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#poe deserved so much better in tlj
lepetitcomte · 2 years
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Do you write? do you write short stories?
Technically, yes I do write! But unfortunately most of the things I've posted publicly is old fanfiction from fandoms I don't fuck with like that anymore. My current (and longest) writing project is an AU that I RP with my friend Aduš (@adusart), but we're trying to branch out and come up with an original setting for the OCs we've lovingly put a lot of work into over the years that need a new home. I've also started working on my own pet project about Jewish vampires, but that's still in the research stage! I'd ultimately like to start posting little scenes or vignettes or just inspiration and thoughts from both projects, but right now I have on the one hand OCs only my friend knows enough about for them to make sense and in the other general ideas I'd love to discuss but no characters to attach them to yet 😅
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the-force-awakens · 1 month
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For the fic asks, 5, 29 for your Poe/Volya fics, and 37
!!! Ah, thank you!! *rubs my hands together gleefully* my time to shine, I love talking about these two
5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!
I feel like every single question I've ever wanted to be asked about Poe and Volya just like - flew right out of my head, lol. I contemplated something about their Force connection but I don't actually think I've included it yet in any of the fics I've posted to ao3, so I'm gonna go with something involving the "bad au" once again, cos it's something that jumped out to me when I was reading the tlj era fics back to back: the difference in when Poe and Volya both think something's changed between them, and why.
In my hand was the one you reached for, Poe mentions in his internal dialogue that something changed between them aboard the Raddus (which I think is reinforced in an earlier one-shot that @dameronalone wrote) during the events of tlj, but in the fic that's pretty much a direct sequel to that, if we got nothing we got us, which takes place from Volya's POV, she thinks that their relationship shifted after he made it back from Jakku and the Finalizer.
And I think that makes a lot of sense, 'cos although we definitely haven't touched on that specific era yet from Volya's POV yet, the days Poe is missing absolutely are what makes Voy in this verse realize just how much she loves him and just what she's been risking trying to hide that. Unfortunately, her crash course in "fuck I can't lose him, I love him too much for that and he doesn't even know it" gets a follow-up grade in tlj when they get put on separate transports during the evac to Crait....cos I'm. extremely evil.
And then of course, for Poe - they haven't really had the time to *stop* since he got back, until the Raddus, for better or worse (but mostly for worse), so I think that's the first stretch of time that he's actually had where he can notice something has changed for Volya that makes her a lot more open with her feelings than before, and ergo that their relationship has shifted because of it.
29. What songs would be (or are) on a playlist for [insert fic]? Explain your choices if you want!
I mean I have a couple of generalized poelya playlists already to be quite honest - their regular one, and one specifically for the aforementioned bad au. And one somewhere that's specifically songs I think Volya would put in a playlist that remind her of Poe.
But.....the two songs that are just simply put the most Volya/Poe to me, to the point that they could really fit any fic I've written for them, is About Love by Marina and Storm by Ruelle. Their relationship is (obviously) very much inspired by my big ole feelings for Poe, so Poe's pretty much the first/only person Volya's also had big ole feelings for, and I think these songs really capture the "oh shit this is my one exception and oh man what do i do with all these FEELINGS" that Volya constantly feels around him:
… Started in the strangest way Didn't see it coming Swept up in your hurricane Wouldn't give it up for nothing Now I'm all caught up in the highs and the lows It's a shock to my system I don't wanna run away so I stay [About Love]
&
I am caught off guard by you Like a wave I'm pulled into It's a feeling I can't fight Like a wildfire deep inside You're taking my heart by storm I'm lost in your love (lost in your love) I can't hold back any more I'm lost in your love (lost in your love) [Storm]
37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it?
Okay, my first thought was not actually a Star Wars fic - although there's definitely some fics of mine there that I wish got more traction, and it'd be nice if my poelya ones got a leetol more attention but I'm also not terribly bothered by that because hey I'm writing for myself and my friends and it's fun - it was a crossover Spidey/Moon Knight fic that I wrote in 2022.
Just...maybe not the crossover you were expecting. I had finished replaying Spider-Man PS4, I think, and I was like....this would work really well for a crossover with Moon Knight. It ended up being a blend of the television show and the early Mackay run before I quit reading. It definitely got a little bit of attention, but mostly just of folks wanting a continuation, which I had no plans for. But it's definitely still one of my favorite fics I've written - writing for Peter really is just so much fun.
fic writer asks?
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alecmagnuslwb · 4 years
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There’s A LOT that can be said about TROS, but John Boyega and Oscar Isaac don't know a Disney and fought for our rights and theirs as hard as they could and you have to respect that above all else.
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assholebogan · 6 years
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So we all know that one Reylo™️ who made that long moronic post about how Rey and Kylo’s lightsaber scene was sex *eye rolls so hard I see my own brain*… well guess what! The abuse shipper is back at it again. Making a post saying Rey’s existence is only there to redeem Kylo Ren…
I can’t… this is so disgustingly misogynistic. If there was any doubt before there isn’t now: Reylo’s don’t care about Rey. They never have. First shipping her with her abuser/the villain, and now lowering her character to that of a tool for the males redemption.
One of the WORST things to do to a female character is make them a tool for the males redemption. It is shitty/lazy/hack writing. You take a powerful female character and use her as nothing but a tool for the evil male’s character. Good development is when a character develops on their own and other characters aren’t ruined in the process. So not only do Reylo’s not care about Rey, they don’t care about Star Wars - seeing how they want awful writing like this to exist.
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the-bi-writer-blog · 6 years
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One of the most frustrating things about these racist, “The real villain of TLJ was ~*~toxic masculinity~*~” white feminist garbage articles is that back in TFA, one of the main themes *was* toxic masculinity, in the form of Kylo Ren.
There was a great article about this awhile back, talking about how TFA clearly shows Kylo Ren as the epitome of an entitled whiny white boy, who is violent and thoughtless and utterly self centered. He hurts innocent people, goes on angry rampages, and uses power to get his way. He’s a clear representation of toxic masculinity, and the narrative unflinchingly portrayed him as such. 
On the other hand, standing in stark contrast, we had Finn and Poe. Two men of color, who were both kind, brave, and heroic. Poe leads with compassion and respect, and we see that in the way he treats everyone around him. He also risks his own life to save innocent villagers, as we see in the beginning of TFA.
Then we have Finn, who obviously I love, and who’s set up as the narrative foil to Kylo Ren. Kylo was raised in love and chose violence; Finn was raised in violence, and chose love. 
In TFA, Finn rescued Poe, teamed up with Rey and BB-8, and then risked his life to go back for Rey when she was in danger. He’s a brave and selfless man who, like Poe, respects those around him, and uses his strength to protect and defend those who need it.
Okay, back to the steaming pile of garbage that is TLJ. So, the frustrating thing is that this entire film is the embodiment of toxic masculinity. Not in the form of it’s characters, but in the form of Rian Johnson.
Like, a real life person sat down and wrote that script, and thought it was 100% okay to force an abuse survivor (Rey) back into close contact with her abuser (Kylo Ren.) Then that script was shown to the Disney execs, who also somehow thought that that was A-okay.
TLJ as a *film* is toxic, and *that’s* what these supposed feminists should be writing about. How the male characters of color got screwed over by a racist white male writer, and how the female lead was shoehorned into a story that wasn’t even about her. 
tl;dr Rian Johnson is the embodiment of toxic masculinity, not Poe Dameron.
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alicentsgf · 6 years
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i dont think i realised How Much i love Finn until now because I've loved a lot of characters who've been mistreated and side-lined but i have never been so fucking angry in my whole life as I have been since i saw tlj
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amos-burton · 6 years
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rian johnson owes me 11.80€
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solocest · 6 years
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and honestly finnrose damerey endgame RISE
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sirluisamilton · 6 years
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boi the last jedi stressed me the fuck OUT
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Oh wait, shit. When i walked out of the movie I was doing ok but.hhmmm the angerr has started i am pissed, i am mad as hell and I'm. Im sad and upset and disappointed and just.
Why.
I hat this why why why fuck
Fuck
Fuck why
Why
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paper-n-ashes · 3 years
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sparks and embers - chapter 6
Characters: Poe Dameron x Original Female Character, Kylo Ren x Original Female Character
Story Tags: Explicit (18+), Canon Compliant/Divergent (Set after TLJ), First Person POV, Love Triangle, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Porn with Plot, Hurt/Comfort, Kylo Ren hates Poe Dameron 
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Chapter 6 - Ruin
Words: 5.9k
Chapter Tags/Warnings: Mentions of war/death, kissing, a healthy dose of the ‘sharing a bed’ trope, ANGST, sexual education because who doesn’t want to read about that in fanfiction, vague description of a female medical procedure
Read on AO3 or Start from the beginning
~
A softened sigh left me, knowing it was probably time to let Poe say his piece. He’d been so silent until now that I felt compelled to hear what had been stirring inside his mind while I’d held him in quiet contempt.
“Alright. I’m listening.”
He flicked on one of the dimmed lamps next to the bed, a gentle glow illuminating the room, watching as he proceeded to carefully extricate himself from under the sheets, the soreness as a result of the rehab we’d performed today now evident in his concentrated expression.
I drew myself up into a seated position on the sofa as he made his way to sit on the small table at my front, not attempting to meet my eyes until he’d slowly placed himself down on the metal. His face was less than a meter from mine, pupils drifting upwards until finally, our stares locked.
“I’m sorry,” he declared, his words heavy. “I understand why you’re angry. I get it, okay? Years of battle after battle, fight after fight, it becomes difficult to consider those working under the First Order’s control as people. People with families, loved ones, even children. They appear as targets, there simply to be eliminated. And it’s you or them. Either you perish, or you put the rational thought into the back of your mind and fight back.”
Poe glanced down, fixated to the floor, his jaw tight. “I do think about it sometimes, the people I’ve... murdered. I’ve spent sleepless nights wondering if killing in the name of freedom was a good enough reason to send people to an early death. When you don’t see their faces it’s…. easier. You don’t see the bloodshed, the corpses. You just see the fiery explosion of their ships fading into the black void of space.”
I stayed rigid in the sofa, hands clutching the into cushions. It was difficult to hold down the simmer of anger that boiled in my stomach, since everything so far only reinforced what I felt like I’d determined hours ago. Even while my demeanour remained stormy, Poe continued.
