#the new version of rebelle is weird lol

[kirrys]

Root the wizardy deer for @mintleflower on Artfight! 🦌✨🍂

#deer #mintleflower #artfight #the new version of rebelle is weird lol

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 9

Spoilers for GW up to Ch 9 below.

STORY

Edelgard makes no progress in the war. More news at 6.

Wow, 6 month time-skip. Part 1 finished. Didn't think we were getting another time-skip, but with Edelgard licking her wounds, it makes sense because no one tries to murder anyone when she stays in her own country.

"End of the Alliance" - sounds ominous.

Oh. It's now a Federation. Like Star Trek. But shady as fuck. Because Claude just crowned himself king so he could take more control. Weird how everyone just accepts this. It doesn't really fit the narrative that people don't trust Claude.

So . . . Edelgard's war actually made the Alliance less progressive 😅. Because now the Liecester is just a monarchy.

Claude didn't tell Shez, lamo. It really feels like these two aren't close at all. I feel like Shez is closest to Dimitri -> Edelgard -> Claude.

It would be nice if this was an Alliance focused part and not about Edelgard's nonsense anymore.

There's trouble in Alliance territory with areas that didn't want King Claude and they're rebelling. Honestly, don't blame them. Ohhh, they want to join Faerghus. They like King Dimitri better. Agreed.

This really is heading towards an Edelgard Claude team up, isn't it? With the people who don't want to bow to king Claude wanting to leave and join the Kingdom. Welp, at least it'll be different. And hey, Claude's funeral, not Dimitri's so what do I care? As long as it's interesting and different from VW.

Don't blame Claude for wanting to put down the unrest. Happy not everyone drank the Claude kool-aide. And don't blame anyone for wanting to leave the Alliance. It's kind of a no one is the bad guy here (except Edelgard), unlike with Dimitri with the Western Lords where they are definitely the bad guys.

I don't trust Claude farther than I can throw him though.

MAP/SIDE QUESTS

This "battle suggestions" is interesting, but it makes it seem like Shez is in charge of the whole army lol.

Can someone explain how the "merc whistle" works? It seems like you can take someone's special ability and give it Shez. But you could also equip it on someone else? So I could make someone else invulnerable like Lorenz if I gave it to him? But that person's "ability" goes away? Anyone have a list of what those abilities are exactly?

You can actually tell Claude you don't support his actions (or are unsure). Edelgard routes could never.

NPC says the minor lords now get no say in what happens.

Yep, here it goes. Claude's meeting with Edelgard to ally with her again. At least here Claude's calling out her shit on attacking them for no reason.

Edelgard is so two-faced, denying that her end goal is take over.

"We'll take tangible resources over insincere apologies any day." - Lamo, Claude, if you know she's a two-faced, insincere liar why on earth are you doing this?

I like this version of it better since at least Claude seems like he has two brain cells at least. In SB, he really came across like Edelgard's mindless bitch.

Now he's calling her out for creating her BS southern church lol. Holst called it an "obvious sham."

Arval said Edelgard wouldn't even acknowledge Shez's existence.

Shez is actually not supporting Claude's decisions in cannon.

See, this makes it WAY more interesting. SB/CF cram what you should think down your throat (SB less than CF, but still doing it), but GW is giving it more nuance.

I think I can say GW is by far my 2nd favorite right now.

Oh, another time limit one! I liked that in the paralogue.

Hurt having to fight the Kingdom again.

Judith also calls out Claude, saying he's talking about people's lives like they're just pieces on a chessboard.

Marianne and Ignatz are also upset.

"You let the Empire talk you into buying the whole store." - Judith

Claude claims he's using the Empire right back. I'd like to see how. Like, I think GW is a way more interesting take on this, but I'm honestly super confused why he thinks this is a good idea for the Alliance.

Lorenz also said he's throwing the Kingdom to the wolves for no reason.

Claude drags up ancient history as an excuse. Which is hysterical since recent history the Empire just killed Alliance people.

Seems like Claude just hates the church and that's why he's siding with Edelgard. Even though that leaves it really easy for her to take over and she said she would through non-military means later.

Claude is a complete dumbass here, but at least it's interesting.

Aww, Shez checked on Shamir, making sure she's ok fighting Catherine. This game really ships Shamir x Catherine and I'm here for it.

Shit. I missed Claude x Hilda's B Support. Did I miss something amazing? Does this mean I'll have to play GW again? Not sure I care enough. I like them both well enough and all, but I can really only see myself replaying AG. IDK, maybe one day.

Anyone else find it shady that Claude is killing any noble who doesn't want to follow his new system? I get it, but that's sus as hell. It's esp funny because the Empire is trying to smear Dimitri for taking out the Western lords (who all helped in a genocide), but their allies doing the same to not-evil people is fine.

CLAUDE & SHEZ B SUPPORT

This is going to be funny with how openly Shez isn't trusting Claude right now lol.

They're just talking about him being king and how Shez first suggested that the Alliance had a king.

Claude wants to open up to Shez because she doesn't have any strings attached.

Talking more about Shez's mystery mom who just died of illness. Then she got kicked out by everyone else. Wonder why?

SHEZ & HILDA B SUPPORT

Hilda still lecturing Shez on charging to the front lines, but thinks Shez is skilled enough to handle it.

Hilda compares it to Holst who also leads the charge, unlike most leaders who stay in the back.

Hilda doesn't think her brother is capable of dying because no one is good enough to kill him, and now thinks the same for Shez. No one told the poor woman about arrows.

Hilda now fights more up front but denies it.

Shez can tell Hilda her cheerleading annoys people, lamo.

Welp, that explains why she's ok with attacking innocent people and continuing war because rHeA bAd, because she's convinced herself the people she loves can't die. Ummm. Ok.

SHEZ & LORENZ A SUPPORT

I feel like Lorenz got flanderized a bit in this game. Like, there's not much to any of his supports so far but "I am noble, so I am better." I honestly don't care much about him, but he had more depth in Houses.

Shez expects Lorenz to complain more. But he's just her to brag about why he's grown stronger.

She can assume he did it to get the ladies lol.

But nope, of course not, it's because he's a noble and a noble is better than commoners than he needs to be stronger than her.

He wants Shez to get in trouble so he can rescue her. Ugh.

Shez says that Lorenz fulfilled his oath to get stronger bc Shez only does what she does bc she relies on allies.

That was really one-dimensional, and Lorenz was just unlikeable in it.

HOLST & BALTHUS A SUPPORT

Oh, Hilda's here. So they just squeezed her in his support with Holst to excuse giving her a support with Balthus.

Hilda is worried that Holst is acting weird and thinks Balthus might be behind it because they've been hanging out.

Hilda is convinced that Holst is uncurroptable because he only like things that are just. Balthus seems to hint otherwise.

Seems like Holst is DRUNK. Or just being cringy. Hilda's mad that Balthus set her up so Holst could listen in.

Hilda's embarrassed, understandably.

Holst calls Hilda his "hope." Yeah, I get why she's annoyed.

CLAUDE & LORENZ A SUPPORT

Lorenz points out that his family has always been friendly with the Empire, so this change is no big deal.

He accuses Claude of just copying his father.

He says House Gloucester should rule and not Claude, and says he will be the next king.

Claude accuses Lorenz of his ego being out of control.

Claude suggests letting the people of the Alliance pick the king. Lorenz thinks it's silly until he changes his mind.

Lorenz, rightly, points out that Claude's new position in precarious and its success or failure is on Claude.

Claude is a doo-doo bird though. He thinks that the Empire and King in Adrestia and Faerghus, respectively, are upheld because of "the Goddess's blessing" and not, you know, really complex stuff. Like, both Edelgard and Dimitri face getting thrown out in the two games over things that have NOTHING to do with religion.

That's weird, their support had a picture.

SHEZ & LYSITHEA B SUPPORT

Lysithea feels that their relationship is strained and wants to clear the air. Shez didn't even notice lol.

Shez is a pretty simple character, but I like it.

Oh, wow, Lysithea realized she acted like a brat and apologized. This self-awareness makes me like her a LOT better.

Aw, Shez is helping Lysithea feel mature and older. But then put her foot in her mouth when she referred to people under Lysithea's command as "real adults" lol. Lysithea struggled but kept her head!

Honestly, I like this a lot for Lysithea. Character flaws are great, but they're annoying as shit when they're not acknowledged properly (I still get flashbacks to her awful Ignatz support), but when they're used to show growth, that flaw is suddenly sooo much better.

SHEZ & LEONIE B SUPPORT

Leonie wants mercenary advice.

Lamo, Leonie thinks the bow isn't good enough to be a first-class mercenary. Homegirl's been watching too many movies and not reading enough military history. Mounted archers were unmatched.

So now they're just discussing over specialization vs versatilty.

It's kinda nice seeing Shez in a mentor role.

SHEZ & MARIANNE A SUPPORT

They go out to eat together. Marianne didn't eat her meat and Shez is concerned.

Marianne is now determined to believe she doesn't curse people around her.

Shez encouraged Marianne to just be herself, which Marianne wants but worries about her father.

Marianne accused Shez of talking without thinking and thought it was a good thing lol.

BALTHUS & LORENZ B SUPPORT

Lorenz absolved Balthus of his debts to House Gloucester.

Lorenz credits it to Balthus helping and saving Lorenz on the battlefield.

Lamo, I forgot that Balthus investigated Claude and claimed he found all kinds of dirty laundry.

Lorenz wants him to hold onto it so he can use it later to unseat Claude and take over the Alliance instead.

Balthus is upset Lorenz isn't a lady because he's impressed with him being a scoundrel lol.

MAIN BATTLE

Hahahaha lamo, the Knight of Serios are beating Edelgard's army, which has to be like 5x bigger.

Oh - led by Randolph, THAT explains it. Against Catherine? Pft. Catherine wouldn't even consider that a bout it's so one-sided.

Shez still doesn't understand what Claude's doing. I'm not the only one who thinks these two aren't even remotely close, right? I feel like Shez is way more invested in Edelgard and Dimitri, and like Claude's just some dude who hired her.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Claude legit just left Randolph to die, lamo.

I think we just killed Catherine :(

😂😂😂 Edelgard's forces got wiped out. Randolph is really the punching bag of Fodlan. They should've made it Dorothea or something if they wanted us to give a shit.

Yep, time for Claude to get chewed out. As if Randolph isn't foaming at the mouth to invade the Alliance in SB.

It's funny how offended everyone is. As if this didn't happen in real life all the time. I mean, they'd only be mad a noble died because you can make money taking them as hostage.

Is this evil!Claude, the route? Like because he was such a goody-goody in Houses? I still think it's funny it's always Randolph.

xxxxx

#golden wildfire #fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #three hopes #three hopes spoilers #golden wildfire spoilers

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "A Princess On Lothal"

Mini Leia is here to lift everyone's spirits, and provide some much-needed hardware to the Rebellion.

Right, so going to have to be careful about the new photo limit, but just one quick cap from the beginning here because awwww the Loth-cat was comforting Ezra!

Oooh the deep glockenspiel adds some interesting texture to this music cue here.

And cue the Hammerhead corvettes. Good thing Leia dropped by when most of the blockade was still sweeping up on Garel.

(They'll be back soon, Lothal and Garel are practically galactic neighbors.)

Lol Lyste sighing in aggravation about "Another delegation from Alderaan." I'm certain Bail and Breha have cultivated quite the bleeding heart reputation as cover for their covert Rebel activities.

I don't think the voice actress they chose is that great. She sounds... way older than 15/16 and I can tell she's trying for the cadence of Carrie Fisher's snark but... I dunno it just lands weird for me. I think they could have gotten away with having her voice sound younger and it would have been okay.

Chopper sticking by Ezra's side. :((((

A slow, mournful version of Ezra's theme. Fitting, as he's going to be grieving the whole episode. Which is a nice bit of continuity. I love it when shows allow time for characters to grieve and adjust to losses they've sustained.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra idly thumps the cadet helmet to the side of his head. Just a nice little gesture that adds character and flavor.

Oh shit, that was definitely a Dies Irae in the score there.

(A refresher for those of you just joining this rewatch: The Dies Irae is an old Latin musical sequence that has been used basically since the Gregorian chant days to denote the specter of death in a work of music. Composers from ages past up to the present have referenced it in their compositions. Think of it as like the world's oldest music meme.)

Lot of OT score references in this part, no surprise.

