#also i have STILL not finished actually watching tcw

[wantonlywindswept]

fox & rex ficbit

finally wrote some tcw! whoo.

tbh not entirely sure where this is headed (a lie: i know exactly where i want this to end up, and it is with alpha-17 storming coruscant in a fit of protective rage and also murder) and atm it’s just a lot of exposition ideas because...i still have no real solid feel for the characters?? so i’m kind of working through that.

it is exhausting. star wars fanon you are exhausting. why can my brain not just write with the tropes and be done with it

anyway basically rex and fox are alpha-17′s feral children/brothers/students/?? because all three of them are competent chaos gremlins. set vaguely after geonosis but before the GAR is actually properly structured, bc if star wars doesn’t know what its timeline is then why the hell should i

---

Growing up on Kamino, Rex and Fox had three things in common: a taste for the popularly-loathed blue carbohydrate cubes, an unstoppable compulsion to always be the best at anything they did, and the extremely dubious honor of being Alpha-17's favorites.

Fox was one of the earlier Command Class clones decanted, the eldest of a batch that boasted Wolffe, Gree, Bly, and Cody: possibly the strongest CC batch that Kamino would ever produce. He came out with a massive chip on his shoulder and left his tact in his tube, and made a sport of talking back to every single trainer in the Cuy'val Dar--which was why he once spent two weeks in Medical with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and Dred Priest's bootprints on his chest.

On the other hand, Rex came from a CT batch that was nearly flushed for genetic deviation, and of the original five, only he and Crys made it past cadet training. He clawed to the top of all his training modules fueled by fear and spite, and did everything by the book to avoid any kind of attention that might further mark him as defective: he kept his head down and his mouth shut, no matter what he actually thought about things.

Alpha's ARC training was good for the both of them, in the end: it taught Rex how to speak his mind, and it taught Fox how to shut the fuck up.

"15 - 5," Alpha announced cheerfully, leaning on his training staff without even the slightest indication of being tired. Fox, flat on his back at Alpha's feet, wheezed something that might have been a curse.

"I'm starting to think that those 5 were a fluke," Rex said blandly. 

Fox's next growl was definitely a curse, and he lifted trembling hands to sign something insulting and anatomically improbable in Rex's direction.

"Go on, stop whining into my mats," Alpha said, nudging Fox in the side with his foot. "It's time for me to beat the other little brat into the ground."

Rex watched, snickering, as Fox very clearly struggled to keep from offering Alpha a similar insult. 

It was good that he was finally developing a sense of self-preservation.

It was just the three of them left in the gym, long after most sane troopers retreated to lick their wounds and get some kind of rest before they did the same thing all over again tomorrow. Even Fox's certifiably unhinged batch had abandoned them after a couple hours of extra training; most of the CCs had been tagged for the ARC classes, but some were taking to it with a little more enthusiasm than others.

Fox peeled himself off the floor, using his staff as a crutch as he staggered to the deceptive safety outside of the training ring. He passed Rex along the way; his encouraging pat on the shoulder turned into more of an uncoordinated smack to the side of the head, which Rex magnanimously decided to forgive on account of knowing he'd probably need Fox's help standing up later. 

Alpha was brutal, and relentless, and more than a little bit of a dick, but he wasn't cruel. He pushed them hard, taught them everything he knew, and if sometimes Rex caught him looking at them like he was worried they'd vanish the moment they left his sight, well. 

The campaign on Geonosis had been a hell of a debut. They'd lost thousands of brothers, and now they were all on edge waiting for their official postings. There was no telling where they'd end up next. 

Fox would undoubtedly be deployed where the fighting was the heaviest; he came off Geonosis with a dossier of accolades and a near-spotless string of victories. The rest of his batch had done equally well--all save Cody, who'd been unwillingly left behind on Kamino with a grade three concussion and a broken orbital bone, courtesy of one of Isabet Reau's battle circles.

Rex was probably destined for something similar. He'd performed well enough that he was guaranteed an officer commission, and he'd been all but adopted into the Command class after taking control of a battalion that had lost their commanding officer. It would be an absolute waste to not send him to the front lines.

Once ARC training was over, once they got their assignments and shipped out, it was entirely possible this would be the last time that Alpha saw them both alive.

With that cheery thought in mind, Rex spun the staff in his hands, met Alpha's grim expression with a sharp nod, and launched himself into the ring.

(Later, after Alpha dumped them both in the showers and ordered them not to drown, Fox gave him so much shit for only managing to win three matches out of twenty. But he also hauled Rex into the closer barracks that he shared with his batch, shoved him into the empty bed, and immediately passed out on him, which was enough of a comfort that Rex figured he could put off his vengeance for later. 

Maybe in the morning.

Maybe after they came back from the war, and they could prove to Alpha that he hadn't just sent them off to die.)

[psychomusic]

oc time again! + her town & culture (heavily inspired by pre-roman italic populations)

she is suri sauthon. her story is linked to my swtor imperial agent, tar'x, but most of her life except for the one year away where she meets him, is spent in a town in the mountains of mirial.

despite mirial being cold and desert, and many cities developing underground, her town flourishes thanks to a force nexus, venerated in the form of an ancient, sacred, alive crystal. the ecosystem of that mountain depended on what "the horned crystal" was capable of giving them, but mirialans couldn't live off of that alone, so they developed trade and some rudimental technology, even if oftentimes it was bought thanks to the highly profitable trade of a plant used to make medicines that slowed down aging and had overall healing properties.

note: everything that's generated by this nexus has these healing properties BUT they have to be processed, except for those who bathed in the waters of the cavity under the crystal - the "real" nexus, but not the worshipped one. the waters were sacred but they were not thought to be miraculous, unlike the crystal, who instead was thought of as the keystone of the ecosystem: without it, everything would fall apart (and that is partially true: the cavity was the "real" nexus but thanks to the crystal, also strong in the force, the properties were spread all over the mountains). those who bathed in the cavity's waters - so, all of the town, who had a sort of baptism there - could eat the plant, make whatever food with it, and not only that plant, but everything generated by the nexus, that, again, had similar properties. this allowed people to live up to normal life-spans without advanced medicines or, much, really. to those who didn't live there, though, after the processing, had incredible effects, slowing down aging - for those who took it regularly - and making people able to live up to half a century more than the average]

originally, there were four tribes of nomads that lived thanks to horned farm animals that decided to settle down into one bigger town and other smaller settlements, to live off of transhumance. this division of the tribes stayed into the political and social organization: every person belonged to one tribe specifically, and had slightly different rituals and culture. for examples, each tribe had their own priests and healers, with different techniques and traditions. the town, tho, was guided by a group of people in the high priesthood, a position you could reach only by having earned the trust of all tribes. those high priests had many roles: they guided the people into sacred processions common to all the tribes, they managed the trading with outsiders, they did the maintenance of the temple of the summit (the one that functioned as casket to the crystal) and created a special liquid to offer the crystal that helps it grow.

this particular temple was important because 1. it was very visible, from every angle of the town, and it became an important identity symbol; 2. it stored the venerated horned crystal; 3. it had the altar where sacrifices were made for the crystals. that altar had a hole connected to the cavity, that allowed the liquids to reach the underground; 4. it had various symbols: statues representing each tribe + the high priesthood, and typical mirialan tattoos carved into the wood of the trees that served as columns for the temple, symbolizing 8 values that who dared to enter HAD to have; 5. it was on the way to an important lake (called "mother lake" because the lake the town was built around to depended on the waters of that other lake) where they traveled to in important processions; 6. it was said that a the wizard who unified the tribes made it with its magic, making the plant grow to hold the temple's roof. this wizard was, actually, a force user, obv.

BACK TO HER THOUGH: she's daughter of one of the high priests, who was in charge of managing the trades with outsiders, and lives in a house on the mountains with her mother and him. her parents are from different tribes (that's one of the things that earned him trust from the 4 tribes): when a child is born from two different tribes, they don't pick one to allign to, but they're usually linked automatically to the one with more relatives in it (in her case, the father's tribe: she had many uncles and aunts on his side while her mom only had one sister).

later, though, she got quite tied to her mother's tribe due to a mysterious illness that only her mother's tribe healer was able to cure. she spent 4 years (from 10 to 14 years old) living with the healer and learned her secrets. to better study, she wrote them down. when she returned home, she studied to become a priestess with her father. at 22 (the average age: you can't become priest before your 20s), she was supposed to take a test and become a priestess, but the healer of her mother's tribe died and the tribe asked her to take her place. she couldn't technically do that, but both tribes estimated both her and her parents and she was allowed to become both. she then decided to try to become a high priestess, and became one at 25 (a quite young age). being part of the council, she tried to convince the various tribe healers to unite their knowledges and write them down, and eventually made it. healers still remained tribe based but they now had an "upper, inter-tribe level" similar to high priesthood.

years later, the sacred horned crystal is stolen from the temple by some Hutt mercenaries looking for a profit. given the trust she has earned from all the tribes and the fact that her father is the high priest that deals with outsiders (and she's been hearing stories and advice about it since she was little), she is the one tasked with getting it back. without the growing crystal, the keystone to their ecosystem, the village would have lasted only a few years. in hrr quest, she meets imperial intelligence agent tar'x laran and, as they "solve the mystery" and fight to have it back, they get closer. they'll get married and have a daughter, Vegoia (who's the only one who actually will get to the plot of my story. this was all background)

