#this was one of those times | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-force-awakens · 6 months

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Yeah, that's a pretty good analysis. I don't see Poe included hardly at all, in fandom or in canon to a degree, and I think it's safe to say he has one of the least number of fans who are specifically fans of him. Like I don't see many blogs/accounts that are specifically Poe centric.

Oh man, I actually got up to answer this on my computer rather than my phone, so we'll see how into it I'll get into this ask, but yes! It's vastly unfortunate that he often gets excluded or overlooked when he's the entire catalyst for the sequel trilogy. He is, archetypically and narratively within the story, the Leia of our generation: if it was not for Poe and BB-8 (who is really like an extension of Poe), then Finn wouldn't have been able to escape the Finalizer, and Rey would have never left Jakku.

While yes, it's true that Poe wasn't initially meant to survive The Force Awakens (and other nine word horror stories for me), Poe is still one part of the primary trio of the trilogy and has been since 2015. He is not only Leia's first protégé, but the eventual leader of the Resistance, and according to the Rise of Skywalker novel, the heir to the legacy of House Organa (cue me loudly proclaiming him a Disney Prince). Yet, somehow, at the same time......no one seems to ever want to include him as part of the saga, and an important one as that?

(@dameronalone points out ever so often how much they love the shot where everyone leaves Exegol for this reason, because we see Poe flying alongside the Falcon, which really hammers in that Poe is an important player in the history of the saga).

More thoughts below the cut, because I have more and this is already lengthy.

The worst thing is that Poe was extremely popular. Lucasfilm and Marvel pretty much immediately greenlit a comic series for him, and while that was definitely to flesh his story out, if my memory serves, it was so popular that I believe the first printing sold out? And it was originally only meant to last 25 issues (which personally I think it should have stayed at, because I don't super vibe with 26-onward and it feels off and tonally disconnected to the rest of the series and also the ending of TLJ, and the characterization for Poe also feels off, but that's!! a different rant!!!) but the title was so popular that Marvel decided to extend it for two more storylines!

The issue was the fandom backlash to TLJ.

You don't have to look too far into my blog to know that I adore Poe in TLJ, and that I like his arc in the movie, and that I avidly defend him for it, but the internet in 2017-2019 was an entirely different universe from that. You could not go anywhere - Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, fucking hell, even most major media news outlets and clickbait websites - without hearing about how much everyone hated Poe Dameron.

Why? Because they walked away from his arc deciding that he was sexist and the movie's perfect example of toxic masculinity (although, lmfao, the First Order clowns are right there). It went further than that, with headlines about how everyone hated him, how he was personally responsible for everything that happens in the Resistance in the film, and how he was the worst character in Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks (because clearly the Star Wars fandom never learns from its previous toxicity, right?). It was to the point that, to my immense horror and frustration, even as far as into promoting TROS, a reporter described Poe as a "secret villain" in TLJ to Oscar (and man do I hope that man knows Poe is loved, actually).

Fandom wasn't much different. Fanon Poe prior to TLJ was....a lot different. In some ways, a lot of fics hit the nail on the head on who Poe was, but there was a definite unifying idea of who Poe was: a pure cinnamon roll who never, ever swore, and always listened to Leia and never argued with her - let alone disobeyed her orders or put a toe out of line (this is even illustrated in canon, with the first Poe Dameron annual, where the author has Poe declare that Leia is "always right" and instantly caving in an argument).

And TLJ Poe is about....as far removed from that vision of Poe as you can possibly get - although nothing about him in TLJ is ooc. We see the bare bones of it in The Force Awakens, and Before the Awakening and the comics further flesh out Poe in a way that perfectly leads into the Last Jedi. But the cinnamon roll fanon was made so common and leaked so far into fandom consciousness, that there was this strange concept that Poe was never, ever angry even in expanded material, which...he does. He gets pissed off plenty of times in the comics, and with the Defense Fleet while arguing with Deso.

So, canon Poe did the unthinkable and, y'know, didn't fall in line with how fanon saw him, which resulted in a huge backlash over the fact that he was a character with agency and a personality (that is NOT sexist thank you), which resulted in us getting books like Resistance Reborn, by authors who can't stand him or describe him as anything besides "supremely arrogant" and spends three hundred pages emotionally torturing him, claiming he needs to die, physically assaulting him, and you know...having the person who attacked him and the other person who claimed he needed to die flirt with him, because it also spends an ungodly amount of time sexualizing him to an uncomfortable degree, because the one thing fanon could agree on outside of the fact that he had been "ruined" or that he was a jackass or a "fuckboi" (yeah that went around too), was that Oscar Isaac is really goddamned fine in the Last Jedi (he is, I'll give them that, there's something about tlj!Poe, scientists remain baffled).

