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psyduc · 6 days

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pasta a la erik karlsson

THE INGREDIENTS: pasta. alfredo. meat sauce. raw (red) onion. hot sauce (cholula, judging by the video). ketchup (heinz, i think?). a little salt and pepper.

THE RECIPE: boil pasta, chop the onion, serve with all sauces. eat and not die.

hi my name is emily and welcome to jackass

instead of liveblogging this process, i'm just going to add my thoughts to one big post to make it cleaner <3

6:48 pm: the pasta is boiling. i keep looking over at the Pile of Sauces and giggling. i have whispered "what the fuck" to myself a few times now. i'm cooking the whole box, because we're all having spaghetti tonight, but i'm the only one brave enough to try... This

6:54 pm: erik did not mention this as part of the meal but i poured myself a glass of rose. the onion has been chopped. i tried to get them chunky to match the video but that's like too much man, at least have your onions DICED why are they in CHUNKS ERIK

7:05 pm: writing these time stamps i'm realizing i'm a slow cooker because i keep getting distracted by my playlist (rn it's rebel rebel by david bowie). i am starting the alfredo sauce and it's sinking in that i'm about to actually. eat this. like a few bites, there's no way i'm eating this whole plate (this is NOT foreshadowing)

7:07 pm: i almost panicked because i didn't think i had enough milk for the alfredo but surprise, i had EXACTLY enough. this is a good omen.

7:15 pm: everything is done, i am just waiting for the meat sauce to warm up. i'm still whispering "what the fuck to myself".

7:21 pm: it's time. to assemble.

i grabbed a small plate, but i'm realizing. maybe i should have grabbed less. this is revolting. and i'm not even done adding things

added and mixed. i'm laughing. erik eats this. before every game? it overwhelmingly smells like cholula which is fine but oh my god. oh my god? no. no. this poor man's stomach. oh my god

7:30 pm: i've put it off. it's time to take a bite

IT'S JUST. IT'S JUST A LOT OKAY. THIS IS A LOT OF FLAVOR AND NONE OF IT REALLY GOES TOGETHER? it's like way too acidic. biting into a red onion is a terrible surprise. it's too saucy and it doesn't feel Good in my stomach, like i have taken two bites and it's settled so heavily already. okay no three bites. it's... it's just upsetting. this is an upsetting experience. what the fuck is wrong with you erik karlsson. you eat this and then you go and play professional hockey?

FOUR BITES IN AND IT DOES NOT GET BETTER. why does he do this to himself like can we send someone to check on him fr i am genuinely concerned about this man like i made this meal for the bit but he willingly does this to himself?????? 82 games a season???????

IN CONCLUSION: i managed five (5) bites. they were all bad. don't make this. someone arrest erik karlsson immediately i am so serious.

#pens lb #emily.txt #food

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eriexplosion · 2 days

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Yesterday everyone was posting their feelings on TBB. I'm glad I waited, because there's a lot swirling around. Cut for negativity again.

I was introduced to The Bad Batch in August 2022 and fell instantly in love. The characters, the story, the complex family dynamics, they all spoke to me. I wasn't even a Star Wars fan but I went through and devoured The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, all of it. I threw myself into this world and adored every second of it. I must have rewatched season one over five times before season two even came out.

When season two premiered I loved it. Every Tuesday night I stayed up until the episode drop and devoured it immediately. I looked ahead at the schedule and took days off work for the double episodes, for the big Crosshair episodes - he was my favorite early on and season two only made that grow. But season two also really brought Tech into my radar even more. I had always liked him, but here he was shining. The Crossing really solidified it, as an autistic person. I'd never heard someone describe the difference in processing so succinctly before, so clearly, and it spoke to me like very little had. Here was a character that was like me. Here was a character that I needed when I was an undiagnosed child, someone that would have made me feel like I had at least some way of describing my differences.

Then, well. He died. It was an affecting scene, but it felt out of nowhere, it felt unfinished. Tech didn't even get the climax of the episode. He just fell into the clouds, the Batch grieved for a few minutes, and then the plot steamrolled right along.

I didn't believe it, not after the mad scientist presented his goggles and claimed not to salvage anything else. It seemed like such an obvious fake out. The longer I sat with it the less satisfying it felt. It felt so brushed over, so pointless, all for a mission that they accomplished nothing on. Then came the social media circus. Again and again his fall was shoved in our faces on Twitter, demanding we stream it. TikToks were made that were so out of touch they felt like parodies, the wound ripped open again and again, and I thought surely there had to be a purpose to it.

So I waited for season 3 as interviews were done that seemed to almost intentionally avoid calling him dead. As tweets were made promising we'd be so fulfilled if we could only see who was onscreen in the mid-season! (A tweet that immediately garnered dozens of people hoping it referred to Tech, all without a single comment to try and quell the speculation.) It felt already like we were being toyed with, but I thought it had to be for a reason or a purpose. More weirdly vague discussions went up about his Sacrifice, his Fall, his Anything But Death, even as everyone insists that it was so meaningful, the way he died on a mission that accomplished nothing. Jokes were made around Valentines Day.

He Fell For You, get it?

The first official use of killed went up on the databank right after the trailer, on Hunter's page of all places. The first time the interviews used dead was the Friday before the premier. It all felt too late, theories had already grown for months by that point.

Season 3 finally came and I waited up for every episode drop just like I did for season 2, hoping for him to come back or at least for him to be properly grieved, since we had barely a couple of minutes in Plan 99 before it was swept away for the next plot point. Surely Tech's impact deserved an episode of focus, if he were really gone.

The previously on plays his last words twice. But then we skip months into the future. We don't see Crosshair find out the news - even though Tech died on a mission to retrieve him. We don't watch Omega grieve. She barely seems to notice she's missing a brother. We got a brief allusion in episode two. It took three episodes to even mention his name in passing. Five episodes in everyone got their chance to look sad about him, but only for a few seconds and only when his skills were relevant. Compared to the gorgeous callback to Mayday in the same episode, it felt shallow. He had to have been more important than this didn't he?

Episodes 6 & 7 felt like maybe there was a reason. We see a new masked assassin that gets extra focus, who got put through a series of Tech-adjacent situations, whose beef with Crosshair was just a little too personal, who survived longer than all the rest but stayed masked. Rex talks about losing brothers, but Hunter says nothing about the brother they lost. I hoped it all meant something, that this was the reason that he felt so much like he was thrown away, so that he could come back in.

More one off mentions that only really come up when it's about how useful Tech would have been. More poking at the wound that still felt open and raw because we'd never gotten any closure. The closest we get is a single scene in episode eleven, so late in the season and so brief that I thought that couldn't possibly be it.

CX-2 comes back, and he talks like Tech. He's still not unmasked. I really need him to be something because otherwise what was it all for?

The most emotion comes in Juggernaut, from Phee. Its a highlight because it actually feels like it was about him, like he mattered as a person. It's episode twelve and we finally talk about him like a person. We never saw her get the news either.

Episodes thirteen and fourteen pass without any mentions at all. We're running out of time. Episode 15 hits and we get one raw one from Crosshair that Clone Force 99 died with Tech. It's the first time they directly say he's dead in so many words. It's the season finale. CX-2 is a nobody it turns out, and he dies faceless. Everyone gets a happy ending and after over a year of wondering if we'd ever get closure, it turns out Tech's just dead. But look how happy everyone else is!

Everyone gets to grow old. Except the autistic one of course. He's just dead and it hardly feels like it mattered at all. Did you know Wrecker and Hunter don't use his name once in season three? Omega and Echo mention him once each. Crosshair twice, only once with any emotion behind it. Phee tops the charts at three mentions, two by name and one by nickname. We see his goggles four times. I kept count.

There was never a bigger plan, this was just all he was worth. We spent two seasons on Crosshair's absence. We spent a whole episode dealing with it when Echo decided to go with Rex. Tech dies though and all his life amounted to was a handful of mentions when his skills would have been useful, some shots of his broken goggles, and endless cooing out of the text over how meaningful his sacrifice was. Too meaningful to take back, of course, even as Ventress is brought back from her own sacrifice.

I had really, really thought that this time autistic life would be worth more than autistic death. That a character that felt so carefully handled couldn't have just been thrown away for shock value, barely to even be mentioned again, his memory used to string us along to keep us watching. If you added up every mention and shot through season 3 it might actually clock in at less time than was spent on Mayday's send off.

I'm an adult. I'll survive, though the sting of seeing yet another character like me used as a stepping stone for everyone else's happy ending will take a while to fade. But I think about the child I used to be who needed a character like Tech. And I think about how it would have felt to actually get that only to watch him die a handful of episodes later as a side note to his family's story, barely even mentioned again. How badly it would have hurt, how deep it would have scarred.

