#but Darth's redemption was kind of specific

[ceruleanwhore]

In my soul, I feel disgusted and betrayed by this finale and I am shocked that the same writers who were able to give us such a truly wonderful show somehow came up with such a terrible ending for it. This episode directly opposes the very nature of the show more than any other episode in such a way that then calls into question the rest of the series. This episode feels every bit as hollow and sad as Ted himself seems to be throughout the finale and makes me wonder if we ever were actually supposed to believe and to hope at all in the first place, even though I thought that was the point of the series. 

The first of many issues I have with the episode is how they handled Rupert. The whole show is about belief, but specifically believing in others’ capacity for good and ability to change for the better. It’s about believing in redemption and reconciliation, which they actually could have done for Rupert even this late in the show. The scene in episode 10 where we get a glimpse of the inner child that’s still tucked away somewhere inside him showed us that even he still had this potential, up until they did what they did for the finale. While I, personally, tend to be more like Sassy was in that scene — gleefully cheering for the downfall of an odious scoundrel — it felt completely wrong for this show in particular to include that kind of public humiliation, which we the audience are all supposed to be cheering for, and in the middle of Ted’s last game ever with Richmond.

Where we actually could have used a side bit about a scoundrel getting his comeuppance is with Ted’s ex wife and their ex therapist. I think it’s absolutely terrible that they went and set up Rupert’s downfall the way they did while Jake apparently gets off scot free and never gets his license revoked or anything. There also is never really any acknowledgement of just how wrong what he did was, how he should have his license revoked, and how his actions call into question every bit of therapy Ted and Michelle got from him. No one ever questions ‘Oklahoma,’ never mind the entire divorce, relative to this man’s breach of ethics and it bothers me to no end that the most we get is his absence at the end from scenes with Ted, Michelle, and their son. We didn’t need Rupert dressing up like Darth Vader and physically assaulting someone, we needed Michelle realizing how completely wrong her whole relationship with Jake is, dumping him, and reporting him.

The next issue is Ted himself. Obviously, he was in a gloomy sort of mood throughout the whole episode, but I think it’s really important to point out how that didn’t actually clear up once he got home. I do believe he was happy to see his son but, from the plane ride onward, it’s like he’s just hollow. We see him coaching little league soccer for his kid and yet there isn’t any of the heart and soul in it that we’ve seen him put into his other coaching. It’s like he’s depressed, which is understandable because he just left a whole incredible, supportive community to come to Kansas where, like Odysseus at the end of the Oddyssey, he’s a stranger in his own home. He goes from having a whole city around him to support him to seemingly having nothing and not even being a welcome member of his own family since he’s still divorced. Also, as others have pointed out, that montage that seems to be a dream sequence when he’s on the plane ride home is all about him writing himself out of the lives of everyone he just left behind. He’s decided that it’s better for everyone there to just forget about him and move on with their lives as though he was never there and he’s literally dreaming about how happy they’ll be to do that. 

This is a major thematic issue for this series because one of the main points of the series is the idea that everyone can change for the better and, more importantly, just about every character does. Ted spends all that time in England working on his own shit like everyone else, and even gets over his aversion to therapy in order to seek help for the first time ever, just to throw all of that away at the very end because apparently he’s just back on his bs and that’s it. This is where it would maybe be alright if there were another season after this one to address and fix this, but there isn’t. In the very last episode of the whole thing he’s throwing away his entire community, dreaming about how happy they’ll be without him, and there’s nothing and no one there correcting that. To me, this is like if right at the end of the last episode with no room left to fix it, they just had Beard go steal another car and then act like the audience is supposed to be okay with it.

The other thing, going off of that, is how they handled some of the relationships, and I specifically want to start off by talking about Ted and Rebecca. They have the distinction of being the only ship to truly be baited, more than once, and very unnecessarily so. The bait scene at the start of the final episode contributes nothing to the plot, the characters, or their relationship with each other — all it does is mock the members of the audience who were foolish enough to believe they ever could have been together. This, to me, also goes against the core values and themes of the show, because ship baiting like that is inherently mean-spirited and Ted Lasso at its core is meant to be kind. There is nothing kind about essentially dangling something over someone’s head, playing keep away with it, until you finally just chuck it in the river and laugh at the person for being so foolish as to think they were ever going to get it. It’s mean for the sake of being mean and again, for the umpteenth time, it contributes nothing.

So then let’s get to Roy, Jamie, and Keeley. Jamie and Roy are another example of a strong relationship that’s developed beautifully over the course of three seasons regressing at the very end because oh no, people ship it and we can’t have that. I do think that Keeley turning both of them down was necessary but Roy and Jamie literally getting into a fistfight over her was completely unnecessary and detrimental to their individual characters. By this point, they both are mature enough and respect Keeley enough that it’s genuinely ooc for them to be fighting each other about who gets to date her while she’s not even there. Season 3 Jamie and Roy would’ve been leaving the decision to her without reverting back to macho Neanderthal crap. 

To me, this is also about the creators recognizing that people in the fandom have ships and, for whatever reason, feeling the need to try and shut that down rather than just leaving well alone. If, instead of getting in a fight like they did, Roy and Jamie had a conversation about their shared experiences of wanting to be with Keeley but not knowing where they stand with her and recognizing how hard it is for each other, then it could end up contributing to the further growth of their relationship and, along with it, shipping and oh no, we can’t have that. Just like with Avatar: the Last Airbender, the presence or lack of romantic relationships is not the issue here, the problem is with writers accidentally setting up an incredibly compelling ship and then being like “oops, we didn’t mean to do that,” and trying to ctrl z it in the finale, at the detriment of the whole story. Why oh why do writers keep feeling the need to sacrifice the quality of their whole story for the sake of trying to get people to stop having opinions?

So then last up is Ted and Trent. As many others have pointed out, that bit where Ted’s reading the book and makes that comment about the ‘laugh police’ in response to Trent’s excitement and anxiety is extremely out of character. Ted “but he’s our dork” Lasso would never say that and I was horrified to hear those words come out of his mouth. However, this goes in with the destruction of his entire character arc and every bit of growth he’s done throughout the past three seasons all in this one episode, because that was him actively pushing Trent away because, as previously acknowledged, he’s back on his bs.

One issue with this is that Ted then never has a proper goodbye with Trent and the closest thing to that is the note he left asking Trent to change the title of the book. It’s not that I necessarily think he needed individual goodbyes on screen with every other character but Trent in particular was hugely important for Ted, like how Rebecca was. Do you really mean to tell me that Ted wouldn’t actually say goodbye to the journalist who wrote what, coming from him at the time, was essentially a glowing review when he was actually hired with the intention of destroying Ted’s career? Do you mean to say he wouldn’t get a proper goodbye with the man who threw away his whole career over him? The man who then decided the first thing he wanted to do after leaving said career was to write a book about him and his team? Seriously?

The other thing with Trent is that, where Ted’s ex wife and even Rebecca have felt the need to use ‘Oklahoma’ with him to get him to tell the truth, Trent has a talent for discerning the exact truth from Ted regardless of what he does or does not say. It would have been perfectly in character for him to go talk to Ted like Rebecca tried to but then actually succeed where she failed because he would be able to clearly read Ted’s signals and throw that all back at him. Unlike Rebecca, he could directly call out how much Ted didn’t actually want to leave.

That is actually the biggest issue this episode had — cowardice. The only reason I can think of why they wouldn’t even consider doing something like what I just described is because, like with Roy and Jamie, they are perfectly aware of the chemistry between those characters and how they have set them up so it reads like they’re in love with each other, and a scene like this would be just about impossible to do without coming across as romantic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Ted and Trent would’ve already been snogging by the start of the season if one of them were a woman. This show did the thing where they’ve decided that they can have a couple gay characters, but those characters can only get with specifically devised side characters because God forbid you just have your two existing characters of the same gender kiss a bit. Between the pairings of Ted and Trent, and Roy and Jamie, there is enough textual evidence of mutual attraction and the potential for real, romantic relationships that one could write over a hundred pages about it, and that is not an exaggeration. When I look at this finale, one of the things I see is the titular character being destroyed because they decided that was better than letting people think that he could maybe not be straight.

The last issue I have here is that there really were no goodbyes. Rebecca showed up at the airport and that’s it and I thought that was very weird and, again, very much not in accordance with the entire rest of the show. Even if they didn’t have the entire team show up at the airport to say goodbye, it didn’t make sense to not even have just the Diamond Dogs show up for that. Where tf was everyone? Because just from watching the whole rest of the show, I think it would be impossible not to expect the team, the dogs, the folks from the pub and maybe also Shannon from town. It was a cold, empty departure far from fitting for the show at all and it left me coming out of that finale feeling cold and empty from the crippling disappointment. They had a whole show centered around interpersonal relationships and support and then had the coldest, loneliest ending anyone there could have devised.

My final thought here is that this is not an ending and the only way to salvage this wreckage is with another season. This feels like something they’re doing to drum up attention and interaction so that it’ll be successful when they do come in and announce that they’ve changed their minds and there will be another season, like an encore at a concert. However, if this really is the end, then I am absolutely disgusted and feel very betrayed right now because this show told me to believe and taught me that maybe hope isn’t actually a bad thing that’s out to get me, just to turn around and crap all over that. This show didn’t just apparently waste hours of my time, it was actually helping to get me to move on from past pain and start to accept hope as a good thing, until it shattered mine. They desecrated the very art they created and then expected the audience to applaud such disrespectful destruction, and I am disgusted by it.

[antianakin]

Ahsoka being "what Anakin could've/should've been" would have been such a cool aspect of her character to explore in the wake of his "redemption" and death. Like what does it continue to mean for Ahsoka that she is, in essence, just like Anakin but without the problem of having been brought to the Jedi late? How does that impact her reactions to things like Order 66 and the revelation of Darth Vader and taking on a Padawan of her own?

I want Ahsoka to be able to stand on her own, but she seems to have been created specifically to provide this contrast to Anakin, so it's nearly impossible to separate her from Anakin as a vital aspect of who she is. She's got Anakin's flaws, but how do those flaws present when she has a stronger Jedi foundation? How is she able to overcome those flaws as someone who was discovered and brought to the Jedi earlier?

How does this impact her reaction to Anakin's betrayal and how is it like looking into a mirror or a vision of her own future? What does Ahsoka learn about herself when she hears the story of how and why Anakin eventually turned away from the dark? What does she see when she looks at LUKE and what does THAT tell her about herself? How does she figure out who she is BEYOND Anakin when Anakin defines so much about her? When does Ahsoka get to choose NOT to be Anakin and what kind of person does she then get to become as a result?

How does Luke feel when he looks at Ahsoka and recognizes a lot of what he felt in Anakin? Does he realize that Ahsoka, as Anakin's student, is a reflection of him in so many ways? Is he able to recognize Ahsoka as the person Anakin could've been? How does that make him feel to have this person in his life?

Separating Ahsoka from Anakin requires that the narrative actually explore how Ahsoka IS Anakin and always has been. Allowing Ahsoka to grow beyond him means acknowledging that it's her Jedi upbringing that has always made them DIFFERENT and what made Ahsoka able to resist the temptations he succumbed to.

I want to see how Anakin dying before Ahsoka is able to forgive him REALLY fuck her up. Anakin is her mirror and now he's gone. That vision of who she could be is now gone, how does she continue to move forward without it? How does she feel to know that this representation of the worst she could be was able to find his own balance and peace in the end? Does it bring her hope? Does it frighten her a little bit? Does it upset her to know that it didn't involve her at all? Does it burn her to know he couldn't find his peace with her? Does she realize she never could've found peace with him either?

