#move aside kenobi I have a new favourite | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tessiete · 4 years ago

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So, my mum sent me a prompt, and I...I wrote it. Still working on those in my inbox, but mum’s come first, ya know?

She picked Spotify #12 (Love You Back, by Metric), and she wanted Luke and Qui-Gon bonding. I tried, mum, but Korkie just shows up all the time.

Love, your daughter.

LIFT UP, AND FALL AWAY

Luke travels to Dantooine by himself.

It’s been weeks since Bespin, weeks since he’d been released from medical supervision aboard the Dreamless Sleep and weeks since he’d left all its well-meaning but overbearing clinicians behind. He knows he should go back to Yoda, or hunt for the bounty hunter who took Han, or help Leia rally the scattered rebel forces back into order, but instead, he makes his escape.

There is little enough to recommend the planet. It is an outer rim world with no industry or economy to speak of. There are no cities, or monuments, the largest settlements boasting hardly more than a few thousand people and recent rumours suggest a small but growing number of them may be Imperial sympathisers which doesn’t bode well for him: The Miracle of Yavin; The First Hope of the Alliance. He can’t imagine anything like that will be met with particular enthusiasm here.

But even beyond political allegiances, it is a distinctly unappealing place being both unremarkable and largely unremarked. It is off of any useful trade route. It has few interplanetary allies, and only one weak judicial body to govern the entirety of its surface. In fact, the best thing Luke can think to say of it is that it is nearly as far away from Tatooine as it is possible for anything to be.

And far from Dagobah, too.

He brings his X-Wing down in the middle of a grassy plain, and leaves Artoo to run diagnostics on the ship. It’s his second (since he’d abandoned the first in Cloud City), and so lacking in all the alterations he’d so carefully programmed and calibrated into his previous fighter. He’s trying not to think of it as a nuisance, but an opportunity. A second chance. A second ship. A second hand - he smirks at this, and adjusts the blaster at his hip. He needs a second blade.

But there is something else that he must do first.

The sun is high as he sets off, only a small ration pack slung across his chest, and the blaster with him. Artoo’s whistling complaints grow fainter as he goes, until they are drowned completely beneath the whispers of swaying grasses. They are all turned brown. It is late in the year, and so they are filled with the gossip of an entire season. They brush against his legs, eager to touch this visitor and pass on rumours of his presence to their brethren, the trees, whose voices are heard in the rustle of leaves, then carried off on the wind in birdsong.

In the distance, he sees a herd of grazing iriaz, but they move off long before he is close enough to comprehend them as anything more than silent shadows, silhouetted against the sky. They leave prints - wide tracks scratched into dusty earth, and little pools where they have kicked up some water to sustain them. Common havoc kites circle lazily overhead, riding the updrafts on stiff, unyielding wings. They too, take no interest in Luke, and soon disappear in search of prey. The drone of some insect rises and falls and vanishes, its source remaining unseen. It seems to Luke that all of Dantooine is of a beautiful, but uncurious nature, content to live and let live without extending either welcome or censure to those who cross its lands.

It is in this manner, unencumbered by anything but the weight of his thoughts, that Luke finds himself only a few hours later passing beneath the boughs of ancient blba trees to arrive on the doorstep of a tidy stone cottage in the middle of the Khoonda plains. The base is a round structure, supporting another smaller yet equally round structure on top, like buckets of sand packed tight and upturned upon each other. Where they meet, there is a ring of wood slats, angled steeply downward as shingles to protect from run off, the door an old fashioned vertical slide that folds over itself as it springs from the floor to hide away in the crossbeam above. He knocks, and when a man with blue eyes, and gold hair threaded silver answers, Luke knows why Ben’s ghost has asked him to come.

“I’m looking for Kryze,” he says.

“That’s me,” the man replies, his brow furrowed. He keeps one hand on the door, and the other braced against the wall within to lend him strength should he need it, but there is no fear in his voice, despite the blaster he’s clearly noted.

“I’ve been sent to find you,” Luke says, and Kryze sighs.

“Well,” he says, shoulders sagging, and his body shifting to grant Luke admittance. “You’d better come inside.”

The space is warm, the amber light of the afternoon filtering through rippled glass windows to dance over cluttered walls, and overfull shelves. There are plants, bursting from their pots like Tusken black powder on fire. Paintings cover every inch of the wall not taken up with windows or furniture, and canvases lie stacked atop one another in various crevices and corners where space has run out. Books - proper old volumes printed on flimsi, and in some cases actual paper, stand front to back to front in orderly lines high in their cramped cases, regimented troops of education and exploration. Lower down are curiously bent sticks, twisted knots of dry grass, beetle wings, the shed scales of a rosy drayk, leaves of various size and colour, and a small river stone, smooth and black and streaked with red.

“Various treasures,” Kryze explains, as Luke is lost in his perusal. “You can touch them, if you like. Shall I put a kettle on?”

He wipes his hands upon an old rag, leaving streaks of blue and green, tossing it down beside a murky pitcher of water, and several brushes, and it is then that Luke realises he has caught him in the middle of something personal and profound.

“I don’t mean to bother you,” he says. “If you’re busy, I can wait. Or come back. Or -”

“Nonsense,” says Kryze, smiling. The expression is familiar, and Luke smiles back, feeling some common thread strum between them. “I ought to start on lastmeal anyway. We’re having muja dai-ungo for pudding. A favourite, you see, and yet I am the sole chef in this endeavour, since the other beasts which live here are prone to eating the jelly and leaving none for the glaze.”

It is some joke which Luke is not entirely certain of, so he smiles politely but doesn’t laugh as Kryze draws him into the cramped cookroom at the side. Water is set to boil on an ancient hot top, and Kryze sweeps aside a variety of holopads and half-finished string weaves to make space on the countertop. He pulls down two ceramplast cups, chipped and cracked, and smirks ruefully at his guest.

“A hazard of my unfortunate circumstances, you see. They say no plan survives contact with the enemy, and I take it to mean nothing at all survives contact with children. Everything here is somewhat the worse for wear, I’m afraid.” But there is nothing except long-suffering amusement in his voice, as though his pretensions of civility are an easy and happy price to pay for the benefit of such injury.

A shriek, followed by a chorus of laughter tumbles in from outside, and Kryze opens the window for a better view. Luke, overly alert to danger and almost surprised by joy, cannot help but duck his head to look, too.

A woman in long skirts races across the yard, followed by a girl brandishing a stick who looks only a few years younger than Luke, though she feels lightyears away.

“Wait!” calls another voice, high and pleading. As the first two cavort out of sight, a third girl appears, only to stop at the call, and turn back as the fourth, and final member of the party staggers into view. A boy, no older than seven or so, sets himself down upon the ground, crossing his arms in displeasure as the girl walks back to soothe him. “They run too fast,” Luke hears him lament. “And I have lost the poesy you made me.”

Kryze lets out a breath of laughter, assured there is no danger except perhaps to his son’s vanity, and returns to his pot, measuring out leaves and water with equal care. Luke watches the girl give her brother a hug, and coax him off in pursuit of the others.

“My eldest, Jinn,” Kryze explains. “She’s a wild thing, like her mother. And Mav, too, but with a softer heart. Corim is the youngest, and most civilised of the bunch. Thank the stars, or I’m afraid I’d be terribly overrun out here. Do you take anything in your tea?”

“Um, no,” Luke says, thinking of the heavy spices of Tatooine brews.

But the drink placed before him is a thin and watery kind of thing, of a pale pink colour. He can see the ceramplast through the liquid, and raises it to his lips skeptically.

Kryze watches him with that same kind amusement he seems to regard everything.

“It is a local variety of my own invention,” he explains. “Made from dried diabolix berries. Just the dried ones, mind you. The ones off the bush are deadly.”

Luke freezes, the rim of the cup pressed to his lips, the mild sweetness of sun still on his tongue, and Kryze laughs. He’s come here for a purpose, but has instead found himself trapped with a kind of domesticated eccentric.

He sets his tea down as politely as he can, while Kryze doesn’t hesitate to drink deeply from his own cup.

“I don’t want to be rude,” he says. “But I actually came here to deliver a message. From Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

At this, Kryze finally stills, his eyes meeting Luke’s with an apprehensive solemnity. “Of course,” he says. “What news?”

“He’s dead.”

The cup settles upon its saucer with only a faint chime of protest.

“Ah,” says Kryze.

In the following silence, guilt sweeps in, and soon Luke finds himself scrambling for the frayed edges of comfort and sympathy.

“It was fast,” he says. “And he knew what he was doing. He saved my life, and my friends. Vader - do you know anything that’s going on in the galaxy right now?”

That quiet, aching smirk curls upwards once more.

“Of course,” says Kryze. “Why else would I be way out here?”

“I’m sorry,” Luke says.

Kryze stands to clear the table of their tea.

“You say you’ve left your ship a few hours west? It is much too late for you to return to it now. Stay. Eat with us. Have a good night’s rest. Tomorrow, I should like to show you something.”

It is impossible for Luke to refuse this hospitality, not after he’s made such a mess of his own reason for coming here. He owes Kryze this much, at least.

“Of course,” he says. “If it isn’t any problem.”

“No problem at all,” Kryze insists. “There is an orchard down the path. If you follow the screams and laughter you should find it all right. The girls will collect you in time for latemeal.”

Thus dismissed, Luke removes his pack, but keeps his blaster close, heading for the door. At the threshold, he is overcome by a need to know for certain, and he turns back for one last look at the mysterious Kryze.

“Can I just ask,” he begins. “How did you know him? Obi-Wan, I mean. Why did he send me here to talk to you?”

His back to the door, Luke almost misses the reply carried back on the ghost of laughter.

“Oh, that,” says Kryze. “Well, after all, I am his son.”

The sun of Dantooine is much too reserved to intrude, and so it is to the clatter of dishware, and eager voices that Luke wakes the next morning. He stretches, and moves from his room to the sonics across the hall he thinks without attracting notice, but he is met, upon his exit, with the startled aspect of the youngest Kryze listening at the door.

Corim’s jaw snaps shut, and he frowns before declaring quite firmly that, “I wasn’t spying. I was only checking to see if you hadn’t died in the night you slept in so late.”

Luke grins. “Not dead yet, I don’t think.”

“Well, if you don’t hurry, there shan’t be any flatcakes left, no matter what Bebu says.”

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Luke assures him, and he stalks away entirely unconvinced.

Despite this threat, the table in the main room is still heaped with food when Luke emerges, fresher and more relaxed than he’s been in ages. The Kryzes are already packed tight around the table, but Mav and Jinn happily bunch over to make room for Luke between them. Mav, especially, goes out of her way to fill his glass, and pile his plate with the last of the muja preserves left over from the night before.

“Hey, that was my share,” complains Jinn, her mouth full. “You’ve already had seconds today.”

Mav blushes, and ducks her head, but her retort is vehement for all that her embarrassment is public. “We have a guest,” she says. “And your face is so full of cake you wouldn’t even taste the jelly anyway!”

“I didn’t get seconds!” Corim chimes in.

“Mother!” Jinn demands, taking her appeal to a higher court.

“Jinn, relax,” says Wyla, supremely unbothered, sipping her kaf and reading off her holopad. “Mav, be nice. Corim, I have a treat for you later.”

“S’not fair,” Jinn grumbles into her plate, but Wyla reaches over to pat her hand sympathetically.

“If you’re looking for the worst villain to blame, then examine your father’s plate. He’s more than enough jelly on that cake to last us to next harvest.”

At this, Kryze looks up to shoot his daughter a smug grin, before shoveling a heavily laden portion of flatcake into his mouth. Jelly, piled too high to survive the journey, tumbles from his fork to splatter against the flat of his plate as emphasis of his unjust indulgence.

“Delicious,” he declares. Jinn rolls her eyes, while Luke smuggles in a bite of his own portion.

It is tasty, both sweet and tart and satisfyingly thick. The meal continues through several more hotly negotiated contracts, and concludes with Wyla and Mav packing up the old speeder with the spoils of their orchard, and Jinn agreeing to mind Corim, much to her delight and his wary dismay. Kryze, it is announced, has business to attend to with Luke, and he does not expect their return before nightfall.

“Bring your rucksack,” he says, as they prepare to leave. “It is a long walk, and I shall want for snacks on the way.”

They set off with the sun on their faces, passing once more beneath the blba trees, the little cottage growing more and more distant as they make their way forth on the plains. Luke trusts that Kryze has some set destination in mind, but after the first hour he privately wonders if his guide has been distracted, and has brought them to wander in admiration of the land.

“That there is an extremely rare simbyloona butterfly,” he says, gesturing with a long wooden staff at the erratic path of the insect. “You ever been to Konkiv? Or Sriluur?”

“No,” says Luke.

“They have butterflies there,” explains Kryze. “What about Endor’s forest moon?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Well, if you ever go, keep an eye out,” he says, pushing on.

The world seems much more alive with Kryze today. Longhoppers leap from the grass as he wades through, warbling tiktiks swoop over head to catch them. One of unique boldness lands upon the top of Kryze’s staff when he stops to show Luke the little dirt mounds of puppi mice beneath their feet. He smiles, and extends a finger to the bird which cocks its head from side to side before giving in to temptation and hopping upon Kryze’s outstretched hand.

“Hello, there,” he sings, soft and low. “Aren’t you a brave thing?”

He holds the bird forth so that Luke may have a closer look at the colourful plumage before lifting it higher to the sky to release it.

“Off you go, then,” he says. “Beautiful animal, isn’t it? Usually quite shy though. You must bring good luck.”

Luke watches the course of the bird, and hardly knows he’s replied until he’s already said, “Your father said there was no such thing.”

“Did he?” Kryze beams. “Well, he always had such odd notions.”

“Unlike you?” Luke asks. It’s not that he’s insulted by the man’s amusement at a dead man, but it does seem somewhat hypocritical in light of the bird, and the paintings, and the tea.

But Kryze takes no offense, only quirking an eyebrow to say, “Where do you think I got it from?”

For all his evident curiosity this challenge seems to be exactly the sort of query Kryze was waiting for, and he begins to tell Luke all manner of things about himself as they move ever on towards the horizon.

“My mother was the Duchess of Mandalore,” he says. “A pacifist, though you’d never know it by the way the galaxy remembers us. And for a year she was under the protection of my father. They fell in love, as tragically and impossibly as any young person could wish, and when they parted my father left confident in his ignorance, and my mother was left with me. It’s difficult to say who came out ahead in that.”

“I thought the Jedi couldn’t love,” says Luke.

“And whoever told you that nonsense?” asks Kryze. “You told me my father died saving you, and he cannot have done that for anything less than the purest love.”

Luke says nothing to this, only twists a knot of grass off in his hand and releases it to the wind. They walk in strained silence until it becomes comfortable again, and Luke exhales in resignation.

“I only just met my father,” he says. “He tried to kill me.”

Kryze looks at him, then stops to look at him harder.

“Oh, I see it now,” he says. “You’re a Skywalker. I might have guessed it, but I’m afraid I’m rather out of practice these days.”

“Are you a Jedi, too?”

“No, no,” he scoffs. “Nothing so serious as all that. But I know enough to be able to tell the blaze of a Skywalker from the general inferno of starfire. I know enough to be recognised in turn.”

“Is that why you’re out here? Hiding from the Empire?”

Kryze grimaces at this, and turns back to the path ahead. A shadow looms, rising out of the ground, and he turns their course to that.

“What makes you think I’m hiding?” he asks. Then, before Luke can parse the riddle in this, he continues. “I used to be in the Alliance,” he says. “Wyla, too. We ran intelligence rings, and sabotage missions. We fought. Even had more than a few close calls with the Empire. But at some point, around the time that Wyla found out about Jinn, we decided that was it. We’d done our part. And when the Rebellion left their base here, we stayed behind.”

“The Empire still exists,” says Luke.

“And it will not be my hand which stops it,” counters Kryze. Then, as the shadow takes the form of a ruined temple sprung from the earth itself, he speaks again. “My parents both died for peace. I think that I owe it to them to live for it. Here we go.”

Vines cling to ancient stone, while tangles of brush climb up and over crumbled walls and gaping cracks in the side of the old building. The trees grow thickly here, still green and lush despite the lateness of the year.

