#mind you the entire plot of star wars a new hope is based on a massive set coincidences

[zuko-always-lies]

This is such a random minor “plot hole”

But how did Zuko find Aang and the spirit oasis in The Siege of the North? He’s infiltrating the city by swimming in and eventually breaks in through the ice, but Aang is in a very specific, not obvious place yet Zuko finds him easily. It’s not really a plot hole, since Zuko could just have gotten lucky, but still it feels better when fiction explains this sort of thing.

The funny thing is we have a very good idea of how Zhao knew how to find the oasis (the knowledge he stole from the spirit library) and and also how Iroh found it (by following Zhao), but not so for Zuko.

Maybe Iroh had some knowledge about the spirit oasis and where it was, and told Zuko that the Avatar might be there? Sounds like the sort of thing Iroh would do.

[thekat-alystreview]

TV Show Review - Obi-Wan Kenobi

I watched Obi-Wan Kenobi when it first came out in 2022, but at the time, I wasn’t committed to reviewing things the way I am now. Looking back, I feel like it’s worth putting my thoughts into words. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show was, to put it lightly, kind of a mess. And I don’t mean a fun, charming mess like when you dump a pile of LEGO on the floor and spend the next three hours crafting something that sort of resembles a spaceship. No, this was more like a we spilled all the LEGO and then realized half of them don’t even belong to this set, but we have to use them anyway kind of mess.

Let’s start with the most obvious issue: the premise itself. Obi-Wan Kenobi was always going to be an uphill battle because, fundamentally, we already know how the story ends. There’s no real tension when your lead character is contractually obligated to survive. There’s no will he or won’t he moment when the audience is fully aware that Obi-Wan will, in fact, be fine and go back to living in the desert and talking to ghosts. But that doesn’t mean the show couldn’t have found new angles to explore—Kenobi is one of the most compelling characters in Star Wars, carrying the weight of an entire fallen order on his shoulders. There was room here for a story that dove deep into the man himself, his regrets, his failures, and his eventual acceptance of his role in the grander scheme of things.

Instead, the show made a lot of choices that actively limited what it could do narratively. The most baffling was tying itself so tightly to characters whose fates were already set in stone. You want to introduce Darth Vader? Great, but you just ensured that neither he nor Obi-Wan can have any meaningful character growth that contradicts what we see in A New Hope. You want to bring in a young Leia? Fine, but that means every interaction has to be carefully written so it doesn’t mess up their dynamic in Episode IV. The show essentially kneecapped itself by making its main plot revolve around characters who couldn’t change in any meaningful way.

That’s not to say there weren’t good moments—Ewan McGregor, as always, delivered. His performance carried so much of the emotional weight of the show that it almost made you forget how much of it was treading water. And let’s be real, the Obi-Wan vs. Vader rematch was cool in the same way that eating cake for breakfast is cool—maybe not the best decision, but undeniably satisfying in the moment.

The problem was that these moments were weighed down by a story that felt more like a fanfiction outline than a fully realized script. The show spent a lot of time introducing new characters, like Reva, the Inquisitor with a vendetta against Vader, but then didn’t quite know what to do with them. It’s like they realized too late that they couldn’t give her a real resolution because that would mean interfering with Star Wars canon. So instead, we get a whole subplot where she hunts Luke Skywalker—a character who absolutely cannot be in any real danger—and the tension just fizzles out because we know she won’t actually kill him. And then there’s the prison escape scene. My god, the prison escape scene. Obi-Wan sneaks a ten-year-old Leia out of an Imperial stronghold by hiding her under his coat like he’s trying to smuggle snacks into a movie theater. Somehow, not a single stormtrooper, officer, or security camera notices this incredibly obvious man-shaped mass with an extra set of legs waddling through the base. This moment, more than anything, encapsulated how little effort was put into making the tension feel earned. It wasn’t a clever use of Jedi mind tricks, it wasn’t an intense infiltration—just the Star Wars equivalent of stuffing a kid in a trench coat and hoping nobody asks questions.

It all comes back to the same issue: by focusing so much on characters whose futures are set in stone, the show boxed itself into a narrative corner. It wasn’t allowed to make real changes, so it just kind of… existed. And in the end, that’s the biggest problem with Obi-Wan Kenobi. It wasn’t a bad show, per se, but it didn’t justify itself. It didn’t add anything significant to the larger mythos. It was just another piece of Star Wars content, filling in gaps that didn’t really need to be filled.

Would I rewatch it? Probably not. Did it ruin Star Wars? No, but it also didn’t do much to elevate it. The best parts were the ones that focused on Obi-Wan’s emotional journey—his trauma, his loss, his attempts to reconnect with the Force—but those moments were few and far between. Instead, we got a show more concerned with weaving itself into established canon than telling a story that truly needed to be told.

It’s frustrating, because there was potential here. Obi-Wan Kenobi could have been a slow, introspective character study, an exploration of grief and redemption, a story that added new depth to a beloved character. Instead, it was a serviceable but ultimately forgettable installment in the ever-expanding Star Wars machine.

[pigtailedgirl]

Star Trek Prodigy season 1 down

So i finished.

Still loving it so much. I think season 2 edges it out, especially in terms of finale and build to, but it was absolutely lovely in so many small moments.

I gonna do a re-watch again as whole very shortly. It's a good sign it's a series to concentrate more on and I want to come back to catch more.

Minor quibbles was :

I loved squish Murf and new form is taking some time to warm on. (Though it gave us mustache mirror Murf so...conficted.) I liked a non person type communicating crew member.

The run from about 14 to 17 had great moments, and yet felt, how do you put it? Out of place. Filler. Star Wars more than Star Trek in action focus in parts. The stories were fluffier in the sense they felt it could have been out of any kids genre series. The references and plot beats tied in were exciting but weren't enough to make the episodes carry momentum. Like the backstories were interesting, Pog's and Rok's especially. I don't know if I wanted it though.

The ending with Starfleet getting itself wrecked was dark. Maybe too much. And why would you have built a ship that would blow an entire system if she destructed guys? Poor planning there.

This series has excelled at bringing the idea of hope and joy back of what it could be to be in Starfleet or a space universe. Tell those stories and the sci-fis again. The basics fit this show to a tee. Being a come together of interests and exploration and then using that base to protect and share. Be it others. Be it yourself. Find your passions and your histories and your new adventures.

Boldly, go fast.

Problem is that these kids are the best rep of what to pass on re: Starfleet and they speech it good, they embody it. You see the show for the first in the long line of new knows this message.

When Starfleet is saved by Gwen's speech. By Janeway's about them.

Yet then they also have to contend with tying into a Starfleet in canon who besides Janeway and select aren't living to what they preach. Who are having to be preached at? Who are and are gonna get fucked for it big time. Who are getting schooled by these kids, but should already know better. Always the authority or whole still lets down. And like no! It doesn't have to be. Teach that that can be mended and an example of together too please. Kids need adult models who succeed.

I don't need a knockdown of old Starfleet looming as I see the youth doing it right. It feels conflicting in the wrong way.

More than the Civil War, there can be a contrasting example, and time fuckery of Solom and Solom girl. Loved that.

Kate slayed everything about Janeway all season. The mind switch episode had both actors just kill it.

Rok is my favourite scientist and character again.

The second contact species was a beautiful tribute and point to Star Trek's history and impacts.

And as always, god was Janeway off charts over finding Chakotay and every bit of it was glorious.

That ice episode and the animation on her face when even though she makes the point they are kids, you see her instant track change to okay there is more to it it's kids and gonna not judge as much but then she sees the ship rise up and take off on her, they are taking his fucking ship, and they have it and she doesn't know the why and she's just; My god it's so livid and it's glorious!

Her love of him and coffee. For life. I am so ready to be meta-ing on this for the fall.

WATCH THIS SHOW YO. BOLDLY, GO FAST, YIP YIP.

[milkytheholy1]

Star Wars Masterlist (NEW)

Tech:

There’s no reason to be sad - Tech x GNReader

Have a load of trash, think of it as a sequel of sorts to Starlit Night. It can also stand as its own thing, there's no real connection between the two and its mainly just me rambling. Enjoy!

Feelings - Tech x GNReader

A little story of how tech and the reader first meet. Like love at the first sight or something :3 idk maybe Tech a bit at a distance because he cannot classify these new feelings and so the reader thinks he hates (Y/N) 

A beeping feeling - Tech x GNReader

A sitcom reality: Tech x Female reader

If you can tell where I stopped writing this then recently got back into it, extra brownie points for you. Enjoy this crap!

Why did you go? - Tech x GNReader

New trailer just dropped and I'm sad.

Howdy everyone, today I offer you a new Tech fic...mayhaps even a series? I was very much inspired by Wandavision but the plot doesn't really fit with the show so you don't have to worry about that. Hope you enjoy and perhaps want more because I have some cool ideas for this series if it goes ahead!

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.

Sober suspicions - Tech x GNReader

Woah, I actually released a fic on Tech Tuesday, I swear that never happens? Anyway, have this crappy excuse of a story! Would anyone like to see a part 2 for this because I've got some ideas in mind?

Drunk confidence - Tech x GNReader

Okay, so here's part 2 to Drunken Confidence! Hope you all enjoy it and let me know if you want more Tech content!

Infested - Tech x Female reader

Howdy, so this is pretty long and essentially took me all day to do so have fun reading it! It's entirely based on today's episode, lucky number 13, so definite spoilers lie ahead! Enjoy!

Coffee run - Tech x GNReader

Howdy, another Tech fic because I love him. Also, I'm probably not the first person that said it, but I totally called that no one could drive the ship unless they read like all the manuals and knew how to fix it, I totally said Tech would be the kinda guy to do that and I think it's pretty funny how it's kinda confirmed in the latest episode. Anyway, without further ado, the new fic. Enjoy!

Singer in a smokey room - Tech x Female reader

Okay so I've had this idea for a fic before but never got around to writing it, and I'm super obsessed with this song and the movie it came from; it's one of my fav movies ever made. It's a little long but probably worth it, if you know the movie I'm referencing leave a comment below! Enjoy!

A baby for hire - Tech x GNReader

"Keep up, wouldn't want you getting lost now would we?" he bartered, flicking his head in your direction. He caught your harsh gaze, trying hard to hold back a smile at the state of your hair.

Starlit night - Tech x GNReader

I'm not going to lie, I really just wanted to write a Tech fic but had literally no ideas for it so have this garbage. Enjoy!

Good soldiers - Tech x GNReader

Oh mi gosh guys I actually did it! Somehow I managed to write it all before 10.30, it's a little crap but oh well, I just need more Tech content tbh. Now this is based on episode 7, so definite spoilers for that episode, so read at your own risk. Anyway, let me know if you want more bad batch fics and enjoy!

Flying lessons - Tech x GNReader

Howdy everyone, so I've been wanting to do a Tech fic since I first saw episode one of the new series. Now I will admit I haven't seen season 7 of clone wars, I'm actually only up to season 3, so I'm a little scared if I've messed anything up; but I'm sure you'll tell me! Hopefully, I'll get more confident in writing for these characters, until then, enjoy!

Hunter:

In the past - Hunter X GNReader

You calmed down your excited breathing, but couldn't knock the smile from your face "I couldn't help but wonder if I was in the correct location of Clone Force 99?" Your hands were folded behind your back, but Hunter could hear the creaking of the clipboard, felt how tightly your fingers were gripping the plastic.

The Mandalorian:

The waiting game - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader

Book of Boba spoilers - episode five and six.

Dream a little dream of me - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader

I was listening to this song and this oneshot idea just came to me and I had to write it down as soon as I could. I'm actually really proud of this and it's currently one of my favourite oneshots I've ever written so I really hope you enjoy it!

Cockpit silence - Mando/Din Djarin x GN Reader

So this is my first StarWars oneshot so be easy on me, also I've been obsessing over The Mandalorian recently and Pedro Pascal as a whole so enjoy this oneshot and If it's good expect more to come!

[illustrious-rocket]

10 Songs, 10 People

Tagged by @blind-the-winds

Rules: list ten songs, then tag ten people to pass the game on to! (bonus points if it's from a wip/character playlist!) 

I hope it’s okay if I bend the rules a little bit because let’s be honest, I don’t know 10 people lol... I’m going to just list some songs that come to mind and talk about them, and I’ll tag someone who I know will have fun with this.

Tagging: @lilliths-httyd-blog

Jax, because you mentioned I might be able to add to your list and Eva came up in yours, I may as well start with filling in the songs from the Rebuild movies, Utada Hikaru’s “Beautiful World,” “Sakura Nagashi” and “One Last Kiss.” The original series’ “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis��� was described as “ an anglerfish lure to make you think it's upbeat and kickass, when it's literally an anime about depression,“ and “Beautiful World” could be thought of in similar terms. It plays during the credits of the first two films in the series of four, and both times it wants you to think that maybe this time, the world really isn’t so bad. Shinji and Rei end the first movie finally connecting. At the end of the second, Shinji finally goes fucking postal after being kicked around by his rotten father and decides to get what he wants with his own two hands. Maybe there’s hope that this time everything will be different. Maybe.

Nope. It’s all a windup for the absolute gut punch the third movie delivers. Things are as depressing as ever, possibly worse. And fittingly, “Sakura Nagashi” replaces the upbeat, hopeful sound of “Beautiful World” with a bleak and mournful one suited for the bleak film it concludes. But even then, one sliver of hope slips through - “everyone finds love, in the end” - that reminds the listener that even when things look absolutely hopeless, they will eventually get better. “One Last Kiss” is the end point of that journey, providing the point of view of someone who has survived hitting rock bottom and is managing to move on.

To progress onto some other answers...

