#droid meta

[rt-d00-t]

Bee's power reserves go down faster when he lies. I love when the topic of droids morality is brought up. Like, is it a reflection of their ownership? of their programming? Is Bee a symbol of the childhood Cassian didn't get because of the Empire? Bee is good because Cassian is good. Bee grieves Maarva when Cassian isn't there to. The first strike at Maarva's funeral is against Bee- then and only then does the rest of Ferrix retaliate. Bee is one of them- he is central to his community. and not because he is valuable or can do something essential! They hold him and they are good, so he is a reflection of that.

I don't know i just think that's a beautiful thing.

[sticks-and-souls]

I genuinely do not understand the dismissal of the Plaizir-15 storyline as “bad writing” when every single aspect of it was intentional absurdity designed to be comedy for us because we know we’re watching star wars.

If the too-happy jingle as bo katan lost control of her ship didn’t make you feel like you were entering a weird star wars dystopia, then Dark™ C-3PO and R2-D2 greeting them should have made you realize that it was deliberate. I commented to my partner that the Star Trek vibe was making it feel so weird well before we got to Christopher Lloyd wearing a fucking Star Trek uniform.

The fact that every single human character was an outrageous cameo was on purpose—probably to take their behavior from being interpreted as cheesy (not ideal), and into the territory of being absurdist. On top of being silly characters, (which we experience through Bo Katan’s spot-on “is this really happening”performance), there’s an extra joke for us that our main characters aren’t in on, which is that it’s freaking Jack Black and Lizzo. The director is winking at us. This is absurd!

Same thing when grogu got “knighted”. A silly, cute moment, that we once again experience through Bo’s barely held in smile. But the background music was the same music as the season 2 finale when he went to be a Jedi knight with Luke Skywalker. That was an extra joke just for us! It was hilarious!

Because our main characters experienced the ridiculousness of what was happening to them in a way that was true to their characters and there was a plausible plot reason for them to go along with it (i.e., complete quest in order to go see the other mandalorians), then it was still reasonable to transition back to the main season arc by the end of the episode.

I guess my point is that, just because it may not have been your brand of humor or you didn’t catch some of them, doesn’t make it bad storytelling or sloppy writing. It was deliberate and we still got to see our main characters work as a team in ways we haven’t seen before in a fun romp of an episode.

[ranahan]

From Star Wars Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide by Ben Burtt

[kaxtwenty]

Broke: Make Sabine a Jedi

Woke: Keep Sabine the same as she was

Bespoke: Give Sabine a fucking MECHA

[arianeemorythethird]

actually you know what, while I still stand firmly behind "the real villain of rex's tcw-era gothic horror story is rex with a control chip in his head" I think there's another option I'm ignoring here...

in classic gothic horror, of course, a hero has two main ways to resolve the problem of the monster:

✅defeat the monster

✅become the monster

and in canon, rex - being the overachiever that he is - gets to do both!

but gothic romance introduces a third, exciting option:

✅marry the monster

and I think rexwalker is definitely at its sexiest when it involves an anakin who is anywhere on the path from rots-era anguished doubt, to full-on commitment as darth vader, turning all his immense capacity for love and his ride-or-die, damn-the-consequences loyalty towards one ordinary (brave, determined, genuinely good) clone

[coruscanti-arabi]

Commander Cody, winning a battle with one other clone lieutenant, during the Battle of Sarrish, expecting to regroup to a successful campaign.

Kenobi, who has all of his resources at his disposal, at a major loss that resulted in a devastating massacre.

[gffa]

I keep reading conflicting things, so I thought I’d ask you: how does Obi-Wan feel towards droids? Some things I read say he’s kind, others indifferent , others that he downright dislikes them. Does he view them as sentient?

