#like its worth noting that anakin is the one who has gone through the emotional ringer this book

[comebackali]

32 yr old babygirl getting rescued by the teen object of his affections 💕💕💕

#i still can’t get over ‘grabbed obi wan as if he weighed nothing’ #this is to me the equivalent of obi wan doodling ‘mrs.anakin skywalker’ in the margins of all his notebooks #he marveled at that HE MARVELED AT THAT #like its worth noting that anakin is the one who has gone through the emotional ringer this book #obi wan is ENTIRELY LUCID MARVELING AT HIS TEEN PADAWAN #he genuinely maketh me unwell #girl get a grip #obi wan kenobi #star wars #obikin #otp: more intimate than lovers #pt #sw novels #jedi quest #jedi quest the moment of truth #the moment of truth #wizard #allie reads jedi quest

[tigressaofkanjis]

Distraction - Grievous/Rex One-Shot

I don’t know why but I love the idea of this pairing. This is a small fic I wrote about it.

Based on this: https://iwouldshipthat.tumblr.com/tagged/general-grievous%2Fcaptain-rex 

For @anpan-chan

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

There was a time Captain Rex hated his objective and then there was a time he really hated his objective with a burning passion. What was his objective?

“Okay, the head clanker is on deck nine with a full battalion and service droids two hangars away. We sneak into Grievous’ current position and blow the fucking bastard sky high. Afterwards, we run like hell back to this point and aboard the undetected shuttle we fly off into hyperspace. Any questions?”

Fives gave Rex an “are you serious?” stare, “And why aren’t the Jedi a part of this oh so important renegade we’ve decided to do which may or may not turn the tide of the war?”

The Captain sighed, “Ana…General Skywalker has gotten himself into a bit of trouble and General Tiin has taken over our missions for the time being. He’s instructing us from our base because he knows the Separatist Leader will be able to sense him. We’re going in Jedi-less because we’ll hold the element of surprise.”

“So essentially, we’re going to die,” Echo mused.

Rex immediately punched his shoulder pad, “You drag this team down because of your low confidence, I’m kicking your ass in any afterlife we end up in!”

The other clones snickered as Rex slid on his helmet and took the lead while Echo teasingly stuck his tongue out behind the Captain’s back.

“Careful Echo, do that too much and you’re face is going to stick like that,” Kix smirked.

“Shut up!”

The clone troopers quickly moved throughout the ship towards the hangars where their target lied. In order to keep themselves undetected, they hid whenever droids were nearby because although they could take the bots with relative ease, it wasn’t worth the mission.

Rex was confident that they could do the impossible this time. It was asking much from his team but it was the only chance they may have had left to end the Clone Wars once and for all. So far, everything was going according to plan.

“Hey, Rex, something doesn’t feel right,” Jesse sudden spoke.

Rex paused as he passed through an open doorway and turned around, “How so?”

“Doesn’t this seem a little too easy? There aren’t many clankers for a ship holding the general himself and not one of us has been snuck up upon, all parties accounted for. It doesn’t make any sense. I’ve never seen a mission go this smoothly before.”

Rex scoffed, “Relax, you’re just-”

Abruptly, the Captain was cut off by the large area doors slamming shut, separating him from the rest of the team. The 501st Legion themselves stood in awkward silence for a second before several of them groaned loudly.

“Oh shit.”

“Who’s rotten idea was this again?”

“Aw he’s so screwed.”

Fives moaned, “You and your fat mouth, Jesse!”

“What?! What! You think I could’ve predicted that?!”

Kix and Tup began arguing with him angrily as the others face palmed and leaned against the walls in defeat, shaking their heads.

On the other side of the doors, Rex only heard faint voices quarrelling. He knew exactly who was who upon how each argument was presented. ‘I’m sometimes surrounded by idiots.’

On a much sour note, he knew this was bad. He was separated from his group and there seemed to be no control panel to open the doors. He was trapped there. There was only one option left: keep moving forward and hope his troops could make it back to the ship to safety. He knew it was up to him now to finish the job.

The hangar Grievous was said to be in wasn’t even guarded. It hardly had any security, no droids standing nearby, not even a shuttle in its bay that the droid general could escape in. Jesse was right, there was definitely something wrong. Was it sheer coincidence he was separated but not ambushed or was someone leading him to a darker fate? Rex didn’t like fate. He didn’t like how this mission was turning out nor did he like his newfound role in it. If anything, he was really beginning to loathe this idea.

Entering the hangar with his pistols ready, Rex kept himself low to the ground and hidden behind crates or objects large enough to conceal him. From one shadowy point of view, his breath hitched. There was the general.

General Grievous, with his cape gleaming untouched and poised, stood almost completely up at his true height. From the back, Grievous merely appeared as if he was occasionally drifting his head from one side to the other casually looking for something. There were no other droids present so what could he be searching for? Those eyes were to be feared. The golden irises were hauntingly astounding to look at. The way the eyes contracted and dilated on emotions more so than human eyes could was fascinating.

Until now, Rex never had the chance to actually study the general up close. He always wondered what Grievous once looked like before the armor plating and servo mechanics keeping him alive currently. Even for a clanker, the bastard was a prime example of cyborg. Despite no muscles, he appeared extremely fit for a droid, robust, and even he dare say quite elegant. The mannerisms the creature demonstrated were a mixture of primal and malevolent tendencies but could be graceful and endearing when need be. It was like watching a purebred narglatch at work, so fluid yet so deadly.

A bump to Rex’s right made him jump slightly and turn in haste but nothing was there. When he turned his attention back to the droid general, the Captain froze now panicked. Grievous was gone. He hadn’t heard the leader move which meant he didn’t know where he was. The clone knew that under normal situations, that was life threatening losing track of your enemies. He was open for attack if Grievous even knew he was there.

“Okay Rexy, don’t lose it yet. You’ve still got a chance. You’re still oka-”

“Such reassurance for one so lost,” a choked laugh emitted from above him on the crates.

Rex scrambled upward almost losing his grip on his weapons and turned facing the one being he dreaded so much. General Grievous stared back as he was carefully posed on all fours on top of the crate, his ivory colored head tilted curiously at the lone trooper. As he began to crawl down and towards the clone, Rex stood his ground shakily. He knew the chances of getting a good shot of the general and killing the monster was slim as Grievous had unnaturally fast reflexes for a cyborg. If he shot, he died. If he did nothing and backed himself into a wall, he was dead as well.

As Grievous returned to his normal bipedal position, he didn’t unleash any lightsaber yet which was odd to Rex but it wasn’t like he was going to ask the mech’s thought process at a time like this, as interesting as it would be. Suddenly, the general whipped one of his arms out and the Captain’s guns were sent flying from his grip across the hangar. It was obvious Grievous was not fond of people pointing weapons at him. This caught Rex off guard and he found himself pressed against the wall with nowhere to run. Grievous also seemed to not care for personal space either.

“And what, pray tell, are you doing aboard MY ship, clone?”

Upon the close encounter, Rex somewhat had no choice but to put his hands on Grievous’ torso to keep from getting crushed between the droid and the hangar wall. He felt the general flinch back from his touch with a growl but said nothing about it, keeping only a foot between them but still keeping close enough to be imposing. Rex had felt the chest line and it was exactly as he predicted it would be, robotically muscular which was awkward.

He gulped inaudibly to hide his fear, “I was accidentally brought here. I fell into one of your ships in a battle and got knocked unconscious. Your droids retrieved the ship apparently but didn’t know I was there.”

He could feel those golden orbs staring into his soul, into his lie as if he did possess the Force. Rex knew that wasn’t true but it sure seemed like it. He could almost feel the agitation rolling off the pristine armor covering the general. But then he had a thought, a crazy one that Anakin would probably laugh at. Slowly, Rex clasped his hands on his helmet and slowly removed it to hold it by his side. The general seemed to have not expected this as he widened his eyes, not out of shock but now out of confused curiosity.

Grievous gave him a once over and he twitched slightly uncomfortably at the thought. In his mind, he figured Grievous found the clone armor distracting, emphasizing them as less than human. By removing the helmet, he made a more bold statement that he was still human and so far, Grievous had calmed a bit given the chance to actually interact with a person, not the equivalent of a droid.

“You were foolish to come aboard with no backup unless you want a death wish. I wouldn’t have taken someone like a commanding rank clone to be this desperate or perhaps you have guts just like your masters. You thought you could come and defeat me, didn’t you? Wait a second, I recognize your markings.”

In the back of Rex’s mind, he was yelling and trying to come up with an escape plan. Nothing was solid and most ended in death. There seemed to be one option he was unsure of and he doubted it would work but considering he was out of time, there was no turning back. ‘Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!’

“Ah, Skywalker’s clone!” Grievous began to laugh. “I-!”

