#shoot me a message if you want ot plot

[frumfrumfroo]

Just out of curiosity, Who do you think is mainly responsible for the failure of the Sequel trilogy aka episode 9?

It seems like it's probably Bob Iger, because he would have been the one ultimately making the call not to push the release date. If it's true that Rian would have done it if they'd given him enough time and Kennedy wanted that- then you can lay an enormous amount of the blame directly at Iger's feet.

To what extent it was Kennedy's decision to bring in Colin and then Jjerrio, I don't know, but allegedly she was the one who wanted Rian to come back. So immediate responsibility might not have been hers, but she'd still be to blame for creating the situation in the first place.

Shifting away from whomsoever allowed the massive overflowing dumpster full of oily rags to become situated next to the fireworks factory back to the person who okayed soaking rags in oil in the first place, it's the fault of the LF executives for not having a thematic outline and not knowing what they were trying to say before they started. A plot outline wasn't necessary, but understanding how this was going to be part of and reaffirm the existing saga was. Rian pulled their asses out of the fire and created the illusion of competence at LF by making the ST seem like it genuinely wanted to tell a story and TFA wasn't just a soft reboot slash Disneyland Area Tour of ANH in a trenchcoat made of modern blockbuster cliches. He followed up on all the shit TFA threw at the wall like a writer and asked all the questions the LF executives never asked.

No one thought about idealism, redemption, family, compassion, etc. No one thought about the impact of making the only genuine throughline which connects the ST to the OT and PT, the only character the audience will have a preordained investment in, into an antagonist. No one thought about justifying their choice of protagonist. No one thought about the original characters as characters who needed to have arcs and emotions and comprehensible motivations. No one asked 'what did the original ending leave unsaid or unresolved?' 'How can we reiterate the same message but add something that was missing?' 'How are our new characters commenting on this existing world and what is their place in it?' That they didn't know these answers before anyone ever started writing is nothing short of irresponsible and incompetent.

It is absolutely staggering to me that a bunch of professionals didn't see this as a conversation they needed to have. It's the FIRST conversation they should have had.

But as far as tros just being a shitshow of a film without taking into account the garbage script or the fact that it destroyed SW, that's on JJ Abrams. He clearly runs his sets like a summer camp, is incompetent and unprofessional, can't make decisions, and has zero creative vision. Another director would never have been able to make a Terrio Episode IX into a good film, but they could shoot one (1) consistent movie with enough coverage to avoid cannibalising itself to create KEY SHOTS and no need to loop pivotal dialogue a month before the premiere. They could probably avoid the entire plot being leaked months ahead of release and deliver an actually finished film.

Was some of the haphazard production nightmare due to the rush and executive meddling from Disney and not really Abrams fault? Probably! But he's got a fucking track record and I'm super comfortable at this point saying his productions are unprofessional and he's very bad at many important aspects of his job.

[randomeditscreates]

I'm sorry but who can take The Rise of Skywalker seriously, when, one! Emperor Palpatine is around after exploding twice! And even though his fucking ships can't go up! He decides to sent a text message to everyone that's hes back and is going to take over the galaxy. And that he apparently pooped out a very powerful force user[Snoke]

#2. Poe fucking Light Speed skipping, when it's stated in the OT[Original Trilogy] that you can't do it! And the fact that Rey, [Hermit crab] could've done it better, it's from Chewbacca!

#3. Rey, Poe and Finn acting like they've known each other, when this is the first time we get to see them interact with each other.

#4. Passana, not only do they act as if the celebration will cause an issue, when they have no where specifically in Passana to go! Kylo Ren fucking pulls a necklace off of Rey's neck, which causes many questions now!, but for the fact that they were going to be sighted anyways so why do it! Let's not forget that Rey couldn't levitate 6 people when the beginning literally shows her levitate herself with several rocks with no apparent struggle! But no it's fine because they find the mcguffin, and Rey just heals the creature, who just so happens to be covering an exit!

So many fucking conveniences!

#5. Rey after finding the Mcguffin, leaves and almost gets plowed by Kylo, who if you remember doesn't want to kill her!, so why the fuck, would he want to run her the fuck off! I guess it's just for the visuals! Then Kylo explodes and doesn't have a scratch on him, the plot Armour is strong with this one. And of course Chewbacca gets stolen by the First Order and when Rey tries to save him, she fucking shoots lightening out of her hands! I'm sorry but whatever happened to Force Lightening being one of the harded Jedi practice, which is why Palpatine is the only character who has it! You can't just shoot out Force Lightening and especially a character who, compared to any other character barely had any practice!

#6. Babu Frick, a mechanic doesn't have anything to store C3PO memory, and anyways, they find DO, so just have him read the Sith language and you don't have to do this stupid scene, but Fuck it, let's have C3PO death scene with literally no one's he should give two fucks about! Because that'll really pull on the hearstring

#7 Rey finds out she's a Palpatine... and then nothing really changed. She doesn't change and I have no fear that'll she'd turn bad, she's too good, too perfect and not in a positive way. She has a small hissey fit, but as soon as Luke tells her she's not evil,she decides to defeat Palps.

#8. Leia is dead, and we have no reason for how it happens, let's not forget about her stupid prophecy, her son[Kylo] will die at the end of her Jedi training, so she decided to give up her lightsaber to someone who will finish her training, killing her son, it's so stupid and honestly as much as I love Leia, she shouldn't have become a Jedi. But then again she does, so I guess it doesn't fucking matters anymore.

#9. Force Ghosts can use the force! So why in the world wouldn't they decide to come to Exegul to fucking destroy Palps, they can't die! And don't you dare tell me it's because that specific planet has alot of force, because then why in the world would Luke go there! Since he wants to get away from the force! And even still, State that! Or make it fucking clear.

#10. Kylo turns good, so I guess, that's okay, but how the hell did he find Rey on the Death Star, when A, you can only find it using the Wayfinder, B, It's placed in an area where you have to be standing in a specific place and hope that the place did not erode or was scavenged. And don't give me the stupid excuse was that the Wayfinder gives special coordination to the area, but, it you know how any map works, it doesn't give you the exact place to stand, it gives you the general fucking location, and even still, if Rey, was an inch to the left, they would be shit out of luck.

The fucking End! Rey is told to kill Palps so he could inhabit her body, so she kills him....with two Lightsabers, do you remember the Prequels, Mace Window was a skilled opponent and was at his best form and his lightsaber just made Palps bald! But apparently all he needed was an extra lightsaber. Oh and the whole, be with me! Solely there for the director to say that's the reason Rey won, not because she a Mary Sue, and can never lose, like seriously during the entire trilogy, she never fails or changes as a character. So apparently a force Diad can restore a force user to it's full ability, I guess that gives us enough info on force Diads, it not like we not need anymore information, Ashoka is apparently dead! And don't give me the crap about how the director said how she's not, he's just making up for his fuck ups. Kylo Ren heals Rey, and dies, not only can he heals someone with no experience, but even though when Rey heals Kylo of a fatal wound! She's perfectly fine when Kylo heals Rey, he dies! Oh and don't get me started on their kiss, honestly, that is not a kiss siblings have, and if your wondering, yes! Jar Jar Abrams told everyone that this kiss was meant to be a brother and Sister kiss! Honestly I can fix this, Rey dies due to Palps absorbing her powers, and only Kylo survives, and then Kylo kills Palpatine, it both a homage, to the original trilogy with a Skywalker defeating a Palpatine but it wouldn't bring into question of Palpatine inhabiting Rey's body. It would also be a great story arc for Ben[Kylo] as he like his grandfather, decides to become good because of someone they care for. And then if you want he could not die and save Rey, but personally I think these two infections should die together. It might be a somber tale but it would be a change from the original, and you could even show a new force user and then bang you have a new character to create a movie about. Honestly I just never really enjoyed this ending or movie, and the fact that the lat word a Skywalker utters is Ow, is just insulting to their legacy.

Dishonorary mentions: Rey took the Skywalker last name as her own, like Bitch, you did not deserves this, after you take all of their accomplishments and claim them as your own. It also makes no sense in universe as the only Skywalker, she was ever close to was Leia, and she continuously goes by in movies and books as Leia Organa, because you know, even if Vader was her father, she not going to take the name of the man who killed her only parents but also her people. So why not Organa or even Solo, Rey doesn't have a great connection with Luke during The Last Jedi, so why the hell, would she go by that name, also, What about your parents Rey, the people who literally sacrificed themselves for you, I guess fuck them. BTW, I love the fact that Rey's mother convinced Ochi, Ouchi? Doesn't matter, she tells the a Sith assassin, that Rey is not on Jaku, literally word for word, very convincing.

Finn, has some force abilities and while I would love to see how he would react to this ability all he ever does is yell Rey, literally, take a drink everytime he does it and you'll be blackout drunk by the halfway mark, it's so annoying.

Jada is fine, but I hate that's she just a Finn as woman, and their connection only goes as far as the fact that their both were once stormtroopers.

Honestly I enjoyed Zori Bliss' character but she was so useless and was only there to shout encouraging words to Poe, and gives him the medallion, which, if we think about, shouldn't work but I digress.

I'm totally done now, because I'll fully admit, that any other complaints are caused by the Last Jedi,

[hamliet]

Hello! Have you seen TROS yet? [Spoiler alert] I was really devastated by the ending - coming out the theater feeling upset and disappointed. Do you have any thoughts on it? Or maybe any plan to write fix-it fic? Thank you!

I am seeing it tomorrow. That said, I’ve read the plot summary, and no good execution can save that. So I was planning on posting this after I watched it with amendments made as I hope to enjoy it, but I’ll just post it now and amend this as necessary based on the film as I see it. (I still believe I will enjoy the film, even if I don’t think it’s a good film. I do think that. I really do... I hope.)

BASED ON THE PLOT SUMMARIES ALONE (grains of salt everywhere!): 

I think it’s technically… messy writing at best and downright bad writing in other parts.* 10/10 it’s a blockuster-y, JJ Abrams-esque, (hopefully) fun, messy narrative movie that will be forgotten in 0.3 seconds.

Disclaimer before everyone comes after me: if you like it, AWESOME. If you think it’s good writing, great! Good writing and bad writing are inherently subjective; that said, there are general consensuses among literary studies about what constitutes bad and good writing. Hence, I’m relying on those consensuses when I call it messily written.

Before we get into specifics, I’ll compare it to two other major pop culture endings: Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame.

TROS is similar to the GoT final season in that it attempts to incorporate every aspect of fan speculation ever. However, it’s more like Endgame in that it is still somewhat true to the themes and characters—but unfortunately also like Endgame, it is not transformative or particularly interesting as a story on its own. In fact, it’s rather boring and honestly… bad storytelling. It tries to rehash Return of the Jedi but it doesn’t succeed in any way because the world and the overall story has grown since the early 1980s, and so the same story doesn’t work anymore.

Showing a cyclical story remaining cyclical with no sign of that breaking–instead, the cycles are even reinforced–does not give optimism nor does it give hope.

Redemption=death needs to die already. If we really want to reach people and tell them that the message is that you can always make a better choice (as Daisy Ridley and JJ Abrams have said about Kylo’s arc), maybe don’t send the message in each and every story that you have to die to redeem yourself. Look outside of cultural secular Calvinism, for the love of God and the betterment of the world and stories as a whole.