“All I heard in my childhood was my father reminding me of the way he and my mother fought for what they believed to be right. Both of them lived and battled through a time like ours, under the thumb of a regime hungry for power, sparing no innocents in their pursuit of it.” He became lost in memory, the aura drifting around him stained with a subtle sorrow. “‘People were hurting. People were suffering. Your father and I couldn’t sit and do nothing.’ That’s what my mother had told me, a child of two, as her reasoning for joining the Alliance in their efforts to push back against what threatened all type of freedom in this galaxy. My parents offered to sacrifice their lives on the tiniest shred of hope that me, and every other being on every planet, would see peace in their lifetime.”
His eyes finally shifted back to focus on mine. They were determined, yet soft, the chocolate fibers of his irises melting together. “I just... wanted to be like her. Like them. I wanted to do what they did. I wanted them to be proud of me, to have faith that their legacy would live on after they were gone. To provide freedom and peace like they had. Even if that meant sacrificing my own life, even if that meant killing those who opposed it. I had to. I had to join the people that wanted the same thing as me.”
A growing ferocity began to radiate, his voice severe. “I witnessed so many of my fellow soldiers, my friends, die thoughtlessly at the hands of others. And I wanted them to feel the same pain that I felt. Is it hypocritical? Of course, I know that. Is it cruel? Yes, murder is rarely not. But it's in the name of protection, defiance against control from an overpowering force. Those who fight with the First Order, who take over planets and kill innocents for the sake of power, they know what they’re doing. They know the consequences, the outcome, the hold the galaxy will be strangled under if they succeed. And they do it anyway. Our cause isn’t more noble, it’s self-defence. We’re trying to protect the ones who aren’t able to fight back, and those who don’t deserve to be born into a world that will crush them into submission.”
Poe’s features turned darker, leaning in close. “I will never stop thinking about the lives I’ve taken. I will never not hold myself accountable for the sins I’ve committed. But I will also not sit and do nothing. I don’t need you to accept it, but at least try to understand. You and I want the same thing, in the end, to save as many people as possible in our short lifetime. I’m just doing the best I can to see that through.”
While I instinctively took a breath in preparation to speak, nothing came. He’d rendered me speechless.
I had no reply to give, no counterargument, no flaw to point out. His honesty floored me, raw emotion and long-felt guilt rising up for me to observe so openly. The pain behind his eyes seemed so much more acute than any of the other injuries he’d sustained, not trying to shield it from my view as he spoke.
I tried to find words, anything to articulate my forgiveness. Because I did understand. He’d made me see it, the same anguish over death that I felt. But he’d also made me realise what a coward I was.
Against the people who would kill him or control him, he fought back. While I hid myself away under the guise of selflessness.
I thought I was the hero of my story, giving up my home, my old life, for the benefit of the downtrodden people of this planet. In reality, I was a scared little girl, too gutless to push back against those I, and so many others in this galaxy, feared. And here Poe was, putting himself in harm’s way, every day, in the hopes that he could take away our fear forever.  
He began to rise in front of me, taking my lack of reply as an answer in itself. He seemed despondent, his face sullen as he turned to limp back to the bed.
A different kind of fury coursed through me, fury at myself for how easily I’d judged him, at how cruelly I’d treated him.
I couldn’t let the night end this way.
I picked myself up from the sofa and quickly lunged at his wrist, pulling him to face me. He was surprised, glancing with wide eyes to where my hand had caught him, then to my face. I tried desperately to convey it there, everything I wanted to say, struggling to find my voice. Poe waited for me to speak the words I clearly had sitting on the edge of my tongue, but everything I conjured didn’t seem to be enough, the jumbled thoughts swirling incoherently in my mind, never letting me quite grasp onto them long enough to form exactly what I needed to express.
Tension filled the space between us, thick and overwhelming. I soon began outlining the lines of his face, the crease currently stuck in his brow, the curve of his nose, the contour of his jaw, the arch of his lips.
My hands found themselves catching each side of his face, pulling his mouth to mine in a desperate kiss.
I’d held it back for so long, too long, now unable to deny the burning urge to melt my lips into his. He was alarmed at first, his mouth frozen from movement as he comprehended my sudden attack.
Yet quickly he was syncing his lips fluidly with mine, a hand rising to clutch the back of my neck, pulling me closer. His casted arm curled around my waist, pressing my body into his, feeling the heat radiating off his chest.
The fire in my lower abdomen roared into bright red flames again, spreading into the rest of my body like molten lava. He tasted even better than I’d imagined, our tongues beginning to find each other through parted mouths. Fingers moved into his hair, hungrily grasping at the curled strands, causing a low moan to seep from his throat. The sound made me even more forceful in my need for his lips to be connected with mine, barely having time to breathe in-between our eager kisses.
I wanted to have him, all of him, so deeply it was painful, the searing burn lighting up in my veins.
Don’t do this Alexys. It will ruin you.
My breath hitched as I reluctantly pulled away, looking up, seeing his pupils swollen. He was cautious then, moving his hand from my neck to push a strand of hair behind my ear, almost if at any moment I would flee from his embrace.
And that’s what half of me was begging to do, the other screaming at me to lock our lips together again. I felt split into two, a cracking beginning to divide me roughly in the middle.
I could see Poe searching through my gaze, trying to assess my thoughts, whether it was safe to continue. He leaned in gradually, testing my reaction. I didn’t recoil this time. I didn’t want to.
His lips melted into mine, less insistent than before, although somehow just as intimate. Inhibitions lowered, my hands slid down to his chest, noticing the hard muscles underneath my palms and feeling the fire inside me surge. I wanted to feel the bare skin underneath, to have it pressed against my own. To explore the other parts of him covered by clothes. To forget even for a short time that this was wrong, that I shouldn’t be doing this.
Poe gently withdrew, leaning his forehead into mine. “I know.”
“Know what?”
He exhaled a long breath. “I know you don’t want to do this.”
I replaced my hands to his cheeks. “You have no idea how much I want this. How much I want you.” The truth of the words made me feel both vulnerable and safe, for the first time giving in to the yearning I’d hoped to keep locked inside my chest.
He tensed, a slight tremble in the arm that curved around my body. But his face grew sombre, almost... sad. “You don’t. Not completely. I can feel you wanting to hold back,” he murmured. “I can feel your fear.”
I swallowed hard, unable to refute him. “…I’m sorry. I want to. But I just… I can’t."
We both looked down, my confirmation making the tone of our connection shift. He was silent for what felt like a long time, and we stayed motionless in our embrace, neither wanting it to end, knowing it was inevitable that we would have to part.
“Why?” he breathed. “Why are you afraid?”
I wanted to be honest with him, like he had been for me, so much the sensation felt like it was clawing out from inside me, determined to burst through the skin. But there was a barrier there, one I had forged long ago. Unyielding and impenetrable to anything or anyone.
Although, I felt another realisation simmer to the surface of my mind, one that was not nearly as exposing, but still true.
“You’re going to leave. And I have to stay here. I don’t… I don’t want that to hurt any more than it has to.”
It seemed to hit him then, like he hadn’t let the thought enter his mind before. The awareness of our predicament shone brightly in his eyes, a light switch flickering on.
His hand moved to my cheek, grazing his thumb softly against the skin, my heart throbbing inside its cage at his light touch. I watched as eyes scanned over my face, back and forth, as if memorising the features. It was then I knew he’d come to the same conclusion.
It wouldn’t be long before we would part, most likely to never see each other again. If we went any further, if we crossed that line, the pain of saying goodbye would become so much more unbearable.
Almost simultaneously, we let our hold on each other loosen, the disappointment in the air almost palatable on my tongue. The smouldering inside had burnt out, suffocated by the gloom weighing heavy in my chest. Poe took my hand in his, his eyes pleading. “Can I ask one thing of you?’
I moved my head in a slow nod.
“Sleep in this bed with me tonight. Just sleep. I promise.” It was an earnest request, his face imploring and unguarded.
In contempt of the voice in my head bellowing at me that this was a terrible idea, I agreed. “Okay.”
Together we tentatively walked to each side of the mattress, making no rush to slip under the covers and settle into the pillows. I faced away, fearing if I looked at Poe's charming face any longer, I would surrender to the pull of desire that never seemed to relent. I didn’t know how I was ever going to be able to fall asleep like this, his body radiating an energy that vibrated into the space between us, keeping me all too aware of his presence.
There was movement, a dip in the mattress, Poe’s arms curling around my torso, pulling me close. His face buried itself into my hair, the warmth of his gradual exhale sending charged shivers down my spine. Placing my arms over his, silently accepting his embrace, I felt my heart thump a calming glow through my chest, all the way to the end of my limbs.
I’d never felt so peaceful, so whole, becoming lost in the comfort of his hold, wishing I could bask in it forever.
But reality bit at me, cold and uninvited, reminding me of the goodbye I would have to give soon enough.
*
We were still entangled when consciousness came again, the dim light of early sunrise leaking through my window. Poe’s arms circled around me, my body fitting perfectly into his.
He was still asleep, his face resting just at the back of my head, slow breaths bristling into my hair. I relished the feeling of it all, trying to commit it to my memory.
I stayed there, motionless, waiting for time to run out, knowing I would be chasing the feeling of this in the months, maybe years, to come. Thinking about his future absence made me terrifyingly lonely, even with his arms wrapped around now.
Eventually the seconds ticked down to my chronometer alarm buzzing, rustling Poe awake from his slumber. I assumed he would begin to move, pulling away, this one night that bonded us together finally ending. Yet he stayed as unmoving as I had been, the only indication he had awoken the increased depth of his inhale, a small tense of his muscles. I went to move, to switch the screeching sound off, but he clutched me back into his chest, squeezing tight.
As much as my heart thumped at the pressure of his hips into mine, the noise of my alarm was grating. “Let me turn it off,” I whispered. “I’ll come right back.”
Poe loosened his grip reluctantly, allowing me to reach over to the screeching machine and mute its sound. I settled back comfortably into his arms again, as he nuzzled his face into my neck, lips faintly placing a kiss on the skin.
“Poe… please… don’t…”
His sigh whistled past my neck. “Come with me, when I leave.”
It annoyed me, his fleeting demand so easily spoken. As if I could suddenly give up all that encompassed my life before he appeared, the beings that depended on me. But his voice was so sincere, so entreating in the early morning, that the irritation dashed away from the forefront of my mind.