Rex grabbed Grievous’ chin and placed a rushed kiss onto the mouthpiece. The metal felt weird but smooth and tasted like industrial minerals. He could barely see the general’s eyes but they were as wide as physically possible. The normally slit pupils were expanded as well. As soon as he broke off the kiss, he knew this was his chance. Leaving a baffled Grievous behind, he quickly donned his helmet again and ran to the nearest exit.

Before he made it out of the hangar, the distinct sound of a lightsaber rang out with a very sultry voice growling at him from afar, “Get back here right now!”

He nearly slid into the hangar doorframe cutting a hard left into the halls. His main priority if anything was to get as far away as possible. A few battle droids froze as they saw him but he leapt over one and continued on.

“Was that a clone?” One droid asked.

“I think so. He seemed to be in a hurry.”

“Wait, there’s the general too!”

Grievous ran after Rex and much to the droids’ dismay, sliced through them angrily just for being in the way. He ignored their screams as he had only one objective on his mind.

The clone captain glanced back, hoping he had outrun the general. What he failed to see was he had just run into a dead end. The main deck of the Separatist cruiser had only one way in and one way out. A few droids at their stations seemed to not notice him and taking advantage of that, snuck under the main control console to its farthest corner where he couldn’t be spotted.

The doors opened again and much to his alarm, Grievous slowed to a hunched stomping pose with a growl. “Where is Skywalker’s clone captain?!”

“Uh captain, general?” A droid questioned, “We didn’t know a clone was here, where was he?”

“He ran here, you fools! You didn’t see him?!”

Another droid shook his helm, “We thought we heard the door open and we assumed it was either you or another battle-AH!”

Grievous quickly flung his lightsaber at the droid and watched it cut the poor mech in half before turning off. “Find him!”

The other droids scrambled off their posts and grabbed their weapons. “Roger roger!”

The general snarled at his crew’s incompetence and took a seat on the admiral’s chair that overlooked the entire deck. Below, Rex could only gulp and saw the doors were still open. Perhaps he could sneak away. Looking up at the side view of Grievous from his position made him nervous. He seemed out of the line of sight but all it took was a turn of the head right and he would be in the corner of the eye as a grey form on a black background.

‘It’s either now or never, Rexy.’

When Grievous’ attention turned left instead, he took his leave. Slowly he crawled on all fours from his hiding spot and made his way to the door. He felt awkward in this position and was going slow enough to be spotted had any droids wandered to the upper half. He looked like someone’s pet massiff wandering about. All he needed was a collar.

Suddenly, he felt a hand clasp his ankle and he paled quickly. It was really no use to try and stand up to sprint as he only landed back on the ground to his utmost humiliation. Dragged back, he clawed at the ground but it was quite useless. He found himself even more humiliated as he was now on all fours like a massiff…in front of a seemingly amused General Grievous who sat back down.

“It seems you are very persistent in being a distraction today. Fine, if you wish to be that way, you can do this the remainder of the voyage here with me. After all, you seem to want my attention. Now you have it,” Grievous darkly mused.

This wasn’t at all what Rex had in mind on this mission. Sometimes he hated his missions. This was very high up on his hate meter. What caught Rex off guard was when Grievous suddenly hoisted him onto his lap, hooking the right hand under his thigh slightly lifting it and the other posed rather indecently on his chest armor, claws digging beneath the seam of the lower part that connected to the beginning of his waist.

“Wha-what are you doing?” Rex said in a panicky voice.

Grievous used a third arm broken off of his left to take off the captain’s helmet and threw it on the ground. He returned his appendage and pressed his faceplate near Rex’s with a low rumble, “I figured you would enjoy being up here with me, captain. Skywalker has an interesting reputation in the Jedi Order and some of the rumors he has with him seems to also apply to you. I cannot help but wonder if you are like him in more ways than one. That little distraction you pulled in the hangar was indeed a trick I never would have expected from the likes of your kind, but since you are so willing to come to my ship unaccompanied and you are Skywalker’s prized clone, I believe you would make an excellent addition to my collection of war trophies albeit alive rather than dead as I usually prefer.”

“Great,” Rex muttered sarcastically which earned him a slight bump on the head from Grievous’ chin.

“You aren’t like the other clones. Yes, you will do quite nicely. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have my own clone trooper. Welcome aboard the Black Death, captain.”

Rex accepted his fate as struggling did no good. He found his left hand covering the general’s on his chest and the other gripped the underside of the robotic neck as he leaned back against the armored chest in defeat. He occasionally kicked the hand exploring his leg when the touches bothered him but he did nothing else. He hated this mission with a burning passion.

#general grievous #captain rex #b1 battle droid #jesse #kix #tup #echo #fives #star wars the clone wars #anakin skywalker #short stories

[roxannepolice]

Long asks anon again, here to offer my opinion on the current wank. Rey as a character is rather blatantly breaking sw story rules and nothing is going to get SFF fans hackles up like rule breakage. This is root of both the MarySue accusations and current wank. Rey has a tragic backstory thats doubling as the only failure she can call her own. But its a) damn near entirely offscreen and b) serves as convenient justification for why shes competent at near everything that comes up.

Reys instantly good at the force because of a convenient force download that to the best of my knowledge only occured in the noncanon KOTOR II and quite frankly cant blame most of the general audience for not getting because without prior knowledge or the novelizations why would they? She has darkness in her but as so far used and touched it consequence free and its almost entirely symbolically externalized on the Kylo (and in SW symbolism is Real in a way it isnt in other narratives) Shes strong in the force because Light rises to meet Dark but to quote the current crop of movies ‘thats not how the force works) or at least thats never how it worked before. Shes the first SW protagonist to go behind enemy lines and come out with both hands in the second movie. For ppl wondering how come Luke and Ani never get labeled MarySues, this is why, they got thier asses handed to them, Rey hasnt. There /is/ something /off/ in Reys story, and ppl pick up on it. if you can make a post (w/ over 1k notes!) about how great it is that a character meant to prop up 7hrs worth of movies has little to no character development to go through, somethings off. If multiple ppl can make posts about how its neat Rey can tap into the darkside (still characterized as evil in ST) consequence free (with some quite frankly stupid justifications, 'shes disciplined’ really? jedi lacked a lot of things thats not one of them) somethings off and again, if the only failure your main heroine has is /entirely retroactive something’s off/. If the story were getting with the is the story most ppl think we are, a 'female empowerment’ (i dont feel particularly empowered by being told I have an equal chance at being a deus ex machina but ok) than well, her story is over and theres no need for IX (hell it could have been over in TFA, most ppl assumed she had accepted her place as the future jedi in that one) and no need for reylo The ST was always gonna deconstruct all that came before it purely by virtue of being a sequel. The tragedy of anakin skywalker is now a farce, the happy ot ending now a tragedy, and the mythopoetic structure shot to shit in the name of serialization and perpetual warfare. this stand true for all the sequel characters including rey and ben. the only question is are we going to get anything out of it? I compare it to home renovation. You can knock out a wall and the walls gone, but new opportunities arise. With Benlo, I’m reasonably confident that there will be at least some attempt to take advantage of the new space. With rey and the resistance kids? not so much. it just feels like they knocked down a blue wall to rebuild it as pink one and at the point it just feels like a waste of time because ive seen this before. Ive seen pure cinnamon roll desert orphan reform jedi order If this was all youre going to do that the fuck was the point? which circles around to my problem with team good guy this go around and That Scene. JJ twisted the story into a pretzel to justify the winners of the last round being the underdogs again and then rian twisted so much further the storys head may as well be up its own ass. And then at the very end he shoots it all to shit and rushes to reassure us its all gonna be okay. He removes the entire point of the underdog trope /the tension that comes from the fact that they might lose/. I mean there wasnt a whole lot of that to begin with already but really? So theres no tension that Reys gonna win so her journey feels frictionless, and theres no question where shes gonna end up so full offense why give a shit? Thats where the whole 'can rey lose a fight?’ thing comes from. Ppl want conflict in her arc to justify its existence and give us a reason why this her story to begin with. if the only character going through growth for all three movies is ben, if the only characters whos fate is up in the air is ben, and if all the tension in the reylo relationship comes from ben, then why is this /reys story/? why not just make it about the character actually driving all the drama and thus, the story?   As a final thought, im going to add that having Kylo be aware and insecure that hes never gonna be as Iconic as Vader was a great story choice, regardless of where ends up. Current Rebels, on the other hand, seems to have not gotten the memo that they are never gonna be as iconic as Original Rebels, and the story itself seems to being trying to sell them to me as being better. Rey is Luke but better, Poe/Finn are Han wo the smuggler grit, and id be lying if i said it didnt piss me off.

