#whats cooler than darth vader? nothing next question

[autismmydearwatson]

"Erm hello how could you like or admire this character when they x and x and x and x and x"

simple really. They're not a real person. They are a character who has a purpose in moving the plot forward and that purpose is kicking ass

[capricornus-rex]

A Shadow of What You Used to Be (10)

Chapter 10: A Home Away | Cal Kestis x Irele Skywalker

Cal Kestis x Fem! OC

Requested by Anon

Summary: There is another! Years after young Anakin Skywalker departed Tatooine, his mother Shmi delivers a second child—this time, a daughter. Whilst the circumstance of the girl’s birth remains unexplained, Irele Skywalker has yet to choose the true path between those laid out for her.

Tags: Fem! OC, Irele Skywalker, Force-sensitive! OC, Anakin’s Younger Sister, Skywalker! OC, Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice, Long-lost Sibling

Requesting to be tagged: @heavenly1927​

Also in AO3

Chapters: Prelude – 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 | Previous: Part 9 | Next: Part 11 | Masterlist

11 of ?

The maintenance droids only needed an hour to prepare a dorm for Irele within the command ship. Not that she would need a personal room in every ship she boards, but it would help if she did in the near future. The human guards did not need to wait for Irele to come to, they barged into the cell, pulled the poor girl by the arm to stand her up and then drag her out of the prison block while she could barely use her own two feet.

Irele’s eyes have not adjusted to the changing tones and gradients of lights of each part of the ship she passes through. She thought she said the question “Where are we going?” when the guards only heard an incoherent groaning at the throat.

The way from the prison block to her new chambers was a ten-minute walk, if one marched faster it would have been lesser. Upon reaching their destination, only one escorted her into her room and sat her down on the bed—to which she immediately fell limp and ended up lying down instead. While she was out cold, a nanny droid entered her bedroom to tend to whatever it can in the quarters; it took its time, in fact, until the girl came to. The droid’s sensors picked up the spike from Irele’s heart rate from slow to normal, it briskly turned around.

“It is fortunate that you’ve come to, milady. The serum from the probe has completely worn off. Should you feel slight nausea, do not be alarmed for it is normal as well. I can administer some painkillers to you with your choice of pill or syrup.”

The droid is programmed to speak in Basic and had a rather lulling, female voice—perhaps the most appropriate if you are to manufacture and program a droid for nursing.

“Milady? What are you talking about? Who are you? What are you?”

“You are here as a ward under the strict order of Master Vader. I am HY-L33, Nanny Droid,” it brought its head into a bow, “At your service, Milady Irele.”

“Why call me Milady when I’m kept hostage here?” she sits up and examines the room.

“Oh, you are mistaken, Milady. You are Lord Vader’s ward,” HY-L33 corrects. “And I have been tasked to take care of your basic needs and whims, if need be.”

“What I need is to go home! I don’t like being holed up in anywhere!”

The nurse droid lowered its head slowly, it stayed like so for a moment; with a rather sympathetic voice, HY-L33 responds, “I’m sorry, but I am incapable of fulfilling that whim, milady. I would suggest that you make yourself comfortable in this new one.”

Irele sighed, knowing that she’s talking to a wall here. She gave herself time to calm down and breathe. She passed her hands across her face and sighed.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be lashing out to you…” Irele inhaled. “What are you called again?”

“HY-L33, madam.”

Irele quietly parroted the name, “That’s a mouthful. How about I call you Haylee, is that alright?”

“If it proves to be more convenient for you, milady. Although personally, I do adore the name you’ve given me.”

Irele hummed as she managed a small smile, she hinted the chirp from the droid’s voice, relieved that she found some company out of the droid in this inorganic, cold room, she walked around to get a better feel of it now that the serum from the interrogation droid has worn off.

“Say, Haylee, do you know where we are?”

“We are aboard the command ship Anathema, the ship is within the Ulgoro system, and we are passing by the orbit of the planet Yelen.”

“How far are we from Tatooine?”

Haylee ran a quick scan from her processors, “We are approximately twenty-five parsecs away from the said Outer Rim planet.”

Irele breathed deeply, her heart sank, “That’s so far away…”

The droid’s photoreceptors picked up Irele’s increased heart rate and temperature. The girl was manifesting signs of anxiety: shivering hands, failing voice, and cold sweat.

“You are suffering from homesickness. Unfortunately, I do not have the appropriate medication for that, milady. Neither can I administer any medication for you. This is absolutely natural as you have been extracted from your real home to your current location.”

Irele took the deepest sigh and made a mantra.

Don’t lash out on the droid, you just screamed at it ten minutes ago.

She told this to herself mentally until she’s calmed herself down.

“Yeah, I am homesick. I left my family behind and…” she trailed off, realizing that the last people she was with were her friends. “My friends. They must be all worried sick about me.”

“You will be well taken care of here, Lady Irele.”

“Heh,” the girl huffed. “No need to be so formal. Just call me Irele.”

“As you wish… Mistress Irele.”

“Droids, gotta love ‘em…” she mumbled very quietly, knowing how acute droids’ hearing could be—depending on the model, that is.

–

Fortunately enough, Irele is indeed being taken care of.

Ever since she was moved to her own chambers in the Star Destroyer Anathema, she was thoroughly pampered—more or less—than anyone else in the ship, aside from Darth Vader. Never has she ever been well-fed in sixteen years! The serving portions were generous and they were quite tasty, but she had her moments where the food somewhat reminded her of home.

A uniformed officer enters Vader’s quarters to report of Irele’s adjustment to the new environment. Most of the officers feared that they’re speaking like a broken record, reporting the same thing to Vader every week—they had probably imagined it vexed him to be hearing the same thing over and over; it did them little comfort when adding their own personal observations of her such as asking for seconds with her food and interacting with the nanny droid, since she’s still shy and cautious from everyone else on board.Additionally, she was not yet allowed to wander off alone beyond her room. So, by all means, she is pretty much a hostage still—a rather pampered one, at the very least.

“Has she stopped her erratic behavior?”

“Fortunately so, Lord Vader, she has. Perhaps about a week and a half since her extraction, she had become somewhat… docile.”

Vader paused. He had presumed it was the effects of the interrogator droid’s syringe, but surely during the time the nanny droid was tending to the girl, the substance has flushed out since. Realizing that he truly knows nothing of what kind of person Irele is—compared from his earliest reference of her—he sighs with a quiet frustration under his mask.

“Very well. We are right on schedule. Carry on, captain.”

“Yes sir,” the captain bowed and dismissed himself militarily. His true posture showed when he rejoined his companion who had been waiting for him by the door. He hissed, “I didn’t conscript myself to the Imperial Fleet to be a babysitter!”

“Be more frustrated when Lord Vader does appoint you the official babysitter of the girl.”

“She’s quite a handful, don’t you think so?”

“Temperamental, to say the least,”

Only Vader and the droid, HY-L33, know what’s in store for Irele. Very soon, the plans for her life under the Empire’s wing—unknowingly under her brother’s care, or the walking shell of him perhaps—will be put into play.

