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gffa · 27 days

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One thing that caught my attention while watching The Phantom Menace in the theater, a movie I didn't expect to find anything new with after how many times I've seen it and analyzed it, was that Sidious mentions multiple times that he has to change his plans to fit the new circumstances. It got me to thinking about how Palpatine gets credit for his carefully crafted plans, but often times not for how flexible he is in changing them on the fly, especially in time travel fics where someone destroys one of his plans and that's the end of it. Which, I'm not advocating against, I love a good Take That Wrinkled Walnut The Fuck Down However You Gotta Do It fic and I don't want them to change! But in canon Palpatine makes note of things he's not expecting, like:

When Valorum sends the Jedi as ambassadors, it's not part of Sidious' plan: DAULTAY DOFINE: This scheme of yours has failed, Lord Sidious. The blockade is finished. We dare not go against the Jedi. DARTH SIDIOUS: Viceroy, I don't want this stunted slime in my sight again! This turn of events is unfortunate. We must accelerate our plans. Begin landing your troops. NUTE GUNRAY: My lord, is that… legal? DARTH SIDIOUS: I will make it legal. NUTE GUNRAY: And the Jedi? DARTH SIDIOUS: The Chancellor should never have brought them into this. Kill them immediately!

On the Trade Federation ship, after Queen Amidala has disappeared from Naboo, Palpatine originally planned that she would be forced to sign the treaty, and then brings in Maul to deal with this. DARTH SIDIOUS: And Queen Amidala, has she signed the treaty? NUTE GUNRAY: She has disappeared, My Lord. One Naboo cruiser got pat the blockade. DARTH SIDIOUS: I want that treaty signed. NUTE GUNRAY: My Lord, it's impossible to locate the ship. It's out of our range. DARTH SIDIOUS: Not for a Sith. This is my apprentice. Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship.

On Naboo, after Padme allies with the Gungans: NUTE GUNRAY: We've sent out patrols. We've already located their starship in the swamp....It won't be long, My Lord. DARTH SIDIOUS: This is an unexpected move for her. It's too aggressive. Lord Maul, be mindful. MAUL: Yes, my Master. DARTH SIDIOUS: Be patient... Let them make the first move.

Palpatine's plans aren't static, they adapt and change with the events that happen, just as the other characters react to new information and head in new directions for it, so too does Palpatine and I think it's interesting to note that part of what makes him such a good villain is that he has an outline for what he wants to do, he sets up the dominoes of what he needs, but even when they don't fall precisely into place, he generally gets what he wants. He originally intended that Padme would sign the treaty, the Jedi wouldn't be involved, and that would lead to a vote of No Confidence to oust Valorum, using the sympathy for Naboo as a way to boost himself into the position. But he didn't really need her to sign it and still managed to use the sympathy for Naboo to get elected, it ultimately didn't matter what happened to the planet, so long as it was in danger while he needed it to be, he could use it either way. Nor, honestly, do I think he ever planned for Anakin Skywalker's existence, he had no idea they would find such a boy on Tatooine or how useful he was going to be, that was another way he changed his plans once the opportunity arose. Or a lot of his plots in TCW--he has Cad Bane steal the list of Force-sensitive children and kidnap them, bringing them to Mustafar for some sort of program to use them probably not too unlike how he uses the Inquisitors later. That plan is foiled by the Jedi, the babies are returned to their families, and Sidious' plans fall through, but that doesn't really change the outcome. tl:dr: I don't think Palpatine gets enough credit as a villain whose plans shift and change along with the new events that happen, just as much as the heroes' plans shift and change when new things happen. Yeah, he's a great villain because he creates an impossible trap for people, but also because the thing about him is that he's incredibly charming and charismatic and he knows an opportunity when he sees one, that any one given plan might fall through, but it's not necessary to his overall plot.

#lumi.txt #star wars #sheev palpatine #meta

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stickthisbig · 1 year

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I have no idea what this is but I decided to write down my grand theory of Star Wars and how authorship affects the ways in which stories are good and bad? Come for media critique, stay for the analogy at the very end about how Star Wars is like college, also there's gifs

The original trilogy is a series of derivative works. That's not a pejorative, but a description of their content and structure; they are constructions that use existing pieces to tell a new story. They are samurai movies, they are meditations on Joseph Campbell. They are the work of a film nerd trying to create a story that is Everything. There's nothing novel about the storytelling of the original trilogy; it was just particularly well executed, because they were made with love by a craftsman, surrounded by a team who kept him from giving in to the worst of his narrative excesses (most notably but not limited to Marcia Lucas).

There's a lot of No Reason in the original trilogy. Why's Darth Vader so strong in the Force? No reason. It doesn't have time to delicately explain everything, so it relies on the audience's understanding of the shape of the story to fill in the gaps. It's the time in the story for someone to fall in love, so a romance plotline it shall be. The author is trying to do something, and he successfully does it.

The prequel trilogy represents an older creator for whom derivative works were not enough, who had been creatively stifled by the very thing he created. (I strongly recommend Patrick H Willems's series about Frances Ford Coppola if you want a really interesting take on George Lucas and the tragedy of his career.) Extremely importantly, they represent a creator with almost unlimited cash and no one to tell him to tone it down.

Everything that is bad about the prequel trilogy is because they were made with a vision by a creator who was trying to do something. George Lucas has six hours and fifty-eight minutes of material prepared about diplomacy, representative democracy, and how all unchecked power is always all bad and by god we are all gonna sit here until he finishes it. The writing is so clunky because it is not there to build character or relationships; it is there to convey information. The sequences with the Gungans are such a mess because they're the injection of (very inadvisable) comic relief into a story that is not supposed to have any relief at all.

One of the worst sins of the prequel trilogy is the rejection of No Reason. It continually poses questions that do not need answers and then takes pains to answer them. Why's Darth Vader so strong in the Force? His mother conceived him as a virgin birth because of the Force, by way of midichlorians, which as we all know are the powerhouse of the cell. It is such a deeply unsatisfying answer, but George Lucas seems incredibly sincere about the fact that this is important. He is trying to position his derivative work within a new fandom context that conceives of his work as wholly original, and the wild thing is, I think George Lucas always thought all of this and just wasn't allowed to put it in. Improbably, the problem is not that he hasn't thought enough about his own lore, as a common charge goes; he appears to have thought about it way too much.

I have to confess to not being a prequel trilogy fan, but probably the single biggest thing to come out of it is Obi-Wan. Ewan McGregor almost instantly became the canonical version of the character. It's because the same thing that made it bad also made it good. It's a story that is trying to do something, and that is opening wide an almost Stendhal-syndrome-esque array of locations and people and stories. Fuck yes I want to hear everything about the person Alec Guinness used to be when he was young and badass, tell me everything about the weird desert guy. Of course I wanna go to Space Italy and see what the galaxy was like before it got dicked up. Sinister rise to power of Darth Vader's master? Check. Seeing the evil enemy built as a series of actions is the shit prequels are made for.

When the prequel trilogy is boring, it's because the pacing is fucking awful, especially in Revenge of the Sith. The dizzying array of new stuff is never boring, and you can all fight me on Kamino being one of the best planets in the whole series. When it's good to be in George Lucas's mind palace, it's extremely good. For better or worse, he did it. He gave his almost seven hour lecture, he said what he had to say, and he left.

And then we move forwards in time, into an era of Star Wars as a strategy rather than a story.

(I didn't see Solo, so it's not gonna be in here. Neither are any of the TV shows or the EU, because I have other shit to do with my life.)

The Force Awakens was not the first Star Wars film that was made by someone else; the authorship of The Empire Strikes Back is complicated- George Lucas kind of managed to ghostwrite his own movie?- but he definitely didn't direct it. Empire was very much still a Lucas production in which he was intimately involved.

The Force Awakens has a point, but it ultimately doesn't do anything.

It resets everything back to the start: an evil empire represented by British people in suits come to power; three heroes arise; a mentor who's incredibly important apparently despite only knowing the heroes for five minutes is murdered by a cloaked Force user; something is blown up. It is meant to stoke the fires of nostalgia, and it provides nothing substantive in terms of plot. In fact, it represents a retrograde movement. It is a very fun watch and a movie with absolutely nothing to say, at least nothing that wasn't written into the series thirty years beforehand.

