#i love tfa they really just did shit and it went hard as fuck every time

[cybertron-smash-or-pass]

TFA Cyclonus

[lucidia-sys]

In Defense of Pharma

Guys I'm really tired of seeing ppl shit on Pharma solely for the incident with Ambulon. Seeing people defend Ratchet against him. Tired of people being awful to him because of things he couldn't control. People will really support the toxic ones because of the simple fact they are a popular character that everyone loves. I'm tired of pretending I like Ratchet (I adored TFA and G1 only). I don't. He's an awful guy when you look at the case with Pharma. And personally I just don't find him interesting like other characters. Ratchet fucking ruined Pharma pre-Delphi. He was this sweet guy who did his best and I strongly believe Pharma may have BPD, so that only makes what Ratchet did so much WORSE. The way Pharma attached to Ratchet reminds me of one with their FP (Favorite Person). He believed so much in Ratchet, looked up to him, considered him one of his closest friends, his FP if you will. He cared deeply about Ratchet, and it deeply affected him when he just up and fucking left without a proper goodbye. And so began a long fucking chain of him getting fucked over. Another point that gets used against him was the virus he unleashed, that wasn't his fucking fault. Tarn was pressuring him. He was stuck in an incredibly hard point. The DJD would after him if he didn't feed Tarn's addiction, he'd still be fucked even witht he fact he did it. Pharma gets stuck in the middle of nowhere with two people he doesn’t care for, and one of them is a direct target of the group blackmailing him into killing patients. There was nothing he could have done to make the situation better. And I fucking find it such BULLSHIT that First AId went to Ambulons side rather than Pharmas DESPITE THE FUCKING FACT Amublon is a ex-con, he could very well have been conspiring with Sonic and Boom. The fact Pharma got immediately blamed pisses me off. He was just doing his job, trying to keep his job, and juggle his issues with Ratchet appearing. His FP that fucking abandoned him. This is a STRONG example of how mental illness can fuck oneself over. As someone with BPD, I heavily relate to Pharma, so I am very defensive over this (no shit I'm writing a whole thing defending him). I understand his panic. His stress. The need to prove himself. A case too is with the incident of Ambulon. Yes, the way he handled the situation was awful, but think about it. He wanted to prove himself, to prove he was better than the asshole who left him behind. So how does he do it? Give a prompt to Ratchet that he KNOWS he can't fix, prove that Ratchet is not as good as he thinks he is. And as for Tryest, it's another situation of lose/lose. I didn't pay much attention to that bit of the story but I can say that Pharma was dealing with that whole 'I need to prove im better than these jerks so everyone will like me and need me' BPD mess he has going on. A person with BPD often seeks validation from others, needing FPs to love them and respect only them, which is why he usually claims himself as the best medic. He needs the validation, that boost to his fragile ego that is crumbling with every second. Plus Tyrest promised him a place in the forged only world he was planning. It made him feel valid and needed. He chased that feeling. And then Ratchet came along and started to derail his mind. Leading him to do something that ultimately painted him in a bad light. And he proved he was stronger within the Lost Light comics. Issue 4 showed him hurtingTyrest in such a fashion that not even the best medic, not even his "beloved Ratchet" (his words, not mine), could figure out how he caused so much damage. He was pissed off. He was having a split. He was damaged. I believe we should focus more on the goods of a character, the compexity of their issues, rather than honing on one specific thing that was not that big of a fucking deal. This fandom is awful with painting certain characters as awful awful people for simple issues that can be explained very easily. NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUUUUSE ME. I'm going to take a moment to nap because I am so frustrated and overstimulated and angry rn.

[threadsketchier]

I saw a post claiming Leia and Han being terrible parents to Kylo or Luke being an asshole to Rey isn't far fetched because in Legends Luke was a terrible father and Han abandoned his children after Chewies death and Leia was so consumed by her job and it makes me so sad are they right I didn't read legends

It’s an exaggeration with a grain or two of truth.  Leia was eventually Chief of State/President of the NR in Legends, and even before that she was intensely tied up as a Councilor - yeah, she was really fucking busy.  HOWEVER, that didn’t mean she had zero time for her kids.  Also, she had her adopted sister/personal assistant/handmaiden Winter as a dedicated caretaker of the children, so the kiddos always had someone stable in their young lives.  Also also, HAN SOLO WAS BASICALLY A GLORIFIED FUCKING STAY-AT-HOME DAD AND HE LOVED IT.  Even Chewie was a giant hairy uncle to those kids.  Did they get kidnapped almost every single subsequent book they were in?  OF COURSE.  But for all the wild adventures they had, it was obvious they still had a loving and very privileged life.

Yes, Han was written as fucking off for a while in grief after Chewie died.  Yeah yeah I get it, he was hurting, Chewie WAS his OG bro.  It did suck a bit that he regressed to being a smuggler similar to how we see him in TFA.  HOWEVER AGAIN, this was temporary and didn’t last very long in the overall frickin’ 19-book-long series.  It’s not like he never came back to his family.  Ultimately, Han’s human too, it’s understandable for him to crack under a loss of that magnitude for a little while.

Luke being a terrible father, LMAO.  Yeah, let’s see where he beat up and cut off his son’s hand.  ;p  I didn’t read much past the NJO series so I don’t have first-hand recollection, but the impression I get from the subsequent series is that they had periods of time where his relationship with Ben was strained, but good grief, he was far from a “terrible” father.  They eventually went on the tropey “parent/child road trip adventure” across the galaxy spewing glorious snark at each other and I think a lot of personal healing and reconciliation/understanding happened between them (because of course, manpain from the Mara fridging).  AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, at no fucking point did Luke ever, EVER not love his son.  If he made mistakes, he never meant to hurt Ben in any way, and it’s fucking hard for a man deeply grieving the loss of his wife to not make some mistakes along the way.  Let’s cut him some fucking slack.

AKA, Legends also had no excuse to come up with STUPID PLOTS that required the characters to go through hell multiple times instead of actually doing more interesting shit without wrecking families, so yeah, I’m almost just as salty about that as I am toward Disney!”canon,” but YMMV.  I know folks who love Legends point out that at least the core Squad™ trio survives until the bitter end, but they lost Chewie, Anakin, and Jacen along the way and tortured the galaxy under endless brutal wars and strife for decades longer just for the sake of continuing to churn out media, so Legends is just as guilty as pissing me off as the new shit.  Bless fic for giving me what I want.

WITH THAT ALL SAID, I still would NOT use the dumpster fire of Legends as an excuse to justify Han, Leia, and Luke being shitty parents because they fucking weren’t.  They made the best of bad, bad situations and at no point were they ever callous or neglectful toward their children, the most precious treasure they had after all the pain and struggle they went through during the Galactic Civil War.

[ninasnon-sense]

I really miss having an uncomplicated love of Star Wars. It used to be so easy to just enjoy it. Since The Last Jedi though it’s just been so much harder. All the online stuff made it borderline intolerable, mostly because if you think that particular movie sucks then people assume you’re awful when actually you just wanted something different to what you got. I swear, the more exposed to the wider fandom I got the less I enjoyed being part of it.

Don’t get me wrong, the Star Wars fandom has always been fucking terrible. But I was into it as a kid pre-internet. I was 11 when Phantom Menace came out and unironically loved it and talked about it with my friends. I didn’t get online with the fandom until after The Force Awakens came out and made me feel like an overexcited kid again. Fuck, I even have Kylo’s Upsilon tattooed on my ankle. That thing was the first time I clapped eyes on a space ship and understood why people collect models of them.

I fell hard and fast for TFA and did what I’ve done with pretty much every fandom I’ve ever been in. I absolutely devoured fanfic and fanart of it, mostly on the Kylux side of the fandom because I’ve always loved villains and also because the bad guy section of fandom just tends be more calm. (Seriously, I swear the nastier the thing, the nicer the fandom.) And from the edges there was just this unpleasant bullshit that got harder and harder to ignore. Bullshit that was just so much worse than anything else I’d seen in fandom. People bitching about Rey being a good pilot, just nasty shit about Finn. Just outright misogyny and racism being piled on. In fucking Star Wars

STAR WARS! The whole point of Star Wars is that Bashing the Fash is good actually. As much as I love villains, I’m not an idiot. I know that the Space Nazis are bad, no matter how cool Vader looks, no matter how awesome force lightning is, no matter how fucking beautiful the Upsilon shuttle is in black, the Empire and the First Order are fucking awful. They’re oppressive regimes, the First Order is literally a fanatical cult. And they are meant to represent the real evils of bigotry and oppression. And fans of it were just being openly, almost proudly, fucking terrible.

Then TLJ came out and I thought it was terrible. For many reasons. And even though I could wait to see how twelve dudes in an old weed van were going to save the galaxy I couldn’t ignore that so many people were being foaming at the mouth fucking weirdos about not liking a film. Don’t get me wrong, I have hours worth of ranting about that bullshit movie clocked (we all know that the cat horse things just got shot, right? Or at best tranqued and dragged back), but holy shit some of the thing people were doing.

One thing in particular I remember that made me feel ill. One racist/misogynist went and bought a fuck tonne of Rose dolls. And cut their head off. Who the fuck does that? Fucking hell. Just, on youtube. A really long video of him decapitating doll after doll with a pair of scissors. And it was popular. People praised the fucker for it while I was wondering if this shit head was a potential serial killer. Then there was the huge harassment of pretty much any woman or POC in the movie to the point of some of them being driven off of social media.

By the time Rise of the Skywalker came out (which was awful for so many reasons but at least felt more like Star Wars to me than TLJ) I almost didn’t want to go and see it. I did, mostly out of morbid curiosity by that point. And gods, I just didn’t give a shit. TLJ pissed me off, ROTS just made me tired. And still it was surrounded by this toxic smog spewed out by a bunch of bastards that seemed to not even be familiar with the concept of not being a dick.

I almost wish I could just stop liking it, but I doubt I ever will. Rogue One was amazing. It was everything I had wanted from a Star Wars movie after TFA came out. I loved Solo mostly because of how disposable it felt. It was big, brashy, dumb as fuck and didn’t matter in the slightest, which was exactly what I needed at that time. I haven’t finished watching the Mandalorian yet, though I will. That fits better than the main movies have as well. I’m finally getting around to watching the cartoons and while I think the art style is an ugly blocky mess, it kind of fits. Star Wars is many things, but pretty has never really been one of them.

I love the setting. There’s something about that scratches an itch in my brain the way nothing else I’ve come across does, and for that reason I doubt I’ll ever really give up on it. But I also doubt it’ll ever make me feel that swoop of joy that TFA brought me again. And I’m sort of okay with that, but in the same way that I’m okay with only interacting with people that used to be my best friends once or twice a month on facebook. I still love Star Wars. I probably always will. But the type of love has changed. It’s less unfettered pure love and more “I’m glad I knew you but we’re walking different paths now”.

[captainevans]

Could you go into more detail re: your last post? I've been seeing so many reactions to what Steve did at the end of the movie and would love to hear your take on it because I'm desperate to hear from someone more level headed (and it seems like you definitely are). I've just seen a lot of people upset with/at Steve/Chris and need some reassurance lol. You can keep this private if you want or just make a separate post. Also hi, nice to meet you :)

I have been thinking about this all day, so I would be more than happy to elaborate for you! It’ll be under the cut.

It appears that the general arguments regarding Steve being out of character and not liking his ending is that he struggled for so long to put his past behind him, to find a place in the future with the family and friends he made, and by sending him back it compromised their future as well as Peggy’s and reduced her to simply a woman who stole Cap’s heart as opposed to this formidable force to be reckoned with and one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I don’t see it that way though. If anything, this is a Steve who failed and saw half of the universe snapped due to circumstances beyond his control and more importantly this is the first time we truly see Steve for the human he is, and not just the soldier out of time.

Two constant threads in Steve’s individual arc has been dealing with one never-ending battle after another and his struggle to acclimate to the times he’s in. I don’t mean in an ‘old man deals with newfangled technology’ sense, but Steve’s few years out of the ice pales in comparison to the seventy plus years it’s been for everyone else. Also keep in mind the era in which Steve comes from, because he deals with things internally or not at all (mostly not at all) and a therapy goer the man is not.

In TFA, pre-serum Steve has a myriad of health problems and is known to get into fights frequently. He’s tried several times to get enlisted; longing for that one chance to do something right, to do something good because he doesn’t like bullies and he doesn’t care where they come from. He meets Peggy and she sees the man he is way before he became Captain America. Keep in mind though that between post Project Rebirth and the crash, more time has passed than people tend to think about. Their feelings for one another have deepened, even if they’re not acted upon, which is why their final conversation over the comms is even more heartbreaking. They had something, they knew they had something, and now it was lost seemingly forever. Who could come back from that? Who honestly would want to?

The Avengers finds him a mere two weeks after the man was defrosted, in which he was learning that almost everyone he knew and loved was dead and that the Tesseract he crashed a plane to try and destroy was found and used by SHIELD to create weapons and had to push that into the back of his mind so he could fight aliens in the Battle of New York.

In TWS, he’s still struggling to find his footing between his past and and present. He visits Peggy and is happy that at least she was able to move on and have a life for herself, but every visit is melancholy and ends the same way - she slips out because of her dementia and he has to relive her finding out that he’s real and in front of her every time. I wouldn’t want to wish that experience on anyone, but do you know what that’s like to deal with a person who has that? To think you’re finally getting somewhere with someone for a moment and then the lucidness wears off and suddenly your heart is ripped out of your chest because you’re back at square one? To do that every single time you see them? Sam asking him what makes him happy breaks my heart every single time because he’s never been given the opportunity to figure that out, and once he learns that Hydra, again going with the whole “I crashed my fucking plane into the ocean and this shit is STILL happening” arc, has been entangled with SHIELD from its infancy, he knows the mission to take it down takes precedence over trying to take the time and figure that out for himself. Now, this movie is the Winter Soldier, and there’s Bucky to cover. At this point, Steve knows he doesn’t have much time with Peggy left when he uncovers the identity of The Winter Soldier. These two pillars are the last remaining ties to his past, which is why he tries so hard to try to joggle Bucky’s programming with not fighting back and the “I’m with you til the end of the line”. Steve knows he’s in there, he just had to get him out. He’s successful, and then that jump-starts the search post TWS leading into Age of Ultron and ending in Civil War.

Age of Ultron..is…well, okay it has more problems than anything else however, at this point it’s been three years since he’s been living in the future, and it would make sense that Peggy is still on his mind in Wanda’s dream sequence for him. He confirms it in Endgame for the first time by saying it aloud, but Peggy was the love of his life. It’s normal to dream about lost loves. He’s a man from that older era though, which is why we only have a stolen moment of him trying to remain stoic because he has to be a leader and appear unaffected for the sake of his team and the mission. I really wish the deleted scene where he comes out of the quintet with his coal to see the image of Captain America with the words “Fascist” above spray-painted on a building wall before he throws the helmet back inside was kept in because it shows SO MUCH without saying anything at all. This is where we see that break between who is he and what his superhero persona is supposed to represent. It’s not Captain America who makes Steve Rogers Steve Rogers, it is Steve Rogers who makes Captain America Captain America. And once again, we find him trying to make the sacrifice play if they aren’t successful and can’t get all Sokovian citizens as well as themselves out in time. Now all while this is happening, Sam is still trying to look for Bucky for Steve.

