#also let’s talk about how none of those stormtroopers are alive

[followthepurrgil]

That…..is too many corpses to be in the company of a Nightsister/Nightmother….

[thefanbasewhore]

AHHHH Can you do something with being with Din and Mayfield when he takes his helmet off???

Summary: Din will not let you live with guilt, he offers you an alternative instead.

Paring: Din Djarin/female reader. But no use of Y/N

Chapter 15 spoilers, I tagged this post !!

Despite her protest Din slips past the pair, Mayfield's fingers digging into the flesh of her arm even though the layers of the stormtrooper suit it burns.

"Stop." He whispers close, only for she could hear. Her helmet was still on, he used that to his advantage by making it look like he was fixing the vocoder. "You're only going to attract attention to him."

Eyes drop from his own, turning slightly to insure the safety of her beloved. Din's back is facing them, messy curls surprise her. He took the helmet off?

It tickled his neck, she knew it was brown, he had told her on many occasions but it looked soft, pretty well kept despite always being always covered. It were times like this she wished she was closer, not to break his creed but to finally see what fingers look like running through the ringlets. Her mouth ran dry as a voice commanded him. Everything happened to fast, she gasps as Mayfield grips her wrist dragging her along with him.

The main reason being if Din knew he let her out of his sight, he would be no longer. She tries, really tries to look away but everything she ever wanted is right in front of her. It's a square jaw, soft pierced lips right below those a trimmed mustache. Eyes are warm, dark brown with hints of honey were the light illuminates through the windows. It's impossible to concentrate, the soft pout of his lips makes sure of that, having kissed those lips many times but they looked perfect.

He was beautiful, nothing she could have expected but everything she needed. Mayfield must have been thinking the same thing as words 'brown eyes' leaves his own mouth.

"And you?" The words go past deaf ears, but she quickly notices the words are for her the moment his carmel eyes meet hers back. He's caught her.

Suddenly she relieved the helmet is still on, embrassment is not easy to hide, it claims cheeks red makes skin blush up her neck. Mayfield answers for her, but the superior is still not happy.

"Take your helmet off trooper." Her eyes meet Mayfield's for any signs of run, or shoot but there is none. Din stiffs at his request, standing a little straighter, his panic clearly shown of his face.

Hair falls to shoulders, air instantly reaching her lungs quicker, more efficient. Valin stands a little straighter as well, a small hmmph with a sickly smile. "The empire allowed you to join? I thought one of the commanders would take you instead."

Mayfield's hand tighten around Din's hands to warn him not to move, luckily they are behind his back and out of sight.

"I'm a good shooter, sir." She answers loudly, Valin nods in response. When the attention is finally off she sighs to herself, now she can't hide the fact she can't take her eyes off of him. When Din's eyes meet hers again as Valin is tugging them towards a table, she can't help but notice the pure panic, uncomfortably shifting, scanning the room as if he's calculating how many people he's going to have to kill to keep his creed.

There's a problem with that, the problem being you. He could never... The thought never ran through his mind but guilt filled her instantly. Selfish, the only word that came to mind. She was selfish and greedy taking advantage of this moment for herself. Din could sense it, or take notice in the way mouth shapes, frowning. A large hand squeezes her knee under the table. Once again she couldn't pay attention, chewing on the fat of her lip nervously. The only sound that broke her from her trance was the sound of Mayfield's blaster sending Valin slidding across the floor.

Din and her eyes meet in panic, then at Mayfield who shot the surrounding officers. Quickly jumping into action until everyone was down.

Din first looks at his girl, accessing for any injuries but as Mayfield pushes the helmet into his reach he shakes his head, "I don't have to, I can't."

"You did what you had to do, I never saw your face." Mayfield everts his head from his direction, almost as if he never did. Din's eyes meets her again, his cyar'ika as she also turns her head.

"Put it on Mando." She remembered the talk they had months ago when he finally told her his name, that it was his own the one things no one would know and he wanted her to. She figured with his face revealed, that's the one thing he had left.

The mandalorian would claim she's wrong, he did still have something left, actually two things. One was her, the other stolen from him but soon to be returned.

Blasters filled the area of the roof top, Din's hands supporting her to the ship, "Jump!"

They all landed with a rough thud, instantly she retreats into the ship nursing a blaster shot that skimmed her arm. A small his falls from her lips as she tries to rip the material of the suit away, Din is on his knees in front of her in an instant, large hands cupping her thighs. "You were hit?"

"I'm fine." Din doesn't particularly like the short answer, only notices the way she averts her gaze. He ribs the cloth away from the wound, Cara already has the med pack ready but Din instead takes it, applying pressure with a cloth. Blood fills it instantly, Din curses under his breath. Did it go straight through?

"Are you doing okay cyar'ika?" She nods hesitantly, eyes hooded from the amount of blood rushing out.

"I'm sorry."

Din notices as she starts slouching, other hand pressed against the valley of her chest. "Stay with me, we're gonna put some becca on it and you're going to start feeling better."

"I'm sorry."

Din sighs, "There is nothing to be sorry for." The can is uncapped as he shakes it, "keep talking to me, you're loosing too much blood."

"I shouldn't have looked. I'm selfish." The words are slurred, "I just looked, I didn't think about how it affects you."

"It couldn't be avoided. Stop." It's a warning that it's a dangerous topic to be discussing right now.

"You're handsome." Din feels his cheeks warm, he would have smiled if she wasn't slowly loosing consciousness in front of him. Forehead presses against the metal one.

"Stay with me, it should start working soon. It only takes a few minutes."

A soft hum is all he hears, "Pretty eyes."

Din is blushing uncontrollably, suddenly the armour feels so hot. Slowly her eyes begin to flutter more, color filling her face once again. As soon as she's able to support herself he begins to clean it up.

"I'm sorry." This time he can tell she means the apology, small tears of guilt fill her eyes. "I should have looked away, you should be able to trust me."

"I do trust you, it's not your fault, stop apologizing sweet girl." Soft fingers angle her face to look up at his visor, she could picture the brown eyes under it, the sharpness of his jaw. "I mean it."

"I feel like I ruined something for you, I can't look at you without feeling guilty."

Din feels his throat dry at the thought that crosses his mind, he tried to say it but snaps his mouth close. If she was his wife then it wouldn't break his creed, she would feel more at ease.

He pulls her closer, "If you were my.."

"Your what?"

Din sighs softly, knowing that the guilt would eat her alive, she would never be able to look at him again. "Be my riduur, you would be apart of my clan, be able to see my face without breaking the creed."

"I don't want this to be the reason why you asked, I want it to mean something."

Din shakes his head, "It does mean something, you mean everything to me. It might have not been this soon but I always knew you would end up my riduur some day."

The words warm her heart but Din has other ideas. Now alone he picks the helmet up slowly, just enough to touch her lips with his own. "Please marry me, I don't want to spend another night with you blindfolded. I don't want to hide myself from you any longer."

She smiles, pressing her lips to his again, a silent answer.

[winchesterxxi]

My Favorite Ghost (Poe Dameron x Reader)

Rating: T (Teen and Up Audiences)

Type: Angst

Summary:  What happens when a Resistance fighter gets trapped on Republican grounds and the man in charge of her torture is none other than her ex-husband Poe Dameron, former Leia Organa’s protegée turned First Order Admiral?

Word Count: 2.7k

Warnings: Force-sensitive reader, torture, graphic descriptions of violence, blood, injuries, swearing, death.

A/N: Poe Dameron angst??? oof

MASTERPOST | REQUEST HERE | KO-FI

✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸

The mission couldn’t’ve gone more astray.

It was a simple and easy task for a single person to carry out. Fly below the cruiser, get in, get their coordinates for their next targets and get out. Hand the coordinates over to Holdo, and prevent the StarDestroyer from blazing those planets.

Simple. Until it wasn’t.

It all went astray when a face scanner crossed your path. The blueprints didn’t mention any face scanner on that door. You panicked, trying to get your face to scan and let you in, resorting to fiddling with the wires on the side of the device looking left and right to make sure no one would catch you. Except they did.

4 stormtroopers rounded the corner and, hands full with a small screwdriver and needle-nose pliers, you couldn’t have moved fast enough to reach your blaster before they had pinned you against a wall, face against the cold metal.

Next thing you knew, a dark sac is being put over your head and right after your body is pulled away from the wall, a hard object hits the back of your head and you are knocked out cold.

You don’t know how long it had passed before you regained your senses, eyes struggling to open due to the immense brightness that was aimed at you from a light above.

You scanned around the room as much as your body allowed you to, for you soon enough came to find everything below your neck strapped to a metal platform that stood upright in the middle of the room you were in.

You could spot a few cameras pointed at you, and you could also hear steps and muffled voices outside as well as a distant and low rumble of the ship’s engines – you should be close to the cockpit. Most torture rooms tended to be. That way, the commanders and soldiers don’t need to walk far to deliver information obtained from those captured.

The thoughts in your head didn’t have much more time to run wild as the big double doors in front of you opened and gave way to a silhouette to step into the room before they closed again behind them.

For as much as you forced your eyes to read them, it was practically impossible because of the light pointed directly at your face, coming from above. All you could see was the bottom of their uniform – knee-high dark leather boots and black pants, either a general or an admiral, and the clenched fists in shiny leather gloves - as they stood in front of you, hidden from the light.

“Are we getting this over with anytime soon?” you question bitterly while resting your head back and closing your eyes. You’d be damned if you were going to show any fear to anyone within this ship.

“Although I won’t blame you for just standing there, I know I’m pretty pleasant to look at.” Confidence, fake it until you make it. Or until you piss someone off, which is a better description of what you were aiming at.

“Can’t argue with that.”

Your blood runs cold.

Head snapping back down, facing forward, your jaw tightens and your whole body tenses at the reverberation of those words against the metal walls. And that is when the person you dreaded the most to run into again, in your whole life, steps into your sight.

His eyes meet yours and for a moment you think your mind is deceiving you.

This isn’t him.

Those eyes do not belong to the face in front of you. They aren’t his eyes. His eyes had a constant sparkle in them with the life that bubbled inside of him; they were big, brown, kind and caring.

These are hard, dark and cold. Lifeless.

“Poe.”

Despite his name leaving your lips in something little above a whisper, you know that name no longer refers to him. Not in the way it was engraved in your mind. Poe was your husband, the lively and witty resistance pilot that Leia Organa had assured you were meant for you. And maybe he was. But this isn’t Poe. This is someone – something else.

“It’s Admiral Dameron.”

You grith your teeth together and have to muster all the strength in you to not let your bottom lip quiver at the coldness and lack of emotion in his voice, so distant from that you were used to in the sweet nothings that would reach your ears in the mornings you’d wake up in his arms.

“What do you want?” you ask him, voice tainted with both pain and disgust.

“I could ask you the same thing. You were the one caught in our ground, trying to break a facial recognition system. What exactly were you looking to get?”

“It was outside the navigation system room. Take a wild guess.” Your anger-powered wit met a halt, as a sharp pain ran through your whole body with great intensity.

A pained screamed was let out of your mouth, muscles tensing and thrusting your body forward against the metal boundaries that enveloped your ankles, thighs, wrists, middle and upper torso.

Once the sting stopped, you threw your body back, chest rising and falling rapidly, trying to catch your breath, as Poe circled where you stood.

“Being a smartass won’t get you anywhere.” He taunts from behind you.

“Because being honest and cooperative will get me a congratulatory snack after this, right?” you weren’t about to give in, and apparently neither was he as another violent ache ran across your body, this time for a few more seconds longer.

“You really don’t listen to people’s warnings, do you?” he snaps his intimidating eyes at you while coming back around to stand in front of you.

“I had a good teacher.” You manage to jeer through gritted teeth. That gets a reaction out of it. One that would be imperceptible to the common person, unless they had been married and in love with them, so much so that they picked up on every little quirk.

“You do realize you’re not getting out of here alive.” It wasn’t even a question, more so of a statement as his lowered head allowed his eyes to look up at you through his lashes, and your heart sinks to the pit of your stomach at the realization, and you have to blink away the tears that threatened to make an appearance.

“You would do that? Kill me?”

“It’s protocol. Resistance scum dies, either if they deliver a confession or not.”

“You won’t even say my name, but you’re okay with having your hands being the ones that put an end to my life?” he doesn’t answer, breaking the wall he had put up for a fraction of a second when his eyes wander around, away from yours. “And Resistance scum? Wow, your ego really is something.”

“Shut up.”

“The only scum I see here is the one standing in front of me, who betrayed friends and family to save his own ass”

“I SAID SHUT UP.” His left-hand slams against the metal behind you, just a few inches away from your face and you flinch, eyes closing at the sudden movement, the fleeting possibility that he could hit you crossing your mind.

When you open your eyes you see his face just inches away from yours, heavy breathing fanning against your face, his hand still rested next to you.

Your eyes are distant, looking somewhere above his other shoulder as you shift your right hand, as much as the restraints allowed, palm facing upward and fingers spread. Between your faces surges a ring, attached to a silver chain that surrounded your neck.

You bite the inside of your cheek and a single tear spills out of your right eye, his attention remaining on the object floating in front of him.

