#they wanna pick apart the jedi like of course there are mistakes and wrong doings

[auxxrat]

so sick and tired of the “jedi are an evil and abusive cult that steals children” as if half the reason they weren’t protecting these children is bc sith were out killing them or TURNING THEM INTO SITH. they weren’t even STEALING children to begin with I thought we all knew that was Palpatine’s game not Yoda’s.

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Music Meme

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch ! Thank you & sorry it took so long, didn’t have time to write this out before I left for holiday stuff so here we go! I shall tag: @actualanxiousswampwitch (go on give us another one XD), @a-muirehen​ , @kyber-heart​ , @thedinalixlegacy​ (no pressure as always, I know I’m kinda late now sksjkshskhs!) and anyone else who wants to do this, yes, I promise I mean you!

art is by @ ocellifera on deviantART! :D

Let’s do Aria this time, shall we! Since her playlist is the second-longest, and her and Vano’s ship playlist is the longest, we’ll have the most (probable options! Long post so goin’ under a cut. Additional TW’s for: drugs, alcohol, alcoholism, drug addiction and murder, in case I’ve forgotten to add it to the song-specific sections. If you click past this cut, know that this is what you may find there.

reminds you of them most: It was super hard to pick just three for hers, there were so many others I wanted to include here, but couldn’t, as I wanted to make sure I included songs that covered as much of her over-arching characterisation as I could. Honourable mentions to: Miss Jackson - Panic! At The Disco feat. LOLO, Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - Fall Out Boy, Beekeeper - Keaton Henson, and Bones Of A Rabbit - Young Heretics, which can all be found (and more) on her Spotify Playlist - catch-all warning for: sex, drugs, violence and murdering of parents applies here, be aware her playlist is very dark, just as dark as Rai’s but with differing subject matter, proceed with caution if you find anything like that triggering!)

You’re Going Down - Sick Puppies :: This one is kinda self-explanatory. I heard it on a Spotify or Youtube shuffle at some point a year or so ago and immediately went “Oh, hey Aria!” so onto her playlist it went XD “Because I'm hyped up out of control If it's a fight, I'm ready to go I wouldn't put my money on the other guy If you know what I know that I know.”  don’t mess with the Tiny Sith, guys, she will put you in the medbay. She’ll do it, she’s done it before ask Vano what happened to the last guy *nods*

Liar - The Arcadian Wild :: This is a relatively “new” song in comparison, which was sent to me by a good rp/writer friend on Discord (who afaik doesn’t have other socials!) that I often discuss plot points etc. with among other things, saying “hey this reminded me of Aria thought you’d like it!”. I listened to it and yep, sure enough, it’s an Aria song. A big part of Aria’s character is that at the start, she really is quite a bad person. She’s nasty, and cantankerous and she really doesn’t care about anybody except for herself (and maybe her dad. A tiny bit.), as things progress, however, while she is still inherently quite rude and selfish, she DOES learn to value other people...provided they are people she cares about, like Vano, and her friends, and so on,  as well as (sometimes, she’s working on it still) taking the blame for her own actions and learning it’s not “weak” or bad to a) admit you care about people, b) make mistakes and c) admit those mistakes and take responsibility for them. "I sense there’s trouble ahead, it’s clear by the signs and warnings. That should tell where all blame is due, So why are they pointing at MY head? [...] I sense deception to come. Honestly, truth and I are never one. 'Cause I am the lying man and I have made you my next victim. I need you to see through my act, to tell me I'm wrong, to take off the mask, or else I'll be left in the lie. And I'll deceive my way straight to demise! Cause I’m not in the right state of mind, I just wish I had strength to admit it. My stubbornness will put up a fight! But I don’t deserve to win it... I’m left in the dark, pondering my mistakes But in the light I swear I will, deny it all...” 

I didn’t mean to post like half the song but woops it’s done so have it anyway lmao

Brutus - The Buttress :: TW: intense violent imagery in the lyrics. This one is very relevant but contains spoilers for upcoming and as of yet unposted/incomplete chapters (as in...like 3 ish chapters time at most) of Creeping Shadows, so I’ll post this quote as “explanation” and let you theorize who it’s about

“My name is Brutus and my name means “heavy” So with a heavy heart I'll guide this dagger into the heart of my Enemy! My whole life you were a teacher and friend to me Please know my actions are not motivated only by envy I too have a destiny! This death will be art! The people will speak of this day from near and afar This event will be history, And I'll be great too! I don't want what you have, I wanna be you!!“

reminds another character of them:

Where’s My Love? - SYML :: (Vano) I think the acoustic version is especially emotional : ))) Vano looked for her for years but couldn’t find her and genuinely thought Aria was dead. You can understand why she was so fucking angry when she found out that was a lie...but at the same time, she just wanted her love to come home :( “Did she run away? Did she run away? I don't know If she ran away, If she ran away, Come back home Just come home“

Mothers - Daughter :: (Myla, her mother) “Love all you need to love before it goes... When your face becomes a stranger’s that I don’t know. You will never remember who I was to you [...] I’m called “mother”, but they’re called “home”.”

