#why is star wars media so freaking good?

[ibrokeeverything]

I love so much that echo isn't forgotten about. You feel his absence from the very beginning and it's a focus throughout the entire episode. I've seen many a lesser show sweep this kind of thing under the rug and pretend it never happened, and it makes me so happy to see people hurting and feeling that absence. A part of their family is gone and they need time to process. Idk it just means a lot to me 🤧

[cross-my-heartt]

okay so I slept on it... and as much as I hate to say it I think I'm disappointed with episode five

really disappointed

putting my thoughts under a cut, they're mostly critical but there's some praise in there too

I'm not gonna lie some parts of this episode were fantastic. I legitimately started crying when Crosshair picked up Mayday's helmet and started lining them all up. but as much as I wanted to feel the same way about the other emotional moments in this episode (and they were a lot) I just didn't and it's weird because they feel right from a storytelling perspective but execution wise?... yeah, I have some thoughts

for starters I'm getting really frustrated with Corbett and co's aversion to showing us characters reacting to major events. I fully expected this episode to pick up where we left off but instead we went straight to the timeskip, foregoing all the initial stages of Crosshair's reintegration into the team (similarly people have pointed out how disappointing it is that we didn't see Crosshair react to the news of Tech's death. or Echo reacting to the news of Fives’ death. can we see the pattern here?)

we're supposed to feel like this tension in the team has been going on for a while but instead we're just told that it has. yes, it makes sense for this to be the case but when you think that the whole thing is resolved in one single episode, you start to realize just how damn rushed it is

so much of this episode relied on clunky exposition to fill us in on what's happening instead of just taking the time to show us. imagine if instead of one episode we had three episodes to develop this story line. one on Pabu, one on Barton and one final one for the mission where Crosshiar and Hunter's tension comes to a head. just imagine.

we have so much room for side quests where these characters' conflicts can broil and stew and develop in the background and we can get a real sense of time passing and a sense of how this affects them. we got a whole episode dedicated to showing us what Omega's imprisonment was like on Tantiss, imagine if they'd put the same effort into setting up Crosshair's return the same way

instead this is really starting to feel like we're trying to get Crosshair's arc out of the way so we can move on to the next one (which I presume will be about Tech) and if we do get episodes where this could have been developed as a background subplot I will chew my socks off

also if I see another giant worm creature living underground in a star wars media, I will throw myself off a cliff

NO MORE FREAKING CREATURES. we're sick and tired of them. why, why do we have to waste precious screen time on a redundant action scene? it feels so old at this point. not to mention how obviously shoehorned it is because a) it messes with Outpost's plot and b) Outpost never mentioned this being the purpose of the sensors meaning this is obviously something the writers retconned into existence to hastily cobble the plot together

a very predictable one too, I swear to god I expected it to be a worm the moment they showed the ground shake, I swear

yes, it was supposed to show us the batch working together as a yay team moment but I personally feel it was pretty lackluster (none of them actually put their special skills to good use, I'm baffled by how useless Hunter's sense were here). imagine if instead of this we got an episode that was actually interested in exploring the conflict between these two

have them walk off to quarrel after Hunter sees Crosshair acting strange with the helmets (the one piece of setup I would praise) then accidentally fall through a weak point in the ice, plunging them underground. and instead of an action scene we get a long episode of them trying to get out of the maze, walking through the tunnels and struggling to cooperate in between bouts of bickering. have Crosshair internally freaking out because this is all so similar to him and Mayday crawling through the tunnels. maybe have one of them step on an old mine, echoing that same moment in Outpost

have Hunter ask Crosshair why he knows about these mines and who taught him to disarm them. have Crosshair completely reluctant to tell him

seriously there is SO much wasted potential here...

which leads me to the next point which is dialogue. the worst side effect of rushing plot is that most of your dialogue ends up being expository and it really showed. characters saying exactly how they feel, over explaining and pointing out things that could have been shown. it all feels even more egregious when you realize that Crosshair is the one saddled with most of the exposition making him not only weirdly talkative this episode but also nudging him into the out of character territory

because Crosshair has always been taciturn and roundabout in the way he expresses himself and I feel like this was sorely lacking this time. it's a shame because that's one of the main things that made him so complex and interesting to watch

call me crazy but we didn't need Crosshair and Hunter acknowledging their mistakes. a meaningful look or a silent moment shared between them would have sufficed. we didn't need Crossahir saying what he's done, we know what he's done, and knowing Crosshair that shouldn't have come out so earnestly either

I feel like the show has proved that it's really good at conveying these nuances in a subtle way but somehow it forgot all about it in its urge to hurry the plot along

I don't know if I'm wrong or right about this but I really hope I'm not. I'm not saying the writers are neglecting Crosshair as a character, there were moments where I could really feel how much love they have for him. but the telling of that story really fell flat

all in all this episode felt like 'finish crosshair's story arc: speedrun edition'. the right story beats are there - the hug, the confrontation, honoring Mayday, focusing on the tremor - but they're so rushed and the dialogue is so expository and clunky that they left me feeling hollow

(also are we really going to pretend it's okay for AZ to be there?? your sole chip removing droid and it's used as target practice by the man with a hand tremor and a 50% accuracy rate?? hello??? anyway, just a nitpick lol)

all in all there is a lot to love and in a sense we got everything we wanted but I do wish it had been done differently

[kitkatopinions]

If you don't like the choices a writer/content creator makes for a character, you're not obligated to hate the character. And although you can't argue that it isn't 'canon,' you don't have to only see the character through the lens of the bad thing you don't like. If you think the writer/content creator didn't make a character change or character arc convincing, you don't have to pretend that it was believable, and base your perception of the character off of something you thought was badly done or hard to believe.

I'm gonna give an example from the Office. The character of Andy Bernard started out as a meant-to-be douchey, meant-to-be annoying character, and then went to anger management and when he came back started being portrayed as more likeable, though still very flawed. This continued on for seasons, but then in the last season (though arguably starting with the season eight episode 'Welcome Party') Andy started being written as a bad boss early Michael Scott style who his coworkers didn't like. I did not like that direction, thought it was unnecessary despite some funny moments and good plot points coming from it, it sometimes wasn't done very well, and I felt like it was a mistake. I'm not obligated to hate Andy because of the choices the writers made, and I can say 'this felt out of character and it was a bad choice that I think shouldn't have happened,' and other people getting mad at me for not seeing Andy exclusively through the lens of who he was in season nine would be ridiculous. If I made some kind of statement like 'Andy was a pretty good boss at the start of season eight' and someone was like "yeah well he was horrible in the ninth season so he was clearly just pretending to be a good boss" it'd be ridiculous. And if I said 'I just skip over a lot of season nine Andy so I can enjoy his character more,' and someone responded with 'I can't believe you like a character who did such bad things, clearly you're an idiot,' it'd be ridiculous.

Why do people have this idea that if the writers decide something for a character (no matter how late in the game) you have to base whether you like or dislike a character on that alone? If you think something is badly written, if you think that something is a bad choice, if you like a character that's a villain and want to write them as a hero instead, you should be freaking allowed to just clip clip cut out the things you don't like.

I like the character of James Ironwood prior to shooting Oscar, I don't have to say 'well the writers decided he was a completely evil irredeemable villain and therefore it wouldn't be moral of me to like him and now when I watch the Fall of Beacon in volume three I'm morally obligated to seethe about what a bad person he is, better never write fanfics where he's a good guy ever again!' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've written fanfictions where I have certain characters just be better than they were in the universe because that makes me enjoy the universe more. I've written fics where characters who do bad things that the writers treat as acceptable apologize for their actions. I've looked at characters who have never been anything but villains and then written fics where they're just flawed good guys because I wanted to explore that universe and loved the character concepts. I've disliked whole movies in a series and decided 'in my mind the franchise cuts off here.' There's some pieces of media where I have to adjust everyone in order to enjoy writing for them, but I still enjoy the characters. I've loved badly written characters since I was a kid despite thinking the writer choices were off, and put Pixie Hollow Disney fairy books on my Christmas wish-lists even though my dad reminded me Tinkerbell tried to murder somebody because I could just ignore that. The very first thing I ever wrote was a Star Wars fanfiction when I was six and I didn't like that George Lucas made C-3PO a scaredy cat so I made him into a brave hero instead. I'm not going to just base what I like or don't like on whatever thing the writers wanted or intended. Why would I have to do that?

