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“[Obi-wan] had spent so many months thinking of the dead. Dreaming of them. Now it was time to join the living. That was why watching over Luke was so crucial. That was why he couldn’t lose hope, couldn’t falter. Everything he knew was gone, and when things changed, they would not change in the way he wanted. He would not get back all that he’d lost. He realized now how much of his bitterness had been tied up in that simple, childish wish - to have back what he’d loved. What he loved was gone forever.”

—  Obi-wan Kenobi in Jude Watson’s The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission

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me when I’m totally over my grief and not all crying and throwing up

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Excerpt translated into simpler terms: The agonizer was a new, experimental handheld weapon that sent a focused sound beam into the part of the brain that controls emotions and pain, causing the body to produce excessive pain-causing chemicals.

The result was intense pain without any physical injury. Regular painkillers like Somaprin (fictional SW medication) or even strong sedatives couldn't stop it, and often the pain was so severe that the patient died from sensory overload. The only way to stop it was to cut off the pain signals in a part of the brain called the thalamus. This required a delicate laser surgery—exactly the kind of operation that wasn't suitable for field surgery.

"I stopped the pain. But now he'll have chronic involuntary movement problems and lack of coordination for the rest of his life..."

—

CLONE TROOPER LORE OF THE DAY: THE AGONIZER

Sources: MedStar II: Jedi Healer, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia

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HEY, COOL, SO I’M CRYING ABOUT OBI-WAN KENOBI AND ANAKIN SKYWALKER AGAIN. This is such a fascinating look at their dynamic when Anakin was younger, that Anakin is clearly boiling with frustration and Obi-Wan’s reaction is to give him leeway, to understand that he’s working on it, that nobody’s perfect and nobody expects Anakin to be a perfect Jedi, but he’s getting there.  Obi-Wan praises Anakin several times in this issue alone and, when Anakin has an outburst at him, the whole, “You never wanted me!” thing, Obi-Wan is hurt and concerned about this, so he makes sure Anakin knows he’s wanted. He gives Anakin space for a couple of hours, lets him cool down because Anakin needs that breathing room for a bit, then trusts him when they land on the planet and helps save himself from the pirates.  He gives him an important job to do, he trusts Anakin to use his training to help, and then he sits down with Anakin, gently and warmly explains to him that Obi-Wan felt like Anakin would be the one who didn’t want him. Obi-Wan makes himself vulnerable with Anakin, shows that he has worries and fears as well, that if he couldn’t save Qui-Gon, someone who could already take care of himself, how can he save someone who’s just learning?  But that’s the whole point–Obi-Wan listens when he needs to, understands that he needs to understand himself just as much as he needs to understand Anakin, that this struggle is just as much for him as it is for Anakin.  That he doesn’t hate himself or rip himself to shreds over this, because Obi-Wan’s emotional foundations are the bedrock of all good (THANKS AGAIN FOR THAT QUOTE, “MASTER & APPRENTICE”) and he’s so incredibly emotionally stable that he can take stock of himself and Anakin both, that he can look outside his own feelings, that he can know himself and recognize when he falls into perfectly understandable and human pitfalls, that he can recognize that Jedi wisdom is:

(The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry) This is why I will always defend Obi-Wan as a teacher, because he makes sure to talk to Anakin, to show that he understands maybe not everything of what Anakin’s going through but still a lot of it, Obi-Wan doesn’t chastise him for being moody or misunderstanding, instead he praises Anakin when he does well, offers him things he knows Anakin will like, and makes them a team.  Yes, sometimes he gets frustrated, yes, sometimes Anakin oversteps his bounds and will continue to do so long beyond when he should have learned more control over himself, but even then Obi-Wan makes sure to ask how Anakin’s doing (asks about Anakin’s dreams in AOTC, until Anakin changes the subject on him), he makes sure to joke and laugh with him (when Anakin is panicking in the lift, Obi-Wan jokes with him to calm him down, and it works), he makes sure to tell Anakin things that will make him happy (points out that Padme was glad to see them, when Anakin was getting upset that she didn’t seem to care). This entire issue really seemed to be keeping Attack of the Clones in mind, that Anakin has trouble with not being ahead of where he’s ready to be, that he’s teetering between being ready and not ready to come along on a mission here, that he’s teetering between being ready and not ready to be on his own during AOTC, that Anakin is champing at the bit at 19 to be allowed to go beyond their mandate and to be seen as a big shot before he’s ready, that Anakin is surly that he’s being put with the “babies” in order to catch up before he’s ready to move on.  That 19 year old Anakin should know better, where 13 year old Anakin is given far more leeway, but ultimately Obi-Wan’s approach is the same–that he keeps being warm and understanding with Anakin, that even when he puts down boundaries, he still cheers him up and offers to talk whenever Anakin needs it, still understands that Anakin is a work in progress. Just as they all are.  That a Master is meant to be a student just as much as a Padawan.  Obi-Wan is still learning and so of course he supports Anakin as he’s learning, whether it’s when he’s 13 or 19 or 23, he’s never expected Anakin to be perfect.  Only to keep learning.  And to talk to him whenever Anakin needs to, because Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t have to be vomiting his feelings everywhere to be warm and caring and open. He talks about Qui-Gon.  He talks about his own worries.  He says the Jedi Council is wise, but they’re not perfect, he shows such faith and trust in Anakin, shows that his feelings are understandable, but he’s absolutely wanted. Obi-Wan tells him he’s doing well, that Anakin handles himself admirably.  OBI-WAN KENOBI SUPPORTED HIM, TALKED WITH HIM, AND TAUGHT HIM.  OBI-WAN KENOBI WAS SO GOOD WITH HIM AND THIS IS WHY THEIR LATER FALLING APART HURTS SO MUCH, BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH GOOD AND CARE HERE. That, at their very foundation, they are inherently an incredible, wonderful, warm combination for each other.  Anakin and Obi-Wan, even at this young stage of their relationship, bring out so much good in each other, allow all these good things to flourish, and we get to see how good they were together.  THANKS, STAR WARS, I’M CRYING ABOUT THE TEAM AGAIN.

