#with a Mandalorian Meetra who's the most jedi-like of them all and struggles so much with this identity she has

[yellow-faerie]

Different Fates AU

Something about fate is that it is never certain.

The year is 1020 AHW and three children stand on the precipice of something more: Alek, scorched clothes catching at the edges of burn as he turns to look at the burning wreck of his home; Kimera, praying to the Old Gods as she listens to the battle above her hiding spot in the roots of the trees; Revael, crawling through the whirring mechanisms of the factory around her.

They do not know they stand there.

They do not know that what happens next will lay their lives out before them, and that even if their choices take them on paths far from each other, fate will inexorably and inevitably drag them back together.

This is how it starts.

+

Alek may stop, may fall to his knees and cry as the oncoming firestorm swallows him body and soul.

There are few universes that he does, for there is something fundamental in Alek that refuses to allow him to fall to despair even at his worst moments. It is the same here: he drags himself forward, swallows the pain of his mother’s eyes, his father’s grasping hand, the terrible cries all around him.

He keeps going. He gathers his few remaining people together and that is how they stay until they find an old, abandoned ship to get off planet on and join the crawling lines of refugees into the Republic space.

He sets his name as Alek on his new documentation and proudly adds his village’s name as his surname. They may be split up, him and those few other survivors, but there shall always be that thin thread that connects them.

A name.

The Jedi find him, and they are kind. They turn him from a scared adolescent into a man with a sure hand and a golden tongue.

His master, Arren Kae, is never entirely pleased with what he does. Atris – his only real friend his age – says that is just because she is a severe woman with no room for error, but sometimes when Master Kae looks at him, Alek thinks that she expects him to be more.

To be someone else.

Atris never lets him get too far into those sort of thoughts.

When Alek first joined the Jedi, a gangly nearly-thirteen-year-old, he spoke heavily accented Basic and even among a relatively unjudgmental people, he felt out of place.

He has studied a lot and that was how he met her: they shared a table in the Archives until that was their regular every day. Alek knows very little about Atris’ path and she knows very little about his, but they understand each other better than anyone else in that place – better, even, than their masters – and so they are best friends.

Alek knows that she, too, feels as though there is meant to be someone else beside her.

When the Mandalorian wars arise, Alek is the one to stand up against the tide of evil when the Jedi Council sits back and does nothing. It feels wrong and it feels right but Alek just knows that he cannot allow more people to feel as untethered as he did when he was younger and so he fights and he leads and-

He leaves the Jedi Temple behind. He leaves Atris behind with betrayal swimming in her eyes. He leaves Master Kae and her slight frown. He leaves it in the dust – an old attachment he must let go of.

And when he sleeps, he dreams.

+

Kimera has an option, lying in the roots of this terribly old tree.

Sometimes, she stays put – that is what her mother told her to do as she reloaded her slugthrower and ruffled her hair for the last time – and when the fighting dies down, her quiet crying flows through the empty silence. A Jedi finds her there and then she is Mandalorian no longer.

She hides with her father’s armour and the last of their rations and – most importantly – her uncle’s spare blaster.

She cannot sit here and do nothing.

Kimera is not an advantage to have on the battlefield, by any means, but her presence changes something and then her fate is set.

In the aftermath of the battle, her mother takes the fallen’s weapons and then she and her uncle and her aunts and her older cousin pile the bodies upon a pyre.

Kimera sometimes thinks she can still see the sightless eyes of the Enemy looking at her from that fire. She can never work out whether they deserved to die.

Clan Surik is small, depleted from the hundreds they once were by the Great Sith War. They had not stopped fighting since the apparent defeat of Exar Kun nearly sixteen years ago and so now it was just the six of them.

Kimera tries not to feel sad about the death around her.

She follows the Resol’nare in pride: she speaks the language, wears the armour, defends and provides for her clan, and is ready to follow the Mand’alor should he call upon them.

