#anti dark side of the force

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

On one side, Star Wars has an Order of space Magic monks whose main mission is fighting for peace and justice in the galaxy. On the other, it has what is basically space nazis.

The anti-Jedi pro-Sith crowd baffles and scares me in equal messure.

[foundfamilynonsense]

Y’know. Anakin was a real asshole in Ahsoka’s hallucination.

Like. She mentions something about what she’ll be able to teach her padawan one day, since all she’s being taught is how to be a soldier, and Anakin’s like “teaching’s not all it’s cracked up to be”

And like. Asshole move. And Ahsoka rightfully calls him out on it. And he goes on the whole “uuuh I was joking. Lighten up.” Literally a complete jackass.

But beyond how he answered the question, it’s a valid complaint Ahsoka is bringing up! Anakin’s teaching her how to live or die. But Ahsoka wants to be taught how to be a jedi.

What happens after the war is over (order 66 never happens) and she now has to navigate a galaxy without a war? The Jedi take teaching very seriously there’s no greater honor than teaching a padawan. And she’s not being accurately taught, so she will not be able to pass anything on to the next generation.

But Anakin brushes it aside because he simply does not respect her or her wishes. Like. He never wanted a padawan, despite teaching being foundational to the Jedi. And he only took ahsoka in because he started to like her and became attached to her. He doesn’t care about jedi legacy, not really. So he brushes her comment off with a joke.

But in the rest of the vision… idk it didn’t feel like we were supposed view Anakin as entirely wrong here. He wasn’t in the right, he was definitely channeling Vader and being an ass, but he was basically the reason Ahsoka survived the fall, right? Bc he was making her choose life? When Ahsoka wins against him it’s sort of like she’s both learned his lesson and moved beyond him. And then for the rest of the season he’s only talked about in positive ways.

And like. That one line ahsoka said was really powerful in relation to the entire point of the show. What does she have to pass onto her own padawan (Sabine) if she wasn’t properly trained herself? That is, perhaps, the only valid plot question asked in the entire show. And it doesn’t get an answer. It’s never even brought up again.

[incorrectpizza]

Forget "gray Jedi" I want to explore Nightsister morality. A culture steeped in dark side magick but which seemingly has many members that shy away from pure evil.

Ventress, who's a Sith apprentice tossed aside, clinging to the dark yet occasionally drifting closer to the Light, using a yellow lightsaber, devoting herself to the Force while still using her hatred and pain? Merrin, who retains her Nightsister culture, resurrects the dead, and yet pries her Jedi lover from the very brink of the Dark she draws from?

I'd take exploration of this type over "gray Jedi" any day of the week.

[theladyship]

How the turn tables, right?

[mercurialsmile]

cant believe todd howard made a better game with more spells back in 2011 than whatever the fuck hogwarts legacy has

[knife-em0ji]

Just finished the darth plagueis book from Star Wars legends and hhhhhogh like. It was certainly a book. I liked the insight into palpatine’s backstory otherwise HATED hate how the whole premise of it was “hey what if every anti-Semitic conspiracy theory was real. That’s what the sith is” like it could���ve had more plausible deniability on that front if plagueis was literally anything other than a muun and luceno hadn’t made muuns Like That but I digress. Anyway the star wars EU is a place where pizzagate could reasonably happen so like. Maybe it’s good Disney retconned darth fuckhands mcmike.

[starbeltconstellation]

Excellent tags. 👏👏👏

Another thing I’m loving is the re-emphasis on the fact that the Dark Side, for most people, is misery and pain.

Wallowing in your own and then turning it outwards and inflicting it on others.  Because if I’m not happy you sure as hell aren’t allowed to be happy!  The need to drag down someone else in the Light, twist them, corrupt them, make them as miserable and angry as you are because at least then you’re not alone, except you ARE alone because the Dark Side poisons every positive relationship you could ever have and makes you incapable of relating to people in a normal fashion, makes you obsessed, makes you cling to, makes you attached to the idea of this person and how they can make you feel.  Makes you selfish to the point where you don’t even care and you’ve lost your empathy.

It’s a downward spiral of abuse and a cycle of revenge and loathing yourself and desperately searching for any kind of self-worth to define yourself by and scrabbling after more and more power because if you just have a little bit more, it might make things all better.

The Dark Side is empty misery and it will not satisfy.

[wilcze-kudly]

Actually I WILL talk about Mai's seeming 'radicalisation'. With the upcoming comic, I can see why a lot of people are confused/caught offguard by Mai suddenly having a vested interest in reforming the Fire Nation's school curriculum.

However, I don't think it's as much of a heelturn as one would believe at first glance.

Mai is a difficult character to pinpoint on some levels, particularly due to her upbringing which stripped her of a lot of her self expression. I think most of the fandom underestimates the trauma and effect of Mai's upbringing. I elaborate on it here.

However, the long and short of it is that Mai was not encouraged to question, criticise or, god forbid, rebel against her enviornment. To the point where her parents scared her with stories of spirits that would kidnap her if she misbehaved.

Ukano's involvement in politics and relatively high status should also be taken into account. Mai would have grown up being strongly encouraged to conform to her father's beliefs and go along with his politics.