For many weeks, HY-L33 patiently watched over Irele—especially in the medical aspect—and a mandate was programmed into her that once a diagnosis of the teenager would show optimum by the end of three weeks since her extraction from Tatooine, Irele would be considered physically eligible and be subjected to training. Eventually, HY-L33 was the only companion she has ever had in this ship since day one; so in exchange for medical knowledge and advice from HY-L33, Irele repays it with stories from her homeworld of Tatooine, but knowing that the droid is under Imperial property, she was cautious of what she ought to say, and rather told her adventures she had done on her own or with a friend instead of her family life.

“It seems as though your rigorous lifestyle has contributed to your increased stamina throughout your developmental stage.” HYL-33 commented once while listening to Irele recall one job she did where she would deliver goods door-to-door across the town of Mos Espa.

“Yeah well, I had to work. Because if I didn’t work, that just meant, I’ll be sleeping hungry—or if I’m lucky, with a half-full stomach.”

HY-L33, being the medical nanny droid that she is, went on to lecture Irele that it was ill-advised to sleep on an empty stomach for it will cause ulcers. The girl politely listened and heeded the advice, until she calmed down the droid that she had been fine for the rest of the time she was growing up.

She had only been staying for a week and a half. HY-L33’s sensors indicate a lesser trace of homesickness and anxiety within Irele, her body mass index has not changed drastically at all since her food intake was increased rather than imposing an eating strike—a few of HY-L33’s references cite that most human teenagers are more rebellious, especially when it comes to being fed after being thrown into a stressful situation. However, this was not the case with Irele, which made the nurse droid’s circuits cooler.

Eventually, the three weeks were over. Irele noticed HY-L33 seeming to be in full preparation. She did not mind this, but kept a close eye, until she could find the right timing to ask. After lunch, Irele went to the bath by rote, and quickly dressed herself in a dark gray shirt, black pants, and low boots.

Irele could truly sense something different in their routine.

“Haylee?”

“Yes, Miss Irele?”

“Is there something new added into the routine?”

“Yes, Miss Irele, we are about to perform a full health assessment on you. Please follow me and I will escort you to the medical ward.”

This was the first time Irele had been outside of her bedroom. For three weeks, she had been holed up in that metal room with no one and nothing else but HY-L33—to which she had grown fond of anyway—and then she finally comes out for a medical check-up.

Along the way, she could not look into the eyes of the crew, although she perfectly blended in with her gray and black clothes. She was nervous and afraid of what they’re thinking of her—because she felt like she knows what they’re saying about her, it’s a feeling that she can’t explain but it still manifests in her. Eager to avoid the stares and attention, Irele walked directly behind HY-L33 until they got to the said medical ward.

When they got there, the interior of the medical ward was a little bit brighter than most of the rooms in the ship. The walls were still metal, of course, but it was a cooler shade of gray which somewhat eased the people who are admitted and confined here—instead of the intimidating dark grays and blacks on other parts of the ship. At the center of operations was a 2-1B surgical droid stationed by a medical bed; it was approached by HY-L33 and Irele, when the droid’s photoreceptors saw the girl’s face, a deep male tone started speaking in a monotonous, continuous fashion.

“Irele Skywalker, human female, age is sixteen standard years, height stands at five feet and three inches…”

“Okay, okay, I think we got enough of my vitals already!” Irele interrupted.

“Were you briefed of your purpose here?”

Irele made a side-eyed glance at HY-L33, who didn’t move at all, “I was only told I was getting a check-up.”

“Correct.”

The surgical droid cleared out what HY-L33 failed to when they were still in the bedroom. It started with the physical examination—taking down her age, height, and weight, until it pored into analyzing the fluid levels and vitals of her organs to see if they were normal. It was all strange for little Irele, but she held up and did as she was told. She wasn’t getting hurt by the droids anyway, save the one pinprick that they had to do in order to conduct a blood test.

From Vader’s chamber, he was receiving real-time transmissions of the medical ward’s database. Whatever diagnosis the droids encode into the database under Irele’s profile, Vader saw it all firsthand—every revision, every new entry, every number.

Midichlorian count: 20,598.

Seeing this number and then recalling his impression on Irele baffled Darth Vader.

This child has lived sixteen years in a backwater planet, with a high midichlorian count… and yet her sensitivity is dormant.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

FTWD 5x04: Analysis

Good morning everyone! So here is my analysis of FTWD 5x04: Skidmark. Buckle up because I’m about to get very long-winded! There are actually some great parallels in this episode. We didn't see any John or June in this episode, or any Althea. We did see a lot of Strand, Daniel, Luciana, Morgan, Alicia, and the kids.

I’m gonna warn you that I’m about to throw a lot of conjecture at you. I’m just seeing a lot of possibilities in these sequences and it gets my brain pumping.

Synopsis:

The crux of this is that youngest boy, Dylan, sent Morgan and Alicia looking for a phantom camp. He lied about its location. Then he secretly radioed his siblings, Max and Annie. While talking with them, he heard them get into trouble. In the end, we find out there's actually quite a few kids in this area. They’re the children of the people Morgan and Grace (the woman cleaning up fallout from nuclear plants) disposed of. I knew there had to be more than just these three kids setting up walkers. I was right about that. While we still don't know all the details or these kids’ complete back story, we have a better idea now.

Annie and Max saw and hid from a person wearing the same Darth Vader-like helmet and black uniform as the people who took Al. We can also confirm now that they’re the same group who took Rick and Jadis because while with the kids, Morgan and Alicia saw the same helicopter, complete with the three circles symbol on the side. The kids said that group had arrived in that helicopter some time ago, and are now leaving in it. The next question is, did Al leave with them? We won’t find out until next week.

In terms of Daniel and Strand, Charlie helped Daniel come around to sort of forgiving Strand, and allowing them to have the airplane. In the end Daniel left, saying he had other business to attend to. We don't know what that business is. I’m assuming we’ll get that information eventually. He seems to be leaving the group for now, though. Meanwhile, Strand used the plane, specifically the propellers, to save Daniel. He attracted the walkers into the turning propellers and pulverized them. (Ew.)

Daniel Stuff:

Charlie tries to hide from Daniel, but gets into he back of his black SUV and ends up stowing away there when he leaves.

I didn’t think much of this on first watch, but re-watching, something occurred to me. He got this SUV at the first store we saw him at. One reminiscent of the Big Spot. That may be significant. 

Then, when Charlie gets in, she uses hatchback door at the rear of the car to enter. It also occurred to me that this wasn’t the most logical place for her to hide. Car doors make noise when you open and close them, and there were about a hundred more convenient places she could have ducked into. To some extent, it’s obviously a plot device because they needed her to go with Daniel in this episode. But it also occurs to me that Charlie sort of accidentally ended up in the back of a car and was taken away (like Beth was to Grady). She later returned to help save both Daniel and her group. Just saying.

We had two different instances (another two) of Daniel trying to get guns and other supplies from a store. The first is in the opening sequence This story reminds me a LOT of the Big Spot in 4x01, and I think that’s purposeful. When Daniel loads his haul into the back of the black SUV, we see a blue cooler (remember @frangipanilove’s posts on coolers) in his cart. 

