#name a hero that was happy // you can’t {tlj verse}

[myevilmouse]

Hello dear friend! I was wondering if you might be able to tell me what were George Lucas’s plans for Luke’s future after RotJ? We’ve now seen what the EU had in store and what Disney has done, but I was wondering what did Luke’s creator himself want to happen? I’ve tried looking it up, but there’s not much info I can find. Maybe you can enlighten me? Thank you ever so much! Your account brings me so much joy every single day💗 Take care and may the force be with you!

Hello dear anon!  Thank you for your very sweet note--it brings me joy to know that people find joy in my devotion 💗 💗 💗 

There are a few separate places where I have heard things about George's intentions for Luke post-ROTJ, so I will info dump a little.  I've read the Rinzler books and watched so many "Making Of" things that I may not be able to name all my sources, BUT here's what I consider the most important one and I promise I didn't make it up:  I read somewhere that Lawrence Kasdan (scriptwriter) wanted to kill someone in ROTJ, and the director was on board.  Kasdan wanted it to be Han Solo, and Lucas veto'd it, and so they were pushing for Lando to die nobly or something instead.  Marquand and Kasdan thought if one of the main heroes bit the dust, it would give a more high stakes and epic aspect to the films.  And Lucas was adamantly against it, and said something along the lines of "these characters have earned their happy ending" and forbade them to kill any of the good guys in ROTJ.  Thank god.

The next clue we have of Lucas protecting Luke's happy ever after was when Del Rey was wanting to kill off a major character to sell their latest installment in the New Jedi Order book series, Vector Prime (1999).  They asked Lucas (who still had creative control at that point) if they could kill Luke.  His response was to provide a list of characters they could not kill.  Of course our Jedi was on that list.  As he had said before, the trio deserved their happy ending.  Sadly, Chewie wasn't on that list, and once again our medal-deprived Wookiee was given the short end (and in this case, lethal) end of the stick.  So they killed him in that book, much to the anger of fans all over.  *kicks EU for the injustice*  Apparently Lucas was OK with Chewbacca's demise, when the story editors double-checked to be super sure, as long as he went out "heroically," which he did, saving Han & Leia's youngest child by sacrificing himself.

It should be noted that when George Lucas sold the rights to Lucasfilm to Disney, apparently he also threw in outlines for his envisioned sequel trilogy.  I have read somewhere that he was (unsurprisingly) very disappointed to find that Disney was basically throwing all his ideas out, and none were incorporated in TFA.  A shame, but it does seem that Lucas' plans for a sequel trilogy were going to be much more cerebral and meta than what most people would have expected.  While I would have been super happy with an Heir to the Empire film, Lucas has spoken about his dream for the sequels in this excerpt from James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction:

“[The next three Star Wars films] were going to get into a microbiotic world. But there’s this world of creatures that operate differently than we do. I call them the Whills. And the Whills are the ones who actually control the universe. They feed off the Force… If I’d held onto the company I could have done it, and then it would have been done. Of course, a lot of the fans would have hated it, just like they did Phantom Menace and everything, but at least the whole story from beginning to end would be told.”

This makes sense, if you go look at the earliest drafts of Star Wars--the Journal of the Whills.  Lucas even had midichlorians in the back of his brain, since the beginning.  I can't imagine what those films would have looked like, but we can be confident Luke wouldn't have been given a character assassination ;)No one had so much love and life invested into Star Wars as George Lucas, so when TFA came out and he was reportedly disappointed (per Bob Iger's memoir), that wasn't unexpected.  Still lots of people felt his absence at the world premiere of TROS was a deliberate refutation of Disney's "canon", and I don't blame him one bit, not after TLJ, how could he trust them with Luke, his noble heroic creation and personal avatar?

(probably what Mark’s face looked like after reading TLJ-script)^^

Mark Hamill has spoken in interviews about what he thinks Lucas wanted for Luke--notably training Leia in the sequel to ROTJ as a Jedi, that is one point, which would fit in just fine with the EU, the microbiotics, and Legends.  He also said Lucas wanted to kill Luke in the final film (Episode 9).  Not sure that is true, given the other evidence to the contrary, but it seems to me that if Lucas did want to "end" Luke's story with a death, he only trusted himself to do it correctly, otherwise he would have let Del Rey knock him off in the Legends-verse.

(Mark and George discuss how Luke is never gonna give any Jedi up, never gonna let them down, never gonna run around and desert his friends!)

