#i feel like this needs a prequel comic because I would like to explain context
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Preview of the comic twitter voted
#yeah okay I wrote it but theyre freaks for asking for it!!!#i feel like this needs a prequel comic because I would like to explain context#on why deadlock is kindaaaaaa mean for the first half#locket au
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Sonic Tarot Card Project: explanations for character picks
Recently I completed a summer-long project where I created Sonic themed versions of the tarot major acana. I put a lot of research and thought into what characters to assign to which cards, and I wanted to explain my rationale behind each one! (Everything’s under the read more cut because this is a very long post!)
To start off, let me explain why I did this project in the first place. This summer I watched Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure for the first time, and in Part 3, Stardust Crusaders, the majority of the stand abilities are named after the tarot major arcana. Thanks to cultural osmosis I vaguely knew the meanings of a few of the cards and I realised that one of the characters suited his assigned card pretty well. I was curious if this matched anyone else and so once I finished watching that part, I did research on tarot and found that yeah, a lot of them do match! That got me interested in tarot and since I like combining things I’m interested in, I decided to make Sonic versions of the cards.
I do want to note that while Jojo did inspire this project in a lot of ways, I tried not to let my character picks be influenced by Stardust Crusader characters, although there did end up being some picks that did coincidentally happen to match nicely anyway. Also, I’m not gonna lie, ever since picking these card choices I’ve been highly tempted to draw Sonic as Polnareff.
Anyway, on to my explanations for character choices!
0: The Fool (Charmy Bee)
The Fool represents innocence, spontaneity and recklessness. I believe Charmy’s happy and carefree nature, along with the simple fact that he’s essentially just a little kid who likes to have fun makes him a great fit for this card
1: The Magician (Infinite)
The Magician represents creation and strength, but also manipulation and narcissism, a good match for Infinite and the powers of the phantom ruby. (I was also very pleased to notice that the traditional art for the card has an infinity symbol- everything lined up very well!)
The Rider Waite version of the card also depicts a sword, a wand, a cup and a pentacle; the suits of the minor arcana. I have attempted to depict these with various objects from the Sonic series, namely Infinite’s sword from the IDW Forces prequel comic, the sceptre of darkness from '06, a chaos emerald, and a ring respectively.
2: The High Priestess (Princess Elise)
The High Priestess represents secrets, repression, and the unknown, which I believe fits with Elise’s initial desire to control her emotions and her sadness. (Admittedly this is one of the looser character/card connections for this project, but my two other picks for this card I felt were better suited to different cards)
3: The Empress (Vanilla the Rabbit)
The Empress represents nurturing, fertility and childbirth, all traits that I believe make this card a good pick for a kind, caring mother like Vanilla
4: The Emperor (Dr Eggman)
A card fitting for the leader of the Eggman Empire! The Emperor represents authority, power, and tyranny, all traits Dr Robotnik desires, if not possesses in many continuities.
5: The Hierophant (Espio the Chameleon)
The Hierophant represents wisdom and tradition, and in both upright and reversed forms it has large connections to the concept of social conformity. Perhaps I’m drawing more from the various comic versions of Espio, but he comes across to me as someone who is hyper-aware about how he presents himself.
Fun fact: a hierophant is essentially another word for a religious leader, although I’ve never seen it used outside the context of tarot. I assume the religious connection is the reason why in the OST of the Jojo part 3 anime, Kakyoin’s theme is called Noble Pope.
6: The Lovers (Amy Rose)
The Lovers represents love, communication, and passion; and Amy is certainly a character who wears her heart on her sleeve! She’s a good example of a character who I feel fits a number of different cards, however there are no other characters who suited The Lovers quite as much as her.
7: The Chariot (Sonic the Hedgehog)
The Chariot represents journeys, wanderlust as well as the ambition and willpower to achieve your goals, which I believe is the perfect match for Sonic’s adventurous and heroic spirit. This was one of the first cards I decided on and it’s probably the one I’d defend my interpretation of the most.
If you’re wondering why there’s dark and hero chao in the artwork too, it’s because the original card art depicts the titular chariot being pulled by black and white sphinxes, and this is my way of calling back to that.
8: Strength (Maria Robotnik)
This card pick might seem unusual at first if you take the word ‘strength’ at face value, however considering the original card art depicts a maiden peacefully taming a lion, perhaps the Strength card represents inner strength, courage and determination rather than physical strength. These are traits that I believe Maria possesses.
9: The Hermit (Knuckles the Echidna)
The Hermit signifies awareness and independence but when reversed can mean isolation and resignation, traits that parallel well with Knuckles and his duty to be the protector of the Master Emerald
10: The Wheel of Fortune (Big the Cat)
The Wheel of Fortune represents fate, karma and luck! This is admittedly a bit of a cheeky dig at myself since I’m awful at the Big fishing levels in SA1 and mostly got through them through luck. But that’s not to say the card doesn’t apply to Big himself! His frequent cameos do have a bit of a fate/destiny vibe to them and in IDW Big is lucky enough to manage to avoid the metal virus for quite a long time.
11: Justice (Vector the Crocodile)
The meaning of the Justice cards is… pretty much what it says on the tin: fairness and clarity. Of course the Team Chaotix detective agency represents this as a whole, but that trait especially shines through with Vector himself. He may be a little money oriented, but doing what is morally right always takes priority.
12: The Hanged Man (Shadow the Hedgehog)
The thing about Shadow is that he’s a fairly complex character which means there are a number of cards in the Major Arcana that match him well, but I knew early on when tackling this project that I wanted to assign Shadow to The Hanged Man. This card represents change, release and sacrifice, which all align well with the character arc that Shadow goes through during the course of SA2 and beyond.
13: Death (Tikal the Echidna and Chaos)
Despite the morbid name of the card, (and the admittedly macabre scene I’ve depicted) the Death card is not an inherently negative card to draw. Yes, it can mean endings and grief, but it can also mean letting go and new beginnings. The story that Tikal and Chaos go through in SA1, their anguish and how they later find peace, is something that I think pairs well with this particular card.
Fun fact: this is the only card in this project that has two significant characters on it rather than just one. I felt I needed both of them to be on the card in order to fully represent its meaning
14: Temperance (Blaze the Cat)
The Temperance card signifies balance, harmony and patience, which matches Blaze’s very poised and graceful demeanour. Admittedly I had a little bit of trouble deciding on a card for Blaze since the High Priestess and the Hierophant are also good matches for her.
15: The Devil (Rouge the Bat)
The Devil card represents temptation, seduction, and materialism and well… look, Rouge is one of my favourite Sonic characters, I’d be one of the first people to tell you that there’s a lot more to her than what initially appears, she is so much more complex than just sex appeal and a gemstone obsession. However, I felt there was no other character that matched the traits of this specific card better than Rouge, and so my choice was decided by that.
16: The Tower (E-123 Omega)
The Tower card represents a number of things; disruption, disasters, sudden changes etc, however the trait that made me believe that Omega would be the best selection for the card was violence.
17: The Star (Miles ‘Tails’ Prower)
Tails’ character arcs normally centre around him gaining independence and self-confidence and learning to believe in himself. He is also largely characterised by his unyielding faith and trust in Sonic. These traits are the reason why I believe The Star card represents him well, as it symbolises hope and faith.
18: The Moon (Shade the Echidna)
The Moon card symbolises mysteries and the unknown, and when Shade is first introduced in Chronicles, she and the rest of the Nocturnus Clan are certainly presented as mysterious. The Moon can also represent misconception, which fits well with how Shade was initially unaware of the true nature of Ix’s plans.
19: The Sun (Cream the Rabbit)
The Sun, when drawn in an upright position, has a lot of positive meanings! Freedom, fun, happiness, good luck etc. Cream’s cheerful and optimistic disposition makes her a good match for this card
20: Judgement (E-102 Gamma)
The Judgement card symbolises liberation, awakening, redemption and second chances, all of which I believe represent Gamma and his character arc in SA1 well
21: The World (Metal Sonic)
In the upright position, The World card symbolises triumph, completion, strength and happiness while in reversed position can mean failure, anxiety, lack of self-confidence etc. I had both positioning of the card in mind when connecting it to Metal Sonic; he is devoted to the tasks given to him and is self-assured in his belief that he is the true/superior ‘sonic’ yet he repeatedly finds himself at the hands of failure. But he doesn’t let previous failures hold him back, thus starting the cycle anew. (Another connection to the World card as it also symbolises cycles)
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Anakin Skywalker Deserved Better
Ive made this post before but it was really rough and i meant to edit it later and its later now but its been so long that i don’t feel like finding the og post so here we are. If it’s not obvious i care more than a normal amount about Anakin Skywalker.
Tl;Dr: I firmly believe that there are so many points in the prequel series, the clone wars, and even the comics that some level of intervention could have steered Anakin away from falling in Revenge of the Sith.
The Phantom Menace
This is our first encounter with Anakin, and it does a decent job at introducing us to him. This movie sets up his tragic backstory™️ and gives us a good look at his personality; Anakin appears selfless and eager to help complete strangers in return for nothin when he first brings Qui-Gon and crew to his home to give them shelter, and then risks his life in the podrace to help them afford the part they need to fix their ship. Aside from introducing and developing Anakin not much else happens until Qui-Gon brings Anakin before the Jedi Council where they decide he is too old and there is already too much anger in him to be trained as a Jedi. Qui-Gon disagress, but we move on to Naboo where 9-year old Anakin blows up a very large ship all; by himslef w/ autopilot ( they grow up so fast), Qui-Gon dies, and we get our first look at Palpatine being creepy in hindsight, “And you, young Skywalker, we will watch your career with great interest.” not all that weird out of context but uncomfy when you remember who Palpatine is.
Before we move on i actually want to flashback to Anakin’s first encounter with the Jedi Council. For a group of people who constantly take in and raise children, the Jedi seem to do a poor job interacting with them. A kind of infuriating thing about this scene is that the Jedi seem to shame Anakin for being afraid (no matter how much Anakin himself denies that fear). This scene does a really good job at setting up how the Jedi consistently fail to take into account that Anakin is fundamentally incapable of being a “normal” Jedi. Anakin has had a fundamentally different childhood than any other Jedi and absolutely needed more help and support than the average Padawan from the very beginning. Granted it is possible that the Jedi tried to get him the help and support he needed, but if they did we can infer they failed from Dooku’s line in Revenge of the Sith, “I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have hate, you have anger, but you don’t use them.”
Obi-Wan And Anakin Comic
The Obi-Wan and Anakin comics take place sometime between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. The story focuses on Anakin and Obi-Wan investigating a distress signal on a planet that has been destroyed by war. The comic also flashes back to reveal that Anakin is thinking of leaving the Jedi Order after Palpatine shows him the dark side of Coruscant, and tells him that neither the Jedi nor the Senate will be able to do anything about it. We get more creepy (not just in hindsight this time) moments out of Palpatine here. The first one is when he uses his position as Chancellor to gain access to Anakin under the guise of “helping” him. “Why young Skywalker is a Jedi, is he not? The Jedi are under the Senate’s jurisdiction. And as I am the Chancellor of the Senate...”. Palpatine proceeds to take Anakin to a club of some kind where they see a corrupt senator gambling; Palpatine also mentions how “Lives are bought and sold here everyday” he then makes a show of apologizing for bringing it up considering Anakin’s past.Without context this would seem harmless enough, but with the context of Palpatine’s true identity it is more likely a ploy to subelty remind Anakin of how the Jedi and Senate are unable or unwilling to intervene on Tatooine or the rest of the Outer Rim. Palpatine reminding Anakin of the Senate and Jedi’s inability to help everyone seems to be a running theme in their meeting as the series continues.
Aside from Palpatine being a creep; we see that Anakin is still just as willing and eager to help as he was in The Phantom Menace. His skills in mechanics result in him being briefly kidnapped so that he can fix weapons that will help one side to win the war that has destroyed the planet. Seriously Anakin is just so ernest in these comics that i shed tears because i know how his story ends.
One character that Obi-Wan and Anakin team up with to reach the distress signal first mistakes Anakin for Obi-Wan’s son, and then tells Obi-Wan, “He [Anakin] doesn’t think so. Kid idolizes you. You can see it” when Obi-Wan admits that he’s not sure he is the best suited to teach Anakin, and fears he has failed him in some way. As the story progresses, it is revealed in a flashback that after Anakin told Obi-Wan he wanted to leave the Order, Yoda sent the two of them on the mission they are currently on to give Anakin a chance to reconsider his decision, and Obi-Wan tells Yoda that if Anakin returned from the mission still wanting to leave the Order, Obi-Wan would leave with him to continue his training and keep his promise to Qui-Gon.
Attack of the Clones
Back to the movies. Attack of the Clones reunites Obi-Wan and Anakin with Padmé Amidala when they are assigned to protect her from an assassin. One of ( if not the) most important elements to this movie are Anakin’s dreams/visions of his mother. Towards the beginning of the movie Anakin doesn’t explicitly say what the dreams are about, but it can be assumed that the dreams are unpleasant as he says, “I don't sleep well anymore.” in response to Obi-Wan commenting on him looking tired; going on to claim that he cannot sleep because of his dreams. Anakin later admits to Padmé that he worries about his mother. This is one of the key moments in Anakin’s life that set him up to fall in Revenge of the Sith. There is no reason i can think of that Anakin should not have been allowed to check on his mother if he was having dreams about her that prevented him from sleeping properly and made him worry for her safety. As Anakin says, “Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life, so you might say we're encouraged to love.”. If compassion truly is central to a Jedi’s life, then surely they could at the very least send one of their 10,000 Jedi to check on Anakin’s mother if he could not? Is it compassion to deny someone the help they need? I find it hard to believe that Anakin would not have told Obi-Wan that he was worried about his mother going off of how close they appear to be in the previous comic. Especially after Anakin responds to Obi-Wan joking about Anakin being the death of him one day with, “Don't say that Master... You're the closest thing I have to a father... I love you. I don't want to cause you pain.”
Anakin and Padmé arrive too late to save Shmi, and she dies in Anakin’s arms. This is a crucial moment leading up to Anakin’s fall as it shows Anakin that his dreams have a very real potential of coming true and likely results in him blaming himself at least partially for not insisting on checking on his mother or getting there sooner or doing anything different that may have allowed her to survive; it’s also the first time we see Anakin really lose control. There have been instances of him lashing out in anger before (turning a pair of padawans’ lightsabers against them when he hears them making fun of him behind his back), but nothing like what happens in the wake of Shmi’s death. Anakin wipes out the entire village of Tusken Raiders; children included. And while Anakin does express genuine remorse for his actions, he never faces consequences for them. It’s not even clear if anyone but Padmé ever finds out; Yoda claims to feel Anakin’s pain in the wake of his mother’s death, but does not appear to see Anakin’s actions, and is not shown to discuss what happened on Tatooine with Anakin at all.
Some light googling on my part revealed that in the novelization of Attack of the Clone, while Anakin did tell Obi-Wan about his mother’s death it was Padmé who told Obi-Wan how she had died, but Obi-Wan is unaware of what happened afterwards. “Anakin had told him of Shmi’s death; that was why he and Padmé had gone to Tatooine, he said. Obi-Wan had talked to Padmé later, and she had explained that Shmi had been kidnapped and killed by Tusken Raiders. Neither of them had been willing to go into much detail, and from what Obi-Wan knew of the Tusken Raiders, he didn’t blame them. It was no wonder Anakin seemed shaken, if his mother had been tortured and killed. One day, perhaps, Anakin would be willing to tell him the whole story.” Obi-Wan appears to know that there is more to the story than he has been told, but it content to wait until Anakin is ready to talk about it. I wonder if they ever had that conversation.
Anakin’s inability to save his mother even after the warnings he receives in his dreams likely leads to his desperation to save Padmé form the danger he believes her to be in later in Revenge of the Sith. He has been shown once before that his dreams can easily come true, and he is desperate to prevent this dream from coming true no matter what the cost may be.
