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cer-rata · 5 months

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A (long) review of the first 5 issues of Wonder Woman (2023) *Full Spoilers*

So I'm a bit of a lapsed comic fan. I grew up on my dad's collection of 90's comics and kept up on and off until the new 52 which did a lot that really put me off. And frankly Marvel wasn't doing much better so I kind of moved onto different fandoms and some smaller runs. Recently however I've decided to try to get back into the hobby more seriously, and while there have been some books that I've really enjoyed, there's been a lot of meh plots and inconsistent characterization pretty much everywhere across the major publishers.

But I was nonetheless excited to see a new Wonder Woman ongoing. Out of the trinity, Diana was always my favorite (a fact that I, as a little closeted boy, kept secret for years. More on that later) and I was aware of some of Tom King's works and was pretty impressed with his "Vision" run, so I was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of a popular modern writer giving Diana some love, and was hoping for a story with some modern nuance and uplifting fun.

The bag has been...mixed at best.

So I'm going to try to be fair about this, because writing genuinely good and transformative comics isn't easy, especially when your editorial is completely unhinged. That being said I do have some serious concerns that I think are really important to talk about.

I'm also lapsed so I haven't read everything religiously the past couple years, so if I get something about canon wrong please correct me in the notes.

I'm going to break this down into a couple of sections to help organize my thoughts. The art is gorgeous generally so I'm not going to spend too much time on that. Let's start with:

Plot

The name of this arc is Wonder Woman: Outlaw, and the first issue is devoted to setting up that premise. The action kicks off when an amazon gets into a bar fight with a group of sexist men, and ends up slaughtering every man in the establishment. The government reacts to this development poorly and ends up ordering the forced deportation of the Amazons that had settled in the states. We're given narration by a mysterious figure, detailing how Diana and her friends lobbied and fought against this obvious injustice but failed, laid over images of an Amazon resisting her deportation with violence, and being gunned down in front of her wife and daughter.

But how, you ask, was the government able to rush through this bizarre reactionary stunt?

Well you see, this is all a part of a scheme by the Sovereign, the CEO of sexism and an American "king" whose family has used the "Lasso of Lies" to control the country for it's entire existence. He showed up in WW #800 with Trinity seeking him out for information, which explains why he's narrating this story. A Wonder Woman book where she isn't the POV character? I'll get more into that later.

Anyway the Sovereign wants to run all of the amazons out of the country or kill them, whatever works, as he believes they're a threat to his rule and masculinity as a whole.

So he's in the background. The foreground antagonist is Sargent Steel, who's been tasked with leading the Amazon deportation and is actively hunting Diana, who he eventually corners as she's paying her respects to the men that the rogue amazon killed. He tries to assassinate her, obviously fails, and Diana extracts some information from him and begins her investigation. See it turns out that after running out of other options, she's trying to hunt down the rogue amazon and figure out what's going on in the hopes that she solve the tensions.

So that's the basic premise of the arc, Diana is trying to solve a murder mystery while being actively hunted by the government. It's not a bad premise on its own honestly, so I was intrigued. The first issue is pretty, well laid out and interesting. The problem is that the following issues don't really deliver on that premise.

Instead of detective!Diana, we spent issue #2 on a (gorgeous) fight with the actual US army, intercut with a flashback of Diana's trial by combat in order to leave Themyscira in the first place. It really is a beautiful issue that really drives home how much of a badass she is, especially since she ends up not killing anyone in the process. Somehow. She did throw tanks at people so...I'm not sure how she...anyway.

Issue #3 is Diana walking into Steel's base, bulldozing through all the security and then bullying him to get some more information about the case, where she finds out that the Amazon is pregnant. Intriguing right? Meanwhile we see the Sovereign showing a young soldier around his house, which is filled with old American historical artifacts. See he wants this kid to push the narrative that Wonder Woman emasculated him and took away his pride, but the soldier doesn't really care? He's actually excited to have fought a superhero and live, and he thinks she's cool. So that won't do, and we're shown the capabilities of the Lasso of Lies, as the Sovereign uses it to implant feelings of discontent and depression into the young soldier, while also ordering him to write a manifesto about Wonder Woman taking his manliness and then to...kill himself. The idea being to create some bad press and push public support away from Diana.

Issue #4 is my favorite in the run so far, devoting most of it's time to watching Diana give a terminally ill kid who idolizes her the best day of his life. I'll get into it when I talk about dialogue later but I think it's the truest depiction of Diana so far, you get to see her kindness, generosity and wisdom. There is a nice moment where she comforts the kid about destiny and soothes his feelings of otherness in the face of the expectation that he should be drawn to a male hero. It's really nice. But also kind of a strange decision in the scope of the plot. As much as I love this moment, I think her taking a day away from her mission of stopping this political disaster and being on the run to just hang out with a kid is...odd from a pacing standpoint. With the lack of effort she's shown so far in dealing with Steel and the machinations of the Sovereign, and the threat to the Amazons happening mostly off screen and with very limited access how Diana's feeling about it all because she's not the narrator, it all wraps up in not feeling very urgent. It's mentioned that she's trying to control her emotions and that makes sense in theory, but with the way she's drawn and written she just seems unbothered.

Meanwhile, Amanda Waller tells Steel that they're just going to throw all of Diana's villains at her and call it a day.

Issue #5 Deals with the Wonder Girls, Cassie, Donna and Yara trying to convince Diana to accept some help. She challenges them to trials where if they can beat her she'll allow them to assist. It's kind of a neat concept, but it highlights a strange piece of this characterization of Wonder Woman: her desire to work alone.

It's...very Batman of her in ways that don't make much sense in the narrative and in the broader scope of her characterization. And it would be more understandable if the conflict was more focused, Diana hunting down Cheetah to try to reform her, a more personal mission. But this literally involves all of her people and could lead to actual war between the states and Themysicra. It seems weirdly shortsighted for her to shun help from adult Women who she's trained and worked with in the past. The rationalization that she doesn't want to endanger them falls completely flat because they're already in danger.

Also what is Yara referring to here? She acts like there's history of them working together and it not working out. Why do they insist on trying to make her a Wonder Girl in the first place?

Anyway they all lose but then ignore the terms of the wager and show up in her apartment in their costumes, not taking no for an answer. And like that they ignored that foolishness, but then I'm bothered that we spent almost an entire issue on this pointless conflict that didn't really teach us anything useful.

But I did say almost, and the rest of the issue is devoted to Steel and the Sovereign convincing some of Diana's greatest foes to join up on a squad to take her down.

Which is...a choice. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool sequence, and It's not an unusual conceit in comics to collect a bunch of villains to take down their nemesis, but as far as I was aware, in this continuity:

Giganta and Silver Swan had buried the hatchet

Circe also helped Diana defeat the upside down man, and seemingly dropped her animosity (and...I...I thought she was trapped in a mirror. How did they get her out?) But regardless, why on earth would Circe agree to work for anyone, especially the US gov?

Grail was never that focused on Diana in the first place, but I could see her wanting to kill her for kicks, but again, why would she agree to work with lesser beings and take orders from mortals?

Angle man is nuts, so, sure

And Dr. Psycho does hate Wonder Woman with a passion so sure.

But this doesn't take into account that if they were to be written correctly, Circe or Grail on their own are justice league threats, and even with the Wonder Girls helping that would be an uphill battle. And then you add all the others, and factor in the dubious choices here in relation to established canon and it leaves me concerned that none of these villains are going to be used properly to their potential, or written in character. The idea that they were convinced to do this in the first place is hand-waved away, likely because there are no real persuasive arguments to get someone like Grail or Circe to job like this.

But enough of that tangent. This upcoming slug fest raises the question: What happened to the investigation into this rogue Amazon? 5 issues in and all we know is her name and that she's pregnant. Diana doesn't even know her name though, because if she did she'd realize that she actually knew the woman. So 5 issues in and the main plot has taken a backseat to watching Wonder Woman be a badass and including a bunch of villains. And don't get me wrong, I love a badass Wonder Woman. I was absolutely thrilled watching her go to work on people. But if you strip away those exciting set pieces and try to follow the plot and themes, there's not much substance there.

And you know, now that we've got an overview of what's happening, let's talk about the greater ideas here.

Themes

So King clearly wants to investigate misogyny in this book, with his villain Johnny Sexism. Uh. I mean, The Sovereign, an old white man who hates women and believes in the divine right of kings and wields the literal Lasso of Lies. And his unwitting sidekick, Military Industrial Complex Man, AKA Sargent Steel.

So it's not inherently bad to personify an social issue. Comics often work in shorthand like that. The issue I have here is that when you have a mastermind character who has manipulated everything behind the scenes, who is ALSO a caricature of a social problem, instead of providing interesting analysis of a systemic problem and its sources and methods, you instead attribute it all to One Evil Man. Which is painfully reductive and misguided. Sexism is complicated, much more complicated that one evil wizard deciding that women are the problem. It's like if you created a vampire slave owner who had been manipulating the country from the shadows and created the system of racism. It's bizarre and not really analysis to suggest that you can just solve social issues by stopping individual bad actors.

The bit with the soldier really crystalized this for me. We are given a kind man who has no misogynistic tendencies, and then the CEO of sexism forcibly implants it into his mind. He's shown personally bullying the president into submission, manipulating Steel, most overt examples of sexism can be tied directly to the Sovereign, which is a bizarre choice that really flattens the narrative weight. Couple that with the fact that the Sovereign is shown to be completely ill-equipped to actually stop Diana. She literally walks through all of his roadblocks, doesn't seem like she's out of control of the situation outside of the opening explanation that she wasn't able to save her sisters. The only real threat so far is the team of villains, and that's framed as Amanda Waller's plan. Why isn't she the villain of this book? And he's the narrator. In a book about sexism, immigration and tribalism, the voice we hear the most is that of the Sovereign. And he doesn't have anything particularity interesting to say. He's not scary, he doesn't seem particularly competent and he provides no interesting analysis so I'm left wondering, why are we centering his perspective over Diana's? In a book lead by a feminist icon, about the evils of sexism, we are completely locked out of her head. She barely gets a chance to speak, and when she does it's clipped and robotic. There's no personality, and certainly no continuity to her popular depictions. I'm all for writers reaching for topics, trying to make social commentary. Some of the best arcs we've ever gotten deal with real issues. But you have to A: Know what you're talking about and B: Actually talk about it. Sexism bad, men bad--it's not enough, it's not analysis, it's not revelatory and by creating such ridiculous caricatures of hyper masculinity, you make it very easy for the average male reader, who I assume you're trying to engage with, to separate themselves from the equation. It's thematic window dressing, and frustrating to see in a Wonder Woman book of all places. I don't think that only woman can write women, that's ridiculous and removes the responsibility to be better from male writers. But, if you're going to talk about social issues that apply to a group you're not a part of, you'd better know what you're talking about. Hell even if you're in that group you still have to know what you're talking about. This is feminism that starts and ends with "Sexism bad" and it's 2024, we have to be smarter about this.

That being said, I think issue #4 has bits of the right idea. Seeing Diana representing something greater than the sexist division that the world perpetuates is great. I felt incredibly seen as a little boy who loved Wonder Woman, and that moment of kindness meant a lot. We're given believable symptoms of sexism, from Jack's dad being uncomfortable with his son idolizing Diana. and Jack having internalized that judgement. It's handled gently and instead of just beating us over the head with obvious allegory, it shows us a taste of what Wonder Woman stands for: a better, more loving world. And it's mostly because it's the most insight that we get from her about how she thinks. The best part of the book about Wonder Woman is, shockingly, the part about Wonder Woman. Why can't we get more of that?

Dialogue

Man it's weird. King is clearly snappy, with a decent sense of humor. There's lots of fun exchanges in this book, particularly the backups, which I'll get to soon. He's pretty good at dialogue, which makes the way he writes Diana so bizarre. Awkward sentence structure, aloof characterization, the grating repeated use of "No thank you" as some sort of catch phrase. What? king has taken the warm beating heart of the trinity and made her distant and robotic. It's kind of impressive. And some of the rationale is that she's in emotional turmoil and trying to maintain appearances. But that's not reflected in the art at all, even when she's alone. We're told that she's conflicted and angry but almost never shown it. She feels like a side character in her own book most of the time. Speaking of side characters:

The Backups

So the running plot here is Damian Wayne and Jon Kent...babysitting? raising? Diana's daughter Lizzie Prince, who is eventually known as the hero Trinity in the future. And it's cute, particularly when they're all younger. King really gets Damian and Jon's characterization and writes some really fun exchanges.

Issue #4 and #5's backups are a little weaker but still really fun.

So my question is...why is the best characterization in this Wonder Woman book the backups starring the Supersons? I love the Supersons! Why are they here? Why would Diana choose them to watch her daughter? Why isn't she on Themyscira or being watched by any of her adult friends, especially those who have actual experience with children? It's fun but feels shoehorned and poorly reasoned. Honestly? I get the feeling that king wants to write this more than he does the main book, and it's mind boggling, because I wouldn't hate him writing supersons, and his version of Jon is the most Jon we've gotten in a while. So why is he writing Wonder Woman?

Conclusion

I think I'll keep reading, mostly to fuel my desire to see what they do with her actual villains, but it's not the smart book I was hoping for. It takes pretty big liberties with characterization and recent canon and there's not much actual commentary to find here. The art and the action are incredible, but the story that should be supporting it is pretty anemic and frustrating, with moments of genuine quality that makes the rest of the book even more disappointing.

Honestly? Just read Amazons Attack instead. Better dialogue, better pacing, better characterization, just more fun.

#wonder woman #wonder woman 2023 #diana prince #dc comics #damian wayne #jon kent #lizzie prince #tom king #daniel sampere

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asha-mage · 9 months

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WoT S2 Premier - The Good, the Interesting, and the Messy

Now that I've had a chance to sleep on it and become half way coherent again, I want to say that I really really liked what their doing so far in season 2. You can see the seems of course, the places where COVID era production and changes had to shift things around, but the show is continuing it's central ethos of adapting the heart of the series and characters, even while having to shift the details to suit their limitations and medium, and that to me is far far more important then one-to-one accurate book scenes.

I don't have anything bad to say about the show, so instead I am going to split up my more general thoughts into three broad categories: The Good (stuff I adored), The Interesting (Things I'm very very curious to see where they are headed), and the Messy (the places where some of their working within limitations has created complex problems for further down the road, or might inform certain things more directly).

The Good

Every actor so far has knocked it out of the fucking park. I have to give special shout outs to Rosamund Pike, Joshua Stradowski, Zoe Robins, Natasha O'Keeffe, and Ceara Coveney for really clearly managing to convey the nuances and complexities of their characters in ways that just blow me away. The show's writing continues to get these characters on a fundamental level and every actor is turning in a performance that conveys their heart so well.

The visual look of the show still rules, but channeling especially has taken a huge step forward in how it's depicted. I didn't mind the way it looked in season 1 the way some did, but I appreciate that they've decided to hew to something closer to what the Darkhorse Comics did, especially as we have so many characters now trying to figure out how to actually channel the One Power.

I also like that we're seeing sharp differences already in the different groups channel, just visually. The Aes Sedai use sweeping graceful gestures, the damne sharp, short gestures, with little wasted energy, all clearly rehearsed as if drilled into the military style.

In other ways the visuals of the show, especially in it's art direction, also rule. The way Cairhien has a mix of Versailles era France and Han Era China in architecture and fashion. The way the Seanchan feel alien, strange, and other, and yet how key parts of their Empire's culture come through even as their conquering and destroying.

The use of the Texan/American accents hits the PERFECT balance I was hoping for to add to that level of strangeness. It's not heavy enough to be a joke, but it's so stark in comparison to everyone crisp vaguely European accents. On that note- the sheer brutality of the village's subjugation, this tiny nowhere village probably somewhere on Almoth Plane, just one ant being smushed by the huge fingers of the Empire. Talk about effective introductions.

The Interesting

I was admittedly a little skeptical of the choice ot have Rand working a asylum but having seen the show I'm glad I reserved judgement because it fits in perfectly with hie Messiah vibe. Here is the savior of the world, and is he staying in palaces and toppling cities? No (well not yet). He's spending his time caring for the sick and the mad, doing menial back breaking work for those society rejects and wants to forget. And of course, it's more complicated then simple altruism: Rand is being driven by his own fear of going mad, his own desire to know what he's facing, and yet that compassion still shines through.

I also really like that, since Rand can't be Lan trained in the show, they decided to do something very Jordan: take a classic trope (cooky wise old master) give it a shine of realism (he's got dementia and PTSD from being a vetran soldier) and dig at the humanity underneath (Rand is letting the old man train him as much to help the man as to learn the sword).

