perspectivethoughts-blog

[northern-passage]

this is very random but i'm rereading to prep for the next update, and i can't stop hearing Merry's voice as f!Eivor in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla 😩

you know, i used to say i imagined Merry with an irish accent, but i've actually been considering changing it recently. i feel like the fast sing-song of the cork accent doesn't fit her anymore, and i hear her having a much slower and deliberate cadence instead. and especially since Clem and Noel both also have very sing-songy accents, it's hard to describe them without it being confusing.

obviously i never really describe her accent in game - again, i think it would be confusing trying to describe it alongside Clem's and Noel's, and i also like leaving the Gaelish accent up for interpretation for the player. all of that to say.... the most important feature of Merry's voice is that she has an incredible rasp (i described it akin to carrie fisher's before) and eivor definitely fits in that regard :-)

[bananaofswifts]

Your guide to the singer-songwriter’s surprise follow-up to Folklore.

By

CARL WILSON

When everything’s clicking for Taylor Swift, the risk is that she’s going to push it too far and overtax the public appetite. On “Mirrorball” from Folklore, she sings, with admirable self-knowledge, “I’ve never been a natural/ All I do is try, try, try.” So when I woke up yesterday to the news that at midnight she was going to repeat the trick she pulled off with Folklore in July—surprise-releasing an album of moody pop-folk songs remote-recorded in quarantine with Aaron Dessner of the National as well as her longtime producer Jack Antonoff—I was apprehensive. Would she trip back into the pattern of overexposure and backlash that happened between 1989 and Reputation?

Listening to the new Evermore, though, that doesn’t feel like such a threat. A better parallel might be to the “Side B” albums that Carly Rae Jepsen put out after both Emotion and Dedicated, springing simply out of the artist’s and her fans’ mutual enthusiasm. Or, closer to Swift’s own impulses here, publishing an author’s book of short stories soon after a successful novel. Lockdown has been a huge challenge for musicians in general, but it liberated Swift from the near-perpetual touring and publicity grind she’s been on since she was a teen, and from her sense of obligation to turn out music that revs up stadium crowds and radio programmers. Swift has always seemed most herself as the precociously talented songwriter; the pop-star side is where her try-hard, A-student awkwardness surfaces most. Quarantine came as a stretch of time to focus mainly on her maturing craft (she turns 31 on Sunday), to workshop and to woodshed. When Evermore was announced, she said that she and her collaborators—clearly mostly Dessner, who co-writes and/or co-produces all but one of these 15 songs—simply didn’t want to stop writing after Folklore.

This record further emphasizes her leap away from autobiography into songs that are either pure fictions or else lyrically symbolic in ways that don’t act as romans à clef. On Folklore, that came with the thrill of a breakthrough. Here, she fine-tunes the approach, with the result that Evermore feels like an anthology, with less of an integrated emotional throughline. But that it doesn’t feel as significant as Folklore is also its virtue. Lowered stakes offer permission to play around, to joke, to give fewer fucks—and this album definitely has the best swearing in Swift’s entire oeuvre.

Because it’s nearly all Dessner overseeing production and arrangements, there isn’t the stylistic variety that Antonoff’s greater presence brought to Folklore. However, Swift and Dessner seem to have realized that the maximalist-minimalism that dominated Folklore, with layers upon layers of restrained instrumental lines for the sake of atmosphere, was too much of a good thing. There are more breaks in the ambience on Evermore, the way there was with Folklore’s “Betty,” the countryish song that was among many listener’s favorites. But there are still moments that hazard misty lugubriousness, and perhaps with reduced reward.

Overall, people who loved Folklore will at least like Evermore too, and the minority of Swift appreciators who disapproved may even warm up to more of the sounds here. I considered doing a track-by-track comparison between the two albums, but that seemed a smidgen pathological. Instead, here is a blatantly premature Day 1 rundown of the new songs as I hear them.

A pleasant yet forgettable starting place, “Willow” has mild “tropical house” accents that recall Ed Sheeran songs of yesteryear, as well as the prolix mixed metaphors Swift can be prone to when she’s not telling a linear story. But not too severely. I like the invitation to a prospective lover to “wreck my plans.” I’m less sure why “I come back stronger than a ’90s trend” belongs in this particular song, though it’s witty. “Willow” is more fun as a video (a direct sequel to Folklore’s “Cardigan” video) than as a lead track, but I’m not mad at it here either.

Written with “William Bowery”—the pseudonym of Swift’s boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as she’s recently confirmed—this is the first of the full story songs on Evermore, in this case a woman describing having walked away from her partner on the night he planned to propose. The music is a little floaty and non-propulsive, but the tale is well painted, with Swift’s protagonist willingly taking the blame for her beau’s heartbreak and shrugging off the fury of his family and friends—“she would have made such a lovely bride/ too bad she’s fucked in the head.” Swift sticks to her most habitual vocal cadences, but not much here goes to waste. Except, that is, for the title phrase, which doesn’t feel like it adds anything substantial. (Unless the protagonist was drunk?) I do love the little throwaway piano filigree Dessner plays as a tag on the end.

