#and a video of them fighting with lightsabers when they first became friends!

[dragonstar2568]

You can’t tell me that Peter and Harley didn’t fight with lightsabers at their wedding.

[your-old-sins-tournament]

12 YEAR OLD OCS; SIDE A

Cupid [@onitekka] (she/her)

Cupid is like every normal middle school student, a pink-haired half-vampire totally not crushing on her girl best friend, seemingly born from every weird twelve year olds innate wish: make a video game.

Cupid journeys through the depths of hell to rescue her "girl best friend" (very subtle) from the evil Dark Overlord Xanata, who sealed her best friend into a crystal because she Also wants to be Cupid's "girl best friend".

she boasts a variety of super cool barely vampire related attacks that involve just straight up yelling at enemies! this girl has a sonic screech that can shatter glass, bulletproof bat wings, and a literal gun! you can practically hear angel with a shotgun (nightcore) blasting in the background.

why is the embodiment of love a vampire? because vampires are now ostensibly fallen angels. why is she fighting hell if she's a fallen angel? because it's cool.

Description: A beginner's illustration of Cupid. she has messily coloured short pink hair with two longer strands in the front, red eyes, a fuschia top, and a green skirt. she is also wearing black boots, and part of her bat wings are coloured black as well. there is blood dripping from her mouth.

Ash [@changeling-ash] (she/her)

She is so cool. My little self insert. My baby. Epic powerful magic.

Ash was part of a secret subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens dimutus) which could shapeshift, which she used to grow huge black wings or turn into a black leopard or look like a monster to scare enemies, anything as long as her brain stayed the same size or got denser to fit smaller. When she shapeshifted she would release green and blue fire from the power of the transformation (cause she has lots of copper in her blood that burns green. To protect against cancer, you see. Shapeshifting has lots of cancer risk so copper is sooo important)

She became one by genetic engineering at 15 so the dimutus could get more soldiers and spies for a war with the demon-like psyuedos (child soldier lol). She could come back to life because she had a failsafe that would activate where she would shapeshift away the wound and her brain would jolt back online. The only way to kill a dimutus was to kill the brain.

Like other dimutus, she could also dimension hop, so she'd travel the multiverse, from tv show to tv show or to the universe with dragons or with cool landscapes. She was good with a sword and something called a bladed quarterstaff, which is basically one of those two sided lightsabers but a blade. She was mentored by one of the most powerful dimutus of the war and is super powerful too compared to other dimutus.

Propaganda from the old post

Okay time for my propaganda once more!

Ash is my girl, my baby.

She has TWO dragons. The first one is Flicker, who is strong and agile with black scales and a violet belly. Ash rides on her back and she speaks dragon at her. Her other dragon is Zephyr, who she raised from an egg and he looks like a blue sky with white patches like clouds, and random little flecks of gold scales. He's lithe and fast and so agile. She can summon them from their alternate universes by calling out "Tul Lüg" for Flicker and "Zep-iagh" for Zephyr, and they leap from portals to fight.

She can speak so many languages. The language of Dimutus is actually Modernized Latin. She knows English, Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, ASL, and has the best translators.

She made friends with a shadowy wolf companion called a Shadowlupe who accepted her as part of the pack. She runs with him in hunts as a wolf.

She can do a double backflip. Enough said.

She would fly with huge black wings, it was her favorite thing to do. Knew how to do all the tricks. She is dimension hopping miles in the air just to fall for ages, then fly at breakneck speeds. And she was terrifying in battle, she would dodge and weave and slash as she passed, an airborne killing machine.

She could give herself big springy legs to jump so high and do crazy tricks. She adapted herself to move fast, bounce and parkour her way at insane speeds. She could traverse so well.

She also did normal parkour. It was a fun challenge to try with minimal modifications. Pretended a lot of parkour POV vids were her.

She had two cats trained to infiltrate bases cause they are kitties and can fit through the vents and no one suspects the kitties. Baya was a Bengal and Shadow was a beautiful medium hair black cat.

She could also dimension hop in a way that was like astral projecting. She'd just be floatin, near invisible. She'd keep her wings in that state to pull them from the dimension fast to use them quickly. Her friends would chill there and comment to her while she was doing boring things.

She had a ragtag best friend and copilot partner Katie that was the mostest important person to her. Her brother in arms, her guy in the chair, her support, and Ash was the same to Katie. They were ride or die, and they died a lot for each other. (I basically made a QPP a decade before I myself ended up in one. Probably an early sign I was aro.)

She lost her arm sometimes, and she'd have a badass prosthetic if she couldn't shapeshift it back right away.

So much trauma from being a child soldier will come later. Her future character with me a decade later is somethin.

[justsomerandomfanfic]

Can I get a romantic X-Men and Star Wars Matchup?

I am a 20 yr old lesbian who has natural brown hair but I dye it (currently light pink),brown eyes, anxiety,depression,ADHD,autism,and 2 anxiety disorders

Likes

Yellow,Sweaters,Music (79's-mid 00's),True Crime,Flowers,Animals,Writing,Sweets,Food,Video Games,Movies,Stuffed Animals,Blankets,Cosplay,Weed,Incense,Tattoos,Friends,and Family

Hates

Spiders,Bullying,Yelling,Racism,Abuse,Snakes,Any type of pain,Sexism,Being Alone,Loud Noises,Not being good enough,Lying,Homophobia,Hot weather,Being sick,Transphobia,Being used, Arguing,and any type of Addiction

Yayay thank you for the matchup request!!! I hope you enjoy! <333

X-Men;

Rogue:

❌ You met Rogue when you joined the X-Men, having your own set of superpowers; Charles Xavier found you and had to ask you to join because he knew you would be a great asset to the team

❌ That's where you met Rogue, immediately off the bat you thought she was attractive, and you just loved her hair

❌ You really wanted to get to know her, so you built up the courage to walk over one day and say 'hi'; Rogue was a bit hesitant around you at first, but she soon warmed up to you

❌ In the beginning, you had the best friendship, training together, and going out to eat; it soon became more

❌ It didn't happen overnight, but after a long day of training as you sat together on a couch in the living room of the X-Mansion; you both confessed

❌ It wasn't like anything changed really, you still did the same things as you did when you were friends, but with just a bit more affection and romance; and a lot more cuddling

❌ Rogue loves stealing your sweaters, but she does give them back, (after they don't smell like you anymore); and she does gift you a lot of cute yellow sweaters during birthdays and holidays

❌ When you both have free time from fighting Magneto or other baddies, you and Rogue dance around your room in the X-Mansion, listening from Pink Floyd and Queen to Blink-182, and more

❌ Both you and Rogue suffer from anxiety, but you both are great at calming and soothing each other; with each other, all your worries just wash away

❌ You and Rogue are a perfect match for one another, both of you are strong, love animals, love hanging out with friends and family, and both have really cool hair

---

Star Wars;

Rey;

🌟 You met Rey when she joined the Resistance, instantly bonding with her

🌟 You felt an instant connection with her upon seeing her and knew you just had to talk to her and see what she was all about

🌟 Being a fellow Force-sensitive, you felt the Force coursing through her; you found her strength and determination incredible and inspiring

🌟 After the end of the First Order, you and Rey spent more time together, reading in quiet rooms, tasting amazing foods, and even sharing secrets in the comfort of your shared bed

🌟 Rey is always making sure you are well taken care of, making sure you had eaten during the day, are warm enough, or are in need of a good hug

🌟 She loves how much you love the color yellow, finding it adorable, and soon enough, she starts to like the color too; sunflowers remind her of you

🌟 Sometimes when you travel to Endor, for no other reason than to see the sweet Ewoks, you stumble upon giant spiders and Rey doesn't hesitate to sweep you off your feet and take you away from the nasty spiders; your hero

🌟 On special once-a-year days, when fireworks and sparklers are the main events, Rey makes sure you are in a place where you can't hear the loud bangs and booms of the illuminations

🌟 And on days when the two are feeling partially goofy, you and her would both train together, fighting with your lightsabers; hers blue and yours yellow

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

S/O drags skeleton to a Comic Con. How goes their day?

My Comic Con in France is less impressive and a bit different than in the United States, so sorry if it works differently in the USA!

Undertale Sans - His face is neutral but you can tell he's having fun. He bought already a lot of japan stuff for his brother, his friends and him, and he made buddies with the seller of a joke shop, even giving him advice to ruin the day of his clients. He's also following you in the queues and randomly teleports you in front of the celebrities, freaking the shit out of them and of you because you didn't have time to prepare. Well, at least you don't have to wait hours.

Undertale Papyrus - As Mettaton great friend, he has a VIP pass. You two passed your morning backstage talking to various celebrities and fangirling like two teenagers. You then went in a big theater to watch the new superheroes movies announcement, and you two screamed so hard both of your voices died. After that, you're just having fun, looking around and buying little things for family and friends.

Underswap Sans - He's vibrating with excitement, you can barely follow him. Blue has only one objective: winning the lightsaber competition. He spend his day there, fighting people so fast they never have time to see what's coming. It only became interesting when Alphys, noticing him, challenged him. The legend says they are still fighting this day. After they took over the ring, all the other people could do was watching as their fight is taking forever. You eventually steps in to drag him home. Blue is still screaming he will have his revenge by the time you push him out.

Underswap Papyrus - He's very excited too! You two are cosplaying, obviously, and are part of the cosplay contest. While you're waiting, you go meet some celebrities, which ended with you talking and Honey crying hysterically hugging his favorite romance novel because they said he's cute. You two also won the cosplay contest, which made Honey cries even more as it's one of his favorite actor who gave him the trophy. He leaves the Comic Con with a tower of books and goodies so high it doesn't fit in the car. He's going to talk about this for weeks!

Underfell Sans - He was not very enthusiastic to go, but you convinced him so he came anyway. And even if he's trying really hard not to show it, you can tell he's having fun. He took a ton of selfies with random cosplayers, spent two hours playing a RPG, and beat everyone on an old version of Mario, giggling evily every time he made a 8 years old cry. He also talked with the voice actor of one of his favorite video game's character and he had stars in the eyes the whole time. Also, a few weeks later, he comes to you all by himself to try to convince you to go to a video game con, which means he loved it.

Underfell Papyrus - You don't know how, but you managed to convince him to cosplay. At first, he was not very enthusiastic, even thinking he looked quite stupid, but then people started to come to him for photos, or just for talking and... omg? He's so popular? Like people are liking him for real, not just by fear? He looks at you in shock, not believing it. After that, he goes from grumpy to very confident in two seconds, signing papers for children and gladly posing for photos. It boosted his ego so high at the end of the day, he's accepting to compete in the cosplay contest. And he won! He didn't know why everyone freaked out when that "Robert Downey Junior" or something cames in person to congratulate him for his Iron Man cosplay (who the fuck is Iron Man? You chose the cosplay, he has no idea who he's supposed to be) but everyone took pictures of the two of you and he gained a lot of followers on his social medias, so he tolerated it.

Horrortale Sans - He's clinging to you, very uncomfortable. There's too many people, too many noises, too many menacing things and cosplays bigger than him. He's jumping at the slightest sound and looking everywhere around him like a panicked wild animal. But you know how to distract him and gently leads him to the japanese food stands. He never tried any of this, so he's a bit reluctant at first, but man, as soon as he starts eating, you can see his pupil dilates in shock. He forgot all the people and the noise instantly and he will beg all afternoon to go back eating some more.

Horrortale Papyrus - He's a bit uncomfortable at first because he is so tall he feels like he doesn't belong, and the day started quite badly. Some mean people screamed at him in the Marvel conference because they couldn't see anything, and some Marvel celebrities got mad he was insulted and invited him on stage. You're cheering him as he's just standing there with a big smile and stars in the eyes, making friend with Captain America so much he invites him in backstage after the show. Willow drags you with him. He's sure is excited when he fetches you to go with them and you spend all afternoon playing UNO with the Marvel crew. You're quite still have difficulties to realise it's real, but ok!

Swapfell Sans - He didn't want to go, so you tricked him saying you were going in a luxuous boat trip and brings him here anyway. He was mad and pouting until he saw some stands of fake weapons that immediately caught his interest. He talked with the sellor and managed to convince some to put some of his jewalry on their work, and got their email address. When he comes and finds you again, he has a big smile on the face. Also, you took one of his rings to gift to a Marvel celebrity and they immediately post a self of you two and the ring for Instagram. Nox is stunned as the number of people visiting his website is exploading. He gently pats your back and asks you how the hell he can have his own stand here. Well what a twist.

Swapfell Papyrus - He bought a ridiculous bootleg Freddy Fazbear's costume and he's parading in the Comic Con with it. The thing he's so small half of his spine is visible, but he's still having fun, taking pictures with cosplayers. Eventually, his pants cracked when he leaned to take a photo with a child, but he says it was supposed to happen and keeps walking, shaking his booty. You tried so hard to prevent him for going on the cosplay scene, but he went anyway. You are so ashame you go to hide in the toilets. At least he is having fun...

Fellswap Gold Sans - He's criticizing everything and everyone and it's so annoying. And not only you is annoyed. A group of Star Wars fans didn't like how he said their space ship looked like shit and yelled at him, challenging him to a lightsaber contest. Not their best idea as Wine took the game a bit too seriously and used a real sharp bone to fight them instead of a plastic lightsaber. You grabs him in panick and drags him out of here, apologizing to the fans, as Wine is screeching hysterically, begging you to let him go and kill them to teach them a lesson. This is going to be a long day.

Fellswap Gold Papyrus - This was a mistake. Wine gave him lot of money so he can buy what he wants. And what Coffee wants? Plushies. Lot and lot of plushies. You are begging him to not buy that 5 meters high Totoro, but he isn't listening to you, stars in the eyes, as the seller is corrupting him to push him to buy the gigantic plush. And he buys it. You spend the rest of the day dragging a giant Totoro everywhere and getting screamed at by people because you're blocking the way. You are dead inside at this point, knowing you will have to put this monster in your car at one point.

[yvesoclore]

CHARACTER INTRO SHEETS:

AMERA

(this was supposed to be an actual rundown of her carachter, but it turned into a summary of book 1 from amera's perspective. either way- yayyyy finally making their story (somewhat) accesible to people who arent living in my brain)

Amera is a jedi born on pantora in 37 BBY. brought to the temple too young to have any lasting memories, she was given her pantoran tattoos by jedi order member and fellow pantoran Joan. she became Andromache Ilan’s padawan in 24 BBY.

amera is extroverted and friendly, and has many friends within the temple. her closest jedi friends are kyo and barriss, and they keep their friendship as they graduate from younglings to padawans. they consider each other to be siblings.

amera also has a friend outside the temple- Tomilan. andromache notices this, and opts to teach amera ways to both abide by the code and to keep healthy relationships in their different forms. (she dies before she can finish this.)

amera wants to work in the creche, and though she has a kyber crystal, she wears it as a necklace and does not make a lightsaber. her strengths in the force lie mostly in empathy and emotions, but she eventually (think wayyyyy later) harnesses the force and becomes a formidable sniper.

by the start of the war in 22 BBY, amera still does not have a lightsaber. she spends the first year of the war with the 707 (the scorpions), before their death alongside andromache save for one squad member.

after her masters death, she becomes the padawan of Lunain Quinn, the former padawan of Andromache. Lunain’s own padawan, Kyo (Amera’s friend) has recently died in the war as well.

