#before anyone asks yes I have seen a lot of people suggesting Mark Hamil for Mutran too

[kanohivolitakk]

One thing I noticed is that while most fans have drastically different ideas on voice claims for various Bionicle characters lacking canon voices, the idea of Mark Hamil and Steve Blum being the voice claims for Vezon and Takadox respectively seems to be a nearly universally agreed upon headcanon.

[kylorenpunk]

Do them all. Suffer as I did 😂

Bitch I told you this was our friendship. We force each other to answer all the questions. 

1. selfie

Well… I wasn’t dubbed Selfie Queen for nothing… 

This one is interesting bc I have zero makeup on. The most recent ones are too blurry. A lot of my fav selfies are full faces of makeup tho. 

2. what would you name your future kids?

I feel like that’s a decision for both parents but I really like the names Felicity, Isabella and Dimitri. Yes, all of them are names from various franchises I enjoyed throughout the years. Be glad I’m out of my phase where I thought Vladimir was a good name. 

3. do you miss anyone?

I miss all my friends I don’t get to see frequently. Love all of y’all and hope y’all are doing well in life! 

4. what are you looking forward to?

Fucking graduating. Jesus Christ it’s taken me five damn years. 

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?

From my club it’s Chris, Yara and Josephine. Also my entire friend group from back home. Honestly I love my friends so much. 

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?

I feel like every situation is different so that’s a tough question to answer. 

7. what was your life like last year?

I honestly don’t remember much from December of last year. It was a good time though. 

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

I’m an emotional bitch. I’ll cry over anything. I cried over fucking Mulan the other day. 

9. who did you last see in person?

My parents and brother. Earlier in the day my club. 

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?

I’m shit at it. My face gives away everything. The other day my professor was going into her inspiration porn narrative and I just gave her a cold dead look the entire time. 

11. are you listening to music right now?

No but I have the Hamilton soundtrack stuck in my head right now since that’s what I was last listening to. If you haven’t heard it I highly suggest it. Man I wanna see it so badly. 

12. what is something you want right now?

Sleep but I’m trying not to throw off my sleep schedule right now and am waiting a bit before going to bed. I only got three hours of sleep last night so that’s fun. 

13. how do you feel right now?

Kinda tired. Relieved that I got two service projects in a row done today. It’s been a long weekend. 

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

My friend Sebastian hugged me when I dropped him off. I guess that counts. 

15. personality description

I’m a makeup loving nerd who enjoys sitting in pajamas watching anime and superheros as much as she enjoys swatching EVERY lipstick in Sephora. According to my friends I can’t go 5 seconds without mentioning how old I feel and my love for Dungeons and Dragons. I’m also an asshole. (Wow this sounds like a 12 year old writing this)

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

Yeah tons of times. It’s bitten me in the ass. Oh well live and learn I guess? 

17. opinion on insecurities.

Everyone has them? If they say they don’t then they are lying. Mine is mainly related to my appearance or how I speak. 

18. do you miss how thing were a year ago?

I miss how things were in the beginning of this year. It started off strong then kinda turned into a shit show. 

19. have you ever been to New York?

No but it’s my top thing on my bucket list. My friends and I are highly considering a trip. 

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?

Of all time: Get Low by Lil Jon 

Currently: “Told You So” by Little Mix (If you haven’t heard their new album I highly suggest it if you love girl groups that preach women empowerment) 

21. age and birthday?

22 - June 21st (She’s a Cancer)

22. description of crush.

I don’t have a hardcore crush right now. More like 5 second crushes that are over the second they do something I don’t like. 

Edit: Currently “celebrity?” crush is Nathan Sharp. I am seriously considering dropping $55 to see him at a convention this month. 

23. fear(s)

Heights, something terrible happening to my loved ones, wild snakes, and the usual common anxiety fears 

24. height

Five foot three inches. I’m short. Yes I know it’s not that short but tall people like to put me in the short category anyway. 

25. role model

My mom’s coworker who was my internship supervisor. She has a doctorate’s in what I want to do and is amazing at what she does. The amount of knowledge and experience that women has is incredible. She is also extremely funny and knows how to teach with a sense of humor which I appreciate. 

26. idol(s)

Celebrity idols? I don’t really idolize celebrities bc humans are humans and have flaws. 