And honestly, I'm not posting this because I have a real problem with people who do throw out characters when the writers want them to, or only portray or see characters how the writers want them to, or anything like that. But for the love of God I would like them to stop getting angry or judgey when other people are just like 'huh, I don't like this change. I reject it for my own headcanons. This isn't how I see the character.' Like... Why the hell does it matter so much to other people that we must only see fictional characters the exact way the writers intended and therefore must hate the characters who the writers make do bad things. Also this always comes with hypocrisy, because the people that try to police who other people are allowed to like always like other flawed characters or even villains lol, and always adjust their favorites to be better or ignore the mistakes of their favorites.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Monarch Anon: Something I wanted to add. The reason I've ask is because I've been seeing this argument since Tears of the Kingdom got released. Fans believe that the game (and the previous other games) give a pro-monarchist/imperialism message. They also think that Zelda bringing back the monarch system is stupid because they blame that system for her not awaking her powers, or that Hyrule survived a century without it so there's no point to bring it back

Another thing: People used the Yiga's existence as a justification as the ultimate proof that Hyrule Monarchy is bad/untrustworthy because they've been around for 10,000 years. (Basically like 'if they royals are good why is the Yiga still around huh?!"). Like I'm sure that the Yiga seen in BotW/TotK are not the same people as their founders 10k years earlier. I'm willing to believe when they first formed, the Yiga were prolly the equivalent of a civil rights group wanting legit respect. Fans need to realize that 10,000 is a long time. Long enough for a group's ideals to get twisted. I headcanon that when the Royals & Sheikah did reconcile, some sane Yiga members probably rejoined Hyrule, while the more bitter members remained and became the clan we see them now

And thats it...Sorry bringing this onto you. I've been wanting to express this for a while but I do not want to post it publicly out of fear of being attacked/blocked and accused of being pro-monarchist.

Sounds like these people would blend in well with the Star Wars fandom in the whole “I Take This Fictional Media Way Too Freaking Seriously and I’m Gonna Make that Everyone’s Problem.” 🙄 There’s a reason I don’t interact with the SW fandom. Let them block you, lovely, then you don’t have to deal with them. 👍🏻

Anyway, yes, 10K years is an insanely long time. Just look at our own history. People really don’t appreciate how much time Nintendo puts between games and eras, Hyrule is older than this planet I think LOL. Either that or their years are super short 😂 I agree with your idea about the Yiga - had a legit reason to be upset initially, but the millennia corrupted it and the initial reason for it is long since resolved. They’re just insane cultists now.

[kindlythevoid]

⭐

At first I was like: "Oh my gosh I don't know what to talk about, I feel like I've talked about everything already oh my goshhh"

INCORRECT

Here is A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Commentary.

Cut to A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Cut Commentary below for a play-by-play of the actual story with commentary. The following, A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Commentary is simply behind-the-scenes of the creation and intent behind A Waltz Is Still A Waltz.

A Waltz Is Still A Waltz (known as WISW from now on) was definitely inspired by one of my favorite romance songs of all time, One Last Dance by Us the Duo. It is such a pretty song and it's based off a true story and it is just so sweet, I would definitely recommend listening to it (I'll put the spotify at the bottom for easy access). So anyway, I have these two Star Wars characters, right? Right. And I'm writing away at the OC-insert, but writing takes so long and these two characters are nowhere near meeting, but I like writing snippets that hopefully end up in fully-fledged chapters.

But I'm listening to this song and I'm listening (and mind you this happened a while ago so I really have no clue) and I try to write snippets as soon as they come to me or else they're gone forever, so I write down this little snippet. The whole thing is only a few hundred words and is supposed to be about them dancing alone on a warm night in their ship, just a cute little moment.

Two Problems with that.

One: Oh my gosh how do you write ppl that are dancing but not even dancing?? I sure as heck don't know which is why out of the (double checks) 736 words I wrote down, a grand total of 153 of them are about them dancing. Two paragraphs. I spend more time on them actually getting the tapes to play this music than I do on them actually, physically dancing. (I checked, it's 154 vs 153. Like!!! What???)

Do I have the power to go back and write more about them dancing? Yes.

Will I? AS SOON AS I FIGURE OUT HOW TO WRITE THESE TWO!!

Two: I haven't really?? Written the characters all that much?? Like Kirsi, definitely, we have some solid chapters down. Miikka?? I think I finally nailed down whether or not he was a ginger (a very defining feature, mind you) like, last month. Miikka has vibes right now. I don't know if that translates over to a fully-fleshed out personality.

Two-and-a-half-but-technically-Three: I don't?? write in Star Wars?? I've always wanted to, but a lot of fanfic writers are so good at navigating the universe and just throwing in (COMPLETELY CANON!!!) nonsense words for ordinary objects?? So I sit there gobsmacked trying to figure out the freaking parts of a spaceship that doesn't exist to write better. This whole thing is really just me trying to write Star Wars. I may have gone overboard.

Okay, here's the thing. I got a little over-excited about the music. If you were to ask me what this story is about, I would say "Oh, these two space travelers, my OCs Kirsi and Miikka, finally get some down time and get to know each other better before they're officially together." You, reading this now, now know this is merely the lie I tell myself to sleep at night. This is, in fact, a list of music and my very earnest attempt at making a fic Sound Like Star Wars. (how well it worked?? ...mmm.... debatable, I'll leave it up to the masses (all 8 ppl who looked at the piece I love y'all and would risk it all for y'all))

But mostly it's just about the different genres of music to be found in Star Wars.

Why?

Because I spent too. many. hours researching Star Wars music (to find waltz!! because surely Star Wars would have a different word for "waltz"!!!!!!) not to put everything I learned in a grand total of (double checks) 242 words out of the previously aforementioned 736.

Q: After hours and hours of searching, would you like to know what I learned?

A: STAR WARS HAS NO SPECIAL NAME FOR A WALTZ.

This, and the fact that the beloved soon-to-be couple only very crappily dance the waltz, is the core reason behind the name for the story: A Waltz (no matter how badly done, no matter what universe it comes from) Is Still A Waltz

But maybe you're here for A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Cut Commentary.

(a la ASMR) Let's dive in, shall we?

Paragraph One: This is mainly just setting the scene. You can tell by the way I drop in the spaceship parts that I'm dipping my toes into the greater Star Wars dialogue. I am also setting up the reason that Miikka and Kirsi, our main characters, will be alone this evening despite their being a part of a whole crew. It is unclear what part of their journey this takes place in, but it can be safely assumed that it is still early on, as Miikka and Kirsi are not officially together at this point and Kirsi is still mostly working for the Rebellion under orders.

Paragraph Two: Here, I try to expand the world of Star Wars to include the people in it who are not, in fact, great heroes or the Skywalkers. As the longest paragraph in the piece, it is merely my love of giving the worlds to the ordinary people that live in it, as well as my heavy implication that the Crew of the Judgement Day can (and, perhaps, will) form a band in their free time. This is left up the discretion of the viewer, however, until I otherwise feel like it.

Paragraph Three: Transition. Going for montage, not doing a great job of it. One of these days I'll go back and beef it up a bit, but for right now it is left vague and up to the reader's imagination. My apologies, reader.