Lunain has always been jealous of Andromache’s treatment of Amera and her place at Andromache’s side. additionally, she blames amera for her death.

they’re both grieving Kyo and Andromache, and their master padawan relationship is… bad.

on her return to coruscant from the field after andromache’s death, amera has also entered into a romantic relationship with tomilan.

when it’s time for her to return to the front, she finally builds her first lightsaber. she also becomes close friends with the clone trooper Star. their relationship only becomes stronger as a result of Lunain's general mistreatment of them.

as the war goes on, her and tomilan’s relationship becomes strained. (its a result of a lot of things, and I won't go too in depth here.) they eventually break up. (this is around a year later)

amera lacks a lot of combat skills, and due to her general dislike of even having a lightsaber, is generally pretty bad at fighting with it. her recent breakup with tomilan causes her to become reckless on the battlefield, worrying star. she also begins drinking pretty heavily at this point. the breakup is the straw that breaks the camel's back, but its generally a result of the fact that she's been fighting in a war, and all the things that come with that.

around the same time, barriss is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the jedi. she joins what she believes is a group petitioning for peace, who are all too happy to have a jedi joining their ranks.

barriss convinces amera to come with her to a meeting. they get involved in a plan to stage a protest within the temple. their access to the temple makes them uniquely suited for the job. (you all know where this is going).

barriss plants what she believes is a device that will play a video petitioning against the war. she hides it well within the temple. amera is tasked with wiping the footage, and has been given a device to plug into the security system that will do so.

the day it's meant to happen, she realizes something is wrong. barriss isn't answering her calls, and she can't go to lunain. she runs into the temple seconds too late and is caught in the edge of the blast, losing her arm.

when she wakes up, barriss is gone, having left the order (with ahsoka). tomilan is there, and they mend their relationship.

her and lunain reach a relative impasse during this period, where lunain mostly leaves her alone and amera and star mostly try to ignore her. they do have one explosive fight during this period, but it simmers down and makes their interactions even more frosty as opposed to like, changing anything.

order 66 happens, and amera, bug, tomilan and lyra escape together.

there is more to this but it would get unimaginably long so, here.

[themasksephinywears]

Tucker Mills

Name: Tucker Mills. Gender/Pronouns: Male; He/Him. Age: 38. Birthday: August 17th. Nationality: American. Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina. Current Residence: Gibsonton, Florida. (In alternate realities) Occupation: Army veteran. Height: 5 ft. 11 in. Sexuality: Bisexual. Fandom: Triple Frontier. FC: Lucas Till.

Brief Background: Growing up the middle child, Tucker’s life was fairly drama-free. He had loving parents, and he grew up super close with his twin brother and younger sister. Where there was one of the Mills children, you would always find the other two close by.

When he was fifteen, he realized he was bisexual. Chase and Heather were the first to find out, and they always supported him, eventually encouraging him to come out to their parents before he left for college and joined the military. It was a little awkward for awhile, for his parents to adjust to the news, but they never hated or exiled Tucker from the family.

After getting his bachelor’s in business, he joined the army alongside Chase. The two were actually deployed to the same base in Iraq. They had the option to request a transfer but steadfastly refused. Sadly, only Chase would be the one to come home.

A week before his death, he half-joked with his brother once they were finished with their tour, they should go on a trip to Disney World with Heather and told him about his plans to maybe move down to Florida, open up a video game bar.

He was buried in his childhood city of Raleigh, North Carolina, leaving all his belongings to Chase and Heather. In his will, he requested his brother to look after Heather and take her on a trip to Disney World.

Personality: Sarcastic, playful, a shameless flirt. He loves to joke around and have a good time with people he's fond of. He is very loyal, hardworking, and stubborn. He can be a bit impulsive, act first-think later kind of person, but he is not completely reckless.

Likes: Spicy food; Alternative rock/metal music; American football; Margaritas; 80's action movies; Star Wars; Roller coasters; Vanilla, sugary scents; Sugar cookies; Racing and fighting games.

Dislikes: People falsely taking credit for things; Keeping still; Broken promises; Red wine; Cheaters; Strong fishy smell; Artificial cherry and strawberry flavoring for medicines.

Random Headcanons: -He is the younger twin, and he is one inch shorter than Chase, much to his annoyance. He loves his brother, but the two can be a bit competitive with each other, and they're both protective of Heather. He does call her his "baby sister" only to tease her. -He has five tattoos. 1) A matching tattoo on the left side of his chest of two lion paws. 2) His first tattoo, on his upper right shoulder of a skull and crossbones he got to try and impress his first girlfriend during his freshman year of college. Later on, he added embellishments to it to make it similar to Jack Sparrow from POTC. 3) On his left side, there is a light green heart with a "H" inside and a blue star with a "C" to represent Chase and Heather. 4) "May the Force be with You" on his left thigh with a X-Wing outline. 5) "Do or do not. There is no try." on his left forearm with a lightsaber hilt. -His favorite color is black cherry red, his favorite animal is a penguin, and his favorite food is hot wings. -Although Tucker is a giant flirt, and he really enjoys flirting, he is much more selective on those he seriously dates or sleeps with. Sex is a very intimate thing for him. -He has a big sweet tooth. -He is not the best singer, but he really enjoys karaoke for the fun and will purposely pick obscure songs.

[Other established verses below cut]

MAIN-ALT VERSE

This follows the main verse save for the fact both brothers return home from their combat tours. The pair took their little sister to Disney World for vacation. He is also the one to talk Chase into them moving to Florida.

Tucker became friends with a couple of soldiers within their battalion named Alex and Cameron, both who lived in Tampa, Florida. The three friends discussed opening a bar, and Tucker honestly thought it would be a good business venture for them. Plus, Heather was getting married! Their little sister would be looked after, everything would be good...

Until one night when she called up her brothers crying. The twins had no idea their brother-in-law was abusive. But once Heather confided to her them he was, they immediately went back up to North Carolina to pick her up. Tucker almost put him through a wall, but Chase called him off. He did let him go--with one last threat that if he ever touched his sister again, not even the “Hounds of Hell will keep me from ripping you apart”.

After getting her stuff and getting her out of the house, they immediately brought Heather down to Florida. Chase’s ex Ariel had a cousin down in Florida who was a divorce attorney, who helped Heather to file the petition to divorce her husband; Tucker reached out to a couple of buddies, found out a local urgent care clinic was in need of nurses and helped Heather to get an interview.

The three live together in an apartment, along with Oreo, Heather’s puppy. He currently works both as a security guard at Heather’s clinic and as a part-time bartender, saving up for his bar.

MARVEL/MCU VERSE

He joined S.H.I.E.L.D. along with his brother after being in the army. He is a field agent, preferring something more stimulating than a desk job. He gets results, even if he is a little messy. He works best with his twin brother. Prior to moving to New York for S.H.I.E.L.D., he did threaten Heather’s ex-boyfriend with a baseball bat. He didn’t hit him with it, but he did break the headlight on the man’s car.

PACIFIC RIM VERSE

Chase and Tucker enrolled into the jaeger pilot program after being in the military, moving to Hong Kong along with their younger sister. He was co-pilots with his twin before one kaiju attack left their jaeger destroyed and Tucker with a broken back. Thankfully, he survived and recovered, but he couldn't keep up the physical demands of being a pilot, so he 'retired' and became an instructor instead. He sometimes has to use a cane for support. When Chase and Tucker first came to Hong Kong, they were in a mandatory quarantine period...that was near the harbor. Tucker grew sick of the intense fish smell after a couple of days.

[darkfinch]

just curious, have you seen the behind the scenes video of Christian Kane walking the audience through the choreography of the First David Job hangar fight scene? he did it with Quinn's actor when they were on location (probably before/after or in a break while filming) and it's really informative and cool to watch :D

OH DO U PERHAPS MEAN THIS VIDEO, with 966 views, approximately 12 of which are from me,

:'^) yes i have seen it it's very cute as well as informative and love this for them....the first time i saw it i was like "this looks like two kids play-fighting" bc they are having. so much fun, visibly, 2 pals, and then i was listening to the commentary for the episode [x] and—

Dean (Devlin): Talk a little bit about the actor playing the part, and how he came to us.

John (Rogers): Uh, he’s actually one of Christian’s best friends. And, um, Chris said “You know, if I’m gonna have somebody kick my ass this season, I want it to be Clayne.” Because when they were growing up literally they would play-fight in his basement.

Dean: Oh my god.

John: They would choreograph, like, fight scenes, and so it’s like, “Okay, if you’ve ever had the fantasy that you’d eventually make a movie with your best friend, after you’ve choreographed your lightsaber fight, this is what they’re doing basically.

Dean: [Laughs]

John: Yeah, and Clayne’s brutal, interestingly we had originally thought about casting, um, different guy, a bigger guy, and then the idea that it’d be a young, fast punk–

Dean: Right–

John: That really would just – really fast hands, faster even than Eliot, really became attractive. And that fight laid out beautifully.

THEYRE JUST BUDDIES HAVING FUN <3 just 2 irl buddies having a fun time. and also quinn is FAST :3

[disneydude94]

Amphibia: Calamity War - Fan Trailer

Alright folks, I typed my new version of my fanmade trailer since the last time that I didn't know what's going to happen in the very first episodes of season three premiere. So I decided to update from draft to newer one. Here goes...

Took a leap through a box super weird to a swamp where frogs talk.

Now it’s done got no plans just my luck I’ll do the best that I can.

Making friends and enemies, it’s weird but hey it’s grown on me!

“I will rule not only this world, but all worlds!”

“You’ll never get away with this!”

“I give you this! I gave you everything!”

“We’re right with you Anne, til the end.”

“Me and Grime will hold him! Just go!”

“I just….. didn’t want to be alone.”

“No, it can’t be?!"

“Polly, get the box! Get the box!”

“Give him back. Give. Him. BACK!!!"

“I’m sorry……for everything.”

“MARCY!!!”

Marcy fell unconscious as the box fell when it sends Anne and the Plantars back home, but what they didn’t expect to see some cartoon characters standing in front of them and one of them recognize her face.

“Anne?”

“Mickey?”

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

Anne give Mickey a hug by with tears flowing after the whole event. Then we switched to the part where Mickey and friends brought Anne and the Plantars back home to reunite with her family. Meanwhile in Newtopia castle, robot frogs are guarding and scanning for intruders. King Andrias summoned one frog robot to attack Anne and her family. The next part where we see Sasha tossed out from the window by Grime as they escape from the castle. Then it shows General Yunaan and Lady Olivia are standing in front of the huge door. Anne is driving a food truck with Sprig, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

Find a way to start again, brush off the dirt and make some friends!

(Mickey summoned his keyblade to face the killer frog-bot. Mr. and Mrs. Boonchuy pulled out their tools to help their daughter. Anne was startled Dr. Jan at the museum. Polly made a video chat with two girls from the workshop about fixing Frobo.)

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

(Sasha steps on a journal and looked through it back at the Plantars Household. Marcy is in a state coma inside the large tube. Anne attack the frog-bot and we see view from Los Angeles where blue light burst into the sky.)

I feel at home in a place that shouldn’t be real.

(Anne kneeled and hugged her frog family. Marcy was having a nightmare when a black dragon with yellow eyes stalking from behind a dead tree.)

Crazy strange but it’s no big deal

(Anne putting on some disguises for the Plantars to cover their identities.)

"We'll get your friends back. I promise" - Mickey

"Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind." - Lilo

"Just let your conscious be your guide" Jiminy Cricket

"When the world turned it's back on you, you turned your back on the world." - Timon

"The only thing that is impossible is impossibility." -Phineas

"Even miracles take a little time." - Fairy Godmother

"Love is worth melting for." - Olaf

"If you do your best each and everyday, good things are sure to come this way." - Princess Tiana

"With great power, comes great responsibility." - Spider-Man

"No one's ever really gone." - Luke Skywalker.

"You poor simple fools. Thinking you could defeat me. Me, the mistress of all evil! - Maleficent.

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

Maleficent unleash her dark magic as Anne, the Plantars, Mickey, and his friends are ready for battle. Spider-Man is fighting against Venom in the abandoned building. Anne and the Plantars went back in time when they're being chased by Carnotaurus. Anne ignites her lightsaber and face against Kylo Ren at Galaxy's Edge. Sasha and Ivy quickly became friends.

Find a way to start again, brush off the dirt and make some friends!

(Anne is playing basketball with her team against the Beagle Boys. Phineas and Ferb are rebuilding Frobo with Polly and Isabella. Anne open the front door revealing Dipper and Mabel.)

It’s no big deal, yeah no big deal!

(Timon and Pumbaa are offering bugs to Sprig with eyes sparkles while Anne felt a little uncomfortable. The Councils of Villains are in the meeting discussing their plan to rule worlds.)

I feel at home in a place that shouldn’t be real.

(Pluto is licking at Anne when pet sitting. The Boonchuys and Plantars are taking selfie in front of "Sleeping Beauty Castle".)

Killer birds but it’s no big deal.

(Sprig, Polly, and Hop Pop are exhausted while they were wearing their disguises until they spotted a regular heron. Anne, Dipper, Mabel, and their new friend kick the doors open together and we see government agents and FBI.)

Riding snails but it’s no big deal.

(Hop Pop was driving a golf cart with Perry and Doofenshmirtz when chased by frog-bots. Sasha raised her sword to defend Wartwoods. Anne was caught by Ursula using her tentacles. Sprig is fighting against a man with rollerblades and robotic arm.)

Eating flies but it’s no big deal.

(Polly, Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella are excited when Frobo comes alive. Sprig set an actual frog down gently. A giant step on its car crushing in front of the capitol with Christmas decorations. Marcy, Olivia, and Yunan are about to be transported.)

Finally me and it’s no big deal.

(Anne, Minnie, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, and her parents were looking at the sky where the frog robot blows up. Anne is sleeping with her mom inside their vehicle on their way home. Then we see a view of Los Angeles.)

Disney’s Amphibia: Calamity War

"Don't you think it's time to say goodbye to those childhood friends of yours?"

[nunukim-182]

Guilty [Revin Fic]

"Red! Good morning!"

"Red, did you see the Justin Timberlake concert yesterday?"

Two of the most popular kids at school, Wendy and Bebe, came up to me.They are my friends which I met in third grade, and they were popular and cool. All the boys and girls look up at them. And also, I was between them. Speaking of me, I am in the cheerleader team, and I’m the most hottest girl in my class. I had to maintain my dignity, and show myself to the most popular quinces. I could not break my fantasy about myself. and...

"Red, hi!" While I was talking to my friends, I looked back. Kevin Stoley. My childhood friend, and the class-famous geek boy. The faces of my friends are not unusual. Everyone's expression is, "Do you hang along with that nerdy kid?" 

Red, I wanted to talk to you, Kevin said. I hurriedly ignored him and continued talking with my friends, his voice beginning to grow smaller and smaller, and I focused on my friends’ conversations to avoid thinking of him.

Looking back a long time later, I looked around. He was not there. My friends forced me to lunch. I can’t stop thinking about Kevin Stoley. 

I am the worst person in South park.