I'm not that child anymore. But there are a lot of autistic kids out there that are the same as I used to be, and they're learning for the first time that people like us don't get happy endings. Instead they die so that everyone around them can rise up, and they might even get mentioned a few times. But don't worry. Everyone will tell you how meaningful and special it is and how delusional you were to ever hope for anything else.

The Bad Batch still means a lot to me. I think it always will. I love the characters. I love the family, and all the potential they had. But the sting of not belonging in this happy ending is there, and it's deep. It's been a long time since I trusted a show. It'll be a long time before I risk trusting another. And I hope that the autistic kids trying to learn how to close their hearts off behind new walls are doing okay.

#the bad batch #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #could not sleep so I'm in my feels instead #it did help to type it out #I'm not going anywhere fandom wise but I have to admit I'm hurt

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illumalux · 24 days

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Life Series Victors as Tarot Cards

A presentation on why we’ve got it all wrong when it comes to grouping life series victors.

This post will continue on with the implication that ZombieCleo is a Victor, simply because she is. She won real life, therefore she's a victor. Argue with the wall.

Now, I see your celestial trio of the first three winners. This should never change. This feels the most apt, it centers perfectly, and each of the things it represents are present in multiple different categories. Obviously in space, as everyone has adapted to, but also in a Minecraft world, and what I see as more important: in a tarot deck.

Think about it this way.

The Watchers, in whatever form you think they (or we) take, are collecting these Victors. Each one means a different thing, survived a different landscape. While I understand the celestial motif of the first three Victors, and how it fits into their characters, I would argue that many others are far too grounded for that.

It’s a collection, remember? What is better for assembling a set than a deck of cards? Especially ones that meddle in Fate, something the Watchers seem to adore.

So here are the cards each Victor represents, with card meaning and my defense as well. This will go in chronological order of the seasons.

Before I continue, I just want to give a disclaimer. Every tarot deck has a slightly different explanation for what each card means. The definitions I use are a mix of three of my decks and the official Rider-Waite-Smith deck's explanation, so if there are inconsistencies with what your deck says or what you know, please don't come for me.

Grian, Third Life:

XIX. The Sun

Beyond the obvious desert motifs (a whole extra post in and of itself), the Sun is representative of not only Grian's gameplay, but also how the Watchers (those collecting this deck) feel about him. Grian is one of them, so he naturally starts out in their good graces, with a greater level of respect.

Rider-Waite-Smith defines the card as one of success. Of course the Watchers will gloat when their baby wins. Even if he wasn't meant to, it did inevitably mean that throughout his game, Grian was inarguably one of the largest sources of negative emotions, second only to the Red Army. Again. Extra post on its own. When he won, it saved anyone the satisfaction that might negate their negativity, alongside the delicious outpouring of grief that was the final duel of Third Life.

Reversed, the Sun is a card of depression. As I just touched on, one of the most defining moments of Grian's game was his final victory. When the ending came down to himself or his greatest ally, he went about it in the way that caused probably the most pain to both parties involved. It pushed him to the very brink, ending in him defining his own ending just moments after winning.

Scott, Last Life:

XVII. The Star

Even ignoring the starborne origins and headcanons, as well as the crown of stars included in his skin (Void below, these posts write themselves) this one looks like a super simple explanation, but actually requires me pointing out something that may not be obvious to some Watchers: Scott, in every game and Iteration has made it a point to rebel against the rules in whatever way he can. I could go into full detail, but thats a lot of words and I don't need anyoen to get bored. (Void, this series and side tangents that require other posts)

In third life, a game about death and destruction, and the originator of factions, Scott took a very different route: he got married and built a house in a flower field. When grief finally found him, he refused to give the Watchers any satisfaction, literally crystalizing his grief into a part of his character design (and one that would remain for two to three more seasons, depending on your thoughts on the coral pieces). In Last Life, he is the singular person in all five seasons (technically two, but shhh this is more dramatic) to withstand the Boogeyman curse, something the Watchers installed purposefully to make people kill allies. Double Life, obviously, as Scott rejecting the soulmate the Watchers gave him. Limited life, in which kills gave more time, Scott did not die a single time without giving life freely, either to an ally or a temporary ally.

That got long. Anyways. Scott's game has always been one of hope, spreading positivity and refusing to be pushed around by the Watchers. And that's exactly what the Star means. Upright, this is a card about hope and perseverence, pushing through challenges, which is exactly what Scott does. He refuses to let the Watchers' actions upset him and continues to play the game for his friends and for the future and nothing else.

Even reversed it still fits. Reversed, the Star means loss or abandonment. I've already used up too much time on Scott here, so I'll let you pick your favorite instance of that.

Pearl, Double Life:

XVIII. The Moon

This one is far and away the easiest. Like the previous two Victors, Pearl's story connected her with her symbol even before she won. But blood moons and wolf packs aside (as that's a whole different post for a whole different day) when you take a look at the definitions provided, it becomes even clearer.

The Moon is a card of transformation and change, as well as revealing one's inner self. Rider-Waite-Smith attributes hidden enemies, darkness, and terror with The Moon. While I'll happily analyze every single one of Pearl's actions as the Scarlet Pearl, I think this one is plenty self explanatory. After her rejection early on in the game, she immediately isolates herself and latches onto the night motifs, leaning in to what everyone expects her to be.

The reversed meanings also explain Pearl's arc in Double Life perfectly: confusion, mixed messages, and disbelief. This perfectly encapsulates Pearl's feelings at the very beginning of the game via her rejection by Scott and subsequent abandonment by Martyn in an attempt to get back into Cleo's good graces. Her instinctual reaction is one of shock, not understanding why Scott would choose to pick a soulmate when she was right in front of him.

Martyn, Limited Life:

XVI. The Tower

One of my favorite cards, the Tower is instantly recognizable. While most of my analyses aren't about how the card looks, I feel like it's important to share this time around. The most common image consists of a tower and one or both of two elements: lightning, and people falling. As a card, it represents sudden change, destruction, and chaos.

If anyone here is not yet convinced that I'm correct, please go rewatch Martyn's last LimLife episode, then come back and argue.

You're back? Great. We agree? No? Fine, I'll explain.

This fixates mainly on his winning game, but I'll touch on the rest of his games as well. LimLife ended with a huge betrayal on Martyn's part, one characterized by being so insanely sudden. (Of course it's the Watchers meddling. But the Tower isn't always about your own choices being your downfall.) He quite literally snapped as if hit by lightning (see description of the card), and this spells the beginning of the end for him.

Similarly, in all of his other games, Martyn finds himself with one pivotal moment that spells his downfall. The Red King, Betrayal at the Southlands (and honestly his worst move in DL was abandoning Pearl to try and beg for Cleo's forgiveness).

Funny enough, the reversed meaning of this card is almost a perfect match. I don't think this needs too much more explaining.

Scar, Secret Life:

X. The Wheel of Fortune

I adore Scar in these games. Every single season seems absolutely plagued by chaos. The worst season, obviously, was the one in which he gained his crown. Poor guy was just trying to make friends, and it seemed like every new secret was the exact opposite of what he wanted.

The Wheel is just what it sounds like: it's the card of luck, destiny, and fate. I won't add a new paragraph for the reversed meaning here either, as it means the exact same thing as upright, but with negative connotations in the form of bad luck and misfortune.

Scar is plagued by the whims of luck left and right. It seems like, more than any other player, Scar is unable (whether by others, fate, Watchers, what have you) to take full control of his own story and take actions that he wants to take, instead limited to where the current takes him.

But in the end, that chaos is what gives him his win. The lack of alliances and freedom that the game forced on him was what eventually lead him to be unmoored and able to volley his pain wherever he wanted, leading to a mostly painless win.

Cleo, Real Life:

XIII. Death

A little on the nose, I know, but which of these choices aren't? For a series entirely based on improv, there are a stupid amount of coincidences present.

Now, I know this is far and away the shortest series, so I'm going to analyse Cleo as a player across all of her seasons, not just her winning game. Sorry Real Life. You should have been longer.

While the meaning of the Death card may seem obvious, it's twofold in actuality. In some historical decks, even, the card is instead named Rebirth. I know how ironic that is that the zombie is the one who stands for death and rebirth, but again. Blame the stupid narrative, not the poor me trying to make sense of it.

In what my lovely mutual Honor called "phoenix behavior", I'm going to focus specifically on her deaths and rebirths, specifically BigB's betrayal in LastLife. Cleo takes her death hard, as anyone might. But her rebirth comes with change. The minute she respawns, it's with a different understanding of the world around her. She immediately embraces the change that has been given to her, burning down the Fairy Fort and ditching her alliance for a new one.

