#and implying that anakin learned the wrong lesson from that

[graylinesspam]

Listen the kid literally nicknamed snips doesn't really need any lessons on how to be rude to someone but regardless I think she would have picked up a few quips and tricks from the men soooo

Ways Ahsoka mouths off and posture that she learned from her brothers&Obi-wan:

Purposefully calling someone the wrong name. This is highly offensive to the clones.

Sliding her goggles on while someone is trying to give her directions. In a way that lets them know she's ignoring them.

Randomly shifting to parade rest while someones telling a long story or carrying on a conversation she doesn't want to be in anymore. This is because parade rest is an at attention/waiting to be dismissed position. She's literally asking "can I go now?"

Being overly compliant in a "yes sir", " right away", "roger", kinda way. Just interrupting instruction to say this shit. " would that be all?", "at your service"

She has absolutely just turned the volume down on a transmission and pretended that they lost audio and couldn't complete the call. Anakin does this in his fighters.

She has adopted so many facial expressions. Shes got wolffe's 'kill me now' face down. And Cody's subtle resting bitch face. Obi-wan's condescendingly patient face that makes it clear you're wasting her time. And best of all Anakin's 'are you fucking kidding me' face.

She has absolutely just taken her saber off her belt and started dissasembling it instead of listening to someone talk. It serves the dual purpose of a threat and a dismissal. Especially since she has a second saber at the ready. She's seen Rex pull this many times with his dc-17s.

Randomly kicking her feet up, leaning back, and resting her chin on her hand seems to convey the exact level of 'please shut up' that Obi-wan has cultivated.

She has offered to fix someone tea then just left, presumably to get the tea, but never came back.

Even though the rudeness factor doesn't really translate she does a lot of complimenting people on how nice and clean their clothes are if she's decided to completely ignore their plan/ strategy. In other words implying they're unqualified or too pampered to be giving orders. Kinda a reference to shinys and non-clone officers who never get out to the front.

This one is inherited from way back because Qui-gon used to just shift into a meditation instead of listening to someone telling him what to do, Obi-wan has done the same shit and on one occasion so has Ahsoka.

She's quick with the "that's above my rank." Essentially 'I'm not paid enough for that.'

Or "I'll consult my master." When she doesn't want to do something. Like Anakin isn't going to make her but you can't tell her 'no don't ask your guardian for permission, just do it' cuz that's real skeevy.

"I already have my orders." And "I have a job to complete first." Are also good way of telling someone no:)

[calltomuster]

Star Wars Fic Recs Take 5

[first fic rec list] [second fic rec list] [third fic rec list] [fourth fic rec list]

Hope you're having a lovely day, friends! Here, take some more fic recs to make it even better!

Infinite Sadness (what does your heart tell you?) by @the-last-kenobi (gen, one-shot, 12.5k words) This fic definitely lives up to its title, not just in what happens to Obi-Wan, but in the sheer, pervasive sadness and desperation and subtle despair that plagues him as he lives life after life over and over again, trying to make things better each time. But it's not a flashy despair, it's muted and ongoing and never over-the-top, and well, it's infinite sadness. I definitely think this fic is slept on, it's absolutely amazing and I highly encourage you to check it out.

How Qui-Gon Accidentally Adopted a Baby by @the-last-kenobi (gen, WIP, 18/? chapters, 26.6k words) Oh, did the first fic on this list make you sad? I have the perfect remedy: another fic by @the-last-kenobi! To say that this fic brings me immense joy is an understatement. This fic makes me smile when nothing else will. You get the premise from the title, and I'll admit it may look a little crack-fic-y based on that, but the sheer cuteness of this fic and the quality of the prose elevates it beyond anything else. I'm not even kidding, this fic makes me want to have kids, that's how adorable baby Obi-Wan is in this.

The When Duty Is Done series by thosenearandfarwars (Obi-Wan/Cody, incomplete, 14/? parts, 90k words) I recommended the first story in this series way back in my third fic rec list, and it's only gotten better since then. I really like this series because it imagines -- well, I don't want to just say an ideal post-ROTS universe, because that implies that things are just magically all better, but I think it's a realistic ideal post-ROTS universe. The Jedi Order reforms itself, the clones get reparations and the ability to govern themselves, Anakin doesn't join Palpatine, etc. Through it all is an absolutely wonderful story about two people and their love for each other. It's just lovely.

Fire to ash, present to past (who knows for tomorrow?) by blueberrywizard (Obi-Wan/Cody, one-shot, 11.6k words) One day, Qui-Gon's apprentice completely changes. Or at least, that's how it seems to Qui-Gon, who has no idea that his Padawan is actually now a much older version trapped in this young body. This fic is told from many different points of view and I really like the prose. Definitely one that sticks with you.

|nothing quite like this| by littlekaracan (gen, one-shot, 6.6k words) Don't read this unless you want to feel like your heart has been ripped to pieces. This fic is a piece of experimental fiction, framed as a class reading for Jedi students in the future who are learning about the Purge. It's just devastating, truly devastating. Even though it features no characters we'd be familiar with, you just get so drawn into the world of this Purge survivor, and hearing their experiences is brutal.

In The Afterman, Solitude by kanerallels (gen, one-shot, 2.2k words, Obi-Wan & Quinlan) Obi-Wan is in a cantina on Tatooine after ROTS and runs into Quinlan Vos. What follows reminds him that he's not alone in the galaxy, not like he thought he was. I really like the progression of this fic, how real it seems to the characters. Obi-Wan doesn't just immediately blurt out what happened, and Quinlan is much more subtle than he usually is in fic. I really enjoyed this one.

Ghost Company by existentialAF (Obi-Wan/Cody, one-shot, 2.2k words) Cody's chip gets removed and he makes it his mission to find Obi-Wan and help him in the way he couldn't when Order 66 went down. A fascinating and touching AU of what could have happened post-ROTS if things had gone a little differently. I'd absolutely love to see more in this 'verse but it is a one-shot so I'll be content with what we're given!

The Morning Star series by Kurenaino (4 parts, 1.7 million words, incomplete) I first read this series back in November of 2020 and it has lived in my head rent free ever since then. I'm not kidding, I have to limit myself to only rereading this every couple of months so that it doesn't become too much of a good thing -- and make no mistake, I do reread it every few months, all 1.7 million words of it. To make what is clearly a very long story short, this series charts Obi-Wan's fall to the Dark side post-Naboo and follows him throughout the entire Star Wars saga (TPM, AOTC, Clone Wars, ROTS, Rebels, etc.) I feel like that description doesn't do it justice, though. The sheer breadth of this series takes my breath away. It feels expansive in a way that no fic I've ever read before has, oscillating from large-scale politics to heart-pounding action to sweet and tender love, both romantic and familial. (Oh, and this might be obvious from the whole "Sith Obi-Wan" thing, but just a warning that in these stories, Obi-Wan does some absolutely despicable things, just because he can. Murder, rape, mind control, etc, so take care.) But though he's Sith, he's still got such a heart in him, just like the Obi-Wan we know and love, and you can't help but feel for him at times. And this might not be as much a selling point for you as it was for me, but this series has some absolutely fantastic Thrawn content. He's going toe-to-toe with Obi-Wan and it's glorious, a true match. I'm in the middle of my latest reread of this series, and truly it just makes me so happy. I never see anyone talking about this series and I'm sad it doesn't get the attention it deserves. It really only gets better and better the further into the series you get. Cannot recommend enough!!

There is no Ignorance, there is Knowledge by @sirikenobi12 (gen, one-shot, 4.1k words) A wonderful installment for Jedi June! This fic follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, and then Obi-Wan and Anakin and Ahsoka, as they teach and learn lessons on what knowledge means to them. It was an unexpected tearjerker for me, there's one scene in particular that makes me tremble just thinking about it. I just love the way each relationship is portrayed here, and the care that is put into every word. Amazing!

Keeper of the Force by @pandora15 (gen, WIP, 19/20 chapters, 84.4k words) I can't believe I haven't put this on a rec list before, but since there's only the epilogue left, now is the perfect time. This fic starts out small-scale Obi-Wan whump (not saying that in a derogatory way, that's my exact favorite thing) and grows in size as it goes to eventually become a ROTS AU that is oh so good. It's touching, and inspiring, and lovely, and every time a new chapter posts I drop everything to read it. Can't believe the end of this ride is almost upon us!!

If you like any of these fics, please consider reblogging so they can get more exposure! And if you noticed I missed someone’s Tumblr account, or linked the wrong one, please let me know!

[ooops-i-arted]

I know that considering (TCW-2008) refs/characters in this episode that it won’t be your fav but can you please share your child development thoughts for S02E05 please??

They may have been stuff I wasn’t fond of but there were so many cute Baby & Dad moments to make up for it!!

First of all, the puppeteers deserves ALL THE AWARDS for bringing Baby Yoda to life!  Not just making Baby “come alive” in general, but also that sort-of-awkward way children move when they don’t have complete confidence in their limbs yet.  The are doing a phenomenal job this season and I hope they are all safe and healthy and have all the chocolate they want.  Not only is it fantastic from a special effects perspective, it really highlights how far Baby has come now that he’s not stuck in a pod all day and implies that Din is trying to keep him active and physically healthy, and giving him opportunities to develop his muscles and muscle control.  (Just imagine them playing a makeshift game of chase through the Razor Crest!)

I absolutely loved Din saying “Hey, what did I tell you” because I have said those exact words in that exact tone SO MANY TIMES and also his Dad Voice is getting so much better!  Baby actually listens to him and understands that Din expects him to listen!  Of course he still wants the ball (and apparently takes it enough that Din has been practicing his Dad voice on that too, “What did I say about that” is another phrase I also use at work).

Though there may have been another reason he wants the ball this time - as a comfort item, like a child bringing their favorite stuffie to the first day of school.  Baby was there when the Armorer told Din to find Jedi to bring the Baby to.  He has been listening a lot when Din talks about finding Jedi to train him and give him to.  I think Baby is very, very aware of the fact that the end goal is to leave him with the Jedi and is very afraid of leaving his beloved father.  He would’ve had stable caretaker(s) at the Jedi Temple but in the last twenty years who knows what’s happened to him.  His subdued, don’t-draw-attention-to-myself behavior in Season 1 definitely makes me think he’s been neglected, bare minimum, and possibly abused.  Din not only treats him kindly but actually takes care of his needs, is kind to him, and is the most stable presence in his life.  Of course he’d be terrified to leave him!

I think that’s also why he doesn’t play ball with Ahsoka, so to speak.  We all know he can lift a mudhorn, a rock is no problem for him.  He could do it in a heartbeat.  But I think he understood that if he showed off for her, Ahsoka might take him away.  So he refused for that, and because it’s very common at that age to refuse to do something to regain control of a situation.  (That’s why you get kids enjoying telling you “No!” and the whole terrible twos thing.)  If he refuses, he stays in control of what’s happening.  But of course Din knows exactly how to tempt him with his favorite ball, and kids do want to please adults they like.  Anything to hear that sweet, sweet positive reinforcement.  So it wasn’t just the shiny ball that convinced Baby - it was the fact that Din was the one playing with him, and that Din so enthusiastically tells him good job.  (And Din is noticeably more into it when using the orb.  Maybe he and Baby have played with it before?  So it’s more natural to both of them.  And he was truly so proud of his boy!!  It was adorable.)

It’s the same with hearing his real name, which he presumably hasn’t heard in twenty years.  He responds when Ahsoka says it, but when Din says it?  He’s instantly turned around, ears perked all the way up in “happy” mode.  It’s special when Din says it, because Din is special to him.

Which then ties into the whole attachment thing.  Baby is very healthily attached to Din.  There’s a reason we stick kids with the same teacher for a year plus at a time, it’s because kids are comfortable with a regular person they can get to know, just like adults are.  To Baby, Ahsoka is just some orange stranger and Din is his dad.  Of course he is more attached to Din and has fears over losing him, especially if he’s been deprived of that for the last 20-odd years!  It’d be different if Din was sticking around to transition Baby somewhere new, or just dropping him off for lessons.  But leaving a parent permanently and abruptly after likely previous trauma?  That would be horrible for Baby.

And re: The Jedi + attachments Ahsoka (and Filoni) are wrong on that.  The Jedi do not forbid attachments, only letting your attachments rule you.  Ki-Adi-Mundi is married and so were others, and there are plenty of Padawan-Master relationships to see - for example, Obi-Wan was attached to Qui-Gon and clearly loved him and was devastated by his loss, but it’s only when he conquers his emotions and calms himself is he able to defeat Maul, and afterward is implied/shown to mourn Qui-Gon and handle his grief in a healthy way.  Anakin doesn’t fall because he’s attached to his loved ones.  He falls because he’s willing to commit murder and genocide over his attachments.  So “I can’t teach Grogu because he’s attached to you” is bullshit.  “I can’t teach Grogu because he is attached to you and needs to be safely transitioned into Jedi life in an environment that is comfortable and safe for him, with your help as his adoptive father, and I have no way to do that here and/or don’t feel comfortable doing that” is much more accurate.  (This is probably what would’ve happened if the Order was still around, anyway, and/or how he was actually taken in - the 3D TCW episode with the Jedi children shows the bounty hunters tricking the parents to kidnap the kids, implying that a real Jedi would work with the family to transition the children in a safe and healthy manner.  The Rodian even says the Jedi have already spoken to her iirc.)

Of course even if Grogu is unhealthily attached to Din (which he isn’t, imo, he behaves like a child at a normal level of attachment to a regular caretaker he loves) then ignoring it and not doing anything about it is equally bad.... as we’ve already seen when he got upset with Cara last season.  Baby must learn to control his powers so he doesn’t hurt himself or others, especially since he’s so young he doesn’t always have full control over his own emotions.  “Big” emotions can be a lot for a kid; a screaming meltdown is bad enough when the kid can’t yeet you with their mind.  I’ve been hit, kicked, bitten, scratched, had toys thrown at me, even been hit with heavy wooden blocks.  A Grogu out of control with his emotions and using the Force?  Terrifying.  Yes, his attachment to Din makes him more vulnerable to his fears and anger - we’ve seen him choke Cara and while he only held back the mudhorn, in theory he could’ve done more.  But that is just all the more reason to teach him control.  Ignore harmful behavior and it will only get worse, and Din isn’t really equipped to help him navigate that since Din doesn’t understand the Force and can’t understand what Grogu says.

(Also lol at “He doesn’t understand” “He does.”  You can 100% tell when kids understand you perfectly and are refusing to do it, even when a parent is making excuses for their darling. xD  Especially since kids will frequently act/react differently to their parents versus other caretakers.)

“He’s hidden his abilities to survive over the years” I call partial bullshit on that.  No, I don’t think Baby has done any long-term planning or had thoughts along the lines of “I’m being hunted and need to protect myself by pretending not to be a Force-user.”  But I think he has probably figured out people react a certain way when he does Force things and perhaps decided “I shouldn’t make things float because then people will grab me/I will get taken away/other consequence I don’t like will happen.”  That’s more in line with a toddler’s level of thinking/comprehension.  And it adds greater weight to him saving Din from the mudhorn - he didn’t know how Din would react to him using the Force, if Din would try and hurt him or lock him in the pod or whatever, but he still wanted to save Din.  Overall though I think Baby’s Force-use is in line with a toddler’s thoughts.  “I want X to happen, I can make that happen with the Force, so I will make X happen unless I’m more scared of [consequence] happening.”

