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violethowler · 5 years ago

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Death and Separation: Emerging Trends in Pop Culture Franchises

Warning: The following essay contains ending and character death spoilers for Voltron: Legendary Defender, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Game of Thrones, and everything released under the Disney umbrella since January 2017. That includes Marvel, Star Wars, and vanilla Disney movies, both animated and live action.

I’ve noticed a pattern in the last couple of years of media consumption.

Since 2017, there has been a string of major releases by major companies or networks that featured story decisions that proved controversial with audiences. Now, such things on their own aren’t really a big deal because for the most part there’s always going to be some fans who aren’t satisfied with how a story turned out, regardless of their reasons.

But what I’m noticing is that there is a pattern to which elements fans are criticizing and why.

As I became aware of this trend I started looking back at media released in the last few years and noticing that many of these stories were featuring the same plot elements, whether they worked for the story or not:

One common point I noticed is how many of these franchises have taken morally complicated characters that were popular with audiences, and permanently killed them off in ways which a lot of people have found narratively unsatisfying:

In Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, Ben Solo manages to achieve his redemption and turn back to the light after all prior supplementary material showed how Snoke preyed on his feelings of abandonment to groom him into joining the dark side. After being redeemed, his contribution to the story’s climax is being thrown into a pit, where he stays until after Palpatineis defeated, and upon climbing out finds the girl he loves dead. Ben then uses the force to heal Rey and restore her to life, only to immediately kick the bucket himself, after which point the narrative ceases to acknowledge him in any way.

Loki and his brother Thor reconcile at the end of 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, only for the film’s post credits scene to herald their encounter with Loki’s former “employer” Thanos. The next time audiences see Loki in the opening minutes of Avengers: Infinity War, he’s strangled to death on-screen by Thanos following a failed assassination attempt before the film’s title card has even appeared. Despite theories that he had faked his death and would return in Avengers: Endgame, the only versions of Loki to appear in the finale of the Infinity Saga are past versions from alternate timelines, with only the characters dusted during Infinity War being brought back to life.

Gamora escapes from her abusive father figure Thanos in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie and spends subsequent films building a life for herself outside of Thanos’ toxic influence, with the sequel focusing on her repairing her relationship with her sister Nebula. After being captured by Thanos and forced to bring him to the Soul Stone, Thanos flings her off a cliff to her death when he learns that obtaining the Soul Stone will require him to sacrifice someone he loves, and awakens in a pool of water with the stone in his hand. Despite theories she would be brought back to life in Avengers: Endgame, but like Loki, the only versions of Gamora to appear were from alternate timelines that lacked the dead version’s character development.

Black Widow’s defining character trait across the Infinity Saga has been her desire to eliminate “the red in her ledger” to atone for the things she did when the Red Room had raised her to be an assassin. In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow sacrifices herself to obtain the Soul Stone in the past to give her close friend Clint Barton a second chance to come back from the brutal path of vengeance the death of his family had set him on, in the same way that he had given her a second chance to build a better life for herself when they first met.

In Voltron: Legendary Defender’s third season, Prince Lotor is introduced as a morally ambiguous figure with unclear motives. When forced on the run by his tyrannical father, he forms an alliance with the Paladins of Voltron and eventually develops a romance with Princess Allura. In the sixth season, Lotor is accused of mass murder of the survivors of Allura’s destroyed planet and their alliance falls apart. Lotor insists that his intentions for peace are genuine, but his efforts to explain himself fall on deaf ears, and after a battle, is left for dead in the Quintessence Field. The second episode of the final seasons fills in the details of his abusive childhood while showing that despite what he’d suffered, he was genuine in his desire for peace. Seasons 6 through 8 are sprinkled with hints that Lotor was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, but despite Season 8 Episode 6 Genesis depicting him being still alive after four years in the Quintessence Field, the audience is treated to an image of his melted corpse four episodes later, while his abusive mother searches alternate realities for a better version of him.

The first seven seasons of Game of Thrones depict Daenerys Targaryen as someone from an abusive family who was nevertheless determined to rise above her turbulent upbringing and make the world a better place. Over the course of the eighth and final season, her new allies disrespect her, her lover repeatedly betrays her trust, and her advisers not only question her mental stability but immediately attempt to undermine her campaign as soon as a male heir to the throne from her bloodline is presented to them. When her trusted confidant is murdered in the penultimate episode, she snaps and burns large swaths of the capitol to the ground with dragon fire. In the series finale, her remaining advisers convince her lover to kill her for the good of the realm, and her destructive rage is presented as who she always was.

In the narrative of these characters’ stories, some of these fit with the themes of that character’s story arc. Black Widow sacrificing herself makes sense because of the symmetry with what we know of her backstory. Clint Barton gave her a second chance and guided her back from the dark path she was on when they first met, and in Avengers: Endgame, she returns the favor. Her death, while upsetting to many fans for different reasons, fits within the context of her personal narrative arc from across the last decade of Marvel movies.

While Daenerys turning into a Mad Queen like her father would still be disappointing to fans hoping to see her disprove the “madness is in the blood” ideas about her family, it wouldn’t have come entirely out of nowhere. The hints that she had the potential to go down that path were there, even if many hoped it would only remain potential. One of the biggest issues is how Season 8 portrayed her descent into madness. Her cruelty towards King’s Landing is treated not as the rage of someone who has been pushed too far, but that this is who she always was.

Meanwhile Ben Solo’s death came suddenly and abruptly after repeated narrative fakeouts that he came back from. The previous films, novels, and comics had built him up as a victim of abuse and set up audiences to anticipate him breaking free of the Dark Side and finding a happy ending, likely while working to atone for his actions as Kylo Ren. But despite his actor having been promised that Ben Solo’s story would not end the same way that Darth Vader’s did, that was exactly what happened: with the redeemed villain dying to save a person they loved.

The context may differ, but there is a visible pattern of major genre franchises in the last year taking this type of complicated character and either killing them off when they’re finally in a good place mentally and emotionally, or in the case of Lotor and Daenerys, striping away their happiness to force them into the role of a one-dimensional tyrant and then killing them off. Lotor’s case is even more egregious because there were unanswered questions and inconsistencies surrounding his alleged crimes that after his death were never explained.

While I doubt the creators of any of these titles set out to intentionally hurt people who identified with these characters, their narrative choices still send very damaging messages.

These character’s backstories involve them either intentionally or unintentionally set up to fail by the people around them. Where most characters begin with a blank slate, theirs was already written in with expectations, pressure, violence, condemnation, control, manipulation, and/or outright subjugation. Fans young and old find them relatable because of similar rough pasts or trauma, often because or in spite of their grey moral compasses. This type of character resonates with audiences because they represent what it means to be human - to struggle, to make mistakes, and to have the ability to atone for them in the end.

Except in recent stories they don’t ever get that chance. Seeing Ben Solo and Lotor and Daenerys and Loki denied a chance at a happy ending tells people who identify with them that they will never find happiness. That their struggle toward the light is doomed to fail and will only end in death.

And that isn’t the only divisive trend that’s been observed in recent years. Since 2018, there have been sequels and series finales where the characters whose bond was the core of the story go their separate ways either after the conflict has been resolved or as the means to resolve the conflict:

In the series finale of Star Wars: Rebels, audience viewpoint character Ezra Bridger forces Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Star Destroyer fleet into hyperspace to protect the capital city of his planet Lothal from orbital bombardment. This separates him from his Found Family, and due to their commitments to the rebellion it isn’t until several years later that they set out to find him and bring him home.

During the course of Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-it Ralph 2, Vanellope von Schweetz becomes enamored with the virtual world of the internet, having grown tired of the routine of her life in the arcade in the five years since the original movie. Ralph’s desire for life to stay the same and his insecurities over losing his best friend drive the plot of the movie, and the conflict is resolved when Ralph learns to let go of his insecurities and respect Vanellope’s wishes. Ralph returns to the arcade while Vanellope remains on the internet, though they stay in touch via video chat.

The series finale of Voltron: Legendary Defender depicts the surviving paladins going their separate ways after the war ends, only meeting up once a year for a memorial dinner to honor Allura’s sacrifice. Lance is depicted with the markings of Allura’s people branded on his face, grieving her as he spends his days working on his family’s farm. Keith returns to the stars to restructure the Blade of Marmora into a peacetime organization. Hunk becomes a galactic chef, while Pidge returns to Earth to build robots at the Garrison. A year after the series, Shiro retires from the job he loves and marries one of the men on the bridge crew for the Atlas.

In order to protect the dragons of Berk from Grimmel the dragon hunter, Hiccup must send Toothless away so that the Night Fury can lead the Berkian dragons to the safety of the Hidden World. Year later Hiccan and Astrid take their children to the entrance of the Hidden World where they reunite with their dragon friends and their children.

In order to defeat Thanos and his army, Iron Man uses the Infinity Stones to snap Thanos’ legions out of existence at the cost of his own life. Following Tony’s funeral, Captain America returns the Stones to their original timeline before settling down in an alternate timeline to live a peaceful life with Peggy Carter in the 1940s. After reaching old age, Steve returns to his original timeline and passes the mantle of Captain America on to Sam Wilson along with the repaired shield. Thor abdicates the throne of New Asgard to Valkyrie before setting off to the stars with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Hawkeye returns to the quiet farm life with his wife and children, and the remaining heroes all go their separate ways.

After the death of Daenerys in the series finale of Game of Thrones, the Westerosi nobility decided to form an elected monarchy, choosing Bran Stark as the next king of the Seven Kingdoms. Sansa returns to Winterfell, where she becomes Queen of the North, while Jon Snow is “exiled” beyond the wall, and Arya sets sail to explore lands west of Westeros.

In Toy Story 4, Woody is feeling pushed to the side as Bonny plays with him less than she does the other toys. After getting lost on a road trip, Woody is reunited with his lost love, Bo Peep, who has been living alone scavenging from humans rather than being played with by a single child. After rescuing Bonnie’s new toy Forky, Woody and Bo race to get everyone back to the RV before Bonny’s family leaves. Before boarding the RV, Woody ultimately decides to stay with Bo, and he parts ways with the rest of Andy’s toys as the film ends.

After the previous film was about Maleficent becoming a surrogate mother figure to Aurora, the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, is about Maleficent learning to let her daughter grow up and leave the nest. After Queen Ingrid’s crusade against the fairies is thwarted, Maleficent gives her blessing for Aurora’s marriage to Phillip and lets her adopted daughter go. Maleficent returns to the Moors with the promise that she will return when Aurora and Phillip have a child of their own.

In the course of uncovering and making amends for their bigoted grandfather’s actions against the Northuldra people, Elsa and Anna learn that the rumored fifth spirit that bridges the mortal and the supernatural is actually them and their bond. After breaking the curse on the Enchanted Forest, Elsa abdicated her throne and remains in the forest to continue exploring the full extent of her powers while Anna takes the throne. Thanks to the magic of the other elemental spirits, the sisters remain in constant contact, with Elsa returning to Arendelle for regular visits.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker establishes that Ben Solo and Rey are a dyad in the Force - literal soulmates. At the end of the movie, Rey sacrifices her life to destroy Palpatine, and after climbing up from the pit he was tossed into, Ben uses the Force to heal Rey’s wounds and bring her back to life, at which point he immediately dies. After a victory celebration with the Resistance, Rey travels to Tatooine and is last seen burying Luke and Leia’s lightsabers in the sands outside the farm where Luke grew up.

As with the trend of killing off morally complicated characters, some of these examples work within the context of the film.

Motherhood was an important element of Maleficent’s arc across the two live action films, and learning to let her daughter leave the nest is a classic lesson in a parental figure’s character arc.

Hiccup and Toothless parting ways fits with the How To Train Your Dragon series’ focus on protecting the dragons and the animal conservation message that comes with that.

Ezra being separated from his found family at the end of Rebels was a way to maintain Luke Skywalker’s status as the only Jedi working for the rebellion in the original movies without permanently killing Ezra off, and the show’s writers left the door open for a potential sequel focused on Sabine following his trail to bring him home.

Other examples, however, do not align with the themes of their respective franchises.

Game of Thrones spent several seasons focusing on the surviving Stark children as they find their way back to each other. Sending them all in different directions at the end feels disappointing and pointless after they had finally been reunited in the previous season.

The Paladins of Voltron finding their own careers after the war that take them to different parts of the galaxy but still making the effort to consistently stay in contact makes sense in theory, but with the death of Allura it comes across as if her passing broke the team apart.

While the original Avengers going their separate ways to let a new generation of heroes step into the limelight seems like an organic conclusion to the Infinity Saga, Captain America’s ending in particular feels like a regression. His character arc across his previous solo films has been about moving forward, and Endgame concludes with him literally going backward.

It’s been common for fan complaints over these story elements to be directed mainly at the people directly responsible for making each project - the showrunners, the movie directors, the script writers…… But I couldn’t help but notice just how many of these examples for both trends fell under the Disney umbrella.

And then I remembered that Infinity War, Endgame, and The Rise of Skywalker all had reshoots done at some point in the production process.

It really makes me wonder how much of these disliked story decisions were really the individual directors’ and showrunners’ decisions and how much were mandated by someone higher up the ladder. And I can’t help but notice the demographics of the people in charge of these companies and the people affected by them.

The demographics of fans that enjoy morally complicated characters and want them to have a happy ending, that enjoy stories where the the characters who bonded over the course of the story stay together after their mutual goal is achieved, are from what I’ve observed predominantly made up of women, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, nonwhite people, and people with mental illnesses.

And most of the people in charge of these story decisions are cis, straight, neurotypipcal, able-bodied white men. The CEO of Disney... The showrunners of Game of Thrones….. Voltron’s a little more complicated because while Dreamworks made the show they didn’t own the franchise, but the Voltron IP owner is a straight white male.

These stories are controlled by straight white men, and the audiences that have the biggest negative reactions to these story decisions are women, LGBTQ+ people, and POC.

Companies may talk about having more diversity on camera and behind the camera, but the people at the top of the corporate hierarchy - the ones with the money and therefore the ultimate control over what gets released to the public - are for the most part the same demographic as they've always been.

And all of these show finales and movies have been released within the last four years, as fandom spaces and American public discourse in general have become increasingly polarized into a black and white mentality with no room for nuance. Where someone can only be either a perfect ally or an offensive oppressor. This trend in killing off morally complicated characters in ways that don’t always work for their character arc has also coincided with the rise of fandom’s pearl clutching over moral purity and whether a villain or anti villain “deserves” a redemption arc.

Your first instinct will probably be to dismiss what I’m suggesting, insisting that these are just shows and movies and that they don’t matter. That it’s Not That DeepTM. But more often than not the media we consume is a reflection of the world around us. And we are seeing a pattern that as fandom becomes increasingly obsessed with purity and enforces a “one strike and you’re a monster” mentality, the major franchises of pop culture are producing stories where people who aren’t clear-cut Pure Good Heroes or Pure Evil Villains die.

Also, dismissing people’s thoughts about the social messages of a movie or show, insisting that we’re wrong for saying that something doesn’t fit with the story so far, is part of the problem. Having critics and other fans praising the stories we feel hurt by and dismissing our criticisms as, for example, whiny shippers mad that our favorite pairings didn’t happen, has a very stifling, damaging effect. It tells us over and over again that this is the way that stories are supposed to be, and that there is something weird, broken, wrong with us for not being satisfied with stories that break up the Found Family or kill off your morally messed up fave regardless of whether it actually makes sense for the story.

It leaves us isolated and alienated from wider fandom discussions because we’re told it again and again until we internalize it that we’re in the wrong. That people just don’t want to make the kinds of stories we want to see. That we’re paranoid for suspecting that there is a pattern when we see this happen over and over. But it’s clear from the way that some creators have acted - going from excitedly promoting their work to complete silence after the initial disappointment over the finale - that there are creators who want to tell those kinds of stories, but they are being silenced. They are being forced to change the stories they wanted to tell because someone in charge didn’t like that kind of story, and because of their NDAs are forced to either keep silent, or lie and take credit for decisions that weren’t theirs.

It’s easy to dismiss these story decisions as a coincidence. To believe that all of these creators made similar decisions on their own. That they just fucked up a beautiful story on their own with no intervention from someone higher up the corporate ladder. It’s a comforting option. It makes us feel like our criticisms have an impact. Because the alternative? That creators can and have been forced to change their stories because the person at the top doesn’t think that it’ll sell well if it doesn’t cater to the demographic they consider most important? That’s terrifying.

#media analysis #meta #trends I'm seeing in popular franchises

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kyloren · 5 years ago

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Why Reylos Are A Bright Spot In The STAR WARS Fandom

It’s impossible to parse all of this out or to really say who’s “right” or “wrong” or what “right” and “wrong” even mean in fandom spaces. From my vantage point, the Reylo community is one of the more forgiving and accepting out there. It’s comprised of not only women, but plenty of men and non-binary Star Wars fans, from different races and orientations and experiences. And that’s true of any shipping community. In a fandom as large as Star Wars, there should be room for all of us to express joy or grief or surprise or disinterest in our cultivated spaces. It’s how we all choose to cross-pollinate that could use some work.

But Reylos aren’t deserving of the intense condemnation that comes from larger voices in the fandom. The ridicule feels specific and exclusionary, and rooted in gatekeeping sexism. Comparing them to the Fandom Menace is ridiculous. That group created blogs dedicated to roasting journalists, creators, and fans. Meanwhile, the Reylo community (along with Ben Solo fans) poured much of their frustration and sadness over The Rise of Skywalker into an act of good, by raising money for Adam Driver’s charity, Arts in the Armed Forces. How much money? As of this writing, over $76,000, more than double the charity’s fundraising goal for an entire fiscal year.

full article below the cut:

Why is romantic love such a controversial thing in fandom? It’s something I ask myself a lot, as a person who writes about shipping and who desires the kind of love that stories tell me might exist. I’ve spent most of my life in fandom spaces—participating in conversations or observing and examining them—and have witnessed firsthand how objectionable fictional romance can be, especially in fandoms that appeal to and target men. Why is this the case, and why is romance a thing we use to punish women looking for escapism in genre stories?

It’s hard to say, but it remains an endemic and undeniable strain. Shipping, which is fandom code for wanting two characters to be together, is often snickered at or seen as some frivolous element of appreciation. It can lead to shaming that feels personal and accusatory, as if your interest in a fictional relationship is a roadmap to your own intentions and experience. This attitude towards shippers is especially present in the Star Wars fandom, where the relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren is steeped in a seemingly never-ending controversy. There are fervent supporters of the romance between these characters, a plentiful contingent of opposers, and those who don’t really care one way or another but still seem fit to criticize.

Why has the “Reylo” ship created such a stir? Let’s dig into this subset of the Star Wars fandom: where it started, why it’s accumulated so much negativity, and why the Reylos don’t deserve the bad reputation they’ve acquired, especially in the wake of The Rise of Skywalker.

THE ORIGINS OF REYLO

The release of The Last Jedi was a rough time for a lot Star Wars fans. The film—the eighth in the Skywalker saga and the second in the Disney-era sequel trilogy—made a lot of bold storytelling choices, which divided the fandom into camps. Those who loved the meditations on the Force, Luke Skywalker’s troubled hero’s journey, the complicated characterization of Poe Dameron, Finn and Rose’s failed mission, and the strange developing bond between Rey and Kylo felt at odds with anyone who saw otherwise. Many disliked Luke’s arc, or the apparent sidelining of Poe and Finn, or the democratization of the Force. The disagreements spiraled into something bordering collective mania. It’s a debate that still rages today, and that seeped into the conversations we’re currently having about The Rise of Skywalker.

I loved the movie, but found the discourse numbing. Positive Twitter conversations were instantly marred by detractors, and every passionate argument was upended by accusatory nitpicks. I felt discouraged from participating in any of it, and I felt bitter towards the Star Wars community in general. Until I found the Reylos.

After stumbling on podcasts like What The Force?, Skytalkers, and Scavenger’s Hoard—all female-hosted programs—I realized there were plenty of encouraging conversations about The Last Jedi happening in fandom. I also realized most of them were Reylo-oriented. Suddenly, I was exposed to the exact conversations I always wanted to have about Star Wars: deep dives into mythology, redemption arcs, symbolism and dualism, religion, poetry. And all of that was encompassed in Reylo. All of these larger stories, focused through these characters joined by fate and purpose, who represented opposing ideologies of the Force.

