#but in terms of Jedi. he wasn’t that great lmao

[engagemythrusters]

“Anakin Skywalker was the best Jedi” uh no that was Mace Windu. Mace was the best Jedi.

[backhurtyy]

so what would it take to convince you to share your thoughts on the atla star wars au 👀👀

OMG.... very little is the answer.... i have so many thoughts, so i’m just happy someone wants to read them! anyways, this got really long- like REALLY LONG- so i’m putting it down below the cut. prepare yourself for some nonsensical rambling, far too much thought into lightsaber forms, and a lot of thought about Zuko and the Force 💖

Set post Great Jedi Purge- the Empire has taken over, with Sith Lord Ozai as the Emperor and having orchestrated the entire war as Supreme Chancellor

Azula is Ozai's apprentice; Zuko was supposed to be his apprentice, however he was never as strong or as good at using the Force as Azula was. He’s still powerful, but more in how he uses the Force to help him in a fight and to find things, rather than Azula, who can use Force lightning, excels at mind tricks, etc.

So instead of taking him as his apprentice, Ozai assigns Zuko to the position of Grand Inquisitor and tasks him with leading the Inquisitiorious Program to track down the Jedi that managed to escape the purge.

He uses Jar’Kai, with dual blood red blades…. This ended up becoming the form he used because when he was young, he could never get the hang of fighting with just one lightsaber and always used a reverse grip that left him far too open and vulnerable. Piandao, who was a darksider rather than a full Sith Lord, decided to teach him Jar'Kai to see if it would work better for him, and it did. Anyways, we’re gonna come back to his lightsabers later cause I’m very into them lmao

Aang was the Padawan of Grand Master Gyatso, raised at the Jedi Temple, and uses a Saberstaff with Soresu as his primary form (I think the defensive style and analytical approach to combat translates really well to Aang’s personality and airbending as a whole... also it's Obi-Wan's primary form, and I think they'd be friends)

Anyways, Aang and Master Gyatso were on a mission when Order 66 went out. Gyatso knew Aang was the galaxy’s only chance, always believing him to be the Chosen One who was destined to bring balance to the Force, and so he told him to run. Aang didn’t want to leave him, but Gyatso used the Force to send Aang to their ship and ordered their BD unit, MO-2, to get them out of there

Aang didn’t see Gyatso fall to the troopers, but he felt it in the Force, and swore that he would do what he could to defeat the Empire

He scoured the galaxy for other Jedi and rebels for a long time, trying to hide his identity and the beginnings of the arrow tattoos that marked him as a Jedi Padawan learner all the while he’s running from the Inquisition (I imagine him as a near humanoid species, who have tattoos rather than Padawan braids or silica beads. As they become Padawans, Knights, and Masters, the level of detail on the tattoo is increased)

One day, the Grand Inquisitor catches up to Aang and shoots his ship down over an ice planet in the Outer Rim

Okay now to Sokka and Katara-

Katara and her family has known that she was gifted with the Force since she was a baby making her toys fly throughout their home on Carlac, but being able to use the Force in the Outer Rim is dangerous. They're not often found by the Jedi Order since it’s too far out, but bounty hunters, pirates, and the criminal rings in the Outer Rim have no such limitations, and Jedi are valuable

Following ATLA, someone heard about a Force user on their planet and sent pirates/bounty hunters after her when she was little, and Kya sacrificed herself to save her daughter

Basically, Katara has had to hide her abilities her entire life even though all she wanted to be was a Jedi, and it’s only gotten more dangerous since news of the purge reached them. Sokka and Hakoda would do anything to protect her, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the Inquisition found her, especially since she has very little training in terms of shielding and what not. So, they pack up and leave to join the rebellion, where they hope to find a Jedi who can train her, and end up on Hoth

They quickly settle into the rebellion, with Hakoda becoming one of its leaders and Sokka and Katara two of its best strategists, pilots, and fighters

Sokka also gets Mandalorian armor and a vibroblade because I say so

They’re out on patrol when they see Aang’s ship go down in the tundra, and Katara feels something in the Force. She knows whoever is in that ship can help her become a Jedi, and before Sokka can stop her, she’s already running towards it

Basically they bring Aang back to base and he promises to teach Katara how to use the Force- just one thing, one of his kyber crystals is broken, so he needs to go to Ilum and get a new one. Katara asks to go with him, and he agrees

Back to Zuko- he didn’t trust that shooting Aang down was enough, so he flies down to the surface to catch him, and there’s a fight between the rebels and the forces Zuko brought with him. Aang and Zuko have a Maul/Qui-Gon esque fight, and eventually Aang manages to get away

He, Sokka, and Katara all leave together, and basically they fly across the galaxy in their transport, APPA, and make it to Ilum to get both Aang and Katara kyber crystals

Katara gets a blue crystal, and Aang teaches her Shien as her lightsaber form (it’s quick, fluid, and alternates between defense and all out attacks, just like her waterbending). They spend a lot of time meditating and going through saber forms and lifting stuff around the ship with the Force and generally being a pain in Sokka's ass because when things fall to the ground, they always manage to land on his foot

(Sokka's proud of his sister and thinks it's cool she's got magic powers, but do things always have to land on his foot??? He wasn't even on the same side of the room as them!!!!)

Basically along the way they meet Suki, another rebel who’s deadly with a blaster, and the Kyoshi Warriors. I also think it would be super cool if the Kyoshi Warriors were from Naboo and were the Queen’s Handmaidens- they look harmless, but these girls are warriors and can FIGHT

Zuko’s chasing them the entire time too

They find Toph along the way too, a super powerful Force user who uses it to “see” and is also a very talented psychometric. I think she’d use Ataru as her lightsaber form since it uses the Force to enhance movements (also the psychometry is for no specific reason other than I think it would be neat and also she and Vos have similar personalities lmao)

Anyways the plot of the show continues until at some point, Azula is sent after Zuko since he’s taking too long to capture the Gaang, and they team up to stop them. Azula uses Force lightning on Aang, but Katara manages to get them out of there before the siblings can capture them. She’s a very powerful Force healer, so she manages to save Aang

Okay this is the part that I think about nonstop, which is that Zuko goes back to the Empire after that fight, but he just feels wrong. The Force doesn’t feel the same anymore, he's cold all the time, his crystals scream at him and burn his hands when he tries to use them, his eyes are aching, everything his father says makes his head pound and the Force curl around him unpleasantly, and he has no clue why (he does, he's just too scared to admit that there's always been a little more light in him than his father wants there to be)

Basically he finds out something about how his great grandfather Sozin used to be a Jedi, until Sozin Fell and killed his best friend Roku, another Jedi and also Zuko’s mother’s grandfather, and he realizes there really always has been light in him. He finally admits to himself that he doesn’t actually want to be a part of the Empire, or a darksider

While he’s on the run, he spends a lot of time meditating and finding himself in the light side of the Force and stuff, and one day he opens up his sabers and purifies his crystals

I like to think that Zuko exists as sort of a Grey Jedi, who isn’t a darksider, but will never follow the Jedi Code or use the Force the way Aang does. So when he purifies his crystals, they turn a blinding white, to show how his destiny is in his own hands now. Also, I think one of his eyes stays Sith gold, while the other is dark brown, a color he hadn’t seen since before his mother died and his father began his training

Anyways, the Gaang saves the day; Aang fulfills the prophecy of the Chosen One and brings balance to the Force by defeating Ozai. Zuko and Katara fight Azula, and in typical Star Wars/ATLA fashion, Zuko gets Force Lightning’d. And up in the skies, Sokka, Toph, and Suki wreak havoc on the Empire’s Star Destroyers, and Sokka ends up breaking his leg because someone shoots the jetpack on his armor while he's trying to escape with Toph

[felassan]

Thoughts on Dark Fortress #1

(This post is under a cut due to spoilers.)

NB, my thoughts on the first pages that came out in the preview are collected here [spoilers at link], so I won’t repeat myself.

Okay here we go :D I’ve posted up my fav panels but always want a space where I can burble at length.. (I’m late in posting this bc recently for the last few days I’ve been obsessing over politics in my country as it’s the run-up to election time.. I haven’t read anyone elses’ thoughts on it either so I could be behind on prevailing speculation or whats known or something) The preview pages ended at the panel when Aaron says “Vaea is right”, so that’s where I’m beginning.