Now let’s talk Rey’s parentage.

We know Rey Palpatine wasn’t planned from the beginning (Trevorrow, the original write/director of IX, who was thankfully fired, said that he never planned for Palpatine to return), which means Rey’s parentage was most likely retconned from TLJ and there was no real plan for the sequel trilogy’s overall character arcs (save for Kylo’s, according to the actors and writers).

Listen to me. You don’t have to have everything planned when you start a three-film saga, but you gotta know the major beats.

This is like a sad game of movie telephone. 

Yes, I know the OT Star Wars didn’t have a plan either and it’s like one of the only examples I can think of where no plan worked out–albeit not without hiccups (Leia kissing Luke, anyone?) If you expect lightning to strike twice in the same place, I’m sorry, but you are hopelessly naive.

Having Rey decide she wants to carry on the name Skywalker at the end is lame as shit. It’s a way to appease fans while being like nah she still isn’t related. Trying to please every fan is a sure way to guarantee that you will please no one. It might make for a perfectly pleasant film experience (I really hope it does), but not good, lasting storytelling (though not like, horrific either). It’s meh. It’s like… giving someone who is starving oatmeal. It will get the job done but will it satisfy and enthrall people? Not quite.

And let’s switch gears for a minute to Finn and Rose, my first and third favorite characters in this trilogy (Kylo is second, Rey is fourth). The sidelining of Rose is nothing short of a terrible attempt to please the white-supremacist-aligned Fandom Menace. Let’s not pretend it’s anything else. JJ’s lipservice about how wonderful it was that Kelly was cast at SW Celebration is, in hindsight, absolutely nauseating.

Shame on JJ. Shame on Disney.

But the main problem I have with this film is this:

Why did it need to exist?

The answer is money. Obviously. I know, I know stories exist to make money. That doesn’t mean I can’t criticize the fact that the story was sacrificed on the unholy altar of capitalism and Disney’s desire to own our souls. (Disney–the reason I like your movies is that a lot of them are good stories. I’m not interested in pandering soooooo.)

The Rise of Skywalker does not enhance the Star Wars narrative. Nothing about this film satisfies the Skywalker Saga nor the sequel trilogy, and it kind of all comes down to Kylo Ren’s death being the nail that sunk the entire world of Star Wars.

Keep in mind Kylo is not my favorite character when I’m saying this. Finn is. But I never spoke about Finn as much because the story didn’t utilize him properly. I never had concerns about Finn getting a happy ending while I was worried for Rey and Kylo’s arcs. (Finn’s arc, however, did have a ton more potential than was capitalized on; in particular, he would have been better if he was more conflicted over say, shooting other stormtroopers. His whole character humanized the usual red shirts, which when paired with Rose��s everywoman character, had so much potential I could shriek about it all day. That he didn’t lead other brainwashed stormtroopers into rebellion and freedom saddens me. Also, his ending again seems to bring about a good victim/bad victim dichotomy when it is compared with Kylo’s. The reason these two are my faves is that they were brainwashed as kids which, well, I can kinda sorta heavily relate to.)

Kylo Ren and Rey’s relationship doesn’t really get much better than it did in The Last Jedi. It actually rehashes that arc significantly. We already knew Kylo would fight for Rey and the galaxy, so… how was this different? Now, if he had lived, it would have been different, because it was the after the fight that proved that Kylo wasn’t ready to redeem himself in The Last Jedi. It was Kylo’s choice to stay at the expense of Rey and the Resistance that was literally the set up for conflict in the next film. This… turned it into nothing? Their conflict is rehashed and then whoo-hoo! Easy way out! Kill him so that they don’t have to deal with the “after” this time! They never have to deal with the conflict literally set up in The Last Jedi.

That’s bad writing, fam.

Life is infinitely more interesting. Leaving the story open with a living Skywalker instead of killing literally everyone involved with the Skywalkers except Rey who now adopts that name is… so unsatisfying I can’t even. Even if later material shows him showing up as a Force Ghost, like: cool saw that with Vader so this… adds nothing to the existing films. It doesn’t really reconcile anything.

It also… does not help the Rey=Mary Sue argument. She is NOT a Mary Sue, and that is a sexist term itself, but in no way is it a satisfying ending to her arc, because it isn’t a well-written ending which means it isn’t a well-written arc. The problem with Rey’s ending is a mirror of my problem with Kylo’s ending: it’s the very much a combination of her ending in The Last Jedi and her life before The Force Awakens.

She and Kylo are now separated (permanently this time).

She’s has her Resistance friends.

She’s alone on a desert planet.

But wait! Now she’s now happy!

Uh, why? The only reason I can think of is that the narrative demands it. Because honestly, what changes? The family she chose–the Skywalkers–are just as dead as her Palpatine birth family, soooooo. I suppose she reconciled with her heritage and come to peace with it and so that’s why she’s happy now, but… I can’t lie. It’s not hopeful. It’s not optimistic. It’s not Star Wars and it isn’t consistent for the message (especially if this is supposed to be the ending to the saga!) to be both:

life sucks for the Skywalkers and then they die–seriously, look at Shmi, Anakin, Padmé, Leia, Luke, Han, Kylo–it is LITERALLY ALL OF THEM; and

deciding to be a Skywalker means you’re at peace.

I can only assume Rey’s life will suck and then she’ll die, tbh, unless of course she is better off because of her blood… which negates the point of her being a Skywalker and is a really gross idea.

YOU CAN’T HAVE BOTH IN YOUR ENDING. PICK ONE.

Rejecting the Skywalkers would be anti-Star Wars, for sure, but marrying into them as a way of bridging the unfinished pain between Anakin and Padmé and Leia and her father? Much better. Or just leave it open. Honestly, leave it open for Kylo and Rey to both be alive and see each other again.

But you’re just upset your ship didn’t get a happy ending!

No, I’m upset about the storytelling, of which shipping is a part. A canonical part just as much as the lightsaber fights are. Anakin and Padmé. Leia and Han. Finn and Rose. Poe and Zorii. Rey and Ben.

The Force created Anakin, remember? All films–even the spin-offs–encourage our heroes to trust the force. “May the force be with us.” But the Force created an ENTIRE FAMILY THAT LIVED LIVES THAT SUCKED AND MADE LIFE SUCK FOR EVERYONE AROUND THEM AND THEN THEY DIED.

May the Force stay far the f*ck away from me, amen.

But seriously I can’t trust the world of a galaxy far far away or its narrative anymore. It’s a contradiction that causes all nine films to unravel. Why?

Again, let’s return to my earlier GoT comparison, because there is one thing TROS does that is more similar to GoT than to Endgame: Endgame drew together a bunch of unique distinctly separate stories into a crossover. TROS, just like GoT, relied on cliffhanger, incomplete endings to its films and therefore the ending matters a hell of a lot more than a stand-alone story.

I’m not dying to rewatch it like I am with stories where I realize I might learn more the second time. And by “rewatch it” I mean the entire nine-film saga. Knowing that canonically Leia, Luke, Han–they all die and their last descendent dies, the last descendent of Padmé and Anakin–for me, it’s personally gonna be hard to watch again. It’s gonna be hard to watch TROS going into it the first time.

And so the saga of bad endings continues.

Game of Thrones remains the worst at a -100 out of 10. It’s followed by Tokyo Ghoul:re which is still 2/10, and Star Wars is, on paper (meaning after I see it I am hoping it rises a few notches) now… 4/10. Endgame is a solid 6.5/10.

Banana Fish, sweetie, I’m sorry you were ranked down there. Your ending is a 7/10 but the rest of your story is like, 10/10 so you are sprung from this list.

Help me, Shingeki no Kyojin. You’re my only hope.

[hellzyeahwebwieldingreviews]

Untold Tales of Spider-Man 13: Arms and the Man – by Keith R.A. DeCandido

99% great!

Randall Andros, a noted writer of “celebrity life stories” (his previous book being on Tony Stark) wants his last book in his current contract to be on Dr. Otto Octavius. “[N]ot just Dr. Octopus,” as he tells his editor, “Otto Octavius. He was a respected scientist before he got his extra arms and went cuckoo. People talk about Doc Ock all the time. I want to let everyone know who Otto Octavius is.” After getting his okay, Randall decides to call his new biography, “Requiem for an Octopus: The Life of Dr. Otto Octavius.” He freely admits he “stole the title from Rod Serling.” (Serling’s teleplay is “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”) He researches Otto’s career from respected scientist to arch-criminal, leading up to his recent plan to poison the ink “that the New York Daily Bugle was printed with” (which occurs in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15, 1981. (The Continuity Guide tells us this story takes place right after that.) 

His next step is to interview friends and family. He tracks down “a paternal uncle named Karl Octavius, living in Detroit, Michigan and a maternal cousin named Thomas Hargrove.” Thomas previously worked with Otto at the United States Atomic Research Center, which has since been shut down by the Department of Energy. First, he interviews former USARC employee Brian Huss who tells him about Mary Alice Anders who dated Otto “but he broke it off. Rumor has it that he got her fired, actually.” After interviewing a number of former USARC employees and getting no consensus on Octavius, Andros decides he must track down Mary Alice Anders.Soon after, Randall learns that Mary Alice (Anders) Burke and her husband Ronald “had been among the victims in a nasty car accident on the West Side Highway a month previous. 

Mary Alice had survived; Ronald hadn’t.” Randall contacts the doctor at the hospital who agrees to let her know about his interest. He puts his research assistant to work tracking down Thomas Hargrove and Karl Octavius and goes to the Bugle to interview Ben Urich, Charley Snow and Jacob Conover, then J. Jonah Jameson himself (who tells him how Peter Parker once disguised himself as Spider-Man to save Betty Brant from Doc Ock). This process leads him to an old article on Octavius detailing a press conference by brain specialist Kevin Hunt who had reported that Otto had suffered brain damage. “But only three weeks ago, Hunt was interviewed on a local news program right after Octavius’s most recent capture, and he hedged a good deal more about the apparent brain damage.”Andros contacts Hunt who tells him that “while it could have been brain damage, it could also have simply been his cranial chemistry rewriting itself to accommodate these four new limbs.” He talks to Thomas Hargrove and learns little. Karl Octavius tells him, “My brother was a fat slob who married a fatter slob and they had a far slob of a kid who grew up to be a psycho chicken.” Peter Parker then contacts Randall and tells him that he not only dressed as Spider-Man against Octavius but that his Aunt once took Otto in as a boarder. Randall assesses what he has so far. “Was [Otto] insane or not? What kind of person had he been before the accident? What kind of person had he become afterward? Had he ‘become’ anything, or had he not changed?” Suddenly, these questions are in danger of remaining unanswered as the lawyers move in. 