Ezra is noticeably more surly and pissy than usual this episode, at least until his pep talk from Leia. Also no surprise, the boy hides behind his sarcasm and snark like no one's business.

"I don't get to give orders!" Just wait, Ezra, lol. You'll get your turn.

Leia playing Lyste like a damn fiddle lolol.

Mini Leia is really pretty. They did a great job with her design.

Alderaan sits pretty in the "plausible deniability" section. I'm sure the Empire suspected the planet of harboring secret Rebel sympathies but they were never able to have concrete proof of it. Bail, like Mon, probably held out hope that he could stem some of the Empire's tyranny from within, and so that's why he didn't want to lose his seat of government power, not as long as there was a chance he could effect some kind of change, which meant Alderaan had to avoid being directly tied to the Rebellion.

There's some commentary there about the need to work within the system in order to fix it, versus when it's time to break off and burn it down, but I'm not going to go into that right now.

Hngh, Ryder's resignation when the Stormtrooper mentions "termination".

"Hera's here." Hhhnkgjhn that's the happiest we've heard Ezra sound this episode Imma cry.

Luke's theme used per the standard as a bold Big Damn Heroes leitmotif with the Ghost's appearance.

"I'll warn Sabine." Lol how does Ezra know Sabine's the one who's going to be paying attention?

Zeb enjoyed this entirely too much lololol.

Ha ha those two Stormtroopers who are like, "They take prisoners now???"

This man has zero shame lol.

RIGHT, SO THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE UNDERRATED SABEZRA MOMENTS RIGHT HERE AND I HAVE BEEN A VERY GOOD GIRL WITH THE PHOTO LIMIT WHICH MEANS I GET TO CAP THE SCENE IN FULL.

That soft hand on his arm. The way her eyes linger on him as he turns away.

*sobs*

I love it so muuuuuuuuch!

Leia being, well, Leia, immediately discerns that something's really bugging Ezra. I love that the Kenobi show leaned into the inner sixth sense she displays here, that she can pick out a person's thoughts and feelings with the Force just by looking at them.

Kanan discerning that Leia might be able to comment and help Ezra, aww.

Friiiiiiiiick his face.

Leia's theme follows right on the heels of Ezra's theme here, in the score.

"I feel like because I can fight, I have to, for those who cannot." Boy is that isn't the quintessential Jedi and Rebel Alliance motivation right there...

I do like the dynamic between Ezra and Leia. It's very sweet. They bond based on their shared Hero Complex motivations, their mutual desire to fight on behalf of the helpless. Ezra shows off a little bit for her, later, in the way he usually does around girls he likes (the boy has A Type, let's be honest), but it never quite reaches the overtness of his crush on Sabine, so it hits even more quasi-platonic.

I think Leia thought he was cute tho.

Back to the plot, Leia's embarrassing Lyste all over the place here lol.

Ah, wow, the Rebel Alliance theme, haven't heard that in a while.

There is quite a bit of tension in how slowly the Hammerheads take off. The show plays that tension for all it's worth.

Oh you know I gotta comment about this part right here where Ezra goes feral.

For a moment we had all forgotten about the fact that he was clearly grieving, and this outburst caught us off guard. The way this is staged it's framed as concerning, with an edge of danger, Ezra leaping onto the Stormtrooper and clashing beats sounding along with his punches in the score, Kanan reaching towards him with an almost hesitant body posture.

But! Ezra lets out his anger and then contains himself, standing up and just putting his helmet back on. He breathes, regains his composure, and returns to neutral.

*weeps* He's such a good Jedi.

Kanan whipping out his lightsaber to be awesome against the AT-ATs aaaaaah!

(And that implied to be the reason Ryder stayed on Lothal and started up a new Rebel cell there, ONCE AGAIN CATCH ME CRYING ABOUT HOW THE JEDI REPRESENT HOPE TO A HOPELESS GALAXY.)

HHmmmmmmgggh I wanna say this is a recurring leitmotif but I don't know, I love it either way, it's beautiful.

Swish swish and return to first position, aaaah lightsaber choreography is so cool sometimes.

This whole sequence is just... *chef kiss*. The orchestration, the tension, the rapid shot choice...

Lolol Lyste getting thoroughly embarrassed by Leia.

Fun fact: One of the Hammerheads they gathered here in this episode would later go on to be the one that landed THE decisive blow to one of the Star Destroyers guarding the shield gate at Scarif.

PIECE BY PIECE, REBELS SHOWS THE MINUTIA OF SACRIFICES NEEDED TO PUT EVERY ELEMENT INTO PLACE FOR THEIR ULTIMATE VICTORY.

Ryder enters with Ezra, did Ezra have any kind of hand in convincing him to fight for Lothal?

HE LOOKS DIRECTLY AT EZRA I THINK THERE'S A CASE TO BE MADE HERE.

The Force Theme soaring into prominence here as we close out.

This episode is just the kind of break we need to process the events of the previous episode. Leia is almost flawless, willy deflecting suspicion off herself while playing the Imperials all for fools, compassionate and empathetic when she senses someone in pain and turmoil.

Ezra is allowed to grieve throughout the episode, and displays a myriad of conflicted and complex emotions from scene to scene. Kanan almost takes a bit of a backseat to comforting him, letting all the others express sympathy in turn, giving him the space he needs and offering up the distraction of the mission. He handles Ezra really well, all things considered.

It helps that Ezra, unlike Anakin, chooses to deal with and channel his grief in a productive way, rather than destructive. (I have the tag "#ezra is the anti-anakin" for a reason.)

This is a fun episode. Lighter than the previous one, lower stakes, but needed to let the characters breathe and process through the revelations of the plot. I really like it.

We're about to hit the Golden Streak, so stay tuned, I will have more to say later.

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels rewatch #liveblog #sabezra #ezra bridger #leia organa #music #soundtracks

[figureofdismay]

Pitch: An absurdist dramady version of The X Files. Like in the style of Pushing Daisies or Northern Exposure. Or Arrested Development lol. where instead of being assigned together they meet at some kind of investigative seminar (or a new agey 'self discovery' thing Melissa dragged Scully to and Mulder's there investigating something or meeting someone?), and Mulder and Scully meet and instantly become inseparable and get married by the end of the conference and have to integrate their lives. It's like a supernatural version of 'Dharma and Greg' except instead of trying to mesh the hippy stoner astrology rebel family background on one side and the WASPy conservative rich family background on the other side, you've got the 'emotionally traumatized and involved in a massive conspiracy involving aliens and eugenics for profit' background and the 'boisterously eclectic middle class family of navy brats and moby dick fanatics' background on the other side.

Scully's a pathologist and Mulder's working the x-files with Jerry from Ghost in the Machine and later Jeffrey Spender, but they end up involved in each other's cases all the time while arguing about them. Samantha was taken but returned like a year/18 months later with no memory of what happened and she grew up feeling like such a freak because of it that she's obsessed with being very normal, so she thinks Mulder is too 'out there' and too overprotective, and doesn't want to believe in the conspiracy stuff. Scully and Samantha don't get along but Sam does think she's better than Diana. Who pops up from time to time to wreck havoc.

Carl Spender is openly Mulder's biological father because it came out when Teena divorced Bill, but he's still a megalomaniacal power monger in the center of a conspiracy and Mulder still hates him, he just also thinks that Mulder should acknowledge him as a 'decent father' because he hasn't let the syndicate outright kill him and hasn't targeted his new sort-of daughter in law. Mulder and Jeffrey know they are half brothers and Jeffry is insanely jealous both because 'Ol Smokey likes Mulder better (cares enough to taunt him instead of just ignoring him) and because Mulder's much better at investigating paranormal stuff. Jeffrey has also always had a crush on Samantha and is trying to protect her from the Syndicate, but Samantha thinks it's too weird that he's her brother's half brother and won't have anything to do with him.

Jeffrey's also jealous that Mulder got married and to such a normal woman from outside the pool of special conspiracy people when CGB will be expecting him to marry who he picks, so he keeps trying to set Scully up in the eyes of the Syndicate or the Bureau in retribution but she and Melissa have the opposite of CC's 'woman danger tragedy magnet syndrome' and effortlessly sidestep his incompetent little plots without hardly even noticing by simply being focused and intuitive.

Melissa is the only one from either of their families who thinks their being married is a good idea. Also Melissa ends up dating the Lone Gunmen. All of them, in a complicated poly situation that both Mulder and Scully are mildly alarmed by this but it's actually very sweet.

Scully's friend Ellen is concerned that Scully doesn't seem to see how suddenly and wildly insane her life became, kind of like becoming a mob wife but with bugs and goo and aliens, but Scully shrugs it off because it's interesting and she has Mulder now so that part's good, plus he needs her, and you can't choose your in-laws can you.

#txf #msr #i don't even know okay #the thought just popped into my head and while I would love to write a series of minisodes to flesh this out #my ability to focus just hasn't been there since like june #but the concept popped into my head fully formed while browsing hulu (dharma & greg listed right above the x files lol) and it made me laug #and also feel insane while picturing these characters as processed through heavier absurdism filters #feel free to tell me i've snapped under the weight of 20 years of wrestling with this show's canon bc i probably have 🤣💀

[kyogre-blue]

SS continues. It's kind of bad!

Done with the bridge, Gronder is skipped, and done with Merceus also, so all that's left is two maps of Edelgard, Shambhala and I guess evil Rhea or whatever.

I have to say that I did not initially appreciate just HOW MUCH of the post-skip is copy-pasted. I also checked the chapter list for AM, and it's pretty much entirely the same. We take the same freaking bridge in Alliance territory for some god-forsaken reason, apparently? Even though an Arianrhod map exists? That's going to be interesting in like six months when I get to it.

But while Claude making us do VW by proxy was kind of funny in a stupid way, Gronder is a disaster. I am in genuine awe of how poorly handled that was.

So Gronder takes place off screen. We don't go there AND, get this, the entire month when it would take place is just erased from the calendar. There's no April! They did not even pretend to be putting in some effort here. They just excised the entire month along with the map.

And just thinking about Gronder gives me a headache. What was Claude even doing there? Leicester is specifically a hot mess, and I can't see us killing Lorenz at the bridge improving the situation much. And yet Claude goes off to Gronder and uuuh "disappears." At this point, I'm going to assume that he sent Judith's troops and dumped all that on us because he had already decided to peace out and he went to Gronder purely for the purposes of faking his death. That makes about as much sense as anything else.

Dimitri ghost is also funny. My dude, I still don't know anything about you... please go haunt someone who cares.

Anyway, liveblogging notes:

Catherine says that Alliance nobles are weird but in a good way. You won't find "such big-hearted nobles" elsewhere. This is in reference to Judith (and Claude by extension) helping us.

Shamir considers Judith's spy network to be impressive, given that she had people able to spot Rhea being taken away by the Imperial Army in the chaos of the invasion five years ago.

It's mentioned that aside from Count Gloucester being supposedly devout (doubt), the commoners also support the Knights of Seiros. (Update: this is very funny given that he sends his son to die on our swords for uuuh no particular reason.)

Lord Gwendal's daughter fell in love with Sylvain once lol (Update: Ingrid's version of this is that, at fifteen, Sylvain sought "relentlessly" to involve himself with her.)

The two territories on either side of the Great Bridge of Myrddin are Acheron to the north (the one in Lorenz's paralogue) and Bergliez to the south. That's Caspar's dad, and he's been getting on swimmingly in Edelgard's new regime.

The dark merchant looks like one of the Agarthan mages lol, but the quest to get them to appear gives you a Morfis battalion, so I suppose that's where they're actually from?

Seteth says alcohol has little effect on him.

It's specified that Rhea had disabled the Phantoms and Altered Golems in the Holy Tomb in order to allow the ceremony (of throne-sitting) to take place. It seems that she also didn't create those defenses but rather they came pre-built with the Tomb...? Or maybe Seteth means Seiros (not "Rhea") created them back in the day, who can even tell.

Alois is pretty nice to use. Shamir is consistently useful. Seteth is fine. Hanneman is annoying as hell and had gotten killed way too many times. And Manuela not having physic is a bad joke.

The great bridge is a bit of hilarious mess. We get ambushed by warp reinforcements from Acheron, then Lorenz and his goons show up too. Bye, Lorenz. It's your own fault for dying.

Seteth comments on how some imperial troops were willing to lay down their lives to hold the bridge (Edelgard's crazy fangirl Ladislava), but eh.

