#yoda told him do or do not and luke took that literally | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leresq · 6 months

Text

Rewatching the Sequels; some notes

The sequels do a good job of showing how brutal the First Order is in a way the original trilogy never showed. These are supposed to be space not-sees and the sequels were the first to display their cruelty

Watch the Stormtrooper Paradox on YouTube, it explains my shared gripe of the idea that First Order stormtroopers are child soldiers being brushed off.

Kylo Ren is cool idgaf what anyone says. Phasma is cool. Hux is cool. Pryce is cool. The Praetorian Guard are cool. If you disregard everything else about Snoke he's cool. Btw they wasted Smoke, it would have taken one writers' meeting to come up with something better.

I didn't like how the Mandalorian just took Baby Yoda out of the plot line I thought wrapped everything up nicely but now I realise if Baby Yoda stayed with Luke then the implication is Ren killed him so nvm :)

Dave Filoni's work is really helping bridge the gap between the original and sequel trilogies

The battle of Crait although just a rehash of Empire Strikes Back is too cool to discount

The fact that Poe, Finn, and Rose's plan was the reason nearly half of the transports heading to Crait were destroyed was really interesting. If they hadn't separated they wouldn't have met DJ, and DJ wouldn't have told the First Order the plan. I wish they'd have given some guilt to the characters tho.

Holdo's sacrifice is super cool but I'm not sure about the scientifics of it all.

Being in the way of that battering ram should have given Finn some nasty burns at the very least, it was melting through metal.

Are Force projections mental or visual?? Because Ben and Rey could see each other but I don't think Luke saw Ben in the hut, which means it would have to be mental. Also C3PO saw the projection..? Palpatine had to be connecting Rey and Ben, not Snoke. If someone as powerful as Luke died by projecting himself, then there's no way Snoke would have had the power to connect two entirely different people.

Kylo Ren should have seen that the projection was fake because Luke has his lightsaber, which he snapped in half just thirty minutes ago. It could be miswritten, but I see it as Ren being so enraged that he didn't notice.

I wish they wouldn't have killed Luke, but I thought they did it right. I cried rewatching it, and I've seen the movie three times before this.

"Snoke trained you well." "I killed Snoke. I'll kill you." "You killed Snoke? Damn that's a shame, well good thing I got a jar of them right here!"

I don't mind force healing and blaster freezing, I just wish they'd tuck it into the story more neatly.

They did Rose dirty in ROS

I know Jakku already existed in legends, but Pasaana could have easily been Jakku or Tattooine.

Was the C3PO disrespect supposed to be funny? It wasn't.

Zorii should have died, her surviving literally served no purpose to the story, in fact he death would have served it better.

Domhnall Gleeson's acting is some of the best I've seen in Star Wars.

Rey Palpatine is stupid. It would have been nicer if Rey was just a nobody who became special because of her actions and determination, not bloodline.

Kylo Ren being stabbed by Rey and surviving actually makes sense because I can imagine the wound would be cauterised long enough for Rey to heal it

I think it would have been a satisfactory end if Rey and Ben Solo died

Some people are Finn x Rey, some people are Finn x Rose, we all know the truth is Finn x Poe

It's a shame Daisy Ridley's career hasn't had much luck, she's a good actor.

Rey should have said "Just Rey" in response to the old woman. She's taking agency of her own identity and not letting it be based off what other people tell her. She's not a Solo, she's not a Skywalker, she's not a Palpatine, she's her own person now.

The sequels just seem like they would have been better written by someone on AO3. They're not abysmally terrible, it's just hard to look past their shortcomings. The music, acting, and animation are the best parts.

#star wars #star wars sequels #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker

5 notes · View notes

iverna · 2 years

Note

Loved your post about Star Wars and toxic masculinity. I was just 👏👏👏 This is one problem I have with the sequels and The Book of Boba Fett's portrayal of how Luke sets up his Jedi Academy. Why would he repeat the order's mistakes and insist that Grogu and his nephew suppress their emotions and break attachments? I prefer the novels where Luke rejects the "no emotional attachments" part of the old Jedi code. I think it fits the character and the narrative better.

Aaahhh yes I have so many thoughts about this. All the Disney canon set after the OT seems to just... ignore the lessons of the prequels and their consequences.

And imo those are lessons that Obi-Wan and Yoda actually learned. Obi-Wan literally went from telling Anakin "control your feelings, be mindful of your thoughts" to telling Luke "act on instinct, trust your feelings" - he learned from his mistakes. He realised that the Jedi Order's "no attachment" rules were part of what led to Anakin's downfall. Neither he nor Yoda ever mentioned the "no attachment" thing to Luke. They warned him against confronting Vader when he wasn't ready, but they didn't tell him that he shouldn't care about Han and Leia and just let them go. Compare that to the way Yoda told Anakin to let go of everyone he feared to lose--that's a big shift in tone and message.

Even the fact that they sent Luke and Leia to live with normal people, to have a normal upbringing without any Jedi training. That's completely counter to the Jedi Order's teachings, but they did it. And I think it's because they realised that the problem wasn't that Anakin was too old, the problem was that they took him away from his mother. It's better to let Luke and Leia grow up loved and supported and safe, because that isn't something that actually interferes with Jedi training.

I imagine that Obi-Wan also realised, after everything went wrong, that the no-attachment thing simply... does not work. He was distraught when Qui-Gon died, he was completely destroyed by what happened with Anakin. He had attachments, and Anakin had attachments; the only difference was that Obi-Wan was able to handle everything that came with that in a reasonably healthy way. So maybe it's better to teach people to handle these things in a healthy way than to avoid, aka suppress, them.

And sure, the OT was filmed first, and most of the books were written pre-PT, and Lucas probably didn't know about the Jedi Order's rules yet. BUT. He still reverse-engineered them that way for the PT, knowing that it would contradict what's in the OT, knowing that Luke's Jedi training would be different from the official doctrine. So he still did that on purpose. Because that's the message. Suppressing emotions is bad, trusting them is good.

Not to mention that the new canon approach is inconsistent with itself. You can't keep the no-attachment rule but then also have Leia marrying Han and having a child with him, and to have that child raised by his parents and then trained by his uncle... I mean, there's attachments right there. The old Order would never have allowed that.

So yeah, I completely agree. Luke is the first of the new Jedi, trained by Obi-Wan and Yoda, who knew all of the old Order rules but left them out. It makes far more sense to have a new Order, where we focus on learning how to have healthy relationships and care about people without obsessing over them, to be in love without becoming co-dependent, to accept loss and grief as a natural part of life and handle it in a healthy way, etc. Emotionally mature people do not let their emotions take over, so they don't fall to the Dark Side. The old Order had become so afraid of the Dark Side that they tried to eliminate emotions, and that just doesn't work. And it's not like Anakin was the first time that approach backfired.

Luke also has his own experiences to draw on. He became strong in the Force by trusting his instincts and his feelings. He learned how to be guided by feelings without letting them take the reins. And he learned that ultimately, it was his father's attachment, that little bit of love that Anakin still had for his children, that saved him, and the whole galaxy. Luke's faith in his friends and in his father, Anakin's love for his son, that's what triumphed over the Emperor. And when you've experienced that it really makes no sense to turn around and say, "right, we're Jedi, so we're not allowed to love, no familial bonds, we're calm emotionless robots." Because Luke never saw the damage that "attachment" (allegedly) wreaked, he just saw how it could make him stronger and save his father and fix everything.

So yes. I am 100% with you on the "Luke Skywalker would never tell anyone not to have friends or family or relationships because that's not what he was taught and those things are what gave him strength and saved the galaxy" hill.

#sw meta #star wars #anti sw st #anti disney sw #SORRY BUT IT MAKES NO SENSE #replies #searchingwardrobes #my opinion

35 notes · View notes

phoenixkaptain · 2 years

Text

Honestly thinking how sad it would be if Luke tried to train all of his students in the traditional, old-fashioned Jedi way because he never got to be trained like that? Like, he wasn’t raised a Jedi and he was just expected to be a Jedi and he actually has no idea what Jedi are even like because his two examples were both hermits who lived secluded from all civilization and spoke in riddles and who didn’t exactly teach him in a way that’s repeatable. Luke had to learn everything about the Jedi himself, and he looks at all of those old stories and old holocrons and he learns about Anakin and he just assumes that it would be so much better if his students learned the way they were “supposed” to.

Like, look. I am one of those people who honestly believe that Luke and Leia are a duo that, when combined, are the most powerful in the galaxy. Like, Anakin was overwhelmed by Force energy, but his children got half of that. And y’know, it’s magic space sci-fi and they’re magic space twins and it just makes sense to me that they’re more powerful together. Like, they’re super powerful apart, but together they’re unstoppable, that sort of thing. And I also believe that, ultimately, what saved Anakin was his attachment to his son and what kept Luke from falling to the Dark Side in the movie was his attachment to Leia and Anakin and so attachment isn’t bad, but rather can be good. I mean, I’ve gone out of my way to criticize the Jedi teachings.

But, would Luke know any of this? Would Luke, who grew up not knowing what a Jedi was and was trained while not knowing what a Jedi was and who tried to go on an adventure to find himself and figure out what a Jedi was, only for it to be repeatedly interrupted by Force Ghost Ben telling him he wasn’t ready every other place he went and Darth Vader sending literally the best bounty hunters to kidnap him. Then, he gets his hand cut off, and I don’t care how much medicine has improved by Star Wars time, there’s no way it didn’t take Luke a while to figure out how to use his prosthetic. And RotJ takes place a year later, so even if Luke only took a month to recover, how long did it take to plan to save Han? To get every piece into place? Surely, it took at least a few months? And that’s a few months of Luke still not knowing what a Jedi is aside from “hermit who speaks in riddles.” Would he really know anything other than what he’s seen and experienced himself?

So, by the time of the Mandalorian, he’s maybe had a few more years to do some research on what being a Jedi is, but look at his experience! He got trained for four years and then was told to face Darth Vader (not even in a fight, just in general, I think, it’s unclear to me) and boom, now you’re a Jedi Master, Luke. Congrats.

The two teachers he had were honestly pretty bad, all things considered. Don’t even try to look me in the eye and tell me that Obi-Wan did not set out on this journey with the intent and knowledge of his own demise. He trained Luke for, maybe, a day or two? He did his best, I’m sure, but he just didn’t have enough time. And what even were Yoda’s lessons? Be patient. Okay. The Force is strong. Cool. Your own powers are more than you might think. Right. Handstands, run around, do some flips, lift some rocks. What?

How can we really expect Luke to be a good teacher at this point? He barely knows what he’s trying to teach! And even if he knows how to do it, that doesn’t mean he knows how to explain it. Has he even ever heard the word “midichlorian?” Like, come on. Give him a break. He saved the galaxy and I’m sure there were a lot of loose ends to tidy up before he was allowed to go off and do Jedi stuff. It just feels unfair to expect him to be a masterful teacher right off the bat, when he didn’t exactly have the best examples. He can’t exactly put himself in a sling and ride around on Leia or Grogu’s back. He’s at a disadvantage, his only real teacher has been himself.

And even if Force Ghost Obi-Wan could help, I don’t think Obi-Wan would want to. Obi-Wan still views the entire situation as himself failing as a teacher. Do we really believe that he’s going to give Luke teaching advice when Obi-Wan doesn’t view himself as a good teacher?