The Clone Wars
This is gonna be a long one; it’s gonna have to cover the most relevant episodes of The Clone Wars and oh boy that’s not a small amount. Im gonna try to go chronologically but bear with me (if you actually read this far you know what you got yourself into)
Assassin s3ep7
In this episode Ahsoka begins having visions of Padmé being assassinated similarly to how Anakin dreamed of his mother’s and later Padmé’s deaths. The difference with Ahsoka is that she is able to prevent the visions from becoming reality. What i want to focus on in this episode is the reaction Ahsoka gets when she tells Yoda about her dreams. Yoda explains to her that her dream may be telling her something and provides her with the means to act on her visions to prevent them from becoming true.
When Anakin approaches Yoda about his dreams in Revenge of the Sith, Yoda simply tells him that death is natural and he must train himself to let go of everything he fears to lose. We could chalk this up to just a writing inconsistency, but i dont think i will. I would instead like to wonder why Yoda treats Ahsoka’s visions like they are something that can be changed but then treats Anakin’s like they are set in stone. Anakin has already proven himself capable of having true visions, and is more force sensitive than any other living Jedi. It makes no sense to dismiss Anakin’s feelings like this. All this to say looking into and helping Anakin to examine his dreams instead of telling him to let go when he has proven over and over to be incapable of doing so would likely have been significantly more helpful in the long run.
The Mortis Arc S3 Ep15-17
Honestly i dont have a lot to say on this arc aside how much psychic damage it dealt to see Anakin briefly turn to the dark side because he was so desperate o avoid the future The Son had shown him ( really hope everyone had the common sense not to bring that up to Anakin after the fact though).
The Deception Arc S4 Ep15+18
In this arc Obi-Wan fakes his death in order to go undercover as the bounty hunter Rako Hardeen and uncover a plot to kidnap the Chancellor. This wouldn’t be a problem if they had brought Anakin in on the plan; instead they use Anakin’s reaction to Obi-Wan’s “death” to better sell the illusion. Obi-Wan even says, “Keeping Anakin on the outside was critical. Everyone knows how close we are. It was his reaction that sold the sniper. I'm sure of it.” Obi-Wan and the Council are fully aware of how much Obi-Wan means to Anakin, yet they all decide to use those feelings to their own advantage with little regard for the consequences.
On top of betraying Anakin’s trust; this move leads Anakin to doubt the Jedi Council and wonder what else they may be keeping from him if they were willing to let him believe that Obi-Wan was dead as long as it suited their interests. “How many other lies have I been told by the Council? And how do you know that you even have the whole truth?”.
I just cannot imagine why they thought they even had to use Obi-Wan for this plan. In the Obi-Wan and Anakin comic, Obi-Wan claims that there are 10,000 Jedi; surely there is someone less connected or with less attention on them who would be more suited to go undercover without the element of faking their death. Or if faking their death was necessary, surely they could have picked a Jedi who was not closely attached to arguably the most emotionally unstable Jedi in the Order. Anyone else would have been better. I don’t doubt that Anakin was telling the truth when he said, “If it was up to me I would kill you right here! But lucky for you, the man you murdered would rather see you rot in jail.”.
The Deception Arc just really grinds my gears because it really is almost like the Council wants Anakin to fall. There really is no excuse for how they use his bond with Obi-Wan against him for their own gain. The Council and Obi-Wan know full well how much Anakin loves Obi-Wan (see Anakin referring to Obi-Wan as the closest thing he has to a father in Attack of the Clones), and chose to use this vulnerability against Anakin in the worst way possible.
This arc really sets Anakin to later doubt Obi-Wan and the Council in Revenge of the Sith, and make it easier for Palpatine to convince Anakin that no Jedi would understand him and that they would likely kick him out of the order and not help him. ( heck he even has a recent memory of the Jedi expelling a 14 year old from the Order for the sake of not looking bad in the eyes of the Senate. “I understand your sentiment, Obi-Wan, but if the Council does as you suggest, it could be seen as an act of opposition to the Senate. I'm afraid we have little choice.” i might go more in depth on this one later but this doesn’t feel like the right place as this is a post about Anakin and i don’t want to make and Ahsoka centric arc all about him).
That wraps up the Clone Wars! Finally!
Revenge of the Sith
Ok big finale. Revenge of the Sith; so close to being my favorite Star Wars movie, but it almost made me cry in the library so its my second favorite (Attack of the Clones is my favorite).
I’ve already touched on the dreams Anakin has of Padmé’s death in the Clone Wars segment, but it bears repeating and i have more to touch on. Im not 100% if im misremembering or not but i cannot recall Anakin ever explicitly telling Palpatine about his dreams, but Palpatine knows that Anakin fears for Padmé’s life anyway. It’s possible that Anakin just told him off screen but a fic i read recently ( It’s called give me one more night by Spongyllama on AO3 and it is so worth the read) introduced me to the theory that it had been Palpatine sending Anakin the dreams to begin with.
This theory has a good amount of legs to stand on honestly. As mentioned previously, Anakin never tells Palpatine about his dreams, but Palpatine still knows exactly what to tell Anakin to best manipulate him. Furthermore; Anakin’s dreams very likely would never have come true if Anakin hadn’t fallen; Padmé reportedly dies of heartbreak, something that could not have happened had Anakin not fallen. All signs point to Palpatine being behind the dreams (and we know that Anakin and Palpatine are close by the time Attack of the Clones occurs so it’s not out of question that Anakin may have told Palpatine about the dreams about his mother, giving Palpatine the idea to use those dreams against him later)
Conclusion
Honestly the biggest thing i think the Jedi could have improved on was just trying to understand Anakin better. The average age for entering the order is 2 to 3 compared to Anakin’s 9. Anakin entered the order years after any other Jedi, and because of that was able to remember his mother and had formed attachments (or attachment but i digress) before he had even reached the order. It should have been obvious from the start that if Anakin were to ever become a successful Jedi he would need significantly more help than the usual padawan.
We frequently see Anakin scolded for forming attachments or being too emotional (see Clone Wars s1e6-7 where R2-D2 goes missing and Anakin suggests taking a squad out to look for him “Anakin, it's only a droid. You know attachment is not acceptable for a Jedi.”(Obi-Wan) “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”(Yoda). etc etc) But, to the best of my knowledge, we never really see anyone showing Anakin how to let go. Anakin lacks the tools he needs to properly deal with his emotions, so the best he can do is shove them down and pretend they don’t exist because to him that’s what a proper Jedi does. No one has ever told him otherwise. The explosion was inevitable.
Anakin Skywalker was a traumatized child who was most likely never taken to therapy or told how to deal with/ healthily show his emotions in any way other than to ignore them or push them aside on top of being manipulated by Sith Lord from a young age. With all these factors is it really a surprise that Palpatine was able to turn him?
ok im done; see yall next time ig
#anakin skywalker#star wars prequels#star wars the clone wars#anakin#character analysis#long post#read more#id apologize but itd be a lie
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Heya! I'm new to the Honkai fandom, from Genshin (yes yes i know, fear me) and I've got to say, I'm really enjoying myself so far. And to that end, I mean I have no clue what's going on or what I'm doing, I'm just mashing shiny buttons and am a Fu Hua/HoS simp now, which works since I now have all her battlesuits sans Azure Empyrea.
I'm neck deep in Honkai fanworks but I haven't seen a whole bunch of Sin, who from what I gather is from a prequel (?) of HI3rd, GGZ. I'm really interested in the lore around her tho, especially with the way you've written her, and I was wondering if you could explain a little since you're the only one who's written about her that I know of? Heck, maybe not even canon Sin, just headcanons or whatever you feel like giving.
Sorry if this ask is annoying and you've already talked about her or something. Loving the vamp fic thus far btw.
NO YOURE NOT ANNOYING I love talking I do not shut up. And I also came from Genshin actually
First of all! Good luck with Hua battlesuits I hear they’re no the easiest to master!!
and I’m happy you like the vampire AU ;w;
As for Sin, she IS in Hi3, but not prominently.
I already made a post about her but I’ll go over stuff quickly now that Mangadex is back up. Skip to the next section if you don't wanna hear it.
SIN (NON FAN) CONTENT
Her main canon appearances are Azure Waters (as an antagonist, which the vampire fic covers from her point of view) and a Chronicles chapter in the game, in which you learn her password is “gummy bear”.
What is there not to love
She has a non-canon appearance here in which you get to know her 14yo self a lil better. Basically this stuff was retconned into the Chronicles chapter we have now lmao poor child.
You can read her backstory comic from GGZ (also featured in Vampire AU, but with some changes) here, it’s a bit of a mess on mangadex right now but you want to get the five chapters called Sin Origin. It’s very visual storytelling though— some extra context I got from translating chinese stuff;; and other stuff is just to make it fit into my story better. canon is a suggestion.
In Hi3 she was last heard of babysitting the orphanage kids. She’s 16. Cocolia why. (Raven and Sin children wrangling team up someday???) She appears a few times in Cooking with Valkyries, also once in AE Invasion where she kind of just smirks and then faceplants because of the clone’s gravity power
I love my dumb daughter.
anyway now that I’m done rattling off all the questionably canon content about her off the top of my head (do I have a problem? I think I may have a problem) I’m going to answer your question properly
HEADCANONS TIME: VAMPIRE AU EDITION*
*canon to the AU but not the actual hi3 canon
call this a treat for *checks notes* having her tear out a rock out of her chest after getting retraumatized by a rightfully angry murderous Herrscher and killing someone in self defense With writers like me my faves don’t need enemies
Her natural hair color is pink but she thought it was too girly so she dyed it. Part of her fascination with Sakura has to do with her looking badass with pink hair. Sin feels like nobody would take her seriously if she didn’t do something a bit funkier with it
Her dad used to repair clocks in his spare time. She watched him do it a lot as a child. She hardly remembers it consciously but on a subconscious level if she’s going to create anything her go-to is clockwork because of that
Sin’s health used to be very fucked up. This was due to using her powers as a young child, but improved in the orphanage, so Jackal did one genuinely useful thing. One. Now she’s got a better physical condition than regular humans instead. tbh she's probably the closest thing the story has to a dhampyr right now
Her hallucinations have gone waaaay down because the orphanage was a much better environment for her but she did hallucinate blood in chapter 20 due to the sheer stress of the situation
not really a headcanon but i call her a cactus all the time
#hi3#sin mal#vampire au#hi3 lore#vampire au lore#asks#long post#obviously. someone can’t just talk to me about Sin and expect me not to babble for half an hour#honkai impact#honkai impact 3rd
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outta curiosity, why do you think the bugs are human-y sized? i've seen that portrayal fairly often in fandom, but it never occurred to me during my own playthrough b/c of things like the weapons all being things like "Nails" and "Needles" (plus Cloth's huge fang club) which feel... like they're supposed to /seem/ small, if that makes sense.
Kind of a complicated web of reasons, some in-universe, some out.
The first thing I’m going to say is that I agree with you in that there is something that “feels small” about Hollow Knight’s world. When a friend of mine, @betterbemeta played the game, they spoke a bit about a “microscopic aesthetic” that they chalked to things like the amount of detail in the backgrounds. At the size we’re used to seeing the world, dirt is just dirt. From an insect’s eye view, however, individual grains are visible to a much greater degree.
This very granular nature fills the world. Nothing has the anonymity of just being dirt- it’s all shells or fossils or bits of stone and sand and glass. Our relationship with the world is intimate. We are shown spaces and the vastness of them looms, daunts. So I don’t for a second resent the impression that the scale of the world “feels small”.
What does bug me, if you’ll pardon the pun, is trying to add humans into this world as some kind of vast upper limit. Because while they wield pins and needles, nails and shears... these are not scavenged objects. This is not Pikmin. The nail is called such, but it is never a nail as we would recognize, designed to be hammered into an object. The bugs of Hallownest mine materials, and forge them into shapes that are engineered and worked artistically. The Nailsmith has spent much of his life obsessively honing his craft.
It feels arrogant, when there is no human presence in the game, to automatically slot us in an imagined supergiant slot that would trivialize the game and everything narratively important about it. It feels even more arrogant to suggest an independent culture that never shows any evidence of being dependent on humans is whimsically plucking our door nails for funny little bug sword duels, rather than that they have a culture of forging and carving their own weapons, tailored to their needs, without “divine inspiration” from anything bigger than it except its gods, which are themselves entities not in the likeness or shape of humans.
For me, I feel like it operates much better to presume Hollow Knight’s world is comparable to Nausicaa’s- it is a land of giants, rather than a land of the diminutive. A world that, if we or creatures like us were walking them, we would walk alongside Ghost, these same roads and highways, and would have this same experience of being dwarfed by the vastness of the space. I feel like if you really want to imagine humans in this world, either explicitly or for a sense of scale- we’d be on the level of the setting’s bugfolk.
Another thing worth noting is that this world is also very alien. Far moreso than, say, Pikmin, a game that does feature tiny aliens on a post-apocalyptic earth, where we can recognize much of the world and its shape even if the creatures now inhabiting it are strange. In Hollow Knight, the world is strange in its beauty and savagery. It’s really not like ours. The larger things get, the weirder they get. There’s almost no indication of mammalian life, or even, besides the bug-people having some recognizable species among them like moths, butterflies, cicadas, bees- creatures that we recognize. God Tamer is either an ant or a cockroach most likely, but her steed was originally conceptualized as a lobster- and it is an eight-eyed, quadrupedal creature with a filter-feeder mouth, large horns, an expanding translucent dewlap and neither claws nor long tail to speak of, so Team Cherry has actively avoided putting “normal creatures” in there.
This setting has a particular logic about creatures. Everything is translated through that lens, so things we would recognize come out distinctly different, and the general thrust is ‘more like a bug’. So to me, that precludes the intrigue of humans, because we have what humans would look like, with concession made to these strange rules.
They’re the characters we already see and interact with.
I dislike the idea of towering humans, because to me, the sapient bugs of Hallownest so clearly are the humans. I feel like this is a world on a divergent planet. There’s no apes for humans to come from, or monkeys to grow into apes, or even mammals for monkeys to come from- everything is bugs, so the sapient creatures come from bugs. Quirrel, in the prequel comic, even briefly holds a much smaller crawling insect and muses how it and he have similar shells, and, yet, are fundamentally dissimilar creatures. Another narrative could very easily transcribe a similar moment between a human researcher and an orangutan he spots in the bushes.
So this compels me to, in crossover contexts, put the bugs as close to humans. I feel like this is a beautifully constructed and deeply alien world, and there’s so little to gain and so much to carelessly bulldoze by adding in a sense of scale that allows us to just ignore so much of the strangeness and force our own ordinary world over it. I don’t have this problem putting in other giant or strange forces in the setting- I’d be super up to colossal forests of giant trees as a level or scene in a fanwork, for example.
But I guess that’s what turns me off of a lot of things like the bug tank AUs- the humans’ presence and society feels like a way to not just put what’s familiar to us in there, but in such a way that invalidates the refreshing novelty of the world around it. There’s no stated upper limit to Radiance’s powers- there’s nothing she can’t infect merely because it’s too large. So putting her in a glass tank wouldn’t negate her. If it was that easy to stop her, PK wouldn’t be driven to desperation and have committed a staggering amount of esoteric sin on his own children trying to find a way. It immediately undermines character plots and motivations.
Suggesting that the bugs are living borrower-style among humans and making use of their technology, likewise, cheapens the plot of the Nailsmith and his obsession, one that is shared by many, or, in the Silksong demo, Forge-Daughter’s “ancient line and honored role”.
Now, I have seen borrower-style stories and loved them! I was massively obsessed with the movie 9 when it came out, which featured tiny cloth dolls (the largest of them could be held easily in one hand by a human) surviving in an apocalyptic wasteland, and they utilized pieces of human technology cobbled together into ingenious new forms. But the thing about Hollow Knight, is it is not that world. Some weapons are large, almost oversized for their wielders- but they were still built with those wielders in mind, by other bugs, using designs developed by bugs.
Cloth’s club doesn’t really refute this by being a tooth broken from a larger creature, either- the temple of the black egg is made either from, or in the likeness of, the hollowed shell of a truly gargantuan creature.
This world has some very big things. I feel like thinking of humans as ‘the giants’ in this setting vastly underestimates the world. That somewhere in Cloth’s journey- and somewhere accessible to the kingdoms’ guards that became Husk Guards- there were vast cadavers with teeth that could be harvested is explained handily on its own by the idea that this is a world partially populated by giants- giants that play by the same lovely arthropod sensibilities of the more regular-sized denizens.
