THEY’RE SO CUTE OH MY GOD

Arkhelios Adventures

"Welcome to the Academy, young apprentice. All of your belongings have been placed in the dorm, where you can move in when you're ready. Do you have any questions?"

Ewan Maricourt beamed with pride when introducing his school to a promising new apprentice. Pleasantview had a strong generation of magic users at present, and Ewan couldn't be prouder of them. As much as he was wary about his son's demon boyfriend and affinity for blood magic, Theo was talented and he brought out the best in his son's spells. Adam producing the Maricourt wand at his age was a point of pride that Ewan made sure to mention at length to the other parents of students. Remy was also doing well, even if she wasn't as engaged with the subject matter as her brother. Elowen also stood out in class. As much as Ewan was relieved to be divorced from her, Edana raised her children to be exceptional magic users.

"No, I think I'm good," the student said, appearing to look at the school with what could only be described as apathy. "Once you've seen one school, you've seen them all."

"Attention, students! We've got a new student joining us today. Please welcome to the Academy, Hayden Hanes. They scored extremely high on our entrance exam and will be an excellent candidate to join the Pleasantview coven upon graduation. Please make them feel welcome."

Ewan left the students together to introduce themselves and retreated to the staff quarters to collect his thoughts. No one had ever looked upon his academy with apathy. No one. Not even when he was a student himself. Hayden's exam score was the only reason that they'd been admitted mid semester. It wasn't uncommon, Adam's boyfriend had had a similar entrance to the school, but Hayden's lack of academic knowledge was still baffling. Theo had had to be introduced to basic magical theory and academic structure when he joined at age six. Hayden was sixteen and had about the same level of academic experience. They knew very little about how to set up a cauldron for potions, but their potion work was exceptional. Their abilities rivaled Ewan's himself, which was incredible for a teenager.

"Hi, I'm looking forward to working with all of you," Hayden said with confidence. "I've heard a lot about some of you. Some of you even practice old, extinct magic from what I hear. It's rare to meet someone else who can perform blood magic."

"Of course they're only interested in Theo," Lexy sighed. "Every single person who walks through the door only wants to talk about Theo and blood magic. He's turning our school into a side show."

"I did some blood magic too," Adam insisted, missing Lexy's point. "And Hayden can too, apparently. Maybe the one holding the school back is jealous people like you."

Remy tried to listen to her twin, but she was distracted. Adam had finally decided to raise his voice since reading their parents the riot act at the Maricourt meeting and now he couldn't be stopped. It was always "Theo this" and "Theo that" and "isn't Theo great?" It was enough to make a sister want to vomit. Adam was insufferable and Theo only made things worse.

But this new kid had potential. Maybe Remy could get on Hayden's good side and have them tutor her so she could finally make Adam shut up about her skills. Hayden was also easy on the eyes. She wasn't about to cheat on Malika, but a girl could still appreciate beauty when she saw it.

"Thanks for coming, Edana. I need your opinion on something."

Edana Darktide-Traver glared at her ex-husband, but couldn't deny being curious as to what could possibly need her input. Since the meeting, things had been frosty between the ex spouses. Adam's outburst had divided the two, as most of his blame had rested on his mother, while Ewan seemed to get a pass despite sharing her opinions on Theo.

"It must be something important for you to call," she said. "Do you have another bastard kid that you found out about?"

"No, it's this new student," Ewan replied, ignoring Edana's comment. "There's something off about them and I just can't figure it out. Everything about them is weird and I can't put why finger on why exactly."

"A new student? So what? Expell them if you don't feel right about it. This isn't my problem."

Edana turned to leave, but her ex-husband reached out for her before she could exit the strange conversation.

"No, I mean it, Edana. I-I need your thoughts on the matter. You've always had a gift for seeing the intentions of others. If there's something dangerous about this student, I know that you can feel it."

"Oh? I wasn't able to see your intention to throw me under the bus with the kids. We both went to that meeting and Adam's only angry at one of us."

"You got carried away by yourself," Ewan snapped, crossing his arms. "It's not my fault that you were so hard on Adam."

"You were just as hard on him! You know what? Figure out this mystery on your own, Ewan. I'm done with this. We're not married anymore, and I'm not in your coven. I'm done with you."

"Edana, wait! I'm not wrong about this kid, I know it! I-Remy has a crush on this kid! It was clear as day from the moment they locked eyes. We need to get ahead of this for our daughter's sake."

Edana's eyes narrowed dangerously. He didn't seem like he was lying, but this too could be a trick. Ewan wasn't above lying to get what he wanted and he knew that she would do anything for her children. However, it would be just like Remy to rush into something with someone completely inappropriate; Watcher only knew that Adam was doing the exact same thing.

"Fine," she conceded, grinding her teeth to keep from hexing her ex. "What else is weird about this kid?"

"They can execute dangerously powerful magic, but they don't have a clue about the correct stances or potion etiquette. They were bored looking at the school for the first time and said they'd seen several other impressive magical schools."

"So? The whole world doesn't revolve around Pleasantview, you know. There are other schools."

"Name three," Ewan replied skeptically. "No, that's too hard. Name one. There hasn't been a school to rival ours in centuries. Centuries. It's weird."

Edana frowned, but refused to indulge her ex.

"You're thinking about time, aren't you? That demonic bitch and her inept warlock got to you with stories of time travel and alternate universes? Well, they're wrong. Time doesn't work that way. This kid isn't a time traveller or whatever else you think. They're unimpressed with your school because it's tired and dated, not because they've walked the halls of ancient schools of magic."

"They have no guardian," Ewan insisted. "Their emergency contact can't be reached. I'm not even sure that they paid their tuition fees, but the office insists their story is true."

"So this sixteen year old is mind controlling your staff? Can you even hear yourself? Give me something tangible to work with instead of your guesses."

"Just...just keep an eye on them," Ewan said at last. "I can't prove it, but I know we need to look into this kid more. Call it a hunch. Please?"

"For Remy's sake, I'll try," Edana sighed. "I don't want her to stumble because of your poor parenting."

"Hayden" made sure to memorize every picture on the walls as they made their way toward the dining hall. Many of them were familiar.

I met him more than once. I went to her father's funeral. That guy was such a pain in the ass, the stories don't do him justice.

"Okay, warlocks. How do warlocks act? They're all about the wands and crystals- no that's just that specific coven. Think. You can do this. How many warlocks have you watched? Tons. Just wave your wand around and act pretentious, it's only for a little while."

Hayden pressed their palms against the wood table, drawing their focus to the mission at hand. Just laying their hands on the once living wood of the table, they could feel the remnants of what had once been. This had once been a mighty tree until it had been ripped from its roots and hacked apart to serve the dominant species of the planet. The tree still remembered the nest of birds that returned year after year to shelter in it. It remembered the way that sunlight felt against its bark, the way squirrel nails dug into its bark as they fought in the branches. It was a carcass now, empty of life, the cold darkness of death filling its every atom.

I could change this. It's too easy, really. Would it look like magic to the witches? It's not a bad idea to get some practice in.

Under their fingertips, the wood of the table began to awaken. Death had held it for centuries, but a faint ripple of energy pooled beneath their hands, echoing the faint memory of life and the ebb and flow of the ocean's waves.

"What are you up to? Can I join? You look lonely."

Remy blinked, trying to formulate a response to this reply.

Lukas snapped to attention, embarrassed to have been caught off guard. They had a purpose here and the intoxicating memory of sunlight and waves had left them vulnerable. They were trying to pass as a warlock, while trying to dispel Death's power simply because they were nervous. Of course warlocks didn't have the ability to regenerate life in the way they did. This young witch had interrupted them before they blew their own cover, inadvertently helping their mission.

"I was just thinking," they replied smoothly. "Thinking about the universe and the magic that governs it. Do you know how many generations of witches and warlocks came before us? You can feel their energy in the air around us, even if their names have faded into history. They're never fully gone from this world. Death thinks he's claimed them for himself, but the remains of their lives echo forever around us."

"Yeah. That's for sure. My dad may have written a paper on that, I'm pretty sure," she lied, watching the being beside her react to her reaction. "Do you want to talk about it over some coffee?"

"What is she doing? She can't possibly be flirting with the weird new kid. Isn't she dating your aunt or whoever?"

Adam watched as his sister continued to edge closer to the mysterious teen.

"They're practically running away from her, I think we're safe," Theo noted. "Do you get a weird vibe from that kid too? There's something not right about them."

"Yeah. Maybe they're some rare kind of demon. They looked like they were staring at you in class this morning, maybe the sovereign sent them to report on you. I know I've heard that name before, I just don't remember from where. Have you heard of a Hayden Hanes before? Maybe they're distantly related and famous or something."

"I've never heard of it before," Theo replied. "It sounds fake."

"I'm kind of seeing someone actually," Lukas replied truthfully. Their relationship with Death had started the instant they came into existence and would endure even when the sun burned itself out. Humans could never measure up to a deity who returned their intense romantic feelings and had known them for millennia. Death was everything to Lukas and that would never change. He had even given his weary consent to this plan as long as no one mysteriously vanished and Lukas never embarrassed their teenage children with this scheme. Seeing as their twins attended another school entirely, Lukas was confident that they would never suspect their parent was wandering around Pleasantview disguised as a teenager.

"Oh yeah, me too," Remy said quickly. "Me and Malika have been dating for a while now. My parents hate it, so naturally I'm probably going to marry her someday. Unless I can find someone they hate even more."

She chuckled nervously as her brain tried desperately to think of something cool to say to salvage this conversation. Nothing came to her.

"Hey Theo. Hey Adam."

Travis Maricourt walked by Theo and his boyfriend, interrupting their view of Remy and her poor decisions.

"Oh! Travis! I need to talk to you! How did you do on the deadly curses exam?"

Theo scurried down the hall after the teen, dragging Adam with him.

"So where are you from?" Remy asked, clearly not taking the hint that Lukas wanted some privacy to practice their disguise.

Lukas paused, thinking of how best to answer that question. It was a fairly innocent one that they needed to have a consistent answer for.

"My dad's side of the family is from Pleasantview," they said truthfully. "Are there still Brokes around? It's been a long time, they may have all died or moved away by now."

"I don't think so," Remy replied. "I've never heard of any at least. Are they magic users? Maybe they moved to a different country's coven. You could always check the records. Maybe you have a cousin or an aunt or something that your dad doesn't know about."

"Hmm. I think it's been a little too long. My grandmother's name was Brandi. She went missing long before I arrived in the world and it devastated my dad. I don't think he'd appreciate me tracking his relatives down."

And it would be thousands of years too late. My father died eons ago along with any remainder of the Brokes.

"Are you really close to your dad?" Remy asked. "You must miss your parents. Boarding school is hard on everyone. I know Theo's parents really struggle with it and so does he, even if he won't admit it. It's okay to miss your parents. Unfortunately for me, my dad works here along with my half-sister, so I see them all the time."

Lukas paused, tracing a pattern on the table with their finger.

"No, I don't speak to my dad," they answered. "We had a falling out a long time ago and he said some horrible things. I'm close with my other father though. It doesn't matter. I have my own family now."

Remy gave them a strange look, and Lukas kicked themselves for nearly blowing their cover once again.

"I mean, I have a found family," they corrected. "My...boyfriend and friends."

Certainly not my husband and three kids. Nope, no one needs to know about them. Or my two ex-wives and kids with them.

"Travis, can I borrow your notes for the test on Friday?" Theo asked frantically. "Adam and I skipped class to, uh, study for another test."

Lukas' attention snapped from Remy and zeroed in on Theo's conversation. Here was the reason for this disguise in the first place. What was the little demon up to? What business did he have with the adopted son of a reaper and the biological son of the very witch who tried to destroy the Grim Reaper? It was suspicious and Lukas vowed to keep an eye on any further interactions between the two.

"Hayden?"

"Sorry," Lukas apologized. "I got distracted. You were saying?"

"Come hang out with me and Malika this weekend," Remy repeated. "You can bring your boyfriend and we could double date. There's a new horror movie coming out that we could see."

"Why not make it a triple date?" Lukas pressed. "Bring your brother and Theo too. The more the merrier, you know?"

"You mean hang out with my brother? I guess," Remy replied. "Theo and Malika don't always get along, but you're new here so I think they can share a movie theater for your sake."

"Awesome. It's a date then."