Suddenly, Gilbert. He's still alive? He says he's serving Dimitri, who was hiding in Fraldarius territory. We didn't find this out until Gronder in VW. This time, the Kingdom rebels reach out in order to ally with the Church. I wanted to ally, but Seteth wouldn't let me. :(((( Seteth, let me live!!! Enough already! Anyway, instead, we just let them use our new bridge. Which all has some funny implications, since apparently Claude is too shady to ally with but also how did Dimitri's super mysterious force get to Gronder in VW?

Anyway, I guess that's why we don't go to Gronder. But I'm uuuuh confused about why Claude was even there, per the off-screen recap? He didn't ask to use our bridge, so how did he even get to Gronder? And WHY? The Alliance was still massively divided last we checked with them. Sure, we killed Lorenz, but I can't see that making things any less chaotic. Judith gave her forces to us, and even between the church and the alliance, it was always emphasized in VW how outnumbered we were. Why would Claude even go to Gronder? How did he get there......... And now he's uh missing (sus man).

Seriously, did he send us those troops because he decided he wanted to dump the war on us and secretly peace out? Or??

Anyway, Dimitri fucked up Edelgard but also got killed. Bye, we hardly knew ya. We still have a vision of his... ghost?? OK, sure.

Take your pick which is funnier, this or Hilda just kinda seeing him die off screen somewhere, after we beat his ass.

Location card for the ghost scene is "outer city" iirc.

April is just GONE. It doesn't exist! Like, we just don't even get a calendar for it?? What the actual fuck?!

Felix switches between thinking Dimitri was dead all along and thinking he was "alive all this time." Whatever.

Alois says we disguised ourselves as enemy soldiers to sneak in..... Where?? When did this happen? We didn't sneak onto the bridge, and if this is about the strategy for Merceus, we haven't discussed it yet.

Yeah, this is apparently a plan that we just haven't been shown yet, because Shamir says we gave the order to dress all our troops in Imperial armor. News to me!

Update: We can even ask "Disguises?" when we're already on the Merceus approach. Is Seteth claiming his strategy was an order from Byleth while handling everything behind the scenes? And then gaslights by saying it was your idea (that you forgot about)?

For a knight, we pick up Lavandula grass, an herb with tiny purple flowers. Its calming scent relieves stress. You make tea out of it.

Ashe mentions that Dedue is missing, and his death is not actually confirmed. But from what I've been told, his appearance in Enbarr was also cut from SS.

I just realized there's a huge globe in the library. I wonder if anyone's been able to get a good look at what's drawn on it. Seteth sure plays up how he totally does not recognize those ballistic missiles.

Come to think of it, how did Jeritza know that the missiles were coming?

Seteth spells out a plan we sure did not have before. I can't believe they have him both railroading you earlier and also playing up how you're totally such a cool and smart strategist...

#playing fire emblem

[spurgie-cousin]

I passed a Drury Inn & Suites yesterday and it reminded me of JRods story you posted. Can you explain why the Rods are so polarizing since I’m a little new to them?

Oh boy that is a lot to unpack in one ask lol.

The Rods are ultra-Conservative Southern Baptists and are Bible literalists, which means they believe in (and strongly promote): the following things:

Women were created by God as subservient to men and shouldn't strive to be anything but wives and mothers.

Men have the final say in every decision and if you're not ok with that you're rebelling against god

Birth control is any form is a slap in the face to god's plan, so if you're not getting pregnant at every opportunity you're doing it wrong.

The King James Version of the Bible, which is not only the most strict but also historically the most inaccurate translation of the Christian bible, is the only Bible worth listening to. The justification is generally that it's one of the earliest translations from hebrew (Bible's original language) to English, which ironically is exactly why it's the worst translation lol.

Romantic relationships are to exist almost exclusively in married relationships between a man and a woman. Pretty much any romantic relationship that isn't a married man and woman (or a courting man and woman getting ready to get married, more on that below) is viewed as extremely sinful.

So per that point, they have absolutely zero tolerance for LGBTQ+ individuals or relationships. The Rods in particular are very vehemently opposed and cruel about LGBTQ+ issues and relationships and have likened them to ped*phil*a.

Casual dating (and of course casual sex) is viewed as sinful and worldly and 'courting' is the only way for young girls and guys to sort of pseudo-date. If you're not familiar with courting, it's an extremely strict dating practice from the 19th century which allows a girl and guy to get to know each other under the strict supervision of each kids parents. It basically allows for no alone time, no touching besides maybe hand holding, and is only entered into with the expectation of marriage. Breaking courtships is rare and not encouraged.

Their kids are homeschooled and VERY controlled by their parents. They are not allowed to consume secular media and basically never get to spend time with other kids without their parents around. Jill has basically said that they are very purposefully brainwashing them against the 'sins of the world' so they can be holy people.

There are definitely other things but I think those are the big ones. Jill Rodrigues in particular is also not only VERY outspoken about all of the above but just generally very fucking weird. A few of her biggest hits include:

Crashing the funeral of 3 children who died tragically in a house fire when she didn't know anyone in the family (and posted crying photos of herself at the funeral on the internet). She had read about their deaths in the news.

When her 2 daughters got in a car accident she posted pictures of them bloody in the hospital with a caption thanking god for many things, including that they were 'trim' (skinny) enough to get out of the wrecked car (???).

She held a funeral for her sisters legs when she lost the use of them after a car accident.

She often posts things "written by her kids" that sound suspiciously exactly like the way she writes.

There is definitely way more in my "The Rodrigues Family FAQ" or "The Rodrigues Family" tags if you're wanting to go down a wormhole!

#why is the rodrigues family bad? #the rodrigues family faq #the rodrigues family

[arrow-ace]

wait omg give us a rundown on all your AUs they all look incredibly intriguing

Omg hello 👀

I'll try to keep these synopses fairly brief since their's so many but I hope they're enough to peak your interest. Also under the cut so I don't bother anyone randomly scrolling:

→ Covenheads Shipkids AU : What it says on the tin. It follows the local boiling Isles equivalent of a beauty pageant kid who grew up and lost her fame - Satine Vernworth - and how she and her friends cause chaos around the castle.

→ Silver Rebel AU : Luz goes full robin hood mode and becomes a parallel/rival to the Golden Guard - complete with black cape, blue accents and silvery grey mask

→ One Gold Survivor AU : The Grimwalker before Hunter survived by pretending to be dead and sneaking out of the pit of failures. He's been hiding in the shadows for years, but is has no choice but to reveal himself when an injury forces him to ask for help, shenanigans ensue

→ Belos' Circus AU : Belos is a clown, literally and figuratively. That's it that's the au. (Not really but still)

→ [generic corruption au name here] AU : What it says on the tin, get ready for inky black sludge, zombie apocalypse tropes and soul-crushing angst

→ Grim Walking Ghosts AU : Hunter discovers that he's being haunted — by an army of ghosts who look exactly like him. Very inspired by BBC's Ghosrs if you've ever seen that

→ The Owl Planet AU : Sci-fi themed AU - Luz stumbles onto a space pod being controlled by a tiny mechanical owl after it stole her favourite novel about a girl who gets abducted by aliens, and the rest is history.

→ A Weeping Heart AU : Huntlow hanahaki AU bc I hate myself </3 based on the fact that weeping willow tree flowers are pretty. Also changed around some of the hanahaki lore bc the original is a bit ick imo

→ One Realm AU : Au inspired by The Incredibles lol, witches are supers and Belos is jealous little shit.

→ Detective Luz is on the case! AU : Based entirely on my love for detective novels and the mlp episode Rarity Investigates. Eda is being framed for crimes against the emperor, and while she's definitely commited a whole lot of other crimes, Luz is determined to prove that she's innocent from this particular one.

→ Obligatory Warrior Cats AU, Obligatory Wings of Fire AU, Hunger Games crack taken seriously AU : I'm just gonna group these three together because they're quite similar. Angst, violent, and cool lore stuff galore

→ Phillip's TimeLoop AU : In an attempt to get back home, Belos gets himself stuck living the same day over and over (the day Luz comes to the Isles) and the Collector is the only other person who's aware this is happening. Will having all the time in the world force Belos to become a better person, or will he double down on his evil ways in the mundanity and insanity?

→ Obligatory Avian AU : Witches have wings and that's about it. Inspired by that one Barbie movie with the fairies and suprisingly realistic depiction of disability until the end.

→ The Lost Grimwalker AU : Hunter ends up the human realm sometime before the series starts and is unable to get back home. He is raised as Luz' brother and wants nothing more than to return to Belos in the Demon Realm, but when he finally returns he sees things from a wild witches perspective and is hunted down by the new Golden Guard who sounds and acts an awful lot like him...

→ Castle Cats AU : Castle Cats is this video game about an army of rebel cats trying to fight away the Evil Pugomancer and their army of dogs. This is just a toh version of that lol. Belos is a dog but devices everyone into thinking he's just a weird looking cat

→ Dos Belos AU : Caleb survives and becomes the 2nd emperor of the boiling Isles, the two brothers playing the same persona and giving the residents of the isles the impression that their leader is a shapeshifting, omniscient teleporter who's scary af.

→ Castle Buddies AU : Hunter and The Collector are friends. That's it that's the au (not really but I'm still working things out)

→ Let's play the Luz and King Game AU : My take on what would've happened if Collector Luz became a thing, King suggests that they play a game he had played with Luz and the Collector takes it a bit more literally then expected.

And that's all of them! I hope that's interesting! :D

Number of AUs focusing on Hunter and/or other golden guards - 6. I think I have a problem... or a blorbo?

#The owl house #Toh #The owl house spoilers #Toh spoilers #Arrow speaks #I am NOT tagging all of them #→ Arrow's AUs #There. That's the tag for all of them now.

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

Ahsoka 1x04 Thoughts

I’m very late to the party, I know. Anyway. Below the cut be spoilers.

First of all, we found out Sabine’s family died on Mandalore in the Mandalorian Purge. I’m so sad. RIP Tristan, Ursa, and Alrich.

The fact that I have to clarify “the Mandalorian Purge” because there’s been more than one purge now? Fuck the Empire. I’m literally losing count of how many genocides Palpatine caused that we explicitly know of. We’re up to like 5. The Jedi, Nightsisters, Lasat, Mandalorians, the Whills… I might be missing one. And who knows how many happened offscreen? Probably a lot.

DAVE why did you have to kill the Wrens off? They didn’t even live on Mandalore?? Unless they moved while it was under Bo-Katan’s rule.

Ahsoka struggling to fight Baylan makes sense story-wise, but is one of those things that I think plays much differently in live action than in animation so it’s a little jarring. It’s odd to see Ahsoka struggle so much in a fight. Heck, it’s odd to see Ahsoka not towering over her opponents, in animation she’s basically the same height as Vader. Hera and Ahsoka next to each other a few episodes ago and Hera being taller was disconcerting.

Shin knocking Sabine’s helmet off somehow also felt weird. I know it’s because they wanted her face exposed, but it felt off. I wish they’d had her take the helmet off.

Sabine doesn’t have her jetpack. :( Budget reasons I assume.

Sabine has a Rebel symbol on the pauldron where her number 5 used to be, and a purrgil on the one that she kept painting with various animals. It started with an anooba, it had a convor on it at one point, presumably for Ahsoka, and there’s definitely at least one version I’m blanking on. Now there’s a purrgil for Ezra.

I’m assuming the reason Sabine feels like Ezra’s the only family she has left is because her biological family died, Hera is busy being a general with Chopper and Jacen, and Zeb’s also off working for the New Republic. Sabine tried to train with Ahsoka but it didn’t seem to work out too well. She wound up kind of stuck in a rut unable to do anything while everyone else moved on. Not mention she’s likely grieving for her family and the rest of Mandalore. That short where Sabine and her brother dismantle an Imperial outpost built on a statue of Tarre Viszla is hitting a bit different now. :( Her dad took her to see that statue so she could see Mandalorian artwork, and now everything is gone.

Every week I forget David Tennant is in this and every week Huyang shows up onscreen and I go “David Tennant!!”

Loving both Baylan and Shin so far. Baylan’s so different from any other Order 66 survivor we’ve seen, and it’s neat to see a Darkside former Jedi who doesn’t go nuts with it. Shin’s emo-ness is fun too. They make a good foil to Ahsoka and Sabine, and I’m curious how Baylan found Shin and ended up taking her as an apprentice. So sad Ray isn’t here to see the reception his performance is getting.

