Me whenever hacks like Lily Orchard go after Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, The Legend Of Korra, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Moon Girl, Star Wars, Dungeon Meshi, ect.

(P.S: I am a massive fan of the media mentioned above) (P.S: Yes. I will fight to the end defending Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, Utena, Evangelion, Sailor Moon and The Last Jedi.)

@theneutralmime

Oh this could get long, I don't talk about the sequels often lol. But I recently had to rewatch the entire trilogy as research for the podcast, so I have some more solid opinions on this now, so let's go.

Rey is a character who suffered from a fairly basic set-up in TFA that went exactly nowhere when her trajectory changed in TLJ and they couldn't figure out how to fix it in TROS (and the studio execs came in and enforced certain things to happen because they figured it would make certain fans happy). Rey IS her own character, she's not just like... Luke 2.0 or whatever, but the general set-up of "young hero stuck on their own in their life they can't escape and who ends up forced into an adventure when adventure happens to find them" is... not the most original thing in the world. It can be REALLY GOOD when executed well, there's a reason it's popular, but nothing about Rey was like... insanely original aside from the fact that she was a woman as (one of) the main character(s) in Star Wars films for the first time.

And then Rian Johnson took this pretty basic set-up that everyone understood and went "what if I threw this on the ground and spat on it and crushed it for good measure to be Edgy" and that's how we got TLJ with "Rey Nobody" who somehow already knows everything she needs to know which makes her ENTIRE JOURNEY to go find Luke completely meaningless and shifts the story from being about HER to being about LUKE. It's dumb, it's stupid, and it was bad writing.

Not following the very obvious character arc set up for her in TFA means that Rey as a character vacillates back and forth between motivations and characterizations in each new film. So it's hard to know like... who Rey even IS as a character, what's important to her, what she cares about, why she even WANTS to be a Jedi, what kind of Jedi she'd actually be, etc. In the first film, she's on a very basic journey of learning to let go of the idea that someone will come back for her on Jakku in order to recognize that it's better to find ways to connect with new people than push aside those relationships for one that has already gone. This is why she leaves Finn at the end of the film to find Luke in the first place, she can't let her connection to Finn be what holds her back any more than she could let her connection to her parents hold her back. She has a greater destiny out there to follow that she can only answer if she learns how to let go. In the second film, her entire motivation surrounds saving Kylo Ren for some reason and, as mentioned before, she apparently already knows everything she needs know and doesn't need any training or guidance of any kind which leaves her exactly nowhere to go as a character. In the third film, it's all about figuring out how to connect to the Jedi of the past for... reasons and struggling with the sudden revelation that she is Palpatine's granddaughter and therefore has extra capacity for darkness in her or something.

There's nothing consistent about her across the three films which leaves Rey and her story just... in the dust. She could've been a perfectly good and enjoyable hero character had they just let her follow the path she was set up on in TFA, and instead we got... the mess she became. I LIKE Rey, I think she's occasionally fun and I like the relationship she has with Finn and Poe in TROS, but she got absolutely SLAUGHTERED by this trilogy.

But that is NOTHING compared to what happened to Finn.

Finn is unarguably the most interesting and unique character introduced in TFA. A stormtrooper deserter with the potential to be Force sensitive AND the main love interest for the other main female character? A stormtrooper who could become a JEDI, the clear potential for a stormtrooper rebellion, the parallels and connection between Finn and Kylo that so clearly demonstrated that theme of choice (with Finn being someone raised in darkness who chooses selflessness and compassion anyway vs Kylo who was raised in light with all the support and resources he could ask for and still chooses selfishness and darkness), the possibility of having true CO-LEADS for the first time with Finn and Rey as like two halves of one hero with the romance being there to lift them BOTH up rather than relegate one of them to the side. The potential here with Finn was LIMITLESS, it was INSANE.