It's not a surprise that, since it's just meant to get people hype and then serve them what they already know, the best thing it provided were its new characters. I was so stoked to see a Black person in a Star Wars movie; we got three new main characters and not a white man among them?? But let's fuckin' table that shit, because we all know what's coming.

[I was gonna put in a Kylo Ren gif but he looked like such a dipshit in all of them, you're welcome]

Actually I lied, I forgot that what came next was Rogue One. The purpose of the film is to make a war movie about Star Wars and like many/most war films, what the movie is trying to do is meditate on the duality created by the futility of war and the value of sacrifice, it fills in a blank in canon but is really a tone piece meant to make you have feelings and reflect, I watched it once and it was so touching and horrible that I've never been able to watch it again, 10/10 no notes

And then we have The Last Jedi, which is weird.

The Last Jedi represents a step back to a craftsman at the helm, and the exact same shit happened again.

It shouldn't have, because it happened again in a completely different way! The Last Jedi is a singular vision with one creative direction, and that is the cause of everything that is bad and everything that is good about it, but Rian Johnson wanted to do something radically different than George Lucas. He's not interested in giving you his Star Wars lecture; he's interested in breaking Star Wars open, thrusting it bodily in a new direction. The Last Jedi represents at least as much movement as The Empire Strikes Back.

So it's not like a shock that the movie was wildly divisive, and lists of the best and worst things are the same items shuffled around. I honestly think Admiral Holdo's death is the finest moment in the entire trilogy, in terms of visuals and in terms of emotional impact. I fuckin' love that Luke was sitting on PTSD Island sulking, because it's some Luke shit to do. "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to" got me HYPE to see where this would go. I wanted to go on that ride. I've loved Star Wars since I was a tiny child, and I wanted to go on a journey into something that was entirely fresh.

Other people hated all of these things, and honestly in this case, I don't agree but I can't say they're wrong. Wanting Rose to be deleted from the series simply for using oxygen is racist. Wanting Snoke to have had more impact on the story is a difference of opinion. Either you were interested in this ride or you weren't, and you're not a bad person for not wanting that out of your Star Wars.

But on the other hand, it's not a very good movie.

The problems that make it not very good are the result of having one guy at the wheel. It's clumsily made. It feels like it ends three times before it actually does. The Canto Bight sequences are the work of someone who doesn't want them to be in there, and somebody who could play ball would have finessed the story to make them organic. Some of the CGI work represents a lapse in professional judgment. The Force dyad stuff does not make any sense at all, because it plays like somebody who couldn't really explain a thing they were doing but refuses to stop doing it.

It's so good when it's good. I just wish it had had another screenwriter who could have fixed what was bad.

I didn't care for Rise of Skywalker.

By the time it came out, I was experiencing a kind of numbness surrounding Star Wars; not literally, because I got my tattoos finished up just before it came out. I didn't have any idea what was about to happen. There were a lot of rumors circulating about the extent to which things had gotten rewritten, but it was pretty clear that whatever it was going to be was fully an Abrams/Disney thing.

And indeed, this time, they did make a movie that tried to do something. Extremely unfortunately, what the movie was trying to do was reinforce the status quo. It did this on every level- Holdo's sacrifice was made meaningless, the minuscule amount of queer content was palatably deletable, a woman of color's lines were given to a white man who was buddies with the director, the story reverted from "everyone's a Star Wars" to "there are only four people in the galaxy who matter", Poe's awesome storyline from the comics was thrust aside for a frankly kind of racist replacement, every bit of story development from TLJ was cast aside. There are no consequences for anything, because all that matters is moving to the end of the story; I cannot believe that absolute motherfucker made me watch Chewbacca die with my own eyeballs just to wave it away literally two minutes later in the clumsiest way imaginable. In the prequel trilogy, in Rogue One, in TLJ, everything everyone does matters so much. The minutest actions have huge consequences. In Rise of Skywalker, nothing matters even a little bit. Everybody just waits around for the main characters to get finished dicking around.

I cannot believe that it's a thing I would possibly think ever, but the only thing that got any work put into it was Kylo and Rey's relationship. Trust: I didn't enjoy watching it. There's a piece of Wishful Drinking where Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd are trying to figure out if Billie is related to the guy she's dating, due to a bunch of Hollywood marriages. Even after the shitstupid reveal of Rey's parentage, it still really, really feels like the same vibe. But by the time they kissed, I was like, "Yeah, I mean I hate it but I see where it happened."

Star Wars is like the end of a semester in college. The prequel trilogy is the period where you're studying, trying to cram so much stuff into your brain that you're never gonna remember. The original trilogy is exams, exhilarating and rocky but ultimately liberating.

The sequel trilogy is the party you go to afterwards. At 10 PM you're at The Force Awakens, singing along at the top of your lungs to a song that's catchy and doesn't have to be good. At midnight you're at Rogue One, where you break down sobbing in the bathroom. The Last Jedi is 2 AM, weird and full of promise, as if anything could happen.

The Rise of Skywalker is 11 AM the next day, when you've already broken down the details at brunch and are now lying in bed unable to nap, with the horrible certainty that this is all there is, you will never be more than yourself, just a regular person who carries no special importance.

I didn't like it in real life; I sure didn't want it from Star Wars.

#star wars #nothing but star wars

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nateofgreat · 6 months

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No one hates Grievous like Dave Filoni

So I've heard that when TCW began Dave Filoni was mandated to use General Grievous as his primary villain... And I've got a feeling he holds a grudge about it because man, does he hate the guy lol.

-Cad freaking Bane is more of a Jedi hunter than General Grievous who holds a whole collection of lightsabers. Cad freaking Bane fought two Jedi Masters and beat Obi-Wan at lightsaber combat... And Grievous can't kill more than a single throwaway character throughout the entire series.

-Ventress upstages him as the Separatist's main assassin, shown to be able to fight Anakin and Obi-Wan simultaneously and get the better of a Jedi Master in combat. She tops it off by defeating Grievous in under 60 seconds, thus cheapening his only victory in the show over the Nightsisters.

-Padawan Ahsoka twice fights and survives an encounter with him without injury save for once where he managed to choke her... Only for her to cut off his hand and escape.

-General Grievous was beaten up by gungans after being tricked by Jar-Jar Binks.

-He's all-but erased from the show as soon as Dave gets the clear to use other villains; any conflicts set up with Grievous (like his icy relationship with Dooku) is immediately forgotten.

-He gets captured again alongside Dooku in the Maul comics that were based off unreleased episodes. Although he at least does something when he's freed which is a first for him.

Like man, Dave Filoni really hates the guy. Every other villain he gives cool moments to, but Grievous? He gets one or two brief moments but that's about it.

As ridiculously OP as General Grievous was in the original Clone Wars (The early 2000's one) was they at least put thought into how exactly he'd able to defeat Jedi without the Force. That being to catch them off-balance and use fear to throw off their focus... Dave uh, really should've copied that over.

#General Grievous #Star Wars #TCW critical #The Clone Wars critical #Dave Filoni critical #Cad Bane critical #Ahsoka Tano critical #Asajj Ventress #Filoni critical

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starblightbindery · 3 months

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Editor's Note from The Black Sands of Socorro by Patricia A. Jackson

While researching Patricia A. Jackson’s entire body of Star Wars work for a short story anthology, I came across the West End Games sourcebook Star Wars: The Black Sands of Socorro (1997.) It’s a crucial work of Star Wars ephemera: The first creator of color writing for Star Wars in an official capacity, writing not just about individual characters of color, but centering entire cultures populated by non-white characters. A young Black woman in the 1990s wrote science fiction for Star Wars, worldbuilding with concepts like antislavery, indigeneity, linguistic divergence, and settler colonialism...while Disney-Lucasfilm in the 2020s ineffectually positions Star Wars as a post-racial fantasy.

I non-hyperbolically refer to Patricia A. Jackson as the “Octavia Butler of Star Wars,” not because fans of color need to be officially sanctioned by Lucasfilm to create Star Wars content, but because of how difficult it is to carve out anti-racist space in a transmedia storytelling empire. Challenging even in transformational fandom spaces (e.g. fan works), to broach race in affirmational fandom spaces—or while writing content for the property holder—is to be unflinchingly subversive.