That is his mother’s wedding ring, or rather, it was, until the day he gently put it around your neck, the day that was now so far behind in time that, together with the present circumstances almost felt like a fever dream. He had insisted that you both didn’t need wedding rings as the simple act of you wearing his necklace, the one everyone knew was destined to rest against the sternum of whoever he’d end up deciding on spending the rest of his life with, was enough.

And you never took it off. Not after he started to seem more distanced. Not when he’d started to snap at you. Not when the fights started. Not when you started to sleep in separate rooms. Not when he turned on you mid-mission and started to shoot at your X-Wing. Not when, moments after that, he turned his X-Wing around, killing a few other Resistance pilots. And not when he flew away, following the First Order fleet.

You never took it off.

Closing your eyes, you relax your hand and let the ring fall back against your chest and Poe pushes his hand off the metal, taking a few steps back. He looked… ill at ease.

“What happened, Poe?” you whisper, voice begging for an answer, his name sounding on your lips for the second time today, the most it’s had in little over a year. And, surprisingly, he doesn’t correct the way you address him.

“There was never a chance of us winning. We were outnumbered, our technology wasn’t as advanced… It was either surrender or joining them.” Something tightens inside of you at the way he used us and them to reference the Resistance and the First Order. He was referring to himself as Resistance. Probably unconscious. You decide against pointing it out or correcting him.

“And you chose to join them.” You slowly nod “Was it all so meaningless to you that you could just turn your back on us?”

“The Resistance will forever be doomed.” He utters bitterly.

“You wanna talk about forever?” you question, eyes red and glazed with how wet they were, and he stares at you.

“THIS –“ you raise your voice and look down, motioning to the ring resting against your flight suit, before looking back up to meet his gaze “WAS FOREVER.”

Your words and the silence that followed hung between the two of you almost as making the air in the room thicker by the second.

“Do you ever even think about me anymore? Or does your every thought revolve around these people?” tears sting your eyes once more and you take a shaky breath in “Every morning when I wake up I still expect to have my cheek resting against your chest, but there’s only a pillow. When I go to Leia I expect you to be standing next to her, planning some sort of strategy. When I fly in my X-Wing I still expect the commlink to crackle with your voice. When I see BB rolling my way, I still look up in hopes of seeing you walk up behind him. I hate you. I hate you so much. I hate you with every fibre of my being. But I also love you in equal measure.”

Poe remains immobile, standing a few feet ahead of you, the device that controls the electric shocks tightly fisted in his left hand and he is looking at you, straight ahead. At this point, you are panting with the effort of mustering out all of those words and feelings through the tears and sobs that rattle your whole body.

“Somehow, after all the shit you’ve done, I still love-”

You don’t manage to finish those words, the second time you’d be uttering them in over a year as they die on your lips and are replaced by a glass-shattering scream of pain, as the sharp burst of electricity travels your body once more during a much more excruciatingly long time. All your muscles tense as much as they can and you forget what breathing feels like.

Once Poe’s thumb slides of the control button, your whole body jerks forward, panting, tears falling to the ground beneath your hovering feet, head down. Despite the rational choice being to shut up you need to say this. You know that he is still there, somewhere, below all that darkness that took hold of him. He is still there. And you need to get him out.

“I still lo-“

Poe’s thumb slides over the button once again, inflicting another piercing wave of torture to your already spent body. Something is, indeed, still in him as this time around he can’t bring himself to look at you and at the way the electricity is slowly but surely bringing you closer to a point of no return. And despite the tears blurring your vision, this fact doesn’t go unnoticed.

After he relieves the pressure on the button, your body no longer jolts forward but instead goes limp against the metal board, the back of your head resting against it, mouth starting to taste like blood, which peeks through the corner of your mouth.

“You won’t even look.” You struggle to get the words out, voice coming out raspy and hurting as it passes through your throat.

“If you’re going to kill me, at least be man enough to look at me when you do it.”

Your whole body is pulsing with aftershocks of pain and you are struggling to keep your eyes open, feeling your eyelids grow heavier. Just when you are about to close your eyes, just to rest them, you told yourself, you hear Poe’s voice for the first time since he told you the Resistance was doomed.

“After all this, do you still love me?” Your brain can’t quite comprehend if by this he means the torture or all the events that you crying about earlier, the ones that led him to join the First Order.

Either way, the answer would be the same.

“Yes.”

Jaw tensing, Poe pushes the button in his fist one more time, watching your body light up with the blue electric jolts that ran your full height up and down, side to side, travelling through each of your limbs eating away at the remaining life in your body. His lips were trembling just the slightest and his eyes, lit with the image in front of him, started to be glazed by tears.

He didn’t let the button go for much longer than he previously had, being completely lost inside his mind and out of it at the realisation that even after all the shit he put you through and the hurt he caused you, you still loved him.

It wasn’t until he stopped seeing you squirm that his finger release the button and your body fell completely limp against the metal, head falling down, the metal loops preventing you from falling forwards completely. He hesitated in stepping closer to you, scared of you moving or rather not, he wasn’t sure.

But his heart gave in to the breaking of itself when the latter possibility turned out to be the truth.

You weren’t moving.

You weren’t breathing.

There was blood dripping from your mouth onto the floor.

You were gone.

And he did it.

A trembling hand of his came up to push your head back against the platform holding you.

That’s when he took a good look at your lifeless face, and a shaky exhale left his lungs.

Oh, how he still loved you.

He wanted to cradle your face in his hands a lay a kiss against your forehead, run his knuckles against your cheek and wipe the blood away from your soft lips.

But they were watching him. The cameras were pointed at him and the microphones were on, preventing him from freely displaying any kind of affection towards you.

Blinking away the tears and trying to keep his body language as much stoic as possible, his gloved hand reaches up for the ring that hung from the chain draped around your neck and he pulled it down, breaking the silver link as it released the hold it had on you.

He slid the ring into the chest pocket of his uniform before walking away, towards the door, and out. Leaving the lifeless body of the only person who could ever allow him redemption behind, limp and broken.

✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸

TAGLISTS

PERMANENT TAGLIST

@blondekel77​ @pedrobreakmyback​

POE DAMERON TAGLIST

@niall2017​

✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸ ✸

[i-write-sometimes-blog]

Lost Without You (Bo-Katan x Mando!Reader)

Request: Can I request a Bo-Katan and maybe a Mando!reader like reader has sworn the creed like Din and they’re taking on an empire ship together and readers jet pack gets hit and she falls in the water and Bo panics because reader hasn’t resurfaced so she dives in after a d they have a cute moment together afterwards. lol sorry it’s a lot. Love your writing btw! By anon

Word count: 1,764

Warnings: Drowning counts? Also terrible attempt to describe cpr

A/N: This was fun to write. It was also my first time writing Bo but I kinda like the way it turned out. Hope you like it, let me know what you think!

The mission was almost over, you couldn't say it was the easiest you've been to but it was finally over. The ship was under your possession, Koska was piloting as Bo-Katan and you were taking down the remaining stormtroopers.

Flying with the jetpack around the ship allowed you to have a clear shot at the railings and upper levels of the cargo ship, your job was to blast anyone who tried to escape.

From the air you caught the familiar helmeted figure of Bo-Katan fighting hand to hand with the few remaining stormtroopers. She was a skilled warrior, moving fast and throwing punches at the white helmets around her with ease, these guys didn’t stand a chance against her. However, one of them saw the opportunity to grab his blaster from the floor while Bo-Katan was just finishing the last one of them and he aimed directly at her.

Just when the imperial was about to fire his weapon you shot him down, the thud of his body falling to the durasteel floor of the ship alerted Bo. She looked over her shoulder, finding the fallen trooper before turning her head to look at you.

"What would you do without me, Bo?" You said through the communicator earpiece under your own helmet. 

"I've survived a war and a purge." She said in her usual cold tone. "I think I'd be fine without you."

You chuckled. Bo-Katan wasn’t someone to express her feelings often, aside from her anger. She was always focused on her mission to regain Mandalore, no time for other things. But deep down you knew she had feelings for you. Something in the way she was protective over you in missions and something in the way her emerald eyes seemed to soften when she saw you let you know there was a heart beating for you under her beskar cuirass.

"Oh, come on!" You told her. "Admit it, Kryze, you like having me around." you teased.

Thinking all the enemies were gone you both lowered your guard, used to one another's company. Neither Bo-Katan or you noticed the Imperial officer with a blaster in hand coming out of the farthest hatch. 

"How sweet but-" Bo started but before she could finish with her words, a single blaster shot hit right in your jetpack. "Y/N!" She barely screamed when she saw the fire in your jetpack.

The shot broke the engines that kept you in the air, sending you flying in all directions and even though you tried you were incapable to control it. Finally it sent you directly into the water beneath the big ship.

The moment you felt the cold water you tried to swim back to the surface but the heavy beskar of the armor and the extra weight of the jetpack wouldn't let you. The helmet didn't make it any easier to breathe, it was making it rather harder but you weren't going to take it off, you wouldn't break the creed. And though you were fighting to get to the surface you only sunken more and more with every passing second, until you ran out of air and the world seemed to turn black.

Meanwhile on the ship, Bo immediately shot down the sudden menace before running to the railing of the ship, looking at the water for some sort of sign of you.

She waited for a moment, trying to control her nerves, hoping she would see your familiar helmet emerging from the water and she was ready to hear your voice through the comlink with some kind of comment that would make her roll her eyes. But after a short time of waiting none of those things happened and that put Bo-Katan in alert.

You were not resurfacing.

Without thinking it twice the woman jumped to the water, the fear of losing you completely taking over her because after all this time with you, Bo-Katan couldn't stand to lose you, she'd lose Mandalore before losing you.

She found you floating in the water like a ship stranded in space. Panic rushed through her body as she thought the worst. Wrapping her arms securely around you she ignited her own jetpack to pull you out of the water, placing you on the nearest platform .

She took off her helmet, worriness on her face as she waited for you to wake up, to say something, hoping for any sign of life yet she only heard silence. Concerned, Kryze leaned close to you.

You weren't breathing.

Bo-Katan needed to take a decision and fast but if she was to save you she must take your helmet off. 

If it were up to her she would have taken your helmet off your head a long time ago, she longed to see your face, find out the color of your eyes, dreamed to kiss your lips...  but there was this creed you sworn to. You were a Child of the Watch, a cult that she thought was stupid, however Bo respected it just because it was important to you.

She knew you would never forgive her if she ever dared to take your helmet off.

But this was a life or death situation and she preferred to be hated by you the rest of her life than losing you. She'd rather be hated but know you were alive than live knowing she could have easily saved by removing that piece of beskar off your head.

She sighed, preparing herself to finally take your helmet off. She grabbed it by the sides, admiring for a moment the designs over the metal before sliding it off your head.

Bo-Katan almost forgot her mission when she finally saw your face, perfect features that seemed to match perfectly with your voice, you were just as she imagined. But your eyes were closed as if you were asleep, reminding her of why she broke your way in the first place.

Returning to her mission she took your cuirass off your chest and started with the reanimation process, applying pressure to your chest with her hands alternating to provide some air to your lungs. 

“Come on, Y/N.” she murmured, growing more desperate with every new push on your chest. “You can’t leave me.” she said, her voice cracking a little. “Please, come back to me, cyare.”

You woke up gasping for air, coughing as the water inside you left your body finally allowing you to breath. The first thing you saw in front of you was Bo-Katan kneeled next to you, her red hair looked messy and wet, a relieved smile curved her lips as her green eyes looked down at you.

“Hi, grumpy.” you barely murmured, still coughing a bit.

“Welcome back, Y/N.” she said. “You gave me a good scare there.” 

You smiled at her but the smile disappeared as soon as you noticed the weight missing in your head, the way your voice wasn't making echoes, you haven't seen the world this way since you were a kid.

You weren't wearing the helmet. You broke the creed or rather, she did.

"Bo!" You told her, confusion in your voice. "What- why?"

"I'm sorry." She rushed to said, her tone was a bit more serious now, it was the tone she used to give arguments. "I had to do it."

"No, you should have-"

"Let you die?" She cut you off. "Forget it, I could never." Her eyes changed when she looked at you, they were not angry as always but actual concern seemed to paint them a lighter green. "I don't expect you to forgive me for breaking your creed, but when I saw you weren't coming out of the water I thought I lost you."

You watched her face carefully, there was fear on her face, sincere pain, weakness. For a woman that was always as strong as the beskar of her armor this was new.

"And I realized, I don't want a life without you in it." She said. She wasn’t someone to express her feelings often but actually Lady Bo-Katan, last one of House Kryze, rightful heiress of Mandalore didn't know what she would do without you. She'd be lost without you.

"I love you, Y/N." She confessed. "I love you, you enormously stubborn pain in the ass." She said with a smile.

You couldn't help but chuckle at her words but at the same time you were confused, upset for breaking the creed that was part of you for most of your life. But on the other hand you couldn't be happier now that you knew Bo's true feelings for you.

Hesitating you leaned closer to her. Your lips closer to hers for a few seconds before capturing them in a delicate kiss. You kissed her sweetly almost shyly for a moment, after all this time with her this was the very first you met her lips.

“I love you, Bo.” you murmured. Her green eyes admired you for a moment, filled with a mix of emotions, love was one of them. 

