#TROS analysis

[falllpoutboy]

if the acolyte gets renewed then i confidently say that lucasfilm has now stooped to making shows for women on booktok who consume poorly written 150 page novela erotica

[artist-issues]

Dude. What.

Explain literally any of this. You have to do mental gymnastics to watch both those movies and then come to this conclusion.

In the Force Awakens, Rey goes from “believing she can only have a place on Jakku where her parents left her” to “believing she has a place in a larger fight.” The Last Jedi continues that development by going from: “believing she has a place in a larger fight” to “believing her place in that larger fight is not important; the fight itself is what’s important.”

In the Force Awakens, Finn goes from “running from fights against powerful evil because he doesn’t believe he can win” to “fighting to hurt a powerful evil when it threatens his friends even if he can’t win.” The Last Jedi continues that development by going from “fighting to hurt a powerful evil when it threatens his friends even if he can’t win” to “fighting to save what he loves from a powerful evil because hurting powerful evil isn’t the point of fighting.”

In the Force Awakens, Poe makes reckless choices like attacking a full battalion of the First Order with no hope of winning while he sends his droid into a barren desert—because he’s obsessed with the “victorious hero moment.” The Last Jedi continues that by having him face down a dreadnought and get the last of their forces killed, then endanger the entire escape plan for the sake of a “victorious hero moment’—and then he learns to stop thinking in the moment and start thinking about the big picture, like a leader.

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is introduced as Han and Leia’s son who was “lost” to the Dark Side when they demonstrated lack of faith in him by sending him away. So now he’s insecure about how powerful he is (because his parents didn’t believe he was powerful enough to resist the Dark Side, so why not lean into it.) and will do anything to prove to himself that he’s powerful—like kill his own father. And it doesn’t work. In The Last Jedi, he could choose to learn from that failure (which is the point of the movie) but instead of learning and growing like the other hero characters do, he stays stagnant and chooses not to learn from his failures, and kills one leader and tries to kill Luke. But his obsession with “power,’ as if it’ll make up his insecurity, causes him to lose. Lose Rey, lose hope, lose everything.

See? In The Force Awakens, the characters have motives and they learn Part 1 of a Lesson. In The Last Jedi, they have similar-but-slightly-altered motives (because of their previous adventure) and then get the logical Part 2 of that Lesson. And all those characters learn those lessons except for Kylo Ren, who is the villain, which is typical.

Explain how any of that doesn’t happen.

Idk how TLJ can be viewed as a continuation of TFA when it barely keeps the same themes, all the characters act differently, and it barely picks up on any of the story threads TFA left off

[hulloitsdani]

I have another thought bunny or rat and it involved lif from book 3

So assuming from book 3 we know that his summoner die being Kiran fire emblem heroes or whoever you name the summoner do you think it's oddly suspicious that we never even fight the undead version of the summoner other than the fact that the summoner feature would be in book 4 but not counting the meta reason to me it doesn't make sense that hel the literal goddess of the death can't make the summoner rise from the dead because to me it will be good to mess with alfonse and give lif more of a chain to kill the askr tro to fullfil lifs contract

It's almost like lif thought his summoner is dead but for all we know his summoner could be back at their own world alive in some pocket dimension or whatever

Something to think about

*cracks knuckles* Book 3 rambles let’s go.

So, to answer your question, no. I don’t think it’s particularly odd. In text, it’s implied that Líf and Thrasir technically haven’t “died.” They were the sole survivors of the blood rite, made their deal with Hel, and she has run them both ragged ever since. She hasn’t granted them rest. The only time they truly achieve it is when our heroes finally put them out of their misery and THEN Hel raises their empty bodies (found in Ch13 Part 3). Our heroes kill them once more and then their torment is finally over.

This does raise a question however; what happened to everyone else when the blood rite was activated? Does Hel not have control over them? Well, on an in-story level, I imagine the magic rite used to create a weapon powerful enough to kill Hel wouldn’t also give Hel more power. It is death she cannot use, because all those souls are being used to power the weapon. It’s why it killed everyone and everything around it. It needed them as fuel. This would explain why Kiran might not exactly be available— in activating the blood rite, they were killed by it first.

But then, on a writing level, each season of FEH has a limited run time and they only include so much. By opening that particular Pandora’s box, you would be calling for answers for everyone in the cast. If this world’s Kiran is still here, even if it’s just their empty body, then where is Anna? Where is Sharena? Hell, is Bruno around? This is not a bad thing per se, but it would require a lot more words, more art/resources, and potentially snipe the effectiveness of how crippling alone this Alfonse and Veronica are. In my opinion, it’s a smart decision to leave it as is. All we need to know is that they’re dead, they all failed, and Líf and Thrasir are DESPERATE to fix this. It’s a lot more sad that way! Which is good! No need to hold back punches in the season about death.

Now, my personal brand of analysis loves treating Kiran as less of an avatar and more as an individual. Our pov character being the silliest little guy brings me joy. So, one of the reasons why I love thinking about Líf’s Askr is because the remains we find imply a Greek tragedy chain of events that culminated in Kiran of all people having to activate the blood rite. Based on what we know about these characters, that’s the last person they’d EVER want pulling the lever on that trolly problem. It’s not a fair ask! Kiran was ripped from their home, summoned to an alien world, asked to fight in wars on Askr’s behalf (they have never fought anyone in their life), and is now being asked to sacrifice themself and millions in order to maybe kill a goddess of death? No! That’s not fair! None of this is, but that’s a step too far. Asking for them to spill their blood in this way for a country that is not their own would be cruel. A blatant abuse of their generosity. These are not the types of a characters who would do that. I wouldn’t be surprised if despite the circumstances, there might have been an effort to find a way to send Kiran back once it was clear how screwed everyone was. No one wants to see them hurt. Everyone, but Alfonse in particular, makes it their mission to protect Kiran. So, for things to end this way, it would imply a lot of people being dead and million things having gone horrifically wrong.

It would imply Kiran, scared and alone in a Emblian blood temple, having to make an awful choice.

[classicanalyzer]

The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire - Introduction Analysis

"...People so often misunderstand the purpose of historians. They think that we are just here to recount past events. To provide details without analysis. Facts without insight. Data without argument. This is wrong. The role of a historian—my role as a historian—is to try to tell you not just how but why these things happened. To try to make you understand the importance of these past events and what they mean for us today and tomorrow. This study is not just a work of history but of necessity. The galaxy needs to understand exactly what the Galactic Empire was and how it brought us to our latest brush with disaster. I can think of no more important undertaking than this one and no more required moment." (Kin, Beaumont, "Introduction", The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, 35 ABY, page xvii).

The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire is one of the best Star Wars novels I've read. The novel is an in-universe annotated history book written by Beaumont Kin ("Secrets only the Sith knew"), a historian with an interest in the lore of the Jedi and Sith, who reflects on the terrifying origins, reign, and legacy of the Galactic Empire. We also get a brief glimpse of what the post-TROS galaxy looks like but that isn’t the main point.

It is a part of several in-universe reference books being published post-TROS, which is a nice touch.

This study was published on the Holonet a few months post-TROS as Kin is excavating the Sith Temple on Exegol.

