#i just think that after they both lose their homes in anh they find it again in each other

[constellation-skirmishes]

it's no worries, i've got nowhere to be, but home

it's okay leia. you don't have to be strong all the time. you're allowed to grieve.

i'll always catch you when you fall.

[inked-out-trees]

⭐ for The Keep Going Song? Thanks! :)

(anh i would die for you)

Thank you for asking! I am going to be talking about the whole thing because it's fun, and because there's not really many ~secrets~ within the text to ramble about, just little fun snippets!

I'll do it under a cut because I will definitely ramble. Woohoo!

I came across The Keep Going Song (the song) after my Lookout 3 Companion Playlist (& my spotify discovery) introduced me to the Bengsons. The effect was almost instantaneous - it's the kind of warmth I try to encompass in everything I do, and for the next few days I had it on repeat as I worked. This was around the time I was finishing my Lookout script, and I had been toying with the idea of writing a Cornleyverse fic after absolutely devouring all 10 fics in the tag. What I knew was that I wanted it to be sweet, I wanted it to pull them all together, and I wanted it to be a progression. Despite only having seen the Goes Wrong Show, jumping into the fandom made me want to dimensionalize these characters and give them a story beyond everything that had already occured.

I also watched Christmas Carol before / during the writing process, but to date I have not watched Peter Pan or the full-length TPTGW. My prior knowledge comes from Wikipedia, the delightul amateur TPTGW production on YouTube, a friend's excellent transcription of the Haversham Manor script, and tumblr meta analysis. I think I did a reasonable enough job pretending I knew what I was doing.

Let's get going!

I knew off the top that it was going to be vignettes - they would give me room to spread the story over the long period of time it takes for a group of people to grow into something resembling a family. Like I said in the original author's note, there was supposed to be more of the early, snippy days - but I got so focused on making them kinder that I found I couldn't properly write a fight. In hindsight, it probably would have been easier if I tried writing that first, but, well. Once I realized that it was too late. The alphabet idea came later, once I had them all finished: I wanted to organize them somehow, but numbers felt too open, too infinite - closing the story on an organizational endpoint was just really satisfying.

a - Every good story needs a good beginning.

c - Starting with the end of Peter Pan is my sneaky way of slipping past the fact that I haven't seen the earlier shows! The Max and Sandra storyline is just so sweet, and I wanted to let it exist a little bit in between our jump from Peter Pan to Christmas Carol. This vignette came so easily when I wrote it and I love love love the feelings and the tentativity about the whole thing.

f - This was actually the last vignette I wrote. I realized I needed some front-end padding because otherwise my angst plot came rather abruptly, and what better way? At this point, too, I was trying to bring in POVs from each one of our characters, and when deciding on Trevor's POV I thought the exasperation-excitement combination would be an excellent choice. It turns out Trevor is my favourite to write, mostly because I can find his voice a lot easier than some of the others - and probably also because I hold a lot of fondness and nostalgia for stage crew work. Also, I wrote most of this one on a long evening walk in the notes app on my phone. Fun fact.

h - I did my original idea slam in a draft tumblr post, and this one just says "birthday party but one without all the drama of christmas carol". And what do you know, that's exactly what it is! I definitely took the birthday party (in CCGW as well as in this fic) as a kind of proof that they really do like each other, if they're doing things like this and if they want to do things like this - and that theme of okay, they want to be here formed the basis for this part. I think it's exceptionally sweet that Dennis came looking for friends and ended up finding, well, something. And I popped in a little MMNI reference with "one of the Janines" - Backwards Janine? Frontwards Janine? Original Janine? Who knows! It's one of them!

l - The thing about this plot is that it's actually one of the first ideas I had when dreaming up this fic, and I couldn't quite let it go. The point was, what if I somehow split them up? How can they get on when half the society is out of commission? And the most reasonable way I could find to actually get half of them out of commission was the car accident. To be honest, this one is mostly filler - it's also the second vignette I wrote, and it found its birth in the email drafts of my work laptop.

m - Trying to map out this little plotline without overdoing it might have been the most difficult part of this fic, and I'm still not 100% sure I succeeded. This is our explanation for the unease from the vignette above, and it took me 3 rewrites before I finally found something that settled in my brain. "Dennis gets chased by a goose" might be one of my favourite lines in the fic though.

Also, putting these letters right next to each other made me feel really clever for no reason.

n - My Jonathan perspective also took a few stutter-steps in its beginning, but this one ultimately came from the promo video's reveal that Robert and Dennis live together, and me playing with the continual idea of the remaining cast members being rather unmoored in their injured castmates' absence. Robert in particular because I love his character and I love making him Feel Things(TM) (fun hint: this will also be a small theme in the new cpds fic I have in the works!) and I want to see so much from this odd relationship between him and Dennis. Obviously they have to tolerate each other if they are willingly roommates - how far can I go with that? I love how this one turned out.

o - All I have to say about this one is that I still really love the sweetness between these two, and they deserve the world. Also, at some point during writing this I was really caught up with how striking Dave's face silhouette is (don't ask) so that ended up making it in somehow.

q - Girls' Night is SO important to me. After all the work they've done to make these gals friends I needed to capture it, and a pleasant night in just made a lot of sense. This one is the home of a few of my headcanons - Annie has a chef roommate and Max does a lot of the cooking, thus the "neither of us are the usual household cooks" comments, and I also think they're at the point where they can joke about their previous failures (especially with these three together) so the nod to A Trial To Watch (my favourite gws episode) was so fun. Also, Waking Ned really is a silly pick-me-up of a movie - would recommend. Special thanks to CBC for giving us Canadians quality British TV alongside our occasionally questionable homegrown programming.

r - It wouldn't be a fic about progress and growth with this crew without a disheartening moment turned into gold. I wrote this one while barbecuing, another fun fact, and no joke the hardest part was figuring out what to name the play they were doing. I kept pace with the whole "Jonathan can't get onscreen" gag, which was personally hilarious and made me cackle as I wrote it, and the rest of it just felt good. I will always have a soft spot for comfort and reassurance in a story and getting to write it has just been an absolute delight.

t - This was one of my other unplanned vignettes. It was originally to fill out Robert's POV, but also to express a bit of how things have changed in Chris's attitude towards his cast - if there's one thing I would change from Mischief's characerisation thus far, it's this brand of almost-kindness that I consistently need to write him with. It takes the aftermath of the car accident and uses it to kind of make him understand - this is a valuable group of people and I don't want to lose it. But of course he's not the type of person to actually express that in any way, so I thought the frenetic hovering was a good way to get the point across. As well, the kind-of-bonding between Chris and Robert - the two of them are such powerhouses of insistent personality that conflict so easily but they've also got a more secret kind of friendship that deserves to be explored a little more. I really like this vignette and how it ended up portraying how they are around each other, how they really do know each other, especially when they're not fighting. Makes me soft.

w - This is the first vignette I wrote! I honestly didn't realize until writing this just how much I identify with Annie - best of both worlds re. crew and cast, a bit of tenacity regarding getting through things, overall personality - I just love her so so much. She also seems like the most sensible of the cast, so the collective "why are we really here?" moment with Trevor really spoke to me. I love their friendship, I love the kind of quiet vibe this vignette gives off - this is one of the ones I can feel most strongly, the one I can step into and exist inside. I also spent most of my old drama rehearsals and classes without shoes, so that had to make it in just by virtue of the sock brigade (me).

z - One thing I knew for sure since the inception of the fic was that it needed to end on a victory. I took the images I had of this victorious adrenaline, everyone together having a good time, kind of getting smashed, and karaoke (I really wanted the karaoke, for some reason) and went the obvious route: the wedding. Ending on Chris POV also felt so right - possibly because he's the one with the most growth in this fic - and getting to finally feel this triumph with him after all these other trials and tribulations was an absolute joy. The wedding hall, in my head, looks like the one my cousin used (it was at a zoo... my sister and I went on a night walk and heard a lot of screaming peacocks) and I definitely threw all my wistfulness, all my love for the characters I'd developed, and all my love for this fantastic fandom into this part. The incorrect lyrics that Annie sings are exactly what I think every time I hear that song, because I've never looked up the lyrics before and my brain likes to play Mad Libs with my super-questionable auditory processing. And the image of the ballroom staff getting really exasperated with them and shutting all the lights off came to me at night and is hastily scribbled on a sticky note (it's a wonder it's legible) but I still strongly believe that it's the perfect, perfect way to end. I still get the warm feelings when I reread this part, even now, after so many reads.

And, finally - our end quote is exactly what started this whole thing. What is this drama society if not a rough beginning? But the concept that we'll make it through, that we can just take a step and then another and it'll be okay because we're together... it's hard to describe just how much it means to me, to my place in the world, to the world itself. I think one of my rather consistent aims in writing, no matter what it is, is to be able to have this collective - characters that become family, people that are important to each other, this constellation to lean on - because it's all I can say for the human experience. It's probably quite a bit of wishful thinking (as I said to another friend, "I am apparently letting loose on all my repressed social feelings of the past year and shoving them into fics") and a sort of subconscious confirmation that if I write it, I can be it. So this force of understanding and kindness and ultimately good people helping each other through the world is something I can't help but include, something that means the absolute world to me.

I'm so glad to have been able to share this fic with everyone, and extra glad that it's been able to touch some people along the way. I've found such an incredible community in Mischief and coincidentally I think The Keep Going Song represents that warmth, too - the community I've been so lucky to exist inside, how we're helping each other along, step by step. What a beautiful thing to be a part of! Thank you for reading and allowing me to give you a bit of my heart. 💖💖

[chaoticevilbean]

TT SW Fic #2.1

The Trio gets sent back to the CW universe. When this happens affects what happens from there. But, and here's the Big Thing: the three are separated from each other.

They get sent back just after ANH

Luke is currently still new to the whole "rebellion against the tyrannical empire" thing. Han has decided to stay, but not really, because he's been paid, but also he has to or the kid will get himself killed, but then he's leaving, but also not bec- And Leia is busy proving that she is as good a leader in politics as she is in war.

So when they get sent back in time, Luke is at full "Aw Shucks" with a little "Why is everyone staring at me?" thrown in. He wakes up in the middle of an unknown place, likely one that either was just battling or is currently a battlefield. He's very Shook at the sight of a Jedi general fighting alongside several clone troopers against B-style droids.

Leia ends up found by a very strange and very clumsy Gungan. He says he's a representative in the Republic. Leia puts two and two together. Then she calmly begins figuring out the best way to take down Palpatine without raising suspicions. It helps that anyone who sees her with this Gungan seems to assume she has good intentions by virtue of her tolerating him. And he is rather endearing in his amusing clumsy way.

Han wakes up next to Mace Windu in a prison cell. The Jedi has been captured. Han does not know that he's back in time. All he knows is that the Jedi says he magically appeared in the cell. He isn't chained. He helps the escape, wondering how he can get back to his friends and his girl, and Leia, too. Windu is wondering what the Force is up to, besides coming up with a strange way to get him out of prison.

Luke gets fully discovered by troopers, who he tries to befriend and succeeds as much as a random person with a lightsaber can when there was a battle not even ten minutes ago. Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan are brought to meet Luke. They assume he's a rogue Jedi. He does not dispute this, instead too preoccupied by the fact that he doesn't know much about the past and also Leia is gonna kill him.

Leia meets Senator Amidala. She begins her important work while aided by the one her parents always told her about.

Han figures out he's in the past. He does have a brief moment where he internally panics that he just freed an Imperial officer. Then he sees the lightsaber and the not-the-kid attached and finally puts it together. Windu offers to take him back to Coruscant, and expresses that the Council will want to meet him. Han decides that if there's Jedi, the kid'll find him eventually, so he might as well go.

Luke manages to keep the future a secret, but he also tells a lot of stuff that makes everyone take a step back. Like how he lost his entire squadron a short while back, not to mention his mentor, his family, his home, and now he doesn't know where his friends are. Granted, this is given over the course of at least a day, and he does get questions about the whole "fighter squadron" part, but still.

He also scrunches his nose at all the "weird" rules of the Jedi. Anakin mentions the no attachment rule and Luke gives him such a weird look that they manage to drag Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and three different clones into a philosophical debate that ends in "so long as your fear doesn't overwhelm you, attachment is okay." Basically just everything in moderation.

Leia manages to get access to the inhibitor chips. She also takes down several plots to give Palpatine more power. She befriends many senators she'd only heard about, or ones who would one day be as helpful as they could in an Imperial senate. She smirks when she hears about the rogue Jedi who keeps reprogramming droids to have free will, and getting various Separatists to desert through the power of ~friendship~ and ~sunshine~.

Han does not accept Sage Jedi Words. Not without much sass and argument. Every time Windu tries to say something about "A Jedi does not do x" or "Y is the way to z" Han responds with his own experiences. Using attachment as an example again, Han tells Windu that it's stupid.