And, I know there’s a lot of discourse over Luke showing Grogu his repressed memories. Horribly scarring a child, okay. But, look at Luke’s history. Leia remembers their mom’s face, but Luke doesn’t know anything about his family for over twenty years. Maybe he was wrong, but I too would assume that others would rather know where they came from, if they could. Maybe he was thinking that he wanted help and could ask Grogu what his teachers did, maybe he was thinking that Grogu would want to know and remember all the things he learned and, more importantly, the people he knew. I don’t know, but it just feels weird to be upset at him for letting Grogu remember these memories. They’re Grogu’s memories!

And, I don’t think repression is actually considered healthy? Like, it helps, sure, but it also means that you have huge blank spaces in your mind and your memory, and that’s sometimes even worse. Yes, Grogu now remembers the genocide of his own people, but wouldn’t he have found out about it anyway? He couldn’t be kept from the knowledge forever. And, isn’t it better to remember this stuff around someone he’s comfortable with? Even if he doesn’t like Luke, he knows he’s safe with him. Wouldn’t it be better to remember these scary things with someone you feel safe around? I don’t know, I just know that I have repressed memories and there are things that make me so uncomfortable and I think “What happened? Why am I like this? Why am I weaker than other people? Why don’t I remember?” and so I think it’s better to remember than to forget. That might just be me. I’ll let everyone defer to their own experiences.

And like, the whole thing where Luke told Grogu to choose between being a Jedi or with his dad.

Luke never got a choice. Luke never got an option. Most Jedi younglings didn’t get a choice, did they? Most of them were just expected to be Jedi or to work in fields or whatever, right? The Jedi had a lot of younglings, and all of them were expected to become Jedi or at the very least work around Jedi. And, leaving the Jedi Order is never brought up as an option. Being forced to leave is brought up, but never someone saying “Hey, I just don’t think being a Jedi is for me. I’m going to go be a florist instead.” Ahsoka leaves after they wrong her, but they wronged her! We don’t see anybody make the decision to leave just because they’ve chosen not to become a Jedi.

So, Luke giving Grogu that option is already breaking the traditions of the Jedi Order, isn’t it? Luke sitting down and telling Grogu that he doesn’t have to be a Jedi is a big thing, I think. He gives him options. And, no other Jedi youngling got that. Anakin certainly never got that. And Luke definitely didn’t get that. Luke is going against the ways of the Jedi simply by acknowledging that a Force-sensitive child who was previously trained to be a Jedi, might not want to be a Jedi. He let’s him choose. He doesn’t try to force him to stay, he doesn’t hide the fact that Din misses him from Grogu, he doesn’t keep Din’s present from Grogu. And he could have, so easily, done any of that. But, instead, he sat down and let Grogu choose.

Also, Grogu’s options being Yoda’s lightsaber and the little shirt from Din are apart of the ongoing theme in the series of “Old ways have to change.” This is Din’s story arc, this is the Galaxy’s story arc, this is a lot of characters’ story arcs. This is a more visual representation of the choice most characters make between staying in the past or moving to the future. And, honestly, neither is really looked down upon, if you think about it. Like, yes, the obvious moral the story pushes is that change is good and change is for the best, but the story also shows us Boba Fett in a positive light. Boba has spent how long trying to get his armour, his past, back? Not just his past, but a past that’s representative of Jango Fett and the countless clones? Boba is remembering the past and still looking to the future and he’s supposed to be a cool guy you want to take advice from.

This is long, I know, and it’s rambly, but I feel a bit bad seeing people badmouth Luke. And it’s just, Luke’s life has always seemed really sad to me! Luke spent the first nineteen years of his life feeling like he was meant to be somewhere else, like he was missing something, and all he wants to do is pilot starships. He says he wants to join flight school for the Empire, but his motivation really is to just fly. That’s all he wants to do. He gets roped into the Rebellion, and of course he supports the cause and the people and wants to help, but they treat him oddly. Like, they don’t seem as concerned about him. When he’s stuck out on Hoth, nobody but Chewbacca, Han, Leia, Artoo, and Threepio seem concerned. They’re the only ones who think “Luke will die if he’s in trouble, this can’t wait until morning” or at least “this shouldn’t wait until morning.”

And of course, there’s the comics. Where he’s treated differently because he’s supposed to be a Jedi. Even as he constantly tells people he isn’t one, they tell him he’s wrong. They tell him “You’re a Jedi” when he says “I’m still just training.” They tell him “You’re a Jedi” even when he says “I don’t know what I am.” Luke never gets a say in it. The Rebellion wants him to be a Jedi and his dad was a Jedi and Ben wanted him to be a Jedi so I guess he’s a Jedi now. He’s a better pilot than ground operative, but Jedi are supposed to be on the ground, so.

His dad is Darth Vader. That sucks. His dad is the reason he has no one to teach him how to do anything, literally. His dad is the reason he no longer has a hand. His dad has killed countless rebels in an attempt to try and capture Luke, and his dad has been doing this for years, and how must that feel? All those people who die, and you know it’s because one man was after you. Not to mention, how must it feel to remember all the times someone likened him to his dad? People tell him constantly that he’s like Anakin. And that must suck, because he knows Anakin became Darth Vader. People are telling a twenty something that he’s like the man who committed genocide against his own people, killed his old master, and commits atrocities because he’s a slave to the Emperor. Wow. Thanks.

Luke just wanted to be a pilot like his dad. That’s all he wanted. Now he’s expected to be a teacher because Yoda told him to be one. Luke didn’t get a choice in anything, he never gets a choice, but he still lets Grogu have a choice, and to me, that means that no matter how anybody talks about it, Luke is still kind and selfless and thinking about everyone except for himself.

Think of it this way. He let his only real, living connection to the Jedi ways of old, his connection to his own father and masters in the past, his first real padawan, someone who reminded him of his own master he looks back on fondly, someone who could help teach him what the Jedi were supposed to be like, someone who was alreayd trained for years to be a Jedi and so is expected to finish the training; he let that kid choose to go back to his dad.

17 notes · View notes

thebirdandhersong · 1 year

Text

1. THINGS THAT WERE BEAUTIFUL AND GOOD:

STUNNING cinematography. The red on white in the battle scene was quite striking.

I thought Finn and Rose being arrested for parking violations was the funniest part of the story

Rey finally gets told to her face that she IS projecting her desire for family on older mentor figures. Will the story do anything with this? Probably not, but it was good for her to have that revelation.

the fact that “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to” (Kylo's line) is deconstructed and proven wrong again and again. The past is not dead and he is unable to kill it--much to his own chagrin. (Figurative and literal.)

the stable boys and stable girls on the casino planet. Especially the scene at the end where the Force-sensitive little boy looks to the stars and holds his broom like a lightsaber. THAT scene was one of the few that really felt like it belonged to Star Wars.

BB8 is always a delight

“The greatest teacher, failure is”

the parts that are actually FUN. Like Yoda giggling and swinging his legs. Like the jail guy (well, at the beginning, anyhow).

Leia is a sort of mother and mentor figure to Rey and Poe, which was really heartwarming to me

Luke kissing Leia on her forehead; Leia’s first words to Luke since her son went bonkers being, “I know what you’re going to say. I changed my hair” and Luke saying that it looked nice this way (these were very sweet scenes and there should've been more Skywalker sibling moments)

2. THINGS THAT WERE UNNECESSARY AND ANNOYING:

too much CG, not enough practical effects

(licks finger) "it's SALT!"

Luke Skywalker's character and everything the plot did with it

the flatness of the characters I thought would be central to the story, namely Finn and Poe

the script. The SCRIPT. The actors carry it. They're such good actors (Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, and Domnhall Gleeson in particular stood out to me here) but they're given so little to work with, which felt like such a waste.

some incredibly bizarre lines that took me straight out of the story (such as Rose's line about the 'lousy beautiful town'

the costume and hair design. Holdo and Rey in particular were quite bizarre to me, as was most of the hair decisions for Rose. I will say prop design was very well done at certain points, though

this is a movie that a lot of children went to see. On account of Star Wars being a franchise that is partially targeted towards a certain audience, who are the main consumers behind SW merchandise and toys, etc. etc. I think this is plenty reason for there NOT to be profanity.

this is also personal preference but I think that shirtless scenes should be killed with fire

Rey is presented in certain scenes as stronger and more impressive than Luke and always surprises him or has the upper hand. This is irritating and does not endear her to the audience in any way. This felt like a different application of killing the past, which I thought was poorly done and a bit disrespectful.

the Finn/Rose romance, which is so uneven and badly delivered. It could've been developed in a believable and organic way. Or they could've kept them as good friends (as Finn grows to appreciate Rose's bravery and gentleness, and Rose starts to see Finn as a human rather than a hero). But this weird middle ground didn't really accomplish anything.

Did I like this movie? Not by a long shot. I was so fed up by the end that I was ready to give up on Star Wars entirely. The last time I felt that level of Kylo Ren-esque rage was after I watched Multiverse of Madness.

But did it make me think? Yes, quite a bit. Mostly about what I didn't like about this movie, but also about what DOES constitute a good, beautiful, meaningful story.

#multiverse of madness made me SO mad that i just never bothered to talk to anyone about it #because the other people who watched it liked it pretty well and i didn't want to be a spewing volcano of rage #tlj liveblog

11 notes · View notes

marierg · 1 year

Text

My Oldest Trooper's reaction to Return of the Jedi

So I will preface with my son has intermittently watched some of the Star Wars movies (the sequels and episodes 1 and 4) growing up but never all the way through. He was more into the series especially Rebels and then Clone Wars. I took my 12 y/o and his assorted buddies to see Return of the Jedi in theaters today and watching their reaction was amazing! To top this off one of the buddies Moms hasn't ever watched Star Wars and came along.... Yeah I know RIGHT!!!! That reaction alone is a separate post!!!!

So here are the Top reactions from the 12 (and 8) y/o troopers (there were 5 in total so its a batch!)

The troopers all agree that Princess Leia is a Bad Ass!!! to quote some:

-she's so pretty and smart I wanna be her! (younger sister of buddy trooper)

-Jabba's such a dick (sorry mom he is!) he tried to keep a person and thats wrong

-Dude she's so strong i can't believe she choked him out!

Reaction to Han Solo

what a bro friend

the humor is strong with him

He's a player! (buddy trooper who reminds me of mini 5's)

Wait Ms. Trooper's mom are he and the princess dating? she's too good for the bro

Reaction to Yoda, and Obi Wan

(yoda's death): hey it's like our teachers right before summer break!

Certain point of view... RIIIIIIIIGHT (buddy trooper with sass for days)

They want him to kill his dad?! that's messed up...

Wait i thought he died? ZOMBIE JEDI!

When my trooper saw the strike team on Endore- "IS THAT REX?! IT'S REX!!!!"

Now my absolute favorite reaction that came directly from MY Trooper. He was so drawn in by Luke trying to save Vader, like the whole time. When Luke was talking with Vader and Vader told him it was too late for him:

"But he's your kid?! Come on you gotta do it for him!"

upon hearing the Emperor tempting Luke- "Friggin dude you gonna let him talk to your kid like that?!!"

Literally my Trooper was on the edge of his seat during the lightsaber duel. and When Vader "Yeeted" the Emperor over the rail all the troopers were on their feet cheering like crazy!

The reaction that killed me though was when Vader lay dying and Luke was talking with him. My Trooper was watching slowly saying "oh no, no no no."

and When Vader Died he had tears in his eyes, like real tears!!! he was crying (mom i wasn't crying) "No he can't die, Luke just got him back! He just got his dad back, nooooo."

Then he saw Force ghost Anakin and he was ok again because no one ever really leaves....