She leaned to brush your lips again, long and delicately while her arms slowly wrapped around your waist pulling you close to her body making you smile between kisses, you enjoyed her closeness, her warmth against your body. And when the kiss was over she rested her forehead against yours for a moment and you stayed like that, just enjoying each other's comány.

The comlink beeping dragged you back to reality.

“Bo, Y/N, do you read me?” you heard Koska’s voice.

“Bring the ship to the coordinates I’m sending you. We had a small jetpack malfunction.” Kryze said, looking at her gauntlet, pressing a few buttons. 

“Copy that.” You heard your friend say.

Bo-Katan turned her gaze back at you, there was a little smirk over your lips. “What?” she asked.

“So, you can’t live without me, huh?” you teased, remembering her words.You observed her putting on her helmet again and shaking her head.

“Don’t let that get to your head, cyare.” she chuckled, handing you your own helmet. “Now, come on. I wanna continue our little talk somewhere else.” she said in a teasing tone before the Imperial ship you had taken appeared in front of her, the hatch already open for both of you.

You looked down at the helmet in your hands for a moment and sighed before placing it back in its place. This was a new start for you, but you were sure that meanwhile Bo was by your side you were sure you could take anything.

Tagging: @natasha-danvers

(In case you want to be tagged for specific things or everything I write, just let me know)

[summahsunlight]

Perhaps It’s Fate, Part 20

Rating: T, to be safe

Word Count: 1.8k+

Summary: After joining the Resistance as a mechanic, you were happy to keep to yourself, until a little orange and white bb unit and his master wander into your workshop one day.

Pairings: Poe Dameron x Mechanic!Reader

Start from the beginning! 

Taglist: @ms-dont-care​, @starless-eyes-remain​, @elmoakepoke​, @marvelobsessiononastick​, @kiaralein​, @softly-sad​, @totalpoedameron, @ordinarymom1​, @sevvysaurus​, @spider-starry​, @liadamerondjarin​, @jingyuhearteu​, @dream-alittlebiggerdarling​, @paintballkid711​

It’s here! The much anticipated next part! Hope you enjoy it. I’m excited for you to be able to read it🥰 Remember if you want to be added to the taglist, just let me know!

You had managed to disable the tracker. Poe had piloted the ship, using the phony code to land in the hanger of Snoke’s ship--and Finn had been able to secure you disguises and find your way to the control room where you worked your magic.

It was when you were making your way back to the ship that everything unraveled. Your team had been discovered; Captain Phasma and her troops were waiting in the hanger--and there was absolutely no where to go. 

Poe wanted to fight--of course he did, it was in his nature--but once a blaster was pointed at you he surrendered. 

Now you found yourself on your knees in front of Phasma. 

This is how your parents must have felt, you imagined, in their final moments before they were executed by the First Order. At least you’d been able to help the Resistance, at least you had been able to disable the tracker so they could escape.  But now you knew you were going to pay the price.

“Make it painful,” General Hux snarled before leaving.

“Only the most painful for rebel scum,” Phasma assured him.

Blinking back tears you glanced at Poe; he was looking at you with such regret in his chocolate brown eyes that it made your heart break. Somehow, you managed a weak smile to let him know that it was okay--that you didn’t blame him for anything.  He had believed in you so much, how could you? And for you, this was a much better option of dying together than having to live without him. 

Poe softly smiled back at you, the pain in his eyes so evident as he mouthed the words I love you. Oh how you wish you could respond, but there was a boot on your neck, pressing your head forward as the troopers prepared all three of you--Poe, Finn, yourself--for execution. Squeezing your eyes shut, you prayed that the end would come swiftly...

.....instead there was a loud explosion, you were thrown from underneath the boot on your neck clear across the hanger, the blast knocking you unconscious for a few moments. 

When you regained your senses, the hanger was on fire. Poe was leaning over you and talking to you, but you couldn’t hear him over the ringing in your ears. He suddenly pulled you into his arms and you realized he’d been asking if you were okay.  Amazingly, you were fine, other than a few cuts and bruises. 

“Sweetheart, can you stand? We need to get out of here.”

“Yes, Poe, I’m fine. Just some scrapes.”

Despite this statement from you, Poe still pulled you to your feet, carefully.  “I saw a shuttle still in tact; if we can get to that I can get us the hell out of here.”

Clinging to his hand, you nodded. “Where’s Finn? Is he okay?” you asked, anxiously, looking around the hanger.

There was no time to even search for Finn, the stormtroopers had emerged from the smoke and were firing at you and Poe. The two of you barely had enough time to duck behind some debris to block yourself from getting hit and you realized, with desperation, that they had cut your path off to the shuttle. If you and Poe were to move now in an attempt to get to the shuttle, you’d be shot dead before you even took three steps. 

Poe desperately tried to shield you, all the while trying to just as desperately come up with a plan on how to get the hell out of this situation. And then suddenly, there was BB-8, having hot-wired an ATST--clearing a path for them. 

You were too shocked to even move a muscle, watching that little droid blast troops. It was Poe that grabbed you by the arm and shouted, “Run!”

“But...but...BeeBee!”

“Don’t worry! He does stuff like this all the time!”

There were so many questions that you needed answers too, however, there wasn’t time at the moment.  Thanks to BB-8, you were able to stumble and fall your way onto the shuttle. Somewhere along the way the little droid had picked up Finn and the pair had also made it to the shuttle.

Finn looked anxious. “Can you fly us out of here?”

Poe threw him an incredulous look. “Can I fly us out of here? Of course I can!”

“Glad to see nearly dying toned down your cockiness,” Finn snapped.

“Actually dying is going to be the only thing to do that,” you tossed out.

“If the two of you are done--I’m about to save our asses,” Poe quipped.

Flickering your eyes towards Finn the pair of you made eye contract briefly while Poe piloted the shuttle out of the burning hanger. Immediately a pair of TIE-fighters were on your tail--admittedly none of you thought it was going to be easy to escape, even if Snoke’s ship was scattered in pieces around you. 

Holding your breath, you realized that Poe was pushing the shuttle hard and fast towards the surface of the planet. He was following the escape transports but even as he made his approach, he. saw that the blast door was about to closed. “Hold on!” he shouted. “This is gonna be tight!”

BB-8 let out an anxious trill as the shuttle dove underneath the closing door, shearing off the wings of the shuttle. Your closed your eyes tightly until the shuttle came to a groaning halt. 

“See. Told ya I could fly us out of there,” Poe said, laughing slightly.

“Yeah... barely,” Finn sniped. 

“Are you off Snoke’s ship or not?”

“We’re off but I wouldn’t call that a landing!”

Poe shrugged. “I’ve had worse, right Bee?”

BB-8 bleeped an affirmative.

Slowly you opened your eyes and glared at him. The amused look on his face didn’t last long as the surviving Resistance members opened fire on the shuttle. The three of you, along with BB-8, ducked for cover, while Poe screamed, “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! It’s us!”

Carefully, each one of you raised yourself up so the Resistance fighters could see it was indeed your tiny group. 

“Finn? Poe? Y/N? You’re alive!” Rose gasped.

“Yeah!” Finn yelled back. “Although Poe tried to kill us!”

“Hey!” Poe protested, glaring at him.

All you could focus on was the small group of fighters left; you’d failed after all.  The tracker had not been disabled in time for anyone to get away before they had to abandon ship and take refuge in this old Rebel base. Your one chance to prove you belonged here--and you’d blown it.

------

Poe had actually lost track of you once you had left the shuttle. He’d immediately been swept up in preparations that the First Order was going to land ground forces and attempt to flush them out  After it became obvious that they were tucking their tails, licking their wounds, and heading back to their space--that was when Poe noticed you were missing.

He found you, huddled behind one of those ancient, decaying. speeders--which between the two of you, he was happy he did not need to fly. Poe squeezed in next to you. “Hey. There you are. I’ve been looking for you for over an hour. Why are you hiding back here?”

“I failed,” you mumbled, tears slipping out of your eyes.

“What do you mean you failed? You disabled the tracker,” Poe countered.

“Not in time.”

Gently, Poe pulled you close to him. “Sweetheart, most of the fleet got away--the decision to destroy the Raddus was made so the others could flee--just incase the tracker wasn’t disabled. You’d disappeared before Leia could explain to us what happened.”

Wiping the tears from your eyes, you shook your head. “If I had disabled it faster than the Raddus would have gotten away too.”

“They didn’t want to leave us behind,” Poe said, softly.

“What?” you rasped, raising your eyes to look at him.

“Leia didn’t want to leave us behind.”

“We knew it was a suicide mission when we took it.”

Poe quietly stroked your hair; yes they had all known that the mission was probably going to end up in their deaths--it almost had--but none of them had voiced that sentiment out loud--until now. His lips brushed against your temple so softly it was like a breeze tickling your skin. “Your parents would be proud of you.”

You wished you felt as confident as he did about that but the truth was you didn’t. How would your parents feel knowing that you couldn’t control your panic attacks? That you had such severe anxiety that you often hid away from others to tinkering in your workshop? “They wouldn’t be proud of a coward.”

“Stop!” his voice was so firm, angry, that it startled you. “Stop right now,” Poe growled, low in his throat. He grabbed you by the shoulders and forced you to face him. “You are not a coward. You marched onto that ship and disabled something that none of us knew how to disable. A coward would not have done that; your anxiety, your panic attacks, they do not define you. So stop talking like this.”

“I can’t stop feeling this way! It’s not easy!” you sobbed, wanting to run away from him, but he would not let you go. “Do you think I want to feel this way? I can’t control it, Poe. Somedays, I feel like I’m drowning, that I can’t breathe!”

“So do I!”

“You?”

Poe swallowed, nervously, and nodded. “Ever since I escaped Jakku and made it back to the Resistance--I’ve felt an increasing dread, pressure--fear of failure, Y/N. When Kylo Ren tore through my mind, my memories, he saw the most vulnerable side of me and it haunts me, sweetheart, that I couldn’t protect you from his mind probes! That he saw what you meant to me, and that by him seeing this, it puts you in danger!”

Seeing the fear in his eyes, you sucked in a shuddering breath. “You don’t have to protect me, Poe.”

He wiped your tears away and then you were pressed, tightly against him. “I love you,” he whispered, “I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Never.”

You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face against his chest. If you could have, you have stayed in his arms like this for the rest of the day, but as life had it--someone was looking for him. Poe kissed the top of your head and whispering an, “I love you,” he stood up and left you sitting there, giving you complete control of when you wanted to leave your safe spot.

“Did you find her?” Finn’s voice carried across the room.

“Not yet; she’s damn good at hiding,” Poe replied. “Don’t worry, she’ll show up when she’s ready to come out of hiding--or BeeBee will track her down, and then coax her to come out.  She can’t say no to him.”

“Okay, but we better find her soon,” Finn said. “Someone responded to the General’s distress call for emergency evacuation transport. We’ll be leaving soon as they get here.”

[simp-4-kylo]

you don’t have to use this, but maybe a kylo fic where he wants to marry someone to be more like vader but doesn’t really expect to catch feelings for the reader but then he has like a whole realization moment and it’s just fluffy and sweet, idk sorry if that wasn’t very specific

It had to be you

Request: you don’t have to use this, but maybe a kylo fic where he wants to marry someone to be more like vader but doesn’t really expect to catch feelings for the reader but then he has like a whole realization moment and it’s just fluffy and sweet, idk sorry if that wasn’t very specific

Warnings: fluff. Kylo being a softie and lowkey liking it but also hating it at the same time, curse words, conflicted Kylo :( uhh not sure what else lol

Word Count: 1,456

A/N: Okay! I have been saving this request because I have been thinking about it a lot and also I am going to be starting a tag list. Please leave a comment or leave me an ask so I can know your @ and what you want to be tagged for ! Enjoy the stuff below <3

The amount of women he had met in the last 24 hours was absurd none of them had met his expectations. They were all either too self absorbed or they had no idea what it was like to rule next to someone who holds as much power as Kylo does. He had wanted to marry someone so that he could be more like his grandfather, Vader. He looked up to him and wanted to continue his legacy and become even greater than he had been.

Kylo had never actually wanted to be in a relationship, he saw no need and being so romantically involved with someone would be a waste of his time. He needed not to love someone and look after someone else, and besides even if he had wanted to actually be in love. No one would actually love a monster like him, if he couldn’t even like himself how could someone else love him?

As he sat on the throne awaiting the last group of women, he thought of all the women he had seen and was deciding one which one wouldn’t be a pain in the ass. The sound of the throne room doors being opened pulled him from his head. He just glanced in the direction of the women that were standing in a line. Each one of them had tried to introduce themself and walk closer to Kylo, except that the Knights of Ren stepped forward stopping the women from approaching Kylo. All of them fought for his attention, because they all knew how powerful he was. Each one of them wanted a taste of the power and riches he held, there were also rumors going around the galaxy that he was human and had a stunning face.

Kylo just sat upon the throne giving each one of them a quick glance over and then moved onto the next one. He knew that this was all a waste of time and that maybe he would just become a failure and never be like Vader. His grandfather had actually loved his wife, Kylo had just wanted to marry just to be like him, not to actually find love.