Which brings us to Civil War. Never has that line between his past and present been more apparent because it’s literally the plot to this movie. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Bucky is deprogrammed but broken and more importantly to Steve - alive- and he knows that Bucky has that blood on his hands that Hydra used and abused him into spilling and that’s why if he could just get Tony to see that with these accords the powers at be, along with every country who signs, can dangle their help for political gain like they’re puppets on strings just like he was. Do they need to be put in check? Perhaps, but not by people with an agenda. It’s a dangerous game they’d be playing with no winners which is why Steve doesn’t sign them. And during that meeting with all of them discussing this, Steve learns that Peggy dies so his stake in this fight to preserve the last tether to his past increases tenfold. He’s not just fighting for Bucky, Steve is fighting for himself. By the time he’s dropped that shield, we’re shown that Steve has lost faith in his government, he’s lost faith in his friends, and he’s lost faith in himself.

He’s in Infinity War for six minutes and forty five seconds is screen time so there’s not much content wise to go on, but when we see Steve he is clearly not the man he was and you can tell something is broken inside him, but it’s not explored until Endgame.

I’m just going to focus on Steve’s arc in Endgame because while I really liked most of it, Thor and Natasha deserved better than that so here we go. If you have not watched Endgame, don’t go any further.

Between waking up and immediately having to fight post defrosting and uncovering the truth about SHIELD using the Tesseract to make weapons, Hydra being an entangled part of shield, the events of Civil War, and by the time we see him in Infinity War he’s a shell of whatever former self he was trying to grasp at straws with, and it wasn’t until we had this film that we actually see to what extent that was.

Endgame opens three weeks after the snap, in a time where they’re still desperately clinging to hope with trying to find a way to reverse things. Carol saves Tony and Nebula while he’s on the very brink of death in the Benatar, and tensions between the Steve and Tony are at an all time high. They lost. Everyone. They’re the Avengers, how could they lose?

Time jumps five years. Tony is living on a lake and has a young daughter with Pepper, and Steve has now taken over for Sam in leading group therapy meetings. Joe Russo’s character says he went on a date the night before and that his date cried before the salad and he cried after the dessert and there was nothing they could truly talk about because what could you talk about if half of the universe, including people you knew and loved, vanished in an instant and where you’re borderline living in some version of Lord of the Flies? He offers words of comfort, but he and half the people in that session don’t fully believe them. He lost the love of his life in ‘45 and woke up seventy years later and he hasn’t had a single moment of rest to do so. It weighs on him, on all of them. Natasha is at Avengers HQ still trying to find ways to help, and because of the nature of their work and who they are as individuals they can’t truly move on, him especially. But seeing Tony with his daughter I think was a catalyst of sorts for Steve, even if it didn’t fully register for him at first. One of the themes through Age of Ultron was this notion of “home”, and being an Avenger was something they all pretty much had to put first. Tony got his family, he got his home, and for someone who thought that the man who went into the ice seventy years couldn’t have that himself, there came a small burst of a what if. What if he could have that as well? If it happened for Tony…

Seeing Peggy in 1970, seeing his photo on her desk…that did something to him as well. After all those years, he’s still on her mind just seemingly as much as she’s on his. He gets that moment of seeing her again, and that longing was heartbreaking. Just one more look before he had to go back - something just for him because the mission came first, it always comes first, and he didn’t want to screw anything up so he buries it like he does everything else. Steve’s an intelligent little shit though and we’ll come back to that later.

Now here’s where I also need for you to keep in mind the conversation Banner had with the Ancient One in 2012. The Ancient One is hesitant on giving him the Infinity Stone because it will disrupt the pre-determined timeline, but Banner explains that the past is cemented in time and forever exists to allow for a subject to jump through time. Reality is experiential for individuals, meaning a person’s perception of time is linear, regardless of how they jump around the timeline. In layman’s terms, you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past which then cant be changed by the new future.

We’ve always known Steve is worthy of wielding Mjolnir so let’s just skip to the ending now shall we?

At the end, Steve goes alone to return the stones to their proper place in time, but also has become well versed in time travel for someone who’s not Banner or Tony. He sees this as a chance to have something that’s been unattainable to him for so long - to live the life Tony wanted for him. To be happy. To not have to fight for once in his life. So he goes to the right place in while in the quantum realm as to not disrupt the main timeline, and that’s when he doesn’t return we see that he’s become an old man finally at peace, handing Captain America’s shield over to Sam, who more than deserves the mantle, not exactly telling him that he got his happy ending with Peggy, choosing to keep it to himself and yet smiling wistfully all the same.

He never changed anything about Peggy’s future either. SHIELD clearly still exists, and do some people honestly think he wouldn’t give her the choice? If he didn’t think there was a strong enough of a chance or had she turned him down someway he would have respected her and returned to the main present timeline. Nothing changed about that, it was just an alternative path. By going back, Peggy’s life without Steve still exists and that Peggy who gets her reunion with Steve now represents a branch timeline.

I get not everyone liked the ending, I do, but to be fair, just because they didn’t like Steve’s ending because it doesn’t fit what they wanted doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fitting end for Steve. He can rest now. Finally.

[smuthuttpodcast]

Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one.

Name/Handle/Alias

@secretreylo SecretReyloTrash

About how long would you say you’ve been rooting for Reylo?

When it comes to smut I tend to go two directions: "Shipping" it or a hypothetical "They'd Be Hot Together". I've been on that TBHT train since TFA, but not contributing and only casual browsing of smut because that's what TBHT is for. Spring of 2018 was when the mediation of how to realistically get these two together, the meta aspect of shipping, really started to appeal to me because of stories I was reading ("Lilies" by diasterisms was my first Soft Ben and I loved him) and I gave writing it a try with Perfumed in Obsession, a story that is 100% mediation of opposing viewpoints. I fell very far, very fast into it.

What did you think of the way Rise of Skywalker handled Rey and Kylo’s relationship?

Really gross. TLJ was a very sensitive text. It's not about physical force; it's about persuasion. Understandable viewpoints, where they both offer so much of themselves and it still doesn't work, and that's really heartbreaking and compelling. TROS felt like it had taken several steps back. Kylo was more of a bullying, negging presence when before he'd respected Rey's power and autonomy before, he just had hopes about what she'd do with it. now he's controlling. He withheld crucial information about her trauma, which is deeply wrong. He was a generic villain and Rey was physically fighting her way out. Their ending wasn't given space to breathe or feel like something was happening, and then he drops dead in her arms. A lot of simpering was done on the filmmakers part about what he deserved by Rey doesn't get anything she deserved. Their only interactions before the Exegol Disaster are only focused on drudging up pain and hostility, so there's no moment where they "see" each other that matches TLJ. The final battle there is some grasping at recognition, but it's really imbalanced towards Ben's redemption, Rey being rewarded for essentially waiting out his bad boy phase, and nothing to address her anger and grief and darkness. It tipped the scales way out of Rey's favor, and she's an important character!

Do you think the film understood why you, and other people, felt like Rey and Kylo had something together? Did it get their chemistry?

No, it really felt like the conversations between them were missing the point. Negging, withholding, leveraging. These were two flawed but honest people (at least with each other) who had a lot of circumstantial baggage that kept them apart. Ironically a lot of the "hero" and "villain" posturing gets stripped away and they are shown as their truest selves through the bond. Finn never sees this side of Rey. Snoke never saw this side of Ben. It's a relationship that mattered because it was so nuanced that way. TROS Rey being stalked by Kylo in his Supreme Leader Helmet seems antithetic to the sincerity of the relationship. It's telling that one of Rey's lines is a generic, cliche whisper of "No": it falls horribly flat because a conversation can't just be "Yes." "No." "Yes." "No." I constantly bring up TLJ in my answers because it's what solidified my love for this ship, but their conversations that Rain wrote were a compelling back-and-forth that filled in their arguments with detail that made the arguments appealing. What about the handling of Kylo’s redemption? Was it something you had to think through in your stories?Here's the thing. I wanted Bendemption to be painstaking, bittersweet and maybe not even completed in full by the ending (but explicitly in the works). Here's where the mythology of TROS gets really wonky, and why I think fans are so upset: If Ben was mentally infiltrated and groomed by the most powerful Sith Lord in the Galaxy for 9 movies, can we actually have a nuanced conversation about what he deserves? No. We all just want to wrap a shock blanket around him and let him have a nap, which, fun fact, is the actual ending of the Exegol Metlife Stadium Battle. My point here is that TROS took his accountability, his toxicity, and his choices and rendered them meaningless. It is way too extreme. What does he have to atone for if Palpatine ruined the lives of every Skywalker so thoroughly that he never stood a chance? I adore the self-sabotage of his character. I adore that he is his own antagonist. I adore that he faces consequences for his toxicity and that his love for someone leaves the ball in his court to Fix His Shit for the potential of his own goodness. But you take a situation and make it so tragic where he was so weaponized and powerless that I'm actually impressed he only killed Han. I liked when his actions actually had weight. I adore him for how his emotions compromise his happiness and how damaging it is that he doesn't deal with them because I see so many parts of myself. Step one or writing Redemption was always facing those emotions. I love writing Ben throwing himself at his father's, his mother's, and Rey's feet and just letting these repressed emotions out, and their capacity for forgiveness sheltering this change. It didn't need to be completed by TROS but it needed to be started. 

What did you think of where Rey landed at the end? There had been a lot of excitement around Star Wars having a female protagonist. Do you think she lived up to the promise of her character?

Rey's ending devastated me. It was a period of active mourning that went way beyond Ben's death for me. You know when you pick one phrase when you cry and just fixate on it? "She's alone" was mine. For days. That was all I asked for from this series. For Rey to find her home. Rey was stripped of so much, and most insulting was the fucking Skywalkers playing keep away with her own backstory until it was convenient for them made it seem like they were the actual villains. Why did she have to go in ignorant? Why did we retcon a girl coming from a shitty family and excelling despite that? Symbolically, now she as a character is most alike to Shmi, and that makes bile rise in my mouth. A single woman on Tatooine, dressed in her Virgin Whites, waiting for the Force to decide what to do with her? Smhi. It's Shmi. Here to immaculate concept some more important sacred Skywalkers. Because if she's a Skywalker, there's gotta be more, or what was the point? Thanks, I hate it.

There’s criticism of the movie that argues it’s akin to “fan fiction” and that is has too much fan service. As fans and fan-fiction writers, how do you react to that?

No; it's too corporate. Fanfiction has a love for the source that constitutes the FREE effort to write for it. I think the comparison to fan fiction labors under the assumption that fan fiction is lazy and bad: when the most popular stories that do incorporate high levels of drama earn them through painstakingly hard work. Fetch is iconic because to read Fetch is to suffer. I say that with the warmest regards to Tam. It's an example of the medium as both a challenging, cathartic, and escapist one. It had very real feelings and a happy ending that was earned in a trial by fire. TROS instead was pure studio interference. It was trying to please *everyone* instead of someone earnestly saying "this is what I love." There is no joy. Just cynicism and punishing people who were sincere. I can't validate its need for me to love it. It's desperate and sad. 

Are you still writing any Star Wars fanfic? Tell us about it! (Don't forget your Ao3 handle!)

Yep. I will be updating my newest story "The Witch and The Holocron" every Saturday. It is the closest I will get to a Miyazaki Movie. I'm still on my WIPs: Soldiers in Petticoats is due soon, Virtue Rewarded requires an extensive amount of time but it's in progress, I really want to pre-write my Romanov Imposter AU before posting but I'm excited for it. I'll be around. We all know how bad I am with WIPs but I'm still enjoying writing. We'll just pretend TROS never happened. 

Thank you Secretreylotrash! you can find their writing here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadOldWest/pseuds/SecretReyloTrash

[kyloreyorgana]

STAR WARS 9 ! TROS SPOILERS !

In case this is not obvious enough, this post will contain SPOILERS for the last Star Wars movie, which I’m just now coming home from. These are my first thoughts. I have tried to tag as best I could so that people who mute the tags don’t see my post. Do not proceed f you don’t want to read any spoilers.

You have been warned. Long (and I mean LONG) post ahead.

First of all, I’m happy to be back y’all! Just with TLJ, I come from months (or has it been years already ?) of inactivity to jump right back into the fandom, as obsessed as I was back when I came home from TFA. Which is funny because at the time TFA came out, I had lost all interest in Star Wars and heard so many critics from people who’d seen it and said it was horrible and that Disney basically sold the franchise to the devil that I didn’t even want to see it, to keep the good memories closer to my heart. One night, one month after its theatrical release, I thought “aw fuck I might as well see it, at least for Carrie, Mark and Harrisson” so I went to the cheap theater that was near my home... I had zero expectation, and really I think it’s the reason why I loved the movie so much. I didn’t chose to ship Reylo, this ship whacked me like Harley Quinn’s oversized hammer with the Hades and Persephone aesthetics. When I came out, completely mesmerized with what I had just seen, I jumped on Tumblr as soon as I got home, and I ended up creating this blog just days later. I wanted more and more, fics, metas, fanarts, headcannons, theories, cracks, I could never get enough. For TLJ and TROS, I had lost most interest in the fanfics and the fandom (because as much as I love the movies and some people in the fandom, most of it can eat shit as far as I’m concerned). I heard so many critics of TROS already, I was afraid I was going to be disappointed. But I loved it. Only Star Wars can make me go from utterly uninterested to “Wow I can’t wait to see this new Star Wars in theater, what a time to be alive”, to a stage of total obsession that lasts for months. And that is the reason why I don’t give two shits about anyone disliking the movies. It’s sad you didn’t like them, but it made me feel the same way I felt right back when I was a child watching the original movies with my father. It feels like home. And that is the best thing I could ask for.

Like in TLJ, I cried as soon as I heard the first note of the opening. The last Skywalker story, the last time I ever see my Space Mommy on the big screen...

I know the Reylo community is about to be nuts. The whole movie, like TLJ before it, is basically a series of things we’ve already done in fics and theories. I am 100% positive I have read a fic where Rey and Ren try to hold back a ship with the Force and Rey ends up involuntarily shooting lightning. Whichever one of you did it is probably going to have a stroke in the theater. I nearly did.

And really, I wish I could see the look on the Antis’ faces when they see the movie. I’m sure it is a sight to behold. I wanted to scream “TAKE THAT, BITCHES” more than once. As in TLJ.

