tossawary

[tossawary]

General warning for continuing, canon-typical violence. This chapter is around 5,100 words long. Enjoy!

[tossawary]

I read "Amazing Fantasy #15" (the 1962 comic collection in which Spider-Man first appears, before his own comic run) because I was curious. It's really neat.

It's only about 12 pages long. (Very easy to find a copy! Very quick read!) There's an efficiency with the storytelling that's interesting if you're into comics at all, the way the panels are put together, the old-fashioned exposition of having characters describe what's happening and their own thoughts aloud. Some parts of it are a little silly, maybe, but I find it charming. It's neat what parts of the origin story have now changed and just how much of it has persisted across decades.

And I think it has persisted because it's a pretty good short story, if a very simple one and also very familiar one now. It's a whole story all by itself, self-contained, with a now iconic message at the end. These 12 pages have a very strong core.

People were NOT kidding about how much Peter Parker's origin story initially reads like a villain origin story. He talks exactly like a budding comic book supervillain! He has some of that mad scientist arrogance and ambition! He has no interest in becoming a hero! And then he gets a comeuppance for selfishness that completely alters the course of his life for a second time within the same dozen pages. It's immediately compelling to me.

It does make me wonder how much of Peter Parker's character is at all a response to earlier comic book heroes, given that his first appearance is 20+ years after the creation of Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and the like. It's asking the bold question: "What if our hero was a guy who kind of sucked?" I think I'm having a "Unfortunately, I think I love him" moment.

[tossawary]

Luke: "There's nothing here for me now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father."

Luke: "And then I want to fight the Empire and become a Separatist."

Obi-Wan: "Don't say it like that."

On the subject of "new elements semi-accidentally creating potential inconsistencies" in SW, I think that the Separatists in the prequels would have had a cultural impact that would have carried over more into the OT era, specifically their name.

Palpatine gained his power by (secretly creating and controlling and) really pushing the threat of the Separatists. Anyone who balked at the kind of control Palpatine was taking would have been accused of having "anti-republican / separatist politics" and would have suffered for it, and I don't think that kind of propaganda goes away overnight. And to hold his Empire together afterwards, it's important to continue demonizing anyone advocating for independence from the Empire.

Under the Empire, in SW stories, all anti-Imperials tend to be called "rebels" because that's what they are, but also because we're used to calling them that thanks to the OT. In-universe, within the Empire, thanks to the prequels and associated media, a lot of Imperial Core citizens should probably also regard the Rebel Alliance as "separatists" because the term is already culturally synonymous with dangerous radicals, traitors, rebels, terrorists, warmongers, and so on. The original group of Separatists are either dead or have been absorbed back into the Empire, yes, but I think that the political term as a weapon should probably still be around.

Child Leia Organa was probably called a separatist by one of her peers for expressing any support for independence. There are probably insufferable in-universe debates about whether or not having "separatist politics" means you endorse the monstrous actions of the CIS, and whether or not the political identity can be reformed.

Meanwhile, all that said, isolated people like Owen and Beru Lars, who have little personal experience with the Republic and none with anything the CIS did, might still privately think of themselves as "separatists / anti-republicans" of a sort because to them that maybe just means the Empire ought to leave their planet alone. As Outer Rim people, they might have been getting more Separatist propaganda than Republican, if they got much of anything. In their view, the Republic became a damn Empire, so maybe those Separatist folks were kind of right, actually?

Anyway, I'm imagining the aftermath of "A New Hope" in which Leia is trying to talk to Luke about wider galactic politics, and this Outer Rim farmboy who just blew up the Death Star says something like, "Well, I originally wanted to join the Imperial Academy just to follow my friends and get off Tatooine, but politically, I guess that me and my family have always been pretty separatist."

[tossawary]

On the subject of "new elements semi-accidentally creating potential inconsistencies" in SW, I think that the Separatists in the prequels would have had a cultural impact that would have carried over more into the OT era, specifically their name.

Palpatine gained his power by (secretly creating and controlling and) really pushing the threat of the Separatists. Anyone who balked at the kind of control Palpatine was taking would have been accused of having "anti-republican / separatist politics" and would have suffered for it, and I don't think that kind of propaganda goes away overnight. And to hold his Empire together afterwards, it's important to continue demonizing anyone advocating for independence from the Empire.

Under the Empire, in SW stories, all anti-Imperials tend to be called "rebels" because that's what they are, but also because we're used to calling them that thanks to the OT. In-universe, within the Empire, thanks to the prequels and associated media, a lot of Imperial Core citizens should probably also regard the Rebel Alliance as "separatists" because the term is already culturally synonymous with dangerous radicals, traitors, rebels, terrorists, warmongers, and so on. The original group of Separatists are either dead or have been absorbed back into the Empire, yes, but I think that the political term as a weapon should probably still be around.

Child Leia Organa was probably called a separatist by one of her peers for expressing any support for independence. There are probably insufferable in-universe debates about whether or not having "separatist politics" means you endorse the monstrous actions of the CIS, and whether or not the political identity can be reformed.

Meanwhile, all that said, isolated people like Owen and Beru Lars, who have little personal experience with the Republic and none with anything the CIS did, might still privately think of themselves as "separatists / anti-republicans" of a sort because to them that maybe just means the Empire ought to leave their planet alone. As Outer Rim people, they might have been getting more Separatist propaganda than Republican, if they got much of anything. In their view, the Republic became a damn Empire, so maybe those Separatist folks were kind of right, actually?

Anyway, I'm imagining the aftermath of "A New Hope" in which Leia is trying to talk to Luke about wider galactic politics, and this Outer Rim farmboy who just blew up the Death Star says something like, "Well, I originally wanted to join the Imperial Academy just to follow my friends and get off Tatooine, but politically, I guess that me and my family have always been pretty separatist."

