#ben solo is one of the best star wars characters

[tljisthegoat]

Disney turned many to The Dark Side by not giving us more of our Prince of Darkness & Light, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Only reason I'm sad that The Acolyte got cancelled after one season is because we about to see the worst side of Star Wars fandom come together to celebrate and be racist and sexist in the process, but other then that, stopped giving a shit for this show as soon as they decided to kill of Yord and Jecki and then went down the Reylo route, killing off Sol in the process of going down said route.

[angelltheninth]

How would star wars character relax their S/O?

A Star Wars request, lets go! Miss writing for this fandom.

Pairing: Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Ben "Kylo Ren" Solo, Rey, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Din Djarin, Sabine Wren, Shin Hati x Reader

Tags: fluff, established relationship, relaxation, cuddles, kissing, literal sleeping together

Ko-Fi | Rules | Fandoms and Characters | Commissions

A/N: Feel particularly sleepy today. The weather sucks. I need cuddles from my favorite characters.

ANAKIN

Pulls you into bed with him and doesn't let you do anything work related for the rest of the day. Don't even think about anything work related when you're spending time with him, he is your beacon for a stress-free zone. He kisses your forehead while you cuddle, his hands pressing into your tense muscles. Considers it a great achievement when you fall asleep in his arms like that.

LUKE

Invites you to a meditation session with him. Might sounds silly but it really helps relax both the mind and the body, clear your thoughts, let go off all the stressful things of the day. His hands reach for yours, constantly rubbing his thumbs over the back of your hands to help you relax further. If you can't relax he will talk you through it, giving you his words of affection to focus on.

BEN

Oh he is not the best at relaxing, in fact he might be one of the worst people in the galaxy for that. But if there's anything he can be proud of is that he really does try to help you de-stress. It's a little aggressive still, he wants to be close to you, give you a few little kisses but passion soon takes over. And while that can help you relax in certain ways you'd much prefer a simple cuddle session.

REY

You tell her she should take care of herself as much as she's taking care of you. This confuses how her. How will this help you relax? Well, if she isn't freaking out about you all the time and how much she has to work to give you the things you want then you would both be able to relax together, which would also mean more quality time spent together.

LEIA

Tells you to get as comfortable as you can be because she's gonna give you the best massage you've ever had in your life. She hadn't given many but she did get a lot of massages growing up. It's the perks of being royalty and she's confident she can help you relax the same way. She goes a little too hard on the knots in your shoulders but eventually she does hear you sigh in relief.

HAN

Will take your mind off anything stressful by telling about the latest heist offer he got. Yeah, the job is pretty reckless, but it sounds fun. He won't really go on this specific heist mind you, the pay is too low for someone of his caliber, but he's telling you how it could go, making you laugh by doing so. Making you laugh is all the reward he needs at the end of the day.

OBI-WAN

Has a whole relaxing evening planned out perfectly by the time you get home, no detail will escape him. It's almost too perfectly planned, so much so that he puts all that pressure on himself but hopes his charming smile is enough to distract from that. Won't put that pressure on you, he only wants you to relax and let him do things for you for a change. You deserve to relax after a long day of work.

DIN

The man is a great listener and cuddler and he will use both of those skill sets to help you unwind. Whatever you need to say to get things off your chest you can say it to him, and he will do his best to take care of the problem. Not necessary by going in and taking care of the problem personally, but just offering advice. But if his personal intervention is necessary he will go in and clean up the mess.

SABINE

Latches onto you whenever she can. She acts like she's a sponge that will absorb all of your stress, she will soak it up and help it melt away. Every time she notices you're feeling stressed, or pent up or sad there's a hug waiting for you, big or small it hardly matters to her how long you want her to hug you. It's important that you know she's there for you whenever you need her.

SHIN

Isn't good at giving advice or dealing with stress. She's not someone who considers herself a stressed person so the feeling is unfamiliar to her, she doesn't know how to help you. That being said she will at least listen, really listen to what you have to say and the reasons why you're stressed. At the end all she can offer you is her closeness, her presence there, but even that is enough.

[ariainstars]

Why Is Star Wars No Longer About Heroism?

Ever since the prequels, the Star Wars franchise has emphasized over and over that the Jedi were everything but all-wise, flawless heroes. That needed to be said, and the fan’s vicious reaction to that was and is often disgraceful.

However, thinking back now: I guess most fans could accept the way the Jedi are portrayed as being flawed as long as someone else was the hero in their stead.

A story’s protagonist must not always be and look cool (I already wrote at length about this), and they do not necessarily need a villain as a foil just to point out “this is the hero because the villain is his opponent”. But in some way or another, they must be heroic; it must be clear enough to see why their story is worth being told. As viewers, we want someone we can identify with, in a way we can understand and cheer for.

The Saga: Prequels

Revenge of the Sith is a very dramatic story about a damnation, and for one movie, that’s perfectly fine. But if the franchise keeps telling stories where someone fails and dies, becomes a worse version of themselves or doesn’t mature at all, why should the fans still want to watch them?

The Saga: Classics

Luke Skywalker was a fantastic hero because he chose forgiveness instead of revenge; an unusual turn of events for an action movie, but something almost every viewer understands. While the saga has a lot to do with fatalism, Luke set his own will and choice against the terrible fate of being the biological son of his and his friend’s greatest enemy, and he was proven right. Even Darth Vader was a hero in the end, because by saving his son, he overcame his hatred (the way Luke had implored him to). Return of the Jedi ended with a huge celebration and a family reunited.

The Saga: Sequels

One of the things I loved most about The Last Jedi was the promise of a better future for the characters and for the entire franchise. By denying its narrative threads, ignoring it, even trying to “patch it up” with the subsequent movie, the entire trilogy lost its sense. No one became a hero in the end, overcoming themselves. (Luke overcame himself once more, but he already was a hero.) And it’s not like there wasn’t the potential for the other characters, on the contrary.

Finn and Poe both learned important lessons, but it’s made clear from the start that they are good guys; they do not change considerably like Kylo Ren who redeems himself or like Luke who from a simple farmboy matured into a powerful Jedi.

Kylo Ren alias Ben Solo is the most tragic hero of the saga because not only did he die young and healthy and without ever having been a hero (unlike Anakin, whose heroics we can admire on and on in The Clone Wars), but because he disappears into nothing. He could have saved the Canto Bight children undoing Anakin’s curse at the Jedi temple; he could have found what Balance in the Force means and left the legacy to Rey; she could have fallen to the Dark Side and he could have redeemed himself to get her out. (To an extent, he does, but that is not clear enough since we never see her actually doing evil.)

Ben doesn’t even leave a charred helmet behind. If Rey, who grew up in the middle of nowhere, knew that Vader had redeemed himself, then this was a galaxy-known fact; and the same young woman ran from the place where her soulmate had died into the arms of her best friends and told no one of what he had done to save her, so that in the end, the last Skywalker scion did not even die with honour. Not only does that taint the Skywalker family legacy, it also deprives the sequels of their only character who really could have been interesting by becoming heroic against all odds, and the only relationship (Dark / Light / Balance) that was really new and groundbreaking.

In-Between

The Mandalorian was immediately beloved because it tells of a man who gives up his cruel profession to take care of a child, although it belongs of a species he has never heard of and has powers which he doesn’t understand.

Rogue One and Andor were the stories of people who become heroic despite the adversities even if it costs them their lives.

The Bad Batch was generally well received because it tells of these five guys who all stick together to protect their little sister. One of them even goes from belonging to them to betraying them and then going back again.

The Clone Wars and Rebels are about people being or becoming heroic, not simply by killing the bad guys but by facing their own weaknesses.

I didn’t hate the prequels, Solo, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Acolyte (although I heard of many fans who do). I find these stories mediocre. But again: please tell me what is heroic about what these characters do. They go through some crisis, but they don’t emerge as heroes because they already were; except for Boba who remains stuck between being villain and hero. Qui-Gon frees little Anakin from slavery, Han Solo gets his freedom and his ship, Mando gets Grogu back, Obi-Wan saves Leia etc. They don’t learn and become better people from what they went through. Hardly anyone will watch these stories staying glued to the screen, with baited breath, eager to learn what will happen next. Why should we?