I'm so happy that Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor are finally aware that my generation, the ones who grew up with the prequels, loves their movies; especially seeing in interviews Hayden receiving the praises he deserves for a long time now. But also sad because as I said, they're "finally" aware of that.

Back then, most of us didn't have internet or weren't using it. And I don't even know if we were already using it as a place to talk about movies, to share theories and so on, on the English speaking side of the internet or the French one. I was about to be nine when Revenge of the Sith came out. Since we saw it at the cinema, my sister and I are still randomly using parts of the last """""discussion"""" between Ani and Obi. [If you don't "You were my brother Anakin. I loved you." to your sibling, are you really siblings ???] And of course, we have the memes, the high ground thing, THE SAND and so much more. But yeah, it took its time.

I remember at school, I had classmates with the padanwan braid. We used to fight with imaginary light sabers.

Now, I'm -almost- 26 and I'm still in this amazing universe, reading SW books (Resistance reborn at the moment), buying merch because capitalism is ok when it's related to something you love haha, planning for years a certain cosplay that I hope I'll be able to wear during the next SWC, talking about the movies like I'm doing right now, still laughing and crying while watching these films and shows. And I know I'm not the only one and I know we will pass the love we have for this franchise to our friends and, if you want to have some, to our children too.

I just wanna thank all the journalists, the fans who said how much they loved the prequels to Ewan and Hayden and I want to specifically thank Tyrell Charles for saying welcome back to Hayden during his interview with him for all of us.

I'm gonna repeat myself but I am so so over the moon to know that they are aware of how much their movies mean to us, how much their characters mean to us, at last.

May the force be with you ❤️

42 Minutes of Pain and Suffering Brought to You By Disney+ and Deborah Chow!

SORRY, BUT I AM STILL DEEPLY, DEEPLY SHOOK, AND THEREFORE THERE IS ABOUT TO BE A LOT OF CAPSLOCK BULLET POINTS AND SEMI-COHERENT SCREAMING UP IN THIS JOINT, THOU HAST BEEN WARNT

THEY CASUALLY START OFF THE EPISODE with Hayden-as-Anakin like. CHOOSING VIOLENCE DIRECTLY OUT OF THE GATE. I knew this was coming because I had seen gifs, but a) not immediately to start the episode, and b) IT’S NOT JUST ONE SCENE

OH NO

IT IS AN EPISODE LONG SUSTAINED FLASHBACK THAT BOTH VADER AND OBI-WAN ARE HAVING THE WHOLE TIME BECAUSE THIS SHOW IS SOMETHING OUT OF MY TEENAGE FEVER DREAMS I GUESS

Hayden, bless his heart, doesn’t look like he’s in his 20s anymore, but he has aged like a fine wine so can I complain? No

Really making use of that A+ Ewan and Hayden lightsaber duel practice, that is still some impressive shit (also the Revenge of the Sith parallels killllllll meeeeeeeeeeeee)

I’ve screamed about it at least twice but “all he’ll see is me” like ARE YOU KIDDING ME

(also Ewan what even was that voice you said it in, what are your acting choices, what are you doing)

They’re so SICKENINGLY ENTANGLED IN EACH OTHER and it’s agonizingly terrible and painful and they can’t get out and they just end up getting MORE tangled! THIS IS SOME SICK AND TWISTED DARK-MIRROR LOVE-TURNED-TO-HATE BRONTE SISTERS-ESQUE SHIT MY BROTHERS IN CHRIST! AND I EAT IT UP! I EAT IT UP!!!

TALA, NO

I KNEW SHE WAS DOOMED BECAUSE OBI-WAN’S TRAUMA CONGA LINE JUST KEEPS GETTING LONGER BUT OH MY HEART

LEIA!!!! TAKING CHARGE LIKE A BABY BAMF, AS ONE DOES

“get me a ladder” and “stop talking” liKE

also Obi-Wan rushing to hug her has once again SLAIN me

OKAY BUT LET’S TALK ABOUT SITH

REVA THIS EPISODE, OH MY SWEET BABY JESUS

Moses Ingram absolutely KILLED IT during that door scene with Obi-Wan, which I have been asking for this whole time

Please let this near death experience make her decide to fuck over Vader even harder and she comes swooping in on Tatooine to absolutely explode his sand-hating old man machine ass and wreck his shit

THE CINEMATIC PARALLELS OF A BLUE-ON-BLUE LIGHTSABER DUEL IN THE FLASHBACK AND A RED-ON-RED DUEL IN THE PRESENT

I live for the moments when they remind us how TERRIFYINGLY POWERFUL Vader is like, GODDAMN

First the whole ripping-the-starfighter out of the sky and then just.... toying with Reva

We saw her fuck up some major shit during the last episode when Obi-Wan and Leia were escaping from the Inquisitor stronghold, we KNOW she’s powerful, and she can’t even lay a FINGER on Vader

I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT ENDING WITH LUKE ASLEEP ON TATOOINE MEANS BUT IT CAN’T BE ANYTHING GOOD

OH GOD I AM TERRIFIED

IS VADER GONNA MEET BOTH THE TWINS AND HAVE NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE

ARE LITTLE LUKE AND LEIA GOING TO SEE EACH OTHER (EVEN IF FROM A DISTANCE)

/HYPERVENTILATES MADLY

/ROLLS AROUND ON FLOOR

I have so many things to say about Kenobi and I am certain that I can't say all of them. But point one: this show is as close to perfection as this franchise will get and it brought me to actual, honest to the stars, tears. This was, after so many decades of waiting, Star Wars for adults. Not only was the storytelling skilled, but the plot was a complex exploration of both personal and intergenerational trauma and dissociation. This is the prequel that we were promised in the nineties, but that George Lucas, bless his heart, never delivered because he was trying so hard to straddle the line between children's entertainment and mature film making. That said, Kenobi is, perhaps, only a story that Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen and James Earl Jones (as well as fantastically talented actors for original secondary characters such as Bail, Owen and Beru, who absolutely get their moments here, especially Owen) themselves could tell, a way of bringing their own experiences with these characters--who quite literally changed their lives as well as exerting influence on the lives of millions of viewers--full-circle.

In addition to exploring Obi-Wan's own PTSD, the show also finally confronts the dichotomy of Anakin's identity as the dissociation and trauma response that it is. We hear everyone around him who has prior experience with him referring to him as Anakin including Obi-Wan, Reva, and Palpatine himself (who refers to "your past"). By showing Vader's immersion into memory of training with Kenobi on Alderaan, we are physically shown that Vader references "Anakin's" memories; we are shown that he is the same man as that teenaged Padawan, and the "change" from Anakin to Vader is not some kind of demonic possession, but only a legal fiction which he leans on as an extreme coping mechanism. It is a coping mechanism that is sadly apparent to everyone who is aware of his past, and it is only when Vader's mask is cracked and Obi-Wan sees the ravaged face of his former student and brother-in-arms, when he is forced to confront his own ugliest deeds, that he retreats from reality himself and embraces Vader's insistence on his seperate personhood, and it is clear that he does so because living with the knowledge of what Anakin became after Mustafar is simply unbearable.

If that weren't brilliant enough, not only does this show at last confront the real horror of Anakin's actions in ROTS, but it also gives us a contrasting development in Reva. The Inquisitor was peer to the Jedi children Anakin butchered. She was inadvertently spared from the slaughter, and in her pursuit of vengeance is tempted to become a monster of Vader's own kind. Yet she is unable to bring herself to murder Luke for his father's deeds, and in sparing the child she spares herself from Anakin's fate. Reva"s entire function is to prove to the audience that, whatever Anakin claimed or felt, he absolutely had a choice not to commit the most heinous of crimes in the supposed pursuit of "cure" for his wife (and that he is responsible for her death as well is proof of enough that it was never his true motive, although I believe that he convinced himself that it was). The ultimate point is that there was NEVER a "good" Anakin and an "evil" Vader. There was always a deeply flawed boy and man called Anakin Skywalker, whose early traumas lead him to desire power above all things--power to determine his own fate, and yet we see him fall again and again into the emotional trap, the trauma of his past, which not only makes him erratic and unreliable, but lures him repeatedly into the service of others, this despite his claim to desire to rule (we always see him pursuing this kingship with or for others). That he cannot even concede his own identity, and thus his culpability in his own misery, means that he will remain a prisoner of a Mobius loop constructed of rage, sorrow, and dependence on a self-inflicted delusion that can only lead him deeper into confusion and darkness.

FUTURE LUCASFILM PROJECTS REVEALED GET READY FOR PATTY JENKINS’ ROGUE SQUADRON FILM, AN AHSOKA TANO LIVE-ACTION SERIES, THE RETURN OF HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN AND MUCH, MUCH MORE.       Today at The Walt Disney Company’s Investor Day event, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced a staggering number of new films, series, and surprises that will expand the Star Wars galaxy like never before.

Rogue Squadron The next Star Wars feature film will be Rogue Squadron — directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman franchise). The story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy.       “It’s been a lifelong dream as a filmmaker to one day make a great fighter pilot film,” said Jenkins. “As the daughter of a great fighter pilot myself, some of the best memories of my life are of seeing my father’s squadron take off in their F4s every morning, and hearing and feeling the awe-inspiring power and grace. When he passed away in service to this country it ignited a burning desire to one day channel all of those emotions into one great film. When the perfect story arrived in combination with another true love of mine, the incomparable world of Star Wars, I knew I’d finally found my next film. I’m extremely honored and excited to take it on, and grateful to Lucasfilm, Disney, and the fans for extending that thrill to me.”       “Patty has established herself as one of the top directors working in the film industry today,” said Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. “She’s a visionary who knows how to strike the balance between action and heart, and I can’t wait to see what she does in the Star Wars galaxy.”       Lock S-foils in attack position: Rogue Squadron arrives in theaters Christmas 2023.

Untitled Taika Waititi Film       A brand-new Star Wars feature with acclaimed filmmaker and Academy Award-winner Taika Waititi is in development. “Taika’s approach to Star Wars will be fresh, unexpected, and…unique,” said Kennedy. “His enormous talent and sense of humor will ensure that audiences are in for an unforgettable ride.”

Obi-Wan Kenobi Last August at D23 Expo, Lucasfilm announced the return of Ewan McGregor in the iconic role of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi for a special event series on Disney+. Officially titled Obi-Wan Kenobi, the series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where he faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The series is directed by Deborah Chow, who helmed memorable episodes of The Mandalorian Season 1.      This will truly be a day long remembered, as it was confirmed that Hayden Christensen will be returning as Darth Vader. “This will be the rematch of the century,” Kennedy said.      “It was such an incredible journey playing Anakin Skywalker,” said Christensen. “Of course, Anakin and Obi-Wan weren’t on the greatest of terms when we last saw them… It will be interesting to see what an amazing director like Deborah Chow has in store for us all. I’m excited to work with Ewan again. It feels good to be back.”

Ahsoka After making her long awaited live-action debut in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano’s story, written by Dave Filoni, will continue in a limited series starring Rosario Dawson and executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. Rangers of the New Republic Set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, this new live-action series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will intersect with future stories and culminate into a climactic story event.

Lando Everyone’s favorite scoundrel Lando Calrissian will return in a brand-new event series for Disney+. Justin Simien, creator of the critically-acclaimed Dear White People and a huge Star Wars fan, is developing the story.

Andor  Andor, a tense nail-biting spy thriller created by Tony Gilroy, is set to arrive on Disney+ in 2022. Diego Luna, reprising the role of rebel spy Cassian Andor from Rogue One, will be joined by a fantastic new cast that includes Stellan Skarsgard, Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma. Production kicked off three weeks ago in London.

The Acolyte Leslye Headland, Emmy Award-nominated creator of the mind-bending series Russian Doll, brings a new Star Wars series to Disney+ with The Acolyte. The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch — a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.      The animated series will arrive exclusively on Disney+.

Star Wars: Visions Presenting all-new, creative takes on the galaxy far, far away, Star Wars: Visions will be a series of animated short films celebrating Star Wars through the lens of the world’s best anime creators. The anthology collection will bring 10 fantastic visions from several of the leading Japanese anime studios, offering a fresh and diverse cultural perspective to Star Wars.

