#posted about this on my tlj blog already but i got to see them two nights in a row and gave them concert bracelets tailored to them

[as-dreamers-do]

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[chriscdcase95]

My thoughts on “Halloween Ends” that no one asked for...

I normally don’t do reviews and such on my blog, but I watched Halloween Ends last week and have been meaning to get my thoughts out there. The following is copy pasted from a post I already did on reddit, with a few editions.

Ultimately I liked it even if it was a step down from 2018.

I hold Ends and Kills in about the same regard but on opposite sides; one being an all out slasher rampage for Michael, while Ends was more character focused slow burn; and in that “character driven drama” regard ? Ends did it better than H20.

Spoiler talk below.

I liked seeing a Laurie who tried to move on from her trauma...even if it was a little jarring after Kills cliffhanger, but y'know ? IRL issues, what are you gonna do ? It's probably my favorite of JLC's performances, since 2018. 

I still liked to see Laurie trying to move on with her life, even with her failures and losses. Especially since I was honestly expecting Laurie to go TLJ!Luke following Kills ending.

I see some people making Allyson out to be this total a bitch in this movie, but I didn't really see it. 

Actually I kind of expected Allyson to have more anger and resentment issues following Kills; the Allyson we see in Ends is a lot more tame compared to where I thought she'd go; rebellious tomboy/total Chloe Price type, probably in the same place Laurie was in 2018.

I actually liked Allyson trying to cope with her trauma in her own way, while not completely ignoring it. Having seen and written characters coping with trauma similarly, I can totally see Allyson making poor relationship choices, such as overlooking Corey's red flags.

Speaking of Corey Cunningham ? Loved his character and was almost sad to see him go. He made for a great villain with a tragic arc; a genuinely good person going down this path due to a tragic mistake, that wasn't even his fault. And when he finally went full slasher, I'll admit, his kills were some of my favorites.

Now am I upset that Corey overshadowed Michael ? Nah, not really. When introducing a new secondary villain trying to take the mantle of “The Shape”, I'd say you gotta give them some time to shine. 

If Ends was just Michael going on another rampage throughout, it'd be the same song and dance as the 2018 and Kills. Which if you ask me would be pretty boring. Besides, Michael at least had more of a presence - and more to do in this film - than in he did H20. 

H20!Michael spent that movie travelling across, and was ragdolled in a single fight. This Michael is kind of wear I see him going after 2018 and Kills - with his injuries and age catching up to him - what��s H20!Michael’s excuse ?

If I had one gripe with the movie, is that the Corey storyline felt like it was trying to tell the story of two movies in one; same gripe I had with Rise of Skywalker. But it wasn't that big an issue for me. 

Then again, Curse was one of my long time favorites in the old sequels, so maybe I'm not the best at judging them /j. I don't know, maybe I'm easy to please; the only slasher movie to genuinely disappoint me this year was the new TCM and Jeepers Creepers.

Anyways, I’m decently satisfied with being Michael and Laurie’s send off; but as John Carpenter said, as long as there’s money to be made, it’s unlikely this’ll be the last Halloween movie altogether. 

Danielle Harris expressed interest in coming back to the series, and I wouldn't mind a continuation of the Jamie Lloyd timeline. There's two ways I can see it going.

1. A movie that ignores 5-6, and with an adult Jamie being the focus, and giving  Danielle Harris a better send off. 

Though on one hand, I don't like the idea of Jamie becoming the next Shape; on the other hand, the kind of story I would give an adult Jamie would be to repetitive of 2018!Laurie's story.

2. This one was a story idea I was working on a couple years back, but a Thorn Trilogy/H20 timeline merger, with Steven Lloyd as the protagonist. Though I don't think it would work as a movie, if I got the chance, I would probably make it novel or something.

----

Also, a fun fact also comparing Ends to H20 ? While Jamie Lee Curtis proposed H20 with the intent of killing Michael off, at the time there was a studio claus that prohibited them from definitively killing Michael - the reason we Halloween Resurrection was because of this claus.

One of their original ideas was that Michael in H20 wasn't the real Michael, but an obsessed fanboy who dawned his mask. They scrapped that idea, I think because they didn’t want to piggyback off of Scream, like a lot of late 90′s slashers were doing. I’m guessing this idea was repackaged with Corey Cunningam.

Honestly, if I were to write some kind of Halloween/Scream crossover fic, Corey’s storyline is probably were I’d take it (though I’d probably try to pair Allyson off with Scream 2022′s Sam, cuz I’m shipping trash like that)

[benthelastskywalker]

My Reylo Story

As some of you may or may not already know, I didn’t start off as a Reylo when TFA came out. Instead it was a journey and I wanted to share my story with you.

First, however, I think it’s important to explain where I was coming from both as a shipper and as a Star Wars fan pre-TFA. I first became aware of shipping in 2009/2010, or at least what it meant. I guess I could say I’d been a shipper long before that, I just wasn’t aware of it as a thing until then. But here’s the thing, I didn’t ship based solely on chemistry. To me shipping was more than just about whether or not a certain dynamic interested me. It was about wanting the characters to be happy in that relationship. So for me, how the characters treated each other was a pretty big deal.

So because of that, I had a hard time when I saw people shipping pairings that I viewed as “toxic.” If one character is being mistreated or flat out abused by another, how could they be happy? While I can honestly say I never sent anyone hate for shipping those things, I did post plenty of “anti” posts about those ships (tagged correctly, though) and followed anti blogs. 

Onto my history with SW. I grew up on Star Wars. I’m not exaggerating when I say that. My parents both saw A New Hope in theaters as teens when it came out and both became fans. After they met and got married, they showed the movies to my three sisters and me from an early age. I don’t even remember the first time I watched the original trilogy because I was so young. There was never pre-SW time in my life. It’s something that has always been a part of my life. The legacy characters are life long friends.

The prequels came out when I was between nine and fifteen. And overall, I was not impressed. I liked the first movie well enough, but the dialogue in the other two made them almost impossible to watch and the love story between Anakin and Padme did nothing for me. It wasn’t until I was older and getting into shipping culture that I realize why. It was just not a healthy relationship and one I couldn’t support. While I acknowledged the prequels as canon, I basically grew to ignore them and focus on the original trilogy.

When I was in college, I had to take a speech class. One lesson was on story telling where the teacher stressed the golden rule of story telling: “Show, don’t tell.” The example she used was of a selfish child. “Don’t just say ‘he’s selfish’,” she said. “Show him acting selfishly.”

Sometime after that, I was rewatching the original trilogy. I got to the part when Luke goes to confront Vader on Endor and Luke tells him, “I fell the conflict within you. Let go of your hate.” I had a  light bulb moment of, “Wait, what? What conflict? We never saw any conflict!” Luke mentioning the conflict within Vader was the first clue that were was one. I realized then that Vader’s redemption had no real build up across the three movies. It all takes place in the third act of the final film. It wasn’t a journey. It was a spur of the moment turn. And it bothered me. “Show. Don’t tell.” That’s the rule. And Lucas told us.

So then TFA came out and we got Kylo Ren. And they actually showed us his inner conflict and I loved it! I loved the character. He was instantly my favorite. I kept thinking “This is what they should have done with Vader!” Not even him killing Han, which I was totally devastated about, could make me dislike Kylo. 

Yet, I wasn’t looking for the romance in the story. Because of this and because of what I’ve already said about my shipping history, it did not cross my mind at all that Reylo would be a thing. Not even an inkling. So if you had asked me right after I watched TFA for the first time who I thought Rey would fall in love with, I would have said Finn. Not because I shipped it, but because I just didn’t see another candidate.

It was only when I got home from the theater and got onto tumblr and started seeing posts about Reylo that I realized it was even a thing. I was shocked! As much as loved Kylo Ren, I didn’t get how anyone could ship him with Rey. He had kidnapped her and mind probed her after all. 

But the thing is, I wasn’t angry so much as I was just confused. So I did something that I will never regret. I reached out to Reylos and I asked them what they saw in the ship. And their answers surprised me. They pointed out how Rey had fought back in the mind probe scene, showing that Rey wasn’t just a helpless victim. They pointed out the differences between how he treated Rey in that scene and how he had treated Poe when he was been mind probing him earlier. They also said it had the potential to the reverse Anidala (which intrigued me). They also pointed out (and I think this was the biggest misconception regarding Reylo and Reylos at the time) was that they didn’t actually want Kylo and Rey to get together right then, that they both had growing and maturing to do and they acknowledged that it wouldn’t be healthy for them to be together as they were at the end of TFA. And they explained all this nicely, without any hint of judgment or rudeness for someone who didn’t get their ship.

After that I went to see TFA a second time. This time I tried to see what they saw. I started to get it, but I still couldn’t bring myself to ship it. Shortly after that, I saw a post where someone said something about Ben being manipulated by Snoke since infancy. I reached out to that person and was like, “Where are you getting that from?”

“Oh, that was in the TFA novelization.”

So, I got a hold of the novelization and read it. Sure enough I learned that Ben had indeed been manipulated since infancy and that really changed pretty much everything about how I viewed him. I had loved the character before, but now I really began to sympathize with him. 

But the novelization did more than that. It made me realize that Reylo might just be something that wasn’t just in the shippers’ head, because the subtext...oh my word, the Reylo subtext was all there. And the novel made it quite clear that Finn and Rey were just friends, nothing more. So that was the last time I ever thought FinnRey might happen.

While I didn’t consider myself a Reylo at that point, I continued to keep up with all of the Reylo theories that were floating around. It helped that one of my mutuals was going through the exact same thing too and were we able to talk about it together.

Then TLJ came out. Oh, boy. I find myself smiling whenever Kylo and Rey talked and going, “This! This is what the shippers predicated!” I came out of that movie, so happy. I was disappointed that he had returned to the light right then, but I never doubted he would eventually get his redemption.

It was only in the months leading up to the release of TROS that I finally admitted to myself that I was a Reylo and it’s something that I’ve never regretted, nor while I ever. Despite the disappointment that TROS turned out to be, I still love the ship, I love the characters, and I love my fellow shippers.

Becoming a Reylo has certainly changed my view on shipping too and while there are still those ships that make me cringe, I’ve learned just to ignore them.

If there is one thing I’ve learned from this experience, is not to turn away from people with differing opinions, but to actually talk and listen. This goes beyond shipping. This applies to every aspect of life. 

And now I’m curious to hear your Reylo story.

[sakura-haruka]

Mike aka captainpoe is talking shit about me so let me get things straight.

He’s gonna do screenshots of what will makes him look like the victim, like he always does so you will have to believe me on my words (since I coun’t found our conversations by pm) but most people who know me or I've been following me for a long time know that I usually stay out of the drama. Big thanks to my friends for telling me what he was doing behind my back like the adult he is.

3 years ago Mike started following me, I was back then a small blog and I thought “wow a big blog is following me!”

He started to talk me and really fast told me to send him my edits by messages and I did! he also reblogged me on his mcu blog (and his sw blog too... I think).

I was really stressed with a big exam around July and I became obsess with EVERYTHING, I was a true pain in the ass to everyone. I’m not gonna lie. So yeah I also became obsess with my Tumblr notes, I did gifs to relax but it was not working very well back then. my behavior was childish and I apologized to him after! 

(He accused me of wanting to be reblogged on his sideblogs, it’s true, but it’s natural to me to reblog everything that people send me or tag me in on my sideblogs, I sincerely don’t understand people problem with reblogging on sideblogs things ).

When he got harassed on here, more like called out (it was actually around the same time I was a dick)  he asked me to take his defense and to reblog a post he made, he was basically whining about how he was the victim and never harassed anyone, he sent me messaged telling me that he was a married man in florida and never did anything against the once upon a time fandom, wasn’t homophobic and meh meh meh... Back then I believed him because he was the nice guy who was helping me getting notes in the MCU fandom. He used me, after talking to other members I realized that I wasn’t alone. 

I WANT TO APOLOGIES TO THE POEPLE I DIDN’T BELIEVED BACK THEN. I KNOW WHO HE IS NOW. 

He started being aggressive but nothing worriedly when TLJ came around, it was a real little thing but I wasn't shipping Rey x poe and I felt like it was problem for him that I wasn’t shipping them. I didn't thought too much about it but still, it left a bad taste in my mouth, I wasn’t talking a lot to him after that.

When I had problems and got hate on my blog he didn't do shit to help me. 

I was still sending me my edits because... Notes. I can’t lie about that, like every  creators here I want my edits to get notes. 

I think we haven’t talked for a verrrry long time, I was sending my edits that’s it. 

Last year he asked me to join my GOT blog, after all the reblog he did for me I thought It would be really bitchy to me to not add him as a member. But I also noted that it was funny how he joined both the B99 and the GOT fandom once he realized that it was very popular. 

He did edits on the blog so no problem at all, until s8 ended. I’m like everybody, I hated that season but when someone join my sideblogs, especially my got one, I am very clear about the no hate rule (I had problems with that on this blog before). But he thought that since he was popular he could do what he wanted, I deleted the two first he reblogged, one of them was calling people to harass D&D and I hate what they did but as someone who has been victim of bullying at school and still suffer from that I was disgusted by what he posted but I haven’t told him anything since he’s really popular and I didn’t want to create any drama... I have a life so I  finally forgot about it. 

My laptop broke and gosh, I really understood who he was at that moment! I sent a messages to all the members of my sideblogs asking them to keep the blogs active while I can’t, normal stuff for an admin. I had my tablet with no photoshop... spidey got “fired” and like a lot of other people I thought about that scene in iw where Tony told him “you’re an avenger now”, lucky me I have already made that gifset before so I took my tablet and just reposted my own gifset, it took me so long because I had to convert it back to gif format because of Tumblr... Anyway, later he sent me a message accusing me of having copied him and I haven’t seen his gifset so told him exactly that. He then accused me of doing that ALL THE TIME with endgame and I told him “listen bro we’re both using the same 30 seconds YouTube clips that marvel gave us”, like 20 other people (they were not a lot of people because that channel was weirdly unknown), it’s true that I was doing them after him but it’s just because I have a life and cannot always do gif, I make them when I have time. He also basically told me that I must be rich for having replaced my laptop that fast, I haven’t, I was using my tablet but even if I did replace my laptop, mêle toi de ton cul ( I have no English expression coming to me ).

I really understood who he was then. 

He totally stopped making edits for my got blog, because it stopped trending so it wasn’t interesting him anymore. 

a few months past and I think the only thing he told me is that he was scared of clowns... Literally. 

And then the BIG ONE, I know he was a douche but omg. Mike asked me to reblog ALL his posts on a sideblog I'm only a member of. He told me that the admin have blocked him because she was shipping reylo and well reylos hate him because he’s posting shit on them , they were a huge misunderstanding then (because i’m French and I may not have explained myself right) , I told him that I wouldn’t reblog him if the admin didn’t want to see his posts on the blog, he was blocked! and I was, at the same time, talking to another member of this blog who is a close friend of the admin and she agreed with me. he was very insisting and I told him that the admin was checking what we add to the queue and would certainly delete his posts, it was the big misunderstanding that could have hurt the admin of the blog, I just meant I know she checks what’s happening because she told me when I don’t tag a post with the right tags, it’s just what a good admin (unlike myself) does. I also told him that it was a new blog with “only” 14k followers, he must have something like 50K followers sooooo, and that his edits were getting 100K notes, more than anybody here. He became... I have no words to describe that. He told me that it was a dictatorship if I couldn’t reblog what I wanted, and that I should leave the blog, I stopped answering pretty fast after that. 

