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helbertinelli · 4 years ago

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I wanted to see the new Jedi Order AND the New Republic in the sequels. But no, instead we got A New Hope 2.0, Luke 2.0, and Darth Vader 2.0. This is so disappointing.

Yeah, the sequels were disappointing. There were so many better ways to continue the story of SW (although personally I think they shouldn’t have continued it), but they chose to go about it in the worst way possible. They had no idea why SW was loved and they focused on the absolute worst things and then switched to new things when the first thing didn’t work rather than to try to fix the thing that didn’t work.

Like they were for sure that people loved SW for Vader so they gave us a guy who wore a costume that looked similar to Vader’s, but the character himself had no personality, he had some lame motivation to join the dark side, and he wanted nothing more than to stay evil. People didn’t like Kylo and then they were like okay, well Palpatine was in all 6 films, they have to like him. And then they brought back Palaptine.

But they missed the fact that the people loved Star Wars for the story. That the characters in SW were just characters without the story to tie them all in.

Everyone loved Luke saving Vader and Vader wanting to be redeemed. The sequels tried that story with Rey and Kylo, but 1. There was no reason for Rey to want to save Kylo. He wasn’t her father, he had no relation to her other than the fact that he killed Han in front of her and he tortured her and her friends. 2. Kylo didn’t want redemption. Every time he was offered the chance to do something good he turned it down and it was like 2 or 3 times that this happened. Vader didn’t. Yes, he didn’t accept Luke’s help at first, but he did in the end. And after Palpatine died, Vader wasn’t like “Okay, I’m taking his place now. Join me or you’re nothing to me“ to Luke. Vader did want to rule the galaxy with Luke right after he found out he has a son, but he gave up on that and realized that he needs to come back to Luke rather than to have Luke joining him. He realized he needs to make the right decision because his son is important to him and he can’t lose his son. Rey wasn’t important for Kylo. She was literally no one to him. They had no relationship at all, except what Kylo said: “My grandfather worked for your grandfather so we’re a dyad” (I legit had to pause the movie because I couldn’t stop laughing... they even ripped off Space Balls omg). Maybe the sequels would have been better if the two were related (either siblings or cousins). But they were just strangers and Rey just decided one day that she wants to save Kylo for some reason and then she decided that she’ll go back to trying to kill him and they kinda switch back and forth between that and it’s just a complete mess and doesn’t even come close to the story of Luke redeeming Vader that they were trying to rip-off from the OT.

People loved Vader being mysterious and intimidating and they loved the idea of this powerful Sith lord wearing a mask (like the Sith of the Old Republic did). And the sequels tried to copy that aesthetic, but then they reveal Kylo’s face right away and he’s not intimidating at all and the whole mystery around his identity behind the mask goes away too. And his entire thing is to be whiny and throw a tantrum when things don’t go his way and destroy everything around him. I guess they were trying to copy Vader choking people with that, but the scary thing about Vader was that he would choke people but he’d put no energy into it and he’d stay calm and it was kinda unnerving how calm he was when he was choking the life out of someone. This is why Vader was intimidating and menacing. He didn’t lash out like a spoiled child and destroy his toys. He was in control even when he wasn’t and he was calm and made it seem like taking someone’s life was no issue to him.

Anakin’s backstory is loved by people. The way someone who was a Jedi and good became a Sith and took down the entire Jedi order and basically destroyed everything his world was about in the process was extremely complex and well-written and Anakin is somewhat of a sympathetic character because a lot of people can see that he made the wrong choices for all the right reasons (he just wanted to save his wife and their unborn child... children as we later find out). Kylo’s turn to the dark side is just he was contacted by Snoke, who whispered bad things to him about Luke, and for some reason Luke decided that the only way to deal with this is to for some reason kill Kylo in his sleep??? (yeah I also don’t understand why the guy who spent 3 movies trying to redeem Vader and refused to fight Vader and was about to let himself get killed by the Emperor because he was convinced his Sith lord father was actually good and would save him, is now like “You know, my nephew has to die. He can’t be redeemed.”). And then Kylo’s immediate reaction to this was to kill everyone else in Luke’s temple because I guess they also needed to rip-off Order 66 (out of all things that happened). Kylo isn’t sympathetic in this way because 1. He had a loving family and a good support system with Han and Leia and even Luke to some extent. He wasn’t like Anakin who never had anyone to talk to and who had to keep his life a secret from the Jedi and who grew up a slave and who was desperate to save the only family he had left. Kylo’s life was good and they said it was good in the sequels too. 2. He got threatened by Luke and his very next choice is to go kill a bunch of innocent people. He never showed any ounce of remorse for his actions. At least with Anakin, we see that he’s torn apart when he’s pledging himself to Palpatine and he’s basically hurt and haunted by his actions starting from then on. Kylo just killed a bunch of people and he’s going around like “yep, just another Tuesday...“

And aside from just doing a bad rip-off of a story that was already presented in the same universe, they also messed up with other characters that were beloved.

Luke, who never gave up on his father and who even abandoned his training (I think) to go save his family, is now the guy who wanted to kill his nephew at the first sign of the dark side and then his solution was to leave his family behind and never see them again.

Han is a deadbeat dad who left his wife when things got hard and went away on a road trip with Chewie to avoid any responsibility.

Leia is always sad and she desperately wants to forgive Kylo (they basically gave her Padme’s personality for some reason, when she’s more like Anakin). Like I can see Han forgiving Kylo (because he does have a big heart despite his rugged exterior), but giving what we know about Leia’s character, she wouldn’t forgive Kylo. It took Leia a long time to come to terms with forgiving Anakin and she wouldn’t even talk to his Force Ghost when he came to apologize, even though she knew he’d never see him again. There’s no way that she sees Kylo basically turning into Vader 2.0 and she’s like “there’s still good in him.“ Like he destroyed an entire system of planets, that had to bring back some painful memories for Leia. She actually had to watch Alderaan be destroyed. And he killed Han. I know their relationship was ruined in TFA, but TFA also made it clear that Leia and Han were still in love. There’s no way she would have forgiven Kylo or thought he was still good after he killed his dad and her husband. And he tried to kill her too if I remember correctly. He fired on her ship, which made her float out into space. Leia isn’t like Luke or Padme. It would be difficult for her to forgive Kylo for basically turning into her worst nightmare and taking her family away from her and killing so many other people too.

And then they bring back Palpatine too because I’m guessing their thought process was “well he was in all 6 movies that people loved, we do need a good villain.“ And it made no sense. Palpatine died like twice in ROTJ. He got destroyed by the reactor that Vader threw him in and then the entire Death Star exploded into tiny particles. There was no way for the Death Star to be crash landed on Exegol since it basically blew up in all directions in the middle of nowhere in space. Bringing him back basically invalidated all of Anakin’s story because him dying to bring balance to the Force was for nothing. He didn’t balance anything, Palpatine was never defeated. They really didn’t need Palpatine to be the villain of TROS. You could replace him with any other random villain and nothing changes. They only brought him back to make a reference to the old movies and have people watch their movie for nostalgia. But I honestly don’t know who was nostalgic for Sheev.

Anyway, it’s embarrassing that they had a good story that they tried to rip-off and they still managed to fuck it up. Like how hard it is to rip-off Star Wars and still have a good story? Didn’t Disney actually accomplish it before in a Phineas and Ferb special? I don’t know why they couldn’t do it this time around too.

But for real, they should have showed the New Jedi Order and the New Republic and show us how Luke and Leia were changing the world for the better and how they were fighting to keep the world a better place rather than to give us a watered down version of the First Galatic Empire vs Rebels but with worse characters and a worse story this time around.

#thanks for the ask #anti sequel trilogy #Anonymous #ask

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hamliet · 5 years ago

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Hello! Have you seen TROS yet? [Spoiler alert] I was really devastated by the ending - coming out the theater feeling upset and disappointed. Do you have any thoughts on it? Or maybe any plan to write fix-it fic? Thank you!

I am seeing it tomorrow. That said, I’ve read the plot summary, and no good execution can save that. So I was planning on posting this after I watched it with amendments made as I hope to enjoy it, but I’ll just post it now and amend this as necessary based on the film as I see it. (I still believe I will enjoy the film, even if I don’t think it’s a good film. I do think that. I really do... I hope.)

BASED ON THE PLOT SUMMARIES ALONE (grains of salt everywhere!):

I think it’s technically… messy writing at best and downright bad writing in other parts.* 10/10 it’s a blockuster-y, JJ Abrams-esque, (hopefully) fun, messy narrative movie that will be forgotten in 0.3 seconds.

Disclaimer before everyone comes after me: if you like it, AWESOME. If you think it’s good writing, great! Good writing and bad writing are inherently subjective; that said, there are general consensuses among literary studies about what constitutes bad and good writing. Hence, I’m relying on those consensuses when I call it messily written.

Before we get into specifics, I’ll compare it to two other major pop culture endings: Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame.

TROS is similar to the GoT final season in that it attempts to incorporate every aspect of fan speculation ever. However, it’s more like Endgame in that it is still somewhat true to the themes and characters—but unfortunately also like Endgame, it is not transformative or particularly interesting as a story on its own. In fact, it’s rather boring and honestly… bad storytelling. It tries to rehash Return of the Jedi but it doesn’t succeed in any way because the world and the overall story has grown since the early 1980s, and so the same story doesn’t work anymore.

Showing a cyclical story remaining cyclical with no sign of that breaking–instead, the cycles are even reinforced–does not give optimism nor does it give hope.

Redemption=death needs to die already. If we really want to reach people and tell them that the message is that you can always make a better choice (as Daisy Ridley and JJ Abrams have said about Kylo’s arc), maybe don’t send the message in each and every story that you have to die to redeem yourself. Look outside of cultural secular Calvinism, for the love of God and the betterment of the world and stories as a whole.

Now let’s talk Rey’s parentage.

We know Rey Palpatine wasn’t planned from the beginning (Trevorrow, the original write/director of IX, who was thankfully fired, said that he never planned for Palpatine to return), which means Rey’s parentage was most likely retconned from TLJ and there was no real plan for the sequel trilogy’s overall character arcs (save for Kylo’s, according to the actors and writers).

Listen to me. You don’t have to have everything planned when you start a three-film saga, but you gotta know the major beats.

This is like a sad game of movie telephone.

Yes, I know the OT Star Wars didn’t have a plan either and it’s like one of the only examples I can think of where no plan worked out–albeit not without hiccups (Leia kissing Luke, anyone?) If you expect lightning to strike twice in the same place, I’m sorry, but you are hopelessly naive.

Having Rey decide she wants to carry on the name Skywalker at the end is lame as shit. It’s a way to appease fans while being like nah she still isn’t related. Trying to please every fan is a sure way to guarantee that you will please no one. It might make for a perfectly pleasant film experience (I really hope it does), but not good, lasting storytelling (though not like, horrific either). It’s meh. It’s like… giving someone who is starving oatmeal. It will get the job done but will it satisfy and enthrall people? Not quite.

And let’s switch gears for a minute to Finn and Rose, my first and third favorite characters in this trilogy (Kylo is second, Rey is fourth). The sidelining of Rose is nothing short of a terrible attempt to please the white-supremacist-aligned Fandom Menace. Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. JJ’s lipservice about how wonderful it was that Kelly was cast at SW Celebration is, in hindsight, absolutely nauseating.

Shame on JJ. Shame on Disney.

But the main problem I have with this film is this:

Why did it need to exist?

The answer is money. Obviously. I know, I know stories exist to make money. That doesn’t mean I can’t criticize the fact that the story was sacrificed on the unholy altar of capitalism and Disney’s desire to own our souls. (Disney–the reason I like your movies is that a lot of them are good stories. I’m not interested in pandering soooooo.)

The Rise of Skywalker does not enhance the Star Wars narrative. Nothing about this film satisfies the Skywalker Saga nor the sequel trilogy, and it kind of all comes down to Kylo Ren’s death being the nail that sunk the entire world of Star Wars.

Keep in mind Kylo is not my favorite character when I’m saying this. Finn is. But I never spoke about Finn as much because the story didn’t utilize him properly. I never had concerns about Finn getting a happy ending while I was worried for Rey and Kylo’s arcs. (Finn’s arc, however, did have a ton more potential than was capitalized on; in particular, he would have been better if he was more conflicted over say, shooting other stormtroopers. His whole character humanized the usual red shirts, which when paired with Rose’s everywoman character, had so much potential I could shriek about it all day. That he didn’t lead other brainwashed stormtroopers into rebellion and freedom saddens me. Also, his ending again seems to bring about a good victim/bad victim dichotomy when it is compared with Kylo’s. The reason these two are my faves is that they were brainwashed as kids which, well, I can kinda sorta heavily relate to.)

Kylo Ren and Rey’s relationship doesn’t really get much better than it did in The Last Jedi. It actually rehashes that arc significantly. We already knew Kylo would fight for Rey and the galaxy, so… how was this different? Now, if he had lived, it would have been different, because it was the after the fight that proved that Kylo wasn’t ready to redeem himself in The Last Jedi. It was Kylo’s choice to stay at the expense of Rey and the Resistance that was literally the set up for conflict in the next film. This… turned it into nothing? Their conflict is rehashed and then whoo-hoo! Easy way out! Kill him so that they don’t have to deal with the “after” this time! They never have to deal with the conflict literally set up in The Last Jedi.

That’s bad writing, fam.

Life is infinitely more interesting. Leaving the story open with a living Skywalker instead of killing literally everyone involved with the Skywalkers except Rey who now adopts that name is… so unsatisfying I can’t even. Even if later material shows him showing up as a Force Ghost, like: cool saw that with Vader so this… adds nothing to the existing films. It doesn’t really reconcile anything.

It also… does not help the Rey=Mary Sue argument. She is NOT a Mary Sue, and that is a sexist term itself, but in no way is it a satisfying ending to her arc, because it isn’t a well-written ending which means it isn’t a well-written arc. The problem with Rey’s ending is a mirror of my problem with Kylo’s ending: it’s the very much a combination of her ending in The Last Jedi and her life before The Force Awakens.

She and Kylo are now separated (permanently this time).

She’s has her Resistance friends.

She’s alone on a desert planet.

But wait! Now she’s now happy!

Uh, why? The only reason I can think of is that the narrative demands it. Because honestly, what changes? The family she chose–the Skywalkers–are just as dead as her Palpatine birth family, soooooo. I suppose she reconciled with her heritage and come to peace with it and so that’s why she’s happy now, but… I can’t lie. It’s not hopeful. It’s not optimistic. It’s not Star Wars and it isn’t consistent for the message (especially if this is supposed to be the ending to the saga!) to be both:

life sucks for the Skywalkers and then they die–seriously, look at Shmi, Anakin, Padmé, Leia, Luke, Han, Kylo–it is LITERALLY ALL OF THEM; and

deciding to be a Skywalker means you’re at peace.

I can only assume Rey’s life will suck and then she’ll die, tbh, unless of course she is better off because of her blood… which negates the point of her being a Skywalker and is a really gross idea.

YOU CAN’T HAVE BOTH IN YOUR ENDING. PICK ONE.

Rejecting the Skywalkers would be anti-Star Wars, for sure, but marrying into them as a way of bridging the unfinished pain between Anakin and Padmé and Leia and her father? Much better. Or just leave it open. Honestly, leave it open for Kylo and Rey to both be alive and see each other again.

But you’re just upset your ship didn’t get a happy ending!

No, I’m upset about the storytelling, of which shipping is a part. A canonical part just as much as the lightsaber fights are. Anakin and Padmé. Leia and Han. Finn and Rose. Poe and Zorii. Rey and Ben.

The Force created Anakin, remember? All films–even the spin-offs–encourage our heroes to trust the force. “May the force be with us.” But the Force created an ENTIRE FAMILY THAT LIVED LIVES THAT SUCKED AND MADE LIFE SUCK FOR EVERYONE AROUND THEM AND THEN THEY DIED.

May the Force stay far the f*ck away from me, amen.

But seriously I can’t trust the world of a galaxy far far away or its narrative anymore. It’s a contradiction that causes all nine films to unravel. Why?

Again, let’s return to my earlier GoT comparison, because there is one thing TROS does that is more similar to GoT than to Endgame: Endgame drew together a bunch of unique distinctly separate stories into a crossover. TROS, just like GoT, relied on cliffhanger, incomplete endings to its films and therefore the ending matters a hell of a lot more than a stand-alone story.

