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summahsunlight · 4 years

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Perhaps It’s Fate, Part 15

Rating: T

Word Count: 2118

Pairing: Poe x Mechanic!Reader

Summary: After joining the Resistance as a mechanic, you were happy to keep to yourself, until a little orange and white bb unit and his master wander into your workshop one day.

Taglist: @ms-dont-care, @starless-eyes-remain, @elmoakepoke, @marvelobsessiononastick, @kiaralein, @softly-sad, @totelpoedameron, @ordinarymom1, @sevvysaurus, @spider-starry, @liadamerondjarin, @jingyuhearteu

Taglist is still open! Please let me know if you want to be added! We’ve almost reached the end of The Force Awakens. I’m not sure if this series will exactly follow canon for The Last Jedi. As always, likes, comments, and reblog are appreciated. I love to hear your thoughts, so please don’t be shy❤️

“I have something that belongs to you.”

Poe looked up at Finn. The briefing on the enemy station was about to start, In his hand, Finn was holding a holo. Poe was confused as to why the former stormtrooper had something that belonged to him, until Finn pressed the button and your picture flickered to life.

Finn gazed at your picture for a moment; at the sweet, but sad smile on your face. “It was in the pocket of your jacket. I found it after I thought you’d died in the crash and I wanted... well... I was hoping that eventually I’d be able to return it to the girl in the holo.”

He took the holo from Finn, looking at you for a long moment before shutting it down and once again putting it in the pocket of his flight suit. “She thought you recognized her. But she thought you were there the night her parents died, not that you found her picture in my jacket.”

“Why did she think I was there the night her parents died?” Finn asked, although he was pretty sure he knew the answer to question already.

“They were murdered--by the First Order,” Poe replied. “She fled the planet afterwards and joined the Resistance.”

“No wonder she doesn’t like me.”

“She doesn’t hate you, buddy. Give her time--she’s shy.”

Finn nodded but he’d already decided that he wasn’t going to stick around for long--you had been right about one thing--if the First Order caught up to him they would kill him. He planned on finding Rey and escaping to the far reaches of the galaxies.

Poe pat him on the shoulder as the rest of the members of the Resistance strolled into the room, squeezing in around the command console. He noticed that you ducked into the room, your smaller frame being an advantage as you were able to slide through the crowd relatively unnoticeable. Poe had always noticed you--even when you first arrived on D’Qar and thought you were being invisible.

Your eyes caught his across the room; you didn’t need to hear Snap’s report to know that the news he brought back to the base wasn’t good; just by the way Poe looked at you, sadly, apologetically--you knew--the Resistance was in trouble.

Snap delivered his report precisely and when Poe projected the image of Starkiller Base--showing just how massive it was--you gasped along with the rest of the crowd. Despite Han Solo’s attempts at humor to calm the room, instantly your heart slammed against your chest knowing that Poe and the rest of the fighter squadrons were going to attempt to destroy that weapon.

It was a suicide mission.

Poe wanted to jump over the table and gather you into his arms as the fear flashed through your eyes--but he couldn’t. People were looking towards him and the others to come up with a plan on how to destroy the weapon. Han was going to get the shields down, Finn was going to help him, and Poe was going to lead the squadrons on an attack to destroy the weapon’s oscillator. His eyes were firmly on you when Leia informed them that the First Order was charging the weapon--and their system was the next target.

Your eyes flashed with terror, your skin went pale and Poe knew he was going to do anything to protect you from those monsters. He was going to destroy that weapon. As the briefing broke up and the various members of the Resistance rushed to their posts, Poe shoved his way through the crowd to get to you first. Quietly, he led you away from all the hustle and bustle to a quiet little alcove where he could pull you into his arms, comfortingly.

“I’m scared,” you whimpered into his chest.

“I know, sweetheart,” he said, rubbing your back.

“What if we fail?”

“Failure isn't an option.”

Resting your head against his chest, you closed your eyes and wished you could stay like this forever. Already, though, someone was calling for him. They didn’t have a lot of time. You felt his lips press a kiss on the top of your head and then he was setting you away from him, his warm brown eyes looking at your reassuringly. Softly he kissed you, then pressed his forehead against yours. “Please come back.”

Poe took a deep breath, running his thumbs along your forearms. “I promise you, sweetheart, I’ll come back--as long as you’re here waiting--I’ll always come back.”

You swallowed your tears as he let go of you, and with one last longing look passed between you, you watched as Poe headed for his fighter; BB-8 loyally rolled behind him. You felt a little better knowing that Poe’s loyal, trusty droid was going to be flying on this mission with him. You were still staring after him when Leia returned to the command center. She softly wrapped her arm around your waist and led you towards her station.

“Why don’t you keep me company, Y/N?” she said, with a smile.

“Yes ma’am,” you replied, softly.

Leia tightened her arm around your waist, giving it a gentle squeeze. She knew how difficult this was for you--she recalled feeling the same way whenever Han or Luke flew off on a mission without her. She knew that her situation and yours were different but they were also vastly similar. Poe was all you really had, besides the few friends you had made since joining the Resistance--Han and Luke had been all Leia had in the early days of the Rebellion. She had lost her homeworld--you had nothing worth returning too on yours.

You appreciated her comfort, the motherly touch she held with not only you but many of the other members of the Resistance. For someone that had lost their mother, you weren’t sure you knew why she was being incredibly kind to you or why Leia paid any attention to you a shy mechanic like you. But, what you didn’t know was that she knew how important you were to Poe--and since Poe was important to her, by default so were you.

Time seemed to stand still while everyone in that room waited around for Han, Finn, and Chewie to get the shields down. Poe’s squadrons didn’t stand a chance against the First Order if this step wasn't accomplished.

“General, the shields are down.”

“Han did it; send them in.”

“Give Poe full authorization to attack.”

“Black Leader, go to sub-lights on your call.”

“Copy that base; all squadrons, follow my lead.”

Hearing Poe’s voice over the comms made you slam your eyes shut. Leia’s hand rubbed soothing circles on your back. You did your best to control your breathing as you listened in on the comms, as the pilots struggled to destroy the weapon. You tried not to focus on the time running out for the Resistance, you tried not to think about what Poe and the others would go through if the base was destroyed and they managed to survive...

...suddenly Leia let go of you and slumped in the chair next to you. Opening your eyes you saw the horrified look in her eyes. You weren’t sure what was wrong, but you reached for her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She looked at you, gratefully, and then was getting back to her feet. There was still a battle to win.

“Black Leader, there’s brand new hole in that oscillator.”

“I see it. Red 4, Red 6--cover me. Everyone else, hit that target hard! Give everything you’ve got!”

Breathlessly you said his name, wishing that he could hear you. He’s going to come back, he’s going to come back, you chanted over and over again in your head to calm you rapidly fraying nerves. You had trouble focusing on voices in the command center now, sometimes you heard the Admirals or Leia or Threepio saying things--other times you picked up a few words from Poe--like when he was yelling at his squadrons that he needed some help.

You just kept repeating your mantra--he’s going to come back, he’s going to come back, he’s going to come back.

Leia’s hand rested in the small of your back as Poe’s voice declared, “All teams, I’m going in. Pull up and cover me.”

No! You wanted to scream, Poe don’t do this alone! Leia’s hand reached around you, drawing you closer to her petite frame. Tears were clearly in your eyes now as your worst fear was being realized--Poe was going to go up against the First Order alone.

“Copy that Black Leader; good Luck Poe!”

NO! NO! You have to go with him! Don’t leave him alone! You could feel the panic attack coming on even before your breath was sucked from your lungs. How could the other squadrons let Poe do this alone? How could they just sit back and watch as the First Order destroyed him? It was like being back on your home planet all over again--watching your parents die while you helplessly stood by.

“Y/N?”

Attempting to take a breath, you just let out a panicked squeak instead. You heard Leia tell the others to give you some space and then she was sitting you down in her chair, taking your hands in her own and instructing you to take a deep breath. Instantly you began to calm. Maybe she was using the Force on you, or she was just that good a calming people--either way, the room came into focus and your breathing evened out.

Leia smiled at you, gently. “Y/N, it’s okay. He’s okay.”

You blinked your tears away.

She wiped the ones that remained. “He’s on his way back to base now; the weapon was destroyed. It’s okay now.”

Swallowing the bile in your throat, you numbly nodded your head. Leia helped you to your feet and together you proceeded up to the tarmac. Crowds of people were cheering and celebrating but you couldn’t find Poe amongst those crowds.

BB-8 found you; excitedly rushing at you and eagerly telling you about their victorious run against the oscillator. You dropped down to your knees and hugged the droid, resting your forehead against his domed head. BB-8 didn’t move, it was as if he didn’t mind hugs. When you pulled back, the little droid warbled that he knew where Poe had gone and he would take you to him.

Wiping your tears away, you followed BB-8 through the celebrations to where Poe was standing--at the end of the ramp of the Falcon. Chewie was carrying a lifeless human in his arms and you realized as the human was laid on a medical capsule that it was Finn. A young girl followed behind Chewie but stopped at the end of the ramp when the medical capsule was driven off to the med bay.

Poe followed it for a bit, glancing back at the girl once, and then he saw you. He beamed, running for you and picking you up into his arms. You were startled at first while he twirled you around, and then he set you down on your feet, pressing his lips to yours in a hungry kiss. “We did, sweetheart,” he said, excitedly. “We destroyed that weapon. They won’t be hurting anyone with that base anymore.”

It wasn’t over; both of you knew that, however destroying Starkiller Base was a huge victory for the Resistance. You wrapped your arms around his neck and drew him in for another kiss. “Don’t scare me like that again, please.”

“Baby, I told you I was going to come back.”

“But you went in to take that oscillator out all by yourself.”

“Nah. Snap and Jess were there, and Karé--I was covered.”

You gripped the front of his flight suit, mesmerized by his brown eyes gazing at you with so much love. “Is Finn going to be alright?”

Poe sighed and broke eye contact with you only briefly to look in the direction that Finn had been taken. “Not sure; I was told his back was sliced by a lightsaber... but he’s made it this far...I’m not counting him out just yet. He might have a nasty scar...”

Sliced by a lightsaber--that meant only one thing--Finn had come face to face with Kylo Ren. The same man that had tortured Poe to get the whereabouts of the map. It made your skin crawl.

Sensing your unease, Poe pulled you closer and pressed his lips to your forehead. “Let’s go find a quieter spot to celebrate, shall we?”

#my writing #poe dameron #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron imagine #poe x reader #poe x you #perhaps it's fate

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solitarylurker · 4 years

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a critical reflection on the failings of star wars: the rise of skywalker

(Rey's failure on a basic character level)

there are so many dimensions in which Rey's character utterly fails in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but perhaps the most disheartening of the dimensions is the basic character level, the lowest of all levels

before i begin, please understand that Rey is my second favorite character in the trilogy and i have been deeply invested in watching her grow and achieve her full potential; it's with a heavy heart that i find myself writing this series of critiques on how her character fails on all levels of analysis

the character of Rey that JJ Abrams established in The Force Awakens and which Rian Johnson develops in The Last Jedi is clear and well-crafted, at least in my humble opinion

her character basics are as follows:

she's a secretive person, used to keeping to herself

she doesn't trust people easily, even when she likes them

she's an information hoarder and unlikely to share anything unnecessary

she's loyal, sometimes without doing her homework

she's deeply lonely and longing for connection

she's carrying repressed anger and trauma that surfaces when she's frustrated, afraid, or under stress

she's kind when she feels safe

she can be judgmental and has a black and white worldview

she is a stoic who puts on a brave face and smiles despite her pain

many of these characteristics are likely due (quite logically) to her upbringing--abandoned on a desert world, abused and exploited by Unkar Plutt, she likely grew up unable to depend on anyone and has trouble forming genuine attachments, even when she wants to be attached

these characteristics should naturally have led to her having trouble integrating with her fellow resistance compatriots in TROS

in TLJ she was mostly isolated and could idealize Finn and the rest of the resistance, but in TROS she's been with these people for a year; she should be struggling to connect, and struggling to handle them, having many conflicts arise despite her best attempts

this is where her character should have begun in TROS, a natural outgrowth of TFA and TLJ

instead, we get a young woman who is perfectly well-adjusted and a gigantic gabby gus, a complete 180 from where she was in the previous two films (someone who kept to herself, even among friends)

rather than having her intimate moments with Kylo via forcebond (as was set up both in TFA and TLF), she blabbers to Finn about her concerns about her heritage and her relationship with Kylo

this might be an example of character growth for her if we'd seen some of this in TLJ, but as we did not, this is clearly a retconning of her character, making her more of a talker and less of a stoic who puts on a brave face despite how she feels inside

this also takes away the poignancy her relationship with Kylo brings to the table, because if she's nattering on to anyone who will listen and everyone and their mother understands her, then she doesn't need her relationship with Kylo and what was established as special in TLJ no longer remains significant

worse than her sudden transformation into a blabbermouth is the lack of stakes for her character--supposedly she's descending into the dark side, yet she doesn't seem to feel any legitimate pull to it

we don't see her longing to be on the throne with Kylo, regretting her decision to reject him, wondering if things wouldn't be easier on the dark side, wondering if her place really is on the light side--instead we just see her continuing to reject herself and her own feelings and pretending she's some saintly jedi who just needs to know her mommy and daddy love her to be perfect

she doesn't even seem to be genuinely striving toward anything other than beating her ex-boyfriend up; Kylo is the one who brings the Palpatine information to her, and the one seeking out her past--Rey is perfectly content to be passive and reject the information he brings her out of hand

she doesn't even seem to be pursuing anything other than connecting with the jedi, which is fine, but we're not given a reason why she suddenly wants to connect with the jedi; what is she hoping to learn or gain from them?

all of this of course makes her final scene with the Emperor fall utterly flat--we've never once seen her be legitimately tempted to take the dark throne for herself (perhaps if her fantasy of Dark Rey showed her in Kylo's arms, and then we had a shot of Rey reaching for it and stopping herself in horror, we would feel the desire Rey has for the throne or at the very least the man on the throne); instead, what Palpatine offers Rey is obviously of no temptation for her because she's never been shown to want a throne or power of any kind

honestly Palpatine should have offered her Kylo instead--that if she'd kill him, she could take Kylo for herself; that would probably have upped the stakes, yet that would imply Rey has "impure" desires and heaven forbid Abrams allow that for her--she must remain forever trapped in pure light of virginal sanctity

worse than Rey being stuck in sanctimonious goodness and having no stake in the story is that there also are literally no consequences for when she "strays" off the path

she thinks she killed Chewie with force lightning? oh look, Finn's there to comfort her and no one rejects her

she mind tricks two storm troopers? oh look, it's passed off as funny rather than actually addressed as a serious concern for her compatriots

she stabs Kylo as his mother dies? oh look, not only does she quickly heal Kylo, but he changes to Ben for her despite having literally no reason to or nothing changing between them that hasn't already been established previously in TLJ; if it wasn't enough for him to change then, it shouldn't be enough now (even better, Luke comes to chat with her rather than Kylo in order to make her feel better about herself!)