The reverse captures Cleo as a character over her seasons better than anyone on this list. While the upright meaning of the card is change, reversed it signifies stagnancy, obsession, and immobility. This can be seen almost perfectly with her thoughts on alliances. Scott remains forever in her good books, even over the course fo multiple seasons, simply because he has never wronged her. Even when they aren't direct allies,she still cooperates with him whenever, simply because she retains her previous feelings about him. The same can be said for BigB, but in the opposite direction. From the moment of the betrayal onwards, she refuses to trust him, going so far as to warn Pearl away from allying with him in LimLife.

Bonus: Jimmy Solidarity, the Canary

XII. The Hanged Man

But Moon! you shout, throwing your complimentary bucket of popcorn at me. Jimmy isn't a Victor! He's the exact opposite!

Yep.

That's why he's so soggy and why he goes on this list. You wanna argue that he doesn't have the same lore impact as a Victor? Too bad. Can't hear you. Jimmy gets his own card.

Initially, I was kinda sad that I already used the Tower, because that's the portent of doom and gloom or whatever, perfect for a canary. But then I spied an even better, even more Jimmy card.

The Hanged Man is the card of sacrifice. While I could go on a whole rant about the Fool's journey and how it is represented in the Life Series, that is Extra Tumblr Post Number IDK Anymore. Instead, today I'm going to stick to the basics. To specify sacrifice, the card doesn't just mean giving up. It signifies self sacrifice specifically. And what is Jimmy if not a semi-willing first sacrifice to get the chaos rolling?

How many times has he gone out to stop his friends from being the one who has to herald the change? The canary knows that he will sing the final notes, but so long as he can ensure the miners don't have to, he will descend once more.

Conclusion:

Now. Did I spend more time on this post than I ever did on an English Lit essay? Maybe. But as much as I love the space motifs this fandom has, I fundamentally disagree when we get to the latter winners. Come on, guys. Tarot decks are right here.

If I missed anything, or I misrepresented a player's game, please tell me. I can't be everywhere at once, and I'm always happy to learn more about some of the players I don't watch as regularly.

Anyways, this was way more fun to write than I expected. If anyone wants to see me give cards to the rest of the players who have yet to win, or an analysis of anything a mentioned in my tangents, please let me know.

Special thanks to @honorsongs who kept me company through this whole process and gave me many a suggestion when I lost my train of thought.

#moon rambles into the void #life smp winners #life series #traffic smp #trafficblr #scott smajor #zombiecleo #grian #inthelittlewood #goodtimeswithscar #jimmy solidarity #tarot card organization supremacy #why wouldn't the watchers want to collect them to keep in a box lets be real #what else are we doing by organizing them?#pearlescentmoon

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heyclickadee · 1 month

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Guys, I’m gonna need the fandom to stop being weird about Phee.

Okay, so, first off, I’m not back. I’m still on break; I just logged in to check on the DMs? Made the mistake of checking the tags, and happened to see some real hot takes about Phee’s line about Tech and wrote this out before my better judgment kicked in. Two things:

1. From a narrative perspective, a NARRATIVE perspective, not a character perspective, a narrative perspective, Phee’s line has the exact same function as every other mention of Tech by the characters and visual reference to him through the season so far. We haven’t seen any single character process Tech’s “death.” And by processing Tech’s death, I mean that we haven’t seen a single character come to terms with it the way we, for example, saw Omega and Tech come to terms with Echo’s departure, or the entire ghost crew come to terms with Kanan’s death in Rebels.

In refusing to show us this, the show refuses to allow the audience to internalize Tech’s death as an actual event that has consequences and is expected to stick. In addition to this, the show pokes at us at least once an episode, whether by a single line or by visual cues, to remind us of Tech’s absence. In so doing, the show refuses to allow the audience to fully let Tech go; this only makes sense from a writing perspective if the absence is temporary and the much needed catharsis after an event like the first five minutes of “Plan 99” is going to come from something other than processing the character’s death—something like letting him come back. Phee’s line is just another one of those jabs reminding us that Tech is absent.

(Before anyone comes in here saying that they’re probably mourning Tech off-screen: They probably are. That’s not the point. The point is that there is purpose in what writers choose to emphasize. They have had plenty of opportunity to show us Omega or someone coming to terms with what happened, and plenty of time to do even more than that, because not only are they willing to stop for emotional moments—half the season so far has been Crosshair’s extended emotional moment and catharsis from two seasons of buildup. I’m actually not willing to argue about this at this point.)

2. The way Phee talks here is the way that every character has been talking about Tech the whole season. She’s not unique. The Tech mentions have largely been informative and impersonal—just enough to hurt, not enough to derail a conversation. The emphasis has not been on the loss of him as a person, but instead on his absence and how that makes life difficult. Once again, from a narrative perspective, this is because getting personal with the Tech mentions leads directly into the characters actually processing their loss; and since the show is not allowing that processing to happen since it’s almost definitely bringing him back, the little, slightly impersonal mention once an episode is as far as it can go in bringing Tech up. And since it doesn’t want us to forget about him either, that’s what we end up with. It’s not bad just because Phee did it too now.

3. From a character perspective generally speaking (of the whole cast), the way the mentions work reads to me as ambiguous grief. Remember that Hunter and co. never recovered a body, never really saw any evidence, and don’t really know what happened to Tech in the end. And, speaking from personal experience, not knowing can be emotionally paralyzing and can leave you incapable of processing your loss, because you don’t know if it’s a loss or not. They come across to me as stuck and unable to to anything that we see besides noting that he’s not there. He’s gone, they don’t know where he is; he might be dead, and he might not.

4. And, speaking of Phee specifically: Phee’s mention of Tech wasn’t overtly sad, but neither was Omega’s mention of Tech back in “Shadow’s of Tantiss.” Not everyone cries every time they bring up someone they lost. I don’t. Don’t expect everyone to outwardly react the way you want them too, please.

And, frankly (this IS a hill I will die on) Phee brought Tech up out of nowhere. They weren’t talking about him. She brought him up completely unprompted in an unrelated conversation, meaning he’s on her mind, meaning that, no, she’s not over it.

PS: Do not come into my notes and bring up Fives and the lack of Fives discussion in TBB. I love Fives, I love the domino twins, but Fives was a secondary character on a completely different show with a completely different kind of narrative structure. Not bringing him up in this show is not the same as not allowing the characters or audience to process the happened to Tech.

PPS: I’m sorry if I sound salty in this. I am. This isn’t really directed at anyone I follow or interact with on her, or really anyone who follows me; this is directed at certain parts of the larger fandom that are kind of exhausting.

PPPS: If anyone comes into this post to call me delusional for still thinking Tech is coming back because that’s literally what they’ve set up on screen, they’re getting instablocked.

PPPPS: Don’t @ the cast and crew on Twitter, guys. Just don’t. Think about what they’re doing and what you’re doing, and don’t.

#fandom salt #not tagging this under the main tag #because this is REALLY salty

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kazoosandfannypacks · 6 months

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SABEZRA WEEK: DAY 4: THEN & NOW: the five love languages (and a secret sixth one) STAR WARS REBELS (2014-2018) 1.1|4.3|1.8|2.5|4.16|3.15 AHSOKA (2023) 1.8|1.6|1.7|1.7|1.4|1.7

do not repost my gifs. do not download my gifs to use for other edits. if you'd like to know how to add these gifs to a post without violating tumblr's t.o.s., or want to know how to find the clips i made these from, just shoot me a dm or an ask. i'd love to share what i know! <3

image id and taglist under the cut.

IMAGE ID: A set of twelve gifs. The gifs on the left show scenes from Star Wars Rebels, and the gifs on the right show scenes from the Ahsoka series. Each parallels the one next to it.

The first two gifs both say "words of affirmation." the first a shows Sabine Wren in the Rebels pilot episode, saying "Pretty gutsy move, kid." The other shows Ezra Bridger in the Ahsoka Season 1 Finale, saying "Nice moves."

The third and fourth gif both say "physical touch." The third shows Ezra's hand catching Sabine's as she falls. The fourth shows Sabine, moments after their reunion hug, reaching out and touching his arm.

The fifth and sixth gif both say "giving gifts." The fifth shows the hologram of Ezra's family, then cuts to Sabine smiling and saying "Happy birthday, Ezra Bridger." The sixth shows Sabine trying to give Ezra back his lightsaber, to which Ezra responds "I gave it to you. It's yours now."

The seventh and eighth gifs both say "quality time." The seventh shows Ezra and Sabine, while captured by Inquisitors, looking towards each other and listening to Ezra's comlink. The eighth shows Ezra and Sabine in Ahsoka, sitting next to each other and talking, Sabine with her feet up on the dashboard.

The ninth and tenth gifs both say "acts of service." The ninth shows Ezra giving himself up for the galaxy at the end of Rebels. The tenth shows Sabine giving up the star map in Ahsoka, essentially giving up the galaxy for Ezra.

