#Dream being basically Darth Vader

[7-wonders]

What You Stand to Lose (Sith!Anakin Skywalker)

Summary: You meet Darth Vader again, this time in the hopes of finding answers as to why you've been bonded through the Force to him since the moment you met. Things spiral out of control very quickly.

Word Count: 3.6k

A/N: I've wanted to write a lightsaber fight for a while, and finally decided to tackle it! Very excited and proud of this, and I hope that you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Warnings for combat and general existential crises.

Read my other Sith!Anakin/Rebel!reader stuff here!

The moon that you’ve found yourself on is lush and green, completely unlike what you would expect a Sith to pick for a secret meeting location. You’re so sure that you landed on the wrong planet that you check the coordinates again, sure that you typed them in your ship’s navigation system wrong. They’re correct, though, and you sigh before opening up the ship’s door. It’s now or never.

This is, by far, one of the stupidest things that you’ve ever done. And you’ve done a lot of stupid things in your life. But deciding to secretly meet with the Sith Lord that you share an odd Force bond with? You’ve surely lost your mind.

It hadn’t been your idea. During one of your shared dreams with Darth Vader, which were becoming more and more common as time went on, he had mentioned that he had found holocrons in the old Jedi archives (which were supposed to be destroyed long ago, but hadn’t been) that might give you both some answers. While you were content with waiting for him to search through these holocrons and come to you with the magic solution to your problem, he had a few good reasons to be hesitant.

The first reason was that, if he were to suddenly start spending his time hiding and reading and researching, people would get suspicious and inevitably there would be questions asked. Specifically, the Emperor would get suspicious. Though Vader didn’t go into details – somehow, a silent agreement had been reached not to talk about “work” when around each other in dreams – you got the feeling that their relationship was contentious at best and toxic at worst. If the Emperor were to find out that his protege, his apprentice, was hiding secrets of this magnitude, then it would be Vader’s funeral. And until you figure out just how deep this bond goes, you’d rather not test it with one half of the bond being killed.

The second reason was that there were just too many damn holocrons for one person to search through. It would take him days, if not weeks, to look through every record that even mentions Force bonds or shared dreams. He could only look through so many before reason number one became a problem again.

So, you begrudgingly agreed to meet with him on a moon that was basically forgotten, one that neither the Empire nor the Rebel Alliance had yet touched. Making your ship untraceable and sneaking away was the easy part. The hard part, as it turns out, is gathering the nerve to stand up and walk out to actually meet with Darth Vader. He’s here somewhere, you know–you can feel his proximity to you, probably thanks to the bond. The tug of the bond becomes too much for you to ignore, and you stand with a sigh and allow it to lead you.

It’s only a couple of minutes of walking before you stop in a clearing, knowing that he’s here somewhere. You spin in a slow circle, looking for a glimpse of black robes or yellow eyes, but you can’t find any sign of him.

“I know you’re here, Vader,” you call, your voice echoing through the imposing mountains of this moon.

He appears out of nowhere, though you know he likely used some aspect of the Force you’re not yet familiar with to cloak himself from you. It’s the first time you’ve seen him in his suit since the day you first met. Now that you’re not struck with fear, you can fully admire just how powerful he looks in it. The buttons on his chest plate glow green and red; what purpose they serve, you’re not too sure. Gloves cover his hands and stretch up the length of his strong forearms, though his right glove seems to be more reinforced than his left one. That damn cape of his billows out behind him, making him look like a member of royalty. You’ll never admit it, but you love when he wears it.

The one thing that’s missing from his ensemble is his helmet. There’s no sign of it, and you assume he left it back on his own ship. Though he’s revealed himself to you, you both stand a few paces apart. You’re both uneasy about being around the other, trying to figure out if you’re being lured into a trap of some sort. Even if it weren’t for the bond, something in you knows that he hasn’t betrayed you.

“I’ll admit, I’m surprised you actually showed up,” Vader says, appraising you as he takes one slow step closer.

You shrug. “Said I’d be here, didn’t I?”

“You did.” 

He produces a bag from within the confines of his cloak, tossing it on the ground between you. Small objects in all manor of shapes spill out and scatter in the grass. It appears Vader did his job, and he did it well. Slowly, he sits down on the grass, his cloak trailing behind him. He looks at you expectantly, and you realize that this is a peace offering. He’s putting himself in a vulnerable position first, giving you the choice to attack. Instead, you sit down next to him, and he pushes a couple of holocrons towards you with a smirk.

“Shall we?”

A couple of hours later, you’ve gone through every single holocron that Vader brought. Your eyes hurt from the strain of reading so much information, back-to-back-to-back. So much talk of dreams and bonds, yet none of it gives you any clarity for your situation. The dreams mentioned were merely visions that most Force users got, the bonds being between master and apprentice. Nothing in any of these explains involuntary Force bonds between two people who had never met before, shared dreams, or being able to sense someone who’s not your master or apprentice.

“This is useless,” you grumble, tossing a holocron from hand to hand. Vader stands, pacing back and forth as he continues to go through what he’s already looked at.

“No, there has to be something here.”

“There’s not. We’ve both looked at all of these, and nothing applies to our situation. Maybe…maybe it’s in other holocrons that you didn’t grab. You said you only grabbed as many as you could, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t know how many more hundreds of holocrons I can take and replace while simultaneously disappearing for hours at a time.”

“Dammit.”

Vader stares at a spot on the ground, thinking. After a moment, he says, “I might have another lead, but it would be risky. It’s on a neutral planet, though. Takodana.”

You hum noncommittally, not too happy at the thought of following another fruitless lead. You’re already wasting too much time and brainpower on this situation, and becoming far too entangled with the dark side of the Force. Some nights, when you lay awake and stare at the ceiling, you think that you can hear it whispering to you, attempting to seduce you. 

You hate how tantalizing it can be.

Vader finally stops his pacing when he’s in front of you. You look up from the holocron in your hands, slowly trailing up until you meet his eyes. “Spar with me,” Vader says to you, already unclipping his lightsaber from the black utility belt around his waist. You look at him in bewilderment.

“I thought we agreed that this…rendezvous would end without bloodshed.”

“And it will. I’m nothing if not a man of my word, Rebel.”

A smile lights up his handsome face as he activates his red lightsaber, casually twirling it in his hand. You try your hardest to ignore the way that your stomach stirs at the sight and scramble to your feet.

“However, you’ve acquired a weapon of your own now, and I’m quite interested in seeing how you handle it.”

Though you’re still wary, you unsheath your own lightsaber and stare down at the blue color emanating from it. You hadn’t gotten the experience of your Jedi forefathers who were able to travel to Ilum and pick their own kyber crystals. Instead, your mentor – Dia hated the idea of being called ‘Master’ – had shown you to a room full of the lightsabers of fallen Jedi. Force-sensitives were low on options, and it’s not as though the weapons were being used, so the morbid ritual of a dead Jedi’s kyber choosing a new owner was becoming more and more common among those who had managed to escape the brutality of the Inquisitors.

It was quite the solemn experience, walking through what could only be described as a tomb and sifting through the emotions, the experiences, that each crystal had stored within it. You were thankful that your crystal had come to you, the lightsaber un-wedging itself from under a pile and flying into your hand. From there, you were able to use discarded parts to create your own lightsaber, though you would forever thank the Jedi whose name you didn’t know for the gift of their crystal to help you complete your weapon. Every time you saw that beautiful blue glow, you liked to think that this Jedi’s Force essence was there with you, teaching you.

“I had my lightsaber back on Batuu,” you point out.

“We were, unfortunately, too busy running from our captors to waste any time discussing that which wasn’t directly related to our mission. Or did you forget?”

You roll your eyes, shifting into an attack stance. How could you ever forget that experience? How could you ever want to forget that experience?

Vader goes into a stance of his own, and you both stare at each other for a moment, engaging in a battle of wills and daring the other to make the first move. The Force sparks and crackles around you, something beautiful and untamed and alive, and you try to listen to the clues that it wants to give you. When you feel it lurch, you do the same, just barely blocking Vader’s low swipe as he strikes first.

From there the pace only picks up, blades crashing against each other and emitting purple pulses of energy whenever they do. Vader’s good, and it’s obvious that his skills are nowhere near exaggerated. You’ve heard stories of the legendary Anakin Skywalker and his astonishing droid kill-count from the Clone Wars–though Ahsoka, in the short time that she’s been a part of the Rebel Alliance, is always quick to tell you that she was just a few behind him. With the power of the Dark Side coursing through his veins, he’s only gotten more deadly in battle. You’re keenly aware of the fact that, if this was an actual fight, he could easily snap your neck with the Force.

Though he fights with grace, his saber twirling from hand to hand as he attempts to back you into a corner, there’s also a viciousness behind the intensity of his strikes. He violently brings his weapon down while trying to find a weakness, and you meet him with yours. You crash into a stalemate, your blades locked together as you glare at each other through the heat of the lightsabers.