&

Long asks anon to kick down ur door again, AND ANOTHER THING. SW is a lotta things. Subtle aint one of them, and St hasnt changed in that regard. If you have to debate it chances are either a) ur arguing counter to the text in which case mor power to you but not really helpful for predictions or intended meaning or b) /it aint there. A bunch of ppl didnt like anidala, but nobody doubted we were supposed to think they were in love by the end of AOTC, bunch of ppl didnt like poes arc, but no one doubts he fucked up by not listening to holdo was the intended take away. Which brings to rey and flaws or lack there of. Were told rey has flaws but she has yet to suffer any real consequences from them with the exception of The Damn Parentage Wank, which again, pulls the double duty of making her hyper competent at everything. Because rey has no consequences for her flaws, from a story function pov there aren’t any. If rey did have a flaw to overcome, we would all agree what it was

Now won’t you all just look at this beautiful, spot on rant which has been lagging in my askbox since the last time Rey’s flaws or lack thereof were the discourse’s focus (November, I believe?) and suddenly became a thing again, courtesy of Tweetgate. I think you really summed up the crux of this debate wonderfully, anon.

I particularly agree with the part about Rey not getting narratively punished for whatever flaws we’d like her to have (great point about returning from behind the enemy lines with both arms still in place), when SW don’t stay away from allowing characters to get “punished” even for otherwise applaudable features - vide Padmé, whose idealism is what Palps manipulates into gaining more power (this is why Padmé will never come off as a Mary Sue or too perfect, btw). But I’ll say even more - Rey doesn’t even get called out on her flaws, except for by Ben, who’s mostly dismissed as a baddie like Palpatine saying Luke was foolish to rely on his friends. Let’s just consider one thing - both Anakin and Luke get called out on their flaws by Yoda (Anakin repeatedly and by lots of other people for that matter) whereas with Rey, the same grumpy-yet-jolly senex pops up from the afterlife to further inform us what a great jedi material she is.

TBH, I have a very cynical theory as to why Rey is being pushed as the main character while it’s difficult to deny that it’s Kylo Ben who does all the plot heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure Ben’s arc was the first one DLF thought out (and the big question is, was it the only one they thought out) and only later on decided to make Rey the main character, which also involved much less spontaneous writing. Mind you, it’s not as if benepemption didn’t have a manufactured subtaste to it, but with Rey’s heroine’s journey stiff structure occasionally substitutes any in-world explanations of her actions (this is why I have to hope renperor has some narrative purpose rather than happening because lovers need to be separated and anti-hero needs to achieve what he wanted in 2nd act). I feel as if whatever potential her character had (and hopefully still has, pending IX) got smothered by layer upon layer of making her likable by everyone, which largely relied on negative characterization: she’s not helpless, she’s not too naive, not cynical, not too emotional, not too emotionless, not morally corruptible, not anything you’ve ever complained about regarding any SW character, not falling for the bad boy, not not not - and in the end it’s kinda difficult to say what Rey is like and while the goal of making her widely likable was achieved, it also made it almost impossible to view her as loveably flawed/annoying like the classic characters. And on top of all this is the matter of making her a nobody just like you!, as DLF appears to say with uncle Sam’s gesture (which also kinda assumes the existence of a Star Wars fan as some uniform entity? because if you identify with her, good for you, I just don’t understand why the franchise assumes I’ll identify with her by the grace of being a SW fan alone), because, as you excellently put it, the message here is that everyone can be chosen by God - which again, it’s not as if the saga ever contradicted this, so why the hell make a case of it? I can’t agree that it’s made into Rey’s flaw, though, imo her low birth only serves to further frame her as an oppressed virtue. And I definitely agree regarding too much of her growth being left off-screen, or before the story ever begins. The problem here isn’t even that it is left off-screen (it’s not as if we had huge insight into any of the pt or ot characters) but rather that her characterizations is left off-screen while being depicted as at least untypical (unique to put it bluntly) for her situation (same goes for Finn). A hopeful, kind person growing up on her on her own in slavery under a nicer name is a rarity and DLF makes a case for it being a rarity - and this sparks up curiosity in her past, as if market pandering to Re/sky wasn’t enough. So from this pov her un-reveal being frustrating isn’t just a case of not wanting to love her or her self only a potentially deeper psychological question getting answered with well, light.

I should add, Ben’s arc feels like the most spontaneous one (though Finn’s may yet be a masterpiece) and he’s the one to admit his fear of not living up to Vader’s legacy, because I think he’s the character serving as the creators’ vessel, more or less like Luke was Lucas’ avatar in ot. In his fear regarding Vader’s legacy one can feel Disney’s fear due to having bought popculture’s holy grail and not being entirely sure what to do with it. On this background, Rey (a literal scavenger of OT’s pieces) and rebels 2.0 repeatedly blessed by Leia come off as what DLF would want to be. And the result is that the character which was supposed to be Vader 2.0 proves the most original and surprising one, whereas “breaths of fresh air” come off as room aromatizers with “fresh” written on them.

And as far as the plot being bended into a pretzel and then disappearing up it’s own ass, well, a part of me is still hoping that taking virtually the same villains as before is a mythological-psychoanalitical metaphor of a nigredo repeating itself until the unconscious gets accepted by the conscious…. but, tbh, as the leaks flow this hope is withering.

#asks #cleaning up the askbox #long asks anon #sw negativity #let rey free from the corset disney

[catalina-infanta]

Fantastic Beasts meets Star Wars

I was watching the Fantastic Beasts movies and one thing I love about those films is their use of the main character (the protagonist and Hero) being a bit different than the regular hero, and showing traits of someone with autism (he won't look other characters in the eye for long, his very specific interests of caring for animals to which he has developed specialized expertise, and his comments about how people “often don’t like him”). I, myself, love seeing heroes who aren’t your cookie cutter male alpha, punching people while making sassy remarks. I think Ben Solo/Kylo Ren kinda fits this mold too, as did Luke Skywalker. They just aren’t your usual alpha dog, they have emotions, they are real people.  

Yet, there seem to be some other trends where the writing of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the Fantastic Beasts series are concerned. 

Black and White Thinking

One is the theme of black and white thinking as being portrayed as evil. Maybe this is even more pressing today. Of course, this is coming about out of Hollywood, as Americans are experiencing more and more the pain and dangers of bipartisanship within their government. Yet on the world stage, however (as I am not American) the insidious effects of how we consume media through computer and search engine algorithms (which gather information particular to our interests and worldviews) means we rarely leave our own information bubbles or read news with which we may disagree with. This is separating us further from others more and more, forming divides and even black and white thinking (us versus them) when we are unable to tolerate or understand other people’s opinions.

In the movies, these topics are being stressed with good versus bad, us versus them and with fascist, totalitarian thinking at play. Even visually this is being represented. For instance, the main villain of Fantastic Beasts, Grindelwald, is repeatedly wearing black and white. Conversely, however, the hero Newt Scamander is shown wearing colours, blue and yellow. And this is not the first movie to make colour an important feature in expression ideas about characters:

 This is showing Grindelwalds polarized, thinking of purebloods against those who are not is black and white (read: wrong). Indeed, in the films expresses this as flawed further when it has the main protagonist, Newt, express distaste at how American wizards cut interaction with muggles out entirely and see them as lesser beings, probably commenting on racism in America and its enduring systemic ills. 

Of course, we all know that black and white is traditionally part of the Star Wars good versus bad, but even this is changing, with Rey moving into greyer garbs from her earlier whiter clothing. 

Forbidden Attachments

Also, much like Jedi were forbidden from attachments, Muggle’s can’t be with magic folk in America (its illegal even). Much like dark force users were taught to fear the dark and stay away from light jedi. There is no middle ground, just bad and good, no learning from each other or expanding, just lines which cannot be crossed. So of course, where you have a plot like this which the writers think are constrictive or wrong, you have your main characters crossing this line (in the case of Fantastic Beasts, to show its wrong and backward, and in the case of Star Wars to show its worth expanding outward and understanding the other side, forgiving and letting those who have fallen back into the fold to repent and redeem and that even they can be good nd have souls worth loving). 

In Fantastic Beasts, one of the main love stories is one between Queenie and Joseph, a witch and a muggle. Like Rey and Kylo Ren, a lightsider and darksider union (we think..but c’mon its pretty obvious they are romantic!). So both movie trilogies have 2 protagonists who are braving this divide, but finding it casts them out, or jeopardizes their union. Rey and Kylo cannot bridge there divide (nor should they with how dark kylo is right now), and in Fantastic Beasts, (***SPOILER***) the American witch Queenie, in the end of the Crimes of Grindelwald has even joined the evil cause of Grindelwald because she (misguidedly) believes they can help her relationship with the Muggle Joseph come to be allowed. 

The Evils of Repression

So above we have two themes, black and white, polarized thinking as being shown as wrong, and main characters attempting to breach these divides between two worlds/belief structures through love. 

But there is one more similarity. In the Fantastic Beasts 1st movie, there is a dark phenomenon known as an Obscurial. According to Wiki fandom, an obscurial is a young wizard or witch who developed a dark parasitical magical force, known as an obscurus, as a result of their magic being suppressed (often through abuse or fear of showing their powers). According to Dumbledore, an Obscurial can possibly be healed by replacing their feelings of alienation with a sense of belonging. 