Another exciting thing worth noting is that there are ribs and spines all over this world! If these guys were truly on the scale of ordinary bugs, they wouldn’t need them- their exoskeletons would do all the supporting for them. But these guys are big enough to need at least vestigial endoskeletons. The implications of the remains that we see don’t exactly show us arm or leg bones, but rather intact limb exoskeletons. So these guys would have more complicated organs and more bones, that a bigger creature would need, but something the size of a realistic our-world ant would not.
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What was your take on Dave Filoni's speech on the Duel of Fates & Qui-Got Jinn?
I’m surprised people were shocked by that. I mean, he didn’t say anything new.
His take is the same take that has been explored since TPM came out. I don’t know if people shocked by it are new fans who weren’t around when the movies came out or didn’t have access to the interviews/EU or of if they are in deep denial about the characters portrayed on screen.
“What’s at stake is really how Anakin’s going to turn out, because Qui-Gon is different than the rest of the Jedi.”
FACT since 1999. We know Qui-Gon was a ‘rebel’ since TPM came out. He’s even known as a ‘maverick jedi’ for that very reason, with multiple novels and comics exploring that side of him. Hell, he was Dooku’s apprentice, a guy known for being one of the Council’s biggest critics even when he was still a Jedi Master.
“Obi-wan: Do not defy the council, Master, not again. Qui-Gon: I shall do what I must, Obi-Wan. Obi-wan: If you would just follow the code, you would be on the council.” The Phantom Menace, 1999.
You get that in the movie, and Qui-Gon is fighting because he knows that he’s the father that Anakin needs, because Qui-Gon hasn’t given up on the fact that Jedi are supposed to care and love and that that’s not a bad thing.
FACT since 1999.
He was angry that the Jedi Master would dismiss him so abruptly in favor of the boy, but he realized, too, the depth of Qui-Gon’s passion when he believed in something. Training this boy to be a Jedi was a cause Qui-Gon championed as he had championed no other in Obi-Wan’s memory. He did not do so to slight his protégé. He did so because he believed in the boy’s destiny. Obi-Wan understood. Who could say? Perhaps this time Qui-Gon was right. Perhaps Anakin Skywalker’s training was a cause worth fighting for. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace – published in 2000]
That Filoni himself reinforces in 2013 during an interview about TCW’s season 5: “I’ve always felt that one of Anakin’s downfalls, like it’s never that Anakin was innately going to be evil, but the people around him, the Jedi, in their lack of compassion, in being so selfless that they almost forgot to care.” Dave Filoni
The rest of the Jedi are so detached and they’ve become so political that they’ve really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second film. But, Qui-Gon is ahead of them all and that’s why he’s not part of the council, so he’s fighting for Anakin.
FACT since 1999.
“With Episode I, I didn’t want to tell a limited story. I had to go into the politics and the bigger issues of the Republic and that sort of thing. I had to go into bigger issues.” George Lucas
In The Phantom Menace one of the Jedi Council already knows the balance of The Force is starting to slip, and will slip further. It is obvious to this person that The Sith are going to destroy this balance. On the other hand a prediction which is referred to states someone will replace the balance in the future. At the right time a balance may again be created, but presently it is being eroded by dark forces. All of this shall be explained in Episode 2, so I can’t say any more!- CUT interview 09/07/99?
“The first film starts with the last age of the Republic; which is it’s getting tired, old, it’s getting corrupt. There’s the rise of the Sith, who are now becoming a force, and in the backdrop of this you have Anakin Skywalker: a young boy who’s destined to be a very significant player in bringing balance back to the Force and the Republic. George Lucas - from the American ANH VHS tape in the making of Episode II in the 2000 release.
[The Jedi] sort of persuade people into doing the right thing but their job really isn’t to go around fighting people yet there are now used as generals and they are fighting a war and they are doing something they really weren’t meant to do.They are being corrupted by this war, by being forced to be generals instead of peacemakers. – George Lucas for E! Behind the Scenes - Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith
That’s one of the few times in history when the bad guys were very clearly delineated for us. There really was a fight for survival going on between pretty clearly good guys and bad guys. The story being told in Star Wars is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you’re in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they’re actually not. . – George Lucas
That’s why it’s the duel of the fates, it’s the fate of this child and depending on how this fight goes, Anakin, his life is going to be dramatically different.
If good and evil are mixed things become blurred - there is nothing between good and evil, everything is grey. In each of us we have balanced these emotions, and in the Star Wars saga the most important point is balance, balance between everything. It is dangerous to lose this. – George Lucas
"So, Qui-Gon loses, of course, so the father figure, he knew what it meant to take this kid away from his mother when he had an attachment and he’s left with Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he made to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him. Obi-Wan trains Anakin at first out of a promise he makes to Qui-Gon, not because he cares about him.
FACT since 1999. We literally see this in the movie.
He stopped his pacing and stared momentarily at nothing, thinking of Qui-Gon Jinn, his Master, his teacher, his friend. He had failed Qui-Gon in life. But he would carry on his work now, honoring him in death by fulfilling his promise to train the boy, no matter what. [Terry Brooks. The Phantom Menace]
When they find Anakin on Tatooine, he says, “I feel like we’ve found another useless lifeform.” He’s comparing Anakin to Jar Jar. And he’s saying, “This is a waste of time. Why are we doing this? Why do you see importance in these creature like Jar Jar Binks and this 10 year old boy? This is useless.”
FACT since 1999.
So he’s a brother to Anakin, eventually, but he’s not a father figure.
“He is like my brother. I cannot do it.” Obi-wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith.
This, then, is Obi-Wan and Anakin: They are closer than friends. Closer than brothers. Though Obi-Wan is sixteen standard years Anakin’s elder, they have become men together. Neither can imagine life without the other. The war has forged their two lives into one. [Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith]
[With Ahsoka] I wanted to develop a character who would help Anakin settle down. He's a wild child after [Attack of the Clones]. He and Obi Wan don't get along. So we wanted to look at how Anakin and Ahsoka become friends, partners, a team. When you become a parent or you become a teacher you have to become more respnsible. I wanted to force Anakin into that role of responsibility, into that juxtaposition. I have a couple of daughters so I have experience with that situation. I said instead of a guy let's make her a girl. Teenage girls are just as hard to deal with as teenage boys are. - George Lucas
That’s a failing for Anakin, he doesn’t have the family that he needs. He loses his mother in the next film. He fails on this promise that he made to his mother that 'I will come back and save you.' So he’s left completely vulnerable and Star Wars is ultimately about family.
FACT since 2002.
“Love people. That’s basically all Star Wars is.” — George Lucas
So, that moment in that movie, which a lot of people diminish as a cool lightsaber fight, but it’s everything that the entire three films in the prequels hangs on, is that one particular fight and Maul serves his purpose and at that point died before George brought him back.But he died, showing you how the Emperor is completely self-serving. He doesn’t care, he’s using people and now he’s gonna use this child.
FACT since 1999.
Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left. So the idea is that when you have a Sith Lord, and he has an apprentice, the apprentice is always trying to recruit somebody to join him — because he’s not strong enough, usually — so that he can kill his master. That’s why I call it a Rule of Two — there’s only two Sith Lords. There can’t be any more because they kill each other. They’re not smart enough to realize that if they do that, they’re going to wipe themselves out. Which is exactly what they did.” George Lucas
Everything that Filoni said has been part of the lore and movies for 20 years now, so I really don’t get why people are so shocked by it. Also, context people! People have been using Disney canon to ‘prove’ Filoni wrong but these movies and the clone wars were written with long before Disney came into play. Filoni, like so many of us, grew up with Star Wars belonging to George and that colors how he look at the franchise and the characters. And don’t get me started on the ‘the EU doesn’t matter’ argument because it absolutely does.
“And then George Lucas tells me one day, ‘We’re gonna put the Mandalorians in the Clone Wars.' And I go 'Oh boy. That’s interesting. Cuz, lemme show you this.' And I move this big pile of material over and I said 'This is everything. This is everything that the Mandalorians are right now.’ And so George and I do what we always do when we come across something that I know exists well in the EU, we go over it all.“ Now, all the history of Mandalore you prior to The Clone Wars it does exists. It absolutely exists.” — Dave Filoni
There’s actual behind the scenes footage of Filoni and George Lucas working on The Clone Wars and checking the EU to keep everything as cohesive as possible. The guy literately had thousands of conversations with George Lucas – the guy who actually created Star Wars – about these characters but somehow people are now trashing him because he said they should’ve know already?
Look, anyone who knows me know I’m not a Filoni stan but I believe in respecting people’s work and giving credit where credit is due even when I don’t agree with them 100%. If they don’t like his take, fine, that’s their right but please tone down the outrage fest because it’s entirely unjustified (and, to be completely honest, a little desperate for validation). He’s an actual person, not a fictional character there for you to hate or stan.
There’s a lot I don’t agree with it in this life but I don’t go around attacking real people and their jobs. But maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised, considering the people going after Filoni are the same people who have not problem whatsoever with star wars authors receiving death and rape threats.
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Do the chaos household for that character meme you coward
Me upon realizing I have to explain what that is
Basically it's the idea of my fav murder boys having to live together. This being Stefano, Eddie, and Higgs. @christmasace and I came up with this one night and it has been our main source of serotonin since.
I'm going to do the character break downs for them in the context of their original games though. So anyway, buckle in, lads, this'll be a long one. (Eddie and Higgs will be below the cut)
Stefano Valentini
How I feel about this character
Fav. Favest of favs. I would willingly die for this man in a heartbeat. His voice? Beautiful. His personality? Snarky. His art? Breath taking. The way that he has to fix his hair after getting shot with a smoke bolt? Hilarious. Me? I'm in love. Also the fact he put jokes outside of the theater is iconic. Anyway, Stefano was an appealing character from the moment I first saw him in Markiplier's playthrough. I didn't realize I'd fallen until I started crying at his death and Mark was like "I don't even feel a little bad!" Because then I was like "oh shit why am I crying" Also I believe Stefano is an undiagnosed autistic man with horrible PTSD and brain damage(obviously) and I will die on this hill. I could talk about how I feel about Stefano for pages but I won't right now.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Me. Honestly I feel like Stefano is either an asexual aromantic, who only cares about his art, or he is a raging bisexual who is extremely picky with men since he himself is such a perfect man. As for actual ships though, I feel like Stefano is attracted to Sebastian and flirts with him throughout the game. I just don't really see the idea of Sebastian flirting back. 🤷🏻♀️ Emily Lewis. I love the idea of them being in a relationship, official or unofficial, and then things went south and he killed her. Stefano killed a lot of people before being put into STEM, why was this one so special he had to make a series of displays representing her? I don't know, just my thoughts.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
This is gonna sound weird, but I guess Theodore? Look, I just love the idea of Stefano driving Theodore insane and making him regret ever hiring him. And like, all the memes everyone makes about it? Amazing. (A personal favorite, also the one that I made) Plus, "You are special. You've always been special." Yeah, anyway I really need to know what the other half of that conversation was. Does Obscura count? I think she does. I see Stefano and Obscura's relationship being like that of a father and daughter or of a pet and an owner. He just loves her so much and he's so snippy when Sebastian gets to the theater the first time. "You did not appreciate my beautiful Obscura's performance." I imagine if you actually chose to fight and kill her in Ch. 7 he was really upset about it. Guardian is along the same lines as Obscura but I think Obscura has a higher place in his mind. 1. Because she is a camera and takes more photos for him. 2. There is confirmed to be more than one Guardian so he probably doesn't grow overly attached to any particular one, where there is only one Obscura. 3. Stefano seems to love whatever he did most recently the most, which is fair. As an artist, it really just Be Like That.
My unpopular opinion of this character
Unpopular only in the world of the game, but his art is good. Actual unpopular opinion? Not sure I have one, tbh.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon
I say it literally all the time but I really want a prequel comic or SOMETHING to tell us more about him as character. What happened to his family? Why did he come to America? What war was he injured in? Also the idea of him getting some dlc for the second game is still always on my mind, like, it could take place before and during the main game and it’s just us fucking around and making art and then catching Lily and fighting Sebastian. I am not gonna say that he didn’t deserve to die in canon, so really I wouldn’t change that.
Eddie Gluskin
How I feel about this character
Look... uh... I honestly am not sure how to describe my feelings for him. Because on one hand, is a misogynistic asshole who deserves literally everything that happened to him as an adult. But on the other hand, he was an abused child that grew into a hurt and sick adult. Also, when he’s not trying to kill you he is quite the gentleman. Basically, I love this character, but I have no idea why and am slightly ashamed about it.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Literally no one. This man should not be in a relationship with any of the canon characters. I’d like to imagine an AU where he is sane and settled down with a wife and had 2.5 kids and lived together in their house with a white picket fence but that isn’t going to happen obviously.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
Look, I know they never interact with each other, but Eddie and Trager. And like, not as friends really but more as weird acquaintances. They talk about surgeries and such, share a drink every now and then, complain about women, etc.
My unpopular opinion of this character
He’s straight.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon
I just wish he would’ve been sent to a place that could actually help him instead of Mt. Massive. But then he wouldn’t be in the game, lmao. ALSO, there is a lot of unused Eddie dialogue in the files for the game. I really wish that all of them would have actually been included in the game. Some gems include: “Did I...? Oh lord. I forgot to give you an anesthetic, didn’t I? Eddie, you doofus! Would forget my own head if it was screwed on!” (Timestamp 16:32) “There you go. No, no, don’t cry. You’re not dying. I’m going to make you better.” (Timestamp 10:13)
Higgs Monaghan
How I feel about this character
Garbage boy stink man. Just a rowdy, dirty boy. Pizza rat. Like, I sometimes have a difficult time imagining that he ran a company before he was a terrorist, because he doesn’t seem like a very organized person. Higgs is so multifaceted it’s impressive. In the game we only really get to see him a this asshole who wants to end the world. In his journals we see his hunt for power and want to be important. In his bunker we see the organized chaos of how his brain worked and how he operated his life. Not to mention the Peter Englert emails that are so well written. Anyway, I love him. Plus I’m gonna mention something my sister(Thrushheart) pointed out when I was having her watch me play. He is the exact opposite of Sam. Examples: Sam hates being touched or touching people. Higgs is touching people as often as he can, including but not limited to even licking them. Sam is reconnecting the world, at first for Amelie, then for everyone he’s met along the way. Higgs is ending the world, at first for Amelie, then for himself(or possibly still for Amelie). Higgs is loud and bombastic while Sam is more quiet and reserved. Sam is smol and Higgs is tol.
All the people I ship romantically with this character
Look, I’m not gonna say that I do or do not ship Goldenbridges. I’m not sure how I feel about it because, as I said, Higgs and Sam are such contrasting personalities I don’t think it would work. Fragile. Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking, but I imagine they were together before he met Amelie. His betrayal would mean even more if this was true. And in his journals he only ever refers to Fragile as “his partner.” Now I know this was done to hide that they were his journals and because they were work partners, but it could also mean more. And of course we can’t forget the somber and clear writing, directly over his bed in his bunker. “Fragile forget you ever met me.” And how surprised he was to see her on the beach after the fight. The sad look he gave her as she caressed his face. Aaahhhh.
My non-romantic OTP for this character
I wasn’t sure whether to include Higgs relationship with Amelie here or in the last section. But he quite literally worshiped her and the ground she walked on so 🤷🏻♀️ I don’t feel like she ever really gave a fuck about him though. Amelie is extremely manipulative and proves that every time she opens her mouth so I have no doubt she told him whatever he wanted to hear so that he would help her.
The Veteran Porter. If you worked hard enough to get more than one star with this guy, you learn that he used to work for Higgs and that’s why he is reluctant to trust the UCA. I like to think that he and Higgs were good buddies before Amelie.
My unpopular opinion of this character
With likable villains it’s hard to figure what is a popular opinion and what is not. So I’m really not sure. Maybe just that he didn’t get enough screen time?
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon
Redemption ark! Redemption ark! Higgs is the one guy on this list where I’m like, “Okay, he saw the error in his ways. Maybe he gets a second chance.”
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Anyway, that’s all of them! If you actually read this whole thing, first of all... wow. Second of all, thanks! Here is a screenshot of these chaos boys from The Sims 4 as your reward.
