hobbitkiller

[hobbitkiller]

I’ve never really liked the whole “Luke is more like Padme and Leia is more like Anakin” discourse because I feel like it weirdly essentializes and flattens everyone.

Yes, Padme was hopeful and empathetic, but she was also fairly ruthless and cunning when she needed to be.

Yes, Anakin was cunning, unforgiving, and relentless, but he also loved deeply and completely.

Yes, Luke is a wide-eyed optimist, but he is also impulsive and prone to impatience and anger.

Yes, Leia is smart, calculating, and unforgiving at times, but her empathy was as big a part of the Rebellion’s victory as anything else.

Even though I’m not their biggest shipper, what makes Padme and Anakin work as a couple is as much, if not more, the ways they are alike than the ways they are different. They were young, passionate, powerful people who operated out of love as much as they did strategy, and I think both Luke and Leia embody the best and worst of them (while never forgetting the role the parents who raised them had in making them who they became).

[hobbitkiller]

A lot of people got it, actually. The people who didn’t were projecting their values and insecurities. I do blame people for this because this criticism mostly comes from those who willfully or ignorantly misinterpreted a lot of the show in a similar fashion.

And yes, if you immediately think dirt = bad and degrading then you are, in fact, classist. There are many, many people who work in labor who take pride in getting dirty for a living. You don’t even have to look hard to find this. The sentiment is in ads, on T shirts, and even used in political campaigns.

There’s also the importance of context—particularly who is saying it. Like with any marginalized group, there’s a big difference in the context of how they talk about themselves or joke about themselves versus those from the out group. This is true of POC, LGBTQIA+, women, etc—the intent behind the comment is often more important than the literal words, which is why the same words used by the community can have a completely different meaning and reception than those words used without. Often, this is a reclaiming practice of taking something meant to hurt them.

So, if someone from Piltover called Vi dirt, that would be completely different. It’s not “dirt” that’s the problem, it’s the intent and context behind it.

Easily the funniest thing to come out of the “dirt under your nails” quote were the people that accidentally outed themselves as implicitly classist by saying dirt is gross and demeaning

[hobbitkiller]

Thinking about how people act like cameos, backfilling context and backstory, and people being related in Star Wars is something Filoni added to the brand as if George Lucas didn’t drop surprise relative reveals in back to back movies and have as many cameos in the prequels as he could get away with.

Like, damn people. Let Star Wars be Star Wars.

[hobbitkiller]

Grievous was made a coward who was pretty easily killed by Lucas himself in Revenge of the Sith.

They also didn’t make Obi-Wan out of character in that scene. It was a completely in-character interaction that was supported by canon. The Jedi were playing politics at that point in the war.

I wouldn’t call Barriss villainous, particularly after Tales of the Empire. She fell to darkness, but the speech she made was pretty sympathetic and it’s not a leap to imagine her temporary fall represents the psychological damage and despair that can happen in the midst of trauma from war. I, personally, find her to be an interesting character.

I also honestly have no idea what you’re talking about with Luke in Empire. Was that in a comic or book? Empire is not part of either Clone Wars (obviously) or Rebels, which ended before Yavin, so I assume it’s something like that. Was it something Filoni personally wrote? Did he muse about it in an interview? I’m not being rude, but I need a reference point here.

Can you imagine if Filoni had said the Rebellion wouldn’t exist without Ahsoka or the Ghost crew? If he decided to make established characters act completely out of character just so his OCs could lecture them?

But, nah, it’s cool coming from a show that continuously disrespected the established Rebellion for the sake of propping up its own characters.

I would love to love Andor the way other people do, but it’s treatment of female characters and reliance on certain tropes and it’s desire to tarnish the Rebellion is something that I just personally cannot get past. There were already nuances and complexities in the Rebellion with disagreements about tactics and resources that still managed to treat everyone with due respect.

So happy next year we get the return of Star Wars made by people who actually like Star Wars.

