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clonewarsarchives · 3 years

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Inside 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'

By: Gerri Miller (original article link on howstuffworks)

Sources

George Lucas interviewed August 4, 2008

Dave Filoni interviewed September 11, 2008

The sci-fi phenomenon that began more than 30 years ago with a movie about a galaxy long ago and far, far away has expanded exponentially ever since with sequels, prequels, books, games and animated spinoffs. Although the animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" movie, released this summer, has to date grossed a less than stellar $34 million, it was an offshoot of creator George Lucas' mission to create a TV series, and it served its purpose as a promotional tool for the weekly "Clone Wars" episodes that premiere on Cartoon Network Oct. 3, 2008.

Focused on the conflict briefly referred to in the original "Star Wars," the galactic civil war takes place in the period between "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." The Clone Wars pit the Grand Army of the Republic led by the Jedi Knights against the Separatists and their Droid Army, led by Count Dooku, a Jedi turned Sith Lord aligned with the evil Darth Sidious. Many of the characters from the "Star Wars" universe are involved, including Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and young Anakin Skywalker, before he was tempted to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader.

"I was lamenting the fact that in 'Episode II,' I started the Clone Wars, and in 'Episode III,' I ended the Clone Wars, and I never actually got to do anything on the Clone Wars," says Lucas. "It's like skipping over World War II."

To remedy that omission, he tapped Dave Filoni, an animator (Nickelodeon's "Avatar: the Last Airbender" series) and passionate "Star Wars" fan, to bring "The Clone Wars" to TV.

Ensconced at Big Rock Ranch, near Lucas' Skywalker Ranch headquarters in Marin County, Cali., Filoni and his team of artists and computer animators are making 22 episodes in season one and have nearly two more seasons written.

"We're way ahead. We've been doing this ever since I finished 'Revenge of the Sith,'" says Lucas, who hopes to do at least 100 installments.

He and Filoni collaborate on everything from story to design to execution in translating the "Star Wars" universe for television. It's a daunting creative, technical and logistic task, as we'll explain in the following sections.

Building the Universe

How do you scale down an IMAX-size spectacle for television and still have it make an impact, especially on a small screen budget? That's just one of the problems Dave Filoni has to solve.

"'Star Wars' is very famous for the scale of it, and how convincing it looks. So when you're doing a weekly television series, you have to figure out how to do things on that level," he notes. "Sometimes it forces you to be creative and come up with solutions that are better than if you can shoot everything you want," he continues, preferring to consider budgetary constraints a creative incentive rather than a limitation. "The team here is challenged to come up with these giant battles. We haven't shied away from anything."

While he did some of the initial character design, subsequently, Filoni has spent most of his time supervising other artists and animators, who number around 70 in-house and another 80 or so at facilities in Singapore and Taipei.

"Everything is written here, and the story and design and editing are all done here. The animation and lighting are done overseas, and sometimes some modeling as well," he outlines.

"I meet with George to talk about the episodes and he hands out a lot of the storylines and main ideas for the stories. I'll draw while he's talking and show him the sketch," Filoni continues. "That way we communicate right off the bat about what something might look like."

At any given time, the director notes, episodes are in various stages of completion, "from designing to working on a final cut, or adding sound and color-correction. I have four episodic directors to help me, who each have an episode they're managing."

Rather than use computer animation to duplicate the live-action films' characters or continue in the very stylized vein of the 2004-2005 "Clone Wars" micro-series, "We kind of shot for the middle," says Filoni, who endeavored to blend a 2-D esthetic with 3-D technology.

"The 3-D model makers and riggers who worked on the prequels dealt with the height of realism to create convincing digital characters. I knew that we weren't going to be able to do that for the series. And we wanted it to be different than a live-action feature, to get away from photo-realism. It was a choice to simplify something in the character models, the same way we would do things in a 2-D show."

So how did Filoni stay true to the "Star Wars" legacy in this newest installment? Read on to find out.

Clone Style

Taking some inspiration from the earlier cartoon series, Filoni

approached the characters as a 2-D animator would, "but stylized the face a little more. If you look at Anakin, he has certain edges and lines in his face. I would draw an edge or a line that might be unnaturally straight or curved, and that would play into the lighting of it. I tried to sculpt in 3-D the way I would draw or sculpt an image in 2-D, with shadow and light. I wanted it to look like a painting -- you see a textured, hand-painted style on every character. I have texture artists who literally paint every single character right down to their eyeball, because I wanted that human touch on everything."

Advances in computer animation have allowed Filoni to accomplish much more than he would have been able to in traditional 2-D. "For eight years I worked just with a pencil. I never touched a computer. But working with George, we try to look at computers as an incredibly advanced pencil. The technical side helps the creative, artistic side," he says.

Battles filled with huge numbers of soldiers can be rendered faster than ever before, but they still have to be created, along with every other prop and character in an enormous universe. "'Star Wars' is so complex in that you're building a whole galaxy. We go to many different planets," Filoni reminds. "So every rock, tree, blade of grass, native vehicle -- every asset -- needs design. We had to create a whole bunch of assets for each episode, and the budget goes up for each element you have. Once you build it, you have it, but we can't go to a different planet and have the same chair there," he laughs. "On a schedule where we need those things right away, it's difficult to get it all built."

Since "The Clone Wars" is chronologically sandwiched between "Clone Wars" and "Revenge of the Sith," it has been a mandate for the creators to stay consistent with the mythology. "That's probably one of the trickiest things," admits Filoni. "We always have to keep in mind what the characters are thinking and feeling at the beginning of this and at the end. You have a lot of room to play with when you're in the middle, but you have to remember what people say in the third movie. With characters like Obi-Wan or Anakin or Padme, I have to pay very careful attention that it will hook up. And then there's the expanded universe of "Star Wars" novels and video games. I try to be aware of it all and work it in, because fans really appreciate it."

Filoni hopes to attract existing fans and create new ones, especially among the younger generation, but admits doing the latter may be easier. "One thing we have that's different from any movie that came before is we're an animated series. But there's an instant reaction to the word animation that it's for kids. How you get around that is with the stories you tell. We'll have our snow battles and we'll also have our lighter 'Return of the Jedi' moments. Some episodes lean older, some younger. But in the end it has a broad appeal," he believes.

The recent "Clone Wars" movie (out on DVD Nov. 11 ) served as a stand-alone prequel to introduce the characters at this point in time. In contrast, "The series has its small arcs and shows you the war from across a broad spectrum of episodes. It's not just Anakin Skywalker's story," Filoni underlines. "We can go left or right of that plot and deal with characters we have never seen. There's a lot of material. It's a three-year period in the history of the 'Star Wars' Universe, and there are so many stories to tell. The longer it goes, the more chance we get to tell fascinating stories in that galaxy."

Character Study

"The Clone Wars" shows a different side of some of the film franchise's most iconic characters. "In a series, you can do a whole episode about a character and learn more about what they were like, which makes what happens to them a lot more poignant," explains Filoni. "We know Yoda is powerful, but how does that power develop? How does he use it? We get to go into more detail that you just couldn't do in the live action films, because they're mainly focused on Anakin."

While few of the actors from the live action movies agreed to reprise their roles in voice over for "The Clone Wars," Anthony Daniels, the original C-3PO, is the exception. "One of the special moments for me was hearing Anthony on the telephone, discussing C-3PO with me and his experiences. That really helps us round out the characters," says the director, who enjoyed similar input from Rob Coleman, the animation supervisor who worked on Yoda on the prequels.

Of the new characters not seen in the live action series, there's the alluring but venomous Asajj Ventress, a disciple of Count Dooku. "She is, of course, a villain, and fits into the structure of the Sith," Filoni elaborates. "Darth Sidious -- Senator Palpatine -- is the main bad guy, and his apprentice is Count Dooku. Dooku is training Ventress in the Dark Side. She's getting more powerful. I wanted to make her intelligent, deceptive and also kind of sexual. She's kind of a forbidden fruit -- Jedi are not supposed to get involved with the more lustful aspects of life. She adds another dynamic to the series."

On the other side of the good/evil coin is newcomer Ahsoka Tano, Anakin's teenage padawan, or apprentice. "She's Anakin's student and helps us see him as more of a hero," says Filoni. "Once he gets over his initial reaction, he takes pride in her. He's unpredictable and the Jedi know that, but he has compassion and that is used against him and it later brings him to the Dark Side."

Ahsoka was created, says Lucas, "Because I needed to mature Anakin. The best way to get somebody to become responsible and mature is to have them become a parent or a teacher. You have to think about what you're doing and set an example. You look at your behavior and the way you do things much differently. The idea was to use her to make Anakin become more mature. We've made her a more extreme version of what Anakin was- - a little out there, independent, vital and full of life, but even more so. He gets a little dose of his own medicine."

"She's been a really fun character to develop," adds Filoni, who likes Ahsoka but admits that his character tastes tend to run a bit more obscure -- his favorite is Plo Koon, "a bizarre Jedi Master. It's been fun to develop him and show his personality beyond the fact that he's bizarre looking and carries a lightsaber."

Fan Fare

Just three years ago, Filoni dressed up as Plo Koon to see an opening night showing of "Revenge of the Sith," so it's not surprising that the 34-year-old fan is still pinching himself that he has this job. "It's a very creative atmosphere," he says of Big Rock Ranch, where the lakeside setting is "meant to inspire us artistically and definitely does. A lot of the people I work with grew up with 'Star Wars,' so we have a great time. It's hard, intense work, but George is very engaged in what we're doing. What more could you ask for? I have the guy who created the 'Star Wars' universe excited and interested in what we're doing. We couldn't be happier about that."

Asked why he thinks "Star Wars" remains a fan favorite today, three decades later, Lucas says diversification is the key. "We were always able to deal with different aspects of the story in various forms and I think that keeps it alive. It is a lot of fun and it's a universe that has been created to inspire young people to exercise their imagination and inspire them to be creative, and I think that always works."

"The original 'Star Wars' had broad appeal to everybody, and it holds up so well," adds Filoni. "I think there's a timelessness to it, even though Luke looks like a kid from the '70s with that haircut. Luke is a farmer boy and Han is a cowboy. Jedi Knights are like the samurai of Japan or the knights of Europe. Those archetypes work the globe over. It's a world phenomenon that speaks to everyone. There will always be a character you can relate to."

#interview #crew #George Lucas #Dave Filoni #the first part is useless read the stuff about design and characters under cut #highlights bit for own reference

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rebelsofshield · 4 years

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Far Far Away Comics: 9/23/20-10/12/20

Oh wow. Look what I did. I missed several weeks of Star Wars comics again. I promise this shouldn’t be a pattern. Hopefully. We’ll see.

Anyways, here are multiple weeks worth of Star Wars comic reviews featuring every major series that IDW and Marvel are releasing right now.

Star Wars #7 written by Charles Soule and art by Ramon Rosanas (Released on 10/7/20)

After a stellar conclusion to his first arc, Charles Soule moves forward with his second major storyline in Star Wars with a showdown between a scattered rebellion and a new Imperial enemy.

With the Rebellion still recuperating after its routing at Hoth, Leia tries desperately to not only reconnect with the disparate Alliance groups but also strike back at the Imperial forces hot on their tail. Unfortunately for Leia, Commander Zahra leads the Imperial fleet tasked with this mission and she has a bone to pick with the former Alderaanian princess.

Charles Soule has more than shown that he excels at writing villains. His takes on Darth Vader and Kylo Ren have become character defining story arcs and even some of his best work on Poe Dameron came in the exploration of the hapless First Order Intelligence Agent Terex. Now, Soule gets to introduce a new antagonist of his own making and she’s pretty stellar. Commander Zahra is introduced as not only a calculating and cunning Imperial naval commander, but also one that has a cruel streak to her and a need for vengeance. Her past connections to a Wilhuff Tarkin display an unexpected but consistently menacing take to this classic Imperial officer. It makes for a surprising and engaging issue even if it mostly amounts to an extended flashback to catch us up to speed on Leia’s newest nemesis.

Thankfully, the match up should prove interesting. Not only do Leia’s actions at the Battle of Yavin give Zahra a personal vendetta, Soule also positions Leia in a role where she can demonstrate her skills as a military commander. It puts the Rebellion and the Empire on close to equal footing which is a fun spin on a story that could have easily felt like a retread of Kieron Gillen’s outstanding “Hope Dies.”

Ramon Rosanas takes over for Jesus Saiz this issue and while his work doesn’t have the detailed flair of the comic’s usual artist, his pencils live up to the visual style established by the series. He particularly excels at large scale action scenes displaying expansive fleet combat with a sense of size and scoped. His characters prove slightly less impressive with a tendency to draw characters in the same stern mood throughout.

Overall, Soule and Rosanas have set up a strong follow up to the series’ standout first arc and set up one hell of a confrontation to come. Let’s see some blaster bolts fly.

Score: B+

Star Wars Adventures #1 written by Michael Moreci and Nick Brokenshire and art by Nick Brokenshire and Ilias Kyrias (Released on 10/12/20)

Yup, you read that right. Star Wars Adventures is starting fresh with a shiny new #1. The reasoning for this isn’t quite clear for as far as I can tell, the series is operating with close to the same status quo as it has been from the start. Offer two all ages stories of adventure set in the Star Wars universe with lots of colorful art. Even the stories feel like a neat continuation of the ones we were getting in our pre-Covid reality. Regardless, new numbering or not, Star Wars Adventures remains its same charming self. Bursting with energy and good natured enthusiasm, it’s still one of the best Star Wars comics out there.

The meat of the issue follows a story of Finn, Poe, and Rey set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Any story following the sequel trilogy trio is appreciated and Michael Moreci crafts an enjoyable little tale of Finn and Poe trying their best to assist Rey in her new steps into Jedi training. Of course, being Star Wars, things never go as easily as planned and soon the crew run a foul of some pirates. It’s definitely fun to get to see some of our three heroes together and one can’t help but wish that maybe the adventures of Rey, Poe, and Finn could be a regular feature. Ilias Kyrias’s pencils are sure to be controversial with their overly stylized proportions and character designs, but they make for a unique looking story and capture some of the energetic action of the piece with a cartoony flair that feels right at home with the Adventures mission statement. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it hardly needs to be.

The one tangible difference between this volume and the previous is that the fun but static “Tales from Wild Space” has been replaced with a different back up feature, “Tales from Villainy.” As the name would suggest, these are shorter and more serious stories focused on the various members from the Dark Side. This week, we begin with an appearance by Darth Vader written and drawn by Nick Brokenshire. The result is a fun, well-drawn little bit centered on Vader’s role in the Battle of Hoth. Brokenshire renders Vader with a PG rated wordless intensity and the result is fun and dynamic even if there isn’t a lot of dramatic meat to chew on.

Score: B

Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars Battle Tales (Released on 9/30/2020) written by Michael Moreci and art by Derek Charm and Philip Murphy

Over its unnaturally extended run, Star Wars Adventures: The Clone Wars Battle Tales proved to be a surprisingly entertaining little tribute to the fan favorite animated series. With a gorgeous looking frame story by Derek Charm and creative clone centric anthology stories, Battle Tales was both colorful and surprisingly smart, often times telling stories that felt surprisingly more consequential than the standard Adventures outing.

Unfortunately, its finale ends with a bit of a whimper. It’s not that this final outing by Michael Moreci, Derek Charm, and Philip Murphy is bad. Not by any means. It’s just as colorful and delightful as any other Adventures comic. But that ultimately proves to be its biggest disappointment. After several issues of meeting and exceeding the expectations of a standard Adventures script, writer Michael Moreci more or less falls back to familiar tricks. It’s fun to see Obi-Wan and Commander Cody team up with ice Ewoks to fight General Grievous, but it’s not something particularly new to this brand and it doesn’t expand on the clone’s understanding of the Jedi like the previous issues have. It’s fun and Moreci seems more than content to leave it at that.

After weeks of build up, the finale to the Battle Tales frame story ends with little fanfare. There’s not much of a conclusion to speak of and lacks the artistic or storytelling fun of some of the previous Adventures mini-series heights like Vader’s Castle.

I still would recommend this series to any fan of The Clone Wars, but not as emphatically as I may have a few weeks back. There’s definitely joy and explosions to be had, but in the end, they turn out to be the familiar kind. As odd as that is to say.

Score: C+

Star Wars Bounty Hunters #5 written by Ethan Sacks and art by Paolo Villanelli (Released on 9/23/20)

Bounty Hunters is back for more face slamming violence, cool character designs, and questionable choices.

With Boba Fett, Vance Beilert, and Boba Fett all locked together in a close quarters space ship, the truth of their mission to Corellia all those years ago is finally out and it turns out it was a bit of a mess all around. Sure, Nakano’s act of mercy may have been the first act of chaos, but Vance Beilert’s inexperience and Fett’s bloodlust lead to the thorny crime war that they all find themselves involved in now.

It’s a smart idea, but it all feels a little cluttered. Ethan Sacks’s script looks to not only give us the full truth of the disastrous Corellia job, but also flesh out Nakano Lash’s past and also wrap up the double crossing bounty hunter beatdown that has dominated this arc so far. As a result, it all ends up feeling a bit confused and there often isn’t much of a clear thread to carry the reader through. The continued presence of violence against women as a central plot point to this series also can’t help but feel off putting at this point. Sure, Bounty Hunters is a brutal book, but when you have two issues in a row of new female characters killed off and imperiled pregnant women, it begins to feel in poor taste.

Thankfully, Paolo Villanelli is there to distract us with some gorgeous art and brilliant fight sequences. Villanelli along with colorist Arif Printo still manages that magic trick of providing dynamic action sequences that feel violent and energetic without ever losing detail or clarity. The smackdown between Vance and Boba Fett is particularly satisfying, with both hunters employing all members of their arsenal for some great panels of punching, slashing, and blasting.

It can’t all just be cool fights though. Bounty Hunters is going to have to really start digging into its characters and fix its creeping misogyny if its going to be a must read comic, but as it stands, this a book best rifled through. Look at the pictures, wince at the fights, and put it back.

