an important episode, and it is entertaining. But it’s not as entertaining as a lot of other episodes to me. I like it. I don’t love it. Sue me. Char actually felt the same way, so I’m not alone there. She loved the Joker, as usual, and loved seeing “her gurl” Harley, but as far as the actual episode goes, she only liked it. Strangely enough, I have virtually no complaints. For the most part it’s pretty flawless, unless I really want to nitpick at stupid shit (like when Joker points out Charlie’s hair-loss when he has the same amount of hair as earlier). Probably the only thing that actually made me scratch my head was during the scene where Charlie threatens Joker with one of his own bombs. Why did Charlie know it wouldn’t explode, but the Joker himself didn’t? The only thing I can really think of is that Batman was in on the joke, and rewired the thing. But that doesn’t sit too well with me either. Oh, and also the scenes involving the fight amongst the recreated temple was a little hokey, and didn’t match a lot of the flow. It was too random-seeming, plus the idea that all of these death traps would remain active is ludicrous. We do get the Joker at some of his best, though, and we even hear Batman laugh in-costume (a first for this series). If there’s one thing Batman shouldn’t do often, it’s use the bat-laugh. And the writers knew when to use it well. Just wait till Mad Love. As long as they don’t have Batman sing… I will now turn my head toward my Justice League Unlimited set and stare at it with a dead smile for a few seconds.

And what about the crime prince of clown himself? I think we get the most insight into his mind out of all the Joker episodes so far in this one. The first two Joker appearances were just sorta goofy romps that you would expect, and the next one (Be a Clown) was an episode of lesser entertainment value. Here, we take the best elements of the Be a Clown Joker and fuse it with the Joker we got more from the other episodes to create what I would consider to be the definitive DCAU Joker. Let’s go over it. Y’know those maniacs who chase you down the street just because you made the tiniest mistake while driving (sometimes it might even be more their fault than yours)? Well imagine if when they caught up to you, you saw that they were a psychotic, killing clown. That’s fun… After this happens to Charlie Collins, the Joker threatens to kill him, but ends up sparing him so that over the next two years, he can have a fun time of basically tracking, stalking, and keeping up with this man. I like this because, on one hand, it seems so silly that he’d want to do this simply because of a traffic incident. Like, doesn’t he have better things to do with this time? But also, the Joker knows that every day, Charlie lives in fear that the Joker will find and contact him. It’s the manipulative aspect that we saw in Be a Clown coming out. The Joker takes pleasure in ruining lives. We also have the whacky side of the Joker seen in The Last Laugh with how ridiculous the concept is. Going back to the hair-loss comment mention earlier in passing, I actually think it would have been really clever to start him out with a full head of hair, but then show him super bald later on, showing that the stress of it all had really taken a toll on him, despite his seemingly great life.

Well, then, the Joker has Charlie fly over to Gotham just to open a door for Harley. Yeah. Open a door. I friggin’ love this twist. He’s like an Alice In Wonderland character, having seemingly no rhyme or reason for anything, but you know it all somehow makes sense in his twisted head. We know this because of what he manages to pull off, and how dangerous he is. If he truly knew nothing, he wouldn’t escape Arkham time and time again or get away with nearly as much as he does. And then finally at the end, we have some moments of scary Joker-rage paired with the Joker actually yelling to Batman for help. It’s such a sudden mood change, and you have to question whether or not the Joker’s anger was real. If it is, that makes it scarier. He’s like a meth-addict. We also see the Joker shove Harley Quinn to the side so that he can get to the phone, a very early look at the abusive relationship that we don’t see in full until later down the line. Like I said earlier, Harley was supposed to be a one-off, so this likely wasn’t Dini’s intent to display, but in hindsight, it’s got a much different light casted on it. It shows how much care was put into these stories, making everything match up, even if it wasn’t the initial plan.

This opening shot looked pretty stilted, reminding us that it’s essentially a cell being moved to the right.

Our main character, Charlie Collins. I wanna know what kind of fashion statement that haircut is. The “vertical rat tail”?

That moment of realization. Great job of capturing that immediate regret. It’s like he was brought back to reality, but sent into the Twilight Zone all at the same time.

The Joker knows how scary he is.

This shot was kinda funky with how bright some of the Joker’s features were.

The Joker appears rather large when in comparison to the character who is supposed to be in front of him. This happens at least one other time in the episode. It adds to his threatening aura here, though.

“Oh please, don’t insult me.” the Joke retorts when Charlie assumes that he’s being robbed of money.

Been missing these guys! Haven’t seen enough of them!

Jim: “If anyone should be getting a testimonial it’s you!” Batman: “I’m just the nightshift. You deal with this mess 24 hours a day. That’s what those people want to honor.” The most endearing friendship on the show. He even then proceeds to ask Batman where he can rent a tux.

The Joker playing darts backwards. Throwing them at the commissioner.

Harley Quinn’s first appearance ever! Bruce Timm did an excellent job with her design. Also, another instance of Joker looking rather large. Apparently perspective isn’t Dong Yang’s strong suit.

And then the Joker proceeds to do a perfect backflip. Damn, he’s limber!

Me too, dude. Also the Joker was throwing darts right above this guy’s head.

Somehow a better license picture than any I’ve ever gotten. Also we have confirmation that, in the DCAU at least, Gotham City is in New York.

“Leave the sideburns.”

An unsettling shot as they circle around Don’s (Charlie’s) block, threatening his family.

“Any way I could sneak out with you?” Me too, dude. Lines like this add so much character that gimmicks or statements about them could never reach.

“Sir, I believe you may be needed inside.”

Bullock hitting on Harley. How does he look like even more of a sleaze when spiffed up for an event?

Montoya’s look of pleasure when Bullock gets whacked in the shin by Harley’s baton. Also, them cheekbones.

“...okayyy, we’ll tough it out here.”

Joker’s sudden mood-swings combined with his delivery from Mark Hamill are obvious callbacks to the Blue Meanies in Yellow Submarine.

Charlie, about to shove a bomb up Joker’s ass. “Batman! Batmaaaaan!” Actually, y’know what this reminds me of?

This great moment.

Joker, relieved to see Batman. “<gasp> How long have you been there?” We also get, “You’re no fun anymore, Charlie.” If there’s one thing Joker can’t stand, it’s getting upstaged when it comes to the crazy.

A solid episode for sure, but for those of you who only know about Harley from her more recent shenanigans (and you don’t have a genuine interest in watching a Batman cartoon), check out The Laughing Fish instead. And for those of you following along with me for the long haul, join us next time! …Crikey!

Char’s grade: B

Next time: Vendetta Full episode list here!

#harley quinn #joker #dc animated universe #batman tas #joker's favor #jokers favor #batman the animated series #the joker #batman #dcau

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staringatthetwinsuns · 6 years

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On writing Luke Skywalker as a character with a disability (meta thoughts)

Inspired by this post and the immensely thoughtful reblogs that go with it, I am going to try to consolidate my thoughts, advice, pet peeves, and feels about writing Luke Skywalker as a character with a disability (and perhaps touch a bit on Anakin/Vader). This is something I've actually spent a lot of time thinking about, and I don’t see it talked about very often, but now that I know I’m not the only one who thinks about it, I thought I'd try to share my perspective at least and start a conversation. Please feel free to add to, question, or outright argue with anything here.

First, a disclaimer: I am not an amputee, a doctor, an occupational therapist, or anyone else with relevant personal experience. I have personal reasons for caring deeply about this, but the most important ones are probably just wanting to see my favorite character written well and wanting to see diverse characters represented in fiction in general, so. Take this as you will.

Also, I will say in advance that I mix person-first language ("person with a disability") and identity-first language ("disabled person") here, because I know there are people who prefer both.... apologies/warnings in advance if you strongly dislike or are triggered by either.

So, first things first, and this is really just general writing advice that could apply to any disability or ANY aspect of a character's appearance… to what extent is is even necessary to address Luke's prosthetic hand in fic? The post I linked to above was really talking about art, and in that case, I suppose you do have to make some sort of choice—to draw Luke with a natural-looking hand like he had in ESB, a black glove as in ROTJ, or a metal hand like in the sequel trilogy. In fic, however, it doesn’t always need to really be addressed at all. Again, this goes for ANY aspect of a character’s appearance, and the golden rule is: Would the POV character (the character whose point of view we are in at the moment) notice or care at this particular moment in the story? You know how it feels weird when you read a bad YA fantasy novel and the narrator says something like "I looked at him with my brilliant purple eyes, which perfectly accented my flawless ivory skin"? That’s unnatural because actual people (even teenagers, shock! horror!) don’t really go around thinking about their own eye color or how flawless their skin is (unless they're incredibly unlikable, and then why would we want to read about them?). They’d be slightly more likely to be thinking about it if their skin WASN'T flawless and that zit they found this morning was bothering them, etc. Cardinal rule: don’t mention anything the narrator or POV character wouldn’t logically be thinking about at the time.

