#because i know they'll come back when and if they're necessary! the story and themes aren't linear!

[eugeniedanglars]

[The negative reaction to "Beard After Hours"] echoes a common complaint about the show, that certain arcs are picked up and dropped, that the show meanders too much. To me, it felt like an example of what Ted Lasso dares do that most television doesn't, take precious time to do something weird and tonal (and hang a giant glowy moon in the sky). This episode also established what I think is the best way to watch the show, treating it more like an album than an episode-by-episode drama. Themes flow in and flow out. We get a strange storyline and then never see it again. But it’s the ideas that the show is introducing, the way those ideas pair with each other, that make it an interesting show to watch.

Really enjoyed this analysis of the show and thought it hit the nail on the head regarding a lot of the criticism of this season.

[phoenixwatchesmovies]

Dracula Season Watch Party: The Lost Boys (1987)

After moving to a new town, two brothers discover that the area is a haven for vampires. - Dir. Joel Schumacher

Let's get one thing straight: this movie isn't. Stick a pin in that because we'll get back to that in due time.

In that case, though, WHERE DO I START? This is a fucking great movie and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. (I didn't say you have to like it. Quality is objective and personal taste is not. Go forth with that nugget of wisdom.)

Starting at the beginning, then, we get one of the best movie themes ever written (as evidenced by the amount of covers that exist), some of my favorite establishing shots ever filmed, and the character entrance that made me say out loud, "OH SHIT 👀"

YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN. As the top comment on the video says, "you know it's awesome when you click just to watch the opening."

The entire movie is like that, TBH. It's almost as quotable as The Princess Bride Thee Greatest Movie Ever Made, and is matched only by The Shining for scenes I'll just watch on their own because I love them that much. Like this one, for instance, that I'm linking because I'm going to bring it up again later:

^^ the music, the camera, the lighting, the transition from the headlights to the lighthouse... It's so good...

Other great music moments include the "People Are Strange" montage of slice-of-life style clips of folks going about their day in Santa Carla intercut with all the posters of missing people hung up around the boardwalk, "I Still Believe" featuring Tim Cappello, Tina Turner's former saxophone player, "Walk This Way" as the boys close in on the surfers on the beach, and ENDLESS uses of "Cry Little Sister."

Brief moment to talk about the Emerson family dynamic. Script, performances, and direction all work together in all the best ways so you never doubt how much they care about each other, or how far they'll go for each other. You can argue for family being one of the core themes of the story, whether it's the one you're born into or the one you're...well, born in a sense, into. Either way, it's about the bonds you make, be it for a lifetime or an eternity.

Grandpa gets his own bullet for being such an icon, and for having the absolute #1 best last line of a movie in history. We waited an hour and a half for the punchline of a joke we didn't even notice we were being told. 🫡

Suppose I'll move onto the Frog brothers. Their antics are where most of the comedy comes from, and if there's one thing I have a problem with in this movie, it's the way the two halves don't quite fit together. Michael and David and Co. work on their own as an edgy, stylish, coming-of-age story. Sam and the Frog brothers are the most obvious giveaway that the original concept was something a bit more similar to The Goonies. And it's probably because I like the vampires a lot more, but the kids just aren't that interesting. They're funny and necessary, but I'm not as invested in what they're doing.

Which brings us back to the Lost Boys themselves. The name is a deliberate reference to Peter Pan, and that's where the tragedy of the whole thing comes in. Screenwriter James Jeremias, after reading Interview With The Vampire and the character Claudia in particular, ran with the idea that the reason Peter and his gang never grow up is because they're vampires (which came first, this movie, or the theory that Peter and Co. are the souls of dead children?). You can see that influence throughout the story, and apparently David and the boys were meant to contrast with Michael in the way they represent adolescence, given they're eternal teenagers.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I don't get that very much. I'm sure it's there, but in terms of x vs y, the vampires and the Frog brothers have always stood out more to me. Compare the two kids trying so hard to appear grown up (Edgar even puts on a deep voice that fools no one) and the four kids who will literally never grow up.

I also called this a tragedy, at least as far as the boys are concerned. What else could it be, being a horror movie, but you watch scenes like the bike ride and it's fun and exciting and you understand what Schumacher is going for. They're alive and living in the moment, free in the way only kids seem to be. As you learn what they are, you realize that, for them, at least, this freedom is forever. Life will always be one big party going from one thrill to the next. The tag line is literally "never grow old, never die." And only one of those is true by the end of the movie. The gut punch about David's death (aside from the fact that he dies at all, what can I say, I'm obsessed with him) is that he doesn't go out like the others do, with blood and melting flesh and explosions. He just...dies, as that child choir kicks in one last time, and you see him for what he always was--a dead kid.