The next one has a story behind it. A couple years ago I learned of an (apparently?) obscure late-80s Italian horror movie, Paganini Horror. Directed by Luigi Cozzi (the director responsible for, among other things, the infamous Star Wars ripoff Starcrash a decade prior) it is pretty much what its title implies, a horror movie using the violinist Niccolo Paganini as a central figure. The first red flag was why it came to my attention in the first place - the main characters are an 80s girl rock band, and in their very first appearance in the movie, they’re performing an “original” song that is actually just 95% copied from “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi. Bad enough, but that’s not why I’m telling this story.

Last year I finally got around to actually watching this movie, and let me tell you, it is fucking unhinged. The plot literally revolves around the band needing a new song - because, in a moment of supreme irony, their manager feels the “You Give Love a Bad Name” ripoff is too unoriginal - and one of their members gets into contact with a shady salesman (played with ridiculous glee by Donald Pleasance, nearing the end of a career where he was in plenty better than this film including portraying James Bond archenemy Blofeld) who sells him “Paganini Horror,” an unpublished piece by Paganini.

Dude, I am not fucking kidding when I say this “unpublished score” is just “Twilight” by Electric Light Orchestra with the lyrics removed. They want you to believe a composer from the 16th century wrote an ELO song from 1981. The entire movie hinges on this. The band decides to use the score for their new song and creates a new set of lyrics (titled “Paganini Horror” in the film but more likely called “The Winds of Time” based on the lyrics) and decide to film a video for it in a house where Paganini once lived. Listen to this. Tell me that is not literally the EXACT SAME SONG as “Twilight.” (Warning for the image in that video, there is a skeleton and blood.)

It gets more unhinged from there. It turns out - though not without some extremely unsubtle foreshadowing - that the guy who sold them the score either is the devil or an agent thereof. They sold their souls to commit copyright infringement. Thus, when they go to Paganini’s old manor to film their video, they become trapped due to his curse from when he sold his own soul, and are stalked throughout the mansion by his demonic spirit. Now, you might have looked at that image in that video and thought, wow, that looks awesome. A skeleton with wispy white hair playing a violin with a bow that’s dripping blood?

Yeah, that ain’t true. In the actual movie, he looks like Tommy Wiseau wearing a cheap costume from Spirit Halloween, with a mask that you can clearly see the actor’s face beneath through the eye holes. He doesn’t even kill the way the poster implies; he has a switchblade hidden in his violin instead. Really, it’s just a slasher movie with the novelty of the killer being a famous composer from centuries ago. The concept is so off the wall insane that it’s bizarrely entertaining.

On a similar note is “Crystal of a Star” by Stefani Christopherson, the cherry on the top of the absolutely batshit crazy ending of the 1986 Alien ripoff Star Crystal. This movie is pretty much what you’d expect from that description - it stars by showing “Mars” with a blue sky and degenerates from there. Two whole groups of characters are briefly introduced only to be killed off minutes later before the actual protagonists even show up once. The sets are so cheap you can see that the floors in the spaceship are made of paper and bend under the actors’ feet. The ship itself is ridiculously designed, requiring one to crawl through a network of tubes to go anywhere. The acting is Z grade. The kills, except for the admittedly decent goop and blood effects, aren’t very frightening (they’re all done by a tentacle controlled through puppetry; at one point you can see the hand controlling it.)

None of that compares to the absolutely surreal experience of the last 20 minutes of this movie. The first sign something is about to go wildly off the rails is the fact that the alien, who has used the titular crystal (an all-purpose “computer” that can do whatever he needs of it) to hack into the ship’s mainframe, reads a digital Bible, specifically passages about treating one’s enemy as you would want to be treated.

That’s just the warning. It gets crazier.

With about 12 minutes left in the movie, the two remaining humans realize they need to confront the alien, who has taken up hiding in the engine room of their ship. When they face him, this weird killer alien who has been stalking them and killed their three crewmates.... apologizes and becomes ET instead of a Xenomorph. I’m not making this up. I couldn’t. The alien, GAR, even looks like ET, just having been put into a microwave and exploded first (the puppet used when GAR is fully on screen is admittedly well made, representing his slimy and somewhat ethereal appearance effectively. It’s easily the best thing in the film.) The entire ending of this movie has the two survivors become friends with GAR, repair the ship together with him, eat with him, and even play board games with him!!! He killed their three crewmates, the entire first crew of the ship, and possibly thousands more if he was at fault for the space station that exploded early in the film! And then, after all of that, the ending is born from sheer, unadulterated audacity - a “gravity tunnel” that can get the ship to Earth opens, which leads the humans and GAR to realize they have to part ways. This fucking movie actually has the gall to make the ending a sad farewell to GAR, who is taking another ship to return to his planet, This is complete with “Crystal of a Star”, a sad song that depicts GAR as a lonely space traveler the singer is better for having met. Now, I get they were going for some sort of spiritual thing (especially considering GAR’s redemption begins when he reads the Bible) but when all of it happens in the last 15-20 minutes of the movie, and he was an unstoppable killer alien prior to that point, it just does not land.

Just to knock a few better answers off the list...

I’ve been listening to a lot of the German synth-pop band Alphaville’s music of late, particularly their first two albums, 1984′s Forever Young and 1986′s Afternoons in Utopia, plus last year’s orchestral album Eternally Yours. Forever Young is an interesting one - by the admission of founding members Marian Gold and Bernhard Lloyd they didn’t know what they were doing at the time and made heavy use of machines that could generate music to make up for their lack of skill in playing instruments, yet it not only produced the group’s three most well-known songs (the title track, “Big in Japan” and “Sounds Like a Melody”) but a solid B-tier of secondary tracks (”Fallen Angel” and “The Jet Set” stand out for me.) Afternoons in Utopia shows a great evolution in their sound since the first album - they got more comfortable playing instruments, and the album seems to tell a loose story with a vivid, sci-fi hippie bend to it, using dreams, space and gods as recurring themes across the tracks and employing a gimmick where the first track on the album begins halfway through a sentence and the last track ends with the first half of that sentence, creating an endless loop. “Jerusalem,” “Fantastic Dream” and “Lassie Come Home” are my standout picks, but it’s such a solid album that even “Universal Daddy” - the song Gold has identified as his least favorite from the band’s entire history - is above average despite its silly lyrics.

And just to drop in one more, even though I’m way over 10 by now, I’ll stay in the same era and mention that Duran Duran’s “Save a Prayer” has long been a favorite. Its melancholy tone and lyrics struck a chord with me from the first time I heard it, to me depicting the theme of letting go of worry about what will come in the future to live in the moment, even as temporary as it might be.

(And since the original game asked about character playlists, I’ll answer that despite having long left the framework of this game behind: both “Save a Prayer” and “Sounds Like a Melody” both embody the Matt/Nekou dynamic I envision so clearly they might as well be theme songs, lol.)

[clairecrive]

Heyy:) can you write Nikolai x tidemaker reader, while Nikolai is still Sturmhond and the reader is part of the crew. Nikolai fell in love at first sight but the reader is a little introvert, but she snaps one day and confesses her love to him.

Sorry English isn’t my first language:)

Stars in the night

a/n: Hi hun sorry for the long wait. it's a bit shitty but I hope you're still around and like this x

warnings: none, fluff

word count: 2.8K

tags: @jupiterandbutterflies, @agentsofsheilds , @for-bebbanburg , @randomoutsiders , @pansysgirlfriend, @hannaxmaria , @vintagebitc , @story-scribbler , @crowssixof , @odetostep , @lizzie-he4rts, @korol-lantsov, @subjecta13-thefangirl,@gallysonegoodlung, @a-c-lee, @mriddlemethis, @carnationworld, @thanossexual, @luvxginger, @sanna2020, @partiesandblurrypolaroids, @edithsvoice, @wafflesandschemingfaces, @snugleo, @sugarmelonwater (tag list form)

SHADOW AND BONE MASTERLIST

Nights were usually y/n’s favourite time of the day. Chaos and shouts left place to eerie silence and the comforting quietness of the stars. Being on a ship meant always having people around whether they were shouting or singing or playing or whatever.

Y/n didn’t mind their company per se, it’s just that sometimes, people’s presence can get too much. But whenever she felt overwhelmed, she knew she could count on the stars to anchor her and help her breathe.

After an exhausting day at sea, no one refused the possibility to sleep and recharge. So, more often than not, y/n didn’t have any trouble in taking the night shift. It actually made her even more popular with the rest of the crew.

The crew’s captain was another thing. Y/n hadn’t a precise idea on him simply because he was always up to something. Sitting still was not in his blood, even where there were no chores to attend to. If there wasn’t something to do, Sturmhond would create it.

He was such at antipodes with y/n’s personality that their interactions were limited to her assignments, her report after her shift or him updating her about his plans. Or rather- her role in them. Y/n wasn’t foolish enough to think that he really made her part of his plans. And to be fair, y/n never asked more than what directly concerned her. Maybe that was why Sturmhond was so interested in her.

There was nothing subtle about the man. From the way he walked like he owned the world, to his shiny red hair. So, when he unusually started to roam around her just because, y/n did notice. Hell, everyone on the ship noticed. It was hard not to in such a limited space.

However, y/n thought nothing of it. It was just him being his extravagant self. Nothing new, honestly. She did not mind it either. The man had a way of being there without being overbearing, which was more than y/n could say about any other men she had met. Well, all except Tolya, of course.

He had started by bidding her good morning and goodnight every day. Then he would come to find her throughout the day, to chitchat above all things. To y/n’s horror, the privateer didn’t desist. He kept coming and y/n honestly didn’t know how to react.

She had always found him quite handsome and charming, but there was something she was absolutely shit at: small talk. And the man wanted exactly that from her. Alas, it all ended up with Sturmond’s voice filling the awkward pauses and y/n barely answering his questions.

She knew in her heart that she was giving him the wrong impression and she feared that her awkwardness would be mistaken for coldness making him eventually desist. Despite her fears though, the man didn’t seem off-put by her behaviour. He kept coming and coming but that didn’t ease y/n in any capacity.

Then one night, he stopped beating around the bush. It didn’t exactly catch her by surprise, y/n knew him, it was only a matter of time before he came out with it. It wasn’t in his nature to be discreet. Or so she thought, based on what she saw.

“Why did you want to be part of my crew? You don’t seem to like me,” he wondered, his green eyes shining in the moonlight.

Despite the words that left his mouth, y/n knew what his question implied. What he was really asking. But however powerful she might be, y/n didn’t have the guts to be upfront with him. Not even with the comforting presence of the stars as their witnesses.

If only he knew.

She knew that this could potentially be a chance for her to test the waters, to see what his intentions were and to make her clear. But alas, she knew nothing about flirting. Deflecting it is, then.

“Tolya and Tamar trust you. I trust them with my life so,” she shrugged, tacitly implying that she somewhat trusted him too.

“I see. So not only do I owe them my life but also an incredible crew.”

“The big and mighty Sturmhond praising someone other than himself?”

“I only sing praise when they’re due.”

“And, of course, no one deserves it more than yourself.”

“Well, you said it darling.” He flashed her a dazzling smile that made the moonlight pale.

Y/n rolled her eyes a bit to convey her annoyance and a bit to avoid him seeing the blush rising on her cheeks.

Truth be told, Tolya and Tamar weren’t the only ones that persuaded her from becoming a part of his crew albeit they were a big part of it. She wasn’t lying when she told him that she trusted them with her life. If it wasn’t for them, y/n would probably be a soulless machine right now. Her body on the outside but really nothing that made her y/n on the inside. That’s what happened to Grisha in Shu Han.

She owed the twin everything but that wasn’t why she made the decision to join them on the Volkovny. They didn’t force her to follow them or anything. And y/n couldn’t deny that Sturmhond’s handsome face didn’t make her sway a little in her decision. That was, however, something slippery about the privateer. It didn’t make him untrustworthy per se, but it certainly made her wary about trusting him.

The biggest push that prompted her to the Volkovny and life on the sea was her experience in Shu Han. Being Grisha meant not having a safe place outside of Ravka and sometimes in Ravka as well. Her home country was war-torn and as much as y/n had been trained to be a soldier all her life, she didn’t feel ready to take part in a fight that she didn’t feel her own.

Despite his unorthodox methods, General Kirigan’s sole purpose had always been making Grisha safe. And seeing as she had seen first-hand how the world treated Grisha, y/n could really get behind his plot, not caring about how bloody it was.

Life on the sea meant no more persecutors. Outside of her crew, no one in the ports they sailed to knew she was Grisha. Not that she was ashamed of who she was, but it��d be like having a mark on her skin if people knew. A mark that made her unsafe. She craved a life where she didn’t have to constantly watch her back. And being on the Volkovny granted her wish.

Not that it was a safe lifestyle, of course. But y/n was a survivor. If she had come out of the keirgud alive, she could well out best every threat that she will eventually cross on the sea. Besides, she knew that the twins had her back. And, in a small percentage, so did Sturmhond.

She and the captain didn’t exactly have a relationship, not like the twins have. She wasn’t his confidante or anything and she preferred to spend her time on her own -as much as life on deck allowed her- but since she was such in close quarters with the twins, that definitely made her closer to him than the rest of the crew. Not to mention that now the captain had started spending his nights with her too.

Well, not all night and not every night but it was a substantial increase in his time spent with her. Sure, it was all parts of him doing his rounds at night and being his amiable self.

So why the hell did her breath hitch whenever she caught his silhouette approaching? She hated herself for feeling like this. And him. Only that she didn’t, not really. It wasn’t his fault, was it? It was just her being silly. It’ll pass, sooner or later.

Only that, of course, it didn’t. In fact, it got even worse. If before she could manage their interaction by playing aloof and uninterested, it has now come to the point where she almost blubbered. Her heart hated her, it’d beat frantically whenever he’d approach, and his intoxicating smell made it impossible to form a coherent thought.

So, y/n decided to just stay clear of him to prevent any embarrassing situation.

After that, things didn’t get weird per se. Seeing y/n alone and drifting away from most group gatherings wasn’t weird. What was though, was her absence during the night shifts.

Before she monopolized those shifts, now she took turns like everyone else.