Mai : My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to think about.

We've seen the propaganda and indoctrination of the Fire Nation school system, how it uses misinformation in its curriculum and how it punishes deviance.

Most fire nation children won't have the tools to find the cruelty and danger in the philosophy of the Fire Nation. Zuko had to get banished from the country to even start his deconstruction. And he had Iroh at his side to guide him.

It's not shocking that Mai would not be able to see the flaws of the Fire Nation. Despite this, she still shows no attachment to the Nation's cause, either. In fact, she actively refused to take part in the war effort when she thought she could get away with it.

I don't think Mai had much sympathy to the other nations, nor will I claim she secretly harboured anti imperialistic sentiment. I simply want to state the fact that Mai was, from a young age, forced to do things she didn't want to do and conditioned by multiple parties, to accept this. Mai has been trained to be passive, with only the method of passive aggressiveness and gloominess to defend herself.

I think after the fall of Ozai's rule and the slow restructuring of the Nation, Mai got more freedom in her life. Ukano's political role diminished, so Mai was allowed to think for herself. She gets to discover the world more and develop her own thoughts and ideals, rather than the ones she'd been forced to conform to.

This line in the upcoming comic seems to confirm my thoughts:

Mai's upbringing is the underground and darkness. She was never given an alternative or agency in her life. And thanks to Zuko, she was able to see and experience a different world than the one she was brought up with. She is able to help to try and achieve it.

Initially, Mai is angry at Zuko's joining of team Avatar. She feels betrayed and upset that he did not talk to her in person, even if it was to protect her. And yet, she saves him. While I believe that most of her motivation was genuinely out of love for Zuko. But she also, ekther inadvertently or deliberately made the choice between Azula and Zuko. Between the two potential duture leaders of the Nation.

And she chose Zuko. Who is not only the boy she loves, but also the boy who can heal her nation.

There is an argument to be made about how Mai represents the Fire Nation itself and its relationship to Zuko, but that is a topic for another day.

The theme of Mai caring for the future of the Fire Nation can be seen expanding in the comics. As 99% of the fandom will tell you, the comics have their flaws, but I do enjoy their handling of Mai for the most part.

I think it's interesting that we are shown that Mai not only wants Zuko to be Fire Lord, but for him to be a good Fire Lord.

We see her dissapointed in Zuko secretly meeting with Ozai. At first glance, what she says to Zuko is that she is dissapointed in him keeping secrets from her, which is understandable, since the last time he kept a secret from her led to him joining the opposite side of a war.

However, with her next appearance, we see that Mai may have had another concern relating to Zuko's communing with Ozai. When Ty Lee informs her of Zuko also enlisting Azula's help, Mai exclaims 'so he really is turning into his father', which seems to denote that Mai has a distaste for Ozai and his rule, whether that be from the begining, or recently acquired.

Mai also criticises Zuko's callous and controlling restrictions over the frightened townspeople. This serves to further cement the idea of Mai becoming disillusioned with the similarly inclined authority figures of her past. Authority figures who were a symptom of the Fire Nation's utilitarian and imperialistic system. We see this disdain manifesting in its full force in the teasers for the upcoming comic.

I think people tend to not realise how restricted in her self expression and thoughts Mai was, despite all the puzzle pieces being laid out for us in the show.

Mai has gone through a very quick and yet realistic episode of character growth in my opinion. Not unlike a lot of people raised in heavily Conservative and restrictive households who peel off later in life, she's settling into her own mindset and motivations.

Ans I don't think it's an unrealistic idea for Mai to want to help change the education system. The Fire Academy for girls is where she met Azula, and as an all girl school alumni, I can tell you first hand how toxic and confining these enviornments can be.

While Mai may not be seen as a particularly empathetic or kind person (though I think this interpretation is flawed), she can sympathise with the young girls who will be placed in the shoes of her younger self.

She can want to not see these kids go through what she, Ty Lee AND Azula did.

[The panels of Mai glancing between the stifling interior of the school and the open window and choosing to go outside and lead the Nation's youth outside... ugh]

Not only is this a rather logical progression for Mai's character, in my opinion, but it also feels like a very big 'healing your inner child' moment for Mai. Since she was not really seemingly allowed to be a child, as most children in the Fire Nation appeared to have such restrictions placed on them.

I don't think it's much of a stretch of the imagination that Mai would want to have at least a small part in dismantling the system that harmed her and so many other children of the nation.

She is a young woman now, she has grown from the oversheltered, apathetic teen she was in the show. She has been able to make her own informed opinions about the state of the nation, has been able to hone her trauma into determination. And it seems we're going to see the fruits of this development in "Ashes of the Academy".

I have very high hopes for the upcoming comic, since what we've seen of it appears to make a compelling story, one I relate to deeply, as well as a good study of Mai, a character I find often misinterpreted by the fandom.