So overall a pretty revealing episode for Baby/Grogu.  (I’m not used to the new name yet tbh.)  Although I’m worried about how many times it will take Din hearing it to realize that yes, you are this baby’s father, get that through your beskar-plated skull.

[tennessoui]

I love amnesia aus so so much thank you for providing that content 💖 much love

ahhh thank you so much!!! have some further down the line angst with very little context except that i gave anakin a tattoo as well and obi-wan can't cope (not in the sexy way :( )

(kit to kit: this is gonna be the five sentence dialogue you thought about while cooking dinner thats it

kit to kit: yeah at the end i'll put that at the end dw)

(1.4k)

Obi-Wan freezes and retracts his hand as if he’s been burned.

Anakin desperately wishes he’d never moved to take off his shirt--of course that was too far, too fast, of course his partner wasn’t ready for that.

Nice job at karking everything up, Shmison, he berates himself as he fights the urge to lurch for the tunic he already threw away behind him, or even more absurdly, cover his chest with his hands.

But Obi-Wan’s gaze seems stuck on the tighter skin of his left shoulder. His eyebrows are furrowed and his eyes look--the word escapes him.

He can’t understand what emotion Obi-Wan is feeling. He wonders if Skywalker would have been able to tell. The thought makes him feel angry and bitter, and with no idea what else to do with those emotions, he pushes them to the very back of his mind.

“You have a tattoo,” Obi-Wan finally murmurs, reaching out to trace the beak of the black and gray starbird Anakin’s got stretching over his shoulder and towards his heart. One wing stretches just across the nape of his neck, the other extends down his arm. The only thing that breaks up the flow of delicate ink work is the force suppression collar that stands out starkly against the skin of his neck.

“Tail takes up a good bit of my back,” Anakin replies, keeping his voice low and soft to match Obi-Wan’s. “Hurt like an Imp blast, but all I’ve got are compliments.”

It is, apparently, the wrong thing to say, because Obi-Wan--if possible--withdraws further into himself, going as far as to get off the couch all together. As if even sharing a piece of furniture with Anakin is too much right now.

A part of him wants to scoff and roll his eyes, throw up his hands and declare this typical of the other man. Another part of him wants to follow him, press him against the wall so that there’s no space in between their bodies--not to do anything more than inhale his scent and relish in the fact that he has managed to pin down his wayward Mast--

And that’s definitely not his thought. He fights the urge to rub at his head, because he knows what Obi-Wan will do. Obi-Wan will step forward out of concern. He’ll say something along the lines of, ‘Anakin?’ but he’ll say it the way no one else has ever said his name. Imbued with a thousand different emotions, none of which Anakin Shmison has really earned. Anakin doesn’t think he can take it right now.

So instead of all that, Anakin gets up and grabs his shirt from where he’d--optimistically in hindsight--tossed it at the wall adjacent to the end of the couch. Obi-Wan is silent for this humiliation, which makes Anakin irrationally angry.

“I’m guessing Skywalker never wanted tattoos?” he snips, balling his shirt into his fists but not shrugging it on.

It’s a general rule they have silently agreed upon in the past few months since Obi-Wan’s joined the Rebellion. They can talk about anything in the entire galaxy. Except Anakin Skywalker. Now Anakin’s feeling just disappointed and bitter enough to enjoy breaking it. To enjoy watching the slightest flicker of pain flash across Obi-Wan’s face.

“I…” Obi-Wan says, eyes finally jumping away from Anakin’s tattoo guiltily. “I suppose that I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Anakin asks. “You and your Skywalker never talk about that sort of thing?”

Obi-Wan crosses his arms and shifts until his legs are shoulder-width apart. Anakin could recognize this stance in anyone: it’s the look of a man who’s getting ready to fight.

Had they really been kissing like the Seppies were outside their door just a few minutes ago?

“Don’t call him that,” Obi-Wan bites out.

This pulls Anakin up. “What? Skywalker?” Well kriff Kenobi then, Anakin needs some way to differentiate between himself and whatever else used to live in his head.

“Mine,” the former Jedi General corrects in a tone that’s probably supposed to be forceful but comes out too aching to be anything but sad. “He wasn’t--”

Anakin wants to say that the impression he gets is that Skywalker definitely, on at least some level, thought of himself as Obi-Wan’s, but his mission here isn’t to actively hurt the man. He doesn’t want to hurt the man. He doesn’t want to see this man hurt, which is strange considering how often the man looks haunted in his presence.

“Fine,” he cuts him off. “Yeah, I got a tattoo. Do you like it?”

Obi-Wan hesitates in such a way that Anakin wants to throw his shirt at him. “I do,” he finally admits. “It’s a very...striking design.”

“Thank you,” Anakin replies easily. “I wanted a change.”

“That’s understandable, Anakin,” Obi-Wan says. The blank way he says the word is almost worse than hearing it said with all those emotions not meant for him. What did Skywalker do to have Obi-Wan care about him so much it dripped off the way he said his name? What can Anakin do to get the same effect? Is it even possible anymore, or are they both too old and bitter and estranged from their hearts?

“I didn’t want to live in the past,” Anakin confesses, only realizing how it sounds and who he’s talking to when Obi-Wan tenses up.

The other man’s tone becomes cold. “I applaud that decision of course, though I suppose it must have been easy to make considering you don’t remember it.”

Anakin draws himself up, anger lancing through his chest. He still isn’t wearing a shirt so he shrugs it on angrily and buttons it up without focusing on any of the buttons. He’s incandescent with rage at the fact that Obi-Wan is implying that he’s had it easy. That he hasn’t spent almost a decade agonizing over who he had been, over who he is, over if he’s anyone at all or just the smashed up pieces of Anakin Skywalker pieced together in a different fashion.

So he’s not really thinking logically about what he says next. He’s not really thinking about the fact that he doesn’t want to hurt this man, that he’ll regret this all in a few hours.

“And I suppose you should try something other than wallowing in it! What were you doing when we found you, Obi-Wan? What was the great Jedi General of the Clone Wars doing when I knocked on the door to your hut? Making children’s toys and meditating?”

Obi-Wan’s jaw clenches so tightly that Anakin’s half-afraid he’ll break his teeth. Whatever he’s holding himself back from saying must be taking all of his not-insignificant willpower.

Anakin keeps going. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for your losses, but you chose to exile yourself to a dusty Sith’s hell planet when the Rebellion could have used you from the beginning! Seven years, Obi-Wan! Did you do nothing but mourn? How warm did those memories keep you at night, huh?”

He pauses to take a breath, and Obi-Wan holds up a shaking hand. Everything in Anakin stops for a second, as if he’s been conditioned to freeze at this signal. Maybe he has. Being around Obi-Wan lately has been a lesson in learning what the mind forgets but the body remembers.

“Do you think,” Obi-Wan begins very, very quietly. He stops and breathes out and closes his eyes tightly. His breathing trembles as hard as his hand does.“Do you think I have never, in the past eight years, wanted to forget? Everything? Do you have any idea? What I would do? To not remember? Even for an hour?”

In the face of even a hint of tumultuous emotion from Obi-Wan, Anakin can feel the anger drain out of his body. He wonders if Skywalker ever said anything to get a rise out of his master, only to be given what he wanted and find that he regretted it. Would Skywalker apologize? Would he hoard his anger around him like shields and push forward until he’s exhausted himself? Would he--

But Anakin isn’t Skywalker.

“I could hit you really hard on the head with a wrench?” he offers. “Worked for me.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes find his for a silent, incredulous second before the man breaks out into laughter. It’s rich and light and from the belly and he has to come forward to sit on the couch just so he doesn’t fall over.

Anakin laughs too, because if this isn’t funny then it’s something else entirely and so it has to be funny.

He sits gingerly next to Obi-Wan who has his head in his hands. When the man’s laughter turns to sobs, he clasps his shoulder gently but firmly. It’s both a surprise and not a surprise at all when the Jedi General leans into his touch.

[padawanlost]

Are you familar with an idea that is going around fandom that Obi Wan and Yoda didn't actually want Luke to kill his father, just to face him and be prepared to kill him (in self defense) if he had to. It doesn't add up to me, considering the way Obi Wan responded when Luke said he could not do it. He didn't say "I hope you don't have to unless its absolutely necessary". Also, it implies that Obi Wan and Yoda believed Vader could be reasoned with, and just talked out of the Dark Side, or even knew Luke would redeem him. Allegedly there is an interview with Lucas in which he suggested the above (just for Luke to be prepared to kill) but I thought it seemed like he was being asked leading questions anyway. What are your thoughts on this?

Yeah, i’ve heard that ‘theory’ a few times but it’s hard to take it seriously when we have 6 movies and countless comics, books and books that point in the exact opposite direction. I mean, what does it mean when a fan says a character didn’t want Luke to kill Vader when said character actually says - out loud – ‘hey Luke, go kill Vader’?

Obi-Wan: You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again. Luke: I can't kill my own father. Obi-Wan: Then the Emperor has already won. You were our only hope.

If they don’t want Vader (and the Emperor) dead then why train Luke because he was the only one powerful enough to face him? It doesn’t add up.

As for the alleged evidence, my approach is hard, tangible evidence or death! LOL I’m kidding :P But I’ve been around long enough to learn to ask for the receipts when someone says you’re wrong because I’ve seen a book/comic/interview that proves I’m right but I don’t remember when I saw it, the original source, the context or know how to find it again -___-

And even if George had actually said that, it would have no influence over the actual events put on screen. The truth is, people are very *very* selective about what George quotes they want to use. People only agree with what he says when it’s convenient for their own views. There’s a legion of fans out there who work very hard to ignore everything George has said about Anakin, the Jedi Order and the politics of the prequels. But the same fans go on a frenzy when he says they accept.

George is an interesting source of context. Understanding where he was coming from helps understand why things work the way they do and what lessons he was trying to insert into his story. But to use George’s word as the ultimate judge of a character’s actions, even when it contradicts the movies is a bit too convenient for my taste.

George Lucas as a source of ‘canon’ is very unreliable. Personally, I find him a very useful source of context even he’s not the best provider of facts. Here’s an example: ROTS makes it canon that Padmé died of a broken heart in Polis Massa. But if you look hard enough you’ll find an interview of him explain Padmé’s journey to Alderaan and her subsequent death on the planet. It’s the whole who shot first issue. George, as a source of *facts*, is unreliable because he famously contradicts himself all the time.

The movies and the entire lore make very clear that Anakin and Padmé’s marriage was forbidden, but once a kid wrote a letter to George so he said marriage was no longer forbidden. Does that mean we should change everything about how we perceive Anakin and Padmé’s characters arc? Or does it mean we should just, you know, use some critical thinking and maybe a dose of common sense when interpreting these issues?

Besides, like so many new fans love to point out, George Lucas is no longer canon. So it’s kind of interesting how the same fans who dismiss countless source of information simply because they existed prior to Disney cling so desperately over something George *might* have said over 20 years ago.

[ariainstars]

Star Wars, the Last 20 Years or Can We Please Try to Stop the Blame Train?

I would like to touch a subject that’s starting to grate on my nerves a little.

Anyone here knows that I disliked The Rise of Skywalker heartily. And I’m not the only person here or elsewhere who tore it to shreds. But I am reading (again) over and over why and how JJ Abrams, Chris Terrio, Kathleen Kennedy and Co. made this mess. Instead of searching for culprits, this time I would like to point out a few things.

I. Star Wars Prequels

Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best and Hayden Christensen had to endure awful harassment in their time: the audience largely vented their frustration on them because when the prequels hit theatres, they did not get the Star Wars they had wanted. Politics are a dry subject, and young Anakin and the Jedi Council were all too human to be liked by fans who expect coolness in a hero more than everything else; which is probably why Darth Maul is a huge favorite although we hardly learn anything about him and he says almost nothing. Ditto Obi-Wan although he is clearly not suited to train Anakin and it’s him who maims him and leaves him to burn in the lava. (Until I saw the film, I had always assumed Palpatine had tortured Anakin to push him to the Dark Side.) 

The prequels’ messages in general were not liked: the Jedi were not perfectly wise and cool wizards, the Old Republic was stagnant, Anakin was a hot-headed, frustrated young man desperate to save his wife and unborn children. The films do not want to excuse what he did; however they portray him not as a monster but as a human being who was under an almost unendurable pressure for years and years until he finally snapped.

These messages may not be “cool”, but they were realistic and most of all, humane. Portraying the Jedi as well as Anakin as powerful, flawless heroes and the old Republic as a just, prosperous and balanced place would have meant undermining a central theme of the original trilogy: the former generation could not have been all that powerful and wise, else the collapse of their world and the failure of their convictions would not have happened in the first place. It is a sore point, but still twenty years later Obi-Wan and Yoda denied that Vader was human and expected Luke to commit patricide. 