 In our last conversation I was vulgar. (it’s in the post he sent to my friends), he really need to get over it, I’m French and from Normandie : I am vulgar! wtf. It’s also the last thing he ever posted on my game of thrones blog. It was a Sunday either two days after after the last star wars movie came out or ten days ( I don’t remember if he waited a week or not) but he reblogged a text post from his blog sending hate toward the writers of both got and sw and spoiled the entire Star Wars movie on my game of thrones blog, which was “the drop of water that caused the vase to bleed” like annoy me all you want but when people goes on my got blog they don’t want to be spoiled, it was so rude and mean and that post had nothing to do there and it was at least the third time so I told him to “fucking stop” and since mr thinks he is the king he went all “you can’t talk to me like that” “I'm an adult” meh meh meh. I told him to never go in France ‘cause he wouldn't like us. And it was the last time we spoke.  Nothing to do directly with me but I would never do what he does to get notes, that man he’s ready to use any big events such as pride or women’s day to get notes. I do make edits for those events too but I'm actually a bisexual woman and not an heterosexual man and I really don’t think he’s doing those edits to show his support to those movements but just to get notes, this year he did the same thing with blm movement I thought it was disrespectful at best, he even made the famous “I we burn you burn with us” gifset  from the movie and no, just stop dude.  Making that gifset of Naya before she was even found was awful, a lot of people are doing gifs to feel better about things but I don’t think it would have came to anybody else mind to have it ready in their draft. It actually make me think of myself because after they died I made a gifset of Carrie Fisher and Stan Lee  and in my head  it was a tribute but now that I think back about it I wouldn’t make gifset when people dies anymore, I said it once again but in my head it was a tribute to those wonderful people life and work.  I did to feel people and myself a little better in those situations but it didn’t makes me feel better. I thought about it even more, especially for Carrie, because I couldn’t stop thinking about Billie and losing my mom is the worst thing that could happen to me. You can say that, at the end, Mike makes me realize something. 

He has been calling out for his behavior but instead of facing it like an adult he just want to take people down instead of him, I'm one of them and I certainly won’t be the only one.  it’s someone who doesn’t know how to face the consequences of his behavior and still think he’s untouchable, me and one of my friend said that he thought he was the king of Tumblr and I sincerely think that in his head he is. 

Sorry for the grammar I'm French and it’s almost 4 am so I'm gonna check the grammar tomorrow. 

[marybeatriceofmodena]

Ben Solo’s Story Arc - An Autopsy

This will be the second post before I publish the full TROS review, mainly because it’s yet another thing I want to get out of the way first. After which, I’ll be posting an announcement about the future of this blog, but no worries – I’ll be sticking around.

After Rey and her parentage, I’ll be talking about Ben here specifically – mainly because I have a pretty big inkling that his plotline for TROS was mutilated, and that he initially actually had an arc.

Except, somewhere in the executive meddling, for reasons I myself am not sure of (okay, I got some theories but it’s pointless to share them here), it got cut.

The Rise of Kylo Ren might be an inkling that there was something more in the works, also that when it comes to its take on Snoke, it directly contradicts things TROS sets up. The simplest explanation is that the Lucasfilm Story Group had a hand in TRoKR, and not for TROS. But even then… the comic reveals things that make me BAFFLED they didn’t put that in the films. I don’t want to be that person who thinks 30 minutes of TLJ should have been dedicated to Snoke’s origins, but stuff like how Ben didn’t even destroy Luke’s Jedi Camp? THAT’S the kind of thing you need to include in your film.

Also, I 110% believe the rumors that JJ Abrams just ignored the Story Group’s existence entirely. Wanna know why? Just the fact that Exogol is established as the Sith world… when we know thanks to The Clone Wars that it’s Moraband – which would have been super easy to use. But fuck continuity I guess.

I will say though, I am NOT surprised it’s leaking out that the movie was severely tempered with and was constantly changing during production, simply because from my first (and only) viewing… I could tell something was wrong. Namely, I could tell that Ben’s arc had been mutilated – and the more I think about it, the more glaring it gets. It’s not even that I��m mad that Adam Driver (aka Golden Globe/Academy Award nominee Adam Driver) gets relegated to playing Darth Exposition for 75% of the film (and godawful exposition at that), it’s literally that so much of what remains of his arc makes no sense, and it affects Palpatine and Rey by extension.

I explained why Rey’s character arc was butchered here, and I’ve also talked about how Palpatine’s implication in her arc didn’t work either, so I won’t talk about it too much here, nor do you need to have read it prior in order to understand this post. I will also point out that a lot of what will be my speculation – so for all I know, I could be wrong, but I’m trying to fill in the holes here.

So, for starters… somehow, Ben knows that Palpatine is still alive. Somehow, he knows how to get to him. AND SOMEHOW, THE WRITERS DECIDED NOT EXPLAINING SHIT WAS THE WAY TO GO. This is not even on the level of not explaining who the fuck Snoke is in the two previous films – while I do think there could have been a throwaway line in TLJ, it didn’t “hinder” the story.

HOWEVER, not explaining how Palpatine is still around and kicking (well, he’s on life support so kicking might be a little too flattering), why he decided to reveal himself right there, right then, and how the hell Ben knows he’s around, how he figured out how to get to Exogol using the holocrons… THAT IS A BIG PROBLEM. This is the triggering element of the rising action in your story. But before you do that, YOU. NEED. EXPOSITION. TO. SET. UP. THE. CONTEXT. OF. YOUR. STORY.

What TROS did would be like skipping Finn’s intro when he’s with his Stormtrooper squad on Jakku, removing the interrogation with Poe and Kylo entirely, and just start TFA with him escaping with Poe without any explanation given. Oh, and also cut out Rey’s introduction as well, and we first meet her when she kicks Finn’s ass in Niima Outpost. You’d just have a bunch of characters coming out of nowhere, and you’d have no frigging clue what they’re doing, and what they want. And that’s what TROS does with Ben and Palpatine.

Take the handling of Snoke, for instance. I’d be a lot more mad about the Snoke retconning if it wasn’t for… what I’m going to call the “Snoke Stew” (and I’d crack a joke about how it was probably made with the DNA of a guy called Stu, which is not funny but still funnier than most of the jokes in TROS). That’s pretty much the one thing that stops me from being mad, because of how STUPID it is.

But the explanation for Snoke’s origins just… retcons so much that has been established before, INCLUDING INFO FROM A COMIC THAT CAME OUT AFTER TROS. We knew Snoke had a past, even if we weren’t privy to it yet. We did kind of know that he was a rich guy, like all the shitty rich people we saw in Canto Bight, who happened to be a Dark Sider and was seemingly smart enough to kill his way to the top. Considering how exploitative the First Order is when it comes to resources and that a rich patron would be welcomed with open arms, it makes sense.

With the explanation given by TROS, it just provides a fuck ton of plotholes to the fact he took over the First Order while killing off old Imperial higher-ups to establish himself as Supreme Leader. Do you really think a guy in a golden bathrobe would just be able to take over out of fucking nowhere because he killed all the higher-ups? No. And even if some of the higher-ups knew that Snoke was a Palps plant (like Pryde seems to), I doubt Ben would have stayed Supreme Leader for as long as a year.

But that’s not even the biggest problem! Seriously, I don’t know if Palps is senile in this film, because we got an ENTIRE trilogy explaining how the guy is one of the worst evil masterminds to have ever lived, in the Galaxy Far Far Away and even in today’s culture. Here, you don’t even understand what the fuck he even wants! I’m “guessing” he fucked with Ben to get his revenge on Anakin, because he uses Ben as his lackey while being seemingly totally oblivious that Ben is working against him (what happened to “every voice in your head”???). He wants Ben to kill Rey… while knowing Rey is his granddaughter, and while telling her when she shows up that he wants to use her as a new host or some shit. Seriously, MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY.

This said… I honestly wonder if Ben was initially meant to be the new host, and not Rey. Because not only that was an actual theory I had pre-TROS, but it would make a shit ton more sense than having Rey be the host – not to mention it’d be the ultimate revenge against Anakin (and if you want to get REAL yucky, he may have planned to have Rey be his new consort, but I’ll spare you more speculation about that aspect). But nah, I guess.

The most damning thing in all this is that there’s no difference in Ben’s overall behavior and actions AFTER Snoke has been killed, when it’s clear Snoke was the biggest influence on him. Saying that Palpatine just kept messing with him makes no sense because with Snoke dead, any voice Ben would still hear would make him go “NOPE” and do exactly the opposite of what said voice tells him to do.

Like, for real, with Snoke dead, unless he’s REALLY stupid (I mean… Ben is reckless, but not stupid), why would Ben do anything a now Random Voice would tell him to do?

The thing is, there have been hints in previous material that Ben isn’t exactly 110% on board with what the First Order does. He’s clearly against blowing up planets, he snarks about how Stormtroopers should be clones instead – which could just be a throwaway snarky line, but considering Ben’s past… I can see him not being too fuzzy about the Stormtrooper program. Like, I’m not saying he’d start a Galactic Free Donut Day, but there would be a change. It wouldn’t be Business as Usual – especially that Ben wasn’t that young (23) when he joined Snoke, and it’s a little hard to go from “My uncle tried to kill me in my sleep and I’m going towards the one figure I think can protect me” to “Blowing up planets and enslaving people is the way to go”. It would have worked if Ben had been brainwashed from his teens, but not so much as an adult – hence you need a little more nuance with Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.

Oh yeah, and the Knights of Ren? They’re just there to look cool. “But they kidnapped Chewie!” Yeah, what was the fucking point of them kidnapping Chewie apart from giving a reason for the Beautiful Friendship Gang to get on the Star Destroyer and give us fake suspense because we all know how it’s gonna end, just end my suffering already. Also, NO INTERRACTION WITH BEN? DID YA FORGET CHEWIE IS LIKE, HIS UNCLE? DID YALL FORGET BEN WAS PART OF YOUR FAMILY OR…

Seriously, that sequence on Pasaana where they’re just standing there on top of a fucking mountain? I called that part the Backdesert Boys. That tells ya how much I hated it.

Oh yeah, and they’re fighting fodder for Benny Boy in the end, because of course they were Palps’ lackeys all along, can’t think of anything else that’s more imaginative.

So what could they possibly add to Ben’s arc, that would explain so much, like how Ben finds Palpatine, or how he’s always one step ahead from the Beautiful Friendship Gang in their Wild Goose Chase no one fucking cares about?

This is where I got into speculation/conspiracy theory territory. Brace yourselves. 

*

So, the film has Lando reveal that he and Luke “knew” about Palps being around thanks to snooping around… except that makes no bloody sense. Lando was never involved in a Force plot of any kind, and he was never that close to Luke anyway. I mean, Lando’s a nice guy and all, but he’s not really besties with Luke – he’s Han’s friend.

So that research should have taken place either before Ben joined Luke at Jedi Camp, either after. Then again, before would make no sense, because why would Luke leave that critical of a search on the ice for 10 to 15 years? The only place where I can place it in time, where it would make logical sense… would be when Ben was around, and it’d make WAY more sense to have him be Luke’s sidekick in that search.

It would have totally explained why Luke freaked the fuck out reading Ben’s mind, because only Palpatine can give her that severe of a PTSD-like reaction. It would have totally explained why Ben would run to Snoke, grooming and desperation set aside, under the promise that they’d associate to defeat Palps, because if you ignore the plot hole extravaganza of TROS, you’d bet Snoke wouldn’t want Palps anywhere near his throne – mainly because Snoke is a wannabe Palpatine who targeted Ben to get his own Vader. It would have totally explained why Ben thought becoming Supreme Leader is a good idea – even if it’s morally wrong, it makes logical sense. It would have totally explained why Kylo was collecting Sith artefacts in the year gap while keeping in mind he made his distaste for the Sith clear in TLJ. It would have totally provided the audience (and Rey) a good reason to forgive Ben, because even if he had godawful methods, he wanted to do the right thing and save the galaxy from the person who came this close to destroying them, as well as his family. That would have provided for him the means to realize that he cannot defeat Palpatine using Palpatine’s means – as Rose said, he’ll win by saving what he loves, and not destroying what he hates. That would have made Rey the glitch in the matrix, who must join forces with Ben because without her, he would have been doomed despite his best efforts.

And before you tell me that would have been unnecessary… let me put it to you this way. Ben keeps saying it's too late, and if it was just that, it could be interpreted as him thinking he went too far to come back. But he also adds that he has "something to do", and I'm here waving my arms like "WHAT? WHY? FUCK, YOU DIDN'T EVEN KILL YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS!!! THEY'RE NOT EVEN BOTHERED TO SAY THAT IN THE ACTUAL FILM!!!"

Hence why my theory is the simplest way to just tie it all neatly together, without retconning anything. There.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SUPER SIMPLE TO DO. Except that, as I mentioned earlier, they mutilated Ben’s arc, and left him to play the part of Darth Exposition, until the very end, when they have Ben save what he loves… but even then, I can’t even appreciate that either, because it happens in a way that makes EVERYONE look horrible, while Ben is, from a storytelling perspective, a saint… a saint everyone ultimately forgot about.

[oh-great-authoress]

Tag Game!!!!!

Thank you, @the-coruscanti-blogger, for tagging me!

Okay, here we go!!

Name: Nadia of oh-great-authoress!

Gender: Female.

Star Sign: Like @the-coruscanti-blogger said, this is technically against my religion, but I do know that I am a Virgo.

Height: Over 5 feet, I can’t remember the exact number.

Sexuality: Straight.

Favorite Book: Uhh, difficult question. How about top three?

“The Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien (In my opinion it counts as one book. Yes, I know I’m technically cheating.)

“Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring” by Alexander Rose (They even made a tv series based on the events in this book called Turn: Washington’s Spies!) [Yes, I am a history nerd. :)]

“Niamh and the Hermit” by Emily C. A. Snyder (This book is a hidden treasure. It’s an adventure/epic quest/love story that is just… *chef’s kiss* perfection. It’s along the lines of LotR, so if you like that, you’ll probably love this.)

Current Time: Uhh, unholily late, or unholily early, depending on your outlook.

Average Amount of Sleep: Outside of quarantine, it varies from 8+ to 0, depending on the day.

Dogs or Cats: Both. Both is good.

# of Blankets You Sleep With: One thick one in colder weather, and two thin ones in warmer weather. I know it’s weird I use more when it’s warm, but it works for me.

Dream Job: World Domination. Hahaha, I’m joking. Or am I?…

Favorite Animal: Foxes. Look at the YouTube channel SaveAFox. You’ll thank me later. Go.

Blog Established: January of 2020!

# of Followers: As of when I post this, 31!

Reason for URL: I hang around music nerds, and I am a bit… okay, I’m a music nerd. It’s a sort of oblique reference to a Gilbert and Sullivan song called “Minerva! Oh, Hear Me!” It’s a warping of one of the lyrics, which says, “Oh, goddess wise” I couldn’t remember the actual lyric, (I forgot google existed) and in my memory, I changed it to “Oh, great goddess”, which sounded right. Again, I forgot google existed. And I have a dramatic streak a mile wide. (Or a couple of miles wide, depends on who you ask) In addition, I like to write, a lot, (I also hate it a lot sometimes) so that turned into @oh-great-authoress!

Something I’m Grateful For: My faith, my amazing and wonderful parents, my grandparents, my and my family’s health and life, my friends irl and on tumblr, sunrises, music, my interests and fandoms, tumblr, and all the amazing people I’ve met here.