There was so much to dig into. Rey and Kylo have a classic enemies-to-lovers storyline, a romantic trope seen in fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, classic literature like Pride and Prejudice, mythological stories like that of Hades and Persephone, even modern genre television like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s typically used in women-oriented storytelling, as it affords duality and compassion to both parties; a distribution of power that makes the women as complicated, compromised, and interesting as their male counterparts. Rey’s interest in Kylo adds a layered intrigue to a character otherwise patently “good” and “pure,” words commonly associated with women, forcing them into palatable, antiquated gender roles.

Their relationship feeds a part of the fanbase who craves that kind of female protagonist. One who represents their own burgeoning lust, complicated compassion for the men they chose to care about, and temptation towards things we’re told to fear. Through the Reylo relationship, Rey took on another angle, one that finally made Star Wars feel like a story for me.

THE BACKLASH

I also learned right away what it meant to be a Reylo in the Star Wars fandom. The relationship between the light-sided Rey and dark-sided Kylo was riddled in turmoil. In The Force Awakens, a scene where he straps her down and interrogates her is considered by many to be abusive. The language Kylo uses to seduce Rey to his side in The Last Jedi is also seen as manipulative and problematic. He tells her that no one knows her like he does. In their opinion, he’s attempting to groom her to his standards, to turn her into what he wants against her own will. Those against the relationship will tell you that it’s a dangerous and negative message to send to young girls.

And here’s where I’ll say something potentially controversial amongst my fellow Reylos: I don’t think these people are “wrong.” Because everyone’s experience and perspective is their own thing to interrogate, and it’s not up to me to tell people how to feel about something–even if I disagree entirely. What I do take issue with, however, is the need to interrogate someone else’s preferences or fantasies. There is an infantilizing element to the backlash, as if those opposed think that Reylos haven’t reconciled with the themes presented to them, and are merely choosing to ignore them because they think Adam Driver is hot.

The way I see it, relationships like Reylo—power fantasies oriented on the feminine psyche, with an antagonistic male—fulfill two things I love in storytelling. They are pure escapism; the happy ending those of us drawn to the incurable are never afforded. And they are instructive, as they exemplify the patriarchal schism between men and women: that we are not equal, but that women love men anyway because of the compassion that comes naturally to balance that division. It shows how we can mend those gaps through patience and understanding. It’s archetypical and fantastical, sure, but that’s what Star Wars is: a fairy tale that wrestles with society and humanity in broad strokes.

That said, there are other reasons for dissent. Some fans ship Rey and Finn, and see their romance as a better avenue for a healthy relationship. Some have experienced personal trauma and can’t abide a romance that mimics and negates their pain. Others just don’t see the Reylo thing at all. Absolutely all of that is valid. Shipping should never be a competition or an authoritative moral stance on any side. Rey/Finn shippers are just as valid as Reylos because it speaks to what someone personally craves and desires. The shaming shouldn’t exist on any side—but because it does, the passionate defense comes in.

REYLOS DON’T DESERVE THE HATE

That knee-jerk self defense has drawn a lot of ire to the Reylo community in the aftermath of The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. On paper, the Reylos were given a lot of what they desire: Kylo Ren is redeemed and turns back into Ben Solo. Rey and Ben fight side by side and even share a kiss. But then Ben dies and Rey ends the movie alone, something that irked the shippers. They saw the ending as a grim conclusion for Ben and a way of punishing Rey for expressing her desires. To many, the ending feels hopeless and feeds into this stereotypical notion that for a woman to be strong, she must be single — as if romantic love weakens us.

There are other ways to read the ending, and many fans found power in it. That’s the beauty of film: that it’s entirely subjective. But in their profession of disappointment, the Reylos once again became a punching bag for the fandom at large. A recent BuzzFeed article compared the way Reylos reacted to The Rise of Skywalker to the way the Fandom Menace—a trolling, abusive, anti-Disney hate group—reacted to The Last Jedi. (Never mind that their “source” for this reaction was a tweet from a prominent member of the Fandom Menace, and that many of the complaints in question were either fabricated or from non-Reylo accounts.)

I also know that the Reylos helped me find my way back to loving Star Wars, gave me endless professional and creative inspiration for the last two years, and deepened my interest and love of storytelling and mythology. I know I’m not alone, and I know that the Reylo shipping community has made Star Wars finally feel like a fandom they were allowed to love. That’s something I hope fans with different access points to the world of Star Wars might think about before they wag a finger or call Reylos fake fans or mock their interests and experience. Star Wars can and should be for everyone, and how we find our way into the galaxy far, far away is a unique, personal, and beautiful thing. Love is what it’s all about at the end of the day. Even romantic love.

by Lindsey Romain for Nerdist [find article HERE]

#reylo #kylo ren #ben solo #rey #star wars #*

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now

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Editor’s Note: This post is updated regularly. Bookmark this page and come back to stay up to date with the best horror movies on Amazon Prime. Den of Geek participates in Amazon’s affiliate program and may receive a commission from links on this page.

Updated for October 2020

Amazon Prime’s selection of horror movies is as extensive as it is terrifying. What’s more, they have a significant selection of both new and old/classic films for your scary pleasures. So we’ve compiled our picks of the best scary movies to watch on Halloween (or any other time) on Amazon Prime Video right now.

Now, pour yourself a glass of something good and dig your fangs in to our list of the best horror movies you can watch on Amazon Prime Video.

Afflicted

One of the better recent found-footage efforts takes a ghastly turn when one of the filmmakers wakes up foaming at the mouth with his eyeballs rolling back in their sockets. He can also suddenly run faster than a car speeding in a school zone. Diagnosis: vampirism.

There is no cure for the undead except feeding on human blood (especially child molesters). That epic travel blog they were planning is going to be supernaturally epic.

Watch Afflicted on Amazon (US Only)

Bone Tomahawk

Writer and musician Craig Zahler made his feature directorial debut with this grim, ultra-violent and unique hybrid of the Western and horror genres — two great tastes, etc.

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Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

By David Crow and 2 others

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The 20 Best Horror Movies on Netflix UK – Scary Films to Watch Right Now

By Rosie Fletcher

Kurt Russell is outstanding as Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who must lead a posse into the wilderness to rescue three people from a brutal tribe of Indians who may not even be human as we know it. The grisly confrontation that ensues is not for the squeamish. Zahler gets the period details and the horror right, while the rest of his excellent cast includes Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and others.

Watch Bone Tomahawk on Amazon

Buried

Before he found failure as Green Lantern and then career rebirth as Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds made this tight, claustrophobic thriller in which he wakes up to find himself sealed in a coffin.

Turns out that Reynolds’ character is a contractor working in Iraq, abducted and buried by an insurgent kidnapper who has left him a cellphone. While the abductor calls to demand a ransom, Reynolds attempts to contact the outside world �� with director Rodrigo Cortes never leaving the confined space of the coffin. What’s amazing is how well he and Reynolds pull this exercise in storytelling economy off.

Watch Buried on Amazon

The Cabin in the Woods

A remote cabin in the woods is one of the most frequently occurring settings in all of horror. What better location for teenagers to be tormented by monsters, demons, or murderous hillbillies? Writer/Director Joss Whedon takes that tried and true setting and uses it as a jumping off points for one of the most successful metatextual horror movies in recent memory.

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Best Horror Movies to Watch on Shudder Right Now

By Rosie Fletcher and 1 other

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31 Best Horror Movies to Stream

By Alec Bojalad and 1 other

Like you would expect, The Cabin in the Woods features five college friends (all representing certain youthful archetypes, of course) renting a….well, a cabin in the woods. Soon things begin to go awry in a very traditional horror movie way. But then The Cabin in the Woods begins doling out some of the many tricks it has up its sleeve. This is a fascinating, very funny, and yet still creepy breakdown of horror tropes that any horror fan can enjoy.

Watch The Cabin in the Woods on Amazon

City of the Living Dead

Italian horror director Lucio Fulci kicked off his famous “Gates of Hell” trilogy with this gruesome, crude but surreal 1980 gorefest, in which a reporter (Christopher George) and a psychic (Catriona MacColl) struggle to stop those gates from opening and letting a horde of hungry undead into the world.

Fulci loosely based the movie on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, vying for the latter’s brooding atmosphere while indulging in his own trademark splatter. The results are somewhat slapdash but a must-see for Italian horror fans. Followed by the much better The Beyond (1980) and House by the Cemetery (1981).

Watch City of the Living Dead on Amazon

Climax

An uncategorizable but still horrific entry from the endlessly provocative French director Gaspar Noe (Irreversible), Climax starts off with — of all things — a lively, lengthy dance number in which an isolated dance troupe nails the erotic, exotic, physically demanding routine they’ve practiced for months.

But then someone slips an extremely potent drug into the punch during the party afterwards, and the tight-knit troupe turns into a raging mob of psychotics who tear, beat, and fuck each other to death. Another not-for-the-faint-of-heart film, Climax is perverse, macabre, and visceral — yet somehow alive even in the midst of all its morbidity.

Watch Climax on Amazon

Crawl

Kaya Scodelario (The Maze Runner) has to battle both hungry alligators and relentlessly rising floodwaters in this punchy better-than-you-expected thriller from director Alexandre Aja (Piranha 3D). Scodelario plays Haley, a college student who goes to check on her reclusive dad during the onset of a Category 5 hurricane and finds him injured in his basement just as nature runs all kinds of amok.

Our own Patrick Sproull said in his review that the movie delivers an “exhilarating shock to the system” and simply wants to “entertain the bejesus out of you,” which is all we want in these waning days of the Republic. Killer alligators and a deadly cyclone? It’s like two scary movies for the price of one.

Watch Crawl on Amazon

The Crazies

The Crazies is a zombie movie without the undead. And that kind of makes sense given that it was written and directed by the zombie maestro, himself: George A. Romero.

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1973’s The Crazies (there’s also a 2010 remake) tells the story of an experimental bioweapon called “Trixie.” There are only two possible results from exposure to Trixie: death or irreversible raving insanity. That’s rough. But what’s even worse is that Trixie is accidentally unleashed in Evans City, Pennsylvania, turning the small town into war zone where any neighbor could become violently insane at any moment.

Like his zombie works, Romero uses this creative horror/sci-fi concept to great satirical and symbolic effect.

Watch The Crazies on Amazon (US Only)

The Dead Zone

The Dead Zone strangely remains both one of Stephen King’s more underrated movie adaptations as well as one of director David Cronenberg’s more unsung efforts. Yet it ends up being among the best from both author and auteur, while also providing star Christopher Walken with one of his most moving, complex performances to date.

Walken’s Johnny Smith awakens from a coma to find out he’s lost five years of his life but gained a frightening talent to touch people and see both their deepest secrets and their future. Whether to use that power to impact the world around him is the choice he must face in this bittersweet, eerie and heartfelt film, which found Cronenberg moving away from his trademark body horror for the first time.

Watch The Dead Zone on Amazon

The Devil Bat

Ah, The Devil Bat. One of those infamous vampire movies that isn’t actually about vampires. But who the hell cares when it has Bela Lugosi in it, right?

But this poverty row production from 1940 features plenty of atmospherics, as well as a giant honkin’ bat, and that’s enough to set the mood on a chilly night. Especially if you’re indulging in adult beverages or contraband. If nothing else, just bow down to Bela.

Watch The Devil Bat on Amazon

Die, Monster, Die!

This was just the second feature film ever adapted from a story by H.P. Lovecraft, with movie producers eager to find other horror writers’ work to plunder after Roger Corman hit it big with his Edgar Allan Poe movies in the early 1960s.

This one is based on Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space,” which you may recognize as the title of a recent nutty Nicolas Cage movie also based on the same tale. Boris Karloff stars in this one, about a scientist who discovers that a crashed meteor begins to mutate all the plant and animal life around his home, including him and his wife. It’s kind of a slow burner but it does have its weird-ass imagery.

Watch Die, Monster, Die! on Amazon (US only)

The Exorcist III

Out of the many attempts to sequelize William Friedkin’s classic 1972 movie The Exorcist, this is the only one worthy of the original. William Peter Blatty, author of the original book, wrote a sequel novel called Legion and adapted and directed it himself for this chilling movie starring George C. Scott.

Scott plays Detective Kinderman (the role filled by Lee J. Cobb in The Exorcist), who investigates a series of murders that have connections to both the first movie’s exorcism and a spate of killings done years earlier by the now-dead Gemini Killer. Even with extensive studio-forced reshoots, Blatty has fashioned an eerie theological thriller, with one sequence that is a stone-cold classic of tension and shock.

Watch The Exorcist III on Amazon (US only)

A Field in England

2013’s A Field in England presents compelling evidence that more horror movies should be shot in black and white.

Directed by British director Ben Wheatley, A Field in England is a kaleidoscope of trippy, cerebral horror. The film takes place in 1648, during the English Civil War. A group of soldiers is taken in by a kindly man, who is soon revealed to be an alchemist. The alchemist takes the soldiers to a vast field of mushrooms where they are subjected to a series of mind-altering, nightmarish visions.

A Field in England is aggressively weird, creative, and best of all clocks in at exactly 90 minutes.

Watch A Field in England on Amazon (US only)

Frankenstein: The True Story

Well, not exactly. Originally presented as a two-part mini-series on NBC back in 1974, Frankenstein: The True Story takes plenty of liberties with Mary Shelley’s milestone novel. But it keeps the essence and atmosphere of the story intact, while taking it down some interesting new narrative paths.

The cast is sensational, led by Leonard Whiting as Dr. Frankenstein, Michael Sarrazin as the creature — who starts out beautiful and ends up degenerating into a monster — and especially James Mason as the Dr. Pretorius-like Polidori, named after one of Mary Shelley’s colleagues who was there when she began writing the novel. Frankenstein: The True Story is both macabre and lush, and deserves rediscovery.

Watch Frankenstein: The True Story on Amazon

Fright Night

Screenwriter-turned-director Tom Holland lets a jaded, smarmy vampire named Jerry Dandridge loose in suburbia and watches the blood spurt in this beloved ‘80s horror staple.

Chris Sarandon brings a nice combination of amusement and menace to the role of the bloodsucker, while Planet of the Apes veteran Roddy McDowall is endearing as a washed-up horror host recruited into a real-life horror show. Much of Fright Night is teen-oriented and somewhat dated, but it still works as a sort of precursor to later post-modern horror gems like Scream.

Watch Fright Night on Amazon

Hereditary

Between Hereditary and The Haunting of Hill House 2018 was a great year for turning familial trauma into horror.

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Written and directed by Ari Aster, Hereditary follows the Graham family as they deal with the death of their secretive grandmother. As Annie Graham (Toni Collette) comes to terms with the loss, she begins to realize that she may have inherited a mental illness from her late mother…or something worse.

Hereditary is terrifying because it asks a deceptively simple but truly creepy question: what do we really inherit from our family?

Watch Hereditary on Amazon (US only)

The Hole in the Ground

Recent horror trends have stumbled across a universal truth: kids are very creepy. A24’s Irish horror film The Hole in the Ground makes great use of that truth.

The Hole in the Ground follows a woman named Sarah O’Neill who opts to leave her (likely abusive) husband and move out to the lonely Irish countryside with her son, Chris. Things are going well until Chris starts to exhibit some strange behaviors. Not only that, but an old woman in the village tells Sarah that her son “is not your son.” When that woman is found dead with her head in the dirt, Sarah is forced to confront that maybe little Chris isn’t her Chris after all.

Watch The Hole in the Ground on Amazon (US only)

The House of the Devil

Indie horror auteur Ti West’s low-budget creepfest is a homage to 1980s horror yet plays it straight; he sets out to make a movie with the feel of genre films from that era without making self-aware in-jokes and references — and he mostly succeeds.

But The House of the Devil is also the definition of a “slow burn”: very little happens for much of the first hour (save a jolt here and there) and then the third act explodes into a paroxysm of murder, gore and Satanic horror. That makes the film feel a little off-balance, although in the end it all becomes quite unnerving.

Watch The House of the Devil on Amazon

House on Haunted Hill

What would you do for $10,000? How about surviving a night in a mansion haunted by murder victims and owned by a psychotic millionaire? Seems like a party trick until people actually start dying.

Vincent Price is the master and mastermind of a house that suddenly makes everyone homicidal—but the real pièce de résistance is what dances out of a vat of flesh-eating acid.

Some vintage horror never dies, and this 1959 classic is immortal.

Watch House on Haunted Hill on Amazon

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

One of a holy trifecta of remakes that actually improved on their predecessors (the other two are John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s The Fly), 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers hits that horror/sci-fi sweet spot with a cosmic premise, terrifying imagery and a nerve-rattling naturalism.

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Director Philip Kaufman shifts the story from small-town California to San Francisco, while updating the metaphor from a warning against Communism to a cautionary tale of urban alienation. But in the end, watching those duplicates of Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Jeff Goldblum ooze out of their alien pods is as terrifying as ever, making this a genuine classic of its time.

Watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers on Amazon (US only)

The Last House on the Left

Released in 1972, the directorial debut of the mighty (and sadly late) Wes Craven remains one of the most important horror films ever made. It helped kick off an era of horror cinema that tapped directly into the unrest of the late 1960s and 1970s, the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots, the alienation between parents and children and the escalation of violence throughout the nation.

It also showed, in nauseatingly graphic fashion, what happens when you strip away the veneer of civilization from both the characters you are expected to despise and those you are supposed to like. The result is still a crude, disturbing and grueling experience that is genuinely not for everyone.

Watch The Last House on the Left on Amazon (US only)

The Lighthouse

The second feature from The Witch writer/director Robert Eggers is just as accomplished as his debut, if almost entirely different in tone and imagery.

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Whereas The Witch was an exercise in Puritan supernatural terror, The Lighthouse is more of a descent into watery psychological madness, seasoned with a heavy dollop of Lovecraftian horror. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are brilliant as the mentally crumbling guardians of the title structure, with the latter in particular giving a crazed performance for the ages.

Watch The Lighthouse on Amazon (US only)

The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue

This 1974 film is almost as famous for its many alternate titles (including Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) as it is for being one of the first worthy zombie films to come out in the wake of Night of the Living Dead six years earlier.

With its counter-culture protagonists and environmental message (the dead are brought back to life by a form of radiation used as a pesticide), Manchester Morgue tries to be as socially conscious as the Romero classic it emulates. But it’s all about the zombie mayhem as well — and in full color, no less. This cult classic deserves a place of honor in the pantheon of the walking dead.

Watch The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue on Amazon (US only)

Midsommar

It’s hard to categorize Midsommar, Ari Aster’s followup to his absolutely terrifying horror debut, Hereditary. Part straight up horror, part The Wicker Man, and part anthropological study, Midsommar seems to occupy many genres all at once. Aster himself called it a “break up” movie. But whatever genre Midsommar is, it is a brilliant, and at times deeply disturbing film.

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Florence Pugh stars Dani, a young woman trying to heal in the wake of an enormous tragedy. Dani follows her boyfriend, Christian, and his annoying friends to an important midsummer festival deep in the heart of Sweden. Christian and company are there partly to get high and have fun and also partly to study the unique, isolated culture for their respective theses. To say that they get more than they bargained for is an understatement. But Dani may just end up getting exactly what she needs.

Watch Midsommar on Amazon

Neverlake

Horrors always lurk at the bottom of murky lakes, but the dead-eyed doll heads and evil statues staring from beneath the greenish surface of this one will have you begging Swamp Thing for mercy. That’s before some brutally disfigured orphans shamble out of the woods.

When Jenny visits her archaeologist father in Italy, long-drowned secrets start bubbling to the surface. To think, all this was supposed to be a vacation. Riccardo Paoletti’s directorial debut is worth checking out.

Watch Neverlake on Amazon

Night of the Living Dead

George A. Romero’s 1968 zombie classic The Night of the Living Dead messed up the minds of late ’60s moviegoers as much as it messed with every horror movie that followed. Shot on gritty black and white stock, the film captures the desperate urgency of a documentary shot at the end of the world. It is a tale of survival, an allegory for the Vietnam War and racism and suspenseful as hell freezing over.

Night of the Living Dead set a new standard for gore, even though you could tell some of the bones the zombies were munching came from a local butcher shop. But what grabs at you are the unexpected shocks. Long before The Walking Dead, Romero caught the terror that could erupt from any character, at any time.

They’re coming to get you. There’s one of them now!

Watch Night of The Living Dead on Amazon

Nosferatu

Nothing beats a classic, and that’s exactly what Nosferatu is. As the unofficial 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this German Expressionist masterpiece was almost lost to the ages when the filmmakers lost a copyright lawsuit with Stoker’s widow (who had a point). As a result, most copies were destroyed…but a precious few survived.