My biggest fear was what they would do with Leia. I knew Disney said they wouldn’t use CGI and chose to stick with the scenes Carrie had already shot, and I was afraid it wouldn’t honor Leia’s legacy. Well I... have mixed feelings. While the way they used Carrie’s scenes and made it look like she really is here is to be lauded, it sometimes feels like Leia had nothing interesting to say but they tried to put her in a dialogue anyway, because she needed to be seen doing (or rather, saying) something in the Resistance. And about her death... I still can’t put my finger on what exactly I didn’t like about it but I felt like something was missing. Watching the scene, at first I didn’t know if she was having a heart attack or if she stabbed herself or chose to give up her life because she somehow felt it was the moment, I’m still not sure just why she did what she did. I wish they put something more to motivate her decision and explain what exactly she does. I don’t know, a flashback of Leia holding baby Ben, a little more dialogue, something. Not just Leia suddenly getting up and going to bed whispering her son’s name. 

I knew I was going to be disappointed. Among all the celebrities’ deaths, Carrie’s is the one that affected me the most, and believe me I was a wreck when Bowie passed. I miss her, I think about her every single day. And Leia deserved more, much more. When I saw TFA, part of the reason why I loved the movie was that, even though it pained my heart that Han and Leia’s son turned out this way, I thought they would make it right. I spent hours imagining a scene in the 9th movie where Ren would defeat Rey (incapacitate her the Skywalker style cutting her hand or something) and approach to give the killing blow, and Leia would enter the scene, pick up Rey’s lightsaber, look her son dead in the eye and say “Over my dead body, son”. Because Leia would never give up without a fight, even with her son. And she would get her son back, and her story arc would have been completed. I would have paid good money to see this. 

Episode 9 was supposed to be Leia’s movie, just like ep. 7 was Han’s and ep. 8 was Luke’s. When Carrie died, I knew it would be compromised and it broke my heart, because Leia deserved better. She lost everything. Her parents, her planet, her father, her husband, her son, her brother, the Rebellion, the Resistance, everything. She fought all the way, all her life even faced with the worst odds she never gave up hope, she inspired hundreds of people to keep fighting for what is right, and she would never have a satisfactory ending. What a fucking heartbreak. She didn’t even get to see Lando. Leia deserved more. Every little girl in this world who grew up with her as a role model deserved more. But c’est la vie, as we say in French... My only solace is that I know fanfics and fanarts are going to make me feel a little better about it.

Of course I cried every time I saw her on screen, and especially when they honored her body, as we all honored Carrie when she passed away. This was one of the many fanservice moments, and surely the one I liked the most, although there was some concurrence (more to it later).

Another thing I didn’t like is what they did to Poe’s character. Many people disliked TLJ because of it, which they attributed to a political agenda of hate on men. This is so ridiculous and has already been debated enough that I won’t get into it. I did like the evolution of his character in TLJ, because for me it was an interesting character development as well as a good message: wartime is not only about barging in fights head first, shoot first think later, as is, let’s be honest, everything Anakin ever does. At one point, the narrative of the reckless hero who saves the day when a situation seems impossible and everyone begs him not to do it gets old. Sometimes in war, you have to think ahead, to plot, and yes, listen to what your allies have to say. And it actually was a good critic of toxic masculinity. Could the conflict between Poe and Holdo have been avoided with minimally sane conversation ? YES. But the message was here (as were Holdo’s hair and dress and WOW gurl) and I thought that was it, and Poe would evolve into a wiser person.

But this Poe is, at least in the first half of the movie, not very likable. Hear me, I never really liked Han Solo (never been into macho men) but I really loved Poe in TFA because he was genuinely nice and brave. Here, he’s bitter and annoying. I told myself that he was jealous of Rey because he heard of Finn’s crush on her and he wanted to keep Finn all for himself, which I know is just a crack headcannon, but hey, anything to make it better I guess.

Of course, I’ll never forgive Disney for not making FinnPoe a thing, when even Oscar Isaac ships them hard. And trying to make Poe flirt with the other girl (whose name I even forgot and whose face we didn’t even see, now tell me again how Star Wars has been corrupted by feminists... sigh)  Speaking of, it is me or did two women kiss at the end ? 

I liked the new droid, it reminded me of my puppy. But at the end, it was just another fanservice moment, it didn’t really do anything useful onscreen apart from being cute and funny.

When Rey was finally revealed to be a Palpatine as I hoped, I giggled like a wee girl. Watching TFA, I begged the old gods and the new that they wouldn’t make her another Skywalker, because it would’ve spoiled the Star Wars spirit for me. The whole franchise, in my opinion, is a story about fighting for what you believe is right, no matter who you or your parents are or where you come from. Even though Luke and Leia’s ended up being Vader’s children, they weren’t the only meaningful characters. Anakin was basically a Space Jesus and went from a total nobody to the Chosen One. I didn’t want Rey to be a Skywalker because it would mean that your importance would only ever lay in your bloodline, and that is depressing and totally against the spirit of the Rebellion/Resistance: no matter who you are, you can fight for what is right. For this reason, I wished for Rey to be either a real nobody or Palpatine’s granddaughter, which is also why I liked the fact that Han and Leia’s son turned out bad, even though it made me sad for them (Leia didn’t deserve this). No matter your bloodline, you can always make things right, or fuck up badly if you let yourself be taken away. And, of course, the reveal that Rey and Kylo Ren are two sides of the same coin (aka one of the many times where I picture us Reylos screaming CALLED IT in our seats) was exactly what I hoped for, a beautiful balance. I didn’t share Palpatine’s implication that a Palpatine and a Skywalker are meant to work together, though. That is not how I choose to interpret this duality. That is not what they end up doing, anyway.

Speaking of that old pal Patine, seeing the trailers I feared I would feel nauseated that they chose to reanimate the Big Old Villain, just like they reanimated the Even Bigger Death Star in TFA (how lazy can you be ?). But I enjoyed it. What saved it was Palpatine’s will to be killed by Rey to perpetuate the Sith rite of passage. I don’t even care if it’s cannon or not. I was afraid they would recreate Vader’s dilemma in ROTJ with Rey, but I liked the choices she made. And the throne scene worked for me. Like the rest of the movie it was flawed, for instance we don’t even get an explanation on how he survived. Just like we don’t even get what Finn wanted to tell Rey, even though it was emphasized several times. Was it a love declaration ? What happened to the rushed romance with Rose in TLJ ? (What happened to Rose, actually). While we’re at it, why did Palpatine want Ren to kill Rey ? So many questions. So many flaws.

And, of course I cannot comment this film without mentioning my sweet star-crossed lovers, Rey and Ben. First, I’m really eager to see your reactions. We did it, Reylos! Years of hate and slander and we were right all along. Let’s rejoice.

I like Rey’s evolution. For the moment, I don’t feel like I have too much to say about it (which is fine because this post is way too long already). I like the way she handles her emotions, I like her choices and her character evolution. 

And Ben. Oh, sweet Ben. Although I think the part where he gets his old mask fixed wasn’t necessary, I kinda like what they did with him as well. I must say though that I liked his hair in TFA better.  Oh boy, I loved Kylo Ren but I absolutely adore Ben Solo. And I think the way the movie depicts him even surpasses some fics. The moment when Rey gives him the lightsaber and he gets up and does the Han shrug  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I almost lost my mind. This ties with the hommage to Leia’s body as my favorite fanservice moment.

And their relationship... Look, I know I wet my pants really enjoyed myself in TLJ when they held hands, but that scene felt rushed even for me who ships them with the force of a thousand suns. Like many things in TLJ (and, as I said, also in TROS) it felt like things I had already seen in fanfics, but in the fics I enjoyed the most Rey had tried to kill him at least 5 mores times before even agreeing to have a one-on-one conversation with him. Their romance in TLJ felt like it was hormone-driven, but I get Johnson couldn’t really do a slow burn in 2 hours. When Leia died and they both felt it in the Force, I could feel that Rey wanted to touch him, to confort him, to grieve with him. I’m glad she didn’t. It wasn’t time. And I really like that she told him she wanted to hold Ben’s hand, not his. And Ben, the Dork Knight, finally realized that if he wanted The Girl, he shouldn’t, you know, threaten her and chase her but get back to the Light Side like she begged him multiple times. Because he really isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, this is apparently what makes him choose to tip over. That or the fact she saved his life. I was still frustrated by Leia’s death so I don’t know if I’m not entirely convinced because it happened just after, I’d have to watch it again. I liked Han’s moment, though.

And in my opinion, Rey and Ren’s fight on the wreck of the Death Star is as good as Anakin and Obi-Wan’s. My Reylo heart will always have a special place for their couple fight in TLJ (aka the best non-sex sex scene in cinema, don’t @ me) but I also liked this fight in light of their relation. Surprisingly, it reminded me more of their fight at the end of TFA, when we see Ren holding his blows and Rey barging in. I thought it was endearing.

The end. Oh my god, the end. I can’t wait to see the first gifs and I really really can’t wait for the HD gifs, because oh boy, I now only live for Ben Solo’s smile. That’s it, I found my will to live, my depression is cured. And the way he handles Rey’s body with the utmost care (while Finn apparently watches it and does or says nothing). And that kiss... And the SMILE. And the KISS. 

Oh, dear gods. Oh dear.

I can’t wait for the first fics in which Ben doesn’t die and they live happily ever after on Tatooine or Naboo or wherever they damn want. Or the fics where he is indeed dead and they still share a beautiful relationship (if Force Ghost Luke could get his X-Wing out of the water, I’m eager to imagine what Ben would do with his Force dick, tongue and fingers. Forgive me, it’s getting late and I’m still flustered thinking of their kiss)

And the fact that she declares herself a Skywalker ? I know a lot of people are disappointed in this, but apart from the fact that she completely deserves the title in my opinion when she inherited the will of both Luke and Leia, which is reason enough, she is absolutely married to Ben and deserves her place in that family. Also, it’s again a beautiful way to remind you that bloodlines don’t matter as much as what we choose to do with our lives. And while I’m glad they showed Leia’s Force ghost (I would’ve been really mad if they didn’t) I’m super frustrated they didn’t show Ben’s. What am I to believe, that he gave his life for her, became one with the Force and vanished into litteral nothingness for him to never be seen again ? Like hell I don’t. Again, counting on the fics and arts to right this wrong.

The movie sure has its flaws, and I still have many unanswered questions, like what the fuck is the badge Maz gives Chewie, or how Rey does her lightsaber staff at the end, and I wish they explained some things better. I wasn’t sure if the saber Leia wanted Rey to have was hers or her mother’s. Most of those questions will be answered by bigger geeks than me in this fandom, so I really can’t wait to read from y’all.

I know a whole lot of people are going to hate the movie. The antis, the gatekeeping trve fans (already I’ve seen people say that those who enjoyed the movies are not Real Star Wars Fans and welp, we’re going to see a lot of shit). The manbabies who genuinely believe in a feminist takeover and see equality as a direct threat. I’m specifically happy they will be disappointed while I got the privilege of enjoying Star Wars as much as I did. It’s not my fault, or Disney’s fault even, that they turned out to be on the Empire’s side. And the day has not come when I defend a megacorporation. 

Leia was the first SJW. The Resistance lives on. People will always fight against evil, like it or not. I know the world is a shitty place and we don’t have much hope nowadays for things to get better, and Star Wars has always motivated me to keep going and stick to my values and my convictions. I felt chills several times in the movie, like at the end where everyone comes to fight, and now I’m more willing to keep fighting than ever. For Leia.

Godspeed, Rebels! 

[mrmallardsmobileposts]

My Star Wars Shipping Hot Takes

THERE WILL BE UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SEQUEL TRILOGY IN THIS POST

TAG "#TRoS Spoilers" IF YOU WANT TO WIPE THIS POST FROM YOUR DASH COMPLETELY

THIS HAS BEEN MY SPOILER WARNING, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ABOUT STAR WARS SPOILERS

Finn/Rey should have been endgame, or at least brought up by Finn instead of the BS non-committal "I've got something to tell you" line they play with for the rest of the movie. Bring it into text and acknowledge it fully instead of using it for a few cheap gags and leaving it hanging.

They had great chemistry in TFA. They bonded really easily and got along really well, it seemed like Finn was chatting her up a little at times and by the end of the movie they're incredibly close. Finn puts his life on the line and gets fucked up by a lightsaber to defend her. John Boyega and Daisy Ridley played off each other really well, they had really good chemistry. I really ship it.

The only hitch, imo, is the total lack of screentime they have together in TLJ. Finn's plot just kinda went nowhere and he got a rehash of his "running away" arc in TFA, and I think the Rose Tico kiss was really lame and forced. While I can appreciate their eventual reunion, and within the scope of the movie it's not unreasonable for them to not meet again until the end, I really don't dig how much time they spend apart in TLJ from a shipping perspective and I don't think the Finn/Rose pairing is very good.

To address the elephant in the room, I'm not the most positive person about Rose Tico, but I'm chill with her and I think her character would have been fine with better material than she had in TLJ. Not trying to chud things up, here. The most extreme thing I have to say about Rose Tico, within the scope of this post I'm making, is that I didn't think the actors had that much chemistry to justify a romance, the kiss was goofy with the laser going off behind them, and while I don't disagree that Kelly Marie Tran got screwed over in TRoS, I'm ultimately glad that her and Finn are good buddies in that movie instead of partners. I'm not saying her reduced role is fine, just saying I'm glad that this pairing doesn't seem to be canon. I'm glad they're still close, though. Finn is definitely the heart of the group, pulling everyone together.

The thing about Finn/Rey in TRoS is that while the chemistry isn't there on the same level as TFA - partially due to the hatchet-job editing of the first half where people are barely able to vocalise a single coherent thought before the plot ushers them along to the next point - I felt like it still existed for a while. They teased it with the "I've got something I need to tell you" line from Finn, and then they never bring it up again. Like what the fuck, wrap up the plot point instead of dragging it out for the most painful humor of the movie and failing to resolve it.

This brings me into the Reylo portion of my post.

While I don't ship it, I refuse to hate Reylo. I've got a great write-up of my Reylo opinion on my main blog which explains why, if you search for "reylo". Basic point is that a lot of the initial backlash was predicated on assumptions that people were adamant would be proven true in the next movies, and those assumptions turned out to not be the case 4 years later in 2019, so I refuse to treat it like the pariah it was in 2015 for those reasons.

I'll admit that I really enjoyed the ending with Ben Solo. Adam Driver sells the difference between Ben Solo and Kylo Ren so well, and while I understand that he did a lot of bad shit and wiped out planets and committed space genocide and stuff - Darth Vader also committed space genocide and killed hundreds of people, and his body count continues to rise in supplemental materials. And yet he was redeemed by Luke, and was able to return as a force ghost despite the genocides and mass murders he committed as Darth Vader. There is a precedent for people redeeming themselves just before they die in the Star Wars universe, even when they do some really heinous shit. As such, I am not against this happening for Kylo Ren. Star Wars is just that kind of series, for better or worse.