In conversation with tragedy is the theme of monsterhood as a whole. When Michael is faced with the reality of what his new friends are and what he himself is becoming, David has this to say: "You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed." Spoken after the vampires have slaughtered half a dozen beach bums, we have the cost of immortality underlined for us. We've also seen Michael struggle against his new nature when he nearly attacked his own brother earlier in the movie, and it's not like he chose to go after Sam because he's evil. It's instinct. Hunger. A matter of survival. We see him alternatively warning Sam to stay away from him and pleading for help to stop what's happening to him because he doesn't want to become a monster, a killer like David. And that's what makes David and the rest of the boys the antagonists, because their survival depends on killing and feeding on other people, but that's all they're doing, is surviving according to their nature. That's the tragedy of monsterhood.

Along with the realization that someone had to have done that to these kids. Someone chose to make them what they are, and that's the real evil of the story.

And speaking of Max, I appreciate the fake-out approach to revealing him as the real Big Bad. It's very Scream, where you were pretty sure it was Billy the whole time but there was that one scene that threw a temporary wrench in your theory. But Star's line about Max being a secret David was protecting comes out of nowhere in a way that feels like there was a bit more context for it initially, but it never made the final cut.

Which leads me to my other gripe. The pacing and timeline don't seem to be in obvious cooperation. Again, it feels like more was there at one point, but transitional scenes were left out, so it's hard to tell how much time passes between the Emersons moving to Santa Carla and the final showdown. Things could either happen very quickly in which case the escalation is on a level with Romeo and Juliet, or it's more spaced out and the space isn't apparent. And I'm leaning towards the "spaced out" approach.

Now. Allow me a few more indulgent moments, because we gotta talk about David.

Look at him.

LOOK AGAIN.

Istg, he stepped around the bend of that merry-go-round and I said, out loud, with words, "oh shit." I had a crisis for days afterward due to the gender envy. I STILL don't know if I want him or if I want to be him. (I'm too fond of my hair as it is to even think about whether or not I'm brave enough for a bleached mullet, so at least I don't really have to think too hard about the answer.) All this to say, can you really blame Michael? One look at this guy and I didn't know what kind of egg joke I wanted to make, so I'm not surprised our boy Mike was trying so hard to fit into this group.

(Yes, you're correct, I'm circling back to my opening statement.)

You can read this as straight up, pun slightly intended, guys being dudes and Michael just wanting to be accepted by the local cool kids. Makes sense, really. They are cool. He's the new kid in town, and that folds right into the usual coming of age narrative with finding your place in the world along with discovering your own identity, etc etc. But if that's the case, then why all the long, frequent, intense eye contact?

@verified-villain-fxcker gets it. 🥂

Look, I'm sure if you tried hard enough to find a heterosexual explanation for the homoerotic tension I'm seeing, you could. But you're on this site, browsing the tag for this movie, so do you really want to? I've got a whole thesis statement on how Schumacher being a gay man/identity influencing one's art/motorcycle clubs being part of queer culture rattling around somewhere in my head, but to keep mostly on topic, I'm sticking with this: part of the coming of age story is discovering your identity, which includes your sexuality. Therefore, it's hardly a stretch to say this is a movie about gay awakening as much as anything else and that Michael Emerson is a disaster bisexual. Of course I'm not the first person to see it that way, but Pride Month is almost over. What else was I going to end on?

He's queer, your honor. Happy Pride. 🏳️‍🌈

[aonehattown]