Repression has long been seen of as something akin to evil in western film and storytelling (often you see priests in TV and movies going through this, self-flagellating, or whipping themselves for their nasty sinful thoughts – and these characters tend to be evil, think of Paul Bettany’s character in Dan Browns Da Vinci Code, or the evil guy Frollo in Hunchback of Notre Dame). 

Something Star Wars has been dealing with since the advent of the prequel trilogy is this idea of repression leading to evil. One of Anakin’s, and I argue Ben’s, troubles was with the repression of their dark natures, or even repression of just their good emotions such as love for Padme or Shmi, causing them to become unbalanced and leading them to evil. I get it, if someone told me I couldn’t love I would grow angry too, and I am pissed with the Jedi – it seems Luke was too. 

The idea that balance is necessary in the Star Wars community is pretty self-evident though, so I wont take too much time explaining this. Ben and Anakin are emotional guys, constantly told to keep it all in, only let the light out, repress your feelings and any darkness that may be felt because that’s “bad” (Yoda’s advice to Anakin when he was fearing for Padme’s death to “rejoice for her” for becoming one with the force sucked, and we are meant to be frustrated by it, because I can't believe George Lucas would expect us to agree with Yoda and believe it was OK for Padme to die and that Anakin should just move on). Indeed, to repress and deny the good and bad inside us is damaging and something we should all avoid – this is the Jungian notion of accepting and resolving yourself with your shadow self, instead of ignoring it until it explodes, much as the Obscurials do when they cant hold it in any longer and they die at a young age. 

As a side note, I was really happy to see Credence didn’t actually die at the end of the first Fantastic Beasts film, because he was obviously an abused and unloved child looking for his parents (sound familiar? Rey?). Although sadly, I’m not sure he will survive the series of films now that he has joined Grindelwald, or that the writers care enough to give this character anything more than redemption equals death scenario and not bother to give him a happy ending or find belonging and peace. 

Conclusion and how these movies should wrap up

Anyways, I guess I just thought it interesting that both films were dealing with similar themes, probably because they are issues we are dealing with in society, but they are issues society deals with all the time in one way or another at all times but perhaps we feel they are more pressing today?

The importance of these themes to these movies, however, means they should be in some way resolved at the end of each series because they aren’t going to reinforce these notions by punishing the characters who act out of the bounds of societies black and white framework. 

With Star Wars, I think there will be a better way to look at how Jedi will go about their business in dealing with the dark side (i.e. with more understanding of what it is instead of fear and rejection), and how individual Jedi will deal with the darkness inside themselves in thier own personal journies to avoid the worst. This will hopefully include some resolution on how future Jedi will deal with attachment - rather than just repressing everything and forgetting about it. I dont think this is something that is valued today in the west, because no one wants to abandon those things about human life that make it most worth living.  

On that note, I also expect the two pairs of lovers of both Star Wars and Fantastic Beasts to be reunited, in order to visually and narratively show a change and love for the other side and repair the longtime split between the groups. Its more than just a sappy ending, it’s a metaphor for how we should think about the “Other” that we are told to fear or belittle by a society that has gone too far in its black and white thinking. So, Queenie should marry Joseph even though Muggles are thought beneath wizards, and Kylo and Rey should both come towards the centre and be together and find their belonging they so desire, thereby resolving their loneliness. (However, this is a whole other question of Kylo’s redemption, etc.). But the notion that Jedis shouldn’t marry be damned! And this is the PERFECT way to show that stupid rule was dumb and resolve the very thing Anakin struggled with in some way. And, for that matter, the notion that forgiveness shouldn’t be given to those who have erred or fallen by the wayside be damned! 

No, in the end, the lesson is that black and white thinking sucks, and love and forgiveness is what matters for those who find it in their hearts, to love, and not fear the other side is what our heroes are showing us, with a multitude of colour to express the variety of people, and emotions, that life can give us. 

#Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them #Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald #Star Wars #Reylo #Queenie and Joseph #Harry Potter #Episode 9 #Episode IX #Star Wars Sequel Trilogy #Luke Skywalker

[thebastardofgloucester]

all the posts collating reactions to The Empire Strikes Back or writing mock Rotten Tomatoes reviews to imply that the criticisms of this film aren’t worth paying attention to are just…so missing the point

exactly two works that said what ‘Star Wars’ was existed at the time of Empire’s release in 1980: Star Wars (not yet renamed ‘A New Hope’) and Alan Dean Foster’s 'Splinter of the Mind’s Eye’ (a sequel written in case Star Wars was a flop that could be filmed on a shoestring budget and without Harrison Ford. It’s Wild and puts the lie to the idea that Lucas had any idea where the Skywalker story was going; highly recommend)

in the year of our Lord 2017, The Last Jedi was released as the third film in a revival of a six film, single creative vision franchise, with the added baggage of over two decades of novels, comics, video games, and other media (the only thing ever fully expelled from canon was the infamous holiday special, which, honestly, had greater creative merit than some of the stuff that got to stay)

what’s the point? Expectations. No, not people who didn’t want anything to change and are Mad About It or whatever facile narrative the authors of those blog posts and reviews are using to explain why this film is probably more divisive than the goddamn prequels. The problem is that not only does The Last Jedi clash with decades of fandom, it is even at loggerheads with its sister films in this particular revival. and it doesn’t get the same benefit of the doubt that ESB got because that’s not how franchises and fandoms actually work. you don’t get to ignore everything that came before to tell your own story. they have to work together. 

Sure, not everybody read the EU (and trust me some of them are better off for it). But almost everybody saw The Force Awakens, most of them saw Rogue One, and a fair number of them, old and young fans alike, eagerly consumed the New EU content that offered glimpses into how the events of The Force Awakens came about and what mysteries were set up in what was effectively a reboot rather than a sequel. Generally, you know, regardless of how much you hate 'puzzleboxes,’ it is reasonable to expect that what one film sets up will have a payoff in the next, particularly when the first film takes such care to be sensitive to what the fans want (as JJ and Kasden did with TFA) - because while this is a money faucet for Disney, sure, there’s no point in bringing this franchise back without those fans (and of course, their kids) - and what they got from Rian and the Lucasfilm story team was…a confirmation that they had been wasting their time. It’s all well and good to pull the rug out from under the audience (as this film does incessantly) but it’s cynical bullshit to basically bait them with promo material and the preceding canon and then to deliver on basically nothing and expect everyone to just be okay with it. This film effectively penalizes the people who cared the most and spent the most time engaging with The Force Awakens and rewards people who may not have really been here for what Lucas was selling to begin with. As one review put it, it ‘does not care what you think about Star Wars’.

But when you set expectations as deliberately as Kennedy and the Lucasfilm Story Group did in JJ and Kasden’s TFA, it’s not great writing to blow them to pieces mid-narrative. It’s just lazy. the idea that Rey has no connection to the Skywalker line? a good idea, potentially, but clumsily executed, as it is played out less as an important revelation and more an excuse to not actually give any kind of answer to how Rey came to be Ben’s equal on the Light (or why she even is ‘Light’ honestly; I love Angry Rey but there’s seemingly no danger in her temptation) or where she got a skill set rivaled in this franchise only by literal Space Jesus Anakin Skywalker. Snoke is a one-noted villain; having him be betrayed by Kylo in the midst of his own villain arc? a very good idea. it belongs as the climax of the film, not the end of act 2 so there is no time for anything to breathe, just more never-ending crises and hardship.

Like, spare me the 'force visions are unreliable’ (Rey’s was unlike anything we had seen before, it wasn’t Anakin’s nightmare or Luke on Dagobah) bs; the film didn’t say that what Rey saw was wrong for x reason, it just pretended that it never happened and Rey didn’t say anything about it); spare me ‘our heroes have to fail and sometimes all the plans don’t work out’ we know that, we live in the real world of 2017 but while making your clever point you have wasted the presence of three extremely talented actors of color, and let down the audiences waiting for a chance to see people who look like them be the heroes for once. instead it turns out they didn’t actually matter all that much, but maybe next film! 

It’s not clever. It’s not visionary. It’s cheap, it’s cowardly, and it isn’t actually that original because the film leaves us exactly where we expected. Poe is the leader and Leia’s heir to command, Finn is a newly-committed Rebel brimming with unrealized potential, Rey is a Jedi character (amorphously defined) who we know exactly as much about as we started, Luke is gone, even if he went out in pretty spectacular fashion, Carrie’s death means that Leia will be leaving us soon, and Kyle Ben has become the big bad. That’s the only real development - Snoke’s death and Ben’s rejection of his redemption - and it’s buried under Rey, our erstwhile heroine, being a vehicle for the villain’s character development. The only character this film particularly cares about is a white fascist who gets every chance to be redeemed and rejects them while the film expects us to keep caring. 

