#Why are tarkin ships so tragic? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

geek-gem · 4 years ago

Text

I want everyone to know what you’re about to read, is utterly all fan fiction. This was something I remember thinking about years ago. Mainly December 2015 to early 2016 I think possibly. Or it might of gone through that whole year. Including I won’t tag this as Star Wars. But it will pop up in my main blog. I want to finally share this.

You know years back, I had these ideas of a tv show taking place between episodes 4 and 5. With an epilogue season taking place between episodes 5 and 6. It’s practically a sequel to Star Wars The Clone Wars, the 2008 show.

The premise of the show was to showcase what the Rebellion and Empire were doing those three years. It would of focused on both the Rebellion and Empire.

I am done writing this. Be warned, it is long. Again, don’t take this very seriously. This is all again, fan fiction.

Edit I forgot to say this. This was all inspired years back when playing Star Wars Battlefront 2015. Including I was playing it recently. I thought back to those ideas. This is almost like if the game became a show. It’s basically kind of like, “Star Wars Battlefront the tv show” mainly the 2015 one but whatever.

From the Imperial side of things. You have a young Stormtrooper and a squad of his that survived an ambush on a planet(I’m strangely thinking of Endor. But this might break canon. So have it be another planet). This victory is noticed by Darth Vader and other Imperial officials. Which results in the Stormtroopers being promoted to higher ranking soldiers. Maybe something such as joining the 501st AKA Vader’s Fist. Taking on more serious missions, or when normal Stormtroopers need help.

On the Rebellion side of things. You have have Luke and the others trying to face the Empire. With Ahsoka Tano joining later and meeting Luke. With the possibility of trying to train him.

But from what I’ve been thinking. I seemed mainly focused on the Imperial side of things. Where this young man and his friends(Who become sort of brothers strangely to him) try to fight the Rebellion. Along with this strange developing friendship with Darth Vader. As for some reason, Vader seems to put trust in this young man, and takes him under his wing. But not being too personal, still making this rather about business.

Yet there is one scene I think about that mirrors Anakin and Palpatine’s scene in Revenge Of The Sith. Where Palpatine talks about Darth Plagueis. But it’s Darth Vader and this young Stormtrooper. Who I strangely thought of Dane Dehaan playing him.

The show ends with these two things. The young commando Stormtrooper who had fought for his Empire for years, starts realizing he’s on the wrong side. With the added addition I feel now he lost his friends along the way. Who were practically brothers to him. He tries to make up for everything he’s done for the Empire.

Including there is an idea he’s force sensitive. With the idea of I’m thinking of Vader trying to have him under his wing whenever they can betray the emperor. But it’s kept secret he’s force sensitive.

It ends with the man doing something probably major for the rebellion. Which results in a fight against his former friend Vader. Then it ending with Vader killing him. The story of the Imperial side is almost like a tragedy. Slowly showcasing working with the Empire is horrible.

The second thing is it ending with a fight between Vader and Ahsoka. Which mirrors Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s fight in episode 3 Which results in the death of Ahsoka, and Vader learning he has a son.

With the epilogue season focusing on Luke’s training on Dagobah, and his friends trying to locate Han Solo. With I guess some cases showcasing Vader before the events of Return Of The Jedi. With the epilogue season as a lead up to that film. The final film in the saga.

Now some added things, and why I find this...fan fiction flawed.

Marvel Comics practically did some similar stuff that could of been a tv show. So this idea of a tv show is somewhat useless. Basically, Marvel was already showcasing what was happening. Which actually did some things such as Vader finding out earlier after A New Hope from Boba Fett that Luke is his son. Which is honestly a powerful moment. Along with other things that I’ve seen.

Now I just wanna talk about some additions I’ve been thinking of recently. Or what this series idea seemed to showcase.

1. I feel like this weird friendship between Vader and a Stormtrooper is unrealistic and again, fan fictiony. But after Tarkin’s death in A New Hope. Vader hardly has anyone to trust, and the Empire is kind of falling apart. But it is soon repaired a bit. He finds this young man that for some reason, reminds him of himself when he was younger. Which is why he isn’t so bothered by him.

So there is the idea that he sees himself in him. Which is why he trusts him. A young man who isn’t full of himself, and can get shit done. But I also learned and from what I’ve seen. Vader seems to show subtle care for men who are actually on the battlefield instead of officers who are trying to stab each other in the back. But still, don’t piss off Vader.

Including during the idea of that scene between him and this man. The crazy idea is that Vader reveals who he is to him. Which I think wouldn’t make sense. But I think it’s this idea that somehow, even as Vader, there is someone he could trust. As long as he didn’t betray him or didn’t piss him off.

2. There seems to be this theme of tragedy like I said. But also with Vader. The fact even during his time as a Sith Lord. Vader losing someone like this young man who reminded him of himself, betrays him. Along with finally killing Ahsoka. It’s like this tragic lead up to Empire Strikes back and Return Of The Jedi. That even in his darkest times he is simply alone with the Emperor. Until Return Of The Jedi where Luke tries to change him.

3: I wonder if I tried to make the Deathtroopers story canon. Basically a novel featuring undead Stormtroopers and all that. A horror story in the Star Wars universe that takes place before A New Hope. Including there is an idea where during this three year gap, this squad of Stormtroopers and Vader would take on groups of these zombies on a ship. Maybe have some of the Rebellion characters do that too as well. But I feel I’m just being weird, because I like horror. So me trying to make that horror novel canon is me just simply adding stuff.

4. I have wondered if I tried adding Durge I think. Such as the times I tried adding into this idea of expanded material for the sequel trilogy when we were all waiting for episode 8.

I’m talking about Durge from the 2003 Clone Wars show. Amazing I keep trying to get this character back because how utterly amazing he is.

I just wanna admit this. But I find it admirable that somehow after everything, somehow Ahsoka made it through not just the Clone Wars and Order 66. But even the Galactic Civil War after Return Of The Jedi. I find it amazing they could of killed her off. But they didn’t. In fact, I’m strangely glad they didn’t killed her off. Which I find actually cool. Such as her appearing on The Mandalorian.

Also this was thought of before the Ahsoka and Vader meeting Rebels...you know I find it nice seeing after the mess that happened with the sequel trilogy. Good things seem to be happening now...

I think I’m gonna be done making this. I’m gonna put the keep reading option.

#GeekGem Rambles

6 notes · View notes

elenathehun · 4 years ago

Text

Watching The Clone Wars, part 4

I’m back! A little later than I expected, but again, the post-holiday doldrums has essentially ended at this point and I’m back to being busy. This viewing party coveres the first season episodes “The Gungan General”, “Jedi Crash”, “Defenders of Peace”, “Trespass”, “Blue Shadow Virus”, and “Mystery of a Thousand Moons”. My thanks to @spiraling, @jaycrowind and @hiruma-musouka for watching this misbegotten show with me: I truly would not be able to do it without y’all’s company and support.

“The Gungan General” (1x12)

This is a silly continuation of the very silly episode viewed previously, but marred by the fact that Jar Jar Binks is a main character. I honestly hope to god his presence peters down after this season, because I am just gritting my teeth at every episode that features him. On the plus side, it does have clones from the Coruscant Guard (at least, I assume some from the armor paint), and seeing them choose to weaponize Jar-Jar’s presence was a rare delight.

Other things to enjoy in this episode: Hondo. He so over-the-top and ridiculous, but his character actually makes sense for once, which is another too-rare pleasure in this show. He’s venal and greedy, and so are his men, but his motivations are clear, as are his methods. Also, I just love smugglers in general, and PT-era Star Wars is tragically underpopulated by such characters.

Finally, at this point I’m beginning to notice that the Jedi and Sith Force powers are very uneven in their application. As far as I can see, they only work as well (or badly) as necessary for the plot, which I guess is fine. The Force is basically a soft magic system, which is befitting since this is space fantasy.

“Jedi Crash” (1x13)

#give aayla armor

I’m gonna pretend she was actually wearing something like that the whole time. Like, I’m joking but not really. Why doesn’t Aayla have armor like Obi-Wan? And don’t tell me it’s because that’s what’s she wearing in RotS, Obi-Wan sure as hell ain’t wearing his RotS gear in this season...

Ugh, I just have so many opinions about how female characters are written and presented on this show in particular, and the PT in general, but I’m gonna save it for a more coherent post in the future.

Back to the episode proper: this ship-to-ship combat actually makes sense on a tactical level - I just love the droids/drones boarding the ship by force - but why are they in atmosphere? I know that atmo-combat looks cool, but it makes absolutely no sense given what Star Destroyers are built for. Yes, I’m aware that whining about this is petty, but I’m going to keep complaining about it until I feel better.

I feel like Anakin is unselfish expressly for the purpose of setting up a lesson for Ahsoka. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. I’m very meh on Anakin in general, though, so perhaps other people might see it differently.

Finally, the lemur colonists’ story makes no sense, timeline-wise. The war has only being going on for less than a year! Did they colonize the planet before the war broke out, or after? Is their home planet an active participant in either side? Are they already self-sufficient, or are they still receiving support from the next wave of colonists back home? As you can see, I am deeply invested in the economics and logistics of this situation.

“Defenders of Peace” (1x14)

God, the CIS is cartoonishly evil. It’s so evil I can’t take it seriously, and I’m a person who enjoyed the OT and thinks Tarkin was actually the best villain. I also found the inevitable denouement of the lemur people plot really annoying. I’m not fond of pacifistic storylines, but they can be done well if the writers want to give a fair shake to the ideology. TCW’s writers don’t, therefor the lemurs are just another strawman group who only exist to show how good the heroes are.

“Trespass” (1x15)

I love how we see graphic clone death in the first 30 seconds of the episode. At this point, I believe either Cartoon Network or Lucasfilm paid off the MPA, because there is no way this was rated PG legitimately.

Although I love Riyo Chuchi’s overall character design, I am offended by her youth. Why are there so many “young lady politicians” in Star Wars? Did everyone just look at Padme and say “yeah, this makes sense and is not absolutely stupid, let’s have more of the same?”