And ALL OF IT got squandered. Every last ounce. Finn got COMPLETELY sidelined in TLJ, separated from all of Rey's storylines and replaced by Kylo Ren, his Force sensitivity was not further explored, the entire story with the rebellion could've been what jumpstarted his stormtrooper rebellion plotline and instead he got thrown off into some weird casino c-plot bullshit to try to thrust him into a new romance that wasn't with Rey, and he was just constantly being physically hurt by other characters as though it was a joke of some kind. TROS attempted to bring SOME of it back by having him going on more missions with Poe off-screen, allowed Finn, Poe, and Rey to be an actual trio with a relationship together, and hinted at the Force sensitivity more than once. But by the time TROS came around, the damage had been done and it couldn't manage to come back from that, so Finn ended up developing nowhere in that film and does basically nothing but follow around Poe and Rey wherever they go, more sidelined than ever but at least he's not constantly being hit and he IS still involved in the main storylines in a way he wasn't in TLJ.

The options were all SO GOOD for Finn and we got resolution for exactly none of them and because of how badly John Boyega and his character got treated, we'll likely never get any real resolution for his character EVER because he is understandably not going to come back to Star Wars after this. I haven't yet forgiven Rian Johnson for the choices he made in TLJ that ruined Finn.

I actually like Kylo best in TFA because I think, much like everybody else, that's where we see the real potential for what the character could've been. Kylo in TFA is really set up to just be "another Anakin" where he went dark but can still be saved by the love of the father/son bond and then he ISN'T. They set the audience up SO HARD for that eventuality, for Kylo to be secretly not as evil as he seems, for him to be someone who can be saved like Anakin was saved, so you're sitting there expecting that to happen during that scene on Starkiller Base with Han, which is why it comes as such a shock when he kills Han anyway and turns the ENTIRE NARRATIVE on its head by telling you that Kylo IS NOT ANAKIN and isn't going to be saved the same way if he can be saved AT ALL (and it's heavily implying he CAN'T BE SAVED). TLJ basically just redid this entire narrative from TFA all over again except with Rey and the dyad, but because they did it with Rey and the dyad, there ended up being a bunch of people who ended up VERY invested in Reylo as a thing and so the studio then caved to that in TROS and saved Kylo despite that never being in the original plan according to Adam Driver.

And I think it would've been kind-of interesting to have this character who seems like he should be able to be saved like Anakin, but not everyone CAN be saved, not everyone WILL ultimately make better choices when given the option, some people are just going to double down on their darkness and commit to being evil. I like the subversion of expectations from what we were given with Anakin, the way he's like the inverse of Anakin in so many ways and looks up to "Darth Vader" as a role model of sorts without ever understanding the choices Anakin actually made, both good and bad. And if TLJ had actually, you know, expanded upon what TFA had already established instead of just saying the exact same thing all over again, maybe we could've gotten a more interesting story out of his character.

Which leads us to Luke and his role in "creating" Kylo. Here again we get what seems to be a lack of agreement between the people in charge about what this story was supposed to be and say. TFA sets up that Kylo is making his own choices, he's not brainwashed, and his primary problem seems to be with his parents. TLJ then turns around and says it was all LUKE'S fault, that Luke had a moment of weakness and it threw Kylo into a fury he's never come back from, but Luke's mistake is what ultimately led to everything that followed. And like... this isn't Luke. Maybe some people really enjoyed seeing Luke be this broken old man who just makes the same mistakes over and over again, but this wasn't Luke to me. I don't buy that Luke had an instinct that caused him to ignite a weapon in response to feeling the darkness in his nephew's mind, something he's only feeling because he's literally INVADING HIS NEPHEW'S MIND AS HE SLEEPS. There is nothing about his choices here that are in line with anything we knew about Luke from the Original Trilogy. Luke would never do this to someone he cared about, he just wouldn't.

The movie's insistence on making Luke into this broken beaten old man is also, as I mentioned above, a massive mistake because it turns the story in TLJ from REY'S journey into LUKE'S journey. Rey isn't the one who has to learn things and develop in this film, LUKE is. LUKE is the one who fucked up, LUKE is the one who lost hope, LUKE is the one who has to be taught a lesson about what it means to be a Jedi in the end. Rey does shit all in this film.

