#whats a jedi to a sith? whats a sith to a mandalorian nerd?

[chaosgoblinhours]

jaster mereel had to die young because the moment he ever had to meet palpatine on his home turf he'd take one look at the politician's eclectic collection and immediately go 'oh !! Is that a ceremonial sacrificial dagger of darth rabies???" and immediately go off on a tangent about old republic lore while palpatine gets bodied by at least five jedi in the background

[david-talks-sw]

The OTHER type of Star Wars fan

We've already covered (through this longer post and this addendum) that research shows George wasn't that involved or interested in the derivative material of the Star Wars franchise, also known as the Expanded Universe (EU). Aside from approving a few points, he let Howard Roffman and Lucasfilm Licensing handle it.

He is the first to say that he ain't as knowledgeable about Star Wars lore as we fans are.

Thing is... he's also not as passionate as we are.

Recently, I was watching some Q&A videos of George R.R. Martin, the author of Game of Thrones... and it occurred to me:

Martin is what most Star Wars fans wish Lucas was.

Think about it.

He's a talented writer who likes to focus on morally "gray" characters and complex political plotlines,

who created a series of novels for a mature audience in which his narrative merely asks questions and lets the reader draw their own conclusions,

knows and engages in the lore behind his creation and will often respond to those lore-heavy questions, and has gone on record stating that canon is the glue that holds a story together and keeps it coherent.

Contrast that with George "continuity is for wimps" Lucas, who:

Wrote a movie franchise which is also, partially, political... but he makes it for kids, and he's explicit about how this is thematically a clear-cut story about how the conflict of "good vs evil" is really about "compassion vs greed",

with flat dialogue, boring cinematography,

and whose approach to lore and canon can be summed up in his answer to how Anakin got his scar:

"I don't know. Ask Howard [Roffman]. That’s one of those things that happens in the novels between the movies. I just put it there. He has to explain how it got there. I think Anakin got it slipping in the bathtub, but of course, he's not going to tell anybody that." - Pablo Hidalgo’s set diary, August 2003

And as a Star Wars fan, I will admit that some of his casual retcons felt disrespectful, growing up.

"Boba Fett is NOT Mandalorian?!"

I had the same reaction when I saw an interview of Kathleen Kennedy stating she was a fan of Star Wars... from a filmmaking perspective. That seemed like such a finagling cop-out for me, at the time.

"Just say you're not a real fan, God!"

And it's easy to divide it in two camps, like that. You have 1) the real fans, who will delve into deep lore, and 2) the average moviegoer, also known as the "filthy casuals."

But looking back on it... holy shit, that is actually a completely valid way of being a Star Wars fan.

Yes, Star Wars is a transmedia franchise, it's books, it's video-games, it's deep lore, it's lightsabers and Jedi and Sith and bounty hunters and Ewoks and Jabba and High Republics and Tython and Revan etc.

But before it was that, Star Wars was a filmmaking revolution. A juggernaut of innovation for the silver screen that inspired most of today's filmmakers.

So, sure, George Lucas isn't an avid lore-loving Star Wars fan like you and me. But he is a movie fan.

"I'm not that passionate about this story. I like it, it's fun and I enjoy doing it. But it's definitely not my life. I'm a bigger movie fan than I am Star Wars fan. I like making movies. At the end of nine years of making Star Wars, I was not ready to continue it. I was completely burned out on it. I was more passionate about raising my kids than making movies and especially making Star Wars. So I made other kinds of movies and TV shows and advanced the technology I needed. It's not a matter of passion. My passion is for filmmaking. I'll go and do filmmaking that is easier to do, where you can realise your ideas better. And nine years is a big part of your life, and to commit to another nine years, I didn't wanna do that right away." - EMPIRE, 1999

And you can tell this, when you watch the Star Wars films.

There are honestly so many homages and interesting filmmaking techniques, peppered throughout the six films, which only a nerd for cinema history like George would know how to implement.

C3-PO being based on the droid from Metropolis (1927) is a perfect example of this.

And that's interesting.

Because there's essentially this entire other dimension to the films, where it's not just the story unfolding, but to filmmakers it's also a series of techniques that make them go "I wonder how they did that!" or homages that make them go "OH! I know where that's from!" like we do when an comics characters appears in live-action.

Here's other examples:

CINEMA HOMAGES

All of Star Wars is absolutely littered with homages to cinema history.

I mean, you may already know this, but Flash Gordon is what George originally wanted to shoot, but the copyright holders said they only wanted Fellini to direct it (ironically, George wasn't artsy-fart enough for them). So he decided to write Star Wars instead.

As such, the inspiration from Flash Gordon is also present visually and spiritually throughout the two trilogies.

"It was like a Republic serial, a 1930s-style matinee adventure. The idea was that you came in, saw Episode IV, had missed the first three episodes, and wouldn't get to see the rest of it." - Starlog Magazine #300, 2002

The dialogue that a lot of people refer to as "campy" and "flat" is actually a mix of George being an experimental filmmaker who doesn't give much of a fuck about dialogue (and is by his own admission, not the best at it)...

"I'd be the first person to say I can't write dialogue. My dialogue is very utilitarian and is designed to move things forward. I'm not Shakespeare. It's not designed to be poetic. It's not designed to have a clever turn of phrase. [...] I just wanted to get from point A to point B. This film doesn't lend itself to that sort of thing because it's not about snappy one-liners.  I think that Lethal Weapon-style dialogue is overused, it's a necessary aspect of high action films where you have to have the smart retort. You have to say "I'll be back baby" and stuff. It's not my style. It takes away from the integrity of the movie. [...] I'm aware that dialogue isn't my strength. I use it as a device. I don't particularly like dialogue which is part of the problem." - EMPIRE, 1999

... which is convenient, because it helped him simulate the dialogue of 1930s matinee serials, such as Flash Gordon.

"Let’s face it, their dialogue in that scene is pretty corny. It is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue in cheek at all, and it’s played to the hilt. But it is consistent, not only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don’t understand the style of Star Wars. They don’t get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s Western or Saturday matinee serial. It’s in the more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film is even more of a melodrama than the others." - Mythmaking: Behind the Scenes of Attack of the Clones, 2002

But beyond that, literally it's everywhere.

The scene where Palpatine ascends to being Emperor as Anakin slaughters his political rivals parallels the final scene in The Godfather, where Michael becomes the Don while his goons do the same thing.

This video compiles all the tributes beautifully. Check it out.

Even The Clone Wars has whole episodes that are direct homages to cult classics. The Zillo Beast episode is a clear reference to Godzilla, the episode The Wrong Jedi is inspired by The Wrong Man, etc.

"CINEMA VÉRITÉ" CINEMATOGRAPHY

I've already written a whole post (one of my favourites) showing how his fascination with cinéma vérité documentaries is reflected in the cinematography of all six Star Wars films, and it's part of what makes the entire franchise feel so immersive.

You can check it out here:

KUROSAWA

We've gone over how he's a big fan of Akira Kurosawa, and how big an influence Hidden Fortress was on both the Star Wars trilogies...

... but so is the mise-en-scène and the way George approaches production design. The reason Star Wars feels so "lived in" is also a lesson George learned from Kurosawa, which is that by making everything just a bit off-kilter, a bit dirtied-up and imperfect...

... and yet keeping it all consistent, in a way, you manage to make the film feel grounded and immersive, no matter how alien it is.

"[It] may sound odd in a movie like this, but credibility and realism, even in the most unrealistic situation… to sorta create that sense of realism is very important to making the story work and making you feel like you’re actually in the environment that transports you and gives you the suspension of disbelief that you need in order to enjoy a movie. [...] Kurosawa used to call it “immaculate realism” which is to make it slightly off-kilter, slightly eccentric, like things are in real life. Even if it’s a very predictable situation, give it that little funny edge that takes it away from that and makes it realistic. And I had to struggle very hard, in the Star Wars films, to make them appear to be realistic, even though they’re totally fantasy." - The Phantom Menace, Commentary Track #2, 1999

POST-PRODUCTION & VFX

Another one of the more impressive aspects of the first Star Wars was the dogfights and the trench raid of the Death Star. The camera pans with the spaceship, the dynamism of the cuts. The space battles is what made George creat ILM in the first place.

He was determined to do the opposite of what 2001: A Space Odyssey had done with that opening scene where the space ship moves into frame slooooowly...

... so he gave the team a collection of WWII dogfight footage to give them ideas.

(note: this was the same approach he would take years later with Dave Filoni, when teaching the latter how to edit and craft dogfights in The Clone Wars)

The attempt to film the trench run eventually led to the creation of the first motion control camera dolly.

Best analogy I can think of, when describing George's approach to Star Wars, is the following:

An avant-garde esoteric contemporary artist - y'know, the type who puts a blue dot on a white canvas and calls it art - creates a comic.

Why? Because he wants to make this one art installment for a gallery exhibition. After that, he intends to move on to other things.

But the comic is really good! And like, its audience quickly expands beyond just gallery visitors, no, everyone likes it.

Suddenly, the comic develops a cult following, and the entirety of comic book geek culture has zeroed-in on the artist and they're all asking him to make more art! And he makes more! And more!

Then he stops for two decades, moves on to other art projects, raises his kids. Years later, he discovers new ways of drawing, and he's like "I'm making a Prequel to the comic, y'all wanna see it?"

Everyone cries out gleefully: "Oh God, yes! Finally! Show us!"

But this motherfucker makes a manga.

Why? Because he feels like it.

And of course he does, he's just creating art, right? He discovered the graphic tablet, so he's having fun with it, because he's always innovating and pushing the envelope with his art.

And the books are fine, by manga standards. But by comic book standards, they obviously suck! The comic book audience is mad. They wanted another comic book, not a manga. Why is it in black and white? Why is read right-to-left? This comic is crap!

(And arguably, they have a point... as a savvy businessman, he's made a whole lot of money off this comic, he built a media empire out of it, and instead of giving them what they want, he made something else)

But again... this guy isn't a comic book illustrator, and has been very explicit about saying this.

He's an artist who - for a very specific project - drew a comic.