In a war, attachment is how you remain sane. Yeah, it can make you worry and fearful because there's a kriffin' war going on, but if you learn that fear and worry are natural, learn that they're just like when you're excited or angry, then you learn to live with it. You learn to just take a deep breath and keep going. Also, if you don't properly teach emotional control, you end up with repressed adults who will break at the worst possible moments. This is all said in the most casual way possible, with lots of salt and sass, but still said.

Luke, being peak Sunshine Farmer from Two-Sun Tatooine, manages to give Ventress a headache from his bright, unshielded Force presence. He befriends ALL THE CLONES, and also that Separatist, and those droids over there, and that one feral loth cat, and also that bear. By the time they get to Coruscant, most of the army is willing to die for Luke, who would rather die than let that happen.

Upon arriving on Coruscanat, Anakin decides that he needs to save Luke from a meeting with the Council. He takes the kid to the Senate building, so he can meet Padme's new friend and Anakin can also 'say hello'. Luke enters the building with his father-who-doesn't-know-he's-a-father and goes to meet what he assumes is his mother because Anakin talks about her just like Leia talks about Han. They make it to Senator Amidala's office.

Anakin and Padme suddenly lose their hearing. Luke squeals, legitimately squeals, and rushes to hug Leia. She's not squealing, but she is ecstatic to see her friend. They start babbling to each other, and it sounds very much like a code to the other occupants of the room, but it's just because they're talking about "the Empire" and "Rogue One" and "Vader" and "Death Star". A lot of what they say makes no sense outside of context.

Luke: It's so weird to be away from the Empire but it doesn't feel that way. I nearly thought the clones were stormtroopers!

Leia: I know! And here, the Senate can actually do things, even if it's just as corrupt. But Palpatine's the Chancellor.

Anakin, about to interrupt to ask what that's supposed to mean: Wait just a minute, what's so bad about-

Luke, ignoring his father: At least he can't send Vader after us!

Leia: Yeah, and no Death Star to blow us all up.

Luke: And there's Jedi! They even have a temple! It's so cool!

Leia: You could actually be a real Jedi!

Etc. They talk for awhile.

Han makes it to Coruscant, and actually gets to meet one of his childhood heroes, Obi-Wan "The Negotiator" Kenobi. Who looks alarmingly like- Oh, kriff. Ben. The old spice-using hermit was his childhood idol. Kriff it all.

Ben tells him that the kid was here, but got dragged off by Han's other hero, Anakin "The Hero Without Fear" Skywalker- kriff, that's the kid's dad. He'll have to make a good impression. But apparently the Skywalkers took a trip to visit a senator. Leia's probably there. She was a senator until the whole Death-Star-and-Rebellion stuff.

Ben goes to comm them. Han can hear Luke and Leia in the background. Han snatches the communicator and starts yelling.

Han: WHAT THE KRIFF DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING‽ DO YOU WISH YOU'D NEVER BEEN BORN‽ CUZ THAT'S WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN! *insert rant that makes both complete and no sense*

Han: *breathing heavily into the comm*

Luke, a little muffled: Sorry, Han.

Leia, also a little muffled: Didn't know the nerfherder was a Mama Bantha.

Han: Oh, is that how you wanna play? Listen here, you sh-

Anakin, speaking really fast: I'll have them back at the Temple by midnight, they love you, bye!

*comm clicks off*

Ben: ... Want a drink?

Han: Kriff yeah.

Palpatine fails because 1) Leia is a horrible goose 2) Luke is Tatooine's third sun 3) Han has common sense, no filter, and a will to live.

[shemakesmusic-uk]

This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to shemakesmusic@hotmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Bayleigh Cheek

Dallas native Bayleigh Cheek began her love affair with music at an early age thanks to her immersive upbringing. Both parents were in the music scene, exposing her to a variety of sounds ranging from psychedelic and folk to progressive rock and new wave. Some of her personal music influences include Patti Smith, P.J. Harvey, Radiohead, and Angel Olsen. Those influences led to the creation of her EP, Immortals, that was self-released in early 2020 which brought her DOMA nominations for Best New Artist and Best EP. Her latest single is ‘Release Me’. "This song is about what it means to realize you've believed a lie, or false identity of yourself, and the process of becoming free from it and knowing the truth,” explains Bayleigh. “Growing up listening to a range of genres, from psychedelic and folk to progressive rock and new wave, ‘Release Me’ opened my eyes to the world of synths and everything electronics can provide to create a whole new universe of sound. Taking something seemingly fun and cheerful on the outside, and revealing something deeper on the inside. Before I started writing my upcoming debut album, I decided to be more vulnerable, honest and raw. I've hidden behind surrealism, which is still a big part of my art and always will be, but in light of the pandemic, I felt I needed to really let myself be open and not hide anymore. I'm becoming the person I've always wanted to become, and art will always be there as gentle reminders." Listen below.

Bayleigh Cheek · Release Me

Cozy Slippers

Cozy Slippers have released their first new music since 2019’s single ‘A Million Pieces’ b/w ‘Will You Disappear?’ (Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten) and the band’s tour of the United Kingdom. Like everyone else, the Seattle indie band had to adapt to the challenges of 2020 and beyond. ‘When Will When Come?’ is the first release to come from a year’s worth of home recordings done by the band. “We started from scratch. We didn’t have any gear and hadn’t really thought about recording ourselves before. It was so great to escape the stressful outside world for a while by recording and meeting on Zoom to put it all together,” explains vocalist and bassist Sarah Engel. While the band couldn’t be in the same room at the same time, they made use of samples from their prior recordings in order to stamp their sound and personality on the song. “We did whatever we could to get this thing recorded. Some of the vocals I recorded into my phone while sitting alone in my car or late at night when everybody else was asleep. It was a challenge to find space to be creative and alone time to make the recording happen during the past year,” remembers drummer and vocalist Barbara Barrilleaux. The track was mixed by Dylan Wall (Versing, Great Grandpa, and High Sunn).  Lyrically, ‘When Will When Come?’ is a plea from one person to another to embrace life’s messy possibilities -- to live before it is too late. Instead of participating in their own life, the subject of the song stares out a window and fantasizes about pink flamingos.  “I remember the first time I heard Sarah singing the lyrics. I thought the idea of somebody daydreaming about traveling to see flamingos was weirdly sad. Flamingos look cool, but the world has a lot of other things I’d want to see before a bunch of birds. It seemed poignant to have such a relatively small wish and still be unwilling to make it reality,” recalls guitarist Steven Skelton. Listen below.

Cozy Slippers · When Will When Come?

Everstill

New York-based alternative rock band Everstill have released ‘In Your Dreams,’ their first single off their debut album, Longing. Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Aridi (vocals, bass, guitars, keys) weaves her melodic guitars and haunting vocal harmonies with percussionist Luca Bertaglia’s pulsating drums to evoke sounds that are at once melancholic and euphoric. The group draws from disparate influences and genres including grunge, indie rock, jazz, metal, folk and more. ‘In Your Dreams,’ recalls artists like Warpaint, Wolf Alice and Chelsea Wolfe. Aridi wrote the song — something of a seductive plea to an unknowing crush — in 2015. A year later she met Bertaglia while playing in an alt-prog band, and the pair reconnected in early 2020 to bring her songs to life. They found themselves working on their debut album during the pandemic. Listen to ‘In Your Dreams’ below.

Everstill · In Your Dreams

No Lore

No Lore is unlike any other indie alt-pop duo. It all started when Manila-based visual artist Tita Halaman decided to make music out of her paintings and poetry with her brother Jerald. As an artist, she wants to elevate her audience’s experience by expounding the message of her paintings through the art of words and sound. No Lore’s goal is to continuously release a new song with a painting every month and to publish a book out of it. The band name No Lore comes from the concept of having no formal studies in visual art, music, and poetry. Both Tita Halaman and Jerald are self-taught and everything is D.I.Y. from ideation to audio and video production. New single ‘With Little Light’ is “a song about courage,” explains Tita. “I believe there is no such thing as complete darkness to a soul that thrives to seek for “light” everywhere. With all that’s happening these days, I hope that we can still see hope no matter how little it may seem. Hope prevails if we believe. I’m a visual artist here in the Philippines and my signature style is writing poems at the back of my paintings,” she continues of her creative process. “On top of that, me and my brother Jerald are also into music - we’ve been playing together and learning different instruments since we were kids. No Lore is our attempt to create a layered expression of our emotions. I’d say our songs are my art and poetry, but in sonic form. Every song is inspired by a specific painting of mine and the latter serves as the former’s cover art.” Listen to ‘With Little Light’ below.

Another Nguyen

Ngoc-Anh is a Vietnamese German independent artist from Berlin performing under the name Another Nguyen. She has just released her new single ‘My Friend’ which was entirely written, produced, mixed and mastered by women. She says of the song: “I wrote this song after a friend of mine opened up to me that her long-term partner was physically abusive towards her. Hearing her story was shocking because I had always perceived them as a very happy couple. With this song I want to tell my friend and anyone who has experienced intimate partner violence that "I see you" and "You are not alone". Listen below.

ANOTHER NGUYEN · My Friend

Noni A.

‘20s’ is the new single from the Berlin-based artist Noni A. Written in her bedroom and turned into a chill pop production by her brother, ‘20s’ talks about the aspects in your twenties that happen in the background but are not often addressed. 21-year-old singer-songwriter Noni A was born and raised in Prague in a German-Greek household. In 2020 Noni A. released her debut single ‘Losing Game’, an acoustic pop ballad. Currently based in Berlin, Noni dives into a different sonic direction in her new music. Inspired by the sound of Jeremy Zucker, Audrey Mika and Quinn XCII, Noni A. blends emotionally honest and unreserved lyrics with a clean and minimalist chill pop production. With her new single ‘20s’, Noni A. takes a new sonic direction. '20s' dives into the chill pop scene, including lo-fi elements, more samples, underlined by a strong beat. "I walked into my kitchen one evening and had absolutely no motivation to clean it,” says Noni A. “Apparently when you’re 20 that becomes a regular activity (cheers to my mom for letting me live blissfully unaware of this and cleaning up my stuff too). This realisation of my day-to-day life as a 20-something-year-old turned into the inspiration of '20s'. This song talks about all those things that everyone experiences in their twenties that happen in the background of our lives: moving out of your hometown, adjusting to life on your own, procrastinating (if you say you don't procrastinate, stop lying) and learning how to use your washing machine (in my opinion a straight-up mystery)." Listen below.

Noni A. · NONI A - 20s

Chrissie Huntley

One of Bristol’s most promising new artists, Chrissie Huntley has released her brand new single, ‘Supposed to Be’. Huntley decided to use the time granted by national lockdowns to her advantage. Collaborating with musicians across the globe and transforming her closet into a home studio, Chrissie has spent the past year equipping herself with a brand new body of work to return to the stage with later in 2021. ‘Supposed to Be’ is the first of a series of single releases set for release this year, and is one that the Brit School graduate holds close to her heart: “‘Supposed to Be’ is one of the first songs I ever wrote when I was a teenager and I just got dumped by the guy who I thought was supposed to be “the one”. I think we’ve all been in that position where you know that it’s over, but you just want to hold on and pretend just a little while longer…” Recorded in Bristol with upcoming songwriter and producer Laurence Fazakerley Buglass, the track demonstrates why Chrissie’s effortless vocals have had such an effect on her audience to date. Working with rising producers Jon Will, Gabriel Gifford (Harvey Causon, Maya Law, Lucy Lu) and Peter Beckmann (Gregory Porter, Laura Mvula, Marie Dahlstrom) to bring the song to life; ‘Supposed to Be’ is the perfect balance of collective ingenuity, creativity and talent...  mixed with the exposed, emotional honesty that comes with having your heart broken. “... It’s a very vulnerable track I suppose. It was very raw at the time of writing and I never had any intention of releasing it- it was more like a therapy to me than anything else. But, seven years later and here we are! Releasing this as an introduction to my new sound seemed like the perfect fit, as it holds the part of me that first turned to music at a time where I was struggling, which went on to become the entire premise of my musical journey..." Listen below.

Karen Harding

Weaving enchanting melodies straight from the heart, Karen Harding crafts, intimate heartfelt tracks that help us become ones with ourselves. The kind of one-to-one soul conversations that dig deep into our hearts and wake emotions once thought long gone. She specializes in helping people shed away their insecurities and finally feel again in a special moment of true authenticity. Drawing from a lifetime of experience, the Melbourne-based singer crafts bittersweet melodies that move and inspire. She gorgeously crafts an entire experience with every timeless track she creates. The emerging singer has just  released her debut track ‘I Didn’t Realise’. The heartbreak ballad talks on the struggle of an earth shatteringly painful breakup in a way so intimate it feels like we’re right there with her. It’s a reflective song that navigates us through every raw emotion during the healing process; from processing the pain to finally coming to terms with what’s happened. Truly a breath-taking journey that will leave you with a deep sense of wonder. The song was passionately penned in the peak of Covid-19 on a piano she played growing up. Like much of her music it came to her very organically. She had the chords already laid out and the words just flowed out of her soul naturally. It wasn’t created with the intention of being turned into a record. Rather it was a simple moment of self-expression based on the way she currently felt. The result is something deeply authentic that’s oozing in originality. She worked with acclaimed producer Josh Hennessy of Pivotal Music to bring the project to life. He helped add the magic to this simplistic yet innovative piano and vocal track. Listen below.

