#thanks to luke’s love and compassion for vader and faith in his goodness

[skywalkr-nberrie]

Claiming that the Jedi Council didn’t forbid “love” but “attachment” to me is like beating the dead horse if you’re going to use that as an argument in their favour. The Jedi knew loving and indulging in love had a risk for leading to attachment, thus they evaded the whole concept of falling in love and kickstarting romances all together in the belief that they should remain detached. AOTC literally verbalized A LOT that “Jedi aren’t allowed to love” (and it’s even on the promotional posters as well) how more obvious can it get?? Anakin’s way of love and finding motivation and redemption through love and compassion within himself for his son and because of his son and by extension his wife as well, is one of the core values and deep messages of all of Star Wars.

The most powerful, the most repressed thought of all could have emerged from the darkness: Padmé … and her undying love for someone he once knew well. And despite all the terrible, unspeakable things he’d done in his life, he suddenly realized he could not stand by and allow the Emperor to kill their son. And in that moment, he was no longer Darth Vader. [Ryder Windham’s Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novelization]

[marvelstars]

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: Redemption & Forgiveness

The matter of redemption in Star Wars has always been a matter of discussion in the fandom and I wanted to give my take on this.

"A redemption arc is a literary term for a type of character development in which a bad or morally gray character turns into a good person by the end of the story. They redeem their worst sins through their actions in the story's resolution"

From a literature pov Darth Vader had a text book redemption arc on ROTJ which Lucas talks about as him "stopping the horror" by learning and having compassion for his Son.

"It really has to do with learning. Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, ‘I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I have grown to love - primarily the Emperor - and throw away my life, to save this person. And I’m doing this because he has faith in me, loves me despite all the horrible things I’ve done. I broke his mother’s heart, but he still cares about me, and I can’t let that die.’

Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son."

George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221

But redemption can also have different meanings which also played a part in the way Lucas choose to represent the moment of Anakin/Vader´s redemption. Redemption:

(IN RELIGION):(especially in Christianity) an occasion when someone is saved from evil, suffering, etc. The state of being kept from evil or of improving morally. The act of paying back a loan

In many ways Redemption is also the act of paying back a moral debt owned by the evil or morally bad acts someone committed, this act on itself means the person in question improves their morality because they are turning back from evil to do good and make reparations.

In this way, thanks to the intervention of his Son, Anakin was saved from the suffering of the darkside and able to "turn back from evil" , improve morally by showing compassion once more in many long years and pay back his actions at the price of his blood.

This doesn´t mean it was the only way he could have paid his debts but it was the one way he was able to also stop the evil his master commited agaisnt the galaxy, this despite the fact Vader "loved" the Emperor, his love didn´t mean he didn´t recognize what they did was wrong and instead of washing himself of blame given he was initiatily manipulated into turning to the darkside by the Emperor, Vader took responsibility for them both, took the ounce of good left inside of him and "stopped the horror" in one self sacrificial action. Redemption is about the choice of the person who is seeking redemption.

Now when I see this creates confussion and even anger in the fandom, because is seen as unfair, is that many fans believe this means other characters HAD to forgive Anakin because Vader redeemed himself but this is not the case at all, forgiveness is another action all together, the fact Anakin redeemed himself in the end doesn´t mean Obi-Wan, Leia, Han, Luke, rebels and the Imperials, etc or any other person hurt by his actions HAD to forgive him, that is their prerrogative but at the same time, the fact they DIDN´T forgive him or the fact many didn´t even know Vader was the one who defeated the Emperor giving way to the New Republic rule(acording to the new canon), this doesn´t erase Anakin/Vader´s redemption.

Anakin/Vader was redeemed by his own actions, the act of being forgiven can only be made by the people hurt by his actions and no one else but even in the case they don´t forgive him doesn´t take away anything from Anakin´s sacrifice and the good that came from it.

Anakin lying dying and thinking of joining the force once more while being grateful to Luke for showing him how he could love again without knowing if his sacrifice was even going to be known or not was part of his redemption, he did what he could, at the price of his life, it didn´t matter what else happened after this. He was at peace.

Obi-Wan teaching Anakin how to become a force ghost was Obi-Wan´s choice, his way of showing Anakin that he forgave him but Anakin was already redeemed before he did this by Anakin´s own sacrifice.

Luke forgiving his father to give him a chance to turn from the darkside was Luke´s choice, no one else and Luke was at peace with his choice even when his father told him it was "too late for him"

Leia trying to forget everyting about Vader, not wanting to know about Anakin to get some peace but later remembering her mother and the good actions of her biological father, told by Luke, to stop herself from falling to the darkside by hating him when he was already dead, but not being able to forgive him either was her choice, it gave her peace, and the fact Anakin redeemed himself doesn´t mean she had to forgive him.

So in the end redemption and forgiveness is a matter of choice of the person seeking redemption and the person giving forgiveness. They are related but they aren not the same thing and just like Anakin choose to come back in the end, this possibility was open to any other imperial or rebel who did wrong at one point of their lives. It´s a personal decision, a personal choice.

"The boy was good, and the boy had come from him- so there must have been good in him, too. He smiled up again at his Son, and for the first time, loved him. And for the first time in many long years, loved himself again" (Anakin Skywalker - ROTJ)

[wisteria-lodge]

Okay so I'm curious about what a healthy bird primary lion secondary would look like? Most bird/lion traits you've talked about have been sort of self destructive and most bird/lion characters are just Not Doing Well, so I was wondering if this sorting (my sorting) even can be healthy tbh? Like is it even possible and if so, what would it look like? What good traits could we have? Thank you!!!

Look, in fiction you'll get the Dramatic version of all of the sortings, because you're writing about a Most Dramatic period in their lives. And what can I say, that combination of "I build this truth from the ground up... by moving straight forward and not caring what obstacles I meet" does leads to some very dramatic personal crisises.

But I do not see Bird Lions as the embodiment of self-destruction. I see them as the embodiment of Transformation. That's why I call them the Grail Knight. They have an almost magical ability to re-create, and become something true and new. That Lion gives them that instinct be themselves, but the Bird lets them decide and build and edit what that even means, and it's beautiful.

Here - this is a sorting that Sortinghatchats did back in the day, of healthy, ascended, baddass Bird Lion Luke Skywalker. I copypasted it out years ago and kept it for myself because it might have made me cry a little. I keep it in mind when ever I write Bird Lions because it captures, so beautifully, why I do love them so much.

Luke Skywalker is a Ravenclaw Primary who builds his moral system out of his own reasoning and out of the pieces he borrows and adopts from the people he loves. He doesn’t have a very robust or complicated system when we first meet him. He’s never had to deal with much of anything, and so he doesn’t yet have a framework (or even particularly an instinct) for how to make hard calls. He starts out childish, selfish, and impatient, but Luke has a thirst for something more once he realizes there is more out there. He takes on Obi Wan’s teachings, then seeks out Yoda’s, and begins his journey to revitalize (and redefine) the Jedi.

There are Ravenclaw Primaries who adopt a fully built system or subscribe to a morality outside themselves (ex. Javert from Les Mis) – Luke is not one of these. He does not swallow even the Jedi code whole. He edits, adapts, and constructs something he’s happier living in and which ultimately leads to his success.

Luke is a Ravenclaw Primary, and he’s one who builds his own system out of the pieces he picks up around them. While he has irrational emotional responses to things (as we all do, Ravenclaws are people too), Luke is at his best and most powerful when he can ignore them, tamp them down, and choose what to do based on the things he’s decided to live by– bits of pieces of the Jedi Order, as taught by Obi Wan and Yoda; the camaraderie and cause of his rebel friends; and the overwhelming compassion he’s chosen for himself.

This is most apparent in his final battle with the Emperor and Vader. Luke spends the majority of the series building his primary, and the final battle is its test by fire. The Emperor tries repeatedly to tear him from the system he’s chosen. Luke believes there is still good in his father, but Vader brings him to the Emperor, a betrayal of that faith. Luke is forced to watch his friends’ ships burn in the sky, is told about Leia and Han’s plans failing on the surface of the moon.

The (one of many) place(s) the Emperor is mistaken about Luke and his weaknesses is this: Luke’s faith does not rely on other people. Luke believes in his friends. He believes in his father, and that the Light side of the Force– life, compassion, peace– will win out in the end. His friends can fail, his father can stay Fallen, and Luke will hold onto that faith anyway. He will die with it, because in the end it is this Ravenclaw’s system that his strength relies on. Luke chose what to believe, he built it into himself, and he will not be changed. His faith isn’t about being proven right. It’s about knowing these things are worth believing in and dying for.

[complementaryhalves]

For the ask game, Luke! ♥

thank you for giving me my sunshine boy 🌻

favorite thing about them

everything??? he's the literal personification of light and hope and love and compassion and courage and strength and everything that's good in the world. he stared pure darkness and evil in the face and said "i'm going to love you back to the light" and then he did. all while being an absolute fashion icon

least favorite thing about them

not really about him but the part of the fandom unironically thinking he's just a dumb child. annnd the whole "attempting to kill ben as a kid because he showed signs of the dark side" fiasco. so basically nothing about him as a character, just people interpreting him badly

favorite line

can i say "you're a psycho weiner"? no? then it has to be "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." predictable, i know.

brOTP

literal brotp luke&leia mlm wlw solidaritwins

OTP

skysolo >>>> but i also like dinluke and luke/korkie (i know i know)

nOTP

i don't think i have one with luke, he fits very well with every single character and i support him getting love and affection from anyone. (although the ship(s) with vader|anakin and/or obi-wan kinda squicks me out)

random headcanon

i like to think he became good friends with rex and ahsoka after the battle of endor, and spent hours listening to stories about anakin and obi-wan from the clone wars. it makes him feel like he can get to know them both better through their words, and it makes him happy to know that he helped save a person they all loved so much.

unpopular opinion

except for the fact that he tried to kill ben, i didn't mind tlj luke. i don't think him losing his faith after failing to rebuild the order is ooc, just a more pessimist interpretation of his character, and i love that he redeems himself in the end and sacrifices himself for what is right and becomes one with the force like his masters before him.

song i associate with them

i don't really have one?? except the obvious binary sunset theme

favorite picture of them

not quite luke but i love this photo

send me a character!

[mirendils]

Luke Skywalker (for the send a character game specifically. But also just yes.)