Women in Star Wars

Rey was criticized more than enough by the fans for being all too perfect, and with good reason; but let’s face it, it’s a typical Star Wars mistake. Unless they are villains like Morgan Elsbeth or Asajj Ventress, females in Star Wars are always heroic from the start. Maybe they mature somewhat, but they have no major flaws and weaknesses they need to overcome like the male characters. That is also why I believe fans tend to viciously attack the Star Wars heroines: not because they hate women in general or female heroes.

If you want to create interesting new Star Wars content, among other things you need the guts to portray females as doing wrong. At best, they’re ambiguous like Holdo or Master Vernestra. The first shows that she’s a heroine after all, the second doesn’t, but neither undergoes a major change. If the sequels had ended with Rey being the villain, that would have spared the studios a lot of criticism against the “all too flawless heroine” and set up the next trilogy with a powerful, already defined female villain.

Osha from The Acolyte is a weird mixture - she does kill Master Sol in revenge and her light sabre bleeds red, but does that mean that she is a villain now? She was understandably very angry with the man who had lied to her and destroyed her home, but that she went as far as actually killing him was uncalled for: it was a spontaneous choice sprung from anger about something that had happened years earlier. Anakin’s dark deeds were a conscious decision made from despair, made in hope of saving the future. His fate felt tragic. Osha does not feel tragic: in the end she is neither a fallen hero we can mourn nor a heroine we can root and feel happy for.

Where’s the Bottom Line?

Most viewers can’t identify with characters who are perpetually down on their luck, who they already know will end badly, or who never really get anywhere. If characters don’t always look aloof and roguish, even fail sometimes, that’s good: it makes them more human than the campy protagonists of older stories. But as a viewer, you want to take something home. Stories that don’t go anywhere leave you feeling high and dry. I accepted that The Last Jedi left so much unsaid and undone because I was willing to wait the two years to see how the story would be wrapped up: to say that I was disappointed would be a huge understatement. And the elements of that storyline weren’t picked up and continued even to this day.

Children and young people in particular want to take examples and role models from stories. Conflicted and human characters are acceptable as long as their conflict is clearly defined and, in the end, they overcome it.

When characters lose all the time or their experiences don’t lead them anywhere, we’re just frustrated. It must not necessarily be in the context of a war: consider simple, early Disney movies where Snow White finds a place to stay doing hard work after she was almost murdered, or where Cinderella is kind to the animals in her house although she’s reduced to the status of a servant. A hero must not necessarily have a weapon in their hand. They must undergo a trial, be in danger from the outside and or run the risk of becoming bitter and aggressive, but emerge as better than they were in one way or another.

Stories about losers and victims, or even about flawless heroes, can be interesting up to a certain point. But they’re not satisfying. The Star Wars classics are still unmatched because over six years, they told a story that is nuanced and multilayered yet entertaining, and that leaves the viewers with a sense of happiness and fulfilment, and even excitement about possible future developments. If the franchise doesn’t pick up this kind of storytelling again, I’m afraid it’s destined to die, because no one will know what the point in watching it is any more.

[unexpectedreylo]

So, It Wasn't Planned After All

https://x.com/RichEisenShow/status/1734703529552699725?s=20

While Adam Driver is making the rounds to promote "Ferrari," he drops by the Rich Eisen Show and when asked about Ben Solo during the True or False segment, Adam spills the tea.

He doesn't get asked much about Star Wars so this is the first time I think he's talked about his character arc since TROS was unleashed upon us 4 years ago. And he drops the bomb that the Ben Solo thing wasn't planned from the beginning. That's right, Bendemption happened late in the game. He says that JJ Abrams told him the idea was Vader In Reverse (starts out vulnerable, ends entrenched in the dark side) and he kept that concept in mind throughout the time he filmed the ST, until they changed it with the last film. Adam has alluded to the concept of Vader In Reverse before but this is the first time he's gone into greater detail about it, including the revelation that the decision to turn Kylo from the dark side came during the third film.

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone who read the Duel of the Fates script and it explains why Ben hardly says a word during his scenes on Exegol. Abrams and Co. conceived of Kylo Ren as an evil bastard whose destiny was to get eviller; killing Han Solo was meant to be what sent him down the path of no return. Then two things happened: TLJ and Driver's commitment to humanizing Kylo Ren. People loved Kylo and Rey together (hence Reylo exploding in popularity) and they fell in love with Adam. They empathized with Kylo. So they changed course with TROS, a little. Kylo returns to the light as Ben but he is quickly dispatched once the big battle is over. I believe Ben's death was for two reasons: one, they were less invested and focused in Ben's part of the story than we were and two, there was always the intent to end the Skywalker line so Star Wars could focus on new characters. Remember, Rey essentially turned Skywalker into a title that could be transferred to anyone.

That the story changed over the course of the trilogy isn't that big a deal. There was no Chosen One prophecy until the prequels. Leia wasn't Luke's sister until Lucas wrote ROTJ. Han wasn't guaranteed to get out of carbonite because nobody was sure if Harrison Ford was going to come back. Instead of a tyrannical, ruthless bastard like Lee Pace's emperor in Apple TV's Foundation show, Kylo Ren gave us quivering lips, teary eyes, and mooning over the heroine who is supposed to be his enemy. When Rian Johnson introduced the bond between Rey and Kylo, Abrams and Terrio explained it as a dyad and made it prominent in the film. The kiss got put in because Reylo was so popular. Okay, fine.

The problem was they never should have made the Jedi Killer from early drafts Han and Leia's only child. As an old Star Wars fan who saw every film since 1977 and followed the Skywalker clan for over 40 years, I didn't want to see Anakin Skywalker's grandson end up even more evil than he was. What a huge bummer that would've been, even worse than if Rey was killed off. (For the record, I hated the whole Darth Jacen thing so much in the legends books I stopped reading them.) Abrams and Terrio probably realized it was going to be a problem returning to the idea that Ben was too evil to save; TROS already comes off as a tragic ending rather than a happy, triumphant one. And it goes against the whole message of Star Wars. So it ends up being Vader 2.0 and fans hoping Ben would survive were disappointed. I wasn't fond of the idea of exile or something as Ben's fate prior to TROS, but now I think that probably would've been the best outcome. It would've left a lot of possibilities to explore in future SW stories without having to come up with a convoluted explanation for bringing him back.

As much as they fumbled the ball, I'm glad they at least spared us Evil Kylo 4 Ever and Adam's turn as Ben was great even without anything to say besides "Ow." Adam sounded a little disappointed to me but maybe I'm just reading into it too much. In any case he has also stated in recent interviews he would be open to returning to Star Wars, so I guess we can still be hopeful even if he doesn't appear in the upcoming film. (Just don't wait 30 years, okay?)

[raleighrador]

Torturing myself with ways Disney changed Star Wars - Violence & Strength part 2

A further follow to this https://www.tumblr.com/raleighrador/774909537693171712/a-final-thought-to-add-here-my-belief-is-that?source=share

If you like the sequels and specifically like Rey, you may want to skip this post. As a character I think she - as might be expected from the face of the sequel trilogy - is the purist distillation of how Disney fundamentally changed the narrative role of strength and violence, and power more generally.

I also think this broadly makes for an uninteresting character that has limited efficacy as part of a story, and is almost purely a marketing/fan service vehicle.

On violence and strength: Rey basically wins every single meaningful fight she gets into. Almost every physical confrontation is an illustration of how badass and competent she is. This is true throughout the trilogy.

In TFA her first confrontation is with Finn, a trained storm trooper raised from childhood to be a soldier. Rey effortlessly disarms him and gets him on the ground. Sure, she has a weapon and he doesn't but still.

Compare this with Luke's first few conflicts - he is knocked out by the Tuskens, he needs Ben to save him in the cantina.

