#ceo tlj

[remi-harbinger]

reading modern au svsss fics and people are making lbh too cool wdym hes the ceo of huan hua etc etc. he'd be so irrevocably creepy under his beautiful face thats constantly scowling at anyone who isnt sy. he'd be like the denko guy. he has a total of two (2) friends who don't even like him that much (shl hangs around just to feel better abt her chances with lmy) he posts on an incredibly niche teacher-student relationship reddit and his posts went viral once bc people think hes like 3 posts away from snapping. tlj once wanted to give him his empire but stopped after realising that when he was about to sign paperwork giving lbh the company lbh had a set of paperwork transferring the ownership to sy (sy had no idea)

[tcfactory]

I'm thinking about the timeline others have puzzled out for SVSSS/PIDW and about how 30-something is staggeringly young for sect leaders/masters in a setting where cultivation/golden core formation leads to immortality. Especially with the handwavy fantasy timelines, you can easily make a master hundreds if not thousands of years old, depending on how high you go with cultivation/how wild your setting is.

Not to mention that, while golden core formation is somewhere in the middle of the list of stages (there are variations, can be different names and number of stages, but here's one I kind of like: Qi Gathering, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation, Body Unity, Void Boundary and Mahayana and then you can ascend to proper godhood), the stages are supposed to be exponentially more difficult and time consuming. The peak lords forming their golden cores in their twenties-thirties is plausible, if they are a generation of prodigies, but it would still make them lower-tier cultivators in the grand scheme of things.

But then again the setting does seem to be pretty lacking in higher tiers of cultivation - everyone relevant seems to be Core Formation stage (that is, they have successfully formed their golden core) with maybe the Old Palace Master as a Nascent Soul cultivator - so maybe this specific setting just cuts out the higher stages and allows ascension at the end of Nascent Soul or Deity Transformation? It's still strange that we have some of the most powerful cultivators (YQY) be this young, because 30-something is bizarrely early for even Nascent Soul level, unless there's reincarnation shenanigans afoot and he carried over his cultivation level from a previous life.

Anyway, it makes me wonder if something happened to one or more of the previous generation in the fight against TLJ that forced an early ascension. Maybe someone got severely injured (or potentially even killed) so they decided to ditch the Qing generation before they could start losing (more of) their members.

Kudos to the current peak lords if so, because managing to keep the sect running competently and maintaining CQMP's standing among the other sects is quite the accomplishment, especially if their training had to be cut short. Imagine starting an internship and then getting fast-tracked to CEO before you could even finish the orientation course.

[ghostclowning]

CEO of gay making fun of his long suffering nephew

WARNING BRAINROT AHEAD [modern au] TLJ is a CEO of a big company and one day he hires ZZL as his secretary. ZZL is a bit worried on his first day bc he's afraid other employees might look down on him, thinking that he only got this job bc of his uncle's influence. But everyone greets him nicely and pats on the shoulder and wishes good luck...soon he finds out why.

Bc he has to accompany TLJ on "business trips", which actually are just comic cons where he has to stand in miles long queues to get some BL magazines and a rare H*tsune M*ku figurine or sth.

[marsafter-dark]

Tianlang-Jun Has No Concept of Boundaries: The Fic

A TLJ/YQY fanfic 🔞 (Chapters 1 & 2)

Tianlang-Jun has a crush on Yue Qingyuan, the reluctant CEO of China’s premier marketing corporation. Unfortunately for him, mob bosses like him and men like his Qi-er run in seperate worlds.

While he outsources hitmen, Yue Qingyuan outsources graphic designers. While he trades in blood, Yue Qingyuan trades in increased website traffic and… ‘brand awareness.’

But that’s okay, he’s never been one to give up when he has something he wants— and there is nothing he wants more than Yue Qingyuan.

NSFW Snippet:

“When his Qi-er comes— Tianlang-Jun’s own cock following suit— it is with a look of glorious rapture on his face. He is an angel sent straight from heaven, hurtling down closer and closer to earth as Tianlang-Jun lures him deeper into the gentle embrace of sin.

The sight in itself is a benediction.”

[beta-sheratan]

Two Sides of A Coin (Reylo CEO AU)

BIO: He was the sole heir, and she was the sectary. He had thought he had worked hard enough to get the full CEO control of his mother and uncle’s family business, but then one day, on the reading of his uncle’s Will... Something unexpected arrives in the shape of a girl. 

CHAPTER 1

It had been a week.

  It had gone much quicker than he had thought, he had believed that the week would lull, and become monotonous in the stages of grieving. He had imagined the days dragging, the weather to be dismal, the sky bleak. He thought he would never see colour again, all the things he was supposed to feel when someone so close to you… no… when people close to you died. 

He had to remind himself that even though at this present moment the death of his uncle was the primary source of people’s grieving around him, that actually it was his mother and father’s deaths that had happened the previous year, that was torturing him. 

Whilst everyone mourned the man behind the CEO chair… he mourned the hard-working deputy CEO and the rogue father who owned his own company… a company that lured him away from his family more than he would ever want to. 

And yet, the year had gone quickly, and so had this week. In all honesty, he couldn’t believe it was a complete week since his death. He was found dead on his office floor at seven in the morning, heart attack suspected, no sign of attempted murder. His heart gave out. The love he had given to his sister and to the husband she married, and the child they bore, it probably became too much for him. 

His mother had died of a broken heart, too. Because his father died so suddenly. His family were softer than the media ever gave them credit for. The stone family, they were called. But in reality, they were more like copper, easily bent, easily broken. 

The week had been sunny… until today.

  Water poured from the sky like someone had tipped a bucket all over the city. It lashed against the window with a vengeance, and the wind howled faintly from outside the glass building, blowing people in the street almost completely over as they walked. 

Later that day, he would’ve thought that he should have taken the bad turn in weather as an omen. For what was to come, it would make sense. 

It had to be the reason. Surely it was.

He stood there, at precisely ten to ten in the morning. Suit perfectly pressed, his outdoor gloves still on to preserve warmth in his hand. He couldn’t shake anyone’s hand unless he warmed it, it showed a soft side. A side you could trust. No one trusted anyone with cold hands. A tip that was given by his mother for when he first started working in the company. 

