#the princess and the peasant

[dapper-lil-arts]

One of my favorite scenes i've ever written lmao, from "The Princess and the Peasant"

I seriously strongly recommend reading this if you're a fan of Rarijack like me. It's got action, romance, comedy, drama, all of the above and more; It's a three course meal and also the whole fucking menu

[deathbypufferfish]

Paloma the peasant, putrid and cunning

[compaculaaa]

How the Prime siblings got their names (from Uncle Kup!!!)

[oxventure-text-posts]

[david-talks-sw]

What "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) tells us about the Jedi's status in the Prequels.

In 1999, George Lucas had this to say on BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of "Star Wars" and then The Phantom Menace's director's commentary.

“I greatly admired Kurosawa, especially the film Hidden Fortress, which told a story from the point of view of two serfs, two slaves...

... peasants who tag along with this famous general and a princess-- y'know, royalty. And the whole story is told from their point of view. And I like that idea. I like the idea of telling a story from the lowest person's point of view, uh, in the food chain, and that's how the story got to be told by Artoo and Threepio.”

“[The Phantom Menace] is told primarily from the Jedi's point of view, but the story that's being told is essentially the story of Queen Amidala and her plight of having her planet blockaded. As in, say, Episode IV, where the story is told through the eyes of the droids, in this one, it's told through the eyes of the Jedi.”

“But [from the moment we get to Coruscant, Anakin and Jar Jar] are standing on the sidelines. It's a little bit a riff on the very first film where the story is told through the point of view of the droids, who were sort of the lowliest characters.”

“And in [Phantom Menace], I'm doing it through - primarily - the two Jedi, but then the secondary characters are also carrying a lot of the weight when the Jedi aren't around.”

George Lucas draws a comparison between lowly characters like Hidden Fortress' peasants Matashichi and Tahei, the droids in A New Hope, as well as the Jedi in The Phantom Menace.

What do they all have in common? They are all the lowest-ranking characters in their respective films. Repeat: the movie frames the Jedi as almost at the bottom of the food chain.

Because of course they are. Functionally, they're just diplomats. They hold no political power whatsoever and barely have any authority .

What little authority the Jedi do have in TPM comes from the Queen's young age, which allows them to ease into a more advisory position, and Qui-Gon's rebellious streak. And even he's explicit about the fact that his mandate has limitations.

The only characters "below" them in status are Jar Jar, an exiled Gungan, and Anakin, who just yesterday was still a slave kid, Artoo the literal object and that's it!

Also the other Prequel films are consistent with this portrayal. Who do we see lower in status than the Jedi? Dexxter Jettster and the clones. Everyone else is pretty much above them.

Yes, the Jedi are part of the system, but they're not as high-ranking as you'd think. Yes, they have Force Powers, but that means squat when put against political power. So, like, to expect the Jedi to...

influence the decisions of the Senate,

wage a war against the Outer Rim to end slavery,

or blatantly refuse an order to join the war effort,

... is incredibly unreasonable.

They're not meant to be seen as "the elite, peering down upon the people from their ivory tower".

They're the servants! Servants of the Republic.

And they're seeing their higher-ups destroy what they should all stand for, but are unable to stop them.

Later on, with The Clone Wars, we are introduced to civilian characters and from their point of view, the Jedi are ultra powerful and are highly placed and "should do more but don't".

It makes sense that these characters would see the Jedi as 'the elite'. But they don't have the full picture.

We, as the audience, do.

So we know that the reality is more along the lines of the Jedi "should do more but can't".

After all, we are made privy many instances of the Jedi speaking up and trying to change politicians' minds, only to be dismissed and overruled at every turn.

↑ these aren't even all the times we see it happen, btw, there's more examples...

So at some point, if you - as an audience member - see all this and are still saying "the Jedi should've done more!" I really need to know... what more could they have done?

Take control of the Senate?

That'll result in a dictatorship, there's a reason they waited as much as they did before trying to take down Palpatine.

Power corrupts and they're wise enough to know it.

Don't join the Republic in the first place?

George Lucas never frames the Jedi's involvement with the Republic as a bad thing. In the foreword to Shatterpoint (2004), he says their being part of the Republic led to 1,000 years of prosperity.

Where's the issue, then? Well, it's a two-man job and the Jedi's bosses, the Senate, grew corrupt and stopped doing their part. They stopped carrying their end of the couch.

But “no Jedi in the Republic from the get-go” means the Sith will rise to power even faster. Fun!

Stay neutral in the war?

The Separatists were killing civilians and testing weapons on neutral systems, or enslaving them.

The choice put before the Jedi was "do what we tell you and fight, or let people die".

But also, out-of-universe... do you really think Palpatine, genius politician, master of spin, can't re-frame the Jedi staying neutral in a negative light?