And Jackson did it first. In an interview with Rob Wolf in 2022, Jackson described her experience writing race into Star Wars in the 1990s as an “experiment.” The planet, peoples, and cultures of Socorro were a way for Jackson to obliquely, yet concretely, center Blackness and racial justice into Star Wars, pushing the racial allegory constrained by the original trilogy to its limits.

Since it’s inception, Star Wars has spent much of it’s storytelling on the fringes of the galaxy (whether it’s Tatooine or Jakku, Nevarro or Ajan Kloss.) The Black Sands of Socorro is an extension of that trope, but where the Star Wars films used indigeneity as set dressing (eg. “Sand People”, Ewoks, Gungans, etc.) Jackson creates a vivid world where indigenous culture and settler colonists collide; where characters are coded with dark skin and central to the action. The planet Socorro is distinct as a Star Wars setting. As one of the only places in the galaxy where slavery is eradicated with a vengeance, Socorro refuses to let go of a plot line Star Wars media often leaves behind. Socorro is a haven from Imperial fascism, a space where readers are invited to imagine a story that does not center around occupation.

When I learned that Patricia A. Jackson no longer has a physical copy of The Black Sands of Socorro, I realized that I had the materials and the means to create a fanbound hard copy for her home library (well, and also for my own home library.) While this handmade book is not an exact reproduction of the RPG supplement, I hope my renvisioning of the supplement as an in-universe travel guide lives up to the original work.

As the idea of creating a travel guidebook based on the original material percolated, I reflected on the State of Race in Star Wars in the year since I compiled Designs of Fate, an anthology of my favorite Patricia A. Jackson short stories. In May 2022, actress Moses Ingram debuted as Inquisitor Reva Sevander, the deuteragonist in the Dinsey+ streaming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. As predicted by Lucasfilm—and any fan sick of alt-right Star Wars related “whitelash”—Ingram was promptly subjected to a firehose of racialized harassment and misogynoir.

Yep, fascist self-proclaimed fanboys complained about a Black woman Inquisitor in 2022, having no idea (or deliberately whitewashing) that one of creators of the entire freakin’ concept of Inquisitors was a Black woman writing for the Star Wars Adventure Journal three decades ago.

Then, a public facing Star Wars account (@StarWars on Twitter) broke precedent and slapped back at the trolls. Lead actor Ewan McGregor filmed a video retort, posted on @StarWars, stating “racism has no place in this world” and telling off the racist bullies: “you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind.” A few months later, Disney+ debuted it’s second flagship Star Wars streaming series of the year, starring a Latino actor as the protagonist. In the opening episode of Andor, a police chief describes Diego Luna’s eponymous lead as a “dark-featured human,” perhaps the closest the franchise has ever gotten to acknowledging out-of-universe constructions of race, to date. The series explored aspects of imperialism with more depth than Star Wars had previously done on screen, such as the Empire’s treatment of the native people of Aldhani. And, in November, the The Acolyte, a Disney+ series co-developed by Rayne Roberts, announced Amandla Stenberg and Korean actor Lee Jung-jae as its top-billed leads. Stenberg will be the first Gen Z, mixed race, Black, Inuit, queer, and non-binary actor to lead a major Star Wars series.

On the Patricia A. Jackson Star Wars front, in 2022, Jackson’s character Fable Astin was an easter egg in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Jackson will again write for Star Wars in an official capacity in From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, due for publication in Fall 2023. A series about Lando Calrissian, the galaxy’s most famous Socorran, is still in production, so I have my fingers crossed that we may soon see Socorro on camera.

I wonder if this past year will have been a fulcrum year for BIPOC fandom. Maybe Disney has finally realized it’s bad for business that the alt-right uses social media algorithms and Star Wars fan spaces as a soft recruiting ground to radicalize young white men? Maybe Star Wars as a franchise will continue to loudly disavow fan whitelash and firmly position performers of color in true leading roles? I really hope so. On the other hand, as much as I am in favor of increased representation in Star Wars storytelling, I am also troubled by Disney-Lucasfilm’s framing of the Galaxy Far, Far Away (GFFA) as “colorblind.” Recently, Star Wars fans have been asked to accept that in the (a long time ago) sci-fi futurepast GFFA, humans have always been post-racial, and it’s just a coincidence that racialized people were not caught on camera the way white characters have been for years. The galaxy is post-racial and it’s just acoincidence that the movers and shakers of the galaxy have largely been depicted as white men for the past 40 years of media.

For example, in the decade since Disney rebooted the expanded universe, fans have learned that Star Wars’s biggest galactic war criminal to never be depicted on screen is Admiral Rae Sloane, a bisexual Black woman who was the leader of Imperial remnant forces, one of the architects of the First Order, and personal mentor to General Hux. Under Disney-Lucasfilm’s post-racial retcon of the Star Wars universe, the allegorical fascists are intersectional equal opportunity employers (at least in expanded universe content like animation, video games, and novels.) Along those lines, several of the franchise’s newly introduced, prominent women of color have been part of the Empire: Imperial loyalist Cienna Ree (Lost Stars), Inferno Squad leader Iden Versio (Star Wars: Battlefront II) former stormtrooper Jannah (Episode IX), First Order pilot Tamara Ryvora (Star Wars: Resistance), Inquisitor Trilla Sundari (Jedi: Fallen Order), Captain Terisa Kerrill (Star Wars: Squadron) and, most recently, Inquisitor Reva Sevander. Once the sole purview of stodgy, very white and very British men (demonstrably so even in the sequel trilogy movies,) now anyone can be a stooge of the Empire.

That’s not to say that marginalized people can’t collude with fascism, or that there haven’t been heroic characters of color introduced in recent years. Rather, I posit that in order to sell audiences on the post-racial/colorblind GFFA, fascist-of-color characters like Rae Sloane or Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon (The Mandalorian) are created by necessity. The franchise wants to at once be racially inclusive and yet never directly address race. In Star Wars, real world oppression is primarily explored through allegory—such as Solo (2018)’s bit on droid rights, the clone army, or the myriad of non-human alien bodies that nonetheless are coded with racial stereotypes. A lot has been said about how allegory in sci-fi allows audiences to grapple with inequality from a comfortable distance, and not enough has been said about which audience is being prioritized for comfort.

What does it mean when race is supposedly a non-issue for humans in the GFFA, but creators and actors with marginalized identities cannot participate in Star Wars in any capacity without experiencing identity-targeted harassment? In the past ten years, this has been true even for white women like Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridley, but the vitriol has been most strongly directed towards Black women like Lucasfilm Story Group lead Kiri Hart, author Justina Ireland and The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle. Can the Galaxy Far, Far Away truly be “colorblind” or “post-racial” (never-racial?) if the narrative continually centers white characters and replicates all the common racial inequities seen in commercialized Hollywood storytelling? Upon the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, critic Andre Seewood aptly described Finn’s positioning in the story as “hyper-⁠tokenism,” even presciently predicting that Finn would continue to be hyper-⁠tokenized in Episodes VIII and IX. As the narrative veered away from Finn, it also left unrealized a stormtrooper rebellion plot line where Finn could have been, in effect, a Black abolitionist. Actor John Boyega’s critique of his experience in the sequel trilogy aligns with Seewald’s assessment: “Do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important to the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side.”

Published in 1997, The Black Sands of Socorro came before Finn, before Mace Windu, back when all the melanin of Star Wars could be found in Billy Dee Williams’s singular swagger and James Earl Jones’s distinctive voice. Back then, the most prominent Black actress in the original trilogy was dancer Femi Taylor, who played Oola, the hypersexualized green twi’lek fed to the rancor in Return of the Jedi. Bantam Spectra, the publisher that held the license for Star Wars from 1991 to 1999, had no leading characters of color in its’ Expanded Universe. The first full length Star Wars novel by a writer of color, Steven Barnes’s The Cestus Deception15, would not be published until 2004. Even though the book featured two protagonists of color, they would not be depicted on the cover. At Comic-Con in 2010, I spoke with Tom Taylor, a white Australian comic book writer who tried to make the lead family in Star Wars: Invasion (2009) a Black one, but was shut down during the creative process. The comic instead depicts a family of blondes, because the publishers did not think fans would embrace leads of color. All this to say, the inclusion of melanated characters in Star Wars has been so, so hard fought. It’s incredible The Black Sands of Socorro exists at all. It’s more than worthy of celebration, and I’m floored that more attention has not been brought to it.