Oh my gosh Anon, thank you for giving me the opportunity to gush about my favorite boy Luke. I probably made this way longer than it needed to be but I can’t help it— it’s Luke.

first impression: I first watched the original Star Wars movies a long time ago and honestly don’t remember much besides my dad liking it and being kind of underwhelmed. I grew up with the prequels so I definitely connected to those more (as a little girl growing up in the early 2000s I wanted to be padme so bad). I picked it up years later when I was bored and depressed one day and I watched Empire Strikes Back I think because I couldn’t find a new hope. I just fell in love with the story and especially Luke's character- he wasn’t a perfect hero and I really liked that.

impression now: Luke Skywalker is not only my favorite character in star wars, but in all of fiction pretty much. He makes the hero’s journey but inverts the message and meaning of it. For his time he is a revolutionary character; he’s a male hero that wins the day, not through killing the bad guy and extraordinary power, but through love. His dedication to choosing compassion over violence, even to a man we had been shown was terrifying and deadly. He believes in the good of his father despite being hurt by him before, and represents how love can inspire people to be their best. He represents the power of love and family and faith over power and violence and hatred. I will never get over what Luke Skywalker means as a character to me and to cinema in general.

favorite moment: Listen, the most moving, character-defining, and iconic scene in Star Wars is in rotj when Luke sees what his anger led him to do, and throws away his weapon, and says “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” By throwing away his weapon it shows that he won’t risk hurting others even at the risk of hurting himself- he throws away even his defense and is ready to die as a Jedi and as his father’s son. His words show who he is and who he knows his father to be- a Jedi not in the traditional sense (as his masters told him killing Vader was the only way) but as a new kind of Jedi, the kind of Jedi Anakin was. The kind of Jedi who loves, and that love being their power. With the context of the prequels it makes it even better- seeing the kind of Jedi Anakin was and the kind Luke became. I could talk about this scene forever. A close second is binary sunset.

idea for a story: Oh boy, don’t even get me started. Luke as a character has so much more we could see of him past rotj. He’s rebuilding the Jedi Order nearly single-handedly. How he deals with that overwhelming weight, how he deals with his own power and balancing the dark and light within him, how he would balance trying to honor the old Jedi Order’s teachings while also honoring his own love for his family and students are all things I love to read and write about. Even if you consider other Jedi being alive post rotj; would Ahsoka Tano’s absence from Luke’s life be seen as abandonment? His lack of connection to the Jedi of the past, thousands and thousands of years of history lost or destroyed- how would he handle it? I could read a million fics about Luke post rotj and still not be satisfied.

unpopular opinion: Some people say they could never see Luke doing what he did in TFA- abandon the galaxy and his family to just die on an unknown planet. And I agree mostly- I could see Luke becoming disillusioned with the Jedi or leaving if he blamed himself for the death of his students, child, and spouse, etc. What I disagree with was the reason for his leaving. But I don’t see Luke just waiting to die on some planet (when he literally had a map to him left behind, he must have been doing SOMETHING, rian, i will fight you). I’m not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but...here I’ll give you another one. I don’t care for Mara Jade and don’t want to see stuff with Luke and her.

favorite relationship: Luke and Leia’s relationship will never fail to make me emotional. So much was taken from them in the war: their families, their homes, their own sense of safety. But even more so, they were robbed of getting to grow up together, they were robbed of each other. Even if it was for their protection. They are as close as two people can be but still don’t know much about each other. They are strangers who are family. That divide must feel miles wide at times and then through the Force like nothing at all. Fun fact about me: play John William’s “Luke & Leia” and I WILL start crying. In terms of romantic relationships, dinluke is my favorite Luke ship. Their parallels and personalities are the perfect match for me.

favorite headcanon: Luke is very close with his students and considers them like surrogate children.. Also, he’s the most powerful Jedi there is or was. No, I will not accept criticism of this.

[frumfrumfroo]

I’m new here and couldn’t tell from the tone of some asks (sorry) but did you like what they did with Ben in TRoKR ? I saw the discussions abt him lacking agency in it and I 100% agree but did you personality agree w/ the passive, “things only happen to me” vibe they gave him? And second question: can u give examples of how soule’s writing was telegrsmed in TFA? Thank u for taking the time xx

Like I’ve said before, it’s exactly the kind of backstory I would have written for him/always imagined. I had expected to find out he didn’t kill the other students/fought them in self defence/it was some kind of accident or emotional overload incident in TLJ. That was where everything was pointing.

Someone this insecure and conflicted about what he’s doing, someone who prays for help to resist his loving nature and cries when he sees his dad, who is so uncomfortable with himself he is covered head to toe not even his voice unmasked, who immediately latches on to the protagonist as a kindred spirit in loneliness and needs her to know he’s not a creature and wants to help her rather than hurt her- that’s not a person who had an eyes-open, all-in fall to the dark side full of decisive action and unhindered agency.

Leia saying ‘it was Snoke’ told us from the get go we’re in a situation where he was haunted and manipulated. His subservience and rote, childish repetition of ‘the Supreme Leader is wise’ when Han tells him Snoke doesn’t care about him. The constant, ongoing contradiction of his behaviour and motives tell us he has no conviction in the cause he’s supposedly supporting. His self-harm and naked suffering in the face of his own actions, his recklessness and inability to commit to selfishness and lack of ambition tell us those aren’t qualities which drove him here. He is highly emotionally driven, there’s no tangible goal and he doesn’t have a vision of the future. So why is he on the dark side?

It’s not that things only happen to him or that he’s passive, it’s that Ben has never pursued or been comfortable with what darkness really is and that has always been obvious. He tries very, very hard and fights tooth and claw to cling to something good in the comic until all of it is in ashes- he’s not passive, but he can’t win. No one can hold out forever against that kind of relentless onslaught. That he was absolutely a victim doesn’t mean he has no agency in his later choices. He’s not absolved of responsibility. But his reluctance and victimhood only makes sense, anything else would be incongruous with TFA.

There was never pursuit of power for power’s sake from him- there’s nothing he wants that the dark side can give him, he is there literally because he felt he had nowhere else to go. I said this before TLJ even came out. He felt he could not escape it, both because of the fatalism his family unintentionally instilled in him and because Snoke convinced him none of them loved him, that he is only useful or valued as a tool. Ben is a person who doesn’t believe he has any inherent value just for himself- just Ben, he believes that he can’t be forgiven for the sin of being born a disappointment, and that everything is his fault because he’s wrong and bad no matter what he does. None of his choices feel to him like real choices, all of his options appear to have been taken from him, and he feels compelled to plunge forward on the only remaining path. The comic provided an emotionally and logically cogent explanation for exactly why he would feel that way which is completely consistent with all the implications about his past and his characterisation from the films.

As I’ve pointed out before, there’s a reason he says ‘it’s too late’ to coming home not ‘I don’t want to’. There’s a reason he says ‘what I have to do’ and ‘he (I) was weak and foolish’- there’s a reason he needs Han’s help to go through with killing his father. It’s not about what he wants (he wants to go home with his dad- he thinks he can’t), he has never felt free to make his own choices or that freedom is possible for him.

Even at his darkest he never became cruel, he never enjoyed killing or hurting people, and he totally fails to suppress his instinct to be compassionate. He has a highly developed conscience and an overflowing core of empathy he can’t seal off. That’s why he’s so miserable as he pushes himself to do things he finds abhorrent- but he thinks he has to, there’s no escape, it’s the only way. In the sequence which establishes this character, even before any layers are stripped away or the investment we naturally have in him because of who he is is revealed, one of the first things we see him do is have compassion for F/nn. Those two characters are connected and a comparison is invited- this is visual storytelling showing you that they have something in common (it will be made clear later on that Ben saw himself in F/nn and that’s why he takes his actions so personally- cognitive dissonance).

F/nn was a good person trapped in the mask of the stormtrooper by circumstances beyond his control, but he is able to reject it and reclaim his identity. Ben is a good person hounded into the mask of Kylo Ren by his family’s failure to reconcile with Vader. The crushing weight of their expectations and their total lack of faith in him combined with their lies and Snoke’s manipulation convinces him there is ‘too much Vader in him’ and that Ben Solo isn’t and never will be good enough for anyone. That his love, compassion, and selflessness are all weaknesses which will only cause both him and the galaxy further suffering.

He is the most morally sensitive person in the new gen, he is the most outward-orientated and loving. His impulse is to be selfless and helpful, but that impulse has been relentlessly punished until he mistrusts it and thinks he must repress his wrong instincts and serve a ‘greater order’ guided by someone stronger than him. He has an acute sense of the impact of his actions and he considers it (even when he loses control of his emotions, he overwhelmingly targets things rather than people and his angry threats are empty).

In contrast, Anakin (who was committed on the dark side and successfully cut himself off from his empathy for many years) was all in on the pursuit of power even when he still had good intentions. Anakin also knew that power was the foundation of the dark side and he and Palpatine would always be at odds, that some day he would overthrow him and take his place. Ben only values power out of fear, and solely primal fear not more abstract, possessive fear like Anakin’s, he wants safety. He doesn’t go to Snoke thinking he’s ever going to take his place or gain his power- he wants Snoke to give him belonging and acceptance. He’s then convinced that the ends justify the means and doing things he knows are wrong and which cause him pain are necessary because his whole life and Snoke’s machinations have set him up to believe that. He is still trying to create safety and doing what he’s convinced must be done and will be done one way or another.

Ben is a beautiful compassionate person and always has been and that is why he’s in such constant, excruciating pain trying to shut himself off from love and vulnerability. He is following Snoke’s demands and trying to kill his past to stop the pain, to kill this vulnerability and need and weakness in himself. Connection was always what he wanted most and he is trying to cut off and cauterise all of the broken, abandoned bonds of love his family has left him with. And even here, he still wants Snoke’s acceptance, Snoke’s validation and esteem. He is still pouring himself out for an other, giving everything to please someone else, the last person left who tells him it’s possible he can achieve value.

He latched on to Rey instantly when he realised they were alike and did everything possible to lift her up and spare her what he went through. He only rejected Han and Rey’s offers to come with them because he thinks their love is conditional and that small, dirty, broken Ben Solo will never be able to meet the conditions. He thinks he is a tool or an obligation to them and it’s easy to understand why he thinks that. Han couldn’t wipe away a lifetime of baggage in a few words. Rey pretends it’s about the cause, she doesn’t tell him she loves him.

He thinks he must ‘become who he was meant to be’ and that his destiny is to become a new Vader. Everyone told him that. Whether with their fear or directly with words. When he finds out the truth about his grandfather, it’s a complete confirmation of what Snoke has told him and how his parents have treated him. Luke deciding he can’t be allowed to live because it’s that inevitable is the nail in the coffin in Ben believing there’s any place for him with his family. There is nowhere for him to exist as himself, he has to be someone else, someone less weak. And in running away from himself, his legacy, and his identity he puts himself under Snoke’s thumb and Snoke can finish inculcating his worldview.

Being able to love is freedom to Ben. He is an immensely loving person who feels like he is not worthy or allowed to love people, that his love has done nothing but make things worse for everyone. The tension and repression of trying not to need or care about people is what makes him so emotionally unstable. Kylo Ren is a mask and a shield and a prison built by Ben’s hurt and anxiety but equally built by Snoke out of his boyhood fancies to control him and shape him into an instrument of pain. Ben could never have conviction in it because it is so alien to his nature. He is so fundamentally unselfish that he never coveted like Anakin eventually did, his love never became possessive or jealous, he never sold his soul for a boon, the only way he could be selfish enough to murder is out of animal fear and pain. Wanting the hurting to stop. Rationalising it post-facto with the philosophy that the ends justify the means.

He pours himself out for Snoke because there is no one else left. All he wants is the safety and acceptance that he has literally never had anywhere. Anakin received unconditional love from his mother, Obi-wan, and Padmé and was warped from giving compassion into selfishness by his fear of loss and need for control. Covetousness became his tragic flaw and thus his fall culminates in trying to kill Padmé rather than lose her. Control became so important that others ceased to matter and love became possession. Anakin (despite also being a victim of manipulation and Jedi hubris) got to make real choices, he had real options, and thus he was a villain with conviction. Ben’s attempts to take control of his life are unfocussed and mostly involve abnegation, he pushes people away instead of trying to clutch them close; his response to loss is to isolate himself not seize power to recover the lost thing by force. Ben never received unconditional love until Han’s sacrifice on the bridge and the experience immediately shatters him from his already tenuous position in the dark. The only thing keeping him from coming home after that is sunk cost and the idea that he can never be forgiven. That it was too late.