“You’re good,” Anakin comments, baring his teeth in a savage grin. “Who’s been training you?”

You badly want to tell him that you’ve been receiving lessons from his former Padawan, but you know that it’s not your place to reveal her whereabouts to him. Instead, you respond, “Dia Dorvin.”

“Hmm, she was knighted right before the fall of the Jedi Order, yes?” You must show some surprise in your eyes, as Vader smirks while forcing your shaking arms to continue to hold the defensive lock you’ve found yourselves in. “The Order was not that large. Dia accompanied me on a couple of low-stakes missions when her master was off doing something too dangerous for a Padawan to be a part of.”

You overpower him just enough to shove him away from you with your foot kicking his chest, flipping over him until you land behind him with the hopes of catching him off-guard. He’s fast, fast enough that he’s matching your swings before he even turns around all the way.

He leaves his middle open, and you assume that you have him. You wouldn’t kill him, of course, but sparring dictates any contact equals a win. If you can just singe the leather of his suit, then you can declare victory over him. The need to win is all that you can think about, yet you don’t know why you feel so strongly about this. Maybe it’s because nothing involving you and Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker, can be anything below the highest intensity.

You strike, putting all of your weight behind your movement as you slash your lightsaber towards him. He drops to his knees to avoid the heat of your weapon before coming back up to his full, intimidating height. His foot hooks behind yours and pulls it out from under you, making you collapse to the floor with a surprised gasp as your saber falls out of your hand and rolls away from you. Your back hits the surface harshly, and you feel the stinging pain for only a second before forcing yourself to get back to your feet.

Vader beats you to it, digging his knee into your chest to keep you pinned to the floor. He brings his lips to your ear and his weapon to your throat, and you swallow when you feel the heat right against your skin.

“I win.” 

His voice is just a little louder than the humming of his lightsaber, which he finally extinguishes after a moment and tosses to the side. Still, he doesn’t remove his weight off of your body. You’re both breathing heavily, but at this point you don’t know whether it’s from the physical exertion or Vader’s proximity to you.

You’ve heard Force users older than you talk about how the Force is meant to guide you, how they often know what is right or wrong based on how the Force responds. You’re still trying to learn when and how to listen to it, but its teachings are frustratingly vague a lot of the time. When Vader removes his knee and leans down even further, and you sit up enough to connect your lips to his, the Force sings around you, rejoicing in the fruition of its hard work. Nothing has ever felt so right, and never have you been so sure of what the Force is trying to tell you than at this moment.

Vader’s lips, much like everything else about him, are rough and full of passion. Yet there’s a softness that he tries to keep hidden, one that translates to the way that he rests his hand against the back of your head to pull you into him. You wrap your own arms around his neck in response, and he moves to straddle your waist.

This is wrong. It’s so, so wrong. This is a Sith Lord you’re kissing, one who’s made it clear that he wants to corrupt you into his apprentice. He serves as the enforcer for a cruel regime that seeks to bring the entire galaxy under its rule, and he does so with a bloodthirsty joy. He’s working to destroy the embers of hope that the Rebel Alliance is fanning into flames, the hope that you’re willing to defend with your life. Kissing him is wrong.

Why, then, does it feel so right? Why does the Force continue to put you in situations where you’re forced to work together and get close to each other, why does it give you dreams that you share with each other? You’re connected to Vader, like it or not, because the Force has willed it so. Right now, as he tilts your head back just a bit and licks his tongue against your lip until you grant him entrance, you like it very much.

It’s when he begins to trail his lips down your jaw to the spot behind your ear, when you tangle your fingers in his messy curls, that some semblance of logic returns to you. Not all of it, because your hormones are currently eating up most of your brain cells, but enough that you realize that if you don’t stop this now, it’s not going to stop at all.

You muster all the strength that you can to put your hands on Vader’s chest and push him back from you. He’s the only Sith you’ve ever met, but he is the exact opposite of what you would expect a Sith to be. He doesn’t (usually) renege on his word, and he’s a gentleman that backs off the moment that you start trying to pull away. Those heated golden eyes of his are mired with confusion, and you want to assure him that it’s nothing that he did.

Instead, you say, “We can’t…be doing this.”

“Doing what?” he asks.

“This.” You motion between both of you. Getting to your feet, you summon your lightsaber and clip it onto your belt, using any excuse to not look him in the eyes.

“Why not? I thought you were enjoying it.”

“I was, and that’s the problem.” Only when you feel that you’ve put enough space between you and him do you turn around. “We’re enemies. Enemies don’t kiss; they don’t even meet up in secret!”

A smirk plays on his lips. “Y’know, a wise man once told me that ‘only a Sith deals in absolutes.’”

“Don’t you dare.” You point a shaking finger at him. “I am nothing like you or the Sith, and I never will be.”

It’s bad enough that you’re connected to a Sith in the way that you are. To think about the fact that you could carry traits of the Sith, traits that lie within those who are evil and fallen, is almost too much to bear. Vader must realize this by the way that he puts his hands up like he’s surrendering, showing you that he means no harm by what he said. The damage has been done, however, and you glare at him.

“Besides the fact that we are both betraying the causes we fight for by being here, this is also fundamentally wrong. I mean, a Jedi and a Sith, light and dark. It doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t work! We’ll collide eventually and burn each other out.”

Vader shakes his head. “I don’t believe that.”

“It’s the truth!”

“Screw the truth!” He crosses the room in only a couple of strides thanks to his long legs, grabbing your arms in his hands. Even this action, with so much intensity behind it, manages to be gentle. “The Force has brought us together for a reason. You wouldn’t be here, with me, if you didn’t feel it too.”

“Vader–”

“Anakin,” he interrupts, shaking his head furiously. “Call me Anakin.”

“You told me that that name died on Mustafar.” 

Your voice is trembling now, everything becoming too real. This was supposed to be a productive meeting where you would hopefully work together to figure out how to remove whatever bonded you in the Force. Now you’re kissing and fighting like lovers and he’s insisting that you call him a name that nobody else is allowed to use. The air in the room suddenly feels a little too thin, your breath coming out harshly as you try to remember to breathe.

You wrench yourself out of his arms. Though he’s strong enough to overpower you if he wanted to, he lets you go. You stumble backwards and yell, “Stop playing your mind games with me!”

“You think that I don’t feel just as insane as you do? I don’t know what’s worse, that I haven’t killed you or that I don’t want to kill you.”

“That makes two of us, then.” You rub your hand hardly over your face, ridding yourself of any of the angry tears that you can feel building up at the backs of your eyes. “I’ll go with you to Takodana so that we can follow your lead, you just tell me where to be and when. But if this one doesn’t pan out, that’s it.”

Vader can only watch as you turn to go back to your ship. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’ll do anything to sever this bond,” you call over your shoulder. “Even if that means I have to kill you.”

When you keep walking and don’t turn back, he calls your name. Your real name, not ‘Rebel.’ You don’t think he’s ever done that before. It makes you stumble in your determined walk, and you look at him with wide eyes. Vader stalks over to you and grabs your arm, pulling you in before he kisses you once more. Your teeth clack against his as your lips angrily meet; this is nothing like the sweet kiss you previously shared, and nor should it be. You’re both mad–at the circumstances that have brought you together, at being on opposite sides and viewpoints, at having feelings that neither of you want to have.

Vader pulls away, taking steps back while still staring at you. You’ve never hated a person so much while also wanting to kiss that same person so much. You wipe the back of your hand against your mouth and walk away again.

“Takodana,” he says. “I’ll let you know when to meet me there. And believe me, I will see you there.”

This is terrible, you think as you fly back to the base you’ve been stationed at for the past month. This is complicated and messy and it’s with arguably the worst person you could be in this sort of a situation with. You want this bond severed, and you repeat that to yourself even as you bring your fingers to your lips while they still tingle from the intensity of Vader’s kisses.

I want this bond severed.

I want this bond severed.

Do I want this bond severed?