That was the big spy that made everyone worry about her. Non though went to talk to her about it. It would have been too personal for most of the crew to ask, and those who didn’t think better of it.

The twins knew her very well, she’d come to them whenever she was ready.

The captain… well, he didn’t react at all, which made y/n think that he hadn’t noticed anything.

He very well did, though. And the sign that he did was that he hadn’t come to her anymore. He noticed her withdrawal and while he didn’t understand why he respected her decision.

That didn’t mean that he gave up on her entirely though. His research moved elsewhere; his tactic shifted from approach to observe.

It took him almost a week to be feed with this new tactic. Not only did it prove unsuccessful, but he had almost broken a limb or two in his spying attempts.

One night, the one when he knew that you had taken the shift, he shifted again to ”approach”.

“Lovely night, eh?” He grimaced as the words left his mouth. Lamest approach ever.

“Oh, captain,” y/n exclaimed, startled by his unexpected presence, “yes, indeed.” She agreed, turning back to rest her arms over the bannister.

Nikolai’s eyes shine with amusement and y/n grimaced, cloaked in the darkness of the night, she was torn between wanting to punch herself or him. Maybe both.

“Sorry for startling you. I was surprised to see you here.”

“I’m on the night shift today,” she explained even though it wasn’t needed but saints. If they had given her social skills, she would have been too powerful.

“I see. It does not happen as often,” his eyes roamed over to her face, he could only see the side facing him thanks to the moonlight.

Y/n knew what he was doing, the man was hardly subtle, but she appreciated his attempt of breaching the subject lightly.

“We all took turns; it wasn’t fair for me to hijack this time shift.”

“I’m far too smart for you to lie to my face,”

“Excuse me?”

“What I mean to say,” he sighed, regret showing on his face, “is that I worry that you might have changed your habits because of me.”

“Why would you think that?”

“It has not escaped my notice that you’ve trying to avoid me.”

“Avoiding someone on a ship is an impossible feat.”

“I’m aware,” he smirked, and something told her that seeing her trying to do exactly that amused him to no end. Y/n turned back towards to sea and said nothing. Better silence than pointless words.

“So,” it was Sturmhond who broke the silence, “want to tell me what’s the problem?”

“There’s no problem, captain.”

“Again with lying,” he chided softly. Sturmond knew y/n like the back of his hand. Being on a ship will do that. He knew then that the best way to approach her wasn’t to put her under the spotlight or in a corner.

She sighed, knowing that lying to him would not get her out of this situation. Trying to muster her courage, she turned to him.

“Alright, you’re right,” she conceded and that alone was telling since Sturmonhd’s ego didn’t need any stroking. “You haven’t done anything wrong, though. It’s me.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You should because it’s true. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by my emotions and I don’t know how to deal with them.”

“So, you just run from the situation?”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it running,” she mumbled under her breath. His intense stare put her even more on edge.

“Isn’t that point of living, though?” he added softly, “Feeling?”

“Maybe.”

“Amazing,” he said with an edge to his voice.

“What?” Y/n’s eyes flickered to him and the expression on his face left her wondering if he was serious or making fun of her.

“I’ve seen you facing volcras and other enemies straight on with a courage that puts to shame many soldiers and yet this is what you’re afraid of?”

“Rejections is much scarier than combat.” Abandoning every attempt of pretence, y/n went with the truth. She was already in the game, now she had no choice but to play.

“Is it?” His brow raised and now there was no doubt that he was making fun of her.

“If something goes bad in a battle, I’m dead. And there’s nothing for me to worry about if that happens, right?”

“But putting myself out there and then getting rejected, means living with the shame and embarrassment of knowing that I’m not enough.”

“Well, that’s a rather tragic take on it.”

“Joke all you want. I don’t suppose you know what it feels like, giving your shining hair and dazzling smile.”

“While knowing you think that of me brings me immense joy, I would also like to point out that you’re wrong.”

Now it was her turn to raise her eyebrow in wonder.

“Rejection takes a whole other shade of intensity when it comes from your family.” The words were said lightly but they made her breath get caught in her throat anyway.

“Is it because of your lifestyle?”

“It’s because of their opinion of me that I’ve chosen this lifestyle.”

“I’m sorry that your family is unable to see how much you shine.” “Maybe it’s because you’ve blinded them?” She tried to ease the tension and she was rewarded with a tease of a smile.

“Oh, don’t point it at me! I will lose my eyes and then you’ll throw me from this ship,” she shrieked and went to shield her eyes as if she was under the midday sun. This foolish stunt earned her the captain’s laugh. One so full and rich that left no doubt of its authenticity. It made y/n smile too and wish that he’d do that more often.

“I would never throw you from this ship.”

“What use could I have with no eyes?”

“I’m sure we’ll be able to find you something else to do.”

“Like being the ship’s clown.”

“While you amuse me to no end, I was thinking about a far more private role.”

“Private as in?”

“Meant for my eyes only.”

“Selfish much?”

“When it comes to you? Shamelessly so.”

The privateer leaned down to her, agonizingly slow giving her all the time to pull away if she wanted to. A million things swirled through her mind in those few seconds. Every worry about what was going to happen, about all the ways this could go sour.

The wheels in her mind turned incredibly fast almost making her lightheaded. Before this could turn into a full session of overthinking though, y/n shook her head effectively stopping the thoughts from growing.

Despite her lacking in basic social skills in an incredibly sad way, conversation with him always flowed easily. She never worried about what she was supposed to do or say or whatever. She could just… be. Be y/n.

That was priceless if not rare. And right then and there she decided that she wasn’t willing to lose it. Not without fighting.

Borne from the spur of the moment the best decision she could ever make, she leaned into him as well. Closing her eyes, she was able to see the corner of his lips lifted a little before she felt his lips on him.

Saints.

Did she say that she was afraid of feeling? Fuck that. This feeling, the feel of the touch of his lips on her, his fingers lightly stroking her face, his breath inside her, him becoming a part of her? She was pretty sure was going to die if she went too long without it.

Angling his head to the side, she pressed her lips on his with renowned fervour. Her hands found their way in his strands. A moan left him as y/n swallowed the sound. Using the grip on his hair, y/n pulled him to her. Sturmond gladly followed her lead, returning the intensity of the kiss before his hands gripped the back of her knees, lifting her up.

He lightly used the bannister as leverage, his grip shifting to her hips holding her so tightly so that losing her was not an option. Not now, not ever.

[pynkhues]

if you dont mind me asking, what was it about the batman that you didnt like?

I don’t mind at all, anon!

It’s an interesting movie in a lot of ways and I genuinely do appreciate parts of it. In particular, I’m enjoying this shift away from the Lucas / Spielberg / Whedon school of blockbusters at the moment with The Batman and Dune where genre-based blockbusters aren’t required to be edited at a breakneck speed or full of quippy one-liners. While I haven’t loved either film, I do appreciate that they’re bringing different tones and paces back to the genre. Diversity of voice and feel is a part of what cinema’s all about, and the fact that that’s been lost in the blockbuster genre film for a while now has been a bit of a tragedy of industry to me.

My issues with The Batman overall really stemmed from what I felt to be a failure to balance the ingredients of its own recipe, and to fall into this sort of trap which mistakes ‘dark’ for ‘good’, which…y’know. Is definitely not the case and I think is a trap a lot of for-want-of-a-better-phrase ‘edgy’ blockbusters (i.e. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, King Arthur, The Dark Tower, Hotel Artemis, etc) fall into.

I actually don’t even dislike all these movies – in fact I quite like Hotel Artemis – but I do think they suffer similar issues to The Batman in how they work the blockbuster film model, because I think that making a blockbuster is ultimately a series of checks and balances. Bigger can be better, but whatever that ‘bigger’ is, it always needs to be measured against something that’s it’s equivalent in another area.

Basically I think the bigger the explosion, the tighter the character arcs need to be.

To explain this properly, I probably need to explain my personal three ingredients of genre film. For me, genre film encompasses everything that’s not a straight drama – so it includes action, sci-fi, crime, romance – but it especially includes movies like The Batman which straddles genres like noir detective and superhero as well.

SO.

I like to call these three ingredients the Three S’ of story:

Scale

Scope; and

Stakes.

And yeah, what this looks like film-to-film is different (gosh, you’d hope it was), but I think personally that it’s in this balancing act that makes a genre movie work. Sooo, let’s break that down a bit.

Scale

I actually first really started thinking about scale because it’s something that a good friend of mine is pretty obsessed with when it comes to action movies. For her, it’s entirely what they hinge on, and while I agree with her in part, I disagree they're the crux. That said, it’s definitely a crucial ingredient.

Scale can be summed up by two pretty straight forward questions:

How big is the story? And who and what are impacted by the events that take place in it?

Your scale isn’t your emotional arcs, nor the personal stakes, which we’ll get into later, but rather the depth of the implications of the events of the story.

The original Star Wars trilogy is about Luke, Leia and Han, and they’re who the stakes are tied to, but the scale is the entire galaxy, right? The first Avengers movie is about whether this team of ragtag heroes can work together, but the scale is Loki’s planetary takeover (although it starts and ends in New York), just like The Matrix might be about Neo and Trinity, but the scale of who’s impacted by the events of the narrative is, well, everyone.

Blockbusters aren’t always big scale. One of the things I really love about Spiderman: Homecoming is that it’s actually pretty small scale – yes there’s broader implications to the weapons distribution plot, but the scale is actually only a small corner of New York – which is pretty rare for a blockbuster these days, similarly with something like Ex Machina, where you’re in a lab in the middle of nowhere, and while the robot experiment might have broader implications, the scale in the film is really tied to the characters that exist within it.

Scale itself is rarely a problem in a blockbuster (although I do wish movies would learn that the world being at stake is rarely that interesting), but it’s really important that they’re balanced because the bigger the scale, the bigger the distance between the audience, character and consequence, which does lead to problems.

But before we get into that, let’s talk about:

Scope

I tend to think about scope as what the story is actually about. In that sense, who’s the protagonist and antagonist, what are the relationships the story wants us to care about, and what does the story want the audience to take away from it?

Basically when I say scope, I’m looking for the point.

What do you want me to leave the cinema thinking about?

I think scope can be the hardest for a lot of films because it’s a pretty big question, and a lot of the time, movies are balancing a lot of ideas and can lack the throughline.

But all the best blockbusters have really clear scope: Edge of Tomorrow is very clear in this sense – it has two lead characters, one a woman who’s been fighting doomsday for a long time, the other who’s established in the first act as a coward and has to grow to be a hero. They’re the relationship the story wants us to care about, and the story knows it’s themes of time travel are about allowing the latter to grow enough to be that hero. Very simple scope for a movie that can appear quite complicated because of it’s use of a lot of extra stuff i.e. aliens and time travel.

Mad Max Fury Road is another excellent blockbuster with a clear scope – it has more characters to care about than Edge of Tomorrow, but you’re still grounded with a central two in Max and Furiousa, and while the others get strong arcs, they’re usually in relation to the two of them so we know that Max and Furiousa are who we’re meant to care the most for. Their relationship is one of traumatised people rebuilding trust and rediscovering hope, and that’s clear, and everything in the movie ultimately exists in service of that, because your scope is (or at least should) always be tied to your stakes.

Stakes

Okay, so where my friend would always scale, I would always say stakes.

Stakes to me are the difference between a good and a great movie – you can have the perfect sense of scale, incredible relationships, terrific themes, but if your audience doesn’t know what your characters have to lose, then a story’s never going to land where it should.

Stakes are what should be driving your characters, and funnily enough, I think unlike with scale and scope, they’re often best when they’re a bit messy. A character being driven by an underlying sense of heroism (Captain America: The First Avenger) is much more boring than a character being driven by an underlying sense of heroism and a friendship with someone who’s simultaneously their only connection to the past and someone who’s now a brainwashed murderer (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) because it marks a moral compromise that creates a narrative grey area driven by genuine emotional stakes.

That’s exciting, and interesting and creates texture not just in character, but in story and theme too.

Stakes are at their most compelling when they’re personal, and in that sense they should be a bullet through the meat of scale and a guiding force of scope. Stakes are what’s interesting, scale and scope are ultimately there for context and grounding.

A quick word

Just taking off my Stakes fangirl hat for a moment, haha - - look, all of these things work together narratively. None of them exist in a vacuum.

We’ve always seen this balance tip. After all, a lot of filmmakers and studios I think assume that spectacle closes the gap between these three things when they don’t, whether that be Dwayne Johnson flying a helicopter through collapsing buildings in San Andreas or Meryl Streep as an alt-right president in Don’t Look Up. Spectacle can work when it serves to underscore scale or bolster stakes, but as someone who watches a lot of movies, it’s pretty much just set dressing.

What matters is the way these three things work together because the scope of a story always informs and contextualises scale, while the stakes provide the emotional throughline. The bigger the scale, the more you need a human and emotional scope to ground you, and stakes that re-emphasise that.

Take Armageddon which might be about an asteroid hurtling towards earth, but the emotional scope the audience invests in is the Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler father-daughter dynamic, and the stakes become tied to their lives moreso than the planet’s.  

Or Iron Man, where the scale is global, but the scope is marked by three pivotal relationships that identify Tony’s past, present and future: Tony’s relationship with Obadiah as a father-figure becomes a symbol of Tony’s bad behaviour and a villain he must overcome to become a better version of himself (which, in Obadiah, is ultimately a version of himself), his present is in his relationship with Yinsen in the cave who becomes the catalyst for Tony’s growth, and the future is marked by his relationship with Pepper, who transcends his past and present and becomes a relationship he strives to be worthy of. This scope allows for the stakes to be tied directly to Tony’s character, and whether or not he’s capable of the change he says he wants to be, but without the scale, Tony never would’ve had the context of the character he is, nor the crucial narrative scenario to change in the first place.

Scale, scope and stakes need to work together because they’re pivotal to story regardless of genre, but I do think they’re the most important to blockbusters because blockbusters are usually the genres with the biggest scale, so anything out of whack - - well.