Many things can be true at once:

the fact that these creative decisions didn't always hit their mark for the average moviegoer, or fans of "Star Wars, the space fantasy movies and expanded universe" (usually the lore-loving geeks like myself)...

... and the fact that they were meticulously and carefully crafted in a way that fans of "Star Wars, the revolutionary film" (aka fans of cinema and filmmaking) can appreciate.

There's a spectrum of the fandom, and there is a spectrum in the way we can appreciate Star Wars. Which kinda reminds me of that scene in Chef (2014) where Carl goes on a rant explaining the intricacies of making his chocolate lava cake to a food critic.

It's not just undercooked chocolate. It's molten.

Conversely:

It's not just flat, campy dialogue. It's an homage to the 1930s matinee serials à la Flash Gordon.

It's not just boring cinematography. It's a reproduction of cinéma vérité documentary-style camera work which effectively grounds the film.

Having considered all this, when I hear that Tony Gilroy or Kathleen Kennedy were more fans of Star Wars from a "cinema studies" side rather than the typical pop culture one, I think it's fair enough.

First of all, because like it or not, so was George. He clearly didn't give a single crap about the offshoot comics and books and their lore, besides signing off on minor plot points. He's not a "sci-fi movie director", he's an experimental filmmaker who set some of his movies in space.

But secondly, because - aside from children - it's clear the audience he was targeting was not the fans or the critics... but these very same cinema-savvy people, who get his references and homages, and who were inspired by the new filmmaking techniques he introduced.

[fandomforg]

ok, so, mcu peter parker somehow gets sent to the star wars universe

we’re all familiar with the trope of ‘earth girl who’s a big star wars fan goes to star wars galaxy and tries to save everyone there with her knowledge of the Plot’ but now think about if peter parker, resident star wars nerd/super genius/superhero, gets sent there

first things first, he would lose his marbles seeing all the cool aliens and technology (even though he’s already seen plenty of aliens/tech just from being on earth) but like!! it’s not just any aliens!!! it’s star wars aliens!!! woah!!!!

he wouldn’t really even have to worry about hiding his enhancements bc he could just go ‘uh, i’m not baseline human?’ and everyone there would just go ‘oh, ok’

as soon as peter got his bearings tho, he would absolutely immediately start scheming on how to stop palpatine/prevent the clone wars or whatever. like full on murder cork board with red string as he thinks. whatever poor soul has offered to let this lost child stay with them is very concerned because every time they bring him a snack it looks a little bit more like this kid is trying to overthrow the government (he kind of is planning to overthrow the government)

peter has gotten in enough debates online to know that most of the groups that might be able to help him (the jedi, the mandalorians) are a little too wrapped up in their own stuff (connections with the senate, civil war) to stop palpatine with any sort of efficiency, so he just goes ‘huh, guess i’m gonna be a vigilante again’ now he’s spiderman again!!! but this time in star wars!!!!!

webslinging on corusant would go so crazy though

so by day, peter is working part time at some little corusant shop where the owner lets him use the spare room (and the owner is also constantly so concerned over this insane child that just showed up one day without knowing the date, but knowing many random historical facts that they space-google and find out are absolutely correct)

and by night, spiderman is swinging between the levels of corucant, stopping petty crimes avoiding the jedi who keep trying to figure out who this spiderguy is. they think must be force sensitive (‘just look at how fast he’s running! and he’s sensing hits before he sees them!’)

eventually, peter finally makes his move and goes after palpatine. it’s uhhhh, actually easier then he expected. peter may have had a few too many backup plans. palpatine was not expecting his sixth lightning to be absorbed by a brightly-colored suit (‘thanks, mr. stark!’) nor was he expecting to be covered??? in spider?? webs???? it’s very hard to cut yourself free from webs when you can’t move an inch to even ignite your lightsaber

the next day, palpatine’s guards find him still stuck to the wall of his office and spitting mad, while the jedi find security footage of the chancellor attacking that one vigilante with force lightning and pages and pages of evidence of palpatine’s crimes (sith-related and not) just sitting in their inbox. the arrest goes pretty smoothly after that.

once this all finally hits the news, the shop owner that peter’s been staying with (read: slowly being adopted by) just kinda shouts out a ‘kid! what did you even do?!’

well now that that’s handled, the next thing on peter’s to do list is, uhhh, getting home. yikes.

[klerothesnowman]

The one thing in KOTOR2 I hate

I love KOTOR2 a lot, easily one of my favourite games ever. I've grown to be a big Star Wars nerd.

I hate that KOTOR is "The Jedi Civil War" and I hate that it's called that because Chris Avellone wanted to make a point about Star Wars.

Because the idea that the JCW was only about the Jedi is a load of shit. The idea that to the rest of the galaxy the war was Jedi squabbling and dragging everyone into it is low key insulting to Drew Karpyshyn, a man who I admittedly don't have a lot of affection for at best and a man whose name I curse for the world building in The Old Republic at worse.

Because the implication is that the JCW wasn't about anything. That the only thing that mattered was that Revan, former Jedi, wants to kill the Jedi.

Even without all the retcons/additions from KOTOR2 that say Revan was playing 4D chess and preparing the Galaxy for the *real* threat, there was obviously something more going on with that conflict. How can this war be *just* about the Jedi when one of the primary figureheads of the whole thing is Saul Karath, who is most certainly not a Jedi.

The Republic was taken completely off guard by the Mandalorian Wars, struggling to regain their footing after the Great Sith War that preceded it. They were unable to muster an adequate response in time to protect the galaxy.

The Sith Empire is near entirely veterans of that war, the vast majority of the Republic's military forces turning around and going "We should be in charge." When you talk to members of the Empire, or sympathizers, they often talk about how strong and *secure* the Empire is. They call the Republic weak, ineffective, doomed.

And KOTOR doesn't shy away from the Republic's failings either. Because like it or not they *did* fumble the Mandalorian Wars, and they *do* fail their people constantly, especially on the Outer Rim where the prosperity of the Core Worlds doesn't reach. The fact that a lot of planets on the Sith Empire's side of things are on the Outer Rim is probably not a coincidence.

The Jedi Civil War wasn't about the Jedi, it was about what was more important in the galaxy, being free or being safe. It was a philosophical question posed on a galactic scale, what is better? A flawed but fundamentally good Republic, or a strong and secure but fundamentally evil Empire. Is freedom and comfortable living for all worth being unprepared for another massive war?

But all of that was literally forgotten in service of Kreia going "The only thing that matters in the Jedi" so that Chris Avellone can make the metapoint that the only thing most people care about in Star Wars is the Jedi, as he writes a game all about the Jedi.

[ruusaanrambles]

Me and my brothers are such a trio when watching Star Wars content lol

I am a very emotional consumer of sw media. I’m a writer, and will yell about plot and dialogue things. I’ve also read a lot of the books and am deeply a mandalorian nerd, to the point I’ve started mentally editing in or yelling mando’a at the screen.

brother no.1 is stubbornly clueless. He’s seen all of the live action sw content from watching it with the family, but doesn’t bother to remember details, and tends to tune out most Star Wars discussion. Will ask for clarification at the funniest moments, or the most intense ones.

brother no.2 is also a sw nerd. He’s deeeep into Jedi/sith lore, and knows probably too much about sw animation for his own good. He gets most of his information about sw legends from theory videos. Will whisper very obscure lore related things at the screen, then info dump once the episode was over.

I once asked brother no.2 if “deep into jedi and sith lore was accurate” and he asked if I knew what [obscure Sith Lord I can’t remember the name of]’s lightsaber’s kyber crystal was named.

[bylightofdawn]

Genji is being so unbearable this morning and woke my grumpy ass up at 9 something yet again. My morning has been improved somewhat by the new Ahsoka trailer.

I'm sure people are going to find reasons to nitpick and bitch because that's suddenly become the cool thing to do with any and all Star Wars content. Which hey, I feel you fam, we have definitely seen a relative downward spiral in the quality of content versus the uptick in amount. I completely agree with people's right to bitch and moan too so don't take this as me saying "Ugh you can't please everyone, all the nerds are whinging that we broke their beloved franchise again" I just don't want us to turn into say the MCU level of fandom.

I definitely don't want to see Star Wars turned into the next MCU which is definitely a trajectory we've been headed in lately. So I totally get the concerns and complaints.

It definitely feels like we get one Andor level show every 6 series or something like that. So I'm not expecting a whole lot from Ahsoka.

But do I care if it's going to most likely be a mid at best series after this trailer?

Fuck. No.

Because we got to see live action Rebels. We got to see Ezra and it's prolly just a hologram message but oh my god after years of agonizing on where he's at, with the return of Thrawn do we FINALLY get to know what happened to Ezra?

Will we FINALLY be able to retire the "Where is Ezra, is he safe? Is he alright?" meme?

Felony knows exactly what he's doing giving us just a taste with having Zeb show up in Mandalorian. We all lost our fucking minds screaming where is Kallus. And now we're going to get the Ghost crew???

Do I hate Hera's design? Yes, am I questioning what the fuck is up with her lekku from the like 2 seconds we see of her? Yes.

Did Chopper look janky as fuck? Sure. Now ask me if I care Nope. I am hyped and easily manipulated by House of Mouse. But it's also a trailer so like you gotta take anything you see with a grain of salt.

I'm looking forward to people arguing for the next three months online on whether or not Baylan and whoever the hot goth chick whose name we have no idea is are really not Sith because their lightsabers aren't bright scarlet red. I love watching pressed pedantic fanboys (and fangirls) bickering over the banalest of bullshit.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna be in my lane wondering if Kallus will be in this so we can finally get confirmation that KalluZeb is going to be canon. Whether or not I WILL FINALLY GET MY FENN RAU CONTENT and other assorted light-hearted squeeing over silly Star Wars shit.

Because it ain't that deep at the end of the day. I could definitely make the argument that it's a silly space opera with space wizards and a questionable grasp of physics at best.

If you want nitty-gritty realism then go re-watch Andor which had no space wizards in it. But since this is going to be a Jedi or Jedi-adjacent driven vehicle, I know to turn off the critical thinking part of my brain and just enjoy the spectacle.