[hanasnx]

can you share some of thosr anakin-related-content-you-consumed on ur anakin fixation era cz im fixating on anakin aswell rn and i want to study him!! please, idk where to start 🙇🏻‍♀️

supercut of star wars I - III reddit link with instructions to receive them via google docs

i've seen both tpm and aotc supercuts but i have yet to finish the rots supercut because of it being so long. there are also deleted scenes on youtube that were not included in the supercuts linked here:

star wars episodes I and II extended edition - unused deleted scenes youtube video

revenge of the sith 4 hour supercut - unused deleted scenes youtube video

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for some reason, no sweat. the same channel listed in the above links has a bunch of videos on their channel of all "restored deleted scenes" that you can watch individually. of course, that is without the "siege of mandalore" that's included in the rots supercut. but that's just the bits you would see from season 7 of the clone wars spliced in, so you wouldn't be missing anything.

star wars: episode I - the phantom menace

if you cannot get a hold of the supercuts for whatever reason, start here. one of my favorite star wars movies. features young anakin, about nine years old, and how comes to live with the jedi, how he meets padme, and where he comes from.

star wars: episode II - attack of the clones

we follow older anakin, about nineteen years old, where he reunites with padme and they fall in love. the cracks of the dark side's influences are beginning to show.

star wars: clone wars

this is the mini-series released in 2003-2005 to depict anakin's journey throughout the beginning of the clone wars to prepare audiences for star wars: revenge of the sith coming out in 2005. it has since been de-canonized and replaced with the clone series that comes out in 2008. it is still worth the watch. anakin's voice actor is supremely talented and sounds a lot like hayden christensen. albeit he is dramatic, as it is a kid's show, i still very much enjoy his characterization. it's actually pretty funny too, it did get me to laugh a couple times. chapter 24-25 i believe is where anakin undergoes a sort of spiritual awakening, and the ending always makes me cry.

star wars: the clone wars movie

it was honestly boring to me, but i still watched it for much needed context on the show.

star wars: the clone wars

as i’ve said before, i don’t really care for tcw!anakin, but this was still a fun and enjoyable watch. it wasn’t completely worthless to me, i did learn some more things about anakin that applied to hayden’s rendition.

unreleased star wars: the clone wars arc - crystal crisis on utapau (full) youtube video

i didn’t finish it but from what i’ve seen so far it’s pretty funny.

anakin & obi-wan | let my people go youtube video edit

one of my favorite edits to one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite movies. i think about it a lot, especially during the “this was my home.” lyric. hammering in the betrayal of brothers that grew up alongside one another, and if you resonate with that song and movie it provides another layer of context. it’s deliciously painful. when anakin’s side of “you who i called brother,” cuts through and interrupts the melody, impatient to speak about his perspective using ramses’ narrative to do it, it’s acutely accurate to anakin’s character in my eyes.

clone wars: battle of the heroes - a star wars fan animation youtube video

i haven’t seen this yet but i’ve been waiting to enjoy it to its fullest. the creator worked very hard on it for a long time, so it’s worth the link.

star wars episode III: revenge of the sith novel by matthew stover

i have not read this, but i’ve seen hundreds of excerpts over the course of this hyperfixation on tumblr. it’s widely accepted even though it’s decanonized, and offers insight into anakin’s head that you can’t access with just watching the movie. i thoroughly enjoy and reblog the excerpts i come across, but since i’m not a reader i haven’t picked it up to complete it myself.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith

the third installment in the prequel series, and where shit goes down. twenty-three year old anakin grapples with his desires overcoming his sense of obligations, warping his own ideals to fit into selfish purposes. you see how he betrays the republic, his wife, his brother, and himself, all for power.

star wars episode III revenge of the sith (xbox) no commentary walkthrough full game [1080p60fps] youtube video

i haven’t gotten to watch this yet but i’d like to soon, i’ve seen bits and pieces and i believe there are alternate endings that prove interesting. if you like gameplay movies i think you should give it a shot, but if not, go ahead and skip this one.

star wars: episode III - revenge of the sith - making the game youtube video

it’s short and sweet. about hayden’s view of the character anakin and how he acts in combat.

star wars: tales of the jedi

s1e5 where we receive insight as to how anakin trains his padawan.

vader: complete canon comic series 1-25 in chronological order youtube video

i loved this so much. so many good moments that i ate the fuck up. we follow vader in his first year of becoming the sith lord, grappling with identity, past, and recognition. we also get insight into the very sensitive time of jedi eradication, i learned a lot. my favorite parts are when vader has to fight without a saber against clones, make his own red saber by retrieving one from a surviving jedi, and the arc that includes jocasta nu.

star wars the force unleashed- full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

star wars the force unleashed 2 - full game walkthrough gameplay no commentary youtube video

both of these i've been meaning to watch, but i haven't been in the mood. i figured i'd link them in case you were interested in more gameplay movies.

star wars rebels

i didn't finish this, but i did watch a lot of the vader content and the scarce anakin content. i'll watch anything that mentions him tbh.

star wars jedi: fallen order - full game - no commentary youtube video

i played this game and loved it. the ending is the money shot tbh.

star wars: obi-wan kenobi

this was probably the first sw show i watched after i got back into darth vader in august 2022. reawakened a lot for me, i really enjoyed vader's part in this story. reva is also one of my favorites, and i thought her being a mirror image to anakin in this situation was clever, i thought her backstory was unique and refreshing. but what really shines for me is vader's contribution as both an extension of the emperor and a vessel for his own selfish desires. there are parts where i can see he's more machine than man. there are also some anakin parts as well! which i didn't enjoy as much, funnily enough.

rogue one: a star wars story

i haven't seen this one in years, but i do remember darth vader's appearances being both funny and badass.

star wars: episode IV - a new hope

star wars: episode V - the empire strikes back

it took me a long time to come around on this one. now it's one of my favorites. especially because we start to get the first glimpses within the original trilogy of vader's humanity, and his ability to demonstrate faint loyalty to his blood.

star wars: episode VI - return of the jedi

fave sw movie tbh since childhood. you can't get better than the ending. vader's sacrifice is everything to me.

lego star wars: the skywalker saga

i had played this game back in may 2022 when i visited my sister. she and i used to play lego games together when we were kids, and one of my first video games ever was lego star wars: the video game from 2005 which she introduced me to. it holds a special place in my heart, and i really liked playing skywalker saga even though at this point i hadn't cared about star wars in years. when i got back home i couldn't stop thinking about the saga game so i bought it myself, and then played it so obsessively i didn't do anything else. it got me back in the mood for darth vader so i watched obi-wan kenobi, and one thing leads to another now here i am with a smut blog about anakin skywalker's entire life and his every iteration. i loved the game, i think you should play it even though it's just lego versions of everything, it's still really fun.

star wars: ahsoka

you see him in this and the cinematography is breathtaking at times, but i didn't care for it. i only cared about the glimpses of anakin/vader's appearances even if they didn't contribute anything to the story for me.

anakin skywalker vs palpatine full fight scene (hd) - star wars episode IX [alternative ending] youtube video

this is a fan edit! i think about it a lot even though i haven't seen the sequels.

the life of anakin skywalker: darth vader (star wars) youtube video

i haven't finished this, but from what i've seen it's taught me things even i didn't know. i really appreciated the facts that aren't even on wookiepedia.

any books on it i've only seen the excerpts here on tumblr, i haven't read any because i'm not a big reader but i've seen some great posts that i reblog. so don't sleep on the books/comics

great ask

[bedlamsbard]

I know this is kind of out of nowhere but for the longest time I was super weird and mentally dismissive of your burning out of Star Wars because I was someone who survived the OEU's insanity back in the day and managed not to burn out of Star Wars in the face of ridiculous nonsense like the Yuuzhan Vong and Killiks, so if I could survive that, you were of course entitled to dislike Star Wars but I still found it silly. Anyway I just finished watching Tales of the Jedi(Resolve) and I Get It Now.

...I recognise that may not be the most hinged thing to say to someone I don't actually know, and apologise for my mild to moderate insanity; I slept three hours, am very sick, it's shark week, and my brain seized on you as someone who'd Get It and who I had been hard on in my thoughts in the past, but, like, none of that actually affected you until I randomly said it? So anyway sorry for babbling at you like that lmfao, I'll stop talking now

Okay. I've been thinking about these since I saw them; I saw the first one before the second one arrived, which was a hell of a thing to wake up to since I saw it first thing in the morning. While my usual policy is to leave messages along these lines in my inbox, I was genuinely upset and wanted to respond once I had a more coherent reaction than "why me, gods, why does this always happen to me."

So, first of all, I'm sorry that you had an installment in canon that didn't do it for you; it happens to the best of us and there are very few people in fandom who uncritically (or even critically) enjoy everything in canon, especially in a fandom as big and long-running as Star Wars.

It's also very common for people to fall out of love with a fandom, even a fandom they've been in for a very long time; I would say that fen who have consistently been in one fandom for an extended period of time are probably rarer than those who haven't. It's not always because there is one installment that is just The Worst; often that's just a tipping point for fen who have been on the edge for a while. (Ask your average former MCU fan who left after Avengers Endgame.) Other times fen just drift away from a fandom without a reason to push them out. Maybe their favorite characters have died, maybe the canon is no longer telling stories they're interested in even if none of those stories are "bad," maybe it's a closed canon and without new stories there's nothing to keep them there; there's any number of factors.

I had a very dramatic breakup with Star Wars three years ago, and it was about three years after I really should have gotten out of the fandom, because I had not been having a good time for a while at that point. And honestly, considering that I hadn't had a healthy relationship with either Star Wars or the fandom for a while before that, for various reasons that go well beyond what was happening in canon, arguably I should have gotten out even earlier. However, I'm monofannish to a fault and I really needed something that would actually kick me to a new fandom -- which meant it couldn't come from Star Wars.