Mary Alice Burke’s lawyer tells him she is suing Otto and shouldn’t talk. The Vulture’s lawyer also tells him his client will not speak. And Octavius’ lawyer gets a court-ordered “cease and desist with my research” because it could prejudice Otto’s trial.Soon after, Randall’s editor calls to tell him that he must pick another subject for his book but that Octavius wants to talk to him. “No tape recorders, no lawyers, no notes, just a conversation.” Even with the book cancelled, Randall can’t pass this up. He goes to Ryker’s Island where he meets Dr. Octopus. After demanding to know why Randall wants to write a book about him, Otto agrees to answer some questions. In the short interview, Octopus implies that the explosion that fused him to his tentacles was no accident. When Randall brings up Otto’s mother, the criminal quickly ends the conversation.Heading home, Randall decides that “the man I had talked to was many things, but crazy just was not one of them.” He tries to get a handle on Octopus but cannot. “Maybe it wasn’t possible,” he thinks, “Maybe you had to be like him to understand him. And I did not want to be like him. The very idea made my flesh crawl.”

When Randall returns home, he finds a man in his apartment. The man pulls a gun, says, “My name’s Niner. We got a mutual acquaintance in common, Mr. Andros. Name of Otto. He wanted to send a message to people who mess around with his life,” and then shoots. Randall lies bleeding on the floor, expecting to die. But then Spider-Man shows up at his window. As Spidey explains, “My old buddy Peter Parker said you were writing a bio of Doc Ock. I came by to chat about it – and tell you to pick another subject. Looks like I’m too late.” Randall asks Spidey why he’s always fighting Octopus. Spidey replies, “[P]art of it’s a kind of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God thing. I got my powers from radiation just like he did, but it didn’t make me nuts.” Randall grabs Spidey by his costume and tells him, “Listen!...Ock’s not nuts. I talked t’him, I listened t’him. Not insane. He’s aware of actions, he just doesn’t care.” Then he passes out.Randall wakes up in the hospital, brought there by Spidey. While there, he receives roses from Spidey with a note, “Best wishes for a speedy recovery. I hope you’re wrong.” When he leaves the hospital, Randall quits biography for fiction, never writing the last book in his contract. “And when I think back over my life – a frequent occurrence since almost losing it – I come to the same conclusion: the dumbest thing I ever did was tell my editor that I wanted my next book to be on Dr. Otto Octavius, aka the super-villain Dr. Octopus.”

This story is over all really good. The points of contention lie with the fact that Otto’s murder of Captain Stacy is such a huge plot point when in reality Otto didn’t kill Captain Stacy, he died in an act of self-sacrifice. Additionally I feel the story sort of just stopped rather than ended.

Nevertheless this was a great yarn set circa the Denny O’Neil run of Spidey and a companion piece to Otto’s origin from Unlim #3. In that sense it represents Doc Ock, unquestionably an indelible aspect of the Spidey mythos.

I feel cheated a little that we didn’t get to see Mary Alice but we did get more information on her nevertheless and the story was wonderfully meta. Otto in spite of being one of the most famous Spider-Man villain ever is one of the most inconsistent of all his rogue’s. The story takes advantage of that to explore a fundamental question of his sanity.

There was a brilliant retcon used to world build in the story too, specifically in establishing Otto’s ‘brain damage’ was in reality just his mind rewiring itself to operate his arms. The story’s conclusion is likely to rub some people the wrong way as they feel Otto is very much a MAD scientist, but I think the fact that he’s in fact someone terrible as opposed to simply going bad after a bump to the had renders him far more complex and compelling.

Aside from some tiny points of contention I’d rate this quite highly within the anthology and kind of wish it was turned into a canon comic book. 

[myevilmouse]

In Defense of The Rise of Skywalker

Or...how I learned to stop hating and enjoy a movie

Spoilers and random thoughts below the cut.

I hate the abomination that was/is The Last Jedi.  Let’s get that out of the way.  I’ve already explained the hundreds of reasons why, the biggest and most unforgivable being the character assassination of Luke “I call him Jake” Skywalker and the invalidation of every victory of the OT.  I resent this making people lump me into a “gatekeeper” sect, or accuse me of racism (Rose was annoying and ruined Finn’s heroism, jeopardizing hundreds of lives for her own selfish reasons without building up a convincing romance and blah blah etc).  It has nothing to do with her gender, race, or anything.  It has to do with poor character development and inconsistent motivations/messages. 

I’m also not a huge fan of The Force Awakens, mainly for its lack of originality and the treatment of Han/Leia, but otherwise I thought it was OK.  I liked Finn, wanted him to become a Jedi, found Poe to be a worthy heir to our antihero mold.  Rey left me indifferent and Kylo Ren was a temper-tantrum throwing teenager, but anyway...

Let’s keep that as background/context and not get bogged down.

Since they announced the title of this movie, I have been livid with rage. How dare they use my man’s name to sell their disgusting imitation of a beloved universe?  I was certain, ever since it was announced, that Rey would take Luke’s surname, despite having treated him so horribly in TLJ, despite having done nothing to earn it, despite having spent far more time with Leia, so if anything a Solo/Organa family name would make more sense.  It was just to sell tickets and I was furious.

I read all the spoilers.  Worst fears:  confirmed.  I looked at leaked photos.  I raged over the inanity of the plot and the sad conclusion to the Skywalker Saga, which in my mind will always end with ROTJ.

Still, I love Mark Hamill, and I decided to treat this film as a MH film. The completist in me required theatrical viewing.  Rare to get our man in a cinematic release.  So I went, ready to hate watch, prepared to dull the bitterness and betrayal with wine.

But….JJ Abrams directed a fix it fic.  And it’s good.  This film not just address the real injustices and horrible story decisions of TLJ, but also addresses some of the major problems of TFA too. 

I tried to go in with an open mind, but obviously I had many preconceived notions, and already knew almost every single story point and character beat.  I was ready to roll around in my hate and slam the abomination.  I want to emphasize that I am one of those people that was COMPLETELY prepared to hate EVERYTHING about this.

There are flaws. 

But there is so much that is great. 

I really really liked it. 

No one is more shocked than I at my own reaction.  I was ready/willing/wanting/primed to hate everything about this.  Please keep that in mind.  Hahah and no one is paying me to write this post 😉

I decided to write this because I also read all the negative critical reviews online from the pro critics yelling FAN SERVICE.  And I’m like…damn straight?  Ever since George Lucas made Han shoot second, fandom has understood that we understand this franchise better than film executives.  We aren’t concerned with adding an extra dewback or improving special effects.  We love these films the way we first experienced them, and they cannot and should not be “improved” to the ultimate detriment of the brand.

I’m here to tell you that the critics are not being fair.  The spoilers on reddit were true, but the movie works. Let’s accept, before we go further, that Abrams couldn’t entirely rewrite the mess that he stepped into/helped create. So I can’t defend the fact that Finn isn’t a Jedi yet or the mess that is the new Rebellion/failure of the old. I, like many fans, wish we had been given a different/better story from the beginning.  Sadly, we were not.

That is something we don’t have to accept (I certainly don’t consider these films “canon” in my mind—Mara Jade forever!) but let’s approach this film in the spirit it seems to be intended:  An attempt to address the very valid criticisms loudly voiced about the others in the trilogy, with the caveat that we are stuck with TFA and TLJ no matter how much we hate them.

First, the music is amazing, as we all knew it would be.  The acting is stellar.

Some of the things Abrams “fixed:”

“Rey is perfect/Mary Sue/good at everything”.  There is a conscious effort in this film to show her training, with Leia as her Master.  There is a good scene foreshadowing her final struggle, where she strains to hear the voices of Jedi past and fails.  There are several signs that she is not a Jedi yet, including how Palpatine talks about her, and perhaps my favorite, when she tells Leia she hasn’t earned Luke’s lightsaber.

Me: Damn straight you haven’t.

And Leia AGREES, keeping Luke’s weapon because Rey isn’t ready for it. She’s still learning.

Further proof of her non-Jedi status, when Rey is killed, she doesn’t join the Force.  She is a corpse.  On the other hand, Ben Solo, once redeemed, disappears as we would expect a good Jedi to do.  A clear distinction between the two of them.

And speaking of Leia:

Leia’s character:  TFA and TLJ Leia is weak and sends other people to fight, whereas our brave Princess from the OT is volunteering for suicide missions, grabbing weapons from the hands of her rescuers, and running into danger for a good cause.  It always bothered me that she didn’t go after Kylo herself (or with Han).  In this, we see her as a Jedi Master, training Rey, with her own lightsaber.  Leia is once more a badass, true to her character.  A legitimate Jedi who also joins the Force (although not sure why it took her so long post-mortem, that was weird).

Luke’s character:  Hello, I am A LUKE FANATIC.  The biggest sin of TFA and especially TLJ was this idea of Luke hiding out and becoming the disgusting, pessimistic coward he was shown to be.  Abrams ignores this pretty much entirely, starting with the revelation that Luke was actually going on missions with Lando to hunt for a Sith artifact to help the Rebellion.  Luke kept notes, he was busy and ACTIVE.  He wasn’t giving up; he was leaving a trail to help anyone who followed.  The best ‘fuck you’ in the whole movie was Luke catching Anakin’s lightsaber when Rey throws it away.  The ultimate rejection of his TLJ characterization.  

Luke’s conversation with Rey echoes very much the ROTJ “you must confront Vader” conversation.  There are many echoes of ROTJ but given the restrictions on what we are working with, I accepted this parallel.  Much like Luke had to face his unfortunate inheritance, so must Rey.  It’s not terribly original, but these films aren’t.

I also loved the simple line “I was wrong” when Rey asks why he did what he did in TLJ.  This to me is simply “Rian Johnson was wrong/The Last Jedi was wrong.”  There is no excuse that is acceptable, but this is a filmmaker acknowledging an injustice, and I appreciated it.  (Did I mention these films are not canon for me? They aren’t, just giving credit for this attempt.)

Han’s character:  I hated SO MUCH how they turned Han into a failure in TFA.  A buffoon, not even a good smuggler anymore, a failure as a father, a husband.  When I heard he was going to be in this I was like HUH?  But this “memory” of his father that Kylo Ren sees after Rey heals him and departs, after he’s lost his mother, is another attempt to redeem the injustice to Han’s character.  Han is the one in the movie who brings Kylo Ren back to the Light, not Rey.  It is a very short scene, but effective.  The acting is poignant, with the “Dad” working for me.  Maybe I’m a softie.  But I appreciated this brief proof that Han Solo, in the end, didn’t suck as a father, and ultimately, even as a hallucination, inspired the love that saved his son.

Chewbacca got a medal:  I said Abrams was fixing things in the sequels, but I admit I was choked up to see this fixit from A New Hope.  Finally Chewie gets the medal he is LONG overdue.

Team dynamic with the new characters:  Finally we understand why these people care about each other.  They go on shared adventures, they have banter (and some good jokes, not the stupid bathos of TLJ), and there is finally some sense of camaraderie that was discarded in TLJ.  There are several references to Rey’s “new family,” clearly referring to this band of Rebels, and it was far more compelling than in earlier films.

Finn’s Force Sensitivity:  I, like many, desperately wanted Finn to be a Jedi.  Since TFA, it seemed inevitable!  I loved how he used the lightsaber, how he seemed to have Force abilities (that were never really explored).  TLJ ignored that potential completely, sidelining him on that stupid Canto Bight quest and pulling him away from Rey.  There are so many signs that he is destined to be a Jedi in this film, I was thrilled to see them.  Knowing things without explanation, doing amazing things, sensing things, trusting his feelings, it’s another ‘fuck you’ in my opinion, to RJ for ignoring this former stormtrooper’s destiny in favor of overblown set pieces and pointless CGI theatrics.  When he says, towards the end “I can feel it,” I wanted to fist pump.  YOU GO BE A JEDI FINN!  THE FORCE IS WITH YOU.  Personally, I would have loved for Finn to be the main protagonist of all three films, but I appreciate us getting what we got, since we can’t get what we want.

