#TLJ SPOILERS //

[thund3randrain]

Listen, I hate The Last Jedi as much as the next avid movie-goer. But I loved the whole idea of Rey coming from nothing. Her parents being scavengers who sold her for drinking money.

So much of star wars is built around the idea of family making you important. Who you're related to making you special. You backstory defining you. That was the whole point of the prequel trilogy. They do it to so many characters. Kylo Ren is important because he's a Skywalker. Leia is important because she's a Skywalker. For a while we thought Rey was gonna be important because she was gonna be a Skywalker, or even a Kenobi.

Rey starting out a nobody, but still being able to affect the galaxy and have her own story is so powerful, and throws the finger right in the face of everything that came before. You don't need to have some mythic ancestry or powerful backstory to be important. Anyone can be a hero, and anyone can make a difference. Rey was so convinced that her parents were important, that knowing them would explain everything, but in the end they didn't matter. She mattered. And that's really moving

And then JJ said fuck it she's a Palpatine Skywalker now UwU

[humandisastersquad]

honestly feels like rtd pulled a last jedi and said Fuck You for thinking she's special and theorising about it, even though the text explicitly framed her that way and it doesn't make any sense if she isn't

[wishingupontheskyandstars]

Just finished watching the season finale of ‘The Acolyte’ and Woww that was a pretty damn good Star Wars 😌

[reyturnofbensolo]

"Can you imagine? Can you imagine if they were like, 'No problem, you can use Yoda. Not a big deal. Go for it."-Leslye Headland

🤣

[1nightinoctober]

I think the episode from The Acolyte 1x06 - Teach/Corrupt (even though this seems like a preproduction temporary title) drinks a lot from The Last Jedi.

The Jedi are often presented as always righteous and always good and always ethically correct. When Anakin gives in into the dark side the give away message was that darkness was always in him, like an inevitable fate. That he was impulsive, and proud and couldn't let go of his attachments.

A shortcut to Anakin getting corrupted was that he did not understood the darkness in him, because none of the Jedi recognizes that darkness exists in them. That is human (or multi species in the star wars universe), that contradiction lies in us, but what is important is that no matter what might cross your head, you can always chose to do the right thing. Choosing to be good implies that you can be redeemed, that even if you have done bad actions that does not define that you always have to be on the dark side. Ultimately is why Luke cannot handle the darkness in Ben, and does not understands or knows how to deal with the darkness that this risens in himself.

Something we also see in episode vi of Obi Wan Kenobi with the Third Sister. Reva chooses not to kill Luke, not to give in into the revenge she feels.

In The Last Jedi we see this push and pull from Rey and Ben Solo. Can one be persuated into the darkness or the other persuaded into the light. Their path is not closed for or settled. Or else it wouldn't be possible for them to reflect upon their counterparts arguments. There is hope for Ben to turn for light and there is fear that Rey might join the dark side.

This is also an interesting exercise in The Acolyte. They shows us in episode 3, the childhood of the sisters, their foundations, where Osha is presented as in light, and Mae as in darkness. That is inate in them and predestines their futures (hell, even the name of the episode is "destiny") but by episode 6 this is not such as straightforward, as both of them reflect on their paths and values.

Nothing that Qimir says is particularly wrong, the arguments he uses are coherent and coesive, the same way Palpatine makes complete sense to Anakin. Because these characters are not allowed to feel this less than pristine feelings they go "well shit, if he is evil and he sees this in me, I must be evil too". Moreover, because they are not prepared for the evil within, they do not know how to identify it and resist it. Corruption it's easy. It's easy to fall into and easy to justify it to ourselves, especially when we do not recognise ourselves as vulnerable to it.

Depending how they go about the next episodes of The Acolyte I think it might be an interesting battle between good and evil. After all both lie within us.

[tarisilmarwen]

Ahsoka "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord" Liveblog

Woo boy, there were certainly some Choices in this.

Yeah yeah, I'm late and spoilered to hell I know, look, I have been Going Through It out in realspace and my priority has been finishing Whumptober fics, cut me some slack.

Anyway.

Lars Mikkelson continuing to crush it as Thrawn.

"Even I fell victim to the... heroics of a single Jedi." Looooooool another bit for my collection of Pissy!Thrawn moments.

We're not going to get an explanation for why the Nightsisters and Thrawn are so tight, are we?

Morgan looks a little bit trepidacious about all of this ha ha.

All right, a point in this show's favor, this look at Nightsister rituals and culture is interesting.

And the flaming sword is cool, I'll admit.