So, whether you even need to mention Luke's hand at all probably depends on a number of factors: Whose POV are we in? When does the fic take place? (Luke's going to be more aware of his new hand between ESB and ROTJ, for example, than decades in the future.) Does anything specifically happen that reminds the POV character of the fact that his hand's a prosthetic?

Which brings me, I suppose, to the next thing: Whether it even counts as a disability at all and the fact that, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T, you still can't really ignore it as if his hand just magically regenerated.

So, first. Is having an amazing cybernetic limb in the Star Wars universe a disability? I say a cautious yes… or at the very least, it's a medical condition on the same level with say, wearing glasses or contacts or having a hip replacement or something in the real world?

I do think it depends on a lot of factors though, and movie canon, at least, doesn’t give us a lot of answers. We don’t really know how much feeling Luke has in his hand… pressure/pain is established, but what about heat or cold? Does it hurt at all (aside from pain sensors)? Is it stronger, weaker, less flexible (more flexible? That's a bit hard to imagine?) etc, than his other hand? I think it PROBABLY counts as a disability and at least counts as something that would affect his daily life in AT THE VERY LEAST small ways. More on that later.

I don’t actually remember what Legends had to say about any of this but again, movie canon doesn’t give us a lot. Here are some of the things I appreciate fanfic writers thinking about, though. (For the record, I am GUILTY AS HELL of overlooking some of this stuff myself in certain fics though, so don't feel bad if you have too… just suggestions for things we probably SHOULD be considering!)

1. How different is the sense of touch or the range of movement in Luke's prosthetic right hand, compared to his left hand? Does it affect the way he does things? Does he favor one hand over the other in certain situations because of this? Does this change as time goes by and any differences become his norm? (I'd personally think there'd be some difference… not necessarily better or worse, but different, and that over time it would definitely start to feel normal.)

2. How different does it look or feel to other people? 1980s-era special effects aside, look at the rest of the technology in the universe. Look at your own hand for goodness' sake. I can’t imagine it’s a perfect replica. Like, I can see the bones and veins in my hand. My fingernails get too long and split and have ragged cuticles. There's no WAY that anyone would even WANT a prosthetic hand that realistic, so. There's got to be some difference. Especially in a romantic or sexual situation, especially fairly soon after ESB, it seems weird not to mention this. I HAVE seen fics that addressed the body temperature issue, either by having the other character be surprised that his hand WAS warm or stating that it wasn't? I guess I personally don't think that heating would be a priority and that it might therefore be cooler than his other hand? Again, definitely not always necessary but, in certain scenes might be important and gets sometimes ignored.

3. There is no f-ing way that Luke’s hand actually ages, so… while I agree that the "Oh all the skin just fell off" idea is stupid, what DOES he do as he ages? Go for the metal model because it doesn’t look the same anyway so it doesn't MATTER if he ages? Get the skin updated to look more like whatever age he is now? Just… have a random 22-year-old-looking hand even though the rest of him is 50?

4. Regardless of whatever you go with for #3, either the entire hand or some of its parts must need replacing over time. Anyone who thinks people use the same prostheses for 30 years doesn’t know anyone who actually uses one (or hasn’t known them for very long, anyway), and even if you play the "advanced technology" card.. want to show me a 30-year-old car, airplane, or space shuttle that has NEVER HAD A PART REPLACED EVER? Can he do the maintenance himself (one-handed? Well, at least he has the Force?) or does a medical droid need to do it, etc?

5. What does the REST of the galaxy think about this? The only canon instances of ableism I can think of are Obi-Wan’s "more machine now than man" in ROTJ, and Dooku's not-so-nice thoughts about Anakin's arm in the ROTS novelization (although Palpatine obviously feels differently in the same scene), but… on the whole is there any stigma attached, or not? If so, is Luke more like "screw it," or is he somewhat self-conscious? What do Leia, Han, Chewie, Wedge... whoever else is in the fic, think? I mean, seriously... imagine a loved one losing a limb. You might not CARE (you shouldn't CARE, in the sense of loving them less or differently, and I don't think any of the above characters would either) but it would still be a thing to get used to?

6. Back to technical stuff, just how much of his arm IS mechanical anyway? Definitely seems to be more than he actually lost to Vader. (This Quora post is fascinating.) Again, usually not relevant since Luke never wears anything but long sleeves after ESB (which is a travesty; look at those ARMS on Dagobah), but… might be relevant if he’s naked in your fic? ;)

7. Related to #6, how obvious is the point where the synthskin meets his natural skin? This could probably be barely noticeable (theatrical makeup experience FTW?) but, might not be? Is this the reason he always wears long sleeves? XD I can't imagine synthskin can tan or grow hair or anything, right???

Okay, so assuming you've put the thought into your headcanon for the above (I… really hadn’t either until recently though, and my fics are all inconsistent so… no judgment either way), let me come back to this "minor thing that affects your life in small ways" thing.

I don’t really get the impression that, with Luke anyway, this particular fandom pays TOO MUCH attention to his prosthetic hand to the point where it feels like a fetish. I have read a COUPLE of fics that felt icky that way, but many more involving Anakin/Vader. If anything, it gets kind of over-ignored as a perfect replacement that is exactly like his biological hand in every way.

That's just not possible. It's not. And even if it WERE scientifically possible (in a very cyberpunk-ish world, no less) would anyone BOTHER to make a cybernetic hand with ugly veins, scraggly cuticles, and age spots?

So. Even if you don’t consider it a disability, it’s a THING. I don’t think my wearing contacts is a disability, but I still can't open my eyes underwater, and if I nap in the afternoon my eyes get dry and gunky, and if I drive somewhere and lose a contact I legally and literally CANNOT drive home (never happened but, anxiety FTW?), and don't forget that one time I lived through a major earthquake and all the supermarkets ran out of food because the roads were closed, you better bet I was worried about what would happen if I ran out of One Day Acuvue before the courier services opened back up (actually go to an eye doctor and get that awful glaucoma test? *shudder*). Similarly, someone who can walk normally on an artificial hip or knee isn’t disabled in the same sense that someone who uses a wheelchair is, but they still set off metal detectors and can’t sit comfortably in certain positions. It may or may not be a major thing, but it is a thing… and it does seem weird to me that a lot of writers seem to treat Luke’s hand as a perfect replacement when it CAN'T BE. For example:

1. It's metal in his body. I’ve translated enough medical documents to know that THAT IS A THING. Metal detectors, MRIs, whatever… there are times when metal vs. organic material is a thing.

2. He can't possibly have the same fingerprints, if he has any fingerprints at all. It MIGHT be possible for a planned amputation but… that hand was lost. Any biometric-type military clearance Luke has now has to be reset/redone. Finger vein identification etc. is probably a no-go period. (NEW THOUGHT: Unless the Alliance had his fingerprints on file... doesn't REALLY match up with the rest of the technology of the world, but... cool possibility?)

3. Maintenance. Especially considering if he’s going to live on a water planet with exposed mechanical parts with no one else to help him do maintenance if needed *side-eyes Rian Johnson*

4. Ongoing pain? This is a headcanon of mine anyway. From what I understand, phantom pain comes from the brain sending out signals to a limb that is no longer there, and getting no response. Since Luke’s hand DOES have feeling, I don’t think he’d have that kind of ongoing issue, BUT. I do think there’d be pain right after he got it (again, talk to anyone who’s had a joint replaced?) and I kind of imagine his hand aching whenever he was reminded of Vader or of losing it. Not a necessary thing to work in, I suppose, but that’s a headcanon I use a lot.

5. Identity as a disabled person? I have seen this addressed in some fics, and I agree that it might not have a place one way or the other in a story that has nothing to do with disability, but… I do sort of see Luke being especially compassionate to other veterans or victims of the war, and to people with disabilities in general, maybe especially because he now knows that’s something he shared with his father? I also like it when fics address the fact that not everyone in the galaxy has access to what I assume was the top-of-the-line model for the Alliance’s biggest hero, at that Luke might feel guilt about that, or at least a desire to help others?

6. Vanity/self-esteem? Luke doesn’t seem like a hugely vain person to me but… would he be at all self-conscious about meeting someone new and getting the awkward questions? Does he tell the truth, and if so how much of it? Or does everyone just already know? (That wouldn’t necessarily be LESS awkward though?) Like everything else, this probably depends on when the fic is set.