TL;DR  George Lucas wanted Luke to live happily ever after!!! 

And May the Force Be With You too, Anon, always.

[blackjack-15]

The Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman: What Hux Should Be (and What ROS Won’t Be)

Warning: two mentions of the leaked/newish pictures. They will have spoiler warnings bracketing it, along with the appropriate tags connected to the post. You’ve been warned.

INTRODUCTION

With RoS mere months away, this meta really can’t be delayed any longer before it becomes moot, so here we go!

TLJ was a lot of things — some good, some bad —  but what it wasn’t was surprising (unless you count just how shockingly bad 90% of Finn’s storyline was). This is generally a good thing in movies nowadays, where surprises come not from clever writing, but from enormous missteps in the writing or the desire to feel clever by putting in a twist that isn’t foreshadowed, or even just by breaking the rules of your universe.

Ignoring all but the main storyline — which is about Rey and Kylo Ren and their obstacles/conflicts — TLJ didn’t bring any surprises, but instead followed on the lines that TFA set up. As this is obviously the storyline that’s been hashed out from the start and is the point they’re building to, it’s thus safe to say that RoS is simply going to do the same, and follow the lines that TLJ set up.

SPOILER WARNING BEGINS

(Side note: this is why, when the absurdly stupid tuning-fork-lightsaber of Rey’s showed up in the first looks at RoS, it was immediately obvious that she was going to be able to “break” off half of it to give to Kylo when his saber is ultimately gone/self-destructs. Not only does the spoiler picture all but confirm this, but it’s also the obvious trajectory from the two fighting over a lightsaber in TLJ and breaking it in half.)

SPOILER WARNING ENDS

Anyway, with this framework in mind, and with the knowledge that every Star Wars media since the OG trilogy is in some way an adaptation of the OG trilogy, let’s examine what this means for the villain.

TERROR AND STAR WARS VILLAINS

There’s really no getting around the fact that one of the weakest facets of any Star Wars movie — yes, the OG trilogy is included here — is the villains that accompany them. A few SW video games fare a bit better in this, but most follow the movies’ path. This isn’t shocking — Star Wars is a Hero’s Journey, and in a Hero’s Journey it’s the presence of a villain, not the nature of the villain itself, that’s the important part — but it is crucial to understand.

Darth Vader is by far the most iconic and scariest villain that Star Wars movies can boast of, and for those born after 4/5/6 came out, he’s not really that scary, because those viewers go in knowing who Vader is and that he’s (at least partially) redeemed through his sacrifice. The greatest contribution that Rogue One made to that viewership is the scene with Vader at the end, where he is legitimately an object of terror as he was when 4/5/6 were first out.

This leads to a discussion of Palpatine-as-villain in RotJ, where the best that can be said for his status as terror-inducing villain is that at least he has Vader to do most of the heavy lifting for him. As a villain, Palpatine is just not scary. Maybe it’s the makeup, maybe it’s the fact that he gets thrown out like a sack of garbage to his death, maybe it’s the cold ham delivery he gives to what should be properly menacing lines.

Darth Maul’s visuals in TPM alone are scarier than all of Palpatine in RotJ, and, before it’s brought up, Palpatine is even less scary than that in the prequels, so I’m not even considering that part.

The thing that most Star Wars villains have in common (aside from Tarkin, who is my person favorite movie-verse villain) is that they’re forces of nature; they have the force and/or use lightsabers, they’re larger than life and beings of immense power and reputation, and they’re there to sort of loom over movie, causing overwhelming-yet-non-specifc terror to motivate the plot in a “avoid the bad guys” sort of way.

This is especially obvious in the prequel movies, where Darth Maul (ignoring his awesome visual effect), General Grievous, and Count Dooku are all basically meant to Stand There And Look Menacing, rather than having anything about them that’s actually interesting.

And here’s where the interesting things in the sequel trilogy begin.

WHY SMOKE SNOKE?

There was never any way that Snoke was going to live past TLJ, just like there was no way that Hux wasn’t going to survive TLJ. Remembering that the sequel trilogy is in a lot of ways an adaptation of the OG trilogy (as all Star Wars movies are), TFA was trying to get you to think of Snoke as Palpatine — an overlord that survives until the last bit of the last movie and Hux as Tarkin — the non-Force user who is Evil and all but dies b/c he’s too smug and petty.