Score: C+

Star Wars: Darth Vader #6 written by Greg Pak and art by Raffaele Ienco (Released on 10/12/20)

Darth Vader’s been bad. Well, not the right kind of bad. Turns out that failing to turn your son to the Dark Side and running of on a personal crusade to discover the truth about your deceased wife, isn’t the best look for a Sith Lord. And Ol’ Palpy sure ain’t happy.

Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco provide some interesting personal consequence for Vader after the over the top and sometimes emotionally clouded first arc. With Sidious’s apprentice once again letting him down when his assistance is most needed, the Emperor unleashes a painful and total punishment. The resulting issue is a brutal and humiliating stripping away of the life that the former Anakin Skywalker has built for himself. Palpatine looks to make Vader rebuild himself from the ground up if his place in the Empire is to continue. It’s a simple read, but one that carries big consequences for the character down the line and some smart connections to The Rise of Skywalker. (Maybe Pak can help us make sense of that mess.)

Raffaele Ienco turns in his best work to date here. Ienco draws a creepy as hell Palpatine and his take on Mas Amedda feels both intimidating and appropriately slimey. Ienco also manages to nail Vader’s emotions here. The awkward sad face mask from issues past is stripped away and some smart framing and posing makes for a Sith who has clearer emotional depth while keeping the violent menace of his character.

This issue itself may be rather simple, but it sets up an exciting second arc for the series and even some long lasting emotional implications for our broken and battered Sith anti-hero. Let’s see how this burns.

Score: B

Star Wars Doctor Aphra #4 written by Alyssa Wong and art by Marika Cresta (Released on 9/30/20)

The second volume of Star Wars Doctor Aphra continues to disappoint. The decision to revert back to Aphra’s tomb raiding roots is a smart one and Alyssa Wong is undoubtedly a smart writer to spearhead the character’s next chapter, but four issues in and this comic is still sputtering out the gate. Maybe I have just too high of expectations for this character given how stellar Kieron Gillen and Simon Spurrier’s writing was for the last several years, but something about this latest volume is failing to connect.

It may be that after four issues the majority of the characters are failing to really congeal into anything substantial. We finally get some backstory on Just Lucky that adds a bit more drama to his betrayal last issue, but it still feels too little too late. The numerous hidden agendas throughout the first several issues may have done more harm than good as it kept the characters too distant and now that we know their true goals, the circumstances are too chaotic to really get a sense of person.

Aphra herself also feels like a bit of an afterthought here. While previous Aphra stories have certainly been full of big action and big ideas, they still came around to being morality stories about our lonely, morally bankrupt title character. I’m not clear what Wong is trying to say about Aphra here. In fact, at times she feels like something of an afterthought.

There are some bright spots though. Wong’s spooky approach to space archaeology still feels eerie and inventive in all the right ways, and one can’t help but wish that maybe she had leaned into it harder and delivered a Doctor Aphra cosmic horror comic.

Marika Cresta’s pencils prove serviceable. Her character designs are for the most part still largely unimpressive even if she gives surprising life to some of the Tagge henchmen. Like Wong though, Cresta is best served by all things ancient. Whether it’s old spaceships or ancient tombs, Cresta brings eerie and sometimes beautiful detail to the galactic old world.

Now if only Doctor Aphra could get its mind off the past and more into the brains of our main cast.

Score: C

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atamascolily · 4 years

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Lily liveblogs: “The Rise of Skywalker,” part three

I end as I began: hopelessly confused about what the point of all this was. (Except for money. I got that part loud and clear.)

Rey just leaves Finn behind, because... friendship, right? Jannah does not have a good opinion of Rey right now, and tbh, I can't blame her. I realize Rey is under a lot of stress, but... her behavior since arriving on this "moon of Endor" has been wayyyy out of line.

Also, Poe pulls up with the Falcon right then, so I guess they got it repaired in record time, lol. Convenient.

Meanwhile, at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone is sad because Leia is dead. I wonder who's in charge now???

"Goodbye, dear princess." Oh, so she's a General right up until she dies, and then it's back to princess again? I wish the ST would make up its mind about her title.

Oh, I guess Poe is, since he showed up and actually has a rank??

Chewie LOSES IT at the news Leia is dead--I feel you, bud. I feel you so hard.

Kylo tries to look dignified as he broods on the wreckage, but he looks awful. Like a drowned rat, with a convenient lightsaber-shaped hole in his tunic where Rey stabbed him. (She didn't even take the saber with her or drop it into the sea or anything! WHHYYYYYYYYYYY - gimme a reason, any reason, even a stupid one.)

And then Han shows up. Is he a ghost? Is this a memory? Is Kylo hallucinating? WHAT WHAT WHAT IS HAPPENING??? (This would have so much more resonance if we had SEEN how Han's death impacted Kylo earlier on instead of that one confused flashback at the beginning of the film....)

grizzled Harrison Ford looks great, why the hell did they kill him off in the first movie whyyyyyy

Okay, so they answer the question and this is a memory, which is fine, I usually love this trope, BUT it would be hella more effective if we'd seen Kylo arguing/interacting with memories of Han earlier instead of this happening for the first time NOW...

"Come home." Uhhhhhh, I honestly don't know what exactly Leia did, but she certainly kinda abetted killing him. What home does Kylo have now, anyway??

So Han says that what Leia fought for is still around, which is true, but Kylo is ostensibly the supreme leader here, so he doesn't just have to go AWOL, he can drag the FO leadership with him, and what passes for their government, he could SURRENDER and end the war right now. Does he? Of course not. He fucks off all by his lonesome after Rey and Palpatine because... that's all he knows how to do, apparently.

There's a callback that is supposed to resonate but doesn't work for me, because I just can't make myself feel for Kylo at all. Yes, redemption is hard. Yes, you have to work for it. Stop whining and just do it!!

We're supposed to think that Kylo will stab Han again (I guess?) but he turns and throws his saber into the sea. So that's why Rey didn't take it - so he could make a dramatic fucking gesture with it.

Palps is upset that Leia messed up his plans, but whatever. He orders Pryde, who apparently is now in charge of the FO in Kylo's absence, to come to Exegol. Apparently Pryde is a diehard Imperial (and possibly Sith cultist/Palpatine's secret puppet/agent??) I guess. It's never explained, he's just bad. And his name isn't subtle, either.

Palps just wants to burn everything to the ground for... evulz, I guess? I got nothing.

Pryde's star destroyer pops out a giant gun and blows up a planet.... apparently, Kijimi. Why, I don't know. Because they were just there?? Anyway, BOOM. Kijimi literally explodes.

What the actual fuck. How is that EVEN POSSIBLE?? What was the point of building two Death Stars if a Star Destroyer can do that????

Oh, apparently, that was the new model from the "Sith fleet" with a better upgrade. sounds fake, but okay. Poe is not thrilled by this news. The same Resistance member brings him the bad news, so I guess that's her official job??

Poe is genre-savvy enough to know that every ship in the Sith fleet has planet destroying weapons and they're doomed unless they stop the Final Order... which isn't new? I thought there was a countdown to an attack in 16 hours or something. What did they think they were attacking with? I don't even know, this movie is that incoherent.

Rose pops in with a message broadcasting on every channel about the "Resistance is dead. The Sith flame will burn. All worlds, surrender or die"... but given that it's in a language that isn't Basic, there's this one random dude with a beard who translates for the audience... and even though I assume it's meant to be some more commonly spoken language, given that the Sith have their own language in this movie, It makes it seem like this Random Resistance dude understands Sith and... I have questions.

Poe goes to sit by Leia's shrouded corpse because apparently they haven't buried her yet??? I wish Poe and Leia's relationship was more prominent in the movies, because I love the dynamic they're supposed to have, but never actually manifests in any of these movies.

Lando shows up to console him!

"How did you defeat an Empire with almost nothing?" "We had each other."

DAMN RIGHT YOU DID AND THE NEW GENERATION COULD TOO, IF THE WRITERS WEREN'T INTENT ON SEPARATING THEM CONSTANTLY AND MAKING EVERYBODY SUFFER....

Poe decides to make Finn his co-general. I have a lot of feels about this.

Turns out D-O knows all about Exegol because he used to belong to Ochi... that's actually earned, I'll allow it. Hilarious Rey never asked the droid about it (or any other details of his past, given that she was pretty sure Ochi killed her parents).

Ahch-To! Rey is wearing her hood and I don't know why. She's throwing driftwood into the flaming wreckage of Kylo's TIE and sobbing and... I don't know what's going on here. There are SO MANY REASONS she could be crying, I don't even know.

And she tosses her lightsaber into the sea... just like Kylo did. Parallels. I get it. And just like Luke did to her... She's giving it up because she doesn't feel worthy of being a Jedi because of her heritage, I guess?? (I'm guessing because this movie doesn't explain shit.)

Speaking of which, there's Luke's ghost, right on schedule! I love his snark but it's SO OUT OF LINE given his behavior in the last movie... and the fact that Yoda told him he had to let go of the past and let the books burn. I mean... the fuck???

Rey has this dark throne vision that's driving her, but ironically that's the one vision we don't see in this whole mess.. we have all these OTHER visions instead, I can' teven keep them all straight.

Oh, she's decided to model Luke and fuck off to Ahch-To forever because she feels she made a mistake. that's absolutely the WRONG LESSON from Luke's life, Rey!!

(also, what happened to saving the world? The sith wayfinder? She just conveniently forgot Palpatine was gonna slaughter everybody because she's having heritage angst?????)

Leia not telling Rey about Rey's heritage makes perfect sense when you realize just how much Leia's life was fucked over by the knowledge that Darth Vader was her father--once in ROTJ and again when she got kicked out of the Senate and ostracized in Bloodline.

Luke has Leia's lightsaber conveniently hidden in his hut... so now Kylo/Ben can have a weapon of his own in the upcoming fight, gag. (Really, Rey should use it to make a double-bladed saber, but she won't, sigh.)

The flashback looks like a video game to me. The CGI is not terrible, but doesn't look nearly as real as the rest of the film to me.

Also, I'm forever mad that Leia gave up her saber thinking it would save her son, that is SO AWFUL, especially since IT DIDN'T WORK, HE STILL TURNED OUT EVIL ANYWAY AND RUINED YOUR LIFE.

"A thousand generations live in you now" would have so much more resonance if Rey was an avatar of the Force or a reincarnation of Anakin instead of the metaphorical. (Yes, I know it will be realized literally later on.)

[Just realized that Kylo's obsession with Rey would make TOTAL SENSE if she were an reincarnation of Anakin given how much he idolizes his grandfather!!!]

Whyyyyy doesn't Luke talk here about the revelation that Palpatine is alive? That he and his father failed to kill the Emperor? That Rey has to finish LUKE'S journey, too??? But no, it's all about Leia here.

Rey somehow didn't notice the wayfinder in Kylo's TIE until Luke says "you have everything you need"... I guess? I don't know how she missed it before!!!

And the X-wing rises out of the water like the deus ex machina that it is... somehow still spaceworthy after six years in the ocean. Okay, then.

Apparently, Force ghost Luke can still manipulate physical objects through the Force??? Okay, I can kinda buy that, but... still....

I love how Artoo doesn't even wait for Threepio to get started with the bullshit, he just imports the uploaded memories right away without asking. Normally, I'd be mad about consent, but a) they're married, and b) he's restoring Threepio's personality, so I'm okay with it.

I love how warped and creepy the space is around Exegol.

Also, D-O looks just like a desk lamp.

Oh, so the Resistance follows Rey through Luke's X-wing computer via Artoo. Convoluted, but it works, I guess.

Okay, so time for some technobabble, but there's a navigation tower (the new shield generator) they have to hit for REASONS with a "ground team" (aka strike team). Sigh.

Love the dismissal of the "Holdo maneuver"--which is essentially kamikaze-style suicide. Not a great battle strategy if you want to survive the fight.

Wait, wasn't Poe angsting earlier about how nobody answered their call from Crait back in the last movie? What makes him think this is going to be any different?????

Okay, so all the FO folks on are on Exegol now?? Who is piloting and crewing those Star Destroyers?? Are they First Order or Final Order people? What happened to the First Order? What is the relationship between the First Order and the Final Order? Are they the same thing with two different names?? (But no, there are two fleets, the Sith destroyers are different.) What happened to the First Order then? Does anyone notice and/or care the alleged "Supreme Leader" of the First Order is missing in action??? I'M SO CONFUSED.

Okay, it makes sense that Poe is in an X-wing given he's a hotshot pilot, but he's also a general, and... I'm so confused about the tactical aspect of that, but fine, whatever. Also, Artoo is in the X-wing with him instead of BB-8, who I thought was Poe's droid (to the point of reaming Rey over injuring him earlier in the film!!!) WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE???

we're baaaaacck in the creepy sith ruins just like the beginning of the film, but so much has happened that my brain has fried and so the parallels are not as compelling as they could be.

WHEN DID THEY PICK UP JANNAH?? Has she been there the entire time and we just didn't see her until now, or did they stop back at Endor's moon along the way??? I'M SO CONFUSED!!!

Finn has " a feeling" where the ship is... it's the Force, why are you teasing us like that. LET HIM BE A JEDI.

Okay, I actually really like the fact that all the FO deserter stormtroopers from Endor are using their mounts so their enemies can use the tech against them. That's poetic justice right there. And also, epic cool. Good thing all the ships are still in the atmosphere... (nobody's wearing masks like Finn did for the Kijimi pickup)

I don't know how there is lightning in a fucking underground pyramid, but 10/10 for aesthetic, I love it.

"Grandma, it's me, Anastasia"--oh, wait, never mind.

The reveal that Rey is in a giant arena is hella creepy, even though it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. Where do all these people come from? What do they do? Where do they live? What do they EAT?? Are they born Sith? Brainwashed Sith?? Cultists? Clones??? I NEED ANSWERS HERE.

Palpatine dangling in his creepy metal arm-thing is a lot like GLADoS from Portal.

So... Palpatine can possess the person who kills him in anger??? Explains a LOT about how he treated Luke, actually. And why it was so important that Anakin finish him - one, because Anakin's body was failing, and two, because he did it for love.

Love the aesthetic of the flickering lights for added creepiness and nothing is quite real. Even if it makes no sense. My id knows what it wants, okay??

Jannah and Finn teaming up for the battle is great, BB-8 actually gets to do something for once, and I love Jannah's crossbow.

Oh, now Palps is going to monologue about Rey's parents, while telling us no interesting details whatsoever. Sigh.

HOW THE FUCK DID KYLO GET TO EXEGOL AGAIN????????????????? she left him stranded in the middle of a frikkin' OCEAN... and he just knows how to get back to Exegol without the macguffin,.... how....?

(yes, I know he's supposed to be "Ben Solo" again, but so far there has been zero explanation in the film itself, so I'm just gonna keep calling him Kylo.)

Okay, there's a TIE fighter next to the X-wing, but... where did he GET IT?????????

That "ow" is priceless. I watched that sequence twice.

(clearly Kylo has not been exploring ruins much recently.)

Finn explaining to Rose that he's going to sacrifice himself for the cause, exactly like she wouldn't let him do in the last film... and Rose goes with it. Okay, then.

Now Kylo has to fight his own boy band... who were secretly following the Emperor's orders the entire time (?) THE ENTIRE FIRST ORDER WAS LITERALLY A FRONT TO KEEP KYLO REN DISTRACTED AND KYLO TOTALLY BOUGHT IT. I... have questions, but I actually admire the sheer audacity of this.

Kylo fighting said knights would be way more emotionally engaging if we a) knew anything about them, b) had seen any interactions between Kylo and the knights earlier, and c) gave a shit, but none of those happened, so we don't.

Kylo and Rey have some sort of Force bond communication thing that is super vaguely filmed so it's hard to understand wtf is actually happening. Rey tosss her saber back and... Ben pulls it out behind his back.

what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the FUCK

I won't say that wasn't forshadowed, because it kinda-sorta was. I will just say that this movie has NEVER EXPLAINED HOW THEY CAN DO THAT or talked about it at ALL, just treats it like a fact, and I... have questions about how reality can be bent that way even if you are a Force dyad or whatnot.

So Kylo's fight with the knights parallels Rey's fight with a bunch of Imperial guards and it's so hard to care. Th timer says there's still a half an hour left, how is that possible???

So... it's okay to stab people as long as you do it with the properly colored lightsaber, I guess???

Kylo shows up, he and Rey exchange Meangingful Looks, they raise their sabers, Palps zaps them and slurps up "the lifeforce of your bond" and uses it to grow younger, whatever the hell that means ughhhhhhhh please let this be over soon.

Did he know they were a dyad before? Is THIS his real plan? I'm so confused and I have no idea wtf is going on.

RIP Snap. I guess I should care more about you, but I don't think you're mentioned in any of the other movies, so... *shrugs*

Poe has a meltdown but.... Lando shows up AGAIN to give him a pep talk, and also a fleet. Like seriously, Lando gets results, if he'd been running the Resistance, the war would be OVER by now.

Is the "Nice flying, Lando!" Older!Wedge?? I think so. I hope so, anyway.

Zorii shows up too, to fight and also insult Poe over the comm... I guess she's upset about Kijimi being destroyed? (Or maybe not given how she was so eager to get off it???)

Palps tosses Kylo into a pit, which... given that Palps survived, maybe not the best plan if you wanted to actually kill him.

Then he shoots force lightning through the hole in the arena into the sky and... zaps all the new fighters.

Well.

Okay then.

Rey wakes up and... reaches out to the spirits of past Jedi for help. (Apparently, Palpatine doesn't care about her killing him now, because he's young and healthy again, so it's okay to kill her? I guess he can always try again with another grandkid, lol.)

Also, it's funny how Rey is a Palpatine and blood is sooooo important and scary and destiny until someone's trying to diss her and then she's just "a scavenger girl". And by funny, I mean terrible. Sigh.