LARPing as a Baddie

A nonlarp friend asked me last weekend why I LARP as a villainous character and what it is that I get out of it in real life. The obvious answer as someone who came to LARP from doing theater is that it's fun to play the villain some times. Good LARPs have safety tools to make sure everyone is having fun and to make sure hurt feelings that characters are going through aren't becoming hurt feelings for the players. And I work super hard to make sure my character's shenanigans are fun for the players around me even if it's driving their characters crazy. That being said if it takes a lot of work why bother playing a jackass? Well, in a lot of ways I consider myself Cade's defense attorney. So I am always tempted to say that Cade isn't a villain (even though they probably are). I will do my best to resist the urge to turn this into an argument about how they're not actually *that bad* and talk about why I play them. A key theme in Cade's story is that they are doomed by the narrative. Cade's moniker is The Albatross and that's not an accident. I will never ever let Cade succeed too much. They are fucking cursed. They will have victories but they will be short lived or will come with a heavy cost. Because of this Cade compromises a lot. They constantly betray their better intentions to get mud on their hands to pull out a win. Or they make contingencies on contingencies to try to achieve a win while protecting their allies. If they start befriending "heroes" and getting too close they'll self sabotage to keep anyone who might be a good influence at arms length. They are destined to want to be better but to never actually be able to achieve that sort of growth. Like Atlas pushing a boulder up a hill right when Cade is about to achieve some sort of personal satisfaction they trip. Another big piece of Cade's issues are they view everything as transactional. They frequently making deals with sea witches, dark shadow spiritual beings, and maybe worst of all the fucking nobility. Cade trades in favors and is constantly juggling much more powerful forces then themselves in order to try and gain an edge. But they also view their mundane relationships this way. When Cade does something heroic odds are they're working an angle. When they do something heinous they justify it as the necessary price for whatever it is they are trying to achieve. And Cade can justify a whole damn lot. Cade knows that they're not a good person but they want to be. But because of the above they do good deeds for the wrong reason and they do terrible things for all of the right reasons. It makes them a divisive character at game. Some folks love them and some hate them. And neither group is necessarily wrong. So why did these themes resonate for me back when I started playing this character? Well, as someone who's family life and professional life as a seminary student hinged on not being found out as queer a character who felt "doomed" by a narrative allowed me to work through a lot. A character with unhealthy ideas of transactional relationships and trust issues was really a mirror. It was pretty easy to get into the head of a character who feels they have to keep running to stay a step ahead of otherworldly powerful beings who want to use them as a puppet or earthly authority figures who judge them.

Like Cade I felt like I was constantly betraying my best intentions. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t be “good” enough for my church, for my family, or for the god I believed in. So getting to play a character in a fantasy world who was a lot like me but could act out about these sort of heavy emotions was not only fun but also a real exercise in me verbalizing the complicated feelings I had. I don’t think I did this intentionally but looking back now I can see it. But that was 10 years ago. I'm in such a different place now. And while I have been working hard to evolve Cade in a way that feels narratively truthful they still have a lot of those scars. I've done a lot of work in therapy to heal and grow. To some degree I've worked on Cade to make sure they didn't feel static. That being said they're still not "good." Petty crime might not catch their attention anymore. Their ambitions have grown a lot. Like I said they want to be "good" and might end up there someday down the road as they continue to grow and change. But they still make deals, they still work angles, and they still have trust issues. LARP is fun. I love my character Cade. I have a blast playing my morally fucked up little gay mess. And I am super excited about where they’re going.

[boxofbadaddiction]

Sure to Spark Rumours

Harry Potter x Reader

This story is inspired from a request of my F.R.I.E.N.D.S Themed Prompt List.

Prompts: 4 & 5

"Hi I'm [y/n or Character], I make jokes when I'm uncomfortable."

"I wish I could but I don't want to."

Warnings: a single curse word.

-my first time ever writing for Harry-

Umbridge had it out for Harry. No matter what he did his sheer existence just seemed to land him in strife. She were determined, it appeared, to punish him over even the smallest of incidents. At this point he'd simply come to expect them.

So, as the various groups of students gathered within the Castle Courtyard watched her Tiny, Gargoyle-like figure barrell across the way towards the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry prepared himself for the worst. Although, he had to admit this weren't a particularly "small" incident this time.

Crabbe and Goyle had been tormenting a Hufflepuff second year as Harry noticed passing by on his way to meet Ron and Hermione. He had warned the two if they didn't stop they'd soon regret it. Naturally, they didn't listen. Rather making matters decidedly worse for themselves by shoving the tiny student down against the stone floor. As a result Crabbe currently found himself sprouting Bat wings across his face, while Goyle fished himself from the slime of the Courtyard fountain. Rushing his dimwitted best friend to the infirmary with a lame threat thrown over his shoulder.

An action which of course caught the attention of the Hogwarts High Inquisitor immediately.

"My, my, my. Mr Potter. Care to explain yourself?" She smiled sweetly up at the boy. Harry glared back at the woman before him with an utterly unimpressed expression. "Please, enlighten me, on what possible grounds could one justify such a heinous attack on a fellow pupil?" Silence. Harry didn't trust the words rolling on the tip of his tongue not to make matters infinitely worse than they already were. "Given the circumstances and your rather...unpleasant, track record there really is no alternative. Yes, I'm afraid suspension is the only -"

"It wasn't Harry!" a voice called. Eyes all turned to its source where a girl was striding proudly towards the pair.