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I wanted to play around and “redo” the clone model, bc frankly it stinks. first I studied and rendered a version of Plunketts original clone sculpt as a base, then I sketched and intermediate, and then finished it off with a final render. The final render that I made is just a piggy-back off of Plunketts original design, a suggestion of some geometry changes they could make, but it if we’re me I would do a complete overhaul of the model to make it anatomy more like Temuera’s. Because I wanted to start at the (sort of) same starting place as Plunkett, I started with one of his original sculpts of the clones (the one I used is a sculpt of Fives).

Here is a written outline of the ALL changes I made:

removed extreme cheekbone geometry from the sides of the face in favor of a smooth plane

removed the extreme angles of the jaw in favor of Temuera’s rounded jawline, also lowered a tad

change of hairline to match Temuera’s hairline shape

complete change of the nose geometry, flatter, broader. Still “shapely” to fit the general style

lips are smaller and rounded

brows are lowered and relaxed like Temuera’s

added crease above nose and in between eyebrows

removal of wrinkles (they’re in their twenties what were you thinking)

added texture to the hair. I would suggest starting with large textured shapes and then do a painted texture on the model similar to how they did Trace and Admiral Rampart’s hair. the textures are simple but the painting makes the hair patterns more apparent on top of the model’s geometry.

(not pictured) add a more appropriate skin tone (I understand that the raw animation the clones are already pretty dark, but the shaders they use make the final rendering for animated clones SIGNIFICANTLY lighter, to combat this, make the ‘true color’ of the animated clones darker to compensate for the lightening in rendering or fix the shaders)

(not pictured) get rid of the grey/golden eyes, idk what it is about LFA’s refusal to give POC characters their dark brown eyes but just give em back, man. use the dark almost black eyes Temuera has.

I am NOT a 3D animator or a 3D modeler, however all of the things that I changed are completely realistic and achievable in 3D. (i elaborate on this more in the post)

When I started this process I made notes of some of the most glaring features on the first clone model, such as the extremely chiseled and angular face, large Eurocentric nose, straight hair, and (while it’s not pictured in my render) the obviously-too-light skin. This looks nothing like Temuera, not even if you squint. I made some notes of the features that they excluded from the model (1st image) and some notes of features that Temuera has that would help capture his likeness better (2nd image)

I’ve heard the argument a million times that the model isn’t whitewashed it’s just “the art style”. ABSOLUTELY NOT BABE, SIT DOWN AND TAKE A GANDER. This is Captain Typo’s character model, based on a Polynesian actor. LFA is clearly capable of sculpting and rendering Polynesian features and curly hair textures. They have dark skin, rounded face, DARK BROWN EYES, curls, rounded flat nose, etc. the argument that it’s ‘just the art style’ is a hot pile of garbage, stop using it.

Hair texture time! To elaborate more on the proposed hair texture in my model redesign, I wanted to explain what I’m talking about a little bit. LFA is capable of animating lots of different kinds of hair textures, they just elected to exclude it from the clone model for whatever reason. They achieve geometric texture, which is the actual geometry of the model, and painted textures, where there is simple geometry but most of the texturing is done with paint, the colors you see on top the 3D geometry. Either of these options would be acceptable for curly hair like Temuera’a. (Looking again Trace Martez’ hair might fall a bit in between the two categories, but the point is still the same)

I also understand that animation, especially 3D animation is hard. But that’s not an excuse for LFA! they’ve updated the clone model significantly about 3 times, and that doesn’t include some of the smaller geometry changes they’ve made to characters like Hunter and Rex. They can achieve rounded faces (Fennec, Typho, Trace Martez) and other appropriate features for people of color. With 3 major overhauls they should have at least tried to make them resemble Temuera Morrison.