[tossawary]

Personally, I don't think that Anakin is destined to become Darth Vader after AOTC. After all, in "Return of the Jedi" even after he's spent 20+ more years committing more evil acts, he does still finally turn on the Emperor for Luke's sake, even at great cost to himself.

There are three main reasons why I don't think Anakin would try to destroy the Jedi Order in a happily-ever-after AU like this.

Firstly, I don't think he views the Tuskens as people, but the Jedi are still people to him.

Most of them are people he doesn't care about personally or may even outright dislike, but he has friends among them. Anakin was just coming out of an incredibly deadly war in which he was a very powerful general, was panicked by the urgency of Padmé's pregnancy, and had just helped Palpatine kill Mace Windu, when he was persuaded by a very powerful Sith Lord and personal friend that the death of the Jedi and the Republic were a necessary evil. When Anakin goes along with Order 66, he probably thinks that he HAS to do it or Padmé will die AND the Jedi Order will kill him for the death of Mace Windu. He thought he was already doomed and betrayed, so all these additional deaths didn't matter.

It took a BIG push from Palpatine to cross that line and this is an AU in which Anakin apparently resisted that last push.

After 20 years or so of relatively peaceful living, Anakin would probably be in a very different headspace. His anger towards the Jedi Council may have softened after years of luxurious living as Padmé's husband, no longer under their "control". He has had time to reflect on his disagreements with Obi-Wan or Ahsoka or Yoda, and he may feel more fondly about them now, and also about his overall experiences in the Temple. His current life probably isn't perfect and he may feel nostalgic towards both the Jedi Order and for the Clone Wars.

Now, there's a lot of interesting exploration that could be done around Anakin maybe not being a good father or husband.

He would have PTSD. He's not good at processing his emotions and he would probably still keep some level of bitterness towards the Jedi Order, which could grow badly if left unchecked. He can be very controlling and he pushes or ignores boundaries when it comes to his loved ones (ex: his romance with Padmé). He takes all disagreements very personally.

Put all that together with his kids being powerful Force-sensitives and Anakin not wanting to give them up to the Jedi Order, there's potential for him training Luke and Leia going quite badly. Some parents just don't make good teachers and coaches, and a demanding teacher/coach that you can't escape even at home often doesn't make for a good parent. There might be tension.

Anakin and Padmé have also never actually had to live together during their marriage, and Anakin sometimes displays a lack of respect for her independence and her work. Their early lives were consumed by war and terrible responsibility, and I think both of them would struggle badly with any kind of retirement. Maybe they work their marital problems out. Maybe they don't. Maybe it's mostly fine but there's another layer of tension in this household.

So, all that to say, I could also see Anakin being in a very bad headspace even after twenty years of peaceful living. It could go either way. What I was proposing was a genuinely relatively happy ending, in which the Skywalker family is overall very happy for decades, and THEN that gets ruined by the revelation of Anakin's revenge murders that he was living with guilt-free because of his racism and Padmé's silent support.

But you could also deconstruct the happy ending by having it never really be happy. In which Anakin struggles badly with leaving the Jedi Order, with losing his power and influence as a Republic General, with PTSD from the war, with adjusting to retirement, with domestic life with Padmé, with Padmé's career and Padmé's own PTSD and workaholic tendencies, with being a father when his best example is Obi-Wan who is flawed and with whom Anakin may be on the outs. Depending on how you write that, I could see him ready to get violent with the Jedi Order after years of rotting bitterness, when the revelation of the Tusken massacre blows his life up.

My idea was trying to play on the unfortunate real-world cases of people who go out and do terrible things to people they consider lesser than them and/or evil, usually due to racism and xenophobia, then come home again and live happily with loving families as upstanding members of their own communities. I was trying to explore the hypocrisy in a happy AU in which Anakin somehow made all the right choices in ROTS and afterwards.

The second reason why I don't think Anakin would generally try to destroy the Jedi Order is that he here lacks 1) the power to do it, and 2) the power to escape the consequences for doing it.

When he helps destroy the Jedi Order in ROTS, he's backed up by the clone army. He doesn't have to kill every Jedi himself or clean up afterwards, most of it is happening out of sight and out of mind for him. He's also backed up by Emperor Palpatine, assuring him that he will face ZERO consequences from any of the Jedi or the Republic for helping with Order 66.

Anakin IS clever enough to know some of his own limits. He wouldn't be half so effective as Darth Vader if he didn't. He can't take the Jedi Order on and win here, and there would be even worse consequences here for him if he tried that.

(If you want to complicate the situation, one potential career Anakin could have taken on is a military one. As a celebrated Jedi general (if former Jedi are even allowed to join the military, that's a question), the military might be VERY happy to take him in and give him some power. Which would probably cause a fair amount of conflict in his marriage, as Padmé probably wants to ultimately dismantle the Grand Army of the Republic and demilitarize.)

Now, depending on just how bad this situation gets, how ugly the emotions and accusations get, I could see Anakin trying to violently take out his anger on individuals, damn the consequences. A'Sharad Hett would be a prime target. Obi-Wan might take some heat for "turning Anakin's children against him" depending on what's going on there. And so on.

I think Anakin is more likely to turn towards individual revenge, if violence breaks out, without some outside force trying to use him against the Jedi as a whole. From there, he might start down a path that ends in him going full Sith Lord again, but Palpatine really was crucial in the "sudden" creation of Darth "destroyer of the entire Jedi Order" Vader in canon. When Palpatine pushed Anakin to do that in canon, he was really ensuring that Anakin would have the hardest possible time turning back and that almost no one would try to reach out to him afterwards.

In this AU, Anakin has people who care about him, even if they're all furious with him. Padmé is in this sinking boat with him, given that she helped hide it, and after 20+ years of marriage very likely wouldn't abandon him there, and that might help to keep the boat steady.