You feel it.

The Batman

Like I said at the start, there were things I liked about this movie, but ultimately I never felt it really balanced this trifecta of S’. I think we understood the scale as Gotham only because it relied on you as an audience member to know it because of it’s status in pop culture, and that made the movie lazy with exploring what that meant for the scope. I didn’t feel like I knew this Bruce’s attachment to the city, which should feel pivotal to his arc in a story like this, just like I didn’t like how the movie felt really unfocused with it’s treatments of Bruce’s relationships.

I don’t love the Christopher Nolan movies either, but I do think Nolan has a strong sense of scope, and knows how to balance out relationships which I don’t think Reeves does. I didn’t know where our primary investment should be – in Bruce’s new relationship with Selina, his old relationship with Alfred, or with Gordon, his father, The Riddler, The Penguin, Falcone or Mayor Real – it became to me a revolving door of characters the story never seemed to know how to prioritise, and as a result the movie lacked to me a solid throughline.

Bruce bounced between these characters, which is fine, but to me, what’s bad is that he often responded similarly to them. Different characters should reveal different aspects of the protagonist, and we got that a little in the way he got physical with The Penguin and intimate with Selina, but it was in such broad strokes, I didn’t really feel the emotional response they were asking for was earned.

Which is all to say, I didn’t really feel the stakes of it were there for any of the characters. We didn’t know his relationship with his father well enough to understand what the shattering of his image meant, we didn't know this Bruce's relationship with Alfred well enough to understand the hurt of Alfred's injury, we didn’t understand his relationship with Gotham well enough to understand his drive to protect the city, nor a clear sense of his celebrity to understand why the Riddler fixated on him. On top of that, we didn’t have any background understanding of him prior to his relationship with Selina to know what that actually meant, just like we never got anything to Selina and Annika’s relationship beyond vague allusions, which made that arc impersonal, and the entire situation with her Falcone felt undercooked to put it lightly.

There were interesting scenes, and some really fun fight sequences, but to me, all of it was undercooked and unfocused, creating a sprawling story that never really knew what it wanted to say. It never contextualised its scale, never was entirely sure of its scope, and didn’t really seem to understand what its stakes were, and the impact was a movie I found unbalanced and ultimately lacking in emotional authenticity.

[backhurtyy]

so what would it take to convince you to share your thoughts on the atla star wars au 👀👀

OMG.... very little is the answer.... i have so many thoughts, so i’m just happy someone wants to read them! anyways, this got really long- like REALLY LONG- so i’m putting it down below the cut. prepare yourself for some nonsensical rambling, far too much thought into lightsaber forms, and a lot of thought about Zuko and the Force 💖

Set post Great Jedi Purge- the Empire has taken over, with Sith Lord Ozai as the Emperor and having orchestrated the entire war as Supreme Chancellor

Azula is Ozai's apprentice; Zuko was supposed to be his apprentice, however he was never as strong or as good at using the Force as Azula was. He’s still powerful, but more in how he uses the Force to help him in a fight and to find things, rather than Azula, who can use Force lightning, excels at mind tricks, etc.

So instead of taking him as his apprentice, Ozai assigns Zuko to the position of Grand Inquisitor and tasks him with leading the Inquisitiorious Program to track down the Jedi that managed to escape the purge.

He uses Jar’Kai, with dual blood red blades…. This ended up becoming the form he used because when he was young, he could never get the hang of fighting with just one lightsaber and always used a reverse grip that left him far too open and vulnerable. Piandao, who was a darksider rather than a full Sith Lord, decided to teach him Jar'Kai to see if it would work better for him, and it did. Anyways, we’re gonna come back to his lightsabers later cause I’m very into them lmao

Aang was the Padawan of Grand Master Gyatso, raised at the Jedi Temple, and uses a Saberstaff with Soresu as his primary form (I think the defensive style and analytical approach to combat translates really well to Aang’s personality and airbending as a whole... also it's Obi-Wan's primary form, and I think they'd be friends)

Anyways, Aang and Master Gyatso were on a mission when Order 66 went out. Gyatso knew Aang was the galaxy’s only chance, always believing him to be the Chosen One who was destined to bring balance to the Force, and so he told him to run. Aang didn’t want to leave him, but Gyatso used the Force to send Aang to their ship and ordered their BD unit, MO-2, to get them out of there

Aang didn’t see Gyatso fall to the troopers, but he felt it in the Force, and swore that he would do what he could to defeat the Empire

He scoured the galaxy for other Jedi and rebels for a long time, trying to hide his identity and the beginnings of the arrow tattoos that marked him as a Jedi Padawan learner all the while he’s running from the Inquisition (I imagine him as a near humanoid species, who have tattoos rather than Padawan braids or silica beads. As they become Padawans, Knights, and Masters, the level of detail on the tattoo is increased)

One day, the Grand Inquisitor catches up to Aang and shoots his ship down over an ice planet in the Outer Rim

Okay now to Sokka and Katara-

Katara and her family has known that she was gifted with the Force since she was a baby making her toys fly throughout their home on Carlac, but being able to use the Force in the Outer Rim is dangerous. They're not often found by the Jedi Order since it’s too far out, but bounty hunters, pirates, and the criminal rings in the Outer Rim have no such limitations, and Jedi are valuable

Following ATLA, someone heard about a Force user on their planet and sent pirates/bounty hunters after her when she was little, and Kya sacrificed herself to save her daughter

Basically, Katara has had to hide her abilities her entire life even though all she wanted to be was a Jedi, and it’s only gotten more dangerous since news of the purge reached them. Sokka and Hakoda would do anything to protect her, but they knew it was only a matter of time before the Inquisition found her, especially since she has very little training in terms of shielding and what not. So, they pack up and leave to join the rebellion, where they hope to find a Jedi who can train her, and end up on Hoth

They quickly settle into the rebellion, with Hakoda becoming one of its leaders and Sokka and Katara two of its best strategists, pilots, and fighters

Sokka also gets Mandalorian armor and a vibroblade because I say so

They’re out on patrol when they see Aang’s ship go down in the tundra, and Katara feels something in the Force. She knows whoever is in that ship can help her become a Jedi, and before Sokka can stop her, she’s already running towards it

Basically they bring Aang back to base and he promises to teach Katara how to use the Force- just one thing, one of his kyber crystals is broken, so he needs to go to Ilum and get a new one. Katara asks to go with him, and he agrees

Back to Zuko- he didn’t trust that shooting Aang down was enough, so he flies down to the surface to catch him, and there’s a fight between the rebels and the forces Zuko brought with him. Aang and Zuko have a Maul/Qui-Gon esque fight, and eventually Aang manages to get away

He, Sokka, and Katara all leave together, and basically they fly across the galaxy in their transport, APPA, and make it to Ilum to get both Aang and Katara kyber crystals

Katara gets a blue crystal, and Aang teaches her Shien as her lightsaber form (it’s quick, fluid, and alternates between defense and all out attacks, just like her waterbending). They spend a lot of time meditating and going through saber forms and lifting stuff around the ship with the Force and generally being a pain in Sokka's ass because when things fall to the ground, they always manage to land on his foot

(Sokka's proud of his sister and thinks it's cool she's got magic powers, but do things always have to land on his foot??? He wasn't even on the same side of the room as them!!!!)

Basically along the way they meet Suki, another rebel who’s deadly with a blaster, and the Kyoshi Warriors. I also think it would be super cool if the Kyoshi Warriors were from Naboo and were the Queen’s Handmaidens- they look harmless, but these girls are warriors and can FIGHT

Zuko’s chasing them the entire time too

They find Toph along the way too, a super powerful Force user who uses it to “see” and is also a very talented psychometric. I think she’d use Ataru as her lightsaber form since it uses the Force to enhance movements (also the psychometry is for no specific reason other than I think it would be neat and also she and Vos have similar personalities lmao)

Anyways the plot of the show continues until at some point, Azula is sent after Zuko since he’s taking too long to capture the Gaang, and they team up to stop them. Azula uses Force lightning on Aang, but Katara manages to get them out of there before the siblings can capture them. She’s a very powerful Force healer, so she manages to save Aang

Okay this is the part that I think about nonstop, which is that Zuko goes back to the Empire after that fight, but he just feels wrong. The Force doesn’t feel the same anymore, he's cold all the time, his crystals scream at him and burn his hands when he tries to use them, his eyes are aching, everything his father says makes his head pound and the Force curl around him unpleasantly, and he has no clue why (he does, he's just too scared to admit that there's always been a little more light in him than his father wants there to be)

Basically he finds out something about how his great grandfather Sozin used to be a Jedi, until Sozin Fell and killed his best friend Roku, another Jedi and also Zuko’s mother’s grandfather, and he realizes there really always has been light in him. He finally admits to himself that he doesn’t actually want to be a part of the Empire, or a darksider

While he’s on the run, he spends a lot of time meditating and finding himself in the light side of the Force and stuff, and one day he opens up his sabers and purifies his crystals

I like to think that Zuko exists as sort of a Grey Jedi, who isn’t a darksider, but will never follow the Jedi Code or use the Force the way Aang does. So when he purifies his crystals, they turn a blinding white, to show how his destiny is in his own hands now. Also, I think one of his eyes stays Sith gold, while the other is dark brown, a color he hadn’t seen since before his mother died and his father began his training

Anyways, the Gaang saves the day; Aang fulfills the prophecy of the Chosen One and brings balance to the Force by defeating Ozai. Zuko and Katara fight Azula, and in typical Star Wars/ATLA fashion, Zuko gets Force Lightning’d. And up in the skies, Sokka, Toph, and Suki wreak havoc on the Empire’s Star Destroyers, and Sokka ends up breaking his leg because someone shoots the jetpack on his armor while he's trying to escape with Toph

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

"I always just rode the waves,” Rebecca Ferguson says with a shrug. The comment hangs in the air, as if the Anglo-Swedish 37-year-old is only now processing that a combination of currents and tides has led her not just to an acting career but to the brink of big-screen stardom.

“I’ve never been ambitious,” she says. “I’ve always thought that that was a bad thing.” She’s seen others in the industry consumed by constant striving and asked herself why she hasn’t hungered for fame since childhood, slept in cars outside castings, barged into directors’ offices or thrown herself in the path of a producer. “But should I not be burning for this? Out meeting people and networking for the next job?” says Ferguson, who has chosen the sort of quiet, private life outside the big city that so many actors claim to crave. “My life just took another turn. But I’ve always thought: Am I where I should be?”

At the moment, on this late July day, Ferguson is slumped in the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz sedan, crawling through rush-hour traffic on the M4 out of London. She is capping off a hectic week during a particularly busy period. Most immediately, she’s coming from a table read for Wool, the Apple TV+ adaptation of Hugh Howey’s bestselling postapocalyptic trilogy. Ferguson is both the star and, for the first time, an executive producer. “I’m sitting in all the different rooms, listening and learning like the students,” she says. She’s filming Mission: Impossible 7, her third tour of duty in the long-running series that first brought her widespread recognition. She’s also promoting the film Reminiscence, the sci-fi noir written and directed by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy in which Ferguson stars opposite Hugh Jackman. And now she is starting a press push and festival prep for her role as Lady Jessica ahead of the much-delayed release of Dune (in theaters October 22), director Denis Villeneuve’s reimagining of Frank Herbert’s novel. “After this film, I think everyone will see what I see in her,” the filmmaker says. “She has a beautiful, regal, aristocratic presence, elegance. But that was not the main thing: The most important thing for me was that depth.”

After tracing a long, meandering path, Ferguson has landed in a rare and rarified position: ascendant in her late 30s (still an anomaly for women in the film industry) and sought after by some of the biggest names in the business. “When you meet Rebecca, you just see it. She’s very open, candid, collaborative, hardworking, funny—and not pretentious,” says Tom Cruise, who handpicked Ferguson to star opposite him in the Mission: Impossiblefilms, which are known for their demanding shoots. “She just rose to the occasion every single time.”

In February 2020, when the pandemic began, Ferguson left Venice, where she’d been shooting Mission: Impossible 7, and hunkered down with her husband, their 3-year-old daughter and Ferguson’s 14-year-old son from a previous relationship at their farm in Sweden. After four months, Ferguson returned to the M:I set and basically hasn’t stopped working since.

Dune has sat idle for far longer. By the time the movie premieres, more than two years will have passed since it wrapped. Ferguson recently asked to screen the film again: “I miss it,” she says. She ended up bringing along her Mission: Impossible co-star Simon Pegg. After the credits rolled, Pegg broke into a smile and wrapped her in a congratulatory bear hug. “That’s all I needed,” she says.

Despite being a sci-fi epic based on a novel from 1965, Dune feels “very timely,” Ferguson says, pointing to its handling of environmental issues, religious zealotry, colonialism and Indigenous rights. The plot of the film, which cost an estimated $165 million, centers on occupying powers battling for the right to exploit a people and their planet, named Arrakis, for melange (or spice)—the most valuable commodity in Herbert’s fictional universe, a substance that provides transcendental thought, extends life and enables instantaneous interstellar travel. “Spice,” Ferguson says, “is equally about the poppy and oil fields.”

Ferguson’s Lady Jessica is a member of the Bene Gesserit, a powerful secretive sisterhood with superhuman mental abilities. She defies her order by giving birth to a son, Paul (played by Timothée Chalamet), who may be a messianic figure. “She basically just f—s up the entire universe by having a son out of love,” says Ferguson. In her hands, Jessica is equal parts caring parent, protector and pedagogue. Among the skills she wields and teaches Paul is “the Voice”—a modulated tone that allows the speaker to control others.

The movie was shot in Norway, Hungary, Jordan and Abu Dhabi, whose desert landscape stood in for Arrakis. Filming there was particularly arduous, as temperatures exceeded 120 degrees Fahrenheit, limiting the shoot window to only an hour and a half each day at 5 a.m. and again at dusk. “We were running across the sand in our steel suits being chased by nonexistent but humongous worms,” Ferguson recalls, referring to the sand-beasts later rendered in CGI. “To be honest, it was one of the best moments ever. It was the most beautiful location I’ve ever seen.”