There is the climactic fight with Kylo Ren. First, she "overpowers" Kylo and is able to snatch the lightsaber out of his Force grip, and then she defeats him in a duel. I know Kylo had been shot by Chewie but when I watch that scene I don't see anything that is meant to indicate he is operating at far below his best.

Again, compare this to either Luke or Anakin's first duels (after significantly more training). They both lose, badly, and are dismembered. Sure, Vader and Dooku are perhaps meant to be understood as far more powerful and dangerous than Kylo but the point remains.

Rey actually has limited fights in TLJ - but the throne room is clearly the most meaningful one. Again, pertinent observations: Rey (and Kylo) are able to defeat 8 Praetorian guards (who have the visual and contextual signal of "baddies you should worry about, not regular mooks"). Her and Kylo then again play tug of war with the lightsaber, and are evenly matched to the point that the saber gets ripped in half.

Again - Rey doesn't lose. In fact, we get a long lingering fight scene to show how cool and bass and good at fighting she is. She is tempted by Kylo, tempted by the dark side, and rejects it.

Completely unscathed, it is worth adding.

Again, compare this with Luke (tempted and mutilated by his father), or Anakin who gives in to the dark (on Tattooine and arguably on Geonosis) and is mutilated physically and spiritually in doing so.

Finally we get to TROS.

Rey's first "fight" is with Kylo where she destroys his TIE with a saber, then uses force lightning to destroy a ship (and maybe but turns out not actually kill Chewie).

Her second is the vision/teleport duel with Kylo across the ship and the planet. Again, it is a draw, Rey certainly doesn't lose.

She and Kylo duel again on the wreckage of the DS. Maybe Kylo is distracted but he certainly isn't winning, and Rey then stabs him (which is commonly believed to indicate someone "winning" a sword fight). She then Force heals him and saves his life.

On Exegol her and Ben Solo then murder their way through the Praetorians and Knights of Ren, before directly confronting Palpatine. The jeopardy in the narrative is created by the fact that if Rey kills Palpatine out of anger, she becomes a Sith, but if she doesn't kill him she dies and so does the Resistance. Rey then hears the voices of all the past Jedi - including, just in case we didn't get it, Anakin Skywalker telling her to bring balance to the Force like he did (did he?) - and magically teleports Ben's lightsaber so she can dual wield and redirect the lightning Palpatine is blasting and kill shim with that.

She then dies from the effort (before immediately being brought back to life by Ben).

Again, contrast this with Anakin's fight with Obi-Wan on Mustafar or Luke's confrontation with Vader on DS2. Anakin and Obi-Wan both lose on Mustafar - the mere act of engaging in violence empowers the Dark and ultimately completes the creation of Darth Vader.

Luke only wins by throwing down his saber, by refusing to meet violence with violence.

Lucas had a clear metaphysical logic that is reflected in the use and role of violence.

Violence has a cost. There is no escaping that. Violence is almost always wrong - even if you believe it to be right and approach it dispassionately. There is no just killing, not such that your soul can survive.

Luke and Anakin are - narratively - consistently punished for choosing violence. Every time they try and solve a problem with violence they lose a loved one, a body part, a piece of their soul.

The same is true - to a lesser degree - for Obi-Wan. He defeats Maul but loses Qui-Gon. His decision to follow Dooku results in his and Anakin's injuries and achieves nothing. He is the one who swings a saber through whatever limited remains of Anakin might exist and heralds the final birth of Vader.

Contrast this with the fight on the DS. Obi-Wan knows there is no victory in fighting Vader, but in refusing to fight, in sheathing his sword, he can achieve a power far greater than the Sith can imagine.

TLJ's final scene where Mirage Luke confronts Kylo is actually also consistent with this, and it's why it is in isolation some of my absolute favourite Star Wars.

TLJ is also very confusing while it DOES apply the same logic as Lucas to Luke (try and kill your sleeping nephew = bad, using the Force to distract the First Order while you never actually harm anyone = good) it doesn't to Rey or Kylo.

Disney - by contrast - certainly do not treat violence in the same way. In fact, Disney takes a starkly different view which is almost readable as "might makes right" or maybe more accurately "being right makes you mighty".

Rey is good and pure and therefore she wins all her fights. She is on the side of the Light and so cannot lose. Kylo Ren, by contrast, is Evil and so despite more training and experience he consistently loses. It is only when he fights for the right reasons - killing Snoke and his guards to help Rey, or saving Rey from Palpatine - that he wins.

This is... distinctly weird. How, for example, are we meant to reinterpret the original 6 films or the wider Star Wars universe with this logic? I take it Palpatine was mostly right?

What you might say is actually that violence has no narrative weight. Maybe. That is as much of a change from Lucas as anything else but it also significantly limits the ability to tell a story in the context of the medium of sci fi action movies.

And that is actually the point, I think. There is no meaningful narrative interpretation of violence in the Disney films. The fight scenes serve no real purpose - they do not represent crucibles in which characters develop and transform, nor do they provide any level or moral insight.

They are purely vehicles for a) cool cinematography (and to be clear, the Sequels are consistently BEAUTIFUL and the fights scenes are some of the best) and b) emphasising how awesome the poster girl is and how neat it would be if you bought Lego and action figures and and and.

[stayteezdreams]

Lost In You: Part One

Plot: When attending your friends costume party, you keep getting complimented on your couples costume. But you can't help but be confused, after all, you came to the party alone.

-Part Two-

Pairing: Park Seonghwa x Gn!Reader* *A/n: Obviously had to go with Star Wars costumes lmao, and even though the costumes are of a male and female character, I believe it doesn't matter the gender of the character, you can still dress up as them anways. So besides the reader dressing "as" Rey, everything else is Gender Neutral, so please dont let that effect how you enjoy the story. The readers costume is not mentioned in detail, only vaguely to give a rough idea :)

-Meet-Cute Series-

Warnings/Notes: Brief mentions of alcohol, drinking, and drunk people. Reader is referenced to have drank, but is not drunk. Reader is a bit of geek (helps them bond with Seonghwa).

Words: ~2.4k

Walking around the fairly crowded house, your eyes scanned over the mix of recognizable, impressive, unusual, and downright lazy costumes that people were wearing.

When you had been invited to your friend's birthday, being told it was a costume party, you were excited. You had been wanting an excuse to wear your costume for ages, having missed the opportunity the previous Halloween.

Waving to some people you knew, your eyes scanned the crowd for more of your friends.

Nearly bumping into someone, you said excuse me before you recognized them as an acquaintance.

"Oh hey!" you greeted cheerfully "Nice costume" you smiled down at their bright yellow kill-bill inspired jumpsuit.

"Thank you!" they grinned as they looked at yours "Oh! Love that you went with a couples costume!"

You furrowed your brow "Huh?"

Having not heard you they waved to someone nearby before smiling at you "Sorry, gotta go, I'll talk to you later yeah?"

"Oh yeah, bye" your voice was still laced with confusion as they walked away.

Couples costume? You hadn't matched with anyone, none of your friends were really into Star Wars, so they wouldn't have matched with you.

You shrugged it off, figuring they just mistook your costume for someone else as you walked through a small group of people, before spotting one of your best friends.

Grinning, you snuck up on her "Hey!"

Gasping, she turned around with a glare "Stop doing that"

You chuckled as you grabbed yourself a drink before looking around "A lot more people came than I thought would."

"Yeah, I guess adults really do love an excuse to dress up like kids again."

You smiled and nodded, agreeing with the thought. "I thought you were going to go with Harely Quinn?" You asked as you eyed her Batwoman costume.

"It was trash" she rolled her eyes "Tore as I was putting it on."

"That's what you get for ordering cheap"

She waved her hand dismissively "I know, I know"

"Where did you get this one?"

"Last minute favor from my cousin, luckily we're the same size, otherwise I would have shown up in that slinky red dress I have and called myself Marilyn Monroe"

"You have black hair, Betty Boop is more accurate"

Just as she opened her mouth to retaliate, a drunk girl stumbled up to the drinks table before the spotted your costume.

"Ooh, that's why he brushed me off" she pouted before her eyes rose to meet yours.

You rose your brow before you glanced at your friend who gave you a similar look of confusion.