Introduction

History is a cycle, we wish to avoid it but it always finds a way to start the wheel again. The cycle certainly reflects the history of Star Wars.

Kin sadly laments that despite the Empire's evils being known and seemingly easy to understand, it seems easy to teach future generations and prevent the cycle from repeating itself, he considers himself a fool for being naive. As history has shown us and Kin, it has a tendency to repeat itself in various forms.

"It seemed to be an easy message to explain something that was now safely behind us. My colleagues and I congratulated ourselves on the ways we'd been able to take the realities of the Empire and convert them into lessons in schools and universities, which would then further ripple across the galaxy. We were so sure that we had created the perfect way of preventing future conflicts and a return to Imperialism. We were fools. I was a fool. As much as we might have wished that the remnants of the Empire could have been left to rot beneath the sands of Jakku, it seems that we could not be free of it so easily." (Kin, Beaumont, "Introduction", The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, 35 ABY, page ix).

One element that is simply merch in real life but in-universe is the source of shock to Kin: Palpatine busts being sold at the Black Spire Outpost, among other Imperial objects. How could the galaxy reach the point that a being who murdered trillions of beings has busts being sold?

Despite the Resistance's and the galaxy's victory at Exegol, Kin can't help but wonder if the celebrations on Endor and Ajan Kloss are very similar. Both generations have celebrated the defeat of the Emperor, won their wars, and are driven to create a better galaxy, in the case of the last generation, including the current one who followed to preserve the hard-won peace, they were not successful.

However, this failure to maintain peace has very understandable origins. The leaders and soldiers of the Rebel Alliance wanted to look towards the sunrise of the New Republic after a brutal and horrifying war against the Galactic Empire. They focused on their desire to move forward with hope and optimism and for this to never happen again, they were not careful in taking the necessary steps to prevent Imperialism from rising. A failure to understand how the Empire operated, ruled over, and why its personnel committed so horrific war crimes over and over. It would be a nice thought to think with the Emperor dead, so would his Empire die with him. And in a way it did, but gave birth to a new form of Empire as the First Order. While the First Order likes to fashion itself differently from the Empire with a new name and outfits, their origins intrinsically tie back to the Empire which the New Republic and the new generation failed to see. They cannot risk another situation like this happening again.

Stories like The Mandalorian and its spin-offs, Bloodlines, Before the Awakening, Resistance, and the Poe Dameron comic show us how the New Republic fails to recognize the threat of the Imperial Remnants and the First Order, even when they're violating New Republic treaties. Complacency and appeasement became the new policy for the New Republic. They think the threat of the Empire is long behind them, and whoever is left is just simply ill-equipped warlords. They fail to understand why Neo-Imperialism grew as it did and why people want the return of a regime that killed so many sentient beings. It was left to those in the New Republic who saw the emerging threat, the Resistance, and those affected by these Remnants and the FO to act.

While discussing the Jedi and the Sith, Kin acknowledges how, despite his attempts to understand it, he still doesn't know everything about the Force, along with the galaxy not being clear on what the Forse is and if it exists. He then talks about how Palpatine managed to seize control of the entire galaxy as a Sith Lord, Kin made it clear Palpatine's desire for power and control was all him and not by anything else. Palpatine was a man. It is the most terrifying aspect of this Sith Lord. Much more terrifying is how Palpatine wasn't the Empire, he may be the linchpin of the Empire but there were plenty of people who believed in his Empire and maintained it.

There are four parts to the Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire:

Part 1: Rise and Consolidation - Palpatine's rise to power and how the Empire consolidated itself.

Part 2: Expansion and Oppression - The methods of the Empire's dominance across the entire galaxy, the Imperial hierarchy, and the many horrific things (such as prejudice and genocide) the Empire did with that domination.

Part 3: The Galactic Civil War - The war and why the Empire collapsed.

Part 4: Fall and Continuation - The last year of the GCW and, with it, the fall of the Empire. But alas, the Empire continues to survive in its remnants and the rise of its most infamous of these remnants, the First Order. There are also the NR's successes and failures.

Kin went for the BBY/ABY (Before/After the Battle of Yavin) calendar system because the Empire's modus operandi significantly shifted after the destruction of the first Death Star with clear distinctions between pre- and post-Battle of Yavin. He also acknowledges how there are some debates over which dating system is the best among them being set after the Empire formed and the "before" and "after" periods at Endor rather than Yavin. In this, he also points out how the Empire was never at peace, and that the GCW greatly showcased and increased its brutality towards its own people.

While this work isn't the first one to study and analyze the Empire, it is perhaps the most relevant to discuss right now. There are beliefs and understandings of the Empire that are built on flawed information and shaky foundations. Some of what they understand is possibly wrong. Therefore, they must reexamine the Empire again and understand and therefore deconstruct the Empire beyond Palpatine.

"Furthermore, the very reasons for its eventual fall and collapse do not appear to have been adequately researched and analyzed at all. We know why the Rebel Alliance believed they won the war. Do we know why the Empire lost it? Because the Galactic Empire was so misunderstood, it is necessary to begin the process again. That is the point of this study. To deconstruct the entirety of the Galactic Empire beyond just notions of Palpatine himself. To see how it actually worked, the ideas and ideology that drove it, the ways it waged war, and the motivations behind its most awful crimes." (Kin, Beaumont, "Introduction", The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, 35 ABY, pages xv-xvi).

Of course, researching the Empire is not easy. The history of the Empire is spread out across the entire galaxy. With the fall of the NR, there is now access to classified material such as interrogations of Imperial officers. It would've been impossible for Kin to find and compile this while excavating on Exegol. We see the galaxy coming together as researchers and other academics from across the galaxy pitch in to provide sources and information for Kin to scour through. Kin thanks all of them for realizing the importance of this analysis and is sure to acknowledge their work throughout his study. There is also lost information. After all, the Empire loves to burn and destroy the various records of their crimes and how they operate. Other sources are just lost during the fighting. With the excavation of Exegol and access to FO ships, new sources of information have allowed Kin to cross-reference and provide new understandings of the Empire.

He does acknowledge and welcomes the risk of his work becoming outdated and replaced with new studies containing new, undiscovered, and decrypted information. New studies can further elaborate on their understandings and help prevent the rise of Imperialism once again if they can at least find one new area they missed or have the chance to further understand. He points historians aren't just about telling the how but the why things in history occur. The galaxy needs examinations of the Galactic Empire and the history of its reign which allows them to better understand how they narrowly avoided the First Order's brief reign and Final Order's apocalyptic plot.

There is a nice nod to the Battle that Changed the Galaxy and Skywalker: A Family at War reference books as Kin notes how other historians like him are also noticing the need to reexamine history after Exegol, with the latter getting its author namedropped with a Star Wars-like name (the author was Kristin Baver, but in the Star Wars universe, her name is Kitrin Braves). Kin thanks Kitrin for sharing her information on the Skywalker family for him to talk about in Rise and Fall and notes it's been a long time coming for people to know the history of the Skywalkers in Kitrin's book.