He waited, of course, though the waiting was becoming tedious. He was the only one early to the reading of the will. Maybe it was because he knew that the outcome would be as he had hoped. He had always hoped for it. And it was the only logical solution for his uncle to come to. 

To give him the business. All of it. He had gotten half originally from his mother’s passing, he worked hard to prove to his uncle that he could look after the other side of Skywalker & Co. effectively if he should pass. And now, he hoped that that came across strong enough. 

He must’ve come across strong enough. There wasn’t another solution. Finally, at ten in the morning, precisely, the doors to his uncle’s old office opened, and several people came in, including the solicitor. His assistant, Hux, came to him nodded and whispered in his ear softly. “Sir, it seems that the will includes some of the assistants of your uncle over the years. Including one of his newer ones, however, the solicitor assures me that the will has not been changed in under a year.” 

“Under a year?” He questioned. “That’s still quite recent.” 

“It can’t be more than a bonus in their pay this month to say thanks to their services, surely, Mr Solo,” Hux assured him. 

Solo smirked, “Yes, that does make sense. It is something that my uncle would do. Make them all happy beyond the grave. Be sure that the ones who get bonuses today have a review soon. I want to be sure they’re truly worthy of working with me. Especially, when I become CEO.” Hux nodded along with him, muttering his ‘yes sir.’ as if it was second nature. 

The solicitor came over to Solo, he extended his old wrinkled hand, with ageing spots across the back of it. Solo quickly disposed of one of his gloves and extended his hand to meet it. He saw the old man smile, happy that the hand he shook was strong, warm, and welcoming. Trusting.

“Mr Solo. I am so sorry for your loss, I hope that the funeral went as planned. Smoothly and without delay.” A small joke on his part. His uncle was a timely man, always knew when to pop up and when to leave it be. A funeral to follow that was exactly what he deserved. And that is what he got, of course. Black ties, white clothes. He had a thing for white. He enjoyed the purity of it.

  Solo didn’t like that white suit. He promptly donated it to a charity as soon as the funeral finished.

“Shall we begin?” Solo asked politely. The old man nodded, Solo took a seat near the front. He took off his other glove and surveyed with his eyes around the room. Five other people, obviously assistants. No other family members attended apart from Solo because there wasn’t any left. Uncle Luke did not have children. Solo was the only child to come from the children of Anakin Skywalker, the original CEO of Skywalker & Co. 

That means whatever this man had, is mine. Apart from the nooks and crannies, he would give the assistants of course. Everything else belonged to him, that was the truth. He earned it, as well as inherited it. He’s been working towards the top since he finished school. He wanted to meet Uncle Luke at the top, and overthrow him. Show him he was good enough, that he was good enough to run this company to its new highlight days. 

He clenched his fists slowly, he had earned this. No one was going to get in his way. 

A door opened just as the solicitor was about to start, Solo turned his head and was met with a drenched young girl. Well, at least she looked young without the makeup that was running down her face. Her suit was ruined, her shoes squeaked, and her hair curled down her cheeks and stuck there. Her dark eyes were wide, she looked at her wristwatch and breathed a sigh of relief. She was on time.  

Just. 

“Sorry!” She squeaked, she sat at the back, using a tissue that one of the other assistants handed to her.

Her accent… He thought, English… I see. He noted it in the back of his mind, his eyes left her dabbing her forehead and eyes with the tissue and back to the solicitor and nodded for him to continue. 

“We are gathered here today, to witness the last will and testament of Sir Luke Skywalker, CEO of Skywalker & Cooperative. Sir Skywalker told me at our last meeting that the final changes to his will that were made six months ago were the last changes to be made on it until the time of his death. Meaning all that is stated is legally binding, and as the deceased wished them to be.” Everyone nodded in agreement with him, he continued. “To start, it is to be noted that due to Sir Skywalker having no legitimate heirs of the time of this will be finalised, his ownership and possessions have been spread across to all the people in this room. As he stated to me, when we last met, a family is not always the ones you share blood with, but sometimes the ones you see the tears of, the smiles and the happiness of. Which is why he came to the decisions he did.” 

He took a sip of water and turned the page of the will. “‘To the assistants that I love so dearly, Poe, Chewie, Rose, Finn and Holdo, I leave you a lump sum of whatever is made from the antiques in my home once sold to auction. The sum will be shared equally between you all, in hopes that this will bring you some sort of thanks to all you have done for me, in the last couple of years.’” 

Solo raised a brow, more than a simple ‘bonus’. The antiques would come to a couple of hundred thousand a piece. 

“‘The Skywalker mansion has never really been a home to me,’”The solicitor continued, “‘therefore, I have set up a charity for the less fortunate to use as a sanctuary of their own. Orphans that need a place to call their own before they finally find their forever homes. My nephew, and deputy CEO Benjamin Solo will be the ambassador of this charity, to be sure that everything is run smoothly, and for him to be there whenever the charity needs him. For any reason.’” 

Solo frowned but nodded. He didn’t understand why he would be chosen for that sort of thing, but he would do the job if needed of course. 

“‘And to continue, my nephew Ben, I leave my cars and my city penthouse apartment to you. I hope that the views from the ground and from the tallest parts of the city will bring you some comforts during your busy life. All other possessions I own personally, belong to you as well. Do what you will with them. They are no longer my own.’” The solicitor coughed and turned the page. 

Wait… that’s it? He thought, confused. What? 

“‘And finally, my shares from the family company, Skywalker & Co. The fifty percent that I own will be given to the one person in my life that I believe will find the truth behind all the mess, and bring the company with the help of my nephew, to the best of its life. With her amazing sense of justice, love, and respect for this company, I see no other person for the job. I give all of my business possessions and shares of the company, and job title, to my sectary, Miss Rey Jakken. May you always find the light within the darkest times, my dear. And use it wisely.’”

The solicitor smiled, “Anything else that has not been claimed, will be sold and the money given to some local charities in the area.” 