All of this goes to show that the Jedi’s moral standard was flawed and their attitude not rooted in compassion and pacifism the way they claimed. In the end, what they cared about was winning, no matter the cost. In this, they were no better than the Sith.

~~~more under the cut~~~

II. Star Wars Sequels

J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Bob Iger and company were the ones who introduced the Star Wars sequel trilogy and with it its themes, characters, setting etc. to us in the first place: I think we should give them credit where it’s due. Rian Johnson made a very beautiful second chapter with The Last Jedi, but he did pick up where the others had left. 

Kelly Marie Tran made experiences similar to Jake Lloyds or Hayden Christensen’s when The Last Jedi was hit theatres. She was disliked for not being “Star-Wars-y” enough, chubby and lively instead of wiry and spitfire, and also taking a lot of screen time while many fans were impatiently waiting for some grand scenes from Luke and / or Leia. 

That Episode VIII, the central and most important one, was called “The Last Jedi” cannot be overstated. Luke was literally alone with the heavy task of rebuilding a religious order that was gone and destroyed long before he even learned about it, and at the same time he had to patch together his own family and atone for his father’s sins. This is a crushing burden for anyone to carry. It was important both for Rey and for the audience to meet Luke to see that he was a good man, but still just a man.

When Luke spoke openly to Rey about the failure of the Jedi Order, it was the first time he ever spoke about it that we know of; this wisdom he obviously acquired only after his nephew’s fall to the Dark Side. Luke has understood that the ways of the Jedi were wrong; but he does not know a better alternative. Force users are still born all over the galaxy, and they have to learn to use their powers - only how? Again, Luke is not to blame. How is he to know, when the Jedi of the Old Republic had lost sight of Balance in the Force for so long that they didn’t know what it actually meant anymore? 

Same goes for Leia, the princess without a realm, who tried to rebuild the Republic after the galaxy had been terrorized by the Empire and devastated by war for many years. She assuredly did her best, but she was only human. That she failed her son is of course shocking, but after the horror she had to endure at the hands of her own father it is not surprising that she would be terrified of her son possibly going the same way. Ben, like Anakin, was crushed under a legacy and responsibility that was by far too heavy for him. The tragedy of his life and the disruption - and in the end, obliteration - of his family was another proof for the failure of the ways of the Jedi. 

All of these lessons until now were not learned from. But let’s be honest: how many of us come from dysfunctional families? If we do, was getting away from them enough to heal the wounds of the past? Did we find out what to give our children on their way in life, or did we fail them because we had not elaborated the past enough to make way for a better future? Such problems are very common, and to heal them is complicated and takes time. A “happy ending” e.g. in form of finding a new family is not enough, on the contrary, it can lead to wanting to leave the past behind, leaving wounds unhealed that will fester their way through our lives again, sooner or later. Star Wars always was an allegory of the human mind, even if deeply cloaked in symbolism. The saga also abundantly takes inspiration from the Bible, and I think it’s not coincidentally said there that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. 

As fans, we would have wanted to see films that cemented the Jedi as guardians of the galaxy, with the Skywalker family right at the center. Which in itself is impossible because Jedi are supposed to remain unattached, making the mere idea of a Jedi having a family absurd. If the prequels told us that the Jedi were flawed, the sequels tore down the myth of the Skywalker family. And both trilogies showed that you can’t be a Skywalker and / or a Jedi / Force user and have attachments and a happy family of your own at the same time. At least, not until now. 

 III. Film production

Many fans of old complained because the sequel trilogy implied that the “happy ending” of the original trilogy’s heroes had not been so happy after all and that after having made peace for the galaxy, they had failed to keep it that way. Other viewers however liked the new trilogy and new characters right away and began to root for them. But they, too, jumped on the blame train when the trilogy had ended: expectations were not met, and now director, producers, script writers, cutters etc. are faulted all over again.

The first person coming up with the idea of Han’s and Leia’s only child turning to the Dark Side was Lucas himself. It always was a main theme of the saga that war separates people who actually belong together, like family, couples or close friends; that is not played for mere drama, but because it emphasizes the absurdity of war.

We as the audience do not know how production went - it is very possible that Lucas approved the general storyline, and there is always a whole team on board. It is not easy to purchase such a large and immensely popular franchise; it was to be expected that if things went not the way the audience expected, the Disney studios would be blamed harshly for having “ruined Star Wars”. With the prequels, at least Lucas was still at the helm; it was conceded that maybe he had lost his magic touch with storytelling, but certainly not that he was trying deliberately to ruin his own creation. And the fans who could not praise the Disney studios enough after The Last Jedi came out, now blame them over and over.

The Disney studios have long-term politics to consider and contracts to observe, and we don’t know their contents. We have every right to be disappointed, but I think it’s not fair to blame one or a particular group of persons who are trying their best to satisfy as many viewers as possible. If they simply wanted to satisfy the average dudebro who sees nothing but clichés, two-dimensional characters and Good against Evil - then why did they allow The Last Jedi to be produced in the first place? The studios obviously are aware that there are fans out there who are ready to look deeper in the saga’s themes, who wish to see the Force coming to Balance, who value family, friendship and love over “victory at any cost”, and who do not place the Jedi on some kind of pedestal.

In a sense, The Rise of Skywalker seems like a bow before The Last Jedi: the weakest chapter of the saga followed one of its strongest. Maybe the authors were aware that equaling or even topping what Rian Johnson had created would be next to impossible, so they patched up the open threads of The Force Awakens together with some fan service hoping to be out of the business as quickly as possible.

In retrospect, the infamous podcast with Charles Soule might also be tell-tale: Soule obviously is not elbows-deep in the saga and largely ignores its subtext. Since his The Rise of Kylo Ren comics are quite well-made, I assume that the general storyline did not stem from his own creativity and that he only carried out what he had been advised to do. The production of the whole sequel trilogy may have happened in a similar way. I am not excusing the poor choices of The Rise of Skywalker; merely considering that one or a few persons cannot be blamed in a studio that has thousands of creative minds on board.

I am still hoping for the next trilogy to finally bring Balance to the galaxy, and also into the fandom. Rian Johnson had negotiated the rights for the next trilogy along with The Last Jedi; I assume it is very possible that there was a clause about intellectual property saying that only he would continue Episode VIII’s topics, nobody else. This would at least be an explanation, given the embarrassing, jumbled mess that Episode IX was.

The overall title of the saga assuredly never wanted to inspire the audience to start online wars attacking the studios or the actors or other fans out of the conviction of being entitled to blame someone else’s worldview. The saga’s message is compassion. Both George Lucas and the Disney studios are telling us their story; the idea and the rights do not belong to us. Harping on “whose fault” it allegedly is won’t bring us anywhere; what we can do is make the studios understand that we’re not too stupid not to understand the subtext, the symbolism and metaphysics of the saga beyond the action story. If they listened to the Last Jedi haters, in all fairness they are bound to listen to us, too. 😊

  IV. Will Ben’s story continue?

My husband already warned me years ago that Ben most probably wouldn’t survive, or at least not get a happy ending. As Kylo Ren he had already been the head of a criminal organization for six years at the start of The Force Awakens, but all of that perhaps could still have been condoned within the scope of war. It was the very personal and intentional act of patricide, the killing of an unarmed, forgiving man, who turned him into a damned person. And after the deed, Ben was aware of it. He knew there was no way out for him, he had gone too far.

Many members of the audience did not understand that Kylo / Ben is not an out-and-out villain and that this narrative ultimately was about his redemption. Bringing him back to the Resistance after the Exegol battle alive and by Rey’s side would not have been accepted; how was Rey to explain everything when she hardly understood it herself? How would the audience have reacted to the former head of a criminal organization, a patricide, suddenly standing out as a hero? Remember how in Return of the Jedi Luke asked Vader to come away with him. Now suppose Vader had complied? It would have seemed (and been) sheer madness. Nobody would have believed neither father nor son that the terror of the galaxy had had a sudden turn of heart. Nobody knew that he was Luke’s father; Luke himself did not know Anakin’s backstory; nobody knew what had transpired between Luke and Vader so far. Yes, Ben was young and healthy, but he still had terrorized the galaxy for years and killed his own father. He knew himself that he was damned and could not go back to normality, as Vader did.

Rey was coded as the heroine: narratively, the sequel trilogy was her story. Ben couldn’t become the hero, with or without her, at the very last moment. She usurped power like her grandfather in his time, the Skywalker family was obliterated the way the Jedi were, she takes over another mantle (Skywalker) the way Palpatine did (becoming the Emperor). Balance in the Force never was truly in the cards, it was only vaguely hinted at in The Last Jedi by the Force mosaic in the Ahch-To temple. Balance is a complex and difficult subject; it would have been extremely difficult to develop it in the sequel trilogy together with introducing the new characters and giving the old ones closure.

However: if Ben is brought back in the next trilogy, his sacrifice for Rey will have been his atonement. If his role this time is not that of the villain but of the hero, it would reverse Anakin’s path and make clear that he no longer is the same man. Vader was redeemed, not rehabilitated. His grandson might still have the chance to go that way.

- Luke had promised Rey a third lesson, and it happened. He also had promised Ben to “see him around”, which has not taken place yet.

- On Tatooine, Rey watches the twin suns setting, same as Luke before he met the other half of his soul (his twin sister) again.

- The studios had said that the sequels would be “very much like the prequels”; the prequels were a tragedy where the Dark Side (Palpatine) won that was followed by a fairy tale where the Light Side won.

- The Skywalker saga is closed, so if Ben comes back it would be justified by his being a Solo, i.e. the story of his own family and not his grandfather’s.

- Given the parallels with Beauty and the Beast, the Beast died before the broken spell brought him back, making him a wholly new person - his past identity, purged and redeemed.

- George Lucas repeatedly said that the prequels and the classics belong together as one narrative, with Anakin Skywalker at its center. First news of the next trilogy came up with The Last Jedi. Since there are strong parallels between Ben and his grandfather, we may assume that this six-chapter instalment will be his; Anakin also was left for dead but came back with a wholly different role and name.

- When Anakin was reborn as Darth Vader, he “rose” slowly from the ground, clad in his black armor. Ben fell to the ground abruptly and shed his black clothes, disappearing. This could be another clue. (It was also already speculated that Leia’s body dissolved exactly in this moment because she gave her life-force to her son for him to have another chance to live. Both Han and Luke had done what they could to atone for their remorse towards Ben; this might be her turn.)

- Much as I love Luke Skywalker, I can understand that Lucas did not see him as the saga’s protagonist. The overall arch is not so much about Luke’s heroism than about Anakin’s redemption and atonement. It is unusual because we expect the story’s “hero” to be the one who kills the Bad Guy; and indeed Anakin is, because he kills Palpatine in the end, the twist being that technically he is also a villain though not the archvillain.

- Ben had promised Anakin he would finish what he started. Anakin had been meant to bring Balance to the Force, and he had started a family. Until now, Ben did neither.

- If Ben and Rey are a dyad, i.e. one soul in two bodies, then Rey is in urgent need of her soulmate for her future tasks. She has her friends of course, but none of them gets her the way he did.

So, I still see reason to hope for a continuation, and, hopefully, satisfying conclusion of The Last Jedi’s themes.

  Film production: on a side note…

In the Nineties, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale were the directors both of Beauty and the Beast and Atlantis: two more different stories are hardly imaginable with regard to everything - drawing style, setting, characters, development, music etc. This outcome can’t have been only due to the director’s choices, there must have been a wholly different idea behind both films right from the beginning. Just saying.

[spell-cleaver]

Vader watched the blonde mop of the boy float in the bacta tank. He was stable and would recover. It was time then to think of the future. Time to remove those who'd pose a danger to the boy ruling supreme.

Previous parts linked on the masterpost here!

Vader watched the blond mop of the boy float in the bacta tank. He was stable and would recover. It was time then to think of the future. Time to remove those who’d pose a danger to the boy ruling supreme.

The woman next to him was small, and delicate, and looked incredibly like Padmé. That did not mean he didn’t want to wrap his hands around her neck and squeeze.

“You said,” he growled, “that you could protect him.”

“Those were your men they were impersonating, Lord Vader,” Sabé shot back immediately. “If you are incapable of preventing infiltrations into the Five-Oh-First—”

“It was under your command—”

“I’m not convinced,” Sabé said cuttingly, “that you didn’t send that attack yourself to justify storming back here and steamrolling all of my measures for Luke’s peace of mind again.”

Vader froze.

Sabé glared at him. Then she glanced down, face twisting, her hand reaching for her neck—

“How dare you,” Vader ground out, “imply that I would ever endanger the boy like that.”

Sabé took a step back but kept close to the bacta tank, pressing a hand to it to steady herself. She tried to say something, but all that came out were quiet squeaks.

But Vader’s gaze followed the line of her hand, and, as Luke drifted in the bacta, his hand brushed against the glass against hers.

Vader let go. Static burst from his vocoder.

Sabé gasped, cheeks flushed a bright red, but her gaze was violent. “Look—” she tried, voice hoarse and cracking, then jabbed a finger at Luke. “Look at that boy’s scars. There are hundreds of them, all over his back and arms and shoulder, his legs; every non-lethal inch of him.”

Vader, despite himself, looked.

She wasn’t wrong.

There was a long, jagged scar from Luke’s first lightsaber lesson, where Vader had sought to show him just how weak and insignificant he was by gouging his saber in a shallow channel down his back, careful to miss any important bones. There was a starburst of scar tissue on his shoulder from where he’d failed to deflect three live detonators at once and Vader had only bothered catching the ones that would have killed him. And aside from those, there were so many smaller burns, cuts and injuries that Palpatine had always ensured the best medical care for, so they healed fully and no longer pained Luke, but painted a bloody history over his skin.

“I told you before,” Sabé hissed. “I think I am perfectly justified in believing that he is not safe with you.”

Vader… couldn’t deny that.

“I have no intention of hurting him,” he reiterated.

“Why in all the stars should I trust that?”

Vader didn’t answer. He just turned to face Luke in the bacta tank head on, and placed his hand to the glass, his fingers spread.

And then he made a decision.

“Because he is my son.”

She stiffened.

Stared.

Vader, ignoring her, continued, “I sent a Noghri warrior to assassinate Tarkin. They are reliable, and will get the job done, but I did not want to leave my son vulnerable. There are many others who would seize the throne from their child-emperor, so I stayed in Coruscant’s orbit, until a premonition from the Force informed me that I was needed.”

Sabé was still staring.

She said, “Anakin?”

He tensed. “I no longer recognise that name.”

“You recognise his son,” she snapped. “What— how long have you known? Did—” She trailed off, gesturing to all of Luke’s scars again, and Vader set his jaw.

“I did not know then,” he got out.

“When?”

“When I killed the Emperor.”

She fell silent at that—at the second admission in as many minutes. Her dark gaze, inexorably, was drawn back to Luke.

“So you killed him,” she said slowly, “because you found out what he’d done to Luke—who Luke was to you?”

Vader hooked his thumbs into his belt.

That was a convenient lie to tell—if she thought it had been paternal protectiveness that led to this situation, she might be more inclined to trust him with Luke. Trust him not to hurt her lady’s child.

But if she dug any deeper into how he’d learned—found out that Palpatine was dead for Vader’s ambition, and Vader’s ambition alone—the lie would fall apart.

So he stayed silent, and let her judge what she thought to be true herself.

She let out a breath, idly rubbing her throat again. Bruises stained her pale skin there, and Vader thought that he’d need to make sure she got medical attention; his son would not be happy if he woke up to find the only person he trusted had been murdered.