“You know I can’t do that.”
He acknowledged my answer in the shift of his body from around me, moving himself out of the bed we had shared for the night and leaving me alone underneath the sheets.
It burned, the unprecedented disconnection of his shape from mine, my chest forming into a black hole in the realisation I might never feel him that close again.
I wanted to let my emotion to take over, to give in to the pain that rushed to me now as the finality of our night cradled together became evident. But I refused to release it, my resolve from the night before holding strong. I knew I’d made it harder by giving in to Poe's innocent plea of sharing a slumber within his embrace, but I wasn’t going to let our farewell completely ruin me.
With a forced composure, I rose from my bedside, focusing on the appointments scheduled to fill my day. Through my haze I recalled many of them being young female patients in need of birth control. I would somehow have to shut Poe away, wanting to give these women the privacy they deserved.
*
Poe and I appeared to use the ‘freshers at the same time, the searing heat I usually liked being showered with restrained no matter how high I pushed the temperature button. Eventually I’d readied myself for the workday ahead, deciding on a pencil skirt and lightened blue blouse tucked into the waist, working my hair into a ponytail.
It was when I’d begun making breakfast, for both myself and all the company that I kept in the clinic at the moment, that Poe emerged back into my quarters in a set of dark black hospital clothes. I glanced at him only briefly as he entered, hearing him pull out a chair, not daring to look at his face yet.
“Smells good,” he uttered, breaking the silence that existed in exemption to the sautéed chicken eggs and nuna bacon sizzling in the large pan in front of me.
“It’s almost ready,” I remarked, feeling completely the disconnection between us in his tone. Half of me was glad he accepted the separation we needed to make, the other mourning the severed bond we had formed in the connection of our bodies. But I had to let it go, whatever was left of the fragile link that survived the night.
I continued preparing the hot meal, separating the foodstuff between Poe and Vixur’s crew. Once I’d gently placed a share in front of Poe at the table, a smile meeting him fleetingly, I took the rest with me, balancing the four dishes on my hands and forearms, moving cautiously through the hallway.
With impeccable timing Vixur and his students were conversing between each other, obviously having woken just before I came to greet them.
“I’ve got breakfast for you all,” I announced, setting it down at the meeting table across from my computer. It was generally used as a place I could sit with patients and their families when giving them their diagnosis or explaining treatment plans, but today it would have to work as a secondary dining table. All four men jabbered back thankyous as they moved quickly to sit and eat, their appreciation evident in the way they gulped down the meal without hesitation. I returned to my quarters to find Poe picking lazily at his food, only a few bites eaten.
“Does it taste bad?” I asked from behind him, before circling to my seat at the table.
He looked up swiftly, as if I’d startled him. He must have been deeply lost in thought not to hear me treading down the hallway.
“It’s delicious,” he urged. “I’m just… not that hungry.”
“Are you feeling alright? Are you still sore? Are you-“
“Alex, I’m fine,” he interrupted. “You can’t fix a bad mood with any of your treatments.”
I looked at him curiously. “Bad mood?”
Did I do that to him?
“Did you not sleep well?”
He didn’t answer me right away, a subtle scowl settling in his lips. “It was actually... the most restful sleep I’ve had in a long time.”
I fought the urge to beam at him, a smile waiting to form, but the gloomy expression he wore held it down. I had to agree with him - it truly was the most comfortable rest I’d experienced in recent memory. And knowing I would never feel that peaceful, dreamless slumber in his arms again made me fully understand why he was frowning.
“Thank you so much for the meal Alex. I just... don’t have an appetite right now.” Poe rose from his seat and took his plate to clean, his sombre mood spilling into my body and taking over. Wringing his hands dry, He turned back to me. “Is it still alright if I keep using your office to continue working on BB-8?”
I nodded. “It would actually be preferable. Most of my patients today are women, and I need privacy for their appointments. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out, okay?”
Poe understood what I’d only hinted at. “Sure thing. I won’t step a foot out that room without your permission.”
A kind smile formed on his lips, but it fell as he moved from my quarters, leaving me to my breakfast, which now seemed extremely unappetizing.
*
“Well, Kaia, you’ve got a couple of options,” I started. It was my 5th appointment of the day, and I was starting to lose all hope in the young generation that followed mine. “You can get the implant, which lasts 5 years and protects you from pregnancy. But it can be a painful procedure, and unfortunately the implant itself is quite expensive. There are injections which last 3 months, but you’ll have to see me again in that time frame. I know that’s hard for you being from the South village. But there’s always prophylactics, which your partner has to use, every separate time you want to be intimate.”
Kaia was a 17-year-old human girl who had obviously not been taught any helpful sex education. Although, that wasn’t uncommon in these villages.
“But, like,” she began to question. “Can’t he just, like, not, um, finish in there?”
I drew in a deep breath. This wasn’t the first time I’d explained this today. “Technically yes, if he withdraws from you before that moment comes, it does lessen the chance of pregnancy. But Kaia, there’s a lot of fluid already leaking from him before then, fluid that can contain sperm. It doesn’t protect you. Not fully.”
Kaia was thoughtful, taking in my words. “But what if he doesn’t want to use the sheath?”
“Well... that’s his decision. But then you have to make yours. A decision that you’re more than allowed to make. One night could lead to either a future of motherhood or even diseases that could cause a great deal of damage to your body.”
“Ew,” Kaia recoiled. “I mean, I get what you’re saying. But Miss Jago, haven’t you ever been so swept up in the moment that you didn’t think about any of that?”
My jaw clenched, catching me off guard with her question. None of the other women had posed it to me. “It’s not been an issue for me,” I said flatly.
“Because of the birth control, right?” she surmised. “Which one do you use then?”
Oof, caught me out again.
“I don’t have the need for it. Kaia, this is not about me-”
“Wait, what?” she gasped. “But you’re so pretty?”
I soaked my voice in its professional tone. “This is your appointment Kaia, we’re not here to discuss my personal life.”
Kaia refused to comply. “But you’ve done it, right?”
I sighed, irritated. “Yes Kaia, but we took all the necessary precautions.”
“Well that doesn’t make it sound very fun,” Kaia huffed.
I tried desperately to hold back the aversion wanting to show on my face. It hadn’t been fun. It was clunky, awkward and somewhat painful. And I felt a spike of envy that this teenager already seemed to have had better experience with the opposite sex than I did.
“Look, your options are there. If I had to choose one, and I was with a partner I could trust had nothing that could spread to me, I’d go with the implant.”
She contemplated my advice, pulling her hands up to let her chin rest on them. “I think you’re right Miss Jago. But my parents would never help me pay for it.”
“That’s alright,” I replied, already knowing the home situation Kaia found herself in. She’d made the trek to my clinic alone, without her parent’s knowledge, just to see me for this single reason. I doubted they even knew she had a boyfriend. “How about I put the implant in today, and we figure out payment later?”
Kaia’s face lit up, eyes brimming with delight. “Really?”
I smiled at her and nodded.
“Thank you!” she squealed, face barely containing her excitement.
Really, this was for both her benefit and my own. I wasn’t about to face her parents when it would ultimately be me providing the news their daughter was pregnant. I didn’t want Kaia to go through that, a young pregnancy in a poor village after her parents would most likely cast her out.
“Remember I said this can be a painful procedure, and you’ll be sore for a day or two afterwards.”
Kaia nodded, understanding, yet unable to hold back her joy.
*
I worked my way through the process of setting her implant, my mind on autopilot while I thought more about the question Kaia innocently queried. I’d never come close to the type of desire that would have caused me to throw away all caution and rational thought. Not until-
“Hey Alex!” I heard from the other side of the curtain I’d drawn for Kaia’s discretion. “I know I said I wouldn’t come out until you said, but I’ve got something I need to show you.”
Poe’s voice was exuberant and proud, annoyingly unaware of the fact I had my hand in a very delicate place. My eyes shot to Kaia’s, her cheeks already flushing red with mortification.
“Poe!” I fumed, not hiding my anger. “I asked you to do one thing!”
I sensed his panic from behind the fabric separating us. “Kriff! Sorry!” His voice changed when he spoke next, a hurried whisper. “BB, come back here! We can’t show her yet!”
A streaming mechanical movement could be heard in my periphery, turning my head to see a shadow moving along the bottom of the curtain. I took the moment to stop what I was doing, covering Kaia with a sheet.
I was thankful I did that when the BB-8 droid slip through a break in the drape, caring little for what Poe had ordered him to do. His little head sat hovering above his balled body, for the first time actually staying in position. The photoreceptor, which looked like a singular eye, was also finally lit as he zoomed closer. While an impressed smirk started to beam as I realised Poe had managed to get his little friend working, it was rapidly overtaken by irritation at the droid’s lack of courtesy.
Poe was cursing under his breath, then apologetic. “Alex and uh, patient, I am so sorry. BB, get out of there!” BB-8 let out a few indiscernible beeps, a language I didn’t understand, although Poe seemed to. “I don’t care! They need privacy. You can see her later!” he hollered.
The droid made what sounded like a high-pitched huff as its head dropped, like it knew it had been scolded. Its head swivelled around on top it’s body and rolled away, again sliding through the break in the curtain.
“Come on, back this way.” I listened to the combination of footsteps and mechanical whirring move back into the hallway, a door eventually clicking closed. Looking apologetically back to Kaia, her face was still stunned at the intrusion.
“I am so sorry. I told him to stay put until my appointments were over. It’s okay if you want to stop for a moment,” I offered, trying to stay as calm as possible.
Kaia blinked purposefully a few times before being able to focus back to me. “No it’s okay. I’m ready.”
I admired her composure, while I remained silently boiling under the surface.
*
“What the hell Poe?” I snarled, barging into my office where Poe sat, seemingly interrupting a conversation he was having with BB-8. I’d clawed my anger into submission for the rest of Kaia’s appointment, but now it was ready to surge outward.
Poe stood, arms held up in surrender. “I know! I’m sorry! I didn’t think, and it was just really bad timing.” BB-8 beeped in what sounded like agreeance, rolling around from behind the office desk into my view.
“It was the worst timing!” I snapped. “That girl was 17, in a very vulnerable position, and you scared the living daylights out of her!”