I don't really dislike Star Wars as a whole. There are individual installments that I quite dislike, there are some that I still love, and the vast majority of Star Wars I'm neutral on. I do however have a very fucked up relationship with Star Wars, including the canon, the PTB, and the fandom itself. I have gotten regular abuse on Wake and Gambit for the past ten years, which really screwed up my relationship with AO3 and with the prequel era. There is canon that I really, really dislike, some of it because it personally does nothing for me (the ST), some of it because from my point of view, it completely fucked over a story I love (Rebels S4, TCW S7, some other stuff that contradicts stuff from the EU I love; I came out of the EU too), some of it because I just plain don't like it (THR, most of the comics), and some of it because watching it just plain made me feel like I was being gaslit, which is not something I say lightly (Mando is the worst offender, but there are others). A lot of these are problems that could come out of any fandom, especially a large, long-running, multi-media fandom; I know a lot of Marvel people who have very similar problems, though I think the scale tends to be slightly different there just because the canon is set up differently.

When I switched fandoms, I had to recalibrate my entire relationship to fandom, to canon, to AO3, and to how I interacted with all of them. I still have to check myself in most of those places because my relationship with Star Wars had screwed me up so much. I had to train myself into being able to post on AO3 again; I do talk regularly about how a lot of what I write is shaped by trying to avoid getting the kind of reactions I got and still get from my Star Wars fic, even years later. I have to make conscious decisions not to engage with every part of the canon without feeling like a failed fan, especially the installments I'm pretty sure I'll dislike, because I tried to do that in Star Wars and it regularly messed me up. As a cosplayer, I still have a fairly bad reaction to even seeing the word "approvable," and it took a while for me not to have a similar reaction to "screen-accurate." I'm still destashing most of my Star Wars merch and right now, my reaction to seeing new Marvel merch isn't "ooh, would I wear/use this?" it's "when I inevitably have a horrendous breakup with this fandom will I be able to resell it?" which is not a really healthy relationship to have with a fandom. (I have mostly moved off this but not entirely.) I knew that Star Wars had screwed my relationship with Disney World, when I had a panic attack on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind because I was so terrified that it was going to be ~necessary canon, even though Marvel has never operated that way; Star Wars does with Galaxy's Edge, which I don't really like being in anymore either.

And yes, I'm aware all of these are an extreme overreaction to getting out of a fandom. I'm not happy about it either and I wish it wasn't happening. It's better now than it was a couple years ago and I'm frankly glad I'm not in the fandom anymore; I'm happy for people who are or who have gotten back into it and are having a good time. I am not one of them; I may some day be one again, but probably not anytime soon.

But even if I didn't have this specific fucked up relationship with Star Wars, a fandom I have not been in for three years at this point, sometimes people just burn out on a fandom. I'm not a CSI:NY fan anymore, either. (Which my last big fandom prior to Narnia, which I just drifted away from. I've only been in five big writing fandoms over twenty years.)

[reluctant-mandalore]

Apparently this is a hot take, but it honestly does kind of worry me that people who worked on the Ahsoka show keep saying that supposedly you will be able to watch it without knowing anything about Star Wars Rebels. Because from what we know and have seen, the Ahsoka Show is meant to continue on with what we were left from Star Wars Rebels. It makes me wonder how much has been watered down or even retconned from it.

"New fans shouldn't have to do homework to understand a new show."

The Ahsoka show is a continuation of the Star Wars Rebels storyline. Its not homework to actually look up the start of a storyline to be able to understand its continuation. Some shows aren't always meant for new fans, and are meant to expand on something already established instead. Whether it be characters, or a story that was never really finished/left on a cliff hanger. And that is ok.

I don't think Star Wars shows or movies always have to cater to new and old fans at the same time. Of course its great that some shows can be easy to digest for new fans while also being great for old fans. I literally got into Star Wars because The Mandalorian was like this at the start. But not every show needs to be like this, especially when a show is meant to continue off from another one. Trying to do so can easily lead a show to having a watered down storyline with lackluster character arcs.

Which is exactly why there should be a balance between making shows that new fans can get into (while still allowing for older fans enjoy them), and making shows that are more meant to expand on the universe for older fans who are already familiar with it.

So yeah. I'm a bit worried for the Ahsoka show, and I'm still not convinced that making it into a continuation of SWR was a good idea rather than just making another SWR season.

If the Ahsoka show focused on her without continuing from Star Wars Rebels I would be singing a different tune (like maybe focusing on her time after tcw and before swr). That would be fine and I think it would have been a better direction to go in to get new fans into/understand her character while still giving older fans new content about her that they want to see.

Of course we won't really know until we see the show what it well be like, which is why I'm not going to sit here and completely tear into it, but man I am definitely not getting my hopes up.

[ooops-i-arted]

@ofcoming4th said: Until this episode I didn't fully understand your dislike of this character - after watching I wanted to kick her very hard for being such an ass and so little help.

After her appearance on BOBF where she actively chases Din away from seeing Grogu and giving him the mithril, oops I mean beskar shirt? I now hate the unfeeling idiot. I'm surprised Filoni had the shirt passed on to Grogu, I'd assume he'd have his dream girl make a bikini out of it.

Lmfao I just spit out my drink at the bikini comment. I'll give Filoni this, though - once George Lucas wasn't involved anymore, Ahsoka suddenly got appropriate clothing.

I USED TO just be indifferent. Tried TCW, hated the way they treated my beloved prequel characters, found her underdeveloped and annoying but hey, I'll just skip it like I did the Yuuzhan Vong books! I watched Rebels instead and loved it, great characters, new perspective of the universe, tighter character writing, disliked Ezra at first but 5 episodes in I would fistfight anyone on his behalf because he had his character developed. Except.... Ahsoka kept showing up. Okay whatever. But then the season 2 finale. Rebels is an ensemble show of 6 characters. Only 3 were in the finale and those were SHOVED ASIDE SO AHSOKA COULD CONFRONT VADER AS A RESOLUTION TO TCW, ANOTHER SHOW. Which is still stupid because it's just a rehash, we KNOW Vader has issues with connections because of Obi-Wan and Padme, the real prequel trio already showed that. But by now you wouldn't know it because Ahsoka has fucking replaced Padme (even though no one in their right mind would've given Anakin an apprentice to begin with, the whole premise is contrived!). And even though one of the main characters of the show is blinded and the other blames himself, we get almost zero descending action involving them. But we have time for a long, sad shot of Rex mourning The Best Jedi Padawan Commander Who Left The Order But Also Still Totally A Jedi Somehow. I was so incandescent with rage I STILL haven't finished Rebels season 3 and 4. (And now we're only getting those characters again in her upcoming show.) (Did I mention she implied-died-maybe in the season 2 finale but was brought back with contrived time travel in a later season? And the finale of Rebels had her in white dressed up like Gandalf? Stay the FUCK away from Gandalf, you orange hobgoblin.)

She's there because she's Filoni's pet and that's it. Especially in BoBF when the conversation SHOULD HAVE been between Grogu's actual teacher, Luke, and Din. Because "are you doing this for you or for him?" could be a poignant character moment but all we got was Ahsoka dismissing a much better character with her smug-ass face instead of any actual reflection on Din's part.

(I'm also fucking salty because I wrote a Super Special Awesome Jedi Apprentice when I was 11. She was The Best At Everything and had Special Visions Of The Future and got Multiple Lightsaber Colors Because She Was That Cool and Obi-Wan (my favorite character) thought she was The Best Ever and His Favorite Person but.... I was 11. Filoni is getting bucketloads of money and his ass kissed for the same level of writing I had at 11. Except MY CHARACTER died in Order 66, and actually adhered to the Jedi Code instead of Ahsoka's Have It Both Ways schtick. Also she was apprenticed to Obi-Wan, since apparently Filoni missed Anakin graduating to Actual Child Murderer in AotC and that Anakin is not teacher material in general.)

This was therapeutic thank you for giving me a chance to bitch lol.

[robotsandramblings]

this is a purely self-indulgent post, that i'm posting here for self reference lol :P don't mind me!

(it's continuing from a previous post where, in the tags, i was trying to figure out exactly when i got into the Star Wars tv shows specifically! -i've been a fan of the movies for literal decades, having been introduced to the original trilogy in the mid 1990s. [yes i old lmao.] -but i never watched Clone Wars or Rebels when they first aired; i've actually only been involved with the tv shows, books and comics within the last 5 years or so! -so below is my self journey to determine exactly when i started watching that stuff! it's literally just blahblahblah random irrelevant information, for my own reference)

the final answer, for those who care, lol: Spring (Apr/May) 2020! so not even 5 years really??! wow, it feels like so much longer!!!

so yes, Spring 2020 (April & moreso May) is when i really got into the TV side of things. i had plans for many years to check out Clone Wars and Rebels, and i remember hearing all the big news and hype about TCW Season 7 in 2018-2019, which made me really say "ok i need to check this out!"

but The Mandalorian was actually my first SW tv show ever! yet i don't think i watched it right away lol?? it aired Nov-Dec 2019, but i wasn't reblogging Mando content until April 2020. (checks archives: yep, still mostly into Transformers! and even a fair amount of Voltron ahahaha oh god.)

so i also didn't watch Clone Wars S7 while it aired, which i knew. ironically, i did start the series from the beginning at the same time the S7 finale aired! (i found a text post dated May 2nd 2020.) no doubt it was all the buzz about the finale that really pushed me to check out the series!!

and then i found another text post from Nov 11 2020 saying i had just finished the emotional Season 5 finale. and with Season 6 only have 13 episodes, i'm sure i finished that one soonafter...and i'm guessing i finally got to Season 7 in Nov-Dec 2020. (i keep track of everything i read in Goodreads, and it says i read Son of Dathomir mid-Nov, and then Ahsoka mid-Dec. most likely S7 was sandwiched inbetween them.)

then Jan or Feb 2021 was Rebels. (again, per my books read, i read the Kanan comics and started the Thrawn novels in February. i know by then i was following a chronological list of media, and i would have read the Thrawn books in prep for Rebels S3.)