My opinion of Reylo is that it's kind of like fanfic mode a lot of the time. It got really wacky in TLJ, and it got way more pronounced in TRoS. That's not necessarily a detriment, but it was what it was. I don't buy Kylo Ren and Rey as romantic interests necessarily, especially when I think their relationship is really, really odd and reminiscent of fanfiction cliches, but there's enough subtext for people to read into it and I don't really care if people like it or not.

If Reylo is the endgame ship, then that's fine. I don't necessarily like it, even as I acknowledge that problematic ships will always have their audience. A ship can be used as a force for good, as long as it isn't being used to actively promote abusive tendencies or like really gross shit.

Some ships are off limits, straight up. Reylo is dicey, but I don't think it's worse than a lot of villain shipping is - there's been room for edgy villain shipping before, and I think Reylo occupies that space now and has every right to. As long as people aren't encouraging people to engage in abusive practices through their storywriting, or pushing alt-right talking points and fucked up things like that through their writing, Reylo has enough wiggle room to be a perfectly ordinary pairing in the fanfiction community.

Saying that, though - here's why I prefer Finn/Rey.

He's a close, friendly and positive force in Rey's life, they shared the start of their journeys and they helped each other grow into the heroes they became. Poe spent most of TFA missing in action, and he only meets Rey at the end of the movie. Rey and Finn spend the bulk of their character moments together, and it's the character development from these interactions - spurred along by Han and Chewie, of course - that fuels their ascent into hero figures at the end of the movie.

Why don't I like Reylo more? Because the Kylo Ren stuff seemed like essential backstory stuff, whereas Finn and Rey's characters naturally got along like a house on fire. Kylo Ren also spends most of the time getting rain on his gloves through inter-force touching in a bunch of weird, forced, fanfic-tier scenes, whereas Finn and Rey hug and celebrate and bond through conversation, not trite, rigid backstory.

I can buy Rey kissing Ben Solo at the end of TRoS. I can buy her feeling love for Ben Solo, and finding it frustrating that she can't break through Kylo Ren to get to him. Fuck, in that ending scene where Kylo is explicitly Ben Solo again, Rey and Ben have actual, honest to god chemistry, and it's cute as fuck. But that moment took a lot of catching up to get to, and before her and Kylo showed any hint of affection together, Finn was her comrade in arms, someone who shared her victories and helped to further her growth, and vice versa.

Reylo has a pretty solid conclusion, I will certainly give it that. But I feel like the Reylo conclusion is steeped in that classic "I can redeem the bad guy through love" trope like the original Star Wars, except with a romantic angle this time. Ben's redemption didn't have to be with a kiss - it could still happen without the romance angle, but the romance is added in to distinguish it from the other Star Wars examples.

Ultimately, I think having Ben's redemption spurred by romantic love is broke, whereas Rey finding a buddy in Finn, having their ups and downs together, shielding each other from harm and becoming close through mutual shared experiences and proximity is woke.

What about Finn/Poe? Ship it if you want, it's all good. I understand why this ship was initially so popular, and while I don't ship it, I'm not the shipping police and I get the premise behind it. Poe/CrimeGirl? This was shoehorned tf in, but if you think it's neato, it's neato. Poe/Rey? I think they would make a terrible couple, but whatever. Poe/Finn/Rey? Everyone wins. Add Kylo Ren anywhere into the mix and you can have yourself a party, depending on your stance on the character. Make any of the characters gay, bi, pan, ace - literally whatever, outside of a few significant parameters just about every ship is valid. I'm not a hard-ass, shipping is fun and outside of some really bad shit I'm generally down for people having a good time. I just like Finn/Rey the most.

Also, Maz Kanata is really neat and I hope she gets more screen time. If her lifespan makes it squicky to ship her with the younger characters, that's your business and I understand and respect that, but frankly I would write a romance story about Maz Kanata falling in love in a heartbeat - I just don't know who. I've written Doctor Who fanfic where a 2000 year old alien woman dates a 21 year old policewoman from Sheffield, so as long as the right boundaries are respected, I think a Maz Kanata story could be pretty fun and non-problematic like with a Doctor Who story.

Anyway that's my Hot Takes post

byeeeeee

[jackkearns]

Okay so. Long rant/rambling about TRoS. Spoilers below, you’ve been warned. Posting this on a side blog and reblogging it so it won’t be “uncut” on mobile dashes.

The first... Fifteen minutes of ROS was... Too fast. There was a LOT going on that had no explanation.

Light speed skipping. That made no sense and was a little over the top. An icy outpost with contacts with no names getting information through unmentioned communication lines. Conversation with this Unnamed character that insinuated he was important, especially since we later see his HEAD in Kylo's grasp. Or was it a Knight of Ren, idk bc things went that fast.

LOVED the interaction between Rey Finn and Poe. They argued like a married trio though the whole movie and it was amazing. There was also a LOT of jealousy from Poe every time Finn tried mentioning his feelings for Rey. (Seriously, Poe was more concerned about cosmetic damage to BB8 than he was about the Falcon LITERALLY BEING ON FIRE and I just. Oh, Poe.) The group hug at the end just sealed the OT3 for me, end of story.

There was Force healing and I was excited to see that. Then... It got overused to the point of being a deus ex machina.

The Unknown Regions were mentioned and the path to the Sith world was full of solar storms and black holes and electrical flares and there was no mention of how canonly, that path was mapped by Thrawn, but OKAY,THAT'S FINE.

I was honestly scared to death when Hux was all "I'm the mole," because I was afraid they were making him run like a coward, but no, thankfully, he was being a Petty shit trying to sabotage Ren which is so ic for him.

His death, just a point blank, off handed shot to the chest and him sprawling on the deck of the Finaliser and being completely shrugged off was.... Disappointing. Very disappointing. His character had been played up as this ruthless, cruel and calculating battle tactician and he was made a joke in tlj and RoS. He was a fascist asshole and despite what people say, it wasn't Kylo who destroyed worlds and killed all those people, it was Hux, and it completely undermined how dangerous people like him ARE and I felt his death should have had more substance to address what he'd done and who he was.  

He's a villain, a war criminal, and he should have had more weight, been held accountable, idk, it was just utterly dismissive and HONESTLY I feel bad for Domnhall. Now I know why he didn't want to do any press at all about RoS. You could tell he really enjoyed playing Hux in TFA and I bet that kind of stung.

ANYWAY.

Leia’s death just... it felt detached? There was little to no build up to her death, and then she was just... gone. It didn’t really affect me until I saw Chewie’s reaction, and then it felt like I’d been punched in the GUT and couldn’t breathe for a hot minute.

Was REALLY amused Rey just took Kylo’s ship and bailed. “Thanks for the battle, taking your shit and leaving you here.”

When I heard Han say “Hey kid,” I felt my heart break a little bit, and that moment of Kylo saying the same line to Han- and ACTUALLY THROWING HIS SABER AWAY....

Which brings me to Daisy and Adam’s acting????? JUST?????

The DIFFERENCE in their faces when playing Rey Palpatine/Kylo Ren, and Just Rey/Ben Solo was INCREDIBLE. Their posture, their expressions, the set of their faces, the way they held themselves, was AMAZING. Daisy’s face went so HARD and COLD like a diamond, and Adam’s went so SOFT and OPEN and it was INCREDIBLE, AUGH

I am mad Rose was sidegated. Mad that there wasn’t more to Jannah. Mad that there wasn’t more of the Ghost or even a VOICE cameo of Hera.

LUKE LIFTING THE XWING OUT OF THE WATER MADE ME CRY.

I AM SO MAD AND UPSET OVER SNAP’S DEATH. WEDGE WAS THERE, MY FLYBOY WAS THERE AND HE HEARD HIS STEPSON DIE OVER THE COMMS AND I CANNOT FATHOM WHAT THAT MUST HAVE DONE TO HIM AND I AM STILL UPSET OVER IT.

Force Sensitive Finn. I love it, I knew it, so happy it’s canon, now I need a million fics of Rey helping him train and building a lightsaber with him.

I am not even touching the fuckery that was Sheev having a secret love child because the connotations are not pleasant.

I don’t understand why he didn’t possess Rey after she killed him, maybe it was because she had a Mass Cameo Moment with All the Jedi and reflected his lightning back him and made his powers Null and Void?

The lightning was cool af, even if it was More Extra than Necessary.

The Snoke Jar didn’t explain what Snoke was, who the template was- was it Sheev? Was it a random person? Hell, it could have been Ezra for all we know. It also didn’t explain why he was so easy for Kylo to kill.

Also, how did Hux keep hiding shit from Kylo? How did Kylo hide his plans from Sheev? Why is it the mind reading is very situational? I get Kylo maybe being able to shield his thoughts, but Hux? For three movies straight? And only his Petty Ass Behaviour getting him caught by Pryde and not Kylo? JJ/RIAN EXPLAIN.

The Star Destroyers/Sith Destroyers were pornographic. I said it. The scene with the fleet rising gave me a boner, y’all know I have a Thing for Star Destroyers, and there was a whole gorram ATMOSPHERE FULL OF THEM.

WHICH BRINGS ME TO A HAPPY POINT.

FINALLY. FINALLY. SHIP PHYSICS WERE ACCOUNTED FOR IN THIS MOVIE.

Ren brings the Finaliser into atmo and there are effects felt on the ground from the ship. The Falcon gets too close to the Finaliser and it affects the troopers in the hangar bay.

THE STAR DESTROYERS WERE AFFECTED BY BEING IN ATMO AND NEEDED TIME TO BRING UP THEIR SHIELDS.

I SORT of was all “...what” at their lack of navigation, but THEN AGAIN- when your viewport is full of nothing but the ships above, beside, in front and behind you, yeah, you need some synchronised navigation going on from a command ship.

(Am I STILL mad about the Star Destroyer above a city having no effect, but a Lambda taking off shot people all over the walkways in Rogue One? YES, YES I AM, ROGUE ONE SAID “FUCK SHIP PHYSICS, WE DO WHAT WE WANT, INCLUDING JUMPING TO HYPERSPACE WHILE STILL IN ATMO, LET ALONE THE GRAV SHADOW OF A PLANET” AUGH FUCK YOU)

The line “That’s not a Navy, that’s people.” So good. So. GOOD.

The scene with The Not Navy- GOOD. SO GOOD. (Though it’s like... how did Lando get ALL THOSE PEOPLE when LEIA didn’t?? RUDE)

BEN SHOOTING HIS BLASTER BLINDLY BEHIND HIM LIKE HAN MADE ME SQUEAK, I NEEDED THAT AND NOW I JUST WANT A MILLION AU FICS OF BEN AS A FORCE SENSITIVE SMUGGLER AUGH.

The Rey/Ben(Kylo? I think he was Ben at this point?) kiss was uh. I didn’t like it. And not because I don’t ship Reylo? (Because I HONESTLY do NOT mind Rey/Ben Solo- it’s Rey/Kylo Ren that I’m eeeeehhh about) but because it was generally just... awkward and Ben just “Aight, I’ma fade out” right after just made it more awkward??? IDEK.

All in all, I didn’t think it was BAD. It was an okay Star Wars movie. It is NOT my favourite- but it was not BAD.

It just felt like it was rushed, that some crucial content was cut in order to keep the plot goingandgoingcan’tstopgoing, and it honestly felt like the three movies was a passive aggressive pissing match between JJ and Rian.

LOT of amazing parts, a LOT of wtf parts, a LOT of disjointed plot points. Enjoyed it, but much could be done/handled better to have made it a more poignant ending to the saga.

[butididnottried]

“The Rise od Skywalker” spoilers.

So, i saw it. I was on a whole night marathon and saw all three movies one after another. I actually like “The Last Jedi”. Like, i really like it. I know all issues and problems that people have with this one, i understand it, and it’s still Very Good to me and there will be some comparisons. Also, i’m not sure if this is important, but SW is not a part of my childhood and i have no nostalgic feelings toward those movies. Hi there, i’m an average fan?

So.

Tbh i expected a pile of thrash on fire after what i read about this movie, because people are only complaining, without really recalling anything good (but i also avoided big and long and detailed reviews to avoid as much information as i can xD). And there are good thing in it, and i had surprisingly a whole amount of fun while watching it. But still, at the end, overall this whole movie can be summarize into CONFUSED WHAT.

Good stuff:

- J. J. Abrams know how to invoke a fell and spirit of grand adventure. At the beginning this move has a crazy amount of it, until Rey split from Finn and Poe. They just need to go after this mcguffin dagger to find another mcguffin, they need to go to this palce to find that or someone, they need to go somewhere else and there are problems but there’s a solution, but they need to go to third place to again find someone. I would be kinda annoying if we wouldn’t have all three of them together - Rey, Finn and Poe. Finally! I really like them all being together, being friends, bantering, being dumbasses and smartasses and me gusta very much those dorks.

- They do not conform that, but let’s face it - Finn and Poe are married. There’s no heterosexual explanation for their relationship in this movie. I’m aware that in script they weren’t particularly wrote like that, and maybe it’s because actors were playing their character in this way, but there’s another explanation. A few months ago in review of “X-Men: The Dark Phoenix” i read that Hollywood just don’t know how to wrote real male friendship, full of emotions, and they end up using romance tropes and cliches. And Finn and Poe are perfect example to uphold that theory. Like, really, look at them, they’re bantering like an old couple.

- I really like Reys path in this movie. Seeing all three movies together shows how much she grow with every next installment. In TFA she is nice and joyful character, but kinda basic; in TLJ she learn more about how world works, about herself and choose her own path. And now in TROS she is very conflicted, torn apart and sacred of her own powers, while trying to stay herself. And Daisy Ridley really hit the spot with her performance.

- Leia had an lightsaber? And was training with Luke? And now she was teaching Rey? Like... FUCK YEAH?! And also Finn? Force sensitive? YEAH BABY!

- Rey and Kylo fight on ruins of Death Star surrounded with raging ocean and those exquisitely animated giant and heavy waves. So good? SO GOOD.

- Palpatine went full Thor and every cell in my body was hollering with laughter. As soon as it’s possible someone need to edit this “unlimited power!” yell to this scene. Please.

- ahahahahaha, Hux, you magnificent, pathetic, petty asshole, ahahahahaha.

- this is not about movies, but there was a fake fanboy at my screening. Between TLJ and TROS this dude behind me was explaining sequels to his friend and i was typing a message to my friend, so the only thing that i heard was “the first movie did Abrams, you know, the one that made LOTR, and the second one did Johnson , and he is ooold.” I have no idea what to do and think about this.

- new ways of using force. Hell yeah. Force the shit out of this. Stronger force skype? Totally. Teleportation things on purpose through force? Absolutely. Being almost in two places at once through force. I’m totally here for that. Rey being probably the most competent person in force? Kick their asses baby, i’m holding yo flower!

- MERRY!!!???

??? stuff:

- apparently reylo is incest, because Rey and Kylo are related. Really? How? Is there in any movie any, even smallest, hint that Skywalkers and Palpatines are blood related? I have no idea.

