#empires being its own galaxy is also SO interesting

[twinsunstars]

What if the Imperials Were the Rebels?

So I was thinking about if Star Wars had a “What If?” series like Marvel does, and I starting thinking about how some characters part of the Empire would be the rebels in another universe. I found it pretty interesting (and Star Wars should really do a “What If?” series), so here are my own versions of what roles I think the Imperials would play if they were the ones fighting in the Rebellion (and Palpatine is still Palpatine). (I didn’t include Kallus because he did defect to be a rebel in canon, so in my AU he would possibly remain an Imperial, as this focuses more on people who never defected and stayed loyal in the canon universe.) I’ll discuss just a few characters below and my thoughts on them.

Feel free to let me know your own thoughts and ask about any Imperial characters I didn’t discuss! I'll write small fics for them one day!!

Darth Vader: He would remain Anakin Skywalker in my AU, helping to lead the rebellion. Also being one of the Jedi part of the Rebellion, he helps to fight against the Inquisitors and lead the Rebellion towards the right path. The Empire had taken his master, padawan, son, and daughter away from him years ago and had assassinated the love of his life; he would do anything to bring them down. Is also one of the strongest pilot fighters the rebellion has.

Wilhuff Tarkin: I imagined Tarkin as like an individual similar to Commander Sato from Rebels and General Dodonna from the original trilogy/Rebels. He leads one of the main rebellion fleets and is highly respected as a commander. Was offered a position in the Empire but had immediately refused in its early days, not wishing to serve under this new regime. Has led many of the rebel attacks against the Empire with many success rates.

Thrawn: As a general and a pilot fighter in the rebellion, Thrawn leads one of the powerful squadrons in the rebellion. Often comes up with many of the attack strategies when preparing for an ambush, and is ready to command and attack when the Empire gets a level up on them. Often feuds with Hera Syndulla, one of the most powerful admirals and TIE fighter pilot in the Empire.

Orson Krennic: An engineer and a rebel commander, Krennic has helped design many of the weapons and starfighters the rebellion uses against the Empire. Has led many rebel fleet attacks while stationed in the base, helping to direct the fleet to their target.

Inquisitors: I viewed them as the Jedi of the Rebellion, as characters like Ezra, Kanan, Cal, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and other Jedi alive during this time would be the Inquisitors. They would be spread around in the galaxy, continuing to help keep up the fight against the Empire and protect young Force-sensitives from the hands of the Inquisitors. Have all met Anakin Skywalker and would follow him into battle any day.

Morgan Elsbeth: I felt like thinking about her and how she would potentially fit into this AU, as she did basically design those TIE fighters that Thrawn adores so much while she worked inside the Empire, as seen in Tales of the Empire. Morgan would be an engineer like Krennic, focusing her designs primarily on the starfighters for the rebellion to help them succeed. Has worked with Thrawn and designed the fighters for his squadron, watching the fight from the ground. The Republic was responsible for the execution of her native people, and now that it had become the tyrannical Empire, her only wish was to destroy it.

Edmon Rampart: I based this off some of the theories I would read about Rampart potentially becoming like Kallus and turning around to become a rebel, but we saw where that went lol. I see Rampart as one of the rebels part of the Alliance who had escaped the Empire after being caught by Hera Syndulla, conveying a lot of important information to the rebellion while remaining in an Imperial position. He has helped lead many rebel attacks and add successful strategies in the fight.

Royce Hemlock: You may be thinking, how does someone like Hemlock become a rebel? When I was thinking about this AU based off his skills and use to the Empire, I thought of him as being a lead medical doctor in the rebellion and partly an engineer, using his skills for healing and designing useful assets and weapons for the rebellion to take advantage of. Had not gotten expelled from the Republic Science Corps in this AU, but was forcefully kept in a secret facility for Palpatine’s wants after the fall of the Republic, and managed to escape. Not much of a direct fighter but knows how to handle a blaster, would rather stick to the base instead of being up with the pilots, but would do anything to make sure the Empire meets its demise.

Eli Vanto: A commander of another rebel fleet, and Thrawn’s partner in many of the rebel attacks and strategy meetings, Eli is respected for being the one to find out many of the Empire’s secrets through his spies scattered around the galaxy and his own aspirations to perform deep research into the Empire’s hidden goals. Used to only be a minor commander in the rebellion until Thrawn took note of his skills and Tarkin found him worthy of promotion to do more for the rebellion’s military.

let me know your thoughts and hopefully you found this interesting!

[gatorbites-imagines]

Some paz vizsla x sith male reader?

Paz Vizsla x Sith male reader

Headcanons

Because of my love for fanfic and the Kotor games, theres a lot of headcanosn in this. I will find a way to involve Revan when I can, so he’s also there, in the background. Theres also a single Revan x Canderous mention.

Theres so much about Kotor in this, it really took a life of its own, so I hope you enjoy.

I missed writing star wars so bad, can yall tell?

First of all, being Sith doesn’t immediately make you evil. It just means you follow a specific religious groups way of teaching and practice their rituals to some extent. This means you use the dark side, and have nothing against harming others to reach a goal.

You aren’t as power hungry as other sith in this time, and you aren’t under Palpatine’s thumb. Far from it actually. The dark side is to some extent fueled by your hate for the empire and anyone involved with it, as you were once a jedi youngling when the purging happened.

You were a padawan at the time, and your master had always been very interested in holocrons and the past. Their most prized possession was the holocron of Darth Revan, or one of his many holocrons that had been left all over the galaxy.

So, after you saw them gunned down by the clonetroopers you thought you could trust, you ran, taking an escape pod to get as far away as possible. It just turns out you had been carrying Revan’s holocron in your bag at the time, and after landing on a smaller less populated planet, you had hidden away in its vast cave system.

You feared going mad for a while, as you were just a padawan, one who had lost everything. You were almost consumed by this anger and rage, so uncontrollable as you cracked at the edges and fell.

Revan’s force presence must have felt this inside the holocron, as he appeared before you, and guided you through it, keeping you from completely shattering your mind and becoming a beast hellbent on revenge.

From then on, Revan became your new master, leading you around the galaxy to find his other holocrons and artifacts as he taught you everything he knew, and to the best of his ability.

He was kinder than any sith you had ever heard of or met, and he taught you a lot about the sith empire and how not all sith had been power hungry madmen, that before the rule of two, they had been more on the stable side, to a certain extent.

He never claimed they were good people, but you didn’t need that, you appreciated his honesty. Along these journeys, you even found holocrons of some of the other sith of his like, like Malak, who was Revans old friend.

Malak hadn’t been happy about you in the beginning, but he had ended up begrudgingly taking some kind of master role to you, almost like a standoffish uncle. But thanks to their training you are able to stay completely hidden from the empire, and live the life you want to live.

You go where the force leads you, which just so happens to be places that Revan and other great sith of made themselves at home in the past. You had almost started cheering and singing when you found what some would call the tomb of Darth Nihilus, much to your masters embarrassment, as Malak looked at Revan with a lifted brow.

Your interest in the past had been something you had picked up from your first master as a padawan, and it stayed. It was something Revan had to accept as his force ghost watched you fanboy over a mummified hand of Darth Sion, or leftover notes left over by Darth Malgus on saber forms.

Your greatest achievement was your helmet. Or rather, your master’s old helmet. Palpatine had pretty much ransacked the jedi temples after culling them all, stealing whatever he wanted, and the jedi had owned Revan’s helmet for many years, locked away far away from prying eyes.

With your master, and uncle-masters help, you were able to sneak in and steal it right back, taking it from right under Palpatine and Vader’s noses. The helmet barely looked like a helmet with how old and worn it was, but the power inside it made it clear. It was Revan’s helmet.

Revan had gifted it to you, almost beaming as you teared up at the trust he seemed to put in you. You were sith alright, and your emotions were what fueled you, and your love for your master and his love for you was the strongest there could be between family.

You were able to create a new helmet, using what was left of Revan’s and other materials, one of those materials being Beskar you stole from the empire. You even painted in similarly to Revan but added some of your own touches.

Little did you know, this helmet is what caught your future lovers attention first. Mandalorians love a strong partner, and those that follow the creed love some good armor, so Paz couldn’t keep his eyes off you when he saw you the first time.

You pretty much just bleed raw power into the air around you, letting it swirl around you like a second armor and letting everyone around know you were a possible threat if crossed. That was the kinda person that had Paz sweating and his blood pumping.

You would meet because you found yourself on the same planet as the covert hes with, hunting down something left by Canderous ordo, some piece of armor, like a pauldron he had left behind for Revan as some kind of marriage declaration.

Its after finding these pauldrons that you meet Paz, and some of the other older members of the covert. Apparently, words of a guy in scary black and red armor skulking around was enough to have them weary.

In the beginning they might think your Mandalorian, from the style of your armor and the new unpainted pauldrons you have added to your armor, making them hesitate, but that moment of hesitation if all you need to launch an attack.

You don’t kill any of them, wouldn’t want too, but by the force do you kick their ass, another thing that has Paz feeling hot under all that armor. He almost wants to drop to his knees to say the marriage vows right then and there when you fling him over your head using one hand, the other reflecting blaster bolts with little difficulty.

What can he say, mandalorians fall hard and they fall fast, blame it on living such dangerous and hard lives. So, when he sees you aren’t actually trying to kill them, Paz hopes there’s a chance you might stick around.

You end up getting away, ignoring the cackling of your master and the glowering of your uncle-master. The tables turn when Malak starts mentioning Ordo and the love declaration through the pauldrons, leaving your master quiet and mumbly as Malak smirks. They are definitely the reason you don’t fear the sith of old as much anymore.

Paz grieves a little as he doesn’t see you again for a while, even though he tries to keep an ear and eye out for you in your black and red armor and that flexibility that has him gripping the wall when he thinks about it too hard.