Myla raised Aria for the first few years of her life, and really wanted to keep her away from both the Jedi and the Sith but as it became more and more clear that Aria’s Force affinity was as strong as her father’s, the situation rapidly spiralled out of Myla’s control. She tried to hide Aria, but in the end her father Noctis did find them and take Aria to train with the Sith. She didn’t see her daughter again until she was a teenager, suddenly turning up with the task to kill her for treason against the Empire (Myla is not the canon Imp Agent, but follows the general trajectory of the LS!Agent storyline i.e. an agent disillusioned with the Empire who eventually defects to the Republic with the help of the SIS.). Though she’s a Senator on Onderon now, Myla carried a blaster for personal protection and ofc knows how to use it, except...she couldn’t shoot her own daughter and that was all she wrote. I imagine her thought process during her final moments went something like in this song, especially the bit that I highlighted up there.

reminds you of a relationship of theirs, doesn’t have to be romantic, can be paternal, friendly, etc:

Tongues & Teeth - The Crane Wives :: Aria & Vano (Romantic). Aria’s relationship with Vano is incredibly messy and complicated. On one hand, she knows Vano deserves better, but at the same time she doesn’t want her to go anywhere else and it seems like no matter what she does to try and “warn her off” about what a “bad person” she is, Vano keeps coming back anyway. Ergo, this song. "Oh, I will ruin you. I will ruin you. It’s a habit...I can’t help it. I know that you mean so well, but I am not a vessel for your good intent. I will only break your pretty things, I will only wring you dry of everything! But if you’re fine with that, if you’re fine with that [...] You can be mine.”

Colours - Halsey :: Aria & Merak & Ziri (Friendship/Platonic Love) “You’re only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope, I hope you make it to the day you’re 28 years old...”

Aria “coped” (i.e. not very well but she did it) with the guilt of killing her mother and the stress brought on by the night terrors by self-medicating with glitterstims (spice) and alcohol, and this is how Merak in particular remembers her. Though she got clean from spice after they picked up Ziri, she still continued to drink (and still does) quite heavily, though at least it’s easier to manage that habit. Both of them supported her through this the best they could and it’s probably a big reason (other than Merak being Vano’s little brother) that they’re still Aria’s friends to this day, even if she doesn’t actively travel with them anymore.

(honourable mention to Agnes - Glass Animals which also falls under this “category” but I didn’t want this to get too crowded lmao, it is once again a super long post woops) You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring :: Aria & Roan/Darth Noctis (Familial/Familial Love) Listen, he may have taught her very bad emotional habits and turned her into a tiny attack dog, but her father did love & protect her the best way he possibly could. He was very proud of her and always envisioned her taking his place as a Darth one day (and it takes her a longass while, but eventually she does! Congrats dad!). That’s all I’ve got to say about this one 🤷‍♀️ Monster - Willyecho :: Aria & Satele Shan/The Jedi Order (Enemies to Begrudging Respect (eventually) “I can see the truth. No, you don’t have to lie to me. Don’t fill your head with things and think you’re free~ [...] You don’t believe in monsters, do you~?” ”Of course not!” ”Well, I do...” See me change...into something...darker....” My personal favourite from this “round”. It’s not until Ilum that Satele and the Jedi finally realise they have not “converted” Aria as they thought they did, but rather...they’ve had a Sith hiding under their noses, a Sith related to a Dark Councillor well-known for murdering Jedi no less, and that perhaps...the “deaths” she had convinced them were accidental, were in fact, not an accident at all. 😈 Aria, of course, gets her ass thrown in jail for a few years for this lmao When the schtick with the Revanites happens and Theron needs someone who can “negotiate in a civil manner with Sith”, he and his mother agree Aria is the best bet - if it works, the Sith will respond more positively to her than any other Jedi, if they kill her instead then they’re “rid of” her and don’t lose one of their own - when Lana’s point-of-contact happens to be Vano and the pair reunite after another several years apart, Aria refuses to return to the Republic after Yavin IV. By then, she’s developed enough of a begrudging respect for Satele (and vice versa) that the Grand Master lets her go (not that she was willing to try and fight Vano, Ni’kasi, Marr & Lana to try and take Aria prisoner again anyways). They haven’t seen each other since and though Aria is neutral to the Jedi who have joined the Alliance, she doesn’t care for those who are still loyal to the Republic and would rather have nothing to do with them if she can help it.