I’m not dying to rewatch it like I am with stories where I realize I might learn more the second time. And by “rewatch it” I mean the entire nine-film saga. Knowing that canonically Leia, Luke, Han–they all die and their last descendent dies, the last descendent of Padmé and Anakin–for me, it’s personally gonna be hard to watch again. It’s gonna be hard to watch TROS going into it the first time.

And so the saga of bad endings continues.

Game of Thrones remains the worst at a -100 out of 10. It’s followed by Tokyo Ghoul:re which is still 2/10, and Star Wars is, on paper (meaning after I see it I am hoping it rises a few notches) now… 4/10. Endgame is a solid 6.5/10.

Banana Fish, sweetie, I’m sorry you were ranked down there. Your ending is a 7/10 but the rest of your story is like, 10/10 so you are sprung from this list.

Help me, Shingeki no Kyojin. You’re my only hope.

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bb-8irl · 5 years ago

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I can’t believe I’m doing this again. The number of times I try to write out my feelings towards TROS, I always feel like I haven’t worded it properly, or haven’t said what I’ve needed to say. Or that I still have much to say when I’m done. But after seeing this movie three times, with having a week between the second and third I think I’ve got this. Also, I’m naturally optimistic, so this will probably come off more positive than negative, but I have a lot to say so I literally how no clue how this is going to go.

Heads up this is hella long, do bare with me. And I’m sorry I couldn’t figure out how to do the read more thing.

First, what Star Wars means to me.

To some people, it’s just movies, and yes it is. But they are some of my favorites, even though they are imperfect, I fall in love with the idea of a galaxy far far away. They take me to a world that I can escape to. They have given me characters that I adore, many of which I see parts of myself in, while others inspire me. As a kid I never really saw myself as a princess, I loved princess movies but I never felt like I fit in with them. No, I felt like a Jedi, I felt like this was a world I belonged to. I love the movies, the tv shows, comics, and books. Why do I think this is important to share, mainly for perspective and where I come from when I say what I say about TROS. You don’t have to be a life long fan to have an opinion on this, but this is just from a certain point of view. I’m a Reylo, and I’m going to have strong opinions as a SW fan and as a Reylo. Some opinions that you may agree or disagree with. I’m not here to argue. And I’m not here to say someone cannot feel differently towards any of this.

Where to start?

Well point blank, as an overall Star Wars movie what did I think? I don’t hate it, I don’t think it’s perfect and I think there are MANY problems with it and I really don’t wanna give JJ or Chris any credit for anything good that did come from this movie. But I can’t say that it was a horrible movie, I’d being lying if I said I wasn’t entertained. But it wasn’t great, and really missed the target.

So the writing…

Let me say first that I’m not a writer, or at least not professionally, I write for my own enjoyment in my free time. But in terms of the story we were given, it was…well again I didn’t hate it. But especially after thinking about it, and I know I can’t change anything, but I just wish it didn’t feel like the entire story revolves around Palpatine. Now I like the idea of Palpatine coming back, it does make sense since this mother fucker has been stirring the damn pot and has always had his hand in things. And as much as I actually love the opening sequence, I think it would have been more interesting to see in the in at least first act to see how everything for the resistance and first is going before Palpatine makes himself known. But if were gonna just talk about the literal writing, it was fine, especially Carrie’s scenes I think they did well writing them to try and make it fit. Star Wars in general for writing I give some lenience, just cause the writing has never been perfect, it’ll have its moments but not perfect. So yeah that’s where I stand with that.

Now breaking it down. What did I think? What I liked and didn’t like. What I would have done different.

The title scroll…again it just felt very Palpatine centric when I feel like it could have been a little less of him in the start.

Kylo fighting on Mustafar…HOT it’s fucking HOT because he’s HOT and it’s fucking HOT on Mustafar. Now it was after the fact of the first and second time I saw the movie that I found out he was on Mustafar, which makes sense plot wise if you know all the details of why he’s on Mustafar…and maybe I just didn’t identify they planet well and it’s just me who didn’t notice it was Mustafar. (JK it wasn’t just me, I told my roommate and she was pissed that they didn’t give us any helpful clues.) But I feel like that was something that maybe could have used a bit better of an explanation.

Kylo literally not having the time of day to deal with Palpatine. BIG MOOD BRO. And like that’s

He’s done being a puppet, he’s not playing around. And I’m proud of my boy for that. Also just the fact that he’s protective boyfriend literally not having it, there’s literally nothing he can be offered that can sway him from Rey.

It was interesting to kinda get a look at how how connected they are. (Hello force soulmates.) I did like seeing how their their memories really do intertwine into one. But I don’t really give JJ or Chris any of the force bond credit. That’s probably the one good thing they took from what Rian left them with and didn’t have to do a 180 on it. But again the force bond was Rian’s creation, they on expanded on it.

Now I like how Poe and Rey butt heads, it’s honestly how I expected that to go. Meanwhile Finn is in the middle of it, trying to keep his little sister and boyfriend from breaking into a full on MMA fight. Overall the trio was cute, I wouldn’t really change much about it honestly. Though they really gave us barely any Rose action which was sincerely disappointing.

Though it was a small interaction, Kylo and Hux was funny. I truly love how much they hate each other, comedic gold.

Pasana party looks like hoot and half. But they really had her look at a group of kids, and have a conversation about how Rey doesn’t have a last name, and played the whole oh she will get something like this by the end…bruh…it’s fine I’ll discuss that more later.

Rey and Bens first force Skype in TROS. He really said, “Palpatine wants you dead.” As a conversation starter, what a Solo. Anyways their conversation was angsty AF, and I expected nothing less than that. I love when he asks her why she didn’t take his hand she asks back, “You could have killed me. Why didn’t you?” And what I love from that is how she, at least from my perspective, answered his question with that question. Because the answer would be because I care/love you too much to ever hurt you. And I’ll bring this up later, but it kinda foreshadows what Rey tells him later.

He ripped that necklace off. And maybe I should have been offended…but that was…

FINN WAS NOT GOING TO TELL REY HE LOVES HER. I just really needed to say that. Also I know I caught on quicker than most but honestly the minute Finn says “It’s Ren.” My thought process was and I quote. “Mother fucker do you have something you would like to share with the class?” I kinda caught onto the early on that he is force sensitive.

And I’ll cover that topic now real quick. I love Finn, and I honestly am so happy for him. Them making him force sensitive doesn’t bother me, again happy for him. From a writing standpoint though I feel like JJ did that for when people try to say “oh you ruined about how it doesn’t matter where you come from, the force doesn’t care about bloodline.” This is where he points his finger and goes “see, look, we don’t know his bloodline.” And you know I hope that there are better intentions in that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of the intention was for JJ to try and cover his ass. Regardless I like Finn being force sensitive. But I feel like they were too subtle about to be introducing something like that so late in the game. It kinda just left a lot of people confused.

Also, Poe is a jealous boyfriend…nuff said.

And it was cute how BB-8 kinda had a learning lesson from Rey when she says, “you would have done the same.” When referring to force healing. And then BB-8 kinda uses that concept for D-O when he charges him.

Continuing on to the flip over the tie fighter was epic, shout out to Katie McDonnell who preformed that specific stunt. (I know she’s not the only stunt double, I’m just a fan of Katie, but major props to the whole stunt team.)

Oh and Kylo on Pasana is also…

Also the Chewie fake out I saw coming which kinda ruined anything emotional JJ was trying to pull on me.

Ok now to Kimji stuff.

Zorii is a cool character. I can buy the history the two had. You get a good feel for past chemistry but I like that she actually doesn’t wanna kiss him. Like I will kiss almost anyone (not Jabba the hut) in Star Wars (ok there’s a fair amount I wouldn’t) but Poe is on that list of whom I would kiss. So props to her for being all been there done that. And Babu Frik is precious.

Force Skype number 2. Firstly I‘m happy to hear the words “I never lied to you.” Come out of Kylos mouth. I’ve just always found that very important thing about him is how honest he is to Rey. He’s not a liar, he’s not deceptive, it’s not really in his character to do so, and specially to Rey I don’t think he would ever consider lying to her.

Ok…

The Rey Palpatine situation. I don’t love it but I also don’t hate it…but I don’t like it for sure. I can accept it as canon, but it leaves me with more questions…before I say what I would have done let me just first say this. I have questions on who the fuck did Palpatine fuck. This also just has me questioning the timeline and everything, especially watching it all again. I just started asking where everything falls into the timeline, was he part of raising his son, like there’s a lot of missing pieces, and it kinda just makes me ask why it was it was so important to make her a Palpatine. But like sure if I turn my brain off…ok…Rey is a Palpatine…sure, whatever makes the fanboys shut up on trying to make her a blood related Skywalker. And honestly JJ you don’t get credit for making Anti fanboys shut up. But at least they look EXTRA dumb now when they still try and make her related to Ben.

But ok, now lets really address this. It really was not that necessary to make her Palpatine and sure, yeah it happened. But I really liked the direction Rian was going with in TLJ, that it doesn’t matter who you, that anyone can be force sensitive, that it doesn’t matter where you come from, or who your parentage is, it’s just the matter of the force. What I wish they had went with was this idea that Rey was kinda born for the darkness and Ben for the light, just something very basic. And because they are kinda fighting for the opposite of which the were “created” for it causes a weird shift in the force. It would have fit will with what Rian had already written, explain why Rey is so strong with the force, being Bens equal, and quite literally it would barely change anything that was already there. Literally just changing any lines that involve Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter. Related or not Palpatine could have known of Rey and was trying to seek here out, her parents wanted to protect leaving her on Jakku, telling Plutt they were selling her for drinking money to make sure there was nothing suspicious going on. Everything happens ala TFA and TLJ, Ben finds out where Rey is suppose to belong in the force, he tells her, she hates it because it’s everything she doesn’t want to be. We get it the ending and Palpatine does the whole kill me and because what you were created to be, Empress of the galaxy and harness all the sith. BOOM. You didn’t have to fuck with her parentage, you didn’t have to try to find loopholes in what Rian gave you. Cause all the shit I just wrote out, I’d believe, I’d that believe more than the whole Palpatine thing.

Hux was the spy…well I knew he was gonna be up to some bullshit but I didn’t expect that. And while I think that was an interesting twist I kinda was hoping with Hux something a little different. Kinda the same concept of “I need Kylo Ren to loose.” I feel like again if we started a bit before the whole Palpatine shit happens, it would have been interesting to see Hux trying to undermine Kylo. I was hoping to have seen Hux die, but I feel like his part was kinda thrown away. Again, there could have been great potential with him trying to “dethrone” Kylo. I never thought Hux as dumb and so it just felt like we missed out on him trying to take the power.

I love Jannah, I think she was a great character for Finn to relate to. But I’m just saying we had a good set up for a Stormtrooper rebellion…just saying that was some missed potential.

The Rey versus Dark!Rey stuff was cool, and I expected it to be something short, but just saying it would have been cool to have seen a bit more of that. AND would have been cool if it were a vision Ben had seen though.

“You can’t go back to her now. Like I can’t.” Oh my sweet baby boy. The crazy thing is too though is that he probably could have gone back, which is something he realizes when Leia reaches out to him not long after. But you know he wants to go back and truly feels helpless and can’t.

Also he crushed the Wayfinder with one hand…

The water fight was pretty epic. I was happy to see specifically in this fight and the final fight later on that they were fighting in a very similar way to the prequel Jedi. Like that shit is epic.

Ok and that moment when he stops himself from striking Rey, knowing that no matter how upset he might be at her, and how upset she is with him he never wants to hurt her.

Also I predicted that Leia’s death would be the starter for Bens redemption, and again I really felt for my baby boy. Also I definitely verbally screamed “No!” When Rey impaled him with his lightsaber.

Rey force healing Ben is a tender moment.

Now I know some people don’t like this, but I understand why Rey says, “I did want to take your hand. Ben’s hand.” And I get it. When we go back to when she asks him why he didn’t kill her it’s that same kinda answer he would give. She cares/loves him to much to see him destroyed. She knows that her following him to the dark side would turn him into something he’s not, and turn her into something she’s not. I know a lot of people find this as her not being able to accept him as Kylo, and I think she accepts him for all that he is, but doesn’t want him to loose who he really is. Because as Kylo has lived a tortured destructive life, and she wants him happy. She already knows the side he doesn’t let anyone but her see, and I think she knows that he would loose that. And then from her perspective for herself, Rey has never wanted power, or the want to rule. When he offered her his hand, and offered her basically everything he could, she never wanted any of that, you see that with Palpatine she’s never wanted to rule. Her saying she wanted Bens hand, it’s her telling him she doesn’t need anything but him for her to be with him and love him. And he’s never had that. With Luke he was the prize student, with Snoke he had to live up to this expectation of being Vader and being told he was never good enough. And Rey is there telling him that Ben is enough. It’s the equivalent of Ben saying, “you’re nothing. You come from nothing. But not to me.” He didn’t care where she came from, he loved her just for her, as she loves him for him.

(Wow that was a lot…but I at least think I finally got that out.)

Moving on.

I was so glad that they basically addressed the Han/Ben scene from TFA. For me it was always easy to see Bens struggle in that moment, I’ve always been empathetic with him cause I think of just about everything he had to do this was the most painful and regretful thing he’s ever done. And having to relive was so heartbreaking, but it important for him and important for the audience as a whole. This whole scene, as painful as it is, is healing. With Rey starting with healing him and his scar to him having to have that memory/conversation with his Father.

And yes I was absolutely broken by “Dad.” “I know”. I was so wrapped up in my emotions it took me the third time to realize that was their I love you.

So Rey going back to Ahch-to, and having her conversation with Luke. And like…again the whole Rey Palpatine thing, again fine it’s canon…this is fine. But this would have been so much less explanation…like I really feel like they made it harder for themselves by making her a Palpatine. But…fine it’s in canon.

Also Leia is a Jedi! Which was already hinted to with Leia training Rey. And Leia is continuously one of my favorite characters…but I never pinned her down to actually go through full on Jedi training. I can believe that she got byLuke but ok no she went all the way. And it’s not out of character for her to just hide something from the family, though this does almost butt heads against canon in terms of Han never even knew she trained…so JJ you kinda made another plot hole…you tried to cover it up, Jedi Leia is a cool concept, and the fact we needed two lightsabers cause someone decided to throw his into the ocean I see why you did it…but bro…she didn’t need be a Jedi to train Rey.

And ok the “some things are stronger than blood.” Which is a great message for her, which I’m just saying could have been used regardless of her parentage. But I digress.

Ok so the Exegol stuff.

Just kinda standard dialogue between Rey and Palps. Again if I could change it, it would really just be her not being his grandfather. The more I think about it the more unnecessary it becomes.

I know some people wanna question how Ben even got to Exegol, that’s honestly a plot hole I don’t mind waiting for the novelization to explain, doesn’t bother me, just thought I’d address it.

And seeing Ben Solo running in with nothing but a blaster in his hand, no plan, just his wife on his mind.

ALSO “ow!” Is the one Ben Solo line we got and it may be the one line…but says so much about Ben Solo.

And man the look that Rey and Ben give each other through the bond, that was the look of love and trust. And when she passes over the lightsaber and Ben freaking goes.

And then he takes on the Knights of Ren…

Oh I should address the Dyad situation. Honestly I’m all for anything that confirms that they are literal soulmates in the force. I mean we all kinda called this happening, now there is a literal name for this.

I will say I loved getting to hear from the Jedi, that was a touching moment, yeah it would have been cool to have actually seen them in force ghost form but that’s me being nit picky. Also would I have loved to have seen it be both Rey and Ben defeat Palpatine, they both have been fucked with by Palpatine. But it doesn’t bother me to see Rey defeat him. It again was just kinda a missed opportunity.

Now watching Ben pull himself from that pit and use every last bit of energy he has to get to Rey, scooping her into his arms, looking around helplessly, and hugging her close. Everyone could literally see the inner monologue he was having and my heart was BREAKING. JJ you don’t they any credit for that, Adam is just wonderful and amazing, and is the only one who deserves credit for that.

He gave her his life. HE FUCKING GAVE HER HIS LIFE!

(Heads up I’m just gonna first talk about from here on till I reach the end before I start talking about changes or things I would have done different…not to mention the thing that really has me upset.)

Now I see the full circle in terms of “finishing what Vader started”, that the whole big reason for Anakin's fall to the dark side was because he wanted to save the person he loved more than anything. So ok I see what you did there JJ, but by no means did that mean that he had to die…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

And can we talk about how Rey looks at him, I really don’t think she realizes what he’s actually done, but she just looks at him with love and adoration oh my fucking heart.