Followers I’m Tagging: @megsann13, @batmantaking-hobbits2gallifrey, @ruinofsilver, @fromsolowithlove, @rainmakesyouwhole, @demichrising, @cptdorkery, @lynntheninja, @loveandmusic67, @magic-and-the-macabre, and @lenacs!

Questions I’m Adding (Feel free to ignore my added questions)

Favorite Pairings

Favorite Season

Favorite Color(s)

Favorite Actresses and Actors

My Answers to My Own Questions

Question 1.

Favorite Pairings

Reylo — Ben Solo/Rey — Star Wars (I don’t need to say any more about this.)

Gingerflower — Armitage Hux/Rose Tico — Star Wars (Okay, guys, guys, guys, hear me out, okay? Please don’t come @ me. I got sucked into this via Reylo Modern AU fanfics, and I went down a rabbit hole. From there, I read some canon-divergent fic, and it got me thinking. I mean TRoS didn’t even obliquely mention Finn/Rose, so, I thought, why the kriff not. Why shouldn’t Rose “Save What We Love” Tico get a romance/definitively happy ending via fanfic. We already had one Enemies-to Lovers pairing in the Sequel Trilogy, what’s one more? And when you add in Hux’s “I’m the Spy!”? This kinda writes itself. Resistance Spy-Master Rose Tico? Why not. Plus, that deleted scene from TLJ did kind of open this whole thing up.)

Farawyn — Faramir/Eowyn — LotR (If you haven’t read the books or watched the Extended Editions of the films, Faramir and Eowyn end up together, which is why they’re standing next to each other in the Theatrical Edition of RotK, at the end. In the books, they have practically an entire chapter dedicated to them and their romance. And boy, does Faramir have game.)

Fitzwilliam Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet — Pride & Prejudice (I also don’t need to say any more about this.)

Col. Brandon/Marianne Dashwood — Sense & Sensibility (Watch the 1995 adaptation and tell me this is not pairing gold.)

Mary/Matthew — Downton Abbey (Yes, the Season 3 finale broke my heart, thank you.)

Dramione — Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger — Harry Potter (Again, please don’t come @ me, this pairing is basically Reylo in a Harry Potter AU.)

Bathena — Bobby Nash/Athena Grant — 911 (Yes, I do watch this. I actually didn’t see this coming. My Mom saw it coming before I did. But once it happened, I was like, oh yeah, this is my jam.)

Ventrobi — Obi-Wan Kenobi/Asajj Ventress — Star Wars (Okay, yes, I am a sucker for Enemies-to Lovers, okay? And this is Enemies-to-Lovers gold, alright?

Christopher Pike/Number One (Una) — Star Trek (Got into this ship via fanfic, but Discovery/Short Treks well and truly cemented this for me.)

Question 2.

Favorite Season

Fall. Without question. The weather becomes temperate, and in early fall you still get the pretty flowers of summer, but with cooler weather, and in full-out-fall, you get to wear pretty sweaters and boots and scarves, and you get the trees changing color.

Question 3.

Favorite Color(s)

Pink

Teal

Green

Blue

Purple

Question 4.

Favorite Actresses and Actors

Adam Driver (Guys. Come on.)

Daisy Ridley (Guys. Come on.)

Domnhall Gleeson (I liked him even before he was General Hux, guys, he was great in a movie called “About Time” and “Goodbye Christopher Robin”.)

Kelly Marie Tran (She was amazing as Rose, I still feel bad she didn’t get more screen time, especially after what happened to her after TLJ.)

Ewan McGregor (Um, he’s Obi-Flipping-Wan Kenobi.)

Letitia Wright (She was great as Shuri in “Black Panther”.)

Danai Gurira (She was Awesome as General Okoye in “Black Panther. Note the capital A.)

Colin Firth (P&P ‘95 and The King’s Speech. That’s all I have to say.)

Alan Rickman (S&S ‘95 + Harry Potter + Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Amazing performances. I mean, truly amazing. Nuanced, and just plain hilarious in the case of Robin Hood. His performance as Col. Brandon just pulls at the heartstrings with every single expression in his eyes, and no matter how you feel about Severus Snape, you cannot deny that Alan, God rest his soul, played him brilliantly.)

Hayden Christensen (He was The Chosen One.)

Bruce Greenwood (His portrayal of Captain Pike in Star Trek: 2009 was the reason I wrote and actually finished a fic.)

Anson Mount (His portrayal of Captain Pike in Star Trek: Discovery was the reason I wrote and actually finished more fic.)

And that’s it! I hope I have not ticked off anyone. If I have, I apologize for the ticking off, but not my opinions. I hope you can respect them, or at least ignore them.

Stay Well, People!

[kyloreyorgana]

STAR WARS 9 ! TROS SPOILERS !

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, dear gods. Oh dear.

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

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

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

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

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

Godspeed, Rebels! 

[bdneagle]

The Sequel Trilogy and a Fairy Tale Heroine's Journey.

(I posted this right after TLJ, and I thought it would be worth reposting today)

The Reylo community is a beautiful place let me start by saying that. I have been a part-time meta writer/fanfic writer/silent observer of discourse/and an okay “artist.” It has been a pleasant experience for me over the last two years. I have learned quite a bit about literature, storytelling, cinematography just by being a fan of a fictional couple who I thought had a spark of something. We all invested a lot of time into theory and art of all mediums. I have made friends that I wouldn't have otherwise. The ride has at times been bumpy.

As I sit and try to take in everything in The Last Jedi I admit I am overwhelmed and rightfully so. Rian Johnson has given us so much in this movie to pick through, and over analyze for the next two years. I admit like some of you, I was confused after my first viewing and very conflicted. I wanted Ben and Rey together so badly that when they didn't end up together, I was a bit upset. I was mad at Ben for rejecting Rey, but then I was mad at Rey for rejecting Ben. My emotions were all over the map.

A lot of us felt the same way, some of us freaked out left the fandom, cried in a corner, and some took a minute to really start sifting through the wreckage.

What I have found in that wreckage (as well as many others) is a beautiful treasure. We got way more story than we could have hoped for. It is complex, it is layered and no doubt we will find tidbits of something new while rewatching it until Episode 9.

In this meta, I am going to attempt to shed light on the Heroine's Journey using a fairy tale template if you will. This will hopefully help decipher where we are in this cycle, even though it can at times skip around. I am going to give my full disclosure that I am an amateur. I don’t pretend to be the end all be all super meta writer who knows all of this as fact. I am simply using the Heroine's Journey as a guide and placing my own wet of views on what we’ve been given thus far. I highly recommend at the end of this analysis that you buy a copy of The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness by Maureen Murdock. I also suggest you read this blog by Theodora Gross. This is where I get the “template” for the breakdown of a Heroine's Journey as it is usually told in a fairy tale.

*Remember- This analysis is based on the fairy tale stories thus the template I am using provided by Theodora Gross.

The basic break down of a Heroine's Journey in a fairytale setting according to Theodora Gross is this

1. The heroine lives in the initial home.

2. The heroine receives gifts.

3. The heroine leaves her initial home.

4. The heroine enters the dark forest.

5. The heroine finds a temporary home.

6. The heroine finds friends and helpers.

7. The heroine is tested.

8. The heroine dies.

9. The heroine finds her true partner.

10. The heroine finds her true home.

​

Firstly, I am using this example for a few reasons.

JJ Abrams stated that Star Wars is more like a fairy tale or a western. Here is the actual quote from The Force Awakens Bluray commentary.

“This whole location of Maz’s, of course, mirrors the cantina from A New Hope, as this Starkiller Base mirrors the Death Star. These were the kind of locations that felt like a given in Star Wars. For example, we looked at it like a Western or a fairy tale. What are the elements that you’re going to see that makes it this genre, this specific genre? And clearly, in a Western, you’re going to have the dusty main street, the saloon. You’re going to have cowboys. You’re going to have the bad guy, who’s probably dressed in black. You’re probably going to have a castle, and a prince and a princess, if you’re looking at a fairy tale. We wanted to give these sort of, fundamental, not cosmetic, but, sort of, prerequisite elements. These locations in which we can set our new story and our new characters.”

     2. George Lucas has stated Star Wars is for children and it is a fairy tale.

So if we apply Theodora’s template for the Fairytale version of the Heroine's Journey to Star Wars more particularly to the Sequel Trilogy and Rey, we get this breakdown.

 The heroine lives in the initial home

    The Force Awakens introduces us to our heroine, Rey. We get a glimpse into her harsh everyday life by following her through a Star Destroyer in the barren desert of Jakku- a junk planet on the outer rim. She lives alone in an overturned AT-AT working all day just to feed herself. Like most adventures or fairy tales the main character longs for a different life. Rey longs for her family and even watches a ship leave the planet. We see this in Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella. Another more similar example is how Luke wanted to leave Tatooine and looked longingly at the twin suns wishing for adventure-- this is part of Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey and yes there are similarities, but they are not the same at all. But for the sake of Star Wars and this discussion, I’ll throw in these comparisons. 

    The point of this setup is to show the audience how bad the conditions are for our heroine or how they are longing for something - a change, a person, adventure, etc.

“And this idea that she won’t share with him here is, of course, because she feels like the only belonging she’s ever going to have is her family and if she leaves she’ll never get a chance to see them. So there was a very powerful idea that what she desperately wanted was belonging, which she’ll get, but just not how she expects.” JJ Abrams TFA

 The heroine receives gifts.

    Unexpectedly Rey receives a gift in the form of a bright round orange droid- BB-8. This is not the only gift Rey receives. She acquires a blaster from Han Solo, and eventually the Skywalker Legacy lightsaber. I would like to take this moment to note these steps do occur in order. However, storytelling is fluid and just because the heroine receives a gift later in the steps does not void the order of the heroine's journey or take it back a step.

Another example of gifts would be Luke acquiring R2D2 and C-3PO. But he also gets the lightsaber later on. It's important to point out here as well, that in a lot of adventure type stories, we have a Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, The Mentor, etc. That is part of myth which is a part of every story in existence essentially in some form.  Please watch these videos for reference (they are a bit long and old), but it goes over the themes and myth integrated into Star Wars. And please remember that George Lucas focused on Joseph Campbell's model of the Hero’s Journey when he first wrote A New Hope. Also yes as George has stated these stories are meant to rhyme. That does not mean they are a play by play of the plot. However, themes are similar, because the message of Star Wars is the same. “It is about love.”

 The heroine leaves her initial home.

    The First Order is hunting BB-8 and forces Finn and Rey to flee the planet for safety. According to Theodora sometimes the heroine is given away, runs away, or she chooses to leave. If the heroine decides to stay her home is destroyed in some way. An example of this is Cinderella. Her happy home is destroyed when her stepmother makes her work as a servant after the father dies.

    In Star Wars Luke chose to leave after the death of his aunt and uncle. Anakin was taken by Qui Gon Jinn (Haaa, Liam Neeson - “Taken” get it- get it? I know I’m lame) and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 The heroine enters the dark forest.

    Rey runs from the safety of Maz’s castle into a dense dimly lit forest after she Refuses the Call. In other fairy tales like The Lassie, the girl enters the dark forest after losing her temporary home. Sleeping beauty grows up in the forest, and Rapunzel enters the dark forest after leaving her tower.

    The refusal of the call in Star Wars (hero’s journey) Luke initially tells Obi-Wan he can’t leave Tatooine because of his family. Anakin does not want to leave his mother. Since Rey is a heroine her journey is slightly different but similar at the same time. She doesn't want to go on this adventure because she is holding out hope that someone will come for her on Jakku. Looking back in hindsight after viewing The Last Jedi Maz is forcing Rey to face the truth. “I see it in your eyes, you already know the truth. Whoever you are waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back.”

    Rey is not ready to face this reality yet. It is this belief that her parents were coming back is what kept her alive for so long. It was a survival coping mechanism that eventually she started to believe. However, deep down she’s always known.

“She’s telling Rey what she needs to hear, which is, “Stop trying to go home, it’s not right, it’s a waste. And that the belonging you seek is not behind you, it’s ahead.” And this is the thing that she can’t accept right now. The idea that she has anything to do with this man that she thought was a myth just this morning, and now here she is being told that his destiny is somehow tied into her choices and her actions. So, when Maz asks her to close her eyes and to feel it and to let it in, she’s not just setting up the moment at the end, when Rey is battling Kylo Ren, but she’s also telling her to stop looking and stop trying to understand and just feel and it is that great lesson of the Force. But she can’t do it. She’s not ready. She can’t take it in.”

 The heroine finds a temporary home

    Now we jump ahead a bit here because stories are fluid and there is no one formula or beat for beat plot that matches a heroine's journey even though they do follow a direct path. Rey’s temporary home in the entire arc of this story is physically Ahch-To and metaphorically the Resistance. If the story ended completely with The Force Awakens, then her temporary home would have been the Falcon and even her friends Han, Chewie, and Finn. But we know this is a trilogy, and the pace of this journey will be slower. Think back to the Hero’s Journey which is integrated into this framework and note that Rey didn't even Accept the Call to Adventure until the end of The Force Awakens.

Theodora notes that the heroine may think she can stay in this temporary home, but she will eventually have to leave again. Snow White's home was with the dwarves who helped care for her. Sometimes in the temporary home, she finds her true partner, but not in the right form or at the right time. Examples Beauty finds Beast in her temporary home, but he is still the Beast, selfish cruel and unkind. Rapunzel meets her prince but loses him again. Cinderella enters the castle to go to the ball, meets her Prince, but it isn't the right time. She has to leave this temporary “home.”

Rey takes up residence on Ahch-To until she can convince Luke to return. Rey knows this is a temporary home because once she succeeds, they will leave. But what is more interesting than anything else and more telling is that Rey meets her true partner, but he is not in the right form nor is it at the right time.

Ultimately Rey loses Ben again. And I want to stress this again the metaphorical home she has with the Resistance still stands. We are in the middle chapter of the story. Rey left the temporary physical home only to still hold onto the Resistance as the temporary home. And before you try to come at me with pitchforks-- when I say the Resistance, I mean it as an organization, not Leia and Finn or Poe. Those people are her friends, but she is seeking shelter in this metaphorical temporary home because Rey does not know fully who she is yet. Yes, she's a Jedi, but what is her place in all this? Wage war on the FO as the mascot Jedi for the Resistance? Or is it to find the true meaning of the Force, and try to establish some sort of balance with Ben Solo. Remember Luke played this role of legendary Mascot and embraced it-- it led to failure, hubris and the creation of Kylo Ren. Rey’s story is so much bigger than your standard Jedi or weapon of the Resistance... sorry got a tiny bit sidetracked here but you get my point. 

The heroine finds friends and helpers.

Luke fills this role to a T albeit begrudgingly. The heroine finds them and enlists their aid by being kind to them and giving them what they need. Later on, they help her when she is forced to leave her temporary home.

Rey finds Luke and tries to enlists his help by telling him she won't fail he like Kylo Ren. Rey attempts to reassure Luke that she can do what Ben could not and at the same time pleads with him to help his sister, Leia. Luke does indeed help Rey after she flees Ahch-To by facing Ben on Crait. Giving her a chance to save her other friends (who have also helped her along the way Finn, Poe, Leia etc.) and what was left of the Resistance.

The heroine is tested.

    Heroines can go through agonizing periods of testing. Rey is tested in The Force Awakens when she fights Kylo Ren. She is tested on Han’s freighter when she has to figure out how to help Han escape the gangs. She is tested when she goes up against Kylo in the interrogation room.  Make no mistake about it,  Rey will still run through the test and trials all the way up to the end of Episode 9. So what were her trials or test in The Last Jedi? If you thought The Force Awakens was tough on her, The Last Jedi was downright brutal and with good reason.

