#star wars deserves better than disney

[tljisthegoat]

The cruel irony of Disney, a company that used to be known for Happily Ever Afters & overall wholesome family-friendly shows/movies, absolutely butchered & disrespected Reylo's story just boggles my mind. They really looked at what Rian Johnson did with TLJ & and said, "Let's ruin EVERYTHING" just because the internet had the equivalent of a temper tantrum mixed with a mental breakdown over Luke not being this perfect Jedi that he was in the Old Canon/Legends continuity.

They must've mentally blocked out all of Yoda's warnings to Luke about the consequences of using the dark side.

Like when he flat out told Luke & us as the audience that if Luke used the dark side, it would start him down the dark path. Forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will. As it did Obi-Wan's apprentice. This proved to be true when Luke's use of the dark side allowed him to overcome & defeat Vader. But at the cost of changing his destiny. This is further explored in TLJ when Luke tries to kill Ben in order to stop him from becoming Kylo Ren in the future.

Sooo we're just gonna ignore that the biggest difference between Darth Vader and Kylo Ren is what Luke sensed in them? People lack critical thinking & literary analysis skills, and it shows.

Luke to Darth Vader - "I've accepted you were once Anakin Skywalker, my father. It is the name of your true self. You've only forgotten. I know there is good in you. The emperor hasn't driven it from you fully. That was why you couldn't destroy me. That's why you won't bring me to your emperor now."

Luke continues on. "Come with me."

Luke walks toward Vader, his eyes hopeful and determined. "Search your feelings father, you can't do this. I feel the conflict within you let go of your hate."

Vader responds with such overwhelming sadness, "It is too late for me, son..."

Luke: "Then my father is truly dead."

Luke: "Your thoughts betray you, father. I sense the good in you. The conflict"

Vader: "There is no conflict."

Yet, when he looks into Ben's mind, he sees darkness. He's an unreliable narrator as well to Rey, who has to force the truth of what happened to Ben out of him.

Luke: "I saw darkness. I sensed it building him in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction and pain and death and the end of everything I love because of what he will become. And in the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow. And I was left with shame and consequence. And the last thing I saw was the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him."

Rey believes in Ben being their last hope, and she was right in the end. She was also right to tell Luke that his fatal mistake was believing Ben's choice was made already. It wasn't.

Rey & Ben found belonging in one another in TLJ and had that story been given a proper conclusion with lots of kisses, sex and all that good stuff, then we would've had a future that truly lives forever instead of one that's a pathetic shell of what it could've been.

#reylo #tlj is an underappreciated gem #anti disney #im tired of having everything i cherish taken from me #disney made the sequel trilogy a tragedy and i fucking hate it #anti tros #fuck all the people who never gave tlj a chanc #fuck modern disney #reylo deserved better #star wars deserves better than disney

[cienie-isengardu]

Star Wars Yoda Issue #8

#star wars #anakin skywalker #clone trooper #anakin and clones #STAR WARS SPOILERS #LOOK I'M SUCKER FOR ANAKIN & CLONES MOMENTS BUT I WISH MODERN SW AUTHORS STOP KILLING EVERY CLONE FOR DRAMA #IF THEY WANTED YODA TO TEAM UP WITH ANAKIN THEY SHOULD JUST MAKE IT A SPECIAL SOLO MISSION OF TWO JEDI #NOT LET'S KILL EVERY CLONE THEY CAME WITH #I'M TIRED OF THIS NONSENSE #I'M TIRED OF CLONES BE IN COMICS TO BE KILLED OFF INSTEAD OF ALLOWING US TO SEE THEM AS CHARACTERS #AND I'M TIRED OF THE TCW ANAKIN EVERYWHERE #seriously anakin and clones deserve better than that; the first being potrayed like idiot and the letters being barely there #or be just mass murdered by authors #damn it #damn the disney sw WHY YOU ARE LIKE THAT? :(

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

#star wars #star wars ahsoka #ahsoka #ahsoka 2023 #ahsoka show #ahsoka series #ahsoka tv #ahsoka tv show #ahsoka tano #anti rosario dawson #anti disney #fuck disney #ahsoka my beloved you deserve better than being played by a transphobe #anti kathleen kennedy #anti dave filoni

[gch1995]

Why do you care about Vader's feelings so much? He doesn't deserve dignity. I hope Lucasfilm makes a story where he's captured by the Rebellion and brutally tortured until he's crying for Shmi. They'll use force suppressing devices and make him feel like the worthless slave he is

I care because Star Wars is primarily Anakin’s story, whether you like it or not. I care because Luke’s entire character arc in the OT films is pointless if Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda were always meant to be the perfect mentors, who did nothing wrong. I care, not just about Anakin’s feelings, but the feelings of every other Jedi recruit who had serious issues with the way the old Jedi Order and Republic operated.

I care, because if the Jedi are supposed to be the good guys, in spite of their flaws, then we should ultimately be rooting for them to rise again with Luke Skywalker. Because Anakin’s arc and feelings in the prequels are no longer treated as valid in the Disney era of Star Wars, that means Obi-Wan and Yoda are treated as being completely right all along, and the new Jedi Order cannot grow with Luke Skywalker in the current canon. The same bad choices and mistakes keep being made in the current canon because he follows his blatantly misguided predecessors, which was not implied at the end of the OT movies at all. While I would never agree that mass murder/genocide is the answer to deal with stopping them, because the current canon narrative ignores all the serious issues Anakin and his predecessors had, at least in part, because of the blatant corruption within the Order and Republic they grew up amongst, I’m also not too thrilled that Luke rebuilt the Order because he’s repeating all of their misguided choices and practices in current canon as a result.

