im watching clips of mando 1 and two on youtube (bc im petty and will never give this show more views on disney+ unless din is confirmed the main character with grogu) and im WEEPING at how much better it was. the MUSIC. the sound editing. the LIGHTING. his characterization.GROGU. the sets!!!! the side characters meant something. acting HAPPENED! the reverance of the armorer and din. the arthurian vibes. THE WESTERN OF SPACE!!!!

did every single person who worked on it get fired or leave?

disney massacred our boy

season 3 is a tar pit of filth and non canon. it's quite literally a diff show in every way and apparently not even about the main character anymote which is the biggest mindfck of alll and 🖕 to fans

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (6/?) - Blue & Green

Star Wars + Text Posts & Headlines

Note from OP:

In looking back, I have mixed feelings about that last Mace Windu one, because while it's somewhat relevant to his character in the sense that he IS extremely powerful fighter, I also feel like it also veers too much into the "Angry Black Person" stereotype/trope, &/or that it is pulling too much from other memorable characters of Samuel L. Jackson's, not from the personality of Mace Windu himself.

I'm on the fence whether I should remove it from the post or just leave it there, so I'm just going to leave these remarks, and also drop the link to a really good post I saw a few days ago, discussing Mace Windu’s character in the fandom, I highly recommend checking it out:

-Absolute Destiny Apocalypse-

Screenshot redraw from Revolutionary Girl Utena! (Drawn in Procreate and composited in After Effects)

DIN WAS A CHILD, BO! HE WAS A CHILD AND YOU WERE OFF BEING A TERRORIST AND GETTING YOUR SISTER KNOCKED OFF THE THRONE OF MANDALORE!

My favourite thing about Bo-Katan Kryze is when she’s a hateful bitch that ruins your favs plans actually

i am NOT a bo-katan hater, i actually really liked her character in the clone wars. she was interesting BECAUSE she was a horrible person. her horrible actions made her an interesting character and THAT’S why she got so much love and appreciation.

what the live action bo-katan is doing is ERASING her horrible past with a half-assed redemption that she did not WILLINGLY contribute to or earn, and then making her out to be a “princess” that deserves the saber bc she “walked between worlds”. it’s just dulling down her character, and the writers are depending too much on the audience that has not seen tcw or rebels and that they will just accept this despite the fact that bo-katan had the darksaber in her possession MULTIPLE times and has lost it MULTIPLE times as well. what is the point of giving the saber to another character if they’re just gonna pass it back to bo-katan in the end. every time. ?

Greef Karga looks more and more fabulous each season and good for him

i should write more fics where korkie is explicitly and unapologetically *not* a kenobi

It's just... Bo-Katan is starting so cynical about Mandalorian culture and clearly considers it to be all superstition, good for appeasing your subjects and that's it. And then she has this moment as Din enters the living waters that I am choosing to read as soft. Like maybe there's something about her culture that does speak to her, but she doesn't quite want to admit it. Because it's all silly anyway, and her father didn't even care about her mando baptism he just cared about her not embarrassing him. And then she sees the mythosaur! And she's kinda going through it about that! 

And like... all her followers left her. She failed in her duty as a ruler and a Kryze, and doesn't really have that power she's supposed to anymore. And now she's part of a Mandalorian covert all of a sudden! Now instead of being all gloomy in her castle and sleeping on her sadgirl throne, she can find new community. She requests a mythosaur pauldron!!! She's seen a real living mythosaur and maybe all this isn't such silly superstition anymore!!

don’t you think it’s so sweet how bo was named after a cat? she’s literally an orange kitty ‹3 ‹3

Protector Clay Rau

i am so relieved people are universally coming to the conclusion that Bo Katan's characterization is an ingenuine hackjob this season.

one that disregards everything important about her character, everything important to MANDALORE, and purposefully sidelines Din (and erases his connection to Grogu) in order to foster some fake, bland, repulsive, nonproblematic Disney Princess Bo narrative that absolutely no one is buying & is in direct opposition to canon. it's an insult to her character in TCW and a prime example of unfeminist girlbossification.

thank you for all seeing this & realizing it's a huge contributor to the failure of this season and the show in general.

at least that is a relief for my tired-of-capitalism-ruining-things-I-love-with-no-consequences heart

Touchy subject

"The 501st was one of the best legions during the war. I've lost a lot of good men over the years - some of them would have given even you Mandos a run for your credits. And my general... My general was a good man too, but that's enough of that, I thought you were too old for bedtime stories by now."