This is the sole track Antonoff co-wrote and produced, and it’s where a subdued take on the spirit of 1989-style pop resurges with necessary energy. Swift is singing about having a crush on someone who’s too attractive, too in-demand, and relishing the fantasy but also enjoying passing it up. It includes some prime Swiftian details, like, “With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from your door,” or, “At dinner parties I call you out on your contrarian shit.” The line about this thirst trap’s “hair falling into place like dominos” I find much harder to picture.

This is where I really snapped to attention. After a few earlier attempts, Swift has finally written her great Christmas song, one to stand alongside “New Year’s Day” in her holiday canon. And it’s especially a great one for 2020, full of things none of us ought to do this year—go home to visit our parents, hook up with an ex, spend the weekend in their bedroom and their truck, then break their hearts again when we leave. But it’s done with sincere yuletide affection to “the only soul who can tell which smiles I’m faking,” and “the warmest bed I’ve ever known.” All the better, we get to revisit these characters later on the album.

On first listen, I found this one of the draggiest Dressner compositions on the record. Swift locates a specific emotional state recognizably and poignantly in this song about a woman trapped (or, she wonders, maybe not trapped?) in a relationship with an emotionally withholding, unappreciative man. But the static keyboard chord patterns and the wandering melody that might be meant to evoke a sense of disappointment and numbness risk yielding numbing and disappointing music. Still, it’s growing on me.

Featuring two members of Haim—and featuring a character named after one of them, Este—“No Body, No Crime” is a straight-up contemporary country song, specifically a twist on and tribute to the wronged-woman vengeance songs that were so popular more than a decade ago, and even more specifically “Before He Cheats,” the 2006 smash by Carrie Underwood, of which it’s a near musical clone, just downshifted a few gears. Swift’s intricate variation on the model is that the singer of the song isn’t wreaking revenge on her own husband, but on her best friend’s husband, and framing the husband’s mistress for the murder. It’s delicious, except that Swift commits the capital offence of underusing the Haim sisters purely as background singers, aside from one spoken interjection from Danielle.

This one has some of the same issues as “Tolerate It,” in that it lags too much for too long, but I did find more to focus on musically here. Lyrically and vocally, it gets the mixed emotions of a relatively amicable divorce awfully damned right, if I may speak from painfully direct experience.

This is the song sung from the POV of the small-town lover that the ambitious L.A. actress from “Tis the Damn Season”—Dorothea, it turns out—has left behind in, it turns out, Tupelo. Probably some years past that Xmas tryst, when the old flame finally has made it. “A tiny screen’s the only place I see you now,” he sings, but adds that she’s welcome back anytime: “If you’re ever tired of being known/ For who you know/ You know that you’ll always know me.” It’s produced and arranged with a welcome lack of fuss. Swift hauls out her old high-school-romance-songs vocal tone to reminisce about “skipping the prom/ just to piss off your mom,” very much in the vein of Folklore’s teen-love-triangle trilogy.

A duet with Dessner’s baritone-voiced bandmate in the National, Matt Berninger, “Coney Island” suffers from the most convoluted lyrics on Evermore (which, I wonder unkindly, might be what brought Berninger to mind?). The refrain “I’m on a beach on Coney Island, wondering where did my baby go” is a terrific tribute to classic pop, but then Swift rhymes it with “the bright lights, the merry go,” as if that’s a serviceable shorthand for merry-go-round, and says “sorry for not making you my centerfold,” as if that’s somehow a desirable relationship outcome. The comparison of the bygone affair to “the mall before the internet/ It was the one place to be” is clever but not exactly moving, and Berninger’s lines are worse. Dessner’s droning arrangement does not come to the rescue.

This song is also overrun with metaphors but mostly in an enticing, thematically fitting way, full of good Swiftian dark-fairytale grist. It’s fun to puzzle out gradually the secret that all the images are concealing—an engaged woman being drawn into a clandestine affair. And there are several very good “goddamns.”

The lyrical conceit here is great, about two gold-digging con artists whose lives of scamming are undone by their falling in love. It reminded me of the 1931 pre-Code rom-com Blonde Crazy, in which James Cagney and Joan Blondell act out a very similar storyline. And I mostly like the song, but I can’t help thinking it would come alive more if the music sounded anything like what these self-declared “cowboys” and “villains” might sing. It’s massively melancholy for the story, and Swift needs a far more winningly roguish duet partner than the snoozy Marcus Mumford. It does draw a charge from a couple of fine guitar solos, which I think are played by Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver, who will return shortly).