Solo barely heard the snivelling old man, he breathed heavily once and stood up in one swift movement from his seat and looked around the room. “Which one of you, is Miss Jakken?” His voice was colder than he meant it to be. 

The assistants looked at him and then to the floor. Not looking him in the eyes, apparently. One quickly perked up, took a breath and stood up and looked right at him. “Me sir.” 

The girl… the one coming in the room, dead on when the meeting was supposed to start, soaking wet from the rain outside, held out her hand, which was now dry, and smiled. “I promise I will make Sir Skywalker’s last will in this world to not be in vain, Mr Solo.” 

Solo gritted his teeth. He swallowed hard, holding out his hand to her as well. Their hands met, his hands cold against her warm ones. 

She was warm, despite being so wet… despite being so dishevelled. It made his stomach knot. He looked at her right in the eyes and tried to smile politely, “Well… let’s just hope from the time you worked with him, that you learnt some things about running a company, Miss Jakken.” 

She seemed quizzical for a moment and then sobered, “Yes… let’s hope.” She gripped tighter, letting him know she heard his concern. 

But she did not hear the inner anger that built within him. 

He left minutes later, hearing some of the chairmen going to her and offering her some advice and offering to find her another suit for the press conference that is supposed to happen within the next forty minutes. 

He decided to spend those forty minutes in his office, making some calls to people who can answer the questions that he had to have answered. Now.

One of them is, Who the hell is this girl, and where the hell did she come from? 

And what made her so special that his uncle chose to give her up to sixty million dollars in shares and a CEO placement in six months?

[shinebrightlikeanarwhal]

Modern AU SJ Xiao Jiu being adopted by an ex pornstar and spoiled absolutely rotten. Yue Qi tries to be his support when classmates bully him about it, but many times he just smiles and tells Xiao Jiu to be nice, as if the others didn't physically attack him previously. Rich kid LQG starts to get on the bully Xiao Jiu train, with his lackeys QQQ and MQF. WQW doesn't normally take part, the narcoleptic child hardly awake to function. When it gets so serious that parents are called and SJ's mom is publicly mocked and sneered at for her old job, Xiao Jiu wastes no time in throwing evidence of the principals affair with one of the parents, a perverse teacher that made advances at the other students and his withdrawal papers, that he stole from the principals office. The school is under fire when news outlets spread the story, while Xiao Jiu and his mom and new stepdad move out of the country to have a normal and healthy life. Years pass and they return to their homeland, only to see LQG is the next in line for the Liu Company. YQY was the bastard son of the Yue's CEO and recently brought in to live with the family. The old school had closed down after heavy investigation on the child abuse. Crimelord TLJ even helped track down and capture. Little does SJ know, TLJ's twin sons and adopted son are avid supporters of his!

A scramble of many suitors vying for the beautiful musicians hand. YQY tries to appeal to their old childhood friendship, which is immediately shut down by SJ’s clingy little brother SY. SY was there during SJ’s loneliest times and will NOT let some two-bit spineless fool try to court his brother. Not will he allow a stalker, a harasser, someone who’s mouth works faster than her brain, or some creepy twins prey on his big brother!! With his privilege of baby brother, SY shamelessly sets up distances between the men and SJ.

The Luo twins are shameless in their pursuit of their ethereal music teacher. Admiring the way SJ plays for them and their family to show them what a performance would look like.

MoBei Jun sits in during classes to learn as well. Enjoying the soft and warm hands of SJ’s on his when he can’t get a finger movement down. He does have to fight off a murderous fight from the twins when they are no longer in class.

Just a couple of simps fighting for SJs attention and either cockblocking themselves or getting cockblocked by a middle school aged SY who refuses to allow some rats to steal his brother away!! YQY may be tenacious in his oblivious pursuit, but SY is vicious in his defense. LQG cockblocks himself because SJ never forget his physical bullying and constant stalking.

(I adore the idea of Shen Sibs where SY is a clingy baby brother. Willing to fight a grown man and a bear for his brothers honor).

[zykamiliah]

LOL 😂! Shen Yuan suffers so much XDD! And he will suffer more when ZZL under orders, kidnaps him to meet Binghe’s previously unknown biological father, Tianlang-Jun, Mafia King! (He was previously in jail and either got let out on good behaviour or escaped). He is really keen to know his future son in-law. Also, he has a full collection of all the Bingqiu BL manga and novels and he has Opinions.

I did say Shen Yuan had more damsel in distress situations that all of CQ High's female students combined lol

And the snake is nor poisonous, he'll be fine! In fact...

The infirmary

Because of Lbh's insistence, Sy shyly shows him the bite. It's redish and swollen around the two marks, but otherwise looks fine. However Luo Binghe CANNOT DEAL with the fact that someone('s snake) got to hurt his senpai like that. If anyone should bite Shen Yuan it should be him!

So Lbh gazes soulfully at Shen Yuan, takes his hands in his, and says "I'll make you forget about it, Yuan-ge." And Binghe. bites Shen Yuan. On the same patch of skin the snake bit. Shen Yuan goes completly rigid.

Binghe licks. Sucks a bit. He lets go barely a second after and replaces the blanket over Shen Yuan's leg. He's red like a tomato but Shen Yuan is-

Well Shen Yuan has ceased to respond. His brain is still stuck processing the part where Binghe was bending over his lap to put his mouth on his thigh.

The sensations, the electric current that shot like lighting to certain part of his anatomy- He fists the blanket with shaking hands and can't even speak.

Surely this has a perfectly friendly and platonic explanation, right?? RIGHT??

"Now you won't have to think about the snake. When it hurts, you can... think of your Binghe."

My- my- my- my Bing-

"...Uh"

"I'll go find a drink for you, Yuan-ge, I'll be right back~"

Lbh skips out of the room happily humming a pop song that SY knows it's about getting your man and putting a ring on it, but he can't really process the implications of that.

Sqh, who watched everything through a crack in the door: "So what was that-"

SY: SHUT UP SHUT UP HE DID IT BECAUSE HE THINKS I'M AFRAID OF SNAKES SHUT UP *throws a pillow at Sqh unprompted, shaking and gasping and clutching at his blanket for dear life like a molested maiden*

Sqh: ...Bro. Are you serious.