They both watched Luke in silence, his two—very different, very distant—protectors standing watch. Then she asked, “What happened to you, Anakin?”

He knew that insisting she call him any other name would be fruitless. But he couldn’t help stiffening every time she didn’t.

Instead, he both answered her question and didn’t answer it at all:

“My wife died,” he said. “I will not allow my son to die as well.”

Her eyes flicked between them, but she nodded.

“You’ll stand watch while I…” she gestured to her neck, then the door to the medical office, “right?”

He nodded silently.

Her footsteps padded out of the room quietly. When the door closed, a hush fell, and the rasp of his breathing was the only sound.

Send me the first sentence of a scene from this AU and I’ll continue it!

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[kiingocreative]

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In many ways the main character of a story acts as a proxy for the audience. When the main character feels pain, the audience feels pain. When the main character succeeds, the audience feels happy. This same basic concept applies to how the audience learns the central message (i.e. theme) in a story. When the main character learns their lesson, the audience typically understands the lesson they're meant to understand as well. For this reason, it's important to consider the lesson your main character will learn.

In most cases, a character will learn a lesson about how they've been living life incorrectly and how they need to change their behavior to live a happier life. This is the process of moral growth. It's the completion of a positive character arc. It's when Woody learns that he must share Andy's love, when Marlin learns that he needs to let Nemo live his own life, and when Mr. Incredible learns that he needs to be a hero for his family. When the character learns the lesson, the audience does as well.

Of course, not all characters learn their lesson. Some characters simply don't grow. In these stories, it's important to consider the lesson that the character *should* have learned. We want to make it clear to the audience that the character failed to learn their lesson, and in most cases we want to imply that they'll continued to be constrained by their demons and immoral behavior until the moment that they come to the correct realization. In these stories, we want to make it clear to the audience what the lesson *should* have been.

And finally, we might have a character who adopts an *incorrect* belief. These characters learn a lesson but it's the wrong one. This is the story of the corruption arc. A character may have started with moral purity but may have been tempted or corrupted over the course of the story (as with Anakin Skywalker in the prequels). It's also possible that the character started from a place of moral weakness but learned an additional incorrect lesson. These are the stories where villains are born. It's a tale of moral decay.

By focusing on the lesson that a character learns (or *should* have learned), we point the audience to the central message of the story. We convey the theme through the story's character arc and the associated self-revelation (or lack thereof). What does your character learn?

[frumfrumfroo]

1-As far as I can tell, the anti-legacy argument from TLJ is drawn from some of the following points: Luke, when facing Ben on Crait, isn't compassionate towards him like he was with Vader, but cruel/mocking, and he names Rey as the "last Jedi" and bearer of his legacy, which people interpret as him writing off Ben as a lost cause, only seeing him as an enemy/worth contempt, and holding up Rey as the true legacy; since Kylo was fundamentally wrong about Rey being “a nobody” which means that Rey

2-choosing to go back to her friends was also proof of the fact that she was right at the beginning of the movie, she was right not to trust him, to believe in Luke, and to wait for her parents, and didn’t have to let go of anything as he demanded; Rey leaves the Throne Room with both halves of the legacy saber means she’s the true legacy, as is Leia telling her “we have everything we need” after she said “my son is gone”; broom boy hammers in the point of the movie that it’s not about where            

3-you come from, anyone can be a hero…and part of that message is the older Skywalker generation embracing these other, “worthy” heroes as their legacies (Rey as the Jedi, Poe as the Resistance) and rejecting Kylo, because it doesn’t matter if he’s related to them, he chose to be evil, they can’t help him, no more Vader-like “getting a redemption chance just because he’s a Skywalker relative” situations. This is what I could gather from reading several anti-legacy articles/metas around the web.          

In response to this post where anon argues the Skywalkers aren’t essential to the Skywalker saga. Thanks for gathering.

1. Except that Luke has a sit down with his despairing sister where he reassures Leia that ‘no one is ever really gone’ re: SPECIFICALLY BEN. They are talking about Ben here, it is not ambiguous or debatable, so Luke explicitly believes that Ben can still be saved. Just not by him. We’re being told to expect a different kind of redemption than Vader’s, it’s not going to work the same way. Which is a good thing.

And when Luke actually speaks to Ben, he acknowledges that he is at fault for this situation and apologises to him. Are they trying to argue this apology isn’t sincere? That Luke is such a massive asshole that he’s mocking the nephew he traumatised? That Luke’s TLJ arc wasn’t about accepting his failure but about learning he should have gone through with murdering an innocent family member in his sleep and should stop feeling guilty about it? Because that would be the necessary implication if he is to be read as cruel and mocking in that scene. Does the narrative blame Ben and paint him as a bad seed who was inflicted on an innocent family? Is he Damien? Of fucking course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Sea cucumbers know he’s meant to be sympathetic.

2. I’m already tired. Okay, as I have made many bitter sarcastic posts about already, Rey’s character arc cannot be a circle. If she was right all along about everything, she doesn’t need to grow and is already fully actualised before we even meet her. But this is a coming of age story, this is a mythic journey about confronting the world and responsibility and the power of the individual to make moral choices. This is a fairy tale about how to become an ethical adult. A protagonist who doesn’t change and doesn’t need to learn anything is a fucking category error in this kind of story.

As previously mentioned, Leia was wrong in saying ‘my son is gone’ and the film is not subtle in telling us that. Rey cannot be the ‘true legacy’ because the narrative importance of the legacy is entirely about the burden it has been to the people who carry it. The whole reason this is an actual sequel and an actual continuation of the same story is because we’re dragging up unresolved trauma around Anakin’s fall, because this is all part of the same question, because Ben was only a target and vulnerable to Snoke because of who he is. Star Wars is personal, always, it’s about individuals and the individual struggles are then a metaphor for the universal. Rey ‘carrying on the legacy’ is meaningless. What is the legacy if it is not both the weight of Anakin’s sins and the deathless hope of Anakin’s redemption and reclamation? Rey alone, supposedly having nothing to do with Big Bad Ben, has nothing whatsoever to do with the legacy.

The point of the Skywalkers is to ask a question about choice and destiny. Ben’s fatalism comes directly from how Leia chose to handle (or not handle) the Skywalker legacy. Han and Ben’s broken relationship is implied to come from it. Luke’s biggest failure and the impetus of Ben’s final fall was his lapse into believing in it. But the problem in the galaxy is not the Skywalkers, the problem is and has always been people making selfish choices. Evil is a choice and not a destiny. Anakin had a choice, Luke had a choice, Ben has a choice.

That is the positive and regenerative part of Anakin’s legacy which needs to be carried forward: that it’s never too late, that there is always a choice. This is what Luke did in saving his father, he extended the grace of unconditional love and reminded Anakin what it was like, he convinced Anakin there was a choice. He demonstrated willing absolute selflessness and showed it was possible, destroying Anakin’s illusions and justifications about inevitability and the inescapable necessity of power and selfishness. Ben has not yet realised this truth (well, maybe, maybe he’s getting there on the floor at the end), but there’s a whole film left to go. He will be faced with this dilemma again.

Rey the Infallible waiting to be informed of her rightness and handed adoption into heroism and importance as a reward for not making choices and avoiding the world has nothing to say about any of this. That is empty. That is totally inappropriate.

What makes her the hero is her compassion and she will be rewarded for that, for her faith and patience, not for never failing, not for not being wrong. Never failing or being wrong is not an heroic attribute anyone has ever had in Star Wars, but love and compassion are never wrong. Literally never. Love will always be vindicated.

3. And, yeah, I think I covered that. Luke and Leia sweeping Ben under the carpet as not their fault or their problem and getting shiny new kids is both proven not to work (not accepting and understanding what created Vader worked out so well) and is a morally abhorrent message at odds with the soul of the saga. The point of Broom Boy is that the galaxy is big and people are inspired, that hope is alive in the most desperate places; it’s a meta commentary about stories and heroes and why we have them, tying in to Luke’s identity crisis and Yoda’s lesson. It doesn’t mean this story is now no longer about the thing it has always been about. All of those themes tie right the fuck back to choices and mistakes and the double-edged sword of legacy.

[sethnakht]

more than a little on the slow side today, so haven’t read any commentary yet. but here are some raw thoughts on vader #25.

Difficult to know where to start, as the issue was overlaid with symbols and yet also rather stolidly straightforward. Perhaps as a beginning: I was expecting Soule to play things straight and hoping to be gloriously wrong about it. He played things straight. 

My working theory going into the comic, written in response to @micelle in the middle of the night a few days ago:

I personally would not be surprised if that moment of projection on Padmé’s ship - you know, where Vader sees the mask engraved into Little Ani’s flesh in a reverse of Luke’s cave adventure, marking the start of a theme of this arc, the engraving of a mask onto various bodies - were the key to it all, that is, if what he’s after is the opportunity to kill himself (a reverse Momin so to speak). (or change himself. the comic has been so focused on his selfishness, on mirrors of the self - I could picture him strolling past nodes of past moments in the “world between worlds” and peering into the highlights of his wretched life as he decides whether to save Shmi, interfere with Padmé, prevent himself from leaving Tatooine, etc)

Some of this prediction played out - Vader does indeed stroll past moments in his own life, starting with pregnant!Shmi and himself as little Ani. You could argue too that the end result of it all is that he the part of him who still thinks of himself as an Anakin to be Saved is killed, for the present moment, in a reverse Momin of sorts. Things were a little more complex than I had imagined them, however. The plane upon which Vader finds himself resembles some combination of the subjective landscape of his own dark-side-fueled meditations and the objective landscape of Mustafar. As in his meditations, the sky is filled with lightning and he himself is a burning, burnt husk with dead white space where his cybernetic limbs complete him. As on Mustafar, he walks the ground, and where lava would be is the dark, roiling sea over which he floated in meditation; memories having to do with himself are presented in circles of lava, corresponding to his own burning state.

There seem to be two different possible modes of interaction with this world, objective and subjective. On the one hand, Vader walks past nodes that objectively reflect his own life back at him as would a film, much like what Ezra and Ahsoka encountered in the World Between Worlds; it is in such a lava-encased node that he foresees his own confrontation with Ahsoka (!!). Were he to interact with these nodes as Ezra considered doing with Kanan, then he could potentially change the past or the future. But Vader does not interact with these nodes, he simply walks past them. Nor does he seem to make much of the voices from his own past, from the future (Kylo!) echoing around him. Instead, he interacts with subjective projections of the people he loves - Shmi, the Jedi, Palpatine, Obi-Wan, Padmé. I say subjective projections, as these are all people who matter to him and all people who play into his self-narrative, and thus also mirrors of the self to a degree, but suspect the status of these projections is about as complex as the vision Luke has in the Dagobah cave: what Vader sees is what he brings with him, but also what the Dark Side would have him see. Thus, he sees Shmi with Palpatine behind her as though to suggest that his origins are in the Dark Side, that he has always been “unnatural” and destined to serve. (This is also what Momin’s pretty speeches would imply, that this plane is a place controlled by the Dark Side; this is partly what I mean by Soule playing things straight.)

There’s a way in which I got what I wanted - Vader doesn’t - can’t, of course - consider changing the actual past, but he does interact with his own past in a very revealing manner. That is, he doesn’t hesitate to kill the Jedi again (no Younglings, however!), presumably because he thinks they are keeping him from Padmé (standing atop the tower that transforms before his eyes from his newly constructed Sith tower into the Jedi temple). He also doesn’t lift a finger to prevent Palpatine from killing Obi-Wan (which is possibly the most !! moment of this entire sequence for me - does he not want to fight Obi-Wan himself, or think he isn’t strong enough? is this the lesson he thinks he has learned, is this the way he wishes things had gone ...?). In a departure from the past that speaks hugely to the mistakes he thinks he made, he then turns on Palpatine instead of choosing to kneel and serve as he had, shooting Palpatine down with lightning, killing his father figure with the very method Palpatine will eventually use to try and kill his son (and successfully uses to kill Vader). By the time Vader reaches the top of the tower, he seems to have recovered a positive sense of self again. Everything has gone right, just as he imagined it, it would seem, and it is as Anakin Skywalker that he speaks to Padmé with words later echoed by Luke - “come with me”. But does he want to save them both, or just himself? Padmé, for her part, seems to be nothing more than a reflection of his own self, than a reflection of what he chose instead of her - she quotes his own words back to him, chokes herself as he had once choked her, and then is rendered apart by (red, suggesting a dark side vision?) lightning in yet another foreshadowing of Vader’s eventual death. “Not again!” he says, in what has to be the funniest line of this comic. In other words, I don’t think for a moment that we actually saw Padmé here, not in the way that we see Luke, who shows up next in a massive blue column of light. Luke seems to spring from a source outside of the self - his appearance brings light back into the empty, desolate landscape that Vader had emptied of all light from within, and it’s an unanticipated appearance, too powerful for Vader to control, driving Vader back into his body, into the prone position he assumed the last time he was struck by lightning to foreshadow his own death in this comic (#18).

So, for all that Vader hasn’t learned all that much from his own history, he was, apparently, after salvation - through Padmé, with Padmé, if only with a Padmé who reflected his narrative in a way that all previous subjective projections had. (Possibly that desire for salvation also allows for the light to enter his mental picture, even to overwhelm him or the Dark underpinnings of the vision in the very end.) He never considers doing anything with the nodes of the past - he stays fixated on what is incarnated before him. Which is of a piece of him, and his self-centeredness in this comic from the very beginning. The message might thus be interpreted as: Anakin chose himself, chose one path, and despite regrets he would make essentially the same choice all over again, and that choice leaves him on the one hand miserable and lonely and empty and blinded and on the other also creates the crack that will eventually motivate his self-sacrifice for Luke.

It’s all very consistent ... perhaps a bit too consistent for me, as someone who flirts constantly with depression and takes particular enjoyment in subversive fiction. One of the things this comic has consistently done is treat Vader as though his physical condition were of secondary importance, placing the stress instead on his continued and persistent character features, on his meditative sessions, on his presence in the Force; this finale was very much in that vein, spirit over body. Camuncoli and his team have produced incredible visuals to bring that mental landscape to life; I’ve really enjoyed seeing how much they’ve been able to make of basic elemental symbols, of empty plains and dark oceans. And there is something to be said for this mind-over-body philosophy, as Vader himself might well think that this is what the Dark Side has finally allowed him to accomplish - though it’s rather at odds with Vader seeking out Padmé and engaging all of his attachments.

It’s hard to bring out certain paradoxes in his self-understanding without considering the body, let’s put it that way. I suppose what I’m saying is that I’ll always feel there was an opportunity missed. Vader watching Padmé throw herself to her death, then start choking herself, thereby transforming into a corpse in front of his eyes, only to become incinerated by lightning - well, I mean, it’s a fantastic image. I do like that you could read her “suicide” as a rejection of him and his choices, even as you can also read it as a sign from the Dark Side. Like ... I like it, don’t get me wrong. Compare his passive spectatorship to the kill-switch moment in the 2015 run, however, to that brain-addled, deranged, yet horrifyingly logical mental slaughterfest where he kills himself, Obi-Wan, and Padmé to regain agency over his own body, and ... I find it hard not to prefer the messiness of that to the rather clean symbolism in Soule.