I can’t put my finger on why but I really like the “don’t tell me I’ve had too much to drink” panel showing a Tevinter street. It’s a neat blend of “Tevinter is advanced relative to much of the rest of known Thedas, but also ominous, but also a place where people live and go about their lives, and also not going too heavy on the cyberpunk angle”. I dig the composition ‘leading’ the eye up the street and the consistency with the recently-seen DA4 materials that have red lighting in Tevinter buildings, similar building shapes etc. ig I’m pretty obsessed with the idea of the DA4 PC & party walking up streets like these.

I wonder how Aaron felt witnessing Tractus’ drunken scenes in the pub :(

Tractus’ attitude towards the barman here shows the influence and power Magisters wield in Tevinter, and the fear of them common among the mundane populace

digging the Tevinter-y motifs & design of the bartop, bar shelving etc. it feels like thought went into it

I’d watch a spinoff show or read a story where Marius and Ser Aaron have to team up in order to achieve something

Vaea is so badass and agile! I appreciate that the shot of her up high was tasteful and didn’t like, weirdly contort her body, have a weird leering angle or emphasize things in that way comic art often does for women at moments like these

so in Tevinter, lamps give off red light (seen in the bar scene). are the windowpanes themselves also red?

good thinking Vaea grabbing the staff. great sense of snappiness and motion in this panel. her landing reminds me of squirrels doing the superhero pose landing actually :) 

tfw you and a dog burst out of a wardrobe

Tractus recognizing Fenris, it seems - did they encounter each other when Tractus was young, or does he just know of him (distinctive markings and all that)? if the former, I have a feeling we might get a flashback scene to that time in a future issue

cutting to look at Francesca when Tractus talks about Fenris murdering his father is GENIUS. look at the sadness on her face here; “you murdered your father” is exactly what she’s been telling herself and struggling with all this time

nice to see staff-less magic in action

Tractus seems to have drawn power from the red orb set in his staff. he reaches out to it and it responds by glowing and the staff moving, but he wasn’t doing a Jedi ‘use my Jedi powers to make my thrown lightsaber [staff] return to my hand’, as you might expect, he was instead charging up and drawing magical energy/power from it [the orb], as seen by the red light in his hand in the next panel. this reinforces my earlier wonderings that the red orb is notable and that there’s some connection between it and his red eyes. later in the panel when he’s trying to cast on the floor his eyes seem lit up (altho it could just be lighting & dramatic effect)

I wonder if Fenris thinks of Anders and Justice when Tractus says “justice”. There was once a mage in Fenris’ life who was really focused on justice..

the combat scenes are beautifully drawn, thought out and colored

Fenris’ lines here are really metal, badass and impactful. I could hear Gideon Emery’s voice in my head as I read these bits - the word choice of “hounded” helps with that I think, it immediately recalls Fenris talking with anger about how Hadriana denied his meals and hounded his sleep. they nail how Fenris speaks, the pattern and words he tends to use, etc

PHASING POWERS in action!! this is very cool to see, this ability of his didn’t get touched on much at all in DA2 outside of combat or a few scenes

I enjoy the contrast between the red and blue glows

Fenris is understandably merciless 

“Perhaps if you had it carved into you” feels like foreshadowing for the ‘red wraith’

:( the reminder that the very thing Fenris struggles with feelings of hate and fear towards is carved into his skin for the rest of time and always will be

Vaea is brave to step in, standing up for what she believes is right and also re-centering focus on the critical mission at hand

;___; Autumn helping keep Tractus on the ground. she is such a good girl. she Help

“You’re lucky the mabari is here” - having Fenris in a dark light here relative to the rest of the panel is nicely symbolic

oh shit!! some plot advancement in terms of the ongoing story of the wider world. The Antaam have now reached Neromenian!! the invasion is progressing further and further into Tevinter. how far will it have come by the time of DA4? will there be an active war front not far from Minrathous? I appreciate the comics from this team a lot, here and there they push forward the ‘story of Thedas’ not just the story of the comic’s focus. also, I like that the Qunari soldiers here aren’t clones of one another but all look different. different hairstyles, sizes/bodies, clothes

love how our group work together, everyone has a strength and a role to play, the teamwork, the delegation, they’re like a DA basegame party or a D&D party

the way Fenris’ hand and arm glow in this sequence has been drawn/colored is smart - calling to mind the image of blue veins running through someone’s arm or below the skin on the backs of their hands

Fenris has surely picked up Fereldan sayings from Hawke.. stop .. my heart ;__;

the Fenris/Autumn exchange

this is so intense.. why do I get the feeling that Fenris has used this sort of torture technique before in his hunting and extermination of Danarius’ adult children campaign and/or his hunting of slavers as the BW with Shirallas campaign. it feels like he has done this sort of thing before in the time post-Kirkwall. I like that they didn’t hold back with a bit of gore here and there in this issue (phasing a hand and then solidifying it inside someone’s body, the Qunari attack portion in the street etc), while at the same time not being excessive with it.

this miniseries so far has good pacing, things moving along nicely and not being too slow or meandering

it’s smart having Tractus’ explanation of how to get in stay off-screen to the reader while we follow Francesca calling the alarm. It means we get to find out as we watch them infiltrate

omg those puncture wounds from his talons

when Fenris is about to kill Tractus after he tells him what he wanted to know, I’m strongly reminded of how he promised to let Hadriana go then killed her anyway, regardless of player choice. he has his ruthless streak and it feels like a callback. and before, when he was standing over Tractus when he was on the floor, echoes that scene in A Bitter Pill when he stands over Hadriana on the ground, who also reached for her staff

Tractus pale with bloodloss and fear

lmao @ Fran and Autumn’s faces when they walk in on this scene

Fenris listening to Vaea is nicely consistent with his character too imo - there are times in DA2 when Hawke can be like “Fenris no don’t do the Thing” and he doesn’t do the Thing

I have missed the way Fenris’ nose bridge crinkles when he’s angry

I wonder what the consequences of leaving Tractus alive will be. [tv announcer voice] FIND OUT NEXT TIME ON DARK FORTRESS

so the ritual will only take minutes to complete huh 👀

wow Neromenian has truly fallen, reeducation of the people of Tevinter continues as in Three Trees to Midnight in TN

explaining that they are speaking in Qunlat is a nice immersive touch and shows attention to detail of the lore of the world

bobbly-shoulders Qunari, Legolas hair Qunari, septum piercing Qunari, bobbly-brow Qunari, undercut Qunari. I wonder if the shoulder and brow protrusions are aspects we’ll see in the Qunaris’ latest design in DA4?

poor Tractus can’t catch a break lol. it has Not been Tractus’ day

Karasten: an infantry field commander

bit of Tevinter lampshading, lil fourth wall break with “This land and its obsession with magic. There is always a forbidden ritual with them” hhhhhh

Ringwraith on a horse moment at the end there

strong ending, can’t wait for next month weww.. 👀

[gingerteaonthetardis]

having vented most of my tros feelings out into the internet, warm in the knowledge that i'll never have to sit through that janky, ill-paced mess of a film again in my life, i would just like to spend a second acknowledging what i did like about the film! since i’ve put my negative feelings out there, i ought to put out the positive ones, too... you know, to bring balance to the force. (lmao, as if one more star wars opinion in the box of screaming cats that is the internet is anything but pointless self-indulgence...)

anyway, spoilers below the cut, in case you’ve forgotten to block the spoiler tag.

poe! light of my life! fire of my forearms! first of all, his costumes were bangin. oscar isaac, thank you for your service.

but more seriously, i was glad they didn't try to circumvent the prior films efforts to groom poe for leadership. i was also glad that they showed a bit of the burden and stress he was feeling, even if it wasn't always presented in the most graceful way.

in that vein, i think they treated leia (and the incredible carrie fisher) and her legacy with great respect. retroactively making her a jedi master, retroactively giving her a lightsaber and more of a bond with her brother and even just... making references to her training rey (even if they barely showed it) was a really lovely thing to do. i don’t think it made the most sense, but i thought it was a good choice.

rey hover float rock neat

also, rey in white. be more obvious, i guess, j.j. but i still loved her costume, even the wildly impractical swishy parts around her legs.

actually, i really liked everyone’s costumes. finn looked hot as hell, and dark!rey was BIG sexy. pointy teeth, yes please. also, i’m not really a kylo fan, but even i got a little soft and emotional at ben’s stripped-down clothes. it was an obvious but rather nice demonstration of him shedding his darksidesona.

finn getting to connect with other rebel storm troopers! specifically a force-sensitive one??? that was neat and i really liked her and wish she and finn had gotten more bonding time. (it did make every scene where they ruthlessly mowed down the still-conditioned troopers more painful, like watching a character eat meat in a movie with talking animals. having a full-scale stormtrooper rebellion led by finn with rey guiding the force-sensitive ones was always, like, my fantasy outcome for the franchise, so i’m bummed we didn’t get anything near that. but i’m very pleased with the loyal, brave escaped trooper we got.)