"I beg your pardon?" "It was me. I did it, Harry had nothing to do with it." Harrys eyes went wide, mouth falling open slightly at the girls words. "Is that so?" Umbridge spoke in an unconvinced tone. "Yes. They were bullying some second year and I wouldn't stand for it. I hexed Crabbe then stunned Goyle." The girl stood so confidently before them Harry wondered if she weren't crazy. She had to be to confess to such a thing. He didn't even know her name, yes they were in the same year - he'd seen her in a few of his classes but no more than that. Why would she cover for him?

His eyes traced her body, stopping on the tie which hung from her neck. Green. Why on Earth...

"I must say I find your declaration rather unlikely, Miss?"

"[Y/L/N]."

"Miss [Y/L/N]. Seeing as Harry is the one with his wand drawn, standing in the middle of the courtyard and you were not."

"Didn't fancy sticking around after the fact." She stated bluntly. "Check my wand if you dont believe me. See the last spell I cast." The Slytherin pulled her wand from the pocket of her robes, holding it out expectantly for the Teacher to take. "I hardly find that necessary. Potter is clearly the guilty culprit."

"Then why would I confess?"

"To cover for your friend, of course."

"Friend? I'm friend no of Gryffindor."

"Perhaps I'll simply ask the two unfortunate victims of this assault. That ought to clear this matter up."

"They'll never admit to being bested by a Witch. They'll happily feed into your lie that this was Harrys doing. Much to your satisfaction I'm sure."

"My dear girl, why would that ever bring me any satisfaction?"

"Because he's your favourite toy." The girl shot fiercely. "We all know it." Umbridge began grinding her teeth in frustration before her sickly sweet, fake, smile was forced back upon her face. "That's quiet enough." "Is it?"

A crowd had gathered by now, all captivated by the scene before them. By the amount of attitude being spat in their Teachers face.

"Very well, Miss [Y/L/N] if you would accompany me to my office where we can discuss your actions in private."

"Mmm, I wish I could but I don't want to." She smiled. "The walk just isn't worth the punishment you won't give me. Seeing as how I'm Slytherin so, really, why bother with the added leg work."

"This is not a matter of want. It is obligation. It is a direct order a-"

"And I have refused."

"My office, Miss [Y/L/N] now. I won't ask agai-"

"No."

"DETENTION! Miss [Y/L/N]. 6pm. Tomorrow night, my office." The girl grinned before her angry professor "It's a date." "Be late and the repercussions will be...severe." "I wouldn't miss it for the world." She winked, deliberately antagonising her now.

Umbridge turned sharply on her heel, eyeing the gathered crowd with her head held high before strutting away.

Stunned and excited voices began to swirl amongst the onlookers as to what they just witnessed. A Slytherin just stood up for Harry Potter? This was a scandal! It would be interesting to hear the rumours which this sparked through the school by dinner tonight.

"You shouldn't have done that" Harry spoke, finally having found his voice. "You're welcome." "You have no idea what she's like. What she's capable of. What she's-" "You've faced Voldemort head on, don't tell me you're scared of a Strawberry Shitcake in there." She guestured with her head in the direction Umbridge had walked away. Harrys brows furrowed at her comment. He wasn't sure what took him most by surprise; the fact she wasn't afraid to say the true name of You-Know-Who, the amusing nickname for Umbridge or the fact she was making a joke at a time like this. As silence overtook them while he contemplated what had just unfolded the atmosphere quickly became awkward. The pressure of countless eyes bearing down on the pair certainly didn't help.

"Hi, I'm [Y/N] I make jokes when I'm uncomfortable." [Y/N] reached her hand out to Harry in greeting to break the silence between them.

Stunned but rather amused a slight chuckle rolled from the back of Harrys throat while he reached, shaking the outstretched hand.

"Why did you-"

"Save your ass?"

"Yeah."

"Can't let you hold all the attention now can we?' [Y/N] smiled as she placed her hands in her pockets before her smile faded completely. With a quick glance around the square to ensure they were far enough from being within ear shot of anyone over hearing their conversation she continued in a whisper, "Look, I'm a friend of...someone's...who's in your little 'club'. I know what you're doing and I fully support it. So when I heard her talking about your suspension I-I couldn't let that happen."