Most of Rey’s tests are not physical in The Last Jedi like they were in The Force Awakens.

The first test is to convince Luke Skywalker to return- she fails.

She fails at her Force training (according to Luke) when she goes straight to the dark and doesn't even try to stop herself.

In the cave when she asks the mirror to see her parents. The cave reveals Rey's deepest fear- she is alone, her parents are gone. But this test in the cave does have its positives even though it devastates her. It is forcing her to confront the truth she already knows - They are dead, and they were nobody.

Rey faces her biggest test in The Last Jedi when she refuses Ben's hand. At this point, Rey has already seen a vision of Ben’s future. It moved her to tears and prompted her to seek him out against all odds. When Rey realizes, Ben isn't in his true form she has to reject him. She begs him to not go down the path. But again it's not the right time yet. This is the part of the fairy tale/heroines journey where she loses the Prince/Partner again.

Although this is heartbreaking for both her and Ben the test does have its positives. Rey finally accepts the truth about her past with Bens help albeit he was a little harsh. But he also makes Rey say it. He doesn't lead the conversation by saying they sold you for drinking money, then forces her to admit it to herself. He prompts her to say it FIRST, then he confirms what they did/or his interpretation of the events. Notice Rey does not correct him. Rey learns to let go, even if it does means she has to let him go too.

 The heroine dies.

    Attached to the test and trials (again according to Theodora Gross) is a journey into death. Persephone's journey into the Underworld, Snow White’s temporary death/ deep sleep in the glass coffin. Sleeping Beauty and her hundred year sleep.

    Rian does an excellent job showing us visually Rey’s death, during a time of testing. Rey ships herself into essentially Hell (Snoke represents the Devil) in an escape pod that looks like a coffin. Again visually this is stunning, it ties in Snow White’s death and Persephone’s journey into Hell. Also one could tie in Psyche’s descent into Hades. It all represents death.

    In Star Wars we see literal death and metaphorical death. Han Solo went under a Sleeping Beauty type death. The trope was subverted, and the Princess woke the sleeping “Prince” giving him a kiss at the time of his awakening. There are other “clues” that give a nod to Han Solo’s slumber and Reys metaphorical death. The escape pod also says Property of Han Solo. Rian specifically asked for it to be written on the coffin-shaped escape pod. You have to stop and ask yourself why? General Audience viewers are not going to know it says that or even see that anything is written on it so why bother? Because Rian is telling a more in-depth story here. Nothing he has done throughout this entire movie is without thought and purpose.

What is the purpose of the death of the heroine?  Well, let's think about what happened to cause Rey to run to the other side of the Galaxy-- and descend into the metaphorical underworld, to begin with. What was happening? Luke wasn't teaching her the way she thought he would. It was proving to be difficult especially once she learned the truth behind his self-imposed exile. Luke refused to get involved, his way was not working for her. Rey wanted to act.

According to because the Heroines Journey Project in this step, the new way of life is too limited.  Success in this new way of life is either temporary, illusory, shallow, or requires a betrayal of self over time.

Wouldnt be Rey be betraying everything she stands for (Hope) if she just stayed away like Luke wanted her to? To give in, to let Ben Solo’s fate remain on its current destructive course? That is not Rey, it isn't what she represents in Star Wars at all. The purpose of this metaphorical death is to shed away this ideology Luke had about himself and about the Jedi.  

 The heroine finds her true partner.

    We have not reached this point in the story. The Last Jedi ends with the heroines death (step 8). But we will get here in episode 9 and since there are only two steps left I say that is fitting for Rey’s overall arc.

    In this step the partner is in his true form, the beast has transformed into the Prince. Theadora notes that in fairytales it may not seem like much of a love story because most tales are told shorthand (the prince dances with the princess three times) But lucky for us Star Wars although forced to tell such a story shorthand has and can do it. The core to this step in the journey is that the heroine and the partner recognize each other.

   For Ben and Rey this could mean that they finally see each other clearly. Recognizing that the balance is not all Light or all Darkness. Or that both light and dark live in both of them. Perhaps they realize that both sides of the war are wrong and the only real way forward is through love and acceptance.

The heroine finds her true home

    Rey had to leave her initial home to find her place in the world. This could be with Ben, Finn, and the rest of the Resistance which she has coveted as a second family or perhaps will occur in Episode 9. In fairy tales, Belle can finally live with the Beast, and Cinderella can live in the castle with her Prince.

    There is usually a partner in these situations although it is possible to end the story without one. However, considering the heroine's journey, and the theme of Star Wars I believe we will get a happy ending for both Rey and Ben.

I’ll leave this quote from Theadora’s blog here.

“If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of the heroine finding her true partner (does she really need a man to be her partner?), you can think of it as a metaphor. The true partner is also the other side of herself, so the story shows us the integration of the feminine and masculine, human and animal, sides of the personality. I don’t know, really: I just know that the partner is usually there, that the heroine is eventually united to a prince. Perhaps it means that a union with the right other is one of the highest things we can achieve in this life, perhaps it’s about unity within the self. Either way, it seems to be part of the story.”

If you have read other meta on the Anima and Animus, you’ll understand that reference that I bolded above. Rey and Ben fit the Anima and Animus profile, I can’t express that enough. The theme of The Last Jedi throughout marketing was Balance. We have been given very blatant clues about the balance of the Prime Jedi First Order. The symbol on the floor of the temple was pretty close to a Yin and Yang symbol. We know that The Art of The Last Jedi had concepts of Rey seeing Kylo on the other side of the mirror in the Dark Side cave. Rey and Ben have been mirrors of each other since The Force Awakens. (I go into depth on Kylo/Ben’s mirror cave here). You can see it in their choreographed fighting at the end. They emotionally mirror each other (both are lonely, and were isolated). They are coded in dark and light clothing. Even when Ben speaks to Rey its as if he could be talking to himself in a mirror. This happens in both Episode 7 and 8.

The merging of the Anima and Animus is paramount to the end of a Heroine's Journey. Only then can they be complete. Rian has repeatedly stated (paraphrasing) They are both two sides of the same coin two halves of the protagonist. For Rey and Ben to not come together in balance at the end of Episode 9 would be odd, to say the least.

I've seen arguments that Ben has to die or endure some type of harm to be redeemed. But to that, I throw this line at them. “It isn't about fighting what we hate, it is saving what we love.” - Rose Tico

Sure, Ben will continue to suffer, as Rey will continue to go through trials but only until they recognize each other. I don’t think Ben has to be mortally wounded or die to gain redemption. Star Wars is about Love.

From a storytelling perspective, we’ve had a tragedy and redemption in death. Ending the Sequel trilogy (a heroine's journey) with redemption in death is repetitive and doesn't fit the structure. It is my own personal opinion that we will get happy ending with redemption in life.

[kyluxtrashpit]

Okay so this started as an addition to @sinningsquire‘s recent post and the subsequent discussion but then it kinda took on a life of its own and then it got REALLY STUPIDLY LONG so I’m going to avoid cluttering the notes and just put my ramble here on my own blog lmao. Anyone is free to disagree, this is just me being inspired by the discussion and adding some thoughts, but this is also how the characters come across to me and I’m unlikely to change my mind at this point. Also I’m putting it behind a cut, but if you’re on mobile, I am so fucking sorry omg. Go filter ‘long post’, refresh, and then you’ll be okay

So the thing about Kylo and Hux that I keep coming back to years into this ship is that they’re complimentary opposites, which I think this is another example of. While I am on team ‘Kylo is going to be bad at Supreme Leadering’, I don’t think that necessarily means he’s bad at all leadership and military-related things ever. Because he’s not, it’s just that what he’s good at vs what Hux is good at are different things and there’s more to Supreme Leadering than a military operation

(Opinions lie beyond here! Read at your own discretion!)

First, I will say I’m basing more of this on TFA’s considerations than TLJ’s because TLJ suffers from Good Guys Need To Win syndrome really badly and that was honestly my biggest complaint about it, even immediately after coming out of the theatre. This is far from a rare occurrence and many sw villains have been essentially neutered by this (e.g. Thrawn in Rebels; one of the greatest Imperial strategists sort of succeeding like once ever and otherwise being repeatedly outsmarted by a child for most of the series). Hux was the most obvious victim of it (tbh I don’t think Kylo was ooc at all in TLJ), but I also think Snoke got hit a little too. Basically RJ painted the Resistance into such a tight corner that the only way he could get them out was to make the FO, which had apparently just recently claimed a big victory, look like complete morons

Personally, I’ve headcanoned Hux being useless in TLJ as a result of his repressed post-Starkiller breakdown. He just lost his life’s work and his boss physically abused him in public over it at least once, so it adds up, for me. Thus most of this comes from TFA and the pre-TLJ novelizations. But anyways. I’ll say now if you’re hard on the useless Hux train, you’ll probably disagree with every point below here lmao

So the thing about Kylo is that he seems good at small-scale operations. Give him a single squadron or a small group (e.g. his Knights) and I think he can get the thing done effectively, provided his emotional state remains stable (which, with him, is a pretty big concern). As some pointed out in the notes on the post that inspired this, he does do alright on Takodana. The mistake he makes is in taking the unknown quantity that is Rey as opposed to the known quantity that is BB-8, though in his defence, there’s no way he could’ve known just how badly that would go. And perhaps he did so partially because the Resistance had arrived and he didn’t have time to find BB-8 before it got messy when she was right there, so I’ll give him that one. He does make some other strategic mistakes, such as in the snow fight when he makes the mistake of underestimating and toying with Finn, but perhaps we can chock that up to his emotional state, him actively bleeding out at the time, and the fact that everyone seems to underestimate Finn. Still, I think he’s largely successful at small-scale stuff, as long as he’s relatively calm (note: he is not calm nor successful for the entirety of TLJ, aside from killing Snoke, which he had help with in the form of a distraction , so I won’t really go into it. It is the most cunning we see from him in any piece of SW media, but it appears to me to be an outlying example. It’s also the only time he’s ever managed to succeed at something he set out to do, aside from killing Han, which was only emotionally difficult, not mechanically so. But anyways)

As an aside, I also don’t think the main argument of Kylo’s family is enough of a claim to show he’s a good leader. Some go so far as to suggest leadership is genetic by discussing Padme, Anakin (who was Not Great, but did succeed sometimes), etc. but that’s not a thing so I’m not going to. He could have studied them, and maybe he did, but it’s not ‘in his blood’. Leia may have exposed him to some politics, but it’s hard to say. Last Shot suggests he spent most of his time with Han when he was little and we don’t know how young he was when he went to Luke, where he would’ve seen nothing. He could’ve been sent away at 5-6 and never even seen the Senate, or Leia could’ve brought him to Senate meetings regularly so he could learn until he was sent away at 15 or something, but as of now, there’s no proof either way. I mention this because of its popularity, but I don’t personally find the argument convincing either way and I don’t believe we know enough to say for sure

Now Hux, Hux is good at large-scale operations. He’s in charge of the Stormtrooper program, which he adapted from previous methods and has had exactly one aberration slip through the cracks ever. He commands the Finalizer and was chosen to work at the same level as Snoke’s personal apprentice, the two of them sharing second-in-command to Snoke (who appears to do fuck all). He’s also in charge of Starkiller and though there is some debate as to how involved he was with it, he certainly oversaw its construction and usage. Lastly, he also oversees the FO’s entire suite of technological advancement projects, according to TLJ. So Hux already has a lot on his plate that he’s managing and appears to be doing at least reasonably well at these things. Hux can command and organize and I don’t think anyone can dispute that

In terms of flaws, he fails to stop Finn and Poe from escaping partially because Poe is That Good and partially because he overcomplicates it, which tends to be the flaw of all big-picture thinkers (also, some luck on their side, considering they both survived the crash. iirc Poe didn’t in the original script, but Oscar asked JJ to please not make him die this time. So perhaps a bit of Good Guys Need To Win too). Small-scale fucks him up because he makes mountains out of molehills and that’s where he’s weakest, as seen also when Poe comes in with a single ship in TLJ, with the chase of the Raddus, etc. He’s capable of running large-scale operations, as I mentioned above, and while there’s debate on whether or not he’s a good strategist, I tend to lean towards ‘a bit above average’ for no other reason than it feels right to me, but there isn’t really any definitive evidence either way. He is also arguably the least responsible for Starkiller’s destruction; yes, there was a weak point, but it was shielded well and unavoidable to have. Phasma lowering the shields and Kylo not finding the explosives due to family problems are both more responsible than he is, imo

(Hux’s other fatal flaw is his underestimation and low opinion of the Force, which will most likely be what kills him regardless of how things play out, but that’s not terribly relevant to this discussion so)

So, with all that in mind: Supreme Leadering. What does that actually entail? Well, it is large-scale, which gives Hux the advantage based on my arguments, and even if we accept he is completely useless at strategy, there’s just so much more to it than that. The Order is now in control of the galaxy at large and needs to manage it, something Snoke most likely would have delegated based on what little we know of him. There’s making and maintaining trade routes, there’s managing supply lines, there’s bureaucracy, there’s the prioritizing of projects, there’s lawmaking, there’s the managing of staff, citizens, etc. This is essentially nation building we’re talking about here, except on a galactic scale. It’s complex, it’s tedious, and it is a massive undertaking, the kind of thing that Hux seems like the type to masturbate thinking about, given how he appears to thrive when taking care of large projects and also his power fantasies

And when it comes to Kylo? The thing is is that even if he could do it well, even if he could look at the big picture and effectively manage people and all of it, I don’t think he cares to

So not only do I think Kylo is ill-suited to something that large, as I originally discussed, I more importantly think he would hate it. Kylo hating paperwork may be fanon, to my knowledge, but it’s one of those things that no one ever really contests because it fits his character. Kylo is not patient. Kylo does not care about the bigger picture. Kylo is self-centered, as in he is focused only on his own interests, not those of anyone around him, even within an organization he claims to support. “Personal interests”, anyone?

In the TFA novel, it’s noted that Hux refrains from yelling at his staff even when he wants to because he knows it will only stress them out and make them sloppy. Kylo is known to violently attack those under him when he’s upset. So even if Kylo has the troops’ fear, Hux has their loyalty (the TLJ novel disagrees with some of this, most notably concerning the older Imperials, but tbh I doubt JJ is taking that anywhere so I’m ignoring it for now. They’re relics of a dying age, anyways. If I end up being wrong, though, I will adjust haha). Pablo Hidalgo explained on his now-defunct twitter, when asked why Kylo didn’t just rip the location of the Resistance base from Poe’s mind, that the reasoning is that he only wanted the map; the Resistance was Hux’s problem. This is in spite of the fact that the Resistance is the FO’s problem in general and Kylo is not only part of the FO, but a high-ranking member. There is also the failure on Crait, which was legitimately embarrassing, and while, yes, that was largely due to his emotional state, Kylo is in a state of emotional crisis for most of his screentime. So, not exactly a great defending argument. I also strongly suspect that will be a continuing trend with him until his inevitable death and/or redemption

These are not signs of a good leader. I also can’t see Kylo suddenly being interested in building a government, even if he could do it. Because he’s going to be focused on getting revenge on Rey for rejecting him, eliminating any fledgling Jedi Order she may or may not be attempting to make, and possibly a plot with his mother. Kylo’s motives have not and do not align with building a nation and at no point does he even seem to care about that in any capacity that involves actually doing something about it

So. This got really long but the main points here are that Supreme Leadering and military strategy are different skills, Hux and Kylo are good at different things (large-scale vs small-scale), and that even if Kylo could Supreme Leader effectively, he most likely doesn’t care to meanwhile Hux seems like he’d actually be pretty good at it (and, even if you think he wouldn’t be, at least he gives a fuck). So uh, yeah. There’s my significantly more than 2 cents and if you actually read this whole thing, then applause for you because it’s longer than the last fic I posted XD

[sushigirlali]

I Spy (Reylo MiniFic)

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or anything that relates to Star Wars.