#anakin skywalker #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker imagines #anakin skywalker x reader #sith!anakin #sith!anakin skywalker #star wars imagine #star wars #rebel!reader #sith!anakin x rebel!reader #rebel-verse au

[altarbled]

eaten  or  rotten.     i  am  all  mouth.

basics.

given  name.     akami  sakurai. nickname.     mimi,   aki,   give  them  some. label.     the  bloodhound. age.     thirty-one. place  of  birth.     los  angeles,   california. gender  identity.     non-binary   (   they   +   she   ). orientation.     pansexual. occupation.     outlaw  at  the  campsite. moral  alignment.     neutral   /   chaotic  evil. character  inspiration.     frankenstein’s  monster   (   frankenstein   ),   power   (   chainsaw  man   ),   pearl   (   x  film  series   ),   jinx   (   arcane   ),   libby  day   (   dark  places   ),   thomasin   (   the  vvitch   ),   anakin  skywalker   /   darth  vader   (   star  wars   ),   dani  ardor   (   midsommar   ),   rebecca   (   cyberpunk:   edgerunners   ).

background.

a  mother  dreams  of  her  child,   congealed  into  the  walls  of  her  womb.     her  poorly-shelled  little  peanut.     you  are  a  soft  thing  once   ––   indented  by  fingerprints  that  can’t  be  your  own   ––   gently  swaddled  in  jelly  that  should’ve  grown  into  muscle.     soft  like  tears  leaking  through  their  eyelids.     where  her  skin  is  weakest;   where  her  fingers  cannot  press  deep  enough  to  crack  you  open  into  her  own  hands.     you  will  be  cruel,   and  seep  through  her  belly  button  under  a  blanket  of  moonlight.     ensuring  a  mother’s  body  betrays  her.     again  and  again.     she  stops  sleeping.     her  body  swells  until  she  feels  a  heartbeat  at  the  harsh  crest  of  her  belly.

in  her  unblinking  haze,   a  man  thumbs  her  bruised  eyebags.     a  man  who  birthed  none  yet  fathers  many.     a  perfect  baby,   he  says,   who  will  perfectly  live.     you  tear  into  the  world,   instead,   blood  wetting  your  tongue  like  spit.     a  birth-bed  kills  when  delivering  you.     mottled  by  lungfuls  of  cries,   and  your  mother’s  newly  barren  body.     a  neutered  woman;   her  purpose  fulfilled.     akami  will  think  this,   meanly,   as  they  christen  a  new  knife.     you  are  heavy  in  her  arms:   a  baby  skull  harder  than  her  reedy  collarbone.     and  now  she  is  the  only  blood  you  can  share.     there  will  never  be  another  of  your  kind.     you’ve  atoned,   he  says,   for  being  born.     she  will  sleep,   and  you  will  continue  to  wake.

your  mother  cradles  you  loosely,   once  your  raven  hair  can  braid.     in  her  grip,   with  your  enfleshed  body,   you  would  fall  without  your  whitened  knuckles  clutching  tightly  at  her.     to  mewl  at  your  mother’s  feet.     those  fingers  pick  knots  from  your  hair;   too  afraid  to  scruff  you  truly.     you  leave  bite-marks  on  the  meat  of  her  palm.     your  mother  has  two  hands:   one  for  the  lord  and  the  other  for  her  own  heart.     all  that  remains,   then,   is  the  father.     who  will  find  you,   as  he  always  does,   alone  at  the  riverbank.     plopping  rocks  into  the  abyss  where  you  poured  your  friend.     the  one  who  would  lie  upon  the  mossy  ground  beside  you,   smearing  mud  on  your  cheeks,   and  scaring  away  a  pair  of  torch-lit,   glowing  eyes.     pushed  to  the  bottom  of  the  riverbed,   she  will  no  longer  see  the  stars  up  in  the  black,   night  sky.

this  father’s  eyes  glint,   looking  down  upon  you.     just  like  hers.     do  you  miss  her,   he  asks.     miss  her  how,   you  reply.     his  thumb  finds  the  unbruised,   tender  spot  on  your  forehead.     do  you  miss  her?     tears  glass  your  eyes.     no,   you  reply.     he  presses  harder  for  a  moment,   before  pulling  you  close.     his  heartbeat  rests  at  your  temple.     red  pain   /   bruised  song.     and  what  is  pain,   if  not  a  held  hand?     you  clench  your  fists  tighter;   he  starts  to  rock  you.

(   our  father  who  art  in  my  arms.   )

his  brother  sees  you,   in  a  way  you  care  little  for.     with  an  axe  in  hand,   cutting  wood  from  a  sap-soaked  tree.     there,   he says,   you  blacken  the  green  language  of  earth.     the  forest  rejects  you,   like  sacred  ground  burns  a  sinner’s  skin.     oh,   how  ungodly  the  land  makes  you.     how  the  father  chooses  his  brother   ––   toothed  shears  fray  the  string  you  linked  to  both  of  your  wrists   ––   who  wouldn’t  miss  him.     who  wouldn’t  flower  his  grave,   more  than  a  week  after  his  death.     unloved  and  unloving.     born  of  the  same  ilk,   and  he  casts  you  away  all  the  same.

his  blood  paints  the  flowing  waters,   along  with  trickles  from  your  clutched  abdomen  and  scarred  brow bone.     you  allow  it  to  leak,   to  touch  his  dead  lips  somewhere  along  the  river’s  trail.     in  the  afterlife,   he  will  drink  wine  in  remembrance  of  you.     a  parting  gift  from  daughter  to  father.     he  will  not  return  to  dust,   but  to  the  empty  fish  stomachs  that  once  bore  a  hunger  called  our  own.

#westworldintro #death mention // #body horror // #emotional abuse mention // #kinda? #unhealthy parental relationship basically #my father is the worst man & i am his favourite daughter vibes #if there are mistakes no there are not 💕

[supersaiyanjedi14]

Ahsoka vs. Anakin

Thinking about Shadow Warrior again. Obviously, this episode is one of the best pieces of Star Wars media in recent years, in no small part in how it begins to tie up the loose ends of Ahsoka's long and involved story. However, one thing that I also really appreciate is that this episode is, arguably, one of Ahsoka's greatest accomplishments as a lightsaber duelist in her fifteen years of existence (and that's saying something considering just how badass she is). I know some of you might find that a strange statement given the context of her battle with Anakin, but hear me out.

Let's get the rancor in the room out of the way first. Yes, it was all a dream. Sort of like Kanan's duel with the Temple Guards in Season 2 of Rebels, Snips and Skyguy were not actually fighting each other in the real world (which makes sense what with one of them being, you know, dead). Additionally, the changing scenery in accordance with Anakin's lesson indicates that Anakin's spirit had at least some influence over the way the World Between Worlds was manifesting. As a result, Anakin basically had invincibility and quicksave mods in place before the fight even started, meaning that even if Ahsoka were able to defeat him, she had no chance of actually killing or destroying him. Yes, Force spirits have been destroyed in Star Wars lore before, but not only has this yet to be seen in the current continuity, the only spirits to have suffered this fate in Legends were Sith ghosts, which are fundamentally different than Jedi ones.

Secondly, we have the scope of just who Ahsoka was facing here. As we all know, Anakin was one of the greatest lightsaber masters the Prequel era Order ever produced, having regularly overpowered Asajj Ventress, killed Count Dooku, and being, at worst, equal to Obi-Wan Kenobi. While that's pretty epic on it's own, we mustn't forget that this is Anakin's spirit from after he died, aka this is technically Darth Vader we're seeing here. Not only did Vader establish himself in both continuities as one of the most dangerous Jedi killers of all time, but he did this with an additional twenty three years of training and experience. While Anakin vs Vader had been a fandom debate for decades at this point, I think it's pretty inarguable that Vader at his peak was a far greater warrior than he had been as a Jedi, especially since much of his development was built around addressing the weaknesses that got him roasted on Mustafar. Vader's only real shortcomings were in the logistics of his armor and cybernetics, hindering his mobility. However, as anyone with working eyes can tell, Anakin isn't wearing his armor when he fights Ahsoka in the WBW, so he can move around as much as he wants while still retaining all of his skill and power. Basically, this is a pants-crapping glimpse of what a hypothetical suitless Darth Vader would have been like if he didn't have to contend with his handicaps. While Hayden's coreogrpahy does more closly match Anakin's fighting style than Vader's, Anakin's conduct, particuarlly his psychological warfare tactics, is much closer to what he did as Vader.

On that note, let's look at the tactical side of things. We have Anakin springing this encounter on Ahsoka right away without giving her time to prepare, forcing her to fend him off to avoid being destroyed. At the same time, Anakin's objective here is to get Ahsoka to confront her inner demons and acknowledge the need to continue fighting, not just beat her senseless. This means the two combatants were going in with drastically different strategic goals; Ahsoka was fighting to survive, Anakin was fighting to prove a point. Neither of them were expecting this to be an all-out battle to the death, and their conduct reflects this. Hell, Anakin pretty much resigns from the fight once he's satisfied that Ahsoka has gotten her head back on straight.

In summary, Ahsoka was fighting one of the greatest warriors in all of Jedi and Sith history who was functionally immortal, had some measure of control over the environment, and could employ his skills unrestricted by what held him back in life.

And she still held her own.

Yes, Anakin was holding back (he was trying to teach her, not kill her), but he wasn't just playing around either. He still forcefully pressured her; he would have needed to in order to get his point across. If Anakin had just walked up to Ahsoka and smacked her around like a ragdoll, that would have been one thing, but he didn't. She fought back, resisting his onslaught, even landed a few hits on her own, and ultimatly compelled him to call off the fight. Anakin may have been in no real danger of dying here, but he clearly couldn't afford to coast by this either.