In the end its Ragnar, Paz’s son, that brings you before them again. He had ended up in some trouble, and the force had almost screamed for you to help him. Listening to the force was what you did, so you helped the helmet wearing kid out.

Ragnar was smart, and had heard his dads dreamy mumblings and the other mandalorians teasing, so he could immediately tell who you were. One way or another, and though it’s extremely against the rules, he gets you to where the covert is hiding.

Paz shows up and starts worrying about Ragnar, cuz he loves his son and doesn’t wanna see him hurt, and when he hears its you who saved him, he starts feeling hot under the armor again.

On the insistence of the force, you stick around the covert. Paz takes the time to go about romancing like mandalorians do, by peacocking and challenging you to spars. He never wins, not even the ones where you don’t use the force.

Its humorous to see that large hulking back being wrestled to the ground by you, or thrown around like he weighs nothing. You can tell how he feels about you, but you fear acting on it, even though Revan keeps bugging you to do so, much to Malaks annoyance.

In the end you two end up getting together like how many mandalorians do or did. During a fight. Things were getting tough, and a couple of your allies had gotten hurt, even Paz was down for the count.

You needed him up and at em though, so you had reached down and pulled him into a keldabe kiss, pressing your helmeted foreheads together and told him if he got out of this alive, you’d let him take you on a date.

That immediately had him standing, even though his leg wanted to buckle from a stab wound. The enemy were taken out in record time.

Your first date goes a little awkwardly, as neither of you actually have any experience dating. You spending all your life as a jedi and then sith, and Paz being part of a pretty hard covert. But you two work it out, and it ends with you sparring and scuffling in the sand, which maybe lead to something more. The helmets stay on the entire time.

No one is surprised when you two start dating, or when you start becoming a permanent fixture in the covert. Sure, they’re weary in the beginning because you are an outsider and because you are sith, but they come to appreciate you.

They really start welcoming you when you can use your dark presence in the force to hide them away from anyone searching for them, or to take out possible threats. You even start teaching some of the force sensitive members. You don’t force them to use the dark side, but you do end up teaching them about the balance between both.

When Din shows up again, he doesn’t fully know what to do with the information that Paz went and got himself hitched, and to a sith of all things, but he sees you well you fit into It all and their creed, and who is he to judge.

You get on well with Ragnar, as he was pretty much the one to bring you to his dad, and the kid grows attached to you. Who else but him can brag about his powerful dark sider warrior dad? That gets him some brownie points from the other foundlings.

When you and Paz marry there is no big ceremony, its just a vow spoken between you and that’s it. You always find yourself cackling at the memory of how jittery he had been to see your face for the first time, now that you were married.

During all this time you hadn’t been against taking your helmet off, but you just hadn’t had a reason too.

Paz spends a lot of time just holding your face in his hands and taking you in, with you doing the same to him. Expect many kisses from then on, every time you are alone. He is really bad at kissing in the beginning, since he has zero experience, but he makes up for it with his enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Paz is still stoic around others and is a big presence, taking care of the dirty work and keeping people safe. But with you he gets to be soft, he gets to be weaker for once, which only fuels his feelings for you.

He never makes you feel like a monster for using the dark side, and he had marveled and just stared at your glowing yellow eyes for a long time the first time he had seem them, barely believing it was possible for them to look like that, just because of the force.

You are still a sith after all of this, and you still leave now and then to hunt down artificacts and other types of knowledge left by the sith of old, but you don’t feel as much urgency as in the past.

You even bring Paz and Ragnar along for the less dangerous ones, as a family trip. You can’t bring them along for most artifacts though, since you don’t wanna lose them to ancient sith traps or mind tricks.

It’s the stability you’ve needed for many years, and though you are still fueled by passion and emotions, it isn’t the same anger that you had harbored all these years. It was more the love you had for your husband and your son, and the fact that you would tear apart the galaxy for them if they asked.

The feelings are returned from Paz of course, and Ragnar too, as you guys’ care about each other deeply, as any family should. They do get a bit freaked out, even years later, when you tell them about force ghosts and how Revan is always present. Sometimes you say it just to see them subtly looking around, it’s hilarious.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Planet of Judgment" review

A novel from 1977, by Joe Haldeman. It begins with a rather generic "stranded on dinosaur planet" plot, but then the story becomes far more unhinged and entertaining. By the end, I was wondering what drugs was the author taking. So yeah, recommended novel, for sheer insanity.

As usual, Spock is gay. Also, McCoy is probably gay too.

Spoilers under the cut:

The Enterprise arrives at a strange rogue planet, with its own artificial sun. Of course Kirk has to investigate the anomalous planet (aptly named "Anomaly"), and he lands there with some security guys in a shuttlecraft. The fact that the transporter doesn't work, should be hint enough that this planet is trouble. They encounter giant beasts similar to dinosaurs. Also pterodactyls. And soon discover that the usual laws of physics don't apply as they should. Their phasers only work on stun, they have no communications, and the shuttlecraft is dead. So far, no redshirt has died, so the Enterprise sends another shuttlecraft with more redshirts just in case. At last, since it's obvious everyone is trapped on that planet, Spock decides to send three more shuttlecrafts with a ton of people (including himself, McCoy, Chapel and Uhura) so the party can begin.

The first part of the novel deals with the crew trying to survive in the wild environment. There's also two strange, stream-of-consciousness scenes to show Kirk and McCoy's dreams. The crew spots some hominid creatures that they take for cavemen. Also, two redshirts finally die. One being half-eaten by a giant flower, in a surprisingly gory scene. There's more body horror ahead, as one injured redshirt vanishes suddenly, and returns the next day significantly changed. He has no eyes, ears or nose, as if they had never been there in the first place, and hair is quickly covering his whole body. It's discovered then, that the supposed cavemen are actually a very advanced telepathic race, and have mutated the crewman into one of their own, to better communicate and study the humans. (By the way, the crewman is very happy with the changes.)

The aliens, called Arivne, only need the scientists (Spock, McCoy and three others) for their experiments, so everyone else is sent back to the Enterprise. Then, they force them to relive traumatic moments of their past, in order to learn things like "decision-making" or "betrayal", which their species, living in perfect unity, doesn't know. There are interesting glimpses into Spock and McCoy's past, as part of these visions. Such as Spock being bullied by his human cousins as a child, or McCoy's divorce. It's finally revealed that the Arivne are doing all this to prepare against the attack of other, insectoid aliens, that will soon invade the whole galaxy (McCoy describes one as an "ugly son of a bitch"). The aliens, called Irapina, are sending first three champions to test the waters. If Spock, McCoy and Kirk (who's been returned to the planet to not miss the fight) can defeat the three Irapina, they'll withdraw to invade another, less interesting place (like the Romulan Empire).

This is where things become really, really weird. As the battles against the Irapina take place inside hallucinations, that can nonetheless kill the loser (a bit as in "Spectre of the Gun"). Come to think of it, something similar happened in "Spock Must Die". These early novels truly loved their hallucinations... We have McCoy battling the baby Irapina in a poker game, set in the Wild West. Which ends with McCoy decapitating the alien with a card. Yeah. Spock takes a math quiz on a sinking game board. Then Kirk fights in a naval battle against pirates, while Spock is busy inside a star, trying to make it go nova (Spock has practice with this, as earlier he had created a volcano by pushing to the surface from a planet's core).

Anyway, it's all gloriously crazy. Even though the ending seemed a bit rushed. There are also some seemingly abandoned plot threads. For example, the love triangle between a female scientist, another guy and a professor. I thought that these three characters would have more relevance later on, but eventually, nothing is done with them.

Spirk Meter: 7/10*. I was determined to give this novel a low rating, even a zero. After all, how slashy can it be if Kirk and Spock barely interact? It turns out, it can be fairly slashy... For starters, the most traumatic experience in Spock's past that the Arivne could find, was his battle against Kirk in Amok Time and the thought he had killed him (the whole sequence is taken from Blish novelization, which is a rather lazy way to fill pages, if you ask me). Relieving the scene makes Spock cry actual tears. Then, what is Spock's biggest worry while stranded on the planet? Being eaten by dinosaurs? Nah! The greatest danger for him is that Chapel would try to seduce him! Even though poor Chapel doesn't even interact with him in the whole novel, and has been nothing but professional. He goes as far as suggesting that McCoy seduces her, to get rid of Chapel himself (too bad for Spock, McCoy's gay too; more on this later). So far, this isn't much. But then, near the ending, it's Spock's love for Kirk that saves the whole galaxy once more. During the final confrontation, the Irapina cheat at the game and merge the two hallucinations: Kirk battling on the pirate ship, and Spock creating a supernova. If Spock succeeds at his test, the heat from the nova will kill Kirk. Of course, he chooses to fail his test and die himself, so Kirk has a chance. He does it out of "logic, morality, and a vestige of an emotion he might deny: love" (direct quote). The Irapina hadn't predicted such sacrifice in the name of love, so they declare the battle null, which gives Kirk and Spock another chance.

This is as far as Kirk and Spock are concerned. Now, what's the deal with McCoy? For starters, during his dream sequence, he wonders about the fact that he has never been truly interested in a woman, not even his wife. Later, Spock asks McCoy to explain sex and love to him, since he doesn't understand why Chapel is so interested in him. McCoy explains that women (and men) are attracted to power, which Spock has; intellect, which Spock has in spades; fairness, which is congenital for Spock (these are his words); and of course, that mysterious aura of strangeness, that is so very Spock's... And yeah, it doesn't seem AT ALL that McCoy has reflected a lot about Spock's appeal... After this, Spock asks him to seduce Chapel himself. McCoy refuses as he doesn't see Chapel that way. Spock assures him that he won't ask him to do anything against his nature, to which McCoy becomes very defensive. There's a long passage then, where McCoy ponders about his reasons to prefer the other female scientist in the party (all very un-romantic, practical reasons) over Chapel. As well as the fact that, despite being familiar with the female body because of his work as a doctor, he kind of fails when it comes to women. Something that he can't confess to Spock, but has confided to Chapel; the reason why he can't see her as a lover, and why Chapel can't be attracted to him either. What does Chapel know? It's also noteworthy, that this whole scene serves absolutely no purpose for the plot, since Chapel disappears from the story quite early and nothing happens between her and Spock. Last but not least, during the re-enactment of McCoy's divorce, we learn that a major reason for his wife abandoning him is that she was sexually frustrated. And neither of them were happy in their marriage. McCoy doesn't take it so bad, joining Starfleet right afterwards... So yeah, in my opinion, there's something about all this that screams "closeted homosexual".