A Droid Story As Lucasfilm continues to develop new stories, the intersection of animation and visual effects offers new opportunities to explore. Lucasfilm Animation will be teaming up with Lucasfilm’s visual effects team, Industrial Light & Magic, to develop a special Star Wars adventure for Disney+, A Droid Story. This epic journey will introduce us to a new hero, guided by legendary duo R2-D2 and C-3PO.

In My Life

Tom Holland x Reader

Part 2

Based on In My Life By The Beatles

Synopsis; Nikki doesn’t approve of you and Tom

A/n; I don’t see Nikki doing that at all but for the sake of this fan fiction 💀

Requested by; Anonymous // Hey! Please do a Tom Holland imagine where the reader meets Tom’s family for the first time. Everyone seems to be welcoming but at the end of the evening, when the reader and Tom are doing the dishes, Nikki pulls the reader to the side and blackmails the reader saying that she has to get Tom to break up with her. She does so out of fear and they break up. A few days later Tom finds out about what Nikki did and he immediately tries to get the reader back and it’s all fluffy and cute?

🧚🏻‍♀️Masterlist🧚🏻‍♀️

Saying that Tom had been busy with his script was an understatement. He had worked on it for so long now he was longing to finish it. But the amount of work that was added on set placed even more pressure on his shoulders.

So when Tom first met you he wasn't the friendliest. But little by little as he walked every day on the set of Uncharted, he slowly fell for you. He fell for your smile, your eyes, and just the daily brightness you would bring to set with you.

Berlin was certainly a place Tom would remember.

It was the city he'd met you. The city that made him fall for you. And the city where he felt all his stress come off his shoulders.

And months later he was back to London, and back with you.

He'd come to Berlin stressed out of his mind and came back relaxed holding your hand like it had been missing from his.

After five months of relationship, Tom was ready to introduce you to his parents. You'd had already met his brothers, all of them being as friendly and nice as the other. But his parents were a whole other story.

Tom was way too excited, and you had to admit you were a little stressed. No matter what Tom said meeting his parents was a huge step. One that you were a little scared to take.

You walked into the house both his parents and brothers being more then welcoming.

"Mom, dad this is Y/n" He introduced you like the most precious gem in the world. You smiled brightly as Nikki put on a fake smile.

You see she was fine with her son being an actor. She knew him and raised him. She knew he would never let his work get in the way of his personal life.

She clearly knew that if he had a role where he had to make out with another girl, he wouldn't let that get in the way if he had girlfriend. She knew his work and how professional he made sure everything was.

But with you it was different. She didn't know you and she especially didn't know if you would break her son's heart running off with another actors after a heated scene on set.

During dinner, she tried to make it look as everything was ok when inside she was boiling up.

"So... Y/n? What's your next big role?" She questioned as she took a bite of her food.

"Well it's pretty much a secret but I got cast as Satine in the new Obi-Wan series. As a Star Wars fan Im pretty excited." You smiled brightly as you answered her question. "Im really proud of that role." You nodded the smile never leaving.

"No way," Harry exclaimed as excited as you were. "Why didn't you tell us!?"

"I just got the call." You replied as you tucked a strand of hair behind your ear.

"That's insane."

"Im sorry who's Satine?" Nikkie asked not following the Star Wars franchise at all.

"Duchess Satine. Obi Wan's love interest. But they can never truly be together because he's a Jedi and she's a Duchess." Sam explained and Nikki's blood boiled as she heard you were going to have to kiss another man. Potential competition for Tom.

"Oh. And who plays this Obi-Wan?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well I know they're taking Ewan McGregor, but if they cast you as young Satine did they cast a young Obi-Wan?" Harry asked you.

"No, they're keeping Ewan just using some special effects to make him look a little younger. But I mean he weirdly hasn't aged at all." You chuckled. "I met him during my last few auditions and it was insane. You feel like he just finished shooting Revenge of The Sith." You chuckled.

"Oh my God are you going to meet Hayden?" Harry asked getting way too excited.

"That's a secret." You winked. "You'll just have to watch the show." You shrugged.

"Ewan as in, the actor who played your father in the impossible?" Nikki asked Tom.

"Yep! So glad she got the role, I mean I love Ewan he's so nice." Tom gave a bright smile.

"Well... Nice." Nikki added even more of a fake smile. She clearly knew Ewan's charms and wondered if you would possibly break Tom's heart and run away with him breaking Tom into a million pieces.

I mean actresses were always the same right? One runs off with the director, while the other with her love interest.

At least that's what Nikki always heard, and she wasn't going to have her son date an actress.

The rest of the dinner went well. You had the chance to have a Star Wars debate with Harry and Sam but you were far from knowing your fate when the dishes had to be made.

You smiled at Tom, confidence rising as you thought you'd made a good impression on the whole family, but when you were met with an angry Nikki on your way back from the bathroom, your new-found confidence fell.

"I don't want you to see my son anymore." She deadpanned.

"Excuse me?" You let out an awkward chuckle not quite understanding what she meant.

"I want you to break up with my son." She said again her tone getting even more serious.

"I- But- I don't want to. I actually really like him-" You said a little awkwardly.

"Well then break up with him. He deserves better than an actress who runs away with each other actor she gets the chance to kiss."

"Im sorry?" Your eyes widen at her comment.

"You heard me." She folded her arms. "You leave my son or I will make sure they take someone else to play Satine. All I have to do is make a few calls. If I recall I still have Ewan's phone number. I can ruin your career in one click." She replied in a tone that left you speechless. You were about to tear up when you picked up the last of your courage.

"This won't ruin my career." You replied finding all your cold blood.

"Yes but spreading a rumor would..."

You stayed speechless for a little while, the both of you unaware that Harry had watched the scene from the start with a dropped jaw.

"Alright." You looked down trying not to cry. "But just know that I love your son very much and you're making a big mistake for his happiness." and without another word, you left towards the kitchen trying to find a way to leave this place.

"You ok love?" Tom asked as he placed an arm around your waist. You gave him a quick nod and looked back to see Nikki shooting daggers at you behind Tom's back.

Your phone rang in your pocket as your best friend called.

"Do you mind, it's Bella?" You looked at it and it back to Tom.

"Not at all. Go." He smiled and kissed your forehead.

The call had nothing to do with what you were about to say you felt like you couldn't stay much longer after the comments Nikki had made.

"Im going to go." You gave Tom a tight smile. "She says there's a problem with her dog and she needs me." You sighed knowing very well Tom would buy it. She knew your best friend aka roommate's Doberman was hard on everyone and sometimes it would take two people to help wit hit. "It's kind of an emergency." You said.

"Alright, well let me drive you home." He said.

"Oh no please stay with your family." You smiled. "It's late and you're tired. I'll call an uber."

"Alright." It was the last thing Tom wanted to do but for some reason, he felt like you needed some space. He pushed it on the fact that you'd just met his parents.

"I'll see you." You smiled as you pressed a quick kiss to his lips and moved towards the door no one to stop you from leaving this place. Harry looked at you leave, a frown painting his face.

You started walking towards your house, which was about an hour's walk from here. You didn't know what to do from the shock of the conversation. Your mind felt blank. You took one step after the other until you arrived at a bridge.

You watched the water for a few minutes before digging into your pocket to grab your phone.

"Hey." Bella's voice cheered over the phone.

"Bella... Something happened... Tom's mom... doesn't want me to see him again."

"What?" You heard a gasp and then a blank silence from the other hand of the phone. You stared at the water for a few seconds.

"Can you come pick me up?"

~

Before you knew it you were eating a pot of ice cream in front of Lord of The Rings cuddling your friend's Doberman.

"You ok?"

She asked sitting next to you placing a cup of hot chocolate in front of you.

"You know what always bothered me?" You questioned as you placed another spoon full of ice cream in your mouth.

"What?"

"That Gandalf didn't understand the Mellon door thing." You pointed towards the tv where that scene was happening.

Your friend looked from the tv and back to you.

"Y/n..."

You stared at the tv for a while before starting to tear up.

"Of course im not ok. My boyfriend's mom wants me to break up with him." You sobbed and turned your attention back to your friend. "I thought I made a good impression but then she goes on and says that actors are cheaters." You cried onto her shoulders.

"Can't you just tell him?" She asked as she lowered the volume from your movie.

"I can't break up a family..." You sniffed.

A week later and you were dodging Tom's calls like the plague. Every message he would send you you'd respond with nothing more than a word or two saying you were busy.

Every fiber in your body wanted to stay with him, but you had to put your career first. You knew Nikki could do a lot of damage and you weren't going to let that happen.

So after a week, you thought it was time. Time to finally break it up. Break up the one relationship you were happy about in years.

"Tom?" Your heart pounded in your chest as you typed his name.

"Yes?" He replied way to quick for your liking. "Are you finally going to talk to me? 🧐"

"I think we need to break up." You replied every word feeling like weights on your fingers as you typed. Before you could even type anything your phone lit up with a call from him.

"Just please forget me." You felt the tears leave your eyes as you sent the message dodging his calls.

A flow a call and messages from him appeared on your phone but you felt too weak to reply. Instead, you simply dropped your phone on the counter and left to your room, ready for a movie marathon to take your mind off him.

"What the actual fuck." Tom groaned in frustration as he threw his phone on his couch. "What the hell did I do?" He groaned as placed his head in his hands.

Nikki watched the scene a small smirk painting her face.

"You ok honey?" She came near him rubbing circles behind his back.  

"No." He sighed tears almost spilling. "Y/n broke up with me. She's been avoiding me for a week and now she said she wanted to end things." Tom spitted out.

"Oh, im so sorry... I'm sure you'll find another girl." She gave him a soft fake sad smile as she patted his shoulder.

"Oh please stop mom. Like you aren't glad she did what you asked her after you blackmailed her." Harry deadpanned before sipping his coffee sick of what this was doing to Tom.

"Excuse me?" The woman replied as she shot daggers with her eyes towards her son.

"What? You're going to deny it now mom? I saw you talking to her, the poor girl was frightened." Harry said again dropping small bombs into the living room.

Nikki didn't say anything and glared at Harry.

"What's that now?" Tom lifted his head from his hands, quickly wiping some tears that had slipped his eyes.

"Mom blackmailed your girlfriend into dumping you." He pointed to Nikki with his cup of coffee.

"What?" Tom's eyes went wide as he looked at his mother who's face twisted.

"What? It's not like you actually loved her? She's an actress Tom!" Nikki said in defense.

"And?" Tom stood up in anger.

"And actors are cheaters, you didn't really think you'd have a life with her?" She replied.

"Yes! Yes, mom! I love her. And plus IM AN ACTOR! What does that even mean actors are cheaters? In that case, are you saying that I'm a cheater too?" Tom almost raises his voice not taking any more of this conversation.

"Tom, your different... I raised you well..."

"I'm out of here," Tom said before grabbing his phone and leaving his house in a hurry.

"Where are you going?"

"To find the girl I love." And with that, he slammed the door rushing for your house.

"You!" Nikki pointed to Harry who looked at her with a sheepish grin.

"It's his life mom." He raised his hands in defense as he walked away.

~

Tom arrived at your house in a furry. He murmured curse words on the way there, wishing he could take all his mother's words back and mend things.

He didn't wait for a green light to walk into your apartment building, knocking on your familiar door. Tom heard the Doberman's barks and footsteps quickly following.

He was met with your puffy red-eyed face. You froze as the door frame your eyes lit up in shock as you met his.

"Look Tom..." you said as you played with his ends of your hoodie.

But instead of replying Tom smashed his lips with yours never wanting to let you go. Your eyes lit up in shock but you couldn't help melt into the kiss.

"I know... I know about everything." He slightly pushing away but still holding you in his arms. "Im sorry for what she said, but know that I don't believe a single word."

You stared into his eyes before letting your tears fall, the pressure being released from your shoulders.

"I love you, Tom."

- Tag List - 

@averyfosterthoughts​ @justifymyfeelings​ @slytherinambitious​

Attack of the Clones Likes and Dislikes

Likes:

-CGI: still looks pretty decent for a 2002 film (usually).

-Jay Laga'aia (Captain Typho) is much better than Hugh Quarshie (Captain Panaka).  No clue why I like the new guy better, but there’s something about his delivery/acting that feels more right.

-Despite the fact that Hayden is very underwhelming, Ewan seems completely fine carrying the idea that the two of them are like brothers, even if he has to do all the heavy lifting.

-Christopher Lee.  His life is legendary, and it’s just fun to see him strut around doing his thing.