His thoughts had stopped when he heard a female voice say I wish this would be over, yeah it would be cool to get to know him. He just looks so annoyed right now, jeez me too buddy. His face had a questioning look, he had heard someone speak but they weren’t talking outloud. His mind sparked at the thought of once of the women being strong with the force. He had decided to look around and see if he could figure out who it was without breaking into their minds.

His eyes darted around the throne room, looking each one of them in the eye. They had all just looked eager and annoying, except for the girl on the very end. She had been standing there just looking around the room and sighed, an audible display of boredom. Kylo grinned at the sight of her, she was pretty and she wanted out of this stupid meeting just as much as he had.

“Everyone leave except for the one on the end, you stay.” Kylo spoke up and as all the women grumbled and gave you annoyed looks, you stood there in shock. Kylo stood up from his spot on the throne and made his way down to you, he had motioned for the Knights to leave the room as well, they lowered their heads in respect and walked out.

“You are strong with the force, I heard you talking in my mind.” said Kylo,his voice being distorted by his mask. “I’m what now?” You had said as you moved your head to look up at the masked creature. He was a bit intimidating but he didn’t scare you, he just made you wonder if the rumors about him were true. Was he really human? Or was he some ugly creature and wore the mask to hide his face from the world.

“I am human, I’m not some creature.” He had said as he reached for the sides of his helmet. He pushed on the sides and with a hiss he lifted the mask off to reveal a human face. He was stunning, the most handsome thing you had ever seen in your life. The rumors were true and you were alive to tell the tale.

“Do you know how to use the force?” He had said in a deep voice, it was so different from the distorted one he had earlier. “The what?” You had said as you just kept staring at him in awe. “The force, you are strong with the force. Do you know how to use it? Yes or no, do not waste my time.” He had said as he swiftly turned around and made his way back towards the throne. “I’m not a force user, those people don’t even exist anymore.” You replied as you released a chuckle, hadn’t he known that all the Jedi were long gone?

“They are not all gone. I can use the force and so can you.” He had said as he reached his arm out towards you. You felt as if an invisible rope had wrapped around you and pulled your body closer to him. You were slightly freaked out but it interested you more. Kylo was looking at you as if he was analyzing every inch of you. “You are now mine, and I will now train you. You are the one I am to marry and you will become my apprentice.” He had said in a cold tone. You weren’t really sure what to say, no one had ever told you what you were and weren’t going to do.

“Two stormtroopers will take you to my quarters and get you some personal items. They will also bring you clothes to wear when I teach you how to fight and be one with the force.” he had said as he picked up a holopad and typed onto the screen. Minutes later two stormtroopers walked in to take you to his quarters. You were in utter shock at what had just happened, you were just told you were getting married and that you have the ability to use the force.

As the door shut behind the two troopers, Kylo had remained sitting on the throne. He had been going through different things and what he wanted to start training you in first. One little thought had made its way into his mind, he had felt something when he was near you. He thought you were pretty and that scared him, he did not want to fall for you. You were just to be his wife so that he could be like Vader, he didn’t need to be loved or need someone to love.

He leaned forward with both his elbows resting on his knees, he couldn’t fall in love with you. But the more he thought about you, the more his face grew hot and the more his entire body felt off. He felt a pull towards you and that scared him. You wouldn’t want to be with a monster like him, he had already ordered you to do things and used the force on you. He kept repeating in his head that this was just for the sake of the First Order, in order to fulfill his duties of Supreme Leader

He wanted to punch himself , he couldn’t think of you as another task to check off his list. Vader had loved his significant other, so why shouldn’t he? Kylo grumbled in response to the conflicting thoughts racing through his head. He wanted to get to know you , but he was afraid he had already scared you off.

He ran his gloved hands through his hair , part of him wanted to take his TIE Silencer and fly off this floating hunk of metal and go and grab some beautiful flowers. Kylo released a low growl, reaching to his hip and unclipling his saber from his belt. He ignited his weapon and stood up from his throne. He turned around and started slashing at the throne, cutting the entire thing into nothing but rubble. He was panting like a dog, his shoulders moving up and down at a fast rate.

That was Ben Solo inside of him, he remembered he was always so awkward around girls. Except that Ben Solo was gone, he had suppressed that version of him, the weak version of him. Kylo approached the throne room doors. Not knowing which side of him would take control, was Ben Solo really alive somewhere deep within him?

interested in a part 2? Let me know! Thanks for reading! Requests are open but posting might be slow!

[ponett]

i was finally able to see the bad star war that everyone said was bad. as it turns out, it was bad. here’s a read more post with my thoughts on it so that i don’t spam my twitter with spoiler tweets

for a baseline: i like the original trilogy, but i don’t think any of those movies are perfect. i think the prequels had some good ideas but i were mostly terrible. i love the clone wars (both versions) and rebels. while i admit that tfa was extremely similar to a new hope, i thought it was executed great and had a wonderful new cast that showed a ton of promise. i liked rogue one, although i found its first act really sloppy. and i have some quibbles about tlj, but it had an incredibly strong vision and actual themes, and i’d consider it my favorite in the series

i’m exactly the kind of person who was always going to hate the rise of skywalker, because it’s basically a bad fanfic written by someone who didn’t like tlj and wanted to “fix” the story. like that bizarre story treatment jenny nicholson read for this movie. the bad one. it was like that

it wasn’t all bad i guess. here are the small things i liked:

some of the new environments were cool. there was cool imagery and practical effects work

i appreciated that the moon of endor where the death star wreckage was wasn’t just the one with the ewoks, and thought the vibe there was cool

zorii bliss’s armor was really cool

the image of the fleet of star destroyers all lined up was striking

i liked that the ghost showed up for the final battle

i liked that ahsoka was one of the jedi voices rey heard, even though that kind of implies that ahsoka is, uh... dead?

while extremely fucking trite and dumb, i’ll admit the closing scene on tatooine got me. yeah, rey has no real connection to this place and it’s just a nostalgic throwback, but i’m a sucker for full circle endings like that

uh. that’s about it

this movie kicks off in the middle of an action scene and just kind of keeps jumping to new setpieces nonstop until it’s over. new characters and locations get introduced and then moved past in the blink of an eye. there’s no time to let any of it sink in. it feels like abrams crammed two movies worth of shit into this one to make up for the the fact that some people didn’t like tlj, and as a result none of it resonates. i just felt so empty throughout most of the film. events were happening on screen and none of it mattered

thoughts about individual elements:

LEIA

putting the scenes with the recycled footage of carrie fisher at the beginning of the film completely took me out of it. it was so obvious that she wasn’t really responding to what was being said, and the conversations had just been built around the limited leia lines they could use

the dialogue scenes with leia felt like a space ghost interview

C-3PO

was in this movie a lot for some reason? i guess abrams wanted to make up for how little c-3po there was in the last two movies. they tried to have that emotional moment where his memory is wiped, but then they just turned his memory loss into a big joke?? and then he got most of his memories back anyway

in general, the movie is afraid to let the audience be uncomfortable for long. 3po’s memory loss. the supposed deaths of chewbacca and babu frik, that sort of thing. you’re not allowed to be sad. after tlj so effectively built tension throughout the film and really pushed the heroes to the brink, this is a disappointment

LANDO

is here because he needed to show up, and because it’s a throwback to have him pilot the falcon again. he’s just kind of there with little to do and no arc

FINN, POE, AND ROSE

before the movie came out, i had low expectations. all i really wanted was to get one last fun adventure with the new characters. when i started to hear about the spoilers, my expectations sank even lower. but maybe i would still get this

nah! rose gets like two minutes of screentime because redditors hated her, and finn and poe are barely even characters. they don’t have arcs in this film, they’re just sidekicks on rey’s journey

finn really hurts. prior to tfa’s release, finn was framed as the new star. this was, of course, a bait and switch, as rey was really the new jedi. (finn apparently IS force sensitive according to this one, but hey! we can only have one big jedi hero, so like leia before him, i guess we’ve gotta wait for some EU novel to give finn a lightsaber)

but finn was still a central character in the last two films, and he had so much potential. he was a stormtrooper who defected! that’s something new! that’s interesting! it complicates the black and white morality of the series. but no. that’s been all but abandoned at this point

many have complained about how tfa establishes that basically all the stormtroopers are people who were kidnapped as children and brainwashed by the first order... but then they still have no qualms about gleefully killing them. in the first two movies i was like “yeah, it sucks that they have to kill those guys, but if it’s to prevent genocide, it’s understandable. that’s just war. maybe they’ll touch on it in the last movie.” so in this one, they kept reminding the audience that the stormtroopers were enslaved as children. jannah is even introduced as another stormtrooper who defected like finn. but then... it goes nowhere. finn doesn’t get any first order troops to defect. they don’t care about the other stormtroopers. how many hundreds of thousands of enslaved soldiers did they kill when they blew up those star destroyers

it was nice to see finn and poe take the charge as leaders in the end, but it also feels like they didn’t take the lessons from tlj to heart. the whole point of that story was that one-in-a-million shot heroic suicide missions aren’t worth it, and that they’re more useful to the resistance alive than they are as martyrs. but then in the climax of this film they take like 30 ships to go fight a fleet of a hundred fucking star destroyers

on the subject of that final battle: i thought that the ending of tlj was so powerful. the resistance was decimated, but they still had hope, because they knew there were others out there who could help. people like rey, or the broom boy, who came from nothing but had good hearts. in this one, though, they say that apparently nobody responded to the leia’s call for help in the entire year since the last film. everyone only shows up during the climax after lando’s like “no, but for real guys, we need help”

and i did think that that sequence was cool. and i did like seeing the ghost among the ships. it was fun. the message that fascists like the first order rule by making people feel isolated, and that they’re defeated by realizing that good people are never alone? that was good. i thought that was a strong message. but it’s such a minor footnote on a movie that’s so bad in so many other ways

oh and they made the latino dude a drug dealer. okay. thanks for that

KYLO REN

i hate that they redeemed kylo and i hate the way they did it

yes, him being coerced to turn to the dark side by snoke (who was apparently just a puppet controlled by palpatine all along (UGH)) as a kid was tragic. but that doesn’t excuse his actions. kylo was given infinite second chances throughout the trilogy, and every time he responded with violence. he killed so many people himself, and willingly took part in a fascist regime that killed billions. yes, his story is sad, but he’s not some poor little boy, he’s thirty fucking years old and he vents his trauma by slaughtering innocent people

literally the entire main trio of the original trilogy died because of this asshole. han tried to talk to him in the first movie, and got stabbed and dropped into a pit. luke died astral projecting to face him in tlj. and now leia just kind of arbitrarily died to flip the switch in his brain from bad to good from across the galaxy. it’s literally as simple as that. he doesn’t have a personal journey here. he just stops being evil because his mom made him through the force

like, again. all those enslaved stormtrooper grunts who had been brainwashed since they were kids? gunned down. but giving kylo endless second chances is the most important thing in the world

and then they end the movie by having this creepy abusive stalker genocidal asshole sadboy kiss rey, retroactively framing their dynamic as a romantic one. just, gross as hell. even in this one, for most of the film, all he does is threaten rey and boss her around

i dunno. i thought the first order were interesting as antagonists. yeah, they were just the empire 2.0. but i thought it was appropriate! the idea was that just because palpatine was dead and gone didn’t mean that fascism was gone. there were still hateful people who wanted to rule the galaxy via genocide. like how we still have nazis in the 21st century. except, oops! palpatine was actually alive and pulling the strings the entire time, so now that theme’s out the window. we just have to kill him again FOR REAL this time and now the galaxy will actually be safe

people wondered where the first order would go after snoke died in tlj. but it was so obvious to me? kylo was in charge. kylo was always the most interesting bad guy. just let him call the shots and be the final adversary. but no. that wasn’t good enough. we had to bring back palpatine as the jrpg final boss to have an epic conclusion

REY

oh, poor rey. youtube critics got mad that a girl could be a strong jedi without being related to some other powerful force user from the old movies, so now she’s stuck being a palpatine forever

i will admit, the protagonist of the new movies being related to palpatine but still being a good person in spite of her heritage... that could have been something. but it’s so clearly not what they had in mind from the start, and it spits in the face of the last movie’s themes. it turns out greatness CAN’T come from anywhere. it has to come from one of these select few Special Bloodlines

oh! and this ALSO reframes rey’s parents abandoning her and selling her into slavery as an act of kindness, because they had to hide her from her spooky evil grandpa. so THAT’S fun. (edit: OH! and luke and leia knew about rey the whole time!!! and didn’t go out and look for her!!!!)

it’s just. it’s so bad what they did to rey. i don’t know if i even have much to elaborate on there, everyone’s already said how stupid it is

---

overall, i still wouldn’t say it’s the WORST star wars movie. it’s more watchable than the phantom menace, that’s for damn sure. the actors put in effort. the sets and practical effects are nice. it’s just so... empty

tros possibly feels the closest to how i imagined the new trilogy would be when it was first announced, but in a bad way. a movie built entirely on established ideas of What Star Wars Is with nothing new to bring to the table. it’s like a bad eu novel. just recycled imagery, cameos from characters we already know, palpatine coming back from the dead, that sort of thing. it’s a movie made by committee to appease reddit. it’s nothing

now i gotta use that free trial of disney plus to watch the mandalorian and wash the taste out of my mouth i guess

[mediaeval-muse]

Since no one asked, here’s how I would have sketched out the plot of the Star Wars trilogy from the beginning. All these are opinions. I don’t want to insult people who liked RoS.

