#prequel: extras

[emotrait]

random janice

[emotrait-arc]

FREE EMOTRAIT 2022

[furious-blueberry0]

The recently knighted Barriss, sewing a gift for Ahsoka, who has just passed her knighting.

Close up under the cut

[vulpesarctica]

A late-entry 2022 update for Sith Obi-Wan! Recklessly provoked by @silmairon who sent me kind words about my art progress on the 2020 version. 💕

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

When they come to do a live action reboot of Wonder Woman they need to remember that Diana has two mothers.

[kanansdume]

I've recently been watching these very interesting Star Wars video essays on YouTube (yeah I know, a rare breed) and it brings up these comments Lucas has made about how he views Star Wars as almost like a silent film in terms of how important the visuals are to him in comparison to the dialogue. But this essay also points out how important Lucas finds all of the "rhyming" moments in his trilogies and the way he utilizes them to remind you of something else for emotional or thematic reasons. And there's so many of them, both in visuals and in dialogue, and it's interesting to consider how important this is to him, the repetition for a purpose as well as the storytelling through visuals above everything else and then to look at Star Wars since the Prequels came out and realize how little has really been able to match up to those ideals since then.

The ONLY thing that's come out since the Prequels that I think really hits these two things the same way is, in fact, Andor. One of the things I noticed about the way people discussed Andor as it was airing in a way I haven't really seen for any of the other shows or films was the visual SYMBOLOGY. So many times I saw people noticing the Imperial cog everywhere, from the aerial shot of Narkina 5 as the prisoners escape to the architecture of Mon Mothma's house. There were people picking up on the use of items in Luthen's shop that are familiar from other things to give this idea that Luthen is from another time, he's attempting to preserve this world he lost, that if you're not looking closely enough you won't notice what he's really saying or doing with this shop. The color choices for the different locations and people got analyzed because the people involved spoke about how they intentionally utilized color to SEND A MESSAGE about the characters and the world. We know that the people who made the costumes and sets really worked hard to treat Star Wars almost like a period drama and study the history of the franchise as if it were a real place so that the things they came up with felt like they belonged in this world everyone knows so well even if it's completely new. And of course there were all of the myriad references to things from Rogue One, the constant repetition of "climb", the sunset on the beach, etc.

Nearly EVERY SHOT in this show was created with so much intention behind it in order to say something meaningful about the characters, the world, this specific story they're in, and the overall saga of Star Wars itself. It's insane how much greater impact this show was able to achieve through the incredibly careful usage of visual symbols and thematic repetitions, much like Lucas did before them. It feels like they didn't just study the history of the galaxy far far away, but they studied the history of STAR WARS and what Lucas was trying to do and say with this story. They peeled back his onion a bit more and were able to create something that really has that same visual feel even when it's not created for a child audience. It also is experimenting with its narrative style through its structure and through Cassian's character being allowed to be somewhat more reactive than proactive, and while that didn't work for everyone, it does feel like it's following in Lucas's footsteps of experimentation through Star Wars. Push the boundaries of what Star Wars is and can be and what you can say with it.

But this only works because they peeled the onion back enough to TRULY understand all of the messages Lucas was sending with it. They got the heart of Star Wars and despite its lack of space wizards, despite the lack of most major characters in the Saga, this was a show that honestly got the message more than just about anything else Star Wars has put out since the Prequels. The choices between selflessness and selfishness, the themes about how you always HAVE to make a choice even when it feels like you don't have any (sometimes ESPECIALLY when it feels like you don't have any), and how important it is to make sure to choose the path of compassion above everything else. The themes of connection to others, the symbiotic circle and the impact even the smallest person can have on world around them, it's RIGHT THERE and it's CENTRAL to Andor's storyline.

So yes, it experiments a little with narrative structure, but it's possibly the most Star Wars thing to exist Revenge of the Sith because it honestly truly GETS what Star Wars was about, both in its themes and in its filmmaking. A lot of people said that Andor didn't feel like Star Wars to them, usually because of the lack of space wizards and the fact that it's not a story aimed at children. But to me, Andor is EXACTLY what Star Wars is and has always been. They're stretching the boundaries of what Star Wars can be, but it's saying the exact same things Star Wars has always said, it's just saying it slightly differently. This doesn't feel like fanfiction to me, not really. Unlike things like the Mandoverse or the books, Andor isn't just taking some of the toys out of the sandbox and going to play with them somewhere else. Andor is IN that sandbox. It's building a slightly different sandcastle, but it's still within the sandbox, using the same sand that Lucas did.

[courtofchaos]

The argicorps would have radicalized Obi wan in a way that would have either saved the galaxy or burnt it all down sooner.

[comebackali]

for our phantom menace rewatch this week we are doing a “qui gon touch count” to count how many times qui gon (bad) touches anakin

[thenixkat]

Absolutely wild that Chilchuck and Nemari absolutely knew that Toshiro was in the white boy torment nexus and decided it was not their problem b/c if Toshiro really had a problem he could say something about it.