[fallen-knight]

I like your Inquisitor a lot, she really seems like the fun kind of evil! My own characters are all over the place, I tend to replay the beginnings of the class stories more than finish them lol. I also have a really hard time deciding on names I like, so most of them use random placeholders. But I do have a few who are pretty developed, and have their own interconnected story.

Hero of Tython (name in progress) - my Zabrak sentinel, The Chosen One™, a bit of a zealot in the crusade against the Empire who has a hard time recognizing when her drive for justice slips into anger and contempt - which is somewhat unsurprising, given she lost her family in the Republic-Sith War as a young child, and the Jedi are kind of notoriously bad at therapy. She will give her enemies one chance to announce their intentions and voluntarily surrender, but if they don't think to do so, it's off with their heads, and she's sure the galaxy will be better for it. She likes T7, has a complicated friendship with Kira, loathes Doc, and really doesn't want to trust Scourge. Her nemesis, the current Wrath, is secretly working toward similar goals, but they're never able to talk for long enough to figure that out before attacking each other.

Idris Arakh, Darth Tacitus - my Red Zabrak assassin, just a guy doing his best. Somehow became mortal enemies with the Knight during their random encounters, though he hates senseless fighting and is really much softer than he'd admit. He tends to push people away for their own safety - including Vette, the love of his life - and is prone to literally weaponizing his self-hatred and depression in a vicious cycle. Constantly trying to appear as an intimidating Sith who knows what he's doing, he often wears a mask for a multitude of reasons. When not staying up all night working on top secret plans to reform the Empire and assassinate its leader, he's a huge geology and archaeology nerd, and would trade Broonmark for Talos in a heartbeat (my Inquisitor is also considering it.)

Jinev, Darth Occlus - my Cathar marauder and the youngest of my characters, around 16 when her story begins. She's brash, snarky, and outwardly fearless, hurting or helping others whenever she feels like it, but has her own moral code that values freedom above anything else; she's besties with Khem Val and prefers to make contracts with ghosts rather than bind them forcefully, unless they piss her off. Jin keeps her Kallig heritage a secret, and uses his mask and armor as an alter ego to mess with other Sith and Imperials; she doesn't remember or care about her birth parents, but Andronikos became the dad she never knew she wanted, though she'd never tell him that. She hangs out with Idris' crew a lot, and loves to explore creepy tombs with him, Vette and Talos.

These guys are more nebulous and I'm less settled on their place in the final story, but I still love them dearly:

Agent [REDACTED] - a stabby, freckled Chiss operative who appears to be a straight-laced Imperial for most intents and purposes, but really just does whatever benefits the Chiss Ascendancy - at the start of her story, at least. Later on, things get more complicated and she has a major identity crisis before dropping off the radar. Loves her creepy bug husband.

Champion Tarkona - a serious Twi'lek (formerly Rattataki, might make her a Twi'lek-Rattataki hybrid) Mandalorian powertech and former pit fighter who prefers to take on opponents in hand-to-hand combat, using exoskeletal enhancements in her armor against stronger foes. She's reluctant to breach contracts, but always will if necessary to follow her morals.

Captain Scorze - a smooth-talking, one-eyed Nautolan scoundrel on their way to becoming a big-time pirate lord. While they aren't totally evil, just really selfish and focused on their own criminal empire, my goal is to get them to Dark V for a truly crusty deep sea terror look. They hang out on Rishi a lot, and love to party.

SWTOR OC

I'm temporarily obsessed with swtor, so... do you have OCs in this game? Maybe drawings or headcanons for them?

If you were looking for a place to share them, it's here)) Share your characters in the comments (and if you don't mind, I'll probably try to draw those you publish))

Pic for attention)

[agentnico]

Obi-Wan Kenobi - Season 1 (2022) Review

Apologies in advance, but this review features a lot of love for Darth Vader. I mean, can you blame me?

Plot: The Jedi Master contends with the consequences of his greatest defeat - the downfall and corruption of his one-time friend and apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Say what you will about the Star Wars prequels, although lets not sugar coat it - they are bombastically crappy; but regardless the universal agreement on one of the good aspects of that trilogy is the casting of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. McGregor back then was brought the challenge of interpreting a younger version of a character that was made so signature by actor Alec Guinness in the original films. And he did great! Showcasing the inner self determination and his passion and love for his student, and seeing his sheer sadness upon seeing his friend fall to the Dark Side, it was one of the only truly emotional aspects of the prequels. Then again, the most emotional aspect was obviously the audience’s united pain in not getting to see Jar Jar Binks get killed in the most brutal fashion. Mesa not happy about that! Anyway, now with Disney churning out endless Marvel and Star Wars content, there’s evident precedent in seeing the overall quality dipping. So I was sceptical about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, as the concept of seeing a rematch between the titular character and his former padawan was one I found interesting, but I didn’t think they could deliver.

I am happy to report that Obi-Wan Kenobi is the closest Disney has gotten to recapturing the original magic of Star Wars. Cause the sequel trilogy, there’s nothing to boast about those. The Mandalorian is great but it always felt detached from Star Wars in some ways. And Book of Boba Fett, well, that ended up just being Mando 2.5, so my point stands. However Obi-Wan brings us back to old school Star Wars, from seeing stormtroopers and lightsabre battles, to the various fan service cameos, and then there is Vader. Yep, we need to talk about Darth Vader in this show. We got a little tease in Rogue One how much Vader can be a badass, but we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!! With the combination of James Earl Jones’ voice and Hayden Christensen coming back in physical form and thankfully not talking about coarse sand, they manage to make Darth Vader such a menacing presence and someone who is filled to his core with the lust for revenge. He’s a predator that is out to seek its prey and won’t stop at nothing. Anakin wants some of that Kenobi butt, as in he wants to penetrate the fella deeply to death with his lightsabre. Am I purposefully trying to make this sound sexual for no reason whatsoever? You decide, but the matter stands that Vader steals this show and his stand off with Kenobi was nothing short of amazing!!

But its not all about Vader. Even though it is all about Vader. Look, it’s difficult to talk about this show and not get excited like the lousy nerd that I am, and honestly whenever Vader was on screen I was just in awe. Gahhh, maybe I should go marry him, shouldn’t I?! I’m messing, I am lucky enough to already be engaged to a wonderful fiancée, so I shouldn’t joke about marrying others, as she’s reading this and may cry afterwards. Anyway, the show itself works finely too. The actual narrative of Obi-Wan having to protect a young Leia, and having to deal with Inquisitors who are out murdering all the leftover Jedi after Order 66, that’s all really befit in the Star Wars universe, so again I cannot emphasise how much this felt like classic Star Wars. And the dashing Ewan is a perfect companion to carry us through it, even getting to quip his famous “Hello there” line which was naturally a cheer worthy moment.

With a strong start and super satisfying closing chapters (episodes 5 and 6 are my favourite), Obi-Wan Kenobi manages to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope to strong effect. I have heard that some users on IMDb have been bashing this show for apparently poor writing and being pointless, and of course everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I personally really really dug it. Even the controversial character of Reva, with the actress playing her (Moses Ingram) being bullied on Twitter for her performance, she wasn't bad. Look, was she the best Star Wars character ever? Of course not, but she was perfectly okay for what she needed to do. People forget that being a villain in a show that happens to also have Darth Vader, I mean naturally the latter outshines the others, I mean c’mon! Did I already mention that Vader is in this show? And that he is f****** awesome!!?? Guess I’m going to have to get a Hasbro helmet of Vader. I have no choice. Is it in my budget? Probably not. But in the name of Vader, I will open my wallet!

Overall score: 8/10

[keelifallen]

Hello there! I saw and LOVED your Jedi Night art, it destroyed me emotionally, good job!!

Can I ask who your favorite SWR character was? And your favorite episodes? I get really excited to meet new people who love SWR, don't mind me!

Ok so first off, I LOVE to talk nerd, and second, can I be your best friend? You seem so nice🥺

So…. Question one:

Favorite Star Wars character?

Uggg that’s painful. I’ll divide it up

Movie trilogys:

So in the prequels I’d say obi wan.

The original definitely Darth Vader.

Sequels, Poe dameron.

Singles:

I love all the characters in rogue one, and I’m not gonna try to dig thru that mess 😅

And in Han Solo, Donald Glover played his part as Lando incredibly well, so probably him.

Shows:

Clone wars

So this was SUCH a good, and in depth show. It really showed the characters in a light that the movies could not.

Anakin was shown to do the wrong things for the right reasons. (The ends justify the means sorta stuff) and his fall from the light which was tragic, but KiNdA understandable? I really liked his character arc, even though it destroyed me🥲

Now Ashoka, is a lean, mean, girl power, fighting machine. Great character arc as well. (You wanna know what? Just assume that applies to all the characters I bring up) what I really like about her, is kinda finding herself. She was kept in the jedi order, and it was her whole life. Something that would be painful to walk away from. She kinda struggled through out the whole show with finding her balance. It’s important to apply that to our own situation I guess?

Obi wan, now I’m gonna have to keep my self from going on too long about him. Love him. I think he is what the Jedi all ought to be. He wasn’t so emotional stuffed, but he had a balance of emotions. Kinda like like control your emotions, lest they control you. (Looking at you Anakin) he went through his life, which was an incredible tragic one, with his head heals high. He could have easily turned to the dark side. His master died, Satine died, the Jedi order fell along with his friends. His brother turned against him, and died by his hand. That’s a rollercoaster life right there. And when faced with the question, he said that it takes strength to resist the dark side, which makes him stronger than those who don’t. That’s an important life lesson lol.

And there’s Rex. Simply put, he’s a good ol’ boi

Bad batch

I feel like this show hasn’t developed enough for me to say, but I do like echo, and wrecker a lot 😌

Mandalorian

For the mandalorian, obviously mando. He’s a great father, and ✨not✨ lone wolf. He Took care of his kid, and gave him up when he didn’t want to. Because that’s what he thought was best.

Rebels

Now rebels is a much better show that I was expecting. I love the family dynamic, it really captured that aspect well. 