-Introduce the First Order as wanting to find the Sith planet to solidify their power in TFA. They’re already insecure fanboys cosplaying as the Empire - I actually really liked that part of TFA (here’s a good postcast about it). Make them search out the Sith planet as a way of confirming that power.

-Parallel their quest for origins with Rey’s quest for origins (re: her parents).

-Origins are a big thing with white nationalists, so turn that into a political statement in Star Wars. The First Order’s search for origins can be a commentary on white nationalist’s obsession with the past and using the past to justify their superiority. That also works nicely with Kylo Ren being the embodiment of a violent white fanboy in TFA.

-Have more missions be about the wayfinders. Have the Rebels thwart the attempts to get a wayfinder at the end of TFA, then fail in TLJ with all the same messaging about failing and learning what’s really important. I liked TLJ’s ambition, so keep that.

-Luke destroying the sacred Jedi texts in TLJ would then fit because the message would be about how origins don’t matter so much as what you learn from them/how you admit something isn’t working and what you do NOW.

-Have Finn’s arc be a struggle about his origins (as a stormtrooper). Use his story to talk about how oppressive systems work by destroying the origins of people of color for their (the baddies’) benefit. Or, if we don’t want to showcase POC pain that way, have Finn’s story be more about finding family and finding a place in the galaxy. Not that it couldn’t with what I just proposed, but more emphasis on Finn being the embodiment of a “Good is what you do” message or the whole “live to fight another day” message from TLJ.

-Poe’s arc can be about humility. He’s very haughty in TLJ and gets a lot of people hurt with his heroics. Have his arc be about learning to temper his heroism and rely on others, not just being the lone hero. That way, his plan to call for reinforcements at the end of RoS would make more sense.

-Keep the general pattern of the trilogy: TFA introduces our new characters, TLJ is about how they fail (and why failure is an important lesson, just like in ESB), and RoS can be about how the good side wins in the face of evil that just keeps reasserting itself (not a once and for all thing, but a message about why it’s important to keep fighting)

-Let Finn and Poe be a couple. We need queer POC representation in blockbuster franchise films. Let Star Wars lead the way on progressivism (though that’s a bad word for it, I know).

-Have Rey remain a nobody to show that origins don’t matter. Anyone can be a hero, not just those with a legacy. Alternately, if she has to be a Palpatine, show her struggling with the dark side to parallel Kylo Ren’s struggle with the light side. Foreshadow that early; none of this back and forth with “she’s somebody! she’s nobody!” Be consistent. Her story could then be about escaping bad origins, which would be nice with the trilogy’s whole pairing of Kylo and Rey via Force communication or whatever. Both of their stories are then about being pulled by light and dark, as well as grappling with origins that define them. I personally would prefer Rey was a nobody, but I can work with the Palpatine idea.

-Speaking of Palpatine, that felt gimmicky, so I would either have dropped the Palpatine bomb halfway through RoS or not have Palpatine alive at all. Putting it at the beginning of RoS felt like it came out of nowhere. If it were me writing, I would have had Palpatine be this overwhelming force ghost or something. A spirit that possesses people rather than an actual living entity. That way, we could have him expose some psychology in or heroes (Mysterio style) while also having a commentary on the spectre of the past (rather than a living past). The ultimate conflict would then be about facing the dark sides in ourselves or something. Or about how the pull of origins is so strong.

-Do something with Snoke or take him out. He dragged everything down with his insignificance.

-Build toward Poe, Finn, and Rey all facing their pasts in TRoS. That way, the consistent message is that you’re not bound by your past/blood, but you make your own family.

-Killing Phasma in TLJ could have been pushed back to RoS. Either that, or have Finn not kill her at all. My impression is that Star Wars heroes aren’t murdery, but there’s something to be said about people getting rid of their oppressors.

-Keep Kylo Ren’s redemption arc. That was good. Just pace it out better.

-Do more with Rose in the last movie, for god’s sake. Anything. Anything at all. Her role in TLJ was great and in many ways, she represented us, the viewers. Keep that going into RoS. Even if you have to cut back on her arc to focus on the main 3, at least give her a subplot.

-Give Leia a better exit. And also get rid of that whole “she could have been a Jedi but abandoned it for maternal sacrifice reasons” thing.

-Do something with Hux’s spy thing. Maybe he really does turn spy in the last movie, but build it up more. Maybe TLJ could have had a shot of him sending a message to the Rebels after Kylo Ren kicks his ass.

-C3PO’s arc was actually nice, but rushed. His whole memory wipe ordeal can be slotted nicely into a trilogy about origins, but I personally would have given more emotional weight to his decision to give up his memory for the greater good (rather than the other characters treating him as an annoying side character that they have no problem wiping). If it’s a conscious decision/sacrifice, rather than a means to an end, that would be more impactful. Personally, I don’t like the idea of essentially killing off original Star Wars characters that way (and C3PO is being killed with a memory wipe, don’t @ me), but it can be done in a way that matters. Reinstalling his memory bank later essentially undoes the significance of the wipe.

-Rey using her Jedi powers defensively was good, but the whole Force healing was really throwing me off the whole time, so take that out and instead have Ben Solo die some other way. I’m not a fan of the whole fake death thing (the “omg are they dead? no! JK!”) so make Ben’s sacrifice more active. It would parallel Vader’s sacrifice in RotJ, which would be a good thematic move: Kylo wanted to be like Vader, so let him be like Vader in the ways that Vader was good or made the right decision.

-I can see the appeal of making Rey and Kylo Ren a couple - after all, it’s a hero/villain ship. But that kiss at the end felt thrown in. I’d just take it out and let the fandom build up the romance instead.

-I liked that Rey was trying to contact all the Jedi to help her, but maybe foreshadow that. Have her try to contact previous Jedi throughout the trilogy, so when they do speak back in RoS, it has more of an impact. That way, her arc could be about how origins don’t matter, but community does. That we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us, but we aren’t defined by them.

[redtutel]

Rewatching Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

Although I have vague memories of the Episode III promotional material, this is the Star Wars movie where I truly was a part of the hype. December 2015 was a magical time where everyone was just...loved Star Wars. And it created a meme and parody culture that was just as wholesome as the original trilogies. None of that cynical and nitpicky, or in extreme cases sexist and racist, Star Wars fan culture we’re dealing with today.

So much like the first Avengers movie, the magic surrounding its release will make it impossible for me to judge this movie fairy. But I don’t care. I’m still very attached to it. Will this be the viewing where the magic wares off? Or will I find myself considering this better then the film it pays homage to. I’m excited to find out.

Seeing a brand new “A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away” and an opening crawl in theaters was just awesome.

“Will not rest until, Skywalker, The Last Jedi, has been destroyed,” Hey, Foreshadowing! I know there’s a ton of debate as to what was or wasn’t planned in advance for this trilogy, but still.

The First Order is Space ISIS/Neo-Nazis, and Leia leads an army to fight it. Pretty simple. I don’t get why people get so up in arms about how little the politics are explored in this movie. It’s probably a side effect of just how lore heavy Star Wars got after the original trilogy.

The opening shot of a space ship completely covering a moon. A new take on ironic Star Wars imagers. A pretty good summary of this movie. But I feel like such new takes make up for just how many recycled plot points this movie has.

The opening action sequence is the first time in years Storm Troopers have been intimidating (Clone Troopers and Stormtroopers are two different things). It’s pretty impressive. It’s a great way to establish how evil the First Order is.

Finn’s introduction is so impressive. A Stormtrooper who in his first fight, completely looses the will to participate in war. We may never know about his friend he saw die, but despite that, we still understand why he lost his will to fight. It might be a bit awkward for Finn and Poe’s friendship if they ever find out Poe shot Finn’s old Stormtrooper friend.

Kylo Ren stopping a laser with the Force. An awesome new way to use the Force. And I love Poe’s quip “So who talks first?” It establishes Poe as a fun, jokey character, which is why I don’t get why people got upset about his sense of humor in Last Jedi. He’s the sort of character that uses humor to relieve the tension of any situation he’s in.

J.J Abrams made this movie to be watched blind, and I really wish I could (but I saw spoilers before I watched it). Where is Luke? Who is this new Sith? What’s the backstory the old man hits at? There’s a good Stormtrooper? He talks off his helmet? Who’s this girl in the desert? I’d love to discover these things for the first time all over again.

I’m found of robot characters that go against their programming. Finn’s not a robot, but the beginning of his character arc has that concept. He does not believe in this cause, and he fights war terrifying. And he wants to escape.

Anakin was a slave, Luke was a farmboy, and now we have Rey, a scavenger, all alone in the world, just tying to service. She quickly establishes herself as incredibly tough, but also a bit cute. 

Of all the protagonists Rey’s backstory is the saddest in my eyes. While Luke had a happy but boring life with his aunt and uncle, and Anakin had a hard life but a living mother, Rey has had to fend for herself since she was a child, holding onto hope that one day her parents will come. She was all alone in the world. But now that’s going to change.

I don’t take any sides in the CGI/Puppets debate, but seeing puppets in a big Hollywood blockbuster again is pretty nice.

BB-8′s so cute. I have too much R2-D2 nostalgia to consider him my favorite Skywalker Saga droid though.

Rey’s relationship with BB-8 establishes that although she’s a survivor, she hasn’t let it harden her heart. She’s willing to help BB-8, and although she wants him to be on his way, she still won’t sell him off (despite being tempted to)

...Poe’s technically the Leia archetype in this movie. This tough rebel who got captured by the villains, and who sent a droid with something important.

The Finn and Poe escape scene has a lot of great dialogue. I’d argue some of the best banter in the series. It’s a pretty good action scene too.

Of all the characters, I like how Finn’s take on his archetype the most. He’s the Han Solo, the deuteragonist who wants nothing to do with the battle, and joins for selfish reasons, but in the end proves to be a loyal friend and hero. But unlike cool and collated Solo, Finn is nervous and cowardly. But that makes his eventual bravery and loyalty all the more satisfying. 

I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard Poe was originally going to die, but Oscar Isaac was so great they kept the character alive. I do believe keeping them separated is for the best, seeing how it makes sure Finn stays around for as long has he does.

Early on we establish that Kylo Ren is abnormally obsessed with Luke Skywalker, to the point where Gnearl Hux questions him.

Finn and Rey’s friendship stars off pretty rocky, but even then they have some good chemistry. At one point Finn’s all beat up, and he asked Rey if she’s okay. He may not be very good at it, but he’s trying to be a gentleman.

I love how the Millennium Falcon gets called garbage. It’s a funny bit of irony, concerning just how sacred everything else from classic Star Wars gets treated.

The first Millennium Falcon chase is another great action sequence. Rey and Finn are figuring things out as they go along, and BB-8′s being cute. And in the end they’re very impressed with each other. Characters becoming friends tough action sequences is a favorite troupe of mine.

Everything from Finn and Poe’s escape to meeting Maz Katana has nothing to do with a New Hope, and thus is a very underrated part of the movie. Although the tentacle monster scene is kind of forgettable.

Both Finn and Rey have no last name. They’ve never had any sort of family before. Heck, Finn didn’t even have a real name until just a few hours ago. They’re nobodies trying to find themselves, which sets of their arc that carries over into the next film

Kylo Ren destroying the console establishes him as short tempered for the first time. He drops his stoic facade and shows his true colors. Kylo looks indimiateing, but deep down he’s an insecure manchild trying his best to inhert a dark legacy. I’m found of this character, as well as similar characters like Berkut and Shiguraki

Did BB-8 give a thumbs up or a bird? The world will never know.

Rey keeps her guard up around people she doesn’t know to well, but she has a very soft and kind side as well. She’s pretty aggrieve to Finn early on, which is probably why....certain people, dislike her. Women and aggression tends to lead to backlash, after all.

I love how Finn slips in a bit of Stormtrooper knowledge. It comes in handy a few times in this movie. Some could say it should come up a bit more, but I think it’s used enough.

“Chewie, We’re Home” What an iconic line. I can still hear the applause.

Seeing Han become the Obi Wan archetype is a very unique direction for the character to take. And he handles the role very well. Harrison Ford may have been sick of this character, but he still brought his A-game. I love that Rey admires Han more for his smuggling than for his war heroics. And it’s very sweet seeing Han admiring just how much Rey knows about piloting. It’s a very sweet father/daughter relationship. In hindsight, Rey and Han don’t even need to be related for this relationship to be this good. Rey lost her parents and Han lost his son, and they can’t help but see each other as a means to fill those voids, even if they deny it to themselves.

The events of the original trilogy are legendary to these characters, which make the “It’s True, All of it” line so cool. It’s pretty interesting how chronologically, the events of one trilogy are legends to the characters of the next one.

Seeing Han be exactly how people remember his is pretty cleverly deconstructed. In-Univse it happened because he needed to escape from the pain of what happened to his son. And now he’s at the point where there’s nobody left to swindle. 

Whenever Rey’s in trouble, she’s always the one to get herself out of it. This is definitely meant as pushback to the fact that in so many things, women always need help while men can aways get out of a situation by themselves.  And I’m all for it. It’s great to see a woman be this strong, but she’s not flawless. After all, she shuts people out and is struggling to accept the fact her parents are never coming back.