Now, just so we're clear, I don't think that Ahsoka is Anakin/Vader's equal, and in a straight up fight with no strings attached, she would ultimately loose just as she did on Malachor. But the simple fact that she acquitted herself as well as she did against Vader's unrestrained specter is absolutely incredible. I'll go so far as to say that Ahsoka performed better than the vast majority of the people Vader fought in his career even if she didn't actually win.

So, yeah. Ahsoka Tano is a beast. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

#star wars #ahsoka series #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #darth vader #fight analysis #meta #just another reason to love this fight

[roseaesynstylae]

Heir to the Empire: Chapter 2

"'Luke?'

The voice came softly but insistently. Pausing amid the familiar landscape of Tatooine -- familiar but oddly distorted -- Luke Skywalker turned to look."

Something about the way this chapter begins sticks with me. Opening a story with a dream is cliche, but it works in this context, Obi-Wan reaching out for the last time to bid Luke farewell.

"'I've come to say good-bye, Luke.'

The landscape seemed to tremble; and abruptly, a small part of Luke's mind remember that he was asleep. Asleep in his suite in the Imperial Palace, and dreaming of Ben Kenobi.

'No, I'm not a dream," Ben assured him, answering Luke's unspoken thought. 'But the distances separating us have become too great for me to appear to you in any other way. Now, even this last path is being closed to me.'

'No,' Luke heard himself say. 'You can't leave us, Ben. We need you.'"

This scene has always been bittersweet, but after the release of the prequels and spinoffs and all stories we've gotten with Obi-Wan, it's even more so. We've had all this detail on his life and now he's gone. Luke will never hear about Siri Tachi or Ahsoka or how he said "Hello there" to General Grievous. He won't know about Qui-Gon Jinn and all the adventures they had. I know the point is that Luke doesn't know any of these things, that he's basically winging it with the minimal training he got from Obi-Wan and Yoda, but it's still depressing. With all the expanded universe content, we know all of what was lost with the Empire's rise.

"Then I am alone, he told himself. I am the last of the Jedi.

He seemed to hear Ben's voice, faint and and indistinct, as if from a great distance. 'Not the last of the old Jedi, Luke. The first of the new."

I know that this was published decades before The Last Jedi was a twinkle in Rian Johnson's eye, but this is still a little distracting with hindsight.

My personal interpretation of Obi-Wan's final words is that, with so much lost, the Jedi Order Luke will build will be very different. It will try to follow the same principles, but it will take a different shape. Which it did.

"First Uncle Ben and Aunt Beru had been murdered; then Darth Vader, his real father, had sacrificed his own life for Luke's; and now even Ben Kenobi's spirit had been taken away.

For the third time, he'd been orphaned."

Luke doesn't know about Padmé at this point, but it just adds another layer of sadness. He can't even add her name to the list of parents he's lost because she's a cipher to him. He knows he has a biological mother, obviously, but it isn't like he has time to search for her. Later books in Legends make it clear that he had no clue that she was dead and tried to find her, which obviously didn't work out. The prequels just keep adding sadness to everything that was written before they came out.

"But for Leia, just over three months pregnant, to be spending the bulk of her time here...

[...] The really maddening part of it was that he couldn't sense any such concentration of evil in the Palace. The Council had made a point of asking him about that, in fact, when they'd first considered moving to the Imperial City. He'd had to grit his teeth and tell them that, no, there seemed to be no residual effects of the Emperor's stay.

But just because he couldn't sense it didn't necessarily mean that it wasn't there."

Knowing what ended up happening to Jacen, Luke's concerns seem quite justified, retroactively.

"Awakened in the middle of the night, dressed in an old robe with her hair in total disarray, Winter still looked more regal than Leia herself could manage on her best days. She'd lost track of the times when, as children together on Alderaan, some visitor to the Viceroy's court had automatically assumed that Winter was, in fact, the Princess Leia.

Winter had probably not lost track, of course. Anyone who could remember whole conversations verbatim should certainly be able to reconstruct the number of times she'd been mistaken for a royal princess.

Leia had often wondered what the rest of the Provisional Council members would think if they knew that the silent assistant sitting beside her at official meetings or standing beside her at unofficial corridor conversations was effectively recording every word they said. Some of them, she suspected, wouldn't like it at all."

Leia looks plenty royal. She just has that vibe, even when she isn't in formal dress.

Knowing how much trouble a certain Viceroy caused for Leia's biological mother, the fact that Bail Organa is referred to as a viceroy here is rather funny to me.

I haven't read much stuff with Winter in it, but the way she's described her sort of reminds me of Sabé for some reason.

"Whoever had taken over what was left of Jabba the Hutt's organization must have moved operations off Tatooine."

I take note of this line to say: Han, if you were in Disney's Star Wars, the answer to any questions would be that the man who took over did not move off of Tatooine, sarlaacs can be escaped via use of fire, and you should probably start running.

"As far as he was concerned, the only times when Wedge didn't stick out like a lump on plate glass was when he was sitting in the cockpit of an X-wing blasting TIE fighters into dust."

A wonderful description of Wedge.

That's all. I didn't find too much to comment on.

#star wars #Star Wars: Heir to the Empire #Heir to the Empire chapter 2 #heir to the empire #thrawn trilogy #leia organa #han solo #luke skywalker #obi wan kenobi #wedge antilles #winter celchu #star wars: read through

[numbuh-7-knd]

I had a dream the other day about Luke and Leia realizing that they are functionally identical save for their hair and (possibly) eye color and just fucking with people by swapping places constantly. The time period was really fuzzy and may-or-may-not have taken place before the original trilogy in some kind of au where the both of them are rebels as teenagers and none of their rebel friends know that Luke and Leia are related, never mind twins. It was basically the two of them giggling while dressing up in each other's clothes to mess with the other rebels. At one point Leia put on a short blonde wig and Luke's clothes and the both of them showed up to a meeting to see if anyone noticed... eventually someone did and basically asked Luke "who's that?" and Luke answered "my twin" so now the rebels think Luke has a twin brother and may even think said twin has been on base for awhile... were there 2 Luke's all along?

All whist the setting was incredibly... blurry? at one point I think Leia may have implied that Naboo was destroyed instead of Alderaan. but the organa's were still dead or not in the picture. Luke and Leia were at least heavily implied to still be teenagers, and at one point made a refence to being raised by Obi-Wan? At one point there was actually a cut to Luke and Leia with obi-wan and an apparently reformed Anakin? like, he was just kind of there, not Darth Vader, and chilling while obi-wan raises his children??? to be fair though, Luke and Leia also referenced remembering the clone wars, so either Ani had an oopsie baby² as a teen, or something sent Luke and Leia to the past during/before the clone wars and Obi-Wan got saddled with raising 3 Skywalkers instead of 1.

This also all inspired some thoughts about a Star Wars Parent Trap AU where both the Organa's and the Lars's choose the same space summer camp to send the twins to. Somehow they realize that they're twins and pull the usual twin swap, only with an added layer that one of them has espionage training and they aren't just doing this to learn about the other half of their family, they're investigating their adoptive parents/families, and at this point questioning everything including "Anakin Skywalker" being Luke's dad, since it seems weird that Luke's Aunt and Uncle would claim that his dad was a pilot on a spice freighter, and yet Anakin Skywalker was the name of a well known War Hero general and Jedi, who presumably died in order 66 along with the other Jedi. So was the twin's father the war hero, a spice freighter pilot with the same name, or someone else entirely?

Then I started giggling and thought of something that would make this whole situation even more chaotic: Ezra Bridger. On top of both twins being sent to the same space summer camp, the lothal rebels send Ezra undercover at the camp. He runs into Luke and Leia and they come to the (Wrong???) conclusion that they are actually triplets, based on Ezra's age, sharing a birthday with the twins, and Ezra's offhanded remark about being adopted (referring to Kanan and Hera, but the twins don't know that)

There's also potential for all 3 to realize that they are force sensitive, and correctly assume there is some significance to that, but still manage to get things very wrong, such as coming to the conclusion that they are actually older than they think they are and were actually already alive and in the crèche at the jedi temple before order 66 as babies and were smuggled out and eventually split up.

This actually gave me more sad idea: what if they were slightly right about being alive pre-order 66 and in the crèche, but not as babies? 3 of the younglings killed by Anakin and the clones were then reborn hours later, 2 as Anakin's own children, the other as Ezra, assuming Ezra's not a Skywalker triplet lol.

sorry for the rambling lol, I wanted to share both the gist of the dream I had and the ideas it inspired. Feel free to add on to any of these ideas.

#star wars #luke skywalker #leia organa #ezra bridger #the parent trap

[samuraiko]

21 years and counting!

"Every bride dreams of having the perfect fairy tale wedding."

Fuck that. :D There is a reason that John and I refer to our engagement, wedding, and reception as "The Comedy of Errors."

Strap yourselves in, folks.

What follows is an INCOMPLETE list of what went wrong.