The Empire's war crimes and cruelty are beyond horrifying and applied to anyone they come across, their cruelty is not equally felt. The Core Worlds often did not suffer as much as those outside of the Core. While some humans, such as the Alderaanians, have indeed lost everything to the Empire, the Empire's inherent prejudice is frequently focused on non-humans (a term admittedly imperfect and problematic in its own ways but much better one in-universe than the term "alien" which the Empire uses to showcase their racism towards non-humans). The Empire has made no attempt to hide their discontent and hatred for non-humans. Kin acknowledges he is a human, and he never felt the experience of the Empire's prejudice by the Empire just for being not human. He has tried his best to highlight those species and voices who have been silenced and suffered under the Empire's prejudice and genocides. He understands and apologizes for the criticisms that might come with any shortcomings that he and his studies may provide. Recognizing and analyzing both the sources and himself within this study are necessary parts of this analysis.

As the introduction concludes, we must ponder how despite the victories throughout the saga, we take a look at the horrifying and monstrous regime that is the Empire and its legacy. Our reality is filled with people who continue to follow Fascism and other far right-wing beliefs despite its clear evils, a look into the Galactic Empire is insight to why.

"The survivors of the Battle of Crait have become fond of saying, in moments of sorrow and loss, that ‘no one's ever really gone.’ It seems to bring them solace and I respect that. But I do not feel it. I have immersed myself in the existing records and writings and sources that relate to the Galactic Empire. And all I feel is the absence of lives that it brought. The multitudes who suffered and died. The further into this dark history I have gone the more horrified and haunted I have become. That is why this study now exists and why it is so important that you read it. Others in the Resistance will now lead and shape the galaxy. I cannot do that. I can only try and explain where we have come from. Why we have ended up here. But I need you to come with me. I cannot do this alone." (Kin, Beaumont, "Introduction", The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire, 35 ABY, page xix).

[artist-issues]

Hello! My ask is about The Rise Of Skywalker. I would like to read your analysis of Reylo's scenes such as their dialogues in the film, Rey's declaration to Ben ("I did want to take your hand. Ben's hand."), Ben's return to the light side and the reylo kiss. The declaration, Ben's return and the kiss, for me, are the only good things about this film.

I thought all of the Rise of Skywalker was really terrible. Terrible writing, terrible plot, and even some pretty terrible characterizations. (I thought the actors did their best, though.)

Basically, ROS had several threads that TLJ and TFA had braided together. All it needed to do was tie those threads off. But instead, it unraveled them and tangled them up and said “done! All tied up!”

For example:

Thread 1: Finn’s journey from fear to faith.

Thread 2: Leia’s hope for her son.

Thread 3: Poe’s journey from hero to leader.

Thread 4: Hux’s growing, rabid desire for control. (It’s why the organization’s called the First “ORDER”)

Thread 5: Kylo Ren’s learning that power won’t make him feel secure.

Thread 6: Rey’s learning that she doesn’t need to be “somebody” because it’s all about something bigger than herself.

Thread 7: Kylo Ren and Rey learning their respective lessons by finding the answers in each other.

TLJ took what TFA started and got you those threads. Then TROS said “never mind, we don’t like those threads” with most of them. For example, Poe and Finn suddenly have nothing to do. For example, Finn is not doing anything that requires the faith he began building at the end of TLJ; he’s just following Rey around. Poe is not learning how to lead, he’s just info-dumping and trying quick three-man hero missions, unlike the lesson he learned at the end of TLJ. Hux is not strategizing with rabid extremism for control; he’s just pettily throwing his life away to get back at Kylo Ren. Et Cetera. The threads all get unraveled or tangled up or left dangling uselessly.

EXCEPT for Thread 7.

They make an attempt at “Kylo Ren and Rey learning their respective lessons by deepening their bond.” The problem is, without the other threads, that one just doesn’t fit any better than the rest of the story.

First off, I 100% agree that Kylo Ren and Rey would be involved romantically, in some way, eventually. There’s literally no way around it. Romantic attachment is choosing to commit to someone on an intimate level. Because they’re Force Bonded, and because they are the only people in the universe who have similar identity crises and deep family-related angst, they were bound to intimately understand each other. They started caring about each other in TLJ. All TROS had to do was fan the flames of that care up in a way that led to their character developments concluding.

Rey just needed to demonstrate more of the letting-go she demonstrated at the end of TLJ: she wants Kylo Ren to be Light, but she realizes there’s nothing she can do to force it, even if she begs and pleads, so she just keeps doing the right thing on her end and trusts the Force, believing he’ll come to the right conclusion in the end no matter how much evil he’s done. What’s that ladies and gentlemen? It’s called ✨ unconditional love. ✨

Then Kylo Ren just needed to see that love. Literally, just see and continuously experience it. Even if he’s trying to hunt her down and kill her or take everything from her or whatever, she just keeps refusing to kill him and believing he’ll turn good. After all, that’s more than his parents did for him back when they sent him away—and since then, whatever unconditional love Rey shows him is strengthened by the examples of unconditional love Han Solo and Luke showed right before they died. Plus the alternative to accepting unconditional love—murdering everything that might give him a sense of power—hasn’t been making him feel any better. So he was primed for redemption via Rey.

That’s all they needed to do in TROS. Not so hard, just write a reason for her to save his life or spare it again, even after their previous encounter and even given his new status as Supreme Leader. He’s halfway there. Continued pushes are all that’s needed.

Just like Luke Skywalker in the Revenge of the Sith, Rey and Kylo Ren don’t really need to develop much more in the final movie of their trilogy. They just need to put what the first two movies taught them to a big final test.

Anyway. With that in mind:

Let me give you the bite-sized version 😅

The Force-Searching Scenes - I don’t like these because they’re all Kylo Ren searching for Rey, with little to no engagement from her. She feels more like she’s given up on him in these scenes and is just trying to win an argument whenever he barges into her brain. He, on the other hand, might be looking for her, but it’s with one hand on his grandfather’s mask. Which is totally the opposite of him “letting the past die. Kill it, if you have to.” So he’s taking weird steps backward, toward TFA, as if TLJ never happened… and that tarnishes his motives for finding Rey, in my mind. If he’s going back to trusting the past and the idea of his grandfather, then why does he want to turn Rey to the dark side? When Vader failed to turn Luke, he tried to murder him. Kylo Ren knows that. So meditating on a mask he should be giving up on in order to find and turn Rey makes no sense, so it takes the tension out of those scenes for me.

Fight Scenes - Again, it makes no sense that Kylo Ren would still be pursuing turning Rey to the dark side so doggedly. Neither of them could convince the other at the end of TLJ. They split a lightsaber in half to prove it. Now, that doesn’t mean they should be giving up on each other completely. But Kylo Ren should be acting like he’s given up on her, even if just to convince himself. That’s what he’s done this whole time: turned to killing the people who fail him to make himself feel more powerful. She has a reason to keep believing in him: she’s on the Light Side of the Force. But instead, she’s the one acting like she wants nothing more to do with him. He mentions how he’s going to turn her to the dark side multiple times in the movie. But she doesn’t say more than one quipped question hinting that she still wants him on the light side. So the “attachment” focus of their fights loses all it’s tension because again, it doesn’t make sense. After TLJ, he should be at least trying to give up on her and pursue killing her, if anything. And she should be steadfastly believing in him, while pursuing doing the right thing no matter what he does. That’s where they were in their character development. More fighting barely makes sense.