Ngl, the editing really needs to be tightened up in this scene, we really only needed the one or two establishing shots before cutting into the interior.

Eman continues to be the perfect Ezra. I love him. 10/10 no complaints.

Ngl, this is sweet on the surface that Ezra's new saber has pieces of Kanan's buuuuuuuut *waves Green Saber Ezra Supremacy flag*.

Sabine, let him borrow y'all's lightsaber and YOU build a new one.

Ah goody, an Exposition Reveal.

-_-

This... doesn't actually explain Baylan's "Your family is dead because your Master didn't trust you." line btw. JUST SAYING.

I don't even know what the narrative wants anymore re. Sabine's choice to gamble Thrawn's return for Ezra.

Aaaand please not to be reminding me of the Wrong Jedi arc kthnx.

Oh good an action scene.

Ezra and Ahsoka being cool Jedi together, nice. Could be more emphasized and staged even more coolly tho.

Well poop, I guess that's the reason why we had to risk stowing away on Thrawn's ship.

Oh good! This holomap thing is exactly the kind of plot device I actually needed for one of my Sabezra Week fills.

Lol Thrawn be taking NO chances lololol.

Oh hello finally some of Thrawn's theme in the score here. Thrawn using the men's loyalty and fanaticism towards him personally to achieve his goals, fits the culty vibes, sure.

I am liiiiiviiiiiiiiiiiing for the subtle nervousness in Ezra's voice when talking about Thrawn finding the Dathomir castle and waking the witches. PLEASE CAN I HAVE A THOUSAND WHUMP AND ANGST FICS ABOUT THE IN-BETWEEN BEFORE EZRA'S ESCAPE FROM THE CHIMAERA?

His arms are so comfortably around Sabine awwwwww.

Thrawn be all srs bznss and I'm loving it.

Yeah no, Jedi!Sabine is REJECTED, she did not have any kind of necessary mental or emotional breakthrough, she wasn't shown calming her mind properly, sorry Dave THE LEGWORK AIN'T THERE, Imma fix this to be Ahsoka in the inevitable rewrite/fixfic that I've apparently decided I'm doing.

Oh Ahsoka is helping too, well I'm still not having Sabine be able to do it.

HAAAAAAAAAA THAT PISSED LOOK OF THRAWN'S OH MAN THE SNARLING LIP CURL, THE RAGE, YES PLEASE MORE.

The struggle to recompose himself OH MAN.

This is peak Mirrorverse!Thrawn and I'm here for it. I love seeing my headcanons playing out onscreen.

Aaaaaand this would have been the perfect scene to have Ezra and Sabine sharing the Our Lightsaber, meanwhile Sabine should be fully kitted out Mando style.

*simmers*

STAGE THIS DIFFERENTLY SO THAT SABINE'S BESKAR IS NOT CONSTANTLY LITERAL PLOT ARMOR PLEASE.

Aahhhhhhh Ezra my love! <3

Should have either let him use the Our Lightsaber or continued with the Force martial arts though, pick a lane. Or have a conversation about why they need to actually get him another saber.

Eman is... waaaaaaay better at this than Rosario, sad to say, lol.

Look at him GO THERE'S MY BOY.

I love him.

Oh what are we doing now?

Ohhhhh the zombie!troopers!

Lol Ezra must have left before the Nightsisters could show Thrawn their zombie techniques.

Eman makes this look flawless, I am in love.

Battle Couple Sabezra moment, awww.

"I missed you."

FAKSJHFAKJFHHKKHHHFHFH OKAY DEAD.

DEAD AND DECEASED.

LIKE THE ZOMBIES LOL.

Aaaaaaaaand I'm gonna adjust this in the fixfic, because right now it looks like they were waiting to actually dock.

And my typing is being slowed down hang on a second.

Still dumb.

Okay back.

Thrawn basically telling Morgan, "Right, so you're going to have to go fight the Rebels and stall die for me, mmkay?"

She's looking like she might regret all of this now lolol.

I do like how the finale is making it very very easy for me to fix later lol.

Like here. Morgan should have attempted to stop Ezra and Sabine. Just a small attempt, and then blocked by Ahsoka, and Ezra and Sabine run around and outmaneuver them.

BATTLE COUPLE SABEZRA. :D

Aaaaand final trailer shot accounted for.

Okay, can there be a little more effort on the choreography there please?

Oh no Sabine, EZRA SAVE HER.

Or we could retcon Sabine into actually legitimately being Force Sensitive and have her pull the Our Lightsaber.

SIIIIIIIIGHHHHHHH.