[onewomancitadel]

I should've followed my gut and just made a separate post to begin with on the topic of Bluebeard vs. BatB romances, or dark romance versus redemptive romance, and now my posts are kind of out of order - I just got shy and hid my reblog, and I haven't listened to the WTF podcast so I felt it was a bit rude to natter and the point I'm really taking away is beside the original point - anyway, really I'm interested in why it is specifically that people get ikey about redemptive romances, which promise endgame romance and healing, but are totally a-okay shipping dark romances which don't end in such with safety exits. A classic example are A/nidala shippers who are emphatically against the supposed abusive nature of Reylo.

Really I think it comes down to a few factors, including the cultural cache which these ships draw from - Reylo is not cool, A/nidala is cool - and including the fact that shippers interested in BatB, earnest romance, redemption etc. are kind of, well, if I were to stereotype us I'd say that we're painfully earnest and in touch with our feelings. That's not the type of person who is generally received very well in irony-poisoned online spaces, at a minimum. I think this is a factor worth thinking on.

But more sympathetically, dark romances with a safety exit are a very different type of indulgence than redemptive, confronting romance which affirms the presence of darkness as well as light. Like, dark romance can stay dark, and you can leave whenever you want; the bad guy is bad, really bad, but you still get to flirt with that repugnance, even if it does sometimes lean into self-punishment for daring to empathise with a bad guy, or wanting something bad. You even see this in the fact that A/nidala shippers more specifically will say that the ship is okay because Anakin is not Darth Vader, and they're separate ships; that darkness is wholly written out, ascribed to a complete other person (nevermind that the OT affirms that Darth Vader is human, a father, Anakin). And ultimately it is tragic.

But of course there's also the fact that 'antis' moralise about the content of ships and the real question here is why does that hypocrisy flourish. It is proven time and time again that it is not about the actual moral nature of a ship but about its coolness or likability or the attractiveness of characters involved.

I did like the idea that there are shippers into the Bluebeards and straight up villain romances versus shippers into the Beauty and the Beast aspect and incidentally villain romance, though; I think that's a great way to think of it because I definitely don't fall into the villainfucker category.

[knightotoc]

The only Jedi who's ever gone to the Outer Rim and caused more good than harm is Kerra Holt. In chronological order:

- Tom Veitch foretold the trend (as he foretold everything) when he had City Boy On His First Mission Ulic Qel-Droma try to rescue the princess on Onderon (not technically Outer Rim in current canon but whatever), only to completely misinterpret the situation since the princess was getting kidnapped on purpose to marry her love. Ever since then every Core World Jedi going to the Outer Rim has also misinterpreted the situation and/or not assessed the needs of the people they are trying to help, leading to some dreadful cosmic tragedy. In Ulic's case, this small mistake was soon resolved, but in the back-and-forth of wars that resulted from this mission Ulic fell to the Sith and killed a ton of people, ending with a weak ass redemption of mansplaining forgiveness to a catgirl

- Nomi Sunrider stopped the Sith by... burning down a rainforest

- Revan (or as I like to call them, knock off Ulic Qel-Droma) did stop the Mandalorian takeover out there, but only after falling to the Dark Side themself. And what's worse, they took Malak with them. Half the time they clean up their mess, the other half they make it worse, and either way they go further into the galaxy -- bad idea!

- the Jedi Exile blowed up a planet out there. At least they felt sorry about it

- idk SWTOR 😅

- GOAT Kerra Holt goes to the Outer Rim for a specific purpose (free the people from the Sith governments) and works her butt off to accomplish this, even putting a stop to corrupt drug running from the unhelpful Republic. I have a theory that the only reason future Jedi don't learn from her is (not bc she got written just before the Disney merger but) bc she was never able to return home to Coruscant and teach the others :(

- reading The High Republic rn, and this seems to be the main theme of the series, or at least my main takeaway. In the main storyline, the Republic (+ Jedi) build Starlight Beacon for no specific purpose and do not set up any kind of infrastructure to allow the local people to actually reap its benefits. My man Tia Toon calls them out and nobody listens to him except me. Unconvincing post-9/11 villains the Nihil destroy the Beacon, which falls into a local planet and kills a ton of people. Of course the Jedi had good intentions, but so did Ulic, Revan, and the Exile

- in the side storyline, Cohmac Vitus tries to cleanse some evil artifacts and ends up unleashing the Drengir (aka, sanitized Yuuzhan Vong)! This is what inspired me to write this post bc I just read this, and wtf man! It's such a clear example of "don't mess with the dark side if you refuse to study it." This situation really was fine until the Jedi tried to help! He does feel sorry about it too, I wonder of he's gonna turn evil from guilt

- most famously Qui Gon went into the Outer Rim incidentally to his political mission, saved Anakin while he was there with an elaborate Ben Hur reference, but did not save his mom or consider the affects on the community not to mention the boy, which ultimately lead to Darth Vader

- anakin sand ppl

- you'd think Luke and Leia going to Tatooine and killing Jabba would make things better, but according to the Mando TV show everything is still pretty fucked over there

- I guess Rey caused more good than harm by going to Exegol and killing poor old palpatine; it is sad that Kylo had to die, but she forgot him so ig we should too lol

[whomst-the-hell]

how i would rewrite the star wars sequel trilogy except i am not infallible, this is just for fun, leave me alone

this is part actual rewrite outline, part rant, and ive had it sitting in my notes app for like 9 months so here

1. the republic, led by a new senate including leia, is at large. they are not the underdogs. this will not erase the victories of the original trilogy. The first order are a smaller neo-nazi esque terrorist group gaining support across the galaxy which must be stopped before it is able to take root (relevant to modern politics)

2. finn’s storyline in tfa is perfect. we don’t change it. poe is also fine, except instead of being a rebellion (or whatever they were called) pilot he’s in the republic airforce. tbh from memory tfa is fine. i’d maybe make jakku something other than a desert planet so the parallels are a bit less heavy handed, but thats really nitpicky. even kylo was good in this film. so tfa can stay mostly the same EXCEPT finn’s past as a stormtrooper (are they still called stormtroopers?) is not played for laughs, he was not a janitor! (that didnt even make sense after the first scene where he kills a bunch of people? wtf??)

3. the last jedi: the first major problem area. the first order launches an attack, and is receiving information abt republic movements against them somehow, but poe still manages to wrestle a victory out of the encounter, so the higher ups of the republic entrust him to investigate the spyware (it made no fucking sense to be angry w him in the original, he squeezed out a massive victory with relatively minimal losses, so thats changed now). rey is sent to find luke, who has retreated from the republic after kylo slaughtered his padawans. instead of completely erasing all of lukes key traits (kindness, hope, forgiveness) we choose to not do that. luke did not try to kill kylo (forgave darth vader but not a literal child? sure.) and tried to keep him on the path of light but failed, so has retreated to reconnect with the roots of jedi philosophy to better understand the nature of light and dark, perhaps with the hope of still saving his nephew. he has been studying old jedi texts, which we actually spend time on? and are able to learn about?? maybe address some issues of the old jedi order (were curtailed by bureaucracy/senate corruption, and as such were often forced to accept the lesser of two evils instead of being able to do true good ie the situation w the clones, which led in many cases to a rise in the darkside (quinlan, barriss, anakin, etc)). luke still burns the texts with yoda’s encouragement, but swears to apply the knowledge he gained to revitalise the force and its traditions. rey and luke embark on a quest of some kind while she learns so that rey’s entire storyline isnt just babysitting luke, and we see her grow in the force gradually as luke teaches her the things he learned from the jedi texts. sprinkle in clues that rey’s parents were sith (NOT PALPATINE, different sith, it made no fucking sense that her grandfather was palpatine. her parents were sith to contrast kylo and to mirror luke) meanwhile poe, finn and rose, who poe specifically recruited for this mission bc shes a crackshot mechanic but who has interpersonal issues w poe after the dearh of her sister in that first encounter, go to that casino to get the hacker to infiltrate the first order and destroy their spyware. rey also infiltrates the first order after her quest w luke. she and kylo kill snoke, and kylo begins questioning his allegiance (this is NOT ROMANTIC. kylo is a little CREEP and a NEONAZI and WILL NOT GET THE GIRL. rey will not become a plot device in kylos redemption). kylo and luke eventually duel, and luke dies, as a distraction so that republic forces can evacuate civilians who were being held hostage. the republic defeats the group, and vows to eliminate the entire first order, now with the assurance that the first order spyware has been eliminated

4. rise of skywalker: rey finds out abt her sith parents, uses force lightning, causes internal struggle. this movie was truly such garbage that idk what else there is to salvage uhhhh,,, PALPATINE DOES NOT RETURN WTF??? i dont even really want rey’s new sith parents to be introduced… the first order retreats to a hidden sith planet after their defeat in the last movie, kylo takes over the first order entirely maybe?, though he is beginning to question himself, partially because he has a NONROMANTIC (!!!) force bond with rey who he sees learning from his mum leia, filling him with nostalgia and shame at how hes turned out (he is haunted by happy childhood memories lmao) (his redemption is mostly motivated by his parents, and triggered by rey, as a reversal of the luke/vader dynamic). meanwhile, poe+finn+rey are looking for the sith wayfinder to locate the hidden base, which causes various shenanigans, in the typical manner. (this is the A PLOT!!!). they return successful to the republic seat of power to create a plan. kylo leaves his super secret base and seeks out rey with some soldiers (if theyre the knights of ren explain wtf that means bc tbh i dont actually know) to prove to himself his conviction in the darkside but is thrown off by leia’s death at the hands of his soldiers, which triggers more childhood memories and a dream-vision-force-ghost-whatever conversation with the memory of his father. ultimately, he returns to the light and re-becomes ben solo. rey’s internal struggle in the face of her heritage comes to a head as she contemplates killing the unconscious kylo ren, but she senses the good in him, and in honour of both luke and leia + as a demonstration of her own rejection of the dark side, chooses instead to heal him. ben and rey DO NOT KISS EVER, ben joins up w the republic in the final battle to take out the last of the first order — if you still want redemption by death he can sacrifice himself in battle, but i would have him survive and vow to atone for his wrongs after a meaningful conversation with finn about the longstanding nature of redemption via action, eventually tagging along with rey to tatooine where they bury luke and leia’s lightsabers as the new holders of the skywalker legacy, perhaps even accompanied by finn poe and rose, on a mission to do good in the universe, unfettered by institution, working parallel to but not directly under the republic govt, in accordance with luke’s jedi teachings which rey endeavours to share with ben (and maybe finn bc iirc it was implied he was force sensitive so itd really cement their parallels, aswell as the birth of a new jedi order)

5. additional notes:

put more focus on the relationship between rey finn and poe — even when they aren’t physically together have them talk to/about each other, really show that they care and are close friends.

explore the parallels between finn and ben, with finn reaching self actualisation way earlier and acting as a foil to kylo then a guide to ben.

give rey wayyy more agency in the later films, and maintain focus on her and her arc (kylos redemption supports her internal struggle and determination to spread light and goodness, not the other way around) (i realise i talked alot abt kylo’s redemption in this post which might seem contradictory but there was just more to fix there than there was other stuff).

explore the dynamic between rose and poe, the effects of rose’s loss and her overcoming her own resentment to honour her sister’s sacrifice and process her grief, bonding with poe in the process (maybe show her comforting him after leia’s passing) (possibly parallel luke) which will make rose feel less like a superficial character i think.

let finn be a sincere character and not the butt of the joke, and acknowledge his journey and his redemption arc.

dont completely butcher the characters from the og trilogy?

i think thats it yeah

[randomnameless]

Since the new Star Wars will be released in less than a week, I’ve been binge watching some of my favourite episodes...