#anti disney star wars #Star Wars anon #why do I care about Anakin’s feelings? #because the current canon writers chose not to treat the criticisms and issues that others had with the old Jedi and republic as valid #and as a result it’s not really a triumph for Luke to have rebuilt the Jedi order in canon #because he’s just a carbon copy of obi wan and Yoda in Disney wars #so he keeps making the same mistakes and the Order fails again #except now it’s not really a tragedy anymore but a disappointment #because we were previously given the impression that luke was supposed to know better than his predecessors #since he got the healthy childhood and upbringing that they never did before becoming a Jedi #anakin skywalker #darth vader #luke skywalker #obi wan kenobi critical #yoda critical #I mean it’s not really me being against their characters #they are canonically deeply flawed #but because Disney refuses to acknowledge that Anakin and many of their recruits had valid issues with their treatment in the order #there is no longer a point in Anakin dying and Luke rebuilding it because he just goes on to make the same mistakes #it doesn’t mean they ever deserved mass murder to be stopped or eliminated #but why should I be rooting for Luke to rebuild the Order when it has all the same issues as the one that helped fuck up his father? #pt star wars #ot star wars #jedi council fuckery

[merrysithmas]

who had any idea rogue one and andor would be the only ones left standing after the Disney nuclear apocalypse of star wars

#star wars #and its all bc the same dude did it who doesnt give a fuck about disney or star wars #i really enjoyed andor a lot & rogue one #i wish they wouldve made heir to the empire in the style of andor w a recast han luke leia #thats all they had to do #instead they destroyed the whole IP #its bafflibg #the sequels destroyed the legacy characters and all they sought to fight for and build..... how did you do that #it failed finn rey rose and poe as diverse characters #the Bo Karendalorian failed the only decent project with atmosphere they had which followed a deeply devout man and his son on their holy #quest which gave them both deep spiritual ties #boba fett and obi wan had some high points but not enough to excuse the whole execution #just.... how #tales of the jedi and tbb are like Nick Jr tv which is fine for little kids but isnt even TOUCHING the clone wars level which was legit #a masterpiece from Lucas #just #sheesh #honestly this fandom really deserved better than the slow decay and destruction of an institution #at least we have Andor season 2 before its p much lights out for Star Wars #im grateful for that #and gilroys work

[rogue205]

Oh my god I HATE fan entitlement!!!!

So what, the trend these days if you don’t like how others are creating material like shows and movies for you to enjoy, and something happens you decide you don’t like, the answer is to create a petition to change it. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 That or try and blackmail the show runners just so you can get what you want.

Let’s just ignore the fact that you’re damn lucky to even get these shows and movies in the FIRST PLACE and just enjoy what you are given!!!! (Yes, I bitch when things happened that I hated but I would never do any of the above because it is what it is. I’m still gonna complain though because it’s simply my opinion.)

#my rant #looking at you stranger things umbrella academy and even voltron #game of thrones was really bad too for this #just enjoy what you are given for gods sake #this kind of fan pandering is already wrecking star wars #thanks a lot Disney #😡😡😡 #so far umbrella academy is standing their ground so good for that #voltron fandom is TOXIC as hell and the show runners and voice actors deserved WAY better than what was done to them #stranger things will be toxic soon enough so I guess it’s a good thing the show is going to end soon #Disney doesn’t care about Star Wars which makes me wonder why they bought it in the first place #oh yeah for the money but they will fan pander the shit out of it while they go

[david-talks-sw]

At some point when talking about the Jedi and the Prequels and Star Wars, I feel like there's distinctions that need to be made.

There's George Lucas' Star Wars.

And then there's Star Wars the transmedia franchise.

They are not one and the same.

They have similar messages. Depending on which continuity you go for, the message is more or less alike (Disney canon's treatment of the Jedi Order is slightly more aligned with GL's vision than the Legends canon was).

But they are not the same.

George Lucas' Star Wars is just the six films and the first six seasons of TCW which serve as an addendum to the six films, and the values and messages that derive from them.

The transmedia franchise has those values, but they've been diluted through comics and novels and games and authors who don't agree with GL's vision and authors who tweaked it a bit and retcons until it's no longer the same thing.

Which takes us to "did the Jedi deserve to fall" and the answers:

"no, but the institution needed to go"

There is NOTHING to indicate that read in George Lucas' Star Wars.

If you go by the movies ONLY, then the Jedi are in the right, and what happens to them is tragic, and I don't just mean Order 66.

The movies' narrative literally frames them - as a people, a religion and an institution - (and Bail Organa) as objectively good and the only ones trying to do what's right.

However, some of the marketing and storylines and comics and books presented in the EU and in new canon do support this POV.

If you count those as "just as valid and canon as the films and shows" then you'll have a very different view of the Jedi Order.

"yes, for what they did to Ahsoka".

Ahsoka is part of TCW.

If your Star Wars is the same as Lucas', then TCW is meant to be an asterisk in the larger story, nothing more than a footnote.

As such, Ahsoka's part is NOT that big, her being on Mandalore or being expelled from the Jedi Order is NOT a contributing factor for Anakin's turn to the Dark Side.

Ahsoka is NOT a part of the Prequels, which represent KEY moments in Anakin's life and the Republic's downfall.

But for many, Star Wars is the transmedia franchise. And TCW and the Prequel films are one and the same. So Ahsoka's treatment factors into the judgment.

If you add TCW's stories to the mix, welp, the show certainly questions them here and there, showing the war corrupted their values (because it was designed to do so) but in the first six seasons it does so in a fair manner showing both sides of the argument.

They're framed as caught between a rock and a hard place. They HAVE to do the very thing they didn't wanna do or people get enslaved and get killed.

Under Lucas, TCW does what it was meant to do: it adds footnotes, it shows unfortunate downsides. It's not meant to define what is seen in the films.