In an AU where the Tusken massacre comes out, Anakin might not even go to prison for it. It would have to go to court. Anakin might feel like his marriage is falling apart permanently, like he's lost his children, like he's losing all his friends and the respect he earned as a war hero, but he's almost certainly not going to DIE for this. The Republic would still be dealing with some level of corruption and racism; some people might want to make an example out of Anakin, but others might balk at punishing a war hero. His mother's death might be brought up to try to excuse him. Anakin's service record might be used to lessen any guilty sentence to nothing.

I was focusing on the social consequences of the Tusken massacre revelation and what it would mean for the Skywalker family. Depending on how the case is handled legally, if everything runs cold more than hot, it might not inspire the same urgent panic that turned Anakin Skywalker towards murderous violence in canon. And again, I don't think he'd immediately turn that on the Jedi Order as a whole.

The third reason I don't think Anakin would turn on the Jedi Order is because of his family. In an AU in which Anakin hasn't been stewing in bitterness for decades, he presumably still cares about Jedi like Obi-Wan and Ahsoka on a personal level, and it would ruin his relationship with them to get violent. But even in an AU where Anakin has burned all his bridges with the Jedi Order, he presumably still cares about Luke and Leia and Padmé very much. Getting violent wouldn't help them. Getting violent wouldn't help him with them. Anakin might be willing to accept consequences to get the best possible ending out of this scandal for his family.

Darth Vader only really happens because Anakin blows his entire life up, the Jedi Order and the Republic, to try to save his wife and children. And gets himself trapped because it was all bullshit.

Darth Vader in the original trilogy often strikes me as a very pitiful figure. He's scary, of course. He's deadly. But he's also kind of pathetic, acting as Tarkin's lackey, especially when you have the prequels for reference. He's especially defeated in ROTJ. Standing silently by as Palpatine gleefully talks about having the Skywalkers kill each other. All of the power of the Dark Side only bought Anakin Skywalker to a dark, sterile room on a battle station, watching an evil old man torture his begging son to death.

In the OT, Anakin chops off Luke's hand and nearly kills him, but that's only after 20+ years of being Darth Vader, and he still turns back for the son he barely knows in the end. He doesn't give a damn about anyone else, probably. But he cares about Luke.

Instead of only anger, only murderous anger, Anakin might also end up feeling... defeated. Overwhelmed. Helpless. Like he's lost and might as well go along with this punishment. The easiest path here may be to just go to prison and hope that Luke, Leia, and Padmé will visit regularly. Maybe people like Obi-Wan and Ahsoka will as well. Rex, if Rex is still alive, maybe.

Darth Vader isn't inevitable. I think ROTS actually proves that when Anakin has to choose to turn violence on his loved ones and only does so under great pressure from Palpatine. And ROTJ proves that when Anakin chooses to turn away. ROTJ doesn't undo any of the many evil acts Anakin did over the decades, including the Tusken Massacre in AOTC, but it does mean to me that not all roads lead to Darth Vader in AUs for ROTS.

And that a revelation of the Tusken Massacre in a happily-ever-after AU doesn't necessarily have to end in violence, though I do think that's also a valid exploration. It could also just be sad. This happy family would probably break apart, in some ways, and at least never be the same.

It depends what anyone wants to write, in my opinion. There's ways to pull off almost anything in believable and compelling fashions, depending on what specific themes an author wants to explore.

It's very funny to me when people propose "and then Anakin made good choices instead and didn't murder Jedi younglings and they all lived happily ever after" AUs for the Star Wars prequels, but they put their canon divergence point... anywhere in "Revenge of the Sith". Like, I get what we're going for here, but Anakin IS unfortunately already a child murderer before the movie even starts.

Anakin's child murder during the Tusken Massacre is a prominent part of "Attack of the Clones". And Padmé KNOWS about it because he admits to taking deadly revenge for the actions of an unknown few out on an entire group of people, including children, explicitly directly afterwards. Padmé apparently wants love and a family so badly that she MARRIES HIM after that. Anakin and Padmé both put their personal desires above their morals and oaths of duty in the SECOND movie of this tragic trilogy.

It's often weirdly suggested that Luke and Leia in canon inherited their good qualities like their kindness and righteousness from the bio parents they never knew, instead of the actual people who raised them (Owen and Beru, Bail and Breha). It's interesting to me to imagine an AU in which Anakin made all the right choices in Ep3, defeated Sidious, stopped the Empire, left the Jedi Order to be with his family, raised Luke and Leia with Padmé, and THEN has the secret of the Tusken Massacre come back to haunt him.

Like, let's keep to a general outline of canon for this happy AU, and say that Anakin has trained both of his children in the Force and the ways of the Jedi despite not giving them up to the Temple. You don't need an official Republic label to have spiritual beliefs or dedicate yourself to helping people, but it's also not unheard of for people to find their way to the Jedi Temple later in life. So, Luke is either a Jedi or as good as one, and close to Obi-Wan Kenobi either way.

Let's also say that Padmé has involved her children in the political reformation and good humanitarian (SW non-human-inclusive equivalent) work that she's done with other like-minded senators, including rights and reparations for the enslaved clone troopers. So, Leia has a budding formidable political career of some kind and even has Bail Organa as a beloved mentor. Happy ending types of things.

Ideally for me, the discovery of the Tusken Massacre isn't a private family matter that could potentially be buried again, but a very public scandal in this AU.

Maybe a reporter goes to visit Tatooine because they're making a biopic on Padmé, the legendary young Queen and Senator Amidala, because they want to know more about her war hero husband's past. Digging for dirt, the reporter ends up investigating the relationship between the Lars settler farm and the local Tusken groups, and they end up uncovering journalistic GOLD.