Kylo returns to her and their bond is used to kill him? oh, no worries, the jedi are there to rescue her and who cares about Kylo, the man who came to save her!

she loses the man she supposedly loves, who sacrifices his very life for her? oh no worries, she can replace him with another guy and take his name on top of it! who needs mourning, right?

there are literally no consequences for any of her failures in the story, and she never learns from them (unlike poor Luke)

her arc honestly seems more of a villain's arc than a heroine's in TROS, and that's an utter shame; she's allowed to get away with just about anything and not be condemned by anyone or called out for her failings, meanwhile she continues to put up her pretense of righteousness

the fact that Abrams created such a tone-deaf variant of his own character is utterly flabbergasting to me, and rather than being angered by it, i just feel deeply sad for Rey's lost potential and the narrative arc we could have had with her had a better storyteller been in charge of her ending

[3/9]

#tros critical reflection #reylo criticism #rey criticism #sw criticism #tros spoilers #sw spoilers #sw tros

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themostrandomfandom · 5 years

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Hi! I found your blog the TKTD, and that fic and your theories have highkey gotten me back into glee :D your content is so interesting, thank you so much! I haven't read all of your analyses yet, so I may have missed something, but I'm still wondering a couple things 1. why did Brittany fail senior year? You've written a lot about her not being dumb (despite her intelligence being non-normative), and we know she's able to do at least very advanced math. It seems like her primary goal would be...

To move to the next stage of life with Santana, so why wasn’t avoiding failing out a bigger priority for her? Furthermore, as someone who was so involved with extracurriculars (Cheerios, glee), she must’ve needed to maintain reasonable grades to avoid academic suspension. So avoiding failing seems like something that would be on her radar? and 2. do you think brittany dropped the ‘if sex were dating santana and i would be dating’ line on purpose?

Hey, @savealtonrichards!

Sorry it’staken me so long to answer you! I don’t have much internet access these days.:p

If you’re infor a good ramble, it’s under the cut.

(WARNING:Here be griping about Glee writing—as one does.)

___

First thingsfirst:

Theout-of-universe stuff.

Glee is a show that’s difficult to categorize because while it ostensibly takes place withina realistic fictional universe (as opposed to say a fantasy or science fictionone), there are times when it noticeably deviates from reality.

Though thecharacters seemingly live in suburban Ohio in the early 2010s and areregular human beings living “regular lives,” there are certain aspects of theirexistences that absolutely strain credulity (even when one actively tries tosuspend disbelief).

Some ofthese breaches are obvious, like when Lord Tubbington is shown as being capableof using a computer. However, others manifest more as gaps in logic—the typesof minor “glitches” in believability that cause the viewing audience to go,“Wait a minute. That’s not how that plot development would play out in reallife.”

One exampleof this second type of breach is how between S4 and S6, the young charactersliving in New York, most of whom are supposedly tight on money, arenevertheless able to jet set back and forth to Lima seemingly every otherweekend, as if plane and train tickets are free and travel takes no time orenergy at all. Another is that Sue Sylvester could do all of the illegal,immoral, and just flat-out batshit insane things she does without ever being firedor prosecuted. Still another is that nineteen and twenty year-old kids likeBlaine, Finn, and Sam could be hired to coaching positions at their respectivehigh school alma maters, even though none of them holds a college degree orteaching certificate.

The breachin realism that is pertinent to our discussion has to do with Brittany’sacademic history—which as depicted in show canon is replete with gaps and holesand just doesn’t make much sense.

In episode1x07, we are told that for years Sue has been doctoring the grades of herCheerios, including perhaps Brittany’s. However, even after Will puts his footdown and flunks many of their teammates, the Unholy Trinity, including Brittany,continues to attend Cheerios practice. They are the only Cheerios who do.

How theyalone of the whole squad retain their academic eligibility is not clear.Santana may not be taking Spanish, as she’s not shown in the class. However,Quinn and Brittany most definitely are, so either they must be passing (whiletheir teammates are not) or else Will must have decided against giving them thefailing grades they would otherwise deserve, perhaps because he doesn’t want torender them ineligible for glee club.

WillSchuester is nothing if not a hypocrite, so honestly I wouldn’t put it past himto walk that particular low road.

In any case,the show never really clarifies to what extent Brittany may rely on Sue tomaintain a passing GPA.

ThroughoutS1, Brittany is reported to cheat off of Becky’s schoolwork in math class (seeepisode 1x09) and is shown attempting to cheat off of Quinn’s tests in Spanishclass (see episode 1x07), incidents which suggest that she does at timesstruggle with academic performance during her sophomore year.

However, herstruggles are not explored in depth, and her continued eligibility for theCheerios would indicate that either she somehow manages to make passing grades,struggles notwithstanding, or else that interference from Sue renders herstruggles moot.

Kurt alsoreports that Finn sometimes cheats off of Brittany’s math assignments (seeepisode 1x10). We don’t know if this cheating represents an isolatedincident or a pattern of behavior. However, if it’s the second option, then given that Finn maintains his academiceligibility for football even after having cheated off Brittany’s work, andconsidering that, unlike with Brittany, Sue is unlikely to have doctored Finn’sgrades, we can perhaps surmise that Brittany at least occasionally managesto earn passing grades on her own.

Even if Sueis pulling strings to keep Brittany on the field, come S2, the situationchanges, as in episode 2x11 Brittany quits Cheerios, at which point whatever“help” Sue had been giving her is almost certainly rescinded.

Shortlythereafter, in episode 2x13, Brittany remarks that hergrades are bad (“Totally. Most teachers think that by cutting class, I mightimprove my grades”), perhaps suggesting a drop-off due to a cessation in Sue’shelp.

Even so, it would still seem that Brittany isn’t altogether failing, asshe apparently passes the eleventh grade and commences thetwelfth grade with the rest of her class.

The shownever specifies to what extent Brittany and the other glee kids must maintaintheir grades in order to stay in show choir. On the one hand, glee club is notan athletic program, so the rules for eligibility may be different than withcheerleading or football. On the other hand, glee club is seemingly anextracurricular activity in which students may “letter,” and it does have itsown governing board and competition requirements, so perhaps its eligibilityrequirements are similar or even identical to those for prep sports. To whatextent there may be “house rules” specific to WMHS as opposed to district orstatewide rules for all competitive show choirs remains unclear.

My guess isthat there’s got to be some kind of statewide threshold for eligibility,particularly as we’re told, per Jesse St. James, that the Carmel High kids in VocalAdrenaline cheat and doctor their grades in order to maximize their practicetime and minimize their schoolwork.

Whatever thespecific requirements may be, the fact that Brittany remains eligible toparticipate in glee club throughout her junior year is another point that maysuggest that even without Sue’s interference Brittany maintains a passing GPA. ThatBrittany is eligible to rejoin the Cheerios come her senior year also suggeststhat her eligibility remains intact as she finishes out the eleventh grade.

However,things seem to take a sudden downshift from there, both in terms of Brittany’sprospects and in terms of narrative sense-making.

Come S3, we arefinally told that Brittany has a 0.0 GPA, though it’s never specified if that’sher semester, yearlong, or cumulative GPA. My guess is that it’s the secondoption, given that Brittany is told she must repeat the twelfth grade (asopposed to just making up a few credits during summer school or repeating multiplegrades).

That said,the situation surrounding her failure remains murky.

Prior to S3,Brittany has seemingly maintained a passing GPA, as is evidenced by heraforementioned progress through her freshman, sophomore, and junior years ofhigh school and her continued academic eligibility to participate in Cheeriosand glee club.

However, theshow never reveals how she has come by this passing GPA.

Our threemain options for explaining this phenomenon seem to be:

We can infer that Sue hasmanipulated Brittany’s grades in order to keep her academically eligible forvarsity sports.

We can infer that Brittanyhas achieved passing grades through her own efforts.

We can infer that perhaps somecombination of the above two options has taken place (i.e., that Sue hasmanipulated some of her grades, while others she earned through her ownefforts).

On the onehand, the show heavily implies that Brittany is a very poor student who wouldprobably be incapable of passing her classes if not for Sue manipulating thesystem on her behalf. On the other hand, given that Brittany maintains academiceligibility for Cheerios even when Will flunks many of her teammates in hersophomore year AND that she spends a significant portion of her junior year offthe Cheerios and still manages to pass, it would seem that Brittany is able tomake grades even during the times when Sue isn’t propping her up.

The questionsthen become: If Brittany can pass the eleventh grade “on her own,” then whydoes she fail the twelfth grade? Furthermore, how come Brittany is allowed toremain on the Cheerios and in glee club even once her grades start slipping?Why does her failure only come to light after it is essentially too late forher (or anyone else) to do anything about the problem? How come Sue, who hasnever had any qualms about manipulating her cheerleaders’ grades in the past,seemingly “allows” Brittany to fail her senior year? How come not a singleteacher or counselor at WMHS makes any efforts to help Brittany, even thoughshe is obviously struggling?

After all, Brittany’s 0.0 GPA seems to be a reflection of a chronic problem.

The firsttime we hear about said failing GPA is in episode 3x19, which is the sameepisode that features the WMHS senior prom.

For mostAmerican public high schools, prom takes place anywhere between March and June,which means that somehow Brittany is allowed to fail for at least one or two fullsemesters (or, more likely, given that many Midwestern American public schoolstend to run on the quarter system, two or even three full quarters) before Figgins tells her what’s up.

The school thenseemingly takes no action—at least as we see play out on screen—to helpBrittany course-correct for the final semester or two quarters of her senioryear.

She’s notput on academic monitoring or probation. She’s not assigned a tutor. MissPillsbury doesn’t set up any meetings with her to discuss her options or determineher future. No one writes her an IEP. She just crashes and burns until the endof the year, at which point she fails to graduate.

It strainscredulity that in today’s day and age Brittany could flunk out as “quietly” asshe did, without anyone—including her parents, coaches, guidance counselor,and/or girlfriend—realizing she was in trouble at any point along the way.

Where werethe midterm progress reports? The report cards? The summonses to MissPillsbury’s office? The failed tests that required the signature of her parent orguardian? Santana glimpsing an F on her Spanish essay and ripping Mr. Schue agoddamn new one because who is he to tell Brittany she isn’t conjugating verbsright when he can’t tell his own ass from an ñ?

Shouldn’tsomeone somewhere along the way have noticed something was wrong while therewas still time enough left to do something about it—and particularlyconsidering that Brittany is not only a student but a student athlete?

Per the OhioHigh School Athletic Association, a student must earn “passing grades in aminimum of five one-credit courses, or the equivalent, in the immediatelypreceding grading period” of athletic competition in order to be eligible toparticipate in a varsity sport, so in theory, after she fails that first term,Brittany shouldn’t be able to compete as part of the Cheerios squad at all, letalone be one of the senior leaders.

For therecord, the real life school districts in Lima, OH require a minimum GPAbetween 2.5 and 3.0 for student athletes.

One has towonder: Where is Sue in all this? How come she doesn’t intervene once she seesthat first bad report card?

After all,Sue has no qualms concerning academic dishonesty. By her own admission, she’s meddledwith her cheerleaders’ grades for years. Why shouldn’t she simply meddle in this case, too? Wouldn’tit be in her best interest to keep Brittany eligible to compete?