Din just tried to figure out what the colour of the clones' armor paint meant, and why he's never heard Rex mention his CO during all the wartime stories and lectures; whereas he's already got to meet Wolffe and his general and even heard Cody mention his every once in a blue moon. (Special thanks to @witchydom for helping with the "dialogue" :3)

The rest of my Star Wars meets Hades AU project is here

I'll take a bit of your time to give a bit of an explanation why I decided to put Rex in Skelly's spot:

During a playthrough when I was looking for screenshots to use as backgrounds the first thing that greeted me was Zagreus calling Skelly "Captain" upon entering the armoury, or whatever that chamber is called. And that really decided it, let's be honest. Rex is Captain, and that is the Captain's spot. End of story.

Reading "still got it" by qigiined even before I got into watching TCW was such a personality defining experience (seriously, this fic lives forever rent free in my brain), that I really had no other option but to put the few clones that I'm willing to work into this AU somewhere around home base (the covert) - so you can guess where Cody and Wolffe are situated. Or will be, hopefully soon enough. Rex needs to be able to hang out with Cody, that's just how it is. (Rebels and TBB canon who?)

Rex deserves to teach some uppity Mando bounty hunters and other warriors who think too much of themselves a few lessons in humility and some crafty tricks. I think it would be very good for him.

As a throwaway note since we are already under the read more section, I've been thinking about sigils and keepsakes (trinkets) and cthonic companions (I know that over a year ago I inaccurately but very self indulgently designed one for Din, Boba and Cobb, that is not the point now) and while Cody can have one shaped like Boga, and Wolffe can obviously get a stuffed loth wolf (and Bo-Katan a very squishy owl)... I have no idea what shaped companion Rex could have. If anyone has any suggestions and would love to share it with me, I'd be very grateful!

This scene from The Mandalorian season 3 premiere really puts the scene from “Old Friends Not Forgotten” into context, because both of these scenes are about projection. Bo-Katan was part of Death Watch, the very group that plotted with Maul to overtake Mandalore, and it was only when Maul killed Pre Vizsla to take over Death Watch and rule Mandalore that she left.  And then Maul killed her sister. She blames Obi-Wan, who is saying that they can’t just invade Mandalore (because that’s what it would be) and breaking centuries old treaties and starting yet more war, as if all the damage that will do shouldn’t mean anything because her sister is dead. When it’s Bo-Katan who doesn’t care about the collateral damage, so long as she gets what she’s after, it’s Bo-Katan who feels a crushing guilt and anger toward herself that she was part of those who helped bring the being into power that killed her sister, that she was the one who helped destabilize her entire planet. And she does the same with Din.  Bo-Katan’s role was to unite the Houses, to be the leader that they needed to follow and fight back against the Empire.  That was the entire point of giving her the Darksaber and why she’s so desperate to win it in combat against Moff Gideon, and it’s not on Din’s shoulders that he happened to win it first, that he doesn’t want to keep the thing, that he didn’t even know about other Mandalorians. It’s Bo-Katan who is angry at herself for failing, she’s angry that other Mandalorians weren’t hollowed out by this loss, that they can still pick up and go on with any other kind of life, just like Obi-Wan was able to pick up and go on despite Satine’s loss. Bo-Katan was gutted and consumed by fury and destroyed by loss, why wasn’t everyone else destroyed in the same way?  And she is so angry about that and it puts that TCW scene in such an interesting new context for me that I’m whipping around to actually love it a ton!!   Let women be angry and wrong and messy and still be good!!!  Let my wife be a mean bitch who is broken in heart and soul!!!  I wouldn’t change a thing about her, she’s awful and wonderful and I love her!!!

I cannot tell you how over-the-two-moons-of-Mandalore I am about the Bo-Katan we got in “The Mines of Mandalore.” While I was hoping they’d treat her character with nuance and not make her a villain, I did expect that they’d immediately set her up as an antagonist to Din’s story. I also expected that we’d pick up in Season 3 with a Bo who was angry, frustrated, despondent, rude, and impulsive and I was ready to defend every one of those emotions.

I never expected the Bo we got in this episode.

She’s fierce and tough, depressed and hurting, but then we also get these sad smiles and longing looks and these beautiful moments where her gentler side comes through.

She’s wields the Darksaber with skill and precision and the expertise that comes with both practice and willingness to connect with the saber the way Kanan taught Sabine to do. That’s her sword.

But she’s honorable. She could have killed Din (or at least let him die) several times over. She could have taken the Darksaber. She could be bitter about the fact that he has it. 

Instead, we see her wield the Darksaber as an expert, and then place it back on the ground with the rest of Din’s weapons. 

I was scared we’d get a Bo that disregarded her character development in Rebels, but she’s proven that she’s still committed to fighting honorably for her people, just as she told Sabine to do.

