#none of that was set up that was all your fanon based on the trailer

[frumfrumfroo]

The Marvelification has begun

Pour one out for meaningful storytelling. Smothered in its sleep by corporate hegemony.

[him-e]

What do you think the flaws in TLJ were? I was annoyed by some parts, but not by anything I see people complain about around here.

with the caveat that I’ve only seen the movie once so I’m still in a shocked/confused/I don’t even know if I liked it or not/ state (and I keep hearing everywhere that it gets better at the second viewing):

the Resistance plot is much less interesting than the Force one, completely disjointed from the latter for 2/3 of the movie, and kind of convoluted (they’re doing what? trying to find who? and why should I care?)

Finn continues to be underused (not sidelined). This is a continuation of a problem I saw in TFA, though. They keep using him as “the guy who knows how the Death Star is built because he’s worked there” and… no? Finn’s much more than that. Finn’s ENORMOUS narrative potential lies in his background as a former stormtrooper, the complexity of his breaking ties with the First Order, his ptsd, and what the fact that he’s lived with those people since he was a child could mean for him AND the overall story. Like if you use this potential well, there’s no need for Finn to be force-sensitive or whatever storyline they’re saying he was robbed of. When will they give me my FINN LEADS A HUGE STORMTROOPER REVOLT AND BREAKS THE FO FROM THE INSIDE? The silver lining is that Finn isn’t used as comedic relief as much as he was in TFA.

sometimes the characters’ choices are too abrupt and seemingly without proper build up. Almost if we were missing some scenes. A huge example was Rey suddenly choosing to leave Ahch-To to infiltrate the FO alone to “collect” Kylo. Huh? That’s a harsh decision and a dumb plan, girl. And I’m saying this despite the fact that I absolutely ADORED the reylo storyline.

we don’t actually see the vision Rey had of Ben Solo. The movie didn’t do the ~~show don’t tell~~ here, and as a result it seems like Rey left the island and got captured because Kylo Ren touched her fingertips and she liked it. There wasn’t an adequate sense of urgency either.

the whole Rey/Luke conflict almost entirely revolves around Kylo, when it should have been also about REY herself and her own pull to the darkness. Rey’s darkness/”raw untamed power” was HEAVILY teased in the trailer, but barely came to fruition. And it’s a pity, because that would have made her transition from hating Kylo to relating to him and wanting to save him much more seamless.

not enough Force mysteries! The Ahch-To/Force Tree subplot, the most interesting one imho, wasn’t adequately developed. Why are those books important? What lies there? Why did Luke choose that island to hide on? What secrets was he guarding?

(I hope part of the above gets explored in the next movie, since Rey apparently stole the books)

Snoke goes down without ANY explanation whatsoever re: who he was and what he was trying to accomplish. Now I get none of this was important because he was a plot device since the start (as was the Emperor in the OT), but since his dynamic with Kylo is important to understand Kylo, we should have seen more of it. This is not the seventies anymore and Star Wars isn’t just a trilogy, it’s a massive franchise with a complex worldbuilding, so if you introduce a character, especially a Force-powerhouse like Snoke, you gotta be prepared because bitches are going to demand answers.

the whole anticlimatic-ness is OBVIOUSLY a deliberate narrative choice, and I don’t consider it a flaw but rather one of the reasons that make this movie unique and interesting from a meta perspective. BUT I will say that the whole third act on Crait, though visually stunning and tense and arguably the most cohesive part of the movie, is kind of undermined by coming after what I think is the REAL emotional as well as narrative climax: Kylo killing Snoke and the Rey/Kylo fight against the praetorian guards. It’s hard to remain glued to the screen after such a high point.

This is also why Kylo’s rampage is so infuriating. I mean, DELIBERATELY ANTICLIMATIC, it MEANS A LOT THEMATICALLY, but you just got THIS close to his /redemption/ that seeing him revert to a state of blind rage and murderous violence, even against the person who inspired this change in him, is a real killjoy. It’s really bleak, and it uses Kylo as a berserk agent of chaos in a way that is almost a rehash of his fight in the forest in TFA, writ large. And the suddenness of it all doesn’t give you time to properly absorb the ENORMITY of what happened in the throne room, it just gives you whiplash.

Finally, circular storytelling: the heroes and the villain revert to the dynamics they had pre TLJ, and the status quo is restored. (this isn’t REALLY true though, because SO much has changed between Rey and Kylo, and the Resistance is practically gone and Snoke is dead, so…)

Overall, I think this movie’s biggest enemy was TFA, because it created a false sense of familiarity and “this is going to go exactly the way you think! We’re doing this specifically to cater to your expectations!” and also set up some mystery boxes like Rey’s parentage for NO FUCKING REASON, which the fandom predictably latched on and obsessed for two years and now feels betrayed because [x] fanon reveal didn’t happen.

The expectations were also VERY high for this movie and this never helps. Like some parts disappointed me but that’s because I got too attached to my own headcanons and ideas (based on filming spoilers and such) of how the story would play out. I think most of the audience did.

[homeworldheathen]

As Promised, Homworld Gem Technology

Gem technology is a really far-reaching topic, so I'm gonna break it down in to smaller sections. Each section is going to address a kind of technology used for tasks necessary for a society (minus food production/distribution since y'know, gems don't need food). Sections are Communication, Transportation, Energy/Resources, Storage/Housing, Research/Sciences, Construction, and Other.