Whereas by the time we're in Season 7 and Lucas is no longer involved, we get this:

"They could do better but choose not to because they're playing politics." That's it.

Which is what I mean when I'm talking about the franchise: it has grown past George Lucas' vision, for better or for worse.

For some, TCW redefines what is seen in the films.

#worth pointing out #star wars #jedi order

[dalekofchaos]

I waited over 20 years for a Boba Fett show and I was disappointed in TBOBF. Seems like the man himself shares my disappointment. The way they've treated both TBOBF and him has been so disrespectful and I am still fuming at how they sidelined Boba in his OWN SHOW to shoehorn in a Mando plot they could have done in s3.

We Fett fans were 100% right. Disney Star Wars did Tem/Boba dirty, and it’s not right whatsoever! At this point it’s so clear that they only used Boba Fett as a catalyst to get Din and Grogu to where they wanted them for mando s3

Boba Fett is the VERY REASON why The Mandalorians exists in the first place and instead of taking his place with his people, he is constantly given the shaft and replaced by Din and Bo.

There was a time when Boba Fett was the most badass bounty hunter in the galaxy before continuing his father's legacy by becoming the new Manda'alor. Boba cleaning up the outer rim and rule through honor and respect had potential, but it's clear the people involved had no idea what to do with Boba Fett. All they had to do was literally everything here. Show Jango's past as Mandalorian, show Boba's change from cold Bounty Hunter to crime lord dispensing justice(and actually doing crime) feature his Bounty Hunter allies and rivalry with Cad Bane(hint hint use Daniel Logan in flashbacks for the cut Bounty Hunter arc) and tease the future with the Syndicate, potential confrontation with Mace and Boba potentially meeting Omega. How is it I know more about Boba Fett than Filoni?

He has a right to be pissed and not just about Boba's treatment(especially considering how much of himself and his own culture he put into the character), but Star Wars/Disney lightens the clones’ skin, that’s HIS appearance the clones are based on. Beyond disrespectful.

Boba Fett deserved better, the Clones deserves better and Temuera deserved better. Fuck Filoni and fuck Favreau.

#Star Wars #Anti Lucasfilm #Boba Fett #Temuera Morrison #Anti Filoni #Anti Dave Filoni

[saturn-sends-hugs]

ok, this has been burning a hole in my notes app and i’m just gonna send it out there:

Why (i think) the Finale was Like That:

to preface, if you liked the finale, good for you!! that’s totally valid and i’m not trying to bash that. but i know a lot of people were left wanting more, and i’m one of them. anyway, to my point:

as silly as it sounds, this show is not written for us.

we’re fans. the producers already know we’re gonna watch the show. they don’t need to convince us to give them our attention, they already have it. why waste time digging into random side characters in the larger Star Wars saga when the average person doesn’t even know who that is?

their real job is to convince outsiders to watch. to get hooked. to see an element they like, probably from the main movies, and tune in, even for one episode. if they can get them hooked with fennec or ventress or hell even rex, that’s a win for them.

the plot lines wrap up in such an unsatisfying way because honestly? they cant waste time focusing more on these characters than they have to. the people writing and designing the show might love them and want to include more meaningful resolutions, but that takes too long and costs too much money. you know what’s cheaper and will satisfy the average viewer? kill the mystery clones, cut off the “trauma hand”, and wrap it all up in a nice little “look, she’s joining the rebellion, guys!” moment because the more bland and broad the ending, the more people will understand it.

i mean, remember the Fives mention? Echo didn’t react, he didn’t even stutter, he literally moved the conversation along like they were talking about where to go for dinner like HELLO. we already know they cannot be bothered to show real important emotional scenes because that would take too much spotlight away from the whole star wars politics plot or whatever were supposed to care about. (honestly, who is watching bad batch for the og trilogy implications? woah tarkin and a couple other empire dudes are talking about project stardust definitely gimme more of that and not any meaningful connection between these characters i love)

it’s scummy, it sucks, it especially kills me that the story is basically lost to corporate greed but let’s be honest, this is Disney’s Star Wars. i could literally just leave it there. meaningful moments will always be sacrificed for shock value and character cameos because the random guy seeing an ad is only gonna watch the show if he thinks “oh cool, tarkin, i didn’t know he was in that show, maybe i should see what that’s about.”

and yes, i know, there absolutely is a ton of love and care poured into this show. i appreciate the effort that went into it. i’m just sad they didn’t have full creative freedom under Disney to give us the story we wanted.

but you know who won’t sacrifice story for money? you know who’s guaranteed to have the fans’ interests in mind? you know who does have full creative freedom and is equally pissed about bad show moments and want to do them better? FANFIC AUTHORS. Fan artists, theorists, even roleplay accounts and every other type of dedicated fandom blog is here for that shit and will reshape things however they want a million different ways because that’s the point. the show simply cannot give us what we want, but we can make it ourselves.

your support, your creativity, and your determination to give these characters what they deserve is how we can solve the problem.

i didn’t really mean to turn all “we’re all in this together” here lol but yknow what i really do mean that. i think supporting the community around you is the best option we have for truly enjoying all of this show’s potential.

tagging a few people cause i value your input!! and let’s be honest i’m probably leaving a few things out that you might be able to expand on: @the-bi-space-ace @inkstainedhandswithrings @phantom-of-the-501st

#once again no shade if you liked the finale #it was basically a happy ending!! that never happens in star wars!! #i was pretty happy with it right up until they killed off CX-2 and i started seeing all the loose ends they just cut off #sometimes literally lol #i’m sorry that was a really bad joke don’t kill me— #saturn sends thoughts #tbb spoilers #tbb s3 #the bad batch spoilers

[slashmagpie]

Blood & Snow

Pt. II

Directory: {Pt. I} {Pt. III} {Pt. IV} {Pt. V} {Pt. VI} {Pt. VII} {AO3}

Day two for @hermithorrorweek! TWs for this chapter include: minor gore, body horror*, temporary character death

II. ENVIRONMENT

Scar and Tango make an odd pair.