Hi! It's pretty much all three, depending on which supplementary author is writing the content. Within Lucas' canon (movies + s1-s6 of TCW), there's not really much interaction there, we're not given enough to really say either way. Other-than-Lucas authors tend to have their own takes, usually indifferent-to-positive, with a sprinkling of "Anakin thinks Obi-Wan should treat his favorite droids as people." The further problem is that Star Wars itself has never come down off the fence on a narrative level, where you'll get nods to it in some of the Disney canon stuff (like Solo's droids rights thing) but even then it's largely treated as a joke, not something serious. But otherwise, droids are often written as sentient, but then the narrative doesn't actually treat them that way. And you have to take into consider that, for example, if you make droids sentient in the way people are, then you have Luke Skywalker owning droids and that's Luke Skywalker owning sentients and I don't think Star Wars was ever going for that message. So, it depends on what you're asking for--if it's fic? Choose what works for you! I would say generally he's kind towards them in most supplementary material, but he also views them as machines, because the narrative views them as machines. If you're trying to have a definitive answer on a meta level, if Obi-Wan cares about droids? That just doesn't really exist because that answer doesn't exist on a narrative level overall.

[loveoaths]

i think about the droid/automaton temple guardians a lot. like--

they aren't alive, but they aren't not alive, either. they have varying degrees of sentience. they remember the jedi, some of them outlive the purge, knowing the jedi are gone save for whatever knowledge they've squirreled away in their memory banks.

cator, the droid guarding the jedi temple archives with jocasta nu, had a personality. he was serious about protecting and sheltering the jedi's knowledge and their history, so dedicated that he stood up to darth vader in an attempt to keep the list of force-sensitive children safe. sure, it was in his protocol to guard the archives, but he didn't have to care, or love it, or want to do this; we see many droids across star wars who do not give a single shit about their programmed duties, while still executing them.

but cator works hard, diligently and carefully, because cator loved his work, and he loved the jedi.

T0-B1 loved his jedi master so much! and his master loved him so much that he powered T0-B1 with the kyber crystal from his lightsaber! of course jedi wants to be a jedi. of course he wants to fight and protect and preserve life, not because he was programmed for it, because he wasn't, but because he wants to honor the man who gave his life to save him -- him, a "meaningless droid"!

then there are the tomb guardians on zeffo.

thousands upon thousands of years they've stood guard over the secrets of their creators, a species so powerful and gifted with the force that they were their own undoing. do the guardians know they're guarding tombs, or do they believe their masters will return some day from the other side of the veil, and the guardians will be there, waiting, stalwart sentinels ready to welcome them home? if they do know, did they mourn? could they have walked away from their posts but instead chose to stay, to keep the zeffo graves from being desecrated, because they'd rather the world forget their masters than allow them to suffer indignity?

did the guardians love the zeffo? surely they must have, without question.

the real question is: did the zeffo who whispered metal ore from the stone and gave them shape, gave them sentience, gave them purpose, love them back? they must have, in the way we all love the work of our hands.

but perhaps the most pressing question is:

long after their circuitry should have degraded, their power cores cracked and dripped empty, their shiny metal carapaces rusted off like so much disease -- what could it be that keeps these machines moving but their love for those who no longer exist anywhere but their memory?

how could you not love and be loved by something that made you, purposefully, in its image?????????

[25centsoda]

Put Some Respect On C-3PO’s Name

Many thanks to @spell-cleaver​ for sharing this article with me: https://www.tor.com/2023/05/24/a-reminder-that-talking-to-ewoks-is-the-most-important-thing-that-ever-happened-in-star-wars/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=tordotcom&e=e6aac7f658657e693c0121a448ee957f11d961422e3e7c4b1528b7c900c5bddf

The author, Emmet Asher-Perrin, makes some excellent points in here! Threepio gets a lot of flack for being chatty, worried, and having mobility problems, but he shouldn’t! That’s mean! And he’s essential! You don’t win a war just by blowing all your enemies up, you need to communicate with your teammates and your allies, and Threepio helps them do that by translating for Artoo, the ships, and being the translator with the Ewoks.

As a now-graduated anthropologist (bachelor’s degree! *confetti*), COMMUNICATION IS SO SO IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY WHEN Y’ALL DON’T SHARE A COMMON LANGUAGE. I am SO inarticulate atm but. believe it!

