#Dlf

[dreamconsumer]

Charles Dera.

[psychspark]

And now for something completely different! This is work connected to @mudkippy's now complete campaign: Dustland Fairytale!

This was written specifically for the players in that campaign so by god if you're looking for context I'm like the 5th person down the list you should ask for context on it.

It's a cowboy/western fantasy which some of the most interesting world building I've ever seen, you should give it a read!

[asaxophony]

Still thinking about the ppl defending lightfall. When you are a triple A gaming company and you need to put out a notice to your players going sorry we know a lot wasn't explained in the campaign and you came put of if really confused BUT don't worry! It will be explained in the next year of Content drip :) maybe. Just maybe. The writing was Not Good.

Also I don't want to get into bungies current model of content bc that's an entire other conversation but their content drip is not good. It's not good bc it's major story beats in non replayable content where you are screwed if you didn't have the time to play or the money to buy it. While I understand they are limited by the game engine, servers etc it's really. Just not an excuse to make people drop 50-100 dollars on what felt like a half baked campaign and than have the entire other half in the monthly drip content that follows the identical formula each time and gets repetitive and boring immediately. Like I actually did buy the more expensive dlc bundle this time and I'm legitimately regretting it. I don't have high hopes.

The only highlight this entire expansiom for me was Nimbus being a nonbinary npc using they/them pronouns.

I'm just like tired of ppl coming out of the woodwork on Twitter going THATS THE POINT ITS SUPPOSE TO BE CONFUSING AND YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSE TO KNOW WHATS HAPPENING and being really shitty and snarky about it by going clearly you don't have the critical thinking skills and media comprehension to-- shut up! Sorry I thought half the story was written on par with marvel movie dialogue.

[ariainstars]

The Last Jedi, or The Last Fairy Tale

Why were the Star Wars sequels such a jumbled mess, many fans are still wondering.

My guess is: the Disney studios a) knew that there were too many expectations after classics and prequels, b) they had bought the rights from George Lucas and had to finish what he had planned, and c) they wanted to make new Star Wars content later, contrarily to Lucas who had had nine movies in mind. So, they opted for making one film for the fans, one for George Lucas, and one for themselves.

But they had not foreseen the huge backlash The Last Jedi caused among self-proclaimed “hardcore fans”. Some channels and blogs can rant and rave about it to this day, finding faults in almost every photogram. Not to mention that the fan reactions even led to death threats towards Rian Johnson and the heads of the Disney studios.

The only thing these fans don’t seem to be capable of is: reading.

The first sentence we read before any movie of the Skywalker saga is “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”, announcing that we are dealing with a fairy tale, in a world and set-up that is not meant to be perfectly logical. A fairy tale is a story with a realistic core but told in a fantastic way, through symbolism and pictorial language, with twists and wonders that would never happen in real life.

Fans who do not realize that the Skywalker saga is a fairy tale not only hate The Last Jedi, they usually also have other problems with the narrative choices. They wonder e.g. why Luke is so “whiny” in the first two movies, or why in the third one he waits so long until he fights Jabba the Hut for his friend’s lives and freedom, and most of all why he decides to throw away his weapon in front of the Emperor. They do not care much about character development. Or about friendships and love and the miracles these can do. They like to pretend that The Last Jedi “subverted everything” and “destroyed the Star Wars lore”. Which it didn’t - being magical and tying in with both prequels and classics it sticks very closely to the themes Star Wars has most at heart. But “hardcore fans” wanted to see their heroes and villains of old come back in all their glory and hated that they were, instead, so human and fallible.

Although the prequels do a good job of portraying the Jedi as unsympathetic and stuck-up, fans still see them as the heroes and place the fault for Anakin’s fall on his doorstep alone. Why? Shiny light sabers. Wise sounding words. It doesn’t seem to matter that Anakin was not allowed to be a normal adolescent and that he never learned to process his feelings properly.

Despite the action sequences, George Lucas is a romantic at heart. The prequels are set up like an antique tragedy, even the costumes and settings recall it. The sequels bowed to this, in particular The Last Jedi with its emotional, personal, multifaceted approach.