Patricia A. Jackson is a smuggler.

This sourcebook was explicitly written to assist fans in telling their own Star Wars stories, and in it Patricia A. Jackson smuggled in emphatic allusions to the Black Panther movement and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, smuggled in commentary on indigeneity and settler colonialism, and smuggled in multiple ways for fans to envision characters of color. Her writing has consistently added richness to the GFFA, and in The Black Sands of Socorro she envisions multiple histories for multiple cultures coded as non-white. She ensured the existence of not mere tokens, but flourishing societies of people of color in Star Wars.

The coda for The Last Jedi again shows how perilously close to tokenization characters of color, particularly Black characters, are in modern day Star Wars. In this film, the franchise returns to itsprevious exploration of slavery with the depiction of enslaved children on Canto Bight. The last speaking lines of the film are from Oniho Zaya (played by Josiah Oniha, a young Black British actor) who recounts Luke Skywalker’s heroic exploits to the other children. The film then closes out by showing that one of the downtrodden children is Force-sensitive—a future hero in the Star Wars mythos. In a film where every single Force-user depicted is white, the next generation kid with the potential is, again, a young white boy. Once again, the Black character can only serve the narrative in a supporting role. A franchise depicting a colorblind fantasy continually reifies racial and gender hierarchies in America. With The Acolyte, scheduled for release in 2024, it’s possible the franchise may finally be shifting past hyper-tokenism. In the meantime, fans of color and our erstwhile allies will continue doodling in the margins.

In the end, the sequel trilogy left the Canto Bight plot line (and the overarching slavery plot line started in Episode I) unresolved. I’d like to think the Black Bha’lir strafed Canto Bight and grabbed those kids. It seems like something they would do. Out among the stars, Oniho Zaya is adventuring with Drake Paulsen, and his story does not bracket another characters’; he is central. The Black Sands of Socorro is a launching pad for stories like that. It represents how fans of color have always carved out pieces of Star Wars for ourselves.

#socorro #star wars legends #swrepmatters #star wars adventure journal #star wars d6 #patricia a. jackson #fanbinding #binders note

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askbensolo · 20 days

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Ask Ben Solo

What’s up, HoloNet! The name’s Ben. Currently 23 years old. I’m the only son of an Alderaanian princess and a Corellian scoundrel, and I have an adopted sister named Rey.

I started this blog when I was fifteen and afraid of becoming a Jedi. To make things worse, I started hearing voices in my head…voices that turned out to be someone who wanted to control me. Luckily, my friends and family got involved, and Snoke seems to have backed off.

I did make friends with some of Uncle Luke’s Jedi students, but I ended up attending the University of Naboo (Go Shaaks!) and got my degree in Journalism, since I’ve always been interested in writing, history, and politics. (Scroll back enough, and you’ll see my cringe pro-Imperial phase from back in the day. Yikes.)

I stayed on Naboo after graduation, and now I write for The Chommell Sector Daily. In my free time I lift weights, write poetry, and fight with people online.

Ask me a question!

—Ben

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Run by @luke-shywalker Est. 2016

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Mom: My mother, also known as Senator Leia Organa, also known as Space Mom, also known as Don't Mess With Her. Tough as nails. Also has nice nails.

Dad: My father, also known as Han Solo (or scruffy-looking nerfherder). Isn’t as cool as you think he is, but makes up for it with heart.

Rey: My adopted sister, also known as "Kid". Ten years younger than me. Originally from Jakku. Eats faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.

Uncle Luke: My uncle, also known as Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Is a cinnamon roll.

Ren the Bantha of Indeterminate Gender or Origin: My stuffed bantha friend. Not much can be known about this humble beast, but they are fiercely loyal.

Threepio: My mom's protocol droid. Has foregone enough memory wipes to pass as sentient. Best ignored.

Artoo: Luke’s beeping trash can. Extremely rude.

Chewie: My dad’s best pal. Gives great hugs. Don’t play holochess with him.

Lumpy: Chewie’s son. About my age in Wookiee years.

Darth Vader: My grandfather. It's complicated.

Friends

Fannie: One of Luke's Jedi students, who has since graduated. Twi'lek. My bestie when we were teens. Mom friend.

Amalia: One of Luke's Jedi students, who has since dropped out. Massive Togruta girl. Frenemy.

Treeso: My roommate from college. Gungan. Solid dude.

Sweeper: My archnemesis: the cleaning droid at work that keeps eating my paper notes.

Ugly Raisin Men Who Have Invaded My Mind With the Force

Snoke: Enough said.

Story Events

The Long Night: (2/25/16 - 4/2/16) In which I woke up from a nightmare and couldn’t sleep.

Space Braces: (5/16/16 - 12/7/2017) In which I got braces.

Get Out of My Head: (8/4/16 - 8/28/16) In which Mom left for a diplomatic mission and left me at home with my dad, and I was consumed by fear and darkness.

The Visit: (10/6/16 - 11/5/16) In which Uncle Luke came to visit us.

Sixteen!: (12/3/16 - 12/11/16) In which I turned sixteen.

Life Day 21 ABY: (12/25/16 - 12/26/16) Life Day!

The Impending Future: (9/10/17 - 9/29/17) In which I had an existential crisis about Mom wanting me to become a Jedi, and I discovered Snoke.

Seventeen!: (12/3/17 - 12/11/17) In which I turned seventeen.

Life Day 22 ABY: (12/25/17 - 12/26/17) Life Day!

A Week With Luke: (12/21/17 - 1/7/18) In which my mom made me spend a week at Luke’s Jedi school.

An Awkward Situation: (4/26/18 - 7/15/18) In which I thought my best friend Fannie was going to ask me out. Like, on a date.

About Amalia: (7/16/18 - 8/7/18) In which I accidentally started a chain of rumors about Amalia, Luke’s mysterious and hardest-to-get-along-with student.

The New Roommate: (4/24/24 - current) In which my roommate Treeso moves out and I have to find someone to take over his lease.

Recurring Tags Below

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haydanakin · 1 year

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Can we please just fire Dave Filoni and Kathleen Kennedy now. I'm so tired of Padme and Naboo erasure. Both of them are important to Star Wars! And I hate the foreshadowing of the ST. The ST should've never happened at all. Screw JJ Abrams and Rian whatever his last name is.

ANYWAYS, the Jedi Order is reborn, and Luke is guiding the new Jedi. The New Republic has formed, and the galaxy is recovering from years of darkness from the Empire. What are sequels again? Idk. Sequels don't exist. I just see a new golden era in the galaxy.

If you're wondering, anon is responding to this post

Part I - Dave Filoni I will say Dave Filoni under the direction of George Lucas gave us amazing stuff-- Ahsoka Tano, Rex, Fives, Echo, Jesse, expansion of Order 66, the Clone Wars themselves. But him on his own? Not so great.

Ahsoka's walkabout in s7 was boring, the two sisters had potential but blundered in the execution. The BadBatch arc in s7 featured super amazing Anakin, and I did like the whole 'rescue Echo' plot line, but the Bad Batch as a TV show… I have some criticisms of it.

I like the ' what happens to the Clones after the Empire forms? They've served their purpose-- are they still relevant?' story line. It would be a great one to explore with normal clones. In fact, following Cody around, a clone who did participate in Order 66 and had his mind taken over, would've been a novel experience.

Instead we get genetically enhanced clones who don't have programing chips cause they're special snowflakes and don't partake in Order 66 bc they're special. Getting to see their side of Order 66 really brought nothing-- it's the same as the Jedi. Why are the clones turning against the Jedi? No one knows! It's rinse and repeat watered down version of ROTS, and i'd much prefer watching that movie over the first two episodes of TBB.