THEY KISS FOLKS REYLO CONFIRMED. They have canonized Reylo…painful as fuck after that so yeah.

And then it happens. Now ok…I have many feelings. But let’s just go with the fact that what’s happened…happened. Fact of the matter is he gave his life to Rey. Now it’s hella romantic, and I do think that if they had tried to kill him any other way I would be fuming (well I kinda am still). But yeah had it been any other way I would have rioted.

And then we get to the ending…celebration is cute. RIP Snap Wexley btw. Then we get to Tatooine. Now it took me a the THIRD time of seeing that movie to actually maybe understand what they were getting at. First two times I was like “really, this is how we end it?” And I’m still saying that, but I understand why she bury’s the lightsabers, it is a sense of closure for the Skywalkers. I’m just gonna assume Tatooine is not a permanent situation…that’s what I would hope at least. And I’m not too mad about her taking the name Skywalker, I guess since she just has to be a Palpatine, I wouldn’t wanna keep the Palpatine name either. And so as far as I know her and Ben are fucking married so let her take on the family name.

Was that ending what I would consider satisfying though? No, not really. Her lightsaber is cool and I’m glad she has one, but not still not satisfied.

Why am I not satisfied you might ask.

Here’s why.

Now if this is me excepting the fact of the matter that Ben is dead. I mainly have a problem with the fact that the ending is almost too vague and gives the audience little to no explanation. Sure I can be left to my assumptions and I’ll get to those, but the majority of the audiences initial interpretation of that ending is, Rey is now going to be just as she started, alone on a desert planet…like bro wtf. This could have been explained so much better, especially the fact that we specifically see Luke and Leia as force ghost. Look I’m gonna assume since I see no ghost Ben is either still with/part of Rey…or because there’s a chance of him coming back. But you could have explained it so much better, and I’m gonna read the novelization with hopes that there is a better explanation. The ending as a whole just felt incomplete, maybe because it was a lack of explanation or maybe something else. But this was suppose to be the end of 9 movies, you can explain yourself a bit more.

Now lemme talk about Bens death. While I would never accept him dying any other way, his death is what I would consider to be unnecessary. And I’m repeating what I said before, but I agree he finished what Vader started, saving the one they love from death, but that doesn’t mean he had to die. Like there’s literally in terms of the plot was no reason for him to die, it doesn’t further anything. Yes Rey is alive, but this is Star Wars all you have to say is “because the force wills it” and that’s all the explanation you would need. Oh Rey and Ben both get to live because the force wills it, because they are Dyad in the force, because they are the balance in the force. Live together, die together. They literally did not say anything about the consequences of force healing, so you literally have freedom to do whatever want. It would not have been impossible for Ben to of had a future, maybe not go to the resistance, but his life, his actual life was just beginning. Since he was in his mother’s womb he was being manipulated by Snoke, his life is turned upside down when his uncle was going to kill him, he runs to the one person he trusts in the galaxy who just so happens to turn out to be his abuser. He gets to be Ben solo for 15 minutes, has literally less than a minute of pure happiness…AND THEN KILL HIM. What’s the point?!?! JJ you literally retconed yourself with the whole die together thing and then kill ONE of them…how do you fuck yourself that badly. IT WAS LITERALLY IN THE SAME SEQUENCE.

And what’s the point of Rey looking at a group of children, probably wondering what it would be like to have a family to then leave her alone like that!

“I always hated that in movies, when you go along and one of the main characters gets killed. It’s a fairytale. You want everybody to live happily ever after and nothing bad happens.” - George fucking Lucas

And yes of course some people will die, it’s a war after all. But when he talks about this journey with a character, it’s not only cliche and over done, it’s just not necessary. Especially when it’s Star Wars a space fairytale where it should end with “and they all lived happily ever after.”

And let me give you perspective from those around me who never shipped Reylo. Firstly a friend who I saw it with my second time around who we’ve talked before about how she’s had in summary said “well I like Kylo more than I like Hux or Snoke.” And her leaving that theatre left her saying “I never realized how much I love Ben Solo.” And then was crushed by the fact that they decided to kill him. Another instance in my step sister who I encouraged to watch Star Wars, though she had no interest, she watched all the movies to humor me. And she knows I ship Reylo, and knows Ben is one of my favorite characters. We saw the movie last night and she, who has no attachment to him at all literally texted me about him dying and said “THAT WAS DEPRESSING” followed it by “I liked it. Like it wasn’t bad. But why did he die. That was totally unnecessary.” And we talked about the ending and how she did perceive Rey as being lonely on Tatooine. And I don’t wanna generalize what the general audiences perception is…but for a lot of people who don’t look too deeply into things, or theorize what things could mean, that’s what they are more than likely going to think.

Anyways, if I had my hands in on this Ben would not be dead. They would kiss, profess each others love. Ben would tell her to go to her friends and to meet him later. Rey would go and celebrate and then tell them she needs to go. She flies the falcon and meets up with Ben, ideally on Naboo. They take the lightsabers Padme’s mausoleum and leave the lightsabers there. Both Ben and Rey rebuild their lightsabers. Bens lightsaber would be white because let’s just say he somehow gets his crystal back and heals it, and Rey’s yellow. It ends with them in the field where Anakin and Padme once were and watch the sunset.

Hm…I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty fucking satisfying.

Now I could get into the fact that I do believe there are deleted scenes, there are different endings and they really thought that was the most satisfying one. And personally I would like to see them, so DFL if you see this, bring it on, you owe us this. That and if you were to give me comics or a novelization of Ben Solo bring brought back to life via world between worlds or whatsoever I will would like that and appreciate it. It’s not like it’s the first time you killed a character and then said “ha you thought they were dead but they’re not.” I just really think Ben deserves more time than what he was given. But I’m not gonna go crazy about how the ending was fucked around with or the alternative ones, I know it’s out there, and a lot of other people have already made post on it.

The movie as a whole is just kinda one big missed opportunity. Not all of it was bad, it had some moments, some things that I even really enjoyed. I appreciated them building onto the force bonds, but I give that credit for Rian cause those wouldn’t have happened without him. And it also just bothers me that JJ really just tried to take the long way around and stretch things around to make it fit with what Rian wrote. When in reality you had a great set up. You have some kind of insight into Rey, that she is drawn to the dark. Ben is supreme leader now what could that mean, and what could Hux possibly be up to. We could have seen some of the rebuilding of the resistance. The idea that maybe it is time for the Jedi order to end, that Ben is right that it’s time to let old things die, the Jedi and sith. And they just messed with it to no end to kinda make sense but, took the most complicated and exhausting route to get to where they did.

My roommate and I literally sat for about an hour discussing what we would have done and realized we had a more cohesive story that lines up with where Rian left off. Like…they really used all their brain cells on how to make Rey being a Palpatine work when that didn’t have to be a thing, they focused all their energy on making Palpatine be part of the whole movie which was not necessary, for the whole plot.

So this isn’t left on an negative, everyone performance wise was amazing. All this above is not a reflection on any of the actors. Daisy showed some incredible growth as an actress and in Rey. Adam was amazing as always and is truly a genius when it comes to understanding his character. Oscar and John were on point, and as far as I know Finn and Poe end up settling down together and stormpilot is canon in my eyes. All my love to The ENTIRE cast.

I know this was a lot, if you actually read all of this I really appreciate it. A lot of this I needed to just get off my chest. I’ll probably have more things to say later on, maybe my mind will change after thinking about something. But for now this is it. Thanks for reading this, hope it all makes sense. I hate to ever say negative things, I like to be positive and optimistic but it’s better to not suppress any of these feeling either.

May the force be with all of you. Always.

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anghraine · 5 years ago

Note

What were your thoughts on the Skywalkers in TROS? Personally I found it all kind of underwhelming but a lot of that stems from my baseline issues with how the Skywalkers were set up in the ST (the waffling on Leia's Jedi training for instance) and the absence of any proper scenes between Ben and Leia (obviously not 100% the filmmakers' fault)

My thoughts are fairly negative and definitely rambling, so I’ll put them under a cut!

I’m torn, because I think that a) the Skywalker stuff was the best part of the movie, and b) it was kind of underwhelming.

I feel like my issues are sort of epitomized in the whole “Rey Skywalker” thing. I saw someone on Twitter saying that “Skywalker” essentially stands in for “protagonist” in the movies, and that by taking the name, Rey is claiming a central position in her/the story. And I feel that it’s pretty much intended that way.

Buuuut I don’t see “Skywalker” that way at all in the OT or PT or TLJ? It’s a specific family with its own history and dynamics, for good and evil. Rey barely knew Luke and is (vaguely) a protégée but hardly an adoptive daughter to Leia (who is Leia Organa in any case). Ben is her LI, which is fine, but it’s still a pretty weird stretch for her to take his grandfather’s/uncle’s name because of that (esp given how destructive his ties to both of them are). She just doesn’t have that much to do with their history as a family, particularly the ones who are actually named Skywalker.

I think part of that is that so much of the family legacy revolves around Anakin, who is this weird and completely unexplained absence in the ST. I’ve heard people saying that TROS is basically JJ undoing TLJ, but I actually feel that it does a lot more to undo ROTJ and the prequels.

Like, Anakin as Chosen One is just confusing at this point. And we’re apparently supposed to believe that Obi-Wan and Yoda would be more involved with Anakin’s family than Anakin himself (????). His redemption, something monumental for Luke, might almost as well not have happened. We have no idea how Leia has related to him since ROTJ (which managed to convey some complexity to her feelings in the space of about a minute)or how Ben was raised to think of him or how Luke feels about/deals with his legacy (and I don’t care about the shifting explanations in the EU; if it’s necessary for the film, it should be in the film). I ended up feeling like the filmmakers mostly just … didn’t care about him apart from the Vader paraphernalia.

I’ll admit I was pretty happy with Leia as a Jedi, just because I’ve found the excuses reasons not to follow up on ROTJ’s implication that she’d be one so completely unpersuasive. Young Leia and Luke training together was a welcome surprise, too! OTOH, the reason she stopped being one and the very belated introduction of her lightsaber is … meh. It’d be better if that whole arc had been introduced in TFA, even if very very briefly.

I agree that the limitations on Leia’s role, while not wholly the filmmakers’ fault for obvious reasons, is pretty messy. Especially wrt Ben. If Leia simply reaching out was enough to knock Kylo back into Ben, and followed up by imaginary Han telling him to fight for what Leia cared about (which is essentially him talking to himself), then—I just would like a stronger sense of her impact. I mean, he has literally no lines after his redemption, so it’s not like there isn’t room for him to say something.

(Honestly, in some ways, I think it might have worked better if they just killed Leia off right away and dealt with her legacy from that point, instead of railroading themselves with the footage, even though I think they did about as good a job of integrating it as anyone could have. I am curious about what the original plan was before Carrie died, though.)

I also regretted that there was no reconciliation or… anything between Luke and Ben. It was clearly set up in TLJ and it’s not like Luke isn’t capable of appearing, so that’s just kind of hanging.

A lot of this is about what’s not there. I did like what was! I think we got a pretty clear sense of Luke and Leia’s bond, which is one of my favourite relationships in SW. I liked that Leia was an inspiring figure to pretty much everyone with the least reason to be inspired, including her son. I liked Luke showing up. I liked Bendemption, of course (*fistbumps 2016 Elizabeth*). And at least hearing Anakin! It just felt kind of disconnected, and I think that disconnected is the last thing the Skywalkers should be.

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nny11writes · 4 years ago

Note

For the fic writer ask game: What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write? (Feel free to rant :) )

Hahahaha, sorry were you looking for one trope?

I’m usually so positive so now you’ve done it. You’ve unlocked me complaining about random shit that doesn’t usually matter. Because the damn busted wide the fuck open! Okay, so I’m going to approach this as outside of smut fics with intense kinks I can’t stand (vore, foot fetish, scat play, etc), because that’s me getting squicked and/or triggered and not just tropes that I wish would die in a fire.

My only disclaimer up front is that if you love most of these (hopefully it’ll be obvious which ones I will not forgive/excuse you from), that’s awesome! Go for it! Read it, write it, print it out to loving re-read and paste on the walls! Fandom is, in large part, about finding your niche and enjoying what you enjoy pretty much shamelessly. So I’m not passing judgement on anyone who enjoys reading or writing (most of) these.

CW: rape, sexual assault Also I’ve had a shit few days, so if you don’t want to read someone just being negative and bitching this is probably not the post for you friend. But it all below a cut so people can avoid!

Crossover Fics/Rule 50

My main gripe with this is that without fail a series I love get crossed over with a fandom I either don’t care about or hate. Every time I’ve tried to force myself to read one it’s never worked out for me. Sometimes fics aren’t properly tagged and I’m getting into the setting only for other characters from another fandom to suddenly show up and literally I instantly loose interest. The closest I got to writing a crossover fic, was on FF.net where I had all the characters I wrote for “talking to me” when I hit a big wall of writer’s block in the hopes that writing something so different and strange for me would help. It didn’t. It was interesting for 0.2 seconds to wonder how characters would interact, but then I instantly lost interest because I end up leaning so heavily of character tropes to make it work which, for me, isn’t fun to read or write.

Like, just write fusion! I like fusion! I’m currently writing a SPOP-SW fusion! It allows me to play with characters in a fun world that I already understand, but without the frustration of characters becoming more 2D or very OOC (or both) to force them to interact with one another. Rage Fics

Honestly? If you write and post rage fics, fuck you. Full stop. Fuck you.

I’m about to tangent, but I swear it’s related. This is the equivalent of someone tagging a character or ship or fandom they hate in a post bashing them or blasting them to hell and back. Fucking beyond rude and obnoxious. That’s what rage fics are cranked up to 11. You are 100% allowed to hate on fandom/character/ship/trope/whatever the fuck, but when you do that shit you are forcing people who enjoy the media to see/interact with your BS because you fucking tagged it to show up where we are. A great example here in SPOP is Catra. I love her! I understand why some people don’t, and they’re 100% allowed to hate her and resent that so many people like her. Recently I went to the Catra tag to find art and fic, maybe some of the top notch meta this fandom puts out if I was lucky, and got stuck seeing post after post after meta post comparing her to another character in the show to explain why she’s an awful person, badly written character, and anyone who likes her (but didn’t like the poster’s fave) was an idiot/asshole/troll/bitch/dumbass and you know what? I went from having a decent time decompressing after a shitty day at work to getting fucking sent around the sun with stress. Like, bro, I’m here to ENJOY myself thanks, and when you tag things I go to for fun and fluff when I’m out of spoons and ready to snap to ranting about hating it, you make me want to scream.

Y’all don’t know how many people are lucky that I write up responses in word so I can get it out of my system and then just DELETE the whole fucking thing. Rage fic is that same fucking set up, but instead of being a relatively quick post (where I can block the poster here on tumblr), it’s a fanfic that people are going to continue to click into over and over and over again for fun only to get body slammed. There’s no way to warn people on AO3 if something is a rage fic beyond not leaving a kudos and dropping a comment. I don’t know a lot of people who read comments first so it doesn’t always work.

If you post rage fics, grow up. Stop that shit. Fuck you. Instead, try not purposefully interacting with fandom that makes you so mad that you think doing this is an appropriate reaction. Block tags, block users, regulate comments, go whole fucking hog. You should be able to enjoy fandom too! But if you can’t do that without tearing down other people in fandom then you make me want to beat you over the head until you self-isolate to play by yourself in a different sandbox. Seriously. Fuck you if you do this.

Troll Fics

Did you think I came on strong for rage fics? This is worse.

If you do this? Fuck you. You get NOTHING but my pure rage and if I find this shit I will report you however I can and then shout from the rooftops about it. And I’m sure if you do write troll fics because you enjoy being purposefully offensive and triggering then you’re probably delighted that my reaction to just thinking about this is wishing I had the power to fuck up your life.

Like, the ONLY thing I can say for rage fic is that at least typically the person writing it actually enjoys some aspect of the fandom or fandom in general.