Stuff that worked:

The Wedge cameo:  Yeah.

Lando:  Wonderful. His dialogue, especially at the beginning, does a lot to fix our view of Luke.

Kylo’s redemption:  See above re: Han.  I’ve seen a lot of criticism about the kiss.  I get the whole “female character’s purpose is to validate the evolution of the male” criticism, but I want to point out a couple things about this. First of all, it’s not a “Reylo” kiss. Kylo is gone.  This is well after Kylo is redeemed.  He’s been of the Light for a while before this, it’s clearly Ben at this point.  It’s also obvious Rey knows that, and like Luke forgave Vader for his abuse, she forgives Ben Solo for his.  So I understand also the criticism that is making people puke about Rey kissing her abuser, but again, Luke sheds tears for the father he loves, who maimed and traumatized him.  Star Wars is about redemption and forgiveness that accompanies it, and I don’t have the same issue with this.  If she kissed KYLO without him being redeemed before he died, for example, I would be disgusted.  This is not that.

The cinematography/pacing/story:  So many critics and the spoilers made it sound like this was a convoluted mess.  I went to see it with a non-native English speaker and neither of us had any trouble following the plot.  Yeah, a lot happens, but it all is linear and consistent within the film.

The humor/dialogue:  Felt way more Star Wars-y and better placed than the last two films.

The Jedi Helping Rey:  As much as I thought I would hate this, it was really well done, largely, I think, due to the foreshadowing during her earlier training.  When Palpatine says all the Sith live in him and we know what she’s gonna say but it still works SO WELL.  I was rooting for her and I’ve never been a huge fan.  But at that climactic moment, I was a believer.

Major flaws

Of course there are some.  For me the most major:

A Jedi Strikes Not In Anger: In every single lightsaber battle (pretty sure, I only saw the film once), Rey is the first to strike.  She always seems to be fighting from anger and with negative emotion.  This is not at all Jedi-esque and I found it particularly jarring in her duels with Kylo Ren.  This bothered me more than almost anything else in the film because it is never addressed.  She fights ANGRY and she fights FEARFUL and then somehow when she’s supposed to strike down Palpatine, she has it in her to resist.  This, above all else, makes me not like her as the “heir to the Jedi”.  I thought it was a real problem, and makes her ultimate evolution at the finale less convincing.

Rey Skywalker:  I get why they did it, but I stand by my earlier thoughts regarding taking the Solo or Organa name.  I have nothing against adopted families.  And I found it SLIGHTLY more palpable because since the Emperor refers to Ben as “the last Skywalker” and then since he transfers his entire life force into her, you can argue that she has “Skywalker” literally in her spirit now.  OK fine.  But I still don’t really think she earned it.  She came CLOSER than I thought she would and I didn’t ultimately want to burn down the cinema as I expected I would want to.

Force Resurrection:  No. Just no.  This changes so much and makes so much of the earlier films moot. Why wouldn’t Anakin just resurrect Padme?  Don’t get me started.

Other random new Force things:  Like Force Ghosts touching shit.  Yeah I know Obi Wan sat on the tree in Dagobah, I know, but we keep learning new and more powerful Force shit each film.  Teleportation of objects (that lightsaber?!), astral projection, rapid healing, and now playing catch with your ghost friends.  I get they are important to the story but it feels lazy.  But my exception here was Luke catching the saber because FUCK YOU RJ. 😊

Redemption=Death:  I wanted Kylo Ren to die for his sins too, but I recognize this strange thing we have going on in the GFFA that if a baddie goes good they die.  It’s the equivalent of the horror movie “fuck and the killer gets you” trope.  I didn’t necessarily mind Ben dying, but it seemed … lazy.

The final shot:  It was a mistake to even touch this iconic moment.  It wasn’t earned.  Make your own legend/iconic moment and leave my farmboy his.

Something no one can fix:  The sucky destinies of Luke Jake, Han, and Leia.  They didn’t live happy lives, they didn’t see the end of tyranny, they all died with only the hope of success.  I will never forgive the attempted destruction of the legacy of the OT (attempted cause it’s still how it all ends in my world), this disregard of the triumph of the Rebellion over the Empire, and I will never believe that the New Republic failed so completely and miserably.  Bring on the EU/Legends and forget this shit.

Final thought:  I went to this expecting the cinematic equivalent of a back alley abortion and instead I got what felt like an apology.  An entertaining and polished and sincere apology.  We deserved better, and I think the people who made this film realized that and did their best.  TROS had to wrap up something that was divisive and imperfect and misguided, and tried as hard as it could, in my opinion, given what they were working with.

It was a good movie.  Ambitious, with flaws, but I am glad I saw it, and I hope you will be too. <3  May the Force be with you.

[co-mixed]

What’s wrong with the characters in TROS

Obviously, Spoilers.

None of the characters were treated properly in this movie. And, before we go one by one, there are some things to consider. First and foremost, Rian Johnson went deep with trying to understand what each one of them would do and why. So, in a way, he’s given JJ the perfect outline of what they should do next. The only thing he had to do is listen. But somewhere it went wrong, so we went back to one dimensional archetypes, lifted straight from the OT. More mythical, less human, more standard, less unique. Let’s take a look.

Finn

Let’s face it, if and when somebody really stole John Boyega’s script, the only thing they found there was the line “Rey” randomly scheduled for different points in the movie. There is an attempt to make up for that with Force-sensitivity, but that’s a hint that you just don’t drop in the last movie of a trilogy. And that’s what TROS is supposed to be, a finale to the two movies that came before. And with Finn’s complete lack of knowledge or understanding of the Force that we’ve seen in the comics or books, it really has no place there. Where was that famous story group? Maybe taking a day off.

Finn has nothing to do in the movie, since there was no story for him. He just tagged along with Rey or Poe, became a general through nepotism, even though there were much more experienced people for that job, and ultimately, he was just there as a plot device several times.

Rose

That’s one of the worst cases. JJ spent a lot of time saying how glad he is to Johnson that he’s cast Kelly. Then he simply didn’t write a story for her either. Because you know, galaxy is not a place for a righteous optimistic girl. (Unless she’s a Palpatine)

And I would’ve written more, but well… it was wrong and that’s just it.

Poe

Poe already has a backstory. So what do you do? As a writer, you try to understand how to work his guilt from TLJ into TROS. But as someone who’s trying their best to undo TLJ, you just throw it all away and play off of similarities with Han. He’s charismatic, shoots well, flies well. Done, make him a smuggler. The whole unnecessary retcon kind of might work for general audience, since most people never learned anything from his past. With TLJ they’ve learned who he is now, but did they even need more? He already went through all the needed changes, to get him to lead the rebellion.

The only in-character moment was his rant at Rey, where he says that she is the best fighter, and they need her.

The most out of character moment is him blaming his so-called friends for being an ex-stormtrooper and a Scavenger. Man, you chose to do that, they were forced into it.

Zorii

Why was she even there? Nepotism maybe? Cool costume? Merchandise? I don’t know, but she was not there to serve the story.

Allegiant General Pryde

Pretty much the same thing as Zorii.

Hux

Poor character. I mean, really. He was a fanatic of the First Order, of the Empire, and all the evil regimes. This was pretty well pictured up to the point when one brave writer decided that his hate for the newly self proclaimed Supreme Leader is stronger than his hate for… let’s call it lack of Order. It seemed from his story, that he’d be the first in line to pledge allegiance to the Emperor. But surprises never cease in TROS. Not for a moment. Also, JJ deals with him in a matter of minutes. Done, and done. Next.

Jannah

What a cool character, for a show or a spin off. She has potential, I’ll give her that. Naomi Ackie is likable enough to carry her own show. But there was no need for her in TROS. Partly because it’s way too late for new characters, and partly because she’s also not given much to do. That mumbo-jumbo about the Force and troopers defecting, that’s a nice sentiment. But also could have been done by any random trooper.

Leia

Let’s not talk about her being in the movie, let’s stay on character topic. Her Jedi training was just a very random last minute concept, probably straight out of Legends. And she could’ve just as well been giving Rey pep talks or reach Ben without it. So that’s more of a “just why” moment. The part would have been the same, the lightsaber wouldn’t have existed, but that is still very fixable.

Palpatine/Snoke/All the Sith

Just why would you even bring him back? Anakin brought balance, killing him, got his redemption, taught the audience the primitive rule that only death is truly redeeming (which worked fine in the 70s), and Palpatine died. But then he was back because reasons, and we don’t need to see how or why. He also now is All-the-Sith-in-One, and very very powerful. Apparently, at least one character spends their off screen time learning. So… good for him?

If they wanted ancient evil, I’d rather they went with Plagueis. He could’ve seen the rise and fall of the Empire, he could’ve fooled death and he could’ve easily fooled his apprentice along with Kylo and obviously Rey.  It even works perfectly within the concept of balance where “Darkness rises, and Light to meet it”.

To be even more honest, I’d prefer that TROS was just concluding the trilogy, without bringing up old bad guys. There is still plenty of those in the next-gen.

Rey/All-The-Jedi

As every imaginable critic has already stated, one of the most inspiring messages of The Last Jedi was “you could come from nothing and become something”. And this way Rey would have been a perfect representation to any girl of how you build yourself with the help of your friends. That is what fairy tales are usually about. That or space princesses, heirs to Palpatine, who, we have to believe, had a son. At this point it would be way better if the stranger on Pasaana did randomly name her Solo (imagine that).

But my verdict is that Rey’s story in this movie wasn’t necessary, and was a rehashed story of Kylo Ren. Think about it, he was fighting the light in his bloodline, and tried every imaginable thing to destroy it, but still couldn’t. Not that it’s a bad idea, it’s just that we’ve seen in already in 2015. The character had a clear path ahead of her after TLJ, but again, she was forced into a completely different story. Just because she wants to be a Jedi really bad, doesn’t mean that she is immune to the Dark Side, because she’s not immune to fear. One scary vision of her on the Dark Side, and that’d be enough. Not to shoot lightning, but to go a bit dark, effectively pushing her adversary closer to the Light. And that would’ve been fine.

But she had to be All-The-Jedi instead, didn’t she. Funny how that’s now a thing, and we still have separate Force Ghosts of Luke and Leia (but not a certain Solo). This whole things falls apart, and if someone just reread the story at least once the day after it was finished, they would see it.

Somehow, the movie comes down to Palpatime defeating a Palpatine, and Skywalkers were in this Saga there for the show.

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo/The last Skywalker

His story feels fairly well done, except for a few moments. Because in TLJ, hу killed Snoke, we were lead to believe that he would come into his own. We also know what a nerd he is, so he probably has some knowledge of who Palps is, and how his kind operates. Now when he delivers the line “I killed Snoke, I’ll kill you”, I believe him. When he starts asking questions, I don’t. And that’s because it’s written, it’s there on paper, but that’s something the character refused to do willingly.