When he goes to the second market later with Charlie, there’s an “ICE” machine outside.

During this second excursion, when Charlie helped Daniel try to get the gun out of the store Charlie mentions peaches and artichoke hearts. I already had some idea what I thought this meant, but I looked up artichoke heart symbolism just to be sure.

Remember I’ve said that peaches usually represents weakness, or the bare minimum needed to survive, rather than the best. Obviously, this caught my attention because we saw peach schnapps with Beth. The symbolism holds there. Daryl said peach schnapps was a terrible drink, and it was very weak. He wanted Beth not only to have something better as her first drink, but something significantly stronger. So peaches = something weak or “the only thing left.” Rather than doing the easy thing (letting her just drink the peach schnapps) Daryl smashed it on the floor and insisted on going to find something better, which took more work and determination.

So the fact that Charlie mentioned peaches in article artichoke hearts, as though it were a range of something, struck me. She also mentions that no one usually takes artichoke hearts (path less travelled perhaps?) so they're always there.

Sure enough, it turns out artichoke hearts represent hope for a prosperous future. Especially because the core of the artichoke is a heart, it can also represent love and success in relationships. Just kind of an interesting symbol to juxtapose with peaches. I can't help but remember when Morales showed up in S8 and sarcastically called Rick “peaches.” You can see that it's a bitter symbol in TWD. One that doesn't inspire much love or kindness. But artichoke hearts are the opposite.

Granted, the symbol I think was mostly about Daniel. Him taking artichoke hearts rather than the peaches suggests him finally forgiving Strand and becoming a functional part of the group again. But it does back up other symbolism we've seen around Beth.

Charlie also mentions using music to distract walkers. Of course anything musical we tie to Beth, but this is also reminiscent of using music at the Big Spot to distract walkers in 4x01.

Essentially, Daniel was already doing this. He like to put a bell on his cat, Skidmark, to distract walkers. The jingle of the bell (music) is what distracted them. Later in the episode, we also see him actually take a boombox and lead walkers away. So the music was a big theme here.

When trying to get the gun with Charlie, the gun suddenly goes off, shooting through the window and freeing the walkers. Two important things here: I had to watch a few times, and the gun went off simply because the walkers ran into it and when they nudged it, it started firing. 

That’s exactly what happened in 7x12. One of the walkers walked into a gun and it started firing at Rick and Michonne. If you remember, this sequence in 7x12 was highly reminiscent of Alone, what with Michonne being in the trunk and all. And of course it’s where we saw the foreshadow of Rick's death fake out.

The second major thing here is that I noticed on the shelf in the background is, among other things (like peanut butter) a box of Frosted Flakes. So we can tie that to Frosty Cola, which we’ve seen several times around Beth. So here’s where this gets interesting. We have all the cooler/ice/frosted flakes stuff in locations that are reminiscent of the Big Spot from S4. We also have something reminiscent of 7x12, which foreshadowed Rick’s death fake out. AND we have a gun going off by accident and shooting the Frosted Flakes. If “frosty” = Dogstar symbolism = Beth, then this feels like a symbol of her being shot.

Not to mention, when the walkers get free and Daniel and Charlie run to the car, he calls his cat, Skidmark (you know the one who was making the music with the bell?) and it comes running and jumps into the car. Daniel says something about how one of these days he’s going to end up leaving Skidmark behind. 

So yeah, pretty on the nose. All the frosty/cooler stuff, gun going off, and mention of leaving someone behind.

Which leads me to all the resurrection symbolism in this episode. The 7x12 stuff makes me think they might be foreshadowing another death fake out. And yet, it’s different than 7x12. We didn’t see any deer and we didn’t see any minor fake outs, like we did with Rick and the yellow ride car in 7x12. So it’s almost like it’s trying to remind us of the resurrection symbolism without actually being a foreshadow itself. Given that we saw the helicopter that took Rick away at the end of this episode, perhaps that makes sense. Maybe it shows that we’re about to see a fulfillment of sorts of this, by learning where Rick went and what he might be up to.

Then there’s the cat itself. Again, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but some of us theorists have talked about how many times we’ve seen cats in the show. I think @frangipalove may do a more detailed post on this, but the short of it is that we think cats represent resurrection. It's the whole cats-having-nine-lives idea. In other words, if we see cats around a character, chances are they're gonna die many times and come back. Daniel is the perfect example of that. They’ve done at least three or four major death fake outs for him already. I think the viewers are used to it and know that short of seeing him turn into a walker or get his head chopped off, the dude simply isn't gonna die. Not for real, anyway. Seeing the cat around Daniel represents his many lives. We also saw cats around Jadis (the painting of the blue cat and the wire cat Rick took for Michonne). 

Both of those represent Rick and Jadis’s death fake out because they both left in the helicopter. In this episode we saw the same helicopter. So, you see the connections there.

While we didn't specifically see cats around Beth, we hear one mentioned around Daryl in 4B. Remember, Joe Claimer said the thing about cats being vicious creatures and there was nothing sadder than an outdoor cat who thought he was an indoor cat.

That got me thinking about how these symbols connect. While Daryl hasn’t left the show and returned as Daniel has, he’s definitely a survivor, as Daniel is. He’s been in plenty of situations he probably shouldn’t have survived but got out of. The major difference is that we saw him escape, while they don’t always show us how Daniel escapes.

See, the thing is, I’ve always equated Daniel with Beth because of all the death fake outs. But because of the cats, I’m now realizing that Daniel is much more of a symbol for Daryl. I’ll come back to this in a minute because there’s more evidence of it in this episode.

I also think it's interesting that they don't use the cat symbolism for Beth, but rather the dog/Sirius symbolism. While the themes between the two are similar (both resurrection) they are subtly different. Think of it this way. We saw cats around Daniel and Rick/Jadis, but they didn’t try particularly hard to make the audience think either one died. Most people assumed Daniel would return and they went out of their way to show us that Rick survived. With Beth/Sirius symbolism, she completely left the show for a long time with a subtle, symbolic promise of return that most of the audience didn’t even pick up on. So again, subtle differences. Nine lives vs. completely leaving to return later.

This is another possibility that occurred to me upon re-watching, but at this point it’s just conjecture. I’ve said many times that I hope Dwight helps bring Beth back to Daryl in some way. Thematically, I love that idea because if it plays out that way, it will mean that Daryl showing mercy to Dwight is what brought Beth back to him. If he had killed Dwight, it might not have happened. I saw a similar theme to that in this episode. 

By letting Charlie go to save Strand and the others at the warehouse, which Daniel did NOT want to do because he hates Strand, that allowed Strand to come back and save him. So if he’d just gone to the warehouse (where the walls were down) he and the others would most likely have died or at least found themselves running from a herd of walkers. But Daniel’s mercy, despite his hatred of this other person, is what ultimately saved him. 

I’m sure that’s a show-wide theme and we could find it other places if we looked, but it just reminded me of my thoughts on the Dwight and Daryl situation.