This definitive horror movie from F.W. Murnau might be a silent picture, but it is a haunting one where vampirism is used as a metaphor for plague and the Black Death sweeping across Europe. When Count Orlock comes to Berlin, he brings rivers of rats with him and the most repellent visage ever presented by a cinematic bloodsucker. The sexy vampires would come later, starting with 1931’s more polished vision of Count Dracula as legendarily played by Bela Lugosi, but Max Schreck is buried under globs of makeup in Nosferatu making him resemble an emaciated cadaver. Murnau plays with shadow and light to create an intoxicating environment of fever dream repressions. But he also creates the most haunting cinematic image of a vampire yet put on screen.

Check it out.

Watch Nosferatu on Amazon (US only)

Open Grave

Post-apocalyptic zombie fans won’t want to miss the love child of The Walking Dead meets 28 Days Later, now with amnesia. When a man who’s forgotten every fragment of his identity (Sharlto Copley) wakes up in a body pit crawling with pathogens, he scrambles out to fight a swarm of brain-craving undead along with five other amnesiacs.

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It gets even more terrifying when the pieces of memory hiding in his flashbacks are unearthed.

Watch Open Grave on Amazon

Overlord

War is terrifying enough as is. It doesn’t need the addition of Nazi super soldier zombies. Thankfully the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord decided to include them anyway.

Overlord picks up on the eve of D-Day when a paratrooper quad is sent in behind enemy lines to destroy a German radio tower located in an old church. Their plane is shot down and only a handful survivors land. Those who do will soon discover that the horror has just begun.

Watch Overlord on Amazon (US only)

Vestron

Paperhouse

Hard to see in the U.S. since its 1989 release (it’s still not out here on DVD or Blu-ray for reasons unclear), Paperhouse was directed by Bernard Rose, who went on to make the equally acclaimed Candyman three years later.

But Paperhouse may be his masterwork. A young girl named Anna (Charlotte Burke) finds the line between reality and her dreams blurring, with her alcoholic father transforming into a frightening monster in the dream world. A slightly confusing ending doesn’t lessen the impact of this highly effective dark fantasy fable.

Watch Paperhouse on Amazon

Pet Sematary (2019)

After the classic Stephen King novel of the same name and Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie, what could there possibly be left to say about Pet Sematary? Quite a lot actually! Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer breathe new life into this old tale…not unlike a certain “sematary” itself.

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Jason Clarke stars as Louis Creed, an ER doctor from Boston who moves his family to rural Ludlow, Maine to live a quieter life. Shortly into their stay, Louis and his wife Rachel (Amy Semeitz) experience an unthinkable tragedy. That’s ok though as neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows a very peculiar place that can help.

Watch Pet Sematary on Amazon (US only)

Phantasm

Director and writer Don Coscarelli has said that this 1979 cult classic was inspired by a recurring dream — and we believe him, since Phantasm has the surreal, not-quite-there feel of an inescapable nightmare from start to finish.

With its bizarre plot about a funeral parlor acting as a front to send undead slave labor to another dimension, the iconic image of the Tall Man, killer dwarves and those deadly silver spheres, Phantasm was and is like no other movie of its era.

Watch Phantasm on Amazon (US only)

The Pit and the Pendulum

Following the success of his first Edgar Allan Poe movie starring Vincent Price, 1960’s The Fall of the House of Usher, director Roger Corman returned to Poe for a second serving, once again starring Price and also featuring horror queen Barbara Steele, with a script by Richard Matheson.

The movie gets off to a slow start and very little of the plot is derived from Poe’s moody short story, but the picture drips with Gothic atmosphere and saturated colors. Vincent Price gives another mesmerizingly over the top performance, and the final 20 minutes — where we finally see the title torture device swing into action — is worth the price of admission alone.

Watch The Pit and the Pendulum on Amazon (US only)

Pumpkinhead

Another cult favorite from the late ‘80s, Pumpkinhead stars Lance Henriksen as a country store owner whose young son is killed by a bunch of teens on motorbikes. The grief-stricken dad consults with a local witch to get his revenge — and she assists him by summoning the monstrous title demon.

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The directorial debut of makeup FX wizard Stan Winston, Pumpkinhead boasts one of the most memorable screen monsters of its time and a haunted performance by the great Henriksen (also notable is Florence Schauffler as the terrifying witch). But Winston’s direction itself is routine, causing Pumpkinhead to just miss being a true classic. It’s still a terrific Halloween watch.

Watch Pumpkinhead on Amazon (US only)

A Quiet Place

Thanks to a killer premise and excellent execution, A Quiet Place was one of 2018’s best horror movies and now it’s ready for a second life on streaming.

The film, directed by erstwhile Office star John Krasinski (who also stars in the project) follows the Abbott family as they try to survive a dangerous post-apocalyptic world. To make things even more difficult, however, the world is populated by blind creatures that also possess a devastatingly strong sense of hearing.

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Father Lee and mother Evelyn (Emily Blunt) try to protect their children from these monsters – all the while not making a sound. The formula of A Quiet Place is destined to be oft-repeated for a reason. Horror really works when you’re unable to scream.

Watch A Quiet Place on Amazon (US Only)

Season of the Witch

Bored Stepford-esque housewife Joan (Jan White) is stuck in a suburban bubble with an abusive husband when she meets a mysterious new neighbor (Virginia Greenwald) who practices witchcraft. Pretty soon, Joan is casting spells to have affairs with college boys half her age, suffering from Satanic nightmares that wake her up to grim reality, and initiated into her neighbor’s backyard coven.

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Proof that you never know what really goes on behind white picket fences. Another fine bit of weirdness from George A. Romero.

Watch Season of the Witch on Amazon (US only)

Suspiria

Suspiria is not necessarily a remake of the 1977 Italian film of the same name so much as its inspired by it. And that makes sense, as the simultaneously vibrant and creepy tone of the original film is nigh impossible to replicate it. So this Suspiria goes in a bit of a different direction tonally.

Dakota Johnson stars as Susanna “Susie” Bannion, a woman who enrolls in a prestigious Berlin dance academy that also happens to be run by a coven of witches. As Susie climbs up the ladder of the Markos Tanz Akademie she comes to learn more about its secrets.

Watch Suspiria on Amazon

The Tenant

Roman Polanski, in addition to being a creep and outright sex criminal, has a grand fascination with apartments, directing an unofficial “Apartment Trilogy” with Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant. And it’s not hard to see why. There is something a little strange about dozens if not hundreds of relative strangers all calling the same place “home.”

1976’s The Tenant is the culmination of Polanski’s obsession with communal living and in some ways is the creepiest. Polanski stars as Trelkovsky, a paranoid young file clerk who is on the verge of succumbing to the constant dread he feels. Things are exacerbated when Trelkovsky moves into a Parisian apartment and discovers the previous occupant killed herself. What follows is a tense and trippy exploration of fear itself.

Watch The Tenant on Amazon (US only)

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The Wailing

Get ready for this epic-length (156 minutes!) story of possession and exorcism in a small village from director Na Hong-jin. Kwak Dowon stars as a cop who investigates a series of mysterious and violent deaths, only to discover that they have a supernatural cause that soon infects his family.

Despite odd moments of humor here and there, The Wailing is almost unremittingly bleak and its imagery is thoroughly unsettling. Deliberately paced and building an atmosphere of unspeakable dread, The Wailing is a standout of Asian horror.

Watch The Wailing on Amazon (US only)

Oscilloscope

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau garnered a ton of attention back in 2010 for this moody, low-key, character-driven study of a family of cannibals impacted by the death of its patriarch.

There’s no back story about how the clan became eaters of human flesh; they simply are, and the movie accepts that and focuses on the dilemma in front of them. That is more effective than spelling everything out. An English-language remake from director Jim Mickle (Stake Land) popped up in 2013.

Watch We Need to Talk About Kevin on Amazon (US only)

The post Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now appeared first on Den of Geek.

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gffa · 5 years ago

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Hi Lumi, I wanted to ask how it was like for you post-PT but pre-ST. As a PT fan (before the ST came along and loads of people now call it the worst trilogy of the bunch), it was just either OT or PT, and o' course everybody was all "OT is superior!" How was your experience in the early days? My first SW film was actually TPM! And I fell in love with the GFFA as shown in that movie, despite the clear missteps. It's kind of a dirty secret because people think I'm a lesser fan for liking TPM!

Hi! Oh, you’re sweet to ask this of me and you’re probably going to be disappointed with the answer because my Star Wars path has been kind of boring:--> I think I was vaguely aware of the OT, but I was so young it was hard to tell, beyond “I remember liking Princess Leia”--> The Phantom Menace was actually my first SW movie, too! I was HEAD OVER HEELS for that movie at the time, though, my memory of that era is really fuzzy because I was so young that all I remember is that I very strongly shipped Q/O and I think I read some of the JA books at the time?--> I drifted away from SW fandom probably about a year after TPM and I occasionally thought about checking out some Leia & Vader fic, but I never found any that appealed to me (I didn’t try very hard, mind) and so I kept wandering back off--> I wasn’t involved in SW fandom until The Force Awakens, when I came out a total sequels fan and that was my primary focus. Absurdly, the thing that got me to even go see TFA was that Darth Darth Binks theory on Reddit and I was desperate to know if it was true, it ate my brain for a couple of weeks.--> But then I got into ST fandom (I shipped Finn/Rey to a degree, but mostly I was a hardcore Kylux shipper back then) and wasn’t really involved in OT or PT era fandom, though, I was reasonably Jedi-critical. I did the whole “they were actually kind of a cult” and “they taught people to suppress their emotions” and “they had to end so a new, better source of the light could arise” bit. I was absolutely onboard that train. I even did the “everyone knows the prequels were objectively bad” thing, much to my chagrin.--> I wanted fix-it fic for the ST, because things were so sad! Luke and Leia and Han should be happy! I don’t find this new story satisfying, BRING ON THE FIX-IT FIC. Except you can’t really fix the OT 100% without fixing the PT. So, I started getting invested in time travel fics for the PT era, which led me to go, “hmm, maybe I should watch The Clone Wars” because everyone says it’s actually good.--> Three things happened over the span of about the first six episodes of TCW: - I realized, what, what? Obi-Wan is actually pretty kind and supportive towards Anakin??? But that’s not-- that’s not what I thought was going on with the prequels??? - OH SHIT OLD MARRIED COUPLE BANTER WITH OBI-WAN AND ANAKIN, NOOOOOOOO, I ANTI-SHIPPED THEM BEFORE, NOW THEY’RE AN OTP??? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE??? - Well, shit. I love this show. I love these characters. I’m going to go back and go over the prequels movies again. WAIT, THE PREQUEL MOVIES ARE MY FAVORITES NOW????--> That was me now. That was my life now. Die-hard Jedi stan, Obi-Wan Kenobi stan, Anakin stan, Obi-Wan&Anakin stan, prequels stan.Which is a long-winded way of saying: I never really had a chance to experience the post-PT/pre-TFA fandom in the way you probably did. My experiences with TPM fandom were very positive, people loved that movie and they were excited about the characters and sharing a crapload of fic, and I didn’t really experience much of the wider world beyond that fandom specifically.By the time I got into TCW fandom, it had been established enough that it had its fans and I could sink into that part of the fandom, as well as I wasn’t registering the “the PT is kind of actually really terrible” comments because I had internalized a lot of that and was only just beginning to shed it.I know it was tough for a lot of years and even today I still see a lot “yeah, but everyone knows the PT movies were really bad” like it’s objective fact, but I think the more SW explores more areas, the more people can just go, “Well, that part wasn’t for me, I’m going to stick to the part I like.” and it eases things up. I think it was probably hard for a lot of OT fans when the PT was in full swing, where all the new TV shows and comics and books were very PT-heavy, so there wasn’t really room to get away from it.Now, we each have more space to play in, if we don’t like that era over there. And I think that’s a thing that’s really, really valuable, that a lot of us need that kind of positive space to just have a good time in our fandom, instead of constantly being bombarded by people who actively dislike what we like. As well as we need to be able to get away from things we don’t like, lest we become the ones elbowing out others’ enjoyment of what they happen to like.My closest experience to yours is probably being a Jedi fan in this fandom, which, LOL, can be pretty difficult sometimes. I’ve mostly made my peace with it and found my groove for myself, but there were some really, really rough patches when I just wanted to be left the fuck alone or when I felt incredibly isolated. This isn’t me yelling at fandom, people have different opinions! But because of the way a handful of fans behaved and a lot of my fellow Jedi fans feeling pushed out of fandom/too scared to make posts, it was hard to navigate through my feelings on that.I imagine a lot of PT fans went through similar struggles with their feelings and how it felt like they were being elbowed out by people hating on this thing they loved, in such large numbers.But I’m glad that you seem to be in a better place. It sucks that we go through this, but fandom is fandom, they don’t owe us agreement with what we like, whether they’re perfectly nice about it or assholes about it, and we can make our own corners in fandom and find joy that way.Being in love with TPM is GREAT and anyone who says that you’re wrong for loving that movie is being a dick. It doesn’t have to be their favorite movie, hell, they can think it’s a terrible movie. But there’s room for more than one opinion and viewpoint, so JUST YELL LOUDER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE TPM AND THE GALAXY OF THE PREQUELS. It’ll make you feel better to pour out a bunch of love for this thing you like, too. ♥

#i should have a personal tag around here somewhere #Anonymous

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houseswolo · 5 years ago

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Day 1 - 'Tis The Season To Be Thirsting

"Look Rey, mistletoe! Join me... please!"

Aight, aight, here's kicking off the Thirst Order Advent Calendar, and our Thristies' showcase!

Azuwrite

(Tumblr: @ashtyntaytertot | Ao3: Azuwrite )

What got you into Star Wars?

It’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. We had Star Wars toys and products. My little brother and I used to fight with our toy lightsabers. I always remember my mom saying Chewbacca was her favorite too (it’s not her icon on Disney plus) joy

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!

I walked out of TFA HATING kylo Ren. Now, walking out of TLJ? A completely different story. The force bond moments definitely helped, but the moment that made me fall in love with Ben solo was when he chose not to kill his mom sob didn’t help that I had become a mom in that time haha

Why do you write / make art?

It’s a great way to get the creative juices flowing (hehehe). I have so many ideas to get out there! Not enough time though weary getting to write/proofread/make mood boards can really be a highlight of my day.

The Object of your Thirst…

Obi Wan Kenobi 😩 oof, that man is everything. Make sexual awakening if you will. So sassy, sarcastic, cunning, the accent, the eyes, the beard, the EVERYTHING. I may have a thing for ewan mcgreggor as well 👀

Favorite Adam look

Definitely the longer hair with the facial hair and leather jacket and plaid. My all time favorite is right clothes, especially t shirts👌🏼 yummmm

Favorite Adam role

Don’t kill me, but I’ve only watched two of his movies 🙈 I love Kylo Ren's character, of course, especially the bde moments 😩 stomp me! But Flip has got to be my favorite so far. He’s everything I love wrapped in a package. Love the mountain man, plaid vibes 👌🏼but Matt was my fav before Flip came along, so hilarious

Which part of Adam do you like the best? That’s like the worst thing to have to decide on 😩 it’s not physical but probably his voice. Mmmm so deep and weakens the knees! For physical, I prefer my boy swol. Gotta love them glorious TLJ titties 🔥

Favorite Star Wars Movie

So wrong that I have to choose! Haha. For the original trilogy-Empire strikes back. Prequel- I like both one and three, just...not two (sorry not sorry) 😂 and for sequel- hmmm gotta give it to TLJ. The throne room scene is hands down my favorite scene from Star Wars. Just chefs kiss

What do you like to write / draw / paint the most?

As far as physical artwork, I love doing all types and mediums so I won’t get into that haha but as far as writing; definitely found I prefer to write angst as well as crack (though that never starts as my intention 😂). I also adore making mood boards, just such a good time and relaxing thing to do when I’m in the mood for it!

Your TRoS prediction

Again, don’t kill me 😬 I want the Reylo happy ending just as much as anybody, but I’m not going to be surprised if we get shafted. This trilogy has taken so much from previous ones (especially the original), I just wish they were willing to take more risks. So my fear is that they’ll go the Vader redemption route. Aka kylo dies. I will be over the moon if we get what we want (and deserve) though 🙌🏼 fingers crossed!

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

Bright rainbow colors coating a dark black center 😂 I’m definitely both vibes. I love dark things and creepy aesthetics, but I also love the cute and adorable side of things too 💕🌈☠️ I’m just a black cupcake with rainbow sprinkles on top

If you were a candy bar, what would your name be?

I wouldn’t! Not the biggest fan of candy, especially chocolate. Now, tacos, that’s a different story! They’re my favorite food in the whole wide world and people love them. I strive to be a taco

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating?

As quiet as possible. I’m slowly realizing that my attention span and focus is easily broken. I have a very hard time writing with any little thing going on, I start to get subconsciously anxious (playing with my hair like a mad woman). Unfortunately that means in a house with a newborn, a toddler, and a husband, I don’t get nearly as much writing done as I’d like. It can honestly be heart wrenching when I so desperately want to get my creativity out but ultimate can’t

Are you a dom or sub?

I’m a total sub, like, spank me please and boss me around 🙌🏼 BUT when it comes to blowjobs, I OWN that dick. It is mine and I will destroy you with an orgasm 😂

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

Well. I haven’t done anything too crazy. I’ve had my fair share of doing it in public places but just around the corner and out of sight. I did it in a kid's laundry room who was in my grade during a graduation party. (What’s funny is I had never spoken a word to that kid in my life and still haven’t lolol). Also, I lost my virginity in a tent during 4h fair right next to his best friend who was sleeping 😂 but I’ve only been with one person and that’s my husband, since I was 14 💕

What's your kink?

Uniforms. Police officers and firefighters are my jam. Ugh yum

Use three words to describe yourself

Loyal (the hufflepuff way). Introverted (I regret when I go out, I regret when I stay in, there’s no middle ground 😂). Caring (being a mom and wife has been the best thing in my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Even if caring for myself tends to slip in the process lol).

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

I met this raver kid who decided to give me a raver name (I have never been to a rave in my life lolll). He asked what my favorite color was and what I liked to do and that’s how Azuwrite came to be!

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

I am easily a big spoon. I will spoon the crap out of my husband. I prefer my chest to be warm compared to my back. Plus you get to enjoy the smell of your significant other that way. Does that sound weird? 😂

Do you like it rough or soft?

Soft can be really nice but I’m definitely a rough and tumble girl. I love the hair pulling, pounding type sex with position changes 😂

Favorite toy

I have never used or owned a toy 🙈 I’ve never needed to and I have a hard time spending money on myself hahaha but don’t fret! This girl has perfected her masturbation technique, because I may or may not have been doing it for a very long time haha

Favorite fic you've read

Oof. It feels so wrong to have to pick 😂 I definitely have a top five favorites that really brought me into the fandom. Number one has to go to Berserk by Mallie3. She put so much time and effort into it and it shows! If you haven’t read it, go do it! It’s truly a piece of art

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

I have a top three for my favorite fics I’ve done, my first three. They have so much planned and lovingly created plot behind them. It’s truly unfortunate that I don’t have more written for them. It breaks my heart. Those are my superhero au, high fantasy au, and cowboy Ben 💕 as far as art, I have made wayyyy too many mood boards to pick one joy

Favorite SW character(s) besides Kylo and Rey

Obi Wan. Hands down. No competition. That man is bae and I will forever be his number one fan 💕💕

———

Drnucleus

(Tumblr: @drnucleus | Twitter: drnucleus | Ao3: drnucleus)

What got you into Star Wars?

My mom putting on the VHS since I was a baby. She was a fan and made sure I became one too!

What made you a Reylo? Lightbulb moment!The way he looks at her when she calls the legacy saber to herself in TFA.

Why do you write / make art?

Because no one else was gonna write kink fic that focused on the beauty of it instead of just the smut.

The Object of your Thirst…

Adam and Daisy (girl makes me question my sexuality)

Which Adam look do you like the best?

TROS. Also I like any of his looks from movies/tv

Which Adam avatar/ role do you like the best?

I love Paterson, but I think Ben Solo is my favorite.

Which part of Adam do you like the best?

Self deprecating humor and thoughtful answers to interview questions

Favorite Star Wars Movie

The Last Jedi and Empire Strikes Back

What do you like to write / draw / paint the most?