"I am all the Sith." I don't think the Sith, by the nature of their existence, can embody their predecessors the way that the Jedi can. I mean, to be a Sith is to be alone, and there is that whole Rule of Two business if that's still canon now. I mean, unless the Sith literally eat their masters and thus become them? But it seems a little late for THAT detail.

But it's okay because Rey's embodying all the Jedi this time (and has TWO sabers, lol) and she turns Palpatine's Force lightning back on himself and he turns into a crisp. You'd think the Sith Lords would have worked out a defense against that, since that's how Mace Windu scarred him in the first place, but okay then.

The entire arena crumbles. All the faceless cultists are crushed by falling rock. Pryde goeth before the fall. Lando rescues Finn and Jannah before Poe can. All the star destroyers are stranded because the command ship is gone and start blowing up.

Anyway, Rey collapses in the ruins. Finn senses her fall. but Kylo climbs out of the pit and cradles her in his arms. (ewww ewww ewwwwwww NOOOOOOO) and cradles her to his chest [gross gross grossssssss she's dead and can't consent and I can't decide if that makes it grosser or not, she's never let him do this while she was ALIVE fuckkkkkk]. He finally lets go and then places his hand on her stomach, and ughhhhhh I have so many issues with this I don't care if he's reformed, he's been stalking for three films, this is NOT OKAY and does the Force healing trick, and...

literally he could have just put a hand on her forehead or shoulder, which I would still hate, but would be less creepy than this.

Rey wakes up, puts her hands on his, sits up, startled and... doesn't say anything, doesn't even flinch, and smiles. "Ben."

and she kisses him. I knew this was coming. I still hate it.

he smiles, falls over, and dies. Like, literally, it's like Rey's kiss murdered him. I'm a terrible person, I know, but I really can't mourn him.

Kylo's body vanishes (Leia's stayed intact, damn it!) proving I guess that he was good after all?? I thought only special people learned the vanishing trick??? Leia's body vanishes right at the same time, and... I don't get it, I really don't.

Maz apparently skipped the final battle to watch over Leia's corpse and I.... definitely don't get it.

was Leia possessing her son this whole time? What. Just. Happened??????

Rey flies away in Luke's X-wing under her own power, and... "Red Five is in the air again," says Finn. People are rising up all over the galaxy, though against what, I'm not clear, and the skies are suddenly clear, implying that the Emperor was warping the weather with his darkness.

We see Star Destroyers blowing up behind Cloud City and on the FOREST moon of Endor with the Ewoks and I just... never knew they were there??? Were they connected to the rest of the Fleet somehow (like the Katana fleet in Legends??) Where did this come from?? Wicket and his son are clearly satisfied, though why they think anything's going to change is beyond me. And was the First Order oppressing them? Why didn't we see any of their fleet when our protagonists were IN THAT SYSTEM AND SO WAS THE OSTENSIBLE SUPREME LEADER???

Another Star Destroyer crashes on Jakku, so literally NOTHING HAS CHANGED THERE, LOL.

Back at the Resistance Jungle Base, everyone cries and hugs, Poe and Zorii have a moment that goes nowhere, Poe's arm is somehow in a sling (???) There's a very brief lesbian kiss, but it gets even less screen time than Rose Tico, so again, don't think that counts as representation, but nice try.

Maz gives Chewie Han's medal from Yavin and... where the hell did she get it??? Leia's corpse??? Creepy!!

Jannah comes up to Lando and asks him where he's from, and when Lando asks the same question, she say she doesn't know. "Let's find out." Wow, that's way more interesting than most of this movie!

Rey hugs Finn and Poe and I... just... it's the tearful hug of "wow, we've all been through a lot of trauma since we last saw each other and also I was a jerk and threw you across the sea with the Force to get you out of my way and I abandoned you without saying goodbye to isolate myself on an island in the middle of nowhere until my ghost mentor reminded me I could save the day".

ButWeDon'tHavetimetounpackThatNow.jpg

Rey takes the Falcon to the Lars' moisture farm on Tatooine with BB-8. No one is in sight. This is an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, not a shrine to the Legend of Luke Skywalker. Rey slides down the sides on a piece of metal and into the courtyard. She wraps up Luke and Leia's sabers and... we cut to her back up on the ridge near the droid garage, using the Force to bury them in the sand.

Then she pulls out her own saber and it's yellow-bladed and looks like a double quarterstaff (although I only saw the top blade ignite). What she should have had this entire movie.

There's a random woman with an eopie there, who... came over to investigate? there is literally NO ONE ELSE FOR MILES. HOW????

The woman asks who she is, and we have callbacks to that earlier conversation on Pasaana. Rey hesitates, sees Luke and Leia's ghost on the horizon, smiling their approval and says "Rey Skywalker". The movie ends with her standing watching the double sunset... alone except for BB-8.

Wow, she's literally come full circle from being alone in the desert with a droid to being alone in a different desert with the same droid. What the fuck.

Cue triumphant music and credits.

Oh, and I just realized we never found out what was so important for Finn to tell Rey about... so that went nowhere. I assume it's "he can use the Force" but apparently that wasn't important enough to ACTUALLY INCLUDE, sigh.

Did Rey fuck off to Tatooine to be a hermit? Is she going back to her friends? Is she going to train the next generation of Jedi? How will she keep the cycle from repeating? Is it broken? Is Palpatine really dead this time??? How does she feel about Kylo/Ben?? Is HIS ghost still around stalking her, too? Why did she take the Falcon? Doesn't it belong to Chewie now? Why didn't the rest of the gang come with her???? I'm so confused.

This was even worse than I had anticipated, and I came into this with super-low expectations. This wasn’t bad in a “bad B-movie kind of way,” this was bad in the “nothing makes sense, it’s all jumbled blur, I am numb and cannot begin to care” kind of spectacle. I cannot imagine watching this in a theater. No wonder the critics savaged this.

#star wars #lily liveblogs #WHY DISNEY WHY

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violethowler · 4 years

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A Farewell To The Clone Wars

Yesterday was the end of an era

After 11 years and 104 days

After a theatrical movie, a novel, a comic miniseries, 8 incomplete story reels, and 133 episodes

After 49 hours and 12 minutes of incredible, heartbreaking, beautifully animated television….

Ended, The Clone Wars have.

I watched all of the existing Star Wars movies on DVD when I was a kid, but I was never particularly enamored with them the way that others are. And then in August 2008, I went to the local movie theater with my grandmother to see an animated movie that – while I didn’t know it at the time – would chart the course of my future for years to come.

While a lot of the general Star Wars fandom looks down on the theatrical Clone Wars movie as weak and lackluster, 11-year-old me loved every minute of it. I’ve been obsessed with animation my entire life, and around 2 years before the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I had just begun to explore the world of animation outside of my childhood Disney bubble, diving headfirst into SpongeBob and Avatar and Codename Kids Next Door. Whenever I saw commercials for an animated movie playing in theaters I would beg my family to take me to see it. It didn’t matter what the movie was actually about, all that mattered was that it was animated and I thought it looked fun.

So, when I saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars in theaters with my sister and my grandmother, I loved it. I enjoyed the movie so much that when I learned there was going to be a TV show following the movie, I was ecstatic. From the moment that the first episodes of Season 1 aired on Cartoon Network a few months later, I was hooked. From the very beginning I refused to miss a single episode. From middle school all the way through high school The Clone Wars became the axis around which almost all of my entertainment consumption revolved.

I started reading more Star Wars books and comics from all over the timeline. The Thrawn trilogy. Darth Bane. Fate of the Jedi. The Old Republic. Lost Tribe of the Sith. I devoured every piece of Star Wars media I could find as this show awakened in me an appetite for all things Star Wars. Whenever my parents asked for gift ideas for my birthday or Christmas, at the top of my list would be the latest season of The Clone Wars on DVD. Every summer I trawled the internet looking for news from Star Wars Celebration or San Diego Comic Con about the next season – trailers, clips, plot details, whatever I could find.

When the show was initially cancelled following the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney, I was devastated. This show had such a staple of my life that the idea that it wasn’t going to be coming back hurt. As I started looking around at online Star Wars fandom to find someone, anyone, who felt the same way that I did, I discovered #SaveTheCloneWars, and joined the campaign. Through that first year after the plug was pulled, I wrote to Disney asking them to continue the show. I signed fan petitions and made posts on Facebook. It was my first real engagement with the wider online fandom.

Then came The Lost Missions and the Clone Wars Legacy releases – Crystal Crisis, Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple… Having more Clone Wars stories helped soften the pain of the show’s loss, but the story still felt incomplete. Hearing about future arcs that had been planned for the show only added to the sense of incompleteness, knowing that there were more stories we didn’t get to see. When rumors had begun circulating about an animated Star Wars show set post-Clone Wars, resolving unanswered questions of The Clone Wars was at the top of my wish list for a future Star Wars show.

When Rebels was announced I was cautiously optimistic. I didn’t want to get attached to a new set of characters when the loss of Ahsoka and Rex and my other Clone Wars favorites still felt so raw. After Dave Filoni and the production crew of Rebels posted videos introducing the crew of the Ghost and the core cast of Rebels I reluctantly became more interested, I still was cautious about investing my time in this new show out of fear that it too would be ripped away from me without a proper conclusion just like The Clone Wars was.

So, when the final episode of Rebels’ first season confirmed that the mysterious Fulcrum was none other than Ahsoka Tano I was out of my seat cheering. There were still questions I needed answered about what happened to her after she left the Jedi Order, but the fact that she was there, back on my TV screen once more, was a relief. And when I watched the first trailer for Season 2 a month later, the words “My name is Rex,” made me scream and cry. I was overcome with tears of joy knowing that not only would my favorite Jedi be appearing in Rebels but my favorite Clone Trooper as well.

By the time Rebels’ first season had ended, I was getting ready to graduate from high school and planning where I would go to college in the fall. Taking art electives in high school, particularly a computer art class during the airing of Season 5, made me appreciate just how beautiful the show’s art style was, and when the time came for me to plan where I wanted to go to college, I chose schools that had programs for animation. I had originally wanted to be a game designer because of Kingdom Hearts, but The Clone Wars made me realize that the passion I truly wanted to make a career out of was animation.

I continued to follow Rebels as I went off to college, and by the end of Season 3 – with Maul dead for good, Ahsoka MIA, and Rex and Hondo as the only major Clone Wars characters left on the show – I had gotten attached to the Rebels characters as well. I was just as invested in their fates as I was for those of Clone Wars characters like Rex and Hondo. Season 4 finished airing at the end of my junior year, and the knowledge in the final five episodes that Ahsoka had not only survived her confrontation with Anakin at the end of Season 2 but that she was still alive years after the events of the original trilogy had me crying tears of joy as I went to sleep.

The trailer announcing the return of The Clone Wars had me in tears for hours. Long had I been dreaming of the remaining stories of this show being released in some form. I would have been content with more novels and comics like Son of Dathomir and Dark Disciple, but to have the show return in animated form was a miracle I had given up hope for years ago.

But within the last twelve months, my interest in Star Wars cooled.

I was never the biggest fan of the movies. Revenge of the Sith was my favorite because in the absence of a proper conclusion it functioned as a de facto finale to The Clone Wars. I enjoyed the original trilogy, but they weren’t movies I considered my favorites. I saw The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi in theaters and cried on my first viewing of both films, but on repeat viewings the magic of them faded and I lost interest. While I could understand why other fans liked them, there was a spark that was missing from most of the movies released under Disney that prevented them from really having any staying power for me.

And then The Rise of Skywalker came out and completely shattered any expectations I had that Disney really knew what they were doing with the franchise. Where before I was willing to trust that there actually was a plan because of how precisely Rey and Ben Solo’s arc followed the path of the Heroine’s Journey across The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, now I realize that what I initially believed to have been a carefully planned narrative arc was most likely JJ Abrams planning to set up a conventional Hero’s Journey which Rian Johnson used to try and tell a Heroine’s Journey instead. And even if there was a plan for Rey and Ben Solo that got screwed around by behind the scenes conflicts, there was clearly no plan as far as Poe and Finn and Rose were concerned.

For months after this, I started questioning and doubting my love of all the canon Star Wars media. How could I enjoy anything in the Original and Prequel trilogy eras knowing that all the hard work of dismantling Palpatine’s empire would be undone in order to rehash the same plotline with new characters and no concern given for whether the audience could follow what was happening or why these events and character decisions mattered if they hadn’t read every comic and novel and played every video game connected to this era.

Since the last trailer for the final season of The Clone Wars went up on YouTube, I vacillated between enthusiastically sticking to the shows I loved regardless of my problems with the film saga, and abandoning the franchise altogether and gifting my Clone Wars and Rebels Blu-Ray sets and associated novels to my college friend who had just gotten into Star Wars.

And then ‘The Phantom Apprentice’ Happened.

Ahsoka and Maul’s two-part duel in the throne room and the rafters of Sundari reminded me of everything I loved about The Clone Wars in the first place. The animation. The art style. The music. The attention to detail on every character and in every detail. The tragedy of what was to come. On my third re-watch of the third-to-last episode of Season 7, that was when I realized that despite my problems with the Sequel Trilogy, despite the many flaws in the writing of the Prequel movies, I could never give up on The Clone Wars, or on Rebels. These two shows have meant too much for me to ever walk away from either of them.

I have cried at least ten times in the last five days watching the final two episodes of The Clone Wars. The final of this incredible series was such a gut punch even though I knew what was coming and who would survive. I had and saw so many ideas about what the last episode would include. Would their be a montage of all the Jedi who survived Order 66 as a mirror of the death montage in Episode III? Would Ahsoka and Rex receive Obi-Wan’s recorded message from Rebels warning surviving Jedi to stay away from the temple?

But in the end, none of those things happened. The focus of the episode remained on Ahsoka and Rex. Their escape from the ship. The tragedy of their inability to save the other clones. And ending with a shot of Vader finding the ship some time later, all these symbols of the Republic buried beneath the winds of time as the empire rises. It was bleak and depressing and when the credits rolled I was holding back tears. But looking back on the entire series and the era of the war, knowing what was coming, there was no other way I could have expected it to end. The audience already knows that this is not the end, but Ahsoka and Rex don’t know that, and so the finale of The Clone Wars reflects this. The pain and despair. The tragedy and confusion over what will happen next. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Despite all the movies I’ve watched; the comics and novels I’ve read; the video games I’ve played; very few things in Star Wars canon or Legends have been able to match the magic of The Clone Wars in my heart. I have never truly been a Star Wars fan so much as I have been a Clone Wars and Rebels fan. The novels and comics and movies I enjoy are an extension of my love for the shows, but the shows will always come first. The characters these shows introduced have stuck with me more than any characters from the movies ever has. Clone Wars made me love Anakin and Obi-Wan and Padme and Yoda, but to me, my Star Wars favorites have always been Ahsoka, Maul, Rex, Ventress, Fives, Hera, Zeb, Thrawn, Sabine, and all the rest.

So, I just wanted to say thank you to Dave Filoni, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter, Catherine Taber, James Arnold Taylor, Sam Whitwer, Nika Futterman, Dee Bradley Baker, as well as every single person involved in bringing this show to live for all the hard work and passion you have poured into this series. Your work on this show shaped the person I am today, and I look forward to seeing what you do next.

May the Force Be With You.

#star wars the clone wars #clone wars season 7 #thank you dave filoni #the siege of mandalore #victory and death #farewell to the clone wars #tcw spoilers #clone wars spoilers

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mantra4ia · 4 years

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The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Reaction Episode I (spoilers ahead)

Approaching a Saga that I love and a film that I hate with equal parts passion and compassion.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I must preface my opinions with the one central point of view that has never wavered: You can be a Star Wars fan and a film critic simultaneously. I think the POV where the critics like a Star Wars film and the fans don’t, and people counter with “Critics, you don’t know what you’re talking about especially with Star Wars movies. You don’t know anything. Go away” is absolute garbage. I also think the opposite point of view, Diode if you will, is trash where fans like a film, critics don’t, and “fans don’t know what there talking about.” Those, I believe, are the only trash POVs as it relates to Star Wars. Everything else is fandom.

Likes (from the very big to the very detailed)

John Williams score. John Williams guided us through the film with subtly and passion. Even when things were happening on screen that I didn't like, I felt my feelings soften and shift because of the score. He composed a lot of what would have otherwise been chaos.

C-P3O: comedy comes from character, and Disney SW utilized 3PO in the best light I've ever seen him for that purpose. “Babo Frick, one of my oldest friends” was such a triumphant example. Also, in general, the humor in this film from all ensemble characters landed really well, such as “they fly now” and “what were you going to tell Rey...or is now not a good time.” I also liked the humor in The Last Jedi, but a lot of people didn't. I think that came down to TLJ execution where some of the humor felt too earthly “of the moment” and somehow the conversation turned humor into a taboo, where as RoS kept the humor classic and classy.

The banter between Rey, Poe, and Finn. Finally, I felt invested in the bond of these characters, which gave me stakes to win or lose. It took three films to set up unfortunately, but I the aforementioned Finn and Poe digging at each other and the opening between Rey and Poe – What did you do to my droid? What did you do to my ship? - really sold me on the fact that this movie might have, if not plot continuity, then emotional continuity.

Han Solo. What can I say guys, I'm a sucker for full circle, volta bracket (forgive me if my music theory analogy is wrong) story devices. It didn't necessarily make sense, but poetic beauty won and hit me in the feels. When Ben said “dad” and launched that Red Lightsaber into the stratosphere, it provided such a huge sense of catharsis I was brimming with tears. FULL POST HERE.