@rain-on-kamino These may give you a giggle!

#star wars #return of the jedi #ahhh my heart #my smol troopers #mark hamill #luke skywalker #harrison ford #han solo #carrie fisher #carrie is queen #princess leia

3 notes · View notes

monamourbladie-mb · 3 years

Text

19 Years Later... (Darth Vader x reader miniseries chapter 1)

19 years have passed since Y/n’s husband Anakin’s death, and she has become the leading General of the newly founded Rebellion alongside her past Jedi friend Obi-Wan Kenobi, now known as Ben Kenobi. When her children Luke and Leia Skywalker gets kidnapped by Darth Vader, the man who killed her husband; her and Obi-Wan Kenobi must come rescue her. But when she finds out who’s behind Darth Vader’s mask, the truth is something she never thought she had to prepare herself for.

——————

Index:

1. prologue

2. chapter 1

3. chapter 2 [Coming soon]

wc: 2.3k

warnings: cursing

——————

Being the leader of the new Rebellion against the evil Galactic Empire had its perks. One of the things that was not a perk, however, was hiding one’s actual name from their people, and past.

None of Y/n’s rebels knew of her past as a former Jedi Knight that fought in the Clone Wars. Though she fought like a cunning warrior, the thought had never once crossed their minds, seeing as all the Jedi were dead.

She had raised her children Luke and Leia with Obi-Wan’s guidance to be trained as Jedi, seeing as both of them were very Force-Sensitive.

Watching Luke wield his father’s lightsaber brought such bittersweet feelings to both old Jedi Knights. Anakin was such a big part of both of their lives, that it was almost painful to see this without him there.

Anakin would be beyond proud of his son and daughter, for sure.

Y/n recalled the first time he and Leia held their lightsabers. They were both 9, the same age their Father was when he was brought him by Qui-Gon Jyn from Tattooine.

Luke had rushed up to Obi’s old trunk excitedly, admiring the strange silver object with big eyes as Leia crowded behind him, “What’s that, Uncle Obi?”

“This is your father’s lightsaber, my dear. He would’ve wanted you to have it,” Obi replied, a sad smile on his face as he held onto the hilt, activating its stellar blue glow.

“This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster—“ Obi handed it to Luke and his eyes widened, waving it around gently so he didn’t break it. “—an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”

“Is it mine?” Luke’s eyes beamed in excitement. Obi-Wan nodded, sitting down as he picked up Leia, putting her on his knee.

“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi were the guardians of peace and justice. The old republic. Before the Empire...” he trailed off, turning his head towards the window.

Y/n rushed into the room, hearing the lightsaber and fearing there was an intruder, “Obi-Wan! What’s going on, I’m—“ she ignited her brilliant (l/c) saber, holding it in a protective stance before she realized it was just Luke. She sighed heavily and disengaged her saber, attaching it back to her belt loop, “Obi, you didn’t tell me you were doing this now...” she crossed her arms.

“Mom! Obi-Wan told me this was Dad’s! Look!” he started swinging it gently, making sure it didn’t hit anyone since he knew how deadly they could be. She began to smile sadly as she remembered a young Anakin as a padawan, rushing in to show her his lightsaber he constructed the day he finally got one.

She smiled sadly, tears welling up in her eyes. “You look so much like your father, Luke,” she said sadly. Obi looked back at Luke, and for a split moment, he was reminded of the small slave his old master brought back with him. He smiled to himself remembering how he helped Anakin with his padawan braid.

“Princess, come here. I’ll let you hold my lightsaber, okay?” she handed Leia her saber gently, and she took gingerly from her hand. Leia took it and igniting it, the blade’s glow reflecting in her excited little eyes.

“Mom? How did dad die? You never answered me,” Luke asked. Y/n felt herself freeze in place, a large lump in her throat forming. “Luke, I...”

“I’ll tell them, Y/n,” Obi-Wan replied solemnly. “Your father was killed by a young Jedi named Darth Vader. He was a close friend of mine before he fell. He helped the Emperor hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father.” The room fell silent, until Luke asked another question, “So you and Uncle Obi are the last remaining Jedi?”

Obi-Wan shook his head no, “There are others, but sparse. To name a few, Master Yoda and Ahsoka Tano, your father’s Padawan learner. The last remaining Jedi are being hunted down by Vader, which is why we hide.”

Leia spoke up softly, “Is that why we don’t use our actual last name, mommy?”

“Yes, sweetheart. As long as Vader’s reign continues, we must hide our names. Darth Vader does not know about the two of you, so you are safe. For us, on the other hand...” she trailed off, and the kids understood.

“Mom... Mom,” Leia spoke loudly. Y/n blinked in confusion and turned back around, looking at her daughter, “Yeah, my love?”

“Are you okay mom?” Leia asked, frowning. “We need to look at the Death Star plans.”

“Right,” she sighed heavily, turning to face from the window out looking Yavin 4. “I’m fine, princess. I just... was remembering Anakin, that’s all.” Leia sighed and laid her hand on her mother’s back, rubbing it gently, “Dad would be proud of everything you’ve done, mom.” She began to tear up as she pulled Leia into a tight hug, “I hope so. It’s been about 20 years and it still doesn’t feel right,” silent tears fell down her cheeks into her daughter’s bunned hair.

“I’m proud of you, Leia. If you were to be trained within the Order now, you’d be the same age your father was when he became a Jedi Knight, and when he married me...” she sniffled, wiping her tears. Leia smiled softly, holding her mom’s hand, “Do you think he’d be proud of me, too?”

“I know he would,” she rubbed her fingertips against hers, “He would pull you into the tightest hug, spin you a little and say softly, ‘That’s my baby girl,’” she replied, her voice cracking slightly. Leia began to tear up as she hugged her back, “I wish I knew him...” she said softly. “I wish so too, babe, so bad...” Y/n sighed. But I won’t let his memory be in vain. Let’s go look at these plans and destroy that Death Star, yeah?”

Leia and Y/n walked to the main board room, seeing how the map was already up on display. “General Jonas, we’ve been examining the Death Star plans. They’re on screen now,” one of her commanding officers recited. “Good, thank you, officer. Have we discovered a weak point yet? Or at least some form of entry point?”

“No, ma’am. We haven’t studied long enough. There are many ways in, but all most likely heavily guarded. We will have to find a way to go under the radar without getting detected, somehow,” he replied. She nodded, walking closer to examine it. She closed her eyes and felt out through the Force for some answer. No surprise to her, she could barely feel anything at all but an empty void. Ever since Anakin had died, she had felt more distanced from the Force than ever. Maybe she and Anakin possessed a rare Dyad, or maybe she had simply lost touch with the Force; but no matter what she did, she was nowhere near as powerful in the Force as she used to be.

“Alert me if you find anything, Officer, I would love to have this Death Star in shambles by the end of the month,” Y/n left to walk out and to ask Obi-Wan on the matter. “Yes, ma’am,” he responded, turning back to his computer to get back to work.

Elsewhere, Leia was pacing in Luke’s room, grumbling to herself, “I know Obi-Wan has taught us to not let our emotions guide us, but I can’t when it comes to him. He killed our father, he should be dead!” Leia huffed in anger, collapsing down onto her twin’s bed.

Luke grunted in response, his mouth full of food still, “It’s not like you can take him on yourself. You’d die!” he said, or at least, sounded like he said. “I will not let the lives of those lost who got us the plans in the first place’s memories die. We wouldn’t be this close to planning an attack without their sacrifices. Moreover, Mom has had these plans for two days now, and she hasn’t done a single thing about it!” Leia responded quickly. Luke shrugged, “Leia. Be real. It’s not like we can steal a ship and fly to the Death Star, find it’s a weak point, and get back in time for dinner.”

Leia sat up, looking at Luke as if he had just committed mass murder. “...What?” Luke asked warily. Leia grinned, “That’s it! We’ll do just that, Luke! We’ll take one of mom’s ships, fly around the death star undetected and find weak entry points, and get back like we were never even gone!”

“Leia, you can not be serious right now!” Luke gasped, setting his food down, “We can’t do this, we could get in so much trouble! Or spotted!”

“Do you want to sit idly while our mother and uncle do nothing, whereas our Father’s murderer is out on the lose on that moon!” Leia snapped at him. He narrowed his eyes, “That’s no moon, Leia. Also, no, I don’t! But do we have a choice? No. We’re staying here.”

“No, we’re leaving. Whether I go alone is up to you entirely, but at this point, I just want the man who killed my father dead,” Leia said, glaring at him. Luke huffed, “You think I don’t want him dead, too? But we are children, we literally can’t do anything!”

“We are 19 years old and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sit at home here and wait for Vader to kill more innocent people,” Leia frowned, crossing her arms. “I really need you with me, Luke. But I get it if you don’t go.” she stood up, grabbing her stuff to leave when Luke grumbled “Wait!” under his breath. “I’ll... go. Just to protect you. But this is a bad idea, and I don’t want to get caught,” he raised a brow to her. Leia grinned and hugged Luke tightly, “Thank you, thank you! You won’t regret this! But bring your lightsaber maybe, just in case?”

——————

“What do you mean, YOU LET THEM GO?” Y/n snapped to C3-PO, enraged. Threepio raised his hands in defense, “I couldn’t stop them, mistress! I tried my best, I swear!”

“You let my children go confront Vader ALONE? You’re so lucky I don’t shut you down for that!” she growled, shoving past him with Obi-Wan following close behind her. “Oh, dear. I’m doomed,” Threepio whined.

“We have to go after them, we... I can’t... I can’t lose my kids,” Y/n said nervously, starting to pace once Obi got close. “Y/n, calm down sweetheart. I need you to breathe and think,” Obi said, holding onto her shoulders gently. “If we go, we have an equal chance of being caught since they’ll already be on high alert.”

She sighed heavily, shaking her head, “I hate you for being so levelheaded and smart, Obi,” she frowned. “That’s my specialty,” he winked. “Now, we need to stop and make sure that we can pull this rescue off without risking our lives, too.”

Meanwhile, at the Death Star, Vader was summoned by his leading captain because of an alert of an enemy ship flying nearby. “Bring them in, search them. They may know General Jonas.” “Yes, My Lord.”

Vader turned to leave the bridge towards the docking bay, to meet his guests personally. As he walked, his mind was filled with visions and memories from his dream the night before. Of her.

He sighed heavily, picking up speed as he neared the docking bay. Passing a group of stormtroopers, he pushed past them to be in front, crossing his arms. The door opened, and two stormtroopers walked out holding a young girl and boy, yelling at them to let go of them.

As soon as Vader looked at the two, he felt something... strange. A certain presence in the Force he had never felt before. What is this? Why do they feel familiar?

Vader dropped his arms, walking forward and raising his hand to stop the troopers, “Who are you? And why were you near my Death Star?”

His unmerciful, robotic voice rumbled through their chests, terrifying them. In all their years, they had never seen something so cold and unforgiving. “Don’t be petrified, answer me if you want to live,” Vader challenged, staring right at the boy.

“You killed our father,” Leia’s voice was cold, sad, and broken. She knew this was a bad idea, but it was too late now. “I wanted revenge.”

“You’ll have to forgive me, my princess, but I’ve killed many men. Your father was just another tick on my list, whoever he may be.”

“You son of a—!” Luke yelled, rushing to jump at him when the stormtroopers all turned their weapons on him, making him stop. Vader growled, “Insolent children. I don’t think you know who I am, truly. I’d crush you in a heartbeat, but seeing as you could have something of use to me... take them away, both of them,” Vader commanded. The two shouted in disagreement, and Vader simply stood and watched them struggle.

