#the fact that she found a bond with Anakin and fandom makes it all about her being a stupid girl or evil for that it's ridiculous

[galactic-rhea]

[ID: Screenshot of a chat that says "just leave my queen alone, she's already suffered enough. She wanted a life with her malewife murder monk pilot mechanic racer and you should respect her for that!]

It's Padmé defending's hours for me

I have been seeing more negative (with very weird connotations, tbh) posts about Padmé on my dash lately, and while I'm a firm believer of the "scroll past it" rule, it really irks me a lot because MOST of these takes sound a bit mysoginistic to me and also (to me) shows a lack of trying to understand her as a character, not in a "you don't get her" way, but in a "you don't even try to understand the character and her context in the damn story just because you wanna sound holy than thou" way.

I'm all for accepting takes about Padmé's flaws or having a slightly more privileged/closed view (and that makes sense, she's aristocracy) but these people are SO WEIRD whenever they wanna talk about her 🤨

I'll forever mad that George eliminated SO MANY scenes with Padmé in the movies, but I feel like even if we had those scenes, people's complaints would be exactly the same.

But also i think half of the time people fail at understanding Padmé is because they're also failing to understand Anakin's as a character, idk

[x-childish-x]

hello, i noticed there’s been a growth of obi wan requests on your page. if you don’t mind, may i also request an obi wan x reader fanfic (preferably a female reader)? my idea is that the reader is related to qui gon, maybe a niece of his that he looks after since her parents passed. after qui gon’s death, reader decides to become a jedi and she and obi wan grow closer over the years, and finally confess their love for each other after they both become masters?

Long Time Coming

Pairing: Obi-Wan x fem!reader

Fandom: Star Wars

Warnings: ansgt?, fluff, mentions to multiple character deaths, mentions of a funeral

Word Count: 2,417

A/N: This is quite long! I'm sorry if that's not something you like! Firstly, thank you for the request and support! I appreciate it so much and feedback is always more than welcome and appreciated!! This request was super unique and I had a fun time writing it despite feeling the need to absolutely perfect it, lol. Anyways, I really hope this is what you wanted and that you enjoy it!

P.S. I am out of surgery and now starting recovery. Everything’s gone well so far, but I probably won’t be posting much. Check my page for a form to send in some questions for me to answer!!

Summary: Obi-Wan's been trying to catch your attention for years and after your uncle Qui-Gon Jinn's death, you find comfort in Obi-Wan like never before.

(gif not mine!)

"(Y/n), we're making another stop. We don't have enough fuel to make it back to Coruscant. We're landing on Tattooine," Your uncle, Qui-Gon, spoke softly through the holopad.

"I found the planet," Obi-Wan beamed at you, hoping this fact would impress you.

You smiled widely, nodding to Obi-Wan, "Keep this old man out of trouble for me, won't you Obi-Wan?"

The young boy nodded vigorously as your uncle rolled his eyes, "You're getting quite old yourself (y/n). I urge you to rethink your choice of not becoming a Jedi before you're using a cane."

"We could train together!" Obi-Wan cheered, his eyes glinting with hope as he looked up at his master, "I would do well at bringing her up to speed!"

There seemed to be something that happened off the holopad that you couldn't see. Both men turned their heads before looking back at you with nearly identical looks of remorse.

"We're landing soon. I must leave," Qui-Gon frowned, "Stay out of trouble. I'll return soon."

Over the next few days, Obi-Wan and your uncle did their best to keep in contact with you. Though it wasn't much, barely once a day, it was still something, and that very much made you smile. Each call was a relief because they were both alive. They were okay. They would be home soon. 

"A boy?" You questioned Obi-Wan.

"Yes, his name is Anakin Skywalker," He frowned slightly before leaning more towards his holopad, whispering, "I'm beginning to think Qui-Gon likes him better than me."

"Nonsense!" You laughed, "Qui-Gon loves you! It's impossible to not love you!"

Immediately realizing what you said, your cheeks flushed with heat, Obi-Wan's reaction mocking yours. You missed Obi-Wan, he was your best friend after all, and it wasn't often that Qui-Gon and he left on such long missions. 

"There was this thing," Obi-Wan spoke up, "He wielded a red lightsaber."

"That doesn't sound good," You frowned, wishing Obi-Wan was more than just a hologram before you.

He nodded before his attention was stolen off-screen, and he huffed, "I have to go. We'll be home soon!"

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

"What is this about you being attacked!" You yelped, jogging up to Qui-Gon.

He smiled at your concern, "I am fine. He escaped. We believe he's a sith, that they've returned. The good news is the boy we found will be my new Padawan."

"I don't care about the boy," You hissed, glaring up at your uncle, "I care about you being safe, about not losing you!"

Unexpectedly, Qui-Gon pulled you into his chest. Tears welled in your eyes at the action he so rarely did, your arms wrapping as tight as they could around his torso. You felt a kiss pressed to the top of your head and immediately squeezed tighter, tears rolling down your cheeks.

"Please... I can't lose you too, Uncle."

Qui-Gon winced at your words, knowing how dangerous it was to form attachments, yet it'd been impossible with you. From the moment you'd come under his care, you'd immediately bonded. There was no way you wouldn't have formed an attachment with him and he with you.

You'd showed up on his doorstep fourteen years ago when you were only nine. You had clutched your stuffed bantha to your chest with tears running down your cheeks, mumbling all about how 'mommy and daddy were gone' and 'I need you, uncle Qui-Gon'. His heart immediately shattered. The passing of his brother had reached him a few hours before your arrival, and the nanny behind you gave the older man a soft smile before nudging you forward.

You bounded forward, slamming into Qui-Gon's legs with a loud sob that had the older man lifting you into his arms instantly. You'd been destroyed by the sudden and mysterious loss of your parents. You sought comfort in your uncle Qui-Gon and his young Padawan. You'd spent years denying the chance to become a Jedi, afraid you were too imbalanced in your emotions.

You pulled back from Qui-Gon, allowing him to wipe your tears before he kissed your head once more. He moved, walking over to Obi-Wan, and you watched as the two talked before separating. Obi-Wan walked towards you, but your eyes locked on a small boy behind him who stood next to what looked like an R2 droid.

"We're leaving again," Obi-Wan sighed, frowning at your slightly red cheeks and glassy eyes.

You nodded, biting your lip before finally locking eyes with Obi-Wan, "Please take care of him... I have a terrible feeling Obi-Wan."

"I will," Obi-Wan smiled, gently reaching out and allowing you to place your hands in his before pulling you closer, "I'll make sure he stays out of trouble. He has a new Padawan to train, after all. But besides that..." Obi-Wan's voice dropped, his gaze growing softer as he squeezed your hands, "You know I'd do anything for you."

You nodded, listening as Qui-Gon ordered Obi-Wan to head to the ship, and with one last playful goodbye, you watched him leave, followed soon by everyone else. You stood on the pad, watching as the ship rose and left, the terrible feeling in your stomach growing with each second.

Nobody called you. For the next few days, nobody called you, and it only worsened the terrible feeling, making you nauseous as you waited patiently for the ship to arrive. You'd been told briefly by Yoda that they were returning, yet the pain on his face confirmed your thoughts. Something was wrong, and you weren't sure what, but you'd felt the pain and dread that filled you yesterday, and now Yoda was looking at you with remorse as he watched you waiting from his tower.

You couldn't maintain your focus as the ship landed, frozen still as you waited. You watched each person that exited, waiting for the two familiar faces you wanted to see so badly. Obi-Wan descended the ramp, his eyes lifting from the ground to lock with yours. Instantly tears filled your eyes, a hand flying to your mouth as Obi-Wan rushed to you.

"No..."

You collapsed into Obi-Wan's chest without a second thought, throwing your arms around him as sobs racked through your body. He attempted calming you, one arm wrapped tightly around your waist and the other stroking your hair. Obi-Wan panicked slightly, feeling immediately it was all his fault. Your pain was his fault. If he'd just been slightly faster he could've saved his master, your uncle.

"Please... Obi-Wan... tell me no," You cried, burying your head into his chest as his grip tightened.

"It was a sith, the same who attacked him previously," Obi-Wan whispered, not caring about the looks anyone gave you, "I killed him. I killed the sith right after. I... I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't faster."

Nobody could remove you from Obi-Wan's side, not even Yoda, who was forced to allow you to sit in while he spoke to Obi-Wan about Anakin. You were distraught and terrified at the idea of seeing your uncle's body later. Obi-Wan comforted you, an arm around you the entire day until the ceremony rolled around.

You'd separated from Obi-Wan briefly, and when you returned to Qui-Gon's funeral, Yoda himself almost cried. You stood over Qui-Gon's body, a hand gently brushing his cheek, your mother's Jedi robe caressing your body. Just for a second, Yoda believed he was seeing your mother's spirit. You looked so identical, and the soft click of Yoda's cane startled you, forcing you away from your uncle's body.

"Determination within you, I sense. Made a decision, you have," Yoda hummed, coming to your side.

You nodded curtly, your gaze on Qui-Gon, "I wish to become a Jedi, Master Yoda."

"Agree to your request, the council does. My Padawan, you will be," Yoda nodded, not needing to speak to any other members to know there would be no defiance. 

Yoda retreated to the back, watching your reaction as people filtered in, most not catching your attention until Obi-Wan walked in. You seemed to escape his gaze for a few moments, certainly because of the robe, before he rushed to your side. Yoda knew this was a potential problem, the connection the two of you held, but that was a problem for the future.

The future seemed to bring many problems for you. Your days quickly molded into becoming nothing but training. You barely spent time sleeping. Both you and Master Yoda determined to bring you up to speed. Despite everyone in the council loving your decision to become a Jedi (especially Obi-Wan), they had all disagreed with the idea of you becoming a Jedi-Knight within five short years. 

However, Yoda insisted you were ready, and you passed the trials with such ease it'd seemed like you'd been training for years. Which of course, lead to many Jedi accusing you of training illegally under Qui-Gon. But it wasn't anything like that. Yoda and Obi-Wan were amazing when it came to training you. They were patient and worked with you consistently, over and over. You knew there was no way you would've become a Jedi-Knight had you not had their help.

"So?" Obi-Wan asked when you returned to your shared apartment, "Did you pass?"

Slowly, you lifted the hair on your right side to reveal that your Padawan braid was no more. He smiled widely, leaping up and pulling you into his chest. You smiled back, squeezing Obi-Wan as he spun you around gently. 

You still weren't used to everything. Obi-Wan and you had decided to get an apartment together after Qui-Gon's passing, insisting that living together helped your coping. Of course, it was a two-bedroom, and you stayed in separate rooms, and just Obi-Wan's presence truly did help you.

Once Obi-Wan sat you down and pulled back, a huge smile on his face as you stared up at him. A moment passed as you struggled to get a grip on your thoughts. You gulped, eyes flicking around the room as you kept your hands linked at the back of Obi-Wan's growing hair. You liked it longer. You felt it suited him, not that you didn't like it short.

"Obi-Wan?" Your voice was small, fragile in the air as the slightly older boy stared at you.

"Yes?"

"Do you think he's proud of me?" 

Obi-Wan's heart melted at the worry in your eyes, the worry that your uncle wouldn't be proud of you after everything you'd done. His hands drifted from your waist and up to cup your cheeks, pulling your face just slightly closer as he leaned down. He wanted nothing more than to wipe your ever-growing tears, but that could wait. The most important thing for Obi-Wan right now was to make sure you understood that there was no possible way for Qui-Gon to be even the slightest bit disappointed in you.

"(Y/n), I have not a single doubt that he's proud of you. He was before he passed, and I'm sure he's proud now," Obi-Wan reassured you, his smile growing as you nodded, "I know Master Qui-Gon wishes he was here with us, to see you become a Jedi Knight, but regardless he is incredibly proud."

You giggled softly, leaning forward just the slightest bit, so your nose touched Obi-Wan's, "I just worry sometimes, that maybe I'm not doing enough," You paused, gasping a quiet breath when Obi-Wan nudged your nose with his again, "Thank you Obi-Wan... I... I couldn't have done any of this without you. I'd be lost, truly."

Your gaze flicked down to your connected noses and back up to Obi-Wan's blue eyes. Yet, it felt like it was the first time you ever looked at Obi-Wan. You felt like you were a small kid again, peeking out from under your uncle's robe to see two big blue eyes looking at you with a huge smile. Blue eyes and a smile that promised to be your best friend, promised to stay by your side... 'as a loyal Jedi should'. And now, as you stared into those same eyes, you felt the urge to be so much more than what he promised.

You tilted your head up, mushing your lips against Obi-Wan's and leading the kiss as he froze in shock. Was he dreaming again? Was he about to wake up alone in his bed once more? The squeeze you gave to the back of his neck told him otherwise... that this most definitely wasn't a dream. Suddenly, he was dropping his hands from your cheeks, looping them around your waist and pulling you flush against him as he took control of the kiss.

It became a dance of lips and tongue, mumbling in an attempt to convey all the years of unsaid feelings even though no real words were being formed. It felt perfect. It felt like the force was exploding through the two of you, screaming that nothing could've been more right. There was no thought of the Jedi Code, no thought of the possibility of losing your titles. The only thought being formed was how not only your lips but your mind and soul seemed to connect at that moment together.

"I... that... we..."

"I've wanted to do that for so long," You laughed breathlessly, cutting off Obi-Wan.

He smiled, nodding in agreement as he placed a kiss on your forehead, "I adore you so much (y/n). I always have."

You mocked Obi-Wan's actions, nodding your confirmation as he placed another kiss closer to your temple now. It felt perfect. The life force flowing around the two of you was bursting with light, harmonious, and balanced perfectly. There was no need for words. You could feel one another projecting all the unsaid emotions. You were one, and suddenly a large smile broke onto your face as Obi-Wan continued to press light kisses all over your face.

You weren't worried about the possibility of losing your title. You didn't care what the Jedi Code had to say, and you certainly didn't care what the council thought. You felt complete, whole. And it was the first time you'd felt that way since losing your parents. You'd deal with the consequences later, when they made themselves truly known on their own accord and when it was time for Obi-Wan and you to make a decision.

"Do you think he's still proud of me?" 

Obi-Wan chuckled, kissing your nose before pulling back, "I think he'd want to kill me."

"It was a long time coming," You teased, making Obi-Wan nod.

"That, it was."

[boltwrites]

Misfits - Chapter 2

Fandom: Star Wars - Clone Wars / The Bad Batch Pairing: The Bad Batch / Reader (Polyamorous) Rating: M (Rating May Change) Tags: Polyamorous Relationship, Force-Sensitive Reader, Slow Burn

Work Summary: After a year working with the 501st, you've been assigned a new post - Clone Force 99, aka the Bad Batch. You're concerned about the transition - you found it hard enough to fit in with the 501st, and now you had to acclimate to an entirely new squad. As it turns out, the Bad Batch is very accommodating.

Chapter Summary:  You're started to settle in with the Bad Batch. Introductions are in order, but one in particular leads down a path you never expected.

read it on ao3 | or read more below

You had said goodbye to Rex only a few minutes prior. He had wrapped you in a tight hug and told you not to get into too much trouble, and you had to try really, really hard not to start crying in front of your new squad. He’d waved as you entered their transport, and instead of dwelling on those emotions – loss, sadness, anxiety – you’d pushed them to the back of your mind. You learned long ago that acting as if they didn’t exist wouldn’t help anything, but right now, you needed to compartmentalize. You hardly knew these men, and you didn’t want to freak them out by sobbing about leaving your best friend behind.

The men in question had since been introduced to you by Hunter. The tall, slender clone who liked to lean against the side of the ship like some half-baked deathstick dealer was Crosshair, a sharpshooter and sniper. You probably should have figured that, judging by the tattoo that encircled his eye. When Hunter introduced you, he had made a noncommittal noise, looked you up and down, and then decided you weren’t very interesting, instead walking his way back to the cockpit. You hoped he was just antisocial, and didn’t hate nat borns, or women, or something.

The big burly one was Wrecker, who had wasted no time in offering you a big smile and a firm clap on the back. Honestly, you thought he was going to hug you – and maybe he was, and then he thought better of it.

“You’re our new Jedi, huh?” he had asked with a broad smile? You offered him a somewhat hesitant one back – he was intimidating, after all. He was broad and muscular like you had never seen on a clone before, and the large scar that encompassed half of his forehead and a good portion of his scalp was distracting. It made him look hardened and dangerous, but with his jovial tone, you soon found out he was anything but menacing.

“Yeah, guess I am?” you answered with a nervous laugh.

“She’s a force-sensitive, Wreck, not a Jedi. She doesn’t answer to the Council.” Hunter had clarified. You were somewhat shocked that he cared about the difference – but, then again, he had seemed pleased that you weren’t a part of the Order, likely because it meant you had less rules to follow.

“Oh, yeah!” Wrecker had grinned, clapping you on both shoulders now, as he leaned down to grin at you. You had laughed a little harder, because you were starting to see now, by both his force signature and in his voice, that he was really just a big goofball. “I never liked the Jedi anyway!”

“Weren’t you just expressing how excited you were for ‘our new Jedi?’”

That had come from the one with the glasses – er, goggles? You weren’t exactly sure what they were, or if he needed them for his bad eyesight or just tactical reasons. Either way, he adjusted him on his face as Hunter introduced him as Tech. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what his specialty was – much like it was easy to deduce that Wrecker liked to punch things in addition to blowing things up. Tech, of course, handled a lot of technical issues and data – but you were actually shocked at the fact that he wasn’t, well… tiny.

Tech was taller than Hunter, and even Rex, as he peered down at you through his glasses. He took your hand and shook it – you could tell just by his grip that he was used to intricate work – robotics, droid work, rewiring datapads – fiddly things that required a steady hand. You had nodded politely to him as he greeted you.

The last member of the team, and perhaps the most elusive, was Echo. He was paler than the others, and studded with prosthetics – most prominently, the jack that his hand had been substituted with. He had an aura about him in the force that spoke of pain – not the pain of war that the rest of the squad exuded, no. This was a deeper pain, something profound and lasting, and you had a feeling it had to do with that arm, and the bolts in his skull, and the way his cheekbones still looked sharper than that of even Crosshair.

“You’re from the 501st?” he had asked, after Hunter had led you to the cockpit and left to look at something in Tech’s travel plans for the route to their next mission. You were alone, but Echo still gazed out the front of the transport into hyperspace, his flesh hand fiddling with the textured armrest of the captain’s chair.

“Yeah – I’ve worked with them for the past year, most of the time. I get contracted out from the unit to do a lot of stealth work that the Jedi obviously can’t be pulled for. Stuff like this, I guess,” you shrugged. Echo had hummed in acknowledgement, glancing at you, almost curious.

“Were you with the 501st when Captain Rex last worked with… Clone Force 99?”