The drum machine comes as a refreshing novelty at this point. And while this song is mostly standard Taylor Swift torrents of romantic-conflict wordplay (full of golden gates and pedestals and dropping her swords and breaking her high heel, etc.), the pleasure comes in hearing her look back at all that and shrugging, “Long story short, it was a bad ti-i-ime,” “long story short, it was the wrong guy-uy-uy,” and finally, “long story short, I survived.” She passes along some counsel I’m sure she wishes she’d had back in the days of Reputation: “I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things/ Your nemeses will defeat themselves.” It’s a fairly slight song but an earned valedictory address.

Swift fan lore has it that she always sequences the real emotional bombshell as Track 5, but here it is at 13, her lucky number. It’s sung to her grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, who died when Swift was in her early teens, and it manages to be utterly personal—down to the sample of Marjorie singing opera on the outro—and simultaneously utterly evocative to anyone who’s been through such grief. The bridge, full of vivid memories and fierce regrets, is the clincher.

This electroacoustic kiss-off song, loaded up with at least a fistful of gecs if not a full 100 by Dessner and co-producers BJ Burton and James McAlister, seems to be, lyrically, one of Swift’s somewhat tedious public airings of some music-industry grudge (on which, in case you don’t get it, she does not want “closure”), but, sonically, it’s a real ear-cleaner at this point on Evermore. Why she seems to shift into a quasi-British accent for fragments of it is anyone’s guess. But I’m tickled by the line, “I’m fine with my spite and my tears and my beers and my candles.”

I’m torn about the vague imagery and vague music of the first few verses of the album’s final, title track. But when Vernon, in full multitracked upper-register Bon Iver mode, kicks in for the duet in the middle, there’s a jolt of urgency that lands the redemptive ending—whether it’s about a crisis in love or the collective crisis of the pandemic or perhaps a bit of both—and satisfyingly rounds off the album.

[miseriathome]

tl;dr Discovered a new show that I’m enjoying

Completely by accident, I discovered Memories of the Alhambra while browsing netflix. I was completely blown away by the notion of a drama set in Granada, because that's where I studied abroad and that city is breathtaking and amazing and so dear to me. And the scenery that I saw in the preview really did it justice. I'm usually super disinterested in non-American shows, but I figured that VR and gaming weren't the worst subjects in the world, and definitely weighed in on the positive side of neutral for me. So I binged the first three episodes.

For context, it's a Korean drama that centers around an augmented reality video game. The game is a battle fantasy that takes place in historical Granada by augmenting real-world Granada. And in the real world of the show, there's a mystery surrounding the disappearance of the game's programmer, drama with big names from the AR industry trying to claim rights to it, and interpersonal love story-type drama between one of the CEO's and the sister of the programmer, who runs a hostel in the city.

I'm gonna start with the racial/cultural aspect first. All the characters thus far are Korean, obviously, and they speak in Korean. I mean, it's a Korean drama, so it makes sense. But what I find interesting is how they interact with minor characters. The Korean-Spainards speak Spanish with other Spaniards, which makes sense. But the Korean-Koreans speak with Spaniards in English, which is something that works out frequently, except when the Spaniards don't speak English. And the news is also in Spanish (Castellano when broadcasting from Barcelona, which is fair enough, since the news station doesn't have to be a Catalonian one).

I just find it interesting, because American media would just have everyone speak in (maybe accented) English and completely gloss over the issues that actually arise in real life with regards to language differences. But maybe that's either because for Americans, having to know English as a second language (like the Koreans do) is just not a part of the cookie cutter narrative. And American transnational stories just kind of view other places as locations, rather than as like... actual places, I guess? With their own relevant culture and sociopolitics. And I really like how Memories of the Alhambra uses all the actual languages instead of making shit up or doing that unrealistic, convenient language-swapping where only the first line (if any) is in the language proper and then it fades into [accented language of the show's audience]."

Not that I'm a history buff (I fucking hate history), but I'm also getting a huge kick out of the references to Granada's history. It makes me feel like a happy smarty pants when I vaguely understand the historical parts of the fantasy, because I studied all that stuff damn hard and I really hope I at least learned things about Andalusian history for something.

But what I love? Is the realism of the ambiance. There are a lot of times where I have trouble determining whether they filmed on location or on a set (although some scenes are very obviously sets). And there have been times where characters go somewhere in particular in the city and I go !!!!!! I've been there! I took photos there! and I get to remember how much I love the sights of Granada. The background characters also look either authentically Spanish or authentically diverse and college-y (because Granada is a big study abroad city, which means it's full of young people from all over). I really choose to believe that many of the artistic choices were deliberate in this regard, resulting from real firsthand experience or loving research. But honestly, who knows?