“You bitch! You’ll pay for what you did to our dad!” Luke yelled as he was taken away. Vader rolled his eyes from under the mask and walked back to his quarters. He knelt on the floor, taking his mask off as he called out to his Emperor through the force.

“What do you want, Lord Vader?” Palpatine growled, looking down at Vader’s hologram. “I felt something through the Force a few moments ago. My new hostages... they seem to be strong with it.”

“Really? Are you sure, my apprentice?”

“Yes, Master. More sure than anything.”

“Well, you know what you must do. Kill them. They could be Jedi if they tried opposing you,” Palpatine smirked. “They’re only children, which means they’re newer Jedi. Someone had to have trained them.”

“Children never stopped you before, don’t let it stop you now. Do it.”

“...Yes, my Master.” Vader ended the holomessage, sighing.

“Who are you two...?” he asked himself, reaching out through the Force and feeling they were still there.

Strange.

——————

Join my taglist! @say-something-missy @sapphichorrorpictureshow @coldlilheart @anakinsprincess @darth-questionmark

#anakin skywalker #star wars #anakinskywalker #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker smut #hayden christensen #anakin skywalker x reader #star wars smut #starwars #hayden christensen smut #darth vader #darth vader x reader #darth vader x reader smut #darth vader x reader angst #suitless vader #suitless vader x reader #suitless vader x reader smut

487 notes · View notes

twigcollins · 2 years

Text

In the Mass Effect trilogy, there’s two important, fun and well written companion characters and a huge, multi-game spanning sidquest that has you examining the rights and ‘humanity’ of AI versus the needs and desires of the sympathetic species that developed them and then went to war when they could not accept that their robot helpers had become something more.

There are few wholly bad actors, just fear and mistakes, politics and scarcity and very swiftly escalating consequences.

Deciding which side you stand with - or both sides - is complicated, it’s nuanced, if you fuck it up (which is easy to do and even easier if you never played the first game and toggled a few decision switches) you have to go for a walk for half an hour and leave the game paused at the final choice while you decide whether to kill a beloved friend or a truly unique, interesting and unfairly maligned new species - and also a beloved friend - that just wants the chance to exist.

It’s the kind of game that makes you want to go back and replay 35+ hours of unrelated content so when you get to that choice, you can thread the needle and save everyone. Everyone gets a chance to grow and learn and begin a new path together. Everyone lives.

Only for you to get to the very end of the game and be told “biological creatures and AI can’t live together” and you’re like “but I did that. Yes they can. It took hours and was fraught but we sure did it. I can call them on the phone right now and you can ask them yourselves.”

But you didn’t get to have that conversation. You didn’t get to have any meaningful conversation, because the writers decided what they wanted their thrilling conclusion to hinge on, and the fact that they’d already written that conflict into their game with a successful outcome was inconvenient to The Drama.

Din is wearing the Darksaber. He is literally wearing the proof that is is possible to walk in both worlds. Which, frankly, seems like the kind of attempt at understanding and connection the universe could use about now. And no one mentions this. And no one talks about it. And no one is curious about it.

Luke apparently needs to have no future conversations and learn nothing more, he’s got everything he needs from those five books he brings with him into TLJ, Meeting with cultures you don’t know to discuss possibilities just isn’t something the Jedi need to do now because they already know everything important. Even though it’s just him out here, and his crash course with Yoda probably lasted a couple of weeks at best.

Don’t even send Ashoka to inquire about that sword. Who hasn’t, you know, even been a Jedi since before Luke was born. Btw.

Because dammit, we’ve already written our dramatic visual metaphor (she should have painted a little mudhorn on that chainmail, no? It is their clan crest) and we’re going to use it.

#sw:bobf #spoilers #book of boba fett spoilers #mass effect spoilers #i'm sorry this is what I do now

10 notes · View notes

dalekofchaos · 3 years

Text

Rey’s lack of motivation and stake in the Sequel Trilogy

I have a question to ask you. What are Rey’s motivations? What are her wants and goals and why is she even drawn to the conflict between The First Order and The Resistance?

Rey’s motivations in the Sequels.

Rey wants to find her parents.

Wants to bring back Luke Skywalker

Rey wants to find her place

Wants Ben to return to the light

Has no real motivation to be on either side of the conflict, but chooses The Resistance anyway

Says she wants to kill Palpatine in cold blood, was close to giving in

Now she chose to fuck off to Tatooine and we see very little in her motivation to do....ANYTHING

Let’s compare Anakin and Luke’s motivations.

What are Anakin's motivations?

Wants to leave a life of slavery and come back and free his mother

Wants to become a Jedi and become a hero

Wants to protect Padme

Wants to save Obi-Wan

Wants to stop Dooku and end the war before it can begin

Wants to be a good master to Ahsoka

Wants to clear Ahsoka’s name

Wants to stop the war

Wants to save Padme and his children's lives at the cost of the Jedi and doing whatever it takes and becomes Darth Vader

What are Luke’s motivations?

Luke is a farm boy who dreams of leaving his mundane life.

Luke discovers that his father -unlike what his uncle told him, was a heroic Jedi Knight

Luke, is reluctant and refuses the ‘call to adventure’, but after the Empire murders his Aunt and Uncle, he decides to Join Obi-Wan on the quest.

Save the Princess

Luke is angered by Obi-Wan’s death at the hands of Darth Vader, and seeks retribution.

Destroy the Death Star and save the Rebellion

To be trained by Yoda

Save Han and Leia

Luke discovers his father, the heroic Jedi, is none other than Darth Vader. After years of training, he sets out to redeem his father and turn him back to the light.

After the redemption of his father and fall of the Empire, Luke goes on a journey to restore The Jedi Order

Compare Rey and Luke’s journeys in ANH and TFA. Rey wanders around and stuff is handed to her. Luke takes initiative and works for what he has. Let's compare ANH with TFA

Luke screws up on watching R2, then chooses to chase him down. He makes another mistake by spying on the Tusken Raiders instead of getting the hell out of dodge. This leads to him being knocked out, and rescued by Ben Kenobi.

Luke initiates the meeting with Ben Kenobi, and it happens because of his early bad decisions.

His aunt & uncle are killed, but thanks to his screw-up with R2 & the raiders, he and the droids are spared.

He chooses to follow Kenobi to Alderaan instead of staying on Tattooine.

He chooses to accept Kenobi's instruction in the ways of the Force, even though most people think it's a myth and a joke. Even though he's bad at it and doesn't seem to get any results at first.

He makes the decision that they're going to rescue Leia, potentially dooming their escape from the Death Star. This sets off a chain of events that leads to Kenobi's death.

Then he chooses to help fight the Death Star, even though he's not a member of the rebellion. He was offered a job with Han, and he could have ensured his safety by leaving with them. Instead he chose certain death.

Finally, he chooses to trust a literal voice in his head instead of the targeting computer.

Let's contrast that with Rey.

BB-8 runs into her. She tries to send him away, but relents and lets him follow her home.

She chooses not to sell him for food.

Finn wanders into camp on his own initiative.

The camp is attacked because BB-8 is there. The camp would have been attacked no matter what Rey did. The other scavenger was, I'm pretty sure, from the same camp. And if she'd sold him, BB-8 would also have still been in the camp.

She is forced to take the Millennium Falcon when the ship she wanted to use was blown up.

She chooses to go with Finn and bring BB-8 to the Rebellion Resistance.

She stumbles upon Luke's lightsaber, and runs away from it.

She accidentally runs into Kylo Ren while hiding in the forest.

He chooses to kidnap her because he senses something special about her.

After her first exposure to the Force, she learns how to use some of it, successfully, and escapes from Ren. And to her credit, escaping and trying the Force out is a choice she made, rather than something that passively happened to her.

Then she, um, is standing there when Han is killed.

She chooses to fight Kylo Ren, and beats him in her first lightsaber battle after closing her eyes and thinking about the Force.

She sort of chooses to go summon Luke back to civilization - I say sort of because it's not clear why she was picked to go over, say, Leia.

Luke makes mistakes, and he is an active participant in his story. Rey is just kind of there, most of the time. She doesn't make mistakes, but she doesn't really do much else.

Rey has no personal stake in this war or motivations and she’s supposed to be the main protagonist.

Rey has never left Jakku before TFA and she tells Han that ”she never knew so much green existed” when they go to Maz’s castle.

In other words Rey must have had very limited knowledge of the world outside of Jakku and all she has heard from it are stories.

Rey who barely knows anything about the rest of the galaxy, to the point that she didn’t even know that forests existed what exactly is her personal stake in the current galactic conflict?

In TFA we saw The New Republic’s capital systems blown up by Starkiller Base and we never saw a reaction from Rey. We do see Finn and Han’s reactions. Also worth noting about Rey is that if she was unconscious throughout her involuntary travel to the Starkiller Base she was never actually aware of the Starkiller Base until just before Han, Finn and Chewie started planting the explosions in order to sabotage it.

Luke, while he had no personal attachments to Aldeeran did actually get to see the horrible aftermaths of it’s destruction.

But Rey was barely affected by the destruction of the Capital systems. Most characters were not as affected as they should have been in my opinion but we didn’t even get to see her have an emotional reaction to it.

This was probably the greatest genocide in Star Wars history and our main heroine is unaffected by it? Finn has a reaction to it and he’s supposedly NOT the main protagonist?

Rey really has no reason to care about the state of the galaxy. She only seems to care if people she knows are in danger.

The fact that she is supposed to be our main hero of this trilogy when she has next to no personal stakes in the well-being of the rest of the galaxy feels wrong to me.

Finn actually has stakes in this conflict since the FO took his family and childhood away from him and Poe has stakes because he actually lives in the New Republic and doesn’t want it to be under FO’s rule. Yet neither Finn nor Poe are considered the main protagonist? But oh wait, I forgot we can’t have a black or Latino man be the leading protagonist in Star Wars

The more I think about it is Rey has no goals or agency as a protagonist. She’s just whatever the plot demands her to be. Rey doesn’t actively take the initiative and make decisions, and simply react to the world around her. There is never a reason given as to why she wants to be a Jedi. Sure, she’s heard the stories about them, but she doesn’t dream to be one like Anakin, and the writers are so obsessed over her parents that they never develop any other motivation besides that. She has to be strung along the story so she can take part in it, hence she is repeatedly chased and kidnapped throughout TFA to get her to the Resistance where she decides to find Luke because she has nowhere else to go. Part of the reason she doesn’t even train with Luke is because she has no reason to, as she’s just supposed to find him. Rey joins the fight simply in reaction to learning that Luke is responsible for Ben’s fall. She’s only ever a Jedi and a member of the Resistance out of necessity- she has no where left to go and has to fight in self defense- so they try hamfist in some motives that she needs to stop herself from becoming like Palpatine but there is no tension as it’s the final act. By the end of the trilogy it’s not even clear if the Jedi Order will return because Rey never seems to want to be one and we can only assume they will return for meta reasons- because the audience knows the ST is a copypasta of the OT.

What exactly was Rey’s motivation for getting involved in the Galactic conflict before TROS? Luke was told that his father was killed by Darth Vader and later his family gets murdered by the empire so he had personal stakes to get involved in the conflict.

Anakin was a Jedi and had lived in the Republic for ten years by the time of the Clone Wars begun so he had personal reasons to get involved in the conflict.