The “Dyad” in the Force: Kylo and Rey’s relationship. If the Force was sentient it would have said all along: I've created my own balance in the form of two people, why are you trying to mess it up? That's as close to a direct message as I have ever gotten from the Force, expressed in themes from TFA and TLJ which culminated Luke's lightsaber blowing up in the tug of war thrown room scene. For all the people saying “another hookie, new lore, unfounded concept brought to you by Disney,” no, I feel like that's been fairly consistent. In my opinion, this is just another iteration of a recurring element in all over Star Wars: both Light and Dark side, Jedi Master/ Sith Lord and Apprentice. This is just a first time that its been a light side-dark side pair where neither are masters and all the Rise of Skywalker did was gave it a name and called it a dyad and part of what the force has needed for balance. I felt really invested in the “Reylo” dynamic. and while I was never entrenched in one specific outcome for Ben and Rey, all the possibilities were intriguing. This is perhaps the element in the sequel trilogy that was most consistently addressed in all the episodes, and it paid off for me.

The visual imagery. Say what you will about Force FedEx #that’snothowtheForceworks, but it makes for some beautiful action sequences and incredibly framed, colored, and illuminated still shots, that fired up a lot on interest in the spectacle of Star Wars even prior to IX's release.

Kylo Ren's arc. Full appreciation post HERE. Kylo / Ben Solo is undoubtedly my favorite character of the Disney trilogy, in part due the that fact that his story has tracked the most consistently throughout three films, and also because I've always been a fan of complex antagonists. His arc's been psychologically interesting, to the point where I would have been perfectly fine with Kylo, as Supreme leader, being the main antagonist of RoS instead of Palpatine. Also, Adam Driver acts the h*** out of Ben Solo too, even though after he “turns” he has no dialogue. It's all carried on acting, and its stone cold believable.

The Leia training flashback with Luke. It added a new take on the classic trilogy that was the one big element where this movie swung for the fences on risk-taking and it paid off for me.

The *idea* of Leia being Rey’s training master. Fragmented speech aside, JJ's team did the best they could with what they had of Carrie Fisher to execute a wonderful pairing in the Force. Whether or not the best way to honor Carrie was to use the Last Jedi footage or to pass the baton in order to finish the character that she made an icon, is a healthy debate, but the best intentions were glowing.

Expanding the intricacies of Force visitation. Colloquially, the “Force Skype” from The Last Jedi, has evolved into “Force FedEx.” Even though the stage was set for this in TLJ, when Kylo touches water from the Ahch-to ocean, some people won't like this, and I totally get that. It makes many plot expediting elements easy. But admittedly, I will deal with that because it makes for some amazing iconic fight visuals. The throne room scene is still top of the trilogy, but I have to admit that when you Force FedEx a lightsaber – it makes for a fantastic mic drop.

The lightsaber fight on the Death Star wreckage. This was my favorite confrontation in RoS, ironically no Force FedEx required. The contrast of fighting style is never more apparent, Rey jumping over waves, Kylo walking through them with brute force of will. Then somewhere along the way the styles flip, Kylo's becomes more artful and Rey's more brutal (not unlike Palpatine's aggressive form) when she knows she's about to be beaten.

Kylo Ren's death blow simultaneously with Leia's death, book-ended by the fact that Leia did not become one with the Force until Ben did too. It's creative liberty to be sure, no other Force ghost transition has been like that, but it worked for me.

Best acted movie of the new trilogy overall by all the cast, parts large and small. You can tell that everyone involved made it with love.

The payoff of Finn's force-sensitivity that we got in Force Awakens mostly makes up for the pain of poor, half-retconned broom kid. We get backstory of other storm trooper deserters that we spirited from their home worlds which become broom kid substitutes. I'm also glad at the payoff of Finn joining the resistance culminated in becoming a co-leader with Poe.

Remember that one throwaway in The Last Jedi that a very vocal group (myself excluded) hated because Luke did it in exile and despair? Rise of Skywalker has an appropriate answer. When Ben throws away his cross-guard lightsaber into the waves of Death Star debris, as a mirror image to Luke but with hope, we get a very iconic moment.

Initial Reaction *** Episode II *** Episode III

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cbrownjc · 5 years

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Interpretation of Prophecy in ASOIAF/GOT

First, to give credit: this meta doesn’t come strictly from me. The Youtube channel Talking Thrones posted a video that talks in a few of the same directions I write about here; and @oadara and I discussed a lot of this between us over DM, so much of this comes out of that as well.

So there are two main prophecies most people focus on when it comes to ASOIAF/GOT, which are:

- The prophecy that Maggy the Frog gave to Cersei when she was a girl.

- The Prince Who Was Promised/Azor Ahai prophecy that talks of a coming hero who will save the world from the coming darkness.

First, let’s look at what George R. R. Martin himself says about prophecies, particularly in fantasy fiction:

Prophecy is a staple element in fantasy, but it’s tricky,” Martin noted. “You want to play with the notion of prophecies coming true but in an unexpected way. You want to be unpredictable about it. Shakespeare is the ultimate example of that—when the forest of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Castle, MacBeth will fall. Everybody laughs—how can the forest come to the castle. [Malcolm] came camouflaged with branches and so on. Also, during the War of the Roses, one of the lords was prophesized that he would die at a certain castle. So he always took pains to avoid that castle. But then in the first The Battle of St Albans, he was wounded and died outside a pub that had that castle on its pub sign. You have to look at prophecies carefully and look at the weasel-wording.

(George R. R. Martin, Entertainment Weekly, 04/12/2015)

Martin is specifically talking about two types of prophecies here in the examples he gives: the self-fulfilling prophecy and the non-literal prophecy.

I think it has become more and more clear that Cersei’s prophecy that she received from Maggy the Frog is headed in the style of a self-fulfilling prophecy. That Cersei, in actively trying to prevent the prophecy from happening, has inevitably caused it to happen.

Leaving aside the Valonqar part of the prophecy for now, (since the show left it out too), one point of it that people continue to argue over is who the Younger, More Beautiful Queen part of this prophecy refers to. However, in a way, it is actually unimportant. Because with a self-fulfilling prophecy, the YMBQ could have been anyone. Or, at least, any girl who had a realistic chance of becoming Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. There was never one designated person it was destined to be. Which means Sansa, Margaery, Daenerys and, adding in the books, you can probably place Arianne Martell in the group as well, each could have been the YMBQ. The important part is/was how Cersei reacted to the threat of each of these women to BE the YMBQ, NOT who the woman actually was. Because again, it could have been any one of them.

For those who know Harry Potter, it is very much in line with Voldemort hearing that the person who can defeat him will be born “as the seventh month dies.” As HP book readers know, there were two boys born at the end of July - Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. It was Voldemort himself who picked Harry as the Chosen One when he went to kill him in Godric’s Hollow on that Halloween night. However, it could have just as easily not been Harry if Voldemort had picked and gone to kill Neville instead. Voldemort chose his rival, not fate or destiny.

I think the YMBQ part of Cersei’s prophecy is the same type of self-fulfilling prophecy that we see in Harry Potter, where Voldemort chose his rival, but with a slight twist. With Sansa and Margaery both, Cersei recognized them as threats, as the potential YMBQ of the prophecy she got, and worked to neutralize them as such in any way she could think of. However, the YMBQ has very likely become the person who Cersei didn’t think of as a threat and work to stop from being one until it was actually too late: Daenerys. (Though I do think Arianne Martell still might have chance to be this in the books in some way, even possibly jointly along with Daenerys, since we don’t know the direction Arianne’s story will go in relation to Cersei in the books). One of the underlying story threads of both the books and the show is how no one in Westeros is paying/paid all that much attention to Dany and the possible threat she poses, particularly to the Lannisters . . . and possibly to Cersei herself. Not until it’s looking to be too late to really do anything about it. Not until A Dance with Dragons at least, (as far as the books go), when it is now possibly too late to stop her from being one.

Which makes the scene in the show of Joffrey of all people recognizing the threat she is so early on drip with irony. (Start at 1:42)

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Cersei chose who the YMBQ was, by not choosing to see the threat one of the candidates presented to her. Like Voldemort did, Cersei has/is choosing the instruments of her own destruction, and making the prophecy come true, especially by living her life actively engaging with her prophecy and trying to prevent it.

And from the little we know of him via the books and lore, this appears to have also been Rhaegar Targaryen’s downfall as well, actively engaging and living his life based on a prophecy. However, in Rhaegar’s case, the prophecy doesn’t look to be self-fulfilling so much as being a non-literal prophecy. Non-literal prophecies are way more tricky to engage in and with, and may actually lead to the event that the prophecy says is destined to be stopped.

We see a version of this type of prophecy (awkwardly done) in the Star Wars prequels. “Anakin Skywalker is destined to destroy the Sith and bring balance to The Force.” Which yes, Anakin did destroy the Sith; but only after he helped the Sith to destroy the Jedi and became a Sith Lord himself. (Which then brought balance to the force after he killed Palpatine and then he - as Vader - died as well because then the only one left was Jedi Luke, I guess? Again, I said it was awkwardly done, not perfectly done). So yes, if you look at that prophecy literally, Anakin Skywalker did destroy the Sith. It was just the nature of why and how this prophecy would come to be true and be fulfilled that was what was missing: that Anakin would help to wipe out the Jedi first BEFORE destroying the Sith.

A better example of this, with the weasel-wording technique used that Martin mentions above, is another example from the Shakespeare play Macbeth, and the character of Macduff. Macbeth is told by the three witches that “no man of woman born” can kill him, so Macbeth goes though the play thinking that he can not be killed by any man. Turns out, however, that Macduff was actually born via a medieval version of a c-section:

And let the angel whom thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripped

So Macduff technically wasn’t “born” in the traditional sense as known of at that time. And so yes, Macduff is the one who ultimately kills Macbeth.

And I think that is that type of prophecy - one of non-literal interpretation - is what we are looking at when it comes to the prophecy in ASOIAF/GOT about The Prince Who Was Promised/Azor Ahai.

Let me start by pointing out: there is no Night King in the books. In the lore of the world there is a Night’s King (possessive S), who was this guy:

The 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. Bran mentions him in A Storm of Swords, and The World of Ice and Fire talks about him as well. It is said that he was a Stark, possibly the brother of the then-current King of Winter. In brief, his story was thus: he saw a woman for atop the wall one night "with skin as white as the moon and eyes like blue stars." He fell in love with her even though "her skin was cold as ice" and, when he gave her his seed, he gave her his soul as well. With her, he claimed the Nightfort as his castle and declared himself as King and her his Queen. There, he ruled for 13 years until the King of Winter and the King-Beyond-The-Wall brought him down.

As far as we know so far, the Night’s King has no relation or connection to this guy from the show, known as the Night King (no possessive S):

Not least of which because their backstories are compelty different. The Night King of the show was created by the Children of the Forest for their war against the First Men, which clearly happened years - if not decades - before the end of the first Long Night (which, itself, lasted a generation), the construction of The Wall and the formation of the Night’s Watch.

I’m bringing up the Night’s King and Night King difference - and that the Night King is show-only - because of one particular story point with regards to the Night’s King that I don’t want anyone confusing with the Night King of the show. And that is: when the Night’s King was finally brought down, it was discovered that he had been making sacrifices to The Others, aka the White Walkers. The lore never directly says what type of sacrifices he was making to them. However, given what we’ve seen presented in both the books and the show, there appears to only be one type of sacrifices The Others/White Walkers have ever appeared to take: human babies.

As we’ve seen in both the books and the show, Craster was somehow able to negotiate with The Others/White Walkers to make an agreement to sacrifice his own sons to them. So it doesn’t appear to be much of a stretch to assume that the Night’s King was able to make some similar type of deal to sacrifice any children he made with his Queen to them as well.

So what do The Others/White Walkers want? We already know what they want. The books, the lore and the show have all already told us, and even shown us, what they want. Twice now, they have made deals and taken human sacrifices - babies - and left the places south of the wall alone when they have received such things. There is no reason to believe that they would never do so again. We just don’t know why they want what they do, which is a different question than asking what they want.

So, knowing this, how might this tie into the prophecy of The Prince Who Was Promised/Azor Ahai?

First off, in the books, the wording of the prophecy falls very much into the weasel-wording technique that Martin himself talks about. Because the person who speaks the most about the prophecy, Melisandre, talks about the prophecy being about The Prince Who Was Promised and Azor Ahai interchangeably. Her talking about the prophecy in this way gives the impression that The Prince Who Was Promised and Azor Ahai are one-in-the-same, and one is just another name for the other.

However, what if that is not the case. Now, it’s complicated because the show has never either mentioned nor referred to Azor Ahai, (except for possibly as just an easter egg in a book Gilly is seen reading in S7), but has used the wording more associated with Azor Ahai to talk about The Prince Who Was Promised.

Another problem is that there is no one-description of what the prophecy actually is. In A Storm of Swords (Davos III), Melisandre says this:

When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.

Pretty straight forward. But again, this talks about Azor Ahai being reborn and how, not saying anything about The Prince Who Was Promised, or them being the same person.

And then, of course, there is the gender pronoun confusion, which is mentioned both in the books and the show, both dealing with the mistranslation about The Prince Who Was Promised. Maester Aemon in A Feast For Crows (Samwell IV) says:

What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years.

The prophecy originally having been made using the word for dragon in High Valyrian, and dragons, by nature, have no fixed gender. (The lore giving various opinions of if dragons can continually change sex at will or not. The only real way to tell if a dragon is male or female is if it lays eggs or not).

And in the show (Episode 7x02) Missandei says:

That noun has no gender in High Valyrian. The proper translation for that prophecy would be, ‘the prince or princess who was promised will bring the dawn.’

So what we have here is not only confusion as to whether or not Azor Ahai reborn is supposed to be the same person as The Prince Who Was Promised, but also gender confusion about The Prince Who Was Promised because High Valyrian nouns are not gender specific. On top of which, the show has only talked opening about The Prince Who Was Promised, but made no mention of Azor Ahai and him possibly being reborn as the prince who was promised or not.

Then of course, also from the books, we have the knowledge that a song was composed for The Prince Who Was Promised, which is called/known as “the song of ice and fire” which Daenerys learns of in her vision in the House of the Undying. (ACOK, Daenerys IV)

I’m not the first person to suggest that The Prince Who Was Promised and Azor Ahai reborn are two different people and that, between the mistranslations and gender confusion, the two things got mixed up together. But to make it clear, I’d say Azor Ahai is the one who will be reborn via salt and smoke who will wake dragons from stone, and that The Prince Who Was Promised is a separate prophecy, and person, and is the one who “will bring the dawn.”

So what does this have to do with The Others/White Walkers? Well, this is where more of that that weasel-wording technique Martin calls it comes in. In that what if The Prince Who Was Promised was actually promised to something - or someone. Namely, The Others/White Walkers. And what if it was a promise Azor Ahai himself made to them? It would go a ways to explain why the two are always connected to each other

If you look at the actual history of the First Long Night, Azor Ahai never actually defeated The Others/White Walkers. He and the members of the first Night’s Watch were able to drive them back, and had them flee into the Lands of Always Winter, but they were never defeated completely. Which is why The Wall was built in the first place and The Night’s Watch established - to guard against The Others/White Walkers coming back south and taking over the realms of Men as they did during the First Long Night.

So what if it was Azor Ahai himself who promised this “prince” to The Others/White Walker as a way to keep them from trying to invade the realms of Men another time? Again, via both the 13th LC of the NW and Craster, we know making pacts/deals with The Others/White Walkers is possible in some way. So, who is this “prince who was promised”? Yeah, I could just say Jon Snow, (because that’s what it likely looks like I’m about to say), but actually no, what if it’s not him? Or, more specifically, what if it was supposed to be him but, once again, the prophecy got slightly misinterpted?

Put a pin in this. We’ll come back to it. For now, let's go back to the 13th LC and Craster.

According to Old Nan, the 13th LC was a Stark, meaning he contained the blood of the First Men. The blood of the First Men is thought to carry some magical properties, particularly within the Stark family bloodline, which contain warging and greenseer abilities. And the Stark Kings of old were known as the Kings of Winter. So by the 13th LC likely sacrificing children of his blood that he made with his Night’s Queen, he was providing The Others/White Walkers children that carried a strong magical element in their blood.

Throughout the story and the lore, the Stark are also associated with Ice. Even their Great Valyrian Sword is called simply “Ice.”

With Craster, things are less certain there wrt the magical elements. Wildlings, which his mother was said to be, are also of the Blood of the First men, but it is not clear if the magical element is a strong among the Wildings as it is with the Starks. The main point, however, is that The Others/White Walkers accepted Craster’s sons as offerings, just as they did from the Night's King/13th LC. So they were clearly deemed as acceptable in that regard. Because, at the very least, they carried the blood of the First Men in them, from Craster’s Wildling mother.

[Side Note: There is probably going to be a plot-hole in the show wrt Craster’s kids - Gilly’s baby Little Sam specifically. Because, in the books, there is a baby-switching plot going on with Gilly’s baby, (he isn’t named Little Sam in the books, he’s just referred to as Monster instead), and Mance Rayder’s baby son. (Yes, Mance has a baby son in the books). Jon more or less forced Gilly to switch her son with Mance’s baby son to try and protect Mance’s son from possibly being killed/burned to death. So that is the fate that might actually befall Gilly’s baby son in the books while Jon is still currently dead, leaving NONE of Craster’s sons alive after that.]

So what we have here are two instances of sacrifices to The Others being made and accepted by the Others/White Walkers. And again, the only thing we’ve seen The Others/White Walkers take as a sacrifice are babies.

Now let's go back and look at The Prince Who Was Promised and, more specifically, the thing Rhaegar says about the song composed for him, specifically called “The Song of Ice and Fire.” As we all know, that is the actual title of Martin’s book series that the tv show Game of Thrones is based on. And, of course, Jon being the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark have many thinking he is “The Prince Who Was Promised” and the “song of ice and fire” because of his blood combination. However, there is another thing in the lore with the title Ice and Fire in it that is being overlooked here that I think is very significant, particularly wrt The Others/White Walkers.

And that is, The Pact of Ice and Fire.