Ezra. He was an amusing bratty child in the first season, and I love him. At times I still wanted to smack him…. but I like the fact that he was faced many opportunities to turn bad, and didn’t. He dabbled a little perhaps, but he’s the type of person who has to try things out for himself, And learn lessons the hard way. As he got older he really matured, and he went from a small bean to a big bean.

Of course, I love Kanan. (I love all space dads. And adoptive dads) he was a beautiful and wonderful human being. And I’m so mad that Dave killed him off 😤😤 anyway, I like the fact that he was the first to admit that he didn’t know he was doing. Instead of acting like he was just teaching Ezra, he said they were both learning from each other.

Thrawn… for reasons

Favorite episodes, and arcs?

Rebels

I loved the bit, with the Sith temple. Ashoka finally meeting Vader, love it. So much drama. Introduction to maul, and just total legitness.

And the ending. As depressing as it was, seeing the conclusion it really makes me look forward to the Ashoka show. Although will be like almost 30, And he’d’ve missed out on so much😭

Clone wars

Oh there’s so many good ones. I love the episodes focusing on Ventress. It was an unexpected journey, and darth maul was somewhat involved as well.

Obviously Umbara. This one was exceedingly painful, but it really got the point across about the injustice and individuality of the clones. I know casual Star Wars watchers tend to skim over this a bit. super powerful.

The Mortis arc, was super epic, with great visuals, symbolism. And when Anakin found out he would become Vader I almost died

While I’m talking about clones, The order arc with the inhibitor chips was stupid good. And sad as well. (I apparently really like the emotionally devastating bits and pieces)

The one with Yodas trials was a really good one. I didn’t pay good attention the first time around. Just so u know yoda has never been one of my favorite characters. But I liked him a little better after this arc. It shows us his deepest fears, and it was really nice seeing so much foreshadowing.

Asoka leaving the order was super emotional and help put things in motion

And of course the siege mandalore. The final conclusion to the clone wars, in the beginning of the empire.

Anyways sorry for the long post, I’m sure this isn’t what you asked for but what can I say 🤷‍♀️ my life’s been hijacked by Star Wars. Dave this is your fault🔫

[aces-to-apples]

This will come as a surprise (no) but I would like to see the commentary for KotD 👁👁 and specifically for this in 'peace is a lie':

The clone resists, as is their wont.

Mandalorians prized strength above all else, but to clones, it was loyalty. To the wretched Republic, to the Jedi rotten to the core, to each other, it all amounted to the same thing. Pawns for Sidious, bodies to step over on the path to victory.

He will not give Maul the information willingly, but that is of no import.

Kast holds the belligerent clone still as he begins the process of probing his mind. The Force swirls around them in agitated eddies, but Maul pushes them aside, impatient to find what he’s looking for.

He screams—of course, he does—when his shields, no doubt shored up by Jedi interference, break against the might of Maul’s will. And then his mind is open, but it is chaotic, thoughts and feelings and memories irrelevant to his search clouding his path. A clever defense, to be sure; if an enemy breaches the walls, overwhelm them with numbers.

"peace is a lie"

Okay so here's the thing about "peace is a lie", and therefore all of "king of the damned", uhhhhhhh. I didn't plan any of this. None of it. I didn't plan the accidental soul Force-bond. I didn't plan a Jesse fix-it. I didn't plan to fucking invent JesseMaul. I didn't plan any of this! I was just super fucked up by how S7 went and wanted to poke at Maul's POV and what happened with Jesse.

Because I definitely expected him to kill Jesse (didn't we all???) but instead, Maul let him go. "Back to your brothers" he says. And Jesse looks super fucked up and broken down and kind of suspicious but also? Kind of grateful? That little almost-head nod? What the fuck happened there.

And then things just sort of happened and then spiraled out of control and now Jesse's like second-in-command of like a Super Crime Organization and he's like a Darksider/Maybe-Sith kind of? And Maul, like, speed-ran some character development? It's just all sorts of fucked up.

No idea how any of this happened.

Honestly the first and second chapters were sort of "head empty, no thoughts" because I wrote them one after another, and then some people, like, developed some expectations (derogatory) about what was happening and what would happen next.

And then I had to, like. Think about things. And it took me like three weeks or whatever trying to write the last chapter, which ended up being more than twice as long as the first two combined. :catmaria:

Basically this is as close to a meet-cute as Maul is ever gonna get. A meet-ugly, if you will. He captures a clone whom he thinks is a meaningless cog in a fundamentally broken machine (and he's, like, kind of not wrong? In our hearts, yes, of course. But Big Picture-wise? Kinda.) and then gets put on his ass by this enraged motherfucker who's spent the last three years being put through the fuckin' ringer, on top of an entire lifetime of torture and abuse. So like. Jesse is ready to throw down, and he does, and Maul like. Kinda falls a little bit in love with that.

What a goddamn nerd.

[fancifulscrawl]

A while back I got tagged on a Picrew post that was going around, and since I'd never been acquainted with Picrew before that moment, I started going a bit wild.. Although I did create a "kinda sorta looks like me" picrew person like I was originally tagged to do, I then proceeded to waste so much time creating some of my original characters. Now there's only one person besides myself that knows these characters, but I thought it would be fun to get my bro @ascendance-clubhouse to create her own ocs from the same rpg with Picrew. Sooo here's my Wrath of the Time Lords children, these were fun to make!

Erin Finch, the Mechanical Engineer:

*No Erin is not a vampire she's just a nerd that rarely leaves her house

Archer Vucora, the Sith:

*Archer doesn't necessarily have an especially dramatic eye scar, he simply has many random scars on his person and that was the best I could concoct.

Beryl Vucora, the Jedi:

Cryrs Tyree, the Mandalorian:

Amber, the Wolfblood who doesn't really know what she's doing but she's trying her best:

Ezra Augustus Lawliet, the... he doesn't even know what the hell he's doing and he's definitely not trying his best so there you go:

Oh right, and here's the "kinda sorta looks like me" to close this post out:

[ruusaanrambles]

Fate of the Jedi is a really weird series

half of it is really interesting and half is just 🤨 can we go back to the political drama now? I’m reading the seventh book right now so if you care spoilers up till then

Much of the plot is a political drama and you have a chief of state challenging the Jedi on their “military power but not military accountability” but then becoming more and more paranoid and control hungry until you end up with a war between the Jedi and the government and meanwhile there’s the imperial remnant being civil with the new republic government and even while its leader is engaged to marry a Jedi and there are conspirators working together to take down both the republic chief of state and the leader of the imperial remanent. Oh plus there’s currently a bunch of organized protests and slave revolts happening in the new republic which is another thing for the chief of state to worry about. And what does she do? She hires mandalorians because she can’t use the regular military.

Then you have these Jedi who went mad and thought that everyone was an imposter and started attacking people (this was the tipping point with the chief of state)  and so Luke skywalker and his son head off to find what is causing it and they find an ancient being who can consume force users and one of the people it consumed was one of Luke’s ex girlfriends and we meet another one who is in very short order also consumed by this monster and they’re trying to figure out how to kill her and oh my here’s a civilization of sith no one knew exsisted and now luke and his son are workin with one and the sith girl and luke’s son are maybe falling for each other and then we’re about to make headway on the ancient monster problem but then we switch back to the political drama

And there are so many povs. The whole time the force stuff is going on I really just want to go back to the political drama

I mean I’ll be the first to admit I’m kinda biased against the force as a deep mando lore nerd but at the same time I adore the high republic novels so idk.

anyways I rather like these books

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

“Rise of Skywalker” Questions

How did Palpatine survive the events of Return of the Jedi?

Where has be been for the last 30 years?

How did he build an entire fleet of Death Star Destroyers?

Where did he get the technology to build a thousand super lasers?

If he’s been pulling the strings this whole time, why did he bother making Star Killer Base after the first two Death Stars failed the exact same way?  A fleet of super laser star destroyers is objectively better and more useful.

Why did he build all the Death Star Destroyers on a planet they can’t leave by themselves?

Why can’t they navigate away from the planet without a radio tower?

When they turn off the radio tower, the head ship of the fleet is able to navigate for them anyway, so why can’t they all just do that and navigate for themselves?

What happened to the one Death Star Destroyer that blew up that random planet?  Did it return to get stuck with the rest of fleet on the planet, or is it still out on the galaxy?

Why did none of the fleet escape the planet during the battle?  Surely one or two or ten could have managed to navigate away (Poe says they couldn’t tell which was was up due to the magnetic field of the Sith planet, but, like, up is up, the sky is up, it’s really easy to fly up and away from a planet, just point your engines towards it and turn them on; ALSO a billion rebel ships made it all the way to said planet, so why couldn’t a single Sith ship leave it?)

When did Palpatine have a son?  With who?

Why was his son a “nobody” instead of the heir apparent to the Empire?

Was his son part of the Rebellion?  The Resistance?  Neither?  Rey was born in 15 BBY and her parents disappeared like 10-ish years later, but her dad is clearly older than 25, so he must have been born between Episodes 3 and 4.

Was he force sensitive too?  Why did Palpatine have his son killed and keep searching for his granddaughter instead?  Wouldn’t his son still be a valuable asset?  Rey’s mom told the random Sith assassin that Rey is definitely not on Jakku, so why didn’t Palpatine look on Jakku?

Who was Lor San Tekka in the Force Awakens?  Did he know who Rey was and guard over her like Obi Wan did to Luke?  Kylo has apparently known him for a long time (”look how old you’ve become”), so did he know Luke and Leia during the original trilogy?  Did he know Palpatine’s son?

In the books and video games, it is revealed that Palpatine sabotaged the Emprie after his death (search “the Contingency” and “Operation: Cinder” on Wookieepedia)  Why?  Why did he do this?  Why did he cripple his empire if he survived and continued pulling strings behind the scenes?  Is it because Disney is making this up as they go along and forgot to reconcile their new idea with their old idea from a few years ago?

Luke says that Leia knew Rey was a Palpatine the whole time, so did Luke know about her dad?  Did he ever try to recruit the son of the Emperor to the light side of the force, or did he just reject his dad because he was a million year old evil scrotum?