Troll fics are just meant to be offensive on purpose and if you write and post that you’re a bad person. No exceptions. You can make different choices and work to become a better person or a good person, but right now, right this second as you do it? You’re a bad person. You should probably figure out why you get so much joy out of posting things with the sole purpose of hurting/triggering/being cruel to others. And you might need help to do that. I legit think you should reach out to people with different opinions from your own to try and break out of it. Get a therapist. Do fucking something worthwhile, because posting troll fics is not worth anyone’s while. Fuck you. Rape as a Backstory

I hope I don’t have to fucking explain why this makes me want to literally explode. I’m purposefully not writing that as R*pe so that people with rape tagged don’t see this.

If you think that rape is the only way to push your story forward or is a great way to give a character “free and easy trauma”, literally stop. Just. Fucking. Stop. There are other ways. Really look at your work, really think about /why/ it’s so important to you that the character /has/ to be raped. Most of the time the real answer is you don’t have a reason you just chose it because you either don’t care, think it’s not a big deal, or never considered other possibilities. There are stories where rape does need to be included, stories that address the topic kindly and/or tag appropriately for it. I’ve read some of these that were really amazing, both short (<1k) and long (>100k) because the author actually took a hot second to address the topic in an intelligent way. Whether that was to dive into how it’s harmful, address their own trauma, or (honestly) even for the smut porn of it but with all the proper tags on it. If you have it to be purely enjoyed by yourself and/or others with dubcon or noncon kinks, cool, good for you, TAG IT APPROPRIATELY. Fucking bless writers who still use “Dead Dove/Do Not Eat” tags y’all are doing great work. But the vast majority using this trope?

They aren’t that, they aren’t anything like that at all, they aren’t always tagged correctly or at all and that’s by design, it’s often for shock value or a quick ‘well that’s why they’re anti-social’, it’s sometimes used as an excuse for one character to swear off sex until the “right person” comes along to “cure them”, and they shouldn’t have ever been posted.

Redemption Equals Sex/Sexual Karma

I know this is spring boarding a bit, but please stop writing these two tropes.

I’m exhausted y’all. And not just because I’m asexual. This trope is disgusting and usually comes with heaps of sexism, racism, and homophobia. If you want to write smut please just write the fucking smut. I’m literally posting smut fic and am planning to work on another one tonight! JUST WRITE SMUT WITHOUT MAKING IT DISGUSTINGLY ANTI-MINORITY GROUPS AND PLAYING INTO HARMFUL STEREOTYPES. If bad guys become good(ish) guys because a woman saw past their barriers, took care of them, are a surrogate mother, and then had wild and kinky sex with them then it’s a bad fic. Likewise, if a character is punished for having sex, or is sexually assaulted to show that they’re now bad then it’s a bad fic.

If a character’s suffering is rewarded with sex to “cure” them and “make them better” then it’s a bad fic.

There are so many ways that this shit becomes a seriously harmful fic.

Please. Please, stop doing this. I am on my knees. Stop!

I am sick of ‘Draco’s in Leather Pants’ (can’t fucking believe I’m whipping that term out again holy shit what year is it) getting redeemed because they slept with someone and now found a reason to care. Sex leading someone on the path towards redemption is so EXTREMELY rarely handled in a way that’s well done. Just. Don’t. Be an unapologetic villain lover, slap them in an AU where they aren’t a pure villain, but don’t do this. Like I wrote above, I’m also just sick of (usually, but not always) dudes who put rape in to punish (usually, but not always) female characters or to punish weak/pushover characters (usually, but not always males). And equally tired of traumatized characters “casting off their shackles” to enjoy wild and kinky sex because someone with a magic dick/strap/fingers/tongue “showed them it’s okay” and “made it all better”.

Just, don’t. Be a fucking decent human being and don’t.

Character/Reader Fics

I...I really just don’t get this? It’s very uncomfortable to me and I’m assuming that’s due to me being aroace, I can’t read them and if I try to I either become so uncomfortable I stop or so rage filled I stop.

I don’t mind 2nd person stories, but most of the ones I see are character/reader fics and it’s...like, it’s just bad. Not “cringe” just enjoyable for me. I can’t explain why I hate this so much considering I do enjoy some 2nd person fics. Idk, I really don’t have the words to explain why these bother me so much. :\

I ain’t got an alternative, if you like these you like them, and if you don’t you just don’t. Thank you for tagging so I can avoid. Have fun on your own! Song Fics and/or Audio/Sound Cue Fics

Sorry guys, I just hate it. I can’t really read a fic and listen to music at the same time, it becomes background noise 100% and detracts from both for audio cue fics.

Fuck, just realized I don’t know if people know what those are. Audio/Sound cue fics are fics where you’re reading along and all the sudden there’s a link or URL that you’re supposed to follow to help set up the next scene/enhance it. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate. It detracts from your story and makes it weaker while being annoying and breaking me the reader out of my enjoyment of your story. Hate! Telling me in the A/N that this (or these) are the song(s) you listened to while writing, song(s) you based the story on, or even that you think they’re good songs to get you in the mood for the story is totally okay! I’ll probably ignore it unless I went head over heels for it, in which case I WILL go back and listen to all of them. (Why hello Rhythm and Blues, you punched me in the face and I now listen to every song even vaguely mentioned in the story or A/N, you’re that good, it’s so fucking good guys, I can’t stop talking about this fucking series it’s just so good?????????) Song fics are also typically in this boat for me. And I want to be really clear, not fics where a character is singing in the fic with lyrics written out. That doesn’t bother me, that song is now effectively part of the story and draws me in. But if it’s paragraphs of description before suddenly cutting it’s annoying. Why, oh why, do I put up with this misery? Still looking for a reason For now it is a mystery to me Why, oh why, do I put up with this misery? Still looking for a reason But for now it's ancient history to me

So yeah I’m making an example to complain about the example.

But question.

Was that needed?

All I did was make overly explicit my feelings in this text that was already there in what I’d written. Song fics feel to me like writers who aren’t confident that their writing is good/understandable/relatable and so they are desperately throwing someone else’s creation into their own in the hopes the reader will get it. Friend, I promise you, we’ll get it without the song! The song lyrics detract when they’re just floating out there, and have taken goods fics and made them frustrating. Either that or you think you’re so amazing that your shit don’t stink and the rest of us idiots can choke because of your brilliance. I’ve found several song fics that if I copy and paste them into a word document and delete the song out, I really enjoyed the fic itself on it’s own merits in a way I literally couldn’t with the lyrics in there. Again, if you are weaving music into your fic, weave it in. Have characters sing, write the lyrics out as a character is listening to the music, quote the song in your fic (preferably without it being super obvious. I’m not saying my take on that was the best, but I did write a Catradora fic on giftly request based on a song and I 100% used lyrics from it in my prose and built my whole plot around it without breaking out to quote the song explicitly), just do something that’s not, like, punching me in the face because “clearly I couldn’t get it” or from a fear that “they won’t understand”. At best you seem insecure and unsure about your story, which is fantastic without the song. At worst it seems like you’re saying your fic is so beyond the average reader that we would never understand your vision without someone else’s original content in it.

#cw: rape #tw: rape #negativity #fandom #fandom negativity #me actually complaining about shit explicitly #and I still edited it a lot to make it not rage ranty #my anxiety won't let me live if I don't #about the author #tag game #writing game #writer game #fic game #fanfiction game #oh my god Imma post now otherwise I'm going to dive back in and scream A LOT MORE BECAUSE MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM #bobkitten

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buddiebeginz · 5 years ago

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So I know I’m late to the party on this one but I’m gonna rant about my issues with TROS mainly because I just saw it again last night and I need to get some stuff off my chest. Warning this will probably get long and I’m sure I’ll repeat some stuff every one else has said

Also I know some of the things I bring up might be resolved to a point in the novelizations, with the commentary, or deleted scenes but most won’t see those so they don’t really count for the movie explaining things properly in some areas.

The movie has some enjoyable parts but doesn’t compare to TFA and doesn’t even come close to TLJ which in my opinion is the best out of the sequel trilogy. TLJ leaves you with all these questions at the end (especially in regards to Ben and Rey) in a good way that you think are going to be answered the next time you see these see characters in TROS but many of the questions are never answered.

Things feel messy and there’s too much going on all over the place. It’s easy to remember what the first two movies in the sequel trilogy are about it’s harder to remember all the stuff that went on in TROS because it feels really disjointed. Like they spend all this time looking for these triangle things (I forget what they were called) to find the planet Palpatine is on but little attention is given to what they are or why you need some special gadget to find these planets. Even when they find them it’s just over and done with pretty quickly. I also think there’s a lot better things they could have been doing with the final installment to the trilogy than wasting time on these things. Very little focus was given to character and relationship growth and development when it was literally the most important time to be giving it. There were so many scenes were I was just like what is the point of this? Like when they faked out Chewie’s death it felt really emotional at first and I was honestly shocked and sad. Then the movie was like psych just fucking with you he’s still alive and I’m like wtf was the point of that? All it served was so that they could go rescue Chewie but they could have done that without faking out his death. Or they could have had some other reason for them to end up on the ship like maybe rescuing Rey.

As others Have stated characters like Finn and Poe didn’t really feel like that had a good character arc through TROS and the series as a whole. I’d argue that TLJ gave a little more depth to both of them with showing Poe’s struggles in wanting to lead the rebellion and Finn’s whole journey with Rose and facing off against Phasma. I don’t think the TROS did too much to really close out either one of their storylines though well except for maybe giving Poe more of a chance to lead but tbh I don’t get all the choices they made for Finn.

They kept making it seem like Finn had romantic feelings for Rey (like when he said he wanted to tell her something) even though they’ve only ever been friends and it didn’t make sense for that to be a part of their storyline. If they wanted to give Finn a love interest it would have made way more sense for them to have it be Rose, or Poe. I didn’t like the fact that out of nowhere they had Finn just suddenly become force sensitive at the end of TROS. If they wanted Finn to be Jedi or force sensitive that should have been introduced in TFA not in the very back end of TROS. I wouldn’t have had a problem with Finn being a Jedi but it just didn’t feel like that was supposed to be a part of his storyline for the majority of the series. The writing made it feel incredibly shoe horned in.

This is pretty nitpicky but the movie is super dark in places particularly the end fight with Palpatine. I’m all for good mood lighting but someone needed to tell the editors to inject some light because you could hardly tell wth was going on in some of those scenes.

Bringing back Palaptine was just one of the worst decision they’ve made in Star Wars in my opinion. It was totally unnecessary and worse it undermines all the work that was done in the original trilogy to get rid him. Vader’s sacrifice was essentially for nothing. I mean I know it was about his redemption but part of that was killing Palpatine. Killing the man who screwed up his entire life and turned him to the dark side. The origtrig was supposed to mean the end of the Empire. I just get the feeling they weren’t really sure where to take things after Snoke was killed but the thing is we didn’t need another Snoke or worse bringing back villains from the past. TROS should have been about Ben (which I’ll get to that when I talk about the shit show of an ending)

I wish there had been more talking between Ben and Rey. I know I’m biased being a Reylo shipper and I get that it’s a Star Wars movie so there’s going to be a lot of action but the origtrig had a lot of talking. I mean there were scenes full of Vader and Luke just talking. Some of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy are when Rey are Ben are just talking. There was so much more I wanted to know about these characters.

THE ENDING

(which needed a section all to it’s self because that’s how bad it was)

So by now everyone has ranted about how awful the ending is but in all honesty as much as I feel the same it could have been worse. I mean it could have ended with Rey and Ben fighting each other and him dying without a smidge of redemption. Still the redemption he got was minimal and lazy to what this character deserved.

This trilogy was really about Ben and Rey and they should have been the main focus of the last one especially Ben. In the first two movies of the sequel trilogy we see how Ben is being manipulated by Snoke and how he’s very much on the dark side but there’s still light in him, light that Rey finds and brings out. TROS should been the culmination of Ben’s fight to go back to the light. We never really saw a big dramatic storyline with Vader and his return to the light (we just got that end scene with him saving Luke) but we could and should have gotten that with Ben.

If you asked someone what the sequel trilogy was about they’d likely mention Rey and Kylo Ren and the sad thing is Ben was a central part of three movies yet had no real resolution or solid focus at the end of series.

The ending battle in TROS was mostly between Rey and Palaptine with Ben in there for a tiny bit and while I’m thankful we got the little bit of Reylo we got at the end if Palpatine had to be there it should have been Reylo battling him together. I found myself watching and thinking where the hell is Ben half the time.

When Rey says “be with me” in the middle of the Palaptine battle she should have been talking to Ben and not the force ghosts (who she didn’t know well) and he should have answered her back.

I don’t think that it was necessary to make Rey Palpatine’s granddaughter. I think they could have easily enough had her be powerful without having her be related to him. In actuality I think it would have made more sense to have her parents be nobody’s like was said in TLJ and it just happens that she’s really powerful. So you would have had Ben coming from a powerful loving family and being powerful yet turned to the dark side and Rey coming from a nothing cruel family who sold her and being powerful with the light. Not everything needs a huge explanation. I’m still very much of the opinion that Palpatine’s inclusion in TROS was totally unnecessary.

In TLJ there was a lot of focus put on Rey and Ben’s force bond it was even brought up sort of in TFA. We see it in TROS but I don’t feel like they ever really utilized it to the potential they could have. We should have seen more of them communicating through their bond especially during the end fight. And while I don’t think everything needs to be explained I still would have loved to see them talk about it in person. TROS shows us that their bond is so powerful it literally makes Palpatine exponentially more powerful when he takes their life force together but there’s never any explanation as to why Ben and Rey have this connection and why it’s so powerful. We’ve seen other force bonds with force sensitive people in the SW saga but never like these two have so what’s the difference? And why wasn’t it enough to save Ben?

So Rey dies and Ben gives his life force to save her. We get scenes with Ben crawling over to Rey, holding her, and looking absolutely shocked and anguished that Rey wouldn’t be with him anymore. Rey comes back they kiss and we see the first real smile from Ben in the entire series. and then he dies. Rey looks sad for a moment Ben disappears and that’s it, that’s the last time any reference to Ben is made in the movie. Rey loved him too Rey was eternally connected to him too yet the movie would have you believe all she felt was one moment of sadness over loosing her other half. It makes no sense. It also makes no sense why Ben wouldn’t be a force ghost unless he’s not dead.

And this is more of a commentary about fandom but I see so many people talk about how Reylo is abusive or how Ben can’t possibly be redeemed because of all the horrible things he’s done but no one seems to consider the fact that Ben was poisoned by the dark side at an age much younger than Anakin. Luke also turned on him and then lied about it which I have a huge problem with the movies acting like that was in any way okay. Like the only one who called Luke out on that was Rey but still Luke is partially responsible for what happened to Ben. My point in bringing this up in the ending is that Ben comes back to the light and without a moments hesitation he saves Rey and that still isn’t enough for some people he’s still this awful abusive person. He had so many chances to kill her, to hurt her, wound her terribly and he never did in fact it was her who ended up stabbing and almost killing him.

I’m not sure if Carrie Fisher’s death changed anything of how the ending was going to go. I’d assume so and I’ve read that Leia was supposed to play a bigger role in this movie so I’m not sure how it all would have played out but the way they had her die I think was another problem. There’s a video with an ending fix that shows Leia’s death bringing Ben back and I think that’s how it should have gone. Their whole battle on the Death Star to begin with was kind of messy you had Rey stab him, heal him, and then just leave which what was the purpose of all of that? But having Leia die then was less impactful as it would have been in the final moments of the movie. We don’t really know why Leia died in the movie just that when she did Ben felt it and it made him stop. If they had her die at the end it they could have made it so she chose to sacrifice herself to bring her son back so he could finally go be in the light with Rey.

When people watched the origtrig they saw Luke, Leia, and Han defeat the darkness good won out. Luke was even able to bring his father back to the light and talk to him and give himself closure. At the end of ROTJ the whole group are happy and together and there’s peace for first time in a long time. You might not have known exactly where these characters would end up after ROTJ but it all felt very hopeful. Now I’m not saying that everything needs to be wrapped up in a bow like that but where is the hope and inspiration at the end of TROS? Sure they defeated the bad guys but Rey is alone on sand planet basically back where she started.

I get that JJ and the other people involved with making the movie probably thought let’s be poetic and have TROS end where the original pretty much started on Tatooine but storyline wise it didn’t make sense for this trilogy and these characters and it was just plain tragic to have Rey end up back on a sand planet alone. One thing we’ve learned from Rey through the course of three movies is how alone she’s felt her entire life. How long she spent waiting for her parents because she thought they were coming back. How it’s clear she just wanted to to be loved and belong. She found that sense of love and belonging with Ben through their force bond and right when they could finally be together right when he finally came back to the light he was gone. She didn’t even have her friends with her she was truly alone.