KarenHarding · I Didn't Realise

[kaelinaloveslomaris]

could you please do a break down of all the tags you use and why? I think they're so cool

Thanks! I actually answered a similar ask a few months ago, but it doesn’t really break down who each of the tags are for, so I’ll do that here, as well as listing where each of the tags come from. Most of them are song lyrics, either directly from the song or a condensed variation of several lines. Often the whole song fits the character in question, but sometimes just the one line stuck out as fitting.

This got a lot longer than I was expecting it to, so I’m going to put it under a cut.

First the individual character tags:

“this precious child” is for Luke. I actually borrowed that one from @littlesparklight and got the idea to use personalized tags for characters and relationships from her too.

“the ashes call my name” is for Vader. It’s from Point of No Return by Starset. A good portion of my tags are from Starset songs. Their music just fits Star Wars so well.

“what’s your life without a cause” is Leia’s tag. It’s from The Soldier by Lacey Sturm.

“I’m not an easy target” is Han’s. It’s from Born Again by Thousand Foot Krutch. It’s meant to be a reference to how he likes to pretend he’s all hard and doesn’t have a bleeding heart.

“one step closer to destiny” is for Anakin. It’s a slight variation on a line from Is Your Love Strong Enough? by Bryan Ferry. The full line is “Just one step at a time and closer to destiny.”

“searching for a new hope” is for Obi-Wan. It’s from A New Hope by Broken Iris. The title itself is of course fitting, and really the whole song fits the PT trio, and I used other lines from it for other tags too, but this line in particular fits Obi-Wan and his whole tragic life. After Qui-Gon, he looks to Anakin to be his hope, and then to Luke.

“angels should never touch ground” is for Padmé, and it’s from Beautiful Girl, also by Broken Iris. This whole song fits Padmé and Anakin, both during the ten year separation between TPM and AOTC, and also after ROTS.

“you can’t fight the friction” is for Piett. It’s from Friction by Imagine Dragons.

“we could be heroes” is Wedge’s tag. It’s from Heroes by Zayde Wolf. The song really fits his dedication to the Alliance and everything it stands for.

I don’t use this one much, but “shooting star” is for Biggs. I can’t actually remember where this one came from. I thought it was some variant of one of his lines to Luke, but it might actually be something I picked up from a fanfic somewhere, I don’t actually remember. I do know I had it before @azalea-scroggs used it in Black Squadron, so it wasn’t that fic. We probably got it from the same place, haha.

I use “emperor idiot” for Palpatine, and that’s just spite.

“stardust in her eyes” is Jyn’s. It’s from Galen’s nickname for her, “Stardust.” I just made a phrase from it.

“more than words and guns” is for Veers. I think @th3rm0pyl43 suggested that one for me. I think it’s from a song, but I don’t know which one.

“oh don’t you see that lonesome dove” is for Ahsoka. It’s from 10,000 Miles by Mary Chapin Carpenter. It’s the song from Fly Away Home, one of my favorite childhood movies, and it never fails to make me cry. This is one of those songs where the whole song doesn’t really fit, just the one line, and it’s more aimed at Rebels!Ahsoka than TCW.

Now onto the relationship tags:

“you’re my dark star” is for Luke and Vader/Anakin. It’s from Dark On Me by Starset. I actually wrote a post that breaks down how and why that song fits them so well. I’ll reblog it when I’m done with this post.

“echoes of a promise” is for Luke and Padmé. It’s from You’re Not Alone by Lacey Sturm. It’s kind of about how Vader sees echoes of Padmé in Luke, and how Luke’s faith in his father is a mirror of Padmé’s faith in her husband.

“there’s a memory of how i used to be” I use for posts paralleling Vader and Anakin. It’s the first line from Point of No Return by Starset, the same song that Vader’s tag is from.

“brothers in wings” is for Luke and Wedge. It’s a play on words for “brothers in arms,” since they’re wingmates.

“they’ll never stop us” is for Luke and Biggs, and that one is a piece of Biggs’s dialogue.

“bound by fire and ice” is for Luke and Han. It’s just a phrase I came up with, referencing how their bond is sealing in fire (all the battles they’ve fought together) and ice (the events on Hoth).

“do you still believe in one another” is for Luke and Leia, and it’s from Hey Brother by Avicii (though I prefer the cover by RUNAGROUND).

“do you still believe in love I wonder” is for Leia and Han, also from Hey Brother. I purposely used matching lines for these two tags, because of how the trio’s relationships are all tied up together, and the song really fits the whole trio.

“dumpster diving” is my tag for the OT trio (+Chewie), and it’s a reference to the trash compactor, and finding treasure (their friendship) in unexpected places.

“he was a good friend” and “broken brothers” are both tags for Anakin and Obi-Wan, and it depends on the content for which tag I use. The first one is from Obi-Wan’s line to Luke in his hut in ANH.

“in the light of all the stars aligned” is for Anakin and Padmé. It’s from Telescope by Starset. It’s also kind of a play on Across the Stars.

“to your grave I spoke” is for Vader and Padmé. It’s also from A New Hope by Broken Iris, like Obi-Wan’s tag.

“you went dark on me” is for Vader and Obi-Wan. Like Luke and Vader’s tag, it’s from Dark On Me by Starset.

“I’ll use you as a warning sign” is for Anakin and Ahsoka. It’s from I Found by Amber Run. Most of the song doesn’t really fit, but that line seemed to.

“but I’m losing this and I’m losing you” is for Anakin/Vader and Ahsoka. It’s from Broken Pieces by Apocalyptica Feat. Lacey Sturm. It’s for Anakin when Ahsoka leaves the Jedi order and for Ahsoka after she realizes exactly who Vader is.

Whew! That’s a lot of tags, haha.

[arabian-bloodstream]

Star Wars: Flashback Cut (and why)

I know I just posted this, BUT... I also posted it on a Star Wars subreddit I’m a member of and someone had an awesome suggestion in the comments and so I made a change that I think works so much better:

If you’re stuck at home and feel like giving Star Wars a binge-watch, here’s a potential new way to watch it. This is my preferred way of watching The Star Wars Saga. It keeps the vast majority of big surprises intact, while preserving the story integrity. It also links narratives and character arcs, and strengthens those narratives and arcs overall, in my opinion. I also feel that in doing so it makes the Prequel Trilogy and Rise of the Skywalker (some of the weaker films in the saga--again, my opinion) feel more seamless and part of the greater whole, thus making them stronger.

*Note if you prefer The Skywalker Saga you can leave Solo out.

STAR WARS: THE FLASHBACK CUT

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Episode IV: A New Hope

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Episode VII: The Last Jedi

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Episode IX: Rise of the Skywalker

AND WHY THIS WORKS (FOR ME) …

Rogue One

- R1 makes perfect sense having no scrawl because the A New Hope scrawl recaps the events of R1 whereas R1 started the story.

- Everything with the single reactor blast destroying the Death Star explains that “plot hole” in ANH now.

- Knowing all of these people and all they’ve done and their sacrifice adds so much resonance and power to the Rebellion and what they’re doing/fighting for before we hear Luke talk about them in ANH.

- Bail shows up and has focus and it’s like why? But then towards the end, his final scene explains that he has to get back to his people on Alderaan but he has someone he trusts with his life to help, leading to the Leia scene at the end. This not only sets up and leads to ANH, it   also means that when Alderaan in ANH is blown up, we actually know someone on that planet now. That gives it some more emotional heft too.

A New Hope

The Phantom Menace

- Doing this gives us a much broader history of the Jedi, we find out more about Obi-Wan's history and we feel his loss much greater, and we really mourn the fact that Luke never knew his father.

- In about a minute into the film, young Obi-Wan is introduced. He is the first character’s whose name is given and coming into this from ANH, we know who he is and it's clear that we're going to find out his story.

- Just a quick note, but I wanted to point out why I feel the Machete Cut (which completely excises TPM) doesn’t work. The entire Trade Federation story is not only the entire backbone  to how Palpatine rises to power, but it’s also why Amidala (and thus Anakin) has the relationship with him that she does. These are two huge reasons as to why the Machete Cut doesn’t work.

Another is the scene where young Anakin is being questioned by the Jedi Council. That scene right there, in a nutshell, tells us what will be the main turning point that starts Anakin on the Dark path. He’s asked about missing his mother. Young Anakin questions what that has to do  with anything and he’s told it has everything to do with it. He fears what will happen to her, and fear leads to anger and aggression and aggression leads to the Dark Side. And we all know that is *exactly* what happens.

Attack of the Clones

- Another reason that the Machete cut doesn't work is that it's several minutes into the film before we meet any character we know from the Original Trilogy (in the elevator scene with Obi-Wan and Anakin). Also, it’s a bit longer before Anakin himself is referenced by name. Amidala calls him "Ani" instead. So as a starting point into the Prequel Trilogy (and definitely as a Flashback between ANH/TESB and RotJ) the Machete Cut is very confusing. (And, again, this doesn't take into account the issues mentioned under TPM.)

- Now we see Luke's father, roughly the same age as he was, so similar as the boy we met in ANH and we also know that the girl we met in TPM is his mother. So, we've met both of his parents, we've seen them fall in love. This beautiful tragedy is going to play out soon enough, we just don’t know how. And at this point we (well, new viewers) don't know that Anakin becomes Darth Vader.

The Empire Strikes Back

-  The explanation of the Dark Side of the Force, how it works, how it brings people in, and how Obi-Wan lost Anakin… I know that is set up for the reveal of who Luke is and the redemption of Anakin in the third act of Return of the Jedi, but watching this before the Prequel Trilogy as if they are a Flashback set of films telling the story of what happened really strengthens that   narrative. And it does so beautifully.

-  It’s very, very obvious from TESB that a love triangle was VERY much in play between Luke, Leia and Han. The beginning sets up Han/Leia with a  bit of Luke thrown in with that kiss, and then the bulk of the film is  with Han and Leia. However the final bit has Luke and Leia with their connection, her kissing him (again) on the lips, and the two together while Lando and Chewie are off to find Han.

They could have easily set it up so that by the time the third film had rolled around, Leia and Luke were involved–and the “other one” was to be introduced fresh in the third film. (As was originally intended.) Now, I still think that if they had done that, it would have been Han and Leia in the end as the bulk of the love story we saw was Han and Leia, but they did still definitely set up the triangle (that was hinted at in the first film) to go full throttle in the third movie.

Going with The Flashback Cut actually helps eliminate any sense of that once we return to the trio because of the reveal of Luke and Leia being twins at the end of Revenge of the Sith before you go into Return of the Jedi.

- Aha! By having TPM and AotC before this one, we've only met Anakin, but we really know him now. So to find out that *he* becomes Darth Vader will truly, deeply have an impact like HOLY SHIT!

-  Having Luke asking Ben “Why?” a couple of times regarding the Anakin/Darth Vader lie at the end of TESB before going into Revenge of the Sith to find out how it happens makes so much sense. It sets it up that we are going to be told why.

Revenge of the Sith

- With TESB ending on Luke asking Ben “why?” we follow up immediately with the answer in full detail.

- Bringing baby Luke to Tatooine at the end of the film signifies that Anakin’s story is over and settles us right back in for the return to Luke’s story. It segues beautifully into the title of the next one: "Return of the Jedi”  in a couple of different ways. We’re done with the Sith story and now we’re going back to the Jedi. Also, Luke is the Jedi and we’re returning to his story: Return of the Jedi (aka Luke).

Return of the Jedi

-  Watching Yoda’s death scene really is enhanced by having just watched the Prequel Trilogy, especially the last third of RotS, before it. Him talking to Luke about not underestimating the power of the Dark Side as they are talking about Anakin/Vader adds so much depth and emotion for the viewer to that conversation.

-  Leia being revealed as his twin was just not this big OOH! moment; it just seemed kinda, throwaway? So being revealed in the PT is an OK loss  in my books for all we get in return.

- Finally, the biggie... we just watched Anakin's entire story play out from a young, innocent enslaved boy to becoming a slave to the Dark Side and Palpatine's power and control. And here we see him break free, once more the emotional pull between a parent and a child being the catalyst, but this time it's the reverse. Anakin is the parent, and it's love that is the motivator not hate.