“A wellspring,” explains Kryze, without Luke’s having to ask.

He guides him past hollowed out chambers pierced only by shafts of dazzling sunlight breaking through fractured ceilings, and bouncing off shallow, invisible puddles within. Animals chirrup in the brush, and birds nest in all the little nooks and crannies of decaying architecture. Though it is long abandoned, there is still something light and sacred about the space. The air is fresher here.

“This is a Jedi place,” breathes Luke.

“It was,” agrees Kryze. “Long before the Empire. Come along. There’s something else.”

Beneath a fall of greenery and fallen rocks lies an opening.

“What is it?” asks Luke.

“Caves,” says Kryze. Luke looks at him, still uncertain. “I have noticed that you carry no lightsaber,” he explains.

Luke flexes the fingers of his false hand, feeling the pistons and levers firing in time with his desire, but different from the muscles and sinew of his flesh. It cannot be observed by casual inspection, but somehow Kryze seems to know.

“I lost it,” says Luke.

“Then you shall have to build another.” He gestures again to the cave mouth, and Luke braces himself to go in. He shifts the blaster on his hip, checking the settings. “You won’t need that in there,” says Kyze. “There’s nothing inside but old ghosts.”

He is halfway to moving when he hesitates, and leans back. With his eyes fixed on Kryze’s, Luke unstraps the holster from his side, and hands it and his blaster into the hands of Ben Kenobi’s son. He goes into the caves alone.

It is dark inside, and there is a chill and the sound of water dripping into water somewhere far away. Luke steps carefully. Though the ground is rocky and uneven, his steps are certain and he does not falter. After several minutes of silent exploration, with no strange whispers or startling movement, the fear he entered with begins to fall away, leaving Luke’s mind open to the growing threat of boredom. There is nothing here. He sighs, and turns to leave only to discover the way out has grown just as dark as the path going farther in. He has no torch, no light, and no sabre to guide his path, but his irritation blazes bright enough to guide him and he sets off the way he came.

When he has walked more than twice the distance he came, and then gone back to walk the distance again, he decides there is little he can do but sit and hope that Kryze will come for him. Surely, he hasn’t brought him here to starve after feeding him so thoroughly only hours ago. And for all that Luke feels helpless in the inky pits of the caves, Kryze had not lied when he said his blaster would be of no use. There is no one here but Luke.

He sets himself down against a stone, the seat of his pants made uncomfortably damp by the floor, and quite to his own surprise, drifts off.

When he wakes, there is light.

All around him are outcroppings of crystals in various shapes and colours. Some shine more brightly than the others, and some glow so fervently it is as though they sing. He reaches out to touch one, and the rest all clamour in harmony to meet him.

Every thought of escape is eclipsed by the beauty in the caves, and Luke trails his fingers over each crystal that calls out, following their voices deeper and deeper into the caves. Until, in the deepest chamber, on the shores of a vast underground lake, he is met by something which glows brighter than all the crystals combined.

For a moment, he is compelled to shield his eyes, as the flare bursts forth in effulgent magnificence before dying down to live within the confines of an unrecognisable form.

It is a man with long hair, a kind smile, and wearing the robes of a Jedi.

“Hello, little one,” it calls out, and Luke raises his hand in reply. “I was wondering when I might have the chance to meet you.”

“Do I know you?” asks Luke, stepping closer.

The ghost chuckles. “Not as such,” he replies. “But I know you. You are the student of my student, after all. I am Qui-Gon Jinn.”

“You were Master Obi-Wan’s master!”

“And Master Yoda’s, too,” brags the ghost, enjoying the awe of Luke’s epiphany, but this is a boast too far, and Luke’s face falls into lines of skepticism.

“That can’t be true,” he says. “Master Yoda is much too old to have been taught by you.”

“Ah, and must education end with the cessation of breath? Cannot knowledge outlast us? Cannot learning outlive us?”

“Can it?” asks Luke.

“We are more than what we do in life, my boy,” says Qui-Gon. He sits upon one of the larger stones which border the edge of the lake, leaving space beside him for Luke. “And there is much to be learned by death, for those brave enough to seek it.”

Luke frowns, and moves to join him, trying to puzzle out the ghost’s philosophy.

“Are you suggesting -” he looks to the Jedi for confirmation, not convinced of his conclusion. “You’re not saying that we should just give in, are you? That we should just accept death when we could stop it?”

“Not at all,” says Qui-Gon, and Luke relaxes upon the stone. “It’s good that you fight. It’s important you fight. Don’t rush to death in the vain hope that it will bring you easy satisfaction. Life and death - they are balanced. They are equal. And there is much value to be found in both.”

“Is that why Ben let go?” Luke asks.

“Obi-Wan was wise to concede his life,” says Qui-Gon. “But that does not make his loss any more bearable for you. Or for me. And though I am glad to be with him once again, I will always wish he’d had more time with you.”

There is a smear of clay grown dry upon his knee, and he brushes it off with one hand.

“Me, too,” he says to the ghost.

“But that is Obi-Wan’s lesson for you,” says Qui-Gon, his voice ringing clear across the lake. “He knows what it means to let go, but I -” he says. “I am here to show you how to hold on.”

And in the crystalline light of the caves, and the glittering warmth of the ghost, Luke learns of his lineage, and his family, and all the ways in which he is never alone. Qui-Gon speaks of the past. He tells him of a little boy who struggled and overcame, and a little boy who struggled and fell, and how neither of them loved the other any less. He tells the story of an ancient Order, and a girl queen; of a duchess, and a knight; of children lost to their parents, and parents lost to themselves. He tells of blood, and consequences, and desire, and regret, and joy, and sorrow, and how it all lives on in memory, and in stories, and in relics, and in paintings, and in river stones, and in muja dai-ungo, and in him.

“There is nothing lost,” says Qui-Gon. “So long as you choose to remember it. Neither life, nor love, nor people. Hold on. And don’t let go.”

And as he fades away into darkness, the song of a single crystal cries out, drawing Luke up, and up, and out of the black of the caves into the evening sun.

At the mouth of the hollow, standing with the light in his hair, and Ben Kenobi in his eyes, stands Kiorkicek Kryze. In his hands, a sabre, the kyber inside calling out.

And when Luke touches the hilt, he knows that this one is his.

“I thought it might be you,” says Kryze, smiling. He shifts Luke’s bag high against his shoulder and turns to the setting sun. “Come on,” he says. “They’ll be waiting for us.”

And when he finally returns to his ship, and Artoo, and programmes a course for home, Luke leaves Dantooine by himself, but he is not alone.

#my fic #prompt fill #spotify prompt fill #korkie kryze #korkie kenobi #qui-gon jinn #luke skywalker

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stereogeekspodcast · 4 years ago

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[Transcript] Season 1, Episode 9. Detective Mode – Let's Talk Future Disney Properties

Disney Investor Day was a lot! We break down the biggest announcements from the event, focusing on our two favourite franchises, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What are we most excited about from Disney's upcoming slate? What aren't we completely sold about? Which properties have us concerned? Find out more during this episode!

There will be spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2, so keep an ear out.

Listen to the episode on Anchor.

Read Mon's round-up of all the Star Wars news on Bam Smack Pow.

Read Ron's round-up of all the Marvel film and TV news on GIQUE Media.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Ron: Hello and welcome to the first Stereo Geeks Detective Mode of 2021.

I’m Ron, and today we'll be discussing Disney Investor Day.

There will be some spoilers here for The Mandalorian Season 2, so keep an ear out.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Mon: What did you think about the Disney Investor Day format?

Ron: Well, four hours is a long time for anybody to be invested in Disney Investor Day. But, for the most part, I think it worked. I liked how they divided the different studios; I didn't feel like anybody spoke for too long. It flowed quite well.

But it definitely felt like there were certain sections which were more interesting for certain audiences whereas others, not so much. It felt very DC FanDome to me, as well, because of the blue. I'm not sure why everything is blue.

But for the most part, it went off without a hitch, so that was good. I mean I guess it had to, because this wasn't really for us, it was actually for Disney investors.

It did feel a bit like an overload of information.

Mon: I also found it a little bit corporate, especially in the beginning when they were talking about all their mergers and their new initiatives and stuff. As a fan you sort of think that ‘oh, what exactly is Disney doing?’. They really feel like a giant, don’t they, when they're coming at you with ‘we've got this going on in this country, in that country, and basically they’re encompassing it all.

I was a bit frustrated by the fact that they'd be like, ‘here's this exclusive preview or a sizzle reel’, and then suddenly you're looking at two minutes of blank screen. They got clever after a while by trying to include quizzes, though we weren't really invested by that point. So, I found that a little bit frustrating because at the end of the day it’s the press, it’s the fans who are bringing you all the street cred. So, why leave us out?

Ron: Yeah, I found that very frustrating as well. In fact, I was actually wondering whether it was just us that was having a problem with that. And then I went on the internet and pretty much everybody realized that the general public weren't getting a lot of the exclusive sneak previews. I understand, in a way, maybe these aren't finished products. I mean, we know that things like Obi-Wan Kenobi are not even in production so whatever they had ready for that was not ready for public consumption. But it still felt a little bit frustrating to look at a timer or listen to a song, when you were actually expecting to see something.

I mean, for Cassian Andor they added some concept art because they don't really have any production footage to share with us. But with the big stuff you really felt like, oh my god, we’re missing out on stuff. Thankfully, there was a lot of information sent out soon after. I don't think we got the whole picture, but we got a good enough picture.

Ron: Actually, there was a lot of information going out and for the average person, keeping track of all that, it's a lot.

Mon: And if you're only invested in part of Disney, parsing through all that information is mind boggling.

Ron: Yeah, you and I had to write separate news pieces on particular Disney properties and just putting those together, it took a lot of time. But all in all, I thought it was an interesting event.

I'm actually fascinated by the fact that Disney is able to open up a corporate event like this to the general public. They must be in a really comfortable place to let the average person who would generally be buying a ticket or buying a subscription to Disney Plus, attend something like this.

Mon: Well, I'm glad because after the year that we've had where there's been so many production delays, so many shows and movies have had to be pushed back, it's good to have that kind of excitement among the press and among the fans.

They have so many projects in the pipeline, some of them which were rumored, some of them which we knew about, and others which really have blindsided us, in the best way possible.

Ron: I think, one thing that I would have liked was a little bit more interactivity. I think that's something that they can possibly bring in, in the future. This was obviously not planned. So, the way it worked, I think it went off quite well. But for future events, I see them bringing in more interactivity for the general public.

Mon: We have to remember this wasn't a convention. This was an investor meeting. So, the format is going to be different. But if they are planning to open up this event, then maybe don't have it as an Investor Day. Have that as a separate section on that particular day which you invite only the investors for, and they had that section at the end where there was an investor Q&A. Most of us had dropped off by then—we had news to cover.

But the beginning parts, for sure, they can have more interactivity, more fun.

Considering how much has gone digital, I think a lot of people may have realized how much is achievable by going online.

Ron: I would really love to know the viewership numbers for Disney Investor Day, because a lot of people tuned in.

Mon: Despite it not being that heavily promoted among the average person.

Ron: So anyway, it's good that we all got to participate in some way or the other. And I'm hoping that other corporations also take a leaf out of Disney's book because it's really good to find out what is happening behind the scenes, because just looking at the initial Disney announcements during that event. My gosh, Disney owns a lot. It's actually a little bit creepy how much of a monopoly they're becoming, but at least we know about it.

Mon: So, let's talk about the announcements, because at the end of the day, it was still really, really exciting time to be a fan.

Ron: If you're a fan of Disney live-action, Disney Animation, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, Hulu, ESPN, HotStar, Star, there's just so much stuff, and it's all connected to Disney. There was going to be some announcement or the other that got you excited.

For us it was definitely the Star Wars and Marvel news that was most interesting, but there are other things as well that piqued our interest.

There wasn't much live-action news from Disney. There were a few films as I mentioned—we already knew about some things like The Little Mermaid, Cruella. A bit disappointed at the lack of Aladdin 2, not sure why we've been holding out hope for that. We love the first Aladdin live-action film, and we would love to see them again. So sad, but let's wait for that.

Aside from that, there was some interesting Pixar news as well. Lightyear, which will be about Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story films but going to be voiced by Chris Evans.

Mon: Yes, that's because Chris Evans is playing the actor who the Buzz Lightyear toy is based on. Yes, it's confusing.

Ron: We were very confused. I had to check with a lot of people about it, and then that's how we finally figured out who Chris Evans was going to be actually voicing. So yeah, who knew Buzz Lightyear had that backstory? Definitely not me.

There were also interesting animation films and TV shows that were announced. I was actually quite excited by how many characters of color we’re going to be seeing. We’ve got, Raya, Tianna, Iwájú, Encanto, they all have characters of color in the lead. And that's really cool, because Disney’s slate has usually been quite white. Still no Indians. Mon: Someday! Ron: We need South Asian representation. I'm hoping, with Disney having bought up Star Plus, there was a lot of talk about locally-made Indian content. I'm hoping that some of that comes this side so that we can actually see that.

Mon: And that it's good and representative of more of India than just Bollywood.

Ron: Yeah, that's an important point, because there's a lot in India than just Bollywood or Mumbai. So, when they say local content, we need to see pan-Indian local content. And not just with high production values, with good stories and more representation from diverse communities in India. But nothing's been confirmed yet, so we're going to have to wait a long time.

On the live-action side, though, I don't feel like there were that many people of color on screen.

Mon: I was disappointed. I mean, you were pointing out a very important fact that it seems like the live-action does tend to veer towards safer casting and safer stories, whereas the animation is much more diverse, much more varied. I'm not sure why it can't be the reverse. Why can't we have live action Moana, for example—I'm not saying you need to have a live-action Moana, I'm just saying—or, you know, Encanto can't be live-action or Iwájú, but I guess one step at a time?

Ron: It's a start. We didn't have anything much before, so it's something to be excited about. But yeah, it does seem like they're still taking baby steps and seeing the lineup of people who were speaking at Disney Investor Day, that's actually not surprising.

Mon: Yeah, I am impressed by the fact that the animated series and films that have been announced, also have diverse creative teams behind the scenes. That can really lend itself well to the quality of storytelling that we see on the screen.

Ron: Yeah, definitely. So I guess we can move on to talking about Star Wars.

Mon: Yeah.

Ron: So Lucasfilm had a ton of announcements, and they started off by saying they had 10 Star Wars series in the pipeline for Disney Plus. Considering, till now, we've had just two seasons of The Mandalorian, that's a huge task.

So, quick rundown of what shows they've announced we've got Rangers of the New Republic, Ahsoka, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Visions, Lando, The Acolyte and A Droid Story. If you're counting properly, that's nine, because the 10th one was a surprise that we only found out after The Mandalorian Season 2 was done and dusted.

If you stayed for the after credits scene, you would have found out that the 10th series was The Book of Boba Fett. We got to say, we're excited.

Mon: Definitely.

Ron: So, thoughts on that extensive lineup?

Mon: I'm so excited. Ron: There’s so much Star Wars. Mon: I know, it such a great thing!

Ron: I'm excited, but I'm also full of trepidation. And I’m annoyed that I feel that.

Mon: Oh, why?

Ron: Well, as much as I enjoyed The Mandalorian Season 1, there were issues with it. The lack of female characters—Cara Dune was pretty much the only female character and she came in a few episodes into the first season. We don’t see as many people of color, not that we want to see that many people of color on a show that's really about bad guys. So that was kind of confusing as well—whose side are we on?

Season 2 was much better in terms of storytelling, we got to see people of color, we got to see some badass action scenes with ladies. Awesome.

But, it's the discourse. Let's face it, it's the Star Wars discourse. It just makes you want to not be a fan.

Mon: Maybe Disney's plan is that they will bombard fans with so much Star Wars, that people will not have time to discuss it.

Here's the thing, you’ll have some good shows, you’ll have some bad shows. There'll be some good episodes, there'll be some bad episodes. We can just hope that the end product is as good as they can make it, and that we enjoy it. That it’s relevant, it is topical. Star Wars has never only been about entertaining us, it's always had a message—doesn't have to be in your face, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't—but each show should make us go away with some kind of feeling and some kind of change in perspective. In a good way.