She is proud to be Mandalorian, to be trained to fight with such finesse as her ancestors of old and to sit around the fire with her family when the night falls, but…

Well, her father’s armour doesn’t fit her very well.

The Mand’alor does eventually call them to fight: her aunts have adopted another two orphans, who had once been slaves far beyond the reach of the Republic, and her cousin has married and had children of his own. There are eleven of them now and they rally those who had once followed them, all that time ago, to their cause – to the cause of all of Mandalore and its peoples.

They go to battle.

Her pistols feel wrong in her hands, Kimera thinks, as she lies restlessly upon her bedroll, and she can’t get the fear out of her head: the way people looked at her as she marched forward with her people.

And those eyes, of a dead Jedi long ago, looking straight at her from his funeral pyre in silent judgement.

+

Revael loses her foot to the machines a lot.

Not this universe. She doesn’t get distracted by her thoughts, or the throbbing of the machine around her, or the pain in her knees.

She gets out.

There is no scream in the Force, nothing to signify to the Jedi in their Temple that there is something wrong. Perhaps the Jedi out in the rest of the universe are better, but those that have made Corellia their home are happy to ignore the stench of rot when it pleases them.

For Corellia is a slave planet, although the Republic ignores that.

On the outside, it has the veneer of something beautiful and upstanding but that image is held up by the blood and sweat and lives of sentient beings who are cheaper than droids, easier to maintain than droids, cleverer than droids.

They maintain the great Industrial districts which make Corellia famous. They work in the warehouses, somewhere beyond the cameras. They work in plain sight for the upstanding criminals that have made Corellia their home.

Revael knows this, for as she grows up – to fourteen, fifteen, sixteen – until she is too big to fit into the machine and is moved to maintenance, the others begin to engage her in their muttered conversations.

Before, she only had her chosen-mother, the woman who kept her alive since she had been little. The others did not talk to her more than they had to, for children died more than anyone in those dark depths of the slave factories, and getting attached was foolish.

Now, Merillan is gone: dead or sold or something else equally terrible, Revael doesn’t know.

Now it is just her and this growing anger that she is here at all.

The slave tongue was familiar to her, for that was what Merillan whispered to her in the dark, but here is where she learned the stories and the myths.

Here is where she first heard of Revan, the relkin who burns their way through factories and leads the slaves forward.

“It is a particularly Corellian idea,” Revael hears one slave say to another, “on Tatooine, freedom comes with the rain, or with death. Fire is a tool of Depur.”

“Well, Revan is not a word in Amatakka, is it?” The other replies, in the same hushed undertones.

It leaves Revael, playing with the insides of a broken down droid in the pretence of doing work, thinking. She is clever and quick and perhaps…

She ducks her head as Depur passes by but she turns her eyes up, to look at his unprotected back.

Foolish, to think that he is safe in this place.

+

And so the children step, and they no longer grow up together, but fate (or maybe, if you are inclined to those sort of beliefs, it is the Force) is not inclined to rest at that.

Kimera watches her cousins sparring together and tries to push down the feeling that the war they’re fighting is wrong, and that she is watching the wrong people fighting, and that her gun doesn’t fit as neatly in her hand as a blade-

Alek sits in a Republic office, organising the last of the ships under his new command to be in the right places and filled with the right troops for when the official schism from the Order occurs and he can take the Jedi to join them, and he finds himself lonely for a touch he has never known and laughing voices he has never heard and the kiss-

Revael slips into a fresher alone and pulls down the cloth mask that keeps her face hidden, and she looks at her reflection and wonders what Merillan would think of the work she has done to free so many, to burn the name Revan into the consciousnesses of people who sit back while others suffer-

They do not know that in a mere few weeks, their paths will meet and then…

And then their fates will be entwined, as they always have been.