Sy: YES!

Sy gets out of the bed, grabs his things and goes for the door.

Sy: "Tell Binghe my brother called and I had to go."

Sqh: "🎵Run, run, run away, run away, baby, before he puts a spell on you~🎵"

Sy, disheveled, a bit unhinged, pointing at him threateningly as he backs away from the infirmary: YOU SHUT UP

Just when SY is out of the school gates a limousine stops in front of him. The car door opens and a handsome man with red eyes (??) and familiar features leans out, waving a hand.

"Nice to meet you, Shen Yuan. I would very much like to have a little chat with you."

Shen Yuan opens his mouth to answer when someone grabs his hand and pushes him into the limousine. The door closes, the car slowly speeds out of the school, and now Shen Yuan sandwiched between the handsome man who looks a lot like Binghe wtf, and

"Zuzhi-xiong... why are you here?"

"My uncle wanted to meet you."

TLJ, "I see you've become familiar with my nephew", waggles eyebrows. Sy: "...And who are you if you don't mind me asking, sir?"

"Ah, pardon me." He extends a hand for Sy to shake."I am Tianlang-Jun, your father-in-law."

When did Shen Yuan he got married???

"Oh, and Luo Binghe's dad. And the CEO and mayor shareholder of Southerlands Corp," he adds dismissively. "Among other things."

Like one of the most dangerous mafia bosses that spent 12 years in jail and had gotten out barely three years ago on good behavior and after paying a hefty sum in bribes.

"I still don't understand what would you want to talk with me, sir," SY says respectfully while freaking out internally bc wtf wtf wtf why is THE Mafia king Binghe's dad??? And what does he think he and Binghe are-

"I want us to discuss the future, of course. But first-" he pulls out a disturbingly familiar manga, "Would you mind giving me your take on Night lessons with Senpai first? Truly a work of art, isn't?"

SY: ... (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

Why is the mafia boss reading filthy bl in his spare time!? What the fuck is this shit?!?

Meanwhile in CQ High's host club

Sqh: I'm telling you, he said he had to go.

Lqg, calling SY for the 15th time: He's not picking up.

Sqh: Let me try *tries to call SY. Doesn't connect* Ok, now I'm really worried.

Suddenly Luo Binghe barges in like the hounds from hell. He's clutching SY's phone in his hand like he's an attorney showing evidence to the court. The screen is cracked.

"Yuan-ge has been kidnapped!"

On the limousine:

TLJ, serving SY champagne: My favorite bit is when the senpai invites his classmate to demonstrate a few of his techniques. There's nothing better than a good threesome.

SY: physically unable to articulate a single response nor drink his champagne.

ZZL: "Would you like some snacks, Shen-xiong?"

SY: "No, thank you"

TLJ: "Do you think the author would be willing to some type of orgy special chapter? I'd be willing to commission one- Maybe I should write them a fan letter. Nephew, write this: Dear, illustrious author..."

SY: ...I could be freaking out in peace right now. Why the fuck did I have to leave the infirmary 🍷ノ( ゜ __゜ノ)

TLJ: "...and an orgy special would be a great addition--"

SY, screaming internally:

____

@mitchievousness

[elijahmiles]

“i disagree that tlj luke was not the real luke” you’re gonna argue with mark hamill, the ceo of luke skywalker? you’re wrong 💚💚💚 anyways stan the real luke skywalker

[benperorsolo]

tbh I am SO SICK of all this TROS behind-the-scenes gossiping. Like I get it, people were disappointed and there were likely production troubles, but it's just exhausting and I'm not sure what it can lead too? But the one confirmed fact, that I honestly think says more than a million twitter conspiracies, is that Bob Iger was calling JJ daily during the film's production. THAT to me speaks of a lack of confidence/fear after TLJ's reception.

Iger only understands money, not story. Which is why you shouldn’t let your CEO have that much control over your creatives!! Name me one time when that produced a good movie!!

[frumfrumfroo]

People who like TROS complaining about people who disliked it “not putting in the energy” to make it work in their minds because it’s somehow a sin of watching movies or proof you’re not engaging in good faith if you don’t come up with 50 headcanons about why it’s good actually? Wtf. What’s it with people who like TROS and their inability to let other people dislike it? It’s like all the people who came to people’s mentions to bash TLJ are doing it to defend TROS now

The people who called anyone who liked TLJ ‘shills’, claimed all the positive reviews were bought, and talked about the Disney conglomerate industrialising popular entertainment are now gobbling corporate cock. Irony.

I’ve never understood why I should ‘work’ to like something that has no depth and was made with no care. Something made by professionals for $300 million dollars shouldn’t be garbage, but it is garbage and it’s that simple. There is no reward to pretending otherwise. It’s not coherent, it’s not trying to tell you something, it wasn’t even important enough to the people who made it for them to finish it (please do not @ me about how this is totally a piece of art and someone’s vision- the editor admitted it wasn’t finished and that MASSIVE story decisions were being made last minute with no plan, Chris has clearly not even fucking seen all the movies, JJ’s creative spine is made of overcooked spaghetti).

Brand loyalty is ridiculous when the brand doesn’t stand for anything except a font and proprietary made up words. There is no author, there is no unity, this film is no more authoritative than any other off-the-rails fanfic. Saying you need to love it because it has the franchise name on it is just absurd. Your loyalty is to an ugly monopoly with terrible business practices which has demonstrated an increasing disregard for even the appearance of artistic integrity. I’m not going to bat for fucking Disney to help line the pockets of its cartoonishly greedy CEO after they treated both this story and their audience like an inconvenience, I’m especially not going to thank them for the privilege of giving them money for a wet fart and a slap in the face.

[joons]

Ok but why did they lie in marketing??? That’s the part I really don’t get, like fine I accept that a cynical corporation’s gonna cynical corporation and try to appease white men who stan the OT as the only ‘valid’ stans, but why lie about it??? Why say over and over that you won’t retcon TLJ, that the harassment won’t affect the script, that the movie is meant to tie the Saga together including the PT, if you’re gonna turn around and do this?? Wouldn’t the backlash be less if you were honest??

