#btw jyn is the key

[jyndor]

what’s fascinating to see is the juxtaposition of cassian as a recruiter (as an axis or a fulcrum) and luthen as a recruiter.

the show has been playing on chirrut’s words in rogue one: there’s more than one kind of prison.

so you’ve got luthen who every episode gives me more and more former jedi vibes - and say he is actually a former jedi in hiding, say it’s not just a similarity. he has made his mind a ‘sunless space’ and thinks of himself as damned because he is using his enemy’s (the sith’s) tools against them - anger, ego, unwillingness to yield, eagerness to fight. “they’ve set me down a path from which there is no escape.” i mean im not ready to pound the gavel yet but he’s definitely a jedi in hiding who has felt a need to use the very tools that he doesn’t believe in. that are antithetical to his very belief system. even if he’s not a jedi, he’s trapped in a world that he loathes, selling the pieces of cultures that have been marginalized and oppressed to fund a rebellion, a rebellion he believes in but cannot serve without selling his soul. that is a horrifying thing.

you’ve got mon mothma who lives in luxury and affluence but has locked her truth away to protect herself and to protect the rebellion - and is in a traditional marriage that began when she was a teenager, a child. for all of her privilege and she does have that in spades, that is something the show is saying - that mon is in a prison of sorts too. vel as well - though she has her freedom when she is with the rebels and with cinta.

you’ve got jung who has been undercover in the isb for six years, who now has to live with the guilt of kreegyr’s rebels likely being massacred so that the isb doesn’t find out there’s a spy in their midst. man luthen that was cold.

but those are metaphorical prisons. and that’s important to remember because ultimately while they are at risk, they’re also not in literal prison. they’re not enslaved like cassian and the others on narkina-5, or tortured like bix.

and a metaphorical prison IS easier to survive, no matter what mon says. the irony is that while cassian has been in many ways lying to the audience and to everyone else in the show until narkina, he’s always known what he’s against. to borrow saw’s words, cassian has clarity of purpose from the moment he is imprisoned. we don’t see him worn down although he surely is exhausted, we don’t see him disillusioned like melshi or in denial like kino loy (who andy serkis says was put in prison for organizing his workplace. fun fact).

he is at serious risk of torture and death but cassian is more alive and more himself than he’s seemed in the show until this arc. he’s organizing, he’s being a leader, he’s recruiting - and he seems like he’s free in some ways. because he knows the enemy intimately like luthen, but in different ways. the fact that he knows the empire thinks they’re not even worth listening to because he’s lived that his whole life, that liberates him to openly rebel in a way that seems counterintuitive. but he’s right. and it works.

but unfortunately recruits don’t always live. shit goes wrong or someone doesn’t get the help they need when they’re at their weakest - kino loy - sometimes someone has to die - like tivik, like kreegyr’s rebels - to get a message to people who can do something with it. like cassian and jyn and the rest of rogue one.

that’s where cassian is when we meet him in rogue one. back in prison, but more of a metaphorical prison (i mean saw’s cell aside lol) as chirrut notes. a mental prison, like luthen’s. like lonni jung’s.

kino loy says that “if we can fight half as hard as we’ve been working, we will be home in no time.”

rogue one is when he can finally liberate himself again and go home.

[kitkatopinions]

Speaking of Rogue 1, whatever it’s flaws, is so much better than these last couple of RWBY volumes. The key being the characters actually putting their lives on the line for what they believe, and in turn inspiring others (and a bunch of other little story bits and such).

Omg, does Rogue One put RWBY volumes seven and eight to shame. And the funny thing is, there are some really similar story beats! (spoilers btw.

Protagonist gets brought into the fold of a big organization trying to stop a world-ending terror machine (run by big evil magic dark creepy thing,) protagonist has personal problems involved in the fight against evil terror machine including the death of her mother, protagonist finds the force she joins not up to par with her standard despite her own behavior being pretty lacking, and gets heated when the people she's been bidden to work with don't operate under as strict of a moral code as she'd like. During this time, meet the defector from evil terror machine, the lower level grunt who turns to the good side and joins protagonist. Protagonist (along with defector and other friends) find out that evil terror machine is gearing up to do some extreme evil terror machining and they argue to the group fighting ETM that they should take a chance to achieve what they need rather than fleeing. The group fighting in general does not agree, but that's not going to stop Protagonist, who then leaves the group fighting to do her own fighting, bringing a small following with her - including a very devoted member of the group fighting who goes against orders to do what they think is right. Then during the big fight trying to save everyone, the group is attacked and our protagonists 'die,' having completed their goal, but leaving their work of fighting Evil Terror Machine unfinished. During this, there's themes of trust, redemption, hope, and perseverance as well as the necessity and the responsibility to do what you think is right, even if it goes against orders.