The wording was strange. Rex had mentioned to your that this squad usually referred to themselves as “the Bad Batch” due to their mutations. But Echo was more cautious – he almost hesitated on the name. His force signature didn’t give away much more – it only told you that he was being careful with his words, that he didn’t trust you quite yet. Which, honestly, was to be expected.

“No. Anaxes, right?” Echo nodded, and you shook your head. “No – I was on a stealth mission. Well, I guess it couldn’t really be called a stealth mission… I was working with a pirate named Hondo Onaka. Think I might have rather been on Anaxes.”

You chuckled, trying to make light of it. You knew Anaxes has been a mess, and honestly you had felt horrible leaving behind the 501st in order to take on what you considered a useless political mission. You knew the campaign had been long, grueling, and complicated, and you always felt guilty when you weren’t by Rex and Anakin’s side to help with something so important.

“Ah,” Echo made a soft noise, picking at some scoring marks on his socket arm. You bit your lip at the awkwardness that permeated the room, the conversation stagnating at Echo dwelled on… something.

“I used to be a part of the 501st,” he finally admitted, glancing up at you. His eyes said more than his lips – there was sadness, there. It was hidden behind his soldier’s veneer of indifference, but you could tell by the way he looked at you that his transfer to Bad Batch hadn’t been as straightforward as your own.

“Yeah?” you asked, sitting down in the co-pilot’s chair next to him. He nodded, sighing, relaxing into the chair before shooting you a glance.

“Yeah. Made ARC trooper at one point. Me and Fives – me and Fives.”

His eyes had gleamed the first time he said it – but as he repeated Fives, his face fell, and your own did as well, your first clenching.

“Oh,” you breathed, and he glanced at you, ducking down to try to make out your expression.

“You knew him?”

“He talked about you – I had – I’m stupid,” you laughed, trying not to think about Fives. You hadn’t known him or Tup long before the incident, but Fives had showed you the ropes, along with Rex. You got along with him easily – he had been funny, and kind, and if he tried to flirt with you a few times you just put it up to you being the only woman available.

You remembered him talking briefly about Echo – he had only mentioned Echo once, with gritted teeth and a set jaw, mumbling something about a previous mission, and how he and a fellow ARC trooper had handled the situation. You could tell that it pained him to mention his comrade – that this Echo had likely died – and you didn’t press the subject. You knew, even then, that Fives didn’t deal well with loss. Ironic, then, how he was the one to cause so die, to cause the grief himself.

“I worked with him, before…” you gestured vaguely, and Echo nodded, not wanting you to mention Fives’s death himself.

“He thought I died at the Citadel. Everyone did,” Echo sighed, staring out at the hyperspace lane. “Maybe I did.”

You stared at him. In the force, his emotions were a tangled mess – grief, both for Fives and himself. Pain – not only physical, but emotional, spiritual. You couldn’t fathom what happened to him – you could look at this physical evidence of his cybernetic appendages, more similar to those of a droid than any prosthetics you had seen before. You could see the pallor in his face, the way his cheekbones jut from his face, how he had squinted far too severely in the light of the Coruscanti sun. He had been through something that you couldn’t fathom, something you would never truly understand, even if he did wish to explain it to you.

But despite that, you could still feel him in the force. When he spoke of Fives – the way his signature sparked let you know that he didn’t just know Fives. You could tell they had worked together for years, that they had likely grown up together. The rest of the Batch – their signatures sang in harmony because they had grown up together, because they had known each other for many years. And you initially hadn’t caught onto Echo’s dissonance – the way that he was trying to fit in with them, but how he didn’t fit in quite as easily as the other men. And now you knew why. It was because, while he had changed, he still held onto those bonds. Rex, Fives, the rest of the 501st – even though whatever Echo had endured, those were still his brothers.

“Not completely,” you mumbled, looking down. You could feel Echo’s eyes on you, so you sighed and continued. “You – you still care about them. Those men. They may not be your men anymore – and I guess they aren’t mine, either – but you care for them. That has to count for something.”

When you looked up, Echo caught your eye. His expression was unreadable, and his signature betrayed nothing. He was hard to read already – the cybernetics clouded your judgement – but you could tell that he didn’t exactly know what he thought of your statement.

“Yeah. Maybe it does,” Echo mumbled to himself, staring out across hyperspace, as stars flew by, exploding behind his eyes as he contemplated his place among them.

After that, the silence wasn’t quite so awkward. It was comforting, almost. You knew that it wasn’t the same – that although you and Echo were both former members of the 501st, that the circumstances were wildly different. But you still felt a kinship with him. Because he still knew Anakin, and Rex, and Fives, and Jesse, and Kix, and all the others. Because he probably played the same drinking games you had with the men, he had fought beside them as you did, and he had watched them die, as you had. You knew he wasn’t ready to talk, and perhaps he never would be. But if he ever was, you would be ready to listen.

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@killtherandomness @pastelpanda19

[thechaoticfanartist]

WHUMPTOBER DAY 7: MY SPIDEY-SENSE IS TINGLING

Prompt: Helplessness

Fandom: Star Wars The Clone Wars

Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Grim (OC)

Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & OC

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Tag List (let me know if you want to be added or removed) : @padme--amygdala @soclonely @mandomydad @mildly-microbial @mrfandomwars @jgvfhl @hanlando-endgame @zeldaiscool19 @touchstarvedasclones @milfspectre1 @togrutanduin @jedi-valjean @one-real-imonkey @traygaming @jedimasterbailey @securidala @bazelnuttt @whumptober-archive

“Well maybe I don’t want to be your stupid padawan!” Grim snapped. “Maybe I don’t want to be a Jedi! Maybe I don’t want to even be here! Ever think of that? I was thrown into another universe that I never asked to be a part of! I was torn away from my home! My friends! My family! I never wanted any of this! I was forced into this stupid universe!” Grim found herself tearing up, but she didn’t care. She’d kept this inside for far too long. “I was torn away from everything I ever knew and thrown in the middle of a different universe, one that’s fighting a hopeless, pointless war. I never asked for this….I never wanted this! I don’t want to be a Jedi! I want to be a kid! A normal happy kid! But instead I’m a Jedi, a Jedi fighting a war that is created to break Jedi!” Obi-Wan opened his mouth to speak, to comfort his padawan, but Grim didn’t let him. “Don’t! Don’t you try and comfort me!” Her voice broke, “I’m only fourteen, I’m only FOURTEEN and I have seen people die! I have fought battles! I have- I’m too young for this! I’m only a child! I was ripped away from my family and now I’m fighting in a war! Just- just leave me alone!” Grim marched off to her room and slammed the door, before bursting into tears.

Grim had never imagined that she would fight in a war. Especially not a fictional war, and especially not at such a young age. She was only a child and she had already witnessed countless deaths, seen suffering, and seen things a child should never have to see. Done things a child should never have to do. A child should never have to fight a war, a child should never have to kill, a child should never have to live this life. The worst part about all of this, was the fact that Grim knew it was pointless. The people she was saving now would only suffer later. The Jedi she was coming to accept as her new family would only die, turned on by their own friends.

More and more Grim began to question why she fought, why she allowed herself to go through this hell. She knew she didn’t have too and yet she was so compassionate that she did, she forced herself through this hell. Grim was so determined to help others she didn’t think about the effects fighting a war would have on her. She started laughing through her tears, “force, I am so stupid! Why did I ever think this would be fun or exciting?” She held her knees close to her chest, her head still leaning against the door. The laughter became more and more hysterical as Grim shed more and more tears. “Fighting a losing war! What was I thinking?!” Grim had tried so hard to be optimistic, but the more she fought, the more death she saw, the harder it had become to have hope.

When Grim first joined the Jedi and decided to fight in The Clone Wars she had been a free spirit, a bubbling bouncing ball of energy and happiness. Grim would pass people with a wide grin on her face and it was so infectious it would spread to so many people. Grim would talk excitedly about a hopeful future, and had just been this bright happy presence full of love. The longer the war went on however the more that light dimmed, and the more she began to seclude herself from others. Her shift had concerned all of her friends, especially those whom she had a closer bond to.

At first Grim and Anakin had gotten along extremely well, they had connected almost instantly. The two would joke about Obi-Wan and share stories, and play pranks. All in all before the effects of the war settled in on Grim the two had grown a sibling bond. Grim had grown onto the clones quickly as well, whenever she smiled there was always a clone or two who smiled with her. Grim and Cody had started a friendly and silly little competition on who could pick up Obi-Wan’s lightsaber more, and had begun to make a bunch of silly inside jokes. Then the war got to the child who had been a ray of sunshine and hope, and Grim had begun to push them away, as if she were afraid of them. In the beginning Grim would smile everytime she was by Obi-Wan and would excitedly ask questions, being a big energetic goofball. Grim would be so excited to be a Jedi let alone his padawan, and be such a bright light. Then war settled in and she would stop talking to him as much, her questions would become depressing, and all her smiles would become fake.

War had broken such a bright spirit in such a short amount of time, and what was worse was Grim knew this was only the beginning, and she only feared where she would go from there, if she felt at a place that was rock bottom and it was so far away from there. These days were still the happier days of the war, the worst was so far away. Grim was afraid she wouldn’t even make it to the end of it all.

“Padawan, do you want to talk?” came Obi-Wan’s voice from the other side of the door. This startled Grim and she ended up jumping.

“Yes,” she admitted, she couldn’t keep pushing him away, and perhaps talking it out would help her with the emotions she was feeling. She got up and opened the door letting him in, “I’m sorry for snapping at you, Master. It feels so hopeless, everyday I’m fighting, fighting to save everyone, fighting to save people who can’t be saved. I’ve been trying so hard, but this war, it’s not as easy as the show made it seem. Even then it didn’t look easy, Master I’m so sorry. It’s just so difficult, I don’t even know why I’m fighting anymore to be honest.”

“It’s never going to be easy, Grim,” Obi-Wan replied sitting down beside her. “It’s always going to be difficult.”

“Gee, thanks for the reminder, Master,” Grim replied, sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“However, there’s always hope, it may be difficult to find, but it will always be there,” Obi-Wan continued. “You said that you don’t believe you can save people? Why did you say that?”

“Because I haven’t changed anything,” replied Grim. “I mean I’ve tried! Yet everything is playing the same.”

“So you existed and were my padawan before?” Obi-Wan asked her, raising a brow. “You don’t realize it. Grim but you have changed things already, and how do you know that you’ve failed when the events you want to prevent haven’t happened, the time for those events have not yet passed. The future's not set in stone, Grim.”

Grim smiled at Obi-Wan, “you’re right, Master. The future isn’t set.”

[ninastarkov]

Ahsoka and the clones:

Rex and Ahsoka edition

Part 2

Hey guys! This is the third post in a series about Ahsoka’s relationship with the clones (here’s the one on ahsoka and the clones, minus Rex and ahsoka). I talk about what we know in canon/what’s reasonably predicted off that, what the fandom has decided, and my own takes.

It might make more sense to read my part 1 post before this one, for an analysis of their friendship in the movie through season 3! On this one I’ll go through seasons 4, 5 and 7, though obviously season 7 will have the most. Anyway, here we go!

Referencing my last post, I see them as going from mentor-student to friends and equals to family. I’ve established them as equals by the end of season 3–Ahsoka has grown a lot from that snippy 14 year old padawan, and Rex has grown to trust her. By the end of season 7 I see them as found family (i’m sorry found family is just. my favorite.)

Season 4

Ok, Ahsoka and Rex pretty much don’t interact AT ALL in season 4. But...umbara. Though Ahsoka isn’t actually present for umbara, her (and anakin’s) influence on the 501st, and the contrast between them and krell, is clear to see. I think his relationship with Anakin has just as much of an impact with what happened on umbara, but since this post is about Rex and ahsoka i’m not going to focus on Anakin.

Also WOW umbara is long but I like the points I made so get ready:

Rex has spent the whole war under Anakin, and most of it under Ahsoka. Anakin can get angry and Ahsoka can be immature especially early on and they’re both headstrong idiots sometimes, but they’re good people who care deeply for their troops. Krell is everything Anakin and Ahsoka are not. The relationship that Rex has with them is part of what makes it so hard for him to go against Krell (the other, probably bigger part being his conditioning into seeing Jedi as authority figures to always follow). Ahsoka has shown that she’s willing to die for them, with the geonosis mission, and that she mourns their deaths, with ryloth. And while not explicitly shown in canon, most of us agree that she tries to connect with her troops. Krell shares none of these traits that Rex has gotten used to seeing in his Jedi. Rex believes that the Jedi are good, and trusts them to make hard decisions to get to victory. Krell breaks this trust, and I have to think that this would have long-term consequences on his relationships with Jedi in general, and Anakin and ahsoka specifically. We aren’t shown the aftermath of umbara in the show (which is one of my biggest complaints but,, off topic), but we can’t expect such a fundamental break in trust to not have its effect on all of the 501st and their Jedi. I would say that Ahsoka probably had to build up a lot of trust (that had previously existed between them) with Rex again after umbara. And since their relationship in the show doesn’t seem to change much afterward, I could guess that Ahsoka spent a lot of time trying to help Rex and the 501st cope and trust their Jedi again (also, I’ve read some fics about ahsoka helping the troopers through the aftermath of umbara and now I believe that had to have happened for their relationship to return to what it was before).

So, at least in my opinion, after umbara Rex is less likely to place complete trust in ahsoka (though he probably hates that he can’t). Also, remember me talking about them being equals by now? Yeah, another thing Krell breaks. Ahsoka sees Rex as an equal, though technically she outranks him. She looks past the rank and sees the person (the person with more experience than her). Krell is, again, the opposite. He literally sees clones as fundamentally inferior to himself, and that dehumanization that Rex faced had to have had an effect on his own self-worth. Being constantly degraded by a figure that Rex thinks he’s supposed to see as an authority to follow, probably means that afterward his own sense of self-worth would have gone down significantly—nevermind the guilt he feels over waiting to take action against Krell. So, though Ahsoka still sees Rex as an equal, it’s complicated for Rex. For one, he’s lost trust in the Jedi, so the respect towards ahsoka purely because of her Jedi status is diminished. On the other hand, I think his opinion of himself has gone down. It’s a complicated dynamic, now. However, by this point in the war, I really think that Rex and ahsoka see each other as family (I see Ahsoka’s family including Rex and some of the older 501st like Jesse and Kix and anyone can Fight Me On This but ANYWAY). As fellow soldiers or even friends, I think the trust between them would have been permanently damaged. But as family, Rex knows ahsoka, knows that even though he’s lost some faith in the Jedi, she will never be like Krell, or even other Jedi like Quinlan Vos who aren’t literally evil but aren’t good towards the clones either. And on Ahsoka’s side, she’s going to do anything she can to help her family through the aftermath of umbara, even as a Jedi.

I think most of the aftermath is resolved between umbara and Onderon, but zygerria was. there. Rex and obi wan were slaves for an unknown amount of time. This part hurts, but I would guess that in Rex’s time there he was forced to confront some hard truths about the role of the clones in the war. They’re all proud to fight for the republic, but that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t have a choice. I think this also sets the stage for that big conversation between Rex and ahsoka after maul is captured in season 7 (“we clones have mixed feelings about the war”), where they discuss their own feelings about the war and how it’s affected them. (Also I know that most of what I just said is about Rex and not really ahsoka, but his changing viewpoints are really important in their dynamic).

Season 5

By Onderon, I think Rex and Ahsoka’s relationship is mostly back to normal (equals), and any trust lost has been repaired (not counting Rex’s permanent disillusionment(?) with the Jedi). It’s literally only them plus Anakin and obi wan oh the mission, and it seems like they’re having a good time (as much as you can in a war zone). I point out Onderon because it’s the last time they’re together before the Wrong Jedi arc.

And now...the wrong Jedi. Hearing that Ahsoka killed clones during her escape HAD to have shaken Rex. A lot. There was definitely a moment where he thought back to umbara and Krell. But Rex also chased ahsoka outside the prison, and saw that she did nothing to harm the people coming after her—in fact, went out of her way to avoid it. I think Rex was definitely struggling with himself here—his experiences with Krell would have him believe that ahsoka is capable of this, but his bond with her would have him think the opposite. Overall, in my opinion there was a moment when Rex believed it to be true (due to umbara), but I think he would have rejected the idea relatively quickly because he knows ahsoka (they’re FAMILY and she wouldn’t hurt his brothers!).

Then ahsoka is cleared but leaves the Jedi. Leaves the 501st. I don’t think that she talks to Rex or any Jedi after she leaves the temple, which means she’s out of contact for months. Rex gets a second hand account of what happened through Anakin, and knowing anakin’s anger and pain over the situation, I can’t imagine he wanted to talk about it much. So Rex probably gets told that ahsoka was cleared but isn’t coming back. (Honestly I really don’t know how this would go down but i’m leaning towards an angry Anakin giving as little explanation as possible because he doesn’t want to talk about it). Add this to what I talked about in my first post on ahsoka and the clones, how maul gleans from Jesse that the Jedi abandoned her—meaning this was Jesse’s view of what happened—this probably means that her family in the 501st blamed the council for abandoning her and didn’t blame her for leaving. This also fits with the welcome she recieves in season 7. So even though Ahsoka left, Rex still holds the same respect for her (or more, even), and still considers her family. And even though ahsoka felt she had to leave the Jedi, I doubt she ever blamed the troopers for coming after her, so she still sees Rex as family.

Season 7

Skipped season six since...no ahsoka, obviously. Just keep in mind Fives’ arc (😭😭). Also, Anakin changes. He’s still a good person, a good general, but i’m assuming Rex notices he’s more angry and a little more distant than before. They all miss their favorite padawan commander :((

NOW, Old Friends Not Forgotten:

the LOOK on Ahsoka’s face when she sees all the troopers with their helmets painted...*single tear*. Rex looks so happy to see her, and of course ahsoka is glad to see him too, but there’s clearly a large part of her that’s shocked she’s getting such a warm welcome. I think she was worried that the Rex and the troopers would think she abandoned them (and a part of herself thinks that as well). But obviously, Rex doesn’t feel that way (“you don’t have to call me commander anymore” “ok, commander”). And the helmet paint!! You can tell Rex is worried she won’t like it bc he says something like “oh the paint job is a bit messy but we hope we got the point across.” But of course ahsoka understands they’re trying to honor her, and is grateful. AND! Armor painting is such an important way for all the clones to show their individuality, and they gave that up for her (even if Rex and Jesse went back to their original paint). And back to that little moment where he calls her commander—ahsoka says “you don’t have to call me commander anymore.” I think this was her guilt at leaving showing itself, and hints to us that she thinks she’s not worthy of that title. This may be more of a stretch, but she didn’t say “i’m not a commander anymore,” she said “you don’t have to call me commander anymore.” Maybe there’s some larger guilt about her role in a republic that doesn’t care for the ones that fight and die for it. Also a stretch but I think this alludes to the fact that they see each other as equals—though technically ahsoka was a commander and Rex a captain, they were a team. Now that Ahsoka’s no longer part of the GAR, Rex doesn’t have to call her commander, doesn’t have to keep to the strict rules of authority. Instead he can have her back as a friend, as family. And when Rex calls her commander anyway, it shows his continued respect for her, not because he has to respect her as a superior and Jedi, but because she’s earned his respect through her actions.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, Rex smiles more in this one episode than probably the entire rest of the show combined?!? We get the small happy moments, when Ahsoka doesn’t need a jetpack and races Rex to the ground (and he LAUGHS—i’m pretty sure that the only time Rex has actually laughed was in the movie in response to ahsoka, and in that ep). And once they reach mandalore, “some things never change”—they’ve returned immediately to their old dynamic. Honestly I think that one line sums up a lot of their relationship in season 7 and afterward, all the way to rebels. They may spend a lot of time apart (15 YEARS WHY), but they will always be family—that will never change.