[pawberri]

The key problem with "proship vs anti" discourse is that the most extreme versions of each side, the ones who actually bother to identify with these labels, accepted each others worst takes as arguments they had to debate. "Fiction =/= reality" is, in practice, an absurdly reductionist, anti-intellectual, thought-terminating-cliche that dictates we can learn nothing about a person via art and that their fiction reflects no political or moral messaging worthy of critique. In response to this, the "puriteens" who are too young to possibly hope to articulate their discomfort, to untangle their position from what is often real trauma experienced online, simply argue "yes, fiction influences and reflects reality in a 1 to 1 capacity." They, and people who want to use the groundwork they laid to make bad-faith callouts, make bad arguments about how the action of engaging in problematic fiction is on equal ground to real life abuse, or is a clear indicator of interest in real life abuse. Both of these arguments are terrible, but each side seems to radicalize the other further and further into their own brands of anti-intellectual reactionary belief. "Proshippers" become libertarian absolutists about free speech and view all transgression as righteous and alternative and therefore leftist. They gain a reactionary nostalgia for the past, desiring a time when people didn't seem to care about the implications of art. "Antis" become authoritarian and hypervigilant for signs of moral decay, at their worst, willing to align themselves with government bodies that offer carceral solutions to the debate. They are willing to use harassment as a tool of punishment, which then leads to false accusations and a fear of openness that puts people at risk of being triggered via obfuscation. (That said, proshippers also take part in plenty of harassment.)

I will say that I believe both of these movements are equally sensitive to co-opting by right-wing forces. We see the authoritarian tendencies of anti culture in harassment campaigns and even the way Republican law makers co-opt "grooming." The proship/fic crowd has such extreme nostalgia for the past that I often see people align themselves with the cultures of 4chan or other happily right-wing websites. They so heavily reject the idea that a drawn sexual depiction of a child could reflect any desire that they are disinterested in analyzing what the motivation behind the depiction is. i.e If we track the history of lolicon in Japan we do find that is, yes, countercultural, but that counter culture is right wing, very misogynistic, and defensive of patriarchial Japanese culture as it is and was including its culture around rape and abuse. Plenty of fictional content works as radicalization material, and radicalization material needs to be ambiguous. There is a valid reason to be hesitant to trust people who consume this content, even if I do not believe most of them will ever be dangerous towards children. The mere presence of sexuality is not enough to make a movement left wing. This kind of thing can again be seen in right-wing libertarian movements in the US. (And even leftist movements can be bigoted and even "pro-pedophilia" or otherwise disinterested in social reform around abuse.)

Is all content with elements of age-play this way? No. But to me, that is why kink media deserves to be treated as art and analyzed, critiqued, treated seriously. It doesn't have to do anything to anyone to be worthy of a moral critique. Said moral critique just doesn't warrant harassment and cruelty and reactionary exaggerations of the person consuming said content.

Anyway, what's my point in saying all this? I don't know. I'm just begging you to tag your God damn content with specific tags instead of random and nebulous shit like "dead dove" or "dark content", and also begging you to stop harassing people who do tag their content so I don't have to guess what "dead dove" and "dark content" mean. No one will erase incest kink fics or people who feel sickened by the idea of them off this earth because we aren't god, but we could at least all be responsible about tagging, flagging, and age-gating our stuff.

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

The Dark is generous, and it is patient.

Its first talent is hiding. Our true face lies in the darkness beneath our skin. Our true heart drowns in even deeper shadows. But what it hides from us the most is not our secret truths, what it is hiding is the truth of others.

The Dark protects us from what we are afraid to know.

It protects us from the horrors we are capabe of.

Its second talent is the ilusion of comfort, the peace of sweet dreams in the night's embrace, the beauty imagination gifts to that which would disgusts us in the light of day.

Its third talent is Light itself. Just as the days are counted by the night that divides them, and the stars by the endless blackness they move around in, the Dark embraces the Light and makes it stand out from its very core.

With every victory of the Light, the winner is the Dark.

All lights vanish, leaving nothing but darkness behind. All things die, all things end. With time, even stars burn out. Everything you have, everything you will achieve, every thriumph, every love. All that's yours, everyone you love, will die one die. You can't stop their deaths any more than you can stop the sun from setting. You will lose them, or perhaps you will be fortunate where they won't be, and they will lose you instead.

The people you love don't, and will not ever, belong to you. They belong to the universe, and the universe will take them.

It's that simple. It's that complex. And it's written in the very nature of the universe. In a universe where even stars burn out, no matter how good you are, all stories end the same way.

The Dark is generous, and it is patient.

The darkness is what sows the seeds of cruelty in justice, what leaks disdain into compassion, what poisons love with grains of doubt.

It takes your attachments and poisons them with the fear of the unstoppable, with the fear of losing everything you hold dear. It sows the seeds of anger, the shadows of greed.

The Dark can be patient because the smallest raindrop will make those seeds sprout.

And the rain will come, and the seeds will sprout, because the Dark is the ground they grow in and the clouds in the skies, and it awaits behind the stars that give them light.

With time, even stars burn out.

The Dark is the predator in the middle of a hunt, stalking you with eerie patience. You may run, you may hide, but it won't run after you or search for you; it doesn't have to, it doesn't need to.

It will catch you eventually. It knows this, and it knows you know this. If you flee, you will only delay the inevitable. If you embrace it, you will be consumed by the worst in yourself.

The Dark is generous and it is patient, and it always wins.