I hurried back home, shrugging off the story of my friends playing. I pulled out the Star Wars DVD in my drawer and put it into my PC. I watched each of the scenes of the eighties’ crude CGs. I felt calm in my mind. In fact, I like Justin Timberlake and pretty, shiny things, but I also liked SF-related items and cosplaying. I knew that if I show my nerdy side,my reputation would fall to the bottom at school. So I had to act like I’m not a nerd. I was really envious of some kids who showed their nerdy ways. They've lost popularity, but they absorbed in their own favorites. If I could have lived without being seeing other kid’s reactions of mine...

I couldn't stop thinking about Kevin Stoley while watching the movie - our first meeting was when we were four. His dad was a huge movie fan, so we’d always went to theater once a week, or rent a video at home to watch a movie together- mostly a space opera movie. I didn’t understand the scenes and the plots because I’m too young, but we focused when they fight with a Lightsaber. When the movie was finished, we played together and went home. Kevin always played as Han Solo, and I was Princess Leah. It was so fun. 

I want to go back to those days.

I wish I could talk to Kevin again.

Wouldn't he is better than the girls who acts like two-faced Bitch?

While I was thinking about this and that, a text came.

[Hey, can you come out?]

Clyde Donovan. He was putting on airs because he won the most cutest kid in girl’s vote. I thought he was not cool. He's a little dumb. And the fact every girls know that Clyde Donovan like Bebe Stevens.

And you want to see me? Do he wants to hook me up?

I thought I can meet him once, and I pauzed the movie and went to the place where he called.

Stark’s Pond. It was the place where Kevin and I seeing stars through telescopes when we was first grade. I'm with a little- short fatass in a place of memory. It's the worst of the worst.

Clyde Donovan didn’t know the truth. He won the first place because the girls cheated the results for using him buying shoes. Also I cheated,too. The shoes are so pretty, so I have to get them somehow.

"Red. I wanted to meet you once. Do you want to date with me?"

What the fuck is he talking about? Besides,I don't really feel he likes me.

"Why? Don’t you have liked someone before?"

"Is there a reason for dating somebody? Oh! And I'll buy you shoes, too. My dad bought some good shoes today. It’s new."

That was a stupid answer. Yeah, you want to hook me up cause you think you’re so cute. Or did he want to make Bebe jealous? And in my head, angel and the devil are fighting. The conscience that I should never date with this fatass for Kevin's sake, and the other side, the sweet devil whispered to me that I can get new shoes every day if I date with Clyde.

Eventually I had to raise the devil's hand.

The news of the Fatass Clyde Donovan and Red McArthur dating spread quickly.

The girls were horribly envious. I know why they envy me. Because I can get Brand new shoes for Clyde every day. And the fatass keep his promise. Clyde sent me shoes every day. This was also possible because Clyde was a well-off kid in the South park.

But I haven't seen Kevin's face since I shaked my hands with the devil.

I can’t feel I’m dating well. In my mind, I should have dumped this fatass and met Kevin Stoley. I don't want to hear this pig's crappy-third-rate drama filtring...

In any situation, Kevin and Clyde’s actions always compared. When we have dinner together, when we have a cheesy conversation...Kevin would have done better. Kevin would never have done this. Already my heart was full of Kevin Stoley, the Geeky kid.

Walking at the hallway with the girls, I noticed Kevin's face while he was talking to Bradley. Kevin looked pretending to be okay but dark. You must be upset and angry. I understand. What I did was really cheap to be blamed for. The pile of shoes only made me feel like I was strangling. I don't want to date with this pig anymore.

I took out my phone to contact the fatass by text message. Surprisingly, the pig had a text message first.

[See you for a second.]

Why did Clyde want to meet me now?

I went to the place where he asked. The backyard of a school It's a place where Goth kids smoke. They weren't there. Clyde taked time to say something.

"Let's stop dating now. "

Hell yes! I was so happy that I almost flew into the sky. That's what I was going to say! But if I like it too much, I'll have a bad reputation, right? 

"Yes. I don't care if you think so."

"Uh. You'll meet a nice guy someday. "

The Devil's contract for such a week was fortunately over. Later, when it turned out that Bebe was in the lead of cheating, I only knew that Clyde was in a big betrayal and had a huge fight with Bebe. But I don't care about their love affair. I had to pay attention to myself for now. I took out my smartphone to contact Kevin. I had to talk to him, this pig has nothing to do with me.

At that moment my hand stopped. Will Kevin ever be happy about this? Or will he get angry at me?

It was complicated. I've been avoiding Kevin because of his falling popularity and geeky ways, and I didn't know if he'd accept me or not. But I certainly wanted to talk.

I didn't avoid Kevin because I didn't like him.

I'm just fear of my bad reputation.

I'm sorry I've been acting like a dick all the time.

I like Kevin.

But I couldn't send a message because I didn't have the courage to say these words. In the end, I decided to keep it in my mind.

I'm a coward.

A month has passed. Kevin's face brightened up. Still, he never greeted me as first as before. Did he give up on me? I didn't feel very good. I wanted Kevin to come up to me again. Maybe he's trying to distance himself, just like me in the old days.

It was a moment when I learned what Kevin felt about me in the past. I thought I should have told him quickly. But if I starting hang out with Kevin... Everybody will think it’s weird What do Wendy and Bebe think of me?

I hated myself for thinking like a nerdy kid about Kevin. I wanted to be honest. I couldn't even tell anyone. But I didn't want to ask my mom and dad for help. I could see the answer what they say. Mom was a redneck, so I could see exactly what she was going to say, and Dad would gloss over it somehow. Adults are not helpful.

I have to change!

I'm not going to hide it anymore.

At this rate, Kevin might get farther away.

When I came to my senses at that moment, I was standing in front of Kevin breathing hard. Next to him, his friends - Francis, Bradley and Dogpoo - were looking at me with a look of "What's going on?". Kevin's face began to turn red. Kevin's expression looked a little complicated. He looked at me and was at a loss what to do. I took a deep breath and shouted at his shoulder.

"Kevin! See you at Stark’s Pond today! After dinner!"

"Huh?"

“What ‘Huh?’ Kevin! I'm serious! Don't hang out anyone tonight! See you at 7.pm!"

Leaving Kevin alone in confusion, I hurried out of school. Heavy snow was falling in the gloomy sky. White, big snowflakes bumped into me. The snow on my hot face melted and cooled my face. I'm sure he will come out. But what should I say?

But I got my mind. I have to finish everything. Whatever I hear from Kevin...

The snow had almost stopped and was falling little by little. It was freezing cold. I could hear the sound of snow stamping from behind me. I could tell who it was, but I didn't want to look back. I wasn't confident.

"Red."

The voice almost similar to Craig stuck in my ear. the voice that speaks timidly without confidence. When his voice became confident, it was only when he talked about Star Wars, Star Trek, and science and math. If he act having a little confident, he wouldn't have been treated like a nerd. Kevin is stupid.

Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, Kevin approached me and began to speak softly.

"Now you want to talk to me? I've been waiting, Red."

Until you talk to me again, I don't know how long I've been waiting... Kevin blurted out the end of his words. I hated that. Why didn't he just talk to me first if he waited so long? I looked at him, who spoke so confidently. He was blushing. It must have been because it was cold, I wanted to think like that. When I saw his cute, red face, my face began to heat up. I felt like my heart pounding so hard. Where do I start with this? I sorted out all the complicated thoughts in my head step by step.

"I've wanted to talk to you, too."

I really wanted to talk with you, like in kindergarten, like in early elementary school, I wanted to see the stars again and watch a movie with you, I wanted to talk a lot about nerdy things. I wanted to stay with you all the time - my lips trembled every time I said. I couldn't stop crying. Hot tears trickled down the cheeks. The wind made my eyes freezing cold.

"I didn't want the others to think it was weird, so I ignored it even if you say hi to me. And it's not because I want to date Clyde before, he's giving hot shoes to me! That's why I dated with him. So... so..."

I'm sorry.

I felt relieved. It’s like feel when you put in a mint candy and take a picture of cool water. How will Kevin react? Maybe he will pissed off. Or he will leave here cursing at me saying two-face bitch.

But Kevin was too sweet to do that.

"I already knew."

Did he know that? So he was been patient and waiting until now. I feel so guilty.

"And I'm not mad at you, Red, no, Rebecca. I'm telling you, I was upset when you was dating Clyde, but I've never been angry with you, Rebecca Mcauther."

Kevin is a liar. It was a stupid sound. It was impossible that his favorite child acted like this and he wasn't angry. I grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't fuck with me! Tell me the truth! You're angry, aren't you? I've been avoiding you because my classmates treat you like a pussy! Why aren't you angry? Besides, I caused a scandal with Clyde Donovan! Are you a idiot? Get angry! Get mad! "

I looked at Kevin's face and let go of his collar again. I just made a sudden advance. Kevin carefully opened his mouth again.

"But I don't want to say bad things to you, Red."

I've liked Red since I first met you in South Park, and I thought I should put up with it if you could be happy. I want Red, Rebecca McArthur to be happy.

Every time he opened his mouth, my heart felt like it was melting. Kevin is sweet  and kind as I expected.

"Would you like me, even I act being dick to you again?"

Kevin answered my question right away.

"Yes. Everyone makes mistakes. And I like Red whoever you is. Even you’re not hot.”

This is why I couldn't hate Kevin Stoley. Everybody like me because of my appearance and popularity, but Kevin was the only kid who covered my shortcomings. So that’s why I kept Kevin in my mind. When people left and came back from me, Kevin Stoley was always be my side ever since, who could always listen to me and share my favorite things without laughing at me.

Kevin held me in his arms around me without saying a word. His short height didn't cover me up, but I hugged him tightly. A moon and a few small stars were shining on us in the black South Park sky. If time had stopped like this. It's cheesy, typical, and like a third-rate drama, but I whispered quietly in his ear.

"I like you, Kevin Stoley. You are like that shiny, little star.”

Kevin said in a small, but soft, sweet voice that I had ever heard.

"...I love you too, Red Mcarthur."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

okie it’s my first time writing this in Korean and I wanted to show my fics to you guys! I had translated this for 4 hours. Google translations are suck and I thought I had to do this.

[damn-stark]

Blinded ch.5

A/N- hope you guys like it :)

Warning- violence

Pairing- Poe Dameron x Solo!reader

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

-

Smiles and cheers erupted throughout the base as pilots landed on the hanger. You stood in the background with your arms crossed on your chest. It was short battle but it was with your help. None of the people in the room and out of the room trusted when you started ordering them. They were quiet and you heard some of them especially Poe sigh as you gave him in order to do to take down the Tie-fighters quicker. They weren’t going to trust you. None of them were or do trust you but it’s a smart thing to do. You not long ago were still Hela Ren...and you still haven’t gotten rid of that part of yourself yet so you’re still Hale Ren them. You can’t even trust yourself.

“General Organa this message was transmitted into my x-wing from one of the main tie-fighters.” Poe said to your mother as he got the message from his little droid. Poe looked at you knowing well who the message was about and to who it was for. You met his gaze for a second but turned away quickly. It was long before his friends grabbed onto him and they started showering him with compliments that he took all to well.

“Cocky bastard.” You whispered to yourself as you saw them leave.

“Come lets go see this message.” Your mother told you making you look away from Poe’s distant figure and break away from your thoughts. You quietly follow your mother into a private room. She inserted the drive into one of the computers and seconds later a holographic video began to play. The one delivering the message was none other than Kylo. You saw your mothers face saddened at the sight of him. He had his helmet on which hid his features and his true reaction to the situation.

At the sight of him though it brought back cold and cruel memories. With your right hand you grab onto the cold metal of your new left hand. Before it was just the scar on your cheek but now your new metal hand is left to remember what he had done. “Hale Ren by our Supreme Leader Snokes mercy he has granted you a second chance. Forgivness for betraying his cause, come back to the first order and he will show you mercy. If you don’t and continue to live amongst the rebel scum we will not stop fighting until we get you back, you know what to do...sister.”

You swallow thickly and take a minute to take in his words. You were used to the way his voice sounded behind the helmet Dark, cold and heavy but as you saw your mother sitting quietly affected by the message of her son you saw that she wasn’t. She wasn’t used to the voice that belonged to Kylo Ren. “You’re not going back.” Your mother Leía said breaking the silence that surrounded the room.

“No but I can’t stay.” As much as you needed your mother to help you fight the battle within you one thing was clear you couldn’t risk being here any longer. “Kylo...I mean Ben gave me this.” You showed her your metal hand telling her that it was him who was the cause of your cut off hand. She mostly likely had an idea but now it was clear. “And this.” You said as your fingers lightly ghosted over your scar. “What else will he do to me if I’m here.” He wouldn’t kill your mother....he loved her too much even if he did blame her...then again he loved you too and caused you more pain than anyone else could.

“Where would you go? You’re safe here...I just got you back y/n I don’t want to lose you again.” She moved and walked to you. You put your head down and looked at your feet.

“I need you yes... you’re the only one who can help me with the pain I feel but I can’t put you at risk.” Your mother laughed lightly and that made you look up at her in confusion.

“Y/N honey as much as I appreciate you worrying about me I can protect myself I always have.” A quiet laugh escaped your lips at your mothers words. She said nothing but the truth after all she was the one who taught you how to fight with a lightsaber while she alongside your dad taught you with a blaster.

“I know you can....” you responded as you looked back at her. “I can go find my father after all if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be here now I would still be fighting for the wrong side.” You confessed to her. A small smile grew on her face at mention of your father and that the reason you turned back was because of him.

“You’re safe here and with Luke gone theirs no one else to help you.” You hesitated and thought of what you needed to do but you knew what she said was true. With Luke Skywalker gone off somewhere she was the only one who could help you.

“You’re right.....”

-

As you passed by people you could feel their hate and fear towards you. You could hear the whispers as they went silent when you walked into a room. No one would get near you, only your mother, everyone else hated you.

“Are you ready?” Leia asked as she met you outside. After a little while you finally had made it to the resistance base. It was beautiful, full of trees and a lake near it. It was peaceful which is why your mother thought that it was good to be outside to start your training back to the light side of the force. You had your doubts, if this didn’t work will you be lost to the dark side? You didn’t want to anymore but their was that possiblty that you would.

“Close your eyes and take a deep breath....” you did as she instructed as you sat across from her. “and reach out...with your feelings..” you reached out again...after years you reached out....she was instructing you to do more but it all tuned out.

Again you felt feelings you haven’t felt in a long time...you felt peace...the life around you that decayed and gave life to more...the water and the base...the people...the energy...you felt her your mother... you felt the force around her...and in you too...You could feel the balance but then.... you heard voices whispering to you. You then felt cold and pain, anger....

“He was going to kill you too..... they sent you away...why would I lie to you..” that was your brothers voice you could recognize it anywhere. You tried to open your eyes but it felt like they were being forced down. You saw a dark part of the planet where you were.. the trees were burnt to a crisp, the ground was black and it was cold sending shivers down your spine. Their was a cave ahead and you approached it with caution.... when you got closer you saw a red light flickering....as you got closer you saw a red lightsaber ignite then the view became clear he brought it up to his face only revealing half of Kylos face and the half of your grandfathers Darth Vader’s mask...you felt both call to you... “come back...” your eyes were fixated on the figure in the distance you heard a voice...peaceful and calm but you saw the red lighsaber until you saw what was behind them...