(also, naomi ackie is beautiful.)

finnpoe didn’t get enough air, but it did get a little. i was grateful for what i got and that’s the best i can say there.

general hux being the traitor made basically no sense, but i laughed my ass off about it and it did give me the little shot of adrenaline and dopamine i’ve come to expect with fan-service-type-reveals. domhnall gleeson is a gem and he acts so seriously and poe’s pointing and “i knew it!!” was me exactly. like, hux is a petty bitch and i’m into it.

nobody come to my house but i actually... sort of liked... all the moments around the kiss, if not the kiss itself. seeing that gooby adam driver smile, seeing rey’s look of shock to wake up in his arms, seeing him sacrificing himself for her... all of it was ham-fisted in terms of narrative, pushing the limits of “space opera” to the very edge of believability, but they acted it so goddamn well. daisy and adam are treasures and i feel like they deserved a properly developed relationship, if a relationship we must have.

okay, but on the subject of adam/daisy kylo/rey...

specifically, the part where they force-bond-pass the lightsaber???? OH MY GOD. that is SO neat and i wish we’d gotten to explore the force bond in a more practical way, because it genuinely is neat. that, to me, is part of the heart of starwars - weird mystical bullshit.

also, i suck and am terrible, but seeing ben solo’s face lit up in blue did something to me. (i really wish that they’d given him a proper redemption story, one where he had to actually reflect on his mistakes and make amends in a less “grand gesture” sort of way. loving one pretty girl does not a redemption arc make, mr. j.j.)

but he and rey getting to stand together, with their matching sabres... it was satisfying, for me anyway.

hearing hayden christensen’s voice physically teleported me back to my childhood living room in 2003 and that was fun.

me: did they call it rise of skywalker because he literally rose? like, he fell into a ditch and CLIMBED BACK UP WHAT THE FUCK-

my partner: oh my god. abbey. no. no.

me: [maniacal laughter]

all these things aside, i like that he sacrificed himself for rey and her rebellion. i’m glad that he died and went to be a force ghost with his fam. it’s the only way it could’ve ended, imo.

mr. hamill getting the chance to shit on r*an j*hnson for three minutes straight. good for her (dot) jpeg.

the trio - much as their bickering and bitching often came off weirdly for me - had a satisfying (to me, anyway) reunion at the end. all of them hugging and crying and holding hands gave the general impression that, while everyone around them may be celebrating, everything is not okay, and that’s okay. i think they could’ve gone further with the bittersweet-ness, but i understand why they didn’t. end of the series and all that.

the fact that the main trio are clearly in a triad and they will spend forever together, taking care of one another and loving each other? sexy and good. (let me have this.)

rey rey binks reveal

okay, i’m kidding, i’m getting off topic here.

my final positive thought is... wow, the cgi. it wasn’t understated so much as intrinsically woven into the fabric of so many scenes, and as far as i can tell, most of it was flawless. you weren’t unaware of it, but it was still incredible. props to each and every poor person who sat at a computer for approximately one billion hours in order to make this movie.

[angeldormante]

i talk 100% shit about dutch all the time and that’s because his rat-sniffin mango munching ass deserves it, but he does show a lot of care too and it makes my heart sad bc he has plenty of small but really genuine moments

off the top:

after the bar fight in valentine at the start of the game, when dutch rolls up with trelawney, arthur is like just limping and wheezing and fucking dying while everyone just talks around him normally LMAO poor guy

but if you watch dutch he actually does go quiet for a few seconds and checks arthur over with kind of an intense attention

he even bends down closer after arthur tries waving him off. he seems satisfied enough not to say anything but it’s a sweetly subtle moment even before he tells arthur to go clean himself up

i’m telling you lads we got fuckin ROBBED not getting to see more of the immediate aftermath of arthur’s kidnapping. i wanted to see hosea and john and susan rip dutch three separate new assholes. 

what we saw instead was dutch’s unconvincing “of cOUrse i was coming” like fuck you dutch you're not even trying to lie. all that said though, arthur does write about it in his journal, and he mentions that there were many, many guilt-ridden apologies from dutch while arthur was bedridden. that makes me believe that dutch was truly and seriously regretful, bc dutch is not the type to apologize; usually he deflects responsibility by trotting out some variation of the “nobody’s perfect” speech. 

i actually believe that dutch sincerely thought arthur just fucked off after the meeting, that micah probably fed him some bullshit juice that he just chugged down as per usual. his shock and promises that arthur was safe when he first returned to camp, imo, seemed way more 100% genuine than the first time i heard that man open his mouth in colter, saying he’d gladly take the place of everyone who died, and was like “this is some fake ass slime”. he seemed genuinely shaken and upset at arthur’s injuries; that was a candid, unpracticed reaction from someone who took great lengths to script everything he said. 

ultimately he never owned up to the truth that he wasn’t looking for arthur, but the regret was there, i guess.

right this is supposed to be a semi-positive dutch post sorry

i do love him as a complex as hell character, and as one of the people who ultimately did heavily shape arthur’s morals, even if he was shitty at following them himself. 

but what a bastard man.

anyway moving on

the whole fishing scene?? hello??? i don’t think i need to expand on anything here, it was just easily the most wholesome moment in the entire damn game and i loved it. two dads taking their son fishing and jazzing him with embarrassing childhood stories and singing like idiots. what a good mission r* used exclusively to rip our hearts out through our faces. 

i also think it was a fantastically subtle look at a more genuine dutch, separated from all of the cult leader persona bullshit. it’s a lot easier to see how much arthur looked up to a man like that, if that’s who he grew up with instead of who he was by 1899.

but why the fuck didn’t you bring john you cowards

on guarma he was so happy to see arthur ): this man thought he just lost hosea and his sons all in one fell swoop and he was stuck with like, bill now lmao

i don’t know if it’s a well-known thing but if you fail to keep up with the chain gang, the guards start whacking arthur and eventually will literally beat him to death. dutch actually jumps in here and starts fighting them and yelling at them to stop but listen this is fucking devastating

it’s non-canon bc you can’t get this scene without arthur just fucking DYING but it makes me sad anyway

dutch is such an entire ass for all of ch 6 and i don’t have a lot good to say about him here lmflkf

seriously every time i see him mocking a deathly sick arthur about needing to rest i wish for hosea’s spirit to descend from heaven and jedi slap his stupid soul patch right off his chin

the moment where he pulls arthur from the river is bittersweet, because it shows that he does still care, but there’s something... off putting about it too. the way he reassures arthur that he’s okay feels a lot like a lie and it’s sad to me, because i get the feeling that he’s trying to convince himself way more than arthur

the one ch 6 moment i do think is really worth talking about, though, is right before the infamous “INSIST??” scene. when dutch pulls arthur aside while he’s coughing and wheezing, where no one can hear them, and he stops and stutters his sentence and goes “and you ain’t... you ain’t doin’ too well”. he rolls right into his usual bullshit assurances after that, but for that split second his tone goes gentle and understanding and, at least to my ears, reluctant. dutch hates admitting that arthur seriously isn’t well, and tries to brush it off as soon as possible. it’s up in the air whether this is actually genuine love on dutch’s part, putting him in denial of his son’s illness, or if it’s just another card he’s trying desperately to keep upright in his house of them. but it’s a few seconds of honest vulnerability from dutch in a chapter where he’s otherwise an absolute madman who seems totally lost in his displays of control.

the final scene where he walks away from both arthur and micah hurts me in ways that defy the fiction barrier so i don’t want to talk about it

but i’ve seen gifs that claim he’s got tears in his eyes and honestly i believe it

in the end i think dutch walked away because that’s historically what he does in response to all of his failures: he walks away. only this time there was no pretending he was a good man; he fucked up and he knew it, and this time there was no lie easily in reach that he could use to soothe everyone who was wounded by it. there was nothing he could give to arthur to make it okay. dutch built himself up on the lie of being a good man for so long, that when it came time for him to be genuine, he had nothing to give. so he didn’t.

what a shitman but god damn is he an amazing character

in retrospect this post absolutely went all over the place, lmao i am sorry. tl;dr dutch was an awful manipulative asshole, but people are gray areas and there were moments of goodness in that man subtle enough to be genuine too. i hesitate to use the term “love”, to avoid the debate where an obviously conditional love should even be categorized as love at all, but i truly do believe that dutch was someone capable of a lot of genuine care that he ultimately squandered.

now give me the rumored rd1 remaster so i can watch him fall off a cliff in hd, rockstar.

