#the other was rise of skywalker

[kindred-spirit-93]

you seem cool

omg howd you know? im wearing a long black cardigan and i feel like kylo ren hehe *deep voice* "i killed snoke." XD

[tossawary]

I was thinking about Fandom's Darlings recently because I encountered another case of "Yes, Your Ship Has Become Canon But At What Cost???" in the wild. Which is a mouthful, but I don't have a snappier name for these events in fandom yet.

It's when two characters get together in a story, but... their characterizations get destroyed in the process because the writers apparently 1) can't write solid romance (it's a specific skill!) and 2) also can't fit that romance into the broader story. Often, all of the supporting characters surrounding this shiny couple will ALSO suffer severe characterization damage to make this romance happen. And sometimes the larger plot and even the worldbuilding will also take hard structural hits so the story can focus on this GREAT PASSION that frankly just isn't... executed well.

Like, if a ship I dislike becomes canon, that's one thing, but if the writing for it isn't even semi-competent, that's worse!!! And the really insufferable part is actually the shippers who are not only popping bottles because their ship went canon, but will mock everyone who complains about the bad writing (or tries to earnestly analyze why exactly this conclusion sucks) as "bitter sore losers". I mean, the characters you profess to love have been turned into empty shells of themselves, the canonical partnership here is about as shallow as a puddle, and the integrity of this entire fictional world is on fire, but sure, you "won" this ship war. Congrats.

There is nothing else to do but move on, it's definitely not worth getting into it with anyone. But it REALLY sucks if you actually liked either of the characters involved or maybe even liked the ship itself, because then it's like... "I have been given an enormous cake, but it has been Poisoned. I cannot eat this, for I would choke on it. I have been Betrayed In A Fashion Most Vile." But everyone still sitting at the table tells you that you ought to be happy! At least you got some cake!

[wandalives]

This story happened a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it.

[jonathanrogersartist]

Anyone else irritated by how both the lovers and haters of The Last Jedi seem to totally miss the point of the ending of Luke's storyline in that film? Haters ignore that Luke redeems himself for his mistakes and goes out with an epic final act that reaffirms the value of mythic stories and why we need heroes, and thus is an explicitly pro-Jedi moral. So Luke's whole story is about him rejecting the cynicism of old age and failure, and snaps out of that insufferable attitude that tries to paint all sides as equally bastardly. It's a story about WHY the fundamental ethos of Star Wars, the dichotomy of genuine good vs absolute evil represented by the Jedi as avatars of ultimate love, and the Sith/Snoke/Whatever as avatars of ultimate hate, is eternally relevant and something we need for spiritual nourishment during dark times. And.... the lovers ignore this too. They tend to latch onto Luke's bitter words from earlier in the movie about how the Jedi were a corrupt and hypocritical institution that needs to end. These kinds of people are passionately anti-Jedi, and LOOOOOOOOOOVE that for a few minutes, a canon SW movie was saying that they all suck. They also unironically take Kylo Ren's 'let the past die' mantra at face value and think that THIS is the moral of that movie. They look at the messages of past Star Wars with a kind of preening disgust, seeing it as childish and one-note at best, damaging and corrupting for society at large, at worst. It is what I'm going to call 'Knight Templar Syndrome.' I speculate that they think old things are automatically dumb or ignorant or worthless, and can only see it through the lens of 'how can I make this so irredeemably problematic in my brain, so that my rejection of it is therefore morally right, and makes me feel like a great person?' So of course, the Jedi as a representation of the wisdom and value of certain 'traditions' were doomed to be targeted by such transparently performative people. And for the first two hours of TLJ, these fans were having the time of their fuckin life. I am also pretty sure I've seen some posts where they take Yoda's words at the burning tree extremely literally, and think that entire scene is also about the need to destroy the past (the literal burning imagery does kinda give this impression at face-value, to be fair), and that Yoda's advice to Luke is "Move forward and never look back," when he is ACTUALLY saying "Move forward with all that you have learned, the good and bad, and make sure the good parts live on." It's little wonder then, that TLJ diehards are completely convinced that Rise of Skywalker ignored/insulted/changed everything about their darling. If they thought Last Jedi was about the need for an ideological scorched-earth, only to then watch Rise be about the reconciliation of the past with the future, then yup, their vicious reaction to it, rife with conspiracy theories, demonization of JJ and Terrio, etc. makes sense.

[thedynamicworm]

if there’s one thing Star Wars has taught us it’s that no one dies from being thrown down a reactor shaft anymore

[corellianhounds]

The Last Jedi AU: Ignore whatever’s supposed to happen or where people are in this movie. Paige Tico is foiled in her attempt to release the bombs that would take out the First Order ship. Her ship is boarded and she’s taken onboard the Star Destroyer as a captive intelligence officer, but before she’s captured she’s able to relay a covert message to Rose telling her what happened.