The songs Daniel listens to have some interesting things in them. I’m not going to post the full lyrics here, but the song we hear at the beginning is by Son’s House and is called Death Letter Blues. Some of its more interesting lines say things like, “The gal you love is dead,” “You gotta lay here until judgement day,” and “I didn’t know that I loved her until they laid her down.” Sounds like Beth and Daryl to me. We actually heard this song twice. Once in the opening sequence with Daniel and then later in the car when Charlie is with him.

We also hear part of a song called The Sunnyland by Doctor Ross. We only hear a snippet of this one, as far as I can tell, so I’m thinking it’s more thematic than anything else. “Doctor” and “sun” are both Beth symbols. Then later in the show, we hear a snippet of another song that the show doesn’t identify, and I’ve typed the lyrics into Google and can’t find it either. All it says is that it’s a blues song. We hear it when Daniels is leading the walker herd with the boombox. It says, “Yeah, I’m going to the river, walk it up and down. I’m going to find my woman.” I’ll come back to why I think this is important.

There's a shot on the highway when Strand shows up with the plane to save Daniel, who's trapped under Al's black van. When we see an aerial shot, I noticed the black and white theme with the plane being white and the truck being black. That’s what really helped me put the symbolism in this episode together.

The guns on Al's van wouldn't fire. They were broken. And if we want to get really deep into the symbolism, the black in the black and white theme represents Daryl, and this could symbolize him being broken after losing Beth. Then Strand shows up to save the day using the airplane propellers. First of all, the airplane represents Sirius symbolism, as I said earlier. So, it represents Beth RETURNING to save Daryl.

Which brings me back to Daniel. As I said above, I've always equated him with Beth because of all the times he's should've died and survived. But between the two, it's becoming more and more obvious to me that Daniel represents Daryl, not Beth. Not only do we have him equated with the black truck here, but we have a situation where he closed off his heart after losing the "girl he loved.” In Daniel's case, the girl refers to his daughter, Ophelia. In Daryl’s case, it obviously refers to Beth. And remember we had cats mentioned around both of them. So Daniel = Daryl. Which makes me wonder where Daniel is going and where his story line will lead. Very intriguing, but I have a feeling we won’t find out for a while what Daniel is up to.

Near the end of Daniel’s story, Strand admits to the others that he told Daniel he knew where Ophelia was, but lied because he needed something from Daniel. (This was in S3). By the time Daniel got to her, it was too late. Obviously we can parallel this with Beth and Daryl. Then Daniel says that he couldn’t tell Ophelia what he wanted her to know.

Later, Charlie asks him what he mean to tell her but never got to. Daniel says he wanted to tell her that “everyday brings a chance to start over; a chance to get it right.”

Guys, that is SO significant. First off, remember that in 5x02, when Daryl was basically trying to convince Carol to stay with the group, he says, “We get to start over with each other.” At that point, he was still being super hopeful and confident about finding Beth. In other words, we could infer that his time with her is what taught him this.

But in general, what Daniel is saying here is about faith and hope for the future. Which is exactly what Beth helped Daryl believe in. So if we applied this line to Beth and Daryl (again, Ophelia is Daniel’s daughter, and she’s the girl he lost, but the situation parallels to Beth and Daryl with Beth being the girl Daryl lost) then it means Daryl wanted to tell Beth that she gave him hope and faith and helped him believe in optimism. But he never got to tell her that before he lost her. 

Meanwhile, during this part where Daniel leads the walkers with the boom box and talks to Strand, we hear the song I mentioned earlier that says, “Yeah I’m going to the river. Gonna walk it up and down. I’m going to find my woman…”

And Daniel says there’s a reason he’s been at the warehouse alone all this time and he needs to go take care of it. That’s why he leaves. I don’t think he’s literally going to find Ophelia. (She really was bitten and is dead.) But he’s going to do something that will help him put Ophelia to rest, along with his demons. So once again, if we also apply this to the situation it symbolizes (Beth and Daryl) perhaps it shows that Daryl will soon go to “the river” (water = Beth) to find the woman he once lost too.

I noticed that Sarah referred to Daniel’s plane as a bear. She said something about getting "this bear in the air.” Of course, bears are part of the bear/polar bear symbolism we've seen throughout FTWD. And any bear symbolism is part of the Sirious/Dogstar symbolism.

It's also important that it was said about the plane. I don't know if I've specifically mentioned this in my posts, but @wdway, @frangipanilove and I have discussed that we think the plane symbol is simply an extension of helicopter symbolism. You know, both flying machines. That's important given that the group that took away Jadis and Rick (and who we saw again in this episode; more on that in a minute) use a helicopter.

And Sarah actually says this two different times. Two things about that. In terms of the symbolism itself, @frangipanilove pointed out that there are two bear constellations (literally two bears in the air): Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, one of which includes the North Star. So really obvious Sirius/return symbolism. Secondly, I did notice that many things happened in twos in this episode. I half wonder if that’s to show things (or certain blonds?) coming around for the second time.

At one point, Sarah tells Daniel she put a 36-foot hole in his fence to get the plane out. I wondered if we could relate that to 18-Miles Out somehow. (36/2 =18) but I wasn’t sure what to do with it, exactly. @wdway helped me out with this. TWD series episode number 36 is 4x01. You know, the one with the Big Spot and the Bethyl hug. Given all the other symbols in this episode, that makes perfect sense.

Dylan Stuff:

We saw the book, The Little Prince, around Dylan a lot. I’m going to look into this more and give it its own post, but I know this is significant. I know I looked into it briefly when we first saw the book in an earlier season, and didn’t find much. But I read through the synopsis again and some things are jumping out at me. On first look, it seems that Dylan should be the Little Prince. And maybe he is. (Again, I need to look into it more deeply.) But I think there’s deeper meaning than simply that as well.

Something awesome that @wdway picked up: behind Dylan at the truck stop, we see a little yellow toy truck. 

This is the EXACT same thing we saw in 8x02 when Rick found Gracie in the Saviors’ compound. 

You know, the scene with the Beth’s blue heron painting in it? If that’s not proof that these symbols link back to Beth (and Rick; death fake outs in general) I don’t know what is. I also noticed a pair of blue scissors on the table behind Dylan as well. Not to mention, it’s the same kind of car Charlie climbs into in this episode, except that it’s yellow, a Beth color!

Another interesting symbol: when Dylan secretly radios Annie and Max, he uses the phrase ‘olly, olly oxen free.’ If you look up what this means, it’s a phrase from children’s games that indicates it’s safe for players to reveal themselves without penalty, because the rules of the game have changed. So it makes sense given that the children end up trusting Morgan’s group a bit more by the end, but I still think there may be more symbolism in it than that. I’m just not sure what.

At the end, Strand says that his stunt with the walkers and the propellers damaged the plane’s engines beyond repair. I wasn’t sure what to make of that at first, because if plane = Beth, then what would this mean? But then Dylan asks Luciana what happens to the guy in the book who crashed his plane. She says he figures out how to repair his plane, fixes it, and flies home again. Dylan insists they can do the same thing. 

That’s the end of the episode and nothing else is said, but the implication there is that, somehow, they’ll find a way to fix the plane. It’s classic foreshadowing.