Even though I'm kind of eh about gaming and fantasy, the game does look awesome. The graphics are especially really cool, and by that I mean the CGI that the show uses. All the fantasy elements are surprisingly realistic and detailed, which is super impressive to me, as somebody who has no idea what kind of tv budget is considered typical in Korea. It's cool too see action animation that well done, and it makes the in-universe "wow, this game is intense" mood way more compelling; I enjoy being just as impressed as the CEO as he learns more and more about the game mechanics.

I'm honestly not sure if the show falls into the genre of urban fantasy or not. I mean, it's an urban setting, but the fantasy is the result of augmented reality, rather than being fantasy which is integrated into modern urbanism. Although insofar as science fiction as a genre falls under the jurisdiction of fantasy (which is what my scifi teacher said in high school), I guess just having that scifi element does make it urban fantasy.

The mystery element is a plus, too, because mysteries are super my kind of thing. And drama is delicious. Good stuff.

Finally, I have to address the obvious heterosexual romance set-up. It really becomes introduced at the end of the first episode and I did a huge eyeroll because it's so unnecessary and it felt forced. But also like... poor struggling hard working hopeless person gets saved by somebody with tons of resources? That's the ultimate vicarious fantasy, romantic/sexual or otherwise, and I'm just a sucker for having problems whisked away by somebody with the means to make them become nothing. (And to be fair, there's always the chance that all the budding romantic subtext doesn't turn into a canon love affair, but idk how transgressive this show is on that front, you know? So I just have to go into it with my usual amount of preparation.)

I don't really know how much of my enthusiasm for this show is solely because of my enthusiasm for Granada. For that reason, I'm not necessarily recommending it, per se. Or maybe I am, but as a piece of media which is really enjoyable for a number of reasons, but not as something which I'm interested in engaging with on a fandom level, whether shipping or meta. So far, I don't really want to talk about the plot or the story or the world unless it's in relation to sociopolitics and media critique in real life; I'm just chill with soaking it up and being like "this is pretty cool and I'm surprised about it." But I do think other people would enjoy it.

[titconao3]

Lucifer

Refers to this ask, send me a character and I’ll list…

(brace yourself, it’s pretty long!)

favourite thing about them

Weeeeell, I’m a sucker for complex characters - with such a long history and the many possibilities to play with Bible stuff, religions, myths, fantasy in his past and in his abilities, it’s a nice start.Then there’s the long-lived alien among short-lived humans tragedy (i think I’ve killed everyone at least once in my fics - um. Maybe not Amenadiel?).And then, he’s just - at the same time, so good and so bad at fitting among humankind.He’s full of contradictions, he’s fun and loves life and does all he can to not think because he doesn’t much like / respect himself if he thinks about it. He tries so hard to do good and help his friends and then he destroys everything in one go, he’s a mess trying to untangle it all (hi Linda!), and it’s fascinating.He’s also evolving, changing so much: his interactions with Linda, Trixie, Dan… are so different now; he’s made actual friends, he’s even grown a real relationship with Amenadiel. He sees Maze as her own person now & even if he still slips into old habits at times he always remembers she’s her own demon in the end, for better or worse (poor Maze is getting a painful crash-course in earth-style human life and relationships!).

least favourite thing about them

Hm… in S1 it took a lot of time for me to warm up to him, because of his constant will you have sex can we have sex etc with Chloe. Sure, it shows how he progresses when he drops it, etc but damn it was painful to watch. cringecringecringeHonestly in Chloe’s shoes I wouldn’t have been able to stomach any of it. It wasn’t fun, amusing, flirty or anything like that to me.

favourite line

Oh my - so many good lines in the show, I can’t think of one over others :D

brOTP

*gulp* Dan? Trixie? Linda? Ella? I really canNOT choose!Honestly, even (especially?) Chloe - they’re friends, and that’s why I can get behind that ship. Blah blah longing looks and kisses whatever. They make each other laugh and have each other’s back, and it makes my day!

OTP

Well, Chloe i guess? 

nOTP

Hm. In the present / future of the show, anyone not Chloe, I’d say - unless it’s in a more-than-2-people relationship.In the past? Well, canonically there was Maze & Linda, and everyone had a good time.It’s not a character I can see with anyone not Chloe because canon emphasises that, I think.

random headcanon

Lucifer will find a way to keep his human family around without himself becoming human (this squicks me for a variety of reasons) or turning them into non-humans (same); my preference goes to realizing he is not, in fact, banned from Heaven.And yes, the humans will grow old and die; but since the afterlife is canon... it doesn’t mean goodbye forever, in that universe!

unpopular opinion

I have several ^_^Hm, among the worst ones I can have… *braces for shocked gasps if anyone reads this*