Harry, yet again, was at a loss as her words clouded his brain. She knew? Who told her? A Slytherin supported him? The swirling of questions made him dizzy and soon found himself feeling very uncomfortable in this situation.

She was so different from any other Slytherin he'd met, she seemed kind and there was something relaxing about being in her presence. Something familiar in the warmth of her smile. The effect she had on him was odd to say the least as he were unable to form a single coherent sentence, left but a stuttering awkward mess.

"You a-you may very well be the first Slytherin to ever get a detention from her." [Y/N] laughed at his comment. Thankful for his ability to restore the light-hearted atmosphere. The two stood staring gleefully between one another for a moment. Perhaps a moment too long...

Harry cleared his throat, running a hand through the soft curls of his untamed hair. "Well I'd-a better get-get going. Ron and Hermione are waiting for me. It's where I was heading before I-I mean you attacked Malfoys cronies." He smiled.

"Yeah, no, of course. I'm sorry to hold you." She spoke sincerely. "Thanks again, if you ever need anything I really owe you." He began walking backwards from her. She nodded in reply before turning to walk back to her friend group when...

"[Y/N]!" Harry was sprinting back towards her. "About that friend of yours, next time they-they're ya know. Tag along. Won't you?" His vivid green eyes flickered frantically between her [E/C] ones. A bright smile spread across her features, "yeah? Okay, absolutely!" "Great! I'll see you there then" Harry had been a bit taken back as she accepted but shock quickly subsidised for something else entirely. Excitement? His heart was fluttering in anticipation as he ran off, a giddy smile on his lips.

Just wait until Ron and Hermione hear about this...

[mbmspeaks]

Hello 2022!

It's 2022! It actually felt good to write down the date in my journal yesterday. Maybe it was all those even numbers? Maybe it's hope for the year to come. Normally I do not make new year's resolutions but this year feels so right for it so I'm going to embrace it. The overall theme is to reset the narrative of my life. I'm not writing a whole new story - just working everyday to be who I want to be to bring positivity to my family, my friends and my community. So for today, I'm going to go back to the words of an ambitious seventeen year old I know well but hadn't re-read them until recently. I told a friend about my college essay asked if I had a copy. My dad came through as usual with a digital copy. So I leave you with these words today:

Jamil Ellis -- Personal Essay - Columbia - 10/31/1994

"Jamil, you're the whitest kid in the school."

Anger ... confusion ... discouragement ... pain .... indifference. The swirl of emotions was dizzying. How could he say that? What did he mean? I look at his dark face and stare into his deep brown eyes, searching for the meaning. But there is none. All I see is ignorance and it makes me sick. I'm sick because I know what he means and that he's not the only one who thinks these thoughts. I have been branded "white." I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being white. It's just that I'm black and I have no desire to change. Why did this young black man feel it was necessary to call me·11white"? What makes me "white11? Well, I've done some research and have discovered that to be black I would have to follow the four commandments:

I."Thou shall only speak Slang."

"White" means speaking proper Eng 1 i sh. "Yo G if you don' t be speakin' da lingo you ain't down." If you receive a good education and learn good grammar, you're a sellout for using this knowledge.

II."Thou shall not excel in academics."

"White" means doing well in school. "Look at Jamil studyin and getting A's. He's always trying to act white." If you are black, you are supposed to be inherently inferior in academics. If you try to exceed this natural intellectual level, you're acting white.

III."Thou shall listen only to music by black artists."

"White" means listening to classical music and Broadway show tunes. I love Shai, Jodeci, Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, and Motown classics but I also love the Soundtracks to Les Miserables, The Sound of Music, and West Side Story. I guess I'm "white."

IV."Thou shall not talk to or befriend whites."

A kid who followed all these rules once told me, "Don't trust white people, they'll stab you in the back." Since my three best friends are white, I guess I'm destined to get stabbed in the back.

I 've broken every one of these commandments throughout my life.. My articulate English has helped me win forensics tournaments. My search for knowledge and academic excellence has put me near the top of my class. My love for music of all kinds has gotten me through times when I felt lonely and depressed. I have the best friends, black or white, anyone could ask for.

They're always there for me. My friendliness, my willingness to make friends with anyone, has allowed me to meet hundreds of people in my school. I was able to gain their trust so that they chose me to lead them as Student Union President.