And I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. It was assumed that Beth, because of her head injury, was damaged beyond repair. But somehow, she’ll be “fixed” and return home. Remember, home is where her family is. I also can’t help but remember that Daryl “fixed” the music box in 5x10. So this idea makes me super happy.

In fact, seeing it in that light, this entire 5a season of Fear is one great big retelling or symbol of Beth’s arc. The plane crashing represents her being shot. And then we have Al, who disappeared, taken by a strange, shadowy group, and the rest of her family looking for her. Just saying. ;D

Alone Parallels:

Max and Annie try to put the walkers back up across the road when they see one of the people who took Al, killing walkers up the road from them. They quickly hide in the bushes. 

When the person in the dark uniform and helmet leaves, they come out. Just as they do, several walkers get loose and try to get Annie. She isn’t bitten, but gets knocked down and hurts her ankle. 

Her brother, Max helps her up, whole, and they make a run for it, so to speak. Except Annie can't run because her foot is hurt. I immediately saw the parallel to Beth having hurt her foot in 4x13, Alone.

It even shows a gun lying on the ground. So, the parallels to the scene where Beth hurts her ankle are strong here. In both cases, we have a guy and a gal (Beth and Daryl/Max and Annie) hiding in the bushes. Then there's an encounter with a walker in which the gal hurts her ankle, and the guy helps her up. The fact that they even showed the gun prominently on the ground is important because during Beth’s encounter with the walker, she’s after its gun, and carries the gun thereafter.

This is something TD has talked about a lot because the gun went missing at Grady. We never saw what happened to it, and it’s strange that they put so much emphasis on it, only to not show us what happened to it. Here, in FTWD, Annie drops her gun and they don't retrieve it. So, we have another lost gun, just like Beth's.

These parallels increase as the story goes along. Annie and Max can't run and we get to a point where the walkers catch up to them and they're about to be eaten. It's then that Morgan (once again, MORGAN!) and Alicia show up to save the day. 

They take care of the walkers and save the kids. Then the rest of the kids appear. About a dozen. From the way Max and the other kids look to Annie for decisions, such as whether or not to trust Morgan, Annie is the leader of this group. So ,we have a blonde, female leader, who hurt her leg here in a very similar fashion to Beth. Coincidence? I'm thinking no.

Remember that in episode 1 when the kids first showed up, with Annie driving the van, I said the shot looked very similar to when Ty’s hallucination of Beth drove the van in 5x09? Well, in this episode, Annie officially became a proxy of Beth.

So let’s recap. A blond, female leader (Annie) who is juxtaposed with this black, helicopter group who took Rick and Jadis. (Should we be equating the black they wear with the black/white theme as well, perhaps? If so, it may show that Beth will save people from this black group. Rick? Jadis? Daryl? Just throwing some ideas out here.) In this episode, that blond girl hurt her leg and lost a gun, in a major Alone parallel.

Meanwhile, we saw a representation of the Big Spot (4x01) and leading walkers away with MUSIC. And then of Beth returning (plane/Sirius symbolism) to save Daryl (Daniel/black color symbolism).

What does it mean? Well, I’m hoping it means that something about these kids (Child/Baby symbolism around Beth, perhaps?) and this helicopter group will lead to Beth returning to save Daryl. 

Remember that after TWD 9x14 aired (the really dark episode where Michonne had to kill those kids to save Judith) I said I thought it might be a foil sort of thing for Beth. Like maybe she’d return with a group of warrior children? I’m wondering if this could lead to a fulfillment of that. Granted, these kids are a bit older than the ones in 9x14. More like teens/young adults. But still. With these parallels, I think it could be a thing. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Random Details:

Let me first say that, in terms of details—coolers, red and green colors on cans, etc—I noticed relevant details in nearly every shot. I’ve mentioned the most relevant ones, but didn’t bother trying to hit them all.

Daniel uses channel 8 on the walkie-talkie to communicate with Strand. This caught my attention mostly because of the 8 behind Beth in 5x09, which I think means she’ll return eight years later. We also heard channel 9 mentioned. This is the channel Dylan, Max and Annie used to communicate secretly with each other.

Super-random symbol I’m not sure what to do with: We saw a tin several times that Daniel had in his possession that said ‘abanicos’ on it. That word means ‘fans’ when translated. Like the kind of fans that keep you cool in the heat. Not sure what that means or why the camera kept focusing on it. Maybe it’s part of Daniel’s story line and we’ll get more on it later. I noticed he did take it with him when he left. But if anyone can shed any insight on it, please do!

Morgan talked to Alicia about his wife Jenny and Duane. I thought it was interesting to hear him talk about his family, as he hasn't for a long time. I also noticed that he said, "She was Jenny. He's Duane.” He spoke about Duane in the present tense rather than the past. I'm assuming that's because he didn't put Duane down as a walker. He thinks of Duane as still being alive and walking around, even if he's turned.

But I also think there must be a specific reason they mentioned this. I know there have been some theories in the fandom about Duane not being dead. Personally, I don't think that's the case. They made such a big deal in Clear about Duane having turned, I really don't think he's alive. It's too on the nose to be a fake out. But the fact remains that we haven't seen Duane's body so we can't be sure yet.

If I were to guess, I'd say that at some point Morgan will have to return, find Duane, and put him down in order to truly put his demons to rest. This might be hinting at that. But it also shows a parallel between Daryl and Morgan. Because one of our biggest theories is that Beth was not put down either, which was one of the reasons she survived. This might be evidence that this might be evidence of that theory, by extension. Even though it's talking about Duane, it would apply to Beth as well. It would also help explain why Morgan will be so entangled in Beth's return. With these parallels, it makes sense that he would be involved somehow.

That's all I have for this episode. (It was a lot, I know.) I will say that I'm super excited for next week's episode. It's about Al. We’ll finally find out what happened to her and see things from her point of view after she was knocked over the head.

One thing I noticed watching the trailer is we don't actually see anyone other than her. She's talking to someone—I'm assuming the person in the helmet who hit her over the head—but we don't actually see this person's face. I'm not sure if what the reason for that is, and no, I'm not necessarily saying that I think it will be Beth. 

(Although, I do want to throw out that I think the person Annie and Max saw killing walkers might be a woman. If you look at this pic, 

the person in the black helmet is killing a female walker and is about the same height as that walker. Granted, that doesn’t prove anything. Could be a short man or a tall female walker, but it just occurred to me that there’s a good chance this person is a woman.) 

 I just think it's interesting that there being so mysterious about this group and who is wearing the helmet. Obviously would be great if it was Beth, but I don't necessarily think it will be. On the other hand, it might be interesting if we see Jadis again or something. Like I said, I'm excited for next week.

What did everyone think of this week's episode?