John’s job not wanting to allow him the time off to go to Las Vegas to get married

Meeting John’s parents for the first time, and his dad bluntly asking if we’d be sacrificing a pig at the wedding (we’d explained we were having a handfasting ceremony)

Pranking my maid of honor and bridesmaid by making them think I’d gotten them these horrid pink dresses (my goddaughter bridesmaid threatened to run me over if I made her wear pink)

While scoping out locations, Caesar’s Palace saying they were a TRADITIONAL establishment and that handfastings like ours weren't allowed there (even though we’d be wearing traditional wedding outfits and were basically indistinguishable from a regular wedding)

Three weeks before the wedding, discovering the jeweler had mis-sized our wedding rings

Finding out a WEEK before the wedding that the best man wasn’t going to be able to attend, and press-ganging my brother into the role

Getting to Las Vegas and discovering the rental shop had lost John’s tux

The Clark County clerk misspelling my name on the marriage certificate… TWICE (and they STILL managed to mis-spell Tucson as Tuscon) *facepalm*

John’s parents missing the rehearsal the night before because they couldn’t find a parking space and never thought to valet-park the car

Breaking my tooth on the SALAD the night before the wedding, at the rehearsal dinner (I am not joking)

Discovering an HOUR before the wedding that the mother of the bride getting married just before I was, and MY mother, were wearing the EXACT same dress (the bride and I were wearing different dresses however)

Realizing 30 MINUTES before the wedding that we’d forgotten bread and wine for the ceremony, sending my brother off to get some (thinking he’d come back with a dinner roll or something) and having him return with this MONSTROUS artisan loaf and a bottle of wine

The mic on John’s tux making him sound like Darth Vader throughout the ceremony (which meant that John, me, my maid of honor, the best man, and my bridesmaid were already giggling)…

… and THEN we get to…

Getting to the vows only to belatedly realize that in glossing over the vows during the rehearsal, we’d forgotten to tell the officiant how to PRONOUNCE my last name

(Leading to video footage of the ENTIRE bridal party with identical “OH SHIT” expressions before I openly lost it at the altar and was doubled up crying into my bouquet while screaming with laughter)

John grabbing my rear through the bustle of my dress as we were having our photos taken because I was getting tired of smiling and just wanted to get to the food at the reception…

… which means that OF COURSE…

Being so busy running around and hugging everyone and talking at the reception that I FORGOT TO EAT

Pranking the photographer during the reception with the now-infamous “MOOSE!” picture

My now-aunt-in-law, having had a few drinks at the reception, offering John the sage advice that “the key to a happy marriage is to always remember to put the toilet seat back down.”

There were others along the way, but these were certainly the most memorable. And in the end, a wedding celebration should be a joyous occasion.

I wouldn't trade any of it for a typical, boring, staid wedding. This was MUCH more 'us.'

Here's to at least another 21 years. :)

#wedding #comedy of errors #weddings

[skywalkersolos-blog]

Star Wars OC (Q and A)

1.) Characters name meaning (every character in star wars has a name meaning which always fits their character-Darth Vader means; dark father) what is your OC's name meaning?

2.) Which planet was your oc born on? Why did you chose that planet (if there is a special meaning behind it)? Did your oc like their homeworld or did they move to another planet?

3.) What is their favorite type of star wars ship? (Luke had his X-Wing and Han had the Falcon.) Did they win this ship in a game, build the ship, or was it personally made for them (like Luke did in Legends for Mara Jade)? Would they rather ride on a different ship?

4.) What is your OC's favorite way to wear their hair? Rather their hair style is from their planet traditions (much like Leia's) or is styled the way they want it to be?

5.) What is your OC's droid of choice? Do they even have a droid that belonged in their family (like Luke)? Did they build a droid for a current reason or wish to build a droid from parts they collected over time? (like Anakin did for C-3PO)? Did they meet a droid on a back drop planet (like Cal did with BD-1)? Or did they reprogram it (much like Cassian and K-2SO)? How does your oc feel about caring for their droids; do they give them an oil bath, fix their parts, keep them up to date, or do they let them rust away?

6.) What is your Oc's weapon of choice when it comes to blasters, lightsabers, and other weapons within the galaxy? Have they ever lost their own weapon? How do they adopt to fights without their weapon?

7.) What would your OC's lightsaber color be? (Rather it be purple for the light and dark side of the force, a green lightsaber to show they are more of a talker than a fighter, blue to show they are reasonable and will fight when they need to be, yellow for those that do not seek glory, or red to handle their own want and ways. Basically their force style is what this question means)

8.) What is your Oc's favorite food within the galaxy? Do they have a favorite drink to do along with it? Do they have a special place or to eat at?

9.) What is your oc's dream job within the galaxy? Rather it be a smuggler, Jedi, bounty hunter, or other jobs-what would they like to do the most within the galaxy? Do they have to travel across the stars a lot? Do things they don't want to do just to survive?

10.) What is your OC's favorite star wars animal (rather it be a porg, loth-cat, or another creature? Where did you oc met the animal? Did they original want a pet or did it just happen? Do the animal do anything funny or silly at times to get attention?

11.) What is your Oc's goal within the larger world of the galaxy? Do they want to find something out within the galaxy? Do they want adventure? Or do they just want to belong?

12.) What is your oc's favorite item they hold onto (Han had his golden dice)? Who gave it to them and how important is the item? Would they let the item ever be parted from them? What would they do if it was stolen? Would they give the item to someone else for a time being?

13.) What time period would your Oc want to be born into when it comes to the star wars universe? (the New Republic, the old Republic, star wars legends, star wars ep 1-3, star wars ep 4-6, star wars ep 7-9, Andor, Mandalorian era?) Why would they chose that era? Who would they like to met? What adventure would they love to go on?

14.) What if your oc was given the chance to travel within the World between worlds and they were given a chance to change one thing about their life; what would it be? How would this change them as a character? Would it have changed their path in life?

15.) What is your oc's favorite star wars saying? (rather it be wizard, by the force, may the force be with you or another saying), How many times do they say it a day? Who do they say it too? How did they learn it? Do people get annoyed with them saying it all the time?

16.) What does your oc like about the galaxy? What does your oc dislike about the galaxy? How would they like to change the galaxy (rather it be for better or for the worst)?

#star wars #swocs #swoc #ocs #ask ocs #about ocs ask questions #ask game #sw #oc stuff #oc questions #oc qna #orginal character tag #ask #answers #questions

[scaryscarecrows]

Did Antoine’s niblings ever babble to his sister about Antoine working for Darth Vader, and are they old enough to recall it later, because them being in history class, seeing The Tweet picture and recognizing it like. “Wait! I’ve seen him before! Uncle Antoine what the fuck do you do for a living”

Also, does Antoine’s sister know he’s a mercenary? I don’t think she does, but does she ever find out?

They probably are, but they haven't brought it up to me and if they do, ah, I'm. I'm going to have to either fake my death and fuck off to Antarctica, or try to convince them that it was all a dream. And no. She's pretty sure I do Black Ops stuff--she knows I was in the army, because she came with to drop my ass off at Basic--and I'm really hoping it stays that way.

-Antoine

#asks #antoine drouot

[haydewan]

Please watch this and tell me what you think about

https://cinematicsstuff.tumblr.com/post/690782439092764672/boyfriends-bestfriends-sending-coded-messages-to

Also, for Ewan touching his wedding ring during other solo interviews, I wonder if he's not doing it with Hayden in mind.

I may be crazy, but I also wonder if Ewan's marriage to Mary Elizabeth winstead isn't a PR stunt to hide Ewan and Hayden's marriage ?

I know it's a bit crazy, but I can't help wondering, especially since, when the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was released, Lucas Film offered a product: two alliances, one being that of Obiwan and the other that of Darth Vader. Yes, it's probably to promote the series, but I wonder if it wasn't a way for the team behind Lucas Film to show that they support them?

I'm probably going to far away but well, I can't help it 😅

Well hello there! Thank you for your kind words, I very much appreciate it☺️

Here are my thoughts:

The touchy-touchy

I’m 99.99% sure that’s a bracelet Briar made for him, it’s colourful, vibrant, childish, with beads and stuff, very handmade look. I’m not an expert in body language, so I tend to not read too much into it and I don’t think most of the movements have any specific intentional meaning. I’m sure everyone does this from time to time, like I’ve been wearing a Marvel-related necklace for years, sometimes I touch it and think: “Wow, I really love this necklace”, but other times I touch just to adjust it or make sure it’s in the right place. Still, I could be wrong. Maybe it’s not my area of expertise, I’m just a simple gal trying to make my way in the fandom. Don’t rule out any possibility tho, however small it might be.