Ron: When we think about The Mandalorian Season 2, it really felt very Star Wars. It felt like it went back to the original series; the aesthetics, the action scenes, the way we met characters, how we got to spend time with them, it felt very much like the originals, while still diving into all these other Star Wars properties. We got stuff from the books, the movies, the games, the animated shows, it was pretty exciting. And I realize that for casual fans, it was way too much and they did feel like they were just being bombarded with stuff that they had to research, but for fans who have watched and played all these things and read these books and comic books, this was great.

Mon: It really feels like it's part of a larger universe, and I appreciate the fact that they tried really hard to do that, they pulled it in.

And I think that nowadays it's easier to find out a bit of information about properties that you haven't been engaged with, so that makes sense.

Ron: So, I guess it makes sense that we're getting all these shows and that some of them are tied into The Mandalorian.

Mon: And perhaps even the Extended Universe.

Ron: It definitely feels like some of these are going to be Extended Universe stories, we just don't know how close.

The Rangers of the New Republic, I don't know what this is about.

Mon: Yeah, I agree. The assumption is that it's going to be about Cara Dune and the other Marshals, but they’re called marshals not rangers, so I'm a little bit confused. Ron: Yeah.

Mon: It does sound like a cop story or something, but at the same time what is it? I mean, it make sense, it is the New Republic, and they need somebody to…

Ron: Keep an eye on the Galaxy. We're gonna have to find out more about this when they make more announcements.

Ahsoka, I guess we have a pretty good idea of what her show is going to be about. When we met her in The Mandalorian she was very obviously looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn, presumably that's going to be her mission in her show. Will we see Sabine Wren, will we see Ezra Bridger? Will we see Hera Syndulla? I don't know, I would really love to see that.

Mon: Only if they cast them well.

Ron: Yes. Good point. Mon: I’m excited for that show. It's a limited series as far as I could tell, but you never know, a limited series could turn into several seasons if something is popular. But I'm excited for this, because we like this character—I'm still not sure about the live-action version—but I'm excited. Even more so if they can bring in the Rebels cast.

Ron: Yes.

With Andor,we got a sneak peek of the concept art, and it feels like the supporting costs seem to be very white, once again.

Mon: Yeah I'm not entirely sure about it. It sounded very exciting when they first mentioned it. Now I feel like maybe it's already feeling a little bit over-bloated with so many people thrown into the cast. Well, let's see. I mean Diego Luna is so excited to be back in the Star Wars universe and I'm hoping that his enthusiasm and excitement just screams off the screen, and pulls us all in.

Ron: Yeah, because Rogue One is probably my favorite Star Wars film. I love those characters; I would love to spend more time with those characters. I'm really hoping that they make Andor well, that it’s well received, that the fans really enjoy it, and that it gives them impetus to create a solo series for the other characters. I would love to spend more time with Jyn Erso, and Bodhi Rook and Chirrut and Baze.

Mon: I agree with you.

Ron: The Obi-Wan Kenobi series, we didn't get to see anything from that because…

Mon: We got to see the logo!

Ron: Yeah, we got to see the logo. Yay.

But they did make the surprising announcement that Hayden Christensen would be back as Darth Vader.

Mon: Yeah, I'm really confused about that because they specified Darth Vader, and not Anakin Skywalker.

It doesn't make sense to me, because Hayden Christensen is Anakin, Darth Vader is some guy in a suit voiced by James Earl Jones.

Ron: Yeah, that's definitely got me confused as well, because James Earl Jones's voice as Darth Vader, there is no other version. And putting him in the suit doesn't make much sense—he was in the suit in the final act of Revenge of the Sith, but what's the point then?

Mon: Yeah, not sure. I feel like they have a plan. They wouldn't be telling us that it's specifically Hayden, specifically playing Darth if there wasn't a reason for it. Ron: Yes.

There is some speculation that it might be part of Obi-Wan's quest to become one with the Force, and he sees Anakin. We don't know. From what we understand of the process, it's mostly Obi-Wan communing with Qui-Gonn Jinn and maybe Master Yoda, but Anakin isn’t really even mentioned in this part of the process. But he could be.

Mon: Kathleen Kennedy mentioned that it's going to be the rematch of the century, between Obi-Wan and Darth. So, let's see. I'm excited for the show. I think it might be one of the more pensive, cerebral shows in the Star Wars universe. Ron: Yeah I'm definitely excited for that.

The Bad Batch, what are your thoughts?

Mon: I was excited mainly by the confirmation that Fennec Shand will be showing up, and she’ll be voiced by Ming-Na Wen, that the actual Bad Batch themselves.

Ron: When we met with in The Clone Wars Season 7, like they’re interesting, but I didn't quite take to them enough for me to want to watch an entire series about them.

Mon: There was something about the trailer that really threw me off, which was that the Bad Batch appear to be working with the Empire and the Imperials. They're definitely in cahoots with Tarkin. So, are we watching the series about the bad guys? Ron: The Imperials are interesting in their own way because whenever we meet them they seem to be cowardly, they seem to be a bit stupid, so that's quite fascinating. But an entire series of superpowered clones helping them out? I'm not sure about that. The reason why The Clone Wars worked for me was that they made me really care about those clones. Like, 99, I mean, come on. We wept. We wept at that episode. It was so sad. But everybody else, like Rex and Fives and that entire contingent, you really cared about them.

And despite the fact that most of them looked alike, they had these little personality traits, they did things that were different so that they could stand out from each other. I think the Bad Batch is too far away from the clones that we're used to seeing. And the time that we got to spend with them, it wasn't very meaningful. And the other thing is that we watched The Clones Wars Season 7 after the announcement that The Bad Batch is going to get a spin-off. And I remember being like, ‘okay, we have to see what these guys are all about’. And they weren't very interesting. So yeah, I'm a bit unsure about this. Mon: My biggest worry is that they won't have a good enough foil for us to be invested in these characters. With The Clone Wars series, you had these armies of clone troopers, and you'd be like, ‘oh, they're all these guys’, but they had the foil of Ahsoka, of Padmé and the other Jedi, so you felt like yeah, there was some balance in there. I don't know if just Fennec Shand can do that. She's just one character.

Ron: Yeah. Mon: Look, you know, if they've got a supporting cast of diverse and varied characters, we could be in for a really fascinating show which shows us the darker side of the Star Wars universe, which we always like, but we don't get as much. Or, it could be the Bad Batch, if they don't have the same chip which makes them go Order 66 on people, maybe they’re double agents.

Rob: Oh, that’s interesting. Let's see.

Mon: I'm still excited because the production values on that animation, wow! There's no doubt about the kind of quality that we're going to get, it's the quality of storytelling that we’re worried about.

Ron: Yeah.

So, we also have the Lando series. There's so little information about this.

Mon: Is it live-action? Is it animated? Which Lando are we going to be following?

Ron: For some reason, when I heard the announcement my first thought was, ‘oh this is totally about Donald Glover's Lando’. But then when I was reading up about it later on, everybody was like is this about Billy Dee Williams, is this about Donald Glover? And I was like, oh okay so we're not sure about that.

We need a Lando series, in all honesty. He was the best part of Solo, that film was a disaster, and we need more Lando—that movie needed more Lando. So yeah, a series is a great idea, but I don't know what we're gonna get.

Mon: I hope that whatever they do, they make him fun and outlandish, but also a really complex character because we know that Billy Dee Williams’ Lando he's always been like that. He's so layered. So, let's hope that the series itself does justice to that character and his legacy.

Ron: Yeah. So, we also have a couple of other series that were mentioned. Star Wars: Visions, The Acolyte, A Droid’s Story, there's not much information about these and they don't seem to be tied in directly with the properties that we've already seen.

Mon: Yeah, so A Droid’s Story seems to be like a family-friendly animated show. It's gonna follow C-3Po and R2-D2, and they're going to be guiding a new hero in the Star Wars universe. Not sure what that means but I'm sure it'll be family-friendly fare.

Ron: It’s definitely going to be made to sell another new little droid toy. Mon: Oh, god not another D-O. [laughs]

Star Wars: Visions, that's a really interesting one. It’s going to be anime creators creating their own versions or visions of Star Wars characters and worlds. I'm really interested to see what they do this, Star Wars has always borrowed heavily from Asian cultures, Japanese culture especially, so this is a nice way to give back. I'd like to see their take on it.

Ron: Yeah, I don't quite understand the concept, but it seems like something that might be interesting to watch. So, let's see where that goes.

And The Acolyte is the only show that's really set outside of the time period that we're used to watching in the live-action and animated series and films. I don't mind getting to know a little bit more of the universe, before and after the periods that we’ve seen. The Mandalorian is set shortly after the Battle of Endor. so that shows you how well that concept can work. The Acolyte is going to be a little bit more about the Sith, which should be interesting.

I quite like the Sith, they’re quite fascinating. But I don't want to feel like I like the Sith, if you get what I mean.

The 10th series in the lineup, which was not mentioned was The Book of Boba Fett. Boba Fett appeared during the second season of The Mandalorian. Temuera Morrison is back as the character, and I think it's awesome. He's awesome in it. He looks like he's having a gala time playing the character. I can't wait to see more of him and Fennec Shand taking over the Hutt Empire.

Mon: I foresee them doing good in the galaxy far far away.

Ron: We also got a hint of some of the Star Wars movies that we can expect in the next few years. We know the Taika Waititi is going to be working on a Star Wars film, but there are no details available on that.

And the surprise announcement was Patty Jenkins is making a Rogue Squadron film. I love the video announcement that came out just after the Disney Investor Day. It's just Patty Jenkins talking about her father who was a fighter pilot and how she wanted to make a movie about pilots, and she also loves Star Wars. And now she gets to bring both her two loves together, and it was just great.

I'm really excited to watch a Rogue Squadron movie. I used to love the Rogue Squadron books in the Star Wars Alternate Universe. So yeah, a film would be great.

Mon: And I can imagine that she’ll bring all that unique depth and diversity that she's brought to Wonder Woman. Let's just hope that Star Wars and Disney really let her spread her wings. Ron: Yes, absolutely.

So that was a lot of the Star Wars announcements, but another studio that we're really excited about, of course, is Marvel. The Marvel announcement was massive.

Mon: We have to ask ourselves, at this point, what isn't happening in the Marvel Universe?

Ron: Oh my gosh, it's all happening, dude. It’s all happening. Now, Marvel was supposed to debut a few series this year on Disney Plus, but of course the pandemic came in the way, so that did not happen.

We're actually going to get our first Marvel Disney Plus series on January 15, 2021 with WandaVision. I am really excited about that. We got to see another brand new trailer for the show on Disney Investor Day. It looks very kooky, and kind of fun, but also seems to be a little bit dark. At least the latest trailer definitely shows that it's a bit darker than we thought. And you know what, it's been a long time since he saw Vision, I miss him.

Mon: Yeah, I'm intrigued by this series. It seems to be a combination of the multiverse and time travel. We've not seen a lot of that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Any chance to give Wanda some extra screen time and to really grow into her powers and her character is awesome.

Ron: Wanda is one of my favorite Marvel characters in the MCU. I think she is great. She is so powerful and she's… she's really cool. She's just really cool. She and Quicksilver are twins so, of course, you and I are going to like that. But, yeah, Wanda is amazing and I can't wait to see more of her.

Mon: Yeah, and that's tied into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Ron: Yeah, I'm totally excited about this. I know a lot of people didn't take to the Doctor Strange movie—I kind of liked it. I have seen it a couple of times after that, but I haven't seen it in a couple of years. But, I think Doctor Strange is really cool and his aesthetic is awesome.

Like, in Infinity War, every time Doctor Strange did anything, I was just like, ‘that is so cool’. And a friend told us that the golden things he makes in the air, they’re called Mandalas. So yeah, those are awesome. I totally want some more of that.

Mon: Yeah, I think it's nice that the Marvel Universe is really expanding on its own mythos. Like in Avengers: Endgame, they totally went into time travel. Now, we're gonna actually have some multiverse and not the fakey stuff that Mysterio talked about. So, let's see, I'm excited.

Ron: I think that's gonna be so fun. But I also think the MCU needs it. Avengers: Endgame kind of messed everything up. We've been tearing our hair out for two years now trying to figure out what state the Marvel Universe is actually in, because the Avengers made a mess of the 2012 timeline. We need these movies to fix them.

And if WandaVision ties into Doctor Strange 2, and fixes that, that's awesome. One of the interesting things is that WandaVision is also going to be tied into Spidey 3.

Mon: Considering Spidey 3 has basically turned into Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but live action and with Peter Parker, yeah sure, that makes sense.

Ron: I don't know how I feel about all these announcements. Spidey 3 really wasn't mentioned much during Disney Investor Day.

Mon: Yeah, that's because most of those are unconfirmed rumors. We don't actually know what is going to happen, who's gonna be in there. People are just conjecturing left, right and center. I don't want it to be over bloated. I don't want them to forget about Peter Parker, and the rest of the crew, because they want something big, but we do have to remember that Marvel is playing ball with Sony once again, so we may have a change in temperament and quality and storytelling.

Ron: But I also don't want a live action Into the Spider-Verse when we have an animated Into the Spider-Verse which is really good!

Mon: Which is awesome and hello, it won an Oscar.

Ron: Exactly. And it had Miles Morales as the protagonist. Peter Parker has already stolen like a lot of Miles’ comics stuff for the live-action series in the MCU. We don't need him to steal this. As much as I love the MCU Peter Parker, that still stands.

Mon: Yeah, he needs to be unique in his own way and I'm really worried that they're just jumping on the more popular bandwagon—which is really funny to say that. But anyway, so be it.

But it was interesting to note that there was no Spidey information or confirmation at Disney Investor Day. So we'll have to see.

Ron: Yeah.

Mon: So, moving away from those guys, we have The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Now this series is what half the universe is excited about because everybody loves Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

We got our first proper look at this show. It looks dark and grim. And lots of action. And then there’s some banter shoehorned in because they have to. Man, that trailer was not good.

Ron: I was hoping you would say that because I didn't feel like it did anything either. This trailer does not make me feel excited.

Mon: I'm really hoping that they just slapped something together because production was delayed, and they had a deadline to meet. So, you know, we all feel you Marvel trailer people. But yeah, I was not sure, I just didn't feel that kind of chemistry that we are so used to seeing from Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie from the MCU films. Ron: Yeah, the chemistry did not come across; the banter that we saw was very forced. It just looked like it was not well made. Mon: Yeah, the production values look amazing.

Ron: Always

Mon: like Falcon flying—looks so good! It takes you back to when you first saw Falcon flying.

Together: So good, so good.

Ron: The rest of it, not so much.

Together: Yeah.

Ron: Why’s Bucky so grumpy?

Mon: Yeah, what’s his problem? Like, smile a little bit! Well, his friend, kind of… it doesn't matter.

Ron: Steve was both of their friend. So, yeah.

Mon: I don't want them to be like Falcon’s got this huge weight on his shoulders—quite literally because the shield is probably heavy—and like that's why he can't smile anymore. Sam is funny, he is such a sweetheart…

Ron: Yes!

Mon: And Bucky, he has this really snarky sense of humor. And I didn't feel that.

Ron: It didn’t like it was them.

Mon: We’re gonna give them the benefit of the doubt, because I really do feel like they had to put in whatever footage they had to give some character and action, you know, they just follow the notes. I think that the show is going to be better than what the trailer showed us. Ron: It had better be. Mon: Also, what was up with that weird, long joke about Bucky’s positronic brain. Bucky’s human!

Ron: His brain doesn't have any machinery in it.

Mon: Yeah, I mean, unless in Wakanda he became an Android.

Ron: I don't know. Man, I hope this stuff gets explained.

Mon: This is like six episodes of a Marvel film—basically that's how they said it—but it better have the quality of the writing too, not just the look.

Mon: Yes. Okay, so, Loki. This is the other half of the universe who's excited for the show.

Ron: Yeah, people are losing their minds over this Loki trailer.

Mon: Were you underwhelmed?

Ron: I loved it.

Mon: No way! I was so not into it!