He just needed someone to show him it wasn’t.

[david-talks-sw]

About the idea of “Anakin and Ben proving the Jedi wrong because their attachments allowed them to bring Luke and Rey back”

Title says it all. This statement, that “Anakin and Ben proved the Jedi wrong because their attachments allowed them to bring Luke and Rey back”, was posted on one of my SW answers on Quora.

And, uh... no.

Attachment had nothing to do with it. It was love.

Healing is a technique, not a magical spell. You give your life force to another living being to heal them. Being more or less attached to them does not automatically heal them more or less.

Ben isn’t motivated by his selfish inability to let go of her (attachment), he is motivated by his selfless love for her (compassion). And compassion is what a Jedi is all about.

Ben gives his life knowing that he won’t be able to be with her.

Same goes for Anakin with Luke.

They both know they’ll die, they don’t care: they love Luke and Rey so much they’re willing to die for them.

Attachment didn’t save the day, in both those cases, love did.

If this was about attachment, then the motivation would be to somehow save them and stay alive, so they can have them and be with them. Like Vader and Padmé:

(thanks to Lumi @gffa​ for making the Vader Immortal gif ^^)

There’s this quote by George Lucas, in The Making of Revenge of the Sith, that’s passed around, and it’s actually really spot on:

“It really has to do with learning. Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I have grown to love—primarily the Emperor—and throw away my life, to save this person. And I’m doing this because he has faith in me, loves me despite all the horrible things I’ve done. I broke his mother’s heart, but he still cares about me, and I can’t let that die. Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son.”

Ben and Anakin acted selflessly, not selfishly.

[gffa]

hi! i really want to get into the EU stuff, but i have absolutely no idea where to start. can you point towards a few good books, maybe? thank you, and i absolutely love your account btw!

Hi!  Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.  ♥  Recommendations for EU stuff often depends on what you’re interested in, because there are a lot of books I really enjoyed, so I’ll organize them by era, since that’s how fans are often divided.  I’ll also include comics, because often times the comics are some of the absolute best stuff!If you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels yet, those are absolutely the places to start as they’re key to the fabric of the bigger story, imo.  Not that you can’t understand the movies without them or anything, but TCW is especially important for understanding just how grueling the clone wars really were.  And Rebels is important for showing the fates of a lot of the TCW characters and seeing the Empire vs the Rebellion (it does a lot to flesh that out, too).PREQUELS:

Any of the Star Wars Adventures comics that contain the prequels characters are great.  Well, ALL of the Adventures comics are great, but the prequels ones are adorable, funny, and yet really well-told.  They’re light-hearted and largely oneshots, but the IDW comics have been incredible for still being some of the absolute best SW content out there.  Especially a not-miss is #12-13 and the 2019 Annual for the Padme&Leia&Breha story.

Obi-Wan & Anakin comic by Charles Soule.  A five-issue mini series that has the most stunning art of all the comics I’ve ever seen pretty much, it’s also a really good look at the time of Anakin’s apprenticeship and provides some interesting glimpses into their early days together.

Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic by Charles Soule.  This comic was an absolute phenomenon to read month to month and one of the comic series that I’ve spent the most time analyzing and felt it’s really held up to scrutiny, which shows just how much thought went into it.  It’s 25 issues of Vader fresh off Revenge of the Sith, over the span of a couple years, and really does an AMAZING job of exploring Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader, all the choices he made and the themes of the comic are all about showing he can’t admit to the HUGE mistakes he’s made.  It was incredible.

Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure by book Cavan Scott.  I’m not usually a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories, but this one was worth it to me to get an absolutely DELIGHTFUL book with Obi-Wan and Anakin, who are cranky with each other, but ultimately show that they can come back together and obviously care about each other.  Sprinkle in some other cool stuff (Jedi details, Bant Eerin being recanonized) and it was lovely.

Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama by Cavan Scott.  If you’re interested in Dooku, Asajj Ventress, or the Jedi at all, this drama was pretty amazing, it gave a ton of worldbuilding detail, but also did a lot to fill in the backstory of Dooku and gave us a long look inside Asajj’s head as well.  Qui-Gon makes some appearances, he has an amazing dynamic with Dooku, and my heart as always skips a beat for how much I love the Jedi.

Age of the Republic comics by Jodie Houser.  Holy shit, these comics were SO GOOD.  They’re a series of oneshots about the various heroes and villains of the time, a glimpse into the lives of all of them, and Houser really nailed it here.  My favorite is the Obi-Wan one, because the conversation he has with Anakin about Qui-Gon is a must and delves deepest into the characters’ stuff, but all of them are worth reading.

Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic by Matt Owens.  A five-issue mini series that, okay, the art is Like That but the storyline really worked for me because it’s a really good look at Mace’s character and his belief in the Jedi Order and how he came to master himself and how the galaxy looks at Jedi.  It’s woven around a fairly typical action plot, but one of the things that always strikes me is the compassion the Jedi show one of their own, even when they’re falling into darkness, as well as this is a comic about Mace Windu’s faith and his work to master himself and it’s SO GOOD.

Kanan: The Last Padawan comics by Greg Weisman.  Stunning art plus a look at some of the characters/relationships that I want so much more of (TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT DEPA BILLABA) and more glimpses into life at the Jedi Temple, as well as telling the story of how the character went from Caleb Dume to Kanan Jarrus, all of it heartbreaking and so, so good.

While the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover is no longer canon, but it does an absolutely phenomenal job of breaking your heart all over again for the characters and expanding on everything that was going on during that time and really, really gets into the headspace of Anakin’s character in a way that was line-edited by George Lucas himself, so I think of it as having a lot of emotional truths to it, rather than being part of canon (which it’s specifically said as not being).

ORIGINALS:

The ongoing Star Wars comic (by Jason Aaron, then Kieron Gillen) + the original Darth Vader comic (by Kieron Gillen) are the absolute best place to start, they’re an incredible addition to the characters’ journeys between ANH and ESB.  The two comics are meant to be read concurrently, so I recommend them together, they often show the same scenes from different points of view, but you can roll with either of them if they’re going well for you.  They’re my favorite for what they add to the story.

Star Wars Battlefront II’s storyline can be watched on YouTube like a movie, which is about two hours long, has some fantastic characters (Iden Versio and Del Meeko are amazing, but also the brief storylines the OT trio have in the game are fantastic) and it does a really great job of helping to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, explaining a lot about Jakku’s significance and how the First Order popped up.

From a Certain Point of View novel by various.  MY FAVORITE BOOK IN THE EU, FULL STOP.  A series of point of view stories from various supporting characters during A New Hope is exactly what it sounds like and, okay, not all of them worked out for me, some of them are very skippable if you’re not enjoying it, but the Obi-Wan one, the Qui-Gon one, and the Yoda one are all must-reads because they are HEARTBREAKING and fill in so much of what’s going on with those characters in the OT with regards to the PT events.  Also the Motti one is the single funniest thing Star Wars has ever put out.

Lords of the Sith novel by Paul S. Kemp.  While I’ve only read about a third of this one so far, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, as it’s a look at some of the worst parts of SW’s timeline, where Vader and Palpatine are at their worst, where Ryloth is suffering, but it’s done with deftness and gravitas, imo.  Possibly better after you’ve seen TCW and Rebels because Cham Syndulla’s character will have more weight then.

Legends of Luke Skywalker novel by Ken Liu.  This book came out around the time that The Last Jedi came out (or at least that’s when I read it, iirc) and it was a balm for my soul that needed Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.  It’s an in-universe series of myths, so it’s not literal, it’s stories told about Luke Skywalker as he travels the galaxy trying to understand the Force and the Jedi.  It’s lovely!

Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn.  I still think the first Thrawn book was really good (even if the shine came off the apple after that) and it does a fantastic job of setting up the character’s backstory, intro into the Empire, and creating the character of Eli Vanto, WHOM I LOVE.  It’s a great read and some of the best of Zahn’s Thrawn work.

ROGUE ONE + SOLO:

The Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed.  I had trouble connecting to Jyn Erso when I first watched the movie, but the way Freed wrote her as this messy, complicated, thorny person who was trying to do the right thing was perfect for making me fall in love with her.  (Freed is really, really good at writing messy, complicated, worthwhile women, imo.)

Most Wanted novel by Rae Carson.  I loved this book a lot, where it’s a young adult novel set before the events of Solo and helps tell Han and Qi’ra’s backstory and is a great space adventure at the same time.

Catalyst novel by James Luceno.  This does a really great job of bridging the Republic era with the Empire era, how the galaxy went from the Clone Wars to what we see in Rogue One, AND expanded a ton on Galen Erso’s character, his relationship with Orson Krennic and Lyra Erso and Jyn, so it made the R1 experience just a ton more valuable for me.

SEQUELS:

Bloodline novel by Claudia Gray.  This book still does the absolute most to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, to explain the events of what happened in that time period.  Gray’s writing is best when she’s writing Leia as a character and this book works as a novel for her and as a story about the rise of the First Order and some of the problems of the New Republic.

Spark of the Resistance is a young adult novel (so about 200 pages) by Justina Ireland.  I only recently read this one and I just thoroughly enjoyed it, it was Rey and Rose and Poe off on their own adventure, which was typical cute Star Wars stuff, but the chemistry and adorable banter between these three was so good I could have read an entire series for them!  (I also liked her Lando’s Luck YA novel, if you’re interested in his character.)

Poe Dameron comics by Charles Soule.  Soule’s writing is some of the best stuff in SW so far and he does an absolutely phenomenal job of capturing the charisma of Poe’s character, while also giving him an actual character arc to work through.  The comics just fly by, they’re so good and so smoothly easy to read and so damn charming.

Cobalt Squadron novel by Elizabeth Wein.  If you get the audiobook of this, it’s narrated by Kelly Marie Tran, who does a love job of reading it, and was a book that helped me just utterly FALL IN LOVE with Rose Tico.  It’s a book that does a lot to explain her back story and who she is and it’s just absolutely wonderful.

The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry.  If you really, really hated TLJ, this might not be the book for you, but I found it to be a book that helped fill in some smaller details that made the movie work better for me and got inside the characters’ heads just enough to help grease the wheels to put me in a better place with the movie, so I always really like it.

[clairen45]

Who Let the Dogs out? A story of wolves and dogs in Star Wars

This meta was a long-time coming and prompted by @blacklakeinavalley. I always keep my promises, no matter how long it takes me, so here it goes.

Wolves or Dogs?

There have been some awesome metas on wolves in relation with Rey and Kylo more particularly, notably by resident she-wolf extraordinaire @raven-maiden (I am using the term in the most reverent way possible!). I also plead guilty to a meta I did with parallels between the Company of Wolves movie and the ST. I won’t necessarily go back to all the cool theories that have been made about wolf behaviors in Kylo and Rey, but I will draw the following distinctions, though:

in terms of symbolism, per se, there are not so many differences between wolves and dogs. There are both qualities and flaws associated with these particular animals. The qualities and the flaws are, more often than not, interestingly the same from a certain point of view

Qualities: fertility, sexual desire and power, fidelity/loyalty (to partner, pack, or master), fierceness, intelligence

Flaws: debauchery and savagery.