[roxannepolice]

Ur the only bitch in the house respect. Seriously though, I saw TLJ and liked better than Tfa because I appreciated it more because i like a bold fuck up more than a safe rehash. But then I saw it on netflix and I had the thought, 'does lf not want me to care about the resistance/rebels?' because if they didn't then quite frankly that's how you'd do it, all the 'failures' boil down to either wanting to kill the ppl viewed as space nazis to hard or being 'too compassionate' and even after (cont)

them being reduced to what? a a couple dozen? they’re all standing around chill like they just broke for a meeting break around a water cooler. meanwhile the big bad who’s gonna be that for at least im betting a third of the finale is on his knees crying. i know its supposed to be ‘crime never pays’ or whatever, but seriously, they’re down to a single ship, they’re potential allies said ‘lmao no’ and the biggest source of funding just got blown up. they’re gonna win and we know that but the /narrative doesn’t even pretend otherwise/. and i thought, oh god maybe it is as shit as everyone says. but then you gave me hope but I still have one remaining fly in soup so to speak. There’s gonna be a ST after the ST and we all know it. It may be 20 yrs or whatever but it’s coming. So how do you idk rationalize the idea of integrating the shadow of the empire with the need for there to be an enemy for the war of the warry stars? stormtroopers are ~iconique~ and it was always the biggest stumbling block I had to the stormtrooper revolution. Why would any company worth its stock swap out an instantly recognizable and marketable baddie for idk some other cgi alien army or whatever? love to hear ur thoughts and thanks.

Thanks, anon, those are some really great points! 

Yes, I am a bit frustrated with the way the good guys™ of this trilogy are depicted as - as a collective because obviously we felt for Paige Tico - virtually invincible, getting not one but two jedi ex machina to get them out of the problem. Maybe I should mention that while I use the ex machina term quite extensively, I don’t consider it a bad move by default - sometimes a lightning from a clear sky can have its dramatic beauty. What is frustrating is when a situation is clearly not hopeless yet the text insists it is only solvable by supernatural intervention, as, imo is the case with rock lifting Rey. TBH, when the resistance run into the rocks blocking their way, my first thoughts were huh, they can blast their way through, maybe a shot from MF will clear the way, or maybe we’ll get some teamwork scene where all the members will combine their forces to quickly deal with the problem. But no, we got Rey lifting rocks with the force and being amazed at herself lifting rocks and resistance also being amazed by her lifting rocks and Luke crying joyful tears at the thought of her lifting rocks - and in result the only character I actually felt for was the man who was faced with his holy murderous uncle basically praising the girl, to whom he offered a galaxy, for dumping him, as practically everyone else in his life did. This is some very human venom that gets spit in the I’ll destroy her and you and all of it line. 

But still, I insist the screenwriter who also came up with the You’re nothing but not to me line which is still being analyzed 8 months later and also manged to give a beautiful and satisfying end to the journey of one of cinema’s icons, isn’t oblivious of the contrast between those two scenes and bordering on emptiness lightness of the political subplot. Just imagine how much satisfying the rock lifting would have been if we have seen Rey simply fail at anything before this scene - for example, if before taking up the ls to train she wasn’t training with her staff only, exactly, trying to put rocks on top of each other - and failed and then picked up the ls in frustration. Then her “apotheosis” at the end would feel much more earned and it’s really basic rules of storytelling I point out, so it’s not a matter of Rian Johnson being Fellini and Antonioni and also my countryman Roman Polański all rolled into one only a good movie making craftsman that he is to figure this out. Of course, there is much symbolism and subext to this scene but again - the subtext and symbolism in the overall movie point out to an ending more complicated than gratuitous dragon slaying.

Ending the whining and turning to the actual question - what about future installments? Well, first of all it is very possible that next trilogies will be perhaps closer to usual action based movies, maybe not completely dropping the deeper psychoanalitical symbolism but also not operating on it like the Skywalker saga has been and should be so till the end. It very often seems to us that once we finish the psychoanlysis all our problems will disappear but that’s really not the case - it may be that they’re only about to commence. TBH, I was fully prepared for this trilogy to drop the jungian elements, since RotJ could technically be the end of individuation - Luke reconciled his father’s self and shadow, as well as understood his own shadow. So when tfa’s opening crawls informed me the new villains are actually old villains revamped I felt almost disappointed - only to be positively surprised by one of the stormtroopers turning out to be trilogy’s hero. Still, after tfa itself I was inclined to think creators were just too lazy to come up with something new and maybe are giving some commentary on neo-bad things springing up across the globe. But tlj and additional materials made me think that they really have something new to say about the conflict. Ex-imperials were exiled rather than reintegrated or even imprisoned, galactic history kept Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader seperate entities, finally Anakin’s denied shadow was directly complicit in his grandson’s fall - all that reeks of repression and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Because Leia would, and as it turned out did, find it much harder to deal with her father’s memory than Luke, as it wasn’t he who was held still to watch his whole planet get blown up - and yet it was Leia who passed the Darth Anakin genes on, so obviosuly she would have to deal with her father someday.

Tell your sister you were right, the actual last words Anakin has ever spoken, take on a brand new meaning now, don’t they?

But  perhaps more importantly, as far as storytelling and marketing are concerned - the real question isn’t why should they drop iconic villains only how long can they actually keep up the same villains without them losing all dramatic value? Aside from the movies repeatedly employing storytelling devices to keep us unworried about the heroes, that’s the main reason why the political conflict in this trilogy is so emptily obvious, or at least, as I hope, seems emptily obvious. Now, of course, you never really expect villains to win in kids’ movies but a new villain is always someone that needs to be introduced, recognised, have his methods and motives exposed - and that iteself makes the story more interesting. A new villain is someone heroes need to learn, adjust to and this is what triggers their own inner journeys as well as tells the audience something new. Rebels and empires are basically angels and demons at this point and how may times can you watch white clad blondes with circles vanquish red-and-black clad brunets with horns as you know there’s no way it won’t end this way? Empires are Star Wars equivalents of Daleks and let’s face it it’s the Weeping Angels that scare us now, Daleks we just want to exterminate our sadness.

also dr Who bases on time travel so linear storytelling doesn’t apply

The only type of villain that can stay the same for who knows how many episodes is the mastermind with a secret organisation who always sneaks away - but no massive political-military organisation. And even they finally become their own parodies.

I should add, Solo very positively surprised me in this aspect - actually I would say it’s the Stories that keep me so optimistic about this trilogy, what with Galen Erso, Saw Guerrera and imperial officials from a Forman movie - with their depiction of crime syndicates. Dryden Vos isn’t your usual chaotic neutral criminal that’s still lesser evil than evil empire - it’s he who used up Enfys’s people resources of coaxium, yes, to sell them to the empire, but it was still he who was responsible. This really makes me think Disney-LF has some wider vision of the GFFA - and there are more potential for conflict there than just angels and demons RRR and Hugo Boss uniforms

And to wrap up, don’t forget our beloved turtle like helmets I can’t be the only one who always thought of turlte shells looking at stormtoopers? technically started as the good guys - so it’s possible we’ll keep their iconicness.

[kateofthecanals]

Thoughts on The Last Jedi

Chock full o’ spoilers under the cut, which I have divided into stuff I liked and stuff I didn’t like, so it’s not ALL bad, lol.

Please note, though, that these are my impressions after only one viewing. I definitely need to see it again (and I will soon), and I’ll be reading everyone else’s posts and meta (good and bad), so my feelings might change...

Until then...