7. Is there anything he’s not supposed to do, like get wet (especially without the skin, oh dear sequel trilogy)???

I guess on the whole I see Luke as a not-vain person who probably wouldn’t care THAT much about appearances (except everyone does a little, right?), but I do think his hand would be a constant reminder of Vader, for better (after ROTJ) or worse (between ESB and ROTJ). I don’t think it would be as life-changing as losing a limb in the real world today, but I also don’t think he’d go months (or even a day really) without even thinking about it, with zero changes to anything whatsoever.

I think it’s really important that the technology in Star Wars is shown to be helping and healing people, rather than just blowing things up. I LOVE that people have taken that ideal version of a prosthetic limb and made strides toward actually creating it in real life. But I also think that just ignoring the fact that Luke IS a character with a disability (however rendered-minor it is by said technology) does a huge disservice to the character and to diversity in pop culture in general.

So… long story short, I’d love to see more fics that did address this, even if it’s casually and in passing. While there are certainly situations in which the best choice is "it doesn’t matter in this scene," if anything I see Star Wars fics going too far in the other direction… not really considering this as a part of the character and the world?

#meta #luke skywalker #writing fanfic #meta thoughts #disability in fiction #disability in fanfic #star wars #star wars original trilogy #meta thought #cybernetics #disability #representation #not an expert #just a writer #friendly debate welcome

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dnmeinster · 6 years

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Why The Last Jedi Fails

I've debated whether it would be worth spending time writing this, as I know there are many critical takes out there about The Last Jedi. But I figure it's time to gather up all my critiques and criticisms of Star Wars Episode 8 and put them into one (hopefully) coherent post. Warning: I will be praising some parts of this film.

After I saw The Last Jedi opening night, my immediate reaction was that I loved it. It is a beautifully shot film with some great scenes. My initial trepidations were ones I've come to accept: Rey's parents are nobodies and Snoke was killed off without a backstory. However, in the hours after watching, my critical brain turned back on and started to dissect every other bit of the film. After seeing it a second time, the problems became more apparent.

Let's start with the film's greatest problem and a huge missed opportunity: Canto Bight. Everything surrounding this whole plot point and locale is misguided from the minute it's mentioned. It starts by wasting Maz Kanata, a potentially interesting character who is given little more than a cameo to send Finn and Rose off to the casino world. Even worse, Maz's short amount of screen time includes a dig at the prequels, when she dismisses any notion that they'd be interested in her union dispute. Here, we get some insight into how this film will approach politics in the Star Wars galaxy. But director Rian Johnson misdiagnoses what was wrong with the prequels. Space politics can be interesting! See: Star Wars Bloodline. Johnson's decision to shy away from it compounds the problems when they actually get to Canto Bight.

It all goes wrong from the moment they land. Literally. Finn and Rose "park" their ship in a spot they're not supposed to. Then they enter the casino, in what is apparently an homage to the cantina but on a grander scale. This diverse set of gamblers are apparently war profiteers, as is briefly mentioned. But their only interaction with any of them is when they are approached and arrested for parking illegally. Seriously.

In prison, they encounter DJ, who will eventually join them on their mission to disable the First Order's tracker. But first, they have to go back to the casino area and release enslaved creatures so they can trample and maim these profiteers we are told are bad. This is a very long sequence that ends with Finn saying how glad he was to hurt them. Huh? Hurt these people you don't know and haven't spoken to?

The entire Canto Bight subplot lacks any depth. It's completely superficial, and maybe that would've worked if they didn't spend so much of the movie there. But it ends up being a whole lot of time wasted on what amounts to finding a way to get DJ with Finn and Rose. This could've been so much better.

HOW TO IMPROVE CANTO BIGHT

Honestly, this should've been caught when someone was reading Johnson's drafts, because we're basically stuck with a chunk a TLJ that degrades it while simultaneously expanding its running time. But it could've been fixed, starting with Maz.

Instead of having Maz phone in her appearance, they should have met her on Canto Bight. Right there, we lose one prequel crack and give Lupita a slightly larger role. While there, they interact with these profiteers, engaging in a moral debate about the First Order vs. the Resistance, while finding out how the conflict is viewed through the galaxy. Were there a lot of systems missing the Empire? How do they feel about the New Republic's destruction? Eventually, that moral debate is what leads to fisticuffs and their subsequent imprisonment, as opposed to a parking ticket.

Johnson doesn't touch on any of this in TLJ. His take on the morality of the conflict is restricted to two lines involving DJ. First:

DJ: Good guys, bad guys, made-up words. Let's see who formerly owned this gorgeous hunk-uh. Ah, this guy was an arms dealer. Made his bank selling weapons to the bad guys. (Hologram shows a tie fighter.) Oh... And the good. (Hologram shows an x-wing.) Finn, let me learn you something big. It's all a machine, partner. Live free, don't join.

And second, when DJ betrays them:

DJ: They blow you up today, you can blow them up tomorrow. It's just business.

Finn: You're wrong.

DJ: Maybe.

This is the extent Johnson is willing to go when it comes to morality in the Star Wars universe, and it's just not enough. Either dig in or don't mention it. Short changing it is a disservice, but that's exactly what happens.

If the entire Canto Bight sequence was redone, it would not only be a better Star Wars movie, but a better movie in general. It doesn't have to be exactly as I think it should be, but it needs vast improvements. If Disney were to ever special edition the sequels, then Canto Bight should be singled out. And yes, I do think they should special edition them, along with the prequels. But that's for another time.

MOVING ON

The second greatest issue of The Last Jedi is how immensely it fails at being a sequel to The Force Awakens. I am undoubtedly biased when it comes to discussing TFA because JJ Abrams is one of my favorite directors and I absolutely loved his take on Star Wars. Now, one of JJ's favorite things to do is to approach plots as mystery boxes, whose contents are slowly revealed over the course of a TV series or movie. And don't say he didn't have any clue as to where TFA was going, as he had an outline prepared for the sequel, and an idea for who Rey's parents were. Along comes Rian Johnson, who, instead of opening that mystery box, takes a hammer to it.

So much of what is hinted at, left unsolved, or teased in TFA is either ignored, brushed aside, or poorly answered in TLJ. This is a problem. TLJ is supposed to be a direct sequel, not a spin-off or an unplanned continuation. When Yoda suggests there's another hope in Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi provides an answer to who that is. Imagine if it didn't. Well, I suppose you don't have to cause this basically happens with TLJ.

There was a lot of set up in TFA, but Johnson used TLJ to tear all of that up instead of building on it. Rey's lineage, strongly hinted to be significant through multiple scenes in TFA, is made to be meaningless in TLJ. Maz Kanata teased having a story about how she came to possess Anakin's lightsaber, but that's ignored in TLJ. Snoke is treated like a disposable villain, even though he somehow managed to stitch the Empire back together and tempt Ben Solo to the dark side. The Knights of Ren are mentioned in an offhand comment in TFA and are completely missing in TLJ. I could go on.

Okay, I will. Why would Luke leave a map for his friends to find him in TFA if he went to Ahch-To to die? And why did Luke leave it with Lor San Tekka? (Johnson's answer: stfu, Luke is emo now.)

The Last Jedi also feels like a smaller movie. There are two new locations introduced: Canto Bight and Crait. It revisits Ahch-To from TFA, and the rest takes place on ships. This is not necessarily a problem, except it fails to show both the dominance of the First Order and the scope of their battle with the Republic/Resistance. Star Wars is a big universe. Shouldn't it feel that way?

And then there's issues with some of the returning characters. Finn is tied down in the wasteful Canto Bight plot that doesn't do much for him. Leia spends most of the movie in a coma. Ackbar is murdered for no reason and with even less fanfare. Poe gets an expanded role, though somehow it doesn't lead to much character growth.

And I can't forget Phasma. A character with so much potential yet given such short shrift in both TFA and TLJ. She feels tacked on in this film, when she could've been given a meatier role given how underwhelming all of Johnson's original characters are. Which brings me to...

THE NEWBIES

The Empire Strikes Back introduced us to Yoda, Lando, and Boba Fett. The only memorable addition to The Last Jedi are the porgs.

Johnson gives us three new characters in TLJ: Admiral Holdo, DJ, and Rose. There isn't that much to say about them, because, well, they're not very memorable and they're certainly not iconic. Holdo is a one note character meant to serve as the adversary to Poe. Her entire role consists of antagonizing him and withholding information. She's much more interesting in Claudia Grey's novel, Leia: Princess of Alderaan.

I've already mentioned the role DJ plays during Benicio del Toro's criminally tiny amount of screen time, so that leaves Rose. She's...okay? Sticking her on Canto Bight certainly doesn't help her. The most memorable thing she does is interrupt Finn's suicide run and plant a kiss on him, both of which come from almost nowhere.