It always wins because it's in everything. It's in the wood that burns in the hearth of your home, it's under your chair and under your table and under the sheets of your bed, it's beneath your feet when you walk during midday.

The brightest of lights projects the darkest of shadows.

You can't flee from them, for they will catch you. You can't outrun them, you can't outsmart them. They will always find you, they will always catch you, they will always destroy you.

You can't join them. If you do, you will lose everything you are, and everything you hold dear will be crushed by your own hand. You will become nothing but a shadow of yourself, the incarnation of your worst tendencies, of your anger and hate and greed. You, like the darkness, will take and steal and plunder every little thing in the universe, but you will never be satiated.

You will try to hunt down every light, every little source of heat and comfort, to recover the warmth you lost. But it's not enough, it will never be. You will always be cold. Like the snows of Hoth, like the caves of Ilum.

You will remember power, but your power will never be more than a memory. You will lose it, surrender it to the darkness, and you will have nothing but a shadowy mockery of what you once possessed. Like an artist gone blind, like a composer gone deaf.

And in the void where your soul used to be, you will freeze in the everlasting cold.

This is how it feels to fall into the Dark Side, to give yourself to the Sith. Now. Right now. Forever.

The Dark is generous and it is patient. You cannot defeat it, you cannot escape from it, you cannot destroy it.

But in its strength lies weakness. For all its power for destruction, for all the things it has killed, kills and will kill, there is one thing the Dark will never take from you, no matter how much it tries.

The Dark will never kill your hope.

The Dark will never kill your faith.

The Dark will never kill your love.

Only you can take it from yourself.

Every time a door closes, a window opens, full of thrilling possibilities. Just as the storm brings safety for those who are prepared and the mist protects which doesn't want to be found, in the darkest of moments someone will dream of the break of dawn.

Just as the Dark has won its decisive victory over the Light, a new star will be born from the cold dusty remains of another, and bring new hope for another day.

Just as you lose yourself in the worst of yourself, you will always find the best in you, if you know where to look.

The people you love aren't yours. They belong only to the universe and to themselves. You will lose them, because they go away or because the universe has taken them. But when you love them truly, you will find the purest form of joy, whether they are with you, by your side, or not.

The Dark will always be present, stalking you, hunting you. But as long as you carry your love within your heart, it will never hurt you.

The people you love may be gone, but they were here. They existed, they were by your side and have you their love. Nothing can take that love away from you, not all the power in the universe, and certainly not the Dark. What is grief, if not love persevering?

Hold on, come what may, and you will find a light in the darkness.

Never let your fear overpower your love, your anger nor your hate overpower your compassion, and even when it catches you, the Dark will be unable to destroy you. Always keep kindness at the core of your anger, for it is the hilt that protects you from the cold blade you wield.

The Dark is generous and it is patient, but in its strength lies weakness: one lone candle can hold it back.

Love is more than just a candle. Love can ignite the stars.

Don't lose sight of your love in your fear. Don't let your inner turmoil steal your kindness. Never forget who you are. Find the Light within your heart, and never lose sight of it.

Stop holding on, let go of what you're afraid to lose. Don't hold it tightly, do it kindly and gently and let it move away if it desires. Know yourself, know your pain, know your rage, and let it go. Free yourself from hate, from anger, from fear, and love people regardless of the pain it might bring you when those people are lost.

Love with everything you have, and you will make new stars shine brightly.

Only then will you be able to defeat…

the phantom menace.

[ghostbsuter]

Before I start, fair warning for on-screen choking! Attempted murder too whoopz and big inspo from THIS prompt, too!!

—

Visitation from various speedsters became the usual in the bakery.

Most people already prepare their phones whenever they went inside, there was always a high chance they'd see one of the heroes after all! Be it one running in and taking off in a second, they always left a note despite the hurry.

Danny became a good ally and even better friend in a short time, visiting outside of their costumes too, with Danny none the wiser.

It was like a game with mischief smiles and gleaming eyes. Joking with the owner of the shop always got them coming back in the end, Danny had that charm.

While his recipe wasn't a secret with the family of heroes, trying to replicate it only helped them so far. The original did taste better, and who are they to ditch danny anyway?

Barry especially had taken a liking to the teen, having some nice dates with Iris in the bakery.

He was their cool civilian friend.

However, peace didn't last.

"Danny!" Barry had come inside the store without much of a thought. It was well past the closing time, yet he'd still seen the lights on in the kitchen, which while not unusual, were very much chided from.

(Barry had taken quite the habit of scolding Danny for going past him limits once he found out. It was very amusing for Iris.)

Flash didn't hear any noise, closing the backdoor silently.

There was no answer and it rang many alarm bells.

Sneaking along the wall, too slow for him— why was he going slow?

Anticipation building the closer he nears the kitchen, the light beams through the doorframe, and just as his hand reaches for the frame, a choked sound breaks the silence.

"Don't be fussy now. Just leave silently." Someone very familiar had whispered, and Flash didn't wait a second to zoom inside and throw Reverse Flash into a wall.

The teen coughed harshly, dry heaving for air and pushing himself away.