If they had to have Ben die at the end of the battle and have Rey alone on Tatooine what they could have done was have her hear Ben at the end through their force connection and leave it open for interpretation as to whether he was still alive or just a ghost. I also think she should have taken Ben’s last name. This would connect her to the original trilogy in a way that would make older fans happy and it would connect her to Ben in a way that would make those of us who love Reylo happy. The thing is Rey was closer to Ben and his parents than she ever was to Luke. No offense to anyone who loves Luke but he wasn’t exactly the world’s best mentor. I mean I loved him in the origtrig but I wasn’t too happy with how he treated Rey and definitely not happy for what he did to Ben. Rey didn’t need to take his last name to honor him or Leia and Leia loved Han and Ben so Solo would have made her happy too. I just think JJ gave her the name Skywalker to make the fanboys happy. But Rey will always be a Solo to me.

I don’t know if they were trying to leave things intentionally vague or not at the end but a lot of it was. Like I said though I think the ending probably went through multiple changes in large part do to Carrie Fisher dying but other reasons too. I do think originally Ben wasn’t going to die but for whatever reasons that was changed. The scene where he lays down definitely feels weird like it was revered or something (as many have pointed out). I also don’t get the inclusion of force ghosts if they weren’t going to include Ben, either there should have been no ghosts or Ben should have been there too. Another reason I think the ending was changed was because of the scene on the Death Star. Why have Rey heal him only for him to die later? It felt like this movie was supposed to be about Ben’s healing and return to the light not his death. It just doesn’t fit.

I read this one post that talked about how Ben is dark with light and Rey is light with dark yin/yang they balance each other out and can’t exist without each other. So what is Rey’s life going to be like now that her other half is gone?

I think that the movie should have ended up with Ben and Rey together over looking some place green and beautiful (remember her saying she didn’t think there was this much green in the whole galaxy). Maybe some time in the future with Rey pregnant and them building a life together. They could have even had Ben teaching new Jedi students. I want to cry just thinking about it. There’s so many better choices they could have made for the ending than just Rey alone in the desert on mercenary planet where she’s probably going to have to fight to survive again.

Sorry this got so long I just wanted to get out all my feelings on this. If you read all the way down many blessings upon you and your cow. 😝💗 I’m totally open to talking about any of this even if you disagree just as long as you’re not sending me hateful bs.

#star wars #reylo #tros #tros spoilers #tros negativity #ep ix #sw!#reylo epix #long post #epix etc

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him-e · 7 years ago

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do you have any general predictions for Star Wars episode 9?

I’m not too confident in my predictions for IX, because TLJ was one giant curveball thrown at us. Not because we didn’t correctly predict most of it (we did) but because the ending wiped a lot of possible paths out of the way, with no actual cliffhanger to pin speculation on, Snoke dead, and the main storyline from Return of the Jedi already covered without bearing the expected fruit (=Kylo’s redemption). So as far as sw tropes and patterns go, IX is almost uncharted territory. Still, Star Wars is a fairytale, and imo the best way to predict where it’s going is to focus on larger themes and archetypal narratives. The central theme for IX was spelled out in in TLJ very clearly: we are going to win this war not by killing what we hate, but by saving what we love. I’m fairly confident that this theme will be developed through both Rey and Kylo, individually and together.(*)

Kylo Ren’s arc is also the main axis of this trilogy so in order to know where the story is going you have to figure out where he is going. And right now, Kylo Ren moved beyond Vader. Breaking the leash and killing his master did not redeem him, but actually cemented him as the Villain. In TLJ, he went from lost boy to actual god of the underworld. There’s no big bad outranking him. He’s the sole architect of his own misery. You can’t save him by eliminating another player—that ship has sailed with TLJ. At the same time, I have no doubt he’ll redeem himself. So how will he do it? In Beauty and the Beast—which I think is one of the patterns this trilogy was modeled on—the real villain is neither the witch nor Gaston, and it’s certainly not the Beast himself; if there’s a villain at all, it’s the Beast’s darker, uglier nature, whatever is crippling his ability for love and gentleness and self sacrifice, that has to be defeated. Like the Beast, Kylo is responsible for creating the dark castle that has become his prison; the only way to be free is to learn to let go—let go of his anger, let go of his ambition and desire to dominate, let go of his possessiveness towards Rey; let the Beast die in order to break the spell. The Beast is the Kylo Ren persona and everything that persona is connected to and helped create (the First Order, Hux). So I think one of the climaxes of the movie, if not The climax, will be the ~death~of Kylo Ren (and, I hope, the rebirth of Ben Solo).

With that in mind, here are my predictions (bold for the ones I’m relatively certain of, italics for half-predictions-half-wishful-thinking):

there will be a time jump (anything from 6 months to 3 years);

the Resistance will have partially regrouped and be possibly doing some recruiting work across the galaxy;

we’ll see more new planets and maybe some familiar ones (Tatooine, Coruscant, Naboo? Perhaps we’ll even go back to Jakku)

Poe will be in charge, but there will be tension between him and Rey, maybe between him and Finn too—like, disagreements about military strategies and about Rey’s role in the war. Poe seems to have internalized Holdo’s message on his own terms: where Holdo’s “spark” line was about creation, Poe’s still thinking in terms of destruction. So I think he’ll actually butt heads with Rey, and Finn might be caught in the crossfire. Finn might agree with Poe at first, but eventually his loyalty to Rey will prevail.

(the tension will be eventually reconciled during the third act of the film)

a lightsaber fight between Rey and Kylo (we haven’t had one since TFA so it’s long overdue), to establish their current status as conflicted enemies who think their respective paths are sealed and it can’t be any other way. Maybe this happens when their respective armies are watching so they literally can’t avoid the duel. But the audience already knows they won’t truly hurt each other, so it will be more of a way to have them vent their feelings of hurt and yell a bit and like, “I offered you the galaxy and you betrayed me! “No, you betrayed me!!”, you know.

Reylo angst

more specifically, force bond angst (it would be a complete waste of juicy narrative potential to drop the force bond storyline, although I suspect that JJ will put his personal spin on it, either visually or conceptually). Whether Rey and Kylo went through a time of not having force connections at all (and possibly believing the bond is dead for good) or ignoring them whenever they happened, in IX the radio silence will be broken, and it will be angsty at first.

the bond will be discovered, causing Rey and Kylo to fall from grace among their own ranks. Their loyalty will be questioned, their connection to the enemy feared and regarded with suspicion. People will try to take advantage of it.

Poe/the Resistance will try to corner Rey into using the bond as a trap for Kylo, which will make her furious (paralleling BatB, where the villagers use Belle’s magic mirror to find the Beast and slaughter him);

JJ might partially reframe Rey’s parentage by adding more information and details about why she was sold out by her parents (rey*sky though is dead and will stay dead)

Leia’s death will be a plot point, one way or another. It’s possible we learn about her death in the opening crawl, and the film opens with the aftermath of her death and/or her funeral;

Leia’s death will have a major impact on Kylo’s arc and his redemption

Kylo attending to Leia’s funeral via force bond?

We will see Kylo’s loneliness. It will have shakespearian/greek tragedy vibes.

He will be plagued by visions à la Hamlet and visited by Force ghosts. Luke, at least. Possibly Snoke (though I assume his wouldn’t be a proper Force ghost but either his toxic aura lingering or a figment of Kylo’s imagination, reliving his abuse over and over again). Less likely, Anakin.

Force ghost!Luke will appear to Rey too. (I feel like Rian didn’t give their relationship proper closure, probably on purpose, so that JJ could do something with it)

Kylo will also have to deal with the emptiness of vengeance. His whole family is dead, like he wanted, and yet he’s still suffering and not feeling whole.

He’ll also see there’s no point in having power if he has no one to share it with.

the first order might produce a new superweapon, the usage of which will cause extra strife between Hux and Kylo;

speaking of weapons, something will be made with the legacy saber. Either that or Rey finally builds her own saber.

Some new aspect of the Force will be revealed, and/or there will be at least one climatic scene involving a massive use of the Force (in battle or else)

FIRSTORDERBOWL!

Hux will 100% try to overthrow Kylo and become the anti-antivillain, the “mummer’s dragon” to quote asoiaf, because yes, the real enemy might be inside Kylo’s heart but we still need space battles, lightsaber duels and climatic action sequences. Hux hates Kylo, considers him unworthy, craves the title of Supreme Leader for himself, has personally witnessed how volatile and self destructive Kylo is when it comes to his personal emotions, and now knows his weaknesses (it’s unclear if he knew that Kylo Ren = Ben Solo before, but after seeing Kylo going on a rampage against Luke there’s no way he hasn’t connected the dots). The look Hux gives Kylo when Kylo enters the Resistance base on Crait is that of a man who is already plotting a coup. The novelization also says that Hux has access to secret camera recordings, which probably means he has or is soon to discover footage of Kylo killing Snoke to save Rey and the two of them fighting the praetorian guards. So all the elements are in place for Hux to launch a full blown coup… which Kylo won’t see coming because he thinks Hux is a worthless rat and he’s too busy wallowing in his own misery anyway.

The Knights of Ren should come into the picture. Either they’ll side with Kylo or, surprising, with Hux, which would raise the stakes exponentially as Hux would then have both military power and the support of a team of minor dark side users;

Finn will also have a part to play in firstorderbowl. Even though both TLJ and TFA were lacking on this aspect, I still expect to see his connection to the stormtroopers finally coming to fruition. He might incite a revolt, and even if not all the stormtroopers follow him, this would still significantly cripple Hux’s military power;

Kylo might be imprisoned or forced to flee; this new and definitive betrayal will finally make him see that the First Order is not, has never been the Right Way;

or Hux might try to kill two birds with one stone and turn Kylo over to the Resistance, while also revealing that Rey went to the Supremacy to ally herself with Kylo, so that the rebels lose their trust in her.

Maybe both Kylo and Rey end up as prisoners of the Resistance, or Rey finds herself in such a predicament that she has no choice but flee with Kylo

I honestly don’t expect Kylo to, like, actually SIDE with the Resistance—I think the movie will use him as a wild card until the end. But one thing will be clear and it’s that he cares for Rey—at the very least, he’s invested in her safety.

Narratively, it makes sense that this time around it’s either Kylo who goes to Rey or they meet halfway.

We might see some trippy force bond-related other-dimension sequence.

Vision-related stuff, too. Maybe we’ll finally see what THAT part of the TFA forceback was about (the one with Kylo stabbing the “clan member”), or Rey’s vision of the future will come to fruition (assuming that both didn’t already happen with the throne room scene).

there will be a kiss.

(more than one, actually. Finn’s totally going to kiss Rose and this time it will be a proper kiss.)

but yes. there will be a reylo kiss.

Kylo’s last stand will involve some sort of self sacrifice. I think even in the end he won’t be able to see a future for himself among the /good guys/, so he’d rather go out in a blaze of glory, saving what he loves.

Rey will save him (or try to).

Kylo Ren will symbolically (or even literally) die

and be revived through massive force-healing by Rey. And it’s going to be a proper disney-style Beauty and the Beast scene.

Pietà/rebirth imagery. Probably heavy-handed.

(*) You could say that Rey already tried to do the “winning by saving” thing and failed, but I don’t believe for a single second that the sequel trilogy is trying to prove that message wrong. It’s just that in TLJ, Rey and Kylo weren’t desperate enough to really understand it. (or they were too desperate). They were still clinging to visions, to perceived notions of “winning” muddling the selflessness of their actions towards each other—Kylo wanted to share his power with an equal, Rey to secure reformed Jedi Ben Solo to the Resistance’s cause so she doesn’t have to be their “only hope”, a burden that probably scares her. They were both trying to placate their loneliness and *win* the other over, for understandable, but still rather self serving reasons. So their convergence was short lived. In IX, they’ll learn to let go, and THEN they’ll be able to make that selfless act of true, unconditional love.

#anon #asks #sw asks #//#///#episode ix #sw speculation #sw for ts #reylo for ts

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vohalika · 6 years ago

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Thoughts on Ellie

(I don’t even go here, which is why I’m not tagging it. This just bothered me a metric fuckton)

So from what I understand, a random fresh account under the name Ellie appeared on Rank 4 in Top500 recently. A Contenders Team announce they signed her on. People were suspicious because no one knew who this was or where they came from, there was no real name listed on the contenders page, and someone climbing from 0 to T500 is basically unheard of and almost impossible, especially not knowing who they are.

To prove her existence and female-ness, a girl saying Ellie is her account plays on stream and does so badly. Shitstorm ensues. Ellie resigns. Someone tells someone called Aspen it was a social experiment. The guy who did this is apparently called Punisher. There is an investigation.

From what I understand, this is a drama heavy pro scene to begin with, so I do believe that being “suspicious” of these circumstances would have happened with either gender. Or none. Whatever. The thought process behind “there’s no female player of T500 level who plays these heroes; these heroes wouldn’t be played with an aim bot; it must be a male player pretending to be a girl” is… Well, correct in this case. And that’s the worst part, really. I dislike the general assumption that no female player could do this, with Ellie as her second account or whatever, but that doesn’t matter under these circumstances because that is, literally, what happened. For the most part, at least.

So that’s I think the popular story right now? That the girl behind Ellie’s voice and this Punisher guy (and maybe others?) started this fake account as a social experiment, and then deceived a pro team into signing her on as the first female player ever in Contenders NA. Not in Contenders, there’s a few women playing in Contenders AU.

Like babyporo. Who a day before Ellie sprung fully formed into existence with an SR of 4665 called out the captain of the team that signed Ellie for tweeting “females should not be in my 4500 games 😊 change my mind”.

Where was the shitstorm about that, by the way? Somehow, that didn’t make it into the OW vloggersphere on youtube the same way Ellie did.

Anyway, Ellie happened a day later, Haku, the team captain in question, apologized, his team signs Ellie.

So… I see like, three-ish options here. The people behind the Ellie account saw Haku being a dick, created this fake girl with an SR about 4500, and then were signed on the same team as him out of dumb luck and what started as a (really badly conceived geez) gotcha! Moment spiraled out of control.

Or, these incidents were all entirely unrelated, it started as a “genuine” social experiment to see… What? How much harassment a random female account coming up under suspicious circumstances would receive? How easy it’d be to get signed on a pro team as a woman? How gullible the management behind Second Wind is?

I mean, yay, success, amazing. It’s like all those times men made dating profiles pretending to be women and left after a few days because of all the vile things men were sending them. How about y’all just believe what women tell you instead of pulling shit like this.

The third-ish possibility is that Second Wind was in on this and signed on Ellie because they wanted a PR stunt after those sexist comments to show how not sexist they are. I’ve seen people call this virtue signaling, and, yikes.

So this Punisher guy and the girl acting along are assholes under all of these circumstances. That much is clear. The entire idea is just bad, and throws basically any future female pro player under the bus as well.

But, I mean, what the fuck is wrong with this team? People are now complaining how every man has to go through thorough vetting processes, but look, that woman just got signed on because she pretended to be a woman! Misandry is real!

(Actual take I have heard)

I mean, if that was the case, why aren’t there tons of women already playing in the pro leagues, if apparently sounding like you might possess a vagina is enough to get you signed, no further vetting required?

The official statement says they had no idea who Ellie really was, or rather wasn’t, they don’t ever communicate with their players in person, and there were time constraints. And I guess they have to say that, because if they’d been in on this, my guess is Blizzard would boot their asses right out.

So in the most generous of cases, they were just being extremely careless. Which is even more damning once female players are involved, especially the first one in that Contenders division ever, because there will always be a shitstorm. If this had been a real woman and they’d signed her on under these circumstances without vetting, exposing her to this kind of harassment would have been callous beyond measure. This way, it is also callous and dangerous and irresponsible, don’t get me wrong, but just in general to any future female player trying to go pro.

If they signed her on for a publicity stunt, I mean, that was successful. No such thing as bad press. To distract from Haku’s sexist remarks, well, that was also successful up until basically now.

Or they were complicit in all of this. Maybe they knew all along that Ellie wasn’t real, signed her for the PR, counted on her getting harassed enough so that her dropping out before every playing a single game would be believable; so they’d both be known for being the first NA Contenders team to sign a woman without actually having to sign a woman. Refer to what I said above about being callous and irresponsible, and add to that being colossal dicks on purpose.