Liandrin is a character I'm shocked by how much I am enjoying her in the show. The decision to explore her depths more, to dig into her anger, her arrogance, her desire for control and power, is fascinating, and her relationship with Nynaeve and Egwene even more so. Her scene with Nynaeve where she gets Nynaeve to channel (an adaption of Siuan scene from the books) especially kicks ass. It's got the same fundamental point as the book: Nynaeve is limiting herself, holding herself back, but the show lets it be starker, crueler, because it IS Laindrin, not Siuan.

The choice to have Perrin be solo with the Shienarans, even if was basically forced on the writers by Barney Harris's departure. They don't waste any of that time, using it to explore Perrin's growing sense of isolation, his grief at Lalia, his relationship to Loial, and his growing fear of the wolves. I've always felt that Perrin, who is very introspective and quite, was the hardest of the main heroes to adapt, and the ways their bringing his conflict out and literalsing continue to be very smart.

The Messy

Some of the merges have caught me off guard, even though I knew they where coming. Elays and Hurin makes a great deal of sense. I have a strong fondness for Hurin, but I can admit he's an easy cut. It does raise the question though of how they are going to incorporate the element of noblesse oblige, which is an important part of how the series explores it's themes of government, nobility, responsibility, and duty. Of course, even if they had kept Hurin the party splitting means he'd probably be no where near Rand right now, so this was almost certainly the right choice.

Nynaeve's Acceptatron Test. Having sat with it, I still like it a lot, and I understand the choices they've made. I wish it had been a little bit more clear that her decision to go back in the final arch was her decision, having a scene of her forcing the arch to appear with the Power, but overall I think they had a good job otherwise. The first test was always going to have to be different since they've cut Aginor and Balthamel from the show, and the important part was Nynaeve choosing to go back over her own anger and desire for revenge, which they kept. The second arch probably would have required half the run time of the episode if they wanted to do it in full, so I don't mind them condensing it down, and again the important thing is that Nynaeve choose to leave the role of Wisdom behind for good, to seek the power to truly make a difference in the lives of those she cares about. The third arch is the big one, and the point of that sequence was always Nynaeve rejecting paradise in order to go back and protect those she loves. She is offered everything she could possibly want, but it isn't enough because her friends, those in her charge, are still at risk, and nothing has changed. She has to go back to save them, because that is the essence of who she is. The show takes the plank of showing that paradise would be hollow anyways, doomed to fall apart because the world needs Nynaeve, she is called to duty, and she can not reject it. It's....actually moment very reminiscent of Rand's Portal Stone journey/his arc in TGH which makes sense since they've always been parallel characters, and the closest thing to a male and female lead the series has.

Verin being merged with Vandene. This is one that it will take far more for me to decide on. On a very practical level it makes a lot of sense, but it has long term implications for Verin's arc in the series that wont be apparent for a very very long time. How will Adeleas factor into Verin's scheme? Does she know? Is she in on the plan to bring down the Black Ajah? Is she ignorant and Verin has been carrying this off in secret while her own sister had no idea? A lot of how this merger goes hinges on how those questions swing. Also, there is Adeleas's murder to consider. It's likely to be kept, but the circumstances being different, and Verin being Verin, the vengeance she seeks will likely be a great deal more dramatic and direct then what Vandene could do.

Past that though I mostly just have gushing and nitpicks, and far more gushing then nitpicking all things considered. Overall....another banger start. I probably liked the opening to season 1 a little bit better, but I suspect season 2 is going to go to some Interesting Places that I am Ready For.

#Wheel of Time #WoT #WoT On PRime #Wheel of Time on Prime #WoT Book Spoilers #AMOL Spoilers #just to be safe #WoT s2 e3 #WoT Musing

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firespirited · 6 months

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I think it's a slightly amusing coincidence that the guy with a Nazi fetish was collaborating with a man named Herr Gott.

At this point I'm not ruling out Herrgott being a pseudonym or him writing all the 'vibes-based' junk since James was the one doing 'research' (to his credit he was somewhat good at collecting smart people's work).

But I'm hijacking your ask to clear up two misconceptions that have been bothering me:

(big mess of sources and further reading under the readmore)

1- The nazis and fitness essay (one I actually watched and disagreed with) cites multiple sources and is an attempt to retrofit current "masc for masc" grindr culture onto AIDS era fitness "healthy" gay culture (see Gaston as a stereotype) onto multiple a-historical "gay nazis" revisionisms including The Pink Swastika book and a columnist

I think they got the nazi and fitness nonsense from a scholarly sounding source who's just an oxbridge columnist who's into reclaiming nazis. They're famously good at making nonsense sound like a thesis - see Boris Johnson's upcoming book about Shakespeare and his time as a columnist, see the entire Telegraph and various Terf Observer columns: fully trash but written in academic lingo, even queer academic lingo!

and... here's the source: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20150324-hitlers-idea-of-the-perfect-body it's the BBC oh look, what's this "Alastair Sooke is art critic of The Daily Telegraph". 🤔🤔🤔

There's a case that the "no fat no fems no chocolate no rice" gay dating culture could possibly be tied to the healthy vs unhealthy infighting during the beginning of the AIDS era but that's a nuanced take that gets smashed to smithereens by lumping it in with gay nazi myths. It also needs to be examined with the attitude to dating apps in general and dating by physical preferences instead of letting chemistry happen by finding people whose goals and outlook match your own.

Terrible essay, terrible premise, some pull quotes from interesting places. Here's an essay about desirability in men, googling "masc 4 masc culture" will get you plenty of articles, you definitely want to look for asian and black writers here because woof they face a lot of racist nastiness under the guise of 'just preferences'.

youtube

and here's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_of_Finland (he's a very important gay artist, he also did some gay erotica with nazi uniforms whether you think that's an act of defiance, reclamation, tasteless or evil is up to you. art is not always as straightforward as it might look, we'd have to ask him what his intent was.)

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2- The second is "the exciting gays died of aids" concept, good vs naughty gays concept. Again, we're dealing with a mishmash of both modern rewritings, quotes by survivors taken out of context, and gay infighting at the time, which included some spicy takes about dangerous sex by gay men fighting to save gay men.

The lack of research and public education led to chaos, the grief led to anger. Beautiful people said some vicious things. There are several older gay men alive right now who don't have sex not because they're asexual but because there's trauma. It's worth unpacking quote by quote because expanding on it without original context was terrible reading comprehension and reckless rewriting of history, and to be honest, a little defamatory. I can't find a bibliography of the video(s) yet so not sure what to debunk).

There are plenty of tumblr posts railing against out of context quotes which is taking James + Nick's bad reading at face value instead of seeking out the source. Outrage at a thing James and Nick made up which was never a real take.

to paraphrase "My well-known exciting boundary-breaking gay friends are dead and the art world hasn't bothered to seek out more undiscovered talent to replace them, choosing the safe classic establishment folks who may also be gay given the field. I'm pissed you didn't care about saving them, I'm pissed you didn't care about finding a new crop of people who push the envelope." that was the sentiment behind this sort of quote even if folks became more conservative (or got into legal messes later)

I'm going to track down the various quotes and give you the full context because this matters. Again: beautiful minds saying horrible things, fighting between gay activists on how to survive or how to live under the gun. This is something that cannot be flattened to "boring gays survived" and it's an insult to the people who said things in grief and fear. I have not watched this essay (or maybe it's two that use this boring vs danger gays concept) but I have a good idea of what out of context quotes might have led to it, this is my wheelhouse. but TL;DR would be my faves are problematic because activists are passionate messy people. They outed people, they said outrageous things for the press, they screamed murderer and got restraining orders against them, they made taboo art, they mingled with nasty people.

OKAY, incoming link dump:

here's a 6 minute short on act up

youtube

here's a full doc: United in Anger:

youtube

Larry Kramer, Shulman, Fran Leibowitz and many others deserve to have their views examined with full context, not turned into crappy tweet sized quotes.

basic sources from wikipedia:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/nyregion/larry-kramer-and-the-birth-of-aids-activism.html

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/05/13/public-nuisance

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/fran-lebowitz

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/13/arts/the-impact-of-aids-on-the-artistic-community.html

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wojnarowicz?useskin=vector

youtube

https://archive.org/details/losswithinlossar0000unse

https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781849352857

http://didierlestrade.blogspot.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Tatchell

https://archive.org/details/womenaidsactivis00banz

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Thankyou to

DHLawrence_sGhost's thread https://www.reddit.com/r/hbomberguy/comments/18biiof/comment/kc9qa6p/

and TerraJRiley's transcript archive https://github.com/TerraJRiley/James_Somerton_Transcripts

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I'm going to allow reblogs on this again with the disclaimer that I don't have the full works stolen for these particular essays but the perfect body in gay culture and the good vs bad gays concepts have precedent that got flattened in those video essays and deserve quite a bit more exploration and that includes controversial sources. You will have to do some dialectical reading (agreeing and disagreeing with an author and figuring out how to weigh up the pros and cons of their individual arguments even though they get some things horribly wrong, deciding what was 'of a time' or reading the work of people who became reactionaries later in life).

#james somerton #Nt herrgott #Exciting gays vs boring gays #Saf

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larcenywrites · 1 year

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I'm obsessed with the cute study date one shot and I was wondering if you feel like writing more about study dates with Tony. Maybe headcanons? Like how they started, what they're like, how they help each other, taking breaks to relax and clear y'all's heads, cuddle breaks, nap breaks, sex breaks, kiss and make out breaks, and how they reward each other for being so so smart. Plus, maybe like LOTS OF NERDY TONY 🤓???? Like this man going on a tangent about some topic he likes and talking your ears off, mans just won't stop rambling about science and it's the cutest thing in the entire world. Also he can tell when he's lost you in the middle of too much math, but he'll kiss you to get your attention 😉 thank you so much anywayyy

Awww well there is a lot more that can be said about study dates with Tony! And I'm too lazy to write fics on all the nuances 😂

Warnings: mild sexual references

Study Dates | Headcanons

Also I'm losing it with this gif 🥴🥴🥴

💠Study dates with Tony were inevitable. He'll call nearly anything a date, and he'll do nearly anything to get you to spend time with him!

💠Plus, you probably met in class, so it made sense! Easy excuse for him (or you) to set up a study session around campus or a café (and eventually his room 😏)

💠At first, it was definitely about Tony getting to show off how smart he is and play hero when he helps you out, but... actually, it's still a lot about that even when you're together, let's be honest 😅 Only now he gets to reward you a little more than joking promising to buy you lunch next time or something 😉

💠Regardless, they prevail into the relationship! Doing homework together or a project? Fuck yeah! Plus he can help you with damn near any class! Unless it's like, art appreciation or literature... you may have to help him out for once when he has those classes. And while he hardly ever needs to study, you both make it a fun thing to do before a test!

💠It usually starts out fun and innocent! Really! Or at least just innocent. Sometimes getting through those weekly 50 questions just for calculus and/or chemistry can get frustrating even when Tony can just do them in his head and half of them are just different numbers, same problem 🤧 Maybe this is the best time to motivate one another, but usually it's no problem! Side by side against the headboard of his bed, you're both sharing a textbook and notes or watching one another solve problems. Usually, it's probably you that's watching him for guidance, and he purposefully goes much slower to make sure you can keep up (and sometimes your head on his shoulder distracts him for a solid few seconds so it gives him time to recover 🤭). He even draws little boxes and arrows when numbers get moved around and he knows you have trouble with keeping up with that particular equation's rules 🥺 And he does feel pretty great watching you tackle the next few on your own and getting them right!

💠Sometimes they stay as just that: patiently doing your work and moving on to something much more fun afterward, but usually you both like to make a game out of it! Or something like that. It's a good motivator to keep going when he offers fleeting kisses around your face with the promise that they'll get better and better 😉 It's a fun back-and-forth, but Tony always gets the answers right, so you may have to be a little stricter with your affection, or else a simple hour's worth of work might end up taking closer to three... But even so, you somehow always end up in his lap, with his tongue in your mouth and your hands in his hair. It's hard not to end up that way every time when he's so sweet and patient and that cocky grin eats up the little pecks to the corner of his lips. And the longer the problem you solved, the longer he'll kiss you for 😘 and the harder it is... well, you get the picture 😌

💠But there are other things you do! For every unneeded sheet of paper you fill up, try your hand at tossing it into the wastebasket on the other side of the room. No prizes here, though. Just mild entertainment when your bored 😂 Tony can get pretty competitive, though, for better or worse, and may secretly keep count. Then he'll randomly bring it up... and now you have to compete too! And then those balls of paper might turn into paper airplanes, but how can you compete with someone who you're pretty sure could design a working plane right now if you asked him?? Maybe you should go back to kissing...

💠Depending on what it is, he might put on a movie in the living room for background noise and an occasional distraction. Tony also prefers working the ground, oddly enough, whether it's the soft carpet in the house or the cement floor in the garage. You may not be as keen to join him (how his back isn't fucked up, you have no idea), but he is kinda cute sitting down there with his legs crossed 🥺 He likes working to music, but you may have trouble concentrating. He'll suck it up, but hopefully you can stand it if you're doing more of a hands-on project than thinking through a math problem! If you're instead sitting around watching him work on something, there's definitely music in the background, and because he's busy or maybe can't really let go of something, he's entrusting you with changing tracks or choosing the next song!

💠On really long and busy days, there's no time for games! You're too busy being surrounded by notes and various types of calculators, or scrambling to finish up a project or presentation that you may have put off for too long (or maybe it was a team effort). It's only when one of you collapses onto the sheets or is facedown on the table that the realization that mini breaks are okay and beneficial! When done responsibly, of course. After so much progress is made, you get a little break! Playing a quick round on the NES or maybe even just laying under the sheets for thirty minutes is good enough! Until Tony really wants to try the level you're stuck on. Or maybe you wouldn't stop squirming to get comfy after being hunched over your notes all day and now your boyfriend is faced with quite a time-consuming issue 😏 And, well, Tony always gets what he wants.

💠Tony also gets incredibly annoying when he's bored. Especially if you're doing homework and he's not. Those paper balls he was throwing away? Now they're being thrown at you. That paper your concentrating on? Now it has a pencil streak across it. Oh, you want his help for something? What does he get out of it? If you ask him to please leave you alone for just a few more minutes, he will... but not without managing to make a lot of noise with that straw in his cup or finding something to rummage through. This mf never cooks, but if you're in the kitchen or the right next door living room, suddenly he's finding the loudest pots and pans he can 😒 A lot of this ends with you having to leave your work behind to cup his face in your hands and sweetly tell him off. Which means he won! And now he won't let your return to you work until his boredom is satiated 😉 Don't worry, as an apology, he'll help you out this when you manage to escape back to your book, or he'll just do it himself if you don't quite have the energy left 😌

💠Tony has glasses! You were pretty surprised, but he never wears them so no wonder you’ve never seen them! He doesn’t really need them, but it’s probably more of a situation where he should probably wear them so his vision doesn’t get worse. He does wear them in private sometimes or when he’s in his father’s lab or the shed behind the house, but you’re only going to see them if you make him wear those glasses! Slide them right on his face yourself! Not necessarily because he should, but because it's pretty darn cute 😘 He may not like them, but he can't really argue when you're swooning over him! Now he knows how to take your attention off that textbook.

💠There's something so riling about it when he gets caught up trying to explain something to you that you're probably more confused about now because he's gone on a tangent and railroaded it too many times to count. When did we get into thermal dynamics? Somehow he's managed to take explaining something to you and turned into him thinking out loud about something he's been stuck on, and then suddenly figures it out right there, and in about an hour, you'll be even more confused and watching him work on whatever personal project you... helped him figure out? All because you asked about nuclear rates of decay?

💠But more importantly, he's lying there playing with a notecard that has the answer to your question on it, and talking to the ceiling at this point because you're too busy watching his fingers twirl the card around and too busy watching his thoughts click behind narrowed eyes that are also behind sleek black glasses that curve so perfectly with his brow and sit right above that cute nose 🫠 There's always rapid thoughts behind those watching eyes, but it's one of your few glimpses into just how loud and intelligent the mind in that pretty head is. It's easy to forget when he's busy being a terror!