Come S4, Sueherself blames a “haze of pregnancy hormones” for preventing her from noticingBrittany’s S3 academic nosedive (see episode 4x02). Another contributory factor to her negligence may be her vicious congressionalcampaign against Reggie Salazar and Burt Hummel.

However,that Sue would allow Brittany to fail still presents a narrative problem, nomatter what her excuses for doing so may be, because the fact remains that academiceligibility is an issue that extends beyond her sole purview.

OnceBrittany fails the first academic quarter of the 2011-2012 schoolyear, shebecomes ineligible to compete in interscholastic competitions. The issue is outof Sue’s hands and into those of the Ohio High School Athletic Association.Some state official somewhere has the responsibility to mark her fileand bar her from any further participation in state cheer events.

—and yetthat never happens.

Somehow,Brittany remains a cheerleader (and member of the glee club) for the duration of the schoolyear, despite not passing a single class.

It’s one ofthose lapses in believability—those “Wait a minute. That’s not how thatdevelopment would happen in real life” instances—that takes Glee out of the realmof passingly realistic fiction and into the realm of exaggeration and camp.

There’s noway that Brittany could fail an entire year of school without facing anyacademic consequences—that’s just not the way that the American school systemworks, particularly when it comes to athletic eligibility.

How comeFiggins only notes Brittany’s failures in springtime? What is going on during the fall and winter?

For the record, episode 3x19 originally aired on May 8th, 2012. Within the universe of the show, the action of the episode may take place on the same date or at least a proximal one.

By allaccounts, someone somewhere along the way should notice what’s going on—if nota faculty member at Brittany’s own school, then some official on an athleticeligibility committee, or a college cheerleading coach scouting Brittany for anNCAA scholarship, or an auditor working for the superintendent, or a rivalcheerleading coach digging for dirt on Sue Sylvester’s stars.

Someone!

But no onedoes.

I mean,that’s what the show purports.

Figgins knows enough to inform Brittany thatshe’s failing, but he doesn’t do anything to help the situation except to lectureher for neglecting her duties as the senior class president and badger her intoplanning the prom.

Will and Emma, too focused on rescuing Puck from a similarfate, seemingly remain either oblivious to or unconcerned about Brittany’sacademic woes until she’s on the verge of failing her SECOND consecutive senioryear in S4.

And Santana? She’s blindsided. Somehow, even though she andBrittany take classes together and meet up during every passing block and spendall of their spare time in each other’s company outside of school, she has noidea that Brittany is in academic jeopardy—not until Brittany springs the newson her at BreadStix just before what should be their joint graduation.

Not untilit’s too late.

That’s canonas TPTB at Glee wrote it.

It makes nogoddamn sense, but it’s what we’re stuck with.

So.

Onto thesecond order of business, then:

Thein-universe stuff.

Returning toyour original questions: Why does Brittany fail her senior year—from asituational and character perspective? How come she doesn’t work harder not tofail?

Though earlyon, Glee at times tried to play Brittany off as an accidental or even dubiousgenius—such as in the scene in episode 4x22 where she’s first shown solvingcomplex equations for the researchers at MIT—they later fully committed to herprodigy, acknowledging it as the real deal.

By episode5x12, Baby Girl is shown as being capable of tackling the Riemann Hypothesis.Her work at MIT is serious. By S6, she’s doing complex math for fun, albeitwith kitty doodles drawn in the margins. The Brittany of episodes 6x03, 6x06,and 6x08 is able to slip in facts and impressive logical arguments alongsideher usual Brittanyisms and one-liners. Her intelligence is no longer subject todebate.

So what’sthe deal with her flunking out of high school? How can someone capable ofprocessing the most complicated calculus there is fail at high school algebra?

Here’s thething: While Brittany is indeed a certified math genius, there’s not always aneat one-to-one correlation between “raw intelligence” and “academicsuccess.”

Lots offolks who are plenty bright—including many who have impressive naturalaptitudes in certain areas—fail in traditional classroom settings, even inclasses that by all accounts they “should be good at.”

Some havebehavioral tendencies that are incompatible with the classroom culture. Others findthe course materials boring, either because they already know the materialbeing taught or else because the material is being taught in a way that isn’tconducive to their learning style. Still others learn at a different pace thanwhat the curriculum may allow for, working either faster or slower. Many simplytest poorly or have trouble focusing. Organizational issues, language barriers,home circumstances (which may interfere with one’s ability to complete homeworkor come to class rested and ready to learn), individual teacher-studentdynamics, problems with bullying at school, health or disability factors, etc.,etc. may also affect one’s ability to “make grades.”

Many of thesmartest people there are have failed in formalized academic settings. Conversely,many people of average or even below average aptitudes have found ways tosucceed in the classroom. Other factors such as one’s work ethic, connection toteachers and mentors, support networks, accommodations, etc. can also impacteducational success.

In Brittany’scase, there are myriad reasons why, despite her certified genius, she fails herclasses.

For onething, WMHS is a substandard learning environment, just to start out with.

Theatmosphere there is toxic. Bullying runs rampant, with the staff either whollyapathetic toward, powerless to intervene in, or even sometimes party to theperpetuation thereof.

The administration routinely mismanages its resources,spending an inordinate amount of money to support the cheerleading and footballprograms, though lacking certain other necessities—such as a functional specialeducation department, adequate handicap accommodations, and up-to-datetextbooks.

They also hire teachers who are both underqualified (such as Will,who teaches Spanish for years despite not actually speaking the language) andfrequently abusive (such as Sue, who should literally be serving jail time forthe way she treats the student body).

Multiple times, it’s stated that theirstudents test at below average reading levels.

While only a small percentage ofwhat Sue says should ever be believed, her claims that she doctors the gradesof her Cheerios to maintain their academic eligibility to participate in avarsity sport are seemingly accurate, as Will and Principal Figgins aver that such is this case.

Not a single permanentteacher, principal, or guidance counselor at the school, with perhaps theexception of Coach Beiste, appears competent to do their job.

The hijinks ofvarious staff members and students regularly interfere with the learning day.

Rememberthat old post about JennaB. Lacey, the Hogwarts student who just wants to get a proper education but isconstantly prevented from doing so because she has the misfortune of being inthe same year as one Harry Potter, whose adventures and misadventures areconstantly interrupting her lessons and preempting her exams? Just replace “Harry Potter” with “Rachel Berry” or “SueSylvester,” and you’re basically describing the life of your average WMHSstudent.

Though wedon’t spend a lot of time following the New Directions kids through theirregular classes, the few glimpses that we do get suggest that much of thecurriculum they are subjected to is either outdated or else straight upobjectively incorrect.

While theepisode plays the situation for laughs, Holly Holliday’s points about the sexeducation at WMHS being painfully inadequate aren’t at all off the mark. Mrs.Hagberg seems to experience episodes of dementia while teaching (and is aself-admitted painkiller addict). She frequently forgets her spatiotemporallocation and has on occasion been known to teach that the Nazis won WWII. Will speaksSpanglish and buys into racist stereotypes about Latinos. Sue promulgatesconspiracy theories and unsubstantiated revisionist history, purposefullyspreading misinformation as if she were the White House Press Secretary.

Later on, inS6, it’s shown that a complete overhaul is necessary to update the school’stechnology and curriculum in order for the students to start performing up tostandards on their state tests.

—and there’sBrittany, who learns differently than most people do, stuck in the middle ofall of this chaos.

Honestly,it’s a wonder that any of the kids at WMHS achieve any kind of mainstreamacademic success. That Quinn gets into Yale and Tina into Brown is kind of ascholastic miracle, all things considered.

So she’s upagainst a lot of impediments as barriers to her learning just as a baseline.

Then add inher individual difficulties on top of the other stuff.

Brittany’sis a unique mind. It is unclear to what extent book-learning and traditionaleducation work for her. She has a tendency to metaphorize concepts, suggestingthat she is an abstract thinker. Her flair for malapropisms also intimates thather mind is organized in “webs,” with various like-words grouped together byloose strings of associations. Though she is mathematically intelligent, she isalso emotionally intelligent and physically intelligent, as well.

Early on,her genius seems highly intuitive, as she is able to pull numbers out of theair, though she is not always equally able to explain how or by what means she hasdone so. In time, her methods seem to become more examined and deliberate, withtheory underlining what was once a more reflexive capability.

She isperhaps something of an autodidact, able, for instance, to teach herselfSpanish, though she apparently doesn’t fare well in the class in high school.

Though fewpeople on the show, save Santana, realize as much, she frequently runs abouttwo or three steps ahead of everyone else in terms of her conversations andsocial maneuvers. Her zany quips and seemingly innocent demeanor throw peopleoff, to the point where they don’t pick up on just how wily and keen she canbe.

On the onehand, this phenomenon affords her some social leeway—because, after all, she’sjust “Brittany being Brittany.” On the other hand, it sometimes results inthose who fail to understand her talking down to her, infantilizing her, andblowing her off.

Frequently, both Brittany and the people who engage with herwalk away from their interactions frustrated, Brittany because she’s beencondescended to, her conversation partners because they find herincomprehensible and off-putting.

So.

Considerthat many of her teachers—including Will—seem to be confused by the way shetalks and find her irksome to deal with and so tend to be dismissive of herduring classroom discussions.

Because herintelligence is non-normative, a teacher talking about A subject can get her thinkingoff on a tangent about B subject, C subject, and D subject, and pretty soonshe’ll be blurting out a question or comment about Z subject, which from herteacher’s perspective does not relate to the discussion topic at hand and mayeven derail the lesson, distracting the other students. The teacher then eitherreacts to Brittany’s question or comment with annoyance, shutting her down(such as Ms. Hagberg does in episode 3x02); or reacts with bafflement, ignoring her andglossing over what she’s said (such as Will does in episode 1x10). Either way, Brittanydoesn’t get her questions answered or her comments responded to in aconstructive manner, which means that, invariably, she doesn’t get what sheneeds to out of class.

By the timewe first meet her as a sophomore, Brittany’s reputation as a nuisance and“numbskull” precedes her.

Her teachersmake no effort to hide their low opinions of her intelligence.

In episode2x04, everyone ribs Puck for crashing his mom’s car into an ATM and gettingarrested. Brittany joins in the fun, remarking, “He may be the dumbest personon this planet—and that’s coming from me.” Though the moment is generallyjocular, the fact that Brittany’s teacher Will says nothing to defend her toherself speaks volumes. The incident is also not an isolated one, as later inthe season, in episode 2x17, Will directly questions Brittany’s intelligence toher face (“I get the three of you being on [the Brainiacs], but Brittany?”).

Tack on allthe instances when he responds to Brittany’s comments during rehearsals (andeven her later “cries for help” during S4) with bafflement at best and disdainat worst, plus the way he clearly talks down to her as if she were a youngchild rather than a teenager, and there’s no question that he thinks she’s adolt.

And he’s notthe only member of the WMHS faculty who feels that way, either.

SueSylvester is likewise a serial offender when it comes to calling Brittany dumband infantilizing her. Ditto for Hagberg and Figgins. Though we don’t get tosee Brittany interacting with many other members of the staff aside fromSheldon Beiste, Holly Holliday, and Shelby Corcoran—the last two of whom areonly at the school briefly—it stands to reason that there are other teacherswho share the same negative attitude toward her that the featured teachers do.

At onepoint, Brittany even says that her teachers have told her that her grades mightactually improve if she were to slough her classes.

Brittany’s“stupidity” is widely viewed as a given.

Time andtime again, the show depicts people taking her intelligence for granted andassuming the worst of her capabilities. Such attitudes undoubtedly influencethe way that her teachers approach educating her. If a smart kid like Quinn orArtie isn’t grasping a concept, then teachers will try changing their pedagogyup, teaching the lesson in a different, more effective way. The same is trueeven for an average student like Mercedes. If she’s struggling, a teacher’simpulse will be to show her patience because there’s a good chance thateventually (with some hard work and extra credit) she’ll get it. But not so with Brittany, whom most teachers seem to viewas an idiot. Why slow down a class for her? Why assign different readings? Whytutor her after school? Their assumption is that she is a lost cause.

Sue potentiallydoctoring her grades—and those of the other Cheerios—also exacerbates theproblem.

Thoseteachers who are aware of Sue’s meddling, and especially the ones who have beenbullied by her into being complicit, may feel a lessened sense of obligation toreally teach Brittany or attempt to accurately evaluate her learning because,after all, no matter how Brittany performs, she’s going to be handed a passinggrade in their classes anyway.

Conversely,those teachers who remain unaware of Sue’s meddling may believe that givingBrittany a failing grade will result in meaningful academic consequences forher, which will then lead to her getting the help and attention she needsvis-à-vis the systems that are in place to prevent kids from “falling throughthe cracks.”

Of course,because Sue changes Brittany’s grades after the fact, Brittany never receivesany such help.

The systemsdon’t attend to her. Nothing in her file gets flagged. No one pulls her aside.She just gets passed along from year to year and class to class without anyoneever really taking an interest in her learning.

Either way,she’s left ill-equipped to succeed in high school.

On top ofeverything else, Brittany may also have an undiagnosed learning disability,such as ADHD or ASD. Though of course the show never states that she does havea disability (undiagnosed or not), some neurodivergent fans see in Brittany a kindred spirit whose experiences inthe public school system resemble their own.