and for whatever reason, i just wasn't reblogging TCW nor Rebels on my tumblr - not until Sept 2021. i think i was waiting to finish Bad Batch S1 in its entirety first??? (finale was mid-Aug 2021.)

a fun side story, a strong memory of mine: when The Bad Batch trailer was released in April 2021, i remember Rex had his little 1 second cameo, and the sheer excitement that i felt!!!!!, and how the whole fandom was losing our minds!!!!!!!

anyways, it's most likely i made sure to have Rebels finished by the time Bad Batch premiered on May 4th 2021.

and then i immediately was reblogging SO MUCH Bad Batch, and like i said earlier, it's when i started reblogging TCW and Rebels as well. (i never really did a proper Rebels lookthrough of the tags and such, i don't think??? i really should! with my 2nd rewatch i'm still trying to do LMAO!)

and then, in terms of books, after the Thrawn trilogy, i was really only doing the encyclopedias and art books for awhile, until summer 2021 when i did Dark Disciple, which started my official foray into the disney canon novels!

there you go Rora, now you have a reference post for every time you're like "how long have i been into TCW, Rebels, Bad Batch????" because it really does feel like forever already! <3

[thornetabris]

hi! okay so i just finished ahsoka, LOVED it (mostly bc all of it was completely female led which you don’t see often these days). i loved ahsoka, sabine, shin, baylan and thrawn particularly. i’m a major wolfwren shipper lol.

okay but here’s the thing; watching ahsoka has made me want to consume more star wars media. before ahsoka, i only watched the sequels and the other movies before when i was like 12. soo i have no idea where to start.

i believe beginning with star wars the clone wars would make sense, but do i need to rewatch the prequel films in order to understand the clone wars (i basically remember nothing from the prequel movies) or can i jump right into it? and after that there’s all these disney plus shows, like the mandalorian which doesn’t seem connected to the movies as far as i can tell - and then there’s star wars rebels! idk, i guess i’m asking if you could give me any advice on where to start and follow on from there? pretty please???

sure!!! im just going to give you where I, personally, would advice on beginning. so I'd say to look around with some other blogs aswell!

disney+ has a chronological list set up if you want to watch everything as a marathon of some sorts. I'd say now is a good time for a marathon too – the next tv show is only coming out in 01/24/24, so you'll have plenty of time to catch up on everything.

there's also the infamous Machete Order, which takes off tv shows and focuses solely on the movies. I wouldn't personally go this route if you wanna really get into star wars as a whole, but if you just want to be up to date, it's a good place to start too – a bit confusing, maybe. They flip the order quite a bit to make it all flow better as a narrative; the prequels are, actually, just an elongated flashback.

Here's how it goes: a new hope, the empire strikes back, the phantom menace, attack of the clones, revenge of the sith, return of the jedi, the force awakens, the last jedi AND the rise of skywalker.

If you don't want to go Machete but per release, it's just the Original Trilogy, The Prequels, The Clone Wars cartoon and then The Sequels. It's very confusing though. I only do it like this if I'm watching it with someone I know has no knowledge whatsoever of the franchise, Vader's identity… all the nice little retcons disguised as plot twists.

Now, if the person does know about it all, which I think you do by the question, I'd say just go chronological order as it's put into the disney+ list. if you just wanna watch the movies first, it's prequels, original and then sequels. I'm gonna write the list with the tv shows sprinkled into it:

Phantom Menace, Attack of The Clones, The Clone Wars, Revenge of The Sith, The Bad Batch, Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Rebels, Andor, Rogue One, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Mandalorian s1-2, The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian s3, Ahsoka, Resistance, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi aaaaaand The Rise of Skywalker.

Oof! big chunk. Adventures of Young Jedis is a fun little cartoon that before everything, but it's very much targeted towards children beneath, say, 11 years old. But still fun to watch if you want to. Visions are independent and non-chronological episodes, so you don't need to include it if you don't want to. I recommend it tho. They're very well done. Tales of the Jedi are also non-chronological, but they follow and study characters such as Ahsoka, Dookan, Qui-Gonn. I highly recommend watching it after the prequels, but again, they are not necessary per se to understand the scope as a whole. Resistance is… Resistance. I didn't enjoy it as much i wished i could (i love the rebels, i love everything about them as a storyline), but they do provide some much needed information that bridges the original trilogy and the sequels.

Now. The Clone Wars. TCW has their fair amount of filler episodes, and it is a seven seasons big chunk. It also was not released with episodes as chronological, so you'd have episodes that released first but were placed before in the timeline. so no judgement if you decide to go Machete on it. Here's a list to the episodes that contains all the most important arcs in it:

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2023/07/the-essential-clone-wars-episodes-every-star-wars-fan-should-watch/

I think. I think that's it!! Hope this helps you anon. I'm always here if you want to!!

[antianakin]

"Just go write a fanfic." Yeah, sure, I'll totally get right on that.

For one, not everybody even LIKES writing fanfiction. Regardless of skill level, not everybody actually enjoys the act of writing or writing fanfiction specifically. Saying "just go write a fanfiction" is absolutely useless advice.

For two, writing out my thoughts about the show on my personal blog is a perfectly valid way of discussing a piece of media I chose to watch. Yes, I disliked it. I happen to generally enjoy Ahsoka as a character and so like discussing Ahsoka sometimes and one of the major things to happen regarding Ahsoka has been this damn show. So yeah, I am inclined to discuss my personal feelings about this character I personally enjoy on my personal blog even if those feelings happen to be mostly negative. If you're not having fun, you can leave. No one's forcing you to read my posts or peruse my blog. If you'd prefer to go read someone else's fanfiction or go watch this piss poor incoherent excuse of a show that doesn't do a single interesting thing with Ahsoka, go ahead. Nobody's stopping you, least of all me.

For three, you don't have a single shred of evidence that I HAVEN'T written fanfiction about Ahsoka. You have literally zero idea if telling me to go write a fanfiction is redundant advice or not.

If you want to see more of my concepts about Ahsoka, feel free to look through my blog a little more, specifically in the Ahsoka tag. There's a few AUs in there I've explored, including the darksider Ahsoka AU and the dark apprentice AU. I came up with an entire AU just YESTERDAY with another user about Luke taking on Ahsoka as his apprentice. I HAVE explored my own ideas and stories for Ahsoka, I just haven't written them in prose and posted them to AO3 or whatever because I don't happen to enjoy writing in prose. You said you'd be first in line to read what I wrote, so I better see you in my notes on those posts liking and reblogging them.

I HATE the excuse of "it's been years" because dear LORD is that not how writing works. You can't use "it's been years" to excuse your character doing a complete 180, that's just bad writing generally. If I can't even RECOGNIZE Ahsoka as the same character when she's an adult, then it's straight up not Ahsoka anymore. There should be some kind of connect between the person we knew from TCW through to Rebels and now the Ahsoka show. I should feel like I'm getting to watch this character GROW, not get a new character each time who happens to share the same name as the character I knew from the last show. Yes, people change over time, but people in stories are not REAL, stories do have structures that make them work that don't always perfectly mirror how real life works.

So sure, Ahsoka shouldn't necessarily still be acting like a bratty teenager in her 50s (look at Sabine in the Ahsoka show for how well THAT works), but we should be getting more from her story that allows for a connective tissue between her appearances on completely separate shows. In Rebels, she spends her entire time looking into Vader and dealing with her guilt over Anakin because the last fucking thing we knew about her was that she LEFT HIM and so the biggest emotional thing she is dealing with in Rebels is guilt for having LEFT HIM. See? Connective tissue. Ahsoka in Rebels is still a little more perfect and better-than-thou than I'd personally prefer, but at least there's an attempt at connecting her storyline in Rebels to the last thing audiences would have seen of her. And that guilt never truly gets resolved, that arc never FINISHED. But when we get to the Ahsoka show, it's gone. It disappeared. Could the intervening 10 years have led to that guilt being dealt with? Sure. That's realistic. It's also unsatisfying as all FUCK because now we as an audience never get payoff to a major storyline for her character. You see what I mean about how that excuse doesn't work?

What I WANT is not for her to still be acting like she's 14 years old. I just want to see her storylines have some kind of ACTUAL coherent and cohesive arc where there is a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. What I WANT is to continue to actually deal with the way she feels about Anakin. What I WANT is to figure out how Ahsoka is dealing with that guilt 10 years down the line. What I WANT is to know how Ahsoka is feeling about Anakin now that he's been dead for years. What I WANT is to know how speaking to Luke and maybe knowing that Anakin had "changed" by the end makes Ahsoka feel. She was guilty for leaving him, but then she left him AGAIN when Ezra saved her rather than dying at his hand, how does she feel about THAT? Did she ever try to find him again? If not, why not? If yes, why didn't it work? Why did she never seek out Luke until it was all over? Was it her guilt for having abandoned his father and for her inability to save Anakin keeping her from speaking to him?

And how does her Jedi identity play into all of this? She has her "I'm no Jedi" line from Rebels parroted by Baylan in this show, and she claims she doesn't need Sabine to "be a Jedi" but we don't get to delve that deeply into how Ahsoka DOES actually feel about being a Jedi, whether her feelings about Anakin are a part of why she doesn't want to be one or why she doesn't want SABINE to be one. Why does she even WANT to train Sabine to use the Force if she doesn't want Sabine to be a Jedi? What is Sabine GAINING aside from just... Force powers? She claims being a Jedi is more than wielding a lightsaber but then never explains what being a Jedi IS. What is that "more"?