Cowardice. The exact same thing happened with Justice League, where they swore up until the premiere that it was the movie Zack Snyder made and Joss Whedon was basically just doing touch-up. They pushed the movie out quickly, despite knowing they basically wanted to reshoot it completely, because if it came out by the end of the year, the CEOs would get a bonus. This is all recorded and reported, not just a rumor. This is why it happened. When it gets to the level of CEO, it becomes entirely about short-term gain. How can we squeeze the most money out of this? Can we cut the runtime to get more screenings? Can we just lie through our teeth so we don’t have to deal with bad press BEFORE it comes out? Can we pretend like Rose has an arc? That panic overrides anyone who’s on the project to make a cohesive film and make sure the audience is prepared for what they will see. (This is also why the CinemaScore is particularly low -- it basically measures if the audience GOT WHAT THEY WERE PROMISED. And most audiences will say “yes” if it matches the trailers.)

The big clue was mostly in how the cast and crew started contradicting themselves during the press tour. It became impossible to align the talking points they’d been given with what the movie was -- so you had people actively saying TLJ was a mistake and at the same time saying TROS would honor it. And that’s not the cast’s fault, necessarily, but it shows how messy the production was and how someone at the top wasn’t thinking about the movie in terms of engaging with a long established fanbase but as a quick money grab where they didn’t need to strategize too much. If they were willing to cut the Story Group out of discussion, it’s no wonder no one knew how to market/talk about the movie with any consistency.

Also JJ has always done this. Just look at how he hid Khan being in Into Darkness.

[harryforagrammy]

jonsa stans being so bitter about jonerys, they've really decided to take it out on emilia, hahahaha.

LIKE IMAGINE EMILIA CLARKE, THE SINGLE SAVING GRACE OF SEASON 8, A FRANCHISE KILLER??? LMFAOOOOO! Ya know what, I ain't even surprised this person's brain is twisted af, she's a jonsa that whole-heartedly thought jon loved sansa romantically and wanted to fxck her, lmaooooo.

And wasn't it Sophie Turner's Dark Phoenix that DISNEY'S CEO had to apologise for making more than $100M loss? LMAO!!!! talk about franchise killer! Emilia's Terminator Genysis was a critically flop but it is still the highest grossing Terminator film. SOLO's commercial flop wasn't even Emilia's fault but the backlash of TLJ and SW fanboys deciding to boycott SOLO without Harrison Ford, although now the movie is getting a lot of request for a second SOLO film to happen. Me Before You grossed more than $200M on a $20M budget and right now Last Christmas is on the road to $100M on a $25M budget, awwww. I can see why the haters are mad.

Yes, Kit Harington has been receiving a lot of hate for his Golden Globe nomination but stop putting the blame on Emilia and her fans! If you search Kit's name on every social media, you'll see nothing but "Emilia deserves it more" from CASUALS. not Emilia fans. And honestly, you don't even have to be a fan to realise, if Golden Globe was going to nominate anything from Game of Thrones, it should have been for Emilia in Best Actress. But we know that category is always a blood bath. What's important is that EVERYONE knows it was Emilia that carried that final season on her shoulders, no tea, no shade, just facts. HATERS CAN DIE MAD.

[kylo-hux-fanpage]

They did demonstrate the "kill or be killed" aspect of the First Order in TLJ in terms of killing to rise through the ladder of power - Kylo literally took the position of Supreme Leader by killing Snoke. But Hux didn't do it to gain control of the First Order. He straight up just admits to Poe and Finn that he betrayed the First Order so that Kylo (and as a result, the whole organisation) would fail. He wasn't rising through the ranks, he was destroying the whole First Order. That's not loyalty

Yes in attempts to prove the fact that the Order has fallen, and it wouldn’t have if he was given the position of Admiral and not Pryde. Who is so blase over the situations caused by the rebels. Pryde is a cocky, silver-spoon-fed white collard child. Its the equivalent of saying that the son of a CEO can run the company without any prior experience is a better CEO than their parent. I digress. Though you still seem to be missing the analogy I thought it would help you understand.  He never wanted full control, he just wanted to have the position his father had. Admiral. He never had the intent to fully betray the First Order. He just wanted to prove a point. His actions were never going to fully destroy the First Order, just leave it in a place where he could fully take over its military branch and build it from the ground up.

[permian-tropos]

In response to the "fic you wish I'd write" post: Snoke backstory, main characters Rae Sloane & Gallius Rax (they meet him and all interact somehow. Snoke is more than a creepy old raisin. Rae worries that they're in over their heads...)

And I wish I had a more detailed Snoke backstory at this point.

I know I used to be really interested in him, but it was really interest in a character like him, and the way he’s defeated in TLJ makes me want to give him a different sort of role in the story. I’m not sure if I want him to be an ancient evil awakened in the Unknown Regions or a plutocrat who learned the Force but isn’t only powerful for his Force ability, he’s also secretly the CEO of big space oil or something. It depends on what story I’d tell.

Anyway here’s a loose rambling fic description

-

In this version of things, Rax is neither alive nor dead because his soul is trapped in the holocron he tossed into the Jakku borehole. Jakku spat that thing out when it stopped having its planetary indigestion. The lingering wisps of life energy emanating from the core of the planet stole the last breath from Rax’s body and sucked it into this new vessel.

Rax doesn’t find his existence as a cursed object too different from his old life, where he mostly lurked behind the scenes and played with people’s desires and instincts so they’d enact the dramatic scenes he wanted to see. He entices a stray stormtrooper to the Observatory to get himself picked up off the floor, and lures a junk trader to fight this trooper over the beautiful glowing red artifact, and so on, until he’s traveling into the Unknown Regions on the desk of a particularly boorish Imperial captain who wants a piece of the Sith legacy as a trophy.

Holocron Rax has vague aims, he wants some sort of body and he wants to find her again, his equal, his rival, his fellow outcast. He isn’t sure he wants to rule. He lost that game. Time to play a new one.