One look at the purple rings around his throat had him fuming, grabbing the yellow off-brand version of him and vanished in a blur.

Danny doesn't know how long they're gone, just that the flash came back alone and very worried.

"Danny– Danny? Deep breaths." One zip, and he is handed a glass of cold water. "Drink some—"

The silence was suffocating, in a way.

But he wasn't alone at least.

"Flash–"

"Why was he here? What's going on?"

"I—"

A yellow sticky note not far from them was finally noticed, sending chills down dannys back when Barry reads it aloud.

"You will... join me?"

Danny looks away when the blue eyes of the hero, familar yet so strange, filled disbelief, look at him.

A grimace and Flash grabs his phone, dials a number and waits.

"Iris, I'm bringing Danny home— yes, thank you."

He knows that name.

"I know this is probably the worst time, but would you mind sleeping over tonight? I don't feel good leaving you alone after this, and without any protection."

He knows that voice!

Patiently waiting, Danny croaks. "Barry?"

"Hi Danny."

(He did go along and sleep on their couch that day, later on asked about why he was targeted and much more.

The entire conversation took hours, it left them all tired and danny was quick to help iris with dinner.

For now? The Allen's would house him, much to his chagrin, but he lamented. Barry would call the speedsters aware of Danny and the Reverse Flash, warning them.

They will learn and become family due time. After all, fate can not be changed, but branch out.)

Short DPXDC Prompts #998

Danny sets up a bakery in Central City. In a way to say thank you to the local heroes for continuously saving the city, his bakery makes special carb loaded protein packed pastries for the various speedsters that happen to come their way.

[fairy-writes]

Could you do something with gen narumi from Kaiju 8? Something with angst and eventual fluff? Maybe s/o going missing during a mission or something

A SPECTACULAR DAY OFF

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

__________________________________________________________________________

Fandom(s): Kaiju No. 8

Pairing(s): Narumi Gen x Reader

Word Count: 0.9k

Genre(s)/Tag(s): Gender Neutral!Reader, Defense Officer!Reader

Notes: I love Narumi, but nothing compares to my love for Hoshina (except for maybe my love of November 11, but that’s a whole other story (seriously, I wrote 6k about that man))

__________________________________________________________________________

Today was supposed to be your day off.

You woke up, the sunlight streaming through your window, letting you know it was likely well past noon. The window was cracked as it always was, and Narumi Gen was fast asleep beside you.

As lazy as he was, Gen actually slept very little. What with his career and gaming habits, it wasn’t unusual for you to find him up into the wee hours of the morning doing something or other. So you were delighted to see him relax and sleep in.

You trailed a finger between his eyebrows, down his nose, and over his slightly parted lips, resting your hand on the side of his neck, leaning in to kiss him.

Just as you pulled away, a hand cradled the back of your head and kept you close.

“Who said you could stop?” Gen’s voice is gravely and sleep-addled, thick with the remnants of dreams. His lips brush yours, and you can’t help but giggle a bit.

“Someone has to get up and make breakfast,” You tease, and he huffs, sharp red eyes opening to glare menacingly at you. However, you aren’t phased; instead, you wriggle out of his other arm, which is firmly wrapped around your waist. 

For being “Japan’s Strongest Anti-Kaiju Combatant,” he really was weak in the arms when he was sleepy.

It takes another thirty minutes of snoozing before Gen actually gets out of bed and ambles his way into the kitchen, where you’re flipping pancakes. A decent-size stack is already buttered and plated at the table, with a bottle of syrup sitting next to it and a bowl of chopped fruit to top it all off. The coffee pot is burbling on the corner of the counter, and two mugs are set aside for the roasted beverage later.

Gen’s handheld game console beeps and chirps as you finish up the pancakes, and he shovels them into his mouth almost as fast as you can make them. You watch him over your cup of coffee, his voracious appetite is as present as ever it seems. 

It’s blissfully quiet until your phone alarm blares and shatters the silence. You check the notification and scowl.

A kaiju.

It's just on the edge of your division lines, too. It was maybe fifteen minutes away? You sigh, set down your coffee, and look at Gen, who is shoveling the rest of his pancakes in his mouth, before you head out.

Today was supposed to be your day off!

When you come to, it’s dark, and you panic.

Are you blind?!

No… There’s a pinprick of light, and you are relieved to be able to see. You weren’t sure what you would’ve done had you been blinded. You wouldn’t have been able to do your job anymore had that happened. You would’ve been forcefully retired from duty, likely with honors, but that wasn’t the point. 

Where were you? 

You take in your surroundings, realizing very quickly that you are in a lot of danger. 

Three things. 

One. A building must’ve collapsed on you, and you were in an air pocket of sorts.

Two. Your earpiece was just emitting static. Broken maybe? 

And three. Your leg was pinned under some rubble. Pins and needles tingled up the pinned appendage, and you tugged half-heartedly. It’s no use. You were stuck. 

You press the button on your earpiece,

“Hello? Does anyone read me? I’m stuck and need immediate evac and medical assistance.” You say, but all you hear is static. With your leg pinned and your earpiece broken, you are forced to sit and wait.

Maybe search and rescue will find you? You can only hope and pray.