Surveys have shown that most Star Wars fans are male, first watched these movies before they were in their teens, and were fascinated by the space ships, the chases, the duels, the light sabers. The characters or even the plot came last. And some people can’t or won’t grow up. All they want to see is the usual action movie thing - hero saves the day, kills the bad guys, sleeps with the girl and then rides away alone into the sunset. There are thousands of variations to this theme. Star Wars is a refreshing alternative. Well, not refreshing to everybody. Most male fans seem to want heroes they can “look up to” (even if they’re psychopaths), not human beings whom they can identify with. Fans who understood the sequel’s characters based on their humanness loved them. Not everyone did. Action movie fans do not want to look into a mirror and see their own failures and insecurities, even if in the end, these are overcome.

Now “hardcore fans” shake their heads wisely, saying things like “The Last Jedi was just an embarrassing, one-time slip-up”, and “it is time for Star Wars to move on from the Skywalker saga”.

Beloved as the classic movies are, it seems the interest in the actual heroes of the stories always went overboard for the sake of The Coolest Villain of All Times (insert wheeze here). Darth Vader is not an enviable person - broken and sad under his mask, his health ruined, his former life destroyed, led on by rage; add to this that he never succeeds with anything he does. But he never bats an eye - since we don’t see said eyes - , so many action fans seem to watch the whole rest of the movies waiting for that spooky black specter to show up again (wheeze). Which is probably why they do not see the fairy-tale elements and only wait impatiently for their “hero” to reappear so they can cheer at his cool demeanor.

The “embarrassing” thing about the Skywalker saga is that the men it’s about are not cool by nature. Anakin, Luke, Ben are hotheads. They can be in control, but their temper will always catch up with them. And they’re not lonesome heroes, they're family men. What matters most to them is belonging. Luke, the best of them, is a person who spontaneously will offer his friendship to anyone who is alone and in need of a friend. He even does so with his worst enemy, in the end.

When a male protagonist is hot-headed, confused, emotional, immature, stumbling - it hits too closely home. Action fans want to escape reality when they watch a movie, not to be confronted with their own inner and often painful realities. They dislike young Anakin, elderly Luke and Kylo Ren because they're not the kind of heroes (or villains) you could put on a pedestal. They’re so much like them that it frightens them to death.

I laughed when I heard someone pretend how “Vader’s behavior is always rational and logical”, contrarily to Kylo Ren who is just an entitled, embarrassing brat. Again, coming from fans (most of them male) who hate emotionality in a guy. In A New Hope, the first thing we see Vader do is strangle a man just to prove a point. He tries the same move on a man on the Death Star before Tarkin stops him. Instead of hunting down the rebels who are trying to free Leia, he confronts and kills Obi-Wan. It’s his idea to let the rebels escape so they can track them down. The Empire Strikes Back is, from Vader’s perspective, a desperate chase for his lost son, and it ends with him telling said son the truth in the worst way and at the worst possible moment. Killing Palpatine in Return of the Jedi is a deeply emotional choice. All of this shows a risk-loving, hot-tempered and impulsive personality, Anakin Skywalker to a T. Fans just overlook these facts because mask, armor, sarcasm and breathing device make Vader look cool and aloof. (Wheeze.)

The way Luke Skywalker was portrayed in The Last Jedi is still hated. The “hardcore fans” wanted to see Luke finally as a Jedi master - wise, unbeatable, cool and collected. Instead, they were confronted with a disillusioned old guy who openly criticizes the Jedi, lives on a remote place and in an ignoble way hoping to keep everyone away from him, and has cut himself from the Force out of fear of doing more harm. The disappointment is understandable. But when you listen more closely, you realize that all of the rage boils down to the fans’ incapacity to deal with their feelings of embarrassment. The first and foremost characteristic a male protagonist must show is coolness. His morals are not questioned as long as his demeanor is shown as free of doubts and fears.