Yes, Shmi Skywalker was kidnapped and killed, but her Jedi son then went off the rails and killed an entire encampment in revenge without any type of investigation. This potentially includes people who were abducted and/or enslaved by the Tuskens, as well as Tusken children. Setting morality aside for a moment, that is at the very least a VERY BAD look for a Republic politician's former Jedi Knight husband.

Or maybe someone like A'Sharad Hett (a Tusken Jedi to whom Anakin confessed his crime and nearly killed during the Clone Wars in the comics) comes forward. Maybe A'Sharad has been living in Tatooine in self-imposed exile in order to recover from physical and emotional injury during the Clone Wars, then he finally returns to the Coruscant Temple, sees Anakin living peacefully, and snaps.

Or maybe A'Sharad Hett is actually back on Coruscant because, after 20 long years of hard work from many parties (including Padmé!), a reforming Tatooine is finally on the verge of joining this reformed Republic and this former Jedi is now an official planetary representative of the Tusken people. He did the traumatized hermit thing for a while, then decided that he wanted to do good for his people, and started Organizing Locally. Two decades later, he finally sees Anakin and Padmé at some humanitarian charity event on Coruscant, which Leia organized (her parents are very proud), and it's awkward. A'Sharad Hett wakes up the next morning feeling a little bit Darth Krayt and goes, "I Think I Will Ruin A Man's Life Today."

And then Luke and Leia have to contend with the fact that the hands that raised them, that held them, were always stained by innocent blood.

Their father, this legendary Jedi Knight, killed children as a revenge-seeking Jedi Padawan and called his victims animals afterwards. (The family will be VERY lucky if Anakin doesn't lose his famous temper and say something HIDEOUSLY racist to the demanding press who are repeatedly bringing up his dead mother.)

And their mother, this beloved politician who famously advocates for the rights of people considered lesser and savage by others, who famously fights for due process and probably against the death penalty, covered up these murders.

Luke and Leia would probably be shattered and incandescently furious.

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka would be shocked and horrified, I hope. The Jedi Council would probably be in chaos over how to react.

People like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma would be devastated and yet still have to keep their composure while fighting off the press, because even if what Anakin did perhaps isn't technically illegal by current Republic law, Padmé's complicity in a revenge massacre has suddenly called all of their charitable projects and efforts to bring justice to the Outer Rim into question.

Really, I get what we're going for with a Happy Ending Canon Divergence AU for "Revenge of the Sith"! But even setting aside every questionable choice made during the Clone Wars itself, I just can't stop thinking about the skeletons that are STILL in Anakin and Padmé's closet in these AUs, due to the events of Ep2. The possibility of a rotting telltale heart that Anakin's been ignoring for 20+ years coming back to destroy his children's image of him? And also their image of Padmé?

Delicious drama. Get his (and her) ass.

Side note (spoilers): I was thinking about this because of episode 15 of "The Clone Wars", which is called "Trespass" and introduces the character of Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi. Pantoran dignitaries, Jedi representatives, and clone troopers are visiting the planet Orto Plutonia to investigate the disappearance of a clone trooper force. The Pantorans have claimed ownership of this planet because it's within their system.

It is discovered that the planet has an intelligent (C-3PO can understand them and translate for them) but not technologically developed indigenous species, called the Talz, who are admittedly responsible for the disappearances of (to them) these strange invaders. The Pantoran Chairman basically loses it, completely fails to negotiate with the Talz, calls them trespassers and animals, refuses to recognize their sovereignity, and then tries to kill them all.

A lot of Talz and more clone troopers are unfortunately killed before Senator Chuchi finds the courage to do the right thing and stand up against the Chairman. As one of the Jedi representatives present, Obi-Wan commended her courage afterwards.

(It was kind of annoying how Obi-Wan initially said their hands were tied. TCW show has its protagonists break or bend rules all the time, but Obi-Wan and Anakin couldn't put a LITTLE more effort into preventing the clone troopers from being sent to fight and kill and die against an indigenous people apparently now fighting for their own survival?)

Anyway, Anakin was lurking behind Obi-Wan during basically all of this, and I thought it was a very funny choice to have him say AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE during all of this. The Pantoran Chairman goes on an incredibly racist rant that pits him as OBVIOUSLY the Bad Guy, before he gets a whole bunch of people (including more clone troopers who really didn't deserve any of this) killed due to his seething thirst for blood, and it's like... "Hey, Anakin! Look! It's kind of you! Parallels!"

[tossawary]

As much as I dislike the sequel trilogy, it did give me some interesting thoughts on how your introduction to the Force might change your relationship to it. Having your head broken open by a powerful and emotionally unstable Dark Sider might directly connect a sensitive person to the Force in ways for which they might not be ready.

This chapter is around 5,700 words long. Enjoy! ⭐⚔️⭐

[tossawary]

I read Naomi Novik's "Spinning Silver" and enjoyed it! We have many books of fairy tales in my house, including some Eastern European ones, and this felt like revisiting those with much greater depth and feeling. I liked the worldbuilding and how full and busy and dangerous the world felt.

Uhhh, no spoilers stuff... I like how all the different character backgrounds informed their flawed perspectives, from the serious and frightening to the downright (sad) cute stuff like Wanda initially thinking that basic addition and subtraction and bookkeeping was a kind of magic. Aw, Wanda!

I liked how we got to see these characters really problem-solve, constantly making choices and trying to be practical and clever to survive their abuse. I liked the acknowledgement and exploration of the tenuous positions of women, from rich families and poor, daughters and wives alike. It's not a romance, while still being very much about marriage, and marriage here is A Thing That Might Kill You. I like angry female characters.