What feels like hours pass. 

You yawn for what feels like the umpteenth time, head lolling to the side as sleepiness overtakes you.

This really wasn’t good.

Wasn’t there something on the internet about yawning being a sign of lack of oxygen? Was your air running out? You could barely see as it was; there likely weren't any substantial cracks letting in fresh air.

Were you… going to die here?

No! You couldn’t! You had promised Gen that you’d stand by his side as an equal one day!

Even if you were never able to, you still didn’t want to die here. 

You begin to struggle, using what’s left of your suit’s power to try and shift the rubble. It does shift, only to fall even lower. You were never that powerful, but now you might never be. 

As darkness overtakes your vision, you call out one last time. 

“Gen… Please…”

When you come to again, it's to bright, fluorescent lights shining overhead and the beeping of a handheld gaming device. 

“You’re awake.” Gen’s voice is uncharacteristically quiet. You turn your head and see him. The nubbins of plastic feeding oxygen in your nose are uncomfortable, but you push through. 

“What happened?” You mumble, and he snorts, putting down his game and turning in his chair to look at you. 

“A building collapsed on top of you. You ran out of oxygen. My dumb disciple found you.” He said quickly and succinctly. 

Shinomiya Kikoru. 

“But how—”

“It doesn’t matter how. All that matters is you’re safe.” He cuts you off harshly, but his words and actions say the opposite. He’s treating you like you’re a doll. Typically, it would make you annoyed. But now? 

Now, you just want to sleep. You almost died, for heaven’s sake!

So you do, the entire time, Gen doesn’t let go of your hand. 

[absolxguardian]

Reminder that the Acolyte takes inspiration from the film Rashomon, so the show is going to be full of unreliable narrators. That's exactly what we saw in this episode, with the coven repeating anti-Jedi positions that are familiar to the fandom, while the Jedi themselves show the thematic connection between queerness/neurodivergence that has been established more recently. Additionally, the new eu has clarified very recently that, unlike in Legends, the Jedi can't take children without parental permission (although I'm guessing in cases like Osha and Mae they can ask defer to the children's wishes). This has been stated very explicitly in media made while the Acolyte was in production, and if the intention was that the Jedi can take force-sensitive children, those details wouldn't have gone to print.

I think preserving this ambiguity is exactly why Indara was cut off when she was explaining what Republic law states about training children into Force religions. Because if there is any kind of law about that, it would have been enacted after phases 1/3 of the High Republic in response to the Elders of the Path, an anti-Force religion who are very heavily coded after anti-queer religious cults. What the Jedi were doing is the equivalent of the government checking in on religious groups that practice homeschooling to make sure there's no abuse by denying information going on.

Another context the High Republic gives us, this time back in phase 2, is that the Republic- and by extension the Jedi- are very tolerant of other Force religions. There are dark side faiths on Jedha- such as the Brotherhood of the Ninth Door and the Central Isopter. So Aniseya's coven can't be as innocent as she presents them. They must have committed actual crimes to be persecuted in the way they claim. The Path of the Open Hand (the predecessor to the Elders of the Path that were also anti-Force) was tolerated as they preached against all other Force religions until evidence that they were stealing artifacts was found.

I think the fact that all this information comes from the High Republic, the very project that Leslye Headland is a big fan of and pre-release material has been telling everyone to read is significant. This isn't some random panel from a comic published in 2015, this is from media that was considered when writing the Acoytle. Maybe lets not trust the woman running the enmeshed codependent sibling relationship factory.

[stumpyjoepete]

Thinking a bit more about Megalopolis (see prev post). It's not really the case that the script is as disjointed or schizophrenic as my post makes it out to be. The central plot is pretty simple: an egotistical city planner has an ambitious and futuristic vision for redeveloping the city, and he butts heads with the Mayor and others who oppose him in this. He ultimately succeeds in building his utopian "megalopolis". Everyone is happy, the end.

And yet.

There's this... intense centrifugal force that prevents everything from cohering into a unified whole. It's like a puzzle where all the pieces are cut from the same picture, but upon closer inspection, no two pieces quite fit together. Or like that collection of nonsensical objects. A fork where the tines and the handle are connected by a chain. A watering can with the spout facing the wrong way. A quick glance leaves you confused, and that confusion is only deepened by further contemplation.

I think this is especially clear in the pseudo-intellectualism of the title cards, narration, monologues, and quotations/references:

Laurence Fishburne does this heavy-handed narration at the beginning and end of the movie (and several random points in between). And there are these associated title cards that look like they were made by applying an "Ancient Rome" theme to some PowerPoint slides. "Or will we too fall victim, like old Rome, to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men?" My brother in Christ, you are making a movie where the hero is named Cesar, and the happy ending is when he successfully pulls a Robert Moses. This is not a story about power corrupting or good intentions going awry. What are you doing???

Cesar Catilina interrupts Mayor Cicero's speech (where he is introducing a plan to build a casino) in order to lay out an early plan for "megalopolis", which is an ambitious and long-term alternative to the (short-term) casino plan. He prefaces his megalopolis pitch by reciting the Hamlet soliloquy. What exactly does Coppola think "To Be Or Not To Be" is about? He must thinks it means, "I am a dark and brooding bad-boy intellectual", since it's hard to see how "I'd like to kill myself, but I fear death" fits into an argument about the importance of long-term thinking in urban planning.