It also moves the focus away from it being KYLO'S CHOICES that led to what he's become to this weirder story about how Luke screwed up and has to fix it by... trusting that Rey already has it covered I guess? Instead of focusing on how Kylo made selfish choices and what actually PROMPTED those selfish choices despite all of the support he had and the legacy of his parents and the way that that parallels the choices being made by Rey and Finn, it focuses on LUKE, someone whose story has ALREADY BEEN TOLD. Kylo ends up a little bitchass victim in this instead of a character who is making clear and concise choices, something that was established when he killed Han in TFA, so his choice at the end of TLJ when he kills Snoke and takes over as Supreme Leader doesn't have the same impact when we've already see him make that choice in the climax of the last film. It's redundant and walking back the choice from TFA sort-of undoes everything that it's trying to say about the character and makes TLJ's conclusion feel wishy washy. Is he a tragic victim who has to be saved, or is he a villain who just needs to be eliminated? It's unclear by the end of TLJ.

Luke's role in "creating" Kylo was stupid on so many levels, both structurally and in terms of character. It never should've happened and it's an insult to who Luke is and has been to this story and I haven't forgiven Rian Johnson for THIS choice either. TROS does attempt to fix this and walk it back, as well, but much like with Finn, the damage was done.

So as far as I'm concerned, TFA is a solid film with a really interesting concept of taking a premise we all think is predictable and then subverting those expectations pretty intentionally, but the other two films are a complete and utter mess that aren't worth the 10ish hours of my life they have taken from me by watching them each twice now. There's a few fun moments in TLJ and TROS but I can't say that either film is like... a good or enjoyable film overall.

my number one enemy in life is the mf that fucked up the last star wars sequel

its been years and i still haven’t recovered from rise of skywalker that movie was so incredibly disappointing. I honestly really liked (by that i mean love) The Last Jedi and i was hoping the vibes would carry but nOoooO BULLSHIT

Imagine IMAGINE the fucking meaning of the empire being destroyed once and for all by a skywalker (kylo/ben) and a nobody (rey) because they care for eachother because it all started by a skywalker turning to the darkside to save his lover. THERE WERE SO MANY MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

STAR WARS IS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT HOPE AND NOT GIVING UP AND THEY END IT BY FUCKING KILLING OFF KYLO/BEN ONCE HE AND REY HAD FINALLY REALIZED THEIR FEELINGS WHERES THE HOPE IN THAT??? WHERES THE STORY OF PERSEVERANCE??

I just wanna say thank you to force awakens and the last jedi for opening my eyes to enemies to lovers, havent been the same since (fuck u jj abrams)

I had a chat with my brother about the fight with the night troopers in ahsoka and he pointed something out to me

It's really stupid how the characters just avoid dismembering and/or decapitating the troopers, because that's how you're supposed to stop zombies, you go for the heads and/or render them immobile

"Ha ha zombie! I slashed you across the chest! What're you gonna do now? OW! FUCK! THEY'RE BITING ME!"

It's pretty obvious that going forward all disposable minion bad guys in SW will have to be droids because disney won't let up on their "no cutting people up" internal rule, because apparently we can't even hack apart the undead, but what's the point of zombies if you can't dismember them without a thought? Zombies remove the ethical concerns of mass slaughtering bad guy minions

Y'know say what you will about it, but Rey and Kylo vs the Praetorian guards actually felt brutal in the way lightsaber combat should be, people got thrown in an electric shredder, the top half of one guy's head was cut off, throats were slit, a lightsaber was shoved into someone's face, and when Rey/Kylo stabbed a guy they really drove the saber in, like rewatch it, you clearly see them putting effort to drive their sabers through the guards

NEW WEEK, NEW RECS! START SENDING YOUR FAVORITE FANDOM CREATIONS FROM THIS WEEK IN FOR ME TO QUEUE UP FOR FRIDAY!