#christmasace#asks#anon#stefano valentini#martina talks about tew#martina talks#eddie gluskin#higgs monaghan#this reminds me that I need to make the post about the sims ones that I made#yes we actually have a house where they're all living together on the sims#long post
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If Disney ever made an obi-wan tv show, starring ewan mcgregor of course, what are some things that you’d want to see in it?
thanks for the question anon! according to the most recent rumors, I think we might just be getting one…?
unpopular opinion. I was pretty ambivalent about the Obi-Wan movie (originally it was supposed to be a movie, like Solo) from the very beginning. Obi-Wan's Tatooine years have their place in canon, I think, but for me personally? I'd relegate them to the lower tiers of canon, like the novels and comics. heck, I'd prefer leave that to the fanfics, because heaven forbid something be left to the fans' imagination. like sure, there's stories to explore there, but the overall premise is much like parallel parking to me. you gotta figure out how to fit it comfortably between two sets of untouchable canon, which kinda makes some of it… almost predictable to me? like, yeah, he's going to be sad. the Jedi are gone, Anakin is gone… oh there's little Luke being a paragon of innocence. sure puts a doleful smile on my face. sand, sand, sand… unsung heroism. sparsely furnished hovel. Anakin's lightsaber. sadness, loneliness, angst. Anakin is Vader??!!! get out of town!
maybe this is an overly cynical viewpoint, so I'll try to be positive. after all, I enjoyed Rogue One and even ended up liking Solo for what it was, despite the fact that both were set during a very specific point in the timeline and a little too concerned with explaining existing canon and tying it all together. so there's no reason that I wouldn't potentially enjoy this one, too? and, let's be real, even if the end product is abysmal, like I'm NOT gonna watch lol.
my final caveat is that… I usually try not to make 'wish lists' in regards to media I consume. sure, I'll form my opinions on the plot and the characters and draw my own conclusions about what I think is going to happen vs. what I would like to happen… but I try not to get too invested in my own headcanons/theories/ideas (in this context. fanfics are an entirely different animal bwahahaha). the production of (Hollywood) media is an extremely complicated process involving many, many creative minds and decision-makers and external factors, so I don't really see the point of actively wanting something to happen and then being inevitably disappointed. at this point I've sort of internalized this mindset, so these days I go to movies/watch shows etc. with an open mind, looking forward to seeing the story unfold the way it unfolds. then I will either like, it or not like it, or land somewhere in between.
(tl;dr, it's complicated, actual answer + actual positivity starts below!)
what I would like to see in an Obi-Wan solo series:
I'll just go ahead and assume this will take place during his Tatooine years following the events of rots.
- I'd definitely want to see a cameo from Hayden Christensen, maybe even have him on as a recurring character, or rather, a presence, in the form of a hallucination/dream or some such. I'm an unabashed fan of Hayden's portrayal of Anakin, flawed directing and all, and I don't really see myself getting invested in the show the same way if the character of Anakin, arguably the most important relationship in Obi-Wan's life, is merely given a throw-away mention or a shot of his lightsaber and maybe a leitmotif. I also don't see the inevitable Vader 'reveal' having the same emotional weight if Anakin, his past self, is not given proper focus and… well, literal presence.
- and you know… you kind of need Qui-Gon there as well? (you're Disney, slap some of that de-aging magic on Liam Neeson if you need to.) I mean… he's literally a Force Ghost at this point, and kind of also an important figure in Obi-Wan's life… and that Force Ghost training, anyone? and then they could be sad about Anakin together, yay! and you could also do flashbacks with these two. or with Anakin! or both!
- MAUUUUUUUUL nah, jk. :D but then again it would be HILARIOUS. and I'll take hilarious over predictable.
- I would love to have at least one episode (or even a major theme) dedicated to the clones (Temuera Morrison yaaayy), like some Empire defectors or Clone War deserters who kind of just cross paths with him (on an unremarkable, obscure planet like Tatooine I think it's entirely believable). there could be some tension/mistrust between them first (kind of like in Rebels), but Obi-Wan, of course, would get to showcase his strengths as a communicator and they would sort out the whole Order 66 disaster and the Republic slave labor thingy and… uh, become BFFs? up until Obi would go, this has been nice, but I'm already late for my infinite sadness over there, may the Force be with you, gentlemen.
- obviously there would be some Friendly Neighborhood Space Wizard stuff. go settle those disputes and help those orphans and overthrow some crime lords. bonus points if this is used to explore his Anakin-related angst as he reminisces about how Anakin always wanted to return to Tatooine and free the slaves. and then maybe he has an epiphany like, yeah, this is how the Jedi should have been serving the Galaxy all along. we meant well but made mistakes etc etc. which will result in a THEME and also it will be fun to see how he accomplishes all these small acts of heroism without attracting too much attention but at the same time gaining that 'weird old hermit' reputation.
- I wouldn't mind seeing Owen and Beru Lars as recurring characters. a simple cameo would feel a little hollow, as they are literally Tatooine residents and Obi's next-door neighbors almost and they get a REALLY rough deal in the OT. one of my biggest gripes with the OT is Luke's complete non-reaction to the violent deaths of his foster parents (they ARE his parents! they raised him from infancy! hello???) and while that can't necessarily be 'fixed' here, I would at least love to see them being a little family and living their simple lives.
- there's nothing to stop Obi-Wan from visiting other planets from time to time. I think the Tatooine setting would eventually get a little too limited and tedious. I would especially love to see Alderaan in all its glory, before… well ya know. and then the Royal family would have to cameo. little Leia, and BREHA ORGANA! (and Bail, of course.)
- this is getting into the 'wildly improbable' territory, but maybe you could bring back a couple of Padmé's handmaidens (Sabé?) and we could have some Padmé feels? they could even team up with Obi on a mission or something! there's your resident Action Girl right there. also, my memory of the Rebels/Ahsoka novel canon is a little fuzzy, so this would probably be somehow contradictory, but… AHSOKA.
- but since there would inevitably be new characters… my only wish is that they would be well thought-out and interesting (which is subjective, I know). also, you're Disney, you have the budget to do aliens, do aliens. more aliens pls.
I could come up with more, and there's probably something really obvious I'm missing or maybe an error in there somewhere, but here are some of the things I would like to see on an Obi-Wan show. as you can probably tell, I'm conflicted. on one hand, I'm one of those fans who never really actively needed for this to be a thing, but if you get me going about its potential, I actually get kind of excited. the limited scope thingy is a bit meh to me (yes, I say this as a fan of the prequels) since as a consumer of media I'm fond of such things as stakes, surprises, plot twists and creative freedom, and as someone with imagination I don't really need every time period in SW canon to be covered in meticulous detail. BUT! if the Obi-Wan show does happen, one thing is for sure: I will be really happy for Ewan McGregor, who I know absolutely adores his character and has been very open about his desire to play him again.
(but also; seriously, ya better deliver on the Christensen.)
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Inside the Writing Process - Part 5
I’ve been so excited about the ideas this chart has given me for Violins and Violets, so I’m making this fifth “Inside the Writing Process” post about it. It’s immensely useful for...
Expanding a Story into a Series
OK, so I’m sure a lot of people with ADHD have seen this going around and related to it a lot, but I think a lot of writers could relate to it as well in terms of things that can distract us from the main points of our WIPs (and of course some writers have ADHD anyway).
I saw a copy of this chart on Facebook yesterday, and it got me thinking. Disclaimer: I don’t know if I have ADHD (I have executive dysfunction and a lot of trouble concentrating, but I don’t know why, and don’t have time or energy to get it looked into), but it did get me thinking.
It made me think about how to organise my expansions of the world around my WIP Violins and Violets (currently seeking beta readers), because I wanted to address a lot of things in the book that just weren’t practical to address (because there’s only so much you can put in a book without it become completely unreadable. This is why I’ve never finished Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, even though I love it, especially all the beautiful world building... it’s just too much to hold in my head). It was always in my mind that I could solve this problem (too many ideas for one book) quite simply, by writing more books.
This is a really long post, I know, but if you want to learn a fun way to come up with ideas for prequels, sequels and companion books for your story, keep reading! It’s a little bit like the snowflake method, and of course you can then use that to expand each individual idea that you have. It’s also available in shorter form here.
I’d been letting ideas for storylines involving other characters rustle around in my head since I finished the first draft of Violins and Violets in August... and then I saw this yesterday, and realised it would be a pretty good place to start thinking about the ideas that I do have, and listing them in relation to the main storyline of Violins and Violets. I spent about an hour writing down everything, just letting it all spill from my head, and this is what came up.
(Side note: I really do adore Pukka Pads Irlen refill pads. Another thing I may or may not have is Irlen syndrome, which would explain why I can’t read off white backgrounds for very long, and why my eyes hurt if I try. All I know for sure is that these pads help me so, so much, and they come in very gorgeous colours! These pages are from the “rose” pad, but I use “lavender” ones as well, a very soft and relaxing pale purple.)
Expanding Violins and Violets
Pre-Story Prologue for “Context”
Write down all ideas about character backstories to help you develop a prequel (or set of prequels) by exploring those.
Magdalena’s upbringing and Conservatory training with Dorota and Maja (these characters also never appear in Violins and Violets (with the exception of Magdalena) but I really want to explore their lives, going into more detail about Dorota and Maja’s relationship, how they raised Magdalena as their daughter, how they met, and Dorota’s fight to get Magdalena an education).
Käthe and Hansi touring Europe with their music. I’d be missing out on the opportunity to portray a fun sibling dynamic like the Mozart siblings had if I didn’t write this story. However, I do feel it might be better suited to a series of short stories, a collection of small standalone pieces, than a full-length novel, but it’s early days, and I have a lot else to do for this project in the meantime.
Franz and Julia’s early marriage/courtship, particularly how it really only happened once they were married; it would go a long way to explaining why Katharina’s parents are so relaxed about her having an arranged marriage; they genuinely believe it’ll work for her, like it worked for them (and they’re not entirely wrong, but that’s quite literally another story).
Start of Story
Consider all the characters involved in the main story, and ask yourself what’s going on in their lives that the protagonist doesn’t see. If a character only appears partway through the story, ask them what they were doing before.
Katharina goes to Prague (which is of course the main story of Violins and Violets).
Hans tours Europe with a comically large and ever-increasing pet entourage (this post goes into that in proper detail!).
Renée finds her way to Malá Strana and makes friends with Magdalena. Not for a second does she realise that a) Magdalena is with Katharina or b) that she, Renée, is in love with both of them. And then she meets the man who becomes her husband, also a big bi disaster, and Realises™.
Johann and Wilhelm meet at university; they’re both Law students. This would be a fun opportunity to take a step into the Dark Academia genre, but I’m not exactly sure what I’d do with them. Perhaps a poetic treasure hunt sort of mystery love confession? (I know already that this will be tricky because I manage to write about two proper poems a year and I’ve already written one in 2019, for Violins and Violets. I may have to put this off for a while.)
Semi-related side-story
Now think about the characters who come and go in the story and think about why that happens. Develop the stories of what they do after they leave.
Herr Benes and his boyfriend have a marvellous time in Budapest, enjoying their retirement away from the scrutiny Benes faces in the Malá Strana Opera House in Prague.
Herr Havelka is a devious and sacriligeous boi, also a sneaky bastard, but why is that? What other yuck things does he do after he leaves the Malá Strana? What is the origin of his malice?
Herr Janda retires and leaves Katharina (or Sebastian) in charge of the Malá Strana Opera House, but how does he spend his retirement? What does he think of Katharina’s continued work after she’s discovered? He’s a composer, himself, so I want to explore the compositions he works on, later in life. Maybe he’s quite inspired by Katharina both in terms of technique and ideas for music to compose in her honour.
Magdalena’s husband, Bartolomeǰ, runs a bookshop, and this is how they meet. He’s a big fan of Katharina’s music, and gets to know a lot of his regular customers. What are their stories? Who are his friends? What do they think of Magdalena? What do they think of Katharina?
Wait, OK, back to the main story
If you’re a fan of time-jumps, then a) Violins and Violets might be right up your street because it has a massive one, and b) this is probably a good and useful step for you. If not, maybe not. But ask what happens in the time-jump and then write about it. What stories can you tell about the space in between one part of your story and the other?
I want to explore Katharina's life in Salzburg, her friendship with Johann, Wilhlem, Lulu and her family, and her reconciliation with her parents after so many years apart. They're not angry at her, nor she at them, but things aren’t perfect between them, especially while they’re grieving Hans, and I want to look at that.
Something I just now remembered
Do you ever get deep down a rabbit hole, thinking about your story, and realise part of it you’d never thought about particularly deeply is actually very sad or very happy or makes you angry? Go into detail about it.
Magdalena and Bartolomeǰ never have any children born to them, but they're everyone’s Cool Aunt and Cool Uncle, and are basically extra parents to Evžen after Bartolomeǰ took him on as an apprentice.
Magdalena and Renée never lose touch after Renée leaves to marry, and Magdalena also stays in touch with Herr Benes, and they each eventually figure out the other is bi (Magdalena) and gay (Herr Benes), and have many fun letter exchanges not dissimilar to meetings in a Lesbian Crying Cupboard. I love their friendships and I want to dive into them more than I could from Katharina’s perspective alone. Imagine something like Lemony Snicket’s The Beatrice Letters, and you have some idea of the absolutely delicious format I’d want for this--because it wouldn’t be a traditional prose novel; it would be mostly epistolary, and for that, I need something a little different--all the letters bound together in a collection along with diary entries from the characters, ticket stubs from operas, playbills, pictures of gifts they send each other over the years, absolutely everything. A treasure trove and a mammoth project, but I am so entranced by this idea! The Baroque/Rococo aesthetic of the late 18th century is right up my street.
Wrap up story and finally get to the point/end of story
I’m, uh... not excellent at fully understanding the sentiment of instructions, but I feel less bad about (deliberately) misinterpreting this one, because I do so to have it mean “create an epilogue/a sequel”. Write down any ideas you have to that end.
Lulu’s children all grow up to follow careers in music. Hanna becomes an opera singer following help from Katharina and Magdalena to get her into a Conservatory in Berlin. Minna becomes a highly renowned composer (arguably a successor to Katharina), and Theo... well, I’m not exactly sure what he does, but that’s the point. I don’t have to know just yet. All I need to know is that I want to find out.
After grieving Johann, Wilhelm finds happiness and new love. Perhaps he brings his new partner to Prague, or perhaps he meets him there. That’s something I want to explore, as is...
...Herr Benes’ return to Prague with his boyfriend, meeting Wilhelm and his boyfriend (boyfriends for everyone. In this house we write gay joy or we write nothing (or we write angst)). Maybe there follow some nice rag-tag-band-of-elders adventures (quite literally a band, too, since they’ll all be musicians) and/or shenanigans. Do they all--with Katharina and Magdalena, of course--go on a fun trip to Salzburg and Eggwald together? That would be rather lovely. Some kind of Best Exotic Marigold Hotel story. Happiness.
Too many details/lose train of thought
Now’s your chance to get away from the main story! Ah, the guilty pleasure of AUs. Ah, the even more fun version of AU-related guilty pleasure where you get to write AUs of your very own novel! Go on. You deserve it, because you wrote a whole novel and you’ve read it at least as many times as you’ve drafted it... but you still want more content. You want to see how these characters that you love will cope in different worlds, different situations, different everything. Go for it. And if you have any details about the far-flung prelude or coda to the story (music terminology drop? Who’s that? I don’t know her), get into those, too. You know the ones I mean. The ones where you discuss the impact of the storyline on people centuries later, or get into the creation story of the world your characters live in.
I was fool enough to start thinking about a Vampire!AU of Violins and Violets before I had finished the first draft of the actual book. But that’s going on this list, because I have already written a slightly-related one-shot, Daughter, and I certainly don’t plan for that to be the only thing I ever make for it.
Violins and Violets and Varsity - a high school AU I’ve been thinking about since December 2018 - drawing on my experiences playing Swing Band and Pit Band in secondary school. It would be set in the UK, though, and characters would have more Anglophone-sounding names. I have some ideas for this written down somewhere in my computer, but, for now, I’m just going to leave you with the names, because I’m not certain I’m super happy about the current premise for the plot.