Sounds a lot like RWBY volumes 7-8. But Rogue One goes about things a little different and out classes RWBY in a lot of ways. The Rebellion for instance operates under a gray area, with spies and murderers amongst its rank and people who refuse to get involved in the war when they think they can't win, and yet they aren't treated as villains, they aren't treated as gutless cowards, they aren't even treated as wholly in the wrong. Jyn gets checks and scoldings and learns and grows, while Cassian - lifelong rebel who spies and 'follows orders' even when he doesn't like said orders - undergoes some change, learning to trust more and doing what he has to do while defending the life he's lived and saying that managing to stop the Empire is what will make his life of sacrifice worth it. Meanwhile, it's made abundantly clear that running away won't actually stop everything from being destroyed and that actually, everything likely will be destroyed if they don't try and get the Death Star plans, which contrasts in RWBY where keeping the Relics out of Salem's hands will do more to save the world and fighting an invincible foe while leaving them in her reach is not the way to go. Meanwhile, the Defector (my baby boy,) Bodhi, makes it clear he knows what he did was wrong and is trying to make it right by defecting, eventually giving up his life to try and get the Death Star plans out despite undergoing extreme mental trauma recently for his troubles, which really makes Emerald's arc look even less convincing if you ask me, especially considering that Bodhi was just an Imperial cargo pilot who's kill count (prior to leaving the Empire) was zero and Emerald was actively helping to bring down kingdoms and murdered a kid. Meanwhile the main villain of the movie isn't a child slave or a heavily disabled military veteran on the side of the good guys (though there is a heavily disabled military vet coded character on the side of the good guys that gets treated kinda badly I never said this movie was perfect,) instead our main villain is a jealous old punk trying to rise in ranks of the Empire who wants recognition for coercing a man into building a death machine for him after he murders said guy’s wife. Also the disabled military vet coded character that gets treated badly at least gets some sympathy and love from his daughter figure before he dies and his sacrifice and years of fighting for the Rebellion is recognized. And in the end of the movie, their deaths aren't the result of a lack of foresight, sloppiness, or a failure to act. Instead it all came down to the odds having been stacked against them from the start, and them doing the best they could and scraping together a win for the galaxy that cost them their lives. And like you pointed out, when they decided to leave the Rebellion (temporarily, because it was more of a 'don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness' sort of thing,) they actually did what they said they were going to and threw themselves into a battle even when the chances of winning were slim and they were willing to die and watch their friends die, which is actual bravery, actual guts, actual sacrifice. (Also like usual, I'm way less harsh on Team JRY in this respect as well as Oscar, May, and obviously Ozpin. But Team RWB? Mmmm.)

And I know that RWBY isn't meant to be Rogue One (which is essentially a war movie set in the Star Wars universe,) but I am saying that the way they handled most of the story beats and even the base concepts and even the themes of love, trust, and hope, way better than RWBY did. Imagine a version of Rogue One where - after hearing the Rebel Alliance didn't want to go to Scarif, Jyn contacted the rest of her group and was like "Mon Mothma is going to leave the plans on Scarif omg everyone she's evil!" and then instead of just leaving to do their mission, half their team returned to Jedha to save any refuges who may have survived the blast and get them out of the heat, and the other half hacked some Rebel Alliance towers and sent out a galaxy wide broadcast that was like "Um, hi. My name is Jyn Erso... I'm a Rebel." That told everyone that Jedha had been destroyed and that the dark side of the Force would come to destroy them next, and they made sure to throw in the Mon Mothma and the other Rebels could no longer be trusted. And then after sending out that message, Chirrut got hurt, so Jyn was like 'fuck it' and found out that there's some great places to bunker down on Alderaan. So she decided she could leave that 'saving the Galaxy' shit to Mon Mothma and the rebels she used to know back in the day and that bearded guy who seemed to know what he was talking about and she and K2-SO just went there and had some tea. But meanwhile Cassian, Baze, and Bodhi were taking care of people in Jedha, but then whoops, Bodhi got captured and taken to Scarif, so Cassian and K2-SO go to save him. They manage it and it turns out - silly Bodhi, he'd had a weapon in his pocket the whole time that they can just use to blow up the Death Star anyway! So they get the plans and then do that and get out of Scarif easy peasy. Then they meet up with Jyn and the others, but Mon Mothma is really mad because she wants Cassian back and wants the plans in case the Empire does make another Death Star sometime later, so Mon Mothma sends out a message telling Cassian to surrender or she'll blow up more of Jedha herself and - Okay, this has really gotten away from me.