The PR stunt

I don’t know a lot about how Hollywood PR works exactly, but this one doesn’t look like one to me. From the “reality point of view”, it started long before he and Hayden reconnected, then got really ugly really quick, it was an utter disaster. But again, if it really were a stunt, wouldn’t it be a bit too much to add a shared child into an already complicated chaos? I mean with all the property and custody issues, that’s too high of a cost and stake so it wouldn’t make much sense. One thing I find really interesting tho is Hayden was in LA on April 21, just before the wedding(April 23), I wonder if he got invited👀

Also, the Kenobi press tour basically started right after the wedding and the first two stops were Germany and UK, which made it look like a European honeymoon for these two. Now that I think about it, this theory actually makes an awesome fanfic idea, I’ve never thought this way but it could totally work!🤯

The rings

I would very much like to meet the genius designer who thought “Obi-Wan and Darth Vader themed wedding bands, what a great idea!” Unfortunately, this is just another co-branding strategy to promote the show and sell more merchandises. If anything, Lucasfim was merely showing support for Obikin/Vaderwan, not the actors, otherwise both their agencies would have to pay Disney and Lucasfilm huge money to do so. Sorry if I come off as negative and disappointing, but the corporation is all business, like the Kenobi-inspired vehicles collaborated by LFL and Volkswagen(VW sponsored the show), they even got Doug Chiang to spend six weeks designing it and had Ewan over to visit their factory in Wolfsburg.

The Vanity Fair interview

Here you go, you must’ve read it before. It’s one of, if not my most favourite interview ever. It uses their real-life relationship as the entry point, weaving together the developing process of the show and the character dissections, bit by bit, tells the story of how they reunited and returned to the characters, so beautifully written and full of small details, it’s like the wildest dream come true.

[nicklloydnow]

“BLVR: I asked because the press materials for the album came with a very long list of things that you like and dislike, including things like insects and animals and oscillation.

JJ: Yeah, we just tried to put together a list of things rather than just do the traditional Jim and Carter met while creating music for a film, blah, blah, blah. Of course, in the end, I think they gave you something like that too. We just wanted something a little less formulaic for people to read. Some sort of random thoughts about our inspirations in general. We’re not really interested in explaining things. We don’t really analyze ourselves. I have that a lot with my films too. People ask me what things mean, and I have no idea! When you make a film, it’s like two years later that people are asking you about it, and you’re not even the same person. It’s sort of the same with a record. It’s hard for me, in particular, to talk about things I created, because I’m not analytical. I need to protect a kind of mystery for myself.

(…)

BLVR: I read an interview where you said it was hard for you to appreciate your own films because of the process of creating them and the time lag before they’re released. Do you feel the same way about your music?

JJ: In a way, but a bit less for several reasons. One, I’m very involved in the music and in its creation, but I’m collaborating on a little more of a basic level with other people. In a film, I’m collaborating with a lot of people to realize it, but I’m sort of the captain of the ship, because I wrote it, I cast it, I will be in the editing room. But I can never see it again for the first time. That’s impossible because of how it’s created. The beauty of films is they are like a dream that you enter, and unless you’ve seen it before, you don’t know where it’s taking you. Music is similar, although music is less dependent on an image or a narrative, so it’s even more abstract and beautiful in a way. But it doesn’t take as long to create. That’s a difference. I’m sorry; I’m not being very articulate. There’s a difference and a similarity and I’m not making them very clear. They’re not very clear to me, I guess.

(…)

BLVR: Do you ever find you’re on an airplane, thinking, You know, I haven’t caught up on all the Twilight films? Do you watch mass-market movies, or do you tend to only watch obscure Indian dramas?

JJ: No, I’m not hierarchical. I have my preferences, but because I really, deeply love the craft of filmmaking, I, of course, like masterful filmmakers’ work. But I watch all kinds of stuff. On a plane recently I watched Cruella. I love the Naked Gun movies because they’re so stupid. I’m sort of amazed by the John Wick movies, just by how many people he can kill. I haven’t seen the Twilight movies. And I have particular things I will never see. I will never see any Star Wars films, because I resent that I know so much about them and the characters. Why is all that in my head when I’ve never actually seen one, you know? Why do I know about R2-D2 and Darth Vader and all these things when I’ve never even seen any Star Wars film? I’ve never seen Gone with the Wind and I never will, just because I feel like it’s forced on me and it’s some kind of corny thing.

But these are very subjective, just kind of stubborn things on my part. I don’t like mass things being shoved on me, but I will go see them. Like The Terminator is a masterpiece of cinema. It’s a big action movie, essentially. So I don’t really differentiate. But I have to tell you one thing I hate—and you can just do a little test yourself: watch any recent action-oriented movie and look for any shot that’s more than three seconds long. I find that really insulting and shit filmmaking: like they have to keep it moving every three seconds. And that’s the longest they’ll leave a shot on! And then cut. One second, cut! Two seconds, cut! Three seconds, cut! Man, I get a headache. I just turn it off. I’m like, Come on, man, go to film school! Watch something! Go read a book! Look at a painting! Look at something. This is nonsense. I can’t stand that.

(…)

JJ: I believe in this kind of aesthetic synesthesia, where certain things suggest something else to your senses. Rothko’s a great example because his work is meditative. You can go into another place under the influence of a visual thing like that. And of course, there’s the beautiful piece of music “Rothko Chapel” that Morton Feldman created, inspired by the paintings or the feeling of them or that kind of meditative place you could go. So we put that in there because we love when certain things suggest another form like that. Or you smell something and you think of a color. It really speaks to me when the work of painters or musicians suggests another form. I don’t know how to explain it any more than the openness of that kind of synesthesia.

BLVR: In addition to filmmaking and music, you make collages. Are there more creative outlets that you have?

JJ: Yeah, I write poems. For a long time, I studied with Kenneth Koch. The New York School of Poets are kind of my godfathers throughout everything I make—movies as well. That’s why I’m so happy we have these John Ashbery poems on Silver Haze. I’m preparing a new series of collages. I have one book of collages that I put out and I’m working on a new little book. It’s not quite ready. I am going to have a show in Paris, and then I’m going to have a show of my collages next year in LA. They’re all very small and sort of unassuming and very minimal. So yeah: films, music, collages. I write poems; I write essays, sort of; and sort-of prose poems. I do a lot of writing as well. Not like elaborate fiction projects. I’m not writing a novel or anything like that. But I love poems, too, because like in music, the spaces in between sort of accumulate into the overall thing. And my collages are very minimal. And they’re about reappropriating images and reduction, and removing things and substituting things—very minor ways of altering your perception of the visual image. I like a lot of things. Not just art. I’m an amateur mycologist: I’ve been trying to learn mushroom identification for twenty years now. I observe birds and animals and try to learn about different types of moss, of which there are so many varieties. For a while I just was obsessed with the history of motorcycle design, especially European and Japanese. I get sucked into tangents because I’m really a kind of dilettante. I don’t consider that a negative thing. There’re so many things that are interesting to me that I can’t imagine not being kind of scatterbrained, in a way.

(…)

BLVR: Wow, that’s great. Personally, I just rewatched all the Twilight movies and did a lot of emotional eating. Not to keep throwing your words back in your face, but your press materials said that SQÜRL sometimes likes “the score better than the film.” I was thinking of Judgment Night, but were you thinking of anything in particular?

JJ: No, not really. This is not really answering that. But I get very annoyed by how music and film seem to be all, I don’t know, cut from the same ream of cloth. The world has so much diversity of music, so why do these commercial films all sound the fucking same, you know? But that’s sort of the opposite of what you’re asking. I love the fact that some scores of recent films have come not from John Williams or other traditional Hollywood kinds of shit. People like Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have made some beautiful scores for films. Trent Reznor and Atticus what’s-his-name [Ross] made some beautiful scores. I’ve watched a few films only because Nick and Warren scored them. Otherwise, I might not even have been attracted to them. The scores are very important and also sometimes extremely annoying. I don’t like it when the score is designed to tell you how to feel about everything, which is often the case. I find it sort of condescending and insulting. As someone who loves how films are made, why does the music have to tell you how to feel? It seems kind of lame.

BLVR: How do you fight against that?

JJ: First of all, whoever’s making the music, whether it’s me or it’s the RZA or Tom Waits, I don’t give them specific places to score. I don’t say, Here are the cues, I want to score here, I want melancholy music here. I don’t do that. I talk about the atmosphere of the film and encourage them—or encourage myself, if I am doing it—to make music that is derived from the feeling of the film. Then we’ll take it and play with it in the editing room and see where the film likes it. That alleviates a lot of that idea of trying to tell the audience what’s going on or how they should feel. Instead, it’s adding another landscape like painting in the sky. That, to me, makes the most beautiful music because it becomes part of the fabric of the film.

(…)

BLVR: You once said, “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration.” Hollywood really likes to reboot things. So if people started rebooting your movies, would you be OK with that?

JJ: What does that mean, “reboot”?

BLVR: Where they basically redo your entire film but update it with a new cast or some other twist. Like if they redid Stranger Than Paradise with the High School Musical cast.