And on top of all of that, a particular fraction of the fandom developed an interesting habit of taking new pieces of canon and spreading them around online out of context, claiming that the writers were now intentionally writing him as sexist and as a jackass, and ruining his character further. I don't know for certain if this had any effect overall on the fandom's perception of him, but I know that it did almost break my spin in him for a while because I thought people were being very genuine, and it wasn't until 2020 that I got curious and started doing my own research into the panels/paragraphs being shared online, and sure enough, discovered that the angle had been falsified to paint Poe into a worse light (which, if anyone is curious, is why I did my deep dive into everything that he was in, because I didn't want to be fooled again. You can't trick me if I know everything lmfao).

So essentially, his popularity nosedived after the Last Jedi. It seemed to bump up a little bit, or at least there definitely seemed to be more people interested in him/writing for him in 2020 coming off the lockdown, but obviously that has very much dwindled. But I've definitely not seen any blogs dedicated to Poe as a character since 2017, and you don't ordinarily see him in miscellaneous Star Wars gifsets that go around either, let alone solo Poe gifsets (I know because I lose my shit anytime there's a new one that's not by me), and Poe creations that have nothing to do with a ship is.........even less likely to be found.

I definitely think canon is at least trying to keep him in our minds though. He was the second character to lead one of the Lego Specials, and that Rey short story ("Through the Turbulence") was focused on her friendship with him. Whether or not that's because of the possibility of Oscar returning for the Rey movie (which feels fairly tangible, considering he's been kind of shady about it after mentioning he'd come back for a good story, and doing that Halcyon video), or if it's just because of Lucasfilm maybe warming up to him as a character again*, I don't know, but I hope it means we get good-faith content for him again soon.

*Because I'm tired of the story group constantly being a little bitch about him, and the same goes for the Topps Trading Card App. Maybe people wouldn't think he was a villain if you stopped describing him like a terrible person? Just a thought.

#ask box #i-belong-to-the-stars #i am so sorry for this motherfucking ESSAY #sometimes the 'ex article writer' jumps out #this was one of those times

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victheclown · 2 months

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Dance with the Devil (BandPunch)

(Actual writing continues under cut !!)

Opening the giant doors leading inside of the Studios’ theater, Robin led the much shorter man through the empty line and all the way backstage for now, all the while Leon glanced around the place with a curious look while he was being metaphorically dragged to where they were meant to go.

L: “Woah… Dude, this place is really cool! I can totally see why you were put to guard the place here-”

R: “Of course I was! It simply makes sense.”

L: “Sure thing dude, hehe.”

Finally, from behind the stage, the two were on the actual theater stage. The entire seating area for a potential audience was empty currently, and apart from a few stage lights now being turned on, all of it was dark. It was actually almost entirely empty, apart from them both, and a few origami soldiers that seem to be roaming about, doing… whatever really.

L: “.... Huh! Kinda liveless here. Figured there’d be more of an audience!” R: “There will be. But…” Robin crossed his arms, turning away from Leon as he gazed off to the side for a moment, furrowing his brows as he thought for a moment… Was this good? Will this work out? Was he even… Entirely sure what he wanted to do anymore?

… It’s like every bit of a plan he had for this moment suddenly slipped his mind. He could only barely think straight now as he let out a quiet, mildly frustrated sigh… Why was it so hard to think? He has no issues planning anything down to the smallest letter, to make sure everything would be perfect… Why couldn’t he now?

L: “... But?” The demon slightly tilted his head in response, just a little confused before Robin quickly turned back towards him, putting his hands behind his back with an attempt to throw away any doubt and regain his composure once more.

R: “... We won’t need any audience tonight. I'd only like to practice.”

Leon quickly put on an excited smile again as his tail began to sway around a little behind him. L: “Yeah! You said something about dancing, yeah dude?”

R: “Mhm…” L: “.... Just, uhh, why me exactly? I’m not sure if my style of dance is exactly what you need-” R: “- And yet, you are the only one who knows at least something about dancing in general.”

L: “... Yeah! Sounds about right.”