Sloane finds out Rax is back, but she knows he’s back before her knowledge, as philosophers might say, is both true and justified. She guesses, on instinct, because of the fingerprint he seems to leave on the cosmos.

Leading the Order has been bitterly oppressive, she’s sure everyone hates her, she first thinks it’s because they blame her for Rax’s constant betrayals of the remaining fleet, but it’s not that at all. They seem to hate her because they think she’s overstepping her station, that she’s high-minded and looks down on everyone else, but she knows it’s a double standard because they look down on everyone else too (including her).

And she tries over and over to prove that she’s strong and capable and dutiful. But she never got along with the upper echelons of Imperial command. She always pissed them off with her high-mindedness, too self-motivated, too determined, not groveling at their feet enough, and she’s been burning with humiliation from that -- and, in fact, a sick desire to please someone for once, they’re never happy with her, maybe that’s why she fell for Rax for so much longer than she should have; for a time he seemed to be endlessly pleased by her, even when he knew she was plotting against him. I’ll be good this time, she keeps promising herself, but how is this good? Why do they get to tell her what good means when they’re sneering at her for being merciful or patient?

And it makes her want to be cruel and ruthless. And she is. Just to impress them, she realizes. They’re never impressed.

And she runs away, but not all at once. Bits of her run away where they can.

Sometimes she makes fake identities and takes a few days off to visit planets that wouldn’t be happy to see her if they knew who she was. Sometimes she spends hours playing games for cadets against a computer and when her good sense returns she erases the evidence of this foolishness. Sometimes she runs by staying asleep and dreaming. Sometimes she runs away to research, losing herself in narratives of ancient history.

Anxiously, at her lowest, most depressed point, she visits the Imperialis and finds opera. Watching the holotapes is an exercise in self-flagellation, because of how tense they make her. She never even sits down, because that would make her feel vulnerable to attack from the shadows in the private theater hall. But it wakes her up, because it feels like a fight, and fighting these imaginary demons is easier than putting up with the constant scorn of her supposed colleagues. She sometimes pauses the recordings just to pace.

So this is where they both are when they meet each other again. Sloane hears about a Curséd Artefact that’s been causing a miasma of strange behavior aboard a ship, and that strange behavior includes hearing strains of faint music as if carried on the wind (and there’s no wind in pressurized starship corridors), and that’s when she knows-but-doesn’t-know it’s Rax. He’s being dramatic again.

It’s such a perverse relief to lay her hands on that red crystalline pyramid. It is definitely accursed, though; it hums with evil energies (or maybe it’s buzzing with pleasure at her touch).

Sloane promises herself she won’t fall prey to the Wiles again. She keeps the holocron locked in a vault but the ghost tiptoes up through the ship to visit her dreams.

The place where they meet is an enormous astral chessboard. (Sloane calls it chess, Rax calls it shah-tezh). Fine sand is strewn in patches across its huge carved tiles, as if someone has cracked their turn-counting hourglass over it like an egg. Sloane can’t see the edge of the board, but she sees scattered ruins marring the smooth plane. If the board was the tiled floor of a temple as big perhaps as the entire Imperial Palace, the ruins could be what’s left when it collapsed and eroded.

Neither of them have particularly ornate clothing. They’re both dressed up as what Sloane recognizes to be the Outcast piece, her in white rags, him in black.

He’s very cryptic and avoidant, but this time, Sloane sees through it at last. He hasn’t got a plan for her, he just wants to talk. At the same time she realizes she wants to use him to maintain her power. He’s something special that no one else has access to — and she might be jealous if that turned out not to be true. She’s troubled by these dark temptations, and tries to distance herself from them.

Rax discovers, as dream Sloane is not as good at hiding feelings, that Sloane has fallen into a deep depression.

It’s very uncomfortable to consider because he would have to admit she’s weak enough to be inferior, according to what Palpatine taught him. He rationally considers if this is the case, if she’s too much like him to be worthy, but his gut feeling is that he can’t dislike her, so he wants to consider other options first. He starts to find evidence for her being psychically attacked by a powerful entity in the Unknown Regions who is trying to usurp her.

Sloane is skeptical but when Rax gets her looking for patterns, she sees them everywhere too, they begin to seem inescapably real. Her dreams of this chessboard become a dream of a game played against a mysterious opponent. Rax becomes her ally and fellow strategist.

And then, what you might expect happens: Snoke manifests. He reminds Sloane a lot of Rax, but more hideous and openly contemptuous. Sometimes, Sloane is energized by knowing her emotional state is caused by a real enemy. Sometimes, it makes her feel less in control.

Snoke announces that the Order will belong to him soon.

Holocron Rax eventually gets a corporeal body in the form of a reprogrammed Sentinel droid, the ones with Palpatine’s face for holograms but of course, replaced with Rax. It’s a secret project that Sloane is willing to undertake once the threat of Snoke seems close at hand.

And does it turn out that Snoke is a being that becomes more real the more he is believed in? Maybe, but maybe not. After all, depression is real whether you believe in it or not, and so is a structural problem in your society. Maybe it would be interesting if it turned out Snokestuff was real, emanating from the Dark Side, and is copying Sloane’s underlying problems and using them as a template. Snoke comes across like an amalgam of everyone Sloane has been trying to impress, all the smug rich old white men.

She finally confronts Rax about this. She doesn’t want his admiration. She doesn’t think anything she’s done is admirable. She wants to fail in his eyes, because at least that’s honest. Snoke targeted her because she was on the verge of breaking down anyway.

And Rax? Has to face facts about whether he cares about Sloane as a great figure of history or just as a friend.

They’re both left to wonder what makes a possible friendship or love between them meaningful if they’re not part of a grand triumphant narrative. In the end, close interpersonal connection turns out to be more mundane than they realized, and the mundanity of it is what matters.

[taule]

TBF anyone who is familiar with how JJ operates and has good taste believed the leaks as soon as they came out lmao. I've lived long enough to know what to expect from JJ Abrams. The only reason he's valued in Hollywood it's because nepotism of course but he knows what sells and creates money. Money, not good movies. Dude should be a CEO not a filmmaker.