There are SO MANY WAYS to delve into Ahsoka in ways that CONNECT her to the character we used to know while still acknowledging that time has passed. Time passing shouldn't mean that those things we used to know about her are functionally useless and meaningless now. Ahsoka is a spy in Rebels, but she's explicitly said to be bad at subtlety in TCW. Could she have learned how to be better at it in the intervening time? Sure. It's realistic. It's also unsatisfying because now there's an ENTIRE story missing about how Ahsoka learned subtlety, a skill set she was demonstrably MISSING last time we knew her, something that was a major aspect of her character. There were ways to take the character we knew from TCW and the skills and personality she DID have and give her a job in the Rebellion that actually made SENSE, but they didn't.

THAT'S what I mean by saying that it's possible to acknowledge time passes while still ensuring the character remains recognizable. What are the important parts of Ahsoka as established in prior media and how do we take those parts and update them? It's not interesting to me to just ignore stuff we used to know and just higgeldy piggeldy ADD random shit to Ahsoka because they think it's cool. I want to see how AHSOKA reacts in these situations. The REAL Ahsoka. Not this new version they keep making and remaking each time she shows up again.

So I don't accept "time passed" as a reasonable excuse for why a character is completely unrecognizably different in a new piece of media. If I didn't get to see the reason why they're different, then they shouldn't be that different. And if they ARE different, then the entire fucking story should revolve around explaining why they're different now. Look at how the Kenobi show made Obi-Wan defeatist and unwilling to stand up for himself or others. But the reason this fucking WORKS is because we saw an entire film trilogy showcasing the events that led Obi-Wan to be so depressed and then spent an entire miniseries where the whole point is that Obi-Wan being defeatist is out of character and he has to go on a journey to get back IN character.

Or even just look at the Prequel trilogy. Ten years pass between AOTC and TPM and the characters don't feel COMPLETELY unrecognizable from one film to the next. Anakin's the character who arguably changes the most and yet the childlike passion and awkwardness are still there in the teenaged version, but his passion has intensified because he's older now and turned into something darker and more angry. Obi-Wan and Padme are ALSO ten years older and neither of them feels like entirely different characters with completely new personalities and skill sets from one film to the next. They do feel OLDER, Obi-Wan is more settled into his role as a teacher and an adult, but he still is going to other Jedi masters for guidance and needing to be schooled a little, too. Padme is much more confident in herself than she usually was in TPM and more inclined to just run off and do things on her own, but a lot of her passion and drive to help people is still there, as is her kindness and gentleness towards Anakin. And Obi-Wan in ANH still feels like Obi-Wan, there isn't a massive discrepancy between the two versions of his character. He's a little wiser, a little slower sometimes, but he's still, recognizably, Obi-Wan.

But the traits that made Ahsoka WHO SHE WAS in TCW, the things that defined her as a character and made people care about her, are basically nowhere to be found by the time she reaches her own damn show. Everything from her sense of humor to her kindness to her fighting style are just... gone. And they really never came back even by the end of the fucking show. That's a problem because while this character might theoretically be considered compelling on her own (I'd disagree that she was compelling, but that's a personal taste issue), she's really not AHSOKA anymore. And it's literally a show NAMED Ahsoka. So as someone who LIKES Ahsoka, you'll have to forgive me for being a tad upset that I don't feel like I ever really saw Ahsoka in this show even once. That abomination isn't Ahsoka, it never felt like her even once. If you liked her, more power to you. Like I said, go read fanfictions by people who DID like the show or just go watch the show itself again, I don't care. But you don't get to show up in my notes and tell me I should just "go write a fanfiction" because I just didn't GET the story the show was trying to tell for an "adult" Ahsoka.

YOU go write a fanfiction if you liked it that much.

"Goddess of light reborn" Ahsoka is so fucking boring. Give me an Ahsoka who is GENUINELY dark, who is more obviously struggling with all the negativity she is feeling. Give me an Ahsoka who is following in her master's footsteps and might not even realize it. Give me an Ahsoka who forgives Anakin not because attachments are good actually, but because she's falling herself and can't accept the truth about him anymore than she can accept the truth about herself. Give me an Ahsoka who is giving into her anger and grief and guilt because it's too painful to do anything else. Give me an Ahsoka who turns on everyone in her life because she can't handle anyone's pity or sympathy and she can't lose anyone else. Give me an Ahsoka who is legitimately cruel and apathetic because it's too much effort to care again. Give me an Ahsoka who is getting into petty fights just to lose them so she can feel something again. Give me an Ahsoka whose first response to people asking her for help is always no. Give me an Ahsoka who more obviously hits a rock bottom.

And then give me an Ahsoka who can only be saved by remembering the Jedi. Give me an Ahsoka whose salvation comes in the form of forgiving them and mourning them and remembering their teachings and advice. Give me an Ahsoka who tells herself "there is no emotion, there is peace" and feels BETTER afterwards. Give me an Ahsoka who may never again feel ready to be a Jedi herself, but who refuses to let go of that heritage and turns to it when things get hard.

She's not a goddess, she struggles to turn from the dark every day, she still feels angry sometimes, she still is bowled over by her grief sometimes, but she's a fighter. She's a survivor. She can get back up and dust herself off and try again. She can do better.

[thecitythatdoesntsleep]

MAY 9TH “YOU CAN CRY, IT’S OKAY”

Hide and seek | Phone call | Midnight || @themerrywhumpofmay​

(TCW: heavily established noncon, intimate whumper, implied restraints, implied abuse, must stay on line, caretaker turned whumpee (kinda), threatening, intimidation, nsft dialogue/themes, police mention, forced to listen)

It had been quiet. Caretaker hadn’t heard from them all day. ​They’d promised they’d call, said they would let them know if they were coming over and if not, talk to them for a while. 

And nothing.

Caretaker paced their room, the halls, tried to distract themselves with cleaning all while watching the clock. It wasn’t like Whumpee to forget, wasn’t like them to disregard a plan and they talked every night. 

If they couldn’t see each other, they at least video called while Whumpee did college papers or while Caretaker finished draft works. 

Amid their thoughts, they jumped in response to the piercing sound of their home-phone’s ringer, eagerly rushing to pick it up. They looked at the number on the small, digital pad and a smile already curled their lips.

“Whumpee, finally, I was worried. How are you?” Caretaker asked aloud after answering, pinning the phone between their shoulder and ear. 

“If you don’t want their throat slit open, you’d better not hang up.” Whumper’s voice laughed and in the background, they heard muttered cries and whimpers. 

“Don’t hurt them, Whumper, please.” They begged, hearing another muffled cry and then they heard Whumpee’s strained, panting breath. 

“Stop fighting me bitch, open your fucking legs!” Whumper ordered away from the phone but Caretaker still heard it, as well as the stiff rustles of fabric and different thumps and thuds. Whumper puffed into the mic and blew it out a few times, struggling to restrain Whumpee even while tied beneath them. 

“Whumper, please don’t do this, I’m begging you, don’t hurt them anymore-” Caretaker heard another struggle, held back their own whimper when Whumpee cried out in what sounded like agony and rough slaps of skin followed after. 

“You say that- hah- but you don’t even know what they feel like,” Whumper laughed in a breathy voice, the struggle under them having ceased and now they were just able to enjoy themselves. “Don’t hang up, they make really good noises after a little bit and I want you to hear it.” 

Caretaker felt sick, nauseous the more they listened and couldn’t help but actually hear. The mic was sensitive, it had to be turned up to be catching Whumpee’s tiny grunts and whimpers of surrendered distress. When they felt saliva pool in their mouth, the familar swirl of their stomach; they knew they’d vomit soon. 

But the gears in their head turned and they fought it back, looked over the phone with swirling vision to assess what buttons were what. As Whumper started their own noises of one-sided pleasure, the slapping increased, they heard the phone drop away distant like Whumper was holding it by their side. 

They used it to their advantage. Leaning over the sink and pressing the second line right as they hurled into the stainless steel basin. They tapped fast, gasped in-between nausea and shaking fingers pressed 911 and quickly merged the calls. 

Another wretch and they turned on the water, just in time to hear the operator pick up. “Please, be quiet! Stop!” Caretaker insisted, giving the other person on the line directions and also earning a laugh from Whumper when they barely heard it. 

Whumpee was making small moans, shuffling again and still sobbing; a large rustle over the speaker and the slaps of skin picked up. Whumpee cried out, couldn’t manage to keep their voice down now and Whumper was back to blowing the speaker out with their panting exertion. 

“Hah- You can cry, it’s okay Whumpee, a-hah..” Whumper instructed, “Don’t be shy, let Caretaker hear what it sounds like when you’re getting used.”

“Please- Just stop,” Caretaker begged again, “T-They don’t deserve this-” 

“If you hang up before you get to hear Whumpee moan my name, I’ll leave their fucking kidney on your doorstep.” Whumper threatened again, picking up a knife they’d abandoned prior to hold to Whumpee’s throat. 

“Moan my name for Caretaker, let them hear you beg for more.” Another sharp instruction and they poked the tip into Whumpee’s soft under chin; barely leaving an indent. 

“I-It’s okay Whumpee, d-do whatever they say, okay baby?” Caretaker encouraged, trying to make it just a little less difficult for them to try to survive. 

Whumpee hiccupped with more tears, feeling the scrape of the knife and feeling their heart and stomach both sink at the idea. They didn’t want Caretaker knowing this happened, they were foolish to have tried to text Caretaker in the first place, instead of ignoring them for the night.

“It’s okay, sweetheart, d-do what they say for now, o-okay?” Even though Caretaker tried to sound brave, they couldn’t. 

There was nothing at this moment that made them feel strong, the only thing they hoped is that the third party was listening and diligently trying to figure out where Whumper was calling from. At least it was all being recorded for evidence. Surely Whumper would get locked away this time.