So, yeah. People are mad. Not because of the same ‘the series is changed forever now’ shit that the haters of ESB were on about. Because the real changes? Ben being the real villain, the smallfolk of the galaxy being the source of light and conduits of the Force? I don’t see anyone complaining all that hard about them. 

the complaints are about the damage done to beloved characters for…not all that much of a payoff. the misuse and marginalization of the characters of color. the disdain with which the script treats the nostalgia of the Force Awakens. the unrelenting pace of the film that just grinds the Resistance (and the audience) down and just tells them to trust us, even as more and more and more is taken away. Rey’s parentage isn’t the only thing cast aside - promises of developments in Finn’s story - his identity, his potential to cause a revolt in the First Order, even his force sensitivity (you want a force user from nothing? how about a child soldier from a nameless family who as we are continually reminded used to be on sanitation crew) - are broken. Rey has her dream of family taken away…and replaced with…well the film doesn’t really bother to say because she’s a plot device for most of act 3. We don’t get to see her reject Ren and leave him. Because this isn’t her story; it’s his. Kylo is unconscious, so the scene is over. Tell me how that is a satisfying arc for our erstwhile protagonist? Poe’s character is completely uprooted from what we’ve seen before to make him an obnoxious hotheaded menace whose emotions threaten the survival of the Resistance if two old white women aren’t able to keep him in check. Rose says a lot and gets to do almost nothing. Luke…Luke is torn down to justify the fall of Ben Solo, never given the chance to establish a meaningful bond with his erstwhile successor, and is only given the chance to atone by acting as a diversion to give the others time to escape. he dies alone, a failure, even if he is at peace with how things turned out.

last year we were shown a movie in the wake of one of the more traumatic political events in the life of the people on this website where a diverse and sympathetic cast fight hard and are entirely wiped out. But their deaths come in a spectacular and charged finale that carries the desperation and grief and pathos through into the beginning of the story we know and love. it all feels worth something. Rogue One has its flaws as a film but it comes together in a way that The Last Jedi does not. In the end, what Jyn and Cassian and the others do is just enough to get the plans away, to start the sequence of events that will lead to the Empire’s destruction.

Here?

there’s just not enough left. not enough of the Resistance, not enough story, not enough hope. 

to have that hope repeatedly stripped away and cynically exploited through a narrative that drags the characters from crisis to crisis without bothering to justify itself or its role in the story (while retreading the highlights of Episodes V and VI without the emotional depth to back them up), and in so doing wears down the audience as much as the characters is not why I have devoted so much of my life and emotional energy to this series about space wizards and their galaxy-destroying family squabbles and eventual chance for redemption. for all his many, many faults, George Lucas understood that.

you can’t just talk about hope. sooner or later you have to see it. You have to feel that what you are suffering will be worth it. The text needs to tell you as much. it’s clumsy and cliched and it is necessary. In the Empire Strikes Back, after Han is captured and Luke is beaten, the turning point is Lando. Lando changes the course of the movie, rescuing Leia and Chewie, who rescue Luke. They live to fight another day, and at the end they are wounded but among friends. 

the moment in The Last Jedi where that could have happened was when Leia’s signal went out. How terrific would it have been if after being betrayed by a scoundrel the original scoundrel with a heart of gold, Lando Calrissian, arrives at the head of a fleet made up of all the alien races so inexplicably missing from the sequel trilogy so far, fending off the First Order long enough for the Resistance to escape with most of the survivors on Crait?

But Rian had to have one last twist of the knife. so nobody came. only Luke, and only as a distraction to buy time that ultimately cost him his life and reduced his legacy to giving everything to atone for his past sins. there is no Lando moment. there is no turning point, no moment where a larger victory is hinted at. and no, a single stable boy far, far away from the war is not the same thing. It makes an interesting point about the force and the metanarrative of Star Wars. It is not what this film needed after everything it put its characters and audience through.

and so at the end I’m not hopeful. I’m just tired. So, very tired. And I miss what made me fall in love with this series about space wizards and the Skywalker family in the first place

#martinus watches the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #tlj spoilers #tlj negativity #rian does not love star wars like I love star wars #I'm just so. tired. #I need to watch Rebels or ROTJ and remember Star Wars can be like fun

[doorsclosingslowly]

Atrocity Exhibition

Snapshots of the life and death of Savage Opress, from seventeen different angles. Drabble collection.

1.7k | also on AO3

I.

The body lies empty in the plaza, half-naked and with twin charred holes in his chest that must’ve done him in and already spotted with purplish death-bruising, and yet, he looks oddly peaceful. She kneels in respect: there is no doubt in her mind that Savage died to protect her Mand’Alor. He tried to, just like the soldiers that Death Watch has already found in the throne room, and just like them, he fell victim to the silent menace none could defend against.

“I’m still alive, but you are dead,” Rook Kast whispers. “I remember you. We will find Maul.”

II.

Her baby is a boy. Kycina had prayed for a girl, not for the sake of his sire, waiting captive in her rooms and soon to be killed for the deficiency in his seed, in the way of her mother and all women before her; but for herself. The boy, Savage, she will give into the care of his tribe, and when he has grown and been taken she will close her ears and weep his death. A girl, she’d have seen grow up, would have delighted in her every move.

A girl, she would have cradled to her chest.

III.

An obstacle, that’s all he is, or—an opportunity. Maul loves him. That long-discarded wretched failure of a traitorous apprentice has thrown in his lot with another of his species, a dumb brute with even less promise than Maul ever had, and he loves him. This is delightful. Sidious makes sure that Maul is fully conscious again by the time he slaughters the animal. He allows them their little goodbyes. It would take long to find physical pain that Maul hasn’t yet suffered, and he is well-acquainted with emotional abuse, but this: this loss, it was worth flying out for.

IV.

Always a step behind Maul, never in front. A trusted lieutenant, because he’s not the leader, not by a long shot, not with the shorter man’s arrogance in play. A shield, instead. And: a loved one. Pre Viszla sees it, in the way Savage stops the knife aimed at Maul, and in the total lack of flinch. Never a doubt he’ll intervene, and it’s mutual, certainly, what with Maul’s easily exploitable concern after the rescue.

That’s why, despite certain security concerns, he gives the order to lock both brothers inside the same cell. This is Mandalore, and family is honored.

V.

The young nightbrother has grown strong, Brother Viscus notes with silent helpless pride. On the field, Savage is straining muscles and cocky grins and there’s nary a yelp when the lance of his training partner strikes true, and then he wrestles the other teenager down and helps him up again. The boy is the very picture of a son of their tribe, powerful and kind with children and someday, Viscus thinks with a rend in his hearts he cannot seem to rid himself of, someday he will make a fine mate for the Sister who wins him as Her prize.

VI.

This new acolyte was a mistake, Darth Tyranus decides. He’d visited the Nightsister tribe in the belief that one of their males had been powerful and cunning enough to murder his own former Padawan, and he’d gone there despite the pain and disgust he feels whenever he thinks of the now-dead Darth Maul’s deed. He found: utter disappointment. Ignorance. Imbecility. Abjection. This is the kind of creature that dared best Qui-Gon?

On the floor, Opress whines and curls and begs for his brother—for the murderous beast that once enticed Tyranus—and so he gifts him another lesson of pain.

VII.

The enemy rushes onto the battlefield, cutting off that brother’s arm in a bright spray of arterial blood and choking this brother with massive claws, and right then Spotlight knows he was wrong. He’s been wondering, see: maybe they’re not so different, him and the Separatist flesh grunts. They look scared, before he shoots them, and Spotlight himself certainly wouldn’t be fighting this war if he wasn’t made to do it. No-one gets anything out of war but the civvies. But the beast has this wild look, like he’s karking enjoying it, and Spotlight was wrong. This is the end.

VIII.

Traitor, the droids name the Sith beast, and they shoot it instead of taking aim at him or Obi-Wan. Frankly, that’s fine by Anakin. He’d like to get a good chop in himself—somewhere, he is still that nine-year-old kid huddled on Naboo who was told that Qui-Gon Jinn was never coming back, that he’d been slain by the Sith, a kid who wanted to beg Who’ll be my Master now and couldn’t—Anakin wouldn’t mind taking on Dooku’s animal, but there’s no reason to risk entering the droid’s blaster-hail. Opress roars out a shockwave and flees. Next time, then.

IX.

It’s terrifying, even with his big brother beside him, and Feral can’t imagine how much worse his first trial would be, alone. Although. He shivers: being killed by the pale Woman, or accidentally by one of the other unlucky sods beside them, that’s bad (and it would already have happened, if Savage hadn’t interceded), but compared to… to being taken (Savage puts himself between another blow and Feral’s body) compared to being taken by the Sister, death is fine, and so’s being struck lame; but Savage will never let Feral get hurt. How are they gonna get out of this?

X.

The Sith looms. Angry growls and quick strikes and then—he shouldn’t be this strong, Adi Gallia thinks frantically, shouldn’t be able to overpower her this easily when she is a General and a Jedi Master and a Member of the High Council to boot, and it gives her terror for the future. He shouldn’t, because the Jedi triumphed and routed the Sith once before and hunted them to extinction; but they have returned, and the force favors them. Opress smacks her against the ship and spears her when she falls, and there is no death. There is the force.