Palpatine says he impersonated Vader to try and lure Ben Solo to the dark side.  If Palpatine pretended to be Darth Vader, why didn’t the real ghost of Anakin come to his grandson and intervene?  Why did Anakin let Ben think he was evil?  Anakin appeared before Luke at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi,’ he appeared to Rey in this film as a disembodied voice, why didn’t he appear to his own grandson?

Palpatine created Snoke; was Snoke the product of his “Darth-Plagueis-midichlorian-create-life-using-the-force” technique he hinted about in that meme everyone has stopped caring about Episode 3?  If Anakin is Space Jesus (virgin-born chosen one), does that make Snoke the Space Anti-Christ?  If so, why did Snoke die like a bitch?

Darth Maul got cut in half but came back in the cartoon with robot legs and this was carried over into canon when Disney took over, so he showed up in another cartoon and then Solo; could Snoke have come back with robot legs?

Rey impales Kylo but then force-heals him; why didn’t Obi Wan force-heal Qui Gon Jinn after Darth Maul impaled him?  Disney just keeps making things up with no regard for continuity because they know the average consumer doesn’t care and that the opinions of butt hurt fanboys like me don’t matter because we keep shelling out money to see the franchise no matter how much we nitpick and complain...

Poe’s parents were part of the rebellion and Leia is a surrogate mom to him; at what point did he become a drug dealer spice smuggler for the criminal underground?  Did he leave the resistance to become a scoundrel then come back, or was he raised a scoundrel and then joined the good side because he was compelled to do so?  If the latter, doesn’t that just give him the exact same story arc as Han Solo in both Solo and A New Hope?

Where did the berries go after Kylo Ren spilled them in his room?  They show the audience that Rey’s and Kylo’s surroundings are linked when they have their dates visions, but the berries are gone in the next shot.  Also, did he leave Darth Vader’s helmet down in the village after Rey accidentally teleported it to him, or did he bring it back with him?  He was able to snatch the necklace AND the lightsaber from Rey through these visions, so the berries and the helmet were real and not just force projections.  (this one is a joke, I don’t really care)

Is Finn secretly force sensitive too?  I’d be totally down for that; I’ve wanted that ever since 2015 when we saw the first teaser of him holding a lightsaber!  He sensed Rey was hurt AND knew exactly what ship to attack because he “had a feeling.”  Is this going to go anywhere, or was it just a plot device so he could find the one ship he needed out of the entire fleet?

Where was Lando for the last 10-15 years (however long it was since Kylo’s fall and Luke’s exile)?  Where was Wedge Antilles who appeared in exactly one shot and then never again?  Where was Nien Nunb and why hasn’t his name ever been said on screen?  Speaking of names, I think Poe was the first person to ever actually say Snap Wexley’s name on screen, but even then only his nickname and not until he was shot out of the air and exploded.

Why did Zorri Bliss change her mind to much?  First she wants to kill Poe and sell out his friends, then she wants to run away with him and gives him her MacGuffin so he can slip onto the enemy ship, then she saves his ass during the final battle, then when he gives her the bedroom eyes she shakes her head to turn him down.  Why is she here?

How did Maz Kanata get Luke’s lightsaber?  How does Rey have the lightsaber after it was destroyed in The Last Jedi?  Canon nerd tech manuals say that kyber crystals are super important and that broken ones don’t work right (Kylo’s blade is all fizzly because his crystal is cracked), so how did Rey repair it?  Where did Rey get the crystal for her yellow saber?  I heard someone say that it’s actually white and it’s supposed to be a combination of the classic blue, green and red saber colors, but she didn’t have Luke’s green saber, she had two blue sabers and Kylo threw his red one away.

And most importantly

Where is Baby Yoda?  Surely he has to be Little Kid Yoda by now; it’s been like 20 years since the events of The Mandalorian.

I don’t even enjoy this franchise anymore.  I know my opinion doesn’t matter, so I’m just gonna stop giving it.  I’m done with Star Wars media.  I’m not gonna watch it anymore; no anthology films, no more saga episodes (because we all KNOW x, xi and xii are in the works no matter what Disney says), no streaming service shows, no cartoons, no books, no video games (I never played the video games anyway), no theme park rides, no more moichendising

[straightfacedstrangeness]

Okay, these are not expert/Hardcore Nerd opinions, but I’m so used to being surrounded by Star Wars and keep being surprised that other people aren’t, so...Some Kind Of Star Wars viewing guide for people who aren’t into Star Wars

STARting point:

Basically, if you like robots, aliens, and big space battles (and/or are a special effects or sci-fi design nerd), you’ll probably enjoy Star Wars.  If you don’t...the writing and acting quality varies from version to version, and between different movies in the same trilogy.  Star Wars is more a thing to enjoy because it’s fun, not to appreciate as high art (unless, again, you’re a nerd for special effects or design).

The original movie, aka Episode 4: A New Hope, is the best starting point because it sets up the central characters and conflict, is a lot of fun, and if nothing else you’ll get like 60% of the Star Wars references people make.

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is also a lot of fun and could be watched as a standalone, but the plot can be hard to follow, and the other Prequel movies (Eps 2 & 3) are best viewed through the lens of “how does this inform the events of the Original Trilogy” since they’re kind of awkward, confusing, and depressing without that context.  Only start with 1: The Phantom Menace if you have some nostalgia for it.

Episode 7: The Force Awakens is also a lot of fun and has the added bonus of a more diverse cast, but it and its sequels heavily build on and reference the events of the Original Trilogy.  The basic plotline of “evil fascists VS people trying to stop them” is probably easy enough to follow, though, so you can probably start here if you’re okay with getting some Original Trilogy spoilers, but you’ll most likely want to watch The Original Trilogy before watching 8 or 9.

Rogue One and Solo take place before The Original Trilogy and can probably be viewed first if you like the cast or concept of either (Rogue One: “here are the people on the ground doing the hard work that sets up the other heroes’ victories,” Solo: “it’s a heist movie IN SPACE!”), but they’re fairly dark by comparison and some of the big reveals or other details might make more sense with the context of seeing the Original Trilogy first.

The Mandalorian takes place on the fringes of the Star Wars universe and barely references any events or characters from the rest of the franchise (and even then, neither the audience nor the main character are expected to know who or what they are), so you can start here if you don’t mind minor spoilers for who won the (Original Trilogy) war.

The Original Trilogy (4, 5 & 6, 1970s-80s)

Lots of fun, heavily referenced in pop culture, great designs and cool puppetry and other practical special effects.  These are the movies with Mark Hamill as Luke, Carrie Fisher as Leia, and Harrison Ford as Han Solo.  All of them are great and bring a lot of charisma and humanity to their performances.  4: A New Hope is the really iconic one and is mostly a fun adventure through space.  A lot of people love 5: The Empire Strikes Back because it’s darker and hate 6: The Return Of The Jedi because it’s sillier, but honestly, it comes down to personal preference.

Once you’ve seen The Original Trilogy, you can freely watch either of the other movie Trilogies.  Just watching 4 is enough to let you skip over to the standalone movies or the TV show The Mandalorian.

The Prequel Trilogy (1, 2 & 3, 1990s-2000s)

These are the movies with Ewan McGregor as young Obi-Wan, Hayden Christensen as Anakin, and Natalie Portman as Padmé.  A lot of people shit on these for being “bad movies,” and yes the acting is often flat, the plots can be hard to follow (Original Trilogy is a simpler “bad government VS good rebels,” Prequel Trilogy has a lot of political manipulation and nuance but doesn’t explain it much), and a lot of it is watching people making decisions that you know from the Original Trilogy are going to turn out badly.  But I unironically love them, and they have really amazing design and special effect work (the CGI of course looks dated now, but it’s still phenomenal), and a lot of fun moments.  1: The Phantom Menace is another fun adventure through space, but with a lot of awkwardly racist alien caricatures who are thankfully played down or removed from the other movies.  2: Attack Of The Clones is a space adventure with an unfortunately uncomfortable romantic subplot, and 3: Revenge Of The Sith is relentlessly dark but I like the emotional drama of it.  Again, either you’ll think they’re fun or you won’t.

Like I said above, these are best watched after having seen the Original Trilogy, to inform the backstory and characters’ actions, VS being watched as standalone movies.

The Sequel Trilogy (7, 8 & 9, 2010s)

These are the movies with Daisy Ridley as Rey, John Boyega as Finn, Oscar Isaac as Poe, and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren.  Like with the Original Trilogy, all of them are great and bring a lot of fun and depth to their characters, and also 7: The Force Awakens is a fun space adventure, and people are divisive over 8 and 9, 8: The Last Jedi being darker and 9: The Rise Of Skywalker being lighter...but with the added meta-drama that 9 spends the entire time trying to undo or contradict things that happened in 8 (and an extra level of meta-grossness in that 9 seems to bow to things that Toxic White Guy fans hated about 8, like removing a major WOC character).  I personally prefer 8 because it’s a neat subversion on a lot of accepted lore and concepts from the Star Wars franchise and was disappointed in 9 as a result.  But once again it comes down to a matter of taste, and at the end of the day the main thing about Star Wars is fun dialogue and cool sci-fi stuff.

These should be watched after The Original Trilogy because they heavily build on and reference the events of it, though 7: The Force Awakens is a reasonable “First Star Wars movie” if this is the version you’re most interested in...just with inherent spoilers for The Original Trilogy.

Standalone Movies (Rogue One & Solo, 2010s)

Rogue One takes place immediately before The Original Trilogy but is darker and more of a heavy action-drama about people making difficult choices, with a good, largely-POC cast.  Solo also takes place before The Original Trilogy, though I feel it has some clunky writing (a droid character who’s reasonably upset about the literal enslavement of her own kind is treated as delusional and comic relief??) and also gets pretty dark with lots of character deaths, but it has the fun of being a heist movie with a conscience.

Like I said above, these can prrrrobably be watched without Original Trilogy context, but at least Rogue One is probably more rewarding if you’ve already seen 4: A New Hope.