I’m a bit surprised, but given how the original sixology (? the first 6 episodes) all revolve around a certain character who fell to “the dark side” and then was redeeemed, i couldn’t help but think about a certain game -

Ani’s the chosen one (tm) and knows it.

It goes over his head, makes him arrogant, his descent to madness is kind of gradual but it is well portrayed (unlike his romantic plot) - he really wanted to save the mom he never forgot but was forced to and now his wife is going to die and he must do something to prevent it because he is just so strong isn’t he supposed to be the chosen one (tm)?

Ani murdering children is never whitewashed. Ani, in his madness, tries to kill the one he swore to protect.

Ani doing all the shit he does in Episode III is, and will never be whitewashed

There is this “split-persona” thing where Darth tells Luke that Ani’s dead (just like Obi-Wan says Darth killed Ani) but in the end, we discover that the real Ani never died and there was still some part of him buried inside Darth’s evil looking armor.

(Ani never realising that the force is strong in his daughter when Luke says it is is on par with Princess Julia shenanigans, the plot never wanted it to happen but it had to be mentionned in some weird way)

so yes, at the end of the 6th movie, Ani’s kind of redeemed and appears as a force ghost.

GG Ani?

I thought Ani was a nice parallel to another mask wearing authoritarian character we know.

Granted, Anakin is shown to be subservient to Palpatine (calls him master and does whatever he wants - even if i read on the wiki that he tried to kill him after learning that Padmé died?) when Edel’s not so subservient to her uncle Arry.

Both were manipulated by external forces who are actually the reason why they suffered (even if it is not that simple in Star Wars? You can make the argument that Palpating was nurturing the “asshole” streak of Anakin, but he was still an asshole ?) and choose wrong pathes - Palpatine deceived Anakin into killing Windu and isolated him from the Jedis, Uncle Arry experimented on Edel and is apparently the reason why she’s so lonely and can’t trust anyone, save for Hubert and Billy.

But Anakin is called on his bullshit, by Padmé - the one he sacrificed everything for. Confronting his wife, Ani reacts violently and tries to kill her.

(it is never said why “she died in childbirth” apparently she lost the will to live so bar the WTF YOUR CHILDREN ARE YOU GOING TO LET THEM ALONE BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE??? - I think it’s pretty implied that when Anakin tried to kill her she lost it, she couldn’t save him, she knew he still had “some good left in him” but she knows she isn’t the one able to call to him)

When Ani realises that Padmé and their kid (remember guys, those people can sense pregnant women being alive but not two force sensitive babies inside said pregnant woman, i mean sense a daughter) died he breaks (tries to kill his master?) and becomes the souless husk we see until Luke comes in.

Thing of importance here : Anakin is called on his bullshit.

A certain someone from Fire Emblem’s latest opus is never called on her bullshit, let it be her odd allies, the fact that Kronya used to be a thing, why Jeralt died or the funny experimentations on peasants.

Anakin, angry that his beloved doesn’t react like he planned, kills her (tries to) violently.

He then has to fight his sensei

Billy never tells Edel that nope, Rhea isn’t the Goddess the Church is venerating, the real Goddess lives in their head, or that Edel’s story about Nemesis and the relics is doodoo. Would Edel have reacted violently and tried to kill Billy?

SS plays the scene where sensei has to fight his wayward student as a tragic thing but there is nothing on par with Obi-Wan and Ani’s duel on Mustafa. We’ve seen Obi-Wan raise, as much as he could do, Anakin, who was naught but a brat. We saw them spend time, do missions etc, together. Even share jokes!

Anakin tried to killed Obi-wan, and all of his former allies (the Jedis). He managed to kill (he and Sidious) a crapton of them (even babies!) but the one in front of him he has to kill is his father figure, his mentor.

When Ani “I 8 U” memetic words are heard it’s a parallel to Obi-Wan’s “I thought of you as my brother” “I loved you” - there is no returning point here. Kenobi’s torn - Anakin became their enemy and he dealt with him accordingly (alway being on the defensive and severing his legs after warning him that it was useless to continue) but still showed sadness.

Billy? Is shown to be sad?? But why? Where is the weight? They spend (in SS?) a year together?

Sadly Billy also spent a year with Bernie’n’co and Edel tried to kill them. Was he closer to Edel than to Bernie’n’co? Nothing prevents Billy from reaching supports with the other BE students - so if Edel confessing her torture to Billy could be seen as that big thing for her, why should it be different than, say, Bernie confessing that her dad wanted to make her a good wife, Dorothea more or less confessing that she used her talents to get a place in the academy or Ferdie’s insecurities about being the eldest son of House Aegir?

“But Rhea is an evil baby-eating monster; the church lied to everyone”

Note that Obi-Wan never says that Anakin’s distrust with the Jedi Council is unfounded (during episode III iirc) or that he’s plain wrong.

Obi-Wan considers Anakin dead because he tried to kill Padmé, because he fell to the Dark Side, and because he effing cut babies (i don’t even know if Obi Wan knew about Ani’s role in Mace Windu’s death).

Just because one party did shit it doesn’t enable you to do way worse shit

Morale (one of them?) is that I don’t know Star Wars universe like I pretend to know FE.

But if there is one thing I loved in Episode III and in the subsequent episodes (4 5 6 and even 7 where Ben’s entirely wrong about grandpapa) is that while Darth’s story is a sad story (Palpatine manipulated him), he found his redemption doing the only thing he could, at the cost of his life - saving Luke and embracing his Jedi persona.

And yet, does it absolves Ani of everything he did? Hell no!

Anakin-Darth dies. He doesn’t get to live a fruitful life with his son (and daughter he only discovered in the last minutes of his life despite having meet her earlier), he dies.

Pilling on all of the shit he did deprived him of living the perfect life he envisaged with his wife and Luke (maybe Leia if we insist).

He might not be alone when he dies, he still dies as the empty husk of what he used to be and what he had been for years.

Ani lost everything, but in the end, thanks to his son, he found his jedi pride/self or something like that.

Edel? Doesn’t face consequences of her shit.

So no Sensei trying to kill her, or if Sensei does it’s painted as a tragedy for reasons we don’t really know because, hey, Sensei is also the Sensei of the other BE - there’s no special Edel exclusive bond with Sensei (and no as i said earlier, revealing her tragic backstory in supports doesn’t count, because Bernie and Ferdie did the same thing).

Edel doesn’t lose Sensei, since the loli in Sensei’s head doesn’t see anything wrong with her daughter having been turned into minced meat due to her race and fuses with Billy or some other shit to explain why Sensei’s defective - since birth - hearth suddenly starts beating (is it the moment where Billy realises that shit, without Rhea i’d be a dead baby in the end i owe my life to her?)

Since Edel never loses anything of importance, Edel never learns.

When Edel threatens her nuncle it’s funny, when Anaking turns against Sidious (after having watched the prequels) it’s satisfying and cathartic - finally, Sidious who used to dispose of his minions right and left tastes his own medicine as in, he who betrays must expect some sort of betrayal.

Edel gets to live with her significant other even when she wanted to kill Billy (in the tomb and with the “we don’t need gods anymore” “i’m the vessel of god she kind of fused with me do you mean you don’t need me anymore??” but the last one is never adressed in the game :p) when Anakin has to live with the (distorted) fact that he killed Padmé.

They still share some loltastic moments.

When Ani argues to Windu that Palpatine can’t be executed without a trial, Windu says fig it.

But Anakin never gave a fair trial to count Dooku or to the Tusken Riders he rekt a long time ago (in episode 2)...

TFW due process only concerns senators...

Tl; Dr : Even Anakin, in all of his pear-slicing glory is a better written character than Edel.

[hamliet]

Does so much of our pop culture tries to find redemption for the worst type of people? Characters like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren who are mass murdering fascist end up being absolved their wrong doing through one good deed that ends with their death. They never have to deal with with the hard part of trying to earn forgiveness for their horrific actions.

I think the American culture (if that's what you're referring to by "our pop culture!") doesn't try redemption stories pretty much ever actually. There's Zuko, and Catra, and that's kinda it.

We're a nation founded on distinctly protestant principles--specifically Calvinist ones where people are born for good or for evil and that's it. We don't tell redemption stories; we tell punishment stories and then people get mad so writers throw bones sometimes in terms of garnering sympathy, but the sympathy isn't actually used to mean anything for the story. Or they just kill the character anyways because an eye for an eye, punishment, penal substitutionary atonement theory (which is kind of impossible to overstate the influence that's had on the US culturally and also to overstate how new it is in terms of theology). (I wrote about this here.) Forgiveness is either a tool to punish a victim or a cheap, unrealistic wash.

If a character were to live, they'd have to actually explore the difficult questions about what forgiveness, atonement, and reconciliation mean. Honestly people would then get uncomfortable then because there is no one blanket answer to each individual circumstance and situation. Media literacy is pretty much dead in the US of A, so they'd assume it's a 1=1 to their lives. Can't blame creators for being like "I do not want to open that can of worms." But then they create the media which affects media literacy so I caaaan point to their media and blame it for this (nuance!) I wrote about this here.

Now, I actually like Vader's redemptive death. I think the problem is that everyone and their mother now tries to copy it, and misses the context that made it so emotionally impactful in the first place. No one says Vader's death was bad; everyone says Kylo's was even though they clearly tried to carbon-copy it (but failed, because context). I wrote a meta about this.

Anyways. I have a whole tag for this subject.

[crypticpatterns]

Catra

Ohh this will be fun!! Sorry if there's overlap with Adora, I'm going to assume the people reading this haven't seen my Adora post yet and I talked about Catra a fair bit there.

First Impression

As part of a game with my siblings and cousins we actually watched the season one finale of She Ra first. We decided to choose a random show on Netflix and watch the last episode and try to figure out what was going on in the chaos. As such, my first impression of Catra is based on the season one finale with literally zero context.

First of all, I assumed Catra had defected from the Rebellion, when in fact Adora was the defector.

I immediately picked up on the undertones between Catra and Adora's fighting--these two know each other, used to be very close...and does Catra like Adora? Hmm.

I immediately knew I'd love Catra because I always love the sympathetic villains, and the Catra/Adora dynamic hooked me. I initially theorized Catra was the Horde's second-in-command like Darth Vader is to the Emperor, when funnily enough she doesn't get promoted to that position until the very end of that episode.

Impression Now

I love her!! She's definitely my favorite She-Ra character. She's a baby girl who deserved SO MUCH BETTER and I'm so proud of her for improving and getting better. Her arc through the show is just *chef's kiss* and we stan that redemption arc. Babyyyy

Favorite Moment

Chipped!Catra gives me major gay panic so definitely that, plus it's just...such a good scene oh my gosh. Save the Cat is so good, on my recent rewatch I literally watched it twice in a row and only continued on because I wanted to get to the finale.

And of course her speech at the end to Adora. We stan the character growth. It makes me want to cry every single time.

Idea For A Story

I'm sure many of these already exist, but Adora and Catra raising Finn and learning how to be moms to their kid and not continue the cycle of abuse. (If you know of good fics like this feel free to hit me up.)

A fic going into more detail about Melog's home planet would be pretty cool too.

Unpopular Opinion

Catra's redemption arc was perfect, actually? I dunno how "unpopular" that is. I suppose more specifically, Zuko and Catra's redemption arcs shouldn't be compared as much as they are because they are different characters serving different roles in the narrative with different relationships to the heroes. Catra used to be best friends with Adora while Zuko has no friendships with Team Avatar. Zuko knows his own worth by the time he joins Team Avatar while Catra doesn't. They're just way too different to compare one to one, but the arc we got serve the characters they correspond to perfectly.

Favorite Relationship

Catradora, but since I already went into that in my Adora post, I'll get into my second-favorite relationship -- Catra and Scorpia.