“I know, and I can’t apologise enough Alex, really!” His face was pleading, brown eyes soft yet desperate. “I was just so excited about BB working again, and I wanted to show you.”
His sincerity disarmed me, my fury sizzling down, suffocated by his apology. I took a slow breath in, eyes closed, reigning it in further. “Please don’t disregard my instructions again,” I grumbled.
He nodded, as did BB-8, and my eyes focused on the droid. He was oddly cute in his appearance, his small beeps already annoyingly adorable. “Hello,” I greeted, all frustration now clean from my voice. “My name is Alexys.” I kneeled down to his eye level and he immediately wheeled directly in front of me, beeping somewhat of his own introduction.
“He said it’s nice to meet you,” Poe clarified, still hesitant at the easy change in my mood.
I looked up at him, curious. “You can understand those sounds he makes?”
“Most of it,” Poe answered. “It’s a form of Binary. Having him with me for so long helped me grow accustomed to the pitch and time changes in his beeps.”
My eyebrows rose, fascinated. “That’s so impressive.” BB-8 squealed in uneven time, his eye looking over to Poe, who almost looked bashful. “What? What did he say?”
He shot BB-8 an irritated look before meeting his eyes to mine. “It’s nothing important. His circuits are still a little fried.”
I wasn’t convinced, but then again I didn’t speak droid. "I'm glad you got him working,” I said earnestly, pleased there hadn’t been any type of casualty from his crash.
Poe sighed, relieved. “Me too. He’s the best co-pilot I’ve ever had.”
BB-8 whistled happily, evidently pleased with the praise, and its sweetness made me smile.
“Alexys?” Vixur suddenly called, his voice echoing down the hall. “Are you back there?”
I left Poe and BB-8 without a word, finding Vixur standing at the hallway entrance, his clothes smeared in dirt and dark grease. “Everything okay?”
Vixur nodded, evidently tired, still an accomplished grin filled his face. “We’re done actually. The comm-tower’s fixed.”
I wanted to smile back, to show my appreciation for his hard work, but it all became too hard to fake anymore.
This was it, the beginning of my goodbye to Poe. He would now be able to contact the Resistance, his friends, and he would soon be gone from my life just as suddenly as he arrived.
I forced the tears back as I hugged Vixur, doing all I could to hide my pain and show some kind of gratitude for the selfless work he had done.
Somehow Vixur sensed the turmoil simmering through me, patting my back softly. He pulled out of our embrace, speaking softly enough so Poe wouldn’t hear. “You needed this done for him, didn’t you?”
I nodded, the sadness hard to contain on my face. Vixur’s own expression was sympathetic as he squeezed my arm reassuringly. I didn’t need to explain anything, he just seemed to know.
“If it’s meant to be, you’ll find each other again.”
I drew in a long breath, furiously smothering the need to cry. I wanted to thank him more, for giving his time to me for little in return, but I couldn’t say the words out of fear the sudden sorrow would overwhelm me if I spoke out loud.
Vixur understood this, giving me a caring smile as he took his leave. “Well, we best be heading back to the village. I’ll see you sometime soon Alex. If I don’t, I wish you luck.”
And he was gone, the clinic door closing behind him, leaving me frozen in dread. A large part of me was reluctant to tell Poe the ‘good news’, but he’d waited long enough for his rescue from this planet.
I didn’t need to turn around to know he’d slinked out of the office to find me stuck where I stood, BB-8’s soft whirring following him.
“The comm-tower is ready, isn’t it?” Poe asked gently.
I forced myself to smile as I turned around, Poe’s expression not showing the relief I would have expected.
“Sure is,” I replied, the hint of quiver in my voice. “You can finally go home.”
I saw Poe’s lip tremble as he too attempted a smile, the disappointment in his eyes more indicative of his actual reaction to my answer.
Neither of us spoke for a long time, BB-8 looking back and forth quizzically, a few unsure beeps finally pierced in Poe’s direction. The sounds knocked us back into reality, as I moved to find the transmitter I’d stashed back into my tech station after determining its redundancy days ago.
The memories felt foreign, like they were from a different age. So little time had changed me so much, making me feel the most unstable and fragile I had felt in so long, on the verge of tipping into an overwhelming pain.
Poe had watched me in silence, unmoving. I eventually shifted the transmitter into his arms, an extremely aged, large box with an array of dusty buttons poking out of the rusted metal.
“It’s old, but it still works,” I insisted in a monotone, the emotion sucked from my voice. Poe only nodded, and gave me one last despairing glance as he turned away, carrying the machine into the study, BB-8 trailing behind him.
When the door closed, I couldn’t hold onto it any longer, the overpowering misery bursting free, its icy presence consuming me in a singular moment, the cold burn stinging as a few tears trickled down my cheeks.
What did I tell you?
The tears came faster at the sound of the voice, it’s condescension only making the suffering more excruciating.
No.
You’re wrong. I’m stronger than this.
I wiped away the errant tears defiantly, pulling myself together at the seams that had broken a few minutes ago, calming my breathing, trying to settle the trembling on inhale.
I’d made it through so much worse, pushed past crushing loneliness, fear and sadness, to make myself more resilient than I was behaving now. And I wasn’t going to let myself be caught in this vortex of emotion any longer.
I will not let this ruin me. 
~
Next Chapter
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toaarcan · 3 years
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One ship exposes everything wrong with TRoS
Heaven help me, I’m back on my bullshit.
Alright, so, I enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker when I watched it. I actually watched it twice, once on my own when I rushed to see it as soon as possible in order to beat spoilers, and once with my family, in what was a semi-annual new year tradition for us during those four years that a Star Wars film released.
But that doesn’t mean it was good. I enjoyed Transformers: Dark of the Moon the first time I watched it, and that movie’s still a steaming pile of shit. I was admittedly fifteen when I saw DotM, but still. 
My point is that I’m fully capable of enjoying crappy films.
But there’s one thing, one thing about TRoS that exemplifies so many of the problems with TRoS as a whole, if not everything (And by that I mean with TRoS specifically, the woeful treatment of John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran is a Whole Trilogy Problem). And it’s a ship. Specifically this ship.
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The Resistance Y-Wing. I hate this ship with the fiery passion of an exploding star, and to talk about why, we need to first go back to The Last Jedi and its conspicuous lack of Y-Wings.
One of the things that I disliked most about the Sequels before TRoS put all the other problems into stark light was the lack of new ships. Instead of new vehicles, we got shinier, sleeker versions of the ships from the original trilogy. And I disliked this because it’s the opposite of what the Prequels did.
Episodes I-III don’t feature more primitive versions of the X-Wing and TIE Fighter, but instead have similar vehicles that evoke the classics while still having an identity of their own.
The ARC-170 looks kinda like an X-Wing, but it’s bigger and has more weapons and crew, and you get why the well-funded Republic can afford things like this while the scrappy Rebels can’t.
The Eta-2 is a predecessor to the TIE Fighter, but it being employed exclusively by Jedi makes a lot of sense, of course a precognitive wizard with superhuman reflexes can do well in a light, unshielded ship, while in the hands of the Empire’s military they’re just expendable swarm fighters.
But then in the Sequels, rather than evolve the ships into new forms, they just made new incarnations of the X-Wing, TIE Fighter, A-Wing, TIE Interceptor, B-Wing, and of course the Y-Wing.
Well, except for one movie: The Last Jedi.
At the outset of the film, we’re introduced to this ship.
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This is the MG-100 StarFortress, AKA “That ship all the Star Wars Youtubers hate”. It’s designed to be a much heavier and bulkier version of the B-Wing Starfighter, and is even made by the same people.
From questions about how the bombs “fall” toward the Dreadnought (The answer is magnets) to claims that they’re completely useless because most of the ones in the film died so easily, these things have been put through the wringer by the fandom, and honestly they don’t deserve it? What destroyed the StarFortresses in the film wasn’t their own weaknesses, but them being deployed in too tight a formation. It was a tactical fuckup, not a problem with the ship’s design.
And given that the whole point of the battle over D’Qar is that Poe makes a tactical fuckup to kickstart his development into the new leader of the Resistance as a whole, adding another layer makes sense to me.
But we live in a post-CinemaSins world of media consumption, where every plot-point that isn’t spelled out with a flowchart and an audio commentary by the writers is actually a plothole. 
We also live in an era where Star Wars fans pine for the days of the Legends canon where everything about new ships, species, and worlds was explained in background lore and books, and are angry that the new Canon is... doing exactly the same thing?
Seriously, how much exposition and lore dumping is actually present in any of the Star Wars films? Not a whole lot. And that applies to all three eras. 
So the StarFortress’ appearance in the film and the lack of Y-Wings led to a bevy of armchair writers demanding to know why the Resistance weren’t using Y-Wings and why they were using those “Resistance Bombers” that are just ‘terrible’.
Answer? Because the Y-Wings sucked shit.
Seriously, go back to the Original Trilogy and try to keep track of the Y-Wings, and see what they actually do, and you’ll find that what they do is “Explode, mostly.”
We’re first introduced to the Y-Wings in A New Hope, and they’re supposed to be the ones performing the Trench Run while the X-Wings cover them, and to their credit, they try.
And then they all get blown up by Vader and his wingmen before they can even take a shot at the exhaust port. Well, except that one that appears with the rebel ships flying away from the Death Star.
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Where the fuck were you when the X-Wings were doing the attack run?
The Y-Wings got absolutely wrecked.
Ancillary media would go on to explain that the Y-Wings were beat-up old vehicles that were no longer fit for purpose, but the Rebels had to use them anyway because they had basically no money. They’d stripped down the ships and removed a bunch of their more costly features just to make them viable, and the results of that were pretty clear.
Of course, the Y-Wings were still present in the later films. They don’t do anything in The Empire Strikes Back, but they play a role in Return of the Jedi.
Naturally, that role is mostly “Get blown up while the other ships do the important stuff”.
Despite supposedly being a fighter-bomber that was designed to do significant damage to capital ships, does the Y-Wing play a role in the destruction of the Executor? Does it fuck. Destroying the Imperial flagship’s deflector shields and the subsequent suicidal ram attack on the bridge are tasks that are both performed by the goddamn A-Wings. Y’know, the light interceptors?
The Y-Wings get shown up at their own job by the ships that are there to protect them from TIE Fighters.