The Pact of Ice and Fire was a pact forged between House Stark and House Targaryen, (more specifically the black faction of House Targaryen during the Dance of Dragons). As it is described in The World of Ice and Fire, it was an agreement between the two houses that a Stark male would wed a Targaryen Princess. (The recent book Fire and Blood gives more of an account and specifics of who the Princess would be . . . or, at least, who her father was supposed to be). The pact, however, was never fulfilled after The Dance ended.

What is the significant part of this is what House Stark was specifically asking for, which was a Targaryen princess. Cregan Stark specifically wanted a young Targaryen girl to wed into the Stark family.

As explained above, via both the books/lore and the show, the Starks have a connection to the happenings with The Others/White Walkers. We have the story of the 13 Lord Commander/Night’s King. We know about Bran the Builder who, with the help of the Children of the Forest (and giants) helped raise the wall to guard against them invading again. I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that the Kings of Winter of ages past, as the Stark Kings were first called, not only knew about “The Prince Who Was Promised,” but likely also what the true meaning of what this prince/princess being promised was all about. That whomever this prince/princess was, when born, they would be given to the The Others, who had been promised to them by Azor Ahai.

So what might this have to do with the Pact of Ice and Fire and requesting a Targaryen princess to marry into House Stark? I think a clue comes from Book 2, A Clash of Kings, and Daenerys’ encounter with The Undying in the House of the Undying.

In ACOK, the Undying Ones are described in a way that has them seeming to be a representation of The Others/White Walkers; with them being described as “blue and cold.” And then there is this passage, where they try to consume Daenerys (Daenerys IV, ACOK):

They wanted her, needed her, the fire, the life, and Dany gasped and opened her arms to give herself to them …

But then black wings buffeted her round the head, and a scream of fury cut the indigo air, and suddenly the visions were gone, ripped away, and Dany’s gasp turned to horror. The Undying were all around her, blue and cold, whispering as they reached for her, pulling, stroking, tugging at her clothes, touching her with their dry cold hands, twining their fingers through her hair. All the strength had left her limbs. She could not move. Even her heart had ceased to beat. She felt a hand on her bare breast, twisting her nipple. Teeth found the soft skin of her throat. A mouth descended on one eye, licking, sucking, biting …

Then indigo turned to orange, and whispers turned to screams. Her heart was pounding, racing, the hands and mouths were gone, heat washed over her skin, and Dany blinked at a sudden glare. Perched above her, the dragon spread his wings and tore at the terrible dark heart, ripping the rotten flesh to ribbons, and when his head snapped forward, fire flew from his open jaws, bright and hot. She could hear the shrieks of the Undying as they burned, their high thin papery voices crying out in tongues long dead. “

Here we have the Undying, who are described in terms of cold and death, linking them in many way to The Others/White Walkers, trying to consume the fire - which is linked to life - of Daenerys. (And they almost succeeded until Drogon saves her).

There is indication that The Undying have been waiting for Daenerys for thousands of years before this moment. They want the lifeforce, the fire that she has, when she finally comes. So what we have here are creatures associated with imagery of - and visually linked to - creatures of death, (The Others/White Walkers), trying to to consume a life, the fire, from someone of Valyrian descent. Valyrian blood constantly linked to that of fire, and fire, throughout the series, is linked to life. House Targaryen’s own words (a house motto they chose when Aegon the Conqueror first began his conquest and wanted his family to adopt more Westerosi culture BTW - they never had a House motto before that) is Fire and Blood, two images also associated with life.

Just like The Undying, The Others/White Walkers also appear to be seeking life of some kind. The taking of babies, and then using those babies to create more of their kind by turning them into Others/White Walkers I think ties into this. However, they very well might be something missing from what they seek out of this. A life-force that contains what The Undying were trying to take from Daenerys - a fire.

How is a new life usually created? Male and Female coming together. Melisandre alludes to the power of that ability - to create life - in the scene when she tries to seduce Jon in Season 5 (Episode 5x04) (Start at: 1:10)

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And then of course, there is the quote from the book that she says in this seduction scene (which wasn’t a seduction scene in the book btw), from A Dance with Dragons (Jon VI):

The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows.

I think the show was being a bit more hard-hitting in the foreshadowing than the book by having Melisandre say these words while appearing to try and seduce Jon. That there is power in the ability - in the act - of men and women coming together and creating life. Unlike The Others/White Walkers, who can only create more of themselves by taking an already living creation - in this case, a child - and turning them into a being like them, a being of the cold.

Yet, even with the power of men and women to do this, The Undying specifically were waiting for and sought out Daenerys for that life, that fire, that they needed. And that may be because, while both male and female coming together can create life and light, it is the female who brings forth that light and life into the world via childbirth.

There is a running theme of motherhood, and what that means, throughout Daenerys’ story. She is called Mhysa by the people she liberated from slavery and metaphorically giving them new life as free people. She birthed creatures that are considered to be fire made flesh via fire itself.

I think this is why The Pact of Ice and Fire called for a Targaryen princess to wed into House Stark. That the need for a joining of Ice and Fire had to specially be that the fruits of that joining, the life created from it, be born of fire; born via a daughter - a female - who carried such fire within her, which those of Valyrian descent do.

And this is where Rhaegar Targaryen made one of his many mistakes when it comes to the Prince Who Was Promised prophecy. At some point I do think Rhaegar thought he needed a child who was - bloodline-wise - of “ice and fire.” Rhaegar had already changed his life twice-over trying to fulfill the Prince Who Was Promised prophecy. There is no reason to assume he wouldn’t have done it again if he came into more info about it. For all he did likley love Lyanna, I think it’s probable that he also saw their child as the one who would make this prophecy he’d been chasing most of his life come true . . . after first thinking it was about himself, and then thinking it would be about his three children he would (hopefully) have, and the idea that “the dragon has three heads.”

However, again, Rhaegar was incorrect, not just about what the whole idea of The Prince That Was Promised actually meant, but how the blood combination of Ice and Fire was supposed to be . . . or, more specifically, how the child had to be born. Because Lyanna wasn’t fire, or the blood of fire. She was of ice, with the blood of the First Men within her, not the blood of Old Valyria. And the Prince Who Was Promised more than likely had to be born of fire, via a female with the blood of fire.

From A Game of Thrones (Daenerys X):

No, she wanted to shout to him, no my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE?

Blood of the Dragon are what those of blood of Old Valyria are called. Dragons are fire made flesh. Those of the blood Old Valyria, the Targaryens, like dragons, are also likely fire made flesh. And fire is life and light.

And the coming together of that fire with ice is symbolic of balance. From A Clash of Kings (Daenerys IV):

"I have come for the gift of truth," Dany said. "In the long hall, the things I saw . . . were they true visions, or lies? Past things, or things to come? What did they mean?" . . . the shape of shadows . . . morrows not yet made . . . drink from the cup of ice . . . drink from the cup of fire . . . . . . mother of dragons . . . child of three . . .

And from A Storm of Swords (Bran II):

"Because they're different," he insisted. "Like night and day, or ice and fire."

"If ice can burn," said Jojen in his solemn voice, "then love and hate can mate . . .”

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A great video that talks about the idea of balance between ice (Jon) and fire (Dany) and visual symbols the show uses to convey this connection to each other, along with The Others/White Walkers/Night King.

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In the show, The Night King is likely a visual representation of a being known as The Great Other from the books/lore. (Since, again, The Night King doesn’t exist in the books). The Great Other is said to be the god of cold, darkness and death, and he has no physical appearance, likely being a more metaphysical entity given the little we know. He is considered to be the enemy of the Lord of Light, known as R'hllor. In the show, killing the Night King will likely be the equivalent of defeating The Great Other in the books.

The actor who plays the Night King gave a recent interview which seems to support the idea that part of his character is likely based on The Great Other from the books:

What does the Night King want, anyway?

Somebody made him the Night King. Nobody knows who he was before — a soldier or part of [nobility]. He never wanted to be the Night King. I think he wants revenge. Everybody in this story has two sides — a bad side and a good side. The Night King only has one side, a bad side.

Thinking the Night King wants revenge isn’t the same as that being what he definitely wants. However, the idea that the Night King only has a bad side seems to fit with the view of what The Great Other is and represents in the books/lore, which is the god of darkness and death. However, I don’t think it’s all that cut and dry even via what The Great Other/Night King is. Because evil acts can be committed by those who fight for the light, such as good acts can likely be committed by those who fight for darkness/death. Melisandre’s burning of Shireen Baratheon, which Martin has already confirmed will happen in the books as well, is proof enough of that.

Also, from the recent interview, there is this:

What can we expect from him in the final season?

People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is. There’s also that moment [in “Hardhome”] when Jon Snow was on the boat and the Night King looked at him and raised his arms — there’s a similar and even stronger moment between Jon and the Night King this time.

I think it’s pretty clear that that target isn’t Jon Snow. He had more than one opportunity to kill Jon, but proceeded instead to mostly just taunt him. I don’t think the target is Daenerys either, or he could have easily killed Drogon and gotten her when she came beyond the wall in Episode 6 of Season 7.

The Three-eyed Raven/Crow being the target - with that now being Bran, is an option I admit, however . . . the original Three-Eyed Raven/Crow, who was Brynden Rivers aka Bloodraven, had been the Three-Eyed Raven/Crow for many years, and there is little to no indication that The Night King was actively trying to kill him during any of that time.

However, what if the killing of the target doesn’t mean just “to kill,” so much in the sense of what we saw happen to the former Three-Eyed Raven in the show, but is more in the vein of what happened to Daenerys in the House of the Undying in the books, when the Undying tried to take her life-force from her.

And the person they want to do this with is actually the child Daenerys and Jon will/have created?

Because the foreshadowing that Jon and Daenerys will have a child in the coming season was pretty obvious, not to mention Daenerys whole underlying story theme and motif of motherhood. Also, do not overlook this clip, which HBO chose to highlight before the start of Season 8, where Viserys makes this comment about the child that Dany is set to have with Khal Drogo (Episode 1x06) (Start: 1:16):

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He won’t be a real Targaryen. He won’t be a true dragon.

Jon and Daenerys’ child however, who will be a “real” Targaryen via both its parents, as well as a child that will also carry the blood of the First Men, the ice, via his/her father, might very well be the actual target, given what we’ve already seen of The Others/White Walkers taking of babies who were sacrificed to them. “The Prince Who Was Promised will bring the dawn” might not mean that the Prince Who Was Promised will somehow fight and defeat The Others/White Walkers, but that in sacrificing this prince/princess who was “promised” to the them, promised to The Others/White Walkers, promised to them by Azor Ahai all those thousands of years ago, that that will cause The Others/White Walkers to once again leave the realms of men alone, retreat back into the Lands of Always Winter, and bring back the Dawn for another 8000 years or so. Until the cycle will likely start again.

And this would, quite frankly, be where much internal conflict and drama would arise. Because neither Jon nor Daenerys would be up for sacrificing their baby, even for some greater good, in the view of either Craster or the 13th Lord Commander. (In fact, I think Jon’s going to learn a hard lesson about that when the baby switching plot he instigated wrt Gilly’s baby in the books plays out to a tragic end for Gilly’s baby). If they can find a way to defeat The Others/White Walkers without having to make such a sacrifice and basically taking the easy way out to do so, they may also guarantee that this time, The Others/White Walkers will truly be destroyed and gone forever this time. Instead of what Azor Ahai did, which only seemed to have the go into some kind of slumber and dormancy, and staying in the lands beyond the wall.

However, there may be some among Jon and Daenerys’ army and/or advisors who would want to take the easy route and give the child over to end the conflict quickly, which - while pushing off the problem again for another couple of thousands years - could prevent many people from dying and becoming a part of the Army of the Dead and overrunning Westeros as was what happened during the first Long Night. (Which didn’t stay limited to only Westeros, but spread over almost all of Essos as well).

In the show, Daenerys’ story has a theme about wanting to “break the wheel”; the wheel being the nature of the political dynamics of Westeros that benefits the more Noble Classes that fight for power and dominance, symbolized by the Iron Throne, and those who do not benefit from that ongoing struggle, which are the lower classes and smallfolk of Westeros. They are the ones who are always crushed underneath this wheel, this circular nature of the political power fights and wars.

However, this idea of “breaking the wheel” may also, in the end, extend to the fight against The Others/White Walkers. As noted, this is not the first time they have invaded the realms of men. And, the last time they did, they were not defeated. The problem they are, the threat they pose, seems to have been pushed off to another generation to have to fight, combat and deal with. And at the center of that fight to do so might just rest with Ice and Fire coming together to create something new. However, the prophecy that has dictated the lives of many people that has lead to this, has never dictated the lives of the two people who may have the most influence in The Prince Who Was Promised prophecy coming to fruition. Neither Jon or Daenerys have lived their lives or made decisions in their lives sorley to fulfil a prophecy. And given what was very likely the weasel-wording technique used for The Prince Who Was Promised prophecy, the fact that they did so may, in the end, be the deciding factor in the breaking of another wheel, another cycle of destruction.

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lohkor · 5 years

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One of the more persistent, and amusing, defenses of the Disney sequels in general, and of The Last Jedi in particular, is this idea that those sequels are the ONLY reasonable followup to the Original Trilogy. The shocking events of The Last Jedi, and the shape of the sequels in general, being defended as being the only way to follow the Original Trilogy that would make sense, that Luke's behavior in the sequels makes complete sense after the Original Trilogy, or that somehow The First Order is the ONLY way a villain could be made for future Star Wars films and that the Empire just wouldn't make sense to modern audiences. This idea that doing it any other way wouldn't make sense, or wouldn't be appropriate for modern audiences, or wouldn't be true to the characters.

Yet, somehow, you never heard these complaints before the big reboot of 2014. Where were the editorial columns, the book reviews, the social media posts, the blogs predating the big Disney reboot saying that the shape of the Star Wars Expanded Universe (now re-branded as "Legends") was inherently wrong, saying that the Imperial Remnant (or the later reformed Empire under the Fel Dynasty) was out-of-touch and not appropriate for the current generation? Where were the people saying Luke shouldn't have given up and not rebuilt the Jedi Order and should have instead given up and gone into seclusion?

When the Jedi Academy trilogy came out in 1994, where Luke tried to rebuild the Jedi Order, only to have one of his students seduced to the Dark Side and nearly destroy him, the academy, and his nascent reborn Jedi Order, where were the complaints that he should have failed and gone into seclusion instead of succeeding and restoring the Jedi?

Where were the people saying Leia shouldn't have become a political leader and eventually trained as a Jedi, instead she should have become a General and given up on her Jedi heritage and given up on political ambitions? Where were the people saying that Han and Leia shouldn't have stayed together and Han leaving Leia would have made more sense than them being a happy couple? Where were the people saying that Darth Caedus or Darth Krayt were not good villains and they needed a different style of villain instead.

Despite the Star Wars Expanded Universe continuing a post-Endor storyline for over 20 years before the reboot, there were virtually no voices in the media or fan community saying that it was an outright wrong direction for the events after Return of the Jedi. People might have complained about a specific plot arc, or about a specific novel, but the idea that the entire broad direction from the beginning was inherently wrong simply wasn't there.

The people saying that somehow the Disney sequels and their characters are the only appropriate post-RotJ continuation are doing so simply to justify, to rationalize the sequels and their characters. If they thought that was the logical direction, that it was the only sensible way to go, they had over 20 years to say it. . .yet they said nothing and when Disney makes that their new official timeline in their reboot, suddenly people are saying that was the way it always had to be. There are many many ways it could have gone. I personally don't see how you can look at the Exanded universe timeline and the Disney Timeline and suggest the Disney one makes more sense though. The slow collapse of the Empire always made more logical sense than an instant implosion and rebel victory. The Empire had to have thousands of Star destroyers, millions upon millions of troops to maintain galactic wide rule. They all logically could not and would not be at Endor and all be destroyed. That doesn't reduce the impact of ROTJ. The Emperor and Vader were defeated and they were what held the Empire together. The EU said they had tens of thousands of Star Destroyers, and the Imperial military numbered over one trillion strong according to the Essential Guide to Warfare. The EU did say that the Empire lost many of their best commanders and talented young officers at Endor, because several ships there, like the Executor, were seen as prime assignments for talented young officers, but yes, the Empire was originally depicted as having a vast military and vast bureaucracy that slowly collapsed into infighting and rival factions after Endor, and took 15 years to be pushed to a final surrender, and that was a surrender where the New Republic agreed to let them remain as a rump state on the galactic rim, not an unconditional surrender and dissolution. EU sources said one of the biggest things that caused the collapse of the Empire after Endor was that there was no heir apparent. There was nobody legally in a position to become the Emperor. The Galactic Senate had appointed Palpatine originally, but they'd been "suspended" (de facto abolished) since shortly before the Battle of Yavin, and if the Emperor had suspended them, then only an Emperor could remove that suspension so they couldn't meet to appoint a successor (and the various military leaders that had risen to prominence in that time wouldn't want to convene the Senate to appoint a leader over them). No Imperial law spelled out succession plans, because Palpatine never planned to die, he planned to use his mastery of Sith sorcery and cloning to live forever. Palpatine had no known surviving family that could have claimed the throne by blood. He DID have one distant surviving grand-niece who was found, and there were briefly peace negotiations with the New Republic to crown her as a titular Empress, re-establish the Empire as a Constitutional Monarchy, making the New Republic Senate the new Imperial Senate, and the New Republic's advisory council the new Imperial advisers, but an assassin (quite possibly sent by Palpatine recuperating on Byss) assassinated the young heir, ended that peace plan.

#star wars #star wars eu #star wars legends #galactic empire

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anchanted-one · 5 years

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M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

Oh heavens yeah 😆! Several! I'll go into a few of them here.

1. Dust to Dust

This was to be centered around Dust, Bounty Hunter. Grand Champion of the Great Hunt in Arro's universe.

He's a chaotic neutral, leans towards evil.