Anyway, as a tie-in connecting the PT with Rebels, this comic certainly offers context for understanding where he is mentally. As a take on how Vader becomes Vader, who is never just his mind to me, but a mind trapped in a machine, it satisfied me less. 

Am I glad I read it? A thousand times yes, because of the conversations it has generated here. Boundless thanks especially to @glompcat, @gffa, @thewillowbends, @micelle, @songofthestars and @sith-shame-shack for the immeasurable pleasure of your company along this readerly journey - it’s been an education - and a joy - I shall not long forget. 😍

[elizas-writing]

How I Would Fix The Last Jedi

So it’s been a while since The Last Jedi premiered and with the initial hype and anger settling down, more people are looking at it through a proper critical lens. The more posts I see critiquing The Last Jedi, the more I’m starting to realize it’s got a lot more problems than I thought. Don’t get me wrong, I still like it and found certain elements the best of the franchise, but perhaps I focused a little too much on being positive just to drown out all the anger (which to be fair, most of it was unwarranted to begin with). And thankfully now that most of the more pissy fanboys quieted down, I can post this in peace.

This film’s biggest problem was the lack of a good editor to keep the pacing consistent and allot the right amount of character development for everyone. So I’ll be addressing some of the major concerns with The Last Jedi and analyzing where and how problems could be fixed.

1. Leia’s Fate

Given Carrie Fisher’s death, some fans were anticipating Leia would possibly be killed off during The Last Jedi. But since she’s still alive at the very end, now they’re going to have to find a way to do that off screen unless they have enough spare footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to fill the gaps. To be totally fair with how much they filmed with Carrie, this was probably the best they could do without reshooting most of the film and pushing back the release date. Plus, this is the last time we’ll get to see her--- let me have Super Leia in Space. I think the only way they could work around this would be to record lines mentioning her depleting health given how long she was in space, even with using the Force to save herself. It’d at least give some foreshadowing that maybe she won’t make it to see the Rebellion win and drive our main heroes to follow in her footsteps.

2. No Memorial for Han Solo?

Yes, more than two years passed and the shock of Han Solo’s death faded for the fans, but for the characters, only mere hours passed. Leia lost her husband, Chewie lost a best friend, Rey lost a father figure, and Luke lost a brother-in-law. They should still be torn up about this, especially Luke given all his guilt on failing his nephew. It’s really hard to believe that there wasn’t even so much as a memorial for one of the greatest heroes of the Rebellion. Imagine how much more gut-wrenching the opening would be if they were caught off guard while mourning Han.

 I want more of Rey depressed and angry that the one father figure she’s known was offed by his own son without mercy. I want more of Luke’s guilt eating him which increases his reluctance towards training cause he doesn’t know if this will happen again and who else he’ll lose. Han’s death should still have a massive impact on the story and where the Resistance will go without a legendary fighter with such a special spark you won’t find anywhere else in the galaxy.

3. Admiral Holdo’s Reckless Shit

It’s really hard to gauge if I actually like Admiral Holdo because the film is back-and-forth between pulling the rug from under us with the character drama and forgetting the high stakes of their present situations. I get that Poe is hot-headed and needs to learn patience, but c’mon, you’re losing precious ships and lives the longer you stall and don’t just tell this trigger-happy nut what’s going on. She has no reason to be so secretive, and it’s just plain irresponsible given the small size of the Resistance. There’s no effort on her end as a leader to work together with some people, and unfairly talks down to them like children. And I know Leia does this too with Poe when she demoted him, but they have a quasi-mother/son dynamic where it works because they were working together longer than Poe has with Holdo. They might as well be strangers for almost two hours.

I definitely don’t hate Holdo as much as the rest of the fandom does, but we need more of her side with nuance on the divide and finding balance between fighting and self-preservation, especially as she leads in place of Leia and the two were close friends for decades. But you don’t get that connection and how much the Resistance means to her mere minutes before she dies. She comes off way too heartless than necessary for this side-plot. And it sucks because it’s a fascinating struggle between action and self-preservation in regards to rebellion and knowing when to do what to make actual progress, but it’s buried too deep in the subtext underneath the needless bickering between Holdo and Poe. Just show what she’s up to from the get-go, validate her reasoning, and allow her to be a likable character so her major sacrifice actually feels earned and not a last minute sympathy grab for Poe to learn a lesson.

4. What was Benicio del Toro’s Character Again?

Oh yeah, DJ.... I legit had to Google to remember the character’s two-letter name. And if that’s not enough to say he has no purpose in this movie, I don’t know what is. I get that he’s supposed to parallel Lando Calrissian when he tricks Han Solo back in Empire Strikes Back. But while Lando still had screentime afterwards to double-cross the Empire and join the Rebellion anyway, DJ just freaking disappears, and it’s never addressed what happens to him after turning in Finn and Rose. Honestly, if you wrote him out of the movie, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. And it sucks, because this side plot had great themes going on with war profiteering and the apathy towards both the Resistance and the First Order so long as one has something to gain from their deals.

If you’re going to parallel Lando’s arc from Empire, don’t cut it short when it’s getting good and have DJ consider the consequences of his actions, regardless if he joins the Resistance or not. Set up some foreshadowing for the next movie where DJ is completely working for the First Order or the Resistance and realizes how much picking a side does matter with rising authoritarianism. It has great potential for whether or not he’s redeemed with how long his apathy will take hold so long as he makes a quick buck.

Or better yet, just entirely replace DJ with an older Lando who lost his sense of hope with the rise of the First Order and hides away on Canto Bight waiting for age to catch up to him, living in blissful ignorance while the rest of the galaxy crumbles. He’s the decoder Finn and Rose were looking for all along and this was Maz’s way to coerce Lando back into the Rebellion. Much like Luke, Lando is reluctant to fight and see any hope, but upon hearing of Han’s death and Leia’s condition, regret eats him for all the years he spent away from his closest friends and just wasting his life on gambling and drinking. He finally agrees to help Finn and Rose, but they only get so far before getting caught by the First Order, just barely escaping with their lives and reuniting with the rest of the Resistance for the film’s climax.

5. Finn Overcoming Stormtrooper Past

I think this deleted scene speaks for itself on all the missed opportunity in developing Finn. That’s not to say he’s totally devoid of screentime as it’s still fun to see him with Rose exploring Canto Bight and getting caught up in their own misadventures. But many were hoping this would be the perfect time to explore his traumatic past and how Stormtroopers work in this world. Maybe he’d try to go back, save them from the brainwashing and help them realize they’re just senselessly murdering innocent people for nothing.

Holdo even has a line where she refers to Finn as a Stormtrooper almost in disgust, so you’d think there would be more time to show his change over to the Resistance and proving himself not just as a powerful ally, but someone who is more than their past. Someone who can finally break the cycle of children being taken away from their families to become disposable soldiers. But his battle with Phasma comes and goes so quickly and doesn’t leave as big of an impact as it should, and much like Force Awakens it feels like they’re playing great cards far too early. This deleted scene works so much better when you see the gears turning in the Stormtroopers when they realize their leader is just a massive coward, and it ends perfectly with Finn proudly calling himself “rebel scum.” It’s still beyond me why this scene was scrapped. They either needed to keep this  in or have Phasma survive and make a grand final battle for Episode IX.

I want that spark of rebellion to ignite in the Stormtroopers where they realize “wait, what the hell are we even fighting for?” and dismantle the First Order from the inside out by Episode IX. It’d make a great parallel to the prequels and Order 66 but completely recontextualized in a story of rebellion and redemption. Throw in some of the Resistance saving children from growing up into soldiers, tragically epic scenes of sacrifice, and boom, there’s a climax of Episode IX practically writing itself.

6. Shut up Ben Solo-Organa

Now, I like Kylo Ren as a villain-- he’s similar to Anakin Skywalker’s whininess in the prequels except made legitimately terrifying with the fragile toxic masculinity of wanting to be stronger and powerful by any means necessary. However, I can’t do the woobifying, both from large sects of the fandom and Rian Johnson. I would be a lot more forgiving of his character development in The Last Jedi if Johnson made Kylo Ren’s intents more clear without implying any romance between him and Rey-- fucking really (and sorry, not sorry, the only thing I ship Kylo with is a swift kick in the ass).

I get that we need temptations of the dark side as part of the classic Star Wars story, and I love the twist on it where Kylo turning to the dark side was ultimately his choice and not because Luke failed him-- especially as killing Snoke didn’t flip him back to the light like when Vader killed the Emperor. But the heart of that particular recontextualization should be on the student-teacher relationship between Rey and Luke and not Kylo Ren sniveling like an infant. It walks a thin line of making Kylo Ren almost too sympathetic and forgetting how he ended up with the First Order to begin with. I don’t care how many puppy dog faces he makes; as shown by the end of the film, he’s not ready for redemption, if it will ever be in his grasp. His excess screentime of what we already know undermines Rey and Luke’s relationship which should be the focus of the former’s arc in The Last Jedi. But unfortunately, it isn’t as strong as it was with Luke and Yoda or Obi-wan and Anakin because the film has to juggle with a dozen other plotlines and characters.

Hopefully with J.J Abrams back in the directing chair, maybe he can steer the focus back on the films and what the fans really want. Granted, I don’t think The Last Jedi deserved nearly the level of vitriol it got within the last year, but even I couldn’t ignore some of the major problems and missed opportunities to get its themes across.

If you enjoyed this fix-it and what I do here, consider buying me a ko-fi to show your support!

[iabsolutelyresentthiswebsite]

The Romantic Relationship Development Rebuttal

I received this comment (below) on my post for the second installment of my “Fundamental Misunderstanding of Rian Johnson” webseries and comments are not long enough for what I need to say.

Them: “I think you mistaken that the relationships in TLJ are meant to be explicitly romantic? You basically have a bunch of broken people just trying to connect to one another as they try to figure themselves out/their places (in the often flawed ways people do), which is much more realistic in an imperfect/war torn world than romantic love is. The OT and PT directly romanticizes these unhealthy relationships in Anidala and Han/Leia, but they both fail for lack of substance. On the other hand everything in TLJ is pretty subtle, tho Kylo and Rey have and spark more substantial development in each other than either Anidala and Han/Leia in the OT/PT. Is it romantic? Who knows. Affection doesn’t always have to be. What matters is that these characters and their relationships become the catalyst for growth, romantically or otherwise. Besides this, Rose’s character is there to give a voice to the rebels (in and outside the mobilized resistance) and their motivations. Perhaps the reason it was shown this way will be clearer in IX, as XIII clarified much of XII. TLJ and what Johnson was trying to do seemed pretty clear to me but I understand we all have diff opinions. Anyway, Happy V-Day!“ 

Because of their respectfulness, I have declined to include their name, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are so wrong on almost everything. Including the episode numbers... (BTW, I electively ignored the comments until someone slid in and agreed with them. This is the only reason I am replying now.)

Never did I say in that video that the relationships were intended to be explicitly romantic. The problem is, nowhere in The Last Jedi, was it ever even implied it was supposed to be something else. I understand the whole “imperfect people trying to find imperfect ways to make sense of things”. I like that concept. I do. But even on that front, both FinnRose and most especially Reylo fail on every account.

Finn and Rose don’t play on each other well, don’t challenge each other in any logical manner, and nor do they find any kind of solace or understanding that the commenter is referring to in one another. Finn is an escaped Stormtrooper, who is extremely conflicted, scared, but brave, however doesn’t know his place outside of the fact he feels semi-indebted to both Poe and Rey for saving him in different ways. Rose’s purpose is still unclear outside of the whole forced romance arc. She is a useless character, aside from the fact the whole purposeless excursion on Canto Bight that should have been between Poe and Finn led to Finn voluntarily aligning himself with the Resistance. But I truly believe, without Canto Bight, that whole alignment arc could have and should have been done much better and more convincingly. Rose’s character did nothing to serve to give the rebels of voice, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. We know that the rebels come from everywhere and have their own reasons for joining and exploring that would have been great and even hearing the little bit of Rose’s backstory was...fine, I guess, but it does not change the fact she handicapped the entire plot- rather, lack thereof. It’s never been necessary to have a poorly-designed side character’s motivations explored in a poorly-constructed environment completely being forced by the plot in a main canon movie. That is exactly what the books are designed to do. Cover information that is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things so that it gives backstory on people we didn’t really think twice about. We saw Rose’s sister die for the Resistance and that was pretty powerful, but we didn’t even seen Rose really grieve over her sister, except lashing out at Finn, whom she was just fawning over. Like...I’m sorry, she was written so badly. She is a detriment to the plot, to the necessary relationship developments, and even to herself. 

Moreover, to boldly claim that it wasn’t intended to be explicitly romantic is objectively wrong. This is Disney we’re talking about. To them, love solves everything and for the things it doesn’t solve, it excuses. Rose kissed Finn because they wanted us to see them together romantically, but they gave Rose no personality and therefore, she and Finn have no chemistry. A kiss on the lips is a universal symbol of romantic love and as someone who was very mildly interested in a potential friendship between the two, that even I saw that kiss as romantic 100% of the way (btws, that was the only thing that lead me to that conclusion cinematically), it really says something. Also, cinematically speaking, the moment they kissed, an explosion went off, which is very clearly indicative of the romantic aspect I am so confidently asserting was intended to be in The Last Jedi between these two. They tried to make us see the “spark” by literally showing us them, but failed because of everything else wrong with their dynamic. 

Moreover, I explicitly do not see Reylo as romantic at all. They are completely 100% at opposite ends of the spectrum and cannot reconcile at this point. A Reylo endgame is completely asinine with what Rian Johnson did to them, which has always been fine by me. I don’t like/respect/enjoy a Reylo endgame as a narrative concept because it does not make logical sense based on their characters and interactions. It would have been asinine after JJ’s first installment, too. Reylo simply cannot happen, logically-speaking. As TFA began to explain, TLJ solidified that Reylo is DOA- Dead On Arrival. 

But the problem is, Rian Johnson basically said he ships Reylo, so we know that’s what he was trying to do. He said he played with the idea of them actually making out  in The Last Jedi. That is proof enough he fundamentally misunderstands romantic relationship development, but also fundamentally misunderstands these characters he’s writing! He did not and continues to not understand their real dynamic, which I really don’t get. It’s not that hard. 

Again, I concede that how someone might see the whole “imperfect people/imperfect places” thing. It makes more sense than what Rian tried to have happen. Rey and Kylo having this Force bond, which would have been fine under different circumstances, is a thing I was totally down for. Loved the concept. It made sense after what The Force Awakens established their relationship to clearly be, but now...suddenly that is thrown out the window for a shallow, Dues Ex Machina, self-fulfilling prophecy-esque plot device initiated by a person who simply is not powerful enough to make this thing happen. So is the Force-bond genuine or fabricated? No one will ever know. 