- The way how droid are treated in those movies is troubling. Are they alive? Are they self-conscious? Or they’re an artificial intelligence so developed that they can with no problems fake that?

- sooo... Kylo. I love this problematic asshole. Well, in case of genocidal murdered word “problematic” is very mild, but whatever. What i read about this movie, people were raging because woman (Rey) exist only to heal a man (Kylo) that was abusing her, but i don’t see that this way. Like, not at all. And how i see how Rey and Kylo plot is developing makes it hysterical, especially after TLJ where Kylo was established as main villain. Because in this movie with every scene Kylo exist more and more as support to Rey story, he’s an walking exposition for Rey and motivation for her to doing things. He was less and less his own character, and was more and more existed for Rey. Like, he totally could be put in the fridge. xD When Rey stabbed him i thought “oh, so they’re killing him now? When were not even close to the end? Well, ok, i do not see a more purpose for him in this plot, so yeah, kill him” but then Rey saved him and i was like ??? because what more you want him to do? And then he disappears for a big chunk of time and show again at the end and he even wasn’t needed here and don’t do that much? Just... lol. Ok, he did That, because it’s “Star Wars” and SW just Works. Like. That. or it’s not Real and True “Star Wars” boo-frikin-hoo. But on that later.

- as a example for Kylo being a lesser character and more of a tool for the sake of the plot is fact, that in TROS Darth Tantrum is weirdly collected and put his shit together. At the beginning when he finds Palpatines lair and learns that this dude was behind all of this, behind forming First Order and all voices in his head, Kylo should lost his marbles and just murdered Palpatine. But even if somehow not, at the news that Rey is emperor granddaughter he absolutely should throw the biggest tantrum in all history of tantrums and not only obliterated Palpatine but also this whole place. But no, he made A Plan and decide to once again to “propose” to Rey. Like she didn’t rejected him definitely in previous movie and like they both not decided that when they meet next time, only one of them are going to survive. But hey, let’s go with this “i want you by my side to rule the galaxy” plot again. :/

- and there they go with that helmet again. In TLJ scene where Kylo destroys his helmet it’s a very powerful moment. Not only for him, but for direction with which the story would go. Because he is not Darth Vader. Because we do not need another Darth Vader. Buuut, on the other side i can let this a pass, because since he agreed to join Palpatine and once again is going to lead The Knights, he needed to wear this helmet again to prove this loyalty and make them trust him. So, hard pass on that. And tbh, that ugly mask looks a lot better with those bright red cracks.

- And also Leia, that was also there only for her son, because as a mother she can’t be anyone else. Aaand... idk about that. Leia force connected to Kylo so he could turn back to the light? She sacrificed herself for him? Eeeeh... it was weird scene. And there’s no clear explanation why? Only Kaz Manata said that this will use Leias all life force that she has? Did i missed something? Did movie forgot about something? For me it looked like Leia was distracting Kylo, because it look like Rey was going to loose this fight, she was more and more angry, and in this moment she would fully go on the dark side. So Leia saved Rey, she felt Reys struggle. At least i it’s how i interpreted this scene, because it’s one of the most baffling one. Just ???

- there’s whole sith culture. Just. There is. But if there’s only two of them at most at a time, they probably exist for far longer to develop all of this, and to build all of this, and to be cooperative with each other? Which is not their strongest trait? And all these people in emperor throne room were past siths force ghosts or real people?

- apparently being a sith and making lightning came out of your palms is genetic? At least i understand that like this. Because the reason why Rey shot lightning while trying to rescue Chewie was not because she was angry and mad and doubting, but because shes Palpatine? What?

- this is a very minor thing, but when Rey enters Death Stars ruins there’s stormtroopers armors lying almost everywhere, but there’s not even a one bone?

- oh wow, a planet get blow up with even more miniaturized death star ray. And they have hundreds of these. And hundreds of destroyers. And no one notices there was whole space army built. How? I can understand that they ignored the space nazis rising again because, well, just look what is happening in real life, but using money and resources at this scale is however something else, very expensive and i can’t believe no one noticed this.  

Bad stuff:

- Rey is Palpatine. What. I mean... what? It’s just... uuugh... Why are you making me thinking about Emperor having sex? I only hope that was some crazy nazi fangirl that totally wanted to fuck him. Or maybe it was artificial insemination? Well, doesn't matter, it’s BIG EEEW in every option. And i don’t want to think about other way. :/ At least it makes sense why Emperor procreate? In other stories al these evil dudes that want to live forever and rule everything are having children just... because they have children. For drama or something, because story needs someone to betray this evil dude, or some other eye-rolling stereotypical reason. Like, having offspring especially to posses their bodies and live forever in this way is not very original, but it’s something.

- TLJ was like “you can be from nowhere, you can be from the bottom of society, you cen be the poor and miserable, without family or amazing heritage, and you can still do amazing things, you can climb up and make a difference, you can be better and better, you can make your own story despite your awful background” and TROS be like “fuck that, viva la royalty, you need a powerful heritage, you need a powerful and important bloodline or you’re nothing”. Oh, how nice is that. :/

- that opening crawl. It’s bad. Just bad. Even worse than “The Phanom Menace” babbling about economy.

- PALPATINE IS NO FUN AT ALL!!! HOW DARE YOU NOT MAKING IAN MCDIARMIND NOT ENJOYABLE AT ALL???!!! SHAME ON YOU ABRAMS!!! SHAME ON ALL OF DISNEY!!! ...well, ok, this was this one small thing, BUT STILL!!! AUGHR!!! I’m so mad about this. I was expecting not a very good movie, but at least i was hopeful that emperor would be such a treat.

- pulling emperor out of nowhere was an mistake. They should stay with what TLJ established and made Kylo main villain. No redemption, no bullshit like “there’s still light in him”, no Ben Solo, no forgiveness, no nothing. Just Rey beating the shit out of him and killing him. End of story. But no, “Star Wars” can’t be like that, it’s not how this world works, THIS IS NOT REAL “STAR WARS” WAAH WAAAH WAAAH. You’re a genocidal murdered? A space nazi? You’re ruling a regime that is weltered in blood of the innocence? Doesn't matter, there’s always hope. Just do one small, good thing and you will be at peace. Fuck off with that. At the end of TLJ when Kylo entered that mine, and rebel survivors entered deck of Falcon, and Rey and him were still force connected, and she cutted off him because she understands that there are things that can’t be forgave, and there are people that do not want help and just don’t want to be better and fuck “Steven Universe Future” did that a lot better on eleven minutes, and SW series is struggling with this since beginning. Because there’s white and black, good and evil, and there’s nothing in between, and when someone comes from one side to another they become a completely different person because yes that how it works. And people are totally here for this because it’s for kids and it needs to be simple and we can’t let this story grow beyond that stupid absolute duality. I know that there are people that were on far right but they changed and become better and good for them, but if you want to do that in your story, show the struggle of this difficult path and let this scum survive and face the consequences. Take at least a minimum of responsibility of what you’re showing to kids. :/ But nooo, he was stabbed, his mom died, his dad showed up and said... something, and now Kylo is dead, and Ben alive again. Sarcastic yay. Also, if you’re repeating dialogue from first movie, in almost this same situation, but in a different context, EARN IT. Second also, that kiss. Eeeeh... If you really need to be Like That and made some weird understanding between them, maybe just make they touch their foreheads? And oooh, yes, i almost forgot. At my screening when Kylo flopped at the ground, died and vanished, the whole audience laughed. But it wasn’t a loud, merry laugh, but a nervous and awkward, like “did i just saw this cringy shit?”. Amazing.

- they remembered about Knight of Ren. And did nothing with them. They just were showing up here and there through the whole movie without any purpose. But that’s Johnson fault, that he did not include them in TLJ. No wonder that they did not have time for them in TROS. Just waste.

- the amount of fanservice is killing me. I have nothing against it, if it’s just a nice treat for fans here and there, but when a whole movie is dedicated to it it’s just not very bearable. And plot suffer from it, because instead of write a good story they’re focusing at how to connected these thing from original trilogy.

[fandomsallaroundme]

As someone who really likes Tony as a character in his various incarnations, as well as a being huge Stony shipper, the current state of the Marvel fandom due to this special breed of MCU Tony stans is killing me. It's like their life's mission is to downplay the contributions of every other character (except maybe Peter) to make their fav look the best. They sure love reducing Steve Rogers to the "pretty white guy who did nothing", which frankly couldn't be further from the truth. (1)

Of course when called outon their shit, (and the fact that they all conveniently ignore that Tony never called Steve either when he had the chance to), they fall back on the "WhY caN'T yOu TaKE a JoKE!!1!" excuse. It's honestly exhausting to have your love for a character being slowly drained out of you because the most popular version of that character has a million toxic stans who somehow don't understand that the other Avengers may mean just as much to other people as Tony does to them. (2)

I found your blog because I pretty much had it with being disrespectful towards the other Avengers as some sort of weird ass defense for Tony, which the character doesn’t need. IMO if you can't build your fav up without tearing other characters down and then trying to play it off as a joke, you're doing it wrong. I don't understand why they can't let Tony be an actual flawed (but incredibly interesting) character,as that is what drew me to him in the first place. (3)

I also have to stop myeyes from rolling into another dimension when they try and make "bad childhoods" into a competition, but then conveniently forget that Nat was literally brainwashed into being an assassin from a young age, and Steve grewup in poverty with an alcoholic father, sick mother, a list of illnesses longer than my shopping list while WWII raged on in the background. Like they're trying

to claim Tony had it the hardest?? Compared to these other characters????

What????? (4)

Honestly, that makes me

feel like these “stans” don't know shit about Tony at all, because that's

something the character himself wouldn't even THINK of saying, in both the MCU

and the comics/cartoons. I just want my pre-MCU Civil War Marvel fandom back so

I can go into the tag without seeing all this shitty content. Anyways, sorry

for the rant, had to deal with some of those toxic stans today and came here to

get a breath of fresh air. (5)

 Sorry if my reply is a bit later than expected, I had to get home from work and then I had to lay out all your asks chronologically and read them all at once because reading them chunk by chunk was whacking my ADHD brain out lmao

Anyway, first of all: hi! It’s super nice to meet another Marvel fan who actually likes the team instead of just one character in particular! So glad to have you aboard this actual garbage dump that is my blog! Welcome! And don’t worry about ranting, lord knows I do it all the time yet somehow people still think I’m worth following. :D

Second, god do I know where you’re coming from. The Marvel fandom used to be such an open and inviting place, full of some of the best people I could ever hope to meet. I was a huge fan since 2011 when Thor and Captain America TFA came, but I didn’t really join the “fandom” itself until… maybe early 2014?? Around the time Winter Soldier came out. I remember the fandom coming together and just sobbing over this beautiful movie, coming up with hundreds of fics and headcanons for how Tony and the other Avengers could help rehabilitate Bucky and help Steve get his friend back. There were whole discussions and wishes for a very long and very important talk between the entire group as friends, for Tony to learn the truth and choose to forgive Bucky for his parent’s deaths because he never chose to kill them, would never choose to do so of his own free will, and for the team to come together, stronger than ever because they understood each other’s pain.

I haven’t seen hide nor hair of such AUs since 2016.

Civil War was the worst possible decision the Marvel execs made. They should never have tried to adapt the storyline into a movie, or they shouldn’t have done it so haphazardly while also still trying to resolve the issues from TWS. Dividing the fandom on who is Right and who is Wrong was a fucking mistake, because instead of thinking critically about the moral implications of what signing or abstaining from the Accords means, the fandom has devolved into claiming the side that their favorite characters are on is automatically “Right” and then trying to build a defense around their character in particular instead of what they are actually fighting for.

I’m very sorry your enjoyment of Tony’s character has faded because of people who cannot admit their faves’ faults. Tony is actually a rather interesting and complicated character, and although I cannot say whether or not I could ever love him the way I used to way back in the 2012-2013 era of Marvel, I could at least, ya know, tolerate him, or just be neutral to him.

But I have to Hate Him, because the toxic, overwhelming majority of his stans have targeted, degraded, and trashed all the other Avengers so thoroughly I can no longer see what I ever liked about Tony in the first place.

Yes, Tony suffered. Yes, his childhood was hard. Yes, Steve shouldn’t have lied to him.

But he hasn’t suffered the most out of the entire Avengers team (Natasha), he didn’t grow up chronically ill (Steve) or in poverty and orphaned (Wanda). Howard not loving him was awful, but he still did have a wonderful father figure in Edwin Jarvis, and his mother loved and cared for him.

Steve lying to him seems to be, like, the biggest evidence his stans have that he should have hated the Avengers, or, it’s the reason they like to give for hating the others because “everyone turned against him!!  He deserved better friends!!!” No??? Steve lying to him was wrong, but him trying to kill Bucky was no less wrong (it was, in fact, about 100x worse because, ya know, murder), and after all of that it was completely within Tony’s power to move forward and try to rebuild his friendships.

The cellphone was Steve’s olive branch; it was Tony’s choice not to take it until the world was literally ending around them. The others were completely within their right to avoid/hate Tony for him locking them up in a remote prison without a trial or even a hope of release before Steve freed them. A lot of Tony’s choices are ultimately the worst things that came back to bite the Avengers in the ass; Ultron, not calling Steve, not turning the donut ship back to Earth after Ebony Maw was dead, the Sokovia Accords, etc.

(Aw geez, I kind of went on my own rant there, lol)

I desperately wish for the days where the fandom didn’t know about Civil War, when the team was the Team and they all lived together and kicked a lot of HYDRA ass together and then went out to do the occasional solo mission that was part of their own trilogies and everything was good and everyone could actually forgive each other for small things instead of instantly turning on each other because someone’s favorite character did something rude to another.

But, seeing as that’s not likely to be happening anytime soon, I invite you to enjoy my blog and engage in more rants with me in the future if you so wish. It’s nice to meet you. :)

[ancient-depressed-druid]

My opinion on reylo and why the writing forces them together (not in a good way)

First of all, I am a reylo shipper, that, however doesn't change my opinion on the subject that their relationship was the result of bad writing.

I didn't ship them when I saw TFA, because I was sure they would pull a Luke/Leia archetype and make her either Han's daughter with another woman or Luke's own daughter. I actually didn't ship her with any character (strong female lead that doesn't need a love interest) and was sure the relationship between Poe and Finn would develop as the "romantic ideal" (it's space, they don't need to have heteronormativity). Rey was supposed to be the Luke of this trilogy, too busy with being a Skywalker and having to save some family member from the dark side, blablabla. But it made sense.

TLJ however, proved me wrong. She wasn't a Skywalker, but she had a connection to the last of them. The franchise is supposed to tell the Skywalker story, so, if you're making the main character be "no one" (and I did really like the idea that you don't need to inherit the force from a big name already. Force sensitivity is not royal blood) it only makes sense to be building for that character to be a Skywalker in the future, this time by marriage.