Catching them together is a study in contrasts: Scar’s light against Tango’s dark, Scar’s loud against Tango’s quiet, Scar’s whimsy against Tango’s sarcasm. The theme park owner brightly welcoming you to the happiest place on Hermitcraft, and the dungeon master presiding over a subterranean labyrinth of fear and pain. Scar’s hunger for diamonds, and Tango’s dismissal of them. Scar’s tendency to distraction, and Tango’s unwavering focus that had led him to spend the better part of thirteen months in a cave, despite all of Scar’s attempts to drag him out of it.

And Scar had tried! He’d even succeeded, a few times. More often, he would just hang around and bother Tango while he worked, rambling about Star Wars or Disney or trains or updates or whatever while Tango coated his frosty fingers with redstone and made the occasional comment. And whilst to an outside observer, Scar would come across as an annoyance as he gushed about flowers and Tango rolled his eyes and pulled faces, he knows that they were both enjoying themselves. As different as Scar and Tango seem, they’re still friends.

And as different as they both are, they still have one thing in common: their love for atmosphere.

Because it’s one thing to make a build: it’s another to make an environment. It’s all about movement, and sound, and all the little additions that make a static picture of blocks come alive. And Tango has truly and utterly knocked it out of the park this season—Decked Out is the most alive build Scar has ever seen.

…It’s, uh. Not usually quite as alive as this though.

That’s the only way Scar can think to describe it, as he pushes himself back against the wall, heart pounding in his chest louder and faster than the dungeon’s heartbeat echoes around the walls. Just out of sight, a ravager grumbles, having lost its snack, and Scar heaves as he attempts to catch his breath. His fingers are sticky with berry juice as he presses another to his mouth, grimacing at the sweet taste as it mingles with the blood in his mouth. 

Behind him, the stone wall seems to quiver as he presses himself into it, not quite as solid as it should be. I’m imagining things, he tells himself, reaching back with a red-stained hand to feel the rough ridges of deepslate beneath his fingers. He lets out a shaky breath and draws himself up. Right. Back to work. His artefact should be just around this corner.

He glances back towards where he’d left the ravager, ahead to where his compass is pointing, and takes off running towards it.

His lungs burn, and his legs ache, and his head spins as he dives forwards, but he manages to, by some miracle, avoid the ire of the ravager and make it to the alcove where his compass begins to spin wildly around. “Compass skills, perfect compass skills,” he mutters to himself, dropping the compass and hearing the click of a dispenser as it vanishes and an artefact appears in its place. Hypnotic Bandanna. “Oh, come on,” he cries as he picks it up. “Don’t you think I deserve more than that? Did you see my ravager skills? I could have died! And I didn’t! Tango!”

And then the dungeon does something it’s never done before: it laughs.

The sound startles Scar out of his skin, and he clutches the bandanna to his chest in panic as around him the walls shake, stone grating against stone and lava popping and bubbling and water splashing and the ravagers all groaning in time to create a cacophony that some way, somehow, sounds just like Tango’s laugh. 

Scar stands frozen until the sound dies down, staring with wide eyes. His mouth is dry. He swipes his tongue around his lips, clears his throat.

“Uh, Tango…?” he calls. “I think there’s something wrong with your dungeon.”

The dungeon sighs.

Its breath tickles the back of Scar’s neck, makes all his hairs stand on end. Nope! No thank you. Scar needs to get out of here. He needs to—

He takes off running, back the way he came, ducking past the ravager and surviving the resulting blow by the skin of his teeth and half a heart. He gasps for breath, shoving more berries into his mouth as he leaps over moving chains and makes a beeline for the stairs back up to level one. He makes it and takes a moment to stop and breathe, the soft light of the skulk twinkling around him.

“It’s fine,” he tells himself as he finishes the last of the berries. “You’re fine! It’s just—the dungeon. Same as normal. It’s just a normal—normal run, you’re gonna get out, it’ll be fine…”

The stairwell is, for a moment, eerily silent. Scar feels more acutely than usual that he is being watched. He draws in a breath—

“STUMBLE,” the dungeon announces.

—and lets out a squeak.

Okay. Probably a sign that he should get going. He can do this!

He presses the button at the top of the stairs and creeps out into the throne room of level one. Luckily, there are no ravagers here. Unluckily, the hazard door is closed. Okay, the long way it is.

His legs are cramping something awful as he races down the stairs. He takes a left out of the crypt and stops for a moment in the tunnel, breath rattling in his throat, reaching down to rub at the aching muscles. Normally, the fun of Decked Out outweighs the pain he knows it will cause him, but right now his fear is outweighing the fun and the pain is something awful. He needs to get out. Once he’s out, his wheelchair is waiting for him upstairs, and he won’t have to get up for the rest of the day—

He’s so focused on the pain that he doesn’t notice the ravager until it’s too late.

He falls, face-first, into powdered snow, letting out a strangled cry. It’s instinct more than anything else that pushes him up, that digs his fingers into the snow as he tries to escape—

As he blinks snow from his eyes he sees, where his hands have cleared the snow, revealing the ground beneath them, something pink and red. It shudders and pulses beneath his fingers, cold like ice, yet undeniably alive. Scar, without thinking, digs his fingers into the flesh.

The dungeon screams.

The stone and ice around him shakes, snow falls from the ceiling above him, and behind him the ravager lets out an agonised wail before stomping a heavy hoof down onto his back.