 As Whumper’s noises grew and so did the ambient sounds, Whumpee finally piped up and tried to put on the show that Whumper wanted. It started soft, grew as they tried to accept the pleasure their body absorbed but disconnected from. It still laced with pain but their hope grew, when they saw a single flash of red and blue lights outside the curtains. 

Whumpee reached out, brought Whumper closer and hoped that Caretaker wouldn’t listen too closely. They arched in, let bruised lips drop with sweet keens of sensation and put on their best adult film-star act. 

Caretaker dropped the phone to their side, felt like they’d be sick again but took a sip of tap water to try to staunch it. They still heard Whumpee, their moans, the way they said Whumper’s name. It would haunt them forever, they thought and now, they knew what had been haunting Whumpee as well. 

It all made sense. 

“POLICE! FREEZE!” 

Caretaker finally picked up the phone when they heard a shout and sudden rustling before a final clink and they were left up to background noise. It sounded rough, many voices involved now and there was a struggle, but at last, the operator chimed in to greet them. 

“Hello? Is anyone still on the line?” 

“Y-Yes, I’m here, thank you, thank you so much-” Caretaker started, words clipping with overwhelmed sobs. 

“I’ve dispatched two officers to your location as well, hun. They should be with you shortly and will take you to the scene, more than likely to the station as well.” 

“T-Thank you, I’ll be waiting for them, thank you so much..” Caretaker continued, trying to reel themselves in as a knock finally came at their own door and they rushed to answer it. Two uniformed officers stood in wait and Caretaker ushered them in.

“There here so- I-I’m going to hang up now.”

“Understood. Good luck and take care.”

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

THE BOX IS NABOO

That’s it, I’m doing it, I’m writing that stupid meta I’ve had in the works for two and a half years, I’m sharing it with the world. I promised it for last Thursday, my poll was forever ago, but whatever! I’m writing that freaking thing.

(super duper long post, press j to skip)

Enter my rabbit hole.

First thing to establish: the Box makes no sense whatsoever in-universe.

((EDIT: Something I forgot to mention. IRL, the premise of a giant murder cube and the aesthetic - wall patterns, light designs, etc - of the episode come from the 1997 horror movie Cube, (see the episode’s wookieepedia page). However, while the two are very closely linked visually, the Box does not follow the movie structurally or narratively, as you can verify by simply reading the movie’s summary.))

Recap of the context for the "Box" episode (s4e17): Palpatine is planning his own kidnapping. It was never meant to succeed, and while the plan would obviously benefit him (making the Jedi look bad, pushing Anakin closer to the Dark Side, making Republic citizens more afraid -> more docile, etc...) his actual goal is never explained, and it’s weird that he’d go to such extreme lengths for results so minimal that we’re never told what they are.

So Palpatine asks Dooku to kidnap him at the Festival of Lights on Naboo. Dooku hires Moralo Eval to design a giant box-thingy to test bounty hunters to hire the best of them to kidnap Palpatine. Moralo then gets arrested to alert the Republic that something is afoot, and hires Cad Bane to break him out. Obi-Wan - undercover to learn Moralo’s plan - goes with them. They evade capture and go to Serenno, and Bane and Obi-Wan have to pass the box-thingy test. The level of brainkarked logic here... Truly on par with Megamind, Gru and Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Setting aside the insane plot holes and utterly nonsensical behavior of the villains, the Box itself is moronic from a plot perspective. It’s insanely complex, obviously incredibly expensive and would have taken months (more like years but it’s a short war) to make when it’s not even needed for the dastardly plot! Just hire some guys who have already proven themselves against Jedi! Throw cash at Bane and Embo and a few others! Maybe attack them with your saber and see how they do! 

And after all that, Dooku still ends up trying to kidnap Palpatine on his own. I can’t even... 

So why does the Box exist? Well, apart from being a nerdy callback to Cube, giving us a good thrill and being generally awesome to look at, it has actual narrative purpose within the SW universe.

The box is Naboo.

What the Box lacks in plot relevance, it makes up for with its heavily symbolic meaning. It very closely follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s experiences on Naboo - but only certain parts, which I’ll explain later.

We start with clean, sterile environments, SW’s favored way of showing villainy.

Then we have the protagonists locked in a room as dioxis, a poison gas, pours in.

And then they escape... this way.

(Okay, here the shaft is down, not up. And it’s not a ventilation shaft per say, it’s the designed escape route. Same difference).

We then skip most of TPM (namely, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discovering the droid army, finding Padmé, leaving Naboo, landing on Tatooine, going to Coruscant, etc, etc) to come back to Naboo and go directly to the lightsabers and catwalks.

(Note: in both scenes, Obi-Wan has to propel himself from a catwalk.)

In TPM and TCW, the catwalks are immediately followed by ray shields

And we finally end with the last scenes. Now, they don’t look the same but they are structurally identical. 

Obi-Wan is faced with a challenge unsuited for his abilities (facing Darth Maul // shooting three moving targets when he’s far more skilled with a blade than a blaster) on a narrow space above a melting pit/pit of fire. 

He first watches someone die failing to complete the task...

 ... and has to do it himself, faring much better than expected (holding his own against Maul // shooting all the targets easily). 

He then almost falls to his death and gets saved unexpectedly.

And then there’s the final showdown.

In both scenes, Obi-Wan is angry. And in TCW Dooku eggs him on, banking on his anger. (More on that later.) In both cases though, he centers himself and is able to overcome both his opponent and his own unbalance. But in TCW, he doesn’t go for the kill, because he doesn’t need to. 

The Box, as a literal character-explorator ex-machina, thus shows us Obi-Wan’s growth.  

In TPM, Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon’s lead. In TCW, he is the leader. He identifies the gas, makes the plans. He doesn’t fall from catwalks anymore - he runs atop moving ones. He doesn’t stay stuck behind ray-shields, he finds the solution. (Btw, how did Moralo know what blood type Derrown the Exterminator was? There was a 50% chance of him dying - thus killing all of the bounty hunters. Was that an acceptable outcome? TCW I need answers!) He doesn’t slay his foes, because he’s become powerful enough, skilled enough and wise enough to survive (and win) without needing to kill.

He’s grown - and, even more interestingly, he’s also stayed the same. In the previous episodes, we see some of the dark aspects of Obi-Wan. How he - like all Force-wielders, all people - could lose himself if he stopped maintaining absolute control.

But in the Box, surrounded by the worst criminals of the Galaxy, the most ruthless, worthless people, he’s still kind and tries his best to keep them alive.

The Box is a reminder and a reassurance for the audience that Obi-Wan Kenobi is still there under Rako’s face. He hasn’t lost his compassion, his restrain. He’s still a Jedi. And he’s an awesome, badass one. 

And now, for what it tells us about Dooku! 

It’s much shorter, don’t worry. Basically, Dooku considers that the best way to pick “the best of the best” of the deadliest people in the Galaxy is making them go through what killed his Padawan. There, I’ve broken your hearts, you’re welcome. 

More seriously, Dooku is a manipulative ass. It’s pretty clear that he knows Rako is Obi-Wan, or at the very least suspects it. 

He has an interesting reaction upon learning Rako’s identity, he keeps praising him despite his usual distaste for low-lifes, he smirks secretively after Eval says “I’ll show you who’s weak” (not included there because it’s a close-up of Dooku’s lips and no one wants to see that) and he tells Rako he’s very disappointed when he doesn’t finish off Eval.

[Later]

(Look at this smug asshole - I can’t. YOUR GRANDSON IS THE BEST, WE KNOW, STOP ACTIVELY RUINING HIS LIFE ALREADY.)

(Dooku... why...)

Now obviously Dooku couldn’t have made the Box specifically for Obi-Wan, because it would have to have been designed months before the Council ever decided to send Obi-Wan undercover, but he has no qualms trying to use it to push Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. Ffs Dooku, making your spiritual grandson relive one of the most traumatic events of his life on the off chance that he’ll join you (and desecrate his Master’s memory in doing so) is not okay!

Final tidbits of analysis: I mentioned that not all of TPM is mirrored in the Box. What’s omitted is the droids (even though Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fight B1′s and droidekas between the dioxis and the ventilation shafts) and anything pertaining to Sidious (all the political stuff on Coruscant). You’ll also note that the fake lightsabers are orange.

=> The Box distances itself from anything that connects Dooku to Naboo. Red lightsabers are the trademark of the Sith, so they’re not used. The bounty hunters will be facing Jedi, so logically the fake sabers should be green or blue - and yet they’re orange, the color closest to red without being red. It fits with Dooku’s special brand of dishonesty - he always tells bits of the real story but twists them just enough to absolve himself of any fault and to justify his choices. 

(”We can destroy the Sith” -> could maybe destroy Sidious with Obi-Wan, but fails to mention he’s a Sith Lord himself; “the Viceroy came to me for help, that’s why I’m attacking the Republic” -> political idealism is a small part of it, but fails to mention he’s Sidious’ underling and is playing the Viceroy like a fiddle; “Qui-Gon would have joined me” -> maybe, still fails to mention he’s working for the man who ordered Qui-Gon’s death; “I told you everything you needed to know” -> debatable, never said that Palps was Sidious; “Sifo-Dyas understood, that’s why he helped me” -> partly true, doesn’t admit to killing Sifo-Dyas right after getting his help)

So we have a twisted version of Naboo, droid-free (as droids are now irrevocably associated with Dooku, even if that wasn’t the case in TPM) and with sabers that aren’t quite red. Keep in mind that Dooku had already fallen by TPM. (We know this because he killed Sifo-Dyas and created the Clone Army - part of Sidious’ plan - when Valorum was still Chancellor, as per the episode The Lost One.) That means Dooku was (in)directly complicit in Qui-Gon’s death. And the Box doesn’t (=refuses to?) acknowledge that. 