Rey meanwhile grew up so isolated of Jakku that she had no idea forests existed and she didn’t lose anything and the FO attacked her on Jakku. In fact she wanted to return to Jakku after she had dumped BB-8 with the Resistance. Her primary motivation in TFA was to reunite with her family but the movie never establish that her family’s absence was connected to the galactic conflict in any way.

That connection isn’t established until TROS so what was her motivation until than? The Death of Han? A guy she had known for two hours? Finn? A guy she also had maybe only knew for about two hours total by the time of their hug in TLJ? Also she seemed to have completely forgotten about Finn by the time she want on a quest to redeem the guy that has far as she should have known by that point was still in a coma with his spine permanently damaged because of Kylo.

Rey’s motivation seems to either be finding her family or her dealing with her existential crisis neither had much of a connection with the galactic conflict until TROS

#Star Wars #Rey #Luke Skywalker #Anakin Skywalker #Anti Sequel Trilogy #Anti Lucasfilm #Finn #Poe Dameron #Rey Skywalker

37 notes · View notes

thewriterowl · 3 years

Note

How about some truly, truly angst headcanons about Luke?

Because angst Luke is the best Luke

Oh no, Luke-angst. I can give you the Luke-angst. Now some of this is mine, some of this is cannon and some of this is EU and possible, and i heard from @elloitselmo it's major oof

So, this is more cannon...but have you considered how Luke has pretty much witnessed the death of pretty much everyone he cares about? Though just born, he saw his mother die. He saw the remains of his aunt and uncle and knew they did not have a good death. He saw Obi-Wan die. He saw Biggs die. Saw his beloved Tauntaun die. He saw Dak, his comrade in siege of Hoth, die. He probably made a lot more friends in the rebellion he saw die. He was a leader in the rebellion and he saw his followers die. He saw Yoda die. He saw his father die.

He was bullied. Called names. Probably beat up. Had very little friends.

Owen refused to let Luke feel fully like family (for his own fear of him ending up like his father) so he was kept at arm's length from the one man who could've been a close father-figure for 19-years of his life.

Tatooine was apparently pretty miserable to him and he was very unhappy and lonely there.

He's been kidnapped a few times. Potentially more than what we know of.

Has clearly been tortured.

He tried to kill himself when he found out Darth Vader was his father.

His father has been responsible for horrendous atrocities and inhumane actions. He was nearly killed by said father. His hand was cut off by said father when the man KNEW Luke was his son. Very likely haunted Luke as well as hunted him after they parted.

Luke had, consciously or unconsciously, put a lot of his self-worth into his unknown father--wanting to know more of him and try to be like this image he made up in his head of what he figured his father would be. A lot of his view of himself as a person was greatly shattered after the revelation.

Apparently held this secret and clear depression to himself for three years. No one, not even his trusted friends, knew what he was dealing with. No force ghost came to him either.

Was very likely badly wounded after Palpatine but still dragged his massive, dying father a distances to help save him. Then had to watch him die, then had to be alone with his body in a ship, then had to burn and mourn him alone.

Is likely he suffers from the trauma, physical and mental, from his time in the rebellion and facing the Emperor.

Did not stop giving himself to the galaxy, even when he was exhausted and burnt-out. Probably never took a break either.

In the EU, he tried to save thousands of people...they died. He sort of pushed himself with all of them, feeling them die, probably experiencing their death, so they wouldn't be alone. Blames himself despite the fact he didn't have anything to do with it.

Would not be surprise if he does this often.

Do not see himself as a hero. Probably sees himself as a monster. Is probably viewed as a god to many, which is something that disturbs him and makes him ill.

In the EU, he was called the Emperor by Imps since he killed the other and that made him seem the rightful heir (which is probably worse than being seen as a god, being compared to Palpatine)

Has probably suffered many mental breakdowns on his own and has never told anyone.

Had to deal with a huge surge go power in his body over a short time of like, five years. that was probably incredibly uncomfortable.

Is probably terrified of going Dark and being like his father. Even though he already face that choice and still came out good, he probably feels that because he lost his temper and hurt his father he wasn't good or in the Light as much as he would hope to be in.

Probably has an unhealthy relationship with food. And sleep. not sure if he gets much of either.

Is so empathetic he probably feels a lot of pan from other people all the time.

Someone has tried to kill him because of being Vader's child. Very possible others have made him a scapegoat for their hatred of Vader, even though Luke is seen as the one who brought down the Emperor and Vader.

He had to tell Leia that, hey Vader, the guy who ruined so much of your life, the guy who literally held you and made you watch as your planet was killed?? That's your dad. He probably had to provide a lot of support for her with that horrible news.

Probably seen as his father's son, and Leia as her mother's daughter, and is compared to him a lot despite him being so much more like Padme. Another reason he has a lot of issues because apparently no one sees any good in him that his mother had.

The sequels. Nuff said.

Has no self-worth, probably no self-love. Berates himself constantly. Probably feels pretty unloveable.

Probably takes a lot of missions that could end in his death but he isn't bothered cause he isn't worth much and he needs to save people.

So much of this isn't a personal head cannon but stuff that has probably happened to him.

And hey, he still manages to be the kindest man with the brightest smile for anyone!

Haha, everything hurts.

#star wars #luke skywalker #inbox #tw: suicide mention #tw: depression #tw: eating problems #luke skywalker has had a pretty terrible life #and he is still this sweetheart #im in pain #how about din goes dark and becomes the emperor and he makes everything better so luke can stop suffering?#din probably would snap after hearing this list #and the fact there is more out there #din kidnap him and make him safe and happy #please

51 notes · View notes

kyber-crystal · 3 years

Note

What if their s/o says "that looks heavy, let me hold it for you" to Han, Obi Wan, Anakin, Luke and shows his hand (i know it's too cheesy) (headcanons pls)💖

YES dfasddfasdf cheesy is what i live for !!!

luke skywalker:

it’s v v humid and

yavin 4 is really fucking brutal during the summer months and 3 people had already passed out from heat exhaustion, and nobody wanted to be the fourth)

so you, him, and everyone else are dressing as light as possible

luke finds you finishing up work on your x-wing

“y/n!”

you slid out from underneath your x-wing and sat up, wiping the sweat from your forehead and offering him a friendly smile- “hi! you’re just in time. i actually needed your help and was about to ask you to come here...could you check this out?”

you brushed yourself off and stood up, and he slid under and took your place

every so often his arm peeks out and his muffled voice asks you to grab a tool, so you reach over and give him what he needs

(you don’t complain throughout the time he’s in there because watching luke work was oddly satisfying and quite a sight to behold because of the phenomenal view of his biceps that you got)

(but you’d rather die before admitting that to anyone)

especially han bc he loves teasing you every damn chance he gets that little shit

once he’s done, he comes right back up and gives you a quick kiss on the forehead. he then grins and wipes his thumb across your cheek. “there! now we’re matching.”

“ew. you’re gross—” you pretended to look grossed out but felt your cheeks heat up at the contact.

“hey, that looks heavy...” he noted, “let me hold it for you.”

“huh? what do you...” you glanced down and noticed he had his hand outstretched. you smiled and intertwined your fingers with his

but !! plot twist !!!

as soon as your hand slips into his he tugs you towards him and presses his lips to yours

“ew, you two, get a room—”

“shut up, han.”

han solo

han is straight up with everything. literally. mans is not afraid to tell the truth, no matter the situation

but one thing he’s failed to be straight up about is his feelings for you

for once, he can’t seem to find the right words to express how he feels

so instead of just telling you he does a bunch of sweet gestures

ex.) giving you his jacket when it looks like you’re cold, even in the slightest, holding you tightly when the nightmares came to get you while everyone else was asleep, lingering touches (leaving his hand on the small of your back for as long as he could, hugs that last a second longer than normal)

he likes to express his feelings through physical touch. he likes giving hugs

so you hug. a lot

had a rough day? hug

had a good day? hug

no reason at all? hug

you walk straight into his arms and he just pulls you close and you stay like that for a bit

that’s usually how it goes

biggs and luke nag at him for refusing to tell you how he feels

so he finally caves in and asks for their help

“say something that’ll have her swooning!”

“once you do that, you’re set”

“and next thing you know you’re married with three kids!” “shut up.”

he wasn’t really given any guidelines so he basically just went in blind and had to trust his own judgement and gut instinct 0_0

han walks up to you after you’d finished talking to leia about something

“oh, hi!”

“your hand looks heavy, let me hold it for you.” and that little shit just,,, grabs your hand without another warning

your mouth moves open and closed but no words come out and for once, the y/n who always got the last word was speechless

he takes your speechlessness and the way you don’t even try to pull away from him as approval. he can’t stop himself from grinning foolishly for the rest of the day whenever he thinks about it

neither can you

from then on it becomes a habit for him to just randomly come and grab your hand and you usually stayed like that for as long as you could

obi wan kenobi

we can collectively agree that obi-wan is the sweetest person on earth (also smooth as fuck)

he’s a stickler for rules but as you grew closer together he found himself falling, and falling FAST

he’d never admit it to anakin because he’s being teased enough by him as it is

“you’re in love with her, master. do something for force’s sake” “no.”

“kriff, you’re stubborn”

anakin, that little shit, does everything in his power to try and get you two together. he’ll ‘accidentally’ run into you so that you’d fall into obi’s arms, make sure the only empty seat at council meetings and any other place was next to him, made sure you stuck together on missions, and whatnot

so when neither of you knew about your feelings for the other even after all he did he was genuinely confused and disappointed bc he put sO much effort—

you returned from a meeting with mace windu & yoda to retire for the night and found a note pasted on your door

“meet me at the gardens in ten minutes —OWK”

your nose scrunched in confusion but you set the paper down and slid your cloak back on regardless, and headed back out

obi wan was standing by the fountains with his arms crossed

“you sent me a note? what did you want...?”

“y/n, i thought we agreed to meet because you sent me a note saying to meet here at 11 sharp.”

“i didn’t send that note.” “i didn’t send yours, either.”

“then who did—” then it hit the two of you at the same time. “anakin.” “no wonder. the handwriting didn’t look like yours, you write in cursive only.”

obi just shrugged, “might as well make the best of this. he did get us out of yet another council meeting.” “touche.”

you didn’t know what to say bc all the words were stuck in your throat

which was weird bc the two of you ALWAYS had something to say to each other when you met up

he reached up to brush your hair away from your face and you froze

“this was stuck in your hair,” he explained as he showed you a milky-white blossom sitting in his palm “oh! thank you”

you fell into a comfortable silence as you walked around the place

and then he’s like “oh fuck i’m just going to go for it”

“y/n, your hand looks quite heavy. let me hold it for you” “w-what?...oh.”

you nod and he takes your hand, and you pray that he can’t hear how fast your heart is beating (but he’s too busy praying for the same to notice LMAO)

anakin doesn’t need for either of you to tell him whether the plan worked or not bc he can tell by the looks on your faces

“what can i say. i’m a genius”

anakin skywalker

he’s not afraid to express his feelings bc he feels very comfortable around you and all

so if something’s wrong he’ll either tell you straight up or you’ll figure it out yourself if he doesn’t

he’s a very affectionate person—you understand that it’s because after leaving to pursue his training, he was lacking all the love and attention that he used to get as a child, so he made up for all that by pouring all that love onto you

anakin grew up knowing a mother’s love, so naturally, he’s very caring and gentle around you. he hugs you and holds you close every change he gets, brushes your hair away from your face, etc

so if he just comes up behind you and hugs you, or places a hand on the small of your back while you’re walking, you try not to think too much about it bc it’s what he normally does

you like to tease him about this sometimes bc the seemingly cold-hearted & ruthless warrior is a complete softie behind closed doors : ‘)

it’s no secret to others that you’re both very...close with one another

but nobody even tries questioning it bc 1) you’ve been like this for ages and 2) you got your shit done lmao

but you try and keep the forehead kisses and snuggles more lowkey

you were sneaking over to anakin’s room to finish bingeing that holodrama you’d started together last week and nearly got caught by mace windu

“what took you so long?”