Shin and Baylan’s costuming is also really interesting. It feels like an old/ancient kind of design, like robes and armor- but different from the kind we’ve previously seen in Star Wars. I love that Shin has a padawan braid, too.

Marrok exploding into smoke with one good lightsaber hit- I’m assuming that Morgan was puppeting his corpse? But 1. Don’t Nightsister corpses have to be specially prepared for reanimation? 2. He was talking? I don’t remember the Nightsister zombies doing that? (*whispers* 3. Why is Morgan human, and a Merrin knockoff)

All that theorizing about who Marrok was and he just exploded into a cloud of smoke. Lol.

Jacen getting to pull the lever for the Ghost to go was adorable. Shows how much of a team Hera and Jacen are with one simple action.

Also Jacen saying he has a bad feeling about this! He got to say the thing, and it was so like his father. 💚

Hearing Hera being called “Phoenix Leader” made me happy. I hope at least some of her squad survived the Eye of Sion’s jump to hyperspace.

(Eye of Sion? Is this an Old Republic nod?)

Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds!!!!

Ahsoka talking to Anakin!!! I’m going to combust when we get Ahsoka and Anakin interactions next episode, I live for them.

I think this ride’s finally getting underway next episode, it’s very exciting! I have a feeling things are going to get crazy.

#ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka 1x04 #ahsoka series #my stuff

[jamzandbamz]

Part 2/2

I wonder if Jeff's previous youtube title choice meant anything in any significant way lol. Just a personal thought but as soon as I saw it I was like, "wait you have to be comfortable with that sentiment to claim it, right?" I know the algorithm is king lmao but would he have done that while pursuing the other G? It's not something to read into that much but it feels like something a more unattached Jeff would say. 🤔

If he's not unattached and he's still interested, maybe there have been some unavoidable barriers between them. It's interesting how G was traveling first, then he was, then he got sick... 😮 if anything else happens between them it would have to happen right around now, I guess, once he's caught up on work.

I can't remember when G deleted her tweet, but my guess is that she either wanted some privacy or is feeling some mortification after saying too much on their dates, especially since things may have gone silent on his end.

It's worth mentioning that she's very candid. This week she said she overshared on the V-day date, last week she said something vague about saying or doing too much and wanting to run away from LA and hide, so I'm assuming it's mostly related to the date. Idk if it's trauma dumping or maybe anxiety or if she's been through it recently, but it's interesting that she regrets it bc it means she's aware of it.

In one of the first vids of hers I clicked on, she opened up a lot about her family situation. It was interesting. She said that her mom has been an addict (alcohol +) for many years, since her childhood. She implied that they are on bad terms and said that she doesn't even speak to her anymore. She also opened up about historically having many friendship problems that repeat in various ways. She also said that her number one problem with herself is that she "hates herself." That's so tough, I feel for her but I also am curious about how she's approaching things now. I feel hopeful for her bc in her recent vids it sounds like she is all about making an effort to transcend her limitations rather than live out her programming, so I hope it all comes through for her 💗

But again, and this is just my opinion, Jeff, in contrast, who has rebelled, gone to jail, etc., still seems to have had a stable, well-meaning set of parents, a seemingly normal dynamic with them, and overall a relatively good upbringing with healthy bonding. I think he is able to form healthy romantic relationships and maintain them for a long time. This is the main reason why I can't realistically see Jeff going all in permanently unless she has experienced healing. I'm not here to judge and she seems very self aware and conscious of her patterns, so I think she'll find her way, but what she said did draw my attention.

Jeff has such a compassionate side, and I think he is calming and wanted to listen to her on the date when she opened up, and does like her, but I think he can sense if a new person can bond similarly in whatever budding dynamic he has with someone. Again, just my two cents.

I'll share this quickly, but I met with an amazing therapist and author a few years ago who shared that we form our subconscious concept of companionship through our relationships with our same gender parent (weird but interesting, there is more of a sibling vibe), and that we replicate it in our partnerships because companionship is at the foundation of romantic love. It's a major predictor of marital difficulty/success.

As far as personality/chemistry....I do think there is a lot of chemistry between them. She's a more confident version of Cierra to me. But I kinda do also feel a power clash. Do you feel that? Remember that psychic friend of his who said "don't marry your mother" LOL. It's just coming to mind.

This is kinda old news now BUT I'm happy to hear that the date went well and that Jeff makes her feel comfortable. My consistent impression is that he is not weird and doesn't make things unpleasant one-on-one, I remember the Godfather members saying he was always so friendly and easy to talk to. Still, it's sort of bizarre and ironic that SHE may have been the one to risk things and scare him off by being so candid, but I hope she feels better about it. I wonder what Jeff was really thinking.

So bottom line I think she likes him but is worrying about having fumbled things. And I think Jeff will decide eventually that she is not for him, unless she changes her mind first. She *has* followed him for a while, met three times, said she gets attached quickly...and doesn't seem to be deterred so far, so if they did start dating it wouldn't be surprising. She wants Jeff (unlike the prior sitch). But realistically, while I could see them possibly dating for a little bit... I can practically hear Jeff saying "it just didn't work out." I do kinda want to see him in a relationship tho. But I might take that back. 🤣🤣

I wrote a lot more than I expected!! I do think she's sweet and seems kindhearted so I hope she's doing well and the everything winds up working out for the best Xx

[writingwithcolor]

B’nei mitzvah in spaceship without Jewish community | Jewish character celebrating Christmas

Hi! Thank you so much for running this blog. I appreciate how much time and effort all the mods have put into it. I finished reading through the whole Jewish tag a few days ago, and I’ve learned so much! I’m writing a Voltron fic (I *know* lol) and decided to make one of the protagonists a white nonbinary Ashkenazi Reform Jewish girl. Her astronaut brother mysteriously disappears in space and is presumed dead, so she runs away from home a couple of months before her b'nei mitzvah to find him. Now, she’s in a group of rebels in space fighting against an Empire. I have two concerns:

1. Everyone on the ship misses home, so part of the way they cope is through getting in touch with their cultures. They’re gonna celebrate (a mostly non-Americanized) Christmas because it matters a lot to some of the characters for non-religious reasons. To what extent can my Jewish character participate in the celebration without it being weird? I want her to enjoy herself more because she’s with her friends than because Jesus etc. They’ll also celebrate Chanukah, if that helps. I know Chanukah isn’t a major holiday, so I also want to have her celebrate a more significant one like Rosh Hashanah and/or Purim with them. Is it okay for gentiles to participate in those holiday celebrations, or should she do that alone?

2. Throughout most of the story, she’ll struggle with choosing whether to prioritize fighting the Empire or finding her brother and bringing him home. When she eventually does find her brother (who also turns out to be a rebel), he lets her decide whether they stay or go home. I thought it would be nice if she decided to stay and keep fighting for the greater good after she finally has her b'nei mitzvah. Her friends and other experiences are also a big part of why she decides to stay, but the b'nei mitzvah would be what gives her the final push she needs to decide. I don’t know if it would be okay for me to write the ceremony itself or if she can even have one if only two of the eight people on the ship are Jewish. I read that not everyone has a b'nei mitzvah and that it’s not required, but I feel like it’d be a big deal to her character. Should I keep the b'nei mitzvah idea, or am I heading towards appropriative territory here?

I want to make her Jewishness a big part of her character’s growth, and I really want to make sure I do it respectfully and accurately. I plan on finding a sensitivity reader when I’ve made more progress with actually writing everything out. Thank you for any insight you might offer!

It feels off to me to join a community symbolically when you’re far away FROM the community. Why not just have had her already have done the ceremony before she has all these adventures? That way it could just be a straightforward story about a Jewish teen having exciting heroic adventures in space, rather than a story about what happens when you have to miss aspects of Jewish life because you’re in space. It would also make the “….well, I guess I’m around for Christmas” bit less weighted because then that would be the only one of those instead of having two of those.

–Shira 

I’ll cover some other territory here. For those who don’t know, b'nei mitzvah is something you just automatically become at the correct age, the ceremony is simply to celebrate that with the community. Not all people have the ceremony, but if you are Jewish, and of age (for religious purposes), your status changes with or without it. Personally, I’m comfortable with showing a Jewish character finding a way to have a Jewish celebration when the circumstances are less than ideal, for me the other aspects of the story are more troubling. 

On the subject of having a Jewish character celebrate Christmas with their friends… look I don’t like this trope. There are many Jewish people, who are completely secular, who don’t celebrate Christmas, because it is explicitly a Christian holiday, and secular Jewish people are still Jewish. Some Jewish people (secular or otherwise) do choose to celebrate other holidays, and I am very comfortable with those folks telling their own stories. What I’m not happy with is the push from outside of the community for every Jewish character to slide into assimilation. 

Some Jewish people will go to Christmas parties and not eat the food, because they keep kosher, or won’t stay for a tree-lighting, because that feels like it goes too far, or will give presents but not receive them. There are a huge number of ways we might handle Christmas, and I appreciate that you plan to show holidays other than just Chanukah (and yes, it’s fine for non-Jewish characters to join her in her holidays, if she invites them), but I always question why a non-Jewish writer is so keen to show Jewish characters celebrating Christmas. The most generous version of me wants to assume that you get so much out of Christmas that you want to share it, but the part of me that knows about the pressures to assimilate, and the history of increased antisemitic violence around Christmas thinks… just leave this kid alone. She missed her celebration, she’s far from her community, and now she has to go put on a Happy Assimilated Smile for the culturally Christian folks around her. From a nonbinary Jewish perspective, it’s a little unusual for your nonbinary character to use she/her pronouns, and use b'nei mitzvah as a gender neutral alternative to the gendered bat mitzvah. In secular life, at least in the US, it’s not uncommon for people to use multiple pronouns, but I haven’t met, or even heard of, a single person using gendered pronouns secularly, and using new neutral alternatives religiously. It absolutely could happen but, because it is so unusual, to me it reads as either invalidating the character’s gender, or tokenizing her in the religious sphere. 

–Dierdra 

Shira, I think that’s a really good idea to make the character post-b'nei mitzvah. That way you just have a Jewish character having adventures rather than her culture being The Conflict. (And also, a pre-b'nei mitzvah seems a bit young for this storyline? Can she really consent to fighting alongside the rebels? Do they habitually take unaccompanied children on their ship? To me a teenager would make more sense, but hey it’s not my story!)

Dierdra, your answer regarding the Christmas aspect was awesome and really thorough. Thanks for your thoughts on the pronouns as well, it also jarred with me but I was waiting to hear your opinion as you have lived experience. My worry is if you use gender neutral terms for one but not the other, you risk falling into to the stereotype that only marginalised religious folks have to change our language etc to be inclusive to LGBTQ+ people, but everyone else is fine. 

I wanted to come back to the point about Rosh Hashana. First of all, thank you for acknowledging that we have holidays that are more important than Chanukah! Sooo many OP’s don’t know that. In terms of how she would celebrate it, I agree it’s fine to invite non-Jewish people along. However, given how community-based Jewish life is, making her keep Yom Tov on her own feels a bit like a torture story, especially when others have people to celebrate Christmas with. I wonder if you’ve thought about giving her a Jewish friend on the ship? Especially if you want her Jewishness to be part of her growth as you mentioned, an older Jewish friend and mentor could be a huge help :)

–Shoshi

As you can see, we have a wide range of possibilities for “what happens when you ask a Jewish person about celebrating Christmas.” I didn’t mind hanging around it as an outsider myself until a certain subset of Christians started being mean-spirited about it in the news plus some personal trauma that time of year, as long as everyone involved was clear that I was just participating from the outside and this didn’t somehow change me. (If I may make an analogy: compare it to going to a baby shower when you want to support your friend or family member but also really don’t want kids of your own. You’re going to have a whole different experience if your decision is respected vs. if all the other guests treat you like you being there means you’ll change your mind about not wanting kids.)

That being said, it’s still all over the map. Some people IRL are okay even going to mass with their partner’s Catholic family (without participating in communion obvs.) Some would never, ever do that and are sitting here with shocked faces that I even typed that. But what becomes important is the way it’s written. Sitting around listening to the Christmas story is probably a bad fit for your fanfic, but helping other people bake Christmas cookies or put ornaments on a tree could work. The ornament thing could remind her of decorating a sukkah, and she could point that out to the others. 

I guess I’m saying is 

keep her participation secular, and 

keep her participation from leaning into the idea that we’re unhappy with our customs and would prefer to do it their way. 