That’s generally the conclusion I have come to. His filmography speaks of business, not imaginative and inventive storytelling or filmmaking. Yeah obviously his choices would have been different from Rian’s and have been, going forward from TLJ, that’s a given. But comments such as what he said say more about him than Rian.

And that’s the main difference to me. I have always believed in Rian’s choices because he’s convinced me by essentially telling us what the story he wanted to tell was. He has shown us the thought he has put into continuing the mythology that Lucas built in a way that is loyal to the core themes of hope and love. In my opinion JJ has never even tried to win our trust in that regard. 

[gillzilla]

A Treatise on the aTROSity, Including How Hope Came to Me in the Form of The Lego Movie 2, Knives Out, and Little Women

I will start out by saying that I have never made a real, detailed post on Tumblr, mainly because social media kind of scares me. But the Reylo community's amazing kindness, strength, openness, and willingness to speak the truth in their writing over the last week and a half is honestly what has gotten me through the heartbreak and depression caused by the stabbing in the chest that was this movie. I am one of the people who loves Kylo/Ben Solo because I have mental health conditions and an abuse/trauma history within my family, which is also why the holidays are hard for me, so a big thanks to the people in charge of the story for TROS for making it even harder this year. After a week and a half of legitimate mourning for the butchering of the themes of Star Wars and of all the characters, but particularly the sequel trilogy characters, I am ready to add my two cents to all that has already been written about this movie.

First off, I have not been a Star Wars fan for my whole life. My parents tried to introduce me to the original trilogy as a kid by taking me to see A New Hope in the movie theater for the 20th anniversary screening in 1997. I fell asleep for most of it and was terrified by the trash compactor scene, so you could say the movie did not resonate with me. It actually wasn't until Phantom Menace came out that I started to get attached to Star Wars. So many older fans love to shit on that movie, and it certainly has many flaws, but a lot of us who were around the same age as Anakin when that movie came out and are now adults have started to speak up about how the movie was a gateway into Star Wars for us. Anakin gave me a window into the Star Wars universe that I could understand and relate to. I could relate to Anakin being a kind-hearted kid who wanted to help others and just wanted adults he could look up to, and I liked the podracing scenes. As with every single other sci-fi/fantasy hero's journey story that I loved as a kid, I empathized with and related to a male hero. Now, the wooden dialogue/acting/directing of Attack of the Clones and the tragic ending of Revenge of the Sith that left me so emotionally devastated that I vividly remember calling my friend to tell her I was so depressed I couldn't focus on studying for my eighth grade English final, kind of took me out of Star Wars again. There had been a spark there, but at that point I figured, eh, I guess it's not really for me after all.

I didn't rediscover Star Wars until the end of the first semester of my freshman year of college. This was a very difficult time in my life, as I was in what I would now consider to be a mental health crisis that unfortunately lasted for five years because I was too ashamed and uneducated about mental health to seek out help. I was very, very lonely during that time. It was close to finals week and I was sick, so as I sat in my dorm room I decided, why not pop in those DVDs of the original trilogy that I got at Costco last month. After watching them, I remember thinking, "Why have I not been watching these my whole life???" The original trilogy hooked me after that point and I started watching the movies every year around Christmas in commemoration of my rediscovery of them.

I was just as surprised as anyone when I found out that Disney bought Lucasfilm and that they were going to make a sequel trilogy. I had thought there would never be any more Star Wars, so I was overjoyed, though tentative, because I knew that though I loved Star Wars, it also had a tendency to make missteps that were somewhat endemic to sci-fi/fantasy hero's journey stories, such as poorly written dialogue, emphasis on ridiculous plot points that took away from the deeper overall themes, lack of diverse characters, and objectification/misogyny against female characters (I do not like watching Return of the Jedi because I hate, HATE the Jabba's palace stuff for what they did to Leia, honestly they gave Leia nothing interesting to do in that whole movie basically, but that's a whole nother essay).

So I went into The Force Awakens not really knowing what to expect. But oh my god, was I blown away. I am not lying when I say that I cried for at least an hour after the scene where Rey and Kylo are both reaching out for the legacy saber and it goes to Rey as the music swells, oh my god. I FINALLY realized what it meant to feel seen in the stories that I loved. My whole life I had been attached to and empathizing with male heroes, because they were pretty much the only heroes out there. To see Rey as this amazing female heroine who was not objectified and was a compelling character with an intriguing backstory that I related to as a child with a trauma history who often grew up feeling lonely, and to see that she was going to be the main Jedi in this new trilogy, I was overjoyed. It gave me hope. And then, on top of that, we got Adam Driver. Need I say any more. So many people have written about what an absolutely incredible actor Adam is, and I swear he is the only actor who could have pulled off the role of Kylo/Ben. The first time I saw TFA I didn't catch all the nuances of the character and his dynamic with Rey, but something about him really intrigued me (and made me want to watch everything Adam had ever been in). My love for TFA led me to start investing time in the online Star Wars fandom, which I never considered myself to be a part of previously, as the fandom had always reeked of being a "no girls allowed" type of zone. I found out about amazing, female-led podcasts that I started listening to every week and whose hosts I value just as much as my friends. I also started following the Reylo fandom on Tumblr. Learning more about the mythology behind the sequel trilogy, including how the creators were writing Rey's story as a heroine's journey and her and Kylo/Ben as dual protagonists, added so much to my understanding of what was going on in the storytelling and gave me the words to describe why I was connecting with these stories so much. I can honestly say that Star Wars and the Reylo fandom generally have been instrumental in helping me to get through the last four years, which have been a very difficult and isolating period in my life.