The Force Awakens

The Last Jedi

-  There is the dice that we saw on the Falcon and that dice comes into play in the closing scenes with Luke and Leia, and then especially Kylo/Ben as he’s kneeling before the Falcon that  disappears in his hand.

It's OK that we don't see Solo before TLJ, because we don't need to know where the dice come from because they’re just symbols at this point–they were important to Han and that was their only needed key point in this film. Also, since TFA ended on a cliffhanger, having a flashback film between them would completely throw the balance off. TLJ *has* to come immediately after TFA for that reason.

Solo

- On the other hand, it is cool to find out why the dice we’re important to Han and we do in Solo.

- As well, the talk of the stuff that’s happening with the Empire/the Emperor in Solo sets up the horror of what could happen with the Emperor coming back in The Rise of Skywalker.

- Also, seeing Kylo/Ben’s father going from a good kid who loses his way, lost and trying to find himself just as Kylo was at the end of TLJ (and like Han, he didn't get the girl) works well.

- Plus, it also gives a breather that helps fill the stretch of time between TLJ and TRoS.

- Even though, the opening crawl is written differently than the other films, unlike the R1 story, Solo still at least has the crawl, and by not being the traditional crawl, it lets us know right away that  something different is going on. Then, boom! We meet a young Han in the first scene and we're on our way, but it was that untraditional crawl that already set us up to expect a swerve away from the continuation of TLJ.

* As I stated atop, if you just want to do The Skywalker Saga binge, Solo can easily be dropped from the watch-list.

The Rise of Skywalker

-  With the horrors that the Emperor and his Empire made of the galaxy fresh in our mind, viewers really will not want to see a return of the Emperor. (OK, not that they would anyway.)

-  We just saw a young Lando come out of the shadows deciding to fight the good fight… and here he is forty years later, doing it all over again.

- Just having watched Ben’s father’s idealistic self turned into a cynic by what the Empire/the Dark Side had created of the Galaxy visited upon his son–and turned him even worse–and then flipped on his side is a beautiful thing as Ben helps to keep that from happening all over again.

So there you go, my Star Wars: Flashback Cut (and why):

The Star Wars Saga - All released SW films: R1, 4, 1, 2, 5, 3, 6, 7, 8, Solo, 9

The Skywalker Saga - All SW films w/Skywalker characters: R1, 4, 1, 2, 5, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9

[linhkcao]

The moment I realize I can move on

As someone who is not naturally articulate and thus take the comfort (sometimes misery) of holding back thoughts and emotions, I’ve forced myself to record this time, no matter how broken it may end up sounding. What a transitive moment I’m in now, a mental milestone. A deep, great sadness of realization as it may be, I know it’ll help me reach the next level of freedom and self-acceptance. After a chain of exhausting days, I’ve allowed myself to be “officially sick” today. I’m gonna slow down. Thinking about what I’m thinking. Before throwing myself back into the madness of life.

I’m a wallflower to the core. The one that always watch, but never get involved, they say. Or am I? There are many moments where I was absolutely expressive and cheerful, like I’m living the time of my life. And I share that positive vibe to everyone I interact with. But there is no expected pattern of how and when that more attractive version of me show up. Recent recall was a couple weeks ago when “she” came to the rescue at an interview and secured me a job offer, I walked out of the building with an impression of “what the heck just happened? Was that me?!”. The thrilled joy, though, is short-lived. As I quickly realize that the worse-in-nearly-all-aspects version now will have to figure out how to meet high expectations from both myself and other people, built by “her”. It’s like “BOOM!!! Surprise biatch~ just saved you clumsy nerd from an awkward situation, congratulations we made it and now YOU take care of the rest! buh byeee~” every time.

Among expectations built, many I’m still fighting for, and for some I realized it’s time to give up for good. And you guess right, the tone is set up for the latter. The record of yesterday events in sequence, though not and end-to-end story, is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Here it goes...

I woke up with an annoying headache from a shortage of sleep as usual, rushed to the Turtle lake and took the school bus to Binh Duong, the place I would only travel to when I have to. It was kinda my favorite moment of a day though. I would always end up at the most front seat on the the right. Settled down. Eyes half-closed. The squeezing feeling all over my head and in the back of my eyes starts to soften thanks to the blend of gentle air-con wind and early morning sunlight, a cleanliness of smell, and my chill love song playlist aka the sleeping therapy. It is opposed to travelling by bike or taxi, now I actually hope the distance was longer! Normally that could be enough extra energy charged for me to survive a normal day at school. But yesterday was no ordinary day. I had no lectures but instead a group project in which we were struggling with an unfamiliar software. I was in charge of running the software while the other two did the writings. Just the night before I felt like a loser and almost gave up, but as the next morning, sitting down with the team, we gradually figured out everything. I felt so relieved. Perhaps it was not difficult after all. Maybe I was just freaked out with something I’m not used to and assume it's unsolvable.

Midday time, accompanied by the brutal sun, is when my tension headache gets at its worse. I skipped lunch and walked some heavy steps to the first-aid office, only to find it was being locked. Right, the lady must've been having lunch. Lying down at the feather chair in front, I pretended to get absorbed into my Iphone like a normal youngster nowadays instead of staring into nowhere and letting out my fatigue like a depressed person. Crazy how I still cared about what other people think even when it felt like my body was about to give out! And there she came from afar, the first aid staff lady; I turned my head and gave her the “I was waiting for you” smile (most honest smile ever), and she returned the “You’ll be okay now kiddo” smile. The first aid office is where I often come to take a nap after a test, or anytime I’m about the “shut down”. I call it VGU 5 star hotel.

The nap didn’t go well as I hoped, still I had to get up for the mini concert rehearsal, and apparently there are other people like me who are waiting to get their battery charged too (there are only 2 beds). The rehearsal was smooth, was no stress, and eventually better than the actual performance (what a shock). But then came the freaking rain. I blamed it for my bad mood, for my guitarist’s bike’s breakdown. And as we was just starting to come back to Saigon, his bike even had a flat tire. This is it, I thought, can’t get any worse!

I appreciate that my friend was very patient handling the situation, he was searching for mobile repairers and called each one of them. So I was resolved not to show any impatience although I was burning inside, the unfinished project still awaits me at home and seriously I was so desperate for some real sleep so I could make it to class for the presentation. I told him that I’d wait on the pavement to relieve the weight so he could go fixe his bike then come back afterwards. 30 minutes passed by... It was dark and remote as hell, and the last open restaurant which I sat nearby may close very soon. I made up my mind that I couldn't take a taxi or grab bike alone with such a far distance at this time of the day, so my only hope was that the guitarist friend woud have no further trouble and come back pick me up soon. My bestie even asked for the location details, in case I get kidnapped she could know how to report to the police lmao. And my professor was very worrying; she asked why I didn’t just simply stay in the dorm overnight...

Then it strike me how much I wanted to go back to Saigon, nearly at all costs. Even just for another 4-hour sleep then going to Binh Duong again, even when it’s super late and rainy. Am I crazy? I didn't care about rationality. I just wanted to go back.

But the actual turning point goes back to the concert, held at BD Conference & Exhibition center. It was prepared with dedication, passion, hard work, and joy, by tons of members from 2 biggest clubs in VGU. I’m thankful to be a small link in the whole chain.

The vocal quality as well as songs selection this year was really amazing. I sang “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran with anh Nguyen, the guitarist mentioned above. And although the performance was far from being perfect, I heard from several friends that they enjoyed it “beautiful singing”, “u still lit”, “it made me happy”, they even recorded and sent me... And trust me, I’m only glad because I could make some of the audiences happy, it was the only consolation at the end of the day. I personally and honestly didn’t understand those compliments, nor did I feel anything about the song, about the fact that I was a part of this concert. I came onto the stage, the extreme light beamed at us and all I could see are black-colored audiences. I didn’t see their faces, I didn’t have a clue how they were feeling. Were they bored or satisfied? It’s not about what the answer is, it’s about me having absolutely no belief in my performance. It was all acting, no emotions. Why can I say so, because I know what is like to “have belief” while singing. it’s when you just sing your hearts out and don’t give a damn on how the audience look like because you know they’re feeling with you, you don’t need to make sure by checking their facial expression and guessing if they’re satisfied or not.

I always talk to myself, no matter what bad things happen during the day, if at the end of the day when I lie down and about to sleep, I feel good, then it means I’ve had a good day. It was the same expectation towards the concert. I was hoping it could be a happy, memorable ending to my 4 boring years at VGU.

I know for sure there are many students like me at VGU who don’t feel any connection to the school nor other people at the campus. I’m not alone. But instead of being cool about it like many could do (you just simple seek another environment where you fit in), I was freak out. I was longing for the sense of belonging to this university, after I made a tough choice to leave home, leaving a mess behind me and move forward, I was an excited fresh who wanted VGU to be a happy, inspiring part of my youth. At the same time, I was all by myself. My brother was at the time struggling with his own marriage. Vi Anh is in Hanoi and we only chatted once in a while. My is in Japan, for years we nearly had no contact and I thought at some point I must let her go... Doug and Nhi went to BYU and I thought I might lose them as well... Other close friends were also away. I was lonely, i was desperate, i was ashamed.

For the record, there was an only truly happy and long lasting moment relating to VGU. It was the trip to Binh Lap with anh Quan, anh Huy, and Thien Tam. If you guys ever come across this note, I wanna thank you. It was the best thing happened to me during my VGU years.

This fourth year has been mind-blowing to me. I skipped the first semester to stay in Saigon for a part time job. And in the second semester I travel between 2 places. And suddenly I’m not a wallflower here in Saigon. For the first time in so many years, I don’t just watch, I am actively involved. For the first time in many years, the better version I talked about in the beginning and I, become one. I plan out my life, learn new things by my choice, meet new people and, many of them I make great friends, we exchange information and experiences, we help each other growth professionally and as a person. And above all things, My has decided to come back to Vietnam, and I realized after all the lost years, we still get each other's back. We reunited the gang along with Vi Anh and it was full of laughter. Many other friends have also recontacted and so it happened that we still exist in each other's life.

I love Saigon, for that it has been sweet and healing to me. I feel a sense of belonging, of living not just surviving. I guess the only reason for me to insist not staying overnight in Binh Duong was that after so many troubles, the fact that I could be back to the city for just a few hours sleeping, makes me feel safe, like “I’m at home at last”.

Of course, I didn’t get over VGU or Binh Duong easily. I wept out like a little girl but knew it was a “letting go” kind of crying. You know when you wish so much that things would work out between you and that person, it takes a while for you to accept that you’re not meant to be and you can move on and still live happily. Last night was the end to all my unrealistic hope. I felt absolutely nothing. No fun, no connection with the people, the atmosphere there. As soon as I finished the performance, I sneaked out into a dark conference room, playing with my phone while waiting for my friend to drive me back to Saigon.

I’m happy for those young and fun people I saw yesterday who has found themselves there, congrats to you, you will be like a close friend of mine who left VGU and his friends with tears of farewell. It’s also nice for me to be assured that people like me could still build beautiful memories elsewhere and be happy. In the end, we’re the only negative force of ourselves, no one can force us to do things we don’t want to.

[getoffthesoapbox]

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Leia

Luke’s abiding love for Leia was always one of the highlights of the original trilogy for me, and The Last Jedi honors it in the best way.

This is the sixth post in my Star Wars The Last Jedi First Impressions series. The list of the topics this series covers, including links to the previous posts, is included below:

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - A Flawed Triumph

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Thematic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Finn & Rose

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Rey

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Leia  ← we are here

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Kylo’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Romantic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Misleading Love Polygons

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Schrödinger's Futures

This behemoth grew to an impressive size despite my best efforts. =P

Before I dig into Luke and Leia, I wanted to nitpick a few things about Rian’s choices for Leia in particular (and Luke by extension). I already picked at my issues with Luke’s trajectory in my last post, so I won’t rehash that again here, but I also have issues with Leia and I’d prefer to get them out first rather than ruin a good ending (because there really is so much to love about Luke and Leia in this film). ;)

As with Luke, I love Leia’s general character development in this film. We see the heavy toll the loss of Han has taken on her--she’s no longer able to bear the weight of all the deaths around her. Han’s death changed something fundamental for her, and now she’s struggling under the burden of having to lose promising young lives and old friends. She’s clearly starting to wonder what the point of it all is and if it’s even worth it--what has she been fighting for all this time? Toward the end of the film, she even loses hope for the first time in her life--this too seems realistic to me in light of the destruction of her family and her life’s work. All her interactions with her resistance members are perfect, and the ending between her and Rey hits all the right notes.