*grumbles, takes down notes about how to fix this in my rewrite*

Oh come on Ezra, you can jump that.

Catch me melting at the sheer and utter trust Ezra has in Sabine's abilities.

(But also, screw this, she's getting a jetpack in the rewrite.)

Aaaaaaaaaand I do hate that they got separated again, screwing alllllll of that.

Nice of the troopers to just politely stop shooting.

Yeah so, this is basically gonna be a 1 v 100 for Ahsoka when I rewrite it, let my girl have a hard fought climactic battle, she can take it.

"Your friends are dead." Uhhhh nah they ain't what does this bit of dialogue even connect to?

Lol Ezra gets to put on the big boy stormtrooper armor.

The vaaaaaaaaaguely panicky twitches that Thrawn has here. A+, excellent, no notes.

No kill like overkill LOLOLOL.

Thrawn, internally: Shitshitshitshitshitshitshiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

Ah Thrawn is going to try Break Them By Talking. Ezra tanked this let's see if Ahsoka can do the same.

Nope, she's Affected.

Aaaaaand he out.

Bye Thrawn!

Hmmmmgh, yeah no, because in my rewrite I'm axing the entirety of Sabine actually becoming a Jedi it's going to be better that she goes with Ezra on the Eye of Sion instead of stays with Ahsoka, if she stayed a Jedi then yes that's what the conclusion should have been that makes narrative sense now that I see it.

But also again, I Do Not Like That Plot Point so--*grumblegrumble mumble*

Hi Morai!

Bandit queen Shin? I could dig it.

Baylan chilling with Mortis god statues.

I STILL DO NOT SEE ANY SOLID EVIDENCE THEY'RE GONNA DO ABELOTH GUYS, SORRY.

And Thrawn is setting up base on Dathomir. Lol wait til he finds out that there's basically nothing there anymore lololol.

Those uh... those be a lotta dead troopers. Probably most of the Chimaera crew.

...Cripes did they die naturally, did Ezra kill them, or did Thrawn pull some kind of Jonestown thing in order to enact his eventual revenge?

Oh maaaaan what if it's that last one, that would fit with the cult-like chanting in his intro omgghghhhggkajsfkjh.

Frick man, Thrawn fixing to unleash an undead army on the GFFA that can really only be taken out by lightsabers.

Oh come on, you're telling me Ezra was on the Eye and didn't pull some last minute shenanigans before he left?

Didn't screw Thrawn over one last time for nostalgia's sake?

(He and Sabine are blowing up some engines before they skedaddle, in the fixfic.)

HERA AND EZRA SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALLOWED A HUG, FILONI.

The attempt at bookends here is cute but no. LET HERA HUG HER SON.

THIS DOESN'T EVEN REALLY WORK AS A BOOKEND.

YES THE PART WHERE CHOPPER RECOGNIZES HIM IS CUTE BUT THIS IS WASTED DRAMA. THERE'S NO REASON FOR THIS.

LET HERA HUG HER SOOOOOOONNNN.

This whole scene just doesn't work because we're trying to shoehorn it into being a bookend for the opening, it doesn't wooooooooooorrrrrk.

THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

*furiously taking down notes on how to rewrite this scene*

*grumbling*

Blah blah Sabine can feel Anakin there but Ahsoka can't? blah blah blah.

Aaaaaaand closing us out with "As The Sun Sails And The Moon Walks"

Well.

Where do I begin?

Okay so... final verdict... I DO actually like this show.

THAT BEING SAID.

There was soooooooo much about the execution and so many of the narrative choices that I just NEEDED to be better and it frustrates me. Because this show by all rights should have been a spectacular emotional thrill ride like Kenobi and it just wasn't.

A lot of the problems and nitpicks I had with Kenobi are exacerbated here, especially under Filoni's brand of, "I didn't care for what Lucas did with the Prequels, here let me fix it." NO FILONI IT DIDN'T NEED FIXING IT WAS FINE! HOW THE FORCE WORKED WAS FINE! THE JEDI WERE FINE!

But there's such GOOD STUFF in here that I can't discount it all fully like I can with the Sequel Trilogy. (Which, believe me, I have attempted to workshop and fixfic but ultimately gave up on.) The purrgil lore! The Ancient Dathomiri! Another galaxy! Whatever Baylan was up to! Sabezra being adorable! Thrawn!

Soooooo yeah, basically join me sometime in the future for when I inevitably create a fixfic AU for this show like I did for Aldnoah.Zero because unfortunately I can't give up on this show I need to fix it, just hand me the characters and story and I can fix it.