The eleventh and twelfth gifs both say "engaging in combat." The eleventh is Sabine and Ezra whacking each other with their training sabers in Trials of the Darksaber. The twelfth shows Sabine battling Shin in Ahsoka. She's knocked to the ground, and Ezra pulls her out of the way with the Force, while Sabine uses her flamethrowers on Shin. Ezra then wordlessly takes Sabine's hand and helps her to her feet. END ID

shoutout to @laughingphoenixleader @kanerallels and @accidental-spice for helping me figure out what scenes to use!

taglist: @piraterefrigerator @jedi-nurse @sabezraweek @dootchster {if you'd like to be added to or removed from my sabezra taglist, let me know!}

#sabezraweek2023 #sabezra #sabine wren #ezra bridger #ezrabine #ahsoka series #star wars rebels #ahsoka spoilers #gifset #gifs from the fannypack #parallels #it's like poetry it rhymes

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stars-n-spice · 9 days

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no you don't understand. I need the Bad Batch to have a happy ending. I need them all to make it out alive. I need them to all be together. I need them to be a family once again. I need them all alive, happy, healthy, thriving. I need them safe and healing and growing.

I need Hunter to be able to be at peace. To become what he so clearly wanted to be at the start of the series; a father. For him to have what he fought so hard for. To know that he's more than a soldier. I need him to be able to relax knowing his brothers, that Omega is safe and will forever be safe. I need need need him to have that peace. To have that kind of life. The life he didn't think he'd get, that no clone ever thought that they would get, but yet...And I need him to grow and learn from these mistakes and be that older brother for all of them I know he can be. Seeing him want a life different than what he was essentially made for that badly for him not to get it is going to absolutely destroy me.

I want Tech to come back. I want it so bad. I know Star Wars can't keep getting away with "killing a character and bringing them back" but what's doing it one more time? Am I biased because Tech is my second favorite Batcher? Yes. But listen, I just need him to return and be reunited with his family. I need him to see Crosshair again. I need him to see and be with Phee again. Yes the build up to his death was great and the send off with his goggles was, in my opinion beautiful, but I just really want him back. I miss him so much. He means so much to so many people and I just want to see him alive and well again.

I need Echo to come back and I need him to stay. Wrecker and Tech might be my favorites, but when it really comes down to it? Echo is my comfort character. When I'm upset and really struggling, what usually brings me back is thinking about what would Echo do? What would Echo say to me to get me through this? Echo means so so much to me and it hurts so much to see him reduced to a background character. It makes me think what even was the point of bring him back just to reduce him to what he is now? And I'm so so scared they're going to kill him off for shock value or to "explain" why he isn't with Rex in Rebels, but that's just so fucking stupid to me after having done nothing with his character since like the middle of season 2 of the Bad Batch. Bring him back, please. And let him be at peace for once too!! Goddammit, all this shit he's had to go through; getting fucking exploded, being a prisoner of war, losing Fives, losing his brothers because his chip malfunctioned, having to see what becomes of clones after everything they sacrificed for the galaxy-Like you already "killed". him off once, there's no need to do it again. Just bring him back and reunite him with the others, please.

I need Wrecker to get to have his family all together. On top of that, I need him to get the recognition he deserves for all that he does and has done. Omega might be the heart and soul of the team but Wrecker's the glue and arguably just as much as the heart and soul too. He's the protector, I'm sure he feels it's his responsibility to keep them together, to keep them safe. I want him to continue living his life knowing that he succeeded in doing so and now doesn't have to worry about something like that because they are safe. They're all together again and they're happy and they're safe. He can relax and enjoy what they used to have before it all went to shit. It's so obvious that he cares so much about his brothers and Omega in his own unique ways. Each of the members of the Batch have their own unique dynamics within each other, but it really seems like Wrecker is the one who has one with each of them. And yeah, he's my favorite so I'm going to be biased and I want him to make it out alive and I want him to be happy goddammit.

I need Crosshair to stay the fuck alive. I need him to continue to heal and grow and be back with his family again. I need him to be reassured and to feel safe and loved again. I cannot take another instance of a character who used to be so lost and broken finally getting healing and some peace only to sacrifice themselves again. To have someone go through so much only start to heal and then rip that away from them? I need him to be at peace. I need him to enjoy all that he's missed out on. I need to see him okay and content and healing and living. I don't think I can deal with seeing all of that being ripped away from him. Please just let the man be at peace for once in his fucking life. I am begging. You don't understand, he's healing; mentally, physically, he's getting better and to just,, take all of that away? Can't just ONE character please get a happy ending?? Like if any one of them deserve to see it through the end, it's him.

I need Omega to get the childhood she was cheated out of. I don't know how many times I've sat and thought about Omega only for me to burst out into tears. She's been isolated for nearly all of her life. At the most, she was free for two years out of her FOURTEEN years of existence. She went through ALL of that before the age Ashoka and Padmé were when they were just STARTING to go through the horrors. Yet she's remained so brave and so strong and so determined. She's endured and survived and I want her to thrive. I want her to have all her brothers together once again. I want her to grow up alongside them. I want her to be able to be a child for once. To experience life through those lenses. I don't want her to have to endure another loss.

I need to see this group of individuals who never really fit in have their place in the galaxy. I need to see them, all created with clear intents and purposes to fight in a war as cannon fodder find new purposes. I need to see these burnt-out kids catch a damn break for once. This family of neurodivergents who spent their entire lives either isolated or distant from everyone else because they were "different" and "special" get that well-deserved ending where they're all safe and happy and have a purpose and a place in the galaxy because fucking hell. I wanna know there's hope for me too.

just AAGUUHHH. I've never wanted a happy ending for anyone more than I want it for the Bad Batch.

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gffa · 1 year

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As I continue my rewatch my frustration with the timeline of The Mandalorian is not eased by having two seasons under our belts or more information on the Children of the Watch because there’s a very central question that haunts me: Why does everyone act like Mandalorians not removing their helmets is the default and never mention any other way? To establish a timeline, centering the first season of The Mandalorian as year zero: - 28-31 years ago, the Clone Wars take place, which is likely when Din’s parents were killed and he was adopted by Death Watch - 11 years ago, the events Rebels takes place, in which Sabine gives the dark saber to Bo-Katan, who unites the Houses to rebel against the Empire - 9 years ago, the events of A New Hope take place - ?? years ago the Great Purge, the Night of a Thousand Tears happens, where the Empire wipes out the Mandalorians (this is likely somewhere around 10 years ago, but could be anywhere in this timeline) - 5 years ago, the Empire fell in the events of Return of the Jedi In the first episode, Mythrol asks if it’s true you guys never take off your helmets. In episode 2, Kuill says he’s never met a Mandalorian, he’s only heard stories about them (and their battle skill is implied). In episode 3, Paz Vizsla says that the beskar was from the Great Purge, the reason they live like sand rats now. In episode 4, Cara asks what happens if Din takes off his helmet, despite that he never told her that about himself, but she has no mention of any other type of Mandalorian. The thing is: The Mandalorians we know from The Clone Wars and Rebels were running around the galaxy eleven ago at minimum (likely less even!). And the Empire has been gone for five of those years. Which means, even if the Empire would have suppressed knowledge of the Mandalorians (and there’s no suggestion that they did, nor an obvious reason to), it wasn’t just within living memory, it was only a five or six year period where they would have had time to do so. So, within those eleven years, did the galaxy forget that any other kind of Mandalorian exists? The Children of the Watch were wiped out in the same Great Purge, so it’s not like they sprung up in place of other types of Mandalorians, and they’ve lived in hiding ever since. But are apparently common enough that people know they don’t take their helmets off, ever? I can believe that, despite that Din is fairly aware of the state of the galaxy (he knows the New Republic is a joke when Greef suggests reporting the Imperial remnants to them), he’s extremely unaware in other ways. I can believe that even when the Mandalorians were running around the galaxy eleven years ago and he would have been in his 20s at earliest, more likely in his 30s, that the Watch was all he knew, he’s not a chatty guy, and somehow he avoided running into any other Mandalorians during the years of the Empire before Bo-Katan united the Houses. What I’m forever ??? about is how do people around Din seem to accept his religious rules as the default on Mandalorians? Are we just supposed to think that everyone else knows most Mandalorians weren’t like that but don’t say anything because they know Din does follow those rules? Are we supposed to think that they were killed off and eleven years is long enough that nobody remembers anything but the Children of the Watch version of Mandalorians, despite that all of them would have been plenty old enough to remember? My frustration is that people seem extremely aware that Mandalorians exist and understand that they don’t take their helmets off, they’ve “heard the stories” or they know tidbits about them. I get that the Empire suppressed and changed knowledge of the Jedi, they had ~20 years of propaganda and Palpatine made a hardcore point of it because he didn’t want anyone else to have access to the Force. And if all knowledge about Mandalorians had been wiped, okay, sure, maybe there was a reason. But people are aware Mandalorians exist! They’ve heard the stories! They know details about Din’s version of Mandalorians! How do they know that, but nobody seems to be aware that Din’s not the default? Or are they just extremely aware of the difference between the Houses of Mandalore and the Children of the Watch and so they know Din’s different, but they’re not interested in asking about other Mandalorians, only Children of the Watch? I just don’t really see how the galaxy goes from what we knew during the Clone Wars and Rebels to the state of the galaxy re: Mandalorians in The Mandalorian. If nobody mentioned it and Din was unaware, sure, but multiple people around him seem like Din’s version is default and, like, JON, DAVE, I WATCHED REBELS, I KNOW THE STATE OF THE GALAXY, COME ON.