One of my complaints with Leia in this trilogy is how passive she is about her son, who clearly places her above his father and uncle in his regard. Why is she still prioritizing the resistance rather than hunting her boy down and helping him come home? If she regrets losing him to Snoke, why is she not fighting for him? This is one of Leia’s deepest character flaws--she places her duties as a mother below her duties to the “greater good,” even when her duties as a mother were vital to ensuring the greater good. Both TFA and TLJ miss out on a great opportunity to show the greater ramifications of “small choices” like caring for your children--if you care for your children and are involved with their lives, they generally don’t go running off to join terrorist organizations in order to get your attention. This was a lesson Han seems to recognize at the end of his own journey in TFA, but too late to make a difference--had he chosen to be the parent his son needed, perhaps his son would have had a stronger framework from which to fight against his darker impulses.

So with the Leia Poppins sequence (which is an abysmal bit of filmmaking but I won’t burn your ears with my complaints), we find out Leia is clearly powerful in the force. If this is so, and given the reality that the resistance is losing badly and she knows her son is on the enemy’s side in the final sequence, why on earth is she not the one to walk out in the end sequence to face her son and buy the resistance some time to escape? I know Rian wanted this to be Luke’s film, but it honestly makes no sense that Luke is the one who does this--it should have been Leia! If her resistance members are so much more important to her than her son, she should have walked out there and taken the bullets for them from him. Why is she unwilling to face her son and put her own life on the line? Honestly, if she’d been the one who walked out there alone, as far as I’m concerned Kylo would have immediately buckled. The boy has no spine when it comes to his mommy. All she had to do was get out there and tell him to get his rear end down there right now like mother with good sense. He’d obey lickety split, and Hux would probably facepalm, and they could have at least worked out a ceasefire if nothing else. 

At the very least, I think it would have been better for Leia’s character if Leia had attempted to do this, and then perhaps have Luke stop her (that way she can be saved for the pivotal third film, which is what I know Rian and JJ wanted, because nothing beats a mother’s love). I can’t believe this got through the story group, but whatever. So many head scratchers got through the story group that at this point I can only throw my hands in the air in exasperation and wonder why they even have such a group at all.

All this being said, my complaints about Leia didn’t detract from my sheer enjoyment of Luke and Leia’s trajectory, which I felt truly matched the original trilogy’s natural trajectory just as well as Han and Leia did in TFA. But before I get into that, I’d like to step back a minute and talk about the original trilogy and my own experience with it.

Luke was one of my first crushes back when I was a kid, though I’ll freely admit I was more a Spock/Prince Phillip kind of girl on the whole. I’ve always been fiercely attached to Arthurian lore, and Luke’s narrative over the course of the three films of the original trilogy has all the hallmarks of the Arthurian tale, with Luke obviously placed in Arthur’s seat. Arthur has always been my favorite character of the original legends (with Mordred coming in a close second, perhaps unsurprisingly given who my favorite character in the sequel trilogy is, fufu), and even when I was a kid I understood clearly that Leia was “Guinevere” and Han was “Lancelot.” As such, even if Lucas hadn’t pulled the sibling reveal, Luke was doomed when it came to Leia. With the sibling reveal, something interesting happens to the Arthurian parallels--Leia becomes the embodiment of two central figures: Guinevere and Morgana. This is an element that makes the ending sequence quite interesting to me, but more on that later.

One thing always struck me in the original films was there was never a clear moment when Luke “got over” Leia. Leia easily accepted Luke as her brother, because in many ways he already was as far as she was concerned; her eyes had been only for Han since the moment she first saw him. When I first saw the original trilogy, I just wrote this off as a “nicer” variant of the Arthurian legend--Luke had to lose, and Lucas was just giving him an easy way out that wouldn’t leave him in tears, especially in the last film. But Vader still tempted him to the dark side by using Leia, even after the sister reveal, and Luke almost succumbed, which always seemed a bit over the top for a normal sibling reaction.

However, my perspective changed when I watched the prequels, many years later. Anakin attaches to Padme the instant he meets her, despite her barely taking notice of him, making clear a pattern which actually had been established by his children in the original trilogy: when Skywalkers “fall,” they fall instantaneously and forever. Anakin for Padme, Leia for Han, and Luke for Leia. Once I saw The Revenge of the Sith, my head canon (I had them even back then, go figure) for Luke solidified into the idea that Luke never “got over” Leia and that if the story had continued, he would eventually have had to separate from her and Han simply because his heart couldn’t take it and he, like Arthur in the legend, had too good a heart to cause trouble for people he loved.

Of course the EU canon didn’t support this, and I never considered myself a Star Wars fan (I’m a TOS Trekkie to the core and before the sequel trilogy would have been on the Trek side of the Star Wars vs. Trek debate XD), so I didn’t really think anything of it all. But when I heard Disney was tossing out the EU canon in the new trilogy, in the back of my mind I wondered if maybe, just maybe, they’d have the same vision for Luke that I did. With TFA, I had the first inkling that this might just be the case--Han and Leia had a clearly mutual, but realistically contentious relationship centered on their own personal friction and the loss of a son (which I loved and thought was spot on perfect for these characters--good on you, JJ), and Luke had “vanished” mysteriously. So far so good.

Along comes TLJ, and bless Rian for what he did with Luke and Leia. For this alone, I’d forgive him any flaw--this most important thing he got right. Luke’s off on the island, refusing to deal with Rey and running from Leia and Kylo, and when he finds out Rey came aboard the Falcon, he sneaks on board to revisit old memories. And R2D2 knows exactly what will move Luke and remind him of his youthful, idealistic self--the image of Leia he fell in love with during ANH. Luke may call it “cheap,” but it works like a charm--he immediately accepts the summons and goes to Rey’s side.

We see three instances in TLJ of what I consider to be the call of the eternal feminine--Rey calls Kylo (who rejects), Rose calls Finn (who accepts), and Leia calls Luke (who accepts). There is a similar thread throughout all of these moments, and that is the undercurrent of romantic tension. Traditionally, the lady giving the call would place her favor upon her chosen knight (and since Star Wars is heavily influenced by Arthurian legend and courtly tales such as Tristan and Isolde, you still see these elements sneak in every now and then even with Lucas gone). The fact that there are only two other calls from the eternal feminine, and that both of them have the romantic undercurrent, confirms for me that Luke still has a small flame in his heart for Leia, though he suppresses it because he’s a good man. Rather than hurting Leia with his feelings, he strives to honor his feelings for her by doing what he can for her.

This is, in my estimation, why there is a tinge of the romantic in their only two scenes in the film. When Luke reconnects to the force for the first time, he awakens Leia from her slumber as their minds connect. She speaks his name, and he speaks hers. It’s a scene that cuts straight to the heart of an original trilogy fan. Arthur returns to his Guinevere/Morgana in this scene, even if only via mental space, and hope arrives with him, giving her the strength to stand up again.

The big moment between them is, of course, when he arrives during Leia’s most desperate hour. Her lost son stands at the gates with all the hounds of hell at his beck and call, and her resistance is on its last legs. Who should arrive at the last hour but Arthur himself--Luke from the shadows, as once he did for Han in Return of the Jedi (great callback, Rian). Arthur has come to save his Queen from Mordred--the darkness he himself unleashed upon the world, though in this story Mordred is not his biological son.

Luke’s and Leia’s first exchange is a mirror of her and Han, but unlike Han, Luke has always had a gentle rather than biting sense of humor. She quietly teases him that she knows what he’s thinking--she changed her hair. Luke reassures her that it looks nice that way, acknowledging her attempt at levity, and then he apologizes from his heart. Leia, who is connected to him, understands immediately that he means it and extends her forgiveness and her love.

Luke announces he’s here to face Kylo. Unlike with Han, Leia doesn’t ask Luke to save her son--she instead mournfully admits she’s afraid he’s lost for good. Luke won’t let it end for her like that; he restores her hope to her when he says that no one is ever really gone--meaning both Kylo and himself. If he can return to her side, so can Kylo.

It’s fitting that she is the last person to see him before he faces his sins, and that he places the token of the man she loves in her hand before he goes--always, always, he acknowledges the love she bears Han and honors her choice. Then he honors his own feelings by placing a beautiful kiss on her forehead--a kiss containing the immortal depth of all forms of love, the parting of a King from his chosen Queen. It is the end of their story, but the beginning of her son’s, and the fight is not over.

Having said his goodbyes to Leia, he embarks to face Kylo. This moment is when the Arthurian legend begun by the original six films--from Anakin’s Uther to Obi Wan’s Merlin to Luke’s Arthur to Han’s Lancelot to Leia’s Guinevere/Morgana--comes full circle and we at last put the Arthurian story to rest in favor of the more traditional fairytale, which is the flavor of Rey’s heroine’s journey and the center of the new trilogy.

Luke as Arthur stands against Kylo, his Mordred. But because this isn’t the end of the tale, he has no intention of killing his Mordred; instead, he will do what he can to plant the seeds for Mordred’s return to the light, and he will journey to Avalon (the force) of his own free will. As in the Arthurian legend, Luke will never be truly gone, and he will always be waiting for the day when he is needed once more. He can lay down his burden, and close the curtain on the tale begun by his father. His Mordred will not die with him; by Luke’s own intention, Kylo will live on and face Rey once more--but this time, hope isn’t dead and Camelot can still rise out of the ashes once more.

Leia takes the gift Luke gives her, and with the renewal of hope burning in her heart, she plans the rebirth of the resistance through their new champion: Rey, the only person left who can take down the final Goliath.

Until next time!

[smallwanderer218]

Oooookayyyy finally ready to process my feelings....stream-of-consciousness and spoilers below.

I can't believe they made us watch Order 66 AGAIN is this a requirement for every new show??? But I appreciate that the point was how many padawans escaped because of their master's sacrifice to justify/explain the existence of the inquisitors.

Obi-Wan's loneliness/desolation was what I expected most of the show to be and I'm surprised by how much action it had. I was also surprised how fully Obi-Wan gave up on the way of the Jedi, but it makes so much sense. The conversation he has with Nari was enlightening. He says, "what about the fight?" And Obi-Wan's response is: "We lost." Nari was probably a padawan when the Republic fell. He probably didn't really see the devastation of the Clone Wars - not the way Obi-Wan did. He may not even know that the whole thing was a setup to bring the Jedi down. Of course Obi-Wan (and Yoda, presumably) sees this as the end of a war he was on the losing side of, while the younger Jedi and padawans see themselves at the beginning of a new fight. Obi-Wan's trauma and grief are so overwhelming that he can't imagine any future other than carefully watching over Luke from his isolation.

I thought the tension between Obi-Wan and Owen is so well done and I'm interested to see how they continue to develop that. Owen obviously cares so much for Luke and sees Obi-Wan as a threat to his well-being, but he also he didn't give him up to the Inquisitors. I hope we get to see more of Owen's perspective - what does he think about Anakin, and how does that impact the way he treats Luke?

Speaking of Luke, I had expected this show to focus on him, and instead we got Leia! For some reason it never occurred to me that we would get to see so much of the Organas but I am absolutely delighted. I'm OBSESSED with this little girl they got to play her. I can't believe how good of a job she's doing. If you told me that she had carefully studied Carrie Fisher from the OT and maybe even Natalie Portman I would totally believe it. I'm SO happy they're doing justice to this character. She's just the right amount of "I'm in charge here" without it being overdone. Her relationship with Bail and Breha is perfect, and the way she interacts with Obi-Wan is so great too. Her distrust of him makes so much sense, and I feel like after she got home she and Bail had a tough conversation about what to do the next time she got kidnapped, and how she would know whether the person rescuing her was really someone she could trust. (Someone else on this site pointed out that this changes how we read her enthusiasm in ANH when Luke tells her "I'm here with Ben Kenobi"). I'm very curious to see how this kidnapping affects her character development. Adult Leia never seems too anxious about being captured, whether that's confidence that someone is coming for her or faith in her own ability to escape. I see a little of both in this show and I love that. She's never been off-planet and she's a little scared when she and Obi-Wan first get to the street, but she adjusts quickly and before long she's reading Obi-Wan's emotions exactly the same way she read her cousin.

I appreciated the way it took a little while for Obi-Wan to find his groove again. It's been 10 years, he's not in the same physical shape he used to be, he apparently isn't drawing on the Force (although I wonder about that - can the Inquisitors sense him better if he's connected to the Force?), so it makes sense that he can't fight off the bounty hunters as easily and he hurts his hand when he throws a punch. They aren't rushing him back to full power. I wonder, in some way, if he feels he deserves that. The bounty hunter is mocking him by punching him in the gut and saying "you're not a Jedi anymore." But he can't possibly hurt him as much as Obi-Wan is hurting himself. Whether or not he's a Jedi, and what it even means to be a Jedi is a central theme through this show. It's in question all the way up to the moment when he saves Leia from falling. The Inquisitors are right about the Jedi - their compassion reveals them. Obi-Wan has had to actually shut off that part of himself in order to avoid detection. He doesn't help people, he doesn't stand up to injustice - and it's destroying him. But when Leia needs him, and the Force is the only way to save her, he makes that critical choice. To save her. To be a Jedi. "You really are a Jedi," she says. Not because he can use the Force, but because he used it to protect her.