The Mandalorian (TV show, 2020s)

This is the show with “armor guy and Baby Yoda” X’D  It’s basically a Western about a guy drifting from town to town across space and helping people with their problems...which mostly involve fighting and killing people.  As always, amazing designs and special effects, and I find the writing consistently compelling.  There are a lot of bonuses if you recognize a character, character design, or prop design from another Star Wars media, but since you don’t need to know them in order to understand the episode you’re watching, you may not even realize they’re references (which is the BEST way to do a reference).

This takes place immediately after The Original Trilogy, but you can watch this first if you don’t mind knowing who wins the war.  Though there are a few worldbuilding details (like being able to recognize the evil Empire’s uniforms or ships) that are probably a bit less confusing or a bit more rewarding if you've at least seen 4: A New Hope.

Other Media

I haven’t seen/read/etc much of any Star Wars except what’s listed above, so I can’t really offer any advice here.  But the CGI TV show The Clone Wars probably relies on you knowing the plot of Prequel Trilogy eps 1 and 2 (since it takes place between 2 and 3)...and if you’re jumping into some other Star Wars media and you can’t understand what’s going on, look at its copyright date and check what movies came out before it did, to gauge what you’d need to watch for context.  But all the movies only rely on knowledge of other movies, the other media are about fleshing out other aspects of the universe or things that happened between/before/after the movies.

Otherwise all I can say is that the Star Wars: Droids cartoon from 1985 is delightful and the few eps I’ve watched don’t require any Star Wars knowledge whatsoever.  (It’s long out-of-print but some kind soul put it on YouTube.)

[botslayer]

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) review (Long)