Anyway, I like to think Riyo is actually a soft-spoken, non-assertive middle-aged woman who is consistently underestimated in the Senate due to the fact the wealthy humans of the Core Worlds don’t know enough about her species to accurately gauge her age.

The actually plot of this story is executed reasonably well, although I honestly have no idea why two generals/battalions are necessary for this excursion. Also, am I the only one who found the Pantoran assertion that the yeti aliens are a complete discovery a bit silly? You guys have space flight, and presumably satellites, but you don’t know a primitive society is living on the planet you orbit? Really? Seems like a stretch.

“Blue Shadow Virus” (1x16)

Jar Jar’s actions in the initial interrogation that begin this episode can only be explained in the context of him being a secret Sith apprentice. Anyway, another cartoonishly evil villain from the CIS side. They’ve graduated from targeting hospitals to playing with bioweapons!

Anyway, the whole episode is yet another example of poor military strategy. You know what the Naboo Queen should have done? Nuked that black site from orbit, for the safety of her people and the galaxy at large.

“Mystery of a Thousand Moons” (1x17)

I just found this all very tedious. Obi-Wan and Anakin banter can lift an episode sometimes, but this wasn’t one of them. Anyway, the idea that one (1) root is going to produce a cure for a disease (that presumably already has a cure since it was originally eradicated decades ago) is just laughable. Finally, still noticing the timeline described in the episodes doesn’t make any sense. The idea that the CIS would invade Iego’s moons (for what reason?) and then leave (for what reason??), but leave a trap to keep everyone else from leaving (???) that then spurs the creation of an urban myth, all within the space of a year or less, is also stretching the bounds of my belief. It’s like the writers want to pretend the war has been going on for years, instead of a few months....

Next week: I complete the majority of the first season by watching the three-episode Ryloth arc, and start the second season by watching the time Cad Bane tried jumpstart the Emperor’s Hand program early.

#watching the clone wars #star wars #star wars tcw #television is hypnotoad

5 notes · View notes

willidleaway · 7 years ago

Text

Star Wars, episode 8

There’s been a lot of divisive back-and-forth about The Last Jedi on the Internet, with opinions diverging so hard towards the three groups of

it was the worst thing ever

it was the best thing ever

it was okay I guess

that as I prepared to do my part in helping fund Disney’s Fox acquisition, I couldn’t help but wonder whether people were seeing three different movies.

And as a matter of fact, they kind of were.

In short: Having three subplots just because you have three main characters ... maybe wasn’t a good idea. One of them had a lot of good moments if you could overlook some gaping holes (and giant regressions from the original trilogy), one of them wasn’t terrible but was also kind of pointless and didn’t have to be, and one of them was just mostly needlessly stupid.

Overall, I came out of the theatre more impressed than not, but this movie isn’t one that stands up terribly well to any extended thoughts about it. I also fear that in many places Episode IX may have to bite off more than it can possibly chew, as if this movie hasn’t done enough of that as it is.

Spoiler-y thoughts behind the Read More break.

In less short:

the Finn subplot was kind of okay;

the Poe subplot was inexcusably flawed;

and the Rey subplot was—well, it wasn’t the best thing ever and had a few critical points of badness, but it had a lot of good moments and I can’t help but enjoy them.

I really can, for the most part, treat these subplots as three different movies. Finn’s subplot branches a safe distance away from Poe’s subplot rather quickly and never really integrates properly back into it. Rey’s subplot doesn’t join back up with either of them until the very end.

This was true of Episode V too, to a large extent. But there, at least, the trio had the decency to split into two groups, with Luke’s subplot seeing Yoda teach him and Vader pursue him, and Han and Leia’s subplot leading them (eventually) to Cloud City. But Episode V had just those two subplots for the most part, and a relatively tight ensemble of characters and locations.

This episode ... not so much. I personally would really have liked to see Poe join an expanded version of the Finn subplot, with the existing Poe subplot dropped or considerably downsized, and I really think this would have improved the movie. But as this will never happen, I may as well give thoughts on the triple feature as it stands. So, thoughts on ...

Finn’s Big Adventure: It was okay.

I did find Canto Bight interesting—it’s a side of the galaxy you don’t normally get to see in Star Wars, which is normally all about either the military and political centres of conflict or the grimier parts of town. We get a peek at the economic elite life here, and it’s apparently equally disgusting in any galaxy.

But Rose never really developed into her own character, I’m afraid. She had a cursory backstory of suffering and a consistent compassion, but was mostly defined by love for her sister and for Finn. The codebreaker took so many moral swerves that it was impossible to ever get a great handle on him as a real character, and his apparent argument of ‘well the First Order and the Resistance both use machines from the same suppliers so it’s all part of the system, man’ was just weird and frankly kind of disconcerting. I’m sure I’ve oversimplified that in some way, but not by much, I think.

This subplot also had to quite rapidly manage its own mission expectations, going through a few stages:

we’re going to get hold of a master codebreaker to gain access to a critical weakness in Snoke’s ship

okay, we’re just going to use whatever codebreaker we've found to gain access to a critical weakness in Snoke’s ship

okay, we’re just going to die on Snoke’s ship and hope the Resistance survives because we can’t actually do anything now

okay, everyone else is just going to die too

wait is that the Resistance cruiser ramming into Snoke’s ship

and that probably didn’t help this subplot being so utterly unremarkable. Really, it was a little odd that this was the subplot they kind of chose to end on, with the Force-sensitive child slave sweeping and looking up at the sky.

And really the worst thing is that Captain Phasma (and by extension Gwendoline Christie) was simply tragically wasted as a villain, which is bad because Captain Phasma is clearly one of the more competent and awesome First Order military personnel. Plus, more screen time with Captain Phasma could have given us more development of Finn. It wasn’t too late to show more of her after Episode VII. It is now.

Who Framed Poe Dameron: Be careful what you wish for. I wished for Poe to have more screen time, and look what happened.

What we’ve got here, to quote Cool Hand Luke, is failure to communicate—not just between the Resistance personnel, but also between the writers and the audience. Let’s take this one failure at a time:

Poe’s demotion. Why does Holdo bring this back up as if it’s that important? How far down is the rank of Captain from Commander? (In most real-world navies and air forces, isn’t Captain actually one rank above Commander?) Is that proportionate to his act of insubordination per se, or more proportionate to the severe losses he caused through that insubordination? And how rigorous is the Resistance ranking hierarchy anyway? Can they even afford to be rigorous about it, given how short-staffed they are (even before the Battle of Crait)? Han went from starship captain to a General in the Rebel Alliance basically right after he had been frozen in carbonite for a good long while. Are you telling me that it would be so difficult for Poe to get that far back up in no time at all?

The secrecy around the evacuation. Why wasn’t there just a standing plan known to all Resistance fighters of ‘look if things get really bad we have a base we can fall back to with a decent set of resources, and its location is definitely on a need-to-know basis but just so you know we will fall back to it if the First Order really start hurting us, so please don’t mutiny’? If no one else, how did Leia not trust Poe with this plan when she trusted him with retrieving a piece of the map to Luke?

Crait. How is this place uncharted to the First Order? Is their map information just that bad? Shouldn’t it be on the First Order’s maps given that the son of erstwhile Generals of the Rebel Alliance is in the First Order leadership? Where do the First Order maps come from? And regardless, wouldn’t it have become charted the moment the Resistance cruiser came out of hyperspace to try and make a run to somewhere within reasonable distance of it? How does galactic cartography work, anyway? Is that even relevant, given that a First Order flagship should probably be able to detect transports launching from the cruiser with or without life signs and track their trajectory anyway?

Some of this, I think, is hurt by lack of significant context about exactly what the Resistance is, what the First Order is, what their relations are to the Empire and the Rebel Alliance and the new (short-lived) Republic, what their standing is in the galaxy, what resources they have, and so on. Certainly the original trilogy was never quite as rigorous in this sort of thing as the prequels were, but after just a few minutes of Episode IV, you saw enough to know that the Empire ruled the galaxy under an iron fist, and the Rebel Alliance was a ragtag volunteer army. Here, the First Order is ... governing? Is it governing anything? Does it have provinces? Is Snoke on billions of propaganda pamphlets, pictured in his best dressing gown? Does it claim to be a legitimate continuation of the Galactic Empire, or merely a de facto one? And what of the Resistance? Is it funded by the new Republic? Well, I know their political centre was wiped out in Episode VII, but maybe they actually have a civilian government in exile ... or don’t they? If they have access to old Rebel bases and equipment, how did they end up with only one cruiser by the start of this episode?

This seems like nitpicking, but I am genuinely left a bit confused by the scope of the Resistance, which is apparently fine to rebuild even if the new Republic it sought to defend is in tatters, its allies have abandoned it, and its military strength is now small enough to fit in its entirety inside the Millennium Falcon.

I get that this episode is going for an ominous ending like that of Episode V, but as of the end of Episode V, the Rebellion still actually had bases and cruisers and fighters and Admiral Ackbar. It was just that Leia was shaken by the apparent loss of Han, a capable if reluctant member of the Rebellion, and Luke was shaken by revelations about Darth Vader. As of the end of this episode, the Resistance fleet is just the Falcon. There are people skilled enough to take down an entire military fleet with one starship, but most of them are Time Lords in a TARDIS and they aren’t in this universe.

Also, I’m not sure whether to file this under Poe’s subplot or Rey’s, but ginger!Tarkin is just hilarious. I’m sorry, I’ve got nothing against Domhnall Gleeson as an actor, but I’m pretty sure he’s being directed to ham it up as much as he can and it’s ridiculous and silly to the point of being wonderful. At the same time, his character’s a bit useless and the movie seems painfully aware of it.

The Last Jedi (that is, the parts of The Last Jedi that were actually about, you know, The Last Jedi): Oh, Luke, what happened to you?

No, really, I want to know and these movies won’t tell me. I want to see what happened to Luke between Episodes VI and VII in this brave new Disney-enforced canon, and it’s really unfortunate that this was not a core concern of the sequels. We got some inkling of it in Episode VII, sure, and now get unreliable tellings of what happened between Luke and Ben/Kylo specifically. But this simply isn’t enough.