Catra and Scorpia have a very dysfunctional relationship because Catra is unable to show or accept love thanks to her trauma, and there are only brief moments where she reciprocates Scorpia's kindness. To see them finally bond in the Crimson Waste only for Catra to immediately backtrack once she finds out Shadow Weaver left her for Adora is heartwrenching because Scorpia deserves so much better and we only want what's best for her, but we also feel bad for Catra despite the terrible things she does.

When Scorpia finally leaves (good for her!) it's heartbreaking to see Catra's reaction to her last friend leaving her. It's Catra's fault, but we know that Scorpia was all she had left in the world and to lose her makes her feel all the more worthless and spiral deeper into despair and self-destruction.

I would have liked to see a proper reunion between these two, preferably one where they don't explicitly reconcile immediately, but I understand the show had a LOT to juggle in the final season and Scorpia was chipped for the majority of the second half, so there wasn't much of an opportunity for that.

Favorite Headcanon

Any headcanon that incorporates some aspect of Catra being a cat is S-tier content. For example, her coming when Adora says pspspsps.

Send me a character (spop or otherwise) and I'll tell you what I think of them! Anon asks are open <3

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Ep 17 part one

(Masterpost of all the rewatches) (Canary’s pinboard of original content)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Inaccessible

Wei Wuxian hides in a boat among the lotuses next to a pier in Lotus Pier, the second-most-literally-named home in the show, after The Burial Mounds. This pier has a railing that goes all the way around it, without any ladders or anything. Not to be ADA on main but this means if you can't Jedi jump, you're fucked.  

Hefeng Liquor

While Wei Wuxian waits and tries, not very successfully, to keep his shit together, he hears the guards talking about the local booze that they're going to drink at their murder victory party. We learn, in a desaturated flashback (that OP has done her best to resaturate), that this is lotus-infused wine invented by Wei Wuxian during happier days. 

He kicks the flashback off with his favorite activity, Unnecessarily Erotic Beverage Drinking. (gifset) I’ve slowed this gif down so we can all appreciate the unnecessariness. The way his hand caresses that leaf OMG

Hopefully he is not drinking lake water out of that leaf. Side note: How is it possible that Xiao Zhan doesn't have a drinking water endorsement deal? I had to resort to Zhu Yilong's brand of water for this gag. I figure if it's good enough to pour directly onto a lightning burn like they do in The Lost Tomb Reboot, it's good enough for a leaf hummer chastely drinking out of a leaf

(more behind the cut!)

In his memory, Jiang Cheng tells him to stop fucking around and come help with the basket of lotus pods. Wei Wuxian responds by grabbing one for himself and then sitting his ass down and not helping. Cause he’s a motherfucking P.I.M.P.

Emotional Rescue

Wen Ning arrives on the pier with Jiang Chang, to Wei Wuxian's extreme relief. Look how much emotion Xiao Zhan is able to convey even with half of his face hidden, my lord.

Wen Ning carries Jiang Cheng on his back, in an echo of other significant piggyback rides in Wei Wuxian's life.  

Wei Wuxian's relief is at war with his fear, seeing his brother in such bad shape. Remember, these are cultivators, who heal quickly and mostly don't get their asses beat this hard. The only time Wei Wuxian has been comatose was after the Xuanwu cave, and that was probably because of his prolonged contact with resentful energy/Yin iron.

Hibernating Zidian

Wen Ning gets ready for his first, but not his last, boat ride with an unconscious Yunmeng brother in it. He tells Wei Wuxian that Jiang Cheng is pretty fucked up but isn't dead.

Then he gives Zidian to him. Before we talk about Zidian, let's talk about BAMF Wen Ning.  Wen Ning is an awkward goofball. He’s also insanely competent at just about everything--wine-drugging, dude-smuggling, corpse retrieval, dog acupuncture, drug pushing. As well as shooting rocks out of the air and, later, beating zombie ass, and resisting mind control. . 

This is the foundation of their friendship; it’s not actually about Wei Wuxian being nice to the weird kid. He initially sought Wen Ning out for the same reason he sought out weird kid Lan Wangji--his martial skill. He accepts his weirdness and is protective of him because of his missing-spirit problem, but he did not befriend him out of altruism.

Wei Wuxian is so forgiving that he can smile fondly when looking at the weapon that whipped the shit out of him a couple of days ago.

Wei Wuxian puts Zidian down right next to Jiang Cheng's hand and...nothing happens. It doesn't recognize him or spark to life. This didn't seem meaningful when I watched it the first time, but rewatching...yikes. It KNOWS.

Wei Wuxian admits, with tears in his eyes, that there is nowhere safe for him to go with Jiang Cheng, and Wen Ning immediately offers care and shelter. Even though that is putting his own life at serious risk.

Life obligation is a common theme in CDramas. It’s often something a person chooses as a way of showing love. Guardian builds an eternal romance out of two people saving each other’s lives over and over.  But accepting the obligation is a choice (in fantasy dramas, if not in real life). Love and Redemption has a gloriously harsh sequence where a life is saved, and the save-ee cooly rejects the saver.

Every time Wen Ning saves Wei Wuxian, he cites that one time that Wei Wuxian saved him from the water demon. And Wei Wuxian cites this rescue right here when he throws everything away to save Wen Ning. Meanwhile, Jiang Cheng doesn't acknowledge any debt to Wen Ning at all, only--grudgingly--to Wen Qing. And people are ok with that.

Basically all this is to say that I think Wen Ning leans into this life debt because he loves Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian leans into it because he loves him back. Non-romantically, I think...at least on Wei Wuxian’s part. YMMV.

They go to pick up Yanli from their Granny, telling her to go into hiding. She starts to cry, not knowing how she'll manage on her own. Wei Wuxian tells her that they will come back, as Wen Ning looks super unsure about that.

Of course Wei Wuxian can't know, at this point, whether they will come back. Wei Wuxian always wants to make everybody feel better, and sometimes you really can't make someone feel better except by lying. He compulsively says shit that he thinks people want to hear, almost as if he was beaten frequently and arbitrarily as a child.

Wen Ning is doing his best for the recreational boat ride industry, as he rows the Yunmeng trio through some amazingly beautiful scenery.

Core Melting Time

Meanwhile, back at Lotus Pier The Yunmeng Supervisory Office, Wen Chao is hung over, Wen Chao is angry, Yawn

For some reason, Wang Lingjiao has suddenly decided to talk to Wen Chao in the most cloying and annoying way possible. 

Also, the fact that she still addresses him as Gongzi when she is totally fucking him is kind of great. This is like those fics where Elizabeth Bennet calls Mr. Darcy "Mr. Darcy" even when they're married and hitting it. 

Wen Zhuliu demonstrates why he's called Core-Melting Hand, by punishing the wine guard. He's able to melt a guy's core by grabbing him by the throat, and also picks him up, Darth Vader style, for extra meltyness.

All that stuff I said last time about Wen Zhuliu feeling ambivalent about being a villian...yeah, he seems to have gotten that right out of his system. 

Chilling in Yiling

Wen Ning is doing his best for the recreational carriage ride industry.  Wei Wuxian, after presumably several hours in the cart, decides that now is a good time to get curious about where they are going. 

Here we start to see a new side of Wei Wuxian.  Before this he was carefree, other than specific worries about his friends. He confronted danger with lightness and humor, or with temporary fear, that he let go of once the danger passed. Now, after all the deaths and seeing Jiang Cheng so injured, he's twitchy, anxious, and angry.

Very, very angry.

When he realizes that Wen Ning has brought them to the Yiling supervisory office, he goes off, demanding to know whose home this was before the Wens took it and grabbing Wen Ning and shoving him into a decorative...decoration.  He thinks Wen Ning brought them here to harm them. 

I wouldn't have thought such a pretty dude could be so menacing, but holy crap.

The way he's confronting Wen Ning here is not his normal style. He's not trying to provoke a bigger fight like he usually does; he's not trying to create distance, the way Jiang Cheng does. He's very intimate, getting right in his face and maintaining eye contact. He trusted Wen Ning and feels personally betrayed.  

Shy little Wen Ning is remarkably calm when confronted like this. Wen Ning really isn’t afraid of anything, despite his general air of nervousness. (Full gifset of Angry WWX over here.) 

He calmly and kindly explains the situation. He doesn't appeal to Wei Wuxian's trust, saying "oh I would never;" he appeals to his logic, which gets through to him. 

Wen Qing comes out and the guards start banging on the door and Wei Wuxian flips out again, grabbing a sword and pointing it at Wen Qing as she decides what to do.  Wen Qing seems unruffled by Wei Wuxian's sword pointing, and we see her weighing up the situation.

She makes her decision, sending the guards away and deciding to help the fugitives, officially joining the Clear Conscience Club. She could probably get Wen Ning out of trouble by turning them in, but she opts to put personal loyalty and her belief in her own ideals ahead of her family's safety.

Wei Wuxian is not ok. He’s just not ok. He tries to act like it after they get settled in with Wen Qing, but he's not, and I think that plays into his next several choices. 

Next comes a whole sequence of Jiang Cheng being unconscious with pins in his head--ow--while Wei Wuxian twitchily tends to him. 

This sequence is kind of unfair to Jiang Yanli. What matters to the story here is Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's relationship, so that’s the focus of these scenes. But really, there is no way Jiang Yanli would not be at Jiang Cheng's side unless she was literally unconscious herself. Let's assume Wen Qing stuck a needle in her to make her rest while she has a fever. Shippers should also feel free to assume that Wen Qing spent hours at her bedside, tenderly wiping her forehead and holding her hand as she recovered. In his sleep, while Wei Wuxian sits by his side, Jiang Cheng calls for his sister, mother, and father, but not for his brother. Ouch.  

Let's pause to appreciate Wei Wuxian's new outfit, which is the sort of getup most people in this society probably imagine Yiling Laozu wearing, rather than the low-key homespun stuff he actually spends his Yiling year in. This robe has fancy shoulders, shiny material, touches of Jiang purple, strange red hoody strings, and a fuckin' CAPE. He didn't bring any luggage with him from Lotus Pier, although he's still got his Yin Turtle Sword hidden in a bag of holding. So the most likely explanation is that Wen Ning hooked him up with this lewk. "Wei Wuxian is a nice person. He should have a magnificent cape."

Wen Wing and Wei Wuxian take a breather to stand on the porch and work out what their status is with each other, like a couple of fucking adults, which is amazing. Basically Wei Wuxian is ready to forget earlier Wen shenanigans, but is going to avenge Lotus Pier. 

Wen Qing isn't enthusiastic about that but doesn't argue, just asking, mostly rhetorically, if he plans to kill her too. He's uncomfortable considering that; the role of avenger isn't one that's comfortable for him, although he turns out to be extremely good at it. He does not, of course, plan to kill her too. In a few months, imprisoned in a Wen dungeon, she will be the only Wen left alive after Wei Wuxian 1.5(No-Gold Edition) and Chenqing come to visit.

Jiang Cheng finally wakes up, and the first thing he does is to test out his spiritual power by hitting Wei Wuxian as hard as he can. 

DUDE.

Look at Wei Wuxian's face, as he goes from happy, to shocked and hurt, to laughing it off. It's exactly like when Jiang Cheng shoved him in the Rock Lady temple. Has Wei Wuxian spent all of his years with Jiang Cheng going from affection, to hurt feelings, to pretending it's fine? God, I think he probably has.

This episode raises a question that will come up again later, but never be answered. That question is, what the fuck are these weird footies and why the fuck does Jiang Cheng wear them to bed?

Jiang Cheng reveals that his golden core is gone, that he can't cultivate any more, which means he can't avenge his parents or achieve any ambitions in life. Nobody has apparently given any thought to why Wen Zhuliu is called "Core-Melting Hand" before this, which is hilarious, frankly. If I fought with a guy called, for example, Brain-Eating Mouth, I think I would make certain assumptions about him and what he planned to do with my brain.