This part is based on a picture from the ep I saw once, never to be found again (and I tried looking through the old friends ep but I can’t find the shot where you can see this), but i’m pretty sure there’s one moment in one of the episodes where you can see tally marks on Ahsoka’s bracers. She HAD to have picked that up from Rex, idk I just thought it was a nice thing to point out (unless I’m remembering the image wrong lol in that case ignore this paragraph).

Next, after Ahsoka meets with the council and doesn’t tell them about what Maul said about Anakin. Rex calls her out on it, and she doesn’t give a reason why she didn’t, but we can all guess. Anakin is probably the person she is closest to, and is the reason that she didn’t believe Maul’s claims. She probably didn’t want to tell anyone about what Maul said, because she would never believe Anakin would fall (😭). But she told Rex. This is a HUGE example of how much she trusts him, because she trusted him with this terrible information about her closest family. The only other person she had planned to talk to was Anakin, obviously. Yes, part of the reason why she didn’t tell the council was because she knew they could be...less than sensible...at times when they suspected a Jedi of using the dark side, like with her farce of a trial. (Sidenote, when Mace calls ahsoka “citizen” and Rex makes a face lol). I just. This is probably one of my favorite moments with them of the whole show? The amount of trust Ahsoka has to have in Rex to tell him that Anakin is being groomed to be a Sith Lord. I want to connect this back to all those years ago on Maridun(?) with aayla and Bly, when she trusts Rex to stay behind with injured Anakin while she goes with everyone else to find help. Ahsoka has trusted Rex with Anakin from basically the beginning, and such a long time of trust is necessary for her to tell him about Maul’s words.

Ok, now we have what you’ve been dreading waiting for...Shattered. Right before the Horrible Moment, Ahsoka gets a sort-of vision about what’s up in coruscant with Anakin and palpatine—and her immediate reaction is to run to Rex to tell him about it. Again, TRUST. There’s not even a second thought about whether to tell him or not, showing that Rex is the one person she feels she can always confide in. Of course, she doesn’t get to tell him.

First off, there were two things that saved ahsoka. One was her bond with Rex, that bought her time to react, which is what I’ll talk about. The other was Rex’s knowledge of what happened to fives and the chips. I’m not going to discuss that much in this post but just disclaimer that I view that as just as important in her survival (I think @gffa made a post on these two things which I wholly agree with and i’m sorry if i’m wrong and it was someone else that made that post!!)

Anyway. After the original Wrinkly Old Man tells Rex to execute the order, Rex is able to fight it for long enough to buy Ahsoka time to prepare, and give her the information that will save both of their lives (“Find him...Fives!”). You can see that he’s fighting so hard against the order, though in the end it wins out. He turns to face Ahsoka and he’s CRYING!!! I don’t have much analysis here because what happens in the show really says it all—ahsoka is his family, he doesn’t want to kill her. But once the chip takes over, Rex is gone.

On Ahsoka’s end, of course she knows something’s up. She knows Rex would never try to kill her, even if he was ordered to. That one line she says to Maul when she sets him free says everything about how lost she is (the clones turned against me. Even Rex.”). The latter statement isn’t meant for maul, since of course he doesn’t know much about Rex or their friendship (besides what he may have gotten from Jesse). This is all ahsoka trying to figure out what the hell was happening—because she could believe the clones turned against her, maybe. After her trial, after Brain Invaders, it’s probably easier to. But even Rex. Going back to what I said about the wrong Jedi arc, I think that Rex believed ahsoka to be innocent. Even in that arc, Rex was on her side. But this time, he wasn’t.

And then ahsoka finds out about fives and the chips. The holo of her that one of the droids plays to Rex before they knock him out makes me so sad. Ahsoka had to know that the Rex that was under the order wouldn’t listen to what she was saying in the holo, so i’m thinking that (besides a distraction) her words were meant for Rex to remember after the removed his chip—one more reassurance that it wasn’t his fault.

And here’s my thoughts on the chanting “I am one with the force and the force is with me,” as they try to find the chip in Rex’s head. Ahsoka had to have created some kind of connection between them for him to be saying these words with her—while unconscious AND still under the order. I know next to nothing about force bonds and the technical stuff, but it seems that a likely explanation for the chanting together is that some kind of connection was created between them in the force. Into the world of wild speculation, this could mean that Rex is more force sensitive than the average guy? Even if it was a temporary connection, it would make sense that Rex would have to feel the force somehow in order to connect with ahsoka to say the mantra. (Not sure I actually believe this but...putting it out there)

Once his chip gets removed and Ahsoka asks if he’s okay, Rex calls her “kid” again. I point this out because it’s definitely been a while since he’s called her anything but commander—probably out of a place of respect. But his first instinct after the chip is out is to call her “kid.” This was partially for reassurance that he’s back, because a Rex still affected by the chip wouldn’t call her kid. I also want to say though, that his first instinct is to call her kid, not commander, because he sees her as family first. And then when he has to tell her that every single clone is chipped, he calls her ahsoka (I think for the first time ever??). They’re far, far beyond their normal roles as captain and commander, and this reflects that. I also wonder if Rex realizes that ahsoka would hate to be called commander right now, after being forced to hurt the troops she has always tried to protect.

Aaaaand then they try to escape only to find the hangar filled with all the troopers, Jesse leading them. Ouch. Rex cries AGAIN (can any of us handle it? no.). He tells ahsoka that all of the clones, his brothers, only care about killing them—they don’t care if they die trying. Rex sounds so angry in this moment and for a second ahsoka looks surprised, but then she realizes how Rex is feeling and they have a Sad Moment when she takes his helmet off. There’s a moment when he visibly deflates as ahsoka seems to realize what he’s really feeling. And yeah, he turns away once his helmet is off, but he let her take his helmet off and see him cry. I feel like Rex has always been the person that’s strong for others, and doesn’t like to show his own vulnerability. Throughout the show he’s always been a steadying presence for others, whether it’s with ahsoka or fives or someone else. Even on umbara, he doesn’t let himself fall apart. But he lets ahsoka see that here. In his relationships with others, Rex almost always has to be the authority, the one who keeps calm in the face of everything. But with him and ahsoka, they can be equals—they can show their uncertainty and sadness. The only other person we see Rex really be honest with like this is Cody, in the bad batch arc when Rex talks about how he’s watched so many brothers die, and Cody says “it’s hard being the one that survives.” Cody and Ahsoka are the only people that have seen this side of Rex, because he trusts them more than anyone, and feels he doesn’t always have to be strong in front of them.

Then ahsoka says “you’re a good soldier, Rex.” I can’t NOT connect this to “good soldiers follow orders,” and Fives’ death. I don’t think ahsoka knows all about the “good soldiers follow orders,” but she knows Rex. She knows that Rex has always tried to be the good soldier, has been taught that following orders is everything, but has also grown so much over the course of the war (from meeting Cut to going through umbara to watching fives die). He’s grown into a person that realizes sometimes he has to make his own decisions, even if that doesn’t fit with the orders he’s been given. She gives him the reassurance that, despite everything, he’s still the person that he wants to be. Ahsoka sees through the anger he puts up, because of course he doesn’t want to kill his brothers, but it isn’t them anymore and what else are they supposed to do?

Once they are forced to fight the rest of the troopers in the hangar, it’s obvious that ahsoka and Rex work well together. Not much to say specifically, but the teamwork? the coordination? we love to see it (but also hate to see it bc o u c h).

Now we get back to trust (it always comes back to trust). Once they find the y-wing to escape on, Rex tells ahsoka to “get me over there” and just. Runs and jumps into thin air? Of course ahsoka gives him a boost with the force and he gets on the y-wing, but we know that Rex doesn’t like heights. It’s been a running joke through the show for other people to throw Rex in the air (geonosis? bad batch MULTIPLE TIMES lol), but it’s always without him asking and he Does Not Appreciate. This time he TELLS ahsoka to throw him over there and doesn’t even hesitate to jump. If Ahsoka hadn’t caught him he would have fallen to his death, and yet he trusts her so much that he does it anyway. He doesn’t even wait for a response from her after he tells her to throw him over there! Now, I don’t know if Rex is actually scared of heights or not, but if he is then this shows even more trust between them. He trusts her with his life completely, and probably vice versa.

And now we get to the end. Ahsoka and Rex buried all of the troopers they could find, because they’re family and it wasn’t their fault and they deserved better and agshdkjskjdh. At this point, they don’t know what’s happened in the rest of the galaxy, but Ahsoka’s felt the death in the force and they probably fear the worst. They are the only family they have left. We end with them about to get on the y wing and probably go to figure out what’s happened. Ahsoka stands at the graves and Rex sees her from beside the ship. There are no words, but they are united by the family they’ve lost.

Personally I find it really hard to believe they would have separated right after that, and i’m not sure what’s canon anymore with the ahsoka novel and when it starts, but whatever. Fitting (ish) with the ahsoka novel, they eventually realized that it wasn’t safe for either of them to stay together and had to say goodbye. I like a headcanon by someone on here (just lmk who you are and I’ll tag!!) about how ahsoka and Rex eventually find Wolffe and Gregor, but wolffe is badly affected by Ahsoka’s presence and so she makes the decision to leave. No matter what actually happened though, they stayed family, even apart. When they meet again in Rebels it’s so sweet!! They’ve both come so far from who they were at the start of the Clone Wars. In the beginning, Ahsoka saw Rex as a sort of mentor and quickly gained a lot of respect for him. Rex, in turn, was at first unsure about ahsoka but changed his mind fast. Ahsoka grows into the best Commander she can be by the end of season 3, and by this point they each see each other as equals. Though Ahsoka is commander and Rex captain, she respects his experience and cares about him as a friend, and maybe even family. By seasons 4 and 5 they see each other as family, after Ahsoka was there in the aftermath of umbara and Rex trusted her in the wrong Jedi. Even though ahsoka left, she never blamed the troopers for what she went through. And when she returns in season 7 she sees all of her family again, just for a moment, until it all comes crashing down and she and Rex are all each other has left. Over the three years of the war, Ahsoka and Rex was one of the friendships that wasn’t broken by betrayal or breach in trust. They had each other’s backs and grew to trust each other with their lives, and that didn’t change even after the war ended.

WOW that was long—I got carried away and went a lot into their individual characterization as well. Sorry if the conclusion was a bit dramatic, I wanted to wrap it up meaningfully. Let me know what you like and agree/disagree with, and hope you found this interesting!

[dumbledearme]

Unpopular opinion:

TROS works. For me at least. And here’s why:

So... I have never been a die hard Star Wars fan. In fact, although I do love the story, the setting, the world, I always kind of thought the original trilogy was a Luke Snoozefest (#sorrynotsorry). I was under the impression that the three original movies were unnecessary and that George Lucas could’ve told the same story in just one movie, and that would’ve worked much better.

In 2015, I went to watch TFA by accident, mostly because there was nothing else to watch at the time. And boy was I shook. SHOOK, I TELL YOU. I got out of the movies completely in love with Rey and thinking that Kylo Ren was the greatest character to ever live.

And even though I wasn’t a fan at the time, I could clearly tell that TFA was an ode to the old Star Wars movies. It was telling me, essentially, the same story that it’d told 30 years ago: a hero comes out of the desert to save the galaxy from the bad guy in a mask. Yep. Thank you very much. 

Not only that, every single one of the new characters were cleverly written to replace someone else in the franchise: Rey is Luke, Kylo is Vader, Poe is Han, Finn is Leia, etc. The new trilogy starts the exact same way as the old one did, with a droid being found by the unsuspected hero, guarding very important information, which, in my mind, was already a hint that the new trilogy would also, fatefully and rightfully, end the same way the original trilogy did.

I’m not gonna lie to you, I liked TFA because the protagonist was a girl and because Adam Driver is amazing and he delivers Kylo Ren like it’s nobody’s business. But the story is intriguing and the building, at least to me, made a lot of sense and had a lot of potential. I knew from the start that Rey had to be someone’s daughter, not because she was the main character, or because she was clearly going to become a Jedi, but because of her raw potential and the consistent hints at her parentage, which, in a movie like this, are rarely gratuitos. 

Sure TLJ introduces the concept that anyone can be powerful, or a Jedi, or save the galaxy, and that is a truly powerful idea, but they weren’t necessarily saying that Rey was a nobody: I think they were saying that she should stop looking for who her parents were because ultimately it doesn’t matter. Rey being related to Palpatine in TROS doesn’t matter, it only tells you where her raw strength and potential for darkness comes from. What really matters is the choice she makes in the end to belong to the light, to belong to the Skywalkers. Rey being a Palpatine is balance because it tells you she comes from the villain’s side, but it doesn’t mean she is a villain, just as Ben comes from the hero’s side, but he's chosen to be Kylo Ren. 

Not to mention that as far back as 2017 there were already theories that Rey was a Palpatine, so some fans did pick up on that from the beginning. And I have to say, looking back, that I get what they mean. Especially with the fighting scenes: Rey usually overpowers Kylo Ren using anger, fear and aggression, things that, according to Yoda “the dark side are they...” 

So ultimately, I was not mad about that. Just as I wasn’t mad about Palpatine being the main villain. It seemed right (?) because, like I said before, the new trilogy is essentially the same as the old one. Palpatine is the archenemy of Skywalker. When you think about it, the Skywalker line even started with Palpatine (didn’t he use his power to make Anakin’s mom pregnant with him?), so it only makes sense (?) that it should end with him, too.

And since I’m on that subject, I might as well mention that, to me, it felt like Rey is actually the chosen one from the prophecy and not Anakin like we’ve been taught to believe. She used the Force to end Palpatine once and for all. She is the balance: she is Palpatine and Skywalker, she is light and dark. So, I’m sorry, but as far as I’m concerned the Skywalker who brought balance back to the Force was the one who wasn’t a Skywalker by birth��and rather by choice, and I think that’s really beautiful. 

Now, let’s talk about the real elephant in the room: REYLO. 

Yes, I’m a Reylo shipper. I love Rey. I love Ben. I love them together. I wanted them to get married and have lots and lots of babies. The fandom is great and the fanfics are even better. But here’s the thing: I never, not in a million years (!!!), thought the movies were hinting at them being together. WUT 

In TFA I was like “sure would be nice if they banged” cause I could see, HELL I COULD FEEL, the chemistry between them and I was all in for it. When he met Rey, Kylo was all like “hell, Imma kill this girl”, which maybe might’ve been why I felt it would be such a clever twist if he fell in love with her. 

The charm of Kylo Ren to me (other than he being played by Adam Driver, I mean) is that he’s not your typical villain. Kylo is a child who has no idea what he’s doing or WHY he’s doing it. Someone who doesn’t have an agenda is more terrifying to me because he is unpredictable: there’s no telling what he’s going to do next because he doesn’t have a defined goal, he’s just angry and vengeful and a child with a lot of power in his hands. And in the real world that is a truly scary thing. 

But then again, back in 2015, I thought that if Kylo and Rey had fallen in love would mean that I was watching a romance and Star Wars might be many things but it was never about romance. Sure, it’s about family, it’s about love and friendship, but it was never about ~~romantic love~~. The romantic love between Han and Leia is a secondary plot and if you remove it from the movie, it changes absolutely nothing. The romance between Anakin and Padme gets more attention because it’s partially the reason why he became Darth Vader, so it was necessary, but even so it’s not what the trilogy is about: the movies were made to show how he descended to darkness and not to show how he fell in love. Like.. whatever. So I was never under the impression that we would get to see these two characters fall for each other. (Plus, it sort of felt like they were building something between Rey and Finn for a hot minute there, didn’t it?)

HOWEVER, 2017 came, TLJ happened and things got bothered and hot. Because killing Han Solo didn't bind Kylo Ren to the darkness, it made him shy away from it instead. And then the bond happened (and don't even try to tell me that it wasn't a natural thing, that it was Snoke who did it, because I won't believe you, okay? They were already connected from the moment the Force awoke inside Rey and that's why they were seeing each other in the vision when Rey first touched Luke's saber.) 

So the bond happened and I thought "my God please more". I sensed the potential for fanfiction. I wanted them to be a pair, to be together. I wanted Star Wars to be a romance, just this once, I never asked you for anything, guys! But I also knew it was wishful thinking. I didn't think the bond was building a romantic relationship between the two of them (clearly I was wrong), I thought it was a powerful connection of the mind, of the soul even, but not of the heart. I thought these two very lonely characters would find a way to relate to each other so that Rey, in the end, could be the key to pulling Ben Solo back to the light. 

I was reminded of the scene in TFA when Maz tells Rey: “Whomever you’re waiting for on Jakku, they’re never coming back. But... there’s someone who still could. The belonging you’re seeking is not behind you, it is ahead.” At the time, both Rey and I assumed Maz was talking about Luke, but after TLJ I wondered if she couldn't be referring to Ben Solo? That Rey could bring him back because of that sense of belonging that neither of them had ever experienced in their lives but started to find in each other? 

So through the bond we as an audience were able to explore both Rey and Ben's past. Their connection, their chats helped them get to know each other and get to know themselves. They explored parts of themselves that they had been previously too scared to explore alone. They were even allowed to see each other in moments of weakness and vulnerability, like when Adam Driver is shirtless #yes. That was included in the movie to show us that they were getting to know each other in a very deep level where Kylo Ren was no longer the man behind the mask, he was transparent, Rey could see into his soul. And he could see into hers so much that he saw her parents and her lineage. 

And ahh when they touched hands it was like having sex to me. I was so into it, I could hardly believe it. Rey got to see Ben behind the Kylo Ren facade more deeply than Luke could see Anakin behind Darth Vader, so it was no wonder that she had the same reaction he did. 

LUKE: ...There is good in him. I’ve felt it. He won’t turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try.

REY: There’s still conflict in him. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn. 

The scene in the elevator, for example, and when Kylo Ren is delivering Rey to Snoke are also a clear mirror of when Darth Vader is delivering Luke to Palpatine. The dialogue is also pretty similar. To me, that was a hint that the end to this story would be a pretty close mirror, if not an exact one, to the end we’ve seen in Episode VI.