-The Council show up at the arena as a united front and decide to show what a full crew of Jedi can do, before the movie transitions to a full scale air/ground battle.  AotC gets some things wrong, but when it decides to go bombastic, it refuses to go half-assed.

Dislikes:

-I don’t want to say “purist” but I’d want puppet Yoda before CGI Yoda.

-Eesh.  From the first scene, Hayden Christensen falls flat.

-The chemistry between Christensen and Portman is like adding vinegar to water: sure, there’s probably some reaction happening, but it isn’t enjoyable.  Or really interesting.

Meh

-The whole movie is a lot of “meh.”  There are interesting scenes and moments, but the events in between are like the moving floors in an airport: they get you from one point to another, and if you move quickly while there, you don’t really miss much.

Random Asides

-After watching Clone Wars, I don’t think the separatists are the bad guys in this.  Sure, there are some corrupt leaders (like in the Republic) but there were some legitimate reasons for fleeing what they saw as a sinking ship.

-I don’t know why Young Iain was so intent on getting full screen editions.  Maybe “Full screen means more on the screen!”  Now Iain just feels like there’s stuff on the sides and top that’s been cut off.

-The mysterious case of Ki Adi’s shrinking head.

-Three new characters (Typho, Boba and Jango), and all three actors are New Zealanders/of New Zealand descent.  What was the prompt for that?  Was there a Lucas Head Canon that said the Mandalorian culture was parallel to Māori’s?  Random observation.

-What’s with the weird nipple cupping bands on Padme’s white outfit?  Of all the things to pay attention to, that’s probably low on the “important” list, but who in costumes thought that idea up?

All In All

-Much like the Phantom Menace, not as bad as the internet would want me to remember.  Christensen never really delivers the role of an Anakin Skywalker who is starting to walk the path of the dark side (even if the people around him aren’t aware), and the chemistry of he and Portman fizzles instead of sizzles.  But McGregor goes on gamely, Christopher Lee tries to add some old school weight to the movie and the arena/battlefield shows that Star Wars can do the whole war thing.  There isn’t so much here that’s problematic as it is sometimes forgettable.  That might be its biggest shortcoming to me: as the second movie in the trilogy, trying to follow up Empire.  That’s a tough hill to climb and AotC doesn’t quite get there.

Guys...they did the impossible. I liked Rise of Skywalker! They ended it well, and there were a bunch of parts that I REALLY liked (and really only a few parts that I was "meh" about).

SPOILERS UNDER THE READ MORE!

So!  Let’s go through the main reveals/plot points and then I’ll go into more specifics. Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter - I’ll be honest, I did NOT expect that. I think after TFA came out, I reblogged a gifset that included all of the Rey parentage theories, and I was like, “lol what? who the hell thinks that Rey is a Palpatine? wtf?” And now it’s canon?  Honestly, it’s the same kind of batshit reveal that I’d expect from Star Wars, so I’m kinda okay with it.

Kylo Ren’s redemption was...not as terrible as I thought it would be. As y’all know, I am very anti-Kylo and anti-R*ylo, so I thought I was going to Suffer in this movie. But I was surprised by how I felt about it - only mildly irritated instead of bursting with rage. I still think he doesn’t really have a personality other than 1) whiny 2) manipulative and 3) emo, but I did like the scene where he hallucinates Han and repeats his line from TFA (”I know what I have to do but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it”). That being said, it is still highly questionable to have Kylo’s redemption built on Leia’s death/sacrifice for her son (it reads a little too much like fridging a woman to save a male character), but I will excuse the filmmakers for that because they didn’t have much footage of Carrie Fisher to work with, so there wasn’t too much they could do if they wanted to commit to not digitally reconstructing her (which I am glad they did not do).

I digress (I’ll talk about Leia in the next paragraphs). I did like that Kylo just showed up to the final fight with Palpatine in like, a henley and slacks. It seemed like a very Skywalker thing to do, lol. Also, thank God that he died. Like, damn - I see all these Kylo stans being so upset at his death, and I’m just like?  His character purposefully paralleled Vader - a parallel which I think was weak, at best, but still, a parallel - and you thought that he wasn’t going to die?  Also, what would have happened if he had lived?  Oh right, he would’ve gone to prison for the rest of his life and not gotten married to Rey and have kids, lol, what universe are you living in? As it was, I think that they did his death well - like Vader, they had him sacrifice himself for somebody that he loved (although the bond between Rey and Kylo is, once again, much more questionable to me than the bond between Luke and Vader/Anakin). And like Vader, he turned back to the Light because of his family (Leia and Han). Thinking about the 2 other ways Ben’s character arc could’ve gone (1) he doesn’t turn back to the Light or 2) he turns back to the Light but doesn’t die), this was the only satisfying way to end his arc (at least in my opinion).

That being said, I REALLY could’ve done without that kiss. Like, really? You just had to force it into an unnecessary romance? You couldn’t have just had them hug or cradle each other, platonically? Both of the climactic emotional moments of the previous trilogies were completely non-romantic, and both focused on love of FAMILY - Luke cradling Anakin, his father, as he dies, and Obi-Wan being forced to “kill” Anakin, his brother. It would’ve been so much better if they had ended this one with Rey cradling Ben, her brother, as he died. But no, we can’t have nice things because heteronormativity exists. *sigh*

But, we’re moving on. I thought that they handled Leia’s character really respectfully - I think Carrie Fisher would’ve been proud. I’m still bitter and sad that we only got one scene in the entire sequel trilogy with Luke and Leia (the OG Skywalkers and you only had them in one fucking scene together? Goddammit), but that force ghost scene at the end with the two of them made me happy - it was a bittersweet happiness, but happiness all the same (also, since it is canon that force ghosts get to chill and rest and be happy in the afterlife, I am more than happy with that ending. It also makes me want to write a ton of fanfiction. Stay tuned for that). I also burst into tears when Leia died and Maz stood near her bedside and whispered, “Goodbye, Princess.” Wow, that did things to my heart!

Ian McDiarmid continues to be a goddamn delight to watch as Palpatine, and he was genuinely creepy and horrific in this movie. I still feel like bringing Palpatine back to life (albeit in zombified form) was a real slap in the face to the perfect ending of ROTJ (and it especially cheapens Anakin’s role as the Chosen One, which is really a slap in the face for me), but they did it as best they could. I think I would’ve preferred if Palpatine was in spirit form in this movie, trying to come back to life by using Rey as a conduit or a body? Something like that would’ve honored the end of ROTJ a bit more while also bringing him back as the big villain.

All in all, I liked TROS much more than I hated it, especially since I had pretty low expectations going in. I’ve talked about the big “reveals” and moments so far, but I really liked the little things in this movie! For example:

Rey, Finn, and Poe were a full-on OT3 trio in this movie, and I loved it! The mission to find the wayfinder in the desert? Adventures! Chase scenes! Exploring! Jokes! I loved it - it was definitely giving me “Tatooine in ROTJ” vibes. They all kind of wandered apart in the second half of the movie, but they came back together at the end for that hug!! Which made me cry buckets!! (Poe holding Rey’s hand as they both hug Finn??? Wow, OT3 goals, they are so in love)

Chewie and Lando were great!  Lando felt a little random in this movie (no explanation as to where he was? No mention of Han’s death?), but I always appreciate Billy Dee Williams, so I’m not complaining.

In that same vein, WEDGE CAMEO!!! They got Denis Lawson back, and right after I got back on my Wedge/Luke wagon! Damn, I wish we could’ve seen more of him (maybe there are some deleted scenes??? Listen, I neED MORE WEDGE IN MY LIFE).

And again in the same vein as cameos, um, that Jedi voice scene??? Listen, ok, hearing Hayden’s voice again was more than I ever thought we would get, I was sO EMOTIONAL, I heard him and almost immediately burst into tears. And they got Ewan and Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson(!!!), and the voice actors for Ahsoka and Luminara and WOW I am super emotional, that was hands-down the best scene in the movie for me. I was so happy to hear all of them - the acknowledgement of the prequels and the rest of the Jedi, FINALLY, after 2 previous sequel movies that didn’t give a shit about them. FINALLY we got this. And you know what? I would’ve been even happier if they had shown their faces, but I will take it. I will fucking take it. (That being said: Oh, Disney Gods - please let Hayden return for flashbacks and/or hallucinations in the Obi-Wan series. Please. It’s all I want in life).

The confirmation that Leia trained as a Jedi and had a lightsaber - I almost full-on clapped in the theaters at that scene. And I loved the training sequence/flashback that they had with Luke and Leia - they actually showed them sparring and I loved it so much! It was amazing - why couldn’t they have included that earlier? (Cue me singing: “We could’ve had it allll!!!!!”).

Luke’s Force Ghost appearance really redeemed his character from the beating it got in TLJ. It was a short scene, but it felt so much more like the Luke Skywalker I know and love, and I’m glad that they gave Mark Hamill a chance to really play Luke again.

The end scene with the Resistance coming to help. It felt a little Endgame-ish to me (then again, that was arguably the best scene in Endgame), but we definitely came full circle from TLJ, where the Resistance was basically abandoned on Crait and nobody answered their distress call. In TROS, everybody answered their distress call.

I also like that C3PO had a bit more of a role! I really love R2 and C3PO, and I like that they kept to Lucas’ original vision of the two of them being the only ones to be in all 9 films. I also deeply appreciate R2 being with Leia when she died - that felt incredibly moving and appropriate, and also coming full circle from Leia’s first scene with R2 in ANH.

Finn being confirmed as Force-sensitive! Finally! Fucking 4 years since TFA and we finally got it - hallelujah.

I think that’s about it! Honestly, I’m just so high off of the endorphins of hearing Anakin and Obi-Wan and all of the Jedi again! That scene made the entire movie worth it for me.

But this is the end of the Skywalker Saga, and that makes me really sad. The one thing that I am really upset about with regards to this movie is that it literally ends the Skywalkers. At least if you end the original 6 movies with ROTJ, the implication is that Leia and/or Luke will continue the Skywalker lineage, and they will continue to be leaders and jedi and heroes - but when you add in the sequel trilogy...it just ends. Anakin’s grandson turns to the dark side and ends up (indirectly) killing Luke, Leia, and then himself. And THAT’S how the Skywalkers end? After the tragedy that was Anakin (and Padme’s) life, history just repeats itself and the family line ends? That’s...depressing. But I think that the sequel trilogy, in a way, is still very distant from the other 2 trilogies - in a way, it reminded me of a weird, high-budget delve into the EU that is technically canon, but doesn’t feel like it’s canon???

Either way, I’m happy to accept the sequel trilogy as pseudo-canon, but still apart from the original 6 movies. I’m glad that we got to see some, if not all, of the OT characters again. I wish we could’ve gotten more - out of the old and new characters - but what we got was okay, and I enjoyed the ride.

And now, I’m just going to go cry over the Skywalker family and read force ghost fanfiction :’)

EPIX/Rise of Skywalker Reaction Post

So, I got back from seeing EPIX this morning, and I figured I should get all my thoughts down!

Everything spoilery is behind a cut, and this post is also tagged with the spoiler tags I’ve listed here. If you want me to add any additional tags, let me know and I will to this and any future EPIX posts.

Okay, so, before I really get into this, I should mention two relevant contextual things that probably strongly impacted my feelings on this movie.

I’m not super-invested in the sequel trilogy. I love (most of) the characters, I’m not really into the story that’s being told with them.

Given where TLJ left us, I went into the theatre expecting something between A Trainwreck with Some Delightful Moments and A Delightful Trainwreck. Basically, it was going to be a Hot Mess and I knew it, but I was pretty sure there was going to be something to love, even if the film as a whole didn’t delight me (which, honestly, is even where I stand with TLJ, which remains my least favorite film of the series). And, you know what? I got exactly that. A Sometimes-Delightful Trainwreck. I’d say it’s even towards the upper end of that Delightfulness scale.

All right, moving on to actual thoughts. I’m trying to focus on the positive here, mostly because I did overall enjoy this movie, but I also had some Problems with it.

I’m gonna talk about Kylo Ren first, mostly because I want to get this out of the way. I will say that--when I first saw TFA, I thought I could be interested in this character. I thought they were gonna maybe go the burnt-out gifted kid route with him, which would be hella interesting to explore for the child of Heroes like Han and Leia, and the Legacy he had to live up to. Obviously, they didn’t, and while the direction they went is certainly topical, it’s not super engaging, at least to me. I know it is to some people, and far be it from me to harsh anyone’s squee, but he basically doesn’t do anything for me. I personally don’t find him particularly interesting or intimidating.