Something interesting is happening in this moment, because as he comes fully back to consciousness, Jiang Cheng pours out all of his trauma and horror to his brother, telling him about the core melting and practically wailing about his feelings over it all. And his brother understands, and ultimately finds a way to help him. What does Wei Wuxian do after his own trauma? Keeps it secret, so nobody finds a way to help him, although many people try to. So Jiang Cheng is, in this way at least...emotionally healthier than Wei Wuxian? That's unexpected.

Jiang Cheng is super upset and is mad at eternal scapegoat Wei Wuxian for saving him. Jiang Cheng would rather be dead than be a regular person. Whereas Wei Wuxian, faced with the same problem, is like, *shrug* I’ll adapt. These are both valid emotional responses to suddenly becoming disabled. Losing a golden core is definitely a disability, in this environment; it's not just about magic sword fights. Jiang Cheng's home is designed for people who can fly; Lan Wangji's home is designed for people who don't feel cold, and Wen Central is made of actual lava, for example. 

Jiang Cheng is already struggling with a lot of difficulties. He was raised by shitty parents, he's got anger management issues, he has a crushing weight of responsibility. And now he's also lived through the deaths of most of the people who matter to him. If sword cultivation is the one thing that gives him joy in life (ok one of two things, obviously fashion also gives him joy because he WORKS it), he can't reasonably be expected to rally when it's taken away.  

Oh, honey. Oh, baby boy. 

Wen Qing picks the worst moment to come in and tries to tend to Jiang Cheng, who starts off being devastated that the girl he likes is seeing the wreck he's become, and then moves along to helpless rage when he remembers that she's a Wen, and he screams at her to get out.  

Jiang Cheng is not able to put personal loyalty ahead of clan loyalty like Wei Wuxian is. Partly this is his nature, and partly it's his role as the lineal descendant of the clan leader. As a firstborn son of a gentry family, his destiny as clan leader is in his blood, and so is his responsibility to the clan. When Wei Wuxian praises Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen for caring less about bloodlines than about shared ambition, he is speaking from the position of someone who's bloodline ain't shit. Jiang Cheng will never be able to share that perspective.

Next: More of this excruciating episode!

Writing prompt: The Day I Discovered I Could Melt Your Fucking Core, by Wen Zhuliu Drabble prompt: Why I Wear Socks to Bed, by Jiang Cheng

[hothian-snow]

The Jedi are colonisers. Period.

It is obvious in SWTOR that the Jedi has strayed from their main purpose. Instead of simply adhering to and advocating for the philosophies of the light (encouraging the pursuit of knowledge, creating harmony in the galaxy etc), the Jedi has shifted their focus to become a reactionary force. Rather than promoting the light, they have chosen to destroy the dark.

Except, in my opinion, the force doesn’t work like that. Dousing out a flame will not create more water. Killing the dark will not bring you more light. The mindset that the dark is something that can be destroyed has permeated the beliefs of the Jedi, leading to the rise of ‘warriors’ among the Jedi ranks. And yet, Jedi are supposed to be peacekeepers. It’s the ultimate oxymoron: fighting for peace. You do not bring about peace by waging war. The fact that the Jedi have a title of ‘Battlemaster’ says a lot.

What irks me is the philosophy of Master Gnost-Dural. Below is a quote by him.

“But the Sith are another matter entirely. Even if the Empire falls, the followers of the dark side will continue to exist in hiding. That is why I have devoted myself to studying the Sith. I am determined to find a way to cleanse the galaxy of their corrupting influence, putting an end to the eternal struggle between the light and dark sides of the Force.”

As a POC, the word ‘cleanse’ reminds me too much of ethnic cleansing. It should be noted that Sith here isn’t just Palpatine and Darth Vader like in the Rule of Two Era- there is a whole civilization, an entire culture of Sith. Yes, the dark corrupts, but so does the zealous light which blinds. A fervent belief in the light blinds the Jedi to seeing that their enemies are people too. And not only is it implied that Gnost-Dural is advocating for genocide (something which certainly has happened before), but he willing to push other Jedi who are tired of fighting - who are traumatized and clearly suffering from PTSD - to go to war against the Sith once more. Task Force Nova isn’t a step towards peace.

Now, Master Tol Braga is an interesting case study. Below is a quote from the Jedi Knight storyline.

We’ll capture the Sith leader, bring him to Tython… and redeem him to the light side of the Force. A perfect victory. Defeating the Sith through violence accomplishes nothing. We must embrace them as our own.

Master Tol Braga’s idea of defeating the Sith is certainly less insidious than that of Master Gnost-Dural’s. Tol Braga is a genuine advocate for peace: a peace that speaks of harmony, not just a peace caused by a lack of conflict. He is the man who talked down a Dark Council member and turned a Sith into a Jedi through discussion and debate (along side some sparring, of course). However, the word choice still makes me uneasy. Redemption implies a fall, an inherent wrongness that must be corrected. Embracing the Sith as their own is a beautiful statement, but also a double edged sword. Assimilation sometimes result in a lost of culture; ask any immigrant how bittersweet it could be.

Is it possible though for the Sith to acknowledge the light without losing the dark that makes up their identity? Could there be a sincere middle ground between the Jedi and Sith?

I hope there is.

Recall this conversation between Gnost-Dural and Lana Beniko:

Gnost Dural: Intriguing, I suppose the Sith code never specifically calls for the usurpation of the master by the apprentice- merely the pursuit of greater power

Lana Beniko: Precisely. It’s only natural that the strongest should lead, but the goal should be strength- not necessary leadership. If one is truly strong, leadership comes inevitably.

These two are coming to some kind of understanding, that the dark side is not always vile, that the Sith code does not translate to evilness. Although, I feel like Gnost-Dural would probably view Lana as being an exception to the rule rather than how Siths generally are. He’s not wrong in that regard, but there are good Siths in the Empire who were good even before they consciously chose to step into the light. Take Lord Praven as an example. Praven is a war criminal. His actions have led to the painful death of countless people, and nothing excuses that. However, he does have a code of honor which was present in him long before he was ‘redeemed’ to the light side.

Friendship between Sith and Jedi is possible too, see Kira and Scourge as an example. If the Jedi could acknowledge that being a Jedi does not mean one is inherently good (otherwise, why all the training to control your emotions?), then in the same sense, the Jedi could and should understand that being a Sith does not mean that one is inherently bad. I believe that there can only be genuine peace only when such an understanding occur between the Sith and Jedi. I believe that both the Sith and Jedi should work with one another, learn from each other, in order to better themselves.

[sheikah]

So I just finished reading Shadow and Bone and am having a lot of feelings. I want to climb aboard the Darklina ship but I was very surprised by the route the book went (with him in particular). Is he a redeemable character? Her and Mal bore me to death but the Darkling is...kind of terrifying. But I also kind of love him. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think whether or not he’s redeemable is a really subjective question. For me he was a relatively mild villain, at least stacked up alongside others I’ve loved in the past like Darth Vader lol. I can tell you right now that morally, the Darkling does not get better in the trilogy. I won’t say anything specific so as not to spoil you. But if anything, he gets worse. That being said, his character is further explored in the King of Scars duology, which in my opinion gives a more definitive answer to the possibility of his redemption. My personal opinion is that yes, he is redeemable; but that’s not really what makes me ship it so much.

Darklina is very much a lovers-to-enemies ship. They start off the way you see them in book one and then remain enemies throughout the rest of the trilogy. But that doesn’t mean they don’t meet and have romantically charged moments. The intensity of their short time together at the Little Palace in S&B echoes across the rest of the trilogy and infuses their meetings--even ones in the context of literal battles--with angst and yearning. They kiss and embrace more than once over the course of the last two books. But he does a lot of horrific things, too. 

For me the villain/heroine dynamic is the entire draw. If he was someone who Alina met, saw as her counterpart, and then lived with happily ever after, this ship wouldn’t interest me nearly as much as it does. I like the conflict of it. I like that on paper they’d be perfect for one another. As Ben Barnes constantly says, they’re like one another’s yin and yang. They have a magical bond and connection, on top of an emotional connection that took even the Darkling himself by surprise. Yet because he won’t flinch from his ideals and will achieve his ends through ANY means, Alina can’t reconcile a relationship with him. But that doesn’t stop her from responding to their physical chemistry, and doesn’t stop her from recognizing the glimpses of tenderness under his vicious and jaded exterior. And that kind of star-crossed, impossible romance--where they both want the other and both know it simply cannot be--is just my bread and butter. 

And as with many similar ships, I think for the fandom a lot of the appeal comes from the potential. There is more Darklina fanfic than any other pairing in this fandom for a reason. I think exploring in fanon how he could potentially be brought around by Alina in the long term is very interesting. Similarly I think a lot of us like exploring how Alina would be different if she were instead more influenced to his side. So exploring possible futures that diverge from canon is definitely part of it.

Oh, and another thing that gave me a lot of insight into his character and definitely contributed to my die-hard love for him is reading “Demon in the Wood,” the Darkling prequel story. Imo it’s a must if you’re even a little bit interested in how he became the person he is by the time he meets Alina, and whether or not any goodness still resides in his heart.

[artsy0wl]

Maul: A Broken Evil Retrospective

On a Star Wars Amino I’m in, I had made an introspective on why I feel that Maul, while he is a villain is not whole heartedly evil, but broken.  I took from said Amino post, with a few needed edit tweaks.

Chaotic Evil

Of course given the fact he was a Sith and some of the decisions he’s made, I don’t completely want to negate that in this discussion. If we were to use the alignment chart (lawful good, true neutral, chaotic evil, etc), he would probably fit best in Neutral Evil. From my understanding, Maul would fit Neutral Evil as a lot if what he does has to do with benefiting himself. Even if that means using allies (i.e. Ezra initially) and potentially betraying them (i.e. blinding Kanan once the Inquisitors were dealt with). He’ll follow things as he needs and can be calculating when he needs (like his take over of Mandalore). He’s not spontaneous enough or lacks enough restraint to be Chaotic Evil (like the Joker for instance), nor is he as calculating and “lawful” to be Lawful Evil (like say Thrawn and/or Palpatine). With that said, I’d agree that Maul has a darkness/evil in him considering all of the things he’s done. Obviously, he’s not winning any hero points by killing people like Qui Gon and Satine or blinding and attempting to kill Kanan. 

Onto why I feel he’s broken.

Palpatine: Taken From a Young Age and Molded into what Sidious Wanted

Whether it be Talzin offering Maul as a child in Canon or his mother giving Palpatine Maul as a baby in Legends (Darth Plagueis), Maul was caught in a situation that he really didn’t have much control over. Granted, his life may not have been much better on Dathomir, given how the Nightsisters used their male counterparts, but there’s no telling what kind of life he could have had, had he not been handed over to Palpatine. Maul was molded into a weapon as Darth Sidious’ apprentice. And Maul spent most of his younger years being molded into what Sidious wants. Only to be “cast aside” when he is presumed dead. With Sidious being his only form of human contact/interaction, it’s fair to say that Maul feels a level of rejection/abandonment by the only person he had a bond with.

However, rather than having a level of depression because of it, he’s angry about it. For him that seems to be a common response, along with hatred and arrogance (the latter of which was used to explain how he survived the Phantom Menace). Sidious created a weapon out of Maul. And with that, a character with no real coping mechanism or knowing how to let things go.

A lot of, if not all of, Maul’s issues can be linked back to Sidious in some way. Sidious isn’t exactly Mentor of the Year material. Especially with Maul.  Though that could be chopped up to him being a Sith and very manipulative.  He wasn’t the kindest person to the Zabrak pre or post Phantom Menace (both in canon and Legends). Either way, a lot of Maul’s issues are a direct result of Palpatine’s involvement in his life.