The drunk girl took a step closer "You wore a couples costume, that's so cute, mm'jealous" she slurred with an even bigger pout before she spotted someone, squealed and ran towards them.

You let out an awkward chuckle as your friend looked at you "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, but that's the second time someone said I was wearing a couples costume with someone."

She looked you up and down, "Well, since you're dressed as Ren-"

"Rey"

"...Rey, then someone is dressed as that tall evil black haired guy right?"

"Kylo Ren, or Ben Solo" you stopped yourself from explaining as you recalled your friends lack of interest in the franchise before you began looking around the crowd of people "I haven't seen anyone in an outfit like that so far."

She hummed before she glanced around as well "I wonder if they're cute."

You scoffed but couldn't help but wonder the same thing. Shrugging it off again, you turned around, just missing the cloaked figure walk past and into the next room.

After a while, you parted ways with your friend. You made your way through the crowd again, having begun to grow tired of being bumped into, and having to strain your ears to hear anything anyone tried to say to you.

Your friend had clearly over-invited guests or overestimated how many people would show up, as the room grew hot and almost claustrophobic.

Spotting the doors leading to the backyard, which seemed surprisingly empty, you slid through a group of dancing people, desperately wanting to escape.

Feeling your costume catch on something, you had to tug yourself away, before accidentally running into someone just as you reached the doors.

"Oh sorry!" your voice almost mimicked the strangers, as you both apologized as your eyes met.

You smiled, "Excuse me" you added on.

"It's okay" he smiled sweetly, his voice soft.

Your eyes drifted down to catch his costume, and you felt yourself freeze as you noted the lightsaber hooked on his belt. His eyes grazed over you as well as he had the same exact reaction.

Your eyes quickly met again as your voices called out at the same time "You!"

You rose you brow in surprise and he chuckled "I've been hearing all night about someone I wore matching costumes with."

You smiled and let out a soft laugh "So have I!"

His smile widened a bit, and you realized just how attractive he was. He was intimidatingly attractive, actually, you told yourself as you suddenly felt a bit shy.

You cleared your throat a bit "Nice costume, it looks like really good quality"

He grinned down at his costume before he looked at you "Thank you. Your's too!"

You smiled, starting to feel a bit self-concious as his eyes seemed to have looked you over slowly.

Suddenly, he spoke up, his voice full of excitement "You're lightsaber! I have the same one at home!"

"You do?" you asked intrigued as he nodded with excitement "I collect a lot of Star Wars stuff" he confessed, and you saw a tinge of embarrassment cross his features.

'Cute' you thought as you grinned, "I collect a lot of stuff too! From Star Wars and other movies"

His face seemed to brighten a bit, as he wondered what else you might have in common.

As a loud song came on, you winced a bit as you looked towards the now cheering group of drunk people.

Seonghwa cringed as well, before he looked over at you and leaned closer. You turned and met his gaze, alarmed by his sudden closeness.

"Were you heading outside?"

You nodded, unable to find your voice as your eyes remained locked with his.

"Me too." Hearing a drunken scream you saw him wince as he motioned his head towards the door "Shall we?"

You let out a soft chuckle and nodded. You watched him opened the doors, stepping aside so you could go out. You muttered a thanks as you made your exit, your heart hammering in your chest.

The cool night air washed over you and seemed to sober any ounce of drunkenness you might have held before.

There were only a few people scattered around the back yard. A few in the pool, and some playing a nearby fooseball game.

You looked back at the house and shook your head softly, "I'd hate to have to clean up after this."

The man laughed and agreed, as he stopped beside you. Looking back over at him, your heart jumped a bit as he was already looking at you.

He seemed to realize this too before he adjusted himself "I'm Seonghwa by the way."

You smiled at him "I'm Y/n."

His smile widened as you introduced yourself. Seonghwa's heart was beating fast, as his face felt hot, he hadn't drank much at all, so he knew it must just be you affecting him this way.

His eyes glanced over at a nearby couch surrounding a firepit. Feeling a bit brave, and far too intrigued by you to just walk away, he met your eyes again.

"Want to go sit?"

You looked back at where his eyes lingered and you smiled before nodding softly. Following him over to the couch you took in a deep breath, calming yourself.

It hadn't taken long for you and Seonghwa to fall into deep conversation. You had a lot in common and found subject after subject to rant about to each other. From movies, to music, to friends and dreams, you wouldn't be surprised if you lost your voice the next morning with how much you seemed to be talking

So lost in each other's conversation, you hadn't noticed when the music died down, or how the back yard had emptied, leaving you two alone. Inside the house, nearly 70% of the people had gone home.

Nor had you noticed how much closer to two of you had become, literally.

When you sat down, you had sat on the seperate chair beside the couch, feeling too shy to sit beside each other. But now, you were both leaning forward, sitting beside each other on the couch now, faces merely a foot apart as you raved about a recent move you had both seen.

Seonghwa's arm was draped across the back of the couch, behind your shoulder, something he hadn't even noticed because it felt so natural already. When his knees brushed yours as you sat facing each other, you barely noticed.

"Y/n!"

Your voice cut out mid-sentence as you heard a familiar voice call out. Looking over, you see her walking across the yard, red solo cup in hand.

Her eyes moved to Seonghwa and you saw the look on her face that screamed 'Holy shit, he's gorgeous.'

Seonghwa however, did not see this, as his eyes became glued to you again, after only having glanced towards your friend when she first came out.

"Oh, hey!" you greeted.

She leaned on the back of the couch before Seonghwa finally looked over at her. They introduced themselves to each other before your friend looked him up and down.

"Oooh, you're the one that people kept thinking matched with Y/n."

Seonghwa chuckled and nodded his head "Yes, that's me."

She met your eyes, and a knowing look passed over her face, that you promptly ignored.

"I was surprised to see you out here though, you never stay at parties this long."

"What do you mean, what time is it?"

She rose her brow "One in the morning"

Your eyes widened as you looked over at Seonghwa, who had a similar look on his face. He took out his phone and you saw the time flash across his screen. 1:14am.

"I got here at nine" you said out loud to no one in particular.

She nodded, "And you've been out here...chatting" she glanced at Seonghwa "for about three hours."

You and Seonghwa locked eyes and he smiled somewhat shyly as he looked down at his lap.

"Oops." You chuckled as you looked back at your friend who wiggled her eyebrows.

"You said you were only staying until eleven, since you have work tomorrow"

"Oh God, I have work tomorrow" you put your hand on your face as fatigue washed over you, surely only because you now knew what time it was.

Seonghwa smiled as he watched you, thinking of how cute you were. Though, he also had to work tomorrow, and showing up to early morning dance practice after a late night was not his ideal.

You met his eyes, "I should go."

Seonghwa nodded his head "I should too, I also have work tomorrow." he chuckled.

You smiled at him as mutual shyness seemed to wash over both of you. Your friend looked between the two of you and smiled before standing up straight.

She tapped your shoulder, "Come find me after you say goodbye we can get a ride together."

You nodded at her as you looked back at Seonghwa. Both of you began to rise as you let out a soft groan.

"How did I not realize it had gotten so late?" you chuckled softly.

Seonghwa smiled, "We were busy."

He hadn't felt as though time had passed at all when he was with you. He got so lost in talking with you, so lost in you, that he didn't realize there was anything going on around him at all.

The way he was staring fondly as you made your breath hitch. You smiled at him as you felt your ears burn a little hotter.

"Yeah. It's been a while since I've met someone I could talk to about all of that stuff."

He grinned, "Me too."

Seonghwa, realizing you were about to say goodbye, felt panic rise in his chest. He didn't want to say goodbye, at least not forever.

"Uh- can I- do you think I could get your number?"

Your heart leapt as he asked, and you resisted the urge to respond with as much excitement as you felt.

You nodded, "Yeah"

"Great. And maybe...we could go see that movie next week?" he asked, referencing the movie you shared excitement about earlier.

You nodded a bit more fervently this time, "That would be fun"

He nodded in agreement as he pulled out his phone. When you exchanged numbers you began heading inside, noticing immediately how the party had ceased since you were last inside.