But neither one of those things were actually true. Because that would position Kylo Ren as the Vader analogue, and all of TFA is dedicated to showing just how wrong that assumption is.

Because Kylo’s not Vader, Hux isn’t Tarkin, and Snoke isn’t Palpatine. Thus, Snoke has to die, because we can’t go into the last third of the trilogy with competing big bads (and no, Kylo and Hux don’t count there, either — Kylo isn’t a big bad at all, unless you think that the Big Bad Villain’s job is to fall for a British honeypot with a lightsaber).

I’ll admit, I was a bit smug when Snoke died and left only Hux alive and kicking out of the Three Bad Guys (as Kylo/Ben isn’t even pretending to be a bad guy anymore), because that’s what I had predicted — a fake-out with a Palpatine-style, force-of-nature villain only to reveal that the real Big Bad was with us all along — a mortal; a cackling madman: General Hux.

PLOTTING WITH PALPATINE

When spoilers first indicated that Palpatine would instead make yet another appearance in a Star Wars film, I was optimistic. Optimistic not in the “hey the Rebels will totally win” sort of way; no, optimistic in the “these kind Jedi will definitely free the slaves and not just take the kid because They Must Deal Kindly With Illegal Slavers”. AKA misplaced optimism rather than genre-savvy faith in the heroes to prevail.

Because actually bringing back Palpatine would be a stupid move all the way around, I tried to figure out why they’d advertise it and not try to hide the bad idea in a Secret Twist.

So here’s where we get the interplay between the Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman.

In a world where the Force exists, it’s easy to imagine that those without it feel rather powerless — or at least overshadowed — when near those who do wield it. Certainly, that’s true for most of Tarkin’s council, and true of Hux. 

Over and over again in TFA and TLJ, we see Hux trying to prove that he’s every inch Kylo’s Equal. Even after Snoke’s death, he uses no deference to the new Supreme Leader and repeats his commands so he can believe that the First Order soldiers are following him.

Hux’s scene in TFA where he’s commanding the troops shows Hux at his finest (and most evil); apart from any Jedi/Sith/Force influence, he is himself to a glorious extreme: the Cackling Madman.

THE CACKLING MADMAN

I don’t use this title to say that Hux is insane (though he’s clearly a bit off) but rather to show the difference between a villain like Hux and a villain like Palpatine. Unlike the Force of Nature villain, a Cackling Madman is usually present over the entire story, seen as a person rather than as a shadowy figure, and is allowed to fail and succeed at multiple times during the trajectory of the story, rather than only failing at the very end when the heroes triumph.

In short, Star Wars has never had, in the movie-verse, a Cackling Madman as the main villain. The prequels play at it for about .5 seconds with Senator Palpatine, but he’s still the Force of Nature, ultimately, just pretending to be a Good Guy.

As the sequel trilogy, is, once again, and like any other SW media, an adaptation of the OG trilogy, I was really excited for this shift in formula — it would play on audience expectation that Snoke would just be Palpatine 2.0, only to reveal — with the proper set up, as shown in TFA and TLJ — that the true villain was there all along, just unnoticed for what he was.

THE FACADE OF THE FORCE

So where would the intervention of Palpatine go in this shift from the formula?

Hux as the ultimate Big Bad would know that he would need the support of a powerful force user — or, at least, the appearance of support of a powerful force user.

And, in the Star Wars universe, you could do worse than to claim the support of (in the EU) the eternally clone-happy Emperor. Hux’s only problem is that the Emperor is dead, and thus not really up to supporting a ginger with dreams of Ultimate Power.

So any support would have to be a facade. And how is Star Wars uniquely equipped to handle facades?

We’re talking holograms, baby.

Holograms of a weakened yet still powerful Emperor — maybe missing a hand or something, a few attacks “directed” by the Emperor meeting wild success, manipulation of the Holograms to say Hux’s name and offer support of him as his Preeminent General or whatever, and Hux has the galaxy at his feet.

IMAGINE MY DISAPPOINTMENT (SPOILERS HERE AGAIN)

And then the spoiler pictures of Palpatine came out and — disappointment was prevalent, but I wasn’t surprised.

The big problem with the Sequel Trilogy is that it has one well-plotted plot line — the main plot line with Rey and Kylo/Ben — and then every other plot line is pretty much left up to the whims of the moment. It’s especially evident in Finn’s TLJ plot line, but it’s present to some extent in every other plot line throughout the two movies currently out.