💠And now he's probably biting at the corner of the card while he pauses to think and no one could blame you for sliding on top of him and plucking that card from his teeth... Even his thoughts are wiped clean when you're suddenly licking into his mouth 😏

💠But listening to it is enough to tire you out sometimes 😮‍💨 Lay down right next to him and let him talk you to sleep! He probably won't realize you've checked out until he happens to look over and see you asleep or unless you interrupt him altogether. Or when he looks over and the look on your face is a different type of inviting... or just shut him up with a kiss if you're bored ❤

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sciencesara · 5 months

Text

The Palworld Discourse

Why is it so bad…

I actually have a nuanced take but seeing the two sides is just irritating.

One side is mad and saying it’s a cheap ripoff of pokemon and that it used AI (how??? unsure) and the other side is just like, loll who cares, bad look defending the biggest IP by Nintendo, what’s wrong playing a parody that a smaller company has made, looks fun!!

Alright, I’m breaking this down into some overarching problems I see, and why everyone is having a weird knee jerk reaction one way or the other.

Gameplay and why it is (or is not) the pokemon game you are looking for

The company model is not anything to write home about

As an artist who loves Pokemon, I’m not mad that they ripped off Pokemon, I’m just mad that they did it in the laziest way possible

AI and the artists in the current climate

I love media analysis, let’s goooooo

Gameplay and why it is (or is not) the pokemon game you are looking for

Okay yes, the images below are pretty great, definitely selling the edgy dark “this is an adult parody of pokemon – with guns!” complete with animal abuse and exploitation vibes. Funny to see, but that’s not my kinda game, and even if it were…

That’s not what you are going to see most of the time. It’s definitely a more basic looking open world game/survival/base building/automation with menus and lists that you will be staring at, grinding and leveling up. The Pokepals are just a part of the game as a whole. It’s also early access, so the game is still not completely done yet. I can definitely see why it’s such a hit – it’s a genre crossover we haven’t seen before, even though it’s not…a great game, it still will be enjoyable for its audience. Presumably people who liked South Park growing up, idk

Syntac on Youtube

The company model is not anything to write home about

Y’all thinking I’m defending Nintendo by criticizing another game company can know I can hold hate for both simultaneously, thank you very much. The developer/publisher Pocketpair has done other games that are on Steam – one is called Art Imposter, a game similar to drawful that uses AI to generate the art (I will touch on AI later) and Craftopia. Craftopia is also an early access multiplayer survival action game by them, maybe you can tell what other game is mentioned when talking about this game…

How about an upcoming game they have in the works, in addition to the two early access games?

If you can’t tell where I am going with this, their whole premise is making riffs off of popular works, and in my eyes, do not make them out of love, or make them in a transformative way.

As an artist who loves Pokemon, I’m not mad that they ripped off Pokemon, I’m mad that they did it in the laziest way possible

The fan game Pokemon infinite fusion uses an AI to generate a mash-up of two different pokemon, but a large fan base has been making unique pixel art to replace favorite fusions, and has some amazing takes! There are rules and peer review of the submitted artwork, and a guide of how to make these look like pokemon – complexity of the design, color scheme, shading, etc. There are some hilarious deep cuts, and sometimes multiple versions of the same fusion, so you can pick your favorite.

SnooDrawings7091 on r/PokemonInfiniteFusion

Next, we have r/fakemon, a subreddit for fans to post their own designs, and they are amazing! They range from reimaginings and regional redesigns to original creatures, see below

Expert-Discount-3311 on r/fakemon

And here are some pal to pokemon comparisons

If you notice, all of these match the color scheme and body proportions of the one or two pokemon shown – all of them. There are original pals, but that is not the point. If you want a knock off pokemon game, go ahead, but in my book, even a few of these absolute fake prada bags are lazy. I love the creation of new, original designs that look like pokemon but are not. Look at the below image for an original pal that I love the design of -

Give me more of this!!! These look like new pokemon, because they use the same basic shapes, colors, and eye shapes of the pokemon style.

But others can just shrug and won’t care that much, and find it kinda funny that the company is so blatant about it (and find it weird that I have such strong feelings on the subject)

And that brings me to

AI and the artists in the current climate

As you might know, AI has been a nightmare for digital artists, sending them into a survivalist defensive against the rise of generative art.

AI, that takes existing good art, puts it through a blender and makes something derivative with the same-wait a minute-no, I shan’t say-

If there were weird vibes of people throwing AI accusations against Palworld, this is probably why – they are so primed to be defensive right now against the use of AI that stuff like this hits that same spot in just the right way.

I have a whole other rant about how I do not like AI, but suffice it to say I feel kinda depressed that I have to scan digital photos and digital artwork now to make sure it is not AI generated before I can rely on my immediate gut instinct of liking or disliking a photo or artwork. The problem with AI generation is one of use – it makes so much chaff that the wheat of actual human work gets lost in the noise. Good luck for any new digital artist to join the market when AI can do it better off of stolen work for free. Something something the rise of derivative works overshadow smaller original ones

Anyways Palworld is meh to me and I’ll sit this one out and eye Slime Rancher 2 instead

#video games #pokemon

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mariamariquinha · 6 months

Text

A few words

I wanted to say a lot more about the last chapter of Bossa Nova, but I think I just responded to those who interacted and reblogged without delving too deeply into certain choices. I think it's important to bring perspective to this chapter for a few reasons that are important to me. Maybe it can help someone who is on the path to writing or not, I don't know.

My reticences

I was honestly really reticent about adding any bisexual hint about reader, mostly because, as a straight woman, I didn't want to make it feel like a stereotype of sexuality or what shapes itself around people who classify themselves as bisexual. I don't have to win any medal for doing (or trying) the minimum on the subject, but I found it an interesting nuance to the narrative.

Anyone who has seen me talk a lot about my writing method knows that, as a journalist, any fiction that has metaphors or references to reality is my go-to, so to speak. Sometimes it's in fiction that we find ways to convey messages, even if our intention is to entertain; even in stories that are purely smut, there are paths and reflections on intimacy, discovery, breaking taboos; this is essential. This is written art.

The narrative

As the story's co-protagonist, Benny could be classified as a deconstructed guy, a 'good guy', one who understands the pain of a divorced woman and is sensitive. Well, he is, and I know that what I'm going to say now is as if I'm stating that 'if the story was good, I wouldn't have to explain', but I like to emphasize that, until then, Benny isn't a level romantic partner like Jane Austen' kinda of romantic partner or the harsh ones in a unique way like Nora Roberts. Benny built a career bordering on illegality. Until that moment, that was what made him more of a man: the adrenaline of doing whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, with the peace of mind of knowing that he would never be punished for it.

When the reader briefly talks about the experience she had with another woman, Benny reacted like any other man who evolved in his context: he sexualized it in a very honest way. This puts the reader back on the ground, reminds her that the fantasy of perfect passions proves, once again, to be a farce. She finds it easy to clash with Benny about the case, to make it clear how much Nick's stance with Isla hurt her as a woman, far beyond false morality. It's a selfish thought, to be carried away by feelings of compassion because she doesn't like Nick or has had bad experiences with men (she felt hurt by Benny's rejection that night).

About bisexuality (or sexuality in general)

She didn't see herself able to talk about bisexuality, about her experience with Kennedy or how she felt about it or how Benny was an 'asshole' for the comment he made, because she just closed herself off from the possibility of exploring herself as a woman through restraints that she set herself in when she decided to take the 'safe' route of marrying someone she had known for years.

The point I want to get to (or I'm trying to get to) is that understanding what it means to be bisexual is far from even her own because she discriminates herself in some way to never bring up the subject or just let it go, even if her family is so open to dialogue and acceptance.

Considerations

And again, I don't want to dictate rules. As I said, I am a straight woman, I have no place to speak on the subject. I speak as a writer who tries to do her homework and, more than just saying that someone is gay or something like that in stories to show diversity (cough cough Disney cough cough), maybe we can try to explore concepts of sexualities different from our own in a more respectful way.

---------------------

well... bye

#the gif is purely to reference #just me rambling #benny magalon

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38sr · 1 year

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As far as character design goes what dictates the final decision on a characters main design?

Ooh well my experience as a character designer is very limited since I primarily work as a storyboard artist and animator. But, I have done freelance as a character designer the past year or so and learned a bit of what goes into a character designs. So before I answer, everything I state below is mostly from the perspective of an animator with limited experience as a character designer. Everything I will say is not an absolute since every show is different and will require different factors in design decisions. And with that, let’s answer your question!

As far as character design goes, what dictates the final decision on a character’s main design?

Well to be honest, it seriously depends on what the production is trying to achieve visually. Every production is different and values different design elements to help communicate a character’s personality through their physical appearance. Sure, there are studios that have super distinct looks, also known as a house style, that are quite literally visual trademark of a studio’s work/style. You know a Studio Trigger production when you see the designs, you know a Studio Mir Production when you see the designs, you know a Matt Groening production when you see the designs, and so on. Some productions prefer to stay with the house style since there are pre-established design rules. For example, while I freelanced as a character designer on the upcoming animated Superman series one of the design rules was that no character could be taller than Clark Kent who was at least 6”0 (~183cm). There were very special cases when this rule could be broken (mainly if the character was more heavy set compared to Clark we could break the rule to communicate size and weight better). But overall, most of the characters were smaller than Clark to help emphasize his stature as Superman (as well the gap between his personality and physical size which I always found to be super cute haha).

While on Superman, what I learned was the biggest difference between designing and storyboarding was the designing characters was more so about nuances and details rather than volume. And by volume I’m referring to the amount of drawing you do as a board artist is more so about the quantity at an efficient drawing speed. As a designer, I often spent a lot of time drawing less and thinking, “Hm, what if I try this? What if we move this design element over here? How about we switch accessories from these two characters? Can I use the liquify tool to push things around?” So much of it was seriously thinking about the smaller details rather than getting the bigger picture down that I normally do for boards. And even then, the final decision really comes down to the design supervisor and the show runners so whatever their art direction goals are is what weighs heavily in the final design decisions.

But from the perspective as an animator, what I believe should be really valued and seriously thought about is consistency and reproducibility. Are these designs solid shape language wise? Can these designs be broken down into simple shapes for the board artists and animators in the rough phases? Can these designs be adapted easily to any new artist coming on the production? Can these designs be reproduced multiple times by different artists (who may have different art styles) and still read as the characters while maintaining consistency in the production? It’s so easy to want to add a lot of details to a character design but that often makes it harder for artists later in the pipeline (mainly animators) to work with. Sure it would be cool to have a character with multiple belts and outlandish clothing details, but that character has to be drawn multiple times at the same level for many episodes and will require too much time that the production may not have. That’s why I personally prefer designs that use less line work and mundane details to help convey a character’s personality rather than something over the top. An example of this I saw recently was how the level of introversion vs extroversion for the character’s of Bocchi the Rock were represented by their hair. Bocchi, the main character, had very long bangs that covered her face which represented her extreme introverted nature and social anxiety. While Nijika’s bangs were a middle part that exposed her face/forehead more, representing that she’s more extroverted and comfortable in social settings compared to Bocchi. The other two characters are more of a mix of introvert and extrovert and those personalities are represented quite thoughtfully through their hairstyles as well. Point is, all of that characterization was done through something as simple and mundane as a hairstyle. While it’s just as fun and valid to have very detailed design choices for characters, I think I’m just more impressed by designers who can speak volumes without having to visually give a lot. Though, that level of skill comes with a lot practice and experience…as well as if the production is specifically looking for something like that haha. And again as an animator, having design rules that are thoughtful not just for the characterization of characters but also for the people who will have to draw the character multiple times is something I believe should be a deciding factor in a final design. Overall, there are a lot of factors that go into making a final design that is dependent on what a production is trying to strive for in the art direction. But most focus on whether or not the design conveys the character’s personality upon first glance (ie. is the silhouette readable, are they preppy or jockey, are these character distinct from each other shape wise and color wise, etc,) while also making sure the designs are reproducible for people who are later in the production pipeline (ie. animators). Since design supervisors and show runners are the ones who are dictating the design rules in the first place, it really is a matter of what they are looking for specifically that can drastically change what are the deciding factors for a final design. I hope that answered your question!

#industryqs #animation #2d animation #animation industry #characterdesign #ask #send me asks

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milesbutterball · 11 months

Text

Everyone is a creator

The universe is as large as your awareness. Cultivate your awareness to increase the size of your universe

Art is our portal to the unseen world

Be finely tuned to moments that take your breath away, coincidences, surprises. These are all opportunities to trust your gut, leaning into feeling more then intellect. It’s not unusual for science to catch up to art, nor art the spiritual

The more aware you are, the more clues you’ll notice. Look for what you notice but no one else sees

We tend to think of artists by their output, when in reality being in

Nature is the most enduring and powerful teacher

Focus on the sensations of the inner world for there are powerful insights there. The transition art period between wake and sleep a have profound insights too. We don’t know why or how this subconscious works but you’re robbing yourself if you don’t pay attention and cultivate this internal world

It’s better to follow the universe than those around you

Why is sometimes out of our comprehension. And that’s ok

Distractions and physical movement can keep the conscious mind busy and unlock new perspectives

The purpose of the art is to awaken something in you first and then to awaken something in others

Keeping mind that rules are not laws. They are limitations and if not helpful, break them. Rules direct us towards mediocre behavior

Don’t sleepwalk through life. Be truly present and engaged. Imagine how different life would be if you approached all you did with the same focus as if you were landing a plane. Don’t just life life as if you’re knocking off things from your to do list. Patience is required for the nuanced development of your craft

Sometimes knowing less leads to breakthroughs. Innovation through ignorance

If you know what you wanna do, and you do it well, you’re a craftsman. If you begin with a question and let that guide you in your journey of discovery, you’re an artist.

Often, the best way to see if the seed of an idea is worth following through is if there is an emotional response rather than intellectual one. Let excitement and delight be the guiding force in the early stages.

Failure is the information you need to get where you’re going

To test an idea, you must build it. You can’t rely on the abstract – you have to bring it into the world to play with it feel it and only then can you judge whether it’s worth pursuing or not

Art is often the bending, ignoring or breaking of rules. However, sometimes the temporary rules and limitations, spark creativity is it focuses the mind

Pay close attention to strong reactions, whether positive or negative. There could be deeper meeting there if you seek to understand that strong emotion.

Enhancing our self-awareness is one of the best things we can do as an artist. Becoming more aware of what I sent it to us, what moves us, what makes us feel positively and negatively of enrich our artistic process

Living in a mode of discovery, rather than assumption, it’s preferable in any situation

If we’re making something we love, there’s nothing at all to figure out. We need not hyper rationalize everything. We can simply do it because we love it and find it fun

The artists’ job is never done. Being an artist is a way of being, a way of living, not simply something you do.

In a creative process, it’s often more difficult to achieve something by aiming at it.

You need not stand for your art, nor your art for you. You do not do not need to offer any explanation to anyone, including yourself. We have no responsibility other than to the art itself

The only practice that matters is the one you consistently do

There is an artistry in how you practice your art as well. You must work tirelessly, but also give yourself brakes to rest, recover, and detach. Similar to how you breakdown muscle and then have to wait for the muscle to build up, so must the artist recover.

The call of the artist is to follow the excitement for where there is excitement there is energy and where there’s energy, there’s light.

The best work is the work you’re excited about

True art is pure play

#rick rubin #awesome #music #peace #loveislove #booksbooksbooks #bookstore

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initial-lime · 1 year

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Imagine you work at a child protection org as a volunteer and you have to do the job of reviewing each reported image for child abuse manually

Let’s say someone reported 100 images. As you go through, you realize the first one is of an anime character and not a real child and as per law the org cannot take action unless the character is indistinguishable from a real minor.

The second picture is of an anime character as well. The third, the fourth, the fifth as well, it goes on and on and on until finally at the very end, at the 100th picture, you find that it actually depicts real child sbuse

Imagine that reviewing each image costs you 5 minutes, so 100 pictures take you ~8 hours to completely go through

You spent an entire day shifting through the backlog of reports. It took an entire working day to reach the report for a victim who needs help

Now I’ve given you a small number of pictures, imagine how much time you need when you have to look at 1.000.000 pictures and of which 90% do not depict real children

I just told you the real horrors of working at the national center for missing and exploited children. INHOPE members (and of course normal people) were reporting art as abuse, creating a huge backlog.

Oftentimes when child protection orgs finally get to the abuse material, it is often too late to help the victim

If you actually want to help children, why not spread the names of child protection orgs other than the ones I mentioned instead of reporting art you merely find offensive?

Just a thought

It would actually be much better activism

Imagine you’re a tumblr executive and you’re trying to get child porn off your platform, I’m telling people to report in on tumblr, not send it to child abuse orgs, this is a nuanced issue with multiple steps,

these reports aren’t immediately sent to the authorities, they’re sent to tumblr, and tumblr employees filter trough them, if the reported material involves a real child then, and only then, is it sent on to authorities.