I have literally never in my life felt jealous of the kids who “got to do Santa” (for example) and while I’m sure some kids were and they’re valid too, I think it’s important to show that it’s not a universal phenomenon.

–Shira

#jewish #non binary #B’nei mitzvah #holidays #Christmas #Jewish Holidays #submission

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Legacy of Mandalore"

A Mandalorian family reunion!

Live reaction version from 2017.

I do find it hilarious that the kids are in the front seats, driving and co-piloting, while the adults are hanging out in the back.

Ezra's little, "Wait a minute." moment lol.

Nice to hear this bit of spoken Mando'a.

Chopper banging on the outside of the Phantom II with his manipulators lol.

Remember what I said last rewatch about how the two of them develop into co-protagonists? Part of that seems to be that they start spending more time in the cockpit together. :)

~Under cloud, beneath the stars... over snoooooooow one winter's morn.~

*ahem* Pardon me there, visiting Krownest always puts those lyrics in my head.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The snow clumps being shaken off the tops of the trees as they're passing.

"Don't worry, I'll play nice."

Ah yes, one of the parts of the episode that almost seems like it's playing Ezra off as Sabine's "problem boyfriend" that she's bringing home to meet mom and dad. <3

So it was definitely the Supercommando armor that set Ezra off.

I do not know what it is but Disney has been pulling some really weird shit regarding age order of siblings lately, Tristan does not look like he's the younger sibling at all.

Also Isabella and Luisa should be totally switched around, c'mon.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: How their feet actually sink into the snow with realistic weight and powder compression.

Love the design of the Wren stronghold. Very Modern Architecture.

I love him. <3

Takes Sabine promising that the lightsabers will be safe before Ezra decides to give his up. (And yet later in the climax he doesn't even hesitate to throw it to her, aaaaaah!)

Don't mind me, just appreciating the design of this place.

Ursa sounds an awful lot like Fenn "I made a deal with the Empire to survive" Rau here. I doubt the parallels aren't deliberate.

So I guess the takeaway lesson is don't make deals with the evil empire because it will always screw you over.

*whispers* If no supposed to ship why have Ezra being adorkable towards Sabine's brother just like Kanan was adorkable at Hera's father?

Really can't get over the scenery in this episode it's so soft and pretty.

Ursa was so ready to be impressed that her babygirl kicked Maul's ass and so disappointed when that wasn't the case lol.

Does seem like Sabine had a difficult childhood even before the whole Dutchess fiasco. Maybe that was why she decided to go to the Imperial Academy in the first place? Who knows.

My genre-savvy called a lot of the beats this episode, which made it just a smidge predictable for me the first time around.

Not gonna lie, Rau sneaking through the complex is actually kind of hilarious.

I'll bet Alrich painted that for her. :)

Ngl, the dialogue in this scene is just a bit weirdly written, I dunno what it is but it bugs me.

Ezra's so proud that Sabine kicked Gar Saxon's ass lol.

Underappreciated Papa Wolf Kanan moment: Shielding Ezra from the guardsman's blasters.

You know I don't wonder why Sabine latched onto the Ghost crew as her new family, high-ranking Mandalorian clans seem overly obsessed with prestige.

Tristan is a blabbermouth lol, still can't get over that.

Oh man this expression. She must feel like she's relieving her family's disowning all over again.

*chanting* Don't make deals with the devil, don't make deals with the devil.

Saxon is a master at finding loopholes isn't he?

I don't think this brief fakeout from Tristan was necessary, I think he should have just immediately turned guns on Saxon from the beginning.

Nice to hear Sabine's theme in the score tho.

LOLOL IT STILL CRACKS ME UP HOW FENN RAU JUST BURSTS THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOW ALL, "SURPRISE, BITCHES!"

<333333

This moment made the episode for me.

Zero hesitation, complete trust and faith. He loves her so much omg.

Oooooh a nice rendition of the Force Theme here!

(Told y'all it became a running gag.)

Problem boyfriend so worried. <3

Sabine's theme is in french horns now, it sounds like. This iteration of the theme is less mournful and more action-oriented, with flute trills and timpani percussion.

The cracking ice is mostly symbolic I think. I did worry at the time of airing if someone was going to wind up falling in.

Sabine using basic lightsaber positions like Kanan and Ezra taught her. <3

...Was it implied that Sabine hacked off Saxon's arm there or...? Camera angle makes it difficult to discern.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Saxon winds up in a position like Dooku's or the Grand Inquisitor's in the Season One finale, lightsaber blades held crossed at their throats.

But Sabine, having been heavily influenced by the Jedi in her life, chooses mercy over revenge. The moment is even punctuated by a snippet of the Force Theme. Aaaaaaaah I love it, I love that Sabine has let Kanan's influence soak into her so much, has become so much more Jedi than Mandalorian and been made better for it.

Oh, his arm's intact, okay then.

I have... Thoughts™ about the entire Mandalorian mindset of needing chaos to become strong and refusing outside help to fight its battles and how the whole Proud Warrior Race thing so often works against them rather than for them but I'll leave them unsaid for now.

<33333

This status quo change was honestly completely unexpected, and frankly, the episode is eons better for it.

Sabine's theme is in a triumphant key now, as she watches the Phantom II leave.

:((((

So! This episode is not nearly as good as the previous one, and it's bit predictable, as I said. It's not bad, though, and it's obviously a necessary one for Sabine's growth and character arc, and the overall Mandalorian arc. I was weirdly a little bored this time? Aside from the cute Sabezra bits and the fact that they were bold enough to change up the status quo by having Sabine stay on Krownest, I really feel like this could have been so much stronger as an episode.

Maybe if we axed one of the fillers and made this a two-parter? Idk.

The episode is still decently entertaining enough and has lots of lovely quality Sabine content for those in fandom whose primary investment is her. She gets to really shine here, and show off how far she's come as a character. Which is great.

I think at the time there was a genuine worry that Sabine was being written out of the show. I know I needed a little bit of time to process the thought of her being absent the next couple episodes. But again, they made a narrative choice and stuck with it and I admire that. So I really can't hate this episode. :)

Of course next time we're at my favorite episode of the season and the whole inspiration for an accidentally giant-ass AU that I wrote. See y'all then!

#star wars #star wars rebels #sabezra #ezra bridger #rebels rewatch #liveblog

[yinglipeggedwenwu]

(Re)Watching Tony Leung Chiu-wai: 赤壁 (Red Cliff, 2008-9)

SO I know I’m not the only one looking at Tony Leung Chiu-wai with fresh horny eyes after Shang Chi. I’ve seen quite a few folks who are similar to me too - the man is a household name to anyone adjacent to Hong Kong and Chinese media! But maybe similar to a lot of HK families, Wong Kar Wai flicks weren’t exactly on the rotation, and tbh I was more into the pretty boys like Takeshi Kaneshiro to pay attention to Lil Tony so I’m not gonna play like I have been in this camp all this time!! With that said, this was a good excuse to dip back into some Chinese films via Tony’s filmography. I bet many new/returning fans are doing the same, so I’m just going to chronicle my journey in case others are on the same path :D

I’m not doing this by any particular order, either, so without further ado: 赤壁 Red Cliff, the international cut!

OVERALL: It’s a good action flick, though I wish I could have seen the full version. Not Fast and the Furious levels of mindless, but definitely worth a watch for premium Asian studs (featuring actors from China, HK, Taiwan, and Japan) and a visualization of old time military tactics.

Tony notes: Zhou Yu is the antithesis of Xu Wenwu - if you wanna see the man flex some acting chops, it’s worth the watch. Despite the massive ensemble cast, Zhou Yu’s definitely a Main Character and gets a lot of screen time and dimension. Plus he shows some skin!

SOOOO Red Cliff was originally a massive two-parter, but unfortunately I could only find the international cut, which basically smashed the two together, which is a bit much. Red Cliff is a real battle, which is portrayed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms which like... historic RPF and so massive as a cultural thing in Asia that I just cannot dedicate more space to it right now. But the point I want to make is that the story has a LOT of names to digest, even for people who are comfortable with Chinese names. I have read Rot3K and played hours of Dynasty Warriors, so I’d say going in I knew 80% of the major cast names (and recognized the actors, too), but I had a hard time keeping up with like the ten dudes I didn’t know! So this might be a bit dense for folks who are coming in totally fresh to all of these names/faces. (flashbacks to me watching GoT and getting paranoid about having white people face blindness bc there’s no way she’s having sex with her brother! lol)

Yes the impetus to watch the film was Tony, but I was 300% invested for childhood crush Takeshi Kaneshiro as Zhuge Liang! Pet peeve: throughout the movie they refer to him as Zhuge, but the subtitles say Kong Ming. Kong Ming was a nickname, but I guess whoever subtitled it thought it might be too confusing to go back and forth?

The eyebrow budget was... wow.

This movie seals the deal that I am most certainly attracted to Xu Wenwu and not Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and a testament to his skill as an actor. Zhou Yu exemplifies all the classic Chinese ‘Good Man!!!’ traits: learnedt, hyper perceptive (good ol’ Zhou ‘weird ears’ Yu), loyal/committed to the cause, humble, etc. Unfortunately, horniness is not really a valued quality back in the day, which is unfortunate because then the one sex scene we get really feels pretty lukewarm. (ok edited to say - on rewatch it’s ~lovemaking~ or something. it’s not as lukewarm as I thought but still not like, burning searing tension)

Luckily there is a lot of fire in the rest of the film to bring the heat.

Oh yes adding to the list of studs: Taiwanese actor Chang Chen as Sun Quan! Those rebel cheekbones can defend my land any day.

I really liked seeing some of the strategies play out. Reading some of these formations and stuff can be pretty abstract, so seeing them in action really helped me ‘get’ it. I think that’s where the movie really shines, is in showing that skilled coordination can overcome a disadvantage in numbers.

One of the hugest detriments to this international version is that I think the whole logic/explanation of Zhuge Liang sending out the straw boats was dropped? otherwise i really wasn’t paying attention. Basically - it was a wager between Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu! They made some sort of bet bc they were short on weapons, and they were like ‘whoever can’t get 100,000 arrows by tomorrow will die’ or whatever, and Zhuge’s plan was that!

With that said, on the whole Kaneshiro really shone was Zhuge Liang. Taiwanese excellence all around in this flick.

Oh yeah the UST between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang? Palpable.

I wish I saw the full version, because my main critiques are that there’s a lot crammed into this, and it could use a little more breathing room. I do appreciate the slower moments that did their own space, in particular that moment Xiao Qiao does The Turn, and the framing is a perfect representation of Cao Cao’s painting.

I just skimmed the wikipedia again and apparently Tony was offered Zhuge Liang, but he turned it down???? Oh MAN Kaneshiro did the character right, and I think the two really had good chemistry. But MAN I really would have loved to see Tony as the weird horoscope guy!!!