It really feels like these characters are underdeveloped and the actors are wasted in the roles, and that's a shame. But then, that's the story of the prequels as well. It's just that it was less surprising when George Lucas was doing it.

THE WORST MOMENT IN THE LAST JEDI

Luke Skywalker is far from the Luke we remember in RotJ. At least until the end of the film, when he leaves Ahch-To, joins Leia and the Resistance, and takes on Kylo Ren and the First Order on his own.

Except he didn't really leave Ahch-To, it's a Force projection, and the stress of creating it kills him. What?

Han Solo's death makes sense given his son's role in TFA. Luke Skywalker dies because Rian Johnson chose to kill him. There is not a single reason plot-wise for Luke to die in this movie. The Sequel Trilogy should not be about killing off a member of the original trio in each film. And it didn't have to be. What were they thinking?

When Carrie Fisher passed away, and it became clear Leia was not going to be in Episode 9, that should have convinced the powers that be to change the last three minutes of the film and allow Luke to live. Yes, he can return as a Force ghost, but that's not the same. They would've only had to cut Luke's disappearance and a line from Rey and BAM, Luke's still alive for Episode 9.

His meaningless and arbitrary death ruins this film. (And after they spent a whole film trying to find him, no less.)

THE GOOD

Now that I've rattled off some of the major flaws I perceived in TLJ, let me list some of the good.

The Yoda Scene: Easily the best moment of the film.

Luke tossing the lightsaber: A hilarious and unexpected moment before there were too many "hilarious" and unexpected moments.

Hux: The one minor TFA character Johnson does an excellent job with. He may be my favorite character in the film.

Rey and Ren: The development of their relationship is the strongest element of TLJ.

The Caretakers: See Damon Lindelof's Instagram.

The Porgs: Adorable pests/wookie-fodder.

Luke flashbacks: We needed more of these.

Artoo: BB-8 is stealing his thunder, but he can still get in a cheap shot.

Threepio: He's also in this film.

Praetorian Guards: That's some good lightsaberin'.

The Cinematography: Seriously, this movie is gorgeous.

It feels like a Star Wars movie (minus one ridiculous ironing scene).

FAILURE

Yoda tells Luke how failure is the greatest teacher, laying out one of the themes of this film. The other, a quote played over numerous TLJ trailers, is "Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to." Let's explore.

Weeks before Max Landis disappeared from Twitter following sexual harassment allegations, he described how every character in this movie fails:

REY - Turn Kylo - Fails KYLO - Turn Rey - Fails FINN - Turn off tracker - Fails POE - Save Revel Fleet - Fails SNOKE - Kill Rey - Fails LUKE - Train Rey - Fails HUX - Usurp power - Fails LEIA - Escape - Mostly Fails ROSE TICO - Turn of tracker - Fails HOLDO - Evacuate to Planet Secretly - Fails

That's a lot of failure. Ironically, you can add one more:

RIAN JOHNSON - Make a great Star Wars film - Fails

But this theme is not why TLJ doesn't work. It's the other one that drags it down. The whole idea to let the past die. If this was Episode 9, and Disney was about to start fresh with a new series of Star Wars films, perhaps it would work. But this is the middle chapter. The past, especially TFA, should not be killed. It should define the entire Sequel Trilogy.

After all, this is a culmination of everything in the OT and PT. The First Order is born from the Empire. The Resistance is born from the Rebellion (and then turned back into the Rebellion? Guess you can't let the entire past die, huh?) Most of the characters come from other movies. This is their last time to shine.

Johnson subverts expectations too many times in TLJ. It works at first, with Luke tossing the lightsaber, but by the end, it has become trite. Rey's parents are nobodies. Snoke's dead. Luke's dead. The entire Resistance can fit on the Millennium Falcon. (And Kylo Ren’s awesome mask is wrecked.) He's killed the past without building anything for the future. That's left to JJ in the single remaining film in the trilogy. Come on!

The Last Jedi is so polarizing because there’s so much to nitpick, whereas The Force Awakens mainly had only one general complaint leveled against it (it was too much like A New Hope). One fan may be okay with Leia's Mary Poppins scene, while also despising how Luke became a cranky hermit. Each potential negative has to be overlooked to come out of it with a positive view, but it’s a lot easier to focus and harp on the negatives. And that's what's happened online, and, yes, in this post. Also, killing off Luke for no reason was dumb.

Before I go, I want to mention how overrated Looper was. Interesting concept, but it falls apart at the farm. And they gave that director a Star Wars film, while taking one away from the guys who did the Jump Street movies and The Lego Movie. Sigh.

If JJ sticks the landing with Episode 9 and churns out a terrific film, perhaps TLJ can be viewed in a new light. And opinions do change over the years. But even though Revenge of the Sith was pretty good, no one looks back fondly at the prequel trilogy.

#star wars #the last jedi #the force awakens #revenge of the sith #a new hope #empire strikes back #return of the jedi #rian johnson #luke skywalker #leia #han solo #kylo ren #rey #finn #poe dameron #jj abrams #george lucas #supreme leader snoke

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starspatter · 6 years

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Heroes and Thieves, Ch. 7

Title: Heroes and Thieves Fandom/Universe: BTAS, pre/post-RotJ flashback

Summary: A story about second chances, healing, and having hope.

Rating: PG-13, for references to character death, child psychological torture and trauma.

Genre: Romance/Family/Friendship/Hurt/Comfort

Word Count: 2,067 Previous Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Also on ff.net and AO3.

Well time has a way of throwing it all in your face The past, she is haunted, the future is laced Heartbreak, you know, drives a big black car Swear I was in the back seat, just minding my own

-Gregory Alan Isakov, "Big Black Car"

Now.

“The Bat Signal is not a toy, Ms. Brown.”

Startled, Stephanie swerved around at the sudden emergence of a man swathed in black from the shadows, cloak whipping wordlessly in the wind. She hadn’t even heard him arrive on the rooftop.

How does he do that?

“You know my name?”

She asked, flustered.

“I make it my business to know. You’re Stephanie Brown, daughter of Crystal and Arthur Brown, a.k.a. Cluemaster. …Tim Drake’s girlfriend.”

Stephanie blinked, sighing before lowering her mantle and removing the guise’s (apparently ineffectual) inner layer, letting luminescent locks fall free around her shoulders. (Reasoning that if the cops hadn’t come up to bust her by now, then it seemed rather unlikely they’d show up anytime soon.) …Wish I knew what the heck to do with my hair under this thing, she thought idly as she combed her hand through the tangles. Maybe I should try putting it in a ponytail or something.

“Then you probably know why I called you here then. Sorry about the theatrics,” she gestured towards the spotlight, “But I figured this was the fastest way to get your attention.”

“Tim told you about our history together.”

“Some of it. He wouldn’t tell me why you two split up.”

There was a palpable beat.

“If he didn’t see fit to explain, then it’s not my place to intervene.”

“Please, Mr. Wayne.” Those crescent slits narrowed at equally intimate address. “I think I deserve to know at this point.”

“This isn’t any of your business, Ms. Brown. I suggest you go home, and get rid of that silly costume.”

Like yours is any less ridiculous.

“This isn’t a game. Quit before you get yourself into trouble.”

Holy déjà vu.

She crossed her arms frankly, standing firm.

“Tim said the same thing. I’m getting real sick and tired of hearing it.”

“He’s right. The streets are far too risky, especially for someone like you.” There was a rough rigor to his tenor; like a razor blade scraping severely against the grain, incisive and insistent. Deliberately rubbing salt and steel into the wound until it irritated. “I’ve seen how you operate: rash, reckless, impulsive, impetuous – not thinking before you act. You might believe you’re being brave – that you’re endeavoring to prove something by jumping directly into danger, putting yourself in the constant thick of threats – but you’re just behaving brashly like a child. A person of your kind doesn’t belong in this field.”

Stephanie bristled at the blunt onslaught, blue irises burning boldly defiant.

“You don’t understand: My dad was supposed to be dead, and now he shows back up again in Gotham like nothing happened – except now he’s committing crimes without even leaving clues. I couldn’t just stand aside and let him get away with it. I had to do something. After all, I’ve got a stake in this.”

Batman made a smothered sound, like a pained grunt – as if someone had just punched him in the gut.

“You sound just like he did. All you stupid kids, don’t know what you’re getting into.”

“I know that without me you wouldn’t have been able to figure out the next place my father was planning to hit.”

Admit it, that “chopping mall” clue was a stroke of genius.

“And your assistance in bringing him down during the heist is appreciated. But this ends tonight. You should leave the crimefighting to trained professionals.”

