#that means she wouldn't know about the dark Vader meme

[connisk]

The poor thing was sure he got his drama from the tragedy muse, but no, that's just Apollo's genes. (Turn on sound)

Bonus:

Inspired by this:

Yeah

[flowers-of-io]

I'm not an anon ;P but whats your opinion on what they did with Rasputin the end of last season

Uh Oh

It's probably gonna be long so I'm putting a read more and vibing under the cut:

If you know one thing about me, it's that I hate half-baked redemption arcs.

I hate hate hate hate giving a character the Vader treatment, i.e. redeeming them and then immediately killing them (often in some heroic way), before they really get to live this new redeemed life. It's a lazy shortcut for when you want to turn the character to the light side but not really have to deal with all the hard stuff that comes with redemption, like answering for your crimes and making amends, etc. It's hard to do a full, real redemption arc, especially when your character has done some nasty shit! The turning point is such a glorious, bright moment, but what needs to come after is often ugly and gruelling -- there is justice to be had, and forgiveness to be asked for, and amends to be made. And I understand the temptation to just turn the character into a heroic sacrifice (that will highlight their newfound nobility even more!) and not have to deal with all that unsightly stuff.

I still consider it a cowardly move, though.

I don't MIND Rasputin's death in and of itself. Destiny is ripe with themes of bravery and duty and sacrificial love. What grinds my gears is the execution of it, most of all in terms of the pacing. I love how @idlenight summed it up that Rasputin dies in every season he's in, lol. It's becoming a meme, how whenever someone says that with an ally like Rasputin no one can cross us, Rasputin gets off'd in the next 5 minutes. We had him knocked out by the Darkness at the beginning of Arrivals, then his exo frame teased in the Beyond Light intro cutscene and again in Immolant, and then over a year later in the loretab for Grand Overture which came with Risen. Okay, it is realistic Ana would need two years to set up the frame and figure out how to transfer Rasputin into it, but holy shit, couldn't she have at least found an hour or two to attach some legs?

So we had over two years of build-up towards this season, and another month of directly building up towards finally waking him.

And then we had, uh. Another month of him being alive and communicating with us. And then he died.

Let me stress this again: Rasputin lived for a MONTH after over two years of having been stuck inside an engram. We hardly got to meet him, and actually talk to him, and form any sort of meaningful relationship with him as a person and not a warmind. He interacted with like... three? other characters during that time. I think we spent more time on the subplot-mystery of 'why is Clovis locked out of the warsat network command' than we did on the actual main character of this season and his arc.

I wouldn't mind Rasputin going as he did, in the end -- if he'd got to actually live beforehand. I spent so much time wondering how he'd work in a dynamic with Elsie and Ana and Banshee as an actual walking, talking exo! How would he get along with the Vanguard? How would Saladin react? What would Clovis do--and I mean, really do, instead of just throwing a fit after Ana alt+F4'd him from the exo frame--once the Warmind actually took control over BrayTech systems in his own literal hands? How would a formless AI built to be a weapon even work with the constraints of a physical body? Would he butt heads with the Vanguard over combat strategies? Would they still see him as a weapon, an asset, rather than a person, and would there be some interesting conflict born from that?

I don't mind his characterisation this season, even though Rasputin felt like but a fraction of himself -- a humbled, guilt-ridden man afraid of his own power and in awe at his new, wondrous life. I really liked him struggling to come to terms with what he had done to Felwinter, his conversations with Osiris, and the dynamic of "I can only ask for forgiveness / Some day, you may receive it". It was great! But for Light's sake, where is Saladin in this equation, Saladin who'd seen the horror of SIVA and Site 6, who'd lost not only Felwinter, but all his friends because of Rasputin's mismanaged emotional response? Why haven't we heard Rasputin asking him for forgiveness?

The easiest fix to avoid all this mess would be simply pushing this season earlier -- and I say 'easiest' with full knowledge of how tricky managing a story's pacing can be, and how huge of a narrative Destiny is, etc etc. But I still think leaving it at the tail end of the Witch Queen year was a terrible decision. Seriously, we could've got the first half of Seraph instead of Risen, and the final part could be left as is, and imo it would've worked. But the way it is now leaves Rasputin's sacrifice feeling incredibly cheap, and the two-year build up ringing very hollow.