If it weren’t for Sidious, Maul would have a normal life (or whatever that would equate to on Dathomir). He would have had his family, would have been more level headed and maybe less cocky, and he wouldn’t have enraged abandonment issues. The amount of grief, trauma, and hatred would be vastly different

Family: He Lost a Brother and a Mother

Let’s be real, thanks to Sidious, Maul’s lost a brother and a mother (two brothers when you count Feral, though he never got to meet him). By the time Savage came around in Clone Wars, we got to see Maul sort of build his character more than say the Phantom Menace (the novels did too, but I can’t say that everyone’s read them). We also get to see Maul exhibit more emotion where, again, the movie lacks as well as the introduction of his family, Mother Talzin, Feral, and Savage. And while Maul may not have been what you’d call an “affectionate” brother, he does care for Savage to the best of his ability.

Their deaths still haunted him years after the events of the Prequel Trilogy and Clone Wars. These deaths stuck with him psychologically to the point that he is still effected by it in Rebels. Which in turn, may have contributed some to him wanting Ezra as an apprentice (among other factors).

Torture After Loss

In Son of Dathomir after Maul tries to get back at Sidious, he is captured after his last battle with Sidious in Clone Wars (season 5). It starts off with Maul being interrogated and tortured by Sidious. He makes it through without faltering and escapes with the help of the Shadow Collective. That being said, we never really get to see where his mindset is. During Son of Dathomir, he gets a lot done, capturing Dooku and Grievous (taunting Sidious and working with Dooku to fight Obi Wan and a few other Jedi before escaping). However, we don’t get to see the mental toll Savage’s death here. Though with everything going on, I guess there wasn’t time.

Now the reason I bring this up, is because part of me felt like I should and the timing. Prior to Son of Dathomir, Maul had recently lost Savage. At the end, he loses his mother. The torture and the scheming in between shows how he didn’t catch a break. And while he was able to stay strong when he had to, they never really explored how the torture effected him, which one would think he would have been.

Obsession, Insanity, Arrogance: Maul’s Faults

I do feel like I address this point. I’ve already kind of touched on his anger and arrogance (synonymously with cockiness). While training Maul, Sidious didn’t consider how arrogant he had let the Zabrak become (according to Darth Plagueis, the novel). This has Maul’s Achilles Heel since the Phantom Menace. While having a healthy dose of pride never hurt anyone, a healthy dose, Maul dose not possess.

His obsession with getting Obi Wan and Sidious is another issue. This really only pops up after his apparent death in Phantom Menace. Because after that point, Maul finds out that he was replaced by Sidious (with Dooku) and that he was bested by a mere Padawan (Obi Wan). I feel like this obsessive tendency is a combination of his feelings of abandonment and having his ego damaged.

And of course, I feel like Maul’s roughly decade long battle with insanity really didn’t help his psyche. While his sanity was restored thanks to Mother Talzin and Savage, I do feel like that’s caused more harm than good. Something like that had to feel draining after getting his sanity restored. He was sitting on a trash planet and on his own. Along with not having anything from the waist down and forced to manage with what he had. Hatred may have helped keep him alive, but his psyche during those ten years didn’t.

He has a lot of internal conflict in an emotional and mental sense. Unfortunately, these negative emotions, obsession and pride especially, cause him more harm than good.

The Ezra Bond: Feeling a Need to Replicate a Connection, Even if He Approaches it Incorrectly

By the time Rebels rolls around, Maul is older and calmer (though still proud). Obviously, he still wants to get back at the Empire for what they (more specifically Sidious) did to him. And at first, Ezra seemed like someone that he could use. This is an element that is prevalent, however, not the only aspect of their relationship.

According to Sam Witwer, Maul’s VA, Maul did have a (platonic) fondness for Ezra. And on top of wanting to make Ezra his apprentice, Maul wanted to emulate a sense of brotherhood between him and Ezra. For example, his phrase in Visions and Voices when Maul says “...We can walk that path together. As friends. As brothers.” How he said it shows how he does miss Savage and wants that family back.

That being said, how he approached this connection could be seen as manipulative and more than likely one sided.  Sure, over the course of Twilight of the Apprentice, Ezra grows on Maul, to the point where Maul wants to make him his apprentice and has an appreciation for Ezra. However, his pride and lack of planning cause a rift between them and there was a lot of mistrust on Ezra’s part, not that one could blame him.

Subsequent episodes show that Maul is hellbent on making Ezra his apprentice through any means possible. 

Maul lost Savage and Talzin, and Ezra was one of the first few people to trust him in years.  I think it’s safe to say that, in Maul’s mind, Ezra gave him a sense of belonging or connection.

Maul’s need for a connection could be interpreted as him trying to find something good in life. However, manipulative tendencies and how he was brought up, hinder him doing that in a healthy and positive way. With Savage, he didn’t need to do anything as they both had a similar plan when they met (Savage being indoctrinated into the ways of the Sith). But subsequent relationships (i.e. Ezra), Maul is at a bit of a disadvantage emotionally and morally. 

Sure, he could relate to Ezra since they both lost people they care for because of the Empire (and by extent Sidious), but manipulation and harming Ezra’s allies hinder a smoother connection. Even if a force bond was eventually made. Ezra, arguably, could have been what he needed for what he wanted and a possible change/redemption/blank slate only for things not to entirely go as plan.

Could Maul Have Something Along the Lines of PTSD?

Now, I could do a mini theory about this as I’ve speculated that with another character before. It’d be an interesting way to look at Maul’s psychology. It’s one last little avenue I thought I’d address before closing this post out. Of course, it’s worth noting that I am not a Psychology major (as interesting as psychology is). I have, however, done some research.

I do believe that Maul, to some degree, may have PTSD. But instead of exhibiting panic/anxiety, depression or easily startled, Maul has more aggressive tendencies and is easy to anger. He still lives with the trauma of the death of his brother (and mother) and flashbacks of that and other events in his life, I’m sure he’d be effected by.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while I certainly think that Maul is no hero, his life experiences certainly effected what kind of person he became. Being raised as a weapon, abandoned, and tortured would bring any normal person way down. And because that was all Maul knew, I don’t think that entirely means he’s evil. Rather, he’s a character who’s been used and abused to the point that he’s mentally and psychologically broken. Unfortunately, that effects his life in ways that make him arrogant, hateful and obsessive. And when he tries to build bonds later in life, he doesn’t know how to in a way that, while laced in trauma, has manipulative and one sided undertones.

That being said, I feel like I should round out this introspective with a little positive. While he’s definitely been through a lot, Maul is pretty resilient all things considered. He’s cheated death and managed to live through a lot of abuse. The fact that he could keep bouncing back shows just hoe resilient and determined the character is.

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

So I've seen some reylos defend Kylo Ren's redemption arc because they say that we should be more open to characters getting redeemed in stories. It made me wonder, what do you think defines a good redemption arc and which characters are allowed to be redeemed?

That is a really complicated question.

Redemption arcs are always personalize to the character.  A childhood bully is going to have a very different kind of redemption arc to a war criminal.

I do think there is a way to reform most characters, but in order to make it satisfying the character themselves has to be interesting.  Reforming a Saturday morning, purely evil villain doesn’t work unless you put in the leg work to make them more nuanced.

I think when people say they’re tired of reforming villains, it all comes down to the writers not putting the leg work to make the villains nuanced characters.  They just slapped on a tragic backstory and called it a day, not taking into account how their actions have effected the world and other characters.  It sends a message to the audience that no matter how much a person has hurt you, so long as they say they’re sorry, you should forgive them, which is a dangerous lesson.  You’re not required to forgive people.  And you’re especially not required to forgive people if they don’t make any real effort to make up for the pain they’ve caused you.

As for Kylo Ren specifically, his redemption was doomed to fail from the word go.

It is very obvious from the first moment that he takes off his helmet, that Abrams is going for a Zuko style redemption arc.  He’s a character who we see making bad decisions and are supposed to be rooting for him to wake up and realize he’s going down a dark path. 

But, here’s the problem.

We don’t know who Ben Solo is.  With Darth Vader, we are told that Anakin Skywalker was once a kind and powerful Jedi.  We then get the Prequels and The Clone Wars to expand on who he was before.  In Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get “The Storm” which shows Zuko being a wide-eyed child who is willing to stand up for others.

We never get to meet Ben Solo.  We don’t know who he was as a Jedi.  We’re never told what kind of student he was.  We don’t meet any former friends.  We have nothing.  The only reason we’re rooting for Ben to come back to the light is because we don’t want Kylo Ren ruining the happy ending of the characters we do care about, namely Luke, Leia, and Han.  And that’s not enough reason to care.

We also never see why he went to the dark side.  We are told Luke felt darkness rising in him, but we’re never shown what exactly that darkness was.  All we know is that there was some darkness in Ben, Luke tried to kill him, and then Ben was like “well, guess I’m evil now”.  And I don’t want to hear any of you say, “well in the novelization” or “in the comic” or “if you listen to the commentary” or any of that bullshit.  We are looking at the movies and movies alone.  And in the movies, we don’t get any motivation as to why Ben fell to the dark side and without the insight into why he’s evil, there is no solid foundation on which to reverse it. 

With Darth Vader, he turned to the darkside in a last ditch attempt to save his wife.  And when everyone he had known was dead, all he had was Palpatine.  So, his redemption comes with saving his son’s life.

With Zuko, we see how messed up his childhood is.  His father burned his face off and banished him on a fool’s errand.  We see that the Firelord has no love for Zuko, so his redemption comes only after Zuko realizes this and knows he has to make it right. 

Ben doesn’t get anything, which leads me to a key point in what redemption arcs always need; suffering.

We need to see these characters atone for their actions.

For Zuko, it’s renouncing his throne and going to help the Avatar, which include a number of episodes with individual characters of the squad allowing time for him to bond with each of them.  Not to mention his years of exile, face burning, and just getting his ass kicked by the world in general.

Darth Vader’s redemption comes at the cost of his life.  There was no other way he could be redeemed after killing so many.

Now some of you may be saying, “but Ben died to save Rey doesn’t that mean he suffered?” To which I say; no.

Zuko had to go through seasons of suffering before realizing the error of his ways and then fighting to change it.  Darth Vader was turned into a monster before finding his humanity again and coming back to the light.

Ben has been large and in charge of the First Order.  We never see him really suffer at the hands of Snoke or anyone else.  And he changes his mind after one two sentence conversation with his ghost dad.  Again, since we don’t know what turned him to the darkside in the first place, his moment of revelation of the evil that he’s done never hits home.

His dying and apparent love for Rey comes out of fucking no where, with no tie to his redemption or anything else. 

His redemption arc is completely empty, void of any meaning. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

And if you don’t believe me Reylo shippers who I am sure have read every word of this post, I leave you with this little test. 

Picture, in your mind, Danny DeVito. 

Now, picture Danny DeVito, playing Kylo Ren, including that final kiss at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.

Does Kylo Ren’s redemption arc feel narratively satisfying now?

[ghostlycreatoruniverse]

This is not Dabi’s end yet: Touya and Anakin Skywalker

In last days I read that Dabi is basically over: he’s narrative purpose is fulfilled and now he could even go out with a bang in a blaze of glory.

I partially agree with this: we finally got to see part of his backstory and who he really is and now that Dabi considers himself satisfied he hasn’t much left to do. So he might as well... die here.

On the other hand this would reduce consistently Todorokis drama. In fact the role of an hero is to save and to win; as things are now, Dabi is ready to kill and thus Shoto hasn’t much choice in the matter.