Healing Scene - I liked this scene only when Rey heals Kylo Ren. Their fight beforehand, and her ramming his lightsaber into him, still makes no sense. She’s angry at him because of her connection to Palpatine and she’s fighting him like that’s going to exorcise her identity…but Rey being a dark, angry descendant of Palpatine never made sense (it unravels her whole character development.) So her motivations in this scene don’t make sense…until she heals him. Then, suddenly, there’s a glimpse of that Rey we left on the Millenium Falcon in TLJ: she’s healing him, even though he might just stand up and attack her again, because she genuinely believes he’s Ben and she just needs to show him mercy until he comes around to believing it. And THAT is part of what turns him. So I like that: I just think it was executed really poorly. She should never have been healing him from a wound she caused.

The Kiss - The kiss was just basically the TROS storytellers confirming that they were romantically attached instead of just enemies-to-friends/Allie’s attached. Because…for some reason they had to confirm that visually. I just think, again, that they didn’t set it up and execute it well. They have no conversations and no significant attention paid toward each other between the healing scene and the final battle. They might be force-linked, but the audience needed to see that bond turned romantic, or him turned good before any overt romantic gestures, much earlier on. Other than that, I like that he healed her. I love Adam Driver’s acting in that whole scene. Makes me wish they gave him more to do.

The Death Scene - This should not have happened. It was lazy. Kylo Ren is a character who has been trying to fulfill himself by making BIG, final (emphasis on “final”) choices. Having him make one more big final choice, to end his own life, was not good character development. He should’ve had to live with what he’d done so he could learn from his mistakes. That’s where his whole character was headed. He’s always failed to learn from his past: he thinks he can just erase it. You know what giving up your life for a different hero and then fading away is? It’s nice, but it’s just another “erase” choice. Additionally? It’s terrible for Rey’s story, too. She finally had someone she chose, someone she waited for who actually came back, somebody who understood her…somebody who’s redemption rewarded her long faith…and she’s left alone again. That’s just the worst. Plus, what did she need him to heal her for? What exactly did she die of? He was way more injured than she was.

What they should’ve done was, Kylo Ren and Rey save the day, and then he’s condemned to death for his crimes by the New Republic, but in honor of Leia’s life of sacrifice and belief in him, he’s given enough of a pardon to simply be banished to the unknown reaches. And Rey goes with him, because she can finally stop waiting, she loves seeing the galaxy, and they can learn about the Force together…plus, they’re obviously deeply connected. And that would be a great homage to Leia’s legacy as a character who never gives up on hope, and that hope is ultimately rewarded. Instead of having her give her life to reach him…so he can live for an hour or so before also dying.

Long story short…you’re right! I just think all the elements you liked should’ve been way more central, built up to, and placed where they fit in a better movie!

[brainrotallthewaydown1312]

he was never going to get what he was bargaining for. because he didn't realize what he was asking of his friend. or the depths of how he felt about it all.

Izzy is a perfectly tragic character. and in just the right way that means he rightfully pisses off everyone around him, making him even more tragic. the crew having the empathy and guts to risk their necks to try and save him against ed's wishes is a testament to their character, not just in the act and risk itself, but for the fact that a "proper" crew that didn't have the sensitivity of stede's crew would have thought he deserved to die. because he spent so long begging for the violence and torment back and when it did come back he just egged Blackbeard on even more. he made life on the revenge miserable for them by sending Ed from facing his sadness to burying it in his anger. and they knew how good it could be. but they saved him anyway because they saw him for what he was: a lost and broken man, just like Ed. just like stede. and even after everything the one thing they have learned together is that there can be hope for everyone. even izzy

Listen, we all love izzy character development, but dude, i would be pissed too if I was stede. The lil mf was a piece of work for the whole duration of s1. He wanted "black beard," he got it, and didn't like it 🤷‍♀️

[dnfnoodles]

The story ended with Nicholas De orio who used to be Johns friend and was at his side at the beginning and after Dream, recording their discord call where he confronted John saying he knows he is lying after talking more with Dream

Just because I think it's even better he actually didn't talk to Dream. When Dream made his Detective Dream stream he knew 100% John was lying because there was a source bts who John had already bragged about this to, later revealed to be TRO. Dream did his analysis stream because he was protecting his source (we know this because Keem talked to him about TRO's info and Dream said he already knew) so he had to be sneaky about because we know Dream always has receipts but he rarely shares them.

Basically every single commentary YouTuber was getting this background information about TRO so they all knew John was lying but Nicholas was the only one to confront him and as much as I don't like him he does have exceptional integrity because it was discussed in that circle about letting John get away with it.

oh yeah I forgot that part, I do vaguely remember him talking with Dream or maybe Dream giving him the source or something like that though

[kunosoura]

Thoughts about what makes a good villain!

Hello <3 sorry this took so long to answer but I'm in the middle of planning and executing a move to a different country.

I think the only real crime a villain can commit is being boring. They can be contemptible, stupid, cartoonish, completely detached from reality, or they can be brilliant, dangerous, sexy, literally correct; they can be all style or all substance; the only real litmus test is whether they're entertaining.

Some of my favorite fictional villains and why I like them:

Currently, I'm reading the Crown of Stars series by Kate Elliot, and Hugh is absolutely one of the most contemptible villains I've ever encountered. The first book was genuinely hard to read because of what a fucking monster he is, and Elliot knows how to draw the most out of it - stretching his comeuppance over 6 books because even though he's fucking despicable, he's also unfailingly polite in most circumstances, and a beautiful man of noble though illegitimate birth and high rank in the clergy, so people have a hard time believing him to be as evil as he is even if they've wronged him before. At the same time, Elliot also does a very good job of making sure you never forget exactly what he is, so even when he returns to the people he's wronged acting contrite, you see through it. The ultimate effect is that even 5 books in, I'm hollering at him to kill himself (usually when driving alone in my car), and I dunno if I've ever been that profoundly affected by a literary antagonist before.

Kuja from Final Fantasy 9. He's spoiled, he's beautiful, he's a babygirl, he's pathetic, he's 24 and should have been at the club. I like how he isn't afraid to spam his most powerful spell whenever he's losing. Honestly whenever you see me rooting hard for a villainous sorceress (or occasional prettyboy sorcerer) it's for similar reasons.

The Obligatory Sasuke mention, which is wild because I think everything that I find compelling about him is something you have to read in direct contradiction to Kishimoto's intentions with the series. In a meta sense, I find it super compelling how he's the sort of villain whose motivations unavoidably invoke the fundamental problems in the setting that the tepid liberalism of its core themes and protagonists cannot address, and how that's subsumed into an emotional arc so he can be the redeemed shonen rival in the end.

Inspector Javert is a favorite because he forces the audience to separate legality from ethics; past that, he's also just a really good examination of the sort of person you'd become if you gutted everything that made you human and replaced it with legalism.

Cersei Lannister from the ASOIAF is a great example of a book letting you into the internality of a villain, showing you they're a complete wreck of a person, and it not doing anything to soften the blow when it comes time for them to ruin things for everyone again.