Reva's character is VERY interesting and I can't wait to find out more of her backstory. I'm sure she was one of the younglings from the opening. Clearly there's something personal going on with this. When the other Inquisitor asks what she hopes to gain from capturing Kenobi she says "what I'm owed." That's a fascinating answer and I hope there's something more than a desire for power. I wonder what the consequences will be for her stabbing the Grand Inquisitor (also, is he not actually dead? Or is the Grand Inquisitor we see from Rebels somehow a different person? Confused by this.)

Okay - Anakin/Obi-Wan feelings. I guess I don't know why I thought Obi-Wan would know Vader survived, but his shock at that revelation surprised me. Upon reflection, I guess Vader wasn't so widely known as Palpatine's right-hand man that it would have come to him on Tatooine. Even in ANH Vader seems to answer to Tarkin. He doesn't really have an official position in the government or the military. So in hindsight, of course Obi-Wan thought that he had completed his task in killing Anakin. The grief he so obviously feels in the first episode - the loss of his best friend and brother in such a horrific way, first to the dark side and then at his own hand - was just wrenching. Then to see that he buried their lightsabers together - Obi-Wan died alongside Anakin. He's just Ben now.

But the absolute devastation on his face when Reva reveals that he's still alive (also how does she know much?? Iirc in the novels Vader is working very hard to put distance between himself and the name "Anakin Skywalker." Thrawn figures it out and it seems like some big secret. Is this a change?) The swirl of emotions, the horror, the hope perhaps, that we see when he reaches out and actually connects with him again. And when it cuts to Vader, suddenly aware of Obi-Wan after hunting him for ten years, we see pure hate in his eyes. Even though most of his face is obscured, the emotion comes through clearly. He looks like a predator who has finally cornered his prey.

My overall feeling on this show is that, more than any of the other "Star Wars Story" media that Disney/LF has put out, this one really feels like it's part of the main saga. It's the first new show that I wanted to do an immediate re-watch like I always have on the main movies. So far, really well done and I can't wait for more!

So I knew the Obi-Wan show was going to hurt...but they really went above and beyond huh?

[ecotone99]

[SF] The First Family

(This is a version of the story that ends off on a cliffhanger. The premise of the story is that the daughter of Michael, aka the second being in all of creation, is being tracked by Lucifer. Why? Well, because [REDACTED].)

The time is 6:00 A.M. and the setting is a suburban home on a Monday in the middle of August in the year 2018.

"anh anh anh anh," went the sound of an old and worn-out alarm clock. It sounded off for about 15 seconds before a freshly manicured hand reached out from under the flower-themed covers and began to feel around the nearby nightstand that the alarm clock was resting on. The hand finally found its way to the alarm and began rapidly hitting the "stop" button. However, the alarm continued to ring, which lead to them letting off an angry sigh which turned into a brief yell. They then threw the covers off of them and jumped out of bed, determined to stop this alarm. She removed the layer of her dark brown hair that was covering her face, revealing a pair of hazel colored eyes and light freckles that spread across her face. She gave the alarm clock a few more anger-filled pounds before it finally turned off.

"knock-knock-knock," she heard coming from her bedroom door. Before she could reach the door and allow the visitor in, the door opens.

"Are you alright? I heard a yell," said her worried mother.

"You know, mom... If you're gonna just enter, why even knock?" she sassed. "And yeah, I'm fine. Just this old alarm again."

"hmmm, That's a good question, I'll think about it later today while I'm paying the bills." replied her mother, with a smirk. "The offer still stands, like I told you last week, we can go and get you a new alarm clock today."

"No, it's fine. I gotta admit, it's kind of grown on me," she replied.

"Helen! Have you seen my brown belt? I think it'd go better with these pants." said a steadily approaching masculine voice.

"sigh That man would lose his own two feet if they weren't connected to him." jokingly said Helen.

"Sarah, have you seen your mo- Oh," he said as he walked towards Sarah's room, to be greeted by Helen.

"No, I haven't dad, but I'll let you know if I see her." sarcastically replied Sarah.

Sarah and her mom both began giggling at the comment.

"Ha ha ha," he sarcastically laughed.

"Alright, let's go, Sam. And I swear, if this belt is sitting in plain sight like last time, I'm gonna hit you with it," said Helen as she shoved Sam out of the door and bantered down the hallway.

Sarah smiled at their playful banter while imagining a day in the future where she'll be lucky enough to have a similar relationship. She gently closed the door behind them and began walking towards her dresser which had a huge mirror attached to it. She began running her fingers through the crowd of natural curls that rested on her head. Her hair was ridged towards the ends, which is a sign of it recently being cut. She glared over at a picture sitting on the dresser and picked it up. It was of her, at a waterpark, but with longer and straighter hair. Her face was riddled with nostalgia, not because she missed her long hair, but because she missed being young. She put the picture down, and walked over to her closet, which was full of color and decorative patterns. She overlooked those colors and grabbed a black leather jacket and a pair of black pants. The leather jacket still had a tag on it, which she snatched off and tossed into the trashcan near her nightstand. She then threw the clothes on her bed, and walked towards her dresser to find a shirt that complimented the outfit. As she looked down to open the drawer, she noticed that, for a split second, her reflection wasn't mirroring her movement. Her head immediately jerked up in response to this anomaly, but it seemed to be completely normal.

"What the..." she said under her breath while squinting her eyes. "It was probably nothing..." she thought to herself.

She looked back down to continue her search for a shirt whilst periodically looking up and suspciously examining her reflection. Once again, she looked past the assortment of colorful clothes and pulled out a dark-gray T-shirt. She then heard her parents laughing and making a lot of noise in the hallway. Sarah raised her eyebrows at the commotion but ultimately ignored it. She picked up her clothes and opened her bedroom door. Just as she stepped out into the hallway, she saw her dad on the ground, with her mom standing over him with the brown belt in question.

"Hey Sarah, a little help here?" Sam said with a slight giggle.

"Well, I woulddd, but my hands are full. Sorry, Dad." replied Sarah as she lifted the pile of clothes she was carrying.

"Welp, looks like it's just you, me, and this belt that just mysteriously appeared out of thin air." said Helen with a jokingly menacing tone.

Sarah smiled at them and slipped into the bathroom, closing the door behind herself. She set her clothes in the bathroom closet and took out some towels. She began to remove her clothes as she noticed the door was still unlocked. After recalling what happened earlier, she decided to lock the door before getting undressed. After a quick shower, she stepped out and wrapped herself in a nearby towel. She wiped some steam from the bathroom mirror and began making an array of silly faces while admiring her looks. She winked and pointed finger guns at herself before turning around to retrieve her clothes from the closet. She slipped the black ensemble on, one piece at a time. Once she was fully clothed, she grabbed her toothbrush and some toothpaste. As she brushed away, she made more silly gestures in the mirror to past the time. As she began nodding down to spit, it happened again. Her reflection seemed to not follow along with her. Once again, she immediately noticed and snapped her attention to the mirror. It was completely normal, again. She quickly bent down to rinse out her mouth and ran out the bathroom. She was completely freaked out and was questioning her sanity at this point. She grabbed her pink bookbag out of her room and hurried down the stairs. The image of her reflection not moving kept replaying in her head. As she got downstairs, she walked in on her dad hugging her mom from behind.

"Ugh, get a room!" she exclaimed while smiling.

"Well, we had one until you barged in." replied Sam.

Helen chuckled while putting down a plate of bacon and eggs for Sarah.

Sarah looked at the plate of food, then at the time displayed on the oven. She realized that she had to eat all of her breakfast in five minutes to be on-time for school. She took large scoops of eggs and stuffed the bacon into her mouth. She somehow scarfed it all down without choking and washed it down with a cold glass of orange juice. After noticing she was three minutes over her estimated time, she got up in a hurry, grabbed her car keys, and ran towards the door.

"I'm gonna be late!! Bye Mom, bye Dad!" she yelled as she left the house, slamming the door behind her.

"All black, again." sighed Helen.

"Well, I mean, wasn't all black. She had on a gray shirt." replied Sam.

"I'm serious, Sam!" exclaimed Helen.

"Look, she's only dressing different. She hasn't been acting different. Maybe it's just a phase." said Sam, in an attempt to calm Helen down.

"Yeah, I guess. I just worry about her sometimes, you know." said Helen.

"I do too. But, she's 17. She's a young adult. We have to let her express herself how she wants to." replied Sam.

"You're right. Just those overbearing motherly instincts kicking in." said Helen. "17 though, huh? God, we're getting old."

"We? Speak for yourself, grandma." Sam said while holding back a laugh.

Helen gasped and lightly slapped Sam's arm.

Sarah remained paranoid on her way to school as she had to look into her car mirrors in-order to get there safely. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, for now. As she pulled into the school parking lot, she took a big sigh and started to mentally prepare herself for another day at school. She then parked her car in an open parking spot and waved at a nearby group of people while smiling. She was surrounded by the muffled conversations of kids that were waiting to enter the school. She reached down over on the passenger side to grab her bookbag from the ground. As soon as the windows were out of her field of view, the muffled chatter surrounding her car suddenly stopped. She noticed and slowly lifted up. Empty. Everyone was gone. Sarah sat there, stiff, too scared to move. She was trying to process what was happening. She reached for the keys still in the ignition to turn the car back on. She started feeling around the keyhole and noticed that her keys were missing as well.

"Nononono" Sarah thought to herself.

She frantically reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her phone. It had no service bars.

"Great." she said under her breath.

Sarah began looking around to see if she could spot anyone else. While she didn't spot any people, she did spot something shiny on the ground. It was her keys. She knew that this seemed like a trap, but they were so close.

"I gotta go for it." she said.

She cautiously opened her car door and ran for her keys. Just as she picked them up, they slowly disintegrated in her hand, flowing away like water. She then noticed a little girl wearing a pink tutu and a princess crown in the distance near the school's front door. The two of them made eye contact before the little girl ran into the school while giggling.

"Nope. Unh-unh. Not today." declared Sarah.

She turned around to run back to her car, but then she noticed that the parking space was completely empty.

"Of course." she said under her breath.

She then noticed that the trees and houses in the distance were slowly fading away into a pitch black darkness which was getting closer and closer. She began walking backwards, watching the darkness quickly approach. She realized the only thing remaining unaffected was the school. She had a decision to make: be consumed by the darkness or run into the creepy little girl. She ran up to the front doors of the school, but stopped short at what she saw. There seemed to be a pure white light peering out through the doors.She slowly opened the door, looked back once more and saw that the darkness had completely consumed the parking lot, but it stopped there. Only the school remained. She stepped into the pure white light whilst shielding her eyes.

She found herself in an all white hallway full of white doors. When she looked behind her, all she saw was a wall. The door she entered through was gone. She began walking down the hallway whilst examining the many doors. Each door had weird symbols etched into a plaque on the door. She reached the end of the hallway and went around the corner to the right. Standing in the hallway was a woman in a gray two-piece suit holding a white clipboard. The woman looked at Sarah, and tilted her head in confusion. Sarah quickly turned around and ran back around the corner. She ran straight into a sturdy structure causing her to hit the ground, hard. She looked up to examine the structure and saw the woman standing there.

"Your aura... it resembles that of the serpent's... but your human soul is still so clearly pure. A little too pure, actually. Almost as if--" said the confused woman before being interrupted.

"Remiel! Heel!" exlcaimed a little girl's voice coming from behind Sarah.

Remiel immediately dropped down onto one knee and bowed her head. Sarah turned around and saw the same girl that was wearing a tutu.

"Sir, it's an honor to have you in this sector." Remiel said respectfully.

"Did she just say sir?" Sarah thought to herself.

"You will not speak of what you saw in this human's soul, Remiel. Understood?" ordered the little girl.

"Understood, sir." said Remiel almost immediately.

"Good. Now, leave us." uttered the little girl.

Remiel then immediately vanished into thin air.

Sarah didn't hear any footsteps, so she turned around to see why the woman hadn't left yet. But as she noticed Remiel was gone, she jumped up from the floor. Her instincts told her to dust herself off, but there was no dust.

submitted by /u/LucienMr [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/2S3xv5g

[northernxy]

My version of Kathleen Kennedy’s Star Wars: The Great Demise

Literally just made up a better trilogy than KK, "slightly” altered.  Before TFA, kid KR witnesses something traumatic, deeply scaring him emotionally, so much so his mind represses the memory, but still feels the effects of it.  Luke takes him under his wing and hopes that learning to control the Force will help KR find peace.  KR learns but is still scarred emotionally.  Luke tries a technique of opening KR's mind so Luke can find out what's wrong.  He finds it but KR can't handle going through it right now and Luke stops, feeling sorry for KR.  A short time later Sidius comes to him in a dream, manipulating him because Luke's idea to enter KR's mind leaves it wide open for a while.  After some time Luke realizes that KR is acting very strangely, deeply troubled, and distant.  Luke tries asking to help but continually gets rebuffed.  Finally one nightHe should have been seduced to the dark side and made to think Luke was evil by Sidius.  Luke suspects something is really bothering KR, Luke tries to get a glimpse of KR's mind to try and help.  Immediately notices KR has a huge block, something Luke finds disturbing, wondering how the block in KR's got there.  He is especially troubled because he felt something he can't quite place, something familiar, like a half forgotten dream.