Basically, I don’t particularly care about Kylo Ren. (I don’t know if I’m quite at the point where, as my roommate puts it, I aggressively Do Not Care, but the Not Caring is definitely a thing.)

Anyway, that disclaimer aside--his arc was okay, I guess? I mean...I think my general feelings on the subject are not that it felt phoned-in, exactly, but that it was mostly there because the writers thought it should be there, rather than it flowing organically from the character(s) involved. It also felt rushed, but that goes back to a problem with the movie as a whole that I will get into later in this post. But, given that, the actual beats that were involved in said arc I thought were effectively done. The bit with Han in the wreckage, in particular, was nice.

As for that Kiss though.

...I mean. I’m actually kind of pleased that the end of the film left the romantic threads dangling? It gave me plenty of OT3 feels (though I felt like, especially in the first third or so, the film was leaning more towards Rey/Poe and Finn/Rose, but there was some later stuff that seemed to hint at the full OT3 with a question mark on where Rose stands.)

But I do have a problem with the fact that the only on-screen kiss between Major Characters was between Rey and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. That being said, I can backfill/justify it in that...you know how some people headcanon that Luke’s initial crush on Leia was some sort of “There is a Connection Here that I Cannot Name and it’s probably supposed to be Romantic given our ages and genders and presumed lack of other relationship so let’s go with that?” Between something like that and the fact that he just gave up his life for her in a very literal way (side note: the Force has always been New Powers as the Plot Demands; but the healing thing was a) if not actually in a canon novel at least strongly implied and b) ALL OVER fanon so even if I had a problem with Random Force Powers suddenly occurring I wouldn’t have an issue with this one; the Force Diad thing was ~handwave plot device~ sure fine whatever). ...anyway, given all of that, I can backfill it to a way where I don’t hate it (i.e., if he’d lived, I don’t think it would’ve been followed up on very much/they would’ve settled into a non-romantic relationship of some kind, whatever that might’ve been). Except that it’s the only one, which kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Then again, he did immediately die, so...yeah, I can live with this. I don’t like it, and I don’t think I ever will like it, but I don’t hate it either and it’s not a dealbreaker for me.

Most of the other problems I have with this film come down to structure and pacing. In that, thanks to where TLJ left us, this move had to do so much to bring the story to any kind of cohesive end, and not enough time to do it in. Trying to squeeze too much plot into too small a space.

(I actually had the same problem with ROTS initially--although that was more due to the PT having pacing issues as its Primary Narrative Flaw; TPM was way too slow; AOTC actually had good internal pacing but couldn’t quite make up for it; and then ROTS was as a consequence of that really rushed. Meanwhile, with the ST, I feel like the writers are relying on “it’s all there in the manual” a little too much, so not really...trying as hard, if that makes sense? To make it all connect within the film, I mean, as opposed to depending on people going into other/outside/supplemental material to connect the dots (still not as bad as the Prisoner of Azkaban movie on that front, but it’s still Bad; and, like, all film versions of novels leave some stuff out, just look at the LOTR films; but POA left out a key plot point and that--is a rant for another post. Back to EPIX). It’ll be interesting to see what kind of deleted scenes come out, or if it’ll grow on me in future watchings. Not that it’ll ever become a favorite, I don’t think, but it might improve in my eyes.)

Anyway, basically, a lot of this felt rushed or like...introduced but not really addressed/wrapped up in any kind of satisfactory fashion? Kylo Ren’s arc in particular, as I’ve mentioned before, plus the Threepio stuff felt rushed and non-consequential, and also with Rey’s arc to an extent (it...again, all the beats worked for me/I thought it was fairly effective, but it really needed two movies to pay off as well as it could have). ...I mean, there are more plot threads I could probably mention here, but those are the three that stuck out the most.

Also, this movie needed More Rose :( I LOVE HER and she was barely here!!!!!

Another thing I would’ve liked to see is...okay, I really liked the Overlapping Voices bit, but it would’ve been nice to have more Presence from the ghosts? Like...there’s a bit at the end of season 1 of Sailor Moon where she’s in the Final Battle, the other four have died (or just been left behind, if you’re watching the English dub), and their ghosts show up and place their hands on hers and lend her their strength? A visual cue like that would’ve been great and helped the arc feel more complete. Especially since Palpatine had all of his predecessors/Sith ghosts backing him in a more visible fashion. But, then again, that’s a Personal Taste thing and while it would’ve, IMO, made that moment better, not having it doesn’t make it worse, if that makes sense?

(Also, the credits moved too fast for me to track, but I definitely saw Qui-Gon Jinn listed, though I don’t recall hearing him, and I definitely recognized Anakin/Hayden Christensen and Mace/Samuel L. Jackson and Obi-Wan/Ewan McGreggor (and Alec Guinness I’m pretty sure?) and obvs. Yoda/Frank Oz when actually listening, but I couldn’t identify the other voices--anyone have the full list? Was Ahsoka and/or Kanan and/or Ezra involved, or was it restricted to movie-only Jedi?)

But...yeah. Apart from the Kiss being very ....:/ for me, most of my identifiable problems with the film is stuff like this.

I think the other thing I want to talk about in detail is the Rey Palpatine reveal.

So, up until this movie, I was actually in my corner flying my tiny but determined Rey Kenobi flag, and the more I think about it, the more I like Rey Palpatine for some of the same reasons? Like...I don’t remember everything I’d thought through about Rey Kenobi, but it had to do with the cyclical nature of Star Wars, and bringing it back where it started--and we get that with Rey Palpatine, in a nice arc, healing some of the damage her grandfather did, both to this family and to the galaxy as a whole.

That being said--those of you who know me and my fic projects know I’ve been writing a child (daughter) for Palpatine for quite some time now, and I have no intention of stopping, lol. Am I going to take this/Lavinia’s (presumably) half-brother into account in future projects? ...probably not. But I am looking forward to/hoping we get a novel or something about him and Rey’s mother. Because that is actually a story I’m interested in--why canon!Palpatine chose to have a kid, and how said kid managed to break away and got to this point. [...y’know, I actually think Rey Kenobi’s background/thread of descent would be less interesting to me? Since I subscribe to the idea that a) Korkie Kryze is Obi-Wan’s biological son; and b) Obi-Wan had many Friends With Benefits throughout the galaxy and figuring out exactly which one Rey descends from carries less weight for me.]

...okay, I think that’s all the Detaily Bits I want to get into, so here are some bullet points of things that really stuck out to me, in no particular order:

Bawled like a baby re: everything involving Carrie Fisher. Just...yeah. Miss you Space Mommy.

LANDO! I loved his entrance, I loved him adopting Jannah at the end, I loved all of it.

Chewie’s fake-out death was also actually pretty good/well-handled. I mean. First Boom happens and I’m like DDDDDDD: but then I remember how people reacted to his death in Legends and I’m like would they really do it and then DELIGHT.

HUX. Okay. I never really cared about this dude before, and honestly I still don’t really care about this dude but at the same time, those of you who know me know I have a Thing for double-agents and defectors and I LOVE THIS WHOLE ENTIRE PLOT THREAD. I LOVE THIS SHITHEAD TURNING TRAITOR FOR THE MOST VENAL REASONS AND STILL BEING A BAD GUY/EVIL/AN UNREPENTANT JACKASS. THIS WAS PERFECT.

(Also Finn shooting him in the leg instead of the arm as requested was DELIGHTFUL)

SPEAKING OF DELIGHTFUL gotta love Zombie Skeev Palpatine Unliving His Best Afterlife. Was he as Delightful as he is in ROTS or ROTJ? No. Did I still enjoy every minute of his scenery-chewing nonsense? You bet your ass. So happy, Ian McDiarmid looked like he was having tons of fun and honestly what more could I have asked for?

The whole scene on Ahch-To was just *chef’s kiss.* Use of Yoda’s theme with the rising X-Wing, Luke being snarky and kind and beautiful, him emerging from the fire with the saber...just loved it.

LEIA HAD JEDI TRAINING AND HER OWN LIGHTSABER. BB!MARK HAMILL AND BB!CARRIE FISHER’S FACES.

LEIA TRAINING REY. REY CALLING HER ‘MASTER.’

USING THE BOND TO ARM KYLO REN okay like I said I have Mixed Feelings about the arc as a whole but that moment was SO COOL.

Poe’s ex-girlfriend was pretty great, ngl.

JANNAH AND EX-STORMTROOPERS YESSSSSSSS

HINTS OF/SHREDS OF EVIDENCE FOR FORCE-SENSITIVE FINN GIVE THEM TO ME NOW.

D-0 was pretty cute!

All of the Badass Finn.

Also that MOMENT where Finn runs up to Poe like “I NEED TO TELL YOU A THING” and Poe is all “I NEED YOU TO FIGHT WITH ME” and Finn just interrupts himself to thank Poe and they have that “General” “General” moment and it’s SO CUTE I’m love it.

The entire thing at the Lars farm at the end. Just. Burying the lightsabers, seeing the twins’ ghosts, claiming the Skywalker name, Rey having her own saber now. This movie was a Hot Mess but it definitely ended on a high note.

...that’s pretty much what I have for right now. I will probably have more thoughts after discussing it with other people/seeing it again (because I will be seeing it again). But overall...do I like it? Well, it’s Star Wars, which I love and which frankly always has some Super Dumb and/or Frustrating Stuff, and the things I disliked weren’t bad enough to Ruin It for me, so yes, I liked it. Is it my favorite Star Wars/good for a Star Wars movie? ...not really, no. It did have some gorgeous moments, but it doesn’t really hang together. Like the rest of the ST, it relies way too much on It’s All There In The Manual and, between that and the fact that TLJ didn’t do the work necessary to set it up, the movie felt rushed and a little bit...I don’t want to say hollow, maybe shallow is a better word? I mean, I know this is Star Wars and It’s Not That Deep (but the ground is soft and I’m ready to dig or however the quote goes), but this felt particularly shallow even for Star Wars. Like...cotton candy, fairly good/tasty but a little bit prone to melting away and with very little substance holding it together. On that level, I’d actually probably rank it around Solo (which, let me say, I really like)--so, better than TLJ, but still A Hot Mess of a movie. But I enjoyed myself, and I think overall my feelings are middling-to-positive on it. Even if...honestly, even like less than four hours after the movie ending, I’m already forgetting like half the plot points...? Like I said. Cotton Candy.

What did/do you guys think?

I have so many opinions on the new movie and shockingly not all bad. I had low expectations for this new movie after the last jedi, because I hated that movie will all the strength in my body so I had all about given up even liking anything but what a wild ride people.

• I LOVED how we FINALLY got our trio. This is what was a mission on both the force awakens and the last jedi: the trio working together and being focused on the common goal instead of being apart, doing their own thing and in Poe and Rey’s case they only met at the end o episode 8. This a very big win.

• What made me like this movie way more than the last jedi is that FINALLY everyone is back to being the character we were introduced and loved back in the force awakens. What makes me despise the last jedi is that everyone acts out of character so all the things they did were off to me. I mean Poe would have never done have of the stupid shit he did on episode 8 if he was acting like himself and not the Rian Johnson version of it. So I felt that this story linked way much better with the force awakens and I will just pretend the last jedi never happened

• This whole saga would have been better if the last jedi had never happened and JJ had been able to kero his narrative for the 3 movies. I am not saying it would have been perfect, but it would have been way more star wars like

• All of this saga would have been perfect if Rey was Ben’s sister a la Jacen and Jaina Solo. I hate reylo but they didn’t even make it decent, it was ridiculous and pathetic and embarrassing. They could have taken 2 roads with Rey being his sister, with it being a revelation on the rise of skywalker or something everyone knew from the beginning and Rey had started the force awakens a path to ‘save’ her brother. That narrative would have been perfect and 100% star wars vibe

• I can’t fucking believe they did Domhall and Hux this dirty. His character was delegated to be comic relief and they made Domhall show up to be that ridiculous. The wasted Hux crazy nazi potential, because if he had broken the first order in two sections after his and Kylo’s fight would have been awesome.