Paragraph Four: I went through the whole of Wookiepedia's many, many pages on Star Wars music. I had to write the word jizz in front of jazz because that's what it is. I must do all of this with a straight face. However, I also take the time to establish more of Miikka's character through his diverse music taste. This will help me in the future, although I cannot say how.

Paragraph Five: Here, I begin by continuing my foray into fake engineering by naming random parts of a ship that sound feasible. I do my best to consult Wookiepedia as well as using my best judgement to gauge what would actually get hit in a dogfight in space, but alas, I hate math, so here we are. I continue the idea of a montage for the audience and randomly reference a story to give the montage some weight/gravity (as in realistic, not as in serious). Unfortunately, I have no idea what story Miikka's is referring to because I have not come up with it yet. I eagerly await the day my creative juices flow properly that I might find out what it is.

Paragraph Six: In this paragraph, I try to account for Kirsi's alternate biology, as whether or not she actually has something passing for ears appears to still be up for debate. It has been brought up that they may use some form of echolocation. I don't delve into it here, but I try to be conscious of this fact as I'm writing from her POV as a Togrutan. Also, I love the feeling of heavy bass coming through the speakers in a car, and the way the whole car can shake, so I thought I would try and convey that here for some sense of reality/relatability in a spaceship.

Paragraph Seven: I need to work on Miikka's personality.

Paragraph Eight: Symphonic, in my opinion, is a lovely word. If I remember correctly, I almost used it twice in the same sentence. I know they say that you don't always have to go to a thesaurus, but damn if it isn't my BFF when I write.

Paragraph Nine: I like using parentheses for inner thoughts for some (but not all!) of my characters. I use it for other stories, but I don't believe they are posted. The only one that comes to mind is Dean's POV from Mara's story, but that is a long, long way from being finished. This is also my attempt at some relatable humor. Whether anyone other than me thought it was funny is up for debate, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

Paragraph Ten: Kirsi, I have decided, has a thing for gingers. Whether she knows this yet is up for debate.

Paragraph Eleven: I'm so down for consent questions. Nothing better. Also the juxtaposition of dirty-tired-mechanic Miikka with refined-polished-questions is *chef's kiss*.

Paragraph Twelve: THEY'RE FINALLY DANCING!! I personally love the idea of Miikka acting as a gentleman and recognizing that Kirsi can do whatever the hell she wants. I also love the idea that Kirsi recognizing this fact and choosing to stay with Miikka. (bc she loves him but neither of them know this yet shhh)

Paragraph Thirteen: Kirsi is crushing so hard and she doesn't even know it. But also the thought of dancing for fun when you aren't good at it?? Or even just swaying in place with the music?? Makes me melt every time. I really do need to go back and add more to this, just because I think it's sweet and the paragraphs are looking really thin. :/ Mixed feelings. Short and sweet? Or Sweet but too short??

Paragraph Fourteen: Oooh, not the beginning of "it doesn't feel like other people when it's you" that introverts understand. IDK if Kirsi is actually an introvert but the idea of Miikka becoming one of her inner inner circle is approaching and I watch it crash hit like a comet with great interest!

Paragraph Fifteen: Yeah, I definitely tried to lean into Togrutan biology this time. Leaves you in the middle of the action, but I think it's a nice ending.

~

And, yeah, thank you so much for joining me. I know that was a lot, with me going off on the story (negative) for the first half and then me going off on the story (positive) for the second half. I appreciate everyone who took the time to read through it (and/or the story itself) and go on this venture with me. <3

I won't promise that every Director's Cut will be this lengthy, but I hope it was entertaining at the very least! :)

Kindly,

The Void

P.S. Below are links to the story (again) as well as the song referenced earlier (One Last Dance by Us the Duo)

P.P.S. I almost forgot! While the initial story was most likely created under the aforementioned song, a majority, if not most of, the editing was done under the repeated listening of the Up theme song, which, if that doesn't tell you something about the story, I don't know what will, ha ha!

[anatee]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@thegreatwicked thank you so much for the tag! ♥

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Seven, I have all of them here as well.

2. What's your total A03 word count? 114,650

3. What fandoms do you write for? Star Wars & Harry Potter (across all media). I guess Moon Knight counts, too, but I only have one so far. Honestly, I prefer writing for Star Wars (or anything else) here (smut), since all my Wattpad is Harry Potter-themed.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

You can read all of these from my masterlist here!

These are all smuts.

Fantasy | Kylo Ren

Bloody Skywalker | Anakin Skywalker

A sweet way to go | Anakin Skywalker

Insufferable | Armitage Hux

The Cockpit | Poe Dameron 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, but only when I have anything to add. But I absolutely love reading comments.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I hate angst, I don't like reading nor writing it, but ig Bloody Skywalker has kind of an angsty ending for some because - spoiler - Anakin still turns to the dark side. To me, it's a win, but I saw some people being sad about it 😅 I have a Harry Potter fic about an OC x Death Eater that ends pretty angsty though.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Almost all of my fics have happy endings, like I said, I hate angst. But let's say my Cedric Diggory fanfic in which he does not die and then has 5 children, a cottage and a wife with a tea shop.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not really, but now that I had my first book published - which started as a fic originally - I'm sure I will 🥴

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes, that's why I'm here on Tumblr. I'm a good girl on Wattpad and a smut freak here. All kinds of smut. I kinda want to try writing a threesome since I never wrote it before and that will take some courage 😆

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? No, I'm not a big fan of them, but a Moon Knight crossover in which Marc's next personality is Poe Dameron sounds very tempting.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yep, multiple times on Wattpad.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? By myself, yeah 😆

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, and that would be a nightmare for me. I don't agree with myself, let alone someone else...

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? I usually hate canon x canon ships, because I always hate one of the characters, that's why I write x OC/x readers only.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh, for the love of Khonshu, the list is longer than the Nile.

16. What are your writing strengths? Based on thr compliments I usually get, I'd say it's describing emotions (which I hate doing) and sticking to the canon in fics (and not making OOCs).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I forget about things I know I should apply - like show, don't tell rule - and I hate proofreading.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Depends. Sometimes it works if the reader isn't supposed to understand either, but you gotta make sure it's correct and not too much.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Monster High, when I was like what, 11, 12?

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Insufferable for Hux aaaand Pact With The Devil for Tom Riddle.

[forgottenspring]

I keep getting posts all over my dash about ppl complaining about fans needing confirmation on stuff from the creators and getting mad when they hurt their characters or do something the fandom didn't want. And these ppl are getting mad that ppl think the creators are openly attacking them. And I agree, but also,

I dunno, it just rlly reminds me of Homestuck, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Sherlock, Voltron, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and a lot of other fandoms of old. Where the creators were actively working against the fans' interpretations and ships on purpose while also teasing the ships as canon.

I think the main problem with the modern fandoms, since a lot of these new fans weren't in those fandoms, is that we don't rlly have separation between creator and fans anymore.

Nowadays creator to fan interactions and constant contact make it blatant if a creator knows how the fans feel about a character's character arc or ships. (Steddie and Eddie Munson in general, Good Omens, etc.)

Where before there was an understanding that they're not beholden to you and that they don't know what the fans want and they are just making their own stories that happen to go against what fans want sometimes. And as of recent that's not the case anymore. It's now all about how much can they learn about the fanbase and tweak what they're writing or tease the fans of a ship and usually queerbaiting. (Game of Thrones, Marvel, Star Wars, Anime)

The fandoms I listed at the very top were actively in the fandoms and taking notes as to cause uproar both good and bad, before going back to their original plans or trashing the original plan to get a rise out of the fans.

And with how online culture is now, fandoms aren't small bubble communities where any ship is just that, a ship. It's now whose voice is the loudest so they can get the creator's attention. Suddenly ships aren't just ships, it's a worry that your ship which had a chance of becoming canon now might not be bc the fandom is being loud about the ship you hate. Or everyone is freaking out about a character that they hate and know that character will get more screen time if they don't take on a crusade to quiet the fandom.