There is also a lot to be said about why the decision to off him could have been made in the first place, but @sundayswiththeilluminati already made a great post about that, so I'll just link it here (along with my emotional outpouring of an addition).

[knightotoc]

The Rise and Fall of Baby Yoda

Ever since baby Yoda united all the factions of SW fans, I wondered how long the peace and happiness would last. It was just such a good fucking reveal: the first ever unquestionably badass SW protagonist on this gritty TV show for grownups has to kill a man, and that man is...a baby Yoda. It's a twist on the level of "I am your father," except instead of Vader challenging a hero's sense of compassion, baby Yoda challenges a villain's sense of indifference. The audience of ESB realizes that the world is worse than they thought it was, and the audience of Mando realizes the world is better. In either case, it got a lot more complicated in a really appealing way, 'cuz now our guy has to get along with his enemy instead of just killing him.

And just like Vader's, baby Yoda's setup was always doomed to surpass its payoff. People generally agree that ESB is better than RotJ (I like RotJ more because I love bears and Ian McDiarmid, but I know ESB is better). And Mando's basically been sitting on the plot ever since episode 3, which is fine, if tiresome, 'cuz they're never gonna reach that initial high again.

It was remarkable to have something so neutral, so universally lovable: a baby, an alien without any of the politics of humanity, a fun little mystery they can indefinitely hold off on answering. But even with such absurdly agreeable content, we still wanna fight each other. And I'm afraid the peace is finally over (and good riddance!).

Here's a record of the various baby Yoda discourses I've observed in his first year of life.

"He's ugly." The first criticisms were from the flabbergasted haters, their eyes dazzled but their hearts undeclared. The fight was not on their side, and most of them soon changed their minds, worn down by the bigness of his eyes and the opinion of Werner Herzog. The remnants of this camp have largely exited the conversation and live on only in memes and stories.

"He's a corporate ploy." Following these weirdos, the smarties and the cynics got their hands on their opinion pieces. Disney+ is a menace and deserves every criticism it gets, pinging off its mighty armor like righteous pebbles. If baby Yoda stands for anything in the real world, it can't be anything good. Look at him, cooing and blinking, draining $7 a month from the pockets of the poor. He is there to distract from, even justify the rampant censorship and selfishness of his platform. Of course they are right, but this is the kind of thing we compartmentalize.

"Where's the merch?!" The most baffling problem of baby Yoda's young life was the utter lack of official merchandise during the 2019 holiday season -- and the more sinister accompanying problem of Disney's random lawsuits against fanmade stuff. Why the hell weren't they ready to sell him? We were desperate! Remember the drama of the immediately-sold-out fancy animatronic? This problem has been largely solved -- you can buy him at Target now -- but, for a while, it was really weird.

"He's not cool anymore." My favorite criticism of the little guy is "Baby Yoda is to millenials what minions are to Boomers." (I think Emma Benshoff on Twitter came up with this joke, though it has been repeated in a lot of places.) Nothing burns like Gen Z burns. The teens are too smart for this. Even without any storytelling baggage, baby Yoda's popularity weighs him down on its own. But this is the kind of outsider observation that doesn't really affect the fans themselves. If I thought I was cool, I wouldn't be writing this (and you wouldn't be reading it).

"Gina blocked me." While baby Yoda himself has been, until recently, blameless, his co-stars are human beings. Gina Carano, it turns out, is a hateful and transphobic conspiracy theorist, while Pedro Pascal is an antifa messenger, an advocate for immigrants, and an utter fucking delight. So good people are mad at her and bad people are mad at him. This rift is ongoing, with no word from the cowards on high as to how this will resolve. While this doesn't involve the baby directly, it is certainly an Event.

She blocked me!😎

And finally, #6, the egg thing. In the latest episode, baby Yoda mischievously eats some eggs from a nice frog lady. Many people had a bad reaction to this, and have expressed disgust at baby Yoda's actions, anger at Mando's lack of disciple, and disappointment in its comedic framing. Many other people took offense to their reactions, while others found them amusing and have delighted in the absurdity of baby Yoda, of all people, getting canceled. The battle lines drawn seem gendered and quite mean.