With that out of the way, Robin looks over to a small group of Folded Soldier Shy Guys carrying equipment around, before pointing at one of them and calling out to them. R: “You! You’re going to be on the piano again. Just as practiced, alright?? I don’t want to hear anything out of tune today!” Without hesitation (and possibly out of mild fear), the Origami Shy Guy hurries over to a small stage piano, which it rolls over a little to get it into position before sitting down on the chair. Robin looks back down to Leon, clasping his hands together in front of his chest.

R: “Alright darling. It’s really not difficult, just a simple waltz. All you have to do is follow my lead.”

L: “... Isn’t that going to be a bit hard? Why didn’t you get someone taller than-” R: “We’ll manage. No more talk back now, we ARE doing this, okay-”

He was going to admit, seeing Robin this adamant about this was a little confusing to say the least. But he was completely up to helping his fellow dancer, even if he didn’t quite understand his thought process behind asking him in particular. With a quick crash course from Robin around how closed positions in a waltz worked and Leon having an at least decent grasp at how it worked in theory, he eventually snaps his fingers at the Shy Guy at the piano, signaling it to start playing on his cue.

R: “Okay… You don’t need to do much. Just… Follow what I do. Simple enough?”

L: “Yup! Can do, dude.”

Well then. Robin took a bit of a breath before placing his right hand, slowly, on the other’s back, and then leading Leon’s left hand, letting it go at his right shoulder then, where Leon placed it then. Taking his now free remaining hand into his own then, he taps the back of his heel on the ground to alert the piano assigned Shy Guy.

Then, counting down from four, their dance began. To the slow and graceful music from the piano, Robin attempts to guide Leon around the stage in their dance. It went about as he nearly expected - Leon wasn’t doing terribly, but he definitely wasn’t at all familiar with such a slow and coordinated way of dancing. Needless to say, he fell over quite a few times, whether it be over his own feet or over Robin’s.

It did test Robin’s patience, quite a lot even. But something inside his mind wanted to keep going anyway, if just to be here for a little while longer. Even if this just went wrong in every possible way, simply the way of being this close, hand on hand, arm around him, moving so closely together to the soft ringing of the piano keys echoing through the theater… He couldn’t deny it. It was a feeling he didn’t want to stop.

As the amount of times they had to try again due to a dumb mistake from Leon, he began to grow a little less enthusiastic about all this. He expected this to be difficult for sure, but that he was going to be THIS bad at this? He honestly did expect at least a little better of himself… And part of him thought that Robin did so as well. During their next attempt, his gaze wandered off to the side a little, with a frown on his face.

R: “... Hey, darling. Look at me.”

Robin was rather quick to catch up on this. After getting Leon’s attention and gaze on him once more, he took a moment to try and figure out what to say, and ultimately… he just spoke freely from his mind for once.

R: “... You’re doing great, Leon. You’ve never done this before, so don’t feel bad. Alright?”

Leon quietly stares up at Robin for a moment, not quite sure what to say or how to react. He then let out a quiet chuckle before putting on a happy little grin, his tail slightly swaying around a little as they moved.

L: “Heh... Okay. Thank you.”

As he smiled up at him, Robin felt as if his heart just began to burn up inside of his chest. A feeling, amongst many right now, which he wasn’t used to at all. He nearly instinctively put his hand on top of it, lightly pulling and pressing on the bands that made up his harness to let out some built up emotions through his hands. But in no way was that enough. How was he supposed to even react to something he’d never known before? Should he laugh? Cry?

R: “... Heh… Haha.. Ahahaha-!-”

… He ended up doing both. He suddenly stopped and let go of Leon, supporting his hands on his knees as he lowered his head with a mixture of laughter and some light sobs. It was nearly out of his control now. He lived for drama, sure… But this was something else, even for him.

Leon stumbled back a little when Robin almost broke down laughing and crying, nearly forgetting he even felt down before. Instead he now felt a little panicked at this rather unnatural reaction from his friend.

L: “R.. Robin?- Are.. Are you okay, dude-” But it was almost to no use. Robin put a hand on his head, hiccuping a little from the continued cry-laughter as he seemed to try and specifically avoid looking Leon in his eyes right now.

R: “Haha-... Stop… Stop looking at me with that… Dumb… Cute… Face of yours..!..”

That was all he managed to bring out between fits of laughter filled with tears running down his face.

L: “... Huh?”