Ron: Okay, so when I first saw it, I was like, what is going on? Then I did some research and I found out more about the timey-wimey stuff. And then I was like, okay, you know, this is kind of exciting. But yes, I did need to do some research.

Mon: Okay, because like Kevin Feige introduced the Loki trailer by saying, if you're confused watching it, don't worry, Loki feels the same way. And I was like, I am more confused than Loki watching this. It didn't make any sense to me and I'm like, who are these people, what are they doing? And I'm like, I don't understand Loki either. Loki is an understandable kind of guy, but I didn't feel him. So, I don’t understand.

Ron: I was surprisingly excited to see Loki again. I thought I had said my goodbyes in Infinity War. And then when I saw him again in Avengers: Endgame, I was like, awww, Loki. And then I was like okay, now I’ve said my goodbyes again. When I saw this trailer. Oh, Loki, you’re back.

Mon: We have to, as fans, sort of change gears, about which Loki this is. This is because the Loki who was killed in Infinity War, he was the kind of guy, like we're bleeding hearts for him. But this one? This one's the meanie.

Ron: Yeah, this is a different version. So, I'm interested to see how that goes. It's got time travel in it and so I'm excited.

Mon: Look, time travel is your boo! So, they do it right, this could be something spectacular.

Ron: Yeah, and I really hope that this is also a kind of a way for Loki to be reintroduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I don't know, but that's my hope. It'll be good, you know, Thor and Loki together again. That'd be great. He misses his brother.

Mon: Yeah, Thor’s kind of had a bad time. He really deserves to have his brother back.

Ron: Now, a series that I am excited about is What If…?

Mon: Oh my god, I couldn't believe it. When they first announced it I was like, no way, they’re actually going to do this? And then we saw the trailer. This was a good trailer.

Ron: This was a good trailer. This got me excited. We got to see little bits. I feel that there's definitely more to this particular show than they're letting on. That's definitely exciting. Whatever we got to see, we are certainly looking forward to seeing more. So, what did we get to see in the trailer? We see a different Starlord. Not exactly Peter Quill. Now, it's T’Challa, and is voiced by Chadwick Boseman in one of his last roles. We also get to see Peggy Carter as Captain America. We get to see Bucky facing off against a kind of zombie Captain America. And we see Stephen Strange facing off against a dark version of himself. Looks exciting.

Mon: It does. Because the What If… stories in the comics really allowed the creators to investigate and examine alternative points of view, and alternate decisions by the different characters. We always used to love reading the What If… stories, and I'm glad that Marvel Studios is really using their resources to create as many stories as they can. I mean, they’re milking it, we understand, but we get a little more entertainment, we get to see different perspectives. Peggy as Captain America is such a novel concept and I love that idea.

Ron: I mean, it makes you wonder why Peggy wasn’t Captain America in the first place.

Mon: Exactly! And the animation was so different from the other Disney animations that we'd seen throughout the day, but it's beautiful.

Ron: Yeah, I like that style. It looks good.

Mon: It does. It looks like a comic book come to life and, of course, that's the point. But if they're able to execute it as brilliantly as they did in the trailer, we are in for a good show.

Ron: Yeah, I'm really excited about this one. I love alternate stories, as well, so this is definitely up my alley.

Mon: Yeah, and I hear that the late Chadwick Boseman actually contributed his voice for several episodes. I'm not sure how often T’Challa appears but he does voice T’Challa, so that’ll be great. I hope they’re nice stories.

Ron: We also got a glimpse of the Ms Marvel show. We got news about the casting of Iman Vellani just a few months ago, so they must be shooting during the pandemic. That's exciting. We also got to see some of the supporting cast. There's a lot of controversy around this. And it just makes my head hurt. I don't understand why a company as big as Marvel and DC can’t do a little bit of background research when they cast people. Regular people on the internet can find out information and Marvel and Disney didn't find it out?

Mon: Or did they choose to ignore it? But the thing is that in today's internet age, you really need to be careful about who you're choosing, who you’re giving opportunities to. Especially in a show like Ms Marvel, which you make such a big deal about because she is so important to demographics in the US and around the world. And yet you keep making misstep after misstep. You need to be careful.

I will say that they seemed to try very hard during the Investor Day announcement to veer away from the rest of the cast and talk only about Iman Vellani. It could be because this was all shot and prepared well before the controversies began and the rest of the cast were chosen. But at the same, time I do wonder if they're trying to rethink. I need to give them the benefit of the doubt because I'm hoping that they rethink and recast. It might be too late, and we’re stuck with what we've got.

Ron: Yeah, but sometimes it takes something as simple as just putting out a statement acknowledging what people are concerned about. Like, Rosario Dawson, she does know about what people are saying about the allegations against her, and she did mention it in that interview with Variety. It does make me feel a lot better. I know a lot of people still don't really take her word for it, and that's completely an understandable reaction, but at least she's saying something. The thing is, I wish she had said something earlier. But I understand that she couldn't have because, despite rumors circulating from what, the beginning of the year, that Rosario Dawson was going to be playing Ahsoka, the lead up to the actual episode was all hush-hush, and it was only when we got to ‘The Jedi’, that we met Ahsoka Tano. It did make me feel better though.

Mon: Okay. But there are other problems.

Ron: There are. There's Gina Carano and her wildly insensitive and dangerous tweets about the pandemic and mask wearing and what she put as her pronouns. The thing is that these aren't things that happen in a vacuum. People are very vocal about it, a whole bunch of us, because of Gina Carano’s nonsense, ended up putting our pronouns in our bios, because we were like, okay, this is definitive, this is what we feel. And maybe we’re not very comfortable with our pronouns at this moment, but that's the one we're going with for now.

Mon: I just think that if you're a celebrity in the 21st century, you know how influential you are. You also know how far and wide every tweet goes. You need to be more careful about who you're hiring. And for Marvel, Disney, and DC to be so blinkered about it is quite shocking. Now we don't know how far the controversy around Miss Marvel and the casting goes, we can only hope that by the time the show actually does reach our screens that it does right by the fans who are so eager to watch it.

Ron: If you want more information about the controversies around the Ms Marvel casting, you can check out the Twitter hashtag #FixMsMarvel.

Mon: All right, let's be a little bit more positive here. We've got a few more announcements for the other shows, for example, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Hawkeye has got Kate Bishop and yes, she's being played by Hailee Steinfeld. Everybody knew it. Somehow Disney did not think to surprise us. Or maybe people just have too many cameras nowadays, because we have the images and everything.

Ron: Yes.

Mon: Lots of people are excited. I am underwhelmed by this show. I don't know why. I like Hawkeye in the movies, but Jeremy Renner is a problem.

Ron: And the thing is, the Renner problems happened after he was in the MCU. Literally, in the last year, since Avengers: Endgame, these issues with him have come to light. How is he still here?

Mon: I know. You could have moved completely away from Hawkeye and just concentrated on Kate Bishop, but no, Hawkeye is still there.

Ron: Maybe he’ll die in this show.

Mon: He should have died in Endgame! Having talked about Hawkeye, Black Widow is still not coming to Disney Plus. We do not know if Disney is actually going to change their mind about this. I understand why. I understand that they want it to hit theaters. Because, let's be honest, in a couple of years when the gurus of film sit down and talk about how Wonder Woman and Black Widow and Mulan didn’t actually hit the theaters, they’ll come up with some hogwash about why these women-led films didn't make it to the theaters, ignoring the fact that we were in a pandemic.

Ron: I still think this is a terrible decision. You know why? Vaccine or no vaccine, how comfortable are we really going to be going to a theater to watch a movie, sitting next to a person, you don't know it they’ve washed their hands?

Mon: Can you imagine if somebody coughs?

Ron: Oh gosh, the entire theater will evacuate. This has been nine months of paranoia. This is a pandemic. It's unprecedented, the kind of situation that we're living in right now. It's scary. There are some people who willingly go out there thinking, for some reason, that they are immune to COVID-19. But most of us with brains know that we have to stay home. We're not gonna run into a theater. If you put it on Disney Plus, the chances of more people seeing it are huge. You're not going to make that much money if you put it in theaters. That's what I think.

Mon: Unless they’re going around actually sabotaging this film. Wow, I’m negative. I'm hoping for the best. I hope Disney sees the light if this situation continues. And listen, with the new regime taking over in the US, it's still going to take time. Because people need to be making a difference in their daily lives. Till a substantial amount of change happens globally and in the US, trying to insist on having a theater release seems premature.

Ron: And also, let's not forget, the Disney higher-ups may be getting the vaccine first, but people who actually go to theaters, it's going to be months before we get it. Yeah, I really don't understand. Maybe they're holding out hope, but I feel like they're going to have to change their decision eventually.

Mon: Yeah, I think a year of languishing in theater-hell will make them change their mind eventually.

Ron: Yeah

Mon: And also, maybe the anticipation is built up. It’s anyway been built up for a year. Then, once we get into the groove of the MCU once again with the TV shows, maybe they'll think, okay we've got enough eyes and subscribers, people will start coming and it’ll be worth putting it on the channel.

Ron: Well, hopefully, because I'm actually beginning to forget the Black Widow movie exists.

Mon: Yeah, they have to keep reminding us.

Ron: Seriously. They need to do something. Speaking of the movies, we’ve got confirmation that Captain Marvel 2 is going to be happening. And Nia DaCosta is going to be directing it, which is great. Also exciting, Ms Marvel from the TV show is going to be appearing in that, and so is a grown up Monica Rambeau, who we are going to be meeting in WandaVision. This pretty much tracks with the timeframe. Because Captain Marvel, the first one, took place in the 90s. Monica was still a young girl then. Presumably, Captain Marvel 2 is going to be set after Avengers: Endgame. So, Monica should be grown up by then.

Mon: Yeah, I'm excited to see what this film can be. We really liked the first film. It may have been a little bit safe storytelling-wise, it was a bit formulaic, but it's definitely different from the usual so we’re hardly going to complain. I feel like a brand new voice in Nia DaCosta? Can't wait to see what she can bring to the plate.

Ron: Yeah, absolutely.

Mon: And that's what I really liked about the announcements from Marvel. It's that we get to see diversity on the screen, but there's also diversity behind the scenes.

Ron: Absolutely. Like the Ms Marvel TV show is being directed, and the showrunners are all people of colour. So that's really exciting.

Mon: Yeah. And we even have Moon Knight, for example, has an Egyptian showrunner.

Ron: Yeah, no confirmation about who will be playing Moon Knight. There's a lot of talk about Oscar Isaac taking on the role but then Moon Knight is supposed to have Egyptian roots. Feige even mentioned that there's going to be a lot of Egyptian iconography in the show, so maybe they are holding out for an Egyptian actor. I really hope so, because there's no point having somebody who's not Egyptian in a TV show that is full of Egyptian aesthetics.

Mon: Let's be honest. Oscar Isaac does not make a good Egyptian, as we saw with X-Men: Apocalypse.

Ron: He tried, poor man.

Mon: That was such a terrible film! How do you take Oscar Isaac and apocalypse and make a disaster? But anyway, moving on. She-Hulk. Oh my god, what's happening with this show? First of all, we got confirmation that Tatiana Maslany was going to play She-Hulk. But then she rescinded? And now they’ve confirmed that she is She-Hulk.

Ron: There were so many rumours this year before Disney Investor Day, and they’ve all pretty much got confirmed at the event. Is Disney even trying to hide any of this stuff or what?

Mon: I'm just trying to figure out what is going on. Why are all these rumors reaching people, whereas Disney is still waiting to make the announcements?

Ron: I don't know. It was kind of weird. Like there are certain things which I was just like, huh, yeah this is not a surprise. That was probably the one aspect of Disney Investor Day that didn't work for me because we were already writing these pieces up.

Mon: Yeah, I mean, I think that when they were making these presentations, they probably didn't know that this was going to be the reaction because people had already seen the rumors, or they'd been confirmed. I don't know how long ago they actually put this stuff together.

Ron: But Disney needs to look into their sources! Who is leaking all this information?

Mon: So, She-Hulk is also going to have Tim Roth, returning as the Abomination.

Ron: What? Why?

Mon: No idea. Mark Ruffalo will be back as the Hulk. I really hope he's just Bruce Banner, not Hulk, or worse, Professor Hulk.

Ron: I didn't take to Professor Hulk either.

Mon: Yeah, I know some people really like the character and I appreciate that, but oh no, I don’t like him. So, I read recently that it's actually going to be a half hour, law comedy. I am so intrigued and I want to watch this show.

Ron: Oh really? That sounds fun.

Mon: Yeah. I mean, Tatiana Maslany’s so talented. She can do anything so I'm really intrigued to see what they can do with it.

Ron: Yeah, Feige did mention that, since it's going to be about lawyers, we should probably expect other Marvel characters to appear on the show. So of course, everybody's got excited thinking Daredevil is going to be coming back.

Mon: Oh, I was thinking Jessica Jones. She's not a lawyer, but she's a PI, and that’s kind of connected.

Ron: Listen, just bring my Defenders back somehow. I want my Defenders!

Mon: So, a really fun, and really good, exciting announcement was Ironheart! I’m so happy that this legacy character is getting her own show. And it’s going to be live-action, which is even better.

Ron: Yes.

Mon: Hopefully, it won't be all about, oh, I miss Tony, I miss Tony. Because, you know what, I love Spider-Man, and I love Peter Parker, but he is way too wrapped up in Tony. And I understand that when you're watching the movies, you're already very into it. But when you come away from it, then it's like, Peter needs his own characterization, which isn't attached to Tony.

Ron: He doesn't have a life outside of Tony. It's extremely frustrating.

Mon: Yeah.

Ron: So, what do you think about Armor Wars?

Mon: I am all for seeing Don Cheadle back as War Machine. That character is so cool. Don Cheadle is just so effortless as a superhero.

Ron: He's awesome.

Mon: This story is based on a comic run, and of course, that has more to do with Tony. Here, from the synopsis, it appears that this is one of Tony's worst nightmares, but War Machine has to deal with it. So, my assumption is that, obviously, somehow Tony’s tech, his armor, has got into the wrong hands. Who could it be, we don't know. I’m assuming Sam Rockwell is coming back.

Ron: Oh really?

Mon: That is my assumption. People really like that guy so he might come back.

Ron: Isn’t he in jail?

Mon: Endgame happened. Lots of things have changed!

Ron: Okay, that's a good point.

Mon: This is just me speculating. So, I just feel like it will be interesting because if it’s Tony’s nightmare and War Machine’s got to deal with it, then that changes the whole perspective altogether. So, I’m intrigued, I’m intrigued. Also, more War Machine is a good thing.

Ron: Yes.

Mon: Okay. What do you think about Secret Invasion.

Ron: Dude, I have no idea what to think about this.

Mon: Disney is really running with the chemistry between Talos and Fury. But you know, the premise is pretty interesting. Because if the Skrulls, who are shapeshifters, have taken over every layer of humanity, it's really fascinating to see the whole ‘who can you trust’ issue.

Ron: Yeah, that angle, definitely quite interesting. I'm actually quite surprised that Talos and Fury are getting their own run. I like Talos. I think he's cool. And Nick Fury, you know, we really haven't got to see as much of him as we would have expected. He was great in Captain Marvel.

Mon: Just so much fun to see him.

Ron: My only concern about Secret Invasion is I don't want them painting the Skrulls as bad guys.

Mon: Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with you. Because the whole point of Captain Marvel is that the film really turned on its head who we think the bad guys are. I'm really hoping that it's just a faction of Skrulls. Because you have bad guys in everything, right?

Ron: Yeah.

Mon: There's a faction of Skrulls who are sent on Earth and they just take it the wrong way.

Ron: Yeah, I'm hoping that it's something like that. Because the refugee storyline in Captain Marvel was really hard-hitting. I thought it was really lovely. I'm not sure how I feel about Secret Invasion. We have to see it.

Mon: Yeah, there's no other species, per se, in the main Marvel Universe that they can play with in this fashion. I hope that they’re still sensitive to the topic, that at the end of the day, the Skrulls who were saved by Mar-Vell are still refugees who require and deserve to get a peaceful life. But there's always some bad eggs. Fury and Talos are dealing with them.