Ancillary media again explains why they’re still there. While the Rebels have a newer, better fighter-bomber in the B-Wing, the B-Wing is expensive as fuck and also really difficult to fly. 
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A non-centreline cockpit that rotates will do that to a ship.
Still, the B-Wing was a better bomber than the Y-Wing ever was (And the StarFortress was better than them both at that role).
All this adds up to a simple fact: There were very good reasons why the Resistance weren’t using Y-Wings. And there were even reasonable reasons to choose the StarFortress compared to the B-Wing itself, given that the Resistance are still undermanned and under-funded, especially with the New Republic getting nuked midway through The Force Awakens. It being easier to fly and having more armaments would have made it a viable choice for the Resistance.
Buuuut oops, people didn’t like the StarFortress and we can’t make the Internet angry at us again! Better put the Y-Wings back in for Episode IX, and show them destroying a Xyston-class Destroyer, that’ll make them happy!
And sure, okay, giving the Resistance a fighter/bomber is probably a good idea. And they already have New X-Wings and New A-Wings, so where’s the harm in a New Y-Wing?
Alright, alright, sure. But why the fuck does it look like this?
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If this is a new ship, why is it already stripped-down like the ones in the Original Trilogy? Why doesn’t it look like the actual brand-new Y-Wings we saw in The Clone Wars? 
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Now that’s more like it. Still visibly a Y-Wing, but with more of an identity of its own. 
Seriously, “Literally the same ship but without its armour pulled off” has more of a unique identity than the crowd-pleasing New Y-Wing.
And that, in and of itself, is the essence of The Rise of Skywalker.
It’s blind, empty fanservice, rushing to include as much nostalgia-pandering as possible to try and get the fanbase back on-side after The Last Jedi didn’t do what the fanboys wanted it to do.
This is a whole near- three hour movie whose only message is “Yes, Youtubers making TFA critiques longer than an entire season of TCW, we hear you, we’ll make it for you, please love us!”
And, almost entirely predictably, it was shite.
It was riddled with plotholes and none of the scenes had any time to breathe because the movie was too desperately trying to rush itself to the next crowd-pleasing scene in a desperate attempt to wank off as many disgruntled fanboys as it possibly could.
Luke with his green saber! Jedi Leia! Chewie gets a medal! Lando! Luke raises his X-Wing out of the water! The main villain is a testicle in a bathrobe again! Snork origin! Original-flavour Star Destroyers! Rose doesn’t exist! Rey had a super-special secret magical bloodline the whole time and Luke and Leia totally knew even though Luke has literally no idea who she is in Episode VIII! Luke actually was just afraid of the bad guys in Episode VII, none of that self-imposed exile for his own mistakes nonsense! Y-Wings.
I mean fuck. Disagree with Luke’s portrayal in TLJ all you like, I certainly have my issues with it, but I lay those at the feet of JJ for making Luke’s absence into one of his fucking Mystery Boxes, and then deciding that, even though last time Luke sensed Leia and Han might be in danger, he abandoned his Jedi training, hopped in an X-Wing, and flew halfway across the galaxy to try and save them, he wouldn’t do shit when the First Order pointed a star-powered System-Killer 9000 at Leia, and Han got himself killed trying to redeem Kyle Ron. Like how in fuck was Rian supposed to explain Luke’s inaction in VII?
But regardless of the problems with that Luke portrayal, at least Mark Hamill gave it his all. Hell, it might be his best performance in the Star Wars franchise!
 In TRoS, he shows up in a bad wig, waves a middle finger at TLJ, and ascends to his final form as a Lightsaber Delivery Boy, because apparently all you need to kill a Sith who literally clawed his way back from death is two lightsabers. Haunting Kyle Ron? Nope. Providing guidance as a ghost? Not really.
And y’know what the kicker is? It didn’t fucking work. Lucasfilm and Disney fucking gutted this trilogy, sliced out the integrity, surgically removed the soul of Episode IX in a desperate effort to make the Internet’s most unpleasable fanbase happy, and it didn’t work. They still hate it! Now they just concoct hour-long videos about how much they would’ve preferred to have the Trevorrow script (Which is admittedly much better, albeit still with it’s far share of giant flaws), which was probably thrown out because it wasn’t fanservicey enough!
The Rise of Skywalker is an awful film. It’s a loose collection of nostalgia-baiting moments, roughly stapled together around the skeleton of a plot that was never properly developed. It’s a Frankenstein’s Monster of a movie, but, and I say this with full offense, the Victor Frankenstein in this tragic story isn’t Lucasfilm or Disney or Kathleen Kennedy or Rian Johnson, or even JJ Abrams. It’s you, Star Wars Fandom. It is your monster. 
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spinnenpfote6 · 4 years
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#BenSoloDeservedBetter
Tbh, all of Ben’s scenes were powerful/meaningful and had me bawling in the thatre today, but I still think they kinda wasted his character, or better, missed a lot of opportunities with him and didn’t handle his story arc well:
-He had little screen time/dialouge (the “No one knows me”/”But I do” bit didn’t even show up??) and barely interacted with characters other than Rey, as well as being directly talked about by the other characters. Would’ve loved a short argument between him and Hux or a heated meeting between him and Finn/Poe to see how their reactions would have changed.
-Leia didn’t mention him while talking to Rey (really missed such a part), didn’t react to his redemption because she was killed off right before, but she also didn’t even do so at all as a force ghost. It’s kinda upsetting to me that she seemed to pay attention to Rey, who is essentially a stranger taking her name, than to her own son redeeming himself and dying for his love.
- Ben’s death is what bugs me the most. I get that it was him making a selfless choice, sacrificing himself for someone he loves rather than a selfish choice against and sacrificing someone he loves like with Han and I appreciate that it was essentially him finding peace and realizing whom he loves most and what makes him happy but... idk it felt so small and unimportant in the context of the movie to me. Partly because he was so isolated from/ignored by the other characters so it only had an impact on Rey, she’s the only one who knows about it and didn’t show much emotion about it to me, especially afterwards.
To add to that I’d say that he’s just kind of... forgotten after his death? It makes me so sad that he struggles, redeems himself, realizes so much, crawls in pain to his love and saves her by giving his own life, actually smiling for the first time in the whole ST and is then never mentioned again? He’s neither mentioned by any of his family members (they are there but just help Rey instead?? Since Han was just a memory/metaphor) nor honored for his redemption and sacrifice by anyone. They could’ve just made a scene where Rey mentions him saving her to anyone, finds his lightsaber and smiles (okay that might be a bit weird but I hope y’all know what I mean), buries his helmet in the desert or makes a gravestone for him or something like that. There seems to be like... no appreciation from her side afterwards which I find so, so sad and pretty ooc for Rey. Honestly made me dislike her a bit in the end.
All this is even fueled by the fact that he just dematerializes instead of simply dying, so there is no burial like with Vader, which would’ve been a moment of intimacy and honor. She could’ve kept his clothes, but probably didn’t, even though that would’ve been sweet.
They didn’t even bother to make him appear as a force ghost goddamnit! That makes me so mad!
It was just Leia and Luke. Just... having him live on with his family in peace as a spirit after all that would’ve given out at least a little bit of hope.
But no. His redemption, sacrifice and death is just kinda glossed over like it was no big deal in the end, as if it hadn’t been such a huge theme in the ST and it’s pretty ironic that Ben got more attention and hopeful support from his family when he was evil than when he was alive and good.
To me it appears that Ben was almost punished for his redemption in a way. Even if he has done terrible things, he just shouldn’t be erased after that, especially not if the focus has always been on his inner conflict anyways.
(Ugh and don’t even get me started on the fact that he didn’t get a happy life with Rey - which they both deserved - or real revenge on Palpatine and that we never got to see his emotions towards Vader...)
I mean, maybe he did imply that it was too late for him to be saved, but I call BS since to me it was just his uncertainty speaking and a parallel to TFA. His princey unmask in TFA even implied that he was still human and that he was still able to be saved. And maybe he didn’t become a force ghost because he lives on with Rey’s soul, but heck, I WANNA SEE STUFF LIKE THAT ON SCREEEN! Not in my mind or the novels or metaphors!
(And am I the only one that feels like chunks of TFA and TLJ were ignored and the Reylo conversations were kinda a bit too... unemotional and too much focused on their parents rather than Rey and Ben? I also had the impression that Rey didn’t have much “real emotion” towards Ben in this movie? Like their love was very one-sided in the final movie?)
That being said, I really do appreciate Ben sacrificing himself for Rey, his smile, their kiss and that whole thing with him coming to peace with his father’s murder, it was beautiful and helped showing that he genuienly loved her, that he was in fact deeply regretting killing Han, and it was completely erasing his “monster”-label in my eyes, but Ben still really shouldn’t have died like that. It’s just not hopeful to me.
Furthermore, I firmly believe that they didn’t kill him off because of Han or because he couldn’t be saved, but because they had to kill off the last Skywalker to close the saga, but still...
His redemption/sacrifice/death had shockingly little impact on the other characters and story and felt very unimportant/meaningless to me. (Which is also my view on Han’s sacrifice - with Ben dying in the end, it sorta felt a lot less meanigful and - I hate to say it - like a waste. Han surely went out there because he wanted his son to live, not to die and be forgotten by everyone)
In the end, I really don’t think that JJ and his team handled the ending of Kylo’s/Ben’s story well. And I’d say that even if I wasn’t a Reylo. Ben could’ve found his peace and payed for his sins without ending like that.
#BenSoloDeservedBetter
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dalekofchaos · 3 years
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Rian Johnson did Finn dirty and we gotta stop pretending he didn’t
Every now and then I am reminded how I hate how dirty Finn was done in the Sequel Trilogy. TFA started it, but TLJ continued it. JJ started it with the bait and switch, Rian continued by making sure Finn would remain a side character, which JJ would finalize in TROS.
Like I like TLJ for the visuals and Rey and Ben’s dynamic, but let’s be clear. It absolutely did nothing for Finn, Poe or Rose. Pretty much all the characters of color were given the shaft.(and one of them didn’t even get any speaking lines, NO I WILL NEVER NOT BE MAD ABOUT THIS)
Let’s take a look at what Rian Johnson did with Finn
Finn is repeatedly harmed for comedic effect. Most of his important scenes were either cut or rewritten. He is constantly belittled and mocked throughout the movie.
