#i could literally hear the darth vader theme playing in the background

[softiedingo]

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WELL

[aion-rsa]

Jupiter’s Legacy: Choreographing Superheroic Stunts

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This article is presented by:

Stunt teams are some of the hardest working people in the industry. They literally put their lives on the line just to entertain us and yet there’s so little acknowledgement of their contributions. There is no Oscar for stunt work, but there should be. Netflix’s adaptation of Jupiter’s Legacy has secured one of the industry’s hottest stunt choreographers, one who is no stranger to superhero action, Philip J. Silvera. 

If you’ve read Jupiter’s Legacy already, you know Frank Quitely’s artwork leaps off the page, splattered with intense moments of sanguineous bloodshed. Quitely’s graphic style is a perfect fit for Silvera, who says he’s always been inspired by the visceral violence of films like Goodfellas and The Godfather Part II.

“My action in the past has always had a bit of a lead pipe brutality to it,” confesses Silvera with a grin. Who better to choreograph the huge superhero brawls of Jupiter’s Legacy? 

School of Hard Knocks 

Stunt work has always been Silvera’s destiny. “I always wanted to do stunts, since I was a kid.” Silvera’s father was a boxer who was just about to go pro, but his fortune took a bad turn after he broke his arm and leg. Nevertheless, Philip inherited his father’s fighting spirit. After starting his martial arts training in Karate, Silvera switched over to a Shaolin-based system of Chinese Kung Fu, which he studied for about 20 years. 

Silvera got his first break in 1997. He was competing in a martial arts tournament in New York City when he was approached to do an off-Broadway show called Voice of the Dragon: Once Upon a Time in Chinese America. It was a groundbreaking show from maverick playwright and noted jazz composer Fred Ho. Silvera describes it as “a bit of an urban Peking opera, really a martial arts ballet.” The show demanded he play a character, do martial arts, fight, fall, and flip on stage in front of a live audience. 

As Silvera got deeper into the stunt world, his training diversified to accommodate a wider variety of roles. He studied Kali stick fighting and even trained with Cecep Arif Rahman (The Raid 2, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum). Beyond his film work, Rahman is a genuine master of the Indonesian martial art called Pencak Silat. As a stunt coordinator, Silvera must keep pushing his training forward so he can meet the demands of his next project. “I just constantly want to keep learning different things and evolving.”

Silvera began officially working as a stuntman in movies and TV in 2005. You must work your way up to that director’s chair, and in the stunt industry, that means you’ve got to pay your dues and take a lot of hard knocks. By 2010, he got his first action and fight choreographer credit with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. That was followed by several coordinator roles on more video games like DC Universe Online, Batman: Arkham City, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. After an uncredited role assisting with the fight choreography in Iron Man 3, he received his first credited movie fight choreographer role for Thor: The Dark World.

Changing the Game

However, it was his work on Netflix’s Daredevil that caught the attention of both action and superhero fans. Silvera served as the Fight and Stunt Coordinator for the first two seasons of the series, and for action connoisseurs, he built a choreographic trademark for the show: the one-take fight scene. In Daredevil’s second episode, Silvera orchestrated a showstopping one-take hallway slugfest and every fan of fight choreography took notice. That scene propelled action in streaming TV to the cinematic level of big screen fight choreography. “I think most people would be surprised to hear that we designed that one-shot sequence in Daredevil in a day and a half,” Silvera says. 

Silvera followed up that hallway fight with a one-take stairwell scrap in season two (an episode directed by Marc Jobst, who also directed two episodes of Jupiter’s Legacy). Hallway and stairwell fights comprise two of the three most common settings for extended fight scenes (the third being warehouse fights – there’s an innumerable amount of these in actioners because it’s just easy and cheap to find warehouse locations). Hallways serve as a device to narrow the playing field when one person must take on several opponents. The width of the hallway restricts how many adversaries can come at the hero at a time. Silvera’s Daredevil hallway fight is held in the same esteem as the epic hallway fight in Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy and is considered by many to be the greatest TV fight scene to date. 

Stairway fights showcase technical expertise. The footwork must be precise because one misstep can result in a devastating ankle twist for any stunt person. Additionally, falling down stairwells isn’t easy. It requires top notch stunt people to stage safely. 

Read more

Sponsored

Jupiter’s Legacy: From Page to Screen

By Rosie Knight

TV

Jupiter’s Legacy Ending Explained

By Bernard Boo

For Silvera to deliver such high-level fight choreography for the small screen was groundbreaking. Until the rise of streaming, most TV shows were more reserved with their action because it is a longer haul. A feature-length movie might contain half a dozen fight scenes, at best. An action TV series might stage that many fights in just two or three episodes, with plenty more over the course of the season. This takes an incredible toll on the stunt team, which is why many martial arts-themed TV series gas out before the season finale. This is what made Silvera’s work on Daredevil so revolutionary at the time. Now, a half decade later, many TV shows have upped their action game, but they owe a great debt to Silvera and his team. “I really enjoyed bringing Daredevil to life. Charlie Cox was amazing. That was a pleasure working with Steve DeKnight on that show.” 

Since then, Silvera has tackled several super powered action icons for the silver screen, like Deadpool, Terminator: Dark Fate, and the Jaegers in Pacific Rim: Uprising. Silvera has fond memories of sitting down with director Tim Miller while working on Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate and setting the parameters of superpowers in combat. “It’s always that they’re really good at this, but what’s their weakness?” The audience will accept superpowers if the film stays consistent within its constructs. For Silvera, it’s about finding a new challenge in every sequence. “What I try and do is always make it super relative to the characters and then make it so that the audience can feel something when they watch it.”

Super Fights

Spanning eight episodes in Season 1, Jupiter’s Legacy allows Silvera the space to stretch his choreographic legs. “I believe the action on our show pushes the story and the characters forward, as much as it does on any of the other shows I’ve worked on in the past,” Silvera says. “And I’m super excited to see what fans think of the storytelling, the nonverbal storytelling, that happens within our action sequences.” 

Non-verbal storytelling lies at the very heart of every action choreographer. The fight scenes are the climax of the story and that unspoken dialogue of conflict must rise to that or else an actioner will fail. “Nonverbal communication,” stresses Silvera, “like The Empire Strikes Back, the scene that happens between Luke and Vader.” His passion for the Star Wars franchise led him to direct “Star Wars: Scene 38 ReImagined.” It was a reworking of the first lightsaber battle we ever saw – Obi-Wan Kenobi versus Darth Vader. Silvera spliced together footage from Star Wars: A New Hope with new fight footage. Doubling for Obi-Wan was Dan Brown (Black Panther, Spider-Man: Far from Home). Vader was Richard Cetrone, who was Ben Affleck’s stunt double in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. “Both are seasoned stuntmen in this business and have been around for a while,” adds Silvera.