[thefoodwiththedood]

So I’ve hinted at these guys a couple times in asks and stories, but I’m happy to say I finally got to drawing them! Meet Naj Kar and Anva Evis—powerful warriors, rebel sympathizers, star-crossed lovers, and the parents Cerate hardly got to know.

Pictured here is them when they lived as a pair of smugglers post-Order 66, in an effort to make some cash and distance themselves from their old Jedi identities—more on that in their backstory, though. I of course have to give props to @empress-only-in-name for helping me flesh out their designs a bit with this commission from forever ago—for the longest time I had no idea how these two would look but, with their help and a whole lot of experimenting, I think I finally have a concrete design for them with this one!

All told, I’m super happy with how these guys turned out, but what do you guys think? Do these designs look cool? Do you wanna see more from them? Should I have them come back as Force ghosts and teach Cer the ways of the Jedi order? Send whatever feedback you have my way! :D

Just as with all my OCs, their backstories are under the cut. Btw, Master Sko’dal, who’s mentioned briefly down there, belongs to @deer-head-xiris.

Naj Kar and Anva Evis were both born before the invasion of Naboo—Naj in 36 BBY, Anva in 37��to a Dathomiri witch and an Iridonian couple, respectively. Yet as would become the norm for the rest of their lives, any hope of normalcy was quickly ripped from them. Anva was discovered to be Force-sensitive as an infant, which in turn prompted the Jedi to come and take her away from her parents to their temple on Coruscant. There she was raised under the Jedi’s firm yet unloving hand, learning the ways of the Force and the Jedi code. When she turned thirteen, it was decided that she would enter the next stage of her training, and thus she was placed under the tutelage of the Kaleesh Jedi Master Vortys Banne. as his Padawan.

Naj, however, found himself in a far less hospitable home. He was also discovered to be Force-sensitive at a young age, but before either the Jedi or the Sith could get to him, he was taken by a far more malicious clan—the Hutts. One day, a convoy of Hutt clan slaver ships stopped on Dathomir to refuel, and while they were stopped they took the liberty of ransacking Naj’s village and enslaving many of its inhabitants. In the ensuing years, Naj would be separated from the others, and eventually he would find himself a slave to Marlo the Hutt on Nal Hutta. There, when he was still only a child, Naj was made to fight in gladiatorial combat, due to his species’ reputation as incredible warriors. Miraculously, Naj would survive these fights for years, on account of his natural strength and, of course, with a little subtle help from the Force.

And even more miraculously, it would be this use of the Force that would bring Naj and Anva together. It was 23 BBY—only a year before the start of the Clone Wars. Word had eventually got out that Marlo possessed a Force-sensitive gladiator, and eventually that word reached the Jedi order, who sent Master Banne and Padawan Evis to Nal Hutta to investigate the claims. Sure enough, Naj was fighting when they got there. It was the most surreal thing—a twelve year old boy, barely big enough to fill the armor he wore, putting down men twice his size like it was nothing. Not only that, but he was clearly using the Force, both to enhance his strength and physically move his opponents. Master Banne looked on the boy and saw a potential asset to the Order, but Anva saw past the boy’s strength and saw something else—he was scared. He didn’t want to fight.

After the fight, Banne got straight to negotiating with Marlo about buying the boy his freedom. While he did, Anva went and found Naj in his room—which was less of a room and more of a cell, really. He was a ghastly sight up close: malnourished, bruised and scarred, with striking black tattoos covering every inch of his carnelian-colored skin. When Anva tried to speak to him, he jumped out of fright and averted his gaze from hers. Just as Anva had suspected—the poor kid had learned to fear everyone new person he met. He’d never had a friend—only masters with whips and opponents with blades. Anva kept trying to talk, but it wasn’t until Naj got a good look at her that he started to break down his wall just a little bit. Evidently, meeting another Zabrak—and one as kind as Anva, at that—was just what he needed to feel comfortable. Soon enough, Naj was happy as a clam, and as he and Anva talked more they became fast friends. Why, Anva just couldn’t wait to be there with him as they both grew into powerful Jedi knights.