*deep sigh*

Okay, so, my chief problem with this movie is that the first 2/3 of it basically turned out to be pointless. There was all this terrific setup and seeding -- like, literally, those scenes between Rey and Kylo were plucked right out of my fantasies and headcanons over the past 2 years -- but then in the last 30-40 minutes it was like “oh haha just kidding!” and we ended up in the same place we were at the end of TFA. The characters didn’t actually evolve. They went through ALL that but just seemed to ultimately decide that they were better off where they were before. Nothing ultimately mattered -- the Force bond, the hand touch, Snoke’s murder, the team-up in the throne room, the revelation of Rey’s parents, etc... What did that actually accomplish if Kylo was just gonna go right back on his bullshit and Rey was gonna go right back to the Resistance like nothing even happened?

Breaking down more specific things below...

STUFF I LIKED:

- As I said, those early scenes between Rey and Kylo, feeling out their Force-bond, were terrific. Everything I had been hoping for. FORCE-BOND CONFIRMED!

- The Hand Touch scene omigaawwwwd. It was basically Force-sex, complete with Force-gasm. The way it was filmed, the insinuation was preeeeetty clear -- the soft, warm lighting, the fact that Kylo took off his glove so as to facilitate SKIN-TO-SKIN contact, the EXTREME CLOSE-UP of their fingertips where you could see their fingerprints, the little gasp Rey let out.... It was the hottest, most sexually-intense scene I could have imagined without any actual sex being involved. Very clever of Rian, considering this is a Disney movie and whatnot. Too bad they got caught by lame Uncle Luke! ;-P

- 8-PACK CONFIRMED!!! I actually saw a post about this scene prior to the movie but I thought it was just a JOKE. I cannot believe they actually did that, I was laughing so hard. Primarily because you just KNOW Kylo did that shit on purpose, thinking to himself “Hmmm, what can I do to Seduce Her To The Dark Side...? Why, she’ll never be able to resist my SWEET PECS!” Like... bro... stop. LMAO. Anyway, I appreciate the catering to the female gaze. ;-)

- R.I.P. Rey Skywalker and Rey Solo. Can we please move on now? (Though a friend did say he suspected the revelation of Rey’s parents wasn’t actually true, but, like, she was the one who confirmed it, so why wouldn’t you believe it???)

- R.I.P. Finnrey? Between Rose smooching Finn, and Rey grinning as she watched Finn hold vigil over injured Rose, I think we can say yes. Or maybe we’re just being trolled here too...

- The team-up in the throne room made me soooo happy; even the other people in the theatre were cheering. I’d LIKE to think that this is foreshadowing a future partnership of some sort between them, but... 

- The fact that, after learning the truth about Kylo, Rey insisted on calling him Ben. He seemed really affected by that too. Well, for a little while anyway...

- PORGS, GLORIOUS PORGS! I just wish there had been more of them, LOL. But I’m sure Rian wanted to use them sparingly so they wouldn’t wear out their welcome, so he achieved that at least. 

- I think I’m content with how Luke’s story was resolved. I have to ponder it some more before reaching solid conclusions, but he went on his own terms, which I think is the best we could have hoped for. And we can be sure there will be tons of Luke Force-Ghost action in Episode 9, lol.

- When Rey and Kylo had hand-sex, she saw Kylo becoming Ben again, and Kylo saw himself and Rey ruling the Galaxy side-by-side. I don’t think those were mutually exclusive visions of the future -- if this trilogy is all about finding Balance, then I think that the truth of those visions (filtered and interpreted between two very disparate perceptions) will meet somewhere in the middle. My headcanon endgame for Reylo has always been Rey and Ben becoming Gray Jedi and teaming up to “rule” the Galaxy from a position of that ever-coveted Balance, so I think that is what those visions could be hinting at. At least, I’d like to think so, but those last 30-40 minutes gave me major reservations...

- So, I’m putting this one under Stuff I Like but it’s not something I really liked or disliked, I just thought it was a bizarre choice, and that was this sudden playing of Hux strictly for laughs. Like, yeah, in TFA, he was a great source of comedy for myself and others (#coasters), but the whole reason he was so funny was because of how utterly seriously he (and the film) took himself. But then he became somewhat of a caricature of himself in TLJ -- like an SNL sketch version of Hux. I mean, I enjoyed it and was entertained, but it was just an odd choice to me.

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE:

- The turning point for me, going from “YES YES YES!” to “oh...” was immediately after the team-up in the throne room, when I quickly realized that Kylo didn’t kill Snoke because he suddenly “woke up”, and he didn’t do it for Rey... he did it so that HE could be the HBIC. He didn’t change at all. His ambitions only became amplified.

- I was really bummed when Snoke “revealed” that he was the one who facilitated the Force-bond between Kylo and Rey, but I was relieved to see this wasn’t the case after all at the end when Kylo and Rey had that one last Force-encounter. But again, what was this actually worth in the end? She closed the door on him. It was established in this film, via Luke, that a Force user can close themselves off to the Force. Who’s to say Rey won’t do the same to Kylo? That she will find a way to cut him off completely? There’s literally nothing stopping her, because she has clearly given up on him...

- ... as has everyone else. And with good reason, tbh. The moment Kylo threw Rey under the bus for Snoke’s death, declared himself new Supreme Leader, and went fucking buckwild on Luke, I knew all hope for redemption was gone. Even Leia was like, ��nope, I was wrong, he’s lost for good.” Basically what I got out of this movie was, Rey and Kylo “flirt” with the other sides of the Force for a hot second but then just ultimately decide that they belong where they were in the first place. Gee wow what awesome character development...

- The revelation of Rey’s parents was just so... banal. I felt like this was thrown in there just to put the question to rest, without any additional thought or exploration, even though that was made such a HUGE deal of in TFA. But, nah, they were “nobodies”, end of story, case closed, that’s all she wrote. It was never even explained how Kylo knew about Rey’s parents!!

- I’ve seen people claim that this movie “shuts down” anti arguments for good and that is simply not the case. There is still plenty of ammo from this movie they can use, chief among them Kylo’s cringeworthy statement to Rey that “You’re nobody. But not to me.” Oh great, I can see the Discourse already... reeeaaaally wish Rian hadn’t thrown fuel on the fire like that, but here we are. I mean, there’s some degree of justification in that (a) Kylo can’t people and this was the only way he could think to convince Rey to stay with him by playing off her one biggest weak spot, and (b) he’s perpetuating the cycle of abuse tactics instilled in him by Snoke, but NEITHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE GOOD EXCUSES. Like, okay Kylo, it’s lovely that she means something to you, but telling her that YOU are the only one who sees something special in her is a dick move for sure. (Basically, the scene felt like the Blackwater to me, with Kylo trying to implore Rey to come with him, she refusing, and him just flipping the fuck out on her... YA BLEW IT, SON! Hopefully, though, like Sandor, Kylo will realize that, if he REALLY wants to be with Rey, he has to become a better man... that HE has to change for HER and not the other way around... But I am not hopeful this is a direction Lucasfilm will ultimately decide to take.)

- I’m glad everyone’s happy that Kylo didn’t actually KILL Leia (which I knew he wouldn’t) but I dunno how many brownie points he gets considering he still let those other fighters take her out... I mean, she SHOULD have died, but apparently she’s from Krypton or something? LOL... But anyway, I mean, he may have not known that those other fighters were around him, but he still could have done SOMETHING, but he didn’t.

- And he barely even flinched when Snoke was torturing Rey. You’d think that, I don’t know, since they have a Force-bond and everything, that he would have been able to feel her pain or something???

- During Kylo’s attack on Crait, at a certain point (around the time Luke shows up), Rey just, like, disappears, completely, and doesn’t show up again until the very end to do her rock-lifting trick. Firstly, where the hell was she that whole time, but more importantly, wouldn’t it have been kind of awesome if, like, she could sense what was happening between Kylo and Luke and using their Force-bond try to talk him out of it? And see him actually STRUGGLE with it because he’s still torn between wanting to be with her and wanting to be the Big Bad? Buuuut no, because at that point, both their minds were made up, and Rey had given up on him anyway.

- On a more technical level, I was really disappointed by how the Force-bond sequences were filmed. I expected way more from Rian Johnson; this was something any first-year film student could have come up with. Now, I’m not claiming to be “better than Rian Johnson”, but in my headcanons of Rey and Kylo’s Force-conversations, there was a noticeable atmospheric shift -- some sort of visual cue that something “different” was going on... Instead of just this basic cutting back and forth between them in their respective locales. Meh.