“Scene 38 ReImagined” was a huge success with over 33.5 million views on YouTube. “That was a bit of a test for myself, as a second unit director and a first unit director,” says Silvera. “I wanted to see if I could add the emotional content into a sequence, that you know the character’s full story from beginning to end.”

From Comics Panels to Movie Frames

Choreographing superheroes has its own unique rules. A still comic panel is one thing. Setting that action into motion is another thing altogether. While comics are akin to storyboarding, when it comes to fights, a few panels describe that action. It then becomes Silvera’s job to unravel that into a fight with a dozen or more beats. 

One of his favorite examples for Jupiter’s Legacy is the “Hilltop” sequence. In the original comic, it’s a ferocious battle told over only four panels. Silvera saw that raw brutality and constantly built on that mindset with his choreography. 

“Those four panels really set the tone of our show and you’ll see that in the first episode.” He’s especially proud of this Hilltop sequence, as well as many other favorites. Two more sequences that he mentions with special pride he dubs “Tokyo Alley” and “The Vault,” but Silvera won’t elaborate on those cryptic titles just yet. “I don’t want to give away too much.” Fans who’ve already read the comic can probably guess what he’s talking about. “It starts off big and it stays that way up to the very end.” 

And for those fans familiar with Frank Quitely’s spectacular art, Silvera adds “We do our best to match those panels and the emotion that he puts into them. He really set the bar for us. And I think we met it.”

Superhero Boot Camp

As with many casts, most of the Jupiter’s Legacy actors have minimal background in martial arts or stunts. However, Silvera prefers it that way. “You get to figure out their characters and their movement in a different way.” He’d have ideas for them and then see something natural come out of their body language, which he would cultivate into something new and exciting. 

The cast was put through vigorous training where Silvera says they all worked extremely hard. “Literally a month of bootcamp with the lead actors training every day with our fight team and fight coordinator.” The cast would come in and work on basic movements and fight drills. “And then they would ride the wire for hours because there’s a lot of flying in the show.” 

As Supervising Stunt Coordinator, Silvera is quick to credit his fight and stunt rigging team. Micah Karns is the fight coordinator and Jayson Dumenigo is the 2nd Unit Stunt Coordinator and Key Rigger, a critical role for a flying superhero show. The threesome has worked together since Daredevil and teamed up again for several successive projects including Deadpool, Terminator, Pacific Rim, and Love, Death & Robots. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“We have such a tight workflow at this point, from the years of us working together, that we know how to expedite things,” Silvera says. “We know how to keep up the pace. And we’re definitely doing seven days a week on this show.” The stunt team worked hand-in-hand with the cast for months to achieve the action that they wanted. “I’m super excited to see them and what they did come together on screen.”

The post Jupiter’s Legacy: Choreographing Superheroic Stunts appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[leupagus]

@stanandy messaged me with some awesome questions and said it was ok to answer them publicly, so here we go: 

1) I love the thematic elements of the Canto Bight storyline. When Finn and Rose got imprisoned, I was actually hoping they’d encounter a dishonored Phasma somewhere in that story. I thought she’d be a great way for Finn and Rose to grow and explore TLJ’s theme of failure in a compelling way. What are your thoughts on Canto Bight? 

I was actually not really on board with the Canto Bight scenes, although I did love the fathiers in general and the notion of seeing a different sort of the seedy underbelly of the galaxy—that just because it was beautiful doesn’t mean it was good. But there were a WHOLE lot of problems with the scene—one of which of course is that no, selling weapons is not the only way to become obscenely rich, and that felt like sloppy characterization. You can make the case for the indifference of the rich and even still have the really great moment where the Codebreaker points out that the guy whose ship they stole sold weapons to both the First Order and the Resistance. But framing the entirety of Canto Bight as some weird warlord Monaco was dumb.

I also think that scene did a real disservice to Finn, making him overawed with the sights and sounds and literally not realizing why that kind of display was bad. Like, Finn’s been raised by the First Order; he of all people understands the rot that can hide under a shiny facade. To have Rose telling her history with the background of fathiers and fathier-handlers suffering abuse made it clear that Finn was supposed to Learn An Important Lesson, one he absolutely already knows. It was supposed to be character growth, but it was kind of ridiculous to presume Finn wasn’t already there.

I think your idea of Phasma being in the prison cell instead of the Codebreaker is... frankly genius? Like oh my god I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT, and the best part is that you could have it go either way—she could turn on them, or she could double-cross the First Order. That would’ve been amazing and a much more satisfying use of Gwendolyn Christie than we ended up getting (which was such a disappointment, honestly). 

That being said, I certainly loved the feel of the Canto Bight scenes—especially the escape on the fathiers, the beautiful imagery and the freedom, however temporary, that the fathiers enjoy at the end. I like to imagine that Finn and Rose set up a Fathier Rescue Fund in between all the Resistance-ing they do going forward, a la the farms dedicated to ex-racehorses.

2) I wonder if IX’s pillar could be Anakin, now that it can’t be built around a living Leia. What do you think about Ahsoka and/or Force Ghost Anakin playing an integral role in the next episode? 

I was never a real fan of Anakin or Darth Vader, tbh; I thought the prequels handled his character arc terribly, and so seeing more of him is not really something I’m interested in? But I certainly think it’s possible that Abrams will go that route, although lord knows the dude isn’t great at following through with interesting ideas. I think I personally would be more interested in seeing something almost entirely unrelated to the skywalkers, other than Leia—that is, I’d like to see what Poe and Finn and Rey do in order to build the resistance without Leia there to lead. Because if you think about it, right now the Resistance is Leia. Who are they without her? That story I think will be even more compelling, since Leia won’t live to see them succeed, and that adds to the risk that they won’t. I’m looking forward to it, as heartbroken as I am to have lost Fisher.

3) Lastly, it’s discomforting how negative the general audience reaction is to TLJ! So many howling, betrayed fanboys—it’s deafening. How do you navigate the negativity when all you want to do is love the damn film? I sometimes feel this irrational obligation to read fan opinions opposed to my own, as if I need to shore up my opinion and validate that yes, in fact, it’s okay to love this flawed film seemingly everyone takes issue with. Is that weird? Any tips for getting past that impulse?

It’s not weird at all! But I confess that I’m not NEARLY so mature; the past couple days I’ve just unfollowed most of the tags and when something negative shows up on my dash, I block the post. So far none of the negative reactions have carried a lot of weight with me, not because I necessarily disagree with their points but because I...don’t..,care what they think? Like I support those who didn’t like it but I don’t want to hear it; nor do I need to. There was very little Problematic Behavior in the movie (which I do feel I should listen to) and almost all of the criticism has been either plot-related (which I agree with) or “OMG HOW COULD THEY GET LUKE/POE/WHOEVER SO WRONG I’M GOING TO KILL RIAN JOHNSON” which I don’t. So I guess the tip I’d like to share is: have an ego so monstrous that you can easily discount any opinions you dislike about a movie you loved.