This happens a few times, and probably the cringiest of them all is when the writer forces him to say that Rey is a Palpatine. Because that’s the first time we hear that out loud, and aside from thinking “No-nо-no not that”, we experience a case of disbelief. That’s not how we wanted this to go, and that’s not how the story was supposed to work.

Then there are wonderful scenes with Rey and with Han, the ones we were always supposed to get, and then the awaited redemption. That was the story, the one that resonates with his character. What does not is what happens after — yeah, the pit. The last Skywalker spends his final battle, the destiny of his bloodline in the pit, while the Jedi choose to support Rey.

His death is another choice that I deem unnecessary, and a bit lazy. You need to live with your mistakes and learn to forgive yourself, while working through your issues. But sure, death it is.

Overall

Probably the biggest mistake of this movie is letting a Palpatine take the Skywalker name, and letting the last Skywalker be pretty much forgotten. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Rey’s supposed bloodline defines her, but it just doesn’t sit well with me. She’s lost someone important, a soulmate, and so many fans felt the loss, imagine how she supposed to feel. Her next stage would be Dark Side, because she by no means can live with that. And that’s far from a hopeful message.

A happy ending for this space fairy tale would’ve been the only reasonable choice.

[roxannepolice]

Long asks anon again, here to offer my opinion on the current wank. Rey as a character is rather blatantly breaking sw story rules and nothing is going to get SFF fans hackles up like rule breakage. This is root of both the MarySue accusations and current wank. Rey has a tragic backstory thats doubling as the only failure she can call her own. But its a) damn near entirely offscreen and b) serves as convenient justification for why shes competent at near everything that comes up.

Reys instantly good at the force because of a convenient force download that to the best of my knowledge only occured in the noncanon KOTOR II and quite frankly cant blame most of the general audience for not getting because without prior knowledge or the novelizations why would they? She has darkness in her but as so far used and touched it consequence free and its almost entirely symbolically externalized on the Kylo (and in SW symbolism is Real in a way it isnt in other narratives) Shes strong in the force because Light rises to meet Dark but to quote the current crop of movies ‘thats not how the force works) or at least thats never how it worked before. Shes the first SW protagonist to go behind enemy lines and come out with both hands in the second movie. For ppl wondering how come Luke and Ani never get labeled MarySues, this is why, they got thier asses handed to them, Rey hasnt. There /is/ something /off/ in Reys story, and ppl pick up on it. if you can make a post (w/ over 1k notes!) about how great it is that a character meant to prop up 7hrs worth of movies has little to no character development to go through, somethings off. If multiple ppl can make posts about how its neat Rey can tap into the darkside (still characterized as evil in ST) consequence free (with some quite frankly stupid justifications, 'shes disciplined’ really? jedi lacked a lot of things thats not one of them) somethings off and again, if the only failure your main heroine has is /entirely retroactive something’s off/. If the story were getting with the is the story most ppl think we are, a 'female empowerment’ (i dont feel particularly empowered by being told I have an equal chance at being a deus ex machina but ok) than well, her story is over and theres no need for IX (hell it could have been over in TFA, most ppl assumed she had accepted her place as the future jedi in that one) and no need for reylo The ST was always gonna deconstruct all that came before it purely by virtue of being a sequel. The tragedy of anakin skywalker is now a farce, the happy ot ending now a tragedy, and the mythopoetic structure shot to shit in the name of serialization and perpetual warfare. this stand true for all the sequel characters including rey and ben. the only question is are we going to get anything out of it? I compare it to home renovation. You can knock out a wall and the walls gone, but new opportunities arise. With Benlo, I’m reasonably confident that there will be at least some attempt to take advantage of the new space. With rey and the resistance kids? not so much. it just feels like they knocked down a blue wall to rebuild it as pink one and at the point it just feels like a waste of time because ive seen this before. Ive seen pure cinnamon roll desert orphan reform jedi order If this was all youre going to do that the fuck was the point? which circles around to my problem with team good guy this go around and That Scene. JJ twisted the story into a pretzel to justify the winners of the last round being the underdogs again and then rian twisted so much further the storys head may as well be up its own ass. And then at the very end he shoots it all to shit and rushes to reassure us its all gonna be okay. He removes the entire point of the underdog trope /the tension that comes from the fact that they might lose/. I mean there wasnt a whole lot of that to begin with already but really? So theres no tension that Reys gonna win so her journey feels frictionless, and theres no question where shes gonna end up so full offense why give a shit? Thats where the whole 'can rey lose a fight?’ thing comes from. Ppl want conflict in her arc to justify its existence and give us a reason why this her story to begin with. if the only character going through growth for all three movies is ben, if the only characters whos fate is up in the air is ben, and if all the tension in the reylo relationship comes from ben, then why is this /reys story/? why not just make it about the character actually driving all the drama and thus, the story?   As a final thought, im going to add that having Kylo be aware and insecure that hes never gonna be as Iconic as Vader was a great story choice, regardless of where ends up. Current Rebels, on the other hand, seems to have not gotten the memo that they are never gonna be as iconic as Original Rebels, and the story itself seems to being trying to sell them to me as being better. Rey is Luke but better, Poe/Finn are Han wo the smuggler grit, and id be lying if i said it didnt piss me off.

&

Long asks anon to kick down ur door again, AND ANOTHER THING. SW is a lotta things. Subtle aint one of them, and St hasnt changed in that regard. If you have to debate it chances are either a) ur arguing counter to the text in which case mor power to you but not really helpful for predictions or intended meaning or b) /it aint there. A bunch of ppl didnt like anidala, but nobody doubted we were supposed to think they were in love by the end of AOTC, bunch of ppl didnt like poes arc, but no one doubts he fucked up by not listening to holdo was the intended take away. Which brings to rey and flaws or lack there of. Were told rey has flaws but she has yet to suffer any real consequences from them with the exception of The Damn Parentage Wank, which again, pulls the double duty of making her hyper competent at everything. Because rey has no consequences for her flaws, from a story function pov there aren’t any. If rey did have a flaw to overcome, we would all agree what it was

Now won’t you all just look at this beautiful, spot on rant which has been lagging in my askbox since the last time Rey’s flaws or lack thereof were the discourse’s focus (November, I believe?) and suddenly became a thing again, courtesy of Tweetgate. I think you really summed up the crux of this debate wonderfully, anon.

I particularly agree with the part about Rey not getting narratively punished for whatever flaws we’d like her to have (great point about returning from behind the enemy lines with both arms still in place), when SW don’t stay away from allowing characters to get “punished” even for otherwise applaudable features - vide Padmé, whose idealism is what Palps manipulates into gaining more power (this is why Padmé will never come off as a Mary Sue or too perfect, btw). But I’ll say even more - Rey doesn’t even get called out on her flaws, except for by Ben, who’s mostly dismissed as a baddie like Palpatine saying Luke was foolish to rely on his friends. Let’s just consider one thing - both Anakin and Luke get called out on their flaws by Yoda (Anakin repeatedly and by lots of other people for that matter) whereas with Rey, the same grumpy-yet-jolly senex pops up from the afterlife to further inform us what a great jedi material she is.

TBH, I have a very cynical theory as to why Rey is being pushed as the main character while it’s difficult to deny that it’s Kylo Ben who does all the plot heavy lifting. I’m pretty sure Ben’s arc was the first one DLF thought out (and the big question is, was it the only one they thought out) and only later on decided to make Rey the main character, which also involved much less spontaneous writing. Mind you, it’s not as if benepemption didn’t have a manufactured subtaste to it, but with Rey’s heroine’s journey stiff structure occasionally substitutes any in-world explanations of her actions (this is why I have to hope renperor has some narrative purpose rather than happening because lovers need to be separated and anti-hero needs to achieve what he wanted in 2nd act). I feel as if whatever potential her character had (and hopefully still has, pending IX) got smothered by layer upon layer of making her likable by everyone, which largely relied on negative characterization: she’s not helpless, she’s not too naive, not cynical, not too emotional, not too emotionless, not morally corruptible, not anything you’ve ever complained about regarding any SW character, not falling for the bad boy, not not not - and in the end it’s kinda difficult to say what Rey is like and while the goal of making her widely likable was achieved, it also made it almost impossible to view her as loveably flawed/annoying like the classic characters. And on top of all this is the matter of making her a nobody just like you!, as DLF appears to say with uncle Sam’s gesture (which also kinda assumes the existence of a Star Wars fan as some uniform entity? because if you identify with her, good for you, I just don’t understand why the franchise assumes I’ll identify with her by the grace of being a SW fan alone), because, as you excellently put it, the message here is that everyone can be chosen by God - which again, it’s not as if the saga ever contradicted this, so why the hell make a case of it? I can’t agree that it’s made into Rey’s flaw, though, imo her low birth only serves to further frame her as an oppressed virtue. And I definitely agree regarding too much of her growth being left off-screen, or before the story ever begins. The problem here isn’t even that it is left off-screen (it’s not as if we had huge insight into any of the pt or ot characters) but rather that her characterizations is left off-screen while being depicted as at least untypical (unique to put it bluntly) for her situation (same goes for Finn). A hopeful, kind person growing up on her on her own in slavery under a nicer name is a rarity and DLF makes a case for it being a rarity - and this sparks up curiosity in her past, as if market pandering to Re/sky wasn’t enough. So from this pov her un-reveal being frustrating isn’t just a case of not wanting to love her or her self only a potentially deeper psychological question getting answered with well, light.

I should add, Ben’s arc feels like the most spontaneous one (though Finn’s may yet be a masterpiece) and he’s the one to admit his fear of not living up to Vader’s legacy, because I think he’s the character serving as the creators’ vessel, more or less like Luke was Lucas’ avatar in ot. In his fear regarding Vader’s legacy one can feel Disney’s fear due to having bought popculture’s holy grail and not being entirely sure what to do with it. On this background, Rey (a literal scavenger of OT’s pieces) and rebels 2.0 repeatedly blessed by Leia come off as what DLF would want to be. And the result is that the character which was supposed to be Vader 2.0 proves the most original and surprising one, whereas “breaths of fresh air” come off as room aromatizers with “fresh” written on them.

And as far as the plot being bended into a pretzel and then disappearing up it’s own ass, well, a part of me is still hoping that taking virtually the same villains as before is a mythological-psychoanalitical metaphor of a nigredo repeating itself until the unconscious gets accepted by the conscious…. but, tbh, as the leaks flow this hope is withering.

[covairelilith-blog]

Rules

Welcome to my indie blog. Encase you just accidentally stumbled upon my blog or have found me through mutual partners, then hello! So, I’m just gonna lay down a few things and then we can take off from there.

First off, hello I’m Marie. Old enough who will smut. But I am up for other relationships. But, if you or your FC is under 18, I am not going to smut with you. End of story.

This is I think my first attempt so bare with me.

Rule Number One With me: I am busy. And I can be very very slow when it comes to replies. I rarely ever miss replies, but if you think that I have just shoot me a message and I will hop to it. Promise. And I also work, so give me time.

I try to please everyone and try not to start drama. So please, if OOC drama ever occurs do not bring it into IC things. That’ll just make me worry and make me not want to rp. Sorry, but i’m not gonna sugarcoat it.

I would like to create creative plots for my characters and would like to make sure the boys and girls get an equal amount of time spent on both.