Music was no longer playing. Empty cups and plates were scattered around, two people were passed out on the couch as the disco ball spun slowly on the ceiling.

You winced, "Yikes"

Seonghwa laughed before you looked back over at him "I should go find my friend"

He nodded, "I'll text you tomorrow?"

You nodded with a bright smile and Seonghwa almost felt like swooning at the sight. As he began to walk away, he gave you another glance as he waved.

You waved goodbye before you spotted you friend watching you with a grin from across the room.

When Seonghwa disappeared out the front door, you made your way to your friend who rose her hand.

"If you tell me you didn't get his number, I swear to God-"

"I got his number" you cut her off.

"Yes!" She cheered dramatically "I cannot believe how gorgeous he is."

"Right!?" You said with a restrained excitement.

"Are you going to see him again?"

You nodded, "He asked me to see a movie next week."

She clapped her hands as she led you to the door "You have to tell me all about him on the ride."

You nodded as you thought back on your night, and Seonghwa. You had never clicked with someone so fast before, it almost felt too good to be true. Almost.

xx End xx

-Part Two-

Ateez General Taglist: @soso59love-blog

Series Taglist: @bubblesreplies, @halesandy, @why-am-i-sad, @acciocriativity

[curlytheintrovert]

I just still CANNOT get over the last few minutes of Ben Solo in TROS. It’s criminal.

How everything about his character is just shifted. The moment he runs into that first camera shot—sees Rey’s x-wing and takes off—you can feel the change instantly. His body movements are so unfettered and human in comparison to Kylo: his run, his jumps, even his voice is changed. I mean the first and last thing we hear him say is LITTERALLY a humorous: “Ow.” (which still makes me laugh to this day) But by far my favorite is how much he acts like his dad…the swagger, the emotiveness as he fights and the confidence. It’s so god damn heart warming.

I live for that adorable little shrug when he gets his saber from Rey. ITS MORE HAN ENERGY THEN I CAN STAND. But also the little gotta-pace-myself breath he lets out as a knight slashes the saber behind his back wrecks me too. Like he’s almost trying to remember how to fight the way he used to as a Jedi. But seeing Ben fight with such skill and freedom kinda makes me choke up—we know just what it took to get him there. You just feel so happy for him!

But then it all comes crashing down.😭

Before I go any further though…WHY THE HELL DID ADAM DRIVER NOT WIN AN AWARD FOR THIS MOVIE?! I mean, my god this man can act. When Ben pulls himself out of the pit the Emperor threw him into, he doesn’t say one word—his body movements and facial expressions do all the work. The way he falls to the floor in pain, and every step is torture leaves little to the imagination what he’s going through.

But what truly TRULY won’t leave my head is how he reacts to seeing Rey dead in his arms. The way he just inhales this devastating, searing sob…you viscerally understand how much he loves her—and always has. Like you could hear that his world had been taken away. It also destroys me how Ben physically cannot handle the sight of her lifeless eyes. The way he rocks back and forth hysterically trying his best not to break down makes me cry every time. I’m sorry but that is PEAK romance for me, even more then their kiss. It simultaneously confirmed for me that they were taking the romance angle with this couple.

Then the way Ben looks at Rey when she’s revived is so emotional, you can hear his inner monologue from his eyes alone. Is this real? Did you really come back me? But I don’t know if you feel the same way I do. And when he does get confirmation and Rey says his name and kisses him you see just how ready he is—he pulls her tight to him so fast. Then they had to give us THE BEST SMILE OF ALL TIME IN STAR WARS, followed by the most heart warming little laugh, like he’s so happy—he’s finally accepted and loved by someone…aaaand then they take him away from us a second later. It’s something I will never forgive, dang it! You can’t make a character go through so much, redeem himself, be the coolest character possible, then destroy him. It’s just not right. All this talk and theories of the new movies is opening this wound wide open for me! Ben Solo and Adam Driver deserved so much more than this!

[isabellaapotter]

i fear i will never get over the movie that is star wars: the rise of skywalker, specifically the character development in ben solo.

i’m not saying the guy made the best decisions ever but him and rey were meant to be together. they were a force dyad, and they could only defeat the full might of palpatine together.

him asking her so many times to join him was such a plea for help, like “please rey take my hand and bring me to the light” and eventually, during their battle on the death star, she manages to get through to him. and SHE realizes that she is not all light and that she has darkness in her, but that doesn’t make her a bad person

not to mention him literally CRAWLING on broken limbs to get to rey after she collapses only to frantically hug her and literally give the remaining life force that he has to save her??? one of the hottest thing a man can do i wont lie. and both of their smiles during the mere 10 seconds of happiness they got before he died in her arms.

it’s just not talked about enough i fear

[gefionne]

When you get this, reply with your favourite five fics that you’ve written, then pass on to at least five other writers, if you can. Let’s spread the self-love. ♥️

Woohoo delayed answer to this, but thank you so much for asking! <3 I wouldn't say these are in ranked order of favorites, but they're all favorites in one way or another.

To the Wild and To the Both of Us - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Kira Nerys/Damar - I cite this pretty much any time anyone asks about my favorite fics I've done because it was a joy to write in a fit of inspiration in 2021 and it's a fic I can and love to reread today.

Worlds Collide - Mass Effect - Female Shepard/Nihlus Kryik - I started this in 2012 and it haunted me until 2020, when I picked it up to finish. It's an AU with worldbuilding and characters I'm very pleased with.

Metal & Dust - Pacific Rim - Mako Mori/Raleigh Beckett - There is a very specific feeling attached to this story that stands out as a real turning point in my love of writing. A canon retelling with ghost drifting and post-canon follow-up.

Tensile Fibres - Game of Thrones TV - Gendry/Arya Stark - One of my very oldest ships since I read ASOIAF in my young teens. It was wild to see it become canon, though I had to tweak the way it went down. I wrote this in a frenzy of need and I still really enjoy looking back at it.

Flyboys - Star Wars Sequel Trilogy - Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren - The fic that changed my life and brought me the coolest fandom experiences and best friends in the world.

[artist-issues]

How do you feel about deaths of major non-villainous characters in stories? like the hero, the love interest, friends etc?

Yes. Good. Kill ‘em. If it serves the story. If it doesn’t serve the story, and it’s just in there for shock-and-awe because You’re Not Like Other Stories, or for emotional-porn-drama for that characters’ lover, then don’t do it.

But I’d say that about any element. If it serves the story, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t do it.

For example; killing off Norman Maine in A Star is Born makes sense, and should be done, even though he’s the lover of the main character. But it should only be done because the point of the story was, “If you want your dreams to come true, take action; but it’ll cost you everything.” Norman Maine was in the way of Esther’s dream; he took himself out of the equation because he saw that she would give up her dream for him. In that way, her dream cost her her husband.

Also, in Sunset Boulevard, killing off the main character makes sense because the point of the story was, “entertaining fantasy instead of facing the hard truth will trap you forever.” The ultimate forever-trap is death: he waited too long and went along with Norma Desmond’s fantasy for his own convenience, because the truth seemed to harsh. So when it finally did come out, she killed him.

Those are two good examples of ‘kill a main character.’

A bad example is Outer Banks killing off JJ. The best character they had. They just killed him for the emotional drama (and probably some production-convenience) of killing him. There was no sensibly-based reason, no character-arc reason, and no story-reason, to kill him. But have him bleed out in his lover’s arms while she screams like we’re on Vampire Diaries, and make his murderer his own second abusive father, because one tragic sad-boy abusive backstory wasn’t enough for this character, we had to have two—and that’ll make the fanbase all steamy. 🙄

Also, killing off Ben Solo in the Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars. Having a character be the foil to the main character, be the yin to her yang-of-loneliness, and then killing him off because you don’t know what else to do with him and you’re lazy, is ridiculous.

[tljisthegoat]

If Ben Solo never comes back, then we definitely NEED a good answer as to why he isn't a Force Ghost. The best answer is that Anakin, using his newfound abilities saves Ben Solo from death. With the big catch being that he's seemingly stuck in The World Between Worlds.

