cai-yue

[cai-yue]

I was reading a book (about interjections, oddly enough) yesterday which included the phrase “In these days of political correctness…” talking about no longer making jokes that denigrated people for their culture or for the colour of their skin. And I thought, “That’s not actually anything to do with ‘political correctness’. That’s just treating other people with respect.”

Which made me oddly happy. I started imagining a world in which we replaced the phrase “politically correct” wherever we could with “treating other people with respect”, and it made me smile. 

You should try it. It’s peculiarly enlightening.

I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking “Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!”

Happy Valentine’s Day.

[cai-yue]

Prompted by this post and the related interview, reason 15467352 why I think Dave Felony isn’t up to the task of writing live action Star Wars.

I was going to harp about how this proves Filoni hasn’t read the books but this interview is from before the canon trilogies were out so touché on that. And yet this just proves to me why Filoni isn’t the guy for the job of writing Thrawn. Or any live action imperials for that matter.

I’ll start by saying that one thing I will concede is that the notion of the Imperial military being plagued by incompetent officers is not entirely unrealistic. Given that it’s a stratocracy, you can expect to find people who used politics to climb the ranks rather than actual military competence - it’s a kind of French Revolution situation kind of thing. Historically it’s been known to happen in our world.

Combine that with the fact that the Empire is racist, elitist and (kind of) sexist as all hell and you have a limited pool of people to pick from when filling its ranks, pushing some genuine talent to the fringes or excluding it altogether.

The thing I’m entirely tired of seeing though is the implication that it’s the majority of Imperial leadership that’s like this and by this I mean incompetent. The overwhelming majority at that. But more on the Empire’s moronicity later, let’s talk about Thrawn.

“He’s not ambitious in the way where he needs to see himself promoted, or a governor one day. He purely wants to dissect them; that’s what he enjoys!” This. This grinds my gears so much. For starters it proves that Filoni sees Thrawn as this ‘quirky baddie’ where Zahn treats him as an actual person. There’s something almost condescending in taking a neurodivergent coded character and being like ‘aww, look at them, they’re so happy doing their little thing they don’t have any other goals and ambitions whatsoever :)’.

To get things straight, Thrawn has always been annoyed by the limitations placed on him by an inferior rank. You could argue it’s for the simple reason that a higher rank gives him more freedom to act and pursue his goals but that’s just what that is, a simplification.

And that’s where Filoni’s problem lies:

Filoni is good at writing cartoons. And before people raise their pitchforks, I don’t mean this in a negative way. Writing cartoons forces you to squish complex ideas into a digestible format, the genre needs simplification and caricature to work and doing that well is a talent all by itself.

You’re meant to put in some extra legwork to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the deeper complexities of the story. Where that stops working though is when you step out of the genre and move into live action and our good buddy Dave doesn’t seem to realize that.

It may admittedly sound like I’m being unnecessarily harsh on him and I probably am but I do realize the guy is just doing what he does best. I doubt he has any real beef with neurodivergents or has no actual clue that militaries need a base level of competence in order to function and thrive.

Neither is he the only one guilty of implying the Empire’s competent staff can be counted on the fingers of one hand. “It’s just so different for them to have a bad guy that’s, you know, actually smart with how he uses the Imperial war machine!” Okay, Dave. Sure Dave. “[…] with the exception of Tarkin – Tarkin’s strategically intelligent” Oh so there’s two of them! (okay okay, I’ll stop here)

My point is, you can’t get away with making the antagonists so stupid in a realistic setting. I recently saw someone compare Kenobi and Andor in terms of portraying your antagonists correctly and I have to agree that Andor is the only star wars live action media in recent memory that gets it right. (Though even Andor is guilty of injecting some stupid into its plot in order to enable implausible events to happen. I’m looking at you, Marwa’s speech.)

