jediintraining

[jediintraining]

I think I've found one of the key reasons why I prefer the old Expanded Universe to the current Star Wars content: Unique types of villains.

More specifically, people who weren't just Evil Force Users With Long Robes And Red Lightsabers. While there were always a few Darth Vader-clones that popped up to fill up space, so many of the Arc Villains were distinct not just in personality, but also how they were dangerous.

Grand Admiral Thrawn was a military tactician, which wasn't the point of any of the main villains in the Original Trilogy. Grand Moff Tarkin was a "Build a bigger superweapon and bludgeon the galaxy into submission" kind of villain, and Vader and the Emperor were mystical dark wizards. This isn't a complaint or criticism, but just pointing out that military tactics were never on display in the films since that wasn't the type of story they were telling. But Thrawn didn't have prophetic powers or Destiny, he had to analyze and plan around what he could learn about his adversaries. It's a different type of fight than Literal Magic. In the original Thrawn Trilogy, Captain Pellaeon frequently internally narrates how different Thrawn's style of leadership was to either Vader or the Emperor (Even if his art-analysis did verge on magic by itself).

Ysanne Isard was a political and/or espionage manipulator, which was even less a point of the Original Trilogy than military tactics were. She took advantage of the realities of actually needing to build a nation out of an underground military movement. With all of the dirty gutter politics, self-serving agendas, and logistics that doom so many revolutionary movements. I'm not as big a fan of her arc as I was when I was younger (I re-read the Rogue Squadron novels a few years ago and the writing quality is not as good as I remember, and Isard's plans frankly don't hold a lot of water), but the concept is still fantastic.

Warlord Zsinj on the surface seems like a merger of Thrawn and Isard -- he's a military commander who specializes in espionage -- but he also has a big focus that neither of them demonstrated: Business. While he still blows stuff up with his giant space ships and is sowing dissent through brainwashing and spycraft, he's simultaneously establishing a galaxy-wide network of completely-legitimate commercial businesses that he owns through untraceable pseudonyms. They fund his campaigns, give him influence on planets outside of his direct control, and allow him to control resources without any of his adversaries even being aware of it.

Even one-shot enemies like the Ssi-ruuk were so unique: They're invading the galaxy because their technology is powered by living souls and they want to harvest all life in the galaxy. That's messed up, and so distinct from the general "Take over the world" motivation of the Empire.

But as time went on, more and more of the enemies were just "Darth Vader Again". Another Jedi who fell to the Dark Side, or another long-lost schism of the Sith who rediscovered mainstream galactic society, or some other thing that is eventually resolved by a one-on-one lightsaber duel and a personal grudge against the Skywalker or Solo families. It definitely felt like they were out of ideas and kept running through the same villains over and over again.

This kicked into high gear after the Prequels came out, and continued in the new continuity after the EU was rebranded as "Legends".

I wish we could go back to the idea that there could be an enemy who wasn't super powerful in the force and consumed by Hatred Of The Jedi. With their own skills, their own methods, and something that makes them more than just another wannabe-Sauron. Pirates who are just pirates, marauding ex-Imperial Warlords who are just marauding ex-Imperial Warlords, and corrupt politicians who are just corrupt politicians, instead of revealing that Palpatine returned (somehow) all over again.

[jediintraining]

Star Wars as tweets/textposts pt.2

<- | SW | ->

[jediintraining]

Saw one of those posts where someone was like “Boba Fett was only 37 in Return of the Jedi?? He shoulda been at the clubbb” and like. I cannot stress enough how much he was at the club. He was chilling in the corner but he was AT the club. Max Rebo was there and everything

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local woman makes herself angry thinking about the idea of Grey Jedi

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Obi-Wan is like I got the kids in the divorce. They aren't even my kids. Or my divorce

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I would die for Iden Versio i think

(Comm for @fallenkenobi !!)

[jediintraining]

MON MOTHMA — Mother of the Bride

"With Mon Mothma, there's always that wonderful balance between what's going on behind the public face. To hint that in her costumes, we always had mini layers going on so that she can reveal and conceal."

[jediintraining]

I can't with this fecking show.

