We are not our enemy. We are Alderaan. We answer rage with wisdom. We answer fear with imagination. We answer war with hope. If one life with a single drop of Alderaanian blood survives, Alderaan survives. If one life with a passion for Alderaanian creativity survives, Alderaan survives. And we are, each of us, important. - Princess Leia (2015)
Cheers, 2024! You were a pushy, busy year.
Thank you, every gentlebeing, who engaged with my art, the wacky AUs, the old stuff, the new stuff, and for your continued support, love, and craziness 💜
Here’s to 2025 :D
(Bucky says hi)
something I think we all know about fanfic, but don’t talk about because it would hurt writers feelings is that some fics are like fast food. I mean this as a compliment. I don’t always want to sit down for a six course meal that will be a flavor experience. Sometimes I just wanna dip some fries in a frosty. Sometimes I want something homecooked and delicious and super niche, but super comforting. Sometimes I want to eat an entire dark chocolate cheesecake in one sitting even though I know Its gonna make me sick. Just. holy crap, y’all. Sometimes I don’t even want fast food, I just want to eat an entire bag of chips. and yeah, I’m ashamed of myself afterwards, but at the time it was exactly what I wanted. So, no, we’re never going to say to our fanfic writers that we consider their writing to be the equivalent of a midnight run to taco bell - and we shouldn’t, feelings would be hurt by that. But writers, please, please, please, remember this. You don’t need to create a six course meal if you don’t want to. You don’t have to make something complex and homemade if you don’t want to. You don’t even have to finish cooking it - because someone will be thrilled that you brought a bowl of cookie dough and a spoon, because they cannot even consider sitting down and having a proper meal right now. It’s okay writers, whatever you decided to make. Someone was happy to have it. You gave them what they needed. You made them happy. You did good.
I don’t know why being fast food would be considered insulting!
A few years ago, I read an essay by a romance writer who openly admitted that her books were trashy, formulaic, and not Great Art. But what she said is that she gets fan letters all the time. From women with six kids whose only time for themselves is reading her books. From women in abusive relationships who read her books to give them hope that loving relationships exist. From women with depression who manage to eke out some pleasure reading her books. From women whose lives are awful and who read her books to give them the strength to live another day.
And– she points out– the writers of Great Art have many virtues, but they do not generally get fan letters from people whose lives are miserable and who seek out comfort and joy from the books. Because most of the time when our lives are awful, we don’t seek out Great Art. We seek out, well, literary fast food. We seek out emotionally manipulative hurt/comfort or fluffy coffeeshop AUs or Mutual Pining where there is Only One Bed.
Be proud of your work! Be proud of making literary fast food. Try to make the best damn literary fast food you can. Because somewhere out there– you might not know who, you might not know when– there might be someone who has just finished their last final, or who got fired from their job, or who is up all night with a newborn, and your fast food fanfic made their lives better. And that is no small thing.
ask star wars fandom to explain why it's noble, heroic, and the height of compassion for luke to go to vader and ask for vader to come away with him, but why the common take is that it was pathetic, immoral, and stupid of padme to do the same thing (despite padme knowing anakin better, having a more personal relationship with anakin, and anakin having done just by the numbers a couple less murders) and then watch it shit itself to death as it rapidly tries to explain that No It's Feminism Actually
luke
padme had
yet luke is the hero; luke is right, correct, and overflowing with compassion, the pinnacle of a jedi. but fans think of padme as stupid. she wouldn't let anakin go, there was something wrong with her, she was pathetic, an idiot, immoral - because she failed, right? so now we have to justify why she failed instead of maybe accepting that she didn't actually deserve what anakin did to her? hey, why is everyone convinced they're saving padme's character also so fucking dedicated to justifying why padme as presented in the movies secretly deserved what she got because she was weak? despite padme's decisions being designed to literally reflect the culminating victory of the series, the fact that she is actually fairly successful until obi-wan reveals himself, the fact that her dying words echo the actual lived reality three films later, is tossed aside in favor of padme being weak-willed, fucked up, traumatized, stupid, selfish and self-serving. the entire story relies on padme being actually fucking right. you have 47 seconds to explain why No It's Feminism Actually if it's a character flaw for padme to be fucking right.
padme has more to lose than anyone else by facing anakin - she's pregnant, she has no martial training, she has no space magic, she has no weapon, she has nothing but compassion. and she is the only person who was deescalating, in a series of anti-war films where luke's heroic journey ends with him throwing away his weapon, padme is the only person who almost successfully cut out three fucking films of horror by being this ultimate figure fighting for peace..... and then obi-wan saunters in. you have 30 seconds to explain why No It's Feminism Actually for me to call her selfish when that is the most catastrophically brave thing that happens in all of star wars. did you guys get so bogged down in discourse you forgot what the movies actually are
padme should've been older; padme was actually only in love with anakin because he mind tricked her; padme was actually Damaged; padme was actually secretly evil; padme should've tried to kill anakin; padme shouldn't have died the way she did; you will see every take in the absolute goddammed universe before you see one person actually engage with the character on the screen. and then everyone pats themselves on the back because We're So Good At Female Characters when the only way they can interact with padme whatsoever is to write out her narrative importance, cut her out of the legacy she is 50% responsible for creating, demonize any choice she makes when she makes demonstrably the same choices that lead to the galaxy being saved from evil, and pretend that this amalgamation they have left is anything similar to padme. trying to get people to look at padme when she's onscreen is like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole. you can point to the "come with me" she shares with her son and watch people call ome heroic and the other selfish and no one will ever wake the hell up.