Kylo is very broken, although clearly not nearly as broken as we were lead to believe considering Rian decided to have him throw his redemption away in favor of the lies and power his now-deceased master promised him in his youth. Kylo knows what he’s doing now. And Rey, completely stripped of her personality, is unrealistically believing every single thing Kylo Ren has to say without consulting Luke Skywalker about anything. I’ve already spoken about how OOC Luke was, so we are not going there right now. Rey, based on her characterization in TFA, would not have done that, especially considering Kylo had just murdered his father in front of her and knew that his father meant something to her. He did it as much for himself as he did to hurt her intentionally. If they were supposed to be “imperfect people finding meaning in imperfect ways”, Kylo would have actually gotten something beneficial out of it, much like Rey. Instead, we have Kylo Ren’s arc assassination and Rey being completely and utterly betrayed by Kylo Ren with no good reason and now the Rebellion is pretty much up shit’s creek without Han, Luke, or Leia. Maybe Rey learned a lesson that she wasn’t supposed to trust Kylo Ren, but why did she in the first place? She literally detested him all of about 18 hours prior. Maybe Kylo Ren learned that people cared about him, but Leia literally telepathically sensed her son and sent him good vibes and Han put his life in jeopardy for his son. He knew that, too. 

Moreover and very quickly, Anidala wasn’t really all that unhealthy until Anakin became obsessed with protecting Padme. It was weird to us because Padme was 14 when Anakin was 9 and they got married when he was like 19 and she was 24. But like, it was what it was until Palpatine really started trying to turn Anakin’s heart by playing on his fears of losing Padme. And at really no point in time was Han and Leia’s relationship unhealthy. They fought a lot because they were denying the sexual tension that did exist between them and their personalities were both fairly dominant, so testing the waters was necessary. Couples fight all the time and their bickering really lead to them being able to see each other for who they truly are. Neither relationship was what you assert it was. 

I will say, again and a-fucking-gain, nothing in this movie should have logically happened and what happened actually is illogical from the very concept to the way it was executed. Rian Johnson wanted us to see failure, but unfortunately for this franchise, the failure we saw was this God-awful movie. 

But like you said, we all have differing opinions. Happy Valentine’s Day.

[leiasbluelightsaber]

Full TLJ synopsis, prepare your drinks accordingly

well this took forever and it’s completely possible i got something wrong, but here you go

@captaincassian-andor

OK, there is a lot of switching from one location to another, so I decided to follow the separate storylines the best I could:

Poe, Leia and the Resistance

The first sentence of the opening crawl is smt like “The first order reigns” They apparently destroyed the republic and rule the galaxy (i am not kidding, even though I remember they destroyed like... 5 planets and the senate). They are hunting a small fleet under Leia’s command as they are evacuating... some planet. I don’t think it was D’qar, but I could be wrong. (this is apparently the entirety of the resistance. Throughout the film, they keep mentioning “friends in the Outer Rim”, but this fleet is effectively what Snoke and Kylo want to destroy).

The first scene is Poe attacking (apparently alone in an x-wing) a star destroyer. He has this bizzare comm call with Hux where he pretends like he can’t hear him and Hux reacts like this is some sort of sitcom. This threw me off immediately. Unfortunatelly, this kind of forced humour is used throughout the whole film to a ridiculous degree.

Anyway, Poe destroys... something on the destroyer - weapons? (wow, this is hard) so that the rest of his attack force can come in. These are the bombers, with Tallia as one of the pilots and Paige as a gunner. They attack at Poe’s command, ships start blowing up, Leia orders them to retreat, since now they can all enter hyperspace, but Poe says they have a chance to destroy a star destroyer, so he presses the attack. They ultimately do destroy it, but at a heavy price, with Paige Tico sacrificing herself to activate the last bombs.

Then Finn wakes up, I think, and it’s all played for laughs. :( He bangs his head on the canopy, falls on the floor and there is a liquid (bacta?) pouring from various holes on his med suit. Poe is just getting off the x-wing when BB-8 sees Finn walking around and beeps smt, which poe translates as “Finn, naked, water leak” (or whatever). Poe runs to Finn and basically the ”where is Rey” scene from the trailers happens.

Once in hyperspace, Poe goes to Leia, she slaps him and demotes him. She says smt like “we have heroes but no leaders”.

Then they are under attack, even though they thought they couldn’t be tracked. Apparently the FO is tracking them through hyperspace. “That’s impossible” says someone. “But they’ve done it” says Leia. :/

Poe goes to “blow smt up” but his ship blows up instead by Kylo. The fleet is trapped, they can’t enter hyperspace without being tracked. Kylo and his fighters attack, he senses Leia, she senses him, he doesn’s shoot but one of his pilots does and the bridge blows up, killing everyone (Ackbar included), except for Leia, who floats through space (yeah), then USES THE FORCE for the 1st time in the films to pull herself forward to an air lock on a resistance ship. She collapses and falls into a coma.

I’ll get to what Finn and Rose get up to later, so bear with me here.

Anyway, Admiral Holdo is given command of the fleet, Poe demands to know what her plan is, she calls him flyboy and tells him to do what she says? i don’t remember this bit well. Basically, in Poe’s eyes she’s doing nothing useful, so he acts on his own.

He sends Finn and Rose to find a code breaker (only after a comm call to Maz who’s ... dealing with the unions by... shooting people? it was weird).

While Finn and Rose are on a mission, Poe pretty much attempts a mutiny, pointing a gun and Amilyn with a group of rebels (Billie Lourd’s character included), taking over the ship briefly. Before he can really do anything, Leia wakes up (sorry this is a bit further into the film), blows a door up (I choose to believe that it is with the Force) and stuns Poe with a blaster.

Finn and Rose

They meet when Finn is trying to steal an escape pod to go and find Rey (he stole a homing beacon that helps Rey find the Resistance). Rose is crying nearby, sees him and begins fangirling about how he’s a hero. Finn is trying to distract her (this is very similar to the scene when he and Rey first met). Finally she says she already tazed like 3 deserters and finally, she tazes him.

When he wakes up, he can’t move much and she’s moving him to a brig. They start to talk about the hyperspace problem and finish each other’s sentences. He says something about how he knows what to do because of his job as a cleaner there :/

They tell all this to Poe, then they talk to Maz, who sends them to the code breaker on Canto Bight (Amilyn doesn’t know about the mission). They take BB-8 with them.

Canto Bight is basically Rose’s story. Finn says he likes the cassino or smt and she says that he should look closer, at the fathier races and the children tending them (it’s implied they are slaves or child workers). Then there is this weird conversation about how the rich sell guns to the FO and Rose’s backstory on a mining planet, where the FO opressed her people.

To make this short - they are looking for the code braker, when they think they see him they are arrested, end up in a cell with DJ, who helps them escape, along with BB-8 who does absolutely ridiculous stuff in this film. (Like driving one of the two-legged walkers.) The escape is when they ride the fathier, who can apparently understand what they say. Why? Because.

I can’t remember how it happens, but basically the FO finds the fleet, Rose, Finn and DJ arrive, infiltrate a ship as FO officers, switch smt off (??? i have no idea) and then DJ betrays them, saying he made a deal. They are about to be executed, but Amilyn crashes the last cruiser into the ship, sacrificing herself, This ties to hers and Poe’s story, where he finally realizes she was just trying to save everyone, not be a hero.

Finn fights Phasma briefly, and apparently kills her (??) It’s not much of a fight tbh but he looks badass.

They make it back to the Resistance on Crait.

Stay tuned.

Luke, Kylo and a character named Rey

OK, brace yourselves. This is the storyline where all your star wars hopes go to die.

Remember that hopeful and haunting scene at the end of TFA? Yeah, you can forget about it. Rey gives Luke the lightsaber, he throws it over his shoulder (again, not kidding), leaves and Rey scrambles after him, calling him master Skywalker. She knocks on his door, he doesn’t answer. She finds the lightsaber, then the door to Luke’s hut is thrown off by Chewie. This is Luke’s and Chewie’s only interaction, where he asks about Han and then falls silent. End scene. They don’t even hug.

Rey basically follows Luke around on the island, watching him milk weird things, hunt giant fish and such. He says he’ll never train another generation of Jedi and that he’ll die the last. He refuses to explain why. He also refuses to teach her. When she says she’s from nowhere, he says nobody is from nowhere, then she says jakku and he immediately switches to yeah, ok that’s nowhere. This was so out of character and only an example of the stupid “humour” throughout this stupid film.

There is a scene where Chewie is roasting a Porg, while live Porgs are staring at him with big eyes. It was ridiculous. In the middle of this, Luke sneaks on board the Falcon. He goes to the cockpit sees Han’s cubes and then goes sit in the main hold. Artoo is there they have a brief exchange, then Artoo shows him  Leia’s hologram from ANH. This is actually pretty touching. However, this is the first and last time we see Artoo in this film. (I have no idea why Johnson asked Abrams to switch the droids).

Anyway, this convinces Luke to give Rey 3 lessons in Jedi teachings and “why it has to end”. Before the first one, Rey experiences the 1st force comm call with Kylo, where he’s asking stupid questions and she tries to shoot him. She shoots through the wall of her hut and the caretakers are not happy with her. She doesn’t tell Luke. Luke takes her to a rock and “explains” what the force is in a scene that’s incredibly ooc for both Luke and Rey. Rey “feels” the island and the dark side sinkhole underneath, but she can’t feel Luke. He’s closed himself off of the Force. Then she reaches for something? the dark side i think? and Luke does something to her...idk. Basically he has that speech about raw power and leaves.

The second lesson is about the history of the jedi, because nobody has seen the prequels apparently. He says how the Jedi brought the downfall of the republic and how it was obi-wan’s fault Anakin turned. Rey retorts that Luke brought him back, as well as hope to the galaxy (how she knows this, i have no idea) and that the galaxy needs Luke Skywalker. He tells her how he saw the darkness in Kylo too late and that he was the one who was responsible. (btw, we never learn why Kylo turned to the dark side in this film)

Kylo and Rey have several force chats, for reasons. They are not happy about it, but also don’t question that stupid link. At some point, Kylo shows her that Luke tried to kill him, that’s why the temple was destroyed. It’s a flashback and it’s pretty obvious it’s not true, becuase Mark’s face is just crazy. Rey calls Kylo a liar but clearly has doubts (why she’s even speaking to him, I have no idea).

At some point she also asks him why he killed his father. she’s crying and unable to say the word kill and idk everything about her mannerism is just wrong. This is not the Rey who kicked his ass just DAYS ago.

Things get a bit weird after that. Rey goes to the sinkhole, has a crazy vision that belongs to a completely different film, learns nothing about her origins and then goes to her hut to complain to Kylo through their link.

Meanwhile, Luke opens himself to the Force again, connects with Leia in coma who says his name and then goes to find Rey. He finds her holding hands with Kylo and has the competely appropriate reaction of blowing up the hut and severing the link. Rey attacks him and asks him if it’s true what Kylo said, Luke says that he sensed the dark was already too strong in Kylo and had a moment of weakness where he reached for his saber (bitch please) and then Kylo woke up nad blew up the temple. After Luke got out, most of his pupils were dead and some left with Kylo. (oh btw, there are no Knights of Ren in this film either. Not even mentioned.)

Rey tells Luke that there is still good in Kylo (no joke) and that Ben (yeah) can still come back and that this is the way to save the Resistance. Luke basically tells her she doesn’t know what she’s doing. She offers him the saber again, he turns away and then she says (i kid you not) that then Ben is their only hope. (I’m pretty sure my soul left my body at this point).

So she leaves with Chewie and te Falcon, off to wherever Kylo and Snoke are. How does she know where to go? Force? We just don’t know.

On the island, Luke tries to torch the Force tree and the Jedi books, but can’t do it. No worries, Yoda does it for him, summoning a lightning bolt from the sky. He then proceeds to giggle, hit Luke with his stick and LECTURE LUKE FUCKING SKYWALKER ON THE DOGMAS OF THE JEDI AND HOW FAILURE IS ALSO A LESSON AND OMG WHERE IS ROSE TO TAZE ME WHEN I NEED HER. This scene is horrible, like something from the Holiday Special.

Don’t worry, it gets worse. We get to the most bizzare part of this insanity, where Rey launches herself in a pod and with  just a lightsaber in hand onto a FO ship. Kylo is waiting for her, along with an officer with handcuffs. Remeber how Kylo NEEDED that Skywalker lightsaber last film? He doesn’t even mention it.

They have an elevator scene paralleling Luke and Vader in ROTJ, but with zero emotional stakes. They tell each other the other one will turn to their side and awkwardly stare at each other. It’s a nightmare.

Then they come before Snoke and things start to make even less sense. Snoke basically has an entire speech how she’s a nobody and how he expected Skywalker to be the light side to Kylo’s dark (yeah, buddy, you’re not the only one). Kylo just stands there and listens. Snoke basically plays with Rey through the force, dragging her from place to place and torturing her? idk i think he wanted to know where Luke is. Rey tries to summon her saber, but snoke summons it back to him. She takes Kylo’s but again, is rendered powerless. Snoke tells her she’s got spunk. :/ Then he orders Kylo to kill her and he takes his saber and aims it at her but moves the Skywalker saber towards snoke with the Force and slices through him. The red guards attack and Rey and Kylo fight them off together. This is the only lightsaber fight Rey has in this film. Then Rey says they need to help the resistance. Kylo wants her to join him. He reaches out with his hand. Rey reaches for the Skywalker lightsaber. They play tug-o-war with it until they tear it apart.

Later there is a scene where Hux walks in, Kylo lies unconscious and Snoke’s body is still there. Kylo wakes up, tells Hux Rey killed Snoke and takes command of the FO. We never learn how Rey escaped. She only appears again on Crait in the Falcon.

Crait

So, the anticlimatic conclusion. In case this is unclear, Crait is where the remaining resistance ships were headed after Amilyn’s sacrifice. This is also where the FO flee has stalked them to. There is an old rebel base there and all the current rebels arrive - Leia, Poe, Finn and Rose, and the rest.

However, FO deploys troops to the base, wanting to eliminate it, with Hux and Kylo leading the charge. The Rebels have nowhere to run, Finn has a cool speech about how they have to fight and they get into the ships from the trailers. Poe, Finn and Rose are among the pilots. The Falcon appears and Rey is the gunner. At one point Finn sort of charges a walker, i guess it’s a suicide run, and Poe orders him to stop, because he learned his lesson. Finn doesn’t stop, so Rose crashes into him, he runs to her, they kiss and she faints. He takes her back to the base.

Luke and Leia

At this point, the resistance is losing hope and suddenly, Leia senses something. Luke walks through the door to her and they sit and talk for a while, Luke trying to apologize and saying he’s going to face Kylo (again a parallel to ROTJ), her saying her son is gone. Luke says no one is ever gone and hands her Han’s cubes from the Falcon, kisses her on the forehead and leaves. Their theme plays. It’s a completely unsatisfying reunion and they both act weird.

Crait-cont.

So Luke confronts Kylo out in the open. They exchange words, but nothing really important is being said. Luke has Anakin’s lightsaber. (Wait wasn’t it destroyed? Well, you see, Luke is not really there, he’s a projection. satisfying, right?) Anyway, they exchange like 5 blows until Kylo figures out Luke is not corporeal, Luke says smt like he’s not the last jedi and “see you later kiddo??!” Meanwhile, Rey helps the rebels escape the base by lifting rocks (don’t ask). She also reunites with Finn, but they don’t say anthing to each other.

Luke disappears and we see him again on the island. He’s tired and watching a binary sunset? There we 2 suns I think. Then he dies, his body disappearing. Leia and Rey sense it, but don’t really react. They board the Falcon, Rey says “Luke is dead”. Leia says “I know”. No one cries. Rey looks mildly upset. She asks how are they going to build the resistance. Leia grabs a half of Anakin’s lightsaber and says they have everything they need.

The end scene is one of the kids wo tended the fathiers playing with a figure of Luke, staring at stars and showing off his resistance symbol ring...

The end :/

[gch1995]

I know you’re saying it in a completely salty and rightfully so manner, but I’d love to go over the “few forgivable mistakes” that Obi-Wan, Yoda, and many of the Jedi made throughout all six movies and TCW “for the greater good” for a good laugh.

OT Movies:

• Deliberately deceive, endanger, and manipulate an innocent Luke Skywalker to try to get him to kill off his father Anakin Skywalker who became their enemy Darth Vader, their former student, who went dark, at least in part, because they claim to have driven him away in the first place with their methods and neglect.

• Yoda steals Luke’s lunch to fuck with him and hits R2-D2 with a stick when he tries to get it back for his master.

• Tell Luke to leave his friends behind to potentially die alone when he has a vision of them being in danger, which they very well know could be true. When he refuses, Obi-Wan and Yoda decide to “teach him a lesson” by shunning Luke, and leave him to wander off into danger by himself with Vader, even though they know he hasn’t been training that long, and at the very least Obi-Wan could follow him to act as a guide and watch over him since he’s a force ghost.