When they joined the war, he unleashed propaganda that either directly (on the Separatist side) or indirectly (on the Republic side) framed them as "warmongers who corrupted their values". If they don't join, they're "apathetic cowards who care more about their own values than the lives of the people they're supposed to protect".

So either way, Order 66 comes around, wipes them out and the Republic goes "good riddance".

So what else could they do?

The answer is "not much".

Because the whole point of the narrative is that Palpatine checkmated them by taking the fight to a field the Jedi had no experience in or right to meddle with: politics.

So if you look at these characters who are nowhere near the top of the food chain, and say "well, why didn't they fix things?" I'm sorry to say you're missing the point of the narrative.

Or maybe you do get the point of the narrative and just aren't trying to be fair...

... in which case, at least be consistent and also argue:

"Why didn't Threepio & Artoo do more to save the Rebel crew of the Tantive IV from the stormtrooopers?!"

"Why didn't Matashichi & Tahei do more to save the Akizuki clan?!"

[conceived-angel]

flaws and all x sydcarmy

[oh-shtars]

@wings-of-sapphire/@signed-sapphire

Saph, istg-

The RFTS! and TFS!Au are such polar opposites from each other, that’s it’s becoming beyond hilarious. Drawing their interactions is comedy gold.

Our AUs are definitely going to be besties at this rate-

[snobgoblin]

HEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEHHHEHEHHEHEH

[grunchiecat]

medieval grunchies

[mint-ty]

Bc we're going through memory lane of Nordic Tour (thank you Mark for nothing), I checked my screenshots from that week and this one made me laugh.

Kris doing fan quizzes and sharing the result. Are you really sure you were the mood of the party tho??

[wildsaltair]

imagine being married to Maximus Decimus Meridius (the most wonderful man in the world), and after your death he’s still so devoted to your memory that he (1) turns down any offers of other women including prostitutes and the literal princess of Rome once he becomes a celebrity, (2) spends his nights whispering to you in the afterlife, and (3) only wants to die so he can be with you again. like how am I ever supposed to be satisfied with anyone in real life

[twinklecupcake]

The girl was crying.

MK and Mei shared a distressed look. They hadn't expected her to cry.

Mei inclined her head slightly towards the girl.. MK gave a slight nod. Then, in synchronicity, they approached the counter to sit on either side of her.

"Hey," MK began, which made the teenager jump. She wiped her eyes, sniffed loudly, and shoved something back into her dress pocket. "You okay?"

"'m okay," she said thickly.

"Red Boy doesn't mean it," Mei tried to console her. "Wait, no, he does mean it - but that's just cuz he's a huge jerk! He calls everyone names, it's nothing personal, honest!"

The girl just nodded.

The older two felt bad. They hadn't known she'd be so sensitive.

She'd appeared out of nowhere three days ago. Literally, one second there was a normal street, and then the next second a girl who looked about fourteen had just appeared in mid-air. The fact she looked distressed when she appeared, and genuinely relieved when she saw MK and Mei, and her apparent age, told them she wasn't a threat.

But she was a time traveler. She'd come from the future, she explained. She couldn't tell them too much too fast, and she couldn't risk altering time too much, but she had sworn she had a good reason to be here.

If there was anything time travel movies had taught MK, it was that there was a dangerous foe in her own time and she needed help in the far past when the threat was weaker. Easy.

The foe clearly wasn't Red Son, he thought that day. The girl didn't look too shaken up to see him at the stadium. So it wasn't him. But her expression when he'd faced her and the "worthless peasant!" had come out… It had been devastation.

MK hit him extra hard.

"You're okay, right? He's just a jerk, that's all."

Chenguang nodded, blinking hard and wiping her eyes again. "Y-Yeah…"

[necroblossom]

she's just like me fr

[hanzajesthanza]

i’m excited for the prequel but i also have this nauseating feeling about reading geralt as a young man…

because it will make him feel more real and give him a life “before” everything. which will recontextualize “everything we know about him” into “everything that happens to him in the years leading up to his death” …

but it also makes me kind of happy because we know all of this love happened to him, even when he felt inferior and probably would not believe it…

like my guy. you are going to have the best friends and the best family… i know everyone seems to keep hating you and betraying you and kicking you and punching you and cursing at you and throwing rocks at you and spitting at you and muttering amongst themselves how much they fear you and screaming at you when you walk down the street but you are gonna be soooo beloved, trust me on this, it’s only twenty more years of being punched and kicked and slapped and sworn at and hated on and oh you also get kicked by a horse too and your knee also is fucked up and you also lose everything including your sword and several pints of blood but

[oxventure-text-posts]

I couldn't get a good shot of Ellen miming Cressida hitting Robin with her book, and I didn't wanna mash screenshots together

[fridayvelvet]

240923 ygj fanmeeting