A fair amount of tension in this book was created just from the main character Miryem being a Jewish moneylender in an incredibly hostile environment. It was nice to see those kinds of prejudices and the constraints of the marginalized threaded through the world, and then to see the ways in which her background also mattered when dealing with very dangerous magical problems like fairies and demons. I like it when fantasy worlds and their characters feel very specific rather than Generic Western Fantasy.

[tossawary]

As much as I dislike the sequel trilogy, it did give me some interesting thoughts on how your introduction to the Force might change your relationship to it. Having your head broken open by a powerful and emotionally unstable Dark Sider might directly connect a sensitive person to the Force in ways for which they might not be ready.

This chapter is around 5,700 words long. Enjoy! ⭐⚔️⭐

[tossawary]

Yesterday I was rereading Sit With Your Soul by @tossawary and something left me thinking...

How YQY and his massive bull daemon would fly on Xuan Su???

Some options:

D option is still open lmao

@neuvoid-writes thought's: and that's how YQY got his massive honkers

[tossawary]

I loathe the fact that the sequel trilogy massacred Luke's new Jedi Order. Personally, I found it incredibly depressing. More importantly, I also found it very confusing in its execution, because it was unclear to me in the actual films who exactly had done it and why, which was very frustrating when the films kept trying to focus on and inspire sympathy for the massacre's main suspect, Kylo Ren.

But setting aside who was responsible for it, perhaps even more importantly, I also loathe it because it immediately makes this new fictional world so… small.

(Luke tried to kill his own nephew??? Sorry, not the point of this post, it's been years, but I still can't let it go. LUKE??? Luke "I still believe there's good in Darth Vader" Skywalker??? In my opinion, the ONLY reason that makes ANY sense for Luke is if someone else (who the fuck are the Knights of Ren) murdered everyone and Ben Solo was framed, but the movies do NOT explain SHIT, and Kylo Ren then goes on to help kill his entire family, many innocent people, and multiple planets anyway, so, you know, fuck him maybe!)

(Also, after S2 of "The Mandalorian", one of my watching buddies turned to me and said, "Is the unfortunate implication here that Kylo Ren and the First Order killed Grogu?" And we agreed that hopefully it had been Din Djarin's weekend with the kid that day. A massacre is just a terrible setup for building anything both before the sequel trilogy and after.)

Getting rid of the new Jedi Order the way that TFA did it is so... overdramatic and unnecessary? Immediately creating a huge hurdle for your new trilogy. Immediately digging yourself into a writing pit. I keep thinking, "Why even write it that way?" Tension, maybe. It raises the stakes if there are no other Jedi to save the day and the Jedi Order is on the edge of extinction again. Trying to make Kylo Ren seem extra scary and powerful as a villain by implying that he's (maybe?) personally killed most of the Jedi Order. Trying to make Rey also seem extra special and important as a protagonist maybe by having no options or points of comparison.

But I don't think the pros outweigh the cons. The writing choice reduces all of these non-Skywalker (or non-Palpatine, as it turns out) Jedi characters to just... set dressing, basically. Mostly unseen decoration instead of a way to enrich the world.

Luke started training at 19, so some of his Jedi students may have actually started as adults. Depending on species, some of them easily could have been even older than him! And over 10+ years, any teenage and adolescent students, anyone Ben Solo's age or older, would have grown up. No one but Luke gets to be good enough to survive?

Yes, the new Jedi Order was possibly very, very small, because we don't know how many apprentices Luke was taking on at a time or if he found anyone to help him teach. Yes, these Jedi were probably ambushed and probably betrayed here, so their skill and age in comparison to Kylo Ren or any other perpetrators might have been completely irrelevant. Yes, the overall point is that it's unfair. It's a tragic event.

Nevertheless... no survivors? None???

Were they ALL children and teachers? No one was an adult Jedi Knight out in the galaxy on a mission? Visiting family or friends? Working with the New Republic? It's maybe unfair to compare this massacre to Order 66, since there were both far, far more Jedi and they were all far better trained, but there were still survivors there! But was whoever did this as well-trained and coordinated as the clone troopers? We don't know who did it. They could have missed someone.

Also, none of the Order 66 survivors or any of their own students interacted with Luke's new Jedi Order or the New Republic apparently? Luke didn't try to reach out to any other non-Jedi groups of Force users at all? That could have been fun.

It annoys me that there was no apparent actual thought put into Luke's Jedi Order, how it might work, and who might potentially be a part it. (LEIA.) No, it's all reduced to Luke and his new murderous family member, pretty much.

None of these other people, who came to rebuild the Jedi Order, get to do anything or matter in the sequels in any meaningful way. Even as dead props, none of these people really get to matter personally to Luke or Kylo Ren. Do any of these massacred people even get named in these films? To my memory, Luke and Kylo Ren never talk about anyone specific, not even naming a single friend whom Kylo Ren might have betrayed and killed.

It all feels very cheap to me. Underutilized. If you just needed some murders to make Kylo Ren and Snoke villainous, it really didn't have to be EVERYONE.

Honestly, if you played it right, it could have just been one murder, if you really needed that kind of betrayal setup. Destroy their new Jedi Temple, scatter the new Jedi Order across the galaxy, being hunted by the First Order and resisting, and have it that Kylo Ren (or unknown other) killed his fraternal twin brother or something. If the backstory is given emotional richness, you don't have to go (forgive the pun) overkill.

This complete massacre cuts off an entire potential lane of interesting, emotionally connected background characters who might influence events in chaotic ways. Kylo Ren doesn't get to have any extremely angry, injured peers or teachers out for revenge? No siblings? No cousins? He (maybe?) doesn't even have any friends who turned on Luke with him. (Who the FUCK are the Knights of Ren?) Luke isn't given any other Jedi helping him hide and recover from injury, which might have been an uplifting thread in the second movie, a revelation that neither Luke or Rey are THE last Jedi. Leia apparently tried being a Jedi and then quit, so SHE doesn't get any students, current or former.