• Palpatine? Really??? Everything about the Palpatine storyline was unnecessary and desperate. Rey his grandchild? Doesn’t that make her related to Ben? This is fucked up and really bad and desperate writing.

• I am still stuck on what Finn was going to say. Was he going to tell her about his love or that he is force sensitive???

• THE LENGTHS OF NO HOMO DISNEY TOOK TO KILL ANY POE X FINN POSSIBILITIES IT MAKES ME WANT TO SET DISNEYLAND ON FIRE. They shoved two new female characters just to say LOOK, STRAIGHT BOYS. INTO GIRLS. JUST GIRLS. NO BOYS. Honestly, it would have been perfect. That moment they hug at the end? Perfect moment for a kiss. I would have died happy.

• Rey is such a Mary Sue. She does shit that not even Master Jedis did and they trained way more. She instantly knew how to heal and how to do that thing where they tell people what to think. She could fix anything, she knew how to fly anything better than anyone and she has a connection with Ben/Kylo that is basically royalty in the star wars verse and he became connected and into her enough to chase her through the galaxy so they can 'rule’ together. She is sensitive, kind, pretty, funny, gets Poe’s droid in the end. And she wasn’t 'anyone’ like we all thought, she is from Palpatine’s line and super ridiculously powerful. Like I am legit annoyed with her character.

• Rose. Never saw what was the point of her character on episode 8, but wow. They just… threw her to the side and gave her existence no meaning. Big injustice to Marie.

• I was not upset by Leia’s death. I know it had no BIG MOMENT OF AWESOMENESS, but I thought quite poetic that she died trying to reach for her son

• The whole Leia jedi and surrendering her saber because she felt what her son would be was the dumbest shit I have ever seen, dear lord why.

• Also, the fact that they knew who she was and just carried on like that would not be relevant at all was ridiculous

• Luke. What was up with that wig????

• Also, Luke found everything and still stayed in the island and later when Rey was there he said shit???? I am sorry, but have they seen the same OG movies as I did??? That is not the Luke Skywalker we know. His fucking ship was there with all they needed to find Palpatine, I mean. I just can’t.

• I can’t believe they WITHHELD THE GOLD THAT IS EVERY INTERACTION BETWEEN POE AND C3PO. We have been BLESSED. I loved every single moment of it.

• Loved how Poe took leadership, but this time, unlike episode 8, the risk he puts everyone in is with an actual plan, their last hurrah and not some ploy just to reckless.

• Kylo. I like star wars villains, but Kylo I had weird feelings. Loved him during the force awakens but hated on the last jedi. For the rise of Skywalker I was upset that they did this white boy redemption arc like he was some poor child that was forced to do it all like he was a victim. I hated this “he only went dark because he heard voices in his head” and not because as a Jedi and Skywalker the dark side is something that calls to a part of him and he eventually followed that path. ALSO WHY IS EVERYONE SHOCKED HE DIES??? Redemption arcs came with a price or do you think Anakin was the only one that was going to die??? Its been obvious bitches.

• His death and the kiss. Oh boy. Horrible and embarrassing.

• All the tears to the voices of Ewan MacGregor, Liam Neeson and HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN when Rey calls in for the Jedi. That scene was too emotional, thank you JJ.

• The moment Lando calls Poe and we see all the people that answered their call? Chills. Also, Poe’s speech rings SO MUCH with what we are going through in the world.

• I can’t believe they killed everyone in Poe’s squadron. It was hard seeing Snap go. RIP my boys.

• The fact that Poe was a spice smuggler had me annoyed at first but is very him. Smuggling is kind of dangerous and it fits in his wild and reckless persona, but it was SPICES. So it wasn’t dangerous enough to be something horrible and criminal, but stupid enough to give him the adventure high he craves. Honestly, brilliant.

• R2D2, C3PO, BB8 and Chewie: ICONIC from the BEGINNING TO THE END. I will not be taking other opinions on this.

• Poe and Finn going: General, General gave me LIFE. Cute morons.

• Oscar, Adam and John were SEX ON LEGS every second of this movie. Special thanks to the figurine department for all the choices they made for Poe (scarf and no scarf? Loved thank you for those moments of chest hair). And Kylo’s final clothes? That shirt? Everything.

• Babu Frik was cuteeeeeeeeee.

• PORGS.

This all I can remember now. Will add more when I watch again or after I talk to my friends about it more.

Is Obi-Wan Kenobi a parent?

The legendary Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is one of the most beloved figures in Star Wars. An exceptional student of the Force, he taught Anakin Skywalker how to use the Force and served as a general in the Republic Army during the Clone Wars. He also guided Luke Skywalker as a mentor. Find out more about the Jedi Master. We all know the importance of the Force, but what does it mean to use it?

The new Star Wars series will reintroduce one of the most popular characters from the original trilogy. Ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series will be set. Deborah Chow, who also directed the first season on The Mandalorian, will direct the series. Kathleen Kennedy and Joby Harold are the new cast members. The series will debut on Disney+ in 2022.

The series will follow the events of Revenge of the Sith, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi defeats Anakin Skywalker, who goes on to become Darth Vader. The new series is currently in production and will premiere in the summer 2022. The show is expected to be broadcast on Disney+ in 2022. Ewan stated that the first episode of the series will air in April next year. However, Ewan said that they do not plan to make more than one season.

Earlier reports have suggested that the series will consist of six episodes, but this number has been trimmed to four due to script issues. However, it is unlikely that the series will have more than six episodes. Ultimately, the series will have multiple spinoffs. The first episode of Lightsaber  Obi-Wan Kenobi is scheduled for release on Disney+ in 2022. David Yates, the film's director is credited with the part.

Revenge of the Sith saw Anakin succumb to the Dark Side and become Darth Vader. Obi-Wan fled with his son, Luke, and Leia went to live with the royal family of Alderaan. The new series will have Hayden Christensen playing the role of Vader, but will also have a female main character. There are no plans for the series to continue.

In 2022, Disney+ will air the first season of Obi Wan Kenobi. The series will also feature a young Obi-Wan, a younger version of the classic Darth Vader. The new movie is based on the original novel and focuses on the life of the young Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series will begin ten years after Revenge of the Sith's events, which was written and directed by Yoda.

The film will feature a young Obi-Wan Kenobi, a renowned Star Wars avenger. The series will follow the life of the legendary Jedi. The series will also be inspired by J.K.R. Ewan McGregor played the role of Obi-Wan in 'Sean'. Among other things, the show will be filmed in the UK and Australia.

Fans will have the opportunity to see the original Obi-Wan Kenobi. This new series is based on the popular comic book and will be released in 2022. The first season will focus on the young Obi-Wan. The movie will be a fan favorite and will have a lot of Star Wars references. A fan's favourite character is often drawn from a series of books. For instance, the masked Darth Vader from Star Wars will be portrayed by a young Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Obi-Wan Kenobi lived a difficult life in the original comics. The Jedi would have killed Anakin to help the Empire rise. His brother had a son named Luke, and Leia later married a royal family. Although it is not clear when the Obi Wan Kenobi series will start, it is certain that it will be an important part of the Star Wars saga.

Despite his controversial character, Obi-Wan Kenobi is still a beloved character in the Star Wars galaxy. It is the ultimate hero in the franchise. With his tenacity and wit, he helped the Republic rise from the Rebellion. Obi-Wan's legacy can also be seen in the future of our galaxy. The Mandalorian's sequel, which will feature the characters from the original series, will be followed by the new Star Wars TV series.

Rhetorical Ink: “Star Wars - The Last Jedi” Review!

** BALANCED SPOILERS BELOW **

My father, brother, and I finally were able to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in theaters today -- how did it measure up? Let’s say my views of the Light Side and Dark Side of this movie are pretty balanced -- so, in a “special” --

My Top Ten Thoughts on Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi:

This review is going to focus on ten aspects of the film and what worked and didn’t work in my opinion, so bear with me:

10. The Effects:

Let’s get this out of the way -- the movie is GORGEOUS to watch on the big screen. I review enough films and critique enough to where that’s constantly what I’m looking for, especially in CGI-heavy films. I will say that the good news is that this has far better CGI than Thor: Ragnarok and DEFINITELY Justice League in terms of creating a seamless environment; plus, there are a lot of practical effects, locations, and set pieces that work well.

This will sort of go along with my #9, but at times, the effects do have a sort of Guardians of the Galaxy feel (see my #4), and that distracts me from the “realness” of the actual effects and some of the creature designs (looking RIGHT at you Porgs, again, #9), are fully CGI in many places and if you’re distracted by that sort of thing, yes, you’ll notice. Otherwise, though, the movie is SO stunning visually, I could do a Top Ten list alone of the visuals and world-building taking place in this movie. So that’s a win for me!

9. There ARE a lot of practical effect creatures blended with CGI in this film -- a lot of them I think help the worlds feel more “full” with life and have a galaxy-other-worldly quality to them. The “Caretakers” on the planet Luke is at, for example, work well alongside the Horse-like creatures that Rose and Finn discover on the “Casino planet,” essentially.

While the Porgs didn’t annoy me as I thought they would, and actually have a hilarious scene involving Chewie (not just the one above), they are clearly a marketing ploy and I’m not quite on board with their shameless-plug-nature. Nonetheless, they are okay and nothing as grating as the added CGI “cute monsters” Lucas added into the Prequels and “Special Editions” for no logical reason.

8. As far as the side characters go, we see a lot of the “every man” put into much of the movie -- and the whole notion of “nobody” plays a HUGE role in this movie (see far, far down below) -- but there were two main “side characters;” one I thought was well-used and the other two I was very, very unsure or displeased with their use: 

Laura Dern’s Captain character, luckily, was the well-used one -- she  not only had personality and a presence, but her character had a point. While it wasn’t really spelled out until her final moments in saving the Rebels, it was SO effective.

You could honestly hear a pin drop the moment she went light speed into the First Order fleet -- it was one of my favorite moments and a breath-holder for me. RIP Laura Dern’s lavender-haired character!

Benetio Del Toro’s “code cracker” and Captain Phasma, though? I feel Phasma is so wasted altogether -- you have such a cool character design, and they really don’t have much to do with her, and Del Toro, while charming though he’s no Han Solo in some moments, has an odd stutter of a character choice and doesn’t do much in terms of the overall plot, though my brother swears he’ll be back in a future movie. Maybe. Not sure I’ll welcome him, though.

7. There were three of our main characters that I felt either became developed in good ways or bad ways: First. let’s get the lesser developed out of the way.

Rose and Finn:

6. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Boyega and the new actress playing Rose and I liked their characters overall -- their plot in the film, though, did grind the film to a standstill at several points, and I honestly think it could have been shortened to help move the story along. That, and of all the lines in the film, they had some of the cheesier lines, like “Rebel Scum,” and Rose’s whole line about protecting what you love -- the lines aren’t necessarily cringe-worthy, but in the context they were said, I just didn’t feel them or like them. Hopefully, they’ll get more to do in the next film that is relevant with Rey, etc.

5. On the other hand, Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaacs jumped up a notch in terms of his role in the film. He clearly has that “Solo” attitude of jumping into action and being the no-worries “flyboy” throughout much of the film, but what I like that they did with him is that he GROWS as the movie goes on, to the point where by the end, he realizes the difference between being the “hero” and being the “leader.” It’s a type of growth that gives his character a much more relatable, and satisfying arc, whereas I don’t feel Rose and Finn get much of one, except Rose may have a thing for Finn now...which, okay, I guess.

Okay, so, I know I’m just wasting time at this point, because it’s all coming down to the Skywalker Family...oh, and Rey and Snoke. So let’s start with --

4. Now, I will be the first to admit that Leia has easily my least favorite scene in the film, and really the only one that I was uncomfortable with. Remember that notion about Guardians of the Galaxy above? Spoilers, obviously, at this point, but at one point, fairly early on in the movie, Leia’s ship is damaged and she is jettisoned out into space. The big deal here should be that it was NOT her son that shot the ship; in fact, he chose NOT to -- more on that below -- but instead the big deal is that she uses the Force to get back to the ship and to safety. From outer space.

I get the scene on paper; I get the importance of setting up how strong she really is with the Force, because it pays off later, but the entire sequence was a little unnerving and unsettling for me...maybe I’m the only one that didn’t like that sequence.