[roxannepolice]

Ur the only bitch in the house respect. Seriously though, I saw TLJ and liked better than Tfa because I appreciated it more because i like a bold fuck up more than a safe rehash. But then I saw it on netflix and I had the thought, 'does lf not want me to care about the resistance/rebels?' because if they didn't then quite frankly that's how you'd do it, all the 'failures' boil down to either wanting to kill the ppl viewed as space nazis to hard or being 'too compassionate' and even after (cont)

them being reduced to what? a a couple dozen? they’re all standing around chill like they just broke for a meeting break around a water cooler. meanwhile the big bad who’s gonna be that for at least im betting a third of the finale is on his knees crying. i know its supposed to be ‘crime never pays’ or whatever, but seriously, they’re down to a single ship, they’re potential allies said ‘lmao no’ and the biggest source of funding just got blown up. they’re gonna win and we know that but the /narrative doesn’t even pretend otherwise/. and i thought, oh god maybe it is as shit as everyone says. but then you gave me hope but I still have one remaining fly in soup so to speak. There’s gonna be a ST after the ST and we all know it. It may be 20 yrs or whatever but it’s coming. So how do you idk rationalize the idea of integrating the shadow of the empire with the need for there to be an enemy for the war of the warry stars? stormtroopers are ~iconique~ and it was always the biggest stumbling block I had to the stormtrooper revolution. Why would any company worth its stock swap out an instantly recognizable and marketable baddie for idk some other cgi alien army or whatever? love to hear ur thoughts and thanks.

Thanks, anon, those are some really great points! 

Yes, I am a bit frustrated with the way the good guys™ of this trilogy are depicted as - as a collective because obviously we felt for Paige Tico - virtually invincible, getting not one but two jedi ex machina to get them out of the problem. Maybe I should mention that while I use the ex machina term quite extensively, I don’t consider it a bad move by default - sometimes a lightning from a clear sky can have its dramatic beauty. What is frustrating is when a situation is clearly not hopeless yet the text insists it is only solvable by supernatural intervention, as, imo is the case with rock lifting Rey. TBH, when the resistance run into the rocks blocking their way, my first thoughts were huh, they can blast their way through, maybe a shot from MF will clear the way, or maybe we’ll get some teamwork scene where all the members will combine their forces to quickly deal with the problem. But no, we got Rey lifting rocks with the force and being amazed at herself lifting rocks and resistance also being amazed by her lifting rocks and Luke crying joyful tears at the thought of her lifting rocks - and in result the only character I actually felt for was the man who was faced with his holy murderous uncle basically praising the girl, to whom he offered a galaxy, for dumping him, as practically everyone else in his life did. This is some very human venom that gets spit in the I’ll destroy her and you and all of it line. 

But still, I insist the screenwriter who also came up with the You’re nothing but not to me line which is still being analyzed 8 months later and also manged to give a beautiful and satisfying end to the journey of one of cinema’s icons, isn’t oblivious of the contrast between those two scenes and bordering on emptiness lightness of the political subplot. Just imagine how much satisfying the rock lifting would have been if we have seen Rey simply fail at anything before this scene - for example, if before taking up the ls to train she wasn’t training with her staff only, exactly, trying to put rocks on top of each other - and failed and then picked up the ls in frustration. Then her “apotheosis” at the end would feel much more earned and it’s really basic rules of storytelling I point out, so it’s not a matter of Rian Johnson being Fellini and Antonioni and also my countryman Roman Polański all rolled into one only a good movie making craftsman that he is to figure this out. Of course, there is much symbolism and subext to this scene but again - the subtext and symbolism in the overall movie point out to an ending more complicated than gratuitous dragon slaying.

Ending the whining and turning to the actual question - what about future installments? Well, first of all it is very possible that next trilogies will be perhaps closer to usual action based movies, maybe not completely dropping the deeper psychoanalitical symbolism but also not operating on it like the Skywalker saga has been and should be so till the end. It very often seems to us that once we finish the psychoanlysis all our problems will disappear but that’s really not the case - it may be that they’re only about to commence. TBH, I was fully prepared for this trilogy to drop the jungian elements, since RotJ could technically be the end of individuation - Luke reconciled his father’s self and shadow, as well as understood his own shadow. So when tfa’s opening crawls informed me the new villains are actually old villains revamped I felt almost disappointed - only to be positively surprised by one of the stormtroopers turning out to be trilogy’s hero. Still, after tfa itself I was inclined to think creators were just too lazy to come up with something new and maybe are giving some commentary on neo-bad things springing up across the globe. But tlj and additional materials made me think that they really have something new to say about the conflict. Ex-imperials were exiled rather than reintegrated or even imprisoned, galactic history kept Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader seperate entities, finally Anakin’s denied shadow was directly complicit in his grandson’s fall - all that reeks of repression and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Because Leia would, and as it turned out did, find it much harder to deal with her father’s memory than Luke, as it wasn’t he who was held still to watch his whole planet get blown up - and yet it was Leia who passed the Darth Anakin genes on, so obviosuly she would have to deal with her father someday.

Tell your sister you were right, the actual last words Anakin has ever spoken, take on a brand new meaning now, don’t they?

But  perhaps more importantly, as far as storytelling and marketing are concerned - the real question isn’t why should they drop iconic villains only how long can they actually keep up the same villains without them losing all dramatic value? Aside from the movies repeatedly employing storytelling devices to keep us unworried about the heroes, that’s the main reason why the political conflict in this trilogy is so emptily obvious, or at least, as I hope, seems emptily obvious. Now, of course, you never really expect villains to win in kids’ movies but a new villain is always someone that needs to be introduced, recognised, have his methods and motives exposed - and that iteself makes the story more interesting. A new villain is someone heroes need to learn, adjust to and this is what triggers their own inner journeys as well as tells the audience something new. Rebels and empires are basically angels and demons at this point and how may times can you watch white clad blondes with circles vanquish red-and-black clad brunets with horns as you know there’s no way it won’t end this way? Empires are Star Wars equivalents of Daleks and let’s face it it’s the Weeping Angels that scare us now, Daleks we just want to exterminate our sadness.

also dr Who bases on time travel so linear storytelling doesn’t apply

The only type of villain that can stay the same for who knows how many episodes is the mastermind with a secret organisation who always sneaks away - but no massive political-military organisation. And even they finally become their own parodies.

I should add, Solo very positively surprised me in this aspect - actually I would say it’s the Stories that keep me so optimistic about this trilogy, what with Galen Erso, Saw Guerrera and imperial officials from a Forman movie - with their depiction of crime syndicates. Dryden Vos isn’t your usual chaotic neutral criminal that’s still lesser evil than evil empire - it’s he who used up Enfys’s people resources of coaxium, yes, to sell them to the empire, but it was still he who was responsible. This really makes me think Disney-LF has some wider vision of the GFFA - and there are more potential for conflict there than just angels and demons RRR and Hugo Boss uniforms

And to wrap up, don’t forget our beloved turtle like helmets I can’t be the only one who always thought of turlte shells looking at stormtoopers? technically started as the good guys - so it’s possible we’ll keep their iconicness.

[abdicatedarchive]

imessage || rose and juniper

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍: imessage // february 2021.

𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆: rose x juniper.

𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐒: none.