“master windu almost saw me on the way over here. move over.” you nudged anakin in the side and crawled into bed next to him, “you didn’t start without me, right?” “of course not!”

you yawned and stretched your arms in the air. “you know, if we get caught, obi-wan—” “—is going to kill us. i know.”

“he told us to wait...”

“it’s not like he’s going to find out we’re watching without him, is he?” he smirked. you laughed and lightly smacked his shoulder

you’re probably an hour or so in when the two of you fall into silence

asides from what you’re watching, it’s just yours and his breathing that you can hear

you glanced over and watched the light from the holo shining in his eyes, and the distant light of the moon reflecting off his wavy hair and your heart stops

oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no

you snap yourself out of your trance and get back to what you were doing

anakin starts drifting off slowly but steadily

“hey. your hand looks heavy. let me hold it for you,” he mumbled

you felt your face heat up, but nodded. “...okay?”

“your hands are so cold.” his nose crinkled slightly as he tightened his grip on your hand. “but that’s okay. i’ll warm them up for you.”

you smiled and let your head fall against his shoulder, and stayed like that for the rest of the night

a/n: i’m so sorry this was late,,,,depression was kicking me in the ass but i finally brought myself to finish this bc i really loved this concept! ...if you want to be added to my taglist just fill out this form!

#han solo x reader #anakin skywalker x reader #luke skywalker x reader #obi wan kenobi x reader #obi wan x reader #anakin x reader #star wars imagine #star wars preferences #star wars #obi wan kenobi x you #han solo fluff #luke skywalker imagine

144 notes · View notes

houchlife · 3 years

Text

Top 7 Law Of Attraction Tips To Manifest More Of What You Want!

By Heather Mathews Author of Manifestation Miracle “Everything is within your power, and your power is within you.” ― Janice Trachtman Charlie, a stay at home dad, works out of his living room while looking after his three-year-old toddler. As a social media consultant, he depends on his laptop to make a living. The problem is that his beat up computer was as old as his kid, and it was always glitching on him. So Charlie kept focusing on getting a new computer – a 13-inch Macbook Pro in particular. Eventually, his old laptop gave out, which made him panic a bit. So Charlie went online to look for another one while having the shiny new Macbook in the back of his mind. After hours of searching, he couldn’t find a reasonably priced model. So he was about to settle on another type of laptop and was close to closing the sale. But at the last minute, Charlie decided to check the price listings for a used version of the computer that he REALLY wanted. And just like that, someone was selling a six-month old Macbook Pro for a price significantly cheaper than a store-bought one. So Charlie got what he wanted, and at a better deal than he had hoped for! Now, Charlie’s incredible stroke of luck seemed like a fluke to him at first, but then another awesome thing happened shortly after. You see, Charlie was also looking for a new job because he felt stuck in his current one. So he had his sights set on another company with a position in mind. The truth was that he wasn’t all that confident he was even qualified for the position, but he went over the job description again and again. Charlie even printed the job ad and put it on his refrigerator door so he could see it every day. A couple of weeks after his interview, he got a call from the company and said he got the job. On Charlie’s first day, his new boss told him, “Honestly, your skillset isn’t an exact match for what we were looking for. But I really liked how you did at the interview…and besides, we can train you for the other things you need to learn, anyway. You have a great attitude and that’s more important than being 100% qualified for the job.” Click Here To Discover the Lazy Person’s Secret To Get Everything You’ve Ever Wished For Is It Coincidence - Or Something Else at Work? It’s easy to brush off Charlie’s streak as plain dumb luck, but could he have WILLED his good fortune to happen? After all, the common element between getting his new laptop and the new job was that he focused on both things intensely. Charlie kept it in his thoughts all the time. More than that, he created a detailed picture of his desired state in his mind. He imagined what it would be like to hold his new laptop and how he’d feel working in the new job he was aiming for. Charlie visualized both scenarios so vividly that he could almost taste it. Whether he knew it or not, he was putting the basic principle of The Law of Attraction to work - and it served him well. As the name implies, this law decrees that “like attracts like.” There’s a global movement behind this belief, and it says that the kind of thoughts you send out to the Universe emit a certain frequency – be it helpful or harmful. And you have the power to control the wavelength you operate on, which in turn attracts circumstances that match your energy. So by focusing on positive outcomes and giving out positive vibrations, you can turn your thoughts into a tangible force of good in your life! On the other side of the coin, dwelling on the negative aspects of life and focusing your attention on the things you resent attracts even MORE negativity into your world. Like Charlie, you can think of something specific you want, and hold that image in your mind. Create all the details that bring the picture to life, then believe that you already have it. When you go about your day thinking that the object of your desire is already a matter of fact… …this sends out a clear, strong message to the Universe that you truly WANT and BELIEVE it. But this is just the tip of the iceberg; there are other ways to raise your frequency even higher. By following these 7 Tips to Create the Life You’ve Always Dreamed Of, you’ll naturally attract everything you’ve ever wanted – and MORE:

#1: Set aside time to focus on what you desire

The first habit is simple enough: give yourself at least 5-7 minutes daily to visualize the things you want to turn into reality.

You can do this by finding a quiet place to contemplate, then sit upright with your eyes closed. While keeping your desires front and center in your thoughts, breathe deeply in and out.

Focus on your breath and the sensations your body is feeling, and use that as anchor to keep your thoughts from straying.

If your mind does go on a tangent, gently bring yourself back to your breathing AND your desired future state.

You’ll get a lot of benefits from doing this for just a few minutes every day. For instance, many studies have proven the stress-reducing properties of meditation.

A study at the Massachusetts General Hospital showed that people who tried their meditation program experienced significantly less health problems than before.

They ended up not having to see a doctor or go to the emergency room, saving them about $2,300 in medical costs for EACH person!

On top of that of course, meditation also helps you keep your eye on the prize and give you the determination to make it happen.

Some people however, have trouble meditating and get easily distracted.

If you need a little guidance with this habit, I’ve got a special gift for you – but more on that later…

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#2: Be grateful and practice gratitude

Ever hear the expression “Thank your lucky stars”?

Back in ancient times, people believed that celestial bodies played a huge role in someone’s destiny.

Today, many still believe that these same external forces affect our lives.

The Law of Attraction draws from this belief, and it states that we should be gratefull whenever the Universe sends something good our way.

This is another way of fine tuning your frequency. When you actively pay attention to the positive things that happen around you, it acts like a magnet that attracts similar things.

And by being thankful for your blessings, you’re sending a powerful message to the Universe that essentially translates to:

“Thank you, that was awesome! More please!”

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#3: Take a leap of faith

The main challenge that people have with manifesting their desires is dealing with the world of the intangible.

It can be daunting (and even discouraging) to imagine a future outcome that hasn’t happened yet.

It takes some faith to push past that hazy uncertainty, and not everyone has it in them to do so.

So you need to check your inner Doubting Thomas at the door for a moment and appreciate how other people have used the Law of Attraction to succeed.

Consider the great figures from the past: Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Marie Curie, Vincent Van Gogh and Nikola Tesla.

All of them were shining examples of how they used their mind and willpower to create something valuable in this world.

They raised their own frequency and as result, had a different energy from the rest of humanity.

Even though they’re gone, their legacy lives on, and we can still feel its impact today.

It’s all because they took a brave step into the unknown.

Even though they couldn’t see how their work would ripple through the next several decades, they still powered through.

The skepticism that people have is the result of growing up.

As you get older and have more experiences, a certain amount of jadedness sets in.

That’s why you won’t find any of that in kids. Just think about how children play make-believe.

When they yell, “The floor is lava!” you can bet they’ll be scrambling for the nearest couch or chair to avoid getting “burned.”

On a certain level, they TRULY believe that the floor is literally molten rock.

They can see the hot, glowing lava, burning everything its path…

…and they do everything to stay out of its way.

That’s the power the mind and imagination in action.

Learn how to see the world on this level again. That way, you can see a bright future before it happens – then go on to make it a reality.

Click Here To Learn How to Force the Universe to Manifest Your Dream Life

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#4: Keep on keepin’ on

One of the realities of this world is that you can’t eliminate adversity.

It’s always going to be an uphill climb at some point, especially when you’ve just taken on a new challenge.

You’ve been eating right and working out, but the pounds aren’t quite flying off as you’d hoped.

You started a side income project, but your cash flow hasn’t been anything more than a trickle.

You’ve tried beating your depression with exercise, therapy and medication, but the dark thoughts still charge at you like a freight train.

That’s called RESISTANCE.

It will always be there, even as you dig deep and do everything in your power to manifest the reality you want.

Being a grown-up means expecting those external circumstances to work against you.

Your best response? PUSH BACK.

Keep your inner world together, and the outside world will follow suit.

Dumbledore once told Harry Potter, “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.”

Remember: the hero of the story is never a one-person army.

Harry had Hermione and Ron.

Luke had Obi-Wan and Yoda.

And you don’t have to fly solo in YOUR journey.

Think about the people in your inner circle – are they giving you the energy, motivation and inspiration to succeed?

If the company you keep sneers at growth and being better, maybe it’s time to look for other friends to round out your squad.

Seek people who lead by example and can show you how to overcome that resistance in your life.

Learn from them and let their enthusiasm rub off you.

While you’re at it, use technology to connect to like-minded folks who can help you in your quest. Open your phone or laptop and fire up YouTube, Vimeo or any other video streaming site.

TED talks, self-help lectures and tons of other empowering content are literally at your fingertips.

The Universe has too much abundance for you to ignore.

We’re part of a vast human network, and our collective energy affects everyone else in ways we can’t yet fully comprehend.

This network has always been around; the Internet merely accelerated it. Tap into it and unleash its power.

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#5: Tune out your Negative Ned (or Nancy)

There’s always that voice in the back of your head that kicks in when life gets tough.

It loves whispering things in your ear, usually at the height of your frustration and despair:

- “You totally blew that one, why do you even bother trying?”

- “You had one job and you screwed it up like always…I’m not even surprised.”

- “Getting back on the horse, are we? I give it a week before you go back to your old ways. Better to quit while you’re ahead!”

- “You actually thought he was complimenting you? Oh, bless your heart…it’s called ‘small talk’ and ‘being nice’.”

If you’re like the rest of the human species, you’re going to run into those nasty folks called insecurity, self-doubt and fear.

They’re going to take up space in your head and try to drown you out with their noise.

Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and scholar, knew this well. It his poem “The Guest House”, he spoke an ancient truth about the human condition.

He likened all our thoughts and feelings – both good and bad – as visitors who stopped by the guest house of the soul.

And this line struck me the most:

“The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.”

Once I understood what it meant, I realized that I didn’t have to resist it. I could simply let my obnoxious guests do their thing, and see them out.

It’s not about covering your ears and going, “La la la la! I can’t hear you!”

Acknowledging their existence in your head is NOT the same as letting them win.

The world’s greatest achievers go through bouts of darkness and anger like everyone else.

The main difference is that they use their failures as material for an instruction manual called “What NOT to Do and How to Do It Better The Next Time Around”.