Essentially the fans feel they're in a constant battle of trying to be heard by the creators. If you ever wondered why they harass the actors or creators (Septiplier, Welcome Home, My Hero Academia) I genuinely think it's bc they're afraid if they don't someone else will make their NoTP canon or neglect their favorite character's story arc for a fan favorite or even destroy the original intention of the media/story.

And it's a mess, but there's rlly not much we can do other than collecting again in smaller parts of the fandoms and stop treating each fandom and the creators as a monolith and go back to fandoms just being the tiny sectors we choose to lurk in.

[dumpsterfirepropaganda]

So a while back, I decided to make a spreadsheet listing all of the franchises/series/properties/etc. that I have a special attachment to, along with specific elements/aspects that I particularly enjoy in the media I consume, in order to see if there was any one variable all of them had in common.

It ended up looking like this:

I added the year I got interested in each property as well, and it’s been funny to see the progression - you can see how it starts with the movies my parents showed me at the beginning, then the video games my friends introduced me to (or that I fortuitously found out about after skipping vacation bible school one day but the full version of that story is for another time), then my special interests growing out of a mix of those...then that little stretch in 2020-2021 where I started dipping my toes into things out of morbid curiosity and getting genuinely invested in them whoops

 Anyway, I wanted to share this in case anyone else is interested in creating something like this. I think it’d be so fun to see what other people consider to be the most appealing aspects of the things they’re into, as well as how their tastes evolved over time! 

(Zoomed in versions of the spreadsheet under the cut for easy reading, as well as abbreviated explanations of how I got into everything on this list, if you’re interested.)

Jurassic Park - I was obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid. My parents were like, “Hmm, she might like this - we’ll just make her cover her eyes for the scene where the T-rex eats that guy off of the toilet.”

Star Wars - Parents bought me Lego Star Wars for the Wii because THEY liked Star Wars but I had no clue what was going on, walked in on them watching Episode V and they let me stick around

Pokémon - All my closest friends were into it but I wasn’t allowed to play until finally my parents caved and let me get a DS and a copy of Platinum. Easily the franchise I am the most invested in ahaha

Sonic - Went to the phone store with my mom and they had a mobile version of Sonic 2 on one of the demo phones. Went home and got it on virtual console, literally defined how I play video games now

Mega Man - Picked up a copy of Nintendo Power (RIP) because it had Mewtwo on the cover. Featured character was Zero. His design activated all the neurons in my brain so I read everything I could about him and eventually got into the games, and now Mega Man characters own the deed to my house and my firstborn child

FNAF - Friend showed me a video of a playthrough at my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. Scared the pants off of me. Couldn’t stop watching it.

Alien/Aliens - The Great Movie Ride at Disney, but specifically the waiting room where they play the trailers for the movies (I closed my eyes during the actual Alien section of the ride because it freaked me the heck out). That trailer stuck in my brain and one day I just decided I wanted to watch it. I’ve never mentioned them before but I need y’all to understand that these are my favorite movies of all time and I literally wrote a college essay about why they are so good

Metroid - Saw Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and thought she was super cool. Got an SNES Classic for Christmas and tried out Super Metroid...instantly hooked. One of the most amazing games in the universe you guys

The Thing - Dad was like, “Oh yeah I watched that in theaters when I was 12 it’s great let’s watch it.” I couldn’t look my own dog in the eyes for three days.

Terminator - Wanted to check out more 80′s sci-fi. Plus Michael Biehn. Love Michael Biehn.

Twilight - Me and a close friend (neither of whom had grown up reading these) decided to watch the first one as a joke. Got invested. Ended up watching them all. Now I write Mega Man/Twilight fanfiction. Beware what you do ironically, folks.

Homestuck - Was vaguely aware of it for years but (like most people) had no clue what it was about until the Sarah Z video. Decided to give it a try.

It checks almost every single box on this spreadsheet, so...there’s my defense for that, I guess.

The Locked Tomb - Everybody kept posting weird things about this book series and it sounded too crazy NOT to read

Subnautica - I love the ocean. I love space. I love aliens. I couldn’t get a copy of Pokémon Violet at Wal-Mart and wanted something new to play and it happened to be on the shelf.

[nimata-beroya]

It's Friday night, so I'm still on time. Today's the turn to revisit another one-shot with the boys! Especially Cross and Tech. Featuring a little angst, a little whump, and the promise of deserved payback 😆

I hope you enjoy it!

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon), Star Wars - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Words: 1152 words

Relationships: Crosshair & Tech (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

Characters: Tech (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Hunter (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Wrecker (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

Additional Tags: No Romance, Brotherly Love, Whump, Whumptober 2021, Day 3, prompt: insult, prompt: who did this to you?, Bullying, Minor Injuries, Blood and Injury, Blood, Tech Whump (Star Wars: The Bd Batch), Protective Crosshair (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Protective brother Crosshair, Star Wars X-tober Extravaganza 2k21, swxt 2k21, The bad batchers as cadets

Series: Part 3 of Star Wars X-tober Extravaganza 2k21, Part 4 of Good Soldiers Follow Orders, Good Brothers Disobey Them

Summary: The life of Crosshair and Tech in Kamino as cadets has never been easy.

TOMORROW IS A GOOD DAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DIE

Tearing his gaze away from the datapad on his hand displaying the stats of his most recent session in the shooting range, Crosshair scowls at Hunter and Wrecker when the latter asks where the last member of their squad is. The novelty of Tech being the last to return to their bunk quarters every night after a day of endless training is nonexistent.

“I don’t know, but he should be here soon.”

Crosshair doesn’t know to whom Hunter tries to convince more, himself or Wrecker. His tone of voice lacks conviction.

“It’s only ten minutes to curfew,” Wrecker says, glancing at the chrono on the wall. “If he’s caught out of bed, he’ll be in trouble.”

Crosshair leaps off his bunk bed on the top and lands smoothly with a thud next to his batchmates. He takes out of his mouth the toothpick he’s been chewing and says, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

He prides himself in the nonchalance of his words, not letting anyone know that he also worries about Tech. He has noticed that Tech has been pushing himself harder than ever. Those damned longnecks are demanding of him to learn more and faster, to use his superior intelligence to solve impossible problems. Tech hates disappointing them. Failing means to be subjected to medical tests and experiments to figure out why the flaw occurred and how to improve his abilities.

Crosshair’s comment is received as expected. Hunter gives him a peeved glare. Meanwhile, Wrecker bristles and barks, “Yeah, well, I don’t wanna Tech to be punished for it.”

“Low your voice,” Hunter shushes him when several other cadets look their way from the other side of the barracks.

Crosshair shoots angry darts at the regs, promising retribution if any of them dares to comment on either Wrecker’s loud voice or Tech’s absence. His batchmates might try his patience more often than he’d like, but what Crosshair can’t put up with is the constant bullying that they’re objected to by the standard clones because of their genetic enhancements.

Most of the regs fidget under Crosshair’s glare, some of them get uncomfortable enough to climb on their beds and call it a night. Only a couple are bold and stupid to withstand the heat. They whisper between them, sending sneers at him. Crosshair can imagine what they’re saying. The same insults that he and the rest of his squad hear every day in the mess hall and corridors.

The sad batch.

The defect squad.

Freak droidmeat.

Crosshair tosses the toothpick away with an angry flick of his fingers and starts forward, just to be stopped by Hunter, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

Crosshair shrugs off the restraining hand, giving a stony glance at Hunter. “I’m going to find Tech.”

Keep reading

[bunchacrunchcake]

I will tell you about an entire movie that was unnecessary.