Cesar says several negative things about "civilization". "[Imagine] humanity as an old tree with one misguided branch called civilization... going nowhere." (Shot of notebook shows an illustration with 'war' and 'cruelty' offshoots from said branch.) "Emerson said the end of the human race will be that we'll eventually die of civilization." (Note: unsourced, probably fake quote.) "Civilization itself remains the great enemy of mankind." Umm... you're an urban planner! You're doing a high modernism. What exactly does it mean for you to call civilization the enemy? Is "megalopolis" somehow anti-civilization because it looks like a Georgia O'Keefe painting instead of a bunch of straight lines and right angles? Will the "war" and "cruelty" branches wither and die when buildings have labia?

Also, there's this amazing line read that completely inverts the meaning of a fake Marcus Aurelius quote (the quote was attributed to him by Tolstoy but is not actually something he said). "The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape... finding yourself in the ranks of the insane." Why did you put in that pause??? Fake Marcus Aurelius is turning in his grave! You're supposed to be fleeing FROM the ranks of the insane! I suppose this isn't really inconsistent with the characterization of Cesar, it's just such a fucking batshit thing to say.

All of the cargo-cult intellectualism listed above could perhaps be excused if the vision that the film is supposedly about had any content whatsoever. Or, alternatively, if the movie was about something more substantive, and the vacuous megalopolis vision took place off-screen in an epilogue, like the "happily ever after" of a children's story. But no! The movie repeatedly interrupts the plot to grab you by the shoulders and scream in your face: "I have a vision! For the future!". And then--now that it has your undivided attention--it shits the bed like a man who has just polished off an entire bag of sugar-free gummy bears and washed them down with a fistful of Ambien:

"Conversation isn't enough. It's the questions that lead it to the next step. But initially, you have to have a conversation. The city itself is immaterial, but they're talking about it for the first time. And it's not just about us talking about it. It's the need to talk about it. It's as urgent to us as air and water."

"Mr. Catalina, you said that as we jump into the future, we should do so unafraid. But what if when we do jump into the future, there is something to be afraid of?" "Well, there's nothing to be afraid of if you love, or have loved. It's an unstoppable force. It's unbreakable. It has no limits. It's within us. It's around us. And it's stretched throughout time. It's nothing you can touch. Yet it guides every decision that we make. But we do have the obligation to each other to ask questions of one another. What can we do? Is this society, is this way we're living, the only one that's available to us? And when we ask these questions, when there's a dialogue about them, that basically is a utopia."

After the revolution, we won't have conflicts anymore; we'll have dialogue instead. We won't have a need for the "jobs" and "sanitation" of "now"; we'll have the "imperishable" "dreams" of "forever". We won't have problems that need solving; we'll all be too busy asking each other questions. Now, if everyone could just shut up and get the hell out of the way and let Cesar implement his vision, then "everyone" will soon be "creating together, learning together, perfecting body and mind." A chorus of children's voices gradually morphing into Laurence Fishburne's, chanting, "One Earth, indivisible, with long life, education and justice for all." It's eschatological anti-politics made entirely from cotton candy. Please, for the love of God, stop making Adam Driver monologue at me! Let's get back to Aubrey Plaza stepping on horny fascist Shia LaBeouf!

The incoherence of Megalopolis's vision is compounded by how anachronistic its depiction of our fallen world is. There are some half-hearted (and ham-fisted) gestures in the Clodio sub-plot towards the dangers of Trumpian populism, but the script was first written in the 80's, and it's extremely obvious that Coppola is writing about New York City in the preceding several decades. The city's finances are in dire straights. (There's literally a "Ford Tells City: Drop Dead" reference!) The city is full of slums, the streets are full of crime, and the elites are all decadent. (For Coppola, decadence means that ladies are doing cocaine and smooching each other in the cluh-ub.) The main character is Neo-Roman Robert Moses, and the conflict of the film is about urban renewal. In case you, like Mr. Coppola, have not been made aware, slum clearance is not a major political issue in 2020's Manhattan.

Two thirds of the way through the movie, a falling Soviet satellite provides a deus ex machina, blowing up the financial district and clearing space for megalopolis to take its place. Ironically, a previous attempt to produce the film came to its abrupt end when two planes flew into some buildings in the financial district. Perhaps you heard about it. The financial backers of the film at the time considered Megalopolis's plot a bit too close to current events for comfort and withdrew their support.

But Coppola's depiction of Manhattan was already decades out of date by then. Moses stepped down in '60. Jacobs' book railing against urban renewal came out in '61. The Power Broker came out in '74. One presumes popular opinion of Robert Moses soured in the following years. The crisis of the city's finances that peaked in '75 was over by '81 when NYC balanced its budget and reentered the bond market. The crime wave of the 70's and 80's had receded by the year 2000. The demand for housing in NYC proper is as high as it ever has been, and it's only getting higher. Megalopolis imagines America as an incoherent mishmash of several decades of mid-century NYC, dressed up in the toga of the late Roman Republic, calling out for (Robert) Moses to part the slums and take us into a promised land that is literally beyond any description, and whose only concrete feature seems to be glowing people-movers.