[rainydawgradioblog]

RDR Essentials – Electronic/Pop (3/2)

RDR Essentials is a weekly newsletter of alternating genres that outlines key releases of the past month, upcoming events around Seattle and happenings in the specified music genre.

Made in collaboration between Rainy Dawg DJs and the Music Director.

Releases

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Future Nostalgia sees Dua Lipa reinventing herself into disco. While planning for a new album, Dua Lipa cleverly decided to fill the niche for the fun and confident disco sound that’s missing in today’s pop music. The resulting body of work sees her reaching spectacular highs. Lipa opens the album perfectly with the funky title track. She uses “Future Nostalgia” to let the listener know her aim of creating music that sounds original and fresh while still pandering to nostalgia. On “Levitating”, Lipa sings over an intricate production complete with looping synths and funky strings. The whole song is designed to make the listener move. “I’m levitating, You can fly away with me tonight, Baby, let me take you for a ride” she sings, and that's exactly what she does. “Love Again” is a slick pop song about finding love after heartbreak that amusingly opens with a sample of “Your Woman” by White Town, a song that samples the same source material as the “Darth Vader Theme”. On the highlight and possibly the best song of her career, “Don’t Start Now”, Lipa has never sounded more cool and confident. Powered by her vocals and an evolving bass line, the song demands that you take it seriously. Flawlessly flowing between the breeziness of the verses and the urgentness of the chorus, this song establishes itself as a modern classic. On “Break My Heart”, Lipa cleverly manipulates melody to surprise the listener with a brilliant chorus. Effortlessly returning to the melody of the chorus after seemingly building up to the end of the chorus, Lipa creates an extremely satisfying bait and switch. Although the production of this album is consistently successful, its power comes straight from Dua Lipa herself. Her confidence and energy give every song the extra oomph to win you over. This album makes it clear that Dua Lipa’s mission is to make every song impossible not to dance or smile to. I recommend giving this album a listen and hope you find something to have fun with.

FFO – Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX

- Jackson Fennell

  Black Dresses – Peaceful as Hell  

On Peaceful as Hell, Black Dresses, Devi McCallion and Ada Rook, use vocal distortion and experimental production to chronicle their persistent effort to survive despite feelings of despondency and distress. “DAMAGE SUPPRESSOR”, opens up with McCallion singing “It's just rock and roll, it's not that serious” before erupting with ominous distorted synths and guitar that is later paired with an upbeat piano melody. The song carries us through an internal battle to keep living despite a sense of unavoidable hopelessness. At the song’s climax, McCallion ups the stakes with the line “Worthless dreaming, In a dying world, That I already love so I can’t give it up yet”, eliciting a strong emotional response in the listener that’s further emphasized by the slightly monotonous delivery of the other verses of the song. “SCARED 2 DEATH”, starts with spacey vocals and guitar before transforming into a hard rock song as the chorus comes in and McCallion and Rook scream “Scared to death of the whole world”. On my favorite track, “SHARP HALO”, McCallion and Rook imagine themselves as divine angels facing unimaginable suffering. This track employs a magical combination of drums, bells, synths, and distortion to frame their amazing pop melodies and dark narrative. The penultimate song, “CREEP U”, is the most accessible of the album and could pass for an experimental indie rock song. The song progresses gradually while McCallion and Rook imagine their own bodies as haunted houses, adding more and more distortion until it all explodes. Now is the perfect time to experience this album with its themes of loneliness and survival and its apocalyptic atmosphere.

FFO – 100 Gecs, GFOTY, Sleigh Bells

- Jackson Fennell

Yves Tumor – Heaven To a Tortured Mind

Heaven To a Tortured Mind brilliantly reveals Yves Tumor as the next true rock star. Pivoting slightly away from the abrasive and experimental sound of their previous albums, Yves still finds a way to remain true to themself. On the opening track “Gospel For a New Century”, Yves couples amazing pop melodies with distortion and classic trumpets to create a masterpiece. As soon as you hear Yves deliver the line “This ain’t by design, Girl”, you realize that this song is never going to escape your head. On “Romanticist”, Yves details their obsession with a possibly harmful lover. “You know you are my everything, I wanna dance into your hurricane, Blinded by your glare again” Yves sings over distorted guitar and white noise. Then as the song ends it literally explodes into fireworks as it transitions seamlessly into “Dream Palette”. When the fireworks subside, Yves sings “Floating through what feels like, A declaration of love, Our hearts are in danger” with a delivery so perfect it sends chills down my spine. Yves desperately pleads with a lover as brilliant background vocals, provided by Julia Cummings, go in and out adding further to the desperation. With melodies and an instrumental reminiscent of Prince, “Super Star” sees Yves reassuring their lover of their dedication to love with a confidence impossible not to believe. Toward the end of the album, Yves returns to the more laid back and minimalist sounds one would see on their old albums. On “Strawberry Privilege”, Yves softly sings to a lover as a bass plays and an angelic voice sings behind them. This album serves to prove the thesis that Yves Tumor will probably always be the coolest and most talented person in the room.

FFO – Prince, Blood Orange, Arca

- Jackson Fennell

Upcoming Releases:

5/15

Charli XCX - How I’m Feeling Now 

Perfume Genius - Set My Heart on Fire Immediately

Yung Lean - Starz

5/22

Baths - Pop Music / False B-Sides II

6/5

Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure

 Virtual Shows:

5/5: Christine and the Queens @ KEXP

12pm PST @ “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bavZe47um4”

5/8: Dorian Electra, Machine Girl, umru, and more @ Club Cringe

5pm PST @ “www.clubcringe.com”

5/8: Yaeji and Friends @ Club Quarantine

6pm PST @ Zoom Code before event on Instagram: @clubquarantine

5/8: Noise Complaint Feat local Seattle DJs (Fundraiser for Kremwerk)

6pm PST @ “twitch.tv/subsetgetsit”

[daqtranscripts]

DAQ Ep. 0 Transcription

Ep. 0 Transcript: Setup and Table Talk.

Begin:

Opening theme:

This show is part of the trans podcaster visibility initiative.

[THEME MUSIC — WRITTEN FOR THE SHOW BY SOPHIE]

Sophie: Hello everybody and welcome to Dungeons and Queers, where the stats are made up and the rolls don’t matter. The gender rolls!

[LAUGHTER]

Credence: Ooohhh boy.

Mara: Christ, alrighty.

Sophie: That’s the kind of show this is gonna be.

Credence: Oh God, what have I done.

Joe: I'm already stoked, bring out the puns.