Romance, kink, comedy, science competence porn

Your TRoS Prediction

Romantic Reylo and a deliciously cheesy HEA

If you were an aesthetic... (colors, images, feels....)

Purple, green, teal, galaxy images and velvet textures with overstuffed comfort furniture

If you were a candy bar, what would your name be?

Nougatine

What's your ideal environment for writing / creating?

Comfy chair, music, tea or wine

Are you a dom or sub?

Dom

What's the most exotic/wierd place you've gotten intimate?

Back of a pickup truck under the stars.

What's your kink?

Communication and goddess worship, also anatomically on men, forearms, hands, eyes.

Use three words to describe yourself

Witty, driven and anxious

Meaning behind your nick / ID name

It was from a super hero name generator!

Are you a big spoon or little spoon?

Depends on my mood.

Do you like it rough or soft?

Also depends on my mood.

Favorite toy

Sex toy: the fainting goat vibrator, regular toy - my apple watch

Favorite fic you read

Unbidden by Perry Downing

Favorite fic you wrote or favorite art you made

Bedroom Hymns

Favorite SW character besides Kylo and Rey

Leia

cc: @tazwren @deadlikemoi @drnucleus @ashtyntaytertot @lostinqueue-ffa @my-jedi-life @shestoolazytologin @kaybohls @nite0wl29 @cosmo-gonika @wilsonthinks66 @roguesinside @areylofan @3todream3 @koderenn @queenoferebor @thereylowritingden @housedadam @house-crylo @houseplaidam

#writers #reylo fanart #reylo fic #reylo fam #reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo humor #artist

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thebastardofgloucester · 5 years ago

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So...The Rise of Skywalker (Spoilers, obviously)

No Star Wars movie is anywhere close to perfect. Frankly, they all have serious flaws of logistics or plot logic or characterisation changes or deus ex machinas or lack of originality (which includes A New Hope when you look at its inspirations). It's pointless and silly to pretend otherwise. At its best, Star Wars overcomes that with captivating characters, glorious spectacle, and John Williams.

I think you'll all be familiar with how much I disliked The Last Jedi (and chafed at being lumped in for disliking the movie in with bigots, unimaginative fanboys, and the like).

I liked The Rise of Skywalker. A lot. It had more than enough to offset its major shortcomings, in my opinion. It was not 'soulless,' it was not a complete recreation of Return of the Jedi anymore than The Last Jedi was a rough retelling of The Empire Strikes Back, and it was not as bad or incoherent as Attack of the Clones, jfc are you high

There are certain areas where I am more sympathetic to that not being the case for some people than others. I don't think it completely junked The Last Jedi, but it did demonstrate a huge gap in creative visions, preferred plot structures, and other priorities. Blame for that should not lie with JJ Abrams (or Chris Terrio) or Rian Johnson, who did what they thought was best, and what they were hired to do, and what they thought audiences would enjoy. It should lie with the Lucasfilm story group and Kathleen Kennedy, who had every opportunity to make a trilogy with a united vision and simply declined to do so. (There are a set of different issues with Disney that I'll get to)

Anyway, here's my take on individual components.

Rey ‘Palpatine’

We might as well start with the single most contentious part of the film, and where it is perceived (wrongly, in my opinion) to clash the most with The Last Jedi: Rey being of the Palpatine bloodline.

Rey's arc was about pushing past her own past traumas and doubts and the repeated attempts of other people to define who she was to make her own identity. It is about the refutation of destiny, of genetic determinism. I'm not really sure how anyone really came away with a different impression. I understand being annoyed that Rey couldn't just come from nothing, but call me an annoying fanboy - I wanted some explanation for how Rey was a match for the grandson of literal Space Jesus. Anakin being the most powerful Jedi ever born (and how he was failed by those who were supposed to guide him to that destiny) is kind of central to the entire mythology of Star Wars. Is it reductive and elitist? I guess. I certainly enjoy having Jedi not born of the Skywalker bloodline in the old EU and the Clone Wars/Rebels story. I was frustrated by killing off all of Luke's students as part of resetting the universe in The Force Awakens, and never learning anything about them.

Honestly, as somebody who was in the Rey Skywalker camp (and wrote fanfiction to that effect!), I was glad to be wrong. This was better. It gave Rey more agency, and emphasized found family.

The exposition is weird and clunky. JJ clearly meant for Rey to have some kind of blood link to the previous mythology of the series - you cannot watch the sequence in Maz's castle and tell me otherwise. Rian didn't want to tell that story. JJ did. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm threw their hands up in the air and Disney raked in the cash. Looking at that Maz castle beat, there's a very good case to be made that Rey was supposed to be either a Skywalker or a Solo, and Palpatine was JJ's attempt to not completely throw out Rian's idea (that her parents went into hiding, becoming 'no one,' abandoning her and being killed somewhere else - their motivations in TLJ (drunks ditching her) are imputed by Kylo and Rey's own fears of abandonment, remember).

Weirdly, I think that of the outcomes, Palpatine was the best one. Explaining how Rey ends up alone on Jakku when she's related to either Luke or Leia is pretty hard without further damaging their characters. Palpatine having lovers, mistresses, whatever before Mace melted his face is gross but entirely plausible. The timeline is...confusing - I guess there's enough basis for Palpatine still having agents running around, chasing down Rey, that even years after his death Rey's parents would leave her behind in an attempt to protect her. It's a bit muddy, but so was Anakin being Luke and Leia's father before we had the prequels. A novel here would probably help if it is written competently)

The point is that Rey's arc refutes genetic destiny. Instead of being afraid of her, as the Jedi were of Anakin (and to an extent, the Skywalkers were of Ben) Luke and Leia (specifically Leia) allow her to grow into her own person, and ultimately she chooses to take the name Skywalker to honor them (and Ben's sacrifice). The problem in my mind is less that Rey is a Palpatine by blood or a Skywalker by choice, and more that she's the only Jedi standing at the end of the trilogy. Making Finn's absolutely obvious force sensitivity a bigger deal narratively in TROS would have helped a lot (more on that later). And we still have the important implications of Broom Boy! He's not erased from existence, there simply wasn't room for his story in these 2.5 hours.

The First Act (and a bit)

The first 30 minutes or so of The Rise of Skywalker are...nuts. They feel less like a movie and more like a series of trailers or a 'previously on' for a movie we never saw. It's about as well done as it could be at establishing plot threads, the situation of the Resistance v the First Order, and where characters are starting from, as you could reasonably expect, but it's like cramming the entirety of the Jabba's Palace segment of Return of the Jedi into about half its runtime, at most.

What it comes down to, and I said this at the time, is that The Last Jedi is a very bad sequel to The Force Awakens. That doesn't (REPEAT: DOES NOT) make it bad film, or even a bad Star Wars film. But in terms of what the middle movie of a planned trilogy should be. It is. Not Good. JJ had seeded hints of Rey's origins and opened a bunch of mysteries. You can contend that he never intended or was never capable of answering them, and I think that's entirely unfair and reducing JJ's opus to the unsatisfying ending of 'Lost' is stupid and lazy, but they were there. The Last Jedi threw all of that out with extreme prejudice. I deeply disliked that; other people didn't. Either way, you had a problem (and you would have had even more of a problem if Colin Trevorrow had directed Episode IX as planned - this could have been SO. MUCH. WORSE.). The Rise of Skywalker is a natural sequel to The Force Awakens, though Palpatine's return could have been foreshadowed much better (or at all, if we're honest?) and it really makes me wonder how much changed from the first drafts of The Force Awakens to the version of The Rise of Skywalker we saw on screen.

I saw some criticisms that we had to read the tie-in material (including a bit from Fortnite??) to understand all the specifics of what planets these were, who Kylo Ren was murdering, etc...I don’t really think any of that was particularly important. It actually opens up a ton of new storytelling opportunities and made the universe feel big again, which The Last Jedi didn’t, at least for me. Apparently the planet Kylo is fighting on is Mustafar. That...doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense (maybe we finally have a Star Wars world that isn’t a single biome?) but it wasn’t actually that important. We saw Kylo searching for the Sith Wayfinder and murdering anybody in his way, we saw Poe and Finn being pursued from one end of the universe to another, and we got the 16 hour deadline before the fleet was ready (which was...weird, admittedly, but not in the slightest less weird that the fleet running out of fuel on a slow-motion chase or needing to fly off to an entirely different system to find a ‘code breaker’ to counter a techo gadget thing that let you trace people through hyperspace.

And yeah, if you are going to forgive The Last Jedi the dumb codebreaker/fuel shit which led to the detached Canto Bight B plot, you have to just acknowledge the Wayfinder thing as a macguffin that gets the plot moving in a certain direction and gives a clear path from narrative point a to narrative point b. Rian is not ahead of JJ on this aspect.

The subsequent fetch quest is less about the macguffin and more about the character beats on the way. Kylo and his boy band pursue Rey, Rey realizes her powers are kinda scary and hella impressive (including the healing mechanic, which is entirely precedented in past canon), you get to see some brilliant, funny, and touching moments between the trio we were not allowed in The Last Jedi, Rey discovers hints about her past, and Lando shows up.

We also get to my least favorite part of the film.

Poe Dameron is Better Than This

I do not understand why they ret-conned Poe into having a past as a smuggler, or why Keri Russell’s character was even necessary. You could explain it as youthful rebellion, maybe after Poe’s mom Shara Bey died (both his parents were Rebel veterans - that’s a lot of pressure), but it fits awkwardly into the established timeline.

The one good thing that came out of it was a moment where Poe is tempted to leave the Resistance, but that only makes sense because of Poe’s terrible hotheaded, reckless characterization in The Last Jedi, neither of which at all fit with his portrayal in the Poe Dameron comics (which are excellent). Poe eventually gets where he needs to be, and the conversation with Lando after Leia passes is one of the best moments of the film, and justified bringing Lando all by itself. Oscar Isaac is apparently really frustrated with Poe’s character and I cannot blame him. Rian Johnson started this weirdness, and it is one of the greatest flaws of The Last Jedi and more people need to acknowledge how racist it was to reduce a 30-something brown-skinned veteran to an impulsive, out of control idiot who gets physically and verbally smacked around by two white women, and JJ didn’t really try to fix it. I guess his arc kinda works in a vacuum. I still deeply dislike it. Cutting that entire section down to the bare bones would have made more room for...

Finn and the Triad

The dynamic between Finn, Poe, and Rey was fantastic. There is abundant basis for Finn and Poe to be canon romantic interests, and I cannot conclude it was anything but Disney’s cowardice that prevented that from happening (and honestly, same for Finn and Rey). JJ is no more to blame than Rian - I genuinely believe this came from higher up. It sucks. A lot. What we do get is precious, and frankly makes Rian’s argument for separating them (that they would get along and it would be boring) kinda silly. They are also incredibly funny together - John, Isaac, and Daisy play off each other so damn well, and I was cackling when the Falcon was on fire and Poe was mad about BB-8.

Finn is absolutely force sensitive. It is apparently what he was trying to say to Rey, he has feelings that turn out to be correct like three times, he wielded a lightsaber with some proficiency in The Force Awakens. It’s canon. Why it isn’t explicit is a function of the Force User plot becoming divorced from Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi. JJ and Terrio also could have fixed that, and chose not to.

We got a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been with Janna and the other defectors. It was really good, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and I am Mad about it. To borrow from some great ideas on twitter, Janna could have revealed that her unit heard about Finn on Jakku and it inspired them to defect. They could have together swayed a bunch of reluctant stormtroopers to rebel (they were otherwise just treated as facist canon-fodder, which, not great when a lot of them are child soldiers!). It was perfectly set up from TFA and they just...dropped the ball.

Like I said, I’m Mad. TLJ did nothing with Finn as a defector or the child soldier thing in general, and TROS did the bare minimum. Huge, huge wasted opportunity. We got promises that we’d get to find out more about who Finn is and...we didn’t, or at least, not in the theatrical cut. TLJ had a scene of Finn and Phasma talking about his being a traitor/defector. Rian cut it down to a fight scene and the ‘Rebel Scum’ line. Writers jail for both of them, tbh, though JJ clearly cared about Finn (he’s why the character exists as he does, as why Boyega was cast, and maybe if TLJ doesn’t make Kylo into Rey’s co-protagonist we get something different. I'm not going to blame Rian for something JJ could have fixed if he cared to.

And least we got something, I guess.

Kylo Ben

I think the first time I actually cared about Ben Solo as a character was when Kylo symbolically ‘died,’ and Ben was saved by Rey’s healing abilities. That was excellent writing, even if it was not subtle. I liked Leia and Han (as part of Ben’s memories) have a role in helping him find some sort of redemption. I was frustrated and mad that Anakin Skywalker’s grandkid could be a straight up space fascist with even fewer redeeming qualities. He still deserved to die. He had no family to go back to and he was directly responsible for thousands of innocent deaths and closely linked to the death of trillions. Like Vader, you don’t just come back from that.

Like Anakin, Ben made his own choices. Was he manipulated by Snoke/Palpatine? Sure. He still had multiple occasions to chose differently and did not. It’s part of his flaws as a character. Han and Leia did their best as parents - we find out Leia even abandoned her Jedi training because she was afraid for her son. Ben’s inevitable fall (which mirrors that of Jacen Solo, a truly fascinating character who I will always be Mad about) soured the sequel trilogy from the start in some ways, but it is hard to envision it without Ben turning. I don’t know. I think without Ben being who he was we simply have a different set of movies.

The kiss is...I don’t even know. Rey clearly cared about Ben, and believed he could change, but also refused to compromise who she was in order to pull him back to the light. I would have vastly preferred a forehead kiss or something along those lines.

On balance I’m glad he got a Vader redemption. I think Palpatine came back in part because Ben simply was not a particularly captivating villain, and without him to provide contrast and make the stakes clear, Ben’s redemption is not possible, and that’s arguably an even worse outcome, especially given how he was manipulated so much at an impressionable age. I’m really glad Leia had a chance to influence his turn as her final act in this life (Carrie deserved a better ending but it was the best they could do after Carrie’s death imo).

Grandpa Palps

First, Palpatine finding a way to survive and setting up multiple contingency plans to return to power is completely in keeping with his portrayal in both the old and Nu EUs (a big part of the post-Endor stuff is Operation Cinder, where Palpatine posthumously ordered the scouring of dozens of Imperial loyalist worlds to spread fear and prevent the Empire from continuing without him). Palpatine also LOVES his superweapons - he built two Death Stars, ffs. A fleet of them is not exactly a stretch in terms of strategy. The Rise of Skywalker definitely felt like it owed a debt to one of the more divisive bits of the old Star Wars EU - the Dark Empire series of comics by Tom Veitch and Kevin J Anderson, which have cloned Palpatines, Luke turning to the Dark Side, an ungodly number of superweapons, and a planet where Palpatine hides and builds them after his defeat.

I don’t think his survival ruins Anakin’s arc - Anakin’s actions still destroyed Palpatine’s Empire (that he helped to build) and its 26 year reign of terror. The galaxy got 30 years of relative peace and then a war that was not nearly as destructive or large scale as the Galactic Civil War. People saying it makes Anakin’s arc irrelevant are just being silly.

Retconning Snoke to a cloned puppet (probably an unwitting one) is actually not a bad writing choice. It explains why he was such a cardboard cut-out villain, and why he was so easily defeated. Honestly, I’m far more okay with how he died in The Last Jedi now that I know this (even if the pacing and the placement of that scene is still utterly bizarre).

The new EU set up cults and fanatics around the Dark Side and its avatars in the emperor and Vader. None of that felt particularly implausible to me as a result.

Legacies in the Sequel Trilogy

I really loved the ‘thousand generations live in you’ conceit. I loved the power of the old Jedi, snuffed out by Palpatine, helping Rey defeat him one last time (including my girl Ahsoka, RIP, I'm sure you went out like a badass). These are legacies and powers that don’t require blood ties or dynasties, they just rely on the force spanning the whole of the GFFA.

Ben is offered the chance to either turn away from his grandfather’s dark path early enough to warrant redemption, or to follow it through until the end. He actually chooses to do neither. With Leia’s dying intercession, he ends up following Anakin’s path to an extent, but his story is ultimately about the tragedy of expectations, fears, and the immense weight of the Skywalker name and legacy. All of his family are caught up in it. Rey is mostly apart from it, and then explicitly subverts her destiny to be Palpatine’s heir, and faces her fear of ending up there, by intent or just fate. As Luke says, some things are stronger than blood. Rey’s story is the ultimate testament to that, and it’s a pretty powerful message.

Leia. Oh god. I was absolutely thrilled when we found out she trained as a Jedi, and then served as Rey’s Jedi Master after Luke failed Rey so badly (after failing Ben). I think Luke’s story from TLJ to TROS is easily the most consistent, honestly. He made mistakes, both with Ben, and then with Rey, and he recognized it. The Rise of Skywalker acknowledges that Luke wasn’t right in how he handled training Rey either, and that went a long way to making me better accept how Rian portrayed him as flippant and dismissive and cynical.

Carrie’s absence was so badly felt. As I’ve said previously, I think they did the best job they could with the footage they held back and Carrie’s recorded audio. They managed to give her a relatively coherent story and an effect on the plot which she didn’t really have in The Last Jedi. I’ve seen speculation that it was supposed to be Leia, not Luke, who gave Rey that pep talk on Ahch-To, and in some ways it might have made more sense. Selfishly, I’m still glad it was Luke, because it helped reconcile my feelings about him in The Last Jedi. But they really did a great job in a really, really tough situation.

Rose Tico

Let’s just get it out there: the film’s treatment of Rose Tico and Kelly Marie Tran was inexcusably bad. Whether her character was a great addition to the cast in the Last Jedi or not, KMT faced horrendous abuse from various bigots and assholes, and after making a lot of public promises they reduced her to barely a minute of screen-time and no real impact on the plot. It’s shitty, it’s bad, and JJ and Disney should feel bad.

Introducing a character like Rose mid-way through a trilogy is risky, and while it worked with Lando, JJ clearly had no idea what to do with her. It’s just a mess, it’s the biggest black mark on the film, and on the sequel trilogy more broadly. Nobody comes out looking good here, and Rose Tico needs a Disney + series of her own or something. Protect Kelly Marie Tran at all costs.

The Rest

- Lando was great. So great. I wish we’d gotten the line that his daughter had been stolen by the First Order (and thus was potentially Janna) - we’d better get a book or a film or something. Lando’s conversation with Poe salvaged his character arc. Billy Dee Williams did a damn good job getting in shape for the role. He came out as genderfluid recently. He’s an absolute treasure and thank god they didn’t waste him.

- I just wanted to reiterate how HAPPY I AM THAT JJ ABRAMS MADE LEIA A JEDI HOLY SHIT

- It was a blink and you’ll miss it moment for people who didn’t read Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series, but the death of Temmin ‘Snap’ Wexley in a battle where his step-dad (Wedge Antilles) made a brief appearance was devastating and I still don’t know how to feel about it.

- The space battles were awesome. Lando and Chewie bringing in the cavalry was what we were so cruelly teased for in The Last Jedi, which I am still mad about. Forget the logistics, forget the story logic, it was awesome. Maybe in the future I’ll be more annoyed. I honestly doubt it.

- Hux lives (and dies) for drama. He’s the pettiest son of a bitch in the GFFA, he would absolutely turn informant to win his fight with Kylo Ren, especially if he suspected that Kylo had killed Snoke and then was an incompetent child. His dying shortly thereafter is honestly exactly what the character deserved.

- On the cavalry moment, and the galaxy rising to destroy the First Order - I loved it in Return of the Jedi’s special edition, I love it here. There’s a thematic resonance with our heroes overcoming their fear and the galaxy at large being stirred to action. I just wish we’d gotten a few ragtag forces to show up at Crait, but that was a choice Rian made. I’m glad JJ chose differently. It was incredibly Star Wars.

- The 3PO stuff was weird, especially given how emotionally centred it was in the final trailers. It was also tied up in the Poe stuff I disliked. I don’t really know what else to say. At least R2D2, BB-8, and him felt like characters, not purely plot devices.

- Chewie - his reaction to losing Leia was absolutely devastating, his relationship with the next gen trio was great, and his death fake-out was...weird. I could go either way with that - killing him would have been a huge risk I could have respected, on the other hand if he was going to go out he deserved better than that (like, say, a moon getting dropped on him saving the life of Han Solo's kid). His ‘death’ did set up a crucial character beat for Rey. And there were, in fact, two transports, I remember that.