Rey learning about the entire history of the Star Wars universe is a must. What better way to show off her previously established scavenger expertise than to have her scrape together all the info she can on her travels across the universe.

You can also have this be a good way of showing how empty she feels after the loss of Ben.

She'd feel his absence like a cutting void. Not unlike a black hole. Swallowing all the light in her soul. She'd feel suffocated by this facade of being a Jedi. When she's always been a lonely scavenger desperately clinging to hope.

Hope isn't something she's felt in what feels like an eternity. What cause is there to truly fight for. What would that even mean for her now?

All roads lead to Rey's tragic downfall. A grief-stricken heart smothered and shattered by war. Darkness fills her hollow heart with righteous anger. Her eyes turned a sickly yellow, her skin paled significantly. Her hair looks like a wild beast's mane, wild and unruly. Longer than it's ever been, reaching down past her shoulders.

She will get back what's hers. Ben Solo.

[suzannahnatters]

Trope Talk: Villain Romance

So, I was watching a villain romance cdrama again lately (GOODBYE MY PRINCESS) and it has been forcing me to think about what makes some villain romances work for me so well, and others…not so much.

First of all, a lot of my comments on romance at large, and on enemies-to-lovers as the broader trope to villain romance, apply here. For me, GOODBYE MY PRINCESS failed on a few different levels. It failed as a romance because the male lead so rarely, if ever, allowed himself to be vulnerable to the female lead that I couldn't believe either of them could genuinely be falling for each other. It failed as an enemies-to-lovers story because the female lead didn't feel like a match for the male lead in terms either of power or of morals: he was irredeemably awful and held all the power in the relationship, while she was unquenchably pure and naive, holding no power at all. But then, it also failed for me as a villain romance, and because I eat up villain romance with a spoon (WUTHERING HEIGHTS? THE LAST JEDI? LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL? TILL THE END OF THE MOON? That ONE SCENE in RICHARD III? yess?) I've spent a lot of time thinking about different kinds of villain romance, how some are easier to "sell" to an audience than others - as a convincing HEA, I mean - and how each of them can and can't be made to work.

So far, I think a lot of it has to do with how the villain is built. First off, how does the villain present himself to the audience and other characters? Second, does the villain get a character arc, and is it for the better, or for the worse? Finally, does the villain have genuine feelings for the heroine, and does he achieve a happily ever after with her? Or, in other words: where does your villain come from, where is he going, and how does he get there?

There are a few different choices awaiting the author here, and some of them are, I believe, easier to sell an audience than others. Let's begin with the villain's character arc over the course of the story.

POSITIVE CHANGE VILLAIN This one is the classic: your villain love interest starts out bad, but gets better. See: Erik from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in the STAR WARS sequels, Nux in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, Dongfang Qingcang in LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL, Thyme in F4: THAILAND.

Redemption arcs are honestly not easy to write, because they need to satisfy both justice and mercy; and authors, like everyone else, tend to want to prioritise one over the other. It's interesting that of the five examples of this trope I listed above, not one of the three the Western examples end in a HEA; two out of three equate redemption with death. Meanwhile, I could also note how the Asian examples pull their punches when it comes to facing the villain with the consequences of his actions, and these are some of the BEST examples.

Still, audiences can pull for a character who's clearly capable of learning from his mistakes, and we all want to inhabit a fantasy where a terrible man learns better and earns his happy ending. I've written this kind of villain romance a couple of times, notably with Vasily in my gaslamp books. Basically, if you plan to have a HEA as an endgame in your villain romance, a positive arc is the best way to make a longterm relationship convincing.

ANTIHERO WITH IMAGE PROBLEMS This one is a bit more complicated. The love interest starts out well and gets better, but along the way he struggles with a dark side and an unfortunate predilection for angry black clothing and eyeliner. He isn't so much as a villain, as a well-meaning antagonist desperately trying not to live up to his dark reputation. See: Tantai Jin from TILL THE END OF THE MOON, but also Galadriel Higgins from THE SCHOLOMANCE books by Naomi Novik, who is in a very similar predicament though not part of a villain romance.

This one is tricky to write, because there aren't a lot of ways a genuinely well-meaning person is going to convincingly pose as an existential threat to the universe. Both TTEOTM and the SCHOLOMANCE books pull it off by invoking the future, either through time travel or through prophecy: the antihero is going to become the Dark Lord/Lady and destroy the world. This makes them a target in the present, and gives them a threatening dark side to struggle against. In TTEOTM, Tantai Jin is torn between his vindictive impulses to revenge himself on those who have wronged him, and his natural longing for the love of others. In this case, it's not so much that he's a villain intrinsically, as that he plays that role in the heroine's head.

I've never written one of these, except as a stage in a positive change arc, but it's a really fun character type that I'd genuinely love to see more of.

NEGATIVE CHANGE HERO This is another classic: the hero who lives long enough to see himself become the villain. See: Anakin Skywalker from the STAR WARS prequels, Heathcliff from WUTHERING HEIGHTS, or Wang So from SCARLET HEART RYEO. If the Antihero With Image Problems withstands the temptation to become a villain, then this character succumbs with more or less struggle. He ususally also doesn't get the girl. In face, the heroine often doesn't survive this sort of story at all.

Audiences have less trouble with this kind of story, because it can come across as properly cautionary. "If you fall in love with someone who gets a villain arc, you will die, and it is probably your fault." Everyone is happy, except the characters. Personally, I think this is realistic, because I don't think a thorough-going villain CAN be a stable longterm relationship; but just once, instead of dying, I really would like to see the heroine nope out and go to live her life in peace and quiet, as happens in the wonderful Daisy Ridley OPHELIA film.

I've actually never written one of these, either, mostly because I've never been able to bring myself to write a tragedy. But I do love reading them.

UNREPENTANT VILLAIN Or, Bad Man With a Crush. This is another really common iteration of the trope, but it's usually played from the point of view of the male hero, and the heroine usually doesn't reciprocate the villain's interest in any way. The great exception to this, of course, comes in Shakespeare's RICHARD III, where the unrepentant villain convinces the widow of one of his murder victims to marry him because he's THAT GOOD. Watching Laurence Olivier in this role at 13 may have been a formative moment of my life. Other examples are thick on the ground: Frollo from THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, Scarpia from TOSCA, the Darkling in SHADOW & BONE. Heck, I've written at least one of these myself.

Again, audiences expect this kind of villain either not to have his feelings returned or, if they are, to see either the heroine or the villain die by the end. In fact, this villain is the sort most likely not to have genuinely romantic feelings for the heroine at all; it's usually simply lust. The only example I mentioned where the villain arguably does have more complicated feelings for the heroine than a mere appetite for sex and power, and where she is tempted to reciprocate, is the one written by a woman, SHADOW & BONE - because a female writer is going to treat her heroine as a more fully orbed person, and insist on male characters treating her the same way.

-

The second question to ask when writing a villain romance is: how does the villain present himself to others, including the audience? Again, there are a few options here, but in any case I think one of the most important ingredients, if you're going to make the audience care about the villain, is a sense that the villain COULD be a better person than he is.

SHEEP IN WOLF'S CLOTHING The villain projects a terrifying image, but deep down he has a heart of gold. Note that this is not about character arc (for instance, this describes both Tantai Jin, who is an antihero on a positive arc, and Wang So, who is a hero on a fall arc). Rather, it's about how other characters, and the audience, view the character throughout most of the story.

A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing is easier to "redeem" because half the work is done when you show that after all, the character is better than we thought, and doesn't need as much work to be redeemed. For this reason, it's a really good choice in any sort of villain romance, because you get someone who LOOKS bad but is in fact plausible as someone who IS capable of changing and learning.

Vasily from my Miss Dark series is definitely a sheep in wolf's clothing, which is extremely fun to write. Vasily's had a traumatic change of heart which has taken away his taste for blood, treachery, and power. His habits haven't quite caught up with his heart, yet, and his determination to hold onto a semblance of power and terror makes him desperate to playact as a villainous vampire prince even though he's none of those things any longer.