There's a really wonderful movie called The Sorcerer. It was shot in the 70s. It's original budget was $14m but it ballooned to $20m because the director got a bit obsessed with shooting it perfectly. Two major studios had to join together to finish it. It barely made any money. The director blamed it on the fact that Star Wars came out the same weekend. But I can tell you that was not the reason.

The movie is extremely well shot and well written. It's well acted, the props and costumes are good. It's by all measures an excellent movie.

It opens up with a few different criminal stories, a Palestinian blowing up an Israeli building, almost getting caught and running away, and a few similar criminal stories. They all end up in the same town in South America living in exile with fake I.D.s

That's the first 3rd of the movie. The rest of the movie they're basically stuck working at a mine, and they have to transport really volatile explosives across a messed up jungle roadway to blow the mine back open after an accident. If they jiggle the trucks too much, the explosives will blow everyone sky high. They're all down and out so they agree to it. No one else in town will risk their life.

And that's it. It could be like Speed, or Crank, or Aguirre The Wrath of God, but honestly it's a ton of shots of the front tire inching over and then backing up and then inching and backing, back and forth so they can just barely clear a bump without blowing the truck up. They do it on a rickety bridge over a rushing river. There was more but I lost interest.

I love boring stuff. One of my favorite books is called How To Look At Things and it teaches you how to look at an X-Ray, and then a quarter, and then a Bible page, and all the info you can get off of it. It was in the $1 rack because it was just too boring for most people.

This movie was boring and pretty pointless. A-List actors who spend most of their time yelling. Beautiful cinematography where most of it is spent on closeups of a truck. The plot lays out 4 really interesting protagonists, and ending aside, we don't really explore them or their position in life at all. They're just rough guys doing a rough job. While the job is insane, it's not exciting. It's hard to explain. They're so close to death and I just couldn't bring myself to care.

And I was wondering how many people in the 70s would pick this movie over Star Wars which has Ewoks and a trash compactor and the force. I'm not saying Star Wars is high art but it's got a lot of stuff going on.

And okay we're watching a movie about a truck, one that they built from old parts! But I had to read the wiki to learn that because it's not really covered heavily in the movie. The art of driving isn't covered. The landscape and dangers aren't talked about. You have no idea how far they've gone and also no sense of the delirium they're feeling not knowing themselves. It's just a lot of starting and stopping without a ton of context. What do you win at the end? A mining company gets to mine again? The characters aren't much better off? Okay I mean not that interesting but we could make it interesting if we explore it... oh okay no we're not doing that.

By all measures it should be an amazing movie.

But I was like why am I watching this.

As a gay art freak I think a lot of neo-cons and centrist libs are really triggered by art that suggests they might be doing something bad. 100% agree with you. And I think that most media criticism in the 2020s has been regressive idiots whining about how much they're persecuted by equality and free speech.

But also as a gay art freak, there's so much bad art out there. So many 5 season netflix shows that would be better as 3 episodes. I don't want to stop people from making art. No art will ever be perfect.

But, if you've gone to the effort of writing an entire movie about driving trucks in the jungle, how are you going to tell that story in a way that is compelling to someone who has never driven a truck and never been to the jungle? Or vice versa how are you going to write that for someone who's completely obfuckingsessed with driving trucks in the jungle. If at the end of the day I come out of the thing as ignorant as I came in, I basically just paid to watch a screensaver.

P.S. Kudos to the director though, it's an insane movie. I do not have the talent to make it.

P.P.S. most of THIS ESSAY IS UNNECESSARY

maybe a crazy take idk but i dont actually think many scenes in stories are 'unneccesary' i think they just make people uncomfortable and rather than try to understand the significance of that discomfort and why the author mightve deliberately inflicted it, decide that discomfort = bad, therefore that scene + the author are both bad

[supernovaa-remnant]

yay, i get to be immortalized too :D

but oh my god, the marks people leave behind, i say as i shake you violently. another thing i lose my mind over when i think about it for too long.

because you are so right, it's not only about the ones that outlive us like buildings or art or whatever. like, for example, i still think about one of my ex-friends sometimes. we've known each other for years, did so many things together, but then shit happened and now we haven't talked or even seen each other in like four years. but i still remember her and the fun we had together so fondly.

and to think that's it the other way around too, that maybe the barista i once told i liked their pin still thinks about that sometimes and smiles at the memory like... it's fucking mind-blowing.

anyway, i'll stop now, or i'll be in danger of crying too.

okay, closing the chapter on interstellar... i'm gonna admit, asking me, a movie and tv show freak, about media was the worst (or best, depending on how you wanna look at it lol) decision ever, because i will give you a whole fucking list with reasons.

first of all, i know you like star trek so i hate to admit that i'm the enemy... i'm a star wars girlie.

jokes aside, i do love star wars, especially the original movies, rogue one (probably one of my favorite movies, mention it in my vicinity and i will talk for at least 30 minutes), and andor (the show). i just think that, excluding the last two movies, it's an amazing universe and a lot of the media that came from it is really fucking good. i adore it.

other sci-fi/sci-fi adjacent stuff i like:

ready player one (mostly the movie lol dives into virtual reality and it's influence on real life in the future, really fun and well-made)

dark (german show though from what i know it also got really popular on netflix. a lot of stuff i think you could like, since it's central storyline centers around time travel via wormhole lol actually one of my favorite shows ever, it is so insanely good)

roswell, new mexico (silly alien show lol not that serious compared to some other stuff here but it's fun and the plotline actually is pretty interesting)

the swarm (another german show though it is made in english. this is the adjacent i mentioned above since i think it's not 100% sci-fi but has a lot of elements to it. set on earth in our time with marine life slowly turning against humanity. another show that's super well made)

and that's everything i can think of right now (as if this ask isn't long enough already). please let me know if you decide to check any of these out because i need someone to talk about it with lol

there's a lot of aspects of humanity that make me emotional—the way we impact each other's lives in seemingly unnoticeable ways, the urge to leave proof we existed (the Golden Record we sent to space that will still be there floating in the void long after the Earth has been swallowed by the sun), the fact that we've found new ways to love (because we didn't use to be able to know so much about people across the globe, but now, in this age of globalization, it's lead to people finding new ways to love). there's so much and I would go on longer and in more depth if I didn't feel like I was about to cry lol (please do ask me to elaborate more though if you want—I'd gladly talk more about this with more prompting lol).

I think it's been lovely to hear you talk about media and cinematography :D I love it when people talk abt stuff they're passionate about

[dramatic gasp] a star wars girlie? I'm sorry sky... I fear we can no longer be friends [single tear runs down cheek as I turn away and dramatically leave the room]

uh.. anyway, jokes aside, I think Star Wars is pretty cool. I watched it more when I was younger. Idk why, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as other sci-fi. Just personal preference, I think. I did really like the original movies, though. (Although I must admit I don't remember them well... maybe I should re-watch).

Star Trek is the sci-fi I've been primarily consuming for the past couple years, and I am a Star Trek girlie (ignore the fact that I haven't watched the original series), but deep down in my core, I'm more of a Stargate girlie. Samantha Carter is the character who inspired me to be an astrophysicist, and the characters in that show (specifically Sg-1) feel like they raised me in some ways lmao. There's a lot to be said on the more problematic aspects of Stargate (the most noticeable being the fact that it's built upon the ancient aliens conspiracy.. yikes), but I think there's a lot to love about it despite that :3

I'm a big fan of 90s-early 2000s sci-fi (probably bc of my dad tbh) which includes, like, tng-ds9-voy era of star trek, stargate, sacntuary, and farscape to name a fwew. First sci-fi I was ever a really big fan of was Doctor Who though.

Uh, but enough about my sci-fi interests.

Those all sound like really cool shows!! I'll say it now that I am, like, notoriously bad at watching recommended shows (esp bc I'm busy w/ uni and stuff), so apologies in advance if I don't get to them. I'd love to hear you talk more about them though and what you like about the shows (whether that be storytelling, cinematography, both). If you want to, ofc.