But, that vision didn’t exactly pan out. After freeing Naj and taking him back to Coruscant, Banne and Anva brought Naj before the council. There, they judged him, tested his midi-chlorian count and everything, but the conclusion they came to was more grim than anyone had hoped. Due to Naj being a member of a species heavily connected to the dark side, as well as being immersed in violence for his whole life, it was decided that Naj couldn’t and wouldn’t be trained as a Jedi. Banne and Anva protested, but they were ignored. Instead, it was decided that Naj would be kept at the temple for his own safety, but he could never be a Jedi. Anva was at first upset at this news, but with time she accepted what she’d been given, and over the next year she and Naj hung out in the temple whenever they could, with her training progressing all the while.

Then, the Clone Wars broke out. Padawan Anva became Commander Evis of the G.A.R., and she began to see her friend Naj less and less in favor of long military campaigns. Yet instead of growing apart, the two began to treat their little time together as sacred, with Anva spending nearly all of her time at the temple with Naj. They’d just spend hours talking—sometimes Anva would read to Naj, as he himself was illiterate, and sometimes the two would share Force tricks they’d picked up, but mostly they’d just talk. Naj would recount the events of his mundane Temple life, and Anva would vent about the stresses of war. In both cases, they talked of how alone they felt. How everyone saw them only as objects or weapons of war. How they felt stuck—isolated, even surrounded by masses of people. When they were together, though...they felt happy. They felt understood. Dare I say it, they felt loved.

Love is exactly what blossomed between them, too. It started out purely platonic, but soon enough things did get physical from time to time—they were teenagers, though, who could blame ‘em? Their few and far between meetings at the temple became secret trysts, known of only by them and a few close friends. They knew what they were doing was dangerous, but for better or worse, their love pushed them to risk it. Eventually, however, the risk came back to bite them. Somehow their secret got out, and word eventually made its way back to Master Banne, who promptly told the council of what had happened. In the ensuing debate about what was to be done next, it was concluded that Naj must have been the instigator of these heinous acts, as surely a padawan on the brink of becoming a knight couldn’t be so vulgar. It was decided, then—Naj Kar no longer had a place in the Jedi’s sanctum.

The next morning, Naj was confronted. Four temple guards came to his door, expecting him to lash out, but Naj already knew what was to come, and so he went quietly with them to the chamber of judgement. There, he was judged by a panel of masters, with Master Banne and a few others also being present. It wasn’t much of a deliberation, though—everyone had already come to an agreement. Before they could deliver their final verdict, however, Anva burst into the chamber, visibly frantic and clearly out-for-blood. Thinking she’d arrived to deliver further evidence against Naj, the council permitted her to speak.

That was their second mistake—their first mistake was ever wronging Anva Evis. With her soapbox conveniently set, Anva proceeded to tear into the Jedi, letting loose all her frustration into one impassioned speech. She berated the Jedi for their hypocrisy; they had become an order of mercenaries serving the dark side, killers in a pointless war, enemies of peace and allies of violence—and they had the audacity to punish an innocent man just for feeling love? She was far less articulated than I put it, though—at one point, when Master Yoda tried to refute her claims, she silenced him by saying, and I quote, “suck my dick, you crusty little goblin”. Vulgar as her speech was, though, its meaning reigned true—the Jedi had no right to punish neither she nor Naj, and she would tolerate their rules no longer. She closed her speech by ripping out her padawan braid, mashing it into the ground with her boot, taking Naj’s hands, and telling the council that, “if loving Naj isn’t the Jedi way, then the Jedi way isn’t my way”. She then pulled him in for a impassioned kiss, and after it was broken she said, “now that is my way”.

The room went silent for a moment—save for Master Sko’dal uttering a half impressed/half shocked “holy shit” under their breath, no one said a word. Finally, after snapping back to reality, Yoda simply furrowed his brow and pointed towards the exit, without another word. Anva responded by flipping him the bird, and as she did, Naj swept her off her feet and bridal-carried her out of the chamber. The two couldn’t help but smile, then laugh at the whole ordeal. Sure, they’d burnt every bridge they’d ever built in one fell swoop, but now they were free to go and do as they pleased—and they’d never felt happier. It was the most surreal thing, them walking out of the temple; they marched out like a bride and groom walking down the aisle, but no one dared cheer for them, lest they face similar banishment. The two were alone, for real this time—but they were alone together.