And honestly, I kind of believe the latter version is more likely. I really don’t see how a pro organization could be so artificially stupid. If they were the victims of fraud here and only wanted to sign on a good player that happened to be female with the best of intentions, I also hope they press charges, but I really, really don’t think they were.

So. Best case scenario, SW management is full of idiots. Worst case scenario, full of assholes. Alongside Punisher and Ellie. There are no winners here.

And then there’s people whose takeaway from this is that there’s no sexism towards women in the community, all the doxxers and harassers were justified because they were right, harassment only counts when it’s towards women while all the male players getting shit online are being left in the dust, women have been toxic to me in my games too and they never get banned for it while they get men banned for reporting them, and also, congrats, now we will have achieved equality because women will have to be vetted as thoroughly as men to go pro in the future.

Yikes.

So. Something tells me that the women playing on Contenders AU currently were properly vetted already. So was Geguri. Didn’t Geguri also have to play with a keyboard and mouse cam to prove she was actually as good at tracking as she is?

(I know she doesn’t want to be seen as a female player instead of a player and also doesn’t want to be used for these kinds of talks. It is however kind of impossible not to when you are the first of anything, really, and also a really good example for everything, including but not limited to the concept of the glass cliff; something sort of related to the glass ceiling.)

I also stand by the assumption that if there hadn’t been a girl involved in this, we’d all be laughing about a great prank by now.

Maybe Overwatch truly is the one amazing bastion of equality where male and female players are harassed equally, or for some reason, men face more harassment and scrutiny, so any and all experiences from any and all other gaming communities when it comes to women are completely invalid here. That’d be great. That’s not the story I hear, though. I’ve seen babyporo go a little into what it’s like being a female pro player, I’ve seen the drama around Mercy mains, that thing with Geguri definitely happened. For every toxic female player abusing others via comms in-game, I’ve heard of two who don’t dare to speak up during the game for fear of being harassed. Maybe those fears are unfounded; I can say I haven’t been harassed in comms so far. But then again, the ranks I play at are veeery low, so I’m not exactly threatening any male egos by existing there. My games haven’t been very toxic in general, maybe the real toxicity only starts when there’s actually something at stake in the higher ranks.

All of this is anecdotal, though. I have a hard time letting go of what I have heard and seen happening over and over again, but let’s just assume Overwatch is above all that.

That still won’t change the fact that any and all female pro players trying to get on a team now will have to face so, so much more scrutiny, if not by the organizations, then by the community. Now that they’ve been proven right, the mob of assholes – as minor a part of the community at large as it may be – feels validated. There was something to dig up about this female player, so there might be something to dig up about all future female pros, too! What, it’s just being careful at this point, look at what happened with Ellie!

And that is going to make the situation worse for female players. There’s already a bunch of societal hurdles to even get to a point where you’d consider going pro and be considered for a team. Now there will be fewer women who are going to try because with all the scrutiny that is going to follow, it might just not be worth it. We have seen many women crucified by the video game community before; that shit is not exactly encouraging.

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pwnyta · 7 years ago

Note

001 - Star wars

Favorite character: FINN!! Absolutely.

Least Favorite character: Jar Jar I suppose. True story-- I found a pack of Star Wars playing cards once and I grabbed them all excited thinkin I was finally gonna have some Finn merch (even if it would be WEAK ASS merch).... Not only was it only the Prequel movies only... but the first card that came out was Jar Jar.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Rey/FinnPoe/FinnKylo/Finn (Probably my fav despite me not even liking Kylo... because the fandom is super chill and Poe and Rey/Finn shippers can be some of the most uppity, obnoxious fucks. MY GOD. Also the few SWs fics I read have been those ships and it tends to be the stories are more about THEM than Finn and thats not how I roll. Not sayin all of them. Just... it happens.)Anyone/Finn really... Im not picky... As long as he looks cute in it.

Character I find most attractive: Honestly? As of TLJ... that purple haired lady. She was super hot. Qui gon was before but now hes second. And then Finn is third.

Character I would marry: Finn. Or Qui Gon... my old flame.

Character I would be best friends with: BB-8

a random thought: ...Dunno... I find worlds with sentient friendly robots to be utterly charming but the SW Fandom as a whole is a hellscape and I could never really get into Star Wars because of it. Also? Turns out not really a Star Wars fan at all... I literally only like The Force Awakens.

An unpopular opinion: There are a few ships I really dont like or would consider ‘not great’ IMO but Antis especially Antis Reylos specifically make the fandom insufferable.

My Canon OTP: ...IDK Im not a huge fan of canon ships in general. Dont tell me how to live my life story... I know what I want.

My Non-canon OTP: Everyone/Finn. Baze/Chirrut

Most Badass Character: Evil robot guy with four arms? That guy was awesome.

Most Epic Villain: That robot with the four arms that I dont remember anything about other than the fact he looks fuckin RAD!

Pairing I am not a fan of: Anything thats not Finn related with the exception of.... Baze/Chirrut.

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Rose... If theyre gonna intro a character they should have their part of the story be a little bit more important and solid... She as a character is cute and has potential I just dont the writers wrote her to her full potential. Also why didnt she have ANYTHING to do with Poe? Wasnt it Poe who got her sister killed... that woulda been an interesting story.

Favourite Friendship:Rey/Finn and Poe/Finn

Character I most identify with: R2D2 when hes screaming or C3P0

Character I wish I could be: IDK man everyone in Star Wars has some shit (tm) that theyre dealin with that I dont wanna fuckin deal with.

#skip-is-tired #Shots fired..

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seleysia · 7 years ago

Text

Very spoilery Infinity War review because I need to get my feelings out

First and foremost, I thought this movie was great; not what I was expecting, but great.

I’m not quite sure how to format this review so I’m gonna try to list things that I reacted heavily to in chronological order and then I’ll weigh my likes and dislikes at the end and give it a review out of 10.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

1. The beginning/the fall of Asgard?

Okay so the movie starts out with Thor’s ship full of Asgardians, which was last seen in the post-credit scene of Thor:Ragnarok, in shambles. By the post-credit scene in ragnarok, we could assume that the Asgardians were in some sort of trouble with Thanos but holy hell I was not expecting for it to open with like literally everyone dead. This was when I realized like oh crap this movie is gonna be more of a a mess than I thought (but I’m a good way). Obviously, I knew that this movie was not gonna have a happy ending but opening with literally everyone dead?? Props to you marvel 10/10 on this one.

2. Loki’s death?

Loki’s died twice in the past so I went into this movie doubting that marvel would kill him off cause there wouldn’t be any shock factor and it would seem like it wasn’t actually happening (so it wouldn’t be great writing), but alas Loki is “dead”? I mean based on his character arch it made sense; he either had to join the good side completely and permanently (unlikely) or sacrifice himself for the greater good/Thor? Now I am biased because Loki is my favourite character in the MCU by far, but idk i feel like he should’ve gone out with a bigger bang: closer to the end, less rushed. His death also seemed very unlikely because the guy’s cheated death many times before so why couldn’t he cheat his way out this time? It seemed like he would’ve been smarter about the whole situation. If I had it my way, he wouldn’t have been killed off at all, not because he’s my favourite, but because it’s just not great writing. It’s generally a no-no to kill someone off who’s already died before.

3. Spider-Man? In Space?

Honestly, I didn’t think Spider-Man was going to play a huge role in this movie, but he did. I thought it was gonna be more like Civil War and lead up to Spider-Man 2 (Tom Holland edition), which it probably will, but Peter had a much bigger role than he did in Civil War. From the trailers, you could kind of assume Peter was going to space or the guardians were going to earth (which is what I thought would happen), but he just seems like a non-space person? idk this just really surprised me even though the new suit (which was heckin’ cool) was high key leading up to it.

4. The Time Stone is not being used?

So Dr. Strange obviously has the time stone at the beginning of the movie but like he never used it?? Now, I’ve only seen Dr. Strange once and it was in very many bits and pieces over a long period of time so I don’t know too much about the time stone and how it works but you would’ve thought that he would’ve like used it before going to space? Or after? Like this whole situation could’ve been prevented?? Can you not use it in space or something??

5. Captain America reveal. Oh look, Sam and Natasha are here too!

I don’t have much to say about this other than it was really heckin’ cool and I would’ve liked to know more about what the crew was doing post-Civil War but that’s not a huge concern. Why were they in Scotland? Idk

6. Guardians and Thor + split up:

I loved all the Guardians/Thor interactions and the split up was very unexpected in the manner of who went with who, which is good. The whole reality stone thing seemed too easy?? Like Thanos got that really easily?? Suddenly he has 3 infinity stones and we’re like 30mins into the movie?? Also Gamora’s capture seemed very easy as well?? Like Thanos has 3 infinity stones but you think they’d put up more of a fight? idk maybe this is just a me thing.

7. Everyone is giving up so easy?? Maybe I’m just not sympathetic enough...

Okay so like Gamora gave up her information on the soul stone like so fast. Sure, like your sister is being tortured but it’s also like the end of the heckin’ world woman get it together. This is seen later with Dr. Strange too like just let Tony die?? Don’t give Thanos the time stone?? It’s the end of the world?? Who gives a fuck about Tony at this point DO THINGS FOR THE GREATER GOOD PEOPLE. Geez...

8. RED SKULL??

THIS SHOOK ME UP SO HARD OMFG. I was not expecting this AT ALL. Like everyone complains because they feel like Red Skull was under-utilized (like Captain Phasma in SW), which is a sentiment I agree with. It was just so exciting to see him again in a place where it made sense. 10/10 Marvel.

9. Gamora’s Death??

Is it just me or isn’t a Guardians 3 supposed to come out? Also I did not think that Thanos loved anything (except maybe Death but that storyline wasn’t included in the movie) because that’s how he’s portrayed so it didn’t make much sense to me that Gamora was a suitable sacrifice? I mean he adopted her for his own personal gain not because he wanted kids or felt bad for Gamora. I guess it makes sense from a writing perspective for like trying to make him more relatable and “human” but I don’t think this got the reaction that the writers wanted. Obviously, the deaths at the end aren’t permanent but that brings up the question of are the deaths before permanent? If they’re not what was the point of this movie.

10. Wakanda reunion!!

I don’t even care about anything in this scene except the Bucky/Steve reunion cause stucky is so heckin’ good and I high key screamed, okay thanks that’s all.

11. Wakanda Battle!

I loved all the ladies together omfg that Black Widow/Scarlet Witch/Okoye fight was so good. I also loved the Bucky/Rocket interaction because going into this movie I wanted Rocket to steal Bucky’s arm so bad and he made a joke about it and I was very happy. I’m kinda sad that Peter P. was in space for this because I want him and Shuri to meet up so bad they’d be BFFs. The thing that kind of confused me was Thor saving the day? It just seemed really out of place to me. With his new axe, he was like the only one who could properly beat Thanos but in the first Avengers, Cap’s shield could face off against Mjolnir so?? If Thanos’ gauntlet is made in the same way as Mjolnir and apparently vibranium can be a worthy opponent of such a weapon then why couldn’t like everyone else’s weapons works against Thanos too?? Wakanda’s weapons are vibranium right? I mean I guess it makes sense cause Thor has beef with Thanos and they both have magical weapons but who doesn’t have beef with Thanos and also has a special weapon?

12. Everyone dies

I didn’t really like this either. I thought Infinity War was going to be more of a permanent movie than previous MCU movies (ex1. Loki). Obviously, seeing who died, you can tell that these deaths won’t be permanent. I mean maybe they’re not deaths at all maybe they were all just transported to another dimension or something. Who knows? Idk how dying via dust works. I did like that this movie didn’t have a happy ending though. That was a very nice.

13. A lady?? Saving the universe??

that post-credit scene though. OMFG. I actually screamed in the theatre even though it’s weird and I have laryngitis at the moment. I’ve been a Captain Marvel fan for a while now and I knew her movie was coming out like next year but I was not expecting it to tie into this. WOW. just wow. I was very shook. I am very excited for Avengers 4.

I know it kinda seems like I didn’t like this movie but I can assure you that I liked everything that I didn’t mention in this review. I just didn’t mention it cause it didn’t stand out or cause confusion.

All in all marvel, a solid 9.5/10.

#infinity war #infinity war spoilers #marvel #avengers #captain marvel

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saranel · 7 years ago

Text

The Last Jedi review, sorta

I don’t think I’ve talked enough (if at all) about what a huge Star Wars nerd I am on this blog, mostly because I didn’t love TFA as much as most people seemed to and I just never joined in the renewed fandom frenzy.

TL;DR on my views on TFA: It was fun enough, some interesting new characters, beautiful visuals, but I’d seen that movie before. It came out in ‘77 and it was much better then. Homage is one thing, rip off is completely another. Mostly, I guess I was just disappointed that they didn’t dare to try and move the universe forward a bit, beyond the already trodden path.

Say what you will about the prequels, but I will always, always maintain there’s nothing wrong with them a better script and director couldn’t fix. George tries, bless him, but he can’t write dialogue worth a damn. Not even Meryl Streep could’ve made the line “So love has blinded you” any better than Natalie Portman did, and both she and Hayden have proven themselves to be much better actors than they were in Star Wars. I’m not bothering with Ewan because he was one of the few really great things about the Prequels.

That having been said, what George can do is weave a decent background story, and the Prequel Trilogy’s story is much, much richer than the OT’s. Taking off our nostalgia-colored glasses for a moment, let us be honest: the OT was so successful because it did a very simple thing, and did it well, and had a cast with wonderful chemistry. The story itself is nothing to rave about: just your simple Evil Empire vs Plucky Rebels story. But the Prequels actually got political and much darker than the OT did, they just did it clumsily. Still, it was something new in the Star Wars universe and George always tried to expand the known worlds by giving us even small glimpses of other cultures and planets. Don’t forget that Star Wars was never meant to be high-brow Science Fiction a la Philip Dick, but a space adventure. This doesn’t mean that the story can’t have nuance, but the point of Star Wars was always to be a fairytale exploration of a fictional galaxy.

Compared to that, the new trilogy seemed extremely lacking to me. And seeing The Last Jedi a few days ago really cemented that. Never before have I seen so many things happening in one movie while nothing really happens at all. It makes Attack of the Clones look interesting in comparison, and that’s saying a lot. ALSO LUKE, WTF HAS THE MOUSE DONE TO MY SPACE SON, THE FUCKING GALL.

So yes, surprise-surprise, TLJ manages to rip off Empire (with a dash of Battlestar Galactica thrown in for good measure) and does so poorly. It was not a terrible film by any means, but I honestly thought it was no better than Phantom Menace. And Phantom Menace had the Duel of Fates. So.

(okay, to be fair, TLJ didn’t have Jar Jar so that’s one point in its favor)

In a nutshell:

(cut for spoilers)

THE GOOD

- Poe. Poe was good. Moar Poe, there was a serious lack of Poe in TFA and it has been rectified, this was a very good decision.

- The silent scene. Y’all know the one. People in my theater literally gasped in unison. I was bored outta my skull up until then and as soon as I realized what Holdo was about to do, I sat up, all ‘oshit’ and it was amazing. Beautifully shot, beautifully clever, and the most badass hero death in the SW universe. Only comes in second in terms of best scene in the movie because the other one involved a more established and beloved character.

- MY SON LUKE KICKING HIS NEPHEW’S ASS LIKE IT AIN’T NO BIG THANG. In full disagreement over how shit went down between them in the past, but Luke showing Kylo who’s the most goddamn powerful Jedi in the galaxy (which Luke did canonically become in later years btw) was such a rewarding scene. Also, he was dressed in black. Like in ROTJ. Because fuck yeah.

- Rey’s parentage. Most people probably hated that she’s not a Skywalker but I just... kinda loved the suggestion that she was the Force’s answer to Kylo? It’s happened before with Anakin, so this isn’t exactly new, and Anakin, too, came from ‘nothing.’ I liked it. She doesn’t have to have illustrious parentage to be important in the series, and as much as I love my Space Drama Queen clan, it’s time the universe moves on from the Kardashians of the galaxy.

- Luke’s death. I don’t agree with 99% of what went down with Luke in this trilogy, I think it was deeply out of character, but his ending? That was spot on. Did I want more out of his storyline? Obviously, but examined in a vacuum, his ending was beautiful to me. Especially that last scene. Best scene in the movie from start to end.

- Yoda manipulating the goddamn heavens to rain thunder upon the ancient tree. Ilu Yoda

- Leia and Holdo discussing Poe. This was an A+++ short scene. Get it, ladies.