Death from The Seventh Seal is one of my favorite cinematic depictions of personified death. He isn't gentle or comforting like some depictions - he's underhanded, merciless, and for all his affability, relentlessly pursues Block such that his inevitably end claims the lives of just about everyone he loves, as well. It's nightmarish.

my boy SHEEV. Maybe the purest example of "it's good as long as they're fun". His inclusion in TROS is NONSENSE but I don't mind because I will literally never say no to more palpatine screentime.

Goku Black from Dragon Ball Super is great for the sole purpose that, when he's on the scene, a character you care about will die.

Those are a scattered selection of some of my favorites. I wish I had a more compelling analysis for who was in or out, but it really does boil down to don't bore me and there are a lot of ways for a villain to be compelling. Thank you for the ask ^_^

[the-force-awakens]

Yeah, that's a pretty good analysis. I don't see Poe included hardly at all, in fandom or in canon to a degree, and I think it's safe to say he has one of the least number of fans who are specifically fans of him. Like I don't see many blogs/accounts that are specifically Poe centric.

Oh man, I actually got up to answer this on my computer rather than my phone, so we'll see how into it I'll get into this ask, but yes! It's vastly unfortunate that he often gets excluded or overlooked when he's the entire catalyst for the sequel trilogy. He is, archetypically and narratively within the story, the Leia of our generation: if it was not for Poe and BB-8 (who is really like an extension of Poe), then Finn wouldn't have been able to escape the Finalizer, and Rey would have never left Jakku.

While yes, it's true that Poe wasn't initially meant to survive The Force Awakens (and other nine word horror stories for me), Poe is still one part of the primary trio of the trilogy and has been since 2015. He is not only Leia's first protégé, but the eventual leader of the Resistance, and according to the Rise of Skywalker novel, the heir to the legacy of House Organa (cue me loudly proclaiming him a Disney Prince). Yet, somehow, at the same time......no one seems to ever want to include him as part of the saga, and an important one as that?

(@dameronalone points out ever so often how much they love the shot where everyone leaves Exegol for this reason, because we see Poe flying alongside the Falcon, which really hammers in that Poe is an important player in the history of the saga).

More thoughts below the cut, because I have more and this is already lengthy.

The worst thing is that Poe was extremely popular. Lucasfilm and Marvel pretty much immediately greenlit a comic series for him, and while that was definitely to flesh his story out, if my memory serves, it was so popular that I believe the first printing sold out? And it was originally only meant to last 25 issues (which personally I think it should have stayed at, because I don't super vibe with 26-onward and it feels off and tonally disconnected to the rest of the series and also the ending of TLJ, and the characterization for Poe also feels off, but that's!! a different rant!!!) but the title was so popular that Marvel decided to extend it for two more storylines!

The issue was the fandom backlash to TLJ.

You don't have to look too far into my blog to know that I adore Poe in TLJ, and that I like his arc in the movie, and that I avidly defend him for it, but the internet in 2017-2019 was an entirely different universe from that. You could not go anywhere - Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, fucking hell, even most major media news outlets and clickbait websites - without hearing about how much everyone hated Poe Dameron.

Why? Because they walked away from his arc deciding that he was sexist and the movie's perfect example of toxic masculinity (although, lmfao, the First Order clowns are right there). It went further than that, with headlines about how everyone hated him, how he was personally responsible for everything that happens in the Resistance in the film, and how he was the worst character in Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks (because clearly the Star Wars fandom never learns from its previous toxicity, right?). It was to the point that, to my immense horror and frustration, even as far as into promoting TROS, a reporter described Poe as a "secret villain" in TLJ to Oscar (and man do I hope that man knows Poe is loved, actually).

Fandom wasn't much different. Fanon Poe prior to TLJ was....a lot different. In some ways, a lot of fics hit the nail on the head on who Poe was, but there was a definite unifying idea of who Poe was: a pure cinnamon roll who never, ever swore, and always listened to Leia and never argued with her - let alone disobeyed her orders or put a toe out of line (this is even illustrated in canon, with the first Poe Dameron annual, where the author has Poe declare that Leia is "always right" and instantly caving in an argument).

And TLJ Poe is about....as far removed from that vision of Poe as you can possibly get - although nothing about him in TLJ is ooc. We see the bare bones of it in The Force Awakens, and Before the Awakening and the comics further flesh out Poe in a way that perfectly leads into the Last Jedi. But the cinnamon roll fanon was made so common and leaked so far into fandom consciousness, that there was this strange concept that Poe was never, ever angry even in expanded material, which...he does. He gets pissed off plenty of times in the comics, and with the Defense Fleet while arguing with Deso.

So, canon Poe did the unthinkable and, y'know, didn't fall in line with how fanon saw him, which resulted in a huge backlash over the fact that he was a character with agency and a personality (that is NOT sexist thank you), which resulted in us getting books like Resistance Reborn, by authors who can't stand him or describe him as anything besides "supremely arrogant" and spends three hundred pages emotionally torturing him, claiming he needs to die, physically assaulting him, and you know...having the person who attacked him and the other person who claimed he needed to die flirt with him, because it also spends an ungodly amount of time sexualizing him to an uncomfortable degree, because the one thing fanon could agree on outside of the fact that he had been "ruined" or that he was a jackass or a "fuckboi" (yeah that went around too), was that Oscar Isaac is really goddamned fine in the Last Jedi (he is, I'll give them that, there's something about tlj!Poe, scientists remain baffled).

And on top of all of that, a particular fraction of the fandom developed an interesting habit of taking new pieces of canon and spreading them around online out of context, claiming that the writers were now intentionally writing him as sexist and as a jackass, and ruining his character further. I don't know for certain if this had any effect overall on the fandom's perception of him, but I know that it did almost break my spin in him for a while because I thought people were being very genuine, and it wasn't until 2020 that I got curious and started doing my own research into the panels/paragraphs being shared online, and sure enough, discovered that the angle had been falsified to paint Poe into a worse light (which, if anyone is curious, is why I did my deep dive into everything that he was in, because I didn't want to be fooled again. You can't trick me if I know everything lmfao).

So essentially, his popularity nosedived after the Last Jedi. It seemed to bump up a little bit, or at least there definitely seemed to be more people interested in him/writing for him in 2020 coming off the lockdown, but obviously that has very much dwindled. But I've definitely not seen any blogs dedicated to Poe as a character since 2017, and you don't ordinarily see him in miscellaneous Star Wars gifsets that go around either, let alone solo Poe gifsets (I know because I lose my shit anytime there's a new one that's not by me), and Poe creations that have nothing to do with a ship is.........even less likely to be found.

I definitely think canon is at least trying to keep him in our minds though. He was the second character to lead one of the Lego Specials, and that Rey short story ("Through the Turbulence") was focused on her friendship with him. Whether or not that's because of the possibility of Oscar returning for the Rey movie (which feels fairly tangible, considering he's been kind of shady about it after mentioning he'd come back for a good story, and doing that Halcyon video), or if it's just because of Lucasfilm maybe warming up to him as a character again*, I don't know, but I hope it means we get good-faith content for him again soon.