every "fix" fandom has come up with for george lucas' misogynistic inability to engage with and develop padme's character.... relies on continuing the misogynistic inability to engage with and develop padme's character. you have 23 seconds to explain No It's Feminism Actually
hey what's next, are people going to believe that leia would secretly make a better sith lord than luke despite the fact that he nearly falls to the dark side on the fucking screen - oh, yeah, you guys do actually do that. oh yeah. "we're making dynamic, relatable female characters," but you're actually regurgitating culturally christian misogynistic values all over the place - women are weak, easily corrupted and selfish, and this, in a narrative that has the male members of this family wrestle for the goodness of their souls in one bombastic climax. you guys didn't watch the movie you read half a wikipedia article and started making stuff up because the only female characters you can tolerate are ones that fit into a narrow definition
no my tags were right. i'm adding them. fuck it
My humble Anakin Skywalker or Kylo Ren to Darth Maul pipeline that I shamelessly made on Canva.
-> you read 2,690,420 words, none of which are in the bible
-> your preferred genre is an abomination
-> you found one writer and read everything they've ever written...
-> ...only to find out they're into some weird shit.
-> and now you are too. congratulations!
-> the data we've collected has shocked us to our very core and we wish we hadn't done it. we won't see you next year. please seek professional mental support
passages that make you whisper "oh my god"
wholesome representation will kill the patient. she needs to torture fictional characters to live
being an adult is so weird
You ever have those days where you’re like ‘there is technically no one but yourself stopping you from randomly moving to a different country. or spending nearly three hundred bucks on a reproduction of a medieval tapestry. or learning the accordion’
and the other part of your brain is like ‘there’s also no one but yourself stopping you from doing the dishes. gotta do those first’
I'm such a sucker for cozy temple headcanons. Jedi coming home from months-long journeys to rest and heal and see their friends. Shared meals and trading stories and updating the archive records. That scene where Obi Wan goes to consult Yoda and the younglings and becomes part of a teaching moment. Cal playing a jedi-composed song on the guitar. Taking on the occasional guard or creche-shift. Sharing what they learned on their trips. People doing their daily exercises together. The halls of healing and the room of a thousand fountains. There always being things to do at the temple but it being gentle work. The art in the halls made in their downtime. The flow of it, a tide coming in, and then going out again.
out of pocket anakin textposts ft. his wife his husband and count dooku
Do yourself a favor and rewatch the Star Wars prequels with high attention to detail, because this moment is a MASTERPIECE, as if the entire scene leading up to this isn't the most hilarious yet competent shitshow I've ever seen, this is the moment that I really lose my shit every time. Anakin has leapt off the speeder in the middle of Coruscant traffic, fallen dozens of stories through the air while in full spread eagle pose, lands on the tail of Zam's speeder, desperately crawls his way up the ship while she barrel rolls to try to dislodge him and he ragdolls his way almost entirely off it, so she's shooting at him while he's hanging off the front of the ship--THEY ARE SILL IN THE MIDDLE OF CORUSCANT TRAFFIC, I MIGHT ADD--until he finally manages to wiggle worm his way onto the top of the ship and then gets out his lightsaber and you expect him to cut a cool hole in the roof, kind of like what Qui-Gon did on the Trade Federation's ship BUT NO this absolute beautiful tropical fish of a Jedi just STABS HIS LIGHTSABER INTO THE COCKPIT AND SWISHES IT AROUND LIKE HE JUST PUNCHED A STRAW INTO BOBA TEA TO FISH OUT THE LAST PEARL, like his lightsaber technique is straight up the exact same way I would stir cream into my coffee, just STAB AND SWIRL IT AROUND, except with a DEADLY PLASMA CHAINSAW that is the lightsaber and you can't even argue because a) that's fucking hilarious, I cry with laughter every time, and b) if he hadn't lost his lightsaber TWO SECONDS LATER that would actually be really deadly, it's STUPID but imagine being in a cockpit and some asshole Jedi just STABS THEIR LIGHTSABER IN THERE WITH YOU AND STARTS WIGGLING IT AROUND, you would DIE and it wouldn't even be a cool lightsaber death! Attack of the Clones is a masterpiece, I'm not hearing any further arguments.
Chiss noble Ufsa’ven’eriolu, Veneri (they/she)
Star Wars protagonists are usually on the front lines inventing new and exiting ways to have daddy issues (what with the dead masters/parents/guardians, evil masters/parents/guardians, disownment, being a child soldier, codependency, and whatever the fuck Anakin was doing with Luke, Leia, and Ahsoka) but somehow Omega managed to become a well-adjusted adult with a supportive living father figure, which in hindsight is the most unintentionally hilarious ending the writers could have given her. Somebody get Hunter and co a 5 pack of “world’s okayest dad” mugs for breaking the curse after almost 50 years completely by accident
Never too early!~