• Apparently knew about the Empire for some time now, and never do anything to actually help out those in the galaxy who need it by instead living in hiding. Sure, they’re older and out of practice, but what about when they were younger? They had 18-20 years to do something, but only now they decided to when they could use Luke?

• Yoda points out that Luke is “too old” to train at 18-19, which has some very unfortunate implications. Like, Luke is too old to be a soldier at an age where it is realistically the legal age to recruit them.

• Yoda keeps berating Luke for being too angry and impatient “like his father” for not getting on with their program, which implies that they learned nothing over the past twenty years.

• Obi-Wan uses “mind tricks” to get his way from some clones.

• Don’t tell Luke and Leia that they are brother and sister until the third movie when they’ve developed a bit of a crush on each other. Sure, it’s George Lucas’s fault for not thinking of making them related sooner, but he didn’t even bother to give Obi-Wan and Yoda a good reason for why they didn’t tell them the truth before either. At least, with Anakin/Vader, it makes some sense why they wouldn’t tell the truth, but with Luke and Leia being related to each other, it makes no sense why they didn’t think to tell the truth sooner. My best guess is that they thought Luke’s attachment to her and vice versa would be “dangerous.”

• Die as “heroes” with the force ghost treatment, in spite of never admitting that they are wrong or expressing remorse for what they did to Luke for their own ends. One of the main villains, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, dies with more genuine growth, remorse for what he did wrong, and more self-awareness of his flaws in the last half hour of Return of the Jedi than Obi-Wan and Yoda experience throughout all three OT movies.

PT Movies:

• Are legally allowed to conscript force sensitive preschoolers from their families and isolate them from the rest of the world forever for their military cult that is enabled and funded by an elitist and corrupt galactic superpower Republic government which enables abuse, slavery, and oppression on the outer rims and within the Jedi Order “for the greater good” in exchange for the Jedi Order’s protection.

• Conscript a nine year old child from slavery for their military cult with very dishonest and unethical methods, but leave his mom behind in slavery because “attachments are dangerous” and “they’re not here to free slaves,” unless one of them could benefit their own ends of “the greater good,” of course.

• Shame a nine year old Anakin for having a completely natural reaction of missing his mom they left in slavery.

• Enable the Republic government’s corruption in return for the Republic to enable theirs.

• Tell Anakin to stop worrying about his mother they left in slavery and refused to let him keep in touch with for ten years.

• Obi-Wan is even more of an arrogant, hypocritical, and manipulative bastard than he was in the OT movies. He also has a penchant for fighting his opponents very dirty by baiting them into duels, even when they hesitate, surrender, or he uses bystanders as collateral damage to do it. Unlike Anakin or Luke, though, he’s never called out on it, never has to learn any of the same lessons about it being wrong to fight his opponents that way on screen.

• Obi-Wan cuts off Anakin’s limbs when he’s doing a jump, and leaves him to burn alive.

• Execute all of their enemies ASAP without any question or benefit of the doubt, even when their enemies, are at least in part, borne from their systematic abuse, corruption, crime, isolation, neglect, and oppression.

• Committed a genocide of the Sith planets a millennium ago when they first attacked in response. Sure, they had a right to defend themselves when the Sith army attacked them first in the moment, but eliminating their entire culture and race “for the greater good” is fucked up, particularly for a group of people who claim to be “peace keepers.” Also, plotting to do it again after finding out more survived is still their only answer.

• Take on an army of genetically engineered soldiers that one of their former members created as a slave army from Palpatine.

• Invade Genosis for Palpatine without doing a proper investigation first.

• At the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin tries to ask Obi-Wan if he can go and help out the clones, while he goes to rescue the Chancellor from Grievous. Obi-Wan refuses, telling him he needs Anakin “for the greater good,” Anakin reluctantly listens, and in the background you see an entire army of clones being blown to smithereens by Grievous’s army as a result.

• Let Anakin speak alone to Palpatine from the time he is child under their care, in spite of suspecting that Palpatine is shady, “for the greater good,” and then blame Anakin for liking him and growing too attached to him to want to commit treason against him for them to arrest him when that attachment no longer convenient for their own ends.

• Only let Anakin on the Council so they can use him as a mole to weed out Palpatine and as a scapegoat to take the fall for them with the Senate when they arrest and apprehend the Chancellor without the rest of the Republic Senate’s consent and knowledge on record beforehand “for the greater good” if it turns out they’re wrong, or the Senate has issues with them.

• The Council only decide to stop enabling Palpatine and gets ready to take action against him 14 years after he first got elected when they realize their power and reputation is truly at stake, in spite of having had suspicions for all this time.

• Separate Luke and Leia from their remaining biological families without their consent “for the greater good.”

TCW

• Are literally willing to blow up entire planets of enemies “for the greater good” in their excessive paranoia of being turned on without any question or much hesitation.

• Abandon recruits and clones in battles and dangerous missions “for the greater good” if it’s easier than taking the risk to rescue them.

• Use flame throwers against enemy armies

• Obi-Wan emotionally/psychologically traumatizes Anakin, Ahsoka, and his men by faking his death and disguising himself as Rakko Hardeen for a mission. When he gets called out on his shit, he defends himself by saying “I did what I had to do,” rather than apologizing and admitting he was wrong.

• Willing to execute and eventually decide to exile a 16 year old member of their Order when they are convinced she committed a crime they have no real evidence she committed. Only Anakin cares about helping her and getting justice.

• Use false surrenders with enemies on occasion.

• Obi-Wan uses Rex as proxy to get revenge against a Zygerrian lord who enslaved him for a day to avoid getting his hands dirty, in spite of claiming to be “so above it all” in terms of vengeance, and gets away with it.

• Yoda gives Anakin Ahsoka as a padawan, even when tries to say he doesn’t feel ready, to force him to learn how to “let go,” and throws her in the front lines of their army to do it on the first “test.”

• Yoda forces Anakin to be general of the army in the clone wars, even when he tries to say he doesn’t feel ready at first.

• Yoda sends Anakin on a mission with Ahsoka to bring back the slave master Jabba to the hutts on Tatooine where he knows Anakin was a slave for the first nine years of his life. When Anakin tries to say that’s bullshit and stand up for what’s right, Yoda makes him feel like he’s “selfish” and “wrong.” Obi-Wan is no help.

• Have no problems with creating collateral damage for the “greater good,” and even are encouraged to abandon and endanger their own recruits and men on missions if it’s easier than taking a risk to save them, no matter how young they were.

• Repeatedly gaslight Anakin, Ahsoka, and their other recruits and padawan for having legitimate fears and concerns as being “selfish,” “dangerous,” and “wrong.”

If you guys want to comment you can!

@abla-soso

@mynameisanakin

@tragicfantasy-girl

@rainofaugustsith

@caracynthia

@caripr94

I remember reading something that clicked with me and the more I think about it the more I feel it explained why I'm so deeply frustrated with how the Jedi are written in canon and how the fandom responds to them:

In any other story - either old or new, Western or Eastern - the Jedi order would be the unambiguously evil force, or the well-meaning antagonists, or the deeply misguided good guys that the real heroes of the story need to fight and overcome.

And that's 100% correct.

The biggest flaw in the SW narrative is how it dares to ask the audience something no other story is dumb enough to ask: to view the deeply problematic religious/military organization as the heroes of the story (who only made a few forgivable mistakes). Not the flawed good guys/protagonists, but the actual heroes. The people who we should aspire to be.

Jedi apologists love to accuse the recent overwhelming wave of Jedi critical stories and meta as being the result of the cynical new trend in fandom and popular culture that loves accusing the good guys of any story of being "secretly bad". But I'll argue it's actually the audience finally letting go (heh) of their nostalgic love affair with SW and rejecting the ridiculous demand of the SW narrative.

There is a reason why the sequels needed to have Luke spiting on the old Jedi order and explicitly stipping them of their "heroes" title.

It was about time it happens.

[nitrateglow]

Thoughts on The Last Jedi (spoilers under the “keep reading” line)

I originally wanted to just make a small list of things I liked and did not like about this movie, but I’ve come to realize my feelings are a bit more complicated than I expected. I don’t hate it, nor do I think it is the worst film in the series; however, I am baffled by the arguments that it’s somehow a clever deconstruction of the Hollywood blockbuster formula or finding new ground for SW. If anything, I found it an aimless, poorly paced retread of familiar tropes and ideas with only a few interesting elements to save it from being mediocre.

I’ll start with what I considered all-around good: the acting is excellent across the board. Every actor is game, doing their best and even elevating the material at times. It was a bittersweet experience to see the late Carrie Fisher here and even with her limited screen-time, she brings a great deal of dignity and spunk to the princess/general we know and love. Mark Hamill gives one of his best performances as Luke, communicating worlds of pain and regret with his eyes alone. While he isn’t one of the greatest actors of all time outside of the voice-acting world, he is incredibly effective here. Thankfully, Oscar Isaac gets more to do this time around. And everyone else is on the whole fine, even great at times. I was also impressed with the visuals and editing, which are often breathtaking, especially on the big screen. The casino planet was pretty rad too; I can so see the rich and powerful hanging out in such a place. And—everything else is extremely mixed for me.

This movie reminds me of Attack of the Clones in that it is all over the place tonally. I am all for genre hybrids or movies that can touch on several emotional shades at once, but it is a hard thing to do and this movie isn’t up to that. One minute it’s dead serious and in the grand epic mode, then the next we’re dealing with broad comedy more appropriate for a Marvel film. That juxtaposition felt awkward in the prequels and it feels awkward here.

For all the critics’ talk of this movie breaking new ground, I remained frustrated by the same old rehash of lines and themes from the OT. There’s still the good versus evil, the empire chasing rebels Everything is also rushed beyond belief, which seems like a weird conclusion to draw about a 2 ½ hour movie. Rose is barely developed, despite her potential to be a great character (her romantic feelings for Finn are woefully half-baked; I would say the only thing that even makes you believe she was into him was her slight bout of hero worship in her initial scene with him). Finn doesn’t evolve beyond what he was in TFA. Rey doesn’t change, despite the challenges posed to her ideas about the Force by both Luke and Kylo. Her training with Luke, if you can even call it that, is basically nothing, even less than the crash course Luke got from Yoda in Empire. We’re led to believe Luke has some great development, but that’s yet another thing that has little payoff.

Overall, I am torn on Luke Skywalker’s characterization. On one hand, I believe he would become disillusioned with the Jedi after he lost his nephew to the Dark Side—however, do I believe he would stay on that island after hearing one of his oldest friends was MURDERED by the former student he feels he failed? I’m sorry, I don’t. I know people change as they get older and I know enough cranky old people to see how life can beat you down and make you emotionally exhausted. But the thing about Luke is that he’s stubborn and contrarian; when Yoda and Obi-wan told him to give up on Vader (a Sith who committed WAY worse sins on a much grander scale than Kylo-Ren ever did), he went with his hunch that his father could be redeemed, even though he had only his gut instinct as evidence to go on. I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t try to right the wrong he did to his nephew. Him retreating from the conflict feels as false as the strong-minded and very active Padme losing the will to live at the end of Revenge of the Sith. His death sits even less well with me, since I feel the character had more to do and should have been more active in trying to aid the Resistance and train Rey.

Kylo-Ren is more interesting this time around, more conflicted and morally ambiguous. His temptation to turn to the Light mixed with his savagery is great. His interactions with Rey, which are simultaneously uneasy and charged with sexual tension, are fascinating. And yet, like so much else in this movie, it all goes nowhere. I still have no clue why Kylo is drawn to the Dark Side. With Anakin, it was an outgrowth of growing up as a powerless slave and losing those he loved to war and violence, which makes it clear why the idea of a fascist dictatorship would appeal to him. For Palpatine, it was because he was a greedy psychopath. But Kylo? I have no idea what he feels he’s getting on an emotional level from the Dark Side. What do Snoke and the Dark Side promise him that makes turning evil so tempting? He didn’t hate his parents, however lacking he felt they were. Luke was hard on him, though we learn that’s because the kid was already turning to the Dark Side. So where does it all originate? I have no clue and I think, yeah, it’s not unreasonable for me to understand what motivates one of the major villains of this new trilogy. Because otherwise, it is hard for me to be fully invested in him as a character.

In fact, the whole First Order are just disappointing villains, a second-rate empire. I have no idea how they were able to come to power, not only because it’s never brought up in either this film or TFA, but because these guys are about as competent as the Three Stooges. Hux is a punchline subjected to “yo mamma” jokes and proving himself utterly useless time and again. Phasma is pretty much like Boba Fett: she looks cool and fights well, only to get killed off without ceremony. Snoke is a dumber Voldemort, built up as this clever, evil genius only to be proven even worse at underestimating his employees and enemies than Palpatine! I was never a fan of the character to begin with, finding him bland, but here, he just shows up, cackles evilly, then dies in a rather comical manner. How did he come to power? It has to be more than just his powers; even Palpatine was a politician and he preyed on the Clone Wars’ devastation to convince people to make him Emperor. But Snoke? Nothing.

The pacing was also a huge issue for me. Now, I normally dig slow pacing—but this was excruciating, probably because I felt like the story was going nowhere much of the time. Finn and Rose are wasted, given nothing but a McGuffin side-quest. Every time we cut to them, I just lost so much interest. As for the political “subtext” (if you can call an explicitly socio-political monologue subtext) in the Finn and Rose sub-story, I’ll just say I agree with critic Tim Brayton on the matter:

And this plotline feeds right into the absolutely unforgivably terrible subplot, which is the adventures of Finn (John Boyega) the cowardly ex-storm trooper, and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran), the class-conscious engineer, who go on a fetch quest that is every bit as pointless as the whole matter of the military nonsense, only even worse, because it hinges on terrible comedy, bad CGI, and a spectacularly horrible moment when Johnson stops the film in its tracks to provide a ruthlessly on-the-nose lesson about economic inequality and the military-industrial complex, and I hate this all the more for the film's message in this moment being one I passionately agree with - if something has to be artless and awful, better that it not take down a cause I hold dear as part of the collateral damage. And it really is awful; the worst thing in the movie, despite the best intentions of various film critics to defend it (I am sorry, but "has politics I like" is not all it takes to make a movie good. If all you want is for a film to spit your ideology back at you, and it doesn't matter if this is done with any grace or artistry at all, congratulations: you are a Stalinist. I like politics in movies - I love politics in movies - but not every political filmmaker is Sergei Eisenstein, and they should damn well not be treated like they are).

I have no problem with this political/social angle being there; hell, I love the idea of the Rose character and the theme of inspiring the downtrodden (the idea of legends and the power of storytelling really appealed to me, and I loved that last scene with the kids re-enacting the OT story in the stables), but like so much else they feel underwritten and clumsily implemented. It doesn’t help that this side plot feels oddly disconnected from everything else and is far less interesting than Poe or Rey’s stories. And once again, I feel like it accomplished nothing whatsoever, much like the majority of this story.

Now, people might argue the main theme of this movie is about failure and how we must learn from it, thus making this side-plot appropriate. The thing is, I don’t think anyone besides Poe learned much of anything from their mistakes or failures, let alone Finn and Rose. According to writer/director Rian Johnson, one of the big inspirations for this film was the 1964 classic Three Outlaw Samurai, a movie in which the titular heroes become disillusioned with the samurai code and the corruption of the culture in which they live. Concepts such as honor and loyalty become muddied. TLJ is clearly trying to weave a similar theme, with Kylo, Luke, and Ghost!Yoda calling for a new age in which the Jedi and Sith are no more. The problem? Kylo still embraces much of the Sith ideology as much as he claims he’s let go of it (okay, yeah, Abrams claimed he wasn’t a Sith, but that seems more like an in-name only affair given the dynamic between Kylo and Snoke), and Luke, for all his “the Jedi gotta go” lip service, ends his life by triumphantly claiming, “I will not be the last Jedi,” implying he’s passing the torch to Rey. So much for questioning the past.