Sophie: Welcome everyone. To Episode... I was gonna call this the first episode but it’s kind of Episode 0, as it will be indicated. Because our story isn’t actually starting in this episode. This is gonna be a lot of table talk about our characters and a little bit about the setting, but we’re not gonna get too much into that until the first episode because we're kinda just playing in the standard classic D&D world. There's no big “Oohh well there’s airships and there’s zeppelins!” There’s not as much to cover about the setting. But I wanted to get into some stuff about kind of who our characters were and that way we're not sitting there running around going, “Wait a second, who’s that person whose name starts with ‘L’? Which player is that?” You know, junk like that. So I think we’re gonna go around and introduce ourselves and introduce our characters. I’ll go first. Because, uh... That’s my sentence I guess, it’s my privilege.

Mara: I was gonna say, if you’re not going first, we’re fucked.

Sophie: Yeah. Yeah. My name is Sophie. Sophie Lastnameredacted. I am the person who is going to be running the Twitter and doing the editing for this. And doing some transcripts for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people. And doing a bunch of other post-production work for this. I write music for the show. It’s kind of my baby. I also do the PolyAM Radio podcast where we talk about polyamory and unconventional relationship styles and advice for them. A young queer/trans approach to polyamory is kinda what we take and we’re pretty good we have been doing that for a few months now and we thought we would start a D&D let’s play/real play, whatever you call it, podcast. You know kind of like PolyAM Radio we wanted it to be explicitly queer and explicitly trans because there’s a million D&D podcasts out there, but whenever I start a new D&D podcast I always have to worry about “Oh is there going to be some transphobic joke? Is there going to be good representation? Probably not.” You know so I figured by doing it this way and being like, “Yo we’re queer as fuck—”

Mara: Right from the get go!

Sophie: Yeah, right from the get go, not only would we attract a very specific audience, but would also maybe set some people at ease and uh just be kinda upfront about where our experiences lie. Everyone on this podcast is trans and we’ll get into that. I think I already said it but my pronouns are she/her/hers, again my name is Sophie Lastnameredacted, if you want to get in contact with me you can send a Tweet or an email to the PolyAM Radio Twitter, which is on the cover art for that podcast, or the Dungeons and Queers Twitter @DAQcast, and I also just wanna mention if you want to get an NPC named after you on the show, Tweet about the show using the #dungeonsandqueers, just spell it out all like that, and you might get a character, an NPC, named after you. And I’m looking for NPCs… I have NPCs in my head that I want to name so help us out with that because we don’t have the money to pay for advertising and I think this is a fun way of doing it. So yeah, I don’t have a specific character to talk about since I’m going to be playing a million NPCs and I’ve crafted the world we’re going to be playing in here, but I’m very excited about it, and for the purposes of this game, I am God.

[LAUGHTER]

Mara: “My name is Sophie and I’ll be playing the role of god.” [CHUCKLING]

Sophie: Yeah.

Joe: Finally!

Mara: “I am the LORD, your God,”

Sophie: [AS GRIFFIN MCELROY] “My wife!”

Credence: “No one may roll the dice but through me!”

Sophe: Probably someone is going to listen to that and think it’s a Borat joke, but in fact, it was a My Brother, My Brother and Me joke… It just becomes self-referencial for them

Mara: Like the Chilean miners. [LAUGHING]

Sophie: Yeah, I’m gonna edit all this out…

[LAUGHING]

Credence: Okay but my joke was really good! I wasn’t stealing that one, I’ll have you know.

[LAUGHING]

Sophie: So! Let’s move on, who wants to go next?

Joe: Okay me! I’m Joe Alias, I will be playing the character of Defiance. My pronouns are they/them/theirs, Defiance’s pronouns are they/she. Defiance is a cleric, a Tiefling cleric, which...that goes together well.

[MUFFLED CHUCKLING]

Sophie: Well, and talk about the prestige class you’re planning on going for when you get there!

Joe: Well I’m gonna be a war cleric, so...I guess I’m not sure what else to say about that.

Credence: How much— Er, Sophie, how much do you want us to talk about our backstory, kind of personality of our characters, like, to you want us to get into that right now or would you like us to wait until we start playing because I agree with Joe, I’m not sure how much you want us to say…

Sophie: I think we can leave most of the backstory, talk about maybe alignment not that we’re going to be adhering to it super-strictly, I think that all characters can be pushed to do certain things under certain circumstances. For those of you who read the Star Wars expanded universe books there’s literally a book in which Darth Vader stops Emperor Palpatine from killing a bunch of Twi’lek orphans and shit like that, and so like even your classic Lawful Evil character or something like that can do all sorts of actions. But I think it’s important for people to know at least, or maybe not important but it’s trivia they expect to hear and I don’t want to disappoint in that way. So talk about alignment and then talk a little bit about their personality and maybe just like very trivial things about their backstory because I didn’t want you all to know anything about each other’s characters while you were making your own but I think it’s kind of time to shed light on some of that. But if there’s any big things you want to keep as twists for the character, especially if you’ve already told me and we’ve talked about it, then you can omit that information here, stuff that’s plot interesting, but things that are just like “Oh, that’s just about my character” and stuff like that I think would be cool to have the audience hear and to have you all hear.

Credence: So, should we note here, like, you wanted us to meet our characters for the first time this isn’t one of those setups where we’ve done a bunch of odd jobs together and stuff, so…?

Sophie: Yeah this isn’t a pre-existing team, these characters don’t know each other yet and they’ll meet pretty much right away during the first episode.

Credence: Right, so we’re not showing our whole hand as far as who our characters are in part because it’s going to be narratively interesting for us to get to know each other’s characters and background and all that.

Sophie: Yeah, yeah exactly. Okay! So why don’t you tell us a little more about Defiance?

Joe: So you said I should start kinda with what they look like?

Sophie: Yeah, talk about what they look like, talk about their alignment, talk about a little bit about their backstory, you know in this case your character has a reason behind their name maybe you wanna talk about why their name is ‘Defiance’?

Joe: Sure sure, okay so like I said Defiance is a Tiefling cleric and they’re Chaotic Good, which I thought that was maybe a fun and challenging thing to play, considering the fact that they follow the Triad, which, for those of you that maybe don’t know, is the union or alliance of gods Tyr, Torm, and Ilmater who, two out of three of them are Lawful Good war deities, so that’s always fun. But part of the reason why Defiance follows those three gods is just because they actually grew up in a diabolic cult to Zariel, who is one of the archdukes of hell.