Canon Communication technologies include the Communication Hub on Earth, which likely could be accessed by multiple gems at a time and could reach at least to Homeworld. It might not still be relevant in modern gem technology, as its rather ancient (thousands of years old), so there may be other, more advanced versions in gem society. A phonebooth-style communication device would be pretty interesting to see! Other technologies include the Diamond Communicator, allowing elite gems to directly contact the diamonds. Its likely the there are more forms of communication, like small walkie talkie type close range devices (maybe for use on missions), and even personal video screens made from something like the fingers of Peridot's limb enhancers. 

Transportation technology varies a lot in gem society, from ships to transporters. Warships like the green hand ship and the Diamond's arm ships (and leg/body ships depending on your headcanon) seem to be very powerful, often reserved for aristocratic elites or important missions (like destroying the Crystal Gems and checking on the Cluster). Ships seem to vary in size based on the gem's rank and mission, as Aquamarine and Emerald (spoiler?) both have large ships, and the Rubies have a smaller ship (which admittedly has a setting for Diamonds to pilot, but still). The transporter pads are also a very important piece of tech, as they allow for the quick travel between colonies and Homeworld, outpacing even ships that travel faster than light. That being said, ships are most likely used in times of war or unexplored areas (or areas in need of repair). Another theory i have for transportation is that shuttles are relatively common, used in the place of teleporters when they are under repair or just being built. During the Wanted special there were also what looked to be tubes going from building to building, which might be used for objects or even poofed gems.

The gems highly value colonies with resources (though not enough to keep the planet alive lol). For them to acquire these resources, however, they need some sort of collectors, whether that be a highly advanced solar panel, drills for manual mining, or even robonoids that can extract certain materials from matter. There isn't much info on how gems acquire resources, but we know the aftermath of their practices, meaning they're probably not too ecofriendly about it (so don't be afraid to think outside of the box and have some destructive qualities in your machines). I'm also going to include Reproductive technologies in this section, as we know that Kindergartens require lots of resources for the gems to absorb in order to form. The kindergarten drills are a means of injecting the material that later becomes a gem, but there might also be drills to inject non-sentient collectors that migh turn into ship cores or something similar.

Storage and Housing "technologies" are presented in canon (though rarely) as pocket dimensions (like the ones in Lion's mane and Lars' hair) and Kindergarten-esque walls (as seen in the human zoo when we meet the Famethysts). Gems also seem to have pocket dimensions within their gemstone, as they can keep things inside it (like books and gem artifacts). Bubbles are another form of storage, though we don't know if there's a size limit to these (gems seem to be able to make larger bubbles when working together, however, as the whole Cluster was bubbled with the help of its component shards). If gems society was able to figure out how pocket dimesions and bubbles can be created and maintained on a small scale, I'm almost positive they could figure it out on a larger scale, even if it was synthetic in nature (such as a pocket dimension for storing artifacts, like a gem library that doesn't take up physical space). Another little idea i had was how do they store information? Perhaps with non-sentient gems, as they seem to be a recurring design element in the show, and i doubt that a society as efficient as the gems would want something like that for purely aesthetic reasons.

Research, data collection, and science technologies of Homeworld include Plug robonoids (the really big ones that were tasked with examining the progress of the Cluster), Hand robonoids (capable of performing actions much like a sentient gem's hand), Peridot's limb enhancers (put here because she was supplied with information from them, like how one looks something up on a phone), and (i'm assuming) some sort of machine or device to combine gem shards forcibly. There are so many possibilities for this section, so many potential machines and devices Homeworld might have developed that i can't even try to list them.

Construction technologies seen in canon include Peridot's flask robonoids, the ones that squirt out the liquid that fixes the shattered holopads. We don't know what the liquid is or to what extent it can fix, but if Homeworld can develop something to fix their non-sentient-gemmade tech, they might have something similar to heal cracked gems to a certain extent (at least that's my hc, especially since all of the Rose Quartz types are presumably bubbled and can't heal anyone). There might even be construction equipment that lower class gem builders like Bismuth are meant to operate. Like, could you imagine how wicked a hover crane or gravity-defying scaffolding or something would be??

Finally, the last section: Other. In this, I'm including weapons and populace-control devices primarily, such as the Shattering robonoids on Homeworld that seek out renegade gems and shatter them, Limb enhancers (yes i'm listing it here too, because they can be used as weapons), Gem destabilizers, and other devices for controlling or shattering Gems. Something interesting I've noticed about the destabilizers is that so far, we've seen 3 different types: the yellow ones on the Hand warship that disrupt a gem's physical form, the (more flourished) blue ones on Aquamarine's ship that we don't know if it has the same power, and the double-ended destabilizer silhouettes from the sdcc trailer (spoiler?). Because of this, my personal hc is that different colored destabilizers have different powers, possibly correlating to the Diamond whose color matches. In the art book, there is a gem tech page dedicated to the sketches and descriptions the crewniverse made in a brainstorming activity, and while none of them are canon, there are some interesting ideas for fanon devices.

The main tips I would suggest to anyone making fan gem tech is don't be afraid to think outside the box, incorporate canon principles to them for a more canon feel (like making a new kind of robonoid to assist your gem in their job), think of a purpose and make the device efficient at it, and have fun with the design (hovering parts, geometric designs, abstract shapes, seemingly blank exterior, whatever you want basically). There's practically no end to the possibilities, so don't stress about it too much! Especially since there are so many facets (heheh, pun intended) of Gem society and technology that we don't know about!!