There’s not a little magical button you push that sends everything you report to the police.

There is however a little button that tells TUMBLR. EMPLOYESS. who enforce TUMBLR. TERMS OF SERVICE. That someone is breaking the rules (:

I’m literally just saying it breaks tumblrs guidelines stop trying to guilt trip me so you can justify whatever it is I’m “accusing” you of

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that-ari-blogger · 5 months

Text

Simple Answers

Who is Luz Noceda?

If I was to ask you this question after only seeing a scene or two from the Owl House, your answer would probably be very different to if you had watched the entire series.

This isn't groundbreaking, it's what happens when you spend time around any person or character, they start to appear more complex to you as you get to know them more.

But that's kind of the point here, because the Owl House is a series about embracing your weirdness and individuality in contrast to first impressions. A single question like "who is x person" is inadequate, and others should be added to understand the nuance there.

The First Day asks two more questions. "Who does everyone else think Luz is?" and "Who does Luz herself think she is?"

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The Owl House has a thing for introductions. Luz gets so many over the course of the series, and it's fascinating to see how she changes just by the way in which she gives her title. She is the good witch, or the human, or hero, whatever she decides.

The opening scene to The First Day is interesting to me, because it's an audition. Luz is being asked to present her skills, but I don't think that's what she is being tested on.

"Spells cast with paper, I've never heard of such a thing. But is it enough to pass the exam?"

Bump deliberately leans into the theatricality here, messing with Luz's confidence to see what she does. The series has established that all Luz needs to do to pass the exam is cast two spells, so why is there a stage? And why does Bump ask this question?

Because Bump wants to know who Luz is. His first impression of her has been a troublemaker, and he has seen some skill, but what else? He wants is to see how she reacts to stress, is she resourceful? Is she imaginative? In my reading, Luz had already passed the test and Bump wanted to know more about the student.

This is an episode about breaking moulds and meeting expectations, and so we are introduced to the primary conflict of the episode, that being the track system. Students can only learn one kind of magic, or they are branded as troublemakers and can't learn magic at all. You have to colour within the lines, and make what kind of art will get points.

That works backwards into the test as well. Where at first glance, it is a test about skill, it is actually more complex, just like the students undertaking it.

The school is also trying to appeal to a perception as well, with the inspector. The school only shows its best and brightest, who have achieved exactly the point of their classes. This is what the school teaches, isn't it so perfect?

The basilisk scene is also interesting on a side note because it is why I like Bump so much. For all of his flaws, the second there is a student in danger, Bump interposes himself between the student and that danger. It doesn't work, but it's an attempt, and it kind of foreshadows later on in the episode, which I will get to in a bit.

If you are studying creative writing at a High School level, you have probably been told that first impressions are everything. You need to introduce your characters well, you need to open in the action, or with a question. And this isn't wrong, I literally opened this post with a question to grab your attention.

But if you are familiar with my blog, you will probably have guessed that I take issue with this advice. Write a story how you like, it doesn't have to be good, you just have to tell it. There are rules of art, yes, but they are more like guidelines, and often the way you make something incredible is by doing your own thing. Maybe what you want coincides with the rules, maybe it doesn't. It's art, do what you want.

I can't speak for other countries, but the Australian system for teaching literary studies is seriously lacking. You get told themes to analyse your texts with, instead of forming your own reasoning. I distinctly remember a teacher telling me that "your personal voice will be shown by how you write what the HSC wants." And this is understandable as a system. It's not agreeable, but I understand why it is what it is. The HSC is designed for evaluating thousands of students quickly and efficiently. It doesn't do personability because it can't.

This carries over into creative writing. If you want to do well in that area, you need to write from your own experience. The story has to open with action. It needs to be realism, so no weird fantastical elements. The marker needs to be able to check of elements of the story. It is draconian, but from what I have heard, it is somehow a more efficient system to certain other countries.

So, why am I ranting about school? Because The Owl House is a fantasy, and the fantasy it is exploring is "what if you could change the system?" And part of that is Bump, because Bump is a character who fundamentally has the students' best interests at heart. So when he clocks on to the system being unsuited, he changes it.

"I'm smart enough to know when I'm wrong"

But perceptions go both ways, and Luz has spent the series so far battling her own preconceived notions about what the story is about. When she enters the detention track, she immediately dismisses it as boring and that comes back to bite her later.

Viney keeps coming up when people mention first impressions, and I will mention her again when that happens. Her character design actually has a cool little detail that hints at that, and its her earring. It's quirky and weird, a fishhook through her ear. But its only on one ear, meaning that when she is introduced and she is leaning on her hand, it isn't visible. But when Luz makes her smile, she turns her head and the audience can see that earring and reveal something interesting that Luz missed.

Where the coven system stands for actively restricting people into areas, the track system stands for refining people into those boxes. Its a parody of the house system in a certain book series that I am dodging around the name of. In said book series, there are four houses that students are sorted into based on core personality traits - brave, clever, evil, and boring - and that system is scuffed as all hell, because not only does it not account for the fact that the character traits aren't mutually exclusive, it forms a self fulfilling prophecy.

Evil house students are assumed as villainous unless proven otherwise, so naturally they are outcasts who want to shake up the system, some are genuinely terrible folks, but at least one is only mean because he is expected to be. And the headmaster of that school explicitly notes that its a problem and doesn't make any attempt to change it.

So, what happens when you find a person who is both brainy and brave? Or a student who shows a skill for both healing and beast magic? What do you do?

Well, you stop relegating people who are complex as "troublemakers" for one, but you also stop forming stereotypes of people.

Final Thoughts

The First Day is a sound episode of the Owl House. It's fun and engages with the themes of the series in a neat way. This is the episode when then story makes itself clear about how it is engaging with archetypal storytelling, that being how actively it subverts it. This is also the episode with some of the funniest references in it, specifically the choosy hat is a favourite of mine.

Bump is a fan favourite character for a reason. He listens, and he adapts. This is an authority figure who gets called a dingus and his immediate reaction is "maybe I am a dingus."

Also, Basilisks are extinct. Remember this, this will come up again. The basilisks were dead to begin with, as dead as a doornail.

Anyway, next week I will be looking at Very Small Problems, so stick around if that interests you.

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#rants #literary analysis #literature analysis #character analysis #what's so special about...?#the owl house #toh #the owl house luz #the owl house bump #principal bump #principal Hieronymus Bump #Hieronymus Bump #luz noceda #owl house #toh luz #toh bump

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thaeonblade · 2 years

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Logics Insight: The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy 2/2

https://www.deviantart.com/thaeonblade/art/Logics-Insight-The-Star-Wars-Prequel-Trilogy-2-2-919810236 Part 2

The Importance of Darth Vader and the Characterization of Anakin Skywalker

I agree with Redlettermedia when he says that Anakin's characterization was the biggest misstep in the Prequel Trilogy. Instead of having a profound and nuanced exploration of how and why Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader, we instead got a cluttered mess. This is because Anakin's importance in the Star Wars mythos was way overemphasized in a way that not only doesn't work, but actually causes more problems for the world-building of the Prequels.

I'm not necessarily talking about Anakin killing younglings or murdering Tusken Raiders. Those incidents don't help, but they'd actually be good for Anakin's fall into darkness if everything else worked properly. Considering that Anakin is the tragic hero of the Prequel Trilogy, it make sense that he'll eventually get his hands bloody on his path to the dark side.

The problem is that George Lucas spent too much time focusing on Anakin's importance rather than letting him breath and develop as a character. George spent too much time trying to tell people how powerful Anakin is or to show off how special Anakin is rather than putting Anakin on a journey. A journey where Anakin reaches great heights before he falls down into a great fall right into villainy and evil.

So to accomplish this ill-conceived goal, George apparently messed up a lot of aspects about the Jedi and the Force to make Anakin this all important character. And George did all of this merely because Darth Vader is the most popular character in all of Star Wars and so Lucas let Vader's reputation outside of the story affect his role in the story.

So here's my thesis, I believe that George developed the no romance rule for the Jedi to force a forbidden love story onto Anakin and Padme's relationship. I also believe that the concept of midi-chlorians and the prophecy about a chosen one were specifically created and set up to make Anakin seem like the most powerful jedi ever. But instead of adding to Anakin's story, these things merely take away from them. George overlooked the idea that sometimes less is more and convoluted something that could've stayed simple and yet very effective and dramatic.

In fact, I'd dare say that removing these three aspects from the movies wouldn't change much at all other than streamline and make the world-building more consistent with itself.

Allow me a moment to break things down, shall we?

Midi-chlorians and Prophecies

"Que guitar riff"

This is Science Fantasy and generally, that means that we have a Sci-fi universe with a strong science fiction aesthetic. But remember, this is still primarily a fantasy story with the sci fi stuff being secondary in all honesty. That means that certain details don't need to be meticulously explained unless its absolutely necessary for the story and characters.

For instance, we don't know what Yoda's species and we don't need to know.

Does it make sense that Wookies can't speak english and others can't speak wookie, but Han and Chewbacca can understand each other completely? No, but who cares.

Why do star ships need to be so close to each for fleet battles? Who cares.

Why aren't people using drone fighters instead of piloted snub fighters? Doesn't matter.

Do the physics of the lightsaber make sense? Not really, but it doesn't matter.

Most fantasy fans don't question how heroes can jump into battle after battle without suffering major fatigue and exhaustion nor how they brush off realistically career ending injuries. Even the most pedantic nerd will just shrug and go with something that doesn't make sense to them if its in keeping with a good story.

A lot of battles in fantasy and sci-fi are made by people who are lacking in terms of a worthwhile sense of scale. Logistical reality should make some of the huge army numbers that we see utterly impossible to support for long periods of time. In reality, it would be a logistical nightmare to feed and supply ten thousand medieval soldiers for more than a few months. So good luck trying to support a hundred thousand soldiers.

We also often seen a lot of battles where participants use tactics that don't make sense. Lines of soldiers charging headlong into battle and clashing together into competing lethal mosh pits just didn't happen. Trained armies of all eras preferred to keep their formations and attack with the best weapons that suited their particular battle lines and strategies. In fact, the spear and bow were the most common and practical weapons to use in medieval and ancient warfare because they were cheap to make or get and it was useful in groups or individually. The sword was either a secondary weapon or a ceremonial weapon and those were only drawn when the primary weapon was set aside or lost.

But swords are just cooler so naturally we see characters using swords as main weapons in fantasy or even sci fi.

I bring all of this pedantic and nitpicky stuff up to make a point on details in your world-building. Details definitely matter, but you as the writer must consider and assess which details are most important for the story you are trying to tell. The story needs to engage your reader on an emotional level and any detail that doesn't help do that must be trimmed or set aside.

If your detail on how money works or what the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is doesn't matter on a character, story, thematic or plot level, then it's not a detail worth dwelling on. In fact, it's fine to let certain aspects of your world-building remain ambiguous and unanswered to create mystery and intrigue in your audience.

And this is why the concept of midichlorians is something that creates more problems than it solves.

It was an over-explanation for a question that no one wanted to have answer nor was it a question that needed to be answered.

So with that said, why oh why did George feel like he had to explain the Force with midichlorians?

In fact, George's original concept for the Force was that it was an energy field that technically anyone could tap into. Yes! Anyone could be force sensitive with the right discipline, mindset, dedication and spirituality. To paraphrase George himself when answering an interviewer who asked if the Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?

“Yes, anybody could do it. Not just the Jedi. It's just the Jedi who take the time to do it. They use it like a technique. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it. But the ones what really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate.”

In all fairness, that interview as many decades ago and it's fine if George changed his mind and decided that force sensitivity is a bit more different.

The concept does nothing, but muddle what was otherwise a mystical, but simplistic understanding of the Force as being a spiritual energy field that binds the galaxy together. Midichlorians undermine the mystery and wonder of the Force by adding an unnecessary and even contradictory scientific element when no one asked for it. It also infers an upward limit on someone's Force power even though the Force is meant to be beyond such things.

"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."

Granted, the Original Trilogy did introduce a biological element to the Force by saying that the Force flows strongly through bloodlines and that Force Sensitivity can be passed down through offspring. Which makes sense when the Force penetrates basically everything in life and surrounds and connects life. However, nothing more needed to be elaborated on than that.

Now let's talk about the other issue...namely the Chosen One Prophecy.

“Que guitar riff”

As for the Chosen One thing, it's both under-explained, contradictory and unnecessary. Just have Anakin be a really talented and gifted youngster who got recruited because his potential in the force is amazingly high for reasons that are NEVER stated. Is it destiny? Genetics? Is he a lost descendant from a family of strong jedi lords? Who knows? What matters is Anakin developing that talent, becoming a great jedi knight and being seduced to the Dark Side to become Darth Vader.

I don't personally have a problem with prophecies or Chosen Ones. These are story ideas that are very old and they've been done in various ways both good and bad. Sometimes prophecy is used in a way to where the story centers on a character trying to avoid destiny, but meeting destiny on the road they took to avoid it. Often times, you'll have characters trying to defy fate and while some may succeed, others end up fulfilling their own doom.

Prophecy, Chosen Ones and Destiny are story ideas that have potential to be very good or very bad. Just like in real history, prophecies were often misread, misinterpreted, flat out wrong, or turned out to be correct earlier or later than people anticipated. There are many cultures with some tradition about seers and oracles who can perceive the future and use their visions to give warnings in the present. I bring this up so you know where I'm coming from on the Jedi Prophecy about Balance.

Largely that it's too vague to be worthwhile in the story.

First off, the prophecy is never actually explained in any detail beyond that it exists and Anakin is supposedly meant to bring balance to the force. What does bringing balance to the Force mean in the prophecy's context? What is causing the unbalance in the Force? How will Anakin bring balance to the Force exactly? What will happen once the Force's balance is restored? Why is it a bad thing if the Force is out of balance? What does balance look like? Is balance achieved when the Light and Dark sides of the Force are in total balance? Or does the Light need to be dominant over the Dark to create balance?

According to George Lucas, the presence of the Sith and their actions are creating a cancerous blight within the Force. This blight causes the dark side to get stronger and snuff out the light. Therefore, Anakin fulfilled the prophecy when he destroyed the Sith when he killed Palpatine and then died right afterwards. Thus the Sith were destroyed, the darkness that they created weakens and the light is able to grow in strength thus creating balance and harmony in the Force.

However, it was not until Episode 3 that we learn any hint about what bringing balance meant. We're told that Anakin must destroy the Sith and that's how he'll bring balance. That's in line with what George said, but how is it that Anakin is the only one who can destroy the Sith? Does it matter if someone else like Obi Wan, Yoda or Mace Windu killed Sidious? If killing the Sith is what Anakin is meant to do then why was it a bad thing and a step to the dark side when he killed Count Dooku? Even if Palpatine was manipulating Anakin, he's still doing exactly what the prophecy said he needs to do. So how is that a bad thing?

This is why the movie needs to clarify and explain the Chosen One Prophecy if its going to be important to Anakin's development or significance. It would be nice if the movies spent a few minutes explaining where the prophecy came from and why the Jedi think it's worth preserving. Was there a previous Jedi Grandmaster who was a seer or something? Maybe they were a wise teacher whose prophecies were always right one way or another and the Chosen One Prophecy was the last prediction that they made before they died, retired or disappeared.

Maybe the Jedi Seer was around when the Last Sith Empire was destroyed and all of the other Jedi thought that the Sith were dead. This lone seer insisted that the sith had survived and foresaw that the sith survivors were in the shadows hiding and getting more powerful. Then in the future, the Sith would return for their Revenge and only the Chosen One could defeat them and restore balance to the Force. This could also be how Yoda knows about the Rule of Two because the Seer foresaw that the Rule of Two was how the Sith were surviving and hiding and would've warned a young Yoda about it.

With respect to George, I don't think he thought that far ahead.

It's just all the more bluntly obvious that midichlorians and the Prophecy were only introduced to over-hype Anakin.

Think about it? We first learn that Anakin didn't have a father and Shmi was knocked up by the Force. Then we first hear about midichlorians when Qui-Gon takes Anakin's blood sample and we learn that Anakin's midichlorian count is higher than even Master Yoda. At Coruscant, Qui-Gon gives his findings to the council and this also introduces the first mention of the Prophecy about a Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force and that Anakin is that Chosen One. Before leaving for Naboo, Anakin asks about midichlorians and Qui-Gon explains that they are the middle-men between life and the Force and without them, no one could hear the Force.