What Hux should be is the danger lurking in plain sight; the villain seen but not understood, and the evil present but not accounted for. That alone would add a dimension to the Sequel Trilogy that it’s lacking right now — and lacking even more with the advent of Palpatine’s return. Not only would it acknowledge its freedom as an adaptation to play with audience expectation, but it would demonstrate something that both it and the Prequel Trilogy lack: trust in its audience.

THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION

What RoS should be is a movie that delivers something new but still authentic to the Star Wars universe. Ultimately, that’s all it would take to please the majority of its audience, because those who are watching the ST without having seen any other Star Wars media are few and far between. 

The shame is that what RoS will be is a movie that (wrongly) doesn’t trust its audience to consume  nuanced media, and instead tries to placate them with false advertising (trying to give off the air that RoS will be a trio movie with Finn, Rey, and Poe when everyone knows it won’t be) and with the return of old characters and the descendants of old characters. It’s like adding blue flashing lights to an old snow globe and declaring that you’re recaptured lightning in a bottle.

[hopetwin]

tag drop pt2

and i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be // right in front of me {re: caydren trecoll} im going to want you until the stars evaporate {re: poe dameron} we are warriors // following in our parents footsteps until the battle is done {re: poe dameron} there’s magic in our bones // a north star in our soul {re: jacen solo} cross my heart and hope to die // i’ll see you with your laughter lines {re: anakin solo} all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put us back together again {re: jacen & jaina & anakin} there’s a hole in my soul // i can’t fill it {re: ben solo} justice and vengeance aren’t the same thing // to me they are {re: kylo ren} dont worry mother // your daughter is a warrior {re: leia organa solo} they are valkyries / the battlefield is their domain {re: rey} taught me the courage of stars before you left {re: mara jade skywalker} everything could stay the same or we could change it all {re: finn} we took what the world threw at us and survived {re: ben skywalker} the pieces we shattered into can’t fit back together {re: darth caedus} a daughter’s greatest hero is her father {re: han solo} i’ve always wanted to know how a lightsaber works {re: luke skywalker} do not go gentle into the good night // rage rage against the dying light {re: resistance} you burn with the brightest flame // and the world’s gonna know your name {eu/legends verse} i knock the ice from my bones // try not to feel the cold {pre-tfa} there is a reason i’m still standing {tfa verse} name a hero that was happy // you can’t {tlj verse} i’ve been cold // i’ve been merciless {sith verse} we are the wild // we are the reckless youth {praexum verse} i have bars over my soul and something’s keeping me trapped {possession au}  blood red lips and poison painted nails {vampire au}

[hopetwin]

New Tags Part One

Name A Hero That Was Happy // You Can’t {TLJ Verse}

There Is A Reason I’m Still Standing {TFA Verse}

You burn with the brightest flame // And the world's gonna know your name {EU/Legends Verse}

We Are The Wild // We Are The Reckless Youth {Praexum Verse}

We Are Infinite As The Universe We Hold Inside {Teen Verse} 

I Think There’s A Fault In My Code // These Voices Won’t Leave Me Alone {Sith Verse}

There’s Magic In Our Bones // A North Star In Our Soul {Re: Jacen Solo}

His Heart Was Born Out Of Fire {Anakin Solo}

Cross My Heart And Hope To Die // I’ll See You With Your Laughter Lines {Re: Anakin Solo}

All The King’s Horse Men and All The King’s Men Couldn’t Put Us Back Together Again {Re: Jacen & Jaina & Anakin}

There’s A Hole In My Soul // I Can’t Fill It {Re: Ben Solo}

All This Bad Blood Here // Won’t You Let It Dry {Kylo Ren}

Justice And Vengeance Aren’t The Same // To Me They Are {Re: Kylo Ren}

Mother Is The Name of God On The Lips of All Children {Leia Organa Solo}

Don’t Worry Mother // Your Daughter Is A Warrior {Re: Leia Organa Solo}

I Never Dreamed I Would Meet Somebody Like You {Re: Jagged Fel}

I was born in a thunderstorm // I grew up overnight {Ch. Study}

[hopetwin]