LUKE: I feel the conflict within you. Let go of your hate.

REY: I feel the conflict in you. It's tearing you apart.

Last week, when I went to see TROS, I was not expecting at all to get confirmation that Reylo was canon. I was expecting, however, to watch Anakin die again. I anticipated the scene where Darth Vader turns and dies in the hands of the only person who believed in him. And that’s what happened to Ben. 

Look, guys, I know it’s sad. It’s heartbreaking. I know we all love Ben Solo and we wanted him to be happy. But that was never in the cards for him and deep down we’ve known it all along. Sure, we’re just humans and we can’t help hope and cheer for a character we’re attached to. But since the moment he was marked with a scar on his face he was destined to die like Anakin died. It was bound to happen. I think it worked as faith that Ben should die doing the one thing Anakin couldn’t ever do. We see him asking for Darth Vader’s guidance, fearing that he won’t ever be as strong as Darth Vader, and then we get the confirmation that he is even more so. 

The new Vader, Snoke calls him. New and improved actually. 

The thing is all Anakin ever wanted was to save the people he loved from death and he couldn’t do that. It was the only power he was after, so why couldn’t he do it, if both Ben and Rey can? 

ANAKIN: Why did she have to die? Why couldn’t I save her? I know I could have!

PADME: Sometimes there are things no one can fix. You’re not all-powerful, Ani.

ANAKIN: Well, I should be! Someday I will be. I will be the most powerful Jedi ever. I will even learn to stop people from dying.

Why, you ask? Well, I have a theory. Anakin was always blaming Obi-Wan for holding his powers back, when, in fact, his own selfishness was doing that. And the movies tell us that being a Jedi is being selfless (heck, I think Anakin is the one who says that even). 

The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inwards, only about themselves.

To me that is the difference between Anakin and Ben. Anakin was a full-on Sith. He wanted to keep his mom and Padme alive because of how much they meant to him, because of how much it would hurt HIM to lose them. That is not a good reason to want to save a person from death. Ben, on the other hand, he saves Rey because of who she is, because she is necessary to the world, she is important, she is a good person and she deserves to live, much more so than he does after all of the horrible things he has done. HE knows that. He is very much self-aware, something that Anakin was not. 

Which led me to think that perhaps, even as in love as he seemed to be, Anakin wasn’t ready to give up his life for Padme’s and that’s why he couldn’t use the Force to heal her. The key to that power is a life for a life. An exchange. And Anakin wouldn’t exchange his life for anyone’s. Not in that time of his life at least. He was just too selfish. And that’s where Ben differs from him. Anakin was only ever ready to die for someone many years later, when he met Luke. 

Remember: “fear of loss is a path of the dark side.”

Moreover, Anakin never learned everything there was to learn about the Force because the Jedi council didn’t trust him and they kept many things from him. I got the feeling that this was a power the Jedi kept hidden from everyone because they feared it and thought it unnatural. For Rey it came naturally because she was just that good of a person. Nobody taught her to do that. But she taught Ben, or at least she showed him how and that action is what saves her in the end. 

ANAKIN: Love won’t save you, Padmé. Only my new powers can do that.

But here’s the thing, Anakin. Love does save people, because it was love that allowed Ben to tap into the power and use it to exchange his life for Rey’s. 

So I’m okay with Ben’s death because I know he did for the right reasons. As for Rey’s reaction to his death... Well, wasn’t it the exact same reaction Luke had when Anakin died in his arms? I think it’s just another mirror scene, guys. 

And besides, the previous movies tells us that we should “rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force” and not mourn them. That this type of death is a good one, a happy one even. If a dialogue had happened in these scenes, it would probably have been very similar to the one between Luke and Vader. 

LUKE: You’re coming with me. I’ll not leave you here. I’ve got to save you. 

VADER: You already have. You were right. You were right about me. 

And she was, guys. She was right about him and that’s all he ever needed. Ben doesn’t need to live because he can’t make right the things he’s done wrong. Both his parents are dead because of him. He can’t make up for that. What he can do is make sure that Rey doesn’t die because of him, instead she gets to live because of him. 

Which brings me to my last subject: the death of all Skywalkers. Yes, they killed all the Skywalkers in a movie called The Rise of Skywalker. And you know what? I don’t blame them. Not one bit. 

I know most of us wanted the movie to be different, to be about Ben’s redemption, but it never was. The movies are about Rey. She is the main character. She is the one who needs to live out the legacy of Star Wars. And that means that people need to let go of the past. 

“Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.”

We can’t keep holding on to the old characters. We need to let the Skywalkers die. They’re done. It’s past. Star Wars needs to be about something else now. Rey only takes their name because she wants to honor the only family she has ever known, the family she knows she belongs to, but the Skywalkers have to be gone for a new generation to rise and prosper. Didn’t you notice that all the wars and all the destruction have something to do with that family? They had to go. 

In the end, Rey was alone in Tatooine and that’s okay. Being alone and being lonely are two different things. You can argue that she lost the love of her life and her only chance for happiness, but that’s not true. She lost one romantic pair. I know we live with the romantic notion of having just the one true love, but that’s not life. She will be fine because Ben made sure she lives! He gave her an opportunity to take her life and make a good thing out of it. Death is final. Life is full of possibilities. And he gave her that. As a woman, I feel good about the fact that she doesn’t need him in her life to have a happy ending, however harsh that may sound. I find comfort in knowing that she can think back on him, that she knows there was once this *beautiful* man and that she was able to touch him so deeply that she changed his faith entirely. She gave him hope. And he, in return, gave her life.  

I thought the movie delivered a great sense of nostalgia and longing at the same time that it cut everyone off from the past. It was done quite beautifully. 

I’m not going to deny that there are faults, that the fact that they changed writers mid-way was a mistake, and bringing JJ back when he had so much baggage wasn’t the greatest idea. But in no way I think the delivery was bad. There were holes in it, just like in any other Star Wars movie. There were things changed at the last minute, just like in any other Star Wars movie. 

Like I said, it wasn’t the movie I wanted it to be, the romance between Ben and Rey. But none of the Star Wars movie is what I wanted. They are what they are and they follow a pattern that, most often than not, works. 

Would I have liked it more if Ben Solo had lived happily ever after? Yes. 

Do I hate it? No. 

Thank you for reading this. Please be mindful of your words. 

[gffa]

You know how some fandoms just keep piling on the fic, so you’re like, “I’ll just wait one more day, so I can read a few more and include them on the list!” and then two weeks later it’s still happening and you finally have to go, “NO, I HAVE TO YELL ABOUT THIS NOW, NOT IN ANOTHER MONTH.” and yet people still keep posting fic? That’s me yelling at STAR WARS fandom about how much wonderful fic there is and that I cannot keep up with it and it’s the best problem to have! Because, oh, this collection has some incredible fic, so many of them that I want to shove right at people and yell at them to read this amazing thing, and how brilliant this fandom is. STAR WARS FIC RECS: TIME TRAVEL RECS: ✦ Legacy by myrlendi (thehistorygeek), luke & leia & obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 105k wip    Three months after the Battle of Endor, Luke Skywalker goes in search of a rumoured Jedi temple in a secluded part of the Mid Rim. He finds within the temple nothing but a strange artifact, which unexpectedly brings him much closer to the Jedi of old than he ever thought he would be. ✦ Let’s Try This Again by Nny11, obi-wan & ahsoka & anakin & cast, time travel, 33.5k wip    Anakin’s life is shaken up when he finds a small togrutan toddler hiding in a dingy alleyway, after all, she did create a Force bond with him and is apparently his future Padawan. Wizard! PREQUELS RECS: ✦ A Constituency of One by victoria_p (musesfool), padme & obi-wan & anakin & cast, 3.7k    Padmé is the one who figures it out. ✦ And the Void Answered Back by Ghost_Owl, obi-wan & anakin & rey & finn & poe & ben & yoda & maz & han & cast, force ghosts, 84.9k wip    (Follows the Force ghosts of Anakin, Obi Wan, and friends getting dragged kicking and screaming through the events of The Force Awakens) ✦ Supreme Chancellor Obi-Wan Kenobi by stonefreeak, obi-wan & anakin & padme & cody & bail & palpatine & cast, 22.1k wip    By an old Republic law, all members of the Jedi High Council are senators in the Galactic Senate, and can thus be voted in as chancellor. ✦ Dooku Deserves a Break by nny11, dooku & qui-gon & yoda & obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & luke & cast, 1k    Master, it’s time now. The voice was faint and familiar, and it burned. It’s soothing sound eating away at everything. Pain, pain, pain- It went ignored. ✦ The Past Remains by otherhawk, obi-wan & anakin & cody & mace & plo & adi & depa & cast, 15.6k    The war drags on leaving trauma and destruction in its wake. After a bereaved Master is accused of harming his padawan, Obi-Wan is sent to talk to her, dredging up memories of his own past. ✦ Not the same fate as mine by liv_k, obi-wan & anakin, 2.6k    Excerpts from the journal of a newly minted Jedi Knight. ✦ perfect in so many ways by victoria_p (musesfool), padme/sabe, nsfw, 1k    Padmé knows she’s been selfish. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, obi-wan & bant, 1k    When Bant steps into Obi-Wan’s room in the Halls, it’s like a balm to his nerves. She’s one of his oldest friends, and her familiar presence is so very soothing. He really has missed her, they see each other too rarely these days, what with the war. ✦ Villain of a Different Story by HiNerdsItsCat (HiLarpItsCat), obi-wan/satine & anakin & cast, 73.2k wip    It turns out that there are some perks to being the Chosen One: Anakin finds himself transported five years into the past—only to discover that it isn’t his past, but a completely different one. One where Obi-Wan Kenobi left the Jedi Order, where Qui-Gon Jinn survived… and where Anakin Skywalker is the galaxy’s greatest villain. ✦ Accidental Baby Acquisition: The Obi-Wan Kenobi Way by kitkatkaylie, obi-wan & anakin & qui-gon & cast, 8.5k wip    Shmi Skywalker was desperate, so when she saw a Jedi in the marketplace of Mos Espa she did something that many would judge her for if they knew but just as many would understand. ✦ A Personal Touch by DragonHoardsBooks, obi-wan & anakin, 6.2k    New jedi padawan Anakin Skywalker realizes that there is more to being a jedi then he tought. Discovering a completely new culture will take time and effort, but maybe he’ll make some friends along the way. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, mace & cast, 1.2k    “News, I have, from the investigation into the altered mission reports from the Senate.” ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, anakin & ahsoka & background obi-wan & cast, 2.4k    The past and the present blurs together, Anakin can hardly breathe through it. Too many thoughts crowd inside his head and the more he tries to sort himself out, the more of the past he remembers and the more fears for the future it brings up. ✦ Passing by Nny11, ahsoka/barriss & luminara & anakin, modern au, 18.3k    Barriss claims she’s dating Ahsoka, Ahsoka agrees to go along with it, and both of them spend the next 6 months worrying the other will discover their crush on the other. Nobody is really surprised about this fact besides them. ✦ Jedi of Light by Sannah, obi-wan/anakin/padme & mace & yoda & plo & even & jocasta & cast, 9.4k wip    Out of irritation with the war and with permission from the Council, several talk show hosts create a show that airs weekly about the Jedi. They name the show *Jedi of Light,* and go around following Jedi and asking them questions. OBI-WAN/ANAKIN RECS: ✦ And yet, somehow, a happier ending by liv_k, obi-wan/anakin (pre-slash?), ~1k    He had always known that there would be no happy ending waiting for them at the end of the road. And yet, somehow, he felt that this was happier than what could have been. ✦ The Missing Part by Nightstar269, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & palpatine, NSFW, modern au (of sorts), 109.3k wip    Anakin Skywalker, a student of mechanical engineering, has always felt that his life was lacking something, a feeling that was made much worse with the deaths of his mother first, and of the woman he loved some time later. Still haunted by the pain and heartbreak, he tries to go on with his life as well as he can. When an initiative of the director of the university has the students attending the classes of another degree so as to enrich their knowledge, he will meet someone that will turn his world upside down. ✦ my push and my shove by victoria_p (musesfool), obi-wan/anakin/padme, nsfw, crossdressing, d/s, 1.8k    There wasn’t much Anakin wouldn’t do to make Padmé and Obi-Wan happy. ✦ Collar by bell (belldreams), obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, d/s, 9.4k    “You have to be sure, Anakin. Once we’re in, we’re in.” “I think I can handle being your sub, Obi-Wan.“ ✦ Shaak Herding for the Troubled and Lonely by protos_metazu_ison (larkspyt), obi-wan/anakin & anakin/padme & ahsoka & plo & cast, au, 34.3k wip    Disgraced Master Obi-Wan Kenobi was content to live out the rest of his life as a hermit until the Prime Minister appeared at his door, begging him to attend the Skywalker clan’s annual party. ✦ Solstice by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & ahsoka & cast, 8.9k wip    After the events of Equinox, Obi-Wan and Anakin find themselves back at war with enemies both seen and unseen. ✦ Home by little_tales, obi-wan/anakin & qui-gon & shmi & cast, time travel, 6.4k wip    Time travel fix-it story with a bit of a twist. After his death, Obi-Wan wakes up on Tatooine, in the body of his padawan self. But instead of trying to prevent Anakin from Falling, he decides to change the future by stopping Qui-Gon from ever meeting the little Ani. ✦ Tidbits by SingManyFaces, obi-wan/anakin, ~1k    Things go a little bit differently when Anakin sees Obi-Wan off on his mission to Utapau. ✦ untitled by subskywalker, obi-wan/anakin + implied obi-wan/anakin/padme, nsfw, 1.6k    (The easiest way to kill someone? You just need to kill what they love the most.) ✦ 36 Questions by kenobiapologist, obi-wan/anakin + background anakin/padme + implied obi-wan/anakin/padme, 30.7k    In a study by psychologist Arthur Aron, they found that strangers would fall in love when asked to answer 36 questions together. ✦ Let’s Be Wrong Together by bluebell26, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 3.1k    Anakin Skywalker had a dark secret. He’s been in love with his Master for several years now. He is attached. Yes, attached. It was bad, he shouldn’t, but what his former Master didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. ✦ Untouchable by Blu3sc0rpion, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, non-con issues/themes, 64k wip    A mission on Kraysiss-Two takes a turn for the worse. Ancient Sith designs work against both Obi-wan and Anakin as they desperately try to find a way off world. In the throes of confusion their relationship begins to spiral. They might be able to escape, but can they ever truly be rescued? ✦ Seed by bell (belldreams), obi-wan/anakin + anakin/padme, NSFW, 44k    When Anakin falls prey to a lethal poison, Obi-Wan has no choice but use all his resources to heal him– no matter how reluctant he is in administering the antidote. ✦ Miasma by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin & cody & rex & & kix & cast, dark themes, 20.6k    Obi-Wan never believed his best friend and lover Anakin would die first. But he has. ✦ [iasip music] Anakin Explains to His Darkest Timeline Son That He’s Gay by destiny919, obi-wan/anakin & luke & ahsoka & cast, 2.2k    "Ah, Padawan,” said Qui-Gon. “The crux of the matter lies in that our world is prey to the spectre of compulsory heterosexuality.” Obi-Wan gasped, horrified. “No! Not that!” ✦ Swear On It by dirkygoodness, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, mild d/s undertones, 6.5k    He squeezes his eyes shut tight against it and holds his breath for a moment, trying to get himself under control. Tonight it doesn’t seem to be working, though, because the images of people he knows and loves hurt and bloody and dead just won’t get out of his mind. ✦ Unexpected by planetary_retrograde, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 2.1k    Obi-Wan’s first instinct when Anakin is hiding something is to help. ✦ Hidden Treasures by SingManyFaces, obi-wan/anakin, modern au, 3.9k    Ben Kenobi doesn’t look like the type to have tattoos, and Anakin badly wants to see his hidden ink. ✦ He Is the Chosen One by wearethewitches, obi-wan/anakin & cast, fem!anakin, 17.8k    Darth Vader dies. Then, Anakin Skywalker wakes in the body of a dead slave woman in 31 BBY, a year before the Occupation of Naboo. ORIGINAL TRILOGY RECS: ✦ Maker by ambiguously, luke & r2-d2 & c-3po, 1.8k    Threepio’s processor has an error. Luke and Artoo have to figure out why. ✦ does it bother anyone else that someone else has your name? by suzukiblu, multiple pairings across all of star wars, soulmate marks, 2.9k    Drabble series about various soulmates in the Star Wars universe. ✦ brittle, break by glorious_clio, leia & luke & han & chewbacca & rieekan & cast, 8.2k    They’re not on Hoth very long, but Leia stands still long enough for it to leave an impression on her. A very cold sort of impression. ✦ sand into glass by glorious_clio, luke & cliegg & owen & beru, 2.2k    AU where Cliegg is around for Luke’s arrival at the Lars homestead. Luke has a lot to learn from his grandfather. REBELS RECS: ✦ The Starry Crown by bedlamsbard, ezra & kanan & sabine & zeb & chopper & cast, 8.8k wip    Months after Ezra Bridger vanished into the depths of the mysterious Jedi temple on Lothal, he reappears – with Kanan Jarrus in tow. All Hera Syndulla and the other surviving members of the Ghost crew want is to retrieve their missing teammates, but a Jedi who can raise the dead is a prize too great for the Empire to pass up. Palpatine will do anything to get Ezra and the secrets he carries – secrets that may allow the Emperor to control reality itself. FULL DETAILS + RECS HERE!

[buddiebeginz]

So I know I’m late to the party on this one but I’m gonna rant about my issues with TROS mainly because I just saw it again last night and I need to get some stuff off my chest. Warning this will probably get long and I’m sure I’ll repeat some stuff every one else has said

Also I know some of the things I bring up might be resolved to a point in the novelizations, with the commentary, or deleted scenes but most won’t see those so they don’t really count for the movie explaining things properly in some areas.

The movie has some enjoyable parts but doesn’t compare to TFA and doesn’t even come close to TLJ which in my opinion is the best out of the sequel trilogy. TLJ leaves you with all these questions at the end (especially in regards to Ben and Rey) in a good way that you think are going to be answered the next time you see these see characters in TROS but many of the questions are never answered.

Things feel messy and there’s too much going on all over the place. It’s easy to remember what the first two movies in the sequel trilogy are about it’s harder to remember all the stuff that went on in TROS because it feels really disjointed. Like they spend all this time looking for these triangle things (I forget what they were called) to find the planet Palpatine is on but little attention is given to what they are or why you need some special gadget to find these planets. Even when they find them it’s just over and done with pretty quickly. I also think there’s a lot better things they could have been doing with the final installment to the trilogy than wasting time on these things. Very little focus was given to character and relationship growth and development when it was literally the most important time to be giving it. There were so many scenes were I was just like what is the point of this? Like when they faked out Chewie’s death it felt really emotional at first and I was honestly shocked and sad. Then the movie was like psych just fucking with you he’s still alive and I’m like wtf was the point of that? All it served was so that they could go rescue Chewie but they could have done that without faking out his death. Or they could have had some other reason for them to end up on the ship like maybe rescuing Rey.