I can't lay it out more plainly than I just did.

George claims that he had the concept back in the Original Trilogy, but just couldn't introduce it. However, the sequence of events where midi-chlorians play a role in the story strongly implies that their only role is to explain why Anakin is so powerful and to prop up his role as the Chosen One. So this is a clear case of informed ability where we are told that someone is incredible for such-and-such reason, but never actually demonstrates it.

For instance, Anakin is shown to be a strong Jedi, but it's not clear that he's more powerful than any other Jedi. Does he use any force abilities that are either rare or difficult for even older and wiser jedi to use? Does he demonstrate an insight and wisdom in the Force beyond his years? Did he finish his training faster than any other padawan? Looks like 10 years is the rough average and Anakin's training doesn't seem too different apart from his unorthodox age.

In George's haste to make Anakin special, he's created a hard-locked cap on how powerful any jedi could ever become based on their midichlorian level. No matter how enlightened, serene, wise or experienced that a jedi becomes, their power will never go higher than a pre-set ceiling while someone with only half as much training and given effort could become twice as powerful due to having a bigger midichlorian count.

And I don't care if the EU clarifies that a high midichlorian count does not always equal high force power.

It's Not In The Movie.

We need the movies to show us how Anakin is powerful and not just tell us that he's powerful. Instead of having all of his training take place off screen, have some key moments shown in Episode I and II. First, Qui Gon teaches Anakin some rudimentary universal lessons on accessing the force and Anakin later uses these lessons to help save Naboo. In the next movie, Obi Wan is shown guiding Anakin through a more advanced lesson or he and Anakin spar where we see that Anakin is very skilled and powerful, but immature and impatient. We are shown how strong Anakin has become and we also see how he has much that he still has to learn.

Or perhaps Anakin learns about a strong jedi technique that usually takes a long time to master and Anakin does so in record time. Perhaps Anakin uses the ionize technique or disable droid technique in a powerful way. Perhaps Anakin is shown to be talented with telekinetically lifting and manipulating things with expert accuracy and control. Maybe Anakin has a very strong innate connection to the force's energy flow that is unusual to someone as young as Anakin.

Now I'm not expecting something over the top like Anakin pulling down a Star Destroyer and making it look easy. But I'd say that Anakin's progression as a Jedi and his power in the Force was something that would be stronger conveyed with visual storytelling rather than making up new rules to give him an informed ability that doesn't match what's shown on the story.

Perhaps you could keep the prophecy in the movie and make it a question of whether Anakin is the chosen one or not. Anakin's quick success and rise in prominence would make his fellow jedi believe that he's really the chosen one despite their initial misgivings. Then when he turns to the dark side, it's a true shock to the jedi and perhaps shocking for the audience for may have forgoten that Anakin is going to be Darth Vader.

Maybe the Jedi were wrong about Anakin being the chosen one and the chosen one is actually Anakin's son Luke. Something which Obi Wan wouldn't realize until much later and this makes Luke all the more the new hope for the Jedi. Maybe Anakin is the chosen one, but bringing balance to the force means destroying the jedi and the sith so that his son luke can rebuild a new order of guardians from the ashes.

Maybe the Chosen One thing could be something that's left ambiguous and left to the audience to the decide for themselves. Meh, who knows?

George went too far in a few places

Anakin starts out too Young and dipped into the dark side too drastically and too soon in his character arc. I'd translate this issue as being how Anakin's story has great payoff with a mostly good set up, but the build up and few set up details are wonky.

For Anakin, we got a lot about his flaws, his darkness and the seeds that would lead to the dark side. But ultimately, the prequels lacked a demonstration of his more positive aspects apart from being a good pilot and warrior. Old Ben described Anakin as a good and noble jedi champion who was a great friend and whose turn to the dark side was a tragedy and a shocking surprise. Yet, the prequels display Anakin as a bad seed from Episode 2 onwards and they fail to make him likable, especially in 2 where he spends most of his screentime whining, complaining, expressing support for a fascist dictatorship as long as "it worked", obsessing over a girl he hasn't seen in ten years and mass murdering an entire tribe of raiders including women and children and going on a maniacal rant about it like a serial killer. Yeah, I understand that he was mad and grieving about his mother dying in his arms, but that doesn't excuse slaughtering innocents nor is it helped by how utterly unsympathetic and borderline sociopathic he seemed in previous scenes.

By Episode 3 where we finally do see some humanity and likability in Anakin, it's too little too late and fleeting compared to how he spends half of the movie as Darth Vader betraying his fellow jedi and slaughtering children (again) because of a vague promise that Palpatine would give him the power to save Padme. Furthermore, the "tragic hero" of the story chokes out his pregnant mother and yet we're supposed to leave that movie with the idea that there's still a sliver of good in this man. Or at least enough good in him to where he'll eventually sacrifice himself to save his son by killing the Emperor and then dying as himself.

I assert this missed opportunity as a demonstration of how "Darker isn't always better".

Nothing against Jake Lloyd, but Anakin should've started off as a young teen to make characterization and development between the three movies more consistent. It would also allow for the actor playing Anakin to play the role in all three movies instead of just 2 and give more time for them to get acclimated and comfortable with the role. That's one big reason why Ewan McGregor got better and better as Obi-Wan, because he got used to the role over the course of 3 movies whereas Hayden only had two. Hayden did a decent job with what he had, but being able to play the role in a third movie would've improved things immensely.

If you think it would be ridiculous to have Hayden Christenson or whoever play a teenager when they're an adult, I'd point out that adults have been playing teens since the Slasher films. Keep in mind Natatlie Portman has portrayed teenagers as well such as she does in Episode I and has the youthful appearance and short stature to pull it off. Combine that with some make up, de-aging CGI, clothing that a teen would wear and some uncertain posturing and mannerisms and I can see a young male actor being passed off as a teenager.

I'd also make Anakin a little less perfect and spotless as he was in Episode 1. I'd still have Anakin be an overall good talent person who wants to help people and do the right thing. But also give him an edge as he's forced to bottle up fear, anger and hatred at his life as a slave and how he and his mother could be sold or killed at the push of a button. Maybe this could come out in a scene or two where he subconsciously uses the force to hurt or nearly kill someone like Sebulba or Watto. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan would see this and that would motivate them to take Anakin in. Deciding that Anakin would fall to the Dark Side and become a Dark Jedi if he stayed on Tatooine and instead should be raised by the Jedi to use his powers for good.

In fact, let's have a scene that underlines how harsh slavery is for Anakin while growing up. It always annoys me when slavery is put into a story and its shown to be a minor nuisance at best. In the Phantom Menace, Anakin's life as a slave is treated as a part time job. He gets to wander around town without supervision; make friends and play with other friends; he and his mom have their own home and its no better or worse than anyone else's home; and Anakin even has enough room in the garage to build and work on his own podracer.

I'm not saying get rid of that stuff since historically some slaves did have some small luxuries depending on their masters and their positions. But the audience is only told of how bad slavery is and are only told about the bomb that will kill escapees. Instead, throw in a scene where Anakin gets really angry and is about to throw a punch, but Watto holds up a remote threatening to blow him or his mother. Maybe a slave at an auction is sold to a lecherous asshole and she runs away as the new owner blows her up. Anakin sees this and would seethe with anger about how powerless he is and how much he wants to be free and to make his slave master pay for how they treat him and his mom.

Instead of having Anakin be rejected initially for being “too old”, he's rejected by the Jedi Council because of the fear, anger and hate simmering inside of him. The Jedi are wary that Anakin's a ticking time bomb that'll explode if trained with power that he can't handle. Qui-Gon would vouch for Anakin with full faith in the boy while Obi-Wan would be neutral, wanting to help Anakin and seeing the good in him while also acknowledging the council's concern and fear of the dark edge hiding inside of the kind hearted Anakin.

This is the dark edge that Palpatine would sense and quietly nurture in Anakin as he grows in the ways of the Jedi and the Force. Anakin in the films should've been close to what he was in the Clone Wars tv show, a genuinely heroic, noble, brave, loyal and good man with a dark shadow that kept growing as the war continued. As Anakin starts to doubt if the Jedi or the Republic are helping anyone, Palpatine could be there to groom him towards the idea that a Master of the Dark Side could bring order and peace to the galaxy. That the Dark Side could give Anakin true freedom from the forces controlling his life and hindering him from making a difference.

Which, to be fair, is what we kind of got in the films. The films do hint that Palpatine had been grooming Anakin for dark side conversion throughout the years and Episode 3 was the finishing touch. But the idea is screwed when Palpatine gives Anakin a super vague legend about a Sith Lord who could use the Dark Side to save people from death. And this is enough for Anakin to throw every everything he's ever stood for and fully commit to the Dark Side. By now, Anakin should've seen some proof that the Dark Side could actually do that. Maybe Palpatine could heal a grievously injured clonetrooper in the medbay to convince Anakin of the dark side's power, but right after Anakin leaves, the trooper dies because he wasn't actually healed.

Instead, Anakin betrayed the jedi based on a vague story about a sith who could save people from death? And despite no proof that Palpatine wasn't just lying and playing on Anakin's fears, Anakin bows to monster mash and pledges himself to the graveyard smash. Then goes on to murder children based on an unspecific notion that the dark side will help him save Padme.

Anakin's especially dumb when you realize that he knows Palpatine is the Sith Lord whose been lying and manipulating everyone for the past 13 years. The one behind the Naboo Crisis; The Clone Wars; Qui-Gon's death; the attempts on Padme's life; the loss of Anakin's arm; and is responsible for the deaths of countless billions if not trillions of people because of that. And Anakin follows him anyway? Also, why doesn't Anakin just arrange for a really good doctor to look after Padme and make sure she doesn't die in childbirth? Are you telling me that death by childbirth is still a thing in this magnificent technological wonderland?

Now lets take a few steps back here.

I will acknowledge that having Anakin murder the jedi younglings was bleak and dark, but a bold creative choice. As much as I would've preferred to see Anakin mowing down Jedi knights and masters in some badass dramatic fight scene, showing him preparing to murder younglings was the kind of scene that can make or break a character like Anakin.

George Lucas isn't sugarcoating how evil Anakin is or how far he's fallen. He doesn't want the audience to have anything that will take away from the shock of this scene. If Anakin killed older jedi adults, this would be mitigated by how “badass” and “awesome” Darth Vader is acting. But George doesn't want an evil sith lord to look cool, at least not in this moment. He wants you to see the raw deal of how cruel the dark side will make you.

The problem is that we already got this once before in Attack of the Clones with the Tusken Raider massacre. There isn't a smooth transition from innocent kind hearted youth into the cold, ruthless and evil murder machine that is Darth Vader. He's innocent and pure in Episode I and then abruptly becomes troubled and murderous in II and III. If you want Anakin's deeds in Episode III to be shocking and horrific, then he can't do something like this in Episode II while he's still meant to be a good guy.

While I'd keep the Tusken Raider murder scene and the death of Anakin's mother, I'd rework them slightly. I'd make it so that Anakin's mom isn't tortured to death and was being kept as a hostage for ransom. Anakin saves her, kills a few tusken guards and successfully rides away with her. He takes his mom back to the Lars homestead where Anakin has a wholesome moment with Padme and Shmi. Everything seems happy, Anakin is bonding with his step brother and step father while Shmi gives her blessing for Padme to pursue Anakin and help him be happy.

Then tragedy strikes as a Tusken Raider war party attacks the homestead.

Cligg Lars dies from a thermal detonator, Shmi gets wounded by gunmen and dies in a shocked Anakin's arms. The world goes cold around him and he sees the tuskens holding Owen, Beru and Padme prisoner. They single out Padme and tie her up to be beaten to death as she's an outsider from Tatooine. Anakin's blood boils, the anger, grief and pain overflows and he uses the force and his lightsaber to slaughter the Tusken warriors.

The tuskens try to run away, but Anakin in a great show of force power holds their speeders in place and rips the raiders from their bikes. Anakin then hunts them all down, hunting and slaughtering every single tusken raider like animals. As he's hacking into a dead tusken, Padme hugs him from behind and tells him to stop since it won't change anything.

Seeing his stepbrother act so viciously, Owen Lars cuts ties with Anakin and irrationally blames him for both his father's death and for Shmi's death. Anakin believes him, thinking that he wasn't strong enough to control the situation or keep his loved ones from dying. He wasn't strong enough until he gave into the dark side.

Padme neither condemns nor condones Anakin's actions due to the situation and her own feelings. Obi Wan would be sympathetic, but would throw the jedi code at Anakin while also neglecting to report the situation to the council. Palpatine of course would offer assurance and tell him that he did nothing wrong. Here Anakin would confess to what it felt to use the dark side and that a part of him enjoyed what he did. Palpatine then tells Anakin that he may need to call upon that anger again one day and not to reject it, one day he may need his hate to make him strong regardless of what the jedi say.

This would plant into Anakin the idea that being good and staying on the light side won't save his loved ones. But being dark sided could give him that power, something that Palpatine waters over the course of the clone wars until Episode III. It would be small transforming moment where good guy Anakin starts to slip towards the dark side which would snowball into his actions in Episode III.

Instead, Anakin slaughters every tusken in the camp and goes on a maniacal rant about it looking like a crazy person. I'd forgive you if you thought that Anakin had already turned to the dark side here. Becoming a sith lord, taking the name Darth Vader and killing the jedi was just a formality. Of course, I know Anakin only killed the tuskens because they kidnapped and tortured his mother to death, but that doesn't change how its too soon in Anakin's story to do something this dark and bleak.

By tempering down the tusken raider event, it still has the same broad strokes and effect as in canon. However, there would still be room to show that this was Anakin being driven to a wall and was not an action that good guy Anakin would normally do. Combine this with earlier scenes of Anakin being a kind hearted, selfless young man trying to do good and strive for the right thing and this would help make Anakin's eventual fall to the dark side sad and shocking.

For a character like Anakin, his fall to the dark side should come as a shock and surprise to the audience. They should look at Anakin in Episode I and II and be unable to comprehend how this good hearted kid could ever fall to the dark side. They should want him to overcome whatever inner darkness is simmering in him and be given hope that Anakin will prevail. They should wail with frustration and sorrow when Anakin succumbs to his inner darkness and becomes Darth Vader.

In short, Anakin needed to be more of a hero to make the tragedy part stronger.

The Romance

The romance arc between Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala was entertainingly bad at worst and dull at best.

At this point in my life, I can say it's far from the worst love story I've ever seen. Everyone's gone into its problems and I won't add too much here. I do appreciate the love story for following through on its tragic set up and build up. There was no way that love would prevail here with Anakin being fated to become Darth Vader.

I guess for me, I was never really sold on them being in love apart from the story telling us that they're in love. Anakin and Padme meet when he's a kid and she's a teen. He's neither old enough to be interested in girls nor is he old enough to be considered a viable romantic partner by Padme. They were just really good friends who bonded over a crisis and then he helped free her planet.

Then they never see or talk to each other for ten years. They're brought back together where Anakin starts talking about how he's obsessed and thought about her everyday. It then turns out that Padme has felt the same and they decided to be in love. Let me get this straight, they spend a few days together, kiss twice and decide to get married.

Now some defenders chalk up Anakin's awkward actions, stares and corny lines to being inexperienced with love. Which I can definitely identify with and many of us can do the same when we feel strongly for someone, but don't know how to express it. Perhaps if the dialogue wasn't made to be efficient filler in between the action scenes, I could get behind this defense.

Still, there's a difference between being inexperienced and being in love with someone you haven't seen for ten years...when you were a child. That's obsession. Anakin was in love with a shadow and a thought. Did Anakin really know Padme Amidala? Can you be in love with someone who you don't truly know? Was Anakin in love with Padme or just the idea of being in love with someone? A smarter story would explore this distinction, but not this one.

Still a bigger problem was that Lucas introduced the whole concept of "Celibate Jedi" for the sake of giving the romance a "forbidden edge". Except that this was never brought up in Episode 1 or the Previous trilogy and neither Old Ben nor Yoda had any qualms about training the child of a jedi. It could be because of desperation, but it can be heavily inferred that the celibate jedi concept didn't exist until Episode 2 and this along with other problems with the Jedi Order that I discussed in a previous essay don't do the romance any favors.

In fact, introducing this element and the age restriction thing makes the Jedi look like some kind of closed off cult. Once you're in the Order, you can't have any relationships outside of the order which means you're cut off from your family and culture. Your identity is now molded into whatever your instructors tell you to become without any choice on your part. Your life is laid out before you by a strict code and it was a life that the typical jedi youngling must take on without any choice.