[hobbitkiller]

Please point to where Filoni’s had characters repeatedly say the rebellion wouldn’t exist without Ahsoka. There’s a difference between having your characters contribute to the story and giving your OC credit for everything, particularly at the expense of making other character act out of character, which is what happened in Andor.

They literally said more than once that the rebellion wouldn’t exist not exist without Gilroy’s self-insert character, Luthen, and had Bail be antagonistic for no reason other than to be lectured to by Cassian and make a comment about going down fighting as if he hadn’t been fighting since Revenge of the Sith.

Can you imagine if Filoni had said the Rebellion wouldn’t exist without Ahsoka or the Ghost crew? If he decided to make established characters act completely out of character just so his OCs could lecture them?

But, nah, it’s cool coming from a show that continuously disrespected the established Rebellion for the sake of propping up its own characters.

I would love to love Andor the way other people do, but it’s treatment of female characters and reliance on certain tropes and it’s desire to tarnish the Rebellion is something that I just personally cannot get past. There were already nuances and complexities in the Rebellion with disagreements about tactics and resources that still managed to treat everyone with due respect.

So happy next year we get the return of Star Wars made by people who actually like Star Wars.

[hobbitkiller]

Can you imagine if Filoni had said the Rebellion wouldn’t exist without Ahsoka or the Ghost crew? If he decided to make established characters act completely out of character just so his OCs could lecture them?

But, nah, it’s cool coming from a show that continuously disrespected the established Rebellion for the sake of propping up its own characters.

I would love to love Andor the way other people do, but it’s treatment of female characters and reliance on certain tropes and it’s desire to tarnish the Rebellion is something that I just personally cannot get past. There were already nuances and complexities in the Rebellion with disagreements about tactics and resources that still managed to treat everyone with due respect.

So happy next year we get the return of Star Wars made by people who actually like Star Wars.

[hobbitkiller]

Thinking about that scene in Ahsoka when she goes out on the wing to fight the other ships. At the time, we all agreed that was a very Anakin move, but, on reflection, it’s also a Sabine move. She was the one who planned the Mando attack on the interdictor at Atollon where they basically did the same thing.

[hobbitkiller]

Thoughts on Andor:

Let me start by saying I’m not a Disney Star Wars hater. I actually love a lot of what Disney has done, and Rebels is my favorite Star Wars thing to exist. I say that because I know calling people haters is the knee jerk reaction a lot of people have to any criticism of Star Wars these days.

That said, as someone who loves Rebels and is put off by shows that use things like SA as a lazy shorthand for oppression, I cannot bring myself to heap praise on Andor the way so many have.

Andor is a show that feels like a fan fiction where the writer inserts their OC into everything and gives them credit for pre-existing canon. This is particularly egregious, in my opinion, with how Mon Mothma and the Rebellion has been treated. This most recent episode where they could have done a nice call out to Rebels and instead chose to disrespect it has left a particularly sour taste in my mouth.

For everything great it does, it will just never be one of my favorite Star Wars projects—not just because of the above, but because I like Star Wars that doesn’t feel like it’s embarrassed to be Star Wars.

I love Jedi and the Force and crazy things like riding Space Whales to other galaxies, and none of that takes away from the fact that the franchise has always been anti-fascist, anti-imperial, and dealt with serious themes.

This isn’t a call out for anyone who likes it. There are many things in both seasons that are frankly spectacular such as Mon’s speech tonight, but I personally can’t wait for next year when we get back to Mandalorians and Jedi and crazy lore building.

[hobbitkiller]

FR though, there’s a lot of, essentially, benevolent classism in Arcane discourse.

Easily the funniest thing to come out of the “dirt under your nails” quote were the people that accidentally outed themselves as implicitly classist by saying dirt is gross and demeaning

[hobbitkiller]

I love Vander, but you cannot talk about VI’s trauma without understanding that a huge part of it comes from his “it’s on you” speech. That one conversation encapsulates VI’s struggle as a character and explains so many of her decisions.