The beginning of Finn in the movie. Finn awakens from his coma. Does he struggle to come to terms with his near-death experience? Is he fearful that Rey is dead and he failed her? Is he scared, in pain? Nope. He falls on his face and squirts juice everywhere. The medics on-duty were on a coffee break and allowed their patient to wander the fucking halls unattended. And with that, his duel with Kylo is worthless and made a joke to laugh at.
Finn’s deleted scenes. The deleted opening where Finn wakes up. Finn and Poe’s scene on the Raddus where Finn declares he’s not joining The Resistance, but Poe simply says “you are where you belong” and hands him his coat after stitching it up for him. Then the scene where BB-8 shows Finn Rey’s last moment with Finn. Then the deleted scene with the one Stormtrooper where Finn shows restraint. and Finally the scene that shows a better death scene for Phasma......why were any of these scenes deleted? ESPECIALLY THE PHASMA ONE! I will never understand why this was deleted. Finn calls her out about her betrayal of lowering the shields and when this information is revealed, the Stormtroopers near her look suspicious and it looks as if they are going to turn on her. Phasma like the ultimate survivalist she is kills them with no hesitation. Finn cuts her hand off and blasts her into the abyss, giving Phasma a more deserving and better send off. Seriously, this is way better than their actual confrontation.  What I really like about this scene is its direct connection to The Force Awakens plot point and that it acknowledges Phasma’s survivalist attitude which was introduced into her novel.
Finn’s injuries do not get attention, but Kylo’s injuries do. In The Force Awakens, Finn fights Kylo Ren. He does well, but is ultimately defeated.  He is slashed in the shoulder and the spine by Kylo Ren and falls into the snow, unconscious. Now if this were in the first 6 movies, Finn would be dead or would be paralyzed. But because it’s a Disney movie, Finn heals up. Rey continues the fight and slashes Ren across the face, leaving him with a gash. The characters all escape, but Finn has to be carried to a medical station, unconscious until TLJ. Kylo Ren seems fine, ultimately jumping in a TIE fighter to try and kill his mom before getting patched up further.  Finn, again, has to wake up before doing anything. Here’s the difference between Finn and Kylo’s injuries.  Finn awakens in a medical bed wearing a bacta suit.  His first instinct is to call out for Rey. As he jolts up, he slams his head against the medical container.  He slams against it again. Regaining awareness, he opens up the medical container to find himself alone in a cargo room.  He falls out of the bed, spraying medical fluids all over the place.  He trudges down the hallway until Poe and BB-8 find him. His injuries are never mentioned, shown, or even referenced again.  Kylo, on the other hand, is asked by Snoke how his wound is, to which he responds “it’s nothing.”  He then takes that ridiculous thing off, complete with a close-up of a sad kylo Ren face, with his sutures  framed to draw attention to them. This happens again in the elevator.  Then we get a scene of him getting patched up soberly by a medical droid.  Then we get a shirtless scene as a final showcase of his other two scars.  Throughout the film, Kylo’s scars are present and framed as a constant reminder that he went through pain.  Finn’s injuries are used as a joke once and promptly forgotten, and let’s not pretend that these injuries are  one-to-one aside from how they’re framed.  Remember Finn received injuries trying to protect Rey, while Kylo received injuries trying to murder Finn and bring Rey before Snoke, a fate worse than death. Finn received a deep wound across his spine, which can often be fatal in the real world.  Kylo received a gash across his face.  Finn’s injuries were worse and nobly gained. Kylo’s injuries were comparatively tame and well deserved.  Yet the movie uses Finn’s pain as a joke, and Kylo’s pain as a humanizing factor. That Rey, as well as the director, cinematographer, and a considerable portion of the audience sees a scar and is willing to find sympathy with the person, no matter what they have done, is pretty reprehensible. Not only is Kylo Ren’s scar not enough to be considerably a change to his appearance, as Rian Johnson specifically modified the location of his scar because, “it looked goofy,” the scar is not the mark of an accident or from an assault, but rather from a failed assault on his part. Also, I could get into how messed up it is that scars that don’t fit Rian Johnson’s preferred model are considered goofy. Is a scar that isn’t kept to one side of the face not worth showing? Is a person with a scar you don’t personally like somehow less able to be taken seriously? By treating Kylo’s minor wounds as a big, life-changing deal, and treating Finn’s life-threatening wounds as a trivial matter of no more consequence than a joke, The Last Jedi reinforces century-old stereotypes about Black people. Specifically, it implies that Black people are somehow less affected by pain, have higher pain tolerances, or cannot be physically damaged the way White people can. This is a demonstrated, dangerous trend, where white people actually perceive Black people as experiencing less pain than White people under the same situations. Older textbooks, including some used as recently as late 2017, suggest Black people over-report the pain that they are experiencing. Doctors have declined to give painkillers to Black patients expressing the same level of discomfort that would grant a White patients the same painkillers, and some surgeons even believe that less anesthesia is needed for operations on Black people. This, of course, goes beyond the medical field, where Black people are not believed when they speak about suffering, and are expected to take more physical abuse than their White counterparts. However as the injuries are framed in a medical setting in this movie, I wanted to primarily address the medical bias as in the real world. This has been referred to as an empathy gap. When two people are hurt, with everything except the skin colour being the same, and White people feel worse for the hurt White person, there is a gap in empathy. Now, when the conditions are not the same, and the White person deserves to be hurt, and is hurt much less, and is still empathized with more, and the White man’s acts of attempted murder are framed as romance, while the Black man’s friendship is framed as harassment. Let’s also talk about Finn’s treatment. He’s placed alone in a room filled with cargo, without any monitoring.  It’s almost like the medical staff doesn’t even deem his injury serious enough to receive attention.  He’s not on the medical ship, which we know they have.  He’s not even in the Raddus’s Medical Bay, which, again, we know they have. Finn is isolated, left unattended,  injures himself, and stumbles out into the hallway without any assistance. All for a joke.  Finn’s injury should have been treated with respect and acknowledgement. A scene with the doctors examining his injuries, telling Finn he is medically clear to join The Resistance and Finn  sorrowed by his inability to help his friends, would have been light-years better than a scene where Kylo looks sad getting hurt while trying to kill people.
Finn’s rivalry with Kylo Ren drops instantly. Like Finn’s injuries, Finn’s rivalry with Kylo Ren is dropped for no reason whatsoever and never mentioned again. Finn and Kylo Ren are narrative foils, yet after TFA it’s dropped??? From the start they have been prominent foils to each other: dark from light and light from dark, both in the First Order but in drastically different positions. And Kylo too obviously has strong feelings about his defection. I also believe that Finn is the awakening in the force that Kylo and Snoke felt. Perhaps that is why Kylo focused on Finn and is so angry about him. Finn is also the first person to use the legacy lightsaber and is the first to actually fight Kylo. TLJ could've focused on Finn and Kylo being  narrative foils having a force connection and Kylo wondering why Finn would switch to the Resistance while Finn wonders why Kylo joined The First Order and  Rey standing in the middle of it all wondering with the new realization that her family has a mixed past of good and evil and her questioning where exactly does she belong? The way at the height of tfa when Kylo Ren rejected Han Solo’s offer for redemption and killed him he looked over and noticed Finn. Like they both locked eyes and in that moment was a surge of emotions between them— shock (and some fear) on Finn’s end, and anger on Kylo’s as he shouts at Finn that he’s a traitor— and those circumstances set Finn and Kylo up to be the dynamic for the sequel trilogy. They were foils, and the trilogy had the potential to truly expand on that and see their development in a final standoff/rematch at the very end. But it was wasted, because why have good movies.
Finn repeats the character arc from the last movie. Finn’s character arc from The Force Awakens was dropped completely in The Last Jedi. He does want Rey to be safe, but TLJ paints it as if  Finn just wants to run away, despite the fact that he learned to be courageous, face his fears and stay and fight at the end of TFA.  The First Order kidnapped Finn as a child, from his family(possibly killed his family) he was able to leave The First Order and resist the indoctrination. He no longer wanted to fight, he wanted to leave everything, he wanted Rey to come with him. When Rey was captured, Finn had something to fight for and when Kylo Ren pushed her. Finn finally stood up to his past and The First Order. He overcame his fear. So Finn should have been wanting to fight The First Order and become a big deal in The Resistance, we could have even seen Finn inspiring a Stormtrooper rebellion  against Phasma and The First Order. Finn just wanting to leave is just bad writing and backtracks his entire character arc from TFA.
Went from one of the major focuses of this trilogy to a side character. Finn is the very reason why The Resistance is alive. Finn breaks his life-long brainwashing, informs Rey and Han about the importance of BB-8 and helps out in getting BB-8 to the resistance and provides vital information that lead to the destruction of STB and gets nearly killed while helping to achieve this. If it were not for Finn saving Poe, BB-8 would’ve been scrapped for parts and Rey never would’ve left Jakku. The map would either be destroyed or be in the hands of The First Order. Starkiller Base would’ve destroyed D’Qar and Ach-To. He is the reason why Poe is still alive. He is the reason why BB-8 isn’t parts and Rey left Jakku. Because of leaving Jakku, this is the sole reason why Han and Chewie were able to find the Falcon. And he is the reason why The Resistance was able to find out about Starkiller Base’s weakness. he Helps out in sabotaging STB so that Poe, the very pilot he saved in the beginning can deliver the finishing blow to Starkiller Base and destroy it completely. In the Last Jedi, Finn awakes from a coma with no one attending him. No medics or guards. He's not even on a medship, he's in the fucking cargo hold. Finn recovering from his injuries is meant to be seen as a joke and his injuries are never mentioned again, while Kylo gets sympathy and shown his scars. There was also no marketing for Finn in the build up to TLJ. Despite Finn knowing that the First Order must be fought and knows there is something bigger than himself and Rey, we then see Finn attempting to flee in an escape pod to hide with Rey. Then he meets Rose. Rose in mourning meets Finn and expects him to be this big Resistance hero, only Finn never officially became one. Rose thought he was deserting. Finn wants to escape to save Rey and because The Supremacy is tracking them through hyperspace, but Rose sees this as desertion….Desertion? You taze people for desertion? How exactly am I supposed to root for either side again? This is probably the same only less lethal treatment one could expect from The First Order. And what if The Raddus took critical damage? Are you trying to tell me Rose would taze anyone going to the escape pods? I thought she was supposed to be a mechanic, not someone who prevents escape. Despite Finn explaining himself, she tazes him. She spends the majority of the movie berating, insulting and belittling him. It's even worse in the novel. Finn, who was the main focus of the last movie, and one of the main protagonists, is now made the sidekick to Rose in a pointless side plot. Finn and Rose then get caught because none of them could bother park their ship legally. Finn, the child slave doesn’t even get to say they should save the child slaves of Canto Bight, instead he blindly follows Rose into freeing the space horses. Then they openly trusts a man who talks like a snake and is shocked when DJ betrays them. Finn and Rose are made to fail their mission pointlessly, when they could've succeeded and get caught on the way to the escape pods. Finn gets to face his oppressor and fight Phasma and end her, but Phasma's better death scene was stupidly cut for reasons I don't understand. Finn then makes one last effort to save The Resistance, the people he loves. Rose stops him. She takes one last chance to insult him and kiss him without his consent as the bunker is destroyed while The First Order prepares to kill what Finn loves....and people see this as love???