He only cares about credits, and he's abrasive af. He scares Skadge shitless at times: that's saying something! Despite his love for credits he doesn't do con jobs so Gault is not a fan either.

He can be ruthless if he carries a grudge but he does not have a "Leave no Witnesses behind" attitude unless the job specifies it.

But he's professional enough not to cross his clients, or steal from them. He has a Code of Conduct, or his own peculiar Honor, because of which he is considered a true Mando even by rivals.

But he does have this one soft spot: Juda, the Twi'lek accountant who works for Nemro the Hutt.

Dust to Dust is supposed to be their love-story. He buys Juda's "freedom" (she's not a slave technically, but one doesn't just leave a Hutt's employ), and makes a semi-business, semi-romantic deal with her.

The two marry and are... I guess co-owners of his enterprise? She handles accounts and books, and is also a shrewd investor. They both become fabulously wealthy because of his hunting and her investments. There is also a kind of love between them though I don't think Twi'leks and Besalisks can have sex. She's one of the few who sees his at-home face, where he is easy, soft, gentle and accommodating.

Dust to Dust will follow their successes as both a couple and as partners, till his retirement shortly after Corellia.

The two settle down and try to start a new life on a Cato-Neimoida like world. But Juda is killed in an unexpected shootout that occurs when Republic and Sith Forces cross paths by accident.

Dust hunts down the soldiers, Jedi and Sith on both sides of the conflict, and ends up with Clan Vizla on Rishi. Here he joins the Revanites, intent on hurting both Pubs and Imps.

For anyone else who wondered why the OCs are never approached for joining the Order of Revan.

2. Ciphered Diaries, following my Cipher Nine. This is to be a short story or miniseries.

3. Other Stars and Wars. In hindsight I feel like Luke should never have been able to even lay a finger on Darth Vader. I feel that Luke-Leia relationship was not properly thought out, and inserted partly because of how brilliant Vader's truth was, and partly so that Leia could have a better reason to land up with Han.

I also dislike EU and New Canon books which show Vader as a reckless loose cannon.

Other Stars and Wars is supposed to be in an alternate world where Anakin and Vader are indeed two separate people, and Vader is less of a loose cannon and more of a Grand General, like what we expect Anakin to have become if he had matured without turning. Also, Vader in this universe saves Alderaan because he is BADASS.

4. Ahnika, Arro's successor. She continues Arro's work after he semi- and later fully-retires. The Galaxy reaches its most prosperous peace under her guidance. I don't have a title yet, but this story will be set in the tail end of her saga, and will involve the Order of Zildrog and the planet Malachor. It will lead into a continuation story in Palpatine era Star Wars, where Maul is hunting for a weapon to extract his revenge.

5. My final Star Wars story is more of an essay, than a story. My thoughts on Anakin and his fall to the Dark.

6. Fairy Tail: The Wizard King. This one takes place in the Fairy Tail universe, from the Manga by Hiro Mashima. It follows the story of the Wizard King, who is Immortal and OP by any measure, even those of Dragons. It is meant to be a monologue about what a hero has to become when he can literally solve all of the world's problems with a snap of his finger. A look at morality, agency, and respecting the right of people to their own lives, struggles and victories.

This one is meant to be mostly Manga style comic, much like the source. If I can ever get to it.

7. The vague story of an as-yet nebulous swordsman who journeys the world and has random duels, mostly non-fatal. Bandits, friendly rivalries and competitions and a world with magical beings who rarely have any conflicts with each other. This "story" will mostly be an exercise in gratuitous action.

8. Some stories set around Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. I have had some ideas on this but not really looked into them.

Thanks so much for the ask!

#anchanted-one #star wars #swtor #art #swtor fanfic #Other fanfiction #Original stories #Maybe some Indian Mythology #Answering asks

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slurrmp · 5 years

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all you need to know about spyro’s original characters: oc: gwendolyn murdock fandom: star wars / daredevil status: very active.

THE BASICS

Name: gwendolyn murdock Nicknames: dock, gwen, murry Gender: female Pronouns: she/her Sexual Orientation: pansexual Age (actual age): 28 Place of Birth: hell’s kitchen, new york Citizenship: american

APPEARANCE

Age they appear: late teens, early twenties Hair colour: dark brown Hair style: naturally wavy which was due to her birth mother, but she normally straightens it. Eye colour: brown Birthmarks/scars/marks: birthmark just behind her right ear. has a scar on the inside of her left foot from falling off her bike when she 10. self inflicted scars along her arms from when she was fourteen and her brother had to leave her in the care of the church orphanage when he left to go to college. Piercings: both lobes pierced. Tattoos: tiny devil horns on her shoulder blade.

Build (curvy, toned, etc): rather tall and lanky, bulked up quite a bit when she decided to join her brother when he picked up the hero gig. Weight: around 60kilos Height: 5′7″ Clothing style: gwen never had the nicest of clothes when she was still with the church, however, when her brother started to earn some money - he would often buy her clothes for her birthday and christmas. when gwen finally was able to leave the church and get a part time job at the local hospital, she wore very comfortable clothing. jeans, t-shirts, sometimes blouses and even dresses. Overall appearance: neat. she’s a doctor in training, she has to make sure that her appearance as well as her personality is friendly and inviting.

Trinkets/jewelry: when she was younger, she would mostly never be seen without her father’s boxing robe. when she got a bit older, the golden band that is around her right ring finger, was that of her fathers. Equipment/accessories (things they are never without; ex: a backpack or a notepad) mostly her pager, she may not be a proper doctor yet, but her placements keep her well occupied and pagers are still a thing in hospitals. but as a superhero she is never seen without her crossbow.

INNER WORKINGS

General mood: cheerful, happy, generally in a good mood all of the time. her bedside manner was the one thing gwen wanted to work on. she has to be friendly, other wise she’ll start to f e e l bad. Mental state (any mental illnesses?): oh man, gwen had always been a cheerful kid. but when she saw her father murdered before her when she was only six years old. she doesn’t remember much only that her brother had held onto her and never let her go after that night. gwen managed to come away from that night slightly unscathed but it was the orphanage that really took a toll on her. with her brother being given special care because of his disability, gwen always felt left out. especially when stick entered the picture. she’s not exactly the type of person to talk about her feelings, so keeping them bottled up inside doesn’t really do her any good.

Alignment (neutral good, chaotic evil, etc): chaotic good Morals: morals are to look out for those who need it. to help and never kill. Temperament: she is naturally known as the student doctor to go too, gwen is almost at the top of her class and is willing to get her hands dirty if need be. she’s not judgemental and she is willing to help whenever she can.

Quirks: chews on her lower lip. cracks her knuckles. bounces her leg. while also having picked up some of her brother’s quirks as well, Pet peeves: selfishness. rudeness.

Strengths: loyal. strong stomach. her ability to help everybody. Weaknesses: she would never turn anyone who needed help down. even if it meant helping a sith.

Fears: flying. it gets worse over the years she’s a part of the 501st. Intelligence: gwen had a complicated time when going to school, being raised extremely catholic but she never really believed as much as her brother. gwen managed to finish school with high marks which landed her in medical school, where she managed to get to her fourth years (before she was pulled into the star wars verse)

Priorities: her brother. in sw verse. the 501st first and foremost. anakin, ashoka, even obi-wan. Desires: to finish med school and become a registered er doctor. in sw verse. it get home and to survive the clone war. Likes: dancing, spending time with her brother. in sw verse. caff. lots and lots of the stuff. Dislikes: not being able to help her brother when he needs it the most. especially when he dealt with wilson fisk. in sw verse. the war.

Vices: too standoffish. even foggy had trouble getting into gwen’s good books, even when her brother and he went to law school and started a firm together. too blunt. makes for the best doctors i suppose.

RELATIONSHIPS

Friends: surprisingly jessica jones, it’s slightly messy and complicated but they grew incredibly close when she helped claire help jess that one night. eventually foggy and karen as well. in sw verse. gwen became incredibly close with anakin and ashoka, who she would reference too as her brother and sister. most importantly the 501st, along with commander cody, commander wolffe and even captain fox.

Family: JACK MURDOCK (father. DECEASED.), UNKNOWN (mother. MIA/CONSIDERED DECEASED.), MATTHEW MURDOCK (brother, ALIVE.)

Significant other: that relationship with jessica ? well it gets even more complicated as time goes on. in sw verse. fives

Kids: none at the moment

Enemies: wilson fisk. more to be added.

EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION

Jobs: student, doing her placement at the st. vincent’s midtown hospital. in sw verse. the jedi allowed her to join the 501st, however she is mainly stationed on kamino when not needed in battle. Profession: will be an er doctor.

Income (if any): kaminoans allow her a room at their facility and almost 100 credits per shift to be able to survive.

Furthest education: high school. Degree (if any): will be at NYU school of medicine

EXTRA INFORMATION

Criminal record: a few misdemeanors as a minor. which upgraded to grand theft auto when she was a teenager, after falling with the wrong crowd that use to hang outside of st agens’s orphanage.

Social media accounts (if any): instagram, twitter, facebook, snapchat (well she use to use them)

Reputation: gwen gained her title of dock, christened by jesse, when she appeared during the second battle of geonosis, helping almost twice as many of the clones as clone medics could, with her mind still blurry and unable to make sense of what was happening, gwen still managed to get her body into gear and help. many go to see her instead of their medical brothers, a reason being because she was a pretty face, something fresh from the same old, but she also makes connections with each clone she treats, remembering their names instead of their numbers.

Skills: extremely talented with a crossbow. as well as the batons that her brother uses. gwen also took up boxing when she was grounded after the many times she was in trouble. she is also able to fire a gun, however never liked to do so. in sw verse. can handle a blaster, which is a lot like a gun, only more ... laser-y and somehow even a lightsaber.

Talents: she’s a rather talented singer. Hobbies: video games was a big part of her childhood, as well as her young adulthood, as it was the only thing she could do to relax her after a long day. running, (usually does a lap of her kamino quarters before going around one of the domes.) boxing.

Special abilities (if any): she’s slightly force sensitive. gwen figured this out one day in the medbay on kamino.

Transportation: she use to walk everywhere, hell’s kitchen is not exactly a big neighbourhood to get around, but if needed to travel father she would catch the train, sub or bus. Living conditions: shared an apartment with her brother, only until she graduates medical school. in sw verse. apartment on kamino, while sometimes she would stay at the jedi temple.

Pets: looks after a stray cat that likes to sit on balcony of the apartment.

AESTHETIC

Colors associated with: pastel baby blue, deep shades of purple Their personal aesthetic: the clear warm sunny days on naboo. the rain can get to her sometimes. Song that suits them: WHY AM I LIKE THIS - ORLA GARTLAND

╳ BIO:

proper bio coming soon. however, the main story, is that gwen being from the mcu, knew everything about star wars. it was a big part of her childhood as well, it was basically her only saving grace (a part from video games) when she was child. then something happened one night (may say that it was the snap) which caused gwen to wake up in the middle of the first geonsis battle. not knowing how or why she was brought there, thinking it was just a dream, gwen decided she would put her learnt skills to use and try and save some clones along the way.

during the flurry of the battle no one even seemed to take notice of someone completely new and different was suddenly around. as long as gwen stays in the star wars universe, the more she would forget about the story line and what would happen.

meaning she tried her best to write down as much as she could when she first arrived. getting as far as underlining anakin skywalker = darth vader and about order 66, but not remembering the inhibitor chips in the clones heads, onto a data padd.

#star wars #mcu #the clone wars #daredevil #star wars the clone wars #tcw #star wars oc #mcu oc #gwendolyn murdock #* & MEET MY OC'S.#HER SHE ISSSSSSS.#will be doing ones for valerie & rory sometime !

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Star Wars Brings Back George Lucas, But Not How You Expect

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Remember George Lucas? He’s back… in figure form!

Yes, the filmmaking visionary who, with some help, conceived a ubiquitously-dominant film franchise, is set to be immortalized in plastic via the practice that put the Star Wars merchandising machine on the map. Indeed, Hasbro Toys has revealed a new George Lucas rendition, this one arriving in the 6” scaled Black Series line. While the gravity of such a tribute might be mitigated by the fact that it’s his fourth figure, this particular release commemorates one of his most crucial, pre-Star Wars, achievements: the 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm.

Of course, George Lucas has generally stayed on the sidelines ever since he cashed in his proverbial chips of ownership and once-definitive creative control over Star Wars for a cool $4 billion Disney-dealt payout back in 2012. However, as the franchise enters a period of transition after varied degrees of success from the Prequel Trilogy and two spinoff films, and widespread acclaim from old-school-aimed live-action television series The Mandalorian and upcoming spinoff The Book of Boba Fett, it does feel like things are returning to the nixed direction in which Lucas was steering things before the Disney era. Consequently, Hasbro’s latest toy gesture to thank the maker—depicted as a stormtrooper—is timely regarding the prospective shifting of franchise tides.

Check out the photos of Star Wars: The Black Series George Lucas (in Stormtrooper Disguise) just below!

As you can see, the figure further fuels its nostalgic nature by way of being packed in a now-common retro-styled cardback, which resembles—albeit on a bigger scale—the design of the vintage 3 ¾” Kenner action figures. It’s hardly unique for the Black Series, but nevertheless comes across as poetic, given the figure’s subject. In a method expedient to the manufacturing process, the body of the figure is flannel/denim-free, and instead reuses the recently-released Stormtrooper figure mold, which is the 6″ line’s current standard. Yet, the George Lucas face designed to reside beneath the white dome is all-new and reflects the face scan technology that has been implemented in recent years, resulting in this being the creator’s most realistic plastic depiction thus far.

Vickie Stratford, sr. director of product design at Hasbro, tells StarWars.com, “As a lifelong Star Wars fan, I have both the honor and privilege to bring characters from the franchise to life in product form every single day,”. “When the opportunity came to design the George Lucas figure, we were especially excited for this project. This figure is just one of the many ways we can honor his legacy for years to come and we hope fans cherish it as much as we did!”

The Book of Boba Fett: What to Know About the New Star Wars Series

By John Saavedra

Movies

Were the Star Wars Prequels as Cerebral as Mark Hamill Thinks?

By Joseph Baxter

Contrary to the figure’s retro theme, its depiction adapts a more-current, older/grayer version of Lucas. It’s a decision that might be perceived as odd, seeing as the figure commemorates the era of Lucasfilm’s formation, which occurred on Dec. 10, 1971, in the aftermath of Lucas’s first feature, sci-fi dystopia drama THX 1138. He would immediately follow that film with a thematically-diverging entry in 1973 early-1960s-set coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti, which—co-starring future Solo: A Star Wars Story director Ron Howard—was the first release under the Lucasfilm banner, co-produced by the Coppola Company and Universal. Of course, the next film on the company’s production docket, which arrived on May 25, 1977, changed the shape of popular culture. Thusly, the first Star Wars George Lucas/Stormtrooper figure to have manifested, a 2006 mail-away from the 3 ¾” scale Saga Collection, depicted a younger, black-haired, era-appropriate version of Lucas. However, the new figure’s depiction is nevertheless unmistakable.

As mentioned, the new Black Series release stands as the fourth George Lucas action figure overall. While that might seem excessive to those uninitiated with the figure collectors’ world, it is actually quite a low number, considering the surreally diverse myriad figures released since the never-interrupted 1995 modern era relaunch, and happens to be the first one in 6” scale. The first rendition arrived in 2002, exclusively offered at Celebration II, with Rebel pilot “Jorg Sacul,” an obvious anagram of George Lucas, whose true face can be revealed by removing the helmet—at least, for those bold enough to remove the figure from its packaging.

After that was the aforementioned 2006 mail-away Lucas/Stormtrooper figure, which bore a similar title to the new Black Series release. 2006 would also yield a 4-pack online exclusive for the now-defunct StarWarsShop.com, titled “Lucas Collector’s Set.” This set adapted the onscreen cameos of the Lucas family in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, with George as blue-skinned bureaucrat Baron Papanoida, son Jett Lucas as Jedi youngling Zett Jukasa, daughter Amanda Lucas as senator Terr Taneel, and daughter Katie Lucas as Twi’lek senator Chi Eekway.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The Star Wars: The Black Series George Lucas (in Stormtrooper Disguise) figure initially went up for preorder on Amazon this morning, where it sold out shockingly quick. However, other online toy retailers have started to take preorders. So, if you’re fine with the raised average price of $26.49 (compared to, for example, Walmart’s Black Series price of $17.88), then you’ll likely have a fair chance to purchase the demonstrably-highly-sought figure one way or another.

The post Star Wars Brings Back George Lucas, But Not How You Expect appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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blazehedgehog · 6 years

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Do you have any opinions on Star Wars? (Games, comics, movies, shows, etc.)

This is a very broad question, so I hope you’re prepared for a broad response. By which I mean: yo this post is going to be long.

Star Wars is pretty cool, I guess. I’ve seen A New Hope a lot.

I remember the same day the trailer for The Phantom Menace dropped, they installed iMac G3s in our high school computer lab. That was probably the first thing any of us did on one of those, was watch it, back when apple.com used to not only host, but premiere movie trailers in Quicktime format.

I remember getting swept up in that zeitgeist, about how amazing it was going to be, and hearing reviews slam it. I never saw it in the theater, because I never see movies in theaters (even back then). I remember renting it on VHS and finding it tremendously boring. Way too many hard-to-follow politics.

I saw Attack of The Clones in theaters, because my Mom and I had four free movie tickets from some giveaway. So we saw Clones and the first Sam Raimi Spider-man. For the longest time, those were the last two movies I saw in theaters (up until a couple years ago, when my cousin took me to see Pacific Rim, and then most recently, my brother took all of us to see Cars 3). I remember on the way in seeing a friend from High School in the lobby playing the theater’s Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet. I dropped a quarter in and he mopped the floor with me.