Rating: T

Continuity: Post TLJ

AN: This mini fic omg nvm this got super long one-shot is dedicated to @luminoustunes and @reyl-hoe for their great Saboteur!Kylo exchange 💙❤️ You can find my multi-chapter Reylo fanfics and one-shots on my blog, ff.net, or AO3.

Master list –> sushigirlali’s Reylo fanfiction 

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I Spy By: sushigirlali

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Ben wiped the sweat from his brow, peering around the next corner carefully. With the exception of two service droids, the corridor was clear. Taking a deep breath, he moved into the long hallway, skimming close to the wall as he approached the hanger bay.

With the latest attack against the Resistance ending in disaster for the First Order, Hux would finally have confirmation of Ben’s interference. Knowing that he had limited time to escape the Absolution before Hux tracked him down and had him executed for treason, Ben was making a break for his shuttle.

Coming up to the control room where the flow of traffic in and out of the Star Destroyer was managed, Ben listened at the door intently. Only sensing one person in the room, he quickly darted inside and took control of the young lieutenant’s mind.

“You will release the landing clamps on my command shuttle and approve it for immediate takeoff.” Ben ordered smoothly, holding out an authoritative hand.

“Yes, sir.” His former subordinate said stiffly, bound by the compulsion laced in Ben’s statement.

“Ready my starfighter as well.” Ben added for good measure. It was always better to have a backup. “And disengage the tractor beam and shield gate while you’re at it.”

“Yes, sir.” He said again.

Ben watched the officer do his bidding for what felt like an eternity, monitoring for activity in the vicinity in the meantime. Sighing in relief once every security measure had been disengaged, Ben knew that if he could just get to one of his ships, he would be home free.

“Sorry about this.” Ben muttered, waving a hand over the lieutenant’s head so that he slumped into a dreamless sleep. “But I can’t have you alerting anyone after I leave.”

Cracking the door open again, Ben slipped back into the empty hallway and continued toward the hanger. Stopping to the left of the open blast doors, he covertly surveyed the area. The command shuttle was stationed directly across from him in the officer’s wing, untethered and ready for him to pilot, while his TIE silencer was a bit further along with the other starfighters.

Although there were fewer people on this side of the platform, he would still have to cross in front of a fair number of stormtroopers and dock workers to board the shuttle. It would be near impossible to control that many people at once, but Ben had little choice but to go for it.

Hux must have been informed about his betrayal by now, and the lack of alarm was telling. The General had always believed he was smarter than Ben, and was no doubt forming some convoluted plan to capture him instead of just issuing a ship-wide warrant for his arrest.

Ben thought of Rey then, desperate to see her again in case his plan went wrong, but knowing he didn’t have the time. The stormtroopers stationed near the officer’s vessels would be changing shift soon, giving him a small window of time to cross the hanger bay relatively unnoticed.

If he didn’t make it out alive, he hoped she would find out what he had done for her and the Resistance one day. Since taking over as Supreme Leader, Ben had been able to scrap or sabotage every mission the First Order had launched against the rebels, stalling all efforts to track down the woman accused of killing Snoke.

Regretting his hasty words that fateful day on the Supremacy, Ben had been doing his best to protect the woman he loved ever since. Unfortunately, he had showed his hand today when a First Order scout ship literally tripped over the Millennium Falcon while refueling at the Garang Spaceport on the remote planet of Dantooine.

To protect his father’s ship, which likely housed both Rey and his mother, Ben had ordered the starship to stand down. But when the captain belligerently refused to give up her tactical advantage over the Resistance’s flagship, Ben used his access as Supreme Leader to remotely activate the scout ship’s self-destruct system, blasting the vessel clear out of the sky before it could get a shot off.

Having blown his cover in front of the entire bridge crew of the Absolution, Ben knew there was no going back now; his reign as Supreme Leader of the First Order was over.

As the stormtroopers left their posts, Ben forced himself to focus on the task at hand, dashing toward the command shuttle. He made quick work of the distance between him and freedom, but just as he reached up to lower the entrance ramp, Hux’s insufferable voice sounded behind him.

“Going somewhere, Supreme Leader Ren?” Hux asked nastily.

The thundering of boots filled Ben’s ears as an entire regiment of soldiers filed into the docking bay, armed to the teeth with blaster rifles and riot control batons. He could sense their hostility toward him, their thirst for his blood, and knew that Hux must have briefed them about his traitorous actions. It had been a mistake to allow the General so much control over the stormtrooper training program, he realized now.

Ben turned to face his enemy, smirking despite the dire situation. If he had to go down fighting, he was taking Hux with him.

“This is the end, Ren.” Hux’s eyes narrowed, unnerved by Ben’s lack of fear. “There’s nowhere left to run, nowhere left to hide.”

“Who’s hiding?” Ben asked sardonically. “Call off your war dogs and we can settle this once and for all.”

“And why would I do that?” Hux replied snidely. “I have an army! They can destroy you for me!”

“Are you really so weak that you would risk the lives of your men instead of facing me yourself?” Ben taunted.

The soldiers shifted uncomfortably at his words, and Ben could tell that Hux was measuring his next statement carefully.

“Tell me, Ren, who really assassinated Supreme Leader Snoke, hmm? Certainly not that desert rat pretending to be a Jedi.” Hux skillfully changed the subject. “Still, she’ll have to be punished for her interference.”

“Leave her out of this!” Ben growled, taking a threatening step forward. “Rey is innocent!”

“So you admit it, then? You admit to murdering our exulted leader?” Hux pressed.

But Ben refused to answer, to give Hux the satisfaction of prying a confession out of him. Unsheathing his crossguard lightsaber, Ben switched it on aggressively.

“Enough talk.” Ben sneered. “Let’s fight.”

Hux hurriedly stepped out of reach, motioning for his men to come forward. Two burly stormtroopers advanced in response, brandishing riot control batons capable of resisting the plasma blade of his lightsaber.

Ben let them come to him, knowing that his superior strength and skill would more than make up for the meager protection their non-lethal weapons offered. Stretching out his senses, he anticipated the first strike of baton against lightsaber, dodging out of the way at the last minute and splitting his enemy’s armor down the back.

As his first foe fell to the ground, the second charged forward with a bellow, swinging wildly. Ben parried the clumsy strokes, bringing his lightsaber down hard on the baton. Electricity crackled between the combatants, but Ben didn’t flinch, pressing his advantage as the stormtrooper lost his balance.

Pulling his crossguard back, he snapped it forward again, smoothly running his opponent through. Placing a large foot on the man’s torso as he slumped, Ben kicked him backward into the crowd.  Straightening up, Ben resumed a defensive position, ready for more.

“Kill him!” Hux shouted, looking fearful as his men hesitated. “Someone kill him!”

A third stormtrooper lunged at Ben, knocking him backward with the force of his attack. Ben surged against his adversary, locking their weapons together. Hux’s latest champion seemed better trained than the riffraff he had dispatched just moments ago, and Ben struggled to get the upper hand this time.

A sudden shift in the Force distracted Ben for a split second, allowing the stormtrooper to push him back a few paces. Readjusting his grip, Ben shifted slightly under the weight of his opponent’s weapon, peering through the unguarded shield gate to receive the shock of his life: Rey piloting Luke’s X-wing, hovering just outside the entrance of the hanger bay.

“Rey!” He exclaimed through their bond, momentarily forgetting about the stormtrooper bearing down on him.

“Ben, watch out!” Rey warned as a fourth soldier struck at his back.

Sidestepping him on instinct, Ben was barely aware of his two assailants crashing into each other, landing sprawled on the floor at Hux’s feet.

“You’re here.” He said in awe, eyes fixed on the cockpit.

“Of course I am.” Rey said warmly. “After what you did on Dantooine, I knew you would be in trouble.”

“How did you find me?” Ben wondered.

“The Force led me to you.” She whispered gently in his mind.

“Rey, I’m—” Ben tried.

“Ben, I need you to move now.” Rey interrupted him. “Take cover behind your shuttle and I’ll clear the deck.”

“Rey, wait!” He shouted, surprising the garrison around him.

But she had already zoomed through the gate, opening fire on the stormtroopers surrounding him. Pushing a group of stunned soldiers out of his way, Ben closed his lightsaber and ducked behind the left side of his command ship.

Recovering from his momentary shock at Rey’s entrance, Hux ordered his men to open fire on the X-wing. Rey rolled to avoid the oncoming stream of blaster riffle fire, flying out the open shield gate before making a hair pin turn and charging back into the fray.

After catching his breath for a moment, Ben reignited his crossguard and dashed out to help, stealthily taking out enemy after enemy as Rey provided cover. When the turrets stationed on the far side of the deck suddenly opened fire, Rey changed course once again, swerving to deal with the heavier artillery.

“Are you okay?” Ben asked unnecessarily, cutting his way across the room.

“Doing great.” Rey responded distractedly as she blasted the turrets to pieces with a well-placed proton torpedo. “You?”

“Never better.” He panted, swinging his lightsaber with everything he had. “Now that you’re here.” Ben could see her smile as if she was standing right next to him, giving him the strength to finish off the last of the ground troops pressing in on him.

Within a matter of minutes, Rey had completely decimated the enemy forces on the far side of the docking bay and crippled their starfighters to prevent retaliation.

Running forward as she swung the X-wing around to land on an empty platform in the middle of the hanger, Ben caught her easily as she jumped over the side of her ship and into his awaiting arms. Rey immediately wrapped herself around him, hugging him tightly.

“I was so afraid when the First Order ship blew up at Garang.” Rey confessed in a rush, pressing her cheek against his. She seemed unable to get close enough, not that Ben minded.

“I’m sorry, Rey, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He apologized. “I ordered the captain to stand down, but she refused. I had to make a split-second decision in order to protect you.”

“No, you misunderstand me, Ben.” Rey pulled back to cup his face in her small hands. “I was scared because I knew Hux would want your head for it, not because of the explosion.”

Hearing that she was afraid for him rather than of him was almost Ben’s undoing. “Rey.” He whispered achingly, touching his forehead to hers.

“You saved the Resistance, Ben.” Rey told him as she lovingly stroked the long scar marking his pale cheek. “We were on Dantooine to negotiate for supplies, so all of the officers were aboard the Falcon, including your mother. If not for you, the galaxy would have lost its last hope.”

“Rey, you give me too much credit.” Ben groaned, leaning into her touch. “You must know... surely, you must know it was all for you.”

Rey leaned forward, kissing his trembling lips gently. “I know, Ben.” She murmured tearfully. “I know.”

Ben swept her up against him, putting all the longing and loneliness he had felt while they were apart into one searing kiss. She responded in kind, tangling her slim fingers in his raven locks and tugging him as close as possible. Ben could feel her love, like a bright ray of light, filling up his being until he wasn’t sure where he began, and she ended.

But an abrupt disturbance in the Force shocked them back to reality. Still holding onto each other, they turned as one, both throwing out a hand to prevent the bolt of plasma fired by General Hux from striking them. He was bloody and disheveled, his eyes bright with rage.

“Why won’t you just die, Ren?!” Hux screamed, firing his blaster again and again, only to have each shot cast off by the powerful Force-users in front of him.

Ben watched trepidatiously as fire rose behind the General, inching toward their position as it consumed specks of fuel and fragments of debris along the way. As soon as the fire reached the coaxium reserves stored on the other side of the dock, he knew the Star Destroyer would be toast.

“We’re going now. If you want to live, don’t try to stop us.” Ben said firmly, shifting Rey towards the X-wing. “And my name is Ben Solo. If you make it out of this, remember that.”

“No! You can’t get away! I won’t let—ahh!!” Hux yelled as his cloak caught fire, dropping his weapon to try and extinguish the flames.

Ben quickly scaled the side of Luke’s ship while their enemy was distracted, pulling Rey up with him. Settling her smaller body in his lap, they worked together to close the cockpit and engage the starfighter’s starting sequence in record time.

“We need as direct a route as possible to the Resistance, R2.” Rey told the droid as she turned on the beacon strapped to her wrist and brought up the navigation screen. “Yes, that will work. Finn has the other half of the binary beacon, so you can follow the signal.”

“Do they know I’m coming back with you?” Ben asked uncertainly.

“Yes, they do.” Rey said soothingly. “It’s going to be okay. Okay?”

“Okay. I trust you.” Ben replied solemnly.

Rey turned her face to place a kiss against his chin. “Are you ready to go home then?”

Ben titled her chin up to kiss her properly, savoring the balance she brought to his once torn soul. “R2?” He called to the astromech droid. “Punch it.”

-FIN-

[mnemehoshiko]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi [BULLETPOINT TRASH EDITION]

A  SPOILERS AND OPINIONS ABOUND AND POOR FORMATTING CHOICES

(with bonus citing of external canon sources mainly the visual dictionary leaks)

Short version: I FUCKING LOVED THIS MOVIE ON SO MANY LEVELS AND IASDFSDFDASFASDSFDSFDSFSSAFDSADFSDF

Long version:

I enjoyed TFA. But it was very much a safe remake movie because JJ can literally only do remakes and monster movies. I’m also still bitter over Into Darkness BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT YOU’RE HERE FOR SO I’M GONNA MOVE ON.

I really enjoyed Rogue One. It broke new ground etc etc but it had the freedom to do that because it wasn’t dependent on anything ultra important.

TLJ had the awkward positioning of figuring out how to move the main story forward in new and interesting ways AND not remake ESB. And I’m going to be super honest, I was 20% certain they were going to go Rey Skywalker??? Mainly because fanboys are amazingly uncreative but also because it would be a very safe way to go. Ohhhhh, of course Rey has the force. It’s because she’s of the Skywalker bloodline. ALL MAKES SENSE IN THE WORLD AGAIN.

As soon as Luke tossed that saber off the cliff, I knew that all my expectations were going to be subverted. AND IT WAS AMAZING!!!!

AND ON THE TOPIC OF LUKE, there seems to be two camps the

HELL YEAH LUKE SKYWALKER camp or the

OMG RIAN YOU RUINED STAR WARS AND LUKE ANDFS@#EWREWRWE camp, to which I’m like

so like did you watch the Original Trilogy my dudes?

No really did you watch the “OMG SHE’S PRETTY WE TOTALLY NEED TO RESCUE HER!!”

the “WELP BRB HEADING TO DAGOBAH WITH NO WARNING BECAUSE REASONS!!!!”