I know that some will say that a Jedi can leave anytime like Count Dooku did. However, Dooku was the exception rather than the norm due to his unique personality and perspective. It also helps that he was the heir to a noble house ruling a whole planet, so he has a life to go to when he leaves. The average jedi would have nothing if they left, no friends, no family, no money or shelter, and it's not guaranteed that the jedi will give them vital skills with which they can gain meaningful employment.

Not to mention with all of the indoctrination that the jedi kids had to go through, few of them would ever think of leaving. They've been brainwashed into uncritically accepting the jedi way of life to where the option to leave the order would be unthinkable. Even Ahsoka only left the order because of extreme and unique circumstances and before then, she was happy and eager to be a jedi.

Anakin's only able to resist indoctrination because he already had an identity before he joined the Order. An identity and personality that he maintains despite all efforts to prune them out of him. But Anakin's desire for meaningful and loving relationships is viewed as a bad thing by the jedi and so he has to hide his love for Padme. If anything, this set up makes it seem like the Jedi pushed Anakin to the dark side through trying to isolate him from his own humanity like they did the other jedi. It's not what George intended, but good luck inferring this from the movie.

Furthermore, why would Padme be resistant to a relationship? There's never been any law that restricted senators from marrying or having relationships, hell the ancient roman senators were the biggest hedonists in town. Greek city state senators, warlords, kings and so on of many levels of power all had sex slaves, lovers and concubines for their pleasure and to make as many kids as possible.

If we're going with the whole "celebate jedi angle" (which is inherently flawed in the context of star wars and I'm glad that Lucas EU Luke eventually threw out that rule), then what's wrong with having Padme be the "temptress" and the metaphorical Eve for Anakin? Anakin has feelings, but he doesn't want to act on them out of duty while Padme encourages him that he can still have a heart and still be a good jedi. Padme sees that Anakin is unhappy and lonely and so she wants to help him by loving him and showing him that he's not alone or unloved.

While well-intentioned and wholesome on her part, this does unintentionally open a floodgate in Anakin which eventually causes him to lose control of his emotions and do something cruel like kill a helpless enemy like Asajj Ventress and it makes him doubt himself. Padme is there to help him and tells him that he's not a bad person and that he's just human. But Anakin gets the wrong message and decides that using the dark side isn't bad and only after it's too late does Padme sadly realize that she unknowingly pushed Anakin towards the dark side.

We should've seen something more organic like in the original trilogy. Or, have a slightly older Anakin and Padme hit it off really well with strong romantic chemistry between them in Episode I. But due to important matters like the Naboo crisis and Anakin joining the jedi, they can't do anything at the moment. But they'd definitely have each other's affection and respect by the movie's end which would grow into a full on romance in Episode II and turn to tragedy in Episode III.

In fact, I'd have Padme gamble her freedom in the podrace so that Shmi Skywalker is saved. Qui Gon would tell her that he could only free Anakin and Padme decides to fix that. Padme sees how much Anakin loves his mother and how it would destroy him to leave her in bondage while he is freed. So Padme goes to Watto and gambles her own freedom against Shmi's freedom if Anakin wins the podrace.

This would be a moment that shows Padme's compassion for others and when Anakin eventually finds out, he'd be deeply grateful to Padme since risking her freedom liberated his mother. Maybe Padme would even offer Shmi a job as a handmaiden for the queen or when Shmi chooses to stay of her own free will, Padme gives her some valuables that she could sell to get enough money to get her own moisture farm and start a new life.

It's a small change and doesn't change the overall plot really. But it would be something that jumpstarts Anakin's affection and love for Padme. He'd see that Padme respects him as a human being rather than just as a slave or as a tool. He would be loyal to Padme and would want to return the favor which would motivate him to go to the Battle of Naboo and do what he could to help free Padme's people just like she and Qui gon freed him and his mother.

Another misstep was cutting the Rebel Alliance subplot for Padme Amidala.

In short, this was a series of scenes for Revenge of the Sith where Padme is discussing the current political state of the Republic with Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and other senators. They and other critics of Palpatine are concerned about him holding executive powers indefinitely and start considering contingencies. These contingencies would eventually lead to the Rebel Alliance's creation in the Original Trilogy.

But George Lucas cut out this subplot because he thought it would detract from Anakin's storyline. Which is directly contradicted with how Palpatine is using Padme's objection to Palpatine's executive powers to make a rift between Padme and Anakin. Which in turn would start to make Anakin consider the idea that Padme will betray him to Obi-Wan. This would also tragically culminate in Anakin choking Padme believing that she brought Kenobi to him on Mustafar to kill him.

Another reason cutting subplot was a mistake is that Padme basically has nothing to do in Revenge of the Sith. Yeah, she can't exactly run around and be a badass gun fighter while pregnant with twins. But it's not exactly great to see Padme sitting on the sidelines crying about Anakin compared to her actions in the first two movies.

Having Padme play a role in the pre planning of the Rebel Alliance heightens Padme's importance to the Star Wars saga. It's the organization that will fight and destroy the Empire where the Jedi failed. It's the Rebellion which her children Leia and Luke would lead to ultimate victory over the Empire. In the novel, Padme gave Organa, Mon Mothma and the other allies key advice about hiding out and not openly defying Palpatine's new empire until the time was right.

In a tragic sense, Padme Amidala has to watch the Republic that she helped create turn into an Empire. But she would be morally vindicated by the Alliance she helped make and by her twins as they destroy the Empire. Then Luke would go on to rebuild the Jedi Order which her husband had been apart of. Her daughter would help rebuild a New Republic to continue the good that the Old Republic had made.

Also, this could be a rift for Padme and Anakin that tests their relationship. Both Anakin and Padme are loyal to the Republic in their own way. Both have their criticisms of the Republic and different ideas on how to make things right. Padme wants to correct the system from within by pruning out bad or corrupt aspects and upholding good and lawful ones. Anakin wants to make things right by throwing out the system and replacing it with one based on control and power.

Then as the story progresses, both realize for different reasons that the current state of the Republic is too inflexible for change. So they would clash about how where they think the Republic should go. Anakin would be more in favor of a stronger executive branch akin to dictatorship like Palpatine is doing. Meanwhile, Padme would start to sympathize with the non-evil and non-corporate elements of the Separatists and believe that the Republic needs to kick out Palpatine or abolish the Republic and any galactic government entirely since it's doing more harm than good.

We kind of get this in the films, but not really. In Episode II, Anakin and Padme do discuss the senate and Anakin reveals that he supports a fascist dictatorship. However, that scene is written off in a way that it looks like Anakin's joking around with Padme. In Episode III, Padme probes Anakin and wonders if the Republic has indeed fallen. Anakin accuses her of being a senator, but Padme stands her ground and insists that the Clone Wars was a result of the Republic's failure to communicate and listen.

In fact, I think Anakin and Padme's relationship would improve if Anakin played devil's advocate about her opposition to a Republic military. He'd point out how Naboo was invaded because it didn't have an army and was only saved by allying with the Gungan army. So it's only prudent to have an army and not need it than to need one and not have it.

Padme would counter with how creating a military would signal escalation and would make peace with the Separatists more difficult. Also, a military would be able to wield undue power and influence over the system to where they could intimidate the senate into doing what they wanted. The military could also be used to make the chancellor a dictator and what the military would do after any war would be a great concern.

Anakin may point out that the Jedi had an army against the Sith and disbanded it when the wars were over. So Anakin would say that the new military would do the same and remain inactive unless nedded. Padme would acknowledge this and point out that few people in the galaxy are as noble and selfless as the jedi. Being in command of an army is a lot of power and few people will readily give up power, even for the good of others.

I guess I'm bringing this in because it would be an opportunity for Anakin and Padme to get to know each other through discussing something that they both care about. They would initially bond over their mutual love of the Republic and splinter over what they believe and how they'd react to the Republic's fall and transformation into an Empire.

Then when talk about a new Empire appears, Anakin would embrace it since an empire would get things done. Padme would strongly disagree and start fermenting ideas and talks that would lead to the Rebellion in the Old Trilogy. Anakin may discover this and would be conflicted between his love for Padme and his loyalty to Palpatine. Tragically, he'd pick Palpatine since he believes that serving the dark side would be for everyone's greater good. But all that would do is drive Padme away from him and the rest would be history.

And yes, we did kind of get this in the Third Movie considering their tragic end, but not as well as it could have been. Keeping the Rebel Alliance subplot would've been a step in the right direction for Padme's character and for her relationship with Anakin. Once more, we get the tragedy element in droves, but we don't quite get the romantic aspect of this tragic romance.

After all, tragic romances always have happy endings.

Temptation and Tragedy

I will acknowledge that I like the element of temptation present with Anakin' story.

I do enjoy how Anakin's ambition, desire to be a powerful hero and need to protect his loved ones are twisted and inverted against him. A few execution issues aside, Anakin's tragedy was a great element of the Prequel story and was one of the reasons why Revenge of the Sith was so great. It's almost Shakespearean in a sense when you think about it.

In the Original Trilogy, Luke Skywalker wasn't really tempted to the dark side at all. Note that I'm not pointing this out as a flaw or criticism of the Original Trilogy. I'm just bringing this up as a point of comparison between the stories of Luke and Anakin. While Anakin was actually seduced, tempted and tricked into turning to the dark side, this element of temptation was absent in Luke's story.

If anything, Vader and Palpatine were just trying to threaten and bully Luke to the dark side. They threatened his life and his friends if he didn't convert; they tried to tell him about how powerful the dark side would make Luke if he submitted; and they each offered Luke a chance to rule the Empire and the Galaxy at their side.

But Luke wasn't afraid to die, so threatening him with submission or death was always going to fail. Even at his lowest point in Bespin, Luke would've rather died than join Darth Vader. Luke partook in the Death Star run when it was basically a suicide mission. He fought on the front lines of the Galactic Civil War as leader of Rogue Squadron. He even calmly went to the confrontation with the Emperor accepting the idea that he'd die when the Rebels destroyed the second Death Star.

While Luke did care about his friends, Luke learned from his impulsiveness on Bespin. He learned to have faith in the abilities and capabilities of Han, Leia and the others. So he just had to hold faith in his friends to overcome the threat laid upon them by Vader. A faith which proved valid and vindicated when Han and Leia destroyed the Endor shield generator and Lando and Wedge destroyed the Second Death Star. It also helps that Luke's bonds with his friends and sister was what was anchoring him to the light side despite all of his hardships, more on this later.

Luke also never wanted to dominate or rule anything or anyone. He was a humble soul who never sought power for power's sake. He yearned more for adventure and self-discovery than for the power of the Force. And when he did get power, he only used it to help others and was very reserved with calling upon the Force unless necessary and only in a way that didn't hurt people.

For instance, Luke could've easily wiped out the ewoks when they captured him and the others. Considering that the ewoks were trying to cook and eat them, Luke would've completely justified in using self defense for himself and his friends. But instead he used the force to make C3PO look like a deity and that made the ewoks let the others go and that put out the conflict to where rebels and ewoks eventually became allies.

So when Vader and the Emperor tempt Luke with the power of the dark side and control of the whole galaxy, it's really not hard for Luke to just say no.

Temptation only works if the individual is taunted with something that they actually want. Being tempted with lots of money in exchange for selling out a friend doesn't work if you don't need money or aren't hurting for money. Being tempted to commit a crime isn't hard to resist if there isn't any urgency that may make you consider putting aside your morals and values.

On the other hand, there's lots of stories of people who were on bad times and needed money. So they joined gangs and became criminals because they felt like they had no other way. There's also stories of people in similar situations who were really tempted to do something illegal or shameful if it alleviated their financial woes. But ultimately, they stood their ground and worked through a difficult path to find a better way.

So for Anakin, I can completely understand why he would be tempted to join the Dark Side of the Force. We're talking about a former slave whose spent most of his life under someone else's control and authority. Anakin just wants to live his life by his term and use his abilities to do good for others. But there's always something in the way like Watto, the Jedi Code, the Republic's weakness or from his point of view, his own weakness.

Add to that the stress of the Clone Wars; his unresolved grief over the death of his mother; worrying about Padme and their relationship; his growing frustration with the Jedi, the Republic and his own life; and Palpatine grooming him and being his false friend and mentor, yeah Anakin has an uphill battle to deal with. I can definitely see how Anakin would be vulnerable to temptation and how its logical for hi to fall to that temptation.

Anakin wants control of his own life and he wants the power to keep that control. Anakin wants to make his loved ones safe and he wants to make the galaxy a better place, so he'd want power to do that. Anakin doesn't just want to be a good jedi, he wants to be the most heroic and most powerful jedi to have ever been born and getting power can help him do that. Anakin wants the power to keep people from dying and the dark side is supposedly a pathway to do just that.

Ironically, Anakin's ambition and desire for control and power actually gave him tunnel vision. Anakin could have chosen to leave the Jedi Order entirely and so live his relationship with Padme publicly and without shame. He could still help the Republic as a key technician or even a general in the military. Anakin could have found a jedi healer and told them to watch over Padme so that she doesn't die from childbirth complications. Perhaps he could have gone to Obi-Wan for help and accepted any consequences that came with uncovering his secrets.

The problem is that doing these or other options would require Anakin to give something up or relinquish control to another. While this could be seen as putting a healthy amount of trust in others, Anakin would see it as weakness. Anakin wants everything, he wants to be with Padme, control his own life, make the galaxy better, and be the best the Jedi ever. Leaving the order means giving up his dream and Anakin is too ambitious to give up the things that he wants.

So he wants to hold everything and in the end Anakin is left with nothing.

He ends up betraying and destroying the Jedi Order; he helps create an Empire that will make galaxy a horrible place to live and kill trillions of innocent people; he loses all of his friends; and his wife dies because of his anger and her grief at what Anakin became for her sake. Anakin even loses his body and his soul, having the spend the rest of his life cast in a dark side armor under constant pain and self hatred. Living on as a cyborg revenant at the constant mercy and command of his tempter and corrupter, able to be disposed of at any moment by the Emperor with Vader unable to do anything but abide by his master's will.

All of which would be better if George had committed to an additional tragedy

Did Anakin fail the Jedi or did the Jedi fail Anakin?

As I mentioned in part 1, it's strange that George can't make up his mind on the Jedi's role in this whole tragedy. Without EU material, it's hard to tell on whether George intended for the Jedi to be flawless paragons brought low by betrayal or if the Jedi were meant to be well intended but flawed actors whose failures helped the Republic and for Anakin to fall. Even if you try to say that both are true, you'd be right, but the movies don't solidly support this either because they can't make up their mind.

What makes this especially strange is that the Revenge of the Sith novel very directly states that the Jedi failed the Republic and Anakin. The author Matthew Stover stated that Lucas had personally looked over and edited the novel before its release and included stuff from his screenplay. This included dialogue, exposition, word selection and so on as though George not only wanted the novel to most definitely line up with the movie, but also with his conception of Episode III.

To quote Matthew Stover himself, “What's in that book is there because Mr. Lucas wanted it to be there. What's not in that book is not there because Mr. Lucas wanted it gone. Period.”

In the novel, Yoda reflects on the Jedi Order during his fight with Palpatine and while meditating on Polis Massa. He acknowledges that the Jedi were beaten by the sith before the Clones ever started because the jedi were prepared for the wrong war. The Jedi had become complacent, stagnant and inflexible and expected the Sith to be the same as they were a thousand years ago. Meanwhile, the Sith had constantly changed and adapted to the realities of the galaxy and so they were able to manipulate the game board to where they controlled even the Jedi.

The Jedi could have stopped the Clone Wars from happening if they had done more to stand up or speak out against the Republic's corruption and weakness. Instead the Jedi did nothing and gave complicit acceptance to the Republic's fall through their silence and inaction. They could have tried to negotiate peaceful co-existence between the Republic and the Confederacy. Instead, they completely sided with the Republic without trying to understand or empathize with why thousands of systems wanted to leave the Republic.

Hell, the Jedi could have stayed out of the Clone Wars entirely and continued to advocate for peace rather than galactic war. They could have instead put all of their energy towards finding the Sith Lords with the idea that capturing and killing the sith would end the war since they're controlling both sides. This would've been deep unpopular with the people and senate, but would be validated when Sidious is eventually exposed and Palpatine either arrested, killed or forced to go into hiding.