I’m open to anything really. Whether it be AUs, Crackships, Ships in general, family backgrounds. I’m just gonna be glad that you want to interact with me.

Ahhhhm, you can reach me through my inbox or if I gain a good friendship with you  I can give you my AIM.

That’s really all I can think about at the moment…

Le Disclaimer

These are all characters of my creation, and unless said otherwise.

I do not claim to be the face-claims (the actors and models) of the characters, nor am I affiliated with them.

There may be triggering content in the future (mainly violence), but they will be tagged and put under a read-more if necessary.

I don’t mean to cause anyone distress or emotional damage, I will never attack the rper personally, and please note: the character is not the writer.

Happy Writing Everyone.

[blue-mint-winter]

Star Wars doesn’t learn from the past mistakes: LOTF and Sequel Trilogy

I already talked about how The Last Jedi is the opposite extreme of Legacy of the Force book series, now belonging to the non-canon Legends. There is a similarity in premise of both of them - set about 30 years after OT, a son of Han and Leia fashions himself after Vader and kills a family member to complete his turn to the Dark Side. This is a very general resemblance and the details of the circumstances in both stories are vastly different, from the villain’s motivation to the series attitude towards Jedi. To me however, it’s absolutely startling how sequel trilogy makes the same mistakes that LOTF made.

1. Round Robin

Both sequel trilogy and LOTF are passed from author to author. In LOTF there was an attempt at a general outline agreed between the writers, while Sequels don’t even have that, but in both cases this form of storytelling leads to big inconsistencies in the works, especially in characterization. TLJ doesn’t feel as much of a sequel to TFA as its own movie. Rian Johnson admitted there was no agreed plot and that he wrote his own screenplay before he even saw TFA. In LOTF’s case may I remind you all Karen “never read a Star Wars book that she didn’t write” Traviss and Troy “forced prequelization which makes no sense in 30 ABY and total disregard of EU continuity” Denning? Every author is pushing their own vision without much care to making the whole a cohesive story.

2. Unlimited Power

The authors in both got handed a lot of “creative liberty”. Rian Johnson said how surprised he was at his freedom to do whatever he wanted. Even if he faced opposition about some of his choices he could safely disregard it. The Story Group which was supposed to make sure the canon is unified and everything fits together completely dropped the ball. With LOTF, it was basically a Troy Denning show with his vision being the deciding factor, further reinforced by the fact that he always got to write the third, ending book in every cycle of the nine-book series. Many times I wondered if anyone was reading these books before allowing them to be published. Anyway, in both cases it looks like TPTB just told the authors: “make up some shit, I don’t care, you can go nuts”. And they did.

3. Plot over character

I mentioned inconsistency in characterization, right? So in TLJ it’s the most evident, because it looks like all the characters took a stupid pill so that the contrived plot could even take place. There’s nothing organic about their behaviour, they just acted as they needed for the plot to happen. And this is the exact same thing that happened ALL the time in LOTF, constantly. Jacen’s turn to the Dark Side which wouldn’t have happened if his character arc from NJO wasn’t conveniently forgotten and Mara’s actions leading to her death are the prime examples.

4. Characters as mouthpieces of the authors

One of the greatest sins is when you know the character wouldn’t say something, because it doesn’t suit their personality or their knowledge. Instead they act as the author’s mouthpieces, spouting the author’s views. Karen Traviss did that regularly, making the characters worship Mandalorians or say anti-Jedi propaganda. Troy Denning liberally used Luke, Han or Leia to condemn “Jacen”, also his pet character Saba was his mouthpiece. In TLJ, it’s clear that when Kylo tells Rey “you’re nothing, what did you think? that your parents were important? They were just some random drunks”, he’s not really speaking to Rey who never said she thought that her parents were important. Kylo was obviously Rian Johnson’s avatar speaking straight to the audience, mocking them for having fallen for the “Rey parentage theories” trap. Many times when Luke Skywalker opened his mouth to mock the Jedi, his past, being a hero and everything that was ever good in Star Wars, it didn’t feel like something the real Luke would ever say. That was Rian Johnson speaking through him.

5. Destruction of the old without giving anything new in return

In both cases, there’s a deliberate cannibalization of what had been built up in previous works without offering anything new in return. LOTF destroyed the EU established characters like Jacen and Mara, among others, to prop up Big Three, so they could stay main characters forever. Even the covers showed them much younger looking than they should have been at this point in their lives. Unfortunately, the values and core messages of OT were also lost to this destruction. In Sequels, we have right off the bat the denial of the final OT victory with the return of Empire as the First Order. The New Republic we’ve never ever seen is destroyed and the characters of Big Three are regressed, ignoring their character arcs from OT. This trend was continued in TLJ with its nihilistic outlook that nothing matters, for example Jedi training doesn’t matter because Rey can do anything without it anyway. Established rules of the universe don’t matter, which invalidates all the continuity, because if ghost Yoda can shoot lightning why didn’t he do that to Palpatine before? Both LOTF and Sequels really love to bring back those old characters and just kill them - see Ackbar or Coruscant World Brain (dhuryam), Han and Lumiya. Instead of building the new, the series are more concerned with bringing back the old so they can destroy it. And it’s not good and leads nowhere.

[the-firebird69]

ad he lives in  a rough world tough pplhad killers and so on...tons of it ad joe a big leadr..he is mean insensitive  a lot but has plot and theme and it is killer man it is killer an you fag macs dont see ad qe wrote tons of messages you ignored all you syou lose and you fart it out and say soand move along like cows grazing and i see why nobody can prove his exist and the faggot of all fags went to th quarry and the huge fag the dumb onnes even mined openly and used huge trucks made hisses like mad this is so piss poor okthis is badthey hid so easily we are so forgiving nice anal and mean all at one time cant thnk if someone paid us now we want to see this right...act it...dopes this is hell these ride to live as they aere onlyo gien that choice as you higher up macs give me this blows he is right we go to boston see it and wonder why are we here oh toget her outand we see cork he is the ass he is there shooting ppl taking themin and we hit his day and night nee dammo now qe2 you mcs should be asahmed and really she is not repping only macdonald... she is my grandmas sister and deserves respect for what they did foryou...and pay and attnetion...ad im ont for a big win but cork is an unmutable disaster for me life in povertya threat really...and his math is shit....she tried for me the college try qe2 the team but hey be ashamed, think on hte embarrassment in  front of earth your turd hitting your leaders,  china is sharpening fishknives adn they sing it to the tree tops thse hit thier own...cork isnt them. Zues Hera we see. embarrassing and an embarrassment.  a shock tothe system would be ot flatten the jive turkeys and he is our white nigger ont yours so we see, he eats her up and us...embarrassing so we hit htis white nigger cork mac2 and im still tipsy but konw about it we hit him now iminundated but yes we are shamedby our white nigger who is cork Darth Vader and he clls it like it is that is why the caps we cant he knows but i am in mac2 lets ahve it ok we go now to boston and we are big beans cork says has him say...we are big hitters now ok we wont there once win again andhere too asshole cork preston joe im tired ofbeing embarrassed w e f you up cork joe again we see we hit too and watch for sure cork is a nightmare as is bja we hit thema ll too lets go get these losers they ruiend earth for all ti is time we meet briefly outside you can meat inside...and we call it a name.  he says it anti xenocidal retarded...and ti will hold Thor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E

[the-wavesinger]

Okay, so I watched TLJ last night, and I need to write my thoughts down ASAP. (Yuletide comments are coming, dearest authors, I just need to get this out first :D.)

(The Last Jedi spoilers under the cut)

Okay, so I really, really loved this. I was kind of worried based on the spoilers I read (I spoiled myself very very thoroughly before watching the film) but I loved it. I actually spent the entire time after the intermission either sobbing or holding back tears.

That being said, the story felt very...condensed? It felt like there were three different movies in there, honestly, and I would’ve liked it if there was more time and space given for the characters to grow. Even just like ‘and then time passed’ time, because the entire Poe + Finn + Rose storyline happened in, what, less than two days? The timelines felt way compressed.

First: Luke. LUKE. I cried so much I literally blurred up my glasses and couldn’t see the screen at his death (and I'd spoiled myself like crazy and was expecting it too). And I cried at almost everything Leia did, because Carrie Fisher ):. (And I was such a mess at Leia’s line--no-one is truly gone or something like that. I know she meant Kylo, but then the Luke thing happened and he’s probably going to be a Yoda-style Force ghost and I couldn’t stop thinking about Carrie help I’m crying again.) Luke Skywalker is dead and I just...I can’t even imagine. And I’m 99% sure Leia is going to die in the next film and it is going to break my heart. And just...Luke. Oh Luke.

Also, has anyone made a ‘Wait For It’ vid for Leia yet? Because if that song ever fit a person it would fit her. 'I've lost too much', 'I can't take another loss'. BREAK MY HEART WHY DON'T YOU.

Speaking of which, Leia/Holdo. God I ship Leia/Holdo, and honestly their last scene together is  just heartbreaking and wonderful and all the shipfuel. I want a lot of words on their relationship and backstory and the two of them working together for the Rebellion, please.

And Luke and Leia! I love the two of them sensing each other from across the galaxy (and in Leia’s case when she’s in a coma), and their reunion is everything, with Leia finally losing hope and giving up and Luke making a choice to stop giving up and appearing just as Leia needs him. Aaargh, that reunion was so beautiful and I’m glad they got their time together. And tbh I ship Luke/Leia even more now. (Forehead kisses! Sensing each other and each others’ deaths in the Force!)

I love Luke and I love his storyline, and as much as it breaks my heart to see how he falls and breaks and makes mistakes, I love his bitterness and his guilt and self-recrimination, and I love that he’s tied to the idea of the Jedi even if it’s the idea that Jedi fail, and he has to let go of that so that he can help Rey.

Also, Han/Luke ship has fuel added to the fire, because yeah. Yeah. Break my heart why don’t you Rian Johnson, with Luke’s grief for Han being so obvious.

Finn! Okay, I loved Finn a ridiculous amount in this and it was my favourite of the character arcs. I love how he goes from staying with the Resistance for the people he loves to being completely, utterly dedicated to the Resistance, to the point that he’s willing to die for it, and I love that he has to see more of the galaxy and see more of what is truly wrong with the First Order to commit so firmly to the Resistance. 

Phasma is...ehh. I like her cool armour, but she’s wasted potential. I’m sad the movie didn’t do more with her (less Hux more Phasma please, because I was completely and utterly bored to death by Hux, he's such a non-entity).

I love the role Rose plays in Finn’s growth and I love how Finn believes in Rose and gives her room to do her thing, and I love that they just both somehow...find each other (and Finn being stunned by Rose is pure love). They’re both people who, like Rey, come from nothing, but they’re still important because they’re the lifeblood of the Resistance, and because they’re people, and I lovelovelove that message. Their kiss at the end was very very sweet and I love Rose crashing into Finn to stop his suicide mission. I want to know all the things about Rose now, about them working their way out of the casino planet, about her childhood and making her way into the Resistance. I am a sucker for angsty backstory and the new trilogy is delivering very well so far.

(Also, I ship Rose/her sister. Just saying. That pendant...)

