#HOWEVER they are still not good people they are still evil

[lady-raziel]

Cna i... Can I ask what the beef is with M Night Shyamalan?

fair warning, this is a self-indulgently long post. but if you endure the page break, you may find the story entertaining.

a long time ago...in a small indie comic book shop in downtown Philadelphia...

picture this. it's circa 2016. my hyperfixation at the time is DC Comics-- the Flash specifically. I like the Flash, but I really like his nemesis, the Reverse Flash. This guy's gimmick is that he has the same powers as the Flash, but he's also evil because he used to be a Flash stan and his idol didn't validate their parasocial relationship when they actually met in person, and now he just wants to kill the Flash instead. It's a long story. Reverse Flash has died many times. He's also from the future, but that's not the important bit right now.

Anyway, despite being one of the Flash's main enemies, there are not that many comic book issues that feature the Reverse Flash for some reason. My main hobby at the time of this whole ordeal is to go to the local comic book shops and search through the bins of back issues to find anything with the Reverse Flash in it (bonus points if he's on the cover, but at a certain point you can't be picky). I'd been fairly successful at this, and had even been able to avoid buying too much off Ebay as I really didn't care too much about the condition or grade of the comics. The comic book shop in downtown Philly I was in on the day of the Incident was one I'd been to before, but not in a while as I went to school out in the suburbs and didn't leave that general area too much.

So. I enter this shop, and it's not too busy. That's a good thing as it's not a large space and if there were too many people it would have been very difficult to navigate around the displays of Funko Pops and tables of back issues. However, as I was soon about to find out, it doesn't matter if there's only one other person shopping at the same time as you if that person is the wrong person.

I make my way to the back where all the big boxes of old comics are, and scan the rows alphabetically to find the 'Fs.' I see 'Firestorm,' and 'Fantastic Four,' and all the others...but there, right there, where the Flash comics should be...there's a guy. Standing there. In the way.

Now, that's alright. He just seemed to be perusing randomly and wasn't actually looking at the Flash comics specifically (my Flash comics), and I can just go look at the action figures or something until he moves to another section of the shop. No problem. I mean, it's one box of comics, Harold. How long does it take to look through it? 5 minutes? No, all I have to do is wait a little bit and then I can examine those 1980s Flash comics with my own grubby little paws.

So I do a loop of the store. I examine the Funko Pops (they all look the same), the t-shirts (only Hot Topic quality), the new comics (Superman #1? How many times are they going to reboot this thing?), and even the super expensive vintage comics up on the wall (no Reverse Flash here, and it would still be beyond my price point anyway). But when I finally make my way back to the back issues, the guy...is still there. He hasn't moved. And now he's not even pretending to look at the comics anymore.

Now, to my horror, he seems to be having a full-on conversation with one of the store employees right on top of my box of comics, and neither of them seem like they plan to end this discussion anytime soon. You may be asking at this point, "well Raz, if you wanted to look at the comics where they were standing, why didn't you just ask them to move out of the way?" You're right. I could have done that.

But problem. I have social anxiety. And sometimes it gets very bad about very small things. So while it would have been entirely reasonable to ask these two men to move their conversation elsewhere, the crippling social anxiety made it so that asking for that very small and reasonable thing would have been akin to asking these guys if they would set me on fire right here right now, please and thank you. It wasn't gonna happen. My only option was to hover uncomfortably 6 feet away, pretending to go through the back issues systematically and hope they picked up on what I was doing and moved out of the way when I got back to the 'Fs,' or give up and suffer an hour and a half on the SEPTA train back home with nothing to show for it.

now, i've never had a conversation with famous filmmaker and director M Night Shyamalan. I didn't even know what he looked like at the time, so when all this happened I thought he was just Some Guy who in his unawareness was keeping me from completing my mission. Maybe he's a really engaging conversationalist and talking with him causes you to not notice anything going on around you. That may even be the case-- as neither the Twistmaster himself or the besotted store employee seemed to notice I was there. But I WAS there. And my frantic silent social cues were being "returned to sender," unread.

Meanwhile I was enduring a level of internal turmoil on the level of a character in a Greek tragedy. This was my crucible. Surrender, or do something I was honor-bound not to do. Was this the meaning of an impossible choice?

It was only after almost 15 long, agonizing minutes and two more laps of the store on my part that finally, finally there was a breakthrough. Unaware Man (for this would be Shyamalan's superhero code name) and Employee-Bro had moved to the cash register, as the former had found something he wanted to buy. With speed rivaling the Flash himself, I descended on the fated box of comics like a plague. It seemed that the day had not been lost after all.