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[ranahan]

The Mandalorian Proletarian Uprising

Disclaimer: this post is 100% headcanons. I support your fandom-ordained right to make whatever kinds of headcanons and interpretations you want, even if they annoy me. That being said… I have some of my own.

You know how there’s a fraction of fandom who hold that the Old Mandalorians were a warrior elite who were oppressing the masses, and the New Mandalorians were the people rising up against their overlords? At least I’ve been getting those posts on my dash.

And at first I was annoyed, because that’s mushing together two completely different periods of Mandalorian history. And I have a half-written essay in my drafts about the demographics of historical warrior societies and how Mandalorians aren’t all warriors, actually.

But then I changed my mind. Because you know what? The Taung do seem to have been exactly the kind of bastards who committed several genocides and enslaved entire planets to their war machinery, either as soldiers or for churning out weapons and ships in factories. And yes, they do seem to have held that only Mandalorians had real souls. And that one had to be a warrior in order to be a Mandalorian, and the plebs aren’t mentioned. Which absolutely does make it seem like they were an oppressed and possibly (probably) an enslaved class.

So instead of brushing all that under the rug and crying about how my favourite blorbos aren’t imperialist assholes acshually, let’s say all that bad stuff happened. Let’s engage with it. Because there could be an interesting story here—good stories are all about conflict, after all.

So when did the people rise up?

So the first question is to ask when. And this is the part where I’m going to swerve left from the narrative I presented at the beginning of this essay. Because those genocidal warrior elites that annoy some fans? They were Taung. Who went extinct near four millennia ago. So that rather pushes back the date of our uprising.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like the masses rose against their evil overlords during the heyday of the Taung—they seem to have been going strong right up to the Battle of Malachor V, after which they are supposed to have gone extinct.

But then I remembered this little aside in this other headcanon essay of mine (which is also a good background to my headcanons):

As an aside: do you think the Mandalorians had a civil war afterwards? Now that these armies non-Taung Mandalorian warriors settle on Mandalorian worlds, where the previous non-Taung populations were little more than slaves? Did they fight it out or did they open up the clans again, for anyone willing to join?

So what if they did fight it out? Imagine this:

The Mandalorian Uprising after the Battle of Malachor V

The aftermath of the Battle of Malachor V is said to have been 300 years of diaspora and disarray for the Mandalorians. Let’s imagine what might have happened during those years:

The Mandalorian Empire has swept through the galaxy, gobbling up worlds and turning them into cogs for its hungry war machinery. Citizens of conquered worlds have two choices: join the Mandalorian armies or become a slave in their factories churning out ships, weapons, and munitions. The first option is presented as a chance to become a Mandalorian warrior yourself, to become one of the elites and find fame and glory and gold on the battlefields. The truth is that most of the press-ganged soldiers are little more than canon fodder.

The Mandalorian plague has seemed like an unstoppable tide, but suddenly Malachor V happens. Entire Mandalorian fleets have been vaporised, along with the Mand’alor himself and his top brass. The tide turns. The Mandalorian succession is in the air; their leadership in disarray. The Republic starts swiftly taking back the recently conquered worlds. The Mandalorian armies splinter.

And now many soldiers leave to find their fortunes among the wider Galaxy. But more of those ragged armies limp back to the Mandalorian home worlds and what territories they can keep a hold of. And now they try to settle down to governing them, according to their ancient laws and practices.

Only during the Mandalorian wars, the Mandalorian armies have grown exponentially. And they were grown almost entirely from the non-Taung populations. At the start of the war, clear majority of Mandalore’s citizens were Taung. At the end of it, they’re a small minority.

Many newly-minted Mandalorian warriors do buy into the warrior elite’s way of life—it benefits them, after all. But there are still huge tensions between the wish to return to the ancient ways of the Taung and the need to change how their society works in order to adapt to their completely different demographics. And maybe that tension holds for a while, maybe even decades. But eventually it snaps and a civil war boils over, because the warrior elite—now a small minority—cannot suppress their conquered masses forever.

And maybe that’s another reason why the Taung went extinct. They can’t have been all present at Malachor V, so I’ve previously suggested that they were effectively absorbed into the population, until a multitude could claim Taung ancestry, but there were no pureblooded Taung left. But maybe that extinction was helped along by the guillotine à la French Revolution. Maybe their oppressed subjects finished the job.

And unfortunately—like is often the case—it’s not just a single civil war. Like is won’t to happen, many people try to climb to the top and become the new king to replace the old one. So for decades or centuries, the Mandalorians suffer intermittent power grabs and uprisings, until they eventually settle on a new form of life and government.

Effects on Mandalorian culture

So why didn’t the Mandalorian culture go extinct? A large part of that is because the oppressed people, after throwing down their oppressors, adopted their customs as a mark of their new station in society. For better or worse, they too have been living in Mandalorian society and those are the customs of the free elites they know. If their own customs have been sufficiently suppressed, it might be only culture they know. This is not unusual if you look at irl history either.

Another part is that large parts of the Mandalorian armies (the cannon fodder) joined in on the fight. And many of them had been living as Mandalorian soldiers for years or even decades. It is their way of life too now, for better or worse.

The Mandalorian culture survives, but it is completely transformed. Anyone can be a Mandalorian now, regardless of blood. The old gods are abandoned in favour of belief in shared oversoul. Old philosophies and values are reinterpreted, and conquest is abandoned in favour of survival.

One of my favourite fanons is that Mandalorians have an abiding hatred for slavery. But I never knew how to justify it. And this here could be where it started—this slave revolution on Mandalore. Henceforth no Mandalorian would ever be a slave again.

And this could also help explain one of the dichotomies of the Mandalorians: how are they such consummate soldiers, yet have such problems with being governed? And this could be where the ethos of accepting no overlords could have been born. Mandalorians know having a tighter chain of command would make them more effective—but they also know what it would cost. And they would never take that bargain. It’s forged into the very soul of their national ethos, just like liberté, égalité, fraternité is forged into the French: Vode An.

Vode An makes for such a good working class motto, doesn’t it?

tldr:

Yes to Mandalorian peasant uprising against their warrior-elite overlords. But make it happen after the Mandalorian Wars, not in the modern days. Although you could certainly still see some ripple effects, internal tensions and biases to this day; just look at USAmericans, slavery and racism.

As always, this is just one possible way things could have gone down (and of course there can be more than one civil war in a people’s history). But I rather like it because it could explain some of those seemingly incongruous parts of the Mandalorian culture.

[kanansdume]

I have some rambly thoughts about the different approaches we're seeing to Andor (a serialized show), Obi-Wan Kenobi (a serialized show), and The Mandalorian (an episodic show) and how they work or don't work.

Serialized shows are, by nature, more plot-driven than character-driven. Which doesn't mean the characters aren't IMPORTANT to the story by any means, it just means that the show moves forward based on things like worldbuilding and the characters are often forced to sort-of react to things happening around them that the audience themselves may or may not be in on. In Andor, Cassian is far more REACTIVE than he is PROACTIVE, and that's mainly the point in season 1. Cassian is trying really hard not to get involved in the fight and wants to just hide and run away and pretend it doesn't exist, but the world and his own fate keep catching up to him and forcing him into situations he has to react to (the guards forcing him to defend himself leading to being forced to leave Ferrix and join the rebel attack on Aldhani, Skeen's betrayal forcing Cassian's own, the Imperial reaction to Aldhani meaning he can't come home, being arrested on Niamos for just being in the wrong place, Maarva's death). Cassian finally making the choice to get AHEAD of everyone else by saving his friends on Ferrix and getting them off the planet and then beating Luthen to his own ship to offer to join the Rebellion is a big deal because it's Cassian finally accepting that fate.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is also reactive, but it's character-driven because the first big choice he makes is to go save Leia in episode 1 and he gets progressively more proactive from that point on. The plot itself has logistical issues because the plot of saving Leia and Reva chasing them and going to Tatooine is SECONDARY to Obi-Wan reclaiming his identity as a Jedi. Obi-Wan's choices move everything forward. This is why the show was still so satisfying to me even if the plot occasionally was a little slapdash. It wasn't ABOUT the plot, really. In Andor, Cassian is the vehicle through which we are told the story of the galaxy and the Rebellion. The Obi-Wan Kenobi plot is a vehicle to tell the story of how Obi-Wan Kenobi healed from Order 66 and became the Jedi Master we know from the Original Trilogy.

The Mandalorian was an episodic show, which by its nature NEEDS to be character-driven because it really can't be plot-driven. Any overarching plot is generally REALLY vague and spider-web thin. In the case of The Mandalorian, the overarching plot of season 1 was "protect the child from the Empire" and the overarching plot of season 2 was "get the child to the Jedi." And this can be really great if done well! When the story really focuses in on the characters and how they grow through each successive small story, how the relationships build up over time, it can really make for a wonderful show. It isn't just Din's relationship to Grogu, either, it's watching Din create relationships with a NUMBER of different people like Kuill and Greef Karga and Cara Dune and even IG-11 that all come together at the end to help him protect the child when they're in need. Season 2 does something similar with Bo-Katan, and Boba and Fennec so he can create a new group of friends to help him protect the child in the finale this time.