Back in London, Ferguson is approaching home. She leaves the following day for a small town on the coast of England, where she plans to spend her first vacation in two years and to do some surfing. “Let’s hope it’s good weather,” she says. “If not, I’ll surf in the rain.” Not that she’s the sort to paddle out into storm swells. “I think I’ve managed to stand on a board once in my entire life,” she says. “But it was quite a high. Complete surrender to the waves and total control all at once.”

Born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström to an English mother and Swedish father, Ferguson grew up bilingual in Stockholm. She immersed herself in dance from a young age, enjoying ballet, jazz, street funk and tango. Despite being shy and prone to blushing and breaking out when forced to speak publicly, Ferguson found she was at ease in front of the camera. She dabbled in modeling and then, at 15, attended a TV casting call at her mother’s urging. Ferguson ended up getting the lead role in Nya Tider (New Times), a soap opera that became wildly popular, splashing Ferguson’s face into Swedish homes five times a week.

When her role ended about two years later, Ferguson was adrift. She had no formal acting training to fall back on, no clear sense of how to steer a career and no major connections to the industry. She had a short run on another soap and appeared in a slasher flick and a couple of independent shorts, then…nothing. “I was famous in Sweden, but I didn’t really have an income anymore,” she says. “So I went and I worked in whatever job I could get.” That meant stints at a daycare center and as a nanny, in a jewelry shop and a shoe store, as well as teaching tango, cleaning hotel rooms and waitressing at a Korean restaurant. She eventually landed in a small coastal town named Simrishamn, where she lived with her then-partner and their toddler son, content to be a where-are-they-now celebrity.

When fame again came calling, Ferguson ran away. She was at the flea market when she recognized the acclaimed Swedish director Richard Hobert, and he saw her. As he shouted her name, Ferguson grabbed her son, who lost his shoes and sausage, and fled. “I panicked,” she says. “I don’t know why.” When Hobert eventually caught up to her, Ferguson tried to act nonchalant as he proceeded to tell her he’d admired her work and pitched her on the lead role in his next movie: “I’ve written this role, and I think I have written it for you. Do you want to read the script?”

Her work in Hobert’s A One-Way Trip to Antibes earned her a Rising Star nomination at the Stockholm International Film Festival. She quickly got an agent in Scandinavia, then one in Britain. On her first trip to take meetings in London, she read for the lead in The White Queen, the BBC adaptation of Philippa Gregory’s historical novels about the women behind the Wars of the Roses. Ferguson got the part, and her portrayal of Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort of England, earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the admiration of at least one Hollywood heavyweight.

Ferguson was in the Moroccan desert filming the Lifetime biblical miniseries The Red Tentwhen the assistant director whisked her off her camel. “We’re going to have to pause shooting,” he said as he asked her to dismount. “Tom Cruise wants to meet you for Mission: Impossible. We’re going to fly you off today.”

Cruise had seen Ferguson’s work in The White Queen and her audition tape and couldn’t believe she wasn’t already a major star. “What? Where has this woman been?” Cruise recalls exclaiming to his new Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie. “She’s incredibly skilled,” Cruise says, “very charismatic, very expressive. As you can tell, the camera loves her.” Ferguson landed a multi-picture deal to star opposite Cruise in the multibillion-dollar franchise. He and McQuarrie built out the role of Ilsa Faust for Ferguson, creating the anti-Bond girl, an equal to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. “We could just see the impact she could have,” he says. “She’s a dancer. She has great control of her body, of her movements. She has the same ability to move through emotions effortlessly.”

Ferguson threw herself into the films and quickly found a shorthand with the cast and crew. “There was a dynamic that worked very well with all of us,” she says. “One of the things I absolutely love is doing all the stunts.” That physicality has given her a reputation as an action-minded actor. “It doesn’t matter that I’ve done 20 other films where I don’t kick ass,” Ferguson says. “Mission comes with such an enormous following. That was what made my career.”

Ferguson’s M: I movies bracket a number of films in which she played opposite marquee names: Florence Foster Jenkins, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant; The Girl on the Train, with Emily Blunt; The Greatest Showman, with Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams; Life, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds; Men in Black: International, with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson; The Snowman, with Michael Fassbender; Doctor Sleep, with Ewan McGregor. And now Dune, opposite Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Zendaya and Chalamet, whom she calls “one of the best actors, if not the best actor of his generation—of this time.” She was similarly impressed by Zendaya, who plays the native Fremen warrior Chani. “She’s quite raw and naughty and fun,” says Ferguson. “She has an enormous f— off attitude.”

When Ferguson first spoke to Villeneuve about appearing in the movie, “he started telling me about this woman who was a protector, and a mother, and a lover, and a concubine,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m sorry. You want me to play a queen and a bodyguard? And you want me to kick ass and walk regally?’ I was like, ‘Denis, why would I want to do that? That’s the last thing I want to do.’ ”

After the call, Ferguson says, “I went downstairs to my hubby and said, Oh, my God, he’s amazing, but I’m not going to get the job. I just criticized the character.” Ferguson worried she was being cast as a stereotypical “strong female character,” where “it’s constantly, ‘She looks good, and she can kick.’ That is not what I want to portray.”

Ferguson hasn’t always been able to work with collaborators who’ve given her the space to question or opine. “I’ve been bashed down. I’ve been bullied,” she says, though she opts not to say by whom. That was never a concern with Villeneuve, who welcomed her critique. He and his co-writers had already decided from the start to make women the focus of their screenplay adaptation, and he promptly offered her the part.

“I want Lady Jessica to be at the center, the forefront. For me, she’s the architect of the story,” Villeneuve says. “I needed someone who will convey the mystery and the dark side of the film in a very elegant and profound way. Rebecca was everything I was hoping for. She’s so precise. She brought a beautiful, controlled vulnerability—it becomes very visceral on-screen.”

Ferguson vaguely recalls trying to watch the 1984 version of Dune, directed by David Lynch, in her youth, but she fell asleep. And she had never opened Herbert’s novel until being offered the part in the new adaptation. As she dug into the book, she says, she learned that her character was subservient and far more like a concubine, forced to eat alone in her bedroom, not spoken to and not allowed to speak. Ferguson ended up relying primarily on Villeneuve for her research and prep—his notes and comments, his references and the pages in the book he suggested she focus on. “I would feel ignorant not to have read Frank’s book at all,” Ferguson says, though she admits there are parts of the sprawling novel (which Villeneuve is splitting into two films) she’s only skimmed. “I have to finish it.” That will not happen on her upcoming vacation, however. “Absolutely not,” she says “I am surfing.”

By the way, if you saw, I am snaking on the ground, snaking around my room to get good Wi-Fi—it’s not some dance or yoga thing,” Ferguson says. “You have to do that in this old house.” It’s a week and a half after our first meeting, and Ferguson is at her new home, a more than 500-year-old property southwest of London that has, over the years, been home to numerous English Royals. It’s more spartan than stately now. “Empty except for a rock star,” she says, turning her phone’s camera to reveal a framed duotone poster of Mick Jagger that’s leaning against the wall. “We haven’t even started renovating.

Ferguson has returned from her holiday fortified and with renewed confidence, thanks in part to her success on the surfboard. “I went up nearly every time,” she says cheerfully, “but the waves weren’t very high.” She shrugs. “I was proud. I was up. I rode them, not the other way around.”

After years of going with the flow, Ferguson is eager to replicate that sense of control in her career. She values her role as an executive producer on Wool, she says, “because I am, for the first time, a part of it from the beginning.” She relishes weighing in on every aspect, from casting (the show recently added Tim Robbins) to cinematography to her character—which has not always been easy for her. “Why do I feel it’s difficult to speak up? I still battle with these things,” she says. Alluding to those times she was pushed around in the past, Ferguson says, “I was angry, but it was more me getting off at ‘How can I let that happen? Why am I letting myself react this way?’ And I take it with me to the next thing where I go, ‘OK, how do I stop that from happening?’ ”

She is learning that she can ride on top of waves without giving up her agency or maybe just let them break against her. “I want to feel I can go home and think, That was a hard day or that pissed me off—and that’s OK,” Ferguson says, with a nod and tight smile. “Because I still stood there as Rebecca. I didn’t shift.”

[gthreepio]

i’ve been thinking about the future of the mcu and realized there’s a LOT that i didn’t know/didn’t remember in terms of where things are going so i figured i’d sum it up incase anyone else was in the same boat!! 

quick recap of (unresolved) mid-credit scenes:

doctor strange: mordo (a sorcerer that is one of strange’s mentors, who by the end of the movie becomes disillusioned with magic/the ancient one and quits) confronts pangborn (the paraplegic who healed himself with the mystic arts, who tells strange about mystic arts in the first place) and steals his magic because according to mordo, there are “too many sorcerers." of note, this guy is typically a villain in the comics but hasn’t been thus far...

gotg2: ayesha (leader of the sovereign, a golden skinned alien race obsessed with genetic purity), after spending most of the movie chasing the guardians for stealing some stuff, is revealed to have created an artificial being named “adam” which is presumably, adam warlock. (other stuff that is less relevant: kraglin appears to take up yondu’s mantle; the ravagers regroup and several old and obscure comic book characters are introduced [charlie-27, aleta, martinex, mainframe]; the watchers are watching things.) 

far from home: j jonah jameson basically tells the whole world spider-man’s secret identity, and frames him for what happened with mysterio....making him public enemy #1. ALSO, turns out nick fury and maria hill in the movie were ACTUALLY the two skrulls from captain marvel (talos and soren) attempting to do their job, while the real fury (and presumably hill) is ... up in space on some spaceship!!!

wandavision: monica (who we can assume is photon) is called by “an old friend of [her] mother’s,” up in space, which presumably means fury, talos, or carol. ALSO, wanda sits in the middle of nowhere reading the darkhold and hears the voices of her children who.. by all accounts, should not exist. 

aaaaand what we know about future movies (i’m not even going into the tv series.....): 

black widow: 

takes place after civil war

nat confronts a “dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past,” likely has to do with taskmaster who has apparently taken over the red room where nat was trained as an assassin

prominent new characters: yelena belova, who will take over the mantle of black widow after this; alexei shostakov aka red guardian, an ollllld marvel hero analogous to captain america except for the soviet union.

tony stark will make an appearance... SOBS

shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings:

shang-chi has never been seen in the mcu before, but he is, essentially, a superhero that is a master martial artist, and in some adaptations can also create duplicate (fake) versions of himself to confuse opponents

main villain will be the the mandarin who we have *sort of* seen before... he is the leader of a terrorist organization called “ten rings” whose main goal is to destroy world peace. brief history -- in iron man 1: one ten rings cell kidnaps tony stark and tries to force him to make weapons (he of course, makes his suit instead). stark and ten rings become enemies and fight a bunch. nat and nick fury fight them too. in iron man 3, the villain aldrich killian hires a dude to pretend to be the mandarin and claim responsibility for a bunch of stuff, but its not the ten rings or the mandarin at all. this makes the mandarin v mad and he has a dude kidnap the faker to punish him. they also briefly show up in ant-man, when a ten rings agent tries to buy the yellowjacket suit that darren cross is selling. BUT IN SHANG-CHI....... looks like we are FINALLY going to see the real mandarin after over a decade!! 

the villain razor fist will also show up, he is lesser known... he has no superhuman powers but he has surgically replaced his hands (1 or 2, depending on the version) with a steel blade, and is highly skilled at hand to hand combat.

besides the presence of these characters, the only bit of plot we know is “shang-chi is drawn into the ten rings organization and forced to confront his past.” so... yeah. we don’t know much at all.

eternals: 

quick explanation: the eternals are an immortal alien race who have been secretly living on earth for thousands of years. they were created by the celestials, who are most prominently in gotg2. 

more entirely new characters!!! their names are: thena, who can form any weapon out of cosmic energy; gilgamesh, who can make a super strong exoskeleton out of cosmic energy; ikaris, who has superhuman strength, flies, and can project cosmic energy out his eyes; kingo, who can shoot cosmic energy projectiles from his hands; makkari, who creates sonic booms, has super speed, and is deaf; phastos, who has enhanced intelligence, and is also gay (and married with a kid!); ajak, who has healing powers; sprite, who can project illusions; sersi, who can manipulate matter; druig, who can mind control; and dane whitman (black knight), a human with a mystical sword. 

regarding the plot... it seems the eternals have kind of dispersed, but have to come together again to fight the deviants, who are their “evil counterparts” (also created by the celestials, though i’m unclear on why). thena and gilgamesh have apparently been in exile, unclear why; sersi, who is posing as a museum curator, has apparently been in love with ikaris for centuries and it seems as if their love story may be central to the film; and kingo is a bollywood film star in his spare time. aaaaand that’s pretty much all we know.

directed by chloé zhao of nomadland fame! 

spider-man no way home: 

based on the post-credits scene in far from home, peter parker will now be known as spider-man to everyone. unclear if he’s going to be seen as a bad guy due to mysterio framing him, but i guess we’ll see! 

jamie foxx is electro, and alfred molina is doctor octopus; which is VERY interesting considering they played these roles in other spider-man franchises, once again stirring up excitement for possible multiverse. 

there have been *multiple* reports that andrew garfield, kirsten dunst, tobey maguire, and emma stone will be in the movie but tom holland has repeatedly denied this... so... who knows. 

there are also rumors that matt murdock / daredevil (from netflix) will be in several scenes! not confirmed though. 