Katharina - Kate
Magdalena - Maddie
Hans - Henry
Bartolomeǰ - Bart
Renée - Rena
Going back to the dark academia mentioned earlier, I think it could be interesting to explore--not a modern AU, but in the modern day--how people now would look back on the lives of the characters from Violins and Violets had they really existed. I grew up not far from Reading, where an original handwritten manuscript of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was found in a charity shop in 2011, and I want to take that idea and run so, so far with it. I adore dark academia, as my followers will know, and it seems like a perfect chance to combine my knowledge of Music History and Music Theory with my current studies of Sociolinguistics. Here’s what I’m thinking:
Music History students team up with Sociolinguistics students to study the letters exchanged between the characters and coming to realise that everyone involved was a big and lovely Queer Disaster in some way or other, and that Katharina and Magdalena, as Johann and Wilhelm, were in love. And then all the students fall in love, too, because dark academia plus romance is my downfall (hence my current WIP, She Has No Name).
Steps I missed out of this process, I missed out because I couldn’t think of ways to relate them to my storyline. Those are:
What was I talking about?
Realise I’ve been talking too long.
Apologise.
If you can think of ideas to go along with those steps (although I’m hesitant to encourage anyone to apologise for what they write), too, go for it, and please let me know! I love hearing about everything you write! Now I dare you to have a go at this process for planning expansions of your story.
#writeblr#blog#adhd#writing process#writing#inside the writing process#story#series#violins and violets#storytelling#NaNoWriMo planning#nanowrimo#snowflake method#neurodivergent author#author#neurodivergent#sapphic author#sapphic#writer#writer's life#irlen pad#stationery#handwriting#writing prompt#writing prompts#writing ref#reference#writing reference#irlen syndrome
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Books I Read In May 2019
I read way more than I anticipated this month! It was greeeaaaaaaaaat 🎶 In between assignments and writing, I was picking up books be it novels or comics or non-fiction, and on my travels I was listening to audiobooks. On the whole, the books I read were pretty good -- some exciting new releases and some older books I was discovering for the first time. Keep reading for my individual reviews!
Star Wars: Revan (The Old Republic) by Drew Karpyshyn
4/5 stars
“There is no sun, no dawn; just the perpetual gloom of night. The only illumination comes from jagged forks of lightning, carving a wicked path through angry clouds. In their savage wake thunder shreds the sky, unleashing a torrent of hard, cold rain. The storm is coming, and there is no escape.”
Revan is a Star Wars character I am aware of, but know next to nothing about. I've never played the Knights of the Old Republic games, and despite how fans praise them, I don't think I ever will. But I still wanted to get a taste of the story, and I sought it out in book form. This book didn't seem to be written as an introduction to him, but I enjoyed it none the less. I am curious as to where this fits into the continuity of the games (is it a retelling of the game's story? Is it a prequel or sequel or somewhere in-between? I have no clue).
Revan is Jedi hailed as the savior of the Republic. He's suffering memory loss, and plagued by dreams of his fragmented past. The book flicks between his POV, going on a journey to recover his memories, and Darth Scurge, a Sith trying to move up in the ranks. I found his POV pretty dull at first -- I wanted to get to know Revan -- but I loved the way the two became interwoven.
Despite Revan not knowing what happened to him, I still got a good sense of his character; although I found the eventual reveal of his past lacking and confusing. It mostly just left me going...huh? And the book ends somewhat open ended. I have no idea on what medium the story continues -- I would love to know what happens next! The one glaring flaw was the way Bastilla was completely sidelined. She is another character I have heard about in the fandom, and I was looking forward to seeing her in action. But she's just Revan's loving wife.
I listened to this on audio and loved the experience. As always, this Star Wars production has great narration, music, and sound effects. Very immersive. It's a shame that the new canon books haven't delved into sith territory like this -- it's extremely interesting. Definitely recommend this to any hardcore fans who want a deeper look into the sith/jedi wars. Plus cool Mandalorian stuff.
SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope and Love With Women of The Bible by Jen Gibbs
3/5 stars
I have to say I really enjoyed my time reading SHE. Making myself a cup of tea, settling down in a comfy chair, and cracking open the pages became a little afternoon ritual. It was like sitting down with a friend and chatting about Jesus. The book is well researched, well written, and easy to read. It has a good structure; each section breaks down the topic (faith, hope, then love), and goes on to discuss how it is displayed through the women of the Bible, and finally relates it to the author's own walk with God. This grounds a lot of the bigger concepts and makes it relatable to our modern lives. I think in the right hands this could be a very impactful book. Personally, I would have liked it to go deeper into the Word as there were some aspects that felt skimmed over. Though I still recommend it to anyone interested in knowing a bit more about the women of the Bible, and to understand how God sees women.
100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons
4/5
*clears throat* THIS IS THE MOST ADORABLE BOOK I'VE EVER READ Read my full review on Eating Fiction!
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
3/5 stars
All Our Wrong Todays has a strong voice and compelling plot. The time travel element is well-balanced with a contemporary vibe. I loved the time travel element, naturally, which consisted of parallel worlds and paradoxes. But the romantic subplot was unbearable. The main character was a horrible person in general -- something that was addressed in the story and he had a decent arc and development. But his treatment towards the love interest (who was a bit of an idiot, really) and just women in general was awful. So I am giving this a well-rounded 3 stars.
So You Created a Wormhole by Phil Hornshaw and Nick Hurwitch
DNF (Did Not Finish)
I like the concept of this book: it's written as if it is an actual guide to time travelling, and the book has been purposefully brought into the readers hands by a future self. There are a lot of fun elements, but I found this book repetitive and the humor and grating. It was telling me things I already know (e.g. how the time travel in Back to The Future works) and I just got bored.
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson
3/5 stars
It should be illegal for first books in series to end with cliff hangers. Truly Devious is a murder mystery with an immersive boarding school setting, and distinct characters with decent arcs. The mystery is intriguing and provides plenty of threads to pull at.
But the ENDING. It was abrupt -- the kind of cliffhanger that’s supposed to make you want the next book immediately, I suppose. But all it did was leave me confused. The big “plot twist” it ended on was bizarre and had nothing to do with the MURDER we had spent the whole book trying to solve.
It made the whole thing feel -- almost -- like a waste of time. But...I enjoyed it enough that I am going to pick up the sequel. I want to know who the murderer is, dammit!
The Walking Dead, Issue #190: Storm The Gates by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard (Cover Art), Dave Stewart (Cover Art), Stefano Gaudiano (Artist), Cliff Rathburn (Artist)
4/5 stars
This sloooooow build up of the Commonwealth arc finally feels like it's going to pay off. And I'm here for it! I was on the verge of dropping this series, but I'm glad I stuck with it because this issue was action packed and I actually began to feel like the characters might be in danger. (That plot armor wearing thin, perhaps?) Still some newer characters I couldn't care less about, but I appreciate seeing some returning faces and I remembered that, hey, these used to be some of my favourite characters of all time, and maybe I do want to know what happens to them in this screwed-up world. I inhaled this entire issue in a very short span of time. Loved the cliffhanger, and was left excited to find out what went down in the next issue.
The Walking Dead, Issue #191: The Last Stand by Robert Kirkman, Cliff Rathburn (Illustrator), Charlie Adlard (Illustrator), Stefano Gaudiano (Illustrator), Dave Stewart (Illustrator)
5/5 stars
THE WALKING DEAD IS BACK, BABY! Wow. A Walking Dead issue hasn't made me gasp like this one did in FOREVER. This series is about to be reinvented and I am SO READY FOR IT. STEP UP CARL, STEP UP!!!!!! There were brilliant, impactful moments in this issue that will no doubt become iconic for the series. And some more quiet, touching moments between characters. Can't wait for the next issue. If that ending turns out to be a fake-out I'm gonna be so frustrated! But then...even if it is a fake-out, bravo to Kirkman and co for getting me back on board. I'm on this ship until it sinks!
Time Travel: A Writer’s Guide to the Real Science of Plausible Time Travel by Paul J. Nahin
4/5 stars
This book is a great tool for writers, like myself, who are attempting to write time travel SF. It delves into the history of time travel within the fictional realms, across mediums. And it briefly looks at the real-world context of time travel.
It explains, clearly and concisely, what you need to craft a good time travel story, and it breaks down the many forms of travelling through time. I’m glad I stumbled upon it at the library! I like to think my future self, having mastered the art of time travel, planted it in my path.
That’s all folks! Hopefully June will be another good reading month. I’ve started a new sci-fi audiobook that I’m loving so far. See you next month!
#reading wrap up#books#booklr#bookworm#book review#amreading#reading#star wars#revan#100 days of sunlight#all our wrong todays#truly devious#ya#twd#twd comics#twdc#time travel
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I’m not one of those saying that The Last Jedi needs to be declared non-canon, or that it should be remade. Those are possibilities that are never happening either way, and anyone who legitimately believes they’re possible outcomes is deluding themselves.
I AM saying, though, that it’s a VERY flawed movie with a serious tonal dissonance in comparison to The Force Awakens. The fact that it was written by someone else from the preceding movie is blatantly obvious, because the script for TFA and the script for TLJ treat similar subject matters in very different ways. The things that TFA seemed to be setting up are dismissed by TLJ for other ideas in other directions.
It feels like a movie that works best in isolation - as a movie on its own, I would probably be more charitable with it. But when it’s put in the context of the previous seven movies, it looks like a mess. Which is kind of a mistake when we’re talking about a movie that is billed as the eighth installment of the franchise’s main series.
Ultimately, when I look at The Last Jedi as a movie, I see it more as a movie with good ideas and less-good execution. Which isn’t exactly damning with faint praise, really, because I can at least recognize where they were coming from, what they were trying to do, and I can offer some recognition. But the execution still counts for a lot of things. People gave the prequels hell over their execution of good ideas, even the pettiest of them. All I’m doing is offering one viewer’s critique of what I saw presented on screen.
So let me list things that give me pause in TLJ.
Finn’s Demotion
In TFA, Finn was unquestionably the male lead. Indeed, keeping in mind that Poe’s survival was changed at the last minute because JJ Abrams found out that Oscar Issac wasn’t satisfied with dying in the TIE crash on Jakku, we are introduced to his character arc first, even before we meet Rey. He is a driving motivation for the movie’s plot, to the point that he makes the attack on Starkiller Base possible. His story is pushing the plot of TFA forward, to the point where if he were removed, the story does not continue or make sense.
His story in TLJ is a comic relief subplot that could be excised from the movie and nothing is lost. Indeed, the Canto Bight/dreadnought infiltration sequence is a plot cul-de-sac, where Finn and Rose go off somewhere to do something and come right back to fail at their mission and it ultimately has no bearing on the plot of the movie. Hell, Finn is the feature of multiple deleted scenes, saying that his character HAD more to contribute, but it was decided that his story could be cut down. If you were to make a cut of TLJ that removed Finn entirely, the movie would progress with no interruption or question of ‘hey wait, how’d we get here?’
The male lead of The Force Awakens’s character arc was cut down in The Last Jedi, the follow-up. And in his place, Kylo Ren has become the male lead of TLJ. That’s an issue I’ll get to later, but suffice to say, Finn is treated as a superfluous character of the movie.
The fact that he infiltrates a First Order vessel, after his defection was his defining character trait in TFA, and nothing about this is explored or examined, seeing what this means for him, to return to the world he’d left behind, is really one of the most galling things. Cut Canto Bight entirely and have him and Rose infiltrate the First Order, and actively explore it, you’ve made this a major part of the plot, both for the movie proper, to explore the motivations and intentions of the First Order in deeper detail, and the character, who, again, had about 70% of his character arc left on the cutting room floor.
Finn is, in the final cut of The Last Jedi, an afterthought, a lingering appendage they couldn’t cut off, but was sidelined as much as possible.
The Poe-Holdo Plot
This one’s going to be a long one, but it’s got a web of issues within it, so bear with me here.
There’s something that could work here. Poe being reckless, Holdo being the authority figure that he butts heads with. Even the movie itself seems to want to say that they both had fair points, considering the bit where Holdo tells Leia she likes him (after the mutiny) and Poe is fine with her plan once he knows what it is.
But here’s how this falls apart: At one point, Poe specifically says ‘I don’t care if I’m not part of the plan, just tell me there is one!’ Holdo is playing all her cards close to the vest so tightly that it’s not just Poe who mutinies. It’s a handful of the Resistance, Connix (the character played by Billie Lourd, Carrie Fisher’s daughter) included. We saw her directing the evacuation of D’Qar at the start of TLJ, which means she’s got a fairly solid rank within the Resistance - you don’t put a vital task like that in the hands of some junior officer. And SHE hasn’t been told about Holdo’s plan.
And once Poe finds out about her plan, he’s completely accepting of it. What mattered to him wasn’t that he be involved in the plan, but that they weren’t just running out the clock to when the First Order could wipe them out completely. Holdo’s refusal to even acknowledge a plan - a plan that, frankly, I find it questionable that he wouldn’t be on the shortlist of being told, regardless of rank, given his skill and the fact that he’s a hero of the attack on Starkiller, because it would call for having their best pilots on hand, and it isn’t like being short-staffed isn’t a major point for the Resistance in this plotline - is what brings him to the decision to mutiny, because apparently no one but Holdo’s inner circle are even aware OF the plan. Not what the plan is, but its existence.
Poe’s mutiny comes about because of her withholding information, which, while understandable, because she is the acting head of the Resistance and Poe is a soldier on reprimand as it is, but... It honestly comes across as personal on her part - Poe was the one who led Cobalt Squad at the start to their deaths, Cobalt Squad was under her command. There is a time and a place for teaching someone humility. Being under the direct threat of the death of yourself, your soldiers, and indeed, the Resistance in its entirety? This seems like a poor time for that.
Since it was brought up recently, let’s address Holdo’s appearance. Her dress is not that of a military officer, unlike every other high-ranking member of the Resistance. Holdo looks like she’s dressed for a high class dinner party, not combat. Whatever you want to say about the message intended to be sent, what I come away seeing is a character who is not taking this threat to the future of the Resistance seriously, because she is walking around in an outfit more suited for drinking wine with Senators than a military combat zone, a vessel directly under fire from an enemy with tactical superiority.
Like... look how she stands out against these pilots and soldiers, and not in a good way. Look, we even see a command officer in the bottom right corner, a woman with a military uniform and a rank insignia. Or the line of soldiers behind her, wearing combat fatigues. Holdo’s appearance is not that of a military leader, and yet that is the role that she is in, that she knows she is in all through the movie - even if she wasn’t dressed properly when she takes command, that her promotion came about abruptly and needed her to take command immediately, she never changes out of that to appear more like a military command officer.
The movie narratively frames her as being in the wrong, too - she’s a new character who, in moments of her introduction, condescends to Poe, a character we’ve already built a connection with. Now, you want to talk about this as a subversion of audience expectations? Okay, here’s the problem with this as a subversion - Poe is shown accepting her plan instantly once he knows about it. He repeatedly asks to be let in on the existence of the plan, not the details. For it to be a subversion, he’d have to learn a lesson, but his actions feel more justified, because he TRIED to get the information from her. Hell, he didn’t even go that far, he tried just to get the existence of the information from her, that there WAS a plan being put in place, even if it didn’t include him.
His efforts go from questioning her one-on-one, in which she brushes him off, in front of subordinates, which she ignores, and finally one last chance to say ANYTHING about her plan at the very start of his mutiny. Considering the deadline they were under of less than eighteen hours, that’s actually pretty generous, when the alternative is certain death at the hands of the First Order. Meanwhile, we see no indication that Holdo regrets what she did, even though it led to a mutiny that could easily have been avoided and the signs for it coming about were there for all to see. The closest is her sacrificing herself to ram the First Order vessels, which comes across not a narrative ‘I must atone for my mistakes’ death but ‘I will give up my life for others.’
This plot is a mess, and I find it... sketchy at best, when in tandem with point number one, that Finn (a black man) being bumped from male lead to allow a white man to take his spot and Poe (a Latino man) has to learn a lesson about listening to authority from a white woman. Being white myself, I don’t feel like the person who is best qualified to explain the issues of this, but it feels... questionable at best that this happened
Luke’s ‘Moment of Weakness’
“I feel the good in you, Father. Let go of your hate!”