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#6: Ditch your story

You shouldn’t stop at managing your negative thoughts, however. You need to peel back another layer and go deeper.

Here’s the thing: you grew up on a set of beliefs, whether you’re aware of it or not.

Your parents, teachers, friends and pretty much everyone you knew growing up contributed to your programming.

You don’t know it, but you operate on this programming on a daily basis.

And it influences every decision you make – and how you choose to see the world.

Now this can be a good thing if you grew up around people who were positive, motivated and had a good outlook on life…

…but this is the real world we’re talking about, so NOT everyone had that kind of effect on you.

Somewhere along your journey, someone discouraged you in a subtle way, or put some sort of label that you can’t shake off.

Words like “Underachiever”, “Oddball”, “Loser”, “Nerd”, “Small Fry”, “Ugly Duckling” and “Black Sheep” come to mind…

…and each one is damaging in its own toxic way.

Sadly, most people carry this invisible weight their whole life.

But starting today, you can lay those bricks on the ground and walk away for good. You don’t have to carry that weight for anyone, especially not for THEM.

Stop living your story based on the false narrative that your negative programming created.

All those preconceived beliefs need to go if you want to attract happiness and prosperity in your life.

I’ve seen people achieve INCREDIBLE things – even the impossible – just by doing this one thing.

Lionel, a heroin addict from Michigan, was in and out of jail for the longest time.

But after overdosing within an inch of his life, he decided to ditch his old story.

Even after everyone gave up on Lionel and called him a “screw-up”, he turned it all around.

He let go of the labels that people had been putting on him for YEARS…

…and Lionel decided he didn’t have to be any of those things anymore.

Lionel created a NEW story for himself – one where he was finally free of his crippling addiction and lived a clean, sober life.

What kind of story do YOU want to live out?

MORE ABOUT Motivational / Transformational

#7: Make your affirmations “pop”

You might have heard of people making declarations about themselves to manifest them as truth, and not just as an opinion.

When you affirm some truth about yourself, it validates the awesomeness within you.

Words of kindness heal the soul and help forgive past failures.

In short, it’s about LOVING yourself.

After all, you can’t give what you don’t have.

However, saying “Boy I sure love myself!” doesn’t quite do the trick.

To make your affirmations stick in your subconscious, it needs to have a little something extra.

Don’t stop at “I love me!”- take it up another notch to really drive the point home.

Try these on for size:

- “I love myself so much that I want to use my gifts and share them with the world. I want to take this love inside me and use it to lift other people up.”

- “By sharing the love I have, I possess the power to change myself for the better, and the world around me.”

- “I am love, light, peace and prosperity. Anger, hate and scarcity have no power over me.”

- Aside from loving yourself, you can also infuse a dash of humor in your affirmations. Who says you have to be so grim with his Law of Attraction stuff, anyway?

When you add a bit of levity while you affirm yourself, it shushes your Negative Ned (or Nancy) into silence.

Try coming up with statements like these:

- “I’m so awesome that I kick mediocrity in its big fat butt!”

- “I’ve come here to be awesome at everything I do and kick major butt. And I’m all out of butts to kick.”

- “Did you say something, self-doubt? Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of my awesomeness!”

It’s all a matter of finding the right attitude and tone that suits you. Take a crack at making these affirmations, and you’ll soon find your true inner voice.

What matters is that you inject your affirmations with a serious amount of attitude, and above all, ENERGY.

Without that energy, you won’t give your messages enough “juice” to reach the Universe and show up on its radar.

Those who practice the Law of Attraction often combine these affirmations with their meditation sessions to hit two birds with one stone.

And the results are nothing short of phenomenal.

Now, about that gift I promised you earlier…

To make the MOST out of your meditation, I’ve got a series of audio tracks to help you manifest incredible benefits in your life.

If you want to be the picture of health…

…naturally create wealth wherever you go…

…and enjoy authentic, fulfilling relationships…

…you can achieve ALL of that by simply claiming your FREE gift below:

100% FREE Meditation MP3 Audio Tracks – DOWNLOAD THEM HERE

8 notes · View notes

mandaloriangf · 3 years

Note

"Rey being an Nobody was truly the one interesting thing in the Sequels! That a person can come from nothing, and rise to be a hero! Its such an inspiring message, and JJ ruined it"

Inspiring? Yes.

There is a problem with that statement, however. Its not an innovative idea, especially in Star Wars.

Anakin Skywalker was a literal nobody, born from nothing. He might have a prophecy tied to his name, but outside of the Jedi themselves, and Sith, Anakin was a literal Nobody to 90% of the Galaxy's population. Just one more Jedi amongs many. And after Order 66, his name and what little history of him was known to outsiders, was cast into oblivion. Labeled a traitor, like all the Jedi.

Luke Skywalker, as a result, is also a Nobody.

Then we have Ahsoka Tano, Obi-wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Ezra Bridger and just about every Jedi/Force Sensitive in history.

Then we have non Jedi like Han Solo, Chewbacca, Din Djarin, Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, etc. I could go on.

Then we got a whole overwhelming list of characters from Legends.

The reason why "Rey Nobody scene" has only earned shrugs from people, while "I am your father" has withstood time, is because of WHO these messages and plot twists were aimed at.

Rey being told she is a nobody, is a messaged made exclusively to earn a gasp from the audience, not Rey herself. The scene and "revelation" falls apart when put side by side with TFA, were "Who" Rey's parents were didn't even matter to her. All that was in her mind was to See them again, if waiting on Jakku would give her that, she would wait. Then TLJ suddenly has her be borderline clingling to the idea they must be very important, and then being sad they were nobodies? An organic follow up to TFA would have had her try to seek them out, who cares if they are big deals or otherwise. Heck even being told "They abandoned you because they feared and hated you" would have made sense as a shocking twist, since Rey has shown nothing but love towards them, "how can they be people who hate her if Rey shows such positive thoughts of them?"

As it stands, Rey Nobody holds no ground, has a brittle and nob existent foundation, which is why it was sooo freaking easy to do a switch in TROS, albeit a really bad one (made her a Palpatine), but one nontheless.

By comparison "I am your father" scene has a solid foundation, built from the first installment, with the effects having an impact mainly FOR Luke and his world view. Since ANH Luke has had this Heroic and Noble image of his father in his head thanks to Obi's tales. He grew to hate Vader for taking Obi wan and, by association with the Empire, his aunt and uncle and home. The Empire hurt him, they hurt his friends and family, and he would not forgive them. So to be told that the very hero he grew up believing in was actually the very monster who took everything from him? It shattered his world view, his beliefs shaken, even his trust in Obi wan and Yoda was shaken. Which led to change in Luke, and how he affected the story and people around him.

What did Rey's scene do to her as an individual? Because she remains the same from start to finish, so does everything else.

A hero not tied to some big name bloodline is nothing new, not in Star Wars or anywhere. And preaching that it is, is to be outright ignorant.

Sorry about the long rant. Its just this topic really ruffles my feathers.

the biggest problem with her individual story in tlj (besides the way it annoyingly ties into kylo’s) is that everything about it is for the audience like you said. rey never cared who her parents were until rian started writing the story. she only cared about waiting for them and then ended up finding a family of her own.

#ask amanda #anonymous

10 notes · View notes

saintheartwing · 4 years

Text

Lily’s Post about Mary Sues

Let’s analyze this.

None of those series you mentioned have characters that could be labelled as Mary Sues

Clark Kent, Goku, Luke, Anakin, Kirk.

Okay, a Mary Sue or Gary Stu has to be, basically, either an author avatar or stand-in, they tend to be beautiful or really handsome, have unusual, or dramatic backtories, are “chosen one” types, all of the main characters in the group will love them or admire them and those that don’t are always portrayed as in the wrong for not doing so, this kind of thing. They tend to be overpowered as well and they possess unique, special powers. They’ve basically overpowered, over-idealized, beloved by anybody and if you DON’T like them, you’re clearly in the wrong. Oh, and everything they do is treated as good, and if they DO screw up, hey, it’s no big deal. Any actual flaws are negligible or nonexistent. Like being “Naive” or wearing their heart on their sleeve.

Let’s take a look at...Superman. Well, he’s got several big weaknesses. Kryptonite, for one. And Magic. HUGELY weak against magic. He IS overpowered and he is mostly beloved by everyone...but he has made a LOT of mistakes. Especially when it comes to Batman. Whenever Batman is involved in a story with him, it’s Batman who’s right, and Superman who’s in the wrong. Pretty much all the time. “Darkseid is dead, Superman.” “You know what Bruce? You’re not always right!” But Batman WAS right, at least technically. Batman regularly beats Superman in several stories. So Clark isn’t always treated as right. On top of that, he does have some real character flaws of constantly being torn between wanting to do more and being afraid of how far he should go. And when you have GODLY strength, that’s a huge exploit, especially for supervillains. But...he does fill a lot of the Mary Sue tropes, so we’ll give Lily some credit.

Goku? Well Goku is a moron. The story always treats his stupidity as being a huge problem. One that CONTINUES to cause issues, and has even nearly gotten his world destroyed a few times. He’s even gotten himself and his friends KILLED cuz he couldn’t think of any other way but to sacrifice himself or the like. AND he has serious anger issues. When he’s furious, he’s almost uncontrollable. The only person more so is Vegeta. He’s also a pig who eats too much but we can sorta overlook that last one because being a glutton is played more for laughs and “He needs it to keep up his strength”. How about his powers? Well he’s DEFINITELY overpowered. Is he handsome? Well, he looks pretty good. And he’s well-liked by pretty much the whole main cast except for, of course, the villains. So we could say...yeah. Goku’s kinda Mary Sue-ish.

Luke? Well...not really. Luke isn’t naturally gifted or talented like Goku or Superman were. Despite having the POTENTIAL to be great, his Jedi skills started out so poor he couldn’t even block blaster bolts using the force alone. He had to train for weeks if not months under Yoda just to get somewhat up to snuff and he STILL failed. “Don’t go into that cave with your weapons”. He goes in. Sees Darth Vader and...oh, wait, it’s HIMSELF he’s killed! You were put to the test and you failed. He can’t lift large objects with the Force. He’s reckless, he doesn’t think things through and he often has to rely on help from OTHERS to succeed. He only got that one-in-a-million shot on the Death Star because Obi Wan’s ghost spoke to him in his head to help guide him. He only got away from the first Death Star because Obi Wan sacrificed himself. Throughout the first two films, he’s just not good enough. He loses to Darth Vader MISERABLY, and he even loses his HAND. A real Mary Sue would have won, or at least held Darth Vader off, or tied. Worse still, he’s not just dangerously reckless and kind of whiny...he’s got a serious anger problem that rises up in the films, he almost outright gives in to the dark side. But other than that, he’s just some country bumpkin who happened to luck out at finding the right droid. All his powers, he basically earned, showing a classic heroes’s journey growth. So that, combined with the huge failures in the first few movies and even if we factor in the sequels and the stupid, dumb decisions he made...he’s not a Mary Sue. A Mary Sue wouldn’t f--k up that much. Or if they did, it wouldn’t be treated as his own fault, or as a bad thing. It’d be brushed off.

Anakin! OHHH boy. This guy is a whiny little brat. I don’t know if people realize this, but...Lily, NOBODY LIKED ANAKIN. Anakin was unlikable BECAUSE he was a Mary Sue. You DO realize this, right? He was overpowered, treated as the chosen one, and he was super whiny at that. But you know what? At least the story treated him doing awful stuff as the wrong thing. Him being reckless? A bad thing. He should listen to Obi Wan more. Him casually killing someone through the back in the Clone Wars? A bad thing, he could have just knocked the guy out or cut his arm or hand off, what he did was murder. Anakin murdering the entire tribe of Sand People that kidnapped his mom, leading to her death? Shown as a VERY bad thing because he slaughtered ALL of them, even women and children. Anakin becoming Sith and killing kids? SUPER bad thing.