I really, really don’t like the singing. I find most of the time the songs they pick don’t fit the actor’s range, he overextends and sounds wrong and it’s grating to my ears. It gives me lots of 2d-hand embarrassment. I just can’t - no. Please, no more (there will be more).I’m not the only one to think that, but we’re all a secret siblinghood of people who generally stay in the closet about that one ;-)

I don’t find his accent swoon-worthy - he’s, you know. A bloke, mate. Just a bloke ;-) but I frankly despise the early, overdone S1 accent, overly posh and really a true snotty bastard’s voice. Ew. So glad he dialled it back down to a more regular southern-ish bloke one.

song i associate with them

Well, there’s a wide selection to pick from in the soundtrack and I associate a lot of them with Lucifer? 

favorite picture of them

I don’t know… anything not posed to look sexeh or smouldering etc because generally to me he looks slightly ridiculous in those. Something genuine :-)

[staringatthetwinsuns]

On writing Luke Skywalker as a character with a disability (meta thoughts)

Inspired by this post and the immensely thoughtful reblogs that go with it, I am going to try to consolidate my thoughts, advice, pet peeves, and feels about writing Luke Skywalker as a character with a disability (and perhaps touch a bit on Anakin/Vader). This is something I've actually spent a lot of time thinking about, and I don’t see it talked about very often, but now that I know I’m not the only one who thinks about it, I thought I'd try to share my perspective at least and start a conversation. Please feel free to add to, question, or outright argue with anything here.

First, a disclaimer: I am not an amputee, a doctor, an occupational therapist, or anyone else with relevant personal experience. I have personal reasons for caring deeply about this, but the most important ones are probably just wanting to see my favorite character written well and wanting to see diverse characters represented in fiction in general, so. Take this as you will.

Also, I will say in advance that I mix person-first language ("person with a disability") and identity-first language ("disabled person") here, because I know there are people who prefer both.... apologies/warnings in advance if you strongly dislike or are triggered by either.

So, first things first, and this is really just general writing advice that could apply to any disability or ANY aspect of a character's appearance… to what extent is is even necessary to address Luke's prosthetic hand in fic? The post I linked to above was really talking about art, and in that case, I suppose you do have to make some sort of choice—to draw Luke with a natural-looking hand like he had in ESB, a black glove as in ROTJ, or a metal hand like in the sequel trilogy. In fic, however, it doesn’t always need to really be addressed at all. Again, this goes for ANY aspect of a character’s appearance, and the golden rule is: Would the POV character (the character whose point of view we are in at the moment) notice or care at this particular moment in the story? You know how it feels weird when you read a bad YA fantasy novel and the narrator says something like "I looked at him with my brilliant purple eyes, which perfectly accented my flawless ivory skin"? That’s unnatural because actual people (even teenagers, shock! horror!) don’t really go around thinking about their own eye color or how flawless their skin is (unless they're incredibly unlikable, and then why would we want to read about them?). They’d be slightly more likely to be thinking about it if their skin WASN'T flawless and that zit they found this morning was bothering them, etc. Cardinal rule: don’t mention anything the narrator or POV character wouldn’t logically be thinking about at the time.

So, whether you even need to mention Luke's hand at all probably depends on a number of factors: Whose POV are we in? When does the fic take place? (Luke's going to be more aware of his new hand between ESB and ROTJ, for example, than decades in the future.) Does anything specifically happen that reminds the POV character of the fact that his hand's a prosthetic?

Which brings me, I suppose, to the next thing: Whether it even counts as a disability at all and the fact that, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T, you still can't really ignore it as if his hand just magically regenerated.

So, first. Is having an amazing cybernetic limb in the Star Wars universe a disability? I say a cautious yes… or at the very least, it's a medical condition on the same level with say, wearing glasses or contacts or having a hip replacement or something in the real world?

I do think it depends on a lot of factors though, and movie canon, at least, doesn’t give us a lot of answers. We don’t really know how much feeling Luke has in his hand… pressure/pain is established, but what about heat or cold? Does it hurt at all (aside from pain sensors)? Is it stronger, weaker, less flexible (more flexible? That's a bit hard to imagine?) etc, than his other hand? I think it PROBABLY counts as a disability and at least counts as something that would affect his daily life in AT THE VERY LEAST small ways. More on that later.

I don’t actually remember what Legends had to say about any of this but again, movie canon doesn’t give us a lot. Here are some of the things I appreciate fanfic writers thinking about, though. (For the record, I am GUILTY AS HELL of overlooking some of this stuff myself in certain fics though, so don't feel bad if you have too… just suggestions for things we probably SHOULD be considering!)

1. How different is the sense of touch or the range of movement in Luke's prosthetic right hand, compared to his left hand? Does it affect the way he does things? Does he favor one hand over the other in certain situations because of this? Does this change as time goes by and any differences become his norm? (I'd personally think there'd be some difference… not necessarily better or worse, but different, and that over time it would definitely start to feel normal.)