As others Have stated characters like Finn and Poe didn’t really feel like that had a good character arc through TROS and the series as a whole. I’d argue that TLJ gave a little more depth to both of them with showing Poe’s struggles in wanting to lead the rebellion and Finn’s whole journey with Rose and facing off against Phasma. I don’t think the TROS did too much to really close out either one of their storylines though well except for maybe giving Poe more of a chance to lead but tbh I don’t get all the choices they made for Finn.

They kept making it seem like Finn had romantic feelings for Rey  (like when he said he wanted to tell her something) even though they’ve only ever been friends and it didn’t make sense for that to be a part of their storyline. If they wanted to give Finn a love interest it would have made way more sense for them to have it be Rose, or Poe. I didn’t like the fact that out of nowhere they had Finn just suddenly become force sensitive at the end of TROS. If they wanted Finn to be Jedi or force sensitive that should have been introduced in TFA not in the very back end of TROS. I wouldn’t have had a problem with Finn being a Jedi but it just didn’t feel like that was supposed to be a part of his storyline for the majority of the series. The writing made it feel incredibly shoe horned in.

This is pretty nitpicky but the movie is super dark in places particularly the end fight with Palpatine. I’m all for good mood lighting but someone needed to tell the editors to inject some light because you could hardly tell wth was going on in some of those scenes.

Bringing back Palaptine was just one of the worst decision they’ve made in Star Wars in my opinion. It was totally unnecessary and worse it undermines all the work that was done in the original trilogy to get rid him. Vader’s sacrifice was essentially for nothing. I mean I know it was about his redemption but part of that was killing Palpatine. Killing the man who screwed up his entire life and turned him to the dark side. The origtrig was supposed to mean the end of the Empire. I just get the feeling they weren’t really sure where to take things after Snoke was killed but the thing is we didn’t need another Snoke or worse bringing back villains from the past. TROS should have been about Ben (which I’ll get to that when I talk about the shit show of an ending)

I wish there had been more talking between Ben and Rey. I know I’m biased being a Reylo shipper and I get that it’s a Star Wars movie so there’s going to be a lot of action but the origtrig had a lot of talking. I mean there were scenes full of Vader and Luke just talking. Some of my favorite scenes in the whole trilogy are when Rey are Ben are just talking. There was so much more I wanted to know about these characters.

THE ENDING

(which needed a section all to it’s self because that’s how bad it was)

So by now everyone has ranted about how awful the ending is but in all honesty as much as I feel the same it could have been worse. I mean it could have ended with Rey and Ben fighting each other and him dying without a smidge of redemption. Still the redemption he got was minimal and lazy to what this character deserved.

This trilogy was really about Ben and Rey and they should have been the main focus of the last one especially Ben. In the first two movies of the sequel trilogy we see how Ben is being manipulated by Snoke and how he’s very much on the dark side but there’s still light in him, light that Rey finds and brings out. TROS should been the culmination of Ben’s fight to go back to the light. We never really saw a big dramatic storyline with Vader and his return to the light (we just got that end scene with him saving Luke) but we could and should have gotten that with Ben.

If you asked someone what the sequel trilogy was about they’d likely mention Rey and Kylo Ren and the sad thing is Ben was a central part of three movies yet had no real resolution or solid focus at the end of series. 

The ending battle in TROS was mostly between Rey and Palaptine with Ben in there for a tiny bit and while I’m thankful we got the little bit of Reylo we got at the end if Palpatine had to be there it should have been Reylo battling him together. I found myself watching and thinking where the hell is Ben half the time.

When Rey says “be with me” in the middle of the Palaptine battle she should have been talking to Ben and not the force ghosts (who she didn’t know well) and he should have answered her back.

I don’t think that it was necessary to make Rey Palpatine’s granddaughter. I think they could have easily enough had her be powerful without having her be related to him. In actuality I think it would have made more sense to have her parents be nobody’s like was said in TLJ and it just happens that she’s really powerful. So you would have had Ben coming from a powerful loving family and being powerful yet turned to the dark side and Rey coming from a nothing cruel family who sold her and being powerful with the light. Not everything needs a huge explanation. I’m still very much of the opinion that Palpatine’s inclusion in TROS was totally unnecessary.

In TLJ there was a lot of focus put on Rey and Ben’s force bond it was even brought up sort of in TFA. We see it in TROS but I don’t feel like they ever really utilized it to the potential they could have. We should have seen more of them communicating through their bond especially during the end fight. And while I don’t think everything needs to be explained I still would have loved to see them talk about it in person. TROS shows us that their bond is so powerful it literally makes Palpatine exponentially more powerful when he takes their life force together but there’s never any explanation as to why Ben and Rey have this connection and why it’s so powerful. We’ve seen other force bonds with force sensitive people in the SW saga but never like these two have so what’s the difference? And why wasn’t it enough to save Ben?

So Rey dies and Ben gives his life force to save her. We get scenes with Ben crawling over to Rey, holding her, and looking absolutely shocked and anguished that Rey wouldn’t be with him anymore. Rey comes back they kiss and we see the first real smile from Ben in the entire series. and then he dies. Rey looks sad for a moment Ben disappears and that’s it, that’s the last time any reference to Ben is made in the movie. Rey loved him too Rey was eternally connected to him too yet the movie would have you believe all she felt was one moment of sadness over loosing her other half. It makes no sense. It also makes no sense why Ben wouldn’t be a force ghost unless he’s not dead.

And this is more of a commentary about fandom but I see so many people talk about how Reylo is abusive or how Ben can’t possibly be redeemed because of all the horrible things he’s done but no one seems to consider the fact that Ben was poisoned by the dark side at an age much younger than Anakin. Luke also turned on him and then lied about it which I have a huge problem with the movies acting like that was in any way okay. Like the only one who called Luke out on that was Rey but still Luke is partially responsible for what happened to Ben. My point in bringing this up in the ending is that Ben comes back to the light and without a moments hesitation he saves Rey and that still isn’t enough for some people he’s still this awful abusive person. He had so many chances to kill her, to hurt her, wound her terribly and he never did in fact it was her who ended up stabbing and almost killing him.

I’m not sure if Carrie Fisher’s death changed anything of how the ending was going to go. I’d assume so and I’ve read that Leia was supposed to play a bigger role in this movie so I’m not sure how it all would have played out but the way they had her die I think was another problem. There’s a video with an ending fix that shows Leia’s death bringing Ben back and I think that’s how it should have gone. Their whole battle on the Death Star to begin with was kind of messy you had Rey stab him, heal him, and then just leave which what was the purpose of all of that? But having Leia die then was less impactful as it would have been in the final moments of the movie. We don’t really know why Leia died in the movie just that when she did Ben felt it and it made him stop. If they had her die at the end it they could have made it so she chose to sacrifice herself to bring her son back so he could finally go be in the light with Rey.

When people watched the origtrig they saw Luke, Leia, and Han defeat the darkness good won out. Luke was even able to bring his father back to the light and talk to him and give himself closure. At the end of ROTJ the whole group are happy and together and there’s peace for first time in a long time. You might not have known exactly where these characters would end up after ROTJ but it all felt very hopeful. Now I’m not saying that everything needs to be wrapped up in a bow like that but where is the hope and inspiration at the end of TROS? Sure they defeated the bad guys but Rey is alone on sand planet basically back where she started.

I get that JJ and the other people involved with making the movie probably thought let’s be poetic and have TROS end where the original pretty much started on Tatooine but storyline wise it didn’t make sense for this trilogy and these characters and it was just plain tragic to have Rey end up back on a sand planet alone. One thing we’ve learned from Rey through the course of three movies is how alone she’s felt her entire life. How long she spent waiting for her parents because she thought they were coming back. How it’s clear she just wanted to to be loved and belong. She found that sense of love and belonging with Ben through their force bond and right when they could finally be together right when he finally came back to the light he was gone. She didn’t even have her friends with her she was truly alone.

If they had to have Ben die at the end of the battle and have Rey alone on Tatooine what they could have done was have her hear Ben at the end through their force connection and leave it open for interpretation as to whether he was still alive or just a ghost. I also think she should have taken Ben’s last name. This would connect her to the original trilogy in a way that would make older fans happy and it would connect her to Ben in a way that would make those of us who love Reylo happy. The thing is Rey was closer to Ben and his parents than she ever was to Luke. No offense to anyone who loves Luke but he wasn’t exactly the world’s best mentor. I mean I loved him in the origtrig but I wasn’t too happy with how he treated Rey and definitely not happy for what he did to Ben. Rey didn’t need to take his last name to honor him or Leia and Leia loved Han and Ben so Solo would have made her happy too. I just think JJ gave her the name Skywalker to make the fanboys happy. But Rey will always be a Solo to me.

I don’t know if they were trying to leave things intentionally vague or not at the end but a lot of it was. Like I said though I think the ending probably went through multiple changes in large part do to Carrie Fisher dying but other reasons too. I do think originally Ben wasn’t going to die but for whatever reasons that was changed. The scene where he lays down definitely feels  weird like it was revered or something (as many have pointed out). I also don’t get the inclusion of force ghosts if they weren’t going to include Ben, either there should have been no ghosts or Ben should have been there too. Another reason I think the ending was changed was because of the scene on the Death Star. Why have Rey heal him only for him to die later? It felt like this movie was supposed to be about Ben’s healing and return to the light not his death. It just doesn’t fit.

I read this one post that talked about how Ben is dark with light and Rey is light with dark yin/yang they balance each other out and can’t exist without each other. So what is Rey’s life going to be like now that her other half is gone?

I think that the movie should have ended up with Ben and Rey together over looking some place green and beautiful (remember her saying she didn’t think there was this much green in the whole galaxy). Maybe some time in the future with Rey pregnant and them building a life together. They could have even had Ben teaching new Jedi students. I want to cry just thinking about it. There’s so many better choices they could have made for the ending than just Rey alone in the desert on mercenary planet where she’s probably going to have to fight to survive again.

Sorry this got so long I just wanted to get out all my feelings on this. If you read all the way down many blessings upon you and your cow. 😝💗 I’m totally open to talking about any of this even if you disagree just as long as you’re not sending me hateful bs.

[lj-writes]

Rey is selfish and flawed (and that’s a good thing)

I immensely enjoyed Mara( @jewishcomeradebot)’s recent Rey-centric meta (link with my addition), and the central thing I appreciate about her take on Rey is that she doesn’t posit Rey as this vaguely positive altruistic figure. Rather her read of Rey is fiercely self-interested and focused on her own desire, a rare perspective in fandom. Mara’s posts helped me bring Rey into clear focus as a character for the first time.

I think people’s perception of Rey is distorted in part because we tend to attribute altruism as the primary virtue for women, both real and fictional. This is reflected in the characterizations of the Star Wars heroines as well: Leia and Padmé are defined by their dedication to the well-being of others, or the greater good. They have things they want for themselves, primarily close relationships such as romance, but their primary driving motivations are to save others through armed struggle or politics.

I get that female characters being driven primarily by larger galactical matters rather than romance was and to an extent is still revolutionary. I don’t mean to detract from anyone’s love of characters like Leia and Padmé, and I love them myself. In fact, it is almost impossible not to love them because there is nothing controversial about them and what bad things did come out of their decisions (such as Padmé marrying Anakin post-Sand People massacre) came out of the men in their lives being trash.

That said, I am also dissatisfied by heroine motivations that basically go, “she loves the entire UNIVERSE and wants what’s best for it.” It’s a continuation of the old stereotypes of women being selfless nurturers, just with more politics and guns. While the politics and guns are arguably progressive, these arcs are in stark contrast to those of male protagonists who get to want things for themselves.

Luke is a good case in point. His goal was primarily for himself, to leave Tatooine and to become “a Jedi like my father before me.” He ended up helping the Rebellion and defeating the Empire along the way, but it was his personal goal to claim his heritage and realize himself as a Jedi that his story revolved around. Anakin’s ultimate goal was to keep his loved ones safe, which can be framed altruistically but in the end turned out to be about himself and his trauma, not the people he said he loved. Luke’s goal could also have turned out badly if he had chosen his desire to connect with his father over the desire to be a true Jedi and joined Vader. Anakin’s goal could have turned out well if he had chosen to let go of his need to control Padmé’s fate and overcome Palpatine’s temptation.

Luke and Anakin’s self-interested goals were thus morally neutral and could have gone either way depending on their choices, unlike Leia's and Padmé’s goals which were inherently moral. Framed more precisely, Luke's and Anakin’s goals had conflicts built into them that led to a moral dilemma, such as “do I kill my father or join him?” Leia and Padmé, on the other hand, were never seriously morally conflicted. The boys choose between good and evil, but the girls are all good.

In Jyn from Rogue One we see a female protagonist with a conflicted goal, but with a thumb, no scratch that, a giant boulder on the scale. Jyn wants to stay away from the Empire that destroyed her life, but behind her trauma and cynicism she wants to reconnect with her father and the love she once knew as a child. Well guess what? We’re going to shut down her desire to run away by blackmailing her and taking away her agency. Also her dad was working for the Rebels all along. Saw, her foster dad, also wants her to save the Rebellion. And, with her father gone, it is only through the Rebellion that she will carry on his legacy and find the love and connection she yearns for. Yay for choice!

So while Jyn has the appearance of a conflicted goal that she wants for herself, the actual story pushes her toward the altruistic choice for the greater good. If anything Jyn has even less choice than Leia and Padmé, who at least chose their paths and did not have to be strong-armed. Leia’s and Padmé’s choices were in the distant background, however, and the stories did not hinge on their moral choices like they did on Luke’s and Anakin’s. As far as the stories are concerned Leia and Padmé doing the right things are simple constants.

In this tradition it’s no wonder that a lot of us have trouble seeing Rey as wanting something for herself and striving for her own goal. The proud but chequered tradition of SW women, to say nothing of the cultural background that casts women as either caring angels or depraved villains, predisposes us to see her as another altruistic, or driven-to-be-altruistic, heroine in Leia’s, Padmé’s, or even Jyn’s mold.

Rey’s actual goals are very different from Leia’s or Padmé’s, however. Much like a younger Luke she dreams of heroism and admires the legends of the galaxy including Luke and Han, but her primary goal was not to reconnect with her heritage by becoming a hero herself. In fact she had no reason to believe, though the fandom may have, she had any kind of heritage or famous parents. If heroism were her primary goal she would have jumped at the chance to leave Jakku and join the Resistance, but instead what does she want to do after she was forced to leave? She wants to go back. She doesn’t want to be special, nor does she believe she is. She just wants her parents back. A special destiny was thrust upon her against her will, not because she sought it out.

The character whose driving motivation is most like Rey’s is Anakin Skywalker, the “Chosen One” who was taken from his mother and spent a lifetime aching from the loss. Anakin may have been a hero, but that was a job he did because he was told to, not because he was driven to it by his own needs and desires. His underlying desire was to love and be loved again, and after being separated from his mother he found that in Padmé. When his own fears and Palpatine’s deception led him to dread losing Padmé, he chose to take Palpatine’s offer of ultimate power to avoid losing his loved ones ever again.

Rey’s goal, then, like Anakin��s, is a) something she wants for herself and b) something that could be moral or immoral depending on her choice. It is not an altruistic and inherently good goal but a self-interested, morally neutral one. This is the Star Wars heroine who is the protagonist of her own story with the agency to match, and not a helplessly good inspiration and role model.

That is not to say her arc was necessarily handled well. The events of TFA take away her ability to return to Jakku by having her knocked out and kidnapped by the bad guy, much like RO did to Jyn’s ability to avoid the Empire-Rebellion conflict by having her jailbroken, knocked out, and kidnapped by the good guys.

Obviously both TFA and RO would have been boring stories if Rey and Jyn were simply allowed to return/disappear, but the stories could have been designed differently so the heroines had opportunities to make actual choices while still engaging with the plot. Rey, like Finn, could have returned to the fight of her own free will. The Rebels could have dangled a potential lead to finding Jyn’s father to lure her in. Creators make choices when they tell stories, and they chose to advance--or fail to advance--these female protagonists’ stories by using tired kidnap plots.

Thankfully Rey did get the chance to make a choice at the climax of TFA, when she chose to take up the lightsaber and fight Kylo Ren instead of using Finn as a distraction to run away and find the Millennium Falcon on her own. Of course the outcome was hardly in doubt; she was clearly an important character with newly emerging Force powers, her kindness toward others was an established trait, and her preexisting bond with Finn had grown nearly unbreakable when he came back for her. No one thought Rey might turn her back and run, and so there was no suspense.

From an in-story perspective, however, it was still a choice and a difficult one for her. Ren is a powerful Force user, one she had just managed to get away from, one who had tortured her, whom she had watched murder his own father and cruelly cut Finn down. Her mysterious Force abilities, which allowed her to push him out of her mind and escape him, were a source of uncertainty and fear. She had vowed to Maz never to touch Luke’s lightsaber again after it gave her traumatic visions.

Most of all, there was her prior drive to go back to Jakku where her parents could find her. She would never have a chance of seeing them again if she were killed or captured here, or if the duel simply took too long and the planet exploded with them on it. Given her history and personal goal, running for it while she could was actually a pretty logical choice.

So why did she stay and fight? Had she given up on her goal to reunite with her parents and belong with people who loved her?

I would say her goal was still constant, the path to reaching it had simply shifted. To borrow from Maz, the belonging Rey sought was not behind her on Jakku, it was ahead, and she had found it in Finn. Finn was the first person in memory to ask her if she was all right, the one she begged to stay with her, the one who came back for her. He was the love and belonging she had sought. He was worth fighting and dying for.

This is another distinction between a self-interested goal and an altruistic one, by the way, and why Rey’s story doesn’t revolve around Finn or Anakin’s around Padmé even if Finn and Padmé, respectively, were key to their goals. Story-wise Rey’s goal isn’t to do whatever it takes to defend Finn. Rather she is doing whatever she can to defend Finn because she is pursuing her own goal through him--to be loved and cherished as she never got to be as a child. Under the right circumstances the person to fulfill her goal could shift, as it shifted from her parents to Finn, and potentially could shift again. And that is a key point of TLJ, as I will discuss below.

So how do we know Rey’s path to her goal shifted from her parents to Finn? Two points: First, after the ground opened up, separating her and Ren, she ran to find Finn but not to escape with him or seek help. She lay down to, for all intents and purposes, die with him. She did not try to find the Falcon, did not try to carry Finn away, did not try to attract the attention of passing vessels while the planet disintegrated around them. She felt for his heartbeat, wept over him, then lay down on his chest sobbing in a way that reminded me of nothing so much as Juliet collapsing on top of Romeo.