They are both considered chtonian divinities, that is to say linked with the “underground”, or the realm of death and Hell. Think of Cerberus, for instance, the mythical Hell hound, or Anubis in the Egyptian mythology. Which means that, as a symbol, it means both death and the potential for rebirth. The dog can guide the soul back out of Hell , or guide it through its journey into Hell (something usually called a psychopomp creature) . Dogs and wolves are usually associated with elements such as the moon, fire, and the earth. So, water (the moon is considered a watery element), fire, and earth.

So on the one hand heralds or bringers of death through destruction and carnage, and on the other hand, companions, fierce parents, and bringers of life. Life, death, decay that brings new life, peace, violence etc... Very ambivalent creatures that are either loved and revered, or despised and deemed as impure and dangerous.

If there is no huge distinction between wolves and dogs as far as symbolism goes, I would say there is a big one to draw, though. A dog, after all, is a domesticated wolf. What it gains in familiarity and companionship for mankind, it loses in grandeur and nobility. Also, this 4-legged favorite pet moniker is often used to insult people. A “bitch” is not in itself derogatory: after all, originally it just means a female dog. Yet, it is anything but when you apply it to a woman. Same goes with “dogs”. When you call someone a “dog”, except when you are the Snoop, this is usually not to sing their praises. Note that some people will even go as far as sometimes changing the spelling to avoid confusion: “dawg”... And what about “mongrel”, or “cur”? Dawg be darned, what about “rabid cur” for one?

Die, Jedi dogs!

So, in our beloved Galaxy far far away, this is how dogs find their way into the story and the mythos. On the battle of Geonosis, in ROTS, as C3P0 finds himself -as usual- flustered and confused after a mixing up of his body parts with a battle droid, he utters these very lines.

No wonder that the “dogs” get involved in an insult. Dogs are the persisting attribute of all the "wretched hive of scum and villainy”:

The bounty hunter Bossk and his ship called Hound’s tooth

The bounty hunter Embo and his hound called Marrok

That one has got a really interesting story in itself. The species is called Anooba, and is native of Tatooine, which of course will link straight to Anakin and Luke. The name is also full of possibilities: it probably comes from a medieval tale, the tale of Sir Marrok, who was a werewolf.

The vicious Corellian hound used in Solo by Moloch and his gang. BTW, one of the hound was “played” by one of “GOT’s direwolves” ... Funny thing.

Not to mention THIS famous dog in SW lore:

Oh, yea, this is happening. Because, ANH called it right away when Leia served this line to Tarkin about her papa:

Governor Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash.

As mighty as the Dark Lord has become in the SW universe and collective psyche, this awesome and powerful villain is presented as nothing more but a dog. Maybe not quite the poodle, but still a dog. Obedient, trained, who will bite only when his master commands. Gives the word “MASTER” quite another meaning, not just as an apprentice, but literally as seen from a dog’s perspective.

So, no surprise then to see the term re-employed by Snoke to talk about Hux, when he calls him a rabid cur in TLJ. Interesting also that the one using a reference to being “tied at the end of a string”, aka a leash, is also Hux, the rabid cur. Except, that, well, there is indeed an implicit distinction to make. Kylo is also, in many respects, as much a dog to Snoke’s bidding as Hux. Many viewers would even expect Snoke to call Kylo the rabid cur instead, given the tantrums we were privy to in TFA. But he doesn’t call him a rabid cur, and that’s the whole point. In Snoke’s mind, there is nothing rabid about Kylo -though people would have assumed as much- and he is certainly not a cur. A cur, after all, like a mongrel is clearly used to define a mixed breed. The term “rabid cur” is derogatory on two levels.

When referring to Kylo, Snoke is a bit more complicated. There is, on the one hand, the idea that, contrary to Hux, Kylo is valued as “pure breed”, a prized possession cultivated for “the potential of his bloodline”. Purity of blood (damn you midichlorians) being also alluded to, and mocked, by Luke when he talks to Rey about his failure to be a master to Kylo. Yet, at the same time, Snoke keeps on chastising Kylo for being a fraud. He is not the pure breed he expected. He has the feeling he got a mongrel that was tainted by the Solo blood. Hence the insistance of erasing Han Solo of the picture and denying him and his legacy. Yep, Ben Organa Solo is a mixed breed. Snoke wants a pure breed, maybe even a wolf. Pure blood. Untainted, untampered with. Leader of the pack. Well, that’s the project. A wolf and no lapdog.

Or not... Because, this is a little something I found on The astroly Web about the wolf and symbolism, and I will say it is quite interesting:

What I love about this portrait of Kylo as a wolf is that you get some of Kylo and some of what he could have been as Ben Solo. Some of the qualities remain, such as the sense of mystery, exuberance, instinctive and shrewdness. But most of it has been ironically ruined by his lack of self confidence. So as a wolf, he is not complete. The compassion bit really got me because it is the one thing that Snoke reproaches him with... Is he a wolf, or a dog in wolf’s clothing? Or a dog that dreams of being a wolf? Half and half, mayhaps?

Good dog! a rehabilitation

So are there any positive references to dogs in SW yet? Yep.

Anyways, dogs have always been part of the Star Wars mythos, altough not necessarily the obvious way. Take Chewbacca for instance. There would not be Chewbacca as we know him had it not been for George Lucas’s faithful pet, Indiana (who can also be thanked for giving the famous adventurer his moniker). Allegedly, Lucas got the inspiration for Chewie, Han’s copilot, when seeing his wife leave on her car with their huge dog on the copilot seat.

Funny thing is no dog played any part in Chewie’s distinctive sounds, which turn out to be recordings from a bear,a walrus, a badger, a lion, and a seal. The fact remains that Chewie exemplifies the dog’s most praised qualities throughout the saga: as a staunch and loyal friend, as a source of love and comfort (the famous Chewie hugs), and as a protector. Yes, just like dogs, Chewie can be fierce and defend his friends.

You could also argue that there are other examples of companions who exemplify the same doglike qualities in the movies. Droids such as R2D2 and BB8 just fit the model. Loyalty, check; defense, check; huggable, check. The perfect pets and companions. It says a lot that Chewie and R2 are the characters that have endured the longest in the general scope of the saga: R2 appearing in episode 1, and Chewie in episode 3, which make them the only ones that have recurring roles in the three trilogies (Chewie also scores Solo and R2 Rogue One).

There is a subversion of “dogs” as an insult that is quite interesting in the ST. Maybe it starts from this “Die Jedi dogs”, which is quite an oxymoron: the one time it is used as an insult it is to the people that are normally the golden moral standard, and also uttered by someone who is always all too polite and all too diplomatic. Also also, it is not totally incorrect as you could view the Jedi as the guard dogs of the Republic...

But wait, all that was before the ST. In the ST we get brand new examples of dogs and doglike behavior to ponder. Take Rey, for instance. Sitting there, loyally, on Jakku, waiting for her parents to return, a behavior not so different from the countless examples of dogs keeping watch on their dead masters’ graves (like that little famous Scottish from Edinburgh, Greyfriar’s Bobby, who even got his statue to commemorate). After all, this is exactly Rey’s place: Jakku is pictured as a graveyard, a place that is described literally in the novelization as where “technology came to die”. And where does she make a house for herself? As @blacklakeinavalley pointed it out to me in her original ask, in an AT-AT walker which is called non the less: the Hellhound!!!! 

Seriously, like, of all the stupidest dumb names this is the one they picked! An appropriate one, to boot, since the At-AT has always had that distinctive look that made it look like a dog... And I have always been intrigued by this particular rendering with a little girl holding an At-At on a leash...

So, yes, the dog. Here really the corpse of a hound. But symbolism is not lost here... Death that feeds off new life, reborn out of hell... And who could this hellhound be, pray? Well, it gets even better when you know that this particular Hellhound was part of a ship called the Interrogator... Interrogator, mind you, and not something as dreadful as, say, an inquisitor. No, the Interrogator is quite a good one because who is the interrogator since the beginning of TFA? Ummm? Who else but our boy who “interrogates” Lor San Tekka, and Poe, and well... eventually Rey. Rey makes a home for herself there. It’s like Kylo is her home already... ain’t it cute...Also, Kylo as a dog, a “hellhound” is a good one as his job at the beginning is somehow to “hunt down” Luke, sniff his trace throughout the galaxy if you will, and then fetch the information back to Snoke. Good boy Kylo eventually fetches quite another prey... Even though again, Kylo seems more like the wolf at the begining of the story to Rey the dog... Look at the symbolism of the dog from The Astrology Web

Adventure, patience, hardworking!!!! You need to spend more time with your family!!!!!

There was yet another girl that exhibited some interesting doglike behavior in the ST, in a positive way. Unfortunately the scene got cut out. But when Rose bites the finger of Hux on the Supremacy as he mocks her and her system, this is an interesting one. Dog fight, right? What better way to get back at the rabid cur than bite him back?

Wolves will show the way

And then there are wolves in SW Rebels. When I did a piece on birds in SW, I mentioned the convor but as I hadn’t watched any of the Clone Wars or SW Rebels episodes yet, so I had no idea how truly symbolic these specific creatures could be. Careful not to make the same mistake again, and time to tie it in. Wolves (and thus in a way dogs) play quite an important part in these two series. Time to focus on Mortis then, and the World between worlds, introduced to us in SW Rebels. I think it is obvious that this is a very important addition to the SW universe. How they will eventually exploit it in ix is hard to say, yet, but the possibilities are huge in the expanded universe that Disney is preparing between the new shows and comics, and possibly future movies.

Ok, so, I don’t want to get too much into a detailed explanation (too long and complicated and some have done a good job on that already), but, as a reminder, Mortis is introduced in season 3 of Clone Wars to Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan as a mythical/mystical realm of the Force, dominated by three figures: the Father (the balance), the daughter (the light side), and the son (the dark side). Cool thing, even though we don’t get the convor and the wolf but rather a griffin and a bat, there is a moment when a wolf is plainly visible on the right next to the father:

And then, years later, comes SW Rebels. And so we get Ahsoka followed by a convor, which turns out to be the totem spirit of the daughter. Birds are therefore linked with the light side of the Force, the Eros, the life force, the one that points to protection and life. Which is really the whole point I made in my bird meta anyways (especially with porgs). So one would naturally assume that the wolf, as the creature associated with  the son, the dark side of the Force, represents death, Thanatos, the impulse for destruction, the symbolic triad of the Force being the convor, the snake, and the wolf as depicted on the mural uncovered in SW Rebels in quite an Indiana Jonesque formula (evil guy covets mystical artefact that will give him superhuman powers):

But then, there is more than meets the eye... Because the wolves we actually get in the SW universe are not pictured as merely destructive powers. Quite the opposite. In SW Rebels, the wolves give access to a portal, the world between worlds, with a potential to alter past, present, and future. They truly are psychopomp creatures that guide a lost soul (here Ezra) through a world that can be at best described as a vacuum...

And there are the other wolves to reckon with.