- Snoke is gone, thank the heavens. Worst-named villain in movie history, I couldn’t stop laughing every time someone said SUPREME LEADER snoke.

- CRYSTAL FOXES OMG

- Luke getting his kicks in that boring-ass island via EXTREME ROD FISHING, lmao the nerd

THE MEH

- So, um... Kylo and Rey? ....ew? (did they not think Finn and Rey were super cute or)

- So, um... Finn and Rose? ....ookaaaay? (did they not see Poe biting down on his lip when he saw Finn in his jacket or)

- I don’t really care for ships in this trilogy tbh, whatever. Guess I’m steering clear from attachment until I know who’s related to whom (THIS IS A DANGEROUS UNIVERSE TO SHIP IN OKAY). Plus, not really feeling particularly strong toward any couple, just... not Kylo and Rey, ew.

- Rose. I liked her, but... they hardly gave her anything to do. That casino storyline was such a mess, made it seem like she was there just to be there.

- Finn’s storyline. Snoozefest. I like him, but... see above.

- lol wtf happened to Chewie...? He was just... there?

THE BAD

- SPACE-WALKING LEIA. I’M SORRY, OKAY, I know this scene will be big with many people, and lord knows I wanted to see Space Mom use the Force beyond that Spidey Sense shit, but this was just so dumb.

- All the ‘humor.’ My god, just... no. Not every scene needs to be steeped in Whedon-speak, please stahp. I will admit the first scene got a chuckle out of me, but the rest...

- The ‘plot.’ This was literally an extended car chase scene in space with some Sense8 type shit thrown in. Rey hardly even did any training, ffs.

- so the force-sensitive member of the trio goes on to be trained by a wise, isolated mentor and finds herself drawn to a place steeped in the dark side and ends up seeing only herself reflected in there, meanwhile the rest of the characters are involved in a chase across the galaxy, running away from the evil empire, and at some point decide to ask for help form a well-known swindler who betrays them and in the end everything seems bleak with just a tiny glimmer of hope. HMMMMMM. HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

- quite frankly, I’m still in shock Rey finished the film with two fully biological arms

- O hei, look, it’s The Salty planet Hoth. With pod-racing.

- Really? Rey blushing at shirtless Kylo? Really

- WHERE IS FORCE GHOST ANAKIN TO GO “BINCH I REDEEMED MYSELF IN THE END STOP THIS SHIT, ALSO I DID THIS FIRST AND I DID IT BETTER” TO HIS WANNABE GRANDSON

- The whole damn Casino storyline. I don’t care if it’s meant to set up something for the last movie (probably not) but it was long, boring, and a clumsily written attempt at a storyline that could’ve been more nuanced and a good addition.

- why did we have to see Luke milk that alien Y

- NOT ONE DECENT LIGHTSABER FIGHT THE FUQ.

- Leia (and Han in TFA) giving up on her son instead of beating some sense into his ass with a space slipper. Y’ALL KNOW SHE WOULD. Baaaaad characterization. Space Mom would never.

- Also, fuck whoever decided that Leia, who canonically has the exact same force potential as Luke because they’re twins, never developed her powers beyond Force Sense or whatever. If you’re not gonna give the woman a lightsaber, at least have her Force Push fools out of her way.

- Wtf Rey you obliterated that nice alien’s cart and didn’t even apologize they work hard every day you should be ashamed

- why was it meant to be funny when porgs were slapped around wtf

- “what’s that canon?” “Basically a small death star” kjashKLAFJSHSAJKDFSADFHSAK

- Kylo. Can he just die, plz, the expanded universe did the Evil Solo son storyline so much better. Yet another way in which this trilogy is totes an ~*homage*~ No shade on the actor though, he did a great job. It’s just the violent manchild character I cannot stand.

- So like... we’re never gonna learn what Snoke’s deal was...? Or how he got to Kylo...? ....Okay then.

- This movie was 2 and a half hours long.

#star wars #the last jedi #tlj spoilers #I bet y'all wish George was still at the helm now #VINDICATION FOR THE PREQUELS AT LAST

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renegade-skywalker · 7 years ago

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Okay, it’s time for me to rant about The Last Jedi:

Let me start off by saying that I am all for pushing boundaries, exploring the limits and really delving into the philosophy of Star Wars. I loved The Force Awakens, but I was very much ready for The Last Jedi to take the new trilogy in a new direction and catapult us beyond the horizon of everything we thought we knew about the world of Star Wars and its mythos. I was fine with the idea of Luke defying expectations and being disappointed by him, I was ready for grumpy Luke, and hell, I was even anticipating that the Big Twist™ would be that Luke was the antagonist. I was all for Luke going Paul Atreides/Muad’Dib on the galaxy and becoming an antagonist in the sense that Batman does at the end of The Dark Knight. I was ready for the plot twists, I was ready for the Rey and Kylo arc, but I was not ready for this mess.

What’s sad is that this has been done before. I may be biased, but Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords explores Star Wars in ways no other SW-related media ever has, yet it manages to do so within the realms of Star Wars’ “rules”. It feels believable, it draws from the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, it discusses the problems with the Force as well as the Jedi and Sith who both feel as if they are entitled to act on behalf of the Force. It deals with redemption, but it also has a message that “ultimately nothing matters” and Kreia’s ploy to destroy both the Jedi and the Sith, but more importantly, The Force Itself and it makes sense. You see her point, you understand her desires and motivations. Not only do you see the Jedi and the Sith fail and bring violence and turmoil to the galaxy within the game regardless of their motives and intentions, even turning Revan into a bit of a villain whether you were Light or Dark in your playthrough, but also makes you think of how you can say the same of the movies, how the Council utterly fails Anakin in the Prequels just as the Council fails the Exile and how redemption is always possible for all of your party members and even Kreia, just as it was for Vader.

The Last Jedi has elements of this story, but has absolutely no depth. Luke is not only out of character, in fact in many parts I feel like he was in character but he was most of all inconsistent. His comments about the Force and the Jedi are interesting, how the Force is not a “right”, and for the Jedi to think they have a claim on controlling it is pure vanity. I LOVE THAT. But beyond that line... that’s it. We do not see this point explored. In fact, Luke goes back on this idea almost as soon as he says it. For someone who has cut themselves off from the Force (think: The Jedi Exile, which has a lot of potential) he still cares about the Light and the Dark and is biased against the Darkness. After giving a rather nihilistic speech about the Force, Luke still sounds like the Jedi Masters from the Prequel Trilogy, who he also just criticized for being righteous hypocrites. He berates Rey for being drawn to the Darkness, yet decides she’s the Last Jedi? Nowhere do we see Luke come to this conclusion.

There is no reason for Rey to be a Jedi. She can certainly be an arbiter of justice, or at least someone with the power to confront Kylo in the next act, but there is no argument for her to uphold the Jedi name. Yoda even destroys the old texts, which also feels like a slap in the face because the events of the Prequels are all kind of Yoda’s fault? Not to mention that scene was cheestastic as all hell. Yoda stuck to the code, did not give Anakin the training/guidance he needed, and did not heed the Classic Star Wars Bad Feelings™ of people like Obi Wan (at least in Phantom Menace, by Attack of the Clones he cares for Anakin and has hope in him) and Mace Windu, who never seems to trust Anakin or his future. Again, it is not Anakin’s fault that Darkness surrounds him. He was born into slavery, his mother is still a slave (which, for peacekeepers and do-gooders, shouldn’t Qui Gon and Obi Wan have done something about that??? Isn’t that what Jedi do???) and yet they still blame Anakin for his life’s circumstances, for things completely outside of his control, and for feeling things. The boy needed therapy, he would have been fine. This problem is brought back up in Ben Solo’s origins as Kylo Ren. For Luke to call out the Old Jedi Order (with receipts) and then do THE VERY SAME THING to his nephew makes no sense, especially since Luke was able to reach Vader by believing in him, by seeing the Light in him, and trusting him. What made Luke so cool in Return of the Jedi was the fact that he told Yoda and Obi Wan “No, I will not kill my father” when they kept telling him that Vader must be destroyed. And Luke was ultimately right. Where did that compassion go? Ben was just like Anakin, kind of thrown around like a bomb to go off, and I’m sure that will give any kid anxiety, so when Snoke comes along and tells him he’s powerful and worthy, it makes sense that he would be swayed. This is just like Anakin. Anakin was openly distrusted by the Council, but was welcomed and “understood” by Palpatine. I don’t see why Luke would overlook this.

Speaking of Snoke, the Big Twist that he dies makes no sense. Who was he is a big question, sure, but ultimately why did it matter? It doesn’t. It also makes me realize that the First Order is completely motivationless, and Snoke’s desire to train Ben/Kylo is made completely pointless. And if he was so strong in the Force, enough to reach out and influence Ben across the galaxy without seemingly ever met him and create a Force bond between Rey and Kylo, how the hell did he not even simply hear the lightsaber next to him rattling on the armrest? In Return of the Jedi, the Emperor is taken by surprise by Vader in a seemingly silly way, considering they’re both Force users and Vader just throws him over the railing and into the battery of the Death Star, but it’s more believable. Palpatine is so busy revelling in torturing Luke and the physical act of electrocuting him, in showing him that he’s right, that he does not see Vader turn. He is so vain that he does not see Vader change right beside him. But there’s motivation there. Snoke isn’t doing much when Kylo kills him, he’s too busy giving his Villain Takes the Time to Explain How The Hero Is About to Die speech to notice that his vision is right but ultimately a misinterpreted prophecy. It’s not believable.

Also, Palpatine keeps Vader on a tight leash but he gives him power, he gives him the illusion of agency. Snoke literally calls Kylo a snivelling bitch every three seconds. He’s like the abusive dad who puts down his spouse/kid all day every day and goes on and on and on about how weak they are and how they’ll never fight back or amount to anything only to get decked in the face during the climax. It was the behavior of an abuser, yes, which we know Snoke was from The Force Awakens, but this makes him an unintelligent abuser. Palpatine was a master manipulator. After seeing The Last Jedi, I have no idea why Ben would follow Snoke, nor do understand why Hux would for that matter. He’s not a villain, he’s a bully. How boring...

There is so much more I could talk about, but when concerning the mythos and philosophy behind Star Wars, what makes Vader so interesting and the rest of the movies so good, and everything else that felt wrong with The Last Jedi. I’m convinced Rian Johnson didn’t even see The Force Awakens and maybe watched the other movies a couple times and was somehow convinced he could make a Star Wars movie. Gareth Edwards’ movie felt like a Star Wars movie. It felt like a story that had always been there, from the beginning, we just hadn’t heard it yet. It was new, yet it kept the feel of the Original Trilogy. The sets and designs looked like they came out of the late 70′s production of A New Hope, but the characters were completely different than any other Star Wars characters we’d seen, they showed how even the Rebellion could be bad and how grey morality could work in a Star Wars movie where there is so much emphasis on black and white Good and Evil, and they killed off every single character by the end which was a bold move. The Last Jedi didn’t just introduce new ideas and explore the philosophies of Star Wars, it completely disregarded them and failed to feel like it belonged in the series. Even though the Prequels have a different tone to them than the Original Trilogy, they still have a feel to them that makes it consistent. The story and the mythos are there, even if the sets and the technology did not add up with what we saw in A New Hope. But The Last Jedi has neither, so I’m failing to see how this is a Star Wars movie at all.

There were so many plot holes, the Resistance plot line was essentially just a ship running out of gas, the First Order is magically able to track them through hyperspace, Hux turned from Space Nazi to Gargamel, Phasma is brought back for three whole seconds only for her to get her ass kicked again, Luke decided to give his ass-tral projection a Rogaine makeover and a different lightsaber, Yoda somehow looks worse than both his puppet and CGI counterparts in the Prequels, the guards on Canto Bight look like they just walked off the set of Spaceballs, and why did the movie end with a Star Wars Duracell commercial, y’know the ones we get this time of year about kids imagining they’re in Star Wars and how it makes Christmas special? That Resistance ring looks like it came out of a Cracker Jack box.

Honestly... what the fuck.

#star wars #the last jedi #the last jedi spoilers #tlj spoilers #the only redeeming quality was the cast #they did their best and I love them all

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misscrawfords · 7 years ago

Text

The Force Awakens Rewatch: Part 2

See Part 1.

So I actually have less to say about the second half of the film, perhaps because a lot of it is following on from themes and characters already introduced and discussed in the first half and not much happens that is surprising. Perhaps also because I’ve had two glasses of reeeeeally nice wine and my head is buzzing and I’m listening to Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and they’re telling me that it’s impossible for a country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage. (”But the world is full of zanies and fools who don’t believe in sensible rules”…)

I’m sorry, where was I? Ah yes, Takodama…

- Hux. Already mentioned him separately, but, like, literally, what is the appeal? He is coded as a Nazi with no redeemable features whatsoever. I mean, by all means like him if you want. Fans can like who they want! But I see nothing to like. I mean, the First Order needs people like Hux, but fan favourite? I don’t get it at all.

- OK, I’m now listening to The Pursuit (”I just know I will find you, you’re the girl of my dreams and the thrill is more than I can bear”) and it’s making me think about Kylo going after Rey. I mean, this bit on Takodama (as others have said before and in much more detail) is another example of Kylo Ren the Dark Side Fail. He goes off on his own, abandons his mission when it would be so easy for him to take the droid and the girl and then drops his guard down to sweep Rey up into his arms. I mean, wtf? Again, we have an example of Kylo being just as young and earnest and naive as Finn and Rey. Also, what is up with what his attitude to her? That famous shot of him standing behind her with his lightsaber pointed over her shoulder? It’s such a weird position to take unless you’re meant to think of phallic symbolism tbh. Not wholly convinced by the Romeo and Juliet theme when he’s carrying her onto the ship - maybe for one bar. But the music when they leave is an epic version of Rey’s theme and that’s nice.

- Sticking with Kylo and Rey for now, the interrogation scene. I mean, so much has been written on this I’m not going to attempt anything detailed. Kylo’s removal of his helmet is shocking and deliberate and honestly, if they didn’t want people to think he was a dark prince and a Byronic antihero they probably should have cast somebody different. This isn’t being superficial, it’s being realistic. And that scene is not some massive scene of horrific abuse. I mean, COME ON. Stop saying everything is abuse! Yes, he tries to get in her mind, a fascinating experience for him and his emotions are so clear on his face. And then she stops him! This moment is all about Rey coming to terms with the Force. She blocks him out and then turns the tables. This is a fantasy. Mind reading is a fantasy thing. If they wanted to show this as a metaphor for rape, they would have presented this very differently. What we are clearly meant to take from this scene is that Rey is Kylo’s equal, that she is able to turn the tables on him, that she is awakening to her Force potential, and that he is not at all the monster he appears and is deeply affected by what he sees in her. Remember, the next time we see Rey, she manages to Force control two guards. Is Rey acting like someone who has just been brutally violated or as someone who has awoken to her own power? I’ll leave the answer to that with you. Anyway, it’s an incredibly compelling scene; I remember barely breathing through it when I first saw it in the cinema.

- The Han/Leia scenes are so beautiful and it’s lovely to even have these brief scenes of a mature couple and a little insight into the complexity of their relationship. And how can anyone think that this trilogy isn’t about the soul of Ben Solo/Kylo Ren? I mean, literally every character exists in relation to him and his decisions. I’m not trying to lessen the importance of Rey and Finn as heroes but Kylo and the possibility that he could be brought back to the light is the glue that holds the entire plot together.

- Starkiller base. Han’s death is so predictable. I mean, not predictable exactly, but it is not a twist - it’s set up very well so there’s not much to say about it. But Kylo is weakened immediately. The physical weakening from the bolt from Chewie and then Finn and eventually Rey are a symbol of his mental and emotional weakness. Making him stronger, my foot!