𝐃𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒: rose watches a studio ghibli movie and then later juniper watches a new hope.

june to rose: so if I were to watch a star wars movie this weekend... which one would I need to start with? june to rose: also where would I be able to watch it?  rose to june: new hope, it’s very important that you start there!!! and Disney plus ✨💕🦋 june to rose: oh, duh! I should have remembered that disney owned star wars... I'll let you know when I watch it then. rose to june: I am watching howl's moving castle, but i s2g if it doesn't end well. we are going to have beef. june to rose: lol I need to know what part you’re on then rose to june: WAIT SHE JUST TRANSFORMED rose to june: wait no!!! i've been lied to!!! june to rose: I’m so confused 😂  rose to june: she's at the queen's, about an hour in june to rose: ohhhh okay 🙃 rose to june: if this is a movie about learning to love yourself even though you're ugly, i am calling for a citizen's arrest 🚨 june to rose: I know my rights... I ain’t sayin nothing... june to rose: honestly I mostly pay attention to calcifer and markl when I watch... rose to june: okay on first watch, you do have to pay attention to the main story. forgive me for doing what is right 😇 june to rose: you have a point rose to june: you will learn as we hang out that i am never wrong 🤩 june to rose: haha I’ll keep that in mind june to rose: also, just look at my love... [insert gif] rose to june: that's a fucking mood for sure ✨ rose to june: wow sophie is just kissing everybody, no fucks given 🤡 june to rose: by everyone, you mean two people?? or am I forgetting more? rose to june: three, but still, i call shenanigans june to rose: who’s the third one???? rose to june: calcifer, howl, scarecrow june to rose: oh lol does calcifer really count tho? rose to june: wow, just because someone doesn't have a physical form doesn't mean they don't have feelings. that's embarrassing for you june to rose: lol wow okay, coming after me june to rose: you’re right, my bad rose to june: i forgive you ✨ june to rose: in my defense, I know something you don’t know june to rose: bless, thank you 😊 rose to june: do you have something you want to share with the class???? june to rose: wait, no... you might know already june to rose: I haven’t seen the movie in a while, but I’m pretty sure you might have seen the big thing... rose to june: i'm all finished june to rose: ooh okay so isn’t calcifer essentially howl since he’s howl’s heart?? rose to june: i still think it counts, and i stand by that argument june to rose: fair, but you see where I was coming from, right? I mean, technically, you are correct, and I’ll give you that rose to june: i respect the drip hahaha june to rose: lol stop, I snorted june to rose: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMejd6QyB/ june to rose: should I call you karen?? I feel like that’d be disrespectful tho. you’re much cooler than a karen. rose to june: not to be dramatic, but if you call me karen i will physically fight you. 👊  june to rose: I totally respect that 👀🤣  june to rose: now I’m stuck on tiktok ugh june to rose: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMejdkwnk/ rose to june: hahahha - june to rose: why am I starting with episode iv? rose to june: because it was the first one made, and the prequels are terrible (but i do love them, they are meme worthy) june to rose: fair, but I don’t get why they wouldn’t start with one?? okay, it’s starting june to rose: damn, I have to read??? rose to june: because they didn't know they were going to make prequels ... it was a stand alone film. so it's been changed to episode four post production. and yes reading is required or you won't know what is going on june to rose: that actually makes a lot more sense june to rose: oh I know r2d2!! june to rose: and I must say, I’m a huge fan of the acting with these guys getting hit in the halls lol june to rose: I’ll try not to spam you too much rose to june: feel free to spam! rose to june: yes the acting is amazing, and the lazers never hit anyone!!! june to rose: I have no clue what is happening june to rose: if anything hurts my precious R2D2, I’m suing june to rose: SUING rose to june: i am not spoiling anything, but i am glad you're invested already june to rose: bby seems to be okay, we can postpone the trial... june to rose: it takes place in space, why wouldn’t I be invested? I’m also just super confused... june to rose: is this the episode that has the quote “I’m not the droid you’re looking for?” the one guy just said something about droids to the gold robot thing. rose to june: yes it is that episode, and close enough on the quote hahah june to rose: oh the gold one just introduced itself as c3po june to rose: what’s the quote?? rose to june: [insert gif] june to rose: ohhhhhhh I was pretty close lol june to rose: wait so do his aunt and uncle know his father is darth vader??? june to rose: Luke, I mean rose to june: yes they know, im pretty sure. don't quote me on that. june to rose: aye aye june to rose: is it c3po or c3p0?? he said oh, but idk how this works... june to rose: anyway, it... he? makes me think of the gold robot in meet the robinsons... rose to june: c3po, the po stands for protocol and they are a third generation model june to rose: got it... but what does the c stand for? rose to june: that is a great question, it's a nod to george lucas for some post office type thing. i saw it on a forum a long time ago june to rose: lol I’ll take your word for it june to rose: that one old dude with Vader has some killer cheekbones rose to june: space nazis 👀 but yes very good cheekbones june to rose: oh shiiiiiiiiit. Luke’s family 🥺😳 june to rose: THE QUOTE!!!! june to rose: ooh, I recognize chewy rose to june: baby hannnnnnn, i am in love with him june to rose: he’s all yours lol rose to june: sooooo generous hahaha june to rose: I try. That’s what friends are for, right? Lol june to rose: leia is a badass june to rose: wait where’s yoda?? rose to june: patience young padawan, there are more films!! june to rose: I guess I’ll have to watch another one maybe next weekend

[techcodex1]

WWDC 2017: Summery of all the announcements from Apple’s developer conference

Apple’s annual developer conference felt especially like a show for consumers this year, with announcements of seven laptop updates, a new iMac Pro desktop computer, a new iPad, and a new home smart speaker called the HomePod. But Apple also had something for developers: new versions of operating systems for the iPhone, iPad, Watch, and Apple computers, which will be available to consumers this Fall.

Augmented reality, a theme of recent Google I/O and Facebook F8 developer conferences, also made an appearance on the San Jose stage. Apple spent significant time talking and demoing its ARKit, a set of tools for developers to use the iPhone and iPad camera lenses to overlay digital objects on the world, like in the popular mobile game Pokémon Go.

However, the coming changes announced today that might be most important to users are things Apple didn’t talk about. Based on a presentation slide shown onstage but not discussed by company reps, the new iOS 11 will bring a slew of little changes meant to make life easier, like a one-handed keyboard for little thumbs reaching across gargantuan screens, and easier wi-fi sharing.

Here’s a rundown of all the news.

HomePod

Apple unveiled its answer to the Amazon Echo and the Google Home: a squat, 7-inch speaker called the HomePod. The fabric-covered smart speaker can do pretty much everything an Echo or Home can do, from controlling internet-of-things devices, to playing music, providing updates on your calendar, and answering general questions. You control it by talking to Siri, Apple’s digital assistant (who isn’t known for consistently providing the most reliable of responses). The HomePod features seven tweeters and a 4-inch woofer that Apple suggests will provide sound that will “rock the house.” The device comes in black or white, and will be available in December for $349—or about $200 more than Amazon and Google’s costliest speaker models, for roughly the same functionality.

New iPads

For a while now, Apple has been trying to convince us that, for the average person, the iPad is a worthy replacement for a laptop. After today’s announcements, that may finally be true. Apple debuted a new version of its massive 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and a new 10.5-inch model with smaller bezels. Both feature brighter screens and faster processors. But what really sets them apart is the new software they’ll come with: iOS 11, the next iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, expected to launch in the autumn.