Wolffe, the clone trooper commander, linked to Ahsoka and Anakin, one of the few who refused to be part of the code 66 protocol and became rogue, the one who lost an eye (a very symbolic type of mutilation), and lives like Rey in a modified AT-AT. which thus makes Wolffe a link of continuity between the different generations and arcs within the SW universe and saga.

The Loth-Wolves which are featured on the mural of Mortis and frame the portal to the world between worlds. Loth wolves have the ability to communicate with humans, are strongly connected with the Force, and seem to become a vessel for the soul of Kanan Jarrus after his death. Again, the psychopomp.

What to make of it eventually... well... it all depends on what type of creatures we get in IX. Keep you eyes peeled out for birds, wolves, and dogs. But mostly keep your eyes open for Porgs. Always.

To conclude, for your appreciation, this is from a photoshoot Daisy Ridley did for Vogue in 2017 .... The girl that walks with wolves... one black, one white, no less..

[zutaralesbian]

I'm greedy... all the questions for the ask meme

I’m sorry that this took so freaking long. Between thinking about my answers, work, school, and my laptop getting pased around, it’s been hard to get it done lol. But thanks so much! 

I answered 6, 11, 25 here: http://lukesandwalker.tumblr.com/post/173277826118/6-11-25

And 30 here: http://lukesandwalker.tumblr.com/post/173275820343/i-would-like-30-please-because-i-live-to-see

But here’s the rest of them:

1: Top 3 heroes/protagonists

To narrow it down a little, i’m going to consider this as meaning MAIN protagonists.

Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) (Surprise surprise) I’ve already gushed so much about why I love Luke so i’ll keep it short this time. But I love that he’s a male lead in a science fiction movie series heavily geared towards dudebros that defies so many of the toxic tropes that usually come with male leads in that genre. Luke’s journey is about refusing to succumb to the darkness even while people from both sides of the conflict are urging him to do so. And he ultimately wins via compassion and his belief of inherent goodness. He’s a male lead that’s ultimately led by his heart, which is so refreshing. I remember being so surprised by how much I loved him the first time I finally sat down and watched Star Wars.

Buffy Summers (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) Buffy was one of the first female protagonists of a TV like BTVS that I was ever fully invested in and she was a good place to start. Buffy doesn’t fall into the typical trope of being emotion-free or hateful towards other women like so many people believe a “badass” female character like her needs to be. Buffy loves and cares about her friends and family and even craves romance, and none of that detracts from the fact that she’s also the slayer and kicks ass. She’ll always be one of my role models.

James Flint (Black Sails) I’ll admit that calling Flint a hero is a stretch since…he’s done some bad things, but I couldn’t not include him in this. He’s such a rarity…I don’t know of any other lead protagonists that are like him. The writers could have easily made him the typical straight douchebag that are usually in shows like this (a la Jax Teller). But instead, he’s a gay man with a lot of righteous anger towards the world for the unfairness of homophobic society. And he’s NOT ashamed of being gay! One of his most iconic speeches is about refusing to apologize to England because in his mind, he did nothing wrong. And he has multiple profound relationships with women that do not boil down to him wanting to fuck them and are actually filled with respect. I just….James Flint man. I could talk about him all day.

Honorable mention to Harry James Potter, who I love a lot as well.

2: Top 3 villains/antagonists

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender) One of the most complex and well written female villains ever. She’s never redeemed, but she was still given enough genuine qualities and backstory to feel sympathy for her. But at the same time….she’s also just really twisted and awful at times. “Don’t flatter yourself. You were never even a player.” How iconic??? (Also, the reason Zuko is not on this list is because I don’t really consider him a villain. At least not in the classic sense).

Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars) He scares the shit out of me and actually has enough of a story and background to be interesting. Kylo Ren who?

Cersei Lannister (ASOIAF/GOT) Such an evil bitch….but once in a while, I find myself rooting for her lol. She’s the only typical villain that I really love in ASOIAF though.

3: Top 3 supporting characters

(Oh god….in no particular order. And i’m not even 100% sure of these answers lol. And for this, i’m assuming they just mean not the #1 main character.)

Bonnie Bennett (The Vampire Diaries)  I don’t talk about her much anymore because i’m pretty much over TVD but she was the first character I ever stanned in a typical fandom way and therefor will always have a special place in my heart. I’ll be forever angry about how that demon show treated her.

Sansa Stark (ASOIAF/GOT) I’m not sure who would be considered the main character of ASOIAF. (I think Ned might have been the main character in the first book but after that….idk) but i’m going to go on a limb and assume that Sansa would be considered a supporting character lol. I love my survivor wolf daughter who is underestimated but manages to outsmart everyone.

Max (Black Sails) I pretty much love all of the female characters in Black Sails but Max would have to be #1 for me. (Although Eleanor is a veeeeeery close second. And sometimes they’re tied). I love how much of an enigma of a character she is. She’s manipulative but also one of the most genuinely compassionate characters on the show. And she has one of the most profound overall arcs on the show imo. Also….a lesbian icon.

Honorable mentions: Eleanor Guthrie (Black Sails), Tara Knowles (SOA), Arya Stark (GOT/ASOIAF), Michonne (TWD), Faith Lehane (BTVS), Leia Organa (Star Wars)

4: Top 3 background characters or side characters (Skipping this one because I honestly have no clue what to put lol)

5: Top 3 romantic relationships between characters

(So….i’m only going to include relationships that are already explicitly romantic in canon. So that excludes ships like Zutara, Bamon, and Fuffy).

Max & Anne (Black Sails) My tender pirate lesbians. I love them so much

Chloe & Max (Life is Strange) The childhood best friends to lovers trope. They’ll literally go to the ends of the earth for each other.

Ian & Mickey (Shameless) Siiiiiiigggggghhhhs. I hate Shameless.

7: Top 3 fictional families

The Starks (ASOIAF/GOT) It’s a hard life being a Stark stan but…I really do love my tragic wolf family so much. And I only hope that the surviving members of it can one day find some semblance of peace.

The Skywalkers Obviously not a traditional family, but I love my trashy dramatic space family. And i’ll forever hate Disney for killing them. No Star Wars without Skywalkers imo.

The Weasleys (Harry Potter) Weasley stan forever and always. They took Harry under their wing as much as they were allowed to and probably would have adopted him if Dumbledore had let them. And they did all that even though they weren’t well off themselves.

8: Top 3 fictional parents

Ned & Catelyn Stark (ASOIAF/GOT)  (Although if i’m being honest, mainly just Catelyn lol.)

Stef & Lena Adams-Foster (The Fosters) My beautiful lesbian moms

Jack & Emily Spier (Love, Simon) Going by the movie and not the book. But they were lovely

9: Top 3 fictional siblings

Luke & Leia (Star Wars) My beautiful space twins who absolutely adore each other

The Starklings (ASOIAF/GOT) And this includes several different combinations. Arya/Jon, Sansa/Arya, Sansa/Jon, Robb/Jon, Robb/Bran, ect.

The Gallagher siblings (Shameless): They’re trashy and downright awful to each other sometimes but…I still get the feels. My favorite pairs are Fiona/Lip, Ian/Lip, and Fiona/Carl.

Honorable mention to Damon/Stefan from TVD (Trash, trash, trash but still….feelings). And once upon a time Bellamy/Octavia would be on this list if I hadn’t stopped caring about The 100 lol.

10: Top 3 child characters

(I’m going to define this as meaning really little kids, not teenagers)

Lilo (Lilo & Stitch)

Rickon Stark (ASOIAF)

Boo (Monster’s Inc)

(I feel like I cheated my having 2/3 of them being Disney characters but…I don’t have a lot of child faves)

12: Top 3 fictional animals/pets

Appa & Momo (Avatar: The Last Airbender) (They’re both pretty prominent and sort of go together so i’m counting them as one.)

Hedwig (Harry Potter) (RIP :( )

Ghost (ASOIAF/GOT) (Along with all of the direwolves tbh. Where is Ghost @GoT?????)

13: Top 3 fictional locations

Hogwarts (There are sooo many HP answers in this, I know. Even though I don’t like J.K R*wling anymore, I can’t erase the years i’ve spent loving this series).

Ba Sing Se (Avatar: The Last Airbender) (Not so much because of the location itself but because some of the best and most intense episodes of ATLA took place in that location).

Winterfell (ASOIAF/GOT) (The origins of my wolf family :( Although….my love for it probably stems more from the books now.)

14: Top 3 fictional gadgets/devices

The Skywalker Lightsaber (Star Wars) (RIP…..I hate Disney/Lucasfilm)

The Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) (Not really a device or gadget since it’s a space ship but….i’m going to go ahead and count it anyway.)

The Marauder’s Map (Harry Potter)

15: Top 3 character backstories

James Flint (Black Sails): I will never get over the fact that not only did they make their lead character on a violent TV show like this gay, but that they also made a lot of his motivations revolve around his sexuality and the loss of a man that he was in love with. Sometimes I wish I went into this show completely blind because the “Flint and Thomas reveal were in love” reveal would have hurt and shocked me in the best way. It’s one of the biggest reasons why Black Sails is one of my favorite shows despite the issues I do have with it.

Zuko (ATLA): His backstory is really sad but his character wouldn’t have been the same without it. The two prominent episodes that showed his backstory (The Storm and Zuko Alone) are both in my top 5 ATLA episodes. It also makes his eventual happy ending seem even more rewarding.

Severus Snape (Harry Potter): I’m not a Snape apologist but i’d be lying if I said that the reveal that he was a double agent against Voldemort the entire series didn’t fuck me up for months after I finished reading Deathly Hallows lol. I did not see it coming, I was so shocked.

16: Top 3 characters who die

Eleanor Guthrie (Black Sails) Sometimes I legit have to pretend that she didn’t die in order to fully enjoy my Black Sails experience tbh. My biconic queen deserved so much better :( I’ll die mad about it.

Poussey Washington (OITNB): Her death was the final nail in the coffin of me caring about that show. They killed her off when she was finally getting some semblance of happiness :(

Tara Knowles (Sons of Anarchy): All she wanted to do was protect her sons and she was rewarded for it by being brutally murdered by Gemma and being taken for granted by Jax for seasons. FOREVER BITTER

17: Top 3 non-human characters

Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars: The Clone Wars/Rebels)

Katherine Pierce (TVD)

Rebekah Mikaelson (TVD/TO)

(Lol I feel sort of wrong for including any TVD characters that aren’t Bonnie Bennett since….I really don’t care about the majority of it anymore. But once upon a time I did love Katherine and Rebekah.

18: Top 3 fictional worlds/universes

The Avatar Universe/Four nations (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

The Wizarding World (Harry Potter)

The Star Wars universe (IDK what else it’d be called lol)

19: Top 3 animated series

Avatar: The Last Airbender: I’ve loved this show since I was a kid and still love it immensely. Such a good show with a great plot and amazingly developed characters. The only thing that sucks about it is the majority of the canon romances lol)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: I’m not a prequel hater but….this show had soooo much better writing in terms of developing Anakin’s character. Also….Ahsoka Tano! And the tragic friendship between the two of them will forever make me emo.

And I think the third would just be comprised of some of the cartoons I liked as a kid. Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, Kim Possible, American Dragon, Spongebob, The Wild Thornberries, and ect.