XI.

What a moron. Looks strong—looks like mounds of juicy juicy meat, more like—but with all those nice muscles there’s not much space left over for brain, it appears, because, after that shitty strangling, the offworlder’s actually following Morley meekly to his doom. If he didn’t look as delicious or was a little less of a humorless prick, and what kind of catchphrase is Where is my brother? anyway… if Morley wasn’t so hungry, then he might even find it in him to feel bad for the ugly meathead. As it is: maybe Master will leave Morley some entrails.

XII.

He’s gonna kill her. This dude is actually going to kriffing kill her, not in a pervert way but in broad daylight, in the middle of the restaurant, grabbing her and holding her up and strangling her and everyone’s screaming, and Mikjoo was just going to look at his weird glowing amulet, that’s all. She was gonna make conversation, with a man who looked slightly sad and very lost and like he’d potentially give decent tips.

It’s not murder, in the end; he throws her to the floor and runs off, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a total psycho.

XIII.

Her creature drags himself to the table, drags himself home, bruised, a failure and: still alive. It’s a testament to Talzin’s craft that the bespelled nightbrother was able to return, and the result of her own shortcomings that Dooku yet lives. No matter. When young Asajj returns, another path to her vengeance shall be found. As for Savage Opress… in the crystal, Talzin sees her Maul, once stolen by Sidious and finally located, and there’s none more suited to fetching the boy than this durable, obedient tool. She speaks comfort and helps him up. There is further use for him.

XIV.

Her mate—or he would have been, if this was a normal coupling—he washes himself in the sink of the sister’s house where Asajj is staying, for this step in the grand plan of her revenge against her former Master. Trembles wrack his glistening bruised body, and she ignores them, according to her wishes and—she is sure—also his own.

Shock laces through him when instead of a kiss, she presents him to Mother Talzin, that and naked relief; but when he stands after the ritual, what’s left is not a mate. Not a nightbrother. Only—an instrument.

XV.

The foolish apprentice looks up from underneath Maul’s clawed foot, all thoughts of brazen challenge forgotten. There is no pain, not yet. This should be cause for further correction, Maul remembers, should result in screams, writhing and terror, but—a face, a familiar sort of face if Maul remembered his own and more still now he doesn’t, leads him from out his trash cave and into the light. A low voice rings through the nightmare. A hand offers meat. Safety. The apprentice looks up. The brother loves, despite everything.

Maul extends his hand. He doesn’t care to interrogate the instinct.

XVI.

Two brothers and a smoldering pile of corpses, that’s what Obi-Wan finds on Raydonia. Violence, senseless and vile, evident in this carnage and in the shaping of its perpetrators, for he’s visited their village, knows of enslavement and degradation and forced breeding, and knows that none should ever arise from such filth as exists on Dathomir and feel any compassion. Both were doomed from the moment of their birth.

He ignites his lightsaber and faces them. Unlikely though it is, he prays: for victory, but more still, for the chance to extinguish this cycle of violence with both their lives.

XVII.

He wrings his hands around Feral’s neck, or he doesn’t: he is watching his fingers kill, is looking down at them, and they’re not even the right size. A plea, silent, disembodied: they don’t look like his fingers. It’s only the perspective that does it, making them out to be his own body; that, and the self-aimed revulsion. Stop. They don’t, of course. His hands don’t belong to him anymore.

Afterwards, he won’t remember the Mother’s intrusion. He will see nothing but his own flesh, by his own will, killing his own brother.

Afterwards, Savage will only see: a monster.

#savage opress #savage oppress #darth maul #(given that i included morley's 'wow he's following me how stupid hope his entrails taste nice!' to break up the grimness: yo this is angst #dimtraces makes things

[atrophiedcompassion]

the last jedi review

spoiler free: it was overall good, but not as good as it could’ve been. it had about 30 mins of filler and some of the plots execution was less than desirable. certainly needs at least one more viewing for a proper opinion

spoiler full review under the cut

what they did well was near perfection: Luke, Leia, Kylo and Rey were beautifully characterized, their arcs clear, well done, exceptionally emotional and powerful.

First of all, they finally gave Leia the standing she deserved in the new trilogy. it was like Rian Johnson heard my criticism of TFA Leia (no force sensitive mentions, just an old hag they had no clue how to use. it was and remains one of the most disappointing things about TFA) and finally gave her a meaty role, in a way, the perfect way to end Carrie’s work with Star Wars. sure, the travel through space scene was a bit cartoonish, but finally, FINALLY, we were given, shown, FORCE SENSITIVE LEIA. it was emotional, especially that it came after the very clear moment between her and Kylo, when he hesitated in shooting at her ship. it was very clear that they were sensing each other and Kylo’s reaction when the ship was shot after all was also amazing.

her whole role was great, finally the General i had always expected from post ROTJ Leia to be. and even if they didn’t kill her on screen, and it’ll have to be an offscreen death (or who knows...who knows), i think they did conclude her arc remarkably and whatever happens in episode IX it can only finish her participation in a great way. 

the final meeting with Luke, the forgiveness, the closeness, i am so glad they gave us that. the space twins live on, and we were given true closure.

second of all, Luke. LUKE WAS PERFECT. the guilt, the wisdom, the cranky old master behaviour a la yoda in ESB, it was miraculous. every time he was on screen it was emotional and powerful. the awe and fright at Rey’s abilities. his disappointment that she went straight to the dark, that she didn’t fight temptation at all, when it was clear that he had done that all his life and it had cost him so much! i mean, it’s clear that Luke’s resolve in ROTJ is strong, and that he will certainly not cave in to the Emperor’s requests. but now, with his anger at Rey’s easy temptation, it becomes clear to me how much it had cost him to say no to Vader in ESB. at his lowest moment, having just been mutilated, having just learned that his great mentor Obi Wan had lied to him, at the very revelation that the long sought after father was finally before him offering him the world, he still found the courage, the strength and maybe even the weakness to say no. to allow himself to die rather than to fall to the dark side. and then this kid, with enormous grasp of the Force, dives right into the darkness on the first occasion!! the fact that they gave us that on screen was immense.

and then, the final battle, when he displays the most stupendous command of the Force, when he shows Kylo off in a spectacular fashion, that was amazing, it was one of the best moments in the whole SW saga.

the death moment was perhaps a little sudden, because it clearly stemmed from the fight with Kylo, and not later, but it still comes peacefully, and not at the actual, real hand of his nephew.

Now, Rey, her journey was not as spectacular as it was in TFA, but she was the emotional core of the film and in many ways, the only true pure Force sensitive person in the saga. sure, Leia was as pure and free of temptation as possible, but there is something murky about the relationship between her, Ben/Kylo and Han. something happened to Ben to have all that great darkness inside him, and as a comic panel once said, it surely came from her side of the family. Rey can and did dive into the darkness and came out unscathed. she not for one second yields to Snoke nor is she willing to accept Kylo’s offer of joining him to rule the galaxy (at some point in these movies, this has to stop tho. it’s the worst offer in the galaxy ffs! no-one seems to take up on it). she is the voice of reason and the hope the galaxy needs.

the big family reveal is underwhelming for a reason. it’s something Kylo says, it’s her biggest fears that he’s voicing, trying to play with her mind. it may be a misdirection, my dad says, and he’s been right about this (after snape’s “treason” in HP6, he was the first to point out that it may play out differently in the end. plus, should her true, actual, shocking parentage be revealed in the middle film, it’d be too much on the nose copying of ESB. we already had the offer scene and the moment between the dark and the light characters.

Finally, Kylo Ren. first of all, what a pleasure it is to watch Adam Driver perform!! he is magnetic in every scene and you can literally see the conflict in his face. his weirdly beautiful face. i love the guy (i mean, i went to see Silence in the theater, a religious film! starring Andrew Garfield!). i think his arc is tremendous and if my gut feeling is right, they might actually make him the big bad. no redemption. he just follows the darkness through and through. at the start of the movie, he has that moment with Leia, he hesitates, he takes the finger off the button. at the end, he barges full on, take no prisoners kinda way, totally willing to kill every single person in the mine/bunker, his mother included. it’s interesting, because so far it seems that killing Snoke (and not his father or Rey) finally completed his apprenticeship in the dark side, killing the puppet master finally allowed him to go completely dark.