As it stands, everyone telling the story seems to agree that Luke definitely showed intent to kill Ben, however transient. And that is so jarring given that we’ve been here before and overcome it, in Episode VI. The original trilogy was all about Luke succeeding where Anakin failed, overcoming his darker side and even pushing Anakin to do so in the very end. Given this, where Luke stands at the start of this episode—having attempted to kill Ben, mistrusting Rey so much—is undeniably a very abrupt regression that lacks any significant development to support it. What did it take to break the unbreakable cinnamon roll?

This is a fundamental problem with the plotting of the sequel trilogy. In fact, I wonder if it should really have been a trilogy. The prequels, of course, were forced to be a trilogy because Lucas had pre-emptively numbered Episodes IV through VI. But while there is a massive gap between the prequels and the original trilogy—and even within the prequels, which jumped from precious child Anakin to teenaged Anakin to war-weary Anakin—that was excusable because nothing terribly interesting happened in that gap to the Skywalkers or the Jedi. Darth Vader kind of kept on Darth Vader-ing, Luke had a fairly peaceful moisture farmer’s life with some occasional piloting excitement, Obi-Wan and Yoda went on their eccentric hermit ways, the Emperor kept on with his Galactic Empire, and most of the Jedi stayed dead.

The gap between Episodes VI and VII, as it stands ... not so much. Apparently in that gap we had

the re-establishment of a peaceful Galactic Republic

the establishment of a new Jedi Temple

the training of Ben Solo

the rise of Snoke

the fall of the new Jedi Temple

the rise of the First Order

which frankly should have been a movie or two, maybe even a television series. (It really could work. The gap between Episodes II and III were the entire Clone Wars, which of course had its own lovely series, cut short by the Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition.) In fact, I’m beginning to think the rise of Snoke and the Knights of Ren should have been the core of Episode VII, with Luke going into self-imposed exile at the end, until one day a mysterious young woman shows up and holds out a lightsaber, her face full of hope ...

... but that will never happen now. I wonder if it even could have happened in the 2010s, given the age of the original cast and the scenes that would be required of them. And frankly, I wonder if Disney/Lucasfilm, instead of making the abrupt jumps that they did between the original trilogy and the sequels, should instead have been making what they now plan to after this sequel trilogy—movies following completely new characters with their own stories.

And this is the good subplot, huh? Yes, yes it is.

There are moments in this subplot that I can’t help but enjoy, which is not actually true for either of the other subplots. Luke reuniting with Artoo was when Luke felt most like himself. The return of Yoda, with a surprisingly faithful CGI rendition and perhaps a moment of overpowered mischievousness, was kind of amazing. Rey and Kylo joining forces (Forces?), however briefly, was frankly surprising in just how effective it was. Kylo has actually risen above being ‘a child with a mask’ and become a far more credible character, if not a credible villain. Rey’s moment of self-reflection was ... not subtle, but still worked for what it was. The revelation of her parentage was exactly what it needed to be.

And Luke’s projection ... was a bit ridiculous—hadn’t he cut himself off from the Force for quite a while? Wouldn’t he need to retrain a lot before he was able to do that again and/or possibly for the first time ever, given that this is the first time we’ve seen Force Telepresence, which I would have thought was some kind of transient Force bond with every living thing in the vicinity, except apparently even droids can detect your projection? (So it’s definitely just a new Force power, because we didn’t already have enough of those and definitely had rules around those sorted out really neatly ...) I mean, it was awesome, but kind of odd and didn’t seem to really have concrete rules.

And really, if you were willing to overlook Luke not being himself for the majority of the movie and what might be a fundamental flaw in the planning of this entire sequel trilogy, this subplot was pretty good (and the one that I’d wager the critics paid most attention to). It sounds like I’m saying that facetiously, but I’m only saying it half-facetiously.

The one rather unsatisfying thing was the fact of Snoke’s anticlimactic end after all of the buildup around him (more so than how it played out)—but if Darth Maul can come back from being sliced in half, perhaps Snoke can too. Hmm, maybe not in this case. And that’s a pity, because Snoke’s motivations surely more or less inform Kylo’s motivations, and both would have been great to learn more about.

Final thoughts: So, basically what the writers of Episode IX have to do is

figure out how the Resistance is going to be a credible threat to the First Order when right now it fits inside an old Corellian light freighter

work in Leia’s off-screen death and pass her part of the story on to someone appropriate

complete Kylo Ren’s arc, without Leia

figure out if Poe actually has an arc to complete given that Poe’s screen time was taken up by setting up Finn’s subplots and inciting mutiny without much of a result, and given that the only ship he can now fly is a light freighter

figure out if Finn is actually going to do something useful this time

make ginger!Tarkin look like a competent second-in-command

actually show Poe being competent and not deceived by his superiors

congratulate themselves on outdoing RTD and Moffat in writing themselves into a massively tight corner for the final episode

That seems like a fairly tall order, and I don’t hold out much hope for answers here. If George Lucas were in charge, we’d have more answers than we needed. But JJ Abrams is in charge, and I’m afraid any answers we get here are going to just give rise to a thousand-fold more questions.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

On the droids: BB-8 was fantastic, as always. I still can’t get over just how expressive the design is compared to Artoo or frankly even Threepio.

I guess we also saw BB-8′s Imperial—erm, excuse me, First Order counterpart, which I really wanted to see do more. Kind of like Phasma.

On slot machine guns: Professor Layton did it better.

On the critters infesting the Falcon: Chewie, how dare you eat them.

Also, I think we’ve now potentially got the Star Wars equivalent of Tribbles. How quickly did those things take over the ship, anyway?

On originality: Say, do you remember a Star Wars movie where

the rebels are chased off their main holdout on a snow-white planet;

the Force-sensitive protagonist trains with a reluctant teacher on a remote planet with a submerged X-wing, dips into a cavern to confront the dark side of the Force, and ultimately interrupts their Jedi training to help the rebels;

the non-Force-sensitive protagonists seek out a rogue to help them, but are double-crossed and face dire prospects;

someone says ‘I know’ in an unusual context;

and the Force-sensitive villain reveals the parentage of the Force-sensitive protagonist, who is then asked to join them so that together they can rule the galaxy?

I mean, it’s not a straight-up recycled Episode V the way that Episode VII was a blatant remake of Episode IV, and the original trilogy codified a lot of modern sci-fi filmmaking to the point where it would not be possible for a sequel to not have some overlap with the original. But, to quote the judge from Ace Attorney, two coincidences at the same time seems more like a pattern to me.

Thinking about the submerged X-wing makes me a little peeved, actually, because it feels like the writers basically throwing the regression of Luke’s character in your face through one succinct image. It also feels like lifting the X-wing out of the water and flying to Crait in person would have been a less cheap way for Luke to go out, and actually would have also made for an extra nice callback to Episode V. Really, it’s surprising that this was so overlooked.

Random thoughts on the trailers I saw before the feature presentation:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom looks like it’s going to be gloriously silly. Also, Jeff Goldblum’s memetic line ... finds a way.

Ready Player One looks good (did I spot an Overwatch character?) although that could just be the Van Halen music. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s mostly the Van Halen music.

Eek, creepy large lifelike anime eyes in Alita: Battle Angel. It looks like one of those images you see on the Internet where you splice real-life photos together to represent a cartoon character, except now with a multi-million dollar budget.

Incredibles II. This is where it’s come to, is it, Disney/Pixar? I mean, I’m going to reserve judgement because the trailer was astonishingly short on content, but are you going to really start ruining every perfect movie you ever made?

I have no opinions on Avengers: Infinity War since I don’t follow the MCU, but involving the GotG makes me worried for their safety.

8 notes · View notes

saltandlimes · 7 years ago

Note

*opens door and slips a note in* #7, 24,26

*pulls you inside after the note*

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?Well I’m gonna be honest. The S*pernatural fandom. Was my favorite, but… then things happened and I am generally not enthusiastic any more. Love my time spent in it though. In terms of ships though, I tend to stick with them once I fall in love with them. I’m pretty much stuck.

24. Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?Let me recommend Galennic to all friends. Super chill fandom, tragic backstory, practically canon (look if Luceno didn’t want it, he shouldn’t have had Orson scream Galen’s name to the sky). Also gorgeous art, really fun fics, and some great AUs. Also the actors are bros and super cute in their interview together.

26. Most shippable character?ORSON KRENNIC. I ship Orson with Galen, Jyn, Max Veers, Tarkin, Brendol Hux, Me, that door over there, anything. He’s just so… shippable? With this lingering background of “well I’m only with you cause I can’t be with Galen” which hits my angst loving heart right in the feelz.

[salty ask list]

#meme

11 notes · View notes

brokenmusicboxwolfe · 8 years ago

Text

I saw:

Rogue One- Yes, I am probably the last person to see the film, but life conspired against me. Heck, they day we finally decided to go see it in a theater we discover that the chain had shut down the place days before (next nearest theater 50 miles and life getting in the way of a trip). I chose to order the DVD from Amazon, since it was significantly cheaper that the nearest place selling it (10 miles away), and what do you know, thanks to a dispute they were having with Disney it’s taken this long, about a month to show up. So I dunno if I should even bother writing anything.

This is the story of how the Death Star plans ended up in Leia’s hands to entrust to R2D2 in the original Star Wars film. Turns out that the designer of the disco ball of doom was a reluctant participant in the horror. He built that oh so convient flaw and sent a message out to let the Rebellion know. This leads to the recruitment of his long lost daughter, an tragic family reunion, the gathering of a motley crew, and a sucide mission to get the plans out. The cost will be high.

Now I could point to flaws, and plenty of them. For instance I could to point to the way too much character background and elaboration seems to be not on screen but I expect the stuff of spin off media. And beyond the details I question or shake my head at in the film itself, there is how it fits with the original trilogy. I mean, if the Rebellion had just scrambled so much of the fleet for that final Return of the Jedi scale battle just before the original film, why is their no hint of the toll as they go into battle again so soon? Was there at least some ceremony held for the countless fighters they lost getting the plans if they were going to have that silly only Luke and Han get a baubble event? And do not get me started how distracted I was by the CGI Tarkin with a very unconvincing Peter Cushing impersonation for a voice....