The second point is that after she and Finn were rescued and she was free to go back to Jakku if she wished, she instead went to Ahch-To to bring Luke back. And why? She’s helping the Resistance, sure, as she was before, but how does that tie into her established goal?

I think TFA was heavily setting up a deep emotional bond between Luke and Rey, with her literally dreaming about his island, her Force vision when she touched Anakin’s lightsaber, her immediately thinking of Luke when Maz said the belonging she sought lay ahead and not behind, and their incredibly emotional meeting at the end.

However, since TLJ borked all that, I now think Rey was helping the Resistance primarily for Finn much as he helped them for her sake. This way Rey’s departure still ties into her story goal and makes her a protagonist, not a passive plot point that bounces around whereever she’s told to go. This way Rey becomes a self-interested character with potential for moral conflict, and not yet another entirely altruistic, inherently good heroine who does whatever is in the greater good.

Think about it. Finn is injured and needs intensive medical care. He has nowhere else to go, no one else both willing and able to take care of him and protect him. The FO if possible hates him worse than they did before for his role in destroying their superweapon. Yet the Resistance is a target too, and they need Luke. Finn and the Resistance are on the same storm-tossed boat now, and if Rey is to think about any kind of future with Finn she has to save the Resistance first.

If you view TLJ in this frame, this is the movie where Rey has an actual self-interested goal and takes actions that could be morally complex. If we posit that her goal is consistent from the end of TFA and she hasn’t become a completely different person between one movie and the next, she still wants the same thing as she did at the end of TFA: Save the Resistance and protect Finn. She thought Luke was key to that, but he refused.

In her desperation she turned to Kylo Ren because, again, she has a self-interested goal--be with Finn--that could lead to moral or immoral outcomes depending on her choices. She’s not being an all-good and all-altruistic figure whose sole wish is to save Ben’s soul or the universe as we expect of our heroines. Rather she is desperate to achieve her goal and willing to push the moral boundaries in service of it.

I can also answer the criticisms of Rey being out-of-character. Daisy Ridley has said in a cast interview that she played Rey as always thinking of Han on some level, which seems at odds with her playing nice with Han’s murderer. On the other hand, what did Han die trying to do? Redeem his son.

Therefore I read Daisy’s comment to mean that Rey is still grieving Han--it’s only been a few days since she watched him murdered, after all--and wants to believe that he did not die in vain. If she can turn his son, then she can prove that Han was right and his life was not wasted.

But why should that grief take the form of being so solicitous to Kylo Ren, the man who not only killed Han but hurt her and Finn so badly, in addition to numerous other crimes? Isn’t that out of character for Rey, who is so strong and a fighter, who fought back in rage at the end of TFA?

Rey is not primarily a fighter, though. Those are the parts we remember the most vividly, but she is primarily a survivor who adapts to her circumstances. That means employing whatever means necessary to survive, including fighting if the need arises, but also being passive and accommodating if that serves better.

We have in fact watched Rey be passive in the face of numerous wrongs done to her in her interactions with a character who shaped her life: Unkar Plutt. I mean my Reylutt ship manifesto (link) may have been a joke, but her interactions with Plutt do a great deal to foreshadow her interactions with Kylo Ren. Plutt was an abusive authority figure who kept her on starvation rations and systematically exploited her, but she still stayed with him for over a decade in seeming passivity. We see her visibly swallow down her rage when he cut her portions yet again and can only imagine how many times she had to do so over the years. The only time we see her fight back physically was when he used violence first by sending his goons to seize BB-8.

The thing is, much like saying someone can’t be a victim of abuse if they fight back, it’s also inaccurate and hurtful to say the only “right” way to react to abuse is by visibly fighting back, or, worse, that you’re not really a victim unless you’re angry. A lot of victims are forced to stay passive, for the sake of their own physical and psychological safety, in the face of mistreatment because that is oftentimes how abuse works. Rey, especially in her early years, could not have survived as she did if she were always dwelling on how she was being treated and lashing out. She had to take a variety of strategies including passive waiting and patience in the face of injustices, not just fighting back against immediate threats, to survive deprivation and exploitation.

How is this relevant to her scenes with Kylo Ren? When she was actively defending herself with Force and violence he was an immediate threat to her, to the Resistance, and to Finn. In the Force(d) Bond situation, on the other hand, she had no way to get away from him but at the same time he did not know where she was and could not get to her. Raging at him might be satisfying, but was hardly practical especially as he became increasingly useful to her. She had, after all, a lot of practice burying her resentment for the sake of survival and her own goal of reuniting with her family. Once the threat moved from acute to a “merely” persistent thing, a different set of reflexes took over.

Another fact about abuse is that the victim may traumatically bond with their aggressor. It is how people psychologically survives at times, gaining a sense of control in a situtation where they have very little, believing that you can be safe and not be hurt anymore by gaining your tormentor’s approval and love. Subjectively it can feel a lot like love, too, because this is a powerful psychological mechanism for our survival and, in the immediate situation, our subjective mental well-being. It’s one of those things that make the unbearable bearable.

This was another way that Rey’s personal, selfish goal could have led to an immoral or unhealthy outcome: She could have mistaken Kylo’s manipulation and her own traumatic bond to him as the love and belonging she sought, and chosen to stay with him at the end of the movie.

In this Rey closely parallels Anakin, who accepted Palpatine’s offer of power as a substitute for love and so became Palpatine’s servant. Her overriding goal of knowing love and safety once again had transferred once before already, from waiting for her family on Jakku to protecting Finn and reuniting with him. Could it transfer once again, as self-interested rather than selfless goals can, this time to a fundamentally destructive relationship that only had a facade of love and belonging?

I think this was the reason, little as I may like it, that Rey was separated from Finn for most of the movie and why Luke treated her so poorly. If she hadn’t been isolated from Finn, or had been nurtured better by Luke, she would have been much more centered and healthier and there would have been no suspense about the outcome when she reached out to Kylo on board the Supremacy. I would dispute how well it worked, but I think that was the intention. 

Ultimately Rey made the right choice, as we know. The point as far as this essay is concerned, though, is that she COULD have made the wrong choice as Anakin did in the pursuit of her own goal. This makes Rey the first Star Wars heroine in the theatrical releases with a genuine moral choice to make, who is not all-good and all-nurturing and therefore morally unassailable like Leia and Padmé, and who is not strong-armed both by her “friends” and the story to make the right choice as Jyn was.

Like Anakin and Luke before her, Rey is a selfish and flawed character. Her self-interested goals and her own complex psychological profile lead her to genuine moral choices and mistaken judgments. Flawed execution aside, that is a very good thing indeed. To me it’s more progress than any amount of guns and politics.

Rey ultimately failed in her mission, as Luke warned, though she at least managed to return to the Resistance with her conscience and freedom intact and to save it. Now she is faced with the reality that she has to be the Jedi and hero. Luke is gone, Kylo is the Big Bad, and she can’t look to anyone to solve her problems for her.

What’s more, Finn himself, who had asked her to leave with him in the first place, now has a new commitment to the Resistance/Rebellion and possibly a personal and emotional commitment to someone new. As John Boyega who plays Finn has said, the look she gives Finn and Rose says it all.

These developments point to interesting directions to take the character. I hope Episode IX carries Rey’s development forward with better writing and challenges her harder, developing her more and having the story hinge on her moral--or immoral--choices.

[my-insanity-is-an-artform]

Time Travel Fix-It, Star Trekish, Time Travel, and Winnie the Pooh?

Time Travel Fix-It:

This one was one of my first Fix-It fics where a descendant of Anakin travels back in time to fix it. Medeia hasn’t really developed much as my other Skywalker OC’s but she is unique in the fact she’s the only one who time-travelled alone and went back the furthest to the TPM era, freed Anakin and Shmi and basically steamrolled over any of the council’s objections. It’s pretty indulgent.

Excerpt:

“Match my breathing like I taught you, Anakin. In through the nose. Quietly out through the mouth. Focus on what you can feel through the Force. Let the sensation of everything physical around you fade away. Like the wind over the desert, be like the bedrock beneath. Quiet and stable, unaffected by the wind above. Very good. Keep going.”

Anakin’s bright presence in the Force slowly became less energetic with each minute. It still glowed brightly and rippled with Emotion and Self and Power. His presence reached out a few times, slipping over his mother and Qui-Gon as if to reassure himself they were still there. He reached further out and found Padmè, gently nudging against her for a moment. He sent a trail out and entwined himself around Medeia’s presence, adding another layer to their bond.

Medeia was still Eye-Of-The-Storm-Calm but he noticed something else about her. Light and Dark twirling inside her in near perfect harmony. Neither ever overwhelmed the other. There was no internal struggle. They just mixed and unmixed and mixed again to create a soft glow of Grey in the Force.

Obi-wan nearly jolted when Anakin’s bright presence turned to him. At first it was a nudge which turned into curious gentle prodding.

“Easy, Ani.” Medeia murmured from far away even as her own presence curled around Anakin’s to guide him away from Obi-Wan.

He would never know why he did what he did but it felt right to reach out and brush his own presence against both in acceptance.

Medeia’s presence brushed against his for a moment then released Anakin’s who immediately curled against Obi-Wan’s like a small tooka kit seeking warmth from its mother.

Obi-Wan reached out to Medeia’s presence who followed sedately like a gentle shower of rain and rested against both presences.

The Force seemed to rise in Light at the occurrence and became clearer than it had been before. The Universe seemed to sing and for one moment, Obi-Wan felt complete and utter peace.

They stayed like that for what seemed like eternity. Obi-Wan’s gentle sunshine Light resting against Medeia’s calm-before-the-storm Grey as Anakin’s Supernova brushed around them, occasionally prodding at them and being tugged back gently by Medeia before he went too far.

Star Trekish:

This idea came around when I was watching some Star Trek and figured that what if the galaxy eventually evolved into a Star Trekish culture rather than the pit of corruption primed for an angry white man to take over every other half a century. So Four ships from that kind of era time travel back (I like my time travel fics) to the Clone Wars and revolutionise the galaxy mostly by accident. I also have another Skywalker who is the Captain of one of the ships. (Mostly so I could make Captain Rex and Captain Skywalker jokes.)

Time Travel:

Oooooh, this one! This one was inspired by Chapter 62 of No Love is Greater than that of a Father For His Son by Geekygirl24. I’ll try not to spoil it but my idea was what if they didn’t go back? I had a great time chatting about it on the Ani5 Discord and it basically evolved into Anakin gets all the love and care he needs and winds up married to like the entire 501st again. (He seems to do that a lot in a few of my au’s)

Excerpt (does contain a few spoilers)

“When my mother died in my arms, the people who did it were damn lucky I was nowhere near them and that Padme had the foresight to stun me. It was only thanks to the fact I had the Master-Padawan bond with Obi-Wan,” here the younger version of his master startled and flickered wide eyes between him and the younger version “that stopped me from going completely darkside. Even then it’s left its mark on me. I have mental scarring. Scarring I will never recover from. The healers thought it was a miracle I’m still functioning!”

“Anakin?” The quiet voice of Obi-Wan piped up and Anakin took a deep breath before facing his master who looked devastated. He’d never told him what the healers had found in the aftermath of Geonosis. It had been hard enough speaking about how he’d felt his mother die and to feel the healer’s horror at missing something so integral to his health.

The distance and time that had been put between Anakin and his mother had done it damage even before she had died. It explained a lot apparently.

“It’s not your fault. You never knew. No one did, not even the Healers figured out I need Force bonds to remain healthy.”

“But, if we’d just…”

Winnie The Pooh:

Oh, this au is like my baby! It’s just crack. I’d just seen Christopher Robin (10/10 would recommend) and my thought was what if Anakin made friends with Pooh when he was younger? It kind of exploded and became Shmi Lives (and makes friends with Kanga after moving into the Hundred Acre Woods), Eeyore’s tail is the reason Sidious is revealed and Pooh wins 4 arguments against Yoda’s Line about Attachments.

Winnie the Pooh, accidental Social Revolutionist, is also a thing in this au.

The Tree to access the Hundred Acre Woods somehow relocates from England to Tatooine (sshhh just go with it) to the Room of a Thousand Fountains.

 Anakin is doing so much better since Pooh is amazing and it’s very hard to be angry at him or about things when Pooh phrases it differently and basically forces you to talk it through. He and the 501st also do the morning exercise routine with Pooh. (The mental image is hilarious since it’s basically Space Yoga with Pooh leading.) The Tigger song is a staple. 

Mace Windu is conned into fighting off Heffalumps and Roo decides Commander Wolffe is the coolest thing in existence. Commander Wolffe has no idea what to think about this. (Plo thinks it’s hilarious)

Just pure mayhem and fluff. No angst allowed.

Excerpt from the Discord Discussion I had

Me: On yet another note, Kanga. Kanga has SO much stuff in her pouch. Kanga managed to outfit all of the 212th Attack Battalion with scarves. 

Kanga once kicked a droid through a wall.

The clones are in AWE of Kanga.

The clones take after Tigger and start referring to her as Mrs Kanga, ma'am.

Shmi is referred to as Ms Skywalker, ma'am.

You do not cross either mom since they will mom you into submission or you get glared at by at least 20+ clones and a jedi knight.

Obi-Wan is mom'ed into submission 

The council would argue against Shmi’s presence but that would mean loosing access to Kanga and Shmi’s cookie recipe.

@serenityharkness​ : Akemi will lead a Youngling and Healer REVOLT before she allows access to the cookie recipe to be lost.

Me:

Adi Gailla would revolt before allowing the cookie access to be lost. It’s the only thing that gets her through some of those meetings.

Yoda has lost all control over the Order ever since he lost the argument about attachments with Pooh. (Several people are honestly wondering HOW but that is a thing that happened.)

@lylilunapotter​:Everything, EVERYTHING, about this is precious and amazing and I love it. What kind of cookies are they?

Me:Depends on the person. Some are choc chip, others are oatmeal, a really popular one is kelp.

Kit Fisto would go to war for those kelp cookies

Kit Fisto would take on the entire Separatist Confederacy, shirtless and with one hand tied behind his back

Lylilunapotter:Kit, you are so completely valid

Me:Anakin isn’t sure if Fisto is trying to woo his mom or just get more cookies. Shmi finds this hilarious

Lylilunapotter:Anakin’s just praying it’s the latter. He likes Kit just fine, but as a father-in-law?!

Me:Neither of them will tell him which is the case. Kanga just takes pity and plies him with hot coco and bisuits. She also pats his hair

Ask me about my Star Wars WIP from this list or any of the other fandoms I have!

[oadara]

Kinda disappointed to see you like reylo. I love jonerys and don’t see why they would be compared to reylo. Dany and Jon are both heroes. Kylo isn’t worth redeeming. Anakin at least has the tragic backstory as a compelling reason for how he became Vader. Reylo would be abusive, would they ever get together. He said she was nothing but not to him. That’s the most cliché textbook line abusers use. I have a psych degree, so it’s really upsetting to see people ship Rey with that whiny man-child.

Hello anon,

It’s interesting how people perceive fiction and how they judge others by how they perceive it. There are many things in the fandoms that I’ve participated in that I’m not crazy about, some I outright dislike but I rarely get involved in the anti-movement in fandom. In fact, most of the times I’ve gotten involved is because of aggressive fans who come to me first. I don’t get the idea behind participating in something you don’t enjoy. If I stop enjoying something, then I stop it all together. However, I’ll play, along because you’ve decided to come to me with your grievance. 

Your statement about having a degree in psychology is not only pompous but it’s also meaningless. Unless you also hold a degree in literature and have published and/or done research on the Psychology of Fictional Characters with focus on the Star Wars Universe, your opinion holds doesn’t hold much weight. One of my bachelors is in pre-Law, I can tell you right now that in no way qualifies me to give legal advice. Having a degree in anything doesn’t automatically make you an expert. It’s your perception that whatever relationship exists between Kylo Ren/Ben and Rey is abusive, and that’s fair, it’s your perception, but that does not make it a fact. 

Abuse comes in many different ways and we all perceive abuse differently given our experiences. What I may consider abuse given my experiences with abuse might not be considered abuse by someone else. My view of abuse is that at its core abuse is about creating and maintaining a dynamic in which there is an unbalance of power. The relationship between Kylo Ren’Ben and Rey is a tug and pull by both of them. 

In The Force Awakens Kylo Ren/Ben and Rey were enemies throughout the film and whatever happened between them should be judged on what happens between any two people who find themselves on opposite sides of a war. I don’t see people talking about KR/B actions towards Poe and Finn as abusive and I think the answer is clear, it’s all about gender. Most of the world’s cultures/societies are patriarchal and therefore there is an ingrained misogyny in our thinking that is held by both women and men alike and most people don’t even notice it. The default is the male perspective. I haven’t been part of this fandom very long but when I saw how people used this “talking point” of abuse to drive the narrative of this ship I found it very perplexing. But as I thought about it I realized that what was happening here is that Rey was being infantilized by a certain segment of the fandom. Because of her gender and stature, in comparison to KRB, she was automatically perceived as weaker in the mold of the damsel in distress. However, nothing in TFA hinted at any such “weakness” in fact if I remember correctly the movie ended with Rey defeated KR/B and leaving him with a cheek to chess scar as a reminder of her abilities and strength. By the end of TFA the dynamic between Rey and KR/B is that of two enemies with equal abilities, capable of fighting each other on an even playing field.

In The Last Jedi their dynamic evolves, they go from enemies to something akin to friends and by the end, they are something akin to frenemies. The interesting part is that when they have their first Force Bond, KR/B tries to use his Jedi powers to compel Rey to bring Luke to him, while Rey tries to shoot KR/B. From there KR/B becomes very agreeable, even though Rey’s scar him for life and just tried to shoot him he interested in engaging with her. On the other hand, Rey is still, understandably, really angry and calls him a monster to his face. But as their relationship progresses through their Force Bond they find a connection with one another, based on shared traumas and feelings of loneliness. It becomes an even dynamic between the two. The throne room scene, which many of those who call the relationship abusive use as an example, has KR/B  utter the “you are nothing” phrase to Rey. While KR/B words are harsh, somewhat elites, and extremely inarticulate, if you take the entire scene into consideration I wouldn’t perceive his behavior as abusive. He was speaking the truth, but he said it in a really shitty way, however, being shitty doesn’t make you abusive. It makes you insensitive and in KRB’s case also desperate because he realizes he’s, Rey’s not buying what he’s selling and Rey makes that extra clear by trying to get back her lightsaber. The movie ends with Rey looking over KR/B while he’s on his knees looking defeated.

In fact, for two straight films, Rey has ended the movie standing tall while KR/B has been either on the floor beaten and bleeding or on his knees in defeat. As I said earlier, their dynamic is one of push and pull, but if any of them holds any power over the other it’s clearly Rey. I think antis would have served themselves better by going with the “unhealthy relationship” talking point in order to drive their narrative against the relationship. It’s a hell of a lot less misogynistic and much more realistic and I think a lot more people would be open to discussing it on those terms. Personally, considering that Star Wars is a fairy tale and how they are trying to develop their relationship, I would consider Reylo to be complicated and complex, as all relationship between interesting heroes and villains are.