Since I don't live by stereotypes of what I should be, what makes me tick? I think my drive to succeed has played a pivotal role in my experiences. When I was in sixth grade, I tried out for the basketball team. People thought I was silly to try out for the team. I was the smallest and skinniest boy in the grade. How was I going to play basketball, the sport of giants? Well, I believed in myself and worked hard. The coach saw my effort and put me on the team. That first season I was a bench warmer. I went to all the practices and games but played very little. I never got discouraged and in three years worked my way up to third-string point guard. I wasn't a starter, but I was a contributing member of the team. At the end of the third season, I received the Lion Award. The award is given to a player who has shown tremendous improvement during the course of the season and who puts forth effort. I have always believed that effort is the key to success.

Last year, I ran for president of my school's student union. People said I couldn't win in a school which is 52% Asian. They said I couldn't win because some kid was more popular than I was. I didn't let this talk discourage me. I was confident that I could win. Some people mistake my belief in myself for arrogance, but it isn't.. I believe you have to have a certain level of confidence to accomplish things.

I am confident that Columbia is the right school for me. I am interested in Engineering, but also have strong interests in liberal arts. The core curriculum at Columbia offers the balance I want and the Academic excellence that I've always strived for. I believe that I have much to offer Columbia. I think that Columbia can help me build on my accomplishments and make me a more complete person. Besides, I love New York.

I've accomplished so much by not conforming. I know who I am. I am a young black man in America. If being who I am is "white" to some people, it doesn't matter. I'm not limited by any preconceived notions of what I should be. I define myself.

[prophecyguy]

Ahsoka leaving the order:

Comes as a result of her friend betraying her and the authority she trusts abandoning her i.e. deeply personal

Ties in with a number of recurring themes for a lot of other characters who have had adjacent arcs to Ahsoka, like Ventress being sympathetic to young girls in peril, Anakin's trust in the Council fracturing, Barriss being emotionally repressed and isolated, etc.

Is a satisfying conclusion to two arcs that began right back in the Clone Wars movie, those being 1) if Anakin will be able to let go of his apprentice and 2) Ahsoka's passion to become a Jedi dulling as the war progresses until she realises that the order doesn't care about her and leaves

Ezra taking the space whale train to the plot void:

Comes as a result of a whale ex machina kinda set up in exactly one previous episode and was completely unnecessary (seriously Ezra did not need to stay to make sure Thrawn got whaled into oblivion, I'm pretty sure he was going into the void whether Ezra was there or not). The only possible justification is that vague vision he had at the start of the finale which MAY have given him a plan, but sure as fuck didn't tell us why he had to disappear

Is completely isolated to Ezra and Thrawn and involves no one else except maybe Sabine who enabled Ezra going to the Chimera, which is a very weird way to end a show so revolved around family and not doing everything alone. So not only is Ezra separated from his family so he can restrain a villain, it's not even a villain he has a dynamic with. Ezra and Thrawn have NO relationship, they're just aware of each other until the last few episodes where they meet and have a pretty cookie cutter interaction. Contrast this with Ahsoka's two antagonists, Ventress (at first) and Barriss, both of whom she had an established dynamic with

Ezra's decision to leave everyone behind seems to me to almost go against his arc. His whole shtick was learning not to go it alone and not just look out for number one, but when the finale comes he leaves his family behind when they still need him (the war is far from over after all, and with Kanan gone they'll need Ezra more than ever). The only theme I can kinda see it following (that World Between Worlds really tried to set up last minute) is self sacrifice when necessary, which Ezra would learn from watching Kanan and (seemingly) Ahsoka die to save others. But this doesn't work because Ezra's sacrifice didn't save anyone. The plot whales had already wiped out the imperials, everyone was already safe, Ezra didn't need to to sacrifice himself just to take out Thrawn (also not to be grimdark but if taking out Thrawn was so important he could have just stabbed him and bolted from the ship). His sacrifice didn't matter except to the vague vision plan that only he knew

I know that on a meta level, both Ahsoka and Ezra's departures were because continuity is a thing and we can't have these teenagers mucking up the movies. But the difference is that Ahsoka's departure didn't feel like that, it felt like a logical part of her story that also conveniently removed her from the story before ROTS. Ezra's disappearance on the other hand, just felt like it was tacked onto his arc and it was painfully obvious that it was just to get rid of him in a way that mean he wasn't dead but he also wouldn't fuck up A New Hope. So yeah.

not to be a downer but the way filoni got ahsoka out of the way before ROTS was done a million times better than how he got rid of ezra before ANH