27. things i hate

Immaturity, intolerance of differences, demeaning slurs, The Last Jedi, and the new Fantastic Beasts movie 

28. i’ll love you if…

Play with my hair, are kind to my friends and family, share common interests, show an interest in what I have to say, basically respect me and those close to me and we’re good 

29. favourite film(s)

Hairspray, High School Musical, The Greatest Showman, Stardust, The Harry Potter series, Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy

30. favourite tv show(s)

Jane the Virgin, Naruto (fuck off I hate myself too ok), the first three seasons of Arrow before it turned to shit

31. 3 random facts

I’m not artistically talented but I genuinely enjoy makeup and creating looks

I have a nonverbal brother with autism and he’s my favorite person ever

I completely programmed my brother’s communication device by myself 

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?

Now my friends are mainly girls but when I lived in Tampa 90% of my friends over there were guys (Hi Mason). I’m going to say that’s bc of us all playing video games in the Delta lounge (RIP Dirty D). But yeah now it’s mainly girls and 80% of my dude friends are gay. 

33. something you want to learn

Sign Language. Ice skating. Hairstyling. Fashion (I’m trying to be better about putting clothes together). Also I’m down to learn more about makeup and techniques 

34. most embarrassing moment

Either farting while doing an air guitar in front of my entire girl scout troop

or signing to my friend that I liked her friend at a party and his brother repeated what I had signed out loud in front of everyone

wait. No. When I F U C K E D  up in front a super hot guy while volunteering and then chose an 18 year old jock as my wingman. 18 year olds are dumbasses. Don’t use them as wingmen. Fuck you Khaled. 

35. favourite subject

In grade school I think it was English or History. It really all depended on the year. 

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

VISIT NEW YORK 

Hike the Smokey Mountains 

Visit Europe 

37. favourite actor/actress

Chris Evans (especially when he is trying to fight orange president on twitter) 

Also Mark Hamill is perfect 

38. favourite comedian(s)

I don’t watch comedians often. I guess the Fluffy guy? 

39. favourite sport(s)

The only time I give a shit about sports is when my university is undefeated or playing my first university in football. Or the soccer world cup if it’s on. However I appreciate the skill it takes to do a sport. 

40. favourite memory

San Antonio. It was my first time traveling without family and it was the greatest time. It was such a cool city 

41. relationship status 

Single - I take my sweet ass time 

42. favourite book(s)

Eragon (No, I haven’t finished the entire series. No, I don’t want spoilers bc I will do it eventually.) 

43. favourite song ever

“Get Low” by Lil Jon 

“Look Through My Eyes” by Phil Collins 

44. age you get mistaken for

Last year I got mistaken twice in a row within an hour for a middle schooler. I was 21 at at that time. During my internship one of the parents asked me if I had any kids. I’m either mistaken as a parent or as a 13-15 year old. There is no in between.  

45. how you found out about your idol

N/A since I don’t have an idol

46. what my last text message says

“lmao it’s alright” to Joey but the previous one is more funny “thankfully no one threw up this time” in regards to my friend’s party last night

47. turn ons

Well I aint about to talk about my sex life so let’s go with personality 

Common interests such as superheros or anime, charismatic, easy to get along with, common goals in life, cares about their loved ones, has passion, and someone I can hold an intellectual conversation with 

48. turn offs

rudeness, immaturity, inattentiveness, bad tempers, superiority complex, not being genuine, judging others, treating people like objects, and general lack of care for others or themselves

49. where i want to be right now

Back in the smokey mountains in a cabin watching movies and anime

50. favourite picture of your idol

N/A 

51. starsign

She’s an emotional Cancer

52. something i’m talented at

Apparently I’m good with kids      Makeup too I guess? 

53. 5 things that make me happy

friends, family, nerdy shit, makeup and Kakashi

54. something thats worrying me at the moment

Some shit happened last night that has me worried for some friends but I’m sure they’ll figure it out 

55. tumblr friends

A shit ton of y’all I know IRL. I won’t tag y’all bc that’s annoying af 

Joey’s my only internet friend @earthschampion (answer my text bitch) 

56. favourite food(s)

pasta, empanadas, crab rangoons, taziki sauce 

57. favourite animal(s)

Meerkats and koala bears

58. description of my best friend

K @burnitstronger: realest damn friend you will ever have. Will tell you how it is and provide never ending love and support. Never understands my dumbass shenanigans but loves me anyway. Love you boo 

J : Will also tell you how it is and forces you to watch Naruto and ruin your damn life. Will happily go with you to eat junk food after class. Will fight anyone who wrongs you and is def still plotting revenge on all my ex’s. Stans Loona

M: Will scream at you in Leo in a frightening but loving way. Has the best damn fashion sense I have ever seen. Is the friend that comes by when I need her to and brings a shit ton of snacks and love (J does this as well).