The red and orange flames that burned the temple and you heard screams...no no no... “he was going to kill you...why would I lie?” “Why would I lie?” That same question replayed in your head..that question that made you commit to the dark side with your brother...his words...the red light flickered and you saw both helmets again.

“No!” You yelled as your eyes flew open, they instantly fell onto your mother who was watching you and wanted to approach but as she saw the dark look in your eyes she stopped. “You did this..you did this to me by sending us away! Kylo was right.” You got up and she copied your movements. The voices in your head were loud and it felt like they were controlling every part of your head and your body.

“I’m destined to be like my grandfather the great Darth Vadar... Snoke saw pontential and my destiny something you and Luke Skywalker failed at.” Your hand instinctively went for your lightsaber but you came empty handed. The voices got louder invading every thought in your mind.

“Darth Vadar redeemed himself..he turned back to the light side...and so can you.” A flicker of light flashed through your head. “Don’t let yourself fall back.”

“Kylo wouldn’t...lie.” You fell on your knees and even if the voices inside your head were loud and calling to you, you ignored them.

“I saw them you know...Kylo and Darth Vadar...they called to me...” you’ve heard stories of the great darth vadar... you were always taught and told to be like him...be as great as your grandfather..Snoke would say, he always told you the story of what he was like in the dark side..his dark path but he never mentioned what happened after.....you were brainwashed to forget it...blinded to that part of his story...the good part.

“I’m sorry....I can’t do this..” you whispered, you saw her set herself in front of you and she placed both hands on either side of your face.

“Yes you can...it’s going to take time but you will...you’re not lost I’m not letting you get lost again.” Even if you could feel the hope she had for your redemption back you still felt her doubt..not on you but herself. Like if she wasn’t going to be enough to help you and after what happened right now the doubt grew. But their wasn’t anyone else...

-

Since you weren’t liked anywhere in the base you decided to go outside the only place where you could be. You had found your lightsabers in your new room you were given and at first you were scared to grab them and confused why they weren’t hidden but you got your old one. Your blue one. Your red lightsaber was there and your hands wanted to reach for it like it was calling to you, like a magnet. Your hand ghosted over it but you tightened it into a fist and you were going to leave it there but you grabbed it. You hung both from your hip and went outside to train. Something that helped you when you were in both sides.

Their was pilots around you working on their x-wings but you didn’t mind them. From the corner of your eye you saw the wondering eyes of Poe Dameron. The same man that was close to your mother and the same man who was to cocky for his own good. You ignored his gaze and ignited your lightsaber revealing the blue blade.

You started to practice different forms of lightsaber combat that you had been taught years ago from Luke. The moves were swift and quick and in many ways soothing. But like every good thing it came to an end. You felt something coming. You looked up and saw something approaching. You turned your head and looked over your shoulder. Your eyes went wide at the sight of stormtroopers flying your way in bikes.

Their weren’t a lot but a few and you knew it was a message to you from Kylo. You saw them bring their blasters up and started to shoot. Everyone around you were quick to get in position for a fight but it was going to take to long for them as the stormtroopers fastly approached. The one coming from behind you pushed something on their bikes and a bigger gun came out. You looked over your shoulder and you saw the stormtroopers still shooting. You wanted to get rid of the stormtroopers that were about to blow up the hanger but the others were approaching fast .

“Duck!” You yelled to Poe who was trying to take them down. He hestiated at first but he did as was told. You threw your lightsaber to the storm troopers and in an instant the lightsaber cut through the bike making it explode. You turned to your other side and then you stopped the stormtroopers that kept shooting with the force. The blasts were stuck in midair as well as the stormtroopers. You then made the blasts shoot the stormtroopers making them fall the ground and their bike explode. You outstretched your hand and caught your other lightsaber.

Everyone around looked suprised at what you had done. None of them knew what to do or say. You turned your head and saw the pilots face. He was trying to hide his shocked and impressed face but you still saw it. You were quick to walk away and ignore the stares. But in that you missed what Poe had to say about you to his little droid. “I don’t know if I still want to kill her or if I’m beginning to like her.”

-

It was quiet and everything in you hated the fact that is was. It scared you. But you needed it to help you mediate. Especially after the day you just had. You always used to do it before but once you turned to the dark side you stopped. You tried once but it only tempted you to turn back to the light side and you stopped and you hadn’t done it until now.

The voices were loud you felt like they were talking next to your ear but they weren’t. Some were louder then others but their was one that was louder then the rest. You didn’t feel anger or evil coming from the voice but instead light. You closed your eyes and crossed your legs. You could feel the dark side calling to you and it was tempting to go towards it but you ignored it focusing on the good, on the light, the hope. After a while you felt a chill... a presence.

“Y/N.” Your eyes opened and you saw someone standing in front of you. Someone you had never seen but have heard of from your mother. It was your grandfather. Anakin Skywalker.

[appleb18]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a Cartoon That was Ahead of it’s Time

So with cartoons getting more mature by introducing stories and talking about mature themes to kids but there’s one cartoon that was ahead of its time, even before Adventure Time and Gravity Falls started the trend and it was Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It has one of the best stories I’ve watched in a long time and since it’s May the 4th, I think it’s to express why The Clone Wars managed to succeed in telling it story and how they got ahead than most cartoons. 

So before I begin talking about how great the show is, I wanna first mention that the show is based on the Star Wars prequels and they were pretty bad. So instead of ignoring them, they cleaned it and they polish to make it better. Something I never believe that they will actually do and worked

Most of the characters from the prequels got revamp and all of them are so likeable, even the characters I found annoying became so damn lovable. 

Pademe was useless in episode 1 - 3, always the lady in distress but in Clone Wars, they made her into a complete badass. Getting things done, being sassy, and make jokes just like her daughter, Leia

Anakin Skywalker, the most annoying character from the prequel trilogy was written so well in the show. He really wants to protect his friends from and he does to extreme lengths like him force choking an Genosion for info and he doesn’t have a problem in killing to do so as well. 

It makes him in conflict with the Jedi Order for forcing things he doesn’t want to. 

It's a real shame that the character you’re rooting is the same person that he’s going to lose everything by the end.

Darth Maul is a complete badass and one of the highlights of the show. When he came back, he first started getting some payback to Obi-Wan for cutting him in half. He started taunting about him killing his master, Qui-Gon and he’s really resisting the temptation to the dark side since he knows what it can do. 

Although he failed the first few times, it doesn’t stop him. The next thing he does is gather a freaking army from the underworld to overthrow Mandalore. Then he start messing with Obi-Wan by killing his ex-girlfriend. Now that’s a villain

Now let’s talk about the new welcome additions to Star Wars 

I can’t lie, at first I didn't like Ahsoka Tano, I found her really annoying but she got better as the show progressed. She’s fully capable of handling things on her own like the Padawan hunt arc and the Siege of Mandalore.

Then there’s Clones and I have to say for a bunch of troops that look the same, they have so much depth to them that’s believable. Never feeling like they're just expendables, being easily replaced and emotionless but writers decided to make them actual people, even calling each other brother.

You follow Domino Squad as they started off as clone cadets 

Then making their way into arc troopers. 

Ninety-Nine, although disfigured and not capable of joining the army, he still fought his hardest to fight for the Republic and his brothers and died as a clone soldier 

And there’s Rex. He treats Jedi, mostly Anakin and Ahsoka as their best friends and his clones as his family.  It's so heartbreaking that he wants to kill his brothers as an act of mercy so they won’t be treated as droids from Seperatist for the Empire in the series finale. 

For a CGI show, this has one of the animations I’ve ever seen. At the first season it was pretty  bad

But then it gradually better for each season 

Then season 7, the last four episode came out, I thought I was watching it in live action. 

The fight scenes, especially the lightsaber combat, is so well crafted. 

So most kids cartoon don’t show characters but with this, 

A lot  

Of  

Characters

Dies and it’s not even offscreen. 

The major characters die like dang, the show is pretty dark. 

Unlike most kids shows right now that are doing slice-of-life, story or both, The Clone Wars is an anthology series which means that each episode has their own story containing at least one or five episodes. 

The most memorable arcs of the show are…

Umbara Arc 

Boba Fett Revenge arc

Obi-Wan Disguise Arc 

And of course, Darth Maul Arc

SW:TCW is such an easy show that doesn’t require you to watch everything and just watch the best part. The story is even consistent!!!

The ending was hauntingly sasifying. The last scene was completely silent with Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker finding the Ahsoka crash ship. Picking up her lightsaber that he made for her and it indicates that he truly has lost everything. 

Although it ended, the plot points are continued in Rebels such as

Darth Maul finding Obi-Wan 

Ahsoka confronting Anakin 

Hell, even plot points are continued or mentioned in movies and video games like

Saw Gerrera was in Jedi Fallen Order and Rogue One

Merran talked about an armored warrior, General Grevious slaughtering her sisters.

So in conclusion, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is one of the best cartoon shows I’ve seen. It has a great cast of characters, great stories, the fight scenes are fantastic, remarkable animations and the ending is satisfying. One of the best cartoon shows I’ve ever watched from the past decade. 

[kcaruth]

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review

Before the dark times, before the mouse empire, LucasArts published several fun, memorable Star Wars video games, from Star Wars: Bounty Hunter to The Force Unleashed series. After Disney’s acquisition of LucasArts in 2012, the Mouse House stopped all internal developments at LucasArts and laid off most of its staff in 2013. Signaling its turn to the dark side, Disney awarded EA (voted worst company in America multiple times) a multi-year license to create Star Wars video games.

EA rebooted the Star Wars Battlefront series (2005′s Star Wars: Battlefront II has to be one of my most played video games) and released the new Star Wars Battlefront in November 2015. Critics acknowledged the game’s great graphics and visuals, but it quickly became apparent that the game lacked content. The hero and villain rosters were very limited, and the game only included content from the original trilogy, not the prequels.

Then came EA’s disastrous Star Wars Battlefront II, the repercussions of which shook the gaming world. Released in November 2017, Battlefront II had some promise. It was the first game since the Disney takeover to feature a single-player story mode that was canon to the film series. The game also contained content from the prequel, original, and sequel trilogies. Additionally, EA greatly expanded the hero and villain rosters. However, EA showed it true colors with the game’s loot boxes, which could award players significant gameplay advantages if they purchased them with real money. Essentially, the game turned into a pay to win system, thereby making players who did not purchase loot boxes feel so disadvantaged that Battlefront II virtually became pay to play.

Although Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series, was developing a single-player Star Wars game, even getting to the point in the development process where they could tease everyone with in-game footage, EA canceled the game and shut down the studio. Not counting the Lego Star Wars games and mobile games, EA’s Battlefront games were the only new Stars Wars video games on the market, an astonishing reality compared to the rate at which LucasArts used to produce games for the franchise.

Eventually, EA finally came to its senses and assigned a single-player action-adventure Star Wars game to Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind the Titanfall series. Former Santa Monica Studio employee Stig Asmussen served as game director, and heavy-hitting talent like writer Chris Avellone, perhaps best known for his work on Fallout: New Vegas, joined the project. Finally, Respawn released Jedi: Fallen Order in November 2019 to much critical acclaim.

Now, with that long-winded background introduction establishing the recent state of Star Wars video gaming out of the way, let’s get into the real reason why everyone is here. What did I think of Jedi: Fallen Order? I am usually well behind on newer video game releases, but our current state of affairs with the global pandemic has afforded me a bit more time to dust off my controller. Having just beaten Fallen Order earlier this week, I have plenty to say about the game. (I even made a pros and cons list! Can you tell I have also been spending my time watching the misadventures of Leslie Knope and company in Parks and Rec?)

At its core, Star Wars is about family, friendship, and good versus evil, so let’s start by talking about this game’s characters and plot. (Don’t worry; I won’t spoil anything from the story.) Fallen Order nails the spirit of Star Wars. Set five years after Revenge of the Sith, players control Cal Kestis, a Padawan forced to keep a low profile after the Jedi Purge. Cal lives on the planet Bracca, where he works as a scrapper salvaging ships from the Clone Wars. Kudos to the game here. I stopped a couple of times just to admire the visuals of Bracca. It was definitely a “wow moment” seeing TIE fighters shriek by overhead and watching a Separatist ship descend from the atmosphere. One day, Cal taps into the Force for the first time since Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66 to save a friend from certain death from a workplace accident. Unfortunately, an Imperial probe droid records the incident, alerting the Empire of a Jedi fugitive. Two Inquisitors quickly arrive on the scene to track down the Jedi. Introduced in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, the menacing Inquisitors are an evil organization of Force-sensitive beings, some of them former Jedi, who have been tortured and turned to the dark side by Darth Vader and the Empire or otherwise willingly joined the organization out of hunger for power. They are tasked with hunting down surviving Jedi in hiding and others exhibiting Force potential. Somehow, Cal has survived this long even though he still carries around his lightsaber with him everywhere! When the Inquisitors corner him, he literally just pulls it out of his pocket! How has no one ever noticed it before? Did none of the Imperial probe droids floating around the planet ever take a snapshot of the weapon? Plot holes aside, two new characters, Greez and Cere, rescue Cal from certain doom at the hands of the Second and Ninth Sisters and ferry him off world.

Cere is a former Jedi who held the role of Seeker in the Order. A Seeker located infants with Force abilities who could be taken to Coruscant and trained in the Jedi arts (think the good version of the Inquisitors). Greez is a starship pilot with a bad gambling habit, a green thumb, and an insatiable appetite. Cal finds a small droid named BD-1, who reveals a message from Jedi Master Eno Cordova, detailing the existence of a hidden Jedi Holocron containing a list of Force-sensitive children across the galaxy. In the wrong hands, this list could lead to the children’s demise. Cal and Cere want to use the list to rebuild the Jedi Order. Thus begins the race between the Empire and our crew of ragtag misfits to secure the Holocron.

Overall, the story is good, great even for recent Star Wars standards. It fits the Star Wars cannon very well, and I loved the nods to the Clone Wars, mentions of obscure characters, and the foreshadowing of future events. Some moments elicit chuckles from the appropriate Star Wars humor, while others go to some truly dark places. The way the game tackles Order 66 earns it extremely high marks from me. The developers need to be applauded for bringing in new and relatively unknown planets that we have not really had the chance to explore before. There is no Hoth, Jakuu, or the like to be seen here, thankfully. Star Wars is a big galaxy; it is about time we saw different parts of it. We have spent more than enough time on Tatooine. The planets we do visit feel alive. Each one has a different color palette, climate, weather pattern (although the developers may have been a little heavy-handed on the fog in a few of the locations), and, of course, flora and fauna.

Cal fights everything from annoying rat creatures to ram-like slugs, from giant venus fly traps to trampoline spring-plants. Players can even collect plant specimens on different planets and plant them in Greez’s terrarium, which was a nice little way to take a piece of each planet with you on your journey. Oh, and the spiders. Cal has to kill tons and tons of spiders. Again, this is Star Wars! There is a whole galaxy at your disposal full of creatures that look like whatever your imagination can dream up, and the best we get is different species of spiders? That is probably nitpicking, but it felt like it was worth pointing out.