20: Top 3 live-action series

Black Sails

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer

How I Met Your Mother (even though that god awful finale ruined it for me for a long time)

21: Top 3 animated movies

(Ooooooh boy. The only one i’m 100% sure of it the first one. And yes, I know i’m cliche for it lol)

The Lion King (Disney)

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Dreamworks) This movie is sooooo underrated

Anastasia (Idk the studio that made it…but I know it’s a Don Bluth movie)

22. Top 3 live-action movies

(Again, not completely sure of my answers here….there are a lot of movies that I love)

Love, Simon God this movie was so gpoy

The Parent Trap (1998)

Juno

23: Top 3 books

The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling: Siiiiiiiggghhs

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie Evvvvvveeerrryone should read this book! It has such a good f/f slow-burn romance.

Honorable mentions: The Storyteller by Jodi Piccoult, The Darkest Powers series by Kelly Armstrong, The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, A Song of Ice and Fire series by G.R.R Martin

24: Top 3 comics/webcomics

Top 3 obscure series/movies/books I recommend

Idk I don’t think I have any answers for this one either? Most of the stuff i’m really into is at least kind of known.

27: Top 3 musicals or plays

The only musical i’ve seen in person so far has been The Lion King. But it was fantastic. I also watched all of the A Very Potter Musical plays on YouTube if that counts.

28: Top 3 songs from musicals

I’m going to go by musical movies for some of these.

Breaking Free (High School Musical) (Lol)

Summer Nights (Grease)

Defying Gravity (Wicked) (This one is actually from a musical. I listened to it on YouTube and loved it).

29: Top 3 funny moments in fiction

1.That scene in Prisoner of Azkaban when Ron used a phone for the first time to call Harry over the summer and ended up screaming into the phone when Vernon answered it lol. (Harry Potter)

2. Katara: You’ve been hallucinating on cactus juice all day, and now you lick something you find stuck to a wall of a cave?!

Sokka: I have a natural curiosity (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

3. All of the Catherine and Henry scenes in that one episode of Regin when Henry accidentally killed that noble lady and they were trying to cover it up. (Reign)

31: Top 3 heartwarming moments in fiction

1. Sansa and Jon’s reunion (Game of Thrones)

The only good Stark reunion on the show so far (Sansa and Arya were cute until they ruined it with that bullshit storyline). It has everything. The slow approach after they first see each other, the initial shock slowly melting away as they leap into a hug, all while the Stark theme plays in the background. I have hopes that all the Starks will get better reunions in the books but until then….I truly do love this scene.

2. Zuko and Iroh’s reunion (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

This scene makes me emotional….pretty much every time I watch it. Zuko approaches Iroh cautiously out of a shame for his betrayal of him and because he’s positive that Iroh is going to be furious with him and reluctant to forgive. But then he doesn’t even have to fully finish his apology before Iroh is pulling him into a hug. It’s the unconditional love that he never got from his biological father.

3. Flint and Thomas’ reunion (Black Sails)

The fact that the very last shot of James Flint was him reuniting with the man he loved after ten years of believing him to be dead is something that I will never forget. 

(I realize that all of these moments are reunions but….ohhhh well.)

32: Top 3 scary moments in fiction

I can’t really think of too many scary moments because I don’t watch a lot of horror stuff. I’m sure if I thought deeply about it I could come up with stuff from shows like The Walking Dead or Hemlock Grove but since it’s been so long since i’ve watched either of those shows, my mind is coming up blank.

But I will say…that scene where Matilda and Miss Honey were trying to escape Trunchbull’s house always used to scare me as a kid lol.

33: Top 3 awesome moments in fiction

(Another one where i’m very unsure of my answers because there are a lot of awesome moments in fiction that I love. But i’m just going to list the ones that come to mind first.)

1. Zuko leaves the Fire Nation and tells off Ozai (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

For so long, all I wanted was for you to love me, to accept me. I thought it was my honor I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn. My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, to an Agni Kai. How could you possibly justify a duel with a child?

The scene goes on longer than that but i’m not going to post the full transcript for the sake of not making it insanely long. But I loved it because it was a full display of how far Zuko had come in his character development. And he finally, after almost the full duration of the series, came to fully understand that his abuse wasn’t his fault. And got to fully confront his abuser. I just…this scene is so important. 

2. Max’s speech to Anne in 4x08 (Black Sails) 

I remember when I first met Eleanor, how stunned I was. A woman who spoke the way she did, who had no fear of the world or the men who reigned over it.mWhen I became her lover, I watched the decisions she made and resolved to learn from them. When I became her rival, I watched the mistakes she made and resolved never to repeat them. But at the end, when I felt I had surpassed her in every way, it seemed as though there was something she was still trying to say to me. Surrendering everything she had sacrificed so dearly for, because it would have come at the expense of the one she loved. She was trying to tell me, I just could not hear her, about what is truly important. I said no to Marion Guthrie’s plan, despite having no alternative and at the risk of losing the entire endeavor, because I refuse to situate a man in a position where he might interfere one day with my ability to repair things with you.  You are the bravest person I have ever known. The truest person I have ever known. And I betrayed you and it sickens me. I’m so sorry for trying so hard to protect the wrong things. For failing to see that there is nothing important that does not include you.

I’ll always be upset that Eleanor died and that this was the last Maxanne scenes of the series (side-eyes the finale) but I will forever love this scene because it represents so much about what I love about the Maxanne and Maxanor relationships. The fact that Max, a lesbian character, had her arc and development throughout the show so beautifully shaped by her relationships with two women (both of whom were her lovers at some point) will forever make me emotional. 

3. Luke refuses to fall to the dark side (Star Wars)

Never. I’ll never turn to the Dark Side. You have failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.

I’ve already talked at length about why I love this scene so I won’t go into it too much. But it represents everything I love about Luke’s character. The ending of his journey is not the typical violent fest that most male protagonists in this genre end with it, it’s refusing to fall into the same trap that Palpatine had lured Anakin into years before. I just…freaking love Luke Skywalker. 

[lisasnarts]

1) what’s your favorite Star Wars character and why? 2) what does a typical day in your life look like? 3) favorite song rn?

1)  ooooh boy there’s a few star wars characters that are competing for that position. I guess in a way it kind of depends on what i’ve watched most recently? cause then I’ll be reminded how much I love them? so some of my favourite characters are 

Obi Wan for the obvious reason that he’s Obi Wan. I love his sense of humour and how he goes through so much but still remains such a good jedi and a good person, people have said it better than I and I don’t think I really need to explain this let’s be honest because everyone loves obi wan.

Maul because he’s a chaotic gremlin man with some excellent lines, but  he’s got a tragic backstory and he’s more complex than just a straightforward villain in how much he cares about his family but he absolutely is still unapologetically a villain and I find that kind of refreshing 

Ahsoka because I love her character arc of going from a more headstrong padawan who sometimes rushes into things without thinking to being a more thoughtful person and someone who grows into her leadership role whilst still retaining her confidence and who she is, I also love how compassionate she is and she’s the one who thinks that clearly something must be going on with the clones and tries not to kill them and just how much she cares. Also her sarcasm is great, and the fact she got adopted by like the entire grand army of the republic.

Rey which I know is an unpopular opinion lol, but I genuinely think she does have both character strengths and weakness and a proper character arc despite the going back and forth on who she was related to. She goes from someone who, whilst very competent and badass from the start, is waiting for someone to save her really (her family in the force awakens, and then luke and ben in the last jedi, well not so much herself in the last jedi but the resistance) and is scared of the power she has to someone who has a rocky journey to accepting who she is, that family doesn’t have to be biological, that she can save herself and be the person she needs and the person everyone else needs whilst she’s at it and becomes the hero (like don’t get me wrong I love luke and the original trilogy but I think we kind of miss some of that journey of acceptance with vader being his dad and him becoming a powerful jedi in the gap between empire and return). Also she is very adorable (her seeing all the green on Takodana! her happy face when she bypassed the compressor!) and has so much compassion and faith in people despite all she’s been through on Jakku but she can also be angrily feral and I admire that, and i’m glad she’s allowed to be both because it seems a lot of women are reduced to just one of those (or they’re both but the anger is belittled and made out to be wrong)

I also love Captain Rex, Padme, Leia, Qi’ra but this has already been enough of an essay.  If I had to pick one I would probably actually pick Rey right now because typing all that has made me remember why I like her so much and probably because whilst i’ve always liked Star Wars, going to watch The Force Awakens and all the hype and getting to celebrate it with my friends is when I started loving Star Wars.

2) Nothing much at the moment tbh, since I graduated university last summer. I kind of needed some time to just pause after school and university (on reflection should probably have taken a gap year between the two) for various reasons and then obviously coronavirus happened which kinda messed with job searching. So at the moment I don’t have to get up early which i’m loving because I am terrible with mornings, i’ve been rewatching Doctor Who at the moment so i’ll watch a few episodes of that, read a bit, watch the usual programmes my family watches on weekdays (whichever version of Star Trek happens to be on, it’s the Next Generation at the moment), go on tumblr, generally try to figure out what the heck I can do with my history degree ( that isn’t history related particularly because most things require a masters and also because my three years of doing history thoroughly put me off the subject)

3) oooooh i’ve been loving Folklore by Taylor Swift at the moment, so probably epiphany (especially because it fits perfectly Kaladin from The Stormlight Archive who is another one of my favourite fictional characters)

Sorry this turned out so long, I do have a tendency to go on a bit, thank you so much for asking!

[signifiant-in-signifie]

You may try. But you cannot the truth that is your name, Ben.

So, first of all, it is my first tumblr post like ever. I’m pretty new in this, but I really enjoy lots of sites here ‘a lot’ and from a long time and I want to add my two cents here.

I ship couple of couples from movie/TV. I’m totally #philinda and #reylo.

I became a big Reylo fan after TFA. I agree with probably 99,99% Reylo meta (I probably don’t know it all) – don’t be afraid, I feel it too ;-)

I love the way how Ben and Rey are portrayed, even visually – opposites (colours) but also similarities (look at the layers of theirs sleeves), ‘same’ stories, different ways of resolving their problems... I was heartbroken ‘cause their separate ways at the end of TLJ and even scared that Disney gave (and will give) us kind of ‘Labirynth’ ending instead of our instant ‘Beauty and the Beast’, but now I hope that it’ll be for their benefit (they are so young and reckless, both of them, even ‘Snow White’ didn’t help for now). I must say that I have had very bad feelings about this when I saw Rey in that claustrophobic coffin just from my beloved CS Lewis imaginary. Offtopic: In CSL’s ‘Perelandra’ in coffin like this travelled to the Venus (planet named after goddess of love;-)) Ransom – kind of helper to save Venus’ first pair of ‘human’ citizens (Adam and Eve of this place) who were tempted by evil (Satan, in our Reylo case - Snoke, but they defeat evil just like Lewis’ heroes). So our beloved couple should now to figured it out alone and find a way to be what they should be and be themselves, to be together. You know that wisdom that ‘you can’t have healthy relationship with another person if you are ‘sick’’ – and they are so broken...