Rey gets no Jedi allies. No other teachers. No peers. No rivals. No orphaned padawans she has to protect. You could have given Kylo Ren a baby sister or brother or cousin and have them be in hiding with Luke, putting Rey into a big sister role. All of these potential relationships between Jedi, setups that could have been new to this trilogy, get cut off before the plot of TFA starts.

Like, "The Last Jedi" could have reversed the complete massacre. "The Force Awakens" immediately utterly wasted the new Jedi Order (and the entire New Republic apparently) to make Kylo Ren and the First Order look more dangerous, but TLJ could have still created a few Jedi survivors to widen the fictional world and spice things up.

(TLJ skips the time skip! Also not the point of this post, but all other prior SW trilogy movies have significant time skips between them. But TFA ends with Rey meeting Luke, so TLJ apparently HAS to pick up the story immediately, rather than letting the characters and world develop offscreen to set up a fresh situation. Seriously, I enjoyed TFA the most out of this trilogy, but the first movie did create a real worldbuilding and plotting clusterfuck here.)

This is supposed to be a galaxy! Big! Diverse! Busy! A new Jedi Order (and the New Republic) could have easily been used to show off that wealth of species and worlds off. The sequels didn't use it. It threw it away for very little gain.

Of course, no character NEEDS to be a Jedi to be important and interesting and infuential. For most of the original trilogy, Luke was more or less just another rebel, one among many. (Biggs Darklighter! Han Solo! Chewbacca! Lando Calrissian! R2-D2 and C-3PO!) Even in the third movie, as the last Jedi, Luke's main role in the group mission against the second Death Star was a suicidal solo mission to distract and maybe assassinate the Emperor. Everyone else saved the day while Luke basically played bait for his evil wizard father and the evil wizard emperor.

But then the sequel trilogy also badly fumbles all of its non-Jedi supporting characters anyway, so what the fuck.

It's annoying to me that the situation of the Jedi Order in the previous trilogy is repeated so completely. The protagonist being a lone Jedi student whose mentors all die off was DONE already, it makes the new trilogy feel incredibly unoriginal to have just one Jedi apprentice and a resistance as your setup all over again! TFA immediately limited itself with that and then TLJ doubled down!

And "Rise of Skywalker"... did not stick the landing. It was probably never going to be a great landing by that point, but ROS sure did break both of its legs on impact instead.

And the "lone Jedi" setup made more sense to me when Palpatine had as much power as he did to orchestrate their destruction and then hunt down most of the scattered survivors over 20 years. So, the "lone Jedi" repeat with Rey also feels contrived.

And then even after the massacre of Luke's students, the loss of all of that storytelling potential, the sequel trilogy doesn't try to recover and seek some uniqueness. Finn doesn't get to be a Jedi despite being the main character of TFA. Rose doesnt get to be a Jedi despite everything SW has taken from Asian cultures. Rey doesn't even get to be a Jedi without also being Palpatine's granddaughter! It ultimately puts an importance on bloodlines that leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

In conclusion, yes! I understand the reasons WHY the sequel trilogy massacred the new Jedi Order. I understand character death as an important element in stories. But what the massacre did for the story could have been achieved in other ways! There were other ways to make Kylo Ren scary and villainous. There were other ways to separate Luke from the Resistance. There are situations you could create that would easily isolate the young protagonists and require them to save the day without older Jedi assistance.

Getting rid of the new Jedi Order so completely and so cheaply is, in my opinion, like shooting yourself in the foot. It destroyed so many writing avenues, so many potential characters, major or supporting or ensemble, so many potential challenges for our protagonists and antagonists, and it didn't even get to matter in an interesting way.

If you'd massacred the new Jedi Order on-screen over the course of the trilogy, even if it had been done very well, I still almost certainly wouldn't have liked it and I'd probably be angrily accusing it of copying the prequels instead, but at least I'd have names and faces to write fun canon divergence fanfiction with. The prequel trilogy is an intentional tragedy that had to set up the original trilogy! It did Order 66 with purpose! The prequel trilogy ALSO ultimately wasn't good, but the sequel trilogy had no such constraints.

Go, sequel trilogy films, destroy the new Jedi Order off-screen in your first movie and give us nothing for it.

[tossawary]

I'm so happy "Gastronauts" is back. It's my favorite Dropout show.

[tossawary]

I finally saw "Nope" (2022)! It was fun! Little long and a little slow, maybe, but that does give you a lot of time to think about the characters, who are compelling, especially the main brother and sister characters, and the situation they're in. (I didn't watch it alone, so I (had someone stopping me from just bailing and) could occasionally chat with someone about the film as we watched it together, which was nice.)

It's a sci-fi horror. I thought I might be able to tackle this one and would like it because I really like the original "Alien" (1979), which I (did a project on for a lit class once upon a time and) also classify as a sci-fi horror, while its sequel "Aliens" (1986) is much more of a sci-fi action film and imo less interesting. "Nope" is indeed more like the former film, though it is doing its own unique sci-fi horror thing for sure. It doesn't feel like it's at all being constrained by conventions.

"Nope" does have some very significant moments of very graphic violence, people and animals die on-screen and off, but you can look away or hold a hand in front of the screen while there's dripping blood (I do this sometimes, I'm not always great with visual horror), and you'll still understand just fine what's going on listening to the dialogue and horror sound cues. The film does a lot of its horror work through implication, showing you terrifying fragments of what's happened or what's happening and then letting you think about it, and I generally enjoy that. Very disturbing.

Which is all to say: if you're generally not a horror person, but you ARE a sci-fi person with some horror and gore tolerance, this movie is very worth watching.