Ron: Yeah, yeah. We also got some Guardians of the Galaxy news. There is going to be a Holiday Special before the third film comes out. I don't know how I feel about that.

Mon: Sometimes I feel like Marvel milks the wrong things.

Ron: Do we want more Guardians of the Galaxy?

Mon: I think that having a third part is bad enough. The second film was just underwhelming to me. I have not gone back and seen it.

Ron: You know what I would like to see? A movie about Gamora and Nebula. That's all I want to see. I don't care about the others, just those two. Oh, and throw Mantis in there! Yeah. Mantis, Gamora, and Nebula, all I want to see.

Mon: I hope Disney is listening.

Ron: We're also going to get an I Am Groot series.

Mon: This is definitely a reason to sell toys to kids and make a Seedling-Groot version which is cuter than baby Yoda, so we have more Christmas decorations.

Alright, so back to the films, because we forgot a few things, didn't we? So, Ant-Man and the Wasp is going to be called Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Ron: I think that sounds fun!

Mon: I love the name so much! Paul Rudd is back. Evangeline Lilly is back. She’s apologized for her pandemic snafu, so that's great.

Ron: Oh, thank goodness.

Mon: Yeah. Michael Douglas is back, and so is Michelle Pfeiffer. So excited. I love those four, they are so good in the films. Can’t wait to see them again. I am upset that they recast Cassie!

Ron: Why do we have now an older Cassie, than the older version that we already saw in Endgame?

Mon: I have no idea. The actress who played Cassie is also upset. She found out the same day that the Disney Investor Day announcement happened.

Ron: Oh, that's so mean.

Mon: That is mean! I don't like people who do that. At least let her know that she's not coming back and she's been replaced.

Ron: That's a bit disappointing.

Mon: They are going ahead with Black Panther 2. They've mentioned that they're not going to recast T’Challa, which people had anyway surmised. I'm very glad for that. Ryan Coogler is hard at work, we were told, rewriting the script. So, let's see what they can do. Eternals, there’s no new news about that, but we’re finally going to see it in theaters. “Theaters” in quotes.

Ron: Shang-Chi is also expected to be in theaters. Looks like Marvel is just going with that tactic. Let's see. These films, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Eternals, they are ready for release.

Mon: Yeah, Shang-Chi finished late in the Fall.

Ron: Yeah, so they're probably gonna finish off their production and everything and be ready to go.

Mon: They’ve got a really good cast over there. So, yeah, can't wait to see how the movie turns out.

Ron: Yes.

Mon: Thor 4: Love and Thunder, now has its villain. So Christian Bale is playing Gorr. Don't get excited. Gorr is a really weird-looking creature. I have no idea about this weird casting.

Ron: I just hope they let Christian Bale have fun and be funny. We need to see a funny Christian Bale. That's all I'm saying.

Mon: Is that something that exists?

Ron: It will when this movie comes out!

Mon: Amazing. All right. So, the big news which had fans actually going insane, is that Marvel is now going to make a Fantastic Four film.

Ron: Please just let them die.

Mon: Listen, Fantastic Four are the first family of Marvel. We’ve gotta hold out hope that this is going to be something spectacular. I don't know who they're gonna get to write this film, and who they’re going to get to direct this film. I'm really worried about the cast, but I want them to do something really, really good. Because the cartoon series was a lot of fun, but it was also a cartoon. The Chris Evans movies were campy fun, there were really very silly. It was supposed to be the comic book ethos and they captured that.

Less said about Fan4stic is better. How you can take such a spectacular cast of Michael B Jordan, Jamie Bell, Katie Mara, and Toby Kebbell, and make that film is still beyond me. I'm so glad that Michael B Jordan got a second chance as Erik Killmonger. I'm hoping the others also get a second chance.

But yeah, let's see what they can do. I think that Marvel is going to do something spectacular with Fantastic Four, which we've never seen before. I say this with the confidence of somebody who knows that that's not gonna happen but I can hope.

Ron: Man, I don't know. I think some properties are just cursed.

Mon: No! Don’t say that.

Ron: Fantastic Four seems like it is. It's a mess.

Mon: I feel like there is so much expectation that comes with Fantastic Four. I mean, just think about it. Just because you and I aren't that attached to Fantastic Four, doesn't mean that we don't understand how people who are feel about this. If Marvel had announced that they were making X-Men, I don't know how we would react. The weight of expectation and the amount of history that is attached to these characters, it's huge. How do you take all of that and filter it down into one film, or one franchise? And at least, Fantastic Four is only four characters and one villain, for the most part, Galactus is also there.

If they were the X-Men, oh my god, it’ll just blow your mind. They’re clever not to have announced X-Men. Let them get through this roster because it's an extensive roster, we've been talking about it for a while now. It's a huge roster! And they’re smart to leave something which could potentially be a huge golden goose for them. But yeah, Fantastic Four, I feel good about it. And I feel good about it because I'm not attached to them.

Ron: I'm totally on the fence about Fantastic Four. I do not know what to expect. The problem is not just what has come before with Fantastic Four in the live-action universe. It’s with the characters themselves. Reed Richards is a dick!

Mon: No, but that's true. But listen, can you make somebody who is like that be a teachable moment for the character, for people who are watching him?

Ron: So, where I'm coming from is that I am now at the point where I can't stand watching or reading something about a character who's unlikable. I think they get too much time in the sun.

Mon: Okay. No, that's a good point.

Ron: Like, I just watched Mank. And I was like, why are you asking me to spend two and a half hours with this man who sucks? I don't want to. And it's not fair that I'm being asked to do that. I want to hang out with people I like.

Mon: Yeah, that's true. Maybe they should turn the tables and make Invisible Woman the dick, and Reed is the poor brow-beaten spouse in the relationship.

Ron: He will find a way to make even that annoying!

Mon: Let's be positive here. I really have a good feeling about Fantastic Four coming from the MCU. I'm telling you.

Ron: I don't know where your positivity is coming from because I have none.

Mon: Well, Marvel has had an extra year of thinking about this. Because they didn't actually do like actual work during this year because of the pandemic. So, I'm thinking that's just brewing a lot of good ideas for them.

And on that positive note, we want to know which of these Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney Productions are you super excited about? Which ones do you really not want to be watching at all? What did you expect to actually be there which wasn't and you’re super-disappointed? Let us know. Send us a tweet, send us an email and happy watching!

Ron: You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!

Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.

[Continuum by Audionautix plays]

Transcription by Otter.ai, Mon, and Ron.

#marvel #disney #disney plus #lucasfilm #captain marvel #loki #falcon #winter soldier #what if #star wars #ahsoka tano #boba fett #fantastic four #obi-wan kenobi #bad batch #darth vader

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demoiselledefortune · 2 years ago

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shows I watched recently

Star Trek Strange New Worlds

I'm pretty new to Star Trek, having only starting watching it with Discovery. So it's not that easy to appeal to me by hitting on the nostalgia button. Nevertheless SNW really hit the spot; with overall excellent episodes and characters. It's not without some minor points that failed. A couple of episodes weren't as good as others, I was disappointed that we didn't get more episodes centering on Una or Ortega; and it's been also disappointing that asides from a blink-and-you'll-miss it nonbinary character and bisexual Chapel; the show has been lacking in queer content. At least it's on point in term of slashiness, with La'an (my favourite so far) and Una having some very interesting chemistry. The final of the season was a bit too referential to really work for me, but was still solid enough. I very much look forward to a second season (although so far, I still prefer Discovery as it is after it went through its growing pain).

Ms Marvel

I only read the first few issues of the comics before I ended up giving up on comics altogether about that time. I remember liking it a lot and finding it surprisingly relatable. The series has been following in those footsteps very well; being an overall excellent, heartwarming series centering on an awesome character and having a lot of relatable moments (American Jews might not understand why bitching about the female partition at your local religious center being such a second rate emplacement is such a relatable moment, but oh yeah). It suffers a bit from lacking focus however, and the Clandestines overall didn't work for me at all as an antagonist, from their overly sudden shift to extreme violence to their leader's eventual overly sudden shift to, errr, suicide and giving up her path. I felt pretty meh about tying them with such a broad and common mythology as djinns, though it worked a bit better latter where it seemed more that the myth predated them and just were assigned to them by locals. The whole passage in Pakistan, and lengthy flashback, while interesting in its own right, sucked the passing right out of a too short series to contain them. It also broke us from too many of the supporting cast that was allowing the show to shine. In the end the heart of the series were in the family and community relationships, though, and those really shone all the way through and including in the ending. In the end, none of the MCU series have been perfect, but I'll have a hard time picking my favorite between MsMarvel, Hawkeye and WandaVision.

Obi Wan Kenobi

This one is a bit older and I think I have less to say about it. I'm not really sure where up to I am in term of my Star Wars fanishness. It's never been one of my big fandom; but I did read a few Obikin fics back in the days on the down low, and I tend to consider Obi Wan my favourite Star Wars character from that context. Yet I obviously felt like a stranger to most of the fannish reactions I saw to the series. I did enjoy it. It especially shone thanks to the actors. Little Leia being amazing, Ewan McGregor being Ewan McGregor and therefore amazing. And so on. Lots of solid character work overall. I actually really like Reva's character arc and found its conclusion very moving and interesting. The storytelling wasn't quite as good and honestly felt a bit meandering. I feel this series could have been a bit shorter actually, and that there were a bit too many episodes with unlikely rescues. But overall a solid series.

#obi wan kenobi #ms marvel #strange new worlds #star trek #star wars #mcu

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hansoloschubbybrother · 7 years ago

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My Opinion On The Last Jedi...For What It’s Worth

Having just watched The Last Jedi again and having seen way too many YouTube videos from people who hated the movie, I just had to write down my thoughts on it because I disagree with so many of the things that people hated about it.

It wasn’t perfect but, on the whole, I still think it is a great movie, mostly because of the choices made regarding the story arcs for the main characters.

But before I get into that though, I’m going to confirm some of the things where I can agree with the haters. Firstly, Mary Poppins Leia. It’s a nice idea that, by being blown into space, Leia’s survival instinct kicks in and enables her to use the force in a way she hadn’t before but I thought it looked awful and by just not having her blown into space in the first place would have been better. The moment with Kylo Ren deciding not to shoot would have been more poignant and instead of Holdo being needed, Leia could have remained in charge and Admiiral Ackbar could have been the one to sacrifice himself by using light speed to obliterate the First Order fleet, giving him the noble death such a character deserved.

Just on that whole using light speed as a weapon thing, I’ve listened to people using it as another reason to put down the film, saying that if it was a plausible weapon it would have been used already so having it in TLJ doesn’t make sense. Rian Johnson or someone had a cool idea that looked great in the movie and if other people involved in previous movies had thought of the idea then I’m sure they would have used it too. It was a great moment in the film and people need to stop trying to find reasons to dislike the movie that aren’t there.

Next up is some of the humour. Whilst I enjoyed some it, overall it felt a little out of place in a good Star Wars movie and harked back more to the prequels. It may have been an attempt to appeal to children, but I felt the same way about Luke milking that animal and going fishing and the way BB-8 is used. In the original trilogy, R2-D2 would never actually ride a AT-ST, he may have found a way to control something by interfacing with a computer terminal but not actually driven something himself. This step toward children’s comedy was just one of the reasons I mostly disliked the prequel trilogy and wasn’t necessary here either. The original trilogy didn’t have that and it didn’t stop those films from becoming an obsession for most children at the time.

My final gripe about TLJ is the over arching story of the slow chase. Not only does it seem silly that the First Order would need to wait to destroy them, it created the need for the whole Canto Bight scene. I enjoyed Finn and Rose’s scenes when they were on Snoke’s ship and I also enjoyed DJ as a character, but they needed to find a better way to make that all play out. I really enjoyed the film’s opening battle with the dreadnought and the end battle on Crait but the story they created to get them from one place to the next was very underwhelming.

In spite of these issues, I still really enjoyed the film and that was mostly because of how they developed the story of each of the main characters. On the whole, I thought they got this spot on and is generally where I seem to differ hugely from many of the online posting star wars fanbase.

I will leave Luke until last as I think his treatment in the film is what has caused the most hate from the fanbase, not least from Mark Hamill himself. Instead, I’ll start with Rey as she is probably the character where there is the most common ground. Undoubtedly for me, Rey is far too much of a Mary Sue. As the central character of this new trilogy, this is not great film making. If they needed her to have these abilities/skills from the get go, they shouldn’t have made her an orphaned desert girl at the start. The journey they needed her to make was too far, too soon. I know they are trying to explain how this is possible by saying that she basically downloaded Kylo Ren’s skills but it’s not very believable. This said, I don’t actually believe that TLJ is what makes her a Mary Sue. This problem is one created by TFA. In TLJ, she doesn’t actually advance her skills set a great deal, other than to move a bunch of rocks, which is Jedi Training 1.1. Therefore, this is not a problem with TLJ, it’s the knock on effect from a big failure with TFA…which is not the last time I’ll say that.

We then have the issue of Rey’s parents, the source of much speculation between the two films. I mentioned in a post I wrote after the film came out that I’m glad that her parents are nobodies. Star Wars is a vast galaxy, why does she have to be some blood relative of an existing character. It would be difficult to realistically explain that she is a relative of one of the key characters from the original trilogy and very unimaginative. It is far better that her heritage broadens the Star Wars landscape, not enclose it furthermore. For those that wanted her to be a Kenobi or a Solo or whatever, there is always the possibility that Kylo was lying. Rian Johnson did, after all, include the mysterious but unresolved scene with Rey and the mirror thing on Ahch-To. So for me, it was a positive that Rey’s parents were nobodies.

Finally for Rey, there is her connection with Kylo Ren, which brings me to another aside. Many people are up in arms that Rian Johnson would use the force in a way that they have never seen before but for me this is just ridiculous. It’s a sci-fi fantasy film. If you can extend your disbelief in the originals then why not now? The Jedi’s are supposed to have kept peace for thousands of years and we have only followed a handful for a few years but somehow we have seen the force used to its fullest extent. Come on now. You wouldn’t have worried about this as a child, so why now? It’s totally not important and totally possible.

Anyway, back to Rey and Kylo. For me, their connection is the most interesting arc of the new trilogy and using the force as a way to further develop this relationship was an important reason as to why I enjoyed the film. Without that, they would not get the chance to interact as frequently as they do, thus removing important character development. Many people, have said that it is not realistic that they would feel some kind of connection after knowing each other for such a short space of time but I see it completely differently. Maybe it’s linked to personal experiences when it comes to relationships but, to me, it is perfectly plausible that two people with so much in common and who both share the same insecurities would feel an immediate connection. They are in the same position as each other just on different sides of the force. It’s natural to feel drawn to someone who is going through a similar experience to yourself, so that you don’t feel alone and for support. For me, their relationship is an intriguing way to consider the force and how idea of light and dark sides exist.

This leads us nicely onto Kylo Ren. Many people disliked the fact that in TFA he was basically a power brat. For me, I was immediately drawn to this idea that we are seeing the proper development of the main bad guy. His journey in this trilogy is much more what I was hoping to see for Anakin’s journey in the prequel trilogy. Unfortunately, in the prequels, we a got a few brattish comments and then he basically became a full on bad guy after a short conversation with Palpatine/Sidious. Kylo Ren’s character development is far more considered than Anakin’s. He is a powerful brat but, especially because Adam Driver is as good an actor as Hayden Christensen is bad, you can understand why. You can also see that has not completely turned to the dark side, that it isn’t a switch. This is developed even further in TLJ and, as I said before, I have enjoyed his development and how his character has mirrored Rey. Kylo Ren has become my second favourite character in the Star Wars universe after his father. I enjoyed how he first appears to be a Darth Vader clone, evening looking up to his Grandfather, but then falls way short. I enjoyed the line TLJ when Snoke reminds him of this and tells him to remove his helmet. I suppose some people don’t want to see their bad guy go through some dark coming of age story but I think it makes it much more interesting.

