#i hate the rise of skywalker

[tossawary]

I was thinking about Fandom's Darlings recently because I encountered another case of "Yes, Your Ship Has Become Canon But At What Cost???" in the wild. Which is a mouthful, but I don't have a snappier name for these events in fandom yet.

It's when two characters get together in a story, but... their characterizations get destroyed in the process because the writers apparently 1) can't write solid romance (it's a specific skill!) and 2) also can't fit that romance into the broader story. Often, all of the supporting characters surrounding this shiny couple will ALSO suffer severe characterization damage to make this romance happen. And sometimes the larger plot and even the worldbuilding will also take hard structural hits so the story can focus on this GREAT PASSION that frankly just isn't... executed well.

Like, if a ship I dislike becomes canon, that's one thing, but if the writing for it isn't even semi-competent, that's worse!!! And the really insufferable part is actually the shippers who are not only popping bottles because their ship went canon, but will mock everyone who complains about the bad writing (or tries to earnestly analyze why exactly this conclusion sucks) as "bitter sore losers". I mean, the characters you profess to love have been turned into empty shells of themselves, the canonical partnership here is about as shallow as a puddle, and the integrity of this entire fictional world is on fire, but sure, you "won" this ship war. Congrats.

There is nothing else to do but move on, it's definitely not worth getting into it with anyone. But it REALLY sucks if you actually liked either of the characters involved or maybe even liked the ship itself, because then it's like... "I have been given an enormous cake, but it has been Poisoned. I cannot eat this, for I would choke on it. I have been Betrayed In A Fashion Most Vile." But everyone still sitting at the table tells you that you ought to be happy! At least you got some cake!

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

The bad batch is an amazing show and here is my proof:

It has accomplished the highly unlikely but let’s be honest it doesn’t take much for me to care about stuff impossible!!

It has made me care about Sheev’s dumbass return in The Rise of Skywalker

[moonsappho]

star wars fans annoy tf out of me sometimes. acknowledging bad writing and timeline inconsistencies and contradictory characterization isn’t bigoted. what is bigoted is completely sidelining and destroying the storyline of every single marginalized character and then calling genuine critiques of that reactionary prejudice. how tf is leslye out here talking about how star wars fans are all sexist weirdos when she worked years as a personal assistant to HARVEY WEINSTEIN.

[the-force-awakens]

Dawn suggests the notions of illumination and hope, the beginning of a new day and thus a chance for happiness and improvement. Sunrise is a symbol of birth and rebirth, of awakening. The coming of light, resurrection.

[computers-best-friend]

Watched the last Jedi for the first time since it came out and for psychological reasons I have convinced myself that it is a good movie and everything went exactly as I wanted it to 😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[arkham-prisoner]

Regardless of your opinion on modern Star Wars you have to admit how wonderful it is to have Ian McDiarmid returning to Palpatine/Sidious over and over again

[reyturnofbensolo]

Goonies in space!😆

bonus:

[mangora]

Rose Tico I am so sorry for what they did to you

[scarysanctuary]

the rise of skywalker is so interesting, because they made Reylo canon and yet also managed to piss Reylo fans off, they were really on a mission to give no one what they truly wanted lol. as a fan, im glad to know it was canon, if only to piss off the people that hated the ship with so much passion, because i didnt need confirmation, it was clear as day on the screen for me. but, it was a slap in the face to reylo fans and the antis in one fell swoop, its almost impressive. i just find it fascinating that the kiss scene, and the following sacrifice is at the very bottom in terms of my favorite reylo moments, i dont replay it in my head, i dont rewatch those scenes like i do with others, when the kiss should have been at the top of my shipping dreams. it was so oddly done, not only in the timing, those final scenes between them felt rushed (as did everything else in the film) and of course we barely got any time with Ben Solo, which was such a damn waste of the trilogy's best character. the very brief thought that Rey sacrificed herself was actually interesting, though id rather they both lived, it would have been the gutsier move, but of course the "villain" had to die because true redemption doesnt go unpunished, but yes, ive seen this ending countless times, but its not only frustrating, boring and predictable, it sours the end of your movie for the actual fans that had been defending and giving grace to the sequel trilogy more than most. you gave those fans something theyd wanted, proof that we didnt make it all up in our heads and the romantic subtext was real, only to immediately throw it away, robbing all of us a happy ending, as if we were children that needed appeasing so we'd rate your movie higher and shut up, but had no plans to actually do anything meaningful between the two of them, its frankly a little insulting, and comes across as hollow, rather than meaningful and passionate on their part. oh well, at least we'll always have the force-bond~

[vulpixelates]

i love that viewing the star wars movies in chronological order means watching the phantom menace first. it's such a goofy way to start things off aofijewfoai

fun fact: phantom menace is the only star wars that my wife has ever seen, a fact that she loves to whip out in front of fanboys to make them cry. kind of iconic of her

[weedle-testaburger]

til multiverse of madness was written without the writers knowing what happened in wandavision, and holy fuck that makes so much sense. no wonder they completely contradict each other

[sealnoodlesoup]

You know how some Star Wars fans pretend episode 9 isn't real? I might start doing the same with spop season 5!

[arwcn]

the force: oooooooh leeeia it’s meeee the foooooorce… girl if you become a jedi your son will diiiiieeeee!!!

leia: guess i won’t be a jedi then

the force: wait did i mention he dies no matter what you do? oh fuck she hung up

[sir-henry-may]

I never realized how heated I could get about Scooby Doo.

[wrenchinator-central]

There have to be consequences in a story. If there aren’t, there has to be a good reason for it.

I really appreciate how they've been handling death and resurrection in LOVM. Especially coming to most of campaign 1 after campaign 2, the frequency of successful resurrection rituals felt a bit hard to swallow. (In campaign 2 every resurrection apart from the last one was via revivify, which just hits different somehow. Like an 'only mostly dead' kind of situation.)

Now I understand the meta reasons for this (they didn't have a cleric on-site in most of those cases), and it was at one point at least addressed in the fiction, but it still pulls me out of the story a bit. Ultimately, resurrection felt cheap.

There's a clear effort to undo that with the show. Vex is brought back specifically due to Vax's offer to the Raven Queen. Grog doesn't die to Craven Edge, he loses his strength. Scanlan's in a coma right now, but he wasn't killed. And Percy is dead, and treated as such, with no talk of potentially bringing him back.

Because how at odds would that be with scenes of laying the dragon attack's victims to rest in Whitestone, with seeing all the lives that were lost in the assault on Emon. Especially when Percy would rather they save any one of those souls over his.

Now I'm sure we're going to see Percy again; I doubt they would make that big a departure from the story. I suspect it's going to be tied to the fact that Ripley, and more importantly Orthax, are still at large. But it's not going to be cheap, and it's not going to be easy, and while emotionally I miss the terrible tinkerer of Tal'Dorei and wish he was in these last couple episodes, this is absolutely the right decision.

[arkham-prisoner]

Maybe it was just me but when Jack Crusher was on the Borg Cube speaking to the Queen it reminded me so much of when Kylo Ren was on Exegol speaking to Sidious. I don’t care if it was on purpose or not but I LOVE THAT COMPARISON SO DAMN MUCH!!!!