I can write a lot, like A LOT of them, and instead of that it I want to say that in TLJ not everything was for me ‘nice cinema working’, but in the end I like it as a whole. I have faith in JJ – I saw all his works, and I’m considering him as a director who make films and TV series about friendship, family, love and redemption. I was confused about TFA – I didn’t see most of these things in it, but then – enlighten – I know now that JJ did want to tell us story about loneliness (everyone are alone in TFA – it was horrible), now Rian’s story told us that’s tragedy that people didn’t speak with each other, but when they start... So JJ I guess will show us his usual film themes in our ‘Black Diamond’ (I saw some of ‘Fringe’ resolutions in TFA, so I’ll be waitin’ for another ‘Beauty and the Beast’ kind of form these in next film). Our beloved couple is in good hands. I can speak about Star Wars all day long... I’m not sure that anyone notice it (probably yes) – but I don’t see any meta about it, so I want to share it with you and ask you what do you think about these.

I want to say few words about name Ben. I’m studyin’ linguistic and I know how important names are/were in culture, why people give that specific name to their children – as a good wish for future, as a prophecy.

Name Ben in Hebrew means ‘son of the south’ or ‘son of the right hand’ – sounds very nice. Benjamin in the Old Testament was the twelfth and youngest son of Jacob – Israel, father of the Chosen Nation (sounds familiar?) – Jews. Interesting is fact, that he was originally named differently – ‘son of my sorrow’ by his mother Rachel, who died shortly after childbirth. His father changed this name later for what we know now. So - inspiring story about changing names, seeing person differently by different people (sorrow, right), making troubles (not his fault exactly) from his very childhood.

But we know that tradition wasn’t common ‘at galaxy far, far away...’ (but is common to us, viewers, 'cause we know other traditions and myths, tales).

It was difficult to accept for me that Kylo Ren is Solo Ben, but then I saw that he only change couple of letters so Ben is still there ;-) and one of it is ‘R’ (Rey ;-) we know they must know each other before). Pay also attention to fact, that that speaking Kylo Ren’s birth name is forbidden in First Order!

But there is also another thing... So Ben was born at the day of end of war, when Rebellion defeat Empire in great battle of Jakku (interesting, don’t you think?). He has got name after Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi without whom his parents will never met, fall in love, defeat Empire, finally had him... Who, after Jedi purge exiled himself, had amazing powers, who defeat Anakin but had compassion for him and to didn't kill him. After Master who always know how and what to do, Knight in the shiny armour, devoted to Jedi Order but also to his friends and close his eyes for some of their decisions (he must know about Anakin and Padme, please), but he didn’t say a word of disapproval. So our sweet little boy had lots of expectations on his shoulders, not only fame of ‘freedom/victory child’, first baby born in the free galaxy but also parents, uncle, then grandpa and grandma (both: Organas and Skywalkers) and Obi-Wan, who change his name because his looses.  And then the meaning of this name: 'Obi-Wan Kenobi you’re my only hope' (I wasn’t only reminding of our beloved Princess or funny/memorable moment for Luke in TLJ) – for me this holo scene was also about Ben. Rey told us that! People around Ben want him to be theirs hope, ‘cause – as his name said - he was theirs hope form the very beggining (as children in general are, but also) theirs hope for peace, for happy family life, for end of all wars, for start a new Jedi (irony of the Force - Order).

And the irony/tragedy of these situation was that evil was there all the time to crush these hope, to change it to despair, to Kylo Ren. ‘Cause Ben means hope. Ben is HOPE. And I have hope that he still is. Force didn’t change mind ;-) Force wants balance. Anakin failed, Luke failed, but he saw enough power for accomplish it in Ben, but Ben (see how he strongly believe in Force) in way to balance dark and light tried to kill the light embracing dark – bad way. But we saw him ‘grey’ even in TFA (for example he didn’t kill Finn when he disobey him in that village). So he must accept that evil is inside everyone, and remind himself how good is to be on the right side of life (as in Snoke’s trone room). He can’t accomplish it alone, so Force ‘make a helper suitable for him’ (oh, Bible!) born at Jakku – the planet entwined with his birthday! There is darkness in her, but thanks for his actions, their connection (I don’t believe that its Snoke’s work) – he was her teacher, he really helped her to mature. Sad part of it is that she cannot help him the same way, but remember he was darksider many years and needs more time to heal, to see his mistakes to find his way, to fulfil the prophecy of his name and birthday in proper way! Ending of the TLJ was heartbroken ‘cause the lack of... hope. They lost hope, (‘cause) they lost Ben, lost faith in him, even his mother, even Rey. Everything was dark, instead of grey. But I believe he will figured it out, he is a smart boy, maybe with assistance of Force ghosts? We will see. But I believe that after ‘The IX’ we won’t be disappointed. He must believe in himself, believe his loved ones, he must see his heritage in proper way not the way that Snoke Has told him is the proper way (I believe that he started  see Snoke's lies), just like his father, who (irony of the Force!) didn’t believe in Force (an had the most powerful Force user as a son) before Ben turn away from the light, and then the same father tell everyone ‘all of it is true’. Firstly, it was confusing to me (back at December 2015) that we don’t have any Skywalker – but we have. We have Ben, and maybe his grandfather was suppose to be designed from Force (see the similarities, their personality) but he doesn’t fulfil this prophecy, so Force tried with Luke and Leia – but because their separate ways and paths of life didn’t succeed also. So – third time lucky – Force tried third time. Or maybe he form the beginning were destined to be ‘the chosen one’ and every event in SW lead us for this very moment when he will become Him (and all the events: Anakin turns to Vader, born of Leia, rise and fall of Empire, Han’s love for Leia was for the chosen one birth. ‘And who knows but that you have come to your [royal] position for such a time as this?’ To become the greatest Jedi, new Jedi ever. The chosen one. Connected two sides of force in a good way, for benefit of everyone? Not without ‘little help form his friend(s)’ but it’s still Skywalker story (this is they poetic;-)). He want to accomplish it ‘solo’, but we know that it isn't a way.

Ben is ideal Force user, extremely sensitive in the Force, have great power, amazing emotionality – perfect to use the Force, to connect to it, but –unfortunately - the same reasons caused his downfall. So Force learn and want a balance and that tried with two human beings to do it (It give us Luke and Leia - man and woman, knight and politic, servant and ruler - but it doesn’t work). So here’s Rey – to show him ‘you can do it differently, it works better this way, feelings aren’t bad, try combine it with Force,with power’. Power+love. Power of love.

I believed that Rey will call him his real name before I saw TLJ and she did (remember all the stories about real name of long lost Kings and Princess..., ‘bout name changes and so on). She said it because his real name, true name and identity is Ben. He can’t deny it, even if he will try (and he tried during two films, and he can’t! accomplish it, 'cause you can't kill the past, you must accepted it and just live). Without him there is no hope. His birth ends war, his re-birth will end another, end all star wars for good. He will end it, he did it once. I don’t know how, negotiations, from inside... history of my country tells me that is possible. Have hope, my friends.

That's ALL (and much more I guess) is in his name.

PS So that’s couple of my thoughts. Sending hugs love for all Reylo community. Sorry for my poor English, I’m not native, as you can - definitely and unfortunately - see.

[marvelstars]

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: Redemption & Forgiveness

The matter of redemption in Star Wars has always been a matter of discussion in the fandom and I wanted to take on this.

"A redemption arc is a literary term for a type of character development in which a bad or morally gray character turns into a good person by the end of the story. They redeem their worst sins through their actions in the story's resolution"

From a literature pov Darth Vader had a text book redemption arc on ROTJ which Lucas talks about as him "stopping the horror" by learning and having compassion for his Son.

"It really has to do with learning. Children teach you compassion. They teach you to love unconditionally. Anakin can’t be redeemed for all the pain and suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t right the wrongs, but he stops the horror. The end of the Saga is simply Anakin saying, ‘I care about this person, regardless of what it means to me. I will throw away everything that I have, everything that I have grown to love - primarily the Emperor - and throw away my life, to save this person. And I’m doing this because he has faith in me, loves me despite all the horrible things I’ve done. I broke his mother’s heart, but he still cares about me, and I can’t let that die.’

Anakin is very different in the end. The thing of it: The prophecy was right. Anakin was the Chosen One, and he does bring balance to the Force. He takes the ounce of good still left in him and destroys the Emperor out of compassion for his son."

George Lucas, The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221

But redemption can also have different meanings which also played a part in the way Lucas choose to represent the moment of Anakin/Vader´s redemption.

Redemption:

(IN RELIGION):(especially in Christianity) an occasion when someone is saved from evil, suffering, etc.

The state of being kept from evil or of improving morally.

The act of paying back a loan

In many ways Redemption is also the act of paying back a moral debt owned by the evil or morally bad acts someone committed, this act on itself means the person in question improves their morality because they are turning back from evil to do good and make reparations.

In this way, thanks to the intervention of his Son, Anakin was saved from the suffering of the darkside and able to "turn back from evil" , improve morally by showing compassion once more in many long years and pay back his actions at the price of his blood.

This doesn´t mean it was the only way he could have paid his debts but it was the one way he was able to also stop the evil his master commited agaisnt the galaxy, this despite the fact Vader "loved" the Emperor, his love didn´t mean he didn´t recognize what they did was wrong and instead of washing himself of blame given he was initiatily manipulated into turning to the darkside by the Emperor, Vader took responsibility for them both, took the ounce of good left inside of him and "stopped the horror" in one self sacrificial action. Redemption is about the choice of the person who is seeking redemption.

Now when I see this creates confussion and even anger in the fandom, because is seen as unfair, is that many fans believe this means other characters HAD to forgive Anakin because Vader redeemed himself but this is not the case at all, forgiveness is another action all together, the fact Anakin redeemed himself in the end doesn´t mean Obi-Wan, Leia, Han, Luke, the Imperials, etc or any other person hurt by his actions HAD to forgive him, that is their prerrogative but at the same time, the fact they DIDN´T forgive him or the fact many didn´t even know Vader was the one who defeated the Emperor giving way to the New Republic rule(acording to the new canon), doesn´t erase Vader´s redemption.

Anakin/Vader was redeemed by his own actions, the act of being forgiven can only be made by the people hurt by his actions and no one else but even in the case they don´t forgive him doesn´t take away anything from Anakin´s sacrifice and the good that came from it.

Anakin lying dying and thinking of joining the force once more while being grateful to Luke for showing him how he could love again without knowing if his sacrifice was even going to be known or not was part of his redemption, he did what he could, at the price of his life, it didn´t matter what else happened after this. He was at peace.

Obi-Wan teaching Anakin how to become a force ghost was Obi-Wan´s choice, his way of showing Anakin that he forgave him but Anakin was already redeemed before he did this by Anakin´s own sacrifice.

Luke forgiving his father to give him a chance to turn from the darkside was Luke´s choice, no one else and Luke was at peace with his choice even when his father told him it was "too late for him"

Leia trying to forget everyting about Vader, not wanting to destroy herself by hating him when he was dead but not being able to forgive him either was her choice and the fact Anakin redeemed himself doesn´t mean she had to forgive him.

So in the end redemption and forgiveness is a matter of choice of the person seeking redemption and the person giving forgiveness. They are related but they aren not the same thing and just like Anakin choose to come back in the end, this possibility was open to any other imperial or rebel who did wrong at one point of their lives. It´s a personal decision, a personal choice.