Read the article, and I look forward to more fics where Threepio’s communication skills are valued :)

yes including my own

[eliza1911o1]

Din and droids s3

Bringing back Din’s relationship with droids this season feels like a really interesting choice. (If it was an actual, thoughtful choice...)

Though there hasn’t much inclination towards the character in the promotions, episode 1 placed a lot of emphasis on the droid. The recap began with him, he was phrased as a hero, and he was the topic that had the most time spent solely on him. Then, at the end, instead of immediately trying to get the part for IG-11, Din visits Bo-Katan for a conversation that does not seem to pertain to the droid.

Also, unless Disney is majorly screwing with us (which is highly plausible) IG-11 is not the droid that brings Din and Grogu to Mandalore. There are multiple instances from the trailer showing the droid being an R5-series (my guess) astromech, most likely installed by Peli. 

Either way, it feels odd that they would place so much significance on the droid and his sacrifice in episode 1, only to replace him soon after. I don’t getting to Mandalore will be the main conflict of this season, so we can assume the journey happens relatively quickly and a droid (not IG-11) will be necessary. This, hopefully, means that Din’s insistence on IG-11 is not so much about IG-11 as it is Din’s residual discomfort towards droids. 

We know throughout season 1 that Din had a lot of trauma and hatred towards droids which was somewhat reversed after IG-11's sacrifice. In season 2, we even see him being pretty comfortable around them in Peli's workshop, but trauma, especially deep-seeded childhood trauma, doesn't go away that easy.  Though Din’s adjustment to droids was not necessarily quick, it would make sense if he had new hesitancy towards them following the events of S2 and TBoBF, where droids (the dark troopers and scorpion droids) threatened his and Grogu’s safety as well as countless others. 

Trying to revive IG-11 might not be a cheap trick but an indication of Din’s mental state, especially in relation to his childhood and in the wake of accepting his role as a father. For many trauma survivors, it is a lot easier to prove a singular person is safe and rely on them rather than taking chances with others. In response to Din’s stubbornness, even Greef Karga is taken aback, making it seem all the more plausible that the familiar character is being used as more than just a plot device

[asherelbein]

I'm busily working on the next Decline and Fall piece, part of a series that traces the decline of American empire through the lens of -- what else? -- Star Wars. We've reached REVENGE OF THE SITH, and this one is shaping up to be quite long. So, to whet your appetite, here's a little riff I wrote today on General Grievous.

Grievous is an interesting figure both in terms of design and thematics. A hulking, spider-like cyborg in a very fancy cape, he’s a pulp villain with glaring slitted reptilian eyes, squishy organs in his chest plate, and a bad cough. He’s certainly dangerous —he keeps a collection of lightsabers from dead Jedi in his cape. (The now-dubiously canonical Tartakovsky-animated Clone Wars underscores this with an absolute cracker-jack fight scene.)

But Grievous doesn’t really seem like an ideologue. He is, instead, generally shown to be a coward and opportunist. What was such a figure up to, before the outbreak of Galactic civil war? We’re never told, but we can infer: a professional general from the Outer Rim, or somewhere else beyond the borders of the Pax Republica. Someone akin to the mercenary captains of the Renaissance great companies: professional soldiers who kept an eye out for the main chance, and with a professional’s disdain for a fair fight. 

Grievous is also described — in the opening text and in conversation — as the “droid general.” This is, in part, a reference to his forces: those many marching battle droids churned out by the arms dealers of the Separatist alliance. But interestingly, people also talk about Grievous as if he’s himself a droid, rather than an organic being occupying a cybernetic shell. Interestingly, cybernetic prostheses don’t seem that remarkable in Star Wars: Anakin and Luke Skywalker both have them. But both also keep it covered by a glove. To the extent that we can draw conclusions from offhand decisions around design and costuming, open display of these sorts of prosthesis doesn't seem to be socially acceptable. Perhaps in the minds of Galactic citizens, any greater post-organic conversion — the sort that can’t be easily masked, the sort that reminds people of droids — comes with an implicit loss of personhood. 