Snoke even says “Last Jedi.” Even in this movie, Snoke is convinced that Luke is the hero of this story, and will stop and nothing to stop him. It is interesting that they introduced the Emperor archetype in this first movie, although maybe it was a sign that he wasn’t actually the big bad of this trilogy.

“It the hands of your father: Han Solo.” And the audience gasped (unless they got spoiled first. It’s one of those things we can never un-know). Although if I have to nitpick, I’d be nice if we found out alongside Finn and Rey.

I love that the space chess still looks like stop motion.

Rey doesn’t see herself as the hero. Just the delivery girl. Even Luke saw himself as trying to save a damsel in distress. But though this journy, she becomes a hero.

"Luke felt responsible. He just, walked away from everything.” This was established in this movie? Why did it take until Last Jedi for people to react to that plot point?

“I didn’t know there was this much green in the whole galaxy” I love that line. It’s so endearing!

Finn reminds me of Usopp. A liar and a coward, but someone who will always do the right thin in the end. He’s my personal favorite sequel character

“Women always find out.” Han has a ton of great lines in this movie.

“I’ve already been away too long” She’s so convinced her parents will come back she won’t even leave her planet for a few hours.

With Maz Katana, we’re back in a New Hope. I’m found of this character. It’s fascinating to see someone who’s Force Sensitive but not a Jedi. And she offers some great advice to Rey and Finn. I’d love to see her in the next season of Clone Wars.

Kylo Ren sees Darth Vader as the hero, the dark as good, and the light as bad. But he has regrets, and lakes the discipline and fidelity of Darth Vader. Of all the characters, he’s the one most desperate to fulfill his archetype.

“Though the ages I have seen evil take on many forms. The Sith, the Empire, today it’s the First Order.” “If you live long enough, you see the same eyes in many different people.” Of the the sequel’s trilogy’s biggest themes is that history repeats itself. But despite that, it’s still important to fight evil whenever it arises, instead of just sitting back and letting it happen.

It never occurred to me before, but Finn’s cowardliness might be the lingering effects of his brainwashing. Although he does not believe in the First Order’s Ways, he was still convinced all his life that they’re unstoppable, which is why he wants to run instead of fight. I also like how he’s admits the truth, instead of there being this “liar revealed” thing.

Finn and Rey have truly become friends at this point. Instead of just running away, now Finn wants Rey to come with him. As far as he knows, she’s the only friend he has, and he doesn’t want anything to happen to her. Meanwhile, Rey doesn’t want Finn to leave, because he’s one of the few people in her life to stick with her for this long. If he leaves, he might end of like her parents, who never came back.

Wait...how come nobody was demanding to know Finn’s parents. He was taken from a family he’ll never know after all. How come people accept that Finn’s parents don’t matter, but insist that Rey’s does?

Seeing Rey connect to the force for the first time (outside of  the piloting and scavenging skills I assume she she used them for subcoinsously before the events of this movie) is really impressive. We get flashes of her past, as well as Luke’s past and Kylo’s past, and even hear the voices of Yoda and Obi Wan. ok She’s getting her first glimpse at the Force that binds everything together, and she’s terrified of it. It’s also yet another divination from the New Hope plot, which is very welcome.

I forgot that Rey being Force sensitive was once a spoiler. How time flys.

I really hope Obi-Wan appears in Rise of Skywalker. He spoke to Rey when she connected to the Force for the first time, and I’d love to see that expanded upon.

“They’re never coming back.” A lesson Rey, and the audience, finds difficulty accepting. 

“The belonging you seek is not behind you, it is ahead.” Such a great line. It’s a great summery of Rey’s arc, and I imagine people with difficult pasts can relate to it.

Maz tells Rey and Finn exactly what they need. Rey need to learn to move forward, and Finn needs to learn to fight for what’s right.

Why does the lightsaber choose Rey? I guess her midichlorian count is just right or something. It doesn’t really matter, and I personally find the idea that the next hero can come from anywhere inspiring.

...Come to think of it, Luke’s the only protagonist who isn’t just some rando.

“Why is Maz so interested in Rey” Probably because of her strong connection to the Force.

Rey rejects the saber. Classic rejection of the call. Can you blame her, after that vision?

The First Order sees the Republic as weak and dishonest. Seems straightforward to me. Maybe people were underwhelmed because Neo-Nazism didn’t get as much attention as it did just a few months later.

Starkiller Base. It’s cool looking power-creep. On one hand, since we don’t know anyone from those planets, it’s not as impactful as what happened to Alderan. But then again, we actually see people on that planet die. So It’s a bit of a mixed bag overall.

Finn’s not going to leave until he knows Rey is safe. How touching.

TR-8R. I miss that meme.

Seeing Poe’s triumphant return is pretty great.

Seing Rey’s trying to fight off Kylo Ren with a gun is very tense. This the the first time she looses a fight in this movie. Seeing someone so strong get captured really raises the stakes. This is where they first meet. Their relationship is standard Hero vs Villain in this movie, but things are going to change a LOT in the next one.

Despite how scared he is, Finn still rushes in to try and stop Rey from being capture.

Seeing General Leia for the first time is awesome. Han and Leia’s reuinon is so touching as well. C-3PO’s back to disturbing Han and Leia moments as well, which is pretty funny.

Seeing BB-8 and Finn get reunited with Poe is also very touching. 

Finn is helping the Resistance for the sake of Rey. He’s not quite a hero yet, but he’s getting there.

So the movie did established R2-D2 had the map in his back-up data in the actual movie.

Han and Leia went back to what they know best after the loss of their son. It’s such a tragic moment. 

Kylo almost has the depth  in one movie that took Vader two or three movies to get. I feel like that should be discussed more often.

Kylo’s face is removed to reveal...a normal person. Ben didn’t get any external injuries to turn him into Kylo Ren. It was all manipulation

Rey takes on the Leia role when capture, and Finn briefly takes on the Luke role, But when she frees herself they go back to being Luke and Han, respectively.

Even in this movie, Rey and Kylo are using the force to get to know each other, although mainly on accident. Maybe that’s where Snoke got the idea in the next movie.

After seeing Kylo using the Force, Rey decides to use it in order to escape, although she’s a bit hesitant to do so. It takes her three tires to do the Jedi mind trick, after all. I do wonder where she heard about it. Maybe she figured that if you can read minds, you can change minds.

Rey is a very fast learner in any situation, be it piloting, shooting or using the force. Maybe it’s her midichlorian count. 

Starkill base makes very little logical sense, but its still a very cool concept, and seeing day turn into night serving as a ticking clock is a very cool visual.

“No matter how much we fought, I always hated watching you leave” “That’s why I did it, so you’d miss me.” All these years later, and that still have such great chemistry. 

“That’s not how the Force works.” I love that line, but people misuse it.

Finn is doing something very heroic, putting himself on the frontlines and disabling the shield. But he’s only doing this for Rey. Despite that, he stays true to his word and disables the shields. I love seeing him stick it to his old boss. It’s a fun moment.

The Rouge One “Womp” is even in this movie! How did I never notice it until after Rouge One?

“As Long as there’s light, we’ve got a chance” A classic symbol, but one that still works.

Seeing Rey and Finn reunited is just another very touching moment. “We came back for you.” For the first time in Rey’s life, somebody actually came back for her. I love how Rey describes how using the force to escape was “Something I can’t explain, you wouldn’t believe it.” In general I love how the Force is depicted in this movie.

“We’ll meet back here” No! That was their last moment together!

Ben and Han’s confrontation is another utterly fantastic moment. Ben is tempted to go back to his father, but he’s too devoted to Snoke’s teachings. On top of that, he feels like it’s too late to go this far. He figures that to get rid of these regrets, he has to kill Han Solo. I love how the sky gets dark, leaving red as the only light source. It really makes Ben’s lightsaber stick out when he kills Han. And yet, Han still touchings the check of his son, showing that even despite this, he still loves him. Instead of letting the past die by killing his father, Kylo is left more conflicted than ever.

Meanwhile, Rey lost a chance to have a father yet again.

The snowy forest at night is such a great setting, and leads to an awesome lightsaber fight. Rey gets knocked out, so Finn has to protect her with a lightsaber duel. Kylo is beating himself, increasing his pain to increase his dark power. Finn puts up a valiant effort, but in the end, he gets knocked out, and Rey has to save him. But still, he bought her time, and gave her the strength to use the force to stop Kylo. Seeing Rey grab the lightsaber for the first time using the Force is just awesome. She’s barely holding her own, but true to the character, she’s a fast learning. Meanwhile Kylo is still injured, and maybe a bit worn out from fighting Finn. At the cliffside, Rey is at the ends of her seat, but when she trusts in the force, she manages to beat Kylo after he overpowered her during the rest of the movie.

Finn ends with the movie more devoted to Rey than the Resistance, but he still proves himself to be a loyal friend and a hero. I was worried about him for the two years between Force Awakens and Last Jedi

There’s no words between Leia and Rey. They both just know, Han is dead, and they both loved him. And that’s enough for them to mourn him together.

But in the midts of dealing with the loss of Han, there’s is hope. Specifically, the New Hope.

Seeing Luke for the first time in this movie is such a fantastic cliffhanger.

Overall, I still love this movie as much as when I first saw it. It’s got great action and effects, the new characters are some of my favorites in the series, and the old characters give some of their best performances of all time. Sure it messed with a happy ending, but I’m still investing in seeing how characters old and new are going to try and get that happy ending back.

[anathtsurugi]

Day 14 - Grand Gesture

I did it! Finally did it! Got through ‘em all! This has been crazy fun. @kalluzebweddingplan, here is my final piece for the 14 Days of Kalluzeb Valentines prompt list. Somehow I don’t imagine this is what was meant by a grand gesture. Everybody else has been doing proposals, which has been lovely to read, of course, but me? I’m gonna end my run on wholesale slaughter. Because they are a battle couple, after all. :D (Yup. That’s me. Also, let’s just say Kallus has either made or acquired a new bo-rifle at this point because of reasons.)

Grand Gesture

 It was odd.

 One would think that, captured by stormtroopers, disarmed of one's bo-rifle, and with a blaster pressed against one's head, the emotion one might feel would be something along the lines of fear or anger or hatred.

 One, however, was not Garazeb Orrelios, and he felt none of those things.

 Well...maybe a little hatred. That was normal with bucketheads. But what he mostly felt was embarrassment over having been caught.

 Everybody had bad days, apparently.

 "Word just came through," the commander said to the trooper holding him at blaster point. "Summary execution. Spectre Four's too dangerous to be left alive."

 "I've been looking forward to this one," the woman said as she primed her blaster.

 "Hope the Ashla has pity on you bucketheads," Zeb said with a sneer as he looked up at the stormtroopers. "Because my husband won't."

 Almost as if on cue, the sound of blaster fire sounded from somewhere in the barracks, followed quickly by an explosion and several screams.

 "Reinforcements!" Zeb heard shouted over someone's comm. "We need reinforcements! We're taking heavy fire up here!"

 "How many intruders are there?" the commander asked.

 "How many?" the voice on the other end of the comm repeated in disbelief.

 "One," Zeb said quietly, smirking to himself.

 The trooper tried to speak again, but was cut off by a fairly hideous scream. The troopers surrounding Zeb all began to fidget and chatter nervously, wondering what exactly it was that was happening out there. They had their answer soon enough when the blast doors blew apart.

 Several volleys of blaster fire rained through the smoke-filled entryway before a blur of motion shot through it, taking the wary stormtroopers by surprise. All Zeb could make out was the distinct golden streak of Kallus' hair, along with the similar gold flash of an ignited bo-rifle.

 Alexsandr Kallus swept the room, nearly as quickly as Kanan or Ezra might have. He cut down swaths of troopers with ease and precision, his Imperial training in play against the very people who'd given it to him.

 It was only when his husband finally made his way to the knot of stormtroopers surrounding him that Zeb got a good look at the expression on his face. His amber eyes burned with an unbalanced rage, tinged with terror. He didn't even give their enemies a chance to use Zeb against him. With an enraged roar, he laid into them, taking each trooper down with exacting prejudice.

 Once he'd finished them all off, he was left standing before Zeb, breathing hard and trembling with a shattered look of relief on his face.

 "Are you all right?" Alex demanded as he collapsed to his knees before him, throwing his arms around Zeb's broad shoulders. "Are you all right?!"

 "I'm fine, love. I'm fine," he reassured him, nuzzling the side of his face against his husband's. He felt a little bad to acknowledge the fact that he hadn't considered just how badly Alex might take his capture.

 "Stars. If I'd been even a second later...if I'd waited a moment longer, they- they might've-"

 "It didn't happen. We're okay," he soothed the ex-Imperial, wanting to envelop him in a hug, but still unable to. "Gotta say, though, I wouldn't mind gettin' outta these binders."

 "Right. Of course," his lover agreed, struggling to shake himself off as he went to remove said binders.

 "Guess we'll be wantin' to get outta here pretty quick, before more reinforcements show up."

 Zeb caught a glimpse of Alex shaking his head as he retrieved Zeb's bo-rifle from one of the fallen troopers. "Don't be silly, ni ashkerra. There aren't any more soldiers left in this installation."