Instead of the diversion to Canto Bight, Rose is the one with the knowledge of splicing into Imperial ships and she and Finn impulsively plan to jet over to the Star Destroyer in an escape pod Rose had been experimenting with a cloaking device on, the two of them breaking in on their own.

Finn finds Poe to tell him of Paige’s capture and his and Rose’s plan. Poe knows that he can’t condone or contribute resources to it and knows for a FACT Leia won’t allow it, despite the fact Paige is a friend and the same rank he is. He’s torn between getting her back but needing to stay and lead, so he he tells them to take BB-8 and does that Mr. Incredible thing where he tells Finn and Rose what “NOT” to do to get into an Imperial flagship, him planning the distraction from the outside and still screwing with Hux over the comms and keeping eyes turned his way as Finn and Rose sneak onboard to find Paige.

Can you imagine if like they manage to get into some labs while they’re doing recon and Finn senses something? Can you imagine him hesitating as they move, telling Rose they have to go back while she’s hissing for him to keep moving? Her either hacking into the tech to redirect First Order troops away from their location, or going off to find her sister herself while Finn stays behind? Finn finding schematics and draftings alongside old codexes and scrolls before eventually coming to the humming, fractured kyber crystal in the next room, hanging suspended in midair above the equipment? Realizing as he’s digging through the odd mix of both scientific and semi-magical texts what it’s for, but that Ren hasn’t been able to force it to conform to his needs, too unstable to be housed even in his own lightsaber? Finn starting to configure and piece things together even as Rose tells him they’re running out of time?

As they’re sneaking around, gathering pertinent information to the plot and finding Ren’s plans for Rey and Skywalker, they’re nearly caught— Surrounded by First Order troops and with seemingly no way out, Rose and Finn prepare for the worst, when all of a sudden one of the troops goes rogue and eliminates all of their fellow officers instead. Paige Tico managed to escape and had disguised herself, just happening to be lucky enough to run into them in the lower levels. Paige tells them of some of the other rebel prisoners aboard the ship she was planning to break out, and the three of them, finally united, start plotting their means off Ren’s flagship when they overhear Hux in the corridor talking about Ren meditating in some inner sanctum with an order to be left alone with his own retinue on pain of death as he searches the Force or whatever for the location of Rey and Skywalker

Back onboard the New Republic ship Poe and Leia confer with the other generals as to what the Sith’s next move is going to be when they receive an incoming transmission from Kylo Ren himself.

As Kylo Ren and Leia Organa face off in what was to be their last confrontation, the tone and gravitas of their conversation somber, something flickers over the feed, and everybody on the New Republic ship’s bridge sees a blinding arc of light as one of the First Order troops behind Ren steps out of line and carves a blade of shimmering green in a downward arc directly behind him.

Outraged and caught off guard, Ren blocks the attack with his own blade, both lightsabers flickering with different energies, and as Finn’s voice shouts over the holo Poe realizes that not only has Finn given them an opening to hit Ren’s flagship, he may have even been able to stop this war in its tracks.

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

Star Wars really moved from "here's a brand new set of characters who were actually suuuper important in the death of the Empire but you just never heard of em before." Rebels, Freemaker, Rogue One, etc to "here's characters you HAVE seen before but now they're looking for a map!" Ahsoka, Survivor, TRoS, you get the idea.

[lukedjarinsblog]

not to be that person but for some reasons I will always feel like we don't have enough of luke skywalker and is kind of sad

[beskad]

so i rarely have the spoons to actually Write Actual Fic™ these days

BUT

if anyone wants to just talk FinnPoe (canon or between movies or AUs or whatever else) pleaaaaase slide into my DMs

[knightotoc]

"D-0's personality is my dog. His name is George. My other dog is Charles, whose life has been totally fine. But George had a really rough life at a shelter in Arkansas. So he literally repeats everything Charles does. He just follows him around. When I found George, he had a chain around his neck and was outdoors, soaking wet in the rain. And he didn't even know how to accept kindness. When they find D-0 aboard Ochi's ship, he's like that. Then he comes out and wants to imitate everything that his big brother BB-8 does."

-- Chris Terrio, The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

[orienteddreamerrr]

Made this video awhile back in 2022...you can look at it if you want...click/tap the "Watch on YouTube" link to read the description though...

[lorekeeper-backset]

YouTube stop putting Rise of Skywalker Video Essays in my reccomended I literally could not care less.