However, like any film from the man himself, there was to be a final twist to this tale. One last turn of the knife. You might be thinking-- "And it turned out that there weren't any comics in the box you wanted to buy after all, rendering this whole ordeal meaningless, right? Like any tragic hero you endured the terrible trials only to discover that the treasure you sought was a hollow fantasy of your own creation, and this all could have been avoided if you had not fallen prey to the follies of man?"

No. The problem was-- I did find several comics in that box that I wanted to buy. I even found one with the Reverse Flash on the cover. But now that I had found my prize, I faced a new, even greater challenge, which was somewhat an extension of the old challenge, but to the extreme.

I now had to get Employee-Bro to ring me up so I could leave this cursed place, but here's the kicker: I had to do this while he was still utterly engaged in discussion with Unaware Man and thus blind to the outside world. I had come out of the frying pan and into the fire, because now it wasn't like I could just go home and take only a feeling of defeat with me. My precious comic book finds were on the line, and what was I going to do? Just put them back in the box and leave?

Unfortunately, I was committed. I would have to stand reasonably out of the way of Unaware Man's personal space yet close enough to indicate that I was, yes, in line to check out my purchases. And goddamnit, I was going to do this until all of us died of old age or the world ended.

I kind of lost all sense of time at that point. It could have been only a few minutes. It could have been five hours. All I know is that it was long enough that I wished for the sweet release of death, because then at least I'd be able to lie down. How it eventually went down was that Employee-Bro rung up Unaware Man (because really, processing a credit card transaction and signing the receipt only can take so long), and the two continued to talk as Employee-Bro gradually gained awareness that I Was There Too, and multitasked to check out my items while remaining totally focused on his other conversation and not speaking a word to me.

And that was it. I was free, from the physical prison of the comic book store at least. But again, like a Shyamalan film, this was in reality only the end of the second act. Because as I walked through the streets of Center City Philadelphia and rested my head against the smudged window of the SEPTA train on the way home, I started to descend into the mental turmoil of the question, "wait, who was that guy? Was he like...famous, or something?"

If you've ever been to a comic con or spent enough time in a hobby shop, you know that sometimes Nerd Bros can get really deep into conversation about these sorts of things. Many of them even have lots of opinions on films, and will be happy to share them in detail unprompted. So it wasn't entirely unreasonable for me not to realize in the moment that what was happening wasn't just "Nerd Bros Being Dudes."

But the more I thought about it, the one-sided adoring dynamic between Employee Bro and Unaware Man did seem unusual. And in the bits of their conversation that I had been forced to endure, hadn't one of them mentioned something about...filming locations? What was that about? Nobody in their right mind films stuff in Philly unless they're making the 86th Rocky film or the like.

It was a Google search of "movies filming in Philadelphia" that returned several results of articles talking about how location scouting was going on in the area as part of the production of a long-awaited sequel to the 2000 film Unbreakable, a undercover superhero sleeper hit. Unbreakable, a film set in Philadelphia, written and directed by famous filmmaker M Night Shyamalan.

Shyamalan. SHYAMALAN. the man responsible for 2010's The Last Airbender. it was HIM. he was not only the man who originated the (still unbroken!) curse on the Avatar franchise, but also the man who had ruined my day. Thoughtlessly. Carelessly. Not by massacring a beloved children's television franchise, but by being unaware. Inconceivable.

This was horrific. It wasn't even like I was the Reverse Flash or any other famous superhero nemesis, who had a compelling backstory causing their undying hatred of the hero. Instead, I now had a narrative foil who barely even fit that description, because chances are he hadn't even taken notice of my existence the whole time! This was my supervillain origin story, and it was his normal day!

It was at this moment I swore an oath. I would not forget this terrible day of inconvenience that was partially caused by my own social failings. I would dedicate my life from this point forward to slightly narrowing my eyes and shaking my head disapprovingly when I saw mentions of Shyamalan or his works online. I would color any opinions I had of his films with the thought, "but remember that one time he was kind of a dick to you without even meaning it? what was up with that?"

and that is the tale of my tragic encounter with M Night Shyamalan. To this day, my only solace is that my epic origin story turned out more narratively coherent and with deeper substance than any other film made in the Unbreakable saga, including the one he was location scouting for at the time this happened. Shyamalan can write twists all he wants, but no one is better at that game than karma itself.