It’sdefinitely possible that she could benefit from some accommodations.

But as faras we know, they’re never offered to her—not only because, as we learn from Sueregarding Becky Jackson, WMHS doesn’t offer special education classes, but alsobecause everyone thinks that she’s just “Brittany being Brittany,” and she’s a hopelesscase from the get-go.

So howeversmart Brittany may naturally be, she’s got alot stacked against her at WMHS, including antagonistic teachers, theabysmally low expectations people set for her, Sue’s interference with hergrades (and then the sudden cessation of that interference), her non-normativelearning strategies, and other possible factors.

Add in thatduring her senior year, she’s also dealing with some extra pressures outside ofthe classroom, and what we have is a recipe for a disaster.

Note: Ofcourse, the show deprives us of hearing Brittany talk about the aftermath ofSantana’s outing, suspension, and disowning in her own words, but HeatherMorris’s nonverbal cues show that Brittany’s upset during this period is hardfelt. It’s a stressful time in Brittany’s life, and even after the initialwounds have healed somewhat, Brittany still devotes much of mental andemotional energy to trying to ameliorate the situation, to keep Santana in agood place, to help her smile, and carry on. That’s not to say that Brittana’srelationship or Brittany’s efforts to make Santana happy cause Brittany to failher classes. It’s just to say that Brittany’s senior year is one in which shehas a lot on her mind beyond the regular cares of just being a teenager.

Thesituation as it is, it’s perhaps unsurprising that she should struggle.

However, thequestion still remains: Why doesn’t she ask for help?

No one, includingher parents, teachers, or girlfriend, seems to notice she’s academicallydrowning until it’s too late. But just because they don’t notice on their owndoesn’t mean that Brittany can’t alert them to the situation, right? So whydoesn’t she turn to Mr. Schue and say, “I need some extra help on my historyhomework,” or confide in her parents that she’s just bombed another Englishexam, or ask Santana if they can perhaps study for chemistry class together?Wouldn’t it be in her best interest to do so? Shouldn’t she want to graduate sothat she can get on with her life (and follow Santana)? Why not just reach outto someone?

Easier saidthan done.

Brittany hasspent her whole life being disparaged for “not being smart enough.” Is shereally going to admit she’s struggling to many of the same people who are activelycontributing to her struggles?

Sure,ostensibly, Mr. Schue is her teacher, and he’s supposedly an advocate for her.But can she really turn to someone who has routinely made her feel like anidiot and confess to him that she’s not understanding her classes—andespecially when she’s fully aware that, even if she were to ask him for help,he is probably not the best person to offer it, considering that he’s not actuallya qualified teacher?

The samegoes for Sue, who habitually preys upon Brittany’s vulnerabilities and has beenknown to blackmail students whenever she has any sort of leverage over them.Brittany would have to be an even bigger fool than the one people take her forin order to ask a favor of a megalomaniac of Sue’s caliber.

If Brittanywere to turn to her, the best case scenario would be that she would once againresort to doctoring Brittany’s report card—which is not necessarily an outcomethat Brittany wants. The worst case scenario would be that she would find someway to make Brittany’s life hell for having even approached her.

Brittany has to wonder: Is there any good that could come of prompting Sue totake action if she hasn’t already done so (unprompted) yet?

Not evenEmma is a safe bet, considering that she seems completely oblivious toBrittany’s plight, even though it is literally her job to be on top of it.

She doesn’t pushWill to include Brittany in his Saturday Night Fever competition alongsideFinn, Mercedes, and Santana (see episode 3x16). She isn’t present to participatein the “come to Jesus” meeting Figgins calls Brittany in for before the prom (seeepisode 3x19). Nowhere along the line does she show any concern for Brittany’sGPA, even though she has access to Brittany’s records and presumably has aprofessional imperative to counsel with her concerning her future.

If she can’tbe assed to take an interest in Brittany’s academic struggles even though she’sbeing paid to do so, then Brittany’s not going to beg her to get involved.

Her inactionhas already sent the message loud and clear: Brittany is on her own.

As for whyBrittany doesn’t turn to her parents or Santana for help, things arecomplicated on that side, too.

Since wedon’t know much about Brittany’s relationship with her parents aside from thelittle we see of it in S6, it’s difficult to say why she doesn’t approach themfor help. Maybe she fears disappointing them. Maybe she feels that they won’tunderstand why she’s failing. (They might assume she’s being lazy or goofingoff rather than facing legitimate roadblocks to her learning.) Possibly,they’re dealing with some kind of crisis of their own at the same time thatBrittany realizes that she’s failing, so she doesn’t want to “bother them” withwhat she’s going through. Perhaps she does approach them but they either can’t or won’t helpher.

There’s alsothe possibility that Brittany is reluctant to involve her parents in her issuesbecause she fears the consequences if they find out that Sue has been doctoringher grades for years. How can she explain to them why she’s gone from having apassing (and perhaps even impressive) GPA in years past to having a failing(and even abominable) GPA this year? She’d have to admit that Sue’s been fudgingher report cards to preserve her academic eligibility—and doing so might resultin her parents asking her questions that she doesn’t want to answer.

Either shewould have to say that she had gone along with Sue’s meddling (even though sheknew what Sue was doing was wrong) OR she would have to admit that Sue hasbasically been abusing and blackmailing her and the other Cheerios, making herscared to come forward about the academic dishonesty. The first option oversimplifiesthe situation. The second option is the truth but one that’s probably difficultfor her to cop to.

In any case,for whatever reason, Brittany either doesn’t bring her problems to her parents’attention or she does but they can’t (or won’t) help her.

WithSantana, things are different.

Brittanyknows that if she approaches Santana with her problem, Santana will not onlycare but also understand all of the extenuating circumstances. Santana knowsabout the Sue stuff. She also sees how teachers and other staff members tend toreact to Brittany. She’s fully aware of the injustice. She’s also fully awarethat Brittany’s genius is misunderstood—that Brittany is smart, though her smarts don’t necessarily translate to hertopping the Honor Roll every semester. Santana has the full view of thesituation, and there’s no question that she’d be sympathetic to Brittany’sissues and do everything in her power to get Brittany help, if Brittany justsaid the word.

The troubleis that Brittany doesn’t want to say the word—not when Santana has been dealingwith her own troubles, which, on the whole, from Brittany’s perspective, seem so much bigger and moreagonizing than Brittany’s own.

Brittanycan’t bring herself to interject, “Um, excuse me, Santana, but can we take a break fromdealing with you being outed the entire state of Ohio, suspended from school,disowned by your grandmother, and homophobically bullied so that we can talkabout my algebra test?;” not when she knows that if she points out that she isfailing, Santana will pump the brakes on her own plans and ambitions in orderto stand by her side.

She doesn’twant to hold Santana back when Santana is on her way out of their stifling, gay-bashingtown, onto bigger and better things. She doesn’t want to drag Santana herpersonal turmoil, not when Santana is just finally getting clear from theturmoil in her own.

—andespecially not when Brittany views her own failure as inevitable.

Yeah, shecould tell Santana, and, yeah, Santana would try to move heaven and earth tohelp her. But in the end, there’d be nothing Santana could do. Brittany wouldstill fail, not due to any lagging efforts on Santana’s part, but becauseBrittany has never been able to succeed in school no matter how hard she tried,because the whole system is rigged against her and always has been. No matterhow much effort Brittany expends to show people she’s got a fine brain in herhead—by winning a quiz bowl championship, writing for the school newspaper,becoming class president, dishing out wise advice, etc.—no one except for Santanahas ever been willing to give her a chance. They always see her as an imbecileor a child. Even Santana can’t change the status quo. So why drag her into it?

InBrittany’s view, it’s better for her to help Santana pursue her dreams outsideof Lima than to do anything that might cause her to turn back or slow down.

ThoughBrittany often projects confidence, the truth is that just like the other twomembers of the Unholy Trinity, she has some serious and deep-seated self-esteemissues. After so many years of people calling her an idiot and treating herlike a child, part of her wonders if they aren’t perhaps right (see her speech in episode 4x22).

While shedoesn’t want to believe what the haters are saying, she also can’t help butfeel that maybe she is destined for Lima Loserdom. If so, then the last thingshe wants to do is drag Santana down with her—hence why she doesn’t mention herfailure to graduate until she’s sure that Santana leaving town and going toLouisville is already a done deal.

Is refusingto seek help from anyone a wise choice on Brittany’s part? No.

But havingdifficulty asking for help is a character flaw she comes by naturally. That agirl who’s been told “no” her whole life would be scared to ask anyone to takea chance on her and say “yes” makes sense. The behavior pattern is a consistentone that she displays throughout the show, such as, for example, in S4, whenshe stages not one but two separate public meltdowns in situations where sheneeds help but doesn’t know how to ask for it (see episodes 4x02 and 4x22).

Note: Thefact that Brittany actually brings herself to ask Santana if they can seekadult help regarding their relationship troubles in episode 2x15 shows just howmuch the issue means to her. Normally, Brittany would never suggest seekingoutside counsel, but in that case she wants so badly to set things to rightsbetween her and Santana that she petitions Santana to approach Holly Holliday.Her love for Santana outweighs her fear of making herself vulnerable.

Brittanydoes want to graduate high school. She does want to be with Santana andcontinue their relationship. She wants to escape Lima. She wants to prove thenaysayers wrong. She wants to start a new life somewhere where she’s notnegatively stereotyped and looked down on by everyone. She wants to livehappily ever after with the woman she loves. She wants all of these thingsdesperately, more than anyone really knows.

But she alsodoesn’t know how to get what she wants.

She feelsboxed in and like her situation is hopeless.

So she justtailspins until she crashes.

—and thetruly tragic thing is that nobody notices what’s happening with her until it’stoo late, either because they remain oblivious (like Santana) or because theyare apathetic (like Brittany’s teachers, coaches, and guidance counselors).

Per usual,Glee tried to play the situation for laughs, but there’s really nothing allthat funny about Brittany’s academic failures at all.

Like manystudent athletes, Brittany is a kid whose physical abilities have been valuedover her learning. As long as she’s helping the Cheerios to winchampionships—and make no mistake, like Quinn and Santana, Brittany is one ofSue’s superstars, whose dance and choreography talents are one of the main advantagesthat make the squad elite—then nobody cares if she struggles in her classes.It’s all about what she can do for the school and not what the school can dofor her.

Of course,in Brittany’s case, there’s even an added element of administrative apathy atplay beyond the usual “Just pass the girl so she’s competition eligible” bit.

Because ofthe way she thinks and acts, her teachers assume that she incapable of and/ordisinterested in learning. They allow their annoyance and exasperation with herto supersede whatever obligation they might feel to provide her with a realeducation.

The sad reality is that no one’s going to go out of theirway to teach a girl that they consider a) a nuisance to have in class; b)incapable of learning; and c) someone for whom grades don’t really matteranyhow, given that she’s one of the moving parts in Sue Sylvester’schampionship cheerleading machine.

So that’show Brittany makes it through grades nine, ten, and eleven: By being passedfrom hand to hand, with the faculty and administration turning a blind eye towhat’s happening because, ultimately, no one really cares about her educationanyway.

But thenBrittany enters grade twelve, and for whatever reason this system suddenlyfalls apart. Though she has previously made passing grades—some of themostensibly without Sue’s “help”—the coursework in her senior year gets thebetter of her.

Maybe thetwelfth grade material proves substantially more difficult than the eleventhgrade material. Maybe years of inadequate learning finally catch up to her. (Ifone never masters the basics of a given subject, then one can’t very wellnavigate more advanced material, after all.) Maybe the stress in her family andsocial life so distracts her from her schoolwork that she is no longer able to juggle it all, and she ends up dropping the academic ball. Maybe herteachers finally have enough of her antics and decide to grade her punitively. Maybea confluence of issues affects her.

Whatever thecase, she fails.

That no onein the WMHS administration takes an interest in her case is a tragedy. Thatshe doesn’t feel safe enough to ask any of her teachers or coaches for help isutterly heartbreaking. Particularly when we compare her story to Puck’s, thenumerous ways in which the system has failed her become painfully apparent.

No childshould flunk out of school because her teachers find her annoying.

—andespecially not when she is willing to learn, if only given the chance.

Throughouther time at WMHS, we frequently see Brittany taking notes in her classes andvolunteering answers during lectures, incorrect though some of those answerscertainly are. She isn’t a girl who sleeps through her schooldays or cutsclasses or goofs off. She’s trying her best. And as the way she really comesinto her own after she leaves WMHS proves, she isvery much capable of learning, albeit at her own pace and in her own way.

Imagine howvery different Brittany’s story could have been if even one teacher had realizedher potential—or had even just given her a chance of any kind.

Not onlywould it perhaps have been possible for her to graduate with the rest of herclass, but her genius could have been recognized sooner. The entire course of her life could have been changed for the better.

As thingsare, Brittany eventually succeeds inspite of her experiences in the education system, not because of them.

Hers remainsa sobering story.

Anyway.

Then, toanswer your second question:

No, I don’tthink Brittany drops the “—if it were, Santana and I would be dating” line onpurpose. I honestly think it’s a slip on her part.