59. why i joined tumblr

I was bored on fourth of July in 2012 and my friends kept telling me that this website would be fun. Also the avengers “fandom” from back then 

60. ask me anything you want

I would say I’m sorry Mason but I enjoy making all my friends suffer. Make sure to give him a follow bc he’s cool. @masonjar828

[sophygurl]

For my first Meta Me prompt, @c-l-ford​ asked me to expand some on the stuff we talked about at the Themes of The Last Jedi panel I moderated at WisCon, which is lovely.

Since I’m no good at taking notes while actually being on a panel myself, I send you to check the # where folks at the panel were livetweeting if you want an overall picture of what my amazingly thoughtful panelists had to say over here.

What I’m gonna do here is just riff off my own pre-panel notes and maybe dig in to some of the stuff I didn’t get to at the panel since I was more concerned with letting my panelists get their say in.

My interest in suggestion and then volunteering to be on the panel, and about it specifically being about the themes of the movie, and about focusing specifically on The Last Jedi itself, was threefold. First is the controversy around the movie and why so many people had a bad reaction to it, secondly my interest in trilogies themselves and how difficult the second part of a trilogy can be, and thirdly just digging into the narrative themes of a story in general is exciting to me. 

So, firstly, let me get into my opinion on how TLJ fits into the wider SW universe, because I think a lot of the criticisms of the movie fell into this category. 

There absolutely were parts of the movie that felt off to me? Some of the humor didn’t feel SW-ey to me, and the fight choreography was a little strange (that whole red room scene just kills me - IK SW is always a bit extra but that was extra squared MIRite?), and even the theme music felt ... different in ways I still haven’t been able to really contextualize. So I sympathize with people who didn’t like the movie or just felt it wasn’t good AS a Star Wars movie even if they did like it generally. 

But I also disagree with them. Because while some of that stuff felt off to me, those were small things in comparison to the overall narrative. And I feel like a lot of the complaints about the movie were ~about~ that narrative and how they didn’t feel like it fit within the SW framework well. And I disagree wholeheartedly with that. I think if you compare TLJ with the second parts of really any trilogy - not just SW ones - you’ll see that it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.

So what is the second part of a trilogy supposed to do, you ask? It’s supposed to crush you. It’s supposed to crush the spirits of the characters. It’s the big awful climax before the reversal of fortune that starts to set things to rights again.

Think of it this way: 

Part 1 is all about setting up the characters and the world, introducing us to what the struggle is about, showing us how our protags are going to fight back, etc. It’s going to be hopeful by it’s very nature because why tf would we care about the story if we’re not invested in the outcome being favorable to the main characters in the end, right? 

And Part 3 is all about the resolution. We’ve finally figured out how to actually win the good fight, the romantic arcs are coming together, families are reuniting, whatever themes the narrative has set up are coming to fruition, etc. So this one is also full of hope and optimism. Even if it’s not an overall happy ending, there will be some kind of ray of light at the end - a coda showing how the characters might someday recover from their trauma perhaps, or how the human race might prevail because of the sacrifices of our protags, whatever. Something to show it was not in all vain. 

So what is Part 2? Part 2 is the shitshow. Part 2 is everything falling apart for our heroes - especially at the end. I think about another of my favorite trilogies - The Hunger Games. And at the end of Catching Fire, we have Katniss confused, angry, betrayed by one of the few people she ever allowed herself to trust, one of the other few captured by the enemy, and her entire home district burned to the ground. Super dark ending. There’s a little slip of hope there - her other trusted friend is alive, her little sister is alive, and they’re all safely underground with heretofore unknown allies. But it’s still pretty bleak.

And it’s bleak because it’s not the end. There’s still an entire book (or 2 whole movies whichever way you look at it) of fighting left to do. We need Katniss motivated to stay in the fight, so having someone she loves to save is a good thing to give her. And we need her to remain conflicted about the fight, hence her continued and quite reasonable distrust of ... just about everyone and everything. And we need to be, as the audience, a bit confused and conflicted about what’s going on because - here’s the crux - we need to remain invested enough to pick up that third book (or go see those next 2 movies). 

Same with a Star Wars trilogy. If we could see from episode 8 how the resistance was going to save the day, how invested would we be in episode 9? I mean, yea, lots of us will watch anything SW gives us to watch, so they wouldn’t necessarily be hurting for movie sales or anything. But to really keep the fandom truly invested, truly glued to our seats waiting anxiously to see how the story unfolds, episode 8 has to end on a fairly bleak note. 