MJ is still his girlfriend and i hope it stays that way!! 

doctor strange will be featured in the movie, taking on the mentor role now that tony stark is gone :( this will be interesting as i.. haven’t really seen them interact much before. because of this inclusion some people speculate that the film may draw inspo from some comic storylines where peter’s secret identity is restored with magic. 

doctor strange in the multiverse of madness: 

scarlet witch is essentially co-starring!!! it’s going to be really interesting to see if they bring vision or the twins into this at all, though i’m not counting on it. 

seems like mordo will be the main villain -- recall the ds1 post credits scene where he is apparently running around trying to steal people’s magic.

america chavez will make her debut!!!!!! i have no idea how this plays into anything but i am so excited!! 

regarding the plot, all we really know is that strange has been researching the time stone, mordo messes with him, and this results in him accidentally unleashing “unspeakable evil.” presumably there will also be heavy involvement of the multiverse, and who knows what kind of craziness that will bring!! 

initially was going to be directed by scott derrickson who did ds1; however he stepped down to being just EP due to “creative differences.” i am presuming this is because derrickson really wanted to make this more gothic and horror than disney was comfortable with. i REALLY hope they keep some of those elements though and don’t erase the idea entirely! anyway, it will be directed by sam raimi now (of evil dead and spiderman 2002 fame). 

the film also reportedly ties in with the loki series (will loki show up!?) and spiderman 3 (which is obvious enough, given that strange is in that movie and those curious electro and doctor octopus castings...)

thor: love and thunder

directed by taika waititi again, hell yeah!!! and he has stated, the film will be “so over the top now in the very best way" and would make ragnarok look like a "run of the mill, very safe film" .... so.... oh god

so many great returning players!!! including.... valkyrie (now the king of new asgard), jane foster, lady sif, korg, star-lord, mantis, drax, nebula, and kraglin (takes up yondu’s mantle after he dies in gotg2)

in this movie, thor isn’t thor anymore.... it’s JANE!!! she gets cancer :( and is undergoing treatment while simultaneously being thor. i’m a little nervous how this will be handled, but i’m excited. (it’s based off an amazing comic series by jason aaron) 

the big bad: gorr the god butcher, played by christian bale! the gist of it is, this dude HATES gods because nobody helped when his family was dying and in need. his weapon is “all-black the necrosword,” forged from the head of a celestial, and allows the user to create wings and fly at extreme speeds. honestly, he sounds cool as fuck. 

valkyrie is going to be made canonically bisexual!!! 

it will explore more of korg’s backstory, and also include... space sharks!?!?! an alien race from the comics.

taika has called the script “very romantic” so take that as you will 

black panther 2

will again be directed by ryan coogler

not much is known at this point, does not have an official name

t’challa will NOT be recast (which i’m happy about) so..... honestly no idea what to expect for this one. i think we can probably expect shuri to have an expanded role. all we know so far is they will be “exploring the world of wakanda.” not clear to me how this is different from the upcoming wakanda D+ series. 

tenoch huerta has reportedly been cast as a villain, but no one has any idea who. there’s also rumors that donald glover is in “informal talks” to play a role. note all of this is unconfirmed.

captain marvel 2

will be directed by nia da costa (candyman!) and written by megan mcdonnell, who is one of wandavision’s best writers! 

will take place in the present day 

will feature kamala khan / ms. marvel, monica rambeau / photon!!! this will be so interesting.... kamala is a huge fan of carol’s in the comics, she is her mentor/idol. the ms. marvel series will also resportedly lead into cm2. and monica, well, monica knew her when she was a little kid. wandavision implies that there’s some bad blood between carol and monica though, not sure why. maybe because carol left and never came back? (until endgame) 

post-credits scene of wandavision appears to tie into this, having monica go up into space at the reqeust of her “mom’s old friend.” again, not clear who that is. this could also be a tie in to secret invasion though, so we’ll see. or both.

zawe ashton has been cast as an unknown villain... a lot of people are actually speculating that she may play rogue? which would be fascinating, as there’s a comic arc where rogue steals her powers and memories. BUT there’s still no confirmation that X-men exist in the MCU so for now i remain skeptical.

they are looking to cast a ‘john boyega’ or ‘michael b jordan’ type which makes me wonder if they are going to create a new character, a “younger” war machine to be her love interest? (note: carol and rhodey are a huge thing in comics!) carol obviously does not look her age but her and don cheadle.... that just doesn’t work. which is why i wonder.

ant-man and the wasp: quantumania 

in addition to scott and hope, pretty much all the major players are returning including: luis, hank pym, janet van dyne

cassie lang has been recast with an actress 5 years older, which is really making me wonder if they are going to make her stinger in this movie! (aka one of the main young avengers)

the villain: kang the conqueror! this dude time travels. original name nate richards. in the comics, kang travels back in time to rescue his younger self (nate) from an attack that would help shape him towards a life of villainy. kang also gives him some fancy armor. his younger self actually is like, what the fuck dude? and renounces his destiny, becoming a hero. and he makes his armor look like iron man, calling himself iron lad. who is a young avenger. which also makes me wonder about cassie lang.

otherwise not much is known! 

guardians of the galaxy vol. 3

james gunn is returning, i’m mixed about this...he really does *get* the guardians though. 

based on the gotg2 post credits scene, i think we can assume adam warlock will be a HUGE part of this. there are multiple versions of him, some villainous and some heroic, but no idea how this is gonna turn out.

no word yet on whether thor will be involved, or if those ravagers they introduced will be involved. 

fantastic four 

will be directed by the spiderman guy, john watts.

otherwise we know literally nothing.

aaaaand that’s the roundup! 

[discotreque]

LwD 2.03: We’ll Always Have Tom Paris

I’ve lived in the same apartment for eight years now, and yesterday was the fifth catastrophic mechanical failure of the same bathroom toilet—all unrelated issues, too; this time it was the fill valve. At this point I don’t know whether to call a plumber or an exorcist… but anyway, it’s been kind of hard to focus on Star Trek! Ugh.

This week’s episode is credited to M. Willis, who I last encountered on She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, a show about which I wrote literally 100,000 words of fanfic last year, in between Picard and Lower Decks when I had no Star Trek to obsess over. Willis’s She-Ra episodes tended to be slightly off-format in execution, with big action set pieces, lots of characters in unexpected combinations, and usually an emotional game-changer of a climax—and her last credit on this show was “Much Ado About Boimler,” which obviously had all those elements too. She writes to her strengths!

Spoilers within:

If you need me, I’m going to be ugly-laughing about “Voy” for the rest of the day. (Wow, that does actually save a ton of time!)

SHAXS IS BACKXS!!!! The lower-deckers never knowing how or why a senior officer came back from the dead is a perfect microcosm of this show. I love that he still calls Rutherford “Baby Bear,” and I love the weird cosmic horror that LwD keeps sprinkling into the Star Trek universe. (What does that koala know?) I hope this doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Kayshon! His appearance on the bridge gives me hope we’ll get to keep both characters around.

Star Trek has always had fairly fuzzy world-building for the world outside Starfleet—understandable, since 99% of Star Trek takes place within Starfleet—but it’s been such a thrill to see LwD (and Picard) finally establish some in-universe pop culture that isn’t conveniently familiar to 20th- or 21st-century audiences. Like the Zebulon Sisters last season—a band that apparently does USO-style tours of Starfleet ships? Delightful. Kestra Troi-Riker having a t-shirt from a Sex Pistols cover band in Klingon? Fucking brilliant. Tendi bonding with the guy at the storage place over the “Klingon acid punk” playing from his little Bluetooth speaker? PUT IT IN MY VEINS.

They really put the character development in gear this week! I liked how we locked in a couple of things already established in extra-canonical material: Mariner’s bisexuality, which Mike McMahan mentioned in an interview last year, and Tendi’s given name, D’vana (which I was sure we’d heard on the show before, but I guess not?).

Speaking of Mariner’s love life, is human–Bynar dating just… by definition a threesome situation?

We learned a lot of new things about Tendi, though, and every single one makes her 10 times more interesting to me. Remember last season, when she said “many” Orions hadn’t been pirates or slavers “for over five years”? Is the implication that something happened in Orion culture—around the end of the Dominion War?—that led to Tendi (and presumably others) rejecting a life of crime and joining Starfleet? How long was she “the Mistress of Winter Constellations” before that—or is it more of an inherited title? I want more Tendi lore!!!!

(Speaking of Tendi’s life, another quick and confounding piece of information for my red-yarn “what the hell is up with Tendiford” theory board: Mariner asks if they’re dating and Tendi’s response is “Not really!” Not really? That’s not no, D’vana!)

This show continues to be a surprisingly conventional workplace sitcom underneath all the excellent Star Trek (and that’s not a bad thing, just a genre overlap that keeps falling out of the front of my mind). Boimler’s inability to use the computer hit way too close to home for me this week: a couple years ago, I returned to a job after a long-term leave of absence, during which time I’d been assigned to a new manager—who’d never had an employee return from long-term leave before, so he didn’t know what to do beforehand—so I spent my first day back just chilling at my desk, fucking around on my phone, because there was literally nothing else I could do without logging into the system first. Too real!

Something we’ve seen in this show that I’m not sure we’ve seen before w/r/t the food replicators is somebody putting a tray of food into the replicator to add more food on top of it—in this case Shaxs getting spicy kiwi ketchup (?!) on a hot dog he seems to have already replicated. (He couldn’t have asked for “hot dog, with spicy kiwi ketchup” in the first place? This is haunting me worse than him coming back from the dead.)

As a certified cat lady, the T’Ana plotline—and its resolution—made me laugh until I couldn’t breathe (unless that was the toxoplasmosis). I should have seen it coming, but I was too distracted by the second-hand embarrassment of them breaking “Jeremy” (and the completely unprecedented Star Trek plot of a doctor getting off on her grandmother’s family heirloom…).

Miscellany:

Jet offering to carry Boimler across the threshold of the door like a bride… am I going to ship THIS now?

Mariner interpreting Tendi’s “talk like a pirate!” in the same way a modern millennial would—“Arr, how ya be doin’ today, me fellow Orion?”—might have been my favourite dumb joke in the entire episode. (“I’m allergic to, uh, pheromones?”)

Tawny Newsome read the line about “only one name, like Odo!” in the script and apparently literally called Mike McMahan out of the blue to remind him that Odo’s name is short for “Odo’ital” and she didn’t want nitpicking nerds on her case. He told her the line was so funny he would accept the nitpicking, so don’t blame Tawny—she tried to warn him!

“There’s like, only a couple people in the quadrant who can say they got beat up by Tom Paris.” Is that a burn? I think that’s a burn.

Another banger of an episode. This show is more confident this season, and I’m loving it—and based on what I’ve heard from people who’ve seen the next two episodes, it only gets better from here. HYYYYYYYPE!!!!!!

See you next week—I’ve got to go fashion a toilet plunger into a crucifix, apparently.

[androgynousblackbox]

Re having One Big Fandom: the thing that's hard for me is that a lot of fandoms have a relatively high barrier to entry.

You want me to get into a shonen anime? There's probably 100s of episodes that I'll have to first find space to download (we don't have good streaming options around here) and then find time to watch. Video game fandom? I don't own any consoles and I'm also not very good at games so that's a big time investment as well. Things like Star Wars and MCU have more than 10 different movies not to mention all the other stuff. Even book fandoms can get expensive (going to the library isn't really an option around here) considering that some series run to dozens of volumes or more, not to mention the investment of reading time.

As a working adult I don't really have time to spend getting into new canons all the time so mostly I stick to what I already know I like. It's simply not feasible for me to spend all that time on a new fandom only to have to give it all up every couple years.

Whoops that one big fandom ask was meant for someone else please ignore Anon, I know you said to ignore it but I hope you don't mind I answer anyway because I have some thoughts about this: 1. First, do you even care about those fandoms? I don't mean it in a bad way, I mean, like, do you really feel attracted to any of the stories that have Big Fandoms or just want to get into those stories because, well, the fandoms are so active and you want to participate on the action? If you do not care about Star Wars, MCU, that particular anime, that other show, then there's absolutely nothing wrong staying on the fandoms of the properties you already know and enjoy. They might not be the biggest fandoms ever, but who cares? As long there is a community for it and you are enjoying your free time in the way that makes you the happiest, then that is all that matters. 2. But if you do feel like there is something interesting about those stories and want to participate on fandom, then you don't need to watch however many episodes/movies to get on it. I barely ever play videogames, but I am still on videogame based fandoms because I watched gameplays, I follow blogs talking about it and/or read articles about them from other fans. You don't need to play anything to just know about the characters, the world or the universe. If you know who is who then that is more than enough to have your own ship, look for fanart, etc. 3. Likewise, you don't need to watch however many movies because, especially for something so mainstream like Star Wars or MCU, there is already plenty of fan made summaries for anyone to be up to date with whatever the fuck is happening right now. Same for anime! The reason shounen anime specifically can last so fucking much is because of filler episodes that do nothing for the overall plot (although they can be fun). The manga is always straight to the point, but if that is also way too fucking long, again, fan made summaries are your friends! Even if you got the minor details wrong when writing fanfiction or making a comic, who cares?? You either keep it in mind for the next, correct it if possible or forget about it entirely and declare it your very own AU. Nobody will mind. And if they do? Well, fuck them because you are just doing this shit for fun. Who cares about canon anyway! 4. Book fandoms? You can either pirate them directly online and then only invest on a small basic e-reader to have an entire library like that (that is what I do because book ARE way too expensive here) or find audiobooks for you to listen while doing something else. You might also find articles speaking on broad strucks about the plot. Read reviews, the more indeepth the better. If those books have movie adaptations there might be already videos comparing the two source material. If it's an entire saga that has been popular for a long time then no doubt someone already talked in lenght about it. I never read After, the Harry Styles fanfiction turned to movie, and yet I am way too knowledgeable about it because of listening other people talk about it. 5. If you don't have time to do any of that either then, again, it's just fine to keep doing what you can and keep with what is good for you. Try to get into a fandom only to get more stressed about it is literally defeating the purpose of a hobby so don't worry about it.