Return of the Jedi by James Kahn

[the-son-of-suns-blog]

The Hero’s Journey and Mythological Motifs

When Episode IX is complete, we will be able to apply that circle to the entire story and the characters of Anakin and Padme each. The true meaning of “ring theory,” at least to me, is that each film is really it’s own hero’s journey, which is why to a certain degree they all stand on their own. But when looking at each trilogy, and all the trilogies, there are “circular stories” that apply to all of them as well. If we accept that all those times George Lucas said he relied on Joseph Campbell for a lot of his inspiration behind this story aren’t just George playing a cruel joke, we can safely assume that the people George trusted to hand the company over to at least still continue the story in the spirit of what Star Wars fundamentally is, which is this awesome, modern-day mythic fairytale. So, assuming this, let’s plot the story out on that chart.

1. Threshold 1 is the death of Anakin and the Republic and birth of Vader and the Empire. 2. Threshold 2 is the middle of the saga, which is ESB. Here, Vader realizes his son would rather die than join him, which reverses the story back toward the beginning. 3. Threshold 3 is the death of Vader and rebirth of Anakin as one with the Force. Finally, Anakin can do what he was always meant to do: bring balance. In other words, he became more powerful than we can possibly imagine. That just leaves the fourth and final threshold to be crossed. But it will be crossed by Rey and Kylo. I think by now you can begin to see why, in some form, Rey and Kylo must be Padme and Anakin come back for this whole thing to work. The “grand spectacle” of what these characters were always meant to do hasn’t been accomplished yet, and it needs to be them who do it. If you look in-between thresholds 3 and 4, you’ll see the “resurrection” phase of the story. Birth, death, and rebirth are also some of the most common mythological motifs in human history. The “resurrection” phase of the story occurs when, after most of the myth has been completed, the hero has finally gained wisdom, and through that wisdom, a power unbeknownst to the hero and anyone else in the story up to that point. And the wisdom almost always means things like compassion, learning to let go of fear, learning to love your fellow humans, etc. It is only after the hero learns those things that they are “gifted” that supreme power by the universe, the power to go change the external world for the better. Up to that point, every attempt the hero makes to affect their external surroundings usually makes things worse, because they are not psychologically balanced yet. Anakin was at peace and balanced at the end of ROTJ. And all this theory suggests is that, given what we know about Anakin’s fall in the prequels and his relationship to Padme, the “balancing act” he did involved giving up his power to her and sending them back into the world to fix the mistakes they made in the prequels. All of that foreshadowing about cheating death and saving the ones you love… it came true, just not in the way that the deluded Vader and all the other bad guys think it could have. It came true through the power of love. Anakin’s love of Luke and Padme, Padme’s love of Anakin, Luke’s love of Anakin, etc. All of that combined to give us that ending in Return of the Jedi. When Anakin said, “Love won’t save you Padme, only my new powers can do that,” he was wrong. But he was so close to the truth. Love could, and eventually did save her. And this connects to a number of prominent mythological motifs about how love is the most powerful force in the universe. It’s cheesy, but it’s true. Now, when looking at the saga mythically, as I think we should (it is a myth, after all), we can see some even more obvious clues. The one that comes to mind the most for me is Padme’s death. Externally, it makes no sense. She has two living, breathing children. Why would she lose the will to live and just die? The answer is that it’s another motif. That of a spouse following her lover into the underworld. In this case, Anakin “dying” and entering the Vader suit was his descent into the “underworld,” in which Padme follows via her own death. This touches on a huge theme in mythology that Campbell brings up a lot, the theme of “Love-Death” where two people are so in love that if one dies, so too does the other. In this case, Anakin was dead, Vader was born, so Padme dies. She followed “Anakin,” not Vader. And this highlights the importance of these two lovers being soulmates, each other’s other halves. From a mythical point of view, Anakin, when blinded by his hatred and rage, lived when he should have died. Padme, being completely healthy, died when she should have lived. And all of this makes Anakin’s vision a self-fulfilling prophecy. The answer, to me, is that Anakin unconsciously drew out her life force, being that he was on the dark side and represented selfishness and evil. Padme, representing selflessness, faith, and good, unconsciously surrendered her life force to her other half to follow him into the underworld. And she was always there, calling him back to the light. The comics demonstrate this beautifully. Now, there comes a point in these myths where the hero has a “meeting with the goddess.” And it’s a big point in the story. I propose that this was Anakin reuniting with his soulmate after his death. Padme is the goddess. And as the goddess, represents boundless love for all of the galaxy’s creatures, including the misguided Anakin. What Anakin effectively did was give up his power to Padme since she was always more worthy to wield it, and then they sent themselves back into the world when they were needed to finally solve the “external problems” of the galaxy that started getting worse in the prequels. And the reason Padme has to do this and not just Anakin is, well, because she sort of kickstarted the Empire. In Episode I she does what no balanced person should ever do - make a decision based on fear. She gets Palpatine elected because she’s afraid that the Republic can’t help her people. It’s a totally justifiable fear, but a fear nonetheless. And ultimately, it does nothing to help. Padme, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, and Anakin have to go save the Naboo on their own anyway. Palpatine and the Republic are nowhere to be seen. So the “victory” at the end of The Phantom Menace is only an illusion. The dark side has won because Palpatine got what he wanted at no loss to himself. He manipulated Padme into a trap. Therefore, it is PadRey who will, in Episode IX, be the one to finally bring peace, freedom, and justice to the galaxy, and she’ll do so with Ben at her side. That fourth and final threshold in the diagram is the “freedom to live.” What I think that will mean is that Ben and Rey get a happy ending, which is the happy life that Anakin and Padme could have had had Anakin not fallen to the dark side. And thanks to mythology and resurrection, it’s technically Anakin and Padme still receiving this happy ending after all of these lessons over the course of the saga have been taken to heart. And if this true, Rey becomes more than any of us could have ever dreamed.

[frumfrumfroo]

1-As far as I can tell, the anti-legacy argument from TLJ is drawn from some of the following points: Luke, when facing Ben on Crait, isn't compassionate towards him like he was with Vader, but cruel/mocking, and he names Rey as the "last Jedi" and bearer of his legacy, which people interpret as him writing off Ben as a lost cause, only seeing him as an enemy/worth contempt, and holding up Rey as the true legacy; since Kylo was fundamentally wrong about Rey being “a nobody” which means that Rey

2-choosing to go back to her friends was also proof of the fact that she was right at the beginning of the movie, she was right not to trust him, to believe in Luke, and to wait for her parents, and didn’t have to let go of anything as he demanded; Rey leaves the Throne Room with both halves of the legacy saber means she’s the true legacy, as is Leia telling her “we have everything we need” after she said “my son is gone”; broom boy hammers in the point of the movie that it’s not about where            

3-you come from, anyone can be a hero…and part of that message is the older Skywalker generation embracing these other, “worthy” heroes as their legacies (Rey as the Jedi, Poe as the Resistance) and rejecting Kylo, because it doesn’t matter if he’s related to them, he chose to be evil, they can’t help him, no more Vader-like “getting a redemption chance just because he’s a Skywalker relative” situations. This is what I could gather from reading several anti-legacy articles/metas around the web.          

In response to this post where anon argues the Skywalkers aren’t essential to the Skywalker saga. Thanks for gathering.

1. Except that Luke has a sit down with his despairing sister where he reassures Leia that ‘no one is ever really gone’ re: SPECIFICALLY BEN. They are talking about Ben here, it is not ambiguous or debatable, so Luke explicitly believes that Ben can still be saved. Just not by him. We’re being told to expect a different kind of redemption than Vader’s, it’s not going to work the same way. Which is a good thing.

And when Luke actually speaks to Ben, he acknowledges that he is at fault for this situation and apologises to him. Are they trying to argue this apology isn’t sincere? That Luke is such a massive asshole that he’s mocking the nephew he traumatised? That Luke’s TLJ arc wasn’t about accepting his failure but about learning he should have gone through with murdering an innocent family member in his sleep and should stop feeling guilty about it? Because that would be the necessary implication if he is to be read as cruel and mocking in that scene. Does the narrative blame Ben and paint him as a bad seed who was inflicted on an innocent family? Is he Damien? Of fucking course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Sea cucumbers know he’s meant to be sympathetic.

2. I’m already tired. Okay, as I have made many bitter sarcastic posts about already, Rey’s character arc cannot be a circle. If she was right all along about everything, she doesn’t need to grow and is already fully actualised before we even meet her. But this is a coming of age story, this is a mythic journey about confronting the world and responsibility and the power of the individual to make moral choices. This is a fairy tale about how to become an ethical adult. A protagonist who doesn’t change and doesn’t need to learn anything is a fucking category error in this kind of story.

As previously mentioned, Leia was wrong in saying ‘my son is gone’ and the film is not subtle in telling us that. Rey cannot be the ‘true legacy’ because the narrative importance of the legacy is entirely about the burden it has been to the people who carry it. The whole reason this is an actual sequel and an actual continuation of the same story is because we’re dragging up unresolved trauma around Anakin’s fall, because this is all part of the same question, because Ben was only a target and vulnerable to Snoke because of who he is. Star Wars is personal, always, it’s about individuals and the individual struggles are then a metaphor for the universal. Rey ‘carrying on the legacy’ is meaningless. What is the legacy if it is not both the weight of Anakin’s sins and the deathless hope of Anakin’s redemption and reclamation? Rey alone, supposedly having nothing to do with Big Bad Ben, has nothing whatsoever to do with the legacy.

The point of the Skywalkers is to ask a question about choice and destiny. Ben’s fatalism comes directly from how Leia chose to handle (or not handle) the Skywalker legacy. Han and Ben’s broken relationship is implied to come from it. Luke’s biggest failure and the impetus of Ben’s final fall was his lapse into believing in it. But the problem in the galaxy is not the Skywalkers, the problem is and has always been people making selfish choices. Evil is a choice and not a destiny. Anakin had a choice, Luke had a choice, Ben has a choice.

That is the positive and regenerative part of Anakin’s legacy which needs to be carried forward: that it’s never too late, that there is always a choice. This is what Luke did in saving his father, he extended the grace of unconditional love and reminded Anakin what it was like, he convinced Anakin there was a choice. He demonstrated willing absolute selflessness and showed it was possible, destroying Anakin’s illusions and justifications about inevitability and the inescapable necessity of power and selfishness. Ben has not yet realised this truth (well, maybe, maybe he’s getting there on the floor at the end), but there’s a whole film left to go. He will be faced with this dilemma again.

Rey the Infallible waiting to be informed of her rightness and handed adoption into heroism and importance as a reward for not making choices and avoiding the world has nothing to say about any of this. That is empty. That is totally inappropriate.

What makes her the hero is her compassion and she will be rewarded for that, for her faith and patience, not for never failing, not for not being wrong. Never failing or being wrong is not an heroic attribute anyone has ever had in Star Wars, but love and compassion are never wrong. Literally never. Love will always be vindicated.

3. And, yeah, I think I covered that. Luke and Leia sweeping Ben under the carpet as not their fault or their problem and getting shiny new kids is both proven not to work (not accepting and understanding what created Vader worked out so well) and is a morally abhorrent message at odds with the soul of the saga. The point of Broom Boy is that the galaxy is big and people are inspired, that hope is alive in the most desperate places; it’s a meta commentary about stories and heroes and why we have them, tying in to Luke’s identity crisis and Yoda’s lesson. It doesn’t mean this story is now no longer about the thing it has always been about. All of those themes tie right the fuck back to choices and mistakes and the double-edged sword of legacy.