Vi feels the same guilt Jinx does for the deaths of her family, because it was “all on her.” She gets out of prison and discovers her sister is a murderer (gleefully so in the fight against the Firelights where Vi sees her smiling while shooting at them)—that’s on her too. Jinx confirms it during the tea party scene (though I still think that speech gets a bit misinterpreted, including by Vi).

So, we come into the second season and VI’s sister, for whom she feels responsible—the “monster she created”—has blown up the council, which includes the mother of someone Vi cares deeply about/is falling in love with. In VI’s head, she’s still thinking “you don’t get to be selfish. Whatever happens, it’s on you.” So, she has to do whatever she can to keep Jinx from hurting more people. She has blood on her hands (in her mind) for every person Jinx kills.

None of that is “character assassination.” I think people think about Vander’s speech and Vi taking responsibility for Powder from just the perspective of “protect the family,” but it’s so much more complicated than just that. It’s also very much a reflection of Vi fulfilling the classic oldest daughter role. Plenty of oldest siblings are familiar with getting the blame for the younger sibling because “you should have stopped them.”

And so part of her journey as a character is her learning to let go of that feeling because it’s not only bad for her, but it’s a controlling mindset when it comes to Jinx. And we see Vi struggle with this. Her first instinct is to try to go by herself to stop Jinx. Then she tries to convince herself that Jinx isn’t her sister, so she’s not responsible for her—but we can tell she doesn’t really believe it. Then she finally starts to learn to accept Jinx for who she is and treat her more as an equal than her child—hence Jinx’s surprise at being asked her opinion on what they should do.

Do I personally wish we got more focus on Vi? Always. She’s my favorite character. I always want more. But I don’t think she was underwritten, poorly written, or had suffered character assassination. I also don’t think her struggle makes her a bad sister.

And I think it’s so telling for Vi and her trauma that, in the end, she couldn’t let go of Vander. Because she could never let go of him and his expectations for her. And that is both a blessing and a curse for her. It gives her motivation to keep fighting, but weighs her down with responsibility.

People like to argue VI’s trauma is mostly centered around Piltover and enforcers, but, while those aren’t a nonfactor, neither has such a hold on her as that conversation with Vander.

And BTW, me saying all this about VI’s character doesn’t mean I think her entire character is about Jinx. I’m just talking specifically about her trauma. Her story is also about falling in love and what that level of vulnerability can lead to.

[hobbitkiller]

Jinx isn’t dead. They made that pretty clear at the end.

Wanting VI’s entire character to be about Jinx is a disservice to Vi who should be allowed to live a life for herself. That said, they never lost sight of Jinx and Vi. There’s a reason Vi ends up fighting with Jinx at the end instead of with Caitlyn.

Episodes 5 and 6 of season 2 had some of the best Jinx and Vi relationship building of either season where they relearn how to trust each other and Vi learns how to interact with this new version of her sister. Vi was also still completely willing to choose Jinx in episode 8, and it was Jinx who made the decision to punch Vi in the cell and leave.

How many times is Vi expected to chase her when she is told forcibly (usually with violence) to stay away?

arcane at it’s core is a story of two sisters and it feels like they lost sight of that. it’s like they thought killing jinx was the only way they could “redeem” her, and with vi it genuinely just seems as if not one writer actually cared enough to put effort into her writing

[hobbitkiller]

I mean, I should just block them (and also stop making head trauma jokes—it’s a bit ableist of me TBH)

Cait’s really got to get Vi to a doctor to check on that concussion. It’s really a shame what the repeated head trauma seems to have done to the Official Vi.

Otherwise I’d think a bad faith troll who has the understanding of a 12 year-old regarding complex interpersonal and socioeconomic issues is just spamming the CaitVi tag with the incredibly enlightened argument of “you know I’m right.”