Compare it to episode 2, Empire Strikes Back. Luke has just found out who Vader is to him, he’s lost his hand, they’ve lost Han in the carbon freeze, Lando has betrayed them, and they have no idea how they’re going to pick up the pieces and move on. All they know is - they’re going to try.

And here we come to the end of episode 8, TLJ, and the resistance is down to minuscule numbers, we’ve lost Luke, we the audience know we’re gonna have to lose Leia (I’m not crying - YOU are), and it all feels bleaker than bleak.

But then. But then. We have Rey asking Leia - how do we do this, how are we going to build a resistance out of this? And Leia smiles softly and says “we have all we need.” Does Leia know some secret strategy she’s not shared with the others? Does she have a cache of weapons and other resources stashed away? Has she somehow heard that their allies from far away places are coming to their rescue? Eh, we don’t know, but likely not. 

What Leia knows is that even their small band of rebel fighters has the ability to overcome the terrible odds because she’s seen it happen before. She knows that even if this group of fighters in this generation don’t win, the resistance will live on and eventually the tyranny of the First Order will be brought down. 

And what do we see in the very next scene? The little slave boy who Rose and Finn met at Canto Bight has Rose’s ring, and he’s telling stories of resistance and hope to his fellow slaves, and ooop - what else? He’s force sensitive. He might not even know that about himself yet, but WE see the broom fly a few inches in the air towards his open hand. This is a kid who is going to join the fight as soon as he’s able. And he won’t be the only one. 

Where ever there are downtrodden, there will be a spirit of resistance. THIS is what Leia knows. And this is the small light of hope we the audience are meant to take with us into the third part of this trilogy. 

Our heroes in TLJ, like our heroes in ESB, have no idea how they’re going to pick up the pieces and move on. All they know is - they’re going to try. And that’s enough to keep us engaged. That’s enough to keep us wanting more. So did TLJ do it’s job as the second installment of a trilogy? My vote is yes. Yes it did.

So what of the themes of TLJ themselves, and how they fit in to the SW universe? Hope is a major theme of any Star Wars movie, and as a panel we found that TLJ was indeed about hope, but it was also about failure. And more than that, it was about how the two interplay with one another.

As far as failure goes, we have plenty of characters who have failed or felt as if they have failed or been failed by someone.

We have Luke feeling he failed Ben, Rey telling him she thinks Ben failed him, Rey feeling she failed at getting Luke’s cooperation, Luke feeling he’s failed Rey as yet another student, Yoda talking about the failures of the Jedi and explaining to Luke how failure itself can be a lesson, and a teacher. 

We have Rose and Finn failing to find the codebreaker, but finding DJ instead, and all of the reversals of fortune that happen with that story back and forth. We have Poe failing to learn from his mistakes, finally learning at the end just as he fails to impart that wisdom to Finn. We have Rey and Kylo failing to turn one another, Kylo failing to enact revenge on Luke, and Luke failing to get through to Kylo even at the last. We have the resistance failing to get through to their allies. We have Holdo failing to save her people even as she sacrifices herself. 

But we don’t only have failure. We also have Luke finally deciding to get involved again, and making the hard choices to sacrifice himself for the resistance. We have Rey letting go of the idea of saving Kylo and rejoining the resistance efforts, saving them all on Crait with the Jedi rock moving trick. And to be fair, we had Rey and Kylo fighting together to kill Snoke. And we have Rose saving Finn with her message of love. 

But mostly, I think, we have Luke back as a *symbol* of hope. He’s always been that for us. One of the most difficult parts of TLJ for a lot of fans (and seemingly for Mark Hamill himself) was how hopeless Luke had become. Luke not only felt like a failure, he felt as though his failure was the cause of everything bad happening. Going further than that, he felt that any interaction he might take in the world would only make it worse. 

Rey coming to him on Ach-To terrifies him. He can’t be her teacher - look what happened the last time he had the audacity to teach! He can’t save anyone, all he does it make things worse. He may have held his father’s dying body in his arms in an act of redemptive love, but he still acknowledges that the evil Vader was capable of runs in his veins. He’s absolutely petrified by the very idea of being a symbol of anything to anybody at this point.

When he was young, he may have messed up a lot, but he always got back up and dusted himself off, and kept trying. He knew he could do great things in the world and he did - he did them. He blew up the death star, he allowed his father a redemptive death, he stopped the evil Empire, he became a Jedi. It took, well, it took arrogance to do those things. It took hubris to accomplish those things, something the young are good at. 