It is the same reason why I thoroughly enjoyed that Rian Johnson just killed off Snoke. No back story, no big bad, just everything opposite to what people might have been expecting. For me he was Sidious 2.0. A powerful bad guy who we thought was going to be defeated at the end of the third film. To me he was unoriginal and another reason why TFA was described as a love letter to the original trilogy. He felt very “Star Wars” but that was it. People felt short changed after Snoke’s back story was ignored and became insignificant but thought it was exactly the right decision. He played his part and moved aside for Kylo Ren to become the main bad guy for the second half of the trilogy. On the subject of his back story, I just don’t get this obsession with needing to know everything about every character’s back story. We never got that in the original trilogy. We didn’t get told a single thing about Darth Sidious. He was just the powerful bad guy that ruled the Empire. We didn’t need to know more and we didn’t care. That we got to learn more via the prequel films was great but it wasn’t a vital part of the story that was missing from the original films. This is the same with a whole host of other characters from Jabba, Boba Fett, Lando and even Han and Chewie. Why do people now suggest that the new films lack characterisation or some shit because we don’t know the back story of every character? It’s just not necessary.

Poe was another character whose story arc has been criticised. When I first watch TLJ, I also thought that having Leia and Holdo hold back their plan from him seemed like a stupid decision but this felt more and more reasonable with each watch. In order to avoid him being just another boring hero pilot character that destroys lots of enemy ships and always survives, Rian Johnson clearly wanted him to have some kind of journey to help develop his character. It makes total sense to me that a hero pilot would have an ego that is too big and gets in the way of strong leadership decisions, so Rian Johnson develops this through the film, from Poe unnecessarily sacrificing lives and ships to destroy the dreadnought at the start, to his demotion and subsequent exclusion from leadership decision and then redemption at the end by choosing to pull the Resistance fighters back when they’re being picked off easily on Crait. I can’t help but think that having two women leaders decide not to let the male hero pilot in on the plan goes against male sensibilities in this situation. He’s the hero, the man and, in all previous eras, would be the one who knows what the right thing to do is. The truth is, that if it were two male leaders and a female hero pilot who was denied knowledge of the plan, we probably wouldn’t bat an eye-lid. Is it feminist politics unnecessarily introduced to Star Wars? I don’t think so. It’s not forced down our throats, just used to help develop what could easily become a boring character.

The final character I’ll focus on before Luke is Finn. As mentioned before, I enjoyed his scenes on Snoke’s ship with Rose and Captain Phasma but really didn’t like how they got him there. It’s a shame that it made his character seem marginalised. The only part I did enjoy was how DJ made him question his defection from the First Order and whether there is a good or a bad side in war. This is quite deep stuff for a Star Wars film and quite political but I liked that they asked these questions and it seemed fitting that Finn’s character be the one to contemplate these ideas. Again, it’s a shame they couldn’t have found a better way to do it, that made him more integral to the story.

Finally, we come to Luke. More than anything else, it’s people’s comments about Luke that get me shouting at my screen. Maybe it is because I was never drawn to Luke as my favourite character as a child but, for some reason, I just don’t see things the same way as all the haters. For me, Luke’s story through TLJ needed to follow on from what we were told in TFA, in a manner that is both realistic to how you might think someone would react having been through that experience and also realistic to how Luke, the character, would react.

So, what were we told in TFA? We learnt that Luke is in hiding and has cut himself off completely from his family and friends as a result of the part he played in the failure of his Jedi Academy and turning his nephew into Kylo Ren.

This leads me to the first of the things that annoy me about some of the arguments laid at the door of TLJ and Rian Johnson. People claim that Luke would never abandon his friends and cowardly hide away and cut himself off from everything. This idea is played out in TLJ but this story was clearly set in motion in TFA. If people can’t believe Luke would act in this way then be angry at JJ Abrams because it was his idea. Rian Johnson continued Luke’s story from this situation because it’s the only place he could have started from.

Next is to decide whether Luke’s reaction to what has happened is a realistic way for someone to respond. This is obviously subjective but his failings have led to the creation of a potential new Sith Lord, the death of many young fledgling Jedis, the estrangement of his nephew from his family and the break up of his sister’s marriage to his best friend. This is quite a heavy burden bare, considering this is on top of how someone would naturally feel after failing so badly. Imagine someone is revered as a hero around the galaxy, a new Jedi Knight to help bring peace. Your self-esteem would be sky high. You would be pretty happy with how your life is panning out. It is clearly absolutely plausible that someone could react to what happened the way Luke does in TLJ. If people were happy to believe Luke’s set up in TFA, then they have to accept that someone could react the way Luke does. I believe that this is a far more likely way that someone would react than to remain positive and not question your beliefs and the part they played in what happened.

Therefore the question is whether Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and hero of the galaxy, would react this way. Clearly many fans and Mark Hamill say he wouldn’t. I just don’t see how they can come to this conclusion based on his actions in the original trilogy. The main argument I hear is that he was a great Jedi who saw the good in Darth Vader and defeated Sidious. This just doesn’t stack up I’m afraid. How do we know Luke is a great Jedi? He was only taught by Yoda for a little while and clearly never finished his training. In fact, choosing to be so loyal to his friends was against his Jedi training. Additionally, he beat Darth Vader, not by being a great Jedi but by turning to the dark side and using anger to fuel his fight with him. Vader threatened Leia and he threw anything Jedi out the window and got plain mad. This made him a hero but certainly not some grand Jedi. Then we come to Sidious. Luke didn’t defeat Sidious at all. Seeing the good in Vader pulled him back from killing his father but he was about to be killed by Sidious. It was Vader/Anakin who killed Sidious. So, Luke was a hero, a bastian of hope but he was not some infallible human or a Jedi dedicated to their code. If anything, he was the first grey Jedi. For me, the fact that he felt so strongly for his family and friends is a reason why he would have reacted the way he did when he caused it all to go to shit.

People have also suggested that Luke would never think, even for a second, about killing his nephew. Again, I just don’t have this picture of Luke as all things light and good. He is not so squeaky clean that when faced with the prospect of a new Sidious or Vader and acknowledging that he is not able to control him, that, for a second, he wouldn’t think that right thing to do is kill him. Everyone has thoughts they shouldn’t have for just a split second. Again, why is Luke any different?

It seems to me that people who loved Luke in the originals can’t face the idea that he is somehow a flawed human being and a flawed Jedi. This character that they idolised as a child is actually a human and not some unrealistic hero type. For me, it gave Luke something interesting to contribute to this trilogy. Did people who hated it just want Johnson to forget what was set up for him in TFA, something he is criticised for in other areas, and suddenly have Luke forget all about why he was where he was? Was he supposed to return to the Luke from the original trilogy just because some girl he doesn’t know turns up with his old lightsabre? That would have been bad film making in my eyes, not good.

Another criticism is that he died a coward. I just don’t see it that way. Was it cowardly to hide away? Possibly but, as mentioned, this wasn’t Rian Johnson’s fault and also not an unrealistic way for him to react to what happened. Having been put in this position, you then want Luke to redeem himself and I thought he did that. As the film progressed, he slowly became his old self. First he saw Chewie, then the falcon and news of Han’s death, he then agreed to help Rey a bit, then he saw R2-D2 who played him Leia’s recording for Obi-Wan and finally Yoda’s force ghost helped him come around. There was a progression to his arc and, in the end, his actions were both brave and saved the day. He would have known that using the force to project his image for all that time would lead to his death but that it was necessary to save the rebellion. His death gave hope, renewed the idea of Luke the idolised hero, and then echoed the death of both Obi-Wan and Yoda, so was more than fitting, especially with the twin suns setting. I thought it was a great way for him to “die” and not at all cowardly. He will almost certainly be back as force ghost in IX as well.

As before, anyone moaning that force projection has never been done by a Jedi in any other material, needs to open up their imagination a little. Also, if Luke is supposed to be such an amazing Jedi then surely he could find ways to use the force that others before him hadn’t.

My final point about Luke, and of this ridiculously long essay about a film, relates to how people have criticised the idea that Luke could ever feel that the Jedi order needed to end, the idea that an order that kept peace for thousands of years could ever need to move on or evolve. I can’t believe people even say this without thinking about our own history. Religion, the British Empire, slavery, etc have all been institutions used over 100s of years to keep peace and maintain the powerful but there always comes a time when life and people learn and move forward. They find better ways to live. The Jedi might have kept peace for 1000s of years but in the recent past, and Luke’s understanding, they have not kept the peace, they have only been one side of a conflict. Luke would be absolutely right to reflect on his Jedi beliefs and could easily be correct in his new found stance that the Jedi need to end. He comes round again at the end of the film, when he corrects Kylo that he is not the last Jedi, but in my eyes his questioning of the Jedi order is not only right but interesting and made for a great film.

#the last jedi #why I liked it #why those who hate it are wrong #be warned #very long post

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stonefreeak · 8 years ago

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Wooo, it’s been a while. Also I decided to cut this ficlet off and post the first part since the second part is kinda different anyway and this way we get an update! Yay!

Obi-Wan heads toward the Room of a Thousand Fountains—having cleaned up in the fresher and put on a new set of clothes—to enjoy some meditation, some time alone with peace and quiet.

He sits down in a secluded spot—surrounded by plants and flowers—next to one of the smaller fountains. He takes off his boots and sets them aside, pulls his socks off and folds them, before he sits cross legged with his hands lying limply on his knees and closes his eyes.

Flowing water, falling drops hitting a smooth water surface, a bowl that continuously overflows, the rustle of leaves, soft grass beneath him—stroking and not quite tickling his bare feet—the gentle scent of Jarandian Jasmine, warm sunlight on his face.

The essence of the Living Force.

He hasn't always enjoyed meditation. In his teens he was too filled with energy—sitting still for so long trying to grasp the Force had been... difficult. He was better at connecting with it when moving, during katas or similar physical activity. His connection, however, was always the strongest when his need for it was the greatest—during times of danger.

He was eighteen when his Master finally managed to show him what meditation could be. A mission gone wrong—a sharp feeling of wonder, had the mission specs been altered? Were they supposed to die?—had them separated and fighting their way out of a revolution gone wrong. At the end, when they had finally found each other and escaped in the back of a cattle shuttle, Obi-Wan had been both utterly exhausted and too keyed up on adrenaline to even consider sleeping.

~~~~

"You must rest, Padawan," Qui-Gon murmured gently, pulling Obi-Wan down to sit next to him.

"I know, Master, I just... I just..." Obi-Wan trailed off; unsure how to express himself, too tired to think properly.

"I see. I believe some meditation would do you good right now." Qui-Gon's face was calm, almost placid, but Obi-Wan was sure he was amused by this—now that they were finally safe.

"Meditation is the last thing I need," Obi-Wan muttered, not petulantly at all mind you.

Qui-Gon huffed out a laugh. "You would say that, Padawan mine. However, as I believe it is, I will lead you through it." He tucked his feet in and straightened his back, now towering over Obi-Wan.

With a sigh Obi-Wan copied his Master's position, their knees now pressed together. A large warm hand wrapped around Obi-Wan’s just as he closed his eyes, and he let himself smile. His master hadn’t led him through meditation like this in years, it was comforting, in a way—familiar and nostalgic.

It started like it always did, just Obi-Wan and his thoughts. Slowly, slowly, with the warm hand anchoring him, he felt his master’s presence on more than the physical plane. He felt the warmth of his Light, and the hint of growth and life that he carried within him, the depth of his connection to the Living Force.

Bouncing off his master’s presence, Obi-Wan suddenly felt everything. Every single animal on the ship—slow and peaceful energy. Every single sentient—buzzing, more frenetic, thoughts and emotions whirling… He stretched himself out and let the Force sweep his mind away. He felt the stars, the worlds, the very cosmic vastness of the Force itself, and it was beautiful.

‘Come back now, Obi-Wan. Ground yourself, Padawan mine.’

His Master’s voice echoed in Obi-Wan’s head, warm and amused. Obi-Wan pulled back from the Force, regretful to leave its embrace and centered himself, returned to being simply Obi-Wan again.

Qui-Gon’s warm hand was like an anchor, so very real. Obi-Wan opened his eyes and turned to meet his Master’s kind eyes.

“I’m tired,” Obi-Wan whispered. His mind was finally quiet, just as tired as his exhausted body, but so filled with peace; everything else washed away by the Force.

“You should sleep, Obi-Wan.” Qui-Gon moved them around, barely struggling at all despite Obi-Wan’s exhausted deadweight, until Obi-Wan found himself curled in his lap, head resting against Qui-Gon’s shoulder.

“It was beautiful, Master,” Obi-Wan mumbled, eyelids drooping. He fell asleep then, nestled in his master’s embrace, warm and safe, with the feeling of a large hand stroking his hair.

~~~~

For a long time, Obi-Wan was unable to think of his Master without grief. It lanced through him so completely he sometimes couldn’t breathe with it.

He spoke with Master Yoda often during those early days, whenever Anakin was in class and the old master could spare a moment.

“Grieve for those no longer with us, you should not. One with the Force, they are. Channel your grief into the Force, you should. Miss them, do not, for one with the Force, they are.”

It didn’t help, not at first. Not missing Qui-Gon seemed like an impossibility. Obi-Wan had been at his side for a decade, the man was like his father and Obi-Wan loves him. How could he possibly not grieve?

“Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.”

It took time, but he found his answers. The feeling of his Master’s presence clinging stubbornly to one of his plants as Obi-Wan planted them in the Temple gardens or the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Memories evoked by the scent of his Master’s favourite tea. Calling upon his memories with the Force and almost reliving them again, his Master’s presence present and warm, the moment so clear as if it were happening right then and there.

A life remembered is a life never truly lost, merely one returned to the Force.

The Force is always with him and so, his Master too is always with him.

It’s not a perfect solution. What possibly could be with the loss of a life? But it is enough to help him deal with the grief, give it less hold over him, and it allowed him to move on. Live his life and do his duty as best he can. Isn’t that what his Master would have wanted?

The Force accepts his grief when he’s ready to let it go and he feels lighter when he does, as if a heavy burden has been lifted. It’s not gone forever; the grief comes again, the sadness occasionally sweeps over him, but Obi-Wan knows how to deal with it... and how to live with it.

