@starwarsfandomh8speopleofcolor‘s 2nd Annual Star Wars PoC Positivity project

Favorite slash ship + Favorite rarepair

Skyrissian i.e. Lando Calrissian/Luke Skywalker

and exactly no one is surprised xD I can’t even pinpoint when or how I started to ship it, all I know is that around new year’s eve 2017 I started to write the return of hope and sometime while doing that and somehow having ended up reading some skyrissian fics I realized that crap, I sold my soul to another ship and this time it’s super serious

skyrissian has been my otp ever since ♥

(this edit was partially inspired by this edit by @solovalker)

comparing kylo ren to vader is so useless. vader had panache and a presence, and wore his valentino knee high boots everywhere. you could find at least 30 men exactly like kylo ren at a trump rally. they are not the same

Justice for Chewie: Caretakers

Shara Bey and Kes Dameron in “An Echo Of Victory” from Star Wars: Empire Ascendant #1

The Fall

For @goldengayluke - part of my winter fic giveaway.

——————

Lando shivered, and not just because of the brutal cold weather on the planet, he was pretty sure he was getting sick. He’d be alright though. Probably. Hopefully.

Luke peered at him, a worried expression on his face, as if he could sense that Lando was ill. “Are you alright?”

“Yes.” He paused, turning his head slowly to look at Luke. “Well, no. I’m not sure I am. As much as I would love if there were two of you. I’m pretty sure there shouldn’t be.”

“Two?” Luke waved his hand in front of Lando’s face, concerned. “You’re seeing double?”

“Y-yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Yes. Two. Of you. Two gorgeous Jedi knights with frowning faces.” It wasn’t good, Lando knew that of course, but still….two Lukes? It was a beautiful sight.

“That’s- …not good.” Luke echoed Lando’s thoughts and reached for his comms device. “I’ll call a medic.”

“No! It’s … I’m-” He was going to say ‘fine’, even though he clearly wasn’t, but he couldn’t finish his sentence due to the fact his knees gave way. The floor looked hard and unforgiving. Oh, this is gonna hurt, he thought, hoping he wouldn’t injure himself too much when he hit the floor. But he didn’t. Because Luke caught him in his arms.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you.” Luke murmured, holding Lando close.

“You….you caught me.” Lando whispered in surprise. Although, he wasn’t sure why he was surprised. Luke was the heroic sort, catching people in his arms probably came natural.

“Of course. Just like you caught me, remember?” Luke said softly, gently rubbing circles on Lando’s back.

“Oh…yeah. How…how could I forget? Hell of a first meeting.” Lando’s voice was hoarse, his throat sore, but he was instantly reminded of that moment. He hadn’t realised at the time just how important that moment would become, how that dramatic first meeting would lead to the most wonderful relationship he’d ever been in.

Meanwhile, while Lando reminisced, Luke had reached for his comms device with his free hand and had called a medic, before placing it back on his belt.

“Won’t be long.” Luke slowly lowered Lando to the ground, carefully holding him steady, so that the two of them sat side by side. Luke pulled Lando close, letting him rest his head on Luke’s shoulder.

“Ok.” Lando relaxed into Luke’s embrace, and shivered again. He could feel the warmth from Luke, but it made no impact, he was freezing.

“Cold?”

“Yeah.” Lando whispered, his voice almost going completely.

Luke untied his cape and placed it around Lando’s shoulders, tucking the thick fabric so it kept the icy wind out, before hugging him close again. They sat in comfortable silence, as snow began to softly fall, and waited for the medic. Lando hoped they took they’re time, it was quite romantic.

“Romantic?” Luke asked.

“Oh, did I say that out loud?” Lando didn’t think he had spoken, but apparently he had. It seemed he was more out of it than he realised.

“Yes. And this isn’t exactly what I’d call romantic.” Luke replied.

“You. Me. Under one cape. Snow. It’s nice.”

“You’re forgetting the part where we’re waiting for a medic because you collapsed.”

“Well, nothing’s ever perfect.”

Despite how worried he was, Luke couldn’t help but laugh. Lando smiled, and drifted off into a light sleep, safe in Luke’s arms.

Stop using Vader to justify bendemption

Kylo: Privileged boy with loving parent rejects entire family, everyone who tries to help him, the guidance from his uncle, and goes out of his way to harm and torture others and shows no remorse for it. Yet people want Kylo redeemed? And to live after he is redeemed?

Anakin: born into slavery to a loving mother, feels powerless after he can’t stop her death, is raised by Jedi who tell him to repress his emotions, loses faith in Jedi out of fear for Padmé’s life and falls to the dark side.