The goal of Fandom Friday: provide a place where people can shout-out their favorite creators from the week, whether it’s a piece of fan art that made you smile or a fanfic that moved you. Drop a link to your favorite creations this week into my ask box along with what you loved about it, and I will give them a shout! It doesn’t have to be Star Wars either! If it’s on another website (AO3, Twitter, etc.), please be sure to state that as well.

This happens each week, so don’t feel like you’ve got to get out everything in one week. Just keep track of them throughout the week or send me an ask whenever you find something, and I’ll drop them all on Fridays (or throughout the weekend if I get a lot). You may submit for this week until THURSDAY MORNING (I'm in the Pacific timezone). Anything received after that will roll to the next week. A summary of the weeks’ recs will get added onto this post on Saturday, so check back here for all of the awesome fics and art! And be sure to go give the creations on that list some love (and don’t just share the ask responses I put out).

This week’s submissions will start posting on Friday, August 4.

Rules and additional details under the cut! PLEASE make sure you read the rules before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

Rules:

Please send submissions to my ask box (sending them all to one place makes wrangling them easier each week). In your ask, please include the creator’s handle, a link to their work/post (if links aren’t working for the ask, please DM me them), and what you loved about it!

Please ensure the link is to the creator’s original post and not your own reblog or repost of their work (if they’re on another platform). The idea is to drive people to visit the creator’s page!

The creation does not have to have been posted this week! It can be something older. Also, don’t worry about whether or not a rec is a repeat from a prior week. Just looking to celebrate things that made an impression on you this week, whether you’ve seen it before or not!

NSFW is alright! Just make sure you note it in the ask so I can flag appropriately! Since I’m including 18+ material, minors may not participate. 18+ posts will be tagged with NSFT/lemon/lemony lemon (trying to cover all my bases).

NO incest, underage, cl*necest/incest, master/padawan (or similar power dynamics), dub-con/non-con/rape. Also, no H*rry Potter. There are a few others that I also won’t share due to my discomfort with them (i.e., R*xsoka), so if you’re not sure, ask. Also, many of you submit multiple works at once, and that’s fine, but if one of those works contains something that violates the rules, I will delete the entire ask, so something to be extra careful about when submitting!

If your rec involves spoilers from a show that’s currently running, please include that info in the ask so I can tag it appropriately (I will normally tag a few different ways, but I always use #<show title> spoilers if you need to filter, for example: Andor spoilers will be tagged #Andor Spoilers). I will stop tagging spoilers two weeks after the show stops airing.

You can submit GIF sets or edits, but please ensure you are submitting from the blog that actually created them. Wanted to add that caution since there’s been a lot of people stealing/reposting GIFs and edits in particular recently. So just be cautious.

Try to avoid commentary in your ask that might make others feel bad (“the only person who knows how to write XXX correctly…”). It’s important to be able to appreciate creators without making others feel bad, so let’s try to keep the commentary complimentary without being off-putting for other creators.

Self recommendations are allowed and encouraged! Shout out your own hard work! You deserve the recognition!

*Rules subject to change so PLEASE make sure you read them before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

**If you have any questions about any of the rules, don’t hesitate to DM me!

In addition to sending me asks, I highly encourage you to go either leave a comment on and/or reblog someone’s work (tag me or use the #Fandom Friday tag if you do!). Let’s get the interaction back up on this website and show the creators that work so hard on their stuff some love!

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017) sets out to change the series by getting to the heart of what Star Wars is, in order to cast it out so that the series can change for the better. Whether it succeeds or is not is a topic of intense debate. Despite its noble goal of subversion, I do not believe it gets to the heart of the series and its problems. While some characters get thoughtful character arcs like Luke and Rey, others like Finn, Poe and Rose are treated poorly by the narrative and having a grander goal in mind does not wash out the bad taste from my mouth.

I loved this movie as I walked out of theaters, but it only gets worse as I rewatch it more and more.

Clicks, likes & comments appreciated!

@tragicfantasy-girl

Me: Anakin shouldn't have killed Tal Merrick.

You: Anakin did nothing wrong!

Me: there was no danger to keep him alive and he was to relax after taking a life, something a Jedi should never do, because they worship life.