At the end of the day, the movie left me frustrated and hollow. I’m not very excited to see where they take the story next, because it’s clear they’re going with same-old, same-old, only with vague motivations and no sense of direction. I don’t get what the big point of this new trilogy is. The OT is at its heart about Luke coming of age as a Jedi Knight and redeeming his father. The PT is a tragedy about the fall of both a man and a democracy. The sequels though? I have no clue. I don’t think they go far enough in their attempts to challenge our ideas about the Force or the Jedi, or good and evil. It’s the same old rebels versus tyrants fight, only this time around the villains are more inept than usual and the good guys, for all their failures, don’t appear to learn much of anything.

[hexxalite-hecate]

I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT TLJ AND I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT THEM OK THANKS

Spoiler: the more I think about TLJ, the more I like it. This is a closer look at the big criticisms I’ve seen about the film. The most popular ones seem to be:

1. Reylo sucks and Rey’s storyline with Kylo romanticises abuse

2. Rey not being a Skywalker or a Kenobi is bullshit and meaningless

3. You ruined Luke!

4.The movie is too long and convoluted, what even is going on in the space casino 

WELL OK THEN HERE WE GO

Argument 1: Rey and Kylo's interactions romanticise abuse.

Some people love the idea of a Kylo/Rey romance; others feel his treatment of her bears unmistakable hallmarks of gaslighting and abuse, and the idea of a strong woman like Rey falling into a clichéd bad-boy romance arc would ruin her character and send a really terrible message about relationships that the media is already guilty of widely perpetrating. And to much of an extent, I agree with that, especially the second part of the argument. But I’m not weighing in on shipping wars; that’s not what this is about. I want to talk purely about canon interaction, and I don’t think any romanticising of abuse is borne out by how Rey actually responds to Kylo onscreen. A lot of people point to the scene where he reveals her parentage and asks her to join him, in particular that his statement about her being “nothing” is manipulative and insidious.

While I definitely don’t think Kylo is above being manipulative, let’s try and analyse a little more of what’s going on in that scene. I admit it’s kind of funny to think of Kylo negging like a redpiller, but I think there’s more going on when he says “you’re nothing; but not to me” than a pickup line. I believe Kylo’s projecting like a 60w bulb here. It just so happens that he hit the nail on the head when he touched on Rey’s fears of loneliness and abandonment, but I think he’s also talking about his own feelings. In fact, Kylo’s dialogue is so Freudian that it’s an interesting exercise to take all the statements he makes to others throughout the film (particularly Rey) and assume he’s talking to himself. The results are weirdly plausible. Snoke has clearly been destroying his self-esteem for years, and he (not without reason) believes that the bridges back to his family are forever burned. I think the “you’re nothing; but not to me” comment is a statement he would long for someone to say TO him. He’s honestly trying to communicate to Rey that she has worth, despite it coming across almost the exact opposite. And the thing he most wants in the world is for someone to feel that way about him.  

By this point in the film, the battle with Snoke and the Praetorian Guards has galvanised a new direction in Kylo. “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.” Now he fully embraces that statement. To him, Rey represents a whole new path that had hitherto been non-existent; something outside both the First Order AND the Jedi/Resistance. When he asks her to join him, I don’t believe he means as part of the First Order. Listen to his words: "We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy." I think he meant for them to forge a completely different path, just the two of them. This is why he doesn’t lend much thought to stopping the attack on the Resistance ships, callous as is it. He’s killed the past. None of it matters to him. He doesn’t care if the Supremacy burns too; in fact he’d be glad. He and Rey can leave all this pain and heartache behind and become their own Order. When he makes this offer, Kylo is at his most sincere and vulnerable. And when Rey rejects it, his fleeting vision of a glorious future beyond his pain, guilt and subjugation is dashed in an instant. Predictably, he reacts with a psychotic break.

Of course it would be a ludicrous betrayal of Rey’s character for her to accept this proposal, throwing her friends’ lives to the wind and enabling Kylo in his selfish power fantasy. I’m so glad the writers didn’t go that route, for a number of reasons. For a start, Rey is not aware of the true complexity of what Kylo is experiencing in this moment. She simply sees him retreating to the Dark Side, dashing her own hopes of his redemption that had surely risen during the triumph over Snoke and the Praetorian Guards. Rey would never have said yes to Kylo Ren; it was Ben Solo she went to the Supremacy to save. But even had she seen what was really going on in his head, I’m still glad she refused because it underscores a subtle but strong feminist narrative that has permeated the new trilogy so far. Kylo is damaged, but it is NOT Rey’s job to fix him. Her compassion prompted her to reach out a supportive hand and she undoubtedly feels the chemistry of their bond, but she won’t throw her principles, her integrity and her friends under the bus for what is essentially a psychotic killer, no matter how much she sympathises with his pain. This is why I find it misleading when people label Kylo and Rey’s canon interaction as “romanticising abuse”. Having compassion for someone is not the same as enabling or excusing their actions. If Rey had fallen into his arms believing she could fix the bad boy and everything would be ok, THAT would be romanticising an unhealthy relationship. But she doesn’t. Her integrity speaks sense over her bond with Kylo, and she refuses to take on the responsibility of making him better. That responsibility is his alone.

Now, if he takes it upon himself to improve and atone, truly and unselfishly? Then I would be up for an actual relationship between them. I don’t think that’s an implausible prediction for the series, either.

Argument 2: Rey having no significant parentage was pointless and a wasted opportunity.

The feminist nature of how Rey’s character is written touches on another of the major complaints I’ve seen about TLJ; the reveal of her parentage. I think even Daisy Ridley commented with annoyance that the only conversation people seemed to be having about Rey was which famous man is her progenitor. But guess what! She’s not special because she’s Luke’s daughter or Ben’s sister or Obi-Wan’s granddaughter; she’s special because she’s Rey. If one of TLJ’s main themes is failure, the other is undoubtedly “we are the spark”, and “we” is everyone and anyone. Anyone can be special and rise to greatness, no matter if they’re a long-lost relative of a powerful Force-wielder or not. The Skywalker dynasty is not as special or unique as you thought they were.

This leads into another thing that I really love about how TLJ is written, and something that its detractors seem most furious about: it’s not afraid to kill sacred cows. The Skywalkers are not the be all and end all of the Force. Not even the Jedi and the Sith are; Luke makes that crystal clear when he encourages Rey to feel the true extent of the Force during her meditation. All these ancient traditions and bloodlines are insignificant specks in the cosmic Force. What I love about this concept is that it so perfectly and cleverly chastises fans for clinging onto a limiting and misplaced sense of tradition about Star Wars. Ending on the scene with the nobody stableboy on Canto Bight casually Force-calling his broom encapsulated this theme; the spark is everywhere. Anyone can rise and be a hero. Even the Skywalkers came from nothing; they were slaves from a backwater nowhere. The institutions of the Jedi and the Sith were both corrupt and ineffectual by the end because they clung to tradition instead of focusing on living individuals. The Jedi were as much to blame as the Sith for the creation of Darth Vader; their rigid adherence to their codes lead to Anakin’s alienation and eventual fall. Ironically, the one character we see who seems to understand this turns up in the hated Phantom Menace; Qui-Gon Jinn. His focus on the living Force rather than traditions and codes is implied to be the reason he was never accepted by the Jedi Council, but he was the only one who truly connected to the young Anakin on a compassionate and human level. If Qui-Gon hadn’t died, Darth Vader might never have existed.

Nowhere is the theme of killing sacred cows more blatantly paraded than in the scene where Luke and Yoda destroy the ancient Jedi temple tree with its sacred texts. Having conceived of the idea in a moment of manic despair (much like the moment that lead to him contemplating killing Ben Solo), Luke is then horrified when the ghost of Master Yoda finishes the job with what seems like capricious glee. But Yoda has finally learned the lesson that Luke taught him on Dagobah when he abandoned his training in favour of saving his friends; when the old ways do not work, it’s ok to let them go. Kill your sacred cows. Let the past die. “We are what they grow beyond", Yoda tells Luke. What use are Masters if their apprentices never surpass them? And that’s true of Yoda as well. Even an old dog can learn new tricks, and on Dagobah, Yoda was still clinging to the codes and traditions of the creaky outmoded Jedi Order.  He was reluctant to train Luke and believed his impulse and emotion to be dangerous. But Luke taught him that emotion, passion, love and putting your friends first was not something to be feared as a path to the Dark Side; it is to be embraced and cherished as an essential human experience. Ironically, since his failure with Ben, Luke himself has become afraid that that lesson was the wrong one. But when the tree burns, Yoda re-kindles in Luke the very thing that Luke taught Yoda all those years ago on Dagobah. The cyclical nature of their journeys mirror the cyclical nature of the Force; it will go round and round, encompassing everything and everyone. We are the spark.

Argument 3: Luke's personality was butchered and his exile was out of character.

“Killing a sacred cow” is what I think a lot of people’s feelings about Luke’s characterisation boil down to in TLJ, and where a lot of the upset stems from. I’ve seen many arguments that Luke would never have contemplated killing Ben; that he would never avoid his responsibilities with the Resistance for 20 years; he would never be so “cowardly” as to not attend the final battle on Crait in person. His hope and light was the focal point of the original trilogy; his character was butchered! But I think all of these arguments overlook fundamental aspects of Luke’s character. Implying he has realistic human flaws seems to be sacrilege. But when you think about it, the things we learn about Luke’s story in TLJ make perfect sense based on his personality, past and experiences.

Let’s look at Luke’s timeline after the OT. The biggest thing that goes wrong for Luke (that we know of) is his moment of madness when he turns a lightsaber on his own nephew. And on the face of it, it does seem extreme. Never-give-up-on-friends-and-family Luke, who went to the ends of the galaxy even for his corrupted fallen father, attempting to kill an innocent boy – his nephew at that!? It does seem outrageous. But when you really look at Luke’s character from Episodes IV to VI, you’ll see that he has these impulsive and passionate reactions a lot more than fans tend to remember. Luke is an extraordinarily emotionally driven person, and his gut instinct informs pretty much all his major decisions in the OT. He joined the Rebel Alliance because he saw a pretty girl on a hologram begging for help. He diverted the escape from the Death Star to rescue Leia as soon as R2D2 said she was a prisoner there.  He turned off his targeting computer in the trench.  He went to Dagobah on the orders of a hallucinatory ghost. He took weapons into the Dark Side cave against Yoda’s advice because he felt spooked. He went to rescue Han and Leia on Bespin despite Yoda begging him to remain impartial. We constantly see him making split-second emotional decisions or even succumbing entirely to instinctual feeling. Remember when Vader threatened Leia at the climax of RotJ, and Luke completely and utterly lost control? His hysterical, panic-filled beating on Vader is EXACTLY the kind of instinctive emotional reaction that we can assume happened in the hut with Ben. He had a shocking vision of Ben’s darkness, fell totally prey to his emotional instincts, and before he knew it the lightsaber was alight in his hand. Like during his fight with Vader, reason overcame madness pretty quickly, and I very much doubt Luke would actually have actually hurt Ben if the scene had been allowed to play out. He actually says this directly in the film: “it passed like a fleeting shadow, and I was left with shame and consequence”. But unlike with Vader, by that point it was already too late. The damage had already been done, the trust broken, and Ben reacted in his own uniquely impulsive catastrophic Skywalker way. (These Skywalker boys are all so extra.)

But Luke should have gained control over his feelings long ago, you cry! He was building a new Jedi Order, and one of the main hallmarks of the Jedi is that they control their emotions!

Well, yes, it was. But the entire point of the ending of RotJ is that Luke shatters that traditional Jedi Order. This is the lesson that he teaches Yoda at 11th hour on Dagobah; that you can be a strong in the light side of the Force and also be true to your personal attachments and commitments. They are not sins to be eradicated (this pressure is what drove Anakin to the Dark). This truth was undoubtedly part of the basis of Luke’s new Order. But when he wakes up and sees what his moment of uncontrolled instinctual reaction has wrought – his temple destroyed, Kylo gone, the apprentices slaughtered – he would naturally have had a crisis of self-doubt. Was he right about his new Order teachings? Should he have followed the old Jedi way instead? He must have been wrong, and now he’s failed everyone, including his own nephew, and by extension his beloved sister and best friend.

That brings us to the “out-of-character” exile on Ach To. As far as I can see, this isn’t out of character at all. Remember what everyone who doesn’t like Luke trots out? He’s whiny. He sulks as much as Anakin did in AotC. He had plenty of moments of inspiring optimism in the original trilogy, but he had plenty of moods too. And yeah, he was a teenager back then. But this is a part of Luke’s essential character, and the Luke of TLJ is not an 18-year-old any more; with age comes the natural loss of youth’s idealism even without a traumatic event to compound it. Luke’s always had his friends to pull him out of his melancholia before, but this time it was those very same friends whom he had let down. How could he seek solace with them when he had singlehandedly caused their son’s downfall? We don’t know yet whether he saw Han and Leia after the disaster with Ben, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he simply couldn’t bring himself to face them. And as time goes on, it gets harder and harder. Luke isn’t just ashamed of what happened with Ben; he’s afraid of himself. Is he dangerous? How many other lives could he ruin? They’re better off without him. Anyone who has ever struggled with depression, or seen a friend or family member do the same, will recognise this litany. By the time TFA rolls around, Luke is seriously depressed and probably suffering from PTSD as well. He is jaded, afraid, ashamed, cynical and bitter. When Rey turns up looking for all the world like another young idealistic Jedi puppy, asking for the very training that Luke believes doomed his first apprentices, is it any wonder Luke throws the lightsaber over his shoulder and refuses to speak to her? He genuinely thinks he has nothing to offer; or worse, that he and his teachings are an active danger to her. 

Of course as moody as Luke can be, he has always been easily pulled back to the light, even in his jaded and traumatised state in TLJ. It does not take Rey long to rekindle the spark of hope and optimism that has always been within him. The scars from his ordeal will never disappear, though. Did you notice how he FREAKS OUT when Rey shows even the slightest curiosity about the Dark cave below the island? He sees Ben all over again – or possibly even himself, entering the cave on Dagobah. He’s back to the rigid Jedi code of DENY REPRESS DENY, and predictably, it drives Rey away just as it did Anakin in AotC. It’s only after his heart-to-heart with Yoda that Luke begins to see the worth in his teaching methods again, and return to some semblance of the Luke we saw at the end of RotJ.

The projection he sends to Crait is not only a very clever move from Luke, it’s also a uniquely unselfish one, despite the cries of “coward” from the naysayers. What purpose would physically showing up on Crait serve? Only indulging his own ego. He’d have been killed in the first onslaught of firepower, and achieved nothing but despair for the Resistance and triumph for Kylo. He knows that the true value of his presence is to buy time for the Resistance to escape, and in the process inspire them with the sight of their long-lost ally. It also serves to show Kylo how powerful Luke truly is, even after all this time. Kylo drops a line earlier in the film about his Force bond with Rey not being the same as a physical projection; even with Rey’s level of raw power, he claims it would kill her. Of course it kills Luke too, although it’s unclear whether anyone has actually realised this by the end of the film. But Luke dies making the same sacrifice Vader did. He messed up, but his dying act is to protect his loved ones in whatever way he can. I personally thought the scene of his death on Ach To was incredibly beautiful. Luke has found peace and redemption. He is more at one with the Force than he has ever been. How can you begrudge an ending like that?

Argument 4: The film was over-long and the Canto Bight codebreaker plotline sucked.

Well yeah, I'll give you that one. Justice for Finn and Rose!

Anyway that’s all; thank you for coming to my TLJ TED Talk.