Can't do much for the camerawork, choreography, and occasional stiff acting (Not you Eman, Natasha, Ray, Evan, and Lars, you're all great.) but I can at least salvage that part lol.

Ultimately... mid. Excellent premise and cool concepts brought down by subpar execution and some frankly baffling narrative decisions. But gimme like a week and I will workshop a Fanon AU that I can be completely happy with.

Hopefully we get a Season Two? Maybe? Or resolve everything in the Mandoverse movie?

Peace out, y'all.

[thirddoctor]

I honestly don't get the Ruby thing. I saw people comparing it to Rey in The Last Jedi but that one made sense to me because on a meta level people were debating about Rey's parents since the character was first announced. The only reason we were commenting on Ruby's mother is because the show itself was doing it. So I don't get what they are trying to say here.

Well, RTD himself made the comparison - he said Ruby's story was inspired by Rey in TLJ. I'm personally very much not a fan of that movie and I actually think the reveal there suffers from the exact problem you mentioned, because 1. the sequel movies deliberately set up Rey's origins as a mystery (in a way that they didn't with, say, Finn, who also has an unknown background) and 2. TLJ acts as if Rey's question is the audience's question - are her parents important - when that was never what she cared about. TFA, TLJ, and TRoS all (in different ways) seemed unable to grasp what made the revelation about Luke's parentage work so well and instead bumbled about pointlessly.

I think Ruby's reveal is handled better and I was always onboard with her being an ordinary person, I just wish there was more going on with her character. I'm not fundamentally that interested in franchises engaging with their fandoms on some meta level if there isn't also a good, earnest story beneath all that. Something like the Impossible Girl arc worked for me because the answer to the mystery was entirely rooted in Clara's character and her choices. Ruby's most tangible effect on the plot - making everyone think her mother is Important because she's important to her - isn't something she chooses, it just happens. I spent the whole season waiting for her to do something and it doesn't quite feel like she ever did. That's where I feel cheated, far more so than about her parentage.

[pitynostars]

as a day 1 clara stan who had to sit through all the whinging of her s7b reveal im feeling so salty about peoples reaction to the ruby reveal ajdkkg...

[fandomlife-confessions]

[a-manda-lorian]

Mando took me back to the TLJ mood today 😬 I always loved the throne room scene and how Rey and Kylo fought their way through the Praetorian Guard, but now I have infinitely more respect for the scene! After watching the guard take down Paz (who has proven to be an extremely skilled fighter!) with EASE, I am convinced that the TLJ scene is straight up unmatched Dyad power 😳 And say what you will about Kylo Ren, but there was a moment in the throne room that he was taking on 4 guards at once!! Now all I want to see is more Kylo/Ben raw fighting power!!!

[knight-hunter]

To be honest, this latest episode of The Mandalorian kind of worried me about the direction the show might take...

That VERY long segment on Coruscant bothered me for two reasons:

1) this is The Mandalorian, I wanna see the mandalorian and follow closely his adventures, I don't wanna NOT see him for 3/4 of the episode (and, yes, that applies for what happened on tbobf too: while I was happy to see Din, Grogu etc, that was Boba's show, it didn't felt right)

2) I have the nasty feeling that, sooner or later, they're gonna start and show connections, through the shows, to the last sequels trilogy. And this episode might have started that. And here I have a HUGE problem: personally, for my healthy state of mind, I don't consider the sequels trilogy canon. I just can't. It was an insult to everything that I love about star wars. Hell, to everything that I love about storytelling. I tried, but I couldn't.

So, I'd REALLY hate it if they'd start to use The Mandalorian as a tool of connection to those "movies". Just make a separate series, and don't use The Mandalorian.

And, yes, I know I maybe wrong seeing how the story on Coruscant ended, but this episode kind of put me on guard.

I wanna follow Din Djarin and Grogu. I want THEIR stories. Please, do not ruin this too.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

My parents and I watched the season 3 finale of Star Wars: Rebels tonight and I can't believe my mom was the one who was like "WHY ARE THEY* ALL DYING?!" and I was the one being all, "don't worry I'm sure it will be fine." this is the most role reversal we have ever done.

(*to clarify I mean the rebels in general, the main cast was fine)

[crookshankscrew]

when they bring back the Praetorian Guards and every anti has to comment with “I hate the sequel trilogy but I love them” or “I hate the last Jedi but the guard was so much better in this show”

shut the fuck up

[the-force-awakens]

Teva wearing the same jacket as Poe in tlj (+ a background NR pilot having a similar one but with a fur collar) has me SO FUCKING happy and now I'm curious if Poe inherited the jacket from someone else (Shara? L'ulo?) or if pilots in the NRDF just get one of those and Poe's had it since he joined and that's why it looks so weathered because he's had it for over a decade by tlj

[sassinake]

oshamir reaping what reylo sowed.

love finds a way.