You: Anakin did nothing wrong! And Ki-Adi, Ahsoka, Yoda and Obi-Wan did the same thing!

Me: It wasn't at all the same thing. Their circumstances were completely different. If you continue to say that Anakin did nothing wrong, then you admit he was too incompetent to not kill Merrick.

You: Anakin did nothing wrong!

if you say so

I don’t hate Reva, in fact I am rather indifferent to her, but I can assure you that if you do what antianakin want that will only make so pretty much no one will watch the show since Reva was such a controversial character. They say that they don’t want Anakin mentioned or to appear in the show, but I bet they wouldn’t have a problem with every character patting Reva on the back and telling her that she is right to hate Anakin even though in Phantom Menace it is said that hate will lead to suffering. I bet they also wouldn’t mind if there was a scene where Reva proudly declares she never killed a child and then have a flashback where Reva hesitates in killing a child and Vader just magically jumps in and kills the child while we have an extreme close up of Reva sobbing uncomfortably while Vader kills the child even though this wouldn’t make any sense. Reva was a person who was fine with kidnapping Leia in order to draw out Obi-Wan and was very close to killing Luke, so she definitely killed children, yet Anakin Haters love her even though we are constantly told that they hate him because he killed the younglings at the Jedi Temple. In fact I think it would have made more sense if Obi-Wan had been forced to kill Reva in order to protect Luke.

OK I want to talk about the Sequels because dangit it makes me so mad how much potential some of these characters had. Pushing any of them to more extreme ends of their respective roles would have fixed so many issues with their characters.

Finn doesn't defect as quickly- perhaps he gets trapped in Poe's ship when Poe is trying to make an escape, or he gets captured by the Resistance to get information out of. Either way, the years of propaganda have him firmly set in his ways and it takes the course of the whole trilogy to unlearn everything and see the horrors of the First Order. He experiences guilt over what he's done, but learns to focus on what he can do to change the future rather than getting stuck in the past.

Poe could have been much more like Saw Gerrera. Perhaps his home planet was raided by the First Order and the Resistance couldn't help them, but he joins them anyway due to sharing the same goals. But he undermines the authority figures by doing his own thing, using their resources to make more extremist plans. He's the one who tries to use Finn for information, hating him for being a stormtrooper and treating him less-then-ideal. But as the story progresses, he learns to trust Finn and starts viewing things in a more nuanced manner (seeing troopers as people. Bad people, but still people, many of which joined the military to feed their family).

Rose, after witnessing the death of her sister, becomes almost suicidal in her actions. She wants to do more and more drastic things to screw with the First Order, but often at the expense of her own safety. She doesn't have much to live for in her eyes anyway, so she doesn't care. But she finds purpose in directly helping others instead, wanting to prevent more unnecessary deaths like her sister's and using her hatred and grief for good.

Hux.... Well, he already is at an extreme. He's loud and angry and self centered. I think it works, but definitely more build up to him being a spy, and far more emphasis on the selfishness of his motives.

Kylo Ren honestly needs a whole separate post to work out how I'd fix him. I'm too tired to write all that out😅

And finally, Rey, who I saved for last because I have the most thoughts about her.

Rey was her best as a nobody. Someone disconnected from Palpatine. A scavenger on a distant planet no one cared about. So we lean more into that! What if she was far more self centered when we first meet her. She grew up on the idea that everyone is out to get her, that if she trusts others then they will just use her, and that above all else, she has to focus on herself and herself ONLY. She hardly speaks Basic, knows a few words but can't hold a conversation, which causes issues when she first meets Finn and Poe. She doesn't give up on trying to sell BB-8, because she wants to be able to eat. She knows next to nothing about the politics of the First Order, just that they are too nosy and she just wants them to leave her alone. And she knows NOTHING about the Jedi.