In that same vein, the Jedi could have been more welcoming and understanding of Anakin. The reason why Anakin fell to the dark side was because the Jedi was too stagnant and set in their ways to be able to handle an unorthodox jedi like Anakin. If the Jedi had been able to see things from his perspective and perhaps explore the roots of his volatile emotions, then Anakin would've been far less vulnerable to the dark side.

Instead, the Jedi shunned and rebuked Anakin for just being himself. Obi-Wan was the only jedi who truly tried to empathize with Anakin, but could only go so far because Kenobi himself was a leader of the Jedi Order and had to stay somewhat neutral between the council and Anakin. Anakin was friendless with the exception of Kenobi and so he sought for companionship with Padme and Palpatine. Palpatine saw a chance to make Anakin reliant on him for emotional support and used their bond to turn Anakin against the Jedi and to groom him to eventually join the Sith.

So it's really odd to me that George would acknowledge the Jedi's failure with the official novelization that he helped edit and was based on his screenplay. But then almost none of this is ever shown or reflected on in the movies. Thus, any aesop that's supposed to validate or condemn the Jedi is incomplete because not enough is there to support it.

The Jedi were right about Anakin's anger turning him to the dark side, but they did nothing to address the source of that anger. The Original Trilogy clearly shows that love will save you from the dark side. But the Prequel Trilogy seems to imply and show that love will lead you to the dark side. Audience's can point out plenty of faults in the Jedi way and their actions, but the movies are largely silent about these things. There isn't even enough to argue that the issue is being left up for interpretation by the audience because there's too many conflicting and contradictory pieces to try to fit together.

I think that Anakin's story and the story of the Prequels would've been stronger if George had brought in more stuff from his interviews and novels into the actual movies. At the very least, the audience could understand the Jedi's point of view and have a clearer picture of who all is responsible for the events that unfold. It would also be brave to show that even good guy factions aren't perfect and would introduce nuance and grayness without undermining the objective good vs evil dichotomy that Star Wars is based on.

In Conclusion

So to reiterate, there's a lot of characterization stuff with Anakin that doesn't work. But the temptation and tragedy elements are the strongest elements of Anakin's character development. I like the idea of Anakin starting with humble origins and a lot of potential that's forced down by his unfortunate life realities. If the other elements were reworked and changed, then the strong stuff would be stronger.

However, I think the problems with Anakin's story comes from George telling us about Anakin rather than showing us. Rather then showing Anakin train his ass off to become the most powerful jedi ever, George invents Midichlorians and prophecies to tell us that Anakin is already awesome and powerful. Instead of showing Anakin and Padme fall in love in a wholesome, heartwarming and organic way, they're forced together and we have to be told that they're in love.

It all culminates into Anakin being so central to the prequel trilogy and the Star Wars universe that he becomes an anchor that pulls everything else down with him. George could have made Anakin the main character of the Prequel trilogy and important to the story of course. But Anakin needed to be an important, but smaller part of a larger story rather than being the most important piece over all others.

I'll give credit to George for being willing to make a tragic character the main character of the Prequel Trilogy. It would've been easy for George to play things safe and have Anakin be mind controlled into becoming evil. Instead, he allowed Anakin to fall by his own choices and wanted to show the audience how that fall occurred. A reminder that the potential of good and evil exists in us all and while Luke choose good, his father Anakin chose evil.

I could go on and on about how the Prequels could have been different than what we had. However, we have to ask at the end of the day if what we got was worthwhile or not?

I'd say that it was flawed, but overall good.

Above all else, George Lucas tried.

Even when he missed the mark, George Lucas was clearly trying to tell a deep story the way he wanted to tell it. A story that he didn't originally want to direct because he knew his limitations, but went through it anyway because he was the only one who could. A story that resonates well with both those who love the Prequels and even those who criticize and dislike them.

Sure the plot and characters weren't perfect at all. But there was enough present to where you can pick out and appreciate the message the George was trying to convey. Even the themes of the prequels are really applicable to both real life and current events without being too obvious or forced. That's because George understood that themes within storytelling need to be both relatable and applicable to the universal human experience.

It's the kind of sincerity that I miss about George even at his worst. “Insert Holiday Special Flashbacks”

The fact that so many people enjoy and defend the Prequels shows that a lot of people were inspired and entertained enough to want to stand against the hatedom. In the current day, I doubt that my mixed review will change anyone's minds or won't confirm what they already knew or believed. The Prequel Trilogy will remain a tale that someone will love and that some will hate. As a work of art, this is to be expected as some works of art are inherently divisive and no one will truly agree on it because they see the same thing and different thoughts are brought to their minds.

It may seem very odd to some of you that I've spent so much time typing and writing about the flaws of the Prequels when I admit that I like them. Or that I liked the Prequels even before Disney started sinking the ship. Though I will acknowledge that Disney's missups did give me a higher appreciation for how good I and other fans had it under Lucas in spite of missteps like Midichlorians or the taxation of the trade routes.

My ultimate takeaway about the Phantom Menace, the Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is that they're good movies with deep ideas that weren't well translated or conveyed. The people who love these movies love them because they love Star Wars and enjoyed what they saw. The people who criticized, hated or were mixed about the Prequels also love Star Wars and thought that it deserved or could been better. So in the end, everyone wins because we all love Star Wars and can cross the aisle and share that love despite our disagreements and bickering.

And as long we can still do that then we can all be friends right? It's not like anyone would ever intentionally make a divisive Star Wars movie and deliberately paint the fanbase against itself while gaslighting critics with hypocritical politics that you don't actually believe in and are only pushing out to try and sell your brand to the naive masses-

Oh wait, I'm the darkest timeline!

“Inhales...”

Soon...

Very Soon...

THE END

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hypergamyconfessions · 2 years

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“a lot of hypergamy girls don't realize that these men aren't stupid, they can see right through some basic literature quoting and posturing, and a lot of these circles also don't value intellectual rigor.”

So with regards to this point mentioned by anon let’s primarily keep in mind that all affluent circles are different. What they value will differ based on location, culture, upbringing, age demographic, often their religious views or lack there of. We can debate on this point for days on end about what we’ve encountered in different affluent circles and what rules we feel apply. There will be commonalities, but also a lot of differences in terms of what is valued.

Especially when we get niche specific, what I mean by niche specific is when you’re targeting affluent circles within different industries such as (business, tech, finance,science,medicine) or weather you’re wanting to break into clubs centred around hobbies such as (sailing,golfing,horse riding,art,academia, cycling) Different sets of rules will always apply from one circle to another for example if you become a member of the explorers club, you’ll come to find out that the people there value intellectual rigour and a curiosity for knowledge, because that is their ethos so you’ll easily build relationships there if that is a genuine interest of yours.

Anon is 100% correct though they can see through posturing. So in conclusion the key to overcoming this hurdle and successfully breaking into certain affluent circles in my opinion is to

1.) Get niche specific so that you’re building relationships with like minded people initially based off of your shared interests.

2.) Ensure this is a genuine interest and passion of yours, if it isn’t it will be easily detectable. You don’t have to know everything about what you’re interested in just a willingness to learn.

3.) Observe. Observe. Observe, humans are easily readable and what separates a unsuccessful social climber to a successful one is the ability to observe, learn and understand the environment you’re in to avoid making certain faux pas.

4.) If the circle you’re attempting to break into aren’t looking to expand their network to more people and are intent on gatekeeping, do not embarrass yourself by trying mold yourself to fit in with them. Just move on it’s never that deep

5.) Remember that every single person is or was a social climber in high society, they presently might not be but their great grandmother was. So there is absolutely no reason for you to be intimidated by them when most of them are just masking their insecurities underneath their Burberry coats.

6) Focus on finding your tribe of both affluent men and women who’s company you enjoy, rather than performing like a circus monkey to appeal to a group of people you don’t even like. Start with yourself and think about the kind of people you’d enjoy socialising with. The world is evolving at an extremely rapid pace. As someone in both business and tech, I can tell you that the number of millionaires keeps increasing by the day, so there is a man and a circle out there for you!

Thank you for coming to my Tedtalk 😂

THIS. IS. THE. BEST. ADVICE. EVER.

And I agree with absolutely everything you said. 😊

Very very true that every single circle is going to have its nuances so flexibility and ability to read a room is so incredibly important!

Also LOVE that you mentioned the importance of actually socializing with people you have shared interests with! Getting invited to exclusive events is great and all but if it means surrounding yourself with people you have nothing in common with, it's going to feel like torture.

Thank you for your Tedtalk. I loved it. It was incredibly enlightening.

💙

#hypergamyconfessions #black hypergamy #black woman femininity #black women in leisure #sugaring #hypergamy #sugar dating #spoiled girlfriend #spoiled gf #trophy wives #This is my favorite ask ever

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sapphicwhxre · 3 years

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ASTERIA'S 2.5K FOLLOWER FIC REC LIST

i read fics just as much as i write them so here are some of my favourites. tysmsm for this milestone, i love you all <3 quick note: i didn't re-tag anyone if i recommended more than one of your works because of the tag limit.

───────── girls ─────────

hermione granger

tuesdays - @stupxfy

probably one of my all time favs for hermione. it's just so well written and adorable and fluffy and yes.

if i could tell her - @hellounicorn

pining, pining, PINING. the way these emotions and hermione's described is just... art. perfection. there's a happy ending and it is so worth the build up.

darling dearest - @dracolvr

fluffy goodness. read to be hopelessly in love with hermione ─ which, let's be real, we all are.

november rain - @pansydaisy

uhm i love this one sm. it's so simple but amazing ─ everyone has their days like this and having hermione to cure them? it's what everyone needs.

i need more - @15-dogs

i sobbed the first time i read this. it'll break your heart but it's so amazingly written that it's worth the sadness. actual gut wrenching / mindblowing writing.

how the potter girls react to you in lingerie - @pottersanime

the title. need i say more?

honeyed eyes - @minty-malfoy

HEAVEN. being hermione's first kiss as friend? but both of you idiots liking each other? oh my god, sign me up.

hugging her from behind - @pastanest

again, the title. read to feel 🥺💙

grey days - @pepperimps01

PANSMIONE 😌😌 it's angsty with a happy ending and i love it sm. this does such a perfect job of capturing pansy and hermione's relationship growing and having its ups and downs with just a few paragraphs. honestly so good

grenade - @hellounicorn

another one that'll make your heart shatter. but in the best way. these are the fics i live for where the you can't help but feel like it's really happening to you and hermione and god it's so fucking powerful. underrated writing right here in general. and also pansmione is the loml so it hurts in that way.

honeybees - @pansydaisy

fluffy aesthetic heaven.

lead the way - @teacup-tai

more pansmione but this is pure filthy thinking and satisfies all the sexual tension dreams pansmione shippers have.

two queens in a king sized bed - @shysneeze

domestic christmas morning with hermione and it's angelic.

would you still love me if i turned into a worm? - @minty-malfoy

one of those blurbs i never imagined i'd read or love so much. not to mention it's spot on and adorable.

pansy parkinson

right and wrong - @starrkidmalfoy

a first kiss and the overdone trope that i will never get sick of, the bitch who's soft only for you. the descriptions in this are perfection and the writing is beautiful <3

messed up - @writseo

toxic, messed up love fics will be the death of me. insane how well you captured it all and i just yes damn fucking props.

pansy parkinson imagine - @moonlight-imagines

*screams* THE BEST FRIEND BANTER + THE ENDING OH MY GOD OH MY GOD ─ I SCREAMED WHEN I FIRST READ THIS. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT.

dating pansy would include - @lotsoffandomimagines

ABSOLUTE POWER COUPLE SHIT and to this day, pansy saying "jealous much?" when being scolded for pda remains iconic.

grey days - @pepperimps01

as i said before: PANSMIONE 😌😌 it's angsty with a happy ending and i love it sm. this does such a perfect job of capturing pansy and hermione's relationship growing and having its ups and downs with just a few paragraphs. honestly so good

new rules - @silversslytherin

excuse me this is immaculate ─ pansy is the best friend and the second you see that she's also the best s/o, you're done for. perfection.

study "dates" - @turning-dreams-into-chaos

the title is self explanatory and this whole thing is fluffy heaven <3

how the potter girls react to you in lingerie - @pottersanime

read the title, thank me later.

lead the way - @teacup-tai

more pansmione but this is pure filthy thinking and satisfies all the sexual tension dreams pansmione shippers have.

traitor - @hufflepuff-writings

a masterpiece where pansy chooses the wrong side in the battle of hogwarts. this ties up so well and the writing is so powerful.

back alley love potions - @a-simple-imagine

this actually hurts but in a beautiful way. watching pansy give draco a love potion is such a fucking concept and this is executed incredibly.

my little bunny - @emmamarie7708

pansy making you do this is so dirty yet she's slightly sweet and i am a sucker for it. god is a woman and her name is pansy fucking parkinson.

pansy parkinson imagine - @moonlight-imagines

i'll let pansy beat people up for me all day. they put me in madame pomfrey's, feel my girlfriend's wrath.

ginny weasley

blissful - @enyastasia

fluffy ginny goodness. the friends to lovers? the amazing kiss? 🥺🥺🥺💞💞 this fic lives in my heart <3

bubble pop electric - @hunnypot-imagines

this is hotter than a lot of actual smut and the chemistry is so... wow. ginny weasley owns me.

dear ginny - @alyssamalfoy

how does this short ass letter manage to make me feel so much. it's sorcery but i don't even care, it's beautiful.

wildflower - @pansydaisy

will i ever get tired of cheeky i love yous? not when loves like ginny weasley and ayli's so so pretty writing exist.

all i want - @hellounicorn

ouch. fuck you harry :) quite possibly the best ginny fic i have ever read. insanely talented writing, i genuinely feel every touch of emotion you put down and you need to know how amazing that is. keep breaking my heart.

linny hcs - @bluebirdlinginthenest

who doesn't need good linny content in their life?

how the potter girls react to you in lingerie - @pottersanime

sexy bitch, fuck me up.

willow - @padmeamiala

ginny is the loml. her brothers can cry about it.

bellatrix lestrange

attempting to bake with bellatrix - @carters-coffee

MY FAVOURITE BELLA FIC ─ there's not enough bellatrix fluff out there but this makes up for the lack of. heaven.

bellatrix prompt - @carters-coffee

this gives me chills. she knows she's a bad bitch and that's what we love about her.

change of plans - @dumb-sbian

why THE FUCK have i not had a rainy morning with bellatrix? she can sleep and mumble something just like this and i'm still head over heels for her.

being tortured as bellatrix's girlfriend - @writings-of-a-british-fangirl

definitely a concept BUT this makes me feel some type of way and i recommend giving it a minute of your time 😌

bellatrix finding out you're a muggleborn - @carters-coffee

the beauty, the nuance omg. this is art.

bellatrix prompt - @carters-coffee

yep jealous bella. trust me, im all yours mommy <3

sex with bellatrix would include - @onegayastronaut

so short but... sign. me. up.

luna lovegood

never leave - @/deactivated

luna smut is hard asf to come by and this is my favourite. it's so luna and the pain over her not knowing, not getting that closure about how you feel until this is an amazing rollercoaster.

she - @hunnypot-imagines

the beauty of falling in love with luna, through this majorly talented writing. ten out of fucking ten. i will not elaborate but there's also majorly good association in this imo.

silver berries and flickering fireflies - @duskgrangers

i love this fic so much. she's so herself and that is why we ✨ simp ✨ and the scene set just sounds so prettyy

how the potter girls react to you in lingerie - @pottersanime

luna + this title? yes please, ma'am i am simping.

would you still love me if i turned into a worm? - @minty-malfoy

put me in your pocket luna. im begging you.

dancing in the rain with luna - @/deactivated

only luna would get you a dress to go dancing in the rain and this is the stuff of blissful, fluffy dreams.

hugging her from behind - @pastanest

short and cute, do me a favour and read it :)

dating luna lovegood would go like - @glossymalfoy

life is NOT worth it if you don't read these cute little headcanons and imagine dating ravenclaw's baddest bitch.

linny hc - @bluebirdlinginthenest

like i said, who doesn't need good linny content?

cho chang

strawberry kisses - @pansydaisy

the only cho fic i've been able to find and it's SO WORTH IT. the cutest, it flows so well, and i absolutely love it. i need this with cho tbh.

fleur delacour

toutes les etoiles - @coffee--writes

im in love with fleur and this amazing writing. and for the first time since i started high school, my three years of taking french feel good for something.

being best friends with fleur would include - @harrypotter-imaginess

not romantic but actually so sweet pls. i want this friendship in my life so bad.

nymphadora tonks

dating nymphadora tonks would include - @imaginesforgirls

dating her + that warm little feeling of bliss that only HCs can give you

taking care of her after the war - @random-imagines-blog

this kind of hurts in that good ass way and i lovee it. they're simple hcs but i feel for tonks so much and then there's that warm lil feeling when you're the one to put her back together aand now my primary life goal is to help this woman heal.