Clones seemed fine when I was coming out of the theater. Going to the theater felt like a special event (because it was), so I don’t think the movie itself even really sunk in until I tried watching it a second time a year later, on home video – I found it to be one of the worst movies I’d ever seen, at that point in time. Just, absolutely awful. An embarrassment if there ever was one.

I saw Revenge of the Sith on video about a year after its release and thought it was the most watchable movie in the prequel trilogy. I have not seen it again since.

I did not really grow up with Star Wars video games. I remember renting the Super Star Wars trilogy and never liking any of them. Way too unforgivably difficult and genuinely kind of ugly games, too. People will go on about Factor 5′s big downfall being Lair for the PS3, but in all honesty I’ve never played a Factor 5 game I’ve enjoyed. Their Star Wars games in particular.

Yes, that even means all of the Rogue Squadron games. I’ve played the (first?) Nintendo 64 game, which quickly shoves an escort mission in your face (the worst). The second Gamecube game I ever owned was Rogue Squadron 2, bought for $2 in around 2005. Very visually impressive, but again, the mission variety and the extreme level of difficulty drags things down. Not very fun.

I have fond memories of the demo for Jedi Outcast, but I would later come to realize those find memories weren’t from playing the game normally – I would enable cheats, jack all my force powers up to max and goof around, shoving storm troopers off of ledges and spawning The Reborn and having saber duels with them in rooms that weren’t built for those kinds of fights.

My real fond memories are of the first Jedi Knight game (Dark Forces 2), which I forced my mom to buy for me when we ditched our 266mhz Packard Bell for a 1.5ghz Sony Vaio. I wanted to “test the system’s capabilities,” even though the game was 4-5 years old at that point. My “memories” of Jedi Knight are of having fun, but I don’t actually remember many specifics, except a level with a lot of water and a lot of mynocks.

Many years later, when I bought Jedi Outcast on Steam, I found it, too, to be insanely frustrating. The entire lead up to that game before you get your saber is awful, especially the level with all the rodian snipers. One of those old-style PC games where you’re expected to savescum your way through everything, with two fingers perched on the quicksave and quickload keys at all times. Even once I started cheating, much as I did with the Outcast demo, it failed to hold my interest – it eventually degenerates in to awful platforming levels with controls ill-suited to such a task.

I’ve never touched a KOTOR, despite owning both on Steam now. I know they’re high regarded, and I bought them with the intent on playing them eventually, but it just never happened.

The secret best Star Wars game is probably Revenge of the Sith on the Nintendo DS. It’s by Ubisoft and I think Gameloft, which usually is a bad combination. It’s a Turtles in Time-style beat’em’up with the occasional 3D shooter section. It’s generic and kind of forgettable, but also way better than it has any right to be. There’s a version of the same game on the GBA, but it’s missing the 3D shooter stuff and a few other bonus features the DS version gets.

The only other Star Wars game I remember enjoying is the Podracer game, but that took a long time to click with me. It’s one of those games that I think really benefits from an instruction manual, or watching someone else play, or something. I think specifically what got the game to click with me was watching World Record runs on Youtube.

youtube

Realizing that game has a boost system and heat management really gave it a sort of depth I didn’t think it had. And don’t underestimate how easy it looks in this video, actually juggling the cycle of overheating, repairing, and boosting while also steering is a LOT harder than you’d think. But it’s completely necessary – despite being a podracing game, it’s not normally anywhere near as fast as it’s depicted in the movie… unless you know how to ride the line like these guys. :p

I’d go for a new, modern Podracer game. I’m also aware the Arcade/Dreamcast version is a completely different game. Never tried it.

Saw The Force Awakens when it released on DVD, thought it was alright. A little safe, but it was significantly better than the prequels. A solid Star Wars movie, just not outstanding. I have a lot of friends who have grown bitter about how derivative it is, but not me. (I also have only ever watched it once.)

I have not yet seen The Last Jedi, and probably won’t until it reaches home video. I’ve been avoiding spoilers as best I can, but at the very least, I know it’s a very divisive movie and I can make some assumptions as to why, based on the ways The Force Awakens shook a couple things up and some very minor spoilers I’ve seen.

I saw Rogue One last year and thought it was fine. Not a fantastic movie, but an interesting mess, I guess. I can’t honestly remember much about it right now except for the ending. And the robot being the best part of the movie.

Also rewatched Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (the original theatrical versions) semi-recently (before TLJ came out) and thought they were good. Empire Strikes Back is obviously the best Star Wars; it has the strongest identity, the strongest storyline, etc. Return of the Jedi is a decent popcorn flick. Not exactly cutting edge opinions there.

I know I’ve seen the Ewok movie at some point but it’s been 20 years at least since I even looked in that direction.

Not looking forward to the Han Solo origin movie.

Getting tired of Disney screaming Star Wars marketing at me every year, all year (though it’s getting to feel more like background radiation now.)

Saw the original Genndy “Clone Wars” shorts, liked them, didn’t love them. Never saw any of the Star Wars TV cartoons, though I hear good things about them.

Never read a Star Wars comic book before, but I own one of the Omnibuses from a Humble Bundle a few years ago.

There’s probably more to say but this post has gone on long enough and I feel like I’m scraping for things to say.

#questions #star wars #podracer #jedi knight #jedi outcast #factor 5 #Anonymous

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anthonyfontana-blog · 4 years

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The Best Star Wars Stories Ever Told

The best Star Wars stories that have ever been told aren’t showing on the big screen or any streaming platform, they’re happening in roleplaying games (RPG). Whether it’s by zoom, Discord, or in-person - in places where the pandemic has been handled properly - at a Game Master’s table, the Star Wars RPG seems to have never been more popular.

What are RPGs? If you haven’t noticed by now, there’s been a huge resurgence over the last few years in the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). In a nutshell, I like to describe RPGs as collaborative storytelling with a few rules. Often, but not always, these rules function with the use of dice, and therefore offer various odds of probability for achieving the goals you or your character want to see in the story.

I’ve been part of this DnD resurgence, playing or leading a game with a group of close friends at my local Buddhist Temple. (Yes... Real Zen practitioners who play make believe. It’s not as ironic as you’d think.) I started playing a bit after the group started, and then took over as the Dungeon Master (or DM), running the games for several years. We played almost entirely out of one campaign - Hoard of the Dragon Queen which leads into The Rise of Tiamat. This campaign was straight out of a book module you could buy at any game store or online. I highly recommend it!

The flavor that I brought to those games, and the reason it took three years to complete, was that we played once a month with a group of 15 people! (DnD was built for 3-5) My creative juices were spent developing techniques for reading the room, setting the pacing, and managing interactions and combat with triple the amount of players the game was built for. Not only that, as much as I loved Lord of the Rings and other fantasy fiction, I really knew very little about DnD lore. And other than the books we were working on, I didn’t feel compelled to learn more.

So back in December, when we wrapped up our three year campaign, we broke up the group. Half of them continued to play DnD with a new DM and the other half came over to a new game we were all interested in: the Star Wars RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. The game has been around since 2013 and has three major editions: One that focuses on the scum and villainy of scoundrels on the outer Edge of the Empire (think Mandalorian!). Another more specific to the military operations and conflict in the Age of Rebellion (think Rogue One). And the final one, all about Force users, Jedi lore, and their battle with the evil Sith.

There are many more companion sourcebooks, adventure modules, and beginner’s sets that have been published (too many for me to count). And my crew began by trying out some of that beginner material. I’d actually had the Edge Beginner set and played it with my kids several years prior. It was easy for our group to decide which to play... they all wanted to use the Force and carry lightsabers!

For the first few sessions I used the adventure modules found in the books. But after a while, my creativity kicked in and I started to homebrew (the term used to make your own stories) or develop hybrid adventures, mixing modules with my own ideas. These early gaming sessions were great! But I can't say it was perfect from the start. There's a bit of a learning curve with the system's “narrative dice”. A system I have now grown to love so much, I doubt I'll ever going back to the numbered dice system used by DnD.

To help myself learn the rules and discover the system, I turned to some really great podcasts. There are two types I’d recommend: “Actual Play” podcasts where a group of players sit around a microphone and play the game together and more radio talk show-style “how to play” or “how to GM” podcasts. Usually the first are edited enough that there isn’t much downtime included; when parts of the story and game run slower. My two favorites are Highly Suspect (foul language, not kid friendly) and Heroes of the Hydian Way (very kid friendly). Order 66 and Tales of the Hydian Way focus on making your games and stories better. They also review the various books that have been published. As does Steve Is Board on YouTube, who has an extensive backlog of reviews.

I was also delighted to find some very active Reddit and Facebook groups where the constant Q&A, idea generation, and story and rules sharing give plenty of information to help you learn and expand on the game. For more real-time interaction and questions, there’s also a Discord channel (Discord is group chat for gamers).

And through that Discord I discovered play-by-post (PBP) games. These are online, persistent games that play through one or many posts per day. So they tend to be much much slower than a real-life game that might complete an adventure in a few hours. In fact it might take a week, or multiple weeks to complete a similar sized PBP game. However, depending on the server, you might have multiple adventures going at one time.

Which finally leads me to the point of this article... If you are hungry for Star Wars content, and you can don’t want to wait until the next season of Mandalorian, the new series of High Republic books and stories, or even the next movie (who knows when that will be?!), then get online or to your local game shop and find a group.

The stories that are being told, collaboratively, one adventure at a time by GM’s all over the world, are some of the most thrilling and provocative stories you could ever imagine in the Star Wars Universe. Our weekly Jedi adventures have taken us to new planets and introduced an amazing set of characters that have deep backgrounds and complex histories. In my PBP server, my character’s story is unfolding week by week, exploring a planet on the Outer Rim of the galaxy plagued by pirate invasions and corrupt politicians.

If you’ve never tried RPGs, or are new to DnD but would rather be playing in a galaxy far far away, I highly recommend diving into the Star Wars RPG. Even after years, its community is fresh, new, and vibrant. Come and be part of the best Star Wars stories ever told!

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tiefighters · 6 years

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Ken Liu Discusses “The Legends of Luke Skywalker” Book

For a generation in the galaxy far, far away, and for several generations here on Earth, Luke Skywalker is a character of legendary proportion: a Jedi in a time without the Jedi, the hero who saved the galaxy with his friends and his Force abilities. And just as Luke’s disappearance in his galaxy opened up a lot of speculation as to where he went and what he has been doing from the people who knew him, fans around the world also have been wondering what he’s been doing in the years after Return of the Jedi and before his appearance on Ahch-To. Filling in those gaps from a certain point of view is the newly released book The Legends of Luke Skywalker, written by the Nebula, Hugo, & Ken Liu.

This middle grade novel is published by Disney-Lucasfilm Press as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi publishing program. StarWars.com caught up with the legendary Ken Liu, and he shared his insight into his book, the character of Luke Skywalker, and the nature of larger-than-life stories.

StarWars.com: The Legends of Luke Skywalker introduces six different tales about Luke Skywalker, passed along from one being to the next, and shared among the crew of a freighter bound for Canto Bight. What is it about Luke Skywalker that makes him more than just a hero, but a figure of legend?

Ken Liu: Just listen to his name! How can you possibly not be a figure of legend when your name is larger-than-life?

Fantasy logic aside, Luke is the perfect mythic figure onto which we in the audience are free to project our hopes and fears. In the films, he walks a fine narrative line between destiny and free choice, and that is the narrow ledge on which all of us struggle as we construct and invent the plot of our own lives. It’s human nature to yearn for our actions both to be born of our own agency and to have meaning in a grand design, and that yearning is the rich soil in which legends and myths flourish.

In our world, as the deeds of famous men and women are distorted, simplified, and exaggerated into bare, impressionistic outlines, we fill them in with vivid colors according to our own understanding of the human condition and our own needs for the right story. The same person may be seen as hero or villain, as martyr or hypocrite, depending on who is doing the seeing and what colors are in their Crayola box.

As it is in our universe, so it is in the galaxy far, far away.

StarWars.com: How does the telling and retelling of a tale change the nature of a story, and how does that play out in your book?

Ken Liu: It’s worth recalling that the Star Wars we’ve come to know and love isn’t a single vision, but a collection of different visions in time and place.

Most fans will remember that Lucas himself said that the theatrical releases of the original trilogy were only [a fraction of his original vision]. He had a chance to create the Special Edition versions of the films later, which could be viewed as a re-telling of the story of the original trilogy.

Lucas certainly had an opinion on which version was definitive, but that isn’t necessarily the final word in fandom. There have been so many think pieces about the changes that I need not add to the heat and noise, but I do think that as Star Wars fans, understanding that stories change with each retelling comes to us as second nature.

I’ll use myself as an example. My initial exposure to the Star Wars saga came not from the films at all, but from the Chinese translation of the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, which was the first science fiction fantasy novel I ever read. Back then, as a kid in China, I didn’t have access to the films, and so I had to flesh out the descriptions on the page with my own imagination. Thus, later, when I finally got to the see the films (and in a different language than the translation I had read), I had the perhaps uncommon experience of seeing the original as a kind of “re-telling” of a story I already loved in a very different form.

Perhaps this isn’t as unusual as it sounds. Today, many fans new to Star Wars see the original trilogy only after they already know the story in detail and can even quote famous lines from it. So, like any other classic that has become part of the fabric of our culture (e.g., Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet), new fans only get to experience the original as a kind of re-telling.

Bonus digression: check out this collection of Star Wars posters from around the world to see how the story is transformed in each poster’s “re-telling.”

The point isn’t to argue over which version of the story is more “definitive” or “truer” — I find it far more interesting to think about how stories change as they’re re-told and re-understood. In fact, even viewing the exact same film a second time when we’re 48 will give us very different feelings and reflections as compared to our first viewing when we were eight — it’s a re-telling in which the story changes because the listener has changed.

I love thinking about how different versions of the same story help to illuminate the fact that the storyteller is inseparable from the story and also from the audience.

This dynamic plays out multiple times in Legends as the same events are recounted by different narrators and as Luke himself is refracted into a multitude of Lukes. Every storyteller has an agenda, as does every listener. In that narrative instability we discover the grandness and richness of the Star Wars universe itself — a galaxy with only one story is not a galaxy I want to live in.

StarWars.com: The main legends all involve a supposed first-hand encounter with Luke Skywalker from some rather unique narrators: a conspiracy theorist, an Imperial serving at the Battle of Jakku, a construction droid reprogrammed into being a mine overseer, and more. How did you create these characters and inform their points of view?

Ken Liu: One of the things about Star Wars that has impressed me the most is the lived-in feeling of the universe: scuffed armor, scorched hulls, jury-rigged engines. Every object has a history behind it, and every character has a backstory.

I wanted to write a book that honors that aspect of Star Wars. The galaxy is a large place, and it needs to feel that way. I worked hard to construct distinct points of view that were interesting to me and also hinted at the full spectrum of disagreements and opinions. Then I dug deep in research to flesh out their backstories to build solid foundations for how they’d come to hold the views of Luke that they did. It was such a joy to delve deeply into a universe I’ve loved all my life and to bring to life characters I wanted to get to know.

Without giving away spoilers, I do want to caution the reader against assuming that any of the Luke-like figures they encounter in the book is in fact Luke Skywalker. Sometimes we retell legends not just by recounting the stories, but by emulating their heroes.

StarWars.com: What opportunities and challenges are there to creating not just one but a whole series of different stories that fit into the realm of tall tales, campfire stories, or urban legends within Star Wars?

Ken Liu: Writing a series of stories linked together by a framing story poses a special challenge in that I believe in a book like this, the sum must be greater than the parts. I had to make sure that the different levels of narration and the disparate stories work together as a whole to tell a grander myth about Luke that the individual stories cannot. I had to do a great deal of planning, sequencing, and careful adjustment of the individual tales to make this meta-narrative work.

And of course, writing a book like this is just plain fun. Because the narrators are assumed to be unreliable (but are they really?), I can do all sorts of things that would not be possible otherwise. I could question consensus and pose outrageous speculation. It gave me a chance to explore how legends and myths can grow around a kernel of facts in one of the richest narrative universes ever created by the human imagination.

StarWars.com: Who are some of your favorite characters in this book and what makes them stand out for you?

Ken Liu: I love Redy, the conspiracy theorist. She dedicates her considerable intellectual powers to motivated reasoning to defend a story that fits her worldview. While the reader is free to dismiss Redy, I think we all have a bit of Redy in us — it’s just much harder know when the inner Redy is spinning her tales.

I also love Aya-Glon, a girl from a world covered in water. She and a mysterious visitor to her world challenge each other’s deepest held beliefs while also learning from each other. Some of my most cherished friendships have been like that.

StarWars.com: You also recently wrote “The Sith of Datawork” in the New York Times-bestselling From a Certain Point of View anthology. What made you want to explore the bureaucratic side of the Imperial Navy?

Ken Liu: As a law student, I had a particular interest in administrative law, and after that I worked for years as a corporate lawyer, having to deal with the government often. Bureaucracy, as a technology of organization and collective decision-making, is one of the crown jewels of human intellect.

I simply could not resist the chance of portraying the Imperial bureaucracy at work and the exciting stories hidden behind the stacks of datapads being pushed around.

StarWars.com: How does writing Star Wars compare to writing your own fiction? For readers who enjoy your style in The Legends of Luke Skywalker, what other of your works would you recommend?

Ken Liu: With my own fiction, I get to make all the decisions, but I do have to create everything out of my imagination. There are no reference books or experts to consult, and I’m always forging into terra incognita. It is exhilarating to work that way, but can also be very lonely.

With Star Wars, I’m working in a beloved universe that has been built up over the years by many legendary creators, and to be able to stand on their shoulders and participate in this joint storytelling effort is a dream come true. Moreover, I’m celebrating my love for Star Wars with hundreds of millions of fans around the world. It’s also a thrilling experience, but feels a bit like exercising different creative muscles.

If readers enjoy my work in Legends, they may also like my silkpunk epic fantasy series, “The Dandelion Dynasty” (The Grace of Kings and The Wall of Storms), which also plays with the idea of legendary history, fantastical machines, and magical creatures. They may also want to check out my collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, which features short fiction in a variety of genres like hard sci-fi, magic realism, cyberpunk noir, and near-future thriller.