I could go on but I won’t. The fact is I enjoyed the movie, mainly for what it was at it’s core. Rebellions are messy and bloody. Ugly things are done for good causes. Factions disagree about how to reach their common goal, to the point they could fail to work together. The unity if the Rebellion lies as much in the common threat as the common cause (in other words, not just resisting the intellectually recognized wrong but the metaphorical, or rather literal in this unsubtle universe, gun to their collective head) . People of very different sorts are brought together. And most importantly, many people show courage and make great sacrifices but never get the rank if general or some grinning moment before a joyful crowd. It’s actually a rather valuable addition to the franchise because it shows the foundation princesses, idealistic farm boys and scoundrels with hearts of gold stand on.

As someone that always wonders about the canon fodder, the unnamed people crewing Leia’s ship, the pilot crying out as their fighter disintegrates or the citizens of a city in the clouds suddenly under Imperial control as their leader abandons them, this is the sort of story I find refreshing. It ain’t Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (FYI acclaimed Hamlet fan fiction...aww, come on. You know it is) but a nice change anyway.

And hey, it’s totally Star Wars. The Storm Troopers still can’t shoot straight until dramatically necessary and wear armor that’s useless against a club! LOL

#movies #rogue one #star wars

2 notes · View notes

irhinoceri · 8 years ago

Link

I think that this list has some good recommendations on it, but it is definitely a Fanboy Rec list. Thus it is missing some of what I would consider essential and has some stuff on it that I was not as fond of.

As a Barrissoka shipper, I would add the Second Battle of Geonosis arc to this list.

S2E05 Landing at Point Rain

S2E06 Weapons Factory

S2E07 Legacy of Terror

S2E08 Brain Invaders

This is the entire basis for the Barrissoka ship because Filoni hates us and never brought Barriss back under the infamous season 5 Wrong Jedi arc. Whatever. I’m not bitter. (I’m very bitter.)

Another ship based recommendation is the early Mandalore arc which introduce Satine and the Obitine ship. Whether you are all for it or not depends on your stance re: Obi-Wan’s love life and the fact that Satine was later killed in season 5 (bad things happen in season 5, you see).

S2E12 The Mandalore Plot

S2E13 Voyage of Temptation

S2E14 Duchess of Mandalore

And if you like Satine, she’s in another episode teamed up with Padme, S3E5 Corruption.

There are some Ahsoka Tano episodes that aren’t on the Nerdist list which are essential Ahsoka character building episodes, IMHO. Besides the earlier Geonosis episodes and the season 5 “The Wrong Jedi” arc and “Mortis” arc Nerdist recommends, I love:

S1E9 Cloak of Darkness in which Ahsoka and Luminara are paired up and there’s a traitor with bizarro flock of seagulls hair. Amazing. Also, to continue the theme of other Jedi trying to break Ahsoka of the habits Anakin has taught her (lol) there’s S1E13 Jedi Crash in which Anakin is gravely wounded and Aayla Secura doesn’t understand why Ahsoka hasn’t already made funeral plans (I’m not even joking that much tbh). (This is also a theme in the Geonosis episodes where Luminara chides Anakin for not instantly giving up on Barriss and Ahsoka when it looks like they might be dead. The foreshadowing is strong with this one.)

S2E11 Lightsaber Lost where Ahsoka’s lightsaber gets stolen, and, ashamed for Anakin to find out because he would get on her case about being irresponsible (oh the delicious irony) she enlists the help of an elderly Jedi who teaches her more than she thought she’d learn about patience and all that Jedi Jazz.

S3E18 The Citadel

S3E19 Counter Attack

S3E20 Citadel Rescue

S3E21 Padawan Lost

S3E22 Wookiee Hunt

These are really two arcs back to back, as it starts out with a mission to rescue Wilhuff Tarkin from an impenetrable prison. Good Ahsoka moments, and an interesting take on Anakin and Tarkin’s dynamic pre-Vader and Empire era.

Right after this happens, Ahsoka gets kidnapped by trandoshans. If you’re not interested in Tarkin, definitely still watch Padawan Lost and Wookiee Hunt as these are defining moments in Ahsoka’s early life.

S3E07 Assassin features Ahsoka having dreams about Padme being assassinated. It’s an interesting look at another Jedi besides Anakin having prophetic dreams about Padme dying. But because Ahsoka is not predestined to go Dark Side, she uses her dreams to save Padme’s life

S5E06 The Gathering

S5E07 A Test of Strength

S5E08 Bound for Rescue

S5E09 A Necessary Bond

This arc focuses on Ahsoka shepherding a group of younglings on a rite of passage. These episodes are good if you are interested in Jedi lore such as Kyber crystals and lightsaber assemblage. They also feature an Emmy winning appearance by David Tennant as a droid, if you’re into that. But most importantly, Ahsoka and the younglings kick ass when they are attacked by pirates.

S5E02 A War on Two Fronts

S5E03 Front Runners

S5E04 The Soft War

S5E05 Tipping Points

I’m surprised that the Onderon arc isn’t on Nerdist’s list, since it introduces Saw Gererra. So I’ll recommend it, for Rogue One fans wanting to learn more about his backstory. It also features Steela Gerrera.

One of the things you may have heard about The Clone Wars is that it handles Anidala better. Well, I think that’s debatable, as many Anidala fans find their dynamic to be cold and not very romantic... certainly lacking the epic tragic star crossed lovers angle of the movies, but that is possibly what makes some like it better (more realism less cheese perhaps). They argue a lot but also have great battle couple moments. My favorites (in chronological order):

S1E04 Destroy Malevolence

S1E17 Blue Shadow Virus

S1E18 Mystery of a Thousand Moons

S2E04 Senate Spy

S3E08 Evil Plans

S1E22 Hostage Crisis

S4E01 Water War

S4E02 Gungan Attack

S4E03 Prisoners

S4E04 Shadow Warrior

I’m probably forgetting some but this list is starting to get very long, but anyway, I think that’s a better cross section of the pivotal arcs than just what is mentioned in the article.

#star wars #the clone wars #long post

18 notes · View notes

scrawnydutchman · 7 years ago

Text

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

*NOTE: The following review contains spoilers, highlighted in bold letters for reader’s convenience. If you haven’t seen the film yet, skip the bold letter sections of this review and come back to read them when you have seen it.

Well, the long anticipated episode 8 to the beloved Star Wars franchise is here. My group of friends and I went into The Last Jedi knowing that it had some pretty mixed opinions going around for it. Some people, like my brothers, were giving it some high praise for being absolutely spectacular and epic. Others were calling it stupid and non sensical. Now that I’ve seen the film, what’s my verdict? Well . . . . it’s no wonder people are as divided about the quality of this film as they are, because it’s a very mixed bag. It may be the most dramatic and thematically deep Star Wars film in years, possibly the whole franchise . . . but it’s also the most laugh out loud ridiculous. Yes, that includes The Phantom Menace. But while the prequels were mainly just boring and/or annoying, The Last Jedi is silly in a way that kept me consistently laughing hard in the theater. It’s an unintentional comedic goldmine.

PLOT:

Synopsis:

After the events of The Force Awakens, the rebellion is on their last set of legs in their fight against the First Order. There are so few rebels left in the fight and hope is dwindling. The only chance they have left is if Rey can receive Jedi training from the rediscovered Luke Skywalker in hopes that she can help the rebellion survive and eventually overthrow the First Order. Will the rebellion win the battle?

Now I know that’s a pretty bare bones synopsis but really, it’s the only way I can be as cautious about spoilers as possible. This movie has like 50 different twists and turns happen throughout it’s runtime. Every time you think one cliche’d or recycled plot point is going to happen, they go in a completely different direction. My guess is that after the fact that The Force Awakens was a pretty blatant repeat of old film beats leftover from A New Hope and to a lesser extent The Empire Strikes Back, the writers decided they wanted to flex their own creative chops a bit and experiment with the old formula. Honestly, I welcome it. I like that this movie was so unpredictable, since The Force Awakens and Rogue One were truthfully pretty easy to guess (Rogue One especially since it was a prequel). I also like the ways this movie challenges the old Star Wars formula we’ve come to love.

One way in which the film does this is it’s blurring the line between good and evil. Star Wars has always been pretty blunt and rigid about who are the true antagonists in it’s story, pretty childishly so even. It got to a point where the movie villains have been pretty cartoonishly evil (especially lord Palpatine and Snoke). But in The Last Jedi it’s not that simple. Despite the fact that we saw Ben Solo kill his own father, he makes decisions in this film that make us think he might turn to the light, such as kill Lord Snoke when he threatens the life of Rey. We also get a pretty poignant scene with the code breaker about how the grotesquely wealthy weapons dealers provide starships and guns for both the first order and the rebellion alike, making a point that the rebellion also does ethically questionable things for it’s cause. We as the audience even get trust dilemmas with beloved characters we’ve known for years, like Luke friggin Skywalker!! Did he fail Kylo Ren and make him succumb to the dark side?! Did he attempt to murder him?! Were his actions justified?! Stuff like this is great and It’s a welcome change of pace from an otherwise pretty black and white story about who’s the good and who’s the bad.

That said, not every choice in this movie is a good one. Sometimes the twists and turns of this plot are counter intuitive, for a number of reasons. For one, because this movie is big reveal after big reveal after big reveal, a lot of times characters actions, even if completely understandable in retrospect, could have been made a lot easier if they just EXPLAINED why it was they were doing what they were doing. Luke is reluctant to teach Rey the force, and goes for literal DAYS without explaining anything to her. The code breaker guy needs Rose’s cherished necklace in order to infiltrate the First Order’s tracker, but won’t just explain that and creates this whole thing about being selfish and heartless. But by far the biggest offender is vice admiral Holdo, who had a completely noble reason for charging the escape pods but couldn’t be bothered to explain what she was doing to Poe, leading him to mutiny against her. The plot forces these characters to behave irrationally in order for big reveals to happen, and had they been honest and communicative with each other they could have saved themselves ample amount of time. But being open about your thinking doesn’t fill a 2 and a half hour runtime I guess.