Scar screams too as his spine shatters and he sits straight up in bed, several hundred blocks above his own head.

#hermitcraft #fanfiction #hermithorrorweek2023 #the * is once again because that's like. not quite right? but i don't know what else to call it. #is a dungeon a body? #- and other philosophical questions with magpie! #magpie feather quill

[chansaw]

ok. here it is. the longpost i've been too lazy to actually make until just now.

so, here's what happened. the google algorithm sometimes pushes links to articles it thinks you'll like on the mobile homepage. unfortunately, google knew enough about me to put this hellish article onto my screen:

read that headline. then read it again. really, really stare at it. stare into the abyss. eventually, it will stare back. it'll whisper in your ear: "the heathers reboot was good, actually."

i read the article, incredulous. but, to my surprise... the author had somewhat of a point? it's been five years since paramount unceremoniously aired the show in october of 2018 after its premiere was delayed at least twice due to mass shootings. then after another mass shooting occurred before the final two episodes of the ten-episode long season were supposed to air, paramount hastily aired a heavily edited ninth episode and scrapped the tenth entirely. as far as i can tell, the show is not available to be streamed freely on any streaming site (not even paramount's own paramount+), though you can rent or buy it from amazon prime. maybe the author was right. maybe it was time for a rewatch and reconsideration. i wouldn't even have to spend any money; i archived all ten episodes of the show onto one of my external hard drives back in 2018, so i plugged 'er in, drank a bit of fireball, and clicked play.

after episode five, i gave up. i couldn't stand it any longer. i slammed my laptop shut and went to bed.

needless to say, i have thoughts.

right off the bat, here's the biggest thing. i wish to god that someone other than the miserable pile of sweaty skin that calls himself jason micallef had been in charge of this show. it might not have saved it from its fate, but maybe it would have been at least watchable? a modicum more entertaining? when the show was originally announced, leslye headland (who would later go on to create russian doll) was attached as showrunner. later, it was announced that micallef would be showrunner instead, although headland directed the pilot and executive produced the series.

in my honest opinion, if leslye headland had remained in creative control, this would have been a much different - and, in my opinion, better - show.

i can't help but wonder how heathers (2018) would have turned out if she had stayed at the helm. would it have marred her career so badly that netflix would have never agreed to produce russian doll? would she still be notable enough to be given charge of the newest disney plus star wars show? perhaps her decision was for the best. perhaps she knew there was no saving this project, try as she might.

and people tried!!!! during my rewatch, i was enamored by the production design and slick lighting and cinematography. some of the costume design hasn't aged well, but when it hits, it hits. i have to give credit where it's due: it is a beautifully shot and designed piece of television.

if only its actors had given half as much of a shit.

grace victoria cox (veronica) and james scully (j.d.) both attempt to replicate their predecessors' cool sense of disillusion and disenchantment in their roles, but both just come off as totally and completely bored in every scene. j.d. is supposed to be darkly charismatic, but scully has the charm of a plank of rotting wood. they lack the spark of chemistry to get the audience to feel invested in their relationship. without convincing leads to anchor it, the show has to depend upon its titular heathers.

i am, of course, in no way biased at all, in any shape or form. just saying. but one thing the article gets right is that melanie field’s performance as one miss heather chandler shines. field is fucking brilliant and her screen presence is formidable. she makes the most of every line she's given, and is at turns, ruthless, hilarious, and even (gasp) sympathetic. i am so glad she’s been booked left and right in tv shows (such as amazon's a league of their own, a spin-off with much more respect for its source material) that showcase her immense talent since whatever the fuck happened here. but i'm not biased!!!

juan barquin, the author of this article argues that viewers and critics alike both misunderstood heathers (2018). micallef's brilliant satirical messaging flew right over our heads. it had a message, goddamnit, and the misinformed masses closed their eyes and ears because they didn't want to hear it. it almost reminds me of the starships troopers discourse that is currently enveloping the app formerly known as twitter. starship troopers was nearly universally panned upon its release but is now recognized as a prescient satirical romp that targets jingoism, nationalism, and the culture of forever wars. we didn't get it back in 1997, but we do now. unfortunately, this is not the case with paramount's heathers.

the main cause of all the brouhaha around heathers (2018)'s release, barquin says, is because of its "shameless criticism of American culture, the prioritization of guns as a faulty means of defense, and the educational system’s blatant ignorance around the actual needs of students." which, sort of? it is true that a rash of killings (such as parkland and the pittsburgh synagogue shootings) spurred paramount's decision to nuke the show from existence. the show does, in fact, directly address and involve such matters. unlike the movie, the show concludes with westerburg high blown to pieces and its students all dancing in a prom in heaven. which.... yeah. you can see why that wouldn't have played out well.

(it's worth noting that daniel waters, the screenwriter behind the REAL heathers, originally planned for the movie to end this way as well. but the suits at new world studios said that audiences wouldn't like it. reluctantly, he complied.)

and i do have to admit, there are moments of brilliance. westerburg's school shooting drills involve the drama teacher storming through the halls shooting students with silly string. if you "die", you get to go to "heaven" (a brightly lit room stocked with snacks). the survivors are ushered into the dark, cramped gymnasium and complain about how all the cool kids are in heaven now. teachers' desks are stocked with firearms, because as we all know, of course, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a teacher with a gun. it's so absurd that it works.

but for the most part, the writing is sorely lacking. it seems like the folks in the writers' room spent hours sitting around the table trying to one-up each other with quippable quips, meme-able dialogue, and banter that matched the panache and dry wit of waters' screenplay. but what we got instead was "HAHHAHAHAH, QUEEF!" it's bad. it's so, so bad. the author's claim that “[t]he show rather impressively matches the film’s comic sensibilities with consistently funny episodes that are as pleasantly cruel as they are scathingly satirical” falls flat because, for the most part, the shows satire isn’t at all scathing or sharp.