-END-

[megbanned]

Ik I said the Doll one in a reblog but shhhh

Evil AU ideas ig?? Idk I just woke up from a nap my mind is going in circles

Evil!Doll:

-Never committed a murder in her life

- you know what? In fact shes Hemophobic (or whatever the equivalent term is for oil instead of blood) and will faint at the sight of oil

- Her worst crime was stealing Evil!Uzis pink cat eraser and glitter pen

Evil!Lizzy:

- Not popular

- not a cheerleader

- is the nerd outcast instead of the one bullying need outcasts

Evil!Thad:

- Hates sports

- Isn't as nice and chill and cool :( he's kinda an asshole instead

- despite that he's secretly s coward, when the DDs attack he hides instead of trying to fight

Evil!Cyn:

- NOT POSESSED BY THE SOLVER?! Real!!

- we don't see a lot of her as herself, but instead of her and N having a caring sibling relationship they instead have a rivalry & argue a lot

- Instead of being kinda shy/hiding behind N and clinging to him like in Ep5, she's instead overly confident

Evil!Absolute Solver

- Not Evil

- Instead of destroying planets they either fix them or create new artificial planets

- Hasn't killed Tessa!

Evil!Tessa:

- Not dead (yay)

- Hasn't actually rescued any of the manor drones, her parents did instead (in this Tessa would dislike them whilst her parents like them)

- Annoyed by N

HOHOHO

Some of these ideas are canon! Let's see 👀

Evil!Doll:

-She is very talkative and maybe a little jealous of Evil!Uzi since she is the sweetest person in the class and with whom everyone gets along well while Doll only appears to be good, because she is hiding something... (I still need to think about this)

Evil!Lizzy:

-Yep!, that's correct with her!

Evil!Thad:

-Yes too!, he is the bully until DDs appears just to hide!

Evil!Cyn:

-Originally brought to Tessa being affected by the AS, however she begins to regain consciousness. -As she regained consciousness and control of her body she became more confident. -Has a certain rivalry with N, at certain points she makes him look bad on purpose. -Tessa's favorite drone. -More will be added-

Evil!Absolute Solver:

-Created by humans as some form of hacking the JCJenson company! -The AS was implanted in Cyn to cause a disaster and boycott the company, but now Cyn is aware of this and thinks that humans only want to kill each other using other drones, she will prove them wrong, and will end them... humans should never have given uncontrollable powers to an IA -More will be added-

Evil!Tessa:

-She's alive!! -Yep! -Her parents brought the drones for her to give her more company (although they are both loving and care for her a lot), Tessa still had to continue learning to live with other people (in this case the drones), but J was somewhat lazy, V was very uncontrolled, N looked very tormented and Cyn… she was different, she was very good to Tessa, but it was just a mask. -Yep, was annoyed by N (caused by V and Cyn)

[khaire-traveler]

Not sure if you've been asked this before, but how does Hellenism view the afterlife these days? Are we still mere mortal souls doomed to eternity in Hades or, as in spiritualism and Buddhism, do souls still roam the world, seeking redemption and evolution, otherwise they are reborn again?

Hey, Nonny!

In my experience, it varies vastly from person to person. I've met worshippers who believe that nothing at all happens when we die and worshippers who believe we get to choose our own afterlives. I think it's up to us to decide what we believe. No one knows for certain what happens when we die, and as scary as that can be, it gives us the opportunity to find the answer on our own.

In general, however, the belief of The Underworld in Greek polytheism does exist. There are three levels to The Greek Underworld - Tartarus, where the shitheads go; The Asphodelian Fields, where your average person goes; Elysium, where heroes (whatever that entails) go. There is no rulebook on how to get into which afterlife, but many ancient Greek cults formed around the idea that there was some kind of secret guaranteed ticket into Elysium.

In the Orphic belief system, souls get a chance at reincarnation, despite going to The Underworld. I've met many worshippers who agree with this idea. From my understanding, in Orphism, reincarnation is a choice, but I'm genuinely not sure because I'm not too educated on this belief system.