TLDR;

It was a fun movie! It tried to do way too much because The Last Jedi was not an effective sequel to The Force Awakens, and that’s on Kennedy and the LFL story group more than anyone else. It nailed the broad strokes of the Jedi/Force plot in my opinion, including subverting genetic destiny and the power of blood ties over everything else. In the process, it let a number of characters down, who were unfortunately also the characters of color, which is: not great.

I found it rewarding as a fan. It rewarded my faith in the goodness of the denizens of the GFFA and the power of found family. I’ve loved Rey from the start and I’m thrilled with how her arc ended with her burying the Skywalker legacy and making a new start with her new family in Poe and Finn (and Rose, damn it). I’m glad it made me feel better about Luke Skywalker and finally made Leia a bona-fide lightsaber wielding Jedi. I was exhilarated coming out of it, instead of exhausted and frustrated like I was in The Last Jedi. It didn’t make me hate Star Wars. It had extreme Return of the Jedi energy, and that is literally all I needed out of this film.

Here’s to a load of more complex, nuanced, and adventurous storytelling that the Skywalker saga never really allowed. I’m still excited for the prospect of Rian working with his own characters in the universe. I think JJ should probably be done.

Chuck Wendig said that the Star Wars universe was junk. Fun, whimsical, exciting, but ultimately not really a well-crafted piece of art. I’m inclined to agree.

#martinus watches the star war #tros spoilers

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bearpillowmonster · 5 years ago

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Heir to the Empire Review

So when I figured out about Star Wars Legends as a kid, I got excited because I wanted to know what happened post-Return of the Jedi so I got a book called "Shadows of Mindor" seeing as it took place right after and I have to say that I was kind of bored with it and never finished it. I tried again when the sequel trilogy came out because they had at least an outline to go off of, coming before The Force Awakens. It was called "Aftermath: Life Debt" and I knew it introduced some cool new droids and with my obsession with BB8/BB9 at the time, seemed interesting enough to try and explore. I have the two books but I quit both and I want to talk about why.

Legends is known for having a good amount of crap but also a few diamonds in the rough, one problem I came across is that they start the books with new characters and technical terms we've never heard of and then don't explain it right off the bat so it's hard to get invested and get a clear picture. There is also a lot of fluff in there to replace that and sure there is some good content in there like Shadows talking about how Luke didn't want to take credit for the Death Star or be considered this icon or hero, he was being humble about it and kind of missed the days of being a moisture farmer. That was a great version of Luke and how I envisioned him, but it's what they did with those characters that rubbed me the wrong way. They will have them do things like "Let's take the X-wing somewhere." but it's easy to get lost because of how much it talks about, like you can't just say you took the X-Wing? Then you have the literal versions of the book; they are usually pretty thick but not very wide and have a small font which isn't a very comfortable way to read in my opinion (yeah I usually use physical books, with digital I wouldn't have that problem) At the beginning of this book, they start with new characters and terms that I never heard of and expect me to know what it is. I'm like "Here we go again." but I started trying to visualize it and it all became clear to me.

I'm going to review this as if it were a Star Wars movie, seeing as it's so beloved by many fans and considered to be a better sequel trilogy (I'm only on the first book so I can't make that call yet) This author had some science fiction background even before he became a big Star Wars writer and it shows but he also brings a little bit of an Earthly vibe, which is very odd with things such as years and times, like if you're in space then why is there time when our world alone has more than 24 time zones? (not to mention hot chocolate) I get that minutes and such all work the same but I still never heard it used in Star Wars. This book introduces Thrawn which I've never been a big fan of...that is until now, it's starting to make more sense. They call his throne room "an art museum" and things started to visualize into my mind better and I started actually getting into it. Thrawn reminds me of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the way he's strategic and he always tries to be one step ahead which makes for an interesting character because it's a game of tug of war between the heroes and Thrawn, he can always predict their movements due to his experience and intelligence based on pattern, I mean it is an art how he keeps up, it really makes you feel like the heroes can't get any sort of handle. He's so precise in fact, that Pellaeon, the captain, is used to sort of show off how far he can get just by using statistics but it's more like a game or challenge to him. They contrast him to Vader, same with Leia, and show how calm they are about certain things while everybody else is on edge "Please don't hurt me." Something Kylo Ren fully adopts. That isn't to say he's not cold blooded or less menacing. He makes you believe he's good, he has good intentions. There's a scene where he seeks to get someone to admit their wrongdoing, he has no reason for this information, he's not mad, he just wants to get inside his head, he's a psychological villain, he gets his answer and then shoots the guy because it had no place in his "elite" force, he has class and standards to uphold, there's something classic about it, he sees things through and if they turn sour, he easily just turns the table.

They also add some background to these characters that I appreciate such as Winter, Leia's childhood friend/assistant in her role as Princess. And also the feelings they get, it's like the force amplifies their feelings. With that, I'm sure you can imagine we explore their weaknesses and strengths extensively. We're also given more depth with some previous side characters such as Wedge and Admiral Ackbar, we've seen them in battle but what are they like outside of the ship? I never even really thought about it but it's interesting to note.

Now I'm going to compare it to the current "sequel trilogy" It really bothers me at how much Disney Star Wars has been inspired from yet hasn't really adapted. Look at the twins and tell me that isn't Kylo and Rey. Look at C'Boath and tell me that isn't Malekith from Jedi Fallen Order. Then the whole line that Han says "You know it was a lot easier back when we were just taking on the Empire, at least then we knew who our enemies were." A lot of things in the Last Jedi alluded to this, how the rebellion/resistance wasn't everything it was made out to be but then they scrapped it for the next movie. I waited until after I saw TROS to read this but honestly I wish I had read this before any of the sequel trilogies because that way I would really see what's been going on, Kathleen's "We don't have any source material to draw from." Is a piece of crap, yeah maybe nothing from that specific timeline, 30 years after ROTJ, but you've been drawing it from elsewhere, I've saw some KOTOR vibes here and there too, which bothers me. It actually made me feel sick to my stomach when I realized this, just how zombified they made Star Wars, pieces from here, pieces from there so it doesn't seem too much like a retread again, but the new content is rare and too far between. This (so far) doesn't have that problem, it came out in the early 90s and takes place only 5 years after ROTJ, I'm still interested 30 years after the events but this is more in line with how people imagined it. A big complaint about the sequel trilogy is that Anakin's prophecy was a hoax considering it didn't mean much anymore, this doesn't have that problem, as I've said, Thrawn is a very different villain, it's not about the "balance to the force" (just yet). As a side note (because I didn't know where else to put it): There is a gambling scene that could have been a bit clearer, I didn't really understand what Torve was doing but it was still cool.

I can't mention this book without mentioning the debut of Mara Jade, I kind of want to keep everything about her a secret though since that was part of the reason I started this book in the first place. They introduce her, well kind of just how I would have wanted, the fandom has made her hypeworthy and made me consider her apart of Star Wars from the start because in a way we all have our own version of Star Wars. It's nice to know that she's living up to it. They even made a backstory book for her as well as various spinoff books, I've looked into them but it seems like this trilogy holds the most weight so I'm going to stick with it for now.

I'm just saying this is a thick and long book so every page could've seemed like a chore but it follows the Star Wars formula visiting different places within the same chapter to get all the sides of the story and then at the end it converges, some apparently don't like that about movies but you can't argue that that's how Empire was structured. It's a good book and I'm interested to read the other two in this trilogy at least. I felt that way with The Force Awakens so you could say in terms of sequel trilogies, it's 1 and 1.

#star wars #heir to the empire #thrawn trilogy #sw #review #book #book review

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sepublic · 6 years ago

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Rough Draft for a Venom Sequel Plot

So in light of Andy Serkis being set to direct the upcoming sequel to Venom, and other similar news, I thought it’d be fun to bring up a rough draft I made for a Venom sequel, shortly after I’d watched the movie in theaters.

It’s actually the first of a few rough drafts I had in mind for Venom 2, as well as a Venom 3. I also had ideas for a Venom 4, and maybe even Venom 5 and 6, but I’m not entirely sure.

For now, though, I thought it’d be fun to share some of these ideas had! I hope anyone reading this enjoys!

Warning: Mentions of Abuse, Bloodshed, etc. below. The idea is that this film will be Rated R, so expect some heavy content.

The movie starts off with a prologue of the initial origins of the Carnage Symbiote (AKA Red). Perhaps it was born of Life Foundation scientists scraping together bits and pieces from Venom and Riot. Alternatively, Red lands on Earth on its own. Either way, it has arrived, or is about to.

Cut to a scene of an abusive husband doing typical horrible things in a poor neighborhood apartment. The poor wife is screaming for help, and the terrified son is watching. Eventually, the son musters up the courage and yells at his father to stop.

The abusive father, in a calm rage, turns around and advances, lashing out and asking if the son ‘wants some’. Right on cue, the wall bursts, and in comes Venom with the biggest, dumbest, shit-eating grin on his face. “I want some!” He muses. The abusive man screams and tries to run, but Venom ensnares him.

Venom tells the man that he will never hurt anyone again- No doubt due to the fact that he’ll be eaten. Venom then opens his mouth and lunges in, but instead bites the man’s arm off instead. The man, terrified, runs off, trying to staunch the bleeding. Within, Venom complains that he only got to eat PART of the guy, and Eddie muses that the two shouldn’t abuse their power too much.

The terrified son, meanwhile, approaches Venom and asks who he is, and what else to do. Venom tells the son to always protect his mother –unless SHE abuses him, too- and then turns to leave, before adding the iconic “We are Venom” line. Then Venom swings away, having developed web-slinging as a technique.

Cut to a montage of Venom going about, helping in whatever anti-hero way he can. A would-be rapist is quickly gulped up by Venom. A corrupt corporate dude manages to cheat people out of money, but Venom crashes in and forces him to return the money, threatening to eat the guy. Said dude questions how Venom knew of this, and Venom muses that he has ‘sources’ (AKA Eddie’s investigative journalism). A person is selling drugs and ruining lives and is predictably devoured, as is a human trafficker.

Throughout the montage, we have Venom cracking really cheesy, edgy one-liners that he unironically enjoys and thinks are actually cool. Eddie can’t be bothered to break the truth to him, not that it matters all too much.

The montage ends with Eddie and Venom overlooking San Francisco. The two discuss their recent string of crime-fighting, as well as subtler affairs involving Eddie’s own journalism. Venom is occasionally used to do things Eddie can’t legally do. All in all, it’s a good life, and Venom agrees with Eddie that their symbiosis was quite beneficial.

Suddenly, the two spot some generic bank robbers getting away with a heist. The pair give chase, but are soon hindered due to disagreements on how to act. This slows down the duo and causes them to freeze up in vital moments, and it ends with Venom crash-landing in an alleyway while the robbers get away.

Miffed, Eddie and Venom ask each other what the hell was THAT?! The two begin arguing over how they should’ve done this, or that… Their debate cools down with Eddie trying to break it simply to Venom, and Venom in return admits that back at his home, just called Homeworld, things are rather different. Recalling this, Eddie asks Venom what his home was like.

Right on cue, we cut to an unknown alien space craft infiltrating earth’s atmosphere, undetected by satellites and sensors. It lands somewhere, and out come a group of Klyntar. Among them are Plague, the Apocalypse group, Clash, etc. (Basically some Symbiote OCs I made up) It’s clear some are currently inhabiting alien hosts, while the others find hosts in humans and even animals.

The group talks with one another mission-style, trying to find Riot, and they decide to use the knowledge of their hosts to figure out where he is. Eventually one host reveals a memory of a news article about alleged alien sightings, one of whom resembles Riot. It also mentions another black Klyntar, whom the Homeworld squad deduce is Venom. They decide to head to San Francisco, having found a lead.

We cut to a maximum security prison. We get a look at Cletus Kasady’s daily routine. Because it’s from Cletus’ perspective, he comes off as a cheery dude with a lot of interest in bloodshed, with everyone else exasperated. Other prisoners are creeped about him- Cletus likes to creep them out with smiles, stares, or friendly gestures. We see how carefully guards restrict Cletus, and we find out why. Cletus finds some unorthodox method to badly stab and wound a fellow prisoner, shedding lots of blood.

As Cletus is restrained, he muses that he loves the smell of blood like coffee in the morning, stuff like that. From the shadows, some scientists watch and mark down Cletus as a candidate for testing.

We cut back to Eddie and Venom going back to regular life and routine. We get to see Anne and Dan again- Dan helps Eddie and Venom with check ups to make sure the two are fine, and regularly prescribes chocolate, having deduced that it has a Klyntar-friendly chemical. Anne uses her abilities as a lawyer to help Eddie take down corrupt people. It’s a very odd sitcom of sorts between two couples, one of which consists of a human and Symbiote. We also get to see some of Mrs. Chen, and Richard. Both are doing better as of late, and we get to see more of Richard’s family and how busy he is. Eddie always makes sure to help, and Venom remarks that he likes the guy.

We then get (in no particular order) various scenes. We see Cletus be rudely awoken and seized for an experiment, which he cheerfully ponders about. Cletus is tied down to a chair and injected with something, and in typical Cletus fashion reacts enthusiastically to the procedure. Nothing happens, and scans show the ‘Proto Symbiote’ apparently dying. Giving up, the scientists send Cletus back to his cell. [Alternatively, Red just finds Cletus and bonds to him in his sleep]

It seems to be worthless, until Cletus awakens to hear a voice in his head. Unfazed, he muses about gaining schizophrenia. The voice clarifies itself as a Symbiote, it thinks… To be frank, it’s not sure. Either way, the two interact, and Cletus explains himself and his world view. Red gets to see Cletus’ life and memories, questioning him on things as Cletus goes through his routine. The regular guards, unaware of the experiments, assume Cletus has gone even crazier. Soon, Cletus and Red hit off and become friends, and Red expresses its own desire to kill. The two experiment on their abilities, and are blatantly peas in a pod.

Eventually, Red and Cletus decide to act. The old guard that hates Cletus mocks him, and in response Cletus cheerfully lashes out with a long red spear, impaling the guard and killing him. As blood spurts crazily and Cletus cheers, Red becomes exhilarant and enthusiastic. However, their celebration is cut off when alarms sound, and as they hear guards storming in, Cletus bemoans a potential separation.

Red reassures him, and spawns hands that tear the cage apart. Guards come in and confront Cletus, telling him to put his hands up. Cletus and Red more or less look at each other knowlingly and are all, ‘Ready, Partner’ when Cletus suddenly forms into Carnage. We first see Carnage as a shadow stretching over terrified guards.

Cut to prisoners just mulling about on an enclosed courtyard, guards nearby, when a guard flies in and hits the wall like a fly, bleeding and torn apart. As everything stops to note, other bloody body is tossed in, and in steps in Carnage- We get to see him in his fully, bloody crimson glory.

Carnage gleefully greets everyone, expressing a desire to kill- And then goes on a massacre. Because this is from Carnage’s viewpoint, the whole massacre is played off as enjoyable and humorous, probably with an inappropriate song like Mr. Blue Sky playing in the background.

Prisoners and guards try to escape or fight back, but it’s for naught. One tries to access an elevator, but Carnage is all ‘No no no!’ playfully and kills the schmuck. It ends with the entire floor smeared and awash in blood. Carnage laughs gleefully and dubs itself by its name, due to Cletus noting Carnage to be his favorite word, followed by Massacre, Bloodshed, etc.

Carnage prepares to leave, declaring “We… no, I am Carnage!” before breaking out of prison and into the night.

We get a scene of Eddie and Venom’s domestic life and their constant arguing. At one point Eddie questions why the two are together, and Venom muses that it’s because they are the only ones for one another. Next is a cut to Mrs. Chen, taking out the garbage or some other mundane task. She smells something funny and hears dripping, rounds the corner…

And sees a torn-apart corpse, blood smeared everywhere, the word Carnage painted above the dead body. Mrs. Chen screams, and then we see Eddie and Venom in the midst of an argument, only to get a call from Eddie’s boss about a murder he needs to see.

Eddie heads off and arrives at the gruesome scene, surrounded by police. He sees the sight and is disgusted, and even Venom is repulsed, noting it to be such a waste of good food before Eddie corrects him.

As people question who could have done this, Eddie hears about Cletus’ escape and realizes that he has a Symbiote. As the two question how this is possible, Eddie gets notifications of more and more similar corpses being discovered across San Francisco. As this horrifying realization dawns in, we then cut to Carnage happily and darkly slaughtering a victim before setting to work writing his name.

Eddie and Venom put together a team plan. We see stuff from Anne, Dan, Mrs. Chen, and Richard. The next night Eddie and Venom set out in Venom form, tracking down Carnage, when they’re suddenly ambushed by the Homeworld squad.

They interrogate Venom, demanding to know why Venom is being a freak and wasting perfectly good food like this, where Riot is, why they fought, etc. It’s clear that neither group is thrilled to see the other, and Venom explains that he found an awesome host named Eddie. The Homeworld Squad is repulsed by the idea, and then hear that Venom killed Riot.

They all laugh this idea off in disbelief. They’d rather believe that Riot accidentally killed himself, and this irks Venom. Eddie and Venom try to fight, but are clearly outmatched and are forced to retreat. Police rush in and the homeworld squad decides to retreat.

As Venom escapes, they come across Carnage finishing a murder. Carnage notes Venom and mocks and challenges him before escaping. Venom tries to chase, but isn’t fast enough. Eddie asks Venom if he recognizes Carnage, but he doesn’t.

Eddie and Venom devise a plan to lure in Carnage. It works- They confront Carnage in a power plant overlooking the sea or something. As the two circle and trade words, Venom asks what’s the deal with ‘I am Carnage’, not ‘We are Carnage’. Carnage explains that Cletus and Red’s symbiosis is so pure and complete that they’re practically singular.

Venom and Carnage fight, but Carnage is the clear winner in this fight. Venom is constantly struggling and panics, which leads to Eddie and Ven fighting and hesitating. Carnage senses this and acts on it, pinning down Venom. Carnage brags that Venom’s bond is not as strong as his.

Cue the classic comic scene of Carnage prying Eddie and Venom apart. The two try to keep connected by the tips of their fingers but are torn apart. Venom is flung aside, and Carnage dangles Eddie over a cliff, deciding to spill his blood into the ocean below. Venom attacks from behind, causing Carnage to drop Eddie into the sea below.

Eddie loses consciousness, and comes to in the hospital with a concerned Dan and Anne. They explain how Eddie was found, and Dan reveals he snuck Venom in to heal Eddie. Ven explains that Carnage left. Venom offers to bond with and heal Eddie, but when he tries the two have issues. Venom is rejected, and the two realize they’re becoming incompatible. The duo becomes frustrated and angry at one another, questioning their bond, and as they fume, Dan timidly suggests they take some time off. The two consider it, but Eddie asks who will defend San Franscisco. Anne volunteers to be She-Venom, low key enjoying the power rush and freedom.

Eddie heals and decides to take a few days off to recuperate. He interacts with his friends, and Chen and Richard can tell Eddie is down. Meanwhile, She-Venom operates. Ven questions why they should even fight Carnage, who wants humanity alive as much as Venom- Anne tries to explain it in Eddie’s terms, but Venom doesn’t understand. The two at least bond over a mutual love and frustration of Eddie, however.

Meanwhile, a store owner checks their chocolate stores to see the Homeworld squad devouring it, and is eaten. As Homeworld Squad discusses the delights of chocolate and argue over who got to eat the human, they consider what next to do. Riot apparently is dead- So what now?

Well, they can at least tell that this planet has plenty of food, so perhaps they can feast- And maybe even head back to Homeworld and bring everyone else. Carnage is listening in on this and acts, tracing the squad to their ship and destroying it, enraging them. Carnage escapes, with Cletus and Red happily noting that Earth must be protected.

Carnage escapes… only to run into She-Venom, who tries to fight him with a police squad. Carnage pins her down and kills several policemen in a big action sequence.

We get more Eddie and Richard interaction. Eddie talks to Richard, who has a wife, about relationship issues, avoiding explaining how Venom is an alien symbiote. Richard provides his own advice, while Anne gives Venom her own insight. The two also note that they have greater differences than Eddie and Venom, and laugh over it.

Eventually, it all culminates in She-Venom trying to fight the Homeworld Squad, being outgunned and outnumbered, until Carnage comes in. Carnage’s bond and skills allows him to defeat the Homeworld squad, with him slicing Plague in half for example. He also utilizes a flamethrower and even a sound device against Apocalypse- Carnage has the stronger bond and outlasts Apocalypse, who gives in and splits before Carnage. Carnage turns off the device and defeats the individual War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death symbiotes. Deprived of hosts, all of the Klyntar retreat into the sewers.