Star Wars has a place in all of our hearts, I think. This series has had literally galactic-scale highs and lows. Be it the video games, the movies, the comics, the novels, what have you, Star Wars is one of, if not THE biggest sci-fi universe in the world and one of the most important in all of nerd culture. After the controversial madness that was EVERYTHING about The Last Jedi, I felt the need to see this one. How does this new Trilogy end? Is it any good? Well, let's dig in. 1. Technical aspects The movie looks good for the most part. It's a lot of good CGI and descent puppetry, a lot of explosions, and a lot of color. All the places that the movie goes do feel genuinely unique to one another, so points there, I guess. But it has some serious issues with the editing. The editing is god awful for most of the movie, the camera flips around too much, I think. I don't want constant tracking shots but they keep jump-cutting all over rooms and very suddenly for scene transitions. There are a fair amount of wipes but only one scene transition actually stood out to me at the very start of the movie, everything else was kinda dull. This has to be addressed, Carrie Fisher is still in this movie. What they did was cut snippets of her head out of unused footage from Force Awakens and Last Jedi, then put it relatively well over the face of a body double. This allows her to exist in the movie but it isn't good. From an ethical standpoint and from how it affects the flow of her scenes. Her tone of voice doesn't feel right for any of the scenes she's in and her answers to what people say are usually just kinda weird, as well as what people say whilst responding to her. 2. Acting and characters (very lite Spoilers) The acting in the movie is okay generally. It's nothing to write home about though. It's solid and generally does the job but the characters themselves are a different story. One problem is that the movie introduces a shit ton of them, including but not limited too, (Spoiler warnings for this paragraph), Zorii Bliss, An old Spice running friend of Poe's who is trying to ape a Mandalorian (Like the society) vibe in the look of her outfit but doesn't do it well. Babu Frik, her tiny alien boss and a surprisingly tech-savvy little so-and-so. D-O, a small droid consisting of a cone head and a single wheel, voiced by JJ Abrahms. And Jannah, who like Finn, is a rogue Stormtrooper from the first order. Everyone and everything else introduced are just more generals for the "Final order" (A rebranding of the First Order) and a bunch of background aliens and stuff for the resistance. The main problem with these characters is none of them have time to develop because of how many are introduced. They try with Zorii, bless them, but her scenes are too short so her character doesn't "Develop" it just starts at one point and changes at the drop of a hat. And the returning Characters honestly aren't handled great either. Rey is okay for the most part, but Finn contributed just about nothing, Poe wasn't worth much more than a ride between planets, Kylo Ren goes back to wearing his old helmet for some reason and again, seems to change without much provocation. Leia's death is weird and kinda pointless, although I'm happy they won't do what they did again. The only consistently good, solid characters in the movie were the droids (Especially C3PO) and Chewbacca. Characters with very few lines or who literally cannot speak. That's such a weird thing to say, honestly. 3. Plot and thoughts as we go (Heavy Spoilers) A transmission has gone all across the galaxy, Emperor Palpatine lives. Kylo Ren is hunting for a "Sith Wayfinder" and Rey is training under Leia to become a better Jedi. Kylo finds the Wayfinder and goes to a sort of hidden Sith planet whereon he meets Palpatine, here it is revealed that Snoke was a clone made by Palpatine's servants, "The Nights of Ren" and that Palpatine was "Every voice Kylo heard in his head." (Not too subtle change into Darth Vader's voice as he speaks.) Kylo and Palpatine have a short exchange where the younger pledges both his and the First Order's services to him, in exchange, Palpatine will add a whole new fleet of Star Destroyers to them. Star Destroyers he literally just summons up from the ground. Hangar bay doors don't open, these things just slam up from the ground like titans of myth rising from ancient slumbers. And while that might sound cool, it comes with a lot of issues. For starters: Who made these things? The Knights of Ren? How old is that organization, then? How old are these ships? Why don't they have hangar doors overhead? Hell, we learn later that these things will bolster first Order forces by "Ten thousandfold." How many of these things are there? How many ships does the First Order (Now "The Final Order") have at this point? Anyway, back with the resistance. After a cameo by the best fictional game in the series, Holochess, we find that they're getting information from an ally I never caught the name of, flanked by some sort of weird alien on the ship who's apparently on a first name basis with Finn and Poe. We also learn the Final Order has a spy and a decent chase scene ensues. All well and good, but all this and the conspicuous lack of porgs makes me wonder how much time has actually passed between this movie and Last Jedi. Especially when we cut back to Rey who is trying to hear the voices of past Jedi but just realizes she can't and immediately drops the meditation in favor of running a training course. She ends up getting distracted while running it and accidentally drops a tree on BB8. She says to Leia that she will one day earn the right to use Luke's lightsaber... But it broke in the last movie. Again, can we please get a time stamp? Poe, Finn, Chewbacca, and their crew return, whereupon there's a kind of funny back and forth about what Rey did to BB8 and what Poe did to the Falcon during the chase. The highlight of which is "At least BB8 isn't on fire!" "What's left of him isn't!" During this breif stop, we learn that The Final Order is broadcasting their plans, in sixteen hours they will lay waste to entire worlds because as it turns out, the new ships that Palpatine gave them all have planet-destroying laser weapons on the bottom. A Fleet of Star Destroyers, each with Death Star-grade power. That's definitely upping the anti, I suppose. During this, we also learn that the "Wayfinder" Kylo went after is important because its the only way to find the planet Palpatine is holed up on, a world called "Exegol," you won't find it on any other maps. So the crew goes on a quest to find a man in service to the Sith, a bloke named "Ochi" who was last spotted on a planet called "Pasaana" because for some reason, Luke and Lando Calrissian were tracking him. The movie doesn't explain why they were after him, nor why they seemed to abandon the search. (Or when any of that happened, for that matter.) Our heroes journey to Pasaana where, as it turns out, there's a festival happening. One that celebrates family and ancestry. Cue the best comic relief in the movie, C3PO, as when Poe expresses that he isn't psyched about working with a crowd of people all around him, C3PO expresses elation, "We are very lucky, it only comes once every Forty-Two years--" Etc. Honestly, C3PO is the best part of the movie. As the resistance crew goes about the Festival, Rye gets a necklace from a local who asks for her family name, not just her given, but Rey just says she doens't have a family name. Kylo contacts Rey with their weird psychic bond they had in Last Jedi, and they have an interesting exchange about the last movie and her wanting to take his hand at the end but deciding against it, and how when he offers it this time, she will take it. He steals the necklace Rey got from off her throat because as established in TLJ, he can do stuff like that. He has Final Order members analyze the necklace and learns of the planet Rey and her cohorts are on while they gad about the festival looking for any sort of clues or leads. They end up getting found by Final Order Troopers, but saved by Lando, apparently, Leia told him where they were. They mention the resistance could use his help, but he just says that his flying days are behind him before he sends them off. The gang is followed by Final Order troopers, resulting in a chase scene, one I quite like. The Final Order has jet troopers now, and the crew basically just have their sidearms as weapons, having stolen vehicles from the locals. It's a very intense action scene, even when the crew crashes into "Not-quite-quicksand." Everyone starts sinking in and Finn says he's always wanted to tell Rey something. What it is goes unanswered as he sinks down. The lot of them have fallen into a cavern of some sort. They explore the cave until they find two things, Ochi's land cruiser, and Ochi, who as it turns out is long dead, nothing more than bones and whatever he had on him at the time. Rey digs through his body and finds a scary-looking dagger that has most definitely been used for some less than savory deeds, Rey sensing the negative force energy off it. 3PO tells them that the inscriptions all over the dagger are in Sith Runic. He CAN translate it, but he can't say it aloud. It has to do with Old Republic regulations on translation modules. They keep the dagger, at least. There's also a giant serpent, one the cast calm into letting Rey get close, whereupon we learn she has the ability to force-heal injuries. The snake lets them out and she explains that it's basically channeling some of her own life force into whatever she's healing, and when she sees Ochi's ship, she's unnerved. She knows it from the day her parents left her. Some true madness begins to unfold as Kylo shows up in his ship and Rey cuts one of the wings off, forcing it to crash. Chewbacca is captured and ostensibly killed accidentally by Rey because she summons force lightning and blows his transport's engines. There's another brief exchange with Kylo about him seeing the lightning for real, thus her capacity for darkness, before Finn and Poe tell her they NEED to leave. They do and Kylo radios for pick up as the Final Order literally toes the Millenium Falcon into a Star Destroyer. It is here we learn that Kylo knows about the spy in their ranks and that Chewbacca survived. While they waddle about in Ochi's ship, thinking of a plan, C-3PO reveals that there IS a way to get a translation out of him. Essentially they need to do a factory reset. This means 3PO will lose all memories of his friends and life. But what is that compared to a galaxy dominated by fear? Poe knows the man for the job, trouble is they need to go to a world called "Kijimi" where Poe made a booboo before joining the resistance. But again, literal planets worth of lives are at stake, so he swallows his lack of pride and they go. A not bad tracking shot of Poe creeping around the streets and finding it crawling with Final Order troopers later, his mistake comes up to him. Both her pistols drawn, and one to his head. We learn that "Zorii" and Poe's old outfit were spice runners, and their old friend "Babu Frik" is the guy they'll need to crack 3PO's head open. Babu only sees people who are part of the crew, which Poe no longer is. They eventually convince her and the other spice runners to let them in. There's a genuinely heart-wrenching moment where 3PO goes completely silent before the process gets going and he says he's just taking one last look at his friends. Meanwhile, we see Poe and Zorii on top of a building, Poe mentions how no one came after the last movie, their distress call was for nothing. Way to invalidate the most controversial movie in the series, you dolts. Also, Zorii seems to have changed for no reason. She went from not wanting to look in Poe's general direction to inviting him out to her new life as a farmer on some rock at the fringes of the galaxy. Poe turns her down because he has a war to fight, whether or not he wins. She gives him a First Order Captain's badge, which would allow docking in any Final Order ship or planet because the rebranding is only so recent, I guess. C-3PO gets rebooted and the crew learns what the inscription on the dagger means, but again, the cost is 3PO's memory. He reboots and introduces himself as "C-3PO, human-cyborg relations, who are you?" Babu introduces himself and Rey fixes the wheel on a robot found on Ochi's ship, a little cone head thing we don't learn the name of until about an hour later, "D-O." At about this point, Rey realizes what's in orbit just overhead, Kylo's flagship... And Chewbacca inside. The crew boards the ship to free Chewy and get the Falcon back, along the way, Rey mind tricks a couple of troopers, the crew shoots a few dead, and then she goes off on her own, trying to find something. Her scenes on the flagship are pretty awesome, as she enters Kylo Ren's quarters and starts not only talking to him again but also fights him. This leads to some very interesting cinematography, a fight where when they accidentally break things in their respective locations, they appear in front of the other, so for example, Kylo is in the streets of the city the crew was in, specifically a market in it. He cuts open a pot full of berries/nuts and they all appear on the ground in his chamber while Rey is fighting him. It's pretty impressive. During the fight, we also learn A. the real reason Rey's parents sold her: Protecting her from her grandfather. B. Who this grandfather is. The Emperor. Rey is seriously Palpatine's granddaughter. C. Rey's parents died protecting her. Kylo learns she's in his quarters when she accidentally destroys a podium, on which was resting Darth Vader's semi-melted helmet. From there, it all spirals out, Ren has them lock down the ship, Rey snags the dagger and Chewy's gear, Chewy, Finn, and Poe are caught, only to find out that general Hux is the spy who saves them When his motives are questioned, Hux says he doesn't care if the resistance wins. He wants Kylo to lose. Rey and Kylo have one more confrontation before the falcon shows up and Rey literally leaps into space to get on the entrance to the falcon. Where Finn is. Audibly screaming at her. Y'all can say what you want about a downward bombing in space probably not working very well in Last Jedi, but this is a whole new level of bullshit. Rey leams OUT OF A RAY SHIELD into the vacuum of space. I don't care that Leia survived being out way longer in TLJ, at least she wasn't audibly saying things as she went, at least it felt like she was in space instead of just a big random fall. Also worth noting, to ver their escape, they blast the bad guys with the Falcon's engine trails, this burns or knocks back all the Troopers but Kylo, who is standing roughly the same distance as at least two of them, and Rey, who is closer than ANY of them are unaffected. This one moment is more agitating to me than most of The Last Jedi, honestly. There's Wardian grade plot armor, and then there's this. The crew gets away and Hux is killed by another general because he figured out that Hux was the spy, they end up at another planet because of the inscription and the Falcon crashes, drawing the attention of "Jannah" and her random tribe of people. They resolve to fix the Falcon while waiting for the water to calm, something they at once have zero choice or time for. Turns out the Sith Wayfinder is on a hunk of the second Deathstar. Rant to come. While waiting for the water to calm and repairing the Falcon, we learn Janna is a rogue Storm Trooper, just like Finn. Her entire company was meant to open fire on civilians, but ALL OF THEM refused. Finn mentions he didn't think there were others but I have to question where Jannah's entire unit gets off doing that. How did all of them fight their programming? Moving on, BB8 raises a concern, he hasn't seen Rey in a while. Turns out she stole the rogue trooper's sea skimmer and rides the waves JUST right, so she can make it to the chunk of Deathstar. I was never big into the idea that Rey was a Mary Sue until this happened. I was willing to write everything else off up to this point but NO. She has NEVER used something like this. She spent most of her damn life on a planet with NO water and no point actually drove anything like this save for the land boat she stole from the natives during the festival but even then, it didn't have the quirks this thing had (It's a repurposed ship of some sort, she needs to constantly raise and lower an arm of the ship to reduce drag, I suppose.) I know this seems like the most random thing to officially stand in that camp, but what's that old saying about straws and camel's backs? Rey goes to the shard of the Deathstar and starts exploring, it's full of old classic Storm Trooper outfits, mostly helmets. She goes to the Emperor's old throne room and through an old door, she ends up in a kind of trippy, maze-like space until she finds the Wayfinder and faces a seemingly Sithified version of herself with a dark robe and a collapsable double-sided lightsaber. This version of her fights her for all of four seconds and is never seen again because normal Rey flees out of the room and into Kylo Ren's waiting gaze. Now, my question is WHY would Palpatine keep one of these things on the Deathstar 2? In case he wanted to go to Exegol? Why not keep it in a more remote location than about thirty feet to your left? It's an ancient Sith artifact, you'd figure he'd be more protective of it. But nooo. So Kylo breaks the Wayfinder Rey found, wasting all of our time, before engaging in a lightsaber fight on the outside of the ruins. Finn and Jannah catch up to see this but can't do anything, partly because if they don't hug the ground, the turbulent water below will likely send a wave up just high enough to knock them into the ocean, Rey and Kylo, however, are clear I guess because they have higher ground away from the tides, they still get sprayed a lot. The fight ends with Leia dying from using what's left of her energy to reach her son, Rey stabbing and then healing Kylo before she leaves in his ship. The crew, save for Rey, and Jannah's rogues join up with the rest of the resistance where they find out what happened, and Chewbacca loses it. The Wookie collapses to his knees and starts screaming and wailing, beating into the ground, etc. He's lost all his human friends, 3PO's mind is wiped, the only things left from the good old days are R2 and the Falcon. This is a genuinely harrowing moment for longtime fans, I think. Meanwhile, Rose Tico shows up for the second time this entire movie, the first time being her explaining why she can't go with, she has lines that could have been given to almost any rando in the resistance which is honestly a shame. Then we cut to Ahch-To, The planet Luke exiled himself to in Force Awakens and TLJ, to find Rey burning Kylo's ship and very nearly, Luke's lightsaber. Luke's ghost shows up, catching the saber, and giving her a pep talk, telling her he knows now that exiling himself was stupid and that she needs to face the darkness in herself and the galaxy head-on. That delusion she saw getting her Wayfinder wasn't the first, she's seen herself ruling at Kylo's side as the empress, but given Luke's Pep talk, him showing her a spare lightsaber that used to belong to Leia, and the fact that Kylo had HIS Wayfinder in his spare ship, Rey agrees to continue fighting the good fight. But how will she leave the planet? Luke's force ghost raises Red five from the ocean. I'm not kidding, he literally just force lifts it with some show-offy joy. That thing has been waterlogged for how long? Even assuming Rey could fix it, where the hell is she getting fuel for it? Back with Kylo, we see him gawking out over the sea, a familiar old voice starts talking to him. Han Solo's ghost shows up and they start having a heart to heart oddly reminiscent of the one they had in Force Awakens. Han says he knew his son was in there somewhere, and when Ren says "Your son is dead" Han says "No, Kylo Ren is." In that spirit, I will now refer to Kylo as "Ben" for the rest of the review. Ben throws his lightsaber into the ocean and is left to his own devices by his dad's ghost. The resistance somehow knows that there are radio towers on Exegol that help the ships navigate through the constant storms and rain, Poe and Finn organize a plan, to distract the ships while a ground force attacks the tower and Chewbacca will go off and send another distress signal, allowing others to join the battle if they can. They come up with this because D-O has the plans for the ships and the like stored in his head if memory serves, and also 3PO gets his memory back, R2 had a back up, wouldn't you know it? The Resistance charges into battle against the Final Order over Exegol, And thus begins a fun clusterfuck of lasers and explosions. As one expects from this trilogy. Now, the first order has this actually brilliant moment when they realize they can shut down the tower, and start broadcasting the same helpful signals from one of the ships themselves. Which they do, this allows them to down some Resistance ships before Finn sees what's happening and has them do a ground invasion style attack ON that ship. As in they deploy troops over the top of it ON HORSEBACK. Honestly one of those things that's so loveably stupid. They end up in conflict with a bunch of troopers on top of the ship as they look for weak spots to plant bombs or the like. Rey, meanwhile, has snuck into the Emperor's hiding place, just as Ben lands on the planet. There's a lot of running around on all sides, dogfights under and around the larger ships, Ben fighting knights of Ren with just his bare hands and the Force, Rey being lured into Palpatine's grasp, Finn and Jannah's group shooting at troopers and passing ships as they look for weak spots. It would have all been fairly tense if the editing wasn't done by a coked-up squirrel. Almost nothing feels impactful in the fights, there are too many cuts in scenes largely about singular or just two characters. There are good elements to all this but I didn't care enough about most of these people. for it to mean much. Also worth noting: not much can be done. They've already lost so many pilots, soldiers, and fighters, Finn and Jannah's group haven't fulfilled their goal yet, Palpatine is giving Rey a very "Let the hate flow through you" speech about how it's all pointless and her friends are doomed, but if she kills him, and becomes the empress, the Final Order will be hers to control, she agrees for a moment, letting a bunch of the Knights of Ren and Palpatine begin ritual chanting as a horde of them look on, Poe is out of hope. Rey is about to give in and Ben is surrounded with no weapon. All hope is lost... Until Rey enters another sort of shat with Ben and gives him the lightsaber she was moments ago going to kill the Emperor with. Ben strikes down his aggressors and makes his way to Rey and the Emperor, they slaughter the knights in the immediate vicinity. While that's happening, an entire fleet of random people shows up to help the resistance. Zorri and Babu are right next to the Falcon, which contains not only Chewbacca but Lando. The fight begins anew as Finn and Jannah blow the antennae in the ship they're on and cripple the Final Order Fleet. Now all the Resistance has to do is blast the planet-killing lasers and the entire ship they're rigged up to will also be destroyed... Which makes some sense but is still a pretty massive design flaw. Down with Rey, Ben, and Palpatine, the youngsters try to strike the Emperor down, only to basically have their life forces partly fed upon. Ben goes flying down a naturally formed cave shaft, presumably to his doom. Palpatine has regenerated from the life steal thing and sits on this massive stone Sith throne just under the battle in the sky, and in a moment so absurd I was dumbstruck when it happened, sends lightning up into the sky. A massive MASSIVE pillar of it, so massive that not only does it reach the sky, but when it does, it fans out and strikes dozens, if not hundreds, of resistance ships, taking them right out of the sky. This guy is over a hundred years old, several of which he was DEAD for and for some reason now, he has power I would only be able to describe as "Godlike" for no damn reason. I forgot to mention earlier that he didn't live through being exploded in ep 6. He brought himself back to life somehow, just wrote it off as his access to the dark side. He still looked terrible though, like he was actually a corpse with rotten hands and pure white eyes and all that. But somehow, two random idiot children's life forces, nowhere near in their totality, are enough to rejuvenate him and give him power unseen by most of the deadliest Sith in all of Star Wars. Vader's apprentice from The Force Unleashed wasn't this fucking OP. The worst he did could be chalked up to gameplay, this one-man lightning storm bullshit is actually canon, though. So this creates a problem: How does Rey defeat someone with the power of a god on her own? She ignites Leia's old lightsaber from when Luke was training her and then redirects the Emperor's lightning back into his face, destroying his head. From there, the Final Order's fleet is destroyed and Finn and Jannah are rescued from a fiery death as the ship they're on starts crashing to the ground, I guess being the only surviving members of their attack squad.   Ben climbs out of the shaft and gives his life force to bring Rey back from the dead, they share a kiss and Ben dies, allowing Rey to flee in the Red Five, much to everyone's relief. There are celebrations and hints of things to come, including Lando taking Jannah with him on adventures through the stars, Rose hugging some dude who ISN'T Finn, much to Finn's annoyance, and Zorii and Poe exchanging wordless gestures. The final scene is Rey going to the old Skywalker Moisture farm to burry Luke and Leia's lightsabers just outside the house. How she knew where the farm was or why she buries them is anyone's guess. She pulls out a new lightsaber, a Yellow one. Which... Okay, I guess but where did she get it? Did she make it? How? Where? Did she just find it somewhere? How? Where? But anyway, an old woman comes walking by and mentions that the hasn't been anyone at the farm in so long and asks Rey who she is. Rey says "My name is Rey." "Rey Who?" Luke and Leia's force ghosts appear and smile at Rey. She proudly announces that she is "Rey Skywalker." And her and BB8 watch the suns over Tatooine set. The end. 4. A Nitpick? Some of these are just little things I couldn't find a good place to put elsewhere: In flashbacks, we see Luke training Leia a bit, in those scenes, her lightsaber is green. In the modern-day, for whatever reason, it's blue. I'm not sure if that's an oversight or not. Also worth asking: Where is Luke's personal saber? I did some research and he apparently reclaimed it at some point in the EU (Which is no longer canon) but even in Last Jedi, the last we see of it is him almost using it on a young Ben Solo. Where the hell did it go? 5. Conclusion I see this movie has it’s good bits but it isn't enough to make up for how shoddy the overall product is. There are too many new characters to let even the pre-established ones breathe, let alone each other, the editing was total garbage to the point where I genuinely got a headache, the plot invalidates both episodes eight AND six, while itself being kind of terrible... Nothing can kill Star Wars for me. This movie certainly tried. TL;DR: Do not watch this trash, I don't care if it's your first Star Wars film of if you're a long-time viewer, it isn't worth your time or money. Merry Christmas, everyone, and have a happy new year.  (FTR: This is something I stole from my own deviantART, I’m not plagiarizing shit, I’m just copypasting myself and adding edits if I see hiccups in the future.) 