I would like to say, though, that going to The Underworld is no damnation. Your soul isn't "doomed" if it goes there. Most people (hence, "your average person") go to The Asphodelian Fields - a beautiful field of flowers where you can spend your afterlife resting, relaxing, and being at peace. Tartarus, which can be compared to the Christian Hell, is where the truly heinous people go - the murderers, the genocidal maniacs, those who go out of their way to bring misery to others. Most people don't go to Tartarus; you have to be a special kind of evil to end up there. I would say an afterlife spent roaming beautiful fields of flowers and reconnecting with loved ones is one that is worth the wait after spending a lifetime in the chaotic world we live in.

I hope this answered your question, although I didn't share my personal beliefs regarding the afterlife. If you're curious about those, you're welcome to ask! If not, I hope this answer provided you with the information you were looking for. Take care, Nonny, and have a good day/night! 🧡

[thegreenleavesofspring]

When I say it is more effective to pray for someone than bludgeon them over the head with you are wrong what I mean is this:

Almost my entire life - perhaps not during my very early childhood, I don't remember; there was a catastrophe when I was twelve that changed everything - my mother has been in rebellion against God, if not full-on apostasy.

I grew up listening to her rail and scream at God, accuse Him. Listened to her say that she knew better than He did. Accuse Him of creating evil and being a cruel God. Just - all sorts of things. I remember perhaps twice that she ever apologized for anything when I was growing up, and one of those was with a caveat. She simply did not believe she was wrong about anything, ever.

Both of my sisters have told her to her face "You are not a Christian" and cut her off entirely. When I say that I am the only person left in the world who will speak with my mother outside of a business setting, I am not exaggerating in the slightest. (Save, perhaps, with the exception of my eldest son, who likes her visits quite a bit.)

I did not bite my tongue at all as a teenager. Since I have been an adult, most of my relationship with my mother has been biting my tongue. She is one of those people whom one wrong word will set off a chain reaction that there's no coming back from. So I stayed beside her and I bit my tongue and I prayed.

I prayed. I commended her into God's hands and acknowledged her glaringly obvious faults to Him and I prayed, I prayed for her. I pray for her now. Constantly, unceasingly, every minute I am awake, supplication for her, worded or wordless.

Y'all.

Another catastrophe has arisen. Any day now, she will be homeless, carless, old and feeble and struggling just to survive. And yet.

Of late, I stopped biting my tongue as much. I started urging her to pray. I know you don't feel like you can, I know you feel dirty, I know you're still in rebellion and feel abandoned. You need to pray. You need to pray. Just start. However. Just start praying. You need to pray.

She started praying. She spent days praying. She started reading her Bible and her devotionals. She told me she spent hours on the floor praying and sobbing until she felt empty.

She's begun filling up again. She's begun admitting culpabilities that I never thought to hear from her: culpabilities that I had long recognized and thought and disapproved of, but knew it would be worthless to say so. She admits them freely and openly. She has gone from permanent vituperation to peace. She has given up sins she has held close since before I was born.

She told me, today, about the devotional: the passage on the Good Shepherd leaving the 99 and going after the 1. And how, when He returned, He bid all His friends come and rejoice with Him.

Oh, I have been rejoicing. I have been rejoicing over her for these past couple weeks.

She is still terrified, and depressed. What is looming is terrible indeed. Neither of us is at all certain that she will survive until this time next year, but if she does not, I will have no fear: I will see her again, one day. I am certain of it.

So when I say it is better to pray for those who are astray than to belabor them with accusative "You are not a Christian", I mean it.

(And personally I think that someone with an unclear understanding of Jesus but who still acknowledges Him as the Way the Truth and the Life, is probably 'closer' to being a 'real Christian' than someone in full rebellion. But maybe that's just me.)

[fruk-choosing-a-username]

been thinking about my durge and gortash post game

i already decided that gortash lives no matter what. he isn't killed by my tavs (ALMOST died and lost his hand which is how they got his stone but hes better now my artificer durge built him a new hand ❤), and he isn't killed by the absolute either

but now im thinking about my durge, darsalyn... in my storyline darsalyn fails to control the absolute, bc my tavs (the "good guys") get the stones and tell it to destroy itself before he can take the stones from them. i know from seeing other people's endings in the actual game that if you accept bhaal and follow the urges (like darsalyn has) but then don't take control of the absolute, there are consequences (see: "piss yourself")

i always thought before that post game he and gortash would just flee the city as everyone rebuilds it and go do their evil stuff somewhere else and live happily ever after

but now knowing this information about that possible ending for durge...

maybe it isn't that simple

[quirkeduptransguy]

DUDE i Just started getting into the callous daoboys and im so sad i ignored them for so long there so damn good ... i love them so much already