But The Mandalorian has steadily moved away from being more episodic and is now trying to be more serialized, which has stopped working because this show and its characters were never built for it. Din is a character who actively avoids "being the main character" and it's become something of a defining character trait. Din isn't a leader, so giving him the Darksaber goes nowhere. He isn't someone who chafes at the status quo, so having him take off his helmet and need to figure out how to find redemption for that or if he even wants it goes nowhere. He has no connection to the New Republic or its problems, no real connection to Mandalore the place, no interest in cloning or Palpatine or the Jedi beyond how it directly impacted him or Grogu in the moment. And even the Imperial interest in Grogu seems to have completely disappeared.

The Mandalorian became the franchise's breadwinner and as such, they want it to get BIGGER, they want to make it RELEVANT to the Skywalker Saga when it was intentionally irrelevant by design and that was what made it good. The Mandalorian no longer knows what it is and what story it wants to tell in order to know how to tell it. It throws in a few random episodic things that now feel bloated and frustrating instead of fun and character-driven because they're taking time away from the more serialized story it's trying to tell with Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians.

And of course part of this is due to the MCU-ification of Star Wars via Filoni and Favreau's stories. Andor and Obi-Wan are separate from that and so are allowed to exist on their own and shine on their own with their own styles. But they're trying to connect The Mandalorian, an intentionally irrelevant episodic show, to more serialized shows like Rebels and Ahsoka and maybe even something like The Bad Batch, and MAKE them all relevant by connecting them to the Sequel Trilogy somehow. The Mandalorian was a stand-alone in season 1, but it isn't anymore. It is intentionally being REBUILT into something that cannot survive without everything else it's connected to, and the same will be true of any of its spin-offs. They're so bound and determined to make their characters relevant to the Skywalker Saga that they're willing to ruin them in order to do so rather than accepting that their irrelevance is what makes them special.

[krimsonkatt]

Ji (Spirit Roamer)

The main character of a future game I'm making called "Spirit Roamer", a sci-fi RPG inspired by Star Wars, Xenosaga, and Gnostism. Her title is Ji and that's what she goes by at the end of the game, but her original name was Zin. Zin is destined to be the legendary "Spirit Roamer" JI, the savior of the universe and the liberator of the light spirits, whatever that means. Here is the full plot of Spirit Roamer:

Zin is a 16 year old human boy living a peaceful life on the colony of Phantos-5. He lives in a futuristic society capable of interstellar travel, where every piece of technology no matter how big or small is powered by special crystals called "NRG Gems." In this galaxy, the vast world of Galaxio, there are two opposing factions: The Republic of Jeto and the Gordoom Empire. Recently, the Gordoom Empire has been blowing up Republic-aligned planets using their "annihilation class starships," seeking to harvest the planets NRG crystals for some mysterious goal, though this news has not reached Phantos-5 which exists on the outer rim of the galaxy. But one day, a crazy old man named Kino No Hakama arrives in town warning that in mere hours their planet will be destroyed and that they all need to evacuate immediately. Kino takes special interest in Zin and when they get close to one another, both of them receive a strange vision where first Zin's planet is blown up before showing other scenes of flying in a spaceship, Zin's arm being chopped off, a female android awakening, and a ghost of light fighting against a massive purple ghost of darkness. Both are shocked by these visions, and Kino reveals to Zin that he is "The Ji," a legendary warrior spoken in an ancient prophecy that will "free the world from its shackles," though Kino does not know exactly what that means. However, the Gordoom Empire has arrived and the planet is going to be blown up, so Zin runs away with Kino on his dinky spaceship. They escape the planet's explosion and Zin swears revenge on the Empire for destroying his planet.

While on the spaceship Kino tells Zin of the empire's plan and that they must head to the resistance base in empire territory to get help. The Jeto Republic signed a strict peace treaty ages ago with Gordoom after losing a war with them that required them to never take action against Gordoom and start another war unless Gordoon "starts another war or invasion of allied planets." The republic also lost all their stocked weapons and military grade starships. Since Gordoom destroyed planets instantly from space, they technically haven't broken the contract and thus the republic is helpless. Zin also tells Kino of his backstory, that his mother disappeared 10 years ago suddenly and without reason and since then he has been living with his aunt and uncle until his planet was destroyed. Kino then gives Zin an ancient weapon called a "Razor Saber" that can only be activated by one in-tune with "phantos," a mystical energy source at the core of the NRG Gems.

However, their conversation is cut short as their spaceship runs out of energy and crash lands on a small moon. Luckily, that moon happens to have tons of NRG crystals within a lunar cave. Zin enters alone at Kino's suggestion to do some training and starts hearing voices calling for help, but doesn't know where they're coming from. Zin reaches the bottom of the cavern and finds a massive NRG Gem, just the right size needed to power the ship. However, the NRG Gem begins to move on its own and stabs into a nearby rock, turning the rock alive and prompting a fight with a giant rock monster powered by the NRG Gem. Zin's blaster has no effect on the rock monster, but by focusing his willpower Zin is able to tap into the "power of phantos" and awaken the Razor Saber to cut right through the rock monster and disable it. Zin then grabs the crystal, leaves the cave, and heads back to Kino. They then make their way to the resistance base on their spaceship and meet with the leader, a woman named Cypress. 

Cypress is currently testing out an artificial human made out of metal named Fades, and after Zin tells his story of the crystal causing the rocks to become alive, Cypress decides to merge an NRG crystal into the android's cortex chip and it ends up working, awakening Fades for the first time. However, soon after Fade's awakening the empire is able to find their base and attack it, and leading the charge is a mysterious general known as the Crimson Samurai. Cypress orders the resistance to evacuate and find a new base, as this current base is a lost cause since the Empire now knows where it is and can destroy it at any time. Everyone is able to escape, but the Crimson Samurai corners Kino and Zin while they are all separated and fleeing for their lives. Kino decides to sacrifice himself to hold the samurai off, and Zin watches helplessly as he runs away, seeing Kino being cut down by the samurai right as they're leaving on Kino's spaceship. Zin is consumed by rage and wants to run in guns blazing on the Empire's base to get revenge on the samurai for killing Kino, but Cypress warns him not to and forbids him to leave. Zin escapes anyways and makes his way to the Empire's home planet, sneaking in as a maid. The opportunity was there and he took it, he didn't mind crossdressing to achieve his goals. Actually, he kind of enjoyed it. He then made his way into the Samurai's chambers and fought against them in an epic battle (after getting changed of course) but upon cutting open their mask it was revealed that the Crimson Samurai was actually Zin's missing mother, shocking Zin. The Samurai took this opportunity to chop off Zin's arm, causing him to lose the Razor Saber in the pit below. Zin, now weakened, was kicked into the pit and fell into the eternal blackness of space…

Zin wakes up without a body in a strange, ethereal plane. There, Kino visits him and explains to him the truth of his destiny. Lore-dump time. In primordial times, the physical world did not exist. All life lived as transcendent spirit beings able to shape reality as they pleased, one with the phantos. However, everything changed when a wicked spirit named Gordoom wanted to control everything. So, Gordoom trapped all life within crystal and created the physical world along with "false vessels" for their true spiritual forms to be trapped inside, stuck in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. These crystals are the "NRG Gems'' that make up all technology. The goal of the Ji is to destroy all the NRG Gems and free everyone's spirits, eventually destroying the entire physical realm and revert the world to a primordial non-material state. Zin is initially hesitant to do so, but when promised that in this new world there will be no more suffering and that it is the only way to free his mother from her brainwashing, Zin is convinced. Kino then finally tells Zin of Gordoom's ultimate plan, to use a superweapon known as the "Zohar Emulator" in order to destroy all of reality and create a new reality in Gordoom's image, as Gordoom realized over time that he cannot control the physical beings he created to be his slaves because of the spirits held within that possessed free will.

However, the spiritual world that Zin now resides could not interact with the physical world unless Zin gets a new physical vessel, as his body is now dead, frozen, and lost in space. However, Kino has an idea, and as Zin and Kino say goodbye for the time being Kino sends Zin's spirit to possess an old, broken down model of Fades within Cypress' storage, giving Zin a female android body. However, Zin's new body did not have arms or legs, so Zin had to make quite a bit of noise to get Cypress' attention, who was grieving both the loss of her mentor Kino as well as Zin, who seemingly died in his raid of Gordoom's base. Cypress is shocked to see Zin still alive and in one of Fade's old bodies as well, and Zin agrees to be upgraded and repaired in order to return to fighting shape. Zin suggests that her new body stay female for the time being and to give her a new voice, which Cypress accepts. Zin then emerges as the new and improved Zin 2.0, a stunningly beautiful female android with both the spiritual powers of the Ji and all the strengths that come with being an android, greatly improved physically from her previous form.

Zin 2.0, Cypress, and Fades all then begin their full assault on Gordoom's base, eventually leading to Zin's rematch with his mother. However, with her new powers as an awakened Ji, Zin is able to free her mother from her brainwashing and she joins the party as their final member. At long last the party finally faces off with Gordoom, the big bad controlling everything who has a massive robot body with the Zohar Emulator embedded into it. However, once Gordoom's body is nearly destroyed, he activates the Zohar Emulator and destroys all of reality, killing everyone but him and Zin who opposes the will of Gordoom as the Ji. At the crux of the new world's formation, Gordoom explains to Zin his reasoning.

While yes, the primordial spirits lived in peace and harmony, their strong resonance with the universal flow was causing a tear in reality which would cause Elzakalas, the dark god, to break free from his 100 trillion year long prison in the farplane, a realm beyond regular reality. So, Gordoom resorted to drastic measures, trapping the primordial spirits in physical bodies in order to stop the tear in reality from growing any bigger. However, Zin regardless wants to set the spirits free and stop Gordoom from creating a new world where he is the sole ruler and erasing all the primordial spirits from existence, so the final battle begins between Zin the Ji and Gordoom the wicked spirit. Zin is victorious and proceeds to reverse the power of the emulator and restore the world to how it once was and the spirits that inhabited it, bringing peace to their world. However, in the post credits scene, Elzakalas is seen breaking free from his prison in the farplane and says "Kill… I will kill the goddess… I swear it."