[waseemakramsports]

Why Do So Many Spokespeople Have Problems When Speaking to the Media?

Many media spokespeople get into hassle at some stage in media interviews due to the fact they deal with them like presentations.

What they overlook is that journalists will handiest use small snippets of what they are saying withinside the next tale. Apart from stay broadcast interviews, which means that whatever you assert desires which will stand on its own. For example, in case you had been asked, "Could extra of your people be injured after this freak accident?"

Your herbal intuition can be to say, "We can`t rule out extra accidents, however we have got were given first elegance protection precautions which are nicely above the enterprise standard."

If you're giving a presentation, this will be a wonderfully affordable solution due to the fact your target target market could pay attention your entire solution. But in case you stated this to a journalist, she may also handiest use the primary a part of your solution withinside the tale. Then the attitude of the tale can be that extra accidents are possible.

Instead you may have stated this: "The protection of our people is our pinnacle priority. That's why we have got were given protection precautions in area which are nicely above the specified enterprise standard."

You can see from that solution which you could be snug with the reporter the use of any a part of it.

How commonly have you ever heard spokespeople bitch that they had been quoted out of context? This takes place all of the time. The trouble is that there may be in no way room for the complete interview for use withinside the next tale, except it's far stay. That is why a reporter will handiest use what she or he considers the maximum exciting responses you give.

What this indicates is that you need to make certain that whatever you assert can stand through itself. If it can't, you threat being quoted out of context and the tale attitude being some thing absolutely distinct from what you intended.

The threat of this taking place has grown over latest years as media retailers discover themselves beneathneath strain to entertain in addition to inform. This approach they're much more likely to cite you out of context if it will increase the chance of readers clicking on the ones testimonies whilst journeying on-line information sites.

The key right here is to get dressed up the factors you need to make in exciting methods a good way to meet the reporter's desires. This ought to be your intention as it permits you to get your factors throughout whilst additionally assisting the reporter produce an exciting tale.

Read More: Special on Star Wars: PR Advice From The Jedi Masters

[chaos0pikachu]

As someone who was in fandom since like, the 4kids dub - then took a break and came back to the show years later - a lot of it has to do with a couple factors.

During the first go around when fandom was building out Sanji and Zoro were the only "hot" straw hats. That's not a knock on ppl shipping things for shallow hot reasons is gucci lord knows I've done it but like let's be real this was def a factor. Luffy wasn't "hot" and neither do/did ppl consider Ussop hot.

Sanji was more well rounded as a char than Luffy, this is a consequence of Oda's earlier storytelling. idk if this is an unpopular opinion or not but while I freaking ADORE the Romance Dawn trio the earlier chapters/episodes of One Piece are a bit thin and more straight forward action shounen. Zoro's backstory is pretty by-the-numbers, Luffy's backstory is also a mix of about him/about Shanks and not super fleshed out, Ussop is when we start to see a more fleshed out take on a backstory (but again naysayers say Ussop is ugly). Zoro's backstory is so tragedy free and mundane compared to other chars ppl are still convinced it's a fakeout and Kuina was secretly murdered by the World Government - r/onepiece is covered in these theories. Basically, when Sanji appeared he was a perfect "woobie"; thorough and tragic backstory, plus hot? Perfect woobie sad boi to project on and/or ship with (fandom loves shipping archetypes see migratory slash fandom for more on that)

Something that often happens in fandom is when a fandom has A Ship or The Fandom Ship (ie the big ship that seemingly the entire fandom ships) new fans will automatically gravitate towards that ship b/c it already has a built in community to interact with. I've seen this happen a lot with ships like Sterek (Teen Wolf) or Klance (Voltron). It's simply easier for new fans plus you have the Big Shipping Base coloring the perspective of new fans and how they'll see the media piece with pre-determined bias towards The Ship.

In more recent fandom discourse there's a lot of discouragement to ship Luffy with Zoro specifically b/c of the aroace handcanon for Luffy (which for some reason doesn't apply to luffy's most popular ship lawlu which has loads of explicit fic, doujin and fanart) not saying ppl can't headcanon luffy as aroace do your thing, spark your joy, just that I've seen this used as reason why you "can't/shouldn't" ship Luffy with Zoro in fanon

There's other factors involved, like fans liking the dynamic of enemies to lovers or rivals to lovers which with some flexibility zosan can fit. They do have some good moments in Wano that made me go "yeah I get it" but Wano started airing in 2019 and zosan has been The Ship for OP (western) fandom since the show starting airing in 1999.

In terms of OPLA there's also the intersection of Luffy being played by a visibly brown actor - when it comes to latin chars in media it's been my experience if they're light skinned they get exotified and hypersexualized (Poe from Star Wars, any char played by Pedro Pascal) and if they're Black or Brown they get desexualized and dismissed (Scott from Teen Wolf, Luffy from OPLA, Amaro from SVU). I think the exception I've seen is Lance from Voltron but his characterization in fandom was riddled with stereotypical issues that I don't even wanna get into.

This isn't like a ~callout~ or anything for zosan or any other ships mentioned or any specific headcanons what-have-you. I get why people ship zosan - sterek, klance, etc - and I so do not care if ppl ship this or that like it's all gucci

This is more a general discussion on fandom trends to explore the "why" of it's popularity and prominence in OP fandom from a fandom wizard of old.

So glad for your latest post about zosan because I started 1pc FULLY expecting to be bowled over by their interactions for how prevalent the ship is in the fandom and I’ve just….. been so confused about it… and wondering if I’m missing something…. like it’s not enemies to lovers, they’re not even rivals, they’re just like. Irritable coworkers who sometimes get in each other’s way…. Anyway ur so right about sansopp 🙏🙏

I didn't know ANYTHING about one piece when I watched opla (I didn't even know they were pirates) so I def didn't know about zsn. I walked away from the live action thinking 'damn the captain and first mate are NOT normal about each other' and 'luffy is sanji's little meow meow <3". I didn't even consider zoro and sanji as a dynamic outside of 'they're both trying to be the prettiest belle at the ball so that luffy will look at them'..... but I didn't really actively ship either. not even zolu (surprising I know)

upon learning about zsn I thought ok. this is clearly because I haven't watched the anime / read the manga. obviously there's something i'm missing. I read 400 chapters of the manga and am currently 450 episodes into the anime. there is obviously still something i'm missing because like you said, i'm seeing irritable coworkers. i'm not denying that they respect each other & care for each other as nakama but like...................like..................LIKE??

I'm never been a hate shipper, nor am I predisposed to ship things bc 'hot'. nothing against people who do obviously but my track record of otps is the exact opposite of the zsn dynamic. and going into the series not even knowing they were a popular ship. I have tried to see it (and obvi in the hate ship hot sex way I can see it) but other than that I have accepted that I will never get it. luffy x zoro & sanji x usopp on the other hand.....

[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

dave filoni is amazing and brought us one of the most incredible pieces of star wars media. i love the jedi but holy fuck, some of you in this fandom are just so rabid and bitter. we are allowed to critique things the jedi did and doesn't mean we're anti jedi! things can have nuance.

the jedi are also portrayed very favorably in tcw. we see how much they care about the clones, we seem them acting like a family and being wise and brave. portraying them as flawed just makes them more interesting and layered, it doesn't take away from how good they are.

rabid pro-jedi blogs are making this fandom as hostile as those awful anti-jedi blogs. can you all please just start being normal???

Anon, are you aware that I made a pretty long post saying exactly that (minus the rabid and bitter part) a while back? Here, you can check:

That's me saying Filoni doesn't hate the Jedi and TCW portrays them very positively and he contributed to that.