(Spoiler-y statements if you want to go into the mystery completely blind?) This is a film where what the main characters do (animal handling, chasing fame, former child star running a theme park, etc.) and where they are (Hollywood) is extremely relevant to the aliens problem at hand. I liked that. It makes sense why this is happening to them specifically and why they specifically keep surviving and why they're taking the risks that they take. It doesn't feel random. It all ties together pretty well, especially thematically, in interesting ways. We watched some behind the scene videos from the DVD and hearing the creators talk about the film's potential interpretations was pretty neat.

(Definitely spoiler-y statements about the mystery beyond this point:) I liked the alien. It felt really unique. It looked very weird but also perfectly in-line with all sorts of real invertebrates. It felt pretty scary. I liked the opening (and continuing) framing device of the aftermath of a sitcom chimpanzee killing people and how it related to everything. So, if you watch the first five minutes, you'll get a pretty good idea of whether or not you might be able to handle the rest of the movie.

(Paraphrasing something Jordan Peele (the director) said in a bonus feature interview:) A wild animal can be extremely dangerous and an active threat, but the film isn't demonizing it for being a wild animal. (No longer paraphrasing:) I really appreciate that with my speculative fiction monsters.

[tossawary]

Different fandoms really have different fanfiction environments, which I tend to forget until I'm writing for a different fandom to the last one.

Some fandoms are doing some very abstract AUs. Everyone is apparently playing with 10+ mods on the base game. Everyone is building their own personal canon out of the scrap pile of 5+ different continuities that all contradict each other wildly! Or at least everyone is very familiar with the usual fandom prompts, kinky or otherwise, and one shots that have no other plot or context. "In this coffee shop AU, the main character is also a lizard. I will not be taking questions," say the author's notes in some fandoms. Yeah. Okay. Sure.

And then you enter another fandom and immediately run into someone apparently deeply confused by the general concept of a what-if canon divergence AU. Yeah, some different choices were made in this AU? It's the point and plot of the story here, actually, as labelled. Are you lost?

[tossawary]

I watched "The Force Awakens" (1st movie of the sequel trilogy) multiple times, but I've still only seen the following two movies once each. (I did not like them.) TFA is flawed for a long list of reasons, but the initial character concepts remain compelling to me, especially Finn and Kylo Ren as foils.

Like, I personally can't stand Kylo Ren now (partially due to how Luke, Leia, and Han's characters also all get twisted and sidelined and sacrificed in various ways to uplift this guy's story, and it's not even a well-written story, and mostly due to years of fandom favoritism at everyone else's expense) but I can't deny that he was a potentially fascinating villain to me. He's a relatively privileged and gifted young man, born into a loving if flawed family, who was violently radicalized by malicious actors telling him that he had a great destiny and great history that was somehow being taken from him by others, and that the solution to his anger was to hurt and kill people.

Honestly, I think even his character gets shafted by this trilogy. Kylo Ren was set up in the second movie to be a new Emperor and the creators instead brought Palpatine back from the dead rather than actually allow Kylo Ren to be the focus, to stand alone in the spotlight and take real ownership of his choices! (DID he kill all of Luke's other students? Who even ARE the Knights of Ren?! I don't think I should have to read additional books to not be confused.) It's replaying Darth Vader way too much.

(I still think about that post proposing that Ben Solo / Kylo Ren shouldn't have been Force-sensitive at all, and was therefore furious in part because he thought he was OWED Force powers and the life of a Jedi. Great concept. Plenty of non-Jedi can still make themselves very dangerous in a variety of ways, so you can still have great and creative fight scenes.)

Finn was my favorite character and is, in my opinion, the protagonist of TFA just as much as Rey, if not more so. Seriously. He is the one pushing most of the plot. It broke my heart when the following movies cast him aside as a supporting character, almost completely separated from the other characters with whom he'd had strong connections, with no chance of becoming a Jedi himself, with a poorly done Stormtrooper rebellion plotline only shoved in at the last minute.

Because HE'S the also the one who originally stood against their main villain with greatest contrast, in my opinion. He's a literally nameless soldier stolen as a child, no family, no legacy, given no allies and extremely limited resources with which to form his own understanding of the world. He didn't choose this death cult at all. And yet, upon first contact with a real battlefield, he retains the compassion and empathy and cleverness and courage that allows him to independently decide this is wrong and that he's not going to hurt people. For all he knows, all that's waiting for him outside of the First Order army is death, he's terrified, and he takes the chance and goes anyway, with nothing but the Stormtrooper armor and a borrowed jacket on his back. (And then he still goes BACK into the jaws of death to help people.)

If Finn had remained a main character, then by tracing potential character arcs out from TFA... I could argue that it might have even made far more sense for FINN, not Rey, to be the one to offer Kylo Ren a hand back out of the darkness, if anyone was going to do it. It's more relevant to Finn's backstory to find empathy for all the other people taken in and lied to by the First Order. (Note: do I think Kylo Ren would actually accept the compassion and mercy of a former Stormtrooper turned Rebel and Jedi? Be willing to share the Skywalker and Force legacy that he views as his own with someone like Finn? Not really! I think he'd hate it sooooo much that he might self-destruct first!)

Guy who started with everything, with every possible opportunity to be a hero and a leader, and made all the wrong choices VS. guy who started with nothing, who was trained to be follow evil orders, and still made the right choices even though they were hard. THAT antagonist-protagonist relationship could have been a core thread of a new trilogy!

But no, they wasted it, of course.

[tossawary]

I saw the new "Fantastic Four: First Steps" movie and it was... okay? The retro-futuristic design made it more fun to look at than many other MCU films. I liked the design of Galactus and his ship because it gave me "Transformers" (1986) Unicron vibes.

I do think it's very funny that they went, "Let's hand Pedro Pascal a baby, that seems to work." I don't know enough about Reed Richards to know whether or not this was actually a good adaptation of him, but this IS the first time that I have ever felt even slightly compelled by his character. Like, "OH. He's a DAD. Sue is a MOM. They're a FAMILY! I get it now!"