SHEEP IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING I was nearly not going to include this variant at all, because where's the villainy in that? But then I remembered Anakin Skywalker. Anakin has a dark side, like Tantai Jin, which he gives into on occasion, but the prophecy that he will bring balance to the Force seems to predict a bright future for him. And he genuinely is a well-meaning person, who only wants to protect the people he cares about. For most of the story, Anakin is a good person and an upstanding Jedi with a bright future. This only makes his eventual downfall more tragic.

While how the villain presents himself is not always linked to a particular arc, this one is, since it requires a genuine hero to begin with. As I mentioned above, this kind of fall usually spells death for the heroine. I think this particular villain romance tends to be underexplored, because the freaks who like villain romance aren't into the aesthetic of a genuinely good man being corrupted, while those who write the downfall arc usually aren't into the aesthetic of villain romance. Nobody has ever written a romance about the Macbeths, and this strikes me as a missed opportunity.

WOLF IN WOLF'S CLOTHING This villain is exactly as bad as he appears on the outside, but if he's lucky, big changes are coming for him. In LOVE BETWEEN FAIRY AND DEVIL, Dongfang Qingcang is about to have his cold dead heart magically melted. In FALLING FOR INNOCENCE, Kang Min-Ho is literally given a new one. As a Christian, I love seeing fantasy elements used to explain why the wolf in wolf's clothing is suddenly forced to trade a heart of stone for a heart of flesh, because in Christianity the only way this ever happens is through a literal miracle.

And I do think this kind of villain IS difficult to redeem for his HEA without some kind of miracle, because he's genuinely done some dreadful things, and he's determined not to repent for any of them. Kylo Ren from the STAR WARS sequels is a really excellent example of a Wolf in Wolf's Clothing: when Rey spits at him, "You're a monster!" he responds almost proudly, "Yes, I am." In a way, the Wolf in Wolf's Clothing's honesty is his one redeeming feature: he may be terrible in almost every way, but he never pretends to be a good man. This is something that the next option on the list lacks altogether.

WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING This villain looks like a good and upright person, but it's all a facade. In reality, he's conniving, ruthless, and manipulative, and whether he's a "hero" on a negative arc or a straight-up Unrepentant Villain, the story is about to unmask him as the bastard he is.

Western literature has a whole array of this type of character, and they're usually the smooth hypocrites of the canon: TOSCA's Scarpia, HUNCHBACK's Frollo, MEASURE FOR MEASURE's Angelo, KNIVES OUT's Ransom. There's just something particularly evil about someone who sees and experiences true goodness and sees it as his opportunity to mask his evil deeds, and that's why we recognise such people as irredeemable. This is why BLUEBEARD is one of the trickiest fairytales to retell, at least if you're interested in a HEA - because Bluebeard, unlike the Beast or Hades or any of the other dubious bridegrooms of fairytale literature, commits awful crimes while pretending to be an ordinary, upright businessman.

This is also where we find GOODBYE MY PRINCESS's Li Chengyin, who marries this with a corruption/fall arc. Very early on in the story, we see that although Chengyin has genuine feelings for the heroine, he's fully capable of betraying her and murdering her family for purely political motivations. At first, Chengyin is neither experienced nor hardened in evil, but he absolutely will betray anyone in his path if it will benefit his plans.

This sort of villain is particularly difficult to redeem, because he's someone who has approval and love already but chooses to destroy everyone around him anyway. He is also uniquely enraging, because we've all known people this terrible in real life - from high profile teachers and carers being caught in ongoing sexual predation, to that crumby ex-husband who traumatised your good friend. I don't think I've ever seen a character like this be convincingly redeemed, and while I think it COULD be done - I do have a Bluebeard retelling of my own up my sleeve - I do that, as with the Wolf in Wolf's Clothing, it would have to come with some kind of fantastical/miraculous explanation.

And in the end, let's face it, it's always most cathartic to see this sort of person get their comeuppance.

-

Third and finally, is your villain romance going to get a happily ever after? I'm one of those people who will get a lot of fun out of a romance that ends badly, like SCARLET HEART RYEO, or even something that isn't a romance at all, like RICHARD III and the ill-fated Anne Neville. But whatever you pick, I'm begging you, be very clear about whether the villain has genuine feelings for the heroine or not, and don't reward some horrible person who's never convincingly expressed care for another, with any kind of romantic validation.

HEA VARIATIONS Maybe your villain and heroine make a match of it. Most of the time this is because the villain undergoes a positive character arc to earn his happy ending, and I've got to say, this is a very sensible choice. I personally do not need to see an unrepentantly terrible person get any kind of longterm romantic relationship, either because he's trapped/deceived the heroine or because he's corrupted her to become as bad as himself; I honestly don't think that terrible people CAN have a successful longterm relationship. That said, I've written a relationship where the villain DOES make the love interest worse, but where ultimately the genuine love, empathy, and trust between them ultimately does drag both of them back to the light.

TRAGIC VARIATIONS There are a great many more options available here. The main thing I would say is that you have to give an ending that is justified by what comes before.

A common choice is to give the villain a positive arc culminating in a heroic death. I've seen this done well (FURY ROAD). I've seen it done terribly (RISE OF SKYWALKER). Personally I feel that unless the themes absolutely demand this, you should avoid it, because too often it comes across as the writers arbitrarily ridding themselves of a character they don't know what to do with.

Another common choice is to give the villain a negative arc culminating in the heroine/love interest's death. I've seen this done in ways I don't hate. In RICHARD III, Richard kills literally everyone he touches. In SCARLET HEART RYEO, death is a realistic result of the heroine's trauma and closes the door definitively on the villain's hopes for reconciliation; but it also returns her to her far better life in the future, so it becomes a glimmer of hope for her (though not quite enough). Too often, however, this choice carries with it sexist overtones. Death becomes the heroine's punishment for the crime of loving a bad man (or something else equally fatuous), while the villain is "punished" only by having to live without her.

What about a negative arc culminating in the villain's death? Well, I strongly disliked the choice made in SHADOW AND BONE, in which the heroine guts the villain while hissing "there is no redemption"; to me it was lacking in either tragic catharsis OR eucatastrophe. I think you CAN have a satisfying ending in which the heroine or somebody else kills the villain, but it needs to be an expression of catharsis or eucatastrophe, and we definitely need to feel that the villain is beyond saving - which, if you've made him a genuine romantic possibility, is often hard to feel.

I love the ending of WUTHERING HEIGHTS, in which the villain dies frustrated after realising that after all, cruelty and abuse DIDN'T have to turn him into a villain; he then reunites with the ghost of his equally terrible love interest. I also love the ending of OPHELIA, in which Ophelia, realising that Hamlet cannot be redeemed from his quest for vengeance, quietly nopes out and goes to live a happy life on her own. And then, there's the gold standard for bittersweet endings, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, in which the villain doesn't get the girl, but neither of them have to die, and her compassion for him causes him to go off and live a better life on his own. I think the thing all these have in common is that even though none of them end with the couple together, they afford the whole story a sense of hope: cycles of abuse are broken, some people get better than they deserve, and even those that don't are doomed by their own actions, rather than being killed off in a way that feels punitive or vindictive. And I feel that this is an essential ingredient of tragedy: that justice arises naturally out of the villain's own actions rather than being imposed by some righteous warrior.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER Some of these options are easier to sell the audience than others. For instance, a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing on an Unrepentant Villain arc is absolutely not good material for a HEA romance, while a Sheep in Wolf's Clothing on a Positive arc is probably your best bet (it's a classic for a reason). Others, like a Wolf in Wolf's Clothing on a positive arc, may require careful handling to ensure that the audience is happy to come along for the ride. Whatever you choose, however, it pays to be conscious of which tropes you're using, where the audience has seen them before, and what they expect to see happen to the characters that enact them. This doesn't mean that you can't defy audience expectations, of course; just that it might take a little more work to bring the audience along with you on the journey that you've planned, and that it might not be wise to pick all the worst possible options and expect the audience to embrace the character in question. (cough Li Chengyin cough).