Another way in which the movie challenges old Star Wars sensibilities is that while The Force Awakens tried desperately hard to be as much like the old films as possible with it’s constant references and reappearances of old characters, this film has quite a bit of those old themes disappear by the end of the film and even has Kylo Ren talk about getting rid of the old ways to Rey. Luke Skywalker dies by the end of the film (albeit through a string of what I think are fakeouts). Snoke is killed off, and of course due to the unfortunate passing of Carrie Fisher, it’s unlikely Leia will be appearing in episode nine (unless they already finished shooting her scenes). I appreciate this films willingness to explore it’s own territory, as if to say “alright guys, we had our fun gushing over all the cameos and nostalgic feels, but now it’s time to tell our own story”.

But all of that said, there’s a great deal of silliness in this movie. Like, Star Wars 1-3 levels of silliness. The most prominent coming to my mind being when Leia is flung out into the cold depths of space after an explosion and survives by channeling the force and guiding her body to the safe remains of a rebellion ship. Now at first I thought this was the world’s ballsiest way of killing off a character whose actress tragically passed away the year prior. Instead, it’s the most laughably ridiculous part in the whole movie. If you’re one of those people who was upset at how quickly Rey was learning the force, how about seeing Leia, who has NEVER DEMONSTRATED SUCH COMPETENCE IN THE FORCE, suddenly being able to defy death in a way that no jedi or sith has ever done before?! There’s also basic plothole knitpicky shit, like if Finn and Rose were arrested for illegal parking then why was their spaceship still kept on the beach where it shouldn’t be? But to be fair they end up not being able to use it for escape anyway. Also the Chrome lady Stormtrooper from The Force Awakens shows up again, but does nothing and is taken out like a chump. She’s pretty much the Boba Fett of these new movies; she looks cool and sells toys, but does absolutely nothing. The irony is she has more dialogue than Boba ever did but is somehow less memorable.

Overall the plot of this film is a bit too ambitious for it’s own good, but I appreciate the ambition regardless.

VISUALS:

Much like previous Star Wars movies of recent years, this movie is pretty hit and miss. I’ll give it credit that it isn’t like The Force Awakens where it’s just too aesthetically similar to previous films to really have it’s own visual identity and it isn’t like Rogue One where the new stuff pretty jarringly clashes with the old. This movie has a pretty consistent feel and look to it and offers some creative new environments and creatures.

My favorite environment in the whole movie is the casino. While I was initially afraid going into it that this would just be another cantina just like the bar in The Force Awakens was, this movie has a setting that’s reminiscent enough of real life casinos to be instantly recognizable but also has enough distinguishing features to be it’s own version of it and also creates solid additions to the lore of the world. This is an explanation as to how the First order gets it’s weaponry, as well as how there’s one aspect in which the rebellion isn’t perfect. It’s also just an environment we haven’t seen in Star Wars before; a rich aristocratic type place that’s beautiful on the surface but hides a sinister underbelly.

This movie also has some decent CGI effects . . . . mostly. Okay, the Star Wars films have recently had a reputation for having somewhat scary looking CGI characters, particularly the recreations of Tarkin and young Leia in Rogue One. But the creatures and machinery in The Last Jedi are pretty creative designs and are pulled off effectively . .. again . . mostly.

But of course, this movie has as many goofy visuals as it does plotpoints. I already mentioned the hilarious image of Carrie Fisher’s limp body floating through space via conveniently appearing force powers, but there’s also Kylo Ren’s weirdly wide shirtless body which has been meme-ing for a while (EDIT: Apparently that’s actually what Adam Driver looks like Extra weird). The visual problems aren’t just with the CGI though. This movie has noticeably weird cuts and overall editing with it’s clips that does a weirdly specific amount of worldbuilding. There is of course the infamous shot of Mark Hamill milking the utters of a CGI animal that adds nothing to the plot and could have easily been cut out while still maintaining a two and a half hour movie. There’s also this one shot of a laundry iron coming down that would initially have you believe it’s just a starship in the SHAPE of a laundry iron, but it is in fact just a simple laundry iron ironing out the wrinkles of First Order officer’s uniform. YES, THIS SCENE ACTUALLY HAPPENS and it is so off-putting and weird it’s hilarious. I didn’t know how much I wanted to learn about the day to day maintenance a First Order officer has to go through until right now. Are there dish washing droids on their ship? Is there a vacuum droid? Is there a sewing machine constantly making new uniforms every few minutes? I have SO many questions.

The verdict on the visuals is pretty much the same as the verdict on the plot. Lot’s of ambitious choices; some effective, some weird but still entertaining.

Acting Performances:

The cast here is pretty damn good. Rey and Finn bring the awesomeness from The Force Awakens back (albeit with a few corny one liners worthy of The Phantom Menace). Kylo Ren is more likable this time around, playing up how he’s just an emotionally confused guy who doesn’t know what to think, kind of like a Star Wars version of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Mark Hamill has both a gut wrenchingly hilarious and compellingly emotional performance (and is particularly badass in the finale). Carrie Fisher remains classy as ever even in her final on screen performance. There’s some pretty decent new additions as well. I like Rose a lot; she’s cute (if only a little stupid in the end). I like the Code breaker guy (even if he’s kind of a Deus ex Machina) because he’s a morally ambiguous character who only acts with money as his motivation. He’s kind of badass in his own way and I hope he comes back in Episode 9. Poe was great. Holdo was . . . . .eh, kind of just a generic by-the-books general butting heads with the reckless Poe. I know she ultimately has good intentions, but because she’s both introduced and dies in this movie she doesn’t leave much impact otherwise. Not much else to say here.

Sound/Music Production:

Typical great Star Wars quality. Effective sound effects, unique voices coming from every CGI creature, a soundtrack that’s not offensive but also not as poignantly epic as the original trilogy. Overall serviceable.

Conclusion:

Whether it’s edge-of-your-seat exciting or bombastically hilarious, The Last Jedi is very entertaining. I appreciate it’s very ambitious choices even if a lot of them are pretty stupid, and I do legitimately like the ideas of blurring the line between good and evil and moving on from the old ways of doing a Star Wars movie. The film keeps you guessing, has good drama, interesting ideas, all tied together with hit-and-miss execution. I’d say give it a watch!

Plot: 1/1 - Average (but with extra credit due to being hilarious)

Visuals: 1/1 - Average (but with extra credit due to being hilarious)

Acting Performance: .5/1 Average

Sound/Music Production: .5/1 Average

OVERALL: 3/4.

#star wars #the last jedi #starwars #episode 8 #film #review #movies #movie review #star wars viii #viii

0 notes

him-e · 8 years ago

Note

Maybe Im just being harsh, but i don't get how people think RO was so much better than TFA. In my opinion RO lacked severely in character development which really caused a disconnect. People give TFA crap for being a rehash of old stuff, but RO has them too, and even more fan service i think. I also found the third act of them actually getting the plans to be so muddled and ridiculous. I don't think TFA doesn't feel like a star wars film just because time has passed and characters have changed

I think at the end of the day it’s a matter of personal taste. RO and TFA are two different ways of rehashing/expanding a known story. TFA is a sequel while RO is more like a “missing moments”. This is already a basic difference—some people naturally prefer the former and others the latter. Especially because in the latter the outcome is fixed, so there isn’t a lot of wiggle room with the characters and their destination in the first place. You must be inclined and willing to watch a story that you already know in advance isn’t going to end well.

RO lacked severely in character development which really caused a disconnect

Eh, I wonder where this perception comes from, actually. Because what I see is a two hours movie starring an ensemble cast who is just as developed as it gets in a two hours movie with an ensemble cast. Okay, we have characters like Baze Malbus who objectively get little characterization. We could have seen something more of Bodhi—his defection, the moment Galen entrusted him with the mission—and of Galen himself as well. Krennic, as a villain, is weak and doesn’t really work, because the film spends more time on cgi!Tarkin than him (I would add Vader to this complaint, but I won’t, because I’m too busy fangirling over his scenes. Nope, I think Vader was used splendidly).

RO is a standalone film constricted within the boundaries of a necessarily fixed ending. Narrative-wise, character-wise, the horizon is much wider in TFA. I wonder, is Cassian really lacking character development compared to, I dunno, Poe? Is Finn’s defection actually better written than Bodhi’s? Do Jyn’s actions—her going from refusal of the call to accepting the call—make less sense than Rey’s? And why?

I think one of the reasons the TFA characters are perceived as “better” developed lies in the potential. Anticipation of their future arcs and developments makes the way they’re written in TFA much juicier, it adds layers that aren’t necessarily there yet, it creates expectations, it encourages daydreaming about possible future scenarios (and ships!). This isn’t possible with RO, unless you leave canon behind and go full au route. Another example: TFA gets the luxury of telling us NOTHING about Rey’s backstory, nothing, just hints and a big ass mystery about who her family is, because it will explained in future films. Jyn’s backstory is laid out because there’s no other option, it’s now or never. Of course it’s not perfect. And of course people prefer Rey’s vague promise of a backstory because they can project whatever they like on it, while Jyn’s is fully established, and apparently not tragic enough to justify her abrasiveness? You might complain that Jyn’s story is cursory, or not satisfying enough, that her relationship with Galen and Saw is barely sketched, and okay, these are valid complaints but at least the backstory is there, instead of being handily postponed to the next episode to create artificial hype. (and while I’m at it, I wonder how much of the audience’s fascination with Rey revolves around her ~lost skywalker~ aura, rather than her actual identity as an orphan who grew up alone in Jakku? Do people really like Rey as a character, or do they like the puzzle and the skywalker mantle?)