Speaking of which, I’ll give you the same answer as to why I ship Reylo as I’ve given countless times as why I shipped Jonerys, and that is because that’s what the story is telling me. My personal preferences as to whom I would like character A or B to end up with are irrelevant, I’m not the writer of the story nor do I have any influence over the writing of the story. Having watched the films that’s what I deduced was the course the story was taking and I’ve made a personal decision to embrace it. It’s not a usual dynamic for an endgame couple, given the extremes of their positions, and I think it would make a very interesting story, a complex and complicated story if you will. And as anyone who’s ever shipped Jonerys would tell you, complicated is our middle name. In addition given KR/B’s and Rey’s Force abilities and their positions within their camps, they are equals and they see themselves as equals. 

On a final note, I would suggest you read up on Ben Solo’s background, he didn’t have some idyllic childhood. Take into consideration that Snoke has been praying for him since he was a little boy. It doesn’t excuse his behavior but it certainly puts it into context. Whatever harshness Anakin suffered he didn’t have some in his head manipulating him since he was a little boy.  As for his redemption, I think he deserves to have the opportunity and sometimes it takes a few tries. I also think that’s where the story is headed.

TTFN

[getoffthesoapbox]

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Finn & Rose

Despite a rocky start, Finn and Rose are the heart of The Last Jedi’s B plot. Their journey seems to be a contentious one within the fandom, but despite some awkward handling I found a lot to like.

This is the third post in my Star Wars The Last Jedi First Impressions series. As a quick reminder, here is the list of the topics this series covers, including links to the previous posts:

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - A Flawed Triumph

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Thematic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Finn & Rose ← we are here

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Rey

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Luke & Leia

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Kylo’s Trajectory

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Rey & Kylo

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - The Romantic Heart

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Misleading Love Polygons

[SW:TLJ] First Impressions - Schrödinger's Futures

Into the third behemoth’s lair we go...

There is a lot to love about Finn’s trajectory in TLJ, but I think it came as a bit of a disappointment for some who perhaps wanted more for him after TFA. In my own estimation, Finn was never the A plot driver for TFA; he’s always been the king of the B plot (fittingly like Han before him in the original trilogy). The B plot in Star Wars isn’t an inferior plot (Han and Leia are the B plot in the original series), but it is a secondary plot to the A plot (and meant to be complementary), which is usually whatever the Force plot is (Luke/Anakin/Rey respectively). In both ANH and TFA, the A and B plots intersect closely because we’re establishing the characters and their friendships/bonds, but you can still see how the formula will play out clearly in TFA because Finn and Rey spend most of their time separated by the narrative. For TLJ, the splitting of the plots was broadcast loud and clear the moment Finn was shipped off to the Resistance to recover while Rey left him for Ach-to.

Since I was not expecting Finn to have the center role in this story, I did find I was able to enjoy the role he did have, despite some nitpicks about the execution and setting my own preferences aside (I would have liked to see him take a more commanding role and begin focusing on the good he could do for his fellows still trapped within the First Order). In TLJ, Finn has a neat little heroic journey, if perhaps an understated one. When he first awakens, he’s still stuck in the past--he’s still back in TFA. In TFA, he’d only taken his first tiny step into manhood and when he awakens in TLJ he takes a step backward and returns to his former self. This is a very realistic trajectory for a character struggling to actualize himself and find his place in the world.

He begins with no place in the Resistance; he’s a drifter without a home, an outsider settled in a foreign territory. His one connection to this place, Rey, is off in some distant land far away from him. At first he settles in uneasily, accepting that he has no choice but to wait for Rey’s return. At least Poe is there, and Poe is a connection to ground him, however minor. But with the loss of Leia and the catastrophe that has beset the Resistance in her wake, Finn’s natural terror of the First Order surfaces once more because he hasn’t truly made the Resistance his home yet--it’s a place of refuge, not a home he must defend. If the refuge is no longer there, it’s time to split. A chance occurrence gives him the opportunity he needs--Leia drops Rey’s homing beacon as she’s being wheeled away on a gurney.

With the means to escape and find the only person who he so far has been able to declare loyalty to, Finn attempts to run away. Anyone who knows the hero’s journey will recognize this pattern, as Rey does this herself in the first film. As with Rey, Finn is stopped (violently) by the character who is meant to challenge him and who will inevitably call him to heroism--Rose.

Heeding the call is such an important part of a hero’s journey, and Finn’s not initially ready for it. Rose tells Finn what she believes he is; he attempts to deflect because he is running from his own better self. He is not ready to commit to a cause. Unfortunately for Finn, but fortunately for the story, Rose has been dealing with defectors all day and she’s got no patience for another one.

Despite the rocky start, Rose and Finn have a natural rapport and quickly form a formidable team. Rose opens up Finn’s world, and Finn in turn helps Rose come to terms with her past. Rose always sees him in the best light, and he comes to admire her strength throughout their journey.

The Canto Bight sequence at first appears a superfluous part of the film, perhaps, but I think its purpose was to help Finn begin sifting through his options for how he’ll proceed in the future in addition to helping Rose realize what she’s fighting for and what really matters. If she hadn’t learned that, she couldn’t communicate it to Finn--his journey is just beginning this film, and he needs light to guide his way. Rose is one of those lights. She is the spark of hope; it is her love of the Resistance that plants the seed of rebellion among the stablehands. Although their resistance on Canto Bight is a mere token one--the fathiers are bound to be rounded up by their captors as soon as morning comes--the point is that the chance of freedom and keeping the flame of hope alive are perhaps more important during cynical times than at any other time.

The worst part of Finn and Rose’s story, and the one I wish Rian had allowed for more time for them to be heroes, is the middle section when they’re on the Supremacy. (This is a huge shame, for Finn looks quite dashing and manly in his First Order duds and spending more time with him in those would have been a treat.) If they’d at least been allowed to be successful in their mission here, even if they were betrayed afterward, then it would all have been worth it, but unfortunately they get caught just as they reach the finish line. While realistic, it’s definitely deflating for a character journey.

The other disappointment was the hyped Finn vs. Phasma fight. It was great for Finn to have a victory, but the victory had no emotional punch and felt like it was just shoehorned in there in order to give Finn something to do.

However, what the Phasma fight does establish for Finn, and this can’t be understated, is it seals his loyalty to more than just Rey--he accepts at last that he has a place in the Resistance and that it is worth fighting for. He hasn’t yet accepted that he’s a Big Deal (that’s the final arc of his journey), but he’s accepted that there is a home for him in the Resistance and people he wants to protect.

His best moment is when they make it to Crait and he rallies the flagging Resistance to keep pushing forward despite the future looking bleak. In this moment, he’s at last found what he wants to fight for and something that has real meaning to him, and we get a tiny glimpse of the leader he will become. Even Poe, the guy whose entire trajectory so far has been to gain a leadership role, stops to listen in awe. Rose looks on with approval.

Of course, Finn doesn’t know what direction his newfound courage should go, and he immediately launches into extremism. Whatever possessed him to think that running headfirst into a laser cannon was a good idea is anyone’s guess, but foolishly he does, thinking to make a heroic sacrifice. Fortunately for him Rose has a cooler head than he does, and she knocks him out of commission.

What I love about this, although I understand that it surely was disappointing for fans of Finn who wanted a more active role for him in the film (again this is why I wanted him to succeed on the Supremacy), is Rose understands intuitively that Finn is worth so much more than a cheap sacrifice. He has a much larger role to play, and his future is worth far, far more than a momentary starburst of fleeting glory like Holdo.

This is why it’s so important that Rose speaks the theme of the trilogy to Finn and kisses him--she is the call to the future, the call to leadership, and the call to heroism all in one package. When he accepts her kiss, thematically he’s accepting the call. I think this is one of the reasons the kiss isn’t sexualized--it’s not that it’s not romantic, but rather that it represents something larger than a B couple romance. It is the eternal feminine bestowing her favor upon the chosen one, and tasking him with a mission--he is to find a way beyond merely killing for glory and fame, a way that protects the things and people he holds dear.

Having fulfilled this mission, Rose is knocked out for the remainder of the story in a neat little parallel to Finn in the last film. Finn’s role also becomes more subdued, because he’s reached the end of his growth for this film. Poe resurfaces as the “next” leader, and Finn will be left in the final film to achieve his own form of leadership, whether that be to take over when Poe exhausts himself or to find a different path, and become at last the Big Deal not only in name but in truth. Han christened him with that name, and that’s the name he must grow into to complete his trajectory.

We see a huge shift in Finn toward the end of the film. Although he is reunited with Rey in a touching hug of kindred spirits, he does not cling to her like a lost puppy nor does he monopolize her as he might once have done during TFA. Instead, he returns to the bedside of the woman who gave him her favor, and with the tenderness of a man who has found his place, he tucks her in while Rey watches in approval.

Where Finn and Rose will go from here is for JJ Abrams to decide, and ultimately it doesn’t really matter. Rose’s purpose in this film wasn’t to sway Finn romantically, but to help him find his way on his hero’s journey. Even if he ultimately ends up with Rey or Poe or no one, that doesn’t change the fact that Rose is the one who called him to heroism.

An interesting note that I’d like to leave on is that Finn does actually heed Rose’s call. In TFA, he ignored Rey’s when she asked him to stay and fight for the Resistance. TLJ is a reflection of the growth he underwent during TFA; he can now answer the call and step forward in the next film. And I hope to all the heavens JJ puts him back in the spotlight, because I’m annoyed as hell a character who was supposed to die stole his screentime from him, and he deserves all of it back. I would really love to see him go toe-to-toe with Hux, especially after Hux was victorious in their last encounter and Finn was completely powerless. It’d be great to see Finn step up as the next General to face down Hux while Rey faces Kylo. 

Whatever way Finn goes in the future, I’m sure he’ll become the Big Deal he was always meant to be. =) As for where his relationships will go, well, he’s a popular man, and that’s a tale for another time.

[sapphicvampyy]

MY LAST JEDI THOUGHTS  spoilerssssss:::::::::::::: turn back now if you haven't seen the film!

Okay so after a few days sitting and thinking on the Last Jedi here are my thoughts and I am seeing it again Thursday so this may change. 

- To start with my biggest problem with the film was reys parentage reveal, okay so I found it very anticlimactic and not at all profoundly satisfying the way Kathleen Kennedy had promised this is my hope and my take on it I really really really wanted her to be to a Skywalker or a Kenobi or a Palaptine because personally I think that it makes a better story I think the interest of why her parents left her there, maybe she was showing force signs as a child and they got scared and left her there, or her mom dated Luke and got pregnant with his kid and then kept the kid from him which would be even more plausible because Luke has been tuned out from the force for so long, I wanted to see Rey struggle with the dark side which I think should happen in episode 9 not in that she goes to Kylo but in the fact that she taps into the dark side in order to beat him thus having a grey jedi, because in my opinion the way the jedi were in the prequels is part of the reason Anakin turned to the dark side 

With that being said if Reys parents aren't retconned in episode 9 that'll be okay too I'm accepting for now that this is the answer to her parentage reveal and JJ will not change it though he may because of how much fan backlash there is but hard to say.

I liked the Kylo and Rey connection but in no way do I think it should be shipped he literally used an abuse tactic on her and told her she was nothing but not to me, this is a terrible horrible thing to say to someone and in no way should it be shipped, Rey messed up by going to Kylo thinking he could be swayed but they definitely shut the door on Reylo at the end of the movie they may still have a connection but its because they are both lonely and have really strong force powers in no way do I think it was meant to be romantic nor is episode 9 going to end up with a romance, the reylo ship is so strange and i WILL NEVER GET BEHIND IT.. JJ ABRAMS COMPARED WHAT HE DID TO HER IN THE FORCE AWAKENS TO RAPE. 

I honestly think Lukes story makes sense where it went, the only thing that I was not stoked with was Luke throwing his lightsaber off the cliff, but someone pointed out that he throws his lightsaber in the return of the jedi okay so I can see how its true to character, I think Luke didn't go bad or dark he's just defeated at this point and you see that at the end he becomes Luke again I don't know why everyone is so upset and mad about this 

I liked Finn and Roses storyline and I like how it was basically a dig at the one percent, and I also liked Poes storyline and how he got his ass handed to him for being wrong and thinking he was right, I do wish more focus was on Rey though I'm sorry but the force sensitive aspects of star wars and the magic behind it is more interesting to me personally. 

Leias waking up for space and saving herself was awesome that was super cool in my opinion I love how they opened the door for Leia to have force powers and i think if wonderful Carrie had not died that Leia would have had an intense connection with Kylo  in 9 they even said that 9 was going to be Leia’s movie, 7 was more focused on Han, 8 on Luke and 9 was going to be Carries. But since Cairie passed we will never get to see that so i think that is going to fall to Rey I love the scene with Mark and Carrie, I love that we got to see Luke and Leia together for one last time also Carrie helped Rian write that scene and that alone makes me want to cry. 

I did like the ending with the little boy on canto bright and how it showed there are more force sensitive out there and how the Jedi order is not dead and how Rey can train a new order of jedis with that being said its also showing how you don have to come from royal blood or an important family to make a difference and your family doesn't define who you are which i love that message and i think thats what the mirror scene was about but story wise, i think that if they made Rey a chosen or coming from Luke would make for a great story and not just be wish fulfillment, and that JJ could choose to do that apparently JJ abrams came up with the same answer Rian did in relation to Reys parents, so it will be interesting to see what he does and if theres more to it or there is a chosen one aspect which  could happen which I think also that mirror scene could be about, but for now I'm putting my acceptance thats who her parents are and the mystery is solved and if I'm wrong in episode 9 I will be pleasantly surprised :) 

What I would like to see in 9 is

Rey struggling with the dark side they said she leans toward it which makes sense for a jedi with no training so I want to see that played out and have her maybe struggling and have some resistance fighters scared of her making her question the way the jedi did things and maybe lead to a grey jedi order

honestly I'm not sure where they are going to take Ben solo might I add Adam gave an amazing performance there are so many layers to his characters performance and he really is one of the best actors of this generation I don't care if you don't like Kylo what do you have against Adam?? anyway I think the last jedi sort of closed the door on him getting a redemption but he was also sad picking up his father dice so I'm not exactly sure where he could go

i think Snoke is dead and gone and he honestly didn't matter that much he was just sort of keeping Kylo in line and in the original star wars movies we didn't know anything about palpatine 

honestly I'm sorry to say but i could give two shits about the romance in Star Wars its not essential to the plot unless its Anakin and Padme and Han and Leia it really isn't, its honestly distracting so i could care less about what characters date unless its Rey and Kylo which I would be very opposed to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes seeing FINN/POE would be cooll but what point does it serve the plot and same with Finn and Rose it doesn't serve the plot I rather see these characters fight the first order then waste 5 minutes of screen time kissing, I love Finn and Reys friendship and thats one I would be okay with seeing turn in a relationship but i think its honestly better that they are keeping them as friends and just being sweet to each other and having this really awesome bond i think its nice for people to see how much you can care about your friends without it turning into a romantic relationship and its a nice departure from always having romance shoved down our throats, the ship wars part of this fandom is ridiculous to me and so irrevlant, expect the reylos I'm scared for them and hope they don't end up in an abusive relationship, but yeah like I'm sorry but what about two people making out is more interesting than a light saber battle and the struggle against the light and the dark side I truly don't get it and don't think romance belongs in star wars unless it serves the plot sorry.  apparently episode 9 is supposed to tie all of the movies together which is really exciting so I'm excited to see what they do with it and I'm excited to see what saga rian johnson does if they are going to be set for example maybe like the first jedi???? and the first sith I think that could be a really really interesting story and I'm excited to see what he comes up with.  and I'm excited for 9 so thats my unpacked opinions of 8 and I'm excited to see it again and watch for things that I missed before like the clues that Luke was force projecting and wasn't really there. 

[xyouaremylifedelena]

Some thoughts after seeing The Last Jedi

I’ve been a fan of Star Wars for as long as I can remember. I liked the prequels, but the acting was cringy at times (I’m looking at you, Ep1&2) but still enjoyed the tragic love story between Padme and Anakin even though Anakin became an ass at the end of 3 (still love Vader though). 

With that being said, I was always in the Rey & Kylo fandom but didn’t interact that much with you guys. I was always liking an rebloging stuff, other than that, I tried to stay as far away as I could from the fandom (or every fandom for that matter). I used to talk with other shippers on twitter and tumblr, interacting with them between 2010-2014, because for me, thats when the ‘fandom culture’ wasn’t that much toxic. I’ve shipped damon & elena since 2009, I’ve always made fanvids with them on youtube and the shipping wars we had was about which couple was better, (for those whose been in that fandom, remember that Delena and Stelena we’re craaaazy) but for some twisted reason, it was fun having a ‘war’ with the other fandom. Probably because we didn’t insult each other, we just didn’t like the other couple, that was that.

But from 2015 to now, I’ve seen the fandom culture changing into something that wasn’t healthy at all. Insulting each other and throwing the words ‘abuse’, ‘toxic’, etc. everywhere wasn’t my cup of tea, so I stayed away for a long time. It’s fiction first of all, so it isn’t that deep and second, I’ve grown up with worse tv shows, games and movies than that and didn’t turn out to be ‘fucked up’. I’ve had an ex-boyfriend who was mentally abusive to me, but didn’t stop liking certain ships because  ‘they we’re presumably bad for each other’ or ‘(insert character name) fucked up’. Yes, I changed the way I viewed my relationships with everyone. I did let some people go because of it but I never paired fiction with reality. EVER. Because liking something doesn’t make you a bad person, change your morals or whatever. It’s like saying we should stop making Star Wars as whole because it promotes war? Humans aren’t that dumb. Yes, some people make bad choices, but that’s not because they go on tumblr or twitter and ship a certain couple. Like wtf. You do you guys. 

All of that to say that, I couldn’t stay away from the Reylo fandom because I just can’t get enough of them. I’ve shipped them since TFA got out (I even whispered to my best friend ‘is it weird I ship those two?’ at the interrogation scene) and never looked back since then. 

Anyways, I have some things I have to say about the movie so here it is: 

I absolutely loved every Rey & Kylo (Ben?) scenes. Driver and Ridley we’re so amazing in this one, I couldn’t help but REALLY stare at the screen for every scene they shared. Seriously, they’ve blown my mind. The movie could have been better in my opinion but everything was perfectly executed and believable, I would go and see it a second time for sure (Overall, I give the movie a 7.5-8/10).