#din djarin #mandalorians #the mandalorian #meta

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ace-reviews · 4 months

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WINTER 2024 ANIME RECOMMENDATIONS

I counted and there are 8.5 blonde ladies in either a lead or primary love interest role this season (8 if you count the one whose hair is sometimes black as half of one). Do what you will with this information. I only share it because it’s something that was ticking me off that I noticed.

Anyway, we’re trying out a new format this season: Instead of only recommending anime we’re not familiar with, we’re each picking one we are familiar with and one we went into completely blind.

ACE’S RECOMMENDATION #1: MR. VILLAIN’S DAY OFF

After the deluge of isekai that try to teach the importance of having a healthy work-life balance by having the lack of one kill off it’s main character in the first five minutes of the episode, it’s really nice to have something that teaches the same lesson by choosing to model what one looks like rather than killing anybody. It’s also got a lot of pandas in it, which is always nice.

ACE’S RECOMMENDATION #2: SENGOKU YOUKO

Satoshi Mizukami seemingly can’t catch a break with anime adaptations of his manga: Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer sucked and this one is being seriously overshadowed by all the other really good and/or long-looked-forward-to adaptations this season. (Planet With was an anime first so it escaped the curse.)

Anyway, please watch this and have your friends watch this and buy the Blu–Rays and have your friends buy the Blu-Rays so my dream of a (good!!!) Spirit Circle anime can someday come true.

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CHARLIE’S RECOMMENDATION #1: SOLO LEVELING

(for the sake of our more sensitive readers, actual screenshots of the anime cannot be shown at this time)

If you like Cheat System anime, and don’t mind “a bit” of graphic violence (read: so much. There’s just so much violence.) , give this a shot. It’s based on one of the Korean manhua that made the genre what it is today, and as far as I’m concerned, they’ve done a good job being faithful to their source so far - they didn’t even give them Japanese names, you guys.

CHARLIE’S RECOMMENDATION #2: A SIGN OF AFFECTION

(adorable)

It’s cute, and disability rep is always a bonus. I like how they animated the sign language, which seems fairly realistic to me, someone who speaks no sign languages.

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FEN’S RECOMMENDATION #1: LOOKING UP TO MAGICAL GIRLS

This is a series I’ve been following since there were only five chapters out in the manga, so I would like to preface this recommendation by saying I’m the only one who’s actually right about it. I’m a veteran, a true soul who’s stuck with it for the past x years since it first released, and as such everything I say about it is valid and correct and anything people who aren’t as familiar with it says is complete horseshit pulled out of their ass. This is a factual statement.

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete, which has been translated for the manga as “Looking up to Magical Girls” (correct) and by vile HIDIVE as “Gushing Over Magical Girls” (bad and wrong) is a trashy, over-indulgent yuri series for weird perverts that is good, actually, (genuinely), and if the adaptation manages to capture Onanaka Akihiko’s remarkably deft hand in weaving the series’ fetish gags with the story’s genuine moments of pathos and surprising character depth then the anime will also be good, actually.

Dude trust me.

FEN’S RECOMMENDATION #2: METALLIC ROUGE

This is an anime original series about super fighting robots on Mars doing a hitman shit on android rebels for the government and also yuri, maybe. ACAB includes Rouge Redstar, watch this show.

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BONUS RECOMMENDATIONS: DUNGEON MESHI AND ‘TIS TIME FOR “TORTURE,” PRINCESS

A recommendation to watch Dungeon Meshi is the most redundant thing on the planet this season, but even so you should still watch Dungeon Meshi. Also, Fen and I had a bit of a back-and-forth over who would recommend Torture Princess since it was something she was familiar with and something I had only heard of and I wasn’t going to recommend it because I thought she would and she apparently chose not to recommend it because she thought I was going to so take it as a recommendation both from someone who is and someone who isn’t familiar with Torture Princess to watch Torture Princess.

#solo leveling #dungeon meshi #metallic rouge #sengoku youko #mr villain's day off #a sign of affection #looking up to magical girls #it's time for torture princess #winter 2023 #first impressions

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antianakin · 3 months

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@theneutralmime

Man, you absolutely need to find your way into the pro Jedi corner of AO3.

Setting that aside, what do I think the clones' opinion on Anakin is in canon (and specifically Rex's opinion)?

It seems overall positive, from what we can tell. In season 2 during the Landing at Point Rain episode, Rex's only obvious response to being thrown off a wall is to tiredly tell Anakin to "just ask him to jump next time." During the Umbara arc in season 4, Fives specifically points out that Anakin would never act the way Krell does. In season 6, during the Fives chip arc, we see Fives feeling pretty comfortable teasing Anakin with a dick joke and Anakin's only response to it is basically to tell him to focus. In season 7, Rex feels comfortable pushing Anakin a little about the mission to find Echo, to ask for help and support from Anakin without worrying about any major backlash (granted, Anakin DOES nearly refuse to help Rex at all and Padme has to talk him into it, but Rex clearly believes it's worth asking Anakin for assistance at all which still tells us something about what Rex thinks of him). In Rebels, Rex does nothing but gush about Anakin very positively, at nearly any chance he gets. Rex obviously doesn't know about Anakin betraying them all at this point, and you could argue that due to how he likely thinks Anakin died that his memories have perhaps developed a rosy hue that kind-of distorts them into something more positive than they were initially. But that's speculation and my personal interpretation based on my feelings about Anakin, not necessarily what's actually represented within the show.

So overall, what we DO see of Anakin's relationship with the men under his command during TCW is generally positive and that he's a General who does try to minimize casualties among his troops. HOWEVER, he is not the ONLY Jedi who is trying to minimize casualties, but one of MANY. In the Umbara arc, Fives doesn't just point out that ANAKIN would never be like Krell, but that NONE OF THE JEDI would be like Krell. And during the Citadel arc, there's an entire side story where Tarkin criticizes the Jedi for explicitly refusing to push for victory at any cost, and while both Ahsoka and Obi-Wan vehemently disagree and defend the Jedi's strategy, it's ANAKIN who agrees with Tarkin that they're being too soft. So while Anakin appears to be going along with the Jedi's current strategy and is smart enough to recognize that sometimes there are smarter ways to victory that cost fewer lives, he is BY FAR not the only Jedi to care about minimizing clone casualties and is in fact the ONLY Jedi we ever see who seems to believe they're being TOO SOFT and should maybe be pushing harder for victory no matter the cost.

Rex's relationship with Ahsoka is... odd sometimes. I feel like the end of the show (and things like TOTJ) sort-of insinuate that their relationship is a lot closer than we actually see it be during TCW. There are practically no scenes where the two of them get to just... be together and bond. It generally seems to stay pretty professional through season 5. Obi-Wan at least has a few times where he and Rex have sort-of SHARED an experience on a mission together, like their time on Kadavo as slaves or even Umbara to some degree, Christophsis, Saleucamai, etc. The only arc coming to mind where Rex and Ahsoka are left together is the Blue Shadow Virus arc which focuses much more on Ahsoka bonding with PADME, not Rex or the clones. So while Rex's relationship with Obi-Wan seems to also be fairly basic and professional, there's a lot more times where the two of them end up on a mission together without Anakin or Ahsoka around, while Ahsoka and Rex often seem to get separated and when they aren't, the focus is on Ahsoka bonding with someone ELSE.

I think a lot of people WANT Rex and Ahsoka to have really cared about each other and obviously season 7 of TCW made it a lot more explicit, but the first 5 seasons of TCW don't really build it up that much, and it's something I think TCW failed at personally. It would've been nice to have more exploration of that relationship, but I just don't feel like we got it. If we ignore season 7 of TCW, I honestly feel like Rex DOES have more of a relationship with Anakin than he does with Ahsoka. I think it's always very professional, but there does seem to be a level of familiarity and comfort and respect there between them that just doesn't exist with Ahsoka.

All of this being said, I don't think any of that really justifies Rex GUSHING about Anakin in Rebels and constantly comparing him favorably to Kanan, that doesn't feel in character for Rex to me or particularly accurate to the way that relationship was actually portrayed.