We were shown a lot less than enough to really promote the idea that Ben Solo was worth saving, the whole space Nazi shit and all. But we were exposed to the idea that he was manipulated since a child by the dark side and abandoned and betrayed by his family (totally out of character, Leia's adoptive father raised her while leading a rebellion, Han - as shown in solo - always had the need for family and belonging, Chewie wasn't even added to the equation even though we all know he would raise that child alone if he had to, and lastly, Luke, the one that saw good in Vader, a man that destroyed entire species/planets and chose to go to the dark side even when he had his loved ones there for support, but like could not sense a scared teenager feeling left aside by his parents and tortured by some dark being).

Here is not to say I condone the shit kylo did, nor do I agree with the writing of the character (Adam driver is the biggest reason why the character even works for me, his acting often conveying more hidden emotion and suffering than necessary) but if Rey is to be a main character, if we're not to accompany Ben's journey, but rather her's, then they have to be together at the end, otherwise they are just shiting all over the original trilogy (not that they didn't).

Finn and Poe, however, are left aside for the duration of the movie, both separated from each other to appear straight and Rose's character is introduced and poorly used. We could have a good dynamic between her, Finn, Poe and Rey. She was raised inside the resistance just as much as Poe. She lost her sister thanks to both Poe and Kylo's plans. She could be the one to point out just how bad war is, doesn't matter the side. She could bond with Rey on being a girl with no family and not really a purpose before the resistance. They could talk to each other! Instead they send her to a wild goose chase with Finn and force her to almost kill herself to stop Finn's sacrifice not because "she already saw so many people sacrificing themselves in order to win battles that only continue a much bigger war" showing how much her sister's death impacted her views on heroism and strategy and empathy, no! They make her confess to him and pass out.

TROS is the worst one yet. So many plot holes. Ooc behaviour. The whole movie is a first grade collage made with shitty magazines and chewing gum.

Rey being a Palpatine? Erasure of the whole idea with the children in the end of TLJ

Leia training to become a Jedi? Why tf find Luke then? Also, the whole thing with "if I end my training my son will die" but not batting an eye when her brother tries to KILL said son? Bullshit.

The whole Leia characterisation is bullshit, she would have entered the base herself, killed smoke (since they didn't even make it hard to begin with) and taken her son back to the resistance by the ear.

Poe suddenly becoming a Don Juan type? The guy was only flirting with Finn during the first movie and too busy disobeying orders during the second one. His parents we resistance pilots, Leia knew him since he was a child, but sure, make him a smuggler I guess. Not like they didn't already fuck every other part of his character up, making him petty and more focused on the numbers than the ideals of the resistance.

Finn clearly liking Rey and not even being allowed to say it (if she was a Skywalker I would be totally in on the ship, because it would make sense) and being treated like a joke the whole movie? His friendship with Jannah was good, but why make it as "the force" and not common decency? Why couldn't the have chosen to leave the first order themselves? Don't get me wrong, I was thirsting for a Jedi Finn to be like Mace Windu and everything but it breaks the idea that Finn did what he did in TFA because he's simple a good person. It shatters the possibility of free will in the Star Wars franchise.

Ben dying, his character not talking a word after the redemption, he not having a purple lightsaber, he going to battle and getting decked by the Knights of Ren (characters I was so hyped to meet since the first movie) until he gets a lightsaber, the boy was supposed to be so amazing he could just shoot a blaster and force manipulate the shot to kill all of them. We have seen him stop a blaster shot before, it would be paying off that same scene.

Palpatine's plan not making any fucking sense. He could find and manipulate Ben solo, but couldn't locate his own granddaughter? Also, he can create life (anakin) but needs her to kill him so the sith can continue? Just create another one.

Rey's parents sacrificing their lives to keep her safe, she sensing how much the suffered, (not even gonna talk about the 'they sold you for drinking money' because no) and still not giving a single flying fuck about it? Choosing to take the name of the people that knew who she was and didn't tell her? The people that drove Ben solo to a path of loneliness and darkness so much that he clang to the idea of his dead grandfather to have any sense of belonging at all (again, so out of character) she could have used her mother's maiden name or any other.

Ben dying because he could not have shared his force energy with the person MOST COMPATIBLE TO HIM IN THE ASPECTS OF THE FORCE and survived. Their kiss that felt desperate and still hopeful that she would make him find that family he wanted so much. Only to have him and Leia "become one with the force" the next second? Do you think Leia herself would peacefully die right after her own son died?

Do you think the ghost of Anakin Skywalker would reach out to Rey and not to his own grandson? Do you think that any of this is good writing?

It is not

I ship reylo for what it could have been, but I also ship stormpilot, reyfinn and many others.

Lastly I want to address how toxic shipping in any fandom, but specifically this fandom, built from the ideals of what white males in the 70's thought appealing, can be. Reylo's and non reylo's alike created turmoil with each other, and went even further and harassed the actors (whom didn't have any power to chance the bad writing) it is obvious why John, Oscar, Kelly and others hated this whole experience. The movie was badly written in a way to be a huge way of selling merch with as little intention of being good, the actors were constantly harassed by the fans be it for their characters or their skin colour or how they we shut down by a big company more interested in selling a shitty version of a Star Wars fanfic written in the 90's.

The fandom needs to see it for what it is and stop harassing others. Instead unite and harass Disney for their money hungry ideals and constrictive politics on racial/sexual/feminist matters.

[dannydevitosheight]

Steve Rogers Character Arc

I just saw Endgame 4/25 but I’ll queue this post for a later date so I’m not putting out huge spoilers so soon. And this post is not to say I hated Endgame. I really really enjoyed it. Experiencing all those incredible bad ass moments with a theater full of people who were cheering and clapping and as excited as I was...that's something special that's going to stick with me forever. And I'm grateful for it.

This post is about Steve Rogers in Endgame. And to a lesser extent, Bucky Barnes since, let's be honest, he had almost no role in that movie at all.

I just. Really really need to talk about this.

In part, so I can come to terms with this but also because it really hurts so much seeing so many people thinking Steve's ending was perfect and in character.

And before anything let me make this very clear:

I'm a HUGE Steve Rogers Stan and I want his happiness

I also wanted his character arc end to make some sense

I am also a HUGE Bucky Stan and yes,

I am A   H U G E Stucky Stan and I’m really genuinely trying to be unbiased.

Because, I knew Stucky was never going to be canon, but I’m still deeply deeply disappointed in how Steve’s character arc came to and end.

And it’s NOT just because he didn’t end up with Bucky. Although leaving Bucky like he did is a big part of it. It's not because of what I always wanted them to be. It’s so much more than that.

Watching Endgame was, hard, for so many reasons. There were so many wonderful moments like HOLY SHIT STEVE PICKING UP THE HAMMER. FUCKING INCREDIBLE. And some really fucking awful moments like Clint and Nat fighting over who is going to commit suicide and the softness in Nat’s voice before she let go. And of course...Tony. 💔

But Steve’s arc destroyed me. I’ve been a Steve Rogers stan since forever. Everything his character represents, comics or film, has made a huge impact on me. Always been on Team Cap in every version of Civil War. I’ve been in love with MCU Steve Rogers and his character arc. Until Endgame.

I’m not saying I don’t think he deserved to live a happy life with Peggy,

but...why did he need that?

The First Avenger: Steve rescued the 107th, to get Bucky back. 

Steve wanted to destroy Hydra, for what they stood for, but also because of what they did to Bucky. 

Steve, liked Peggy. Obviously. But what really was their relationship? A powerful attractive woman who kissed him one time? I mean, Steve buddy I get the initial boner but how much substance did their relationship really have in comparison to Steve's relationship to Bucky?

I don't even mean romantically. I mean if I had to choose between my best friend since childhood and a hot guy I've known for a few months...I would pick my best friend? Every time? Wouldn't you? And wouldn't that be a perfectly understandable choice?

But, moving on, in the end of TFA we obviously know Steve sacrifices himself for the greater good.

Avengers: Steve just, did what needed to be done.

He didn’t really have specific motivation at this time aside from his own strong morality and wanting to do the right thing.

The Winter Soldier: Steve has a hard time knowing what he’s fighting for...until he found out Bucky was alive.

After that, everything  was about getting Bucky to remember, and making Hydra pay for what they’d done. To Steve. To Bucky. Once his mission was complete, Steve dropped his shield for Bucky. He literally was going to let Bucky kill him, because he was that goddamn dedicated to sticking with Bucky until the end of the line. The ship doesn’t matter. This is just canon. Steve was willing to die. Just for Bucky this time.

This wasn't for the greater good. It wasn't to end Hydra this time. He already did that. He was literally willing to die...for Bucky, and Bucky only.

Also, for emphasis:

"Even when I had nothing I had Bucky."

"It's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."

(Not 20 minutes later who does Steve meet? Bucky, with pretty damn similar shared life experience)

"Then finish it. 'Cause I'm with ya to the end of the line."

Also, Steve has the hots for Sharon. Peggy's great niece. But he doesn't even know that. So like he just likes a woman that isn't Peggy. So. That's a thing.

Age of Ultron: Steve specifically states he doesn’t want a domestic life. After he has that weird stress vision about dancing with Peggy.

I don’t. UNDERSTAND. WHY. That was pART OF HIS CHARACTER ARC WHEN HE WAS JUST. GOING TO HAVE THAT ANYWAYS BUT OKAY.

Civil War: Steve literally did everything in this movie For Bucky.

"He remembered you, you know. Your pal. Your buddy. Your Bucky."

"He said 'Bucky' and it was like I was 16-year-old again in Brooklyn."

"Why did you pull me from the river?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

"I'm sorry, Tony. He's my friend."

And for the second time!!!!, Steve abandoned his shield for Bucky. I don’t know what else to say. He did it all for Bucky. I’m. Do you still think it makes sense for Steve to go back to Peggy? Shall I press further?

Oh right, remember how he buried Peggy in that movie, found out Sharon was her great niece and made out with her? Like. Okay. We all hated that but they were trying to say SOMETHING about Steve's love life. And it sure as hell wasn't that he was gonna leave everything for Peggy but alright.

Infinity War: Bucky was shown to be dusted first to show the tragedy and significance of this loss through Steve’s eyes. The Russos stated this. Steve sits in Bucky’s ashes. “Oh god.” 

Endgame: Steve literally doesn’t even talk about Bucky. Ever. He says his name once to shock his past self.

When everyone comes back, Steve and Bucky don’t even get to have a reunion. Tony reunites with Peter, and Doctor Strange. Rocket reunites with Groot. Okoye shows up with T’Challa and Shuri. Later on, Wanda and Clint have a moment, a call back to Age of Ultron. Why didn’t Steve reunite with Bucky? Or at least with Sam?! The whole movie was about those lost five years ago and Steve like doesn't even give a shit about both of his best friends coming back from the dead. In fact, the entire movie focused on Steve’s loss over Peggy, who died in Civil War. And yet he talks about being unable to move on from the loss of the snap? Are you serious? They don’t even allow or show ANY grieving over Sam or Bucky. We’ve already grieved over Peggy. He already moved on and dated Sharon. So why the fuck is SHE Steve’s focus and motivation again? Why doesn't he talk about Bucky or Sam AT ALL? Tony mentions "I lost the kid" Steve doesn't even mention watching Bucky die a second time. Like okay would have loved to see how he moved on from that and straight back into Peggy, somehow. But alright.

This literally came out of NO WHERE and SERVES NO PURPOSE other than to reduce Peggy's character to be a boner motivator for Steve and to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this entire time, Steve Rogers always has been and always will be a Straight Man.

In a story telling sense, it makes ZERO sense!! Steve’s character arc went from him being a morally strong self sacrificing fool to a deeply depressed man who didn’t want to be with anyone that didn’t have “shared life experience.” He found that. He found Bucky. The nature of the relationship doesn’t matter, it’s incredibly strong. That's been painfully obvious since TWS.

EVEN IF they were meant to be something like brothers, Steve should have stayed with Bucky. It seemed like the entire arc of both their characters was leading to them both getting rest together. Steve sacrificed everything in Civil War to save Bucky, so Bucky could start recovering and so that they could just, be a family together. So they could stop fighting and live quietly together. Chris Evans has talked so much about his character in conjunction with Bucky. How Bucky is Steve’s family. And Sebastian Stan has even stated the one thing that keeps Bucky from committing suicide is Steve. And Steve just. Leaves him. Leaves all of his family, who should arguably mean more to him than one girl he kissed one time in his past.

Is it a nicely wrapped up ending? Yes, I guess. But honestly, seriously, why was it NECESSARY? THERE were a millions ways Steve could still have a happy peaceful ending that didn't have to involve him leaving all of these people for one woman.

I feel cheated. This cut deep. I’m not going to lie. No interaction with Steve and Bucky expect a hug, repeated lines from TFA, and a pained, “I’m really going to miss you man,” from Bucky. We don't even get to see Bucky talk to Steve as an old man. That fucking hurts. We at LEAST deserved that.

Because he knew Steve was going to go back and marry Peggy. And that Steve was going to give up the mantle of Captain America. And I believe because Bucky told Sam to talk to Steve, Steve had already shared his intentions with Bucky before he went back in time. Which is nice but means nothing having it all happen off screen. I’m sure Steve wanted Bucky to be Captain America but he insisted Sam should take up the mantle. Probably because Bucky doesn't want to fucking fight anymore and was still recovering when he was asked to fight in Infinity War. Of course Steve wouldn't put this burden on him but why would he leave him? Steve was Bucky's closest friend, essentially his main support. Someone who could help him remember his old life and someone who could somewhat understand his trauma. No one else can be that person for Bucky. No one. Not even Sam. Sam wasn't there for Bucky's entire life. Steve was. And he just fucking left.

It's like. They gave Steve this arc across several films. One that broke down his faith in society and systems and pushed him closer to Bucky. And it's like. The Russo's (mainly) created this, really beautiful relationship between two men, two friends...but when it got too close to being possibly homosexual they had to drive a wedge between the two, one so wide there's no chance for any subtext to be there anymore, and no chance for us to assume Steve could be anything other than ramrod straight for Peggy and Peggy Only except Sharon That One or Two Times I Guess.

Steve Stans, wouldn't you say this ending is at least a little tiny bit unfair?! Have we all been watching the same movies? Going on the same journey with Steve Rogers? Regardless of your ships, you can't possibly deny the strength of Steve's bond with Bucky. How does it make sense for him to leave Bucky like this? How does it make sense for Steve to never mention him even once in Endgame?? WHY DOES IT MAKE SENSE FOR STEVE TO SUDDENLY REKINDLE HIS FEELINGS FOR PEGGY WHEN HE WAS SHOWN TO HAVE MOVED ON?!??

I literally. Don't. Understand. At all. How any of y'all. Can think. This makes sense?!

The Russo's Did Steve and Bucky Fucking Dirty in the End and Y'all Know it's True.