- I didn’t find Rose that memorable, sorry. And her whole mission with Finn, much like the Kylo/Rey storyline, ended up being completely pointless, thanks to Admiral Holdo needlessly keeping vital info about her plans from Poe. WHY??? All of it was just an elaborate excuse to send Finn off on another adventure where he would end up back with the First Order so he could finish off Phasma, period. Like, yeah, there was that little hint at the very end that those kids who took care of the fathiers would, like, have something to do with the Resistance in the next movie, but honestly that could have just been a little meta commentary about how kids have been inspired by the Star Wars franchise over these past 40 years. Which is nice and all, but Finn and Rose’s mission was still pointless.

- Same with Holdo. So here’s this lady who just shows up out of nowhere, keeps vital information from Poe for no good goddamn reason, thereby forcing him to come up with his own plan and send Finn & Rose on a wild goose chase, and then suddenly we’re supposed to buy this close, intimate relationship she has with Leia so that we’ll feel all wistful when she decides to go on a suicide mission to protect the Resistance?? That should have been Leia, tbh... and not just for cheap emotional impact. At that point, Leia believed both the cause and her son to be lost and really had nothing else to lose at that point, and it would have been well within her personality to take out as many motherfuckers as she could to go down with her. Holdo should have been set up as Leia’s heir apparent going forward, and Leia going all kamikaze on the First Order would have been an interesting parallel to Luke also sacrificing himself to protect the ones he loved. AND it would have solved the whole issue of how to move forward in the story after Carrie’s death. I mean, we know that Leia was supposed to play a big part in Episode 9, but we’ll never know what that was supposed to be anyway...

Okay so those are the just the things on the forefront of my mind today. I might think of some more, and like I said at the top, my opinions on these might change... and y’all are free to try to change my mind. ;-)

No but seriously, very anxious to hear other people’s opinions!

[tokidokifish]

so here is my much longer, VERY spoiler heavy review of the last jedi. i had problems that i’m going to go into in more detail, but overall i liked it despite just... fucking... so much kylo ren, and would recommend seeing it for at least two FUCKING BALLER moments which i will likewise spoil down below, so do not read if you wanna go into it fresh. 

first, the problems:

god, there is just... so much kylo ren. too much kylo ren. also at one point kylo ren with his shirt of, which... no thanks, rian johnson. 

the other title of this movie could be “kylo ren never ceases to disappoint”

at one point he ACTUALLY TELLS REY “you come from nothing. you are nothing. but not to me.” and reylo fans are ACTUALLY TREATING IT AS ROMANTIC instead of what could be considered just straight up emotional abuse? like imagine someone saying that to an ACTUAL romantic partner. that’s super fucked up, right?

guess what her parents were no one special. like we only hear that from kylo so it might be just something he says to further undermine her self-worth, but if it’s true, what a fucking limp-dick end to that storyline.

snoke is a palpatine-wannabe in a gold lame bathrobe.

i heard that mark hamill wasn’t super cool with the direction they took luke and BOY can i see it. like at some point you’re going to have to fucking let go of the super unhelpful mentor thing in star wars, guys. it’s a little mind boggling? luke skywalker senses darkness in his students! would he a: be understanding and help them come to terms with it, having grappled with not an insignificant amount of darkness in his past, or b: completely flip his shit and in at least one case contemplate murdering them? if you decided b, congratulations! you’re rian johnson and you have a fundamental misunderstanding of luke skywalker’s character and maybe the original series in its entirety?

also there’s a lot of talk about how there’s darkness in rey, but... where, bitch? luke was angry! kylo and anakin were fucking child-murdering angry! rey goes into a dark side pit and all she wants to know is what happened to her parents. she can’t even retain her anger at kylo because rian johnson ships that shit so hard, so it all comes off as super weird and random.

so yeah apparently there was a moment when super ooc luke skywalker thought about killing kylo but couldn’t go through with it but then kylo woke up to luke standing over his bed with a lit lightsaber and tried to kill him. this might have added some insight into kylo’s character, and rey certainly seemed to think it did, but oh yeah, he then when on to MURDER THE REST OF LUKE’S STUDENTS, SO, UHHHHH MAYBE DON’T BE SO QUICK TO TALK ABOUT HOW THERE’S STILL CONFLICT IN HIM, HUH?

but speaking of, rey spends an exhausting amount of the movie force skyping kylo to the point she fuckin touches his hand and gets a glimpse of a future where she goes to him and he turns on snoke and you would fucking THINK that luke might mention the exact same thing happened to him and it was a fucking trap, but no, he cannot stop being shitty long enough to actually impart some wisdom. fuckin whatever.

that part with kylo turning on snoke could have been goddamn BRILLIANT because it’s actually set up almost exactly like when vader turned on palpatine, only to have it turn out that no, it isn’t a redemption, and kylo has just decided to seize power for himself, but the movie spends so much time trying to make you feel sorry for him that i was just sick of the whole thing. kylo ren never ceases to disappoint.

i feel like the film could have ended like 30 minutes earlier than it did and there’s a pretty fucking massive plothole introduce by it dragging on, which is: how the fuck did benecio del toro know about the cloaked transports? finn and rose didn’t know. fucking POE didn’t know until he woke up on a fucking transport. so that entire thing with the transports and then the planet was dumb and didn’t make any sense and was it sincerely just put in the movie so you could have that cool white salt and red sand thing? 

why DIDN’T purple-haired laura dern tell anyone about the plan, for that matter? were they worried there were first order spies aboard? i mean poe had some very reasonable concerns and he had a right to react the way he did when they didn’t get any fucking answers. 

i really liked kelly marie tran’s character but also felt like she was 100% in the movie just so finn could be paired up with someone who wasn’t rey. i feel like that could have been really naturally developed, but no, instead we just get her being like “btw i love you” and kissing him at the end of the movie. what the fuck what the fuck.

all that said, here are the two fucking baller moments that make it all worth it:

PRINCESS GODDAMN LEIA MOTHERFUCKING ORGANA saves herself from being fucking SPACED by using the goddamn FORCE like a BOSS and i was gripping my face in sheer fucking delight the entire time

purple-haired laura dern LAUNCHES A SHIP IN LIGHTSPEED THROUGH A GODDAMN STAR DESTROYER IN POSSIBLY THE COOLEST THING I’VE SEEN IN ANY MOVIE, FUCKING EVER

(all that said, whyyyyyyyy didn’t anyone think to pull that shit about an hour earlier in the movie. like they knew they had no change to outrun it forever and captains were already literally going down with their ships, so that seems like it would have solved all their problems a LOT earlier.)

also luke at the end of the movie is pretty great because i saw him with his hair all tidy and his beard trimmed and i thought, okay, he cleaned up before he came back, but then there wasn’t any grey? and i was like did he DYE his hair before he came back? but no! he was astral projecting! that actually made a lot of sense and there were those subtle clues as to what was actually going on.

but then he astral projected so hard he died which... just... lmao.

[scheduledfordeletion]

Since we’ve spent the last 2 years in this limbo between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, I wanted to write up my hopes/predictions. It’s our last chance before we know what happens! We’ll never be back in this situation, which is strange and exciting. So…

1. Rey isn’t a Skywalker, but I also hope she isn’t related to anybody we know, or anybody important. I’m so tired of the obsession over her parentage… I honestly didn’t even think about it once I left the cinema after TFA? The film only dwells on the action of Rey being abandoned, not on who specifically abandoned her. People seem to care about it for one of two reasons – her strength in the force needs an explanation, and for potential story reasons in her relation to another character. The film is called The Force Awakens, not The Force is Descended From Another Character From The OT… lmao… we have Kylo Ren as that character, as the Skywalker, and Rey’s stance as a nobody works as a really nice foil to that. Why does she have to be related to anybody important to find greatness? If she is related to Luke, this film had better have one good explanation as to why he abandoned her like that. If she’s a Skywalker it’s as much of an insult to Luke as it is to Rey, imo. I’m comforted by interviews saying that “Rey’s reaction to her parentage is more important than the information itself”, because it’s only really needed as closure for Rey herself. The plot, and the audience, doesn’t need the information. The only idea I’ve seen thrown around that I actually like is that her parents were Empire or First Order officers, perhaps stranded after the Battle of Jakku. That gives her a nice parallel to Kylo, again, as well as some personal investment in finding out that her family was attached to a group of people that’s had a directly negative impact on her.