The egg discourse makes me sad -- not because the era of fandom peace is over, but because I think the boys are going to win this one. Male writers and directors will not learn to care about women's feelings, because how can you complain about baby Yoda? That's silly!

I am all for dark humor (it's my favorite thing about Star Wars), but the sexist history of this franchise doesn't offer it much protection from accusations of punching down. Try to be a little more sensitive, guys; everybody is watching.

[noddytheornithopod]

The two most non-controversial men: Steven Universe and Kylo Ren

(For this)

Wow, trying to get me cancelled much? :P

Steven

My favorite thing about them: Just a really positive role model for masculinity, being someone pretty nice and sweet and open about his feelings, and his failures are when he fails to live up to those things. It's good he's not perfect either.

My least favorite thing about them: IDK... I guess maybe he's a bit of a handful in the really early episodes? But even then, it kinda makes sense.

My favorite canon relationship: Relationship is very open ended and doesn't specify if it means romantic or in general, so I'll cover all bases. Ship wise, I ship him with Connie, they're just really sweet and compliment each other well while bringing out the best in each other. In terms of general character relationships, I think all of the main Crystal Gems have really great dynamics with him, they all have their nice features while still having specific nuances to them. I enjoy his dynamic with Peridot too, for similar reasons.

My favorite non-canon relationship: I mean, Steven being the viewpoint character has a dynamic with pretty much every character on-screen. :v So it's Rose Quartz by default, because she's the only major character I can think of he wouldn't have met. Would be interesting to see what a conversation between them would be like, even if neither can exist.

The sexuality I headcanon for them: Probably pan if you ask me.

What I’d do if I could spend the day with them: Make sure he's taking it easy and enjoying himself, I don't want him to have another SU Future incident. :P

Random fact about them I like: Nothing really comes to mind?

Kylo Ren/Ben Solo

My favorite thing about them: Hmm... I feel so indifferent this is actually really hard. Until I can think of a better answer, I'll just say Ben Swolo memes. :v Okay fine, for a more serious answer... I do think there's potential in the whole "kid of galactic heroes feels isolated" and parallels to IRL radicalisation into harmful ideologies thing.

My least favorite thing about them: the fact that people either love him so much he becomes all they care about, or that people hate him so much like they have a vendetta against him they think his mere presence ruins everything I kinda feel like he's kinda safe as a character, in a way? The most interesting thing he did was when he killed Snoke to become the big bad and go further into darkness, making any potential redemption harder, but then as we know, "somehow, Palpatine returned". In general, I just kinda get this sense he feels so manufactured to be "sympathetic evil but secretly not that evil deep down" guy. I find the internal conflicts and moral ambiguity of characters like Anakin, Maul and even freaking Dooku more interesting, personally. I feel like whenever I'm watching him I'm seeing an "I'M SO CONFLICTED" sign. I don't dislike the character or have anything against him like some people who seem to fume at his mere existence, but I feel like there's just more interesting dark side characters. It's not even that he's a failure at living up to the legacy of the dark side or anything, it's just again I feel like they played it too safe with him.

My favorite canon relationship: IDK, Rey? *sees pitchforks* Oh shut up, I'm not even a Reylo shipper, I'm completely indifferent to what people do and don't ship with the character. I purely mean this in terms of their dynamic and chemistry.

My favorite non-canon relationship: I like the idea of him being in his Darth Vader phase and then learning about what Anakin was like, maybe ghost Anakin can show up and tell him "lol I moved past all that".

The sexuality I headcanon for them: I barely care enough to even answer?

What I’d do if I could spend the day with them: Try not to piss him off in case he gets violent. :v

Random fact about them I like: The idea that he talks to Darth Vader helmet all the time but it's actually secretly Sidious amuses me to a degree.