[kirnet]

this is just too many words of me talking about how i would write a kotor tv series carry on

Kotor 1: Most of kotor 1 is as in the game. Rev is gonna be canonically non-binary here, and ultimately will have a romance with bastila. However, instead of just force visions about the Star forge and malak, revan is also getting visions about what the audience later learns to be the mandalorian wars, from their own perspective. They start out being about rev and malak and their friendship, but slowly a woman appears more and more in them. A woman that both rev and malak are obviously close friends with, who they refer to casually as “Meetra.” Revan cannot remember who this is, but they know they know her. (I just wanna tie the exiles story into it from the beginning so that it’s not sudden. I also hate the meetra surik name but i’m gonna just use it here anyways). Continue on to beating Malak’s ass as normal. Light side ending but Rev is still more of a gray figure rather than light.

End credits epilogue. We’re on an outer rim planet, some sort of mining operation. In the mess hall, the miners are gathered around a holovid, whispering to each other. In walks a woman, her back muscular from labor, but we do not see her face. The camera stays trained on her back as she moves somewhat labored through the mess, stopping to grab a tray and some unappealing slop. She moves past the group gathered around the holovid, pauses, and then drops her tray to the ground. A few miners glance at her but quickly turn back to the vid. It’s revan and bastila on the scream, at the Jedi temple on Coruscant, waving at a crowd. Both of them are smiling. The camera turns back to the woman, and we are able to see the shock on her face. It’s the woman from the visions. This is the exile.

Season 2: the mandalorian wars. Opens with the planet of cathar being invaded many years prior (3973 BBY, I believe, 10 or 11 years before the actual start of the wars) I’d keep this pretty much the same as the comics but on a larger scale, and the Mandalorians boil the ocean. One of them try to stop it, she’s killed along with the Cathar, and her mask remains on the planet. Timeskip about 10 years to Revan and Malak, where they’ve learned about the mandalorian blockade on Taris, but no invasion has outright started (comic divergent). It’s a big deal bc so far, the Mandalorians have only been taking non-Republic planets and outposts. Taris is the first major Republic planet they’ve set their eyes on. They decide to do something abt it, start the revanchists, yada yada. Eventually, they recruit the exile (first time she explicitly shows up as herself) after she defends Rev from Atris during some council meeting or whatever. Force vision shenanigans or something, Revan learns about Cathar and goes to investigate with the council, finding and donning the mask and officially naming themselves Revan. They realize that the Jedi council was aware of what was going on outside of the Republic and they chose inaction, finalizing the revanchist split. Soon after, they receive word that the Mandalorians have officially sieged Taris I don’t have the rest entirely defined by the Revanchists lift the siege on Taris after a few years (with a baby Juhani cameo), Dxun (oof), Rev and Malak’s discovery of the star maps, battle of Serrecco, discovery of Trayus academy, and the culmination at Malachor and the exile (not necessarily in that order bur broad strokes). Really  a chance to prove Rev’s intelligence and leadership to the audience and to plant the seeds of Revan realizing a sith threat.

I also really just wanna see Rev, Malak, and the exile be friends and their relationships form. Obviously it would be jarring have just watched Rev kill Mal and then them being besties next season but I’m a fan of seeing the past vs how it ended. We also get some good Arren Kae/Kreia and revan interactions to show their relationship. I also want exile to originally struggle with believing in Revan’s cause and the expectations they face from Atris, and then break away from that and fully commit to Rev. Over time, the exile breaks further and further from Atris and Kavar, and Revan and Malak start going darker and darker.

season 3: kotor 2! already perfect so I wouldn’t change much. No one is allowed to write kreia dialogue for the show just use the stuff in the game bc I don’t trust anyone with it. I’m biased and obviously inclined towards a slowburn atton/exile romance lmao. Maybe atton only barely survives the confrontation with sion and after he’s healing at the jedi temple there’s a confession, but the exile has to leave to find Rev. At the end show a bit of the lost jedi starting to put down roots and bastila talking to exile and giving her Rev’s mask.

season 4: whatever kotor 3 is. no i will not accept the revan novel, none of that “revan was actually brainwashed all along!” bullshit. Exile and T3 go to find Revan and learn more about the sith threat. They find them and they join forces, happy to be in each other’s company again but also able to feel Malak’s absence. Things start off slow and awkward but eventually their old friendship resurfaces (revan is, after all, now a different person then the exile remembers). Maybe scourge is there, idk. The sith emperor is like actually defeated (sorry swotor), maybe revan has to sacrifice themselves in the process. Unsure. All I do know is that I want the exile to eventually return to the jedi temple, where we see the new generation of jedi.