But, all in all, Rogue One - despite being a very flawed movie - is an example of some of the ideas in RWBY done better and with more moral depth and nuance than in RWBY. Also the last Darth Vader scene is everything.

[gffa]

hi! i really want to get into the EU stuff, but i have absolutely no idea where to start. can you point towards a few good books, maybe? thank you, and i absolutely love your account btw!

Hi!  Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.  ♥  Recommendations for EU stuff often depends on what you’re interested in, because there are a lot of books I really enjoyed, so I’ll organize them by era, since that’s how fans are often divided.  I’ll also include comics, because often times the comics are some of the absolute best stuff!If you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels yet, those are absolutely the places to start as they’re key to the fabric of the bigger story, imo.  Not that you can’t understand the movies without them or anything, but TCW is especially important for understanding just how grueling the clone wars really were.  And Rebels is important for showing the fates of a lot of the TCW characters and seeing the Empire vs the Rebellion (it does a lot to flesh that out, too).PREQUELS:

Any of the Star Wars Adventures comics that contain the prequels characters are great.  Well, ALL of the Adventures comics are great, but the prequels ones are adorable, funny, and yet really well-told.  They’re light-hearted and largely oneshots, but the IDW comics have been incredible for still being some of the absolute best SW content out there.  Especially a not-miss is #12-13 and the 2019 Annual for the Padme&Leia&Breha story.

Obi-Wan & Anakin comic by Charles Soule.  A five-issue mini series that has the most stunning art of all the comics I’ve ever seen pretty much, it’s also a really good look at the time of Anakin’s apprenticeship and provides some interesting glimpses into their early days together.

Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic by Charles Soule.  This comic was an absolute phenomenon to read month to month and one of the comic series that I’ve spent the most time analyzing and felt it’s really held up to scrutiny, which shows just how much thought went into it.  It’s 25 issues of Vader fresh off Revenge of the Sith, over the span of a couple years, and really does an AMAZING job of exploring Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader, all the choices he made and the themes of the comic are all about showing he can’t admit to the HUGE mistakes he’s made.  It was incredible.

Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure by book Cavan Scott.  I’m not usually a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories, but this one was worth it to me to get an absolutely DELIGHTFUL book with Obi-Wan and Anakin, who are cranky with each other, but ultimately show that they can come back together and obviously care about each other.  Sprinkle in some other cool stuff (Jedi details, Bant Eerin being recanonized) and it was lovely.

Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama by Cavan Scott.  If you’re interested in Dooku, Asajj Ventress, or the Jedi at all, this drama was pretty amazing, it gave a ton of worldbuilding detail, but also did a lot to fill in the backstory of Dooku and gave us a long look inside Asajj’s head as well.  Qui-Gon makes some appearances, he has an amazing dynamic with Dooku, and my heart as always skips a beat for how much I love the Jedi.

Age of the Republic comics by Jodie Houser.  Holy shit, these comics were SO GOOD.  They’re a series of oneshots about the various heroes and villains of the time, a glimpse into the lives of all of them, and Houser really nailed it here.  My favorite is the Obi-Wan one, because the conversation he has with Anakin about Qui-Gon is a must and delves deepest into the characters’ stuff, but all of them are worth reading.

Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic by Matt Owens.  A five-issue mini series that, okay, the art is Like That but the storyline really worked for me because it’s a really good look at Mace’s character and his belief in the Jedi Order and how he came to master himself and how the galaxy looks at Jedi.  It’s woven around a fairly typical action plot, but one of the things that always strikes me is the compassion the Jedi show one of their own, even when they’re falling into darkness, as well as this is a comic about Mace Windu’s faith and his work to master himself and it’s SO GOOD.

Kanan: The Last Padawan comics by Greg Weisman.  Stunning art plus a look at some of the characters/relationships that I want so much more of (TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT DEPA BILLABA) and more glimpses into life at the Jedi Temple, as well as telling the story of how the character went from Caleb Dume to Kanan Jarrus, all of it heartbreaking and so, so good.

While the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover is no longer canon, but it does an absolutely phenomenal job of breaking your heart all over again for the characters and expanding on everything that was going on during that time and really, really gets into the headspace of Anakin’s character in a way that was line-edited by George Lucas himself, so I think of it as having a lot of emotional truths to it, rather than being part of canon (which it’s specifically said as not being).