*Because I'm tired of the story group constantly being a little bitch about him, and the same goes for the Topps Trading Card App. Maybe people wouldn't think he was a villain if you stopped describing him like a terrible person? Just a thought.

[solohux]

@makekyluxsuffer Day 1 ; Kidnap/Rescue/‘Take Me Instead’ (Post TROS, canon divergence, no Ben Solo & Hux Lives AU)

Hux never wanted to return to Exegol.

It was difficult enough for him being in the darkened skies over it during the final battle against the Resistance, eyes scanning the surface for any sign of his beloved Ren. Eliminating both Darth Sidious and Rey in one battle wasn’t an easy feat but Kylo had emerged victorious, albeit missing an arm and in desperate need of medical aid.

With Palpatine gone for good, Hux believed that all the Force nonsense was over. He believed he and Kylo could rule the galaxy in peace, with order and control. He was wrong.

The scattered Sith acolytes have gathered and chosen Kylo as their next leader. Or rather, chosen to clone him and use his blank slate to mould him into their pawn, their weapon, their very own leader.

And of course, they need the original Ren to clone.

They’re chanting when Hux enters their temple. It’s buried deep within the chambers of Exegol, rooms filled with equipment and tanks ready for their new offspring, with detailed analysis of Kylo’s body and health scanning through the screens as though he’s a piece of data and not a living creature.

Hux has come alone, dressed in his black and red stormtrooper armour, minus a helmet and modified with better weapons and more room for agile movement. His backup are waiting outside; if he can’t rescue his husband then no one else is going to have a chance.

When Hux finds him, Kylo is lying on a stone slab like an animal readying for sacrifice. His robes have been torn from him, leaving him naked and shivering. There’s a tight collar around his neck that is glowing red, an eerie crimson colour that reminds Hux of the glow of a red kyber crystal. The cuffs around his wrists and ankles are the same, seemingly pulsing with dark energy.

At the foot of the stone slab are eight figures in red, hooded robes, their faces hidden from sight and their chants low and mysterious. Hux doesn’t understand what they’re saying but he doesn’t need to. His twin blasters are on them as soon as he enters the temple’s chamber.

“Let him go,” Hux says, his tone laced with power. “Let him go now.”

The acolytes do not stop chanting. They don’t move, unfazed by Emperor Hux’s entrance. He takes the opportunity to tend to Kylo, touching his cheek and whispering his name.

“H-Hux,” Kylo breathes, wheezing. His eyes are barely open, barely conscious. His skin is littered with cuts; he would have put up a damn good fight before he was taken and stripped.

“It’s alright, Ren. I’m here. I’m taking you home.”

The chanting stops abruptly, startling Hux with the sudden silence. Seven of the hooded figures take a step back, leaving one at the front.

“You will not speak to the vessel,” it says, speaking as though a serpent would, hissing. “He is ours.”

“He’s mine,” Hux growls, standing up and staring down the acolyte. “You won’t touch him again.”

The acolyte huffs, “The boy has great power. The dark side is strong with him, his blood is worthy of the Sith. We will clone him and take his essence. You may have his empty shell when we are done.”

Low chuckles emit from the group of hooded creatures. Hux remains tall.

“Take me instead,” he says, tears brimming in his eyes as he looks down at Kylo, counting the bruises that litter his pale skin. “Let him go. I’ll take his place.”

The acolytes erupt into laughter.

“You!” The main one shakes their head. “Armitage Hux. A runt and bastard child of an old commandant. You are not worthy. You know nothing of the Force or the dark side. You will be punished for coming here and interfering with the boy’s destiny.”

The acolyte raises a pale, wrinkled hand as though to summon powers but nothing happens. Only Kylo’s heavy breathing echoes throughout the chamber.

“Unworthy,” Hux smirks, placing his twin blasters back into their holsters strapped to his thighs. “I’ve heard that word my whole life. I’ve proved everyone else wrong and I’m about to do the same to you.”

Slowly, he unclips the stormtrooper armour that covers the back of his hand, removing the black glove underneath. His lips purse together in a satisfied grin as he reveals his palm to the group of hidden figures, showing them the ancient symbol that sits there. The Sith. Sidious.

“No! It cannot be!”

“Impossible!”

“He is our saviour, not the boy!”

Hux shakes his head, “I may be a Hux in name but I am a Palpatine by blood. You call me a bastard but my mother was the Emperor’s legitimate daughter. You insult him by insulting me. You’ve tested me by taking and hurting the one I love and for that, you’ll pay.”

“No! Emperor, please!”

“Mercy!”

“I’ll show you who’s unworthy,” Hux grits his teeth in rage, unleashing his collated Force powers onto the acolytes, making their minds suffer as he pollutes them from the inside.

No one takes what’s his.

The red hue of Kylo’s restrains dims as Hux calls forth all of the darkness around him, fuelling his powers to destroy the acolytes until they collapse as mindless bodies, drained of their life by the grandson of the leader they once blindly followed.

When Hux is satisfied that they’re taken care of, he turns to his beloved. It would seem as though Kylo passed out before he had the chance to see any of what’s just happened. It’s probably for the best, Hux thinks, as he pulls back on his glove and armour; this way, he can keep on protecting Kylo from afar like he has done since the day they fell in love.

[burningblake]

On deeper analysis, I realize that that particular line in the tros novel, talking about gratitude and *cough* its various expressions, is just Ben Solo's last brain cell being an overly dramatic emo simp boy gaslighting himself because he still needs direct verbal affirmation of people's affections for him

[ghost-on-a-string]

finally

the (semi) long awaited hux longpost! before i get into any of it though, some disclaimers:

1. i have never read the star wars comics and honestly i never will. i like star wars enough to watch clone wars and suffer through the sequel films. that's it.

2. i will not be giving all my thoughts on hux as a character because then i can make more posts and i like when the numbers go up

3. as i said, i have not read the comics. i honestly only half watched rise of skywalker. this won't be super accurate to the star wars lore or anything like that, this is for fun

4. on that note, while this isn't going to be super serious, there are still heavy and sensitive topics, primarily child abuse and neglect, so if those things bother you, please sit this out

actual longpost/shitty character analysis below the cut

how does one start with a character like hux? despite how little screen time he actually gets in the movies, he's incredibly complex, even before you get into the comics. there's a lot to be said about him, even if you only have context from the movies. and while i could (and probably will) make a separate longpost about how last jedi not only fucked the entire trilogy over, but specifically ruined the character of hux by making a genuine threat into a joke within the first 15 minutes, not today my friends.

i will mostly be focusing on hux in the force awakens, using things from the rise of skywalker and what little i know about his backstory in the comics.

1st it must be stated: i do not like any of the other characters in the squeal trilogy. i don't hate most of them, but i either don't have an opinion on them (finn, rose, bb8 kind of, maaz, kylo to an extent), or i genuinely hate the character entirely (rey, she'll get a longpost later). a lot of it is because most of these characters don't have a lot of personality, which is a problem the sequel trilogy has as a whole. even returning characters are bland or weirdly mean

yes, you can argue that hux doesn't really have a personality either. however, compared to others characters (cough cough rey), he is dripping with personality, if you look a little closer. the first example that comes to mind is the speech scene. when he yells, there is genuine malace, hatred and fury in his voice. he isnt just yelling to be loud, he's yelling because he demands respect, terror and power.

it makes sense why he would want those things, especially when you look at his background in the comics. hux is a bastard child, his father was abusive and neglectful. he probably grew up feeling in adequate and out of control. he grew up in terror, so he is going to inflict that terror on others.