JJ: Oh yeah, I think that’d be very amusing. I have to clarify what I mean by “stealing.” I don’t condone, like, if my neighbor wrote a script and I read it and then I took his script and made a film out of it before he could. However, in my case, that’s not really a problem. If someone stole my script, they wouldn’t make the same thing I would make, you know? At the same time, it’s not cool to take something someone hasn’t realized. But if anything in the world has been realized already, I don’t see why it can’t be sampled or imitated. I don’t understand why that should be prevented. If you steal a riff from somebody and then make that the opening of “Stairway to Heaven,” which Led Zeppelin did. Led Zeppelin is a great band, but they just blatantly stole blues songs and then said they wrote them. That’s just kind of bullshit. You should credit the things you steal from. You should rejoice in them! You should say, I was inspired by this. You shouldn’t say, No, that came from me. I did that all myself. Right? That’s kind of bullshit. But I think all human expression is like waves in the ocean. And if you sample something in a hip-hop song, you’re taking it somewhere else; you’re using it as an element in something you’re making now. Nothing’s really original. There are only a small number of stories you can tell. There’s just an infinite number of ways to tell that story. So it’s not cool to take something someone else did verbatim and say you did it. That’s just lame, but anything should be free to be inspiration.

BLVR: So no copyrighting a groove?

JJ: I don’t know about copyrighting; it’s all very complicated. I’m really interested in reappropriation, meaning you take something from somewhere else and make it something else. That’s the basis of all art. Bach taught us that by his Variations. He just started varying things. And then it’s like unfolding a beautiful Fibonacci code of everything. It’s something ingrained in expression. John Lennon said something really cool. I don’t have the exact quote. But he said something like: originality comes from not quite being able to imitate your greatest inspirations. I think that’s a beautiful way of saying what I was trying to say. Like when Quentin Tarantino made his first film, Reservoir Dogs, he lifted the plot from a Hong Kong movie by director Ringo Lam called City on Fire. So I saw the film back then and I was like, Wow, he lifted that whole cloth and made it his own. That’s really cool, but is he going to tell us that? And he did… eventually. And Quentin is all about inspiration from other places. So I’m all for that. Is that stealing? No: he reappropriated something and made it into something else by using very basic elements of somebody else’s idea. That’s the basis for all kinds of creation. How many paintings in the Renaissance are there of the Madonna and Child? Does that mean somebody stole the image? Also, for me, variation and repetition are really the most beautiful things in art history, and the creation of things. Look at Rothko’s paintings: they’re variations of themselves in a way. He is like Bach to me. He can continue making these variations, and each one resonates in its own way. “

#jarmusch #jim jarmusch #art #music #film

[echostea]

the struggle of trying to find a fic that I forgot to bookmark or subscribe to at the time on ao3 <3

anyways if anyones ever heard of a codywan fic involving a plot sort of like ‘wandavision’.

a quick summary of what I remember: It’s post clone wars and order 66 still happened. Darth Vader found a force relic or something like that and he realizes that with it, he can create a whole new reality or rather a dream reality. He uses it to make his perfect world, where he, as Anakin, is with Padme and the war is over, they have kids, etc etc.

He also basically kidnaps others to get them into the world so it’s more normal, one of those being Cody. Obi Wan gets there after meditating or something and he, along with Anakin/Darth Vader, are the only ones aware it’s not real.

That’s a terrible description 💀 idk if it got deleted or I just can’t find it but any help will be appreciated ty ty

#codywan #commander cody #obi wan kenobi #codywan fic #codywan fanfic #help finding a fic

[burnwater13]

So Ahsoka Tano wanted to test him, Grogu thought to himself, a little annoyed at the concept. Of what utility was that? What did she hope to learn? What would her test encompass? How long would it take? Would he need his datapad?

None of those questions were answered but Grogu was patient. He could wait to find out. After all, he’d gotten so good at pretending to sleep that Ahsoka hadn’t realized that, as soon as she started talking, he woke up long enough to hear her and be annoyed. Of course he went right back to sleep after that, annoyed or not, he was tired.

He wished he had stayed awake. He would have avoided dreaming that way. Normally, when he was with the Mandalorian, his dreams were all about piloting the Razor Crest or learning how to fly a speeder bike, or seeing Din, without his helmet blocking the view of his face. Those were pretty nice dreams. 

Sometimes he even dreamed about being back on Sorgan and playing with the kids and catching frogs and eating them fresh and whole (the best way). That dream always looped back to the beginning and never included the bad stuff with the bad people. The nice lady at the tavern would give him endless cups of broth and that was pretty great too.

But this dream was different. It started with him at the Jedi Temple. It wasn’t a bad day. It wasn’t that bad day. It was a regular day. He was with the other younglings. Master Beq was there providing instructions. They were learning about the basic principals of lightsaber construction and the importance of selecting an appropriate kyber crystal. That had been a good day. 

The Librarian hadn’t pinched his cheeks that day. None of the Masters had scolded him for having snacks in his floating chair. And he hadn’t been left behind by accident when they went to the courtyard for ‘play’ time, which was really ‘walk around quietly and don’t bug anyone’ time. So, overall, a good day for Grogu.

But the dream took a turn. A turn that Grogu didn’t like at all. Every time he turned around they were there. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka. Grogu couldn’t get away from them. They stopped by the training sessions. They popped in during meals. They told stories at bed time. It should have been fun and interesting but it wasn’t. It was awful.

It was awful because Grogu didn’t see the versions of the people he knew and met at the Jedi Temple when he was a youngling. No. The people in his dream were the older versions. The tired versions. The angry versions. The sad versions. The Darth Vader versions. 

He didn’t know how that worked or why it worked that way. The Force was strange and mysterious and it liked to tell you things you wouldn’t understand for years or even a lifetime. But he knew that he didn’t like it when the Force showed him things that he didn’t want to see. 

He didn’t want to see a heartbroken, tortured, Anakin. He didn’t want to see the Obi-Wan who had to give up so much of who he was to follow a path that was so hard. And he didn’t want to see Ahsoka so bitter, so angry, so full of loss that she had no way to manage it other than to hide it from everyone. Or try to hide it. You couldn’t hide anything from the Force. And the Force wanted Grogu to see it. 

Was that the test then? The real test? Was the Force testing Grogu’s ability to be kind and considerate? Was it testing him to see if he could put aside his pain and suffering and recognize what had happened to others and do what was best for them? Was it checking in on him to see if he had learned enough from the Mandalorian to know that good people were everywhere and you just had to give them a chance to show you their better nature? 

If that was the test, then Grogu was ready for it. Dreams or no dreams, Grogu knew that he had learned many things from Din Djarin. He had learned that found family was family. He had learned that people could change given the opportunity to do so. He had learned to trust again. He had even learned that attachment did not define you, but it defined your values. Grogu valued the people he could call friend and the Mandalorian because he called him family. Because Grogu called Din Djarin ‘Dad’.

He hoped that Ahsoka was ready to test him and he also hoped that she would learn something from the test as well. It couldn’t be easy carrying around the burdens she wouldn’t share with anyone else. At least Grogu had his dad.

#the mandalorian #grogu #din djarin #calendar prompt a day #ahsoka tano

[dokoni-mo]

hiii its tuskens-mando !!! i am thinking once again about your sweet domestic darth vader....

imagine being married to him and y'all settled down somewhere peaceful and quiet away and having a little night-time routine. putting salve on his scars each night before bed.

you're so thorough about it, rubbing his scarred skin softly, gently. and the whole time he just watches you. unable to take his eyes off of his sweet wife.

OMG HI THERE!!!!!!!!! IM SO HAPPY YOU DECIDED TO STOP BY!!

Bro oh my god??? I absolutely live for the idea of running away together with Vader and living in a nice little cottage on a nowhere planet together. Him just being able to be open and loving with his cute little spouse? Whom he's more than willing to shed off the layers of anger, pain, hate and villainy around just because he loves them? CHILLS. LITERALLY THE DREAM.

I'd like to imagine that the little planet they decide to live in has a lot of plants and wildlife as well. Eventually you're able to learn about everything on the planet as well as some basic medical practices and mixtures to where you can try your best to speed up his healing processes. He likes to watch you brew up all the different medicines for him, hugging you from behind as you work. When you get the right mixture, you have him sit down and you help him take of his suit (either fully or partially) while you sit down close to him and help him put on the medicine.

His favorite though is when you're giving some attention to his chest or face though. He likes being able to just gaze at you as you work. You're very beautiful when you're focused.