I will also give credit-- Dave Filoni and Favereau gave me The Mandalorian. A side character who doesn't know he's the main character just trying to make his way in the larger GFFA. He's a normal guy with a job. Then new dad has to deal with his adopted kid having Wizard powers. ME Likey. It's similar to Andor in down to earth, not life and death, Jedi/Sith fate of the Galaxy type of thing. It's what normal life would've been like in GFFA.

Third season and some of second season haven't felt like that though. Din keeps meeting all these famous people that are tied of in the 'Fate of the Galaxy' --Bo Katan, Ahsoka, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Luke fucking Skywalker-- instead of more normal people. I do appreciate the smallness of season 1-- we had Peli, and Omera, and Karga. Characters not known to the larger galaxy, but still important in their own right.

Part II- Female Characters

Star Wars has never appreciated or loved it's female characters with the exception of Princess Leia. Original Trilogy follows Luke-- male character, who with the help of an older male character, goes and finds another male character pilot to help them infiltrate a small moon space ship full of male characters.

There are exactly TWO female speaking characters in A New Hope and one gets kriffed off to 'enhance male pain'.

Now, by nature of the story, Padme Amidala get shafted before she was even ever named or created -- Luke was raised by his aunt and uncle so something must have happened to his mother. She is 'unknown mother' defined only relationship with her son and then later to her husband.

It's not until the Phantom Menace when she gets her own storyline, that is little to non effected by her relationship to Anakin. She's a queen who has someone invade her planet, and with the help of two Jedi and the Gungan People, saves the day.

Anakin helps of course, by first winning them enough credits to get off tattooine, and second by blowing up the control ship, but both situations could be solved without Anakin. He becomes the unnecessary character-- his introducution is so low-key you don't realize the story is about him until Revenge of the Sith. He's a supporting side character in both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

Both prequel movies that don't feature Anakin as protagonist or antagonist are hated by a large majority of SW fans, and usually because of the crime of not being perfect. Jar Jar Binks is just as annoying as C-3PO imo, but because the protagonist of TPM is Padme Amidala, the movie is hated, as opposed to ANH which features Luke.

Padme's fate was written before she even had a chance to exist, and therefore has no agency. I've seen others label her as weak, pointless, lame, because she dies of a broken heart, 'oh why didn't she live for her children' SHE DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE OKAY. George had already killed her by then, she can't live for her children when the author has decided otherwise. The nature of a prequel is it must narratively co-exist with the story already told. Padme must die or be removed from the picture so that Luke can be raised by his Aunt and Uncle. Anakin must fall to the Dark-Side so that he can be Darth Vader and do a heel-face turn at the end of ROTJ. the end has already been written. The beginning must fall in line.

Getting back on topic. Fathers are mentioned in The Mandalorian- which makes sense since it's about a Father and his Son. oh wait that's seems that's what Star Wars is about. Prequels were Anakin picking which father-figure he wanted to follow. Luke saving his Father. Din Djarin adopting a son with magic powers.

But Bo-Katan mentions her father TWICE and her sister doesn't even get a mention. Even though Bo was there at Satine's death, and the reason Bo left death watch and stood up to Maul. When Satine died, Mandalore split and fractured and any attempt of restoring mandalore just resulted in more fracturing and shattering.

In Obi-Wan Kenobi not mentioning Padme was criminal. The whole reason Anakin fell was to save her. Her daughter and son were featured prominently and her name didn't come up once besides two vague mentions.

SW needs to treat it's female characters better. Right now Leia is still the only one that's almost universally loved by the fans. Even Bo Katan has issues. By not acknowledging her past and mistakes and death watch , instead of making her a stronger character, the writers have made her weak. Making mistakes and learning from them and growing from them are what causes her to be relatable. So far, Mando S3 has been rushing her redemption process. They're having her reunite Mandalore, but she hasn't atoned or made up for her failings in the past.

It was her involvement in Death Watch that lead to her sisters death, and the writers essentially ignoring that and trying to hide it is lazy and the antithesis to character growth.

Part III - Disney's Anti- Prequel campaign.

The sequel trilogy… is problematic. While trying to emulate and give us the 'star wars' feeling again, all the films did was undermine the finale of the original trilogy.

What was Darth Vader's return to the light for if we're just going to bring back Palpatine? What was the point of Luke's rejection of the darkside and declaring himself a Jedi in the face of evil itself, if we're just going to have him become a hermit on a planet because he gave up? What was the point of the Alliance to Restore the Republic if we're just going to blow it up because it's corrupt?

The problem with trying to avoid the prequel trilogy is the sequel trilogy just became the prequel trilogy. Hear me out.

We have a corrupt Republic that is destroyed by an Empire. A Jedi student falls to the Dark Side and serves the Empire. A desert dwelling person with magical powers is told that they are the key to saving the galaxy. Am i talking about the Prequel Trilogy or the Sequel Trilogy?

The difference is the prequel trilogy was planned. From start to finish, no half baked retconning or switching directions (both original and sequel trilogies suffered from this) George Lucas had the entire prequels laid out. Their largest crime I believe is in writing/dialogue-- not the plot. It's complicated-- how does a republic turn into an empire? How does a Jedi Knight become a sith? How does the Jedi Order become extinct? Through War and Careful Planning. So while the prequels are not perfect, their world building brought much needed light and explanation to the Original Trilogy. It answered questions, but the answers were not what everyone liked.

They wanted the Republic to be conquered by an outside Empire, not for it to be one and the same. Fans wanted Anakin to be strong and heroic, and not a man who is crippled by self-doubt and his greatest failure is his greatest strength- his breath and depth of love.

The sequel trilogy should've been the struggle of not repeating the same mistakes. Of avoiding the past not repeating it. Of Luke not giving up and not becoming Obi-Wan. Of Han not becoming Qui-Gon Jinn or Ben Skywalker not becoming Darth Vader. Or Rey being her own self and not being Luke 2.0 aka finding out that her grandfather is evil just like Luke found out that his father was evil.

Star Wars is was the first to suffer from Disney's new nostalgia machine where live action play by play of beloved animated movies are created without souls; and sequels that are just the same story retold with the next generation. 'Happily Ever After The End' no longer exists, the hope of a happy ending destroyed with the next sequel announcement. Where does it end Disney? When you've wrung the last love and enjoyment out of your original titles? When consumers no longer go to the movies to see your new Frankenstein movie? When catering Fan Service is no longer profitable?

Disney's addiction to sequels and reboots found it's first home in Star Wars Sequel Trilogy and continues in the rest of the Star Wars universe. What is Boba Fett if not a sequel to Mandalorian? What is Ahsoka if not a sequel to Rebels? What is Obi-Wan Kenobi if not a sequel to the Prequel Trilogy? What is Andor if not a prequel to Rogue one?

The Mandalorian didn't start out that way. Was it in the same universe? yes and so by nature it makes it a sequel. But there were new original characters and an original story. Now it's become a sequel and a prequel; the connecting link instead of a stand alone.

So yes anon, Padme and Satine deserve better. But you know what? We deserve better too.

#star wars #shale.txt #rant #anti-disney #padme amidala #satine kryze #bo katan kryze #the mandalorian #anti sequel trilogy #anonymous #asked and answered #anon #sw meta #dave filoni #anti dave finilo #but also pro???#anti bad batch

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loveoaths · 1 year

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actually you know what? make the star wars humans weird too.

maybe being pure-human is rare, or just not as common. everyone has at least one great great grandparent who was an alien fucker, right? give the human characters variety. some inherit limited nightvision, or advanced olfactory systems.

most humans in Star Wars originated from planetary settler colonies. what traits became advantageous and quickly became bred for? are the humans of naboo born with greater lung capacity and size, because the humans who could hold their breath underwater longest while fighting the gungans are the ones who survived? did the humans on tattooine develop thicker, darker skin to survive brutal temperatures and reduce water loss, or grow a transparent second eyelid to protect their eyes from flying sand eroding their corneas? do human mandalorians possess taung ancestry, which is what makes them naturally better at hunting and killing jedi?

there is so much possibility for variety, even with the humans. let! them! be! WEIRD!

#shakes cage. everyone should be STRAAAAAANGE #Star Wars #Star Wars meta #worldbuilding #reference: Star Wars.#walkie talkie.

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mayhaps-a-blog · 1 year

Link

Chapter 2 of Damned, my Jedi OC fic, is up!