#red cliff #chi bi #赤壁 #tony leung chiu wai #tony leung chiu wai cinematic universe #film review #i'd say spoilers but like... it's been almost 2000 yrs people

[opalsiren]

not to winx club dub discourse in 2021 but i decided to watch the ep where we meet musa's dad in the rai dub instead for a change and... whew do i have some thoughts

first off, i understand that the rai dub is closest to the original italian version and is considered more ‘authentic’ and therefore better. doesn’t change the fact that, at least based on this one episode alone, the 4kids dub is superior. please don’t take this too seriously lol

so i'd never watched the rai dub before but in this version musa's dad writes a song for musa's mom which she... doesn't like, they go broke trying to get famous and can't pay their medical bills, resulting in the death of musa’s mom. whereas in the 4kids dub her mom instantly falls in love with her dad's song, she gives up her classical training and he gives up his royal status to be with her, they're pretty successful and take time off to have musa, then musa's mom passes

like... there's a message in the 4kids dub, that you can go against tradition to do what you love and be with the person you love. which directly parallels musa's relationship with riven since he's somewhat of a social outcast but she loves him and wants to be with him anyway. what is the message of the rai dub? don't follow your dreams or you'll die broke? make it make sense!

i think that the message that musa needs to keep making music, even if it is painful for her dad who is having a hard time getting over his partner’s death, is just more coherent. it centers the conflict around musa’s family and the importance of keeping her mother’s memory alive, rather than ‘you will go broke and die if you pursue your passion also i don’t like riven for arbitrary reasons’

as for musa’s dad not vibing with riven... what was the point of that? we are told that they have met offscreen, so musa’s father’s reasons for disliking him seem silly and contrived. how are we supposed to be invested when we don’t see this meeting firsthand? further to that, there is a very subtle implication in the 4kids dub that riven and musa’s relationship parallels her parents’ enduring love, in that they rebelled against society together. this implication is compounded by the fact that the concert at red fountain takes place a few episodes after the whole jared fiasco where all of musa’s friends are essentially telling her to dump riven and date jared instead

also, musa’s parents both had to change for one another and make sacrifices to be together. later on in the series, musa earns her charmix by finally telling riven outright that she likes him, showing enormous growth from the early season one musa who always tried to ‘play it cool.’ later, riven makes the ultimate sacrifice for musa by taking a death blow from darkar intended for her. the parallels are subtle, sure, but it almost seems like the rai dub is trying to tell us that all the change and growth musa’s parents went through together was in vain? again, there is a lack of clarity around what the actual message of this episode is

at least based on this one episode, the rai dub suffers from a very telling structuring issue. don’t get me wrong, the 4kids dub has its problems, but the narration employed in the rai dub meant that we were told rather than shown the evens of the episode. also the dialogue is just... stilted, and weird, and off in so many places. i understand that the 4kids voice acting is critiqued as goofy and silly, but the rai dub voices are boring and lacklustre to the point where i could barely distinguish one character from the next. there is so little variation even in accent, tone, or the use of slang or verbiage. yes, british!tecna, musa’s use of early 2000s slang, and stella’s over-reliance on phrases such as ‘fabulous’ and ‘dawling’ are a little gauche, but these quirks breathe life into the voice acting and show the passion behind the project as a whole

one thing i did like about the rai dub is that the red fountain gig is supposed to be musa’s ‘musical debut’ which does add to the stakes. when you watch the 4kids’ answer to this episode it’s very easy to be like ‘she could just... not perform at this one concert, and then keep her music from her dad till graduation.’ that said, at least in the 4kids dub, she had spent the summer before season two touring with some music group and also performed at the back to school dance in season one. is there something about a musical debut i’m not understanding?

that all being said, all of this is based on one (1) episode. i know that the 4kids dub changed a ton from the original canon, including re-writing more ‘mature’ plot points, in an attempt to make the show more suitable for younger, american audiences. i can totally understand why people who are familiar with the og dub can’t stand the 4kids iteration. i think must of us tend to gravitate towards the dub we grew up with. i also am going to try sit down and watch the rai dub up to season three, whenever i finish my season three 4kids rewatch

again, if you can’t stand the 4kids dub, please don’t take these presumptions criticisms based on my viewing of one episode too seriously. honestly? i am starting to consider 4kids as an entirely separate iteration of winx canon entirely. for me the winx canon ends at season three, since that’s when the 4kids license expired, and an entirely new canon had been established by the 4kids writers. none of these writers were the same writers as that of the rai dub, so why should we consider it within the same canon?

#.txt #winx club #4kids #rai #rainbow #rai dub #4kids dub #anyway this became a fucking dissertation very quickly. and also a treatise on why you should ship riven with musa lol. but i can't talk #about winx club without talking about them apparently #i know that these points have probably been made thousands of times before and i regret to dredge up the dubbing wars again but i seriously #didn't think the rai rub was going to be... like that. #again please don't take this too seriously!! #although. if you are rai dub supremacist. i would strongly recommend sitting down and watching the 4kids dub from start to finish

[jngles]

Thoughts You Definitely All Asked For on ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 Finale!!

These are in chronological order for the show.

One of my biggest fears about them reintroducing Boba Fett was that by removing some of his mystery, they would make him less cool. Thank god that has not been the case. He’s still an aloof and nasty piece of work but with dimensions added.

We all know the Empire is most often a metaphor for America right? At least when it’s not being Nazi Germany? The Imperial pilot talking about destroying an entire planet (of peaceful weaponless civilians no less) to stop terrorism hits a little too close to home of the nuclear bombs the US has dropped and the endless destruction of the Middle East in the “war against terror.” And of course we frame all our wars in similar language like “our troops died to keep our country safe,” which hasn’t really been true since WWII.

I do think it’s worth noting that this is the first time SW has had someone acknowledge the human losses of the Death Star blasts. Usually it’s framed as a loss in construction time, strategical advantage, and power. The Empire proved time and time again that the lives of its soldiers were utterly expendable, which always made me question why people remained loyal outside of fear. Through this pilot’s phrasing, you can see the propaganda Imperial superiors used to twist the truth to their followers, always blaming those deaths on Rebel aggression instead of prideful Imperial neglect (I.e. not abandoning ship when there was still time) or even direct Imperial aggression like Operation Cinder where they fired on thousands of their own (discussed in S2E7.)

You can’t tell me Din wasn’t into it when Cara shot that asshole pilot. That cold faced revenge shot? 100% Mandalorian style, and also very very hot.

I appreciate that it was a pretty equal match between Boba and Koska Reeves. So much of Boba’s advantage comes from his suit, but since she also has one, it’s a battle of wits on how to use it, and they even out. This both maintains his legendary badassery and also that of highly trained Mandalorian warriors, and hopefully avoids asshole chauvinist SW fans on the internet complaining abujt “pandering to feminism” (fuck off @ all of them, especially since Mercedes Vernado who plays Reeves is a WWE champ and could kick all of your asses.)

Din point blank asked how many Death Troopers there are and Dr. Pershing never answered, and that annoys me.

Why is no one suspicious why Dr. Pershing is being so helpful and revealing so much information? He totally did not have to tell them about the Dark Troopers or any of the specifics of locations on the ship. He’s still with the empire post-fall, implying he’s a loyalist, so... wtf on his part (since no tricks come of it), and “be smarter” on the part of everyone else. Unless he’s been captive as a clone engineer all this time. But couldn’t he have made his escape back in Season 1 when Din killed everyone at that lab to get the kid back?

Bo Katan really could’ve just told them how the retrieval of the dark saber needs to work in the flight before the mission instead of being vague about “he belongs to me.”

Boba Fett’s usage of “Princess” and “don’t worry about me” are a good throwback to Han Solo and the culture they both grew up in. You can never quite tell if it’s based in misogyny or resentment for upper classes, but both of them seem to use it as a shield for begrudging respect they hold for a woman they think is brave but following a fool’s errand (the Rebellion and retaking Mandalore).

The Comms Officer (Katy O’Brian) assisting Moff Gideon will forever and always look like Ilana Glazer to me, and then I get swept up imagining what would happen if the Broad City cast accidentally got transported to Star Wars.

The launch tube sequence has some amazing cinematography.

The second I saw Boba was cut off from the pack, I really thought they were going to kill him again and make his return bittersweet. Glad they didn’t.

God this team of Bo Katan, Koska Reeves, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune is SO BADASS. I’m just obsessed with all these characters and their various motivations to get shit done. I honestly didn’t even think about the fact it’s all women until my re-watch, showing that the writers made it feel natural, the way women deserve to have their representation done. You can bet I am SO EXCITED for my future daughter and the wealth of possibilities she’s going to have of characters to play pretend as, action figures she can relate to, Halloween costumes to wear, etc. It’s so validating that we’ve gone from only Princess Leia as a female main character to all these women + Rey, Jyn Erso, Ahsoka, etc. etc.

Can’t wait for the trap remix of the Dark Trooper activation noises. (And the transition from that to the minimalist flute theme is perfect.)

The spy movie version of the main theme music is sick.

The Dark Trooper droid faces have a lot of similarity to Darth Vader’s mask. That callback is especially apparent when the one is literally lit from the inside with fire. He was already a martyr/legend to the Imperial remnants, Kylo Ren didn’t start the trend of ignoring his redemption.

Cara’s “excuse me” right before shooting up Stormtroopers is hilarious. Literally “can’t talk rn, doing hot girl shit and murdering space Nazis.”

Finally an Imperial ship got some frickin security cameras. Truly- the amount of times people just wander down hallways they’re not supposed to be in with no one being able to find them throughout the course of Star Wars is ridiculous when you think about the degree of surveillance our real life society carries out. I also love that this means The Mandalorian characters have also seen The Mandalorian.

The storytelling does such a service to Pedro Pascal and his already heroic efforts to portray emotion through a helmet. For example: Din easily could’ve killed the one stormtrooper outside Grogu’s cell much more efficiently, but instead, to show his absolute rage, they wrote in Din choking him out with a spear.

Moff Gideon would have been the BIGGEST pain in the ass in philosophy class. “Assume I know everything” my ass. I want to hear about his backstory (he would’ve been “coming of age” at the time of the Clone Wars) mostly just to hear about him getting bullied at school.

Smart move honestly, to try to tempt Din with the Mandalorian throne, given the Mandalorian power struggles of the past. Proud of our boy for keeping his priorities straight.

So has the blood from Grogu been transferred out of the ship and back to the remnant empire already, or do they have to find a new “donor” to help with building Snoke and Palpatine’s clones? Will they continue to go after him with Luke?

Lmao Din being so annoyed by Bo Katan being stringent about the tradition of winning the Dark Saber through combat is HILARIOUS, coming from a man who up until like a day ago hadn’t shown his face to a living being in decades.

The dark troopers can punch in blast doors but NOT Din’s helmet?? That’s a wild testament to beskar. Somehow that’s the comparison that sticks out to me, more even than its resistance to lightsabers.

This show works because of the cynicism of so many characters adding contrast to the moments of heart. Cara Dune is not a “fan” the way Rey was (for the record I love Rey, don’t come at her, it’s just different). Cara doesn’t see an X-Wing and go OMG THE REBELLION I LOVE THEM. She’s been through too much to believe in the magic saviourism of the “good guys,” and is instead thinking strategically when she, the one Rebel present, brushes off the usefulness of “one X-Wing.” The only positive things she seems to feel in battle situations are moments of relief and brief satisfaction in hurting the empire, with a dark knowledge that it will never make up for the hurt they did to her.

How do you keep a cloak hood on while fighting? Both from a technical standpoint (my hats fall off without me even having to move- is he expending force energy just to keep it on and look cool lol?) and also because idk, maybe it’s just me, but peripheral vision is helpful when surrounded by killer robots on a thin bridge above oblivion. I know his first lesson was to “see” through the force, but every resource helps, right?

Now that she has the ship, I wonder if Bo Katan can reprogram any salvageable Dark Troopers to help with retaking Mandalore?

There is nothing like seeing Luke’s fighting style, with its efficient choppiness and twinge of darkness. I always wonder how much is natural and how much is influenced by his first fights with Vader (that Skywalker diva flair). I love how they’ve advanced his technique but also kept him extremely “grey” here- like to straight up COMBUST a Dark Trooper takes some violent energy lol.

How tf is Moff Gideon alive after threatening Grogu’s life twice directly? That’s a wild testament to Din’s regard for Cara.

I love how seeing Luke slice through a bunch of murder droids like butter probably was a huge point in his favor for Din actually letting Grogu go with him. Like he will only send his child to boarding preschool if he knows the teacher will be a certified killing machine.

Oh my god they finally brought in some OG Star Wars theme music for Luke to take his hood off to 😭 It felt weird seeing him fight to different music, so the emotional payoff is huge when his themes come back for the face reveal.

Whoever added the digital young Mark Hamill face NAILED those classic shining Luke eyes and the earnest eyebrow lift.

Whoever shines the glass of Baby Yoda’s lil puppet eyeballs each day deserves a raise. The light caught in those babies is devastating.

Din is shaking as he takes off his helmet. This is the most enormous show of love he could give him, and possibly the last he’ll be able to for a long time. He only just got Grogu back and is desperate for a moment of real connection before letting him go once again.

This is the first time anyone has touched Din’s face since... likely his parents as a child.

Whoever wrote this scene clearly actually has kids. Anyone who’s ever had to leave a young child even just to go out for a bit or to drop them off somewhere knows that heartbreak of seeing them look in your eyes and hold on to your leg, trying to keep you with them. Especially when they can sense your mutual separation anxiety. The one thing that starts to make them feel better is something fun like a new toy or friend who can be their guide in the new environment, and R2’s friendly introduction is exactly that (since digital Luke isn’t being particularly emotive or child friendly... I hope that’s just because he’s reaching into Grogu’s mind while also keeping an eye on the multiple people with guns trained on him, not because he’s going to be totally unfeeling raising this kid.)