there were so many moments of the show where i felt my whole body just light up with rage. it made me just so ANGRY because i could see shells and fragments of a better version of this show peeking through. instead, what we got is a show that made alt-right chuds say this:

i think the most offensive part of the whole article, though, is barquin's attempt to liken the show to bottoms. if anything, i'd argue that bottoms works better as a spiritual successor to heathers than the rebooted heathers itself! bottoms succeeds in every way that heathers (2018) fails: punchy and quotable dialogue, characters who manage to be both archetypal and multidimensional, all set in an exaggerated and heightened sense of reality that still feels lived in and real. most importantly, all of bottoms’ actors are firing on all cylinders; in heathers (2018), most of the leads are just there to get paid. i could go on, but that's a whole other post.

frankly, it's kind of incredible that paramount launched this show as the flagship of their new tv network alongside yellowstone (which is in its final season now with spinoffs on the way). they were really, really banking on this thing to have legs. but we live in a blessed timeline where this show is condemned to an eternity of oblivion. it's a bit of a pity, though, because... the writers envisioned some sort of american horror story-esque anthology setup and teased a “french revolution” second season at the end of the last episode. i kind of want to know where they were planning to go with that.

it could've been so very.

#heathers #long post

[tljisthegoat]

Star Wars NEEDED that Reylo Happily Ever After.

But now the story can be how far will someone go for love or vengeance? It's honestly unintentionally brilliant that Rey's story arc is echoing Anakin's.

Anakin lost his mother, his wife, children & finally himself. He was brought back by love, faced his demons and saved the universe.

Rey lost her parents, the love of her life, and finally herself (probably)

In a sick twist, Rey lost Ben after they saved the galaxy & she doesn't have anyone close to her to bring her back if she falls to the dark side.

But. If she willingly goes to the dark side in order to create a situation where getting Ben back is possible, then that would be ideally the best way to handle it.

There's alot more you can do with Dark Rey than Rey. That's the unfortunate corner they've put themselves in. Where Rey as she is after TROS has two options, maybe three.

Either be cut off from The Force for a long time to go back to her roots as a Scavenger. She only uses her blaster & her staff. Refusing to use her lightsaber or Kylo Ren's which she salvaged until she's ready to reconnect with The Force.

Or have her embrace her dark side & go on a warpath to get Ben back.

There's also the option to do both. Which could easily work because Rey's pretty much been destroyed after TROS. She lost everything to save a universe she's always felt hopelessly alone in, surrounded by people that mean well but will never understand her, and she's fighting for a cause she doesn't really have any attachment to.

She's still just a nobody that was sold off for drinking money searching for belonging even after saving the entire universe. Unable to sleep, less she risk dreaming about Ben. Haunted by their final embrace & the feeling of him not being beside her anymore. Like a ghost, she went through life. Feeling like a hollowed out, worn down, pathetic shell of her former self in every way. Punching the mirrors out because she hates looking at how empty her eyes really are since losing Ben. Not using her force abilities as much because she's too afraid of losing it one day.

TLJ Rey is where the character peaked.

#rey nobody #reylo #tlj rey is best rey #dark rey #star wars deserves better than disney

[cienie-isengardu]

Obi Wan Kenobi episode 6 (that I’m gonna ignore as the whole series LOL)

I'm truly grateful to Disney that Hayden and Ewan were brought back to Star Wars and I don't think anything will change this statement. But I'm also so SO GLAD the Obi Wan Kenobi show finally ended and hopefully ended for good. No sequel(s), please, I barely survived this six episodes’ lack of common sense, narrative wise and unnecessary drama that doesn’t add much to established Original Trilogy, including the two duels between Obi Wan and Vader, dragging 10 years old Leia into pretty traumatic mess and Bail having like zero understanding how secrecy works? Sorry, not what I need in my (star wars) life. 

Seriously, though the Obi Wan Kenobi TV series has its good moments and elements (hello, Third Sister, to some degree), it is another reason why Disney!Star Wars doesn't work for me. And yes, I'm aware that some previous animations, movies and other media weren’t always the most coherent sources in regard to logic and world-building (I mean especially TCW / Sequels, bear with my bias), but the whole deal of Obi-Wan's need to sacrifice himself for the rest of group so their ship had time to run away is so SO STUPID. There is a reason why TIE fighters are stationed on big ships, ya know? Tie squadrons should be on the enemy ship's tail from the start (and before anyone will tell me that Vader may have wanted to get Obi-Wan alive then shooting from main turbolasers would not work either. TIEs actually could disarm/damage the ship so that it can be boarded to take people in custody). Even when Obi played the decoy, Vader didn’t need to choose between Jedi and the “rebels” (not mentioning him choosing to destroy a civilian ship would be actually a better choice to hurt Obi-Wan, if he was willing to massacre a village just to get him last time?). Vader could board his own TIE / Lamba class shuttle and simply go after Jedi while leaving rest to the navy. I’m pretty surprised he wasn’t in TIE personally shooting the enemy ship but I guess, that way Obi-Wan would not have a chance to survive LOL.