Luke Skywalker never stopped believing there was good in Darth Vader. Darth Vader, the man who tortured both of his closest friends. The man who cut off his hand. The man who had been the Emperor’s personal attack dog for twenty years. The man who is, to this day, still considered the embodiment of evil, despite Palpatine having been pulling his strings.
And you want me to believe that he would, for even a moment, contemplate killing his nephew for what he might become? That he would contemplate it enough to stand over his nephew with a lit lightsaber?
Nuh uh. I don’t. I will never.
Look, you want me to go with a narrative of ���our heroes sometimes let us down’? Fine. I can work with that. But it needs to make sense. It needs to be a moment of weakness that can be understood. This one is not. This is the man who, while being electrocuted by the Emperor begged Vader, who had, not five minutes earlier, been ready to kill him himself, who, again, has a list of direct personal kills longer than the Kessel Run, to save him. Even in desperation for his life, Luke calls to Vader, asking, begging him to save him. In the moments that could have been his last, he makes an appeal to the good in Vader.
So you want me to believe that he has a moment of weakness to consider killing his nephew as he sleeps? No. I can’t accept that. That is not a moment of weakness that is based on the character we’ve seen. If anything, Luke’s greatest flaw is his unshakable faith in people, even when they’ve broken beyond all belief. His moment of weakness would not be in considering to kill Kylo Ren. It would be realizing that he had given up on Kylo entirely.
And yeah, you can say ‘those are the same thing,’ but the movie frames Luke making the decision to kill Kylo as that moment. Not, say, seeing Kylo standing in the ruins of Luke’s academy, the building a smoldering ruin and surrounded by the corpses of his students. THAT is the moment he would decide to run, to exile himself from the galaxy.
Luke’s moment of weakness wasn’t in considering killing Kylo. It was in running away to exile because he’d failed as a teacher and unleashed a new Vader on the galaxy.
The Timeline Makes No Damn Sense
The evacuation of D’Qar is implied to be shortly after the destruction of Starkiller Base at the end of TFA. Rey has traveled to Ahch-to to begin her training as a Jedi. Fair enough.
The evacuation gets underway, and we’re told they have eighteen hours of fuel left. Okay. Finn and Rose go to Canto Bight in an effort to find the codebreaker so the Resistance vessels can’t be tracked in hyperspace. I’m raising a skeptical eyebrow that the fuel can’t be put to better use, but fine. The entire Canto Bight sequence takes place within that eighteen hour period with time to spare to get back. Okay. Okay. That’s stretching it, but okay.
Rey manages to complete her training, which is explicitly taking place over days, if not weeks, and rejoin the fighting just in time for the fuel to run out.
Wait. Rey’s training is explicitly taking place over days, even though everything happening with everyone else is explicitly taking place in the same twenty-four hour period. What?
The easiest explanation, of course, is that Rey’s plot is taking place on a different time scale, starting earlier than the evacuation of D’Qar... Which is explicitly taking place very shortly after the destruction of Starkiller. And, because of her communications through the Force with Kylo Ren, seem to be roughly on par with the timeline of the rest of the movie.
I... Look, hyperspace travel may be intentionally left sketchy on distance traveled at a given speed in a given ship, but this timeline makes no damn sense whatsoever.
Yoda
The muppet had no business being the one to tell Luke that the Jedi Order had failed and he needed to let go of it. Yoda never learned this lesson himself, and I said as much from the first time I saw TLJ in theaters. If anything, this should have been Anakin’s moment with his son, a moment that we are likely never to get after this movie. Anakin was the Jedi Order’s failure, and it was because of their rigid devotion to the Jedi teachings.
If the rest of the movie was supposed to be flying in the face of nostalgia as some claim, Yoda’s appearance smacks entirely OF nostalgia.
The Death of Snoke
I’m actually of two minds on this one. But let’s discuss the mind that didn’t like this. Snoke had been built up as a bigger threat. That he’d somehow gotten to Ben Solo to twist him to the dark side. That he’s this big bad Force user, tying together the remnants of the Empire into the First Order. He is the Supreme Leader, ascending to the throne left empty after Palpatine’s death.
And then he’s so casually killed off, you have to wonder what the point of the character even was.
It’s not so much the death itself that bothers me - I said I was of two minds on this one, and I appreciate it as the step that solidifies that Kylo Ren has made his choice, and it’s the dark side. But it’s the fact that it’s such an anti-climax that bothers me. He’d been built up, and we’re left with no answers about who and what he is, how he got to his position, why the First Order follows him... Nothing. He is a cipher for the plot.
Rey’s Belief In Kylo Ren
Honestly, this one is more that it makes me uncomfortable than anything empirically wrong on a story level. I can understand how Rey would latch on to this bond between her and Kylo. I can accept that, once she did that, she would want to try and pull him back to the light. I can even go along with her disappointment once he makes his decision.
But it still skews uncomfortably into the realm of her devoting herself to trying to ‘fix’ the broken man. Fortunately, she seems to give up on him after he ascends to the role of Supreme Leader, but still... For the movie to spend this time on her being tied to his arc is troubling, especially when it makes her arc take a backseat.
Where’s The Hope?
I went into this a few weeks ago, when The Last Jedi ends, I don’t walk out with a feeling of hope. Just despair. Our heroes only victory in this movie is that they’re not all dead. That’s really about it. They’re down to a motley crew that can fit in the Falcon, so no more than forty tops, at a stretch. Down from a force that numbered in hundreds at the start. Their fleet is gone, Luke and Han have been killed. The First Order is still out there, still with tactical superiority. No one came to their aid at Crait beyond Luke.
Hope was the driving force of this franchise. Rogue One used “Rebellions are built on hope” as a tagline. The first movie’s subtitle is “A New Hope.” Even Revenge of the Sith, a movie we all went in to KNOWING it would end on a bleak note, offered a direct beacon of hope in seeing the birth of the twins. TLJ just offers a child gazing up at the stars with dreams of being something more than a slave. THAT’S the big inspirational message here. A child character we don’t know looking up to the stars with dreams, while the heroes we spent the rest of the movie watching chug along in what is accurately described as a past-warranty winnebago with no destination in mind and the bad guys having won by running them off.
Subversions can work. But I think that subverting the Star Wars universe on this type of scale would have worked better under the Star Wars Story brand, rather than the main sequence of movies, because this is where the heart of Star Wars has always been. Hope has been a driving force in this series.
And The Last Jedi did not leave me feeling much in the way of hope.
The movie does get some things right - I am perfectly accepting of the idea that Rey is not part of some great Force lineage, and still powerful. There’s no need for her to be part of some longstanding line of Jedi, because the Force is able to manifest in anyone. Why limit it to the Skywalkers, the Solos, the Kenobis, the Jinns, whoever?
I love Rose, and think she’s a great addition to the Star Wars universe.
Despite making Kylo Ren the male lead, the movie doesn’t jump to saying that he’s a pure, innocent soul being misled. He made his choice, and he’s actively living with the consequences. With the end of the movie framing it as a hollow victory, it does feel like a cautionary tale.
Again, I’m unsatisfied with the movie, but I can live with it - it’s one movie out of three in the trilogy, nine in the main series, eleven (so far) in the franchise. You can’t please everyone. I get all of that, and I’m still going to see Episode IX. Hell, I went to see Solo after this. So I am not saying that the franchise is ruined forever or anything. I just think this movie was... Perhaps the best way to put it is that it was trying to push too many ideas at once. Individually, I think a lot of the ideas involved in here are workable. Just maybe that I found there to be too many ideas happening at once that they didn’t get the time they needed to be worked through enough to solidify in the best possible story.
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Let’s Talk About Novae!
Before we continue, please be sure you’ve read Ye Olde Disclaimer so you know what exactly is going on here!
And beware… SPOILERS AHEAD!
Let me tell you, I had to shorten what I originally wrote by a lot because I couldn’t shut up about it.
I wanted to start off this series with a webcomic very dear to my heart, which is the wonderful Novae by @kaixju, a duo of artists with a solid comics resume behind them. KaiJu have collaborated in the past on The Ring of Saturn, Mahou Josei Chimaka, and Inhabitant of Another Planet, which is the prequel to Novae. All are hosted on Sparkler Monthly, and I highly recommend reading them all. Not just because Sulvain and Raziol cameo in The Ring of Saturn as well as Mahou Josei Chimaka, which I thought was so good.
Novae follows the tale of two men in 17th century France, at the height of the scientific revolution. One is Raziol Qamar, the apprentice of the esteemed scientist Christiaan Huygens. Raziol is the son of a translator, and has a boundless love of astronomy. The other is Sulvain. Yep, just Sulvain, no last name so far. He’s a mysterious traveler that we know very little about yet, other than the fact that he is curious, lonely, and loves the stars just as much as Raziol does. You can see where this is going.
We get a number of strong visual hints as to Sulvain’s past or the truth of his existence, and surely more info will be revealed very soon. Novae has just completed Chapter 4, which very neatly contains the blossoming of a relationship between Sulvain and Raziol. I won’t summarize the story thus far, because I would much rather you go read the comic for yourself! Instead, let’s start looking at some of the key themes Novae gives us:
Loneliness
Belonging
Grief
The powerful multifaceted-ness of love
In Inhabitant from Another Planet, we are introduced to many of these key themes through a look into Raziol’s past- namely, his last intimate relationship. This, in addition to Sulvain’s flashbacks from Chapter Four, brings me to one of my favorite things about Novae: it is not afraid to be absolutely open with the character’s past loves. Novae is a story primarily about the love between Raziol and Sulvain, but it is just as much about the love that, inevitably, brings them together. Something I see often in the Romance genre is this idea that giving positive and meaningful context to a character’s past relationship(s) is somehow de-valuing their present one. Past relationships are sometimes treated as a stepping stone to get to the ‘one true love’, or a device to create hurt comfort. As if the current relationship needs to be the only good one the characters have ever had, and that’s what makes it meaningful. It’s not. And I’m not saying that stories where that happens are inherently bad, because that’s not true either. It needs to be handled delicately.
What Novae does is provide us with insight into the past relationships that built Raziol and Sulvain into the people they are now. That they have loved before, they love now, and they absolutely can love again. Romance is not devalued by the presence of other loves. And I love the insight into that. It tells us so much about them. Raziol’s relationship with Bevan provided a moment in time where he felt considerably understood and happy- temporarily, yes, but that temporalness led him to reconnect with his father. The feeling of otherness has not left Raziol in Novae, and it’s a pivotal part of why he connects with Sulvain. Raziol gravitates towards people that help relieve that. As for Sulvain, at this point we can only guess. I have my theories about his condition. There are many hints that he practices Necromancy, and even more hints that he’s either undead or immortal or something of that nature. Immortality and loneliness are inseparable from each other, classically. Raziol gives him something he can easily give back: familiarity and nostalgia, and the delight in learning new things.
But with immortality (or whatever it is that plagues him) comes the other classic issue: the fear of intimacy and, you know… getting attached. How many times can one obviously sensitive guy handle burying the people he loves? And yet, intimacy and comfort is all too enticing. Who can blame him? I’m interested in seeing where that goes once we know more.
Side note, I appreciate that this is the first time they see each other. Nothing is better than main couples having an embarrassing first interaction.
And Sulvain is just kinda like [nods] “Yes, understandable. I, too, have that reaction to myself.”
Another one of my favorite aspects of Novae is the attention to detail. So many tiny bits of the world are so carefully researched and considered, it makes my history-loving heart sing. Objects in a room can do so much in developing a character, and it’s so nice to see that so thought out for both Sulvain and Raziol’s father’s apartments. It is believable that a person lives there, and the word feels so tangibly like 17th century France. This makes is so easy to become immersed in the world these characters inhabit. We are not simply following their story on its surface, but becoming part of the environment that drives that story. Not only that, but the comic places such a loving emphasis on tiny, quiet moments.
Every small gesture, every silent look they give each other means something so visceral and signifies a huge step forward. Soft and so often silent, but that’s what forces you to pay attention. The limited color palette deftly assists in this, every single page dominated by either a rich blue or yellow or a mix of the two. Blue, the historical color of divinity, cosmos and magic, and yellow, the historical color of happiness and knowledge.
I want to bookend this with a look at my favorite scene so far, which is related to my earlier point about Sulvain’s past love: the final scene of Chapter Four, in which we see a flashback showing Sulvain burying the mystery woman from his memory (Ohhhoh whooo could she be??). The color palette transforms stunningly. It’s not easy to show flashbacks without being heavy-handed and direct (or alternately, not being clear enough), but this color palette change does it in such a nice way that sits well with the feeling of the rest of the story. The burial shown is a traditional burning-pyre one, and this is the first time we get to see Sulvain displaying extreme emotions. He weeps for her, wailing, but silently due to his inability to speak. And it’s beautiful, not only because of the stunning imagery but also because it handles quick, simply addressed death within a story pretty fantastically.
Sulvain’s relationship with this woman is powerful and meaningful. Her death is not the end of his story, but it does lastingly impact it. And he is allowed to mourn, and feel vivid emotions, and still grieve however many years into the future when these feelings affect the new connections he builds, and that is okay. Sulvain is not shamed for having complicated feelings, or not being completely ready to dive in headfirst into a new romance, but instead go slowly. Don’t forget, in the Novae timeline, Raziol and Sulvain have only known each other a few days (which is just my guess). It just makes me unbelievably happy that that understanding is there in the formative moments of their relationship, and it’s not used as a miscommunication drama fodder (a big pet peeve of mine). Each of them knows that they are both going into this with a lot of baggage, and part of a strong relationship is working through that together, and giving it time.
To briefly address another technical aspect, suffice to say dialogue is one of the most difficult parts of comic writing. There is a fine line between too much dialogue and just enough. Novae stays within this line wonderfully. As a reader, I never feel like the story is unnecessarily being explained to me. It takes advantage of the beauty of a visual medium and allows visuals to tell the story clearly and concisely, and all dialogue serves to enhance the story. It never feels too wordy, and everything is so astoundingly poetic that the dialogue itself works perfectly in tandem with the environment.
In conclusion, Novae deserves serious props for handling a slow, quiet narrative so well. It’s really difficult to manage that, especially in webcomic time when you generally update a page at a time. With longform webcomics, it’s easy to lose the reader’s attention from update to update if it feels like nothing is happening. But here, with every page, something huge is happening. It’s just a quieter, more contemplative something, and I look forward to it every time. I know whenever a Novae page goes up, it’s going to be gorgeous and I’m already completely invested in the complexities of these characters. Reading this comic, you can feel the love and care the creators have put into developing it. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
PLEASE go read Novae, leave many comments, and support KaiJu! You can do so by:
Following them on Twitter
Becoming a Patron
Sharing their Portfolio
Follow them on Tumblr
And tell your friends about Novae!
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MegaMan PSP Games - Powered Up / Maverick Hunter X
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The Mega Man series has always been tough for newcomers to dive into. Its a series based on challenge, skill, and memorizing stages and patterns. The original series was restrained by the technical limitations of the time, so they look more cartoony and kid friendly. The Super Nintendo’s Mega Man X series was a sequel intended to carry the torch and bring the Blue Bomber into the 16-bit era with a new look, new moves, and a new, more mature storyline.
In 2005 Capcom announced a pair of simultaneous releases for Sony’s PlayStation Portable handheld console. Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X were remakes of the first games in the Mega Man and Mega Man X series that utilized the 3D capabilities of the PlayStation Portable to render new ways to experience these gems of gaming. Both were remade with the idea to be accessible to newcomers, and plans were in the works for sequels to both games based on Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X2.
Unfortunately, sluggish sales would lead to both sequels being canceled. Today we have the Mega Man and Mega Man X Legacy Collections to give us our fill, but these titles were more than just ports. There were new features, new bosses, they were practically their own games worthy of their own discussion. That’s why today we’re going to be taking a look at Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X.
MegaMan Powered Up
It’s said that when designing Mega Man, Keiji Inafune wanted to use a “super deformed” style for the characters. Big heads on little bodies for a funny, cute look. The problem was that the technology of the time made it difficult to portray this style, so a compromise was made. The characters were still cute, but the proportions weren’t as exaggerated as originally intended. Inafune would get his chance to try his “chibi” designs when Capcom announced Mega Man Powered Up in 2005, a complete remake of the original Mega Man, updated for Sony’s new PSP handheld.