They queerbaited us. Okay. They did. They think having a gay extra makes up for it. Well it fucking doesn't. Because you know what else? I have one last thing. One last beef. The thing that really ripped my heart to shreds:

Remember, back in Winter Soldier, when Steve flirted with Sharon and she says "Oh and I think you left your stereo on?" And Steve is like oh thank you. And it's Fury playing a record on a loop. Remember the song? It was the only actual song on TWS sound track besides Trouble Man. It's called It's Been a Long, Long Time, and it's about lovers reuniting after WWII. That song plays just as Steve unknowingly meets Bucky for the first time since WWII. There is nothing to indicate Peggy in this scene. Fury plays the record. Fury gets shot. Steve pursues the shooter (Bucky).

And just before he does that, if you listen closely, with headphones, the song fades in and out at specific moments. These are the specific lyrics the sound designers chose to have audible enough to hear: "Kiss me once...long, long time...haven't felt like this my dear since...you'll never know how many dreams I dreamed about you...just how empty...without you."

The sound designers, editors, directors, make choices such as these to add depth to the film. These are the lyrics they chose from a song about lovers meeting after WWII during a scene were Steve (unknowingly) meets Bucky again for the first time since WWII.

And then they. Had the audacity. To end Endgame. With Steve dancing to that song. With Peggy. When they know what they fucking did in TWS. The sound design was very intentional. The scene they did that for was intentional. I can't possibly think of any other reason or way that scene and song would tie back to Peggy other than what that song is written about. But they KNOW that applies to both Steve and Peggy and Steve and Bucky.

The Russo's have been queerbaiting the fandom. And the more popular Stucky became, the more they tried to take it away from us. And when we pointed out how insanely strong and well developed Steve and Bucky's relationship was, they made sure Steve would never ever be considered bi again. They made sure to prove to us Steve's love for Bucky wasn't stronger than a sexual/romantic love for a woman. And in doing so they ruined Steve's character arc. They just did.

And before I get people upset with me, accusing me of hating Steve or wanting Steve to be unhappy...

If it was switched.

If Peggy and Steve were friends since childhood, if Peggy was kidnapped, experimented on, if Peggy was the Winter Soldier, if Peggy killed Tony's parents, if Peggy broke out of 70 years of brainwashing by Steve saying all of one phrase to her, if Steve gave anything and everything to save Peggy's life, to give her peace and just be with her again, if Steve resigned himself to letting Peggy murder him, if Steve abandoned his shield twice for Peggy, if you had experience the pain of Steve watching Peggy die not once, but twice right in front of him,

What would you call their love?

And what would you think if, after all that, Steve just decided to leave Peggy behind to spend time with Bucky? Wouldn't it hurt?

[iabsolutelyresentthiswebsite]

The Romantic Relationship Development Rebuttal

I received this comment (below) on my post for the second installment of my “Fundamental Misunderstanding of Rian Johnson” webseries and comments are not long enough for what I need to say.

Them: “I think you mistaken that the relationships in TLJ are meant to be explicitly romantic? You basically have a bunch of broken people just trying to connect to one another as they try to figure themselves out/their places (in the often flawed ways people do), which is much more realistic in an imperfect/war torn world than romantic love is. The OT and PT directly romanticizes these unhealthy relationships in Anidala and Han/Leia, but they both fail for lack of substance. On the other hand everything in TLJ is pretty subtle, tho Kylo and Rey have and spark more substantial development in each other than either Anidala and Han/Leia in the OT/PT. Is it romantic? Who knows. Affection doesn’t always have to be. What matters is that these characters and their relationships become the catalyst for growth, romantically or otherwise. Besides this, Rose’s character is there to give a voice to the rebels (in and outside the mobilized resistance) and their motivations. Perhaps the reason it was shown this way will be clearer in IX, as XIII clarified much of XII. TLJ and what Johnson was trying to do seemed pretty clear to me but I understand we all have diff opinions. Anyway, Happy V-Day!“ 

Because of their respectfulness, I have declined to include their name, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are so wrong on almost everything. Including the episode numbers... (BTW, I electively ignored the comments until someone slid in and agreed with them. This is the only reason I am replying now.)

Never did I say in that video that the relationships were intended to be explicitly romantic. The problem is, nowhere in The Last Jedi, was it ever even implied it was supposed to be something else. I understand the whole “imperfect people trying to find imperfect ways to make sense of things”. I like that concept. I do. But even on that front, both FinnRose and most especially Reylo fail on every account.

Finn and Rose don’t play on each other well, don’t challenge each other in any logical manner, and nor do they find any kind of solace or understanding that the commenter is referring to in one another. Finn is an escaped Stormtrooper, who is extremely conflicted, scared, but brave, however doesn’t know his place outside of the fact he feels semi-indebted to both Poe and Rey for saving him in different ways. Rose’s purpose is still unclear outside of the whole forced romance arc. She is a useless character, aside from the fact the whole purposeless excursion on Canto Bight that should have been between Poe and Finn led to Finn voluntarily aligning himself with the Resistance. But I truly believe, without Canto Bight, that whole alignment arc could have and should have been done much better and more convincingly. Rose’s character did nothing to serve to give the rebels of voice, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. We know that the rebels come from everywhere and have their own reasons for joining and exploring that would have been great and even hearing the little bit of Rose’s backstory was...fine, I guess, but it does not change the fact she handicapped the entire plot- rather, lack thereof. It’s never been necessary to have a poorly-designed side character’s motivations explored in a poorly-constructed environment completely being forced by the plot in a main canon movie. That is exactly what the books are designed to do. Cover information that is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things so that it gives backstory on people we didn’t really think twice about. We saw Rose’s sister die for the Resistance and that was pretty powerful, but we didn’t even seen Rose really grieve over her sister, except lashing out at Finn, whom she was just fawning over. Like...I’m sorry, she was written so badly. She is a detriment to the plot, to the necessary relationship developments, and even to herself. 

Moreover, to boldly claim that it wasn’t intended to be explicitly romantic is objectively wrong. This is Disney we’re talking about. To them, love solves everything and for the things it doesn’t solve, it excuses. Rose kissed Finn because they wanted us to see them together romantically, but they gave Rose no personality and therefore, she and Finn have no chemistry. A kiss on the lips is a universal symbol of romantic love and as someone who was very mildly interested in a potential friendship between the two, that even I saw that kiss as romantic 100% of the way (btws, that was the only thing that lead me to that conclusion cinematically), it really says something. Also, cinematically speaking, the moment they kissed, an explosion went off, which is very clearly indicative of the romantic aspect I am so confidently asserting was intended to be in The Last Jedi between these two. They tried to make us see the “spark” by literally showing us them, but failed because of everything else wrong with their dynamic. 

Moreover, I explicitly do not see Reylo as romantic at all. They are completely 100% at opposite ends of the spectrum and cannot reconcile at this point. A Reylo endgame is completely asinine with what Rian Johnson did to them, which has always been fine by me. I don’t like/respect/enjoy a Reylo endgame as a narrative concept because it does not make logical sense based on their characters and interactions. It would have been asinine after JJ’s first installment, too. Reylo simply cannot happen, logically-speaking. As TFA began to explain, TLJ solidified that Reylo is DOA- Dead On Arrival. 

But the problem is, Rian Johnson basically said he ships Reylo, so we know that’s what he was trying to do. He said he played with the idea of them actually making out  in The Last Jedi. That is proof enough he fundamentally misunderstands romantic relationship development, but also fundamentally misunderstands these characters he’s writing! He did not and continues to not understand their real dynamic, which I really don’t get. It’s not that hard. 

Again, I concede that how someone might see the whole “imperfect people/imperfect places” thing. It makes more sense than what Rian tried to have happen. Rey and Kylo having this Force bond, which would have been fine under different circumstances, is a thing I was totally down for. Loved the concept. It made sense after what The Force Awakens established their relationship to clearly be, but now...suddenly that is thrown out the window for a shallow, Dues Ex Machina, self-fulfilling prophecy-esque plot device initiated by a person who simply is not powerful enough to make this thing happen. So is the Force-bond genuine or fabricated? No one will ever know. 

Kylo is very broken, although clearly not nearly as broken as we were lead to believe considering Rian decided to have him throw his redemption away in favor of the lies and power his now-deceased master promised him in his youth. Kylo knows what he’s doing now. And Rey, completely stripped of her personality, is unrealistically believing every single thing Kylo Ren has to say without consulting Luke Skywalker about anything. I’ve already spoken about how OOC Luke was, so we are not going there right now. Rey, based on her characterization in TFA, would not have done that, especially considering Kylo had just murdered his father in front of her and knew that his father meant something to her. He did it as much for himself as he did to hurt her intentionally. If they were supposed to be “imperfect people finding meaning in imperfect ways”, Kylo would have actually gotten something beneficial out of it, much like Rey. Instead, we have Kylo Ren’s arc assassination and Rey being completely and utterly betrayed by Kylo Ren with no good reason and now the Rebellion is pretty much up shit’s creek without Han, Luke, or Leia. Maybe Rey learned a lesson that she wasn’t supposed to trust Kylo Ren, but why did she in the first place? She literally detested him all of about 18 hours prior. Maybe Kylo Ren learned that people cared about him, but Leia literally telepathically sensed her son and sent him good vibes and Han put his life in jeopardy for his son. He knew that, too. 

Moreover and very quickly, Anidala wasn’t really all that unhealthy until Anakin became obsessed with protecting Padme. It was weird to us because Padme was 14 when Anakin was 9 and they got married when he was like 19 and she was 24. But like, it was what it was until Palpatine really started trying to turn Anakin’s heart by playing on his fears of losing Padme. And at really no point in time was Han and Leia’s relationship unhealthy. They fought a lot because they were denying the sexual tension that did exist between them and their personalities were both fairly dominant, so testing the waters was necessary. Couples fight all the time and their bickering really lead to them being able to see each other for who they truly are. Neither relationship was what you assert it was. 

I will say, again and a-fucking-gain, nothing in this movie should have logically happened and what happened actually is illogical from the very concept to the way it was executed. Rian Johnson wanted us to see failure, but unfortunately for this franchise, the failure we saw was this God-awful movie. 

But like you said, we all have differing opinions. Happy Valentine’s Day.

[timeisacephalopod]

4, 6, 9, 10, 12: Rhodey and Bucky, 15, 16, 21, 23, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35, 37, 43, 46, 50, 54: Tony

You know that meme where the white woman is looking at the math overlaying the picture in confusion? That was me when I got this ask because instead of reading the fucking questions on the ask meme I put up I decided ‘Rhodey and Bucky’ were some other thing? Long story short I’m a moron lmao.

4- Favorite actress

Tbh I don’t pay much attention to the actresses and thus I almost missed out of saying Tessa Thompson like some kind of savage. I appreciate how hard she worked to try and make Valkyrie bisexual and also her character was basically the only thing I liked about Thor: Ragnarok (controversial opinion, I know).

6- Favorite quote

“Trust my rage” from Thor The Dark World. This line is so visceral and poetic. Like shit son, the rest of the movie was eh, but that line? Fucking amazing, and Hiddleston’s delivery of it is top tier bois.

9- BROTP

Pepper and Tony. I’ve never seen the romance between them, and in my opinion it was there because it seems movies are fucking incapable of not having a romance subplot (no hate to pepperony shippers either, everyone likes what they like and the entire point of fic is to circumvent canon anyways). But as a friendship pairing these two are excellent- they’re a great team, they understand each other on a fundamental level, and their friendship dynamic is interesting. Also, to me, I think their relationship is more compelling without the romance.

10- How did I discovered Marvel?

I’ve mentioned this in other asks but I had a friend make me watch Avengers and I didn’t like it lmao. I only gave it another show two years later and started from the beginning with CA:TFA and then I got into it. I’m not sure what changed or why I took to it later, especially when I found the later half of TFA to be kind of boring (I love Skinny!Steve ok) but it happened and when WS came out I saw it in theaters. From then I was hooked.

12- Make me choose between two characters: Rhodey and Bucky

Damn, I’d rather not have to choose, you suck! But, for the sake of the ask, Rhodey. As a character he’s better constructed, has his own story and motivation outside Tony, he’s funny, and while he has his moments (that I mostly blame on shit writing) he’s a great friend. I honestly wish that we could get a whole movie about him doing things but I did hear some rumors not long ago about Marvel looking into making Iron Man 4 an Ironheart movie and the only thing that would make that better is if Rhodey were her mentor (I literally wrote a story about this once).

Anyways, although I write Bucky a lot more than I do Rhodey I do prefer his character in a more fundamental way simply because he’s more fleshed out. Plus I love male friendships that are actually good and James Rhodey Rhodes is the God Tier of friends. The man spent 3 fucking months combing the desert for his disaster friend and that’s some damn dedication. Especially when you know people must have gotten real damn annoyed with him using resources and shit. But that action alone tells you everything you need to know about him and none of it is bad. I love Rhodey, seriously.

15- Top 5 ships

Tony/T’Challa

Tony/ Bucky

Tony/ Stephen

Tony/Rhodey

And, because I feel compelled to put a ship that doesn’t have Tony in it Steve/Howard

Honorable Mentions: Tony/ Peter Q

16- Top 5 villains

THANOS

Erik Killmonger

Loki

Justin Hammer (he’s just so absurd)

Ghost (from Ant Man and The Wasp)

Seriously, this was hard because Marvel’s villains are shit. They’re all the same one dimensional ‘they’re evil’ type characters.

21- Dream crossover

Basically any urban fantasy world I loved in my teens and the MCU. I’ve written a Vampire Academy/ MCU crossover but I’d love to write a House of Night crossover (I hate the characters in HoN, but love the world ok don’t judge), and a Shadowhunters crossover. I’ve seen some cool stuff with Teen Wolf being crossed over too though.

23- Most layered character

Tony fucking easily. His arcs are always the most compelling (or close to it), he’s had the most character development, and his trauma plays out so beautifully on screen. I’d argue Steve is a close second post WS, but the MCU will never let his character play out the development he’s gotten because they’ll never let Steve be less than perfect, which pisses me off. Otherwise his transition from a solider who wants to do right by his country to a cynical man who doesn’t know how to process the new world he’s been tossed into or how to handle a situation in which the morally correct solution isn’t abundantly obvious would be a compelling watch. But its been consistently proven that Steve will never get a real realization of his new characterization because ~~perfection~~.

27- Favorite moment

Shiiiit. That’s a lot of material and because I have a bad memory I’m going to go with ‘don’t call us plucky, we don’t know what it means’ because that was hilarious lmao.

29- Saddest moment

Shit boi, probs a toss up between Peter P’s death and Bucky’s. Peter’s is obvious but Bucky fucking dusting in front of the dude who spent so long trying to find him again in an effort to feel, even if its just for a moment, like he’s home again? Sad af. I felt awful for Steve there.

30- Most beautiful scene

Pretty much all of Black Panther is a visual treat, but I’m especially fond of T’Challa in the dream world with his father. That scene was so beautiful, and all the colors? Amazing. Only Guardians of the Galaxy even compares visually and even then Wakanda’s beauty has something else to offer that space doesn’t.