In the coming days the Republic and the Jedi order would fall, but Anva and Naj were far too long gone to even pay any mind to it. For the next few years, the two would travel the galaxy together, making end’s meet as smugglers with a worn-out old quadjumper and a whole lot of luck. They’d spend most of their days working as smugglers, but they did take days off every once in a while to visit old Jedi friends (ones who weren’t dead yet, anyway) or, when they had some extra credits, go on modest little date nights. It wasn’t a glorious life, sure, but for all the things they didn’t have, they at least had each other.

Soon enough, though, they had someone else along for the ride. Three years after leaving the Order, Anva found that she was pregnant. Though she and Naj both agreed their lifestyle wasn’t ideal for a kid to grow up in, they decided that, like they had in the past, they’d just jump in head-first and hope for the best. Thus, in 16 BBY, Anva had the baby in the back of the quadjumper, with the help of a borrowed medical droid and Naj—they couldn’t exactly go to a hospital, what with them being fugitives and all. They’d decided earlier that, if it was a boy, Anva would get to name him Cerate, and if it was a girl, Naj would get to name her Stella, with the baby taking the last name of whomever won as well. Sure enough, he was a boy, so they decided on the name Cerate Aster Evis—funny enough, though, it wasn’t until he said the name out loud that Naj got the “eviscerate” pun. Anva figured that, if he was going to take her last name, he might as well have some kind of callback to his Nightbrother side.

So for the next four years, Anva and Naj would try their best to raise Cer while also juggling their job as smugglers, going so far as to keep him in the cockpit with them while they worked. Despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, Anva and Naj actually made great parents—they always made sure he had time with both of them, they never let work get in the way of raising him, and they protected him from anything and anyone that would try to harm him. They realized, though, that the last point would only get harder as he grew up; as early as a year old, Cer started showing signs of Force sensitivity. Anva and Naj both knew from their own lives how Force-sensitive children tend to get kidnapped, but nevertheless, they did everything they possibly could have to keep their son safe and hidden.

But it would only work for so long—soon enough, the Sith would find out about Cer. One day, Anva and Naj were contacted about what they thought was a lucrative job opportunity, and seeing as they were low on cash, they naturally took it. When they went to the meeting place their client had specified, though, they were met with something far worse: a hulking figure clad in black armor, wielding a lightsaber. It was an Inquisitor; Anva and Naj had heard about them from their still-living Jedi friends, but they’d never seen one in person. Anva’s first instinct was to reach for her own saber-pike—she’d still kept it retracted on her belt, after all these years—but she decided it would be better to wait before exposing her and Naj. The two silently agreed to play dumb, then, but when the Inquisitor spoke, their hearts sank. She wasn’t after them, she said—she wanted Cer.

When Anva and Naj protested, the Inquisitor ignited her saber and, rather than use it right away, demanded once more that they hand him over. She stepped toward the ship, but before she could get closer, Anva quickly pulled out her saber and sliced off the inquisitor’s outstretched hand in one fell swoop. With a stern voice masking blazing fury, Anva stated, “Stay the hell away from my family”. Yet what the Inquisitor did next replaced all of Anva’s fury with fear—from the stump on her arm, blue and purple tendrils shot out and grabbed the severed hand, pulling it back into place. The Inquisitor inspected the hand briefly, and as she did, Anva realized what she was. She was a Gen’Dai—an alien that, as far as she knew, could never be killed. She wouldn’t be able to win this fight. The best she could do is slow her down but, in the end, there was no way out of this.

Instantly, Anva pulled Naj back into the ship and shut the door. She knew it wouldn’t hold, but it was the best she could think of. All the commotion had woken up a then-sleeping Cer, and he and Naj both stared up at Anva with looks of confusion. Anva didn’t want to say what she had to but, with a heavy heart, she began. She told Naj he needed to run—he needed to take Cer, and find a safe place for him to stay. While he did, Anva would hold the Inquisitor off—fight her as long as she could, just to give Naj and Cer as much time as possible. Naj, of course, protested—he said they could escape together, that he could help Anva fight, but they both knew there was no other way. Finally, after a brief shouting-match-turned-fit-of-tears, Naj agreed. The two tried to maintain their composure for a second, but when Cer asked if everything was okay, they instantly lost it. Not knowing what else to do, Anva and Naj pulled Cer into one last big embrace, telling him that everything would be okay.