Carnage is triumphant, and then She-Venom hits him over the head with something. It breaks and Carnage is unfazed, because his bond is stronger. He fights She-Venom, pinning them down and mocking Venom for resorting to a c-list, bootleg relationship. She-Venom reactives Carnage’s device, and while Anne and Venom split, they keep the device on long enough to force Carnage to retreat.

They agree that they need to get Eddie and Venom back together. Eddie and Venom meet up and try to sort out their differences, but when they try to refuse, they reject one another. It seems neither has sorted things out yet.

This leads to both getting frustrated again and even lashing out at Dan, before apologizing to him. Anne angrily criticizes Eddie and Venom’s egos, and Eddie storms off.

He soon gets a call for a job, and gains an informant. This anonymous person asks Eddie to meet at a place, and Richard gives him a drive because Eddie’s bike is busted. Richard waits outside and Eddie confronts the informant in a shadowy parking lot, only for Carnage to emerge, revealing it was a trap.

Carnage muses that they hated to leave a job unfinished and have come to finish off Eddie. Eddie tries to avoid death, with Carnage playing a game of cat and mouse. He decides to finish things off, when Richard drives the car into him.

He yells at Eddie to get in, but when Carnage lashes out, Richard takes the blow for Eddie. Eddie is horrified, even as SWAT reinforcements come in. Carnage laughs and decides to let Eddie wallow in misery a bit before leaving.

Richard dies in Eddie’s arms and asks for him to get back with his friend, before recalling his own wife and kids. Eddie genuinely sobs as the uncertain SWATs surround him, concerned, and the camera pans up to the lonely night sky.

Cut to Richard’s funeral. A somber Eddie gives a speech, and Anne and Dan arrive. Anne and Eddie discuss, Venom in tow, and Eddie and Venom reach a consensus on stopping Carnage when Venom notes how he liked Richard, giving Eddie a chance to explain things to Venom in more Klyntar terms.

It’s decided- They have to stop Carnage once and for all. A plan is devised- Dan supplies Eddie with a REM scan machine to hurt Carnage. The plan culminates in She-Venom luring Carnage to some fancy skyscraper.

Carnage defeats She-Venom, but Eddie comes in with a flamethrower and the REM scan machine. Carnage is seemingly subdued, but She-Venom is split apart. At the last second Carnage lashes out, breaking the flamethrower. The ceiling collapses on Eddie, but not before Venom reaches out to him and vice-versa.

The rubble lands, and Carnage turns on a vulnerable Anne, musing about her poor life choices and the weakness of Eddie and Venom. On cue, the rubble rumbles and clears apart to reveal a newly-formed Venom and Eddie, now back together and stronger than ever before. As Anne gets somewhere safe, Venom and Carnage circle one another, with Carnage mocking and questioning Venom’s newly-fixed bond.

In response? Venom challenges Carnage, leading to a climactic final battle beween the two. Floors and windows are shattered, but Venom manages to keep up with Carnage and even land several good hits. It’s clear that their bond has been restored to greater lengths than ever before.

The battle leads to the basement of the building and its power source. Carnage redoes the tear-apart move on Eddie and Venom, but they remain attached by the fingers. Annoyed, Carnage tries to split them with a knife, but it rebounds, not strong enough. Sure enough, Eddie and Venom fuse back together, and in a smooth motion slam a punch into Carnage, sending him flying into exposed circuitry.

As it electrocutes Carnage, Venom acknowledges the strength of his bond, before telling him not to underestimate their bond as well. Red fluctuates to reveal a similarly shocked Cletus, and Venom escapes as the building collapses on Carnage, seemingly killing them.

The protagonists celebrate, as authorities return to report a charred corpse and ashes. The epilogue has Eddie and Venom celebrate their reunification, while visiting Richard’s family to see that they are well.

As they leave, they notice another robbery on the news. Looking to one another, Eddie asks Venom if the two want another go, and Venom agrees with “With you? Always.” Venom forms and swings off.

Cue credits. Then there’s an end-credits scene with a wounded, burnt Cletus being interrogated in a lab. Apparently the corpse was a fake. As far as Cletus knows, Red died taking the damage from the shock and collapse to protect him, and he mourns as scientists analyze him. In a dark spot, he closes his eyes, dozing off, and the last thing he hears is Red’s voice reassuring him that they’re ALWAYS there for him.

In another end-credits scene, a sewer worker is heading down to the sewers to check an issue with the system. Cue a horror scene where he’s cornered in the shadows and drops his flashlight, picking it up just in time to see the Homeworld symbiotes closing in on him. Cue a scream, and darkness once more.

-Additional bits;

-There’s a corrupt tech ceo that Eddie is trying to take down. Perhaps he is the one that Venom intimidates into giving back money. Later, Carnage attacks the person and forces them to create a sound-device against Klyntar for him, as well as explosives to collapse the sewer tunnels on the Homeworld squad under the impression it would kill them. When Carnage lures Eddie in by pretending to be an informant snitching on said CEO, he drops the CEO’s bloody body to reveal that he killed the man shortly after.

-Potentially, Carnage could be the result of scientists implanting ‘Symbiote embryos’ into test subjects, hoping to create a Human-Symbiote bond that is formed through biology. Only Red and Cletus bond, and it’s left ambiguous as to why they worked- Was it luck, or was it because the two genuinely match and enjoy each other? Either way, Red and Cletus’ bond means the two can’t separate from one another, ever. Red, after being implanted into Cletus’ bloodstream, slowly develops and grows within him and initially manifests as just a voice before the two perform their prison break.

-The Scientists responsible for Red are members of some strange cult that worships Symbiotes. They’re led by a masked, cloaked figure with a distorted voice who has an uncanny understanding of Symbiotes despite being human.

-There’s probably going to be a subplot involving Jenna Cole, Andi Benton, and/or Tanis Nieves.

#venom #venom movie #venom sequel #carnage #movie plot #rough draft #writing ideas #eddie brock #symbiote #cletus kasady #klyntar #anne weying #dan #mrs chen #richard #TW abuse #tw blood mention #tw gore mention

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gumnut-logic · 6 years ago

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Gentle Rain (Part Four)

Title: Gentle Rain

Warm Rain Series

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Author: Gumnut

21-22 Jan 2019

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: Sometimes it is so gentle, you don’t realise it is happening.

Word count: 2852

Spoilers & warnings: Virgil/Kayo, OC, spoilers for Warm Rain up to this point in the timeline.

Timeline: Six months after ‘The Proposal’, almost a sequel.

Author’s note: For @scribbles97 This is a challenge to write. A little different from my norm and proving challenging. Thank you for all your wonderful comments regarding my first original character in this fandom. I hope she doesn’t disappoint. And thank you all for your wonderful support, I couldn’t do this without you.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

Kayo stared at the ceiling. Virgil had long ago painted a beautiful pale abstract across the plain white plasterboard. Swirls of pastel swooped in lazy whorls like the surface of water at dawn, a calming pattern to trace with tired eyes and she was sure he used it in unconscious meditation to get to sleep some nights.

As usual she had awakened early, the light in the room disturbing her, but unlike most mornings she hadn’t climbed out of bed. Virgil was thankfully still asleep beside her, his soft snoring somewhat reassuring. His hair was mussed and his face mushed into his pillow as usual, but he was lying on his side facing her, rather than on his stomach and it occurred to her that she should have realised that she hadn’t seen him sleeping on his stomach since the accident. The stretch to get his arms under the pillow must be too much. How had she not noticed?

She reached over and touched his hair. She couldn’t help herself. But he stirred suddenly and she pulled her hand back. He needed his sleep.

Did men ever grow up? Did they need mothering all their lives? She sighed.

He was a challenge, but so worth it.

A hand reached out and sought hers. “Hey.” His voice was rough with sleep.

“Sorry, love, did I wake you?”

“No, no.” He yawned. “Dream.”

She frowned as he rolled onto his back stretching, and, yes, there was the flinch. Damnit, Virgil. She reached over and touched his bicep. “Come here, love.” She pulled gently and he rolled over.

Slipping her arm under his neck, she lay on her back, drawing his head to her chest and stroking his hair. He wrapped his arms around her and she was enveloped in him.

“Love you.” His voice was breathy against her breast.

“Love you, too.” Her voice equally soft.

They simply lay there for a while, not speaking, his breathing evening out as he drifted. She didn’t sleep, but let her thoughts wander, as she stroked his hair.

They had been lucky again. Oh, so, lucky. So close to losing Scott. Losing their big brother. Scott was an irreplaceable presence. They all were, but Scott was the Big Brother, the one they all looked to and followed. She had to admit that Virgil would likely be lost without his brother. In no way did she mean that as a negative, it was just simply how it worked. Virgil was strong, a powerhouse and she adored him, but he wasn’t a leader quite like Scott and he never wanted to be.

And for a long time Scott had been the centre of his world. That centre had shifted now to include her, but she would always stand alongside his eldest brother. The love was far from the same, but it was still love, and she could respect that.

Especially when she loved Scott too.

“You’re thinking too loud.” It was muffled and petulant.

She smiled, letting her fingers trace his ear and drift to his cheek. “I’m thinking about your brother.”

“Which one? And do I need to remove him from your attention?”

A grin. “Scott, and no, trust me, love, you have my full attention.”

He nestled in closer to her in response. “Good. Love you.” A moment later. “What about Scott?”

She rolled her eyes before sobering a little. “Just how lucky we were this time.”

He muttered an affirmative into her skin, his breath warm.

“Do you know what she did to save him?”

She felt his brow crinkle against her neck. “What?”

And she was back in the dark of that hole, Scott’s breathing harsh in the dim light.

“Kay?” And he was looking down at her. When did he move? “Are you all right?” There was concern in his brown eyes.

She blinked. “Fine.” But then she realised she wasn’t. She hadn’t witnessed what the doctor had done, but her imagination was quite capable of filling in the gaps. “She pulled herself from the rubble and dragged herself over to Scott to stop his bleeding.” When Virgil’s expression didn’t change, she pushed further. “She is a paraplegic, so she felt none of the damage that had been done to her legs and none she did by moving.” She swallowed. “Em Harris lost her legs, Virgil. The damage was that extensive.” Kay closed her eyes.

His voice was quiet. “How is she taking it?”

A sigh. “I don’t know. You saw her, she seems fine, but I don’t know how she can be. She has no family.” A pause. “She’s alone.” Perhaps that is what struck her and prompted her to visit the woman. Her background check had come up clean except for the incident that had led to her paraplegia and that was hardly her fault. She had a practice south of Perth and a steady client base in partnership with another doctor. She was managing.

But there was something...

His fingers touched her cheek, trailing down to her jawline. She turned and kissed their tips before leaning into his hand and closing her eyes. “She shouldn’t be alone.”

Leaning over, he kissed her forehead. “Then invite her over for Christmas.”

She stared at him. “Really?”

He stared back. “Why not? You’ve done the background check. If you’re concerned, ask Penny to double check for you.”

“She will need medical support.”

“Scott will be needing the same.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “We can ask Andre to bring his partner. He’ll jump at the chance.”

He was right. Andre would love to spend Christmas with the Tracys. Even better if he could bring Cecil with him. “You would risk Cecil and Gordon in the same mile radius for an extended period of time?”

“Gordon will behave. Penny will be here.”

“Point taken.” She bit her lip.

“C’mon, love, you can invite a friend over for Christmas. This isn’t Fort Knox.”

She stared up into his chocolate eyes. Concern sat under a slight frown. She reached up and drew him back down to her side, wrapping her arms around him, bringing his head back to rest on her chest again. “Love you.”

“That’s because I’m very lovable.” He smiled into her skin.

A gentle tap on the shoulder was enough to get her reply to that communicated.

His smile widened. “Love you, too.”

Her thoughts turned back to Em sitting up in bed, verbally sparring with her brother.

Well, it would be interesting. Friend? She hardly knew the woman. But that could be changed. Something about Em Harris drew Kay towards her. She had saved her brother, but that wasn’t the only factor.

She stroked Virgil’s hair and let her thoughts take her.

-o-o-o-

“Oh, c’mon, you have got to be kidding me.”

Kay peered around the door of Em’s room. The woman was sitting up in bed glaring at her tablet.

“In no way is that a plausible argument, Scott Tracy. Not in a million years.”

She couldn’t quite hear her brother’s answer.

“Well, I prefer a little sense over a lot of fantasy.” More strong, but unintelligible words from the tablet. “Yeah, well, that’s a fool’s argument.”

Kayo blinked, suddenly glad she had left Virgil down at the cafe getting them coffee.

“Fine. Be that way.” Em caught sight of her. The frown turned immediately to a grin. “Hah! I have re-enforcements! Kayo, come and tell your doofus of a brother that ‘The Force’ is not the answer to everything.”

Another blink and a sigh of relief. “You’ll need to speak to John about ‘The Force’, though you may want to book yourself out for a day or two, he has a ten thousand word essay on it.” She waved a hand in the direction of the tablet. “The reason sits before you.”

Em snorted. “Yeah, well, this one can rave about Star Wars as much as he likes. Trek still trumps it.”

And yes, she had her arms crossed in front of her and the glare was back.

“You definitely need to speak to John. He’s been a Trekkie all his life.”

“Kayo, there is no way you are teaming those two up.” Scott’s voice was small coming from the tablet’s speakers, but his tone was still alarmed.

She stepped into the video pickup. “My dear brother, I will do what I need to do.”

He glared at her. “Han Solo could so kick Jim Kirk’s ass.”

A snort. “Don’t aim your arguments at me, Scott. Remember the Spock vs Chewbacca vs Virgil debate?”

He shut up, but Em straightened up next to her. “Oh, I’d like to hear this one.”

She grinned. “Again, you should speak to John and start with the Kirk vs Picard vs Scott discussion. It is the first in the series.” Her grin widened as Scott groaned.

“Okay, that’s it. I don’t need to listen to this. You ‘girls’ can go play now. I’m going to go and watch a real movie.”

To Kayo’s surprise, Em stuck her tongue out at her brother. “See you when boredom strikes.”

He grunted at her, but there was a glint of humour in his eyes and he smiled just before he cut the connection.

Kayo stared at the tablet a moment before turning her gaze to Em. “He been bothering you?”

The doctor grinned. “No, he is rather entertaining when he wants to be.”

A raised eyebrow. Oh, yes, the Scott Tracy charm was well at work. Kayo took a seat beside the bed. “And how are you, Em?”

The grin faltered, but stayed in place. “As best I can be. I can’t ask for more than that.” She straightened. “How is Virgil?”

Okay, so Virgil was going to be a deflection from her own issues. “You can ask him yourself.” And on cue, her fiancé knocked gently on the door, three coffees in a cup holder in one hand. “I bring sustenance of the gods.” He held up a large paper bag. “And muffins.”

“Yes, there are three members of our relationship. Myself, Virgil and coffee. Coffee gets him on early mornings with no competition.”

“Hey.”

She smirked. “Em, this is my fiancé, Virgil Tracy. Virgil, this is Em Harris.”

Virgil fumbled the muffins into Kayo’s lap as Em held out her hand. “Nice to finally meet you in person, Virgil.”

“Likewise. I hear you’ve been saving the hospital staff from the cranky Tracy.”

A smile. “He’s been entertaining.”

Virgil deposited the coffee tray on her bed table and handed one first to Em, then to Kay before taking the last one for himself and grabbing a chair. “That is not a word I have heard in relation to a convalescing Scott Tracy, ever.” A sip of his coffee, and, yes, there was that expression she only saw at one other time.

There was definitely a third member in their relationship.

Kayo placed the muffins on the table. “I hope you don’t mind us dropping in unannounced.”

“No, you are welcome. I’m happy to have the company.” She placed the coffee back on the table, untouched. “Actually, I was going to contact you.”

“Oh?”

Em turned to Virgil. “You were injured about six months ago?”

Virgil froze, suddenly wary.

Em held up her hand. “No, don’t worry, I haven’t been spying on you or anything. Scott gave me a little detail.”

“He did, did he?”

Uh oh. She reached out and placed a hand on Virgil’s knee. “He didn’t say much, love. Just that you were injured six months ago and your ribs were broken.” She looked back at the doctor, whose eyes had widened. “Em ascertained most of that herself anyway.”

Brown eyes hit pale blue. “How?”

“By watching you. It is subtle, but you are favouring your right side, even now.” Virgil self-consciously straightened and a faint wince flickered across his face. “And there you have it.”

-o-o-o-

She watched the man slump slightly in defeat. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be intrusive, but I want to help. I don’t know enough detail as yet, but I would like to assess you and see if something can be done.” She lowered her voice a little. “You shouldn’t have to be walking around in pain all the time.”

Her eyes darted between the couple. There was no way she was going to admit that she and Kayo had planned this. When Kayo had asked for specialist recommendations, Em had simply volunteered herself. Sure, she couldn’t practise from a hospital bed, but she wouldn’t be here for much longer and Virgil needed help.

It was the least she could do.

But Virgil was eyeing Kayo. “See a specialist in the morning, huh?”

Kayo didn’t flinch, her expression remained the same. “I didn’t lie.”

“I didn’t say you did.” He sighed. “Fine. What do you want me to do?”

“I will need your medical records at some point, but in the meantime, if you could give me some background, it would be a start.”

So, for the next fifteen minutes she learnt about how the two rescue operatives had fallen off a mountain and Virgil had gouged himself up his right side. With prompting from Kayo and with the room’s door secured, he unbuttoned his linen shirt and she got an eyeful of the massive scarring down his right side.

“My god, Virgil.” Okay, it wasn’t professional of her to say such a thing, but bloody hell. There were scars on top of scars. How much did this family have to pay to rescue all those people? She swallowed. He was staring down at her, an oddly hurt expression on his face. Shit, she should know better, sitting here with both her legs missing. Crap, damn...oh, hell. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” And suddenly there were tears on her face. Shit, not now!

“Em.” There were hands on her shoulders. “Take a deep breath.” And that same man, the man with all those scars, was looking at her with kind, calm eyes. “It’s okay. You’re okay.”

No, she wasn’t okay. She was far from okay. Losing it in a simple consultation? It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen worse. Look at herself for example.

Was that sob one of self pity?

Screw it.

“I’m sorry.” She took that deep breath, another, and forced it out with a trembling sigh. “I’m okay.”

He was rubbing her shoulders gently. Kayo was pouring a cup of water.

Mortification set in. Oh, god.

Kayo handed her the drink and Virgil sat back giving her space. She took a long drink and hid behind the plastic cup.

She cleared her throat. “So, I guess I shouldn’t consult while in hospital.” A half-hearted smile.

“It is completely understandable.” His rich baritone spoke only to reassure. She could imagine him using the same tone while rescuing terrified people.

Was she terrified people?

Maybe she was.

“Though I have to say that isn’t the reaction I’m used to when I take off my shirt.” There was a lopsided smirk. “I guess my bikini days are over.”

It worked. She couldn’t help but smile just a little. If only it hadn’t been at his expense.

“I can help you.” She forced strength back into her voice. She was Em Bloody Harris the survivor. Get over it already. Another deep breath. “We can at least start some scar massage and I will look into exercises that might help. I presume you had some exercises prescribed?” He nodded. “If you could give me the detail, I’ll look into alternatives. I have no doubt you’ve kept up the routine?”

“When not interrupted by call outs, yes.”

“Well, they don’t appear to be working as well as they could. Give me details and I will adjust the prescription accordingly.” Another breath. “After I’m out of here.” A forced weak smile.

He reached out and touched her hand. He was a very tactile man “Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do.”

He frowned. “You don’t owe us anything, Em. You don’t have to do this.”

She looked up at him. “Kayo and Scott weren’t the only people you saved from that hole, Virgil. I have the right to thank you and I will do so in the best way I can.” She straightened her spine just a little. “Even if I have to conspire with your wife-to-be to do so.”

And that did it. A small smile spread slowly across his features. “I’m going to regret this aren’t I?”

He eyed Kayo and she smiled smartly back at him. “Possibly.”

Pushing back the chair, he stood up. “Okay, with that I’m making a strategic retreat.” He held up a hand as if to fend them off. “Thank you, Doctor Em. Your conspiracy worked, I will do your bidding. Kay? You and I will have words later.” The words were serious, but the tone was light. When Kayo’s grin widened into a laugh, Em found herself smiling.

“I will be with Scott, likely commiserating, if you need me.” And buttoning his shirt, he left.