32- Actor/Actress I’d like to be cast by Marvel

As mentioned above I pay literally zero attention to actors- its a personal choice not to spend time being a voyeur into other people’s lives and treat them like commodities to consume because I loath celebrity culture (and this isn’t a slam to anyone who enjoys it, its more a slam to people who over engage in it- ie people who care enough to send death threats or paps basically). Anyways that’s an opinion you didn’t ask for, but because of that personal opinion I have no real cast choice lmao.

35- Most boring plotline?

I love Thor but all his movies. The first movie had good personal growth but eh. The second was an ok movie but forgettable (aside from my fav line from Loki in it), and unpopular opinion I hated Thor Ragarok. I mean it was funny. That’s all the good I have to say about it really. Though I have no idea why every comedy writers room is not leaping at a chance to get Taikia on their staff because the man is a comedic genius and that’s honestly being impolite to his comedy skill. Still, as much as I like Thor I didn’t really love any of his movies and all his villains were so fucking boring, even Loki wasn’t that interesting till Avengers. Poor Thor, MCU did him dirty :(

37- Most well done character death

Peter P. I give this to him over Bucky because apparently most of that scene was improv? I cried over my spider son ok. There’s someone who was in that theater with me who heard me sob out ‘my spider son’ and went home to tell people about it. That shit was heartbreaking. Second runner up goes to T’Challa but I didn’t think it was well done, I just thought it was sad as shit for Okoye and I love her so it was upsetting to see her lose her king :(

43- Characters I wish they’ve met

I don’t understand the question :( I think it’s supposed to be ‘characters you wish would met’ but all my wishes were granted in IW. Tony and Stephen met and so did Tony and Quill. I shipped Tony with both characters before they’d interacted on screen so it was nice to see :) Rhodey and Quill would be a fucking hoot together though, throw in Okoye and Valkyrie and you’ve got a bunch of drunk overpowered people telling war stories or, in Quill’s case, stories about that time he stole some shit.

46- What characters outside of the Mcu I’d like to see in a Marvel movie?

Ironheart, but I heard rumors they might do a movie with her. I think it’d be fun to have Riri in screen, especially since Peter is around her age. I’d also love to see a Young Avengers movie or a Kamala Khan/ Ms. Marvel movie though apparently there’s rumors of that too.

50- Characters that deserved better

Tony, Bucky, and Steve but all for different reasons. Steve deserves his fall from grace and not because I think he should suffer, but because keeping him on his pedestal means he’ll never be able to fully process his trauma and move on. Allow him to fall, allow him to know he isn’t perfect, then allow him to know that that’s ok, he doesn’t need to be, he just needs to do the best he can and then allow him a proper chance to move on.

Bucky because he deserves to be a character outside of Steve and, to a much smaller extent, Tony. Let the man have a movie about self actualization after trauma, let him figure out he isn’t Steve Roger’s best friend anymore (and that Steve isn’t really Steve anymore) and that that’s ok, they can both accept themselves as they exist now and still be friends. Let him develop hobbies outside of Steve, have him bond with Rhodey, he needs a good friend. Shit, let him bond with Sam too. Give me a buddy movie where Sam lowkey therapies Bucky into being a fuckin person again and Bucky finds some way to repay him. He can go beat up Scott for that time he kicked Sam’s ass lol.

And Tony because the MCU makes fuckin everything his fault, even stuff that only somewhat involves him. They drive him to an absolute breaking point and then have the characters get pissed that he broke? The only one that I found acceptable was Pepper and that’s mostly because I understand why she’d be freaked out both by Tony’s obsessive behavior and by nearly being eaten by one of his suits. She had her own shit she was dealing with post Mandarin so her I understand. Everyone else though? Mostly makes no sense. Why are you surprised that a person snaps when they’re pushed to the limit? That’s how people work lmao but that’s also because the writers make an active, and completely senseless, choice to have the characters react like Tony’s mental health problems are a choice he made and now he has to suffer because he has PTSD or some shit. Idk, but AoU was the worst for it, and, to a lesser extend IM3 but I refuse to believe Rhodey would really tell Tony to get over himself after a panic attack- the man is emotionally intelligent ok, IM3 did Rhodey dirty.

54- 5 things I love most about: Tony

Tony’s sheer level of wonder at the world around him- the look on his face in IM2 when he rediscovers that element perfectly encapsulates how he feels about learning and moving forward. (Flipside is that sometimes he has trouble staying in the present and that causes problems).

The way he tries no matter how badly he fails. Bih, if my random tests on a rock nearly ended the world I’d out and out throw myself off a cliff. Instead he accepts his part in it (and more) and chooses to try and make the best of it. He’s done that from the moment he got snatched by terrorists in Afghanistan. That in itself is basically a superpower.

His humor. I, too, hide my emotional distress under jokes so I can relate to being a lil bit of an asshole to hide how I feel. (Flipside: people don’t think he takes stuff seriously- hence Steve in the Avengers).

His mental health problems. Ok this one is weird, but I can appreciate that someone drew up a hero that isn’t based in perfection, but who tries to get there anyways. But the dude has problems, a lot of problems, and they aren’t always pretty. But they are complicated and it is compelling to watch.

The way he builds relationships. Its unconventional- Rhodey is probably the only person he’s super close to that he met in a normal way. Happy and Pepper were both people that worked for him and instead of just being their boss he took the time to learn about them and get to know them on a personal level. Obviously he ended up engaged to Pepper, but a guy who knows what his driver’s favorite show is and why he likes it is a good dude. He’d be nice to wait staff in restaurants.

[looselucy]

It was me who asked you about your top 10 favorite moments from TFA. I have been waiting since then to ask you this question...What's your top 10 (or more) favorite moments from Butterfly Boy? Thank you for all the amazing stories. Thank you for all the hard work. Thank you for charing. Thank you for putting your heart and soul into this. Thank you for being you. You are a queen Lucy! ❤️

OKAY, YOU’RE A FUCKING LEGEND, THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!!!!!! I LOVE THESE QUESTIONS!!!!In no particular order,My top eleven (woops) Butterfly Boy moments….

1. When Pippa is sick and Harry helps her throw up (the moment)

I fell backwards and settled between his legs, my head lolled back on hisshoulder, completely gone. I became surprisingly comfortable and calm againsthis frame, snuggling against him and loving the warmth of his body.I could tell he wasn’t expecting that. He was probably waiting for me to tellhim to leave, but instead I set up camp between his legs and let my eyesclose, feeling his chest heavily lift and drop between my shoulder-blades, atranquil beat and rhythm that helped keep me content.“I’m threw up.” I hiccupped the nonsense.“Yeah.” He mumbled somewhat uncomfortably.He leant forward, with as little movement as he possibly could, and flushed thetoilet, before moving back so I would remain comfortable against him, my head heavy,my stomach still churning.I let my breathing fall in time with his as we silently sat on my bathroomfloor together, Harry’s head hovering over my shoulder.Next, I threw up in my mouth, the tiniest amount, andgulped it all back down before I was fully aware of what I was doing.“I threw up in my mouth.” I told him.“C’mon, Pip-Squeak, you need to get it all up.” His cheek brushed against mine.“Only if you call me Pippa.” I demanded.“I… I can’t. Wouldn’t feel right.” He chuckled lowly, his breath hitting myneck, erupting a rash of goose-bumps.“Call me Pippa, and I’ll throw up in the toilet. Call me Pip-Squeak, and I’llthrow up in your hair.”“Is that a threat?” I could feel his dimples on my cheek.”Yes.”“Okay. C’mon, Pippa. Get your head in the toilet.”

2. When Harry tells her the meaning behind his butterfly tattoo.

“I remember thinking… I was free.” He spoke quietly, his lips just an inch frommine. “I’d finally escaped… the pain I went through. I was… getting this newlife, where I was safe, finally! And…that butterfly represented that for me. Even as a kid, I knew. I just felt thisreally strong connection to this butterfly as soon as I got in the room. I hadto keep it, I just had to! So… that’s it really. It meant a lot to me, so itmade sense that ten years after I started living with them, when I turnedeighteen, that I should get it tattooed. It was my present that year. Bencried. Through happiness, I think.”

3. At the party, when he tells her he wants to kiss her but then doesn’t.

“The first time I saw you I wanted to kiss you.” He began. “Then I got to knowyou and I wanted to punch you. Then I got to know you, and I wanted to kiss you again.”Harry had a nice voice. I’m not sure if I noticed that simply because of thethings he was saying, or if maybe all my senses were completely heightened.I said the only thing that made sense to me then.“So kiss me.”Suddenly, that smirk I knew all too well wasn’t frustrating, or tedious, or ascompletely infuriating as it had once been. It was gorgeous, tempting. His lipswere pink and I loved seeing them stretch into that familiar shape.I took a deep breath in, preparing myself, before he spoke.“No.”

4. When Harry tells her what Songbird means to him.

“When we were driving back,” He went on. “Obviously we were listening toFleetwood Mac-”“Obviously.”“Yeah.” He brushed his thumb under my eye. “And I skipped Songbird.”I lowered my brows, stroking the tips of my fingers down his sides, watching ashe gently exhaled, like telling me that alone was a weight from his shoulders.“What?” I puzzled. “Why?”“It’s my favourite love song of all time. I remember listening to it over theyears… and thinking about how scaredI was… to feel that strongly for someone. How I’d never be able to listen tothat song the same way again. We were just… talking about moving into thishouse and… I just remember thinking, shit,I can’t listen to this song. I couldn’t! Because… I just knew it wouldn’tsound the same. I knew you’d changed the song for me, and… I wasn’t ready. I… Istill don’t know if I am. I haven’t listened to it since.”

5. The shower scene.

It stayed that way for a while. My eyes could just about make out that Harry’shand was buried deep into the front of his jeans, and the first noise he madewhilst he was in there was so sexual and raw, it took every single ounce ofstrength I had not to moan out loud.I grabbed at my breast, tipping my head backwards, and I knew that would tiphim over the edge.“Fuck.” He grunted. “I can’t… Fuck.”He practically ran out of there, and I was once again in the shower-room alone,left feeling so satisfied about what had just happened between us.I breathed out heavily, pressing my back against the tiles and staring up tothe ceiling, only now realising I was panting, finally touching myself softly, fuelledby the knowledge that Harry was in his room doing exactly the same thing, because of me.

6. Mutual masturbation.

“I touch myself. You make me… I just… I can’t help it. When you’re on my mindand I’m alone… I can’t fucking help myself.”I watched as he moved his hand down to his jeans, and he started palming overhis bulge, breathing heavy, even that touch relieving him, eyes closing softlyand slowly for a moment before they pulled upwards again, staring at meintently.“Please.” I whispered desperately, closing my eyes, unable to watch.“Do you think of me?” He groaned, clicking open the button of his jeans withtwo fingers. “When you touch yourself?”I let out a gentle moan from deep within my chest, only now noticing my handwas laying on the inside of my thigh, my print toying with the skin just beforemy shorts, watching as he slid his hand into his tight jeans with greatdifficulty, eliciting a tight groan as soon as he made skin on skin contactwith himself.“Yes.” I sighed painfully, moving my hand upwards. “I… I do.”“Show me.” He breathed deeply.

7. Kev & Ben.

“Of course she is! Of course, come on in. Pippa, was it?”“Yeah, hi.” I mumbled sweetly as we both stepped inside, Harry shrugging offhis coat and draping it on the hangers next to the stairs. “Nice to meet you!”“You too!” Harry’s dad grinned.A couple of seconds later, another man sloped out of the one door at the backof the long, thin corridor, giving me a big smile as he did.“Pip, this is my… other dad.” Harry hushed.“Oh… Oh.”Of all the things I was expecting to be greeted with when I met Harry’s family,honestly, that scenario hadn’t crossed my mind. Not once.

8. WHEN HE MISSED FLEETWOOD MAC FOR HER!

“I just thought this was more important.” He huffed.“Well it’s not Harry! I just… I don’tunderstand. I feel so fucking frustratedright now! I just want to know why the hellyou-”“BECAUSE I DON’T FUCKING DESERVE YOU!” He screamed.I stumbled backwards, startled, my heart race increasing and beating like crazyagainst my chest as he tried once again to compose himself, but he was clearlyagitated.“What?” I gasped. “I don’t deserve your kindness, Pip. I wake up every single morning thinking about how I don’t deserve the wayyou’ve been with me after what I did to you. So fuck the gig, I don’t care!What I care about, is trying my fucking best to make things up to you. I’mtrying to make things right, because all I can think about is how I don’tfucking deserve you, okay?”

9. His tent was never leaking in.

“Mornin’.” Zayn greeted. “How come you’re in Pippa’s tent?”We both stood upright and stretched in the morning, and I was grateful to hearhow innocent Zayn’s question seemed to be. He didn’t sound suspicious at all.“My tent started raining in last night,” Harry shrugged casually. “So I kippedwith Pip.”

“That’s weird.” Zayn mulled. “We just checked in yourtent and it’s bone dry.”Suddenly Harry was choking over his words and stumbling over himself a littlebit just trying to think of a reply.It hit me then, that his tent had never leaked.Harry had used that as an excuse to climb into my tent with me.

10. Harry’s god awful reaction when Pippa says she loves him.

“I’m… I’m in love with you.” I admitted again. “And… it hurts me… to seeyou with her. It… It makes me sad.” “You can’t be in love with me.” He was so quiet. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you, because Ididn’t want to put you in this position but… I can’t help it. I can’t keep itin anymore. I’m sorry.” I had been edging my way closer to him without even realising, taking thesesteady steps in the subconscious hope that he would realise he felt the sameway, and the gap between us would be practically miniature if he wanted toclose it.But he furthered from me, edging closer to his room. “No.” He shuddered. “No, this isn’t right.” “Harry-”“No, this is not what’s supposed tohappen.”

11. When Harry finally tells her he’s in love with her.

He went quiet, and as he moved closer to me, I moved backwards. I was totallybreathless, disordered by the closeness we were sharing, because it had beenmonths since his face was this close to mine, since I had been able to studythe exact placement of the brown flickers through his green eyes.He was quiet for so long, then just before he spoke, he placed his hand on mycheek, stroking his thumb under my eye.“I am in love with you, Pippa. I have been in love with you for longer thanI’ve even liked you. I… I remember the exactmoment I fell in love with you.” “No you’re not.” I gasped, no idea what else to say.“Last November. I hadn’t even lived with you a month. Me and Zayn… We wentdrinking, and then we got back and you started drinking with us. You-you dranktoo much and you threw up. I walked into your room and… and I found you likethat and… I helped you. I sat on your bathroom floor with you, and helped youthrow up. You were barely dressed, slumped between my legs… sitting against melike you belonged there. You wereabsolutely fucked, but you were still so witty. You were so funny and so sharp…How could I not fall in love with you?”