Nor do I think that any of the more professional respect that Rex did have for Anakin would keep him from refusing to forgive him once he finds out the truth about Vader. People attribute "I'm no Jedi" to Ahsoka these days, but the first person to say that line was REX, right before he spears a slaver. And I think it would be reasonable to assume that, if Rex as told the truth about Anakin, that he'd be able to look back at their history and see all of the times Anakin took advantage of him in a very different light. When he thinks Anakin was a heroic Jedi, he can see those moments as just Anakin trusting Rex with all of his deepest secrets. But after he knows Anakin is the one who enslaved the clones and murdered the Jedi? I imagine that might change.

And dear LORD, I've got about a MILLION issues with the idea that Anakin de-chips the 501st clones post-Order 66 and that they still LIKE HIM afterwards. For one, Anakin would not do this. This is wildly out of character for him. Anakin is a slaver and people need to just accept that this is a completely canon aspect of his character. Anakin does not CARE about anybody while he's being Vader, his primary concern is HIMSELF and he wants everyone else to be miserable in the dark with him. He has zero issues with causing pain or exerting power over people and we see this OVER AND OVER AGAIN during the Original Trilogy. There is absolutely no way that Anakin, while still Vader, would EVER de-chip the clones.

But even that has nothing on the absurdity that is the idea that the clones still LIKE HIM once they're de-chipped, like... WHAT THE FUCK. They now know that Anakin MIND-CONTROLLED THEM INTO WEAPONS that he used to cause a GENOCIDE AGAINST THE JEDI. How in the FUCK would any of the clones be OKAY WITH THAT? Anakin MARCHED THEM INTO THE FUCKING TEMPLE AND POINTED THEM AT INNOCENT MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN. If there is ANYTHING that we learned about the clones during TCW, it's that they would NEVER have been okay with that or done it of their own free will. So the only way you can justify the clones "getting along" with Anakin post-Order 66 is to claim the clones just hated the Jedi enough to be totally fine with having been used to commit their genocide.

And even if we assume that, we still have to assume the clones just don't care that much about Anakin having been a part of mind controlling them IN THE FIRST PLACE. That's a MAJOR betrayal for them to forgive EVEN IF they don't care about the Jedi they were forced to kill (INCLUDING CHILDREN). And these are the 501st clones, which means they would've personally known Anakin, these were the men Anakin was PERSONALLY responsible for protecting, which just makes the betrayal all the worse. It would've been bad enough if it was, say, the Coruscant Guard who probably barely know Anakin and who Anakin was not tasked with ever leading, but it's not. It's the 501st, who HAVE to rely on Anakin to lead them well. It's the 501st, many of whom already went through Umbara where they dealt with a Jedi General who treated them JUST LIKE THIS and we saw that NONE OF THEM LIKED IT (even Dogma, who believes in loyalty to the Jedi above all else, doesn't actually LIKE what they're forced to do and is just as horrified as anybody else when they realize they've been tricked into killing fellow clones).

So while I think it's entirely fair to say that Rex and the other 501st DID have a positive relationship with Anakin during the Clone Wars and that Anakin was doing his best to minimize casualties, I think it's UNFAIR to claim that Anakin was doing something the other Jedi WEREN'T also doing and that the clones would EVER continue to respect or like him post-Order 66.

#star wars #captain rex #501st legion #501st battalion #ahsoka tano #obi-wan kenobi #anti anakin #anti anakin skywalker #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical

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hecckyeah · 7 months

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Listen. I know, I KNOW we all have mixed feelings about the finale. Just in the last hour, I’ve read at least five posts on each side, some saying it was the best thing filoni’s ever created, and some literally cursing his guts. As I watched it, I was leaning much more to the how dare you, I waited two years for this and this sucks side, but I had a good night of sleep and some thought, and. I think everyone is overreacting.

Some thoughts.

First, I do think it should have been an animated Rebels season 5. I am partial to live action in general and I’m so glad we got such fantastic casting. But Filoni really shines in the animated world. Live action has limits that animation laughs at, and with all of Dave’s creativity and parallels and callbacks and history in animation, it would have suited this show better. Granted, the viewership might have been worse than it already was, but who’s to say?

Secondly, of course the whole thing was a setup for future movies/shows. It would have been near impossible for this to be a standalone series, with only 8 episodes and so much at stake. I still have absolutely zero idea how this fits in with the s*quels, but I hope it’s all part of the plan to safely extract our (Filoni’s) favorite characters before all hell breaks loose on the narrative.

BUT. Just because it was a setup doesn’t make the story any less meaningful. Dave is the master of arcs within arcs within arcs within arcs. There was the mini arc of Ahsoka and Anakin, reconciling very (very very) complicated feelings and Ahsoka coming to grips with her past as a child soldier and forgiving Anakin for the choices and mistakes he made. There was the mini arc of Hera in the New Republic and how she has to balance her loyalty to the government that she helped to establish with her loyalty to her family (something I don’t think we’ve seen the last of). There was the mini arc of (obviously) finding Ezra!!!! HE’S HOME, YOU GUYS. Sabine did the selfless thing and sent him home after a decade to have a fighting chance to reunite with his family. And to meet Kanan’s son and to see the beauty that Lothal has turned into and to hug his adoptive mom. And she has full faith in him that he will be back to get her, or that she’ll find a way to go back. Because she now has knowledge that he didn’t before, and with Ahsoka’s help and probably Shin and Baylan too, there’s no way they won’t Jedi their way out of this. (*cough* world between worlds *cough*) Also seeing Morai was a HUGE plot twist. I, for one, can’t WAIT to see what’s up with that.

FINALLY. and I think this is something that Star Wars fans (dare I call them fans anymore?) seem to always forget is that Star Wars……. Kinda sucks. It always has. No one in their right mind would say that Star Wars is a literary masterpiece or anything close to that. Star Wars is great because you are literally required to take it all with a grain of salt. Nothing goes at face value. You have to overlook things for the rest to make sense. You cherry pick your favorite parts and ignore the rest. Do I know absolutely anything about mandalore and their political history?? Not one single thing. But could I explain to you the nuances of the aptly-named Disaster Lineage and how generation trauma comes in more ways than by blood?? I could write PAGES. There’s so much history and lore and side characters and branches of story and nuance that no one can ever fit it all together perfectly, no matter how good of a storyteller they are. You have to pick a niche and run with it, and that’s exactly what Dave Filoni is doing. AND that’s what we as fans need to do. If you’re mad that he didn’t address the chiss as a whole or delve into the mysteries of the nightsisters or expand on what happened between Ahsoka and Sabine in depth, then I’m sorry, but you’ve come to the wrong place. Put on a pair of rose colored glasses and cry at Ezra’s reunions with the rest of us.

I’ve stopped expecting perfection from any major franchise (haven’t watched a marvel show or movie since TF&TWS) because the bigger they get, the less they’re going to appeal to the general fan base. And Ahsoka was no different. But it did accomplish one thing: bringing Ezra Bridger home after 10 years, and I think that is all we actually need to worry about for now.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka #ahsoka series #rants and thoughts with katie

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beasanfi1997 · 5 months

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If the Last book of the Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley reveals all the reason about the mysterious Pa' Salt, It means that Star Wars Rebels season five will reveals what happened during the original Trilogy of Star Wars when George Lucas will be 80 and Dave Filoni will be 50 in 2024 for the 10th anniversary of Star Wars Rebels as Star Wars the Clone Wars season Seven reveals what happened during the movie Revenge of the Sith and i Wonder that Star Wars Resistance season three will reveals during the movie Rise of Skywalker

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regarding-stories · 5 months

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The dark abyss that is Andor

There were several things that led to Andor.

On the one hand, Disney screwed up its Star Wars intellectual property by handing it to complete hacks for Episode VII to IX, leading a potential cash cow to attract less and less viewers over the course of three increasingly bad installments. Seriously, The Last Jedi is one of the worst disappointments I've actually watched, and not only was I thinking "This can't get worse..." every five minutes only to be proven, "Yes, it can!!", it completely killed my appetite to see IX (and I would have left the cinema at that one's sheer stupidity). With VII, I saw it once with some initial excitement in a cinema when it released and a strange feeling afterwards, and I never revisited it. VIII I saw on two separate long-distance flights because I couldn't stomach the thing in one sitting. IX I didn't see at all, but devoured YouTube videos ripping it apart. Clearly, Disney had a Star Wars problem.

The other thing is the reboot that was The Mandalorian, especially season 1. The Mandalorian had a penchant for not very strong logic in its writing that you still accepted because you had so much damn fun and loved the characters. Given the fact that it clearly pulled lots of viewers into Disney+ that were loving its vibe that was true to the core of Star Wars, Disney management saw the fact that theaters and theme parks were closed due to COVID on the one hand and that big Star Wars movies were at risk of actually losing money on the other hand, and they did what executives are wont to do - they decided that if it worked once, it will work again and declared they will pump out TEN Star Wars series in the near future.