(i also want it to be known, i don't think hux is a good person. he's sympathetic, and with his backstory you can understand why he did what he did, but he also literally blew up several planets so. a little different.)

even in his smaller interactions, he seems stiff. while part of that is probably because no one had any personality, part of it could be purposeful. hux is a character desperately grasping for respect and control. he's stiff because then he can control how the conversations he has go. he's cold and confident because people respect those with plans who present those plans calmly. in tros, hux says "i don't care who wins. i just need kylo ren to lose." he's more focused on the way those around him look. because if they look bad, he looks better, he looks more confident, more in control. even after he's dead, he needs to be respected, feared, whatever. he can't let himself be seen as anything other than entirety perfect.

hux doesn't have a personality, because he can't let himself have anything other than utter perfection. he would rather be feared, loathed and respected than simply appreciated and forgotten.

[glagger-true]

Howdy, dear reader! I'm your host, Glagger, and today I'm here to bring you the first post in my medal analysis series for the visual novel Password by Grizz.

In this series I'll be discussing every medal in game. Talking about their signs and their important metaphorical meanings to the tale and main cast. And how their significance enriches both.

Before we can start properly, I would like to make it clear that this post has SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL. So please, if you haven't read the novel yet and don't want to be spoiled, leave for now.

Aquarius. The medal of Freedom, Wishes and Inaction:

The first medal we'll discuss is aquarius. Found in all routes, but further developed in Orlando's route, which is the place where its meaning is relevant.

It is found in the middle of the hedge-maze in the hand of a statue. Orlando goes on a brief tangent about how he got lost in his grandfather's castle when he was little and how his father trained him in puzzle solving to build his character and dragon masculinity at a young age after it is found. He also mentions the star sign is an air sign, making it related to freedom.

Aquarius in astrology, is the fixed positive air sign of the zodiac. Meaning it's an inflexible and expressive sign connected to communication.

As a sign, Aquarius is said to be collectivistic and social. Its wish is to always work towards the greater good for everyone through cooperation rather than just what's best for themselves. Since it's and idealistic sign that constantly tries to change the world for the better, Aquarius is known for healing and spreading hope through their intellect and curiosity.

Aquarius is currently ruled by two planets. The old ruler Saturn, that represents tradition, order, structure, and the status quo. And the modern ruler Uranus, that represents innovation, technology, progressiveness, rebelliousness and the destruction of existing structures.

This combination of influences is said to be the what makes Aquarius the stubborn and organized big thinker they are. And also the reason why they despise authority and out-dated social structures so much. Sometimes to the point they forget about family and friendships in their chase for big, collective changes. A trait that makes others think of them as distant in relationships. But the truth is that they are actually very compassionate and empathetic when reminded that big changes start in a small scale.

Aquarius is the rebel and revolutionary, it tries to create something brand new from the traditions and rules it breaks free from.

In Greek myth, the water carrier the Aquarius constellation shows is Ganymede. He's the beautiful young son of Tros, king of Troy. While tending to his father's flocks on Mount Ida, Ganymede was spotted by Zeus, and the king of gods fell in love with him. He then flew down to the mountain in the form of a large bird, kidnapping Ganymede, and turning him into the cupbearer to the gods. Making him a constellation in the heavens.

To astrology, those born under this star sign are energetic and eccentric freedom fighters. Progressive, rebellious, and humanitarian are the main traits Aquarians tend to have. They love fighting for idealistic causes and always attempt to see people without prejudice. They also are usually innovative and spontaneous types who prefer to live life to the fullest. And as such, proudly display their non-traditional tastes and beliefs. They also have a deeply sensitive side that makes appreciation, support, and love, necessities in their lives.

Orlando himself, is a beautiful young man who's heir to a criminal king's heritage. He's an active and spontaneous gentleman that communicates well with others and is an idealist by nature. And is also notoriously inflexible in the love he feels for his toxic family. Being unwilling to change that stance until the circumstances become so extreme he's forced to chose between his friends and them.

He wishes desperately that his world was different, and that he could be free to express himself and his desires despite the expectations of his heritage. But also does nothing to actively change his situation, accepting his fate while simultaneously wishing he could be whisked away from it.

There seems to be an interesting parallel with the idea of a powerful man falling in love with him and taking him to a paradise. Because it reflects not only his own desires, but also how he attempts to make Dean do the same to Dave. He tries getting Dean and Dave together so Dean can whisk Dave away from the mess that is the dragon's life, so Dave can be happy while away from him once he's gone for good.

Despite these adversities, however, the end of his tale in both Paths A and B are marked by rebellion, freedom and the end of tradition. In path B, he directly confronts his father and kills him to protect himself and his friends. He takes over the mantle of crime boss to keep the peace and try to change things from the inside. In path A, he manages to completely restructure the mafia, turning it into an crime-free organization that has each member learn legal ways of work and actively do good to society rather than damage it.

Craig also mentions that Aquarius is the sign that flows unrestrained regardless of the whims of those around it. Like time itself. Which might be the reason why it ended in a maze.

This also relates to Orlando, whose personality and desires flow unrestrained in the maze of complications that is his life. Regardless of the homophobia, cruelty and greediness of his family, Orlando is still gay, emotional, kind and empathetic. Wishing for a future where he can bring happiness to others by giving rather than bringing them pain by taking. He tries to navigate and reach the middle of this "real life emotional maze", hoping the answer to his conflict lies there.

Banner and artwork were both made by Xernok on Discord.

[mariacallous]

Yveneny Prigozhin’s wartime atrocities propelled the brutal mercenary into the limelight. But Prigozhin—who was once Russian president Vladimir Putin’s chef and a small-time criminal—also held a title as one of the world’s biggest disinformation peddlers. For years, Prigozhin operated the notorious Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that meddled in US elections and beyond.

When Prigozhin suddenly died in a mysterious plane crash on August 23, around two months after he led his Wagner Group mercenaries in a failed mutiny against Putin, the trolls didn’t stop posting. Instead, according to a new analysis shared with WIRED, some continued to show their support for him.

In the days immediately after his death, a coordinated network of pro-Prigozhin accounts on X (formerly known as Twitter) pushed messages saying that the warlord was a hero and good for Russia, despite the Wagner Group’s failed rebellion against Putin in June. These messages also blamed the West for the plane crash and said that the Wagner Group would continue operating in Africa.

“It was not profitable for Putin to kill Prigozhin. PMC [private military company] carry a lot of weight in Africa, and Prigozhin skillfully managed it, despite his ‘character quirks,’” one account posted on X. “Prigozhin served for the good of Russia, remained faithful to his military oath, and was killed by saboteurs, or terrorists mined the plane,” another speculated. “In short, he just ditched his phone and disappeared into the sunset, just like in a typical action movie,” a third posted.