2. Rey’s crisis of faith doesn’t lead to her falling to the dark side. Not entirely, at least – I’m into the idea of her feeling lost and disillusioned, but going for more of a stance that’s unattached to either the Resistance or the First Order. In terms of her and Kylo, I’d be happy if the film ended with them both in that kind of position. He’s not gonna be running back to his family, but I want him to see how Snoke is using him and also be in this grey area. That gives a good timeline for a redemption arc in Episode IX, too!

3. Luke doesn’t die. Don’t fuckin’ @ me, if I have to watch Luke Skywalker die on the big screen with my own two eyes, I’m done. (Honestly I just feel as though it’s too obvious, with the title, and with Han’s death in the previous film. While I don’t think the lack of Leia in the next film really influenced anything in TLJ in post, the fact that Episode IX was going to be her film leads me to think that they weren’t going to off her brother so soon? Also she deserves better, she’s lost too much, let her keep her idiot brother)

4. I wanna see Luke’s lightsaber. I don’t care if he gets a fight scene or not, but his green lightsaber from RotJ is my favourite in the whole franchise! Let me see it!

5. I think I want someone’s hand to get cut off? I don’t think we really need too many parallels between trilogies at this point, but it would be a nice nod, honestly… I guess Kylo would be the top billing for that, being the Skywalker.

6. I want Luke… to get a haircut… Mark Hamill has been looking so god damn slim and stylish recently, please let Luke return to his throne of Yes My Mother Was Queen Amidala And These Boots Are Gucci

7. Some characters are gonna end up dying, but… I hope it’s not any main characters. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Paige dies not long after she’s introduced, but I can’t see any other main characters being killed off? Phasma, maybe? Like, I HOPE NOT, but I could live with it. Leia, absolutely not. She wasn’t planned on being killed off and they’re not so tactless to edit that into this film after Carrie’s passing.

8. All in all, the one scene I want to see the most in this film is Luke and Leia reuniting. For obvious reasons, with Carrie and all, but also since their relationship was dropped so late into the original films, we’ve never seen their sibling dynamic on screen before! That’s a lot of room for emotion as well as humour, honestly.

[nspx]

Tumblr user Nina nspx’s star wars fic rec vol. 2

An anon asked me for an ahsoka/anakin fic rec and i accidentally deleted the ask (i’m dumb!!) BUT because i love ahsoka and i love anakin and i love their relationship and how they helped each other, i’m gonna do a completely separate fic rec for the anon (i hope u see this lmao sorry for deleting the ask). 

but anyway, since the last time i did a rec i had 22 bookmarks on ao3 (i did the last one on october 19th 2015?? how time flies) and now i have like 80+, i decided to do much more than just an anakin/ahsoka rec, but a general star wars fic res

DISCLAIMER: none of these fics feature anakin/ahsoka in a sexual relationship because i am Not About That BUT they do feature other pairings. anyhow. 

These are fics u need to read. need to. sorry, i don’t make the rules. this is gonna be so long. i’m sorry (not)

AHSOKA/ANAKIN

A River Flowing by Barkour

A shadow has left the force, but other threats remain as Padmé and Anakin prepare for the birth of their child.

Part 2 of Peachy

The only issue i have with this fic is that it hasn’t been updated in forever. It’s so good tho!! i’m pretty sure i read this one at least four times. anakin doesn’t go evil (which is something the anon asked for!! here u go) but not everything is perfect - duh, it is a star wars fic, we don’t know what happiness is here - and AHSOKA IS SO WELL WRITTEN!! so good. it also dives into life after the jedi, being a civilian, being dirt-poor and living on coruscant and ALSO!! padme/ahsoka is well developed in this. so good. so great. 10/10 must read

Assassination Attempt No. 23 by pieandsouffle

Tatooine's only senator (or, indeed, one of the only people from that desert planet who is capable of reading and writing, or actually understands what the word 'politics' means), Anakin Skywalker, seems to be one of those rare individuals who attract bounty hunters like flies zero in on a bantha corpse.

The senator!anakin au. what more do u need in life? shenanigans ensue

Old Shadows by Sildae for Windona

Ahsoka asks Anakin about his past after the events on Kadavo and Zygerria.

My babies. My poor heart. 

Obi-Wan and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad (Life) Day by wreckageofstars

It's Obi-Wan Kenobi's life day, but good luck telling the galaxy that.

Anakin and Ahsoka are little shits. obi wan and padme are drinking buddies?? sign me the fuck up. the end

hold on to me, 'cause i'm a little unsteady (ws!obi-wan au) by QueenWithABeeThrone

the one where Obi-wan falls off a ship and gets the Winter Soldier treatment, Anakin doesn't fall to the Dark Side but still loses his limbs, Ahsoka can fly with a one-of-a-kind wing-pack, and Padmé gives birth to twins and a Rebellion.

TBH. SO GOOD. ANAKIN AND AHSOKA ARE AWESOME IN THIS. ALSO IN THIS SERIES BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

angels choking on their haloes QueenWithABeeThrone

Anakin hadn’t been lying, when he said he could never kill Obi-wan like he was being asked to, no matter what Obi-wan’s become.

or: Mustafar, in reverse.

Part 1 of hold on to me, 'cause i'm a little unsteady (ws!obi-wan au)

GO READ THIS. it’s unfinished (hasn’t been updated since early 2016, i weep) BUT. still worth a read. really worth it. the second part of this verse ends on the nastiest, most delicious cliffhanger. I WEEP

and hey, a honorary mention, since i haven’t actually read this fic but it was in my ao3 history 

Perturbations by the_dragongirl

Anakin makes a different choice, the day Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order. His actions will determine which of the many possible points of balance in the Force will become the new equilibrium

Part 1 of A Shift in Equilibrium

this has a lot of kudos so?? what the hell. give it a read and tell me what you think

this is it for the anakin/ahsoka part of the rec

OTHER

Fundamental Force Carriers by tanarill

The Sith Lord Darth Vader lived his life. He probably didn't live it well, but he lived it as well as he knew how. At the end there, he'd even managed to woman up and kill Sidious. But he was dying, and at peace with the past.

The past wasn't at peace with him.

Part 1 of Probability Matrices

honestly, this fic is just SU CH a delight. it’s well written, it’s got some real cool science facts for your everyday nerd needs BUT IT’S ALSO THE CRACKIEST CRACKFIC TO EVER CRACK. like. vader dies and goes back in time and he’s got 0 fucks to give about the jedi’s opinion?? he’s here to make things right whether the jedi like it or not??? such a funny, amazing fic. 12/10 on this. nice. 

Echoes of Mortis by wreckageofstars

Post-Mortis Arc AU. In a universe where the Father failed to take away Anakin's vision of the future, the Hero With No Fear struggles with the knowledge of what he will become and the knowledge of who, exactly, is responsible. Drastic steps are taken and in the process things go a little bit...sideways.

tbh. so good. also a post-mortic fic (i’m a hoe for mortis). i won’t say too much about this one because i don’t want to spoil anything. i was on the edge of my seat while reading this fic AT ALL TIMES. AT ALL TIMES. I HAD TO READ THE LAST CHAPTER BEFORE READING ON TO MAKE SURE ANAKIN WOULDN’T GO ALL EVIL. i was so pleasantly surprised. it’s just so - poetic. anakin really does a lot of growing in this, i think. brilliant fic 

those immortal dead by notbecauseofvictories

I care more for that long age which I shall never see than for the little of Time that I hold

Padmé Amidala is forgotten, not gone.

This is a five times padme amidala’s legacy lived on, basically. it’s got poe in it as well!! and rey, my daughter. what more do you need from a fic? so well written, so poignant, so beautiful

Palpatine Ad Portas by izzythehutt

When the Emperor Palpatine moves the Empire Day Celebration to Naboo, Darth Vader is forced to confront a past he had thought better buried and forgotten. Admiral Piett becomes the reluctant confidante of the monarch, caught in the middle of a deadly Sith cat-and-mouse mind game. Meanwhile, the young Rebel who blew up the Death Star returns to his mother's home world to pay his respects on the anniversary of her death--unaware of his father and the Emperor's presence on the planet and the very grave danger he is in.