“I just wanted to help…”

Batman took a step forward, looming ominously over her. His voice was dangerous.

“You don’t know what you want. None of you ever did.”

Despite the fierce menace in his tone, she staunchly stood her ground, eyes stubborn and challenging as she declined to back down. Her opponent carried on lecturing:

“You’ve accomplished your mission; succeeded in putting your father in jail. Now that you’ve gotten your revenge, there’s no more reason for you to continue this fight anymore. I suppose you’re just doing this now for fun, for the thrill. Because you think it’s ‘cool’.”

Stephanie clenched her fists. He had struck a chord, but she didn’t take kindly to being patronized either, her entire motivations being put down, brushed aside just like that.

“That’s not the only reason. I mean, yeah this just kinda started out as a goof to get back at my dad of course, and sure I’ll confess I do get a kick out of the rush – but there’s more to it than that. I may not be all that smart or skilled at… anything really. But this – this is something I can do to help others. People in need. For the first time in my life, it feels like I’m really doing something worthwhile, that I’m doing some good. Like I’m making a real difference. I’m doing this… I don’t know. Not even for me.” She turned towards the skyline, surveying over the (for the moment at least) peacefully sleeping city, lights reflecting above and below. “I’m doing this for all of them.”

Batman stared at her.

“Regardless, this isn’t your responsibility.”

“And it’s supposed to be solely yours? You’re just one man in a batsuit, you’re not in charge of this town. You may be able to handle all the crimes within the city limits, but the suburbs don’t have anyone. Not even you can be everywhere at once. Hell, no one can carry the weight of the world by himself.”

“This is a vow I took on my own shoulder’s, no one else’s. I work alone.”

“If you really thought that, why’d you agree to take an apprentice on in the first place?”

While visibly there was no noticeable wince, another wounded growl escaped from the cowl.

“That was a mistake.”

“Oh really? I’ve seen how you operate: Ever since you’ve gone partnerless, you’ve been colder, harsher, overly aggressive, and more unforgiving than ever before. Everyone’s noticed; it’s been all over news reports everywhere, criminals claiming to be the ‘victims’ of vigilante violence. All the tabloids assume you’ve gone off the deep end, that you’ve finally cracked – or that you were off your rocker all along. That’s why they say even the police won’t cooperate with you anymore.” She looked towards the tarp lying on the ground, which had been covering the searchlight up to now. Lucky for her they hadn’t removed the apparatus entirely. “You accuse me of being hotheaded, but I could say the exact same of you. Heck, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you seem to have some sort of death wish.”

“How I conduct myself is none of your concern.”

“It is when there are people suffering for it. Tim included. The truth is Batman needs a Robin, doesn’t he? Since your parents died, you need – want company. Otherwise you’ll go crazy, doing what you do all the time. Anyone would.”

Way to play psychoanalyst with the most famous and powerful – not to mention richest – man in Gotham, girl.

Batman held her undeterred gaze.

“…You really do sound just like him.”

Grudgingly, he gruffly acknowledged the comparison – though it wasn’t quite a concession.

Still, Stephanie seized on the opening.

“Seriously, just what the hell happened? You two used to be such a great team. You guys were a legend, the ‘Dynamic Duo’ and all that. Nightwing and Batgirl too, whatever happened to them?”

His answer was aggravatingly simple.

“Things change.”

Why do I get the feeling I’ve heard that somewhere before?

She exhaled in exasperation, sensing the discussion was going in circles. She wasn’t about to allow such curt tautology cut her off though.

“You used to mean something to people. This,” she pointed purposefully at the symbol in the sky, before jabbing at the mirrored center of his chest, “…used to mean something. Sure, you could be scary sometimes, but it was clear that you cared. Now, it’s like all the lives you save don’t even matter anymore. All that exists in your mind – or your heart, whatever’s left of it – that is, assuming you even still have one – is darkness and dread. Am I wrong?”

Her assertive allegation was met with stony silence. Tentatively, she tried to uplift the weight on the conversation somewhat.

“Not everything has to be about fear. There’s room in our line of work for hope too, you know.”

Again, he merely remained mute, scrutiny slanting into the distance.

All right, fine. Don’t answer me.

Growing annoyed by such obstinate reticence (which she recognized all too well at this point; it was no wonder where her boyfriend got it from) and desperate for some sort of reaction, she attempted to return again to the original topic – her whole goal for summoning this guy’s big broody butt in the first place.

“Look, I’m sure you’re as aware as I am this isn’t just about me trying to barge in on your territory – your private little crusade – is it? I don’t mean to pry open old wounds just for the sake of sating my curiosity either. Something obviously happened between you two – something that changed him – that changed the both of you – and I need to know what in order to get through to him.” She placed a palm on her breast, clutching and curling fretful fingers against cloth as she bit her lip, baring honest emotion. “I want to be able to understand what he’s going through, but every time I try to get him to talk about it, he won’t let me near. Refuses to open up, shuts me out just like you’ve been doing all night.”

His vision panned back slowly, restoring rapt concentration. Again, those slim slivers of snow were silent, searching – scant headlights scanning in the dark. Stark and cold against coal, yet somewhere within seemed to spark a vestige of warmth; like stoking, coaxing the burnt out ashes of an old flame to stir and rise again. To remember.

“Tim means a lot to you.”

“The whole world. He’s a great guy.”

“Greater than he knows.”

“Please,” she begged, “Let me help him at least. I’m worried about him.”

He regarded her unwavering expression, gauging sincerity.

“…You really care for him, don’t you?”

She nodded, thinking to herself that- despite his still-outwardly icy demeanor, there was indeed a thaw in his throat, a slight swell of sympathy slipping through the grave gravel.

He rotated with a sharp whisk of cape, heading for the edge of the roof.

“Come with me.”

She followed, taking cue to simultaneously fumble for her cheap grapple as he reached for his own (no doubt state-of-the-art) device. Whilst descending down the decel line, Batman pressed a button on his utility belt, and a rumble hummed from down the road as a long, sleek, jet-black vehicle charged along the street, skidding to a stop right in front of them as they alighted on the sidewalk. The hood automatically slid back upon recognizing its owner, inviting within the depths of its leather wings.

HolycraptheBatmobile.

She hesitated as he walked round to the driver’s side and climbed in, casting an expectant – impatient – glance at his guest.

“Well. Hurry up and get in.”

“O- okay.”

Dear Diary, whatever you do, don’t tell my mom I agreed to get into a strange car in the middle of the night with a shady man wearing a mask. Pretty sure she’d flip her shit.

She hopped in after, settling against the cozy cushions. Leave it to a billionaire to be able to afford the best quality sitting material. Admiring the impressive array of controls on the dashboard, she figured the machine in itself probably cost more than her whole house combined.

“Hang on,” he warned as they lurched forward, “And don’t touch anything.”

Stephanie hastily withdrew her itchy fingers from the nearest knob, sweating nervously.

“Can I ask what this does at least?”

“Passenger seat ejector.”

She shrank back sullenly, leaning slumped into the lavish upholstery.

Mock me at your peril, masked man.

As they sped past buildings and streetlamps, Steph inquired with a hunch as to their destination:

“So are we going to your hideout?”

“I prefer to think of it as a lair.”

She couldn’t tell whether that was supposed to be a joke or not. Either way, she couldn’t help but feel a hint of giddy excitement at her current situation. Not many people could proudly proclaim they got to ride in the freakin’ Batmobile once during their lives.

Cool.

Hope was a letter I never could send Love was a country we couldn't defend

And through the carnival we watch them go round and round All we knew of home was just a sunset and some clowns

#TimSteph #Tim Drake #Timmy Todd #Stephanie Brown #Batman the Animated Series #Batman Beyond #DCAU #Return of the Joker #fanfiction #starstories #I'm kinda knee deep in Kagepro hell right now but #I still love my Bat babies too #so here's a quick lil update #<3 #in which I combine all the quotes #*shot*

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deadciv · 6 years

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i’ll put this under a cut, last jedi spoilers below; this is basically just me working through the movie. unlike tfa which i left in silent emotional meltdown i feel like i have a solid hold on this movie even after one viewing so here we fuckin go

overall, as said before: not a tremendous disappointment, as i feared. it avoided some of the pitfalls i was most afraid of and it did some interesting things, while definitely having a few things i found entirely unconvincing, unnecessary, or downright bad

caveat: both some of the things i like and dislike here could be changed or muddled in a heartbeat depending on their choices in episode 9. things could be pulled in a lot of different directions

things i liked:

- the first scene of the movie. honestly, it was fucking electric; the action was heartpounding, i fell in love with (then mourned) paige in just a couple minutes, good development for poe. it started off the movie really well and it left a good taste in my mouth that helped me treat the rest of the movie more optimistically. also i did cry. in fact i cried several times but here first

- no reylo. the reylos can pretend all they like, but frankly, it’s just not real and to me that was obvious.