Anyway, the start of Obi and Vader duel was pretty nice but then the show of course needed to go with destroying Vader’s mask and armor and I guess this was supposed to be the oh so big emotional moment? But that shock value meant something to me after the first or second time I saw unmasked Vader (and the first time was Purge comics, I think?) but after years of Disney/Marvel maiming Vader on every fucking occassion, I feel only irritation, leaving bad taste in mouth. Ahsoka did so in Rebels. Obi did it here. Comics did damage to armor like, at least once per every Darth Vader run lately? It doesn’t feel special. It feels like just standard Wednesday for Vader at this point. And after this supposed emotional closure in which Vader… suddenly doesn't blame Obi-Wan for Anakin’s death/own suffering??? (“I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker. I did.) in contrast to the previous episode (I am what you made me?) but it doesn’t lead to anything really? I mean, yes, of course, they couldn’t make Obi Wan killing Vader in this scene but him walking away and leaving (again) dangerous Sith to terrorize galaxy for the next decade is so… I’m lacking a word for what it is. It only makes me feel definitely sure Obi Wan and Anakin should have never met between RotS and ANH and the last two duels were unnecessary and done only for drama. I understand why Kenobi didn’t (couldn’t) kill Anakin on Mustafar but here, him walking away and dooming galaxy is just so, dunno, selfish and fucked up?. But yeah, why not, the new hope (Luke) will be there to ask to finish the job LOL.

(Oh, and don’t let me start about how Disney/Marvel use Vader’s amputated, wounded body for shock value and the feeling of horror. I’m really, really tired of new canon maiming Anakin on screen and comics pages time after time.)

I also finally figured out why seeing Vader sitting on the throne bugged me so much. In previous episode(s?) it felt unusual (unnatural) for him to sit in anything beside his meditation chamber, or even to want to have a throne. But this time, when he is speaking to Darth Sidious, his Sith master? Vader sitting doesn’t make sense. Vader was usually kneeling or simply standing while talking to Palpatine. Here, him sitting set him as either equal or at a better position than Sidious and this doesn’t feel right at all.

Okay, I was ranting long enough to draw the picture that Disney!star wars doesn’t work for me, not in the context of established sources like the Original Trilogy. The Obi Wan Kenobi TV show demands of me too much mental gymnastics to believe in its narrative or logic, or even care emotionally for what is happening. I guess, if that was a stand-alone, not connected to anything else than RotS series, my feelings would be different but alas, it is as it is. 

For those who enjoyed the show, I’m glad for you. Me myself is going to simply ignore it as much as possible, as I’m ignoring lately a lot other pars of new lore like chips in clone brain, domestic abuse in regard to Anakin and Padme, TCW’s portray of Anakin, Mandalorians with aristocracy and Darksaber as their main power symbol. Yeah, lately I’m pretty good at ignoring stuff.

#star wars #obi wan kenobi tv show critically #obi wan kenobi spoilers #my rants #darth vader #obi wan kenobi #disney star wars critically #i'm so done lately with new star wars lore if anyone didn't notice LOL #sorry for rant #but i feel like i should just dig myself up in legends hole and stay there forever if that is how new star wars are gonna look all the time #i'm grateful for hayden and ewan return #but their characters deserves better than just drama for drama

[courtneysmovieblog]

Top 10 movies I love that everyone tells me I should hate

I know we're all entitled to our own opinions. But it doesn't feel like that these days, especially on this hell site and social media in general. The loud majority of critics and fandoms seem entitled to dictate what movies and shows are good or bad. They spend endless posts on telling us exactly why these movies are either the greatest thing in the world or the worst. And God help you if you disagree, because that just proves you aren't a true fan.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? It should. Especially after the the new Avatar The Last Airbender series...

To give you a clear idea of what I mean, here are 10 movies I like that have gotten (unfairly or not) trashed:

1. Every Ghostbusters movie since the original: Seriously. Fine, nothing is as good as the original, but Ghostbusters II wasn't that bad a sequel and the latest sequels are fun, even if they coast on nostalgia. And don't even get me started on what you monsters put everyone that dared to like the 2016 movie through...

2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi: This movie was great, it's the Star Wars fandom that is the worst.

3. The Marvels: One of the best MCU movies in a long time. Cute and charming and with a strong female cast...and you guys let it bomb at the box office for reasons I'm too tired to even talk about. Enjoy getting crappy Captain Carter getting the lion's share of female MCU roles while more deserving heroines like Carol, Monica, and Kamala get sidelined, you jerks!

4. Red Notice: Fine, it was a dumb action movie. But it was MY kind of dumb action movie that I'd happily watch again. And I still want that sequel!

5. Thor: Love and Thunder: I get that people don't like the flanderized Thor, and even I'll admit that there were parts that could've been better. Yet contrary to popular opinion, this was far from the worst MCU movie we've had. A movie can be fun and flawed.

6. Thor: The Dark World: For all the complaining about goofy Thor, you don't seem to like the gritty, serious Thor movies either.

7. The live action Beauty and the Beast: It doesn't matter if the live-action Disney are good or bad. Liking both the originals and remakes doesn't make you any less of a fan!

8. The live-action Aladdin: Ditto.

9. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: I realize this stance might be hypocritical, since I don't want to dictate what movies should/shouldn't like, but come on, it was WAY better than Crystal Skull!

10. Damsel: The reviews for this movie weren't great, and I don't care. I don't make high standards for Netflix movies. A fun feminist fractured fairy is always welcome for me.

Your turn. What "unpopular" movies do you love?

#top 10 list #dial of destiny #red notice #ghostbusters afterlife #ghostbusters frozen empire #ghostbusters #aladdin #beauty and the beast #thor love and thunder #the marvels #the last jedi

[gch1995]

That is funny. All Jedi are actually slaves. They don't have a right to own property, they can't marry whoever they want and they obey the Council. They are even recruited like slaves, taken from their families without any choice.I don't know how Ahsoka even can leave the Order when a jedi needs to be watched closesly and not build up ties with the rest of the people or he/she may fall to the Dark Side.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but as they are written as an overall institution in canon, I honestly think that force-sensitive humans and beings in the galaxy of Star Wars would generally be better off if they never got involved with the Jedi Order at all. Like, it’s tragic to realize that the most consistently happy, secure, and well-adjusted point in Anakin Skywalker’s horrendous life was when he was living on Tattoine in physical slavery with his mother. Then, afterwards, that happiness was far too brief and fleeting for the next 34 years of his life. Sure, part of it is his own fault for committing all those crimes he knew were wrong out of anger and fear of the unknown, but not all of it is. The fact that his agency was constantly compromised to ever be able to find healthy support or feel safe doing any better by all of these deeply abusive, arrogant, corrupt, hypocritical, manipulative, oppressive, self-involved, and willfully negligent authority figures within these two space soldier cults for their own ends certainly wasn’t his fault, but he did have his own selfish and vindictive motivations, too.