A new app called Files gives iPad users access to all the files on their device in one place, so you can actually find photos to attach to a tweet, or a spreadsheet to add to an email. You can even drag and drop files right from one window to another, just like you would on a computer. You can float apps as windows from the iPad’s dock, or have them in split-screen, giving the iPad the feel of something you might actually be able to put into a bag and feel confident taking with you instead of a laptop—assuming you purchase an Apple Pencil and keyboard case to go with it, of course. The new iPads start at $649 (for the 10.5-inch) and $799 (for the 12.9-inch), and are available today. Apple expects them to start shipping next week.

iMac Pro

There’s a new Mac in town. Apple previewed the iMac Pro, a new version of its iMac desktop that only comes in its “space grey” color.

Other than its more aggressive coloring, it also features some powerful innards: It can hold up to a 4 TB solid-state hard drive, 128 GB of memory, as well as run two 5K monitors and two RAID data storage arrays at once. The iMac has its own 27-inch 5K screen and a new cooling system that Apple says can run 80% cooler than its other iMacs, allowing it to run far more efficiently. The super-powered iMac Pro starts at $4,999, and will be available in December.

New Macs and MacBooks

On top of the new iMac Pro, Apple refreshed just about its entire line of Macs today. The MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops received new processors, featuring Intel’s new “Kaby Lake” processors, with speeds up to 3.5 GHz. Its non-Pro iMacs also got some upgrades: New iMacs will also feature Intel’s new processors, as well as faster hard drives, new graphics cards, brighter screens, and a new Thunderbolt 3 port. Both the iMacs, the new MacBook, and MacBook Pros will all start at $1,299, and are available today.

Apple also revived its long-sidelined MacBook Air, upgrading it to a slightly more powerful 1.8 GHz processor. But the Air still doesn’t have a HD Retina display—like every other Mac computer.

VR on Macs

One of the more surprising announcements at the convention was that Apple is now working to support virtual reality systems on its computers. Onstage, a team from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the special-effects arm of Lucasfilm (the company behind Star Wars), showed a demonstration of Darth Vader roving around a lava planet breathing dramatically while surveying some destroyed starships, running on an iMac through an HTC Vive VR headset connect. A video showed an ILM employee walking through the Star Wars planet as Darth Vader walked by her. After the keynote, journalists could try out the Vader demo, as well as a few games from the HTC Vive library. The experience felt no different than it did playing on a Windows computer. Apple even had VR headsets connected up to MacBook Pro laptops, which however did require an external graphics card to power the VR experience.

While these demonstrations were just proofs of concept of what Apple systems could do with VR, they do suggest Apple is taking the medium more seriously and that more could be in store—especially when one considers that the primary audience of today’s keynote was the myriad developers who build games and apps for the company’s existing platforms.

iOS

Perhaps the most impactful announcements Apple made today concerned iOS, its mobile operating system for iPhones and iPads. Rather than redesigning the entire experience, Apple decided to change specific pieces of the software and add new features into existing platforms like iMessage and Siri.

iPhone owners will now be able to use Apple Pay to transfer money between each other, much like the popular Venmo app. Of course, because Apple Pay requires a phone made by Apple, you won’t be able to easily send money to your friends who have a Google Pixel, which might still give Venmo an edge.

Swiping up from the bottom of the iPhone screen will reveal a new Control Center, the bevy of buttons used to manipulate things like wireless connectivity, screen brightness, and music. The new Control Center is all on one screen, rather than a series of pages that the user swipes through. There is also a dedicated button for turning cellular signal on and off, great for the times when you don’t want to lose signal to Bluetooth headphones, like on an airplane. Best of all, it’s finally customizable, so you can create your shortcuts in your own image.

Siri, Apple’s virtual personal assistant, wasn’t neglected either. Apple says Siri will be in even more places on the phone, reading iMessages and browsing history to help predict when you want to see information, create events, or even type certain words. Siri can also now translate English to Chinese, French, German, and a few other languages. You’ll also be able to type messages to Siri—instead of just talking to it—making it so much more than just a voice assistant.

On the iPad, iOS 11 will bring an entirely new app switcher and bottom dock (like the one on traditional Mac laptops), as well as a new file explorer app. Called Files (nice), the app attempts to turn the iPad into a viable work machine; trying to put files in a folder or work with a few files at once on an iPad was previously a Sisyphean task.

It’s not really a iOS feature per se, but Apple is also redesigning its entire App Store for the first time since its creation. A new “Today” tab will emphasize recently released apps, and there’s a dedicated section for games.

Then, as mentioned earlier, the final iOS 11 presentation slide revealed a slew of other features not discussed by Apple execs onstage—but that will significantly change the iPhone and iPad experience for most users. To name a few: There’s now one-handed typing, where holding down the emoji key on the virtual keyboard brings all the keys closer to your preferred thumb, making it easier to tap out messages while holding a coffee or crying baby. There’s also a new way to set up your iOS device: Just hold it near one of your old ones, and a new setup process will automatically import data from that device’s iCloud.

macOS High Sierra

MacOS has a new name: High Sierra. Apple made a significant tweak under the hood, changing the way files are constructed and stored into a different proprietary format. This will likely speed up some operations like copying files, but doesn’t really mean much for the average user. It will probably still be a nightmare to transfer large files between Mac and Windows environments.

Other than the new file system, nothing groundbreaking is happening on MacOS.

watchOS 4

Is the fourth time the charm for the Apple Watch? Since the device launched in April 2015, Apple’s premiere wearable has had three complete iterations on its operating system. They just can’t seem to get it right. But that’s okay, because nobody really has—smartwatch software is generally terrible.

Apple is trying a slightly different approach this time, with a Siri-backed watch face. Based on a variety of factors, like the time of day, amount exercised, and location, Siri will suggest information that you might want to see. Given Apple’s past problems with slow load times on the Watch, we’ll have to see whether this feature is quick enough to be actually useful. Other faces added include a kaleidoscope and Toy Story characters for some reason.

The Workouts app is being overhauled for easier use, and Apple has partnered with gym equipment manufacturers so Watches can sync with them for better health data. But unless your gym changes its equipment every year on an Apple hardware cycle, you probably shouldn’t get too hyped about using this feature in coming months.

Apple TV

Amazon Prime Video is coming to Apple TV, and that’s about all Apple had to say about its streaming device.

AR Kit

Augmented reality is Silicon Valley’s buzzword du jour, dragged into the public eye by the insane popularity of Pokemon Go last year.

If you’re not familiar, here’s the basic idea: you use your phone (or tablet) camera as an oracle to glimpse into a world where digital objects are laid over reality. A digital dog pees on your rug, but there is no stain afterwards. A cup of tea sits on your table but you cannot drink it. The idea is interesting, but in practice it feels silly to move around a tiny glass window in order to peek into a massive digital world that doesn’t do all that much.

Following the trend— at Google’s I/O keynote the company also gave developers a group of augmented reality tools—Apple released AR Kit, tools for developers to build AR experiences for iOS devices. Where will iOS developers decide to put place digital teacups? That’s for us to find out, and personally we cannot wait.