Instead if Dabi were to survive Shoto will have to face the brutal dilemma with his own family. Dabi is a villain and has to be put down somehow, but they are brothers after all; can he really kill his own brother despite it all? Or maybe it’s worthy trying to incapacitate and save him?

Because this is the very core of being an hero. Doing the right choice. Being an icon. As matter of fact this ideology is brought up by Stain into the extreme: many heroes during this arc went for a kill, while All Might despite how he felt hadn’t even tried to kill All for One nor he demanded it. he even felt guilty towards Shigaraki and was desperate about him.

Having Dabi dying now would mean that Shoto has no choice in the process (Dabi has the upper hand, if he wants to kill he can as he likes; and he will) and the only reasonable outcome would be for him to go all along. That would mean legitimate defence and the Todorokis will end their purpose. Instead having him sticking around would mean for Shoto to go and face his family in the try of choose what to do when he will meet up with Dabi again.

This is something that was already seen in a very known franchise: Star Wars.

It’s common knowledge that Horikoshi loves Star Wars and in general and My hero academia contains lots of reference to it.

Even Touya’s old jumpsuit had a logo that resemble Rebel Alliance’s one. So I started to think about it, being a huge nerd of Star Wars myself.

All for One’s helmet greatly remind of Darth Vader’s; however his role is much closer to Senator Palpatin aka the Emperor. In fact Palestine sired many heirs like Darth Maul (The Phantom’s Menace), count Dooku/ Darth Tyranus (Attack of the clones) and the most known Anakin Skywalker, later known as Darth Vader.

I don’t think a precise parallel can be done, but it was specified that Darth Maul was kind of adopted and groomed by Darth Sidious/ Palpatine from a very young age. And we can even see that Palpatine baptise someone with their Sith name. So we can expect that Shigaraki Tomura’s birth wasn’t that different than Darth Maul’s.

Back to Dabi instead, his Star Wars parallel is tied to one of the most iconic identity revelation in the cinema history: Dart Vader telling Luke he is his father.

As I mentioned, you can see the Rebel alliance’s symbol on Touya jumpsuit; and in fact the Rebel Alliance was founded by three senators, Padmè being one of them. From day one, Skywalker’s family was a disaster, with a father who tried to killed the mother feeling betrayed by her and the two twins being separated for many years, until they grew up. Much like Todorokis family, Skywalkers are really messed up .

However maybe many of you might not know that Darth Vader’s identity wasn’t defined as Anakin from day one. In fact after the huge success of Star Wars (later renamed “A new Hope”)Lucas decided to write a sequel. For this purpose he hired a novelist, Brackett, and thus the second movie , The empire strikes back back, was written. Brackett chose ti described Anakin as a good father and a phantom who could aid and teach his son Luke. However she died before speaking to Lucas about this and he, without a script , had to do it all alone. This is the firsttime the concept of Darth Vader and Anakin being the same person was introduced.

This means that in the first movie, Darth Vader and Anakin were two totally different characters. Then suddenly they merged into one in the second movie.

This was a smart choice but it was brought by fate and thus created a great plot hole on how Anakin turned into Darth Vader, while he had already been described as a just and honourable Jedi.

Star Wars fans finally had an answer with the third movie , the Return of the Jedi, thanks to Obi Wan Kenobi’s ghost.

Later on, a complete story was given on-screen with the three following movies (The Phantom’s menace, Attack of the clones and The revenge of the Sith) in which the all story of Anakin was told from A to Z.

The point is.... Star Wars fandom was fine with being told Darth Vader was Luke’s father all along without any further explanation and totally out of the blue.

And this went on for many years until the Regenge of the Sith (2005).

Dabi’s revelation is similar to Darth Vader’s. Both the villains were towering above the hero, while the other were weakened. Both reveals were welcomed with total shock and denial by the hero. And in both cases Endeavor and Luke went numb and weren’t able to react anymore. Even Dabi’s clothing resembles Vader’s dark clothes, and beware Dabi and Tomura are the only villains who dress mainly in black (Toga and Spinner have colourful outfits, Magne was very casual, Compress is still very colourful and his black is rather an elegantblack and not a I’m-so-evil-black, while Twice has an half black half grey costume).

Another similarity both Touya and Anakin shared is how they died and how they alias were born: in fact while Touya’s death is still surrounded by mystery but overall is linked to Endeavor; Anakin was defeated and horribly mutilated by Obi Wan. More specifically Obi Wan cut off Anakin’s legs and one arm but more interesting, they were near a magma river in a vulcanic planet called Mustafar, the same name Horikoshi used for My Hero Academia’s main city. Being near such a burning river, Anakin’s body took fire and he basically burnt alive.

The last dialogue between Obi Wan and Anakin is very important too.

Obi Wan is almost crying, yelling that Anaking was supposed to be the chosen one, the one who would heave ended siths, not joining them, and who would have put balance in the Force. While fighting Obi Wan even said Anakin he was “his greatest failure”.

Obi Wan is a much beloved Jedi, but it’s obvious that, like Endeavor, he poured onto Anakin all of his hope for a legacy he couldnt conquer. Much like Enji, Obi Wan was a father figure for Anakin and a great mentor he respect a lot. It was Palpatine the one who put distance between Obi Wan and Skywalker with the intent of conquering the boy and never make him fulfill the prophecy.

In the same comparison, Touya is clearly Anakin. In the same dialogue he tells Obi Wan he will die and that to him Sith aren’t pure evil... Jedis are. Finally when Obi Wan beart him he yells murderous scream; “I hate you!”. With a murderous light in his eyes, much like Touya was totally crazy about the idea of killing Endeavor.

Many other traits of Sith and villain could be compared randomly, especially because Darth Vader was one of the main villain and most iconic character in Star Wars whole Dabi is and will be important but not as Tomura will be.

However if this comparison stand strong then few things might be speculated about Dabi.

The first is that we miss an important part of his background and we might have all of it much later then we could expect, quite like it happened with Darth Vader. And Star Wars fans got his full backstory after he died, so wether Dabi survive or not , this might be completely irrelevant. His story can go on.

The second one, Darth Vader was corrupted by the Emperor. He has a darkness inside of him, but Palpatine definitely broke him for good. Similarly, he was the one who cured Vader. I aspect someone at least cured Touya creating Dabi at the very least.

The third one is... that Darth Vader redeemed himself. At the very last, when the emperor is torturing Luke, finally Anakin makes his come back and kills the Sith to protect his son. While doing this, his armour is compromise and he will soon die. Later on we have the certainty of his redemption because Anakin take part to the feast for the fall of the empire as a ghost in Obi Wan’s and Yoda’s company. If Dabi will follow a similar path the only way out/ redemption for him probably will be similar and maybe he could save Shoto in one last change of heart before his own death.

Before anyone would comment about Dabi being a psychopath who never will do this, I’ll remind you that Darth Vader was a solid tyrant for approximately 20 years, he systematically killed all his fellow Jedis and Padawans, he cut Luke’s hand off, capture his own daughter Leia, killed his own beloved mentor and friend Obi Wan, he was about to smothering his beloved wife Padmé, he annihilated a planet or two and was building a massive weapon of destruction called “Black Death”. Twice. I’m confident Vader killed much more people than what Dabi could possibly had and eventually will do. And he was way more messed than Dabi was, still he got his redemption.

If he could make it, even Dabi eventually can.

[dgcatanisiri]

I’ll stand by this and die on this hill.

Whatever merits The Last Jedi has - and before you start debating me, I’m not saying it doesn’t have them, just that this outweighs them - it fails as a part of the ongoing narrative. It may be a fine standalone film, but as movie two of the Sequel Trilogy, movie eight of the Skywalker Saga, it fails to connect itself to the rest of the story, existing more in isolation than in concert. Rian Johnson’s Star Wars is VERY different from JJ Abrams’ Star Wars, a clash that makes it all too clear that Rise of Skywalker - and the Sequel Trilogy in general - was doomed to fail from the moment it was decided NOT to maintain the same writer across it.

It shifts gears, taking moments that were played for drama in the previous film (or films) and playing them for laughs. 

It drops plot paths, with Rian Johnson explicitly saying that he didn’t use the Knights of Ren because they “didn’t fit” the story he was telling. Or the fact that, if the movie is taking place shortly after TFA, then where is ANY mention of Starkiller, the massive superweapon and installation that the Resistance just blew up?

It demotes Finn, the character who was the lead male of the last film, to a “comedic” c-plot that ends up going in a cul-de-sac, one that even the film’s defenders have said could have been cut and nothing be lost. And, in particular, this is noticeable because the plot of TFA moved BECAUSE of Finn - without Finn, Poe doesn’t escape, Rey doesn’t get off Jakku, the Resistance doesn’t go to Starkiller and destroy it. TFA hinged on Finn. TLJ treats him like a vestigial limb it can’t sever.

(No, really, based on what TFA establishes, FINN is the counterbalance to Kylo Ren - Kylo is a scion of a powerful line of Force users, Finn didn’t even have a NAME until TFA began, Kylo is the face of the First Order, Finn was a faceless stormtrooper, which is why the moment he first takes off his helmet means so much, Kylo was raised by heroes of the Republic and turned to the First Order, Finn was raised by the First Order and turns his back on it... The thematic parallels between them are ALL FUCKING OVER TFA! But TLJ wants him to go away, and there’s no chance for him to rebuild that plot momentum in Rise of Skywalker.)

Also on the level of connection to the previous film... Why the HELL is a coma patient stuffed in a storage closet, rather than the medbay with doctors monitoring him? And he’s then repeatedly tazed by Rose, which is again played for laughs. Finn’s injuries are played as a joke.

With Finn’s demotion, it elevates Kylo Ren, the villain, an explicit parallel to neo-natsees (because the Empire ALWAYS had its roots in natsee imagery, and the First Order is explicitly drawing on those, just like neo-natsees), into the lead male position. 

Rey ends up reduced to his prize - over the course of TFA, her interactions with him were, in order, him rendering her unconscious and kidnapping her, torturing her, killing her mentor (his own father), and grievously wounding Finn, the first person in her life who came back for her, which was part of her driving characterization in the previous film. Her motivations are reduced to proving to Luke that she won’t be like Kylo Ren, and then trying to get someone she has no motivation to genuinely care about to redeem himself.

That “redemption,” I say again, is being offered by her after, again, she was kidnapped and tortured by him, she watched him kill Han Solo, who she saw as a paternal figure herself, and he put Finn, someone she’d already come to care for and who was the first person in her life to come back for her, in a coma. What motivation is there for her to TRY to redeem him? And if you want to say “Force Bond,” then that means that something is forged between her and Kylo, without her consent, that makes her care for him, actively manipulating her mind, and this just... happens.

The whole “Rey’s parents” thing is also a problem because it is ignoring HER reaction - it’s all about subverting the audience’s expectations, without caring about how she as a character responds. She never needed her parents to be a Kenobi, a Jinn, a Skywalker, whoever. They didn’t need to be somebody to the audience, they just were people she needed. Even the idea that they were drunks... They were the drunks who gave birth to her, who left her behind, and she wanted just to know why. 

And why should anyone even believe that Kylo Ren would know that they’re just nobodies when it’s been like three days since they even met - none of his informants could have chased down any leads to the point of determining this in that time, if he even WAS looking for them. So by the same measure of “how does he know this?” is the question of “why should she believe him?”

It does not explain Luke’s change of character in near enough detail - this is a character who refused to kill DARTH VADER, his father, a man he barely knew, only really knowing him as the great boogeyman of the Empire, and yet I’m supposed to believe that he would actively attempt a premeditated murder of his own nephew, who he would have known all of said nephew’s life, for what he MIGHT do? There NEEDED more of points B and C to connect points A and D here.