Anyway. I agree that the third act of RO, minus the final sacrifice, is a bit muddled and—let’s just say that I would have loved to see less explosions and a more elaborated plan to infiltrate the Scarif base (which I think would also have offered less stiff, more organic ways to show the villains and have the heroes interact with them). But then again, the whole movie is muddled, due to the reshoots (TFA surely has a better flow). Also yes, if you go beyond the surface, you’ll see familiar patterns in RO as well (first act: set up + characters meet + the bad guys do something awful revealing how Evil they are + daring escape; second act: regrouping + meeting the Rebellion/Resistance; third act: hitting the bad guys in their ridiculously small and accessible weak spot, be it the oscillator or the death star’s plans + big battle ensues). However, I think RO simply does a better job at dissimulating these staple points, and that, combined with a less simplistic narrative (more moral complexity, the good guys have also done Bad Things, etc.) gave the audience the impression of a more innovative, less derivative movie. Some of it may be just smokescreen, but it clearly didn’t go unnoticed.

Re: the fanservice, idk. What feels more fanservice-y, the death star appearing in a movie that’s explicitly about stealing the death star’s plans, or something that looks exactly like the death star, just bigger and called starkiller? Is it that weird to see Darth Vader, Leia, Tarkin and Mon Mothma appear in a movie ending half an hour before ANH kicks off? Is that more of a cop out to win the audience’s approval than having a carbon copy of the Empire rise 30 years later? (not that it matters, because at the end of the day, Star Wars is the infinite fight for freedom against oppression and totalitarianism, and the specifics may wary but must always be instantly recognizable, but I digress)

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Rogue One is necessarily “better”—I like TFA, a lot. The characters that are really going to engage me in the long run are Rey, Kylo and Finn. I like the Rogue One crew, but I also feel like it’s a well that is going to be soon extinguished, as personally I tend to thrive with serialized fiction rather than standalones. Also note that like I said I think TFA was a necessary step to ensure continuity between the old and the new canon; without TFA paving the way, I don’t think Rogue One could have existed.

But I would also like to see Episode VIII take more risks and wander a bit in uncharted territory. Not that Rogue One is exactly uncharted territory, but it has some things I’m interested in (e.g. more nuances/shades of grey in the Rebellion/Resistance, not-likeable-at-all-costs protagonists, not-skywalker-at-all-costs protagonists, exploration of those who are more or less willingly affiliated with the Empire/First Order, etc). We shouldn’t be having a competition between the two movies, because, despite being part of the same ‘verse and the same new canon, they’re like apples and oranges. Neither film is perfect, and it’s ok to like one better than the other. RO was more of an experiment though, so they logically had more creative freedom than with TFA, which on the other hand had no option but become a worldwide success, so they played safe. I think people expressing their appreciation of Rogue One is a good thing for the franchise, because it’s the first movie that doesn’t belong to a trilogy, and it can pave the way for new stories to explore in this ‘verse. It means the creators will be more comfortable expanding new aspects of the sw universe in the sequel trilogy too, instead of limiting their options to the usual paths.

#anon #asks #sw asks #sw**#tfa talk #sw for ts #////#rogue one #star wars #sw wank #discourse

18 notes · View notes

rawinternets · 7 years ago

Text

Star Wars Episode 4: A Rediscovery

STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

Where it all started: a runaway ship and a jettisoned escape pod to Tatooine. This movie was and is truly great: iconic, consistent throughout, unique, creative, funny, exciting, with only a handful of dud scenes, particularly toward the end (surprising). The opening scroll of Episode 4 is one of the best scenes in all of the series, particularly good when you compare it to some of the later scrolls that sound like a 7th grader wrote it for a homework assignment entitled: “Use seven different adjectives in a three-paragraph mini-story.” And this movie also has the Cantina scene, which might be the best scene of all.

A few other surprises:

The movie drags in the end of the beginning, after the droids land in the desert. It takes some time to pick the meandering storyline back up.

The scenes with Vader and Tarkin are always consistently incredibly well acted, scripted, and executed. They zip along and you feel like you’re in the room.

The Obi-Wan / Vader fight was much better than I remember.

The Trench Run has not aged well. The tactics are asinine and sort of brought me out of the movie.

There is a terrible and wholly forgettable scene right after successful DS destruction and right before the iconic and awesome throne room / medal-giving scene at the end, and this forgettable scene suuuuuuucks. Maybe I was a little harsh, but singlehandedly kept Ep4 from being the best of all the movies.

Average score: 8.00 Standard deviation: 1.39

Opening scroll. 10. Perfection. Punchy synopsis of Rogue One, brings you right into the action, no superfluous words (again, a sin that is committed many times later on in the series).

Chase and escape. 9. SUCH an iconic shot, with the Corellian Corvette desperately trying to outrun a Star Destroyer (we don’t know what they are yet, but they are mesmerizing images). Beautiful and unique music. After seeing Darth Vader crush in Rogue One, I wonder a bit why he didn’t just slaughter them all here, but I suppose he needs to make sure the plans are secure. The first look at Iconic storm troopers. Droids manage to advance plot without being annoying (spoiler: won’t last for long, because C3PO sucks). This set piece ends with an iconic shot of the jettisoning escape pod, beautiful sweeping planet shots, and Vader being a sharp badass.

Tatooine droid landing. 6. The pacing is a bit slow. C3PO and R2D2 are iconic, but annoying here. Why do they shout at each other instead of transmitting signals, I find myself wondering?

Jawas. 7. Super tense, eerie, spooky, and weird. Love this. No music helps. Manages to be funny without trying too hard, and lets the weird lead. Cool steampunk tech and funky droids. I still give it a 7 because the pacing is a bit slow.

Searching in desert. 8. Why are the stormtroopers riding animals? No matter. The tension is rising right on cue. The Jawa... trailer? moving city? is really cool.

Meet the Skywalkers. 8. Love the uncle here. “Alright, shut up” to C3PO - crowd pleaser! Luke is whiny but not overly annoying. Seems very natural. Surprised R2 units aren’t worth more, but for reasons I’m not supposed to know yet.

With Luke and Uncle. 8. Who is Obi-Wan Kenobi! Love the mystery here. The iconic double-sunset overcomes Uncle Owen being a dick. Great hinted line about “too much of his father in him.” ... “that’s what I’m worried about.”

Speeder and sandpeople. 8. More mystery and weirdness. Great tension. Into it.

Obi-wan. 8. More mystery, more intrigue. Great dialogue here as we learn more about the galaxy we’re in. We learn about the force (deeper than we learned in Rogue One). The backstory of Luke’s father doesn’t really make sense the way he tells it, but I suppose with hindsight that lack of clarity is forgivable. Why is he so willing to train Luke in the force - desperation?

Death Star conference. 9. Tarkin is a badass. Vader is a badass.

Tragedy at Skywalker farm. 9. Serious emotional heft here. Smoldering bodies. Wow.

Leia tortured by Vader. 9. Short scene but so very well paced and tense.

Mos Eisley. 10. This sequence is just amazing. The Jedi mind trick, the Cantina. Music restarting after the lightsaber fight. All this interspersed with the tension of the droid search. Han crushes his intro, Obi-wan Dads Luke so hard. Greedo is great. Both shoot at the same time, so that controversy is solved. This scene will be considered for “best overall.”

“Set your course for Alderaan.” 9. Near-perfect scene again with Tarkin. Short and well-paced to keep the story moving.

Droid search and getting off Tatooine. 8. Great tension in the searching, I’m fine with the added Jabba scene to show how “deep” Han is in it, and the fantastic iconic shot of the Falcon taking off. Lots of fun.

Falcon chase. 8. Great tension and space shots.

Alderaan destruction. 8. Great acting. Leia does her best, but it’s hard to get a sense of the destruction of the whole planet. Not much at stake since we haven’t seen it or met anyone from there. Rogue One did this better.

Talking in the Falcon. 8. “Let the wookie win.” All sort of out of place after we just watched a planet get blowed up. Great Han stuff, great stuff with Luke getting a taste of the Force.

Asteroid field Alderaan. 9. “That’s no moon.” Such cool shots. Falcon gets pulled into the Death Star. Vader is on point again. Just perfect pacing.

Death Star sneaking. 8. The “first” (or second, in my order) of a long line of scenes where small numbers of rebels sneak around a large Empire base, but this one is fun. Good tension. R2 Hax0ring and Obi-Wan jedi ninja sneaking are fun. Not big into the stupid crackpot idea to save the princess from the jail, but the Han vs. Luke argument here is fun. C3PO manages not to be terrible, but also not good.

Leia rescue. 6-8. The cleverness of the “my god, he’s loose!” Chewy prisoner plan is fun. Great sexual tension with Leia and Han from the get-go. Great, iconic trash compactor scene and first (and most natural?) “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Very annoying “3PO!!” repetition by Luke. The blaster accuracy and subsequent shitty hollywood rope-swing with Leia and Luke is kind of grating and that part is a 6.

Vader and Obi-wan. 9. Starts out with yet another great scene with Vader and Tarkin. Watching Vader vs. Obi-Wan is so much more interesting after watching him go HAM in Rogue One - Obi-Wan must be powerful and dangerous. The fight is better than I remember, and you almost forget Luke’s annoying “Ben!?” exclamation. How does Luke get Ben’s lightsaber!?

Escape in the Falcon. 7. Takes a while to get the scene setup, but builds some good tension. Great soundtrack, great effects. R2 putting the fire out is funny. “Great kid, don’t get cocky!” But why only 4 TIE fighters chasing them? What about the tractor beam? Why are these star destroyers so big? Why are you so happy that “we did it” when you’re still right next to a huge death star?

Leia and Han. 8. These interactions are incredible. Luke is a schmuck here, and Han fucking with him is funny.

Yavin 4 pre-attack. 6. Great tension-building with the Death Star getting to Yavin vs. planning for the trench run. Han leaving with the reward is great. Pacing is a little slow given how urgent this should be - what’s with all this pilot grabass? Luke and Leia is a mediocre scene. X-wing takeoff scene is fine at building suspense but is it really necessary?

Trench Run. 7. Great action vs. Death Star approaching its range. Great aerial battle with TIE fighters. “X-wings too small for a huge battle station” trope will be repeated so many times you wonder why they build the ships so big. LOVE Vader getting after it himself in the TIE fighter. The A-wing trench run is very fun. Tarkin’s arrogance here makes no sense given Rogue One... he should know there’s a vulnerability. It’s a very tragic attack... everyone is dead and it comes down to Luke. But why are all the pilots simply acting as fodder for Luke? Why don’t they try to engage the TIE fighters? “Use the force!” and “The force is strong with this one!” are hokey but I guess that’s OK. We get Tarkin saving the scene with “you may fire when ready,” which is so well delivered every time. Han ex Machina at the end here. And Luke succeeds.