Credence: As you do.~

Joe: Yeah, you know. And so they kinda grew up in this very Spartan-esque sort of culture. When Defiance was a teenager, they had done very well in their training so far and was kinda given their own small group of, basically, stolen children to mold into their own small little war band and Defiance kind of realized the hell that they were put through as a young child, they were about to be expected to do that to these children and Defiance refused. It just seemed wrong. So they kinda got thrown in the brig for that. And at about the same time kinda as a rescue mission sorta thing a small army from outlying villages led by a priest of Tyr came and kinda ransacked the place so Defiance decided...well, was very impressed by this, and decided to join him and learn from him ‘cause everything they kinda grew up to believe just didn’t jive, so Defiance decided that that act of disobedience, that act of doing what they felt was right despite everything they had been taught growing up, was kinda their defining life moment and chose the name Defiance instead of the one that they were given and went and learned about the gods and selflessness and service, that sort of thing...while utilizing the fighting, the soldiery, that they learned before, but adapted it to actually help people...so yeah.

Mara: Shit yeah, they sound pretty cool!

Joe: Yeah!

Sophie: Yeah that’s a baller character.

Joe: Oh thanks!

Sophie: I know that despite the fact that you picked a cleric you had some reservations about playing a cleric just because of past experiences you had with asshole DMs being like, “Well that’s not how you play a cleric!”

Joe: Oh hell, I could go on and on and on about that. This is actually… So the second character I ever played in my whole D&D career was a cleric, but I didn’t play it to that DM’s specifications and that person, and they actually told me, my partner by the way, who was the DM, told me, “Never play a cleric again.” So about 13 years later here I am, trying out a cleric again.

Credence: And you’ve literally named them Defiance! So…!

[LAUGHTER]

Joe: Oh I didn’t even think about it that way!

Mara: How’s that for symbolism?

Joe: So I’m excited.

Sophie: Right, so I just I thought it was really interesting ‘cause when you came to me and said, “I think I’m going to play a war cleric,” the character that I envisioned in that moment was very different from the one that you just pitched, and I like yours way better. Because I was thinking, as I think I told you the other day, “Oh, like an army priest,” like a fire-and-brimstone kind of…

Joe: Right.

Sophie: It’s just very much not what that character is, and frankly, I think you’ve come up with something a lot more interesting.

Joe: Well see I hope I can give the character concept some justice at the very least just ‘cause I decided I wanted to play a cleric and it had been a long time since I had played a cleric and sometimes it’s difficult, the idea, well, for me, getting the idea of being good and...war, I suppose…and trying to figure out how those two could possibly work.

Sophie: Well and I think that’s a character, pardon me, I think that’s a conundrum not just for you, the player, but probably for Defiance, the character. That’s going to be, I mean I think most good D&D characters have some sort of question that they’re trying to answer about themselves as they get played. I think that that’s an excellent question and I don’t necessarily know that it’ll get answered. I think that probably Defiance will come up with an answer but probably not a definitive one that everyone will be happy with and I think that that’s just the nature of the question.

Mara: That’s how it go!

Sophie: Yeah, people don’t think it be like that—

Sophie and Mara: —But it do!

Joe: But it do.

Sophie: Okay! Is there anything else you wanted to say about Defiance or should we move on?

Joe: Uh just as a brief description — Defiance is kinda of average human height, purple skin kind of, like, indigo hair, red eyes, all that fun stuff.

Sophie: Horns and tail or no?

Joe: Yeah horns and tail, the horns are kinda like cool ram horns.

Credence: Nice.

Joe: All the better to headbutt people with!

[ASSORTED LAUGHTER]

Sophie: I could die happy feeling like I actually achieved something in my life if, at some point, we get some fanart made.

[EVERYONE AGREEING/CROSSTALK]

Credence: Don’t jump the gun!

Sophie: No no, I know, I’m just saying if someday some fan artist comes to us and says like, “I made this!” I’m going to have a literal aneurysm over it! I’m not going to be able to handle it because it’ll be like, “This is too wonderful!”

Mara: Affirmation!

Sophie: Yeah yeah!

Credence: Which, for me, I guess I would also wanna say that I encourage folks to...yeah I might imagine my character looking like this, but like, go at it! Half the fun of this audio medium is you can decide what these characters look like yourself. I mean like, obviously, Joe, you’re going to play Defiance in a way where this is how you imagine what they look like, but I always think it’s really cool that in this kind of medium, you, as a listener, get to decide what you envision these characters to look like.

Sophie: Yeah absolutely. And I’ll be very upfront this: there are going to be, in this world, some Easter eggs. Probably not things that I’ll put right out there, things that, if you get lucky and ask the right question, you’ll find out that are nods to TAZ, The Adventure Zone, which is, in my opinion, probably the greatest tabletop roleplaying podcast out there, it’s the one that got me into not only podcasts, but tabletop roleplaying games, and I think their attitude toward their characters is excellent, which is basically that “We came up with these characters, we don’t own these characters. They belong as much to the fans as anything.” So you know, we’re a bunch of white folks and Joe, you see Defiance as purple but if you hear to this podcast and say, “Well, I think Defiance is Latinx,” you’re not wrong, that’s not… We’re not gonna be like, “But the character looks this way!” I think it’s awesome that you’re taking this character and giving it a life of its own beyond our, you know, shitty podcast.

Joe: Yeah hell yeah, like I just give my description of how I see Defiance in my head. Like if you, person listening to this, have a different idea of what they look like, like, please, please do, go wild!

Credence: Yeah like honestly, if we get fans, I will throw all of my character at you and be like, “It’s yours! Have her! Please make her beautiful!”

[ALL AGREEING]

Joe: Ram horns though.

[ALL LAUGHING AND AGREEING]

Sophie: It’s like Magnus’ sideburns, there are some things that are just inalienable.

Credence: Some integral features.

Sophie: Yeah, so who wants to go next?

Mara: I will go next! Hello hello, dear listeners, this is Mara Fakelastname, I use they/them/their pronouns, you probably know me from PolyAM Radio, you might not, but if you want to go check that out, I’m a frequent co-host and I think it’s pretty great. I am going to be playing a gnome bard and this is only my second D&D campaign ever. I got into D&D not entirely through my own choice! I was listening to The Adventure Zone with Sophie and I was like, “Oh, I don’t think it’s for me, I’m not really good at roleplaying stuff,” etc., etc., and I was at a local hobby store with her and she was looking at dice and I saw a set of dice that were pink and black and I was like, “Oh fuck yeah, I wish I was playing because, like, pink and black dice!” and Sophie was like, “Well, if I buy you the dice will you play?” and that’s how I started playing D&D.

[ASSORTED LAUGHTER]

Sophie: You made it sound like I coerced you into it!

Mara: Yeah, right?

Sophie: My exact words were, “Well, I’ll buy you the dice if you want them, but if you’re gonna have dice, you gotta play the game.”

Mara: Yeah so it was [LAUGHING] so it just wasn’t entirely my own idea.

Credence: In true rogue or bard fashion, you were seduced by pretty things.