Summary: A Jedi cannot help what they are. This is their fate. This is their bane.

Enjoy :)

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the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond · 2 years

Text

Star Wars Ultimate Sheet 2.0

Okay so I have rework slightly on my previous character sheet for Star Wars. Same as the previously, it have made as an help to develop your original star wars character, but also canon etc... I use it to put down all my ideas for a character, as well than picking up some ideas to develop an OC whith competence than I wasn't thinking of before (like picking up details for an unusual weapon, or crafting skill etc)... Of course the sheet isn't fully complete, there is a lot of hobbies, skills, personnality trait that I haven't put there, but please, please, feel free to add anything you wish, or MP me if you have more idea to add or anything to correct! Also of course you can use it as you wish, and don't complete all informations!

INTRODUCTION

Name - gender – race – age – sexuality – homeworld

GLOBAL Nickname – place of residence – main languages spoken - their ship/speeder/mount owning name/class – marital status – pet? – education level

BACKGROUND + ERA in which era your character is evolving – summary & main backstory info (ex: your family caste, previous work etc.)

BODY DETAIL shape – height - hair – eyes - skin - freckles – scars – birthmark – cybernetic – tattoo – prominent feature - natural hair color – accent - etc.

DISABILITIES / or chronic heal condition etc.?

RELATIONSHIP family - lover/partner - allies – enemies – friends - famous connection - mentor - student

ALIGNEMENT chaotic/neutral/lawful - good/neutral/evil - faction - religion

ACTIVITY career/ job – etc.

GOAL

PROFICIENCIES

STRENGHT stamina - athletic

DEXTERITY acrobatics - stealth/sneaky - sleight of hand/thievery - insight - piloting

INTEL investigation – perception - history: native/faction/other culture – quick learner – language – tactical (strategy making) – adaptation – cartology

WISDOM nature knowledge: animal handling/taming, fauna/floral specialist, herbalism, surviving, gardening, farming – biology mastering: emergency medicine, medicine, chirurgical, cyber-prosthesis technician, alchemy, biochemical etc. – teaching – force knowledge: jedi order, sith order, ancient red sith science and magic, planet mystics (Gungan on Naboo, Voss, Nightsister, etc.), minor cult etc. – astrology – geology – protocol - demolition

CHARISMA deception – intimidation - persuasion – debating – diplomacy – leadership – acting

TECH slicing - engineering -tech maintenance – droid/machine technician -

CRAFTING forge: armor/weapons - sewing/embroidery/colorist textile(dye)/leatherworking/ etc. – handcrafting: wood, pottery, plasteel, etc. - cooking/bakery/mixology -

ART writing: lyrics, poetry, books etc. – drawing: tagging/painting/ etc. – dancing (style?) – singing – playing instrument –

INVENTORY does they have a special object of which they are proud? – what contain the bag/ belt pouch they often carry around?

ABILITIES

FIGHT weapon: type, left/right/ambidextrous and medium/heavy/light - explosive - medical fields - night battle - Melee/mid-distance/distance/far distance - riding fight - artillery, etc.

WEAPON one/dual/two hands in one - shaft - cultural weapon - vibroblade/vibrosword/vibroaxe/ vibrostaff - flamethrower - grenade - missile/rocket - combat gloves - sniper rifle - hold-out pistol - blaster rifle - blaster pistol - gatling - energy canon - experimental weapon - laser bow/crossbow - shield, etc.

ARMOR light/medium/heavy/none - stealth and/or technologic suit - secret weapon inside suit (like Theron Shan bracelet/Mandalorian etc.) + outfit style: casual/formal/fancy/plain/comfortable/sportive/smuggler/sithy/jedi etc.

LIGHTSABER barrier - throw - Telekinetic lightsaber combat technique - sith alchemy(DS)/ force weapon ritual(LS) - jedi stance discipline (Shii-Cho, Makashi, Soresu, Ataru, Shien/Djem So, Niman, Juyo/Vaapad) - new jedi order stance (Strong, Medium, Fast) - wielding style (dual, solo, pike, double-bladed, Lightwhip) - other fighting Forms and Style (Unorthodox and Hybrid Fighting Methods, Trispzest, Tràkata, Sokan, Dun Möch, Lus-ma, Su ma)

FORCE ABILITIES

Light side: force listening (communicate with someone while not speaking their native tongue) – animal friendship - plant surge – Severe Force/Force light (jedi only user is directly attacking a Dark Side user's connection to the Force and negating their ability to communicate with it)-

‘Gray’: healing (revitalize other ppl, hibernation trance themselves, dark transfer, rez) - psychometry/retrocognition² (feeling memories of people who have touched an object) – telekinesis (force barrier, lightening: shock, lightening channeling; force push², force blast², &force burst, &force grip, &force wave, &force repulse, force destruction, force crush, deflection, whirlwind, &storm, slow, shadowstrike, stealth², &pyrokinesis, &force travel(DS) - &levitation/flight – force sense (tracking, traumatic events, physical danger to a loved one, interconnectivity to the universe) – &force illusion (conjure projections, apparitions, or even Force projections of themselves, hiding their signature from the force)- precognition – body enhancement (running, charging, jump; berserk, agility, strength, unbreakable will, ) - &metamorphosis (shape into that of another person, creature, or entity, mask: reshape an individual's appearance, altering the subject at the molecular level ) –

Dark Side: &force walk (interacting with ghosts, bind them to the user ) - &life manipulation (dark side only, force drain: life sucking from another person; Midi-chlorian Manipulation; dimmish: damage to an opponent's health and vitality) – control² (mechu-deru: mechanical structures could be bound to the will of the user and imbued with the force, creating technobeast // mind trick/control, emotions, mind probe, crushing darkness/horror/insanity, malacia: troubling opponent equilibrium, stun, stasis²,) - &Battle Meditation (mass mind control) - &Corruption (force plague) - Dathomir magic (traditional Allyan Magic//Shadow magic: force healing, bubble shield, whirlwind, teleportation, enhance physical, Nightsisters talismans crafting, mommies rez, conjure solid items, communicate with the other realm, rituals, spirit-conjuring techniques linked with Nature, heartshadow: foresee the various possible futures, scrying: peeping, Mesmerism : mind domination) – old sith sorcery (diseases such as rakghoul, rituals) – old sith alchemy (permanently alter an item or living being, nefarious toxins, crafting artefacts, creative dark side creature, enhance the strength of weapons and armor, Tsaiwinokka Hoyakut : waking dead servitor) -

PERSONALITY

INTEREST sleeping; romance; friends; one-night stand; imagination; creating; flora; fauna; photography/video; reading; food; conversation; fashion; entertainment; fighting; debating; ruling; credits; pranks; droid; spaceship; etc.

CHARM lively – confident – persuasive – charming – chatty – diplomatic – cheeky – cocky - popular – funny - friendly

NEGATIVE - cruel - mean - etc.

MOOD active - calm – dynamic - cheerful – lazy - // childish – mature // aggressive // adventurous – creative – enthusiastic – intuitive – optimistic

PERSONAL sociable – loud – quiet – reserved - unconfident – self-deprecating – humble – proud - arrogant // authentic – honest – manipulative – ambiguous – helpful – unreliable // shy – extrovert // neat - // realistic -

RELATION possessive –insecure - understanding – arrogant // Loyal – respectful - insolent – polite // affectionate – gentle // selfish – easy-going – generous - // magnanimous -

R dominating – bossy – ambitious – power-anger - submissive // careful - conscientious - focused – adaptable – determined – deliberate - impulsive – patient - stubborn - truthful – unpredictable - hard-working - meticulous// frank – bold – tactless // argumentative – circumspect – //

L lucky – unlucky - clumsy // fearless – prudent – cowardly - brave - // spoiled - // silly – crazy - wise //

OUTBURST delusion – berserk - excited - obsessed - despair – angry - belligerent - stress crisis

CODEX

- and // is to separate two ideas

italic is the main idea of something who is developping after the word

& in force abilities means that it's a very very strong technique

² in force abilities means it's a rare and moderate hard technique

DS: Dark Side force technique

LS: Light Side force technique

CREDIT & MORE

All the dividershave been made by the fantastic @firefly-graphics

An old character sheet that I have made some times ago, in a roleplay chart character style for Star Wars

Swtor era: The Alliance personal headcanon & worldbuilding

An awesome name generator for SW, based or races!