Here’s thething:

ThoughBrittana don’t get a lot of foreground development during S1, they do have asubtle subtextual, “in the background” storyline that centers on the tension between howSantana thinks they need to be versus how they really are.

Whilethey’re both truly happiest when they’re monogamous with each other, Santanacontinually insists that they maintain publicly visible sexual relationshipswith popular boys at the same time that they’re sleeping with each other—youknow, to project at least the illusion of “straightness.”

However,despite her interest in appearing “heterosexual,” Santana is never able to keepup her sexual relationships with boys for long. Puck inevitably cheats on her.Finn inevitably turns back to Rachel. She invariably ends up back in amonogamous sexual relationship with Brittany, who is more than happy with thearrangement, given that she and Santana are actually in love. The cycle repeatsitself ad nauseum, until eventually, between episodes 1x10 and 1x13, Santanaand Brittany fall into a prolonged period of exclusivity with eachother.

During thistime, they’re sleeping together, plus doing all of their regular “best friend”things—you know, like sharing meals and going out to movies and sittingtogether in the back of the class and writing each other cute notes andcuddling and linking pinkies and generally being, you know, GIRLFRIENDS—whichis why Brittany feels confused about the status of their relationship.

Santana hastold over and over again that just because you’re having sex with someonedoesn’t mean you’re also dating them.

But she andSantana aren’t just having sex. They’re also doing all sorts of relationship-ystuff. Plus, you know, they’re in love with each other.

So doesn’tthat mean that they’re dating?

That’s thequestion that’s in Brittany’s mind going into the infamous party line scene inepisode 1x13.

To quoteextensively from thispost:

During S1,Santana feels secure in her arrangements with Brittany as long as she maintainsa sexual relationship with Puck and he brags about it around school. As long aseveryone knows that Santana has sex with a hot boy and “likes it,” then Santanafeels safe to also have sex with Brittany, per her own druthers. Even afterSantana and Puck officially break up circa episode 1x03, things are cool becausethey still keep having sex and Puck keeps broadcasting the fact that they do totheir peers.

But then circa episode 1x10, somethingshifts.

Though Puck and Santana continue to haveintermittent sex, Puck ceases to boast of their encounters starting around episode1x10, when he begins to woo Quinn in earnest, trying to prove his worthiness asa father and partner to her.

When Puck ceases to brag, Santana getsnervous and feels as if he has rejected her. Is she doing something wrong?Doesn’t he like it anymore? Does he know her secret?

In episode 1x11, Santana sexts Puck in adesperate attempt to rekindle his interest in her, but her efforts don’t panout. Pucktana likely stop sleeping together between episodes 1x11 and 1x13,and, when they do, it likely causes Santana to fear immensely for herreputation.

Ironically, though the thing Santana mostfears in losing Puck as her beard is that people will find out the truth abouther relationship with Brittany, Santana can’t help but run to Brittany when shefeels Puck’s attentions waning. She panics her way right into Brittany’s bed,seeking the approval, affection, acceptance, and validation there that shedoesn��t get from Puck. In so doing, she probably reveals some emotionalvulnerability or even neediness to Brittany.

Considering that Brittany is in love withher, it’s hard for Brittany not to read significance into her actions and thinkthat they signal something big.

Hint: They do.

Brittany starts thinking more and moreabout what’s going on between her and Santana. Since Santana isn’t dating Puckanymore, maybe Santana could date Brittany instead.

It’s because Brittany has the idea ofdating Santana in her mind—and heart—that she blurts it out to the group in1x13.

“Sex isn’t dating.”

“—if it were, Santana and I would bedating.”

It’s Brittany voicing what’s in her heartbefore she can really stop herself.

That she has no premeditated intention ofouting herself and Santana is clear from the look on her face the second thewords leave her mouth and she realizes what she’s just said. She spoke what wasmeant to be a private thought aloud, and she’s scared to death about what theconsequences might be now that she has. She immediately glances to Santana,gauging her reaction, wondering how badly she’s just fucked up theirrelationship. Though the conversation quickly moves on from that point, herheartbeat most likely doesn’t resume a normal pace for minutes afterward.

Anyway, I’ve jabbered for a good, ol’long while now.

Thanks for the questions!

#Crazy Brittanalyst Answers #savealtonrichards #Brittanalyzing #It's been a while kids #I just want queue

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dearlazerbunny · 6 years

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By Any Other Name; Ch. 16

Pairings: Kylo x Reader

Genre/Ratings: Highschool AU; M (eventually)

Words: 1000

Summary: Your new lab partner proves to be nothing short of an asshole- or is he? The more of Kylo that’s revealed, the more you can’t help but think you might be falling for him just a little…

Requested Tags: @foxface9000

Click HERE for Chapter 17.

You tried for a whole month to reach out to your parents. A phone call here, a text message there. Mostly to your mom- you figured she would try and talk some sense into your dad, maybe play peacekeeper between the two of you. But all you were met with was radio silence. You bounced around between Rey’s family and Kylo’s house, feeling like a burden to both even though each family made you feel so welcome. But the worst part was the pity you got from your friends’ parents. Finn, Poe, and Rey’s parents all offered to talk to yours, and even though you politely declined you’re pretty sure they tried anyways. You appreciated the effort, but you didn’t want pity- you got yourself into this mess, and you deserved everything you had coming to you.

So you mostly crashed at Kylo’s house, because he was the one thing that kept the guilt from eating you alive. Wonderful, amazing Kylo, whose very presence silenced all the voices in your head telling you you were stupid and a failure. It was hard to keep the depression at bay, but he did his best, bringing you little treats and tidbits about his day, or sometimes not saying anything at all and just being there with you as you battled the feelings raging inside you.

You did your best to keep up appearances and go to school, but there were some days you just couldn’t face the whispers and the gossip- word spreads fast in a small town, and Kylo’s almost-arrest, the fight and showdown at the police station, they were all common knowledge a week after they happened. So for the first time in your life, you skipped- a lot. Class, band practice, the whole shebang. Kylo or Rey brought you your work from your classes and you went over them with Kylo every night at his dining room table, effectively homeschooling yourself to shield yourself from the rumors.

You could tell everyone was worried about you- your friends, Leia and Han, Rey’s mom- but you had a hard time making yourself care. You wondered if your parents even noticed that your things had been quietly disappearing from their house- toiletries, your school stuff, changes of clothes- and migrated themselves to Kylo’s small bedroom, taking up collection in the corner like a shrine to your former life. You wondered if you would ever get that life back- or if you even wanted it back.

“Hey.” Kylo sits down beside you, his weight dipping into the mattress. “You okay?”

You shake your head to dissipate the melancholy thoughts and smile up at him halfheartedly. “Better, now. How was school?”

“Same old stuff. Saw Phasma in the hallway, that was interesting.”

“Yikes. Did she say anything?”

“Nope. Walked right on past. Which I guess is for the better.”

You nod, trying to focus on the conversation and not let yourself slip back into your thoughts.

“Hey. You know what? Let’s take a walk.”

“A walk?”

“Yeah. Come on, you haven’t been outside the house in what, three days?” Your head drops a little, ashamed, and he quickly backtracks. “I didn’t mean it like that- just that it would be good for you to get some fresh air.”

“I don’t know… what if we see someone?”

“I won’t even let them look at you, I promise.” He puts his forehead on yours and nudges you with his nose. “It’ll be fun, okay? Deal?”

You sigh, giving him a peck on the lips. “Deal. Just let me change my clothes.”

“I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

When you manage to put some sneakers and a hoodie on and make the trek down the stairs, Kylo is waiting for you with his black backpack slung across his shoulders. “What’s in the bag?”

“Don’t you worry about it.” He gestures to the door. “Shall we?” His voice echoes in your head, the same one that led you into the gymnasium all those nights ago.

“We shall.” It puts a smile on your face as you follow him out the door. “So, where are we going?”

“Would you accept that it was a surprise?”

“Well, depends on the surprise.”

“I can’t very well tell you what the surprise is and keep it a surprise,” he teases. A clank comes from his bag and he steps off the curb. “Come on, don’t you trust me?” He holds out a hand.

You of course take it. You always would. “Obviously. Dork.”

“What happened to asshole?”

“You graduated, congrats.”

He throws his head back and laughs, such an amazing sound you immediately want to make him do it again, if you could only think of something funny to say. Nothing comes, so you walk in silence for a bit, clasped hands swinging between the two of you as you walk along the roadside. Eventually, it fades into gravel, and buildings make way to trees, until you’re walking down the same road you drove down on that fateful night. You start to get a little nervous. “Kylo… where are we going.”

He stops. Turns to you. “I really did want to get you out of the house for a bit. But the truth is, I had a surprise set up for you at the bridge.”

“The bridge…? Where we..?”

“Yeah. But I realize that might not be the best place to revisit, so if you don’t want to, we don’t have to go any farther. I just thought-” he looks up at the sky, turning slightly pink as the sun just begins to set. “I didn’t want them to take away the good memories we had there. So I thought we’d make some more. Kinda beat them at their own game, I guess.”

You stare at this lovely, lovely boy in front of you, whose hard exterior shadows a heart of gold. “Kylo. That’s… amazing.”

“Yeah?” His face lights up. “So, you wanna go?”

“With you? Anywhere.”

#star wars #Star Wars fanfic #star wars angst #star wars fluff #kylo ren #kylo ren x reader #kylo ren x you #reader insert

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elfpen · 6 years

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Alright, well, more or less all of tumblr has come out to enumerate the things they hated about The Last Jedi, so I’m going to butt in here to tell you what I loved about The Last Jedi.

There will be comprehensively big spoilers.

1. Luke

I know that Rian Johnson’s portrayal of Luke has taken a lot of hate from fans and even Mark Hamill, but I really do think it is an honest portrayal of his character. It was painful to see how Luke has given up. It was meant to be painful. It was meant to be jarring. But I think it makes sense.

I mean, think about it. Why is he seeking out a hermitage to spend the rest of his life away from everyone? Because of his failure with Ben Solo. It was a massive failure, but Luke is not well-acquainted with failure of even smaller kinds. He was a farm boy until he was 19, and then suddenly he was a Jedi, and then a hero, and then a Jedi Master, the savior of the free galaxy. The Chosen one. A legend. And then suddenly, it all falls apart, and Luke has no background to tell him how to recover. He screwed up. That’s it. He’s done. He checks out of the rest, thinking he’s done enough to harm the galaxy he wasn’t powerful enough to protect, to say nothing of Leia and Han’s heartbreak.

But why did it all go down in flames? Because he had a moment of weakness. And damn, what a weakness. He was afraid of his own pupil, to the point where, for just a split second, he thought it might be better to just... but then he realized almost as soon that he was wrong, and felt shame. But it was too late.

The rest of the fall of the New Order was on Ben, and only Ben. Luke royally screwed up, but Ben took it and really killed everything.

I loved, loved, loved it that Luke apologized to Ben. He needed to apologize, because what he did to Ben was truly awful. It was a good and humble moment for him. But what does Ben say in reply?

“I bet you are.”

Ben Solo, you f***ing brat.

And so Luke shows the kid what-for and delivers perhaps some of the penultimate lines of the movie: “Every word of what you just said is wrong.” The Resistance is reborn, the First Order will fall, and Luke is not the last Jedi. Luke, in that moment, could not get any bigger as a character. He is the legend who fell, who came back, and who has passed the torch, the spark, onto the next generation.

And then, he is back on Ach-to, and he can join Ben Kenobi, Yoda, and his father in the Force, completely at peace as the twin suns set behind the clouds. That is the fall and redemption that Luke deserved. And while I wish they could have spent more time with him before saying goodbye, I loved it.

2. Classic tropes fall apart

Cocky pilot thinks he knows what’s best? Check.

Hairbrained plan against impossible odds to Save Everyone™? Double check.

A wise mentor to train the next generation? Check.

Chance to redeem the dark apprentice? Check.

The Last Jedi presents us with all of these tropes which we recognize from previous movies, and then it rips them to shreds.

If this were another Star Wars movie, Poe’s plans would have worked, and Holdo would be made to be an antagonist. In any other Star Wars movie, Finn and Rose’s crazy scheme to dismantle the tracking would have worked. The clock would have stopped at 00:01, and the heroes would cheer. If this were another Star Wars movie, Rey would eventually convince Luke to train her, to lead the rebellion again. If this were another Star Wars movie, Ben Solo would have killed his master and turned to the light side.

But this isn’t any other Star Wars movie. Poe is called out on his mistakes, and Holdo is revealed to be the wise leader that Poe could not see in her. Rey can’t convince Luke to return. Finn and Rose’s plan is ruined by the backstabbing codebreaker. Furthermore, Finn’s attempted heroics against the battering ram gun almost kills him - I cannot fully communicate how terrified I was during that scene, thinking that they might actually kill Finn. Of course, Finn survives, but the battering ram does too, and their defenses are decimated. They lose that fight. They lose all of these fights.

And perhaps most significantly of all, Kylo Ren is not redeemed. Not only is he not turned back to the light, he turns even deeper to the Dark. It was practically a scene from Return of the Jedi. Kylo kills his master and fights side-by-side with Rey, and for a moment, you think, oh my gosh, Kylo Ren is good, but then he and Rey face off, and he crowns himself Supreme Leader.