“But Vader was redeemed and he killed kids”

Well, no shit but Vader is different than Kylo (in no particular order)

1) Vader paid the ultimate price for his redemption. Anakin was the chosen one, and he destroyed the Sith, i.e. Palpatine (until IX anyways) and Vader. He immediately dies after he’s redeemed, in part, because of the price he paid for turning to the dark side and staying at Palpatine’s side for nearly 2 decades.

2) The first time (in a movie), that we see Vader begin to crack is in RotJ- the conversation he has with Luke on the forest moon of Endor clearly rattles him and is the first step in his return to the light. Kylo has had more than one chance to return to the light in both movies and has rejected them, preferring the darkness and the power he gains with it.

3) When Anakin turned, he lost everyone he loved, even though he fell out of fear for Padmé’s life. Kylo still has his whole family out there, and kills Han when he tries to bring him back. Later, he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger to kill Leia, but has no problem ordering his troops to enter the Resistance base and kill everyone.

Do I really need to go on??

The first time (in a movie), that we see Vader begin to crack is in RotJ- the conversation he has with Luke on the forest moon of Endor clearly rattles him and is the first step in his return to the light. Kylo has had more than one chance to return to the light in both movies and has rejected them, preferring the darkness and the power he gains with it.

Actually, I feel that the first time Anakin cracked was via his lack of response from the Falcon’s escape from Bespin in “The Empire Strikes Back”.

All this, and also Kylo Ren is very blatantly and consciously the antithesis of Vader. They have opposite arcs. Vader starts at the height of his power and terror and increasingly doubts himself before he kills his Master to save his son. Kylo Ren starts out doubting himself and grows into increasing power and terror by killing his father and then his Master. It makes no sense for Kylo to do a 180 at this point and follow Vader's arc instead of his own, something explicitly teased and then discarded in TLJ.

see i know that we all like to make fun of luke skywalker, hick farmer from the back of nowhere, thinking that shooting womp rats with the space equivalent of his dad’s old rifle is somehow sufficient preparation for taking down the death star; but i love the idea that actually womp rats are six foot abominations of teeth, spines & poison and bulls-eyeing them is actually excellent preparation for the rebellion. think about it: swarms of six foot rats, and some skinny kid with an outdated weapon taking them out, cool as paint. hardened soldiers whisper scary stories to each other, about the monsters who scavenge in the sands, stripping a camp of everything living in five seconds flat, and luke just saying oh, womp rats? they’re nothing. great with a bit of butter and some toast.  

REMEMBER THAT HE TOLD WEDGE, “THEY’RE NOT MUCH BIGGER THAN TWO METERS” LIKE THAT’S SOME MINOR INCONVENIENCE

BIGGER THAN TWO METERS

Wedge: So, you’ve been to Tatooine

Han: Yeah

Wedge: Womp rats?

Han: Sure. Chewie uses ‘em for bowcaster practice. Kinda gamey tasting. Sandy colored fur, lotsa teeth, little over two meters…

Wedge: Luke wasn’t lying???

Luke (head inside X-wing panel, tinkering): Why would I make THAT up?

Honestly, I’ve always thought that farm work on Tatooine, unintentionally, must have provided a fairly excellent groundwork in establishing Luke’s baby Jedi skills outside of an academy context.

There are of course the aforementioned womp rats, which are both terrifying and a fantastic way to develop shooting skills.

There’s beggar’s canyon for piloting.  And if Phantom Menace brought us nothing else, it actually showed us the living death trap that is beggar’s canyon.  He’s not like zipping around the Grand Canyon, he’s literally goofing off in a place that killed off a shit ton of professional pod racers.  So needless to say, Luke’s had a chance to develop scary good reflexes, information processing, and spacial relation skills.

The Lars’s economic status means that they had to make do with ancient, crap equipment.  Luke would have learned how to make incredibly fine tuned repairs, and keep shit going forever.  And sure, he never built a C3PO or a pod racer, but honestly, if he found the materials to do it, he probably would have used them in a moisture collector.  

And there’s even combat experience.  From what we know about Tatooine, a farm like the Lars Homestead, would have been at risk for attacks by raiders, Jabba’s goons, and any of the terrifying hellbeasts that populate that planet.  It’s not like Jedi temple training or anything.  But Luke definitely learned to be cool under pressure, even when outnumbered or with really old, shit equipment.