(also is sysc from seattle ? i thought they were from cali but if theyre from near me thats epicness too:3

unless u were talking abt smth else . in which case i have embarrassed myself and i will now leave)

yesss same!!!! I’m going to a show of theirs in april funnily enough :3 also I was talking about the blood brothers being from seattle sorry <///3

[ssaalexblake]

david tenn/ant slowly dragging himself back into my good books by being blatantly and loudly trans positive isn’t the arc i saw for him but i guess i can vibe with this one *shrug emoji*

[pangolen]

space monster isekai rambling in the tags

[senshibignaturalz]

That was Such a class Rebecca moment she's so right and she's so powerful and I'm so happy

[nixtorr]

eight and liv but they enable eachother’s murderous tendancies instead of their actual dynamic

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Me: [hates talking to people over the phone because it’s awkward and makes me anxious]

Also me: [has witnessed multiple people experiencing extremely painful, gory, and/or life-threatening events and only felt a mild sense of curiosity and ”Wow! If I don’t (help them)/(feign empathy) right now I’ll look like a bad person.”

[gch1995]

The Sith genozide shows that the Jedi are just as willing as the Sith to cross very morally questionable lines for their cause KOTOR lore has recently been deemed canon by Lucasfilm (January 2020), so the Jedi’s genocide of the Sith species is therefore canon now

I mean, even if an SW fan knows nothing about the KOTOR video game, which, admittedly, I’ve never played either, everything we see throughout all six movies of the OT and PT saga and TCW pretty much confirms that the old Republic and Jedi Order are willing to cross every reprehensible boundary that they consider to be moral horizon events/deeds in their enemies. The only difference is that they have better PR in the galaxy backed up by the Republic government superpower and put in more effort to be more subtle about their abuse of power than the Sith because they care about being seen as “above it all.”

While Anakin is darker and less empathetic as Darth Vader in his methods, even by comparison to the average Jedi of his time because he’s learned to care less about being seen as a “nice” warrior “for the greater good” of the galaxy on the high of the dark side fueling his anger and his depression, you’ll also notice he’s actually more like the Jedi of his time in terms of how he compartmentalizes his guilt and justifies his crimes with that whole “greater good” and “necessary evil” excuse, rather than the typical chaotic evil Sith who is just evil for shits and giggles like Darth Maul. He falls into the lawful evil category instead.

The Jedi of the old Republic are only somewhat above him in terms of morality after he becomes Darth Vader because they still care about being seen as superficially “nice” to the general public of their recruits and Republic government, in spite of actually being just as ruthless as their enemies when they realize it’s easier to force people into submission to get their way from them “for the greater good” than taking the risk to do the right thing.

Anakin is still a Jedi of the old Order in mindset in the sense that he is convinced by both Sidious (a Sith who knows how the Jedi and Republic members think because he spent a lot of time with them) and himself that committing these crimes out of anger towards those who hurt him or his loved ones, a desire for freedom, fear of the unknown, fear of losing loved ones, and paranoia are serving worthy ends for protection of the Empire, Palpatine, his loved ones, himself, and the galaxy as Darth Vader, but he’s more brutal and less concerned about being subtle by playing nice in his application of that abuse of power over those he victimizes to do it on the high of the dark side, which is more Sith like.

However, in spite of being more subtle about it, I’d argue that most of the Jedi of the old Republic really weren’t that much better than most of their enemies in the Sith race. At least not after they defeated the Sith the first time around.,We spend the entirety of the prequels following the Jedi as they are basically plotting another genocide against the Sith race on their home planets. Yes, you can make a valid point that killing the Sith in self-defense when they attack first is necessary, but plotting to destroy their entire civilizations before and/or without offering them any sort of benefit of the doubt, any sort of opportunity to surrender peacefully, any sort of opportunity for rehabilitation, and any sort of warning ahead of time that they could get out of this if they stopped terrorizing the galaxy is not fair.

That is really fucked up, and we get no indication throughout the movies that the “peacekeeping” Jedi ever even considered any less violent and lethal alternatives to dealing with the Sith when their army attacked than immediate execution of them all

You’d think that at least Yoda would try to talk to the Republic Senate to find a more peaceful way to deal with the Sith. You’d think he’d consider trying to negotiate with them. He’s been alive the longest to have an idea of what the Jedi was like before the Sith. But no…He still thinks that mass murdering them is the answer.