Until this movie, Kylo Ren was not a villain. He was an idiot kid who was following the orders of a villain. Now, now he is a proper villain. He killed Han. He killed Snoke. He wanted to kill Luke. He lives to kill anyone who is powerful enough to challenge him/tell him what to do, and I think that now includes Rey. He shows weakness sometimes - he didn’t kill Leia, for instance. But killing Snoke solidifies his place in the dark. It doesn’t redeem him like it did Vader - it just makes him dig in his heels and hurt.

So why, you ask, is this trope-murder so important? Because the entire message of the movie was about two things: moving on from the past, and hope. Moving on from the past I will get to in a second, but as for hope... in order to understand the kind of hope this movie is talking about, you have to understand hopelessness. By taking all of these tropes that help our heroes win and making them into huge defeats were our heroes always lose, the storytellers are showing us what hopelessness really means. It means failure. Luke’s failure, Poe’s failure, Finn’s failure, Rose’s failure, Rey’s failure, Ben’s almost-turn before he becomes the Supreme Leader.

And yet amid that failure, hope. Luke comes back to face Ben. Rey can’t save Kylo, but she can save her friends. Poe was wrong about Holdo, but he’s the one who calls off the charge on the battering ram because he’s learned better. Finn and Rose failed on their mission, but they’ve both learned what the Resistance is for - protecting those you love. They have been beaten, but they are still strong. Their allies are sparse and far-away, but they are not lost. There is hope, even when everything we’ve ever known to hope on is gone. And that is what Star Wars is about.

3. Let the past die

I will keep this bit short. A huge theme in this movie was the passing of the torch from one generation to another. Yoda destroys that old tree that housed the Jedi texts (This was largely symbolic, because we actually see that Rey has the Jedi texts aboard the Falcon at the end of the movie) to show Luke that it’s not about the Order, it never has been. It is about light, and balance, and hope.

Luke’s final showdown with Kylo is partially about him finishing his own arc, but is also about him formally passing the torch to Rey. It is only then that he can leave, much like Ben and Yoda did before him, once they had passed the torch to him. Anakin/Luke/Rey’s lightsaber was destroyed, but Rey kept the pieces and, significantly, the crystal. The characters must learn to learn from the past but let it go, because it is, no matter what, the past.

Even we as the audience have to let the past die by letting go of the formulas and tropes that got us through the Original Trilogy - see about some of these tropes above.

And it hurt to see the past die. I cried so much in this movie. But it would have been inappropriate to hang onto it. That is, after all, the Jedi way.

4. We have no clue what is going to happen

A friend of mind put it pretty well when she pointed out that, if we’re comparing the sequel trilogy to the original trilogy, The Last Jedi is basically a condensed version of both The Empire Strikes Back as well as The Return of the Jedi smushed together. We get a mentor training the next Jedi, a few fatalistic battles against the big bad, but most vitally, the emperor is killed by his own apprentice. But The Last Jedi breaks with the OT in significant ways: the dark apprentice isn’t redeemed. Our Jedi still hasn’t come into herself. The rebellion is still on the decline. The mentor is gone, the dark apprentice did not turn back to the light to help fight evil, and everything is still up in the air.

And we, as Star Wars fans, have no clue what is supposed to happen next. The Force Awakens was, as many disgruntled fans complained, essentially a reshoot of A New Hope. But The Last Jedi does what ESB and RoTJ do, but twists the plot and the characters to create something new an unfamiliar - but no unwelcomingly so.

I was not alive for the original release for the original trilogy, but I cannot help but wonder if this is what it felt like after everyone saw Empire for the first time and wondered: Darth Vader is Luke’s dad??? Ben and Yoda are dead? Who is the other Skywalker?? Han is dead????

We have no leads. We have no blueprint to follow. And as terrifying as that is, I am really looking forward to whatever comes next.

To end, I just wanted to share the times where I shed actual tears:

When Rose’s sister died

When R2 played back Leia’s message from ANH

When Luke explained what happened with Kylo, about him being a “frightened boy”

When Luke said goodbye to Leia

When Holdo said goodybe to Leia

When Luke died

The dice that Luke took from the Falcon

The credits - specifically, when they dedicated the movie to “Our Princess Carrie Fisher” and played Leia’s theme

And a few of my favorite things

“I have an important message for him... about his mother”

“Do you think you got him?”

Rose being star struck by Finn until she realizes he’s trying to desert. What a statement of character!

“I know what you’re going to say. I changed my hair.” “It looks good like that.”

“See you around, kid.”

The whole “reach out” scene. Rey, you dumb little cinnamon roll I love you

The porgs. They’re a money grab, I know, but... okay, they’re working.

HOLDO. FREAKING HOLDO. She was a brilliant character.

“I’ve seen your daily routine. You’re not busy.”

The scene with Yoda. God, I’m so happy they brought the puppet back. Bless you, Frank Oz.

Holdo’s light speed jump, A.K.A. the most beautiful shot in a movie that I’ve seen in a long time.

The entire scene with Ben, Rey, and Snoke

The framing of Ben and Rey as the Force’s version of Yin and Yang

THE FIGHT. YOU KNOW THE ONE. THE FIGHT. IT WAS PERFECT.

“If you strike me down in anger, I’ll still be with you, just like your father.” Like DAMN Luke

THE KID AT THE END WITH THE BROOM AND THE RING?? AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW HIM USE THE FORCE?!??!??!

Okay about that FIGHT again, can we talk about how beautiful, symbolic, and poetic it was that the pull between light and dark literally ripped Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber in two? I was having Mortis flashbacks.

I really loved this movie, and it saddens me that not everyone did.

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

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geekmystic · 6 years

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The Fool’s Journey in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy - Part 4

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5

Summary: The Hermit // Wheel of Fortune // Justice // The Hanged Man

The Hermit

It doesn’t get much more blatant than that. The Hermit card is also called The Monk, The Sage, and Time. He stands on a mountaintop. This mountaintop should also remind you of the mountains in the background of The Fool as well as the mountains pictured on The Lovers and Strength. Those mountains are the heights of Ahch-To. As the Fool, Rey dreamed about this place. Meeting her lover on Takodana, she is reminded of it again. And she is probably remembering her dream again and how Kylo Ren pulled it from her during her battle in the snow. Now, we are finally on this mountain.

I think the symbolism is pretty obvious. A Hermit or Monk is someone who isolates themselves to exclusively pursue knowledge of Heaven/God/Spiritual Realities. The Fool, upon realizing that such things even exist, and upon realizing that he is sensitive to these things, seeks rigorous knowledge of how to interact with these things.

Ben’s line echoes here. “You need a teacher!” Rey has learned that, not only is the Force real, she is very sensitive to it. She needs the advice of someone who has trained and studied the ways of the Force. So she seeks Luke Skywalker, not only to bring him to the resistance, but to get his training and advice.

Luke, in The Last Jedi, is on a very anti-religion rant. There is a difference between religion and spirituality. One adage I like is “Religion is a man in church thinking about fishing. Spirituality is a man fishing thinking about God.” Religion, for me personally, is “I do XYZ so God will love me.” while Spirituality is “God loves me so I’ll do XYZ.” Religion puts the cart before the horse so to speak. The Jedi were no different. The Jedi, having eschewed all attachments, lost their whole purpose for being. They took the Force, boxed it up, imposed an unnatural structure on it and then wondered why it exploded in their faces.

Even before The Last Jedi novel came out, I noted the basic similarities between the old Jedi Order and General Hux’s stormtrooper program. They both took children from their families, brainwashed them into absolute loyalty, and actively discouraged attachment. The end result is that everyone looks the same, talks the same, thinks the same. Think of the stormtrooper armor as the whitewashed tombs that Jesus talks about in the Gospels. Pretty on the outside but dead on the inside.

Unfortunately, Luke comes to this realization a little too late. Another nasty part of Religion is that it ultimately ends in death. “You failed/sinned/fell away so now you must be stoned/burned at the stake/executed.” Luke sensed the darkness in Ben, interpreted it as a personal failure on Ben’s part and was tempted to end it.

Rey ultimately learns from the experience that she is an instrument of the Force, not the other way around. The Force is there to mold her and guide her and teach her. She is not there to mold or guide the Force to her will.

The Hermit carries a lantern lit by the Star of David. Now a traditional symbol of Judaism, it wasn’t always so. It is another duality. The star is made by joining two equilateral triangles. One pointed up and one pointed down. The most basic duality this represents is sexual union. I mentioned before that Ahch-To is full of sexual imagery. The basic idea of sex is the union of opposites. Male/Female, God/Man, Heaven/Earth, Light/Dark, etc…

Wheel of Fortune

With this card, we finally talk about Finn (and Rose). While Rey is off discovering the ways of the Force (and sexuality) and having secret communion with her Emperor, Finn and Rose have their own journey. Our High Priestess sends them off to Canto Bight to find the Master Codebreaker in order to infiltrate the Finalizer. Fitting that our High Priestess makes an appearance as this card again references the Torah just like the scroll she was hiding in her own card.

This card is packed with symbols. The wheel itself contains 1) TARO, 2) TORA, 3) ROTA as well as the Tetragrammaton (the Hebrew letters in between the English letters). The Tetragrammaton is the inexpressible name of God found in the Torah, YHVH. The wheel also contains the alchemical symbols for Sulfur (East), Mercury (North), Salt (West), and Water (South). The wheel itself is comprised of three wheels. There are four creatures inhabiting the corners representing 1) the four elements, 2) the four creatures in Ezekiel’s vision of Heaven (along with angels that are just wheels within wheels), and 3) the zodiac signs Aquarius, Scorpio, Leo, and Taurus. You can also see Typhon on a downward trajectory and Hermanubis on an upward trajectory. We see the sphinx again speaking to the cycles of life.

The alchemical elements mentioned are considered the building blocks of life. Mercury, Suflur, and Salt are symbolically Spirit, Soul, and Body with Water (the feminine) being the avenue through which it all comes into physical being.

At this point in the story, we have discovered that the Resistance is being tracked through hyperspace. Hux explains his tracking system this way: “Our tracking system’s computer network contains millennia worth of data: every after-action report from Imperial history, as well as many from the Republic’s Judicial Forces and Planetary Security Forces. It contains astrogation reports, briefings from scouts and commercial guilds, Separatist intel—” and “Our sensors pinpoint the target’s last known trajectory, and tracking control analyzes it against our data sets. Trillions of potential destinations are sifted and reduced to hundreds, then dozens, and finally one.”

Hux’s philosophy is that the universe is completely deterministic. That is, the wheel within the wheel within the wheel can be modeled using previous data. There are so many algorithms that govern our lives that it would take several lifetimes of study to understand them all. Some are intuitive and some involve complex statistical models. (Hux being a statistician just makes too much sense. Statistics is the dark side of Mathematics.:D) Hyperspace tracking is the equivalent of “How did Facebook know I was thinking about that?”

As always, the universe loves to throw curve balls. The universe contains no true randomness but is also not completely deterministic. Maz continually talks about luck in The Last Jedi novel. Rose and Finn meet by “Luck” and Maz sends them to a casino. The universe turns and turns. Sometimes you’re moving up. Sometimes you’re moving down. Sometimes you’re stagnant.

Rose’s message to Finn is that things change. Rey will be a different person when she comes back. She’s not romantically jealous of Rey. She’s angry that Finn is not focusing on the big picture. Rey is but one person and the galaxy is burning around them. Rose has lost her home and her sister to war. She can’t afford to narrow her focus to just one person.

The theme of the movie was failure. Sometimes, things happen no matter how prepared you are. The universe’s curveballs can send you spinning in any direction. The name Canto Bight can be defined this way. Canto, like incantation, can mean words or song which is also one way to define the word “universe”. Bight is a geographical term for a curve or recess in a coastline. It can also mean a curve in a length of rope. Canto Bight is literally a curve in the universe. It’s lesson is to roll with change and to be flexible.

Justice

While the Wheel of Fortune spins, Justice comes along to make course corrections. Here we have a figure in a red robe sitting in front of a purple veil. This echoes the High Priestess imagery. The sword in her hand represents victory and the scales represent balance.

Admiral Holdo is dressed in purple but her people traditionally wear red. Her and Leia (another High Priestess archetype) are best friends. With our High Priestess incapacitated, she steps in to lead. Her style is very different. She takes Poe’s demotion very seriously. She does not forget those who died on Poe’s reckless destruction of the dreadnought. In her speech, she tells us, “Look around you. Four hundred of us on three ships. We are the last of the Resistance, but we’re not alone. In every corner of the galaxy, the downtrodden and oppressed know our symbol and they put their hope in it. We are the spark that will light the fire that will restore the Republic.”

Several times, Poe remarks that she doesn’t see the hopeless look on the crew’s faces. Justice is blind. Justice has a plan. Justice needs everyone to do as they’re told. The character is frustrating, not only to Poe, but to those who want a flashy action movie. However, people miss the fact that this is modern myth, not a simple shoot-em-up narrative. Myth requires our heroes to learn something in their adventures, not just slay the dragon and go home. Poe is learning patience, restraint, and to let someone else lead. Sometimes you make the plans. Sometimes you just need to follow orders. Balance.