 The Lasat stared at his husband's back a long moment, watching Alex steel himself to face him again. They weren't done with this. He knew. It was something the human would need to talk about later, but for now...

 "Where are the others?"

 "Still back at the crash. I...I knew they would try to stop me," Alex answered, still facing away from him.

 "Alex...are you tryin' to tell me you just obliterated an entire Imperial garrison...just to save me?"

 "That is exactly what I am trying to tell you," he said as he finally turned back to him, handing over his bo-rifle with a heavy set to his shoulders.

 "Whoa. I mean, I know you're probably gonna get a complex over it, but karabast. That's more'n a little hot," he said as he slung his weapon onto his back, and to his relief, his slightly aroused levity did manage to draw a small smile from his lover.

 "Well, I'm glad you approve, dear, but we really ought to be getting back to the others. They'll be worried about you," he said as he started to lead the way out.

 Before he could take more than a step, though, Zeb grabbed his arm, pulling him back into a fierce kiss, and for several moments, they remained like that, just relieved to be together again.

 "Thanks," Zeb whispered against his lips when they parted for air.

 "Always, my love," he returned, fingers reaching up to trace briefly along the side of his face. "Please...don't ever get captured again. I might not come save your sorry hide next time."

 "Deal," Zeb said, even though they both knew not a word of it was true. Kallus would always come, just as Zeb would always come. No matter what might try to stand between them or tear them apart, they would always come for each other.

 The Empire had better watch its kriffing back.

And there’s that. I think I’ll probably collect these all on AO3 at some point, but for now, I’ve got another Valentine exchange to finish up this week, so enjoy these in the mean time. :D

[melanoradrood]

WIP Wednesday

So this is from my Nanowrimo fic, which is the soulmates AU, which is a rewrite of Rogue One, more or less, with Cassian and Jyn as soulmates ( spoiler alert? ). Anyways, I’m pretty sure I have a title locked down, but I’m not going to start posting this fic on AO3 until I get probably another chapter done, just because the chapters are so meaty, BUT, take this little bit from the middle of Chapter 1. Chapter 1 covers Lah’Mu, Kafrene, and Wobani, btw...

Enjoy.

She pretends that her parents are here with them, her father writing away with what little light they have, her mother fixing the hole in Jyn’s leggings. She imagines her doll with her, and imagines that the rocks around her are actually sky, showing the stars.

She closes her eyes, and she tells herself the constellations, as if she can see them. She whispers them to herself, and pretends like someone, maybe even her soulmate, can hear her.

She’s so cold, so wet in this place. A storm has been brewing overhead, and despite the fact that she is within a cave, underground, the water runs, and it drips, drips onto her skin, onto her cot, onto her clothes. The longer she remains wet, the colder she gets, and she shivers, trying to hide under every blanket. The weather only gets worse, and the darkness never seems to stop.

Three days, three long days, and then, the hatch opens above her head. She recognizes the face immediately - he’s a friendly one, but she gives no response, save to climb up the ladder, her bag on her back. He does not look surprised to see that she is alone, and when she climbs out of the hole, they close the cover, although no one will be seeking shelter there again.

There’s a ship, with three big men with him, waiting at the mouth of the cave. They all look her over, tiny thing that she is, but she lifts her chin, raising herself up with all of the strength of her mother. Her mother never let anyone look down at her, and they give her a nod before she turns and looks at the one that came for her, Saw.

“They shot her,” she says, and there’s sadness in the man’s eyes. Pity, perhaps… or maybe understanding.

“And your father?”

She shakes her head - she doesn’t know the answer to that, not for fact, but she knows what she suspects. They wanted him - wanted his research, wanted his work. They would take him alive, if they could, and her father was not one to fight. He was likely still alive.

“How did you get away?” he asks, and her eyes go wide with surprise - she had done as told, had run when told, so how- “Your face, were you struck?”

She touches at her eye, where he gestures, then lets out another shake of her head. There’s no pain there, but she can imagine what it is - her soulmate. They must have gotten into another fight.

“My... “ She shows him her hands, where the knuckles are scraped and bruised. Saw gives her a nod, then sets a hand on her shoulder, leading her to the ship.

“My Papa… he’ll have a scar, where they shot her, won’t he?”

Saw is quiet for a long moment as they walk up the ramp, and he settles her into a seat in the back, sliding her bag under the chair. He then kneels in front of her, taking her hands in his.

“Most likely, yes. A mark where she was shot, to show the pain within his soul.”

“Will the mark hurt?” she asks, and it feels like a stupid question, but her father had reared back from what looked like pain when her mama was struck.

“The soul is what aches,” Saw answers wisely, as though he has known that pain, has felt that loss. “The wound is only a sign of the part of him that is now broken.”

Jyn nods, then looks down at her knuckles, scraped and marked.

“I never want to meet my soulmate. They make you do stupid things…”

She doesn’t want to think that her mama was stupid, not when she was so brave. Perhaps, if her mama had struck down the man in white, the troopers might have left her papa alone… but how could her mama think that she might fight against all of those fighters and lived? Her mama had fought for nothing, and now she was dead.

“My child… you will meet them one day, and you will only feel complete with them. It is a gift from the Force, one which you cannot fight… you are young, still, and we can talk on it later. Close your eyes and rest.”

She nods, sniffling a little, and Jyn realizes then that she’s crying, tears running down her cheeks. She was supposed to be brave, and here she was crying. Her hand runs under her eyes, brushing them away, and then her hand goes to her neck, to her mama’s necklace.

Her necklace, now.

Her eyes go towards the viewport, and as they take off from the planet, she can see in the distance that her house is now a ruins. There’s nothing left on Lah’mu, it seems. Nothing but ash, and dirt, and tears.

Her eyes close after a long moment, and she tries to wash it all away, to forget everything, to forget the past. She cannot change what has happened to her…

Ash… dirt… tears… and memories…

Dirt… sweat… tears…

Running… dripping…

Her eyes fly open, and for half a second, Jyn thinks she might be back in that cave, deep underground. Her next thought is that someone has come for her, and that this time, it’s not a friend. When she sits up, though, and realizes that the wetness on her skin is from the dripping ceiling, and that she’s no longer on Lah’mu…

Her hand reaches out to grab the rag she had left drying in the small space that is hers. It’s damp, but it’s better than letting whatever liquid drips from the floor above remain on her skin. Her eyes flick over towards her cellmate, still sleeping.

A guard walks by, but Jyn knows that it’s the middle of the night, and that it’s only memories, memories that haunt her, memories of a lifetime ago, of a girl that no longer exists. Her mama is long dead, her papa is long gone, and Saw had abandoned her, left her behind.

Everyone left her behind, everyone save for…

She looks down at her hand, sees a familiar bite on it, the bite from a blaster, used in close range, as a pistol. Sometimes, whoever her soulmate is, they grip the blaster too tight, the firing catching back on tender skin. There hasn’t been a mark in some time…

They recently shot someone. She tries to not concentrate on that too hard.

Her gaze goes out of the cell, and she tries to clear her mind. Her parents, Saw, her soulmate… none of them matter. All that matters is that she has been caught, captured by the Empire. They do not know her true name, but she knows that the name Erso means something to the empire.

If they find out her real name, find out who she really is…

A prison camp on Wobani will be the least of her worries.

For the first time in her life, Jyn is caught, trapped. There’s no way out, there’s no backup plan, no rescue crew. She’s alone. Entirely alone. And no one is coming to save her.

...

There’s a hunger deep within him, but it is not his own. Cassian has to ignore it as he moves through the busy crowd, glancing down at his hands, checking that his gloves are in place. It wouldn’t do for someone, a stormtrooper, to see the dark ring around his wrists. Granted, those marks were also not his own, but then they would ask for scandocs, and well… better to get in and out, without being spotted.

The stink in the air is nearly unbearable, but he’ll be off this piece of junk soon, heading back towards Base, or wherever the intel takes him. He hopes that Tivik is good on his word, because he keeps hitting dead ends. Jedha, though… Jedha is overrun with the presence of the Empire, and for no valid reason. Something is happening on Jedha. He just needs to find out what.

The smell of food makes him feel ill, and he knows he has eaten enough to sustain him recently, but it doesn’t help when he still feels hunger. His thoughts wander for a moment, where are they, that they’re so hungry, that they’re kept in shackles - no. No, he doesn’t have time for thoughts such as that. Things like soulmates… they have no place in a war. Those are for dreamers and fools. Nothing more.

His gaze flicks down the main street as Cassian reaches the alley where they agreed to meet, and he sees no troopers facing towards him - not that a man going down an alley is much concern, but he wants to be aware, wants to know if any are following him. He had been careful, as always, but… well, it was his job to be careful, to aware. He was good at what he did, the best, in fact.

You had to be the best, otherwise, you ended up dead.

The man is where he said he would be, and Cassian tries to put on an easy smile. There’s stress written on Tivik’s face, a sign that the intel, it has to be good. No one gets nervous sharing details about nothing.

His gaze goes back towards where he came from, and no eyes search him out. Stepping forward, he hopes that they will be out of the way… away from interruptions.

“I was about to leave,” Tivik says, and Cassian can only shrug, the grin tightening.

“I came as fast as I could.” And he had. He had had to dodge patrols to get there, but he had half run, when able. The news had to be good, the intel worth it - it was worth running there for. He pulls off his gloves, trying to get relaxed, to slow the man down, and he shoves them into his jacket pocket, out of the way. His wrists burn, but he ignores them.

[anghraine]

This has been loitering about my drafts for weeks now, and ... isn’t going to improve any, so posting as is.

I definitely appreciate the warm responses to my position of Star Wars In General and Particularly Rogue One Is Not About Cinnamon Roll Characters, Thank You and Goodbye.

But I am a bit weirded out by the “it’s not about good people! they’re not good people! that’s the point!” I ... get it. But I find it very pat.

Different people have different, I think legitimate, takes on what Rogue One is “about.” You can say it’s a war movie (I thought the LOL IT’S CALLED STAR WARS responses to the Vox article were disingenuous juvenile bullshit). That’s fair. My best friend called it the coming-of-age story for the Rebellion itself, which I also think is fair. I’ve seen it described as about hope (yes), about resisting fascism (yes), about the large and small daily sacrifices of doing so (yes). It’s a messy, sprawling movie—that’s both its strength and weakness—and there’s a lot you can take from it. Reducing it down to any one topic/message is going to be an over-simplification.

But for me, personally, the main thing I get out of the movie is not a conclusion but a question. And a pretty simple one:

What does it mean to be a good person?

Specifically, what does it mean to be good in complex situations with unclear choices? 

For instance, we’ve got Mon Mothma, the gracious and dignified Reasonable Authority Figure of the Alliance. She’s the only one of the main three founders to make it out alive (with Padmé and Bail slated for death before we set eyes on them). And she’s pretty much framed as a beacon of light, serene, rational, a literal woman in white, untainted by the grim realities around her.

...Because people like General Draven deliberately hide them from her, so she doesn’t have to make those calls. Uh, okay.

More significantly, there’s Saw Gerrera, leader of an extremist anti-Imperial guerrilla group. He’s clearly framed as a sort of mirror counterpart to Vader—Chaotic Neutral to Vader’s Lawful Evil, say. Where Vader's ultimate goal is order and peace at any cost, Saw wreaks havoc to fight the Empire at any cost. For both, “any cost” includes the lives of innocent people. Lots of innocent people. Think of that moment when Jyn, as a girl essentially sacrificed for the resistance by Saw, rushes out to protect a child caught in the literal crossfire of the resistance. (Tangentially, we could also think of the fact that the little girl and Jyn ultimately die the same way.)

And like Vader, Saw has taken enormous physical and emotional damage, and lost or deliberately severed himself from the people he cares about. He’s paranoid to the point of delusion. He violently alienates those trying to help him. He’s even dredged up his own form of mind probe torture. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

But. Saw is parallel to Vader, not equivalent. He is working against a genocidal fascist regime, not leading it. Hundreds if not thousands of people are dead because of Saw Gerrera. And trillions are alive because he delayed the acquisition of kyber for the Death Star while the Alliance dithered.

We have those dithering Alliance figures, none of whom are particularly sympathetic beyond doomed Bail Organa. But they’re not bad people. They’re a loose coalition of politicians concerned, rightly, with the erosion of liberty and norms in their government. The mere fact of working with the Rebellion is a dangerous and courageous choice (they’re imperial senators). And overriding concern with the desires and welfare of their respective constituencies is, uh, kind of why they exist. It’s entirely legitimate.

...And incredibly short-sighted. The Imperial Senate will get dissolved within the week. They can’t know that, but they had to know which direction things were going. If Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor had not independently scrounged up a strike team, that myopic political caution would have wiped out the Rebellion and allowed for the deaths of trillions more people through the Death Star.

Speaking of Jyn and Cassian ... okay, let’s talk about Jyn and Cassian.

It’s with them that we really see this quandary played out. And yes, of course, it’s with Jyn and Cassian that we see pretty much everything played out (that’ll be “what are main characters” for 100, Alex). But it is explicitly at the core of who they are as individuals, and how they relate to each other. The issue is primarily addressed through their characters and mediated through their relationship—it’s where we really get to that question of what good and right even mean in complex, messy circumstances.