It’s the same moral issue that U.S. government created when they decided to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in WWII completely out of the blue in the 1940s, killing and/or injuring millions in the process, so they could force their army to surrender without offering them any sort of warning ahead of time or better options than this mass destruction of lives to the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It’s the same moral issue that Palpatine and Dooku created when they plotted a genocide of the Jedi Order/Republic without any sort of warning.

Yeah, I know the Sith culture is deeply fucked up and violent on the whole, but they are still sentient beings. The children on their planets are still going to be innocents. They deserved to know they could have had an option to atone for their crimes, be rehabilitated, reform, or surrender peacefully. The innocent civilians kids didn’t deserve to have their lives taken from them as collateral damage of the Jedi’s elimination of the Sith.

For “peacekeepers,” the Jedi of the prequels before Luke don’t really seem to be too interested in taking the necessary risks and steps to create it by being brave enough to offer any sort of compassion, patience, or understanding for those who oppose them before going straight to murder as the answer. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and many of the other Jedi of the prequels develop a very similar mindset after being recruited, not just because their government is under the control of the Sith Lord in disguise, but because of how deeply dysfunctional the Jedi system was being run/implemented. They weren’t taught how to be normally functioning independent adults with a healthy sense of security, self-confidence, self-worth in their own personal agency and personal beliefs, how to have healthy relationships, or how to think critically. They were actively cut off, discouraged, and forbidden from having any sort of personal independence, personal hobbies, interests, relationships, occupations, or lives of their own outside of the Jedi Order because Yoda was too afraid of losing control over them and potentially facing the dark side by allowing them normal freedoms, relationships, and agency.

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and many of the other Jedi of the prequels were taught to use an exceedingly hostile and paranoid black-and-white us vs them mentality in the Republic/Jedi Order and the Empire/Sith in regards to enemies, outsiders, and potential threats to the “greater good” of the causes they served, the safety of themselves or those they were loyal to within that cause, and their critical thinking skills, open-mindedness, and self-awareness diminished as a result.

When you can’t fathom the possibility of even trying to take the risk to use peaceful non-violent alternatives to dealing with enemies by allowing them the chance to a fair trial, hearing them out, giving them a chance to surrender, giving them a chance to atone, then that’s a serious problem that often ends up perpetuating a cycle of fear-driven systematic abuse, crime, distrust, resentment, and oppression more than necessary, rather than breaking it. You can’t really break a cycle of systematic abuse, crime, distrust, and oppression by enabling and perpetuating it whenever it’s safer than taking a risk to stand up for what’s right, especially when you go around calling yourself a “peacekeeper.”

That was Anakin’s, Obi-Wan’s, Yoda’s, Qui Gonn’s, and the majority of the rest of prequel era Jedi Order’s biggest personal moral failing. They became so afraid of facing conflict and opposition under these corrupt cult-like institutions and governments under these shitty circumstances that they ended up becoming willing enablers and perpetrators of the very same crimes they sought to destroy to fit in under pressure to try to remain safe at all costs because it was easier than taking a risk to be vulnerable that was required to ultimately be able to do better.

No, it’s not just their faults they ended up growing up to be that way. The Jedi Order and Sidious were abusive, manipulative, and isolating systems that seriously compromised their agency to be able to feel reasonably safe doing better through finding better escape and healthy support. The government they worked for was corrupt. Anakin seemed to develop C-PTSD, BPD, ADHD, and substance abuse symptoms that never got properly treated. The Sith army definitely did strike against the Jedi first a millenia ago, and most of them were very corrupt. However, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and the other Jedi of the old Republic did still have enough sense to be able to understand what was objectively right versus wrong. They had consciences, and not every crime they committed were things they were coerced into doing by the Republic, Sidious, and the Jedi Council. They developed personally selfish and vindictive streaks, too. They eventually did stop trying after some time, so I can’t just pretend they’re wholly innocent either.

The biggest take away from Star Wars OT and PT sagas is how easy it can be for the fear under systematic abuse, crime, enemies, warfare, and oppression to destroy both yourself and others around you when you don’t deal with it healthily by taking the risk to be emotionally vulnerable and open, and instead continue the cycle of abusing power to try to deny, take control of, and/or eliminate those people and/or things that cause you fear instead.

If you guys want to comment, you can.