[the-far-bright-center]

Dystopian themes in the Prequels

“Looking back is helpful in understanding his work. Lucas started out in the 1960’s as an experimental filmmaker heavily influenced by the avant-garde films of the San Francisco art scene. Initially interested in painting, he became an editor and visualist who made abstract tone poems. His first feature, THX 1138 (1971) was an experimental science fiction film that presented a surreal, underground world where a dictatorial state controls a docile population using drugs. Love and sex are outlawed, procreation is controlled through machines, and human beings shuffle meaninglessly around the system.”

—Anthony Parisi, 'Revisiting the Star Wars Prequels'

The bolded parts in this description correspond with the Coruscant Underworld, the Jedi Order’s code, and the creation of the clone troopers, respectively.

Notably, in THX 1138's setting, emotions such as love and the concept of family are taboo:

I’ve always found it so interesting that Lucas incorporated the dystopian elements of his earlier sci-fi into the Prequels, taking place as they do in the context of the final years of the Repubic, with all its colourful and sumptuous visual spendour. In comparison, the post-apocalyptic ‘Dark Times’ of the Original Trilogy would seem on the surface to be the more outwardly ‘dystopian’ setting of the two—however, the actual story of the OT is a mythic hero's journey and fairytale, complete with an uplifting and transcendent happy ending. The OT's setting may be drained of colour, and its characters may be living under the shadow of the Empire, but as a story it is far from bleak or dystopian in tone. Rather, fascinatingly, it is the pre-apocalyptic era of the Prequels that is presented as the more dystopian storyline:

“On the surface, [The Phantom Menace] is an optimistic, colorful fantasy of a couple of swashbuckling samurai rescuing a child Queen and meeting a gifted slave boy who can help save the galaxy from the slimy Trade Federation and its Sith leaders. But beneath that cheerful facade is a sweatshop of horrors.” —Michael O'Connor, 'Moral Ambiguity: Beyond Good and Evil in the Prequels'

This is referring to the state of the galaxy during the Prequels era, including the fact that slavery is known to exist, but is largely ignored by the Republic and the Jedi alike due to being too economically inconvenient to combat. It also refers to how the Jedi of the Old Order come across as cold and distant atop their ivory tower on the artificial world of Coruscant, far removed not only from the natural world but also from the true realities of the people they claim to serve. And then there is the additional revelation in Attack of the Clones that love and family are 'outlawed' within the Jedi Order, creating an environment in which their own 'Chosen One' is unable to flourish, leaving him vulnerable to the Dark Side. Finally, there's the fact that the characters end up so distracted by fighting a civil war (something that goes against their own principles and involves the use of a slave clone army in the process), that they are blinded to the entity of pure evil that is guiding their every move...until it is too late.

“Without a clear enemy, the Jedi Order, the Galactic Senate, the whole of the Star Wars galaxy bickers and backstabs and slides around the moral scales. But there is one benefit to Palpatine’s pure evil crashing down upon the galaxy; against its oppressive darkness, only the purest light can shine through.” —Michael O'Connor, 'Moral Ambiguity: Beyond Good and Evil in the Prequels'

If anything, the Dark Times allows for the OT generation's acts of courage and heroism to flourish and succeed, because they are not hampered by the Old Jedi Order's restrictive rules, nor by its servitude to the whims of an increasingly corrupt Republic—so corrupt, in fact, that by the time of RotS, it is practically the Empire in all but name. Indeed, one of the key features of the Prequels, and what makes them so tragic, is that the characters are already living in a dystopia...they just don't know it.

There is, paradoxically, a level of freedom to be found in the midst of the Dark Times which had not been possible during the Twilight era, which allows Original Trio to rise above the tragedy that befell their predecessors. They are able to act as free agents (not as slaves of a corrupt government), serving only the fight for the liberation of all the peoples of the galaxy (not just citizens of the Republic), and are likewise free to live (and love!) on their own terms. Free to act on their positive attachments to one another, without having to hide the truth of their feelings. It's particularly telling that *this* is, above all, what makes the Prequels era so dystopian—the characters' inability to freely and openly participate in normal familial human relationships.

[tarisilmarwen]

Please, if you want, DUNK on the blue bastard.

Oh? I am being given permission to shittalk Thrawn? *rubs hands* Listen, I love the guy as the Affably Evil villain he is. He's imminently polite and respectful towards his adversaries, sharp as a tack brilliant which makes him a formidable foe, he appreciates good work from his underlings, he's hilarious bouncing off other characters. He's a fully three-dimensional, rounded, likable character.

Who also happens to be an authoritarian nightmare bastard.

He is at best apathetic to the Empire's atrocities, at worst, willingly complicit. He genuinely believes in the fascist tyrannical system as the best status for the galaxy, because they put up a "stronger", "ordered" front. He might bemoan some aspects of the Empire but only because he sees them as wasteful, ineffective, inefficient, and he absolutely thinks he could run things better if given the chance. He is the epitome of Machiavelli's Prince, deluded into believing himself some kind of benevolent tyrant, or willing to serve at the behest of one. He is Might Makes Right and The Ends Justify The Means and fits right in with the modus operandi of the Sith Code and the Empire's whole overarching philosophy.

The man is part of Palpatine's personal Triumvirate with Vader and Tarkin. You do not get that high up into the upper echelons unless you are a true believer.

Which is why fandom's constant excusing him because of his supposedly sympathetic and noble motivations is so damn irritating.

Oh Thrawn is doing everything For The Greater Good? He just wants to protect the interests of the Chiss? His first priority is to his own people?

None of that shit matters.

He still willingly inserted himself into the infrastructure of a fascist regime that was installed by genocide and regularly murders its own people and tried to help said regime run better and oppress the galaxy more effectively. He depersons and dehumanizes beings he doesn't consider useful, and sees the useful ones as "assests" ("allies" at best). He is perfectly willing to do horrible things if it suits him or gets him the results he needs. And he sees nothing wrong with his own actions. He is self-serving and self-righteous.

He. Is. A. Villain.

Doesn't matter how cute you think he is with Eli or Ar'alani or whoever or how sad you imagine him or how sympathetic and likable you find him, he is not a good person. He is a Bad Guy, and it's laughable that y'all wring hands over that fact. You're allowed to like the bad guy. You're allowed to find the bad guy hot and sympathetic and likeable and funny. But it annoying as hell when you insist he can't be a Bad Guy because "Oh he did it for a good reason!" which is, again, irrelevant.

And no, Zahn writing him with more sympathetic backstory and likable moments in New Canon doesn't mean he's no longer a villain. It does not mean his alignment has changed. It just means his time with the Empire becomes a corruption arc, as we see how a supposedly good person can become more and more fanatical in the pursuit of their goals.

And Zahn is on thin freaking ice anyway, if the hearsay about his asinine empty buildings headcanon is true.

I hope when August comes and the Ahsoka show has Thrawn being the magnificent bastard fascist asshole he is, fandom comes around to appreciate him properly, as the awesome villain he is.

[im-just-kinda-here-k]

tell me about stellaris in the most autistic way imaginable (i wanna learn by infodump and infodump only)

(Srry this took me so long to answer I wanted to answer once I got home and promptly forgot about it lmao)

So! Stellaris. The 4x game where you genocide in space or something.

I'll start from the top, you will be designing a space-faring empire to play as, staring with...

SPECIES/HOME SYSTEM: This is where your gonna decide what your founding species looks like and what traits they have, as well as what their home planet/star are named. Not to mention you can write a short biography on your empires pre-ftl history here! Role-play wise this will affect your game greatly, but in terms of gameplay its only a big deal early on as barring some exceptions you will like end up with quite the melting pot, and any individual species traits will be of little consequence. The next part will be much more influential, however.

GOVERNMENT: Now we get into the real meat of your empire. Who are they? What do they stand for? What makes them stand out? How do they decide on their leaders? Do they decide on their leaders? You can be militaristic xenophiles who will fight tooth and nail to protect the galaxies people, or a curious hive mind that wants to hoard as much knowledge as it can without coming to blows with its neighbors, and yes, space nazis. Here you can also decide the past of your species, they could be fairly normal, simply reaching out into the stars after a few decades of booming economy, or they could've never lived on a planet at all, being born on floating habitats in the void.

MISC: Just some other details, your first leaders name/gender, what your ships look like, what your advisor sounds like, that kinda stuff.

GAMEPLAY: I'm sorry but I have that committed to muscle memory I would have a stroke if I tried to explain it. Montu and other stellaris youtubers are the best for that.

MODS: For when you've spent 200$ on dlc but want 600$ worth instead. This can be anything from simple tweaks to complete overhauls of the gameplay. My favorite are "gigastructural engineering and more" which expand on the megastructure system (just really big things that make the economy go brrrrrr) and adds lots of post endgame content. (Wanna rearrange entire star systems into mobile weapons platforms and pit them against space cats that consume millions of galaxies to outlive entropy?)

Then there's stellaris evolved, which changes literally every aspect of the game in some way we would be here all day so just know it's amazing.

Alright we've been through a few paragraphs of this so I think it's time to talk about one of my own empires!