Think about it. If someone asks “what does it take to be a good person?” many people would probably say something like—strength, courage, determination, grit. It’s respect for others and yourself, refusing to accept sophistry and excuses, to accept evil in the name of good. It’s daring and ferocity, when necessary. Loyalty to your family and friends, and a kind heart, always.

That’s Jyn. And not just who Jyn becomes; that’s who she is from the outset. She’s tough and resourceful and brave right then. She combines healthy self-interest (not to mention self-preservation) with an essentially warm nature. Her instinct is to throw herself into the fray to protect total strangers from their own side, more or less, and to defend people she doesn’t even like. She’s loyal to allies and holds to her love for a father she hasn’t seen since early childhood. 

And it’s not enough. Jyn could fall back on her fierce and essentially benign existence, live a life of bold risks and ruthless self-defense and personal kindnesses as she scrabbles to survive under the Empire. She has that right. It’s what her life has been. But.

But she’s closing her eyes to the horror of the Empire, closing her eyes when she could be doing something. Even if it’s a legitimate choice in theory, and she owes the Rebellion nothing, and in fact revolutionaries have personally screwed her over, and she’s appalled by the Rebellion’s dirtier tactics, and she’s got her own problems, and and and. It’s nice that her impulse is to save innocents at risk to herself. How much does it matter, though, when the Empire blows them to pieces fifteen minutes later? 

Is that really what it means to be a good person? Good in a narrow, self-centered way that achieves nothing beyond the immediate? Is it really anything but selfishness with a nice paint job?

Well, yes. Of course scruple and benevolence and bravery are more than selfishness. But that sort of goodness is limited by its essential egocentrism. 

So others might answer what is a good person? in another way. 

For them, goodness is about conscious ethics, a commitment to duty and ideals against all odds, in full understanding of what those odds are. It’s hope when hope is gone, not out of optimism but principle, a refusal to tolerate the intolerable. It’s opening your eyes to a world beyond your own concerns, striving for the greater good at no personal gain, and indeed at great personal sacrifice. It is discipline, responsibility, selflessness—selflessness not as instinct but choice.

That’s Cassian. He’s selfless when he claws up twelve stories with God knows what injuries, but as with Jyn, it’s nothing new. Cassian has consumed his life in service. He’s not with the Rebellion to be a hero, even as a side benefit; his work is anything but heroic and he loathes it. He’s not there for friends or family; he has no one, except a droid. He’s there because he believes in the cause. Some of us live it, Cassian says, and certainly he does—lives and breathes and dies for the Rebellion.

And, you know, assassinates people for it.

With him, we get the flipside: the anguished zealot to Jyn’s disaffected rogue. Where Jyn has withdrawn from action over the personal and immediate, Cassian is propelled to terrible action by the abstract and long-range. Their fight is less about the specifics of Galen’s death, and more a clash of ideologies that has been building since the moment they met.

And I think we’re confronted with two major problems.

By all normal standards, a petty criminal just trying to survive looks a lot better than a self-righteous murderer. Apart from Tumblr antis, who don’t appear to have the vaguest grasp on how fiction works, I do think that people find Jyn less ... tainted? Certainly the reviews gave the impression that the dynamic was a slightly rough around the edges gutsy heroine + Captain Moral Ambiguity. Of the two of them, Jyn has the more generous and scrupulous nature, is more respectful of others’ autonomy and her own, is a more independent moral agent, and certainly less blood-stained.

At the same time, Cassian’s ethos comes off a hell of a lot better. I think it’s particularly the case in their fight, where we can get the basis of Jyn’s accusations, but they’re just off. It’s not at all difficult to understand where no-better-than-a-stormtrooper comes from, but his clear-eyed purpose and stalwart opposition to tyranny are so profoundly unlike a stormtrooper that it falls flat. You’re not the only one who lost everything. Some of us just decided to do something about it is far more piercing. Cassian has done far worse things than Jyn, for vastly better motives.

It’s not dealing with new questions, at all, but ones that humans have always asked as we struggle with rightly judging and choosing in a messy world. How do we balance selflessness and autonomy? How do we choose between the demands of individual conscience and social good? Or, most simply: what are you in the dark?

To me, Jyn and Cassian seem very much embodiments of these archetypes of human goodness, expanded into actual people, and placed in circumstances that push and pull and twist the very qualities the archetypes are built on. But ultimately, I don’t think it’s about the tragedy of good people getting warped by war and suffering and sacrifice into something fundamentally not good. I think it’s much more a story about good people who get damaged and morally compromised under these terrible pressures, but whose inherent goodness is not broken. 

At the point of highest pressure, it’s damaged, compromised people who have what it takes to hold up under it, to make the right choice and to carry it through. They’re criminals, assassins, saboteurs, apostates, belated defectors: none of them clean-handed, none of them pure. And they’re good people.

[placetobenation]

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker

Having finally seen Rise of Skywalker, I can finally say – Why wasn’t Ben Solo the main story here? He literally is part-Skywalker. So The Rise of Skywalker should be Ben Solo – not Rey Palpatine. Which really makes no sense, anyway. We don’t know about her parents – but we are very attached to Ben’s parents and his famous Uncle Luke. Ben is the conflicted one, Ben has the history we know and love, Ben has the bloodline, Ben has the connection with the Force. Ben has the conflict with the dark side ( like Luke did) and Ben had to fight Snoke and the Emperor to win. Rey is just a third wheel. Why not Ben? Rey we still know nothing about, which is amazing after a trilogy, to not have a clue who your hero is or where she came from.

So after two feature films we finally know about Rey’s parents.  She came from Palpatine’s kids. Who were they? Were they strong in the force too? Couldn’t they have fought the Emperor? Did they? Maybe they did. Maybe they fought their father and lost. Which parent was the Emperor’s kid anyway- her father or her mother? Maybe both? Were they using the Force? Were they Sith and then turned? Did they turn? Who knows.  Pure mystery, which is why Rey should never have been the main character. Ben Solo we all know – we know what is faults are, his family history, his problems, his conflicts, his dad’s conflicts, his mom’s conflicts, his Uncle’s conflicts – we know it all. Why not make the movie about him? He saves the day anyway. Ben is the one who changes to save the world – not Rey. They got this entire story backwards.

Quick question – why and how did Leia die?  Anybody? She just went to take a nap and died?  Was she that weak? She was walking and talking just fine a second ago. She didn’t feel faint, no stomach pains, no dizziness. Leia just kind of walked away to tie her shoe or something and then died.  Just a horrible ending for such a beloved character we’ve been attached to for 40 years.  And before you come at me saying her film footage was limited – that actually plays into her being sick. Where’s Leia – she’s not feeling well? Maybe a coma? Left out of some important meetings and scenes – then we know she’s really sick. So yes, they could have handled this much much better then to just have her walk away and die. Absolutely ridiculous. 

Knights of Ren? They were said to be Jedi’s in training yet none wielded a light saber or had force capabilities? They were more like a gang then a group of young Jedi. Nothing was said about them. Were they all mute? Could they talk? Were they friends of Ben? How far along was their training? Since they were being taught by Luke and burnt down his temple we have to assume their training was already pretty far along – yet here, in the film – they don’t talk, don’t use the Force and can’t fight with a light saber, only with axes and knives and swords and such. Very disappointing. Why have them in it all then? None pleaded with Ben, none talked to Ben  or anyone. They were basically stormtroopers in black uniforms. So that is another storyline went absolutely nowhere, again.  The Knights were completely ignored in TLJ, and in ROS they are just a bunch of thugs. Why make them a separate entity from being a stormtrooper or a bounty hunter?  No reason.

Who or what were all those black hoods in the cave with the Emperor? Were they clones of his? Maybe past Senate members? Just creepy cult followers? We don’t know, another thing that was never explained.

Who pulled Palpatine out of the pit and how did he survive the explosion of the Death Star? This I can overlook because these writers don’t have the imagination to create a new villain – so if they have to reuse this one, I’ll give it to them. Hey it’s better then nothing. I mean this trilogy is so horrendous, we are willing to overlook some very bad and lazy writing. This point being probably the laziest.  Again, with Palpatine coming back, and he wanted Rey – why didn’t he want his own son or or his own daughter to take over the throne? Surely any off spring he has will be very strong with the force, right? Does it skip a generation or two? It didn’t skip with the Skywalker family. Again – very very vague and a really good reason to not have Rey as the main character.

Random thought – how great would it have been to have one last battle between Luke and the Emperor? I mean I really wish it was Luke in that cave – saving Rey instead of Ben. Not too different from that scene in Teen Wolf when Michael J Fox’s dad comes in and saves his son from the mean principal. “leave my son alone, Thorne. He has nothing to do with this” (again if it were Ben that Luke saves at this moment, it would be way more meaningful and would complete the story arc between the two. Since Luke let Ben down in training, it would have been perfect that Luke comes to his rescue against Palpatine.) The Emperor and Luke have a lot of history together and it would have been amazing to see how far Luke has come from that battle they had years ago.  Of course we can’t because they killed Luke while he was force projecting a getaway for Leia and the others. A petty, pretty meaningless death that left a lot of us pretty angry.

Orders from corporate made sure to tell JJ to “give us a few leads for some films to come”. So JJ did just that. He left us with Lando and his Tarzan-like daughter who uses the bow and arrow and rides space horses. We have Poe and his lover in red, Zurii Bliss. We have Finn who apparently has some Force sensibilities, so his journey could be headed into being a Jedi. All this and Rey headed to the irrigation farm where Luke grew up – even though they casted his character aside like a bloody rag this entire trilogy.  I don’t know why Rey went there, maybe because Leia’s planet blew up, that’s the only place left to go for a Skywalker. There is no connection there, at all, so it was pretty meaningless for her to be there. She never even got close to Luke, so what’s the point. That scene was just meaningless. Who know who did get close to Luke, and actually grew up with him and Leia?  Ben. Yea – again, this scene fits much better if it were Ben and not Rey. 

What was the point of Maz Kanata? She showed up in Force Awakens as this mysterious trade negotiator who knows Han and Leia extremely well. We didn’t know why or how. We still don’t. We thought maybe as this trilogy goes on we’ll find out more and I’m sure she’ll play a big part in – nope. She makes comments like “Leia knows what she has to do” – like what are you Yoda or something? Where did Maz even come from? She was useless, just part of a bloated budget for a CGI character. They could have left her out and hired another writer to make some sense out of all this.

This movie also gives Luke another back story – that he was looking for the way finder to find the planet Exegol to confront the Emperor. Yea but in TLJ Luke was in self exile and gave up completely on the force because of Ben Solo. So which is it? Was Luke trying to find Exegol or was he in exile? Apparently Luke had a way finder in his possession the entire time because Rey used it. So Luke found the way finder and was too scared to go? Or did his huge mistake with Ben’s training stop him from going? Was he planning to go? Did he want to go? How did he even know the Emperor was still alive? Was he planning on facing the Emperor one last time?  Again – more questions raised then answered, and they had 3 movies to tell this story. 

I’m sure a lot of you could not help but notice this movie replayed scenes almost exactly from Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I don’t know if they were going for nostalgia here or just plain plagiarism. The first is the I Am Your Father scene – where Kylo takes the place of Vader and Rey takes the place of Luke. She is stepping back to the edge of the ship as Kylo gives the same speech as Vader did. Let’s rule this galaxy together – blah blah. So that scene was boring and predictable. Second one is between Rey and Palpatine. Palatine, well playing Palpatine again and Rey playing Luke. Strike me down with your anger as your fleet gets destroyed, kind of thing. So now that scene was boring and predictable – and Palpatine was literally regurgitating his own lines from 40 years ago! So that was disappointing. 

All in all this movie answered no questions, was kind of the same film as 40 years ago without the warmth, innocence and good natured fun that it used to be. A lot of unanswered questions, again, as in TFA and TLJ, and this trilogy showed a lot more of Leia then Luke – who really should have been a bigger part in all these films. Leia never trained anyone, never showed interest in the force, never even used a light saber. Now all of a sudden she is a Jedi Master who can fly? I don’t believe it for a minute nor was that ever her character.

A monumental drop of the ball – this story that concluded Luke and Leia’s story didn’t involve Luke and Leia. Which is somewhat disappointing because you had time for these three characters to have their time to shine. What we were interested in was what happened to Han, Luke and Leia. That was our major interest and that was our major question. The two characters that needed the most attention in this story, that had the most questions that needed to be answered were Rey and Luke. They were the most powerful people in this story – and for some reason they are the ones we have the most questions about. Usually it’s the opposite, usually it’s the supporting characters we don’t quite get to understand. This time, with this story, it’s the main characters, it’s the heroes that we are left scratching our heads about. 

I won’t even get into the new Jedi powers that were introduced in this trilogy – such as flying and force healing. Unreal, but hey, they want to make this the X-Men, go right ahead, I think that’s the least of the problems of this franchise. Who knows what they’ll have a Jedi do next – heat vision? X-Ray vision? The sky is the limit now. Nothing is sacred and this franchise is obviously wide open to interpretation.  It is no longer one man’s vision, but vision by committee. I know one thing they are not doing by committee and that is writing. 

@pauliek2003