(Also omitted in the Box are the Gungans and Tatooine. It makes sense, because Dooku probably wouldn’t have the full details regarding those parts of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan’s missio as they weren’t as public, and would see them as irrelevant if he did. He utterly despises Anakin, and Gungans are the type of people he always dismisses out of hand). 

Anyway, that’s my two cents about the Box. To quote Lucas...

“It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

Thanks to @lethebantroubadour @impossiblybluebox​ @nonbinarywithaknife @ytoz​ and @kaitie85386​ for voting for this one. Next up is a compilation of the Jedi being casually tactile with each other (because they’re a warm and affectionate culture, dammit).

Also thanks to @laciefuyu​ for giving me gifs I ended up not using ^^; you rock anyway!

[chiss-ticism]

Hmm... having finished The Book of Boba Fett, I've done some more reflecting on the state Star Wars has found itself in and felt the need to ramble a bit. Rant, if you'd allow it. For fear of being lumped into a group of people that I'm not apart of, I also feel the need to preface that I only got into Star Wars a few months ago and am not one of the older fans upset about the loss of the Legends content from a few years back. Nor am I someone who prefers the prequels on account of having grown up with them. That's because of the Clone Wars. With the notable exception of the Knights of the Old Republic duology (+ the Old Republic MMO), I'm only vaguely aware of that which was lost - meaning that my opinions haven't been swayed from that front.

While I can't quite yet comment on the High Republic, and how that content has or hasn't been affected by the Sequels, I can't help but feel as if the Sequels have, collectively, dragged the rest of the canon content down into a middling pit of mediocrity that Disney is still trying to drag itself out of with the content that they're currently producing. Their insistence on making their trilogy *make sense*, as opposed to having done that in the movies themselves, has trapped us in a miasma of cameos and semi-serviceable worldbuilding. I'm of the opinion that, as an someone who obviously hasn't attended a single board meeting, it feels as if they spent too much money on the movies themselves, the theme park, and the fact that they were able to get so many of the original trilogies' actors to reprise their roles to just up and scrap everything so they're doing what they can to produce easily digestibleble content for the masses to mindlessly consume, as opposed to taking any steps in doing something that feels genuinely fresh and new (which isn't to knock Mando or BoBF, I enjoy watching them - they just feel, idk, more hollow than some of the stuff that came before. I don't find myself reflecting on them as much as I did with the Prequels/TCW or even Rebels- as much as I'm prone to judging the latter for feeling tonally inconsistent with the rest of the series)

It feels as if we've traded worthwhile storytelling for an endless stream of merchandise and crossovers that only serve to promote their other projects, and it's honestly enough to make me question whether or not I was ever really into Star Wars or just the idea of Star Wars.

An aside: I do acknowledge that a lot of earlier content was also made with the express purpose of selling merchandise - the difference between the two, at least how I see it, is that there was actually something of worth there if you peeled back the thick smog of corporate product pushing.

[hanasnx]

HEY DEAR, it's ya boy, just wondering if you've seen tales of the Jedi yet because I think you'd love anakin's episode, HE'S RUTHLESS. Like you're telling me there's not just a little bit of sadism in there (I mean of course there is, that's literally Darth Vader)? I won't spoil anything that isn't in the trailer/common knowledge, but there's this lovely juxtaposition between him having a ruthless teaching style but speaking in a very caring and loving manner that's just so gooooood. Animated Anakin rarely feels like Hayden's Anakin (I still subscribe to the belief that prequels Ani is Ani as he is in internally, and CW Ani is how Ahsoka, the 501st, and the general public perceive him), but its always good to see some darkness in him. Anyway, hope you're well 😎💝

-👑

HIIIII i just finished totj tbh i’ve been taking a little break from writing sw stuff bcos i finished tcw and it obliterated me. so tales of the jedi wasn’t something i was ready to face til now BUT I WATCHED IT SO I COULD ANSWER THIS

spoilers under the cut for totj up til episode 5 <3

i love the description u added, where tcw ani is how people perceive him vs film ani is more intrapersonal. i dont have any problem with tcw anakin other than the fact he was created bcos the creators gave into the male power fantasy expectation of anakin. (still sad as fuck about the fact hayden wanted to voice tcw anakin and was not chosen for the role…. like his character … it feels so disrespectful just cos he didnt have a deep enough voice but whatever. not my circus not my monkeys)

i love tcw anakin he’s got good moments, but film ani portrayal is my fave

i did love how hard he was on ahsoka in that episode of totj! i felt like it was very true to him, and how he realizes how much harder a war is compared to normal jedi training. and since this war thing is a new thing for the jedi rn, its worth upping the stakes in the training in order to be prepared for actual war. he probably had his fair share of realizations when he was actually in battle how ill prepared he really was for such an event and didnt want that for his padawan.

i really cared for all the tender moments they had. how he spoke to her and touched her (i feel like anakin has a hard time with physical affection in any capacity. hes not a hugger, and he probably acts like he doesnt like being touched but secretly wants you to touch him) so it only added to my adoration for him when we got to see him reach out to her to help her up with his hand or put his hand on her shoulder etc. i really love anakin and ahsoka’s relationship in tcw its like my favorite thing.

also yes hes a sadist and a masochist and i feel like its not just in sexual contexts he is. so hes very hard on other people and himself with sometimes impossible standards bcos he feels as though pain builds a tolerance within you. he wants ahsoka to be untouchable, and she honestly is. as we’ve seen in the ending of tcw, ahsoka did the impossible.

i cant remember where i read it, but someone had said that crediting anakin’s training as ahsoka’s reason for being able to stay alive in the last episodes of tcw during order 66 had erased the specialness of rex’ resolve to tell her to find fives etc. id like to add my take

i dont think that it takes away any specialness. i think it simply adds more to the story. ahsoka was able to stay alive because of rex and rex’s help that much is true, but anakins strict training regiment didnt harm her either. it only aided. i liked that facet of the story tbh.

i like how star wars explores the lack of omniscience in force users. yes they can sense your intention, but why would they be on guard against allies? they explored that in the katri episode when dooku and mace investigated her untimely death in totj.

it only makes sense that jedi in order 66 were susceptible to fatality because why would they be on their guard with the allies theyve served alongside for years?

im sorry im all over the place i had a lot to say. bottom line I LOVED SEEING ANAKIN IN EPISODE 5 hes my sweet bbg

[rogueninja]

i plan on watching the original star wars movie trilogy so basically can you rank the sequels, prequels, and shows on how worth it is it to watch? thank you

oh man, even though i do love star wars, i'm nowhere near as die hard as some people. everyone also has really different opinions on star wars. my opinions may be a bit unpopular so please take them with a grain of salt!! this isnt so much a ranking as it is a list of my opinions

original trilogy (OT) - it sounds like youre already watching this. it's a classic that i think everyone should experience at least once.

prequel trilogy (PT) - it's funny because when these first came out they were very unpopular. now everyone who didn't like them has gone away, and everyone who is left LOVES them. now personally, i liked them as a kid, but nowadays they are hard for me to watch simply because they are not well made. the pacing and the acting and most of the story is just... not very good. i may be offending a lot of people with that statement. that said you may want to watch them once as they provide a lot of context for other stars media. ewan mcgregor's performance as obi wan might make it worth it at least

sequel trilogy (ST) - another controversial one lol. personally i like the first 2 and found the last one very disappointing. other star wars media isnt usually based around this so it is skippable. but i do think as movies they hold up better than the prequel trilogy, though the story is all over the place. the visuals are really great too imo.

rogue one - standalone movie that takes place shortly before episode 4 (first in OT). it's very good and worth watching i think! a fan favorite as well

solo - a movie about han solo that takes place before OT. some people like it. i found it pretty forgettable and very skippable lol

SHOWS:

the clone wars (TCW) - animated show that takes place during the PT (between episodes 2 and 3), so you will need to have watched that for context. it's kind of a mixed bag, some episodes/arcs are awesome, some are totally weird and mundane. i honestly watched it mostly as a background show. it introduces the character ahsoka who is a dan favorite (i love her too!)

star wars rebels - i actually never finished watching this lol but not because it wasn't good! takes place before OT. i think i liked it better than TCW bc it had more structure to it. it's got some cool characters and interesting story lines.

the mandalorian - my FAVORITE star wars thing. season 1 is top tier. i love season 2 less but it still has its moments for sure. totally worth watching. season 1 you dont really need much star wars knowledge to enjoy it, but season 2 they start bringing in characters from TCW and other movies.

book of boba fett - this show turned out to basically be the mandalorian season 2.5. a bit of a mixed bag but overall good..... but I have a lot of Opinions i wont get into here 😂

everything else out there i haven't watched and can't give an opinion. i hope this was helpful!! it really depends on how dedicated you are to getting into star wars and what your preferences are really. it's hard for me to say what order to watch them because a lot of them are based in the context of other ones which can be overwhelming. like if I had to pick the bare bones approach, it would be the OT and the mandalorian and then everything else is optional lolol. but maybe start with the movies and then go from there. if you have more questions you can message me :)

[thatfunkyopossum]

whys it a worthless video essay? genuinely curious on your thoughts :0

The racism mostly!

Disclaimer: i’m white, and not meaning to speak for any person of color! My opinions on this are formed based on what i noticed in combination with what i know about racism, and I believe that in this case i’m right about what i’ve observed. That said, my observations are open to criticism from any black people who might be reading this and feel like weighing in, as my only personal experiences in bigotry are with my identity as a queer person. In short: i’m not an expert, but i do have eyes and what they see is repulsive. Anyway this will be rambly.

First and foremost, The Tragedy of Droids by @popculturedetective’s editing directly connects the Droids in Star Wars with the atrocities of chattel slavery in the americas, and the perceived connection is at times hinted at in the script.