tag drop ii

and i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be // right in front of me {re: caydren trecoll} im going to want you until the stars evaporate {re: poe dameron} we are warriors // following in our parents footsteps until the battle is done {re: poe dameron} there’s magic in our bones // a north star in our soul {re: jacen solo} cross my heart and hope to die // i’ll see you with your laughter lines {re: anakin solo} all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put us back together again {re: jacen & jaina & anakin} there’s a hole in my soul // i can’t fill it {re: ben solo} justice and vengeance aren’t the same thing // to me they are {re: kylo ren} dont worry mother // your daughter is a warrior {re: leia organa solo} they are valkyries / the battlefield is their domain {re: rey} taught me the courage of stars before you left {re: mara jade skywalker} everything could stay the same or we could change it all {re: finn} we took what the world threw at us and survived {re: ben skywalker} the pieces we shattered into can’t fit back together {re: darth caedus} a daughter’s greatest hero is her father {re: han solo} i’ve always wanted to know how a lightsaber works {re: luke skywalker} do not go gentle into the good night // rage rage against the dying light {re: resistance} you burn with the brightest flame // and the world’s gonna know your name {eu/legends verse} i knock the ice from my bones // try not to feel the cold {pre-tfa} there is a reason i’m still standing {tfa verse} name a hero that was happy // you can’t {tlj verse} i’ve been cold // i’ve been merciless {sith verse} we are the wild // we are the reckless youth {praexum verse} i have bars over my soul and something’s keeping me trapped {possession au} blood red lips and poison painted nails {vampire au}

[hopetwin]

;; quick tag drop because tumblr hates me p1

and i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be // right in front of me {re: caydren trecoll} im going to want you until the stars evaporate {re: poe dameron} we are warriors // following in our parents footsteps until the battle is done {re: poe dameron} there’s magic in our bones // a north star in our soul {re: jacen solo} cross my heart and hope to die // i’ll see you with your laughter lines {re: anakin solo} all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put us back together again {re: jacen & jaina & anakin} there’s a hole in my soul // i can’t fill it {re: ben solo} justice and vengeance aren’t the same thing // to me they are {re: kylo ren} dont worry mother // your daughter is a warrior {re: leia organa solo} they are valkyries / the battlefield is their domain {re: rey} taught me the courage of stars before you left {re: mara jade skywalker} everything could stay the same or we could change it all {re: finn} we took what the world threw at us and survived {re: ben skywalker} the pieces we shattered into can’t fit back together {re: darth caedus} a daughter’s greatest hero is her father {re: han solo} i’ve always wanted to know how a lightsaber works {re: luke skywalker} do not go gentle into the good night // rage rage against the dying light {re: resistance} you burn with the brightest flame // and the world’s gonna know your name {eu/legends verse} i knock the ice from my bones // try not to feel the cold {pre-tfa} there is a reason i’m still standing {tfa verse} name a hero that was happy // you can’t {tlj verse} i’ve been cold // i’ve been merciless {sith verse} we are the wild // we are the reckless youth {praexum verse} i have bars over my soul and something’s keeping me trapped {possession au}

[hopetwin]

;; and part 2

and i found love where it wasn’t supposed to be // right in front of me {re: caydren trecoll} im going to want you until the stars evaporate {re: poe dameron} we are warriors // following in our parents footsteps until the battle is done {re: poe dameron} there’s magic in our bones // a north star in our soul {re: jacen solo} cross my heart and hope to die // i’ll see you with your laughter lines {re: anakin solo} all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put us back together again {re: jacen & jaina & anakin} there’s a hole in my soul // i can’t fill it {re: ben solo} justice and vengeance aren’t the same thing // to me they are {re: kylo ren} dont worry mother // your daughter is a warrior {re: leia organa solo} they are valkyries / the battlefield is their domain {re: rey} taught me the courage of stars before you left {re: mara jade skywalker} everything could stay the same or we could change it all {re: finn} we took what the world threw at us and survived {re: ben skywalker} the pieces we shattered into can’t fit back together {re: darth caedus} a daughter’s greatest hero is her father {re: han solo} i’ve always wanted to know how a lightsaber works {re: luke skywalker} do not go gentle into the good night // rage rage against the dying light {re: resistance} you burn with the brightest flame // and the world’s gonna know your name {eu/legends verse} i knock the ice from my bones // try not to feel the cold {pre-tfa} there is a reason i’m still standing {tfa verse} name a hero that was happy // you can’t {tlj verse} i’ve been cold // i’ve been merciless {sith verse} we are the wild // we are the reckless youth {praexum verse} i have bars over my soul and something’s keeping me trapped {possession au}