I love that Grogu and R2 are immediately buddies in contrast to Episode 5 when R2 was like “fuck this guy” @ Yoda stealing food and hitting him with a walking stick lol. I would imagine Luke must be reminded of that first introduction too and entertained by this display of playfulness in a *positive* light between R2 and mini-Yoda.

I need to know if Luke and Ahsoka have met- it is KILLING ME.

Does this mean Grogu will get killed by Kylo Ren when he fucks up Luke’s academy??? I will reincarnate Ben just to kill him again if that’s the case.

How does Luke not even fully SMILE at Grogu?? An adorable little baby version of his beloved master Yoda, and you’re telling me he doesn’t have the same heart stopping gasp we all did when we first saw him?? Maybe he did when they first connected through the force. He has a bit of bemusement on his face, and also wonder in his eyes, but I want a grin of recognition and welcome, dammit.

I really wish Luke had somehow acknowledged Cara Dune. Everyone else seems to see the tear drop Rebel sign and know it means Alderaan. He could’ve been like yo I have a badass warrior sister from your planet that you should meet. Or just “thank you for your service.” (I know this actually wouldn’t have been cinematically good but my heart wants it.)

Luke didn’t tell Din his name?? Or ask for any details about the kid and his care?? I could literally never let my kid go with someone, regardless of how worthy, and not be like, “Excuse me sir who are you and where tf are you taking my tiny beloved green goblin in case I need to find him? Here is my contact info. He likes to eat frogs and eggs, and he can have macarons as a treat. He’s 50 years old and his favorite toy is still a ball. Bedtime is 8pm and he’s allergic to dairy.”

Another reason I wish Luke had identified himself would be to see the mishmash of reactions that would ensue. Cara would be like DAMN IT’S THAT GUY WHO BLEW UP THE DEATH STAR AND KILLED THE EMPEROR, ACT COOL (and she would indeed act cool). Fennec would be like ugh it’s that guy who helped kill my best paying client Jabba the Hutt and then fucked over my boss Boba, I helped save the kid for THIS? And I would LOVE to know how Bo Katan feels about him, assuming she’s heard of him, and especially if she knows he’s Anakin Skywalker’s son. That confusion is probably the reason WHY the writers didn’t have him reveal himself- they didn’t want to break the emotion of the scene.

Let‘s all be real I’m just being needy about wanting things from Luke because of what he meant to me as a kid and my resulting innate need to have more canon of him, whatever it is, whenever I can get it. Especially in this form that’s so similar to ROTJ, a movie I watched on endless repeat. Even getting this was incredible though. Who else could we trust this lil heart-stealing green bean with so fully? Yet who would be so arrogant as to try to train a baby yodling (see: Ahsoka’s wise refusal)?

R2 is reckless as hell lmao. Not that we don’t already know that, but for him to just head on in, effectively abandoning Luke’s ship (how can they know if there are more troopers or not who might blow it up?) and also putting himself in the path of the ridiculously deadly Dark Troopers is NUTS. I’m usually on his side but he absolutely deserves a scolding by C3PO for this one.

I wonder if Grogu has any memories of R2 or vice versa since they did occupy the Jedi Temple at the same time. Can Grogu understand droids? They could swap stories about mutual acquaintances.

Does Din pretty much have to go with Bo Katan now since a) he’s shown his face and may not be able to go back to the Watch, and b) because he has the darksaber and has to figure out how to get it back to her without dying?

How in the hell did Bib Fortuna (whose chins age was not kind to) go from being butler to being boss? Were all the henchmen just like, “Fuck yeah, no Hutt parents no rules, let’s do what we want!!” And then they’ve spent the last ten years living off of whatever money they could salvage from Jabba’s non-banked wealth? Why has no one challenged them for that prime real estate and loot? I would love to hear that story.

Fennec Shand says “respect sex workers” so you better fuckin’ do it.

Idk dude Bib Fortuna really was a good butler, and he seemed pretty willing to comply with whoever’s in power. Did he screw Boba over in his attempt to return from the dead and earn that killing shot somehow? Or was this to make sure there was no one left who would have a claim to loyalty? Or maybe Boba just really wanted to sit in that chair.

Does “The Book of Boba Fett” mean we’re not on Din Djarin’s story anymore? Or is it a new show? I would much prefer the latter. I want to see Din help retake Mandalore or at least get a hug.

#the mandalorian #season 2 #episode 8 #chapter 16 #the mandalorian spoilers #the rescue #s2e8 #the mandalorian season 2 #the mandalorian chapter 16 #star wars #the rescue spoilers #the mandalorian season finale #din djarin #boba fett #fennec shand #bo katan #bo katan kryze #cara dune #koska reeves #moff gideon #bib fortuna #new republic #Luke Skywalker #LUKE FUCKING SKYWALKER #what a bro #death troopers #suicidal droids #r2d2 #Baby Yoda #Grogu

[noddytheornithopod]

So yeah, seen the premiere and had a bit of time to think things over and see what others are saying. My feelings... I’m not sure how I’d summarise them. I guess I’d say something like enjoying it but in a very distant and sceptical way? I’ll write more about the actual episode soon but to start, I should mention the source of my scepticism and hesitation: whitewashing (cut for a spoiler character).

Even back last year when the Bad Batch arc aired, I saw the mutant clones from Clone Force 99 and all of them but Wrecker looked... way lighter than they should? And the implication is that their genetic alterations is why they look, well, whiter? When these deviant clones are allowed to serve because their mutations turn out to be “beneficial” and “positive” instead of disabling?

Yeah... look, I don’t think Filoni and the folks at Lucasfilm are being intentionally racist, but nobody ever thinks they’re racist even when they’re spreading that very racism (well, except a few unashamed bigots like Nazis, but they’re a very clear minority and not really relevant here). Taking clones of a brown man and having them turn out to be whiter and the correlation of that being with genetic traits that enhance existing features instead of making them unfit to serve... yeah, really not a good look. There’s a reason some people have been using #UnwhitewashTBB. Oh yeah, did I mention that Wrecker, the only one with a normal, darker skin tone is the big dumb muscle of the group? And that Tech, the whitest one, is the brains? Crosshair and Tech both look like white dudes, and Hunter even if his tone is darker still looks paler than he should (same with Omega for that matter). And of course, Echo basically has bleached skin because even being frozen shouldn’t deprive him of that much colour, so what the heck? They can’t even justify that one with genetic alterations to the template, which is already a bullshit excuse because... why does having a brain that process information super efficiently or super enhanced eyesight make your skin lighter? There’s no narrative reason for them to be lighter skinned, it’s such a flimsy excuse with weird correlations that send some kinda unfortunate messages. It’s a shame, because the idea behind the Bad Batch is that differences are what make us who we are and that we should value that... and yes, they ARE different from regular clones (which I guess is why they designed them like this???), but they don’t need to be turned into freaking white people to illustrate this. Like, if you really want to show them be different, convey that in features associate with their traits (aka something that Wrecker’s design does, shame being the darkest skin ruins that >:V).

Oh yeah, speaking of whitewashing... the hell is up with Caleb? Oh yeah, Kanan Jarrus from Rebels is here, back when he was still padawan Caleb Dume. When I was watching the episode I was like “wait, is his skin tone right? or is it kinda light for him? also his hair too???” I then saw other reactions and yeah, this is definitely a whitewashed design. Just... why? The fact that they’re retconning a comic whose version of events I honestly prefer doesn’t help at all. How are they gonna excuse this one? That years of being on the run blasted his pasty white skin with too much UV? That he’s stuck inside the temple too much?

It’s apparently an issue that some fans have discussed for years, and I’m glad it finally became clear to me. The most I got concerned about clone whitewashing was when people tried to claim Rex was that dude on Endor, and... no? Just because they both have fucking Santa beards doesn’t mean they’re the same person. But I mean, suddenly hearing these voices all come together with the hashtag finally brought things into perspective. It seems like it’s been an issue for a while, little thing that had me going “huh that’s weird” like 99 looking awfully white even as he’s deformed (oh yeah I also think he’s written in an ableist, even inspiration porny way, but that’s ANOTHER story), the clones in general seeming to have lighter skin tones in places (in TCW it never bothered me tho I have seen criticism of it there, it’s mainly in Expanded Media and Rebels I was asking questions). There’s also Boba Fett in the episode Deception looking weirdly pale?

People have even brought up that Dee Bradley Baker, a white man, voicing these Maori men brings issues, especially with how his accent... isn’t very accurate. Like, I do think he’s a great voice actor, even with the clones and how he’s able to individualise all of them even with the same voice, but... his accent honestly sounds more like a bad Australian one than a New Zealand one, lol. Again, this is something I always noticed and found weird, but only with the recent movement has it really been giving me perspective. Even this took me a while to process, because in voice acting there seems to be more flexibility with who can play who (even if many recent conversations like the one about Apu from The Simpsons have gotten people to ask if when this happens we lean into caricature, which is what people are concerned with here).

Okay this post was actually meant to be a general reaction to the episode, but my whitewashing rant really got out of hand. I do feel like I could’ve been more vocal in the past about some of these things, especially as a white person myself. It’s easy to be complacent out of fear of conflict, and it’s something I do feel I need to work on. I also do want to specifically hear opinions of Polynesian and of course especially Maori Star Wars fans and what they have to say about this, if anyone has anywhere to direct me in that specific regard.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Lucasfilm has a whitewashing issue. I don’t believe there’s deliberate malice, but that makes it even more important to fight - things like this can be normalised to a degree we don’t question it. It’s much harder to unpack unconscious biases and things that are normalised in society than it is to confront the open bigots.

#unwhitewashtbb #the bad batch #star wars

[callioope]

HEY GUYS! I watched the livestream of Rogue One with writers Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz. I took notes. Because that’s what I DO. I jotted down some of my takeaways. Please note I was watching RO, watching the stream, taking notes, and also doing a few other things so these MAY NOT BE PERFECT. Please feel free to correct me if you see something I misrepresented. That said I tried to be accurate. 

YES they DO TALK ABOUT the romantic chemistry between Jyn & Cassian but that is literally at the end, but feel free to peruse the rest of the points because there’s some pretty interesting insights (some good and some bad O_O like Cassian’s original storyline, yuck)

ANYWAYS let’s go

Inglourious Bastards inspired the Lah’mu scene (Gary Whitta wrote this scene, although he admitted it changed a lot but a lot of the structure and ideas stayed in)

In the original version of the script, Lyra was a Jedi in hiding, but this was one of the first things that got killed

Mads thinks he plays a bad guy, but Gary thinks he played a good guy

They talked about how Galen originally wanted to use kyber crystals for energy, but it got weaponized (which is talked about Catalyst)

stormtrooper doll is a gareth edwards touch

idea was that there’d be good people on the Imperial side and bad people on the rebel side

Cassian’s first scene on the Rings of Kafrene was written by Tony Gilroy (who wasn’t present in the stream) later. In the earlier versions, the DS is something that Jyn goes and finds. It was much more like Zero Dark Thirty where she was putting together the clues, and it was a battle for Jyn to get the rebels to take it seriously, but that was too much of a slow burn. So the Tivik scene was to replace that and introduce the idea that Cassian can be dark. Everyone admired Diego’s beautiful bit of acting as he's just lost a little bit of his soul in the fight for justice, the morality is the first victim. It’s very subtle but it’s one of Gary’s fave pieces of acting in the movie

Chris said for awhile they had Ord Mandell, then shifted to the notion of something more like in Casablanca, so a bit of a flavor of that, a part of the Empire that has been taken over that is under violent oversight

Gary said in the original, Jyn went to Ord Mantell (mentioned in Empire?) to find an arms dealer to help her find Saw, then went to another planet where Saw was living on a moon called Yarid

Budget realities played a part in the decision making to scale this back; they wanted to put so much more but just couldn’t fit it in

Originally we were supposed to see the rebels evacuate Dantooine and move to Yavin 4, but it didn’t really accomplish anything in the story accept to nod to SW fans. It didn’t move the story forward and would have cost too much

It was Tony Gilroy writing with Jyn getting freed on Wobani. Some original ideas had toyed with possibilities that she was a deserter or Rey-like scavenger, but obviously you can’t do that once you learn what the the Empire does (chris)

Only time they didn’t use a title card was Mustafar bc they wanted fans to go OH SHIT IT'S MUSTAFAR, also worked bc Mustafar would have been one of those off-the-map planets

Gary was responsible for getting Mothma in the movie

How much did the Yavin 4 briefing get worked on? A lot. sort of inspired by a scene from Apocalypse Now.