[renesassing]

GIVE US MORE LORE OF YOUR REVAN PLS!!!

hey thank u for asking!! tbh i’ve been sorta avoiding going into too much detail about my revan bc 1. this is supposed to be an art blog FKKAFK and 2. i like people being able to identify their own revans in my content but also i have a lot of hcs about revan from trying to write them over the years. 

anyway in the but you’re gonna regret it because boy is there a lot. here are some general things that i kept to bullet points so i didn’t go off on weird tangents for three paragraphs. it still ended up long tho so it’s under a read more.

in terms of moral alignment, they’re lawful neutral leaning towards lawful good, but in terms of the force alignment they’re more on the dark side. (i keep getting lawful good when i do alignment quizzes for them, yikes). a really good example of ‘terrible things with the best of intentions’ and how ultimately intent doesn’t matter when weighed against actions and their terrible consequences. 

revan is a firrerreo, which is a legends canon sw species that doesn’t have a lot of lore so that means i get to expand on it a lot. their species and culture do factor a lot into why they’re the person they became, more than i initially anticipated when i made them a firrerreo (at the time, it was entirely because the two-tone hair and gold skin was cool)

their playthrough is a light-side ending if only because they didn’t remember enough about being revan to actually be on the dark side. they wept when they struck malak down, held him close as he spoke his last, but it didn’t feel like their own grief. they killed him without knowing him. (and that it something that they’ll never forgive the jedi for)

i’ve mentioned this before (in the context of the prequel au) but they view love as a weakness, to the point of fearing it. revan has always been too much– too much power, too much passion, and a lot of their youth was spent desperately trying to suppress their emotive outbursts. they’re sentimental and clingy but they consider these to be dangerous flaws, and pre-kotor actively worked to hurt the people close to them in order to drive them away. this is also the source of their distaste for force bonds

both the exile and revan were powerful, emphatic force-sensitives who could form attachments/bonds easily, the major difference being that revan realized what those bonds meant and that terrified them. (loving someone requires that you give them a piece of yourself, whether they know they have it or not. and revan has always been scared of being broken.) 

pretty much all of the shitposting i’ve drawn with revan is 100% in-character for my revan. they are absolute garbage, have a terrible sense of humor, and will gladly take advantage of their terrifying reputation in order to fuck with people. 

just imagine you’re fucking atton rand or a sith acolyte or some shit and you’re minding your own goddamn business, doing your job for the new sith empire and you see revan doing this at 2am. you want to tell people what you’ve seen but you know no one will believe you. (malak would, but he wouldn’t say anything)

they weaponized their aura in the force as both a jedi and a sith (and on may levels subconciously) and most notable is the active dread and literal chill that would set in that precedes their arrival when they’re channeling the dark side.

revan is, somewhat surprisingly considering how larger-than-life they are, a bit shy. they don’t show a lot of skin and tend to avoid crowded areas.

they enjoy gardening/agriculture and they’re a huge botany nerd. honestly if the mandalorians had never invaded they would’ve just caused general chaos in the jedi order and made themself a farm where they could make new varieties of plants in peace. (it was in fact, their interest in agriculture that would drag them into politics as they spend most of their padawan years following their respective masters around during the restoration efforts post-great sith war)

they dance like a drunken rancor but they have a voice that could make a sullustan weep. as a child they used to sing into the peaks they called home, and the mountains would sing with them. had they stayed on their homeworld they would have likely become a shepard, calling the herds home with mountainsong. as there is, a few holos exist featuring a young and wasted jedi knight crooning in a dingy cantina in coruscant’s undercity to the delight of cheering patrons while another, not-as-drunk young jedi desperately tries to drag them off of the bar.

they have no concept of how to live for themselves. revan fought the mandalorians not for themself or any personal loss of their own, but for the sake of others. (if you think about it, you could say they went to war for alek’s sake.) even when they were conquering the galaxy they were doing it on the belief that it was ultimately for the betterment of all of the galaxy’s citizens. post-kotor they’re completely adrift and struggling with how to reassemble their personal identity. 

they’re a self-martyr to the point of unhealthiness; one of their flaws is their belief that everything is their responsibility, especially related to the wars they waged. and while they are definitely responsible for a lot of shit (and more than a few war crimes), they have a tendency to remove the agency of all the people that willingly followed them.

revan never wanted to be ‘redeemed’ and do not consider the jedi brainwashing them to be a redemption. they will stand by the decisions they’ve made, even if they do in fact regret it, because they believe to do anything else would be making light of all the blood on their hands.

post-kotor, they never fully recovered their memories. between the initial head trauma and the jedi brainwashing, they’ve been left with significant psychological damage and suffer from memory errors. at times they are unable to distinguish the difference between their ‘true’ self and the person the jedi turned them into, both in terms of personality and experiences.

one of the more significant things lost is revan’s true name; firrerreo culture dictates that names are sacred and are not meant to be known by anyone but those most important to you. few people knew revan’s true name. malak tried to call them by it as he died, but they couldn’t understand him at the time, and so the knowledge more or less died with him. (this is lowkey bc i never really came up with a name for my revan lmao) 

the disparity between Lyn, their Jedi™ Sponsored Personality and the Revanchist, the Sith Lord is honestly the only reason they didn’t go full dark again after regaining the bulk of their memories.

while they’ve always been critical of the jedi in the past, post-kotor revan has a deep and personal hatred for the order (not nessecarily individuals so much as the general group and their code/philosophies) due to the whole brainwashing thing.