And speaking of Finn, I didn’t expect to like Finn/Rose, but I do. It’s so so adorable, and I love it. I like it as shippyness and I like it as friendship and I just love the two of them ridiculously. Please no Rose/Finn/Rey love triangle, though, that would ruin a lot of things for me. I love Finn/Rey, I love Finn/Rose, but I don’t love a love triangle.

And I love that Finn and Rey care for each other so much, and I love their reunion, which was ridiculously sweet and adorable and I love the two of them so so much okay.

Poe! Yeah, I’m getting definite Hamilton and Washington vibes from Poe and Leia, and I love it. History Has Its Eyes On You and Right-Hand Man for the two of them, Y/Y?

Anyway, I ship it. I didn’t before but I do now. I love that he’s reckless and young and impatient and that he’s wrong. And I love that he’s wrong and he learns, and he learns because Leia gives him the chance to learn. (I’d like to think that Leia sees something of herself in him :D.) I basically love everything about their relationship, how there’s clear affection between them but Leia isn’t afraid to dress Poe down if necessary. Gen or ship, I am here with bells on.

Poe/Finn: I swear Oscar Isaac doesn’t play this guy as heterosexual. They have crazy chemistry (Finn, naked? Oh, Poe), and they didn’t really interact much onscreen but Poe was basically eyefucking Finn whenever they did, and I love how much trust they have in each other.

Also, yes I loved Poe meeting Rey and now I ship Poe/Finn/Rey.

Holdo! Okay, I loved her character, and I love her look, and I wish she wasn’t dead. (Her dedication to the Light, her willingness to sacrifice herself. Gah.) I also love that the Rebellion’s top command is made up of three women in this movie, and older women too!

Some of her choices were...baffling. Like, the entire crew of the ship was discontent and close to mutiny, why didn’t she give them at least the outlines of a plan? But also Poe was wrong and wrong in a bigger way than her (I love you Poe but boy you fucked up), and I am very firmly Team Nobody on this wank. (Or rather, Team Poe/Holdo, because I came out of this film with lots of shipping needs.)

I saved Rey for last because, well, I love how Daisy Ridley plays her and I love her Rey very very much, but I found her plot to be the weakest of the film. Maybe that’s because I want an entire film of Rey learning and training, but I would’ve loved more of her storyline, more room for her to grow, and I’m disappointed she didn’t get it.

That being said, I do like how she’s earnest and determined and feels the call of the Dark, and I love that she says no. Even when it’s tempting, even when she’s being offered everything she says no.

And I love her idealism and her belief that Kylo can be saved (pet peeve: I’m annoyed that the movies canonized Ben SOLO it’s Ben Organa dammit) despite everything, even despite the fact that he’s killed Han. Kylo himself is one big blob of blah to me (whiny manchildren with temper issues aren’t my favourite thing), but I love Rey’s compassion for him despite him killing Han.

Also, I love the subversion of the ‘heroine saves bad boy’ trope. It would have hit a lot of nopes for me if Rey had actually managed to save him, . I do think he’s going to be redeemed in the next film (he didn’t, couldn’t, shoot Leia! I love that despite how he was able to kill Han face-to-face he wasn’t able to kill Leia from afar, and I’m very interested in seeing more of that relationship! And also the gold dice), but I also think that’s going to be from him than because Rey’s doing the emotional work for him, and I will be here for that very, very much. 

(And I get why people saw Reylo in this film. For me, Rey’s rejection of him was too utterly, completely final for me to ship it, but boy do I get why people saw this, and I’m v. sad I’m not into Kylo, because if I wasn’t so blah on him this would have the makings of My Kind Of Ship. Although if there’s Force  pregnancy for Rey in the next film I will actually kill someone.)

(Also, the criticisms that Rey is overpowered are stupid. The fight scene after Kylo kills Snoke, for examples, shows how much raw power she has but how much finesse she lacks compared to Kylo. They’ve actually done a really good job of making her power as realistic as it can be in the SW verse.)

And I love alllll the OT throwbacks, and more than that, I love how they used them to turn the narrative on its head. Seriously, I want to watch the film again just to catch the multiple times they’ve used OT callbacks to change the narrative (like, the entire capture/throne room scene which doesn’t lead to Kylo’s redemption? The shots of Poe clearly staged like the first Death Star shots with Luke but not leading to Poe being a big damn hero but to him being stupid? The attack on the mineral planet which is basically Hoth 2.0 minus snow, but it doesn’t end the way Hoth ends at all, but in a much worse shape? Luke and Yoda and everything about that, and how Luke was actually better than Yoda at teaching and it was his fear of failure that made him suck?

And I love the message of the film, that your blood isn’t important, that it doesn’t matter if you come from nowhere, you’re still someone. And that it’s people who matter, not winning the day (and I love that it’s Leia who’s ultimately the main carrier of this message). And I also love how what looks like a fruitless mission--Finn’s and Rose’s--is implied to cause the best hope they have for the future. And I love that it looks like we’re coming a full circle right back to the beginning again.

Also, for once, someone has done their research. I love Star Wars, but in the PT especially the Jedi were frankly offensive stereotypes. Someone’s done their research to make this less of a fuck-you to Buddhism, and I appreciate that very much. I adore that they went down the ‘Jedi cling too much to tradition instead of people’ route rather than the ‘BURN THE JEDI DOWN’ route. (And honestly are my exact opinions on the current state of Theravada Buddhism.)

Overall, I liked this film. It’s not perfect filmmaking, but it hit all the notes I love and I am here with bells on for the characterization and stories of this film. Tbh, I liked this better than TFA and I’m sad Rian Johnson isn’t directing Episode IX. (Also, I ship basically everything now. Help.)

[slytherinspeaks-blog]

made this masterlist because I have ideas for plots and no one to plot with. The upside to having zero 1x1 partners right now means so many possibilities for the future. I’m open to playing a variety of faces, ships, and plots. you’re welcome to browse around my page too i have info about wanted fcs and plots. If something catches your eye, pls like this post or message me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend babes! Everything is under the cut.

the p l ot s ;;

ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING HARRY POTTER RELATED I AM BEGGING 

- the trio era always seems the least popular but i’d love some plots and ships pertaining to that !!!!

- TONKS AND LUPIN PLS I NEED THIS

- give me some cute molly/arthur

- anY SHIP HONESTLY 

- even just ocs from the different eras

- not the biggest fan of next gen although there are some ships i could be down with

- mauraders seriously yes pls iM WHIPPED

need more f/f in my life. something cute and domestic based off this gif set?

just give me a plot based around the CW show Jane the Virgin or how about something pertaining to Reign. perhaps the same characters, modern day? but i’m so into medieval shit too

dystopian society / forbidden love

Two celebrities/famous people and they’re dating as a PR stunt but no one but them and their team knows so it’s all chill and they do all this public outings and act all cute but one of them actually falls in love while the other just thinks it’s just for publicity***

teen wolf bc why not and i’m trash for stydia, etc, etc

f/f costars on a tv show who are super cute and close friends off screen, but it slowly develops into more and actual feelings. then having to deal with questioning from the media about their quote on quote ‘close friendship’, backlash from management, maybe even pr dating thrown in (with other people, shock horror). but then also cute mornings after they’ve stayed in each others hotel rooms, and sneaking kisses between shoots once it develops to that, movie marathons spent all cuddled up on the couch, giggling as they fool around **

single parent doesnt know how to get the baby to sleep and is keeping everyone up in the apartment. neighbor two doors down can’t stand it anymore and comes over to complain. ends up putting the baby to sleep. SA is in absolute awe. **

age gap plots

spies in an undercover marriage

i’d love to see what we could do with hbo’s shameless

i need more f/f in my life !!!!!!!

single parents

thAT FAFSA PLOT WHERE THEY GET MARRIED OMG **

** - indicates these plots weren’t thought up by me.

and if that doesnt tickle your fancy, talk to me anyway!! i’m sure we can come up with something.

[serenagaywaterford]

6) a flip of the dime. The nasty parts were always there, but he concealed/controlled them. Maybe bc said parts wouldn't exactly make him endearing to others? Anyhow, your interpretation makes him quite the interesting antagonist/villain, so I'm rolling with it, lol. /// There was another thing that was bugging me about S2: the baby's name. Obviously, Serena chose Nic(h)ole as a "fuck you" to Fred. But June in the finale? Of course, she stuck to it for Nick's sake, but also bc she recognized

7) Serena’s selfless (well, if you can call it that) act. Thoughts on this? /// As for your older responses, I forgot to describe what an epiphany it was for me to realize the significance of Serena’s use of the word “rape” for the first time. The anger I felt after 2x10 blinded me to the VERY OBVIOUS connection between her realization in 2x10 and her outburst in 2x11. (Silly me!) Imagine how much more intense that fight would have been if they included the marital rape. I remember a writer

8) that June didn’t kill Serena, bc she actually felt sorry for her in that episode. (Ngl, June’s kindness baffles me at times.) I knew that she wasn’t gonna do it of course, but it was 50/50 whether I wanted her to shoot them or not. /// Something I have not addressed so far is how lukewarm I found their explanation for June getting away with all the shit she does. Well, she’s no Janine (who loses an eye) or Emily (who gets mutilated), but still. Like you said, Serena and Fred might get away

9) get away with a lot more bc of their privilege, but June? Hm. // I’ll start quoting later (or maaaybe tomorrow).

———–

I always thought that was a really weird sort of thing for June to do. And it seems to be entirely because of Serena? Like, it was Holly, Holly, Holly. Even when she was talking to Nick. Then she has the exchange with Serena, and suddenly she adopts Serena’s supreme dickmove of a babyname? 

And I LIKED Holly. It meant something. Nichole (I HATE THAT SPELLING SFM LMAO) means nothing to June? Can you imagine the convo: 

“Mommy, why am I called Nichole?”

“Well, baby, you see, your Daddy’s name is Nick, so the lady that stole you decided to name you after him to eternally piss off her husband who she clearly hates and wanted him to be reminded that he’s impotent every time he looks at you.”

Like, on the one hand, Serena is fucking brilliant and it just shows the extent of her hatred for Fred. But then it’s kinda shitty to use a child as a pawn in that.

Then again, maybe there’s another reason Serena chose that name? I know there’s like a whole history about St. Nicholas and his role as a patron saint of childless couples, or something. (I can’t recall exactly rn). And there was something about St. Nicolette and babies. (Which is where the names Nicole and Collette come from.) Something like she raised a dead baby back to life. So, I guess, at a stretch perhaps that was her inspiration? I doubt it, knowing Serena. LOL.

It’s really curious June’s decision though. Despite EVERYTHING Serena’s done, June just wipes it clean and names her fucking baby after Serena’s choice? Maybe she was trying to retain the memory of Nick for Nichole? I dunno. And not only that, but she seemed 100% genuine when she said that farewell blessing and held Serena’s hand (again). 

I dunno, June’s own preoccupation with Serena is something I don’t truly understand but she clearly thinks there’s some odd connection or something. It’s funny cos I was reading a review about S2 and June’s choices in the finale, and her constant support of Serena despite ALL the reasons not to, and lemme see if I can find it… 

 Nah. I can’t. Anyway, it was something about how we all know June’s going back for Hannah, but this writer thought June was also going back for Serena.