When it comes to the Empire, however, the variety is fantastic. Of course, the run-of-the-mill standard stormtroopers are here, but there are also variations like shock baton-wielding scout troopers, flame troopers, and the dangerous Purge troopers, essentially the special forces of the Inquisitors. The chatter between the troopers is great. Before they spot him, Cal can overhear them talking about their notorious accuracy, the planet’s hostile wildlife, or even mundane topics like food rations. Once Cal starts fighting them, they often taunt him, full of confidence in their abilities, but then they come to the realization that they are facing off against a Jedi. The confidence in their voices gradually turns to panicked fear as Cal slices through their numbers. By the time Cal gets to the last trooper standing, that trooper will regularly plead for his life or confess how scared he is. Every once in a while, the Empire will even throw AT-ST walkers at Cal, which are a fun enough challenge, though the strategy to defeat them becomes clear within a minute or two, and players are never forced to change up their tactics. I do love that after Cal destroys the walker, the trooper will crawl out of the wreckage and start shooting at him. Nice touch!

With all that said, the story is not perfect. In fact, once or twice it just feels dumb. For example, Cal goes on this grand mission seeking out an important leader in hiding, and when he finally encounters him, they exchange maybe one full sentence before the leader gifts Cal a rebreather so that he can swim underwater. You are telling me I conquered various obstacles and enemies, traversing across multiple planets all to get...a rebreather? This whole section could have been cut out and streamlined so that the storyline goes directly to the main setpiece of this planet I am talking about. Have one of Cal’s crewmates give him a rebreather and send him on his way instead. Regardless, at least the back and forth traversal gives players another chance to board the ship, ascend from the planet, and blast off into hyperspace. Seeing that never got old.

Respawn and its writers did a great job with these characters, including one of the Inquisitors (the other one is just kind of...meh). I enjoyed getting to know my crew, but I wish they had a little more to do in the game. In reality, they just stay on the ship 95 percent of the time while you are out running around on your mission (not that I entirely blame them...it is a cool ship). The conversations between these characters were usually good, but sometimes Cal would not mention huge, seemingly significant events or people he ran into to his crew! For a cinematic franchise like Star Wars, this game could have used a couple more cutscenes. The game often feeds the plot or a character’s mindset to players by making them idly stand near a crewmate and tapping R3 a handful of times to get them to cough up a couple of lines of dialogue.

As is to be expected from a Star Wars product, the game’s music is terrific. Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton composed the score and recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London. Mongolian folk metal band The Hu also wrote and recorded a song that is featured during a couple of prominent portions of the game. The song lyrics were written in Mongolian and then translated into a fictional Star Wars alien language. The music compliments and elevates the game’s setpieces, with one standout part reminding me of Thor: Ragnarok. A couple of times, the game goes full John Williams to really make some moments hit home, and boy does it work! Hats off to Respawn for putting in this much effort in regards to the music for the game.

Getting into the gameplay, Fallen Order is an amalgamation of several other games. Dark Souls, Zelda, Uncharted, Metroid, Castlevania, Sekiro, heck even Sonic...they are all here in some form or fashion. Unfortunately for Fallen Order, it does not elevate the features it borrows from those games. The biggest reason? The bugs. Oh my goodness the bugs. How can a blockbuster release like this have so many bugs? Maybe it had something to do with EA or Disney wanting to push the final product out before the release of The Rise of Skywalker the next month, but the amount of bugs in this game are simply unacceptable. While none of them led to a complete game crash, I definitely caught myself grumbling, “I hate this game,” with my frustration levels constantly reaching the scorching temperature of Mustafarian lava, especially considering Fallen Order’s inexcusably long load times. Seriously, the load times after dying are so long that I had enough time to run to the bathroom, heat something up in the microwave, or make a cup of tea (to help relax me from this rage-inducing game) before the game finished loading. How can I lift off from a planet and travel through hyperspace faster than the game can respawn me after dying? It is not just dying, by the way. The game developers think they cleverly hid load times behind elevator rides, but that did not work either! At least throw in some elevator music or comm chatter if you are going to make me stand there for so long!

One time, I fell through the level to my death while walking on what was 100 percent solid ground. Speaking of solid ground, or should I say the lack thereof, enemies continued to fight me while clearly hovering in thin air when they should obviously be plummeting to their death. Woe is me if I tried to reach them, though, because my Jedi character must not have that ability, leading to, that is right, more death falls for me as the enemy looked on from his invisible sliver of ground above. If I was lucky enough to have an enemy remain in my relative vicinity and not stand off a ledge, that enemy had a chance of pinning and glitching Cal against a wall, leaving me trapped until I died from the beating. The enemy who kills Cal glows gold until players shave off a piece of that enemies health, which is great, but that means players cannot see that enemy flash red when he uses an unblockable attack. How could Respawn not notice this error when it is such an important component of the combat? For all the aggressive enemies with magical glitching powers, there were also those that would have a change of heart mid-combat and go pacifistic on me. I found this especially common in the later game and on one planet in particular with ranged enemies. They would fire at me, I would block their shot back at them and injure them, and then they would just stand there staring at me. It was really bizarre and made me uneasy turning my back on them to explore the area. I also experienced my health and Force bars completely disappearing from the screen. The first couple of times it happened, I thought it was intentional and meant that Cal could not die for that sequence of the game. Wrong! So much for thinking I was momentarily invincible with unlimited Force powers. This bug was especially crippling during big boss fights, as you can imagine. Respawn throws in some quick time events once in a while where players have to press the correct button in a very short amount of time. For the most part, I did not mind these, but one exception got my blood boiling. Cal is fighting a giant creature and ends up free falling. The game requires Cal to land in a very, very precise spot and pull of a quick time event. I cannot count the number of times I fell to my death during this part because of how finicky the game was being. Cal conveniently stumbles across every single icy or muddy slide in the galaxy during his travels, a way for the game developers to disguise a way to get players from point A to point B quickly, but these slides are also quite particular with when players jump and where they land. Another good portion of my deaths came from Cal not making a jump on one of these slides when he clearly had the distance or him seemingly landing and making the jump only for him to glitch and then fall backwards into a never-ending dark chasm. The game developers may have thought players would enjoy these slides, but I came to dread them.

The worst game bugs by far, however, dealt with frame rates and level textures. Not contained to one section or even one planet, unfortunately, garbage frame rates wreak more havoc across the galaxy than the treacherous Empire. I am telling you the frame rate is absolutely abysmal in this game. I can forgive a drop in frame rate if it happens a couple of times, but it is like it is a built-in gameplay feature of Fallen Order. It was maddening! How can Respawn expect me to properly block or dodge if the game cannot even keep up with my movements or camera adjustments? Texture pop ins and clipping were also recurring issues. One time, I noticed a soldier’s helmet load in late. Another time, a Wookie’s fur took a while to fill up the character model. (By the way, the Wookies in this game look horrendous.) Sometimes, it would get so bad that the game would just pause completely so that it could load in the content of the area. I honestly thought the game had crashed and was about to reboot the console before everything stuttered back into place and Cal got moving again.

I have done a lot of ranting about the game’s flaws the last few paragraphs, so let me get back to some things I did like. The combat works well. I cannot begin to tell you how satisfying and occasionally outright hilarious it is to Force push a trooper off a ledge, especially when he is standing there trying to intimidate you. I had so much fun simply blocking stormtroopers’ laser bolts right back at them. Best of all, I started taking every opportunity I had to pull enemies toward me, especially ones perched up on higher vantage points, and stab them straight through with my lightsaber. The lightsaber boss fights were a highlight of the game. Players feel the weight of every strike and every struggle when the blades cross.

In addition to Cal’s lightsaber, he also has his Force powers at his disposal. He starts out with Force slow and gradually adds other abilities, such as push and pull, as the game progresses. Players may question how Cal, a Jedi, can struggle with a squadron of stormtroopers or the local wildlife, or they may ask why he does not start with all of his Force abilities, but it all makes sense when you consider that Cal has to rebuild his connection to the Force. He has not used it since he was a child, after all. It makes sense that this amateur padawan who did not complete his training runs into a tough time in combat. When Cal does unlock new Force abilities, the game cleverly flashes back to show Cal’s master teaching him that ability during his training before Order 66.

Players can further bolster their Force, survival, and lightsaber abilities through a skill tree. Skill points accumulated from defeating enemies grant players access to increased health, stronger stim potency, increased lightsaber damage, and mass push, to name a few skills. Even later on in the game when most of your Force abilities have been unlocked and Cal has found a couple of fun new gadgets, the game still feels balanced. Cal never feels overpowered like Starkiller in The Force Unleashed games. Even when they are maxed out, his Force push and pull do not appear to have much of an effect on bosses. At most, they will briefly stagger them, whereas when they do it to Cal, he will comically tumble over like Palpatine when Yoda Force pushed him across his desk in Revenge of the Sith.

I will argue that a couple of Force abilities become outdated later in the game. At one point, I forgot I even had Force slow because I had not used it in a while. I only remembered it while I was trying to solve a small puzzle to escape from an area and had exhausted all other options. Can you blame me for always wanting to Force push enemies off a cliff instead of slowing them down?

I appreciate that the game developers allow players to adjust the difficulty at any time. I started out at a higher difficulty and found myself dying before I even left the first world, Bracca. However, I persisted. That is, until I faced off against Oggdo Bogdo and his trash hitboxes. Players can stumble upon Oggdo Bogdo very early in the game. Oggdo Bogdo, a carnivorous amphibian creature, is a boss variation of the more common lookalikes of him. There is a similar optional alpha creature boss encounter on most planets Cal visits. No matter how hard I tried or how many different strategies I employed, Oggdo Bogdo proved to be too tough for me, and after waiting through countless death loads and having to run back over to Oggdo Bogdo’s location time and time again, I decided to lower the game’s difficulty, allowing me to finally slay this ugly creature.

Like Sekiro’s sculptor’s idols or the bonfires in Dark Souls, Fallen Order relies on meditation circles as its save points. Cal can rest to full health and restore his Force meter as well as restock health stims. Meditation circles also allow players to access the skill tree and spend skill points. These meditation circles implement a good risk versus reward system. If players choose to rest at a meditation circles, all of the enemies he or she has defeated since the last rest will respawn. I regularly found myself weighing the pros and cons of my situation, questioning if I should heal and get more stims or push on so that I did not put more enemies in my path.

While I am on the subject of these meditation circle save points, I have to point out that Fallen Order does not have fast travel. Instead, it encourages players to backtrack and explore previously inaccessible areas that they can now open with their newly unlocked abilities. This was fine for a while, but I quickly grew tired of it when I noticed how much of the backtracking had me slowly climbing, traversing across narrow walkways that Cal has to carefully balance on, or shimmying over narrow cliff edges. This is padding by exploration. While the vine and rope swinging was fun, especially with Force pull, I stopped enjoying climbing up a conveniently placed arrangement of vines and the like by the halfway point of the game, if not earlier. I will admit that I believe Fallen Order contains just the right amount of playtime, but this stuff had it teetering on the too long side. This is compounded by one important world that players have to visit multiple times that feels too big. The developers’ creativity and excitement got a little out of hand here. Just pull up the map of that world to see how unwieldy it is. When I completed the story on a planet like this, I felt exhausted rather than triumphant. Why can’t I hail my crew to come pick me up in the ship where I am rather than having to run across the entire planet again to get back to the landing pad, fighting the same enemies I already cleared out a couple of hours ago? The game developers do provide a few shortcuts that players can open, but the amount of time they end up saving is negligible in some cases.

I was disappointed that there is no real endgame content. Sure, players can continue to explore or fight enemies for the heck of it, but the developers could have done so much more. After players unlock every ability in the skill tree, the skill points they collect after that become meaningless. I will confess that I chose to rush past enemies to get to my next destination rather than waste time or energy fighting them for the 50th time after I had filled out my skill tree. Why not unlock fast travel after players beat the story? How about adding in a fighting arena where players can test their maxed out skill set against waves of enemies? Heck, let the players unlock dark side Force abilites like Force lightning or Force choke after they complete the story so that whatever they do then is not canon. I would have continued to gather skill points for that!

Now I mentioned Cal’s droid companion BD-1 earlier, but BD-1 deserves a special shout-out. BD-1 is spunky and lovable. Not only does BD-1 shoot Cal stims to heal him, the droid also provides hints for puzzles, scans enemies to suggest tactics to take them down, plays recordings that push the story along, and helps Cal navigate the worlds by hacking locked doors or carrying him across zip lines. Additionally, BD-1 projects the holomap of each planet, which is vital to keeping track of where Cal is in relation to the ship or his destination. The holomap itself is decent. Color coding helps players see what is inaccessible and what is unlockable, but for the bigger worlds with multiple levels it can be quite a burden to scroll across. Not to knock BD-1, but I grew impatient waiting for the droid’s animation that it goes through every single time Cal finds a hidden chest. Cal opens up the chest, BD-1 jumps in and rumbles around, and then jumps back out with whatever was inside it, all while Cal repeats the same lines of dialogue, like “Woah, buddy!” or “Careful now.” or “What did you find in there?” There are 107 chests in the game. Let that sink in.

These chests are one of the rewards for exploration. They contain items that players can use to customize Cal, his lightsaber, BD-1, or the ship. While this is motivation enough at the beginning of the game, this customization serves no purpose beyond cosmetics. It comes down to which poncho or paint job players find more aesthetically pleasing. I love that the game developers let players change lightsaber colors, but I wish these different ponchos and lightsaber parts had some sort of effect on the gameplay, such as restoring more of Cal’s Force meter or refilling a small amount of health after defeating an enemy.

Force echoes serve as another reward for exploring. Cal uncovers lore from past events by reaching out through these Force echoes. They rounded out the worlds nicely and added to the feeling that they were lived in, real places in the galaxy. The final element of exploration is BD-1′s scans. While you are running around, BD-1 will occasionally crawl down off Cal’s back and scramble over to something the droid wants to scan. These unlock data entries on the planet, its flora and fauna, the Empire, or other characters. This is all fine and dandy, but the level of exploration the game developers expect players to do with all of the backtracking involved needs to reward me with more than just basic lore, especially when some of the entries feel like the writers did not even try when they wrote them. Is an entry on a storage crate telling me that the Empire stored materials in it really worth stopping to scan? I think not. Instead, the game developers could have really motivated me to explore more by throwing in a few interesting side quests or fun Easter eggs. Maybe players could stumble upon active Imperial transmissions and overhear characters like Tarkin or Thrawn. Maybe players could find an abandoned Imperial camp and watch Imperial or Rebel propaganda over a holofeed that was left on. They could have even hidden a squadron of battle droids that were forgotten from the Clone Wars. So many possibilities!

Jedi: Fallen Order is far from a perfect game and has so much unrealized potential, but I would not trade away my time with it. For every flaw, I can point to a positive, and vice versa. At the end of the day, I got to be a Jedi, and that is good enough for me.

[hamfistedmorals]

Rise of Skywalker: Initial Thoughts and Feelings

As a movie, it was engaging. As a Star Wars story, it hooked me. But as a conclusion to this particular trilogy? As a final chapter to the entire saga? Oh boy, was it a hot mess.

BEWARE OF SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

(Disclaimer - I’m one of the 5% of Star Wars fans that loved The Last Jedi, so that might influence my opinion, but I’ll try to keep things unbiased.) 

It was all over the place, and I mean that quite literally. 