Gaming had changed a lot between the 1980’s and the mid-2000’s. Before, game design was influenced by arcade trends. Challenge and difficulty were added to games of the time to hide the fact that these games theoretically could be beaten within the span of a few hours. The original Mega Man games came from an era where rental services like Blockbuster made it easy for someone to spend $5 instead of $50 on a game for the week. If a game could be beat in an afternoon, then there was no reason for the gamer to buy the game. This was also helped by the lack of save features in these early games.
In the mid-2000’s, however, these tricks were irrelevant. Game development had reached a point where games had enough content. There was no longer a need to pad a game with challenge to keep them from beating it in a single sitting. With this in mind, Capcom sought to re-work the original Mega Man series for the next generation of kids who hadn’t grown up with the originals. Now there are multiple difficulties to cater to different kinds of players.
The premise, characters, levels, music, almost everything in the game are based on the original Mega Man, but now everything is expanded upon. Characters pop-out in 3D, and the levels follow the same designs, but now the world feels more alive. The story is played out through character dialogue and little cutscenes. This game would go on to influence the story and characters in the Archie tie-in comics.
Two new characters were created specifically for this game, each with their own unique level. Time Man and Oil Man bring the game’s original six Robot Masters up to eight, in line with the rest of the series. Oil Man’s design would cause controversy as it closely resembles the “Blackface” stereotype, with his black skin and big red lips.
For some background, Japanese artists are influenced by those who came before them, and a lot of the original manga artists learned from American cartoonists. Blackface portrayals were prominent in American cartoons and comics, which were imported to Japan after World War II. The average person in Japan doesn’t have any context for the history of Blackface in America, which doesn’t excuse the depictions. Because of this cultural misunderstanding, Oil Man’s skin was turned dark blue and his lips were colored yellow.
My favorite addition to this game is the ability to play as the boss characters you defeat. Each boss has their trusty weapon as their base weapon, and now the empty hole they left in their stage has been filled by a rogue Mega Man who’s looking for trouble. There are other playable characters, but I won’t spoil them for you.
I’m disappointed that we never got to see any sequels to Powered Up. It seemed like the perfect formula for Mega Man. Remake 1 through 6 in this style, maybe 7 and 8, then they could’ve done 9 and 10 too. Every time I see a new trailer for 11 I just think of it as a sequel to Powered Up, but with a more streamlined design. Don’t get me started on Mighty No. 9, the unfortunate “spiritual successor” to the Mega Man series.
Mega Man Powered Up is one of the best PSP games, and possibly one of the best Mega Man games. It’s unfortunate that it came out too early in the PSP’s lifespan to really take off, maybe if Capcom had ported the game to the PS2 or Gamecube it would have fared better.
MegaMan Maverick Hunter X
Maverick Hunter X, the companion title to Mega Man Powered Up, is a remake of the 1993 Super Nintendo classic Mega Man X. Unlike Powered Up, which completely redesigned the classic Mega Man, Maverick Hunter X stays relatively true to the original design and style of the Mega Man X franchise. It features anime cutscenes, similar to those used in Mega Man X3 and X4. One could argue that the animation and voice acting are noticeably better this time around.
While Powered Up was designed to be accessible for anyone, Maverick Hunter X is designed to be a more mature challenge. There’s no Easy Mode this time, only Normal and Hard. The first Mega Man X was never as challenging as later games in the series, but it wasn’t a walk in the park. Maverick Hunter X isn’t easier, but it does feel a little tighter to control.
The MegaMan series has never been strong on plot, but the Mega Man X sub-series does have a surprisingly strong lore. This has only ever been casually hinted at, with little exposition besides a few animated cutscenes or slideshows. Maverick Hunter X delivers a decent story in the form of an animated opening cutscene, as well as character dialogue between stages. Each boss battle opens with a back-and-forth between X and the boss in question where they explain their perspective before jumping into the action.
Once you beat the game you unlock what’s probably the coolest bonus a video game can have: a 25 minute animated film. The Day of Σ is a self-contained animated special that ties in with the game. The special is a prequel that ends where the game begins, and it tells the story of Sigma and the other reploids going Maverick.
This approach to video game storytelling works surprisingly well because it doesn’t interfere with the gameplay. Most story-driven games feel bloated with unending cutscenes, other games don’t feel fleshed out enough when they don’t include any cutscenes. Maverick Hunter X including an anime OVA is similar to 2003’s Dot Hack series from Bandai, which also came with a four part animated mini-series. 2010’s Dragon Ball Raging Blast, also from Namco Bandai, similarly featured a 20 minute special called The Plan to Eradicate The Super Saiyans.
Fans of the Mega Man X series have noted some inconsistencies with Maverick Hunter X and The Day of Sigma compared to the rest of the franchise. These story inconsistencies wouldn’t matter if Capcom had gone through with their plan to reboot the X series. Had they continued the groundwork started by Maverick Hunter X, future games would fill in the blanks, and re-tell the original stories in new and exciting ways.
As far as fan speculation goes, we can draw all of Mega Man’s problems in the late 2000’s/early 2010’s right here. Mega Man Powered Up and Maverick Hunter X were great games, but for one reason or another neither title was very successful at the time of release. What’s worse is, Maverick Hunter X was available digitally on the PlayStation Network Store when the PlayStation Vita debuted, but Mega Man Powered Up couldn’t get the same treatment due to technical issues.
Both games are great and it's a shame that they’re lost to time, trapped forever on a long forgotten handheld. I have nothing against the Mega Man Legacy Collections, but I miss the days when developers attempted to remake their classic games for later generations. While there’s no arguing against the value of preserving original games and making them available to be played as originally intended, I think the world would benefit from more modernized remakes that take advantage of today’s technology to do things they could never originally do.
I hope one day Capcom releases both Mega Man PSP games. Possibly alongside other mid-2000’s curiosities like Mega Man X Command Mission and Mega Man Network Transmission. There are enough oddball Mega Man spin-offs to fill a few more Legacy Collections, I think.
Where to Buy
Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)
Mega Man Maverick Hunter X (PSP)
Mega Man Double Pack (PSP)
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Empress Of Mars - Doctor Who blog
(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)
Well... at least it’s not as bad as Sleep No More.
Yes it seems Mark Gatiss decided to spare us the agony of a sequel to his derivative, found footage schlock in favour of a return visit to the Ice Warriors. And this time, we’re going to the Red Planet itself.
I can’t say I was optimistic going into this. Gatiss’ last attempt at an Ice Warrior story was a bit of a letdown and I’ve never exactly been a big fan of the Ice Warriors anyway. They’re not bad, just not very interesting. Despite 1972′s The Curse Of Peladon setting the stage for a more complex and engaging path for the Ice Warriors to take, Doctor Who has frustratingly never taken it. Instead forcing them to tread the same alien invasion route again and again.
In some ways Empress Of Mars serves as a prequel to The Curse Of Peladon (there’s even a surprise cameo appearance from Alpha Centauri at the end with Ysanne Churchman reprising the role). In theory this could have been a great opportunity to give the Ice Warriors the depth they desperately need and that Who has stubbornly refused to capitalise on until now. Depict how the Ice Warriors went from being a race of nomadic conquerers to the noble peacekeepers of the Galactic Federation.
Sadly it isn’t.
So it’s 1881, and already I’m confused. If the Ice Warriors join the Galactic Federation in 1881, why did they try to invade Earth in The Seeds Of Death? Were they another rogue chapter like the ones in The Monster Of Peladon? That doesn’t seem likely. But anyway, it’s 1881 and it’s the Martians vs the British Empire. Like H.G Wells, only not as good. These Victorian soldier guys have fixed an Ice Warrior’s spaceship (how they did that I have no idea) and have come to claim Mars in the name of Queen Victoria. God save the Queen, tally ho and all that bollocks. But thanks to a cockney tea leaf who can’t keep his hands off a shiny thing for five fucking minutes, the Ice Queen has been resurrected and now it’s a war... unless the Doctor does something... which he doesn’t. In fact that’s one of the many problems with this story. The Doctor seems to be almost superfluous to the plot. He doesn’t actually do anything, merely being a spectator. Same with Bill, although she does get some good moments, like when she confronts the Ice Queen. The other main problem is that Empress Of Mars is titanically dull.
It looks as though Mark Gatiss’ ideas bucket is getting very empty. Not only is this set in the Victorian era again, a lot of the plot feels like its been borrowed wholesale from the previous Ice Warrior story Cold War. You’ve got the Doctor pleading ineffectually at the Ice Warriors to show mercy, a one dimensional traitor who wants to fight the Ice Warriors despite all the evidence demonstrating why this is a spectacularly stupid idea, and the Ice Warriors themselves being little more than angry, ranting, shouty brutes with almost non-existent motivations.
Also, like in Cold War, Gatiss seems to be borrowing liberally from the Silurians, but it doesn’t work for two reasons. The first is the context. Both humans and Silurians share the same planet and have an equal claim to it. Here, the humans are invading Mars. The Ice Warriors are clearly in the right here. Quite why Friday and the Doctor want the two to form an alliance I don’t know. I fail to see what humanity could possibly offer the Ice Warriors. Yes Mars is a dead world now, but the Ice Warriors still have far superior tech. They don’t really have anything to worry about. The second is the complexity, or rather the lack of it. It’s not possible to sympathise with either side of the conflict because both sides are portrayed in a ludicrously over the top fashion. The Ice Queen does the usual shouting, warmongering nonsense, whereas Friday is portrayed as being so nice to the point of being delusional. He believes that humanity could help rebuild Mars (why does he believe this?! Someone explain this to me!), and even when the soldiers start attacking, he still insists on defending them. He’s just such a flat character with no depth or personality whatsoever.
The humans on the other hand are somehow even worse. Man, don’t you just hate the British Empire? With their imperialist colonialism and racist arrogance? Yes! Of course we do! But do you know what would be more interesting? Exploring why someone would willingly buy into that kind of elitist entitlement. No one is racist just because. Why do they feel superior? Why do they look down on others? Then while you’re answering those questions, use the opportunity to take them down a peg or two. But no. It’s all tea and scones and over the top RP accents. They’re little more than caricatures.
Only two characters stand out. Traitor guy and Captain Coward (I can’t remember their names and I bet you can’t either). Traitor guy is so one dimensionally evil, it borders on comical. He declares war on the Ice Warriors for no reason other than he’s British and they’re ‘savages’ (snort), and when that doesn’t work, he scarpers off and takes the Ice Queen hostage after the Doctor threatens everyone with a giant gun (yes. A giant gun. That’s bound to help calm things down, you fucking moron). Again, no idea why he decides to threaten the Ice Queen. He reckons she can fly the spaceship, but why does he think that? That would be like kidnapping Queen Victoria because she knows how to ride a horse. And then there’s Captain Coward. A deserter who was hanged, but survived and so his executioners just shrugged it off and allowed him to rejoin the army.
Rrrrright.
Then once he’s shot Traitor guy and the Ice Queen has praised him for sacrificing the bastard without gaining a tactical advantage (I would have thought stopping a traitor from half-inching your spaceship and only means of escape was a tactical advantage, but hey ho. You say tomato, I say this is a shit script), Captain Coward promptly forgets about the Queen and country he pledged to serve and instead joins the Ice Warriors instead. Presumably he’s going to help rebuild Mars by making the tea.
And then we end with the Master showing up and being all concerned about the Doctor’s wellbeing, which would have been more impactful if we had seen her growth and development over the course of the series instead of it happening entirely offscreen. Also am I the only one starting to detect a whiff of Moffat style sexism here? Can you imagine a male Master doing this? Please don’t tell me the only reason the sex change occurred was just to make the Master yet another one dimensional female character to prop up the Doctor? Don’t we already have enough of those?
So that was Empress Of Mars. Cliched, dull, unoriginal and painfully unsubtle. If you want a Victorian era sci-fi story that criticises imperial colonialism and features Martians, read War Of The Worlds instead.
#empress of mars#mark gatiss#doctor who#twelfth doctor#peter capaldi#bill potts#pearl mackie#nardole#matt lucas#the master#michelle gomez#ice warriors#steven moffat#bbc#review#spoilers
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Re: ‘Star Wars’ as the complete saga
Or, what the term means (and does not mean) to me
As is no doubt obvious by now, I do not accept Disney’s post-RotJ version of events as a legitimate continuation of Lucas’ saga. While I’ve already gone over my reasons in great depth in previous posts here, here, and here, I thought I would offer my current views on the subject, including my definition and understanding of ‘Star Wars’ as a complete ‘created myth’.
For anyone who might not already be aware, I was utterly devastated by TFA. After I saw it in cinemas, I honestly thought that Star Wars was lost to me forever. The only way I can describe it is that it felt like someone had actually reached back into the past, physically wrenched my childhood and youthful happiness out of my heart, and replaced it with a black hole of despair. It took me almost a year to try to erase that film (and it’s entire ‘premise’) from my mind. But after spending a great deal of time writing and thinking about how I personally define Star Wars (both in as a term and in the sense of its story structure), and what it means to me and why, I have been able to live happily ever after in my preferred version of the SW universe that ends after RotJ...as it always has, and always should, really. :')
That being said, in the current fandom experience (not to mention in popular culture and marketing media) it is almost impossible to fully avoid mentions ofthe Sequels. There are times I almost wish I could muster up even a small scrap of enthusiasm about those films, even just a tiny bit. But I can’t. I have tried, believe me. My life would be so much easier if I could. But every time I have to see or even think of the main 'characters' in it, or anything about it really (it happens, because it's everywhere), the feelings I experience range from total apathy, to bored annoyance, to extreme unease and a sense of looming dread....sometimes even to the point of making me feel sick to my stomach.
It's hard to explain. It's like there is this huge disconnect in my mind between what Disney *says* is ‘real’ (and what many fans and general audiences so readily accept), and what my heart knows to be true... and this aspect of 'SW' simply does not feel real to me. I don't *believe* in these characters or scenarios, at all. It’s like someone has wrapped something counterfeit in the outer trappings of something real, and is trying to pass it off as the real thing. The other day, someone mentioned the sequel films to me in passing, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to immediately blurt out: "You mean the FAKE sequels?" ;p I just can't take it seriously as a genuine part of Star Wars—neither as a legitimate continuation of the Skywalker saga, nor even as a valid entry into the SW universe—and never will.
And honestly, at this point, it wouldn’t even matter if the subsequent sequel films were 'better', in an objective sense, than TFA—the damage is done. How can you retcon something that is itself nothing but negative retcon? There's no fixing it. Nothing that might or might not 'happen' in the other films could ever make what was supposed to have happened between RotJ and TFA any different. And since THAT is where my biggest issue lies, there's just no way of getting around it. And therefore, I simply cannot like or even remotely warm to characters who are supposed to exist in the context of a situation the very basis of which I completely disagree with and do not believe would ever have happened, under any circumstance.
But I’ve already discussed the details of why TFA just doesn’t work for me as a continuation of the Star Wars saga. Over and over. So why, then, am I still going on about it? Well, after talking with many different people (some who enjoy the sequels, some who do not), each with their own approach to Star Wars, it became clear to me that there was, perhaps, an important distinction that needed to be made.
What it boils down to, I have come to realize, is the definition of ‘Star Wars’ as a term, and the perception of what that title means. I bring this up not because I think my definition is the only possible definition—I accept that, in this day in age, there are as many different definitions of the term as there are Star Wars fans. And so, for some, ‘Star Wars’ might now simply be whatever Disney says it is. For others, it might be the Original Trilogy only, and nothing more. For many long-time fans, it is Lucas’ saga *and* their preferred elements of the Expanded Universe, all combined. Everyone is of course free to define it as they will. But I feel it is important to specify what I, personally, am referring to when I write about ‘Star Wars’ and ‘what it means’.
As we know, Disney have now provided their own definition—they have done so by their delineation of what makes up the ‘New Canon’. But despite the constant stream of content they continue to churn out and try to shove down our throats, we are not bound by that definition. We are not. Why suddenly, is their definition of canon the only valid one? Just because they are they ‘keepers’ of the new ‘official’ content? How is that even fair, or just? I refuse to bow to that, especially when certain entries they now mark as ‘canon’ do not even make sense to me. For instance, as much as I might enjoy such material, I will personally NEVER view a comic or a tie-in novel as being on the same level of ‘canon’ as Lucas’ saga. Nope, sorry. It just ain’t happening, folks.