2. How different does it look or feel to other people? 1980s-era special effects aside, look at the rest of the technology in the universe. Look at your own hand for goodness' sake. I can’t imagine it’s a perfect replica. Like, I can see the bones and veins in my hand. My fingernails get too long and split and have ragged cuticles. There's no WAY that anyone would even WANT a prosthetic hand that realistic, so. There's got to be some difference. Especially in a romantic or sexual situation, especially fairly soon after ESB, it seems weird not to mention this. I HAVE seen fics that addressed the body temperature issue, either by having the other character be surprised that his hand WAS warm or stating that it wasn't? I guess I personally don't think that heating would be a priority and that it might therefore be cooler than his other hand? Again, definitely not always necessary but, in certain scenes might be important and gets sometimes ignored.

3. There is no f-ing way that Luke’s hand actually ages, so… while I agree that the "Oh all the skin just fell off" idea is stupid, what DOES he do as he ages? Go for the metal model because it doesn’t look the same anyway so it doesn't MATTER if he ages? Get the skin updated to look more like whatever age he is now? Just… have a random 22-year-old-looking hand even though the rest of him is 50?

4. Regardless of whatever you go with for #3, either the entire hand or some of its parts must need replacing over time. Anyone who thinks people use the same prostheses for 30 years doesn’t know anyone who actually uses one (or hasn’t known them for very long, anyway), and even if you play the "advanced technology" card.. want to show me a 30-year-old car, airplane, or space shuttle that has NEVER HAD A PART REPLACED EVER? Can he do the maintenance himself (one-handed? Well, at least he has the Force?) or does a medical droid need to do it, etc?

5. What does the REST of the galaxy think about this? The only canon instances of ableism I can think of are Obi-Wan’s "more machine now than man" in ROTJ, and Dooku's not-so-nice thoughts about Anakin's arm in the ROTS novelization (although Palpatine obviously feels differently in the same scene), but… on the whole is there any stigma attached, or not? If so, is Luke more like "screw it," or is he somewhat self-conscious? What do Leia, Han, Chewie, Wedge... whoever else is in the fic, think? I mean, seriously... imagine a loved one losing a limb. You might not CARE (you shouldn't CARE, in the sense of loving them less or differently, and I don't think any of the above characters would either) but it would still be a thing to get used to?

6. Back to technical stuff, just how much of his arm IS mechanical anyway? Definitely seems to be more than he actually lost to Vader. (This Quora post is fascinating.) Again, usually not relevant since Luke never wears anything but long sleeves after ESB (which is a travesty; look at those ARMS on Dagobah), but… might be relevant if he’s naked in your fic? ;)

7. Related to #6, how obvious is the point where the synthskin meets his natural skin? This could probably be barely noticeable (theatrical makeup experience FTW?) but, might not be? Is this the reason he always wears long sleeves? XD I can't imagine synthskin can tan or grow hair or anything, right???

Okay, so assuming you've put the thought into your headcanon for the above (I… really hadn’t either until recently though, and my fics are all inconsistent so… no judgment either way), let me come back to this "minor thing that affects your life in small ways" thing.

I don’t really get the impression that, with Luke anyway, this particular fandom pays TOO MUCH attention to his prosthetic hand to the point where it feels like a fetish. I have read a COUPLE of fics that felt icky that way, but many more involving Anakin/Vader. If anything, it gets kind of over-ignored as a perfect replacement that is exactly like his biological hand in every way.

That's just not possible. It's not. And even if it WERE scientifically possible (in a very cyberpunk-ish world, no less) would anyone BOTHER to make a cybernetic hand with ugly veins, scraggly cuticles, and age spots?

So. Even if you don’t consider it a disability, it’s a THING. I don’t think my wearing contacts is a disability, but I still can't open my eyes underwater, and if I nap in the afternoon my eyes get dry and gunky, and if I drive somewhere and lose a contact I legally and literally CANNOT drive home (never happened but, anxiety FTW?), and don't forget that one time I lived through a major earthquake and all the supermarkets ran out of food because the roads were closed, you better bet I was worried about what would happen if I ran out of One Day Acuvue before the courier services opened back up (actually go to an eye doctor and get that awful glaucoma test? *shudder*). Similarly, someone who can walk normally on an artificial hip or knee isn’t disabled in the same sense that someone who uses a wheelchair is, but they still set off metal detectors and can’t sit comfortably in certain positions. It may or may not be a major thing, but it is a thing… and it does seem weird to me that a lot of writers seem to treat Luke’s hand as a perfect replacement when it CAN'T BE. For example:

1. It's metal in his body. I’ve translated enough medical documents to know that THAT IS A THING. Metal detectors, MRIs, whatever… there are times when metal vs. organic material is a thing.