Recall that droids occupy a deeply ambiguous position in Star Wars: impersonal threats, background workers, eternally subaltern. (Even those who are fully-realized characters —C-3PO and R2-D2 — express their agency in necessarily subversive ways, as befits eternal servants unable to act openly on their own.) As a cyborg, Grievous is thus a specific sort of threat to Republican order: a blend of the organic and cybernetic that has tipped decidedly toward the mechanical, living eyes glaring out of a droid skull like an indictment.

Want more DECLINE AND FALL? Interested in what we had to say about the other two prequels? You can find it right here -- in addition to plenty more -- at HEAT DEATH.

[tiend]

One more for the "average clones can't speak mando'a" side: imagining what would happen to them if they got caught speaking a language the Kaminoans don't know and didn't flash-train into them.

[icecreambeach]

all the corpse posts about IG-11 are funny and all but now I'm thinking about how like... the concept of a corpse almost NEVER applies to a droid?

Maybe if the parts are so damaged that not even an Anzellan could ever hope to repair them, the remains could be considered a corpse, but up until then, they're just parts. They could be rebuilt, or recomposed into something completely different, at any time.

Did IG-11 cease to be IG-11 (was he "dead") while Grogu was operating his parts, just because he didn't have access to his memory and/or any programming software? Doesn't IG-11 continue to exist up until all hope for his reanimation (when he becomes "self"-directed again) is lost? Could it then be said that by helping Grogu, even his last intentions (to nurse and protect) are living out? Could that be considered an extant expression of his programming?

[aktionfsa-blog-blog]

Smartphone sicherer machen

Bedrohungen erkennen und stoppen

Wir sollten es wissen und wir sollten auch etwas dagegen tun: Mindestens die Big5 (GAFAM = Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft), auch Kriminelle und eventuell staatliche Stellen beobachten, was wir im Netz tun, stehlen unsere persönlichen Daten oder erpressen unsere Zustimmung dazu.

Viele Beispiele zeigen, dass es nicht nur um lästiges und unbequemes geht, sondern dass es um unsere Privatsphäre und (informationelle) Selbstbestimmung geht und in vielen Fällen Menschen vor den Trümmern ihrer Lebensgestaltung stehen nachdem sie durch fehlerhafte Algorithmen zu False Positives gemacht wurden. Denn wie soll man beweisen, dass man etwas nicht getan hat ... (Fatale Folgen fehlerhafter Algorithmen , Angreifer können Tastenanschläge einschleusen )

... wissen und tätig werden

Also, wenn wir das wissen, dass müssen wir überlegen, was dagegen zu tun ist. In beiden Fällen kann uns die App Rethink helfen. Die Quellen für das Open Source Programm gibt es für Android auf Github https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app.

Rethink für Android kann Aktivitäten von Apps überwachen und sperren, Zensur umgehen, Apps mit einer Firewall schützen und auch Werbung blocken. Zudem erstellt es Statistiken über Zugriffe. Es kann keine Deep Packet Inspektion, es arbeitet vor allem mit DNS (Domain Name Service). Rethink gibt es in F-Droid und im PlayStore und benötigt keine Root Rechte - aber Android ab Version 10. Zum Trace baut es ein telefoninternes VPN auf und läuft stabil und im Hintergrund, lesen wir auf Mastodon.

Im ersten Schritt wird man sich also damit ansehen, welche anderen Apps uns wie oft und wie lange bespritzeln und dann kann man dazu übergehen, diese oder jene zeitweise oder dauerhaft zu sperren. Man sieht dann recht schnell wie umfassend die Macht der Big5 inzwischen geworden ist und muss sich im einen oder anderen Fall sicher von der Sucht zu irgendeiner App trennen ...