[bookishfeylin]

On finnrey. Tbh I'm not a big SW fan (tho im still planning to watch the original trilogy cuz IK it's amazing), but my fam is and when TFA first released I was forced to go with my dad (don't remember why, just was). By the end a small part of me shipped Finnrey and was certain they'd be a thing. wasn't forced to attend the other 2 films, but from a YTer I learned of crazy Reylo fans and was so confused. Finnrey should be the main couple, not whatever the fuck Reylo is. Vent over lol

Oh, anon you're bringing back memoriesssssssssss

So I got into Star Wars in 2016 exclusively for the sequel trilogy because I heard there was a Black lead. I watched episodes 1-6 in order and LOVED the originals, though I wasn't too impressed with the prequels at the time.

TFA was already out, so after watching it I became a sequel stan waiting eagerly for TLJ, specifically for Finn, and I remember seeing fanart on Pinterest, clicking the link, and being brought to tumblr and discovering this website for the first time years before I actually made an account. I used to browse just for Finn fanart, Rey fanart, fanfiction... it was nice. But I remember there was a bit of Finn hate here and on reddit I didn't understand and some posts about how he was abusive and Kylo Ren was not and was healthier for Rey, and teenage me didn't truly get that at the time. I didn't truly flag it as racism (namely, people jumping to stick Finn with the "dangerous violent Black man" label) but it was big red flag for what was going to happen. TLJ came out, and I was disappointed that Finn was pushed aside for Kylo Ren. I came for the sequels because of the Black lead, not for the white villain. Why should I care about the emotions of a white space neonazi? But things got... so much worse. I remember Reylos calling Finn a coal boy. A dog. A monkey. The actor, John Boyega, spent years being harassed for "getting in the way" of their ship (and he'd already dealt with harassment earlier for having the audacity to be a Black male playing a lead in a big franchise, so this just added to that). Of course, when the actor received harassment in real life and the Reylos started calling the character a monkey, I knew by then it was racism, and I kind of just... stopped poking around on tumblr, Reddit, and even pinterest for sequel trilogy content. One of the people I remember calling out this behavior before I disengaged fully was @diversehighfantasy (check out her blog from the years Star Wars was coming out, from 2015-2019. She talked about the fandom's racism all the time) and she warned that unless fandom positively engaged with Finn more, his character would continue to be minimized as Disney, like all companies, is only after money and will promote whichever characters will bring in the most revenue. But white people (mainly, Reylos) didn't listen. And ofc, Finn was demoted even more in TROS.

Racist Reylos aside, I'd grown disillusioned with the sequel trilogy because, for all the prequel trilogy's weaknesses, it was very strong thematically, and I'd grown to love it for how it complemented the original trilogy. The original trilogy is amazing, but the prequels enhance the originals because the themes of the originals are truly compounded by knowing the full story, the full stakes, and Anakin's fleshed out character as revealed in the prequels. (I also watched The Clone Wars show which was AMAZING, and though I now prefer the prequels to the Clone Wars, the show played a great part in making me love the prequel era worldbuilding and characters and whatnot). The prequels and originals tell a full tale, and so between TLJ's release and TROS I was already feeling... iffy about the sequels walking back on that and the sequels essentially being a poorly made copy of the originals. When TROS came out and the movie completely sidelined Finn, the Black lead we were promised, to shove in a redemption for the white man who'd brutalized him and Rey over and over, and it spat on the face of the entire POINT of the prequels+original trilogy by, uh, having Rey do the thing she does (no spoilers :) ) instead of Anakin having fully completed the job in Return of the Jedi, I fully noped out.

The racists (both the Reylos and the people before them who freaked out over John Boyega having the audacity to be Black and exist in the Star Wars universe) got what they wanted--the white man took center stage, and the "dog", the "coal boy", the "monkey", was sidelined. And the themes of Star Wars and the entire point of the first 6 movies were utterly destroyed, with a variety of retcons and changes in the worldbuilding along the way (and if y'all know me by now you know I DESPISE retcons of any kind).

So for my own sanity, the sequels do not exist. Finn wasn't treated like that. The themes of the first 6 movies weren't walked back on and absolutely trashed as they were. Reylo is not thing, the racists didn't win, and life is good. It was basically an exercise in how I'd treat ACOMAF and all the other books after ACOTAR--they do not exist until I have to honestly critique them.

And frankly I could do it easier here and not for ACOTAR because they weren't technically made by the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, so the sequels are essentially glorified fanfiction anyway.

Anyway: good on you for avoiding the mess the sequel trilogy ultimately became. I wish I could say the same :)

[darkside-skyguy]

no nope not interested unless they bring back Ben Solo

[arwcn]

the force: oooooooh leeeia it’s meeee the foooooorce… girl if you become a jedi your son will diiiiieeeee!!!

leia: guess i won’t be a jedi then

the force: wait did i mention he dies no matter what you do? oh fuck she hung up

[marinersubmariner]