Finally, after working up her courage for a moment, Anva stepped out of the ship. She smiled back at Naj and Cer one last time before the door shut again, tears still staining her face. That was the last time Naj or Cer ever saw her alive. Quickly, Naj started the quadjumper’s engines, and he and Cer left the planet for...somewhere. Naj didn’t know where at first, but after some thought, he came up with an idea. He knew he couldn’t stay with Cer either, so he needed a secure place for him to stay—somewhere he could be protected, hidden, and hopefully, never told about the Force. He decided that the best possible place would be on Devaron, with his and Anva’s old Jedi friend, Hes Chaddic.

It was nighttime when Naj got to Devaron, and heavy rain was blanketing the Angel’s jungle hideout. With his son in hand, he knocked on the massive factory door and asked for Hes, who came to greet him only half-dressed and half-awake. As Naj explained his situation, though, Hes perked right up. He told her about the Inquisitor, about Anva’s sacrifice, everything—and he begged Hes to look after Cer. He made it out like it would only be for a few days while he waited to get out of the Inquisitor’s sight, but Hes wasn’t fooled. “Naj,” she said, “we both know you won’t be back”

“I know, Hes,” he replied, his heart in his throat, “That’s why I need you to take care of him.” At this, Hes realized the gravity of the situation. She knew she had no idea how to raise a kid but...she had to help her friend, too. Finally, she agreed. Naj thanked her, and with a final embrace and some reassuring words to his son, he said goodbye. It took him a full five minutes to get onto the ship again—for the longest time he just stood in the doorway, not moving as far as Hes or Cer could see. He was crying still. Finally, with some effort, he boarded the ship, closed the door, and flew off into the night. Cer’s little hand waved up to him, and with a deep sigh, Hes took him inside. Naj would never return.

[reginasrandomthoughts]

Kill your heroes - an opinion on why The Last Jedi feels different

 (guys, you know the drill, I wanted to do something short, it became long, it is under the cut, I am tired, as per usual, so I probably lost my train of thought at points, if you are interested read it, if not not, if you wanna correct me at any point or discuss with me, please do so. I love a good talk)

 Even before I saw The Last Jedi I was aware that some people had issues with it. Chatter was that it mishandled Luke’s character and that it did not feel like a Star Wars movie, and I have to agree with it, It does not feel like the other Star Wars movies because it is purposefully trying to distance itself from them. Or, to quote my bae

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

 This approach was a bit of a shocker to me as well, especially after The Force Awakens tried its absolute damnest to remind us of what the original trilogy was like. It was basically New Hope 2.0 with a few tweeks. TFA set up a pattern and expectations and The Last Jedi decided to shit all over it, but it didn’t come out of the blue. 

 TFA already sets up the scene: The victory at the end of Return of the Jedi was hallow, Palpatine’s death did not matter because the Empire rebranded and came back swinging and the New Republic fell apart. Everything fell apart and our heroes couldn’t keep it together. That is already pretty depressing. Even the Extended Universe, that had the same job of continuing from RotJ didn’t go that far. It was always “oh, there is still some Empire commanders fighting isolated battles”, “oh, some new invaders are coming”. It gave our heroes their victory so that was what we were expecting, but TFA already took it away from us. 

 Furthermore, it underlined that our heroes might not be as good of a people as we imagined. We knew nothing of Leia and Han’s parenting skills, only that their son ended up being the main enemy. (Yes, I know about Jacen Solo. Don’t spoil, not there yet in the Legends Era *spits into the corner*) Also, Han and Leia are not together. Their relationship fell apart and Han pretty much abandoned her in a difficult situation. Han also didn’t change, didn’t step up to be a better man and he also lost the Falcon, something that became very special to all the fans. And of course, Luke disappeared and we already know that he trained B/Ren. 

TFA already claims that our heroes are failures, or at the very least more flawed than we are willing to admit. 

Enter The Last Jedi.

The Last Jedi knows what the audience expects from it. And it deliberately refuses to give it to us. 

The greatest example is Poe. Poe is the new Han Solo: he has the swagger, the arrogance but also the skill. He is an amazing pilot but he hasn’t an ounce of respect towards the chain of command and thinks he knows better than everyone else. Now let’s see how the Star Warstm pattern works out for him:

 First action scene, he has an insane near suicidal plan but he pulls it off. But at what cost? Many people died, the bomber fleet is gone and we have to face the fact that there is like 3?4? Resistance ships left with roughly 400 people. Poe refused to get out of there when he was ordered to, many people died and in the end it was proven useless, because the First Order found them again withing 30 seconds. This already undermines our expectations: we expect them to get away with it like Luke did when he blew up Death Star #1. But this is not that Star Wars anymore.