2. He can't possibly have the same fingerprints, if he has any fingerprints at all. It MIGHT be possible for a planned amputation but… that hand was lost. Any biometric-type military clearance Luke has now has to be reset/redone. Finger vein identification etc. is probably a no-go period. (NEW THOUGHT: Unless the Alliance had his fingerprints on file... doesn't REALLY match up with the rest of the technology of the world, but... cool possibility?)

3. Maintenance. Especially considering if he’s going to live on a water planet with exposed mechanical parts with no one else to help him do maintenance if needed *side-eyes Rian Johnson*

4. Ongoing pain? This is a headcanon of mine anyway. From what I understand, phantom pain comes from the brain sending out signals to a limb that is no longer there, and getting no response. Since Luke’s hand DOES have feeling, I don’t think he’d have that kind of ongoing issue, BUT. I do think there’d be pain right after he got it (again, talk to anyone who’s had a joint replaced?) and I kind of imagine his hand aching whenever he was reminded of Vader or of losing it. Not a necessary thing to work in, I suppose, but that’s a headcanon I use a lot.

5. Identity as a disabled person? I have seen this addressed in some fics, and I agree that it might not have a place one way or the other in a story that has nothing to do with disability, but… I do sort of see Luke being especially compassionate to other veterans or victims of the war, and to people with disabilities in general, maybe especially because he now knows that’s something he shared with his father? I also like it when fics address the fact that not everyone in the galaxy has access to what I assume was the top-of-the-line model for the Alliance’s biggest hero, at that Luke might feel guilt about that, or at least a desire to help others?

6. Vanity/self-esteem? Luke doesn’t seem like a hugely vain person to me but… would he be at all self-conscious about meeting someone new and getting the awkward questions? Does he tell the truth, and if so how much of it? Or does everyone just already know? (That wouldn’t necessarily be LESS awkward though?) Like everything else, this probably depends on when the fic is set.

7. Is there anything he’s not supposed to do, like get wet (especially without the skin, oh dear sequel trilogy)???

I guess on the whole I see Luke as a not-vain person who probably wouldn’t care THAT much about appearances (except everyone does a little, right?), but I do think his hand would be a constant reminder of Vader, for better (after ROTJ) or worse (between ESB and ROTJ). I don’t think it would be as life-changing as losing a limb in the real world today, but I also don’t think he’d go months (or even a day really) without even thinking about it, with zero changes to anything whatsoever.

I think it’s really important that the technology in Star Wars is shown to be helping and healing people, rather than just blowing things up. I LOVE that people have taken that ideal version of a prosthetic limb and made strides toward actually creating it in real life. But I also think that just ignoring the fact that Luke IS a character with a disability (however rendered-minor it is by said technology) does a huge disservice to the character and to diversity in pop culture in general.

So… long story short, I’d love to see more fics that did address this, even if it’s casually and in passing. While there are certainly situations in which the best choice is "it doesn’t matter in this scene," if anything I see Star Wars fics going too far in the other direction… not really considering this as a part of the character and the world?

[vermiculus-incipiens]

OOC INFORMATION:

Name: Thaly

Pronouns: She/Her

Time zone: CLT (Chilean Standard Time)

IC INFORMATION:

Character: Marlene McKinnon.

HOBBIES/PASTIMES: Drawing. Marlene finds an unexpected peace of mind in drawing since she was a little girl. She’s actually very good at it, even though she doesn’t show her drawings to others unless they know her very well. Reading. In this sense, she’s the stereotypical Ravenclaw. Marlene loves to read, especially works of fiction and books about history. She’s absolutely obsessed with the muggle fantasy genre, with Tolkien being her favorite author ever since she was a little girl. She actually collects Tolkien book editions, so yes, she had plenty of different versions of the same book around her house.

SHIPS/ ANTI-SHIPS: While Blackinnon is always in my heart, I think it’s been proven that, when built correctly, I can actually work with some unexpected ships. I don’t like Dorlene though.

BOGGART: Marlene’s biggest fear used to be her own depression, but after recent experiences throughout the war, her fear of the dark, which has always been there, has become stronger and stronger, especially after her experience being kidnapped in a basement. The notion of darkness itself does not terrify her, but the possibility of what might lurk in it. Her boggart takes form of a black, thick cloud of fog that engulfs her.

BIGGEST PET PEEVE: People who fold the pages of books. Don’t do that, you nasty. Books need to be handled with respect. People with bad grammar or spelling out of pure ignorance. Like, if there is some learning, speaking or writing disability involved, she absolutely understands, but people who just don’t know how to make a proper use of language simply get on her nerves. People who walks slow in narrow spaces, forcing everyone behind them to move slow as well. It’s just rude.