Mara: Yup! Yeah, and I think that’s like, 98% of the characters I’ve played so far…! Um, so, in this campaign, I am playing a gnome bard, whose full name is Ellywick Faelover Wandfidget the Ambiguous, um, but we’re probably, for ease of mouth, just gonna call them Ellywick. They use they/them pronouns. And—

Joe: If you don’t use that big, beautiful name at least a couple times, I’m gonna be a little disappointed.

Mara: Oh, God, yeah! It’s definitely gonna be like...name drop. Because… For people who are very into the lore, gnomes are very into names, and so to get a little into their background but not too far, ‘the Ambiguous,’ they’re a very androgynous character. Feel free to imagine them however you want, because I kind of suck at imagining characters. But the ‘Faelover’ part, they spent a lot of time with the fae. And, uh, it was funny, because when I was talking to Sophie about this name choice initially, she was like, “Oh, well that’s really interesting that they chose to call themself ‘Faelover,’ because, like, all gnomes love the fae, so they must really love the fae,” and I was like, “Oh, yeah!” And then it kind of hit me, I was like, “Oh, we could make them a bit of a ~dirty boi,~ like, go with Faelover, like, hohoho, they fucked some fae in their time.~” So that’s where that comes from.

[SNICKERING]

Joe: Like you do!

Mara: Ellywick is a very, like, will-try-to-seduce-anything-that-moves type of character. So that’s gonna be interesting and funny. They’re overall just very hedonistic and capricious, I think their whole kind of desire for travel is like, they wanna bring creativity into the world, and they wanna see what other people are out there doing, you know. They’re very...whimsical, I guess would be how I would put that. [clicks tongue] Oh… What else to say about Ellywick…

Sophie: Could do ideal/bond/flaw? I’d have to go back and make Joe say Defiance’s, but...

Mara: Well, I don’t wanna talk about their bond, because that gets into the story.

Sophie: Okay!

Mara: Um…

Credence: What about their alignment?

Mara: Oh yes! Yeah! They’re… They are Chaotic Neutral, because I think that just kind of is what fits them personally best. They’re just kinda...seein’ what’s out there and doin’ what they do. Doin’ who they do. [LAUGHING]

[SNICKERING]

Sophie: Like they do!

Mara: Like they do! Um… But…

Sophie: Every DM… Everyone who’s ever DMed out there just, like, took a moment of silence for me because there’s not only a Chaotic Neutral in the party but there’s a fucking bard, which...both of those are just game-breakers.

Mara: Well, I just…! I can’t help it! I don’t like a lot of the archetypal characters. That’s just not my particular cup of tea? But, so, I’m gonna have fun playing my bard. Their ideal… I kind of already said it, but they want to release more creativity and bold action into the world. And their flaw: they are a sucker for a pretty face. Like, I think anybody could make googly eyes at them and they would be like, “OOOKAAAAYY~!” So that’s...that’s kind of Ellywick’s flaw.

Sophie: I think we can talk about bond, I just need to say one thing about the setting quick. Basically, how this story is gonna be starting is that, um… Some of the main characters — some of the player characters are going to have been captured in an orc raid and are at an orc, like, prison camp type thing. And that’s where their story finds them. Um… So, do you wanna talk about your bond?

Mara: Yeah! Um, so, as a bard, Ellywick plays a lot of instruments. They’re an instrumentalist and a singer, and they were only able to conceal their pan flute on them, but they also play the lute as well, which was given to them by the fairy queen Titania as kind of a “wow, you fuck good” kind of a gift...

Joe: NICE!

Mara: [LAUGHING] So this lute was stolen from them, and obviously this lute means a lot to them, so… Their whole bond is “I’m gonna get that fuckin’ lute back if it’s the last thing I do!” And I think I just, you know...dropped us into the “explicit” tag area… [CHUCKLING] Sorry!

Sophie: Oh, we were gonna be there anyways. And I think I wanna emphasize for all of you, that’s not something that needs to or even is going to be possible to have happen in this arc. The first arc is titled ‘Alpine Escape.’ And y’all will have to make a quick exit or things will get bad very quickly. And you can choose to hang around, but I’ll be honest, it’s going to get bad very quickly if you do. So, you know, your bonds and stuff like that are things I’m using to drive the story forward for later arcs and stuff like that. So for what that’s worth… Uh, uh… I’m sitting here, like… Defiance, no. That’s not right. Joe, tell me about Defiance’s, um… Like, ideal/bond/flaw.

Joe: Um… Well, I-I did take the acolyte background just ‘cause I, uh… It seemed like it kinda, more or less, fit the best. Well, their ideal is charity — “I always try to help those in need, no matter what the personal cost,” um… Their bond is, um, “Everything I do is for the common people,” which, I actually had a really hard time choosing between that one and, um, there was one other one that says something like, “I owe my life to somebody who saved me after my parents died or something like that,” which is sort of true, but not quite. And flaw — “I am suspicious of strangers and expect the worst of them,” which, uh, it seems a little bit misanthropic or something, but part of it just has to do with the fact that they’re a Tiefling and they tend to, uh, be outcasts anyway, and it’s kinda owing partially to having grown up in the kind of culture where everybody’s out to get everyone else kind of literally, just to prove some sort of dominance, has left that kind of mark on Defiance. So even though they try their best, they’re still...they have trust issues.

Credence: I think that’s fair.

Sophie: Yeah, I like that. Uh, Credence, why don’t you tell us about Lazza.

Credence: Alright! Well, my name is Credence. Or, uh...Credence...it has nothing to do with Clearwater Revival. Um… Yeah, I get that a lot. And my pronouns are he/him or they/them, ah… If you have listened to the episode of PolyAM Radio about long-distance relationships, I was a guest host on that with Sophie, so um, if you’ve, like… “I recognize that queer-ass voice!” That’s where you recognize me from. Um, and I’ve played D&D a lot while I was growing up, this is the first time I’ve swung back into it in over...probably, mm...seven years? So this is gonna be interesting. And then I will be playing the character Lazza. She is a half-orc barbarian. And her alignment is actually Lawful Neutral, which, um...I will try to justify even though, yup, half-orc barbarian. Um, and her class focus as a barbarian is ancestral guardian, and that’s where a lot of her, um, kind of character development and impetus is generated from. So the ancestral guardian path allows her to have a unique connection with her, like, um, her...clan. Like the ancestors of her clan. And she can praise to them, and they can give her guidance, and that’ll provide some pretty cool features later on in the game, but it also just informs who she is. So, like, as her bond — her biggest bond are her ancestors and that is also tied up with her ideal, which is to — she wishes to live in honor of her ancestors as a proud and honorable warrior, so she’s interested in keeping her ancestors happy with the path that she is walking down. Um… Her other bond would be her father, and she’s never actually met her clan, but as I guess I’ll get into in the story, as that unfolds, but in the abstract, she has a bond with her clan whom she is still trying to find. Her flaws, um… Like, her major flaw, is that she’s kind of afraid to be alone, and obviously, she’s kinda got a tough exterior, so she doesn’t let that show very often, but it does make her, um...it does make her not always listen to what she knows is her truth as far as what her ancestors are encouraging her to do and how to be an honorable warrior, which is, like… Pretty evident based on where she starts off the game, as far as, um...the, um… Sophie, did you mention that they’re all trapped in a raiding, an orc raiding party?