Just to name a few so called-heroes from action movies:

James Bond is a ruthless killer and misogynist. Indiana Jones is a tomb raider and a thief. Harmonica from Once Upon a Time in the West is a psychopath. (And no, this is not a fairy tale, the movie title is meant sarcastically.) Most roles that Clint Eastwood made iconic in the seventies, before Star Wars came out, were psychopaths as well. (And rapists.) Pete Mitchell from Top Gun is a cold, arrogant bastard.

These men are coded as “heroes” because they have the one quality that is apparently needed in guy: imperturbability. So no one questions their motives or methods. (I already wrote a longer entry about this phenomenon, who is interested can find it here.)

The men I just mentioned all did not learn to process their feelings in a healthy way. So didn’t Anakin. Processing their feelings is something that boys are often not taught how to do, and when they don’t, they often react to their frustration with rage and violence. And yet, being emotionally stunted is often seen as the epitome of manliness and heroism. Boys would need to learn better, to see better role models. But they don’t want to. And after the furious reactions to The Last Jedi, I daresay the studios won’t dare to show them.

(Wheeze.)

I am explicitly not saying that a cool attitude is wrong per se. Guys like Han Solo, the Mandalorian or Cobb Vanth are hiding a soft heart under their rough shell, not surprisingly since they live dangerous lives and if anyone would find out that they’re vulnerable this could be used against them. And there is nothing wrong with being confident in one’s abilities. My point is that “hard-core” action fans do not question whether a guy has a heart or not. A “real man” must be or seem untouchable, even if he commits the most horrendous crimes. Attitude seems to rectify or justify anything, no matter whether the guy actually has a good character or not.

I will be eternally be grateful to the Disney studios and Rian Johnson for having blessed us with another Star Wars fairy tale after a lapse of 34 years, since Return of the Jedi. But honestly, after all the backlash and considering the new shows they are airing, I am also afraid it is the last time they will ever dare to tell a fairy tale set in this universe. And even if they did: it will no longer be part of the Skywalker saga.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a side note, I have watched a few episodes of Andor and heard that self-proclaimed “hardcore fans” are in raptures about “this is what Star Wars can actually be like”, as usual blind and deaf to the coldness and overall depressing atmosphere of the show. I’m not saying Andor is bad, merely that I don’t like, and I also didn’t like Rogue One. These stories are too realistic for my taste. When I see a Star Wars movie or show I want to follow a fairy tale set in space, not watch people suffering and dying for a sunrise they will never live to see. The first Star Wars movie A New Hope, for all the tragic things that happened, ended in pure, unabashed joy. The last, Return of the Jedi, offered a happy ending. If this is “the future of Star Wars”, I can live without it.

The Mandalorian is a genius show because until now it combined classic action elements with the fairy-tale-like aspects which are typical for Star Wars. Of course action movie fans were “disappointed” again, I daresay because the protagonist is a father figure and his relationship to his adopted child has, shocking, some feeling in it. I was excited for the third season. But after having seen the trailer and its cold aesthetic which recalls Andor in a fatal way, honestly… I have a bad feeling about this.

[kristinhelberg]

Interview Deutschlandfunk Informationen am Mittag 11.11.2023

(9´39 Min.)

[merrysithmas]

ugh im literally EXPLODING with excitement for all of sw. like andor is awesome and i cant wait for the next ep, then sooo soon TOTJ and baby soka/more animated anakin & obi + Dooku!!

then we have Mando S3 where they will be in Mandalore (!!), JEDI: SURVIVOR and more stories of Cal & the Mantis crew, possible Vader series coming (!!!!!!) ... possible OWK follow up of some variety, LANDO SERIES!!, TBB season 2 with GUNGI!, possible recasts of the Big Three (Han Luke Leia) so we can finally get some new content that isn't limited by creepy af AI - like all the stories there are left to tell with them!! 30 yrs between ROTJ and TLJ. like come onnnn im so stoked

plus The Acolyte which already looks baller, and Andor season 2.... and ASHOKA!! with the Rebels Ghost crew and mf Thrawn!! KANAN!!!!!

with likely Force Ghost Anakin, my beloved!!!!!