The racist undertones of how RIan Johnson wrote Finn. Finn is treated like a racist slapstick caricature. The first real problem for Finn. He is reduced to a slapstick joke in his very first scene. Finn awakens from his coma, slams his face and it is revealed that he isn’t even on the medical ship or even in the medbay on the Raddus...he is in the cargo hold and is made to be a joke. This is the Co-protagonist of the trilogy, and he’s reintroduced as a slapstick joke. Then once again he wants to runaway. I am getting a real racist vibe that Rian Johnson sees Finn as the cowardly black man troupe. That’s just downright disgusting. Moving on. Finn is paired with Rose Tico, honestly I want to like her, but bad writing prevents that. Finn is put with someone who abuses him and we are supposed to root for this and see it as romance? Let me explain. Finn is then tazed by Rose, which is understandable, she thought he was running away and she was in mourning. He also was objectively posing absolutely no threat to her, wasn’t running away, and was even trying to explain himself. Additionally, just the threat of the taser seemed to have been enough to stop him from leaving. But Rose attacked him anyways. The difference between Rey and Rose attacking Finn is Rey subdued Finn just enough to stop and interrogate him, Rose went completely overboard by paralyzing him and knocking him unconscious. It was completely unnecessary and gratuitous. Rey and Finn have a real friendship and partnership from the last movie. Rose, on the other hand, spends the rest of the movie belittling Finn and talking down to him. The book also says that she thought about using violence against him more than once after the tasing (for annoying her) and even pushed him. This displays a really problematic pattern of violence and disrespect towards Finn so yeah,  multiple uses of violence and expressed desire to inflict violence on him as being abusive. I would argue that she is undeniably verbally abusive with Finn. In the movie and in the book (more so in the book) she often belittles him by calling him names and using other put downs. It seems she wants to make him feel bad about himself and bring him down, which is abusive. Of course, it doesn’t really matter what her intent is, even if she doesn’t “mean to be mean” it still counts as verbal abuse. So, in summary, her repeated threats and use of violence against Finn and her continual use of insults and put downs causes me to come to the conclusion that she is abusive to Finn. For the record I am not saying Rose Tico is abusive towards Finn, I am saying how Rian wrote Rose towards Finn is hostile for no reason whatsoever and could be interpreted as abusive and it’s downright tone deaf how the abuse and tazing is directed at the black man of the trilogy. Then Finn is made to fail. The only time he is allowed to be portrayed as a protagonist is him facing his abuser and taking her down. My only problem is they cut out Phasma’s better death scene. Finn reveals Phasma shut down the shields for Starkiller Base, and that gets the Stormtroopers to turn on Phasma. This is what I would hope starts a Stormtrooper Rebellion. Finn’s defection was withheld information by Hux and Phasma in fear of a full on rebellion. Humanizing Stormtroopers and having one become a hero is kind of genius, but the way they did it in Episode 7 made it seem like Finn was the ONLY good Stormtrooper, which has to be an impossibility. If one Stormtrooper can suddenly switch sides, what's to say that others couldn't? And since Episode IX will most likely see the fall of the First Order, I personally think that Finn should convince all (or most of) the Stormtroopers to turn against Kylo and Hux, leading to a cool final scene where the First Order is ultimately destroyed by their own henchmen, children who were abducted and indoctrinated take back their narrative. That would be cooler and more unique, I think, than another Resistance vs. First Order space shootout, or Rey and her possible Jedi apprentice army taking them down. The most insulting part of the movie is the last part. Finn’s suicide run. Finn was the best Stormtrooper and knows about The First Order’s weapons, he should know full well that speeder would be destroyed trying to destroy the mini death star. Finn’s attempted sacrifice was pointless, Finn was treated like garbage throughout the movie, he deserved better.
Finn was almost a big deal for the Resistance in the beginning. It is shown through cut material that Finn was in Cobalt Squadron uniform. If this was the case, there is something real simple they could’ve done. Have Finn be with Paige, have Paige and Finn have a short friendship(this actually gives Ngo Thanh Van speaking lines), Paige being in awe that Finn, someone who escaped The First Order helped The Resistance destroy Starkiller Base is working with him and she is more than happy to show him the ropes. They are co-pilots.  Finn was able to save Paige from dying in space and instead she dies in his arms while leaving a bloody handprint on his heart, working as a callback to when Slip died in Finn’s arms and left a bloody handprint on his helmet and her last words being “tell my sister I love her. Finn brings the bad news to Rose and gives Rose Paige’s pendant. Rose breaks down and hugs Finn. Both Finn and Rose have a good relationship at this point and there is no pointless hostility. You could even have Finn and Rose together finding the hacker and having their plan succeed and just having DJ betray them as they make it to the escape pod. And Finn and Phasma do have their fight, but keep in the deleted Phasma death scene. Instead of that? Nothing and instead of that we get a conflicting and hostile relationship between Finn and Rose and Paige has no speaking lines.
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Rian Johnson rejected any and every possible character arc for Finn. Rian squandered a proactive, clearly-defined character from TFA, trying to make him fit moment after moment because he had no real big-picture idea what to do with this guy. And in light of Rian presenting himself as a progressive voice, he deserves to be challenged on why he failed a complex, heroic black character so abysmally while giving clear focus and dignity to the white male villain of the piece. (And this isn’t to say I want Kylo Ren’s character development to be worse, it’s saying I want Finn’s to be better.) But he shouldn’t just have treated Finn with care and dignity because it would’ve been more “progressive” - he should’ve done it because it would’ve made a better MOVIE.
Finn is brought to a white man, put on his knees, and is slapped in the face by said white man who once commanded him. Why? No Answers
Rian Johnson had Finn and Rose arrested and locked in a prison cell. Him and Rose are the only characters to be arrested (as in, not kidnapped by evil regime) in the Skywalker saga. PLUS they were immediately electrocuted after being pointed out to the space cops.
Rian admitted not wanting Finn and Poe together because he can't see them as two separate characters(he can't see two men of color as two different characters, let that sink in) and because in his words they "got along too well" and Rose is only there to give Finn 'conflict" We were robbed of Finn and Poe being boyfriends. I love Rose Tico as a character, but I will always want Finn and Poe to be together, aside from the amazing chemistry Finn and Poe have together and John and Oscar have together, if we get to see a gay relationship portrayed in Star Wars, it will show boys and girls who are gay that nothing is wrong with you, you are perfect the way they are and the way they love is beautiful. Oscar Isaac fought to have Finn/Poe together, he encouraged the shippers that the relationship they want is valid and supports it. And I feel so bitter after finding out Finn and Poe were meant to have scenes together in Canto Bight but were separated because Rian Johnson said “those two were getting along too well and that would be boring”  aka Disney doesn’t want gay characters in their cash cow. Despite Oscar’s fight, FInnpoe did not happen and it’s a damn shame. 
Rian Johnson joked about keeping Finn in a coma
Rian had a scene written where Finn was too bumbling/confused to know how to put on a tuxedo. He also had a scene where he sees alien ass unconsensually. 
Finn’s suicide run. Finn knows about the weapon during his time as a Stormtrooper, so he should know full well that speeder would be destroyed trying to destroy the mini death star. Finn’s attempted sacrifice was pointless as he knew that it wouldn’t work.
Rian has Rose explain to Finn, A CHILD SOLDIER, that war and child slavery are wrong.  Surely you see the issue there.
Finn almost had memories of his upbringing, but Rian chose to cut it. "In the original scene, Rose’s story of her childhood was a bit tamer and Finn shared his backstory with her, revealing a further connection between the two characters – that they both had family members taken by the First Order. Most of the sequence was reshot."
Rose stopping Finn. “that’s how we win, not by fighting what we hate, by saving what we love.” That makes no sense and ignores the entire narrative of Star Wars and heroism of the saga. Paige, her sister sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. Holdo sacrificed herself to save The Resistance. The Rogue One crew sacrificed themselves. Kanan Jarrus sacrificed himself to save what he loved. Finn’s entire arc in the movie was learning not to just think about running away with Rey and fight for a greater cause and when the time comes for Finn to prove that he’s grown as a character, he can’t? What was the point of Finn’s arc in the movie? And let’s talk about Poe. Shouldn’t Poe be sacrificing himself? Poe has spent the entire film watching others die and give their lives and he’s never backed down, so shouldn’t Poe be in Finn’s place? And if Rose stopped Finn who would save The Resistance? We saw after Rose stopped Finn, the bunker was blown up by the battering ram. Absolutely NO ONE knew that Luke was going to make his surprise entrance and save everyone. For all we knew, The First Order would’ve moved into the bunker and killed everyone and The Resistance.
I am well aware that JJ Abrams did Finn no better, I even talked about it here. But let’s be honest, Rian didn’t know what to do with Finn and truly did him dirty. 
This was really the easiest character arc for them to write. Indoctrinated Child Soldier turned Elite Soldier who after realizing what he was doing was wrong, wants to make things right, hunted by the FO for treason and because he knows too much, he slowly finds his path with the resistance and trains in the force with Rey and together they rise as the new Jedi, oh and Poe is his boyfriend.
It is my own personal headcanon that The force chooses Finn because he chose empathy for his fallen brother and chose to walk away from killing innocents.