“NO WAIT MY FRIENDS NEED MY HELP SORRY GOTTA GO”

“BRB I JUST GOT MY WORLD VIEW TRAUMATIZED AND I NEED TO FALL IN THE ABYSS LIKE AN EXTRA (TM) BITCH”

“OH HEY I’M GONNA FIGHT MY DAD IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT I HAVE NO TRAINING WHATSOEVER BECAUSE YOLOOOOOOOOO”

like Luke Skywalker lives on impulse 

much like his father

like according to the visual dictionary, Leia was supposed to be his first student and she like said no due to like politics and family stuff

but lbr she probably looked at Luke YOLO Skywalker and was like....yeah no my dude you are a messssss

never be the first grad student

also like IF REYSKY was a thing

you’re basically saying 

YES I WANT MY HERO LUKE SKYWALKER

TO DROP A KID OF A SANDY WASTELAND THAT EVEN HE BELIEVES IS NOWHERE

which like my dude, he’s from Tatooine and if he’s saying Jakku is nowhere. then like that place is like purgatory

like I STRONGLY BELIEVE if like Rey was his kid he AT LEAST would have dropped her 

somewhere with reliable foster parents

and like water

LOTS OF WATER

OKAY I’M DONE RANTING ABOUT THIS

ANYWAY like I can totally believe with like Luke seeing the #darkness + probably Snoke’s influence in his head his immediate response was OMG WE GOTTA KILL IT and then went...oh wait this....is not a chill idea maybe we should talk shit out first/meditate etc

and like IMMEDIATE REGRET AFTERWARDS

honestly this is like textbook Male Skywalker bullshit 101

I HAVE DONE A THING!!!  i regret everything now

THIS IS A HORRIBLE SEGUE BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY AVENGING SPACE ANGEL LEIA ORGANA!!!!!

*CRIES A LOT*

RIAN JUST LOVES LEIA AND CARRIE SO MUCH

*UGLY SOBBING*

LEIA USED THE FORCE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

EAT IT FANBOYS!!!

FUCKING IT!!!

LIKE I KNEW BUT LIKE PURE PROOF IN FUCKING CANON

LEIA! IS! FUCKING! FORCE! SENSITIVE!!!!!

also i’m 99% certain Luke didn’t teach it her that trick so like my homegirl literally DID THAT

i just love leia so fukcing much and yes okay the cgi was kind of wonky BUT I DON’T GIVE A FUCK BECAUSE MY GENEARAL/PRINCESS JUST USED THE FORCE LIKE A BOSS THAT SHE IS

Also i just love Leia so much in this

like That Shot on Crait with her eyes over the collar is like 

POETIC CINEMA

no really someone hook a girl up and give me that shot as a lock screen

Also that scene post mutiny showing up in a 3000-thread count couture bathrobe, a matching cane, and blaster? #AESTHETIC

also personal opinion but Billie Lourd in that scene wasn’t acting as much as oh god i’m in trouble face that all children go through

**MORE UGLY SOBBING*

OKAY LETS TALK ABOUT POE ONLY BECAUSE IT’S MY BLOG AND I DO WANT I WANT

*steps on step stool*

I DID NOT CARE ABOUT POE DAMERON IN TFA BECAUSE IT WAS SUPER OBVIOUS THAT HE WAS GOING TO DIE AND ONLY GOT TO LIVE BECAUSE OSCAR ASKED JJ TO LIVE AND OSCAR ISAAC IS PRETTY BUT LIKE THAT’S ALL I GOT OUT OF THE MOVIE.

*climbs off soapbox* Poe in this film GAINED SOME DEPTH, sadly it seems to be very polarizing and I think that’s in part due to the fact that it’s pulling on backstory from the EU, primarily Shattered Empire and the Poe Dameron Comics. Shattered Empire doesn’t directly include Poe but it involves his parents, Shara Bey and Kes Dameron. His mom, Shara, went on a mission with Leia and some others for some reason I can’t remember BUT ANYWAY SHE’S A BOSS. A HERO OF THE REBELLION. Poe literally grew up around heroes. One of his squad mates in Poe Dameron is another hero from the rebellion. He has a very wide-eyed view on the concept of heroism? For him it’s daring deeds and important war-changing missions, he’s very much a soldier and not at a leader. At least not yet. You get this immediately from the fight scene with First Order and the bombing run and the aftermath of it. 

Poe sees what’s in front of him which is a destroyed Star Destroyer (?), Leia sees the whole picture which is a single ship destroyed at the cost of a significant part of their fleet. Yes, there were heroes but a resistance can’t survive on dead heroes.

You see this again in his willingness to go after the high-risk plan to somehow hack the main ship to get them to stop tracking them. He’s thinking YES THIS IS THE BOLD PLAN MISSION OF MY DREAMS!!! Except it fails, and yes I completely understand that this could have been avoid with like communication but to embark on communication? You need to let go of your ego. Ego is not a BAD THING, but sometimes it can prevent us from being our best self. The best leader we can be. And Poe does learn this as you can see with Leia passing the baton of leadership to Poe on Crait. As Poe realizes that a dramatic last stand isn’t worth the loss. It’s better to run to let the rebellion live than to die in a burst of glory. Those are the hard choices a leader has to make.

OKAY MOVING ON BECAUSE I SUCK AT TRANSITIONS, LETS TALK ABOUT ONE OF MY SONS, FINN TICO

I LOVE MY SON AND HIS TRANSITION FROM BEING A MERE FIRST ORDER DEFECTOR TO A MEMBER OF THE REBELLION !!!!!!! First I loved the fact that his characterization followed naturally from TFA which TO RECAP consisted of:

 realizing that the First Order is a horrible idea; 

getting the fuck out via some convenient pilot dude who (supposedly) dies; 

meeting a girl who STRAIGHT UP ATTACKS HIM under the hearsay of a droid

realizing she’s the BEST THING SINCE TROOPER RATIONS and attempting to flirt because running away from a organization is best done in at least a pair

getting caught up in Resistance nonsense you are 1000% Not Here for because YOU KNOW THE FIRST ORDER and you know losing odds

aforementioned Girl is taken by the First Order and you’re like WELP GUESS I GOTTA TEMPORARILY JOIN this horrible idea to save girl

Tries to save girl but gets knocked out

END OF MOVIE

TLJ PICKS UP immediately after this in which his first and only thought is FIND REY AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS NONSENSE. THIS IS NOT WORTH DYING FOR Y’ALL ARE CRAZY. Which lets be real, you’re dealing with an organization.....that can destroy an entire space system that you have personal experience with. You’ve just been attacked by the First Order, the Resistance is worse off than they were BEFORE YOU WENT TO (attempt) SAVE REY. Finn’s main priority is WELP THIS IS A LOSING CAUSE GONNA GET MY FRIEND AND BOUNCE BECAUSE I DON’T WANT HER TO DIE.

Then it hit’s him like a shock. Figuratively and literally because Rose shows up.

BEFORE I TALK ABOUT ROSE I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT PAIGE ALSO KNOWN AS i was pretty sure she was gonna die but it felt natural-ish and I also know need to buy Cobalt Squadron for like TICO SISTER FEELS. But during that bombing run you immediately got the sense of

what she was doing was already extremely risky

YOU’RE IN SHIP FULL OF BOMBS

and that her last moments were of someone incredibly important to her

and like eventually TO ALL OF US AND MEEEE

I’m going to be honest and say that this plot was probably the weakest for the audience and for me. I understood what they were trying to cover but I feel some sections got cut for the final version.

BUT BACK TO CHARACTERS, FINN!!!!

had to deal with the struggle of moving past Rey as his sole guiding focus of his story?

Also people are like OMG WHY IS HE SO WIDE EYED ON CANTO BIGHT?!?! THAT’S OOC!!!

and i’m like my dudes

he’s never been outside of the pod of stormtroopers like EVER

HE’S FROM A LIFE OF MONOCHROME AND NOW INFUSED IN A LIFE OF COLOR

Finn: OMG THIS PLACE IS AWESOME Rose: this place is trash and I’m gonna fight it

Also can I give a shout out to that section where he’s explaining the plan to Poe and like Rose is like AHEM I’M HAPPY TO HAVE A FELLOW NERD BUT ALSO I CAN TALK!!!!

Poe on the otherhand is like....ah yes...cute nerds are talking....OH WE CAN BLOW SOMETHING UP FOR FREEDOM!!! YES SOUNDS GREAT!!!

Also his interactions with DJ are essentially him seeing a potential future for himself

and like trash meta moment, unlike Kylo “I Make Poor Life Choices” Ren, he makes the decision to reject that future for himself.

Like Finn’s arc in this movie I would argue is to stop being a passive observer in the narrative and to start CLAIMING his space in the narrative that is Star Wars

like FANON!Finn is very much the Resistance automatically accepting him and him become The Dude in The Resistance

this movie ACTUALLY DID THE CHARACTER WORK for him to become a leader in the Resistance

Look I really love Finn and he finally got the character development he deservessssss

MOVING ON TO MY NEWEST DAUGHTER!!!!

ROSE!!! TICO!!! BEST DAUGHTER!! GOOD DAUGHTER!!! MY SMOL ENGINEER!!

Okay, first off. I will like forever and ever be thankful to Rian for casting Kelly Marie Tran SO JOT THAT SHIT DOWN

BUT MNEME SHE ABUSED--

finish that sentence and i will unhinge my maw to consume your filthy soul

AHEM, I mean you’re entitled to your opinions

which are wrong

SERIOUSLY THO, every time someone goes “Rose straight-up shocked a black boy till he passed out!!!!!” I’m like

okay one, he’s canonically 23 years  old

like as a black woman and one with a little brother I’m very cognizant of the impact of black violence in media and the constant view of black boys as adults

but also HE’S 23

two, Rey straight up clobbered him under the hearsay of BB-8 saying that “oh that dude has my dad’s jacket” compared to Rose catching him escaping via escape pods after catching 2/3 people doing the same thing earlier that day + losing her only living family

like if this is the hill you want to die on!?!?!?!?

I JUST REALLY ROSE BECAUSE SHE’S THE ENGINEER TAKE NO SHIT DISNEY PRINCESS OF MY COLD DEAD HEART SPACE

I just she’s so quick and smart but  get put into the ANTI-SOCIAL ASSHOLE BOX???

like yes she’s very good and detailed at her job

She also wants to fight everyone

like if i wrote an academia au (but Mneme you do---) she would be like the HELLO CLASS THIS IS OUR EXAM ALSO BONUS POINTS IF YOU GO ON A FIELD TRIP WITH ME ^_^

Student: Dr. Tico, that field is a protest.

Dr. Tico: I HAVE SIGNS AND HANDCUFFS!!!!

I just really loved her arc on Canto Bight and her care for the little people and also the emphasis it’s not the wide dramatic actions that make the resistance but the people that make it thrive.

“We win by saving what we love.”

Mneme that kiss was sexless--

THE GIRL JUST KNOCKED A SHIP OUT OF THE WAY OF A CANNON, GIVE THE GIRL A BREAK

She’s be more than down to climb him like a tree later.

OKAY WHILE WE’RE STILL DEALING WITH THE RESISTANCE

I UNDERSTAND WHY ADMIRAL AMILYN HOLDO DIED AND THE SHOT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND ELEGANT AND JUST 

#POETIC CINEMA

but also *UGLY SOBBING*

so like yes I understand that this probably could have been solved via OPEN COMMUNICATION but

Poe has literally just been demoted for flyboy antics

Poe initial interaction with Admiral Holdo consists of “soooo do you understand the situation” in front of a bunch of upper level brass

like maybe if he was like HEY HOW CAN I HELP it would have been better but he literally goes

HI ADMIRAL PLEASE LET EXPLAIN YOUR JOB AFTER I JUST MANAGED TO GET A HUGE CHUNK OF THE FLEET DEMOLISHED

cue Oscar Isaac’s prettiness

so like I understand but also I DISAGREE

also when Amilyn talks to Leia when Poe is like being carted onto the transport saying “I like him!” I’m 99% certain it was implied that she was also down to bang

actually knowing what I know from Leia, Princess of Alderaan

she’s TOTALLY DOWN TO BANG

OKAY LETS FINISH UP THIS NONSENSE WITH REMAINING TWO CHARAS ALSO KNOWN AS THIS IS A BIASED REVIEW AND IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU-KNOW-WHO YOU CAN LIKE STOP HERE AND GO

......

.....

....

*looks around* okay they’re gone?

*TAKES  OUT MIC*

FIRST THING FIRST, I HAVE BEEN REY NO ONE SINCE FOREVER AND NOW I AM VALIDATED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD~~~~

It also follows from what Maz said in TFA, “you know they aren’t coming back.” This movie is Rey coming to terms with the failure that her parents inflicted on her, abandonment, and realizing that she doesn’t need some grand legacy to save the galaxy. Being herself is enough, and that’s so so beautiful to meeeeeeeeeeeeee. *weeps*

#POETIC CINEMA

SECOND, KYLO’S ARC WAS GEARED TOWARDS MEEEEEE!!! THANK YOU FOR VALIDATING ALL THE CHARACTER SHIT I HAVE BEEN SAYING ABOUT KYLO REN SINCE TFA THAT I THOUGHT WAS FUCKING OBVIOUS!!!!!!

Them: KYLE RON WAS TOTALLY DOWN TO KILL HAN AND UNREMORSEFUL. Me: ???? did we watch the same movie??

did you like look at the lighting in that scene???

the facial expressions??

LITERALLY EVERYTHING BEFORE THAT SCENE ABOUT BEING SEDUCED BY THE LIGHT?!!?!?

Kylo himself in TLJ: i didn’t hate him

THIS CONFLICT, THIS UNBALANCEDNESS CONTINUES THROUGH OUT THE FILM!?!? Also, I’m going to be hella honest 

pre-TLJ: Renperor is such a horrible trope because Kylo Ren is a disaster human being who has no business and no interest (see Bloodline) in ruling??? LIKE YOU ARE ASSIGNING COMPETENCE TO MY SON WHERE THERE IS NONE

post-TLJ: alright, I can Work With This and I’m 99% certain he is going to be ousted because the FO is like who is this human disaster with the political savvy of a blunt post 

like any credibility was lost as soon as he decided to have force tantrum when Luke showed up

and the SHOOT THAT SHIP OUT OF THE SKY!!!! moment

like my son leads wears his trash heart on his sleeve and EVERYONE KNOWS IT

honestly the fact that he managed to lie about killing Snoke is a miracle

but this CANON!renperor 

this Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, which i am like laugh my ass of over, is not some triumphant Dark Fuck Prince??

He’s broken man who has thrown so so much into rejecting the light, becoming the monster that his uncle he feared he would become and realized that he done fucked up. 

He tells Rey, Let the past die, kill it if you have to.

LITERALLY CANNOT LET THE PAST DIE

does copy his namesakes dramatic robe dropping so like there’s that

Also pre-TLJ: meh there’s a 50/50 chance he’s a virgin but lol it will never but touched on in canon

Post-TLJ: oh god he’s a virgin i will fight you on thissss

AND NOW BECAUSE I AM THAT PERSON REY AND KYLO’S OVERLAPPING ARCS

*SCREAMS* FORCE BOND FORCE BOND FORCE BOND

oh did i mention FORCE BOND!?!?!?!?!

Okay yes Snoke helped it along but like THAT LAST SCENE WITH THE DICE AND KYLO LOOKING UP AND SEEING REY

Snoke is dead bitches

what is it

it’s the Force

it was so good to meee

Honestly that face was peak “I’m disappointed but not surprised, I left all your shit on the porch. *SLAMS DOOR IN FACE*”

Like THE INTIMACY OF THOSE FORCE BOND SCENES

and like the evolution and like ASDFDSFSDAFDS

this was so good to me y’all

so good

no really i like never rec meta but like this *kisses fingers* http://corseque.tumblr.com/post/168629533017 good shit 

THAT REGENCY TRASH PROPOSAL OF FAILURE

so good

so awful

congrats Kylo, you’ve surpassed your granddad in poor wooing skills

Like literally I can see Anakin standing next to him Force Ghost!Stylez and is just like appalled

so appalled

okay i’m done I’m going to think about star wars and start throwing all my money at the EU YET AGAIN

[brentwatchesmovies]

Top 10 Movies of 2017

Another year is behind us, so that means it’s time for everyone’s ‘my favorite ________ of 2017’ lists. This year, I’m folding to peer pressure and changing the ‘top 8’ favorite movies to ‘top 10’ because honestly, there were too many awesome movies and I originally only did it because that’s how Tarantino narrowed his picks and I wanted to seem cool or something. (On a quick related note, I can’t believe this is my 8th year of doing one of these dumb things. Crazy.) On a personal level, 2017 has been a wild year for me. I got married to my best friend, started a much better and satisfying job, and found out we’re going to be parents this year. It’s going to be an incredibly busy and life-changing 2018, and I can’t wait for it.