ORIGINALS:

The ongoing Star Wars comic (by Jason Aaron, then Kieron Gillen) + the original Darth Vader comic (by Kieron Gillen) are the absolute best place to start, they’re an incredible addition to the characters’ journeys between ANH and ESB.  The two comics are meant to be read concurrently, so I recommend them together, they often show the same scenes from different points of view, but you can roll with either of them if they’re going well for you.  They’re my favorite for what they add to the story.

Star Wars Battlefront II’s storyline can be watched on YouTube like a movie, which is about two hours long, has some fantastic characters (Iden Versio and Del Meeko are amazing, but also the brief storylines the OT trio have in the game are fantastic) and it does a really great job of helping to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, explaining a lot about Jakku’s significance and how the First Order popped up.

From a Certain Point of View novel by various.  MY FAVORITE BOOK IN THE EU, FULL STOP.  A series of point of view stories from various supporting characters during A New Hope is exactly what it sounds like and, okay, not all of them worked out for me, some of them are very skippable if you’re not enjoying it, but the Obi-Wan one, the Qui-Gon one, and the Yoda one are all must-reads because they are HEARTBREAKING and fill in so much of what’s going on with those characters in the OT with regards to the PT events.  Also the Motti one is the single funniest thing Star Wars has ever put out.

Lords of the Sith novel by Paul S. Kemp.  While I’ve only read about a third of this one so far, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, as it’s a look at some of the worst parts of SW’s timeline, where Vader and Palpatine are at their worst, where Ryloth is suffering, but it’s done with deftness and gravitas, imo.  Possibly better after you’ve seen TCW and Rebels because Cham Syndulla’s character will have more weight then.

Legends of Luke Skywalker novel by Ken Liu.  This book came out around the time that The Last Jedi came out (or at least that’s when I read it, iirc) and it was a balm for my soul that needed Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.  It’s an in-universe series of myths, so it’s not literal, it’s stories told about Luke Skywalker as he travels the galaxy trying to understand the Force and the Jedi.  It’s lovely!

Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn.  I still think the first Thrawn book was really good (even if the shine came off the apple after that) and it does a fantastic job of setting up the character’s backstory, intro into the Empire, and creating the character of Eli Vanto, WHOM I LOVE.  It’s a great read and some of the best of Zahn’s Thrawn work.

ROGUE ONE + SOLO:

The Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed.  I had trouble connecting to Jyn Erso when I first watched the movie, but the way Freed wrote her as this messy, complicated, thorny person who was trying to do the right thing was perfect for making me fall in love with her.  (Freed is really, really good at writing messy, complicated, worthwhile women, imo.)

Most Wanted novel by Rae Carson.  I loved this book a lot, where it’s a young adult novel set before the events of Solo and helps tell Han and Qi’ra’s backstory and is a great space adventure at the same time.

Catalyst novel by James Luceno.  This does a really great job of bridging the Republic era with the Empire era, how the galaxy went from the Clone Wars to what we see in Rogue One, AND expanded a ton on Galen Erso’s character, his relationship with Orson Krennic and Lyra Erso and Jyn, so it made the R1 experience just a ton more valuable for me.

SEQUELS:

Bloodline novel by Claudia Gray.  This book still does the absolute most to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, to explain the events of what happened in that time period.  Gray’s writing is best when she’s writing Leia as a character and this book works as a novel for her and as a story about the rise of the First Order and some of the problems of the New Republic.

Spark of the Resistance is a young adult novel (so about 200 pages) by Justina Ireland.  I only recently read this one and I just thoroughly enjoyed it, it was Rey and Rose and Poe off on their own adventure, which was typical cute Star Wars stuff, but the chemistry and adorable banter between these three was so good I could have read an entire series for them!  (I also liked her Lando’s Luck YA novel, if you’re interested in his character.)

Poe Dameron comics by Charles Soule.  Soule’s writing is some of the best stuff in SW so far and he does an absolutely phenomenal job of capturing the charisma of Poe’s character, while also giving him an actual character arc to work through.  The comics just fly by, they’re so good and so smoothly easy to read and so damn charming.

Cobalt Squadron novel by Elizabeth Wein.  If you get the audiobook of this, it’s narrated by Kelly Marie Tran, who does a love job of reading it, and was a book that helped me just utterly FALL IN LOVE with Rose Tico.  It’s a book that does a lot to explain her back story and who she is and it’s just absolutely wonderful.