So Rey sneaks on board of a Resistance ship, likely when trying to kidnap BB-8. She meets the Resistance as formally as she can. She gets taught Basic, and we see her skills improve as time progresses. As she gains access to a consistent source of food, she begins to trust people and learns about why the First Order is bad. It takes time for her to outgrow the self-centered attitude she's had for so long, but she opens herself up- and in turn allows herself to feel the Force. In order for her to actually be connected with the Force (which is also representative of a connection to other life), she has to be open to trusting and caring for others. Her arc is becoming selfless and brave, which helps her become stronger in the Force despite her background.

[image description: a comparison of luke skywalker in 'the last jedi' to maverick mitchell in 'top gun: maverick'. under a picture of luke, there is a list of traits that read:

old luke:

old and grumpy

nothing like the real luke

gives up on the jedi

ridiculed

refuses to train rey

sad and pathetic

won't fight

dies for nohing

under a picture of maverick, there is a list of traits that read:

old maverick:

older and wiser

same core character

still believes in top gun

respected

trains new pilots

jaded but inspiring

fights despite the odds

puts his life on the line

end id.]

listen i hate rian johnson and the last jedi as much as the next guy but this post Just Ain't It

I tend to talk in the abstract about how TLJ's style would've suited the Ahsoka show so much better than trying to ape Rogue One without the scale (remember when Rogue One's look was kind of a bold experiment for the franchise, chosen for a film that wasn't about the space wizards, instead of a default?) but then I'll rewatch it or spy some GIFs and oh man, how I wish the Ahsoka show was shot like this.

Because besides the fact that it's just beautiful (the delicacy of the lighting in the voidbound scenes is a particular favourite for me) there's heaps of great visual storytelling, and a mix of eeriness and soulful expressiveness which I think would've worked wonders for the weary, wounded protagonists of the show. Not to mention the way Ahch-To is treated as a genuinely mystical place, while also feeling wild and rugged.

And of course, there's the lovely kineticism to the action (which obviously Abrams did too, but I think Johnson, like Gareth Edwards, does with more purpose). Those racing dolly shots in the throne room, bring 'em back Star Wars!

Behold some of the worst Star Wars takes you've ever seen. "I love Star Wars!" No you don't, Lily. Just like certain reactionary hacks, you hate Star Wars for the most idiotic reasons ever. Case in point: 1) Lily decides to rewrite the sequel trilogy into angst-fest that over-worships the Sith as a misunderstood, persacuted race of people, turns classic characters like Luke and Leia into "old racist white folk" and of course, has her "heroic" character straight-up murder unarmed rich people!

Plus, as someone who adores The Last Jedi as one of the best Star Wars films since The Empire Strikes Back, Lily completely missed the point of the film! It doesn't need to be "fixed" as it's already a compelling deconstruction of Star Wars that challenges the notion of destiny and fixed traditions by having the characters grow through their mistakes: Like Rey learning she doesn't need to be related to someone special know where she belongs; Poe learning to stop and listen to other people's ideas; Finn learning about how other people are effected by the war; Luke learning not to give up on himself.

I get the feeling Lily's bitter because it didn't line up with her own bloated "SWTOR-and-KOTOR-II-are-the-only-SW-media-that-matters-and-the-Sith-are-the-real-good-guys" headcannon.

That and the real reason Lily hates Rose Tico is because she wasn't a sexy traumatized black lesbian with a high body-count. Because, let's face it, Lily didn't create Darth Amorosa because she wanted "diversity" and "representation". No, it was simply because she wanted a black woman to fetishize.

You: Explain that Anakin was a victim of slavery and grooming in the hands of Palpatine, that the Jedi were emotionally neglectful towards him and nobody really helped him to work through his trauma and that these factors influeced the harmful and unhealthy ways he learnt to lead with his emotions and life choices, but still recognize that Anakin is responsible for his dark deeds, even with his agency compromised, and should be held accountable for his horrible crimes.