(Before we went, I did make a joke that there IS a good F4 movie already and it's called "The Incredibles". And I was talking then about how the F4's effects-heavy powers and dimension-hopping adventures might translate better to fully animated action sequences (see "Spider-Verse" films), but I suppose the focus on family dynamics and roles is also very relevant.)

And it made me curious just how long Reed and Sue have been parents. Like, since their creation, how long has parenthood been a potential aspect of their characters? And damn, this really is like "Peter Parker keeps being adapted as a high schooler even though Spider-Man has been a grown ass adult for most of his existence in comic books" all over again.

Reed and Sue's first appearance is obviously "The Fantastic Four #1" (Nov. 1961). Franklin Richards first appears in "Fantastic Four Annual #6" (Nov. 1968), just SEVEN YEARS later, FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS ago.

And yes, I understand why standalone films generally choose to go with origin stories, but the overabundance of superhero movies make me increasing hungry for more "in medias res" starting points. Some of these characters are arguably at their least interesting in their origin stories. It generally took time to develop their potential and discover richer storylines, usually by (joke: doing some very bad storylines first) developing the world and supporting characters around them (elements which can admittedly then be used to create richer versions of their origin stories when doing reboots, but still).

I don't have super coherent thoughts about this? It's just finally struck me personally how much of the F4's characters has been previously inaccessible because they've been doing origin story feature films. A storytelling medium that already has a very limited amount of time is constantly having most of its body eaten up by "getting the powers" and "learning to use the powers" and "deciding whether or not to answer the call" and "becoming publicly recognized superheroes", which may or may not be juicy, but is also at this point is so old to audiences that it was a running joke (and fast-paced storytelling tool) in the first "Spider-Verse" film.

[tossawary]

With that new Marvel game, I've seen an increase in Spideytorch stuff (Johnny Storm/Peter Parker). Every time I see that pairing, I can't help but think of the similarities between Johnny and iconic Spidey love interest Mary Jane Watson, which suggest to me that it would be reaaaally easy to pull off a canon divergence AU in which Johnny and MJ meet / become acquainted first and start dating each other instead. (End goal poly relationship in this post.)

Like, they're both good-looking celebrities, right? They could easily meet as teenagers at the same photoshoot, in which up-and-coming young model MJ and her fiery red hair are paired with the Human Torch for some luxury fashion brand. MJ is a riot, she's so funny. And Johnny is so nice and he wants to gush about his nephew. They're both used to putting on a smile for the cameras and being perceived as shallow partygoers for liking to have a good time. They could both use a friend. And also their agents see some publicity opportunities here.

Ideally, in this AU, I think they'd know each other for a few years before their casual flirting and friendly outings actually go anywhere serious, so that Peter has also met MJ and they're in the same college friend group, and the Human Torch and Spider-Man are also fairly good friends. Peter is regularly interacting with both of them. He has mocked both of them for being vain, probably, and also made incredibly bisexual comments about just how good Johnny and MJ look together. There has been in this universe many a scene that, in the dating simulator that is Peter Parker's life, would signal the start and progression of romantic relationships.

At some point, both Johnny and MJ are single again, and they're lonely, and their lives are frantic and wild in the way of comic books, so why not give it a shot? "Beautiful, dumb superhero finally officially dates a new beautiful, dumb model/actress and this is big news somehow," say the satirical websites, still reposting all of the Johnny-MJ hard launch photos for clicks. "Stay tuned for their messy breakup in three months!" But then the relationship just... lasts.

In the way of lasting comic book relationships, it's not easy, of course! Johnny and MJ are probably alternating getting kidnapped by supervillains and needing rescue from the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man has lent a hand more than a few times, but Johnny and MJ are somehow managing to work it out and be (ugh) vulnerable with each other. They both have big hearts. They both want love.

Peter is... coping. He missed his shot with MJ! You just don't go around trying to steal your best friend's girl like that! You definitely shouldn't be having wet dreams about your best friend's girl in which he's also there? What's that about??? (Mere seconds after this guilty thought is when MJ shamelessly announces to her friend group that she and her boyfriend once had pretty kinky sex while talking about how hot a threesome with Spider-Man would be, and Peter goes "?!" and snaps a plate in half.)

Eventually, Johnny nervously says to Spider-Man, "You know, I think I'm going to ask her to marry me."

And the Fantastic Four are just thrilled! And all of MJ's family and friends are thrilled! Aunt May is over the moon about that nice girl next door getting married, and making many, MANY passive-aggressive comments about how Peter also ought to think about settling down with someone.

And meanwhile Peter, who btw does NOT have a good understanding of polyamory at ALL, is seething in his internal monologue while swinging around the city, like, "I don't understand! I should be happy for them! But this marriage is also an abomination, just terrible, and it has to be prevented, why can't anyone else see that?! If MJ really is at all in love with me, it would break Johnny's heart!" (Johnny is also in love with him. Unclear how aware of this Johnny is. Johnny is going to ask Peter to be his best man either way.) Peter is straight-up shaking with the urge to homewreck but he doesn't have a damn clue where to start.

[tossawary]

Sometimes, I write fic idea posts on here and successfully exorcise them. Other times, they gnaw on me for months because they want to be BIGGER than that.

Anyway, people should have told Leia the truth about things so that she could have lied to Darth Vader even better.

Summary: "I am going to tell you a secret," Leia's father had said once, "and you must promise me that you will only ever use it as a last resort."

A Canon Divergence AU for A New Hope. Leia POV and Leia-centric.

Notes: I desperately needed to push something out the door and post something. Still editing and wrapping up the ending, but let's say weekly updates and 4-5 chapters for now. Enjoy! ⭐⚔️⭐