I would just like to note that in The Old Republic MMORPG (set three thousand years before the movies) the womp rats are not only two meters long, covered in spines, with teeth as long as my hand, and sometimes DISEASED

BUT THEY ALSO ATTACK IN PACKS

You think you just pissed off ONE rodent as long as you are tall? Oh no. It’s calling ALL SIXTEEN OF ITS FRIENDS

AND THEY ARE ALL AIMING TO BITE YOUR CROTCH OFF. 

*THAT’S* what Luke grew up sniping to keep them away from the droids and moisture vaporators. *THAT* (and Beggar’s Canyon) is what prepared him to take down the Death Star. 

Womp rats are bad news. 

My favorite thing is that they are just one example of how Luke doesn’t know he’s from a Death Planet until he leaves it.

i’m just going to reblog this so you can all enjoy the excellent commentary about my space son who is equal parts sunshine and tempered death

So you’re saying he’s not from Space Nevada, he’s from Space Australia

ok so Leia was heading to Obi-wan before the Battle of Scarif, and before she ever knew she or anyone would have the plans. It wasn’t just a last resort, “vader’s bout to get us we gotta go somewhere” decision. the fact that she was going to Obi-wan is probably the reason she was with the rebels and not on Alderaan.

so think in the context that a) Bail was knowingly sending his daughter, who has the genes of one of the most powerful force users ever, to go get a Jedi, b) Bail knew that he was sending the biological child of Anakin to Anakin’s former master and friend, c) Obi-wan definitely would knows who Leia is, d) Bail knows that Obi-wan is keeping an eye on Luke.

I’m not saying Bail Organa knowingly sent his force sensitive daughter to the only fully trained Jedi he knew how to get in touch with and also her force sensitive brother, but Bail Organa knowingly sent his force sensitive daughter to the only fully trained Jedi he knew how to get in touch with and also her force sensitive brother. Because he and Mon Mothma decided things had gotten to this point.

Someone in the tags said “Bail didn’t send the plans to Obi-wan. Bail sent Leia.”

YES. The Death Star plans were a last minute bonus. Bail’s actual plans for dealing with the Empire and the Death Star was LEIA

Goddamn right.

If you think a rich white man from a famous family who willingly fought his way to the top of a fascist, enslaving organization should be redeemed & live happily ever after while ignoring the literal legions of Stormtroopers kidnapped and enslaved by the organization he leads, your so-called redemption starts looking a lot more like elitism and infinite get-out-of-jail-free cards for privileged men than anything to do with actual growth or change.

Aye. There’s proper redemption and bad redemption. Good redemption example.

Boromir. Aye he was often thinking he knew best, and was the easiest for the ring to corrupt. He literally tried to take the ring from Frodo. Still, I understand where he was coming from. He had a horrible father he wanted to do good by, and, he had good intentions.

Not only that, when he did try to take the ring from Frodo and insulted him, after that? Like RIGHT AFTER? You could see clearly (in part from the brilliant acting from Sean Bean) that he was so sorry, he regretted it so terribly. Not because he was caught, or because he was in danger, none of that, but because he simply knew he did something awful, and felt terrible about it and immediately called out to Frodo he was sorry.

And when the battle came? He did not hesitate to give his life to protect others, not for a second. And even as he died, and right when Aragorn came to him? “They took the little ones!” “Frodo, where is Frodo?”

He wasn’t concerned about himself, he was worried about those most in need of help. Boromir, that guy earned his redemption. Kylo Ren?

He ain’t earned no redemption.

Your comment reminds me that the best redemption arcs are ones where the character stays consistent and the very aspects of them that led to their doing wrong are the ones that bring them around.

Boromir fell briefly for the temptation of the Ring precisely because his love of his family and homeland, and his pride in himself as a hero and warrior, opened him up to the lure of power. Those same qualities led him to sacrifice his life once he realized--almost immediately--that wielding the Enemy's power was only playing into his hands. He died a hero and warrior as he lived, giving his life for his friends and for Gondor.

The most prominent example of "redemption" in this franchise, Darth Vader? His story through SIX MOVIES (even when we--and even Lucas--didn't know it) was about family, fearing losing them, actually losing them, and regaining one of them. The despair of losing his mother opened him up to the terror of losing Padmé, and he fell to Palpatine's temptation. Once he had burned every possible bridge Palpatine was the only one he thought he could turn to. When he realized Luke was his son his yearning for a connection expressed itself in violent control tactics, which Luke rejected in a spectacular fashion. Afterward you can see Vader start to question himself and his methods when he doesn't choke his subordinate at the end of ESB, before he finally realizes he can have a connection with his son only by joining him. The same yearning that propelled him to evil, his love of family, led to his doing one good thing before he croaked as all fascist mass murderers deserve to.