StarWars.com: What do Luke Skywalker and Star Wars mean to you?

Ken Liu: Star Wars may be the closest thing we have to a modern mythology. Its characters, images, vehicles, ideas, and magic have become a language of metaphors that we invoke in discussing everything from politics to baseball. As new stories are told in the Star Wars universe, the mythology grows and expands to better reflect our society and to comment upon our strides into the unknown future.

Just as Luke grows as a hero in his journey, I’ve also grown as a writer and as a human being in the years since I first met him. With this book, I hope that fans of Star Wars of all ages and backgrounds can come to appreciate the many facets of Luke, and I’m especially looking forward to introducing my daughters to this grand saga.

The Legends of Luke Skywalker is available in hardcover and as an ebook from Disney-Lucasfilm Press, with illustrations by J. G. Jones and as an audiobook narrated by January LaVoy from Penguin Random House Audio.

#The Legends of Luke Skywalker #lit #Luke Skywalker #Ken Liu #star wars

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seshathawk · 6 years

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The Last Jedi thoughts

Spoilers. Now a week old, posted at the request of @glowyjellyfish.

Good:

-Grumpy Old Man Luke Skywalker

-Force Ghost Yoda, laughing and making fun of Luke and smacking him in the face and setting shit on fire.

-Leia, literally everything she did but also her general presence (ha!)

-Leia actually gets to chit-chat with a contemporary woman in her age bracket. LEIA HAS A GAL PAL EVERYONE. Because of this, this movie passed the Bechdel test. (Do Leia and Rey talk? Now I can’t remember.)

-Presenting Rey and Kylo Ren as mirrors of each other, as both desperately wanting companionship so much that they see what they want in the other despite the complete lack of it.

-The reunion between Luke and Leia was everything I ever wanted. I wept copiously, squeezing my husband’s hand. My sister, next to me, also wept copiously. My husband, who I’ve only seen cry once in my life, was wiping his eyes. A woman somewhere behind us was sobbing aloud. It was so perfect and so beautiful.

-The theme of this movie: I’VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE.

-Luke, instantly good at all the Force things he’s ever done, closes in on himself in shame when he realizes he’s failed Ben and becomes a hermit for the rest of his life.

-Also, Luke, who used the power of Feelings more than he really utilized the Force, manipulated Kylo Ren using Feelings like a BAMF.

-Sassy Old Man Luke Skywalker

-Stubborn Bastard Luke Skywalker, who we have all missed

-Luke’s face lighting up when he sees R2

-R2 replaying the original Leia message

-Re: Reylo: I saw them bonding. I saw them fighting together. I felt like I could get on board with redemption for Kylo Ren although I still adamantly did not want them to get together. Then at the crucial moment, Kylo Ren proved himself to be a selfish asshole who says the worst possible things in the worst possible way, which to me says that despite all the hand-holding and shared Force glances and life-saving, Kylo Ren is irredeemable and unacceptable as a partner for Rey.

-Finn RUNNING toward Rey and their sweet cheek-smushing hug.

-The code-breaker returning Rose’s necklace to her

-Poe being too headstrong

-Leia slapping Poe

-Leia shooting Poe

-The “Luke”/”Leia” moment a la Empire (which was by itself one of my favorite Star Wars moments, so happy to have it mirrored here)

-There was so much of Mark Hamill in Luke and so much of Carrie Fisher in Leia, I appreciated and loved it so much.

-Anytime any original trilogy music played while Leia was on screen I burst into tears

-Chewie. He feels more and more real as a character with every movie and I love it.

-The Force moment between Leia and Kylo Ren

-Leia’s Force space moment was so cheesy-looking but let’s all be glad we got to see her use the Force like that

-We SO VERY RARELY see Jedi teaming up and fighting together! We only saw it in the prequels, and the acrobatics made it a little hard to watch. It warmed my heart to see Rey and Kylo Ren fighting together. For one beautiful shining moment I hoped that they would turn together to focus on Force-training people without focusing on Jedi/Sith, just make a new team of Friends Helping Friends.

-I am sorry everyone, I know it’s shallow, but I love me some over-the-top couture-ass space costumes, and this trilogy is severely lacking in them so far. I was glad to see a little class and fun in terms of clothing in the space casino.

-Laura Dern

-Captain Phasma’s eye

-Some parts of this movie were REALLY brutal! The constant running of the fleet, slowly being killed off. Kylo Ren deliberately blowing up ships. (OMG BB-8)

-BB-8 being the greatest droid of all time in every possible way

-Finn’s face when he thinks BB-8 flew a ship

-Possibly the FUNNIEST Star Wars movie I’ve ever seen? I doubt I’ll say that again.

-The salt plains = SO BEAUTIFUL

-Kylo Ren vs. Hux was kind of amazing. Fingers crossed that in Episode IX, Hux will shoot him in the back.

-��Rey already has everything that’s in those books.” YODA YOU ARE SUCH A DICK.

-Flying ancient Rebellion ships. “What the hell?”

-If I have a complaint about TFA, it’s that we never had an “I love you”/”I know” moment between Han and Leia, but LEIA SAID “I KNOW” TO LUKE AND I’M TAKING WHAT I CAN GET RIGHT NOW.

-Rey’s parentage being ultimately meaningless. Although I love the idea of her being a Kenobi, I also hate the idea that the Force only shows up in these two families. Also, I thought it was a thing about her waiting for her parents, but she actually doesn’t know her parents, which I thought was a nice touch.

-Luke being so terrified of the pull of the Dark Side that for one second, he’s completely prepared to kill his nephew rather than deal with that again.

-SPACE JEWELRY.

-I forgot Carrie Fisher’s daughter was in this movie until the credits but I think she was the adorable curly-haired woman who helped Poe with his crafty plans. I approve!

-SO MUCH CRYING

-Luke on the Millennium Falcon

Bad:

-Finn: severely underutilized

-Phasma: severely underutilized

-Rose: severely underutilized

-Costumes: see above note about couture-ass space costumes. I want nothing more in the whole world than to see Rey (and Leia, which I will never see) in some kind of fancy outfit. It doesn’t have to be insane, like, it could be like Leia’s Bespin outfit. SOMEONE BE MORE FANCY PLEASE. Even Leia’s outfits are more dramatic and utilitarian than nice for the sake of appearances. (Also: Laura Dern’s weird cold shoulder turtleneck? Okay.) Please, I need Anakin’s fake refugee outfit, Luke’s weird gold jacket at the end of A New Hope, Leia’s white ceremonial dress, JUST SOMETHING.

-Finn/Rose - PLEASE GOD AND ABRAMS, DO NOT MAKE A LOVE TRIANGLE, PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR FOR THESE RANDOM SHIPS

-Rey/Kylo: see above. I can believe that they can form a bond and move forward with that, but I can never believe that Rey would hook up with someone who violated her and killed Han Solo. I would have to see some serious groveling, Zuko-to-Iroh style, to believe that this could even be a possibility.

-KYLO REN PUT YOUR FUCKING SHIRT ON, NO ONE CARES HOW RIPPED YOU ARE

-The opening scene was a little jarring and a little anachronistic. Funny, but anachronistic.

-It’s stupid and I’m selfish but WHERE WAS THE EWAN MCGREGOR FORCE GHOST?

-SO MANY NEW CHARACTERS and yet the existing characters weren’t given a lot of attention.

-I have to agree with the complaints about Finn and Rose’s side plot. While I think it was important for Finn to have a reason to stay and fight and to see what the First Order does on a larger scale that ISN’T about killing citizens (and I hope that that will be instrumental to his character in Episode IX), the fact that the whole thing literally ended up being pointless was a little frustrating. At least they could have gotten that tracker disabled and THEN been caught and posed for execution.

-Rose says she loves Finn (? I guess?) and then kisses him but she’s literally known him for less than 24 hours. Maybe she’s just vulnerable because of the loss of her sister?

-Snoke’s red audience chamber was so intense that it looked fake

-Honestly, in the Rey/Kylo Ren moments I saw intimacy, yes, but honesty and understanding. I saw the potential in Kylo Ren for redemption, which I hadn’t seen in TFA. I saw two young people in similar situations being forced to reach out and touch each other despite not really wanting to. And then I saw the Tumblr reactions and it was hugely disappointing. Could I have read platonic desires for companionship and being equals where there was actually romantic tension? Was there really a reason for Kylo Ren to be shirtless if not to signal to the audience that there’s the possibility of sexual interest on the table? (I saw two people interrupted in their daily lives, whether that meant walking around, working, or getting dressed.) I’m gonna say it again: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE THEY CANNOT HOOK UP I WILL QUIT STAR WARS.

-Not a ton, but a strange amount of alien breasts/teats? Not in a sexual way but a funny way? I’m not sure how to feel about that. I thought it was weird. Am I wrong to feel that?

-I know this is silly and selfish, but I really wanted his name to be Ben Organa, not Ben Solo. (Can you imagine the fan uproar if they had made it Organa?) Just makes more sense to me.

#star wars #the last jedi

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esonetwork · 4 years

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Movie review: Star Wars Episode IX brings an epic, emotional end to the Skywalker saga

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/movie-review-star-wars-episode-ix-brings-an-epic-emotional-end-to-the-skywalker-saga/

Movie review: Star Wars Episode IX brings an epic, emotional end to the Skywalker saga

I love “The Last Jedi.” In fact, it’s my favorite Star Wars film. Even two years later, I still enjoy talking about it, although I do have to admit, the Star Wars fandom has made me feel a little…well…weary.

Due to the realities of online fandom culture, it’s tough to tell just how divisive “The Last Jedi” was, whether it was actually a 50/50 split of like/dislike or what more casual fans like the general public really thought of it.

Needless to say, it generated a lot of debates within the fandom, and those fans were not always nice about it. It has always seemed weird to me how other fans have gone out of their way to be mean, rude, and/or condescending to people just for liking a Star Wars movie. Like Luke Skywalker in “The Last Jedi,” sometimes I just want to run away to an island populated solely by Porgs and hide from the fandom.

I had hopes that maybe “The Rise of Skywalker” would be a break for the Star Wars fan community, giving us something new to talk about and maybe quieting some of the debates. But alas, I should have heeded Luke’s warning from “The Last Jedi”: “This is not going to go the way you think.”

Log onto Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or any other social media platform, and you’ll see an ongoing debate about this film. Even Rotten Tomatoes is divided amongst fans and critics:

It’s really tough to review this film without spoilers, especially since the controversial stuff is very spoiler-heavy. So before I dive into my VERY spoiler-filled thoughts, here’s my one sentence review:

Go see this movie.

There’s a lot of chatter online — some positive, some negative. My advice is to just go see it, and form your own opinion. Any time you have a movie in a franchise with a fanbase that is this passionate, it is really tough to produce a movie that pleases everyone.

“The Rise of Skywalker” definitely needs to be seen on a big screen, and it will no doubt be inspiring lots of conversations for many years to come.

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead

So yes, “The Rise of Skywalker” has some flaws. Yes, there is some stuff I would have changed. But darn it, I just love this movie so much. It felt like a great ending to the saga to me — bittersweet but full of hope for the future. I loved it even more the second time I saw it, and I’ve already got plans to see it again!

The movie starts off rather abruptly; instead of easing us into the narrative, they drop us right into the story. Kylo Ren is off to confront the undead Emperor Palpatine, as the Resistance scrambles to face this new threat.

I kinda wished they’d saved the Palpatine reveal till later in the film, because it makes the first few minutes of TROS a little jarring. However, I will say that some of the early pacing issues, which bothered me on first viewing, did not bother me as much the second time. It was nice knowing what to expect, so I could just relax and enjoy what was happening on screen.

“The Last Jedi” was a more introspective, character-focused film that dived pretty deep into larger issues about the Jedi and the Force, while “The Rise of Skywalker” is more of a fast-paced adventure about chasing an artifact across the galaxy (it actually reminded me of Indiana Jones in some ways).

Now, I happen to enjoy both these styles of movies, but based on your own personal tastes, you might like TROS more or less than TLJ.

I really loved seeing Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, and the droids go on an adventure together. Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac have such great chemistry, and it was really fun to see their dynamic.

Rey is one of my favorite Star Wars characters, and I have way too many cosplays for this character (I finished my Dark Rey costume in time to wear it to the theater for Ep. IX). I was really curious and nervous to see where this film would take her character.

Initially, I wasn’t a fan of the revelation that Rey was a “Palpatine.” I liked the idea of her being a nobody, to really drive home the idea that you don’t have to come from a powerful Force lineage in order to be great.

But, that being said, I think they handled the reveal well in the film, and the twist landed more smoothly for me the second time I watched it.

It’s interesting because Rey was so desperate for belonging and to find her family, only to discover that her only surviving family is literally THE WORST person in the galaxy: Emperor Palpatine.

TROS does a really great job showing Rey grappling with her anger (Force lighting!). She isolates herself because she feels no one understands her, and the one person who potentially does — Kylo Ren — is still trying to convince her to turn to the dark side.

The complicated relationship between Kylo and Rey is, to me, the best thing about the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Their fight in the ocean on the ruins of the Death Star ranks among my favorite Star Wars scenes now, and it’s made even more powerful as Kylo finally makes peace with his family and rejects the darkness.

I was nervous how this film would handle the character of General Leia after Carrie Fisher’s death, but I believe TROS gives the character a fitting and respectful end. She willingly sacrifices her life and becomes one with the Force in order to reach her son one last time. And Kylo’s vision of Han Solo made me more than a little misty-eyed; I hadn’t heard that Harrison Ford was returning, and it was a lovely surprise.

Speaking of Kylo Ren, Adam Driver is great, once again, as the tortured final Skywalker. I didn’t even realize that Kylo had such minimal dialogue after his turn back to the light on the Death Star ruins, because Driver is that powerful of an actor and does so much with his expressions and body language. I loved watching him transform back into Ben Solo as he fights the Knights of Ren and Rey passes the lightsaber to him through the Force.

There’s been a lot of debate surrounding the character of Kylo Ren, whether he should or shouldn’t be redeemed, and whether he should or shouldn’t make it out of TROS alive. Personally, Kylo Ren’s redemption arc was my one “must” for this film, and I’m really thrilled that I got it.

I am a little sad he didn’t live, because it would have been super interesting to see a dark sider coping with their mistakes from the past and searching for atonement. However, if I only got to pick two of the three things I wanted for Kylo — Bendemption, Reylo, and Ben surviving — I’d have chosen the two we got, because I do adore an angsty, tragic romance. I love the fact he crawls out of the pit, despite his pain, and then uses the last of his life force to heal her. (Yes, I’m still swooning over that!)

And, as we’ve heard before, no one is ever really gone. Ben is now at peace within the Force, and who knows? With places like the World Between Worlds introduced elsewhere in Star Wars canon, he may show up again in some way.

This film has a good balance of the new and the nostalgic. Lando Calrissian was used well; it’s always a pleasure to see Billy Dee Williams again. “Fan service” is sometimes used as a negative term, but it can be really powerful when done correctly (such as Cap catching Thor’s hammer in “Endgame”). I was initially hoping to see more Force ghosts, including Anakin’s, but I think the way the movie handled it was actually better (Rey hears the voices of past Jedi, inspiring her to get up and keep fighting).

I appreciated how the ending was bittersweet, like the endings of the other two Star Wars trilogies, blending love, loss, and, above all, hope. That’s why I’m a fan of Rey’s ending; even though all the Skywalkers are technically gone, their legacy isn’t, because Rey chooses to take on the name. She is reclaiming the Skywalker legacy and leading the Jedi down a new path.

As you probably gathered, I could talk about this movie forever, but this is turning into a really long review (if you’re still reading, bless you!). Since Star Wars is my favorite franchise, it’s really hard to look at these movies objectively/critically, and I find myself wanting to gloss over the little parts I didn’t like and just focus on what I loved.

So, to close this out, here are some of the random little things from this movie that made me smile:

I’m pretty sure what Finn was trying to tell Rey and keeping a secret is that he can feel the Force. Does this mean he can become a Jedi, or is he more like Chirrut Îmwe from “Rogue One”? I hope future books/comics in the expanded universe will explore this!

Seriously, Oscar Isaac is so good as Poe in this movie; he’s really funny and charming, and it was cool to see him grow into a leader after learning from his mutiny in “The Last Jedi.”

I still don’t really know who the Knights of Ren are but they sure look cool. My favorite shot of them is when the camera pans around them on the desert planet of Pasaana. They look like they’re about to drop this awesome rock music video, like one of them will reach out his hand through the Force and a guitar will snap into it. I need a Knight of Ren cosplay for a future con.

Loved Kylo and Rey’s Force fight where they jumped between locations.

General Hux is the spy! I just adore General Hux as a character, and while I wish we’d gotten more of him, I love that he is so petty that he will help the Resistance just to spite Kylo.

Porgs! I was hoping we’d catch a glimpse of one of the Porgs from “The Last Jedi,” and I wasn’t disappointed. I won’t confess how much Porg merch I own, but just know that I’m obsessed.

The Sith planet Exegol was so creepy and cool. The flashing lights were definitely unnerving and added to the otherworldly aura of the place. I wasn’t originally a fan of Palpatine returning in this story, but it was done really well, and his final showdown with Rey is awesome. I think the fact that he created Snoke is a cool detail, and I’m glad they showed it.

I loved seeing Rose again, but I also have to share that I was disappointed she was not given more screen-time. She should have had a much larger role in the plot.

The festival at Pasaana looks so fun and I really want to go.

Ex-Stormtrooper Jannah is a cool character, and I hope to see more of her. Plus, seeing those “space horses” charging across the surface of a ship just made me so ridiculously happy.

#Episode IX #Kylo Ren #rey #saga #Skywalkers #Star Wars #The Rise of Skywalker

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