Some Jedi Apologists: STOP TRYING TO MAKE EXCUSES! IT WAS ALL ANAKIN'S FAULT AND ONLY HIS! THE JEDI WERE HIS FAMILY AND OBI-WAN ALWAYS MADE CLEAR THAT HE LOVED HIM AND COULD ALWAYS COUNT ON HIM WITH ANYTHING! IT WAS ANAKIN WHO WOULD ALWAYS SHUT IT DOWN BECAUSE HE WAS TOO PRIDEFUL TO ASK FOR HELP AND WAS TOO SELFISH AND UNGRATEFUL TO REALIZE HOW MUCH THEY CARED FOR HIM! HE WAS TOO DUMB TO UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENT WAY THE JEDI SHOWED LOVE! HE WASN'T REALLY GROOMED, HE CHOSE TO LISTEN TO PALPATINE BECAUSE HE ONLY TOLD ANAKIN WHAT HE WANTED TO HEAR! HE ONLY TURNED TO THE DARK SIDE BECAUSE HE WAS SELFISH, POWER-HUNGRY AND POSSESSIVE OF PADME! NO ONE FORCED HIM TO DO ANYTHING, IT WAS HIS CHOICE! GEORGE LUCAS HIMSELF EXPLAINED THAT STAR WARS IS ABOUT CHOICE! ANAKIN'S PROBLEM IS THAT HE WANTED TO HAVE IT ALL AND WAS TOO AFRAID TO CHOOSE WHAT WAS RIGHT! STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY TORTURE AND GENOCIDE JUST BECAUSE ANAKIN'S YOUR FAVE, DON'T FORGET HE STILL WAS THE VILLIAN!

You: Explain the Jedi were good and well-meaning people who tried their best to save many lives, but were extremely flawed individuals who grew to become arrogant, hypocrital and corrupt, failed to protect and take care of their Chosen One and other members of the Order and made many wrong and questionable choices, acting against their code because they were too worried about losing their influence and status quo. They were the heroes of the story and victims as well who didn't deserve to be slaughtered in Order 66 but they also made terribles mistakes and still should be held accountable for them just like Anakin.

(Ex: not doing anything about slavery unless it was convenient, leading an slave clone army to fight for the Republic, taking into the roles of soldiers but still calling themselves 'peace keepers', sending padawans to fight and die in a senseless conflict, expulsing Ahsoka from the Jedi Order, abandoning her to stand a trial and possible execution for a crime they weren't even sure she commited (SHE DIDN'T) and don't saying a word about it, acting suspicious towards a nine year old boy and treating as he was dangerous because he was afraid and worried about his mother, not caring at all about his childhood trauma, giving the same boy to spend time alone with a much older man that barely know him, even though they were against it, because this man was the chancellor and years later judgining the boy for being too attached to this man but still using that relationship in their favour when was also convenient, commiting treason against the Republic by spying on its leader and planning to taking him out of his position and assume the control of the Senate even before discovered his true identity with no proof about his real intentions or guarantee of support of other politicians, etc...)

Those same Jedi Apologists: BUT... BUT IS NOT THE SAME THING! THE JEDI ORDER WAS UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE SENATE AND BEING MANIPULATED BY A POWERFUL SITH LORD! IT WASN'T THEIR RESPOSABILITY TO END SLAVERY IN THE GALAXY AND THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THEY WERE AT WAR! THE CLONES WEREN'T REALLY SLAVES, THE JEDI TREATED THEM WELL! THERE WAS NO REASON FOR THEM TO SUSPECT OF PALPATINE'S INTENTIONS TOWARDS CHILD ANAKIN BECAUSE HE WAS NICE TO HIM AND ANAKIN NEVER PROTESTED! THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE WAY THEY TREATED ANAKIN, IT'S UNDERSTANDABLE WHY THEY DIDN'T TRUSTED HIM. IN FACT, THEY WERE RIGHT ABOUT HIM ALL ALONG! HE REALLY BECAME DANGEROUS AND TURNED AGAINST THEM! GEORGE LUCAS SAID THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE JEDI TEACHINGS AND IF HE HAVE BEEN FOUND AND TRAINED SINCE HE WAS A BABY, HE WOULD HAVE STAYED GOOD! THEY WERE FORCED TO GIVE UP ON THEIR MORAL CODE AND TO KEEP FIGHTING! ALL THEY DID WAS "THE WILL OF THE FORCE" AND FOR "THE GREATER GOOD"! YEAH, THEY WEREN'T PERFECT BUT THEY HAD NO CHOICE!