It’s no longer the very center of his life, as it was at first, and he can instead focus on the lives that are still there, still around him. Like his former Padawan, his friends and his Great-Grandmaster, who has lived long enough to lose more than his fair share of people.

~~~~

Obi-Wan surfaces from his meditations briefly. A Cirdulian hawk butterfly has landed on a knuckle on his right hand, its startlingly blue wings held open—almost as if on display. He smiles briefly, and the wind—artificial perhaps, but still real enough—rustles his hair.

Obi-Wan could almost swear it feels like fingers brushing his fringe away from his forehead.

He closes his eyes and reaches for the Force once more.

—

(Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi masterpost)

#Supreme Chancellor Obi Wan Kenobi #my writing #an update at last #I've been sick again #Obi Wan Kenobi #star wars #Qui Gon Jinn #nothing's really happening #sorry #lol

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captainmazzic · 8 years ago

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The Ahsoka Novel Review, or, Goddamnit Star Wars, Part CXXVIII

Under a cut because this thing is long as fuuuuuck

...Okay. That was... Interesting.

I’m just going to ignore the first part where the author pretends to make Ahsoka have some sort of compassion-sympathy for Maul while taunting him and throwing his disability in his face at the same time. Was there even any point to having this little exchange? It’s not mentioned later, Maul has no bearing at all on this plot, and nothing Ahsoka does here is relevant even as a learning experience for later. It’s just... there. Token inclusion to draw in the Maul fans, I guess? Or.. alienate them yet again, I don’t even know.

This is how it starts. *laughing*. It gets so much worse. And... has a few moments where it shines, I admit. Anyway. Let’s get this party started.

So pretty much we follow Ahsoka around for a few years while she mopes about not being an Official Jedi™ and develops a major martyr obsession. Coming from Ahsoka’s mouth, it just seems so out of place, incongruent, and it gets old real fast. She regrets leaving the Jedi Order before Order 66 happens, she wishes she hadn’t survived while the rest of the Jedi died, she wonders why she lived when she didn’t “deserve” to because she “deserted” the Jedi, etc. etc. ETC. I am so sick of Heroic Characters™ with survivors’ complexes that don’t even fit their fucking character. We need another one of those like we need another vampire bemoaning immortality as a curse, or a burning stick to the eye. I’d rather take the burning stick. Ugh.

Anyway. When Ahsoka isn’t being that particular brand of OOC, she’s being a mouthpiece for... something. Someone. I’m honestly not sure who. Or why. But she says stuff that makes no sense for someone like Ahsoka to say, and you get the impression that she says it just so that the author can have these things out in the open. That whole making the crystal bleed? We won’t get started on that just yet. But yeah. What. The. Fuck. And she says stuff about Barriss being.. a... bully? Did I fucking read that right? Like I mean she says some things about Barriss that are accurate (it was cruel for her to try and let Ahsoka take the fall for the temple bombing, she didn’t trust people, and she was afraid of the war), but I’m not sure where she was ever a bully? Oh wait I guess that’s just the book being badly written.

And oh my god. Let me just. Excerpt a few… unfortunate word choices:

“The mechanisms put in place during the Clone Wars had been twisted for the Empire's use, and every day the Emperor’s hold grew tighter. She almost admired Palpatine for his ability to pull off a long-term plan – except for his being evil and all."

About the Grand Inquisitor:

“His agents must follow his every order as though the Emperor himself had given it. That sort of power made him feel very strong.”

Also about the Grand Inque:

“As he stalked through the corridor, his agents scattered out of his way. They were all afraid of him, which he liked rather a lot.”

And my personal favourite cringe-worthy writing:

“Dark crystals were made, too, but not in that holy place. They were plundered from their rightful bearers and corrupted by the hands that stole them. Even rock could be changed by the power of the Force, bleeding alterations until their color was the deepest red. The balance was finely staged between the two, light and dark, and it took very little to upset it.”

...What in the flying freebasing FUCK does “bleeding alterations” even fucking MEAN? What balance? Why is it staged? Why, if there is supposed to be a “balance” in the Force inside these bits of mineral, are they supposedly inherently “light”? Why are the Jedi their only “rightful bearers” (I mean, other than the Jedi arbitrarily laying sovereign claim to anything Force-related they set eyes on, whether meant for them or not)?

Oh, well let’s see here. Ahsoka is here to help.

"I've never seen white ones before," Bail mused.

"They used to be red," Ahsoka said. "When the creature had them, they were red. But I heard them before I ever saw him on Raada, and knew that they were meant for me."

"You changed their nature?" he asked.

"I restored them," Ahsoka replied. "I freed them. The red crystals were corrupted by the dark side when those who wielded them bent them to their will. They call it making the crystal bleed. That's why the blade is red."

Okay so basically Ahsoka met an Inquisitor (whom she, persistently, ever so kindly calls a “creature”, more on that in a minute), killed him, stole and destroyed his lightsabers, then ripped the crystals out of them and put them in her own shiny new lightsaber hilts she just made. They apparently faded from bright red to colourless. (Which, honestly, to me, in my ever so humble opinion, interprets as “I just killed everything unique and vibrant about these crystals and drained them of all individuality, just like the Jedi do to people when they ‘free’ them :D :D :D”. But I mean. That’s just me.) This crystal bleeding is fucking Jedi folklore superstition. It’s stupid. It’s even stupider than the old “synthetic crystals are unnatural so of COURSE the Sith use them, m’kay” canon.

I’m just. So annoyed. So very annoyed.

So anyway. Ahsoka killed an Inquisitor, the Sixth Brother. She and a little girl sense him as a shadow at first - “The shadow was almost certainly one of the dark side's creatures. Ahsoka had no idea what sort of thing it might be, but whatever it was...” And that’s that. He’s “the creature” for the rest of the time he’s referred to. Seems like she hung around Kenobi way too fucking much, his style of Jedi seems to have rubbed off on her. Sigh.

But then she protests.

"I'm not really a Jedi, you know," she said. "I left the Temple, turned away from the Jedi path."

"If you're not a Jedi, then what are you, Ahsoka Tano?" Bail asked. "Because to be honest, you still sound and act like a Jedi to me."

OF COURSE SHE DOES. SHE IS A GODDAMN JEDI. A ~Grey Jedi~ is still a fucking JEDI OH EM FUCKING GEE. They’re Jedi Lite. Half the calories, most of the judgment, twice the taste, all the guilt! Goddamnit Star Wars. You’re not fooling anyone. Stop trying.

Moving on.

So then we have the Unresolved Sexual Tension between Ahsoka and Kaeden. Which largely means… Unrequited Feels on Kaeden’s part and… nothing else.

"Ahsoka!" Kaeden ran toward her, but stopped short of throwing her good arm around Ahsoka's shoulder. She knew that lightsabers were not to be trifled with. She could almost feel the power pouring out of Ahsoka anyway. It was amazing. "I could kiss you."

Ahsoka stopped in her tracks. The look she shot Kaeden was mildly confused.

"Not now, I mean," Kaeden said. She wanted to laugh for the first time in weeks but thought that might just be the hysteria setting in. "My timing is terrible and you have all those Jedi hang-ups. I just wanted you to know in case we die."

"Oh," said Ahsoka. "Well, thanks."

….. Oh. Well, thanks.

*beats head against wall* WOULD IT HAVE KILLED YOU, STAR WARS, TO HAVE GIVEN US JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE. I mean, I’m all about canonical asexual and/or aromantic Ahsoka, that would have been fucking rad, but they’ve already given us the fiasco that was goddamn LUX BONTERI, so The Powers That Be already canonically ruined that for me. Bi or Pan or Lesbian Ahsoka would have been really awesome too. Just… anything but Clueless Insensitive Straight Ahsoka for canon, please. PLEASE. We have enough of those characters already. Ahsoka doesn’t need to be one of them. Just my opinion though. Of course. *sigh*

...And then we have a brief, very out-of-place flashback from Anakin’s POV, that actually has zERO to do with anYTHINg, but it’s heartbreaking nonetheless because it’s just before Ahsoka is introduced and Anakin is still thinking that Ahsoka is going to be Kenobi’s apprentice.

"Anakin wasn't entirely sure what his place next to Obi-Wan would look like once his friend had a new student. Jedi weren't as married to the concept of two as the Sith were, but most of them acted singly or in pairs. It was one of the reasons Anakin had never put in for a Padawan of his own. He didn't want it to look like he was pushing Obi-Wan aside. Now, Obi-Wan had gone and done it first, and Anakin still wasn't sure how he felt about it."

He didn’t want Kenobi to feel sidelined. I’m. Just. Goddamnit Star Wars don’t give me Obikin feels when we already know Kenobi turns into the most asinine, horrible person in all the Jedi next to, maybe, Yoda.

Anyway. Let’s move on again.

Oh yeah. So there’s Kolvin. He’s a Rodian.

….. Now, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it very often, but one of the things I fixate on in Star Wars is the frequency of Rodian deaths. Almost all of the named (and a bunch of the unnamed) Rodians we meet end up getting killed. A good majority of them on-screen or in-story. Rodians are one of my favourite species in the entirety of Star Wars and it really upsets me that the greater majority of the ones we meet get axed quickly after we’re first introduced to them. And Kolvin’s no exception. We are pretty much introduced to him solely for the sake of watching him die, graphically, a chapter or two later. I’m just… furious beyond being capable of physically showing it. It’s exhausting.

And I think my final criticism of the book is the entire story behind the Empire even being on Raada in the first place. It’s such a fabricated, “Oh I guess we need a reason to fuck up Ahsoka’s life again via the Empire” kind of plot. It makes LITERALLY ZERO LOGICAL SENSE, even if I stretch real hard and invoke believing at least six impossible things before breakfast. There is NO reason why these genetically engineered plants would be useful. The Empire would not go through all this trouble to search for productive agricultural worlds only to use them once (ONCE??) and then give it up as a barren wasteland after first use. That is so unproductive, unprofitable, and inefficient. Why would they do that, and then leave the farmers to try and scrape by after that? Such a waste of resources. We already have PLENTY of examples of what the Empire does with agricultural worlds. Ones that MAKE SENSE. They come in, set up their infrastructure, heavily regulate work schedules, and implement their own ideas about what needs to be grown. And guess what? It’s stuff that they can plant indefinitely, because that keeps the population working under tight, regulated control. It keeps them in a routine that is hard to break. It keeps them busy, it keeps them tired, it keeps them distracted. It maintains a level of familiarity that’s just close enough to normalcy that they will be hesitant to do anything to break it. These are useful things to the Empire. VITAL things.

Instead we get a moustache-twirling saturday morning cartoon where the Empire sweeps in, destroys everything, cackles maniacally, knocks over your sandcastle, and kicks the puppy on the way out. Why is it so fucking hard for these hired writers to come up with a good villainous reason for the villains to be villainous? Honestly they have material RIGHT THERE. USE IT. For fuck’s sake.

Okay but with all this criticism there were a couple highlights.

There was a Black Sun agent. They didn’t last too terribly long as a part of the story, but they’re referred to only with they/them pronouns for the entire time they’re around, and that. Pleased me. Greatly. And there wasn’t even some concentrated effort to “find out their gender” or idle speculation or some other stupid bullshit. It was very much a non-issue, and that also pleased me. Good job. Gold star.

And despite the fact that Ahsoka had a lot of damning things to say about Barriss, she had this to say as well:

“She had a point about the Republic and the Jedi. There was something wrong with them, and we were too locked into our traditions to see what it was… If we'd listened to her – really listened – we might have been able to stop Palpatine before he took power."

In the text, that statement is surrounded with too many disclaimers and defensive finger-pointing for me to be entirely happy with it, but it’s something, and I’m glad Ahsoka was the one the writers allowed to say it.

I really liked it when we had some glimpses of Ahsoka’s actual questioning nature whenever the story got in her head. It didn’t happen very often at all, most of the time she’s just developing her martyr fixation or bemoaning her existence, but every now and again we get a tiny peek of the Ahsoka that captured my heart towards the end of The Clone Wars, walking away from the Jedi temple and saying that she needed to figure things out on her own, without the Jedi, without Anakin, without the crutches and restrictions that the Order held her down with. If only we’d gotten more of that Ahsoka throughout the book, it could have made the story shine.

#sarc speaks #sarc speaks a LOT #sarc has opinions #the rodian always dies #tl;dr #ahsoka critical #jedi critical #ahsoka novel #star wars meta #kinda #book review

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kyberled · 8 years ago

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📖

Send 📖 for my muse to tell yours their favorite story! || Accepting

“My favourite? I dunno, I mean, as a Jedi, I know a lot of different stories, since, you know as well as I do that we see a lot of stuff, when we go out to our missions, but, I can probably think of something…” He pauses for a moment, right hand reaching up to stroke at his chin. After a moment, he seemed to perk up, and folded his hands behind his back.

“Alright, I think I have one,” he says, settling into a more comfortable position. “A while back, I’d say about four rotations, I was on a mission with Master Kenobi, and it was a solo mission, in that it was just us and our men. No other Jedi accompanied us. It was a nice little planet, not as big as Coruscant, but it wasn’t as small as a standard dwarf planet would be, somewhere in between… And it was a really beautiful place to be, actually. Kind of like the jungles of Kashyyyk, really lush jungles, but the trees weren’t as tall as that. I remember it was really hot, a bit humid, but, it wasn’t too bad. – Not for us, anyway. I know the men didn’t like it much… And we were there to find out what had been messing with so many ships’ nav systems. We initially thought it was because of a magnetic field or something natural like that, but the fact that it only happened sometimes, and we couldn’t happen to find a pattern made us start to wonder… You might have heard about it, so, if I start telling you stuff you already know, just let me know.”

He pauses, here, scratching at the back of his neck for just a second before he shrugs and carries on.

“So, anyway, we thought we might be looking for some sort of magnetic field, or what-have-you, on… Numikaar, I think it was called? Numikaar V. And we’d been there for a few days, we thought we had everything figured out, and I was just happy to be heading home… And right as we were getting ready to leave, our ship stopped working. I don’t mean just the engines, either - we couldn’t even get the caf machine working. I remember pouring over the notes I’d made with Gr- Uh, Obi-Wan, and we’d gotten only a few paragraphs or so into them when we both felt something. … Or, didn’t feel anything, at the same time. … You know how droids don’t have a presence in the Force, but, when you lift them with the Force, you can still feel their weight? And, for the more mobile kinds, like the B1s the Separatists like, when they move around, you can feel their weight shift, even if you don’t feel the droid? It was kind of like that. We both felt something there, without actually feeling what was there. There was a moment where neither of us said anything, and I remember holding my breath, trying to keep the Force as still as I could… And then I was trying to stand up and Obi-Wan was pulling me to my feet, and we were both running as fast as we could and yelling for the men to do the same. The good news was that we’d all been outside; Like I’d said, it had been a hot day, and, when the ship broke down, the cooling units went with it, and the men were baking in their plastoids, so we’d all decided to wait outside, where there was at least a breeze. … The bad news was that us being outside did nothing to stop our ship from exploding. We didn’t lose anyone in the blast, thankfully, but there were a few injuries, and some of them were pretty serious. So, I was bouncing back and forth between trying to help the men get to a safe distance away, just in case, helping the medics prevent any casualties, and trying to figure out what had just happened, and… Everything was just happening all at once, which happens a lot in war, but it never really gets any more enjoyable…”

“So, we were hiding out in the jungle, just until we could figure out what be happening, and just on the edges of the outskirts of the jungle, since we didn’t want to just run as deep as we could without due cause. The men had their scanners out, and I was searching out in the Force to see what was going on, and if I could feel that thing again, and I could. I could feel its weight through the Force again, but it was sort of serpentine? If that makes sense? I could feel its weight moving and slithering through the Force, and it… It was kind of really gross, actually. I don’t… Really like– Ah. Anyway. I could tell Gramps could feel it, too, ‘cause he was looking exactly where I felt it being, and he looked less than happy, and not just because our ship blew up. He told everyone to be still, and so we were, and I swear, as weird as it sounds, I could hear it moving, but, not, at the same time. Kind of like how when you think something, you hear it, but don’t? But it wasn’t in my head, or even in the Force around me- More like, I felt like I should be hearing something, and knew what the sound should be, but, that sound just wasn’t there, like an audio version of having a word on the tip of your tongue, if that makes sense… Kind of like this thing, and everything about it, was blank, like it had been erased… … I’m sorry, I’m probably spending way too much time explaining how strange this thing was, but I just need you to understand what it was like. It was so weird… I’ve never experienced anything like it since.”