[darth-grips]

Chapters: 1/6

Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Han Solo, Luke Skywalker/Han Solo, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Han Solo, Biggs Darklighter/Luke Skywalker, Reyé Hollis/Luke Skywalker, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo

Characters: Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca (Star Wars), Biggs Darklighter, Wedge Antilles, Lando Calrissian, Reyé Hollis, Din Djarin, Ben Solo

Additional Tags: Minor Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker, Minor Lando Calrissian/Luke Skywalker, Sorry I would feel guilty for putting this fic in these pairing tags lol, Trans Luke Skywalker, Protective Han Solo, Cuddling & Snuggling, Like jesus christ there is so much hugging going on in this fic. This is a real hug centric fic, Drinking & Talking, So much of that going on, Trans Reyé Hollis, Reyé Hollis my beloved, Not Canon Compliant - The Mandalorian (TV) Season/Series 03, Corellian Culture & Customs (Star Wars), POV Han Solo, POV Outsider, Accidental Voyeurism, Yeah Han accidentally walks in on Luke a lot for plot reasons lmfao, Character Study, Luke Skywalker Has Daddy Issues, Bottom Luke Skywalker, Transphobia, Not like.... explicitly. but it's there. unforch., 5+1 Things, Technically SWars Sequel Trilogy Compliant But We're Just Gonna Ignore That, Discord: DinLuke Server, Explicit Sexual Content, no beta we die like liberty with thunderous applause, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Married Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Han Solo Is Bad at Feelings, Han Solo is a Good Person, Good Parent Han Solo, Protective Leia Organa, Han Solo accidentally being the galaxy's biggest trans ally, Also sorry to Wedge fans in advance. if he's your special little guy maybe this fic isn't for you

Summary:

The Rebel Alliance has their own doomed cause, and now Han Solo has his: Keep Luke Skywalker breathing until he realizes what a karking naïve idiot he is and unquestioningly follows all of Han's advice.

Han Solo is a scoundrel, and a rogue, and a guy who's just trying his best when Luke Skywalker fumbles chest over camtono into his life. Turns out he might actually sort of love the kid, in all the ways there is to love another person, even as they fight in a rebellion and life and circumstances change both themselves and everything around them.

The problem is that Luke is a little lonely by nature and always on the hunt for love, and Han, who's sworn to protect him from both the galaxy at large and his own efforts toward idiotic martyrdom, doesn't think that there's really anybody in the galaxy who's good enough for him. He's not going to stick his nose into any of Luke's relationships, not if Luke doesn't want him to, but boy howdy do they give him one hell of a headache.

[Or, the 5+1 things fic that spun entirely out of my control, where it's Han, Luke, the five men who loved and lost Luke, and the one he eventually married, all over the course of 10 years. Spoiler alert, it's not Han.]

***

Plugging my new WIP which I’m having a blast writing tbh. It’s about every iteration of Skysolo, it’s about Luke, it’s about Luke being trans in the GFFA, and surprisingly, a lot of it’s about Han. Who knew he could be my perfect special little guy

[stopthatmyhandsaredirty]

Please feel free to write in anyone I missed in the tags. I'll likely do another poll for supporting but that's an even longer list....

Let's try to vote for who we think genuinely gave the best performance vs favorite actor/character or who is the prettiest.

[gffa]

Hi!  I'm not sure how much help I'm going to be because my view of the sequel trilogy lives in kind of a nebulous space, where I really like the characters and I actually like a lot of the potential of the storyline, but I dislike TFA, greatly dislike TLJ, and was actually pretty okay with TROS all things considered. I don't want to dig too deep into the negativity of my feelings but they're basically - TFA was too much of a repainting of ANH for me, the initial shine of it was through its potential, but when that didn't pay off in the other movies, the shine came off TFA, too. - TLJ was set too close to TFA, Finn's character should have been tied into the Canto Bight plot (which was exhausting as it was), as a stolen child soldier he has the most reason to hate the rich, but absolutely nothing was done with him, Luke being on that island for that long was out of character for him, Rey's entire story became wrapped up in Kylo Ren, neither of those characters had nearly enough connections with others despite having very good reasons to, like why do we not spend more time on Luke & Kylo?? and it played at being subversive but it absolutely was not, it's all been done before (and I really hated the way Force abilities worked in the movie) and killing off your main villain in the second act was a baffling decision - TROS' biggest problem is that it should have been two movies instead of one, it was a series of trailers rather than a story with breathing room, and it suffered the most from the lack of planning + the main villain being killed off in the second movie But here's why I still like The Rise of Skywalker the best:  The bones of what's there are a pretty good Star Wars story!  Yes, Rey Palpatine came out of nowhere and was very silly, but if you can't handle silly, I don't know how you can make it as a Star Wars fan, it's such a silly franchise! I'm not afraid to love a scene I laugh out loud at--and, yeah, I laughed RIGHT OUT LOUD the first time Kylo dramatically said, "You're a Palpatine."  I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes and let me tell you, I fucking LOVE that scene now. Or how the last words of any Skywalker, the last word Ben Solo/Kylo Ren ever says in the movies' franchise is, "Ow."  I am laughing RIGHT NOW, please, p l e a s e, that is so on-brand, I can't handle it, it's too funny. But I also like the basic storyline because Rey's story in TROS is her struggling with her own inner darkness, that she feels there's something dark in her soul because she's Palpatine's granddaughter.  The movie isn't saying that's true, but that Rey struggles with thinking it's true, and she has to wrestle with her dark side, just like every Jedi before her has as they're coming into their power. Anakin wrestled with his dark side and lost in Attack of the Clones and even worse in Revenge of the Sith. Luke wrestled with his dark side in the vision he sees of himself in Vader's helmet in the cave in ESB and in the climactic scene of ROTJ, where he nearly hacks his father's arm off in rage after his sister and friends are threatened.  He has to claw his way back out of that. Ezra Bridger struggles with the dark side in Rebels as he comes into his power and he has to claw his way out of it as well. Rey has to struggle with her own lure towards the dark side as she comes into her power--she rips a ship apart in the sky because she was so determined that Chewie was hers, she was so angry at Kylo that Force lightning burst out of her.  She's seeing Sith visions of herself on the wreckage of the Death Star.  This is a theme that has been there since the very beginning, that Jedi have to struggle through a temptation to the dark, and her relation to Palpatine preys on that. That's kind of why I wound up loving Ben's scene with Han as well, because that was an entirely imagined scene, but it represents that the way the Force works, you have to dig yourself out of the hole you're in, that Ben using the memory of his father, the last moments of connection he had with his mother, to pull himself out of the dark, really worked for me.  And I'm okay with his death, because this is Star Wars, people die before they should all the time. I even liked the political message of the final movie, yes, Rey vs Palpatine was the big Jedi vs Sith showdown, but the main galactic battle?  Had people showing up.  Just... people.  One of the themes I've talked a lot about, especially because The Clone Wars kind of has it as a running theme is that the average galactic citizen doesn't do jack shit about the state of the galaxy they live in.  The Rebellion had people starting to stand up, but it was an organized effort, it recruited people. TROS had just people showing up, that Leia and the Resistance had been trying to rally the cause, but ultimately it was the galactic public finally, finally saying, "We have to stand up and fight for ourselves, not depend on other people to do it."  Was it ham-fisted and not nearly as polished as it should have been?  Oh, no doubt.  But the message.  Just people showing up to fight against the First Order that was trying to bring back the Empire.  That meant a lot to me. And I loved Luke's character here, that he admitted when he was wrong, and gave us that banger line that's spot on:  "Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi."  Yes.  Yes.  FUCKING YES.  LUKE SKYWALKER AND JEDI PHILOSOPHY.  MY HEART.  Nailed it. Does this movie hang together as well as it should?  Absolutely not.  It needed a stronger writer, it needed more time than it got, and it needed better build-up.  But the bones of what was there were actually pretty good and, man, any movie that has Daisy Ridley in that white outfit with the hood where she looked practically ethereal cannot be all bad, in my opinion.