So at the very least, him doing morally reprehensible things is treated as genuinely bad. At least the story calls him out on this.

Kirk? Uh, Kirk is just a random human. He’s not exactly super strong or super intelligent. He’s clever and he’s fairly skilled in combat, and he’s definitely good looking, but he’s no ‘chosen one’ like so many of the others. Has he got flaws? Yeah, he’s got a temper. And he flagrantly disregards the rules. And he DEFINITELY is something of a skirt chaser. But he’s not exactly overpowered enough to be considered a Mary Sue. He hasn’t GOT enough powers at all to be counted as one. Plus, when you consider how he died? A real Mary Sue would get a far better and more dramatic death, if they died at all. So Kirk? Ahhh, not really. He’s not a Mary Sue. He’s just not powerful enough to be one and he’s no chosen one.

But your characters? Well, let’s see. Rey is a chosen one. So is Aliana. And Aliana is descended from a LONG LINE of superpowerful Sith. She’s basically “old money”. It runs in the blood. Pretty Mary Sue right there. They’re overpowered? Yep. Very. They easily beat the crap out of Kylo Ren. Do all the main characters like them? Yeah. And any that don’t are always treated as wrong, like Leia, or enemies, like Kylo Ren. They fit the definitions to a T.

can never be wrong

“So are a lot of characters in popular culture”

Except that’s not true. Superman, as I’ve shown, has been wrong quite a lot, especially when arguing against Batman, or Wonder Woman. Superman having to kill three Kryptonians who had did a literal genocide of an alternate Earth was portrayed as VERY wrong and it haunted him for years and years. Anakin was VERY, VERY wrong. The minute you do mass murder, you kinda instantly become wrong. Kirk ends up being very wrong in the final film he’s in. He doesn’t want to leave his heavenly alternate reality, it’s PICARD who has to convince him to stop being selfish. Goku is stupidly wrong when dealing with Cell, he really screws up and it gets his mentor and a few of his friends killed because he couldn’t think of a better way to get rid of the about-to-explode Cell than to teleport him to King Kai’s moon. He could have just teleported him, say, the serpent bridge, THEN teleported back if he really thought the explosion was gonna be so big it’d take out the entire world but...nope! Then there’s how he handled Majin Buu. He THINKS he doesn’t have to use fusion with his son. After all, Majin Buu has just lost a ton of power! He and his son can beat him normally...then Majin Buu catches him off guard and claims his son. Nice going, Goku, he was weak and instead of doing what everyone told you to do, you whiffed because you assumed you could handle it. And then there was his whole “Okay Vegeta, you finish off Frieza while he’s all Golden”. Big mistake. Frieza does a self-destructive attack that BLOWS UP THE ENTIRE WORLD and Whis has to literally TURN. BACK. TIME to fix this. Thanks, Goku. You COULDA just finished Frieza off like you did last time, but noooo! You had to indulge your friend’s ego. Luke? Luke’s been wrong a ton of times. Even if we ignore the sequels and the stupid way he handled Kylo Ren and hiding off on some podunk island, he ignored Yoda’s advice multiple times, he took off to fight Darth Vader, and he lost miserably.

Basically, every time these people do something wrong...it is, for the most part, TREATED as the wrong move by the story. That’s NOT the case for Aliana or Rey. Casually killing a guard for harassing a refugee? Cold blooded murder? Not portrayed as wrong. Overkill of guards at Canto Bight? Not even REMOTELY called out, nor the whole “mass forced suicide” thing. Killing Rey’s parents in cold blood when they were unarmed? Barely glanced over. What’s portrayed as wrong was keeping that a secret, not the MURDER thing. SHOOTING LEIA WITH ELECTRICITY? Not even REMOTELY treated as going too far.

are always victims

“Can’t imagine why a woman who suffers from PTSD writes characters who have suffered trauma in their lives. It’s a fucking mystery.”

You realize though this makes Aliana an author-avatar/stand in though, and that enforces the whole “she’s a Mary Sue” thing, right?

and bend the narrative to suit their needs

“If they were villains you wouldn’t complain about it this insessantly.”

But they’re NOT villains. When a story has a hero doing this, even when it has a villain doing this, that’s bad writing. Having Leia reasonably point out the fact that the Republic has every good reason to not trust a Sith and Aliana can’t just bully them into going along with everything she wants...and then having Aliana just SPONTANEOUSLY summon her own WAR FLEET to go “Sword of Damocles” on Leia and the Republic? That’s bad writing. It comes out of nowhere, no build up, and exists ONLY to tell Leia and anybody who has a problem with how Aliana’s doing things to SHUT UP I’M IN CHARGE. It’s bullying, bad writing.

Also, those other characters mentioned have other characters who will call out people like Luke or Kirk if they mess up. And Luke and Kirk or Goku will go “Yeah, you’re right, I should listen to you” and they have to change...or at least say they’ll try to. Does anybody in your story do that? Well...no. Because ANY objection to how Rey or Aliana does things is treated as BAD and WRONG because they’re the main characters, and thus everything they do is right, even if it’s morally repulsive and if ANOTHER character shot lightning at a middle-aged woman for a nasty comment, they’d be the bad guy.

Anyway, said my piece. Lily really has absolutely no self-reflection on this. She can’t handle actual criticism. All this is is DEFLECTION and PIVOTING away from your own story’s problems. It’s very easy to crow about how popular your work is when you dismiss and delete all actual critique and criticism.

#Star Wars #Sith Resurgence #the sith resurgence #lily orchard #mary sue #fanfiction #fanfics #Aliana #Rey

18 notes · View notes

plays-the-thing · 3 years

Text

The Mandalorian S2: Style Over Substance – A Companion Piece

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I promise to always give you my honest opinion.

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

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

2 notes · View notes

yourwakingnightmares · 3 years

Text

I wanna talk about Disney for a moment. Specifically, Disney’s Star Wars.

Because to me? What they did with these Star Wars movies? Classic Disney at this point.

They bragged about how ‘diverse’ they were with the new Star Wars movie. Rey, Finn, Rose, Maz, Phasma, and so on. Disney rode in on their high horses to grandiosely announce how ‘diverse’ they were.

And yet.

Let’s take these in order, shall we? I’m going to try and keep these points somewhat brief, as I could go on for ages about this. Please do bear in mind: I hold no animosity, and a great deal of sympathy for these actors, and I do not condone any slander against them as people. We can criticize the character, but the actors should be off-limits.

Let’s begin.

With Rey, they bragged about the first main female character in Star Wars -ignoring Leia, Ahsoka, Padme, and so on. However... They wanted to brag about giving us this ‘gift’, but they did nothing with her. Rey was the classic blank slate character, a Mary Sue straight from the pages of a young writer’s FF.net fiction. They spent exactly zero time turning Rey into a well fleshed out character, instead just settling for, ‘she wants to find her family’. They spent zero time turning Rey into a human being, and settled on, ‘she is perfect and can do no wrong’. They ended the series with Rey literally taking everything she hadn’t earned, and then stealing the OT characters’ name, and said, “Look how progressive we are!”. They didn’t want Rey to earn things on her own, they didn’t want to give her plots where she learned that a name was meaningless, and didn’t define her. They just wanted her to look cool, be badass, have zero faults, and be the main centerpiece. They wanted their ‘good ally’ tokens, but didn’t want to put any work into it.

Fin had a similar problem; they bragged about the first main black Star Wars character (again, ignoring Lando, but we’ll let that go for now). But what did they do with Fin? They spent zero time on his continuity, zero time on his personality, and by RoS, he’d become nothing more than the comedic relief -something I particularly find abhorrent, given that this was the classic ‘funny black best friend’ trope that I’ve seen so many times. He went from being a Stormtrooper to a janitor. Even John Boyega criticized this, saying that Fin was given no direction, no purpose, and that they shoehorned him into RoS. In the posters for the Asian market, he was literally shrank down to almost nothing, and hidden away in the bottom corner, to appease the Asian markets. Disney wanted their ‘good ally’ token for having a main black character, but didn’t want to put any work into it.

Rose? What even was Rose? Was she a character? They took an attractive woman, and made her frumpy for some reason. They turned her into the laughing stock at her ‘we do it by saving what we love’, turning her into the lovestruck girl willing to damn her friends, and her cause, for the sake of the guy she fell in love with over a few hour period. The only background we received was that she joined the Resistance because rich people funded the First Order who destroyed her home. That was it. Her lines were atrocious, her character development non-existant, and she was literally the most obvious, forced, ‘see, capitalism bad’! billboard I have ever seen in my life. (Note: I’m not complaining about the ‘message’, but rather the delivery: this is akin to telling children, ‘murder is bad’ -and then acting like you’ve said something poignant). They wanted their ‘good ally’ token for having an Asian female, but they didn’t want to put any work into it.

Maz Kanata? Shit, don’t even get me started on this walking Yoda ripoff. She was in TFA solely to give Rey the lightsaber, and tell her to find Luke. Literally, she does nothing else. She’s not given any character, any dimension. The one opportunity we had for getting some background on this character -namely, how she had Anakin’s lightsaber -we were told, ‘Eh, don’t ask’. Like, literally, the character said, “Another time.” in response to being asked how she had it. She appears in TLJ just long enough to say, “Go find this dude who spends all of his time in this casino, and ask him to help you -I’m very busy, so I can’t help you, but this guy I’ve had sex with in the past -he can help you.” That was it. Her entire screen time was about two minutes. They wanted their ‘good ally’ token for having a half-black/half-Hispanic actress voicing her, but didn’t want to put any work in to.

And good lord, Phasma. This character was presented in the movies as the ultimate bad guy; both Gwendoline Christie and Disney screamed from the rooftops about how awesome it was that there was a Star Wars female villain, and how we would love her due to her ‘actions, and her character!’. And then we were presented with roughly seven minutes of screen time, in which she did nothing, other than antagonize Fin somewhat, only to pathetically die to the janitor man. They wanted to get their ‘good ally’ token for having a female villain, but they didn’t want to put any work in to it.

The lesbian kissing scene? Not only were they unnamed characters, one of which I don’t think we’d ever even heard speak... Not only was it a brief, four or five second shot of them kissing in the background... but it was cut from international markets. They wanted the American progressives to give them their ‘good ally’ tokens, but they were too afraid to stand by their decisions.

And that? That pretty much sums up Disney at this point. They’re the ultimate cowards. They will do only the most cursory things to get the progressive community to hail their movie, but they won’t do a penny more. They’re too afraid of losing money. They’re too afraid of angering the international markets. They want the appearance of being socially progressive, but they don’t want to put anything but the the briefest of efforts into doing it -and then they minimize what they have done.

It’s sickening. I have zero respect for cowards. I respect people who’s opinions I find abhorrent more than I respect cowards. Because it takes conviction to stand by something you believe in -it can be wrong, disgusting, or immoral, but at least you have some conviction in what you believe. You’re willing to take a stand for what you believe in.

But cowards? Cowards jump to stay with the ‘in-crowd’. Cowards do whatever it takes to make sure nobody says anything bad about them. Cowards care about profit over conviction.

#Disney #social progress #cowards #star wars #New Star Wars

2 notes · View notes