THE EMPIRE OF SILDORIA: A long time ago, humans sent out colony ships into a wormhole found at the edge of the solar system, most were destroyed, but one of the surviving ones wound up in a random part of the galaxy, and went a-looking for a new home. But they couldn't find one, supplies were dwindling and systems were failing, so they took a gamble and took up residence in the upper atmosphere of an unusually stable gas giant. It was still a brutal task, where people were worked to death out of necessity rather than greed, but they pulled it off. Floating cities dot the gas planet of sildoria, and after scrounging up enough materials, they have made their way onto the galactic stage. It did not come without cost, however, as the humans, or rather, sildorians, have been fundamental changed by their experiences. Their psyche is unbreakable on a biological level, and their bodies are quite tough as well. They are instinctively inclined to reduce waste, and have a reduced birthrate as a result of cramped conditions. The sildorian government is an interesting one, while it is extremely focused on material gain and expansion of industry, they make sure to take as good care of their people as they can. A sildorian laborer will be expected to give everything they can spare in the workplace, and in exchange they will want for nothing at home. In the future the sildorian empire is likely to take forays into robotics and cybernetics to maximize productivity and comfort. OK that's all I have to say :D

[juniaships]

I watched the proof of concept for a small soldiers sequel here's my theories/plot

In the video/official information it Ray Razor and Caden Cannon were siblings who fought for currently unnamed Empire. Caden gets injured in battle, Ray takes him to the pit in hopes of curing him. To her horror the Nekron transforms Caden into a monster. It also infects her arm but she cuts it off before it could mutate her too. Believing that the pit has turned her brother evil Ray swears revenge. Some time later she leads a group of possible vets called the Space Elites with the goal of avenging Caden and wiping out all Nekron.

On Caden's end he is now called Khadenn and leads the Nekronites, after defeating their original leader in battle (likely the one he got injured in). He retains his memory of his past life. While he wishes to bring peace and reunites with his sister, he is unable to get through to her.

Essentially it's the same set up as the original movie but 🌟IN SPACE!🌟

So now we got the story here my take in how it could go: Instead of following the first movie beat for beat, both the "monsters" and humans are heroes/victims/morally grey(?).

It's mentioned that the Nekron isn't an inherently malevolent force. It chooses its wielder (as seen with some of the backstories). My guess is the Nekron was going to morph Ray because she was willing to lay her life down for her family. Perhaps both were meant to be the new leaders but Ray's prejudices and anger blinds her. Instead of trusting the Nekronite/her destiny she sticks to blindly obeying her cause and her lifestyle.

On Khadenn's end the reason why he mutated is he is the one who could bring peace to the galaxy. The mutation is an opportunity to unlearn everything he was taught to believe in and fight for something legitimately worthy. Similar to Archer's role but Khadenn's an actual king!

The real villain is explicitly the Empire Ray and Caden used to work for. Ray and her Elites find out they are merely tools to further imperialistic interests. Doesn't help they're running on anger and revenge which makes them more susceptible to manipulation without even being noticed. The Empire wants the nekronite for their own means. Maybe Khadenn saves her or does something that reminds her that the original Caden is still there. It be a cool twist on the first film; instead of the human soldiers being the only villains, it sends a message message that soldiers are also victims of a system that does not care for them.

The Empire could be represented by a corporation who makes the toys. Showing us that corps (and empires) do not care about us; but it's also up to us to speak up and question and not blindly obeying every little thing.

The Nekronites are still good guys but they're actively more warriors than the Gorgonites. That means they do rather shady if not outright morally dark things. But the message is also NOBODY deserves to be wiped out. Genocide is genocide no matter who deserves it or not. They end up teaming up with the elites to bring down the empire.

Those are my ideas for the sequel. I would be amused if some of my ideas turned out to be actual canon. But it be a cool twist on the concept without making it a total rehash.

[theaceofskulls]

You know, I was going to do a reaction to Tithes episode 2 like I did to Tithes episode 1, but instead I'm just going to copy and paste some text from GW's own website for reasons that will quickly become obvious.

** Tyrith Shiva Kyrus (the first three of a long list of honorific names earned fighting for the Emperor) has the privilege of being our first portrayal of a female Custodian Guard since the recent revelation that Custodians can be any gender. This fact came as a real surprise to many, since it wasn’t something previously explored. That, in and of itself, isn’t a particularly unusual thing for Warhammer 40,000 and its lore; there are simply loads of things the Warhammer Studios have never expressly stated, whether that’s ruling them in or out.***

Since the earliest conversations about bringing the Horus Heresy to the tabletop and Black Library fiction, the exact nature of the Custodians has been under discussion – after all, their origins and means of creation, unlike for example, the Legiones/Adeptus Astartes, are shrouded in mystery.

A significant advantage to this portrayal is that it helps us to address a common misconception – that the Custodes are just bigger, better Space Marines. They aren’t. Space Marines were made through industrialised ritual to be mass-produced, brute-force weapons of conquest. And even 10,000 years after their creation, draped in self-assigned glory, that’s still true of them at their core. 

Each Custodian, on the other hand, is unique. Painstakingly made through peerless craft and arcane artifice, their physique, their psyche, their very soul, is a bespoke instrument of the Emperor they unquestioningly serve.

We know a lot about Space Marines, relatively speaking. But there is still so much we don’t know about the Custodians, particularly in Warhammer 40,000, and their recruitment process is the least of these mysteries:

What exactly are they up to in the 41st Millennium?

What was their motive for joining the Indomitus Crusade?

What do they REALLY think of Gulliman?

What secret weapons do they have sequestered away in their armoury vaults on Terra?

What does “loyalty” mean in a galaxy where the master you failed is silent, and you despise what his empire has become?

*** We sometimes call these ‘gaps’ and they are quite intentional. They let you as collectors, players, and fans fill the spaces with your own characters, stories and narratives – making the Warhammer hobby truly yours. They also allow us to revisit factions through miniatures, stories, and animations and offer something new and interesting. (Imagine how sad it would be if we ever said “And that’s it. That’s everything you’ll ever see in this army. No new models ever.” – that’d be rubbish.)

[rebelwriter99]

Did I anticipate making a post after every episode of the Bad Batch I have watched thus far? No. No I did not.

Was that 25-30mins of my life such a quietly understated emotional rollercoaster that I am literally reeling enough to write this post a good 9hrs after I watched it? Yes. Yes it was.

I was impressed that this time they let Crosshair carry an episode on his own. Season 1 had ‘fun death defying adventure of the week’ energy mixed in with ‘harsh realities of colonialist imperial takeover’ and the tonal shift could be a bit jarring. Honestly, I think it was intentionally so. Crosshairs actions need a foil for context really and in season 1 the only established comparison characters were the batch so it made sense. Sometimes though I wished I could just sit with each set of characters for some extra minutes.

But this time-they went for it. And it was stunning. Contrasting Crosshair, who wants to lead, with Cody, who has vast amounts of experience leading a sizeable chunk of the army, was fantastic. Especially with Cody still mostly in white, with his signature self still evident even if it’s faded, to Crosshair, who is now a black blank slate until he takes off his helmet. For goodness sake the marks around their eyes are even on opposite sides. One carved by war, the other painted by choice. They also have an interesting difference in perspective set up right from the get go.

The two conversations in front of the memorial are to me, Cody feeling Crosshair out, and then having made his mind up. Cody, in my mind, has already decided he’s leaving. I think he’s trying to decide if he should ask Crosshair to come with him or not, and that’s why after he knows Crosshair doesn’t need medical care anymore (he was abandoned for a month?!) he quite rightly assumes he might not fancy being an imperial for much longer. At some point in the conversation, Cody is facing the light of the memorial, and Crosshairs face is in shadow. You know-just in case that light and dark symbolism hasn’t caught onto its job yet. I’m in heaven.

And then the action sequences. God but this whole thing was a punch in the gut. Instinctively you’re rooting for the clones against the droids. Because of course we are! We know the drill! And so do the clones-it was admittedly very very wonderful to just be able to enjoy clones being spectacular for 10minutes. It was like a clone wars run down-even the classic the gunship lasted 5mins cliche was well utilised. We’ve seen this scene a thousand times-and it was so old and so very very new. We’ve never really seen a group of regs operate without a Jedi against droids in a sequence this long before which was really evident when driodika show up and you just about have a heart attack instead of thinking ‘eh they’ll be scrap in a minute’. And Crosshair being fantastically impossible was breathtaking-and then you suddenly couldn’t breathe.

The whole time I had to remind myself ‘no this is the Empire now! They can’t succeed. Otherwise what will happen to all these poor people?’ And then the power of the clone army being trusted by the galaxy to protect everyone becomes evident. If I’m used to seeing these images and thinking ‘go clones! Save the galaxy!’ then how many billions of people on hundreds of worlds would do the same seeing it on galactic news with a bit of imperial spin? The whole sequence just leaves you feeling vaguely ill. You’re desperate for the Clones you care about to survive-but if they do? What will happen to so many others?

Cody was always going to be my favourite when he appeared-because I am an older sibling and he just has that energy so he’s always been my favourite. Whoever wrote him in this episode-I take my hat off to them. Because him and Crosshair are almost indistinguishable when they interact with droids (classic clone-scrap them in spectacular fashion). As soon as you throw an organic in the mix-he’s so himself. And you could see the different experiences of Cody, whose lost a lot of brothers and dives after the injured with little thought to his own safety, and Crosshair, who we know has never lost any of his squad in the most permanent sense of the word. Them and the civilians just took me right back to Ryloth-you can almost see Cody waiting for them to be relieved, to look to him for safety, but instead they’re terrified of him and it doesn’t sit well.

And he NEGOTIATED.

Writers I love you. I love that he succeeded. And I love that he refused to go back on his word. And I love that he left before the consequences of that refusal inevitably catch up with him. (He’s his Jedi’s Commander force bless you sunshine you tried Obi-Wan would be so proud of you.)*

We see the TK troopers becoming an occupying force through Cody’s eyes. To him the TK troopers could be replaced with droids and he’s seen that picture a hundred times before. And instead of arriving on a gunship to fix it, he’s walking onto one to be taken away having enabled it. “It Rhymes” and all. He knows this isn’t his place anymore. He knows he has brothers out there who believe the same as he does. A good number will probably follow after him.