[reallybadfeeling]

FanFic Reclist May 2021

This month I truly struggled to focus on doing anything, and I ended up reading a lot of fics on the shorter side, like around 10-20k. Usually I enjoy reading more plot heavy fics, so I had kind of a hard time to really point out which of the many fics I read to suggest (especially because my memory is shit and I forgot to write down which ones I loved from each week). Long story short, this month's list is actually of 4 fic only. Hope you enjoy my suggestions anyway.

The Witcher

-Customs of Courtship and Marriage by Jack Ironsides (@jackironsidesfic) Geralt/Jaskier - 14.553 words - Rating G - Friends to lovers, Courting rituals, Fluff and humor, Self-esteem issues

I absolutely adore the courting rituals tag and this fic is absolutely lovely. The whole story is based on the idea that people think Jaskier has a wife and he rarely tells anyone otherwise and… Those two dorks, you guys! Such a lovely "feel good" read!

-I will not kiss you by akindofmerrywar (which tumblr won't let me properly tag 'cause today it's being weird) Geralt/Jaskier - 22.837 words - Rating E - Curses, Sickfic, Near death experience, Pining, Angst

This fic reduced me to tears so many times! I absolutely adore Geralt's POV fics and this one has him being (not so) secretly VERY emotional. I just loved how bad it hurt, especially with that lovely ending to make up for all the crying.

Star Wars Rebels -Chef’s Kiss by HixyStix (@x-wing-junkie) Kallus/Garazeb - 13.818 words - Rating E - Modern AU, Rivals to lovers, Kitchen sex, Chef Zeb, Manager Kallus

I haven’t made it a mystery that I absolutely love HixyStix’s Kalluzeb fics, and it’s always nice to find a new one to read. The bickering between Kallus and Zeb is so good in this one! Absolutely a must read, like any other fic from her, really..

Star Wars Sequels/Originals -Saving the Last Hope by Aaveena (@aaveena) Rey/Ben, Leia/Han - 262.160 words - Rating T - Time travel, Family reunions, Fluff & Angst, Happy ending, Force Dyad

I gotta admit, I’m absolutely surprised that the only really long fic I managed to read this month is this beast. Mostly because it has one of the tags I hate the most: time travel. The reason for this unexpected love is most likely the whole “let’s fix the entire Skywalker family” kind of theme of the fic. Can’t help it, I want good things for the entire family! It also helped that the narration switches between so many points of view, you get a chance to be in everyone’s mind, and hear their thought process. Highly suggest giving it a read. It’s technically a series and the author hinted at a possible sequel so… I’m waiting patiently to read more (possibly about Ben and Rey building up a family of their own?).

[biinaberry]

Potion Parasite Story

Wow, there are a lot of you. I might be writing two fics for this story so I’m going to give the basic premise. However underneath the read more I will provide the entire plot, so if you want to see it, go-ahead.

The base premise starts in S6 during the civil war between Team Star and the G-Team. Team Star, finding themselves on the losing side, realizes they need an advantage to push themselves to victory. False and Wels brainstorm together, as co-leaders in arms, and suggest the idea of stronger potions. Pitching the idea to the rest of the team, and with approval, the group forms a cohesive plan to try and create a super potion that has the effects of instant health, regeneration, swiftness, and night vision all in one. Xisuma is originally against the idea and through some gentle persuasion, and peer pressure, allows the potion to be created.   The potion is a success! At the meeting table, the team comes together in the joy of the team's success and after lifting their glasses; downs their potions to victory.  The effects are instant as they instantly feel rejuvenated and ready for the next fight as they grab their weapons and gear. However, as time goes on the other hermits start to notice something is wrong with their fellow companions. Xisuma’s visor has a more magenta shade along with Doc’s eye, but it all comes ahead at the next fight. Stress slices False’s arm and for a few moments she sees; her blood is pink. 

From then on the Team Star members also start changing personality wise, they still have the same core traits but something has... shifted. They are more driven on healing and making sure the other hermits are okay to an uncomfortable degree. Before, the hermits would trust the others to take care of themselves, but now whenever someone takes a few hearts of damage the members will start questioning them on if they really are okay. They are never without the pink potion.  See the potion is a parasite, slowly overriding their mentality to constantly have 3 things in mind: Heal others, Heal yourself, and Spread the Potion. Often combining with the team’s need to protect their friends and making sure they’re alright; what started out as a simple advantage turns into manipulation as it uses their love for their fellow hermits for its gain. Wels is still as level headed as ever and Impulse still has the joy that seeps out of every word he says, but now they feel off. And the infected know they can’t just force the potion onto others, no no no. They just create situations a little more... dangerous, for their friends. Pushing others off of ledges and guided traps for the hermits, they slowly wait their time until their prey to be too hurt to deny some help. I mean, that’s how they got Zedaph anyways. Alongside TFC and a few others. The others hermits aren’t oblivious to whats going on around them, they know that there is a major problem, but what are they suppose to do when they are fighting against superhumans that can take 3 creepers to the face and walk it off like its nothing. And they cant take too many risks because one wrong move and they will make you drink that parasite. Everyone is tense and Tango had to drop out of the war because he was too busy with being the replacement admin because of Xisuma using his powers. Alongside losing his other support pillar to the thing that took his friend. Eventually the war comes to a close because G-team simply can’t beat their opponent and its better to take a loss than to risk getting infected. People can heal from war but not like this, so caution would be their best friend right now.  Eventually however, a light was found at the end of the tunnel, because in the chat a simple message read, [Zedaph blew up] And miraculously instead of coming back with pink freckles, Zedaph came back.. as his normal self. The entity was gone, driven from his body once he awoke again in bed. And as Zed shook his head with fuzzy memories surfacing he knew, Tango and the others needed to know this.   After some planning, a gamble was taken and as Grian put the finishing touches on the treasure pile, Demise was in effect. And everyone hoped that this would turn out in their favor, for there was only two ways this could go: Success or Failure. But you and I know how this story turned out, the hermits won in the end and the infected was defeated however that sadly enough isn’t the end of our story for one person was left in their sleep, Welsknight. Alone in his house, abandoned by the rest, the parasite started to get more attached to the player. The bright pink filling his veins and gave a pink hue to them in the light. The parasite fused deeper into his body, into his muscles and bones the influence the creature has grew steadily over time as the other players moved onto season 7.  When he finally awoke his eyes were different, reflecting a bright pink sheen when light was reflected off of them, but he didn’t mind. He never did in the first place. And as Cub rescued him from his confinements in the dead world he realized that he needed to get his old team back. Needing to stay low to get rid of suspicion he build his base and bought from the cow-mercial district and eventually when everyone was situated with him being back, he flew over to False in search of his co-leader. Instead of meeting a fellow infected he was met with someone cured and no matter his tries as subtle persuasion with the builder, she didn’t seem to take any of his bait. He waved her goodbye and left disappointed but didn’t lose his hopes in bringing protection to the other hermits.  Those who were saved from the infection knew how it controlled them and made them lose themselves. With the promise of protection and safety however they later realized how wrong that statement is, but Wels never got that message. Stuck in a mentality that to him seems beneficial but to others it’s a restriction and erasure of individuality. Wels stays undercover until the arena fight with Xb and all hell breaks loose. As one of his opponents drops an anvil on him, that should have killed him, he simply brushes it off and gets back up to continue fighting, but the damage has already been done and Joe witnessed the whole thing. Joe knows how that infection works, seeing it in action right in front of him during the war, and in that one moment he realize how badly they fucked up, because they forgot to account for him too. Joe confronts Wels and tries to reason with the other on how the infection wont help, but Wels is stuck in his ways believing he is helping. A verbal fight happens between the two in hushed whispers between Wels’s exclamation that the hermits will be kept safe with the potion and Joe’s firm stance that the parasite will eliminate individuality and that it cares more about keeping itself safe rather than its host. Wels eventually leaves, knowing he can’t win this one.  When Wels’s persuasion with a few other hermits doesn’t go to plan he finally decided to try something new. Go for those who were gone during S6 and the plan was a success. With a new crew of Beef, Etho, Hypno, Xb, the infected decide to bring some more trouble for the rest to deal with. The Hermits, now prepared, work together to slay the new infected and it’s a success. However when they lay the final blow on Wels and he wakes up in bed, they are met with bright pink eyes. It didn’t work.  

[strangertheory]

"anti-Mileven"

I know you submitted this as a message and not an Ask, but I hope you don't mind if I answer your question with a longer post because this is a topic that is important to me but is complicated. I've meant to do a post about this, but kept putting it off because it is a very layered topic for me and my thoughts about Mileven are probably not what a lot of fans want to hear.

I respect that everyone develops an attachment to their preferred couples in stories for personal reasons, and as such any criticism of the dynamic between two characters that are dating can feel like a very personal criticism. I respect everyone's head-canons and favorite ships as sacred ground: I don't want to tell anyone how they should or should not relate to a story. That's unique to each of us as fans, and we will all enjoy Stranger Things for different reasons.

However: I do have some thoughts regarding the way that the narrative has established the dynamic between Mike and El. And I personally do not find their dynamic *as it currently is* to be one that is ideal for either of them yet.

I really care about Eleven and I really care about Mike. They are two of my favorite characters in the story.

To say that I'm "anti-Mileven" is a huge oversimplification of how I feel about Mike and El's dynamic.

I am very much anti:

overlooking the fact El has been treated as a lab rat and abused and isolated from society for the majority of her existence and her ignorance of her own identity and her own desires is repeatedly reinforced canonically. ("How do I know what I like?") El has spent only a few months out in the world beyond her cell at the lab and beyond Hopper's cabin, she knows very little about the world yet, and she is being taught much of what she now knows by her boyfriend who also happens to be one of the few people she interacts with in her daily life. The power difference and social difference between them is huge currently regardless of whether Mike is a nice kid with good intentions or not, and they are both fourteen years olds.

overlooking that it is superficial and not representative of a "deep" relationship to only kiss and make out with a significant other and not do other meaningful activities that establish a real day-to-day relationship (like hanging out with friends and other loved ones as a couple.) There's a popular misconception that the act of two people kissing is inherently romantic and a sign of emotional closeness. But kissing becomes romantic psychologically when two people share a deep affection for one another that is based on shared experiences and emotional and psychological connectedness. If two characters can be shown to care about one another without ever physically touching, they have the potential for a deep connection that is based on more than the thrill of physical affection. Give me a well-developed relationship first, and then kissing will seem romantic to me. Without an established psychological and emotional connection between characters, kissing is merely a superficial representation of the idea of intimacy between characters without any actual substance underneath. Sure that's what kids do when they're figuring out how dating and feelings and physical intimacy work and it's not harmful in itself provided that they are both comfortable with it, but keep this in mind within the context of the other concerns I list here.

trivializing Mike's dishonesty and blaming Hopper for Mike's lying when the truth is Mike could have easily explained to El that Hopper didn't want them spending as much time together and having some space would be better. El is well aware of Hopper's dislike for their time spent together. This should have been a very easy conversation. As Lucas rightfully asks as Mike is ranting about the situation he got himself into: "Why lie?" Good question, Lucas. Good question. El asks Mike this again later at the mall. "Why do you lie?" Mike stares back at her with an awkward expression, and does NOT answer her. Why is this answer not an easy one? Why has Mike still not addressed things with El? I think there is more going on here than just Hopper's threats.

I am very in favor of:

El learning more about who she is and what she wants to do with her life outside of the desires and expectations of other people.

Mike figuring out how to effectively express his thoughts and feelings honestly. He is clearly struggling to do this throughout season 3, and it is uncharacteristic of the kid who defiantly said and did what he wanted frequently in seasons 1 and 2. Clearly Mike is not comfortable and is nervous, which is understandable for someone exploring new emotionally vulnerable territory like dating for the first time, but he needs to learn to be honest and tell people how he is thinking and feeling or else he is also putting himself and his feelings and needs at risk and potentially establishing an unhealthy relationship that will hurt him and hurt others even if he doesn't mean to. Mike's nervousness is STILL present in the final goodbye scene in which Mike and El talk, and El tells him she loves him and kisses him. He is still stumbling over his words and anxious, and he seems notably confused after El kisses him. These small details are not trivial, they are clearly intentional.

Recognizing that Mike is the first person her age that was kind to El when she escaped the lab, and given that she has only known pain and abuse her entire life and has never known friendship let alone romance that her psychological readiness for understanding a romantic relationship is NOT the same as an ordinary 14 year old's and this cannot be stated enough.

Recognizing that societal pressures and personal insecurities might be a huge factor in how Mike clings to El's attention and affection for him, and that there is evidence in the story that supports this interpretation. We know that Mike is bullied frequently, and that there is a layer of homophobia often involved. (Even if James and Troy were speaking rudely about Will, they were still directly confronting Mike. The implication is there.) We know that Lucas yelled at Mike "No Mike. You're blind. Blind because you like that a girl's not grossed out by you!" This reveals that Lucas knows that Mike is insecure and wants validation. Just because Mike has a desperate desire to be loved and liked by a girl does not mean that his appreciation of El's attention is based on his genuine romantic affection for her. Mike might be dating El because he enjoys the attention, he likes being liked, and he likes how having a girlfriend makes him feel more accepted and normal.

Recognizing that every moment that Mike has tried to share something that he is passionate about with El (the Yoda figurine, the dinosaurs) she has been completely disinterested. Since El has no cultural connection to the pop culture stories Mike loves and she lived in the Lab her entire life, it makes perfect sense that she will have no interest in these toys. Her lack of interest in what Mike is passionate about, however, is worth noting: not because it's a bad thing, but because it's just one of many reasons they are "not even from the same planet" and cannot bond and connect easily. El has lived an incredibly different life from Mike, has suffered through so much, and is still learning about the outside world and about herself. She is severely behind in social and personal development. She needs time to learn and to grow and to heal so she can live her best life and recover from what she has been through. (She doesn't really care about your Star Wars toys, Michael, because she just learned what a phone is and is processing a lot of other things right now.)