The force bond

It was really well done. It felt like they we’re in the same place at the same time, even though it was totally different scenes. I have to give a thumbs up to Rian Johnson for that. One of my favorite moment is when they touch their hands and Luke explodes the hut. It was sweet and not something I was expecting from them, or at all actually. I loved that Ben is transported into her surroundings instead of his, mostly because the lighting in hers is really warm and just feels safe and comforting instead of his who’s more cold and dreadful. It clearly states that she is okay with him being near her and found a friend who can actually understand her worries when she thought she was alone. They have each other.  I’ve seen some post worried about the last scene, when she is shutting the door of the falcon on him as if destroying the force bond. But the thing is... You can’t destroy a force bond unless one of the two dies. And even then, it feels like a piece missing in you, a wound you can’t heal. Also, when she sees him, she hesitate for a moment, opens her mouth as if to speak but chooses not to. She looks more mad at him for his poor choices dans than hating him just because. She knows he won’t hurt her, she just want to make a point by closing the door that she can control when she can see him or not, shutting him out of her mind like she did at their first force visions. 

Ben’s redemption

It’s happening. I seriously didn’t thought he would be after the little tantrum he did on Crait, but there’s one moment, a little moment that can confirms you that he will be redeem. It is not a scene with Rey though. It’s the scene where Luke and Leia talks when they see each other for the last time. She says something along the lines that her son is not himself anymore and Luke respond by saying that he can still be brought back. I have no idea why, but the fact that Luke finally see this calls back to when Rey tells him that Ben is their only hope after the hut scene. Rey lost that hope at the end of the movie, but Luke finally understands her words and believes it more than ever. Even when he’s in front of Kylo, he tells him that he will always be with him like Han is. I’m pretty sure that we’ll see Luke guiding him and Rey in IX together, because she’s the only one who can bring him back now that Carrie Fisher is gone. Maybe Kylo knowing that his mother is dead will affect him dearly, but I don’t see that happening in the first act of the movie.

 There’s subtle hints here and there that he’ll come back, like the fact that Hux wants to kill him and side eye him when Kylo pulls a tantrum on Luke. My theory for this, is that the real villain of IX will be Hux and not Kylo. The fact that Kylo is practically begging Rey with his eyes to not reject him does not make him the baddest villain, it’s a call for help. If Rey would have taken his hand, Kylo would have turned around and run away with her, so he wouldn’t have lied to Hux about who killed Snoke. Pretty sure he would have exterminate the dude. The guy is still conflicted about himself being in the dark side or light side, and ends up being grey at the end of the movie even if he’s still trying to be dark (we all know he loses his chill when Rey rejects him, not because he just wants to be dark).

I’m not sure yet if Reylo will be endgame yet, I’ll have to wait for more inteviews but they’re not dead for sure. They’ll have a final showdown and all that and then Ben will probably switch side by the end of the second or third act. I just hope they don’t do like Anakin’s story and kill him at the end.

Also, J.J. Abrahams is the one who compared Rey and Kylo to a Princess and a Prince, that star wars was a kind of fairytale and that they wanted to explore that relationship further down the road. Plus, he still had to approve the idea of Johnson with TLJ. If he didn’t want this to happen, we wouldn’t be seeing any romantic Reylo in the movie AT ALL. 

(Sorry if I made some mistakes while typing this, French is my first language so if you didn’t understand a shit of what I said, don’t be afraid to tell me!) 

[bellsyblue]

star wars the last jedi spoilers ahead

I went to see the film as part of a work function tonight (ty Jesus) and I need to get some stuff out of my system bc I can’t discuss with my housemate until she sees it tomorrow, so --

No real structure, just streaming it out.

The most important thing this film showed me was that Leia learned how to use the Force. It was beautiful. The universe that opened up retrospectively when she pulled herself out of the space wreckage to safety (let’s ignore the plausibility of surviving that for a second). I thought of Luke and Leia, fresh off their victory over Palpatine, bonding in the quiet safety of Leia’s senatorial apartments, Luke patiently talking his sister through the ideas of the Force; to quiet, listen and trust her feelings. Imagining her excitement and the joy on his face when she makes that datapad tremble on her desk, the first time she actively reaches out and senses him through the Force, the way they would laugh together the first time they test it on Han and freak him out. Imagining the euphoria of sharing something that’s just between them.

That moment Leia saved herself using the Force shone a beacon on a beautiful past of potential and I think that sustained me through the whole movie.

Thank god.

Because I have not facepalmed so hard nor so often since I had to watch Anakin and Padme “fall in love”.

I am sympathetic to the fact this film had to find its feet in the unexpected wake of Carrie’s death, but WHY DOES THIS FRANCHISE HAVE A 1/3 SUCCESS RATE IN WRITING BELIEVABLE ROMANCE???

On one hand, it’s a good day for you if you’re a Reylo shipper. On the other hand, it was like watching 6/10 fanfiction play out to a rushed pace. Finn and Rose were cute together but even their dynamic felt too fast. The flirtation between Poe and the Vice Admiral. Why so many close-ups??? Also, the Han/Luke shipper in me was mad that Luke didn’t already know Han was dead, but sure he closed himself off to the Force, so he was behind on the news.

the author acknowledges her impressions were exacerbated being forced to sit three rows from the screen

As this film played out, it sounded like it was written straddling the fourth wall: in some ways too aware of its meta wish list and headcanons from the audience, fandom in-jokes, and performing as an echo of the Empire Strikes Back (once was enough with TFA, but again??? seriously?) and Return of the Jedi mashed together “with a twist”.

I waited two years for this film. I read and discussed so much about its potential with so many fans, I think it was bound to fall short of my expectations.

I was really heartbroken when I found myself wishing the movie would just end. It felt way too long. I had waited two years to see Poe, Finn and Rey (okay and Kylo the human disaster) again.

Everything was so rushed. Characters were introduced in a rush. The editing felt rushed. In critical moments where you needed to linger, let the gravity of dialogue or exchange sink in, process who we had just met and why we should care about them, we were instead thrust onto more characters, more spectacle, it was all spilling out faster than Vice Admiral engaging light speed through an entire First Order fleet. Bringing Benicio del Toro in like a passing ship in the night, a darker, shallower tribute to Han Solo’s archetype (don’t bring him back and redeem him, please, you failed to make me care about him, it’s tired and I cbf sitting through that). Bringing back my beautiful Phasmum for two minutes of nothing just to kill her properly. Wtf, film, wtf.

I found myself really hoping Rey would join Kylo, just for something different to  untangle in the third film. Let Rey realise too soon what a stupid choice she’s made, but also wrangle with that commitment she’s made, following that dumb instinct that made her seek and have faith in Kylo. I don’t believe the film is done with those two yet.

“I can feel the conflict in you--” Omg every other time a force user opened their mouth in this film, I just wished to end my hearing. This kind of writing flew thirty years ago, but not today, ad verbatim.

I was actually enjoying the moments Rey called him “Ben” and he didn’t flinch, when they were finally fighting back-to-back, and I was like, “Okay, this has potential, the penultimate light and dark come together, now rule together and muddle your way through your problematic commitment, please, that would make fair drama.”

I like that Rey’s parents were revealed to be nobody of worthy note in the “legacy” of the Star Wars universe. I like the message that the greatest hope of a warrior could come from humble beginnings.

I liked that we discovered what really happened with Ben and Luke, and what really sealed Ben’s decision to go dark side. I like that the story made Ben and Luke both share the blame for this. Luke got lost in the airs of his own legend, and Ben had many chances since then to turn back. It’s still shit Snoke clearly got to him young and was manipulating him from a young age; but that doesn’t excuse the shitty things he’s doing by today’s events. He’s a survivor of abuse and sadly, it’s warped his capacity to make rational decisions that take courage by the average person’s measure.

I liked the moment Yoda and and Luke were reunited. Yoda has a levity we often see in older people who have all the perspective, but no fucks left to give. Threaten to burn the foundations of your religion? The old codgers will always call your bullshit. These kind of people bring you back down to earth for #realtalk.

This film smacked of some of the problems I suffered in Justice League, it rarely let people connect as real people with all the awkwardness, tentativeness and vulnerability we often have. Everyone was charging ahead. Everyone was so sure of themselves, even when they were supposedly crying, heartbroken or scared. That moment when Rose’s unnamed sister dropped the bombs and clutched her amulet, and we lingered on her face in slow motion as she closed her eyes? One of the best moments.

War and resistance are fucking scary, exhausting and heartbreaking. This is why I maintain Rogue One is still one of the best films of the film franchise, because it was on the ground where the highest costs were being paid. In war, most people don’t have the means or luxury of fucking off to an isolated planet to nurse the agony of our failure. We have to stick around and muddle through, take actions that compromise our morals and break our hearts in the process, and it fucking sucks (read: Cassian Andor).

I like that everyone in the First Order looked stressed and unglamorous af in comparison to the Force Awakens. I cracked up the moment I saw the shadows under Hux’s eyes, leaned over to my boss and was like, “Yo, that’s my bro, he’s wearing our look.” And seriously, compare Kylo’s unmasking scene in TFA to TLJ. In TLA, they took serious care to unmask him as beautifully, coiffed and confidently as possible. When his mask comes off in TLJ, the camera is tight to his face, showing the blotched complexion of his exhaustion, nervous sweat, his pores and moles and scars, he’s raggedy ann. As Snoke throws in his face, killing his father split him down the middle and he’s never been more conflicted.

I really liked the showdown between Kylo and Luke. I like that Luke apologised for failing him, that Kylo is so far gone in his rage of Rey deserting him, of being alone at last, that Kylo was unmoved. I like how the film says goodbye to Luke, and that Leia lives on at the end.

Farewell, Space Princess. You will forever be loved.

I give it a 6.5/10. But you bet your ass I’m going to see it tomorrow again with the friends anyway, and finish Close the Circuit because now I have enough lore answered to make up my own version.

I look forward to sitting back with enough vantage to actually appreciate Poe Dameron’s beautiful face. Incidentally, this was v insightful for Poe’s character. I’ve given him too much credit as a level-headed commander. He’s way more willing to sacrifice lives than I expected. I understand that was his entire arc, but... the more you know.

[somecrummyblog]

ChocolateBox is here!

Hello there!

Thank you so much for writing me a story for one of the below fandoms of my heart!

I’m not sure if lots of prompts are a good or a bad thing, so I’ve tried to be helpful without being overwhelming, by including a list below of prompts I like, a lost of my ‘dealbreaking’ do-not-wants, and just a few lines about each fandom. If you’d like something more specific, please do ask the mods to contact me and I’m more than happy to provide more prompts/ideas or to answer any questions!

Some tropes I love

against all odds

altered states (of the mind)

amnesia

bodyswap

celebratory kiss

chosen family

coming out (of the closet)

curtainfic

epistolary

fake relationship

first time / last time

food and cooking

fork in the road

futurefic

genderswap (eg: as in, Outlander’s Jamie was born female, while Claire was born male)

handcuffed / bound together

huddle for warmth / bed sharing

immortality / reincarnation

in Another Man’s Shoes

meet the parents / family

presumed dead

reunion

road trip

role reversal

soulmates

telepathy / mindmeld

time travel

trapped in a dream

twenty-four hours to live

unexpected friendship

unrequited (but actually requited) love / pining

Deal with the Devil

Hurt/comfort

Art initiates life

Perspective flip

Happy ending

fluff

Do Not Wants

BDSM, dom/sub

A/B/O

non-canonical rape and/or dubious consent

canon-inappropriate violence/gore

Infidelity (with RPF, I’m happy for real-life families to be excised completely in order to avoid this - a spouseless AU, I guess)

Relationships with huge power imbalances and/or where one partner is left unsatisifed emotionally and/or sexually (please see my Star Wars Prequel Trilogy request below for an example of the former).

The Fandoms

Outlander (TV) Claire Beauchamp/Jaime Fraser

I just love this show! Time travel has always been one of those tropes I can’t get enough of (see list above), and I love that Claire and Jamie came to this relationship with strengths and weaknesses that compliment each other. Do I love the fact Jamie is a complete, wish-fulfillment fantasy of Incredibly Hot SNAG With Great Abs Who Is Damaged But Strong And Loves You For Who You Are? Damn right I do!

I’d love to see some romance between these two - both angst and/or smut work for me! Especially as a female viewer, I love the fact that Jamie is always so keen to make sure that Claire enjoys their lovemaking. I also like how he’s equally as naked as Claire is onscreen. Feminism for the Win!

Life on Mars (UK TV) Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt

Again, I just love time travel as a trope! Especially when it’s done well. Am I open to an interpretation of the canon wherein Sam doesn’t actually wake from his coma (after somehow having life-saving brain surgery without any of his hair having to be removed), only to throw himself off a building to get back to his fever dream? Damn right!

I’d love to see some Sam/Gene slash, if you’re up for writing it, please. I think Sam is an expert at repressing his emotions, for the most part, but I think Gene is ever better at it, burying everything under that gruff exterior. I’d love to see a moment (or however many you’d like!) wherein Sam is offered a glimpse into the man underneath Gene’s tough exterior.

Terminator/Terminator 2: Judgement Day/Terminator: Genisys (1984/1991/2015) Kyle Reese/Sarah Connor; Sarah Connor/Kyle Reese & John Connor; Sarah Connor & John Connor; Kyle Reese & John Connor; John Connor & The Terminator (T2); Sarah Connor & Kyle Reese & Pops (Genisys).

Yes, more time travel! Boy, I really do love this trope, don’t I?

I love any iteration of Kyle and Sarah, to be honest, and was always sad that their original iterations in Terminator (1984) only had such a short period of time together. Damnit, did Kyle really have to die?!

So, even though Genisys was infuriating in how it didn’t explain who or what sent Pops back in time, I’m glad that Sarah and Kyle have more time together now. I’d love to see some Sarah/Kyle shipfic (set in either the original films or Genisys, or both, or a mix of the two), or some fic wherein their relationships with Pops (in Genisys) or John (in either the original timeline, Genisys when John is either an adult or a child, or a mix of the two timelines) are explored.

I also really love the bond between the reprogrammed T-800 Terminator sent back in time and Edward Furlong!John Connor in T2, so would love to see some genfic featuring them, either during the events of the film (or in some missing scenes), or a “what if?” fic wherein the T-800 survives thew events of the film.

Jessica Jones (TV) Jessica Jones/Trish Walker; Jessica Jones & Trish Walker & Malcolm Ducasse

I love Jess and Trish’s bond! I love them as literal found/chosen family BFFs and I’m also happy with them as full-on romantic life partners.

I just loved the fact that two strong women were the centre of a TV series where men were certainly featured, but neither Jess’s relationship with Luke nor Trish’s relationship with Simpson were the main focus. Whole episodes went by where these relationships weren’t even mentioned.

Jess and Trish’s bond was very much front and centre: Trish is the only person Jess trusts. What was their childhood like together? Does Jess move back in to Trish’s place? How did the girls first become close? It’s obvious Trish helped Jess recover from her trauma with Kilgrave: what went on there? How do the girls help each other after Kilgrave is killed?

I also really love Malcolm’s character, and how he is there to help Jess answer her calling to be the amazing person she is and helping people, even when her own strength is at a low ebb. Just as she was with him. How do these three go forth as a little family and with Jess’s PI business after the end of the first series?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid RPF/Post-Classical Hollywood RPF Robert Redford/Paul Newman; Robert Redford & Paul Newman

Do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes. And the chemistry between Robert Redford and Paul Newman has a hell of a lot to do with my love of these films. If only they’d made more movies together!

I love that these guys were BFFs in real life, too, but do I ship them? Damn right! I’d love to see some romantic slash between these two, but genfic with them as chosen family besties would also be good. What did they get up to on the sets of their films? How did they first become close friends? When did they first fall in love?

I’d be thrilled with anything you come up with! As above, please feel free to consider your story a wifeless/familyless AU if you’re writing slash.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Butch Cassidy/the Sundance Kid

As above, do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes. 

I’d love to see anything at all with these two characters, including a fix-it where they actually survive the end of the film (with or without injury), or something with them from before the film’s events. How did they meet? How did they get together? When did each know they would be stuck to the other man’s side for the long haul?

The Sting (1973) Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker

Do I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting waaaaay too much? Oh, yes.

As with Butch and Sundance, I’d love to see anything with these two characters, especially to see what they get up to after the film’s events. 

Do they stay together as conmen? Do they get together? How do they get together? Do they play a lot of cards and sit around an drink a lot of alcohol or do they just get rich swindling bad guys and buy their own private island?

Are they in fact reincarnations of Butch and Sundance? Do they realise or not realise this? Does one know and the other doesn’t? Was Henry Sundance the last time around, and Johnny was Butch Cassidy? Is this why Henry has the moustache this time? Do they go and see a movie or read a book about Butch and Sundance?

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy Obi-Wan Kenobi/Qui-Gon Jinn

Oh, these two! I have loved this ship for a very long time indeed. I was about 11 or 12 when this movie first came out (*gigglesnort*), and actually saw it with my grandmother of all people, so I couldn’t quite work out why I was so teary when Qui-Gon died in Obi-Wan’s arms, gently touching Obi-Wan’s face. 

Even at that age, I knew the film was sub-par. I knew that Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor (as well as the rest of the cast and crew) were gracing the script with talent and effort it didn’t deserve. I knew Neeson and McGregor were bringing a depth to that relationship that the script couldn’t by itself. I was also yet to discover slash, so I wasn’t sure if I should feel a bit guilty for assuming these two men were in love. But I sensed the characters loved each other deeply, even if they hadn’t had a chance to act upon those feelings, or even fully realise them, especially as Obi-Wan was so young and Qui-Gon’s life was cut senselessly short.

Neeson’s Qui-Gon also seemed very honourable, and therefore really didn’t seem the type of person to act upon an attraction wherein he held all the power and authority in the relationship in question. But I did wonder if Qui-Gon would accept Obi-Wan’s advances once Obi-Wan was no longer his padawan. And if Qui-Gon gently, lovingly stroking Obi-Wan’s face as he was dying in Obi-Wan’s arms, and entrusting him with what Qui-Gon saw as an essentially important mission (to save and train Anakin to be a Jedi) for the fate of the universe, showed the true depth of Qui-Gon’s feelings for his padawan. 

Qui-Gon evidently believed in Obi-Wan’s strengths and abilities as a Jedi and as a honourable man. He evidently loved him, too: Qui-Gon died battling Darth Maul, fighting at Obi-Wan’s side, watching his back. And those feelings were obviously returned: Obi-Wan was devastated by Qui-Gon’s death, and went after Maul in a fit of rage in revenge. He also took on the training of Anakin, and one has to wonder if Obi-Wan’s grief blinded him to Anakin’s troubles.

So I would love to see a fix-it where Qui-Gon survives (injured or not) the end of Episode I, and he and Obi-Wan have more time together. I would request that they not become lovers until Obi-Wan is no longer Qui-Gon’s padawan, though, please: any abuse of power in relationships (even if padawan!Obi-Wan is head over heels for Qui-Gon) is an major DNW of mine.

Thank you so much! :-)