But another memorial scene. And he knows Crosshair won’t be one of them-at least not yet.

I really really hope that we get a finally moment with Crosshair though. That he will be ordered to do something, and it will be a line he won’t cross. And then he will need out. Hopefully. Maybe. I’ll keep my toes crossed.

Also please may we see Cody at least once more. Preferably not dead or imprisoned. Just so we know he’s fine? Please?

* (actually coming back to this 5mins later there must be an “Anakin” *cue deep sigh* moment other than the mandalore arc where this scene actually plays out. Obi-Wan refuses to kill but Anakin does because orders vs Obi-Wan’s preference for diplomacy)

[please forgive the stream of consciousness abuse-this had to go somewhere! And Tumblr is where fandom ramblings tend to land 😅]

[animehouse-moe]

Hello again.....Do you mind if I ask your top 7 favorite anime (can be series or movies) ever? And why do you love them? Also, what are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite moments from any anime (can be series or movies)?

Sorry if I ask too much, feel free if you want to answer both of my questions or just pick either one......Thanks....

I'd answered the first question in that other post I just linked, but the idea of top moments in anime is a really interesting one. People love this sort of question, and I find it an impossible one to really answer truly.

Because, in my eyes, how much does a moment amount to in the eyes of someone that doesn't understand? The number of chapters and episodes that you've gone through to experience these things is part of why they're so incredible and favored. Regardless, I'll give it a shot of giving my favorite 5 moments, but in my own sort of way. These are the 5 that appear in my head first when I think of them. Though, is that maybe how favorites work? I'm not sure, I'll just get to them.

See You Space Cowboy - Cowboy Bebop

I don't really know if there's words to explain this one, but it's one of the best finales you could have out there. An incredible culmination of an equally incredible story. The lifetime of this moment in the minds of viewers and fans is a testament to how deserving it is of being on this list.

A Meeting Under The Bird's Nest - Sonny Boy

Sonny boy is one of those series that remains in my mind constantly. As a guy, this is my Roman Empire. All of the meaning and value placed in this passing meeting in regards to the idea of the cycle of life, rebirth, and growth as an individual and what that means in the context of society and your past self is just so strong that I still can't find a way to properly convey it to this day.

Gion Shoja Bells - The Heike Story

This one is a lot. I think while the other two so far remain impactful and insightful experiences, this one feels much more raw and open. Knowing the struggles and experiences of Naoka Yamada and KyoAni following the arson attack, the meaning behind this story, and consequently its ending, really hit home.

(Wo)Man on The Moon - Cyberpunk: Edgerunners

I live for Night City, I love Mike Pondsmith and CD Projekt Red's vision a great deal. I watched this show on all nighter during university when I had a midterm the next day, that's how important Cyberpunk is to me. This ending broke me, and still does to this day. It makes me feel like that gif of Pedro Pascal where his laugh turns into a cry. It's just that sort of beautiful thing that you can't help but love even if it hurts.

It's The Way I Show My Love - The Tatami Galaxy

I've written about the Tatami Galaxy at great lengths on here before, and I'm still in love with it and Morimi's messages. Watashi's final words here and how he morphs into Ozu's style is just perfect. The acceptance, the happiness that stems from experiencing the present and being grateful for what exists in front of you. It's such a wonderful piece that it continues to make me feel warm to this very day.

Something I've realized when writing this is that a lot of my favorite moments come from the ends of series, and I feel like that just echoes my earlier statement. The more context, the more weight and emotion you can put behind something, the greater that product is in my eyes. And so, by natural process, my favorite moments tend to be endings. Whether that's story or character arcs, volume or episode finales, or even the end of a series itself- I think that the best moments are built upon the rest.

[isagrimorie]

[initial reactions] Star Wars Ahsoka 1x06 - Far, far away

Why is this show only 8 episodes??? I want to spend more time in Peridea!

Peridea, where Purgill comes to die, and the homeworld of the Witches of Dathomir. I get it now when House of R posited one of the reasons why Filoni loves Tolkien is that the setting is always in places with ruins and structures of once great empires because this is what Peridea is.

Also, there are more threatening powers in this new galaxy, as hinted by Baylan. He wants to break the cycle of the Jedi rising and falling and all its folly. Baylan claimed that he trained Shin 'to be more'.

And interestingly, Sabine 'reeks of Jedi,' but Baylan and Shin don't.

Thrawn is here! I believed he'd be shown in the last episode of the season but no! Filoni once again zigged when I thought he would zag and we're seeing Thrawn - weathered and his opinions on Force users changed.

ALSO IS ONE OF THE GREAT MOTHERS CLAUDIA BLACK???? I have to rewatch the credits later.

And we saw Ezra and Oh my... I get it now he looks HOT. Especially with that beard and okay, I kind of ship Ezra and Sabine a bit because of this. He aged and matured well, it didn't translate in the animated series but here?

Hello, sailor!

I love how Sabine went all... Sabine Alone, and she got a dog horse of her own. She might also have an affinity for animals.

But oh, Sabine 'I named a weapon after Duchess Satine' Wren, of House Disaster Lineage... strikes again. Ezra won't be happy with this, he of House Mace Windu.

I love the small scene that we saw of Ahsoka, who might have been riding the euphoria of rebirth but still has unresolved issues, as I mentioned last episode. She's chosen to live and embrace life, but all those issues don't go away. Ahsoka still has concerns, especially about Sabine's decision-making.

There's a really interesting discussion of destiny and fate that might be a throughline through everything and underscore Ahsoka's series. I wonder where they're going with this.

I love how Peridea looks so high fantasy, and it's brought on with the creatures, and really Baylan, Shin fit in but also Sabine with her Mando armor and cloak.

I love the weathered structures and ruins and the mention of the Great Witch Kingdom of Dathomir. Why did some of the Nightsisters migrate to another galaxy? What vast threat is there that they need a whole new Galaxy's distance to escape?

Baylan talks about the cycles the Jedi go through from rise to fall and how disillusioned he is of it-- how he loved the idea of the Jedi but not the reality of their flaws. This episode is the most dialogue-heavy of all episodes. PLEASE FILONI MOVE AWAY FROM FAVREAU'S LITTLE-TO-NO-DIALOGUE APPROACH.

I love that Ahsoka is being treated as this mythic, larger-than-life threat. 'She is coming.' is the new 'Winter is coming'.

I KNEW I KNEW AND TOLD MYSELF THIS WAS THE FIRST OF A THREE-PARTER!

DID I LISTEN TO MYSELF??? NO. OF COURSE NOT.

Sometimes, the wound is self-inflicted!

If the last episode was a love letter to Clone Wars fans, this episode is a love letter to Rebels fans.

[etaindelaserna]

Thanks for answering my ask before. If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

Welcome back!😊 Don’t worry: I‘ll answer anyway 🙌

(Side note: top 7 OR✨ 10?😂 Oddly specific^^)

1. Star Wars

Aside from the obvious things like lightsabers and force powers, I think what pulled me into the SW universe is the simplicity of it, espeically in the OT: good vs. evil, a hero‘s call to adventure and his responsibility to save the galaxy from the evil clutches of the Empire, the power of friendship, the whole concept of the force, the strength to not succumb to the dark side, to stay true to yourself even if it costs you your life, the idea that the good things in our life are things we have to work hard for while the bad things are easy and faster to obtain and oh so manipulative and tempting. It seems to address a truth we can all relate to or are at least aware of. Luke Skywalker is someone I can look up to. And sometimes I can't ask for more.

2. Harry Potter

Always. To this day the Harry Potter books and movies feel like you're coming home after a long time abroad. The world building has always made me feel like it could be true: there could be a wizard society existing right next to our own. Just the sheer richness of characters, places, magical items and wizard life were enough to draw me in as a kid. It’s childhood preserved in book form. It’s fun in the first school years and tragical in the last ones. It’s a world that feels lived in. It’s a tale about the power of friendship and about facing things you actually don’t want to face. It taught me to be brave and kind and that striving for power is a path towards loneliness and a hollow, ego centric existence.

3. Naruto

I fell in love with the premise pretty early on when I started watching Naruto: the question of what makes a shinobi a shinobi, how can you be a good shinobi and a good person, are you only allowed to be loyal to your village? What about your friends and family? Why do we have to kill each other? Why is it human nature to be cruel and violent? Naruto asked so many existential and moral questions which I find interesting to explore. Then we have the idea of chakra and how its used, different jutsus and fighting styles, shinobi villages, the struggle between being a human being, the hardships of the shinobi life and how to overcome them and what happens to those who dispair and choose a life of darkness. The messages about friendship, family, loyalty, unconditional love and to work hard for your goal no matter what everybody else says, hit me hard. I will always come back to read or watch Naruto.

4. One Piece

Apart from the world building, which is one of the best in modern literature, I think what made me fall in love with this manga/anime are its characters, the humour and Oda's storytelling ability, which has been consistently brilliant for all those years. The world of One Piece with all its crazy characters and rules shouldn't work but it does, because it's not all fun and games and silliness but it means something. It means something to the characters. There are themes in it I will never get tired of: following your dreams, working hard, loyalty, friendship, we don't abandon our friends or dreams, we stick together no matter what. Oda knows how to balance comedy, tragedy and adventure perfectly. He knows also how to do setups and how to cash in the payoffs at just right moment. You as a reader are allowed to follow the bread crumbs and think and I appreciate it that he doesn't spell the things out for us.

5. The Lord of the Rings

I read the books and I've seen the movies more than I can count. It's my ultimate love. It's something I can pop in at anytime, under any circumstances and be completely emersed in it within seconds. It feels like home. It is home. The world building is rich and complex. The characters are loveable and more nuanced than they might let on. The story has timeless themes that transcend cultures, age, gender: chaos and darkness are tempting and destructive, but you not only have the responsibility to stand against it but also you have the ability to do so. It's a story about sacrifices, will power, love, friendship and hope. It seems to touch something within us. It leaves you with the comfort of this one single thought that there are higher powers or a grand plan involved.