@4:10 into the video “...they’re also bought and sold like cattle” is a quote i caught when trying to find the following time stamps, because the editing is the real beast here.

There’s also @ 4:35 “you can probably guess where i’m going with this, because the social arrangement i’ve just described is one of property and owner. And a property relationship between two intelligent beings that gives one absolute power over the other is called slavery.”

In this video essay, there are multiple times when the visuals cut between Roots and the droids of Star Wars. This is important because Roots is a mini series based off the family history of the black man who wrote the book, Alex Haley, and the scenes being directly juxtaposed with Star Wars droids are the scenes from it where black people are on slave ships or being sold at auction. TToD essay, which was at the very least presented by a white man, wants the viewer to connect robots and black people for the sake of the essay’s argument. TToD essay wants the connection between real black human beings who actually lived and suffered and died in the real damn world to, i cannot stress this enough, machines.

To anyone who is reading this and not seeing why thats fucked up, because they view the droids as people, here’s the problem. Droids aren’t people. No matter how you slice it, no matter how much you love them, theres actually no way for us to be sure that 99% of droids are sentient beings, that are self aware, and that feel things. Droids in the Star Wars universe are constructed to be tools that talk to you and have fun personalities. Some droids might be self aware and sentient, but the likelihood is that the vast majority aren’t due to being what they are. Tools. This is in stark contrast to black people, because black people are, uh, people!!

At 4:00 into the video essay, we start to see the cuts between Roots and Star Wars. Pop Culture Detective cuts between C-3PO/R2-D2 being sold to Luke’s family and a black woman being put in front of a crowd of white people to be auctioned off. This same sequence of cuts is used again later in the video essay.

At 28:20 into the video, a clip from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used wherein Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg, a black woman) is talking about slaves and slavery, how there have been disposable people in history. This clip on its own is so, so good. It aired in 1989, and I have no idea what the political climate was like for black people then (im not as well versed in history as i would like) but i can guess it probably wasn’t good!

“...They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because its too difficult or too hazardous. You don’t have to think about their welfare. You don’t think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.”

And then Pop Culture Detective uses this (to me) powerful line about atrocities done to human beings... and cuts to R2-D2 serving drinks to Jabba’s crew. PCD says some bullshit about how star wars is using the droids as an allegory for slavery but has nothing to say with the metaphor, and then it cuts back to Guinan to finish her speech. Might i say: what the fuck. What the fuck.

I can’t find it right now, but i distinctly remember there is also a bit where the visuals cut straight from a black man’s face to the face of an astromech.

And the cherry on top is that the clones are in this video... and never mentioned. Okay actually i’m going to talk about this video’s treatment of the clones and how utterly fucked up it is because i was so caught up in the “this essay wants you to think of the horrors of chattel slavery done to black people as being even remotely comparable to the existence of R2-D2” that i forgot to talk about the clones.

Okay so this video does not mention the clones at all. It uses clips from the clone wars and clips from the prequels movies with clones in them, but the clones aren’t even so much as talked about in passing. The closest we get is this brushing off of the issue in general @29:50:

“Remember, this is a universe where humanoid slavery exists as well, but its presented as unambiguously negative, though not exactly something the heroes are in a rush to abolish.”

Which is said about Anakin and his mother. And its not like they forgot about the clone wars and to talk about it at all! No, they had this to say on it @15:10. See if you notice anything.

“...But what about Battle droids?... Well, the separatist droid army in the prequels seems specifically designed as little more than canon fodder. Making the bad guys unfeeling robots avoids the messy moral complications and mass casualties that would result from an interstellar war. If battle droids aren’t alive then the audience doesn’t have to care when thousands of them are killed in extended battlefield scenes. Indeed we’re encouraged to think of these types of droids as mere objects and to cheer at their dismemberment.”

Drink it in y’all, i’m still absorbing it. I’ll note that sections of this were played over clips from the first battle of geonosis, and there were clones on screen. So, PCD completely sidesteps the issue of the clones, seemingly unaware of the actual explicit enslavement of brown men who are unquestionably living thinking feeling people, in favor of projecting humanity onto every single droid including the infamously poorly programed B1 Battle droids.

I don’t know what else I can say on that besides the fact that some obscure ass clips from the clone wars are used to humanize the robots, implying that PCD watched tcw and missed the episode where Slick calls the Jedi slavers.

There’s other problems with it as a whole, like the essayist completely failing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all droids are sentient, or that even most droids are. No consideration is given to the purpose, construction, or make/model of droid into the question of “are they sentient”? And we’re left with the implication that your average mouse droid is at all relatable to a black person.

In fact, PCD in this essay seems to actually imply that r2-d2 and bb8 being sentient-ish robots we’re supposed to empathize with, and the battle droids being not that, is due to a failure/breakdown of internal logic. And not that they’re, you know, different machines...?

I have so much to say on this mess, but this is long enough as it is. In conclusion, Pop Culture Detective’s video essay should have been about the clones, but it chose to focus on droids instead and in doing so dehumanized black people in an attempt to humanize robots.

I’ll leave you with this quote from the video, but edited slightly to be instead about the clones.

“[Slick]’s observations about [clone] slavery could have been an opportunity for Star Wars to finally grapple with the uncomfortable fact that...the good guys seem to have been keeping sentient beings in a state of perpetual servitude.”

[ionfusionpunk]

The Bad Batch: IMO

So! I watched the Bad Batch! TL;DR at the end 🙃

Ngl, and please don't bash me for this, but I haven't actually finished TCW? My mom and I are still only a couple episodes into season 1, but we're also trying to watch the episodes in chronological order, not release order, plus we're both busy people, so. Kinda hard. Means I haven't watched Season 7, yet, ergo I haven't watched the episode where we meet the Bad Batch. But like anyone embroiled in this fandom, I still know a fair bit about them/what happens.

I'm a little disappointed that Crosshair is the bad guy. Like, I get he's cranky? And I'm all for angst for any character, but, like. Based off the explanation they give in-show, Wrecker would have been an equally valid choice for the chip sorta working, imo. More valid, even, bc his genetic mutation has less to do with his brain directly in the same way Tech's, Hunter's, and Crosshair's mutations do.

Speaking of Wrecker, the Big Brute act? Nah. Not A Fan. I have multiple relatives on the spectrum (ASD), and I was honestly expecting Wrecker to come across like my brother does? i.e. he understands better if we don't layer our conversation with sarcasm/implications/subtext? But that doesn't make him dum, just less socially... proficient? ept? Smooth as everyone else.

Kay. Now, touching on the whitewashing, since this topic is gonna be everywhere. Look, I absolutely 100% agree that Filoni did us Dirty with how the clones all look. Echo, my poor child, you should have more melanin. Everyone, unless you have specific mutations, should have more melanin. They should also look younger, look more like Temuera, etc. etc. But. I don't stan hate of anyone on this blog, okay? We don't know why the choice to whitewash was made. I don't agree with it, but we shouldn't just hate on Filoni for that. In regards to the BB specifically, yes they could have chosen to alter appearances to be more politically correct. Consider though: identical art style connects BB directly back to TCW; art style makes the character immediately more familiar to younger/older/less involved viewers who otherwise won't have much of an opinion on the Dirty done. Please also consider that someone on the production team may have wanted to do right by our boys but for whatever reason were unable to this or the first time around, and that doesn't automatically make it Filoni's fault. Just... don't judge? Don't hate. There's enough of that in the world that I'll happily settle for disappointment and correcting my art to reflect what I believe the clones should have looked like.

Full disclosure, I in fact created a cis-female clone character a couple months ago. She was part of the Alpha batch and the first female mutation, and the trainers, looking upon her as lesser, took to calling her Omega as an insult. After proving she was very much a BAMF, she chose the name Oma and later became the Alpha trainer of other clones with mutations, including several with different intensities of albanism, vitiligo, neurodivergency, Force sensitivity, etc. I really like her and think she's a cool gal. (I don't have any art of her yet, unfortunately.)

On Omega: I adore her, okay? I love how she was copying Hunter it was so cute - akaskdjhf. And, like, is she Force Sensitive? Oh please oh please oh please let her be.

Now, I've seen some stuff about how another Dirty was done in 'bending over backwards' to make her female when she could have just been trans? Alright, look, I'm not gonna disagree, because you're right, but I also refuse to agree, because look: cloning isn't an exact science, even for the Kaminoans. Look at all the mutations they had. From what I understand (I'm no expert, so don't quote me on this, but also feel free to drop me some resources), it's not impossible, improbable, or unreasonable to assume that amongst alllll the clones created, a small percent didn't mutate female. Assuming that Jango was Near-Human, at least (the Kaminoans could have altered the alien DNA out of the base coding), the clones would have started as female fetuses before the Y-chromosome kicked in, right? That's how that works for us regular humans afaik. On top of that, there are exceptions to that rule, because then you have other mutations like mutations in the SRY gene or variations in the number of the sex chromosomes themselves, etc. Basically what I'm getting at is that there should have been more cis-fem clones, but chances are most of them were decommed or forced to undergo trans therapy (is that what you call it? Idk, I'm sorry, don't mean to offend). Omega most likely wasn't engineered to be female; she probably had extra mutations on top of that to make her more desirable to the Kaminoans to keep around for study (e.g. her Force sensitivity???).

On a final note, to end this with my Writer Brain, I would love to see them portray the side-affects of their mutations. Just - chef's kiss.

TL;DR: Dirties were done. Wrecker isn't stupid. Crosshair probably wasn't the best choice for villain, though Angst is Life and is Good. Whitewashing is a problem, but I am Aware of it and can keep myself from making the same mistakes while still enjoying SW content. And while it would have been nice to see a trans clone character, it's okay that Omega isn't, because the choice actually makes sense bc of Science. Have a lovely day :)