Because the thing is, the more bumbling and idiotic you make your antagonists, the more it detracts from the efforts and skills of your protagonists when defeating them. The Empire is sprawling and all powerful, so much so that it takes several force users pulling deus ex machinas out of their ass to bring it down. In conjunction with the extreme dedicated efforts of the Rebellion mind you.

It took a timely coincidence of hubris, political corruption and flawed strategy working together to allow it to happen. Give me media that explores why the Empire endured for so long, the mechanisms in place that made ordinary people turn into cogs of the machine, the selective process behind constructing an absolutely ruthless, dangerous leadership, media that looks at how these same conditions can come about in our world rather than the unrealistic explanation of ‘people bad because bad’.

Zahn, Gilroy, Luceno and many others are examples of writers that do this justice. Pass the baton on to Filoni and you end up with an antagonist who’s smart as an exception because ‘he’s just so quirky’ while still bearing all the hallmarks of a cartoon villain, the ominous gloating speeches and sadistic behaviour and whatnot.

I’d be hella remiss to say it hasn’t left its mark on the fandom either. The amount of times I’ve seen characters like Tarkin, Krennic, Palpatine, etc. be moronified (while Thrawn inevitably gets his victim treatment) while completely ignoring the fact that defeating them was no small feat and their having weaknesses to exploit isn’t something that detracts from just how dangerous and scary these motherfuckers were.

The Clone Wars was a good show. Rebels was a good show. But by god is Filoni bad at transferring his skills to live action and no one can convince me that Thrawn isn’t the best example of that.

[cai-yue]

2020, 2021, 2022...

I'm kinda tired of surviving

I'm not sure I can make things better in 2024, but I'll do my best to make things less stressful at least

I need a sticker for surviving 2023 so I made one and thought I’d share it with you all too. Reblog to give everyone stickerssss

[cai-yue]

Angel child, if Kanan was to have found Ezra when he was younger he would have been Ezra’s father.. or at least to Ezra he would have been.

[cai-yue]

My birthday cake (which I obviously didn't make). It's the prettiest one ever gifted to me and I needed to post it 🥰

#birthday cake #pretty cake

[cai-yue]

Thank you for the tag @ele-millennial-weirdo 🥰

Here I go

Last song: according to Deezer it was Everyday by Buddy Holly

Favorite color: purple, sometimes blue and sometimes pink.

Last movie/TV show: I believe the last time I watched anything was when I rewatched Good Omens S1, but I'm not entirely sure 😅

Sweet/Spice/Savory?: Sweet and Savory, not a huge fan of spice.

Relationship status: in a relationship

Last thing I googled: ISB

Current obsession: Hand sewing.

I have no idea who to tag and it's so late 😴

Nine people I'd like to get to know better

Tagged by @meghawhopp <33

Last song: Down by the River by Borislav Slavov from the Baldur’s Gate 3 Soundtrack (or more specifically the cover of Down by the River by Nerissa Ravencroft)

Favorite color: Blue and purple!

Last movie/TV show: Seinfeld, I’m currently on season four!

Sweet/spicy/savory?: I have a huge sweet tooth, so sweet things

Relationship status: Single

Last thing I googled: I searched up the show “Arthur” because I was trying to find that one meme where Buster was like “You really think someone would do that, just go on the internet and spread lies?”

Current obsession: Fragaria memories and tears of themis mostly^^

Tag Nine People: @kyaruun @xinieeee @deadmansbistro @florapot @hunita812 @scuffle-with-spirals @rexonalapis @maxellera @manicpixiedoomedgirl

[cai-yue]

Loree stormed into Kyla's apartment in Coruscant in one of her rare but intense outbursts. Her friend kept sipping her drink as if nothing had happened, not losing her elegant and even arrogant posture that drove most people crazy. Nevertheless, she was aware Loree knew her very well and would never take her behavior seriously. She also knew her friend would ignore it and do what she came to do and that Kyla was always there to listen to her. This is what made their friendship such a safe place: there was no hiding from each other, and they both could have a break from pretending they did not feel helpless here and there. By the way, Loree was quite helpless that day as she threw herself on the sofa, placing her head on Kyla's lap and sighing deeply. She was emotionally exhausted. Could that be prevented? If she had done what Kyla suggested, yes. But she didn't, and now the only person who truly provided her some sense of safety inside the Navy was emotionally inaccessible when it came to her. Now, whenever she needed some comfort, Kyla was the only (far away) option. At least that setback provided a few moments together when they both could relax and let go of some of their body tension. She would not complain or say anything about the issue that day. Whatever she had in mind could wait until her energy recharged.