We got to see so many new locations, and most of them seemed interesting. Unfortunately, because of the breakneck pace and the ticking clock, the film doesn’t spend any time developing these places apart from Exegol - and that’s only planet who’s name I can remember. Adding on to the map of a Galaxy Far, Far Away is always a good thing. But so many new locations in one movie, with our heroes jumping back and forth every ten minutes...doesn’t make this universe feel larger. Actually, it makes it feel smaller. In past Star Wars movies, it would take time to go from one planet or star system to another. But that really doesn’t seem to be the case here. If there’s one problem that’s been semi-consistent throughout this trilogy, it’s the confusion of timing. (What’s the point of the title crawl if Episode 8 is going to pick up immediately after Episode 7? But I digress.)

The Dyad in the Force is easily the most fascinating concept of the entire trilogy.

I braced myself for the movie to ignore the connection previously established between Rey and Kylo Ren, as it ignores so much of Episode 8. But no, Rise of Skywalker actually build on the bond between these two characters and gives us more amazing scenes of them interacting entirely through their connection in the Force. We learn that they are essentially a one-of-a-kind anomaly, that Palpatine can use to restore his life energy. Rey and Ben even learn how to use their bond by the end of the film. It’s a new idea that Star Wars hasn’t done before and I kinda love it - I just really wish they had explored it more, and better outlined what it is, where it came from, and how it works. Then again, after how much people hated the Midichlorians, I expect the writers are hesitant to give any answers about how The Force works. 

I also appreciated the official introduction of Healing, as a Force Power. 

Say what you will about some of the Force-Abilities introduced in TLJ, but this one makes perfect sense. So much so that I’m pretty sure it’s already a thing in Star Wars video games? It was well foreshadowed and it played a role in Rey and Ben’s final fight, as well as that heartbreaking climax. Honestly, I truly thought Rey was dead in that moment. I teared up, thinking that her parents’ sacrifice was for nothing. Wondering if Finn could sense that she was gone. Wondering what Ben would do without her, since he had no one else. To be honest, I almost wish Rey had stayed dead, since as it stands...we have a redeemed villain sacrificing himself to save the hero that redeemed him...sound familiar? If Ben had lived, and Rey had died, it could have been a tragic inversion of Return of the Jedi, instead of just a retread. But oh well. I had a feeling they were going to kill off Kylo Ren anyway. 

It feels like they did have plans for Finn, but never properly carried them out. 

Rise of Skywalker very clearly implies that Finn has discovered that he’s Force-Sensitive. Which is a good idea, it just comes out of nowhere. Apparently, that’s what he was going to tell Rey - JJ has clarified it. One problem...that’s not a detail that should be confirmed in an interview. It should be answered within the movie. There were two separate conversations about Finn wanting to tell Rey...something, but the film never comes back to that or gives it any conclusion. Likewise, the idea of Finn being force-sensitive is only ever foreshadowed, never brought to light. Overall, Finn got some great moments, like when he met Jannah and got to connect with another former Storm-trooper...but his overall character arc in this film never got off the ground. 

Was it just me...or was Poe constantly angry throughout the movie? 

I don’t know if this was just Oscar Isaac’s frustration slipping through, or if it was meant to be the stress of the war, or something...but Poe was in a bad mood in just about every scene. But just like with Finn, this never gets resolved or even really acknowledged. Didn’t Poe go through an entire arc in the last film about learning to be less of a hot-head? For some reason, he and Rey are at each other’s throats...even though the end of the last film hinted that they found each other attractive? He does get some backstory as a Spice Runner (though they don’t explain what that is. Maybe it’s answered in one of the books, I dunno.) and we get to meet Zori, who is truly a charming and compelling character. Even if she was only written in as a final “no-homo” to Finn and Poe, I wanted to learn more about her. 

They did Rose dirty. They did her so dirty.

She should have been an official member of the squad in this film, not relegated to cameos. There was no reason she couldn't have been more involved. Her romance with Finn should have been addressed. Even if it was just him gently letting her down, they ought to have mentioned it. Regardless of how you feel about Rose and that particular pairing (Personally, I adored her) it's downright strange that she's so absent from the story when she was a main character last time. Gee, I wonder why this was done? Could it be because the character was eviscerated online by a group of hardcore “fans” who compared her to Jar Jar Binks? Who not only made racist, sexist, and body-shaming comments about the character - they drove Kelly Marie Tran off social media? It really seems like downplaying Rose in this film was a direct response to how unpopular she was, and that isn’t fair to the character or the actress. It just seems...cowardly.

The CGI on Leia...could have been better. 

Not gonna lie, it might have been safer to simply reveal Leia’s death in the title crawl and open the movie with her funeral. Don’t get me wrong, I was initially quite impressed with how they managed to re-create Carrie Fisher. It was nice to see her training Rey, and we even get an answer to the age-old mystery of why she never became a Jedi. But as Leia’s scenes went on, the cracks started to show. It became very noticeable after a while that she would never adjust her standing position or really move at all. So many of her lines were shot to avoid showing her face while she spoke. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why it looked this way. I’m just saying that as a viewer, I noticed. Leia’s death scene was the worst offender of this. By the way...what exactly killed her? She apparently gave the “last of her energy” to call out to Ben, but...nothing beforehand indicated that her health was failing, so why would a simple telepathic message consume all her life energy? She’s done it before. Either way, the death scene was kinda lame...but other characters reactions to it? Hit me right in the feels. Chewie’s breakdown tore me to pieces. I wanted to hug him. And as for Ben...

 That Han Solo Cameo

I’m impressed, first of all. We all though Han could never come back since he wasn’t force-sensitive, so he wouldn’t get a spirit form. But the great thing is, Han didn’t come back - not really. It was all in Ben’s head, hence the lines echoing his father’s death. I love how Leia’s death, compounded with Rey healing Ben and all but telling him that she would be with him if he wasn’t on the dark side, is what ultimately swayed him to turn back. When he called Han “Dad...” In that broken voice, and Han just said “I know...” Honestly, that was the best scene in the movie. Ben previously said to Rey that the Dark Side was in her blood, so she couldn’t escape it. It was so clear that he felt that way about himself too, which may have been part of why he turned. Seeing Han was a perfect reminder that he had more than just Vader in his ancestry. 

Chewie’s “death” was the other scene in the movie that took my breath away. 

Echoing the Force-Battle over Anakin’s lightsaber, Rey and Kylo Ren have a tug-of-war for the ship Chewie is on, and in her rage, Rey accidentally conjures Force-Lightning and blows up the ship, shocking everyone. It demonstrates Rey’s power, as well as her natural leaning toward the Dark Side (through anger.) It also foreshadows her lineage. Plus, the whole concept of accidentally killing your beloved friend..It’s got so much tension, so much emotion - it’s fantastic. Only one problem...Chewie survived, and we find that out not even five minutes later. Honestly, it’s the last movie. Anything goes, you can kill off main characters, even beloved main characters. All of the emotional drama that this scene brings to the table stops mattering once you find out Chewie’s alive. I would love to see Rey actually have to deal with the consequences of what happened, for the movie to explore how it makes the other characters feel about her. On the other hand, one of my first thoughts after it happened was “Geez, if the fandom hated her before...” All the fans who complain Rey is a Mary Sue (She’s not) Yeah, they’d never, ever forgive her if she was responsible for Chewie’’s death.

I can’t decide how I feel about Kylo Ren repairing his mask. 

When I first realized it was happening, I was disappointed. In a way, it undoes his character growth in Last Jedi when he rejected his hero worship of Darth Vader - and even did what Vader could not, slaying his master and living to succeed him. Kylo Ren surpassed Vader once he stopped trying to be him, and that was awesome. But between bringing back the mask (with the painfully on-the-nose line about the “cracks in your mask”) and the reveal that “Snoke” is still alive, all of Ben Solo’s coolest moments from TLJ have been reversed. On the other hand... the Kylo Ren mask is, and always was, a symbol. In TFA, it reflected a pretentious attempt to be more like Darth Vader. But in this movie, it seemed to reflect Kylo Ren embracing the image of being the “Big Bad.” much like how Luke embraced his status as a legend, just before he died. And I’m not gonna lie, seeing the words “Supreme Leader Kylo Ren” in the title crawl was quite satisfying. Not to mention, at the end of the day...it’s all an act. Kylo Ren has always tried very hard to be “evil” but his heart just isn’t in it. He’s trying to be something he’s not - so maybe it’s okay if the mask comes back. 

Let’s rip this band-aid off: Bringing Palpatine back was a mistake.

If they needed a greater-scope villain for the climax after Ben was redeemed...why not use Snoke? Apparently, they’re the same person anyway, and people were mad that Snoke died without having a greater story to tell. Palpatine’s return goes entirely unexplained. He just hand-waves the issue by quoting Episode 3. As a viewer, why should I feel triumphant when Rey kills him at the end, when as far as I know, nothing is stopping him from returning again? After all, he survived certain death before, and we don’t know how he did it. (This is what I mean when I say the film is good by itself, but highly flawed as a continuation of existing Star Wars.) Palpatine’s return devalues Anakin’s sacrifice. It weakens both Vader and Kylo as villains because it removes their agency - we now know they only turned because Palpatine manipulated and groomed them. They’ve made him the greater-scope villain of every single trilogy, which just feels weird. I always thought the overarching villainous force of Star Wars was supposed to be, y’know, the Dark Side and it’s tempting call. That anyone could potentially succumb. But speaking of this film rejecting the idea of “anyone” being special...

Rey...did not need to have a bloodline. 

You need Palpatine to have a reason that he’s so intrigued by her? You’ve already got that - she’s part of an anomaly in The Force that no one’s ever seen before. Need a life-changing shock that pushes her closer to the Dark Side? All you have to do is let Chewie stay dead, and have it be her fault. As much as I have genuinely loved Rey’s character growth and I always enjoy watching her, I can’t help but feel like giving her a bloodline at this point was at least partially done to mitigate the claims that she’s “too powerful.” Not to mention, it ruins the reveal at the end of The Last Jedi, and it’s one more thing that makes the Star Wars universe feel smaller. Coming from a powerful bloodline shouldn’t be a requirement for changing the fate of the Galaxy. Sure, Force-Sensitivity is often hereditary, but not exclusively. Besides, there are more people out there attuned to the Force that just the Skywalkers, Palpatines, and Kenobis. Why couldn’t Rey just be one of them? If Star Wars really is going to go on forever, it can’t simply be the continuing sage of two or three families screwing up the Galaxy. 

What’s up with the super-rushed tone of the ending? 

So, Rey and Ben share a kiss - whether or not you ship them, this moment is wholesome, heartwarming, and so earned -  But then Ben immediately, and I mean immediately falls down dead. He doesn’t get any last words or even a last moment. (Come to think of it...does Ben have any lines at all after his scene with Han? I...don’t think he does. That’s just weird.) Nope, he just fades into the Force so quickly that I didn’t even realize what happened at first. Rey makes it back to the Resistance base and reunites with her friends, but they don’t share any dialogue either. No final moments, not even Finn telling Rey that he’s Force-Sensitive. Disney gets to check off their diversity clipboard by having two nameless women kiss in the background, and Rey then visits...Tatooine, of all places, to bury The Skywalker twins lightsabers. Because you see, a Jedi’s Weapon deserves respect. Burning them? Shameful. But burying them, A-Okay.

Rey is never shown mourning Ben Solo.

Whether or not you think he “deserved” redemption, the film clearly sided with the idea that he did. It based a lot of it’s conflict on Rey and Ben being a hero and a villain who also cared about each other. Going so far as to include the Dyad, and give them a kiss scene. So it’s bizarre that Ben’s death doesn’t seem to affect Rey. She doesn’t even have any sort of reaction to it, but she does have a gold lightsaber now. Which is so incredibly cool that it baffles me that they didn’t let her have it sooner. She never gets to really use it. A random local shows up, for no other purpose than to ask Rey who she is. Rey looks on to see Luke and Leia’s Force-Spirits give their blessing (No Ben, for some reason.) And she then introduces herself as Rey Skywalker. Because they had to justify that title somehow, right? Then the scavenger-turned-jedi, who started out all alone on a desert planet but found a family through her travels...ends her story all alone on desert planet. Hey, wait a minute-

The problems of this trilogy boil down to the fact that it had two writers, with two different visions for the characters.

Perhaps the death of Snoke, the introduction of Rose, and Rey’s lack of lineage directly conflicted with J.J.'s plans for the new trilogy...but The Last Jedi happened. It's canon now. Trying to pretend otherwise doesn't "fix" that. Having moments that directly contradict the previous film, even taking intentional jabs at it (looking at you, Force-Spirit Luke) is a waste of time and honestly feels...kind of immature? As a writer, I’m sure it isn’t easy, but you've got to work with what you have, follow the ideas and plot threads introduced, or else none of it will feel organic. So many moments like repairing Kylo Ren's mask, bringing back Anakin's destroyed saber, giving Rey a bloodline...they just cause whiplash.The only arcs that really continue through each movie are Kylo Ren's redemption, and Rey's identity issues. The writing of Episode 9 does everything it can to erase the ideas of Episode 8, and as a result, the entire trilogy feels directionless. The story feels like its at war with itself. I understand if Rian left J.J. in a compromising position, but sometimes you have to let go of ideas if they can no longer work in your story, however much you want them to. And, not to pick on J.J. too much, but...if he really had a major plan for the trilogy, then why didn't he stay to write Episode Eight? He left the second chapter of the trilogy to an entirely different writer, so...what did he think was going to happen? 

It’s a good movie. It really is. I was on the edge of my seat. If you’ve never seen the first two films, you’ll likely enjoy the hell out of it. But if you’re hoping to get a satisfying conclusion for the characters you’ve grown to care about...well, I’ll just say that I didn’t find that here. 

[kenobios]

rotj: my thoughts

positives and negatives. spoilers ahead

so, i wasn’t gonna write one of these but i felt i needed to get some stuff off my chest so i can move on. i was just gonna pretend this movie didn’t happen but i think i can come to eventually accept that it did now that i’ve had time to digest everything.

POSITIVES:

- honestly... from my first viewing there isn’t a lot i like. but i’m sure this will improve the more i watch the film and actually have the chance to form an opinion on more things within such a hectic onslaught of information. - i laughed. c3po and that little fixer dude were genuinely funny (to me). dio (sp?) was super cute too. tbh i never cared much for droids (my obi-wan is coming thru here) but i actually enjoyed them so that’s a win for me - very pretty film. visually spectacular.  - fast-paced. not boring for a second (to me). kept me entertained. - rey’s yellow lightsaber. i actually liked this even tho it doesn’t match up with current canon (yellow being for temple guards). it reminded me of bastila and i was just waiting for her to show it off as a double-sided saber... which i didn’t get but it still looked like it was built for it so i’ll take the win. - the idea of palpatine being powerful again but it would have been cool to see a younger version of himself - rey and ben teaming up and the intimate moment they shared which felt genuinely beautiful and was one of the highlights for me

now here’s the ISSUES i have off the top of my head, some of them having been mentioned on this blog before:

- the trio. everyone else has already said it. forced and uncomfortable. it felt like they were setting up a love triangle for the first half of the movie as well, which was weird. when they had poe and rey have those ‘moments’ or when they bickered with each other i was like ‘they better not be tryna spring up some hanleia dynamic on us for the last film between these two’ especially while also baiting finnrey (which is never touched upon again after the first half of the movie, yikes)

- towards the end of the film, i turned to the person next to me and said “this reminds me of a video game plot” - i couldn’t pinpoint exactly why that was, but it was just a feeling. and not a deep, thorough video game plot either. another reviewer said something similar. it’s just... very shallow, expository and it feels like it’s dragging you and the characters through very railroaded and forced missions/battles. i mean at the start they’re really just looking for something, going to someone, that person says they need to talk to someone else for the thing, they go to another person, etc. which is a type of mission device used in games as well. it also felt to me like one of those japanese otome games where rey is the bland female character that all the male characters fall for (poe, finn, kylo) and she gets her pick of which one she wants to romance, which was cringe.