ECCENTRICITIES: Having lived in the south of England for many years, Marlene usually is able to hold back her Scottish accent. Until she gets terribly upset or excited. When that happens, she goes full scottie on people. Marlene has a bit of a clothes problem. Meaning that she has way too many clothes and shoes, way too many for her closet. She’s made numerous expanding spells on her closet, but it’s quite possible it will not take yet another one. And she keeps buying more clothes! She worked as a muggle model for a couple of summers as a teen to make some extra money (probably to buy more book and clothes)

FAVORITE SCHOOL SUBJECT: For Marley, it would be hard to pick just one. She loves a good challenge, she loves to expand her mind, and she loves to find out new things. Defense against the Dark Arts, Divination, History of Magic, Transformation and Charms were her top five. She can’t narrow the list form there.

TIME OF THE DAY AND TIME OF THE YEAR: Her favorite time of the day is definitely the early morning, when the sun is already bright and up, but most people are still asleep and the world is quiet and new. She loves dusk too, as cheesy at it might sound. Watching the sun play with the clouds as it sets, naming the different colors in the sky, the strange lilac light that lingers right after the sun has gone down but dark has not crept in yet, it reminds her of how magnificent the world can be. Her favorite time of the year is definitely summer. Actually Marlene is fine with any season except winter. She hates winter, even though she likes the snow. Her depression is strongly triggered during winter more than during any other season. Ironically, her favorite holiday is New Year’s Eve. The excitement, the emotional sense of the night, the euphoria experimented when the clock strikes midnight and for a second both the old year and the New Year are one makes her heart beat race. Besides, New Year always brings hope that this time, things will be different. This time, things will be better.

PATRONUS: Marlene’s patronous is a raccoon. Raccoons represent curiosity, secrecy, and adaptability. Raccoon people have a tendency to be defensive, on-guard-ambiguous and aloof. They can also be charismatic, involved and unpredictable. It’s integrated with the idea of having a “mask” for any situation. It is a symbol of disguise, transformation and open-mindness. *(Information from: http://www.quotev.com/story/3671161/Patronuses-and-Meanings/1 ) I think a raccoon patronous represents both sides of who is Marlene McKinnon. On one side we have this resourceful and charismatic woman that will go to any means to stand up for what she wants and to protect those she loves. She’s intelligent, and I think that in order to be intelligent you first need to have a big sense of curiosity so as to search for knowledge. On the other side, Marlene has an entire secret side that involves her depression (hence the defensive, on guard and ambiguous part). I especially feel she connects with the “mask” idea, since you could say Marlene hides her true demons behind a mask of joy when it best suits her.

VICE: Due to her depressive tendencies, Marlene is desperate to find something that will numb her feelings. Due to this, she had fallen into two vices she absolutely hates herself for: drinking and working. Her work-a-holicness is well known by everyone who knows her, but her problem with alcohol is a dirty little secret she’s desperate to keep to herself. However, those that are closest to her suspect that something is going on, since at parties she always seems to get unusually drunk. Marlene also has a strange habit of digging her forefinger nails on the skin around her thumbs’ nails when she’s anxious. She does it unconsciously. Sometimes she scratches so hard that she makes her thumbs bleed. Because of this, she normally wears band-aids around her thumbs. The band-aids also keep her from hurting herself further.

EXTROVERT: Marlene is definitely an out-going sort of person. She grew up in a large family so she’s used to the crowds from a very young age. In fact, is loneliness that she can’t handle. Give her any social situation and she’ll handle it easily. She’s friendly, out-spoken, loud, funny, witty. She has a way of winning people’s heart when she wants to. Besides, she’s not afraid of giving a piece of her mind to the world, there’s a reason God gave her a voice after all. She’s loyal to those she loves, kind to those who need it, fierce to those who dare harm her or her loved ones. Marlene does not fear the world…she fears the lack of it.

DIET: Marlene is not a vegetarian, but she seldom eats meat (thought she can’t resist a good barbecue). She’s noted for having a sweet tooth for nearly everything, from cakes to candy (Honeydukes will always be her biggest blessing and curse) She doesn’t eat ovine meat, under no circumstances. When she was six years old she had a pet lamb. It was nasty shock when she found out her uncle had roasted it in a fire some months later. Her favorite food? Almost anything sweet, but she does have a weak spot for acid candy. And don’t even get her started with strawberries dipped in chocolate.

CANONS: I have quite a few in mind, so I’ll just make a list if that’s okay: Marlene grew up in a big house in the countryside, so she’s used to animals and nature in general. Her family owned horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs, cats, nearly any sort of creature you’d expect to find in a farm. There’s a pond near her house where all the McKinnon cousins go for a swim in the summer. One of Marley’s favorite thing to do is drive at maximum speed down empty streets at midnight while listening to both magical and muggle rock music. She prefers muggle music over wizarding one any time. She has a blue teddy bear named Bleu (because she was such an original little girl) that she sleeps with up to this day.