ripping my skin off brb I CANNOT CONTAIN THE MULTITUDES OF MY EXCITEMENT

and if they ever make new films with the Big Three set in the past, or some films about Wild Space... yes.

ill be the first to say i LOVE stuff set on Tatooine (fact) and all the traditional planets. i dont want them to ever stop that. tatooine haters get wrecked lol. but Wild Space could be hella unreal... just a totally new field and abstract and unknowable and maybe there is no battles btw sith or jedi there, just balance... or something terrifyingly worse. smth everyone needs to band together to fight...

also please bring back Rey, Poe, Rose, Ben (I know boyega said he wont return as Finn) etc and do them justice. dont banish them for 20 yrs like they did the prequels bc of bad writing. just rehabilitate it

[tante-litfass]

[dearlittlefandom-stalker]

hmmm… your url initials (D.L.F) wouldn’t happen to be a Narnia reference, would they?

They would! The Chronicles of Narnia was one of my first fandoms and I never really left it behind. Dear Little Friend is one of my favorite inside jokes from it (partly because Trumpkin, partly because it’s funny even if people don’t get the reference but all the more better when they do!)

[the-viking-goddess]

Did anyone at DLF ever care about Ben Solo? One single person?? Just... anyone? At this point it really feels like Rian Johnson and Adam Driver were the only ones involved in the ST who ever gave a shit about Ben and it's so fucking tragic.

I know it's pointless but I just wish that someone, even just one person, from inside DLF would spill the tea and come out and say that they cared deeply about his character and were disappointed about what was done to him in TROS. You know? Anyone, I don't care who they are. Even if it's years down the line. Just a SM post, an interview, a salty anonymous leak or something. Just one person coming out to say that they actually gave a shit about Ben Solo, that he mattered as much as the OT characters, and that they were actually fucking upset about what DLF did to him. I wish I could know that at least one person on the inside cared about and fought for him.

[worldsofzzt]

Source “Donny's Little Feast” by Tony Clifton (2001) Published by: Random Inc. [FEAST.ZZT] - “-> normal” Play This World Online

[scoplots]

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[dreamconsumer]

Myles O'Brien.

[vincentreproches]

[ariainstars]

We Need More Heroes Like Luke Skywalker

I remember how appalled I was in 2018, when I learned that many fans ranted and raved against The Last Jedi; to the point that both studios and director were subject to death threats. And the general outrage was mostly due to the depiction of the elderly Luke in this movie, who, according to said fans, would never have developed this way or done this and that. Some hate the movie until today.

I was appalled, but also surprised. Until then I would have assumed that the most popular Star Wars character is either Darth Vader or Han Solo, not the naïve, hotheaded farmboy who wanted to live adventures and then had to become a hero to save his loved ones and bring his family back together.

While Luke is my favorite character in the franchise and one of my favorite heroes of all times, until a few years ago I thought I was rather alone with my preference for him. It was surprising to find out that I’m not. I liked how he was portrayed in Episode VIII, and I did not understand how so many fans could feel so deeply offended.

Years later, I am still wondering why. Now here is my interpretation.

From his first dramatic and iconic appearance, Darth Vader shows that he hates people. It makes no difference for him to kill, torture and traumatize.

Luke is the exact contrary: he personifies love for people. He always wants to see the good in everyone and to protect people and to see them happy. That’s why everybody trusts and likes him.

I have often heard Luke Skywalker being defined “beautiful”. Let’s be honest, he isn’t. He has that difficult to define quality that is usually called “cute”, a person who draws people in and makes them like him instinctively. What’s more, he seems absolutely unaware of it. He doesn’t think of using his charm to make people do what he wants them.

Fans do and did not identify with Luke because of his powers and aloof attitude (which he mostly displays in Return of the Jedi). They identify with him because being the most human of the bunch, he’s the easiest to understand. Luke always was the window to Star Wars, the most relatable character. Maybe the reason why newer SW content, while often good, does not touch fans that deeply.

Apparently, action film fans do not love characters like James Bond or Indiana Jones as much as one would assume. They may admire them, but they don’t love them.