As an older man who has born witness to more failures, who has failed his beloved sister and best friend’s child in the worst way possible, and who has sealed himself off from the world and the force within himself as well - he is no longer filled with hope. He is now scared of the very hubris that allowed him to do great things in the world. So when a new youngster, full of the force, full of the kind of hubris that says “I won’t fail you!”, full of the arrogance of the young who know deep within themselves that they have the power to beat the stronger forces opposing them? He fails once again, through his fear.

He fails to step up. He fails to take on the teaching of Rey. He fails to come back to speak with the nephew he’s failed. He fails to reach out to his sister and his friends and his allies. 

And so he also fails the audience’s expectations of him, as our great hero, as our symbol of hope and willingness to fight back against the monsters who face us. 

Does it make all the sense in the world for Luke to feel the way he does? You betcha. Does that ease the sense of disappointment that Rey, and R2, and us in the audience feel? Not really, no. But that’s all part of the narrative of TLJ. Reversals of fortune, failure and trying again, hope and hopelessness, light and dark, and finally, maybe, hopefully - balance? 

Luke does finally step up, though, right? He gives comfort to his sister and the other rebels on Crait. He takes a stand against Kylo. He makes it clear that he knows he can’t save him, but instead is going to fight against the evil that he helped to create with his own failure. It’s his job to give the world that fighting chance again, and so he does it. He does it with all of the drama and panache of a Skywalker. And he uses up all of his force strength and energy in the process.

In the end, we lose Luke; but we also get him back. He’s our hope again. He shows us that it’s not too late, it’s never too late, to take a stand and fight for what’s right. He shows us that we can stand and face our mistakes and do our best to make them right. He shows us that even if we can’t make them right, we can try. See Yoda? Sometimes there is such thing as trying, and sometimes that effort is what counts the most. 

Also, of course, we know we haven’t seen the last of Luke. We’ll see his force ghost, I’m sure, before this story concludes. And now that he’s regained his own sense of hope and strength in the face of failure - he can pass that on to Rey, and anyone else who might need such a message.

Luke is not the only character who regains some sense of self and hope in the face of oppression, of course. We have the iconic moment when Phasma tells Finn that he’s just a bug in the system, that he’s always been scum. Her intent is to weaken Finn’s sense of self. But Finn has found, through his journey with Rose, a new resolve to fight back against the First Order and those who enable them. So his reply to Phasma telling him he’s scum? “Rebel scum.” 

Finn’s journey from the first moment we see him has been about reclaiming his own identity. He’s struggled with it, though. He wants to fight back, but he wants to escape the First Order more than that. What he ends up wanting even more than escape, however, turns out to be the safety of his new friends - Han, Rey, Poe, and now Rose. He cares for these people and abandons his quest to get as far away from the First Order as possible when he finds that any of them are in danger. 

And finally, in Canto Bight, he realizes that it’s not just these few individuals that he’s come to know and care for that are in danger. It’s worlds full of people who he was, unwittingly, a part of oppressing as a stormtrooper. And when he and Rose ride the fathiers through the corrupt city, tearing it apart and freeing the abused animals, he feels enough satisfaction that even though he feels sure that they’re about to get caught - he says it was worth it. 

Finn, whose only goal since we met him was to be free of oppression himself, looks around at how he’s upset the applecart around him, knowing himself caught and about to be jailed or possibly killed for his actions, and he says: it was worth it. Damn. That’s powerful. 

Add that to his reply to Phasma, his claiming the title of “rebel scum”, tying his identity to the resistance, and deciding once and for all to truly fight against the First Order, and well -  I think we have another great symbol of hope here. That Finn immediately goes and tries to sacrifice himself in the battle on Crait, and is then saved by Rose who tells him we won’t win by fighting what we hate but by saving what we love, just gives us even more hope and light to see by. 

So we have:

Luke’s sacrifice and re-imaging as a symbol of hope

Leia’s soft promise that the resistance has all it needs already

Rey saving her friends with her force strength despite her lack of training

Poe learning his lesson about listening to his superiors and how that impacts his own leadership

Finn claiming his identity as part of the rebellion 

Rose’s message of love

Yoda’s message of redemption through the acceptance of failure - for individuals as well as for the Jedi religion

Holdo’s big sacrifice 

The hope that some of their allies are still out there and coming to help

The hope of future generations, as seen through the slave boy on Canto Bight

Was The Last Jedi a hopeful movie? I’d argue that, ultimately, it is. Was it also bleak as fuck? Yup. The two can exist together. Just as Luke can symbolize failure and success, hope and hopelessness, hubris and disgrace; TLJ can be a bleak movie with a hopeful message. 

We’re still in the second act here, folks. Things will get brighter soon enough. We just have to be patient.