- i didn’t hear the characters. i only heard what they were forcing the characters to say in order to progress the plot or explain the plot. the characters themselves became faceless inserts for exposition. so many times i heard a character say something and thought... that was a jarring piece of dialogue that seems both out of character and unnatural to say at that point in time.

- although i said being fast-paced could be a positive, it was largely a negative for me. at one point it felt like slide transitions were happening at minute intervals. a major plot point would be revealed and then no time is given to process, it’s onto the next major scene. this left everything feeling very rushed and messy, which i believe is due to half the film being cut for time constraints.

- each character is either twisted into an unrecognisable character, or ignored/not given the time they deserve. rey? blank slate female protag with a famous bloodline and who barely reacts to the things going on around her (leia dying, ben dying, she disregards her ‘friends’ on multiple occasions). like others, i always defended rey’s abilities, but this film is too much. she has been made a mary sue. finn? rendered nothing but the ‘friend’ pining after a girl and only briefly gets time with his own story which is never fully explored in this film by any means. poe? turned into a grumpy, seemingly jealous ‘friend’ with a shady past that felt like they were trying to make him the ‘han solo’ of the trio rather than going with what we already know about his character. leia? now this is hard, and i respect what they tried to do, but i still felt like her death could have been done a bit better rather than the quick ‘shock’ moment it was. also the stuff with luke training her is a no for me. way too shoe-horned and part of what made leia cool to me was that she was a skywalker but didn’t need to be a jedi. her powers were elsewhere. kylo? don’t get me started. rose? who? she may as well not have been in this movie with the way they ignored her character and showed how little the other characters care about her. it broke my heart.

- rey palpatine? though i’m a rey kenobi fan, i was happy with rey nobody. i liked what it stood for. i didn’t mind the idea of rey palpatine in theory, but the way they force-fed this to us in the film rather than building it up left a bad taste in my mouth and i’m going to have to pass on it. if they wanted to have her related to palpatine, they should have just made her a clone imo. it would have matched with what was being built up prior (in tlj with the clones in the cave), it would have explained her ties to the dark side, it would have completed the palpatine/skywalker poetry, and it would have still been congruent with her being a ‘nobody’ since that’s essentially what clones are seen as in star wars. also we wouldn’t have to think about the fact palpatine got laid. laboratories were already set up in jakku by palpatine. cloning itself was shown in rots anyway (snoke) so? 

- although i’ve wanted ben to be redeemed... it still felt too rushed in this film. also, he does display some toxic tendencies as kylo ren towards rey (trying to manipulate her to go with him) which didn’t sit well with me but i didn’t really see ben/kylo ren in his scenes sometimes anyway, since he was also forcibly used to give exposition to us/rey. i did like his scene with his mother and father in the film but i just needed more than that to really feel his redemption rather than the quick switch we got. 

- i originally wasn’t okay with the whole ‘bringing someone back to life through the force’ thing since i always liked the idea palpatine was just saying that to honeypot anakin, but decided i’m willing to accept it as a unique ability they had for each other due to their force bond. but then... ben dies anyway. and it’s done in such a way that leaves you feeling ‘wtf just happened?’. it was random, forced, didn’t feel necessary and it just... happened. no one reacted to it. he wasn’t referred to or mentioned after this. the last skywalker goes out just like that. poof. okay. so was this a shock death or was jj genuinely trying to appease people who didn’t think ben deserved redemption or to live? either way ben lived such a sad, cruel, manipulated life that his death seemed unfair and we’re all supposed to think this movie is hopeful and celebrate a few minutes later? i don’t think so. in fact, everything that happens after that scene feels incredibly uncomfortable because of the massive tonal shift.

- the kiss. ok don’t hate me. i enjoy reylo. but i honestly think the kiss wasn’t exactly... needed? maybe it was just because everything else felt so forced but it felt a little forced in this scene for me. for me, the hug ben gave rey just beforehand spoke more volumes of their intimacy. i did mention their intimate moments above as a positive, so i still like this overall moment (in addition to the moment rey heals him). but the hug spoke enough to me that it would have been nice to keep it more subtle yet obvious enough (thanks to their acting) that they cared deeply for one another. but then again, this is what i felt before i knew ben died, so. idk. i guess it would suck for ben to die without having kissed rey? how about just don’t kill ben off. have them hug instead of kiss and then leave us to fill in the gaps as they both live. how about that.

- the rey skywalker thing is embarrassing. and rey ended up alone in the desert... just how she started. i just can’t. by the time this came on the screen i was ready to leave. i only stayed because i HOPED there would be an after credits showing her on the falcon, or her training finn to be a jedi, or her speaking with any of the force ghosts (luke or ben or anakin).

- speaking of which. why were there no force ghosts in the scene where she fights palpatine? we just get voices? that scene really lacked impact and the whole fight sequence just felt blah. palpatine came back super strong and then he was gone in moments. there should have a) been force ghosts or some kind of visual presence of the jedi to help rey whether physically or just boosting morale and b) ben should have fought palpatine with her.

- why is rey alone in the desert? i honestly didn’t think this meant she was going to be a hermit until i came online and saw that’s what everyone else thought. but just... why? why is she not passing on the jedi ways she fought to keep alive? or the knowledge she has gained/kept in the sacred jedi texts she stole? surely not. surely that is her plan. surely ben saved her not just because he loved her but also because she can carry on the skywalker legacy NOT by dying alone in a desert but by training new jedi. (which, again, SHOULD HAVE BEEN FINN AS THE FIRST NEW JEDI!) or better yet, a new type of jedi that don’t follow toxic ways but that incorporate both the light and dark side of the force like she does? and calling THEM skywalkers? but nope. instead she ended up back where she started. except with less personality this time.

- i can’t talk enough about how cool it would have been to have jedi!finn at the end. talk about coming full circle from the promo baits they had for TFA of finn with the lightsaber. AT LEAST GIVE US THIS.

- the whole movie just felt like a massive disrespect to the previous film. everything rian built was trampled on, retconned or ignored. say what you want about tlj and rian, but this is what happens when you ignore or try to retcon the preceding film whether you like it or not. everything feels messy and the plots get screwed up. this movie would have been largely different (better) had they not tried so hard to pretend tlj didn’t exist. even if you didn’t like it, take the plot and mould it into something you do like. don’t just toss it aside and lose all sense of continuity between the films. i don’t blame jj for this exactly, but rather the disney committee that were too afraid to acknowledge tlj’s existence due to the reception it got from fans and thus felt the need to have jj ‘fix/retcon’ things rather than build upon/improve things.

- oh yeah hux. that happened, i guess. i thought it was weird and it kinda sucked that they did that. who cares about the new guy? general pride or whatever? no one. surely making general hux more menacing couldn’t have been THAT hard. but no. we get a rather silly death instead. alright. at least he can forever be known as the petty king of star wars.

- there’s probably more. i could write an essay but i’m getting tired of complaining already so i’m leaving it here. if you happened to read this far and want to talk about it with me some more, my DMs are open!

overall, i just hope some canon content is going to be released, either in the form of a book or a comic, that explores more of this following the movie. i want to know more about finn’s story. i want to see whether rey does stay on tatooine or whether she trains jedi. i want to see whether she communicates with ben through the force, or just, y’know, any closure on that would be nice. i want to see the director’s cut with the other half of the movie. then, perhaps, i will know peace.

[shastlelow]

The Rise of Kylo Ren (2020)

(This post was originally posted March 11, 2020)

HELLO!  YEEAAAHHHHH!

Welcome to This Week in Comics – Star Wars Style!

As mentioned last week, this week there are three books. First up is the new ongoing series, Bounty Hunters #1, telling stories of a band of bounty hunters in the time between Empire and Jedi. There is also the second issue in the ongoing Darth Vader (2020).

Then, there is the conclusion of the limited series The Rise of Kylo Ren (Issue #4 (of 4)), by Charles Soule, illustrated by Will Sliney.  This review will be a summary/review of the entire 4 issue series.

SPOILER WARNING: This review/summary may contain spoilers for this issue, as well as any previously released Star Wars media (Films, TV Shows, Novels, Comics, Video Games) released to date, including #NotCanon. Also, this post may CONTAIN ADULT CONTENT!

Long Ago.

The Rise of Kylo Ren #1 (of 4)

“I am called Ren. But that is not my name” The issue opens with a mysterious masked figure. He wears a cape, but no shirt. His mask is non-descript. Silver with some red markings. No facial features to speak of. Chunks of flesh missing on his arms and torso.

He is crouched in front of two brothers. They are hiding from the battle around them. Seems that Secsec and the Knights of Ren have both been looking for these two.

“Ren” appears to be Force sensitive, what he calls “touch the shadow” and he believes that one of the brothers is, too.

The young man shows that he can. The offer to “follow” Ren, who responds, “You don’t follow me, friend, you follow this.” And he ignites a red lightsaber. “The Ren.”

“The Ren doesn’t stop to worry about what it’s burning or the right or wrong of it, or the goals it might achieve. The Ren just is. It lives, and it consumes, and it doesn’t apologize. It is its nature and nothing else.”

Ren believes in that principle on a deep, DEEP level. He grabs the blade with his other hand “SSSizzle” He has, in fact, dedicated his life to it.

The brother could have all this, too. All that is required is a death. When the brother proclaims he’s killed more people than he can count, Ren say, “No. A good death.” It is understood Ren means his brother. As the boy questions this, we see a blaster fire. The young man falls to the ground, his brother the one who fired the blaster. He wants out. Ren comments that he’s “got the attitude. I respect that.”

“But you can’t touch the shadow” and he leaps, lightsaber ignited and kills the other brother.

Now, the Knights of Ren are gathered, dead bodies everywhere, they’ve ended the battle.

“Didn’t work out?” one asks.

“No. If it was easy to join us, everyone would do it. The master will find us someone soon enough”

Now. The Jedi Temple of Luke Skywalker.

We see a burning temple, with Ben Solo looking over it. A starship arrives, carrying Hennix, a Quarren male, Voe, a human female, and Tai, a human male.

They get no readings. Just Ben. They approach him and ask where Master Luke is. Ben responds that Luke attacked him. Tried to kill him in is sleep. “Now he’s dead.” Voe exclaims that this can not be.

Ben replies “What? Don’t think I could do it? I’m stronger than the three of you combined. Skywalker made us act like we were equal, but we’re not. I was the prize student”

Tai tries to speak to Ben. Says it couldn’t be as bad as he says. Ben responds that he is leaving, and they should, too. Hennix and Voe ignite their lightsabers (Blue for Hennix, green for Voe) over Tai’s objection. They can talk this out.

Ben tells them “None of you are Jedi.”

They battle. Tai eventually ignites his blue lightsaber.

Ben tries to leave. The three take him on. Reaching out to the Force, Ben causes debris to fly everywhere away from him, injuring Hennix. He initially looks a little shocked, but he tells them as he walks away “I warned you.”

He then returns to his ship. The three follow.

Ben’s droid asks where they are headed. That he hasn’t entered a destination. He suggests Hosinan Prime, to return “home”

Just then, a dark voice says “It happened, did it not? We both thought it might. Skywalker feared you, your strength. He was always small” and we get Ben’s view of the event as we did in The Last Jedi.

We then see a bit more. Just before the temple explodes. Ben watches it happen, cries NO! and runs to try and save people. “I never… I didn’t want this.”

The voice responds “And you did not choose it, Ben. The Jedi did. Skywalker.

Ben tells his droid that they aren’t going home, they are going somewhere else.

On the ship of the three others. They try to figure out what happened, how Ben could do this. They debate if they should tell Leia. The resolve to try and get to Ben.

Elsewhere.

A holographic planet surrounded by metallic rings yet connected by what appear to be roots.

Ben approaches Snoke, his throne made of stone, surrounded by lush plant life. He is pleased Ben came to him. Ben tells Snoke he’s been thinking….

….about the Knights of Ren.

The Rise of Kylo Ren #2 (of 4)

Issue 2 picks up right where the last issue ended. Snoke speaking to Ben on this strange planet. Snoke implies that while Ben Solo might be interested in the Knights of Ren, they may not be interested in Ben Solo. Ben responds that he hates that name because it is the name of two legends. Feels everyone expects him to BE Obi-wan. They are interrupted by a droid alerting of an incoming transmission from General Hux. Snoke tells the droid that Hux will have to wait, he’s in the midst of an important conversation. Ben is intrigued. Who is this Hux? Snoke states that while he is not the most social person, he does have other friends. He then gets back on point. What is Ben’s true name, then, if not Ben Solo? Snoke says “I was not born Snoke, I became Snoke. Who will you become?” Snoke can sense what Ben is thinking and thinks that is good, very good.

Snoke tells Ben that when he is ready to be called by that name, when he actually kills that part of him, he will be read. Ben leaves the planet.

Years Earlier

We are on a starship. Inside, we have a young Ben Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Lor San Tekka (Lightsabers and wands up, and bells for Max von Sydow). They are looking for a lost Jedi Outpost that Lor has heard about, and he mentions that it is probably High Republic era. Young Ben is visited by the dark voice, showing that it has been with him a while.

They land at a temple on the planet Elphrona. There are some touching scenes with Luke encouraging Ben. They enter what turns out to be a treasure trove of artifacts, including a Jedi Holocron. Luke comments that it may be better than Jocasta Nu’s cache. Just then, both Ben and Luke sense…

Cold.

It is the Knights of Ren. Claiming ownership of all that is there. Luke tells then how wrong they are, that these belong to the Jedi Order, which right now means him. He is the Last Jedi, though not for long.

“Ren” from the last issue states they will show this “old fool” what they can do. Ben interrupts by yelling “This is Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. He is a LEGEND!”

“Ren” responds that the Knights of Ren are LEGENDARY and ignites his red lightsaber.

Luke tells Lor to take Ben. Ben asks “What about you? There are seven of them!”

Luke responds “Oh, I’ll be just fine.”

A fight ensues. Luke handles them handily. It is down to Luke and Ren. Ren tells Luke to come get the blade. He probably can, but that he just activated the kill switch. If it leaves his hand, it will blow everything away.

Ren says he thinks he’ll just take his men and leave. On his way out, he says to Luke “you said you could sense the shadow in all of us – that’s right. We’ve all got it. But you know your apprentice does too, right? Powerful. Can feel it. Better be careful, Jedi Man.”

He then takes off his mask. He questions Ben if he is sure this is the path for him. That there are other paths. As he leaves, he leaves his mask and tells Ben if he ever wants to learn more of the about the shadow, come look them up.