Now you tell me, which one of these looks more appropriate for a Māori man in his twenties? (If you say the first you’re lying to yourself!)

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My Name is Ben | by Luca Merli

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Planet/location concepts by Ralph McQuarrie for the original Star Wars trilogy (that were reused later).

Coruscant started out as Had Abaddon, capital of the empire, and was going to be featured in RETURN OF THE JEDI. It was very very close, but eventually Lucas decided to go with a second Death Star.

Alderaan. I used to wonder why McQuarrie had bothered designing Alderaan as it would only be seen from space anyway. But Alderaan wasn’t always Alderaan: in one draft, the planet was a giant gas planet, and the capital of the New Galactic Empire.

Sicemon, originally the site of Jabba’s palace in RETURN OF THE JEDI. It was then re-purposed as the home of the rebels, then abandoned.

An abandoned “ice castle” on Hoth where the rebels would have their base of operations (you can spot a tiny Han and Chewie).

These images show Vader’s castle, which I’ve featured before. (In fact I’ve featured several of these images before, but I just wanted to do this overview and didn’t want to exclude the more significant concepts.)

The sinkhole planet that would become Utapau. This one dates back to 1976 I believe.

Bonus: This one, by Doug Chiang, is a concept painting for Jakku, which was conceived as a junk planet. Should have used it! I mean THAT is a planet you’d want to escape from. Plus we had already seen a sand planet.

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I was thinking about how Nim also deserves some fucking stupid lightsaber specialty and remembered @rochenn 's zweihänder lightsaber idea

so...

remind me to never do a lightsaber design ever again

anyways. gigantic lightsaber. Dooku doesn't know whether to love it or hate it.

(the guard can swivel around and fold in for a a bit more spacially conscious mode)

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complete locations: yeah the wookiees have nap rooms and hammocks.

me, running with it: they totally went if u make us sit in an office in ur ugly metal city planet we're putting in a brick floor so we can have a moss lawn over top of it.

The Wookiees huddle us into the Mytaranor Sector’s inner offices, across a walkway made narrow only in comparison to the wide, stepped construction of the public corridors. The doors open onto a room with a large table shaped like a round-edged Krill. The doors themselves are between a pair of turbolifts wrapped in varying types of wood veneer. Before we can move further than an intricate parquet floor that puts tessellated patterns to shame, Elder Lowfla addresses us. “Please,” he says, Padawan Ilfre performing as translator, “remove your shoes.” No one needs to be asked twice. Beyond the inset wood, the floor is green. It’s not carpet. Somehow, it is living moss. I can feel it, sleepy and comfortable, unaware that this environment is not one it occurs in naturally. Below it, the ground is cool and moist, its hardness different in style to the typical durasteel construction of Coruscant. A moss lawn in the middle of the Senate. Like the wooden floor by the entrance, the moss has been arranged in a pattern, showcasing the differences between the yellowy green of khloros, the juicy brightness of sour apple skin green, cyanotic greens edging into teal, dark olive and paler olivine, brown-tinted greens that nearly match the wroshyr wood panelling of the lifts.

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going through the 2005-era visual dictionaries as one does and some of it is unintentionally hilarious, like:

(sorry kitten, looks like daddy doesn't trust you enough to have the real holocrons but you can listen to, uh, plagueis's 12-part lecture on midi- vs maxi-chlorians and such choice classics as darth zannah's 12-point plan to incite insurrection on serenno c. 990bby, darth bane reading skere kaan for filth, darth kreia's treatise on on how the force is going to eat us all, darth noctyss's instructions on how to create a sickle-bladed lightsaber—i know you like the curved things—, the dulcet tones of darth nihilus's ... something.)

now you too can learn the secret senatorial body language!

things like the page of creepies that feed on concrete and electricity on coruscant. i never needed to see a conduit worm, but i have. you don't need to see a conduit worm, so don't. trust me. you're better off.

these lovely tidbits sprinkled throughout:

(it's a surprise tool that will help us later)

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dooku: *throws rael into the nearest freezing river*

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Darth Vader (2020) Issue #48 - Son of Vader

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One thing that drives me bonkers about this particular plot is that Anakin is nominally trying to win to free the enslaved sister of two podracers, a girl enslaved by Sebulba. But as soon as Sebulba appears, Anakin just...stops thinking about her. There's no pause, no consideration for the girl, no attempt to free her by other means, it's all about beating Sebulba's son and Sebulba by proxy. It's in character, but it's also maddening.

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And he's not even trying to flirt with someone this time. Is that rant always just ready to go? It's one of those locked and loaded things Anakin can drop at any moment the earth starts to get a little gritty? Amazing.

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I would die for Jocasta Nu. Her acting as space google for every ridiculous question Obi-Wan has while on missions is the main highlight of these books ngl.

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Okay but that's super cute, I'll add that to my picture of the Senate.

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I cannot express how much I love Ferus being snarky and an all-around killjoy.