[CHORUS OF CONFIRMATIONS FROM ALL OTHER MEMBERS]

Credence: Okay! So yeah! At the beginning of the game, Lazza is actually in this orc raiding party, and because of her fear of being alone and stuff, she ended up getting in with a bad crowd, so yeah. That’ll be interesting. Her other flaw is that she is incredible superstitious.

Mara: YES.

[LAUGHTER]

Credence: So, it’s to the point where she, like, she will not sleep within ten feet of a magical object, all wizards are tricksters and not to be trusted, if an elf looks you in the eye they’re trying to read your mind, never listen to a bard’s song all the way through because it will bewitch you into dancing yourself to death…

Mara: Shit!

Joe: Uh-oh…!

Credence: Yeah.

Mara: They’re gonna have a hard time getting healed.

[LAUGHTER]

Credence: We’ll see. Yeah, she’s definitely a… She has spent a lot of time in isolation, and so she hasn’t met a lot of different people, and she’s kind of grown up listening to all these stories about, like, how… Y’know, gnomes will try to steal your teeth in the night…

Mara: [LAUGHING]

Credence: So she’s got all these superstitions and she doesn’t have a lot of access to the outside world just yet. So she’s still trying to work through that. So she’s gonna be a little suspicious and superstitious of...about the party and others.

Mara: Especially Ellywick, god damn!

Joe: Uh-oh…

Credence: Yeah, especially…

Joe: It’s gonna take some time…

Credence: Her dynamic with Ellywick is gonna be very, very interesting.

Mara: Watch your teeth… [CACKLING]

Joe: Aw, jeez…

Credence: Well, and she’s very protective of her tusks, because she has very nice lower lip tusks that she takes good care of. She puts rings on ‘em.

Joe: What? Really?

Credence: Yeah!

Joe: Neat!

Credence: She really likes her tusks, and the only—

Sophie: No, not really, Joe, this is a fantasy world and you’re already lost?

Joe: No, I just… I never even thought of that! That’s pretty boss! Like, where does the story end and reality begin? Ahhh!

Credence: Too deep! But yeah, the only other thing I guess I’ll say about Lazza’s appearance is that, um, she keeps two different totems on her at all times. She, like, wears the feathers of a roc that her father slayed — rocs are like these ginormous eagles in the canon of the Dungeons & Dragons world — so she keeps those feathers in her hair as a remembrance of him, and then she always has a little pouch filled with three different semi-precious stones that she uses to commune with her ancestors. And then...yeah! That’s all I got!

Sophie: Okay! I love it! Um, we’re probably gonna call this “Episode 0” here, and we will… Basically how this is going to work is we’re gonna record a couple episodes today, and then at the very least, Episode 0 and Episode 1, which should be dropping at the same time, but we’re gonna take a break to stretch quick and wipe the Cheeto dust off our faces—

Mara: [LAUGHING]

Joe: YOU GOT ANY MOUNTAIN DEW?!

Sophie: Yeah, and do some other necessities. But we will be right back, and you can listen to the beginning of our story in the next episode, so thanks!

[OUTRO MUSIC]

[obijuan-cannoli]

Ok so I watched The Last Jedi sunday morning and like every SW fan out here I have A LOT of feelings about it. Even if I rather enjoyed it, there’s still quite a lot of problems in terms of plot and characterization that really bothered me and made me question whether or not Rian Johnson actually watched a SW movie before or if he just decided to change everything for the sake of originality and shock value (he did).

So here’s a list of everything I liked and hated about TLJ, because I need to vent for the sake of my sanity (also, it’s my blog so I do what I want). Spoilers under the cut.

What I liked :

- the cinematography. Probably the best thing about the movie tbh. I don’t remember everything but here’s some shots are really liked : basically all the scenes on Ahch-To, the battle of Crait, the Finn-Phasma fight, the long wide shot of the burning Jedi temple, Snoke’s red chamber...

- new amazing creatures. Porgs are useless but they’re cute so I don’t care, I love them anyway. The nathiers and the crystal foxes are beautiful. My favorites are probably the Ahch-to’s nuns - I hope they’re ok since Rey pretty much trashed the place.

- Finn. Every time he’s on screen I’m happy. That’s the power of John Boyega.

- BB8 being the real hero of this trilogy. Please someone give those droids a medal.

- Rey calling Kylo out on his bullshit at the beginning of the movie.

- the truth about Rey’s parents (at least what Kylo tells her about, he could be lying for all we know). I really thought she would be a Skywalker but I’m actually happy she isn’t. I don’t think I would have liked the thought of Luke abandoning her on Jakku. By the way I really like that scene at the beginning when she asks Kylo why he killed his father, how upset she is over Han’s death and can’t understand how Kylo could kill a father who loved him when her own parents willingly abandoned her. She never had that kind of love and doesn’t understand giving it up so easily.

- Rey turning Kylo down in the end.

- Leia understanding she can’t turn her son back to the light anymore.

- pretty much every scene in which Rey holds a lightsaber.

- though the best scene of the movie is probably the one where the Supremacy gets cut in half at lightspeed by vice admiral Holdo with nothing but the deafening silence of space in the background. TRUE CINEMA.

- that cute (but alas) short moment between Rey and Finn at the end.

- Luke being a troll and then slapping Rey’s hand with that leaf.

- Luke being tired™.

- Luke kissing Leia on the forehead with that lens flare.

- Luke winking at C3PO.

- Luke giving this force projection a whole new look like the fashion icon he is.

- and Kylo loosing his shit when Luke appeared on the battlefield.

- Hux’s “do you think you got him?”.

- I’m still in denial about Luke’s death but that last scene with Luke’s theme song and the two suns mirroring Luke’s introduction on Tatooine in ANH... I was crying real tears folks. I didn’t want Luke to die but at least he had a beautiful death.

- LUKE.

- to continue with the soundtrack, John Williams re-used a lot of music from the original trilogy but I loved it anyway and I’m always a sucker for Luke’s theme song (obviously).

- also seing that slave kid at the end using the force, looking at the sky in hope while holding the Rebellion sign just made me so emotional. It reminded me of young Anakin in TPM.

That’s all for the fun part. Now...