[jaguarys]

The Plagueis novel stating that 20s Palpatine didn't like politics is insane to me for a lot of reasons and generally I disagree with it but also it's so funny to me. One day Plagueis told him it was the number one way (galactic overturning notwithstanding) way to fuck people over and he immediately jumped in headfirst, assassination plots in hand,

[emotrait]

neo ★

[emotrait-arc]

better look at the echo chamber besties via oc page headshots

[dark-daphne]

fuck it *Jedifies your padme*

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

Me: the Jedi order did fail many of those who fell to the dark side, especially Bariss and Anakin, but acknowledging that is not justifying their eradication. The movies exist as a commentary on wider social failings which cause people to buy into fascist ideology. While individuals are responsible for their own actions, it is true that broader social issues lead to the rise and prominence of fascist ideology, and the Jedi order was acting as one example of such a situation - with George Lucas himself holding firm to the idea that Anakin (and by extension the others who fell during the Clone Wars) were victims. The Jedi being flawed makes them more interesting. The historical context of the time when the prequels adds even more context to the message they were intended to display - the Gulf War had ended in 1991 and the Iraq War began in 2003. These movies were a commentary on American military culture of the nineties and early 00s much like how the original trilogy was a commentary on imperialism during WW2 and the Vietnam war. The failures of the Jedi to provide proper mental health training (the lacking of which is especially prominent in the books and comics published in tandem with the prequel movies, particularly those books which were line-edited by George Lucas himself such as ROTS's novelization, and while some concepts of DBT are present in Jedi teachings they are not extensive or well communicated as they would be in proper therapy), their subconscious bias towards the core worlds, and their detachment from those they set out to help were all commentaries on how those who set our to help can lose focus as well as acting as a broader commentary on social attitudes during wars which lead to the broader social context from which fascist ideas spread. No single Jedi failed on a personal level, but rather the social systems within which the Jedi operated led to radicalization of some but not all Jedi youth. George Lucas's anti-imperial and anti-fascist beliefs are integral to understanding the message of these movies regarding radicalization.

Also me: none of this applies to Aayla though <3 she did nothing wrong <3

[tired-demonspawn]

so i rewatched the prequels(with a friend) and they are both so much worse and so much better than i remember.

like okay phantom menace is fucking tear jerkingly boring, but on the other hand palpatines manipulation is fucking great!!!! he plays padme like a fiddle to become supreme chancellor!!!!! the entire podrace is fantastic!!!!!

but jeeeeeezus it was so boring! it dragged on horribly! it has these moments where you can see a movie there. even see a pretty good movie there! but then you have 10 minutes of jar jar fucking around in a windows xp wallpaper battlefield and you want to die a little inside

then we have attack of the clones!!!!!

amazing concepts amazing ideas but the dialogue between anakin and padme is so cringe!!!! you got the most witty funny shit with between ani and obi wan(all they banter during padmes assassination is GOLDEN) so you KNOW! you KNOW george can make good dialogue

but then ani and padme are alone and the both of them say the most cringeass fucking things!!!!! the worstest thing is that you can see what mr lucas was going for with those convos!!! YOU CAN SEE WHERE ITS GOING!!! BUT HE!!!! MAKES IT SO CRINGE!!!!!!!

the point of the "not just the men, but the women and children too" convo was to a) show anakins falling to the dark side and b) padme (righfully) seeing it as him grieving and lashing out so she comforts him because he needs someone in his corner right now who actually lets him feel it instead of the empty jedi "there is no emotion, there is peace"

the scene even starts off with something i find is a really good character moment for anakin: hes fixing a motor or something and when padme approaches with "hey you good" hes like "yknow i like fixing things, fixing things means i dont have to think about my mom being dead"

but the actual dialogue makes him seem like a fucking psycho!

which, yeah. he did, by his own admission, slaughter an entire sand people village, women and children included, but still the line could've gone a little better. the entire prequels are supposed to make him sympathetic! his fall to the dark is supposed to be a tragedy and shit.(at least i fucking think so????)

the real dialogue makes padme seem fucking blind deaf and stupid for not running away immediately, when shes not!!! stupid, i mean. she is smart and brave and all the good adjectives. but what she is most is a victim of bad writing.

lastly revenge of the sith.

i have nothing bad to say about revenge of the sith i love revenge of the sith its my favourite fucking star wars movie i love it i will continue loving it its absolutely glorious its got the best live action fights its got the best memes its got some of the most banger lines its got that one bts where hayden christensen does the flamboyant lil "oh i hate you 💅✨️" which i love i fucking love it in its entirety noone can take this away from me

but do i, intellectually, know there are things wrong with it? yes. the cringey dialogue between padme and anakin is still there(although much less!!! they have normal lines now!!!), and yknow the entire dialogue is corny period. but the previous paragraph was written with all my heart, i stand by it and nothing can change my mind.

[ap-5]

I don't have any barbies but I do have star wars prequel dolls & they are READY to see barbie!!