The rest of the movie with her? She STEALS the show -- well, her and Mark Hamill (again, more below) -- and owns her time on stage with such grace, elegance, and you can sense this frailty about her that is almost heart-wrenching. I really don’t know why the Outer-Space-Force scene was left in, aside from keeping her out of commission until later, but thankfully, the rest of the film with her makes up for it! Speaking of making up for things --

3. Mark Hamill as Luke stole the movie for me -- the emotion in his acting, the action scenes with Rey (and Kylo -- for the last time, more on that below), and the overall message of learning from failure just worked for me so well. His humor worked, the raw emotion in specific flashbacks, and with Leia -- it all just worked and I would watch a cut of just his, Leia, Rey, and Kylo’s scenes over and over if I could.

There is a scene, once Rey has left to go face Snoke and Keylo, where he encounters Yoda’s force-ghost, and at first, I was like, “Nooooooooope,” because I thought it was going to get cheesy, and that Ewan McGregor was going to pop in as Obi-Wan or worse, Hayden Christensen was going to pop in, but NO, it was just Yoda, and the scene served its purpose well, especially in foreshadowing of things to come. All the nods to Hamill’s bringing back Luke.

2. There’s been this running thread in the film about the Force, and how if you connect hard enough, it’s like you’re actually there. It sort of reaffirms the ability of Force Ghosts to exist and makes sense that characters with a strong bond can connect together and practically feel each other’s existence.

When Kylo and Rey start to connect, there’s this scene where they touch hands and it “feels” as if they’re really with each other, though they are thousands of miles away. That same moment comes back later, as Luke basically fools everyone, even his own sister, to his presence and saves the day. The last few moments with Luke we have? I was almost crying, and I rarely cry at a movie --

ALSO, JJ, if you can do anything for me, can you please, PLEASE just have Luke come back as a Force Ghost and “haunt” Kylo Ren, since he said he’ll always “be in his heart?” If you can do that, I will complain of NOTHING ever again with this series. 

1. I won’t lie, the last act of this movie is my favorite; there is SO much that comes together and to a head -- Luke’s fight with Kylo was without a doubt my favorite part of the film, but Rey and Kylo versus the Guards, the confrontation with Snoke, all of that was just SO well done, and I give props to Johnson’s screenplay for taking the Force in a new direction and really giving us a new movie-going experience with this story and I was ON BOARD with that. Plus, Ridley and Drive have SUCH good chemistry together! Seriously, every scene they played off one another, especially the Snoke Room scene -- floored me.

Oh, and thank goodness, Snoke dies in this movie, so forget him! While I was really hoping Kylo and Rey would team up after that -- I guess we haven’t quite gotten Kylo back to the light...he’s a work in progress, you know. 

Also, finally, we learn who Rey’s parents were -- nobodies.

They were common, every day people.

THAT is possibly my favorite part. SUCH a middle finger to all the theorists out there trying to connect her to a person in the already existing story line, but I loved it. Rey is all of us; she comes from a random place, but her motivation, spunk, and drive keeps her going -- and it doesn’t help her to be a tad bit Force-sensitive, eh?

Overall, I enjoyed The Last Jedi. Is it perfect? No, the Finn/Rose storyline does drag it a little, the Leia space-moment is luckily towards the beginning, so it’s out of the way early, and there are a few cheesy one-liners I was like “Ooohhh no” at, but overall, the rest is such a fun ride!

If you just happen to walk in the second half of the film, don’t feel bad; the story amps and amps to a fantastic conclusion! Worth seeing in theater!

What do you think of the Prequel Trilogy? What were its positives and negatives? Does it deserve more or less love and attention? What are your favorite scenes? In which order do you like the movies? What influence did it have on the whole Saga, according to you? [XD Sorry for the long ask but I just really want your complete views and review on the Prequel movies.]

As anyone who looks at my blog can tell, I’m mostly an original trilogy fan, but I will fight anyone who bashes the prequel trilogy. I really don’t think it’s as bad as a lot of people claim. Yeah, it definitely has its problems. A lot of the dialogue is stilted, and George doesn’t know how to direct. There are large plotholes, but then the OT has them too. But overall, I think they were trying to tell an important story and they succeeded. Plus Padmé is a gem and deserves the world.

I love the casting choices. Hayden did the best he could with what he had to work with, which, as I said above, was terrible dialogue and a director who can’t direct. But his performance, especially in ROTS, frequently makes me cry. And he looks like Mark in a lot of ways, which I appreciate. I like Luke looking like his father. And Ewan McGregor is a perfect Obi-Wan. (Give us an Obi-Wan movie, you cowards!)

The PT does a good job of building up who Anakin was. We get to see who this “great pilot, cunning warrior, good friend” was, and how he could go from that to Darth Vader. We learn that Anakin was a sensitive, broken boy who felt too much. We saw how Palpatine preyed on that. We saw how screwed up the old Republic and Jedi Order was, and how that system could make someone like Obi-Wan, who decided it was okay to lie to someone’s son and try to convince them to kill their own father unknowingly, a father who was once their best friend. I don’t entirely blame Obi-Wan for that. He was the product of a system that toted the “greater good” above all else. Yes, he could have chosen to go against it, but it was ingrained in him from early childhood, and that kind of indoctrination is hard to break.

Learning that Anakin was a slave as a child really does a lot to explain his general despair and hopelessness in ROTJ. The line “I must obey my Master” is very chilling in that context.

I also really like that we get to see who Luke and Leia’s mother was. She’s so rarely mentioned in the OT that it’s nice to get to know who she was. And also Bail Organa. It makes the destruction of Alderaan that much more painful, when you know someone who was on it. Things like that, with such high numbers of deaths, are so hard to grasp. The enormity of it can’t be easily comprehended by our brains. But when you have a name, a face, a person to lose, it’s so much more painful. There’s a reason that the saying “one death is a tragedy, a hundred is a statistic” exists.

ROTS is my favorite of the PT movies, then AOTC, and TPM last. As for favorite scenes, I love the one in ROTS when Anakin and Padmé are staring at each other across Coruscant, him in the Jedi Council tower and her in her apartment, just before everything crashes and burns. The pain on Anakn’s face in that scene is heartbreaking, and I usually cry there. I also love when Padmé tells Anakin that she’s pregnant. They’re both so scared and excited, and they don’t know what to do, but they’re so happy. They’re going to be parents. I firmly believe Anakin was born to be a dad.

I like the arena scene in AOTC, and Obi-Wan and Anakin’s final duel. I always cry when Obi-Wan screams “You were my brother, Anakin!” I like all the times Padmé kicks butt throughout the PT, both when she fights and when she verbally eviscerates people. She doesn’t get enough credit for this side of her.

Overall, I think it enhances the OT, and it get an unnecessary bad rap.

Nylon Guys Magazine Interview

By the time Hayden Christensen suggests that we hop on a couple of snowmobiles and go explore the extent of his 200 acre farm, it’s getting dark outside and the temperature is 10 degrees below freezing. The two hour drive from downtown Toronto up here into bleak, rural Ontario had taken close to four in a rented Toyota Corolla, the last 15 minutes of which were essentially tobogganing down roads closed to all but local traffic. Traffic was invariably composed, I noticed as I slid helplessly down tracks entirely covered in packed ice, of vehicles with very large tires and four wheel drive. Christensen purchased the farm, which is just up the road from his parents; home where he grew up, eight months previously. It’s his first house, and he’s clearly proud of it. “I did those,” he says, gesturing at his kitchen cabinets that are painted so that they appear cracked and aged, and launching into an explanation of the process-‘it takes forever but it sure is worth it.’ He has also tiled the surfaces, painted the walls, replaced the floors, and amassed a healthy collection of antiques from the shops in the surrounding villages, which are scattered throughout the house. Christensen, who was born in Vancouver, is a hands-on kind of guy; the sort who likes to chop wood and rear animals, build decks and grout, hike, fish, ride horses, grow crops, and construct barns. He’s most certainly not predisposed to sitting around and talking about himself and so far now it’s on with full body snowsuits, snowboots, touks as Canadians call beanies, gloves, and goggles and off to an outhouse to start up the snowmobiles. He seems excited, as if he’s waited all day for an excuse to get out there. Out in the barn, though, where he keeps his snowmobiles, ATVs and tractor (“I’m just learning how to use that-it’s harder than it looks”) there’s a problem. One of the machines won’t start. Christensen is crestfallen. “Man, this really sucks,” he says as he pulls one lever after the other on the sleek black machine. “I suppose we’ll have to go on the same one.” It’s a situation that raises an important question; just what am I supposed to hold on to? In the absence of any handles the only options are the actor’s waist or shoulders. I opt for the latter. “Ok, man,” he yells as the engine roars to life, “remember to lean when I lean, and hold on.” It’s been snowing for the past few weeks, but the clouds have parted for the time being and the bright halogen headlights of the snowmobile illuminate fresh powder, at least three feet deep, ahead of us. We fly through open gates, following a recently made trail (“My family came over yesterday,” he shouts. “We hitched a trailer to the tractor and took it out for a picnic”) impressed on the ground. On a gentle slope lie two discarded sleds, one pink one and one blue. (“We were going down the hill on those yesterday.” He says. “Very fun” )  Eventually we get to the top of the hill-Christensen takes off his goggles and stops the engine. “That’s the highest part of my land,” he says, with a grin, “and the highest in the county actually.” At the base of the hill evergreen wildwoods stretch, oblique and forbidding, across the countryside. In the dwindling light the snow, which lies very thick on ever fence-post, branch, and thorn bush, has taken on a blueish hue and the sky-the dark silver of mercury-seems to rest heavily on the land; the moon a chalky thumbprint. Every few miles, off in the distance, the warm lights of a house glow sleepily and implacably against encroaching darkness. “You see that clearing?” says Christensen, pointing to a pale spot a few miles into the woods. “That’s the boundary of my land. There’s a river that marks it, Isn’t it great? I really want to go down there and show you some more. There are trails that I haven’t been on this winter yet, they’d be fun.” And so we head back to the house, where he calls his dad, who informs him where the choke is on the other machine, and what to do with it. Now, with a working snowmobile each, we tear across unblemished snow and down into the forest. Christensen leading and ducking this and that to avoid the low hanging boughs of trees that are covered in snow that scatters like glitter as he passes. “Man.” He says as I pull up next to him by a copse of Douglas Firs, “how fun is this?” “I really want to do everything with the farm,” he says later, sitting one of two large white couches in his living room. The only light is coming from his 60 inch plasma TV showing a hockey match on mute, five or so large church candles, their wax dripping in pools around them, and the fire crackling in the hearth. “There will be dairy cows and probably some sheep. Maybe an alpaca-I hear they’re good for warding off predators. For some reason lavender really appeals to me. I’d like to grow a lot of Lavender. I think that front hay field I want to turn into a big lavender field. Apparently, it’s pretty easy to maintain.” He takes a long drag on his cigarette. “But it’s meant to be a bitch to harvest-you have to cut it all by hand.”