A Robert Moses with the power to stop time, at that!

Oh, did I forget to mention that part? Cesar discovers he has the power to stop time in the opening scene of the film. I forgot because it's literally irrelevant to the plot. Time stops a few times, and then it starts back up again, and the events of the film just plod inexorably forward. For a movie as temporally dislocated as Metropolis, perhaps that's just as well.

[caripr94]

Yeah, my personal headcanon is that the Coruscanti Jedi under Yoda were actually Light Gray Jedi, but dangerously close to the darker part of the Gray by the prequels and getting closer by the minute. Anakin would have been much closer to the real Light if it wasn't for their and Palpatine's indoctrination, grooming, and/or abuse, but if some real Light Jedi got ahold of him, they might be able to shift him even closer to the Light than he was before.

@wingletblackbird

@tragicfantasy-girl

@nerdychristianfanboy

@riana-one

Okay but an AU where the Jedi Order has fallen to the Dark Side, and Anakin is the only one still clinging desperately to the Light.  

[thelibrarian1895]

Mandalorians hate Jedi because...

"the Jedi are child stealers" NO

And again I say NO. I saw someone claim this and it absolutely infuriated me.

First point, THE JEDI ARE NOT CHILD STEALERS. That accusation is sithspit anti jedi propaganda. If a parent or guardian told the Jedi no, they didn't want their kid to be a Jedi, the Jedi respected that. They would, however, remove children from danger. But would you call a social worker who took children from environments where they were being molested, starved, beaten, or worse, a child stealer? No? Then don't call the Jedi child stealers for the same actions.

Second point, the average Mandalorian didn't really know or care too much about Jedi. In all honestly, most Mandalorians, like the rest of the galaxy, had no real idea about the difference between Jedi or other force sects like the nightsisters or general darksiders or even the sith except perhaps the color of their lightsabers. Some Mandalorians, like our beloved Din Djarin, knew nothing at all about Jedi and only cared when in became relevant and then did as much research as possible regarding the Jedi. Others, like Jango Fett, had very personal interactions with Jedi and formed their opinions of the Jedi as a whole based on those interactions with no further reason or desire to look further into the Jedi.

Third point, for Mandalorians who studied history or listened to old stories, they knew why the Mandalorians disliked the Jedi and it was for a very simple reason that they liked to avoid actively admitting. That reason? The Jedi kicked the shebs of the Mandalorian armies.

Twice.

Quite possibly there was another point when the Jedi suppressed the Mandalorian empire but there were two times for certain. Granted, the republic played a large part and the Jedi definitely didn't all interfere in one of those two conflicts, and actually actively avoided one of those two conflicts except in a few cases, and there were definitely some terrible things done, but the fact remains that when the Mandalorian empire attempted to expand and basically take over the galaxy, the Jedi were key to stopping this. And no, the Mandalorian empire was not a good thing. But more importantly, if you thought your ancestors or your cultures' armies were in the right and they were beaten, would you like the descendants of those who beat your side?

Fourth point, would you like the side that beat your side if they refused to give you a proper rematch? The Mandalorians who know anything about Jedi know that Jedi have access to all this power, plus generally have a super cool plasma sword, but the Jedi won't fight or they'll de-escalate or generally indulge in pacifistic behavior and we all know how Mandalorians feel about presumed pacifists, right? A Mandalorian denied a fight is often a frustrated Mandalorian. A Mandalorian who sees someone who has all this strength and power often doesn't understand why that person doesn't use that power, doesn't take revenge or slaughter their enemies or a million other things that they would do with such power. So those that don't understand choose to dislike. Why won't the Jedi fight them?! (please imagine the sentence immediately previous spoken in an extremely whiney tone of voice)

Fifth point, the Mandalorians frequently throughout history worked with the Sith or were on the Sith side of conflicts because of a lack of knowledge about force sects meant the Mandalorians didn't generally realize how absolutely stupid it is to side with the Sith but beyond that the Mandalorians often learned about the Jedi from the Sith. So the Mandalorians got stories from the Sith about the Jedi being weak and cold and blah, blah, blah stupid sith propaganda that I don't want to perpetuate. And those Mandalorians would then think themselves Jedi experts, because hadn't they learned about the Jedi from another Jedi? Granted, a dark Jedi but still a Jedi, right? So they'd tell other Mandalorians the propaganda and so the Mandalorians had that Sith skewed idea of the Jedi perpetuated throughout their history.

So the Mandalorians have their own reasons for not like the Jedi, which have NOTHING to do with child stealing, just as the Jedi have plenty of reasons to want to avoid the Mandalorians. Personally though I'm going to blame a lot of those reasons on both sides on the Sith and be grumpy about the Sith and the effectiveness of their propaganda.

And finally, I'm pretty sure at least a tiny bit of the animosity between Mandalorians and Jedi arose from the Mandalorians being jealous that the Jedi had lightsabers and they didn't. To be fair, I'm a little jealous too. Lightsabers are cool.