It is at this time in the movie that Rey is learning about Luke’s betrayal and begins to understand Ben. Finn is learning about the child slaves on Canto Bight (and elsewhere) and begins to find a purpose for his life.

The Hanged Man

The story of the Hanged Man is that of changing your perspective. The card pictures a young man hanging upside from a cross made of living wood. The cross evokes the World Tree with roots in the underworld and branches that stretch to the Heavens. The young man is enlightened by the experience. This card is associated with Neptune, god of the sea.

Rey, after her conversation with a certain shirtless space prince and her illusion of the perfect and wise Master shattered, decides to investigate the cave she saw during her first Jedi lesson. Luke had told her it was the dark side calling her. But Luke was turning out to an unreliable narrator. She cautiously approaches the opening of this cave but as she bends down to peer inside, she is pulled in. She is plunged into a deep pool of water and emerges to see a translucent wall, a dark mirror, almost like the background of the card.

She had been told the dark side would give her something she wanted. And all she wanted was to see her parents. She wanted to know where she came from, where her powers come from, what her place is in the unfolding story of the First Order and Resistance. And the answer that comes back is less than satisfactory. This card is about the dissolution of ego. Rey wanted to say that she came from a long line of force sensitives like Luke, that she was a lost princess like Leia. But the answer is that she is just… here. And her place in the story is whatever she decides.

I’ve been writing an Esther/Hadassah AU. Esther was a Jewish girl kidnapped and forced to marry the King of Persia. But she finds out about a plan to commit genocide against her people and decides to persuade the king to stop it. I’m reminded of Mordecai’s speech to Esther as she prepares to speak to the king. “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Like Esther, Rey’s story is not set in stone. She has a choice to make. She is not bound by familial/royal obligations like Ben is. Yes, she is the response of the Light to the growing Darkness. But the Light could call any number of people. If Rey hides, the Light will just call another forward. But Rey herself, as well as the Resistance, would likely perish. This is not about who came before you or who will come after you. What will YOU do with the power you’re given?

We’ll see her response to this in the card called Temperance.

Previous // Next

#reylo #meta #rey #ben solo #save ben solo #tarot #fool's journey

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karatam · 6 years

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random thoughts on The Last Jedi

Putting this under a cut and also will some blank space in case it doesn’t work on mobile

/ /

Okay hopefully that’s enough

So, I really liked the movie. It was fun and engaging and a little unexpected

one of the big things about this movie is that it basically looked at all those neatly packed questions and mysteries from The Force Awakens and tossed half of them out the window while saying “eh, we didn’t really need those anyways”

so things like Rey’s parents, which everyone has been obsessing over, turned out not to even be a reveal to Rey herself

Snoke was just an evil Force user who wanted power (and not a tiny tiny alien like I had half hoped)

Luke really did leave because he felt he had failed everyone destroyed his own life’s work

it was also very funny! like, I was laughing pretty hard and pretty often

I really liked the growth of Poe Dameron from the hot shot pilot to real leader

bc his brand of “blowing shit up” really does have a very useful place in a war, but he was too willing to sacrifice himself and others for glory rather than retreat to protect the long goal

and having Holdo (aka Laura Dern, who was wonderful) across from him was great

from Poe’s initial reaction, we got exactly what his problem was going to be in this film. he looked at her, in a dress with jewelry, and said that she was not what he expected from a war hero, because his definition of a hero was very narrow and was entirely entwined with violence and blowing shit up

so having him fail was necessary, as he was able to learn from it, that sometimes a retreat is just as necessary and heroic as fighting to the last

and oh Finn and Rose, going to a place where the rich get richer and being able to see all those who get stepped on and pushed down so the rich can stay on top

Rose and her sister made me cry, as did Rose giving up that medallion just for the chance to be able to save the fleet

being able to inspire those kids, “the spark that will light the fire of the rebellion”

Finn being able to face down Captain Phasma and respond with “Rebel scum” with pride

Finn also immediately wanting to know where Rey is and then wanting to go looking for her or at least give her a signal to come back to that’s safe

also, they’re v cute

there is a lot of Kylo Ren, no getting around that he has a lot of screen time, but I think it works

bc even tho Rian Johnson’s comments before the movie came out had me worried, the movie didn’t seem to buy into what Kylo was selling

a large part of this is because we finally got Luke back (more on him later) to tell his side of why Ben Solo turned himself into Kylo Ren

it allows us to understand the boy, but still think the man that boy grew into is a monster

esp since that boy then went and immediately murdered a bunch of children. hard to come back from

the ‘connection’ between Rey and Kylo ended up just being a trick anyways and despite turning on Snoke, Kylo never intended on trying to redeem himself. it was all about grabbing more power, about proving that he was more powerful than Snoke, that he was the true leader of the first order. it wasn’t about feeling guilty about everything he had done or wanting to turn back toward the light, and it wasn’t about Rey

that whole fight was great tho

oh Luke

I can understand why people (esp those familiar with the expanded universe) would be unhappy here, but for me, it worked because Luke was heartbroken and guiltridden

he felt that he had betrayed his family, his students, and the galaxy, he felt that in his hubris he had built the man who would destroy the galaxy and that he would only ever do more harm than good

and then seeing that raw power in Rey again and to see her be tempted by the dark side, it brought back the very worst memories

so for him to take one last stand and give the resistance enough time to retreat through the mountains, against the man who is his greatest failure, that took courage. the kind of courage we’ve always known he’s had

Rey’s arc is the one main character arc that I think will really benefit from the next movie

because I did enjoy her coming to the realization that it’s not the family who abandoned her that defines who she is and where she belongs, she was the one who raised herself in the desert and she is the one who can connect with the force

this really fit with Luke’s insistence that the Jedi do not have sole ownership of the force, that it exists in everyone and everything

the universe didn’t need another Skywalker, the force awoke in her

I also enjoyed that we got to see her being tempted by the dark side

Rey has always been full of anger (righteous anger mostly, but still) and also an urge to act, so it makes sense that the dark side could be alluring in its power

but even as that happens, she uses her anger to try and protect others, to become someone she believes the resistance needed (for a misguided while she thought that it was Ben Solo they needed, but no, it was Rey herself)

but overall her arc felt incomplete

I think this is largely because hers was so tied to the Luke v Kylo plot, and so it was overshadowed

and since a) Luke wasn’t going to head out on his own and b) Kylo/Snoke didn’t know where Luke was, the film relied on Rey to help set up their final confrontation instead

and I do really wish we could have had more Rey and Finn onscreen together, because they are a great duo and I love them

I also liked her quiet moment with Leia at the very end

oh and lifting rocks with the force after all

which, it is very obvious that each movie was supposed to have one of the original trio at its centre. TFA had Han, TLJ has Luke, and Ep9 was supposed to have Leia. I really hope they continue with this plan, even though we lost Carrie Fisher, because Leia deserves it. she’s been the heart of the Republic all her life and I hope the next film is able to honor that properly

now, this film is also probably a bit too long at 152 minutes and could have cut some stuff in the middle where it began to lag a bit (like, did they really need benicio del toro? perhaps not)

overall, very enjoyable and I honestly think I’d like it even more upon a rewatch

idk, I liked it

#is there a way to keep things out of the tracked tags these days?#TLJ spoilers #The Last Jedi spoilers #The Last Jedi #star wars #star wars spoilers

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hannibaltabu · 6 years

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"Amazing. Everything you said in that sentence was wrong."

I just got done listening to the Mr. MoKelly spoiler-filled Nerdcast on Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

I was supposed to be on the podcast (and I was counted near the end), but I had to appear on a special edition of the Hall H Show podcast to promote the brand new Black Com!x Day in San Diego, February 17, 2018. I love Mo and Tawala, I love Star Wars and I love Nerdcast but this was about promoting independent Black comics, a financial benefit for me, so I had to make a call. Plus, my wife is in Cuba and couldn't pick up my youngest from Shakespeare rehearsal on this side of town, since the Nerdcast is in Burbank.

Regardless, I liked The Last Jedi even more after seeing it twice, and the following -- like the Nerdcast itself -- will be chock full of spoilers. If you have not seen the movie, you might wanna move on. Unlike their show, mine will have no profanity. Most of what I have to say will be a rebuttal, so I'll start with a declarative statement:

I can admit it's not an amazing movie, but I really thought it was a fantastic Star Wars movie. I liked.

... and then ...

Still amazing after the second screening. I'm in Normas Lee happy with this film.

iOS dictation made that weirder than I intended, but whatever. That was supposed to be "enormously happy."

Okay, here we go ...

Mo said there was nothing quotable about The Last Jedi. Ignoring the title of this post there was ...

"This isn't gonna go the way you think!" (used a lot with my kids already)

"The greatest teacher, failure is."

"He's a troublemaker. I like him."

"Hope is like the sun. If you only believe in it when you can see it ..." "... you'll never make it through the night."

"I'd like to put my fist through this whole awful, beautiful city." (may have missed a word on this one)

"Permission to jump in an X-Wing and go blow something up?"

"I really don't want to do this right now."

"... I'll hold."

I was cracking up too hard to get the "Have you seen some weakness in my apprentice?" speech.

Mo said, "We know nothing about Rey."

Kylo made her admit the truth: her parents were not some cosmic royalty. They were not high ranking Jedis. They were civilians, normal jerks. The darkness rose, so the Force -- always making Force sensitive children -- dumped a bungload of midi-chlorians (or whatever) into Rey and made her powerful. The stable hand boy with Rose's ring on the casino world could be next, as he already has control over some of his telekinesis.

This fits Disney's mold incredibly well, making Rey a new everywoman heroine. Anyone can be this powerful. It could be you. That is gonna sell a bungload full of merch.

Mo said: "We learned nothing about this principle cast."

Finn has been hugged twice in his life now and kissed once, leading him to do all kinds of crazy and sometimes stupid things. About 2/3 of the way in, he grew up a little, and beating Phasma freed him from a lot

Poe Dameron was not a believer, he was a gun set in one direction. In a different world, he could have been the most dangerous pilot in the First Order's apparatus. It took a lot for him to start to mature so he could lead instead of just fighting, which he did mostly because of his parents (as seen in the Marvel comic).

Leia wants to pass the mantle of leadership on to Poe, her new "son," into whom she has poured all her lost hopes from Ben Solo. That tragic tale led her to do all kinds of interesting things, from demoting him to stunning him.

We got a LOT from Rose, who grew up poor, lost everything to the First Order, lost her sister fighting back, was inspired by Finn, who she had a crush on and then had to deal with the real guy, then saw that she still was attracted to him once he tried to not be the idiot he's been for so long. She was likened to Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim, which I thought was a spot on analysis by Thomas Cunningham the 4th (we're rarely on the same side, so this was weird).

Ben Solo never had a chance. He had too many expectations heaped on his shoulders, was too powerful and had a master who knew too little. He got the Obi-Wan treatment and it ended essentially the same way, with him under the sway of a powerful, organized Dark Side user.

Luke was broken by every failure in his life. He accomplished exactly two things in his whole life -- the first Death Star at Yavin and "allegedly" turning Vader (which no one can prove, honestly). He failed his sister, he failed his friend, he failed his nephew -- all at the same time -- and wasn't man enough to do anything about it, instead pointing to his organization's history as a precedent for him to give up. Sadly, that fits whiny farm boys from Tattooine (who either failed into the Dark Side or this) and Mark Hamill acted his butt off in this role.

Leia had become everybody's favorite auntie, as quoted and shown in the reverence she's showed by everyone on screen. She played the role well, from "I changed my hair" to shooting Poe to revealing Holdo's plan.

The casino sequence got Finn to his resolution with Phasma and swings the camera to the new Force sensitive kid. That doesn't happen without the casino scene. Saying it was a dumb sidequest ignores the plot's development.

Tawala is mad at the X-Wing working so well on the dreadnaught, ignoring the fact that the large scale, shock and awe philosophy of the Empire (sampled enthusiastically by the Cosplay Empire, also known as the First Order, but never really played originally by the latter) has a well documented weakness against snub fighters. The First Order are so hell bent on recreating the Empire that they didn't learn anything, which makes the Yoda quote even more interesting. The Jedi failed. The Republic failed twice. The Sith failed. The Empire failed. The First Order ain't doing so well. What is the galaxy trying to teach its inhabitants that they're not hearing? That's the question that most haunts me from this film.

Likewise, Tawala asked why not send in a fleet of X-Wings. The Resistance was on the ropes. They lost ALL their bombers in one run on a single dreadnaught, which wasn't even the biggest thing the Kuat Shipyards ever built (the Eclipse was much longer, dunno if bigger). The Dreadnaught was a fleet killer -- and against capital ships, that's likely true. They could barely field the fighters they had.

Mo said, "There's no gravity in space." There is gravity in the bombers. Momentum would carry the bombs through the vacuum. I was more mad that the bombers were so slow.

Tawala is mad about Rey's dream sequence from The Force Awakens not matching the recollections of two people who were actually there. That's illogical. The dream sequence was an interpretation of the facts, not a retelling of it. Many on the podcast kept trying to say The Force Awakens is a factual recollection of events. That's clearly -- based on this -- not true. Despite the fact that it doesn't matter, based on new canon from the Darth Vader Marvel comic, lightsabers turn red when they are bloodied in anger.