Mehr dazu bei https://diasp.eu/posts/16680086 und https://social.tchncs.de/@kuketzblog/112039141232534433 und die App gibt es u.a. hier https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app

Kategorie[21]: Unsere Themen in der Presse Short-Link dieser Seite: a-fsa.de/d/3zp Link zu dieser Seite: https://www.aktion-freiheitstattangst.org/de/articles/8707-20240308-smartphone-sicherer-machen.html

[nimata-beroya]

Note: Since my old masterlist is getting notes again (and I'm hosting @tbb-appreciation-week this year), I thought it's a good time to release a new version with a lot more resources. If any of you know another site or thing that it's missing from the list, let me know and I'll include it!! [Altho, I'm getting this close 🤏 to the hyperlinks limit on this thing 😆]

Note 2: To avoid tagging the 3 people from whom I got multiple resources repeatedly, I've placed 1-3 asterisks between square brackets after the links, depending on the OP. I give the respective credit to them in a legend at the end of the post.

PLACES / TIME

Interactive Galaxy Map by Henry Bernberg

Map of the Galaxy

List of planets and moons [Wikipedia /needs expanding]

Planet Name Generator 1 [SciFi Ideas]

Planetary System Generator [Donjon]

Tatooine Location References [*]

Various locations Cross-Sections (Jedi Temple, Palp's office, Tipoca City & more) [**]

Republic - Separatist - Hutt space during the Clone Wars

Hyperspace Travel Times (to calculate how much time would take to go from point A to point B within the GFFA)

Standard Calendar and Holidays [including month names!]

Galactic Standard Calendar [wookiepedia // including week day names]

Date converter according to SWTOR [Google sheet]

Dated Star Wars Chronological Order (Movies + live-action shows + animation)

TCW Chronological Timeline by @mauvrix

Estimated date for: shared by @spectres-fulcrum

Partisans' attack on Onderon

Siege of Lasan

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

General

Star Wars Name Generator 1 [Donjon]

Star Wars OC flow chart by @thefoodwiththedood

Star Wars Name Generator 2 [FantasyNames]

Star Wars Name Generator 3 [FantasyNames]

MetaHuman [Unreal Engine]

The character creator

Droid Name Generator

Star Wars Randomizer by @aureutr

Character Picrew [Twi-leks, Zabraks, Torgutas and Nautolans] @/megaramikaeli

Jedi

Taking a Closer Look at the Jedi Order in Star Wars Canon [Meta/Reference Guide] [**]

Jedi Order Structure Flowchart by @rileys-nest

Mandalorians

Mandalorian Armor design by MandoCreator

Keepers of the Way (Mandalorian Lore) [*]

Clones

Complete List Of Named Clone Troopers shared by @propheticfire (Organized by Unit)

Clone Creator [MandoCreator]

Clone Picrew

Star Wars Character Templates by SmacksArt [the ULTIMATE battery of template for any human/humanoid original character in any era. From troopers to droids, from Jedi to Sith, from KOTOR to the sequel Trilogy. 100% RECOMMENDED]

Basic Guide to Clone Trooper Armour by @odekiisu

GAR structure summary by @intermundia

The Clone Wars Republic Military Hierarchy Flowcharts [***]

Clone Trooper Lore [*] [Ranks, Culture, Training, Organization, etc.]

Clones and Kamino [*]

The Bad Batch Characters Concept Art shared by @shadowthestoryteller

MISCELLANEOUS

Star Wars Character Age Comparison Chart by @the-yearning-astronaut

Tusken Raiders lore by @snarwor

Materials (fabrics, leathers, silks, plastics, construction, metal composites, etc.)