I think movie fans, even those who watch action movies, are starved for compassion. We’ve had so many brave, badass heroes that we can hardly count them. Luke is still almost on his own, holding the torch for the thing he always stood for - love for people. Someone who encourages other people to act out of compassion, too. Who, for all his bravery, fighting skills and Force powers, is human and relatable.

But as far as I can see, until today, a character like Luke Skywalker, someone who embodies love for people, is still quite unique. Many heroes are good and kind, but they are not so deeply compassionate, willing to see the good in people, taking everybody the way they find them.

This goes for both male and female characters. During the last decades we’ve been flooded with “badass” heroines who fight and stand their ground and even kill, but I can’t think of a single one who was so deeply loved by the fans, none who could balance power and compassion in such a convincing, captivating way.

Luke is not even the actual protagonist of the Skywalker saga. He is the hero because he saves the situation, but he is not the central figure.

Anakin, his father, was the Chosen One. Luke was not the Chosen One.

People will admire and like Anakin Skywalker, and be impressed by Darth Vader, but both characters don’t inspire much love. Luke does.

These last years Disney studios are bending over backwards in their new tv shows to give the fans what they want, but until today, they haven’t.

The Luke we meet in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett is “the perfect Jedi”, a man obviously following the path of the prequel Jedi. This version of Luke does not embody compassion and love for people. This is paving the way for what will eventually happen to him and his family: Luke is learning to be detached, not understanding that his compassion is his greatest strength. He is obviously afraid of going his father’s way, and naïve as always, he believes he can avoid that by following the teachings of the Jedi.

The irony is that now many fans are rejoicing, believing that this is the Luke Skywalker they wanted to see when the sequels hit theaters. Despite their horror at Episode VIII, many don’t seem to understand to this day where their own outrage actually came from. This new version of Luke is cool. He’s aloof. He is kind, e.g. offering Grogu the chance to refuse to become a Jedi (on a side note: Luke or Anakin didn’t have that choice), but he’s not shown as a man who would follow his heart.

The Luke Skywalker from the classic movies is by no means perfect, he’s very human. He is open with his emotions, the living proof that strong feelings must not be dangerous. Usually he is associated with hope, but what he embodies even more than hope is the desire and willingness to bond with other people. Luke is a hero in his own right: he doesn’t need a villain to act as a foil.

Why would SW and other fans love this character so much, if he wasn’t so unique? Why, still after so many years, are we confronted with badass heroes of both sexes, and no one with whom we can actually respond with so much love?

The Last Jedi was not the problem. Neither was the character of Luke, or how he was both written and interpreted either in the classic movies or in Episode VIII.

I think the problem is that filmmakers, whether they tell Star Wars stories or others, are wary of depicting this kind of hero. There are many nerdy heroes too, noble and romantic ones, and not everyone of them spends all the time using his fists and weapons.

But a hero as a person who actually embodies love for other people? Sorry, I can’t think of any. The outcry of the fans who showed how much they loved their childhood hero has made one thing clear – viewers are not as keen on tough guys as one would think, not even in action movies.

When I hear and read that viewers want to see woke females who don’t need a man by their side and who will fight any bad guy with fists, brains and weapons, I have to laugh. This is obviously not the case, either fans wouldn’t get so upset about a hero they loved and still love due to the power of his heart, not his badassery. Many Star Wars fans dislike Rey, and some have even grown to detest her since she became all “independent and strong” in The Rise of Skywalker. It’s obviously not what fans want to see.

We don’t need any more heroines who ape men by using weapons, killing the bad guys and then riding into the sunset alone. As an audience, we obviously want and need more male heroes like Luke Skywalker.

And I mean the person he used to be, not the sanctimonious “Jedi” cliché the Disney studios are serving us with their new tv shows.

[merrysithmas]

also not to continue to shit on disney star wars today as im sure you all had your fill from me already

but what unfathomably clueless Imagineer suggested they make a Millennium Falcon ride but NOT include Han Solo in it....

....because it needed to fit the "timeline of the sequels"????????

like EVERY single decision they make from microscopic to macroscopic is the wrong decision that it blows my mind

[tante-litfass]