Or how about this one, about allowing the Jedi to have more nuance:

That's me saying I find frustrating the lack of acknowledgment of how messy some aspects of the Order and that's me talking about adoptions.

Or this one.

Or THIS ONE:

And here's what I said about why their flaws aren't my focus though (and why it bothers me when those flaws become the focus of canon):

I’ll explore the Jedi’s flaws when I write, but I’ll always, always, always talk about how good they were a lot, lot, LOT more. And the reason why is quite simple: I feel like Jedi criticism is nitpicky and pointless, because talking about any flaws of theirs is not only beating a dead horse, but beating a horse that’s so dead it’s been decomposing for fifteen years.  Everything has been said on the subject of the Jedi’s faults - most of which I don’t agree with, but some that I’ll readily recognize (because again, they’re not meant to be perfect). But what is the point of talking about what the Jedi did wrong after a while? Even supposing they were half as flawed as the fandom makes them out to be (which they aren’t) so what? They all died. Their children died. Their history, art and philosophy were completely erased from the galaxy. Most of their legacy was forgotten.  Whatever punishment they might have deserved for not paying enough attention - or too much - to a prophecy, for failing to untangle Sidious’ web, for being blind to a lie or another when they were too busy dying on the front lines to see clearly, for failing to save all the clones, for failing to protect all the Padawans… Whatever punishment this all deserved, they received a hundred times over. 

I don't LIKE that the narrative that's being pushed more and more is that 'they were too beholden to the Senate' when it offers no other viable alternative for what they should have done and their indictment comes from a character pulling the strings of the Senate in the shadows so that the freaking 'coming darkness' he's """"warning"""" them about can become a galactic dictator.

I don't hate Filoni. I may poke fun at him and be annoyed at what he's doing, but I don't hate him. TCW wasn't just a Dave thing tho, GL was still around to supervise, and the more I see of Dave's work without GL around, and the greater creative freedom he gets, the more I'm disappointed that this is where Star Wars is going. That's all.

But point me to one of my rabid posts please. The majority of my TOTJ posts (if that's what this is about) have been either positive, nitpicky or neutral.

I'm not making the fandom "hostile" by disliking things sometimes, anon, I'm making MY blog SALTY. And I either tag that salt, or I don't tag much so that the salt doesn't show up in the general tags so that people in the fandom who don't agree won't have to see it.

If I'm not behaving 'normally' according to you - and you're perfectly entitled to think that, I AM pretty bitchy - you can stop seeing my stuff pretty easily. But please don't come at me anonymously to put a larger fandom issue onto me.

[jerryb2]

I mean….you all knew this was coming ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ : the Star Wars Art of one Mr. Drew Struzan. 

And look, the man has done so much and has such a diverse portfolio that Star Wars is only one very small part of his career. If you want to explore some of his other works, then might I suggest that you check out his website. 

As for me here, we’ll be sticking strictly to his SW art. Now, with that out of the way, here we go…

*cracks knuckles*

I have to admit that before I really started to dig into this, I didn’t realize just how many Bantam Era (and beyond) Star Wars books this man has illustrated. Nearly 50 titles, ranging from novels to comics, short stories & even an RPG supplement. 🤯 

And so, after much consideration, I decided to just pull all the titles that feature his art off my bookshelf and take a few pics for you guys:

First off, I just want to point out that I don’t have every book he’s ever illustrated. Some of them are just harder than hard to find, are hilariously expensive, or I just don’t have an edition that features his art prominently - you’ll see what I mean. Right off the bat though, you can see that he was really hitting his stride in the mid-90′s, with all but a handful of these coming out between ‘94 & ‘99. One of the highlights from this time for me, is The Callista Trilogy.

I just want to stress that The Callista Trilogy is a highlight for me only because of its gorgeous cover art. 🤣 Other than that, this book series needs to go lay down. 

Anyway, the designs are all really striking and even after all these years, absolutely iconic. And you can really see Struzan’s distinct visual style at play here; not a painting in the same vein as something from Dave Doorman, and not a simple trace. Rather, something that is stylized in a very particular, very subtle way, almost to the point where it appears photo-realistic at first glance. Beautiful.

Next up is this trio of trilogies (good use of words, me), collected in these Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) hardcovers: 

Once again, these covers are just striking, particularly The Black Fleet Crisis. This is actually what I was referring to when I said that I don’t always have the best editions for a Drew Struzan appreciation post. 😅 

Because these are hardcover collections of paperback books, we actually miss out on a good bit of the art. For these SFBC special editions, the publisher just took all three and basically photoshopped the best bits of each one together. The one that suffers the most here is obviously The Corellian Trilogy, where they didn’t even try to blend everything together, and instead just separated everything into columns. I don’t personally mind it (and I do love having the hardcover editions of these books) but if you want to see the covers as they were originally intended, just pickup those mass market paperbacks. 🙂

There’s a lot more to get through, so I’ll just hit the highlights here; even though he didn’t illustrate The Thrawn Trilogy (that was Tom Jung, who I personally think did an okay-ish job at best), he did an absolutely amazing job with the follow-up, The Hand of Thrawn Duology in ‘98 & ‘99:

I’ve always loved these covers. And narratively speaking, they really do serve as one last hurrah on the Bantam Era. Oh, and also please note, Mara Jade on the cover of Vision of the Future, just as Zahn originally described her. ❤❤❤

If you step back and look at Struzan’s work as a whole, it’s all incredibly unified. I bring this up here because even though some of these are books relatively ‘meh’ worthy, Struzan maintained a level of quality that belied the mediocrity contained within. And also to say that he was definitely busy, particularly in 1994:

That’s right - all of these released in ‘94, within a few months of one another. These covers man… *chef’s kiss*

And look I’m sorry, I just can’t help myself: The Crystal Star was a hilarious joke until we all realized they were serious about it. 😳

Alright, that’s a little on the harsh side; it’s not nearly as bad as most make it out to be, and Waru as a source for unlimited power (citation needed 👀😉) isn’t any more ridiculous than the 50 other post-Palpy, hair-brained Imperial schemes that everybody else cooked up, so I guess it fits. And besides, I really wanna be nice to Vonda McIntyre here, but this book was just so so boring. 😴

*clears throat* Moving on, here we have a couple Barnes & Noble hardcover collections of The Jedi Prince Series:

The same thing applies here; cover art photoshopped from across 6 different YA novels to get these. They don’t look bad, far from it. But rather this series has some things that people would rather forget about, namely a supposed son of Palpatine (spoiler: he wasn’t) named Triclops who had - wait for it - 3 eyes. 

Like Tien. From DBZ. Yep. 🤦‍♂️

Moving further down the list, we have yet another pair of iconic cover designs, being I, Jedi (the only Star Wars novel written in the first person, and an appropriate riff on Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot - yes ladies & gentlemen, that is as clever as Star Wars gets) and The New Rebellion.

Classics, no doubt….but for reals, did anybody else ever wonder why the X-Wing on the cover of I, Jedi is missing an S-Foil? Or how that one slipped through??? 👀

Ah, at last we arrive at what is arguably Struzan’s most famous work; the covers for Shadows of the Empire & The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition.

It’s hard to overstate just how important Shadows of the Empire really was for Star Wars as a brand. In an era where SW books were already extremely popular, the Shadows of the Empire Multimedia Project basically served as a breakout hit and reignited interest in SW media across the board. This was in no small part due to the striking imagery captured on its cover - are you seeing a pattern here?

This success actually renewed Lucas’ interest in a theatrical re-release of the OT in 1997….which of course, feature more beautiful art from Drew Struzan:

These are my OG Special Edition VHS tapes from back in the day. I watched these so damn much as a kid. In fact, they’re basically the whole reason that I’m here, annoying the shit out of everybody today. 😁

After the Bantam Era concluded & the Star Wars publishing license went to Del Rey, Struzan did progressively fewer pieces for SW media. Here we see his contribution for the latter half of the Last of the Jedi YA series, and his kick-ass cover art for the Darth Maul comic: 

And when I say that Struzan did progressively fewer pieces for Star Wars, I am of course omitting his turn as the poster artist for the freaking Prequel Trilogy: 

Say what you will about the films, but these poster designs are nothing short of genius. 