“Anyway, once that not-noise started, all the men got agitated, and Obi-Wan yelled at us all to move, and there was this sudden burst of the Force, like all the blanks had suddenly been filled in all at once, and then there was another explosion. … We lost a couple men in that one. Their names were Skip, Dura, Gloss, and Riley. It took me a moment to realise what was going on, though, ‘cause I thought I’d gotten caught under some kind of debris. Turns out Gramps and Cody had both gotten the idea of making sure that I didn’t get hit by the explosion. And, I appreciated the gesture, still do, but I couldn’t really feel my ribs. We went to check out the site, and aside from the usual explosion stuff, there was a hole, right in the middle of the blast zone, was a hole, impossibly deep, but only about as big as my fist,” he paused, here, holding up a fist to illustrate his point, before extending his arm outwards, locked straight, on a downwards forty-five. “And on an angle, like this.” Satisfied with his demonstration, he let his arms fall to his sides, then clasped his hands behind his back. “And, the area around it was charred black, but the hole itself, and the area right around it was melted down to glass, same black as the soot, except little veins, I guess, of glowing-hot bits that hadn’t cooled off yet. There were more of them closer to us than farther, so, whatever it was had to have come from underground in our direction. I could feel the Force surge for just a second, and then it was back to normal. No blank spaces, no surges, nothing out of the ordinary at all, and I had no idea what to make of it. I don’t think any of us did. Obi-Wan just frowned down at the hole, and Cody was running a scan, and just when the scanner pinged and Cody looked up and said ‘sir!’ to get Gramps’ attention, Obi-Wan stood up and told us that we should get moving, and gather the men up and take them with us, and you didn’t have to tell me twice. Gramps and Cody walked up at the front of the group, talking about… Something, I couldn’t tell what, from where I was. We’d taken on a lot of damage, thanks to the two blasts, and I was helping along one of the men who’d hurt his leg, so I couldn’t keep up… Dodger, that was his name, so it was the two of us and the rest of the men in a group, and Gramps and Cody up front. A bunch of the men had their blasters out, and Gramps had his saber drawn. I had mine ready, but not on, since I didn’t want to stab Dodger, but.. We were all on edge, I guess, is what I’m trying to say, but even then, I sort of zoned out for a moment, and, I know, it was careless, and dangerous, and I put myself and others at risk and I must always be focused when in a hostile environment, I know, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the absence, and I was trying to see if I could find it again… I wound up passing Dodger off to one of the other troops, since I was worried I’d drop him, or stumble since I wasn’t really paying attention, and once he was looked after, I jogged to catch up to Gramps and Cody. We talked for a while, about how the men were doing, what had just happened, and where we were going - there was a friendly village up ahead, and Obi-Wan thought we could have the men rest up there while he and I contacted the Council, and told them we needed at least one other ship, and that our mission wasn’t quite as finished as we thought it was.” He cleared his throat, shifted his weight to spare his legs the stiff discomfort that had begun to set in. He hadn’t meant to speak for so long, but, he hadn’t been stopped, so he took that as an invitation to continue.

“We decided we were going to deal with it ourselves, and not take the men with us, though Cody somehow convinced Obi-Wan to let him come, too, and I was relieved to have an extra set of hands to help us out, but also worried about what might happen to him, since at least Gramps and I had the Force to keep us safe, and Cody didn’t, but I doubt we could have kept him away if we tried.”

“So, the three of us made the call to the Council, and it was pretty standard fare, and set out to find what was going on after the men were settled. Obi-Wan lingered for a few minutes while Cody and I were finishing preparations, but, this’ll only be important later on. We were walking for a while, and we had lapsed into silence while we walked. We were in the middle of a huge field, with this tall, dried-out grass, when I felt that absence again. Gramps and I froze for a second, and then both of us grabbed Cody and ran. While we were running, and Cody was having the opposite of a good time, I noticed that the absence was moving at a consistent speed, except for when it turned - it had to slow down, then. I told this to Obi-Wan - sort of shouted it at him while we were running - and he suggested we should turn around and run towards it. … Honestly, I feel like, if Cody were the type to desert, that would have been the moment he’d have thrown down his blaster and quit. But, neither of us had any better ideas, so, we did. I remember I got this weird feeling when we ran over it, like electricity, and it was really uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like I had much time to think about it. I mean, Obi-Wan had been right, of course - it did buy us a few minutes to get away. I felt another surge, and I was set to join the Force right then and there, but Gramps pivoted and turned one-eighty, and pushed out with the Force, and the surge shifted and there was an explosion from underground, and a small earthquake and a jet of flame, like a really badly-made lightsaber, just straight up in the air, but, we didn’t really have time to be impressed. I just remember being grateful for all the laps I’d run back home. ‘Course, all the laps in the galaxy wouldn’t make me able to run forever, so we all knew we had to do something.”

“There was a lake up ahead, and we all had an unspoken agreement to jump into the water, and I was just about to ask Obi-Wan if he had actually had a plan for what we were going to do when we found the absence, but before I could get the full sentence out, it stopped moving, and there was this pause, then this creak like a ship about to go down, and the ground exploded. It– The absence– was coming from this giant train-thing, like a massive centipede made of metal, but each- Segment, I guess, housed a battle droid, with a pretty big blaster on each side - kind of like a mobile, digging fortress, and it reared up, and looked like it was about to charge up and fire some kind of cannon, and right before it could… Master Plo and Master Skywalker’s fighters came in, along with the rest of their men, and they just lit up the sky. Swooping in and unleashing Chaos, and… People aren’t kidding when they say Anakin’s the best pilot in the galaxy. Anyway, once the three of us got out of the water, we joined in best we could, focusing on the parts closer to the bottom while the ships took out the top.”

“Turns out the cannon it was about to fire was powered by kyber crystals - small ones, taken from the lightsabers of fallen Jedi, from what we could tell. That was why the Force felt so strange whenever it fired; It was attuned to Force signatures that no longer existed, and more than one, at that…” He pauses, sighs, and glances at the ground for a moment before shrugging and running a hand through his hair.

“Long story short, we ended up uncovering an underground Separatist weapons lab, and Gramps, Anakin, Ahsoka, Plo and I - and Wolffe, Cody, Rex, and the men, of course - had a grand time getting rid of that one and destroying their research. … It was a weird day.”

#long post //#kuatiisms #&& best foot forward; ic #&& brave new worlds; padawan #&& far far away; drabbles #&& as best i can; answers

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lgwhatculture · 8 years ago

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Star Wars: 10 predictions for the future of the franchise

Star Wars has been moving at full speed under the guidance of the house of mouse, and as we enter the fifth year of Disney’s ownership (yes, five. Can you believe it?) the promise of more Star Wars has really come true. With a number of projects either out of the gate or in development, I’m going to predict what everything means for the future of the franchise and how these many stories in a galaxy far, far away will turn out. We’ll be looking at both the big picture and the smaller story details in the new Canon.

All images belong to Lucasfilm / Disney.

10 - Han Solo will be the weakest Disney instalment yet.

Not to start on a negative note, but let's get this out of the way. Did we really need a solo Han Solo movie? Is it really that important to see how Han and Chewie met? Or how Han won the Falcon? Not really. In a galaxy far far away, there are limitless stories to be told, and we can't help but feel like this is unnecessary. Plus, with an A-List cast on-board, it's not quite captured that same feel as the other films, which usually cast unknowns and shoot them to fame. Donald Glover and Woody Harrelson are sure to do great, but Danerys herself, Emilia Clarke, is especially hit-and-miss outside of her title role. Here's hoping I'm wrong, but I don't believe the film justifies its existence or cast.

Don't even get me started on Katherine Kennedy’s comments on Han ‘gaining his name’. If Han Solo is simply a title, then we'll be in the unique position where a film actually detracts from the original instead of enriching it.

9 - Episode VIII will be unique and take the lore in a new direction

Now onto a more positive note, The Force Awakens was a great start to the new trilogy no-matter what you thought of it, and there’s plenty of questions fans are asking in regards to the excellently titled eighth instalment, The Last Jedi. If the very-vague trailer is anything to go by, There’s something happening with the classic Sith/Jedi dichotomy. See Luke’s ominous quote:

“I only know one truth. It’s time for the Jedi to end.”

So, there’s a change coming, and with VIII showing a more spiritual Luke, I can only imagine the more religious side of the Jedi will be discussed, and perhaps the actual meaning of ‘balance to the force’? The ‘chosen one’ and ‘prophecy’ are concepts we are familiar with, but the actual idea of Anakin or Luke bringing balance to the force makes little sense as both obliterated their respective opposing team. Not really, you know, balance. Perhaps the future lays in the idea of ‘Grey Jedi’. Previously a Legends concept, but one could argue it was brought into the new Canon with Ahsoka in Rebels. A Grey Jedi aligns to either side of the force, and perhaps Luke’s new mission is to bring the two warring factions together rather than apart. Kylo Ren certainly could be pulled over to the light side, so maybe we are seeing a paradigm shift in the franchise, towards more nuanced performances rather than outright good and bad. If Disney wants to continue the franchise for a long time (read: forever) then good vs evil is going to get pretty dull pretty soon.

8 - Rebels won't end with the cast dying

Star Wars Rebels replaced the beloved Clone Wars, and at the time the general consensus was that the latter show was going to be a more ‘fun’ show by comparison to the darker Clone Wars. Fans were soon wrong when the series became universally loved, and even served as a sequel to Clone wars in many ways. The show has gotten darker, and approaches it’s final season this year.

The problem we are faced with is that the core cast do not appear in anything beyond the show they have been created for. This was also a problem when we were introduced to the Rogue One cast, and [spoilers ahead] they are now all dead. Yeah, forecast isn’t looking too sunny for the crew of the Ghost. So the likely option, especially since the Ghost is seen in Rogue One, is that the characters are killed in a sacrificial act just before A New Hope begins. Even though show-runner Dave Filoni stated the battle of Scarrif wouldn’t be shown in rebels, we’re not sure we believe him.

Despite the likeliness of death, we think the characters all being killed off is not going to happen. Something more interesting. We believe Zeb, Chopper and Rex are easy enough to blend into the existing universe without dying, and for it to not feel strange that they never appear again.The theory that Rex is the bearded rebel soldier in Return of the Jedi works perfectly as a nice retcon for a fan-favourite character to tie Rex into the story. The others we are not so sure about, though Ezra and Sabine are both young enough to be carried over to the next show, much like Ahsoka. ‘Next show?’ you ask. Well. Cue next point.

7 - The next animated show takes place between episodes VI and VII

With Rebels ending, another show is bound to take it’s place, and no better slot is left to explore that the gap between episodes VI and VII, in other words, the gap between the classic and new trilogies. It’s a murky period ripe to be explored, and there’s no better opportunity to explore this period than through a new show. While Clone Wars was an anthology, and Rebels an ensemble, perhaps the new show will have a single protagonist to follow to set them apart. If this is the case, there is no better person to follow than Luke Skywalker himself, starting with the end of Return Of The Jedi, and following the opening of his new Jedi academy. Looping back to the last point, this is maybe where we could see Ezra return to the fold. Not only that, but we would see the development of Ben Kenobi into the Kylo we see in The Force Awakens. It’s actually a crime that this period has not been seen outside the books, and it’s only a matter of time before light is shed, especially in the wake of Episode VIII likely revealing all the key secrets that are keeping a series like this from being made.

If many of the questions from Episode VII are not revealed in VIII, this is a great place to answer them to give fans peace. How did Maz Kanata get Luke’s sabre? Who are the Knights of Ren? Answering questions like these would automatically put this show in the good books.

One final point, were this to happen, Mark Hamill is a renowned voice actor for animation, and with his respect to the fans, he’d be sure to be on-board for voicing Luke. Make it happen Disney!

6 - Battlefront II will fix most of the problems of the first, but will still not be as good as the PS2 original.

Bias aside, the original Battlefront game was great. It’s sequel, legendary. The 2015 reboot, not so great. It was shiny, and looked amazing, but fancy visuals don’t exactly make up for a bare-bones experience that included less than the 2005 masterpiece. The sequel looks to be fixing this. All three eras. A story mode, many more heroes, and the promise this is ‘three times bigger’ than the 2015 game means hype is pretty high Dice and Co can deliver on the promises and pull through on the evident potential of the 2015 game.

Despite all these big claims, we can’t help but feel like there’s going to be a ‘spark’ missing. All too corporate and perfect, not enough fun factor. Can a game be perfect and still not be fun? Yes, but maybe that’s a problem with the video games industry more than the game itself, or Star Wars as a brand. Only time will tell. Moving on.

5 - The next spin-off will be an Obi Wan movie, with Ewan McGregor.

Stay with me. There has not been a ‘star wars story’ [still don’t like that subtitle] announced since originally way back when Disney told us their plan to dominate the world. The Josh Trank Boba Fett movie fell through, so there’s currently a blank space after Episode IX, sitting at a 2020 release window. At this point, Ewan McGregor will be 49, and while it’s still a little young, makeup can surely get him ready for filling in the gaps between III and IV, documenting the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s years in hiding, and how he became Ben Kenobi.

We’re thinking a smaller, more personal films. Kenobi is one of the most well-rounded characters, and seeing a more character based story on Tatooine would be great to see. Why the name ‘Ben’ is used is a story that has not been discussed in-canon, and maybe it’s a story worth telling. Logan showed how a big franchise could make a western-inspired, quieter character piece, so perhaps it’s only a matter of time before McGregor and fans alike get their wish.

4 - Doctor Alpha will appear on Rebels

If you are unfamiliar, Dr. Aphra is the new hit character of the Marvel Star Wars Comics. Originally appearing in the Darth Vader comic, she now is in her own comic, the first original character to have their own run since the canon purge.

Aphra is a rogue archaeologist, hired by Vader to find Sith artefacts. After the two parted ways, she is now on solo adventures. Whether you like the character or not, she is a nice new creation for the comics, and falls very much in line with Marvel’s current marketing push for a younger, more diverse cast of characters.

Given Rebels is ending soon, perhaps we could see this character appear in another medium? Disney’s new canon has been spectacularly watertight when it comes to feeling like a ‘connected universe’ through and through, and a comics crossover would show how much Disney care about their franchise on every level. Comic tie-ins are frequently forgotten about, so tying two mediums together would help both and show more people a great new character.

3 - More legends material will become Canon

Just to clarify -

Legends - the old, pre-Disney continuity, otherwise known as the Expanded Universe (EU). It featured lots of content, and thousands of characters, most of whom now no longer exist in Star Wars. Many fan favourite moments and stories were erased, but then Disney started listening. Rebels re-introduced the most popular EU character of all time, Grand Admiral Thrawn. The blue boss has been a huge success on the show, and now the floodgates are open for an array of other characters and stories to be re-canonised into the new lore.

While some characters have already been used for influence, such as Jacen Solo into Kylo Ren, there’s plenty of other fan-favourites who should make the jump. Take one look at anywhere Star Wars related on the internet, and you’ll find fans are very passionate about the very long lineage of the sith. Darth Revan is perhaps the most wanted character for sheer awesomeness, but almost any great villain would be a valuable addition to the canon.

One wildcard would be Luke’s partner, Mara Jade Skywalker. A partner to Luke indicates he may have a child (Rey) but the inclusion of Mara Jade also means there’s a big explanation to do as to Mara being hand to the emperor and a sort-of bad-guy. Yeah. Lots to fit into a movie, so maybe she’s best left to the EU.

2 - Forces of destiny won't do great

With more Star Wars things going on at once that any sane person can keep up with, you may not have heard about the other animated Star Wars show: Forces of Destiny. It’s a 2D miniseries with a lighter tone, featuring multiple characters from multiple eras, all on lighthearted adventures. It looks like a more simple version of Star Wars than we’ve seen before, but Rebels and Clone Wars ex-show-runner Dave Filonni is running the show, so maybe there’s more to be seen here than meets the eye.

Perhaps the biggest point of debate so far is that the show has only shown female characters in it’s trailers. It’s not a problem, as Star Wars has been a very white, male franchise, so diversity is great, but focusing only upon female characters as the trailer implies, makes it seem like this may be ‘Star Wars for girls’. Star Wars can and does appeal to girls, especially now more than ever because of it’s growing cast of strong females, with Jyn, Rey and Aphra only arriving in the last three years or less. Having female characters is not the problem, pandering to an audience is. People, regardless of gender, will watch Star Wars, because it’s Star Wars, and changing the tone to fit a demographic never goes well, especially when things like Jar Jar or the Christmas Special happen for exactly that reason. Perhaps not, perhaps we haven’t seen enough to judge, and perhaps I’m wrong. Discuss your opinions in the comments below.

1 - Luke and Leia will die in the Last Jedi.

Episode VIII. Bring the tissues.

Okay, just look at that title. The LAST Jedi implies either my earlier assumption that a big change to the lore is coming, or Luke will bite the dust. Maybe both. The problem is, for the hero to complete their journey over the trilogy, they have to lose their mentor and be forced to go it alone. It happened in Episodes I, IV and VII. While it would be nice to have a change in that pattern, the story just doesn’t work as well, and it’s important to remember the original cast are not getting any younger, as my unfortunate next point demonstrates.

In December 2016, the world lost Carrie Fisher, and Star Wars fans mourned for the passing of their hero Princess Leia Organa. It leaves an awful problem for the future, for Carrie has filmed two of three films in the trilogy, with two options for what happens next. She either is written out of the next film, or she dies in this one. Either option is awful, but Lucasfilm being pretty calm and collected after her death, and the comments about not needing CGI re-creation makes it all too clear that she most likely dies in The Last Jedi. It’s going to be a hugely emotional performance as her last, but to watch her character die, possibly alongside her brother, means the film could be an emotional sucker-punch, tainting the film’s reputation for all the wrong reasons.

What do you think in regards to any of the points? What next for Star Wars as a whole, or any of the projects mentioned. What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments.

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