The organized accounts were all identified and shared with WIRED by Antibot4Navalny, an anonymous group of volunteers who track Russian-language influence operations on X. A person behind the group, whom WIRED granted anonymity due to safety concerns, says they started inspecting the posts of suspected X accounts after the crash when they “noticed that Prigozhin is surprisingly covered in an exclusively positive light.” The group found 30 accounts pushing pro-Prigozhin narratives, they say.

The activity could be a sign that Prigozhin remained in control of the Internet Research Agency troll factory until he died, the group claims, adding that it echoes similar activity they previously saw. Reports have said that after the attempted June uprising, Prigozhin-owned news websites and the troll factory were being shut down or looking for new owners. “Domestically, there was a lot of debate whether or not Prigozhin lost his control over the troll factory as one of the immediate aftermaths of the mutiny,” the Antibot4Navalny member says.

While the posts on X are only a tiny snapshot of social media activity, they highlight how Russian-linked propaganda has changed since the Internet Research Agency interfered in US politics in 2016, experts say. The Russian misinformation and disinformation industry has evolved into a rich ecosystem of state-backed media, massive Telegram channels, and more conventional social media posts. Millions of people follow so-called military bloggers and war journalists on Telegram—some of these channels are linked to the Russian state, while others are aligned with Pirgozhin and the Wagner Group. But all can muddy the waters or repeat set lines.

“Confusion in the information space is one of the aims of the Kremlin information operations—to make everything equally unbelievable so people’s trust in all kinds of sources is undermined,” says Eto Buziashvili, a disinformation and influence operations researcher with a focus on Russia at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Since the start of its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has blocked and censored social media websites, banned independent news media, and pushed reams of disinformation.

Kyle Walter, head of research at misinformation and disinformation research company Logically, reviewed the posts shared by Antibot4Navalny and says they show “signs of being inauthentic.” The X accounts were largely created earlier this year, have low volumes of original posts, and mostly retweet or reply to accounts, and some of them also follow each other, Walter says. The themes the accounts posted about around the plane crash also match what Logically has seen from monitoring Telegram channels linked to the Wagner Group, he says. Walter adds, however, that linking them directly to the Internet Research Agency is harder to do.

The Antibot4Navalny researcher says that based on their previous research, they believe that the pro-Prigozhin trolls operate in similar ways. They “primarily serve” the interests of Putin, but they also push pro-Prigozhin narratives when it doesn’t “hurt” the Russian president, the researcher says. The approach “still worked in the plane-crash episode: Cover Putin as strongly as possible, but also, it is a nice opportunity to praise Prigozhin,” they say. The researcher says they are reporting the accounts to X.

As well as the posts around the plane crash, the Antibot4Navalny group also shared previous research and analysis with WIRED. In one instance, the group reported more than 7,000 suspected accounts to X. We tested dozens of these accounts and found that they have all been removed from the Elon Musk-owned social media company. Antibot4Navalny says the “troll” accounts are often active in groups, pushing the “same set of talking points” and mostly replying to tweets about news related to Russia and Ukraine or pro-Ukrainian channels. X did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

On July 14, the Antibot4Navalny researcher says, some of the accounts they have tracked replied to posts discussing comments from Putin, who said that the Wagner Group “does not exist” and that there is no legal basis for the group. The accounts, the researcher says, sent messages saying that Wagner operated legally and referenced Concord, the catering company owned by Prigozhin. The Antibot4Navalny researcher claims that the points were not included in any Kremlin-controlled media and that mentions of the company “served interests of the troll factory/its owner—rather than interests of the Kremlin.”

Buziashvili, the Atlantic Council researcher, says she believes the troll factory is still operating. “Part of them might be still supporting Prigozhin,” she says. “For most of the people who were working there, they would just continue their work regardless of who is their current boss.”

Following the plane crash, Buziashvili says, Russian officials and state media pushed multiple “theories” simultaneously. On one TV show, both the UK and NATO were blamed for the plane crash, she says. Other instances blame Ukraine and claim that Prigozhin was not killed in the crash. Pro-Wagner Telegram channels were also pushing claims that the plane was shot down by Russian aviation, Buziashvili says, and that they wanted “revenge.” Nobody has formally claimed responsibility for the explosion—both Putin and Ukraine have denied involvement.

Despite the changing information ecosystem, the amount of Russian disinformation on social media is colossal. During the first year after it launched the war in Ukraine, Russia’s disinformation reached an audience of “at least” 165 million and generated 16 billion views across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, YouTube, TikTok, and Telegram, according to a European Commission study of Russia-linked activity published last week. Subscribers to pro-Kremlin Telegram channels have “more than tripled” since the start of the war, the report says. “Preliminary analysis suggests that the reach and influence of Kremlin-backed accounts has grown further in the first half of 2023, driven in particular by the dismantling of Twitter’s safety standards.”

“What we typically see these days is narratives formulated on Telegram,” says Logically’s Walter. The company has recently found pro-Russian channels pushing disinformation about Niger’s military coup, and it has also linked a Russian fact-checking website and Telegram account to a presenter on Russia’s “biggest” propaganda TV show. “You have Western influencers who are sympathetic to Russian causes that will translate those narratives and then share them on mainstream platforms. And they circulate more broadly,” he says.

Walter says that over time, and largely because of the war, it has become easier for Russian propaganda and disinformation to attack the West. “From a tactics perspective, there’s a lot less direct involvement that we can attribute from the Russian state itself, and it is more these proxies,” he says. “Russian disinformation efforts are gradually adapting to any sort of Western countering that gets put in place.”

[ignatius-pennyfeather-ix]

abed for the character ask!

favorite thing about him:

so many! i really love how he is clearly neurodivergent and also very passionate about creating films and everything bc as a nd who loves cinematography and film analysis and even just creating short documentaries, i see so much of myself represented in him. i also love how he uses tv/movies to make sense of the world. i watch television frequently and i also use it to understand people and relationships so again i see a lot of myself in him!

least favorite thing about him:

nothing. abed can do no wrong ever.

favorite line:

it’s from the bottle episode, when he says that he is “entombed alive in a masoleum of feelings i can neither understand nor reciprocate” this quote changed me. it’s such an accurate description of what it means to be nd for me. really reminds me especially of when i was younger discovering there were so many invisible rules i suddenly had to follow. and also a trobed-specific one- look, i know it’s from the gas leak year but when he said “for the first time in my long history of being locked inside things, i knew someone would come” to troy like it makes me cry. i just love them so much and i love how they love and protect each other.

brOTP:

for sure him and annie

OTP:

trobed you already know

nOTP:

like i said before i know some people can but i can’t see him with anyone other than troy. trobed or tro home.

headcanon:

random but i don’t think he listens to music a lot. he just doesn’t seem like the type idk.

unpopular opinion:

i don’t think i have any unpopular opinions. it’s hard to tell bc the…community community on tumblr is small and i’d say mostly like minded people.

song i associate with him:

soldier, poet, king. shoutout to that amazing trobedison edit!

favorite picture:

i love abed’s outifit in the choloroform episode, i when he and troy were bert & ernie, but above all:

i didn’t really like this episode but jfc he’s so attractive