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Hello!

I'm trying to go back on writing fanfic, and today I had an urge to write a small piece with two of my OCs to share here with you. I'm pretty sure it doesn't make much sense to anyone, but I really felt like doing it! Please be kind to me! 😊

#fanfic #oc #star wars oc #star wars

[cai-yue]

Media: Video Games will make you violent psychopath unfit for society. Me: Well, I CAN'T choose THAT dialogue option, that'd be rude and hurt their feelings.

[cai-yue]

Ezra and Noti (スターバード以外の絵柄もあったりするのかな？)

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50 posts...

It feels like Tumblr is joking 🤔

#50 posts #tumblr milestone

[cai-yue]

Ezraがしていた訓練をJacenに(Heraには内緒で？)教えてあげるChopper…というのが見たいなぁ😁

[cai-yue]

February: Unstoppable Love

“Dad… Did mom use to be…”  Ben grimaced, then plowed on.  “Bad?  Imperial?”

Luke shielded his annoyance.  Mara had planned to explain…when Ben was ready, not reacting to gossip. 

“Remember your grandfather was a Sith, then returned to the Light?  Saved my life?”

His son nodded, solemn.

“That’s because love is unstoppable.”

“Stronger than the Dark?”

“Absolutely.”

“Stronger than the Force?”

Luke weighed his response.

“Love is the Force, Ben—creating us, binding us.  The Dark side doesn’t know true love; only jealousy, possessiveness.  So Light always wins.”

Ben’s relief flooded the room. “Like you won mom?”

Luke laughed.  “Exactly.”

Luke & Mara ^^

[cai-yue]

February: Unstoppable Love

“Dad… Did mom use to be…”  Ben grimaced, then plowed on.  “Bad?  Imperial?”

Luke shielded his annoyance.  Mara had planned to explain…when Ben was ready, not reacting to gossip. 

“Remember your grandfather was a Sith, then returned to the Light?  Saved my life?”

His son nodded, solemn.

“That’s because love is unstoppable.”

“Stronger than the Dark?”

“Absolutely.”

“Stronger than the Force?”

Luke weighed his response.

“Love is the Force, Ben—creating us, binding us.  The Dark side doesn’t know true love; only jealousy, possessiveness.  So Light always wins.”

Ben’s relief flooded the room. “Like you won mom?”

Luke laughed.  “Exactly.”

Luke & Mara ^^

[cai-yue]

My comfort thought is Thrawn and Ar'alani watching Ahsoka together... with Ar'alani mercilessly teasing her friend and commenting at all the nonsense on the screen.

[cai-yue]

When you get this, please respond with five things that make you happy! then, send to your last ten people in your notifs (anonymously). you never know who might benefit from spreading positivity. <3

Thank you! ❤️

After a hard week, it is awesome to receive something that reminds me that there are way more than five things that makes me happy 🥰🥰🥰

I'll list the first five that cross my mind!

1. Rain

2. Food

3. Lying down on my bed after a busy day

4. Reading

5. Fresh breeze

[cai-yue]

✨🌈☀️send this to ten people you're happy to see every time they pop up on your dash/notif and wish them a good day🌟🌈💥

I can't believe this one got lost!

I love to see you on my notifications 🥰 Right now I just smiled because of this ❤️

[cai-yue]

Admiral Meilooran and Captain Jogan taking down ISD (3 ABY colorized)