Look guys, it would be pretty easy for me to downplay Struzan’s Star Wars portfolio as just one small part of his incredible career. But my dudes, this is literally just the tip of the iceberg. The man has been a professional illustrator for over 50 years, and his art has delighted and inspired generations. From Star Wars to Indian Jones, and from Back to the Future to Blade Runner - Drew Struzan has played an integral part in shaping popular culture. 

Here’s to you, sir. 🍻

[greatwyrmgold]

#1 comes from how every fallen Jedi in the films turns to the Sith. I'd argue that most people act more like any non-Sith is a Jedi by default, but it's equally inaccurate either way...if you're familiar with the peripheral materials.

#2 comes from a certain way of thinking about the world, the kind of guy who thinks Steven Universe is dumb and Batman should act like The Punisher. I look forward to when that kind of guy stops being so prevalent.

#3 comes from the Prequel Trilogy. The Prequel Trilogy is very clear that Jedi think all emotions are bad, whether or not that was the intent; other trilogies can be interpreted more reasonably, but also work within the firmer prequel framework. (And there are some specific lines, like Obi-Wan's ghost telling Luke not to practice self-control, but to "Bury your feelings deep down".)

And while Anakin is at time asked to show basic levels of self-control, at other times the text is much stricter. For instance, Yoda and the council don't want him to become a Jedi because missing his mother is too much emotion for a Jedi trainee. (Anakin is nine years old.) Yoda tells Anakin that fearing for his mother's life is a direct path to the Dark Side, and that he needs to rejoice in her death.

Pop Culture Detective goes into more detail about what the prequel Jedi say about love and feelings in this video.

The other #3 is just people idolizing Mandalorians because military cultures are badass or something. People idolize f*king Sparta, and it was something like 85% slaves. Similar kind of guy to #2.

#4 comes, again, from the prequels. Anakin says the Jedi forbid attachment, in a conversation that entangles love and attachment. Yoda says that Anakin should not be attached to people, in response to Anakin worrying about his mother's imminent death. Anakin isn't being possessive of his mom, he's worried about her.

I think part of the problem is Lucas poorly explaining his poor understanding/loose adaptation of Buddhist philosophy. But another part might just be that he thought he was writing Anakin as more of a control freak than he actually was. If Anakin was trying to control his mother, it would be good to let her go. But he's not—he just doesn't want her to get shot.

#5 comes from the fact that the Jedi Order is (sometimes, usually unintentionally) written as being conservative, hidebound, and callous to the needs of its members and other people. Low-hanging fruit: I don't think George Lucas intended for the Jedi to condone slavery, but the way Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan act in Episode 1 suggests they do. I don't care if Jedi traditions are as old as the universe itself—the ones that inflict needless suffering on people should change!

#6 probably comes from Anakin stans. People will make up all sort of sh*t to glorify a character they like.

#7 is one of those claims where we don't have the specific kinds of details which would let us analyze it properly. The idea of a ten-year-old cloned human having the same emotional maturity as a normal 20-year-old is the kind of thing that I don't expect everyone to accept on principle; it sounds an awful lot like an excuse someone would make up to justify abusing a big fifth grader.

I don't think you're wrong, but I wouldn't get in an argument on the subject.

No idea where #8 comes from. Though I'm not sure why being a professional and a mentor is incompatible with practicing poor self-care...

TL;DR: Star Wars is a vast property, and some dumb stuff has been said. Some nuance and consideration has also been added, but mostly in the novels, RPGs, and so forth—media which has the time to explore those ideas in more depth, but which fewer people are going to the experience.

I harp on the prequels not just because they portray the Jedi Order as pretty much the worst version of themselves, but because they formed the foundation of what Star Wars is to an entire generation. Books where Jedi masters spend pages discussing the finer points of Jedi philosophy as they relate to this week's superweapon or whatever provide the most complete picture of Jedi philosophy, but the fragments written into the major films are the more important.

Also, some people just really like the idea of a society optimized for war.

Star Wars takes I’m sick of seeing:

1. When a Jedi chooses to no longer follow the path of a Jedi, they are automatically a Sith. That’s like saying if you are no longer a practicing Jew, you’re automatically a Catholic. Being a Sith has a specific set of beliefs and doctrines that must be followed, the same as being a Jedi. One can choose to no longer be a Jedi and *not* be evil or Fallen in any way, shape, or form, and this does not make them a bad person.

2. That if the Jedi were just a bit more Mandalorian, it would have Solved All Their Problems and prevented Anakin from Falling. Usually this means that if the Jedi just showed more emotion/weren’t emotionally repressed/if Obi-Wan just told Anakin he loved him/was proud of him, Anakin wouldn’t have made the decision on multiple occasions to slaughter children. There are so many “fix it” fics where this is the underlying theme.

3. Likewise, the Jedi repress their emotions. The Jedi teach their students to be *mindful* of their emotions, to not react based on a person’s first initial knee jerk response. They asked Anakin to have the same level of emotional control as a kindergartener–you don’t get to punch someone because they took your favorite toy and broke it.

3. When Mandalorians adopt children (with or without parental permission) and indoctrinate them into their culture of weaponry and violence, it’s cute; when the Jedi adopt children (usually with parental permission) and teach them to control their emotions and their psychic powers based on those emotions, they’re an evil child-snatching cult. Only the Mandalorians are capable of forming a family bond and despite being communally raised, the Jedi are incapable of forming those same bonds, probably because of all that emotional repression. But if you violate the rules of the Mandalorians, you are cast out of said “family”, whereas even someone like Darth Vader was offered a way home.

4. Love = Attachment. Attachment is about greed and possession. We are told *and* shown on multiple occasions that you can love someone and let them go. Obi-Wan does it multiple times. But when you go beyond love, when you refuse to accept loss, whether it’s external like death or internal like someone choosing to leave you, that’s when you move into Attachment, and *that* is what leads to the Dark side.

ETA, because apparently I wasn’t done:

5.  The Jedi Order, which has existed for tens of thousands of years, should change everything about itself and its doctrines to suit one kid who doesn’t actually care about following other people’s rules in any circumstance.

6. Anakin Skywalker is the only Jedi who ever treated the clones like Real People, despite several blatant examples showing otherwise, and the fact that he was totally chill with them having their identities and free will stripped away from them. But because he was the only one who was Raised By A Real Mother, he’s the only one capable of showing compassion to other people.

7. That because they have accelerated aging, this makes the clones child soldiers. If they were completely non-human, no one would blink an eye at the idea of a species maturing at a different rate than humans. So they’ve only been alive for ten years? That does not make them children. Grogu has been alive for over 50 years and he’s still a toddler. Calling them children is infantilizing and demeaning. 

8. Listen, I love whumping on Obi-Wan as much as the next fangirl, but I’m kinda getting tired of the whole “Obi-Wan never goes to medical/doesn’t sleep/doesn’t remember to eat” thing. He raised a whole ass padawan to adulthood. We have never actually seen him deny himself medical care, sleep, or food. He might work longer hours during the war, but so does everyone else. And the only reason I can justify him not eating isn’t because he “forgets” so much as the poor guy probably has a terrible case of decision fatigue. If all he has to do is walk to the chow hall and get served what everyone else is being served, I don’t think he’d have that much of a problem. There are, of course, extenuating circumstances to all of these based on any prior trauma he may or may not have, but otherwise it’s infantilizing.

This post is brought to you in part by fandom as well as interacting with members of the Star Wars costuming groups.