 Now the next stunt is basically the same as in RotJ when the Rebel Alliance has to by time to knock of the shield generators. This time around they have to buy time so Poe’s insane plan of getting a codebreaker in there to get the tracker offline so they can get away. The stakes here are different: they aren’t fighting for victory, they stand no chance. They are fighting for survival. The bloody miracle that bought the Rebels their victory is devalued into something that now is good enough only to buy them a little bit more time alive. 

 And they cannot pull it off. Poe is a gambler. He likes the kind of high stakes, high rewards plans that Star Wars (Orige Trige) was known for. He acts as we expect him to act, but he cannot pull of the miracle. Finn and Rose bring back a codebreaker. Then get it. Smooth sailing right? It will be a close call but they will make it. Look, DJ even gives Rose back her necklace, he must be one of those Hollywood outlaws with a heart of gold who will come through when necessary. But no, they get captured and get sold out. Poe’s plan did not only fail, thanks to it the rebel transporters get picked out one by one. They loose so many people. Most of the Resistance dies because Poe wanted to make one of those Star Wars gambles and he couldn’t pull it off. 

 And I think this is why it was important? good? to keep Holdo’s plan a secret from the audience. We were emotionally invested in Poe’s plan. When he stages his rebellion we were with him, trusting this to go off well, bc that is what Star Wars taught us would happen. And then suddenly Leia comes in, wacks Poe’s takeover and we realize that there was a much safer way to do things. Something that would have worked if not for Poe. Is it stupid in universe? Most likely, yea. Holdo should have told someone. But from a message point of view it paid off. Poe pretty much managed to off the Resistance with his stupidity, but he learned his lesson. 

 The next classic Star Wars moment, the suicide run against the battering ram cannon (hello X-wing runs from New Hope) is one where he recognizes that he cannot pull it off. It cannot be done. Choose life, and live to fight another day. And that’s what he does and that is the good call, we see it because it almost costs Finn his life. 

 These insane last minute saves are such a great part of the identity of Star Wars. New Hope has it, Return of the Jedi has it, The Force Awakens has it, heck Rouge One is one big Ave Maria. We are conditioned to expect them to work, but here they simply don’t. That is a large part of why it might not “feel like a Star Wars movie”. 

 Another part of course, is the Jedi. Luke. Luke is the big legend, the idol, the savior of the galaxy far, far away and we, just like Rey, expects him to live up to it. But Luke failed miserably. He got arrogant then he got in way over his head, buying into his own glory and he made a mistake. He did not catch Ben being corrupted then he got scared and wanted to murder him, quintessentially spooking him into being Ren. Luke’s failure as a master and as FAMILY created Kylo Ren. And what did he do after? He ran away. Not the glorious hero we expected. 

 And if this is not enough then the Jedi, the universally accepted good guys of the Star Wars universe get shade thrown on them as well. We cannot pretend that oh, its Luke’s training not being complete. He was alone, of course he failed. He reminds the audience that Darth Vader was trained by Jedi as well, and why did Anakin fall? Because the Jedi demanded from him to kill his humanity. The Jedi order’s very code created Vader. And if that is not enough than the raise of Palpatine happened at the height of the Jedi’s power. Yet they got whiped out. 

 And that is not something that was invented in TLJ or TFA, it was in the Original and Prequel films. TLJ does nothing more than tear down the wall of nostalgia around these things and highlights how incompetent these people were. 

 And now let’s move on to Luke’s death. Luke’s death is Obi-Wan’s death: the old master facing the monster that was born from the student he failed. He dies pretty much the same way as well, short fight, gets killed, turns into a Force ghost. Why? Luke has to die because he is a part of the old Jedi order, because he is a failed hero but why does he get Obi-Wan’s death? Why make the purposeful call back? Because now we have context. It adds a layer to Obi-Wan as well. These are two man who are facing down their own mistakes and they are both arrogant about it. “Strike me down and I will stay with you forever” “Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”. They plan to haunt their killers, to be a reminder to them that there is some power outside if their reach. To choose how they die is the only victory they can achieve.

 But Luke here can be assumed to be trying to accomplish something else as well: Yoda told him to teach Rey his failure. Can he possibly be trying to show Rey that Ren is irredeemable? That would be a very Jedi thing to do, wouldn’t it? In Phantom Menace Yoda wants to throw away the obviously very talented and powerful Anakin because he is not a perfect Jedi candidate, Obi-Wan refuses to acknowledge Vader was ever Anakin for quite a while and of course Luke decided that Ben needed to be gotten rid of since he has a taint. The Jedi, Luke’s Jedi, demanded a kind of inhuman perfection and that has to die, especially since Rey shows to be different from them. A new kind of Jedi, a new kind of hero. 