After talking with Han and Leia, they convince Luke to try even harder because KR looks up to him so much.  Luke thinks maybe the block won't be as strong if KR is asleep.  Luke tries to enter KR's mind and manages to get through only to discover Sidius brainwashing KR.  Luke's presence is felt by KR and Sidius, and the two combined force Luke out. Luke immediately runs to KR's quarters, hoping he's not too late to help KR.  By the time he gets there, KR is gone, Luke can't even feel his presence (maybe KR attacks Luke, but Luke barely fights back, trying to talk KR back to the Light.  KR causes an accident causing many to be about crushed by a building or something and Luke has to use all his power to save people and KR gets away) Luke feels incredibly guilty for not helping KR and leaving him open to Sidius.  Ashamed he's partly responsible for KR going to the Dark Side, Luke exiles himself to that island.  Copy the rest of TFA because I don't want to rewrite 2 movies right now.  However whenthe scene of KR kills Han, it cuts away from KR to Sidius so we know that Sidius knows what's going on through his connection in KR's mind. Han initially convinces KR to come home, not for Han's sake but fo Leia's.  Sidius is getting angrier and angrier, similar scene happens, but then suddenly it cuts to Sidious close up screaming, "DO IT!!!"  The order is so powerful everybody in the chamber with KR hears it somehow.  Han immediately understands what just happened, his son is controlling his son, looks KR in the eyes, gets stabbed with a heart broken face.  KR snaps out of it, realizes everything that just happened. KR is shocked and confused about what he just did, "Dad... I... I..."  He's crying. Han is heart broken, not because his son killed him, but because his son is lost and confused, he couldn't protect his son, he failed him.  He cups KR's face with his hand and responds the perfect line, "I know"

Mary Sue shows up, tries to give Luke his lightsaber, Luke is taken aback at the shock of being handed a lightsaber, he takes it and pauses, it's obvious from his face he did not expect that and is thinking a million things at once. 

Luke then says, "This isn’t my lightsaber." Mary Sue, "Well, then whose is it?"  She's confused Luke, "My father's" MS is shocked and trips over words, not knowing what to say, eventually she mutters "But... but your father was Darth Vader.  I thought the Sith only used red lightsabers?" Luke, "He wasn't always Darth Vader"

Chewie gets off the ship after shutting it down, a warm smile spreads over  Luke’s face, he affectionatelly calls out, “Chewie!  How you doing you big dumb animal?”

Luke, MS, and Chewie walk into a cave that's Luke's home.  They sit around a campfire Luke opposite MS and Chewie, Luke has 4 bowls, hands them a bowl of something.  MS is aprehensive to eat it, asks "What is this?"  Luke says some name.  Cut to MS still apprehensive.  Luke says it tastes better than it looks.  A short time goes by then Luke finally realizes Han isn't there.

Luke puzzled, "Chewie?  What’s keeping Han?” Chewie responds, "*Chewie noise*" Cut to Luke shocked, looks back and forth between the two hoping MS will denyy it.  Then looks at Chewie, "How?" MS cuts in telling KR did it, goes off on KR not realizing he was trained by Luke and his nephew. Luke gets up, and silently walks out of the cave into a dark, calm night.  MS doesn't understand, looks at Chewie, "Chewie?" Chewie responds, "*Chewie noise*" MS repeats what Chewie said as questions, making sure she heard him correctly, and so we know what he said. Luke is sitting, hunched over, sobbing, face down, hood obscuring his face, his foearms resing on his thighs, physically shaking he's so distraught.   As he keeps crying the it starts raining, and gets harder and harder, a hurricane is forming (shows you how powerful he is).  He slowly stops and the hurricane slowly dissapates.  Cut to KR in his chambers.  He hears Luke's voice. "Ben"  KR looks around expecting to see Luke, Luke says something else, KR realizes Luke is in his head, 

"Come home Ben".   KR says, "That's not my name anymore old man". Luke, "You were never good at hiding your feelings, you know who you really are" KR, "Get out" Luke "You are the grandson of Anikan Skywalker. KR "Get out" Luke "You are my nephew" KR  "Get out!" Luke "You are the son of Leia Skywalker" KR "GET OUT!" Luke "You are the son of Han Solo" KR "Get out, get out, get out, GET OOOUUUT!!!" KR looks around and no longer feels or hears Luke.

Cut to Luke’s face PISSED OFF.  Thunder clouds form in seconds, gale force winds, lightning striking every couple of seconds.  Luke is losing it. Light and Dark together, MS&C come out to see what’s going on, MS tries to go to Luke, but Chewie puts his hand on her shoulder and motions her inside.  Then we hear a familiar laughter along with Luke.  He looks around sees nothing, we hear a voice making fun of Luke’s anger.  Then Yoda appears, Luke talks about the situation, the scene heavily mirrors Luke’s scene with Obi-Wan on Dagobah RotJ.  Luke is walking next to a floating Yoda.  Luke doubts himself, he can’t kill KR and he’s no match for Plagueis (Luke knows who he really is).  Yoda chuckles, then says, “Jedi master you are but still much to learn you have.  Come, little time we have”  

Next scene MS and Chewie wake up to Luke standing over them.  He’s in a good mood, makes a small joke at their expense to show he’s in a playful mood, his hope has returned to him.  Next scene is the 3 walking down hill, they walk past the sea cow thing, MS asks what’s that thing.  Luke says something like

“Where’d you think you dinner last night came from?”

MS disgusted “You mean I ate one of those?”

Camera shows a native walking up to it Luke looking back ove his shouler “No” MS thinks he’s going to kill it.  Native sits down and proceeds to milk it.  MS “ew, gross”  Millenium Falcon takes off, cut to scene of cockpit, Luke and Chewie in the captains’ chairs. MS “Where are we going? We need to go to *wherever Leia is*.” Luke looks at Chewie who knows exactly what’s the plan, “Chewie?” Chewie responds, "*Chewie noise*" MS looks shocked. Luke looks out in the cockpit window in front of himself and nods, he knows exacly what he’s doing. Scene of Sidious asking KR why his mind is closed to him.  KR tells him about Luke in his head.  Doesn’t tell him that he also doesn’t want Sidious in his head. While traveling, L, MS, and C are sitting in the common area.  Luke is playing Chewie space chess, both are calm, old soldiers who’d rather die fighting today than running for the rest of their lives.  MS is pacing, anxiously talking too fast and too much.  Luke decides that she needs to learn the ways of he Force if she is to become a Jedi, it can’t fade into nothing.  Luke looks around for something to train MS with, after searching with his back to the camera, he stops. Camera is now looking up to look from the position of what he found, a broad smirc spreads across his face.  Turns around and reveals the floating lazer ball and the blast shielded helmet.  After a while she gets fed up from not being able to block lazers and quits in dispair, "How could anyone learn to use the Force like this?"  Chewie gives Luke a knowing look then makes a noice at him.  Luke returns the look with a smile. 

They arrive and sneak on the ship Sidious is on.  Everything rhymes with ANH, this time Luke is the master.  Luke tells MS to stay out of sight, him and Chewie have a score to settle.  L&C see there are too many people to sneak by or Luke to mind control.  A stormtrooper accidentally walks into where they're hiding,  Chewie knocks him unconscience.  Luke says, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  Chewie noice.  Eveyone thinks it's going to be like ANH, next frame is the back of them (Luke maybe in a stormtrooper outfit to really sell it to the audience) walking away from the camera.  The audience assumes it's Luke w/ fake prisoner Chewie.  Frame of them meeting a guy at a service desk, the desk hiding thier hands hanging at their sides.  Desk guy says, "Yes?", short pause to let the audience think about what's Luke about to say.  The same thing as ANH?  Chewie then pushes Luke closer to the desk, Luke's hands fly up to balance himself and reveals he's the one if cuffs.  Chewie noise, guy acknowleges Chewie caught this Stormtrooper who diserted or a spy posing as a ST.  

KR is alerted Luke is there either by feeling his Force presence or Sidious does and tells KR to capture Luke. Luke feels they're about to be caught and tells Chewie to hide and get back to the ship.  Chewie hides and Luke takes off his ST gear.  KR and a squadron of STs surround Luke, he goes peacefully to Sidious.  Luke continuously tells KR this isn't him.  Search your feelings, etc.  They arrive Sidious thanks KR.  MS sees ST's assembling and somehow sneaks off the ship and goes looking for L&C.  Luke and Sidious are exchanging insults about their side is stronger, Sidious getting angrier and angrier.  Scene of Chewie hiding with a view of L&S, setting up his bow.  KR leaves, ashamed of himself.  Scene of MS and KR run into each other, KR starts a monologue.  Sidious has had enough of Luke and orders his Red Guard to kill Luke, camera pans to each one to show their weapons.  They start walking toward Luke, surrounding him.  Luke gives Sidious the look of annoyance.  Shot from above with the RG surrounding Luke and getting really close.  He uses the Force and all RGs collapse.   Looks back at Sidious with the look of "You thought that was going to stop me?"  Scene of Chewie rushing to get his bow ready, drops a part, he can't see where it fell, but knows it's under something, shot of him trying to find it with his hand. Scenes are getting faster, KR tries to convince MS to join him, KR hates the world and himself, tells MS you have to kill the past (he wants to run from it).  Scence of Luke starting a monologe, switch to Chewie w/ Luke's speech being the major souund.  Switch to KR giving an oddly similar speech to MS, again quick scene.  Luke's speech takes off right where KR's left off, STs start piling through the doors.  Quickly to Chewie still trying to find the part with his hand.  KR continues Luke's speech to MS.  Chewie stil searching, sees STs pilling in and starts to get anxious about what we all think is going to happen, Luke's speech sounds like it's coming to and end.  KR continues, but only a couple words becausee the shots are quickly cycling through the 3 situations to build rising tension.  Several more cycles.  Luke sees the last of the STs pile in aiming their blasters at him while he sounds like he's about to finish, Chewie's hand find the part, finishes the bow, and takes aim at Sidious.  Scene of KR finishing the speech with something very ominous.  Scene with almost no noise of Luke, then a hundred blasters fire at him. Quick shot of Chewie shocked, then shot of KR's eyes glaring at MS, he attacks her.  Shot of STs still firing at a growing cloud of smoke.  Cut to Chewie taking aim then firing at Sidious, Sidious catches it, sees where it came from and redirects back to Chewie still hidden, probably behind a vent grate. Chewie sees what happened and takes off before he’s hit.  Shot of KR and MS, KR is toying with her like Vader to Luke in ESB. ST slowing down firing, lots of smoke in the air, Sidious starts walking from his throne to where Luke fell.  Scene of Chewie running for his life.  KR pins down MS with his lightsaber pointed at her throat.  Scene of throne room, smoke disapating.  Chewie running.  KR says something like join me or die.  She closes her eyes, resolved to her fate.

Sidious is standing joyfully over the spot Luke fell, the last of the smoke clears, only Luke's robes and lightsaber, he did the same thing as Obi-Wan, that must be what Yoda taught him back on the Jedi temple island.  Sidious, "WHAT!?!?!".  Scene of KR getting reading to strike.  Audience, "hey, shouldn't this scene been of Chewie?" KR and MS hear thundering footsteps, KR turns back to MS, audience can't hear loud footsteps anymore.  As he prepares his strike, he sees MS staring at something behind him, turns around and the audience sees Chewie when he does.  Chewie clobbers him and knocks KR out.  MS is too injured to move, bleeding heavily, tells Chewie to save himself, he picks her up and runs with her to the MF. They make it, Chewie lays her down in a bed, starts the MF, and takes off.

Scene of Leia stopping mid sentence, she looks worried, someone notices and asks if she's okay, she responds with "I don't know.  I just had a feeling like part of me screamed out then was silence"  You show Leia too can use the Force, again, without making her suddenly without training, proficient in the Force.  People are more likely to accept a passive abiliy rather than actively using the Force.  Scene of Sidious chewing out KR, tries to show KR how powerful the Dark Side is pointing out how easily he killed Luke, points to Luke's robes, then walks out of the room.  Next scene is Chewie attending to MS now that they're in hyperspace, he's worried she won't make it.  Back to KR walking toward Luke's robes, kneels down, then notices a lightsaber, picks it up, turns it on, it's Vader's green. Chewie and MS arrive where Leia is, he lands, calls for medical help for MS.  There is a rush to save MS. Next scene starts with SW theme very soft, some time later MS in bed unconscience, Fin and Po in the background Chewie more in front, huge window covering an entire wall, a blizzard rages outside (winter would be the theme of VIII, very deep blues but overall not much color, VII would be autumn, IX would be spring, X is the start of MS, P, & F’s journey) Leia walks in, "Chewie, you and MS went to planet X to find Luke.  What happened?  Where is he?"  She already knows the answer, Chewie responds, she gasps while covering her mouth and looking away.  Chewie puts his hand on her shoulder, Leia turns around and starts crying as she hugs Chewie for comfort, SW theme gets louder till the next scene.  She's lost everyone, says she doesn't care about the resistance anymore, she just wants KR to come home.  Wideshot of everyone with the blizzard giving the room a dark blue color.  