What I didn’t like :

- the character assassination. I’m not going to go into too many details about Luke because I know pretty much everyone agree with me. Luke is a symbol of hope, he believed in his father and managed to bring him back to the light. Darth Vader, the man who terrorized the galaxy, cut off Luke’s hand (among other things), tortured his sister, etc. It makes absolutely ZERO SENSE for him to try to kill Ben (who is his nephew, keep that in mind), especially since he hadn’t even really done anything really dark yet. Running like a coward and refusing to help the Resistance when it’s on the verge of extinction doesn’t make sense either.

- also can we talk about what they did with Poe’s character? They turned him into a complete f*ckboy. He doesn’t listen to any of his superiors, even Leia who’s literary the face of the Rebellion and has been doing this shit for forty years. He gets A LOT of people killed by being reckless and never apologize for it. So I know it’s a complicated situation, everyone is on edge and people will die to matter what decision is taken but still. I really didn’t like this Poe, please give us back the Poe Dameron we all love in the next movie.

- Holdo. I only like her last scene (and her hair).

- Finn. Not really any problem with Finn’s character but more like the lack of Finn in the movie. I don’t know, Finn and Rose’s interactions are cute but in the end they don’t get much done. No time with Rey except for that last scene. I don’t know I just feel like we didn’t see him all that much.

- also I love Kelly Marie Tran but the character she plays is so bland. Rose is cute and all but they should have given her better lines and a better personality in general. 

- the fight with Phasma, which lasted two minutes and which Finn won only because she was distracted. It could have been epic, but no, Phasma was almost even more underused that in TFA. Gwendoline Christie deserved better.

- pretty much all the bad guys deserved better, even if they’re a piece of sh*t. I don’t care about Hux but he was made into a joke during the whole movie (the humour at the beginning between Poe and Hux felt so forced, it was cringy honestly). I actually felt sorry for Domhnall Gleeson. The only good thing was how quick he was to aim his weapon at Kylo when he saw him down. Maybe he’ll get some form of revenge in the next movie? I hope so.

- and Snoke. Ugh. What the hell Rian? Basically Snoke was killed off just to add to Kylo’s character. No explanation on who he is, where does he come from, how is it possible for Kylo to kill him so easily when Snoke can literally hear his thoughts??? Nothing makes sense. I do agree with Kylo getting tired of being Snoke’s disciple and trying to kill him at some point, but that was way too easy. Snoke is supposed to be a very strong force-user, logically he should have wiped the floor with Rey and Kylo.

- Rey and Kylo’s interactions. I don’t know if it’s because of all the Reylo shippers out here or because of all the forced heterosexuality we’re used to see in movies since basically forever, but most of their scenes made me uncomfortable. There’s actually nothing romantic or sexual about it, but it was still weird to watch. It was mostly Rey’s attitude that bugged me. I get why she was so nice with him, she tried to do the right thing and, with Luke refusing to help, she thought turning him back to the light would help the Rebellion. She never thought herself a hero, so she tried to make a hero out of Kylo. Calling him Ben to appeal to his better nature. I just thought it was a big change compared to the last film. Even at the beginning she calls him a “murderous snake”. Her attitude changed too quickly. Kylo’s behavior though didn’t really surprise me. He was manipulating her. The whole time I though about his act with Han in TFA, so to me it was pretty in character. Also with Snoke gone they’re the two most powerful force-users in the trilogy so their connection is rather logical.

- the moment their hands touched though. Was that close-up really necessary? Stop adding fuel to that Reylo nonsense.

- and that shirtless scene. I can’t even, It was embarrassing and unnecessary (as are most shirtless scenes... I’m not here to criticize Adam Driver’s workout routine).

- by the way I’m sad Kylo destroyed his mask at the beginning of the film because I thought it was a pretty dope mask.

- another weird scene was Luke and that blue milk. Who thought it was a good idea? I understand wanting to show us Luke’s routine and how he survives on Ahch-to but... not this.

- Yoda. The puppet looks weird, straight out of TESB. They should have used CGI. Or chosen to bring back Obi-Wan or Anakin.

- Leia using the force in THAT scene (you know the one). I should have liked it but it was honestly too much for me. It gave me Guardians of the Galaxy flashbacks. I understand they wanted to remind us that Leia is also strong in the force even if she wasn’t trained but... how the f*ck do you survive being blasted into space?

- general Ackbar’s death.

- the fact that pretty much all of the Resistance is dead, to the point that the Millenium Falcon can transport them all.

- the plot in general. From the beginning to the end of the movie, nothing substantial happens. The First Order is still there, still way more powerful than the Rebellion. Everyone failed at what they were supposed to do : Rey didn’t get Luke to train her (not really) and she couldn’t bring Kylo back to the light, Finn and Rose didn’t finish their mission and almost died because of it, Poe’s plans didn’t work out either, Kylo didn’t kill Luke and didn’t bring Rey to his side, Hux fails at pretty much everything lol, the Rebellion is almost extinct... And yes failure is a teacher and all of that, that’s what the movie his about (thanks Yoda) but here the movie is ONLY about failure. There’s no satisfaction about that. In generals characters make mistakes AND overcome them in the same film. Here we have to wait for episode IX to see if they did learn from these mistakes. The only one who changed at the end was Luke and he died just after that. It doesn’t make me very hopeful about the next movie.

- also WHERE IS MY MAN LANDO CALRISSIAN???

I wrote so many negative things it looks like I hated the movie but I didn’t, I’m just very critical because I love Star Wars and some characters in particular.

I realize from what I’ve written that it looks like I really hate Kylo Ren but I don’t. I like how different he is from Darth Vader. I like how childish he can behave. I like that, despite Snoke’s influence, he still has ties to the light and can’t seem to cut them. I liked his mask and his fighting style in TFA. I like how manipulative he his. And Adam Driver is a great actor. But I hate the idea of Kylo and Rey together, especially in a romantic way, and I’m afraid that’s where we may be going. I don’t want him to go back to his mother. I don’t want him to have a redemption arc. I don’t want him to be forgiven and to go back to the light. He had two movies to do that, he had plenty of people reaching out to him. Snoke is dead, Kylo doesn’t have anyone making choices for him anymore and luring him to the dark side, he’s doing it himself. He’s done too much to deserve a redemption arc and he DOESN’T want it anyway. I like him as a villain, he’s complex and entertaining, but that’s all he can be anymore. He’s not going to be hero. Having conflicted feelings doesn’t make him more of a good guy, it doesn’t erase all the shitty things he did and the people he killed. There’s only one movie left in the trilogy and I don’t see how he would be able to come back from that. Rey isn’t going to make the mistake of trusting him again, even Leia doesn’t believe in him anymore. And most of all I hate how many characters Rian Johnson butchered in The Last Jedi just to make Kylo’s character more powerful or interesting. Luke’s character was butchered just to make Kylo’s more sympathetic, Rey was too nice, Snoke too easily killed. And that’s what pisses me off the most about this movie. It could have been great if only Johnson cared as much about the other characters as he did about Kylo.