Part 2 of In Loco Pirates-Verse

fucked me up really bad, tbh. vader goes to naboo. luke is there. it’s brilliant, but so painful. read at your own risk (but do read it)

Hello From the Other Side by DarthNickels

Kylo Ren is destined to take up the mantle of Vader. The Force can be incredibly literal.

MY FAVOURITE IMPERIAL OFFICER PIETT IS IN THIS!!! and he hates kylo so much, he thinks he’s such a pale imitation of vader, he’s so disgusted by him. i live for it. 10/10

The Sith Who Brought Life Day by ophelia_interrupted for Binder-lover

An Imperial officer loses a bet and has to get Darth Vader a present for Life Day.

i feel like this is such a star wars fic classic that everyone’s already read ages ago except me. the style on this feels really like. (don’t judge me if i’m way off on this lmao) catcher in the rye. reminds me old american classics. that type of feel. it’s so good!!

Into the Archives by skygawker

After hearing the legend of Darth Plagueis the Wise from Palpatine, Anakin decides that his best chance to save Padme is to break into the restricted Holocron Vault of the Temple Archives to search for information about Plagueis. Predictably, all does not go according to plan. Revenge of the Sith AU.

My tiny son anakin is such a mess in this. and you can tell this is au because anakin and obi wan actually talk about anakin’s feelings?? what?? what are those?? anyway. so good. it hasn’t been updated since feb 2016 but like?? my fics havent been since july 2015. figures

for a hundred miles through the desert by wreckageofstars

[“There's no water, on Tatooine,” Luke said finally. “I mean, no large bodies of water, like you have on other planets. Pools, lakes. Oceans.”

“Well, yeah,” Han said, eyebrow raised at the sudden change of subject, tone still sharper than he meant for it to be. “Place is a dustball. So?”

The kid still wouldn't look at him.

“So,” he said, face carefully blank, like it so often was these days, “I never learned how to swim.”]

Han has a hard time coming to terms with Luke's fall to the dark side during Dark Empire; so does Luke. 

This is some serious EU shit, but it’s pretty good on its own as an AU scenario. I LOVE the meta on this. love

and rise, rise in the desert sand by hollytrees

Padmé and Anakin keep in touch after TPM.

(Or, the author has started writing Fialleril's Pen Pals AU, possibly because they hate themselves.)

THIS ONE IS SO PAINFUL AND HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL!! it’s got one chapter but it’s so worth it

Never Heed by dogmatix, norcumi

The Sith Emperor is dead.

A clone visits one more pyre in his long life.

Part 4 of Ghosts of 66

This is Rex coming to Vader’s pyre. fuck mE UP. like HONESTLY. THERE’S ONE BIT IN THIS THAT MAKES ME WANNA CURL UP AND CRY EVERY TIME. actually two bits. three bits. the whole damn story. anyhow

Mercy is the Mighties' Jewel by akathecentimetre for TheCrackedKatana

They've chased each other all over the world - yet somehow, they will always end up here. Modern-day spy!AU with illustration by JakartaInn.

The Obi-wan and Ventress spy au of your dreams. what more do i need to say?

TFA FIC

to lie with your soul in the grave by plinys

Poe casts a glance at the door, he can see their mothers through the semi-transparent glass, it’s too quiet to hear them talk, but he knows whatever it is it can’t be good. The kid sitting next to him seems to have the same idea.

“So, who talks first?” Poe says, breaking the silence between them.

Tbh.. don’t judge but when tfa came out i liked kylo (i’m more.. conflicted about him now) and i read a lot of kylo fic in that time period. i was never a reylo, so i read a lot of other kylo fic, which was mostly either kyhux or kylo/poe WHICH THIS FIC IS ABOUT. THEY KNEW EACH OTHER GROWING UP. THEY WERE IN LOVE. all i remember from this fic is that it’s so well written. give it a read if you’re into this sort of thing

I read like three more kylo/poe fics that are also very good, so. anyway. here goes

saying that I love him but I know I'm gonna leave him byselenedaydreams

“This could be us one day.” Poe whispers half to himself as he finally turns towards Ben, finding a curious expression on his face. “This could be us.” He repeats, this time with more excitement. “You and me. Pilot and copilot. Traveling the universe together.”

Poe has never seen Ben smile at him the way he’s smiling now but Ben’s reaching for his hand and lacing their fingers together so it must be good. “Together.”

Lost To Me by red0aktree

Poe met Ben Solo when he was too young to even know what it meant to meet someone.

Poe met Kylo Ren years later.

Separating the prince of the First Order from the boy he grew up with proves more difficult than the pilot could ever imagine.

Melting Away by SF2187

Before he was Kylo Ren, he was in love with the best pilot in the Republic.

what i like about these fics is that (from what i remember) they don’t erase the fact that kylo is a raging asshole now. nice

excavate me (from all the girls I've tried to be) by Shadows_of_a_Dream

“Rise, Skywalker.”

“I told you,” Rey hisses through gritted teeth. “He’s gone.” Like everyone else. Like all the girls I’ve tried to be. Like all the girls I might have yet become, because I’m going to die alone on this unknown sea.

The mask returns his lightsaber to his belt. And like a crashing wave, like a renewed flame, like the weight of a planet falling squarely upon her shoulders, the mask looks at her and says, “I was talking to you.”

Part 1 of I never asked to tread the skies (but if I shall, I suppose I'll fly)

This one is so... intense. so intense. and so good. 20/10

need somewhere to begin by doubtthestars

Anthology of the War

1//The first time she officially meets Poe, she divulges secrets that aren't hers to tell. 2// If he had been born in any other family, Ben Solo would have been a soldier. 3// When she sees Rey, Leia only has a brief moment to reflect on all of their wrongs.

Read. That is all.

Trial by nymja

Kylo Ren kneels in the snow before her.

“Do it,” he demands.

Rey breathes in through her nose. Her hands are shaking. Her blade starts to burn the skin of his exposed neck. Do it for Han.

--

Luke takes Rey to face The Cave.

Part 4 of Do or Do Not

So cool.

Lessons Learned by nymja

“You’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t learn patience, first.”

“I’m the strongest knight here!”

The Jedi looks around the room, eyeing the skull of his grandfather with pointed distaste. “Yes, well. Good work.”

Part 1 of The Sad Grandpa Trilogy

Forceghost!obi-wan is so disappointed in kylo. it’s great. READ THE WHOLE SERIES BECAUSE IT’S GOLD!! it’s so good!! the next one is about rey and forceghost!anakin in the desert and that fic is so interesting because in it, anakin isn’t really as much of a grandfather figure as he is a friend figure and one of his corporeal forms is a warning to rey. like a mirror in the force (to her, to ren, it’s so brilliant). honestly i could talk forever about the next fic in this series because anakin is SO WELL WRITTEN. SO WELL WRITTEN. 

THE CLASSICS

tbh @fialleril​‘s Double Agent Vader verse gets the biggest shoutout (love u fia you’re my inspiration) for sheer amazingness. i won’t list any of the fics in the verse because u need to read all of them. yes, all of them. get to it

ACTUALLY. you should read all of fia’s work. all of it. (on the offchance that fia actually reads this, i can’t wait for anabasis i am so pumped)

ALSO!! another must read is @phil-the-stone‘s pocket full of sand 'verse. it’s such an Iconic piece of star wars fanfiction!! like bye, everyone needs to read this

ALSO another one of hers because?? why not. nursery ‘verse!!! i’m so heart eyes over nursery verse. i’m forever flattered because some of my headcanons are in this!! best thing i’ve ever done. (phil writes mostly b99 and ouat now, but still check it out, her writing is so good)

other fandom must-read authors include:

1000-alshain

actual-leia-organa

threadsketchy

star-vault-ofthe-heavens

darthnickels

cadesama

ygrittebardots

@anghraine

@izzythehutt

FF.NET MUST READ AUTHORS ARE: 

Mathematica 

irnan (all of their work, i’m not kidding, writer goals)

frodogenic (they wrote darth vader’s limplet and other hilarious fics, honestly, star wars humor at its finest)

motchi 

a bunch of others, though you might find more in my previous rec 

Now. Since we’ve come to the end of this ridiculously long rec, it’s time for me to shamelessly plug my own blog. you can find more tumblr fic in my tag here, you can find my writing here and on ao3 *whispers* leave me a comment, you can find my bookmarks here (and find fics i did not include that are also very good)

have fun reading!!