Meanwhile they cancelled also their ongoing series of "A Star Wars Story" movies that started with what could be called "Episode III.5" - Rogue One. Rogue One was plagued with production problems, so much so that seeming key scenes from the trailer weren't in the movie. "I rebel!", anyone?? Still, it turned out to be something new - a new kind of Star Wars story. It took the idea of a war movie (or its modern equivalent, Band of Brothers) and put it into the Star Wars cinematic universe. It did without an actual Jedi (kinda-sorta) and it showed a strong performance of Diego Luna as the morally gray Cassian Andor. And... (spoiler alert) ... it killed its whole cast in its finale.

I know people that say Rogue One is their favorite Star Wars movie. (But other people dislike it.) I hold it in high esteem. The way the resistance is portrayed also seemed to be somewhat subversive - both to its previous image on screen and to what is portrayable on screen for mainstream audiences in general. It became clear that unlike in the original three Star Wars movies resisting an empire is, on the ground, a dirty business and not just about big battles or commando raids. (Which then happen anyway. Because Star Wars.)

Then followed the lackluster Solo and the third installment Yoda was never made as Star Wars increasingly lost its ability to draw crowds into seats.

And thus it came to Andor

Now what do you do with a character that (spoiler alert? really?) dies. You make a bloody prequel. Which is funny. Andor is a prequel to Rogue One which is a prequel to A New Hope. Prequels, like sequels, carry the risk of rehashing the original material without adding anything to it (Solo ...) and being trapped by the inevitability of what has to happen next, curtailing its writing (Kenobi ...). But Andor season 1 betrays none of that. (Talk about being addicted to prequels, Disney...) It is a strong piece of cinematic art in its own right.

And yes, I'm saying art. About a Star Wars series. That's how I feel about it. Andor not only has strong execution, it has depth. It was a show that made me pause it and think about what just happened on screen. It's a show that gets deeper if you know about history, unlike most shows that actually reveal their shallowness to the knowing eye. (Looking at you, The Man in the High Castle. Boy, I hated that tripe.)

But even before we get into that, let me say how I impressed I was with its set and costume design. Whereas the Book of Boba Fett gave us cyberpunks on floating scooters, Andor poured a lot of heart into how everybody looked in their various environments, creating a more rich and varied Star Wars society by portraying various strata thereof, from the life of imperial senator Mon Mothma to the middle class living literally in her shade somewhere on the middle levels of planet-city Coruscant to the mining town labor class that we find Cassian in. It flawlessly cuts between different well-thought out locations, including, of all things, a holiday resort.

This is paired with some very strong performances by similarly strong actors. I mean, we all knew Stellan Skarsgard would deliver, sure. But Denise Gough absolutely kills it, acting-wise. Her delivery as a villain is perfect, the way she manages to always look so sour and annoyed already is quite something, how she normalizes evil into a technocrat career. Every flinch of her face conveys books of information to me as the fascinated viewer. She is at the heart of this series, and worth the price of admission alone.

And let's not forget Andy Serkis' heart-rending performance. Really, we're being spoiled. People are seriously acting, not just standing in front of a camera wearing costumes! In Star Wars!!

And yet, if it was only that, it still wouldn't have impacted me as deeply as it had. There's one more layer to this, and it's the massive bottom of the iceberg that is Andor. I haven't forgotten, even though I'm writing this a year after watching it.

(And definitely spoilers from here on onwards.)

Life under fascism

The second half of season 1 however can put deep horror into any thinking person's mind. It radically departs from previous portrayals of the evil Empire. It's not relying on cheap gimmicks like Episode VII where we see a village razed by the First Order. (So evil. So cliche, too. Also murdering Max von Sydow. Tsk, tsk. They had to get him off stage before any good acting happens...) Andor creeps under our skin and then reaps havoc.

(This part of this entry will become increasingly dark. You might not want to read on. Because fiction is one thing, and comparing it to historical reality is another. This is an actual trigger warning. Proceed with care.)

The first half of the season is standard fare, almost. Cassian gets himself in trouble and there is really no redeeming quality about it. He also gets everybody else into trouble. The Empire in its heavy-handed hurry to eradicate resistance actually creates it in the first place. And still... the lack of compunction about torture, about going victim by victim, vanishing people into its torture cells, breaking them... this is merely an overture. No hero is born here, but evil wears its mask imperfectly.

Cassian escapes his small world to eventually live the good life on a resort world, getting laid, pretending to be someone else. Instead of being caught as the fugitive and murderer and partisan he actually is by now, he simply gets caught up in the arrest of somebody else. The way the Empire "perpetrates justice" not only gets him arrested while having done no wrong (in that cover identity), he also gets sentenced by a court that doesn't even pretend to actually care about due process in any way. There's a machine of oppression, and instead of competently catching him, Cassian becomes caught up randomly in one of its many gears.

And while this may seem random, it's brilliant. It's one of the many reasons why resistance exists. Because the Empire's overreach is everywhere, grinding up people just living their lives while trying to perfect its control. The corruption of the desire for power leaks through in its banality.

What follows is Cassian's imprisonment, and this segment is brutal and horrifying on a deep level. The more you know, the worse it gets. Cassian is transported to a prison facility where he's forced into repetitive labor to make equipment for the Empire. There's a set of steps every labor team has to execute, and the team with the lowest quota gets punished with electric shocks. Day after day.

This is "Vernichtung durch Arbeit." ("Destruction through labor.") This is what the Nazis did to their political opponents. Before there was a Holocaust, there were concentration camps. And prisoners were made to work - the cynic motto across the gate of Auschwitz was "Arbeit macht frei." ("Labor sets you free.") People would gradually be ground down until they gave out in one way or another, fell sick, die of exhaustion, broke psychologically. The series never tells us its "inspiration," it just goes through similar motions. With the veneer of a super-clean techno prison over it.

Not only that, the very scene reminded me of what I read in a book about the Holocaust. Towards the end of the war the engines for the new secret weapon jet planes or rockets were manufactured by prison labor. Crews of malnourished prisoners would each execute a few pretrained steps and crank out more jet engines in slave labor than was previously done in the Reich's armament factories. This was the culmination of the Nazi system where all labor-intensive things like the bunkers of the Atlantic Wall or the underground factories of Dora-Mittelbau were erected by and on the back of slaves that were themselves gradually killed in the process.

Without ever breathing a word of what is portraying, Andor portrays the same. Skillfully, horribly so.

The devil is in the details

Some way into this horror, everybody gets their sentence doubled. The counter simply goes up. No explanation. Total helplessness in the face of total control. The deep gut feeling of "No one gets out here alive" or "It will never end" begins to descend. That number was a sort of life line for people to brave another day. And it lies!

As unbelievable as it may seem, people did get released from concentration camps, especially those on "lighter charges" like "antisocial behavior." But nobody really knew how long they had to stay or if they were to be released. Often, initially told they had to do 3 to 6 months depending on their conduct, and yet most people never left alive. A quick read in a book behind me says that 8 million people were sucked into the system, 7 million died, 200,000 left by being released by the system itself. The idea you might be released one day added false hope that in itself could create further psychological torture if it was dashed over and over again.

Then there is the "divide and conquer" approach to prisoner management. Work crews are led by other prisoners, rebellion and resistance is quelled within the ranks. This Andor merely hints at, but the Nazi oppression system skillfully created hierarchies to make sure a comparatively small detachment of guards could handle a large mass of inmates which could overwhelm them if acting together.

But it doesn't stop here, not in Andor, either. Eventually we learn that the Empire starts to eliminate the prison population. Rumors start to spread that an entire floor of the super prison was eliminated by electrocution. Just like the real Nazis the space Nazis start to construct yet another death machine to eliminate opposition.

And this leads to that sub-plots final chapter, the prison revolt. There are a few historical mass escapes, even from Nazi death camps. There's also the heroism of the two uprisings of Warsaw (including the ghetto uprising). Left with nothing to lose, left with nothing but death ahead, the prisoners overwhelm the guards.

And this happened in real life, too. It's probably based on the historical case of the death camp inmates that were forced to run the gas chambers and crematoria themselves. This is part of the Holocaust itself, the Nazis had finally dropped all pretenses and resorting to kill people in an industrial manner. And these people knew that eventually their whole detachment would be killed. They knew too much, were witnesses to this massive crime against them and humanity itself. They were also among those destined for death. Like in an antechamber of hell itself they were merely bidding time. So they managed one of the few mass escapes on record.

While Andor doesn't stray as far down the road as actual history does, it knows how to cite history for those who know. It's not made up of whole cloth. It actually is referencing the real history of the most inhumane version of fascism, but it does not put the fact in your face. But if you know, its chamber of horrors becomes so much deeper.