-o-o-o-

End Part Four

Part Five

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #virgil tracy #virgil/kayo #kayo kyrano #scott tracy #warm rain

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varietyofwords · 8 years ago

Text

Addendum, Part Twenty-Three (Chicago P.D.)

Title: Addendum

Chapter: Twenty-Nine In a Day (Part Twenty-Three)

Fandom: Chicago P.D.

Rating: T/PG-13

Author’s Note: “She’s Got Us” (3x22) another rare episode from S3 where I didn’t feel like another scene was truly necessary, but I came up with this little scene after rewatching the moment where Jay says “There’s such a thing as having too much empathy. You leave nothing for yourself.” and tells Erin he wants her to sleep rather than care less. This addendum is set at the conclusion of the episode after the scene at Molly’s.

The clatter of her cell phone against hard wood startles her awake; her whole body jerking at the sound and sending her left arm smacking against the padded armrest of the couch. It takes her a moment to awaken, to blink through the sleepy fog of her mind and realize where she was.

She hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights in the apartment as it had still be light out when she arrived home after finishing up the paperwork to release Polly to her aunt and uncle, and it takes a moment for her eyes to adjust to the changes in conditions. To recognize the green trench coat draped over the armchair to her left; to register the buzz of the cell phone preceeding the knock at her front door.

Her limbs feel foreign -- sleepy and legarthic thanks to the fading of the adrenaline that kept her upright through a shift on patrol, a stint waiting at the hospital for their witness, and a series of moments chasing down leads -- as she pushes herself off the couch, and she doesn’t bother to raise a hand to her mouth to cover the yawn that escaped as she pads over to the door. Her fingers fumble with the deadbolt; her brain barely registering the fact that she probably should have stopped to check peephole over the sound of the ringing cell phone.

And her eyes end up blinking rapidly when she manages to unlock the door and yank it open letting the light from the hallway outside her apartment floods in the entrance to hers. Centering and focusing when a shadow makes a step towards her and those instincts time in the academy and years on the force have fine tuned and honed.

“Hey,” the voice from the shadowy figure greets, and her whole body relaxes at the sound. Another yawn escaping as she pushes the door open further, as she adjusts her stance so the light from the hallway illuminates her boyfriend’s face rather than blinding hers. “Did I wake you?”

“Hmm,” she murmurs with a sleepy sigh letting the tone of her voice, the inability to really focus, and the lethargic movements of her body be her answer. He had, in fact, awaken her, but she dismisses his apology with a shake of her head because she hadn’t meant to fall asleep. Because she had her own apology to make -- one that would explain why Jay was blowing up her phone and banging on her door.

“I’ll go change,” she mutters releasing her grip on the opened door and turning away from him. But a hand shoots out, a finger snags onto the back pocket of her jeans, and a soft voice sounds rather dubious about her plan as he informs her that she shouldn’t bother unless she wants to make it in time for last call at Molly’s.

“It’s that late?” Erin questions glancing down at the watch on his wrist. It is far too dark for her to see the numbers, and she is far too sleepy to get her eyes to focus on the watch, even if it wasn’t. But she registers the slow nod of his head, the crease across his brow, and the concern in his eyes, and she accepts that what Jay is telling her is true.

That she didn’t just come home under the guise of chasing of her clothes -- because the extra set she keeps in her locker at the district had been hand delivered by Jay to Med -- and fallen asleep on the couch. Rather, she came home and passed out and completely blew off her plans to meet up with him at Molly’s. To unwind after a particularly rough case with a beer; to, hopefully, hear about some good news about how Roman’s medical hearing went and whether or not he and Burgess would be paired back up on patrol in a few weeks like Platt planned.

“Sorry,” she replies twisting back around so she’s facing him, so his grip on her back pocket falls, and she offers him a sleepy, half-smile as he tells her that it’s okay. That he figured she probably went home and crashed.

“I’ll let you get some sleep,” Jay tells her taking a step backwards into the hallway and, this time, it is her hand that reaches out and her finger that snags on the gap puckering between two buttons on the front of his shirt.

“Stay,” she says, and the gruffness of her sleepy voice proposes it as more of a statement rather than a question. A statement he answers by stepping towards her, by following her back into the foyer of her apartment so there is enough room for him to slam the door behind them. He stops to remove his boots -- a movement she anticipates by releasing her hook on his shirt and padding over to where her cell phone sits next to her keys -- but she only has a moment to blink wearily at the three missed calls and one text -- all from him -- before Jay’s hands are on her waist. Before he’s tugging the cell phone out of her hand and telling her to get some sleep.

She doesn’t bother protesting, and she’s too tired to make comments with suggestive smirks about him becoming so bossy all of the sudden. So, instead, she moves wordlessly through the living room and into the bedroom with Jay on her heels.

Lethargic fingers make quick work of her belt and shimming off her jeans while Jay sweeps pillows off the bed -- words asking why she has so many muttered under his breath -- and pulls back the sheets. And then they trade rolls; his deft fingers working on undoing the buttons of his shirt and the belt holding up his jeans while she crawls into bed and works on fluffing up the single pillow he’s left her with. Barely manages to keep her eyes open and her head off the pillow long enough for him to slip under the sheets and lay down beside her in the bed.

Months of doing this, of sleeping beside one another night after night dictate the rest of their movements long after her eyes flutter close. Her body instinctively rolls into his -- the little spoon to his big spoon -- and his left arm curls around her waist as he helps pull her closer to him. Hot breathes curl around her ears as his breathing steadies, as her cheek buries into the pillow being propped up by his right arm and her eyes begin to flutter shut once more.

“Polly get off with her aunt and uncle okay?” The question is murmured into the crown of her head; the words lost into the mess of short, light brown hair brushing up against his face. And the tears that had threatened to spill over when she said goodbye to Polly return to the corner of her eyes as she manages to croak out a verbal agreement to his question, as silence fills the bedroom of her apartment once more.

“I,” she whispers after a moment, after the desire to sleep has started to leave her body as reminders of what they saw this time yesterday begin to resurface. “I told her that she was one of those people who I didn’t have to worry about. That no matter where she goes, everything is going to be okay.”

The response to her statement comes with the slide of Jay’s hand across her stomach so that his fingers rest of her leg instead of against the mattress, so that his fingers can rub small circles onto the exposed skin of her leg rather than dangling uselessly. And a soft kiss is pressed to the back of her head -- the contact causing her eyes to flutter close once more -- as Jay whispers assurances that he is sure that’s true.

“It’s no Wisconsin frozen custard,” he says after a moment where a tear has slipped down her cheek, where she can feel his body tighten behind her as he tries to find the right comment to make her feel better. “But St. Louis’ is pretty decent.”

There were a lot of things about St. Louis that he found pretty decent -- the zoo, the Arch -- and it had been his comments about the city that she had fallen back on when Polly asked if she had ever been there. Because Jay had been there as a kid -- more than a couple of times, apparently -- and he had always talked about it as a nice place. Had made a couple of not so subtle hints that maybe they should take a weekend down there, if she wasn’t up for dealing with mosquitos the size of birds up in Wisconsin.

“That fancy condo come with a frozen custard shop? Cause then you might learn what dry cleaners are,” Erin questions softly, and her lips tip upward into a smile for the first time since he brought her that combo. A smile that is rewarded the stilling of his hand against her leg and an exasperated huff of air behind her head.

“You gotta focus on the view,” he reminds her, and she hums noncommittally in reply because that is exactly what the builders of these new, tiny ass condos springing up across the city want him and every other potential buyer to do. To focus on the view instead of the lack of a bedroom or a toilet right next to the stove. To take out big loans in order to enjoy a view they’ll -- he’ll -- never to get see because they’re -- he’s -- too busy picking up overtime to pay off said loans.

The quiet filling the apartment is occasionally interrupted with the sound of a car rolling down the street outside her apartment, with the reminder that she may not have a view but she does have a neighborhood. The sounds of which dim at this time of night, and her eyes to grow heavy with sleep once more as Jay resumes tracing circles with his thumb on her bare leg.

“Did you see Roman?” She mumbles as she remembers part of why she was supposed to hit up Molly’s with him. The words are heavy and staccatoed thanks to the lethargy, to the strain of twenty-nine hours done in a day settling in, and her question is met with a sleepy yawn and a chuckle in reply.

“Yeah, there’s gonna be a sequel to that Roman-Burgess-Ruzek horror movie.”

Jay’s reply causes her to groan, to forget about sleep in favor of rolling over so her left shoulder is pressing into his chest and she is able to look at his face. To quirk an eyebrow in a silent instruction for him to elaborate and then prod him with the tap of her toe against his shin when she realizes he can’t see her in the dark.

“Overheard him telling Burgess that he’s being pushed out to some desk job,” he informs her, and her shoulders immediately sag with disappointment at what he’s saying because while she figured that was coming, that his recovery was taking longer than the Ivory Tower would be okay with, Roman is good police. Someone she wouldn’t mind working Violence Reduction Duty with, if Jay’d rather spend the time taking a shower rather than raking in a dollar a minute. “He asked Burgess to move to San Diego with him. Said he loves her. Probably.”

“He said that?” Erin asks; the incredulous tone of her voice squeezing out any sign of sleepiness. And Jay nods in reply, curls his finger around her hip when concern begins to twist her features and her limbs away from where she lays cuddling with him.

“You can call Burgess in the morning,” Jay reminds her. The edge to his voice, the concern seeping in clues her into the look on his face currently being obscured by the darkness. Tells her that he’s looking at her the exact same way he looked at her back at Med when he wanted her to get out of there, to get some sleep instead of waiting for Polly.

And this time she reaches up to brush her hand against the stubble on his cheek, tilts her head back so she can press a kiss to the underside of his jaw because she doesn’t want him to worry. Doesn’t want him to think she’s willing to wreck herself -- more than she already has today -- or willing to blow him and his concern off -- like maybe she did a bit this morning, like she did on accident this evening -- after he worked hard to keep her on track, to keep her fed and supported and aware that she was caring and carrying too much.

“I will,” she informs him before rolling back onto her side, before scooting backwards so his body can curl back around hers. And then she lets her eyes flutter close, buries her head into the pillow, and lets out a long yawn as his fingers resume their tracing movements on her skin. “But, right now, I’m gonna care less and sleep more.”

#linstead #erin lindsay #jay halstead #chicago pd #otp: that's why you have backup #fanfiction #mine #story: addendum

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aimmyarrowshigh · 8 years ago

Photo

Anyway, here are Finn-, Poe-, and Rey’s Hero’s Journeys leading up to TLJ. It should be said that in their LARGER Hero’s Journeys, TFA only constitutes Act I for each of them, but it also has its own mini-sized Hero’s Journey for each of them as well because that’s how monomyth-based franchises work. (The HP series works the same way -- each book has its own Hero’s Journey for Harry, but they all work together to create a larger Journey within the Ring Composition [which SW doesn’t have because it’s trilogies, etc].)

Of note, a big part of why the Prequel Trilogy movies aren’t as good as the OT or TFA is that they don’t follow the Hero’s Journey model for any of the main trio (Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan, fwiw, not Anakin, Padme, and Palpatine or something), which goes against the story type that SW fans from the OT were expecting. Also their act structure is Not Great because of the massive time jumps and stuff -- AOTC kind of starts all over again as a new Act I and then there’s never a satisfying conclusion because ROTS basically ends with The Ordeal.

tl;dr here’s wonderwall

---

Copypasta from this post for @morethanonepage

Responding in bullet-points to save time and address everything worth addressing.

All I’m saying is his arc is important to the story, and is the only one that intersects with both Finn’s, Poe’s, and Rey’s.

That does not make him “part of the trio,” it STILL MAKES HIM ANCILLARY TO THEIR STORIES AS THE PROTAGONISTS. In fact, it strengthens the argument AGAINST his inclusion in “the trio” that he does interact with all three – he does so as the antagonist, to all three of them, and 2/3 in exactly the same way (mind rape) and the third in a grievous and equivocal physical attack.

He is the antagonist BECAUSE he diametrically and directly opposes the three protagonists. Or, in SW parlance, the trio.

It’s an indisputable fact that Poe does not interact with Rey onscreen. It’s very odd for a protagonist to not interact with another protagonist.

They interact in the novelization, though, so if we’re gonna count things like “a version of the movie that never saw the light of day at all and was scrapped long before filming even started or casting was complete,” then I feel like… we can count the official novelization.

Poe also does not go through any character development in the film in the way that Finn and Rey (and arguably Kylo) do. He remains the same charming, good guy he was at the beginning of the film.

…And Finn remains the same emotionally aware, afraid-but-brave, stronger-than-his-peers, willing-to-do-what’s-right guy that he was at the beginning of the film. All of that, despite his character development, because that is the core of Who Finn Is.

…And Rey remains the same woman who is determined to find belonging and assert her own value despite its emotional and physical tolls, unwilling to show vulnerability to others but clearly feeling it and it showing anyway, strong-as-nails and CLEARLY Force Sensitive woman that she was at the beginning of the film. All of that, despite her character development, because that is the core of Who Rey Is.

…And Kylo Ren remains the same self-interested, emotionally volative, violent, bloodthirsty, amoral, sadistic fuck that he was at the beginning of the film. All of that, despite his (dubious? I… don’t see it, to say the least; he’s introduced by murdering an old man for no reason other than a mention of his family and he exits with the murder of an old man for no reason other than being his family… with a bunch of kidnapping and mind-rape in between…) character development, because that is the core of Who Kylo Ren Is.

Are those all oversimplifications?

Yeah. Absolutely. Because you vastly oversimplified Poe and his character arc, and I’m making a point. You can make it look like ANY character had no development if you only look at a superficial level.

But they aren’t like, incorrect. The view of Poe as nothing but a “charming, good guy” is, though, and if that’s all you see in Poe then you don’t get Poe at ALL and CERTAINLY not enough to write meta or make pronouncements about his value in the story OR franchise as a whole. Good lord. Poe is… INFINITELY more than that, both IN THE FILM ITSELF *and* in all of the supplementary material that WAS INTRODUCED ABOUT HIM FOR A REASON, TO MAKE UP FOR THE LACK OF SCREEN TIME AND TO ASSERT HIS IMPORTANCE TO THE SEQUEL TRILOGY.

You can’t just ignore 70% of the Poe material and then say that you don’t know anything about him like that’s not your own fault.

Poe is not a protagonist in The Force Awakens. We don’t follow his story the way we follow Rey’s and Finn’s and Kylo’s. He is, however, a member of the heroic trio (a la Luke, Leia, and Han in the OT, and Padme, Anakin, and Obi Wan in the PT).

We literally do, except for the part they cut in which he escapes Jakku. He still undergoes a Hero’s Journey, the same as Finn and Rey do, and MOST of it happens within TFA as a film – although NONE of the three of them entirely has their Hero’s Journey in the film; they all begin in Before The Awakening, which is, again, why that book was released and serves to have an impact on the story. You can’t ignore “hey, here’s where their stories all start!” and then be like, “but their stories didn’t start in a way that pleased me.”

Also, Poe is a protagonist in TFA because his actions and reactions create and propel the narrative. That is what a protagonist IS and DOES. If Poe did not go to Jakku to find Lor San Tekka and the map to Luke, the entire plotline literally doesn’t happen. The inciting incident of TFA belongs to Poe. If Poe did not show up to the battle of Takodana, Finn and Han would be dead, and Rey would not have been saved from the First Order in time – as such, 1/3 of the climax of the film belongs to Poe (and 1/3 to Finn, and 1/3 to Rey… because they’re a trio). And if Poe didn’t blow up Starkiller Base, not only Finn and Rey would be dead, but so would the entire Resistance and, with it, eventually the entirety of a noncompliant Galaxy.

So.

Like.

Poe just is literally a protagonist. He is 1/3 of the forward motion of the story and his actions create the plotline. Again: literally what a protagonist is.

and yes poe was originally meant to kill poe off. you don’t believe us? look up JJ abrams comments.

You know who else was originally supposed to be killed off? Han Solo in ANH. Does that mean that since that DIDN’T HAPPEN AND THAT VERSION WAS SCRAPPED VERY EARLY ON, that Han isn’t a main character?

Things that do not matter: stuff that literally was given up on because they realized that wasn’t the story they wanted to tell.

Things that do matter: all of the stuff that they’re choosing to include because it DOES matter.

Of course I’ve seen those comments; what am I, new? I just don’t think the rough draft as opposed to the final draft that actually exists means shit to what we read into and out of the story, for pete’s sake. ORIGINALLY, Luke and Leia weren’t siblings. ORIGINALLY, Han died. ORIGINALLY, it was a one-off movie and not a franchise at all. It don’t matter, babe. Fuck.

And just to put to bed the inane idea that “Poe doesn’t have an arc in TFA”:

Here is Finn’s Hero’s Journey: [BIGGER]

Here is Rey’s Hero’s Journey: [BIGGER]

Here is Poe’s Hero’s Journey: [BIGGER]

All three of them begin in Before the Awakening, because THAT IS LITERALLY WHEN THEIR STORIES BEGIN, UNTIL OR UNLESS EARLIER CANONICAL SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL IS RELEASED, IN WHICH CASE, THAT WOULD BE WHEN THEIR STORIES BEGIN (BUT, crucially, NOT necessarily when their Hero’s Journeys begin – they can exist as characters/people in the Galaxy without having a a Hero’s Journey; most of the SW characters do and that’s what makes them… dun-dun… not the Heroes).

Poe’s arc includes Before the Awakening, the ongoing Poe Dameron comic, and TFA, so far. BtA and the Poe comic exist for a reason, and that reason is to flesh out his hero’s journey so that he is better balanced with Finn and Rey in canonical material going into TLJ.

It’s… not that deep, guys. He’s a protagonist who didn’t have as much screentime, so they’re making up for it, because he is an intended and existing protagonist.

Finn. Rey. Poe. Are the trio, period, of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy. They are the Han, Luke, and Leia of this generation. That’s why all of the marketing has been like, “every generation has a story: HERE’S SOME FINN, REY, AND POE, THE EMBLEMS OF THIS GENERATION’S STORY.”

#|franchise| star wars #**star

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aion-rsa · 5 years ago

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What Star Wars: The High Republic Can Learn From Knights of the Old Republic

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The High Republic is the first major Star Wars publishing initiative since the end of the Sequel Trilogy. Set about 200 years before The Phantom Menace, The High Republic line of books and comics shows the Jedi in their heyday, led by new heroes and faced with new enemies and challenges. Made up of three novels (one for each age category) and comic series from Marvel and IDW, the story begins with a “Great Disaster” which disrupts hyperspace travel.

Originally slated to launch in August just days before this year’s Star Wars Celebration convention, the beginning of the series has now been pushed to January 5, 2021. Spearheading the story are all-star Star Wars writers Charles Soule, Claudia Gray, Cavan Scott, Daniel Jose Older, and Justina Ireland.

As Lucasfilm introduces a new era of stories to capture the imagination of fans, there are a few things the company could learn from the last time it introduced an era of Star Wars set hundreds of years before The Phantom Menace. We’re of course talking about the Old Republic era, the setting of Star Wars adventures like the Tales of the Jedi comics and Knights of the Old Republic video game. While the Dark Horse comics spawned this era of war between the Jedi and the Sith (and later, the Mandalorians), it’s arguably the video game that solidified the Old Republic as a fan-favorite era in Star Wars history.

Knights of the Old Republic showed fans an era of Star Wars not completely unlike the one in the movies but that also felt new, with uncharted planets to explore and legendary characters to meet. This is the same balance that The High Republic will have to strike to be successful. Here are the lessons The High Republic can learn from Knights of the Old Republic:

Avoid the Skywalker Saga

Knights of the Old Republic had its own powerhouse character in Darth Revan. It didn’t try to connect Revan’s story to the Skywalkers or to rely on a family legacy for ideas about the Force. That’s one of the benefits of working outside of the movies: you can play around more freely with new characters instead of relying on cameos from old favorites.

Set 4,000 years before the film saga, developer BioWare was able to do pretty much anything it wanted with the game’s characters, planets, and factions without interfering with the movies. 200 years into the past isn’t as long of a time jump, but it still means The High Republic can avoid retreading Prequel era stories that have been told before.

The High Republic will have some element of family legacy, though. According to Lucasfilm, this era will explore “the Starros and San Tekka clans,” a reference to Lor San Tekka, a minor character in The Force Awakens, and Sana Starros, a friend of Han Solo in the recent Marvel comics. Hopefully, these connections to the Skywalker Saga will be in support of a new story and not a way to drive readers back to the Original and Sequel Trilogies.