- The fight in the woods… I mean, everyone goes on about the interrogation scene and I do get that, but this is the sequence that does it for me. I really think the moment when the lightsaber nearly whacks Kylo in the face and Rey catches it is THE most important moment in the film. This is the moment Rey accepts her destiny for the second time. The first is when she uses the Force on the guards. Both times are inextricably linked to Kylo. But anyway, yes, this is Rey accepting the call to adventure properly. The look on her face as she glances between the lightsaber and Kylo as the music swells with the Force theme is just so beautiful and full of wonder and Kylo’s face is absolutely amazing. It’s not a look of “oh crap, she’s got a lightsaber” it’s a look of “oh wow, she has my lightsaber and it’s the best thing that’s happened all day”. Then they both ignite their sabers and you just think that this is where they have met their match and everything in their lives so far has led towards them facing each other like this. I could watch this 30 seconds or so of film over and over again (AND GUESS WHAT, I JUST HAVE). Then the fight starts in earnest and it’s interesting to look at it in contrast to Kylo and Finn’s fight. In both fights, they get right up and close to each other but Kylo and Finn seem to be just struggling together, Kylo and Rey take the opportunity for Kylo to offer to train her - he’s not trying to attack her properly - she’s the one on the offensive. And in fact, he actually starts teaching her here. He is the one mentions the Force and that is the catalyst for her to close her eyes and centre herself in the Force and gain enough control to actually push him back and control the fight. And that leads them to them being locked together, not with lightsabers but actually clutching each others’ arms like an embrace, with their lightsabers stretching one from the other and both facing the same way. It’s a really, really interesting few seconds because you could almost be mistaken for thinking they are working together. Yes, they are opposite each other, but they’re not pushing against each other. They struggle and then their lightsabers align with each other - red to the bottom, blue pointing upwards, and their faces are pointing in the same direction and they’re grabbing the other’s arms. All I’m saying is, this is a really different fight scene, especially compared to the Kylo and Finn fight and filled with a different kind of tension. I mean, there are several seconds where Rey has her eyes closed and everything goes completely calm and he’s just staring at her.

- Just to reiterate, in case you didn’t read that massive paragraph, it’s really interesting how both of the occasions when Rey uses the Force are enabled by Kylo. In other words, he is not responsible for her awakening (or is he?) but he is already teaching her to an extent. He invades her mind which allows her to fend him off, block him and invade his mind in turn. This then somehow gives her the understanding that she can manipulate the guards using the Force. He also reminds her that she can fight with the Force using the lightsaber. Thanks, Kylo! Rey’s use of the Force is intimately linked to Kylo Ren.

- Finn and Poe belong together. FIGHT ME ON THIS. What else is the purpose of the jacket line, Finn’s admiration of “one hell of a pilot” and the beautiful Regency dancing twirling camera work. Seriously. I’m torn because Rose looks like a great character but if she erases the potential of Finn/Poe then that will be such a lost opportunity. There is no way Poe is not gay and I headcanon Finn as bi because he does kind of have a crush on Rey. It’s all so beautiful.

- Rey and Leia’s hug makes me so emotional. Women comforting women! Unspoken understanding! Rey gets a mother figure from a woman who has lost her child! It’s so beautiful and sad.

- Finn and Rey remain an absolutely glorious relationship and I ship them platonically to the ends of the earth. And I really don’t think that is somehow lesser than shipping them romantically. For Finn and Rey to have a friend whom they love is the most amazing and important thing. A real friend > a romantic partner any day. I mean, come on. They’ve had nobody and now they have each other. It makes me so happy.

- I’m coming round increasingly to Rey Kenobi. Considering this is a SW trilogy, it makes sense that we should have a Kenobi in there somewhere and Rey’s use of the Force on those guards is extremely suggestive of Obi-Wan’s abilities. It really seems like a massive hint. It would be a great revelation, would link her in to the Skywalker saga, provide opportunities for even more parallels and contrasts, but also not force a relationship between her and the Skywalkers and Solos that would mean Han, Luke and Leia have conveniently forgot they had a child and never talk about it which is just stupid.

Anyway, that was my TFA re-watch and it was tremendous fun! It’s a great film and reading all the meta I’ve been reading recently has only enhanced it. My impressions are slightly different to when I saw it first in the cinema and overall slightly more positive because I’m seeing clever things in, for instance, the parallels with ANH, rather than being irritated by them. And considering how it sets up for TLJ adds a layer to what is going on and being suggested in this film.

Things that still confuse/annoy me:

- The relationship between Hux and Kylo and Snoke and the First Order and the Knights of Ren. How do they all fit together? I do not know. I am confused.

- Rey’s background???????? Lor San Tekka???????

- How did the First Order even arise and become so powerful in the relatively short period of time following the defeat of the Empire? It’s basically an Empire clone and I’m still a bit annoyed they went down that route for the sequel trilogy rather than do something original and deal with the fallout from the defeat of the Empire in a different way. Like, if the Empire was meant to imply the Nazis, then surely the sequel could do a metaphorical Cold War and that could be really interesting. This is where the parallels with ANH do still annoy me.

#star wars #reylo #kylo ren #rey #okay apparently I did have a lot to say #I mention rape and Nazis in this post #so maybe avoid if that's a trigger #meta

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izzyovercoffee · 8 years ago

Note

Do you have any ships in the clone wars/repcom fandom?

DO I

TBH I have a really… really long list of ships. I’m one of those people that could potentially ship anyone/everyone given enough time to come up with at least vaguely acceptable reasoning.

I mean … I’m the one behind the ship of Mereel and The Stars so I don’t … uh, have a whole lot of requirements for shipping.

My lines are: Everyone is an Adult at time of ship; and any potentially coercive relationships are written with a very clear, honest presentation and understanding of that coercive nature (zero tolerance policy for romanticizing abuse).

Fair warning, though: I do have clone/clone ships, too, and I know that makes people uncomfortable — hence the warning. And for the record, any of the below ships? I don’t expect anyone else to ship it, and I don’t generally expect people to be down w/ it or write it, either. B’)

I also … have Mereel listed kind of a lot in here. He just has so much love to give, okay. B’)

and under a cut bc damn this got long

Republic Commando:

Mereel and the Stars

Stars. Ka’ra. Ruling Council of Fallen Leaders.

When Mand’alore die, it’s said they ascend to the stars. Is that where it ends, really, or do they become something more, something greater than they were in life? And if they do — do they interact with the people?

Do they keep favorites? Do they adore and adulate their champions?

And how difficult, exactly, is that relationship for the mortal who can’t quite reach out and touch the one he loves most?

Ordo and Besany

like honestly my OTP for the longest time lmao

I never finished my ‘Are These For Me?’ 30 drabbles for them … but maybe one day. One day.

Fi and Ordo

Boy meets Boy. Boy compliments Boy’s skirt. Boy hugs other Boy so hard they hit the floor.

#true love

Besany, Fi, Ordo

Besany is the type of person who is so kind, and so considerate, and so understanding. And Fi … he needs that. He needs it just as much as Ordo needs it, and as they need each other, and Besany.

Some might not find a closed polytriad “normal,” but if it works for them, then it shouldn’t be anyone else’s business.

Darman and Etain

My heart constantly breaks for them. They deserved so much better than what they got, and it kills me.

And their relationship was so … so good. So good, in the beginning. Tragic, what Kal did to them.

Atin and Laseema

They were lucky in that they weren’t Kal’s favorites, and so were able to fly mostly under the radar and out of his attention. Kal still held a lot of … really unhealthy financial control over them, but … I genuinely feel that Atin and Laseema could relate deeply on several levels.

They have… compatible demons, for lack of a better term. They balance each other. And Laseema was always an interesting character I wish we could learn more of — and her friendships with the rest of the clan. After all, she seemed to be the one in active communication with everyone.

Niner and Boss

Listen … I love this ship. I feel like there’s a lot of UST going on whenever they’re onscreen, and it’s an interesting sort of dichotomy that goes on between them — two sergeants of two squads whose trainers viciously hated each other during training days.

There’s a competitiveness there that can’t really be quashed, but there’s also an understanding that exists between them that’s unique to their experiences.

Jaing and Kom’rk

This is one of those incredibly obscure, controversial ships.

Full disclosure: this is a pretty fucked up ship, and it’s mostly from the perspective of “wow, that’s kinda fucked up.” I don’t expect anyone else to ship it, and I don’t generally expect people to be down w/ it or write it, either. If they do, the fucked-up part needs to be recognized and recognizable, however obliquely, or it just doesn’t work.

They’re two very damaged people, there’s no use shying away from that.

I fell into this ship by total accident, going through all the nulls’ tags on ao3 years ago and stumbled on one fic, and like … since then, I haven’t really been able to climb out this hole.

Corr, Ruusan, and Jilka

I am not a fan of Corr and Jilka, alone.

That said … I am a fan of Corr and Ruusan, of Jilka and Ruusan, and … of the potential dynamics of this poly combination, with the given that Jilka and Corr remain platonic as opposed to romantic.

It just feels more … balanced? Also Rev @thesummerstorms and Gena @cassiansfuzzyjacket explain it way better than I do.

RepComm crack!ships:

these are very, very clearly not-canon and not to ever be taken as canon (by me, at least?) but damn. they’re nice to think about, and try to come up with ways in which it might work.

Etain and Mereel

“WHAT THE FUCK IZZY?” I KNOW! I KNOWWWWWW

But more seriously … Mereel was there every day for Etain during a very, very difficult time (the months after her almost-miscarriage). Of all the characters in the series during the course of the series, after Etain and Darman, Etain and Mereel spend the most unobstructed alone time together (about three months?) — and we would never know because, lol, the pacing and timeline of the series is not really presented in a way that makes that noticeable.

Mereel also does something with Etain he doesn’t do with anyone else, ever, that we see in the series: admit vulnerability. He’s genuinely vulnerable with her, in a way that he is not with anyone else. That means something — especially given the context that he doesn’t open up with anyone else, not his brothers, and never Kal.

Someone that Mereel can be genuinely vulnerable with? That he must trust, implicitly, to share that vulnerability?

And then you have Etain, who is isolated after the mess of pregnancy news blows up. She’s someone who doesn’t have anyone she can trust, or depend on, who isn’t looking to use her in some way — or someone that she can be equally open and honest with — in those months … right up until Mereel (and Rav), when she’s evac’d to Kyrimorut.

And when she is, she’s treated like a whole person. Not someone who’s just a vessel for a potential, not someone to be used or leveraged for misogynistic reasons. A genuine, whole, person who is highly intelligent, highly capable — and treated as an actual equal. She was not given that respect since the conclusion of Hard Contact (except, briefly, when hunting with Vau).

The whole situation, as terrible as it all is, allows for the foundation of genuine, real, trust to form between them.

There’s a lot of … well, there’s a lot of potential there. A lot of room for complications and conflicted feelings and angst — UST and one-sided pining and mixed signals and confusion and just raw feeling — and it’s all things that don’t necessarily need to be resolved negatively (or right away, or at all), that don’t have to end in heartbreak, that can be just as it is: complicated feelings that begin during a difficult time and, given room to grow, become something else or something more many, many years down the line.

Mereel and Boss

Don’t even look at me.

So this ship came as a result of SW RP (bc of course it did) and, tbh, they have a lot of … difficult commonalities and clashes of personality. Boss is a difficult man with a lot on his shoulders — a lot of responsibility, a lot of stress, just … a lot. And Mereel? Mereel is someone good at managing stress — out of necessity, and practice, and effort.

And the thing with Mereel is he’s fun, he’s easy, and he demands nothing. Boss doesn’t need to take care of him, because Mereel can take care of himself — and sometimes Mereel can take care of Boss, whether he likes it, or not (or likes to say he doesn’t when he does).

Boss certainly needs someone like that, especially after long days and hard nights with other people always needing him, depending on him. It’s good, it’s necessary, to have someone for whom he can truly relax and let his guard down around — that he can trust implicitly, and be allowed to be vulnerable, to have his ugly parts exposed, and still be loved unconditionally, because that’s just what Mereel’s best at doing.

Parja and Mereel

“SERIOUSLY?” LISTEN

This also came as a result of SW RP, and mostly takes place in an AU where … Parja and Fi’s relationship inevitably crumbles, and they split — but they split amicably, and remain friends. Parja remains a mechanic and never is forced to give up her shop because of (poor misogynistic writing and) Kal.

Mereel and Parja and Bardan are all particularly good friends and get up to all kinds of nonsense and pranks, and prank wars.

And … sometimes, late nights spent tinkering on separate projects in the same space, late nights working on the same projects, late nights spent together — and sometimes Mereel can’t quite come clean that he needs someone, that well after the conclusion of the war he needs physical contact in order to sleep.

And after the end of what Parja put too much stock and energy into what she hoped would be a sure future, a sure thing — maybe it hurts too much to sleep alone, but it’s too much of a risk to fill that empty space with romance when she’s not ready. Why not someone she trusts, that she knows would never, not ever, not in a million years, ever cross that boundary — someone who would never violate that trust, never take the invitation to share her bed as anything more than just that: a mutually beneficial way to get some rest.

Sometimes feelings happen. Gradually, and slow, and sneaks up on even the most vigilant. After a while, it becomes expected. After a while, it becomes wanted. After a while, they become needed.

other ships I’ve fallen into that I don’t have time/want to explain:

FI AND SEV

Atin/Sev

Sev/Boss

Scorch/Sev

MAZE/ZEY

Jaing/Sev

Fixer/peace of mind

Uthan/Mij (but way more hostile on Uthan’s part)

Walon/his star-crossed princess (literally, a real thing. I can’t get over how this is an actual thing)

Clone Wars:

admittedly, it’s been a while since I watched the series all the way through, but … repeating the warning for clone/clone bc that’s a thing in here, and the explanations are shorter bc, again, it’s been a while.

Marshal Commander Cody and Captain Rex

Their personalities mesh so well together, and honestly they’re just … so compatible ??? They also work so well together, went through training together … if there’s anyone Rex can really trust implicitly, it’s Cody.

Their friendship grows over the series and expanded (Legends) materials, and just … it works, in the way they need it to work.

Echo and Fives

Just punch me right in the chest.

really any combination from Domino Squad

because we all need tragedy in our hearts

General Aayla Secura and Commander Bly

You know … for the most part, I’m a little leery on ships like this where there’s a clear and obvious potential for really serious coercion. Most Clone/Jedi-who-are-their-direct-superiors tend to fall into this category.

but I’m just a sucker for Bly-post-war angst, for the conflict of fraternizing with a superior, with trying to navigate that Aayla really did have his life in her hands, and then the conflict of navigating those feelings surrounding killing her at the end of the war.

I’m a terrible person.

Duchess Satine Kryze and Obi-wan Kenobi

let me just like … repeat the above. My one thing about this is that I hate how Satine was killed off for Kenobi-man-pain, and generally only want to know stories that you know … fix-it, lmao, or give her a more respectable death that was written with better care to her character and her arc

Ventress and Obi-wan Kenobi

All of that flirting went fuck and nowhere. What a hugely missed opportunity — especially when Ventress was trying to work towards being better, or making a life for herself, turn over a new leaf or whatever.

I mean, we all know she hangs out in the kind of tapcafs Kenobi loves to get drunk in, let’s be honest with ourselves.

clone wars crack!ships :

I’m sorry in advance lmao

Captain Rex and Lieutenant Mereel

“What the hell.” Listen.

“Did this come out of SW RP?” HOW DID YOU GUESS.

Much like the other ships with Mereel, it’s all contingent on … Mereel operating as a free agent — a solo operator. Mereel pulling strings and favors across the GAR to make things just a little bit easier for Rex, for clearing up or speeding up administrative bull shit so that Rex can focus on getting what he needs for his men in a reasonable amount of time — or free up some time for himself.

And with the way Mereel’s … operations tend to go, paths sometimes cross that didn’t before.

Anyway, who doesn’t like camping?

Quinlan Voss and Obi-wan Kenobi

Listen … they have a kind of fun playfully antagonistic thing going on. I don’t know if I could ever seriously ship it, mostly bc everyone who falls in love with either of them straight up die, so we come to a “unstoppable force vs immovable object” impasse if this ship ever actually came to fruition.

that and fandom can be kinda … gross w/ this ship sometimes so I’ve been avoiding it lately for that reason.

Senator Padme Amidala and Duchess Satine Kryze

how can anyone watch the episodes where they’re together and not see how good they are together. and like, the men in their lives, cause their deaths. so why not just … leave their men for each other?

Everyone wins.

not exactly clone wars honorable mention:

Ahsoka Tano and Kaeden Larte

I ship it so hard. if only !!! if only they didn’t meet when they did, when Ahsoka wasn’t as wounded, still, from the fallout of the end of The Clone Wars. and all of that tragedy. i just.

I just !!! ugh. they’re so good together.

aaand I think that’s all of them, or at least all that I can remember off the top of my head for now.

#Anonymous #izzy talks repcomm #izzy talks ships #I have ... a lot of ships. lmao #asks.txt #izzy talks clone wars

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