───────── boys ─────────

harry potter

phosphenes - @minty-malfoy

ok shakespeare, the fuck?? this fic will never not get me right in the heart. the angst, holy fuck. and for once, the reader doesn't hurt harry and let draco walk all over them and it's just done so well. the transition from a toxic relationship to a sweet, loving one PLEASE. it's beautiful.

happy memories - @15-dogs

how does this manage to be so. smutty and fluffy at the same time? this is one of those short ones that has lived in my head, rent-free since i read it. and tbh any fic that includes expecto patronum is guaranteed to be good.

come back to me - @wondernimbus

right from the beginning, it's a mess of emotions both good and bad. that kind of good ass writing that hits you in the heart <3

making out with harry potter would include - @badfvith

read this title. done? now thank me later.

harry prompt - @thoseofgreatambition

harry x a sarcastic swooning bitch is an elite trope idc. short and sweet, i'm marrying this fic.

keep your eyes on the prize - @rowema-ravenclaw

first of all, showing harry up and second, pure fluff (and a little steam) right after. i also love how she writes harry in general because he's totally safe/in love with the relationship but still has that awkward lovable shyness and i just... *sighs*

always - @pansydaisy

uhm i will always love him and always reread this a thousand times so its a fit title + a good read.

late night studying - @lumosandnoxwriting

fuck studying, let his hand stay in my shirt. once again recommending fluffy bliss in the form of a short read that makes me feel things <3

would you still love me if i turned into a worm? - @minty-malfoy

he's so stupid. but he still loves you + this is from our resident perfectly talented writer so its a win.

cuddling after a rough quidditch practice - @badfvith

harry james potter is : b a b y

gryffindor's victory - @rowema-ravenclaw

make me gryffindors fucking cheerleader because HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT. AND THE WRITING IS IMMACULATE PLEASE. just read it, you won't regret it.

draco malfoy

silent treatment - @slytherinwh0re

andy's mad talented and this is just... insert a cheesy chefs kiss. unbelievably adorable but so fucking hot and an actually good smut plot (which is rare lmfao). remind me to give draco the silent treatment every time im upset.

rewards - @malfoysstilinski

so hot PLS. hype him up for the match and get your reward, bye. so good.

reading between the lines - @minty-malfoy

i've said this a thousand times but that's what happens when you've got a mad talented mutual BLESSING everyone with beauty like this. butterflies and warm feelings all around when i read this 💓

point of view - @draconisxcaput

its angst for hermione and fluff for you but overall ethereal writing. i am never going to recover from the pure talent that this is.

im not kidding im dying - @malfoysmatrioshka

i hate being sick with a passion but this... this would make it worth it.

hogwarts express - @/deactivated

draco fucking you because he knows harry's watching. the shit of legends and god is it hot.

draco laughing at you because you can't walk after sex - @glossymalfoy

*motions to the title* fluff with this loser 😌

the cheeseburger - @slytherinwh0re

really short read but this is one of those things i just. didn't know i needed. you're missing out and haven't even realised it if you haven't read about introducing him to cheeseburgers. and that ending is so funny/in character to me i fucking love it.

four am - @malfoysstilinski

domestic draco 🥺 but also sad draco 🥺 and then fluffy draco 🥺

hugging him from behind - @pastanest

real short and it'll brighten your day <3

would you still love me if i turned into a worm? - @minty-malfoy

how is it that this is so stupidly adorable. i love it 💘

ron weasley

heather - @hellounicorn

always making me cry with your fics i swearrr. this is a must-read. having someone but them not really being yours is a beautiful trope and this fic absolutely does it wonderful, poetic justice. your angst is addicting.

apple pie - @pregnant-piggy

ABSOLUTE DOMESTIC BLISS I AM IN LOVE. i don't even like kids or baking that much but this made me so soft. the whole cozy, heavenly vibes from this fic yes yes yes.

jealousy - @writeroutoftime

cliché jealousy turns friends to lovers and i am a sucker for it all over again <3

shaking and trembling - @ronsbadidea

if ron doesn't finger fuck me and then make a cheeky comment about it in class later then WHAT IS THE POINT :(

mixed signals - @iamthecabbage

i've always figured ron is this awkward idiot cutie with a crush and yea, this is it.

fred and george weasley

i love you, but you don't - @george-fabian-weasley

fred's a character i really don't read for often but goddamn. it's the saddest, most beautiful mix of rejection and pain and fred desperately caring but not in the way you want him to ─ an angsty masterpiece.

cockwarming george - @roonilwazlibimagines

because of this filthy gem, i one hundred thousand percent believe that he could make me cum without even fucking me and this is just... it's a good fucking read.

would you still love me if i turned into a worm? - @minty-malfoy

their responses are so wonderfully chaotic and adorable and GOD you're missing out if you haven't read these lil blurbs.

─

#harry potter x reader #hermione granger x reader #pansy parkinson x reader #luna lovegood x reader #ginny weasley x reader #draco malfoy x reader #fred weasley x reader #george weasley x reader #cho chang x reader #nymphadora tonks x reader #bellatrix lestrange x reader #ron weasley x reader #fleur delacour x reader #harry potter #fic recs #masterlist #smut #fluff #angst

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astrolology · 4 years

Text

The Love-Hate Relationship with Stelliums (Pt. 1) ✨

Guysss pls remember that astrology is holistic and this should be read taking into account your overall chart placements, as well as the planets in your stellium and what sign rules your stellium. TAKE NOTE lol

1st house

❤️: You may be a person who is very driven towards a particular goal, single-minded in behavior and with a sense of determination that is hard to beat. The focus is on self-improvement and is rather internally driven - there can be large amounts of time focused on figuring one’s identity out. You’re not afraid to say things as they are - you’re able to dish out criticism hard but you give credit when its due. You extend the courtesy you receive to others. You may have an innate sense of wisdom that you keep deep within that you don’t let slip unless to extremely close ones but in times of hardship you are a good source of motivation. You always seek to improve yourself and it’s hard (if not impossible) to drag you down because of your strong personality and how you tend to always move on no matter what. I think 1st house stelliums are the embodiment of “don’t look back” and y’all always try to make the best out of every best situation, sort of like seeing the silver lining in everything. And also when crises emerge you’re able to keep a calm head on your shoulders and are good at making snap decisions, which makes you good on your feet!

👹: I don’t think y’all are as self-absorbed as ppl make you out to be but there’s definitely an element of self-centredness such that when you do something, you often consider what is most convenient or productive for you. You might get upset when your plans are disrupted but sometimes do the same to others even though you might be aware of what you’re doing - in that aspect, 1st house stelliums can be hypocritical. For you, there is never enough - you’re never satisfied with anything, be it yourself or for other things so you can seem really unappreciative. Keep in mind that you also tend to force others to agree with you and don’t be so quick to dismiss the other party’s POV no matter how dumb it seems. Remember that there’s always something to learn from other people, no matter their status. You need to work on expressing your appreciation to others in a more genuine manner (altho I know y’all do it in gruff, slightly awkward ways when sincere - kinda cute ngl).

2nd house

❤️: You may be a person who has a strong moral code and has a staunch value system that you won’t deviate from no matter what. Sense of loyalty is usually unbreakable and it can take a lot to truly anger you. You can have a good financial sense and good instincts/foresight that allow you to plan ahead for stability’s sake. More often than not in certain areas you are a master of categorising and structuring things which means that your mind is analytical, critical and (usually) organised. You hate it when people think they know you because you (understandably) know yourself the best - there are many privatised layers of yourself that you prefer to keep... private so yeah it just annoys you when that happens. Y’all are a leader in certain aspects of your life and even though 2nd house stelliums tend to prefer being the right-hand man, your control freak tendencies come out and you end up leading anyway. You become really productive because of the fear of failure - you have crazy high expectations for yourself and expect the same of your closed ones (although ultimately you’ll support them in whatever they do). There is an appreciation for the finer things in life and when it comes to your loved ones you’re not afraid to spoil them hard.

👹: Be careful not to let this driving need for stability restrict you from spontaneity and following your heart’s desire. There is an inherent inflexibility in your nature; stubbornness can really be your kryptonite. You don’t really take any opportunities that you think might threaten your security which, while giving you a stable fort, can hold you back in your own happiness + prosperity. You might realise that there is a limit to your perspective but really struggle in seeing outside of that perspective mainly because you spend so much time thinking about what matters to you that you’ve become accustomed to your train of thought (altho when you do break it it’s lowkey groundbreaking). The focus on this house is on stability, not only on material wealth, so while you may be reaping in one aspect you might tend to lack on the spiritual or emotional elements of life. You can be very, very controlling and demanding so you might want to tone it down a little if not people might get the wrong impression. People might think of you as judgemental (and you are tbh) but I believe it’s just 2nd house stellium’s way of assessing a person’s character/abilities.

3rd house

❤️: You may be a person who puts in a lot of effort into various forms of self-expression (not limited to verbal communication but also finding a specific niche such as music, art, writing etc.) Your brain is naturally sharp and inquisitive and you may be able to pick things up very quickly. You might be rather adaptable but are surprisingly stubborn when it comes to your opinion or intellectual capabilities. You might have a dark/dirty sense of humor and because of that you also have a keen ability to see past the societal nuances of propriety and get to the heart/root of whatever a person is saying. You can spend your entire life trying to understand people and why things work the way they work - your brain needs to be stimulated in order for you to feel alive. Passion for you has to be applied in a productive manner - you probably aren’t a person to just take a passion for something as a mere hobby. Rather, you would either apply that passion to one of your existing projects, create a new one or use it as a motivating factor. Your interests are wide and varied, which makes you really well-rounded in certain aspects!

👹: Many people say y’all are flighty beings and I can certainly see why they would think so. Because of your perceptiveness, you tend to change your narrative whenever you’re speaking to different people, so as to make yourself sound more convincing. In that aspect, you can be quite manipulative. Your ego probably isn’t the smallest either haha - you can tolerate being slighted at some things but if it’s a challenge to one of your passion projects you’ll probably become very upset. You need to stop giving people the hot and cold shoulder all the time and even though you’re quite sociable you tend to flaunt but hide your true thoughts. You have to be more open and honest in your self-expression, and not that idealised, constructed version of yourself you think people will find interesting. I’ve noticed that 3rd house stellium ppl have an obsessive need to “stand out” and make themselves feel unique which, despite all your charms and popularity, might be the reason why you find yourself sometimes so isolated. You’re a perfectionist (although you would deny it) and secretly quite controlling but unlike other stelliums you can manage it better I feel.

4th house

❤️: There is a pressing insistence regarding relationships in your inner circle - be it your family, closest friends, or your future family. Extended focus on your cultural heritage can also be possible. Deep down, compassion is at your core and you are very protective of your friends in a silent but aggressive way. Having a stable family life is very important to you but I’ve noticed that more often than not, 4th house stelliums have turbulent family relationships. The beauty of 4th house stelliums is their ability to break through whatever toxic relationships they’ve been in and to create families of their own - be it unconventional or not. They are the epitome of “we choose our own families”. Y’all can be very empathetic and rather selfless to the point where you allow yourself to be manipulated (even though you’re aware of it) - but it’s usually for a justifiable reason. You find it easier than most to balance the emotional landscape but there are moments where you need an outlet to express yourself. There can be an obsession/possessiveness over your own culture - you take pride in your roots and become lowkey insulted when people disrespect it (and if you don’t, you somehow nearly always manage to find some other culture to assimilate yourself in).

👹: Y’all probably get very upset when things don’t go your way but the problem with this stellium is that there is a want to speak out but you choose to bury everything inside instead - giving you a very passive-aggressive and even aloof image. Internally, you guys might think that you are giving off a very soft/giving aura but some people are wary precisely because you are hard to read. You are very, intensely private (rivalling 2nd/7th house tbh) and you have to learn how to share your true thoughts, no bullshit, no suger-coated thoughts with your family and dearest friends even though you are capable of handling yourself. You are independent, ambitious, and people often underestimate you, but you have to let people in first in order for them to know what you’re capable of! Also, idealisation of certain things (eg. a future family life/partner) can be prevalent and you overthink things to the point where sometimes you make yourself miserable. Again, please talk to someone hahaha you don’t have to deal with everything yourself.

5th house

❤️: Insecurity runs rampant in any 5th house stellium BUT y’all are quite paradoxical in a sense that you also have a very strong aura of confidence. Sometimes, in crucial moments, you manage to convince yourself and others that you are the most important person in the room haha - literally the epitome of “fake it till you make it”. Still, a deeply rooted kindness is found in 5th house stelliums such that you’re always looking out for the underdog in the room. If you are developed you probably have a strong sense of righteousness which prompts you to look out for people who might be struggling. Y’all are very concerned about your physical appearance and most of the time you like to keep your body in good shape, which draws the attention of people in the room. You likely have an infectious smile (this is just a hunch but I don’t believe 5th house stelliums smile a lot - y’all quirk your lips or smirk but a true smile is rare so when you do... it melts the hearts of people). Everything that you do will have a youthful flavor and you have a healthy appreciation for downtime/self-care so while you might not (contrary to popular belief) be that fond of kids, kids are attracted to you. Oh and actually I think the stronger this stellium is in a person, the shyer the person seems at first impression but inwardly and as time goes by, they become more humorous and dramatic.

👹: You aren’t exactly manipulative, but you know how to use the power of suggestion (and your charms) to get what you want. If unchecked, it’ll become a habit because to you, it’s an instinctive thing to do and you might not realise you’re hurting other people because of it. You are stubborn and prideful (which isn’t a bad thing sometimes but) you take criticism quite badly such that if a person tries to offer their opinion or goes against your beliefs, you might take it as a personal attack. You have a fear of being restrained/constricted (like 9th house) so you’re actually quite aggressive to those who you perceive to be a threat to your authority. You can also experience extreme mood swings (from crazy happy/hyper to melancholic in a snap) and when you do you expect people to give you attention. But you are hypocritical in this aspect because you yourself can be quite insensitive to other people’s feelings, or you brush them off if you’re not “in the mood”.

6th house

❤️: You are most probably quite an organised person, not in a tidy way (although you could be) but in matters of life there’s an insistence on order and structure. The way you think can be very logical - you are able to think concisely and connect the dots in a quick manner and logic is probably prevalent in everything you do. However, in contrast to this pragmatic behavior, you are deeply caring and you won’t think twice to give up something if a loved one needs it. You are very disciplined in certain aspects of life and you are able to maintain a consistent effort in everything that you do. You’re probably someone who finds joy in small things and although you have high standards, it doesn’t take much to make you happy, as long as it’s genuine. You can be a perfectionist and really quite meticulous in your work which makes you someone who is detail-orientated. You give a lot of yourself to other people and most of the time you don’t expect anything in return, which is one of the great things about 6th house stelliums. You take effort into maintaining your physical health and you mighttt be a fitness freak or someone who keeps track of their diet really carefully. It’s likely that you encourage other people to follow your lifestyle and generally, you exert a sort of mellow influence around other people that makes them want to be better.

👹: There’s a tendency for 6th house stelliums to fall into pessimism, precisely because of your pragmatic nature. Y’all may say that you’re being “realistic” but in actuality it does dampen the spirits of some people. You can also become really unreasonable and inflexible once you’ve made up your mind on something and that makes you a bit narrow minded because you simply refuse to listen to other people’s POV. This can also cause tunnel vision which can really limit your full potential and I think it’s something worth spending your time working on. When pushed into a corner or feeling insecure, y’all might try to cover it up by being condescending or giving the cold shoulder. There’s also a risk of being overly reliant on a schedule/structure and hence, cautiousness when it comes to being spontaneous or embracing something foreign. Because of your affinity towards maintaining health, your hypochondriac tendencies may be exacerbated and you need to try to lessen your over-worrying behaviour haha. Although you never dish out something you can’t receive (eg. high expectations - you’re truly your worst critic), your demanding tone can really make others cautious of you.

OVERALL, I strongly believe that the way to embrace your stelliums isn’t to reject or force yourself to change the values they represent, but rather taking those eccentricities and moulding it into something more precious and beneficial to yourself. It has to be done with a thorough understanding of yourself; with patience.

-C

#astrology #astro notes #astro observations #1st house stellium #2nd house stellium #3rd house stellium #4th house stellium #5th house stellium #6th house stellium

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