The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry.  If you really, really hated TLJ, this might not be the book for you, but I found it to be a book that helped fill in some smaller details that made the movie work better for me and got inside the characters’ heads just enough to help grease the wheels to put me in a better place with the movie, so I always really like it.

[thegiddyowl]

Stardust Quality: A Rebelcaptain Ficlet

A thank-you fic for @cats-and-metersticks​! Based off this prompt 

Unknown

Hi I got this number from you cat Stardust. I just want to make sure he is not lost only visiting. He is currently playing in my front yard.

“Gotta be fucking kidding me,” Jyn grumbled.

She had just put the keys in the ignition, exhausted from the longest week of the year and looking forward to a bottle of wine and her petting her cat on her belly, but now it looked like her cat was out on the prowl and giving her number to just anyone.

Actually, was this Stardust? That cat only allowed Jyn to pet her, and would have swiped and hissed at anyone who would try to get close to her neck to read her tags.

As if the unknown texter read her mind, the phone glowed again with a picture of her fluffy white cat with one blue eye and one yellow eye, stretching out on a sunspot on the verdant lawn, looking absolutely pleased as punch with herself.

Me

Yup, that’s her. She’s visiting but I’m off work so I can pick her up now. What was your address?

Luckily Cassian (the name of her cat’s new best friend) was only a few doors down, but Jyn still stopped by her place first after a forty-five minute dry for some treats and the cat carrier because she was in no mood to carry Stardust’s fat butt all the way home. She walked down to his house, which was as small and old as the other houses on the block, with a little bit of lawn in the front. However, there was no cat, and there was no Cassian.

Suspicious now, Jyn spied through the flat window of the living room. She could see a man in his pajamas, even though it was well after four, His head nodded back as he slept on the couch with Stardust curled up in his lap, her bi-colored eyes observing the boxes of tissues and medicine on the coffee table that were just begging to be swiped off the table.  The man coughed, and Stardust stretched out so her tiny bean toes would press against his throat.

The man, she guessed by now, had to be Cassian. Even with the beard overgrowth and the dark shadows under his eyes and the shiny red skin under his nose, he still had a nice face. When did he move in, and how was she not aware of the new hot neighbor?

Cassian yawned, one eye peeping open. She ducked her head under the window and texted him:

Me

Hey I’m here. Where are you and the fluffball at?

Jyn peek over the window sill to see what he was doing, and to her great relief he was up and turned away from the window.

Cassian

She decided to come inside, sorry. But I have her and I’ll walk out with her.

Jyn kept her phone up and walked up to the front door. Cassian, cinching a gray blanket over his shoulders. He stumbled when Stardust squeezed between his ankles and meowed as she pressed so hard against his legs that she tip-toed around him. But instead of getting upset he just smiled quietly to himself before looking at Jyn with his dark brown eyes.

“Hi, you must be Jyn. I’d shake your hand but I’m a bit sick,” he said, his voice cutting out just as he turned away and coughed.

“Mrow, mrow,” Stardust purred, staring up at him until he stroked her forehead with his knuckle.

“Stardust doesn’t seem to mind,” Jyn chuckled. “I’m kind of surprised she likes you so much. She usually doesn’t trust anyone.”

He shrugged, then leaned over and coughed again. “Maybe she knew I wouldn’t move at all when she jumped in my lap.”

Jyn kneeled down and scratched the back of Stardust’s neck. “Is that it, you silly cat? Do you just like to boss sick guys around?”

Stardust chuffed in reply. Jyn lured her in her box with a handful of treats, then thanked Cassian again and wished him well. She walked just a little slower as she passed his living room window, where he settled himself back on the couch again. As Jyn walked home, she couldn't fight off the smile that pulled up on her face. Sure, he was sick, but he was cute, and he was nice to Stardust, and Stardust adored him, which had to mean something.

As soon as she returned home, she texted him.

Me

Hey thanks again for taking care of Stardust. Hope she wasn’t too much trouble!

She unlocked the carrier and Stardust strutted out, still licking her chops clean after her feast of treats. Jyn’s phone pinged again.

Cassian

No trouble at all. BTW, is Stardust named after Ziggy Stardust?

That sealed it. Jyn set down her phone and picked up her cat so she could look at her right in her two-toned eyes.

“You have my permission to go over there as many times as you want. If you get me a date with him, then I’ll give you a salmon fillet. Deal?”

Stardust silenced her with a paw on her lips. “Mrow.”