Not all too sure how to react or what to say, Leon simply stood around, waiting for anything else to happen. He lightly fiddled around with the zipper from his jacket, until Robin managed to calm down enough to get back up, letting out a few shaky laughs as he wiped any remaining tears from his eyes. Though there still remained a hint of distress in his voice as he finally began to speak up again.

R: “... Haha… Wow… I’m a mess… What a disaster…”

L: “Hey… Robin, dude- If something’s up, you can tell me..” R: “... I actually don’t even know what to say… Somehow…”

Robin let out a groan in frustration, grasping his harness’ bands with both hands as he took a deep breath, looking over to the much shorter man now with some desperation in his eyes. This was a scenario he wasn’t at all prepared for, a scenario he COULDN’T prepare for. He attempted to have everything figured out, that nothing could go wrong with this… And still he failed. All of these immense feelings messed up his brain and heart in more ways than he could ever have anticipated.

… He wanted to be angry so bad, but he couldn’t. Not at Leon, even when knowing he was the direct cause of this.

He can’t just be angry at him.

R: “... I can’t take this… Everything you do… Everything you say… It makes me feel so… so… gah-! I can’t take it-!...” That brief outburst got Leon to step away a little further, his tail wrapping slightly around one of his legs as his ears went down a little. He was a little stunned for a moment, not quite sure what was going on with his friend here, until he spoke again.

L: “... Do you… Want me to leave?” R: “No!- That’s EXACTLY what I DON’T want!-..... Gh…”

He truly couldn’t take this any longer. Whatever it was that was building up so much inside of him now, he couldn’t bring himself to contain it any more. Without much thinking, he reached over to grab Leon’s hands, leaning down to him as their faces were now only inches away from one another.

R: “You don’t understand Leon- I… I love you. I love you so much it makes me crazy-”

His voice quivered as he spoke, and for what feels like the first time in forever, he spoke completely freely from his completely overwhelmed mind now, flooded with emotions not even he could keep locked up for much longer.

R: “I.. I don’t know what to do. What was I thinking- To think this entire charade I’ve been putting up was in any way going to help with this- if only it made it WORSE- and I-... I…” L: “... Hey.” Leon briefly interrupted him in his stutters, wrapping his fingers around his hands now as he gave them a gentle squeeze. He was still a little unsure how to go about his own words, especially with how distressed Robin was in the moment. But part of him wanted to take the chance…

L: “... Did you mean this? What… You just said?” R: “... Yes. Yes I… I did.”

Both of them looked the other in the eyes now, with both now taking a moment to try and make up their mind on where to go from this. This was rather sudden…. But they could make it work, surely.

L: “... Heh, I’ll be real, this is kind of a surprise… Coming from you, from all people.” R: “... What makes you say that?”

L: “Y’know… Nothing against you really, but… You didn’t exactly seem like the kinda guy lookin’ for any kinda relationship like that… Especially not with someone like, well… Me.” Robin frowns a little for a moment, holding Leon’s hands a little closer to himself now as his tone begins to appear a little more collected again than it was just before.

R: “Oh darling- Don’t say that. You are a very interesting individual, yes… And your taste in music is abominable at best at times…”

He then let out another slightly frustrated breath, letting go of one of his hands now to cover part of his face, which was beginning to heat up quite a lot at this point.

R: “... But the Vellumentals be damned, your energy, your unrivaled passion for what you do.. And so much more… It’s something someone couldn’t help but… Love…”

By that point, Leon couldn’t help but smile again, his tail swaying back and forth now. A thought came to his mind then, something he in one way was a little hesitant to go forward with… But what the hell, here goes.

With Robin leaning down far enough that he could reach his face, Leon reached up just as much as he needed to with his free hand to place it on the back of Robin’s neck and gently pull him into a kiss, not thinking too much about it now. Robin was a little surprised for a moment. And though part of him was still quite overwhelmed by his own inability to keep his emotions in check… he didn’t quite pull back in any way, leaning into the kiss as he placed his own free hand on Leon’s shoulder.

Time practically stopped as the two stood in the middle of the theater stage together, in each other’s arms. They weren’t quite sure how long they’d been here now for as they eventually break the kiss, looking into each other's eyes in complete silence now.

Somehow, despite how wrong things went just before… It was all so good now, so… wonderful even. Robin almost couldn’t believe it actually… But now was not the time to freak out about it anymore. Somehow, it worked out… He didn’t know how, or if he would ever understand… But it worked.