Screen wipe to wide shot in space outside of KR chambers, SW theme soft in the background. Next a scene of KR walking into his chambers, shot of a desk/table in the foreground and a blurry background of his bed.  KR walks past and sets down Vader's green on the table, walks to his bed and sits down, very out of focus.  He takes off his helmet, sets it to his right and stares at the lightsaber.  Eventually the camera focuses on him to reveal tears.  He looks down, sees his helmet and what it means.  Grabs it and proceeds to smash it against a wall till it shatters.  He collapses into a sitting position in greif on his bed.  PoV of his hands shacking, feeling a thousand emotions, he says, "What have I done?"  SW theme starts building, KR gets up, walks off screen, camera focuses on the lightsaber for a few seconds, pans to KR standing infront of a window starring into space.  It seems like it's about to pan to space, then "Ben".  

We and KR know who the voice belongs to, he twists his head around to see the owner of that voice, a split second later SW credits theme, role credits.

I haven't given much thought to IX yet, but it would focus on Luke trying to mentor KR and bringing him back to the Light.  KR is ashamed of himself, doesn’t feel he should be saved, pretends he hates Luke and constantly tells him to leave.  Resistance is on life support, though MS and the resistance seem to be constantly slipping through Sidious's finger.  At first they think it's luck or Sidious is over confident and making hasty decisions.  Finn and MS get captured and taken to a holding area near by.  There's no chance of escaping, they suddenly hear shouts and blasters being fired, then silence.  MS walks to the bars to see if she can see something.  As she's stretching her neak to see something, the door unlocks and opens a couple inches.  They hesitantly make their way toward the exit.  They discover where the fighting happened and nothing but dead bodies everywhere, only STs.  MS is now sure someone has been helping them, audience gets hints who that person is.  

Skipping over a lot, Sidious asks why KR is still shielding his mind even though Luke is dead.  KR gives a hard to believe answer.  KR eventually confronts Sidious at the end while Sidious's fleet comes out of hyperspeed right where Leia and the last of the Resistance are holding out.  He easily takes out the new Red Guards, but is overwhelmed by Sidious's force ability.  As he’s getting tortured, Force red lightning, he hears, “Ben”.  *more torture*  “Fight it Ben” *more torture* “Fight it!”  *more torture* KR takes out Vader’s saber *even worse torture* “Use the force”  *more torture* KR drops the LS, collapses on all four.  Shot of his face trying to overcome. Scene of chaos in the Resistance, no hope, Leia goes to her room, sits on her bed then grabs a picture from the bedstand.  She starts crying, it's a picture of Han, Luke, Chewie, Leia, and KR from long ago.  She hugs it, and says she just wants KR to be okay.  She unknowingly reaches out to KR, he feels Leia and a picture of her on the planet flashes before him.  He slowly starts to overcome Sidious's Force over him,  

Sidious, "Kylo Ren, now you see there’s no point fighting, all your...” KR "My name is not Kylo Ren." Sidious "??? shocked KR managed was able to defy him" KR "I am the grandson of Anikan Skywalker."  Gets to one knee Sidious is shocked, then angry, LOTS more red Force lightning.  KR "I am the nephew of Luke Skywalker." Slowly standing up Sidious uses so much Dark Side he’s actually in pain. KR "I am the son of Leia Skywalker."  Slowly standing up Sidious is starts showing fear, he's uses the Force to throw things at KR but always misses.  Lands one, it shatters. KR Smoke/dust hides KR "I am the son of Han Solo." Smoke/dust disapates.  We see Force lightning is stopping in front of KR.  First it’s unclear what’s KR doing, it then appears he’s actually gathering Sidious’s lightning.  Eventually Sidious seems to run out.  The red lightning turns blue, a few seconds, then KR releases it, causing a huge boom, things get violently knocked over, and Sidious gets knocked towards his throne.Sidious has now crawled all the way back to his throne.  KR walks up, "My name is Ben Solo" runs him through with Vader’s LS.

Movie ends with BS and Leia reuniting, some celebration then very similar to RotJ, no Ewoks, Luke shows up as a Force ghost, haven't decided if Luke showed himself to KR and counciled him, or remained invisible and only whispered things in his ear so KR thought it was his guilt, and not actually Luke. Wouldn’t prefer it because this is the end of Luke’s, he needs lots of screen time. BS sees Luke, heads over and apologizes, Luke is crying in happiness, he brought BS back to the Light and reunited him with Leia.  BS asks how Luke knew he wasn't completely gone.  Can’t think of something good right now. BS turns to see what's Luke looking at, camera pans to Leia.  BS turns around to talk to Luke again, but he's gone.  BS slowly walks back to the party, he hears in his own head Luke's voice, "Remember, the Force will be with you.  Always"  Leia sees him and he walks over, camera pulling back.  We see Leia still overjoyed her son has returned, they hug, Leia keeps a hand on his arm, afraid to lose him again.  Then pan to Luke (possibly Yoda, OLD Anakin, and Obi-wan Kenobi as ghosts), Luke is happy.  He saved his nephew, his story came full circle.  Close up Luke again, overjoyed, looking at the crowd of happy people, he slowly fades away.  High shot of the whole crowd, Leia and BS in the center.  SW theme credit 

[kaelinaloveslomaris]

I'm out of songs to listen to, and I am probably bothering you, but also requesting a list of your fave Starset songs, and what they remind you of. (I want a lot of SW feels-y songs please!!) Thanks :)

A list of my favorite Starset songs? How about the full tracklisting of both their albums? :D

More seriously (in tracklist order, because I couldn’t rank them…), Down With The Fallen, Telescope, Dark On Me, The Future Is Now, Point Of No Return, Satellite, Frequency, Die For You, Ricochet, Starlight, Unbecoming, Monster, and Telepathic. Still a very long list, but at least it’s not just “all of them!”

For a more specific breakdown of why:

Down With The Fallen - it starts with respirator and heart monitor sounds. Hmm… *cough*Vader*cough* The lyrics are very Vader as well. “Turn away from all that I know, burning this bridge behind me.” Plus, all the talk of being fallen. And “Light the way and I’ll follow where you go,” is him talking to Luke.

Telescope - This one is less specifically for a character, but I can see the first verse as Luke on Tatooine pre-ANH, looking up at the stars and longing for his father. The second verse is after they’ve met and both know the truth. “I find you in the night” is when Luke goes to him on Endor. But the chorus is more Anakin and Padmé. My tag for them is from there: “in the light of all the stars aligned.”

Dark On Me - This one is obviously Luke and Vader. My tag for them is from this one. It’s hard to tell which one would be singing. It would kind of trade off line by line.

The Future Is Now - Very Vader, longing to have Padmé back, but also calling to Luke. “With the full force of a dying star, I will find you, if you’re near or far, wherever you are.” The line “I have half a life to rewrite” I see very much as Vader deciding to save Luke in the end of ROTJ.

Point Of No Return - This is pretty much Vader’s theme song. “There’s a memory of how we used to be, that I can see through the flames.” “But I can’t go back.” “The ashes call my name.” “Embracing the fear, chasing the fight,” “the bridges are burning, the heat’s on my face, making the past an unreachable place.” “I know, this is the point of no return.” It’s basically the end of ROTS, and not just Mustafar, but from the moment he cut off Mace’s hand, that was the first bridge he burned, and it all went up in flames (terrible pun intended) from there.

Satellite - Vader and Luke. “My satellite, I am here tonight. Shine your light and set me free, take the darkness out of me, shine on me.” It took Luke and his Light and love to free Vader from the darkness. “Far across the emptiness I walk the night, and search the silence in the dark you left behind. I seek the stars above the worlds to be the guide, they are pale against the light in your eyes.” This could be Vader talking about Padmé or Luke after he jumped at Bespin.

Frequency - Vader and Luke, again. Is anyone surprised? After Bespin, when he’s trying to contact Luke and find him, and Luke’s having none of this. “And now the silence screams that you are gone, you’ve tuned me out, I’ve lost your frequency.” He messed up, he lost his chance to have his son at his side (or so he thinks). There’s also memories of Padmé: “Left inside a half life, irradiated memories, these memories, they never leave.” And of course, the consequences of him turning to the Dark Side to try to save her: “I’m in the shallows, stuck in the gallows, I tried to save you now I’m swallowed.”

Die For You - I’ll give you one guess for this one! This one mostly goes both ways. The first bit, “I will run alone tonight, without you by my side,” is very Vader to Luke. “I know inside, the walls you hide behind, and I saw the truth inside the real you,” is Luke to Vader. The pre-chorus is Luke to Vader: “Because I know you’re lost when you run away, into the same black holes and black mistakes … when are you coming home?” Luke just wants his father to break free and come with him. The chorus itself goes both ways. “Even if the sky does fall, even if they take it all, there’s no pain that I won’t go through, even if I have to die for you.” Luke was willing to risk death to try to save his father, then willing to die when he refused to kill Vader. Then of course, Vader returns this and actually does die for Luke.

Ricochet - Both Padmé and Luke to Vader. “But when I send my heart your way, it bounces off the walls you made, ricochet.” And of course when Vader asks to see Luke with his own eyes, just one time: “But I’ve been dying just to see your face, and all I wanted was to say goodbye.”

Starlight - Rogue One! For something different. :) For one thing, the first word is “Stardust.” Then the ending: “Farewell, the void is calling. Don’t fear for futures and dreams. They’re fleeting, retreating. It’s okay, I promise.” They all die, but they don’t have to worry, because they accomplished their mission. “I’ll turn, I won’t look away, I’ll stay here,” is very Jyn and Cassian at the end.

Unbecoming - Also Vader’s theme song. “I lost myself inside the night, and flew higher than I ever had … I clipped my wings and fell from flight to open water and floated farther away from myself.” He turned to achieve a goal, but his fall destroyed any chance he had of saving Padmé and instead was the catalyst for her death and the destruction of who he had been. “There’s no dreams in the waves, only monsters, and the monsters are my only friends.” He didn’t get what he wanted by turning, and now all he’s left with is Palpatine, his new slave master, and painful, haunting memories. “Cauterized and atrophied, this is my unbecoming.” Again, the destruction of who he had been. And then of course, Palpatine rubs it in: “And you laugh as I search for a harbor, as you point where your halo had been … there’s no angel in you in the end.” Palpatine betrayed him, pretending to be a mentor and a friend, someone who could help, but destroyed him in the end.

Monster - This song is fittingly right after Unbecoming on the album. If the last song was about how Anakin unbecame himself, then this is about what he became as Vader, thanks to Palpatine. His reconstruction after Mustafar: “Under the knife I surrender, the innocence yours to consume, you cut it away and you fill me up with hate. Into the silence you sent me, into the fire consumed.” Palpatine and the Empire is all he has left: “You’re the pulse in my veins, you’re the war that I wage … will you cage me?” “Can you change me from the monster you made me?” Palpatine built the Empire by manipulating and using Anakin/Vader: “This is the world you’ve created, the product of what I’ve become. My soul and my youth, seems it’s all for you to use.” Vader regrets ever letting himself be fooled and manipulated into losing everything, but he can’t free himself of Palpatine or the darkness: “If I could take back the moment I let you get under my skin, relent or resist? Seems the monster always wins.” He’s lost everything. “My heart’s an artifice, a decoy soul. Who knew the emptiness could be so cold? I’ve lost the parts of me that make me whole. I am the darkness, I’m a monster.”

Telepathic - Back to Vader and Luke. “And if I had my way, I would run to the rescue.” This is both Vader, wanting to keep Luke from the Emperor, and Luke, wanting to rescue his father from the Emperor and the Dark Side. Vader wants Luke to join him, “You can run, you can run away, but I will wait in the dark for you. Should’ve never felt this way, cuz you’re the sun and I’m just a moon.” Luke is so full of Light, and Vader is just a reflection of who he used to be, a reflection of the person he can see in Luke. “I’m in the dark ‘til you light the way, cuz I’m see through. You can read my mind.” He can’t break free until Luke shows up and guides him back. Even though he tries to say it’s too late for him, Luke can see that for the lie it is and see to who he really is.

So this got longer than I was expecting it to. But there’s some Starset/Star Wars feels for you!