And that's why

This is what makes Andor an absolute masterpiece. It recreates the conditions without blindly copying the source. It adapts, but you can feel how deeply inhumane the circumstances are that it depicts. It gives you the bloody creeps, and even if you don't know how much it is rooted in darkness, you will still feel it. It shows. It tells. But it never spoils the source material.

This is art. This is the deep craft. The banality of evil, the careless, uncaring attitude of evil towards those it deems unworthy and not human. It's all on display. It switches us into the place of Cassian and of Andy Serkis' character as it draws us in as audience. We don't see what happens on other floors. We don't have the information advantage. We can only imagine. We are subjected to the fact that we can only imagine it. And so we share a bit in the plight of these characters. Sometimes not showing a thing is the highest accomplishment of movie making.

And this is why I'm pissed that a series that was planned for five seasons was already cut to play out in two. Because we need more of this and less of more Jedi doing backflips. Just like Loki plays on a completely different level than the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Andor leaves all of Star Wars in its dust. If Rogue One was the attempt to tell a different kind of story in the same universe, Andor is the attempt at a different level of depth.

And this, more than Rogue One, makes it clear why they fight.

Watch it if you can.

And sorry if I horrified you.

#andor #andor series #cassian andor #rogue one #star wars

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thesoftboiledegg · 7 months

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"How Poopy Got His Poop Back" was OK. The plot was generic, but after 61 episodes, I'm not going to expect every outing to be a mindblowing sci-fi spectacular. Sometimes, it's nice to have a lowkey episode that catches up with old characters, especially since we thought two of them died in season two.

"Squanch! Told you he wasn't dead." The writers knew what we were thinking. I also thought Gearhead died at the end of "Mortynight Run," but I guess he's harder to kill than he looks.

I enjoyed checking in with Bird Person and Bird Daughter--looks like he's got his hands full--and was glad that Rick continued his character development from season six. He's still a hot mess, but he tries to do the right thing for his friends and even the robot ("Hang on, let me go upstairs and grab the business finisher.") The subtext gave the episode some depth so that it wasn't just twenty minutes of pointless hijinks.

Rick's new voice actor nailed his characterization, too. His voice stood out a little at first, but I'd forgotten about the new actor by the second act, and his voice sounds "normal" upon rewatches. I guess it just takes a short adjustment period.

Whatever the case, any drunk guy at a bar can burp and stutter like Rick, but the new actor (whoever he is) picked up right where Roiland left off. He might not sound exactly like Rick 100% of the time, but combining Rick's trademark blunt raspiness with his lower, gentler tones from the past few seasons is more impressive.

Speaking of actors: who voiced Mr. Poopybutthole? He sounded EXACTLY like Justin Roiland. Maybe it was the same actor who voiced Morty, who also did well.

On another note, I loved seeing Space Beth eating breakfast with the family. Ditching your kids to be a pirate/rebel/space badass/whatever isn't the feminist act that a lot of shows seem to think it is, and I'm glad that Rick and Morty subverted that trope. Space Beth can love her family AND save the universe. She's a modern woman who wants to have it all!

On to Morty. I don't have much to say about him, and this review suggests that he doesn't have much to do next week, either--which hints at a continuation of season six's biggest issue. Season six was great, but half the episodes were The Rick Sanchez Show. When Morty did appear, he didn't have much to do until he finally lost his patience in the finale.

I won't dive into his dynamic with Morty because you could write pages of meta on that one, but in summary: their dynamic is the core of the series, and I hope the writers don't keep separating them. C-137 Rick's attachment to his Morty is a sharp contrast to the other Ricks who treat theirs like disposable toys.

Back to this episode: Rick's doing better--he's dressing and showering, he's communicating with his family, and he's even willing to abandon his search for a few hours--but Prime's still the center of his universe. Season five also started small and concluded with insane twists that turned the show inside out, and I'm betting that this laid-back opener is the start of a similar acceleration.

This episode alone made up about a fourth of the trailer scenes, so goddamn: what aren't we seeing?

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #how poopy got his poop back #review #season seven

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rotzaprachim · 1 year

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one of the most interesting aspects of andor to me is how i think it didn’t decision to alter character timelines so much as make the decision to alter- or rather, cut open and interrogate- the entire timeline of the rebellion, in ways that have fascinating implications for the entire worldbuilding of the starry wars. one of the lingering uncertainties of “andor” comes from the refusal to play any of the cards of the Rebel Alliance as the plucky good-guy army, for whom Joining the Rebellion is as straightforward as enlisting and getting a uniform, who can show up and do army things at any moment. as the episodes build and build and build and the tension and power of the imperial army grows higher, the Rebel Alliance just.... doesn’t appear. there is no Secret Base for Luthen to take Cassian too, only a tiny group of guerillas in the highlands. there is none of the famous iconography of the Rebellion- no orange flight suits (though boy does andor give a new cast to that color choice), no rebel armed rebel bases, no x-wings go swoop in at the last moment. as I watched Andor I felt the lingering stone-drop realisation: the Rebellion, as we know it, simply does not exist. what we get is a hyper-isolated, fragmented rebellion in its infancy, tiny groups and intellligence operations so low on cash that the theft of a single sector’s payroll or access to a single wealthy woman’s family funds. Cassian can’t join the rebel alliance, because it doesn’t exist yet.

And that’s one story. that’s a far, far more complicated story, and a more difficult story to exist within, than the plucky rebel army versus big empire narrative star wars has been living in. how do you join something like that? it really isn’t that easy. BUT! here’s the thing. BUT BUT BUT. andor complicates that further by showing, over and over again, that even if that rebel alliance can’t swoop in and save the day, that even if the number of *official* Rebellion members is a tiny fraction down to their last resources, organised rebellion is, in fact, possible. and it already exists. it exists everywhere, in numerous forms. it is both non violent and violent, and it is often the work of *civillians,* because the fundamental conditions of war, occupation, and totalitarianism make, politicise, designate everyone as a soldier. looking back on andor, there isn’t a single arc that isn’t made possible by some form of organised, collective rebellion. cassian couldn’t have escaped from ferrix if ferrix didn’t already have a system of pounding metal in order to spread the word, if salman and wilmon paak didn’t get set to banging metal, and brasso didn’t weld weights to the police squad car. the rebels couldn’t have pulled off the aldhani heist if hundreds of local aldhani hadn’t continued their cultural rites and kept coming on that pilgrimage even as local imperial agents actively worked to prevent it- because existence can be rebellion, because the continuation of cultural and religious traditions under oppression can be rebellion. the crowning point of the season, for me, is the prison break at narkina five, the five thousand prisoners knowing that there’s only one way out, and that’s by running, shooting, killing, by climbing out together. the series ends on an entire local uprising as a town’s funeral march turns into a riot against armed, shielded cops.

And it all leads into these much more nuanced things that Andor is saying about the natures of both oppression and resistance. Because it isn’t giving the (individualist, and somewhat defeatest, but sure damn repeated) narrative that rebellion against authoritarianism is about a few Englightened individuals - the luthen’s, the aldhani rebels- versus the mass of Sheeple who just take it. Are thankful for it. That there’s just the Special ones who see the light, and those that.. Haven’t. Nor are there the essentialistly Good Pure Rebels who have all the Right Ideas in a nice Color Coded Format, who have fought Purely and Totally for the Rebellion From the Start, versus the bad guys The structures of empire don’t work like that- they make huge numbers of people complicit because of the way they stack and tier and turn subjugated people against each other when so few individuals, actually are in charge, and they make the alternative to complicity be nothing but death, in horrific ways. The people in Andor have dirt on their hands. It’s about what they do now. The X-wings can’t come to save Cassian from Narkina. The prisoners have to climb their way out. No one can give the Aldhani rebels backup. Only Luthen and Cinta and Vel can come to Maarva’s wake, and when the fighting comes, it isn’t even about them, anyway. Andor asks what happens when there isn’t the golden saviour, the Good Guy army coming in for us, and makes the case for rebellion as something intensely collectivist and intensely local, that rebellion and rebels exist before our very eyes, in more complicated ways. It’s what makes the show both brutal and brutally hopeful - for one of the first times, watching star wars, i get the sense viscerally that better worlds and forms of existence are possible within the star wars world.

As for cassian, the arc I hope they’re going for, and i really do think are going for, is not that he joined the rebellion as we see it in rogue one. It’s that that rebellion as we know didn’t exist yet, and that his arc will be about helping to stitch together the various forms of rebellion that already exist, everywhere. I think we’ll walk into Rogue One now not seeing Cassian as Mon and Draven’s hand- already fascinating - but as one of the rebellion’s quiet powerbrokers and kingmakers whose a big part of why they’re there to begin with.

#andor #screaming crying vomiting blood over this show forever and ever #cassian andor

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