@winteredfall believes there’s the parallel with Anakin, who also made the offer to Padme, to kill the emperor & take over, and in the end he was still redeemed.  but....that was the third movie. this is just the second movie. i think it’d be much more interesting if this guy didn’t get redemption and if he was simply the bad guy. it’d make the character richer, it’d be a departure from the classic SW and it’d show that some people cannot be redeemed. it’d finally take Nu SW into a new direction and the following trilogy wouldn’t have the baggage. (side note: for me, after learning in the prequels what Vader did to access the dark side, aka kill 30 kids, Vader’s redemption in ROTJ is meaningless and unacceptable. for me, Vader cannot be redeemed after we know what he did. he can be forgiven by his son, who doesn’t exactly know the details. but me as the viewer, i cannot forgive him anymore. his son saving is nearly an empty gesture given his actual really heinous crimes. and this is why i hate the prequels, because they ruined Vader for me, arguably the most interesting character of the OT)

the offer to Rey immediately after offing Snoke shows that he never really wanted to be good. he just wanted to stop being manipulated and used. his rage after she rebukes him and takes off is not brattisness, but simply the dark side finally taking over. rage fuels the dark side, anger is the prime motivator, so it all works. and Kylo is a better character for it. and the movie could take the SW saga into a whole new direction. but we shall see.

The Force was finally restored to its original meaning, fuck the midicloridians. Sure, luke’s explanation seems a rehash of Obi Wan’s but it had to be done. also perfect was Luke’s put down of the Jedi and their hubris, it was amazing to see the concerns people had with the prequels, namely the sith emerging during the Jedi’s highest power, addressed and put to bed.

the Kylo - Rey relationship was intense, and heightened, but unlike in TFA, where it did have some dark sexual undertones (Kylo does mind rape Rey and the sexual overtones of that scene cannot be overlooked), this time it had a very sibling vibe. Rian Johnson took note of the unholy Reylo shippers and of the effects of that scene in TFA and turned it around. sure, it was weird that Rey was bashful to see Kylo shirtless (but thank you for the scene nonetheless), but all that malefic sexual energy from TFA was gone here and it felt great.

all their scenes together, be it in the Force, or actually side by side fighting were superb. they have immense chemistry and made it all seem very palpable. also, at the end, where Rey’s leaving in the Falcon and they communicate once more, that was not Snoke’s doing, so their connection IS real, and not “forced” by a higher power.

now, what they did wrong may actually be not that bad on a second viewing, perhaps it needs a little more attention to detail. but so far, the whole Casino plot, get them on the FO ship, Benicio del Toro char, all of that was awful. i understand the political aspect of the plot, of showing the war profiteering and the real reason why the galaxy is still at war, which is highlighted by the fact that at the end, no-one comes to the aid of the Resistance. but the tone of those scenes was all wrong. it was choc full of species, of way too much slapstick humour, cutting away from Resistance cannot get a moment’s respite really awful situation, to Rose & Finn riding blissfully, almost forgetting their mission, on those animals?! it was worth it now that they saved those animals, even if they were about to die and leave their Resistance with no actual hope?! WHAT THE FUCK!! i get why it was liberating for characters like Rose & Finn, who had lost everything and had always been downtrodden, to finally do something rebellious and for themselves, but in the bigger picture of what was happening with the remaining Resistance crew, it was very offputting.

i liked Rose a lot, because she had heart and seemed sharply focused, but then..they gave her some really weird choices. it was almost like let’s give the POC characters something meaningless to do (because they eventually not only fail their mission, but they bring into Resistance secrets a third party who betrays them, leading to a near disaster for the Resistance), while the white characters were given the actual plot, and actual plot resolution. remember, Poe is also mistaken in his plans, and eventually, the white woman Holdo was right all along.

now, let’s get into the open misogyny of Poe Dameron’s character. undercutting even Leia, and causing massive loss (all the bombers!!!) in the opening battle and acting like he was right. disbelief that the heroic Vice Admiral Holdo is a woman (that was such a jarring moment, wtf!!) and not trusting her, and her cautious ways. of course, the plot is awfully trying to make us think Holdo is a bad guy, simply by having her not relay her every decision to an underling, which she should do why!??! (because he is the man right?) the reveal is just awful and even if i read somewhere that some folk like how the second in command is bad trope was subverted, Holdo was highly mistreated by her inferior and we can only understand that it was because she was a woman.

why they chose to portray Poe this way, i don’t know. but the whole plot was very very poor and even if the end is quite satisfying, as Holdo’s cautious, womanly plan actually works, she saves the day, and Poe’s manly action plan fails, it still begs the question why was this whole plot necessary!?

what was also filler was the minute rivalry between Phasma and Finn, absolutely pointless. also, i know Finn / John Boyega is a main character, but after giving him a horrible plot, him sacrificing himself would’ve been a little more satisfying than him being “saved” by Rose out of love. that whole romance came out of nowhere! of course, with Finn sacrificing himself we wouldn’t have the epic Kylo - Luke confrontation, still the resolution of Finn’s sacrifice could’ve been better. Also, this romance feels made up just so they wouldn’t have to “ship” Finn with Rey, even if for sure, they have far better chemistry, an actual story together and real feelings for each other. maybe i am just looking into this from an inappropriate angle, but it did somehow bothered me that they aren’t willing to let Finn/Rey happen. while i certainly don’t ship anyone in the new movies, some chars have obvious chemistry together while some don’t!

finally, who is Snoke!? his death probably robs us of any possibility of finding out who he was. i mean, this guy seems far more powerful than the Emperor even, so where did he come from? was he another hidden apprentice!? was he the emperor in a new disguise!? was he just some random dude who happened to be exceptionally good with the Force? how could he come to power when Luke/Vader ended the sith in ROTJ!?! all these questions might never receive an answer. i mean, the whole Casino scene proves why an organization like the First Order can prosper and exist in the first place, as war is profitable as fuck. but there’s no explanation for this Force sensitive ultimate bad guy. ugh!

now what was truly atrocious: all the animals, the 4 tittieded animal Luke milks (blue milk! but are they telling me this is where Beru also got the milk? because for sure those creatures didn’t look like desert dwellers. and if it was imported, no wonder they were poor LOL), the island caretakers, the porgs, the animals Rose & Finn ride, all the Casino creatures. filler filler filler. this is pure disnification and it sucks

BB8 was also just awful. he was given R2D2 in ROTS powers, remember how bad it was when R2 started flying?!? BB8 showing up in the Imperial pacer was worse!! a true great reveal would’ve been if it was the BDT char coming to an unlikely rescue minutes after selling Rose & Finn out, but no. it had to be the wonder robot! how did he get up there in the first place!? that was horrendous. and i will finally say it. i hate BB8. i didn’t like it in TFA, but here i hated it. god!

and finally, the marvel type jokes seconds away from a highly emotional/intense moment. i understand the technique and even in marvel movies it is sometimes hit and miss, but in the tonally dark TLJ, where the resistance cannot catch a break, are taking loss after loss, with less and less hope and more and more deaths, these cute moments don’t fit at all. SW needs humour, even in its darkest movies, but not this type of humour. give us something else. or at least, give us the joke after the tears have started flowing, and not when they’re just still brimming in the eyes, that is not too much to ask!

overall, this is a 8.5 i would say, even if i have a lot of criticisms, the action scenes are brilliant and it has some real, amazing, SW-like moments.

#the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #star wars the last jedi #tlj #star wars tlj

[myurbandream]

Sentinel Wars(3/?)

Thanks to all the lovely people who left comments and asked me about this little plot bunny…  I have written more.

On AO3 | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3:

~

Rex sticks close to Kenobi for the rest of that first duty shift. (And the following shift as well, because apparently Kenobi is a crazy person who works through his down-time and probably never sleeps. Now Rex knows where Commander Skywalker gets his bad habits from.)

Those twelve hours are the worst control Rex has ever had over his senses since he first manifested as a Sentinel. It takes every ounce of his self-control not to get lost in his head. All of his senses are clamoring for his attention, constantly focusing in on Kenobi’s scent, his voice and his breathing and the blood rushing in his veins, the shine of his eyes and the pale-on-pale tracery of scars on his hands. Barely an hour since he synced to Kenobi and Rex finds himself fighting the urge to tuck his nose under the fall of copper hair at the back of the Jedi’s neck and lick-

(mobile users, there’s a cut here…)

After that, Rex looks for the first opportunity to take Kenobi by the elbow and shove him into the nearest empty conference room.

“Captain, what-”

“Just-”  Rex fumbles, putting both hands up to grip Kenobi by the shoulders.  “Just hold still.”

He closes his eyes, finds the tang of disinfectant on the floor to anchor himself to reality, and lets go of his hearing.  It’s always been his strongest sense, and it’s the one aggravating him the most right now.  He keeps that sharp chemical scent at the forefront of his mind and allows the gentle thump of their echoing heartbeats to pull him under.

Finally free to wander, his brain starts cataloging: this is what Kenobi’s breathing sounds like, the beat of his heart and the rumble of his stomach.  This is the sound of his clothes against his skin, the susurration of his tunics as he shifts position, the brush of hair along his collar…

~

Obi-Wan isn’t entirely sure what Rex is doing, but there’s an extremely strange floaty feeling coming from his new connection to the Captain’s mind.  His emotions have gone blank and soft, quieter even than a dreaming mind produces - it’s almost like the clone is sedated or unconscious.  Obi-Wan has only felt that kind of emptiness from people in medical beds.