Materials in Star Wars by marvel_dc_heart_throbs

Star Wars Fashion [*]

Leisure, Art, Musical Instruments, Ethnography [*]

Political and Criminal Organizations in the GFFA [**]

Financial reference about credits by @thecoffeelorian

List of TCW Opening Quotes

Transcripts of all the TCW episodes shared by @book-of-baba-fett

Star Wars Crawl Creator [not exactly writing-related, but just for fun]

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

Canon Medical Lore [*]

Real World reference for Field organizational structure for corpsman (medics) [*]

Kaliida Shoals Medical Center (Republic Haven-class medical station) shared by @clonewarsarchives

GAR Battalion Aid Station [*]

GAR Clone Medic Q/A [*]

More combat medicine, shipboard medicine, veteran issues, and military culture [*]

SHIPS AND VEHICLES

Ship Generator 3D

Ship Name Generator

All Terrain Tactical Enforcer (AT-TE) shared by @stairset

Republic Vessels Reference [*]

Low Altitude Assault Transport/Infantry (LAAT/i) [*]

List of GAR Flagships in the Clone Wars by @meandmyechoes

Layout of the Havoc Marauder

Dimensions of various ships from the Clone Wars [**]

FOOD AND DRINKS

Star Wars Menu Generator

In-Universe Alcoholic beverages

Canon Cocktails (recipes) [*]

Another In-Universe Drinks list shared by @systemic-dreams

Teas in Star Wars by marvel_dc_heart_throbs

Foodstuff [*]

Canon Star Wars Holiday Recipes [*]

Trask Chowder Recipe (from The Mandalorian) [*]

LANGUAGES; PHRASES AND SLANG; VOCABULARY

Languages of the Galaxy [*]

Script of different languages in the GFFA by @lucif-hare-blog

In-Universe phrases and slang [Google sheet]

List of phrases and slang [wookiepedia]

List of equivalents to real-world objects [wookiepidia]

Talk Like a Clone Trooper shared by @archeo-starwars

Aurebesh Translator [Aurebesh.org]

Learning Aurebesh Tools [Aurebesh.org] Reading - Writing.

Mando'a Database [Mando.org]

Mando'a Transcripticon [MandoCreator] (Create your own text in the Mando'a script.)

@project-shereshoy (Blog that collects and posts sources for Mando'a from all over the internet.)

Mando’a Categorized Spreadsheet

Learning Mando'a Tools [MandoCreator] Reading - Writing.

Setting Thesaurus Entry: Spaceport [Writers helping writers]

Fan-created Conlangs

@dai-bendu-conlang (Jedi Culture Explored) (This blog is the home of the Dai Bendu Conlang, invented by the Archive of Our Own Users aroacejoot, @ghostwriterofthemachine, and loosingletters for the Jedi Order in Star Wars.)

Lasana Lexicon by Anath_Tsurugi (fandom lexicon of the Lasat Language)

HELPFUL BLOGS & SITES

The amazing @fox-trot, who not only makes astonishing art and write an amazing fic, she also responds to medical questions and gives all kinds of references for writing medic characters. Check her #medicposting tag and you'll find tons of information. Also check #star wars reference and her art tag while you're at it.

@writebetterstarwars, which seems to be inactive, but there are a bunch of references there.

@howtofightwrite The place to find out how to write a good fight scene.

@scriptmedic no longer active, but it has a great deal of useful information.

@scripttorture for your whump needs. Major trigger warning for all its content.

@sw-anthrobiology A blog dedicated to collecting headcanons about the biology and cultures of Star Wars species.

@archeo-starwars In-universe sources on culture and history.

@clonewarsarchives Resources & Concept Art Blog for The Clone Wars animated series.

Wookiepedia If you don't find something in here, it's probably because it doesn't exist, neither as a canon nor legends reference.

Star Wars Databank: The official Star Wars website's reference guide. All canon.

WRITING IN GENERAL (For those who don't want to die like Stormtroopers)

SlickWrite: Completely free; online. Checks grammar, punctuation, flow, and writing style according to different settings (including fiction writing).

ProWritingAid: [RECOMMENDED] One of the most thorough online proofreader I've ever used. Although when using a free account gives extremely thorough feedback, with +20 different in-depth reports, for only the first 500 words. However, you can earn a premium account license (for a year or for life) if you get 10 or 20 new users signing up for free; (if you wouldn't mind doing so using the link above and help me earn mine, please). The settings allow you to check your writing according to your needs, from general to formal to creative. It has a bonus that you can check depending on the genre you're writing. For example, in creative, you can choose romance or sci-fiction (there are 14 sub-genre in total). And just like google docs, you can share a document, and people can view, comment or edit it too.