The emperor's "As I have foreseen" was not prescience it was psychology. The Dark Side cannot be reliably used for information. Tawala and Mo misunderstand how the Emperor worked. His myth was way bigger than his actual ability. All of the movies have proven that Dark Side users are limited in their ability to gain knowledge and prescience from the Force.

Mo judging Snoke by the Emperor's yard stick is not judging this movie on its own terms. Snoke was what he needed to be. Historically, I want to know where he was around Endor and what he was doing, but I can move on now without questioning it, despite his vast power.

I can also tell my Star Wars Ring Theory link didn't get absorbed by the class here ... if you love Star Wars you should check it out, it messes with your understanding of a lot, especially the prequels.

It takes maybe 60 seconds for a non-powered person to die in vacuum. For the daughter of Vader to telekinetically figure how to save herself in that amount of time is not implausible. Leia's force abilities already shown? Communication across distances, sensing the safety of her brother from a distance. This isn't that big a leap for someone of her heritage given how far Rey got without training.

Someone wondered why Yoda's Force ghost wasn't fighting the First Order. Yoda is free from the cycle of life's struggles. He needed to teach one last lesson to his final student. To say he should fight the First Order after he already died is illogical, even if there was a powerful enough Force user in the Resistance who could reach him. You also forget the Bindu, which was a largely spiritual creature, could use lightning as a weapon too.

"Face" /= kill. Tawala forgot that in ROTJ Yoda told Luke he must "face" Vader before he could become a Jedi. Luke (like Tawala) misunderstood and said, "I can't kill my father" or something. You forget that Jedi lie and misdirect a lot. Spirit, come on, guys, this is stuff in movies we've seen a million times.

Mo thinks that he was cheated because he didn't know why everyone was after Luke as a non-factor. If Malcolm X or Marcus Garvey magically appeared today and went to the middle of Times Square to start speaking through my mobile 15" speaker, it would galvanize a freaking nation and terrify the power structure. Luke the Jedi wasn't the threat and even Luke said that. Luke the Legend was what Snoke had to stop, what Kylo had to exceed, what Leia wanted to manipulate. The Legend could inspire, could sway worlds and systems to resist. Luke the Jedi was just moderately successful. He was nobody's #1 seed. He was a Cinderella story wild card winner.

I will admit to wondering why no star destroyers went to lightspeed away and then jumped back in front of the Rebels until I remembered that Hux is literally bad at everything he does.

"Two hours in the middle" doesn't give credit to the entertaining dialogue, doesn't give credit to the time for character development for Poe under Holdo's stoicism, doesn't count Leia's "you made me get out of this bed" and shooting her favorite boy ... tripping, Tawala.

Tawala asked about arms purchasing but doesn't know that the Empire worked with the Mining Guild and the Banking Clans even after the New Order was established. Likewise, comics canon show that the Empire subcontracted a lot of weapons development, as does the Tie Defender program on Lothal.

Rick asked how Benicio del Toro (or as Mo called him, "Benicio del Lando," which was fair) knew about the small ships. While Poe was trying to mutiny, he told Finn about them while Benicio was hacking the door. Rick apparently missed that.

IN SUMMATION:

My final ranking of all the Star Wars films based on my tastes.

Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

Episode 8: The Last Jedi

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

Episode 4: A New Hope

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

Rogue One

...

Episode 7: The Force Awakens, or whatever

Ideologically, the BBC's Will Gompertz wrote a review I pretty much agreed with that summed up my thoughts.

These are my opinions. In the immortal words of the philosopher Robert Ginyard, "you don't like it, so what? I don't care."

#starwars #thelastjedi #mrmokelly #review #movie #rey #kyloren #lukeskywalker #leia

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junker-town · 7 years

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WWE SummerSlam 2017: The full rundown and why you should care

This iteration of SummerSlam has real potential to be memorable for years to come.

SummerSlam is going to be real long. It also should be real good! Just know going in that, as one of WWE’s Big Four events, SummerSlam is going to be four hours long — six hours with the full pre-show that will include three matches. That’s what happens when you’re a show that isn’t exclusive to one of WWE’s two main brands, though.

This should be a show that changes much in the WWE landscape, and helps set the company on its course for WrestleMania 34 next April. SummerSlam, then Survivor Series, then Royal Rumble, then Mania: the last is still a ways off, but the first seeds of stories that might grow by Mania will be planted at the Barclays Center on Sunday night, starting at 7 p.m. ET.

“The Demon” Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt

What am I looking at here? Finn Balor hasn’t used his Demon persona very much on the main roster of WWE — thank injury and a lack of high-profile matches since said injury for that. Bray Wyatt tormented Balor into unleashing the Demon, though, to the point that WWE is making a point of saying that that’s the version of Finn we’ll be seeing at SummerSlam.

Why you should care: Well, Finn has stepped up his game since returning from the injury that made him give up the Universal Championship the day after winning it at SummerSlam one year ago, but he hasn’t had many spotlight opportunities that let him build on that momentum. Wyatt, in theory, should be one of them, given he was WWE Champion earlier this year. “In theory” is the key part there, as Wyatt hasn’t been reliable in the ring for much of 2017, outside of the match that won him the title in the first place.

Big Show vs. Big Cass with Enzo Amore suspended above the ring in a shark cage

What am I looking at here? Big Cass turned on Enzo Amore, and while he was a real jerk about it, it was also totally understandable: Enzo is annoying as heck and doesn’t have an off button and you’d get tired of him, too. Hell, Enzo is the wronged party and face in this match, and he’s the one suspended in a shark cage so he can’t interfere and/or be annoying.

Well, okay, maybe he can still be annoying depending on if he brings a mic into the cage with him or not. Please don’t let Enzo bring a mic into the cage.

Oh, and Big Show is here fighting for Enzo because Cass tried to implicate Show into the backstage beatdowns of Enzo that Cass was responsible for.

Why you should care: This should be the end of Cass vs. Show and also Cass/Enzo as a story, and it’s about time. It’s certainly worked to put over Cass as a jerk and make Enzo sympathetic to an audience that had been trained to not feel bad for him anymore, but it’s also time to move on and see what solo Cass and solo Enzo are going to be like.

Randy Orton vs. Rusev

What am I looking at here? Randy Orton is no longer in the WWE Championship feud after losing a whole bunch of times to Jinder Mahal, but he’s far too big a star to not be on a SummerSlam card if he’s healthy. Rusev never got a chance at the WWE Championship, and he’s not the kind of star Orton is, but he’s too talented to not be on a SummerSlam card if he’s healthy. So, here we are. Rusev wanted a challenge, Orton answered the challenge, and the feud doesn’t really go beyond that.

Why you should care: Sure, there’s little story buildup, but it’s too good wrestlers wrestling to prove that one of them is better than the other. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Natalya vs. Naomi (c) for the SmackDown Women’s Championship

What am I looking at here? For one, I’m much more excited about SummerSlam than my reactions to the first few matches listed indicates. It’s not my fault that the ones I’m most lukewarm about also happen to be the first three WWE put on their card. Part of that excitement here stems from WWE finally deciding to put one-on-one title matches on major cards for the women instead of just lumping them all together to get everyone on the show. Natalya won a number one contender’s match, so she’s facing Naomi. Simple, sure, but that can work when it comes to championship bouts.

Why you should care: Naomi was the only face champion in WWE for months and months, and has managed to hold on to her title despite the entire division gunning for her and the existence of the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank briefcase holder, Carmella. Natalya has never won a WWE Women’s Championship — she’s a one-time Divas Champion, and that was all the way back in 2010. That has a lot to do with how WWE (unsuccessfully) utilized their women wrestlers for years, but regardless of the why, Natalya is overdue both for a chance and for a championship.

And, as mentioned, Carmella having the Money in the Bank briefcase, which allows her to cash in and fight for the SmackDown Women’s title at a time of her choosing, means that Naomi or Natalya just might end up fighting two matches for the championship in one night.

Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss (c) for the RAW Women’s Championship

What am I looking at here? Bayley was supposed to be the challenger to Alexa Bliss’ title, but a (legitimate) shoulder injury put her out of commission for SummerSlam. Sasha Banks ended up winning her way to the vacated slot following that injury, and that’ll work just fine, too, since Sasha and Alexa have already matched up in the past and have bad blood between them as well.

Why you should care: Sasha Banks seems to have wonderful in-ring chemistry with basically everyone — Bayley, Charlotte, Nia Jax, and Alexa Bliss, too. Alexa continues to improve and is already the first-ever woman to hold both the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships — Banks might end up being her greatest rival for one or both of those titles when their careers are all said and done. This could be a pretty big deal both now and later, and just like with SmackDown’s Women’s title, it’s also unclear who is going to walk out of Barclays as champion Sunday.

Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro and Sheamus (c) for the RAW Tag Team Championships

What am I looking at here? Cesaro and Sheamus are great at beating the heck out of everyone, but they might have gotten themselves involved in something they can’t handle by beating on Ambrose and Rollins. Dean and Seth, former Shield mates who have understandable trust issues given Rollins’ betrayal of Ambrose years ago, finally seem united thanks to having a common foe: they wouldn’t, if Cesaro and Sheamus hadn’t interrupted the two working out their issues with each other, giving their fists somewhere else to land.

WWE.com

Why you should care: Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are together again, and against one of the best pairings of wrestlers in a tag team in years. If Ambrose wins the tag titles, he’ll also be the 16th Grand Slam champion ever, as he’s already been WWE Champion, United States Champion, and Intercontinental Champion. Rollins will be a two-time tag champ if this happens — he and Roman Reigns were the Shields’ two-man tag team, with Ambrose the singles star at the time — and he’s an Intercontinental run away from joining Ambrose in the rare ranks of Grand Slam champs.

The glory of Rollins and Ambrose reuniting is the real story here, but hey, when some history can also be made, you have to recognize it. Especially history that the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton and Undertaker haven’t managed.

Since you’re wondering, Roman Reigns, like Rollins, is also just an IC reign away from a Grand Slam. Those Shield boys sure are something.

Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles (c) for the United States Championship with special guest referee Shane McMahon

What am I looking at here? Kevin Owens and AJ Styles have traded the United States Championship back and forth for a few months now. Owens feels he’s been treated unfairly by officials, so SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan suggested Shane McMahon as the impartial referee. The thing about Shane as an impartial referee, though, is that his history suggests he’s anything but in that role, and he’s got historic beef with both Owens and Styles.

Why you should care: Owens vs. Styles is a good matchup with nothing else added to it. Having Shane McMahon as the special guest referee, though, adds another wrinkle: Owens and Styles have both inadvertently attacked Shane in segments building to this fight, and even if Shane does happen to be impartial here, there is the possibility that Owens or Styles misinterpret his actions and start a feud directly with Shane O’Mac.

John Cena vs. Baron Corbin

What am I looking at here? These two were already set to face each other, and then Baron Corbin interrupted John Cena against Jinder Mahal on this past week’s episode of SmackDown by attacking Cena. Corbin then attempted to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase on WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, but failed — Mahal took advantage of Corbin trying to make sure Cena couldn’t interfere, and Corbin’s guaranteed shot came and went in seconds.

Why you should care: Cena hasn’t won a SummerSlam match since 2010, and it feels like this is going to be the one that ends that drought. With that being said, though, Corbin could use a win after his embarrassing defeat and loss of the Money in the Bank briefcase, so maybe we’ll see his anger at his own failure show up in this match and drive him to victory over a possibly overconfident Cena.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship

What am I looking at here? This is Shinsuke Nakamura’s first attempt at the WWE Championship, and it puts an end to the overdone USA vs. Not USA feuds they’ve had going on for too long on SmackDown of late. So, even if the match itself doesn’t end up being great, we’ve got that going for us.

Jinder Mahal’s reign as champ has actually been pretty good outside of the impossible-to-be-good Punjabi Prison match, and it seems as if he’s over as a heel with the crowd now. Nakamura might need the good match more here, as he’s kind of been reduced to mostly an impressive entrance on the main roster of WWE — maybe that will change in a title match, and we’ll see a Nakamura more like the one everyone was expecting WWE had signed.

It’s too soon to panic about all that, but if we get more of the same from Nakamura here despite the stage and stakes, that... won’t be encouraging.

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman vs. Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar (c) in a Fatal Four Way for the WWE Universal Championship

What am I looking at here? So. Much. Beef.

Why you should care: Listen, I could get all descriptive about what matters about this match and what it could do to change WWE’s main event landscape if Brock Lesnar were to lose the Universal Championship and bail on WWE for UFC (at least for a little while). I could talk about how, if Braun Strowman wins, it seals the deal for him as the monster of WWE. Or how about Roman Reigns finally surviving a bout with Brock Lesnar shows that it’s not just Goldberg who can do so, or how Samoa Joe really was as close to winning against Lesnar a month ago as he tells us he was.

Or! I could just reiterate that the ring is going to have Reigns, Strowman, Joe, and Lesnar together all at once, and there is no version of Lesnar more motivated than the one who gets to beat on multiple dudes at the same time while having to watch his back. Like I said before: So. Much. Beef.

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