He doesn’t like it.

Obi-Wan reaches out across the empathic bond and nudges at the Captain’s mind, trying to wake him up.

Rex jumps like he’s been doused in cold water.  His eyes fly open and his hands clamp onto Obi-Wan’s shoulders.  A string of Mando'a expletives leaves his mouth, and: “Don’t do that!  Uh, sorry, sir.”

“No, sorry, I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan apologizes, waving his hands uselessly in the space between them.  “I didn’t mean to startle you.  Your mind went away and it was… uncomfortable.”

“Kriff,” the Captain swears, letting go of Obi-Wan’s arms to rub his hands over his face.  “You felt that?  How do you feel-  Nevermind, don’t answer that right now.  I want to know, but…  Later.”

“Alright,” Obi-Wan nods, filing a mental note to discuss their empathic connection after his shift ends tonight.  “Then what are you doing right now?”

“I’m trying to finish syncing with you,” Rex explains, with not a little frustration.  “Whatever happened at the briefing, it’s not usually like that, at least not with us clones.  It takes time to sync to someone, and I think, despite… this,” he waves one hand between them, “whatever this is, it isn’t complete.  I still need to finish the process.”

“Alright.”  Obi-Wan mentally files that away as well, one more question to ask Plo or Quinlan or another Jedi about, as soon as he gets the chance.  “What does that mean for right now?  In layman’s terms, please.”

“I need to deliberately get stuck on you, at least once with each of my senses.”  Rex glances at the chrono on his wrist guard.  “It’s gonna take time, and I know you have work to do, but we’ve got to at least start the process or I’m at risk of an uncontrolled zone-out.”

Obi-Wan frowns thoughtfully.  “It’s better to initiate it yourself in a controlled manner than put it off until it happens on its own?”

“You make it sound like a forest fire,” Rex says, smiling faintly.  “But yes, that’s basically it.  I need to focus one sense on a specific, present object, something to keep me anchored, and then let another sense fixate on whatever it wants - which at the moment is you.  That’s how syncing works.  The whole point is that I’m automatically tuned into you, so that if I get lost somewhere else I can find my way back to you.”

Obi-Wan manages not to twitch, but it’s a near thing.  That sounds… intimate.  He gives himself a mental shake and forcefully refocuses on the conversation.

“What I did just now, to wake you up,” he says, thinking of how Rex had startled free from that floating blankness at his mental poke.  “Would that be helpful or harmful to do again?”

Rex pauses, giving the question due thought.  “It definitely pulled me out of focus,” he muses, biting his lip for a moment.  “If I’m zoned out unintentionally, it would be the fastest and most effective way to anchor a Sentinel that I’ve ever heard of.  If I space out during a battle, that could literally save my life.  But if I’m using my senses deliberately, you could break my concentration just when it’s critically needed.”

“So it depends on the situation.  If I’m not there with you, or at least on comms with you, I won’t be able to tell whether you’re dangerously distracted or deliberately focusing on something.”  Now that is problematic, incredibly so.  Obi-Wan rubs at his beard absently.  He can’t see an easy solution.  It’s a worry for later tonight, though.

“For right now, then, what should I do?  What do you need?”

“Right now I need to work on syncing with you, properly, not that… instantaneous thing that happened during the briefing.  I need to get lost in my senses, one at a time, with you as the focal point.” Rex explains.  His brows furrow as he pauses, thinking.  “But… since you can apparently pull me out of my head at the first sign of rain, maybe I can speed up the process a little.  I think…”  He falls silent, staring into the middle distance for a moment, and Obi-Wan feels his mind ticking away lightning-fast across their bond.

“Yeah, I think it’ll work,” Rex decides.  “I’m going to do all five senses at once.  I can’t anchor myself that way, so you’ll have to pull me out of it like you did just now, but it means I don’t have to take the time to do each sense individually.  I’ll go under all at once, and you give it a count of five minutes or so, and then snap me out of it.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?”  Obi-Wan doesn’t like how risky this idea sounds.  It seems a lot like the Sentinel equivalent of learning to free-fall by jumping off the North Tower at the Temple.

Obi-Wan hated that class.

“Not a clue.”  Rex grins with all his teeth, and it reminds Obi-Wan very much of Cody’s predatory smirk right as they closed in on the Separatist forces on Christophsis.  “But honestly, to do this properly we’d need at least forty-eight hours in seclusion, and we don’t have time for that.  I’m improvising.”

“No wonder Anakin likes you,” Obi-Wan sighs.  “Alright.  I’m setting a timer.  Five minutes exactly.”  He taps through the functions on his wrist comm, setting it to beep at him when the allotted time is up.  Then he silences his comm calls, just in case.  If anyone really needs him, they can hunt him down physically using his comm’s location tracker.  “Ready when you are.”

Counter to his earlier brashness, Rex suddenly looks hesitant.  Obi-Wan almost doesn’t want to ask, but: “Is there a problem, Captain?”

“Something you should, uh… I should point out that taste is one of the five human senses.  Sir.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes dart down to Rex’s mouth entirely without his permission.  “Ah.  Yes.  What, um…?”

“Just your hand,” Rex blurts, twitching before visibly holding himself still.  “If I could…”

Obi-Wan removes one of his gloves and offers up his empty hand, trying to stay relaxed and pliant.  Rex cups both his palms under the back of Obi-Wan’s hand and steps closer, a little to the side, rotating Obi-Wan’s arm at the elbow so he can bring Obi-Wan’s bare wrist up to his face, pressing his nose to the skin at the edge of Obi-Wan’s tunic sleeve.

Rex inhales deeply, his eyes fluttering half-shut and locking with Obi-Wan’s gaze, holding them together.  Obi-Wan tamps down hard on his instinctive reaction to that expression.

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Rex murmurs, a deep bass rumble appearing in his voice.  His breath is warm on Obi-Wan’s skin, making the hairs on his arm stand up under his sleeve.  “Start your timer.”

Then Rex presses his open mouth to Obi-Wan’s wrist, the tip of his tongue brushing skin, and Obi-Wan’s mind goes temporarily blank right along with Rex’s.

Obi-Wan fumbles for the button on his wrist comm.  This is going to be the longest five minutes of his life.

~

After a long moment of existence without time, only sensation, Rex surfaces up from his senses like a bubble floating to the top of a pool of water - more gently than he can ever remember doing before.  Normally, getting pulled out of a sense-trap is a shock to the system, breaking his concentration as forcefully as possible.  But this feels like… like waking up on a rare rest day as a kid, with no alarms, just the quiet return of awareness of the world outside his mind.

Rex blinks and closes his mouth, lips dragging over the pale skin of Kenobi’s wrist, and realises just then that they haven’t moved at all.  He lets go of Kenobi’s hand and drops his eyes in the same moment, stepping back and swallowing down his embarrassment.

He feels about a thousand times better, more focused, more in control of his senses.  A little embarrassment is worth it.

“Thanks,” Rex murmurs.

“Did that help?”  Kenobi asks, watching him carefully.

Rex nods.  “What did you do to wake me up?  It was different than the first time.”

“Waking up is a good metaphor,” Kenobi muses.  “When you focus on your senses to that extent, it feels like you’re unconscious, or lightly dreaming.  So I… I just pushed you towards consciousness, like waking up, just… gently.”  He gives Rex a hopeful look.  “Was that better?”

“For a deliberate zone-out, absolutely.”

“Then I’ll be sure to do so again in the future for similar circumstances.”

They stare at each other for a moment, silently evaluating the experience.  Almost as one, they nod and turn together for the door of the conference room.

As they step into the corridor again, Kenobi puts a hand on Rex’s arm, holding him still for a moment.

“If you need another moment, to center like that again, or just a moment of quiet, or anything else,” Kenobi waves his other hand expansively.  “Don’t let it fester.  I could feel your frustration building.  Just tell me what you need and I’ll make it happen.  Alright?”

“Yes sir,” Rex says.

Kenobi raises one eyebrow eloquently.

“Yes, Guide Kenobi.”  Rex tips his own eyebrow right back.  If Kenobi isn’t in charge of him when it comes to Sentinel matters, then Rex can call the man whatever the hell he wants.

“Better, I suppose.”  Kenobi sighs with elaborate exasperation, but he’s just barely smiling as he turns and walks away down the corridor.  The Jedi has a good sabacc face, and another brother might not notice, but Rex is synced to him now, at least partly.  He can see the minute flickers of Kenobi’s pupils, the twitch of muscles in his cheeks.  He knows what a suppressed smile looks like.

Being a bonded Sentinel isn’t anything remotely like Rex thought it would be.  He’s not sure how it’s going to work out - the connection between them is only hours old - but it’s been interesting so far.  Good, really, even with the constant surprises.  He’s looking forward to finding out where it goes.

~ to be continued??? ~

#my fic #sentinel wars #crossover fic #star wars #the clone wars #the sentinel #obirex #obi-wan kenobi #captain rex