And she’s just so ... beautifully soft.

We saw Bo be soft so rarely in TCW and Rebels, but Katee is leaning into giving Bo that gentle side.

Her immediate concern when Grogu shows up alone and willingness to go find his dad even though at first she’d been like “It’s Din Djarin. Let’s get rid of him once and for all.”

Each and every time she talks to Grogu, she’s so tender and calm. She encourages him when he’s scared and pushes his pram out of the way when she senses danger. She talks to him and knows he understands and tells him at least generally about the connection she’s had to Jedi in her life.

(In short, Bo loves babies!)

The way Grogu looks at her tells me he already likes and trusts her.

Plus she’s saved his dad several times now.

To be clear, I’m sure there’s going to be tension going forward, and I don’t expect Bo to always act as calmly and nobly as she did in this episode. She can be catty and rude and violent and I love that those are all parts of her character, too. 

But I also think it’s already clear that in terms of her desires for her people, this former terrorist is done fighting over petty differences. She doesn’t dismiss Din even though he’s a part of a group she considers a cult (and she would know) because he’s still her people. And she’s still has no higher desire than the reunification of her scattered people and for them to be able to live in peace in spite of their long history of (and her own participation in) civil wars. 

“I am not my sister.” 

No, but Bo-Katan is currently more like her than she ever has been.

TL:DR: a brief treatise on learning to love Ahsoka for the gifts it gave us, rather than its shortcomings

Reasons why I struggled to like Ahsoka on first watch:

-my Rebels-fan brain constantly chanting WHERE IS EZRA WHERE IS EZRA WHERE IS EZRA; every episode that ended without him had me screaming

-the portrayal of Ezra as some noble war hero/wise Jedi instead of the little shit devious street urchin thief who, after four seasons of growth, pain, and temptation to turn darkside, turned into an IGnoble war hero with the potential to become a wise Jedi

-the show's habit of far-too-casually dropping facts that emotionally wrecked Rebels fans (ALL the Wrens died on Mandalore?? Could we maybe explore that a bit?? Dave do you remember when you had Sabine collapse into what she thought were her mother's ashes, and the depth of her relief when she realised her family was still alive and she still had a chance to make things right with them?? DO YOU???)

-the show's refusal to recap/reference insanely important events from Rebels and The Clone Wars (Mortis Gods, Trials of the Darksaber, Vader v Ahsoka and Ezra rescuing her via the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka's entire existence, etc) that would have made Ahsoka, Sabine, & Hera's importance in the larger Star Wars universe much more comprehendible for non-Rebels & TCW fans

-watching Sabine, who only ever wanted to be a valued, equal member of a family & team, and who was already incredibly skilled (art/warfare/mechanics), belittling and limiting herself trying to play the part of Jedi Padawan

-the wasted potential of show that could have truly explored how non-Jedi&Sith engage with the whole spectrum of the Force (e.g. other force users such as Nightsisters, loth wolves, purrgil, and non-force-sensative people such as Sabine), instead ultimately championing the light-dark binary and the traditions of the Jedi order (which many of us have little respect for) such as the Master-Apprentice relationship

Reasons why I now adore Ahsoka and would defend it to the death:

-the breath-taking care, love, and attention the production team put into every tiny detail (the sets, the costumes, props, the MUSIC, the background art, the ships and weapons, my god the detail!!)

-the shameless centring of diverse, layered female characters and the exquisite, subtle performances of Mary Elizabeth Winstead & Genevieve O'Reilly

-a mature exploration of how traumatic events e.g. wars may technically "end", but don't end for everyone: Ahsoka and Sabine are still traumatised ex-child soldiers mourning people they desperately loved but had complex & unresolved issues with; Hera still has zero boundaries between being a soldier and her personal life. And this PTSD has very real consequences to the narrative

-the show ultimately resisting the urge to choose a plot-twist Ezra reveal (e.g. turns out Thrawn and Ezra are now buddies/Ezra is the new big bad/Ezra was Marrok), which may have been more interesting but would have deprived us of the wholesome Ezra reveal we actually wanted

-Eman Esfandi giving us the most successful animation-to-live-action transition since Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan, and being so perfect in his mannerisms and behaviour that it was almost worth the wait (and looking so much like Ezra's father in Rebels!!)

(...unless you include Chopper, whose transition was actually 120% perfect)

-ultimately refreshing and levelling-up the potential for mature and diverse Star Wars narratives, like Andor did, but instead of leaning away from SW tropes and traditions like Andor, digging deeper into SW tropes and history, and linking non-mainstream-SW-elements such as the Nightsisters of Dathomir, the Mortis Gods, the World Between Worlds, and the existence of other galaxies