Zuko, often cited as the gold standard of redemption arcs and insultingly compared to Ben Solo (Zuko honey I'm so sorry), was struggling to recover from abuse for years. He thought he could get his honor back by regaining his father's love, only to realize once he was in his father's good graces again that a) there was no honor in his country's war and planned genocide and b) Ozai had never loved him and never would. His motivation to heal stayed constant, he just realized the true path to healing lay in a different path.

Ben? His motivation is not heroism, family or recovery. He is not standing against evil, he IS the evil others stand against. He has a loving family whom he killed and tried to kill. He could give less of a shit about his abuser, Snoke. His one consistent motivation is power, and keeping this motivation is not compatible with redemption. To return to LotR, it would be as though Sauron or Gollum became "good" because they could keep the Ring and use it for good purposes. It destroys all dramatic tension and undercuts the central conflict. If the character's motivation were to change all of a sudden, on the other hand, like if he suddenly decided his family or Rey were more important to him than power after he sacrificed and used them for power, it would be an abrupt turnaround in the character and a thoroughly unsatisfying, contrived kumbaya. So no, barring some late-stage reveal there is no path to a satisfying redemption that keeps the premise and character consistent.

Main Male + Female Protagonists of the Skywalker Saga by Era

“There's a ton of sequel fans who only like the sequels, and they're obsessed with them as much as the average Star Wars fan enjoys all three trilogies combined”

@rktho-writes to each their own of course, but.... I’m like... how. Like I’m a sequels fan myself but there just isn’t a whole lot there unless you delve deep into the extended materials in connection with the earlier history. The sequels weren’t meant to stand on their own and indeed don’t have enough to stand on their own IMO.

“lol, I started with the Prequels, so for me everything starts there. As a kid, I didn't like the OT. It was ugly and boring and it didn't connect well with the Prequels. It wasn't until the TFA renewed my love SW that I gave the OT another chance. It's still not my favorite trilogy but I appreciate it a lot more.”

@princessmissandei Hey, valid! XD I’m just so used to the prequels getting hate, but it has some solid worldbuilding behind it (are u listening Disney) and I’m glad to see it be appreciated more these days. And I certainly would not argue the OT are cinematic masterpieces either, it’s mostly the world and characters that it created that generates excitement.

Why Kylo Ren cannot be redeemed.

Kylo being redeemed would be awful storytelling and would be backtracking the entire point of his role in the trilogy. 

Keep reading

A lot of good points here, although I don’t agree with all of it (more on that later). The most central and potent point in that Kylo Ren's redemption brings no narrative gain to the ST’s actual main characters, Rey and Finn.

I thought we’d have more time.

🌠 Star Wars Villains

Happy Star Wars Day!

Eleven characters in the nine Star Wars Saga movies have said the phrase “May the Force Be With You”:

Chronologically, the first was Qui-Gon Jinn, but the first to use the exact phrase in a Star Wars movie was General Dadonna to the Rebel troops before The Battle of Yavin. Han Solo also said it before the battle (even though he didn’t believe in The Force at the Time).

The phrase was said by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels (though not in A New Hope, where his Force Ghost told Luke variations of it like “The Force will be with you, always.”

Luke said it to Lando and Chewbacca in Empire Strikes Back, and Leia said it – but not until The Force Awakens, to Rey.

Mace Windu, Yoda and Anakin each say it in the Prequel Trilogy multiple times.

Vice Admiral Holdo says it, and its variation “May the Force Be With Us,” in TLJ.

The only next gen character to say it so far in the sequels is Finn. He says it to Rose as a kind of “bye now,” which is a contrast to the more serious/ominous usage in the OT and ST (usually before or during a battle or journey as a sort of “God protect you”). But looking back at the PT, the the Jedi themselves used the phrase as a valediction, along with a nod, similar to Finn’s usage. (I don’t ascribe much to that fwiw – the writing for Finn in TLJ was unfortunately not that deep – but it’s something that could be explored by better writers.)

Also worth noting, Admiral Ackbar, who was so unceremoniously blown up in TLJ, was also one of the few to use a variation of the phrase (“May The Force be with us”) in Return of the Jedi.

May the Fourth Be with you! (Now get out.)

Finn generally has an irreverent, familiar approach to the Force that I find really interesting. There’s that dismissive use of the phrase that was unwittingly close to the original use by the Jedi, and who can forget the ”We’ll use the Force!” moment? He almost uses the Force as a punchline and yet it comes through for him every time. It’s quite unlike Rey’s fearful and respectful approach to the Force, more intimate and more playful, and why I think they embody opposing yet complementary views of the Force.