If we’re going by Luke Skywalker’s new Jedi Order, particularly in Legends (Disney canon keeps screwing up his character), I don’t think it would necessarily be too bad as an optional day camp or law-enforcement job for training with the force and helping out the galaxy on the side. As long as they are old enough and well-adjusted enough to be handling weapons, they get to have a fair choice in the matter of being a Jedi or leaving any time they want, I don’t think the Jedi Order has to be unhealthy.

However, for the most part, I think most of the force-sensitive characters we meet in the canon series do so much better in their lives without ever getting involved in either the Jedi Order or the Sith at all. They often end up becoming deeply dysfunctional adults who develop serious behavioral/impulse control issues, dangerous ends justify the means type morality, poor critical thinking skills, and poor self-awareness because they have been groomed to have little to no self-confidence in their own moral integrity and personal agency, and rarely break out of it.

It’s not just Anakin and the other fallen Jedi who grow up to be deeply problematic tragic living disasters with those toxic mindsets in the series either. Look at Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. They are supposed to be the “ideal” Jedi of their time, but they’re still pretty awful and broken people as adults, anyway. They can never can take true personal accountability for fucking up. They are always in the right, the “blameless victims,” or the “noble failures” who were taken advantage of because they were too nice in their minds. However, we repeatedly see them deliberately betraying, controlling, deceiving, endangering, harming, manipulating, murdering, neglecting, and/or oppressing anyone who either acts a potential threat to or can be of use to “greater good” of their cause or desire to fit in for security without much concern for the potential consequences of their actions and decisions or remorse for the individuals they are sacrificing for their cause.

Even their moments of self-awareness suck because they still can’t admit that they followed a fucked up system that cost them a lot of people because they became too afraid to do the right things under pressures of corrupt authority, facing the unknown, and war. Anakin dies with more self-acceptance and self-awareness than either Obi-Wan and Yoda do throughout the entire series in the last 15 minutes of ROTJ, and he became one of the main villains of Star Wars.

#star wars anon #let’s be honest though they are better than Sith most characters in SW would probably be better if they never encountered the Jedi order too #at least as they are written in canon SW in both the present and past #like I could see Luke Skywalker’s new Jedi Order in legends that is a healthy system that allows for freedom of choice working out #and that was supposed to be Luke’s legacy after the OT movies for the new Jedi order which Disney has been ruining #but for the most part as they are written in CANON the Jedi order are only ‘good’ because they are the lesser of two evil military cults #the Jedi institution generally sucks as a whole in canon and aside from Luke skywalker most of them cause more problems than they solve #it’s sad when you realize that Anakin would have probably turned out a far better person if he had never recruited him as a Jedi at all #I mean the galaxy would still be fucked because of the Jedi Council the Republic Senate the Sith and Palpatine anyway #and Anakin’s life would still suck because Tatooine wasn’t the Republic’s interest #but at least he would still have his mom and have a better chance of growing up to be a good and well-adjusted adult #at least he would be happy if he never encountered the Jedi in canon #luke skywalker #anakin skywalker #darth vader #obi wan kenobi critical #Yoda critical #Jedi order critical #no their entire order didn’t deserve to be mass murdered in response #but those enabling and/or enforcing the system of the Jedi are generally portrayed as the lesser of two evils next to the Sith

[fantasygerard2000]

The AI thing is just beyond insulting, honestly! It's not like Disney has never made a mediocre product (and I say this as someone who actually likes some of their mediocre stuff!) People who worked on the film have even expressed how hard they worked on it. So, what? Is everyone lying, then? And never mind that as it currently stands, AI is incredibly easy to detect if you know where to look. Seriously, this movie has been out since November, was released digitally in January, and came out on Disney+ in March. If AI was involved, then surely someone would've caught something by now! I feel like the fact that it was being developed even back in 2018 also deserves a mention.

I also feel like, because it was the centennial, both the people who worked on the film (especially in terms of marketing) and the people watching Wish put a lot of high expectations on it, ones where there didn't need to be. Because on its own, Wish is just a really simple story about a girl ultimately defeating an evil king, just with a lot more Disney references than usual. If anything, I'd say the documentaries and specials and shorts released last year did a far better job as a celebration to Walt and his legacy specifically than Wish did (metaphors aside) and that's okay, but it definitely doesn't deserve this amount of hate.

I don't know, I'm just worried about the next animated film that flops and whether there'll be unproven AI allegations there too; it doesn't even necessarily have to be from Disney either, but just in general.

That's the thing whenever animated movies flop. If a different studio fails, they ignore it and saying it's a sad it flopped. If Disney flops, they say it deserves so because guilt by association.

Some of these people generalize anything Disney as one big hive mind. So the people who worked at the Animation Studio get lumped in with the guys in charge of Marvel and Star Wars.

Wish was just an okay movie. Despite its many flaws, that doesn't stop me from liking it. But calling it AI made is just low and apathetically dismissive. People can just easily ignore a bad product, but they have a need to input their thoughts on it despite knowing little and just went to made up conclusions.

#disney wish #wish 2023 #wish movie #wish #disney