In terms of the past year in cinema, it’s been amazing as well. I wanted to see as many movies as I could before finalizing my favorites, and was pretty successful, with a few exceptions. I wasn’t able to see Phantom Thread, The Post, The Florida Project, The Emoji Movie or Coco, to name a few (not seeing the new PTA and Spielberg movies before writing this KILLS me). A lot of the choices on my list might be predictable, especially if you follow me on Twitter, or read movie sites/blogs. Twitter has kind of taken over my actually writing posts for this blog anymore, and maybe one day I’ll get better at coming back here and putting thoughts down (probably not though). Like I’ve said in previous years, these really don’t have a ranking, unless I specify it’s my ‘favorite’ over the others. This is a 100% subjective list, based on an incomplete sampling. The movies listed below either moved me in a huge way, were a complete blast, and/or stayed with me long after I saw them. That’s enough preamble though, let’s get to my favorites of 2017!

In my eyes, this whole reboot-prequel-whatever trilogy is a cinematic miracle. This series, on it’s surface is a very campy, B-movie concept. What Rupert Wyatt and now Matt Reeves have done here is a staggering directorial achievement. This entry further fleshes out the already relatable and complex characters, and continues to add emotional depth that the originals could never even touch. In my eyes, this is what makes this the best movie trilogy since The Lord of the Rings. War Apes (what I find to be the best shorthand for this entry) is the ‘Return of the King’ equivalent of this trilogy. It takes Caesar’s story in darker, more unexpected places, and in a perfect world, would net Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination for best actor. If you’ve slept on this series because it seemed silly, or not really your jam, definitely take the time to catch up with it, it’s most definitely worth it.

This was one of the last movies I saw before making this post, and having just seen it a few days ago, it’s the movie I’ve been thinking about most. In a year that I think a lot of people would call ‘complete awful garbage’, (or something similar), Guillermo Del Toro’s love story of the ‘others’ in society; the forgotten and the disenfranchised, hits home. I’m still working through my thoughts on all of it, but it’s up there with my favorites of his filmography. I don’t think GDT has ever made a movie so unapologetically ‘him’. A sequence near the end of the movie is one of my favorite things I’ve seen all year, and I thought to myself during it that nobody other than this one enigmatic, creative and strange man could make something so unique and beautiful. This one definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you like GDT’s movies, I have a feeling you’ll be on board with this one as well.

From this point forward, if Taylor Sheridan has a new movie coming out, I’ll be there to see it. The previous writer of such films as Sicario and Hell or High Water makes his directorial debut with Wind River. It follows a standard neo-western trend of his previous films, but this time moving the story to snowy Wyoming. Setting the location on an American Indian reservation allows Sheridan to bring up timely themes as well, such as the incredibly high rate at which Native American women disappear on reservations, and how few are ever actually found. It’s an incredibly moving and intense story that plays out after the initial murder/mystery is established, going to some of the most intense places thematically that I’ve seen in a movie this year. The cast all around is stellar, and Jeremy Renner specifically has never been better than he is in this movie. If you’re a fan of neo-westerns or Sheridan’s other movies, Wind River is absolutely worth checking out.

I had been anticipating this movie since I heard about it, having been a huge fan of ‘The Indoor Kids’ podcast, hosted by Emily Gordon and her husband Kumail Nanjiani. It’s a video game podcast that they ended a few years back, but every now and then, they would hint at how they met. This movie is how their eventual marriage came to be, and it’s a beautiful love story, which just so happens to fit the mold of one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Not only is it a great comedy, but also dramatically complex due to Emily’s time spent in a coma at the beginning of their relationship and Kumail’s meeting of her two parents. Everyone in this movie gives it their all, with Ray Romano and Holly Hunter standing out as Emily’s parents. The movie also tackles what it’s like to be the child of an immigrant in America, and that perspective was fresh and eye-opening for a big Hollywood movie. This is definitely one to watch with the family.

*potential spoilers for mother!*

If you read my post I wrote about ‘Noah’, you’ll probably understand why I love this movie so much. This is the second film by Darren Aranofsky that explores the morality of not only God, but of the entire bible this time around. Something about that intent clicks with me. Maybe it’s being raised in church until my late teens or the religious cynic inside me, but I love when he tackles these issues. The fact that this religious interpretation is only one of many possible ways to read this movie is what makes it fascinating. Is it about climate change and how we’re destroying the earth? Is it a dramatization of the Bible and God’s relationship with humanity? Or is it about the relationship between artists, the things they create, and the audience? On top of these questions, Mother! Is beautifully shot, acted and constructed. I was pretty much in shock for the entire last third of the movie and that’s more than I can say for almost any movie I’ve seen this year.

Y’all probably knew this was coming, right? I’m so in the bag for Star Wars movies that any objectivity is completely out the window at this point. I also understand that many people REALLY do not like this movie, and I’ve been grappling with that and processing it since I saw the movie a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see the movie a second time, so this is based entirely off my first time seeing The Last Jedi. This movie was everything I wanted and more. It absolutely has faults worth talking about, but to me, the highs of TLJ far outweigh the lows. There were moments in this movie that I yelled in joy, smiled ear to ear and also cried on numerous occasions. For the first time since watching the original trilogy as a kid, I felt like I was watching a true Star Wars movie, with the original series characters, and the great new ones established in VII as well. The prequels have their moments, and Rogue One and Force Awakens were fun diversions in fan fiction, but to me, this movie felt true to what I love about Star Wars. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Sometimes I just think to myself, “it’s really damn cool that I’m around at the same time as Christopher Nolan.” The guy will go down as an all-time great director, and I love that with Dunkirk he proved that he doesn’t need a high concept idea and a ton of exposition to sell it. All you need to tell a gripping story is a camera and a story with baked-in drama, like the evacuation of Dunkirk. The movie is almost a silent film with how little dialogue there is, relying solely on Hoyte van Hoytema’s beautiful cinematography and Nolan’s adherence to old-school film techniques, with as little CG as possible. Dunkirk makes for the most intense theater going experience I’ve probably had all year, and I fear that seeing it at home can never reach the levels of seeing it on the big screen. Regardless, Dunkirk is possibly Nolan’s best film yet, an exciting evolution of his directorial skill, and one of the best war films of all time.

In my opinion, there was no greater surprise at the theater this year than Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’. A social horror film in the vein of such classics as ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Step-ford Wives’, and on the same level of quality as well. I’d also have to say that Get Out epitomizes the state of our country the best of any other movie I’ve seen this year, perfectly nailing racial tensions much more nuanced than your typical racist-redneck-murder-family horror movies ever could. I rewatched the movie again over Christmas (this and the Witch make great Christmas movies btw) and it reaffirmed how tightly written, acted and directed it truly is. Every setup has a fulfilling payoff, every character a great/exciting/terrifying moment, and it has one of the most subversive, ingenious endings I’ve seen of this, or any year.  Get out is a certified horror classic, and easily one of the best movies of the year.

Coming-of-age stories are very often ‘my jam’, as I’m sure you could surmise from any number of posts on here from the past. What I loved so much about Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call me by Your Name’ is the sincerity and honesty in every one of the characters in the movie. The two leads (played by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer) wear their hearts on their sleeves, and soon find themselves in a summer love affair. What this movie captures so well is that feeling of young ‘love’, or at least infatuation with amazingly believable ease. It also features a moment between Timothée Chalamet’s character and his father (played by the always great Michael Stuhlbarg) that crushed me. It hit me right in the nexus of all my dad baggage, past and present, and turned me into a weeping mess. I aspire to be the kind of loving, understanding and wise father that Timothée Chalamet’s character is blessed with in this movie.

Alright guys, time for my favorite movie of the year, and it’s easily Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece: Blade Runner 2049. No movie transported me completely like this film did. The entire run time of the movie was almost like an out of body experience. It was surely aided by seeing it on the massive downtown IMAX screen, but when myself and a couple friends walked out of this movie, we were practically in shock. I’m sure I sound hyperbolic right now, but in my eyes this movie is a top-to-bottom cinematic masterpiece. It expands and even improves on themes and ideas that the first film only flirted with. It deepens the philosophy of the world in interesting ways, and does all this with a far more emotional core than the first ever had as well. I’d be remiss not talking about how beautiful this movie is as well. If Roger Deakins doesn’t win his first Cinematography Oscar for this film, somebody should get 25 to life. The second this movie ended, I knew it was my movie of the year, regardless of what else I saw in 2017. It’s a sequel for the ages, and a science fiction film that people decades from now will look back on with intrigue and wonder.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Thor Ragnarok

Brigsby Bear

Brawl in Cell Block 99

Okja

Baby Driver

Your Name

Logan

John Wick: Chapter 2

Spider-Man: Homecoming

I, Tonya

That’s going to do it for my top films of 2017, thanks so much for reading! If you have thoughts or opinions on my list, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook and let’s talk about them (unless it’s a bad Last Jedi take, those won’t do). It was incredibly hard to cut out some of the honorable mentions but overall I’m extremely happy with my list and all of the movies I was lucky enough to see this year (and lucky enough to have an awesome wife who understands and accepts my movie-going addiction!) Share this post with your friends if you’d like, and I hope you have a great 2018!

[ryqoshay]

I was tagged by @lonelypond : Answer the questions below before tagging a fairly random number followers you want to get to know better.

I’ve never done one of these before, so what the heck, why not. First time for everything, right?

► Nicknames: In real life, mostly childish variations of my name, used by family and long-term friends. Here on the net, I’ve gained “Grandpa Ryqo” on Sukutomo, which I find amusing as all get out, so I’ve just gone with it.

► Gender: Meh…

► Sign: Not sure, honestly. And I’m too lazy to Google it atm. The only time I remember caring about astrological signs was when a friend got me into playing a modded version of Final Fantasy Tactics. Oh, and rolling my eyes at jokes about Nico being a Cancer.

► Height: A bit taller than average here in the U.S… I think? At least that’s been my observation

► Time: 14:07 CST at the time that I began filling this out… as of posting this, 16:55… I may have gotten distracted a few… oh look, another NicoMaki post!

► Birthday: In the third month of the year, probably

► Favorite Band/Artists: µ’s (They have maintained their top position for quite a while and likely will continue to do so for a while yet), Aqours, Hatsune Miku, Pentatonix, The Pillows, Queen, Benny Goodman, IOSYS, The Three Tenors, OK Go, Gorillaz, Peter Hollens, 2Cellos, The Supremes, The Beatles, Weird Al Yankovic, Lindsey Sterling, Johnny Cash, 403 Forbiddena, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Ink Spots, Buddy Holly, … how many pages are you willing to read?

► Song Stuck in My Head: Dancing stars on me (Probably because it was the last song that was playing as I pulled into the garage a while ago)

► Last Movie I Watched: … Is it wrong that I honest don’t remember? My former roommate’s family owned a theater, so I used to keep fairly current. But ever since I moved, I’ve kinda fallen out of the loop. I mean, I watched just the musical numbers of several movies; Love Live (as if that should surprise anyone who might read this), Oliver, Sound of Music, Camelot, The King and I, etc, etc, etc, over the past however long, but I couldn’t even tell you which one of those was most recent. And on writing this, I realize I haven’t seen a movie in the theater since TLJ… Geez, almost halfway through the year and I don’t think I’ve watched a single move from start to finish. I should probably look into fixing that soon.

► Last TV Show I Watched: Shooter (Not sure what episode of the second season, as it was simply where my mom and stepdad had left off. Can’t say I’m entirely sold on the show, but it’s free on Netflix so maybe I’ll watch the first episode someday)

► What Do I Post: NicoMaki (Currently just my own fic and reblogs of pics I like. However, I really should start reblogging some of the other amazing fics out there.), YohaRiko (Again, my own fic and the occasional reblog of pics I like), and more NicoMaki.

I’m not big on getting into politics or religion or the like on the net, so while I may occasionally hit the Like button, I pretty much never reblog; though I might someday make a sideblog for such things. Also, since it seems some people like my writing style, perhaps someday I might start posting some of my other, non-LL stuff.

I actually started this blog posting non-LL stuff (or rather, not-immediately-obvious-LL, or only-LL-if-you-squint stuff) and honestly didn’t expect it to go anywhere. (14 posts with a grand total of 1 Like among them) Heck, even my first two posts for HtHaN didn’t even reach double digits in Notes. But here I am, almost two years later, posting away, and loving it.

Oh, did I mention that I post NicoMaki?

► Do I Get Asks: Yes. Which reminds me, I need to respond to the last few… I have a bad habit of checking my Inbox while I am on break at work and not having time to reply right away, and then forgetting about it when I get home because the notification is gone. (Sorry for delays in responses)

► URL Meaning: Despite my obvious bias towards NicoMaki stuff, and some YohaRiko as well, my screenname, Ryqoshay came from elsewhere. When I first started playing video games, I often named my character (or one of my characters) Ricochet, if they were a ranged character, as a joke referencing a favored sound effect from movies. However, as I entered the world of MMO’s, that name was often already taken, so in the case of City of Heroes, I added -chan to the end and gave her some Japanese ancestry. Also, as part of her bio, it became a nickname granted to an energetic girl who was “always bouncing off the walls.”

Then came City of Villains and once again, Ricochet was taken so I decided to take a different route with the character name by intentionally misspelling it. But, as I fancy myself a writer, I couldn’t leave it at that and had to give her an in-universe reason. And as she was a villain, I was more than happy to take a romp down the well-worn “tragic backstory” road. Thus, her parents finally got names, Yuri and Quentin, and were sacrificed to the deities of drama. After the tragedy, Rico augmented the spelling of her existing nickname to include the first letters of their names. Through my time with CoV, Ryqo gained a mercenary guild as every character I created thereafter became a member, with bios that expanded my new lore.

Things ended up taking a turn for the medieval when what was supposed to be a two paragraph bio for a D&D game turned into dozens of pages and the entire guild being translated over to the new genre. Strangely, it wasn’t even Ryqo that I was going to be playing, rather a member of her guild that had been hired out. This is the story I mentioned earlier that I am still considering posting someday, either here or on AO3, maybe both. Also, more recently, Ryqo found herself translated yet again, into a modern, LL-style world, as an aspiring idol. These are what ended up as the first posts I ever made on this blog, as I had been inspired by an idea that came up on my other digital haunt, Sukutomo.

TL;DR version: Ryqoshay is an intentional misspelling of Ricochet and actually has little to do with my current obsession with NicoMaki and Love Live in general, but I like the name and see little reason to change it now.

► Average Hours of Sleep: You’re going to make me do math…? Hrm… 4 hours there… 6 there… 3 for those nights (days, since I work nights)… I, uhm… dunno. I work nights over the week and shift to a different schedule when I want to spend time with my day-dwelling family or friends. I haven’t had a regular sleep schedule probably since high school.