I did want to take your hand...

Reylo x Oshamir | The Last Jedi x The Acolyte

[antianakin]

Hey, I have a question to ask, and I'm gonna ask this to a few others cause I'm not a huge Star Wars expert on this.

Ever since The Acolyte aired, the jedi have been portrayed more as space cops. But, since when were they space cops? I thought they weren't like that. Am I wrong?

They AREN'T space cops, you're entirely correct, it's Leslye Headland who is wrong.

Here's the thing you have to understand about Leslye Headland and fans like her: they will claim to their dying day that they love the Jedi while sitting there talking about how the PREQUELS Jedi specifically were awful failures who doomed themselves by being heartless assholes who failed and/or abused Anakin and helped bring about the destruction of the Republic because they were simultaneously too political and not political enough.

When the Prequels first came out, they were received... poorly... by a large chunk of the adult audience. And it became a THING to hate the Prequel trilogy for a long time. After a while, people started deciding they didn't want to hate the Prequel trilogy, but they didn't actually LIKE some of the things in the films that were different from the legends canon that had already existed for years (primarily the way the Jedi had been interpreted), and so they chose to come up with interpretations that allowed them to "like" the Prequels better. The primary one that's become so popular as to basically end up considered the actual real intended message of the films is that the Jedi had become corrupt by the time of the Prequels, they were too old-fashioned and strict and stuck in their ways (specifically in that they forbid their members to love and were beholden to the Senate) and that this allowed Palpatine to win and Anakin to be seduced to the dark side, so they're the REAL villains of the entire story and the audience is SUPPOSED to dislike them.

In fairness to these fans, there IS a theme in the Prequels of an institute that's supposed to stand for peace and goodness being corrupted into an organization that is run by fear and greed. It's just that the institution in question is the SENATE, not the Jedi. And we spend a LOT more time with main characters who are Jedi, going out and doing cool fun Jedi adventures, than we do in the Senate with any of the known Senate characters doing political things. The only Senate character who could be considered a main character in the Prequels is Padme and a LOT of her more political scenes got cut from the films in order to focus on Anakin's story instead. Even in TCW, most of Padme's "political" episodes and storylines just devolve into action adventure plots instead. So it isn't hard to understand why people focused in on the Jedi and assumed that the story was ABOUT the Jedi rather than the politicians and picked up on a theme about corruption that was very much THERE and just misapplied it. But it's still wrong.

Leslye Headland appears to be one of those fans. A LOT of Star Wars fans of a certain age tend to follow this particular headcanon. Dave Filoni is another one of them, despite his reputation as George Lucas's "padawan" and the person who understands Star Wars the best after Lucas (spoiler alert: he's not).

So what we're getting in the Acolyte is a VERY intentional critique of the Jedi becoming more political I guess, more beholden to the Senate, and therefore becoming more like "space cops" instead of... I don't know... space Knights of the Round Table maybe? I think there's this concept that the Jedi should be more free spirited like... fairy god parents wandering the galaxy just handing out random miracles to worthy people and smiting the unworthy or some shit instead of being intergalactic ambassadors for the Republic, helping to resolve conflicts with legal backing and power.

This is something that's been around for DECADES now. It's in plenty of other books and comics that have come out during and since the Prequels, it's in TLJ, it's in TOTJ and TOTE, it's in the Ahsoka show, and now it's in The Acolyte. And it's obviously floated its way around fanfiction plenty, too. It's almost impossible to avoid if you talk to any other Star Wars fans from that age group (and even honestly fans YOUNGER than that age group because a lot of the older fans basically taught their children and younger siblings to hate the Prequels or that the Prequels were about the corruption of the Jedi, or younger fans just picked it up via osmosis if they spent almost any time within fandom the way I did). But it's becoming a thing that newer shows are really hammering in as if it's real canon. Headland genuinely believes that it is and we know that to be true because she's flat out SAID THIS in an interview she gave before the show aired. She 100% believes that the point of the Prequels, George Lucas's intended message in those films, was that the Jedi were corrupt and had fallen from grace. Her show is written with this misinterpretation of the films as a foundation for how she portrays the Jedi.

And that's how you get the Jedi suddenly feeling like "space cops" when that's so very clearly not what they are in anything Lucas ever created.