[jediintraining]

I feel like the ‘the Jedi were too strict with Anakin and it was abusive and that’s why he fell!’ is telling of a certain … power fantasy some Star Wars fans have.

Because Anakin didn’t have to be a Jedi. We know he could’ve left the Order, because that’s what Dooku did. The man’s the most skilled fighter pilot of his era, a capable combatant, has experience with diplomacy, has worked as a bodyguard, etc, etc, he would not even remotely struggle to find work, even without taking into account that his wife is a wealthy senator who could easily support him. Hell, while he’d probably have to give up his lightsaber, it’s not like it’d be impossible for him to build another one – it isn’t illegal for a non-Jedi to own a lightsaber, and it’s clearly possible to acquire lightsaber crystals outside of the Order because, again, Dooku has a lightsaber. It’s not even like he’d have to give up his friendship with Obi-Wan – Obi-Wan has friends who aren’t Jedi, he has a whole bunch of them. So does Yoda.

(Hell, it’s not even like non-Jedi aren’t allowed to use the Force. As Palpatine points out in the Revenge of the Sith novelisation, it’s not even technically illegal to be a Sith Lord.)

The only reason Anakin can’t leave the Order is because he doesn’t want to. He wants everything: He wants the power, prestige, excitement, and community the Jedi offer, but he also wants to not have to follow their rules. 

And I think for quite a lot of people that’s a very relatable thing, right? We want to have it all. The fantasy of being a cool Jedi is, for a lot of people, ruined by the addendum that there are things you would have to forego to do that. That’s one reason why the idea of Grey Jedi, which fully is just that ‘you can have your cake and fuck it too’ is so appealing to so many fans.

But that’s not what life is like, in reality or in fiction. And Anakin’s fall brings that crashing in: He tries to have everything, and he ends up with nothing. Less than nothing, because at the end of it, not only does he not have any of the things he wanted in the first place, but he’s also lost his freedom (because let’s make no mistake, as much of a terrible, gleeful executor of cruelty and misery as he is as Vader, he is also Palpatine’s slave) and his body.

It’s easy and in a way quite appealing to shift the blame elsewhere and go “Well, he could’ve had it all, but people more powerful than him stopped him from doing so.”

[jediintraining]

“Military ranks in Star Wars make no sense” they say, yeah no shit, the Rebels promoted a random city mayor into a general six months after he joined up and made him fly combat missions in the cocaine smuggling speedboat he used to own

[jediintraining]

[jediintraining]

Kelnacca v. Sol The Acolyte | 1.07: Choice

[jediintraining]

Anyway ROTJ take:

- idk what EU material has to say about this but I fully believe that Jabba the Hutt can speak & understand Basic just fine and is simply choosing not to as a power move. And honestly, he's valid for that

- I also fully believe that Luke can understand huttese. Like he grew up on Tatooine in what seems to be a bilingual society. He's got to at least know some. On his visit to Jabba's palace I think he's pretending not to for his own reasons.

Conclusion: during the scenes where Luke & Jabba are communicating via interpreter they are both just pretending not to be able to understand each other and making poor Threepio act as go between

[jediintraining]

recently binged to catch up on the Acolyte and I wish they didn't have Mae agonizing over "but how do you kill a Jedi without a weapon???” because the moment it was mentioned I said

Force choke. You choke them.

THEN we get the Sith reveal and it's even more obvious that's what it's supposed to be?? It's not some sneaky riddle! but unlike the fans Mae has never seen a Star War so how is the character in-universe supposed to know ig

or push them out a very high window a la mace windu or is he still alive hmmm

[jediintraining]

Something about The Rise of Skywalker feels hollow, but not completely hollow.  Solo felt hollow, but I couldn’t figure out why.  Rogue One didn’t feel hollow.

Part of that is probably a personal factor.  Would I have felt differently about Solo at age 12, or would I have forgotten it as not sufficiently transcendent to be worth that portion of my remaining lifespan?  I certainly wouldn’t have phrased it that way, but would I have that as some indescribable feeling?

[jediintraining]

Luke getting cold easily and smothering himself with clothes :33

[jediintraining]

ANDOR - Season 1