*I want to credit @kaypeace21 for pointing out many of these particular observations listed above: you can read her very detailed and extensive analysis in her post here: El is Not in Love with Mike.

These are just a few of many thoughts I have regarding Mike and El's dynamic together, and why I find the romanticization and idealization of their dating relationship to be more suited to fan-canon and fanfiction. For El to have a relationship with Mike that I would personally enjoy and appreciate, the story would need to convincingly allow her to establish a notably better understanding of who she is and what she wants, and have time to heal from her trauma and learn a lot more about the outside world. While I suspect that the Byers moving away will be very difficult for Will, in many ways I think it will benefit El tremendously and I hope that she is given more opportunities to learn and to grow.

I also agree with @hawkinsschoolcounselor 's hypothesis that Mike is projecting his feelings for Will onto El. It's impossible for me to see Mike's dynamic with El as entirely separate from Mike's relationship with Will because El was found in the woods when they were looking for Will in season 1, El helped everyone find Will in the Upside Down and saved his life, and El reappears at the end if season 2 and saves Will from the Mindflayer. Until season 3, El's appearance in Mike's life has been directly tied to Will's survival and safety. I do not think this is a trivial aspect of El's narrative. El's importance within the larger story being told is repeatedly tied back to what Will is dealing with. The reason that El and Will's narratives are so deeply intertwined has not been revealed in the story yet, but I suspect that there are some important aspects of El and Will's stories that haven't been fully revealed yet that will bring all of these seemingly isolated plot threads together. The creators of Stranger Things repeatedly tie El and Will together visually and narratively (re: @kaypeace21), and I believe there is a very specific reason for this.

I look forward to seeing what happens in season 4. Whether my interpretation of El and Mike's dynamic is fair or not, I trust the writers have a compelling next chapter in their story for us all to enjoy.

[maozijun]

Mao Zijun Xing Fan Interview

Removing the “adonis of period-costume dramas” label, and returning to a Republican era drama

Before Killer and Healer (or KillHeal hence), Mao Zijun had not filmed a republican drama in a long time. For almost the past five years, the audience’s impression of him has been his costume dramas, such as Qin Wuyan from The Legend of Chusen, An Qinxu from The Glory of Tang Dynasty, Yin Yiren from The Legend of Haolan, and so on and so forth. Because most of his dramas are costume dramas, as it happens, offers that come to him are the costume dramas.

Thus, when an offer for KillHeal, a TV drama about “drug crackdown” set in Republican China, appeared before Mao Zijun, he accepted it without a second thought. “At the time, I felt that I didn’t want to keep shooting costume dramas.”

If “costume drama” is a tag the audience associates with Mao Zijun’s role and acting, we can also claim that “zen,” “placid,” and “easy-going” are impressions he leaves on most people. Other than for the purpose of promoting the broadcasts of his new dramas, he seldom appears in public. If he “wasn’t at home, [he’d] be hanging out, or watching movies.” To the public, it’s as if he’s been “spirited away.” As a regular whose name ranks on the “skilled actor without due fame” chart, regardless how many times he’s been asked about the matter, his response has always been “I really haven’t paid it much attention.” His response may seem like a pleasantry, but he means it from the bottom of his heart.

Mao Zijun knows that ever since he became an actor, his career has been successful for the most part without any major setbacks, and he’s met many great people along the way. From his first TV drama Beauty's Rival in Palace when he cooperated with Lin Xinru, he stumbled into the entertainment industry and was swept along despite his inexperience and unworldliness. Including Director Yu Zheng who was willing to give him the male lead roles for The Legend of Haolan and The Matriarch. “So I thought I’ve had good luck. I’ve met people who appreciated me and were willing to give me opportunities. I’m very grateful.”

Mao Zijun’s “zen” attitude, however, doesn’t extend to everything he does. When there’s a role he really wants, his “wolf-like ambition” is brought out. When it comes choosing projects, he doesn’t compromise either. “I think everyone has the desire to strive for things they don't have; regardless of where you are in life, you wish to become better, you wish that you can climb higher. It’s a never-ending climb.”

Regardless of whether he’s gained fame and popularity, or remains a fine wine waiting to be discovered, “becoming better” is a creed he lives by and acts upon.

- 01 - Shooting KillHeal was an effortless process

What made Mao Zijun “return” to KillHeal after a long separation from republican dramas was its story and Jiang Yuelou’s personality. Jiang Yuelou is a morally grey character: a police officer and Chief of the Inspection Department. He's made law enforcement and drug crackdown his lifelong war, and it’s an undertaking he’s willing to sacrifice his life for. Although a patient with manic depression (known as bipolar disorder in modern clinical terms)--which results in his irritable, violent, and stubborn personality and tendency to be a lone wolf--he’s upright at his core, and there’s a gentle side to him deep down.

When Mao Zijun saw the script, he knew that this character had a lot of potential and creative room to work with. Precisely because of the great amount of creative room, on top of Jiang Yuelou’s vivid and distinct personality, filming for KillHeal was a relatively easy-going process for Mao Zijun despite the character’s lifelong angst and suffering. The character was rich and human per se, “so there was no need to brood over some things,” and it could be rather realistically portrayed. By the same token, the more one could ease himself into character, the better the final results.

Many actors determine the difficulty of portraying a character by criterion of the character’s degree of complexity, or their own compatibility with the character. In this respect, Mao Zijun is somewhat different: his criterion is whether the character can spontaneously come to life in the mind’s eye. “When you’ve read the entire script and discover that the character is very vivid and lifelike--his motives, intentions, behaviour and course of actions, all of which constitutes his rich psychological wiring--you will be able to portray him with relative ease, and not based on whether he’s similar to you. “Compatibility is only one aspect.”

Even if you were to act a character completely different from yourself, “you can imagine yourself in his shoes--what he would say or do” because he’s such a vivid character. “You can effectively get into character.”

In crafting Jiang Yuelou, Mao Zijun largely relies on following the script, his character changing with the progression of the plot; as a result, Jiang Yuelou’s uncontrollable violence, uncompromising ways, and other destructive habits doesn’t extend beyond the character and affect the actor himself. Unlike other actors whose characters took a mental and physical toll on them, Mao Zijun isn’t a purely immersive actor.

“Filming for a movie may require more personal feelings and emotions, but for a TV series, I think it’s half-and-half. Except for particular emotional scenes, that is.” In KillHeal, for example, the emotion expressed through Jiang Yuelou’s eyes when he’s solving cases, or reaction to receiving news, are all achieved through acting techniques. But for scenes where he’s facing the death of his subordinates, his mother, his adoptive father, his brother, and other loved ones, his reactions and expressions of pain must be nuanced and highly faceted. Even for crying scenes, he must cry in widely differing ways. For these scenes, Mao Zijun must lend his own emotional faculties to the character.

However, he does not believe tears are the only way to express his character’s emotions. When his younger and less inexperienced co-star, Ian Yi, consults him about his worries of being unable to shed tears, Mao Zijun tells him, “Why must you shed tears? Tears do not mean everything. The more dramatic and emotionally heavy a scene is, the more you must relax yourself.”

Filming to Mao Zijun is in fact a creative process where he imagines the character, then completes him. Hence, for every character he has acted, Mao Zijun would forget about the character. In his next drama, he would similarly imagine the character, understand his character, and the cycle continues.

So far, he believes there has yet to be a character that requires a lot from him mentally and psychologically, or even one that took him a long time getting out of. But, he hopes he will encounter such a character; a character that can let him experience more, feel more, and empathize with more.

KillHeal was a project Mao Zijun worked on two years ago. Two years ago, he did everything he could to bring Jiang Yuelou into fruition. Looking back now, there are details that could be further refined or supplemented, but the current KillHeal is still to his satisfaction, from his performance and methods of expression, to the overall product that is his character. “As to whether it has met my expectations… Because the broadcast of KillHeal had been held off for so long, I was worried about if the drama would go out of date when it finally came out. But there haven't been such problems so there’s nothing else I’m unsatisfied with.”

- 02 - I’ve become increasingly sentimental

While Mao Zijun may not be a purely immersive actor, he is not a wholly rationalistic one either. It’s in his analysis of his characters and response after completing a character that is rational. This rationality is present in his logic, or his healing process after getting out of character, but not acting itself.

Rationality is perhaps a result of Mao Zijun’s own experiences and personality. He had no formal training in acting. He had good grades in high school, perhaps due to parental pressure and his own belief that good grades made life somewhat easier. After graduating from high school, Mao Zijun successfully got into Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics and majored in Auditing.

“Why had I chosen auditing? At that time, I thought auditing had good prospects. It wasn’t a complicated job either--I took math and the sciences in high school, so auditing isn’t hard.” After getting into university, his parents weren’t as strict as they were in high school, so he had the opportunity to “set himself free” and explore new options. Just like that, he started taking jobs for advertisements, and then acting.

“Beauty's Rival in Palace was especially looking for people to fill in roles at the time. Liu Che was an important character despite not having a lot of scenes, and they thought my appearance fit the role.” Mao Zijun laughed lightly, “Also because of my looks that I started acting.”

The profession of acting provided him with many new experiences, because every character was new and unlike the mechanical motions he had to go through everyday. “This is also the reason why I will persist on this path.”

As someone who changed career paths from the sciences to acting, Mao Zijun has never second-guessed his decisions. He thought of himself as lucky, and his path a smooth one. Many of his friends around him have changed their career paths because of setbacks or other reasons, but he hasn’t. His parents have given him understanding and support. “My parents would express their worries, but they would not try and make a decision for me. Every big decision I've made is my own choice.”

Mao Zijun is a Capricorn: steadiness and rationality are a big part of it. But because he’s been an actor for so long, he’s in fact becoming more and more sentimental. When he first started out in the industry, he would care about others’ views and opinions about him. But with time, they gradually ceased to bother him. This is one of the very few things that have changed about him since his debut.

As an actor with no formal training, but has still received praise and acknowledgement for his acting skills, he does not attribute it to natural talent. Instead, he attributes it to his own capacity for self-excavation. “I think as an actor, you are mining yourself (your talents and skills). For example, if you meet other good actors, good characters, you will be driven to tap into your natural talents. For many actors, rather saying they don’t have talent, they simply haven’t been given the chance to discover their potential.”

In Mao Zijun’s opinion, every actor has talent, it is only a matter of chance and whether they can encounter a great character.

- 03 - Try and lose the “let it be” attitude

Mao Zijun has been in the industry for more than ten years. Ten years’ time is enough to change the state of the entertainment industry and the actors in it. As a post-85 liner interacting with post-90s and -95s actors, he’s picked up a hobby of collecting tarot cards, and has been playing video games like Super Mario and Contra that came with the gaming console gifted to him by his fans.

Newcomers in the industry would abide to the instructions of senior artists and the director. If they met difficulties or discomfort in the process of the shoot, they could only learn to deal with it themselves. But the market has changed, with new genres, subject matters, and the actors, too, are young. These young actors can willfully express themselves and vent, unlike the older generation of actors who learned to put up with things.

These changes cannot be predicted. Just like how it happened in a few years’ time, when an actor may no longer have a large audience base like before--an audience who sits in front of the TV just to catch the airtime of a TV series. Mao Zijun, too, is no longer the unworldly and inexperienced newcomer he was.

If he had to draw a demarcation, he says it’s the year 2016. “Before 2016, although I was an actor by profession and had thought I took my job seriously, looking back now, I’d just been in a status quo of “passing time.” Life had been smooth for Mao Zijun: high school, university, getting a job. He hasn’t met any real obstacles. The efforts and hard work he thought he had been putting into his work were tantamount to what he could easily accomplish in his best and most favourable circumstances.

He strongly agrees with the view that actors need to experience pain and setbacks. But he thinks that’s only a part of it. An actor can experience some things, but he is not able to experience everything. To him, some experiences can be gained through reading novels. “The stories, including the thoughts and behaviours of characters, are enriching and detailed. If you’re not able to personally experience some things, you can experience them via other methods.”

Mao Zijun is a very carefree person. He takes on drama offers when he feels like it, and rejects it when he doesn’t. He’s content with hiding himself away from the public eye to take time off for himself. But now, even he doubts whether the “let himself be” attitude is appropriate. “I noticed that there was a gap, like the period of time after The Legend of Haolan finished airing to the airing of KillHeal now. During these two years, you had no other dramas on-air. Your fans want to see your new projects and content, but you couldn’t give them anything, yet they would still give you a lot of support. It would make you question, shouldn’t I be filming more projects for them?”

After questioning himself, Mao Zijun started taking on more projects. Even during the pandemic, he filmed a movie (no news yet), acted as a cameo in The Journey of Flower as the character Sha Qianmo, and filmed for The Matriarch. “Since my fans want to see me so badly, I’ll just have to act in more projects, I thought.”

In The Matriarch, he plays the role of Wei Liang’gong, a very kind, “moonlight” (unattainable) character--a character with all the wonderful traits and virtues of a person--much like the male version of Empress Fuca Rongyin from Story of Yanxi Palace (2018). “This costume drama depicts a very realistic portrayal of life during the period. Acting in this drama was more of a process of experiencing and feeling, using an everyday-life way of performing was quite nice.”

Mao Zijun doesn’t really care whether he’s famous or popular. Even to this day, other actors from the casts he’s worked with would offer him new projects. Speaking from this point, he thinks he’s lucky enough as it is. To him, a TV drama actor, a bit of fame and a lot of fame doesn’t hold much of a difference. In the long term, “fame” is only a matter of degree. “Unless you win an award--a prestigious film award, whether it be movies or TV films--how much fame is but a matter of quality.” What he must do now, and spare no effort, is to give himself more opportunities.

In retrospect, Mao Zijun has gotten the roles he wanted, and there’s really no regrets. What he desires perhaps lies in the future. Fortunately, there’s just enough time.

Writer: 77

WeChat ID: LJLX2013

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