Short celebration. 3. Vader is alive, straight into a god-awful scene. Sparse clapping and quiet “hoorays” and hokeyness all around. What the shit, Lucas?

Ending celebration (Throne room medal scene). 9. Fantastic music and framing and imagery. R2′s back! Yay hokey!

Credits. Such memorable music. Fantastic. Credits in the stars.

VERDICT

Yep, there’s a reason this movie launched a multi-decade world-changing franchise. Lucas’s vision is powerful but you can also see how he was helped along by great editing, and you can see where the editors met their limits (post-DS celebration scene... man, so bad). Most scenes were 8′s or 9′s, a couple 10′s in there, and only one score below a 6 at all. Great movie.

REVIEW LINKS:

Introduction: Star Wars, a rediscovery.

Rogue One: 6.92 / 10.00 (stdev 2.06).

Episode 4: A New Hope. 8.00 / 10.00 (stdev 1.34).

Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back. 8.00 / 10.00 (stdev 1.29).

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. 5.00 / 10.00 (stdev 2.08). But probably worse than that, actually.

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. 5.48 / 10.00 (stdev 2.07).

Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. 7.00 / 10.00 (stdev 1.77).

Episode 6: Return of the Jedi. 7.90 / 10.00 (stdev 1.91).

Episode 7: The Force Awakens. 6.57 / 10.00 (stdev 2.01).

Episode 8: The Last Jedi. 6.31 / 10.00 (stdev 1.89).

Verdict: Star Wars, A rediscovery.

0 notes

cindythejedi · 7 years ago

Text

Blogger’s Note: I’ll apologize ahead of time for the fact that while I’ve seen this movie a few times, it’s not old enough to have gained my refined eye… With the other movies, I’ve fit them into my Episode narrative and every time I watch them, it’s with more attention on a different aspect. Rogue One is not even a year old yet- so I’m not as familiar but here goes! To borrow a phrase from my favorite show on TV now, “Let’s Rock!”

What They Did Right: This is the first anthology film. This has never been done before in Star Wars. If this movie sucked then it’s unlikely more anthology movies would follow. I think it’s pretty well done, especially the end half. It’s nostalgic and exciting, and heart wrenching at the same time. I think it’s funny that there’s a meme out there that said, “Pictures released from Rogue One’s sequel” with pictures from A New Hope. There are many layers to the hilarity because A New Hope was the FIRST Star Wars film, and this comes directly before it. Another thing is that people were like, “Don’t spoil the ending.” And I’m like, “If you’ve seen A New Hope, you already know how it ends. Were you shocked when you watched TITANIC and the ship sank?” now, granted- you wouldn’t know what became of the characters, but that’s its own thing. Moving on…

They introduce you to the heroic team that got the Death Star plans to Princess Leia. You see all they went through to get the plans, and what people went through in the Rebellion- how there was hesitation and disagreement between the members of the Council. (I also think it’s interesting that they call it the Council which has a Jedi-like feel).

Baze and Chirrut! I loved them.

K-2SO was like a talking version of R2-D2 mixed with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory with Han Solo’s snarky-ness.

While we know we’re watching something that takes place A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; this movie had a real-world depiction of war so you get why it’s important to destroy the Death Star and the Empire a little more than just by watching the Episodes.

Seeing Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in this movie- just before Bail Organa goes home only to be blown up when the Death Star is used… It has a twinge of irony…

While it’s not the typical Star Wars film- it’s not an episode of the Skywalker Family Drama; it still feels like it belongs in the same universe.

Even though I have to say I didn’t care for the music as much in this one- I still liked it a lot. I liked the nods to the Force theme or the Imperial March that were put in there in the right scenes.

Seeing Darth Vader. He is just awesome and it gives me chills seeing him.

That scene where the Rebels on board the ship are desperately passing the hard-drive/ disk from person to person to get it to Princess Leia on the Tantive 4. Vader is just chopping them down- and it shows him as this angry person driven by hatred and purpose. Once Jyn started to change her opinion towards the Rebels, I was with her. We got to see Vader’s awesome lava planet castle. Even though it didn’t have subtitles for this one planet- we know it to be Mustafar which I’ve talked about in several of my theory posts. We see him chilling in a bacta tank- and even though its hard to see, we get a shot of his scarred head sort of like in The Empire Strikes Back when he’s in his meditation chamber. We see him Force Choke Krennic for a while until Krennic falls on the floor. We can see that he’s still feeling the effects of it later on. It’s good that they used Vader sparingly since Anakin/Vader has been in every movie either in body or in spirit (I’m talking about Kylo Ren having Vader’s helmet and the lightsaber Rey brings to Luke was Anakin’s lightsaber which Obi-Wan gave to Luke which Luke lost when Vader cut off his arm in Empire.) He’s so iconic that having him in it seemed natural. That whole last half of the film gave me chills and I remember that I watched it with my friends, Hannah and David- I was totally geeking out in my chair, hands impulsively clapping excitedly on my leg, and we’d share looks of delight. The ending was so sad, and tragic- but sort of joyous in a way. It definitely made me appreciate A New Hope a little more- that’s for sure. We see Tarkin. I don’t know why but recognizing his foul stench made me happy… When I read the novel and the novel that’s meant as a prequel to the movie Catalyst, it helped the movie make a little more sense and I was actually more invested in the characters. I thought it was funny that the team and the movie are named Rogue One- and in Empire, we see a pilot rescue Han and Luke- his call sign, he says- is Rogue Two… (that was a second-time- watching revelation). There was something fresh about this film, and it was very interesting to watch. — What They Did Wrong A lot of these are probably ones you’ve heard before, but I happen to agree with the complaints or comments that others have made regarding this film. The first act is a little slow. While I think the scene on Eadu provides Jyn much needed emotional closure, it is sort of anticlimactic from a dramatic point of view. Jyn is a passive protagonist until the last part of the movie, and sometimes her reactions aren’t those of what would happen logically in that circumstance. We’re sort of dropped into her life as an adult after seeing her as a kid. She’s in prison and we don’t exactly find out why until later. She is really angry with The Rebels but we can tell she doesn’t agree with the Empire either. We however don’t really know what she DOES believe in. We’re never told or shown. A lot of the end is really depressing. (But I expected that honestly) Bor Gullet and the whole thing surrounding him. Bodhi defects and brings the message- Saw doesn’t believe him and then after exposing him to Bor Gullet, he still doesn’t believe Bodhi- so all we really know is that Saw Gerrara doesn’t trust people… not that I blame him…

Krennic’s callousness towards Galen and his family. I know he’s an Imperial officer, but Galen was one of his friends back in the day and Krennic used him, and took credit for a lot of the things Galen did… then he has Galen’s wife, Lyra shot… I don’t know- something about that bothered me for more than one reason. The whole trip to Jedha seemed a little pointless or anticlimactic and it feels like they botched the mission. First, they got captured by the Imperials and then by Saw’s people. When the actual message is lost and Jyn tells the team what it said, Cassian doesn’t believe her. The whole mission to kill Galen Erso seemed a little (for lack of a better word), mean. Sure, he helped develop the Death Star and its weapon, but he didn’t commission it, and he didn’t use it on anyone… and killing him seems a little harsh… I know Cassian didn’t end up killing him, but still- he died, and it seemed extremely unfeeling and callous to kill Jyn’s father with her in their group. And then it’s like he’s mad at her for being upset with him… Everyone is so against Jyn when she gives them the fatal flaw in the Death Star’s design. They don’t believe her and they chicken out… funny enough- it DOES sort of line up to many characters’ arcs-especially in Star Wars- so I guess I can live with it, and I get why they’d be skeptical. Most of the time, the hero ignores or pushes away their call to action. When Obi-Wan tried to get Luke to go with him in Episode 4, Luke initially refused and then changed his mind when his aunt and uncle died at the hands of the Empire. Rey wouldn’t take the lightsaber when Maz offered it to her… Over all, I think it’s main flaw is just that it’s long and the first half is long and almost uneventful when you consider the last half of the movie is jam-packed with action, adventure, emotion, and resolution to the main plot. All this being said, I appreciate Episode 4 more now, and I am excited for this new set of anthology films coming out. I think we will learn so much more about our favorite saga!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Blogger’s Note: I’ll apologize ahead of time for the fact that while I’ve seen this movie a few times, it’s not old enough to have gained my refined eye… With the other movies, I’ve fit them into my Episode narrative and every time I watch them, it’s with more attention on a different aspect.

0 notes

limey-blue-arty-do · 8 years ago

Text

When Life Gives You Limes - Chpt 4

Summary: The writer has to survive in the Star Wars: Rebels universe without breaking the plot or the Ghost crew’s patience. Turns out it’s easier harder oh god so much harder than it sounds.

Word Count: 2272

Engines humming, the Ghost drifted down to a wide patch of dirt, a beaten down path leading away to a humdrum drab of a village. Tarkin-town, visible in the distance as the ramp for the Ghost’s cargo bay dropped open into hot midday (?) air.

“Pull your weight, grab a crate”, I mumbled under my breath as I joined Sabine and Ezra in taking the supply crates that I dimly recognised from being taken from the Star Destroyer. If the two heard my remark, they didn’t mention it, simply got about their business in pushing the crates toward the village.

As I followed behind them, Zeb clapped a hand on my shoulder.

“Come with me”, he said, nudging me in a different direction.

We walked down between the corrugated metal huts, and people, human, Rodian, Sullustan, and others whose names I couldn’t recall, came out to meet us. Passing down the sham-street, Zeb would be greeted with smiles and he’d either tell them that supplies were in the main square, or he’d hand out a small package from a bag at his side to those that were slumped on the ground. Food, I supposed, for those that couldn’t collect it from Ezra and Sabine.

The number of those who Zeb gave supplies to began to increase the further we traversed the pathways within Tarkin-town. Arriving outside a larger hut, a curtain with a crude white circle painted on draped across the front, Zeb knocked on one of the hut’s supports. A small Ithorian woman pushed the curtain aside, and her eyes visibly lit up when she spotted the crate.