[mrfandomwars]

Darth Vader? You mean Kane Starkiller?AU

Ok, so I remembered that originally Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were two separate people (and that Leia wasn't Luke twin sister but a woman called Nellith Skywalker that was only going to appear on episode VI) and my mind went immediately to Star Wars: The Clone Wars and just-

Imagine this bratty little that's-where-Kylo-Ren-comes-from 13-year-old kid named Kane Starkiller that was about to be kicked out of the order because 'he is too angry' but Obi-Wan takes him in because he knows how that feels like and now Cody either is still a Marshall Commander and Kane becomes a 'Jedi' Commander or Cody becomes a Captain and Kane is the Commander now (which means someone else is now the Marshall Commander, maybe Wolffe or Bly? Maybe even Fox, so Palpatine has the highest-ranking clone under his thumb).

Anyway, Palpatine starts becoming 'friends' with him (since something probably happened that caused him to fail with Anakin, maybe Anakin got therapy and told someone something that Palpatine said to him that paint the Jedi in a bad light and they actually acted) and starts filling Starkiller's with things like "The Jedi Order is so bad, they wanted to kick you out when you have all this talent." "You poor boy, Obi-Wan doesn't give you a lot of attention, does he? He seems to only care about that Skywalker boy." (which is untrue, Obi-Wan loves his angry Padawan/kind-of-son and tries to pay as much attention as possible but there is a war going on so he has to talk about battle plans with people and has paperwork to do, and that's not even adding the fact that he is a kriffing high council member)"Skywalker obviously hates you, have you seen the things he blames you for?"(also untrue, Anakin will kick anyone who hurts his younger brother with Ahsoka close behind, besides, it's not his fault that Young!Vader is always causing trouble)"That girl, Ahsoka, she obviously sees you as competition and wouldn't mind if you 'mysteriously' died."(I dare you to hurt him with when Ahsoka is near because LISTEN, he may be mean to basically everyone that isn't Obi-Wan or Palpatine and sometimes he is horrible towards the clones but he has some funny jokes and sometimes when the 212th and 501st are working together he appears out of nowhere with meat and his book choices are dark and mostly poems/tragedies but they are GOOD (plus he understands the Padawan Generation W for War memes at the temple unlike sOME PEOPLE *Side eyes Obi-Wan and Anakin* so if you dare to hurt her younger (by a year) cousin you got a problem in your hands)).

Moving on, there are probably a lot of misunderstandings like that one time with Rako Hardeen were he was forced to become Quinlan’s/someone’s padawan or why Cody has the power to ground him.

(Side note: Kane is probably around 16 when he falls and Order 66 happens so don't think about that.

Also, Anakin probably died from a fatal wound in the battle of Mustafar and was only able to survive until a bit after the twins are born and named to request for them to be separated after Padmé died shortly after she gave birth to Luke and Leia/Nellith of some other injury she got when trying to convince her honorary younger brother to join the light side again and he was sure he wasn't going to be able to survive without her, even for their children.

Don't think about Anakin going with Mace and the other Jedi Masters to stop Palpatine and didn't want his padawan brother to be in a clearly dangerous fight that not all of them will come out of, especially unscathed and watching as Kane appear out of nowhere and betray the Order (their family) before becoming Darth Vader before escaping, heartbroken.)

The clones probably don't like him very much because he acts as if he is better than them and it took Obi-Wan threatening to ground him if he didn't call them by their name for him to actually do it but there are some things make him bearable, such as him making their Jetti smile, him sometimes helping in the med-bay which, while most brothers complaining about feeling cold and they having anger issues for a few weeks after he treats them, always makes more brothers survive, him dragging their General to the med-bay after a battle, between others.

(Another side note: It probably wasn't Fives that discovered about the chips in this au, because if he was, Anakin would probably believe him after they discovered that he was drugged sooo it was probably someone from the 212th who tried to talk to Cody and Kane about the chips and the fact that Palpatine was behind it. Idk why but I can see Boil discovering it.

Also, don't think about Cody stepping in front of Starkiller and trying to make him shut up and stop defending the Chancellor because he is clearly making thing worse and he doesn't want Boil his brother making something that they would regret later.)

Anyhow, I believe that if they followed the original plan, they would have made us like Vader a little bit more.