- imo, interesting development between kylo ren and rey. it had some moments i disliked which i’ll touch on later but overall i thought it was well done; the parallels to return of the jedi, then the realization that this is /not that/ and that these are different people and different times with different solutions and outcomes, was good

- in general, and people can disagree, i appreciate the more specific, granular, less archetypal character focus. clumsy at times, but still

- tying into, i am so glad snoke is dead. the false palpatine, the false emperor, the pretender. soon as i saw his ship arrive in person i knew he was dead, and soon as rey aimed towards his ship i /knew/ he was dead. i want a little more detail of how he got where he is, but honestly i wouldn’t mind if it came in a throwaway line or in the eu. it just hit, strongly, that this is a different story with a different ending that still mirrors the old; but distorted and new

- speaking of, scene with the royal guards (force sensitive somewhat, certainly) was neat

- hitting on this again but from a different angle, the clear separation (and yet hearkening back to; books in the falcon) between old and new was refreshing. i’m not surprised they didn’t go full ‘the jedi must truly end’ even though i kind of wanted it, but the very clear signal and clear choices made to show that things are going to be different from hereon out was necessary and good

- like yet again, it definitely parallels both esb and rotj, but the details of the plot struck different chords and the setting of the battlestar galactica type chase was i think a good one

- speaking of, though imo he came off too snarky one too many times, luke was convincing to me, and his arc made a lot of sense, all in all (talk about the ending of all that in a bit)

- moving back a bit, poe’s arc was. surprisingly good? interesting, made sense with what we knew about him, they didn’t just make Holdo wrong and stupid; he clearly learned, and it made perfect sense imo

- loved seeing the rich, capitalist, war profiteering assholes composing ‘the worst place in the galaxy in contrast to what we’ve seen before; loved seeing their shitty city get shat on

- maz’s scene was lit

- leia like. used the force? rad. weird way of shooting the scene but i’ll give it a pass

- acting good; more billie lourd good

- at least some steps towards background diversity

- i actually felt like kylo ren’s emotional arc made sense and i feel like he’s going to die in the next film. once again, new problems, new solutions, even if we are playing some of the same melodies. him as essentially the main bad guy in the next movie will be fascinating one way or another

things i /didn’t/ like:

- Finn’s story arc. he didn’t end up accomplishing anything; they didn’t hit his growth hard enough, didn’t interact with rey or poe enough, didn’t get enough emotional pay off. just generally there wasn’t enough and it pissed me off; he’s a centerpiece for these movies and he needs to remain one for them to really work. the whole ‘protect what you love not destroy what you hate’ is not bad but it needed to be hit way harder and invole poe and rey directly

- specific related quibble: why the fuck didn’t finn and rey get a single scene in which they fucking talked

- i loved rose and i don’t think it really implies that Finn like, likes her, but the kiss was vaguely annoying and unnecessary.

- the way luke ‘died’ and did that whole fight sequence was not terrible, but it didn’t quite do it. i feel like we need more out of him in ep 9 to finish that off for real

- speaking of? yoda never got enough character development to realize that like, moving on and making a new world and blowing up that tree was necessary. yoda is a hidebound, set-in-his-ways dude and i wasn‘t convinced by that; it was a cheap way to accelerate luke’s development and choices

- moving ever further back, rey’s whole flirting with the dark side thing either needed to genuinely not be hit much at all or be hit harder. it had potential but then just kinda got dropped. the throne room scene and the mirror scene were both undercut by not having delved into her psyche better and more deeply. i might change my view somewhat here on a second viewing but

- like thor: ragnarok, i felt like the use of humor to that extent undercut emotional weight and muddled the tone.

- wish it didn’t feel so much like different directors; the fact that the background cast--including temmin wexley, who is important in the new eu stuff--from tfa basically disappeared was a little jolting, esp after having watch tfa last night

- speaking of. porgs. hmmm.

- ice foxes? cute but a cheap way out for that last bit. finn should have used the force that he definitely should have to find the way out. or leia

- some weird cutting that felt kinda disjointed with the scene changes

- i have other quibbles, but two main, big things left that are separate from other stuff in significant ways

- one: a technical quibble. or more like a MASSIVE FUCKING HYPERSPACE SIZED HOLE IN AN ENTIRE FLEET HOLY SHIT YOU REALIZE THIS RUINS TACTICS THROUGHOUT ALL STAR WARS RIGHT. RIGHT. I GET THAT THAT’S WHAT HAPPENING BUT MAKING US SEE IT MEANS WE HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT AND THAT IS VERY, VERY BAD. like seriously. how many times could that fucking tactic have changed entire battles? wars? like??? please give me some dumb reason why that usually wouldn’t work i dearly need it for my sanity here. in fairness though? cool as shit. but like, not worth the grief it’s causing me and will continue to cause me through all future star wars properties

- lastly, and debatably most importantly. and i’ll start small and specific. that very last scene, the one with the little kid, is emblematic of the fundamental cowardice of disney, lucasfilm, rian, whomever. the opportunity to have our little force-wielding kid be literally anything but a white person (and a white boy)? so fucking there. begging to be brought to life. an alien? focus on the little black boy instead? anything else?? like, not only does it frustrate me from a sheer rep perspective--as in, it’s basically canon that only white humans can do anything meaningful with the force, which is shit--but it also fundamentally undercuts the themes of the film, cheapening the concept (still unproven, admittedly) of having rey be not a legacy kid to a fucking massive degree. it left a terrible taste in my mouth.

- and relatedly? the general lack of aliens in resistance roles? the sidelining of finn? combined with those themes? dumb. stupid. bad. cowardly. and the lack of any lbgt stuff of any kind? no real interaction between poe and finn for the most part? related, and bad.

stuff i’m ambivalent about (incomplete list)

rey random. i kind of like that it’s not a legacy, though i get why some disagree. still not convinced that’s like, real though. i think the theming of rey needing to accept that she’s here on her own power not on that of legacy, and of anyone having the potential to great ill or good regardless of their bloodline, has potential, but it heavily depends on what they do with it in episode 9. glad i never go invested in any of those theories tbh

overall. not bad, definitely flawed. i feel pretty confident about where i’m at with it except with the rey flirting the dark side arc; i need to see it again to determine whether i’ve missed something. anyway i’m sure no one will read this but at least it helps to put it down somewhere

#star wars #the last jedi #star wars spoilers #the last jedi spoilers #in terms of numerical rating i have no idea i can't answer that in any way shape or form

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kaelinaloveslomaris · 7 years

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I'm out of songs to listen to, and I am probably bothering you, but also requesting a list of your fave Starset songs, and what they remind you of. (I want a lot of SW feels-y songs please!!) Thanks :)

A list of my favorite Starset songs? How about the full tracklisting of both their albums? :D

More seriously (in tracklist order, because I couldn’t rank them…), Down With The Fallen, Telescope, Dark On Me, The Future Is Now, Point Of No Return, Satellite, Frequency, Die For You, Ricochet, Starlight, Unbecoming, Monster, and Telepathic. Still a very long list, but at least it’s not just “all of them!”

For a more specific breakdown of why:

Down With The Fallen - it starts with respirator and heart monitor sounds. Hmm… *cough*Vader*cough* The lyrics are very Vader as well. “Turn away from all that I know, burning this bridge behind me.” Plus, all the talk of being fallen. And “Light the way and I’ll follow where you go,” is him talking to Luke.

Telescope - This one is less specifically for a character, but I can see the first verse as Luke on Tatooine pre-ANH, looking up at the stars and longing for his father. The second verse is after they’ve met and both know the truth. “I find you in the night” is when Luke goes to him on Endor. But the chorus is more Anakin and Padmé. My tag for them is from there: “in the light of all the stars aligned.”

Dark On Me - This one is obviously Luke and Vader. My tag for them is from this one. It’s hard to tell which one would be singing. It would kind of trade off line by line.

The Future Is Now - Very Vader, longing to have Padmé back, but also calling to Luke. “With the full force of a dying star, I will find you, if you’re near or far, wherever you are.” The line “I have half a life to rewrite” I see very much as Vader deciding to save Luke in the end of ROTJ.

Point Of No Return - This is pretty much Vader’s theme song. “There’s a memory of how we used to be, that I can see through the flames.” “But I can’t go back.” “The ashes call my name.” “Embracing the fear, chasing the fight,” “the bridges are burning, the heat’s on my face, making the past an unreachable place.” “I know, this is the point of no return.” It’s basically the end of ROTS, and not just Mustafar, but from the moment he cut off Mace’s hand, that was the first bridge he burned, and it all went up in flames (terrible pun intended) from there.