#even with all the burns and stuff i still think hes handsome under there #i mean he WAS anakin #he's just a bit more crispy now #and honestly? slay more power to him #it doesnt stop me from loving him

[sirenalpha]

So I read a post about wanting an au where Anakin Skywalker was truth serumed into confessing to the Tusken Massacre to the Jedi to derail his career, specifically wanting it written by someone who liked Anakin and didn't just want to see him punished but to have the Jedi help him/prevent him from falling

and on one hand I can see why, the massacre is basically just accepted by Padme and then never addressed again at all by the narrative when it probably should have been for the most well rounded narrative, just like Anakin's childhood as a slave should have been

but on the other hand that still feels...too late and the wrong vehicle for this particular desire

don't get me wrong I do like Anakin and I like the prequels and I think that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker and am not about any from a certain point of view/split personality justifications, but I think it was red letter media but definitely someone who really did not like the prequels once said that instead of aotc showing Anakin going bad, Anakin started the movie having already gone bad

and that's always stuck with me because I think it is accurate that something has already gone wrong with Anakin and if you agree with that assessment, it makes the Tusken Massacre overkill instead of the moment you start believing the little boy from tpm can become Darth Vader

where I disagree with rlm or whoever it was, is that it wasn't that Anakin had already become a bad person by then but that he was already someone in distress who needed help long before the Tusken Massacre

and this is why I think the truth serum is the wrong vehicle

Anakin literally tells the truth about his situation of his own volition no serum necessary

he tells Obi-Wan his mentor and person in charge of his well being that he keeps having nightmares about his mother whom they had left in slavery and it's clear from the dialogue in aotc Obi-Wan has been aware of this issue for some time

the problem is that Obi-Wan tells him dreams pass no other solution or even an offer to check up on his mother (who they left in slavery) somehow to ease his mind like any otherwise reasonable and compassionate person

the issue is not Anakin's willingness to be honest, he wants to be, he doesn't need to be forced into it (at least at first but even in rots he seeks out Yoda's advice even if he can't tell the full truth, he is willing to seek Jedi for advice)

the issue is that the Jedi either are unable or unwilling to help him and he knows it

if Anakin got truth serumed into telling the Jedi about the Tusken Massacre he'd only get condemnation for it and like maybe jail time keeps Anakin from Falling but I wouldn't call it helpful

because the initial issue is that Anakin is failed by the Jedi and left to deal with it on his own when they haven't enabled him to deal with it effectively after taking over raising him as the PT is the story of how the Jedi failed as an Order and this is part of it

so idk get Obi-Wan an empathy/common sense/stop thinking like a Jedi pill when Anakin gets nightmares about his mother and try that instead of trying to force Anakin to speak honestly to people who can't offer him help

#anakin skywalker #star wars #star wars prequels

[jazzmandd]

Kingdom hearts 4 Predictions.

Having recently beaten Kingdom hearts 3 after a very long lull since buying the game day 1, I’ve been thinking and thunking about what worlds are going to show up in Kingdom hearts 4.

I am an old man driven by madness that is of the anime boy and Ducks and Dogs who fight shadow blobs in the Princess worlds. This is all based on speculation, where the series currently sits and where I personally feel they’re gonna go. I can be entirely wrong or entirely right on these guesses, but if it’s a 100% success rate: Pikmin 4 is real, Banjo-Kazooie remake is happening and Crash Bandicoot Nitro fueled racing will be on PC.

Here’s what I think is gonna happen.

Star Wars

I think this one is gonna be the most obvious selection, if the Kingdom hearts 4 trailer is to go by with the shots of supposedly ‘Endor’ and the robot mech foot.

I’m not too sure if the world would be a play by play of Episode 6 or not, but it’s likely to involve a fight with Darth Vader at some point.

Moana

Moana seems like a natural fit for a Kingdom hearts world, easily workable allies with Moana and Maui, unique locales, natural fit for bosses such as the giant crab or the volcano god at the end and could probably fill the niche of pirate’y world that seems to crop up in all the mainline games (as much as I like Treasure planet, I think Normua would want to go for a world thats easier to adapt with already existing CG for).

Alice in Wonderland

Here’s a weird one, but hear me out!

Sora in KH4 is going to begin in Quadratum a world based off a video game called Verum Rex, which was in the Toy Story world in 3, its a location rested in un-reality it’s basically Sora’s ‘after life’ after the events in KH3 and yes this sounds really stupid.

The point is this world is going to be acting as a hub for Sora according to Normua and considering the whole ‘un-reality’ of it all, I think this is going to be backdoor entrance to making worlds based off live action properties, especially for anything previously visited in the games before.

Alice in Wonderland I think is the most natural fit to showcase the difference between the Cartoon Disney Wonderland and the Live action attempt, especially since the world itself in Kingdom hearts 1 was kind of....Empty? The live action movie probably has more to work with, a possible jabberwocky boss, Mad hatter being a team mate, and I think it would be fun to have a scene with Sora utterly confused at someone who looks like Jack Sparrow but isn’t in a world thats supposed to be Alice in Wonderland but very different.

Frozen 2

As much as I utterly hated this world in KH3, I think there’s going to be at least one returning world from it and it’s going to be this. Nomura loved Frozen, It’s likely going to be “the movie plot” ism just like the first one but at least we won’t be climbing up and down a mountain this time. Right?

Inside Out

I can’t see Kingdom hearts 4 not having any Pixar content going forward with the series, whether it’s a returning world like Toy Story, or something new, I think Inside Out is the most interesting idea the series would use.

“But Jazz, how can Inside out be a world when its inside a persons head” Don’t ask me, these games has several different worlds based off London and France.

I think the most likely thing is it takes place inside Sora’s head, you could have the different emotions talk about Sora’s past, and that you don’t need to be a happy go-lucky hero all the time, Dream eaters could be involved again, and you could possibly have locations based off places Sora’s been before all mish mashed together. 

Considering how many times Sora and Co have been in those ‘Dive to the heart’ Stained glass areas usually at the start of the games, how could you not finally explore what the hell those are?

Coco

Another very popular Pixar movie, and also dealing with the same themes Sora is going through right now. Sora and Miguel are both characters that wind up in some sort of After life world, and both likely want to return to the world of the living, this could be yet another world to bring back the Dream eaters since the spirit animals everyone has are a great analogue. 

My only contention with this being a world is the plot. Both Pixar worlds in KH3 were basically original stories, I’m not sure if Coco would really do the ‘the movie plot’ ism like a lot of Disney worlds do, This is probably my least confident pick to see show up in KH4, especially when there's some like Incredibles or Soul that deserve it more. 

Maleficent

Finally to cap it all off (I’m assuming Kingdom hearts 4 will keep the 7 world structure) The Angelina Jolie Maleficent.

What better way to also showcase the un-reality worlds then Sora teaming up a different version of a character who is currently a villain? What happens if you have the Cartoon Maleficent and the live action one show up face to face? You also get another chance to expand a previous world (From Birth by sleep) to include more locales, the castle, the forest, the fairy tale knoll maybe even deal with the weird Maleficents bird species place from the sequel.

Conclusion

I very much doubt these will be all the worlds in KH4, there could be less or more worlds then these 7, the minigame world (Pooh bear?) could return or be different, and frankly if it were up to be Atlantis and Treasure planet would be there.

But considering how Sora is going to be in this weird new not tokyo location and Donald and Goofy are presumably visiting worlds with after lifes (Hercules and possibly Pirates?) I wouldn’t be surprised by some of the thematic connections some of these have.

Thanks for listing to my TED talk.

[galactic-hunter]

The Force Awakens was a pretty good toy movie. No we didn't get any awesome creature toys - a crime, where is my Luggabeast? - but it was one of the better lines in terms of mixing in a few reruns of lapsed fans alongside brand new weird figures that Hasbro has seemingly decided are not the way to go. Which is bad - once you get away from weird figures, Star Wars is just another boring toy line.

Thankfully we got a Guavian Enforcer, or the Target product placement henchman. What's funny is that this figure would probably be a beloved cult favorite were it some forgotten 1970s or 1980s design from an action figure line you've never heard of. I like the red coloring, the Darth Vader-esque shoulder plate, the abundant belts, and what I can only assume is a space fanny pack. I don't care how much you do/don't like the movie, it's a neat figure.

5POA figures are generally unfairly maligned. While it's true they aren't as fun to pose, they're easy to pick up and play with - the ball-jointed neck was a big improvement, and the swivel limbs make it easy to just shove him in a vehicle, and get him standing again immediately upon removing him. There's no "go find a display stand" or "try to find his center of gravity." It's a good, functional action figure as a toy.

He had two blasters - one from the movie, one from a NERF fever dream - and has been hanging out on my desk after being exiled to a back room. He's not as cheap as he used to be, but he looks like he'd fit in with the Toy Pizza/Knights of the Slice guys just as much as your classic Star Wars toys.

I'd love to live in a world where we got more figures like this rather than "a trooper, but in new colors" or "a resculpt of a figure you can buy on eBay for $13" but this is the current weird and generally uninspiring state of the line when there are countless factions of fans to satisfy. If you have to make something for the Jedi: Fallen Order crowd, and Original Trilogy fans, and Prequel Trilogy fans, and stuff for the new show, and probably some repaints and exclusives, it's kind of amazing just how much stuff we get these days - but I do miss the creativity that we only seemed to get when Hasbro was basically supporting some weird new thing with all of its heart. I kind of wish we got more new Mini-Rigs style vehicles too, but I guess I'll just have to dig out the old ones.

#The Force Awakens #Hasbro #Star Wars #Action Figures