“I think this movie really beautifully bridges the gap between the original and prequel” and one of the ways it does that is JIMMY SMITS

Lots of gushing over Yavin. “Gareth just shot the shit out of this movie.” so much praise for Gareth’s vision. “Gareth can compose a shot unlike anyone I know.”

The Yavin 4 set was fully contiguous; you could walk from the inside all the way outside in one continuous shot.

K-2SO is a great example of how one character can have many fathers. John Knoll originally came up with him and he was originally a rebel logistics droid envisioned to be a “black C-3PO” (whatever that was supposed to mean - Gary wasn’t sure). Gary proposed that he could be an Imperial droid that was captured by the rebellion and reprogrammed. K-2 was really limited with what he could do working for the Empire, but once he was liberated, he was going to speak his mind. Chris and Tony and Alan all gave him more life, everyone has a little piece of K-2′s parentage.

Only ever one casting choice for Saw, which was Forest Whitaker. Gary also knew Ben Mendelsohn would be cast as krennic, but no one else was cast at that point -- he knew it was down to 3 choices for Jyn, but wouldn’t say who

Chris brought Bodhi into the story (Gary said so but Chris wasn’t sure)

For Tarkin, they took shots from the ANH and unused takes. There was also a mold of Peter Cushing that had been sitting in a prop shop for decades (I didn’t get what movie it was, something where he needed a large prosthetic eye or something), and they scanned that.

Binoculars that Jyn and Cassian look through on Jedha were inspired from the scene in ANH (like when luke looks through them on Tatooine)

Chris was responsible for Jedha, Temple of the Whills, and Chirrut’s connection to the Force. And Bor Gullet, I think. They said Bor Gullet delights in traumatic memories (more delicious to him). There was a cut idea/scene: Bor Gullet made Jyn trade her traumatic memories for information she wanted.

They talked about the two dudes Jyn runs into that are also in ANH and how they survived the destruction of jedha only to get killed by a Jedi the next day - they must have needed to get a drink at a cantina after narrowly leaving Jedha. Puts their presence at the cantina in a new light.

Screenwriters would tell you this [Jyn saving the girl on Jedha] is a classic “save the cat moment” so that we like that character that otherwise we might not -- like jyn [RUDE, but I think they were joking]  [also i took beginner screenwriting in college and YES the “save the cat moment” was like lesson 1 lol

They wanted this war to look like a proper war, and [Jedha] really looks like something you might see happen. Wanted people to feel like it wasn’t just about stormtroopers hassling the guy on the street corner but there were real lives at stake

Commentary on Jyn’s Awesome Fight Scene: this is the first moment Cassian really realizes that Jyn is no one to be messed with 

They guessed that Tony came up with the K-2 gag after Jyn’s fight sequence

Lots of good commentary here about how action scenes need to serve a purpose, they can’t just be fighting: they gotta reveal character and story -- don’t write the specifics of the fight, but write what the action is supposed to mean, let choreographers make it look good

Chris said Gareth kind of requested a character like Chirrut, and Chris had been messing around with a Force priest and they became the same guy. Baze was originally a murderer and criminal, and Chirrut was his confessor figure, and they had a weird codependent relationship in which Malbus would commit crimes and Chirrut would forgive him for it. But in this they are both Guardians of Whills. Baze saving Chirrut reminds Gary of Indiana Jones shooting the guy with the sword. Good example of action sequence having a purpose: showing Chirrut & Baze’s dynamic

Coming up with names in SW -- no real formula, you just know it when you hear it

Lots of freedom to come up with new stuff as long as it doesn’t grossly violate canon. Two Tubes was Tony Gilroy or maybe someone just before him

Allegedly Bib Fortuna’s cousin is in scene at catacombs

Someone wanted a Tusken Raider to leave Tatooine to be one of the rebels, but that was vetoed bc they don’t leave Tatooine

“you don’t want every star wars movie to feel like a remix of your greatest hits” - gary [me: LMAOOOO not everyone got that memo!!!]

Guardians of the Whills: Chris said when he came on board, he wanted to go into some deep George Lucas stuff so he looked at the OG screenplay of SW which is pretty “cuckoo bananas” but it’s unfilmable because it’s so gigantic. but there were so many cool things in it. Originally the Force was known as “The Force of Others" by Lucas so he had Chirrut often referring to it as such

There had to be physical tapes because that’s what was mentioned in ANH. Similarly, Tarkin said it was the first time they destroyed a planet in ANH, so they had to do a smaller test that didn’t conflict with canon but we still get to see the DS do it’s thing

Gary said he got sick of everyone on the internet saying “If the empire’s so smart how come--” so he wanted to make it happen for a reason

Chris said - John Knoll, who apparently has some kind of engineering background, said a project the size of the DS, there’d be hundreds of flaws that would bring down the station. Gary responded - it makes sense that there would be a flaw, but it’s more interesting if the flaw would be there deliberately

They went back to the idea that SW was a fairytale and “only one key that the lock fits in in a fairy tale”

They talked a bit about the “nerdy stuff” and technical details, like how fast does a Star Destroyer go, how fast is travel through hyperspace,” but they were pretty insistent that Star Destroyers go at the speed of narrative. Hyperspace moves at the speed of plot. They don’t think about the gritty details. Story always wins. You try to hide those bits. If tech stuff comes into conflict with story, the story has to win. If you can make it work great, but story should win otherwise. [MY TAKE: I think it’s lazy and you might as well try to make it work if you can, BUT I agree that it shouldn’t necessarily hang up the process, per se.]

They talked about Jyn & Co witnessing the test on Jedha and how it’s important that Jyn & Co witnessed the terrifying destructive power of this weapon, so they know better than anyone how important it is to stop this thing

They said Saw always died in the weapon test. Originally it was on a different moon, but always planned for him to die like that.

Gary mentioned in ANH, there’s more than one empty chair in the DS conference room, but Gary wished there had been only one chair so it could have been Krennic’s specifically and he wasn’t in it.

The idea was that Mothma and other Generals were desperately trying to avoid a war and trying to find a political solution to this crisis, but Palpatine is stringing them along long enough for the DS to be ready. So the Rebels have been strung along and played for fools by Palpatine, but once we realize the Empire has built a genocide weapon, the Rebels finally wake up to the idea that the only solution now is war. Empire has forced our hand. the movie is about the idea that tyrannical regimes always fall bc they go too far and they do something so terrible that people are forced to stand up and fight back. If the empire had never built the DS, Gary thinks they could have won the war and ground the Rebellion down. but bc they got greedy they forced the entire galaxy to take the war seriously, so the DS was really the Empire’s undoing

The Rebellion was like the equivalent of the Second Continental Congress, with squabbling factions and not able to get anything done, and the Empire was able to win in the beginning bc they are authoritarian, unified top down

Gary came up with Eadu, but it was originally in the first act. The whole movie got restructured. Originally they went to Eadu very early and discovered they were building the giant dish for the DS. That was the first scene that Jyn had the clue that the Empire was building something terrible. Later it became less a place where the dish was built and more just where they were harvesting and refining the kyber crystals.

It was originally Saw’s X-Wings that attacked Eadu

“rain = mood” idk who said it but that line popped

originally there were local people called Eadui who told story how facility had poisoned rivers and valleys and farmland. Gary wanted to put a face on the crimes the Empire had committed

Mads doesn’t believe that what Galen did absolves him

In Gary’s version, Krennic came to inspect final version of the dish

Cassian was always meant to be compromised in both Gary and Chris’s versions. He was a double agent: for a long time, he was working for the Empire. Chris added: he had lost people who had been killed by Saw Gerrera, and all he wanted from the Empire was the go ahead to kill Saw rather than Galen. That transmogrified along the lines post-Chris and post-Gary into a rebel intelligence officer who had done terrible things. In the original idea, he changes heart after seeing the Death Star bc it wasn’t what he signed up for, and he had to win back Jyn’s heart bc that DS reveal happens after his double agent ness is revealed.

In the original, Jyn actually gets Galen back to the rebel base, but he’s beyond saving, but his whole speech he gives Jyn in his last moments happened in a medbay

They talked about the score instead of the awesome fight scene after Eadu so BOOO on that. I mean yes the score is brilliant but still I wanted insight into this scene.

I blanked out a little because I was mad they didn’t talk about the Eadu fight scene argh

They were talking about Krennic standing his ground against Vader. and then someone said it was probably something among the Imperial officers that “you haven’t really made it until you’ve been choked by Vader.” O_o sorry we could be talking about Jyn and Cassian DAMNIT

the debate scene on Yavin 4 was recontextualized. always this idea that the rebellion is not one monolithic entity, it’s a collection of worlds all of whom have own leaders and own opinions. rebellion historically messier because it’s democratic and harder to get things done. 

briefly toyed with a Leia appearance (chris) at the big conference scene, but best for Jyn to give the most rousing speech here. 

Who wrote the hanger speech? Spirit of it might be Chris’, but Chris thinks it’s Tony Gilroy. Big difference from version Gary wrote: Jyn convinced the rebels. But he thought it was cool now that Jyn goes rogue and it’s only when Mothma finds out she’s committed to that that she makes the decision to back her up. But in the original she convinced Mothma, and everyone got around the table and said here’s the plan. Chris thinks it was in one of his drafts that they went off on their own. 

in Gary’s version Jyn was Rogue Leader. 

Chris had grunts complaining all the flyboys create dramatic names for their squadrons but that got nixed

Gary had idea that K-2 had scraped off his markings but had to have them painted back on to go to Scarif and K-2 hated it

Mothma talking to Bail is one scene that survived word for word form Gary’s original script

They talked a little bit about the decision to have the characters die, but I was drafting a question and missed it

They talked about how they came up with Scarif and decided to make it tropical -- what sort of place hasn’t been seen before? sort of coming from production and gareth. but also building these places to fulfill the needs of the story -- like building a walkway that only one person can get across

a lot of extras in Scarif were real ex-military, and Gary said a couple of the X-Wing pilots were real-life RAF tornado pilots

didn’t have Blue Squadron in the ANH bc it interfered with the blue screen

Gareth said “give me a mon calamari that looks like churchill’ and that’s Raddus

Chris and Tony killed pretty much everybody. Sounds like Gary just killed K-2? Unclear bc I missed the main part of that when they were talkinga bout it.

They commented on how RO is one of the darkest tonally movies but also so colorful, beautiful blue sky

They wanted to pay tribute to Battle of Endor

they couldn’t remember who was responsible for ‘stardust’ but it wasn’t gary or chris

who’s idea was it to cut off the “I’ve got a bad idea about this”? gary had a different version of it, Jyn said “I've got a good feeling about this” (which ultimately got used in Solo) 

Someone asked about the footage in trailer that wasn’t in the movie: Chris heard on good authority that the TIE fighter in front of Jyn was actually never intended to be used, was always a trailer-specific moment. he said he didn’t know how she would have gotten out of that one. k-2 died on the beach. chris wasn’t sure but as the scenes get cut together in production and post, the narrative necessities can change bc of logistical needs. but some shots were so cool they were perfect for trailers. Some talk on how trailers and movies are very different things in general.

Gary said originally there were two separate facilities on Scarif: vault and comm tower were separated by stretch of beach. so needed to liberate plans from vault and get across beach to tower. as they looked at what they had, there were too many moving parts and they wanted to simplify, so they put vault and tower in same complex.

did they ever consider letting Chirrut pull the lever using the force? NOPE. 

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me” was Chris. it goes on, it’s supposed to be like a psalm for Jedi, but eh wanted a sort of lord’s prayer type of thing. 

HELL YES someone asked about the romance between Cassian and Jyn! Was there any romantic potential in any script? YES!!! they said!! yes!!! And Chris said he wouldn’t be surprised if a kiss was shot either! 

BUT they went on to say they wanted to side-step the trope that every male and female hero have to be involved.

But clear GARY said yes early on, there was definitely romantic chemistry that got scaled back to a mutual respect, but they’ve obviously grown close. Gary doesn’t think there was anything romantic and they said people found that refreshing. ‘what they’ve been through is the meaningful part” and “‘the stuff that is happening around them is too important" and “it speaks to their character that they wouldn’t let that intrude”

someone said it was like they were walking into a sunset but it was a mushroom cloud and THEN someone QUIPPED that it was sorta like the sunset walking into them RUDE

There was more after that but that was pretty exhausting to keep up with!!!! so i’m wiped. anyone else get any fun takeaways that I missed?

#rogue one