[hobbitkiller]

Cait’s really got to get Vi to a doctor to check on that concussion. It’s really a shame what the repeated head trauma seems to have done to the Official Vi. Coming in to acknowledge this is an ableist joke on my part. Let’s replace with “I hope Cait finds out what weird magic got to Official Vi before it’s too late.”

Otherwise I’d think a bad faith troll who has the understanding of a 12 year-old regarding complex interpersonal and socioeconomic issues is just spamming the CaitVi tag with the incredibly enlightened argument of “you know I’m right.”

[hobbitkiller]

So weird that Vi has so little understanding of her own motives and what happened in her own life. Must be the many, many concussions.

people who hate on vi except when shes living her whole life slaving away for jinx and jinx’s well-being and being 100% selfless constantly is. interesting.

interesting bc i’m the oldest sister in my family and that’s exactly what my parents expect of me.

how odd and silly that some people continue to parentify older sisters and refuse to care about them as characters when they aren’t constantly putting their sibling first.

that’s how i feel whenever i see a post about how vi’s character was completely sacrificed and then the explanation is all abt how she chose caitlyn and not jinx for the nth time.

[hobbitkiller]

Folks that think harp on a power imbalance with them because of the class difference seem to have a very base-level understanding of relationships. For one thing, unless the couple is carbon copies of each other, there are always potential ways for there to be a power imbalance: race, gender, physical health, neurodiversity, mental health, income, generational wealth, age, experience, immigration status, etc. Unless the point is that all couples should be twins and people should only date others with an equal level of oppression, there’s always the chance that one partner can take advantage of a potential power imbalance.

And every ship in Arcane has these imbalances, not just CaitVi. I would argue they are more impactful in both Jayce ships where Mel takes advantage of being more experienced and Jayce reaps more acclaim and benefits out of his relationship with Viktor because he is a Piltovan with a House.

Getting back to CaitVi, the way Cait and Vi are set up is that they are the first real partner the other has had. VI’s life has either been as the eldest daughter taking care of her siblings or as a literal prisoner with no power over her life. She’s never had someone like Cait who takes care of her and protects her but also respects her and treats her like an equal. Cait has always either been under her mother’s control or seen just as a Kiramman, and not as who she actually is. Then she meets Vi who doesn’t know she’s a Kiramman at first, then doesn’t care after she finds out and likewise cares for her and protects her while also respecting her for who she is, not her last name.

Could Caitlyn have held her status, both as a rich councilor’s daughter and an enforcer over Vi? Sure. Did she? No, and I honestly don’t think she would have been successful had she tried given how many opportunities Vi had to just ditch her and disappear. Any viewer who thinks Vi was sticking with Cait for any reason other than because she chose to is frankly disrespecting Vi.

It would be quite silly indeed to get too hung up on potential power imbalance between Caitlyn & Vi when the show has a solid 7-10 minute supercut's worth of Caitlyn spluttering her little token protests before immediately doing exactly whatever Vi just told her to do.

[hobbitkiller]

Jinx’s psychosis comes through in these quick film scratched doodles. Whenever a flash of her unstable personality leaks out Arcane presents them as if Jinx herself took the film stock out of the projector and madly scratched these doodles into each frame before haphazardly stuffing the film reel back into the projector.

You could look at the entirety of Arcane as if it was a show that was filmed and edited by someone trying to tell a story, but then Jinx (as her own character) has found the film reels of the show and is actively interacting with it to tell her OWN side of the story. These scratches and doodles are essentially Jinx’s commentary track.

But what’s interesting to me is HOW her doodles often represents WHERE in her arc she is.

For example. Early on these doodles are deliberately being used to BLOCK out scary or unnerving imagery. The soldiers on the bridge, the bad memory of her sister yelling at her. Jinx chooses to draw OVER these moments. Literally trying to scratch them out from her memory. Because she’s a child here and Jinx’s personality has always been about protecting her child self, it makes sense that even as a commentator she is choosing to block out these moments to protect her child side.