Satellite - Vader and Luke. “My satellite, I am here tonight. Shine your light and set me free, take the darkness out of me, shine on me.” It took Luke and his Light and love to free Vader from the darkness. “Far across the emptiness I walk the night, and search the silence in the dark you left behind. I seek the stars above the worlds to be the guide, they are pale against the light in your eyes.” This could be Vader talking about Padmé or Luke after he jumped at Bespin.

Frequency - Vader and Luke, again. Is anyone surprised? After Bespin, when he’s trying to contact Luke and find him, and Luke’s having none of this. “And now the silence screams that you are gone, you’ve tuned me out, I’ve lost your frequency.” He messed up, he lost his chance to have his son at his side (or so he thinks). There’s also memories of Padmé: “Left inside a half life, irradiated memories, these memories, they never leave.” And of course, the consequences of him turning to the Dark Side to try to save her: “I’m in the shallows, stuck in the gallows, I tried to save you now I’m swallowed.”

Die For You - I’ll give you one guess for this one! This one mostly goes both ways. The first bit, “I will run alone tonight, without you by my side,” is very Vader to Luke. “I know inside, the walls you hide behind, and I saw the truth inside the real you,” is Luke to Vader. The pre-chorus is Luke to Vader: “Because I know you’re lost when you run away, into the same black holes and black mistakes … when are you coming home?” Luke just wants his father to break free and come with him. The chorus itself goes both ways. “Even if the sky does fall, even if they take it all, there’s no pain that I won’t go through, even if I have to die for you.” Luke was willing to risk death to try to save his father, then willing to die when he refused to kill Vader. Then of course, Vader returns this and actually does die for Luke.

Ricochet - Both Padmé and Luke to Vader. “But when I send my heart your way, it bounces off the walls you made, ricochet.” And of course when Vader asks to see Luke with his own eyes, just one time: “But I’ve been dying just to see your face, and all I wanted was to say goodbye.”

Starlight - Rogue One! For something different. :) For one thing, the first word is “Stardust.” Then the ending: “Farewell, the void is calling. Don’t fear for futures and dreams. They’re fleeting, retreating. It’s okay, I promise.” They all die, but they don’t have to worry, because they accomplished their mission. “I’ll turn, I won’t look away, I’ll stay here,” is very Jyn and Cassian at the end.

Unbecoming - Also Vader’s theme song. “I lost myself inside the night, and flew higher than I ever had … I clipped my wings and fell from flight to open water and floated farther away from myself.” He turned to achieve a goal, but his fall destroyed any chance he had of saving Padmé and instead was the catalyst for her death and the destruction of who he had been. “There’s no dreams in the waves, only monsters, and the monsters are my only friends.” He didn’t get what he wanted by turning, and now all he’s left with is Palpatine, his new slave master, and painful, haunting memories. “Cauterized and atrophied, this is my unbecoming.” Again, the destruction of who he had been. And then of course, Palpatine rubs it in: “And you laugh as I search for a harbor, as you point where your halo had been … there’s no angel in you in the end.” Palpatine betrayed him, pretending to be a mentor and a friend, someone who could help, but destroyed him in the end.

Monster - This song is fittingly right after Unbecoming on the album. If the last song was about how Anakin unbecame himself, then this is about what he became as Vader, thanks to Palpatine. His reconstruction after Mustafar: “Under the knife I surrender, the innocence yours to consume, you cut it away and you fill me up with hate. Into the silence you sent me, into the fire consumed.” Palpatine and the Empire is all he has left: “You’re the pulse in my veins, you’re the war that I wage … will you cage me?” “Can you change me from the monster you made me?” Palpatine built the Empire by manipulating and using Anakin/Vader: “This is the world you’ve created, the product of what I’ve become. My soul and my youth, seems it’s all for you to use.” Vader regrets ever letting himself be fooled and manipulated into losing everything, but he can’t free himself of Palpatine or the darkness: “If I could take back the moment I let you get under my skin, relent or resist? Seems the monster always wins.” He’s lost everything. “My heart’s an artifice, a decoy soul. Who knew the emptiness could be so cold? I’ve lost the parts of me that make me whole. I am the darkness, I’m a monster.”

Telepathic - Back to Vader and Luke. “And if I had my way, I would run to the rescue.” This is both Vader, wanting to keep Luke from the Emperor, and Luke, wanting to rescue his father from the Emperor and the Dark Side. Vader wants Luke to join him, “You can run, you can run away, but I will wait in the dark for you. Should’ve never felt this way, cuz you’re the sun and I’m just a moon.” Luke is so full of Light, and Vader is just a reflection of who he used to be, a reflection of the person he can see in Luke. “I’m in the dark ‘til you light the way, cuz I’m see through. You can read my mind.” He can’t break free until Luke shows up and guides him back. Even though he tries to say it’s too late for him, Luke can see that for the lie it is and see to who he really is.

So this got longer than I was expecting it to. But there’s some Starset/Star Wars feels for you!

#asks #starset #darth vader #the ashes call my name #luke skywalker #this precious child #you're my dark star #padme amidala #angels should never touch ground #to your grave i spoke #emperor palpatine #emperor idiot #rogue one

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piratekenway · 7 years

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Anakin literally murdered Padme. And he still died a hero, forgiven by his son.

#star wars #you come into my house you dare disrespect my giant dumbass cyborg murderer like this #i'm kidding i can see why #but like at this point it is too early in the game for me to really say anything about kylo ren's possible redemption #we don't even know anything about him! he's the worst kind of vader fanboy #that's literally it.#he COULD change but it doesn't make the things he did go away #it didn't work that way for anakin #i need to add that i do not hold any hatred against kylo ren's fans #i just don't like him v much at this point #it could change! maybe! if we have more information.#but we have nothing so far so.

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a-crack-in-the-universe · 7 years

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Episode 3x04: Sphere of Influence

There is trouble on Pandora once again. When Chairman Papanoida's daughters are kidnapped, Ahsoka and Riyo Chuchi team up to help the chairman rescue his family and prevent the Trade Federation from influencing the future of Pandora.

Spoilers after the cut.

The episode begins with Riyo Chuchi trying to convince the Senate not to listen to the Trade Federation, who are trying to interfere with Pandoran politics by blockading Pandora. Afterward, Padme comes up to her and assures her that the Senate will support Pandora (I’m not so sure of that myself).

We also get our first look at the chairman and his family. The daughters go off to their room, while the chairman and his son stay behind to chat with the Senator of Pandora. In a chilling moment, the two daughters are kidnapped. One daughter manages to injure the abductor, by hitting him with a small statue. This becomes important later in the episode.

Next, we come to an Anakin/Padme moment. :’) Padme shows concern about what’s happening on Pandora, because it reminds her of her own planet’s past trouble.

Anakin responds: “Well, that blockage wasn’t that bad.”

That blockade wasn’t that bad? Anakin, you probably shouldn’t make light of something like that, especially since it’s clearly something that Padme takes seriously. Also, look at Padme’s face in that screenshot. Just look at it.

(On another note, Anakin looks so damn adorable. He is so child-like at times, and right now with Padme standing next to him you can truly see the child in his heart.)

Anakin continues: “It’s where I met you, after all.”

Just look at this adorable face! :’)

Aw, what he says is kinda sweet. Padme seems to think so too, though at the same time she still seems a bit unhappy. It does look like she at least understands that he’s trying to be supportive (or at least cheer her up), even if it’s not working that well.

When moments like this come up, I get why some fans think that their relationship is unhealthy and should never have happened. But, Padme does see something in Anakin and chooses to remain with him when she could just ditch him and make life easier for them both. And I don’t think she’s the type to stay inside a relationship if she doesn’t really want to.

Padme: “You certainly have a unique way of looking at things, Ani.”

Yes, he certainly does! ;)

Now, Ahsoka arrives with the news that the chairman’s daughters have been abducted. It’s hero time!

Padme: I was afraid something like this would happen.

Okay, then why didn’t you warn them and put protective measures in place??

Anakin: The Jedi can’t get involved. This is a job for the local police.

Since when does Anakin care about the Jedi getting involved in anything? He’s the one who loves breaking the rules.

So Anakin gives Ahsoka permission to go behind the council’s back and help Senator Chuchi investigate the abduction. Anakin will stay at the Temple and make sure the Council doesn’t find out about it.

Anakin’s habit (and love) of rule-breaking has to be part of why Padme loves him. Just look at her face in this image! :’)

Padme: “Should you really proceed without the Council’s approval?”

Anakin: “We do it all the time. Don’t we, Snips?”