Disney’s definition may be ‘official’, but it is still, ultimately, arbitrary.
And it is still, ultimately, up to everyone as an individual fan to define what ‘Star Wars’ means to them.
I’ve spent the better part of the last few years thinking about this, and it’s clear to me that my own definition and understanding of what Star Wars is (aka, the title of a very specific story, as opposed to the name of a brand or franchise), is simply not in line with Disney’s definition. For me, 'Star Wars' is the Skywalker saga… aka, the story of Anakin Skywalker. His rise, fall, and redemption. That's it. That's Star Wars. Everything else is not *technically* ‘Star Wars’, but rather stories set in the Star Wars universe. This is an important distinction. And one that explains why Rogue One worked so well for me, and why I can handle an animated series like Rebels—neither of these things is claiming to be Star Wars, as in the actual saga, itself.
(Lest anyone assume that I am claiming that Anakin is the only important or main character in the entire saga, of course I am not—I am simply pointing out that, as the Chosen One, he is also the central figure of the saga, which is, in its overall structure, the story of his life.)
And if anyone thinks I’m just set in my ways and stubbornly against any new additions to the Galaxy Far, Far Away, I can assure you that this is far from the case. In fact, I *welcome* new stories set in the SW universe. I welcome new characters. Anyone who has followed this blog can attest to my admiration for the wonderful world-building and expansion of the SW universe in The Clone Wars series, and my endless slew of feels for non-saga characters such as Ahsoka Tano from TCW, and the Ghost crew/Spacefamily from Rebels. There is plenty of room for them, both in my heart, and in within the scope of the greater SW universe. I simply do not agree that the main saga—Lucas’ saga, the Skywalker saga—can, or even should be ‘continued’ in any ‘official’ way beyond Return of the Jedi.
(As an aside....wouldn’t it have been *great* to have a NEW saga, about an entirely new set of characters, with their own mythic journeys, and their own ‘family drama’? This would have been much more freeing (and compelling, imo) than trying to stretch and twist and retcon away most of the Prequels and Original Trilogy, and then shoehorning the existing saga-characters into a concept that is unoriginal, repetitive, out-of-character, and needlessly destructive to all that came before.)
And yet of course, the Sequels are claiming to be a continuation of the original saga. But in my opinion, that is simply an impossible claim to make, and is likely why the whole scenario those films are based on feels so contrived and ‘false’ to my heart and mind. Because the Skywalker saga IS complete, and has been complete for over a decade now. It is done. Finished. Two trilogies that mirror and compliment each other in the most beautifully poetic and satisfying way, and which, when viewed together, form a complete and coherent myth. A whole entity—no matter how much Disney might try to convince us otherwise. Because despite what many seem to think these days, the Original Trilogy was not left unfinished or in need of some kind of ‘completion’ or continuation. The Original Trilogy was completed, not by any ‘sequel’, but by the Prequel Trilogy, which was carefully and meticulously constructed by Lucas to perform that very function—to make the saga whole.
This brings me to another very important point: not only does my personal view of the Skywalker saga (as being, at heart, the story of its central figure, Anakin) vastly differ from Disney’s current definition, but my understanding of what KIND of story it is, and will always be, is completely at odds with what that corporation is attempting to turn it into. It’s obvious to me that Disney would like nothing more than to convince audiences that ‘Star Wars’ is merely an endless cycle of repetitive ‘family drama’—essentially, a soap opera set in space. (Because, let’s be honest here... a story that just goes on and on indefinitely is also an extremely lucrative one.) And yet, as I’ve noted above, not only is Anakin’s tale complete as it is, but it also belongs simultaneously to two very specific and complimentary storytelling genres: it is at once a Tragedy (in the Greek sense, considered by many to be the highest form of Drama, and exemplified by the Prequels), as well as a Fairytale (with its characteristic transcendent Romanticism, as embodied by the Original Trilogy). Together, these blend into one complete and ultimately mythic story—a tale of, first, disaster, followed by (to borrow a term from J.R.R. Tolkien) eucatastrophe, aka the so-called ‘happy ending’ which is, in essence, a poignantly satisfying resolution that by nature denies and defies the nihilistic concept of ‘universal final defeat’. The tragedy is thus transformed into a ‘divine comedy of redemption’, through which we experience first the emotional devastation of the Prequels, and then, ultimately, the deep and abiding catharsis of the climax and resolution of the Original Trilogy.
As it stands, Lucas’s six-film saga is a universal tale, a story at once modern and timeless. A ‘created-myth’ that, through its dual nature as a tragic, cautionary tale of how Fear leads to a fall from grace, immense loss, and imprisoned suffering and an inspirational story of how unconditional Love leads to redemption, restoration, and release from bondage, has the power to resonate with all of humanity....past, present, and future.
In light of the above, the importance of Return of the Jedi as the official ‘ending’ of this particular story cannot be overstated. Its uplifting conclusion and ‘redemptive restoration of meaning’ is crucial to the mythic status of the saga, and necessitates that any and all further stories about the Skywalkers remain in the realms of our imagination. By 'imagination’ I mean anything from fanfiction, to an ‘expanded universe’, to other forms of ‘unofficial’ supplementary material. It is crucial that we feel free to dream about all (or none) of our preferred possibilities for the post-RotJ period. And equally crucial, in my opinion, that no one single version of these infinite possibilities is enforced upon us. The happy ending is happy only insofar as we have the freedom to believe in it indefinitely, if we so choose.
All of this is not to say that there isn’t room for sagas about *other*, characters, in later, earlier, or concurrent time periods, told in a similar style (on-screen or otherwise). The Galaxy Far, Far Away is immense and expansive, and contains within it the potential for a myriad ‘created-myths’ and legends—none of which must necessarily infringe upon the original story in order to be interesting and compelling. (’Complimentary’ side stories such as Rogue One and the animated Rebels series have already proven this to be the case.) But I feel strongly that, to attempt to continue the ‘official’ Skywalker saga ad nauseum beyond its natural and long-established conclusion, will always be a forced, artificial, and ultimately futile effort, due to the nature of the original story’s subject matter and its purposefully-crafted structure as a complete magnum opus.
And thus, in my own understanding and personal definition, the mythic space-fairytale that is ‘Star Wars’ ends with—and is entirely resolved by—the death and redemption of Anakin Skywalker in the final scenes of Return of the Jedi. The Skywalker saga is Anakin’s story, and, to quote Matthew Stover, “it is already over. Nothing can be done to change it.”
#personal#my meta#anakin skywalker#the definition of 'star wars'#the skywalker saga#lucas' saga#anti-tfa#anti-sequels#terminology#word-use#PT x OT#star was fairytale#star wars as myth#mythopoesis#eucatastrophe#Tragedy#Divine Comedy of Redemption#magnum opus#a slightly different approach than anything i've posted before#hopefully clarifies why i feel the way I do#:)
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Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens review
‘A 7/10 is a work that is, for the most part, successful in its intentions. It’s a worthy and entertaining experience that perhaps slips a little here and there in how it keeps you engaged. It might have issues that frustrate, or it might be an acquired taste, but it certainly deserves to be elevated about its peers for reasons of quality, uniqueness, or ambition.’
- Me, 2017
A few months ago I wrote an article detailing my rating criteria. I wanted not just to inform the reader as to how I come to make my decisions, but set out some clear guidelines for myself, something that I could come back to if ever I felt uncertain about exactly where my feelings fell and, perhaps, to mark a line in the sand that would help me come to terms with some of the more negative feelings I have towards popular pieces of media. Above you can see the little blurb I wrote for what I believe a 7/10, or a ‘good’ film or novel or video game stands for, and I want you to pay particular attention to the last four words – ‘quality, uniqueness, or ambition’ – because for now they’re going to be important.
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is a film by J.J. Abrams Disney’s board of directors. It is the seventh film in the series, and most reviewers regarded it as a welcome return to form following George Lucas’ shockingly inept reappearance with the prequel trilogy in the late nineties/early noughties. For the majority of today’s youth, their memories of Star Wars are defined by these pulpy, clumsy, brightly-coloured prequel movie. They films were a big thing at the time, make no mistake, partly because of the anticipation held by established fans, and partly because children couldn’t escape the merchandising that littered every fast-food restaurant on the planet. But, like the overpriced plastic cups bearing Darth Maul’s scowling visage, so too were the films disposable tat, aimed at drilling gaudy two-dimensional images into the modern consciousness. Lucas, for his part, has always remained steadfast in his belief that his vision of Star Wars was the ‘one true’ Star Wars, but some cursory and utterly unscientific polling on my part indicates that children that were first introduced to the series via the prequel trilogy largely lack the reverence for the series that those who were weaned on the classic three. And why would they? What about the prequel trilogy would leave any self-respecting individual hungry for more, especially after the sinister mystery and the darkness of Darth Vader has been replaced with this:
And this:
I can only speak for myself at this point, but as someone for whom the stories of Luke, Leia, and Han were an irreplaceable part of my youth, the thing that made me return to Episode Two and Three was a naive and desperate hope that things would change - the same naive and desperate hope that led me to believe that Disney might be the saviour of the franchise, or that Star Wars Battlefront II would be anything other than a greed-raped stain upon the world, which is to say that at midnight on the night of The Force Awakens’ UK release I too was hopeful for something, anything other than the ugly, bloated, and utterly asinine prequel trilogy.
But ‘a return to form’ from older fans desperate to purge the memory of Mister Binks et al. is not necessarily a definitive seal of quality. Nor is the endorsement of a generation of people that never knew the original trilogy in a context separate from Hayden Christensen’s sand tantrums. And as the minutes and days and weeks stretched on following my first and only viewing of Episode VII, I found myself more and more disgruntled by it, by the memory of it, and by the many faults that existed despite the low bar it had to leap to be better than its immediate predecessors.
Now don’t get me wrong - The Force Awakens is not a technical failure, nor could it reasonably be called a ‘bad film’ were it to exist in a vacuum; from most angles it is objectively better than all three of the prequels, but I can’t say that it demonstrates either uniqueness or ambition. It’s possibly the most brazenly derivative film I have ever seen, and to simply call it ‘safe’ would be to seriously understate the depth of the film’s cannibalisation of its own mythos. This lazy and insulting lack of originality is made worse by frustratingly insubstantial glimpses at a wider narrative which are followed by, at best, nothing, and at worst…well:
‘You haven’t bought the season pass that unlocks the rest of this film’s plot.’
The above moment was not the first point in The Force Awakens that I audibly groaned, but it was the point that I remember the best because it typifies the one of the biggest problems with the film: nearly everything in the narrative of this film that might otherwise be interesting is left unelaborated - the story has been gutted and the meat saved for a time when the Star Wars Plot Advisory Committee can inform future auteurs directors writers meat puppets as to what they can and can’t include in order to maximise appeal amongst the key age demographics of zero-to-dead. And I would apologise for the slight spoiler in the above gif, but if you think that the scene contains some pivotal plot point or revelation then you’re wrong. The film repeatedly hints at a grander and more engaging arc that it doesn’t just fail to elaborate on, but actively hides from the viewer behind the most galling cardinal sin in storytelling - the ‘I can’t explain now’ hook. Worse still is the fact that the film doesn’t explain why it can’t explain, we’re simply expected to swallow it hook, line, and sinker. I imagine that at this point, Abrams Disney pictured the audience on the edge of their seat wrapped in suspense, not scoffing and searching the theatre for other visibly incredulous patrons as I was. In any case, I couldn’t spoil the plot of the film for you if I tried, because everyone who has watched the original trilogy has seen it already.
A plucky, Force-adept youngster lives on a desolate sand planet. After coming under threat from an army of technically superior stormtroopers, the youngster flees on the Millenium Falcon, falling in with a scrappy bunch of resistance fighters. Leia Organa and Han Solo assist. They are pursued by an evil Sith Lord in a black mask and are tasked with demolishing a super-weapon capable of destroying planets. The main characters infiltrate on foot, and the oldest of them dies. A group of pilots attack the super-weapon from space, and their weapons cause a chain-reaction that destroys it.
Sound familiar? Of course it does, because it’s the plot of A New Fucking Hope. You know this by now because it’s two years later and you’ve read all the reviews, but I can’t overemphasise just how much of The Force Awaken’s story is copy-pasted directly from the first film. But at least Mr J.J. Abrams Disney makes a pretty fucking compelling case as to how the Starkiller Base is NOT AT ALL like the Death Star (apart from the fact that it has exactly the same function, and contains the word ‘star’ in its name, and a word relating directly to death).
I mean, for one thing, it’s bigger. That completely changes everything right there.
Sorry J.J. Disney, my bad.
You’ll also notice that the design of the Starkiller Base is what I like the refer to as ‘shithouse’, and ‘not at all memorable’, which might be the single biggest difference between the two weapons. Maybe I was wrong after all.
Sigh, but it’s not all bad, I guess. In fact, the one single thing that I think they managed to do right was arguably the hardest thing to do - nail the new characters. While it’s clear that this is Daisy Ridley’s first major film, she has enough charisma and courage to allow Rey to be the naive vessel the audience needs. She stands particularly strong in scenes across from Adam Driver’s villain, Kylo Ren, and their emotional tug-of-war is compelling. John Boyega is a natural performer, and his exemplary comic timing is keenly displayed both in his dialogue and through his performance. These three people form the pillars of energy and focus upon which the entirety of the film’s integrity rests. Harrison Ford’s comeback is welcome, but much of his input feels keenly meta and thus at odds with the character of Han as we knew it, exposing J.J’s Disney’s weakness at adapting such well-established and iconic personalities. I might say the same for Carrie Fisher, except she has fuck-all to do but stand around, talk in no detail about anything, and have her disgusting old age blurred out by a tasteful CGI filter that sits over her face the entire time. Oh, and Oscar Isaac plays a pilot gifted with the ability to destroy planet-sized doomsday cannons in 30 seconds of screen-time. Which is…y’know, a great way to end a film (and further invalidate a threat that was outmatched forty years ago by a plastic orb on a string).
But again, my vitriol has outpaced me, so I need to come back and reiterate that, as an individual viewing experience, The Force Awakens is not a ‘bad’ film. It’s capably shot, has some witty dialogue, and a good cast with an excellent grasp on their characterisation and fantastic rapport. It isn’t perfect no matter what lens you view it through, and some of its greatest flaws come as a result of Disney’s clear desire to make the most mass-appeal product possible, but if you’re looking for some safe, immediate entertainment that won’t demand much from you, then The Force Awakens is a reasonable choice.
But I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel compelled to watch it again, because at its core I don’t think this film is art. I don’t think it exists for any reason other than because a company saw a demand they could offer a supply to, and make some sweet dollas in doing so. It checks the boxes on its list of ‘things to please the average moviegoer’ so transparently that it almost feels as if it were written by an algorithm, and as much as the people in it are trying to make something meaningful of it all, The Force Awakens remains a product, an item, market-researched so thoroughly your psyche can still detect the aura of the focus-grouped decisions at every turn. It’s in the absurd jokes, and the conspicuous acceleration through the thin plot, and the way it waves references in your face like someone trying to get a smile from a baby by jingling their keys - it feels like the film is toying with me, pointing at all the positive reviews and asking me goadingly why I don’t come over and play with it like everyone else. Perhaps if I weren’t so cynical I could get past that, but I can’t forgive the insidious process through which Disney churns these movies out. As shitty as the prequel trilogy films are, you simply can’t say that they’re not imaginative, original, or creative - the unmistakable imprint of George Lucas’ mind was branded upon them, for better or worse. Whose creative mark lies upon The Force Awakens? It’s been sterilised by Disney’s corporate cloth, and watching it feels like watching a stranger rifling through someone else’s old stuff and playing ‘Star Wars’ with toys that aren’t theirs to touch. It’s not a ‘good’ film. It’s not a 7/10. It’s just okay.
6/10
Just Okay
#star wars#the force awakens#george lucas#j.j. abrams#disney#film#review#cinema#a new hope#2015#john boyega#daisy ridley#carrie fisher#harrison ford
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