L: “... Hey… Want to try that dance one more time? I think I’ll get it right this time.” R: “... Sure, sure. Of course.”

With a quick indicator for the piano music to start again, the two made their for now final attempt at this dance. It went well, not perfect, but well. And towards the end, Leon swiftly took a hold of Robin and picked him up into his arms, with little to no effort. Robin let out a surprised gasp for a moment, holding closely onto the other’s shoulders before he realized what was going on. Leon simply gave him a smile, his tail swaying in circles with excitement.

L: “Hehe, how was that?”

He let out a happy little laugh, Robin glancing off for a moment as he put a hand over his now very warm face.

R: “... Your posture needs work… But… It was good… Very good…”

In a way, he couldn’t help but admire that bit of confidence Leon showed him now. With Robin in his arms, he decides to sit on the stage floor now, loosening his grip on him a little so he could move.

L: “Heh, hard to get a good posture going when you’re so tall.”

R: “Now now… No excuses, heh.”

Robin moved a little to the ground himself, and after a moment of consideration pulled Leon over to his lap, loosely putting his arms around him, to which the other happily snuggled up against him with his head and a very soft and quiet purring sound. His tail slowly began to wrap around one of Robin’s legs now as the two cuddled up together.

R: “... Didn’t expect you to enjoy this that much.” L: “Mmrrp…”

He let out a light chuckle as he began to run a hand through Leon’s hair slowly as he leaned against him, to which Leon only responded by rubbing his head right into his hand.

R: “Heh… Look at you.”

He let out a soft, happy sigh, continuing to slowly and gently brush his fingers through the demon’s tied up hair. With the silence filling the theater room, it was a rather calming experience, something both of them rather enjoyed. Leon opened his eyes then as he looked up to Robin, speaking up with a lightly joking tone.

L: “Hmhm… Did the practice help at all by the way? Or was it just to get me to come with you?”

R: “Hm? Oh… Well yes, but… I really did want to practice a little also.”

Robin let out a light hum as he spoke, his gaze trailing off a little as his hand stayed gently rubbing Leon’s head now.

R: “... I do have a big show coming up after all… My big debut.”

L: “Yeah! You talked about that! You’re gonna nail that, I know it.” R: “Heh… I know… Hey. You should come to see it. If you can, that is.” He quickly raised his head at that, a small sparkle coming up in his eyes as he grins up at Robin.

L: “Oh…! Totally!! I can totally manage that, yeah!!”

His tail sways a little against one of Robin’s legs it was currently wrapped around, to which he gave a smile of his own in response.

R: “Heheh… Wonderful.”

They were there for a few more hours for sure, until it came to Robin that he had a few things to take care of of his own now. Soon enough, the two got to the currently very quiet entrance to Shogun Studios, where they bid each other farewell.

R: “Alright... Until next time then.

L: “Yeah! It’s been… Really, really nice with you.” Though his normal enthusiasm still shined through, there was a hint of how flustered he was now also. Robin couldn’t help but chuckle at that before leaning down to the demon and giving him a kiss on his cheek, rendering the other speechless for a moment.

R: “Remember me in your dreams now, will you darling?~”

Leon was stunned for a brief moment, slowly putting a hand over what was now the smudge of yellow lipstick on his cheek. It took him a moment of just staring up at Robin before he could speak.

L: “... Heh… I will… I could never forget someone like you.”

R: “I’m simply flattered.”

He smiled down at him as he slowly turned his way back to the way towards the studio, giving him another smile and a wave as he spoke.

R: “Take care then, darling… I love you.”

This last part…. Came almost naturally now. He felt so calm, even with all these new feelings still stirring around inside of him. And surely, that feeling was mutual between them both. With a wagging tail and a very enthusiastic wave in return, Leon stumbled his way off on his own.

L: “Love you too !! See you !”

R: “... And when the time comes, don’t forget about my show!”

L: “I promise you- I wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world!”

#writing #pmtok #paper mario #the origami king #los #legion of stationary #bandpunch #Hole Punch | Leon #Rubber Band | Robin #I wrote this a while ago before i got active on tumblr again n remembered this so fkgdsjkgsd #may not be great #im no good at writing but i like to get silly sometimes #this was one of those times #i love them so much no one could ever love them like i do im gonna sob #crying wailing even/pos

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