6. True Blood/ The Southern Vampire Mysteries

This book series hit me once my girlish enthusiasm for the Vampire Diaries and its repetiveness slowly started to fade away but my hunger for vampire stories was still as big as ever. I thought I gave it a shot and boy, did it hit me. I think I read the first 4 books within a week. I absolutely liked that Sookie wasn't a teenager anymore but in her mid twenties when the first book picks up her story. The way she sees the world was exactly my kind of humour but mature and that was a welcome suprise after all the teenage drama in TVD. Her problems were how to pay for the gas for her car or for a new driveway. And of course that she can read minds. Charlaine Harris also made her vampires different enough but also used common tropes. It was a blend of the old and the new. She imagined how vampires and humans would live together in the modern world and she slayed on that part. I loved Sookie and I loved Eric. They were the main reasons why I kept reading.

7. A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones

The richness of the world building and the characters is what made me fall for the TV series and later the books. I think I started to watch it once the third seasons was rolling around. Like most, I did like the approach of "let's make it high fantasy but with an overdose of reality and history to it". That was brilliant. George knows how to write interesting characters, who aren't entirely bad or good but just brutally human. He also understands setup and consequences but above all he understands people. You know somebody is writing bloody good characters and plotlines if your are not mad at the author but at the characters for the choices they are making. You always understood why characters did the things they did, even though it didn't make it any less heartbraking at times. I don't think that George is ever going to be able to bring the series to a satisfying conclusion. The fantasy genre follows specific rules and George broke them to create something new. But he will come to realize that he now can't use these rules to finish the series. It's not going to work.

8. The Mummy (1999)

The cinema and movie nerds among my friends are always making fun of me for liking this movie as much as I do but I can't help it. It's the only successful Indiana Jones movie without Indiana Jones in it. Just the perfect mixture between adventure, horror, romance and comedy. How many times I'm quoting lines of this movie on a daily basis is insane. It's another unconditional love of mine. I'm going to keep watching it till the end of my days. We know that O'Connell and the gang are going to defeat the mummy but how they are doing it is so much fun. Brendan Fraser is a national treasure and just perfect for playing a brave, good looking, slightly ruggish adventurer, with the right amount of humour sprinkled in, who falls hard for the bookish girl. Like, come on. That's enough to sell me on any movie. Him and Rachel Weisz are just hitting it of. This film just feels like a warm cup of cocoa with a lot of cream. It makes me laugh, it makes me gush over Rick, it makes me want to learn acient Egyptian and run off into an adventure.

9. Once Upon a Time

Ten years ago I was so addicted to this show. I liked this idea that because of a spell from the Evil Queen all the fairytale characters have been forced to live a normal life in modern day America and they don't even remember who they are, apart from the Evil Queen. It's a classical the "Chosen One"/Heroes story with a little twist, that the relationship between most of the fairytale characters shifts during the story or was even told differently from how the audience remembers it from their fairytale books. It's basically a criminal investigation about who did this to these characters and how the protagonist can reverse the spell. Besides it's a story about fate, about love, friendship, about how villains and heroes are made and that things aren't just black and white. The characters are complex and because of this setup you can throw them in various scenarios, which made for some surprising teamups (Rumpelstilzchen/Belle). I was never bored with this show. Although it had complex themes at times the show handled them familyfriendly and that just fitted the overall fairytale vibe and wholesomeness of the show perfectly.

10. Band of Brothers

This HBO mini series about the story of E Company of the 101st Airborne during WWII stole my heart. I like war movies and if I had to explain why then I'd say because it reminds me of what was and what could easily happen again. The horrors of war, the sacrifices, the tragedy, the generational trauma, the loss, the heroes, the defeated, how quickly we forget our humanity once the bullets start flying, but also the little moments of friendship and will power that keep us alive. Band of Brothers has all that. It's based on real events and real people and although some things are dramatized for the sake of film making, they managed to stay quite accurate. You get to know these men and you get to see them struggle, in pain, laughing, joking, crying, die or survive. It makes you smile and breaks your heart in the next second. It's a series that captured me from start till finish.

[yestolerancepro]

Tolerance Project extra The 8 Best Star Wars Rip offs Ranked

Part 1 Krull and The Last Starfighter

Introduction

Hello there and welcome to a revised edition of a blog that looks at 8 of the best Star Wars film Rip offs. this new Tumblr version will be split into two parts

This blog entry is inspired by the movieweb article of the same name you can find the original article by clicking here https://movieweb.com/best-star-wars-ripoffs-ranked/#:~:text=The%208%20Best%20Star%20Wars%20Rip-offs%2C%20Ranked%201,2%20Flash%20Gordon%20%281980%29%208%201%20Spaceballs%20%281987%29

One of the first sequences in the Tolerance film is a Star Wars spoof so this article peeked my interest our Star Wars Spoof was a bit less blatant than those featured in the movieweb article all we did for ours was spoof the opening dialogue crawl that opened all 9 of the movies in the Star Wars saga

You can read about how Star Wars created that original opening crawl by clicking here https://www.slashfilm.com/1322995/how-star-wars-created-original-opening-crawl-using-black-paper/#:~:text=Thus%2C%20to%20make%20the%20crawl%2C%20they%20had%20to,illusion%20of%20the%20letters%20progressing%20up%20the%20screen.

To quote the movie web article Star Wars is one of the biggest and most successful science fiction franchises ever created. Beginning in 1977, the original film became one of many episodic movies now dubbed the Skywalker Saga, told in a trilogy of trilogies.Recounting the galactic civil war between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire, Star Wars shares the sociopolitical consequences of space exploration and planetary conquest. On the surface, the franchise is a fairy tale told in space. Its formula and genre became so popular, it led to copycats in a galaxy not so far away.

Of the 8 films mentioned I have never seen the man who saved the world 1982 trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsRV6z-cd-c  and Starchaser the legend of Orin 1985 trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UZ2WfLG70

Krull (1983)

Krull is a science fiction and fantasy adventure film about a royal family who will rule the galaxy as foretold in a prophecy. Playing off the fairy-tale-in-space trope, the film didn't know what to be as it tried cashing in on two genres for the price of one. The rip-off was also released the same year as Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, leading to an early death by comparison. However, it has survived being a box-office bomb and panned by critics with its own cult following.

The website space.com published this short article about the film

Luke Skywalker's well publicized exploits on the Death Star were such a spectacular success that there was an air of inevitability when other Hollywood studios tried to make a "Star Wars" of their own. More remarkable was the fact that their subsequent efforts to milk the cash cow (or bantha, perhaps?) took such different approaches to outer space.

However, most of the wannabes ignored a crucial element of George Lucas's extremely lucrative franchise – for all the spaceships, robots, and lasers, "Star Wars" was actually fantasy in sci-fi clothing, built around a hero whose quest revolved as much around magic (cleverly rebranded as "the Force") as futuristic gadgets.

In the years following "A New Hope," viewers were invited to experience the high camp of "Flash Gordon," the overblown space opera of "The Black Hole," and a Roger Corman-produced interstellar riff on "The Magnificent Seven" called "Battle Beyond the Stars." "Star Trek" also got in on the act with the "2001: A Space Odyssey"-esque grandeur of "The Motion Picture," while T.V. viewers were given a weekly dose of sci-fi in their homes courtesy of "Battlestar Galactica" (arguably one of the best sci-fi TV shows of all time).

According to this article on the Giant Freaking Robot website Krull could be getting a new film Reboot with JJ Abrams directing https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/exclusive-krull-reboot-jj-abrams.html

Further Watching

To watch a trailer for Krull click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6i2par2Fv0

To watch a documentary called 10 things you didn’t know about Krull click here

The Last Starfighter (1984)

The Last Starfighter follows teenager Alex, who is chosen to be a gunner in an interstellar war based on his high score in an arcade game of the same, a secret recruitment tool of the Rylan Star League. Alex is forced to save the dying alien squadron and destroy the enemy fleet, the Ko-Dan Armada.

He later stays to rebuild the league's depleted forces, knowing their overlord survived the destruction of his mothership. Compared to Luke Skywalker, the film takes the glory out of the hero's journey for Alex, who must protect a planet now facing near-extinction

The Fatherley website published this retrospective on the film to read it click here To read a retrospective on the film click here https://www.fatherly.com/entertainment/last-starfighter-retrospective-sci-fi-movie-1984

My Memories of The Last Starfighter

A very good film I watched it as a 7 year old as my Dad got us to watch it on VHS remember those ? The Star Wars stuff went over my head the Ironic thing here is that I used my Star wars toys to play the last Starfighter for weeks after seeing it I have great memories of the film it was one of the first to use CGI before the term was even known about  

That reminds me I must get a copy of the Bluray and I did the film has just been re-released by Arrow video you can order it from here The Last Starfighter Limited Edition Blu-ray Blu-ray - Zavvi UK

Further watching

To watch the film trailer for The Last Starfighter click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnJCn6lXrXg&t=3s

Click here to watch the teaser trailer for The Last Starfighter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tOHLZibvFM

To watch a video called 10 things you didnt know about the last star fighter click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-Pzxzp2m2I

Next week more Star Wars homages with Battlestar Gallactica Flash Gordon Battle Beyond the Stars and Spaceballs

Notes

Thank you to the following websites for their help Movieweb whose article inspired the blog in the first place Space.com Minty comedic arts for his Documentary on Krull Youtube for the vairous trailers and Google images for the Krull and Last Starfighter posters and Ian Medley for the Tolerance film Screengrab

Pictures

The Tolerance project Star Wars Dialoge roll

Krull film poster 1983

Last Star fighter poster 1984

If you want to help the Tolerance project after reading this blog please click on the above link