I’m not convinced about that tbh, but I can see the argument cos June is strangely protective and compassionate towards Serena considering. I just have a sinking feeling that the show is gonna play that “Oops, Serena is evil again!! SHE WAY MAD JUNE GIVE BABBY AWAY trolololol!!!!” and make her despicable in order to get Nicole back. If that is the case, I’m gonna roll my eyes right outta my head. I have no issue with Serena having regrets, tbh. I think that’s pretty understandable and expected. But having Serena go hogwild with abuse and using Fred’s power to get back at June or something is just going to fucking piss me off cos like, c’mon my dudes, been there, done that. Over and over already. It’s the 3rd season and either you’re gonna put this bitch on a mild redemption arc or you’re gonna make her a full-on villain. Make up your minds. The will-she, won’t-she thing is old by now.

I dunno that was a random OT rant.

Also, TRUTH! Serena’s use of the word “rape” was important. Like, part of me is like DUH how did you JUST figure that out?! And, honestly I feel like the marital rape is sort of necessary for Serena’s epiphany to get recognised. I think, Serena is just wilfully ignorant enough to not truly consider the Ceremony rape. I honestly do not think she totally understood what she was suggesting with the 2x10 rape. (Serena really does lack forethought for like…all of her actions. That’s sorta her whole problem.) I think she thought it would be just like a sort of unsanctioned ceremony. But by the end she did seem to recognise what it truly was. And having her raped by Fred in the previous episode would have really helped with that. (Then again, it’s really hard to understand how a woman who was just raped turns around and basically suggests it. And this person is supposed to be not Satan. A pure evil woman sure. But Serena’s not meant to be that.)

I think Yvonne’s delivery of the line was interesting too. Part of it was like, “HOly shit it was rape” and part of it was like, “ha! you’re a monster!! you did that!” Like she had no culpability in it. I want to know if Serena has realised that ALL ceremonies are RAPE yet. I wonder if she’s got there. I’m not totally convinced she has. But… I dunno.

Oh! I hadn’t read that about June’s reasoning! That’s interesting. I mean, it fits with June overall but it’s a very odd thing. Like, to be holding a gun trained on the couple that literally held you down and raped you not 24 hours earlier… and feel SORRY for the woman (whereas the general population’s consensus is that Serena is even worse than Fred for doing that to another woman)? I went and watched it after reading your message I didn’t really see that on June’s face. (But that’s really neither here nor there since editing, directing, etc. all differs from what the writers/showrunners had in mind and those are the guys doing the interviews!)  I take that back! I watched it again and I can deffo see that if that’s what they were going for. Totally missed it and likely wouldn’t have picked up on it if not for this convo.

That said, I totally see June reasoning it out that way. For some strange reason, whether it’s Stockholm Syndrome or whatever, June seems to have a blindspot/softspot for Serena and she seems to have unlimited Get Out Of Jail Free cards for her. Like, c’mon, she literally held her down to be brutally raped, and at this point it seems like Serena could murder June and June’s ghost would just be like, “Hey youuuuu, wanna be my bestie in overthrowing the patriarchy?” (Okay, I’m not at all complaining cos I love their dynamic and I ship them soooooo… lol. On a personal level, it works very well for me and my crackshippy fantasies. I choose to believe June honestly sees something nobody else does and believes in Serena’s capacity for redemption–WHICH IS INSANE. But hey. I love it.)

So, for June to feel sorry for Serena, even after everything really does fit when you think about it. And also when you think about book!June’s attitude towards true power being in forgiveness.

I remember sitting around watching the ep the first time and thinking “I don’t want June to shoot them and be a killer” but also, “WHY ISN’T SHE SHOOTING THE FUCKING PLACE UP! DOES SHE NOT WANT TO ESCAPE????” And I was sitting there with the wifey and she was like, “She can’t. What if she misses? Then you’ve got 2 incredibly angry people chasing you.” And I was like… “Uh. Reload? Shoot them as they’re coming up the stairs.”

Because I have never fired a gun in my life so to me it seems really easy lmao. But to me, I didn’t even care about her shooting Serena but I did have an inkling she didn’t want to shoot Serena with the amount she paused. That would have been a perfect shot with teh type of ammo to take out –or at least injure– two people at once. I was like, “You gotta kill Fred and Serena is pretty useless then. It’s not like they have mobile phones! You can then choose to leave Serena to die there lol, or hostage her. And steal the car. You could get pretty far since nobody knows that Fred/Serena are even there.” To me, rationally, it didnt’ make sense not to shoot them. But… emotionally, obvs, I knew she wouldn’t cos a)the series would like… end rather abruptly lol, and b) that’s just not June.

AND yeah, June getting away with all her bullshit is insane in comparison. Janine literally lost an eye for backtalking once at the Red Centre! June has, well, done so much more and just kind skates away from ALL serious punishment. (Well, living with Fred and Serena is a pretty awful punishment in general.) And, sure part of it was cos she was preggers but … how Aunt Lydia/Fred/Serena/TPTB trust this crazy Handmaid not to KEEP breaking the rules is insane. I feel like nobody would trust her to just be a docile little thing after running away for 92 days. Not even Pervy Freddo. Despite all his creeptastic fetishes, he’d be like, “OMG she is way too high maintenance. i just don’t have the patience. give me that baby so i can shut my annoying wife up and then get me another more docile babyslave to play Scrabble and shave!” The plot armour is strong in this one!

Anyway! I got a bit carried away there…

[dlamp-dictator]

Story Ideas Allen Has

AKA Allen’s Ramblings XV, but since I’m tagging fandoms again I can’t have that as the title this time around. Christ, I’ve done 15 of these now...

Hey there folks. For those that don’t know I’m Allen X, or Dlamp, or YOUR DICTATING LEADER OF ALL MEN AND PEOPLE, ETERNALLY RULING OVER YOU PATHETIC SCUM LIKE THE WORMS YO- Actually no, ignore that, it’s an old joke no one will get. Anyway, I write lyrics, fanfics, original fictions (that I don’t have posting anywhere yet), occasionally draw, very occasionally talk about tiddy ninjas, and ramble about RP stuff among other things. Speaking fanfics, I’ve updated my Virtua Fighter fanfic called Reversal Princess... I updated it a week ago and I’ve just been lazy in promoting that fact... heh, sorry about that Reversal Princess fans. For those interest you can read the latest chapter on either Fanfiction or Ao3, it’s basically me just writing about Aoi Umenokoji and putting her in several fights and socially awkward situations with cameos from just about everywhere from Monster Monsume to Variable Geo. 

Anyway, with that out the way, I wanted to talk about a few story ideas I had for the future. I’m mostly talking about these ideas to have them archived somewhere for references later, but also because I wanna’ see if anyone would be interested in these being written. Now, keep in mind none of these ideas are going to happen until I either (a) finish Reversal Princess or (b) get half through drafting my original work, Azure. However, these are some ideas that I’ve been toying with in the back of my mind for the past few months now. So again, I wanted share them all with you guys in order to gauge interest. And since I wanted this rambling to get attention I’m gonna’ tagged fandoms since I wanna’ know each fandom’s opinion on each idea. 

So with that, here I go with idea #1, which is...

A Rewriting of Magical Girl Raising Project: Unmarked

Ooooh, this is something I’ve been wanting to do since after I finished reading Restart (I haven’t read past that, so no spoilers please). For at least two months now I’ve been wondering how things might play out if the death order in Unmarked was different or if the survivors had changed, if other characters had died in different ways, if certain events were instigated by different people. Sorry for being vague folks, but I just don’t want to spoil things for those watching the anime. I’ve been toying with the idea to the point where I probably would had drafted it if I wasn’t writing two other works right now, but I digress. 

Now, there are a few rules to this rewrite if I were to do it:

The survivor count must remain the same (not spoiling it for those not finished with the anime or novel, but it’s few)

The first death must still be by having minimal magical candies

You guys know the first character that actively killed someone? The one that killed that character that was raising all those death flags? Yeah, they character still has to enact the first kill. Again, not spoiling who for newcomers.

The battle at the bridge must still happen somehow, someway.

And... yeah, that’s about it. This is probably the first thing I’m gonna’ do after I finish Reversal Princess, but anyone wanting to give their input please do. I already know who I want to survive in my rewrite, so there’s influencing me there, but... again, just gauging interest. 

Anyway, onto idea #2.

A Continuation of the Deep Crimson Story/Timeline

Next up we’ve got a continuation of Deep Crimson’s story. For those that mostly play Senran Kagura for the Life, Hometown, and cute ninja girls ripping each other’s clothes to pieces, the story is broken up into two timelines, the DS game series and Playstation game series. The DS games are a bit more serious and story-focused than the Playstation ones, and it’s those games I honestly like the best. It seems like the creators have no real intention of continuing the story in the DS titles, but I’m a lot more invested in that storyline, so I’ve been wondering about making a story that explained what happened after that game. I mean, the Crimson Squad had a chance to go back to Hebijo and we never got confirmation on if they took it or not. We still don’t know much about the Kagura and Naraku and the roles they’ll take after becoming free. Just... a lot of stuff I feel they’d answer and third title, but that third title is highly unlikely. So anyone interested in that feel free to let me know. 

With that all said, idea #3 is...

A Marie Rose/Honoka Fanfiction

Not really a creative premise, I know, but it’s something I’ve been wanting ot write for months now. Much like with Reversal Princess, I mostly wanna’ write about these two because they’re my DoA mains and I tend to write fics about my fighting game mains. There’s a lot of unanswered questions about these two I want to take a stab at answering as well. Namely how Marie and Honoka know each other in the first place and more importantly how Honoka is on semi-friendly terms with Ayane. This would probably be written in the same vein as Reversal Princess, being mostly light hearted with some fights and serious moments sprinkled throughout and plenty of obscure cameos. So yeah, that’s an idea I’ve had for awhile now. Oh, and just because Marie and Honoka would have (more or less) equal focus doesn’t mean it’d be a shipping fanfic. It could happen, but romance is kind of my weakest point as a writer so... not likely.

So then, moving with my last idea, idea #4...

A Nioh-Inspired Fiction

Again, not a creative premise, but hear me out. I’m very tempted to write this one alongside Azure, but... I’m gonna’ wait to see if the idea holds long enough and my Nioh-hype dies down a little (or I beat the game). I’ve been playing a lot of Nioh lately, and it’s got me wanting to write a story about a clash of European and Japanese feudalism. I’m not so sure what I want to write about specifically, but I know I want to make it about a female knight that travels around a Feudal Japanese-eque land, meeting samurai, demons, being introduced to magic, and all that fun stuff that’s happening in Nioh. More than likely the knight will be on some conquest mission or something for the sake of having a stable (and simple) plot, but... who knows. Again, this is probably the most impulsive thing on the list, but I just wanted to see if people were interested. 

And those are all my story ideas. If you guys are interested in any of these just reply with what sounds interesting, or shoot me a message in my inbox or IM it to me. Also, check out Reversal Princess. I’ve been working on that fanfic for a year now I’m glad to see it’s gone from 1,000 to 24,000 words in just a year’s time. Anyway, that’s it for me. Thanks for reading.

[stainedglassfragments-blog]

outofthesun; also does anyone want to do a thing later??? in the meantime i'm goin to bed. also no my ooc spelling is almost never good sorry notreally