P.S.: Just to be clear, I'm NOT saying that everyone who supports the Jedi acts that way, I don't want to generalize or offend anyone. This is solely based on arguments made by some Hardcore Pro-Jedi Fans (which I refer as 'Jedi Apologists') that I read many times here on Tumblr. I wanted to point out the hipocrisy behind those arguments and how unfair they are most of the time. Anyway, thanks to come for my Ted Talk.

I’m actually going to post stuff on here now, so enjoy this meet the artist!

Poe Dameron is Always Right

Pretty frequently in the sequel Trilogy of Star Wars we see that he is framed as being the one that's in the wrong or at least the one who's always argued about being in the wrong a by other characters.

But when you actually examine what's going on you can kind of see that for the most part he's normally right about things. Let me explain.

In the force awakens we don't really see enough of his character to really establish this character trait. We see enough to know he's a very confident commander and an even more confident pilot. He is a magician behind the stick of an X-Wing and in fact most ships you can pilot

In the last jedi, we start to see that him being wrong is very much an informed trait. Those bombers that got destroyed in the start of the movie? They had already set up their attack. Turning back probably would have caused all of them to be destroyed anyway without them actually doing anything to the enemy. He made a Command Decision and not only was it the right tactical decision but given that it gave them one less massive Star Destroyer to worry about in the upcoming Chase sequence of the movie he was also Vindicated on a strategic level.

But the movie framesman is being wrong. He's demoted from Commander to Captain (which is bullshit because captain is a higher naval rank and commander doesn't exist as a rank in a branch where he'd have been promoted to general but Star Wars is bad at military ranks ik ik) by Leia for pressing the attack. But the only way he's in the wrong here isn't because it was the wrong tactical or strategic decision. It wasn't. It was because of insubordination which is kind of fair

The next we see him clash with authority is with vice admiral holdo and she opens up hostilities like a turbo laser. The first thing he does is ask for Direction on what they're doing next because even if he is just a captain he is still one of the senior officers on board and that is a very fair thing to ask the now acting Commander of the fleet that's being torn apart. So she tells him to just follow orders which he just asked for and didn't get

The movie frames him is being a hot head and just wanting to fight. But that's not really how it's framed for most of the movie. Because strategically and tactically he was right to press the attack against the dreadnaught. And he only expresses his need to engage the enemy and fight when he sees that they are refueling the transports which is a very dumb character decision tbh. Like obviously there's no way they could fight against the ships chasing them at that point and the first time he's actually wrong in the movie it feels like a forced wrongness rather than an informed rockness. Him being wrong never feels both natural and accurate

Then we come to the rise of Skywalker where the real fun begins. I just rolled my eyes by the way. Because we see him open up with hyperspace skipping which is bad for the falcon, which makes sense because it's an older ship and I have no idea how it's still active at this point other than faith and duct tape, and he immediately gets lambasted by the main character. But he was still right to do it because those were hyperspace capable Tie fighters which is kind of a typical. So he gets points for being right or being prepared for a hyperspace Pursuit after what happened last movie when the basic premise of his side of it was being pursued through hyperspace

And then you have him leading the resistance fleet to exogol for final stand against a new empire. This was after Rey decided to just rush headfirst into a problem she had no idea how to handle (standard Star Wars mc flaw, not an indictment of her character to be fair). And honestly? He didn't really have much of a choice because there was almost no better opportunity because the opportunities to do this were only getting worse

All this to say. Very rarely is p

Poe Dameron in the wrong. He might be annoying about it sometimes. But Poe is almost always right on a strategic or tactical level but he only ever gets black or push back on it.

Anyways stan Poe Dameron

I will say this for The Last Jedi. It is gorgeous, if nothing else. But, for me, that's part of the problem. The fact that the only good thing I can say about this movie is that it's visually beautiful is kind of sad.