These are the words of a man entirely at ease with himself. Someone, who rich from the success of a starring role in the biggest franchise in movie history, can choose what projects he wants to do and when he wants to do them, and make all his decisions from right here on his couch, watching hockey. (he played competitively until he was 17. “A lot of the guys I played with are pro now”, in front of the fire in the middle of nowhere. “I had a lot of success really quickly but then I was happy not to have anything to do with it.” He says. “I need to not live the insulated life that I think a lot of the people in Hollywood live. I had a really odd relationship with my first agent, because he could never figure out why I wasn’t in L.A. and taking advantage of opportunities there. Star Wars was financially beneficial and all of a sudden I didn’t have a need for my next check and I got to look at acting and my work as really just sort of my own creative expression, and nothing else is really going to affect that. I was turning down what would be considered a lot of money because it wasn’t creatively what I wanted to do at the time.” Today Christensen is such a far remove from Hollywood that it’s easy to forget that he’s still an incredibly in demand actor with the ability to secure lead roles in big budget movies, should he want them. And while his interests mostly lie in developing smaller scale projects like 2003’s Shattered Glass-based on the story of the New Republic journalist Stephen Glass who invented a large percentage of the stories he wrote for the magazine-that Christensen starred in and produced with his brother. His latest project, the Doug Liman directed “Jumper” in which he plays a man with the ability to teleport, is nothing, if grand in scope. “When my agent first called about it. He was like, ‘so there’s this big Fox movie, science fiction, they possibly want to turn it into a franchise,’ and I was like ‘why are we talking about this? Don’t you remember those other movies I just did?” He’s laughing, spluttering over his cigarette. “Then he said “Doug Liman was directing it, I was like “Oh! I was a huge fan of his movies.” In Jumper, Christensen and fellow teleporter Jamie Bell find themselves in the middle of a war that has been going on for hundreds of years between the jumpers (of which there are evidently quite a few) and those who have sworn to kill them; a group led by Samuel L Jackson. Taking place all over the world (We even closed down the Colosseum for three days to shoot a scene”) the film is full of Wachowski brothers-like visual effects and dramatic camera angles. At first it might seem an odd choice for an actor who says he chooses his movies if “there’s something inside me that needs to play the character and needs to be part of the story”. But working with Liman, who insisted Christensen be part a part of a process of ‘figuring the movie out’ wasn’t an opportunity the actor was prepared to pass up. “I felt like I was working with another visionary filmmaker,” Christensen continues. “George Lucas was clearly one of those, and I feel like Doug is too.” Of course George Lucas is the reason anyone knows who Christensen is at all. The reason he is able to afford this house, the one he just closed in on in the Bahamas, all the mechanical toys in his big barn, and the fancy paint for his fancy cupboards. Before Star Wars, Hayden Christensen was an unknown actor living in Vancouver and working on a TV show called Higher Ground that aired on the Fox Family Channel. An agent suggested he audition for Star Wars in LA, which was annoying, he recalls, because he wasn’t making that much cash and had to fly himself down there. “The meeting lasted for maybe 10 minutes and George didn’t even mention Star Wars the whole time so I assumed it didn’t go very well.  I was like, “Well, shit, I just flew all the way down here.” A month went by and Christensen, along with five other actors of which, reportedly Leonardo Dicaprio was one, were invited back to Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch to read with Natalie Portman. “They made sure we never saw each other,” he says with a smile. “Although, they have guest houses on the ranch and when I went for my audition I stayed in a room that I guess one of the other actors had stayed in as well and there was a voicemail on the phone from his mom saying, “I’m sorry it didn’t go well honey, but don’t worry, something else will happen” I was like ‘one down!” A few months later the call came. But as exciting a project as Star Wars was, as guaranteed as it was to be internationally successful, provoke hero worship among oddly dressed fans around the world, and set box office records, George Lucas is not exactly a director known for bringing out the best in people. He is, let’s not forget, the man who made Harrison Ford, Ewan Mcgregor, and even Alec Guinness look like puppets operated by puppeteers who had flunked out of puppetry school. “There were battle ships being rolled across the soundstages and you got to put a lightsaber in your belt every day: You were a hired hand,” Christensen says. “You weren’t there for your own creative expression. It’s a very specific style of acting and it’s all so preconceived…And the dialogue isn’t the easiest to say.” “Sometimes he would even do line readings with us,” Christensen glancing idly at the hockey score. “I would tell him that it’s easier if I don’t hear someone else saying the line because then I have that in my head and I’m just going to try and do that. And he was like, ‘No that’s ok, that’s what I want you to do.” He takes a drag on his cigarette and rearranges himself on the cushion. “It didn’t allow me to do my best work, nor did it any of the actors, but I always went to work thinking ‘This is the most unique experience’-I was just lucky to be there.” The fame that followed Star Wars would color Christensen’s perception of Hollywood forever. “From the day they made the announcement, there were people camped out in front of the apartment I was staying in,” he says. “I would go to a restaurant and all of a sudden there were paparazzi. It wasn’t something that happened over time and it wasn’t because of the work I was doing. This was all because I had a meeting with someone that no one knew about and because someone else decided they liked the way my nose sat on my face so my life was going to change.” Christensen’s understanding that it was the Star Wars name, not his, that was attracting his attention allowed him a “removed perspective” on it that seems to have endured ever since. “They offered me coaches to help me deal with it, but I felt like that was silly,” he says. “But then later I almost wished that I had met with them, because it was so overwhelming. It just caught me off guard and made me have a real sort of distaste for that because it was so extreme and so foreign that I didn’t enjoy it. I shied away from anything that I didn’t absolutely have to do. Everything just happened so fast and so dramatically that it allowed me to keep my distance.” And Christensen made some sacrifices for the films. Contractually obligated for five years, he once had to turn down a part in an Al Pacino movie in order to re-shoot a few scenes in Star Wars. “That really bummed me out,” he says. “When we wrapped, it was definitely bittersweet-I definitely enjoyed the sense of career freedom when they were over.” One of the projects Christensen took on afterwards was Factory Girl, with Sienna Miller, in which he gave a much-arraigned performance as Bob Dylan. “I wouldn’t mind talking a bit about that because that was not the performance I gave,” he says earnestly. Because of legal reasons Christensen’s character wasn’t called Dylan in the final cut. “I signed up to pay Bob Dylan and it’s a biopic. A true story,” he says. “I learned how to at least pretend to play the guitar and did a scene where I wrote a song and performed it. But later, because he threatened to sue, I had to go in and do ADR, redub my whole performance and change the way my character talked, because I has been doing the Dylan voice. I don’t know what’s onscreen in the end because I never saw it, but I do know it’s very different from what I did, and I was sort of pissed with the people who made the movie.” Far from lamenting his lack of privacy while attending exclusive parties at LAX and Cinespace, relaxing by pools of Hollywood’s most famous hotels, or perhaps grabbing a bite at the Ivy, Hayden Christensen just goes about his business 3000 miles away from all that and I’ve never met an actor who seems more at ease with their lot. “I think I do a pretty good job of staying out of tabloids. Paparazzi don’t come up to the farm ever,” he says. A lot of actors, though they complain about it, secretly relish the attention of the press, I suggest. “Absolutely, I’ve met a lot of them,” he says. “I always have an odd feeling about them. It’s like ‘I don’t know how you could really want that sort of change in your life.’ It’s really foreign to me. I don’t have a computer so I’m not exposed to any of the stuff on the internet. I can’t do that.” Suddenly from upstairs, I hear what sounds, unmistakably like an oink. Christensen hears it too. He smiles. “Oh don’t worry about that. It’s just my pigs.” There’s a scrabbling on the floor above-the unusual sound of trotters on polished wood. “I should probably go up and feed them,” he says, stubbing out his cigarette and stretching-it’s getting on a bit and he is hosting his family for dinner later. “Wanna come see?” Buddy and Petunia are a pair of pygmy pot-bellied piglets that Christensen acquired a few weeks earlier. (“I only wanted one, but apparently they get lonely”) and that are currently living upstairs in his house; running around in the hall, the spare bedroom, and the newly finished bathroom floor, upon which the four of us are now sitting. He leans over and rubs the tiles. “This wasn’t easy,” he says as Buddy climbs up onto his lap to be scratched behind the ears. “You have no idea how hard a simple pattern like this is to do. I cut the tiles myself!” “I feel really content,” he says. “I think for a while I was having a hard time enjoying the privileges I incurred from working and was pretty much living out of a suitcase. I’ve really enjoyed getting to collect toys and having a dirt bike that I can ride. And in my personal life I’m at a healthy place right now with my relationships [Christensen is dating Rachel Bilson whom he met on the set of Jumper]. I’ve done a lot of growing up since I was 19. I’ve learned a lot. And the more I learn the more I realize how little I know. Before, my agents and the people that I’m in contact with for my work wanted me to be something I wasn’t. They wanted me to pursue things I didn’t want to do, but now I feel more comfortable in my own skin.” “I don’t think I’ll ever have the desire to become something else and give up acting,” he continues. He glances out of the window; it’s dark now and his yard-skeletal trees pitched against the wind-is illuminated by Christmas lights wrapped around the fence. “You know there’s enough space down on the other side of the hill to put a landing strip for a little prop plane,” he says wistfully. Both pigs have now climbed onto him and are snuffling into his stomach. “I’m actually going to try and get a pilot’s license.” I read an interview with you from about five years ago in which you said it was a struggle to protect your integrity and dignity in this industry, I say. But you don’t seem to be struggling now. Holding Buddy up so they’re snout to nose, Christensen scrunches up his face to mimic the pig’s. “Well, I think that’s because I did struggle with it before,” he says putting the pig back on the floor, where it promptly falls over. “But now I’ve got no problem with telling them all to fuck off.”

Of Jedi and Force and fangirling

Seems like I’m having some sort of writer’s block since it’s been surprisingly hard to start this blog sort of properly. Well, I guess it’s better to have such in the beginning rather than having a good start and then being forced to disappear/have a pause of writing. But here I am! Today I wanted to tell how did I become a Star Wars fan. The embarrassing truth is, I saw the movies really late, not before last year. My boyfriend had been talking years that I should see them, even for the sake of common knowledge if not a pure enthusiasm. I actually find it a bit odd I never wasn’t that interested in seeing them, for I really liked space as a theme (eg Lilo & Stitch) as little. Perhaps it was the “war” that kind of scared me and the fact I was never really into sci-fi; fantasy has always been more kind of my genre. All I knew about Star Wars were the names of Luke and Anakin Skywalker and that Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Well, what do you know! In March 2016 my boyfriend finally got me to watch ANH. I found it quite good but a bit boring, too and didn’t become a fan yet then. In the autumn he then showed me ESB and RotJ and after that, I was sold. (Return of the Jedi is my personal favorite.)

Almost imperceptibly, I started following fan/meme accounts on ig and got buried deeper and deeper into this. However (the so-called true fans probably find this quite embarrassing), it wasn’t until the prequels that the fangirling stage completely stroke :D I remember telling my boyfriend -when he asked whether I’d like to see episodes I-III as well- that the original trilogy felt so flawless I didn’t know if I wanted to see the background for them. But eventually in December I finally wanted to see them and we watched all the prequels during one weekend. PM was, well, my fellow fans know, AotC something in between and RotS actually quite good. I certainly agree they could be a lot better and some of characters were, sadly, just wasted, but I don’t think the prequel trilogy is that bad. And I can’t understand the utter hate against them and/or Hayden Christensen (imo he was not bad, and it’s not his fault he was given such crappy dialogue etc). But, Ewan McGregor’s performance as young Kenobi was the saviour of the prequel trilogy and he made Obi-Wan my absolute number one fav character in the whole universum <3

And, at the latest at that point, I was hooked and have been ever since. During Christmas break I watched TFA and within a week of that went seeing Rogue One in the cinema. Both were good, and I’m soooooo excited of episode 8! Oh and last Christmas I actually asked my dad why didn’t he ever show me Star Wars for he and my brother anyway had watched them many times, and we had the old ones on VHS. He answered that “I thought you probably wouldn’t be interested in them” :D Which is a bit true nevertheless, because I was so into other things (such as The Lion King) as teenager. But I still wonder how come I don’t even remember for example when the prequels came to the theatres :D And now I’m like “where has this thing been my whole life?”

I never actually thought I could become this hard fan at so “old” age :D I thought I had already found my fandoms (mostly Disney) and even though I’ve always liked fantasy as a genre, even LotR universum didn’t cause this big impact on me. Even though Harry Potter has been a huge phenomenon for my exact generation, it’s never been that big thing for me. I’ve read all the books and seen the movies and they’re great, but that’s it. This SW hype of mine has been constant since last December and can’t see the end in the horizon :D 

And how deep am I at the moment? Well, while exploring the endless sea of instagram, I once ran into a hashtag of ‘obidala’. I found out what it was, then I ran into obitine. “Oooh, my fav character has a love affair!” I then asked my boyfriend to show me the Clone Wars movie but for my disappointment seeing this Obitine required watching the animated series! My first thought about the CW series was more or less “why the heck do something like this”, and honestly, the movie wasn’t really good :D But, since I can’t do anything incomprehendly, I decided I would watch all the Clone Wars. Started last summer and now I’m going somewhere in the middle of the fourth season. And it’s actually a good show! I wonder if my boyfriend ever regrets showing me the movies but he seems just happy that I became this enthusiasted.

(But I’m not sure if I can ever forgive him for spoiling me that Luke is Leia’s brother! It went like this: we were starting to watch ANH and I asked the name of Leia’s father/king of her home planet. And he could just have answere Bail Organa but no, he said Vader!! He told he had thought I would have known such commonly known thing but na-a (why would I ask if I knew?) and I was so mad at him. Damn.)