Deeper Lore

One of the strengths of the original Star Wars was that the galaxy felt lived in and full of history. Even if you were only following Luke’s story, mention of historical events like the Clone Wars and the battered quality of the ships immediately established that a lot had happened before the movie had even started.

Today, we know the Star Wars galaxy is vast both in time and space, and one of the benefits of a story set before what we’ve already seen is reaching farther back in time to unlock new mysteries and lore. After all, exploring ancient ruins and thousand-year-old temples is part of the fantasy of Star Wars.

Knights of the Old Republic established various ancient aliens, including the Rakata, which created the puzzles and ruins key to Revan’s story. It also explored Korriban, a secret Sith planet and the final resting place of several Sith lords, as well as old Jedi enclaves where masters taught a legendary generation of Jedi Knights.

Since The High Republic will focus on Jedi, this is a chance for readers to learn more about what traditions have been passed down and how they might have changed between the High Republic and the Prequel eras. The introduction of the Nihil, the “space Vikings” billed as the villains of the story, could also be a way to show more of the “Wild West” aspect of the era before all sectors of the galaxy were under the jurisdiction of the Galactic Republic.

More Varied Characters

From the Original Trilogy templates of farmboy Jedi, smuggler with a heart of gold, and warrior princess came a near-infinite variety of characters types. Knights of the Old Republic starred Republic soldiers, an arrogant Jedi, and a murderous droid named HK-47 that couldn’t have been less like C-3PO.

And at the center of the story was a Sith lord suffering from amnesia who was unlike any “villain” we’d ever seen before in Star Wars. Revan was a former bad guy tricked into becoming a hero by his Jedi custodians, a big character twist that’s still regarded as one of the big moments in Star Wars history.

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By Megan Crouse

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The High Republic is yet another chance for storytellers to introduce new kinds of characters never before seen in the canon. So far, we know there will be a primarily Jedi cast with a variety of species, ages, and experiences, but the unsettled territories of the galaxy could also provide some surprising characters.

Aliens Acting Against Type

Star Wars has a tendency to “typecast” alien species. If the first Zabrak character ever seen on screen was Darth Maul, future members of the same species are probably going to be warlike, acrobatic, and tough. Even a Jedi Master of this species was known primarily for his thick skin and rough upbringing. But Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords introduced a very different type of Zabrak: a soft-spoken mechanic named Bao-Dur who was good at a different kind of killing (he had invented a super-weapon and regretted it).

Meanwhile, the first Twi’leks were servants in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, potentially dooming all members of their species to some form of slavery. But Knights of the Old Republic gave us Mission Vao, a street-smart thief who would fit in perfectly with the smugglers and scoundrels of the galaxy.

The High Republic has a chance to give aliens as much diversity as humans. We know that the cast will feature at least two alien characters, the Twi’lek Loden Greatstorm and the Mirialin Vern Rwoh. What other characters might the series introduce and how might they surprise us?

New Jedi Abilities

If the High Republic is the heyday of the Jedi, Force powers must play a big part in this golden age. Knights of the Old Republic popularized Jedi Battle Meditation, a special power that allows certain Force users to turn the tide of massive battles. In the game, Jedi hero Bastila Shan is considered one of the most powerful knights in the galaxy due to the way she can influence entire war fleets. (In Tales of the Jedi, hero Nomi Sunrider could also use Battle Meditation to defeat enemies without having to lift her lightsaber.)

The High Republic cast is supposed to include some of the best Jedi who ever lived. “Best” doesn’t just mean martial prowess, either. In fact, since this era takes place before Sidious’ rise, the Jedi are supposed to be more ethically-minded than the ones in the Prequels. Master Avar Kriss is described as “compassionate, not dogmatic, and always ready to sacrifice herself over others.” This might lend itself to new kinds of Force healing or other powers that help others become stronger.

Ancient Science

Star Wars is science-fantasy at its core, magical crystals powering lasers. The combination of the two genres is key to telling a great story set in this universe. In Knights of the Old Republic, this aesthetic manifests itself in the ancient Rakatan technology that leads players through their adventure. Revan, Bastila, and the rest of the cast hunt for ancient Star Maps, exploring the deepest corners of several planets to find these artifacts powered by the dark side of the Force.

After finding all the Star Maps, the characters uncover the mystery of the Star Forge, an enormous factory in space built by the Rakatan Empire in order to produce the greatest army in the galaxy. But while the Star Forge was designed to slowly feed off the energy of a nearby star, it also fed on the dark side energy of the Rakata themselves, eventually leading to the fall of their Infinite Empire. In essence, the Rakata had created a self-aware dark side superweapon that led to their own destruction. The High Republic will visit a place called the Starlight Beacon, a station that serves as a lighthouse meant to help space travelers navigate dangerous hyperspace routes. Is there more to the origin of this station? And what else might the Jedi uncover in the uncharted parts of the galaxy? We hope to see interesting new technology in the series that fuses science with magic.

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tropinui · 7 years ago

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I feel a need to share what’s going to likely be a couple of unpopular opinion, but this is my blog, so nyeh. There will be some Spoilers if you’ve haven’t watched any of the new Star Wars movies yet.

I liked Solo: a star wars story, I like it significantly more than I do the sequel trilogy so far. Mostly because I think it was someone trying to stick as close as they could to the canon, verses the canon breaking mary sue self insert fanfic that The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi turned out to be...

Many people whom I’ve listened to refer to it as “Soylo”, I suppose they have some good points, but I don’t agree in general, I don’t think it’s a sign of a weak man to pursue a love, yes it was done weakly to present his love interest as someone we the audience should care about, and the subsequent deaths of some other characters were weak too, but I think it was done to begin showing a young Han that “hey, universe is a rough, shitty place.”

I don’t think Han was once shoved to the side for the female characters to shine, [though the girl talk between the two female characters of the movie was cringy... I suppose they do have to aggressively buttshuffle to pass the Bechdel test]. When it came to the kessel mines, it made sense for the woman with high influence and knowledge on how to conduct such a ploy was reasonable.

But that leads me to something that bugs me about “oh all these totes stronk female characters!!!!”

Your “strong” female characters do not mean shit to me, especially if they have to demean the masculinity of a man. Especially in a “I don’t have to listen to you because you’re a male”, it’s obnoxious with men, it’s especially obnoxious with women, because it does come off as even more pretentious, bitchy and self entitled.

They are not endearing when they shove a far more established and likable character to the side and suddenly take over the narrative when they didn’t even exist 10 seconds ago. [This is a reason Rose from the Last Jedi absolutely infuriates me, especially when she takes away Finn’s noble sacrifice and ends up endangering everyone...]

Why can’t strong female characters stand on their own? like the original princess Leia? or Queen Amidala, How about Wonder Woman? I never watched that movie in particular but from what I’ve heard she wasn’t obnoxious and the movie was actually good.

Oh, or perhaps Black Widow from the Marvel movies. Shall we even mention Trinity from the Matrix?

Now do not mistake my saying this as me wanting all wamen characters to be soft, squishy damsels in distress. I grew up with that, I rped that, I broke into playing characters with no biological gender or men to break out of that. And now that I’ve begun playing female characters again, my first one was a 2 foot tall danger chicken who acted as the entire crew’s astronavigation and could hold her own in a fight... while hiding behind the wall of armor that was the Mandalorian because she had next to nothing for HP.

And this Sunday I will be acting as Paasca Yaal, captain of the Tin Cup Chalice. Who repairs droids, made her own custom droid, and pilots the ship.

And maybe in the future I’ll have a small female shardmind who acts as the ship’s galley cook and healer of the party.

I like the damsel in distress trope, I have a character who is exactly that. But I also do not mind female characters who are strong and stand on their own without stepping on male characters. I also don’t mind softer male characters, timid, shy things who are anxious.

I no longer really believe that it’s only in fantasy that women can be equal to and surpass men in physical prowess, [Women are already equal in the western world to men in everything else], I’ve met and grown up with some pretty strong women...

And this isn’t even just in Fantasy. If you can’t stand on your own without bringing down another regardless of gender and race, then what real good are you?

[On final note, I don’t think it’s sexist for female monsters to have a sexy appearance, because there are male monsters that aren’t horrific in appearance at all, either. Because there are real monsters in real life who can look good and appealing, too.

I also don’t mind much anymore if a character is presented as sexy especially in MMORPGs where it’s literally the choice of the player how to dress their character. or if the character cannot be changed and is an NPC, that it’s actually a choice of that character’s. I don’t immediately stare at the designer, Considering both men and women have designed characters and their attire.

If you think it’s sexism, guess what: you’re not obligated to play that game, you could find another game to play, you could even make your own video game these days, hundreds of people have done so.

My dad gave me great advise that literally can be applied to anything: Write what you’d want to read. Draw what you’d want to see, design and make what you’d want to play or how you want your characters to look.

That is all.

Ceers.]

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lindburgsreviews · 7 years ago

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Star Wars 30 Day Challenge- In One Day!

As most of you likely know, the first public screening for the new Star Wars movie releases tonight at midnight. You also probably know about my love for this series and I can’t wait to see review it. I found this video series from the Wars YouTuber HelloGreedo where for thirty days leading up to the release of The Last Jedi, he made a short video covering a variety of different Star Wars related questions. I thought it would be fun to answer the same thirty questions in a single blog entry. Feel free to respond with your own thoughts in the comments!

1. My Personal Favorite Star Wars Memory

My favorite Star Wars memory was seeing The Force Awakens in theaters for the first time. I had never seen a Star Wars movie in the theater to that point, and I was giddy from the time the lights dimmed to the end credits. I felt like a little kid and it made me fall in love with the series again.

2. My All Time Favorite Character

This is a tough one because there are so many great characters to choose from. As a kid I would have said Darth Vader, but as an adult now I’ve grown to love Han Solo. Harrison Ford is so great in the role and he has so many memorable moments and lines. I also love what he brings to the table as a character, a rough and tumble anti-hero who has a greatr arc through the Original Trilogy.

3. Favorite Original Trilogy Movie

My favorite of the Original Trilogy movies is The Empire Strikes Back. I love how it takes a great premise presented in A New Hope and expands it considerably. You learn more about Vader, the nature of the force, and get to meet some really memorable characters in Yoda and Lando Calrissian. There’s so much depth and I would go as far as to say powerful scenes in what on the surface, just looks like a fun science fiction movie.

4. Favorite Prequel Trilogy Movie

This one is also hard because I dislike pretty much all of the prequels, but I would have to say Revenge of the Sith is the one I like the best. There are a few scenes that are true to the original spirit of Star Wars and also a lot of good visuals.

5. Favorite Star Wars Video Game

This one was very easy. The original Star Wars Battlefront II video game from 2005 just might be my favorite video game ever. I got hours of playtime from it when I was in grade school and had a blast every time. The game was so simple in its concept, recreating battles from the movie or ones we never saw on screen, but that’s what I think made it so great.

6. Favorite Lightsaber Fight

The final dual between Vader and Luke in Return of the Jedi is by far my favorite lightsaber fight in the saga. There is so much emotional weight to the scene as Luke is torn between trying to redeem his own father who is also trying to kill him. You can’t help but feel for him as he is constantly being taunted by both Vader and the Emperor and trying to remain true to the teachings of Obi-Wan and Yoda. His outburst at the end where he realizes he is slowly becoming like Vader is also poignant, as well as Vader’s sacrifice to end the scene.

7. All Time Favorite Scene

I could probably make a list of just my favorite Star Wars scenes, but the top would have to be Yoda explaining the Force to Luke and then raising his X-Wing out of the swamp in Empire. Yoda’s dialogue is so well written, and John Williams’ score makes the scene feel both mystical and inspiring. I get chills each time I see this scene and there’s no other one like it in the whole saga.

8. Favorite Yoda Quotation

After a lot of thought, my favorite Yoda quote might be “You must unlearn what you have learned.” It might not seem to make much sense, but part of why I like it might be because it is similar to one of my favorite quotations in real life “It’s what you have learned after you know it all that counts”. They both speak to how nobody every truly becomes a master at anything, and there’s always something new you can be learning.

9. Favorite Fan Film

In all honesty I’ve never seen a Star Wars fan film. If anybody reading this knows of a good one to check out, let me know. On to the next one.

10. Something I Wish Was Different

Like I mentioned before, I really don’t think very highly of the prequels. Yes they are what originally peaked my interest in the series as a kid, but as I’ve grown older I’ve realized how poorly made and pointless they are. I wish they didn’t exist at all, only the original and sequel trilogies were made. None of them are all that good, and create a plethora of plot holes that hurt the original movies.

11. Favorite Piece of Star Wars Merch I Own

A couple years ago for my birthday, my parents bought me some wooden portraits with posters of the original movies printed on them. One of them was a pretty standard one for the Force Awakens, but the other two are the ones that I really love. One is for Empire, with Darth Vader’s mask floating in space with the cast list underneath it with the title. The other one is for Return of the Jedi, and but it says “Revenge” instead of Return. This was because George Lucas decided to change the title during filming, making the original posters with this small detail extremely valuable to collectors. Even though what I own isn’t a original copy, I think it’s really cool and have them both hanging up in my room.

12. Actor I Want to See in a Star Wars Movie

There was a lot different names I considered for this one, but the one I feel the best about is Aaron Paul. If you have watched Breaking Bad, he gives a performance throughout the entire series that is arguably as good as the one Bryan Cranston gives. I think Aaron Paul is a terrific actor, and I’m surprised I haven’t seen him in much outside of Breaking Bad. I don’t have a character in mind for him to play but the Star Wars universe is so big and he’s such a great talent I have no doubt he could play a strong role and really excel.

13. Favorite Member of the Rogue One Crew

Another easy one, K2-SO is by far my favorite character in all of Rogue One. Alan Tudyk’s motion capture performance is fantastic in his comedic timing and vocal work, and by far playing the best character in the movie in my opinion.

14. Favorite Piece of Star Wars Music

Of all the incredible compositions of Star Wars score, my favorite is Finale/End Credits from Empire. It starts with a slow build up to a strong rendition of Han and Leia’s theme before transitioning in to the typical end credits theme that plays in the other movies. What comes after is what puts it over the top for me though, as it features a medley of the different character themes from throughout the movie. Yoda’s theme, The Imperial March, and finally a return to the love theme are all played and works as a nice musical microcosm of the film.

15. Favorite Vehicle in the Saga

My favorite vehicle in Star Wars is also one of the best vehicles in all of pop culture, the Millennium Falcon. Its design has always been really cool to me and its so recognizable. I like how it seems like you could live in it, and I love how proud Han Solo is of his ship even though the other characters are constantly making fun of it. I also like how its seen all kinds of action, been to the furthest corners of the galaxy and all of its different features.

16. Favorite Special Edition Change

The change in the Special Edition that I don’t mind is the general improvement of the visuals and audio. I don’t think it hurts the integrity or undercuts the work put in by the original crew, but enhances their work and helps the movies age a little bit better.

17. Least Favorite Special Edition Change

In my opinion, the worst of all the Special Edition changes is the CGI creatures and backgrounds added in to Mos Eisely in A New Hope. Not only does it look terrible, but it’s ridiculously distracting and one animal even blocks the entire view of the scene right before Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids are stopped by the stormtroopers. It makes no sense at all why all of this was added, and that might be why it irritates me the most.

18. Favorite Star Wars Parody

I admittedly haven’t seen the most Star Wars parodies, so I’ll have to go with Space Balls by default, but that doesn’t mean that it is still a really funny parody. It captures the spirit of the Original Trilogy while also satirizing the merchandising it has become famous for, as well as the logic of movies altogether.

19. Favorite Non-Star Wars Movie from a Star Wars Actor

My favorite for this one would have to be Raiders of the Lost Ark, featuring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Both of these series have a special place in my heart as they sparked my interest in movies as a kid. Harrison Ford is just as iconic as Indy as he is Han, and the rest of the movie is masterfully guided by my favorite director, Steven Spielberg. It never lets up with action, suspense, an incredible score, and I never get bored while watching it.

20. Favorite Droid

BB-8 is my favorite droid in all of Star Wars. I love his design, how it looks original but still looks like it exists in the Star Wars universe. I also think its really cool how the creators of Force Awakens were able to make a character that is so funny and lovable but doesn’t have any dialogue, much like R2-D2.

21. Star Wars Game I Wish Existed

I’m not a huge video game fan so I don’t know if a game like this exists, but I think an open world game simlar to Red Dead Redemption in the Star Wars Universe would be really cool. Maybe your character would be a bounty hunter or character similar to Luke in A New Hope trying to find his way in the galaxy, but you make the decisions that ultimately affects his fate.

22. The Star Wars Anthology Film I Want

YouTube movie reviewer Jeremy Jahns actually had an idea for an anthology film that I would love to see. It would focus on Obi-Wan between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Ewan McGregor would come back as Obi-Wan, but the tone of the movie would be more similar to a western than a space opera. He would be in hiding in Tatooine, riddled with guilt from the fall of Anakin and maybe PTSD from the Clone Wars. He’s on Tatooine not because he feels the need to watch over Luke, but because he just doesn’t want to see a galaxy under the control of the Empire’s iron fist and falls away from his Jedi beliefs. This is where the western theme comes in, as maybe a small settlement near where he’s hiding in the desert is under threat from the Empire or a gang from Jabba the Hutt and he is forced to try and stand up to them. I like this idea because it would be a very different tone for a Star Wars movie and wouldn’t add too much unnecessary backstory.

23. Favorite Force Awakens Moment

I absolutely loved the scene in Fore Awakens where Kylo Ren has just incapacitated Finn tries to use the Force to pull the Skywalker lightsaber out of the snow. He has some trouble getting it out, as it wiggles around and finally comes out, but flies past his face and in to Rey’s outstretched hand. She looks confused and a bit scared after it happens, but the Force theme slowly begins to swell up. I got goosebumps seeing this scene in the theater and me and several other people cheered as it happened. It’s such a great reveal, and it represents everything Star Wars is about, finding something special deep inside you and riding to an occasion with that ability you have.

24. Favorite Space Battle

Although I didn’t like the movie as whole very much, the last thirty minutes of Rogue One are fantastic. The battles going on in space and on the ground look incredible and are intense, combining new technology with the classic Star Wars action cut scenes from A New Hope. The hammerhead ship crashing in to the Star Destroyer is a great scene and there is a new level of intensity that you don’t really see in the other Star Wars space battles.

25. Least Favorite Star Wars Moment

This might be a cop out, but all of the Anakin and Padme love dialogue scenes are absolutely terrible. They are so poorly written and awkward to watch. I can’t remember the last time I watched Attack of the Clones from beginning to end, but it won’t be again any time soon partly because of these scenes.

26. Favorite Darth Vader Quotation

I think it’s great in Empire when Vader says to Lando “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it further”. It fits the character so perfectly, being menacing and pithy at the same time. I also love how Lando tugs at the collar of his shirt after Vader turns away, almost like Vader gave him a bit of a force choke as he left.

27. If I Were An Extra, What Scene Would I be in?

I’ve always found it funny how in every Original Trilogy movie, there’s a stormtrooper who gets shot and falls from a ridiculous height screaming on the way down. I would want to be one of these guys, because it would be a funny cameo and just a fun scene to be in.

28. Director I Want to Direct a Star Wars Movie

Jon Favereau, the director of the first two Iron Man movies, The Jungle Book remake, and Elf would be a great choice to direct a Star Wars movie. He has worked with Disney before so he would be able to work with the corporate aspect but also bring a unique flavor to the story, and some great special effects too.

29. A Prop I Would Like to Own

The burnt-up Darth Vader mask scene in Force Awakens would be a cool prop to have. There’s something intimidating about it still, even though it’s heavily damaged and mishaped. I feel like it represents the new trilogy’s connection to the originals though, and would be a unique piece of memorabilia.

30. Why I Love Star Wars

I love Star Wars because of what it was and what it has become. I love hearing the stories of how the first movie went over budget and schedule, nobody thought it would be any good, and now it might be the most famous film franchise in existance. I love the fun, light-hearted moments and the ones with depth and emotions too that I think get overlooked too often by film critics. I also love how it has had such a strong impact on my life, and how I will get to pass on the story and my experiences with it to future generations.

That’s it! I’ll have my review for The Last Jedi as soon as possible after I see it. Let me know what your responses to these questions are!

#star wars #the last jedi #The Force Awakens #A New Hope #the empire strikes back #phantom menace #attack of the clones #revenge of the sith #star wars thirty day challenge

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