“Delivery, ma’am”, Zeb said, opening up the crate and revealing dozens of boxes and packages, all with the Imperial crest stamped on them and a medical green colour.

Oh.

As Zeb and I helped the Ithorian woman unload all the supplies, we entered the hut and I spotted a pair of humans, another Ithorian and a Rodian laid out on cots, with who I assumed were their relatives or significant others sat beside them. Zeb directed me in where to put various packages, even as the Ithorian began to unwrap them and hand out medication to her patients.

“I see why you guys went after that Star Destroyer now”, I said quietly to Zeb.

“Cold season coming up on the plains”, Zeb grunted. “In places like here, it can be deadly. Hera caught wind of transmissions talking about moving medical supplies and we hadda grab some. Otherwise the kids and old folks out here will freeze or choke or just slowly die.”

We took the empty crate with us – although patrols were rare out here apparently, it was better safe than sorry. It’d be used on the Ghost for storage, or it’d be ditched in a back alley in one of Lothal’s many towns, according to Zeb.

Something about being in the hospital hut had made something click in my head, something horribly heavy and tragic and real. I trudged along beside Zeb, looking back over my shoulder at the hut, heavy weights in my stomach and thick air stuck in my throat. As Zeb glanced back to me, brows furrowed and mouth open to say something, his expression abruptly shifted from annoyance to confusion.

“You crying, kiddo?”, he asked. I blinked, and watched my vision blur, a couple of tears sliding down my cheeks. Slowly, the sensation in my throat began to tighten. Hugging my arms, I felt a cold numbness settle in my stomach and my eyes water over.

A hand squeezed my shoulder.

“I’m guessing this is the first time you’ve been to a place like here”, Zeb said softly. Having heard the Lasat only speak in gruff tones up until now, the gentle nature of his words took me by surprise. Rubbing my nose with my sleeve, I nodded slowly.

“I’ve known things were bad, under the Empire”, I spoke slowly. “I just couldn’t do anything about it. But now I can, I can help.” Another sniff, another wipe across my face. “I want to help them. I don’t want innocent people to be suffering like this.”

“Don’t we all”, Zeb muttered, before tapping my back lightly. “C’mon, if you wanna help more we might as well get started. There’s a few hours yet before the light goes.”

Back at the Ghost, I could see Hera and Chopper on the wings of the ship, a panel lifted up and Hera working away beneath it. Chopper held a box of tools beside her, beeping quietly in varied tones of complaint.

Whilst I waited at the ramp of the Ghost, Zeb headed in and rummaged around in a locker, returning with an Imperial blaster.

“Nabbed a couple of E-11’s from a patrol a couple cycles ago. Figured Sabine could use the parts in one of her projects”, he explained, handing it over to me. “It’ll do well enough for practise, I figure.”

The gun was heavy, like hauling around a couple of hefty books. With much more weight than an air-rifle, it was all chunky and thick. Shifting it about in my hands, I held it up, looking through the scope.

“Watch it kiddo. Don’t go jumping right into it”, Zeb said hurriedly, nudging the muzzle of the blaster toward the ground. “Let’s not accidentally set something off or break anything.”

“Right, got it”, I said. No accidentally shooting people or the ship.

“So, before we shoot anything, we gotta check the blaster’s in condition to fire”, Zeb explained, holding up the blaster so it lay across one of his hands and both of mine. “Safety, ammo, and making sure the muzzle ain’t cracked.

“Safety is fairly easy. This is for Stormtroopers after all, trigger-happy folk who don’t need to think too hard or aim.” A wide smirk spread across his face, and I joined in his amusement with a smile of my own. “You thumb down this ‘ere button behind the muzzle, and then you’re ready to go.” I nodded, but didn’t turn the safety off straight away.

“So, uh, why were you worried I was going to shoot anything when you gave this to me?”

“Because if you do try to shoot something with safety off, you get a nasty rebound that could break your arm in two”, Zeb explained bluntly. Ah, that would explain it.

“Ammo. You get five-hundred plasma shots for each cartridge. There’s already one slapped in there, so you got that sorted”, Zeb pointed out the cartridge in the side of the blaster. “Then there’s routine check of the muzzle. If you got cracks in the muzzle, the discharge will go off in your face and you can say bye-bye to your eyebrows. And most of your face, really.”

“Terrific”, I said flatly, starting to hold the blaster further away from my head. Zeb let out a full guffaw.

“This is just the stuff to make sure your blaster’s good for shooting the enemy. The whole muzzle exploding is a worst-case scenario. But your face-” He broke off to laugh again. “-oh, your face was amazing.”

My lips tightened, turning into a flat scowl, and I glared up at Zeb.

“Are you done?”

“Sure, sure. No need to get snippy.”

Zeb crouched down next to me, pulling his Bo-rifle from his back and sighting down it.

“You’ve got the basics, now try firing at those rocks over there”, he said. I followed his sightline, spotting a clump of rock structures a good few metres away from the Ghost.

Hefting the gun up, I aimed toward the rocks, picking out the widest one – width provided a larger target. Thumbing down the safety, I closed an eye and looked down the scope on the gun.

Caught in the crosshairs.

PEW

The recoil bounced into my arm, lighter than I’d expected. But then again, I was firing plasma instead of bullets.

“Well that was awful”, Zeb muttered.

“How come? I hit the rock, didn’t I?” Had I? I glanced over at the rocks again. They hadn’t been touched. However, there was now a blackened patch of grass a foot away from the rocks.

“You gotta keep your aim up”, Zeb told me, holding up his Bo-rifle and aiming as well. “Don’t let your arms drop, or else your shot will end up lower than you want it to be.”

KRCHAW

With a yellow crackle and the stink of ozone, the Bo-rifle let out a blast of it’s own, cracking one of the rocks and letting splinters fall free.

“Your turn again, kiddo.”

Gulping back a nervous lump, I hefted the gun up again.

PEW

Another black patch was scorched in the ground. Zeb let out a tired huff, and aimed his Bo-rifle.

KRCHAW

The previous rock now cracked into pieces completely.

PEW

More scorched ground.

KRCHAW

Another rock bit the dust.

Around and around this cycle went until any nervousness had drained out of me and been replaced with pure irritation, until I eventually raised the gun up high despite my shoulders screaming at me and fired one, then two, then three plasma bolts in one of the rocks.

Zeb looked over my handiwork, and folded away his rifle.

“One thing’s for sure kiddo”, he said, and I glanced up at him. There was a wrinkled smile on his face, a ‘Zeb’ smile. “You’d make an awful Jedi. But you might make a decent shot, with enough work of course.”

Clapping a hand on my back (and consequently making me stagger), he took the E-11 off me and nudged me in the direction of the Ghost. By this point, a pair of moons were beginning to make their ascent from the horizon, despite the sky being still tinged in various shades of red and orange. My stomach was also beginning to make significant rumbling sensations as we walked up the ramp into the ship.

“Come on, ”, Zeb said, placing the rifle into a slit-cupboard within the wall and sliding it shut. “I’m feeling like some grub is well deserved.”

“I second that”, I said, pressing a hand in an attempt to muffle the hungry rumblings of my digestive system.

“Excellent. You can help out with dinner then.”

“Beg pardon?”

Too slow to argue, I followed along behind Zeb through the Ghost’s corridors. Almost hidden in a side-corridor by the communal room, we stepped into the kitchen – pretty much a small square room where items were more stacked than spread out, half of the room taken up by a bench table. Zeb began to rummage through cupboards, sliding doors open and pulling out two round vegetables (?) along with a bag of what looked like rice.

“You chop the onions, I’ll cook up the gruel”, Zeb told me, a pan appearing from another cupboard.

“Gruel?”

“Doesn’t sound appealing?” The tone in Zeb’s voice was one of either insult or surprise. “One thing you’ll learn on this ship is my cooking is the best. That and you don’t let Sabine near the hub.”

I felt like I shouldn’t question that, and focused my attention on the onions. They smelt like onions at least (without the ‘oh god my eyes’ itch), and had the layers of Earth onions (the colours of which were purple-leaning-blue down to pastel plum). At least student living had prepared me for this part of space life. I chopped and peeled my way through the two onions, whilst Zeb worked on the gruel. Granted, I expected to see gruel from films – bland bowls of grey, maybe with solid granules floating in the mixture. What Zeb was cooking looked more like thin rice pudding and smelt heavily of chicken stock. Onions were dropped in when what little liquid was in the pan started bubbling, and the smell only got better.

“Smells pretty good there, big guy.” Sabine had poked her head through the kitchen door, and she gave me a thumbs-up. Hera meanwhile gently nudged her way past the Mandalorian and into the kitchen proper, collecting a couple mugs from cupboards opposite the cooking station.

“I’m going to put on some caff. Anyone want some, speak now or hold your peace”, she said.

“Two for the cooks”, Zeb replied, giving my shoulder a push. I was muted in surprise from both the offer and Zeb taking it up in my stead, but managed to nod in agreement.

Soon enough, the smell of the onion-gruel mixture was joined by the smell of something strong and sweet, as Hera turned on a coffee-maker-esque machine and from it poured out four mugs of thick reddish-brown liquid. Two mugs she left in the kitchen, the other two she carried back out.

“Food looks ready. Bowls are up top there”, Zeb told me, pointing to the required cupboard. One, two, five, six bowls I brought down (it was surprising and possibly odd that there were enough) and each were filled with a scoop of food. Ezra dropped by to help carry the meals through.

There was scattered conversation about the day. Most of it seemed to glance over my head, and there were a few sentences that were started and then broken off with a short look in my direction before going off onto a different topic. The mug of caff was surprisingly rich – the sweet taste similar to red bean soup mixed with the bitterness of coffee. It kept me awake long into the evening, until I was propped up in my bunk with Sabine asleep overhead.

Sleep didn’t come so easily to me, with or without caff.

#LOOK WHAT'S BACK YALL #when life gives you limes #writing stuff #star wars rebels #self insert

0 notes