Skywalker Saga

I am a Jedi, like my father before me

yiliy

Uncle Owen is not a grumpy old man who is more worried about his farm than what Luke wants.

Uncle Owen is not afraid Luke inherited the cruelty of his father. He doesn’t even know Anakin became Vader, he thinks Anakin got killed.

Uncle Owen doesn’t hate Obi-Wan because they had an argument or because something happened between them while Obi-Wan was on Tatooine.

Owen Lars was handled a tiny fragile baby to protect, and told that this baby’s father, who was always restless on Tatooine as a child, who loved speed and flying, who brought his starfighters into the most dangerous battles, to whom there was never enough excitement and adventure, has gotten himself killed in a war he was so eager to fight in, and which Owen never understood. 

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He watched over and raised this baby for 19 years. He is afraid. He is afraid when Luke becomes restless just like boy Anakin. He is afraid when Luke falls in love with flying, just like Anakin. He is afraid Obi-Wan will drag Luke off Tatooine, just like he dragged off Anakin.

He is afraid Luke will be like his father, never content to stay on their farm where it’s safe, but fly too fast, and fight too hard, and be too idealistic, and then get killed.

So when Owen says he’s afraid Luke has too much of his father’s in him, he is not worried Luke will be like Anakin, he is afraid Luke will die like Anakin.

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star wars   luke skywalker   owen lars  
1 month ago 9,924 notes Source

catie-does-things

Star Wars Episode III: The Chosen One Featurette

At 2:34, George Lucas has this to say:

Darth Vader became such an icon in the first film, Episode IV, that that icon of evil sort of took over everything, much more than I intended. If it had been one movie, that wouldn’t have happened. He would have been revealed to be this pathetic character at the end of the movie. But now by adding Episodes I, II, and III, people begin to see the tragedy of Darth Vader, as what it was originally intended to be.

Let me emphasize that: Lucas refers to Vader being “revealed to be this pathetic character” as his original intention.

Vader was never meant to be cool. Vader was never meant to be “badass”.

Vader was, from the beginning, meant to be pathetic.

Lucas goes on to say:

And I like the idea that the person you thought was the villain, is really the victim. And that the story is really about the villain trying to regain his humanity.

Which essentially sums up the entire purpose of the Prequel Trilogy: Not to showcase Anakin Skywalker as a dashing hero, but to reveal the victimhood, the weakness, the humanity behind Darth Vader.

At 11:42, Lucas comes back to this point, saying:

Obviously one of the key elements in Episode III is that we see him actually put into the iron lung, the mask finally close on him, that now he’s an artificial man. But we know what’s inside of it. And I think there’s a new part to IV, V, and VI that people haven’t seen yet. The man in the suit comes into being a more personalized character than what he was originally.

I’ve often said that personhood is a major theme of the Star Wars saga as a whole and the Prequels in particular. (“I’m a person, and my name is Anakin.”) Within the story, Anakin becomes more and more dehumanized and depersonalized the closer he draws to the dark side, but is eventually able to regain both his humanity and his person, his true self, through the redemptive love of his son. From the audience’s perspective, we see at first only the mask - the cold, inhuman exterior of Vader within which the person of Anakin is all but lost. We catch a glimpse of the real man behind the mask at the end of Episode VI, but only through the Prequels, through seeing how he came to wear that mask in the first place, can we truly understand him. Thus, ironically, as Anakin loses himself, his self is revealed to us.

The featurette gives Hayden Christensen the last word on the Prequels:

…and it makes him more human in a lot of ways.

abla-soso

Vader was, from the beginning, meant to be pathetic.

Yup.

Unfourtantly; the word “pathetic” has become a derogatory term that most people can’t think of it as anything but a demeaning insult. But they forgot what the word originally meant:

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Anakin is one of the most emotionally vulnerable male heroes in Western cinema, and this vulnerability was meant to inspire people’s sympathy, not score or belittlement.

the-far-bright-center

this vulnerability was meant to inspire people’s sympathy, not scorn or belittlement

star wars   darth vader   anakin skywalker  
1 month ago 994 notes Source

shaftking

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.

3 months ago 55,687 notes Source

unrealromance

The fact that Theron starts out smooth-talking and slowly segues over time into just being a 'person' who doesn't feel the need to act cool in front of you is the best part of his characterization.

You can HEAR the stiffness in his voice at first. And later on, you can feel the smooth ease of it and how close he feels to you. (By which I mean he displays his actual personality which is awkward and dorky. God I love that man.)

That's some damn good voice acting and character writing.

i love him   theron shan   swtor  
6 months ago 127 notes Source

ariaste

The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on.

ariaste

#this is a good post #also I need an example of hopepunk #bc the name #resonates with me #and I need it #please #if you don’t mind (via @lavender-starling)

So the essence of grimdark is that everyone’s inherently sort of a bad person and does bad things, and that’s awful and disheartening and cynical. It’s looking at human nature and going, “The glass is half empty.”

Hopepunk says, “No, I don’t accept that. Go fuck yourself: The glass is half-full.”  YEAH, we’re all a messy mix of good and bad, flaws and virtues. We’ve all been mean and petty and cruel, but (and here’s the important part) we’ve also been soft and forgiving and KIND. Hopepunk says that kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness, and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion. 

Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts. 

Going to political protests is hopepunk. Calling your senators is hopepunk. But crying is also hopepunk, because crying means you still have feelings, and feelings are how you know you’re alive. The 1% doesn’t want you to have feelings, they just want you to feel resigned. Feeling resigned is not hopepunk.

Examples! THE HANDMAID’S TALE is arguably hopepunk. It’s scary and dark, and at first glance it looks like grimdark because it’s a dystopia… but goddammit she keeps fighting. That’s the key, right there. She fights every single day, because she won’t let them take away meaning from her life. She survives stubbornly in the hope that one day she can live again. “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” is one of the core tenets of hopepunk, along with, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” 

Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon were hopepunk. (Remember: Hopepunk isn’t about moral perfection. It’s not about being as pure and innocent as the new-fallen snow. You get grubby when you fight. You make mistakes. You’re sometimes a little bit of an asshole. Maybe you’re as much as 50% an asshole. But the glass is half full, not half empty. You get up, and you keep fighting, and caring, and trying to make the world a little better for the people around you. You get to make mistakes. It’s a process. You get to ask for and earn forgiveness. And you love, and love, and love.) 

And THIS, this is hopepunk: 

(EDIT: If you are coming to this post from an article elsewhere on the internet, please note that I wrote an article about hopepunk which you can read here if you want to know more: “One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives”)

yep   lucas sw is hopepunk too  
6 months ago 61,277 notes Source

commander-sarahs-art

“Between assassin droids, a Sith Lord who looks like he sleeps with vibroblades, and being target practice for a Republic ship, I was better off in my cell!” 

This was the Atton painting I told ya’ll about a couple days ago, I used my personal fc for him which is Derek Klena! (ref’d off this picture of him) Also no one will ever convince me of another fc, I like Derek too much as Atton to ever change it.

this is fantastic!   atton rand   kotor 2   star wars   fan art   sw fan art  
6 months ago 1,013 notes Source