But as the story goes along, her doodles take on a more narrative function. She starts doodling characters talking to her from the sides. She’s not blocking out the memories, she’s actively using the doodles to help give form to the formless voices in her head. She’s saying “see? I’m not crazy, Mylo was telling me shit! Look, there he is behind me!”

Near the end of Season 1 this narrative storytelling choice Jinx is doing starts to become even MORE clear. Now these doodles aren’t just to represent the voices in her head, they are used to re-contextualize her own memories. So as she thinks she sees Caitlyn laughing at her, she literally draws devil horns on her head, reframing this moment of Caitlyn’s fear as mockery.

And of course when Vi triggers Jinx in the climax of the season, her scratches become MUCH more visual and representational. These doodles don’t look like the usual film scratches we’ve seen up till now. If I were looking at this from a filming perspective this would be more like they were literally projected into the set Jinx is acting in. They’re multi colored. They look more pencil like than film scratched. They’re not as bloom heavy as previous scratches, and the film doesn’t jostle about as much indicating Jinx isn’t drawing these directly on the film stock like previously shown. I would say these look more like she’s literally surrounded by her doodles in-camera.

And this continues into season 2. She’s still surrounded by her demons, and it’s filmed the same way as in season 1. The only major difference is that now her doodles are interacting with each other. She draws Isha running around shooting away the bad doodles and trying to protect her. Once again this is Jinx telling her story through these doodles.

When Jinx loses Isha and is contemplating suicide, jinx’s doodles are ALL that remain. The screen turns black and nothing but Jinx’s doodles comes through. This is almost like the memory of her is so overwhelming that she literally blacked it out, and the only way to reinsert this moment into the show is for Jinx to draw it frame by frame. Up until now the doodles have always been drawn on top of the frame. And while Jinx is often in the shots and can appear small and overwhelmed by the doodles, she’s never just outright been blocked out by them. I think that’s what this moment represents. She is so lost that she can only recall this moment after the fact and redraw it. It’s not perfect, it may not have even happened this way, but it’s the only way she can piece together what happened between shots.

And finally… when Jinx enters the final battle, something different happens. Up until now Jinx’s doodles have been used to block out memories, draw the voices in her head, reframe moments from her perspective, etc. They’ve been abstracted and rough and off to the side or drawn haphazardly over the stuff she’s blocking out. She never draws it on herself. So what happens here?

She draws an accurate representation of what she looks like in that moment on top of herself.

This is Jinx FINALLY coming to terms with who she is. She’s showing us that in this moment THIS is who Jinx is. It’s not abstractly represented. She’s not blocking anything out. She’s not reframing the moment. Shes not recreating frames that were missing. She’s just drawing what is represented in the shot and who she is now.

If these doodles are Jinx adding commentary after the fact then this flash is her putting a punctuation on the end of her arc. Up until now these doodles could be seen as her showing HOW she became Jinx, but this final moment is her saying this version of her is the TRUE Jinx.

And of course, there’s the “THE END” shot. That is Jinx literally signing out her story. If you ever needed proof that Jinx is alive, the fact that Jinx doodles all over the show is proof of that. Arcane is Jinx watching back the story of her life and adding her own notes and commentary to the film reel itself and that is what WE, the audience, are watching.

[hobbitkiller]

When you look at how, in fandom, people are so much more willing to forgive and celebrate villains who either have some redeeming qualities, sympathetic backstories, or a redemption arc than they are willing to give grace to heroes who make difficult/morally gray decisions, make mistakes, or act out because of their trauma, the state of the world makes a lot more sense.

Of course the media would treat any half-coherent thing our orange-hued glorious leader does like he ascended to the highest level of statesmanship while treating any flaw from those on the left—particularly women—like huge indictments of their characters.

A villain, particularly male, but not always, can burn down an orphanage, torture people, and commit acts of genocide and be treated with more empathy and understanding than a hero who responds to trauma with anger, chooses to save their friend in some version of the trolley problem, or calls out the sympathetic villain on their villainy.