[jackalopey]

gonna talk a bit about where i put kotor ages. here’s a little cheat sheet to start with

time revanchists spend at war: 3 years time revan spends as a sith: 2 years duration of kotor: 2 years (including the duration between revan being captured & the start of the game) time between kotor & kotor 2: 5 years

this is going under a cut bc it got long lmao oops

so here we go, starting with revan

revan is found by arren kae when they’re 7ish, maybe a little younger. a little on the old side to be brought into the jedi, but arren’s good at playing people so she gets them brought in. when they’re 15, arren is expelled from the jedi order, and when they’re 16 they become a knight- young, but not the youngest. revan is 19 when they go to war, 22 when they become dark lord of the sith & 24/25 when kotor starts

my reasoning for those ages is that they need to be old enough to be their own individual and make choices when arren kae finds them due to the circumstances of her finding them (which ill go off about another time), but still A Child, and around 7 seemed like a fitting age for that to me

i wanted them to be young when arren was expelled, but for it to still be a while after they met her, so they have a strong bond with one another, but they still struggle to process what happened. this also really drills home their complicated feelings about the jedi, though it isn’t the start of them

they become a knight at 16 because i figure they start putting themselves into their duties more after arren is expelled- they feel the need to prove themselves, like they have to work twice as hard to make up for arren (which are feelings that are made worse when the jedi refuse to go to war, but again i wont go off about that right now)

revan being 19 during the start of the mandalorian wars is for a few reasons. the big one is that i think revan being a prodigy is fairly important- it also helps them work better as a foil to bastila. revan being young & not having much experience with war is also an important factor into how they manage uh, some aspects of things there

after revan’s age stuff is sorted it’s pretty easy to work out the others using revan as the grounding point, so next up is the exile

meetra was found by the jedi basically as a baby. she met revan when she was 6, and became a knight at 14- becoming one of the youngest knights of the order. she’s 17 when she goes to war, and 20 during malachor v. she’s around 29/30 when the events of kotor 2 begin

this all makes her 2 years younger than revan. i wanted her to be a little younger than them, but still within the same general age range. i also wanted her to be raised by the jedi, for that to be the only thing that she’s ever known, to make her joining the revanchists & later being exiled more significant

atris is another one who was essentially raised by the jedi, though she was likely a little older than meetra when she was found (still toddler aged though, so it’s a pretty meaningless distinction). she’s 10/11 when she meets meetra, 18 when the revanchists go to war, 20 when she’s made a member of the council (easily the youngest member of the council), 21 when meetra is exiled, and 30/31 during the events of kotor 2

i wanted atris to be about the same age as meetra, but i thought it’d fit better if she was a teeny bit older. atris is definitely the kind of person to exaggerate age- while meetra is her peer, the fact that meetra was able to go to war and be so sure of the rightness of her actions and was a year younger would have made atris very uncomfortable. i still wanted her to be a little younger than revan so revan can make stupid jokes like ‘when i was your age’ and make atris want to kill them

next up is bastila. she’s around 6 when she’s brought into the jedi order, and she meets meetra very soon after being brought there. she’s 16 when the revanchists go to war, and 17 when her battle meditation first presents itself. she’s 21 when she captures revan, 22 when most of the events of kotor happen, and 28 during the majority of kotor 2.