Also on the subject of Luke, in the last movie, it was explicit - Luke had vanished and left a map behind. Why would you leave a map to a place you intend to run away to and be forgotten and die? 

This movie, indeed, SHRANK the galaxy far, far away to ludicrous levels - the Resistance is in the fringes of the New Republic, yet Canto Bight, a major casino resort hub of war profiteering, is a casual jump away? Also, if the Resistance fleet couldn’t jump there, how can a small ship like Finn and Rose’s do that? Doesn’t the fleet need every vehicle and every drop of fuel? Rey’s gone after Luke, to a planet forgotten by the rest of the galaxy, her training pretty clearly taking place over days, at least, if not more. And yet simultaneously, the ticking clock of the Resistance’s fuel running out happens, and she still manages to arrive in the midst of their escape? This timeline is a goddam mess.

Rian Johnson explicitly said that he wanted Holdo to be flirtatious with Poe. And told the costume designer NOT to dress her in the uniform befitting an admiral. Right there, you lose me on Holdo being in the right during the mutiny - we have an existential threat to the Resistance, and she’s dressed like she’s going for drinks with Senators and apparently supposed to be flirting with Poe. 

And I’m giving this its own bullet point - they actively changed the language of the film to try and frame her as more in the right. She was redubbed after the fact to have different dialogue and tone with Poe, while leaving his side of the conversation alone, seemingly to portray him more as a hotheaded maverick when what we’re seeing is him responding to the existential threat they are facing. I HAVE to address this, because they changed what the characters are reacting to after the fact to push a narrative of Poe being wrong, when he WAS acting in the Resistance’s best interests throughout.

Because his demotion is crap - the Original Trilogy showed the X-Wings and similar snubfighters having independent hyperdrive, there was no reason to keep the fleet there for the sake of recovering them based on the text of the film and the established technology of the setting. Leia could have jumped the fleet and let them rendezvous later. Keeping the fleet there? That was her blunder, not Poe’s. 

Meanwhile the dreadnaught? That was a MAJOR target - It had over 200,000 First Order troops. For a group on the fringe, LIKE THE FIRST ORDER WAS IN TFA, that’s a major loss of personnel and material. And that slow-moving target of the dreadnaught was the kind of target those bombers should have been designed for. And if they were really so valuable that they were all lost against the dreadnaught and it was a major blow to the Resistance, those bombers should have been scrapped for parts long before. So, based on what the First Order was originally established as in TFA, Poe did the right thing. His problem is that TLJ CHANGED what the First Order was.

And, again, with the existential threat of the First Order on their tails, Poe, one of the Resistance’s best pilots AND the guy who blew up Starkiller, should have been on the list of people who deserved to be in the know of the plan - if you’re worried about traitors (which Holdo never actually SAYS), he’s pretty clearly not working for them. So she’s holding over the fact that he lost people on a mission against him, which... I’m sorry, but what the fuck with that, EVERY fighter pilot mission we have seen in the films has led to losses.

And when he does find out the plan - the plan that he asks her, three times, in private, in public, and at gunpoint, to even just tell him EXISTS, not even the details of - he’s completely accepting of it. So the whole conflict exists because she doesn’t talk to anyone about it.

Because, before anyone brings up “she has no responsibility to tell an underling her ideas,” she may not, but there was a chance, right before the mutiny went through, for her to defuse the situation entirely, since, as we see, once he knows the plan, he’s willing to go along with it. And it’s not like Poe was acting alone - there were others in the mutiny, including Connix, who we’d seen in charge of the evacuation, which gives the impression she has at least some position of authority. And she wasn’t filled in on Holdo’s plan either. 

Holdo’s flaw is assuming that, because she is the named authority - explicitly the last link in the chain of command - that all the people under her command should just fall in line. But the Resistance was, like the First Order, reverted into the Rebellion for this movie - in TFA, it was not a military service but a volunteer militia of people who were acting in service specifically of one person, Leia Organa. Not Holdo. So when the whole damn organization formed to follow one person, and that one person is taken out of commission, it NEEDS someone willing to extend trust to take charge. Poe was doing that by wanting to hear her out. Holdo was failing to do that by not even bothering.

Yoda’s appearance is undeserved - this is the same Jedi who, if he’d had his way, would have refused Luke’s training in Empire Strikes Back because he was “too old,” even though that was always the plan, to train the Skywalker child, and, as shown by the prequels, was the embodiment of the Jedi Order’s hubris back in the days of the Old Republic. If anyone deserved to have that moment with Luke, it was Anakin, because Anakin was the embodiment of where the Jedi teachings and values had failed - when your prophesized “Chosen One” ends up being at odds with almost all your expectations of the “model” Jedi, the Force is probably trying to tell you something. But no, Yoda’s the fan favorite, so Yoda appears and undermines his own message of “failure, the greatest teacher is.” Yoda’s failures had as much to do with the fall of the Jedi as anyone else’s, and when he had the chance to learn from it, he was going to pass it up.

By the end of the film, both the Resistance and the First Order are devastated. Kylo Ren is Supreme Leader of a handful of vessels with no real power base, while the Resistance fits semi-comfortably in Han Solo’s old beat up weed van. Meanwhile the New Republic is still in shambles. No one WON. All they got from victory was survival. By this point, they’re BOTH defeated, so... Where even was the story going to GO from here?

Also... That focus on the child slaves on Canto Bight at the end? Yeah, fine enough moment on its own, but... We already HAD child slaves established in this trilogy. Because Finn was taken as a child and conscripted, along with all the other stormtroopers of the First Order. So why didn’t THAT get any attention? Indeed, his infiltration of the First Order is no more than show, existing for like five minutes, rather than... y’know, trying to set up a stormtrooper rebellion, something that, by virtue of his character, should have been a running theme through the trilogy. Yet, see again, “Finn is a vestigial limb the movie can’t cut off” - we know from the DVD, he had A LOT of scenes cut and rewritten, at his character’s expense, after, again, being the leading man of the previous movie.

If this film had been a standalone film, like Rogue One or Solo, one of the Star Wars Stories films, rather than a main series film, I’d say it was a good Star Wars movie. But... As part two of a trilogy, part eight of a saga, it fails to connect to the rest of the story, and that, more than anything, is why Rise of Skywalker was what it was. If you didn’t care for Rise of Skywalker, look at what TLJ left for it in terms of connective narrative tissue, and where the story could go from there.

It might be a good film, but it was NOT a good Star Wars film. And I’m judging it as one.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

ok i know you said that reblog didn’t just refer to Rakepick (i’m assuming that’s who you meant by “her” but correct me if not) but i don’t really see how it could refer to her character in the first place?? if you could elaborate that’d be great cos i feel like it’s flying right over my head lmao

Happy to! As I might have predicted, I did get several messages about the post I reblogged so now I’ll try to clarify my feelings on this, as I know it’s been a touchy subject in the past. (This ended up being quite long, so...) @dat-silvers-girl and @heleneplays I thought you might find this interesting.

The original post was talking about shipping and the difference between enjoying character dynamics and actually projecting onto characters to see the relationship style you would want in your own life. I feel like both of these things can happen and that’s okay, but the point was that shipping two characters doesn’t mean you condone any implications that such a relationship would have in real life. Enemies to Lovers is a great example. 

In regards to fiction, I took that mindset a step further and talked about characters in general, notably villains. The same way we shouldn’t assume that people like a certain ship because they want a relationship like that in their own life, I don’t think it says anything about a person if a villain is their favorite character. Very often, villains are the most interesting or fleshed out. They have a unique relationship with the story itself as they are often the driving force or representative of its message. You could say that Harry Potter is a story about love and family...and Voldemort exists as someone who cannot comprehend either, to demonstrate their importance. Anyway, the point is that there’s nothing wrong with liking a villainous character. 

When I was growing up, it didn’t seem like this was a contested idea. It was actually common, particularly for villains who were seen as “cool” and many of them were. You’ll find few people who don’t agree that Darth Vader or Darth Maul look cool. However, in recent years, I’ve noticed that purity culture has spread to the point where liking a villain is considered questionable. It no longer seems to be enough, necessarily, that one is merely enjoying the villain as a character. Just like the idea of shipping two characters now means one must condone that kind of relationship in real life, sometimes it seems as though liking a villain is now tantamount to condoning their actions. 

Then again, there are people who feel sympathy for villains and attempt to justify their actions. Sometimes it’s due to a personal attraction. It’s a meme that people get horny for villains, and there’s probably some overlap there with folks who lean toward the “projection” style of shipping I talked about earlier, but never mind that. Other times, this sympathy can overlap with seeing potential in the character. There is a fine line, of course, between rooting for a redemption for the villain and arguing that they did nothing wrong in the first place, but these days it seems as though rooting for a redemption for the “wrong” kind of villain is something people take as an insult. (Severus Snape comes to mind.) Alternatively, people also seem to take it as an insult if you don’t believe the “right” kind of character deserves redemption. (This happens a lot with Princess Azula.)

Now all that being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with hating a villain and just wanting them to go to hell and die. Like, that makes perfect sense. There are villains out there that we love to hate, characters who are so despicable that most people would agree they deserve a slow and painful death. Joffrey Baratheon is a great example. (Actually, a lot of Game of Thrones characters would apply here...) If a villain inspires true loathing from you, then paradoxically that also means they’re great, because they’ve been written in such a way that you as an audience can feel the evil. But this can become complicated if they overlap such despicable villains with the ones who have potential to be more interesting. It becomes complicated because of the aforementioned binary that now seems to be prevalent. The idea that everything one likes in fiction reflects what they believe should go on in real life.

Which brings us to Rakepick. 

Wow, we finally got here. I appreciate your patience. Rakepick is that character who has overlap. Whether we like it or not, she was presented as an ally for two years of the game’s story, before her betrayal. She spent a lot of quality time with MC and the other apprentices. We got to know her. It is not at all surprising, I don’t believe, that some of us see that “potential” to be more in Patricia Rakepick. But on the other hand, she sure has gone above and beyond in the effort to be one of those villains you just hate, given what she’s done. Having been part of this discourse, I think what’s going on is that the players who still feel a connection to Rakepick feel attacked by the players who ruthlessly condemn her. The players who condemn her feel insulted by the idea that players still like her after the terrible crimes she’s committed, after what she did to Rowan. No one is wrong here. Rakepick is a fascinating character who’s done unspeakable things. We do not need to fight about her. 

Everyone has different opinions about characters for different reasons. I have villains that I simply love because I see something more in them, or because I just think they’re cool. I also have villains for whom I feel the same contempt people have for Rakepick. Villains who I cannot stand and it makes me cringe to see their actions justified or considered - Cersei Lannister comes to mind. Likewise, there are just as many heroic characters that I love and adore, and some others that I find problematic. Others still that I flat out despise because of what they’ve done, villain or no villain, like Nozomi from SMT. Albus Dumbledore is probably the character I hate the most in fiction, even though he’s one of the good guys. I’m “Anti-Dumbledore” but when it comes to Rakepick, I don’t even like to use the term “Antis” because when a character is unquestionably a villain...isn’t it the default setting to hate them and root against them? 

Here’s the main thing. They’re fictional characters, first and foremost. They aren’t real, so it’s not like they know if we’re defending or condemning them. All of us are part of fandom to enjoy their story and share our enjoyment with each other. I feel like that should come before anything else. No matter if Rakepick is one of those villains you find “cool,” no matter if you love to hate her with how evil she is, no matter if you see more to her and wish she wasn’t considered a villain...or even if, like most of the HPHM fandom, you simply can’t stand her and root for a shallow grave...all of us have these opinions because we like HPHM. That matters more than our specific opinions about characters. Even villains. Even ones who have crossed as many lines as Rakepick.