► Nationality: North American mutt with lineages tracing back to all parts of Europe.

Alright, so I’m supposed to tag a few of my own followers... ... when the heck did I get over 300? Uhm... as this is my first time making one of these, I’m going to take the easy route and stick with names I recognize from the notes on my posts. Let’s go with: @nicoismywaifu​, @nocturnal-one8​, @sayowo​, @kurotheyamineko, @cupcakedesuwa and @thelegend31 for now. I tried tagging spiritpandora and westomaki as I look forward to seeing them show up in the notes of my fics, but Tumblr won’t let me for some reason.

[steviesays]

I agree with that post about the criticism of TLJ vs other films. What did you think of TLJ overall?

oh my god an anon asking me my opinion this is the most exciting thing thats ever happened to me

ok but for real though here we go buckle down folks this is probably going to be long as hell

overall like many Star Wars fans I was unfortunately a bit disappointed with tlj and was shocked with the direction that rian johnson decided to go with both the characterizations of our faves and the plot (both of which I’ll get into in a sec). however this doesn’t mean that this was a BAD movie. I enjoyed the film. yes I said it. I have many major critiques but while I was sitting there watching it, there were moments that I felt deeply for the characters, moments that I wanted to jump out of my seat, and the ending built up to a promising looking sequel that I’m definitely going to watch and tbh thats all that really matters in a movie.

now on to all the parts I didnt like lmao

as for the characterization of most of the main characters, the ones that stuck out to me the most and the ones I’ll get into here are Luke, Poe, Hux, and I want to talk a little bit about Rose. Luke is the one that hit me the hardest because Luke is the OG. everyones number one. LUKE MOTHERFUCKING SKYWALKER. now, my main complaint is the same one that most other people have, he’s too pessimistic and his actions at his Jedi school just dont make sense in the context of his character. how could the person that couldn’t even kill Darth Vader raise a lightsaber to his own nephew? who hadn’t even really done anything yet? as what, a preventative measure? when kylo ren was the first to tell this story in the movie I was like theres no fucking way hes bullshitting but when it turned out to be true???? I was literally taken aback. Luke’s explanation for it as a split second thought was the only way to bring this to the very edge of my believability, but even then, it was very difficult for me to wrap my mind around the character whose whole being is based on forgiveness and finding a way when all hope is lost even thinking about doing something like that and then just giving up when all of it is over. I was actually talking about this moment with my brother (we had a two hour long conversation about Star Wars after he watched the movie that I will also reference when I start talking about Rose) and we both agreed that this moment was a bit forced. he put into words something that I was trying to say all along and it made so much sense, in the movies they were trying to show how kylo ren’s sense of distrust and his anger towards Luke and his family came to be and instead of doing it right by showing it happening in small, subtle actions they decided to just have one huge obvious physical manifestation of betrayal and tbh it was lazy and bad characterization and thats what all the fans saw when the saw the movie and what mark saw when he first read the script

sorry that was long now on to my homeboy poe

I honestly feel like poe was demonized too much in this movie and made to look like some kind of lost kid playing soldier and it really annoyed me ??? like he was one of the top commanders of the resistance and to just have him completely thrown to the wayside like this in this movie just felt like …. why was he even in it? to get everyone killed? same with Finn and rose and honestly while I’m here let me talk about her too since I was going to bring her up later. I might get hate for this but rose honestly felt like a filler character to me. I just dont get any type of differentiation from her than from the rest of the resistance other than the fact that she now has a bit of a backstory. theres nothing particularly interesting about her character. shes just there. I feel like she had a lot of potential and it was just kind of wasted. I also thought the kiss at the end with Finn was ULTRA forced. like they were fine as friends but there was no romantic undertone until that moment like where did it come from and why? it was just there all of a sudden. now heres where my brothers commentary comes back into play because he really enjoyed tlj. he thought the romance was necessary and that it worked. keep in mind this is a straight, single, 25 year old man thats never been in a long term relationship. I think this has a lot to do with how people of different perspectives interpreted this movie. what does everyone else think because so far, on my dash everyone has been SILENT on that kiss. keep in mind im a kylux blog so I follow a lot of that side of the fandom but I do follow a few light side blogs too although many are caught up in the reylo stuff. I really dont think a romance arc is necessary at all but if its put in I want it between characters that actually have good romantic chemistry like Finn and poe or maybe Finn and Rey im holding out for kylux but I know its not happening lmfaooo

anyway onto the last person I want to talk about my cupcake domhnall

now hux hasn’t played a very big roll (seemingly) in the series so far and it was great to see him on screen more in tlj but good god at what cost. in the first movie he was calm cool and collected, a respected general that took shit from no one, and in this he was the joke of the movie taking hits from cringe-worthy jokes and just generally looking the opposite of what he did in tfa. it was honestly kind of hard to see because hux was one of my favorite characters in tfa and domhnall is one of my favorite actors (if you cant tell by my blog) and its just going to be weird to see where they pick him back up again in episode 9

oh my god I just realized I only talked about the characters and haven’t even gotten to the plot yet go grab some popcorn or something I have a lot more to say

first I want to talk about how this movie was set up as a whole. it was separated into three different storylines from the very beginning, Rey and Luke on the island, the resistance’s fight with the first order, and Finn and rose’s plan to invade the first order by themselves. I didn’t like this because it just made it feel too messy and very long. this whole movie was supposed to take place over a matter of a few days, but as it was jumping back and forth, it would be on a scene with Rey and then it would jump back to the resistance and I would be like damn theyre STILL doing this. tlj was a decently long movie but sitting there it felt like it was three hours+

In addition to that, I feel like a way they could have avoided this would be to cut out Finn and rose’s part, include them with the rest of the resistance instead of giving them a side plot that was doomed to fail from the start, and work with that. I really dont understand why it was necessary to separate them at all. their plan didnt work, they got most of the resistance killed in the process, there was no solid reason for them to go on this little adventure other than what? character development? if thats your excuse there are better ways to do it

ok this is the part that I was 1000000000% confused about. Carrie’s death. they had it. they literally had a scene with her dying. they had it ???? and then they Jesus’d her back to life ??????????? I was sitting in that theater WASTING MY TEARS because KYLO FUCKING REN COULDNT PULL THE TRIGGER AND THEN MY MOM DIED and then she lived ?????????? I have honestly never been so confused in my life. if I could have a time machine I would go back to that moment just so I could see the look on my own face because I know that shit was ridiculous. how the fuck is jj going to deal with this in the next movie though? rian LITERALLY had a scene with carrie dying in it. USED IT IN THE MOVIE. said nah fuck jj abrams he can figure this shit out on his own. and brought that bitch back to life. like honestly how much do they hate each other because I really didnt understand the magnitude until I watched that scene.

I cant think of anything else major I want to talk about right now but this is already ridiculously long anyway so if anyone has any questions they want to ask me my ask box and messages are always open!

[jhaernyl]

So, I stopped reading perhaps two posts ago, by the time I finish writing this maybe five posts ago, because I need to get this shit off my chest.

(Because Alas Going To Work does not mean someone actually stops the shit posting. It's really just a convenient "Mic Dropped, I Am Out Bitches" ending to a shitty fucking post that shits all over the people who have been in the corner and you have been mistreating, while setting you up to be the victim of those bad people who will not stay around for you to shit on them after you already used them, got your back patted by and then ignored in favor of bemoaning how alone and victimized you are).

@poplitealqueen (because when you talk about someone you should do them the favor to @ them rather than just drop their names thus calling them out without immediately alerting them you called them out personally) how about you stop with this fucking woe-is-me bullshit?

Woe is not fucking you.

You are a decently known author. You are not deadcat-famous but you did not spend more ten years writing a fic through huge life changes, sticking by it and determinedly trudging on without unleashing a constant stream of Witness My Self-Victiminization posts. You are known enough in the circles of the people who like the kind of fics you write that people answer to your posts and send you asks, ask you thing and show you support, as well as reading and kudo-ing your fics. Maybe less than they once did, but fandom is fickle, always has been fickle and always will be.

People have their own lives and they move on and then sometimes they come back and sometimes they do not. Some fandoms get their heyday and then the more dedicated people stay on and then the show goes off the air, the comic stops publishing, the canon is completely erased in favor of a new one and people get interested in things that offer new content. That's life and it might suck but hey, darling sweet little girl, IT SUCKS THE SAME FOR EVERYBODY.

You know how it feels to sit down with someone, give them complete support and try your damn all to make them see the good sides of things and comfort them by saying that people will be there for them, only to log on and look at their account and find them answering asks and having long convos with people and getting funny posts that get 7k notes (the Luke-in-the-tlj-trailer one) while your posts are big when they get over 80 notes in a few weeks of activity (and only when boosted by other people with more popularity than the OP) and when you publish memes no one gives a fuck about asking about your OCs?

No.

Because you are the person moaning and bitching while having it better and I am the person who gave you support while being fully aware of my much less active and noticed blog. I am the person who sent you asks and reblogged your memes (you know, the ones I later on see you say SEND SOMETHING IF YOU REBLOG about but you never answer when it's me blogging them?). You are the person who does not see reality as it is because it's not convenient to them.

Yes, I said convenient.

Why?

Because you are the kind of person who likes to, as we say in Italy, bask in their own broth.

By which I mean: you are milking being the Depressed Artist Who Nobody Likes shtick for all it's worth, hooking people up on your drama and using them (like you used my Lee, before you dropped her like hot coals once Senpai FlameThrower Noticed You) only to later on shit on them (like the bullshit you said about me not having reached out for you in weeks, which I can disproves with fucking screencaps of our chat, darling, so do not try to pull the "I Am Bad But She Abandoned Me [So Clearly I Am The Victim But You Are Supposed To Get That From Contest So I Can Be The Victim When The Other Party Gets Angry]" move).

I am pretty sure you are not aware of it and people have trouble either telling it to you (it is a brutal thing to say, made even more brutal by the fact that it's true) or realizing what is going on, but you *are* doing it. Oh boy are you ever doing it.

It does not matter what other people do.

It does not matter that I was inspired for a few days straight to work on fanarts for you.

It does not matter how many people send you asks and support and take time out of their own lives to hold your hand and put their arm around your shoulders and support you.

You are still constantly posting that nobody likes you, nobody cares about you, nobody gives you notes on the posts you like, people do not answer to your posts.

Except that when I get around to seeing things (after I sleep, do my fucking job babysitting two kids I cannot take my eyes off of lest they kill themselves or each other and actually spend time with my mom and fiancee) I do but I get no answer back from you, I suppose because I am somewhat contractually obliged to do it with you but the opposite does not apply to you when you can spend your time posting depressing Mood Things rather than engaging into further interaction.

Except that when I get around to checking your blogs (after the same things as above), I like all the stuff I can look at without being spoiled for things I want to see.

Except that I kept reaching out in the chat and being met with silence for days on your end.

And, again, all of that does not matter at all, not to you, because being Mood Depressed Unloved Artist is more important than actually getting off your ass and making the changes you need to make.

You say "I have resolved to be positive" and then it's day after day after day of depressing Mood Posts and NOBODY LOVES ME.

People love you, you just make it hard for some of that love to prosper, given how you do not nurture it, you do not work with the other person, you prefer to shitpost about being unloved.

You know why people unfollow you?

Because you are a negative fucking person to be around and because even after they have given you time, attention, support, the notes you wants, the kudos you want, you still make shitty call out posts that allow you to play the victim and react to them cutting your negativity out of your life with the classic Fandom Shit Move of "Way To Abandon The Person Having a Breakdown."

Darling, I know you told me you have maybe one breakdown per month but I need you to sit down and listen to this.

You have a breakdown per week, sometimes twice per week.

Many of these breakdowns lead you to shit even more than your usual on the people who are there for you.

Having any kind of mental illness does not excuse the behavior you have been exhibiting or making your actions acceptable.

I am also not contractually obliged to let you spew bullshit about me and still stick by you. I signed no piece of paper or clicked ok on any internet document that said "I have to put up with you whining about notes and Patreon not expanding fast enough and people not giving your due for the work you do, when my Patreon never went past three people and 15 dollars and you get a little bit more than 100 dollars per month".

I am not trying for sainthood here, I am not going to just stand by and smile and nod and pat your back while you spew things that hurt me in public rather than reach out to me and talk about it.

Like I said we could and should do? Like I encouraged you to do? Like I told you that you could do at any point and we would talk things out and resolve them? You remember that chat or has it been conveniently removed from your memories so you can justify your behavior to yourself? In that case, please dear, do scroll up our chat and check it for yourself. It's a conversation we actually did have.

You are 21, not 11 and the kind of call post you did today was uncalled for and very primary school of you. Shitting over people on public while setting you up as Poor Victim Miss Pops unless people haste to run at your side and declare their friendship to you is not how friendships get mended, it's petty emotional manipulation meant to make other people feel guilty and force them to come to you in a way that puts you in a position of power and (fake) superior moral ground.

You do not have the superior moral ground and I am not giving you that power.

You can either get your head out of your ass, stop being someone who is constantly negative and reach out to me on your own, ready to meet on equal ground to mend what could have been the beginning or an actual friendship or you can play the victim further, keep down the road you are on and enjoy basking in your broth.

I will not unfollow you, I will keep reading your posts and liking the ones I like, I will keep enjoying your writing, I will keep being happy when new fic from you shows up in my inbox, I will keep giving you kudos and I will keep supporting you as an artist on Patreon and both my email and my chat on tumbrl will always be open to you (with the understanding that I will answer you when I get around to have the time for it depending on the day I am having). If inspiration strikes again, I will make more fanarts.

Have a good work day.

[greyjedireylo]

Hi!! I'm a reylo fan!! I'm just going to ask if there's really a probability for reylo to be canon (subtle/ friendship/ alliances etc.) in the TLJ or even in ep.9? If not... What will you do? (I hope you'll continue to ship it) (I'm sorry for the ask, I'm so nervous with all this information and stuff). I love your blog (and your salty posts :)

I mean…at this point it’s pretty much a certainty that AT THE VERY LEAST they’ll come to understand each other better. that’s just storytelling 101 after they were already protagonist/antagonist and she soundly defeated him in the first movie of the trilogy. their dynamic can’t stay stagnant, so it MUST evolve, and this is supported by that one interview Daisy gave where she says Rey doesn’t understand him (which is obviously how Rey begins the movie, not how she ends it, or Daisy wouldn’t say that in an interview months before the movie and also the starting point of every great enemies-to-lovers story ever, just saying).

I think the chances of explicit romance (like a kiss) are fairly good for IX, and honestly I think there’s gonna be a whoooooole lotta subtext in TLJ that’s BARELY even subtext, like…DID YOU SEE THAT TRAILER. it didn’t even include any obvious scenes of Rey and Kylo together but everything about it from start to finish was screaming ‘these two characters are two halves of something, they’re the same, they’re going to understand each other in ways no one else can understand them.’ and that’s beautiful, because the dynamic between them doesn’t even have to be romantic yet to be deep and complex and fucking intense I CAN BARELY BREATHE JUST THINKING ABOUT IT

and yes, no matter what happens, I will ALWAYS SHIP IT, like I literally cannot lose. I started out two years ago thinking of them as a crack ship who’d probably end up related and I’d just enjoy them in fanfic and fanon, started at THE LITERAL BOTTOM and now we’ve got all this canon support and intertwined destinies and two halves of something and a fucking BARBIE DOLL SET OF THEM, I’m currently living in my wildest reylo dreams and they’re real life and even if they just breathe the same air and look at each other in TLJ I’ll be swooning on the floor lmao