for bas, i wanted her to be the youngest of the group, but still relatively within the same age range- i didnt want her being friends with meetra & atris or later dating revan to be too weird. i also wanted significant ages in her life to mirror revan- 16 when the mandalorian wars start effecting the jedi, 22 when she falls. i think it makes them fun foils to see the similarities & differences between how they react to these situations

im not going to go hard into the other characters but here’s an approximation of a few of the others ages during kotor/kotor 2

juhani: 19 during kotor. that’d make her about 13 when she met the revanchists & joined the jedi. old for a padawan, but still plausible, and it doesn’t make her too young during kotor

mission: 14 during kotor bc its canon, but also thatd make her 8 during the mandalorian wars. baby mission, baby

carth: 36 during kotor, meaning he was 30 during the mandalorian wars & around 34/35 when telos was attacked. this would have made him in his early twenties-ish when dustil was born also (assuming dustil is around the same age as mission)

atton: 33 during kotor 2. that would make him 22 during the mandalorian wars, 25 when he chooses to follow revan, and around 26/27 when he fucks off out of the sith

theres more stuff ive thought about but this is long and im tired so thats me done for now

[kindabraveandlittlestupid]

It seems Disney underestimated the power of the Dark Side of its fan base with the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story. It shows a fracturing among viewers and how future movies will be received (or not received) by audiences around the world. The major issue with the fans isn't that people outright hate the new direction of the series but many are upset that the universe they know and love for long is changing before them. Some of those changes are for the better with new stronger female leads in the movies (which was needed) and then there are changes that for the worse such as changing the established lore of the force and cutting back the extended universe, which ironically took dozens of strong female characters with it. So yay! Progress?

So I plan to make the case for being critical of the new movies. I plan to also chastize those jerkoffs who decided to attack female actresses for being role models for young girls. I plan to make a rational argument for the removed content cut away by Disney writers. I also plan on talking about how we can bridge these divides and bring everyone back together. You might not agree with everything I say or maybe you will. Most people almost never share 100% of their opinions with another person which was kind of the problem in all this... dissent was widdled down to either or and those fans with legit criticisms were pushed into the camp of those assholes who hate women and the concept of social justice/equity. Because there was no discourse or room for dissent, Disney Ultimately gambled on that disgruntled fanbase not being as influential as it is and they were wrong.

No Room For Dissent

This is a common problem in society these days, where we view things in absolutes; be it politics, movies, religion and so on. Perhaps we have always been like that (I only been around since 1985) but it feels pretty bad these day especially in regards to politics being so divisive or movies that look to present more female roles and ethnic roles in their casts taking so much flak. While I might make some political parallels to create examples, I intend on focusing on the cultural divides taking place in these popular movies.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the tribal mentality that comes when critiquing a movie. Studios benefit from having a cultural high ground because it's easier to say “You’re being sexist or racist” instead of handling a critique and having to answer for poor choices they made while making the movie. I imagine this is what happened in the case of the Ghostbusters reboot, some people asked why the black character wasn't the scientist and the studio reacted with “Why don't you like women?” A kind of deflection mentality that avoided a valid critique of the movie and shames the critic from raising his or her voice again.

The blame also falls at the feet of the very worst patrons of our society. On one side you have the army of trolls of the web who are by far the worst people the interwebs (and the world) has to offer. These are the sort of guys who see any female lead role as an insult and seek out to harass them in the real world forcing the said actresses to abandon social media. These sort of people (most of them male) leave me gritting my teeth because this isn't so much a passion of a fandom they want to protect as it is a lifestyle of attacking people who are not them. Everything is a fucking battle and anything that progresses or enhances another race/gender/sexuality beyond their own is considered a threat to their manhood.

On the other side, we have people who you would call PC and they are sometimes PC to a fault. I tend to find myself agreeing with people on this side more often than not but even then we have our moments where I am wondering what the fuck the objective is. They become advocates for a worthwhile cause but become blinded to valid points or arguments. Back to Star Wars, I wondered why Admiral Holdo was even in the movie because she was killed right away and Akbar or Leia could have had the noble death. The response is defensive of the female role simply because it's a female role. Studios obviously love these advocates because they still don't have to answer the questions and its a private army of people to protect their franchise.