We then are in the “present” – in the same temple on Elphrona. Ben enters and picks up the helmet. He puts it on. The helmet speaks to Ben. “Hey kid. Was wondering if we’d ever hear from you again.” He then tells Ben to go to the Vanrak system.

As he takes the helmet off and is approached by the three padawans, telling him “you have nowhere left to run.”

The Rise of Kylo Ren #3 (of 4)

The Mid Rim. Varnak.

The Knights of Ren are at what appears to be a bar. In walks Ben Solo. The two talk. Ben is presented with the “good death” from Issue #1. Ben says he’s killed a Jedi. Not Luke Skywalker. Ren says maybe the boys would like to hear this story.

Most of this issue is the story of Ben and the other three. Voe “thought the Force was a contest she could win” – Hennix thought the Force “was a Puzzle” and Tai “was just Tai”

Ben is explaining who these people were to him. During the flashed to the fight, it is clear that Ben just wants to leave, but they, especially Voe, won’t let him. At one point, he screams “you think I’m a murderer, Voe? IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT ME TO BE?” It looks like he kills Voe, but in actuality, it is Hennix. He then destroys the outpost.

Ren states that it was a death, but not a good death. Not good enough. Ben protests, but Ren says that he didn’t really want to kill him. But since Snoke vouched for him, they will let him spend some time with them. Maybe he’ll get that good death. But he needs some clothes. He looks like garbage, and the Knights of Ren have a reputation.

We then see Ben in an all-black getup.

We then return to the outpost. Voe and Tai force their way out. They vow to find Ben and end his path. Tai comments that he think’s Ben is already lost.

The Rise of Kylo Ren #4 (of 4)

Mid Rim. The Minemoon of Mimban

Ben, Ren and the Kinghts of Ren have a group of people on their knees. Ren is threatening to kill the leader if he won’t give him the information he desires. Ben stops him and says there could be another way. We see Ben reach out, causing the man great pain. It is the first time he’s done this.

Ben has obtained the information. Ren compliments the move. He then orders the Knights to “release them” Ben is shocked that they have killed them all. Ren says he did.

Ren expresses disappointment in Ben. Perhaps Snoke was wrong. Rai and Voe arrive. When asked who they are, Bn responds “The Past”

Tai tells Voe to go help the people while he takes on Ben. Ren goes on the attack, and Voe stops him. They fight. Meanwhile Ben and Tai are fighting. Ben explains that he has no choice. He is the son of the light and the dark. Tai explains that all paths have two directions. That it’s never too late, there is always hope. Ren and the knights are having a tough time defeating Voe.

Ben and Tai eventually are over a lava pool. Tai pleads with Ben. “Be who you---” and his neck is snapped – by Ren. He once again states that Snoke was wrong about Ben. They have the following exchange.

Ben “You killed Tai”

Ren “I sure did. Snoke was completely wrong about you. You’re fighting this every step of the way.”

Ben “You think so?”

Ren “You don’t want to live in the shadow.”

Ben “True” uses the Force to pick up Tai’s lightsaber. “I am the Shadow”

They fight. The Dark Voice returns “Now you will be who you are. Who you were always meant to be” and it appears to be Palpatine.

The fight continues. Ren saying Ben thinks he’s special. Ben responds that, no, it is everyone else who thought he was. This is a great double page spread. I’ll include it as the image from this issue.

Ben finally understands what Ren meant. “Here’s your good death!” and he kills Ren.

Then, he finds Voe. She says, “you killed the master.” Ben responds “of course I did. I’m a murderer, remember?” and kills her with Ren’s lightsaber. The Knights then all kneel around him.

We then see a shirtless Ben crafting a new lightsaber. He takes the blue crystal, clutches it in his hand, and with a raged strain, fractures it and it “bleeds”

He places it in the saber, and it is wild. It is coming out in odd places. He has an idea. He adds the now iconic hilt. He ignites the saber. The Dark Voice says, “What is your name?”

END

Master Shast LeLow’s Thoughts

This was, overall, a good mini-series. Similar in the tone of the inner voice/conflict of the current Vader run. A good back story that still leaves plenty of room for further expansion. The final issue was exciting, and had some real stunning visuals.

I want to point out that this is the second mention of High Republic that I have come across in my re-reads for these reviews (the other was in the Star Wars title). It’s cool to note, because these issues came out before they announced what Project Luminos was.

When Ren first removes his helmet in issue #2, I originally wrote this. “He looks exactly like an older Ben, with grey hair.” – but I can’t find any corroboration online that this was intentional. In Issue #3 when they are together, they don’t look the same. So maybe it’s just me. Would be curious to hear from others who’ve read it.

‘Til the Spires, and May the Force be with you!

[snarky-badger]

Prompt: Reader has a shitty relationship with reality. Weird crap happens to them and things that shouldn’t happen do. Sometimes they will go missing out of the blue do it it and just show up a couple weeks later. They usually carry around a recorder with them so they can show people they aren’t insane but they forget it and go missing for a bit before coming back. Eddie/Venom FREAK the fuck out.

This is my second attempt at this, as tumblr deleted the first draft I wrote! Grr. Still, it was fun to write! Kinda more Eddie and less Venom.

Your life was weird. Which was to say, you and reality had apparently met and broken up with no chance at reconciliation.

It had started when you were eight. Now, keep in mind, you’d been born in the eighties, so it was high weirdness to suddenly be in possession of a computer the size of your hand.

You’d been playing when something had just popped out of nowhere, bouncing off your head before clattering to the ground. A little dazed, you’d picked it up and discovered that it was something called an iPhone 8. You’d played with it for hours before it had simply vanished out of your hands, leaving an odd chill and a very baffled you behind.

Things had only gotten more complicated from there.

More things appeared and vanished around you, sometimes little things, like keys or books, sometimes big things, like your parent’s minivan.

When you were twelve, you’d vanished from school. Literally. Your parents had gone insane. Search parties were sent out, Amber Alert’s announced, police canvased the entire neighbourhood. When you’d reappeared a week later, your parents had ignored your tale of meeting Robin Hood and grounded you for running away and making up stories.

Your childhood and adolescence was peppered with disappearances, your parents believing that you were a liar and a runaway, and you had suffered through numerous trips to various hospitals because of the ‘tales’ you told.

You’d started bringing a tape recorder with you to film your adventures when you were fourteen. Over time, you upgraded to camcorder, then your smartphone, and finally a hidden camera that you could bring wherever you ended up. You had images and videos saved that surpassed any CG movie out there.

It was odd, you realized, that when you ‘popped’ into new worlds, that no one there thought twice of your sudden appearance. You just blended in with whatever timeline or universe you’d slid into, as if you were supposed to be there in the first place. You’d seen dinosaurs, broke bread with dragon-slayers, saved dragons from dragon-slayers, visited far off worlds and even alternate universes just a smidgen different from your own.

It continued on until you were old enough to move out. Sure, you still vanished from time to time, visiting odd and strange places, but it was fun for you. New experiences and new adventures. The hell with your doubting parents. This was your life and you embraced it.

You’d been chased by a feathered T-Rex, nearly gotten run over by a horse drawn carriage that belonged to Sherlock Holmes - the older one not the hot one - shared mead with Hobbits, gunned down zombies, met aliens - not the probing kind - gotten bitten by a chupacabra, encountered a rather irritated Dalek that had also popped out of his universe, hell, you’d even met Captian Picard of the USS Enterprise!

Things became more complicated when you started dating.You’d originally sworn off dating because of the trouble presented when you slipped out of your universe, but Eddie Brock had been sweet and handsome and with a sparkling wit and down to earth charm that had made turning him down impossible.

You imagined he’d expected you to freak out when, a month into dating, he’d confided in you that he was bonded to an alien symbiote and that he moonlighted as Venom most nights.

You’d seen a lot of weird shit by then, so you’d merely shrugged, shaken Venom’s hand and asked him what he preferred white or dark chocolate cake.

When Eddie had moved in, things got decidedly complicated. You managed to explain your disappearances by saying it was work related, that you had to run off at any time to catch a plane or a train. Thanks to being a veteran of falling out of your dimension into another, you could usually ‘feel’ a slip before it happened.

He’d accepted it with grace - after all, he was Venom. He thought he knew strange.

You were waffling over whether to tell him what was really going on. Had practiced the conversation. Were even willing to let him see what was in the mystically locked chest at the foot of your bed.

It was filled with keepsakes from your journeys: A sword made of enchanted glass from Skyrim, a computer pad you’d stolen from the Enterprise, bits of shells from a dinosaur egg, the Hope Diamond, a Venom comic-book - that was going to take some explanation - an ‘Arum’ from the Elite home world from the Halo universe, a pile of gems and coins from Smaug himself - you’d popped out of that world before getting charbroiled - a feather as long as your arm from a Roc, a working phaser, three seashells, several sets of armor and ancient clothing, a Lightsaber you’d stolen from one baffled Anakin Skywalker before he’d gone batty, and an emerald the size of your fist - you hoped Sonic had made due without it.

You’d actually been trying to work up the nerve to talk to Eddie after a date, on the walk home, when you’d literally popped out of existence.

Shit.

You reappeared in the middle of a fight between a rag tag group of people and something called a ‘dracolich’. Which was a fancy word for ‘skeleton dragon’.

By then, you were rather used to appearing in the middle of a crisis, so you’d taken up a sword and joined the fight. By the time the undead dragon was properly dead - thanks to one of the group that had turned out to be a necromancer - you’d pretty much ingratiated yourself to the group, and no one questioned where you’d appeared from.

You spent a month with them, fulfilling quests, getting drunk at taverns, and being rewarded by kings and peasants both. You had enough gold coins to pay for your apartment for the next fifty years. Your new friends, the necromancer, a draconian, an archer and a sorceress made you the honorary ‘knight’ of the group, even chipping in to buy you a set of armor tailored to you.

It was while your friends were at a brothel - you may have been in a different universe but you did have a boyfriend back home, hence the ‘no brothel’ rule for you - that things went sideways again. You popped, appearing in the middle of a conference at the UN where there were lizards instead of people, waved, then popped again, reappearing in San Francisco.

This wouldn’t have been such a bad thing had you not been decked out in full armor, armed with numerous knives and a broadsword. The fact that you’d appeared in the middle of a wedding just made things more complicated.

You managed to weave a spiel about trying out your ‘costume’ for the next Comic Con before making a run for it.

Hoping that Eddie was still around somewhere, you trudged home, incurring various stunned looks as you went. Ignored them with long practice, even when you got on the elevator and had to ride to the top floor next to a women with two children.

Lacking a key, you merely kicked your front door in, freezing in the doorway when you spotted a very confused Eddie on your couch. He was obviously in the middle of working on a new article - papers and notebooks were scattered around him haphazardly.

“Um…. hi?” You even wiggled your fingers at him in a little wave, armor glinting in the light from the windows.

Everything went flying - laptop included, ouch - when he realized who you were. He crossed the apartment in a run before wrapping you up in a crushing embrace.

“You’re alive!”

The stark relief in his voice made you wither a little, and you lamely stayed silent, blinking up at him when he pushed you back and held you at arms length.

“Where have you been?! We searched the entire City for you! Twice! Thought you’d been kidnapped or worse–”

You rose a hand to place your fingers against his mouth when his voice cracked, the tears in his eyes making a pit open up in your stomach. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should have told you. This just…. happens, sometimes. Well, a lot of the time. I can’t control it. Usually I can feel it before it happens, but this time I didn’t have any warning and–”

“This has happened before?”

You winced a little and pulled away, walking past him and into the apartment. Waited until he’d closed the door before speaking again. “Weird things have been happening to me since I was eight. Things would pop in and out of existence around me, things that we’re from my time or our world. They’d always vanish again eventually…. When I was twelve I vanished for a week, met Robin Hood, he taught me how to shoot a bow–”

The look of disbelief on Eddie’s face made you growl. “See that? That right there. That’s why I don’t tell people. My parents had me admitted to psych wards because I trusted them. You know what electro-shock therapy is? It ain’t fun! But this shit happens to me, all the time. And you, Venom, are not the poster child for normality, so quit lookin’ at me like that!”

He winced at bit at that, then sighed and walked over to you. “Okay. Okay, we’re sorry, this just sounds….”

“Insane. I’m aware. I’m also aware that since aliens exist and that there are mutants running around and a guy in New York called ‘Spider-Man’, that this isn’t the weirdest thing in this reality.”

“Point.”

“Damn right ‘point’,” you muttered angrily, huffing as you headed for your bedroom. “There’s also the fact that I’m not stupid enough to say these things without some goddamn proof. So, c’mere.”

Grumbling a little, you stomped over to the locked chest at the foot of your bed, shoving clothes off of it before raising your thumb to your mouth and biting into the meat of it. Eddie made a noise of complaint at the sight, and you rolled your eyes at him.

“Needs blood given without duress to open,” you explained as you pressed your thumb to the lock, grinning at his look of shock when the combination lock spun crazily, five numbers clicking into place before the three heavy latches popped open. “Got this thing from a wizard when I turned twenty. Best security I ever invested in.”

The flabbergasted look on Eddie’s face was almost worth it when you started pulling things out and laying them on the bed, explaining what each and every one of them were and where you’d gotten them from. His eyes got bigger and bigger with every keepsake you pulled out, right up until you pulled out the Venom comic and thrust it into his face.

“Bet you were wondering why I was so chill when you told me about the symbiote, huh? I already knew about it.”

“This can’t be real,” left him in a whisper as he took the comic and flipped through it. The symbiote that was masquerading as his shirt visibly undulated, a tendril extending to poke at the comic, as if to make sure it wasn’t a hallucination.

“Oh, it is real buster. There’s a reality where practically every weird ass thing in this world is just a bunch of stories. Spider-Man, Magneto, Wolverine, fuck, the entire X-Men School - comic-books. Every single one. There’s a universe where Batman is real, another where the galaxy nearly got it’s metaphorical balls handed to it by monstrosities called ‘Reapers’, another where crab-people try to overthrow governments. Trust me, I have seen some weird shit.“

“You never told anyone?”

“The people I did tell had me committed,” you reminded him. “I learned to keep this kinda shit to myself. I wanted to tell you. I did. But…. Well, the amount of people who have flipped out on me and left is kinda a hundred percent. I have videos, and they still didn’t believe me.”

Eddie shook his head a little, still looking stunned. “We believe you. It’s impossible not to. We’re holding the story of our own history in our hands.”

“Sorry about that. Kinda had to go for the shock value.” You paused, hesitant. “You really believe me?”

The wary hope in your voice made him walk over to you and wrap you up in a hug, leaning his forehead against yours. “You’re very convincing.”

“And the symbiote?”

“Glad to have our morsel back.” Eddie blinked a little, then cleared his throat as the symbiote released control of his voice. “We’re relieved you’re alright. We mourned you. We’ve spent the past month trying to find you.”

“This’ll happen again,” you warned him softly. “I can’t control it. I wish I could, but I can’t. And I don’t have control about how long I stay away. Could be a week, could be a month….”

“But you’ll come back? Eventually?”

“Always do.”

“Promise to come home to us?”

You smiled. “Hun, if you can put up with the insanity that is my life, you’re practically stuck with me.”

“Good,” he murmured before kissing you, and you shivered happily as you kissed him back. “Now, show us how that Lightsaber works.”