@tragicfantasy-girl

@yoghurtconsumer

@wingletblackbird

@mynameisanakin

@fanfic-lover-girl

@fanfictasia

[girlscience]

me: is happy because i put they/them pronouns on my companies benefits website and my boss saw and talked to me about it and how i want to handle it and letting other people at work know and it is good and i'm happy with all the decisions

also me: well. i shouldn't feel happy about this sooo let's go look at terf blogs to remember how terrible i am for not thinking i'm a woman even though i'm female and i'm being stupid and i just want to distance myself from womanhood because of misogyny and trauma

[slashmagpie]

Also since my Watcher post is officially uh Making Numbers I feel like I’m obligated to say that I actually do love a lot of the fanon around Watchers. Yes I have Takes™️ on how the Watchers are in canon but I do enjoy certain aspects of fanon a lot.

[holdharmonysacred]

I woke up from a nap and want to swing at a hornet’s nest again, so I’m gonna give a hot take on villain redemption arc discourse:

A villainous character earning a redemption arc does not mean “Has this character become Morally Good enough to earn a slot on the good guys team?”, it means “Has the character’s writing earned this particular type of conclusion as the conclusion to this character’s arc, and can said writing sell the audience on it being the best narrative path for this character’s story to take? Or is the writing for this character such that giving the character a redemption arc without some serious groundwork leading up to it would at best give the audience intense narrative whiplash?”

Because a lot of villain redemption arc discourse - when it’s not dealing with the actual bad implications of the impulse of “Everyone who has ever been victimized by this character must magically forgive them, no one is allowed to have beef with this character who hurt them” that comes with a lot of redemption arcs - really just boils down to the redemption arc sucking ass because it’s being handed out to x characters when the writing around said characters has done nothing to really earn said payoff. You have to actually build up to the heel-face turn before you can say “This character is good now!”, the same way you have to have build up for any character arc’s conclusion. This is why it’s so common to have villains the writers want to redeem openly doubt their cause or get smacked in the face with The Consequences Of Their Actions - a villain with moral qualms about what they’re fighting for is more likely to leave and join the good guys, and a character Facing the Consequences Of Their Actions is more likely to go down the path of personal change that’s essential to any good redemption arc.

This is also why so many people get frustrated with redemption arcs getting handed out to fantasy tyrants. A fantasy tyrant’s crimes are typically massive and far-reaching and affect the whole cast, and tyrants in general just aren’t the type of people who would naturally come to a conclusion of “You’re right, we should stop being evil!”. Something big usually has to happen on the level of the universe itself punishing said tyrant for their sins - whether it be them getting violently deposed and thrown out of their Fantasy Tyrant position, or them facing immense personal tragedy as consequence of being a Fantasy Tyrant - so that the writing has an actual catalyst for the personal change required for the redemption arc in the first place. Situations like these is also where the impulse to say “Everyone must magically forgive this character because they are Good now!!!!” tends to get really ugly, since now it’s basically forcing the entire cast of a work to shut up about their grievances and let the Fantasy Tyrant do whatever they please, and that’s just shitawful writing.

To put it all a simpler way - if you’re writing a character who is a cartoonishly vile villain who’s constantly cackling while kicking puppies and is overall Evil And Lovin’ It, you’re going to need the run time of basically the entire series in order to get that villain to an ending of “They’re a sweet person on the side of good who runs a wholesome well-intentioned orphanage”, because that is a massive change in characterization that’s going to be extremely goddamn hard to sell to your audience unless you put in the legwork to make your writing earn that outcome. And depending on the villain, you really might just be better off writing the more natural outcome of “And then they were a horrible rat bastard to the end” rather than trying to force a redemption arc you’re in no way equipped to write.

[the-busy-ghost]

Never understood people (esp. literary critics) who think muirland is empty, just because it has literary significance as a wild place with few people doesn’t mean it is actually devoid of life. Anyone who has walked the muir, especially in summer, knows that it is full of birdsong, amazing plants that somehow cling to life in extremes, and even the stones are warmed by the sun, while the land and air itself is alive with the eerie mythology that humans have bestowed upon it. 

Admittedly, it can be terrifying, and confusing and wild but the last word I would use to describe muirland is ‘lonely’. If anything it’s not lonely enough- who knows what’s lurking out there when there is nothing between you and the sky, when clouds are so low that you can’t see the road ahead, when the wail of the wind is so loud that you can’t hear the grouse call two feet away let alone footsteps, and when the safe shelter of a stone is either out of reach across cold, hungry mosses or indistinguishable in a sea of all-consuming, killing snow.