The last group is fans which is a wide spectrum of people from little girls who see Rey and get excited to see a girl kicking ass on the screen to long-term fans who have questions about the lore of the movies being changed or questions why the movie changed directions. Most of us reside here between the two extremes; the PC movie defenders who see the film as a tool to improve society and those little troll fuckers who want to see the world burn.

The failing in this discussion about the movie is the fact those two polar opposites dictated the discourse for the rest of us. You either accepted the movie as it was and enjoyed being on the moral high ground or join the trolls if you have any small critiques of the movie whatsoever. Perhaps we more moderate critics failed a bit by letting the trolls become the loudest voice in the room and let them write letters where they basically bashed women became the only thing people could see. Much like a peaceful protest where 97% of the people are there to say their piece with civility and clarity but its those 3% (the Trolls) throwing trash cans thru the window that get the cameras on them and they define the protest with the media coverage. 

I blame also the Directors and Disney for playing this absolutist mentality where they say anyone who is complaining about the movie is a baby, sexist, racist or some other insult. They didn't seem to want to have any criticism and why would they?! Having a golden franchise that can basically prints money and where you can say anyone who dissents against us is a bigot of some sort, is a hell of a defense. No one wants to be with the trolls and be labeled as chauvinist or racist but because there was no spectrum or room for dissent they ultimately pushed critics and concerned fans to that side.

Respecting The Lore/Establish A Vision

Disney may not realize this but they fucked up pretty bad by cutting away the extended universe. I understand WHY they did it; thousands of characters, hundreds of worlds, dozens of stories to consider compiled over 40 years? I imagine the collective writers of Disney who saw the scope of what other people had built together and collectively shit their pants. It's a massive undertaking to try and apply the lore in a way that fans might enjoy or explore plots that we would love to see executed. The problem is instead of looking at this expanded universe as a foundation to build their movies on, they decided to slice it away and leave nothing but the core movies and a cartoon. I will try and break down why that was a mistake.

Fans Invested Most of Their Time Into The SWEU

What they may have not realized is the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy was not where fans invested most of their time. Yes, we loved those movies for being the gateway into this great fictional universe but ultimately watching the 6 films would take only 13 hours. Knights of the Old Republic a single game of that Star Wars Universe (that they cut away), takes at least 28 to 48 hours to complete. Then you add on other games Knights of the Old Republic 2, The Old Republic MMO, Shadows of the Empire, Battlefront 1/2, The Force Unleashed, Rogue Squadron, Empire at War, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Jedi Academy, Republic Commando and so on you are now looking at hundreds of hours invested to a single play thru or more likely THOUSANDS of hours for true gamers play each game a few times.

This is where the true long-term fans who buy Star Wars merchandise over a lifetime instead of a holiday season reside. It stays fresh in our minds as books, comics, games, and yes the movies become part of regular media diet. Disney perhaps felt overwhelmed by it or perhaps wanted to reboot the universe decided to take the vast majority of where our love resides in the Star Wars Universe and scrapped it. Like it or not this is where they lost most of their following and since they did it just before the release of the The Last Jedi they have since been dealing with the fallout of loyal fans who feel betrayed and I am not talking just about the bitchy trolls from online either.

Removal of Strong Female Roles

I like seeing Ray as a strong female character and we all, of course, we all love Leia as well. There is no doubt the Star Wars movies while centered around some strong female characters have been pretty much been male-dominated for those first six films. So the change is not only warranted but welcomed.

What is a shame as while that was true for the movies it was far from the truth for the SWEU content where there were literally dozens of strong female leads they could have been explored by Disney.

Meetra Surik

Mara Jade

Bastila Shan

Mission Vao

Juno Eclipse

Iden Versio

Jaina Solo

Maris Brood

Visas Marr

Jan Ors

And so many more...