Finn had potential to be one of the best characters we ever got in Star Wars. It’s been over 3 years since he was sidelined in the sequel trilogy and it still upsets me to this day. John really deserved better, to be marketed like this and then sidelined is just awful.
Finn in The Force Awakens: trooper number as call back to Leia, Awakening in the Force, & call to the hero’s journey/defending the symbolic hope of the Skywalker family is peak Star Wars & whatever was Abram’s original intent for Finn’s prominence in the ST; undone by studio interference because KK and China did not want a black lead.
Finn was the literal 1st face we saw when they teased The Force Awakens, it's clear he was supposed to lead the way for the future of Star Wars, criminal what they did to the character and god forbid a person of color saves the galaxy because some of ya’ll can't handle it
Finn was setup as the male lead and co-protagonist of the sequel trilogy. That’s not an opinion, that’s not a headcanon, that’s a literally fact. He was set up to be equal with Rey & Kylo’s foil and we all know why that changed.
At the start of the trilogy, we all thought people of color would have a prominent role in the new trilogy and there was a potential for the first LGBT relationship in Star Wars. But no, it’s clear that both TLJ and TROS gave us the impression that only white people can be Jedi and save the galaxy, people of color can only have secondary roles. And the blink and you miss it kiss? Only white women, not two men of color who clearly love each other.
Finn deserved to be a main character alongside Rey and Ben. He deserved a good character development, a great arc, an interesting backstory. he had the potential to become one of the most epic star wars characters. TLJ and TROS was an insult for him and he deserved better. nobody will EVER change my mind.
Finn should have been a Stormtrooper turned Jedi.  It doesn’t matter that you think it tells a better story for him to not be a Jedi. “Finn being a hero who is not a Jedi is important.” Poe and Rose are great examples of ordinary heroes coming from nowhere. Rey was supposed to be a jedi related to Skywalker or Kenobi legacy while Finn was the perfect "nobody from nowhere" that becomes a Jedi. And honestly, Black kids deserved to see themselves in the Black Jedi and black kids deserved to see themselves as one of the three protagonists of the trilogy.
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brotherskywalker · 3 years
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Clickable version of the link here.
I assume this is another Reylo trying to... Idk, convince me the pairing is good or healthy or that the ST was a good trilogy? This time you have actually linked to someone who can critically think and who writes well. What you fail to realize is that this person basically agrees completely with me? The ST as written does a shitty job of hooking up Ben and Rey. Could they have been a romantic pairing and an interesting couple? Sure. So could Rey and Finn, or Rey and Poe or Rey and Rose, etc. Almost any pairing can work if care is taken with how it's written... but it wasn't. People who ship Reylo are shipping a completely made up fanon version of Ben Solo... and often a very OOC version of Rey. And maybe those versions are better versions of the canon characters (I can't say because I don't have any interest in Reylo whatsoever), but they are not realistic representations of the canon characters.
I'm sure there exists a writer out there who has actually put in the work necessary to redeem Ben Solo and perhaps written a compelling and believable love story for him and Rey. With a talented enough writer you could write a beautiful JarJar/Padmé story. That doesn't make it canon and it doesn't make it good. Whatever we got of Reylo in canon was garbage. That we got the glorification of a school shooter whiteboy space!Nazi over the noble Stormtrooper-turned-freedom fighter just makes it stink all that much worse. Reylos ship what they wanted to see, not what actually happens. All this author is writing is the same fact--Reylo could be good if the ST had actually written a proper redemption arc for Ben/a proper love story for Ben and Rey.
BUT IT DIDN'T.
Ben's redemption is awful and illogical and doesn't make sense, and their "love story" has even less basis and is even more illogical. And also is at the expense of other characters and characterizations that were pre-established.
I don't know why you keep sending me crap to try to convince me of this pairing. I assume it's because you want to justify the fact that you think whiny bitchy white supremacist bad boy Kylo Ren is hot and you think that noble, strong and morally right Finn isn't, and you don't want to examine what that means for your racist ass.
I don't care if people ship Reylo. I just care that people recognize it as badly written and illogical at best and supremely unhealthy and abusive as written in canon. Kylo had to die to make any sort of realistic redemption for him because he had committed so many atrocious and horrendous crimes. The only other option is for him to be in jail for the rest of his life. He got redeemed which is better than he deserved. He doesn't get to do all those horrible things and then walk off scottfree with Rey as his virginal trophy prize. To be redeemed he has to be punished. That's the whole fucking point. You want a "living redemption " because you ship Reylo and want to read about them fucking and having babies... but it isn't my fault that that doesn't happen in canon or that I saw the same canon and we both came out with the same opinion: this fucking sucked.
Would it be better if Ben didn't die and was redeemed and got to live and carry on the Skywalker legacy? Sure! But that isn't what canon wrote. Canon wrote an unsympathetic whiny, bitchy Dark Side fanboy who canonically went out of his way to choose Darkness again and again and again. He doubles down on this choice of Darkness even more in TLJ. He is unrepentantly Evil. They wrote themselves into a corner and then had to write a shitty ending to get out of their shitty storytelling. You wanted a different story than was told and so you made up a characterization for "Ben Solo" you thought was handsome and romantic and redeemable, but that character doesn't exist. He is a fan creation invented by you/Reylos. Kylo Ren is an evil space Nazi who died a far better death than he deserved, and it breaks my heart that the Skywalker lineage dies with him, but it was the only morally acceptable ending for such a corrupt, evil character.
We both hate the ST and what it did with the characters it gave us, I just accept that the blame lies with the writers while you keep insisting your fanon interpretation of Ben Solo is somehow canon.
Get a life.
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readbythestarlight · 3 years
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Poe Dameron & Reyes Vidal for the character ask c:
Slsjshsjsdjskdaldkhskdjsj these are GOOD get ready for an essay.
Poe Dameron
How I feel about this character
I have a lot of favorite Star Wars boys okay but Poe. Is. The love of my life and yes I say that about a lot of characters but listen it’s fine. I love him. And no it makes no sense because he barely actually got to shine the way he deserved in any of the films, but Oscar just brought him to life so well for me. I love this passionate flyboy who cares so much about people and about the resistance, and yeah sometimes he’s reckless and hotheaded but it comes from having this heart that just burns so hot okay. And I love him for that.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Finn! It’s a total shock I know. Shipped them literally from The Jacket scene and never looked back. It’s a little bit love at first sight and a little bit slow burn pining and a lot of “our views of things conflict and I don’t always understand yours but I understand you so we make it work”. And yeah 75% of that comes from fanfic because the movies gave us actual scraps but Oscar and John both tried.
I’ve also dabbled in timeline mix up AUs for PoeDin, but that’s more just a fun “what if” thing. I’m pretty much FinnPoe all the way.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
Poe and Leia. I love the mentor/mentee thing, her seeing all his spark and fire and knowing that if she can just help him temper it and shape it that he can be a leader the Resistance needs. And I love him looking up to her first as this hero of the stories his parents would tell, but eventually seeing that she’s just a human too, one who’s been through a lot, and wanting to take some of the responsibility off of her shoulders.
Also Poe and BB-8 because I love how he loves his little buddy. 🤍🧡🤍
My unpopular opinion about this character
I don’t really care for the fandom portrayal of him as a promiscuous flyboy who’s slept with every eligible (and sometimes non-eligible) person on base and who has a girl/boy/etc in every port. I’m fine with sexually promiscuous characters, but people tend to reduce him to that a lot of the time. Being open and friendly charming doesn’t always have to equal “you should see all the notches in my bedpost”.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
I mean. *waves hands at the disaster that was the sequel trilogy* What DON’T I wish had happened? I wish we’d really been able to watch him grow under Leia’s tutelage. I wish we hadn’t had to watch his be put down by practically everyone in TLJ. I wish we’d gotten the backstory the comics gave us instead of the stupid Han Solo 2.0 “I was a spice runner” nonsense. I wish we’d gotten to see the impact the weight of carrying everything in the end obviously had on him, the loss of Leia, the weight of the Resistance on his shoulders.
What it all comes down to though is that I just. I really love Poe, you guys.
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Reyes Vidal
How I feel about this character
Bastard man. Bastard. Shifty, shady, charming as fuck. I adore him. He’s almost the only character from MEA I can really say I remember and I love him. Came 300 years from home to find all the opportunities they’d been promised were suddenly not going to happen, ends up saying “fuck it” and leaving with a group who decide they’re better off trying than just waiting around. Decides to use his shifty skills to become a crime lord. His best choice? Maybe not. But I believe him when he said he came to Andromeda because he wanted to be somebody, and if that somebody had to be King of Kadara because Kadara and all it’s shifty people were all he had, then so be it.
I mean, he could have made better choices, but I like a morally grey character who isn’t bad so much as their definitions of right and wrong and what goes too far are just a little different from everybody else’s.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Just my boy Zach. A good boy who enjoys a little mischief but usually strives to do the right thing and to be honest, plus a smuggler/crime lord who loves mischief and is mostly indifferent to the right vs wrong thing, who lies about everything but who once he gets close to Zach starts to wish maybe he really was the good guy Zach believes is? Yes please.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
Reyes/a fine bottle of treasure whiskey
My unpopular opinion about this character
Honestly I don’t think anyone cares enough about him that any opinion is unpopular anymore buuuuut...
I think, looking back, I didn’t hate High Noon as an outcome (i.e. him cheating in the duel and shooting Sloane) the way everyone else did. Yes Sloane was a woman, but she was also very definitely Not A Good Person anymore than Reyes was so like, why her being a woman mattered was and still is beyond me. And yeah, bringing a sniper to a duel was Bad Form, but again, morally grey character who’s lines of right and wrong are skewed.
Or maybe I’m just a dirty Reyes apologist, idk.
What I hated about High Noon was the way 1) my Ryder’s only choice was to be complicit or else get Reyes shot/end the relationship, and 2) the way my Ryder’s only reaction choices were to either be totally fine with it or else end the relationship. Like come on, Bioware, where’s my chance to let Zach and Reyes work through this?
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
Combining this with above a bit to say a better ending to High Noon with a chance for Ryder and Reyes to work through things. Like, I’d even have taken an “it’s complicated” ending in MEA with the chance of knowing that in a future game the chance to fix things would be there. Not that we’re ever getting an MEA2, but the option would have been nice.
In conclusion,
Reyes: I have done many bad things in my life. As in, daily.
Me: I know this and I love you
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