LanguageTool: [RECOMMENDED] Another excellent proofreader. It also has a word limit in free accounts, but if you use the add-on for Google Docs, it counts each page as a new document, so hitting the word limit is nearly impossible. It helps you to rewrite a sentence (3 a day), even if it doesn't raise any flags; it's very useful for when your sentence is grammatically correct, but it doesn't feel quite right.

Grammarly, Hemingway Editor: No so great, but they do the basic job.

Legend

[*] Shared by @fox-trot [**] Shared by @gffa [***] Shared by @cacodaemonia.

[phoenixkaptain]

Luke’s biggest character flaw isn’t impatience or arrogance… it’s reckless optimism.

Like, Luke doesn’t actually think he can beat Darth Fucking Vader in a fight. He wants to get revenge, yeah, but he doesn’t think he’s a better fighter than Darth Vader, he thinks he’s luckier than Darth Vader.

Luke isn’t actually suicidal, despite how little effort you’d have to put in to provide evidence that he could be. He thinks, no, he knows he’s lucky. He’s used to being lucky, even. His survival tactics all sort of depend on Luke being the luckiest person in the room at any given time.

And he isn’t actually all that lucky, that’s pretty obvious, but he really just thinks “If I stay alive long enough, things will eventually just work out.” Like he believes in the Force before he even knows about the Force, almost. Some thingd are just supposed to happen, and his own continued existence as a free man is one of those things, so if he waits long enough, an opportunity will eventually show itself and all Luke has to do is grab it.

He is stupidly optimistic about his chances. But, he’s also not wrong? Like, he doesn’t win his fight against Vader, but he’s also one of the only people who have fought Vader twice and not died either time. He went and rescued Leia without a plan beyond “rescue Leia” and he made it out relatively unscathed. He got captured by a wampa and hypothermia, one right after the other, and he only has to spend a bit of time floating in space jell-o that isn’t quite set. He goes to Dagobah and gets the training he requests from Yoda, despite Yoda not wanting to train him. He rescues Han from Jabba the Hutt, and he doesn’t get fed to a sarlacc in the process.

But really, just look at his final fight with Vader. Luke just honestly believes that everything will be fine. He really thinks he can just ask his dad to please chill out and Vader will. Luke tells the literal actual Emperor of the entire fucking galaxy “No. I will not become evil. And I won’t be evil because I’m not actually angry at anyone.” Luke is the luckiest man alive, because he is still somehow alive.

Heir to the Empire really has him thinking “If I stay alive long enough, an opportunity will present itself” on the planet Myrkr. As in, the planet covered in ysalamiri that cut him off entirely from the Force. As in, Luke doesn’t feel the Force telling him to be patient because it’ll all work out. Luke just believes that.

And it only really hit me as I read that novel. Luke is aggressively, stupidly, recklessly optimistic at all times about his chances of survival. Like, he is one meta joke away from just being actively aware that he is a protagonist and therefore can’t die in the middle of a plot. He’s optimistic about his own life, his dad’s life, his sister’s life, his droid’s life; Luke is the most optimistic man alive.

He is not the most cheerful person. There’s a difference between optimism and happiness, and Luke is a character who is constantly doubting himself, but he also just fully believes in his own ability to stay alive. Like he thinks “As long as I’m in mostly one piece, that’s a success :)” He thinks “wow I’m a terrible Jedi. I don’t know what a Jedi is, but I’m pretty sure I suck at it,” while at the same time being the character who believes in and listens to the Force more than Qui-Gon Jinn.

All this to say, I really hope that one day I can be as optimistic as Luke Skywalker. That man felled a galactic Empire with enthusiastic optimism and familial love alone, I wanna be like that.