And then...

Padme: “I still can’t believe they let you teach.”

Dear god.

Well, at least it’s made clear she’s teasing him.

And look at Anakin’s face:

The scene changes to Riyo Chuchi, the chairman and his son. They receive a message from Count Dooku who offers to help them find the chairman’s daughters. Senator Chuchi insists that the Separatists were involved in the abduction. At the same time, Ahsoka arrives to give her aid.

What I really like is that the chairman and his son aren’t fooled by Count Dooku/the Separatists and realise that the Separatists are probably holding the daughters hostage to force Pandora into joining them.

Thinking that the daughters might be being kept on one of the ships blockading Pandora, Chuchi and Ahsoka go there on a ‘diplomatic visit’ while the chairman and his son stay on Coruscant and follow the police investigation. The chairman and his son discover blood on one of the mini-statues in the daughters’ room and identify it as that of a Rodian called Greedo, who resides on Tatooine. Hell yes! :) I love it when victims are actually smart and help themselves. I’ve seen too many shows in which this is not the case.

I’m going to ignore the fact that they’re technically ruining the crime scene by moving the statue back onto the shelf, because the police look useless anyway.

Chuchi and Ahsoka arrive on the Trade Federation ship. Ahsoka is hidden underneath a cloak, presumably to hide the fact that she’s a Jedi. Um, if I were the Separatists/Trade Federation, I’d be immediately suspicious if I saw someone cloaked like that, especially if there’s another person with them who isn’t cloaked. Chuchi better have a good explanation for this.

But apparently they don’t suspect anything? :/ Hmm, maybe it’s typical for servants to be cloaked on Pandora.

Meanwhile, the chairman and his son go to Tatooine to investigate Greedo. I love that they’re helping themselves like this. :)

Chairman: “Be careful. The Hutts are the only law that matter on Tatooine.”

Son: “I don’t scare that easily.”

This might spell disaster... :(

Hooray, we get to see Stinky again! :’)

Also, I can’t believe how sweet it is to see the tyrannical Jabba behaving like a doting father.

That chairman is a total badass. :’) I love him!

On the Trade Federation ship, Ahsoka and Chuchi do some of their own badass investigating. They overhear two Trade Federation leaders talking about the kidnapping, proving that the Separatists (and the Trade Federation) are behind it. Unfortunately, Chuchi lets out an ill-timed gasp after hearing where the daughters are being kept, and that almost alerts the Trade Federation of their presence. I say almost, because the two of them escape just in time, with help from Ahsoka’s Jedi-powers. Having the info they need now, they go looking for the daughters.

Back on Tatooine, we finally get a look at Greedo. The female (not sure of her species, sorry!) that the chairman talked to tells Greedo about the Pandorans. He leaves to ‘settle things permanently’. Hopefully that’s part of the chairman’s plan...

On the ship, Chuchi and Ahsoka have to get past a guard, via jedi-mind-trick.

Chuchi: “Have you done this before?”

Ahsoka: “No, but I’ve been practicing.”

Well, I guess it isn’t the right time to admit that you tried once before and failed at it.

I lol at Ahsoka forgetting to mind-trick the guard into letting Chuchi pass too. She ends up having to mind-trick him again for it to work.

On Tatooine, Greedo seizes the chairman and his son. The chairman is awesomely calm about it, and demands to know where Greedo is keeping his daughters. The son is less sanguine.

Son: “I don’t want to die on this dust-ball!”

Shut up, son!

I’m starting to wonder whether the chairman’s plan was a terrible idea after all...

I take it back. This is one of the most badass things I’ve seen so far. The chairman flies into action, takes out a knife and holds it at Greedo’s throat, taking down a few of Greedo’s henchmen in the process. He then insists on talking to Jabba the Hutt about this.

Back on the ship, Chuchi and Ahsoka have had no luck in finding the daughters. Even worse, it looks like the Separatists have realised that they are snooping around.

On Tatooine, the chairman and his son and now standing before Jabba. The chairman appeals to Jabba, saying that he is only trying to get his daughters back, and that Jabba, being a father himself, should know that he would do anything for his children.

Jabba is clearly swayed:

Aw, I really like how this series gives another dimension to Jabba. It makes me feel a little bad for him, knowing that Leia kills him in ROTJ. But only a little!

The chairman wants to take a blood sample from Greedo, to see if it matches the blood seen on the statue. Jabba agrees to it, but Greedo resists, which only makes his guilt more clear. Greedo is so afraid of having his blood taken that he admits to abducting the daughters, the very crime he’s being accused of. I guess he just hates needles?

Chairman: “Where are my daughters, you slime?”

The Chairman is definitely a Papa Wolf. :D

Turns out one of the daughters is in Mos Eisley. The other one is on the ship Ahsoka and Chuchi are searching, and they find her just after the chairman and co go off the Mos Eisley to get the other daughter. There’s a fight, and Greedo escapes, but the chairman has his daughter back. :’)

One of the defeated enemies tries to shoot at the daughter when no one is looking, but this happens:

This girl can look after herself. :D

Back on the ship, Ahsoka and co have gotten the other daughter, but are found by the Separatists as they are escaping. Ahsoka does a great job in trying to take them down (she destroys a whole group of attacking droids), but she is forced to back down when reinforcements arrive. Another Trade Federation politician is with them, and he is not pleased by what he sees. Senator Chuchi uses her diplomatic skills to force him into letting them go and ending the blockage surrounding Pandora.

The episode ends with said Trade Federation politician officially renouncing Nute Gunray and the Separatists and announcing the end of the blockade surrounding Pandora and resuming of trade between the Pandorans and the Trade Federation.

Previous: ARC Troopers Next: Evil Plans!

#star wars #the clone wars 3x04 #sphere of influence #reactions to the clone wars

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spynotebook · 7 years

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Art by Tsuneo Sanda. Visit his website here.

Bonjour, my bonny mailboxes. Thanks to your abundance of excellent letters, I have an extra big mailbag for you today! So let’s get right to it: What’s the best Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack? Who could save the Transformers movie franchise? Why did WB decide to make the DCEU’s Batman so damn old? And more of your excellent and/or nerdy questions answered!

Machete Kills

Arnold C.:

Mr Postman, how do “Rogue One” and “The Force Awakens” affect the “Machete Order”? Start with “Rogue One”, and then move into “A New Hope”? Or, not even worry about R1? TFA after RoTJ for sure, right? What do we do about Episodes VII, VIII, and IX?

What if this does keep going on? If it extends forever, is there a point where you just watch all of SW numerically?

Let me start by informing anyone who might be unaware that the Star Wars “Machete Order” posits that people should watch A New Hope and Empire, then the prequels, and then Return of the Jedi, which is all essentially just to preserve the Vader-is-Luke’s father reveal. Some people even drop The Phantom Menace entirely. How to include The Force Awakens and Rogue One in this order is obviously causing some people some consternation. But I, as always, have the answer.

Arnold, over my many, many years as a nerd, I have discovered a truth, and it’s that only you know the best way to introduce someone to the Star Wars movies. Trust your feelings. Retract your targeting computer. Listen to the voice of the deceitful old man in your head.

I’m only partially kidding. We can say there’s a “perfect” order to watch the ever-increasing pile of Star Wars movies, but there really isn’t. I could almost argue that having the sequel trilogy makes the Machete Order better, in that Return of the Jedi wouldn’t just be hanging out there alone, only watched after the prequels, but Rogue One in particular has messed everything up.

Does anyone really think that Rogue One is the best entry into the Star Wars universe? Sure, it’s a hilariously direct prequel to A New Hope, but without seeing New Hope first, much of Rogue One would be weird if not outright off-putting. Seeing Star Wars first gives Rogue One the dramatic weight it needs to be truly exciting. And what the hell happens when the Han Solo side story shows up? It’ll almost certainly be set before Rogue One, but a Star Wars viewing order that starts Han Solo, Rogue One, then A New Hope does not sounds good to me—and certainly no way to potentially create a fan. And what about all the cartoons? Now that everything is canon, don’t they belong to be somewhere in here too?

But here’s the truth: There is no perfect order to watch these films, at least for everybody. But there can be a perfect order for you, or whoever you want to show it to. I will always want to start with A New Hope, because that’s my first, and my lynchpin to the Star Wars universe. But kids who grew up with the prequels are likely perfectly fine watching Episodes 1-3 and then the original trilogy. Meanwhile, some people will be fine—maybe even significantly happier—if Episode 1 is omitted completely from the viewing order. And maybe the best way for you to watch Rogue One is by watching the original trilogy, then the prequels, then Rogue One, and then A New Hope again. My point is there isn’t a universally correct answer here.