And now I'm up to TROS. As so many have said, the vast majority of it is a steaming pile of trash. People have done such an amazing job of breaking down why this story and how it treated its characters and retconned the beautiful story and themes that Rian gave us in TLJ was so painful for us. Many have pointed out that this movie is a result of catering to the most toxic portion of the Star Wars fandom, the "dudebros." Going further, I want to state that, whether consciously or not on the part of the cis, straight, white, male writers/director/CEO of Disney, this movie is a reassertion of masculinist ideologies. I want to clarify that when I talk about "masculinist" vs. feminist ideologies, I am talking about how our society and culture defines "masculine" vs. "feminine" ideas, traits, etc. Gender has nothing to with biological determinism and is socially and culturally constructed. Masculinist ideologies include beliefs such as extreme individualism, competition, "us vs. them" dichotomies, and power and value being defined based on hierarchy, which necessitates the use of violence to perpetuate the hierarchy. Feminist ideologies include valuing community and collaboration, connection and empathy, the idea that every person has inherent worth regardless of their productivity, actions, mistakes, class, race, sexuality, etc., respect for all people, and an abolishing of hierarchies. Masculinist ideologies are those of the white supremacist hetero-patriarchy, which, as we can see playing out in various ways all over the world, has been rearing its head in a very obvious and ugly fashion the past few years (though of course it has been around for wayyyyy longer than that).

Anyone who has been reading the fantastic analyses of TROS by those in the Reylo community can likely see how TLJ and even the story as it was set up in TFA were communicating feminist ideologies. One big example of this is Kylo Ren/Ben himself as a character. As so many have eloquently described, this is a complex character that commits atrocities, but is shown to be a victim of immense abuse and trauma that was failed by everyone in his family when he needed them most. This is a character that, had he been able to have the full and well-written redemption arc that he deserved, would have had an extremely moving story of how toxic masculinity and masculinist ideology is destroying boys and men by keeping them from being full people who can express all of their emotions, be vulnerable, and be open to love and connection. Reylo resonates so much with me not because it is about Rey supposedly doing all the work to change Kylo in some sort of toxic, co-dependent way, but because Rey and Kylo/Ben were always equals to each other. They both pushed each other to be better, more whole people. The wonderful work that folks have put into analyzing the mythology behind the feminine and masculine symbolism in TFA and TLJ (again, to clarify, "masculine" and "feminine" being culturally defined terms), and even the more obvious original goal of the sequel trilogy for the force to finally be balanced by Rey and Ben themselves becoming balanced between dark and light all relate to these gender issues. Balancing the dark and light sides of the force is also about balancing the "masculine" and "feminine" aspects within themselves.

This is a beautiful message that has so many real world implications. In our world, for lack of a better term, everything "feminine" is basically shat on. Patriarchy hates anything "feminine." This is how sexism plays out, but it also has to do with the ideologies that we believe in, down to our basic understandings of empathy and whether or not people have inherent value. The world would certainly be a better place if the "masculine" and "feminine" were better balanced, specifically if "feminine," and feminist, ideologies were more valued. This is what makes TROS feel like a stab directly in the heart. This was a trilogy that clearly did have feminist messages, regardless of DLF's bullshitting about Star Wars being "for everyone." Star Wars has always been progressive, the original trilogy is about rebels taking on fascists for god's sake. DLF's pandering to the most toxic part of the fandom for TROS is therefore representative of a much larger cultural, social, and political battle that is going on around the world right now. We are at a turning point for humanity in which we are starting to face the devastation that has occurred due to masculinist ideologies being the most highly regarded and utilized by those in power, but those in power are also trying to maintain their power by strongly reasserting those ideologies. So I would argue that this is not just about one movie that I and many other people didn't like. This movie is a small representation of a much larger battle that we're fighting.

Now, that reassertion of masculinist ideology that was the stabbing in the heart of watching TROS has made me super, duper depressed for the past week or so because, as others have pointed out, it communicated to me that no matter how hard we fight, the white supremacist hetero-patriarchy will reassert itself and win in the end. It even re-triggered the pain I've felt over the past few years since our current president came into office in the U.S. However, as I near the end of this long treatise I would like to share the stories that gave me hope over these past few days. I re-watched The Lego Movie 2 the other day, and that story gave me hope. The "bad guy" in that story is a literal embodiment of toxic masculinity/masculinist ideology, and it ends with the male hero realizing that he doesn't need to sacrifice his humanity and connections to other people to be a hero, or even just to be a man. How to Train Your Dragon 3 also told a story about a male hero/leader that rejects masculinist ideology. Additionally, I was given hope by Rian's amazing movie, Knives Out, which I went to see solely because people on Tumblr recommended it (thank you folks!). Rian had a clear theme and vision for this story that was about exposing and dissecting what I would call "toxic whiteness," and what it does to a family and those around them. And lastly, I saw Greta Gerwig's incredible adaptation of Little Women today, and that gave me hope because one of its main themes is about the struggle that (cis, heterosexual) women have in asserting themselves as full humans with talents, dreams and goals for their lives outside of being in romantic relationships, but also wanting to have romantic relationships at the same time. As has been said by so many, "STRONG" WOMEN CAN FALL IN LOVE AND HAVE ROMANTIC/SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS. Feminism is about giving all people the chance to be fully human, and for heterosexual women that includes being able to have a relationship with a man and still be valued and respected for everything that we are outside of that relationship. The above mentioned stories, and others (She-Ra, Dragon Prince, AtLA & Legend of Korra, I'm sure there are others) give me hope that there are creators out there that are communicating feminist themes, even in big-budget movies that lots of people go to see. We need more of this. Tied to this is that THE HEROINE'S JOURNEY OF THE SEQUEL TRILOGY SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN/DIRECTED BY A WOMAN/WOMEN. Folks, we need the opportunities to tell our own stories. All of the diverse folks out there, if you are a creator, please keep on creating! We need you out there and we value all of the beautiful, integral work that you do!

So in sum, I'm not going to let what happened with TROS ruin my love of Star Wars or of the sequel trilogy. The story belongs to the fans now, and there are so many of us out there to care for it. You better be sure that I will never stop speaking up about how wronged we were by TROS, that is the hill I will die on. But I am not giving up hope and I hope that you will also join me in not giving up hope. As Poe stated so well in TLJ (with one minor adjustment), "We are the spark that will light the fire that will burn the [patriarchy] down." End of treatise.