SW character generator (Race, faction, homeworld, Ship, weapon)

SW Galaxy Map + ressource for this map

The Ultimate Star Wars reference link, very useful (I don't even know why I have lost my time searching for all my link reference when this guide is just so complete fjsdjdjdjsdk)

More SW resource link because we never had enough

My alt blog SW resource tag in case you search even more references

Medic writing resource: 1 2 3 4

Togruta: * and **

Sith pureblood culture: red sith face, red sith biology, red sith global links of worldbuilding of @fluffynexu

Sith tattoo *

A big SW worldbuilding links by @badsithnocookie (jedi & sith culture, language etc)

GAR: batalion organization;

Jedi resources by GFFA and more jedi

... I will probably add more later or made a special post...

⋆ ࣪. ⁺⑅ ⋰˚ *.ﾟ .˳⁺⁎˚ ˚⁎⁺˳ . ༺ ˖࣪ ˖࣪ ∗

Thanks you'all for reading this post, again if anyone wants to add or correct something please feel free to said anything. You can freely use this "sheet" as you please! :)

#star wars #swtor #star wars reference #star wars roleplay #swtor reference #character sheet #character concept #lp sw worldbuilding #reference sheet #original character building #original character #character chart

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 1 year

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Is It Really That Bad?

I feel this film needs absolutely no introduction.

Look, I get it. You’ve seen everyone and their mother talk trash about this movie since it dropped in 1999. You’ve seen every single show in the universe take cracks at this film, you’ve seen all the parodies and mockery of it in movies, you may have even seen that movie Fanboys. Maybe you’ve even watched some massive YouTube review of the movie. The point is, this movie has been done to death.

But this series is about covering poorly received and infamous movies to see if their reputation is deserved, and I’d be remiss to ignore this film. And hey, these days the film has gotten something of a reappraisal by younger generations and older fans alike! After 20 years of scorn, a combination of the poorly received episodes VIII and IX, other works like The Clone Wars building off of and fleshing out the themes, Lego making really fun levels based off this movie for its Star Wars games, and Weird Al dropping one of the best songs of his career based entirely around recapping this film, a lot of people have come around to saying they unironically like this film. Even as early as 2008, the film made it on to Empire magazine’s list of the 500 greatest films of all time, scoring higher than Tim Burton’s Batman, Unbreakable, Full Metal Jacket, Halloween, The Crow, and Enter The Dragon (not by a huge margin though since it only got to 449). So there’s something there to love, right?

Well, let’s find out as I ask the question everyone else has already asked a million times before: Is The Phantom Menace really that bad?

THE GOOD

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: The action and John Williams’ score.

The prequel trilogy really shines in how absolutely bonkers it makes lightsaber battles. Sure, one could argue the original trilogy made them more realistic, like actual swordfights… But I don’t want realism in this series about magical alien samurai monks using telekinesis and fighting armies of clones and robots. I want to see someone do a million backflips and then slice a dude in half with their laser sword. This film delivers heartily on that front, especially in the epic final duel between Maul, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan.

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Speaking of which, Darth Maul is a highlight of this film despite barely doing or saying anything. A lot of it is his striking visual design, which is actually toned down from the original concepts. It makes him look cool, creepy, and mysterious, always a good look for any Star Wars character. Ray Park doesn’t get to show off Maul’s dialogue much, but he certainly shows off his battle prowess with a bunch of sick flips and the iconic dual-bladed lightsaber. This appearance here served as an excellent foundation for the guy, because The Clone Wars would take him from an iconic but underutilized character to perhaps one of the greatest villains in the series.

And then the score. Oh lord, the score! Has Williams ever missed, even once? This movie has some really fantastic music, stuff like the celebration music at the end of the film, but it’s quite obvious that the standout is “Duel of the Fates,” one of the best pieces of music in any Star Wars film.

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A lot of the characters introduced here are pretty fun and great additions to the universe. Natalie Portman is actually pretty solid as Padme; Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon is just such an aggro dick it’s hard not to love him and his underhanded ways; Boss Nass is an amusing yet underutilized gungan played by BRIAN BLESSED of all people, once more adding his trademark ham to a campy sci-fi movie inspired by Flash Gordon; Mace Windu drops in for a brief appearance to set him up for better ones down the road; and that Chancellor Palpatine guy is really cool, I hope we get to see more of him!

Then we have the pod race which, while a bit overly long, is a lot of fun and features some crazy vehicular madness, and there’s the practical effects, the creative design of the aliens and monsters, and there’s the practical effects and costumes mixed together with the CGI.... When this movie is fun, it’s a lot of fun, and when this movie is putting in the effort by god is it putting in the effort.

Oh yeah, and E.T.’s species has a cameo. No wonder he seemed to recognize Yoda in his movie.

THE BAD

Have you guys ever wanted a cool laser sword sci-fi epic to be constantly interrupted by long, boring scenes of trade negotiations, council meetings, and bureaucracy? Well boy oh boy will you love this film! There are so many stupid, dull, tedious scenes where characters are just talking about this boring trade embargo plotline, one that can’t even be ignored because it’s driving the whole plot. And sure, it leads to some really cool action scenes, but you’ve gotta sit through boring galactic council political bullshit to get to them.

This film is also the one that establishes the Jedi as a bunch of out of touch assholes. Every scene with the Jedi council (and especially if you have to look at the weird ugly Yoda puppet this film gave us before it was mercifully replaced with CGI) has the Jedi acting as a bunch of obstructive assholes who seem to go out of their way to be dicks to a literal child. Add onto this that this film reveals the Jedi essentially train kids to be child soldiers, yeah, no, maybe these guys did deserve Order 66 after all.

There is the writing, but it’s really not too strange for Star Wars to have clunky writing. The issue here is said writing is in service to really banal plots, and when the movie is getting good dialogue is usually not the thing making the scenes good. These things here may not seem like a lot when it comes to problems especially when I was praising this film so much, but the few problems are spread far and wide across this two hour movie.

THE UGLY

As you may have noticed, I didn’t mention two of the film’s most hated aspects above: Jar Jar and Anakin. There is a good reason for that.

Literally every mean thing you can imagine has already been lobbed at Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd, and quite frankly I’m not keen on contributing to that. Anything negative I could say has already been said, and at this point it doesn’t even matter. Jake Lloyd was bullied over his performance to the point where he hated the franchise for years, and Ahmed Best nearly killed himself over the sheer blistering hatred Jar Jar received. Do I think Jar Jar is funny? Do I think Lloyd was a good actor? Does it even fucking matter at all when people harassed them to such lengths that it traumatized them?

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of Jar Jar’s antics. But they really aren’t the worst thing in this movie, and he’s not even remotely the most annoying Star Wars character. We now have people like Hux, the Knights of Ren, Snoke, Clone Palpatine, Holdo… The sequel trilogy was a buffet of characters that are infinitely worse than Jar Jar. And as is often the case, The Clone Wars went a long way towards making him a good character.

As for Lloyd, he was an actual fucking child. He was being directed by an absolute dork who wrote the goofiest dialogue imaginable for him, was there ever even a chance? A “bad” child performance is never the fault of a child, I feel; it’s the fault of a director who doesn’t bother to guide them. I’m a George Lucas apologist most of the time, but he absolutely let Lloyd down here.

Oh, and I guess I should address the other element in the room: Watto.

This guy has often come under fire as a huge negative Jewish caricature. I… don’t necessarily see it. Upon rewatching I was expecting something on the lines of the goblins in Harry Potter, but I don’t know. I think a lot of it comes from mishearing his accent; if you listen to it, he actually has some sort of weird, vague Italian accent as opposed to that stereotypical old Jewish man voice. I guess if anything, Watto is a negative stereotype of Italians, though he is far less of a hate crime than casting Chris Pratt as Mario.

...Okay, and one more thing: Midichlorians. People have this weird idea that they cause the force. The movie literally states their presence is just an indication of a proclivity towards the force. It’s basically the Star Wars version of Pokerus. This was such a stupid thing for people to get mad about, but 90% of the hate for this film is just getting mad at stupid things anyway.