These women come different walks of life being the daughter of Han and Leia (Jaina Solo), plucky engineers who travel with a Wookie (Mission Vao), former Sith turned to the Light Side (Mara Jade), former Imperial Pilots and Soldiers fighting for the Rebellion (Juno and Iden), or even one of the most powerful Jedi’s in the Galaxy (Meetra Surik). I suppose what is best about them being fictional is that they still exist and if Disney wants to start mending bridges they should star readapting these characters into the canon universe.

The Best Stories Exist Before And After The Movies

I suppose for some the story of Skywalker family struggle was enough for them but the bigger stories existed long before the Empire/First Order and greatest conflict took place years after. The Mandalorian Wars, where warriors raider world after world forcing the Galactic Republic to step in. The Great Galactic War pitting the Sith against Jedi across the galaxy. The Invasion of the Yuuzhan Vong leaving trillions dead across hundreds of worlds and nearly destroying all life.

These stories are part of that extended universe and far more compelling than the recycled Death Star plot we saw in 4 of the 10 Star Wars movies. The audience craved to see the Jedi at their peak when they maintained peace across the universe, or they wish to see the Sith exist not in pairs but as an Empires themselves. If Disney wants to explore this franchise than embrace the stories that have not yet been shown on screen.

Establishing A Vision

Disney has enjoyed great success with the MCU and dozens of movies its created. They also managed to get their mittens on the Star Wars Universe and seek to milk it much the same. The problem is they don't seem to have a clear idea where they want to go with the movies or what they should do with it. I already discussed how complex the universe is with all its lore but you (Disney) have control over the movies. The rights to the toys, games, books, comics and films an like it or not we are at your mercy of where you decide to take it. 

I suppose I am advocating having a vision for the future of this series. Marvel Cinematic Universe works because the stories were planned out with a sort of climactic point to be explored (IE the Infinity Wars) so we know you can practice good foresight. On the other hand... John Carter, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the Lone Ranger display a carelessness of other franchises. Not trying to be mean, just stating a fact. We saw it happen with other movies like Batman in the 90′s where the objective was selling toys and not making a quality film that could encourage people to buy merchandise for decades. I guess what I am trying to say is Harry Potter this franchise, treat it with love and care that the fanboys and fangirls so we can go with you on this adventure into a galaxy far far away.

A Letter to You Troll Douchbags

Some of us critics truly love movies. We see the flaws as they are and we want to be able to say our views with other people around a table. I had my issues with the magical properties of the heart-shaped herb in Black Panther. I wish they continued Ghostbusters 3 with Oscar (Jason Gordon Lovitt) taking over and having some young black scientists (played by Donald Glover and Jessica Williams) being the Ghostbusters (and Role Models) in the movie. I have some issues with The Last Jedi and how they changed the flow of the movie from one director to the next but you little bitches keep making these debates about race and fucking gender every fucking time. You see a woman on screen and you write up a review of a movie that isn't even out yet because you’re somehow afraid of the 50 movies released over the year you somehow won't be represented.

Cut your fucking shit out you little pricks. We cant make honest critiques now because you’re the first fucking twits to review a film and all you spew is the vial fucking hate raging against everything that isn't you. Honestly, the rest of us just want to enjoy ourselves, we are grown up enough to know white isn't the only skin color in the seats of the movie theater and male isn't the only gender of a hero (we call them heroines) in movies.

I picked these movies on purpose because they were topical and I had my issues with them (and I have my issue with every movie save Shaun of the Dead which is fucking perfect). I wanted to write reviews that were balanced because I want to believe we can have that discourse again where we can chat why a movie works or doesn't work without the risk of having labels like sexist or racist applied to us because you want to act out. So please for the love of god either commit to shoving your head further up your ass so we can't hear you or pull your head out and join the rest of the world. Either way, I am tired of having to apologize and denounce your rhetoric... it's honestly fucking exhausting.

Regards Michael California