Another aspect in which Obi-Wan and Luke’s death are similar is that they are leaving behind a new apprentice to take down the monster. But as we saw with Poe’s example’s, this is not that game anymore, so Luke’s gamble is not nearly as sure, especially since Rey is different than what Luke was. 

 And now let’s move to one more piece of deconstruction of the old Star Wars tropes. Vader and Luke vs Palpatine / Rey and Kylo vs Snoke. It plays out pretty similarly for a while but with a quite a bit of a difference: Rey cannot talk Ren into turning back to Ben. As we established, this is not how it will work anymore. A few nice words and an “I believe in you” won’t right the wrongs and save the world anymore. One of the bigger differences here is that Ren is not dying. For him turning back would mean something very different than what it did to Vader and anyway, Ren likes being Ren. He feels like he has a place where he is and that he was rejected in the chaotic world of the Resistance. Ren’s story wouldn’t conveniently end with a “yay I turned now I am dead” just so the good guys can pretend they saved him. 

 In many ways TLJ saw Ren come into his own. He, just like Rey and the audience clung to the nostalgia, he idolized his predecessor, Vader and in this film very early on was challenged in his identity as the new Vader. “you are no Vader just a kid in a mask”. So he destroys the mask. He destroys his pretense of being Vader. He does what Vader never did and makes a connection to someone on the light side of the Force. He is no mere petsy anymore either. The minute he rejects the Vader persona he starts acting on his own accord: he gets into his ship, he commands his small platoon and he makes the critical choice of not killing Leia. In the previous movie killing a parent was a step closer to the dark side, towards becoming Vader but now he rejects it. Is it that he cannot bring himself to do it this close to another? Is it that his commitment to the dark side is wavering? Or is it that he refuses to walk a path he does not truly wants to? At that moment he does not want Leia to die and from this perspective Leia’s survival makes sense.

 Tangent: I know that Leia surviving the way she did was stupid from an in universe perspective because she never exhibited Force control powers before and for her to pull something on this scale, but it makes more of a sense if you think about this as an unconscious thing. Pure survival instinct kicking in. AND it was important bc the TIE fighters showed us what Ren was supposed to do, they made sure we know that yes, he could have killed Leia. But he didn’t. So Leia was saved via Force Powers bc.... you know, Ren uses the force as well so it is a sorta weird stand in. Execution was weird here. 

 BTW, this was the point where Snoke signed his own death warrant. He wanted a new Vader but he ripped Kylo’s identity as the new Vader away from him, forcing him to look for something else to be. And part of that was rejecting Snoke’s demands to kill his still living parent, Rey and to be a petsy. Vader was a glorified henchman and REN refused to be one. So he offed Snoke. And with that Supreme Leader Ren was born. 

 Now, I use this title because it is very fitting at this point because Ren is pretty much the driving force, or at least the manifestation of the driving idea behind The Last Jedi. Ren stood on both sides and was disappointed in all of his heroes, all of our heroes. Leia, Han, Luke, Vader, heck even the new replacement Snoke proved to be a failure. Ren came out on the other side of the experience wanting to “Let the past die”. He says “Kill it” but only “if you have to”. He wants to get rid of all of this past nonsense, get out of the shadows of those coming before him, stop being a copy only there to repeat patterns and to live up to what other people expect him to be. 

Ren’s decision changes the game. The minute he decides on his new path, when he lets go of Darth Vader things shift: Poe’s final miracle happens before that, but after Ren changes his platoon wrecks the lead ship sending Leia into a coma, without the proper leadership the Resistance gets into a bad situation where Poe acts against orders trying to play according to the old rule book, he fails. Ren is not Vader, he is not Palpatine or Snoke, the same tricks do not work with him and the Resistance reaches some success only when they change tactics (e.g. retreat rather than do a suicide run against the battering ram cannon). 

 So Ren changed the game, he wants to burn down the old, so the question is what will remain or what will emerge? That is Rey’s job to answer. Ren tells us what the new trilogy isn’t but Rey should define what it is. What stays? What becomes new? Episode IX’s job will be to establish what the new Star Wars is like and yea, maybe the backlash will make Disney chicken out and revert to the old ways but I hope it won’t. 

We, the audience should learn to be a bit more like Rey and Ren and let go of the past, stop glorifying it and stop letting it define what the present and the future can be.