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

The answer to this question was always going to be pretty obvious: No. Absolutely not. The sheer vitriolic backlash to this film was built off the bizarre emotional attachment adults in the 90s had to a campy sci-fi series from the 70s and 80s; the toxicity of the fandom meant there was never any doubt that upon revisiting this film I’d find the hatred overblown. And really, we’ve had over twenty years of other Star Wars stories now, a lot of them building off the foundation this laid to give us great stories in their own rights. As I mentioned above, Darth Maul, this film’s awesome yet underutilized villain, has gone on to become one of the franchise’s most iconic characters thanks to The Clone Wars. There are great ideas here in this film, but it took other people to polish them and make them shine.

The real question is, even if the backlash is overblown… is the film actually good at all? And that’s a complicated question. This film has a lot of serious, glaring flaws, but at its heart it’s still the fun, campy sci-fi series we all know and love. When this film gets good, it gets really good, but when it’s bad it’s downright boring and even a little cringey. But being a bit cringey is just an important building block of Star Wars, so in my eyes, it gets a pass in that regard.

For my part, I like it. It is far, far away from my favorite Star Wars film, but I like it more than two of the sequel trilogy at least. I think whether anyone else likes it really boils down to how much corny, campy dialogue and boring bureaucratic drama one is able to tolerate. Regardless, I think that 6.5 is a perfect score for this film. It definitely reflects the mellowing public opinion towards it, and shows that it’s not really that bad after all. It’s just not exactly great, either.

But hey… This song more than justifies this movie existing:

youtube

If nothing else, you can watch this instead of the movie for your Machete Order marathon and all you’ll miss is some great action and music mixed into boring bureaucracy. Whether that’s worth it or not is up to you!

#Is it really that bad #IIRTB #review #movie review #Star Wars #The Phantom Menace #George Lucas #Sci-fi #Disney

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clarisimart · 2 years

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*Takes two fixations and mushes them together as playdough*

Our Flag Means Death - Star Wars (2/3)

Part one here

Part three here

Character info under the cut:

Jim Jiménez: After tragcdy struck their family, Jim was taken in as a foundling by Nana, an isolated and almost hermit member of House Wren. Growing up into Mando culture, Jim broke tradition a bit by prefering to use a blade over a blaster, and on the rare ocassions when Nana took them to the clan house, the daughter of the Wren matriarch, Sabine, would follow Jim around like a duckling, convinced they were the coolest person in the galaxy. Jim goes on the run after killing the husband of Corellian Jackie in order to protect themselves from her revenge and to keep the clan out of the conflict.

Oluwande Boodhari: Originally a member of Corellian Jackie’s gang, Oluwande goes with her to a meeting with clan Wren and immediately becomes alured by the silent brooding figure that is Jim. Oluwande helps them to sneak into Jackie’s HQ and kill Alfedro, and after the fallout, joins Jim on the run to escape Jackie’s wrath. As a young man on one of the gangs raids of an imperial ship he hears a strange song coming from one of the crates a discovers a single kyber cristal, which he has since worn around his neck and kept secret from everyone.

Roach: A togruta master chef, Roach set up in his youth as a cook on a cruise company. After years on the industry, he finally got fed up with his bosses, the snobby clients and the Empire’s general racism against aliens, and jumped ship, both metaphorically and literally, but not before giving every rich bastard on that cruise an extreme case of food poisoning and robbing them blind. He has since turned to smuggling and poiracy, and he infact has the highest bounty of all of Stede’s Crew.

The Gungan: A sweetly disposed Gungan with a truly amazing aptitud for singing, he’s an avid fan of Nubian Opera and high art. His dreams of becoming a performer were never going to be realised under Imperial rule, not with their anti alien policies and regulations in place, and thus he became a pirate.

#star wars #sw #ofmd #our flag means death #oluwande boodhari #jim jimenez #roach #the swede #my art #my fanart

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cowhides · 10 months

Text

estar guars

thinking abt darth jar jar and how he’s physically yoda’s opposite (long and gangly vs small and stout, floppy fin ears vs soft pointed elf-ish ears, red vs green, long taut marshland dinosaur face vs circular soft wrinkled face w large eyes, clumsy sloshing/drunken fist vs measured and calculated movements) and how a simple change of body language and voice could easily turn his goofy-esque frame into something way more intimidating. He’s already taller than the human characters, so if he straightened his back and squared his shoulders he’d be quite imposing with that alone. I also think his long floppy gungan fin-ears could potentially frill out like that one lizard and that would go crazy. What looks like a soft duck bill would peel back to show sharp teeth, claws for catching fish now much more sinister looking, same with his eyestalks and the yellow tint they have. I always hated how his feet are weirdly stout and not some kind of froglike webbed situation but then again when you think abt how nimble hippos are in water despite having those same kind of flat stump feet i guess it could work. His typical outfit almost makes his hips seem round and heavy, kind of that goofy silhouette again with a cartoony potbelly, but that extra weight that makes him look approachable could be shriveled away over time/as his plans progress, like how palpatine gets fucked up during he and mace windu’s confrontation in ep 3. I’ve always been partial to the idea that jar jar was darth plagueis and he learned how to escape death (unbeknownst or otherwise to his apprentice, sidious) by either plain bodysnatching a nearby outcasted gungan or potentially, if we were to rmr ep 9 despite how ludicrous it is and how much i hate it, he could’ve latched onto a force sensitive person and had them spontaneously reproduce and birth him, like palpatine apparently had shmi do w anakin. I think if lucas had had his friendly voice be less like a loud nasal honk/squeak and not in that forced and kinda 😬 space-patois, his original arc could’ve been preserved and his presence would be more tolerable. Bc i get that he wanted him to be unassuming but it just swung too far in that direction and made him loathesome rather than sneaky. I think his post-reveal voice should’ve been a sort of gravelly reptilian hiss too, really spooky that way but still making sense w his biology as opposed to a generic Evil Guy Voice. I also think the king gungan should’ve looked more like the rest of them lmao instead of looking like another species entirely, maybe with different coloring or some sort of frill/crest to make him stand out, like how queen bees look slightly different from regular bees.

Speaking of, i wish they had padme not be a teenage queen but then also say that naboo apparently has elections. Either she’s a teenage monarch from a royal family thrust into power v suddenly like king tut Or the planet has free elections and someone maybe a parent was elected to a position of power. I get that they didn’t want to do another princess after leia but she could’ve been an ambassadors daughter or smth who went into politics herself once she was old enough and it would’ve made way more sense. Maybe this is elaborated on more in the eu but as far as the movies go it’s just kinda funky and messes with my suspension of belief more than droids and space magic ever could.

I also think when it comes to baby anakin in ep 1 that choosing to make him sort of…idk over-competent was the worst mistake when it came to his character. If midichlorians were going to be involved it would’ve been way more interesting for anakin to have a low to nonexistent mc count and that be the puzzling aspect, not the opposite. It would’ve been way more interesting to see him struggle to keep up through the events of ep 1/being constantly compared to other padawans and that be why the council discounts him so readily, even when he’s grown. I always wanted him to be saved from maul by obi wan more directly, maybe even with obi having to choose between him and qui gon, with qg urging him to protect and train anakin and sacrificing himself to buy them time to escape or smth. it’s like lucas felt the need to prove anakins legitimacy to us when like…we already know who he’s going to be lol there was no need for that, and having him be vulnerable and be a traumatized child instead of a self insert for the kids in the audience/george himself would’ve been way more emotionally poignant and also call the jedi order’s abducted child soldier practices into question way earlier, bc the movies don’t touch on that enough imo even when their other flaws (aiding and abetting a hawkish neoliberal regime, repressing emotions to the detriment of everyone around them, relentless bureaucracy and top down hierarchy, general aloofness and lack of concern towards the galactic citizens they snatch force-sensitive younglings from) are more evident. I did always love the yellow cruiser he flew in ep 1 though lol it’s v elegant. But I wish Naboo had been a little more adventurous with its architecture bc it just looks like the venetian hotel sometimes. It’s just a letdown when the gungan city was so cool.

Anyway. the masculine urge to blame all of sws problems on toy merchandizing.

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